Best Practices for Developing ASP.NET Applications

ASP.NET

The major reason why developers prefer ASP.NET, a core framework for everyone- is its performance.

It provides developers with a stable foundation for developing web apps. However, it’s essential for ASP.NET developers to get smart development practices for ensuring secure and robust software is built. Additionally, they should perform timely checks for ensuring that the app’s performance is up to the mark.

This article is about some essential tips to enhance the performance of your ASP.NET core apps. Fortunately, you will find several Asp.Net development firms that can assist you in developing high-end .Net applications. 

Why use core ASP.NET for developing apps?

ASP.NET is backed by Microsoft and it brings the advantages of this framework and MVC.NET in some common programming models. Its exclusive features and high-security functionality makes it a good choice for making quality web apps.

Here are some reasons why ASP.NET is told to be one of the best frameworks at present time:

  • Security and Scalability

Almost all server-side web app development frameworks are known for their impeccable security and have become a better choice for businesses. It has several in-built and third-party tools and libraries to secure the web apps.

This framework has features like enforcing HTTPS, data protection, app secrets, anti-request forgery, CORS management, and much more. Moreover, it is highly scalable as it has distributed cache and is used by small to large businesses.

  • Open Source technology

ASP.NET is an open-source framework and is free of cost to use. As you do not have to pay for software it saves you a lot of development cost. On the other hand, you can also interact with the ASP.NET community in case of any queries or development issues.

This framework is one of the most secure and flexible technologies of today. It can develop web apps for Mac, Linux, and Windows OS.

  • Easy integration, deployment, and maintenance

ASP.NET is a lightweight and portable technology that provides the flexibility of working with different tools, libraries, and programming languages. Thus it is much easier for .Net developers or .Net development service providers to add third-party libraries to deploy, develop and manage ASP.NET apps.

  • Developing hybrid apps

ASP.NET is developed as a modular technology and is also capable of creating hybrid apps that are suitable for the web and Windows. So, if your requirement is a hybrid app that is scalable and secure, ASP.NET can be your next framework.

7 Best Practices for Developing high-performance ASP.NET Apps

1# Using the latest version of the framework

Each version has new features and new upgrades with improved performance. For instance, .NET Core 2.1 adds a JIT compiler and supports compiled expressions, and has Span tags, whereas 2.2 supports HTTP/2. ASP.NET core v3.0 offers speedier memory writing and reading, and much more. As for ASP.NET core 5, they have new features like C#9, Text.JSON, record type improvements, and support of the MVC model and Visual basics.

Now the latest version of .NET 6 core was put into the market on 8th November 2021. It is a simple process and optimizes performance functionalities. With hot reloading features, support for Visual Studio 2022, and smart code editing, developing full-stack apps is effortless.

So creating apps using ASP.NET core will always prefer the most modern version of ASP.NET core as MicroSoft empowers the performance of different versions in comparison to previous versions.

2# HTTP/2 over SSL

The new version of HTTP/2, HTTP, introduces various useful optimizations. Firstly, the compression has been extended to cover the decided headers. Moreover, the connection with the server can still transfer various files at one go using a special feature known as pipelining. This feature means that the minimization of HTTP requests by adding files is chiefly unnecessary. The difference is similarly spectacular.

Mostly each browser has support for different versions of HTTP/2 but the limitation tends to be on the server side. For example, while writing, Azure web apps don’t support HTTP/2.

The server now makes intelligent decisions about the same page context and pushes assets down before they are requested. Hence, if the index page has a JS file in it, it won’t be found until the browser parses the whole page. The server can be instructed to begin the transfer of the file prior to the browser realizing its requirements.

SSL is also a part of this best practice as all web browsers supporting HTTP2 require HTTPS too.

3# Use JSON Serialization

ASP.NET core uses ‘System.Text.Json’ for performing JSON serialization and deserialization from options. This means you have to write and read JSON asynchronously without waiting for different processes to execute. Using JSON as it enhances the performance better than Newtonsoft.Json.

Additionally, System.Text.Json provides good performance, complaint capabilities, low allocation, objects of JSON serialization, and JSON deserialization text objects. Now, rather than serializing string-based methods, one can serialize them with a UTF-8 array. This method is about 5-10% faster in execution. You have to call the method- ‘JsonSerializer.Serialize Utf8 Bytes for performing proper serialization.

4# Using Response Caching Middleware

Make your code faster by using Middleware components that optimize frequently-used codes and store responses and serve them accordingly from cache memory. The Middleware component is available in the Microsoft.AspNetCore.ResponseCaching package.

Add the response caching middleware in the service collection of Startup.ConfigureServices.

public void ConfigureServices(IServiceCollection services

    services.AddResponseCaching();

    services.AddRazorPages();

It would be better if one uses tools for performance profiling like PerfView to find hot code paths for making the caching middleware process easier to follow.

5# Optimizing the Data Access

To enhance the performance of your app, we have to optimize the data access logic. As the data is gathered from any database, gathering it every time can be time-consuming. Here are some ways which can help you to increase your app performance.

  • Reducing the quantity of HTTP calls that are reducing the number of round trips of the network.
  • Make multiple calls on the server, and try to fetch the data in single or two calls.
  • Setting up the cache for unchanged data
  • Do not recover any data in advance if not necessary. It will only increase the load on the response time of the app and slow down the app.

6# Avoid blocking various calls

You have to develop your ASP.NET app to perform multiple processes altogether. You can also achieve this with an asynchronous API that manages thousands of functions or requests without blocking calls. Instead of using synchronous tasks, it can begin working with different threads.

The query with ASP.NET Core apps is that it blocks asynchronous task execution by using Task.Wait / Task.Result. This command blocks the thread until the task is finished and it waits for the completion. Also, ignore calling Task.Run, because ASP.NET core already executes threads in normal pools, so calling Task.Run would ultimately result in unnecessary Thread Pool Scheduling.

Instead of doing this, one can create hot code paths, call data access, Input Output, etc so that operations can be performed without creating an effect on other processes.

7# Optimizing Custom code

Optimization of the business logic and code helps enhance the apps’ performance. Here’s what one can do for custom code optimization:

  • Optimize the custom logging, custom handler code, or authentication that executes on each request.
  • Avoid long-running custom code executions while working on the logic layer. If you execute them, they will block the user requests to any server of your app. Hence, it will increase the data gathering time of any app and you can optimize the code on the server side or client-side.
  • If you want to perform long-running tasks, perform them asynchronously, so other functions are not affected.
  • Ask for real-time client-to-server communication like SignalR. It also works asynchronously.

Final Words

Let’s hope that this information helps you enhance your core ASP.NET app performance. You can try implementing most of these best practices while developing your app to make the most out of the ASP.NET framework. If you are facing any challenges, you can let us know in the comment section. We will get back to you within no time.

There are many best practices yet to be mentioned in this article. We may upload them sometime in the future. We own a reputable .Net development company featuring skilled and well-experienced ASP.NET developers who can easily handle every challenge and develop robust apps that will streamline your business goal. Till the next article, happy reading!

This entry was posted in Uncategorized. Bookmark the permalink.