ASP.Net Web API and Identity 2.0 - Things to Know About

Microsoft recently converted .Net into a cross-platform programming platform by making it available to Linux and Mac OS users. As an open source web development platform, ASP.Net now can be used by enterprises and programmers regardless of their choice of operating system. Microsoft further frequently adds new features and capabilities to ASP.Net to help developers in rapidly creating applications for a wide range of devices.

Microsoft has designed ASP.Net web API as a dynamic framework for creating web APIs by availing the advantages of .Net Framework. Likewise, ASP.Net Identity can be used as a minimal API to manage the security and authentication public-facing ASP.Net applications. These APIs make it easier for web developers to enhance the performance and security of websites and internet applications created using ASP.Net.

ASP.Net Web API

As a simple and flexible protocol, Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) serves up a wide variety of web pages. It is also used widely for collaborative and distributed information systems. But HTTP can also be used as an effective platform to create APIs that expose a various data and services. As each operating system, web browser and other platforms have HTTP libraries, the services and data can be conveyed to a wide range of clients by using the APIs developed on it.

Microsoft has designed ASP.NET Web development API as a Framework to create build different web APIs by leveraging the power of .Net Framework. The programmers can use Web API to create RESTful applications on top of .Net Framework. The Web API further makes it easier for programmers to create HTTP services that can be conveyed to desktop applications, web browsers, mobile devices and other clients.

Microsoft has packaged the Web API with ASP.Net MVC by default. However, the programmers still have option to use the Web API in traditional ASP.Net Web Forms applications. The developers can further use the ASP.Net Web API to create web services without using SOAP. The API allows them to create HTTP services on top of the existing WCF message pipeline. Microsoft has already shared a list of Web APIs to illustrate their different features.

ASP.Net Identity 2.0

As the name indicates ASP.Net Identity 2.0 is the updated version of ASP.NET membership system. Microsoft introduced the membership system with ASP.Net 2.0 in 2005. With passage of time, ASP.Net Identify became ineffective in handing complex authentication and authorization of modern websites and internet applications. So Microsoft released the version 2.0 of ASP.NET membership system with several new features and improvements.

The final version of ASP.NET Identity 2.0 was released by Microsoft in March 2014. It came with a set of new features including two-factor authentication support, account lockout, account confirmation and security stamp. Nowadays, users access websites and web applications on a various devices. But often their choice password fails to keep the user accounts secure and inaccessible. The two-factor authentication supported by the ASP.Net Identity 2.0 will provide additional security to the user accounts by sending codes through emails or SMS. Each time the user wants to access his account, he has to provide the code along with login id and password.

The programmers can optimize the security of applications by blocking the user account temporarily whenever a user enters password or two-factor codes incorrectly. The Identity 2.0 allows developers to configure the number of login attempts or time span for blocking the user account. At the same time, the user will also have option to reset the password in case he has forgotten the same. Each time a user changes his password, the ASP.Net Identity will remove all associated login by regenerating security stamps.

Both ASP.Net Web API 2 and Identity 2.0 can be used to optimize the performance and security of a wide range of websites and web applications. As ASP.Net has become a cross-platform web development platform, these APIs can now be availed by developers using Windows, Linux and Mac.

We provide ASP.NET application development services. If you would like to hire expert ASP.NET developers for your development needs, please contact us at Mindfire Solutions.

Top ASP.Net Controls for Software Developers

Microsoft has designed ASP.Net as a server-side web application development that helps programmers in rapidly create websites, web applications and web services. Since its initial release in 2002, ASP.Net is used widely by developers to create a wide range of dynamic internet applications. As the framework is built on Common Language Runtime (CLR), the programmers have option to write code in a variety of languages supported by .Net including C# and VB.Net.

At the same time, they also have option to use several ASP.Net controls to accomplish complex tasks without writing longer lines of code. Along with using the HTML server controls, web server controls, and validation server controls, ASP.Net programmers also have option to create user controls and custom control. They can further use the properties and attributes of these ASP.Net controls to curtail the overall development time and efforts.

Widely Used ASP.Net Controls for Web Programmers

HTML Server Controls

As the name indicates, these controls are HTML tags identifies and understood by the web server. The ASP.Net files treat HTML elements as text by default. But the developers can make the HTML elements programmable by adding the runat=”server” attribute. Also, they have to add the id attribute to make the web server identify the HTML server controls at run time. However, it is also important to place all HTML server controls a <form> tag with the runat=”server” attribute. The attribute will ensure that the form needs to be processed at the server, while allowing the server script to access the enclosed HTML server controls.

