In today’s fast-paced digital landscape, developers are continually seeking innovative solutions to create powerful and efficient web applications. With the rise of Blazor, a framework that leverages the capabilities of .NET for building interactive web UIs, the introduction of .NET 9 marks a significant milestone in enhancing this development journey. Packed with new features and optimizations, .NET 9 not only improves application performance but also elevates developer productivity. This article delves into the key enhancements within .NET 9, illustrating how they can transform your Blazor projects and empower you to deliver exceptional user experiences across various platforms.

Performance and Productivity Improvements

.NET 9 introduces a suite of productivity enhancements designed to streamline the development process and improve application performance.

Central to these improvements is the refinement of Just-In-Time (JIT) compilation, which now boasts smarter optimization strategies that dynamically adapt to application workloads. This means that JIT can better identify and compile frequently executed code paths, leading to reduced execution times and improved runtime efficiency.

Additionally, enhancements in garbage collection algorithms contribute to more effective memory management, minimizing latency and ensuring that applications can handle larger workloads without compromising performance.

The overall developer experience is further enriched through improved tooling support, including enhanced diagnostics and profiling features that provide deeper insights into application behavior.

With these enhancements, .NET 9 empowers developers to create high-performing applications more efficiently, reducing time spent on performance tuning and allowing for a greater focus on delivering business value.

Expanded AOT (Ahead-of-Time) Compilation

Ahead-of-Time (AOT) compilation, previously limited in its capabilities, has seen significant enhancements in .NET 9, providing developers with a powerful tool for optimizing application performance.

This feature allows the compilation of applications into native code prior to runtime, resulting in dramatically reduced cold start times, which is particularly beneficial for applications deployed in cloud and containerized environments where quick initialization is critical.

The expanded support for native AOT in .NET 9 means that developers can create more efficient executables that not only load faster but also consume fewer resources during startup.

This improvement is complemented by enhancements in garbage collection, which help minimize the application’s memory footprint and bolster overall stability, especially under high-demand scenarios.

By leveraging AOT compilation, .NET 9 enables developers to build applications that are not only performant but also more reliable, paving the way for seamless user experiences and optimized resource utilization across diverse deployment landscapes.

Blazor Hybrid and .NET MAUI Templates

Blazor continues to grow in popularity, and .NET 9 enhances this trend by introducing new templates that facilitate the development of hybrid applications leveraging .NET MAUI (Multi-platform App UI).

This hybrid approach enables developers to seamlessly combine web and native capabilities, allowing for the creation of cross-platform applications that run on Windows, macOS, iOS, and Android from a single codebase.

By integrating Blazor components directly into .NET MAUI applications, developers can reuse existing UI components, leveraging the rich ecosystem of Blazor while taking advantage of the native performance and access to device APIs provided by MAUI.

This synergy significantly simplifies the development process, reducing the time and effort required to build and maintain applications across different platforms.

Additionally, .NET 9 introduces enhanced tooling support, making it easier to manage project structures, configure layouts, and deploy applications. With these advancements, developers can create engaging user experiences that feel native to each platform while retaining the flexibility and power of web technologies, ultimately driving increased productivity and innovation in application development.

Database Enhancements

.NET 9 introduces significant improvements in database access that enhance the development experience for Blazor applications, streamlining data interactions and optimizing performance.

One of the key enhancements is the integration of new features in Entity Framework Core, which now offers more efficient query execution and better support for asynchronous programming patterns. This allows developers to write cleaner, more responsive code that effectively handles data access without blocking the user interface.

Additionally, .NET 9 enhances support for various database providers, making it easier to connect to SQL Server, SQLite, and even NoSQL databases like Cosmos DB. The new capabilities include improved connection pooling and batching, which reduce the overhead of establishing database connections and allow for more efficient execution of multiple commands in a single round trip to the database.

Blazor also benefits from these enhancements through its ability to leverage data access components that directly integrate with the Blazor lifecycle, allowing for more straightforward data binding and state management.

With the introduction of new data retrieval patterns, such as streamlined support for Data Transfer Objects (DTOs), developers can easily structure data interactions, making it simpler to manage data transformations between the client and server.

// define the dto: simplified version of the product entity
public record struct ProductDTO(
    int Id,
    string Name,
    decimal Price
)
{ }

// fetch data and map it to dto
public class ProductService
{
    private readonly ApplicationDbContext _context;

    public ProductService(ApplicationDbContext context)
    {
        _context = context;
    }

    public async Task<List<ProductDTO>> GetProductsAsync()
    {
        return await _context.Products
            .Select(product => new ProductDTO
            {
                Id = product.Id,
                Name = product.Name,
                Price = product.Price
            })
            .ToListAsync();
    }
}

// inject service into Blazor Component
@page "/products"
@inject ProductService ProductService

<h3>Products</h3>

<ul>
    @if (products != null)
    {
        foreach (var product in products)
        {
            <li>@product.Name - @product.Price.ToString("C")</li>
        }
    }
</ul>

@code {
    private List<ProductDTO> products;

    protected override async Task OnInitializedAsync()
    {
        products = await ProductService.GetProductsAsync();
    }
}

Benefits of Data Transfer Objects include:

• Separation of Concerns: Separates the domain model from the data that is sent to the client, making it easier to change your database structure without affecting the API.
• Reduced Payload: DTOs are lightweight and can help reduce the size of the payload sent over the network.
• Simplified Mapping: DTOs simplifies data transformations and can improve code readability and maintainability.

Overall, these database access improvements in .NET 9 provide developers with the tools to build high-performance Blazor applications that can handle complex data interactions seamlessly, ultimately enhancing both productivity and user experience.

Native AOT for ASP.NET Core

Native AOT (Ahead-of-Time) compilation support has been significantly extended to ASP.NET Core in .NET 9, offering developers new opportunities for optimizing their applications. \

By compiling applications into native code ahead of time, this feature reduces the overall size of the deployment package, resulting in smaller binaries that are quicker to transfer and deploy, which is particularly advantageous for cloud-native applications that rely on agility and scalability.

This reduction in size not only enhances deployment speed but also minimizes the memory footprint during runtime, leading to improved resource utilization in cloud environments where efficiency is paramount.

Additionally, the enhanced startup performance achieved through native AOT compilation translates to faster response times for end-users, as applications are ready to handle requests almost immediately after launch.

This improvement is crucial for applications that experience variable workloads, as it allows for rapid scaling in response to user demand without compromising performance.

Furthermore, the support for native AOT compilation in ASP.NET Core aligns with modern development practices, enabling developers to create high-performance, lightweight applications that seamlessly integrate with cloud infrastructure, ultimately contributing to a more responsive and resilient application ecosystem.

Ask me why I love Blazor

As we navigate the evolving world of web development, the advancements in Blazor and .NET 9 provide an invaluable toolkit for developers aiming to build high-performance, cross-platform applications.

From significant improvements in application startup times and memory efficiency through native AOT compilation to enhanced database access features that streamline data management, .NET 9 empowers developers to create robust and scalable applications.

By embracing these new capabilities, developers can not only meet the demands of modern users but also foster innovation and efficiency within their teams. The future of web development is bright with Blazor and .NET 9, and now is the perfect time to leverage these tools to elevate your applications to new heights.