ASP.NET MVC 4 Beta - Init

<body> <h1>ASP.NET MVC 4 Beta</h1> <p>A few days ago we released the <a href="http://www.asp.net/mvc/mvc4" target="_blank">ASP.NET MVC 4 Beta</a>.  This is a significant release that brings with it a bunch of great new features and capabilities.  </p> <p>The ASP.NET MVC 4 Beta release works with VS 2010 and .NET 4.0, and is side-by-side compatible with prior releases of ASP.NET MVC (meaning you can safely install it and not worry about it impacting your existing apps built with earlier releases).  It supports a “go-live” license that allows you to build and deploy production apps with it.  <a href="http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?displaylang=en&id=28942" target="_blank">Click here</a> to download and install it today.</p> <p>The ASP.NET MVC 4 Beta will also be built-into the upcoming VS11 / .NET 4.5 beta that is coming out shortly.  This week’s beta doesn’t work with the previous VS11 developer preview that shipped last September – if you are using the VS11 Developer Preview (or have it installed) you’ll want to wait until the VS 11 beta is released before trying out the new ASP.NET MVC 4 Beta functionality.</p> <h2><u>ASP.NET MVC 4 Features</u></h2> <p>The ASP.NET MVC 4 Beta includes a bunch of great new features and capabilities.  Some of the highlights include:</p> <ul> <li><strong>Bundling and Minification </strong>– ASP.NET MVC 4 includes the new <a href="http://weblogs.asp.net/scottgu/archive/2011/11/27/new-bundling-and-minification-support-asp-net-4-5-series.aspx" target="_blank">bundling and minification support</a> we are also adding to ASP.NET 4.5.  These features enable you to build web applications that load faster and feel more responsive to users, by minimizing the number and size of HTTP requests that your pages make.  Included with the MVC 4 beta are new “cache busting” helper methods that enable easy proxy caching of bundled files (with automatic invalidation if you change the cached CSS or JavaScript).  You can learn more about bundling and minification from <a href="http://weblogs.asp.net/scottgu/archive/2011/11/27/new-bundling-and-minification-support-asp-net-4-5-series.aspx" target="_blank">my previous blog post</a> about it. </li> </ul> <ul> <li><strong>Database Migrations </strong>– ASP.NET MVC 4 includes the new Entity Framework 4.3 release, which includes a <a href="http://blogs.msdn.com/b/adonet/archive/2012/02/09/ef-4-3-released.aspx" target="_blank">bunch of great new features</a>.  One of the most eagerly anticipated features it provides is database migration support.  This enables you to easily evolve your database schema using a code focused migration approach – and do so while preserving the data within your database.  I’ll blog more about this in the future - you can also see a <a href="http://blogs.msdn.com/b/adonet/archive/2012/02/09/ef-4-3-code-based-migrations-walkthrough.aspx" target="_blank">walkthrough of database migrations in this tutorial</a>. </li> </ul> <ul> <li><strong>Web API </strong>– ASP.NET MVC 4 includes some fantastic new support for creating “Web APIs”.  This enables you to easily create HTTP services and APIs that can be programmatically called from a broad range of clients (ranging from browsers using JavaScript, to native apps on any mobile/client platform).  The new Web API support also provides an ideal platform for building RESTful services.  I’ll be blogging much more about this support soon – it is really cool, and opens up a bunch of new opportunities. </li> </ul> <ul> <li><strong>Mobile Web </strong>– ASP.NET MVC 4 includes new support for building mobile web applications and mobile web sites, and makes it much easier to build experiences that are optimized for phone and tablet experiences. It includes jQuery Mobile, and includes new support for customizing which view templates are used depending upon what type of device is accessing the app. </li> </ul> <ul> <li><strong>Razor Enhance </body>