Web Server Controls

The web server controls can be defined as special ASP.Net tags identifies and understood by the server. The web server controls are created on the web server. Like HTML server controls, web server controls also need the runat=”server” attribute. But the server controls can be used to represent more complex elements without being mapped to any existing HTML elements. The programmers can follow a simple syntax to create different ASP.Net web server controls.

Validation Server Controls

The web programmers also have option to use a variety of ASP.Net validation server controls for validating user input. But each validation controls is designed to validate the user input against a specific value or range of values. An error message will be displayed to the end user, if his information does not pass the validation. The page validation will occur by default whenever the user clicks on a Button, LinkButton or ImageButton. The programmers, however, have option to disable the validation by setting the CauseValidation property of the button control as false.

Data Bound Controls

Most websites and web applications have present a wide range of data to the users. The applications are further required to present and retrieve data from the backend source based on user’s criterions. The ASP.Net data bound controls are designed to facilitate retrieval and presentation of data from the backend source for dynamic web applications. ASP.Net 2.0 has further effectuated the data presentation by adding the declarative syntax and BaseDataBoundControl class to the data-bound controls. The web programmers have option to derive several data-bound classes from the DataBoundControl, including List controls, GridView, FormView, DetailsView and AdRotator. Likewise, they can derive Menu, TreeView and SiteMapPath classes from the HierarchicalDataBoundControl class. Thus, the programmers have option to make the data presentation more engaging by using the right data bound control.

Web Parts Controls

The ASP.Net web parts controls are designed specifically to enable end users to modify the website’s content, behavior and appearance directly from a web browser. Whenever a use changes the web pages or controls, the settings will be stored for future. Thus, the overall look and feel of the web page can be personalized for the user during his future visits. The web programmers have option to use several web parts controls to allow users to personalize the page layout or page content. Likewise, the authorized users can be allowed to modify, manage or personalize the site-level settings.

Microsoft aims to re-implement, ASP.Net as a cross-platform and modular web development framework that runs on the open-source .NET Compiler Platform. The project titled “ASP.Net vNext” will make it easier for programmers to use these ASP.Net controls to create applications that run smoothly on a wide range of devices. You can get in touch with a custom .Net development company who can help you develop web apps that are stable, scalable and secure.

We provide .Net development services. If you would like to hire certified .net developers for your development needs, please contact us at Mindfire Solutions.

Amazon Web Services with .Net - What Should We Know?

The Amazon Web Services (AWS) can be defined as a single package that can be downloaded. It comes up with VSP or Visual Studio Templates, the AWS.NET library, code samples of C#, and last but not the least, documentation. The AWS.NET Software Development Kit (SDK) is designed to make the life the Windows developers much easier, when it comes to building .NET applications that offer economical, scalable, as well as trustworthy infrastructure services like Amazon Simple Storage Service or Amazon S3, Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud or EC2, SimpleDB and the likes.

The SDK of the package is also designed to support development on any type of platform, which is compatible with .NET Framework 3.5 or the more advanced versions. It also helps to develop as well design applications with the SDK, by using 2010 or later versions of Visual Studio. In order to make the process of development much simpler, AWS also provides a Visual Studio AWS toolkit, a plug-in for Visual Studio that comes up with the Software Development Kit for.NET, so that the developers do not have to separately install the SDK. The plug in also includes project templates for C# for web applications as well as consoles, support for taking care of the account credentials with optimal safety or security, a AWS Explorer, which can be used for managing the AWS resources from the Visual Studio.

The package is designed in such a way that when it comes to running MS SQL server, Exchange, SharePoint or applications of custom .NET, the customers or in other words, the end users will be able to rely on its trustworthiness and absolutely secured global infrastructure for running any type of MS Windows applications in the cloud without any hiccup whatsoever.

It helps the customers to get rid of the cost as well as the complexity of purchasing servers or managing the data centers and still avail more resources for putting emphasis on various solutions, as they provide value addition to the end users.

AWS also offers AMIs or preconfigured Machine Images. These AMIs help customers to switch on and run fully supported Window Server Virtual Machines within minutes. Then again, there are multiple versions of the software, which may be or may not be with SL Server. With the use an AMI, the MS software licensing can be taken care of by AWS though the expense will get added to the monthly bill.

