Error "object reference not set to an instance of an object"
This is one of the most common errors when developing an application. In this article, I will be presenting five of the most common mistakes that result with this error and will explain how to avoid them.

Why does this error happen?
This error's description speaks for itself but when you do not have much experience in development, it is very difficult to understand. So, this error description says that an object that is being called to get or set its value has no reference. This means that you are trying to access an object that was not instantiated.

Why should I know this?
This is important in order to avoid runtime errors that could possibly expose your sensitive data and this could lead to a vulnerability breach. Vulnerability breaches are usually used by hackers for a cyber attack to steal your data or to take your server offline.

How to avoid exposing code and entities?
You must always wrap code that could possibly throw an exception inside try-catch blocks. There are others security approaches that you can use to protect your data that can be found here.

Common mistakes
Objects used in this sample.

Controller
public class HomeController : Controller 
   { 
       SampleObj sampleObj; 
       SampleChildObj sampleChild; 
       List<string> lstSample; 
       public IActionResult Index() 
       { 
           return View(); 
       } 
 
       public IActionResult About() 
       { 
           ViewData["Message"] = "Your application description page."; 
 
           return View(); 
       } 
 
       public IActionResult Contact() 
       { 
           ViewData["Message"] = "Your contact page."; 
 
           return View(); 
       } 
 
       public IActionResult Error() 
       { 
           return View(); 
       } 
       public IActionResult NewObject() 
       { 
           sampleChild.Item2 = "error"; 
           return View(); 
       } 
 
       public IActionResult ConditionStatement() 
       { 
           if (true == false) 
           { 
               sampleChild = new SampleChildObj(); 
               sampleChild.Item2 = ""; 
           } 
           else 
               sampleChild.Item2 = "error"; 
 
           return View(); 
       } 
       public IActionResult ObjectInsideObject() 
       { 
           sampleObj = new SampleObj(); 
           sampleObj.ChildObj.Item2 = "error"; 
           return View(); 
       } 
       public IActionResult AddInNullList() 
       { 
           lstSample.Add("error"); 
           return View(); 
       } 
   } 

Classes
public class SampleObj 
{ 
 
    public string Item1 { get; set; } 
    public SampleChildObj ChildObj { get; set; } 
} 
public class SampleChildObj  
{ 
    public string Item2 { get; set; } 
} 

New object not instantiated
Practical example:
Here, we have a sample situation of when we have this error.

public IActionResult NewObject() 
{ 
    sampleChild.Item2 = "error"; 
    return View(); 
} 

This happens when you create a new object but do not instantiate it before getting/setting a value.
Condition statement(if, switch)

Practical example:
Here, we have a sample situation of when we have this error,

public IActionResult ConditionStatement() 
{ 
    if (true == false) 
    { 
        sampleChild = new SampleChildObj(); 
        sampleChild.Item2 = ""; 
    } 
    else 
        sampleChild.Item2 = "error"; 
 
    return View(); 
} 

Why does this happen?
This is a very common mistake. It happens when you create an object that is going to be instantiated inside a conditional statement but forgets to instantiate it in one of the conditions and try to read/write on it.

Object Inside Object

Practical Example
Here, we have a sample situation of when we have this error:

public IActionResult ObjectInsideObject() 
{ 
    sampleObj = new SampleObj(); 
    sampleObj.ChildObj.Item2 = "error"; 
    return View(); 
} 

Why this happens?
It happens when you have an object with many child objects. So, you instantiate the main object but forget to instantiate its child before trying to get/set its value.

Add item in a null list

Practical Example
Here we have a sample situation of when we have this error,
public IActionResult AddInNullList() 
{ 
    lstSample.Add("error"); 
    return View(); 
}

Why does this happen?
When you are trying to read/write data in a list that was not instantiated before.

Important
In order to avoid exposing your data, you must always handle exceptions. Read more about how to do that here.
The items listed above are some of the most common ways to throw this type of error but there are many other situations in which we may face it. Always remember to check if your objects are instantiated before reading or writing data into them.

Best practices
Tips about commenting your code, making it more readable in order to help others developers to understand it.
Object naming practices, creating a pattern to name variables, services, methods.
Handling errors to not show sensitive data to your users.
Security tricks to protect your data.
Reading/writing data without breaking your architecture.

*I am planning to write more about common mistakes and to share tips to improve code quality. If you have any specific topic that you would like to read here, please write it below in the comments section.

• Here you can give any name to the folder and class
• Give the proper name to the class as "StudentMap"
• Make this class as sealed

• Here, you can give any name to the folder and class
• Give the proper name to the class as "StudentService"

Performance is very important; it is a major factor for the success of any web application. ASP.NET Core 3.0 includes several enhancements that scale back memory usage and improve turnout. In this blog post, I provide 10 tips to help you improve the performance of ASP.NET Core 3.0 applications by doing the following:

Avoid synchronous and use asynchronous

Try to avoid synchronous calling when developing ASP.NET Core 3.0 applications. Synchronous calling blocks the next execution until the current execution is completed. While fetching data from an API or performing operations like I/O operations or independent calling, execute the call in an asynchronous manner.

