Best Practices to render high-performance applications using ASP.Net

Compared to classic ASP, ASP.Net is more potent. But in order to come up with high performance, reliable and robust applications, one must be well-versed with the proper means to leverage the power of this programming framework. Here, we bring to you some of the best practices that can be followed to make the most of ASP.Net.

1. Research and plan prior to development: Indulge yourself in some amount of research and find out how .Net can prove beneficial for you. There are a number of solutions offered by .Net at each level of app development. You must understand the positive and negative impacts of each approach that this development environment supports. Visual Studio offers a total development package coming up with a number of options that help in the implementation of the same logic. It is essential to carefully explore each option and determine the most-suited solution for the concerned task. Using layering, the application logic can be partitioned into data access, business and presentation layers. This not only helps in the creation of maintainable code, but also facilitates monitoring and optimization of each layer’s performance separately. Scalability and maintenance can be improved by reduction in the number of codes within the code-behind files.

2.String concatenation: Your application can record decreased performance if the string concatenation aspect is handled properly. String concatenation is done in two ways. First, you can consider addition of a new string to an already existing string. However, this operation can be quite expensive and time consuming. The second option comprises the use of StringBuilder Class which is a more efficient way for concatenation of strings.

3. Do away with round trips across the server: Do not go for unnecessary round trips across the web server. To avoid doing so, consider implementing Ajax UI in order to refrain from full page refresh and update only that segment of the page which requires change. For eliminating round trips you can also consider using client side scripts for validating client site, and this cuts down the number of round trips needed for processing user’s request.

4. Save viewstate only if the same is necessary: ViewState is mainly used by Server controls for retaining state solely on pages which post data across themselves. A concealed variable is used for transferring information to the client and reading back the same. ViewState becomes a redundant overhead in case of pages which do not require it. With the growth in size, the ViewState starts affecting the functional efficiency of garbage collection. Viewstate is not required when your page is not posting information over itself or you are not dealing with server control events or with each page refresh, you are repopulating controls.

5. Make a careful use of session variables: Session variables should not be loaded with an excessive amount of data. It should also be ensured that the session time out is sensible. This can utilize a considerable portion of server memory. Remember that data that is stored within the session variables is capable of existing for a long time even after the browser is closed by the user. A huge amount of session variables may affect the server. It is advisable to make the session state disabled, in case the session variables are not being utilized for a specific page or application.

6. Use Server.Transfer: The Server.Transfer method is a good option for redirecting between applications. If you use this method in a page where the Server.Transfer syntax exists, refrain from going for redundant client-side redirection. It is better to use Server.Transfer in place of Response.Redirect.

7. Make an appropriate use of server controls and keep away from using intensely nested controls: In spite of the stateless aspect of the HTTP protocol, server controls offer a high quality programming model capable of utilizing Viewstate for administering states within page requests. However, as server controls call for some fixed processing for establishing controls and child controls, the process becomes comparatively more expensive than static text or HTML controls. Hence it is best to use an inline representation for the user interface in place of server controls, when you do not require rich interaction.

The cost can also rise when you are using deeply nested hierarchies for creation of server control and child controls. You can avoid such nested hierarchies by going for separate designs that make use of inline controls or by utilizing a server control hierarchy that is flatter.

8. Select a suitable data viewing control for the solution: Significant tradeoffs can be obtained between performance and convenience, depending on the manner in which you wish to exhibit data within a Web Forms page. Always explore the advantages and disadvantages of the controls prior to using the same in your application. For instance, from amongst Repeater, Datalist and Datagrid, you can go for any one of the three controls for displaying data. But, at first you must carefully determine which control will prove the most beneficial for you.

The above-mentioned practices will indeed ensure that you develop high performance applications using ASP.Net. Apart from these, you can also try some other best practices such as leveraging a DataReader for efficient and fast data binding, optimization of code, pre-compilation of pages, using indexes and stored procedures, and so on. This would help you leverage the benefits of asp.net web development.

We provide asp.net application development services. Businesses and clients from diverse geographies hire dot net programmers from us at Mindfire Solutions. If you would like to speak to one of us, please contact us today.

6 Tips for Secure Development in .NET

With hackers using fresh and innovative ideas for causing damage to web applications, it has becomes essential for the developers to keep their project secure and inaccessible. But many developers overlook security while developing websites using Microsoft .Net platform. As many internet security experts have highlighted, each organization must implement a comprehensive security measures right from the starting of the project. Microsoft also frequently releases security bulletins to make it easier for programmers to pick and use the most effective security measures. However, each .Net developer also needs to understand some of the security measures used commonly by web application developers residing in application development various parts of the world.

