High Performing ASP.Net Application Development - Best Practices

As a server-side web application development framework, ASP.Net is used widely for creating dynamic and high performing websites, internet applications and web services. Microsoft has further designed the framework to allow programmers to write code in several .NET supported languages including C# and VB.Net. You can always use ASP.Net to reap a number of benefits including less coding, rapid development, enhanced security and easy maintenance. At the same time, you can also use a set of rich server and client-side controls to accomplish a variety of tasks without writing longer lines of code, while enjoying complete control over the application. However, it is also important to understand and use some best practices for high performing ASP.Net application development.

5 ASP.Net Best Practices for Developing High-Performing Web Applications

1) Use HTML and CSS instead of Control Adapters

Since the release of .Net 2.0, developers use control adapter to render customized code according to individual devices and environments. But you have option to render customized code by using HTML and CSS. You can render customized code by using CSS media queries and standards-compliant HTML to improve the application’s performance. It is also recommended to use HTML and CSS instead of control adapters. Many developers even prefer converting the existing control adapters into HTML and CSS to improve the application’s performance.

2) Use CSS Stylesheets instead of Controls’ Style Properties

ASP.Net web server controls allow programmers to change their look and feel by using in-line style properties. However, they also have option to set the formatting value of these web controls through CSS stylesheets. For instance, instead of using the forecolor property of a web control, you can use CSS stylesheets to set the color of the control. The use of CSS stylesheets will help you in avoiding setting values for individual web controls. Also, you can use centralize style values to easily change the look and feel of these web controls.

3) Avoid Using Page and Control Callback Methods

Often programmers are required to update specific part of a web page without refreshing the page completely. It is a common practice among ASP.Net developers to accomplish partial page update through Page and Control callback methods. But programmers do not realized that use of these Page and Control callback methods affect the application’s performance by creating issues related to routing and friendly URLs. You can always improve the performance of your ASP.Net application by disabling the callback methods. The partial page updates can be performed more efficiently by using AJAX, MVC, SignalR, Web API or UpdatePanel.

4) Use Dynamic Browser Capability Detection Feature

The popularity of a website or internet application, nowadays, depends on its compatibility with various devices and web browsers. While using earlier versions of ASP.Net, programmers were required to detect supported features for each browser by storing these supported features in XML files. But the static method of detecting the supported features for individual browser can have a huge impact on the performance and popularity of the application. So you must detect the supported features for each browser dynamically by using specially designed frameworks like Modernizr. The framework will use a specific property or method against the browser to detect if the browser produces the desire results.

5) Enable Auto Generated Client Side Validations

Most web programmers rely on the request validation feature of ASP.Net to prevent perceived threat by identifying and stopping bad requests. But you must remember that the request validation feature is not effective in fully combating cross site scripting attacks. To eliminate the threat of cross site scripting attacks, it is important to validate all user input, and encode the output. ASP.NET MVC 2 further allows developers to keep the client-side and server-side validations separate. You can simply enable the client side validations to protect the website from cross site scripting attacks by adding client side validation.

On the whole, you have to learn several ASP.Net best practices to rapidly develop high performing websites and web applications. Also, you must avail latest version of ASP.Net to avail several new features and capabilities. These features will help you in improving the performance of the ASP.Net applications without putting any extra time and effort. You can get in touch with a custom .net development company who can help you develop web apps that are stable, scalable and secure.

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Improve website performance, scalability and save money - ASP.Net

ASP.Net, a server-side script, helps in delivering database driven and dynamic content by applying minimal effort to the clients. But this is not the only reason why it is used so widely by the developers. There are several techniques and tools which can be conveniently employed to improve the performance and scalability of the website. At the same time, ASP.Net is also a cost effective method to achieve these ends.

Measurement of time

In order to optimize the performance of any website it is important to find out where maximum time is spent on a website. A free tool called Fiddler can be used to achieve this end. It has a timeline feature that stores all the requests made on a website and how long each of them took. If you want you can also save an archive before further performance improvements can be added. Besides this, there is another tool, Keynote, which can also be used to measure the performance of a website. There are agents throughout the Internet which collect performance report at various intervals of the day. These reports can then be compared with the other primary Internet retailers to review the performance.

Http Compression

This is another way to improve the performance of the website. ASP.Net includes this technique to reduce bandwidth usage as well as increase the pace of loading for the webpages. This concept is quite similar to the way one generally compresses files on the system to save spaces. The IIS web servers are capable to compress both dynamic and static files by using the HTTP Compression component that is found in the web.config file. In this regard, it is important to note that smaller files are delivered at a greater speed on the Internet.

