Newsletter Archive

Sai Nitesh Palamakula lays out a practical path to API versioning in ASP.NET Core, explaining when to use URL, query string, header, or media type versions and the tradeoffs of each. This post shows how to wire up Asp.Versioning with Swagger and includes controller patterns for every strategy so your APIs can evolve without breaking clients.

Donie Sweeton demystifies launchSettings.json, the ASP.NET Core file that quietly tells Visual Studio and dotnet run how to start your app in development. This post gives a clear mental model of profiles, Kestrel versus IIS Express, and injected environment variables. You will see why machine specific ports cause Git conflicts and how a tidy launchSettings.json makes local ports, HTTPS, and Swagger behave.

Aliaksandr Marozka maps the .NET background job landscape for 2026, comparing .NET 9 BackgroundService, Hangfire, Quartz.NET, and Temporal through hard-won project lessons. This post highlights the production tradeoffs like retries with exponential backoff, observability, schedule complexity, and ops overhead, then boils them into a clear decision path so you know when a simple worker is enough and when to reach for a scheduler or a workflow engine.

Melisa Akkuş gives a crisp tour of C# lambda expressions, from the arrow syntax to when to use single-line vs block forms. This post shows how lambdas unlock readable LINQ, delegate-based APIs, and event handlers, and why so much of modern C# would feel clunky without them. Expect bite-size examples you can drop into everyday code.

Mariyam Ashai introduces the Agent to Agent Standard for interoperable AI and shows how to wire it up in .NET 8 with ASP.NET Core. In this post you build a tiny currency agent and a console client with the A2A and A2A.AspNetCore packages, learning how Agent Cards, Tasks, and message Parts create a reliable contract between agents.

Jeremy Likness gives .NET devs a clear, jargon-free tour of generative AI essentials, from tokens and embeddings to prompts, tools, RAG, MCP, and the idea of agents. If you are deciding how to evaluate models and wire up tool calls or a cloud to local workflow, this post delivers the mental model and vocabulary to move from experiments to real apps.

Ajay Kumar digs into TDD in .NET with a pragmatic lens, showing how common anti-patterns like test obsession, over mocking, and skipping refactoring quietly tank developer confidence and speed. In this post, C# examples contrast brittle implementation focused tests with behavior driven tests, and explain when TDD shines and when prototyping, UI heavy work, or performance sensitive code deserve a different approach. Expect practical guardrails like aiming for meaningful coverage, mocking only externals, and keeping feedback loops fast.

Aprillz's MewUI is an experimental, code-first .NET GUI library built for NativeAOT and trimming that swaps XAML for fluent C# markup. If you want to ship lean utilities that start fast and stay tidy, the samples show how far modern C# can go.

Dave Brock tours .NET 10 and C# 14 from an API developer's perspective, grounded in a realistic order management sample. This post highlights built-in Minimal API validation, OpenAPI 3.1 docs, EF Core 10 named query filters and server-sent events that trim boilerplate and improve safety, plus C# touches like field-backed properties and null-conditional assignment to simplify patches.

Raghunath explores how C# 14 upgrades lambda expressions with parameter modifiers like ref, in, and out, bringing them much closer to full method parity. If you care about intent-driven code, fewer allocations, and more expressive APIs, this reads like a handy roadmap.

James Miller spotlights .NET 10 and C# 14 upgrades that cut ceremony and sharpen performance. This post shows how the field keyword streamlines guarded properties, ref friendly lambdas avoid copies, and EF Core niceties like LeftJoin and JSON partial updates tame data work, with minimal API validation and single-file runs trimming the boilerplate.

Dmitry Tokmachev shows how to connect DevExpress Blazor AI Chat to Agent2Agent compliant AI agents with a lightweight adapter that translates A2A messages into IChatClient. The approach highlights why open agent standards matter for .NET apps by making cross-platform agents pluggable in a familiar chat UI.

