Top #5 .NET Trends that Every Developer should Know

We start with basic introductions,

What is .NET Framework?

.NET is a software framework that is designed and developed by Microsoft. The very first version of the .NET framework was released back in 2002. Since then, it has evolved a lot and has a lot of newer features added over time.

Where to use .NET Framework?

.NET is used to develop form-based applications, web-based applications, and services. It has a virtual machine capable of compiling and executing codes written in other languages like C#,VB.Net, and more.

• .NET is a valuable and effective tool for coders and developers to build dynamic, reliable and feature-rich webpages, web apps, web development, and smartphone applications.
• This is a great solution for businesses that are seeking to start their websites with .NET. .NET helps you develop powerful apps, complex websites and deliver as per their business needs thanks to its vast array of tools and libraries.

What is Current Web Development Scenario?

• There is fierce competition between the different competitors in the market as the organizations face new challenges and want innovative solutions to stay ahead of their competitors. By adopting the cutting-edge and latest technology, they wish to keep their edge or challenge big players in their sector.
• Microsoft understood the needs of the industry and developed one of the most comprehensive and efficient solutions in order to develop business applications in a quick and easy way.
• This is an exciting time to be a .NET developer. There are many speculations. The future of .NET is about to change this year 2020. Even if you are not a .NET developer, you’d still be interested in Microsoft’s announcement of the all-new .NET 5.

Evolution of .NET Framework

• There is news everywhere that Microsoft is making some bold steps this year with the future of .NET. Some big changes are being anticipated.

Just last year 2019, the announcement was made that Microsoft framework technologies are merging all the different .NET products like the .NET framework and .NET Core into one single .NET.

• The company has already announced the last release of .NET core 3.1 that is going to be the last separate version. It will be merged with .NET after this release.
• Until now, .NET is being used for the development of web applications, windows servers, and Microsoft azure apps. But with the merging of all the products, there may be a possibility of more opportunities. We will have to wait for the release.

Let’s look at the trends that are going to rule in this year 2020.

.NET Popularity

• .NET Core is one of the most widely used development frameworks by businesses.

.NET Core framework includes ASP.NET, C#, ML.NET, AOT, GC, Runtime, JIT, Base Class Library, Entity Framework, WinForms, VB.NET, F#, WPF, and Xamarin.

• DotNET Core 3.1 is lighter and faster, which makes it best for cloud installations, where speed is important.
• It has the feature of fast JSON reading and writing. It also has support for HTTP/2, making it much easier for developers to port desktop applications into .NET Core.
• However, .NET Core 3.1 is not adopting more features of the .NET Framework anymore. This is because of the change in the .NET product lineup.

DID YOU KNOW: .NET Core was rated as the most loved framework in the Stack Overflow 2019 developer survey.

• This title is awarded for platforms that many developers are currently using, and they want to continue to keep using it.
• This is because .NET Core is open-source and cross-platform and has a large developer community.

Top #5 .NET Framework Trends in 2020

1. .NET 5 — The much anticipated version
2. Azure Cloud Development
3. Blazor — Open Source .NET Framework
4. ML.NET 1.4
5. Security with .NET Framework

.NET 5 — The much anticipated version

• The future of .NET is closely watched upon as the new .NET 5 is the new talk of the developer town. It is one of the best frameworks that provide developers the option to migrate to Blazor and other alternatives such as React, Angular, and Vue SPA frameworks.
• Many other technology stacks have adopted .NET 5, including Winforms, UWP, and WPF due to its popularity owing to many of its features. Though, it is pertinent to mention that these technologies support only those desktop applications that run on the Windows platform.

This is what .NET 5 is offering us, according to speculations and reports:

1. ASP.NET Core MVC unifies ASP.NET MVC and Web API.
2. JsonDocument: Json.net is replaced from System.Text.Json.JsonDocument by Json document library.
3. EF Core: Entity Framework Core is going to replace EF 6.
4. ASP.NET Core is going to replace ASP.NET.
5. MSIX: A new packing tool that is meant for desktop application and replaces the MSI package installer.

