PUBLISHED BY

Microsoft Developer Division, .NET, and Visual Studio product teams

A division of Microsoft Corporation

One Microsoft Way

Redmond, Washington 98052-6399

Copyright © 2020 by Microsoft Corporation

All rights reserved. No part of this book’s contents may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or
by any means without the written permission of the publisher.

This book is provided “as-is” and expresses the author’s views and opinions. The views, opinions, and
information expressed in this book, including URL and other Internet website references, may change
without notice.

Some examples depicted herein are provided for illustration only and are fictitious. No real association
or connection is intended or should be inferred.

Microsoft and the trademarks listed at https://www.microsoft.com on the “Trademarks” webpage are
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All other marks and logos are property of their respective owners.

Authors:

Steve “ardalis” Smith, Software Architect and Trainer - Ardalis.com

Participants and Reviewers:

Nish Anil, Senior Program Manager, .NET team, Microsoft

Mike Rousos, Principal Software Engineer, .NET team, Microsoft

Scott Addie, Senior Content Developer, .NET team, Microsoft

David Pine, Senior Content Developer, .NET team, Microsoft

Version
This guide covers .NET Core 3.1 and updates related to the same technology “wave” (that is, Azure
and other third-party technologies) coinciding in time with the .NET Core 3.1 release. Updating from
.NET Core 3.1 to .NET 5.0 (the next version) is relatively straightforward and certainly will require
substantially less effort than porting from .NET Framework to .NET Core. Migrating from .NET
Framework 4.x to .NET 5.0 will be similar to migrating to .NET Core 3.1. For more information, see
choosing the right .NET Core version.

Who should use this guide

This guide’s audience is developers, development leads, and architects who are interested in
migrating their existing apps written for ASP.NET MVC and Web API (.NET Framework 4.x) to .NET
Core. ASP.NET Web Forms developers will benefit from this guide but should also read the Blazor for
ASP.NET Web Forms Developers e-book.

A secondary audience is technical decision-makers planning when to move their apps to .NET Core.

The target audience for this book is .NET developers with large, existing apps that run on ASP.NET
MVC and Web API. Apps built on ASP.NET Web Forms are outside of the focus of this book, though
much of the information comparing .NET Framework and .NET Core may still be relevant.

How you can use this guide

You can read this book straight through, as we expect many readers to do. This book will provide you
first with considerations for whether you should port your app at all. That content is followed by
architectural differences between .NET Framework and .NET Core. From there, you’ll learn strategies
for migrating a large solution over time and how to port a real app. Next, the book includes
deployment scenarios that address the need to run different apps while appearing as a single app to
users. The book concludes with two case studies describing real apps that have migrated from
ASP.NET MVC to ASP.NET Core.

Whether or not you choose to start from the first chapter, you can reference any of these chapters to
learn about specific concepts:

• Architectural differences
• Migrate large solutions
• Sample migration
• Deployment scenarios
This guide is available both in PDF form and online. Feel free to forward this document or links to its
online version to your team to ensure a common understanding of these concepts.

Send your feedback

This book and related samples are constantly evolving, so your feedback is welcomed! If you have
comments about how this book can be improved, use the feedback section at the bottom of any page
built on GitHub issues.
Contents
Introduction to porting apps to .NET Core........................................................................... 1
References .................................................................................................................................................................................. 1

Migration considerations ...................................................................................................................................................... 2

Is migration to .NET Core appropriate? ..................................................................................................................... 2

When is .NET Framework appropriate? ...................................................................................................................... 3

References .............................................................................................................................................................................. 4

Migrate to ASP.NET Core 2.1 .............................................................................................................................................. 4

Should apps run on .NET Framework with ASP.NET Core 2.1 ........................................................................... 4

References .............................................................................................................................................................................. 5

Choose the right .NET Core version ................................................................................................................................. 5

References .............................................................................................................................................................................. 5

Strategies for migrating incrementally ............................................................................................................................ 5

Migrating layer by layer .................................................................................................................................................... 6

Migrating slice by slice...................................................................................................................................................... 6

References .............................................................................................................................................................................. 7

Strategies for migrating ASP.NET Web Forms apps .................................................................................................. 7

Separate business logic and other concerns............................................................................................................ 7

Implement client behavior and web APIs .................................................................................................................. 7

Consider Blazor .................................................................................................................................................................... 7

Summary ................................................................................................................................................................................. 8

References .............................................................................................................................................................................. 8

Deployment strategies........................................................................................................................................................... 8

Cross-platform options ..................................................................................................................................................... 8

Cloud native development .............................................................................................................................................. 8

Leverage containers ........................................................................................................................................................... 8

Side-by-side deployment options ................................................................................................................................ 9

IIS on Windows .................................................................................................................................................................... 9

Other options on Windows ............................................................................................................................................. 9

i Contents
 References .............................................................................................................................................................................. 9

Additional migration resources .......................................................................................................................................... 9

Official documentation ..................................................................................................................................................... 9

GitHub .................................................................................................................................................................................. 10

Stack Overflow .................................................................................................................................................................. 10

YouTube channels ............................................................................................................................................................ 10

Twitter, Gitter, Slack, and other community channels ....................................................................................... 11

References ........................................................................................................................................................................... 11

Architectural differences between ASP.NET MVC and ASP.NET Core ............................. 12

Breaking changes .................................................................................................................................................................. 12

App startup differences between ASP.NET MVC and ASP.NET Core ............................................................... 12

ASP.NET MVC Startup .................................................................................................................................................... 13

ASP.NET Core Startup ..................................................................................................................................................... 13

Porting considerations ................................................................................................................................................... 14

References ........................................................................................................................................................................... 14

Hosting differences between ASP.NET MVC and ASP.NET Core ....................................................................... 14

References ........................................................................................................................................................................... 15

Serve static files in ASP.NET MVC and ASP.NET Core ............................................................................................ 15

Host static files in ASP.NET MVC ............................................................................................................................... 15

Host static files in ASP.NET Core ................................................................................................................................ 15

References ........................................................................................................................................................................... 15

Dependency injection differences between ASP.NET MVC and ASP.NET Core ........................................... 16

Dependency injection in ASP.NET Core .................................................................................................................. 16

References ........................................................................................................................................................................... 16

Compare middleware to modules and handlers ...................................................................................................... 17

ASP.NET modules and handlers ................................................................................................................................. 17

ASP.NET Core middleware ............................................................................................................................................ 17

References ........................................................................................................................................................................... 17

Configuration differences between ASP.NET MVC and ASP.NET Core ........................................................... 17

ASP.NET MVC configuration ........................................................................................................................................ 17

ASP.NET Core configuration ........................................................................................................................................ 18

Migrate configuration .................................................................................................................................................... 19

ii Contents
 References ........................................................................................................................................................................... 20

Routing differences between ASP.NET MVC and ASP.NET Core ....................................................................... 20

Routing in ASP.NET MVC and Web API .................................................................................................................. 20

Route table ......................................................................................................................................................................... 20

Routing in ASP.NET Core 3.1 ....................................................................................................................................... 22

References ........................................................................................................................................................................... 23

Compare Razor Pages to ASP.NET MVC ...................................................................................................................... 24

References ........................................................................................................................................................................... 24

Compare ASP.NET Web API 2 and ASP.NET Core ................................................................................................... 24

References ........................................................................................................................................................................... 25

Compare authentication and authorization between ASP.NET MVC and ASP.NET Core ........................ 25

Authorization ..................................................................................................................................................................... 26

References ........................................................................................................................................................................... 26

Compare ASP.NET Identity and ASP.NET Core Identity ........................................................................................ 26

Migrate from OWIN / Katana ...................................................................................................................................... 27

References ........................................................................................................................................................................... 27

Compare controllers in ASP.NET MVC and Web API with controllers in ASP.NET Core .......................... 27

References ........................................................................................................................................................................... 28

Compare Razor usage in ASP.NET MVC and ASP.NET Core ................................................................................ 28

Tag Helpers......................................................................................................................................................................... 28

Razor Pages ........................................................................................................................................................................ 28

References ........................................................................................................................................................................... 28

Compare ASP.NET SignalR and ASP.NET Core SignalR ......................................................................................... 28

Feature differences .......................................................................................................................................................... 29

References ........................................................................................................................................................................... 29

Compare testing options between ASP.NET MVC and ASP.NET Core ............................................................ 29

References ........................................................................................................................................................................... 30

Migrate large solutions to ASP.NET Core ........................................................................... 31

References ............................................................................................................................................................................... 31

Identify sequence of projects to migrate .................................................................................................................... 31

Unit tests .............................................................................................................................................................................. 34

Considerations for migrating many apps ............................................................................................................... 34

iii Contents
 Summary .............................................................................................................................................................................. 35

References ........................................................................................................................................................................... 35

Understand and update dependencies ........................................................................................................................ 35

Update class library dependencies............................................................................................................................ 36

Update NuGet package dependencies.................................................................................................................... 36

Migrate ASP.NET MVC projects .................................................................................................................................. 37

References ........................................................................................................................................................................... 37

Strategies for migrating while running in production ........................................................................................... 37

Refactor the .NET Framework solution .................................................................................................................... 38

Extract front-end assets to a CDN ............................................................................................................................. 38

Extract and migrate individual microservices ....................................................................................................... 38

Deploy multiple versions of the app side-by-side in IIS ................................................................................... 38

Apply the Strangler pattern ......................................................................................................................................... 38

Multi-targeting approaches ......................................................................................................................................... 39

Summary .............................................................................................................................................................................. 39

References ........................................................................................................................................................................... 39

Example migration of eShop to ASP.NET Core .................................................................. 40

Run ApiPort to identify problematic APIs.................................................................................................................... 41

Update project files and NuGet reference syntax .................................................................................................... 43

Create new ASP.NET Core project .................................................................................................................................. 45

Migrating NuGet Packages .......................................................................................................................................... 47

Migrate static files ............................................................................................................................................................ 48

Migrate C# files ................................................................................................................................................................. 50

Migrate views ......................................................................................................................................................................... 52

Migrate app startup components .................................................................................................................................. 54

Configure MVC.................................................................................................................................................................. 54

Data access considerations ............................................................................................................................................... 60

Migrate to Entity Framework Core ............................................................................................................................ 61

Fix all TODO tasks ................................................................................................................................................................. 64

Additional MVC customizations...................................................................................................................................... 65

Other dependencies ............................................................................................................................................................ 65

References ............................................................................................................................................................................... 66

iv Contents
 More migration scenarios ................................................................................................................................................. 66

Migrate ASP.NET MVC 5 and WebApi 2 to ASP.NET Core MVC ................................................................... 66

Migrate HttpResponseMessage to ASP.NET Core .............................................................................................. 67

Migrate content negotiation from ASP.NET Web API to ASP.NET Core .................................................... 67

References ........................................................................................................................................................................... 68

Deployment scenarios when migrating to ASP.NET Core................................................. 69

Split a large web app ........................................................................................................................................................... 69

Summary .................................................................................................................................................................................. 72

References ............................................................................................................................................................................... 73

Summary ................................................................................................................................ 74

v Contents
 CHAPTER 1
Introduction to porting
apps to .NET Core
.NET Core is a revolutionary step forward from .NET Framework. It offers a host of advantages over
.NET Framework across the board from productivity to performance, from cross-platform support to
developer satisfaction. ASP.NET Core was even voted the most-loved web framework in the 2020
Stack Overflow developer survey. Clearly there are strong reasons to consider migrating.

It’s important to keep in mind that .NET Core is the Future of .NET. To quote this article:

New apps should be built on .NET Core. .NET Core is where future investments in .NET will happen.
Existing apps are safe to remain on .NET Framework which will be supported. Existing apps that want
to take advantage of the new features in .NET should consider moving to .NET Core. As we plan into
the future, we will be bringing in even more capabilities to the platform.

However, upgrading your app to ASP.NET Core will require some effort. That effort should be
balanced against business value and goals. .NET Framework apps have a long life ahead of them, with
support built into Windows for the foreseeable future. What are some of the questions you should
consider before deciding migration to .NET Core is appropriate? What are the expected advantages?
What are the tradeoffs? How much effort is involved? These obvious questions are just the beginning,
but make for a great starting point as teams consider how to support their customers’ needs with
apps today and tomorrow.

• Is migration to .NET Core appropriate?

• When does it make sense to remain on .NET Framework?
• Should apps target ASP.NET Core 2.1 as a stepping stone?
• How should teams choose the right .NET Core version to target?
• What strategies are recommended for incremental migration of large apps?
• What deployment strategies should be considered when porting to .NET Core?
• Where can we find additional resources?
This introductory chapter addresses all of these questions and more before moving on to more
specific and technical considerations in future chapters.

References
• 2020 Stack Overflow developer survey most loved web frameworks

1 CHAPTER 1 | Introduction to porting apps to .NET Core

 • .NET Core is the Future of .NET

Migration considerations
The most fundamental question teams must answer when it comes to porting their apps to .NET Core
is, should they port at all? In some cases, the best path forward is to remain on .NET Framework using
ASP.NET MVC and/or Web API. This chapter considers reasons why moving to .NET Core makes sense.
The chapter also considers scenarios and counterpoints for staying on .NET Framework.

Is migration to .NET Core appropriate?

Let’s start with some of the reasons why you might want to move to .NET Core (or .NET 5). There are
quite a few, so don’t consider this list exhaustive.

Cross-platform support
Apps built on .NET Core are truly cross-platform and can run on Windows, Linux, and macOS. Not only
can your developers use whatever hardware they want, but you can also host your app anywhere.
Examples range from local IIS to Azure in the cloud or from Linux Docker containers to IoT devices.

Performance and scalability

Apps built with .NET Core are running on one of the fastest tech stacks available anywhere. ASP.NET
MVC apps often see performance improvements on ASP.NET Core, especially if they’re updated to
take advantage of some new features available in .NET Core.

Cloud-native
For the above reasons and others, .NET Core apps are well-suited to running in cloud hosting
environments. Lightweight and fast, .NET Core apps can be deployed to Azure App Services or
containers and scaled horizontally as needed to meet immediate system demand.

Maintainable
For many apps, while they’ve continued to meet customer and business needs, technical debt has
accumulated and maintaining the app has grown expensive. ASP.NET Core apps are more easily
tested than ASP.NET MVC apps, making them easier to refactor and extend with confidence.

Modular
ASP.NET Core is modular, using NuGet packages as a first-class part of the framework. Apps built for
.NET Core all support dependency injection, making it easy to compose solutions from whatever
implementations are needed for a given environment. Building microservices with .NET Core is easier
than with ASP.NET MVC with its dependency on IIS, which opens up additional options to break up
large apps into smaller modules.

2 CHAPTER 1 | Introduction to porting apps to .NET Core

Modern
Staying on a modern, actively developed technology stack has a host of advantages. New features
and C# language features will only be added to .NET Core. The .NET Framework has had its last
release with version 4.8, and versions of C# beyond 8 won’t target .NET Framework. While ASP.NET
MVC will remain supported by Microsoft for many years, the best and brightest .NET software
developers are likely looking to use the more modern .NET Core framework, with all of the advantages
it offers (only some of which are summarized above). Finding developers with the skills to maintain an
ASP.NET MVC app will start to become a challenge at some point, as will finding online training and
troubleshooting assistance. There probably aren’t that many new blog posts being written about
ASP.NET MVC 5, while there are plenty being written for .NET 5.0, for example.

There are many compelling reasons to consider migrating to .NET Core, which presumably is why
you’re reading this book! But let’s consider some disadvantages and reasons why it may make more
sense to remain on the .NET Framework.

When is .NET Framework appropriate?

