Quick-start: ZptSharp & ASP.NET MVC5

This guide is for users of .NET Framework 4.6.1 through 4.8.x, using ASP.NET MVC. For .NET Core/.NET 5+, using ASP.NET Core MVC, please follow the linked guide instead.

Create a new MVC project

From Visual Studio (or whichever IDE), create a new ASP.NET MVC project from the standard template. This should create a minimal functional ASP.NET MVC5 project. If in doubt about the MVC version, check the NuGet package reference for Microsoft.AspNet.Mvc; it should be version 5.x.

Add the ZptSharp NuGet packages

Add the following NuGet packages to your project:

  • ZptSharp.Mvc5
  • ZptSharp.HtmlAgilityPack

This represents a minimal set of packages in order for an ASP.NET MVC application to serve HTML using ZptSharp.

Activate the view-engine

Add the following code to your Global.asax.cs Application_Start handler. Other existing content in that file should remain as-is.

var viewEngine = new ZptSharp.Mvc5.ZptSharpViewEngine(builder => {
    builder
        .AddHapZptDocuments()
        .AddStandardZptExpressions();
});
ViewEngines.Engines.Insert(0, viewEngine);

If you wish to use OWIN instead of Global.asax.cs then the above code could also be quite easily transformed into some OWIN middleware.

Write your first view

Create a text file in the Views/Home directory named Index.pt. Enter the following as the content for that file.

<html>
<head>
<title>ZptSharp 'Hello world' example for ASP.NET MVC5</title>
</head>
<body>
<h1>Example ASP.NET MVC5 web app</h1>
<p tal:content="here/Message">The greeting message appears here.</p>
</body>
</html>

Write your controller action

The blank project should give you one controller already, named HomeController. Rewrite the controller's Index action to the following:

public ActionResult Index()
{
    return View(new { Message = "Hello world!" });
}

Start the app & see the result!

You should now be able to compile and run your application.

You should see that your home page has the heading Example ASP.NET MVC5 web app and underneath is the text Hello world!. This "Hello World!" text came from the model supplied by the controller. The corresponding text in the view source file reading "The greeting message appears here." has been replaced.

There is a sample of what your application should look like available in the source files of the solution.

Continue learning in the tutorial

You have now completed the quick-start for ASP.NET MVC5! You have set-up a working MVC web application with views served by ZptSharp. To continue learning about ZptSharp, please follow the ZptSharp tutorial, which teaches the ZPT language. Throughout the tutorial, changes to the model are performed in the HomeController