Understanding Layouts in ASP.NET Core: Using Sections to Build Flexible Content

I recently decided that my website needed some love and maintenance. I'd been hosting it using WordPress for a zillion years and I'd started getting fed up with how much it was costing me to run it. So I did what every busy developer does -- I decided to write my own content management system / blog engine using Cosmos DB and ASP.NET Core MVC. It came out pretty darned good and my ASP.NET MVC skills got a workout and a refresher.

Posted by Benjamin Day on 12/17/20240 comments

What's New in Modern .NET Library APIs

.NET 9 was introduced in November with claims of speed, efficiency, and cross-platform capabilities to provide Microsoft-centric developers with even more flexibility and power to write modern applications.

Posted by David Ramel on 12/12/20240 comments

Keeping the Compiler Happy: Null Member Variable Compile Errors in C#

Wait! This won't be boring! Yes, I know -- this probably isn't the most exciting topic ever, but I ran into some problems this week and I actually learned some cool stuff about nullability in C# and the compiler.

The issue I was running into was member variable initialization inside of a class. WAIT! Please don't quit on this article! I swear it gets better! I started off with a simple class, but it had complex initialization logic that involved multiple method calls and a bunch of calculations. Simple enough but I couldn't get it to compile because I kept getting nullability errors from the compiler.

Posted by Benjamin Day on 11/18/20240 comments

Debugging Complex Classes with the [DebuggerDisplay] Attribute

Here's a scenario I ran into just last week. I was working on some code to edit PowerPoint PPTX files using C# and the OpenXML libraries. If you've ever tried using them before, you know that the OpenXML libraries are impossibly complex and nearly impossible to understand. And as much as I might have wanted to keep my code simple, I was losing and the complexity was growing.

Posted by Benjamin Day on 10/17/20240 comments

Integration Testing in ASP.NET Core with WebApplicationFactory

Integration testing is a crucial step in ensuring that your application behaves correctly when different components interact with one another. In ASP.NET Core, the WebApplicationFactory<TEntryPoint> class makes it easier to test your web applications by allowing you to spin up an instance of your app in-memory and run integration tests against it.

Posted by Benjamin Day on 09/23/20240 comments

Cross-Platform Readiness, Straight from the Experts

In today's diverse development landscape, cross-platform readiness isn't just a nice-to-have -- it's a necessity. Developers are increasingly tasked with ensuring their applications run smoothly across multiple operating systems and environments. Python and Blazor, both designed with cross-platform capabilities in mind, are indispensable tools in a modern developer's toolkit.

Posted on 09/12/20240 comments

Building Applications with the Modern SQL Using AI and Microsoft Fabric

Devs surely do still love their SQL, but Microsoft executives are touting what they call "modern SQL" for building applications using the latest and greatest data technologies.

So what are those technologies that provide a new take on your beloved and familiar SQL? You start off with, of course, AI, specifically generative AI -- Copilots at Microsoft -- that has transformed software development along with the rest of IT. Then, being firmly in the Microsoft development camp, you add Microsoft Fabric, which is an end-to-end analytics/data platform that encompasses data movement, processing, ingestion, transformation, real-time event routing and report building.

Posted by David Ramel on 07/08/20240 comments

Getting Started with GitHub Copilot Chat

Hey Y'all! VSLive @ Microsoft HQ is happening the first week of August. While I won't be there, my good friend Brian Randell will, and he has a couple of Copilot sessions you won't want to miss. One of the things I'm betting will come up in those sessions is GitHub Copilot Chat.

Posted by Mickey Gousset on 06/24/20240 comments

Monorepos: Are They a Good Thing?

In the world of software development, managing source code effectively is crucial for the success of projects, especially as they scale. One of the most important decisions teams must make is how to structure their codebase: using a monolithic repository (monorepo) or multiple repositories (multirepo).

This article explores the advantages and disadvantages of adopting a monorepo, with a focus on how platforms like GitHub and Azure DevOps support this model.

Posted by Mickey Gousset on 05/23/20240 comments

Getting a Grip on Dependency Injection

.NET supports the Dependency Injection (DI) software design pattern, which Microsoft describes as a technique for achieving Inversion of Control (IoC) between classes and their dependencies, such that components receive their dependencies from an external source (usually a framework or container), allowing the caller to provide necessary dependencies rather than the component creating them internally.

Posted by David Ramel on 05/21/20240 comments