About this book

.NET Core in Action was written to help you build libraries and applications in .NET Core. It takes you through many important aspects of developing high-quality software for release. Concepts are introduced “in action” with examples to show their practical application.

Who should read this book

Whether you’re new to .NET and C# or a seasoned .NET Framework developer, this book has plenty of useful information for you. While all this information may be available online through documentation, blogs, and so on, this book compiles and organizes everything into a format that’s clear and easy to follow. The book assumes that you have a working knowledge of imperative, object-oriented programming languages, such as C++ or Java. Although this isn’t an instruction guide on C#, key concepts are explained to aid you. The book also assumes some proficiency with terminals or command lines and text editors.

How this book is organized: a roadmap

This book has 12 chapters:

• Chapter 1 introduces .NET Core and .NET Standard—what they’re for and why you should learn them.
• Chapter 2 gets you started creating .NET Core applications.
• Chapter 3 explores the MSBuild build system and how to edit project files.
• Chapter 4 covers unit testing with xUnit. xUnit documentation online tends to be scattered, so this chapter will be useful as a reference later on.
• Chapter 5 introduces working with relational databases, a common thing for developers to do. .NET Framework developers familiar with relational databases may want to move on to chapter 6.
• Chapter 6 covers object-relational mappers (ORMs). It introduces two different types of ORMs: Dapper, a micro-ORM, and Entity Framework Core, a full-featured ORM.
• Chapter 7 explores building a REST endpoint with ASP.NET Core, as well as how to make HTTP calls to other services.
• Chapter 8 explores different options for debugging, from IDEs to command line.
• Chapter 9 introduces performance testing with xUnit.Performance and profiling with PerfView.
• Chapter 10 covers the internationalization process and how to make applications world-ready.
• Chapter 11 looks at how to build .NET Core libraries and applications that rely on framework- or operating system–specific constructs.
• Chapter 12 covers how to prepare your .NET Core library for release and distribution.
• The appendixes contain specific details useful for writing .NET Core applications, such as target framework monikers and what’s in each version of the .NET Standard.

About the code

This book contains many examples of source code, both in numbered listings and inline with normal text. In both cases, source code is formatted in a fixed-width font like this to separate it from ordinary text. Sometimes code is also in bold to highlight changes from previous steps in the chapter, such as when a new feature adds to an existing line of code.

In many cases, the original source code has been reformatted; we’ve added line breaks and reworked indentation to accommodate the available page space in the book. In rare cases, even this was not enough, and listings include line-continuation markers (). Additionally, comments in the source code have often been removed from the listings when the code is described in the text. Code annotations accompany many of the listings, highlighting important concepts.

The source code for the book is located at https://github.com/dmetzgar/dotnetcoreinaction. This GitHub repository contains source for examples in all chapters except chapters 1, 8, and 12, which aren’t focused on particular examples.

The source code is also available from the publisher’s website at www.manning.com/books/dotnet-core-in-action.

Book forum

Purchase of .NET Core in Action includes free access to a private web forum run by Manning Publications where you can make comments about the book, ask technical questions, and receive help from the author and from other users. To access the forum, go to https://forums.manning.com/forums/dotnet-core-in-action. You can also learn more about Manning’s forums and the rules of conduct at https://forums.manning.com/forums/about.

Manning’s commitment to our readers is to provide a venue where a meaningful dialogue between individual readers and between readers and the author can take place. It is not a commitment to any specific amount of participation on the part of the author, whose contribution to the forum remains voluntary (and unpaid). We suggest you try asking the author challenging questions lest his interest stray! The forum and the archives of previous discussions will be accessible from the publisher’s website as long as the book is in print.

Online resources

At the end of each chapter, you’ll find a section called “Additional Resources” with references to books and online resources related to the contents of that chapter.