Minimizing and Consolidating

Minification is a process through which the file sizes can be reduced significantly. The contemporary websites mostly have various kinds of JavaScript and CSS files. Browsers generally have limited connections to the web server. As a result, the time taken to download all the files is quite long. Tools, like, YUI Compressor and AjaxMinifier help in minimizing. These files can then be also consolidated into a single file (or couple of files). This way the browser just needs to make a single request to the web server to get them.

Use of Browser Cache

This factor hugely improves the performance of a website. There are local cache locations in the browsers where copies of CSS, JavaScript and image files are stored from various websites. These default files stored here cannot be used next time a browser visits the website. When the browser downloads the same page again, he will find it already existing but cannot decide whether the information is updated. Hence, the web server must be contacted every time for a file and check whether the file is fresh. This takes a long time. To solve this issue the option is to take the help of expirations.

Data cache

ASP.Net is known for providing Cache objects that are impressive for storing data on the web server. It checks the database just once in a day and keeps the results appearing the Cache object. This enables the webpages to load faster and they also do not require waiting for the database response any longer.

Use CSS for indexing

This is another effective way for decreasing the number of requests required to get a page. This can be achieved by amalgamating a number of small image files into a larger file and ten make use of the CSS to index the larger image. As a result the individual images required for a webpage can be seen. There are several tools which can perform this task. They also the CSS styles needed to access every image.

Tools to test performance

Google Page speed and YSlow are tools which can be utilized to derive recommendations for improving the performance. These tools are quite effective in suggesting exactly which alterations should be made to ensure success.

Cost effective ownership

This is another USP of ASP.Net although it affects the owner of the website instead of the developer. Finding dot Net developers is not a big deal. The customers mostly opt for ASP.NET as it is cheaper and support for it is also easily available.

Owing to such advantages the ASP.Net open source server side framework is preferred to develop web applications when compared to the other frameworks. You can get in touch with a custom asp.net web development company who can help you develop web apps that are stable, scalable and secure.

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Is ASP.Net Shopping Cart a Good Option for e-Commerce Sites?

Both new and existing businesses, nowadays, prefer selling their products and services online. But each business has to consider several factors while creating a web store. Along with deciding the process to fulfill the orders and a payment gateway, the business must choose the right shopping cart solution. While comparing the shopping cart solution, it is important to focus on some key features, along with the user experience. A constant increase is also noted in the number of ecommerce platforms using shopping cart solutions based on ASP.Net. It is also a good idea to understand some of the major benefits of using an ASP.Net shopping cart.

Understanding Major Benefits of ASP.Net Shopping Cart Software

Easy to Use

You have option to choose from several shopping cart solutions written in ASP.Net. Most shopping carts are designed with simple and easy-to-use features. Further, these software applications can be integrated smoothly with ecommerce applications. So you can easily pick the right solution that will make your web store popular by delivering the ultimate shopping experience.

Flexible Product Management

You must choose a shopping cart solution that allows customers to add, edit and delete items in a quick and flexible way. Many web store owners rely on ASP.Net shopping cart solutions to enable customers to add, edit and delete items at their own pace before moving to the billing process. These solutions are designed with robust features to make product management quick and convenient.

Currency Converter

The ecommerce application will enable you to offer your products to customers residing in different regions. So the customers will want to know the prices of the products in their local currencies. The ASP.Net shopping cart solutions are designed with currency converters. So the customer can easily check the total amount due in local currency. The feature will encourage customers to visit your web store at regular intervals.

Integrated with Multiple Payment Gateway Systems

To deliver the ultimate shopping experience, you must allow customers to pay for the items in a number of ways. For instance, the customers must have option to pay through their credit cards, online bank accounts, Google Pay or PayPal. The ASP.Net shopping cart solutions work smoothly with several payment gateway systems. So the software will allow your customers to pay for the products without any inconvenience.

Safe Shopping Experience

The constant increase in online frauds is having a huge impact on the popularity of ecommerce. While buying products from a new web store, often customers hesitate to share sensitive information like credit card details. But the shopping cart solutions written in ASP.Net can avail the security features of .Net platform. The solution can further provide user authentication and password protection. So the ASP.Net shopping cart will contribute towards increasing your ecommerce site’s reputation and credibility.