Avoid using Task.Wait and Task.Result, and try to use await. The following code shows how to do this.

public class WebHost
{
    public virtual async Task StartAsync(CancellationToken cancellationToken = default)
    { 

        // Fire IHostedService.Start
        await _hostedServiceExecutor.StartAsync(cancellationToken).ConfigureAwait(false); 

        // More setup
        await Server.StartAsync(hostingApp, cancellationToken).ConfigureAwait(false); 

        // Fire IApplicationLifetime.Started
        _applicationLifetime?.NotifyStarted(); 

        // Remaining setup
    }
}

Entity Framework 3.0 Core also provides a set of async extension methods, similar to LINQ methods, that execute a query and return results.

Asynchronous querying

Asynchronous queries avoid blocking a thread while the query is executed in the database. Async queries are important for quick, responsive client applications.

Examples:

• ToListAsync()
• ToArrayAsync()
• SingleAsync()

public async Task<List> GetBlogsAsync()
{
    using (var context = new BloggingContext())
    {
        return await context.Blogs.ToListAsync();
    }
}

Asynchronous saving

Asynchronous saving avoids a thread block while changes are written to the database. It provides DbContext.SaveChangesAsync() as an asynchronous alternative to DbContext.SaveChanges().

public static async Task AddBlogAsync(string url)
{
    using (var context = new BloggingContext())
    {
        var blogContent = new BlogContent { Url = url };
        context.Blogs.Add(blogContent);
        await context.SaveChangesAsync();
    }
}

Optimize data access

Improve the performance of an application by optimizing its data access logic. Most applications are totally dependent on a database. They have to fetch data from the database, process the data, and then display it. If it is time-consuming, then the application will take much more time to load.

Recommendations:

• Call all data access APIs asynchronously.
• Don’t try to get data that is not required in advance.
• Try to use no-tracking queries in Entity Framework Core when accessing data for read-only purposes.
• Use filter and aggregate LINQ queries (with .Where, .Select, or .Sum statements), so filtering can be performed by the database.

You can find approaches that may improve performance of your high-scale apps in the new features of EF Core 3.0.

Use response caching middleware

Middleware controls when responses are cacheable. It stores responses and serves them from the cache. It is available in the Microsoft.AspNetCore.ResponseCaching package, which was implicitly added to ASP.NET Core.

In Startup.ConfigureServices, add the Response Caching Middleware to the service collection.

public void ConfigureServices(IServiceCollection services)
{
    services.AddResponseCaching();
    services.AddRazorPages();
}

Use JSON serialization

ASP.NET Core 3.0 uses System.Text.Json for JSON serialization by default. Now, you can read and write JSON asynchronously. This improves performance better than Newtonsoft.Json. The System.Text.Json namespace provides the following features for processing JSON:

• High performance.
• Low allocation.

• Standards-compliant capabilities.

• Serializing objects to JSON text and deserializing JSON text to objects.

Reduce HTTP requests

Reducing the number of HTTP requests is one of the major optimizations. Cache the webpages and avoid client-side redirects to reduce the number of connections made to the web server.

Use the following techniques to reduce the HTTP requests:

• Use minification.
• Use bundling.
• Use sprite images.

By reducing HTTP requests, these techniques help pages load faster.

Use exceptions only when necessary

Exceptions should be rare. Throwing and catching exceptions will consume more time relative to other code flow patterns.

• Don’t throw and catch exceptions in normal program flow.

• Use exceptions only when they are needed.

Use response compression

Response compression, which compresses the size of a file, is another factor in improving performance. In ASP.NET Core, response compression is available as a middleware component.

Usually, responses are not natively compressed. This typically includes CSS, JavaScript, HTML, XML, and JSON.

• Don’t compress natively compressed assets, such as PNG files.
• Don’t compress files with a size of 150-1,000 bytes.
• Don’t compress small files; it may produce a compressed file larger than the uncompressed file.

Package: Microsoft.AspNetCore.ResponseCompression is implicitly included in ASP.NET Core apps.

The following sample code shows how to enable Response Compression Middleware for the default MIME types and compression providers.

public class Startup
{
    public void ConfigureServices(IServiceCollection services)
    {
        services.AddResponseCompression();
    }
    public void Configure(IApplicationBuilder app, IHostingEnvironment env)
    {
        app.UseResponseCompression();
    }
}

These are the providers:

• Brotli Compression Provider
• Gzip Compression Provider
• Custom providers

public void ConfigureServices(IServiceCollection services)
{
    services.AddResponseCompression(options =>
    {
        options.Providers.Add<BrotliCompressionProvider>();
        options.Providers.Add<GzipCompressionProvider>();
        options.Providers.Add<CustomCompressionProvider>();
        options.MimeTypes =
            ResponseCompressionDefaults.MimeTypes.Concat(
                new[] { "image/svg+xml" });
    });
}

HttpContext accessibility improvements

HttpContext accessibility is only valid as long as there is an active HTTP request in ASP.NET Core. Here are some suggestions for accessing HttpContext from Microsoft’s documentation:

• Don’t store IHttpContextAccessor.HttpContext in a field.
• Don’t access HttpContext from multiple threads.

