A Guide to .NET Development Technologies
Enter the world of .NET — Microsoft’s cross-platform framework that serves as the backbone for a spectrum of powerful application development technologies. In this journey through the Microsoft ecosystem, we’ll explore the unique features of WinForms, WPF, WinUI, .NET MAUI, Blazor and ASP.NET Core APIs. Before we dive into the details of each technology, it’s important to note that the information here is gathered from trusted sources like Microsoft’s official Learn blogs, the .NET official website, and other reputable sources. Microsoft’s commitment to transparent and detailed documentation ensures that you’re getting accurate insights. WinForms Windows Forms is a UI framework for building Windows desktop apps. It provides one of the most productive ways to create desktop apps based on the visual designer provided in Visual Studio. Functionality such as drag-and-drop placement of visual controls makes it easy to build desktop apps. With Windows Forms, you develop graphically rich apps that are easy to deploy, update, and work while offline or while connected to the internet. Windows Forms apps can access the local hardware and file system of the computer where the app is running. To learn how to create a Windows Forms app, seeTutorial: Create a new WinForms app. Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) A UI framework that is resolution-independent and uses a vector-based rendering engine, built to take advantage of modern graphics hardware. WPF provides a comprehensive set of application-development features that include Extensible Application Markup Language (XAML), controls, data binding, layout, 2D and 3D graphics, animation, styles, templates, documents, media, text, and typography. WPF is part of .NET, so you can build applications that incorporate other elements of the .NET API. If you want to create a skinned user interface, dynamically load some areas of the UI components from a web service, bind to XML or want to develop a desktop application which has the web-like navigation style, then WPF is a great choice. To learn how to create a WPF app, seeTutorial: Create a new WPF app. Windows UI Library (WinUI) The Windows UI Library (WinUI) is a native user experience (UX) framework for both Windows desktop and UWP applications. By incorporating theFluent Design Systeminto all experiences, controls, and styles, WinUI provides consistent, intuitive, and accessible experiences using the latest user interface (UI) patterns. With support for both desktop and UWP apps, you can build with WinUI from the ground up, or gradually migrate your existing MFC, WinForms, or WPF apps using familiar languages such as C++, C#, Visual Basic, and JavaScript (usingReact Native for Windows). At this time, there are two generations of the Windows UI Library (WinUI):WinUI 2 for UWPandWinUI 3 in the Windows App SDK. While both can be used in production-ready apps on Windows 10 and later, each have different development targets. .NET WAUI .NET Multi-platform App UI (MAUI) is an open-source, cross-platform framework for building Android, iOS, macOS, and Windows applications that leverage the native UI and services of each platform from a single .NET code base. Because .NET MAUI favors platform native experiences, it uses WinUI 3 and the Windows App SDK so apps get the latest user experience on Windows. This gives your apps access to everything you get with WinUI 3 plus the ability to reach to other platforms. .NET MAUI for Windows is a great choice if: You want to share as much .NET code as possible across mobile and desktop applications. You want to ship your application beyond Windows to other desktop and mobile targets with native platform experiences. You want to use C# and/or XAML for building cross-platform apps. You’re using Blazor for web development and wish to include all or part of that in a mobile or desktop application. For more information about .NET MAUI visit thelink. Blazor Blazoris a web framework that is part of theASP.NET Coreframework. Blazor enables you to create progressive web apps using C#, having significantly less reliance on JavaScript that was necessary in previous versions of ASP.NET. This model is intended to make Blazor appealing to current C# developers, since they can focus less on JavaScript and write more in C# for full-stack development. In Blazor, both the server-side code (APIs, models, etc.) and the client are written in C#. This enables Blazor developers to do full-stack development all in .NET, though it’s also possible to write JavaScript