Easy to Manage and Customize the Sites

Unlike conventional websites, an ecommerce site has to be updated and customized at frequent intervals. In addition to adding new products and modifying existing products, the seller also has to offer discounts and deals. The ASP.Net shopping cart makes it easier for you to update and customize the ecommerce site. It includes a strong administration panel to facilitate site management without affecting the shopping experience of users.

Option to Save Customer Data

There are several customers who leave the web store after checking the available products. Normally, these people add items to the shopping cart, but leave before moving to the billing process. The ASP.Net shopping carts are designed with features to track customer data, and save the information to a database. So it becomes easier for you to seduce such customers by offering attractive discounts and offers.

You also have option to choose from a wide range of ASP.Net shopping cart solutions for your ecommerce site. Some of these ASP.Net shopping carts are open source and free, whereas others are commercial. Also, you can consider creating a custom-made shopping cart for your ecommerce application using ASP.Net. You can get in touch with a custom .net development company who can help you develop web apps that are stable, scalable and secure.

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How to Get the Best out of Enterprise Portals using ASP.Net

In the digital age, each business requires a comprehensive and secure enterprise portal. The custom enterprise application will help a business in offering its products or services to the most relevant customer. At the same time, it will help the company to share fresh and updated information with website visitors by managing the content in a decentralized way.

Many businesses prefer building enterprise portals with ASP.NET to facilitate communication between the site components and data. ASP.NET further makes it easier for business to customize the look and feel of their website to deliver personalized user experience. However, the ASP.NET developers still have to keep in mind several best practices to get the best out of enterprise portals.

Tips to Get the Best out of Enterprise Portals using ASP.NET

Use CSS Media Queries

While creating an enterprise portal, ASP.NET programmers must use CSS media queries and standards-compliant HTML for adaptive rendering instead of control adapters. As a conventional technique, control adapters were used by developers to render customized presentation code for different devices and environment. But the programmers now have option to render customized presentation code using HTML and CSS. When the presentation code is rendered with HTML and CSS, the enterprise portal becomes accessible across various web browsers and devices.

Set Formatting Values in CSS Stylesheets

Many ASP.NET developers prefer values in the control markup. The developers still have option to set formatting values in CSS stylesheets. Also, the properties of ASP.NET web server controls can be used to set in-line style properties. But it is always a great idea to set formatting values in CSS stylesheets. The CSS stylesheets will make it easier for developers to maintain centralize style values, without setting the values throughout the enterprise application.

Avoid Partial Page Update with Page and Control Callbacks

Often certain parts of a web page need to be updated without refreshing the entire page. Conventionally, ASP.NET developers were updating web pages partially through the page and control callbacks. But the partial page update can now be accomplished using AJAX, Web API, SignalR, UpdatePanel or MVC action methods. These options make it easier for programmers to optimize the performance of enterprise portal by overcoming the limitations of callback methods like issues with routing and friendly URLs.

Detect Browser Capabilities Dynamically

The users have options to access the enterprise portal on a wide range of web browsers. So programmers must detect the browser capabilities in a dynamic way. Earlier, the supported features for individual web browsers were stored in an XML file. So the enterprise portals lack the ability to detect browser capabilities dynamically. But developers now have option to use feature detection frameworks like Modernizr to detect the support features of each browser. Along with identifying the support features of a web browser, the frameworks can further check if the browser produces the desired results.

Validate All User Input and Encode Output

ASP.NET programmers often inspect user requests through a feature called request validation. Despite being effective in stopping the request if any received threat is detected, request validation fails to secure enterprise portals from cross-site scripting attacks. So the developers must optimize the security of the enterprise application by validating all user input and encoding the output. They can use regular expressions to validate the input submitted by users. Likewise, the programmers can use .NET classes to validate user input in more complicated circumstances.

Use Cookies for Authentication

Many ASP.NET programmers prefer from authentication techniques that do not use cookies. But sensitive authentication information cannot be transferred secured in a query string. So cookies must be used to make the enterprise portal more secure. Along with storing sensitive authentication information through cookies, the programmers can further enhance the portal’s security by using SSL for the cookie.

A business can further reap several benefits by hiring the right ASP.NET programmers to develop the enterprise portal. A skilled and experienced developer will optimize the look, feel and performance of the enterprise portal by delivering end-to-end services. You can get in touch with a custom .net development company who can help you develop web apps that are stable, scalable and secure.

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Why should businesses outsource ASP.Net services?

