Upgrade ASP.NET MVC 2 (Net 3.5) to MVC 3 (Net 4.0)

There are a few blog posts on this topic, but I found most of them don't fit all scenarios. Indeed this post is no different. Put together they might rebuild the world, who knows. Anyway, these

are the steps I went through to implement my upgrade.

Step 1: Start Visual Studio 2010 and run the Solution (.sln) file. Follow the steps to perform the upgrade. Change the target Framework version from 3.5 to 4.0 for all projects in the solution.

Step 2: Remove all references to framework 3.5 assemblies in the web.config file in the ConfigSections. i.e. the following;

<sectionGroup name="system.web.extensions" type="System.Web.Configuration.SystemWebExtensionsSectionGroup, System.Web.Extensions, Version=3.5.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35">
<sectionGroup name="scripting" type="System.Web.Configuration.ScriptingSectionGroup, System.Web.Extensions, Version=3.5.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35">
<section name="scriptResourceHandler" type="System.Web.Configuration.ScriptingScriptResourceHandlerSection, System.Web.Extensions, Version=3.5.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35" requirePermission="false" allowDefinition="MachineToApplication" />
<sectionGroup name="webServices" type="System.Web.Configuration.ScriptingWebServicesSectionGroup, System.Web.Extensions, Version=3.5.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35">
  <section name="jsonSerialization" type="System.Web.Configuration.ScriptingJsonSerializationSection, System.Web.Extensions, Version=3.5.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35" requirePermission="false" allowDefinition="Everywhere" />
  <section name="profileService" type="System.Web.Configuration.ScriptingProfileServiceSection, System.Web.Extensions, Version=3.5.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35" requirePermission="false" allowDefinition="MachineToApplication" />                    >
  <section name="roleService" type="System.Web.Configuration.ScriptingRoleServiceSection, System.Web.Extensions, Version=3.5.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35" requirePermission="false" allowDefinition="MachineToApplication" />
</sectionGroup>
</sectionGroup>
</sectionGroup>

This will probably do for those who want to upgrade to .Net 4.0 without the upgrade to MVC 3. If MVC 3 is the preferred flavour, continue.

Step 3: Download and Install ASP.NET MVC 3.

Step 4: If you intend to use the new Razor View engine like I do, then add the following to the your web.config ConfigSections;

<sectionGroup name="system.web.webPages.razor" type="System.Web.WebPages.Razor.Configuration.RazorWebSectionGroup, System.Web.WebPages.Razor, Version=1.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35">
<section name="host" type="System.Web.WebPages.Razor.Configuration.HostSection, System.Web.WebPages.Razor, Version=1.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35" requirePermission="false" />
<section name="pages" type="System.Web.WebPages.Razor.Configuration.RazorPagesSection, System.Web.WebPages.Razor, Version=1.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35" requirePermission="false" />
</sectionGroup>

Step 5: On the official MVC website there's a white paper on how to go about the upgrade, only problem is I don't need most of it so I cherry picked what I wanted from this and other posts.

Step 6: Replace all occurences of System.Web.Mvc in the web project config files (Web.config) with the MVC 3 version.

i.e. Replace

System.Web.Mvc, Version=2.0.0.0

with

System.Web.Mvc, Version=3.0.0.0

e.g.

<runtime>
 <assemblyBinding xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:asm.v1">
     <dependentAssembly>
         <assemblyIdentity name="System.Web.Mvc" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" />
         <bindingRedirect oldVersion="1.0.0.0-2.0.0.0" newVersion="3.0.0.0" />
     </dependentAssembly>
 </assemblyBinding>
</runtime>

Step 7: For each project in the solution Add/Replace references to the following MVC 3 dlls;

System.Web.Helpers.dll
System.Web.Mvc.dll
System.Web.Razor.dll
System.Web.Routing.dll
System.Web.WebPages.Deployment.dll
System.Web.WebPages.dll
System.Web.WebPages.Razor.dll

These are located in the following folders;

%ProgramFiles%\ Microsoft ASP.NET\ASP.NET MVC 3\Assemblies
%ProgramFiles%\ Microsoft ASP.NET\ASP.NET Web Pages\v1.0\Assemblies

Step 8: Last but not least, we want the Razor View to be an option when we use the "Add View" dialogue. As per the white paper, unload the web projects in the solution and replace the GUID {F85E285D-A4E0-4152-9332-AB1D724D3325} with {E53F8FEA-EAE0-44A6-8774-FFD645390401} and reload the project.

Step 9: Go on and do your thing.