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Difference Between Razor View Engine and ASPX View Engine

Difference Between Razor View Engine and ASPX View Engine

27 Mar 2024
Beginner
230K Views
7 min read

Razor View Engine and ASPX View Engine: An Overview

View Engine is responsible for rendering the view into HTML form to the browser. By default, Asp.net MVC supports Web Form(ASPX) and Razor View Engine. There are many third-party view engines (like Spark, Nhaml, etc.) that are also available for Asp.net MVC. Now, Asp.net MVC is open source and can work with other third-party view engines like Spark, and Nhaml. In this MVC Tutorial, I would like to expose the difference between Razor & Web Form View Engine.

Razor View Engine and ASPX View Engine: An Overview

What is ASPX View Engine?

  • In ASPX View Engine, The syntax used for writing a view is the same as the syntax used in ASP.Net web forms.
  • The file extensions are also the same as for ASP.NET web forms such as .aspx, .ascx, and .master.
  • The ASPX view engine is the default view engine for MVC 1.0 and MVC 2.0.
  • Implementing the unit testing framework with the ASPX View Engine is quite complex.
  • It uses "<%= %>" or "<%: %>" to render server-side content.

Example:

<ul>  
 <%foreach (var employeeNo in Employees)      {  %>  
           <% if (employeeNo .IsInCompany)  
                 { %>  
                       <p><%=employeeNo.EmployeeName%> is in company</p>  
                   <% }  
                else  
                 { %>  
                      <p><%=employeeNo.EmployeeName%> is not in company</p>  
              <% } %>  
   <%} %>  
</ul> 

What is Razor View Engine?

  • The Razor View Engine is an advanced view engine available in MVC 3.0 and later versions.
  • It uses the "@" character instead of "<% %>" as used by the ASPX View Engine.
  • It does not require the code block to be closed.
  • It is compatible with a unit testing framework.
  • The Razor template does not require the controller or web server to host it, so its views are fully testable.
  • The file extension of a Razor view is cshtml (for C#) and vbhtml.
  • By default, all text from the @ expression is HTML encoded always.
  • It is not a new language, It that is easy to learn.
<ul>  
    @foreach (var employee in Employees)  
    {  
              @if(employee .IsinComapany)  
               {    
                   @employee .EmployeeName is in company
            } else {  
                  @employee.EmployeeNameis in company
               }  
    }  
</ul>     

Advantages of Razor View Engine:

  • It is easy to learn. You can also use our existing HTML skills.
  • Razor View Engine is Compact, Expressive, and Fluid.
  • It helps us to minimize the coding and provides us with a fast and fluid coding workflow.
  • The parse is smart enough and It is also able to decide at run time what is a code element and what is a content element.

Razor View Engine VS Web Form(ASPX) View Engine

Razor View Engine
Web Form View Engine
Razor Engine is an advanced view engine that was introduced with MVC3. This is not a new language but it is a new markup syntax.
Web Form Engine is the default view engine for the Asp.net MVC that is included with Asp.net MVC from the beginning
The namespace for Razor Engine is System.Web.Razor.
The namespace for Webform Engine is System.Web.Mvc.WebFormViewEngine.
The file extensions used with Razor Engine are different from Web Form Engine. It has .cshtml (Razor with C#) or .vbhtml (Razor with VB) extension for views, partial views, editor templates, and for layout pages.
The file extensions used with Web Form Engine are also like Asp.net WebForms. It has .aspx extension for views, .ascx extension for partial views & editor templates, and a master extension for layout/master pages.
Razor has new and advanced syntax that is compact, and expressive and reduces typing.
Web Form Engine has the same syntax like Asp.net Web Forms uses for .aspx pages.
Razor syntax is easy to learn and much cleaner than Web Form syntax. Razor uses the @ symbol to make the code like:
 @Html.ActionLink("SignUp", "SignUp") 
Web Form syntax are borrowed from Asp.net Web Forms syntax that are mixed with html and sometimes make a view messy. Webform uses <% and %> delimiters to make the code like as:

 <%: Html.ActionLink("SignUp", "SignUp") %> 
By default, Razor Engine prevents XSS attacks(Cross-Site Scripting Attacks) means it encodes the script or HTML tags like <,> before rendering to view.
Web Form Engine does not prevent XSS attacks means any script saved in the database will be fired while rendering the page
Razor Engine is a little bit slow as compared to Webform Engine.
Web Form Engine is faster than Razor Engine.
Razor Engine, doesn't support design mode in Visual Studio means you cannot see your page's look and feel.
Web Form engine support design mode in Visual Studio means you can see your page look and feel without running the application.
Razor Engine supports TDD (Test Driven Development) since it is not dependent on System.Web. UI.Page class.
Web Form Engine doesn't support TDD (Test Driven Development) since it depends on System.Web.UI.Page class which makes the testing complex.

The disadvantage of web form view engine

1. Undefined Architecture

Here Web Forms does not have a predefined architectural approach. Programmers are free to choose their own architecture, So it can lead to inconsistencies across different projects and teams.

2. Complex page size and Less Performance

One of the main issues with using ViewState is that it is stored within the page itself, This can result in the page size becoming excessively large, which can, in turn, impact the overall performance of the application.

3. Testing and SEO have limited support

One of the main challenges with the code behind the approach is that it can lead to tightly coupled architecture, making it complex to unit-test code. Testing is an essential part of the web app development process, as it allows programmers to ensure that individual units of code work as expected before they are integrated into the larger application. But, with tightly coupled architecture, it becomes almost impossible to unit test individual pieces of code, leading to potential bugs and errors in the final application.

Conclusion
So in this article, we have learned the difference Between Razor View Engine and ASPX View Engine. I hope you enjoyed learning these concepts while programming with Asp.Net. Feel free to ask any questions from your side. Your valuable feedback or comments about this article are always welcome. Level up your career in MVC with our ASP.Net Core Certification.

FAQs

Q1. Which is faster Razor or ASPX?

aspx pages. By default, Razor Engine prevents XSS attacks(Cross-Site Scripting Attacks) means it encodes the script or HTML tags like <,> before rendering to view. Razor Engine is little bit slow as compared to Webform Engine. Hence Web Form Engine is faster than Razor Engine.

Q2. What is ASPX view engine?

ASPX or Web Form Engine is the default view engine for ASP.NET that is included with ASP.NET MVC from the beginning itself.

Q3. What is ASPX used for?

Active Server Page Extended (ASPX) is an open-source development framework used by web developers to generate dynamic web pages using the. Net and C# programming languages.
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About Author
Shailendra Chauhan (Microsoft MVP, Founder & CEO at Scholarhat by DotNetTricks)

Shailendra Chauhan is the Founder and CEO at ScholarHat by DotNetTricks which is a brand when it comes to e-Learning. He provides training and consultation over an array of technologies like Cloud, .NET, Angular, React, Node, Microservices, Containers and Mobile Apps development. He has been awarded Microsoft MVP 8th time in a row (2016-2023). He has changed many lives with his writings and unique training programs. He has a number of most sought-after books to his name which has helped job aspirants in cracking tough interviews with ease.
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