ASP.NET Core: What is it?
Description: ASP.NET core development helps developers work much more efficiently on their daily projects. The framework is regularly updated and enriched with new modules.
ASP.NET Core platform belongs to Microsoft developers. Its mission is to become a reliable and up-to-date tool for web development. The solution is efficient for small sites as well as for building large portals and services with its infrastructure.
Features
The program officially launched in 2016, but development began in 2014. In the early stage of development, they were called ASP.NET vNext. The latest version 5.0 was released in 2020. ASP.NET Core is an open-source framework. It is compatible with all popular operating systems. For developing and testing mobile applications, IIS or Brights is suitable.
The framework consists of individual modules that can work independently of each other. The modules are loaded through the Nuget package manager. In previous versions, it was necessary to use libraries. In the latest version, there is no such need.
Components
One of the essential components of ASP.NET Core is MVC. The MVC functionality combines Web APIs and Web Pages. There are also several additional functions. For example, there are tag helpers. This option serves to effectively synchronize HTML syntax with C# code.
The independence of components from each other helps ASP.NET Core to expand efficiently. The developer always has a choice. They can use built-in component implementations, extend it with third-party solutions, or write a script from scratch and use it to solve different tasks.
Differences of the latest version
ASP.NET Core 5.0 has a lot of differences. For example, the dependency management system and project configuration are simplified. In this version, the framework has a lightweight container for storing dependencies. This makes it useless to use third-party solutions such as Autofact or Ninject. But if the developer is more used to it, he can continue to use it. Compatibility is preserved.
Visual Studio version above 2015 is suitable as a development toolkit. It is also possible to create applications in the Visual Studio Code environment compatible with all operating systems.
What tasks solves?
ASP.NET Core can solve the following tasks:
- Integration of modern client frameworks and development schemes;
- New lightweight and modular HTTP requests;
- Delivered as complete NuGet packages;
- Common creation history for Web UI and Web APIs;
- Ability to be hosted in IIS or your application;
- Publicly available and socially oriented framework;
- A new toolkit that simplifies the development of modern web applications;
- Cloud-ready, environment-based configuration;
- Built-in support for dependency deployment;
- Build and run cross-platform ASP.NET applications on Windows, Linux and Mac;
- Framework built on .NET Core platform that supports true collaborative version control.
Modules
ASP.NET Core has different modules:
- ASP.NET Web Forms;
- MVC;
- Web API;
- Razor Pages.
Let’s look at their features
ASP.NET web forms
In general, this model is suitable for beginners who are just starting to get acquainted with programming or have already experienced scripting languages with which to process events.
This is a common version of ASP.NET that allows you to work with pages using the HTML element form.
It has the following advantages:
- Allows you to quickly develop a website;
- Huge number of libraries;
- Similarity to Windows Forms;
- Easy development of business applications.
In general, this model is well suited for beginners who are just beginning to get acquainted with programming or have already encountered scripting languages, which handle events.
MVC
This model allows the declarative approach and the MVC pattern. This is how data binding and other features become available to the developer.
The advantages of modules:
- Separation of interface and main code;
- Extensive opportunities for Unit testing;
- Small page size;
- Easy integration of libraries and frameworks for JavaScript.
ASP.NET MVC is used by many companies, so when you learn it, you’ll be sure to always find work.
Web API
This model allows you to create not only a website but also an API to which another website, mobile or desktop application can connect. Such a project can become a server part that will process client requests. For example, this way you can create a project site first, and then quickly develop related applications using the API.
Razor pages
Razor Pages is the new and improved version of MVC. It allows you to create .cshtml files that are a mixture of C# and HTML. It speeds up development by several times.
Conclusion
Those who are new to programming should choose .NET Core to use in the future. If you need to master the web model, you should choose WebForms. MVC and Razor Pages are more difficult to learn, but allow you to write less code and speed up development considerably. In general, the platform is fully consistent with the requirements of our time. This property makes it popular among developers.
