Getting Started With ASP.NET Core 3.1

Introduction

In this article, I am going to explain what’s new in ASP.NET Core 3.1 and benefits, why we use ASP.NET Core and how to set Visual Studio for developing ASP.NET Core 3.1 web applications. The latest version of ASP.NET Core is ASP.NET Core 3.1 and it was released on December 3, 2019.

Read my previous ASP.NET Core 3.1 part of this article using the below links before reading this article,

Definition

ASP.NET Core is a cross-platform, high-performance, open-source framework for building modern, cloud-based, internet-connected applications.

What’s New in ASP.NET Core 3.1?

ASP.NET Core 3.1 version was released on December 3, 2019. The most important feature is that ASP.NET core 3.1 is a long-term supported (LTS) release and it will be supported for 3 years. The Visual Studio 2019 updated version 16.4 is required for developing an ASP.NET Core 3.1 web application.

Features

It supports partial class for razor components
It passes parameters to top-level components
It supports the new component tag helper
The garbage collector uses less memory by default
It prevents default actions for events in Blazor application
It stops event propagation in Blazor application
Detailed errors during Blazor application development
It supports shared queues in HttpSysServer
Breaking changes for SameSite cookies

Platform Support

ASP.NET Core 3.1 is supported on the following operating systems:

Alpine: 3.10+
Debian: 9+
Ubuntu: 16.04+
Fedora: 29+
RHEL: 6+
openSUSE: 15+
SUSE Enterprise Linux (SLES): 12 SP2+
macOS: 10.13+
Windows Client: 7, 8.1, 10 (1607+)
Windows Server: 2012 R2+

Note

Windows Forms and WPF apps are only functional supported on Windows.

Chip supports

x64 on Windows, macOS, and Linux
x86 on Windows
ARM32 on Windows and Linux
ARM64 on Linux (kernel 4.14+)

Note

Please ensure that .NET Core 3.1 ARM64 deployments use Linux kernel 4.14 version or later.

Windows Forms Controls Removed

The below Windows Forms controls have been removed from .NET Core 3.1:

DataGrid
ToolBar
ContextMenu
Menu
MainMenu
MenuItem

Prerequisites

Install Visual Studio 2019 updated version 16.4
Install .NET Core SDK 3.1

Note

Asp.Net Core and .Net Core Both are different, just like Asp.Net and .Net Framework.

Why Use Asp.Net Core?

Cross-platform - It can run on Windows, Linux and Mac.
Better performance- net core does not depend on system.web.dll for communication between Browser-server. In Asp.net core everything is packages which we need for our application. Packages reduce the request pipeline and improve application performance.
Dependency Injection- Dependency Injection is in-built in Asp.Net Core.
Integration with Modern UI Frameworks- It supports modern UI like Angular, ReactJS and Bootstrap etc.
Hosting-Net Core application can be hosted on multiple Web servers such as IIS, Apache, Docker, etc. It is not dependent on IIS.
Open Source- It is fully open source framework.
Testability- Unit testing is very easy in Asp.Net core application.
Side-by-side App Versioning-Net Core runs on .NET Core, which supports simultaneously running in multiple versions of applications.
Unified Programming Model for MVC and Web API-In Asp.Net Core both MVC Controller and API Controller are Inherits from the same controller base class.

Setting up a machine for Asp.Net Core 3.1 development

We need to install two software packages for developing an ASP.NET core 3.1 application.

An Editor/ Integrated Development Environment (IDE)
.NET Core 3.1 SDK (Software Development Kit)

Step 1 - Download and Install an editor for Asp.NET Core 3.1 Development

I am using Visual Studio 2019 updated version 16.4 as the editor for Asp .NET Core 3.1 application development. You can use any editor of your choice.

Visual Studio
Visual Studio Code
Sublime
Vim
Atom
Etc.

Download and install Visual Studio

I am using Visual Studio 2019, so I need to install Visual Studio 2019 Community Edition because this is free.
You can download Visual Studio 2019 from this link.
To develop Asp .NET Core 3.1 applications in Visual Studio 2019, please select .NET Core cross-platform development workload when install.

Step 2 - Download and install .NET Core 3.1 SDK

You can download the .NET Core 3.1 SDK from this link.

Depending on your operating system you have, download and install the SDK.
The SDK includes everything you need to build and run .NET Core applications.
The .NET Core Runtime is already included in the SDK. So, there is no need to install .NET Core Runtime
The .NET Core Runtime includes just the resources required to run existing .NET Core applications.

Conclusion

In this article, we explained the basics of ASP.NET Core 3.1 and how to set up a machine for developing ASP.NET Core 3.1 applications.