How to use ASP.NET MVC Generic Controller to populate right model

Question

I asked a question about ASP.NET MVC Generic Controller and this answer shows a controller like this:

public abstract class GenericController<         


        

Answer 1

I don't think it's wise to place data-access and business logic like this in controllers when your application's size and complexity grows beyond a certain point. You should create repositories which handle the data-access and abstract the technology (EF, plain ADO.NET, etc.) away from the consumers. You could use these repositories in your controller, but that would mean that your controllers still contain business logic which you don't want. Controllers should be thin.

What I did was creating a service layer between my repositories and controllers which contain the business logic and delegate data-access to the repositories. I use these services in my controllers to fetch my domain models where I map them to view models. You're gonna want an Inversion of Control container to 'glue' the layers together and to provide loose coupling between them.

A search for 'c# mvc repository and service pattern' will result in loads of examples. I found this post a good one, except for the fact that he returns view models from his services rather than domain models.

This is just my 2 cents, please keep in mind that all of the above only counts when your have a 'mid-range' application and not a typical tutorial/try-out website.