Difference Between Razor View Engine and ASPX View Engine

View Engine is responsible for rendering the view into html form to the browser. By default, Asp.net MVC support 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, Nhaml. In this article, I would like to expose the difference between Razor & Web Form View Engine.

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 isSystem.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 Web Forms. It has .aspx
extension for views, .ascx extension for partial
 views & editor templates and .master
extension for layout/master pages.

Razor has new and advance syntax that are compact, expressive and reduces typing.

Web Form Engine has the same syntax like
 Asp.net Web Forms uses for .aspx pages.

Razor syntax are easy to learn and much clean than Web Form syntax. Razor uses @ symbol to make the code like as:

 @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 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 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 support TDD (Test Driven Development) since it is not depend on System.Web.UI.Page class.

Web Form Engine doesn't support TDD
 (Test Driven Development) since it depend on System.Web.UI.Pageclass which makes the testing complex.

Do you want more TechChaitu Updates ?

Enter your email address: