Program individual web applications with Blazor now even cheaper

Blazor WebAssembly runs C# code in the browser

Almost exactly 20 years ago, Microsoft released the .NET framework for the first time, fulfilling the wishes of numerous developers. Now they could finally develop web applications using Microsoft technologies.

In the meantime, the .NET framework has asserted itself as one of the leading platforms for developing web applications. These are mainly created with ASP.Net MVC and the C# programming language. With .NET Core, Microsoft supports not only Windows but also Linux and MacOS, i.e. practically all currently relevant operating systems.

The principle of a web application has hardly changed for a long time. On the server side, a web page is generated in HTML and a browser displays it (GET). When the user has entered data and clicks on a button, this data is sent to the server (POST). Only the technologies used to generate and vary these web pages have continuously evolved.

In addition, there has been an increasing amount of active content for many years. This is mainly program code that is executed client-side in the browser. The leading programming language is JavaScript with its derivative TypeScript. These enable developers to create so-called single page applications (SPA). With SPAs, data is exchanged with the server via active content, without the current web page being reloaded altogether. In addition, active content can be used to show and hide parts of the web page or to redesign it almost at will.

Modern SPAs offer at least as much convenience as desktop applications and have thus made a significant contribution to the success of web applications. To this day, however, programming such web applications is demanding. Developers have to master two programming languages, e.g. C# and JavaScript.

Only one programming language required

With Blazor, Microsoft now offers a technology for programming active content with C#. In principle, the same effects can now be achieved with this as with JavaScript. The advantages are obvious: The programmer only needs to know one programming language. In addition, programming with Visual Studio is optimally supported. In order to be able to continue using existing JavaScript libraries, these can be integrated into Blazor.

The programs created with Blazor WebAssembly are translated into so-called intermediate code, which is then translated into web assembly code (a kind of machine code) in the virtual environment of the browser and executed. The process is thus similar to .NET program code that runs on Windows or Linux, for example. This means that, in principle, any programs can be executed within the browser. However, due to the system architecture, there are some limitations – as with JavaScript, by the way. For security reasons, the programs executed in the browser are run in a sandbox and have no access to the local resources of the client system. Thus, for example, these programs cannot access connected devices such as printers, nor can they access the local hard disks.

Component-oriented structure of websites

Another advantage of Blazor WebAssembly is the component-oriented structure of web pages. Each element is regarded as a component and can communicate with the subordinate and superordinate components via data bindings. This results in high productivity advantages with programming, because the structure takes place modularly with the help of again-usable components.

Uniform programming language for all platforms

Beside Blazor WebAssembly Microsoft offers also Blazor server.

Microsoft plans still further profitable innovations for the future. For example, in the future it should also be possible to develop apps for Android and iOS as well as desktop applications for Windows with Blazor. Then we will finally have a uniform development environment and a uniform programming language for all platforms.

Programming individual web applications with Blazor now even more affordable: Blazor significantly simplifies the programming of modern web applications. trinidat passes on the savings made during the development of individual software one-to-one to its customers. This means that software can become cheaper. Or the savings are invested in better features, resulting in even better software.