Refactorings

Any code written in the past is legacy code as soon as adding a new feature or fixing a bug makes it difficult to change it. There is only one cure to this problem: Refactor it, but only one refactoring at a time. Otherwise, you will be frustrated to the least.

Refactoring is a disciplined technique for restructuring an existing body of code, altering its internal structure without changing its external behavior. Its heart is a series of small behavior preserving transformations. Each transformation (called a 'refactoring') does little, but a sequence of transformations can produce a significant restructuring. Since each refactoring is small, it's less likely to go wrong. The system is kept fully working after each small refactoring, reducing the chances that a system can get seriously broken during the restructuring. Martin Fowler

There is no better refactoring than making the code more readable. After all, to change code, you first have to understand it: by reading it.

No built-in support for Request Timeout before .NET 8

There is no default way to control the request timeout in ASP.NET Core 6.0 or 7.0. But the ASP.NET Core 8.0 introduces a RequestTimeout Middleware. It supports policy convention/pattern to apply the timeout options on a specific endpoint or globally. You will find it familiar if you have configured CORS using the CORS middleware or any other middleware. But if you love extension methods, you are in luck, as it supports extension methods on the Builder.

Logging

Logs are facts emitted by your application especially when it is running in production.

Structured logging is a way to give facts a shape so that you can query logs better.

Serilog is a structured logging library for .NET and it is one of the most popular logging libraries in .NET.

But how to use Serilog with the new .NET 8 Worker template?

Validate Options<T> on Startup in .NET 8

The .NET 8 Host Builder allows you to bind configuration with C# objects by using AddOptions<T> and binding to the configuration.

It provides you an opportunity to validate the configuration values when the host (WebApplication or Hosted Server) is starting by using ValidateOnStart.

But there are two interesting aspects of it, which I will explain in this post.

Validate Options<T> on Startup

The .NET 8 Host Builder allows you to bind configuration with C# objects by using AddOptions<T> and binding to the configuration.

It provides you an opportunity to validate the configuration values when the host (WebApplication or Hosted Server) is starting by using ValidateOnStart.

But there are two interesting aspects of it, which I will explain in this post.

What will you learn?

It is a long blog post, but it builds the foundation and deep understanding of the middleware in the ASP.NET 8 or previous versions starting with ASP.NET 6.

It explores middleware, introduces you to HTTP middleware and ASP.NET middleware. It deep dives how the ASP.NET middleware works & how it is actually built. Then you will learn different ways to create middleware in .NET and their pros and cons. Finally, you will build your own middleware pipeline using the ASP.NET approach. Do not miss the copy & paste console sample to debug the .NET like middleware pipeline.

The Middleware

What comes to your mind when you hear the word middleware?

Middle of nowhere. 🃏😆 But that's not the case here.

In the middle of two soft(wares), right? But in the context of the ASP.NET 8 why do you need it? What does it do? How does it work?

ASP.NET 8 Configurations

Do you love magic strings to get the configuration values? No. Me neither. It was a serious question except you are in JS/TS land.

The amazing .NET supports strongly typed configurations. After all, it is a typed language.

Let me show you the complete usage of strongly typed configurations in ASP.NET 8.

ASP.NET 8 Configurations Think about a piece of software; it could be a web or mobile application or an API. What's its purpose? Well, it's here to solve a single or multiple problems for you by offering a suite of unique features.

Now, let's say some of you are fans of a dark theme, while others love the bright hues of a light theme. How can one software cater to both tastes?

Enter Configurations!