Daily Blog Post: May 14th, 2023

May 14th, 2023

Adding Functionality to Your Web Application Using C# and ASP.NET Core: A Step-by-Step Guide

In this post, we will explore how to add more functionality to our web application using C#.

Step 1: Understanding ASP.NET Core

ASP.NET Core is a modern, open-source framework for building web applications using C#. It is designed to be fast, modular, and cross-platform, meaning you can develop and deploy ASP.NET Core applications on Windows, Linux, and macOS.

Some of the key features of ASP.NET Core include:

Razor Pages: A lightweight, easy-to-use framework for building web pages using C# and HTML.
MVC: A powerful framework for building scalable, maintainable web applications using the Model-View-Controller (MVC) pattern.
Web APIs: A framework for building RESTful APIs using C# and JSON.
Middleware: A set of components that can be added to an ASP.NET Core application to handle cross-cutting concerns such as authentication, caching, and logging.

Step 2: Adding Functionality to our Web Application

Let's add some functionality to our web application. In this example, we will add a form that allows users to add new items to a list.

Create a new model class. Right-click on the "Models" folder and select "Add" > "Class". Name the class "Item" and add the following properties:

public class Item
{
    public int Id { get; set; }
    public string Name { get; set; }
    public string Description { get; set; }
}

Create a new controller. Right-click on the "Controllers" folder and select "Add" > "Controller". Name the controller "ItemController". Add the following code to the controller:

public class ItemController : Controller
{
    private readonly List _items = new List();

    public IActionResult Index()
    {
        return View(_items);
    }

    [HttpGet]
    public IActionResult Create()
    {
        return View();
    }

    [HttpPost]
    public IActionResult Create(Item item)
    {
        item.Id = _items.Count + 1;
        _items.Add(item);
        return RedirectToAction("Index");
    }
}

Create a new view. Right-click on the "Views" folder and select "Add" > "Folder". Name the folder "Item". Right-click on the "Item" folder and select "Add" > "View". Name the view "Create". Add the following code to the view:

@model Item

<form asp-action="Create" method="post">
    <div>
        <label asp-for="Name"></label>
        <input asp-for="Name" />
    </div>
    <div>
        <label asp-for="Description"></label>
        <textarea asp-for="Description"></textarea>
    </div>
    <button type="submit">Add Item</button>
</form>

Update the "Index" view. Open the "Index.cshtml" file in the "Views/Item" folder and add the following code:

<a asp-action="Create">Add Item</a>

<ul>
@foreach (var item in Model)
{
    <li>@item.Name - @item.Description</li>
}
</ul>

Run the application. Press F5 to start debugging. Navigate to the "Item" page and click the "Add Item" link. Fill out the form and click "Add Item". The new item should be added to the list.

Congratulations! You have added functionality to your web application using C# and ASP.NET Core. In the next post, we will explore how to deploy your web application to a hosting provider.