The biggest reason to stay on .NET Framework is when an app isn’t under active development and
wouldn’t benefit substantially from the advantages listed above. In that case, there probably isn’t a
good business case to incur the cost of porting the app. If your app might benefit from the
advantages .NET Core offers, you may still need to stay on .NET Framework if you need certain
technologies that are unavailable on .NET Core. There are some .NET technologies that are unavailable
on .NET Core, including AppDomains, Remoting, Code Access Security (CAS), Security Transparency,
and System.EnterpriseServices. A brief summary of these technologies and their alternatives is
included here. For more detailed guidance, see the documentation.

Application domains
Application domains (AppDomains) isolate apps from one another. AppDomains require runtime
support and can be expensive. Creating additional app domains isn’t supported, and there are no
plans to add this capability to .NET Core in the future. For code isolation, use separate processes or
containers as an alternative.

WCF
Server-side WCF isn’t supported in .NET Core. .NET Core supports WCF clients but not WCF hosts.
Apps that require this functionality will need to upgrade to a different communication technology
(such as gRPC or REST) as part of a migration.

There is a WCF client port available from the .NET Foundation. It is entirely open source, cross
platform, and supported by Microsoft. There is also a community-supported CoreWCF project that is
not officially supported by Microsoft.

Remoting
.NET Remoting was identified as a problematic architecture. It’s used for cross-AppDomain
communication, which is no longer supported. Also, Remoting requires runtime support, which is

3 CHAPTER 1 | Introduction to porting apps to .NET Core

expensive to maintain. For these reasons, .NET Remoting isn’t supported on .NET Core, and the
product team doesn’t plan on adding support for it in the future. There are several alternative
messaging strategies and implementations you can use to replace remoting in your .NET Core apps.

Code Access Security (CAS) and Security Transparency

Neither of these technologies are supported by .NET Core. Instead, the recommendation is to use
security boundaries provided by the operating system. For example, virtualization, containers, or user
accounts. Run processes with the minimal set of privileges necessary.

References
.NET Framework Technologies Unavailable on .NET Core

Migrate to ASP.NET Core 2.1

ASP.NET Core 2.1 is an interesting release because it’s the only currently supported .NET Core release
to support both .NET Core and .NET Framework runtimes. As such, it may offer an easier upgrade path
for some apps when compared to upgrading all parts of the app to .NET Core at once. As an LTS
release, support for .NET Core 2.1 will continue through August 2021. Support for ASP.NET Core 2.1
running on .NET Framework will continue for as long as its underlying .NET Framework is supported.

Should apps run on .NET Framework with ASP.NET Core 2.1

ASP.NET Core 2.2 and earlier supported both .NET Core and .NET Framework runtimes. Does it make
sense to migrate some or all of an app to ASP.NET Core 2.1 as a stepping stone, before porting over
completely to .NET Core? Apps, or subsets of apps, could see their front-end ASP.NET logic ported to
use ASP.NET Core, while still consuming .NET Framework libraries for business logic and infrastructure
consumption. This approach may make sense when there’s a relatively thin UI layer without much
business logic, and a much larger set of functionality in class libraries.

The main benefit of porting just the front-end web layer to ASP.NET Core 2.1 is that the existing .NET
class libraries can remain as is during the initial migration. They may be in continued use by other
.NET apps or simply don’t need to be in scope for the first iteration of a planned full migration to .NET
Core. Reducing the scope of the initial migration for large apps helps provide incremental goals that
act as stepping stones toward the desired end state, which is often a complete port to .NET Core.

If you have an existing app that may use this strategy, some things you can do today to help prepare
for the process are to move as much business logic, data access, and other non-UI logic out of the
ASP.NET projects and into separate class libraries as possible. It will also help if you have automated
test coverage of your system, so that you can verify behavior remains consistent before and after the
migration.

If your app is so large that you can’t migrate the entire web app at once, and you need to be able to
deploy the new ASP.NET Core app side-by-side with the existing ASP.NET app, there are deployment
strategies that can be used to achieve this. These are covered in Chapter 5: Deployment Scenarios.

4 CHAPTER 1 | Introduction to porting apps to .NET Core

Keep in mind that ASP.NET Core 2.1 is the last LTS release of .NET Core that supports running on .NET
Framework and consuming .NET Framework libraries. This release will soon be unsupported, but
ASP.NET Core 2.1 on .NET Framework will be supported as long as the .NET Framework (even after
.NET Core 2.1 support ends). For more information, see ASP.NET Core 2.1 on .NET Framework.

References
Migrating from ASP.NET to ASP.NET Core 2.1

Choose the right .NET Core version

The largest consideration for most organizations when choosing a version of .NET Core to target is
the support lifecycle. Long Term Support (LTS) releases ship less frequently but have a longer support
window than Current (non-LTS) releases. Currently, LTS releases are scheduled to ship every other
year. Customers can choose which releases to target, and can install different releases of .NET Core
side by side on the same machine. LTS releases will receive only critical and compatible fixes
throughout their lifecycle. Current releases will receive these same fixes and will also be updated with
compatible innovations and features. LTS releases are supported for three years after their initial
release. Current releases are supported for three months after a subsequent Current or LTS release.

Most customers looking to migrate a large .NET Framework app to .NET Core today are probably
looking for a stable destination, given that they haven’t already made the move to an earlier version
of .NET Core. In this case, the best .NET Core version to target for the migration is .NET Core 3.1,
which is the current LTS version. Support for .NET Core 3.1 ends in December 2022. The next planned
LTS release will be .NET 6.0, slated to ship in November 2021.

Updating from .NET Core 3.1 to .NET 5.0 (the next version) requires much less effort than porting from
.NET Framework to .NET Core. For this reason, the recommendation for most customers is to upgrade
to .NET Core 3.1 first. Then decide whether the next update should be to the latest current release
(.NET 5.0) or to wait for the next LTS release (.NET 6.0) before upgrading further.

This book assumes .NET Framework apps will be upgraded to .NET Core 3.1.

References
.NET Core and .NET 5 Support Policy

Strategies for migrating incrementally

The biggest challenge with migrating any large app is determining how to break the process into
smaller tasks. There are several strategies that can be applied for this purpose, including breaking the
app into horizontal layers such as UI, data access, business logic, or breaking up the app into separate,
smaller apps. Another strategy is to upgrade some or all of the app to different framework versions on
the way to a recent .NET Core release. One approach you could use, is to migrate vertical slices of the
app, rather than attempting to migrate one horizontal layer at a time. Let’s consider each of these
different approaches.

5 CHAPTER 1 | Introduction to porting apps to .NET Core

Consider the challenge of migrating a large ASP.NET 4.5 app. One approach is to migrate the entire
app directly from .NET Framework 4.5 to .NET Core 3.1. However, this approach needs to account for
every breaking change between the two frameworks and versions, which are substantial.

Migrating layer by layer

One recent addition to the .NET ecosystem that helps with interoperability between different .NET
frameworks is .NET Standard. .NET Standard allows libraries to build against the agreed upon set of
common APIs, ensuring they can be used in any .NET app. .NET Standard 2.0 is notable because it
covers most base class library functionality used by most .NET Framework and .NET Core apps.
Unfortunately, the earliest version of .NET with support for .NET Standard 2.0 is .NET Framework 4.6.1,
and there are a number of updates in .NET Framework 4.8 that make it a compelling choice for initial
upgrades.

One approach to incrementally upgrade a .NET Framework 4.5 system layer-by-layer is to first update
its class library dependencies to .NET Framework 4.8. Then, modify these libraries to be .NET Standard
class libraries. Use multi-targeting and conditional compilation, if necessary. This step can be helpful
in scenarios where app dependencies require .NET Framework and cannot easily be ported directly to
use .NET Standard and .NET Core. Since .NET Framework libraries can be consumed by ASP.NET Core
2.1 apps, the next step is to migrate some or all of the web functionality of the app to ASP.NET Core
2.1 (as described in the previous chapter). This is a “bottom up” approach, starting with low level class
library dependencies and working up to the web app entry point.

Once the app is running on ASP.NET Core 2.1, migrating it to ASP.NET Core 3.1 in isolation is relatively
straightforward. The most likely challenge during this step is updating incompatible dependencies to
support .NET Core and possibly higher versions of .NET Standard. For apps that don’t have
problematic dependencies on .NET Framework-only libraries, there’s little reason to upgrade to
ASP.NET Core 2.1. Porting directly to ASP.NET Core 3.1 makes more sense and requires less effort.

By the time the app is running on .NET Core 3.1, migrating to the current .NET 5 release is relatively
painless. The process primarily involves updating the target framework of your project files and their
associated NuGet package dependencies. While there are several breaking changes to consider, most
apps don’t require significant modifications to move from .NET Core 3.1 to .NET 5. The primary
deciding factor in choosing between .NET Core 3.1 and .NET 5 is likely to be support.

Instead of a “bottom up” approach, another alternative is to start with the web app (or even the entire
solution) and use an automated tool to assist with the upgrade. The .NET Upgrade Assistant tool can
be used to help upgrade .NET Framework apps to .NET Core / .NET 5. It automates many of the
common tasks related to upgrading apps, such as modifying project file format, setting appropriate
target frameworks, updating NuGet dependencies, and more.

Migrating slice by slice

Another approach to the migration would be to identify vertical slices of functionality, and migrate
them to the target platform one by one. The first step would be to create a new ASP.NET Core 3.1 or 5
app. Next, identify the individual page or API endpoint that will be migrated first. Build out just the
necessary functionality to support this one route in the ASP.NET Core app. Then use HTTP rewriting

6 CHAPTER 1 | Introduction to porting apps to .NET Core

and/or a reverse proxy to start sending requests for these pages or endpoints to the new app rather
than the ASP.NET app.

Some specific guidance on how to follow this strategy using IIS is covered in Chapter 5, Deployment
Scenarios.

References
• What is .NET Standard?
• Introducing .NET 5
• Migrate from ASP.NET Core 3.1 to 5.0
• .NET Upgrade Assistant tool

Strategies for migrating ASP.NET Web Forms apps

This book offers guidance for migrating large ASP.NET MVC and Web API apps to .NET Core. Some of
these ASP.NET apps may also include Web Forms (.aspx) pages that must be addressed. ASP.NET Web
Forms isn’t supported in .NET Core (nor are ASP.NET Web Pages). Typically, the functionality of these
pages must be rewritten when porting to ASP.NET Core. There are, however, some strategies you can
apply before or during such migration to help reduce the overall effort required.

Web Forms will continue to be supported for quite some time. One option may be to keep this
functionality in an ASP.NET 4.x app.

Separate business logic and other concerns

The less code in your ASP.NET Web Forms pages, the better. When possible, keep business logic and
other concerns like data access in separate classes, ideally in separate class libraries. These class
libraries can be ported to .NET Standard and consumed by any ASP.NET Core app.

Implement client behavior and web APIs

Consider the choice between implementing logic in Web Forms or in the browser with the help of API
calls. Favor the latter. Migrating APIs to ASP.NET Core is supported. Client-side behavior should be
independent of the server-side stack your app is using. Using this approach has the added benefit of
providing a more responsive user experience.

Consider Blazor
Blazor lets you build interactive web UIs with C# instead of JavaScript. It can run on the server or in
the browser using WebAssembly. ASP.NET Web Forms apps may be ported page-by-page to Blazor
apps. For more information on porting Web Forms apps to Blazor, see Blazor for ASP.NET Web Forms
Developers. In addition, many Web Forms controls have been ported to Blazor as part of an open-
source community project, Blazor Web Forms Components. With these components, you can more
easily port Web Forms pages to Blazor even if they use the built-in Web Forms controls.

7 CHAPTER 1 | Introduction to porting apps to .NET Core

Summary
Migrating directly from ASP.NET Web Forms to ASP.NET Core isn’t supported. However, there are
strategies to make moving to ASP.NET Core easier. You can migrate your Web Forms functionality to
ASP.NET Core successfully by:

• Keeping non-web functionality out of your projects.

• Using web APIs wherever possible.
• Considering Blazor as an option for a more modern UI.

References
• Free e-book: Blazor for ASP.NET Web Forms Developers
• Blazor Web Forms Components (Community Project)

Deployment strategies
One consideration as you plan the migration of your large ASP.NET app to ASP.NET Core is how you’ll
deploy the new app. With ASP.NET, deployment options were limited to IIS on Windows. With
ASP.NET Core, a much wider array of deployment options is available.

Cross-platform options
Because .NET Core runs on Linux, you’ll find some hosting options available that weren’t a
consideration previously. Linux-based hosting may be preferable for the following reasons:

• Your organization has infrastructure or expertise.

• Hosting providers offer attractive features or pricing for Linux-based hosting.
.NET Core opens to door to these options.

Cloud native development

Most organizations today are using cloud platforms for at least some of their software capabilities.
With an app migration to .NET Core, it’s a good time to consider whether the app should be
purposefully written with cloud hosting in mind. Such cloud native apps are better able to apply cloud
capabilities like serverless, microservices, and can be less concerned with the low-level details of how
and where they may be deployed.

Learn more about cloud native app development in this free e-book, Architecting Cloud Native .NET
Applications for Azure.

Leverage containers
Modern apps often leverage containers as a means of reducing variation between hosting
environments. By deploying an app to a particular container, the container-hosted app will run the
same whether it’s running on a developer’s laptop or in production. As part of a migration to .NET

8 CHAPTER 1 | Introduction to porting apps to .NET Core

Core, it may make sense to consider whether the app would benefit from deployment via container,
either as a full monolith or broken up into multiple smaller containerized apps.

Side-by-side deployment options

Migrating large .NET Framework apps to .NET Core often requires a substantial effort. Most
organizations will want to be able to break this effort up in some fashion, so that pieces of the app
can be migrated and deployed in production before the entire migration is complete. Running both
the original ASP.NET app and its newly-migrated ASP.NET Core sub-app(s) side by side is a frequently
cited goal. This can be achieved through a number of mechanisms including leveraging IIS routing,
which is covered in chapter 5. Other options include leveraging app gateways or cloud design
patterns like backends for frontends to manage sets of ASP.NET Web APIs and ASP.NET Core API
endpoints.

IIS on Windows
You can continue hosting your apps on IIS running on Windows. This is a fine option for customers
who want to take advantage of ASP.NET Core features without changing their current deployment
model. While moving to ASP.NET Core provides more options in terms of how and where to deploy
your apps, it doesn’t require that you change from the status quo of using the proven combination of
IIS on Windows.

Other options on Windows

You can host apps side-by-side apps on Windows using any combination of Kestrel, HTTP.sys, and IIS
hosts, in addition to Docker containers, if needed. If your app requires a combination of Windows and
Linux services, hosting on a Windows server with WSL and/or Linux Docker containers provides a
single server solution to hosting all parts of the app.

References
• Host and deploy ASP.NET Core
• Host ASP.NET Core on Windows with IIS
• Troubleshooting ASP.NET Core on Azure App Service and IIS

Additional migration resources

As you’re planning and executing your migration from ASP.NET MVC and/or Web API to ASP.NET
Core, there are a number of resources available to help beyond this book. Make a note of these and
leverage them where appropriate to help you overcome obstacles you encounter on your migration
journey.

Official documentation
The official documentation website, docs.microsoft.com, has the most up-to-date information
available about versions, frameworks, breaking changes, and support options. You’ll find many links in

9 CHAPTER 1 | Introduction to porting apps to .NET Core

this book to docs articles, but for any problem you’re facing it’s often worth at least doing a quick
search of the docs to see if there is already information covering the issue and offering a solution or
workaround.

GitHub
Because .NET Core is an open-source project, many issues are discovered, reported, discussed, and
fixed on GitHub. Microsoft has several GitHub organizations in which you’ll find repositories that may
be helpful. A partial list of these organizations and some of their public repositories are listed below:

• Microsoft
– ASP.NET API Versioning
• dotnet
– ASP.NET Core
– .NET Runtime
– Entity Framework Core
– C# Language
– Docs
– Docs Samples
– Try Convert
– .NET Upgrade Assistant tool
• .NET Architecture Reference Apps
– eShopModernizing
– eShopOnWeb
– eShopOnContainers
If you run into problems with your migration, these GitHub repositories are a good place to report
them. The product teams watch the issues and typically respond quickly to bug reports (though “how
to” questions may be more appropriately directed to Stack Overflow).

Stack Overflow
Stack Overflow has a wealth of information in the form of previous questions asked and answers
given, with the most helpful answers listed first and marked if they solved the problem. In addition to
searching for an existing solution to a problem you may encounter, you can of course also ask a
question yourself and hope for some response from the .NET community. Don’t forget you can narrow
down a search by using tags, and remember to use appropriate tags when you ask questions to
maximize the chances of someone with the experience needed noticing your question.

YouTube channels
YouTube has a huge amount of .NET and .NET Core video content, which may include useful tutorials
or walkthroughs covering any scenario you may encounter. Consider searching it separately if your
other efforts to find help online come up short. Here are a few good places to get started:

• dotnet
10 CHAPTER 1 | Introduction to porting apps to .NET Core
 • Visual Studio

Twitter, Gitter, Slack, and other community channels

You’ll find many other ways to connect with .NET developers on the .NET Community page. You can
also join the DotNetEvolution Discord server. Additionally, many product teams and team members
are on Twitter as well as in various other communities. You can follow and communicate with the
author of this book on Twitter as well.

References
• Overview of porting from .NET Framework to .NET Core
• .NET Upgrade Assistant tool
• Migrate from ASP.NET to ASP.NET Core
• .NET Community Resources

11 CHAPTER 1 | Introduction to porting apps to .NET Core

 CHAPTER 2
Architectural differences
between ASP.NET MVC
and ASP.NET Core
There are many architectural differences between ASP.NET MVC on .NET Framework and ASP.NET
Core. It’s important to have a broad understanding of these differences as teams evaluate the work
involved in porting their ASP.NET MVC apps to ASP.NET Core. This chapter looks at each of the ways
in which ASP.NET Core differs substantially from ASP.NET MVC.

Breaking changes
.NET Core is a cross-platform rewrite of .NET Framework. There are many breaking changes between
the two frameworks. The following sections identify specific differences between how ASP.NET MVC
and ASP.NET Core apps are designed and developed. Take care to also examine the documentation to
determine which framework libraries you’re using that may need to change. In many cases, a
replacement NuGet package exists to fill in any gaps left between .NET Framework and .NET Core. In
rare cases, you may need to find a third-party solution or implement new custom code to address
incompatibilities.

App startup differences between ASP.NET MVC and

ASP.NET Core
ASP.NET MVC apps lived entirely within Internet Information Server (IIS), the primary web server
available on Windows operating systems. Unlike ASP.NET MVC, ASP.NET Core apps are executable
apps. You can run them from the command line, using dotnet run. They have an entry point method
like all C# programs, typically public static void Main() or a similar variation (perhaps with arguments
or async support). This is perhaps the biggest architectural difference between ASP.NET Core and
ASP.NET MVC, and is one of several differences that allows ASP.NET Core to run on non-Windows
systems.

12 CHAPTER 2 | Architectural differences between ASP.NET MVC and ASP.NET Core

ASP.NET MVC Startup
Hosted within IIS, ASP.NET apps rely on IIS to instantiate certain objects and call certain methods
when a request arrives. ASP.NET creates an instance of the Global.asax file’s class, which derives from
HttpApplication. When the first request is received, before handling the request itself, ASP.NET calls
the Application_Start method in the Global.asax file’s class. Any logic that needs to run when the
ASP.NET MVC app begins can be added to this method.

Many NuGet packages for ASP.NET MVC and Web API use the WebActivator package to let them run
some code during app startup. By convention, this code would typically be added to an App_Start
folder and would be configured via attribute to run either immediately before or just after
Application_Start.

It’s also possible to use the Open Web Interface for .NET (OWIN) and Project Katana with ASP.NET
MVC. When doing so, the app will include a Startup.cs file that is responsible for setting up request
middleware in a way that’s very similar to how ASP.NET Core behaves.

If you need to run code when your ASP.NET MVC app starts up, it will typically use one of these
approaches.

ASP.NET Core Startup

As noted previously, ASP.NET Core apps are standalone programs. As such, they typically include a
Program.cs file containing the entry point for the app. A typical example of this file is shown in Figure
2-1.

public class Program

{
public static void Main(string[] args)
{
CreateHostBuilder(args).Build().Run();
}

public static IHostBuilder CreateHostBuilder(string[] args) =>

Host.CreateDefaultBuilder(args)
.ConfigureWebHostDefaults(webBuilder =>
{
webBuilder.UseStartup<Startup>();
});
}

Figure 2-1. A typical ASP.NET Core Program.cs file.

The code shown in Figure 2-1 creates a host for the app, builds it, and runs it. The ASP.NET Core app
runs within the host configured by the IHostBuilder shown. While it’s possible to completely configure
an ASP.NET Core app using the IHostBuilder, typically the bulk of this work is done in a Startup class.

The Startup class exposes two methods to the host: ConfigureServices and Configure. The
ConfigureServices method is used to define the services the app will use and their respective lifetimes.
The Configure method is used to define how each request to the app will be handled by setting up a
request pipeline composed of middleware.

13 CHAPTER 2 | Architectural differences between ASP.NET MVC and ASP.NET Core

In addition to code related to configuring the app’s services or request pipeline, apps may have other
code that must run when the app begins. Such code is typically placed in Program.cs or registered as
an IHostedService, which will be started by the generic host when the app starts.

The IHostedService interface just exposes two methods, StartAsync and StopAsync. You register the
interface in ConfigureServices and the host does the rest, calling the StartAsync method before the
app starts up.

Porting considerations
Teams looking to migrate their apps from ASP.NET MVC to ASP.NET Core need to identify what code
is being run when their app starts up and determine the appropriate location for such code in their
ASP.NET Core app. For custom code needed to run when the app starts up, especially async code, the
recommended approach is typically to put such code into IHostedService implementations.

References
• ASP.NET Application Life Cycle Overview for IIS 7
• ASP.NET Application Life Cycle Overview for IIS 5 and 6
• Getting Started with OWIN and Katana
• WebActivator
• App Startup in ASP.NET Core
• .NET Generic Host in ASP.NET Core
• IHostedService

Hosting differences between ASP.NET MVC and

ASP.NET Core
ASP.NET MVC apps are hosted in IIS, and may rely on IIS configuration for their behavior. This often
includes IIS modules. As part of reviewing an app to prepare to port it from ASP.NET MVC to ASP.NET
Core, teams should identify which modules, if any, they’re using from the list of IIS Modules installed
on their server.

ASP.NET Core apps can run on a number of different servers. The default cross platform server,
Kestrel, is a good default choice. Apps running in Kestrel can be hosted by IIS, running in a separate
process. On Windows, apps can also run in process on IIS or using HTTP.sys. Kestrel is generally
recommended for best performance. HTTP.sys can be used in scenarios where the app is exposed to
the Internet and required capabilities are supported by HTTP.sys but not Kestrel.

Kestrel does not have an equivalent to IIS modules (though apps hosted in IIS can still take advantage
of IIS modules). To achieve equivalent behavior, middleware configured in the ASP.NET Core app itself
is typically used.

14 CHAPTER 2 | Architectural differences between ASP.NET MVC and ASP.NET Core

References
• IIS Modules
• ASP.NET Core Servers

Serve static files in ASP.NET MVC and ASP.NET Core

Most web apps involve a combination of server-side logic and static files that must be sent to the
client as-is. How should your migration from ASP.NET MVC to ASP.NET Core handle serving static
files?

Host static files in ASP.NET MVC

ASP.NET MVC apps, hosted by IIS, typically host static files directly from the app. ASP.NET MVC
supports placing static files side by side with files that should be kept private on the server. IIS and
ASP.NET require explicitly restricting certain files or file extensions from being served from the folder
in which an ASP.NET app is hosted.

For many static files, using a content delivery network (CDN) is a good practice. Static content hosting
allows better performance while reducing load and bandwidth from app servers.

Host static files in ASP.NET Core

It may be surprising, but ASP.NET Core doesn’t have built-in support for static files. This feature that
has always existed as just a part of ASP.NET, enabled by IIS, isn’t intrinsic to ASP.NET Core or its
Kestrel web server. To serve static files from an ASP.NET Core app, you must configure static files
middleware.

With static files middleware configured, an ASP.NET Core app will serve all files located in a certain
folder (typically /wwwroot). No other files in the app or project folder are at risk of being accidentally
exposed by the server. No special restrictions based on file names or extensions need to be
configured, as is the case with IIS. Instead, developers explicitly choose to expose files publicly when
they place them in the wwwroot folder. By default, files outside of this folder aren’t shared.

Because support for static files uses middleware, any other middleware can be applied as part of the
same request pipeline. Examples of middleware include authentication, caching, and compression.

Of course, CDNs remain a good choice for ASP.NET Core apps for all the same reasons they’re used in
ASP.NET MVC apps. As part of preparing to migrate to .NET Core, if there are benefits your app could
realize from using a CDN, it would be good to move static files to a CDN before migrating to .NET
Core. Doing so reduces the migration effort’s overall scope for static assets.

References
• Static content hosting
• Static files in ASP.NET Core

15 CHAPTER 2 | Architectural differences between ASP.NET MVC and ASP.NET Core

Dependency injection differences between ASP.NET
MVC and ASP.NET Core
Although dependency injection (DI) isn’t built into ASP.NET MVC or Web API, many apps enable it by
adding a NuGet package with an inversion of control (IOC) container. These are sometimes referred to
as DI containers, for dependency injection (or inversion). Some of the most popular containers used in
ASP.NET MVC apps include:

• Autofac
• Unity
• Ninject
• StructureMap (deprecated)
• Castle Windsor
If your ASP.NET MVC app isn’t using DI, you will probably want to investigate the built-in support for
DI in ASP.NET Core. DI promotes loose coupling of modules in your app and enables better testability
and adherence to principles like SOLID.

If your app does use DI, then probably your best course of action is to see if the container you’re
using supports ASP.NET Core. If so, you may be able to continue using it and your custom
configuration rules describing your type mappings and lifetimes.

Either way, you should consider using the built-in support for DI that ships with ASP.NET Core, as it
may meet your app’s needs.

Dependency injection in ASP.NET Core

ASP.NET Core assumes apps will use DI. It’s not just built into the framework, but is required in order
to bring support for framework features into your ASP.NET Core apps. In app startup, a call is made to
ConfigureServices which is responsible for registering all of the types that the DI container (service
collection/service provider) can create and inject in the app. Built-in ASP.NET Core features like Entity
Framework Core, Identity, and even MVC are brought into the app by configuring them as services in
the ConfigureServices method.

In addition to using the default implementation, apps can still use custom containers. The
documentation covers how to replace the default service container.

DI is fundamental to ASP.NET Core. If your team isn’t already well-versed in this practice, you’ll want
to understand it before porting your app.

References
• Dependency Injection in .NET
• Dependency Injection in ASP.NET Core

16 CHAPTER 2 | Architectural differences between ASP.NET MVC and ASP.NET Core

Compare middleware to modules and handlers
If your existing ASP.NET MVC or Web API app uses OWIN/Katana, you’re most likely already familiar
with the concept of middleware and porting it to ASP.NET Core should be fairly straightforward.
However, most ASP.NET apps rely on HTTP modules and HTTP handlers instead of middleware.
Migrating these to ASP.NET Core requires extra effort.

ASP.NET modules and handlers

HTTP modules and HTTP handlers are an integral part of the ASP.NET architecture. While a request is
being processed, each request is processed by multiple HTTP modules (for example, the
authentication module and the session module) and is then processed by a single HTTP handler. After
the handler has processed the request, the request flows back through the HTTP modules.

If your app is using custom HTTP modules or HTTP handlers, you’ll need a plan to migrate them to
ASP.NET Core. The most likely replacement in ASP.NET Core is middleware.

ASP.NET Core middleware

ASP.NET Core defines a request pipeline in each app’s Configure method. This request pipeline
defines how an incoming request is handled by the app, with each method in the pipeline calling the
next method until eventually a method terminates, and the chain of middleware terminates and
returns back up the stack. Middleware can target all requests, or can be configured to only map to
certain requests based on the requested path or other factors. It can be configured wholly in the
Configure method of an app, or implemented in a separate class.

Behavior in an ASP.NET MVC app that uses HTTP modules is probably best suited to custom
middleware. Custom HTTP handlers can be replaced with custom routes or endpoints that respond to
the same path.

References
• ASP.NET HTTP modules and HTTP handlers
• ASP.NET Core middleware

Configuration differences between ASP.NET MVC

and ASP.NET Core
How configuration values are stored and read changed dramatically between ASP.NET and ASP.NET
Core.

ASP.NET MVC configuration

In ASP.NET apps, configuration uses the built-in .NET configuration files, web.config in the app folder
and machine.config on the server. Most ASP.NET MVC and Web API apps store their settings in the

17 CHAPTER 2 | Architectural differences between ASP.NET MVC and ASP.NET Core

configuration file’s appSettings or connectionStrings elements. Some also use custom configuration
sections that can be mapped to a settings class.

Configuration in a .NET Framework app is accessed using the

System.Configuration.ConfigurationManager class. Unfortunately, this class provides static access to
the configuration elements. As a result, very few ASP.NET MVC apps tend to abstract access to their
configuration settings or inject them where needed. Instead, most .NET Framework apps tend to
directly access the configuration system anywhere the app needs to use a setting.

Typical ASP.NET MVC configuration access:

string connectionString =
ConfigurationManager.ConnectionStrings["DefaultConnection"]
.ConnectionString;

ASP.NET Core configuration

In ASP.NET Core apps, configuration is, itself, configurable. However, most apps use a set of defaults
provided as part of the standard project templates and the ConfigureWebHostDefaults method used
in them. The default settings use JSON formatted files, with the ability to override settings in the base
appsettings.json file with environment-specific files like appsettings.Development.json. Additionally, the
default configuration system further overrides all file-based settings with any environment variable
that exists for the same named setting. This is useful in many scenarios and is especially useful when
deploying to a hosting environment, since it eliminates the need to worry about whether deploying
configuration files will accidentally overwrite important production configuration settings.
Configuration values can also be provided as command line arguments.

Accessing configuration values can be done in many ways in .NET Core. Because dependency injection
is built into .NET Core, configuration values are generally accessed through an interface that is
injected into classes that need them. This can involve passing a interface like IConfiguration, but
usually it’s better to pass just the settings required by the class using the options pattern.

Figure 2-2 shows how to pass IConfiguration into a Razor Page and access configuration settings from
it:

using Microsoft.Extensions.Configuration;

public class TestModel : PageModel

{
private readonly IConfiguration _configuration;

public TestModel(IConfiguration configuration)

{
_configuration= configuration;
}

public ContentResult OnGet()

{
var myKeyValue = _configuration["MyKey"];

// ...
}
}

18 CHAPTER 2 | Architectural differences between ASP.NET MVC and ASP.NET Core

Figure 2-2. Accessing configuration values with IConfiguration.

Using the options pattern, settings access is similar but is strongly typed and more specific to the
setting(s) needed by the consuming class, as Figure 2-3 demonstrates.

public class PositionOptions

{
public const string Position = nameof(Position);

public string Title { get; set; }

public string Name { get; set; }
}

public class Test2Model : PageModel

{
private readonly PositionOptions _options;

public Test2Model(IOptions<PositionOptions> options)

{
_options = options.Value;
}

public ContentResult OnGet()

{
return Content($"Title: {_options.Title}\nName: {_options.Name}");
}
}

Figure 2-3. Using the options pattern in ASP.NET Core.