ASP.Net by Microsoft is a much preferred language that is used to build effective application development. This noteworthy programming language is highly reliable as well as secure due to its fast application building that is full of advanced features. Programmers get access to reliable customer support, updated documentation, secured applications as well as innovative features. There are several benefits associated with adopting this platform; however, the entire process might turn out to be tricky as well as cumbersome. To avoid hassles, most companies look to outsource their ASP.Net development service requirements to professional companies. Outsourcing holds its own fair share of advantages which have prompted the businesses to rely on them.

Quick implementation of tools- It is the job of the professional companies to keep themselves updated and in sync with the times. As a consequence they are well-versed with the several tools that come with the framework; this makes the entire work easy to do and complete. In case any new version of the tools arrives in the market, they are the first ones to know about the tricks as well methods that can help in achieving the best possible results. They know all the shortcuts that can help in easy incorporation of specific features, making the entire process easy and methodical.

Increase of efficiency- When the job is outsourced to another professional it is but obvious that they are highly trained as well as experienced. Thus, they bring both knowledge and experience to the table which aid in making the development process smoother as well as a more error-free one. Their experience will help them solve all kinds of problems efficiently, that too within a very short period of time. In comparison, if the businesses attempt to undertake the entire thing by themselves then the whole process may turn out to be time-consuming; moreover, there is no assurance that the ultimate result will be absolutely perfect since for them this will be a trial and error thing.

Cost effective- When the services are outsourced to the professionals, there is no need for the businesses to invest a huge amount of time and money for the infrastructure and training on the technology. The outsourcing partner takes care of the infrastructure as well as other related aspects. There is no need for the business to take on headaches, thinking whether the job will be standard or not; the outsourcing company will take care of all the aspects.

Refocusing on core areas- With the load of development off the shoulders, the brains behind the business can focus on other areas such as the core areas actually related to the products or services of the business. They can spend their energies on building their brand, invest in development as well as research so that better value added services are provided.

The time zone advantage- When the services are being outsourced to some other country in a completely different part of the world, it helps you take full advantage of all the 24 hours in a day due to the different time zones. So when it is night for you, your outsourcing partner can carry on your work for you. This leads to a great customer care service as well as they are assured of 24x7 services. During their working hours they can complete tasks and send them back to you for approval in your working hours. This leads to faster meeting of completion deadlines.

Ultimately, it all depends on the discretion of the business, whether or not they want to outsource their ASP.Net requirements. Nevertheless, with so many benefits associated with outsourcing it makes good sense to give in to the popular option. But before doing that, the businesses should conduct a conclusive background check along with gathering of information about their past projects to analyze whether they will be capable of handling the responsibility or not.

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Why is .Net considered helpful for robust app development?

Thanks to Microsoft, personal computers have become a common staple in the regular lives of all people. The various development platforms as well as software have brought on a technological revolution. ASP.NET framework is one of those creations that have managed to change the manner of software development. Application development has got a brand new approach through this which is a great server-side scripting tool. The amazing feature of .Net framework is that it is not just limited to ASP but developers have full freedom to use other programming languages as well. Some of the reasons for using .Net for robust app development are discussed here.

Decentralized components registration- When components are registered centrally, a lot of problems may arise which is reduced in .Net since the component registration is not done using Registry. Instead all information related to components is stored with the code, retrieving all the information directly from files during runtime. During instantiating of a new component, there is a scanning of application directory along with several predefined locations of the component. After locating the component, all related information is cached in case you need in the future. Through this the applications seldom interfere with each other.

Code execution side-by-side- The code can be executed side-by-side in .Net which helps in resolving of versioning problems. When multiple versions of some component is allowed to be installed as well as run simultaneously on one computer, an overwriting problem in shared component arises which can be solved by this feature. Thus there is no need for developers to look for backward compatibility since different versions of one shared component can be used by different applications. The dependencies between various software components and version can be specified by the developers.

Reduced marketing time- Through this framework existing applications, IT skills and developer skills can be leveraged by a business so that the infrastructure can be build faster. The runtime capabilities are deep which enables the transformation of existing apps into XML web services without the need of recompiling or rewriting.

Smooth application architecture- XML Web services act as native communication mechanism and agile app architecture is provided both externally as well as internally. This results in a simpler integration of applications across internet or intranet. Integration with applications, customers and even suppliers becomes easy.

Enhanced user experience- Individual users find the entire mobile computing experience to be enhanced and integrated. An assortment of computing hardware like smartphones, pocket PCs, laptops, etc can be used for data integration. Users can thus access information quite easily despite their location. Additionally, XCOPY can be used for installation of .Net applications. The files can be copied from a disk or remote web server on their computers for easy installation of desktop applications. In fact, the apps can be very easily replicated or removed; all you need to do is copy over the files or simply delete them.

