Modernizing .NET Web Applications: Everything You Need to Know About Migrating ASP.NET Web Applications to the Latest Version of .NET

Table of Contents....4 About the Author....11 About the Technical Reviewer....12 Acknowledgments....13 Chapter 1: Introduction....15 The New Generation of .NET....16 Bridging the Gap with .NET Standard....17 What Has Changed....19 Ten Thousand Feet View of the Book....22 Get Ready....24 About the Author....25 Application Framework Equivalents in the .NET Core World....28 Frameworks for Web UI....29 ASP.NET Web Forms....29 ASP.NET MVC....31 ASP.NET Web Pages....34 Communication Frameworks....35 ASP.NET XML Web Services....36 Windows Communication Foundation....37 ASP.NET Web API....39 ASP.NET SignalR....40 Data Access Libraries....42 LINQ to SQL....44 Entity Framework....45 Membership and Identity....47 Membership Providers....48 ASP.NET Identity....49 Other Unsupported Technologies and APIs....51 Summary....53 Chapter 2: Justifying the Modernization....56 To Modernize or Not to Modernize....57 Example 1: Application in Maintenance Mode with a Negligible Number of New Requirements....57 Example 2: Complex and Actively Developed Admin Portal....58 Example 3: Ecommerce Solution Transformed into Multiple Applications....60 Takeaways....63 Benefits of the New .NET....64 Technical Arguments....64 Performance Improvements....65 Just-In-Time Compiler....66 Tiered Compilation....67 Inlining....69 Other JIT Improvements....72 Vectorization....73 Garbage Collector....74 New Performance-Related Types....75 Span and Memory....75 Allocation-Free Parsing....80 ValueTask....85 Source Generators....87 New JSON Parser....88 Optimizations in Base Types and Collections....91 Parsing and Formatting....91 Vectorization for Strings....91 Collections....95 Summary....98 Developer Productivity....99 Better Developer Tools....99 Hot Reload....101 Version Control....103 Package References....106 SDK-Style Projects....108 Entity Framework Migrations....111 Support for Linux and Containers....111 Architectural Improvements....114 Configuration....115 Dependency Injection....120 Logging....124 Hosting....127 Other Packages....130 Conclusion....132 Nontechnical Arguments....132 Hiring and Motivation of Developers....133 Higher Operating and Maintenance Costs....135 Security Considerations....138 Summary....142 Chapter 3: Before You Start....143 Choosing the Right Strategy....143 Example: Modernizing a Large E-learning Website....145 Incremental Changes....149 In-Place Modernization....151 Side-by-Side Modernization....158 Full Rewrite....164 Back to the Example....167 Estimating the Effort....169 Divide and Conquer....170 Example: Estimating the Effort....171 Preparing the Environment....176 Cleanup....177 Review Project Dependencies....178 Monitoring and Diagnostics....181 Version Control....183 Git Workflows....184 GitHub Flow....185 Gitflow....186 Trunk-Based Development....187 Conclusion....187 Summary....188 Chapter 4: Migrating APIs and Web Services....190 Before You Start....191 Refactoring on the Way....194 ASP.NET XML Web Services....196 Migrating to SoapCore....198 SOAP Extensions....203 Authentication....204 Migrating to gRPC....207 Windows Communication Foundation....214 Migrating to CoreWCF....216 Authentication....223 Unsupported Features....227 CoreWCF Improvements over WCF....229 ASP.NET Web API....233 Migrating Controllers....234 Explicit HTTP Methods....235 Routing....236 Action Results....238 Parameter Binding....241 Working with Files....242 Configuration....245 Compatibility with Newtonsoft.Json....247 Authentication....248 Host Authentication....249 Custom Authentication Filters....251 JWT and OWIN-Based Authentication....255 Unifying the OpenAPI Metadata....257 Configuring Client Proxy Generation....258 Diff Tools....260 ASP.NET SignalR....264 Migration of SignalR Hubs....265 Authentication and Authorization....268 Persistent Connections....274 Migration of Client Applications....274 Automatic Reconnects....277 Scaling....279 