• Don’t use the HttpContext after the request is complete

• Don’t capture the HttpContext in background threads

Client-side improvements

Client-side optimization is one important aspect of improving performance. When creating a website using ASP.Net Core, consider the following tips:

Bundling

Bundling combines multiple files into a single file, reducing the number of server requests. You can use multiple individual bundles in a webpage.

Minification

Minification removes unnecessary characters from code without changing any functionality, also reducing file size. After applying minification, variable names are shortened to one character and comments and unnecessary whitespace are removed.

Loading JavaScript at last

Load JavaScript files at the end. If you do that, static content will show faster, so users won’t have to wait to see the content.

Use a content delivery network

Use a content delivery network (CDN) to load static files such as images, JS, CSS, etc. This keeps your data close to your consumers, serving it from the nearest local server.

Conclusion

Now you know 10 tips to help improve the performance of ASP.NET Core 3.0 applications. I hope you can implement most of them in your development.

AutoMapper is well known in the .NET community. It bills itself as "a simple little library built to solve a deceptively complex problem - getting rid of code that maps one object to another," and it does the job nicely.

In the past, I've used it exclusively with ASP.NET APIs. However, the method for utilizing it via dependency injection has changed. So let's review how to get started, how to define mappings and how to inject our mappings into ASP.NET Core APIs.

Getting Started

Like most .NET libraries, we can install the AutoMapper package from Nuget.

Install-Package AutoMapper

For our purposes, we'll focus on two classes that are related; User and UserDTO.

public class User
{
    public Guid Id { get; set; }
    public string Name { get; set; }
    public string FavoriteFood { get; set; }
    public DateTime BirthDate { get; set; }
}

public class UserDTO
{
    public Guid Id { get; set; }
    public string Name { get; set; }
    public int BirthYear { get; set; }
}

These classes will serve as source and destination types that we can work with.

Default Mappings

Without specific configuration, AutoMapper will match properties based on their name. By default, it will ignore null reference exceptions when mapping source and destination types. Below is a snippet mapping the source and destination types using the default configuration.

var config = new MapperConfiguration(cfg => cfg.CreateMap<User, UserDTO>());

var user = new User()
{
    Id = Guid.NewGuid(),
    Name = "Wayne Curry",
    FavoriteFood = "Sushi",
    BirthDate = new DateTime(1986, 10, 12)
};

var mapper = config.CreateMapper();
UserDTO userDTO = mapper.Map<UserDTO>(user);

The above will create a UserDTO object with an Id and Name that matches the original user object, but no error is thrown as a result of not having the FavoriteFood property on the UserDTO type. Also, the BirthYear property of the UserDTO will be zero.

Custom Mappings

We can use projection to translate properties as they are mapped. For instance, the code snippet below shows how we can map the BirthDate property of the User type to the BirthYear property of the UserDTO type.

var config = new MapperConfiguration(cfg =>
    cfg.CreateMap<User, UserDTO>()
        .ForMember(dest => dest.BirthYear,
                   opt => opt.MapFrom(src => src.BirthDate.Year));

var user = new User()
{
    Id = Guid.NewGuid(),
    Name = "Wayne Curry",
    FavoriteFood = "Sushi",
    BirthDate = new DateTime(1986, 10, 12)
};

var mapper = config.CreateMapper();
UserDTO userDTO = mapper.Map<UserDTO>(user);

The resulting userDTO object will be similar to our first example, but this time it will
include the BirthYear property of 2000.

Profiles

A clean way to organize and maintain our mapping configurations is with profiles. Many times these Profile classes will encapsulate business areas (e.g. Ordering, Shipping). To start, we'll create a class that inherits from Profile and put the configuration in the constructor.

public class UserManagementProfile : Profile
{
    public UserManagementProfile()
    {
        CreateMap<User, UserDTO>()
            .ForMember(dest => dest.BirthYear,
            opt => opt.MapFrom(src => src.BirthDate.Year));

        // Configurations for other classes in this business
        // area can be included here as well, like below:

        // CreateMap<Role, RoleDTO>();
        // CreateMap<Permission, PermissionDTO>();
    }
}

For added isolation, we can create a project just for our Profile configurations. Using profiles helps us keep configurations more manageable as our application grows.

Dependency Injection

Dependency injection is baked into ASP.NET Core, but to use AutoMapper with it we'll need additional configuration and an additional Nuget package.

Install-Package AutoMapper.Extensions.Microsoft.DependencyInjection

Register AutoMapper

Once installed, we can define the configuration using profiles. In the Startup.ConfigureServices method, we can use the AddAutoMapper extension method on the IServiceCollection object as shown below:

// By Marker
services.AddAutoMapper(typeof(ProfileTypeFromAssembly1) /*, ...*/);

// or by Assembly
services.AddAutoMapper(profileAssembly1, profileAssembly2 /*, ...*/);

Inject AutoMapper

With AutoMapper registered and its configurations set, we can now inject an IMapper into our controllers.

public class UsersController
{
    private readonly IMapper _mapper;

    public UsersController(IMapper mapper) => _mapper = mapper;

    // use _mapper.Map
}

With the IMapper we can map our objects to their DTO equivalents using the .Map method.