For the options pattern to work, the options type must be configured in ConfigureServices when the
app starts up:

// required in ConfigureServices
services.Configure<PositionOptions>(Configuration.GetSection(PositionOptions.Position));

Migrate configuration
When considering how to port an app’s configuration settings from .NET Framework to .NET Core, the
first step is to identify all of the configuration settings that are being used. Most of these will be in the
web.config file in the app’s root folder, but some apps expect settings to be found in the shared
machine.config file as well.

Once all settings in the config files have been cataloged, the next step should be to identify where
and how the settings are used in the app itself. If some settings aren’t being used, these can probably
be omitted from the migration. For each setting, note all of the places it’s being used so you can be
sure you don’t miss any when you migrate the code.

If you’re still maintaining the ASP.NET app, it may be helpful to avoid static references to
ConfigurationManager and replace them with access through interfaces. This will ease the transition
to ASP.NET Core’s configuration system. In general, static access to external resources makes code
harder to test and maintain, so be on the lookout for anywhere else the app may be following this
pattern.

19 CHAPTER 2 | Architectural differences between ASP.NET MVC and ASP.NET Core

References
• Configuration in ASP.NET Core
• Options pattern in ASP.NET Core
• Migrate configuration to ASP.NET Core
• Refactoring Static Config Access

Routing differences between ASP.NET MVC and

ASP.NET Core
Routing is responsible for mapping incoming browser requests to particular controller actions (or
Razor Pages handlers). This section covers how routing differs between ASP.NET MVC (and Web API)
and ASP.NET Core (MVC, Razor Pages, and otherwise).

Routing in ASP.NET MVC and Web API

ASP.NET MVC offers two approaches to routing:

1. The route table, which is a collection of routes that can be used to match incoming requests
to controller actions.
2. Attribute routing, which performs the same function but is achieved by decorating the actions
themselves, rather than editing a global route table.

Route table
The route table is configured when the app starts up. Typically, a static method call is used to
configure the global route collection, like so:

public class MvcApplication : System.Web.HttpApplication

{
public static void RegisterRoutes(RouteCollection routes)
{
routes.IgnoreRoute("{resource}.axd/{*pathInfo}");
routes.MapRoute(
name: "Default",
url: "{controller}/{action}/{id}",
defaults: new { controller = "Home", action = "Index", id = "" },
constraints: new { id = "\\d+" }
);
}

protected void Application_Start()

{
RegisterRoutes(RouteTable.Routes);
}
}

In the preceding code, the route table is managed by the RouteCollection type, which is used to add
new routes with MapRoute. Routes are named and include a route string, which can include
parameters for controllers, actions, areas, and other placeholders. If an app follows a standard

20 CHAPTER 2 | Architectural differences between ASP.NET MVC and ASP.NET Core

convention, most of its actions can be handled by this single default route, with any exceptions to this
convention configured using additional routes.

Attribute routing in ASP.NET MVC

Routes that are defined with their actions may be easier to discover and reason about than routes
defined in an external location. Using attribute routing, an individual action method can have its route
defined with a [Route] attribute:

public class ProductsController

{
[Route("products")]
public ActionResult Index()
{
return View();
}

[Route("products/{id}")]
public ActionResult Details(int id)
{
return View();
}
}

Attribute routing in ASP.NET MVC 5 also supports defaults and prefixes, which can be added at the
controller level (and which are applied to all actions within that controller). Refer to the
documentation for details.

Setting up attribute routing requires adding one line to the default route table configuration:

routes.MapMvcAttributeRoutes();

Attribute routing can take advantage of route constraints, both built-in and custom, and supports
named routes and areas using the [RouteArea] attribute. If your app uses areas, you’ll need to
configure support for them in your route registration code by adding one more line:

routes.MapMvcAttributeRoutes();

AreaRegistration.RegisterAllAreas();

Attribute routing in ASP.NET Web API 2

Attribute routing in ASP.NET Web API 2 is similar to routing in ASP.NET MVC 5, with minor differences.
Configuring Web API 2 is typically done in its own class, which is called during app startup. Attribute
routing configuration is handled in this class:

public static class WebApiConfig

{
public static void Register(HttpConfiguration config)
{
// Attribute routing.
config.MapHttpAttributeRoutes();

// Convention-based routing.
config.Routes.MapHttpRoute(

21 CHAPTER 2 | Architectural differences between ASP.NET MVC and ASP.NET Core

 name: "DefaultApi",
routeTemplate: "api/{controller}/{id}",
defaults: new { id = RouteParameter.Optional }
);
}
}

As shown in the preceding code, attribute routing may be combined with convention-based routing
in Web API apps.

In addition to attribute routing, ASP.NET Web API chooses which action to call based on the HTTP
method (for example, GET or POST), the {action} placeholder in a route (if any), and parameters of the
action. In many cases, the name of the action will help determine whether it’s matched, since prefixing
the action name with “Get” or “Post” is used to match the appropriate HTTP method to it.
Alternatively, actions can be decorated with an appropriate HTTP method attribute, like [HttpGet],
allowing the use of action names that aren’t prefixed with an HTTP method.

public class ProductsController : ApiController

{
// matched by name and (lack of) parameters
public IEnumerable<Product> GetAll() { }

// matched by GET and string parameter

[HttpGet]
public IEnumerable<Product> FindProductsByName(string name) { }
}

Given the above controller, an HTTP GET request to localhost:123/products/ matches the GetAll
action. An HTTP GET request to localhost:123/products?name=ardalis matches the
FindProductsByName action.

Routing in ASP.NET Core 3.1

In ASP.NET Core, routing is handled by routing middleware, which matches the URLs of incoming
requests to actions or other endpoints. Controller actions are either conventionally routed or
attribute-routed. Conventional routing is similar to the route table approach used in ASP.NET MVC
and Web API. Whether you’re using conventional, attribute, or both, you need to configure your app
to use the routing middleware. To use the middleware, add the following code to your
Startup.Configure method:

app.UseRouting();

Conventional routing
With conventional routing, you set up one or more conventions that will be used to match incoming
URLs to endpoints in the app. In ASP.NET Core, these endpoints may be controller actions, like in
ASP.NET MVC or Web API. The endpoints could also be Razor Pages, Health Checks, or SignalR hubs.
All of these routable features are configured in a similar fashion using endpoints:

// in Startup.Configure()
app.UseEndpoints(endpoints =>
{
endpoints.MapHealthChecks("/healthz").RequireAuthorization();

22 CHAPTER 2 | Architectural differences between ASP.NET MVC and ASP.NET Core

 endpoints.MapControllerRoute(
name: "default",
pattern: "{controller=Home}/{action=Index}/{id?}");
endpoints.MapRazorPages();
});

The preceding code is used (in addition to UseRouting) to configure various endpoints, including
Health Checks, controllers, and Razor Pages. For controllers, the above configuration specifies a
default routing convention, which is the fairly standard {controller}/{action}/{id?} pattern that’s been
recommended since the first versions of ASP.NET MVC.

Attribute routing
Attribute routing in ASP.NET Core is the preferred approach for configuring routing in controllers. If
you’re building APIs, the [ApiController] attribute should be applied to your controllers. Among other
things, this attribute requires the use of attribute routing for actions in such controller classes.

Attribute routing in ASP.NET Core behaves similarly in ASP.NET MVC and Web API. In addition to
supporting the [Route] attribute, however, route information can also be specified as part of the HTTP
method attribute:

[HttpGet("api/products/{id}")]
public async ActionResult<Product> Details(int id)
{
// ...
}

As with previous versions, you can specify a default route with placeholders, and add this at the
controller class level or even on a base class. You use the same [Route] attribute for all of these cases.
For example, a base API controller class might look like this:

[Route("api/{controller}/{action}/{id?:int}")]
public abstract class BaseApiController : ControllerBase, IApiController
{
// ...
}

Using this attribute, classes inheriting from this type would route URLs to actions based on the
controller name, action name, and an optional integer id parameter.

References
• ASP.NET MVC Routing Overview
• Attribute Routing in ASP.NET MVC 5
• Attribute routing in ASP.NET Web API 2
• Routing and Action Selection in ASP.NET Web API
• Routing in ASP.NET Core
• Routing to controller actions in ASP.NET Core MVC

23 CHAPTER 2 | Architectural differences between ASP.NET MVC and ASP.NET Core

Compare Razor Pages to ASP.NET MVC
Razor Pages is the preferred way to create page- or form-based apps in ASP.NET Core. From the docs,
“Razor Pages can make coding page-focused scenarios easier and more productive than using
controllers and views.” If your ASP.NET MVC app makes heavy use of views, you may want to consider
migrating from actions and views to Razor Pages.

A typical strongly typed view-based MVC app will use a controller to contain one or more actions. The
controller will interact with the domain or data model, and create an instance of a viewmodel class.
Then this viewmodel class is passed to the view associated with that action. Using this approach,
coupled with the default folder structure of MVC apps, to add a new page to an app requires
modifying a controller in one folder, a view in a nested subfolder in another folder, and a viewmodel
in yet another folder.

Razor Pages group together the action (now a handler) and the viewmodel (called a PageModel) in
one class, and link this class to the view (called a Razor Page). All Razor Pages go into a Pages folder in
the root of the ASP.NET Core project. Razor Pages use a routing convention based on their name and
location within this folder. Handlers behave exactly like action methods but have the HTTP verb they
handle in their name (for example, OnGet). They also don’t necessarily need to return, since by default
they’re assumed to return the page they’re associated with. This tends to keep Razor Pages and their
handlers smaller and more focused while at the same time making it easier to find and work with all of
the files needed to add or modify a particular part of an app.

As part of a move from ASP.NET MVC to ASP.NET Core, teams should consider whether they want to
migrate controllers and views to ASP.NET Core controllers and views, or to Razor Pages. The former
will most likely require slightly less overall effort, but won’t allow the team to take advantage of the
benefits of Razor Pages over traditional view-based file organization.

References
• Introduction to Razor Pages in ASP.NET Core
• Simpler ASP.NET Core Apps with Razor Pages

Compare ASP.NET Web API 2 and ASP.NET Core

ASP.NET Core offers iterative improvements to ASP.NET Web API 2, but should feel familiar to
developers who have used Web API 2. ASP.NET Web API 2 was developed and shipped alongside
ASP.NET MVC. This meant the two approaches had similar-but-different approaches to things like
attribute routing and dependency injection. In ASP.NET Core, there’s no longer any distinction
between MVC and Web APIs. There’s only ASP.NET MVC, which includes support for view-based
scenarios, API endpoints, and Razor Pages (and other variations like health checks and SignalR).

In addition to being consistent and unified within ASP.NET Core, APIs built in .NET Core are much
easier to test than those built on ASP.NET Web API 2. We’ll cover testing differences in more detail in
a moment. The built-in support for hosting ASP.NET Core apps, in a test host that can create an

24 CHAPTER 2 | Architectural differences between ASP.NET MVC and ASP.NET Core

HttpClient that makes in-memory requests to the app, is a huge benefit when it comes to automated
testing.

When migrating from ASP.NET Web API 2 to ASP.NET Core, the transition is straightforward. If you
have large, bloated controllers, one approach you may consider to break them up is the use of the
Ardalis.ApiEndpoints NuGet packages. This package breaks up each endpoint into its own specific
class, with associated request and response types as appropriate. This approach yields many of the
same benefits as Razor Pages offer over view-based code organization.

References
• Migrate from ASP.NET Web API to ASP.NET Core
• Ardalis.ApiEndpoints NuGet package

Compare authentication and authorization between

ASP.NET MVC and ASP.NET Core
In ASP.NET MVC 5, authentication is configured in Startup.Auth.cs in the App_Start folder. In ASP.NET
Core MVC, this configuration occurs in Startup.cs. Authentication and authorization are performed
using middleware added to the request pipeline in ConfigureServices:

// inside Startup.ConfigureServices

app.UseRouting();

app.UseAuthentication();
app.UseAuthorization();

app.UseEndpoints(endpoints =>
{
endpoints.MapControllerRoute(
name: "default",
pattern: "{controller=Home}/{action=Index}/{id?}");
endpoints.MapRazorPages();
});

It’s important to add the auth middleware in the appropriate order in the middleware pipeline. Only
requests that make it to the middleware will be impacted by it. For instance, if a call to UseStaticFiles()
was placed above the code shown here, it wouldn’t be protected by authentication and authorization.

In ASP.NET MVC and Web API, apps often refer to the current user using the ClaimsPrincipal.Current
property. This property isn’t set in ASP.NET Core, and any behavior in your app that depends on it will
need to migrate from ClaimsPrincipal.Current by using the User property on ControllerBase or getting
access to the current HttpContext and referencing its User property. If neither of these solutions is an
option, services can request the User as an argument, in which case it must be supplied from
elsewhere in the app, or the IHttpContextAccessor can be requested and used to get the HttpContext.

25 CHAPTER 2 | Architectural differences between ASP.NET MVC and ASP.NET Core

Authorization
Authorization defines what a given user can do within the app. It’s separate from authentication,
which is concerned merely with identifying who the user is. ASP.NET Core provides a simple,
declarative role and a rich, policy-based model for authorization. Specifying that a resource requires
authorization is often as simple as adding the [Authorize] attribute to the action or controller. If you’re
migrating to Razor Pages from MVC views, you should specify conventions for authorization when
you configure Razor Pages in Startup.

Authorization in ASP.NET Core may be as simple as prohibiting anonymous users while allowing
authenticated users. Or it can scale up to support role-based, claims-based, or policy-based
authorization approaches. For more information on these approaches, see the documentation on
authorization in ASP.NET Core. You’ll likely find that one of them is closely aligned with your current
authorization approach.

References
• Security, Authentication, and Authorization with ASP.NET MVC
• Migrate Authentication and Identity to ASP.NET Core
• Migrate from ClaimsPrincipal.Current
• Introduction to Authorization in ASP.NET Core

Compare ASP.NET Identity and ASP.NET Core

Identity
In ASP.NET MVC, identity features are typically configured in IdentityConfig.cs in the App_Start folder.
Review how this is configured in the existing app, and compare it to the configuration required for
ASP.NET Core Identity in Startup.cs.

ASP.NET Identity is an API that supports user interface login functionality and manages users,
passwords, profile data, roles, claims, tokens, email confirmations, and more. It supports external login
providers like Facebook, Google, Microsoft, and Twitter.

If your ASP.NET MVC app is using ASP.NET Membership, you’ll find a guide to migrate from ASP.NET
Membership authentication to ASP.NET Core 2.0 Identity. This is mainly a data migration exercise, at
the completion of which you should be able to use ASP.NET Core Identity with your migrated user
records.

If you migrate your ASP.NET Identity users to ASP.NET Core Identity, you may need to update their
password hashes, or track which passwords are hashed with the new ASP.NET Core Identity approach
or the older ASP.NET Identity approach. This approach described on Stack Overflow provides some
options for migrating user password hashes over time, rather than all at once.

One of the biggest differences when it comes to ASP.NET Core Identity compared to ASP.NET Identity
is how little code you need to include in your project. ASP.NET Core Identity now ships as a Razor
Class Library, meaning its UI and logic are all available from a NuGet package. You can override the

26 CHAPTER 2 | Architectural differences between ASP.NET MVC and ASP.NET Core

existing UI and logic by scaffolding the ASP.NET Core Identity files but even in this case you need only
scaffold the pages you want to modify, not every one that exists.

Migrate from OWIN / Katana

The following resources offer some guidance for migrating from OWIN / Katana:

• Migration
• Katana to ASPNET 5

References
• Migrate Authentication and Identity to ASP.NET Core
• Introduction to Identity on ASP.NET Core
• Configure ASP.NET Core Identity
• Scaffold Identity in ASP.NET Core projects

Compare controllers in ASP.NET MVC and Web API

with controllers in ASP.NET Core
In ASP.NET MVC 5 and Web API 2, there were two different Controller base types. MVC controllers
inherited from Controller; Web API controllers inherited from ApiController. In ASP.NET Core, this
object hierarchy has been merged. It’s recommended that API controllers in ASP.NET Core inherit
from ControllerBase and add the [ApiController] attribute. Standard view-based MVC controllers
should inherit from Controller.

In both frameworks, controllers are used to organize sets of action methods. Filters and routes can be
applied on a controller level in addition to at the action level. These conventions can be extended
further by using custom base Controller types with default behavior and attributes applied to them.

In ASP.NET MVC, content negotiation isn’t supported. ASP.NET Web API 2 does support content
negotiation, as does ASP.NET Core. Using content negotiation, the format of the content returned to a
request can be determined by headers the client provides indicating its preferred manner of receiving
the content.

When migrating ASP.NET Web API controllers to ASP.NET Core, a few components need to be
changed if they exist. These include references to the ApiController base class, the System.Web.Http
namespace, and the IHttpActionResult interface. Refer to the documentation for recommendations on
how to migrate these specific differences. Note that the preferred return type for API actions in
ASP.NET Core is ActionResult<T>.

In addition, the [ChildActionOnly] attribute isn’t supported in ASP.NET Core. In ASP.NET Core, similar
functionality is achieved using View Components.

ASP.NET Core includes two new attributes: ConsumesAttribute and ProducesAttribute. These are used
to specify the type an action consumes or produces, which can be helpful for routing and
documenting the API using tools like Swagger/OpenAPI.

27 CHAPTER 2 | Architectural differences between ASP.NET MVC and ASP.NET Core

References
• Format response data in ASP.NET Core Web API
• Migrate from ASP.NET Web API to ASP.NET Core

Compare Razor usage in ASP.NET MVC and

ASP.NET Core
The basic syntax of Razor hasn’t changed substantially between ASP.NET MVC and ASP.NET Core.
However, there are certain differences, such as the introduction of Tag Helpers and Razor Pages, that
should be considered when migrating. If your app makes heavy use of custom Razor functionality,
refer to the Razor syntax reference for ASP.NET Core to see what changes may be required when you
migrate to ASP.NET Core.

Tag Helpers
Tag Helpers enable server-side code to participate in creating and rendering HTML elements in Razor
files. They offer many advantages over HTML Helpers and should be used in place of HTML Helpers
wherever possible. They provide an HTML-friendly development experience, since they look like
standard HTML and are ignored by most tooling designed to edit HTML. Within Visual Studio, there’s
rich IntelliSense support for creating HTML and Razor markup with Tag Helpers. Tag Helpers can
provide simple or complex behavior from declarative markup in Razor files.

Razor Pages
Razor Pages offer an alternative to controllers, actions, and views for page- and form-based apps.
Razor Pages were compared to ASP.NET MVC earlier in this chapter.

References
• Migrate from ASP.NET MVC to ASP.NET Core MVC: Controllers and Views
• Tag Helpers in ASP.NET Core
• Introduction to Razor Pages in ASP.NET Core
• Razor syntax reference for ASP.NET Core

Compare ASP.NET SignalR and ASP.NET Core

SignalR
ASP.NET Core SignalR is incompatible with clients or servers using ASP.NET SignalR. You’ll need to
update both clients and server to use ASP.NET Core SignalR. Some differences are described in this
section, while the full list is available in the docs. ASP.NET Core SignalR requires .NET Core 2.1 or
greater.

28 CHAPTER 2 | Architectural differences between ASP.NET MVC and ASP.NET Core

Feature differences
• ASP.NET SignalR automatically attempts to reconnect dropped connections; this behavior is
opt-in for ASP.NET Core SignalR clients
• Both frameworks support JSON; ASP.NET Core SignalR also supports a binary protocol based
on MessagePack, and custom protocols can be created.
• The Forever Frame transport, supported by ASP.NET SignalR, isn’t supported in ASP.NET Core
SignalR.
• ASP.NET Core SignalR must be configured by adding services.AddSignalR() and
app.UseEndpoints in Startup.ConfigureServices and Startup.Configure, respectively.
• ASP.NET Core SignalR requires sticky sessions; ASP.NET SignalR doesn’t.
• ASP.NET Core simplifies the connection model; connections are only made to a single hub.
• ASP.NET Core SignalR supports streaming data from the hub to the client.
• ASP.NET Core SignalR doesn’t support passing state between clients and the hub.
• The PersistentConnection class doesn’t exist in ASP.NET Core SignalR.
• ASP.NET SignalR supports SQL Server and Redis. ASP.NET Core SignalR supports Azure
SignalR and Redis.

References
• Differences between ASP.NET SignalR and ASP.NET Core SignalR
• Azure SignalR Service

Compare testing options between ASP.NET MVC

and ASP.NET Core
ASP.NET MVC apps support unit testing of controllers, but this approach often omits many MVC
features like routing, authorization, model binding, model validation, filters, and more. To test these
MVC features in addition to the logic within the controller action itself, frequently the app would need
to be deployed and then tested with a tool like Selenium. These tests are substantially more
expensive, more brittle, and slower than typical unit tests that can be run without the need for hosting
and running the entire app.

ASP.NET Core controllers can be unit tested just like ASP.NET MVC controllers, but with the same
limitations. However, ASP.NET Core supports fast, easy-to-author integration tests as well. Integration
tests are hosted by a TestHost class and are typically configured in a custom WebApplicationFactory
that can override or replace app dependencies. For instance, frequently during integration tests the
app will target a different data source and may replace services that send emails with fake or mock
implementations.

ASP.NET MVC and Web API did not support anything like the integration testing scenarios available in
ASP.NET Core. In any migration effort, you should allocate time to write some integration tests for
your newly migrated system to ensure it’s working as expected and continues to do so. Even if you

29 CHAPTER 2 | Architectural differences between ASP.NET MVC and ASP.NET Core

weren’t writing tests of your web app logic before the migration, you should strongly consider doing
so as you move to ASP.NET Core.

References
• Creating Unit Tests for ASP.NET MVC Applications
• Unit test controller logic in ASP.NET Core
• Integration tests in ASP.NET Core

30 CHAPTER 2 | Architectural differences between ASP.NET MVC and ASP.NET Core

 CHAPTER 3
Migrate large solutions to
ASP.NET Core
Migrating large solutions from .NET Framework to .NET Core requires some planning. Dependencies
must be migrated or updated before the projects that depend on them. There are tools that can
identify dependencies and offer help with migrating to .NET Core. Depending on the app, its scope,
and current usage patterns, different strategies may be employed when migrating. Do you migrate it
all at once, or over time, side-by-side with the current system? Do you wrap the current system in the
new one, and incrementally replace its functionality?

In this chapter, you’ll learn how create a migration plan for a large solution, how to use tools to help
with the migration, and some strategies to consider for the migration itself.

References
• What topics are important to migrating large MVC and Web API apps to .NET Core?
• Porting from .NET Framework to .NET Core

Identify sequence of projects to migrate

For solutions that involve multiple front-end apps, it’s best to migrate the apps one by one. For
example, create a solution that only includes one front-end app and its dependencies so you can
easily identify the scope of work involved. Solutions are lightweight, and you can include projects in
multiple solutions if needed. Take advantage of solutions as an organizational tool when migrating.

Once you’ve identified the ASP.NET app to migrate and have its dependent projects located with it
(ideally in a solution), the next step is to identify framework and NuGet dependencies. Having
identified all dependencies, the simplest migration approach is a “bottom up” approach. With this
approach, the lowest level of dependencies is migrated first. Then the next level of dependencies is
migrated, until eventually the only thing left is the front-end app. Figure 3-1 shows an example set of
projects composing an app. The low-level class libraries are at the bottom, and the ASP.NET MVC
project is at the top.

31 CHAPTER 3 | Migrate large solutions to ASP.NET Core

Figure 3-1. Project dependencies graph.

Choose a particular front-end app, an ASP.NET MVC 5 / Web API 2 project. Identify its dependencies
in the solution, and map out their dependencies until you have a complete list. A diagram like the one
shown in Figure 3-1 may be useful when mapping out project dependencies. Visual Studio can
produce a dependency diagram for your solution, depending on which edition you’re using. The .NET
Portability Analyzer can also produce dependency diagrams.

Figure 3-2 shows the installer for the .NET Portability Analyzer Visual Studio extension:

32 CHAPTER 3 | Migrate large solutions to ASP.NET Core

Figure 3-2. .NET Portability Analyzer installer.

The extension supports Visual Studio 2017 and later. Once installed, you configure it from the
Analyze > Portability Analyzer Settings menu, as shown in Figure 3-3.

Figure 3-3. Configure the .NET Portability Analyzer.

The analyzer produces a detailed report for each assembly. The report:

33 CHAPTER 3 | Migrate large solutions to ASP.NET Core

 • Describes how compatible each project is with a given target framework, such as .NET Core
3.1 or .NET Standard 2.0.
• Helps teams assess the effort required to port a particular project to a particular target
framework.
The details of this analysis are covered in the next section.

Once you’ve mapped out the projects and their relationships with one another, you’re ready to
determine the order in which you’ll migrate the projects. Begin with projects that have no
dependencies. Then, work your way up the tree to the projects that depend on these projects.

In the example shown in Figure 3-1, you would start with the Contoso.Utils project, since it doesn’t
depend on any other projects. Next, Contoso.Data since it only depends on “Utils”. Then migrate the
“BusinessLogic” library, and finally the front-end ASP.NET “Web” project. Following this “bottom up”
approach works well for relatively small and well-factored apps that can be migrated as a unit once all
of their projects have migrated. Larger apps with more complexity, or more code that will take longer
to migrate, may need to consider more incremental strategies.

Unit tests
Missing from the previous diagrams are unit test projects. Hopefully there are tests covering at least
some of the existing behavior of the libraries being ported.

If you have unit tests, it’s best to convert those projects first. You’ll want to continue testing changes
in the project you’re working on. Remember that porting to .NET Core is a significant change to your
codebase.

MSTest, xUnit, and NUnit all work on .NET Core. If you don’t currently have tests for your app,
consider building some characterization tests that verify the system’s current behavior. The benefit is
that once the migration is complete, you can confirm the app’s behavior remains unchanged.

Considerations for migrating many apps

Some organizations will have many different apps to migrate, and migrating each one by hand may
require too many resources to be tenable. In these situations, some degree of automation is
recommended. The steps followed in this chapter can be automated. Structural changes, like project
file differences and updates to common packages, can be applied by scripts. These scripts can be
refined as they’re run iteratively on more projects. On each run, examine whatever manual steps are
required for each project. Automate those manual steps, if possible. Using this approach, the
organization should grow faster and better at porting their apps over time, with improved automation
support each step of the way.

Watch an overview of how to employ this approach in this dotNetConf presentation by Lizzy
Gallagher of Mastercard. The five phases employed in this presentation included:

• Migrate third-party NuGet dependencies

• Migrate apps to use new .csproj file format
• Migrate apps to ASP.NET Core (targeting .NET Framework)
• Update internal NuGet dependencies to .NET Standard

34 CHAPTER 3 | Migrate large solutions to ASP.NET Core

 • Update all apps to target .NET Core 3.1
When automating a large suite of apps, it helps significantly if they follow consistent coding
guidelines and project organization. Automation efforts rely on this consistency to be effective. In
addition to parsing and migrating project files, common code patterns can be migrated automatically.
Some code pattern examples include differences in how controller actions are declared or how they
return results.

For example, a migration script could search files matching Controller.cs for lines of code matching
one of these patterns:

return new HttpStatusCodeResult(200);

// or
return new HttpStatusCodeResult(HttpStatusCode.OK);

In ASP.NET Core, either of the preceding lines of code can be replaced with:

return Ok();

Summary
The best approach to porting a large .NET Framework app to .NET Core is to:

1. Identify project dependencies.

2. Analyze what’s required to port each project.
3. Start from the bottom up.
You can use the .NET Portability Analyzer to determine how compatible existing libraries may be with
target platforms. Automated tests will help ensure no breaking changes are introduced as the app is
ported. These test projects should be among the first projects ported.

References
• Porting from .NET Framework to .NET Core
• The .NET Portability Analyzer
• Channel 9: A Brief Look at the .NET Portability Analyzer (Video)
• 2 Years, 200 Apps: A .NET Core Migration at Scale (Video)

Understand and update dependencies

After identifying the sequence in which the app’s individual projects must be migrated, the next step
is to understand each project’s dependencies and update them if necessary. For platform
dependencies, the best way to start is to run the .NET Portability Analyzer on the assembly in
question, and then look at the detailed results that are generated. You configure the tool to specify
one or more target platforms, such as .NET Core 3.1 or .NET Standard 2.0. Results are provided with
details for each platform targeted. Figure 3-4 shows an example of the tool’s output.

35 CHAPTER 3 | Migrate large solutions to ASP.NET Core

Figure 3-4. .NET Portability Analyzer report details.

Update class library dependencies

Large apps typically involve multiple projects, and most projects other than the ASP.NET MVC web
project are likely to be class libraries. Class libraries tend to be the easiest to port between .NET
platforms, especially compared to ASP.NET projects, which are among the most difficult (and typically
need to be re-created).

Teams can consider the try-convert tool or the .NET Upgrade Assistant tool for migrating class
libraries to .NET Core. These tools analyze a .NET Framework project file and attempt to migrate it to
the .NET Core project file format, making any modifications it can safely perform in the process. The
tools may require some manual assistance to work with ASP.NET projects, but can usually help speed
up the process of migrating class libraries.

The try-convert and Upgrade Assistant tools are deployed as .NET Core command line tools. They only
run on Windows, since they’re designed to work with .NET Framework apps. You can install try-
convert by running the following command from a command prompt:

dotnet tool install -g try-convert

Once you’ve successfully installed the tool, you can run try-convert in the folder where the class
library’s project file is located.

Install the .NET Upgrade Assistant with the following command (after installing try-convert):

dotnet tool install -g upgrade-assistant

Run the tool with the command upgrade-assistant <project> in the folder where the project file is
located.

Update NuGet package dependencies

Analyze your use of third-party NuGet packages and determine if any of them don’t yet support .NET
Standard (or do support it but only with a new version). It can be helpful to update NuGet packages
to use <PackageReference> syntax using Visual Studio’s converter tool, so that top-level
dependencies are visible. Next, check whether the current or later versions of these packages support

36 CHAPTER 3 | Migrate large solutions to ASP.NET Core

.NET Core or .NET Standard. This information can be found on [nuget.org] or within Visual Studio for
each package.

If support exists using the version of the package the app currently uses, great! If not, see if a more
recent version of the package has the support and research what would be involved in upgrading.
There may be breaking changes in the package, especially if the major version of the package changes
between your currently used version and the one to which you’re upgrading.

In some cases, no version of a given package works with .NET Core. In that case, teams have a couple
options. They can continue depending on the .NET Framework version, but this has limitations. The
app will only run on Windows, and the team may want to run Portability Analyzer on the package’s
binaries to see if there are any issues likely to be encountered. Certainly the team will want to test
thoroughly. The other option is to find a different package or, if the required package is open source,
upgrade it to .NET Standard or .NET Core themselves.

Migrate ASP.NET MVC projects

The System.Web namespace and types don’t exist in .NET Core. When you’re analyzing dependencies
and using tools like try-convert, you’ll find they don’t offer many suggestions for automatic migration
of ASP.NET MVC projects and any code in them that references System.Web. For these projects, you’ll
need to start with a new ASP.NET Core web project and manually migrate files to this project.

In general, it’s a good practice to minimize how much of an app’s business logic lives in its user
interface layer. It’s also best to keep controllers and views small. Apps that have followed this
guidance will be easier to port than those that have a significant amount of their logic in the ASP.NET
web project. If you have an app you’re considering porting, but haven’t begun the process yet, keep
this in mind as you maintain it. Any effort you put toward minimizing how much code is in the
ASP.NET MVC or Web API project will likely result in less work when the time comes to port the app.

