What ASP.NET Core Is And Advantages Of Using It

In this article, we will learn what ASP.NET Core is and what are the advantages of using ASP.NET Core. We will also see how to set up the ASP.NET Core Environment for beginners and professionals in a step-by-step manner.

Introduction

ASP.NET Core is an open-source, cross-platform, and high-performance web framework to build web applications, which can be run on Windows, Mac, or Linux operating systems.

• A developer can build modern, cloud-optimized, IoT, Mobile backend applications using the ASP.NET Core framework.
• We can develop and run ASP.NET Core applications on Windows, Mac, and Linux operating systems.
• We can also deploy our application on the cloud or run on-premises.
• ASP.NET Core runs on .NET Core framework or .NET Standard framework.
• ASP.NET Core framework is a combination of MVC and Web API in a single web framework.

Prerequisites

• Basic knowledge of C#
• Visual Studio
• Object Oriented Programming concepts

Advantages of ASP.NET Core

• Fast: It is a lightweight, high-performance web framework.
• Integration of Modern UI Framework: ASP.NET Core supports modern, a Client-side framework like AngularJs, ReactJs, and React with Redux, etc. ASP.NET framework supports client-side framework templates like AngularJs, ReactJs and React with Redux etc.
• Hosting: It has the ability to host on IIS, Apache, Docker, or Self-hosting.
• Cross Platform: ASP.NET Core web application can run on Windows, Mac, and Linux development tools.
• Support Built: In Dependency Injection - It supports built-in Dependency Injection.
• Supports Modular: It supports modular HTTP requests.
• Open-Source: It is an open-source and community-focused web framework.
• Side-by-side app versioning: ASP.NET Core runs on .NET Core which supports the simultaneous running of multiple versions of applications.
• A unified story for building web UI and web APIs.

ASP.NET Core Environment Set up

To develop an ASP.NET Core web application, you need to install it on your system using the process defined below.

• NET Core SDK
• NET Core Runtime
• Integrated Development Environment (IDE)

ASP.NET core is part of .NET Core SDK. You need to install .NET Core SDK in your system.

If you work with Visual Studio 2015 then you can download .NET Core 1.0 and the Same of .NET Core Runtime 1.0 version to support VS 2015. For the different versions of .NET Core SDK and .NET Core, Runtime click here to Download different versions of .NET Core SDK

ASP.NET Core web application you need to install.

• .NET Core SDK: Download .NET Core SDK for the different platforms from here Download .NET Core SDK from the Microsoft website. After clicking on the URL you need to select the operating system you work on and download.
  
• .NET Core Runtime: Download .NET Core Runtime for a different platform from download .NET Core Runtime
  

IDE

You can use either Visual Studio 2015 Or Visual Studio 2017 to develop a .NET Core web application.

Visual Studio 2015

If you work with Visual Studio 2015 then you can download .NET Core 1.0 and the Same .NET Core Runtime 1.0 version to support VS 2015 as shown in the above links for .NET Core SDK and .NET Core Runtime.

We will use Visual Studio 2017 to develop a .NET Core web application.

Visual Studio 2017 - How to Install Visual Studio 2017?

You can download Visual Studio 2017 for Installer 2017. Click on this link to download the Visual Studio 2017 to work with .NET Core.

Step 1

Once you open the given link in a new tab then you will open the page as above. Then click on the ‘Free download’ link. Then the VS 2017 installer will get the download. After that click on Visual Studio 2017 installer and run as administrator. Then, click on the 'Continue' button.

Step 2. Select the 'ASP.NET and Web development' template for Web Development OR '.NET desktop development' for Windows Forms and console app' to develop WinForm and console application using C#, F#, VB etc. from the Workloads tab as in the image below.

Step 3. Select the Individual components as per the requirement.

Step 4. Select your language packs like 'English' from the Language packs tab or you can select any language as per your requirement.

Step 5. Click on the 'Launch' button from Visual Studio Installer.

I hope this article will help you to understand the concepts of what is ASP.NET Core, the Advantages of ASP.NET Core, and ASP.NET Core Environment Step by Step.