Wrap It Up

Now that ASP.NET Core is injecting AutoMapper to our controllers, we can add configurations to our profiles or create new profiles for new business areas and still map appropriately without further configuration.

Of course, we didn't cover all of the features of AutoMapper so I'd suggest checking out their documentation for more information about their capabilities. Hopefully this post gave you enough information to start trying AutoMapper yourself. Let me know in the comments how you use AutoMapper in your applications.

This is only brief tutorial about how to use AutoMapper in Asp Net Core 3.0 application. Automapper is a very popular Object-to-Object mapping library that can be used to map objects.

How to use automapper in Asp.Net Core 3.0 application

Let’s see how to use automapper in Asp Net Core 3.0 application using a very simple example.

1. First step you need to do is please make sure you install Asp.net Core 3.0 application à Create a new project button à then choose “ASP.NET Core Web Application” template à click “Next” button and then enter your Project name. Please see the image below for further information

2. Install AutoMapper in Asp.Net Core 3.0 Application 

Now, in this step, we will install AutoMapper in our project. So, go to visual studio and then go to “Tools” from the menu and then select “NuGet Package Manager” and then choose “Manager NuGet Packages for Solution”. Now, go to “Browse” tab and then install this below package as you do see below in the screenshot.

Install-Package AutoMapper.Extensions.Microsoft.DependencyInjection

3. Configure AutoMapper in Asp.net Core 3.0 Application

Go to project folder structure, and then go to Startup class and then add some changes as you do see below in the code file’s Line # 11 and Line # 26.

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Threading.Tasks;
using Microsoft.AspNetCore.Builder;
using Microsoft.AspNetCore.Hosting;
using Microsoft.AspNetCore.HttpsPolicy;
using Microsoft.Extensions.Configuration;
using Microsoft.Extensions.DependencyInjection;
using Microsoft.Extensions.Hosting;
using AutoMapper;
namespace AspNetCore3AutoMapper
{
    public class Startup
    {
        public Startup(IConfiguration configuration)
        {
            Configuration = configuration;
        }

        public IConfiguration Configuration { get; }
        // This method gets called by the runtime. Use this method to add services to the container.
        public void ConfigureServices(IServiceCollection services)
        {
            services.AddControllersWithViews();
            services.AddAutoMapper(typeof(Startup));
        }
        // This method gets called by the runtime. Use this method to configure the HTTP request pipeline.
        public void Configure(IApplicationBuilder app, IWebHostEnvironment env)
        {
            if (env.IsDevelopment())
            {
                app.UseDeveloperExceptionPage();
            }
            else
            {
                app.UseExceptionHandler("/Home/Error");
                // The default HSTS value is 30 days. You may want to change this for production scenarios, see https://aka.ms/aspnetcore-hsts.
                app.UseHsts();
            }
            app.UseHttpsRedirection();
            app.UseStaticFiles();
            app.UseRouting();
            app.UseAuthorization();
            app.UseEndpoints(endpoints =>
            {
                endpoints.MapControllerRoute(
                    name: "default",
                    pattern: "{controller=Home}/{action=Index}/{id?}");
            });

        }
    }
}

4. Create a Model Class and Data Transfer Object Class

Now, in this step , we will create two classes. One is Model class and the other one is Dto(Data Transfer Object) class. So, go to Models’ folder and then right click on the folder name and then add a new class with the name of “Employee” and then write some properties as you do see below in the code.

public class Employee
    {
        public int Id { get; set; }
        public string Name { get; set; }
        public string Department { get; set; }
    }

Now, again add a new class with the name of “EmployeeDto” as you do see below in the file.

public class EmployeeDto
    {
        public int Id { get; set; }
        public string Name { get; set; }
        public string Department { get; set; }
    }

5. Add relation of Employee class with EmployeeDto class

Now, in this step, we will see how to add relation between a domain class and a Dto class. So, again add a new class (E.g. AutoMapping.cs) and then write some code as you do see below in the code.

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Threading.Tasks;
using AutoMapper;

namespace AspNetCoreAutoMapper.Models
{
    public class AutoMapping : Profile
    {
        public AutoMapping()
        {
            CreateMap<Employee, EmployeeDto>();
        }
    }
}

Let’s understand the above code.

Line # 9: In this line, we are inheriting AutoMapping class from Profile.

Line # 13: In this line, we are mapping our Employee and EmployeeDto Classes.

6. Map Employee class with EmployeeDto Controller

We will see how to map Employee class with EmployeeDto class within the Home Controller. So, go to HomeController and then go to Index method and then write some code as you do see below in the file.

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Diagnostics;
using System.Linq;
using System.Threading.Tasks;
using Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc;
using Microsoft.Extensions.Logging;
using AspNetCore3AutoMapper.Models;
using AutoMapper;

namespace AspNetCore3AutoMapper.Controllers
{
    public class HomeController : Controller
    {
        private readonly IMapper _mapper;
        public HomeController(IMapper mapper)
        {
            _mapper = mapper;
        }
        public IActionResult Index()
        {
            var empObj = new Employee();
            empObj.Id = 1;
            empObj.Name = "Scott";
            empObj.Department = "MM";
            var employeeDto = _mapper.Map<EmployeeDto>(empObj);
            return View(employeeDto);
        }
    }
}

Let’s understand the above code.