if desired. Blazor Tutorials:Build your first web app with ASP.NET Core using Blazor. ASP.NET Core APIs In the realm of backend development, ASP.NET Core APIs take the spotlight. These APIs provide a robust foundation for building scalable and high-performance backend services, supporting modern application architectures such as microservices. With ASP.NET you use the same framework and patterns to build both web pages and services, side-by-side in the same project. Conclusion From WinForms to .NET MAUI, we’ve explored Microsoft’s tech universe. Each tool adds a unique touch to the toolkit. Whether you’re into desktop apps, web experiences, or robust backends, Microsoft’s ecosystem has you covered. But it doesn’t end here. Microsoft keeps evolving. Stay curious, explore, and find more on their official blogs, the .NET website, and other reliable sources. Resources: For further exploration and in-depth information, consider checking out these resources: .NET Official Website .NET Documentation
On .NET Live - Exploring Oqtane for Blazor and .NET MAUI
Oqtane is an open-source CMS and application framework that provides advanced functionality for developing web, mobile, and desktop applications on .NET. In this week's episode, MVP Shaun Walker join us to show how Oqtane leverages Blazor to compose a fully dynamic digital experience that can be hosted on Blazor Server, Blazor WebAssembly, or Blazor Hybrid. Featuring: Shaun Walker #blazor #mauiBurke Learns Blazor - How to Blazor Forms
Burke and Jon continue their quest to master Blazor by exploring Blazor Forms, validation and a bunch of other things they have no idea how to do. Also, Jon plays "Take on Me" on the recorder and Burke wonders why he proposed this livestream idea to begin with. Community Links: https://theurlist.com/burke-learns-blazor Featuring: Jon Galloway, Burke Holland #blazor #aspnet #vscodeOn .NET Live - Building web apps with Blazor and Spark.NET
Spark.NET is a web application framework that embraces ASP.NET and Entity Framework fundamentals while extending their capabilities and adding new ones, enabling developers to build feature-rich web applications quickly. In this week's episode, community member Weston Walker shows us how to get started with Blazor in this open-source framework! Featuring: Weston Walker (@wes_walke), Cam Soper (@CamSoper), David Pine (@davidpine7), Maira Wenzel #BlazorASP.NET Community Standup - Implementation of the .NET WebAssembly Jiterpreter
A technical talk by Katelyn Gadd about the design and implementation of the .NET WebAssembly Jiterpreter. Community Links: https://www.theurlist.com/blazor-standup-2023-07 Featuring: Katelyn Gadd, Jon Galloway (@jongalloway), Mackinnon Buck (@MackinnonBuck) #Blazor #WebAssembly #dotnetBurke Learns Blazor - Can we finish up AddLink this time? MAYBE!
We got a good start on AddLink last time, but didn't quite finish it. Can we do it this time? And how will Jon react when Burke rejects his pull request? Plus, Burke shows off his LEGO collection... including the Duplo. Community Links: https://www.theurlist.com/burke-learns-blazor Featuring: Burke Holland (@BurkeHolland), Jon Galloway (@JonGalloway) #blazor #staticwebapps #azurefunctionsASP.NET Community Standup | Implementation of the .NET WebAssembly Jiterpreter
A technical talk by Katelyn Gadd about the design and implementation of the .NET WebAssembly Jiterpreter. Community Links: https://www.theurlist.com/blazor-standup-2023-07 Featuring: Katelyn Gadd, Jon Galloway (@jongalloway), Mackinnon Buck (@MackinnonBuck) #Blazor #WebAssembly #dotnetBurke Learns Blazor - Let's build the API!
This summer, Burke and Jon are porting theurlist.com to Blazor - a real world JavaScript application written in Vue.js. Join them each week as they use Visual Studio, Visual Studio Code and GitHub Copilot to rebuild this app and try to tackle every frontend issue you might encounter along the way. Now that we've got a working Blazor Static Web App with GitHub CI / CD and Azure deployment figured out, it's time to get that API going. Plus, Burke reveals how he conquered his fear of clowns. Community Links: https://www.theurlist.com/burke-learns-blazor Featuring: Jon Galloway (@jongalloway), Burke Holland (@burkeholland) #Beginner #Blazor #WebASP.NET Community Standup - Featured community project: Blazor Studio
Join us as we chat about Blazor Studio, this month's featured Blazor community project. Community Links: https://aka.ms/AAl2w0l Featuring: Hunter Freeman, Jon Galloway (@jongalloway), Mackinnon Buck (@MackinnonBuck) #Blazor #dotnet #aspnetcore