6 Effective Measures to Secure Development in Microsoft .Net

1. Secure Your Development Environment: When you are preparing a strategy to secure your project, it is important to start by making your environment up to date. In addition to the server software, operating service, and anti-virus, you also need to ensure that you have updated the security patches. The updates will make it easier for you to protect your project against latest vulnerability. At the same time, you also need to remove all types of live user data from the development environment. It is a good idea to use customized artificial data generation tools to generate fake data that can be used realistically for testing purposed.

2. Disable the Unnecessary Services: While making the web application live, many programmers forget to disable or uninstall the services that will not be required by the end-users. You can enhance the security of your web application by leavening only HTTP or HTTPS open to the public. Also, you must try to encrypt sensitive user data by enforcing SSL. However, the SSL can be enforced for specific parts of the application to ensure that only encrypted data are exchanged between the web server and client’s web browser.

3. Encrypt All Types of User Data: The way you retrieve and store data will also have a huge impact on securing your .Net development project. It is advisable to run SQL queries outside the code base to eliminate the chances of the query being manipulated. Instead of generating SQL queries dynamically, you can consider using stored procedures to avoid SQL injection and Cross-Site scripting (XSS). At the same time, you also need to store the sensitive data received from users safely by using customized functions like Server.HTMLEncode or Server.HTMLDecode. Similarly, you must store the data backups and checked-in codes in an encrypted format and in a secure location. The sanitization of data will further contribute towards preventing readable script injection.

4. Validate All Types of User Input: No web application can differentiate between the malicious and genuine data submitted by the user. If the user input fields are not validated properly, these can be easily used as a medium to access or hack your web server. So you must treat all types of user data as malicious, and validate each field to keep your project secure. Often developers are required to use third-party applications from within .Net web applications. If your app needs to use third-party applications, it is important to use application domains. As the application domain allows several applications to run simultaneously within a single process, each application will have access to its own memory. Also, the application domain will boost the performance of third-party applications, while keeping your .Net development project secure.

5. Discourage the Use of Unsecured and Public Networks: Nowadays, most companies allow the members of their .Net application development team to access the project data on their laptops and mobile devices. While access the information over external networks, developers often forget to check if the public network is secure. So you must restrict access to the development server for certain IPs that is 100% secure. It is also important to use public or private key authentication, along with locking down ports. You can even ask your development team not to access the project data over public and unsecured networks.

6. Avoid Revealing Specific Information about Errors: Despite testing the web application thoroughly, there are always chances that some exceptions will occur. A .Net developer has options to handle the error in an efficient way in the website code. You can use the Global.asax file, generated by the .Net framework for each project, to capture these exceptions using the Application_Error function. However, you need to ensure that these exceptions are being captured internally, without the viewer seeing the exact nature of the exception. You must design a user-friendly error page that will keep the users engaged without conveying the details of the exception. The hiding of specific error information will also contribute towards keeping your web application secure.

Each .Net developer also needs to implement several .Net development best practices to keep the web applications secure and inaccessible. At the same time, the programmer also need to security guidelines issued by Microsoft at frequent intervals to enhance the safety and security of his .Net applications.

We provide .Net development services. If you would like to discuss with an expert asp.net developer from our team, please get in touch with us at Mindfire Solutions.

Top 8 Tools Used by DotNet Developers

Many developers use Microsoft .Net framework to avail a number of advantages including multiple language interoperability and a large library. But a web application developer also needs a set of customized tools improve the performance of his web application. Some of these tools are free and open source, whereas others are licensed and require users to pay some fees.

However, each .Net developer has options to choose from a variety of tools to easily design, test and deploy powerful web applications without putting any extra time and effort. If you are planning to migrate to Microsoft .Net platform, it is a good idea to understand some of the most popular tools used by DotNet programmers.

8 Widely Used Microsoft .Net Framework Tools

1. WebMatrix: Microsoft has launched the free web app development tool to allow programmers to develop interactive, engaging websites within a very short span of time. Along with a set of built-in web templates, WebMatrix also comes with smart features to write code on your own or to avail the advantages of open source web applications. But the simple and free tool will surely save a huge amount of time.

2. Visual Studio Express: Along with streamlined interfaces, the tool is also designed with a set of free and basic products. Its core capabilities make it easier for you to build robust web applications by targeting a single platform. Once you decide the web app development platform, you can download, use the customize tool to make coding more enjoyable.

3. SharpDevelop: As an open source and free IDE, SharpDevelop is widely used by .Net programmers. You can use the IDE for C#, VB.Net, Boo and other projects that are developed based on Microsoft .Net framework. As the IDE is open source, a developer has options to down load the source code as well as executables from the same website.

4. Storm Codeplex: As a free and open source tool, STORM is used by .Net developers to test web services. You can use the tool to test web services written using Java, .Net and other technologies. At the same time, the tool also enables programmers to invoke a variety of web services dynamically, regardless of the required complex data types and input parameters. Also, you can test multiple web services within a single UI, along with editing or manipulating the raw soap requests.