Line # 15 to 19: In this block of code, we are injecting IMapper interface. This will help us to use our configured mappings.

Line # 22 to 25: In this block of code, we are initializing Employee object.

Line # 26: In this line, we are using IMapper interface that we have injected into our constructor to call the Map method. And we are giving the type that we want to map and the object that we want to map from.

Line # 27: In this line, we are returning the EmployeeDto object to the view.

Now, go to Index view and access the returning values from the Index method as you do see below in the file.

@model EmployeeDto
@{
    ViewData["Title"] = "Home Page";
}
<div>
    <h1>ID: @Model.Id</h1>
    <h1>Name: @Model.Name</h1>
    <h1>Department: @Model.Department</h1>
</div>

Now, run your project by pressing f5 and then you will see the output

Or you can install this package by using this below command in Package Manager Console as you do see below in the screenshot.

If you are using AutoWrapper for generating a consistent Http response for your ASP.NET Core API's and you have some server-side applications (.NET Clients) that consume the Response, chances are you are forced to create a schema to properly deserialize the ApiResponse to your Model. The idea behind this project was based on community feedback by dazinator. It occurs to me as well that this might be a common scenario. Big thanks to dazinator!

AutoWrapper.Server is simple library that enables you unwrap the Result property of the AutoWrapper's ApiResponse object in your C# .NET Client code. The goal is to deserialize the Result object directly to your matching Model without having you to create the ApiResponse schema.

Installation
1) Download and Install the latest AutoWrapper.Server from NuGet or via CLI:
PM> Install-Package AutoWrapper.Server -Version 2.0.0 

2) Declare the following namespace in the class where you want to use it.
using AutoWrapper.Server; 

Sample Usage
[HttpGet] 
public async Task<IEnumerable<PersonDTO>> Get()   
{ 
    var client = HttpClientFactory.Create(); 
    var httpResponse = await client.GetAsync("https://localhost:5001/api/v1/persons"); 
 
    IEnumerable<PersonDTO> persons = null; 
    if (httpResponse.IsSuccessStatusCode) 
    { 
        var jsonString = await httpResponse.Content.ReadAsStringAsync(); 
        persons = Unwrapper.Unwrap<IEnumerable<PersonDTO>>(jsonString); 
    } 
 
    return persons; 
} 

If you are using the [AutoWrapperPropertyMap] to replace the default Result property to something else like Payload, then you can use the following overload method below and pass the matching property:
Unwrapper.Unwrap<IEnumerable<PersonDTO>>(jsonString, "payload"); 

Using the UnwrappingResponseHandler

Alternatively you can use the UnwrappingResponseHandler like below:
[HttpGet] 
public async Task<IEnumerable<PersonDTO>> Get()   
{ 
    var client = HttpClientFactory.Create(new UnwrappingResponseHandler()); 
    var httpResponse = await client.GetAsync("https://localhost:5001/api/v1/persons"); 
 
    IEnumerable<PersonDTO> persons = null; 
    if (httpResponse.IsSuccessStatusCode) 
    { 
        var jsonString = await httpResponse.Content.ReadAsStringAsync(); 
        persons = JsonSerializer.Deserialize<IEnumerable<PersonDTO>>(jsonString); 
    } 
 
    return persons; 
} 

You can also pass the matching property to the handler like in the following:

var client = HttpClientFactory.Create( new UnwrappingResponseHandler("payload")); 

That's it. If you used AutoWrapper or if you find this useful, please give it a star to show your support and share it to others.

When debugging I feel a need to popup values from variables. I know that Visual Studio is cool but I feel the need to use it just typing. So I design an extension method to make it easy. You can add your custom objects, or Windows objects, and make a clause to show it or not. The message is shown only in DEBUG time.

See this sample,
using System; 
using System.Net.Mail; 
using System.Windows.Forms; 
 
namespace DebugPopup 
{ 
    public partial class FrmSample : Form 
    { 
        public FrmSample() => InitializeComponent(); 
 
        private void Form1_Load(object sender, EventArgs e) 
        { 
            var eml = new MailAddress("[email protected]", "test"); 
 
            eml.PopupBox(); 
 
            var n = 0; 
 
            n.PopupBox(); 
 
            Handle.PopupBox(); 
 
            decimal.Zero.PopupBox(n==0, "n is equals zero!"); 
         
        } 
 
        private void button1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e) 
        { 
            ((Button)sender).PopupBox(); 
        } 
    } 
} 

It 's an extension method that you only need to add.PopupBox() from the Visual Studio property menu.
You can add custom types and the message will be shown only in DEBUG mode, I mean that in production there will be no message.

