As you probably already surmised, ASP.NET MVC 3 is the next
major release of ASP.NET MVC.
ASP.NET MVC 3 is compatible with ASP.NET MVC 2 – which means
it will be easy to update projects you are writing with MVC 2 to MVC 3 when it
finally releases. The new features in MVC 3 build on top of the
foundational work we’ve already done with the MVC 1 and MVC 2 releases – which
means that the skills, knowledge, libraries, and books you’ve acquired are all
directly applicable with the MVC 3 release. MVC 3 adds new features and
capabilities – it doesn’t obsolete existing ones.
ASP.NET MVC 3 can be installed side-by-side with ASP.NET MVC
2, and you can install today’s “Preview 1” release on your machine without it
impacting existing MVC 2 projects you are working on (they will continue to use
MVC 2 unless you explicitly modify the projects to retarget them to MVC
3). When you install “Preview 1” you will have a new set of ASP.NET MVC 3
project templates show up within Visual Studio 2010’s “New Project” dialog –
choosing one of those when you create a new project will cause it to use MVC 3.
Below are details about some of the new features and
capabilities in today’s “Preview 1” release. Unless otherwise noted, all
of the features I describe are enabled with the preview build you can download
and use today. More ASP.NET MVC 3 features will come in future preview
refreshes as we flesh out the product more and iterate on your feedback.