There’s a lot going on in the world of web development, but you’re sure to have heard of .NET at one point or another. However, that doesn’t mean that you know what it is or how it works. In fact, you might not know anything about .NET other than its name. Below, we have taken a look at the basics of .NET web application development, giving you an insight into what it is, how it works and why it could be the right choice for your project.

What is .NET and Why is it Used?

Before you get stuck into .NET, you need to understand what it is and why it’s chosen as the ‘go to’ by so many developers. It’s a free, open-source developer platform and it’s been created by Microsoft. It provides a wide range of tools and libraries that application developers can use to build different things including web, desktop, mobile, gaming and Internet of Things (IoT) applications. When it comes to web application development, which is one of its main uses, .NET offers an impressive framework known as ASP.NET. The .NET ecosystem includes a vast array of libraries, tools, and frameworks, providing everything you need to build modern web applications.

With ASP.NET, you can create web applications that run on any platform – including Windows, macOS and Linux – and .NET makes it easy to connect your web application to a database. You can then use Entity Framework (EF) Core, an Object-Relational Mapper (ORM) that allows you to work with your database using .NET objects. This means you can create, read, update, and delete data in your database using simple .NET code.

You can also use CRUD operations with .NET web application development. CRUD stands for Create, Read, Update, and Delete. These are the basic operations you can perform on data in a database. With ASP.NET, you can easily implement these operations in your web application, allowing users to interact with and manipulate data as and when they need to. A good web application needs an intuitive and user-friendly UI, and ASP.NET provides various tools to create just that. It creates dynamic and interactive UIs, so you can add controls like combo boxes, lists, and forms to your application, making it easy for users to navigate and perform tasks.

Key Features and Benefits of Using .NET for Web Application Development

• Connect to Third-Party APIs – Modern web applications often need to integrate with external services. For example, you can write code to use the Chat GPT API, integrating AI capabilities into your app. This allows your application to perform complex tasks like natural language processing, data analysis and more. This is possible with .NET.

• Access Government Data – Many web applications need to connect to external data sources, such as government databases. With .NET, you can easily consume RESTful APIs provided by various government agencies to fetch real time and up to date data, and incorporate it into your application.

• Security – Security is key in application development, and .NET provides a range of features to help protect your applications. It includes built in authentication and authorisation mechanisms, secure communication protocols, and code access security. Additionally, .NET’s extensive support for encryption and secure storage helps ensure that sensitive data is protected against unauthorised access and breaches. With .NET, you can use ASP.NET Identity and this is a system that helps you manage user authentication and authorisation. You can create login pages, manage user roles, and ensure that your application’s resources are protected.

• Cross-Platform Compatibility – With ASP.NET Core, you can build and run web applications on different operating systems. This gives you a lot of flexibility and increases accessibility, ensuring that you get the most out of your application.

• Versatile Application Development – With .NET, developers can build a wide range of applications. This includes web applications, which allows developers to create dynamic and robust web applications with features like Razor Pages, MVC, and Web API using ASP.NET. Desktop applications are also an option, as .NET provides frameworks like Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) and Windows Forms for building rich desktop applications. There’s also the opportunity to design mobile applications using Xamarin, which allows developers to create native mobile applications for iOS and Android using a single codebase. Cloud applications and microservices are also available with .NET, which highlight just how varied and effective it is for application development.

• Ease of Use and Productivity – .NET is designed to be developer friendly, offering a consistent programming model and a comprehensive set of tools. Visual Studio – the integrated development environment (IDE) for .NET – enhances developer productivity with features like IntelliSense, debugging, and profiling tools. The simplicity of the C# language, combined with the extensive documentation and community support, makes .NET an accessible platform for both beginners and experienced developers.

• Performance and Scalability – Performance is a critical factor in application development, and .NET excels in this area. .NET Core, in particular, is known for its high performance and scalability. This makes .NET a preferred choice for building high performance, scalable applications, from small websites to large enterprise systems. With ASP.NET Core, you don’t need to worry about an application growing beyond your initial intention. ASP.NET Core is known for its high performance and scalability, making it suitable for both small and large applications.

Plus, as .NET is a widely used and popular platform, it has a large and active community. This means you can find plenty of tutorials, forums and resources to help you learn and troubleshoot issues. If you run into a problem with .NET and your web application development, you shouldn’t struggle to find a solution quickly. Microsoft continually invests in the platform, ensuring it evolves with new features, performance improvements, and security enhancements.

.NET stands out as a powerful, flexible and efficient framework for application development. Its cross-platform capabilities, performance, security, ease of use,and strong community support make it a top choice for developers around the world. Whether you’re building a web app, a desktop solution, a mobile app, or a cloud service, .NET provides the tools and frameworks you need to create high quality, scalable and secure applications.