This is the main code,
using System.Windows.Forms; 
using System.Net.Mail; 
using System.Diagnostics; 
 
/// <summary> 
/// Author: Jefferson Saul G. Motta 
/// 10-24-2019 20:50 
/// Uses the System 
/// </summary> 
namespace System 
{ 
 
    /// <summary>   
    /// This is my real code that I make to debug easly 
    /// You can copy to .NET Core as Well 
    /// If you are debugging in a local IIS (ASP.NET WebForms) 
    /// The popup will raises too 
    /// C# 7.3 and C# 8.0 
    /// About extensions: http://www.c-sharpcorner.com/blogs/extension-method-in-c-sharp3 
    /// </summary> 
    public static class ExtensionMethodStrings 
    { 
 
         
        /// <summary> 
        /// Popup for int value 
        /// </summary> 
        /// <param name="value"></param> 
        /// <param name="showIf"></param> 
        /// <param name="message"></param> 
        /// <returns></returns> 
        public static bool PopupBox(this int value, in bool showIf = true, in string message = "") => PopupIt($"Value: {value}", showIf, message); 
         
        /// <summary> 
        /// Popup for decimal value 
        /// </summary> 
        /// <param name="value"></param> 
        /// <param name="showIf"></param> 
        /// <param name="message"></param> 
        /// <returns></returns> 
        public static bool PopupBox(this decimal value, in bool showIf = true, in string message = "") => PopupIt($"Value: {value}", showIf, message); 
         
        /// <summary> 
        /// Popup for IntPtr value 
        /// </summary> 
        /// <param name="value"></param> 
        /// <param name="showIf"></param> 
        /// <param name="message"></param> 
        /// <returns></returns> 
        public static bool PopupBox(this IntPtr value, in bool showIf = true, in string message = "") => PopupIt($"Value: {value}", showIf, message);         
         
        /// <summary> 
        /// Popup for double value 
        /// </summary> 
        /// <param name="value"></param> 
        /// <param name="showIf"></param> 
        /// <param name="message"></param> 
        /// <returns></returns> 
        public static bool PopupBox(this double value, in bool showIf = true, in string message = "") => PopupIt($"Value: {value}", showIf, message); 
         
        /// <summary> 
        /// Popup for long value 
        /// </summary> 
        /// <param name="value"></param> 
        /// <param name="showIf"></param> 
        /// <param name="message"></param> 
        /// <returns></returns> 
        public static bool PopupBox(this long value, in bool showIf = true, in string message = "") => PopupIt($"Value: {value}", showIf, message); 
         
        /// <summary> 
        /// Popup for string value 
        /// </summary> 
        /// <param name="value"></param> 
        /// <param name="showIf"></param> 
        /// <param name="message"></param> 
        /// <returns></returns> 
        public static bool PopupBox(this string value, in bool showIf = true, in string message = "") => PopupIt($"Value: {value}", showIf, message); 
         
         
        /// <summary> 
        /// Popup for string value if contem a string 
        /// </summary> 
        /// <param name="value"></param> 
        /// <param name="contem"></param> 
        /// <param name="message"></param> 
        /// <returns></returns> 
        public static bool PopupBox(this string value, in string contem, in string message = "") => PopupIt($"Value: {value}", value.ContemUpper(contem), message);         
         
        /// <summary> 
        /// Popup for bool value 
        /// </summary> 
        /// <param name="value"></param> 
        /// <param name="showIf"></param> 
        /// <param name="message"></param> 
        /// <returns></returns> 
        public static bool PopupBox(this bool value, in bool showIf = true, in string message = "") => PopupIt($"Value: {value}", showIf, message); 
 
        /// <summary> 
        /// Check if exist comparing uppper text 
        /// </summary> 
        /// <param name="value"></param> 
        /// <param name="text"></param> 
        /// <returns></returns> 
        private static bool ContemUpper(this string value, string text) => string.IsNullOrEmpty(value) || string.IsNullOrEmpty(text) ? false : value.ToUpper().IndexOf(text.ToUpper()) != -1; 
 
 
        /// <summary> 
        /// Sample 
        /// You can add another controls or objects 
        /// </summary> 
        /// <param name="button"></param> 
        /// <param name="showIf"></param> 
        /// <returns></returns> 
        public static bool PopupBox(this Button button, in bool showIf = true) => PopupIt(button.Text, showIf); 
 
        /// <summary> 
        /// Sample 
        /// You can add another controls or objects 
        /// Test with MailAddress 
        /// </summary> 
        /// <param name="eml"></param> 
        /// <param name="showIf"></param> 
        /// <returns></returns> 
        public static bool PopupBox(this MailAddress eml, in bool showIf = true) => PopupIt(eml.Address, showIf); 
 
        /// <summary> 
        /// Add the label if value not is empty 
        /// </summary> 
        /// <param name="value"></param> 
        /// <param name="label"></param> 
        /// <returns></returns> 
        private static string LabelIfNotEmpty(this string value, string label) => string.IsNullOrEmpty(value) ? "" : $"{label}:{value}"; 
 
        /// <summary> 
        /// Show popup only for DEBUG 
        /// </summary> 
        /// <param name="message"></param> 
        /// <param name="showIf"></param> 
        /// <param name="messageExtra"></param> 
        /// <returns></returns> 
        private static bool PopupIt(string message, in bool showIf = true, in string messageExtra = "") 
 
#if (DEBUG) 
        { 
            // Show popup if true 
            if (showIf) 
            { 
                Debug.WriteLine($"{messageExtra.LabelIfNotEmpty("Extra message:")}{message}"); 
             
                // Optional: 
                MessageBox.Show($"{messageExtra.LabelIfNotEmpty("Extra message:")}{message}"); 
             
            } 
            // showIf  
            return showIf; 
        } 
#else 
            // on Releases returns false 
            => false; 
 
#endif 
 
    } 
 
}

AutoWrapper 2.1.0 has been released with newly features added based on community feedback. Here are the newly features added:

• Added [AutoWrapIgnore] action filter attribute.
• Added support to override non-success message when using IActionResult return types.
• Added EnableResponseLogging and EnableExceptionLogging options to turn off auto logging.
• Added UnAuthorize and BadRequest message for HandleNotSucessAsync() method response.

