Blazor is here – and Chinese Developer Technologies MVP Guangpo Zhang is determined to make sure the technology reaches the heights that it deserves.
The free and open-source web framework that enables developers to create web apps using C# and HTML launched in 2018, with Guangpo inspired to support online learners with a resource created during the pandemic.
The result is Blazor.Zone, an educational hub that in one year has grown into China’s top Blazor destination with more than 100,000 monthly page views.
“Creating Blazer.Zone is a meaningful thing,” Guangpo says. “When I went to Beijing on a business trip, I was quarantined in a hotel for a month. I took advantage of this month to conceive and complete more than 40 Blazor components and create the open-source website.”
“Since Blazor technology was newly launched by Microsoft, the entire ecosystem was blank without any easily used UI component library. I wanted to contribute something for the .NET community, so I made this open-source UI component library.”
Blazor lets users build interactive web UIs using C# instead of JavaScript, with Blazor apps composed of reusable web UI components implemented using C#, HTML, and CSS. Both client and server code is written in C#, allowing users to share code and libraries.
In addition to the website, Guangpo is active in helping people learn the framework with Microsoft Docs. After one year of using and fine-tuning the content, Guangpo regards Docs as “a knowledge base camp”.
“We have witnessed the continued improvement and update of the [Docs] website ... I always recommend this technology treasure to community members, no matter what level they are, as there are always learning paths and modules for them.”
Today, Blazer.Zone is both a place to develop projects with other coders and a platform to learn and communicate technology. Every Thursday, for example, Guangpo simultaneously updates his open-source projects and MS Learn and Docs content so that users will see the learning materials as they read the project update news.
Moreover, Guangpo also organizes several WeChat groups for Blazor developers and enables administrators to send out MS Learn materials in these groups. Members report that these learning materials are valuable, with screenshots of module completion and problems encountered shared in the WeChat learning group.
For more information on Guangpo’s story, check out his blog.