Sasha Ivanova highlights Rider and ReSharper 2025.3.2, adding ACP agent registry support to Rider's AI Chat and a batch of fixes that smooth everyday C# workflows. In this post Hot Reload is reliable again for Blazor WebAssembly and interceptor scenarios, MAUI analysis and Android deployment are corrected, inspections understand C# 14 extension members, and multi-targeted builds are steadier.

Hariram Subramanian breaks down when to use DatePicker, TimePicker, DateTimePicker, and Picker in .NET MAUI, mapping real app flows to the right control. This post highlights MVVM friendly bindings, cross platform consistency, and practical touches like cascading lists and dialog vs inline modes, topped off with a quick decision checklist and a GitHub sample. Expect guidance you can drop into scheduling, filtering, and everyday forms without fighting the UI.

Safia Abdalla explains how .NET Aspire bridges the configuration gap between Azure Functions triggers and Aspire client integrations using the IResourceWithAzureFunctionsConfig adapter. This post shows how WithReference injects the right environment variables for both emulator connection strings and identity based Azure setups, so Functions bindings and your SDK clients are happy without hand rolled config.

Scott Galloway lays out a beginner friendly, all local pipeline in C# to turn scanned text into structured entities using Tesseract for OCR and a BERT NER model via ONNX Runtime. You will learn how tokenization, inference, and BIO decoding fit together, how to merge WordPiece tokens, and when this deterministic approach beats an LLM on speed, cost, and privacy. A NuGet helper is coming, but the copy paste code here gets you from image to people, orgs, and places today.

Particular Software walks through setting up VS Code to build and debug NServiceBus solutions that span multiple projects. This post explains how to wire up tasks.json and launch.json, launch console and web endpoints, attach to running processes, and use compound configurations to debug several endpoints at once. Great for cross platform .NET work when you want Visual Studio level control in a lighter editor.

Lucy Njeri Muturi walks through Visual Studio 2026's AI-first upgrades, from Copilot's Cloud Agent and context-aware chat to adaptive paste and profiler assistance. This post highlights how these features smooth out real work like debugging failing tests, reviewing PRs, refactoring and setup through MCP while keeping you in control.

Carl Franklin and Richard Campbell talk with Shmueli Englard about real-world paths to ship Windows apps. This podcast digs into MSIX packaging, using the Microsoft Store for updates, licensing and payments, and when rolling your own updater makes more sense. Expect pragmatic pros and cons to help you choose a distribution model that fits your .NET app without surprises.

Walk through building a geo-analytics dashboard in .NET MAUI with Syncfusion Charts and Maps, wired up with MVVM and modular user controls. This post shows how a map selection drives KPIs, trend lines, and circular charts to explore real EV adoption data using XAML and C# bindings, with a sprinkle of mobile-friendly touches like bottom sheets.

Assis Zang digs into why APIs fail in the real world and shows how the Retry pattern keeps flaky integrations from derailing user experience. Using Polly 8 in ASP.NET Core, this post builds a resilience pipeline with exponential backoff, sensible retry conditions, and a minimal API that calls a secondary service.

Steve Gordon kicks off a series on transparently encrypting JSON properties with System.Text.Json using a TypeInfoResolver modifier instead of custom converters. This post shows an attribute-first, DI friendly approach that hooks JsonPropertyInfo get and set delegates so sensitive strings serialize as encrypted values and round-trip cleanly in a minimal API. It grounds the idea in real needs like storing OAuth tokens and sets up Azure Key Vault integration and crypto shredding for the next part.

André Silva shows how to tame scattered feature flags in .NET by composing multiple providers behind a single OpenFeature client. This post walks through wiring OpenFeature.Providers.MultiProvider with dependency injection, choosing strategies like FirstMatchStrategy, and applying patterns such as primary plus fallback, gradual migrations, and tenant routing. A practical path to vendor-agnostic flags without rewriting call sites.

Chris Woodruff opens a free htmx + ASP.NET Core Razor Pages workshop that swaps the SPA tax for server-rendered fragments and a clean hypermedia loop. This post includes step-by-step labs, instructions, and a GitHub repo so you can carry these patterns into real apps with less JavaScript baggage.