5. JustDecompile: If you are looking for an advanced tool to easily decompile and browse .Net assemblies, JustDecompile is the right tool to suit your needs. The free developer productivity tool is developed with a set of advanced features that allow you to decompile code simply by clicking on a button. The action further enables you to explore and evaluate the compiled .Net assemblies without putting any extra effort.

6. Nu Get: Often developers explore convenient ways to enhance the user experience by adding, removing and updating tools and libraries in their Visual Studio project. If you are looking for simple options to manipulate libraries and tools, then you can consider using Nu Get as a Visual Studio extension. It makes it easier for programmers to use existing NuGet packages as well as create new packages through specific documentation.

7. CodeInject: Normally, .Net programmers have to write longer code to inject additional code into any managed assembly. However, they have to put some extra effort to ensure that the code is injected properly by disassembling and recompiling the managed assembly. But you can simply use the CodeInject to avoid the disassembling and recompilation required after injecting code. Further, the tool makes it easier for you to inject additional code in single or multiple methods regardless of the number of assemblies.

8. SoapUI: As an open source functional testing tool, SoapUI is hugely popular among .Net developers residing in various parts of the world. The tool makes it much easier and convenient for them to test different types of web services. It also supports a wide array of protocols including HTTP, SOAP, JDBC, REST, AMF and JMS. The tool helps developers to quickly create advanced performance test along with running a several types of automated functional tests.

In addition to these popular tools commonly use by .Net developers, you can also consider using the customized tools offered by Microsoft. While planning .Net application development projects, you must evaluate the available tools, and choose the options that will make save you time and effort, while contributing towards making the web application more powerful and popular.

We provide .Net development services. If you would like to discuss with an expert asp.net developer from our team, please get in touch with us at Mindfire Solutions.

Top 5 Benefits of Using DotNet for Web Developers

If you want to work on web development projects with higher scaling potential, and wear multiple hats then work with .Net which solves real business problems.

.Net Framework designs business applications for specific business functions, effectively and efficiently to the growing online demands. .Net helps you build customized applications for various business sectors. It is responsible to build a variety of applications like customer relationship management apps, accounting apps, product/inventory apps, websites, value chain/supply management apps, integration with partners through the internet, XML web services etc.

Here are the Top 5 benefits which makes .Net popular among the web programmers from IT world.

1. Managed Code: In the .NET world, there is no delete keyword. Memory allocation and deallocation are done via the common language runtime (CLR). Garbage collection is handled by the “System.Garbage Collector”, which periodically runs the heap to clean up unwanted objects. It is a very good programming practice and delivers the added benefit as the Garbage Collector(GC) gives early notice that the object is not needed.

Security is integrated into .NET from the beginning. With .NET comes support for role-based security and code access security. In traditional role-based security, authentication (the verification of a person or process) and authorization (a means of determining that a person or process is permitted to perform a requested process) are carried out.

Currently, most application boundaries are normally confined to the process level. Any communication outside the process requires specialized handling such as a COM component. Application domains, a concept introduced in .NET, to permit multiple applications to run in a single process. Before managed code runs, it goes through a verification procedure to establish that it will not access memory or perform an action that would cause the process to crash.

2. Cross platform: .NET can run on any browser and across multiple platforms. The best thing about .NET is developers can re-use a lot of the same code for each of these different types of applications. They will also use the same development environment and the same process for development. All of these have helped developers being more productive in the new environments much quicker than if they were forced to use different tools for each environment.

3. Reliability: The .NET Framework has proven itself to be a very robust and reliable engine in production applications. It was first released in 2002 and has been used to develop thousands of applications, large and small. .NET has many built-in checks and balances that ensure the system stays up and running. It has built classic sites from e-commerce sites to any other line of business applications.

4. Security: Security was designed into the .NET structure from the very beginning. As such the security characteristics of .NET is top notch. Even just one security flaw in an application that a hacker can take advantage of can cost a business heavy price.

5. Scalability: .NET was designed with scalability in mind. Many companies start out small but can grow very quickly. When this happens it can often put a big strain on existing IT infrastructure and the applications that run on that infrastructure. Thus as a company grows, applications can scale and support the additional load. Thus .Net application development helps one build scalable websites in quick time.

All the above, benefits millions of .Net users all over the world. Users want their websites to be highly scalable, maintain best business standards, develop highly secure environment, most reliable, cross platform oriented and manage its code perfectly. All this is possible using this effect .Net technology giving trusted business solutions.

We provide .Net development services. If you would like to discuss with an expert asp.net developer from our team, please get in touch with us at Mindfire Solutions.