Using IActionResult Return Types
AutoWrapper now supports IActionResult return types that allows you to return non successful requests such as BadRequest, NotFound, UnAuthorize and etc.
For example:
[Route("{id:long}")] 
[HttpGet] 
public async Task<IActionResult> Get(long id)   
{ 
    var person = await _personManager.GetByIdAsync(id); 
    if (person != null) 
    { 
        return Ok(person); 
    } 
    else 
        return NotFound($"Record with id: { id } does not exist."); 
} 

Another example such as:
return Unauthorized("Access token is invalid.");   
return BadRequest("SomeField is null.");   

AutoWrapIgnore Attribute
You can now use the [AutoWrapIgnore] filter attribute for enpoints that you don't want to be wrapped.
For example:
[HttpGet] 
[AutoWrapIgnore] 
public async Task<IActionResult> Get()   
{ 
    var data = await _personManager.GetAllAsync(); 
    return Ok(data); 
} 

or
[HttpGet] 
[AutoWrapIgnore] 
public async Task<IEnumerable<Person>> Get()   
{ 
    return await _personManager.GetAllAsync(); 
} 

Turn-off Default Logging
You can now turn off Logging by setting EnableResponseLogging and EnableExceptionLogging options to false in AutoWrapper options.
For example:
app.UseApiResponseAndExceptionWrapper(new AutoWrapperOptions {   
              EnableResponseLogging = false,  
              EnableExceptionLogging = false  
}); 

That's it. Feel free to request an issue on github if you find bugs or request a new feature. Your valuable feedback is much appreciated to better improve this project. If you find this useful, please give it a star to show your support for this project.

HTTP is a stateless protocol, so we need some mechanism to maintain our App State. Server Side Session has been a way to maintain our state on the server side. In this article we'll see what differences ASP.NET Core has introduced regarding SESSION.

We'll quickly discuss how we used to use Sessions before ASP.NET Core and then we'll see how to access Sessions in ASP.NET Core.

Session In Pre-ASP.NET Core era
You get Session functionality by default (without adding any package)
Previously, you would have accessed Session by -

    Session variable in your Controllers/Forms
    System.Web.HttpContext.Current.Session in places where you don't have direct access to the Session variable.

Anything you store in session is stored as Object. You store values in Key/Value format.

    Session["mydata"] = 10;  

Or to access on those places where Session is not available (e.g. Non-Controller classes)

    System.Web.HttpContext.Current.Session["mydata"] = 10;  

Quite difficult to mock Session Object for Unit Testing

Session in ASP.NET Core 2.2
Now, Session is not available by default.
You need to add the following package. Meta package by default provides you this.

    <PackageReference Include="Microsoft.AspNetCore.Session" Version="2.2.0" /> 
In Startup.ConfigureServices, you need to add the following to register services with DI Container.
    services.AddDistributedMemoryCache();//To Store session in Memory, This is default implementation of IDistributedCache   
    services.AddSession(); 

In Startup.Configure, you need to add the following (before UseMVC) to add Session Middleware.

    app.UseCookiePolicy();     
    app.UseSession();     
    app.UseMvc(routes =>   

Make sure the following is also there (It is added by default when you use ASP.NET Core MVC Template).

    app.UseCookiePolicy();  

ASP.NET Core 2.2 onwards adds Cookie Consent (true) in the Startup file. When an application runs, the user needs to accept Cookie Consent on screen. When the user accepts the policy on the page, it creates a consent cookie. It is to follow GDPR and to give control to the user if the user wants to store cookies from a site or not. If the user doesn't accept that, Session does not work because Session requires a cookie to send/receive session Id. You may face this issue while working with ASP.NET Core MVC default template.

How to access Session in Controller?
You will notice that you don't have "Session" variable available now. Controller now has a property "HttpContext" which has "Session" variable. So, you can access session in controller by using the following code.

var a = this.HttpContext.Session.GetString("login");   
HttpContext.Session.SetString("login", dto.Login); 

How to access Session in Non-Controller class?

Now, you don't have System.Web.HttpContext.Current.Session in ASP.NET Core. To access session in non-controller class -

First, register the following service in Startup.ConfigureServices;

    services.AddSingleton<IHttpContextAccessor, HttpContextAccessor>(); 

Now, register a class (example - TestManager) where you want to access the Session in Startup.ConfigureServices;
    services.AddScoped<TestManager>(); 
Note
You may use AddTransient or AddSingleton according to your logic.