Azure Cloud

• Cloud computing has been trending in the digital world because it provides huge storage capacity and reduced stress on the client-side or local processing systems. Copious amounts of data can be accessed and stored anytime and from anywhere from the world.
• Cloud also makes it easier for businesses to scale as there is no local set-up requirement and all the up-gradation of memory, as well as processing, can be just bought from the cloud. Cloud needs no maintenance from the client-side and allows flexibility and versatility to businesses.
• With an increasing trend of the cloud for businesses, Microsoft developed a cloud storage application sometime back named Azure.
• Azure is now hugely popular. It provides big data and complete data analytics solutions to businesses. With the help of Azure, now the organizations that are using the ASP.NET framework based applications can easily deploy on the cloud with the help of ASP.NET MVC front-end.

Blazor Framework

Blazor is a single-page app development framework for building interactive client-side Web apps with .NET. Blazor works in all modern web browsers, as well as mobile browsers.

• You write C# in the case of JavaScript, and you can use almost all of the .NET open source libraries. The .NET code runs in the context of WebAssembly. You’re running “a .NET” inside your browser on the client-side without any plugins, Silverlight, Java, or Flash.

Blazor framework is free, open-source, and one of the most popular frameworks to build amazing web apps using C#, Razor, and HTML. It allows developers to create interactive user-Interfaces with the help of C#.

Related Helpful Article: Blazor Framework: Revolution in .NET Core Development

• It makes it easy for developers to share libraries as well as codes because C# is used to write the code, both at the client as well as the server-side. Blazor doesn’t need any additional plugins or add-ons.
• With WebAssembly, Blazor runs directly on any browser with only client-side C# code or run it server-side. This makes it more interesting how .NET developers are going to write for the web from now.

Features of Blazor:

1. Routing
2. Dependency injection
3. JavaScript interop
4. Layouts
5. Forms and validation
6. Server-side rendering

ML.NET 1.4

This is a new update from Microsoft — ML.NET 1.4. It allows you to adopt new and exciting features into your .NET applications with the help of machine learning.

What is ML.NET?

ML.NET is a cross-platform and open-source machine learning framework that consists of a Model Builder and CLI (Command-Line Interface).

This makes it easy to develop custom Machine Learning (ML) models with Automated Machine Learning (AutoML).

ML.NET brings Machine Learning analytics and prediction capabilities to .NET developers. The framework has been built upon .NET Core and .NET Standard. Thus inheriting the ability to run on Linux, Windows, as well as macOS.

• Although the ML.NET framework is relatively new, its history began in 2002 as a Microsoft Research project. It was named TMSN (text mining search and navigation). It was intended for use only internally for Microsoft products. Its name was later changed to TLC (the learning code) in 2011. ML.NET is derived from the TLC library.
• Developers can easily train a Machine Learning Model or use an existing Model developed by a 3rd party. This means that the developers don’t need a background in Data Science in order to use the framework.

Related Resource: Expert Guide to Hire Best ASP.NET Developers

Journey of ML.NET Framework

• The first stable release of the ML.NET was declared at Build (developer conference) in 2019. It included the adoption of a Model Builder tool and AutoML (Automated Machine Learning). Build 1.3.1 came with a preview of Deep Neural Network training using C# for TensorFlow and a Database loader that enabled model training on the databases. The 1.4.0 added
• This ML.NET 1.4 enables scoring on ARM processors and image classification based on DNN (Deep Neural Network) retraining with GPU support (GA release) for Windows and Linux.

Here are some models with GPU support

• ML.NET
• NVIDIA-CUDA
• TensorFlow

Security

• If you are contemplating developing a software or an application for your enterprise, you need to look at its security features. Especially when you are handling payment or sensitive user data. With the rise in awareness about privacy, it is important for platforms to support high privacy and data protection modules on which apps can be built.
• With .NET, you can rest assured about security. .NET provides features such as validations, code checks, encryptions, and code access security. It has an MVC architecture that is inclined towards SoC and supports secure and scalable web and phone applications.

Conclusion

• With its many new features in every new release in the market, .NET has been hugely popular in the world of application framework development. It has managed to emerge as the face of numerous web applications.
• Irrespective of the fact that if you are planning to develop an interactive mobile app, dynamic websites or business intelligence applications, .NET has all the essential features required for making your apps more secure, reliable, and scalable.

So, if you are looking for a web frameworks development company for your application development, then there are many choices available to you.

A good ASP.NET development company provides your business with reliable and robust web applications at affordable prices.

We’re always happy to assist you with our expert .NET developers for a customized .NET web development for your business needs.