Summary....282 Chapter 5: Migrating Data Access....283 Migrating ADO.NET Primitives....286 SQL Server....286 Connection Encryption by Default....291 SQLite....293 Oracle....294 LINQ to SQL....294 Lazy and Eager Loading....302 Scaffolding Entity Framework Core Model....307 Other Differences....308 Entity Framework....311 Choose Between Entity Framework and Entity Framework Core....312 Migrate ObjectContext to DbContext API....314 Database First Approach with Entity Framework and the New .NET....319 Migrate to Entity Framework Core....320 Scaffolding....321 Porting the Code First Model....326 Lazy Loading....333 Configuration and Connection Strings....333 ASP.NET Identity Tables....335 Testing....336 Differences in Complex Queries....337 Migrations....341 Migrating the Entity Framework Migrations....343 Summary....349 Chapter 6: Migrating Identity Stores....350 ASP.NET Membership Providers....353 Insecure Passwords....356 Migration to ASP.NET Core Identity....358 Migration of Passwords....363 Do Not Keep Passwords in the Original Format....364 Storing the Old Password Hashes Securely....364 Other Password Formats....373 ASP.NET Universal Providers....374 Migration to ASP.NET Core Identity....376 Migrating User Profiles....377 ASP.NET Identity....389 Migration to ASP.NET Core Identity....391 Authentication in ASP.NET Core....399 Using ASP.NET Core Identity....403 Summary....407 Chapter 7: In-Place Migration of Web UI Applications....408 Trivial Applications....410 In-Place and Side-by-Side Migration....411 Modernization Using DotVVM....413 A Brief History....415 Model-View-ViewModel on the Web....420 Communication with the Server....424 Before You Start....429 Prerequisites....430 Coexistence of DotVVM and Web Forms....431 Migrating the Master Page....436 Migrating the Pages....439 Migrating Components....440 Handlers....445 The Final Step....447 Practical Example....449 Running the Project....451 Adding DotVVM....454 Master Page and the First Page....454 Migrating the Other Pages....467 Switching to the New .NET....472 Authentication and Authorization....474 Other Changes....477 Wrapping Up....479 Summary....480 Chapter 8: Side-by-Side Migration of UI Applications....481 Initial Setup....482 Create the New ASP.NET Core Application....484 Forwarded Headers....494 Server Configuration....497 Sharing Code Between the Applications....498 Migrating the First Page....506 Choosing the UI Framework....507 Adding Blazor Server....508 Migrating Layout Page....511 Migrating First Page....516 Sharing the Session....519 Remote Session....523 Remote Session in Blazor Server....527 Sharing the Authentication State....533 Remote Authentication....534 External Identity Providers....536 Cache Invalidation....539 Distributed Caching....540 Custom Solution Based on SignalR....541 Other Considerations....548 Filesystem Access....548 Concurrency and Locking....552 Migrating Remaining Pages....555 Migrating the Handler....561 Moving Static Files....563 Completing the Migration....564 Remove the Session....564 Switch the Authentication....566 Caching....571 Removing the Old Application....573 Summary....575 Chapter 9: Migration of ASP.NET MVC and Web Pages....576 Available Frameworks....576 Choosing the Technology....581 ASPX View Engine....584 Preparing the Migration....586 Migrating ASP.NET Web Pages....590 Routing....592 Migrating the Layout Page....594 The First Page....598 Migration of Remaining Pages....600 Route Parameters....601 Validation....602 Forms and Binding....604 Authorization....606 Unsupported Features....607 Migrating ASP.NET MVC....608 Upgrading Controllers....608 Fixing the Upgrade Issues....613 Migration of Remaining Pages....618 Final Step....619 Summary....622 Chapter 10: A Word on Architecture....624 Clean and Readable Code....626 Layering....632 Code Consistency and Conventions....652 Testing....655 Unit Tests....656 Integration Tests....658 Integration Tests with Database....663 User Interface Tests....667 Summary....670 Conclusion....671