In some of the classic descriptions of MVC, the Model notifies Views via the observer pattern. It seems to me that this doesn't happen with ASP.NET MVC, and so one of the fundamental relationships between Model, View, and Controller is missing.
Is this the case? If so, why?
Views in ASP.NET MVC are Stateless. They exist for a very short time and then are sent down to the client.
The process goes something like this:
Request comes in to the Controller.
Controller retrieves the Model and instantiates the View (passing it the Model).
The View is rendered, the markup returned to the client, and then disposed of.
Therefore, since the View no longer exists after it is sent to the client...there's nothing to notify about Model changes.
Observer pattern is not needed. In the original definition of View it says:
A view is attached to its model (or model part) and gets the data necessary for the presentation from the model by asking questions.
In the context of a web app, the only View possible is markup (HTML/XML) rendered by a browser. So, as in ASP.NET MVC, the View code is handed a Model instance that it can access to provide information to the user.
