The Monsters Weekly - Episode 16 - 'Logging Basics in ASP.NET Core'

So, you’re planning on sending your app out into the wild. Have you thought about what is going to happen when things go sideways? How will you recover when the excrement hits the oscillating device? Without having a reliable way to track down what went wrong, you’ll be in the weeds for sure, but logging will help set things right.

The Monsters Weekly - Episode 16 - 'Logging Basics in ASP.NET Core'

So, you’re planning on sending your app out into the wild. Have you thought about what is going to happen when things go sideways? How will you recover when the excrement hits the oscillating device? Without having a reliable way to track down what went wrong, you’ll be in the weeds for sure, but logging will help set things right.

In a departure from previous iterations in MVC, the default template is set up and ready to go for logging. Your project will give you fairly detailed information out of the box at a framework level, and all you need is a few small tweaks (and to lean on DI a little bit) to get logging going in your controllers.

Do you have questions? Yeah, so do we! Start a conversation below and we’ll learn together as we go.

The Monsters Weekly - Episode 15 - 'ASP.NET Core on Docker'

Ah, at last we get to running ASP.NET Core on a Docker image! In this episode the monsters start up their simple ASP.NET Core application inside of a docker container running on a virtualized Linux environment. Learn what goes into a Docker file and how Docker Machine makes all this possible on Windows.

The Monsters Weekly - Episode 15 - 'ASP.NET Core on Docker'

Ah, at last we get to running ASP.NET Core on a Docker image! In this episode the monsters start up their simple ASP.NET Core application inside of a docker container running on a virtualized Linux environment. Learn what goes into a Docker file and how Docker Machine makes all this possible on Windows.

You can read more about Docker at http://www.docker.com/ where you can also download Docker Machine. If you’re feeling super adventerous then you could even run on a Raspberry Pi running Linux by using the image at https://hub.docker.com/r/rootdevelop/rpi-aspnetcore/. Finally the ever interesting Scott Hanselman has a slightly dated post on ASP.NET Core on docker on his blog

As always if you have questions please do post them below.

What is Middleware Anyway?

If you spend a bit of time around the net ASP.NET Core there is a word you’re going to hear thrown around a bunch and that is “middleware”. I find middleware to be a confusing term which doesn’t mean anything or perhaps means everything. Let’s figure out what middleware means and what sorts of middleware we can slot into ASP.NET Core.

Middleware sits between two pieces of software which talk with one another piece. It is responsible for connecting the softwares together and may intercede to alter the communication or even intercept it. I know what you’re thinking: that’s a super vague definition, by that definition almost everything is middleware. Yep. See why I consider the term to be so confusing? The software we use these days is hugely abstracted and there are a lot of layers. Any of these layers in between are middleware.

Middleware as a hamburger

The Monsters Weekly - Episode 13 - 'Basics of .NET Core'

What is the .NET framework and what does each part do? How does .NET Core differ from the full framework. In this episode monster Simon talks, at a high level about how the bits of the framework fit together. We also talk about why there are so many packages in your solution now and what advantage that gives you over the old monolithic approach to the .NET framework.

The Monsters Weekly - Episode 14 - 'Docker'

Wait, isn’t this the ASP.net Monsters and not the Docker Monsters? It is but Docker and containers in general are going to be a big thing in the next few years and the ASP.NET rewrite has come just in time for them. In this episode monster Simon takes us through what docker is and what it is going to mean for development in the coming years.

The Monsters Weekly - Episode 13 - 'Basics of .NET Core'

What is the .NET framework and what does each part do? How does .NET Core differ from the full framework. In this episode monster Simon talks, at a high level about how the bits of the framework fit together. We also talk about why there are so many packages in your solution now and what advantage that gives you over the old monolithic approach to the .NET framework.

The Monsters Weekly - Episode 14 - 'Docker'

Wait, isn’t this the ASP.net Monsters and not the Docker Monsters? It is but Docker and containers in general are going to be a big thing in the next few years and the ASP.NET rewrite has come just in time for them. In this episode monster Simon takes us through what docker is and what it is going to mean for development in the coming years.

The Monsters Weekly - Episode 12 - 'Dependency Injection in ASP.NET Core'

What is dependency injection, and how can it be leveraged in your project? Monster James walks through the setup in an application as it is configured in the default project in ASP.NET Core and MVC Core in this episode of the Monsters Weekly.