ASP.NET vNEXT- What makes it the most preferred tool for developing a web application?

ASP.NET vNEXT- What makes it the most preferred tool for developing a web application?

With innovative changes being introduced into the web development world and a rapid hike in .NET Development Outsourcing, it is hard to imagine a downfall in the demand for developers who can adapt to these changes and come up with an absolutely brilliant web solution.

Even the existing web development frameworks have been equipped with new enhancements which have helped in accomplishing multiple web projects. ASP.NET is one such web development framework which has now matured into a full-fledged web development platform and has come a long way from web forms to MVC and finally to WebAPI.

What you'll find in this post

This post is dedicated to all ASP.NET fans who have been extremely contented with the underlying ASP.NET core framework and want to dig deep into the latest version of ASP.NET i.e. vNext. Here, I'll be making you making you familiar with the features of ASP.NET vNext which make it the number one choice of web app developers across the globe.

Firstly, let's get to know ASP.NET vNext better

Considered as the next generation of .NET on the server, ASP.NET vNext has been re-designed from scratch to provide solutions for a wide array of challenges that crop in during the development of web applications. As an updated version of ASP.NET, ASP.NET vNext has been optimized for cloud web app development. Plus, it includes updated versions of ASP.MVC, ASP.NET Web API, SignalR, Web Pages and EF. The key improvement made to these web development frameworks is that all three viz: Web API, MVC and Web Pages  have been merged into a single programming model. To put in simple words, now there's a single controller that returns both, formatted Web API responses as well as MVC views on the same HTTP verb.

Now, let's hop onto the features of ASP.NET vNext which make it a favorable option as compared to other web app development platforms

1. ASP.NET vNext is fully open source

Although MVC and Entity frameworks introduced in previous versions of ASP.NET were also open source and available on Codeplex, the brand new version of ASP.net i.e. vNext is fully open source with all its code readily available on GitHub. Moreover, it is interesting to note that ASP.NET Vnext is also a part of .NET Foundation- a well-known online forum for development and collaboration of open source .NET web technologies. That means, anyone can contribute to the .NET community and help novice/professional .NET developers in building applications for multiple operating systems.

2. Designed for building cloud-ready apps

Unlike the case of traditionally hosted web apps(built using ASP.NET) where the configuration settings are fetched from web.config file, the apps built using ASP.NET vNext have their configuration settings fetched from config.json file. There are no web.config file in ASP.NET vNext apps. Plus, the config.json file can be any of the three formats viz: JSON, XML or INI. ASP.NET vNext supports three CLR's(Common Language Runtime) which are being explained as below:

  • Desktop- This is the typical CLR used in .NET Framework for running applications on the desktop computer systems.
  • Mono- This is the CLR used for running cross-platform applications.
  • Cloud Optimized- This is the CLR used for running applications on a cloud.
  • To send periodic emails regarding your order or other products and services.

Therefore, will all the above three runtimes installed on your machine, you'll find it convenient to switch from one CLR to another via Kvm- the version manager for different run times.

3. ASP.NET vNext serves as a lightweight Entity Framework

Following the footprints of other entity frameworks which can be used via any application type or environment; ASP.NET vNext also includes a lightweight data stack which makes make it a scalable framework.

4. Agile app development and deployment is supported by ASP.NET vNext

With the new version of ASP.NET, you can avail the flexibility of deploying your app via an agile app development methodology which goes like this: Changing C# code, saving the .cs file and refreshing your browsers. Well, yes, that's all you need to do for  deploying your app to a cloud. You don't need to go for any explicit compilation in Visual Studio. The in-built .NET Compiler Platform ROSLYN available with ASP.NET vNext handles app deployment transparently in either the server or the development machine. Talking about app development, the scenario is a bit different. Here, you can opt for a browser-based code editor like Monaco which is available in Visual Studio.

5. ASP.NET vNext offers you the ability to add components to the pipeline

As compared to the previous versions of ASP.NET where the HTTP request undergoes a well-defined request pipeline before being handled by the HTTPHandler, the new version vNext allows you to explicitly specify the component(s) you want to use in the pipeline. Here, the application host will require a class named Startup which contains a Configure method. The ApplicationBuilder parameter is then taken up by this Configure method and the entire interface is loaded with extension methods with the format builder.UseService() which should be called in order to add the service to the HTTP request pipeline. Have a look at the below method which is used for adding MVC to the HTTP request pipeline:

 

using System;


using Microsoft.AspNet.Builder;


using Microsoft.Framework.DependencyInjection;






namespace MvcApplication

{

    public class Startup

    {

        public void Configure(IApplicationBuilder app)

        {

            app.UseServices(services => { services.AddMvc(); });

            app.UseMvc();

        }

    }

}

Therefore, with a greater control over the HTTP request pipeline, you can build applications which consume less amount of time for loading. And that's not all, you can even avail the flexibility of configuring the request pipeline for multiple web hosts.

6. ASP.NET vNext is completely modular

The modular nature of ASP.NET vNext offers you the convenience of choosing your preferred operating system, framework and tools/editor. This is something that is still missing in the previous versions of ASP.NET. To top it up, ASP.NET vNext has made ASP.NET with Visual Studio a rich IDE environment for developing eye-catchy and feature-rich websites, apps and services.

Wrapping Up

With such broad range of investments being made in ASP.NET via the release of ASP.NET vNext, it will be exciting to see the growth of .NET ecosphere in the times ahead.

Posted by Celin Smith

Celin Smith

Celin Smith is top-notch asp.net developer and blogger at Xicom who loves to write regarding mobile and web applications. If you are looking for hire professional .NET Programmer , you can get in touch with her or directly contact via Facebook or Google+. Xicom is one of the amongst leading ASP.Net Development Outsourcing Company which provides totally different array of real software package solutions like Custom software Development IT Outsourcing Services, Software application  development services to its clients globally.

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