Ed Charbeneau shows how to build an AI-powered RMA assistant in Blazor that turns rigid forms into a friendly chat. This post uses Microsoft.Extensions.AI, function tools, and JSON schema to steer the model while binding updates into EditContext and pairing a chat UI with a real form using Telerik components.

Anderson Godoy shows how C# 14 can make domain models more expressive while guarding Clean Architecture boundaries. This post walks through using extension members to keep domain semantics in the right layer, field backed properties for normalization, and expanded partials that play nicely with source generators for IDs and converters. You get simple rules that cut helper sprawl and duplication while keeping real business rules visible.

Mukesh Murugan demystifies environment-based configuration in ASP.NET Core, showing how appsettings files, environment variables, User Secrets, and launch profiles stack in .NET 10. You'll pick up practical patterns and precedence rules to keep secrets safe, tame per-environment overrides, and dodge common mistakes that cause those head-scratching prod bugs.

Mark Heath uncovers a sneaky EF Core ILazyLoader quirk that can fire off pointless database queries as soon as you call Add on a new entity. Build your object graph first, then add to the context right before saving to keep your app snappy.

OpenSilver 3.3 lands with Blazor components running directly inside XAML apps, so you can drop DevExpress, Syncfusion, MudBlazor and more into MVVM views with native bindings and no interop tricks. This post highlights practical integration patterns, why it enables low risk WPF modernization across WebAssembly and MAUI Hybrid, and what else ships like .NET 10 support, a Responsive markup extension, and major WPF compatibility gains.

Rishabh Gupta maps a refreshingly honest path from confusion to clarity in C#, .NET 8, and ASP.NET MVC, highlighting the 2 AM aha moments that turn theory into useful code. This post favors real work over interview trivia, from tracing a request through the MVC pipeline to the realities of migrations, AI tools, and learning while holding a day job. If tutorial hell has you spinning, you will find practical guardrails that save weeks of trial and error.

Mahesh Chand cuts through .NET version churn with a rule of thumb and a plan you can trust. If you are juggling dependencies and deadlines, the decision framework and low risk checklist will save future you some headaches.

Unpack dependency injection in .NET and how Autofac turns the 'don't use new' mantra into testable, maintainable code. If the built-in DI starts to chafe as your app grows, the examples make a grounded case for when Autofac is worth it.

Jean-Baptiste S. shows how to build a self-fixing .NET 10 setup that turns production exceptions into GitHub PRs. Backed by Azure Monitor, Application Insights, Redis dedupe, and a Semantic Kernel agent using Claude, this post covers the tool use loop, smart filtering, and prefetching code context to propose credible fixes. The result is less firefighting and a cost profile that fits real teams, not research labs.

Abe Jaber recounts a near-release scare caused by NuGet version drift across a multi-project .NET repo, where CI and local restores disagreed. This post shows how Central Package Management with a single Directory.Packages.props at the repo root stops mismatched dependencies, yielding deterministic builds and easier upgrades. Perfect for teams juggling multiple APIs, workers, and tests who want fewer restore surprises.

Ali Hamza Ansari benchmarks EF Core 10 on .NET 10 with C# 14 against .NET 8, showing 25 to 50 percent faster read queries in a realistic PostgreSQL setup. This post pairs minimal API and DbContext code with BenchmarkDotNet, then unpacks why production workloads get faster, from JIT inlining and expression tree caching to leaner row materialization and small tweaks like static lambdas and JSON options. Perfect if you want practical steps and the mental model to make data access snappier without rewriting queries.

Toine de Boer shows how to build Android home screen widgets with .NET MAUI by leaning on native RemoteViews, AppWidgetProvider, and Intents from your C# code. Rather than step by step, this post highlights production-minded patterns like data sharing with Preferences, interactive actions via PendingIntent, scheduled refreshes, and a minimal MAUI startup to keep widgets snappy. If you are shipping cross-platform widgets alongside iOS, you will pick up clear guidance on configuration screens, context pitfalls, and reliable update flows.