Strong security- System administrators are given granular, powerful security control by this framework over apps which take a whole lot of load off the end users. Policies can be set by system administrators so that apps with particular origins or bearing Authenticode publisher signature or specific digital signature will be allowed access to some specific resources. Anything concerning system administrators that include environment variables, app directories, etc can be set with security policies. These security policies can be developed by using an easily usable MMC snap-in, .Net Framework Configuration Tool.

This next generation platform offers developers a lot of help for creation of web applications that are enterprise level. It offers a lot of tools that make the entire process of development of apps really simple; not to mention the security features that come in-built which does not need any additional concerns. In fact, it even has editor tool which might be used at a later stage of development, making it a much-loved framework to be used for robust app development.

You can get in touch with a asp.net application 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.

ASP.Net vNext - How Good is the Framework?

As a powerful and popular web development framework, ASP.Net does not require any introduction. Despite being much simpler and user-friendly for programmers, ASP.Net still requires system administrators to put extra time and effort to fix the configuration and version issues. Microsoft recently announced ASP.NET vNext, a major iteration to the .Net framework that is rebuilt from the scratch to overcome these issues.

The next version of ASP.Net enables developers to create, deploy and maintain cloud-based applications through a unified framework. According to ASP.Net, “The next version of ASP.NET (“ASP.NET vNext”) has been redesigned from the ground up. The goal is to create a lean and composable .NET stack for building modern cloud-based apps. You don't have to use Visual Studio to develop ASP.NET vNext applications. You can develop and run vNext on platforms that Visual Studio doesn't run on.”

Features that Make ASP.Net vNext Distinct and Innovative

Application Contains Own Version of .Net Framework

While creating web application with ASP.Net, developers have to address minor issues related to application packaging and deployment. But ASP.Net vNext comes with improved application deployment and packaging features that help programmers in avoiding installing the complete .Net framework on their servers. While using vNext, the .Net framework will be contained within the application. Along with other libraries, the framework will also be deployed in the bin directory. So each application will contain its own version of .Net framework to run smoothly on local servers and in cloud environment.

A Unified Web Development Framework

ASP.Net allows developers to choose from three distinct frameworks, i.e., Web Pages, Web API and MVC. But vNext comes with a unified framework called MVC 6. The new framework uses a set of abstractions to make it easier for programmers to develop, deploy and maintain their projects. So now web programmers can use MVC 6 to avail these capabilities of three ASP.Net frameworks. Further, MVC 6 is independent of System.Web. The feature makes the unified framework leaner enough to load fasters and consume less memory.

Cloud-Optimized Framework

Microsoft has further optimized ASP.Net vNext to meet the growing demand for mobile and cloud applications. The framework enables developers to create apps that delivers richer user experience across devices, while running seamlessly in both virtual and hardware environments. The programmers have option to use cloud optimized mode as well as the NET native compiler. The cloud optimized mode enables developers to deploy the app along with the required copies of .NET Framework libraries. Thus, the several apps can run side by side, and get updated on a single machine.

Roslyn

ASP.Net vNext further comes with an innovative real-time compiler called Roslyn. As Roslyn compiles the code dynamically, the programmers are not required to create new projects to implement the code changes. They can simply refresh the browser to make the code changes effective. The feature enables them to write code using cloud based IDEs or local editors. Roslyn further provides open source C# and VB.Net compilers that are designed with rich code analysis APIs. These APIs can be used by developers by using the same APIs that Microsoft use to implement Visual Studio.

Mono

While creating ASP.Net vNext, the development team has emphasized on cross-platform capabilities. They have added a new feature called Mono to help developers in running their cloud-optimized .NET applications on multiple platforms. Along with Windows, now they have option to run their cloud-optimized .NET applications on Linux or Mac. Also, Mono makes it easier for programmers to run the same application of several platforms without sacrificing any of its features and capabilities. Thus, the web applications can now be hosted on platforms beyond Windows, while delivering efficient and flawless user experience.

With more and more enterprises adopting cloud computing, it has become essential for programmers to rapidly build cloud-based applications. The Visual Studio team has further announced Visual Studio “14” CTP that comes with the features required to support ASP.Net vNext development. So ASP.Net vNext will help programmers in rapidly creating custom cloud-based applications according to specific requirements of clients.You can get in touch with a asp.net development company who can help you develop web apps that are stable, scalable and secure.

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