The next chapter digs into details of how to migrate from ASP.NET MVC and Web API projects to
ASP.NET Core projects. The previous chapter called out the biggest differences between the apps.
Once the basic project structure is in place, migrating individual controllers and views is usually
straightforward, especially if they’re mainly focused on web responsibilities.

References
• .NET Upgrade Assistant tool
• try-convert tool
• apiport tool

Strategies for migrating while running in production

Many teams have .NET Framework apps they plan to migrate to .NET Core, but the app is so large that
the migration requires a significant amount of time to complete. The original app needs to live on
while the migration is done piece by piece. There needs to be a way for the old and new versions of
the app to work together side-by-side, or for the old version to be migrated in-place, at least some of
the way, without breaking it. Teams can employ many different strategies to support these goals.

37 CHAPTER 3 | Migrate large solutions to ASP.NET Core

Refactor the .NET Framework solution
A good place to start if you plan to port a .NET Framework app to .NET Core is to refactor it to work
better with .NET Core. This means updating individual class libraries to target .NET Standard and
moving as much logic out of your ASP.NET MVC projects and into these class libraries. Any code you
have in .NET Standard libraries should move relatively easily from .NET Framework to .NET Core.

When refactoring, make sure you’re following good refactoring fundamentals. For example, create
tests that verify what the system does before you start refactoring. Run these tests when you’re done
to confirm you didn’t change the system’s behavior. You may need to add characterization tests to the
system if you don’t already have a good suite of automated tests you can rely on.

Extract front-end assets to a CDN

If your .NET Framework apps include a lot of static assets, like scripts, CSS files, or images, you may be
able to migrate these to a separate CDN. Then, update the existing app to reference the CDN links for
these assets. When you port the app to .NET Core, these static files won’t be part of the migration,
and you’ll just continue referencing them from the CDN in the ASP.NET Core app.

Extract and migrate individual microservices

Large .NET Framework apps may already be comprised of separate front-end systems that can be
migrated individually. Or they may be candidates for migration to a microservices architecture, with
some pieces of existing ASP.NET MVC apps being pulled out into new ASP.NET Core microservice
implementations. You can learn more about microservices in the associated ebook, .NET
Microservices: Architecture for Containerized .NET Applications.

For example, the existing app might have a set of features it uses related to user sign-in and
registration. These could be migrated to a separate microservice, which could be built and deployed
using ASP.NET Core and then integrated into the legacy .NET Framework app. Next, the app might
have a few pages dedicated to tracking the individual user’s shopping cart. These pages could also be
pulled out into their own separate microservice and again integrated into the existing app. In this way,
the original .NET Framework app continues running in production, but with more and more of its
features coming from modernized .NET Core microservices.

Deploy multiple versions of the app side-by-side in IIS

Using a combination of host headers and redirects, an existing ASP.NET MVC app can be configured
to run side by side with an ASP.NET Core app on the same IIS server. As pieces of functionality, such
as individual controllers, are ported to ASP.NET Core, their routes and URLs are mapped within IIS to
target the ASP.NET Core web site or sub-application (IIS virtual directories aren’t supported with
ASP.NET Core apps). An ASP.NET Core app can be hosted as an IIS sub-application (sub-app). The
sub-app’s path becomes part of the root app’s URL.

Apply the Strangler pattern

Large ASP.NET MVC apps can be gradually replaced with a new ASP.NET Core app by incrementally
migrating pieces of functionality. One approach to this is called the strangler pattern, named for
38 CHAPTER 3 | Migrate large solutions to ASP.NET Core
strangler vines that strangle and eventually tear down trees. This approach relies on first
implementing a facade layer over top of the existing solution. This facade should be built using the
new approach to the problem, or an off-the-shelf solution such as an API gateway.

Once the facade is in place, you can route part of it to a new ASP.NET Core app. As you port more of
the original .NET Framework app to .NET Core, you continue to update the facade layer accordingly,
sending more of the facade’s total functionality to the new system. Figure 3-5 shows the strangler
pattern progression over time.

Multi-targeting approaches
Large apps that target .NET Framework may be migrated to ASP.NET Core over time by using multi-
targeting and separate code paths for each framework. For example, code that must run in both
environments could be modified with preprocessor #if directives to implement different functionality
or use different dependencies when run in .NET Framework versus .NET Core. Another option is to
modify project files to include different sets of files based on which framework is being targeted.
Project files can use different globbing patterns, such as *.core.cs, to include different sets of source
files depending on the framework being targeted.

These techniques allow a single common codebase to be maintained while new functionality is added
and (parts of) the app are ported to use .NET Core.

Figure 3-5. The Strangler pattern over time.

Eventually, the entire facade layer corresponds to the new, modern implementation. At this point,
both the legacy system and the face layer can be retired.

Summary
Frequently, large ASP.NET MVC and Web API apps won’t be ported to ASP.NET Core all at once, but
will migrate incrementally over time. This section offers several strategies for performing this
incremental migration. Choose the one(s) that will work best for your organization and app.

References
• .NET Microservices: Architecture for Containerized .NET Applications
• eShopOnContainers Reference Microservices Application
• Host ASP.NET Core on Windows with IIS
• Strangler pattern

39 CHAPTER 3 | Migrate large solutions to ASP.NET Core

 CHAPTER 4
Example migration of
eShop to ASP.NET Core
In this chapter, you’ll see how to migrate a .NET Framework app to .NET Core. The chapter examines a
sample online store app written for ASP.NET 5.0. The app will use many of the concepts and tools
described earlier in this book. You’ll find the starting point app in the eShopModernizing GitHub
repository. There are several different starting point apps. This chapter focuses on the
eShopLegacyMVCSolution.

The initial version of the project is shown in Figure 4-1. It’s a fairly standard ASP.NET MVC 5 app.

Figure 4-1. The eShopModernizing MVC sample project structure.

40 CHAPTER 4 | Example migration of eShop to ASP.NET Core

This chapter demonstrates how to perform many of the upgrade steps by hand. Alternatively, you can
use the .NET Upgrade Assistant tool to perform many of the initial steps, like converting the project
file, changing the target framework, and updating NuGet packages.

Run ApiPort to identify problematic APIs

The first step in preparing to migrate is to run the ApiPort tool. The tool identifies how many .NET
Framework APIs the app calls and how many of these have .NET Standard or .NET Core equivalents.
Focus primarily on your own app’s logic, not third-party dependencies, and pay attention to
System.Web dependencies that will need to be ported. The ApiPort tool was introduced in the last
chapter on understanding and updating dependencies.

After installing and configuring the ApiPort tool, run the analysis from within Visual Studio, as shown
in Figure 4-2.

Figure 4-2. Analyze assembly portability in Visual Studio.

Choose the web project’s assembly from the project’s bin folder, as shown in Figure 4-3.

41 CHAPTER 4 | Example migration of eShop to ASP.NET Core

Figure 4-3. Choose the project’s web assembly.

If your solution includes several projects, you can choose all of them. The eShop sample includes just a
single MVC project.

Once the report is generated, open the file and review the results. The summary provides a high-level
view of what percentage of .NET Framework calls your app is making have compatible versions. Figure
4-4 shows the summary for the eShop MVC project.

Figure 4-4. ApiPort summary.

For this app, about 80 percent of the .NET Framework calls are compatible. 20 percent of the calls
need to be addressed during the porting process. Viewing the details reveals that all of the
incompatible calls are part of System.Web, which is an expected incompatibility. The dependencies on
System.Web calls will be addressed when the app’s controllers and related classes are migrated in a
later step. Figure 4-5 lists some of the specific types found by the tool:

42 CHAPTER 4 | Example migration of eShop to ASP.NET Core

Figure 4-5. ApiPort incompatible type details.

Most of the incompatible types refer to Controller and various related attributes that have equivalents
in ASP.NET Core.

Update project files and NuGet reference syntax

Next, migrate from the older .csproj file structure to the newer, simpler structure introduced with .NET
Core. In doing so, you’ll also migrate from using a packages.config file for NuGet references to using
<PackageReference> elements in the project file.

The original project’s eShopLegacyMVC.csproj file is 418 lines long. A sample of the project file is
shown in Figure 4-6. To offer a sense of its overall size and complexity, the right side of the image
contains a miniature view of the entire file.

43 CHAPTER 4 | Example migration of eShop to ASP.NET Core

Figure 4-6. The eShopLegacyMVC.csproj file structure.

A common way to create a new project file for an existing ASP.NET project is to create a new ASP.NET
Core app using dotnet new or File > New > Project in Visual Studio. Then files can be copied from
the old project to the new one to complete the migration.

In addition to the C# project file, NuGet dependencies are stored in a separate 45-line packages.config
file, as shown in Figure 4-7.

44 CHAPTER 4 | Example migration of eShop to ASP.NET Core

Figure 4-7. The packages.config file.

After upgrading to the new .csproj file format, you can migrate packages.config in class library projects
using Visual Studio. This functionality doesn’t work with ASP.NET projects, however. Learn more about
migrating packages.config to <PackageReference> in Visual Studio. If you have a large number of
projects to migrate, this community tool may help.

Create new ASP.NET Core project

Add a new ASP.NET Core project to the existing app’s solution to make moving files easier, as most of
the work can be done from within Visual Studio’s Solution Explorer. In Visual Studio, right-click on
your app’s solution and choose Add New Project. Choose ASP.NET Core web application, and give
the new project a name as shown in Figure 4-8.

45 CHAPTER 4 | Example migration of eShop to ASP.NET Core

Figure 4-8. Add new ASP.NET Core web application.

The next dialog will ask you to choose which template to use. Select the Empty template. Be sure to
also change the dropdown from .NET Core to .NET Framework. Select ASP.NET Core 2.2, as shown
in Figure 4-9.

46 CHAPTER 4 | Example migration of eShop to ASP.NET Core

Figure 4-9. Choose an Empty project template targeting .NET Framework with ASP.NET Core 2.2.

Migrating NuGet Packages

Since the built-in migration tool for migrating packages.config to <PackageReference> doesn’t work
on ASP.NET projects, you can use a community tool instead, or migrate by hand. A community tool
I’ve used uses an XSL file to transform from one format to the other. To use it, first copy the
packages.config file to the newly created ASP.NET Core project folder. Make a backup of your files, as
this script removes the packages.config file from all folders under where you run the script. Then run
these commands from the project folder (or for the entire solution if you prefer):

iwr https://git.io/vdKaV -OutFile Convert-ToPackageReference.ps1

iwr https://git.io/vdKar -OutFile Convert-ToPackageReference.xsl
./Convert-ToPackageReference.ps1 | Out-Null

The first two commands download files so that they exist locally. The last line runs the script. After
running it, try to build the new project. You’ll most likely get some errors. To resolve them, you’ll want
to eliminate some references (like most of the Microsoft.AspNet and System packages), and you may
need to remove some xmlns attributes.

In most ASP.NET MVC apps, many client-side dependencies like Bootstrap and jQuery were deployed
using NuGet packages. In ASP.NET Core, NuGet packages are only used for server-side functionality.
Client files should be managed through other means. Review the list of <PackageReference>
elements added and remove and make note of any that are for client libraries, including:

47 CHAPTER 4 | Example migration of eShop to ASP.NET Core

 • Bootstrap
• jQuery
• jQuery.Validation
• Modernizr
• popper.js
• Respond
The static client files installed by NuGet for these packages will be copied over to the new project’s
wwwroot folder and hosted from there. It’s worth considering whether these files are still needed by
the app, and whether it makes sense to continue hosting them or to use a content delivery network
(CDN) instead. These library versions can be managed at build time using tools like LibMan or npm.
Figure 4-10 shows the full eShopPorted.csproj file after migrating package references using the
conversion tool shown and removing unnecessary packages.

Figure 4-10. Package references in the eShopPorted.csproj file.

The package references can be further compacted by making the <Version>1.0.0.0</Version>

element a Version=1.0.0.0 attribute on <PackageReference>.

Migrate static files

Any static files the app uses, including third-party scripts and frameworks but also custom images and
stylesheets, must be copied from the old project to the new one. In ASP.NET MVC apps, files were
typically accessed based on their location within the project folder. In ASP.NET Core apps, these static

48 CHAPTER 4 | Example migration of eShop to ASP.NET Core

files will be accessed based on their location within the wwwroot folder. For the eShop project, there
are static files in the following folders:

• Content
• fonts
• Images
• Pics
• Scripts
The Empty project template used in the previous step doesn’t include this folder by default, or the
middleware needed for it to work. You’ll need to add them.

Add a wwwroot folder to the root of the project.

Add version 2.2.0 of the Microsoft.AspNetCore.StaticFiles NuGet package.

In Startup.cs, add a call to app.UseStaticFiles() in the Configure method:

public void Configure(IApplicationBuilder app, IHostingEnvironment env)

{
if (env.IsDevelopment())
{
app.UseDeveloperExceptionPage();
}

app.UseStaticFiles();

// ...
}

Copy the Content folder from the ASP.NET MVC app to the new project’s wwwroot folder.

Run the app and navigate to its /Content/base.css folder to verify that the static file is served correctly
from its expected path. Continue copying the rest of the folders containing static files to the new
project. You’ll also want to copy the favicon.ico file from the project’s root to the wwwroot folder.
Figure 4-11 shows the results after these files and their folders have all been copied.

49 CHAPTER 4 | Example migration of eShop to ASP.NET Core

Figure 4-11. Static folders copied over to wwwroot folder.

Migrate C# files
Next, copy over the C# files used by the app, including standard MVC folders and their contents like
Controllers, Models, ViewModel, and Services. There will most likely be some changes needed in these
files. It’s best to copy one folder (or subfolder) at a time and compile to see what errors need to be
addressed as you go.

For the eShop sample, the first folder I choose to migrate is the Models folder, which includes C#
entities and Entity Framework classes. This folder’s classes are used by most of the others, so they
won’t work until these classes have been copied. After copying the folder and building, the compiler
revealed errors related to missing namespace System.Web.Hosting, related access to
HostingEnvironment, and a reference to ConfigurationManager.AppSettings. The solution to these
issues will be to pass in the necessary path data; for now the breaking lines are commented out and a
TODO: comment is added to each one to track it. After changing five lines, the Task List shows five
items and the project builds.

Next, the ViewModel folder, with its one class, is copied over. It’s an easy one, and builds immediately.

The Services folder is copied over. This folder’s classes depend on Entity Framework classes from the
Models folder, which is why it needed to be copied after that folder. Fortunately, it too builds without
errors.

That leaves the Controllers folder and its two Controller classes. After copying the folder to the new
project and building, there are seven build errors. Four of them are related to ViewBag access and
report an error of:

Missing compiler required member 'Microsoft.CSharp.RuntimeBinder.CSharpArgumentInfo.Create'

To resolve this error add a NuGet package reference to C#:

50 CHAPTER 4 | Example migration of eShop to ASP.NET Core
<PackageReference Include="Microsoft.CSharp" Version="4.7.0" />

The remaining three errors specify types that are defined in an assembly that isn’t referenced.
Specifically these types:

• HttpServerUtilityBase
• RouteValueDictionary
• HttpRequestBase
Let’s look at each error one by one. The first error occurs while trying to reference the Server property
of Controller, which no longer exists. The goal of the operation is to get the path to an image file in
the app:

if (item != null)
{
var webRoot = Server.MapPath("~/Pics"); // compiler error on this line
var path = Path.Combine(webRoot, item.PictureFileName);

string imageFileExtension = Path.GetExtension(item.PictureFileName);

string mimetype = GetImageMimeTypeFromImageFileExtension(imageFileExtension);

var buffer = System.IO.File.ReadAllBytes(path);

return File(buffer, mimetype);

}

There are two possible solutions to this problem. The first is to keep the functionality as it is. In this
case, rather than using Server.MapPath, a fixed path referencing the image files’ location in wwwroot
should be used. Alternately, since the only purpose of this action method is to return a static image
file, the references to this action in view files can be updated to reference the static files directly, which
improves runtime performance. Since no processing is being done as part of this action, there’s no
reason not to just serve the files directly. If it’s not tenable to update all references to this action, the
action could be rewritten to produce a redirect to the static file’s location.

The next two errors both occur in the same private method in the same line of code:

private void AddUriPlaceHolder(CatalogItem item)

{
item.PictureUri = this.Url.RouteUrl(PicController.GetPicRouteName, new { catalogItemId
= item.Id }, this.Request.Url.Scheme);
}

Both this.Url and this.Request cause compiler errors. Looking at how this code is used, its purpose is
to build a link to the PicController action that renders image files. The same one we just discovered
could probably be replaced with direct links to the static files located in wwwroot. For now, it’s worth
commenting out this code and adding a TODO: comment to reference the pics another way.

It’s worth noting that the base Controller class, used by the CatalogController class in which this code
appears, is still referring to System.Web.Mvc.Controller. There will undoubtedly be more errors to fix
once we update this to use ASP.NET Core. First, remove the using System.Web.Mvc; line from the list
of using statements in CatalogController. Next, add the NuGet package Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc.
Finally, add a using Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc; statement, and build the app again.

51 CHAPTER 4 | Example migration of eShop to ASP.NET Core

This time, there are 16 errors:

• Include is not a valid named attribute argument (2)

• HttpStatusCodeResult not found (3)
• HttpNotFound does not exist (3)
• SelectList not found (8)
Once more, let’s review these errors one by one. First, SelectList can be fixed by adding using
Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc.Rendering;, which eliminates half of the errors.

All references to return HttpNotFound(); should be replaced with return NotFound();.

All references to return new HttpStatusCodeResult(HttpStatusCode.BadRequest); should be replaced

with return BadRequest();.

That just leaves the use of Include with a [Bind] attribute on a couple of action methods that look like
this:

[HttpPost]
[ValidateAntiForgeryToken]
public ActionResult Create([Bind(Include =
"Id,Name,Description,Price,PictureFileName,CatalogTypeId,CatalogBrandId,AvailableStock,Rest
ockThreshold,MaxStockThreshold,OnReorder")] CatalogItem catalogItem)
{

The preceding code restricts model binding to the properties listed in the Include string. In ASP.NET
Core MVC, the [Bind] attribute still exists, but no longer needs the Include = argument. Pass the list of
properties directly to the [Bind] attribute:

[HttpPost]
[ValidateAntiForgeryToken]
public ActionResult
Create([Bind("Id,Name,Description,Price,PictureFileName,CatalogTypeId,CatalogBrandId,Availa
bleStock,RestockThreshold,MaxStockThreshold,OnReorder")] CatalogItem catalogItem)
{

With these changes, the project compiles once more. It’s generally a better practice to use separate
model types for controller inputs, rather than using model binding directly to your domain model or
data model types.

Migrate views
The two biggest ASP.NET Core MVC features related to views are Razor Pages and Tag Helpers. For
the initial migration, we won’t use either feature. You should, however, keep the features in mind if
you continue supporting the app once it’s been migrated. The next step is to copy the Views folder
from the original project into the new one. After building, there are nine errors:

• HttpContext does not exist (2)

• Scripts does not exist (5)
• Styles does not exist (1)
• HtmlString could not be found(1)

52 CHAPTER 4 | Example migration of eShop to ASP.NET Core

Investigating these errors finds that most of them are in the main *_Layout.cshtml, with several related
to rendering script and style tags, or displaying when the server hosting the app was last restarted. The
following code listing shows problem areas in the _Layout.cshtml* file:

// other lines omitted; only errors shown

@Styles.Render("~/Content/css")
@Scripts.Render("~/bundles/modernizr")

@{ var sessionInfo = new HtmlString($"{HttpContext.Current.Session["MachineName"]},

{HttpContext.Current.Session["SessionStartTime"]}");}

@Scripts.Render("~/bundles/jquery")
@Scripts.Render("~/bundles/bootstrap")

The reference to Modernizr can be removed. The references to Bootstrap and jQuery can be replaced
with CDN links to the appropriate version.

Replace @Styles.Render line with:

<link rel="stylesheet"
href="https://stackpath.bootstrapcdn.com/bootstrap/4.3.1/css/bootstrap.min.css"
integrity="sha384-ggOyR0iXCbMQv3Xipma34MD+dH/1fQ784/j6cY/iJTQUOhcWr7x9JvoRxT2MZw1T"
crossorigin="anonymous">

Replace the last two Scripts.Render lines with:

<script src="https://code.jquery.com/jquery-3.3.1.slim.min.js" integrity="sha384-

q8i/X+965DzO0rT7abK41JStQIAqVgRVzpbzo5smXKp4YfRvH+8abtTE1Pi6jizo"
crossorigin="anonymous"></script>
<script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/popper.js/1.14.7/umd/popper.min.js"
integrity="sha384-UO2eT0CpHqdSJQ6hJty5KVphtPhzWj9WO1clHTMGa3JDZwrnQq4sF86dIHNDz0W1"
crossorigin="anonymous"></script>
<script src="https://stackpath.bootstrapcdn.com/bootstrap/4.3.1/js/bootstrap.min.js"
integrity="sha384-JjSmVgyd0p3pXB1rRibZUAYoIIy6OrQ6VrjIEaFf/nJGzIxFDsf4x0xIM+B07jRM"
crossorigin="anonymous"></script>

Finally, after the Bootstrap <link>, add additional <link> elements for local styles your app uses. For
eShop, the result is shown here:

<link rel="stylesheet" href="~/Content/custom.css" />

<link rel="stylesheet" href="~/Content/base.css" />
<link rel="stylesheet" href="~/Content/Site.css" />

To determine the order in which the <link> elements should appear, look at your original app’s
rendered HTML. Alternatively, review BundleConfig.cs, which for the eShop sample includes this code
indicating the appropriate sequence:

bundles.Add(new StyleBundle("~/Content/css").Include(
"~/Content/bootstrap.css",
"~/Content/custom.css",
"~/Content/base.css",
"~/Content/site.css"));

Building again reveals one more error loading jQuery Validation on the Create and Edit views. Replace
it with this script:

53 CHAPTER 4 | Example migration of eShop to ASP.NET Core

<script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/jquery-
validate/1.17.0/jquery.validate.min.js" integrity="sha512-
O/nUTF5mdFkhEoQHFn9N5wmgYyW323JO6v8kr6ltSRKriZyTr/8417taVWeabVS4iONGk2V444QD0P2cwhuTkg=="
crossorigin="anonymous"></script>

The last thing to fix in the views is the reference to Session to display how long the app has been
running, and on which machine. We can collect this data in Startup as static variables and display the
variables on the layout page. Add the following properties to Startup.cs:

public static DateTime StartTime { get; } = DateTime.UtcNow;

public static string MachineName { get; } = Environment.MachineName;

Then replace the content of the footer in the layout with the following code:

<section class="col-sm-6">
<img class="esh-app-footer-text hidden-xs" src="~/images/main_footer_text.png"
width="335" height="26" alt="footer text image" />
<br />
<small>@eShopPorted.Startup.MachineName - @eShopPorted.Startup.StartTime.ToString()
UTC</small>
</section>

At this point, the app once more builds successfully. However, trying to run it just yields Hello World!
because the Empty ASP.NET Core template is only configured to display that in response to any
request. In the next section, I complete the migration by configuring the app to use ASP.NET Core
MVC, including dependency injection and configuration. Once that’s in place, the app should run.
Then it will be time to fix the TODO: tasks that were created earlier.

Migrate app startup components

The last migration step is to take the app startup tasks from Global.asax, and the classes it calls, and
migrate these to their ASP.NET Core equivalents. These tasks include configuration of MVC itself,
setting up dependency injection, and working with the new configuration system. In ASP.NET Core,
these tasks are handled in the Startup.cs file.

Configure MVC
The original ASP.NET MVC app has the following code in its Application_Start in Global.asax, which
runs when the app starts up:

protected void Application_Start()

{
container = RegisterContainer();
AreaRegistration.RegisterAllAreas();
FilterConfig.RegisterGlobalFilters(GlobalFilters.Filters);
RouteConfig.RegisterRoutes(RouteTable.Routes);
BundleConfig.RegisterBundles(BundleTable.Bundles);
ConfigDataBase();
}

Looking at these lines one by one, the RegisterContainer method sets up dependency injection, which
will be ported below. The next three lines configure different parts of MVC: areas, filters, and routes.

54 CHAPTER 4 | Example migration of eShop to ASP.NET Core

Bundles are replaced by static files in the ported app. The last line sets up data access for the app,
which will be shown in a later section.

Since this app isn’t actually using areas, there’s nothing that needs to be done to migrate the area
registration call. If your app does need to migrate areas, the docs specify how to configure areas in
ASP.NET Core.

The call to register global filters invokes a helper on the FilterConfig class in the app’s App_Start
folder:

public static void RegisterGlobalFilters(GlobalFilterCollection filters)

{
filters.Add(new HandleErrorAttribute());
}

The only attribute added to the app is the ASP.NET MVC filter, HandleErrorAttribute. This filter ensures
that when an exception occurs as part of a request, a default action and view are displayed, rather
than the exception details. In ASP.NET Core, this same functionality is performed by the
UseExceptionHandler middleware. The detailed error messages aren’t enabled by default. They must
be configured using the UseDeveloperExceptionPage middleware. To configure this behavior to match
the original app, the following code must be added to the start of the Configure method in Startup.cs:

public void Configure(IApplicationBuilder app, IWebHostEnvironment env)

{
if (env.IsDevelopment())
{
app.UseDeveloperExceptionPage();
}
else
{
app.UseExceptionHandler("/Error");
}
// ...
}

This takes care of the only filter used by the eShop app, and in this case it was done by using built-in
middleware. If you have global filters that must be configured in your app, this is done when MVC is
added in the ConfigureServices method, which is shown later in this chapter.

The last piece of MVC-related logic that needs to be migrated are the app’s default routes. The call to
RouteConfig.RegisterRoutes(RouteTable.Routes) passes the MVC route table to the RegisterRoutes
helper method, where the following code is executed when the app starts up:

public static void RegisterRoutes(RouteCollection routes)

{
routes.MapMvcAttributeRoutes();
routes.IgnoreRoute("{resource}.axd/{*pathInfo}");

routes.MapRoute(
name: "Default",
url: "{controller}/{action}/{id}",
defaults: new { controller = "Catalog", action = "Index", id =
UrlParameter.Optional }
);
}

55 CHAPTER 4 | Example migration of eShop to ASP.NET Core

Taking this code line-by-line, the first line sets up support for attribute routes. This is built into
ASP.NET Core, so it’s unnecessary to configure it separately. Likewise, {resource}.axd files aren’t used
with ASP.NET Core, so there’s no need to ignore such routes. The MapRoute method configures the
default for MVC, which uses the typical {controller}/{action}/{id} route template. It also specifies the
defaults for this template, such that the CatalogController is the default controller used and the Index
method is the default action. Larger apps will frequently include more calls to MapRoute to set up
additional routes.

ASP.NET Core MVC supports conventional routing and attribute routing. Conventional routing is
analogous to how the route table is configured in the RegisterRoutes method listed previously. To set
up conventional routing with a default route like the one used in the eShop app, add the following
code to the bottom of the Configure method in Startup.cs:

app.UseMvc(routes =>
{
routes.MapRoute("default", "{controller=Catalog}/{action=Index}/{id?}");
});

Note

With ASP.NET Core 3.0 and later, this is changed to use endpoints. For the initial port to ASP.NET Core
2.2, this is the proper syntax for mapping conventional routes.

With these changes in place, the Configure method is almost done. The original template’s app.Run
method that prints Hello World! should be deleted. At this point, the method is as shown here:

public void Configure(IApplicationBuilder app, IHostingEnvironment env)

{
if (env.IsDevelopment())
{
app.UseDeveloperExceptionPage();
}
else
{
app.UseExceptionHandler("/Home/Error");
}

app.UseStaticFiles();

app.UseMvc(routes =>
{
routes.MapRoute("default", "{controller=Catalog}/{action=Index}/{id?}");
});
}

Now it’s time to configure MVC services, followed by the rest of the app’s support for dependency
injection (DI). So far, the eShopPorted project’s ConfigureServices method has remained empty. Now
it’s time to start populating it.

First, to get ASP.NET Core MVC to work properly, it needs to be added:

public void ConfigureServices(IServiceCollection services)

{

56 CHAPTER 4 | Example migration of eShop to ASP.NET Core

 services.AddMvc();
}

The preceding code is the minimal configuration required to get MVC features working. There are
many additional features that can be configured from this call, but for now this will suffice to build the
app. Running it now routes the default request properly, but since we’ve not yet configured DI, an
error occurs while activating CatalogController, because no implementation of type ICatalogService
has been provided yet. We’ll return to configure MVC further in a moment. For now, let’s migrate the
app’s dependency injection.

Migrate dependency injection configuration

The original app’s Global.asax file defines the following method, called when the app starts up:

protected IContainer RegisterContainer()

{
var builder = new ContainerBuilder();

builder.RegisterControllers(typeof(MvcApplication).Assembly);

var mockData = bool.Parse(ConfigurationManager.AppSettings["UseMockData"]);

builder.RegisterModule(new ApplicationModule(mockData));

var container = builder.Build();

DependencyResolver.SetResolver(new AutofacDependencyResolver(container));

return container;
}

This code configures an Autofac container, reads a config setting to determine whether real or mock
data should be used, and passes this setting into an Autofac module (found in the app’s /Modules
directory). Fortunately, Autofac supports .NET Core, so the module can be migrated directly. Copy the
folder into the new project and updates the class’s namespace and it should compile.

ASP.NET Core has built-in support for dependency injection, but you can wire up a third-party
container such as Autofac easily if necessary. In this case, since the app is already configured to use
Autofac, the simplest solution is to maintain its usage. To do so, the ConfigureServices method
signature must be modified to return an IServiceProvider, and the Autofac container instance must be
configured and returned from the method.

Note: In .NET Core 3.0 and later, the process for integrating a third-party DI container has changed.

Part of configuring Autofac requires a call to builder.Populate(services). This extension is found in the
Autofac.Extensions.DependencyInjection NuGet package, which must be installed before the code will
compile.

After modifying ConfigureServices to configure an Autofac container, the new method is as shown
here:

public IServiceProvider ConfigureServices(IServiceCollection services)

{
services.AddMvc();

// Create Autofac container builder

var builder = new ContainerBuilder();

57 CHAPTER 4 | Example migration of eShop to ASP.NET Core

 builder.Populate(services);
bool useMockData = true; // TODO: read from config
builder.RegisterModule(new ApplicationModule(useMockData));

ILifetimeScope container = builder.Build();

return new AutofacServiceProvider(container);

}

For now, the setting for useMockData is set to true. This setting will be read from configuration in a
moment. At this point, the app compiles and should load successfully when run, as shown in Figure 4-
12.

Figure 4-12. Ported eShop app running locally with mock data.

Migrate app settings

ASP.NET Core uses a new configuration system, which by default leverages an appsettings.json file. By
using CreateDefaultBuilder in Program.cs, the default configuration is already set up in the app. To
access configuration, classes just need to request it in their constructor. The Startup class is no
exception. To start accessing configuration in Startup and the rest of the app, request an instance of
IConfiguration from its constructor:

public Startup(IConfiguration configuration)

{
Configuration = configuration;

58 CHAPTER 4 | Example migration of eShop to ASP.NET Core

}

public IConfiguration Configuration { get; }

The original app referenced its settings using ConfigurationManager.AppSettings. A quick search for
all references of this term yields the set of settings the new app needs. There are only two:

• UseMockData
• UseCustomizationData
If your app has more complex configuration, especially if it’s using custom configuration sections,
you’ll probably want to create and bind objects to different parts of your app’s configuration. These
types can then be accessed using the options pattern. However, as noted in the referenced doc, this
pattern shouldn’t be used in ConfigureServices. Instead the ported app will reference the
UseMockData configuration value directly.