Now, in TestManager class, add the following code.
    private readonly IHttpContextAccessor _httpContextAccessor;   
    private readonly ISession _session;   
    public TestManager(IHttpContextAccessor httpContextAccessor)   
       {   
            _httpContextAccessor = httpContextAccessor;   
            _session = _httpContextAccessor.HttpContext.Session;   
        } 

The above code is receiving IHttpContextAccessor object through dependency injection and then, it is storing Sessions in a local variable.

How to access Session in View file?

Add the following at the top of your View file.
@using Microsoft.AspNetCore.Http   
@inject IHttpContextAccessor httpContextAccessor  

Then, you may access the Session variable in your View like following.
@httpContextAccessor.HttpContext.Session.GetString("login")  

What else is changed regarding Session?

Session is non-locking now.
A session is not created until you have at least one value in it
You need to use functions to get & set data. Array syntax is not supported now.
Now, ISession only provides Get & Set method which takes & returns data in Byte Array format.
If you want to store data in the String format, you may add the following in your file and use extension methods.
    using Microsoft.AspNetCore.Http;  
It exposes the new extension methods.
    SetInt32   
    GetInt32   
    SetString   
    GetString   
Under the hood, these covert the data into bytes.

You may also write your own extension methods. For example, the following Extension Methods help you store & retrieve any complex type.
    public static class SessionExtensions       
        {       
            public static void Set<T>(this ISession session, string key, T value)       
            {       
                session.Set<(key, JsonConvert.SerializeObject(value));       
            }       
           
            public static T GetObject<T>(this ISession session, string key)       
            {       
                var value = session.GetString(key);       
                return value == null ? default(T) : JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<T>(value);       
            }       
        }  

In the next article, we'll learn about SESSION Wrapper Design Pattern.

Summary
Session concepts are similar to what we've seen in earlier .NET Frameworks. The real difference is that now, it is cleaner & more flexible to use.
 

At the past few years, we have discussed about common error that you can find when published .NET Core, the most common error is 502.5 – process failure error.

Startup errors with ASP.NET Core don’t provide much information either, at least not in a production environment. Here are 7 tips for understanding and fixing those errors.

1. There are two types of startup errors.

There are unhandled exceptions originating outside of the Startup class, and exceptions from inside of Startup. These two error types can produce different behavior and may require different troubleshooting techniques.

2. ASP.NET Core will handle exceptions from inside the Startup class.

If code in the ConfigureServices or Configure methods throw an exception, the framework will catch the exception and continue execution.

Although the process continues to run after the exception, every incoming request will generate a 500 response with the message “An error occurred while starting the application”.

Two additional pieces of information about this behavior:

- If you want the process to fail in this scenario, call CaptureStartupErrors on the web host builder and pass the value false.

- In a production environment, the “error occurred” message is all the information you’ll see in a web browser. The framework follows the practice of not giving away error details in a response because error details might give an attacker too much information. You can change the environment setting using the environment variable ASPNETCORE_ENVIRONMENT, but see the next two tips first. You don’t have to change the entire environment to see more error details.

3. Set detailedErrors in code to see a stack trace.

The following bit of code allows for detailed error message, even in production, so use with caution.

public static IWebHostBuilder CreateWebHostBuilder(string[] args) =>
    WebHost.CreateDefaultBuilder(args)
           .CaptureStartupErrors(true) // the default
           .UseSetting("detailedErrors", "true")
           .UseStartup<Startup>();

4. Alternatively, set the ASPNETCORE_DETAILEDERRORS environment variable.

Set the value to true and you’ll also see a stack trace, even in production, so use with caution.

5. Unhandled exceptions outside of the Startup class will kill the process.

Perhaps you have code inside of Program.cs to run schema migrations or perform other initialization tasks which fail, or perhaps the application cannot bind to the desired ports. If you are running behind IIS, this is the scenario where you’ll see a generic 502.5 Process Failure error message.

These types of errors can be a bit more difficult to track down, but the following two tips should help.

6. For IIS, turn on standard output logging in web.config.

If you are carefully logging using other tools, you might be able to capture output there, too, but if all else fails, ASP.NET will write exception information to stdout by default. By turning the log flag to true, and creating the output directory, you’ll have a file with exception information and a stack trace inside to help track down the problem.

The following shows the web.config file created by dotnet publish and is typically the config file in use when hosting .NET Core in IIS. The attribute to change is the stdoutLogEnabled flag.

<system.webServer>
  <handlers>
    <add name="aspNetCore" path="*" verb="*" modules="AspNetCoreModule" resourceType="Unspecified" />

  </handlers>
  <aspNetCore processPath="dotnet" arguments=".\codes.dll"
              stdoutLogEnabled="true" stdoutLogFile=".\logs\stdout" />
</system.webServer>

Important: Make sure to create the logging output directory.

Important: Make sure to turn logging off after troubleshooting is complete.

7. Use the dotnet CLI to run the application on your server.

If you have access to the server, it is sometimes easier to go directly to the server and use dotnet to witness the exception in real time. There’s no need to turn on logging or set and unset environment variables.

Summary

Debugging startup errors in ASP.NET Core is a simple case of finding the exception. In many cases, #7 is the simplest approach that doesn’t require code or environment changes. FYI, we also have support latest ASP.NET Core on our hosting environment. Feel free to visit our site at https://www.hostforlife.eu.