Design the application architecture - Objective 1.1: Plan the application layers

Question 1

What folder usually contains the model or data classes for an application?

Answer 1

The Models folder

Question 2

What is one advantage of placing model classes in a separate assembly?

Answer 2

To allow the model classes to be used by more than one application.

Question 3

What is a domain model?

Answer 3

It represents the data you work with in the middle tier of an application.

Question 4

What is a view model?

Answer 4

It represents the data you work with in the presentation layer. Any data present in the view comes from the view model.

Question 5

What is an input model?

Answer 5

It represents the data submitted from the client to the server with each individual HTTP request.

Question 6

What are model binders?

Answer 6

A simple way to map posted form data to a type and pass that type to an action method as a parameter.

Question 7

What is the DefaultModelBinder?

Answer 7

The default model binder in ASP.Net MVC that automatically maps input values to model properties if the names match exactly.

Question 8

How do you create a custom model binder?

Answer 8

Implement the IModelBinder interface.

Question 9

What is one reason to use custom model binders?

Answer 9

To support abstract classes and interfaces. The default model binder does not support them.

Question 10

What do controllers do?

Answer 10

Handle incoming requests, handle user input and interaction, and execute application logic.

Question 11

What class do controllers inherit from?

Answer 11

ControllerBase

Question 12

What are action methods?

Answer 12

Methods on a controller that map to the user’s interactions with the server.

Question 13

What is an action result?

Answer 13

The outcome from calling an action method.

Question 14

Where is the routing table stored?

Answer 14

In the global.asax file.

Question 15

What does routing do in ASP.Net MVC?

Answer 15

Maps urls to controllers and action methods.

Question 16

What is the default routing format?

Answer 16

{controller}/{action}/{id}

Question 17

What does the routing engine do?

Answer 17

Analyze urls and pass control to a route handler.

Question 18

What is a route handler?

Answer 18

The route handler finds an HTTP handler or class implementing the IHttpHandler interface to handle the request.

Question 19

What is the default handler in ASP.Net MVC?

Answer 19

MvcHandler

Question 20

What does the MvcHandler class do?

Answer 20

Extracts the controller name from the request and sends it to a controller factory to return the appropriate controller.

Question 21

How do you create a custom controller factory?

Answer 21

Create a class that implements the IControllerFactory interface.

Question 22

What does the ActionName attribute do?

Answer 22

Gives an action method a different name.

Ex:
[ActionName(“MyName2”)]
public ActionResult MyName()

Question 23

What does the AcceptVerbs attribute do?

Answer 23

Specifies which HTTP verbs an action method will respond to.

Ex:
[AcceptVerbs(HttpVerbs.Get | HttpVerbs.Post)]
public ActionResult MyAction()

Question 24

What does the NonAction attribute do?

Answer 24

Indicates that a controller method is not an action.

Question 25

What does the OutputCache attribute do?

Answer 25

Marks an action method whose output will be cached.

Ex:
[OutputCache(Duration=60)]
public ActionResult MyAction()

Question 26

What does the ValidateInput attribute do?

Answer 26

Indicates whether an action method’s parameters must be validated.

Ex:
[ValidateInput(false)]
public ActionResult MyAction()

Question 27

What does the HandleError attribute do?

Answer 27

Used for handling exceptions thrown by the action method to which it is applied.

Ex:
[HandleError(View=”DivideByZero”)]
public ActionResult MyAction()

Question 28

How do you create a custom action filter?

Answer 28

Create a class that inherits from the ActionFilter class.

Question 29

When should you use asynchronous processing in your action methods?

Answer 29

When the action method is long-running, network-bound, or IO-bound, or when you want to allow the user to cancel running the method.

Question 30

How do you make an action method asynchronous?

Answer 30

Mark it as async and change its return type to Type<ActionResult>.</ActionResult>

Ex:
public async Task<ActionResult> List()
{
   ...
}

Question 31

What 3 ways can you use asynchronous processing in ASP.Net MVC?

Answer 31

1. Mark an action method as async and change its return type to Task<ActionResult></ActionResult>
2. Use Tasks inside a synchronous action method.
3. Load asynchronously from the client using JavaScript to call back to the server.

Question 32

What is an MVC view?

Answer 32

The part of the application responsible for display information to the user and receiving the user’s input.

Question 33

What is a strongly-typed view?

Answer 33

A view whose @model directive is set to a specific class.

Question 34

What is a view-specific model?

Answer 34

A class that is used in the @model directive of a view and is not usually directly related to a domain model.

Question 35

What is a partial view?

Answer 35

The ASP.Net MVC version of a user control. Does not include <html> and <head> tags.

Question 36

What is a layout page?

Answer 36

The ASP.Net MVC version of a master page. Allows sharing of design across multiple views.

Question 37

What is a scaffold template?

Answer 37

A template that creates standard pages as part of the process when creating a project.

Question 38

What is the basic syntax to output text from a model property inside a razor view?

Answer 38

@model.PropertyName

Question 39

What is the basic syntax of a code block inside a razor view?

Answer 39

@{
// Add code here
}

Question 40

What is the basic syntax of an if statement inside a razor view?

Answer 40

@if (article.HasContent)
{
   // Add code or HTML here
}

Question 41

What is the basic syntax of calling a generic method inside a razor view?

Answer 41

@(MyClass.MyMethod<MyType>())</MyType>

Question 42

What class does the razor view engine inherit from?

Answer 42

BuildManagerViewEngine

Question 43

What is the HTML helper?

Answer 43

A class with static methods used in views in order to help generate HTML.

Question 44

Where should validation logic go: client-side or server-side?

Answer 44

Both

Question 45

What is scalability?

Answer 45

The capability of a system to handle a growing amount of work.

Question 46

What are the two primary ways to scale an application?

Answer 46

Horizontally and vertically

Question 47

What is horizontal scaling?

Answer 47

Scaling that involves adding or removing additional nodes from a system as demand fluctuates. A load balancer determines which server in the web farm should be called.

Question 48

What are some of the architectural considerations that must be addressed in horizontal scaling?

Answer 48

Sessions, caching, and location for storing shared files (if you application provides file management functionality like SharePoint does)

Question 49

What is vertical scaling?

Answer 49

Adding resources to a single system including additional CPU’s, memory, or hard drive space.

Question 50

What are some of the architectural considerations that must be addressed in vertical scaling?

Answer 50

Threading, input/output (I/O), garbage collection, and availability since any part of the system can be a single point of failure.

Question 51

Which primary way of scaling is ultimately limited and cannot scale beyond a certain point?

Answer 51

Vertical

Question 52

What advantages does cloud-based hosting such as Windows Azure provide in terms a scalability?

Answer 52

Scalability is immediate and can automatically scale as usage grows. It can also provide highly scalable data storage for relational and NoSQL databases.

Question 53

What are the three ways to manage the creation of a database when using Entity Framework?

Answer 53

Database First, Code First, and Model First

Question 54

What is the Database First approach in Entity Framework?

Answer 54

Leveraging an existing database schema to create entities.

Question 55

What is the Code First approach in Entity Framework?

Answer 55

Creating the object model first and use it to create the database schema.

Question 56

What is the Model First approach in Entity Framework?

Answer 56

Creating the object model visually using a tool and use it to create the database schema.

Question 57

Which design pattern is one of the most used to abstract data access in Entity Framework?

Answer 57

Repository