不为模型使用实体框架

Question

I'm going to try and use MVC4 for an ASP.NET web portal (first time I'll use ASP's MVC), but I don't think the models will be using Entity Framework much.

Perhaps only the Users model will, which will contain user profile data, but most of the data presented to the users will either come from Sharepoint or CRM 2011 .

So essentially, my models are going to be Sharepoint items and CRM entities.

I looked at the sample application provided by MVC4 (title Internet Application in the templates) and I see that the model uses EF ( AccountModel.cs ).

Is this a requirement as per MVC4's best practices or you can build models from any source you wish and still be within the "best practices" ?

Do you see any obvious "no-no's" of using MVC4 judging by the requirements of the portal application I'll have to build ?

I'm thinking of using some rich content JavaScript library for the UI (Knockout, ExtJS, etc.)

Thanks.

Answer 1

A model is just a representation of your data that you pass to the view. It can be anything you want, and definitely does not have to come from the Entity Framework.

public class MyModel
{
  public string Name {get;set;}
}

public class MyController
{
  public ActionResult MyAction
  {
     var account = service.GetCrmEntity("account", myaccountId);

     var myModel = new MyModel();
     myModel.Name = account.name;

     return View(myModel)
  }
}

Answer 2

It was built to aid the feature; I don't know if the model is an area to be concerned about best practices. A model should just contain the data to send to the view.

Note: if you use knockout, your app will do away with server-side models in favor of client-side models in JavaScript; the whole paradigm is different when you shift to the client-side.