A few months back, we got to try out the beta of ASP.NET Core 2.1.0 and it was a pretty decent upgrade, which would bring forth some much anticipated changes to the ASP.NET development services sector. The beta focused more on functional testing of MVC applications. It can create packages for in-memory testing. 

Let’s take a look at what ASP.NET Core 2.1 has to offer.

Features of ASP.NET Core 2.1

ASP.NET development still retains its value in the global market, and has been consistently increasing in demand establishing itself as one of the most popular Microsoft technology solutions till date. The Core 2.1 is expected to increase its popularity and use even further. 

The highlight feature is the inclusion of a Nuget package called AspNetCore.Mvc.Testing, which facilitates much more reliable testing of MVC applications for developers. The Nuget package places a copy of the .deps file from a project into a test assembly bin folder. 

The WebApplicationTestFixture<TStartup> capability is provided to facilitate app bootstrap on TestServer.

Other major features include:

• Razor class libraries - Now developers can use Razor to build views and pages into reusable class libraries. There will also be support for areas for partitioning large MVC applications into smaller groups, with each group having its own views and controllers. 
  
• SignalR - The ASP.NET SignalR library is ported to ASP.NET Core adding real-time web capabilities to ASP.NET Core apps.
  
• HTTPS - It will be enabled by default and would be easily configurable in production. 
  
• GDPR compliance - Project templates will now have extension points to meet GDPR requirements.
  
• IHttpClientFactory - Developers will be able to configure HttpClient instances in an application.
  
• Generic host builder - Generic host infrastructure has been separated from HTTP with support for configuration, DI, and logging.
  
• Kestrel HTTP server upgrade - The server will be supported by new socket type-based transport in .NET, along with libuv transport. The new transport will perform better than libuv as well.
  
• Identity UI library - Developers can now add customizable identity to any app.
  

Conclusion

ASP.NET has proven its worth across various development sectors including Agile software development services sector and custom web app development sector. The Core 2.1 upgrade not only adds more features to the framework but also signifies Microsoft’s relentless support to make its technologies better than ever for developers. The ASP.NET Core 2.1.0 is available for use on Azure App Service now.