Current Development Must-Haves for ASP.NET MVC 3

I recently wanted to replace the exhaust manifold on my vehicle. I looked at the part online, and there were maybe 8 bolts that I needed to remove/replace.  As it turns out, those 8 bolts are part of a 112 step process that takes an experienced mechanic 5-6 hours to complete. If he has the right tools.

The ASP.NET 3 Framework gives us a lot of help in achieving our web application development chores, but it’s best to have the right tools.

Here’s a current checklist (July 2011) of the tools you should have in your kit:

• A copy of Visual Studio 2010 (trial, express, free)
• VS2010 Service Pack 1

  *   <div align="left">This one's important!&nbsp; VS 2010 SP1 gives you the most updated tooling for MVC.</div> <li>The NuGet Package Manager ([plugin](http://visualstudiogallery.msdn.microsoft.com/27077b70-9dad-4c64-adcf-c7cf6bc9970c), [console](http://nuget.codeplex.com/releases))
  *   Also important! NuGet lets you access great libraries for your project, including MvcScaffolding, Ie9ify and more  <li>It's installed in SP1, but make sure you get the latest updates <li>The Visual Studio 2010 Productivity Power Tools ([plugin](http://visualstudiogallery.msdn.microsoft.com/d0d33361-18e2-46c0-8ff2-4adea1e34fef))  <li>An LED [Binary Clock](http://www.thinkgeek.com/homeoffice/lights/59e0/). It won't help you with MVC development, but it looks cool on your desk  <li>The Entity Framework [version 4.1](http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?displaylang=en&amp;id=26825)
  *   The "project version" binary is pulled down by new projects in MVC 3 through NuGet, but the full version adds other tooling and templates 
  

 

Also, check out this post I put together with a ton of handy links for your MVC 3 adventures.

Missing anything? What do you use on a day-to-day basis that’s not on this short-but-powerful list?

By the way, the only thing in my mechanic toolkit is a hammer and a set of pliers.  I left the exhaust manifold for the pros.

Cheers!