ASP.NET Core 9.0 Essentials: Explore the .NET Core web stack, including Razor Pages, Blazor, and MVC, to build cloud-ready apps

Cover....1

Title Page....2

Copyright and Credit....3

Dedications....4

Contributors....5

Table of Contents....8

Part 1: ASP.NET Core 9 Fundamentals....22

Introducing ASP.NET Core 9 Concepts....24

Technical requirements....24

Why ASP.NET Core 9?....25

Comparing .NET and .NET Framework....27

Preparing our development environment....28

The development tool....28

SDK and runtime....29

CLI (Command-Line Interface)....29

Windows installation....29

macOS installation....31

Linux installation....32

Visual Studio Code....32

Testing the development environment....33

What is new in ASP.NET Core 9?....37

Summary....37

Chapter 2: Building Dynamic UIs with Razor Pages, MVC, and Blazor....38

Technical requirements....38

Learning about the ASP.NET Core UI....39

Rendering the UI....39

Implementing a UI server render model with Razor Pages and ASP.NET MVC....40

ASP.NET Core Razor Pages....40

ASP.NET Core MVC....56

Exploring UI client rendering with Blazor and JavaScript frameworks....63

Rich UIs with Blazor....63

ASP.NET Core 9 and JavaScript frameworks....67

Working with hybrid solutions....69

Summary....72

Chapter 3: Crafting Web APIs for Service Delivery....74

Technical requirements....74

Delivering business as a service....75

HTTP verbs and conventions....76

REST....76

HTTP status codes....77

Exploring minimal APIs....78

Implementing APIs using the controller-based approach....85

Creating a controller-based API....86

Understanding the product controller....87

ControllerBase utilities....89

Working with binding....91

Performing validations....94

Working with documentation....95

Documenting APIs with Swagger....96

Summary....106

Chapter 4: Real-Time Interactions with SignalR....108

Technical requirements....108

What is SignalR?....109

Understanding the concepts of Servers and Clients....111

Working with a task management application....111

Creating the Hub....114

Preparing the server application....116

Preparing the client application....117

Understanding the client and server communication flow....120

Working with streaming....122

Implementing basic streaming....123

Hosting the ASP.NET Core SignalR application....128

The basics of hosting a SignalR application....128

Summary....129

Part 2: Data and Security....130

Chapter 5: Working with Data and Persistence....132

Technical requirements....132

Docker installation....133

Azure Data Studio....133

Connecting to a SQL database....133

Preparing SQL Server....134

Using the SQL client....137

Understanding SQL, NoSQL, ORM, and Micro ORM....140

SQL versus NoSQL....140

ORM and Micro ORM....143

Working with EF Core and Dapper....148

EF Core....148

Dapper....157

Summary....159

Chapter 6: Enhancing Security and Quality....160

Technical requirements....161

Understanding the security principles of web-based applications....161

Security topics in web applications....162

Comparing authorization and authentication....164

Authentication....165

Authorization....166

Understanding OAuth 2.0 and OIDC....167

Working with the ASP.NET Core Identity framework....169

Understanding the ASP.NET Core Identity architecture....169

Getting started with integrating ASP.NET Core Identity....170

Configuring the database context....172

Updating the database....173

Adding ASP.NET Core Identity services and routes....175

Securing APIs with ASP.NET Core Identity....181

Securing application routes....183

Requesting an API with the access token....188

Strengthening application security....191

Managing secrets properly....192

Enforcing HTTPS and working with CORS....195

Preventing common vulnerabilities....197

Summary....199

Part 3: Applying Best Practices....200

Chapter 7: Adding Capabilities to Applications....202

Technical requirements....202

Working with ASP.NET Core 9 best practices....203

HTTP request best practices....203

Asynchronous requests and I/O optimization....208

Improving performance with a cache strategy and making the application resilient....210

