Simplifying JWT Authentication in Development with ‘dotnet user-jwts’

When developing secure APIs in ASP.NET Core, implementing authentication can often slow down the development cycle, especially when integrating with full-fledged identity providers like Auth0 or Azure AD. Fortunately, starting with .NET 7, Microsoft introduced a powerful CLI tool that streamlines this process: dotnet user-jwts. In this post, we'll explore what dotnet user-jwts is, how … Continue reading Simplifying JWT Authentication in Development with ‘dotnet user-jwts’ →

Using Code Cleanup Profiles in Visual Studio

In Visual Studio 2022, the Code Cleanup Profiles feature is a great way to automate code formatting and clean-up operations using predefined or custom rules. By using cleanup profiles, you can make all of the changes in one operation and free yourself from updating lots of code files manually. Here's a detailed explanation of how … Continue reading Using Code Cleanup Profiles in Visual Studio →

create-guid: Simple CLI Tool for Generating GUIDs

In modern software development, GUIDs (Globally Unique Identifiers) are used everywhere: from identifying database records and correlation tokens to generating unique keys for distributed systems. While System.Guid.NewGuid() is the standard way to generate GUIDs in .NET, there are scenarios where you want a tool that gives you quick and scriptable access to GUIDs from the … Continue reading create-guid: Simple CLI Tool for Generating GUIDs →

Using NullLogger and a FakeLogger in Your .NET Tests

While I was working on a .NET WebApi Logging middleware component, I realized that I needed some unit tests to verify that the Logging middleware was actually working as intended. I started down the usual path of installing a mocking library in my test project so that I could mock the logger. But then I … Continue reading Using NullLogger and a FakeLogger in Your .NET Tests →

Is ASP.NET WebApi Pipeline Already a Mediator?

As we discussed in earlier posts, the Mediator and Command are patterns that can be implemented in different way. And those patterns already exist in many coding frameworks. As a matter of fact, the ASP.NET WebApi request pipeline can be considered a Mediator and Command implementation, especially when building MinimalApi. Remember that a Mediator encapsulates … Continue reading Is ASP.NET WebApi Pipeline Already a Mediator? →

Getting Started with D20Tek.Mediator Package

There are a few Mediator and Command implementations in the .NET ecosystem. The most popular one has been Mediatr. But with the recent announcement that Mediatr is moving to a commercial license, many developers looking for alternatives. In an attempt to support the .NET community, I am building a simplified Mediator and Command library that … Continue reading Getting Started with D20Tek.Mediator Package →

Using the with Expression on Classes

Just today I learned that the with expression in C# is not limited to records. It can also be used with classes, as long as the class is defined with the with expression requirements. And what are the requirements to work with the with expression? Requirements for with expressions to work: The type must be … Continue reading Using the with Expression on Classes →

Setting up WebApi Sample Project

In many of our future articles, we will be using ASP.NET MinimalApi project to show how the Mediator library can be used. So in this article, we will discuss how to create WebApi projects in Visual Studio. Create the WebApi Project If you don't already have a WebApi project, please create a new one called … Continue reading Setting up WebApi Sample Project →

Understanding the Mediator and Command Patterns: Theory, Use Cases, and Trade-offs

In the world of software design, decoupling is a recurring goal. Systems built from loosely coupled components are more maintainable, testable, and scalable. But we still want to balance that with being easy to use in simple scenarios. Two design patterns that often work well together to achieve this are the Mediator and Command patterns. … Continue reading Understanding the Mediator and Command Patterns: Theory, Use Cases, and Trade-offs →

How-To: Create Blazor Dark-Mode App with Bootstrap 5.3

Many web applications today support dark-mode display because users (and especially developers) enough the benefit of reading content with a dark background. Blazor apps that are built with Bootstrap 5.3 can easily support dark mode in their applications. In this article, we will only focus on defaulting the application to dark-model... a future article will … Continue reading How-To: Create Blazor Dark-Mode App with Bootstrap 5.3 →