.NET Core is a software framework from Microsoft, it is an open-source framework that is free. The specialty of .NET Core is that it is a cross-platform framework that can run on Windows, Linux, macOS operating systems. First released in 2016, the upgraded version of .NET Core, the .NET Core 2.0 was released on August 14, 2017, it is a very potent and capable tool for .NET Developers. With its faster and power-packed features, it can be used to build both mobile and web apps.
Applications can be built by .NET developers using the command console in .NET Core 2.0. In this perspective, nearly 20,000 APIs are included in .NET Core 2.0. With the common framework of all devices and platforms, .NET Core 2.0 has become the most preferred development platform .NET There are several important features of .NET Core 2.0 that are liked and appreciated by .NET Developers.
Agility
With features like portability, Base Class Library (BCL) .NET Developers no longer need to depend on the different patches and releases from Microsoft for their applications. There are no more any kind of constraints in developing applications and then work again on the compatibility issues.
There are some big and fundamental changes in .NET Core 2.0 based on their experience and study on the erstwhile .NET Frameworks. Earlier due to the design decisions that had been taken in the previous frameworks, many of the current changes that had been taken in .NET Core 2.0 could not be taken at all. One such thing was Dependency Injection. .NET Core 2.0 now implements dependency injection, this has made implementation of many of the complex logic and processes very easy. Also to note the new features allow .NET Developers to make use of the third-party options as and when they require to.
Open-Source
.NET Core has been built and shared on Github by the .NET Team. This means anyone can see the ASCII text file for .NET Core and even submit pull requests if they need to repair a bug or add a feature. Further, the Microsoft engineering teams are available on Github so that they are more accessible than ever. You can open issues and questions through Github and receive a reply from the team performing on that repository.
This is a huge change for Microsoft. Only a few companies have embraced open source like Microsoft. Enterprises need access to the source they’re using and therefore the teams that build it. Microsoft has always been pretty good about building community and being available for patrons but this takes it to an entirely new level.
The Full Framework Libraries
.NET Core 2.0 supports more than 32,000 APIs. This covers 70 percent of APIs used by projects in NuGet.org, which means .NET Developers have a better chance to have their existing .NET framework class libraries run in the .NET Core 2.0 framework. Subsequently increasing the backward compatibility, a feature not much seen in the updated version of most frameworks.
.NET Core 2.0 offers easy portability without any major changes. With .NET Standard 2.0 which acts as the specification that serves as the blueprint for the .NET runtime implementation. This means that the .NET standard elaborates the base API Libraries that are needed to be implemented by the runtime. To elaborate, the Base Class Library (BCL) basically makes up the core feature of the platform. This means that if a .NET Standard 2.0 DLL is being used it will be able to run on other platforms like .NET 4.6.1, Mono, Unity, UWP, and Xamarin.
ASP.NET Core Razor Pages
Razor Pages was introduced in 2010. It is a simplified web app programming model that has departed from ASP.NET’s MVC framework and has adopted a file-based routing approach. Every file under the pages directory in Razor Pages is basically an endpoint that can be exposed to the external environment. Being associated with C# objects, the page models, that hold the behavior of the page, each page can respond to HTML GET and POST methods.
This whole approach has helped to break down the huge and complex controller codes. This makes the deployment of the core web application and the core web APIs smoother. In .NET Core 2.0 the Razor Pages are precompiled at the time of publishing. With the M-V-V-M (Model View View Model) paradigm introduced in Razor, pages publishing is much better now.
Expanded OS Support
Portability is the greatest feature that has been introduced in .NET Core 2.0. portability is the feature that enables a program to be run on different platforms and operating systems. An important pre-requirement of portability is the generalized abstraction that is to be created between the application logic and the system interface. Being able to deploy the same application on different platforms and operating systems is an advantage in the cost of developing applications in .NET Core 2.0. This is one of the main reasons that most web development companies suggest .NET Core 2.0.
The Microsoft community has been working towards the expansion of the .NET Core 2.0 various other platforms. Currently, portability is possible for the Windows operating systems, Linux operating systems, and Mac operating systems. However it is to be noted, in the case of Linux, .NET Core 2.0 regards all the different distributions of Linux as a single operating system. The same goes for Windows operating system and the Mac operating system. Also, .NET Core 2.0 offers a preview for ARM32 support.
Deployment
One best offering of .NET Core 2.0 is the swift deployment capability. .NET Core 2.0 has the ability to deploy separate runtime versions side by side. Unlike earlier .NET Framework releases that were built on top of prior versions, each version of the .NET Core runtime is completely separate. Changing runtime versions for an application is as easy as providing a worldwide .json entry to your directory. Here could also be a sample of the contents of the JSON file:
The .NET Core tooling also provides a replacement instruction interface (CLI) which makes application compilation, execution, and packaging easier. The CLI allows for straightforward integration into continuous integration and continuous delivery systems.
Containerization
.NET Core 2.0 application has the capability to run on containers as well. Just like virtual machines changed how we operate in IT, containers will have an equivalent or greater effect, and that we must be ready with a platform that supports containers as a primary class citizen and actively works to support them.
Enterprises need to increase their speed of delivery to stay relevant. .NET Core provides all the speed and adaptability you would like to deploy quickly through improvements to runtime deployments, a replacement CLI and therefore the support of Docker.
Visual Studio
Visual Studio has included the all-new recently into its compilation. This has made Visual Studio work better with .Net tools. In .NET Core 2.0 MSBuild has started to be used again. This is very helpful for the existing builds and deployment processes. The tooling has been enhanced in visual studio to many folds. Microsoft has taken a great amount of time to make the installation process for Visual Studio easier.
In Conclusion
With the introduction of these features, Large enterprises will get more agility in their development process. With the implementation of agile methodologies, large enterprises can now stay updated in their system.