Caching strategies....211

Integrating Redis in our application....212

Working with cache in the controller class....213

Configuring Redis Insight....218

Resilience mechanisms....220

Understanding and implementing logging and monitoring....223

Introduction to logging and monitoring....224

Summary....229

Chapter 8: Enhancing Applications with Middleware in ASP.NET Core 9....230

Technical requirements....230

Knowing the middleware pipeline....231

Understanding middleware flow....233

Benefits of middleware and best practices....235

Implementing custom middleware....237

Working with factory-based middleware....240

Adding capabilities to applications using middleware....242

Global error handling....243

Adding request logging....246

Rate limiting....248

Creating an extension method for middleware registration....252

Summary....255

Chapter 9: Managing Application Settings....256

Technical requirements....256

Understanding IConfiguration concepts and abstractions....257

IConfiguration interface....257

Working with configuration providers....259

Adding configuration providers....259

Creating a custom configuration provider....261

Learning the Options pattern....263

What is the Options pattern?....263

Implementing the Options pattern....265

Working with dynamic configurations and behaviors....270

Working with dynamic settings....270

Connecting an ASP.NET Core 9 application to Azure App Configuration....282

Summary....289

Part 4: Hosting, Deploying, and Preparing to the Cloud....290

Chapter 10: Deploying and Hosting Applications....292

Technical requirements....292

Preparing to publish your application and host locally....293

The importance of the publishing process....293

Generating a publishing package....294

Publishing the solution in a cloud environment....297

Creating Azure app services and database resources....298

Configuring Azure SQL Server....303

Publishing an application with Visual Studio Code....306

Understanding the Docker principles and how to package the application in a container....309

Understanding what a container is....309

Understanding Docker fundamentals....311

Packing the UrlShortener application....313

Generating a container image....316

Running a Docker container....317

Understanding the DevOps approach with CI/CD....319

CI....320

CD....321

Automating with GitHub Actions....323

Summary....332

Chapter 11: Cloud-Native Development with ASP.NET Core 9....334

Technical requirements....334

Creating a cloud-native mindset....335

Understanding the service layers in a cloud environment....335

Cloud-native development best practices....337

Going beyond code development....339

Working with cloud-native tools....339

Getting to know CNCF....342

Working with CNCF....342

The twelve-factor app principles....344

Code base....345

Dependencies....346

Config....346

Backing services....348

Build, release, run....349

Processes....351

Port binding....352

Concurrency....354

Disposability....355

Dev/prod parity....357

Logs....358

Admin process....360

The importance of the twelve-factor app methodology....361

Understanding cloud architecture principles....361

Working with modern design architecture....362

Event-driven architectures....362

Understanding microservices....366

Considering deployment strategies....368

Summary....369

Index....370

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Make the most of the ASP.NET Core platform to create robust, high-quality solutions using approaches adopted by leading companies

Key Features

• Create robust, web-based solutions optimized for continuous delivery using key cloud computing principles and practices
• Explore advanced concepts and techniques to create resilient and secure applications
• Adopt a cloud-native mindset to build applications leveraging Docker, CI/CD, and more
• Purchase of the print or Kindle book includes a free PDF eBook

Book Description

Build cutting-edge web applications using ASP.NET Core 9 with this comprehensive guide from Microsoft MVP Albert Tanure, a seasoned .NET expert with over 20 years of experience as a cloud solutions architect. Albert brings unparalleled expertise in building modern web applications to ASP.NET Core 9.0 Essentials to help you kickstart your journey on the right foot.

Starting with the platform’s fundamental concepts, you’ll work through practical exercises to develop web applications with powerful UI frameworks, deliver flexible and scalable solutions through an API approach, and explore advanced topics such as customizing request flows and implementing robust security measures. You’ll get to grips with cloud-native practices to prepare your applications for cloud environments. Whether you’re a beginner or an experienced developer, this book is your guide to building modern, secure, and adaptable web applications with ASP.NET Core.

By the end of this book, you’ll be proficient in leveraging the advanced features of ASP.NET Core 9 to create cloud-ready web applications for diverse market segments.

What you will learn

• Deliver UI solutions using client-side, server-side, and hybrid model approaches with Razor Pages, MVC, and Blazor
• Implement real-time solutions and manage data streaming using SignalR
• Connect applications to a data persistence model using Entity Framework and Dapper
• Apply logging and monitoring strategies to maintain control over your applications
• Understand how .NET Aspire enhances your experience of building .NET cloud-native apps
• Find out how to test and debug your code effectively

Who this book is for

ASP.NET Core 9.0 Essentials is for developers engaged in both backend and frontend solution development as well as software engineers who want to craft innovative web-based solutions using ASP.NET Core technology. To fully benefit from this book, you should be familiar with software development, object-oriented programming, and high-level languages such as C# and Java, and have some experience with HTML and CSS.