It also helps in designing and coding, building and testing, running and debugging. The AWS Windows PowerShell tools help the Windows developers as well as the administrators to manage their AWS related services from the Windows PowerShell scripting setting.

The framework also helps to improve connection, by offering the developers the option of joining the community developers, who are into the development of secured, trustworthy, and scalable operations on the AWS cloud. It also helps in establishing connections that shift the process of development into a faster lane.

It also comes up with a streamlined manual that provides in depth knowledge of the package, provided by seasoned and experienced experts. This manual provides guidance on making the most of the AWS, along with various ways to find solutions to the common and not-so-common challenges. It supports Windows, Windows Phone Apps and connects the Windows Store and the Windows Phone Apps to Amazon Web Services cloud. It also comes up with libraries, which support Windows servers, tablets, desktops, various phones, or mobile environments.

On the other hand, the OPF or Object Persistence Framework negates the requirement for converting application-level data along with the customized middleware solutions through the process of mapping the .NET classes to the Amazon Database items for storing or retrieving the data. It comes up with a DynamoDB Session State Provider that is designed to remove various session state scales hiccups or bottlenecks by storing the state of ASP.NET sessions in DynamoDB. You can get in touch with a custom .Net development company who can help you develop web apps that are stable, scalable and secure.

We provide .Net development services. If you would like to hire ASP.NET developers for your development needs, please contact us at Mindfire Solutions.

Why is AngularJS and ASP.Net Considered a Good Combination?

Before discussing the efficacy of the combination of AngularJS and ASP.Net, let us at first discuss about them individually and then shift our discussion to the combination of the two.

AngularJS

Web application development is a complex process and in order to make the process trifle easier, a number of frameworks have been operational of late. Some of these applications have tasted success, while some others have not. AngularJS is one such application that has been quite successful. It is simple, yet effective, especially when it comes to providing a declaration markup, in which the intent of the user is expressed through the custom syntax of HTLM and the customary data bindings. It is also compatible with dependency injection, mostly because AngularJS supports robust testing. AngularJS employs‘$http’ for the purpose of loading files, with the use of its very own jQuery version, which is much lightweight. In case a project has a jQuery copy already installed, Angular will opt for that version and use it so as to be consistent, leading to the smooth as well as seamless execution of the project.

ASP.Net

ASP.Net on the other hand is a stout as well as extremely mature platform that helps in designing and developing enterprise-level web applications. It is exceptionally mature in terms of .Net runtime. Besides, it can easily be comprehended. This is what makes it so popular amongst the developers. The framework provides a fairly healthy as well as user-friendly abstraction over various web based protocols that include the web APIs. It also provides a healthy software testing story.

Mixing ASP.Net with AngularJS

Now let us come to the discussion that involves the efficacy of using both these two frameworks together, on a single product. It is fairly easy to use both Dot Net as well as AngularJS, by simply using ASP.Net MVC4 template, and then following it up by importing angularjs nugget. The process involves a lot of technicalities though mentioning them at this point does not make any sense, given the topic of the discussion.

However, one thing that needs to be mentioned is that there is all the probability of running into the technical details of dealing with AngularJS routing, in order to partially display the HTML pages, which remain embedded in the server itself.

It is pretty simple as well as fairly advantageous to mix these two technologies as they both are compatible to MVC framework with the only difference being, while one is a client side validation (AngularJS) the other favors server side validation (ASP.Net) though practically speaking there is no such “one-choice-fits-all” solution.

Experts are of the opinion that usage of AngularJS usage cannot be regarded as a unique approach. If the users opt only to utilize the functionality of the two frameworks simultaneously that is not only a possibility, but that helps in creating the “apps” directory under the Scripts folder for the project in question, and that in turn goes a long way in helping to organize the files involved in the project, thereby increasing the maneuverability by many folds.

The combination or collaboration of ASP.Net Web API (which is a server-side technology) and AngularJS (which is a client side framework), works on .NET web stack and is widely acceptable by the developers. Since, the majority of application logic has moved on to the browser from the back end. This at the end of the day results in a much richer and much superior client interface, specially for the single page apps, which need an application structure that is very different from the ones needed by the traditional websites. For making the Angular.JS and Dot Net combination work along with MVC, it is imperative to utilize the HTML5 local as well as the locations of the session storage. You can get in touch with a custom .net development company who can help you develop web apps that are stable, scalable and secure.

We provide .net development services. If you would like to hire dot net devs for your development needs, please contact us at Mindfire Solutions.