First, modify the ported app’s appsettings.json file and add the two settings in the root:

{
"Logging": {
"LogLevel": {
"Default": "Warning"
}
},
"AllowedHosts": "*",
"UseMockData": "true",
"UseCustomizationData" : "true"
}

Now, modify ConfigureServices to access the UseMockData setting from the Configuration property
(where previously we set the value to true):

bool useMockData = Configuration.GetValue<bool>("UseMockData");

At this point, the setting is pulled from configuration. The other setting, UseCustomizationData, is
used by the CatalogDBInitializer class. When you first ported this class, you commented out the access
to ConfigurationManager.AppSettings["UseCustomizationData"]. Now it’s time to modify it to use
ASP.NET Core configuration. Modify the constructor of CatalogDBInitializer as follows:

// add using Microsoft.Extensions.Configuration

public CatalogDBInitializer(CatalogItemHiLoGenerator indexGenerator,
IConfiguration configuration)
{
this.indexGenerator = indexGenerator;
useCustomizationData = configuration.GetValue<bool>("UseCustomizationData");
}

All access to configuration within the web app should be modified in this manner to use the new
IConfiguration type. Dependencies that require access to .NET Framework configuration can include
such settings in an app.config file added to the web project. The dependent projects can work with
ConfigurationManager to access settings, and shouldn’t require any changes if they already use this
approach. However, since ASP.NET Core apps run as their own executable, they don’t reference
web.config but rather app.config. By migrating settings from the legacy app’s web.config file to a new

59 CHAPTER 4 | Example migration of eShop to ASP.NET Core

app.config file in the ASP.NET Core app, components that use ConfigurationManager to access their
settings will continue to function properly.

The app’s migration is nearly complete. The only remaining task is data access configuration.

Data access considerations

ASP.NET Core apps running on .NET Framework can continue to leverage Entity Framework (EF). If
performing an incremental migration, getting the app working with EF 6 before trying to port its data
access to use EF Core may be worthwhile. In this way, any problems with the app’s migration can be
identified and addressed before another block of migration effort is begun.

As it happens, configuring EF 6 in the eShop sample migration doesn’t require any special work, since
this work was performed in the Autofac ApplicationModule. The only problem is that currently the
CatalogDBContext class tries to read its connection string from web.config. To address this, the
connection details need to be added to appsettings.json. Then the connection string must be passed
into CatalogDBContext when it’s created.

Update the appsettings.json to include the connection string. The full file is listed here:

{
"ConnectionStrings": {
"DefaultConnection":
"Server=(localdb)\\mssqllocaldb;Database=eShopPorted;Trusted_Connection=True;MultipleActive
ResultSets=true"
},
"Logging": {
"LogLevel": {
"Default": "Warning"
}
},
"AllowedHosts": "*",
"UseMockData": "false",
"UseCustomizationData": "true"
}

The connection string must be passed into the constructor when the DbContext is created. Since the
instances are created by Autofac, the change needs to be made in ApplicationModule. Modify the
module to take in a connectionString in its constructor and assign it to a field. Then modify the
registration for CatalogDBContext to add connection string as a parameter:

builder.RegisterType<CatalogDBContext>()
.WithParameter("connectionString", _connectionString)
.InstancePerLifetimeScope();

The parameter must also be added to a new constructor overload in CatalogDBContext itself:

public CatalogDBContext(string connectionString) : base(connectionString)

{
}

Finally, ConfigureServices must read the connection string from Config and pass it into the
ApplicationModule when it instantiates it:

60 CHAPTER 4 | Example migration of eShop to ASP.NET Core

bool useMockData = Configuration.GetValue<bool>("UseMockData");
string connectionString = Configuration.GetConnectionString("DefaultConnection");
builder.RegisterModule(new ApplicationModule(useMockData, connectionString));

With this code in place, the app runs as it did before, connecting to a SQL Server database when
UseMockData is false.

The app can be deployed and run in production at this point, converted to ASP.NET Core but still
running on .NET Framework and EF 6. If desired, the app can be migrated to run on .NET Core and
Entity Framework Core, which will bring additional advantages described in earlier chapters. Specific
to Entity Framework, this documentation compares EF Core and EF 6 and includes a grid showing
which library supports each of dozens of individual features.

Migrate to Entity Framework Core

Assuming a decision is made to migrate to EF Core, the steps can be fairly straightforward, especially
if the original app used a code-based model approach. When preparing to port from EF 6 to EF Core,
review the availability of features in the destination version of EF Core you’ll be using. Review the
documentation on porting from and EDMX-based model versus porting from a code-based model.

To upgrade to EF Core 2.2, the basic steps involved are to add the appropriate NuGet package(s) and
update namespaces. Then adjust how the connection string is passed to the DbContext type and how
they’re wired up for dependency injection.

EF Core is added as a package reference to the project:

<PackageReference Include="Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore" Version="2.2.6" />

The reference to EF 6 is removed:

<PackageReference Include="EntityFramework" Version="6.2.0" />

The compiler will report errors in CatalogDBContext and CatalogDBInitializer. CatalogDbContext

needs to have the old namespaces removed and replaced with Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore. Its
constructors can be removed. DbModelBuilder should be replaced with ModelBuilder. The helper
methods for configuring types are moved to separate classes implementing
IEntityTypeConfiguration<T>. Then the CatalogDBContext class’s OnModelCreating method simply
becomes:

protected override void OnModelCreating(ModelBuilder builder)

{
builder.ApplyConfigurationsFromAssembly(Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly());

base.OnModelCreating(builder);
}

Other changes involved include:

• HasDatabaseGeneratedOption(DatabaseGeneratedOption.None) replaced with

ValueGeneratedNever()
• HasRequired<T> replaced with HasOne<T>
• Installed Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.Relational package

61 CHAPTER 4 | Example migration of eShop to ASP.NET Core

 • Add a constructor to CatalogDBContext taking DbContextOptions and passing it to the base
constructor
An example configuration class for CatalogType is shown here:

using Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore;
using Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.Metadata.Builders;

namespace eShopPorted.Models.Config
{
public class CatalogTypeConfig : IEntityTypeConfiguration<CatalogType>
{
public void Configure(EntityTypeBuilder<CatalogType> builder)
{
builder.ToTable(nameof(CatalogType));

builder.HasKey(ci => ci.Id);

builder.Property(ci => ci.Id)

.IsRequired();

builder.Property(cb => cb.Type)

.IsRequired()
.HasMaxLength(100);
}
}
}

The CatalogDBInitializer and its base class, CreateDatabaseIfNotExists<T>, are incompatible with EF
Core. The purpose of this class is to create and seed the database. Using EF Core will create and drop
the associated database for a DbContext using these methods:

dbContext.Database.EnsureDeleted();
dbContext.Database.EnsureCreated();

Seeding data in EF Core can be done with manual scripts, or as part of the type configuration. Along
with other entity properties, seed data can be configured in IEntityTypeConfiguration classes by using
builder.HasData(). The original app loaded seed data from CSV files in the Setup directory. Given that
there are only a handful of items, these data records can instead be added as part of the entity
configuration. This approach works well for lookup data in tables that change infrequently. Adding the
following to CatalogTypeConfig’s Configure method ensures the associated rows are present when
the database is created:

builder.HasData(
new CatalogType { Id = 1, Type = "Mug" },
new CatalogType { Id = 2, Type = "T-Shirt" },
new CatalogType { Id = 3, Type = "Sheet" },
new CatalogType { Id = 4, Type = "USB Memory Stick" }
);

The initial app includes a PreconfiguredData class, which includes data for CatalogBrand and
CatalogType, so using this method the HasData call reduces to:

builder.HasData(
PreconfiguredData.GetPreconfiguredCatalogBrands()
);

62 CHAPTER 4 | Example migration of eShop to ASP.NET Core

The CatalogItem data can also be pulled from PreconfiguredData, and assuming the associated
images are kept in source control, that is the last table needed for the app to function. The
CatalogDBInitializer class can be removed, along with any references to it. The
CatalogItemHiLoGenerator class and the SQL files in the Infrastructure directory are also removed,
along with any references to them (in CatalogService, ApplicationModule).

With the elimination of the special key generator classes for CatalogItem, this code now is removed
from CatalogItemConfig:

builder.Property(ci => ci.Id)

.ValueGeneratedNever()
.IsRequired();

With these modifications, the ASP.NET Core app builds, but it doesn’t yet work with EF Core, which
must still be configured for dependency injection. With EF Core, the simplest way to configure it is in
ConfigureServices:

public IServiceProvider ConfigureServices(IServiceCollection services)

{
services.AddMvc();
bool useMockData = Configuration.GetValue<bool>("UseMockData");
if (!useMockData)
{
string connectionString = Configuration.GetConnectionString("DefaultConnection");

services.AddDbContext<CatalogDBContext>(options =>
options.UseSqlServer(connectionString)
);
}

// Create Autofac container builder

var builder = new ContainerBuilder();
builder.Populate(services);
builder.RegisterModule(new ApplicationModule(useMockData));

ILifetimeScope container = builder.Build();

return new AutofacServiceProvider(container);

}

The final version of Autofac’s ApplicationModule only configures one type, depending on whether the
app is configured to use mock data:

public class ApplicationModule : Module

{
private bool _useMockData;

public ApplicationModule(bool useMockData)

{
_useMockData = useMockData;
}

protected override void Load(ContainerBuilder builder)

{
if (_useMockData)
{
builder.RegisterType<CatalogServiceMock>()

63 CHAPTER 4 | Example migration of eShop to ASP.NET Core

 .As<ICatalogService>()
.SingleInstance();
}
else
{
builder.RegisterType<CatalogService>()
.As<ICatalogService>()
.InstancePerLifetimeScope();
}
}
}

The ported app runs, but doesn’t display any data if configured to use non-mock data. The seed data
added through HasData is only inserted when migrations are applied. The source app didn’t use
migrations, and if it had, they wouldn’t migrate as-is. The best approach is to start with a new
migration script. To do this, add a package reference for Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.Design and
open a terminal window in the project root. Then run:

dotnet ef migrations add Initial

Drop the existing eShopPorted database if it exists, then run:

dotnet ef database update

This creates and seeds the database. It’s now ready to run, with a few small updates left to address.

Fix all TODO tasks

Running the ported app at this point reveals that no pictures are shown on the page. This is because
the PictureUri property of CatalogItem is never set. Looking at the list of TODO items we created
using Visual Studio’s Task List, the only one that remains is in CatalogController, with a note to
“Reference pic from wwwroot.” The code in question is:

private void AddUriPlaceHolder(CatalogItem item)

{
//TODO: Reference pic from wwwroot
//item.PictureUri = this.Url.RouteUrl(PicController.GetPicRouteName, new {
catalogItemId = item.Id }, this.Request.Url.Scheme);
}

The simplest fix is to reference the public image files in the site’s public wwwroot/Pics directory. This
task can be accomplished by replacing the method with the following code:

private void AddUriPlaceHolder(CatalogItem item)

{
item.PictureUri = $"/Pics/{item.Id}.png";
}

With this change, running the app reveals the images work as before.

64 CHAPTER 4 | Example migration of eShop to ASP.NET Core

Additional MVC customizations
The eShopLegacyMVC app is fairly simple, so there isn’t much to configure in terms of default MVC
behavior. However, if you do need to configure additional MVC components, such as CORS, filters,
and route constraints, you generally provide this information in Startup.ConfigureServices, where
UseMvc is called. For example, the following code listing configures CORS and sets up a global action
filter:

public void ConfigureServices(IServiceCollection services)

{
services.AddCors(options =>
{
options.AddPolicy(MyAllowSpecificOrigins,
builder =>
builder.WithOrigins("http://example.com", "http://www.contoso.com")
.AllowAnyHeader()
.AllowAnyMethod());
});

services.AddMvc(options =>
{
options.Filters.Add(new SampleGlobalActionFilter());
}).SetCompatibilityVersion(CompatibilityVersion.Version_2_2);
}

Note

To finish configuring CORS, you must also call app.UseCors() in Configure.

Other advanced scenarios, like adding custom model binders, formatters, and more are covered in the
detailed ASP.NET Core docs. Generally these can be applied on an individual controller or action basis,
or globally using the same options approach shown in the previous code listing.

Other dependencies
Dependencies that use .NET Framework features that had a dependency on the legacy configuration
model, such as the WCF client type and tracing code, must be modified when ported. Rather than
having these types pull in their configuration information directly, they should be configured in code.
For example, a connection to a WCF service that was configured in an ASP.NET app’s web.config to use
basicHttpBinding could instead be configured programmatically with the following code:

var binding = new BasicHttpBinding();

binding.MaxReceivedMessageSize = 2_000_000;

var endpointAddress = new EndpointAddress("http://localhost:9200/ExampleService");

var myClient = new MyServiceClient(binding, endpointAddress);

65 CHAPTER 4 | Example migration of eShop to ASP.NET Core

Rather than relying on config files for its settings, WCF clients and other .NET Framework types should
have their settings specified in code. Configured in this manner, these types can continue to work in
ASP.NET Core 2.2 apps.

References
• eShopModernizing GitHub repository
• .NET Upgrade Assistant tool
• Your API and ViewModels Should Not Reference Domain Models
• Developer Exception Page Middleware
• Deep Dive into EF Core HasData

More migration scenarios

This section describes several different ASP.NET app scenarios, and offers specific techniques for
solving each of them. You can use this section to identify scenarios applicable to your app, and
evaluate which techniques will work for your app and its hosting environment.

Migrate ASP.NET MVC 5 and WebApi 2 to ASP.NET Core MVC

A common scenario in ASP.NET MVC 5 and Web API 2 apps was for both products to be installed in
the same application. This is a supported and relatively common approach used by many teams, but
because the two products use different abstractions, there is some redundant effort needed. For
example, setting up routes for ASP.NET MVC is done using methods on RouteCollection, such as
MapMvcAttributeRoutes() and MapRoute(). But ASP.NET Web API 2 routing is managed with
HttpConfiguration and methods like MapHttpAttributeRoutes() and MapHttpRoute().

The eShopLegacyMVC app includes both ASP.NET MVC and Web API, and includes methods in its
App_Start folder for setting up routes for both. It also supports dependency injection using Autofac,
which also requires two sets of similar work to configure:

protected IContainer RegisterContainer()

{
var builder = new ContainerBuilder();

var thisAssembly = Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly();

builder.RegisterControllers(thisAssembly); // MVC controllers
builder.RegisterApiControllers(thisAssembly); // Web API controllers

var mockData = bool.Parse(ConfigurationManager.AppSettings["UseMockData"]);

builder.RegisterModule(new ApplicationModule(mockData));

var container = builder.Build();

// set mvc resolver

DependencyResolver.SetResolver(new AutofacDependencyResolver(container));

// set webapi resolver

var resolver = new AutofacWebApiDependencyResolver(container);

66 CHAPTER 4 | Example migration of eShop to ASP.NET Core

 GlobalConfiguration.Configuration.DependencyResolver = resolver;

return container;
}

When upgrading these apps to use ASP.NET Core, this duplicate effort and the confusion that
sometimes accompanies it is eliminated. ASP.NET Core MVC is a unified framework with one set of
rules for routing, filters, and more. Dependency injection is built into .NET Core itself. All of this can
can be configured in Startup.cs, as is shown in the eShopPorted app in the sample.

Migrate HttpResponseMessage to ASP.NET Core

Some ASP.NET Web API apps may have action methods that return HttpResponseMessage. This type
does not exist in ASP.NET Core. Below is an example of its usage in a Delete action method, using the
ResponseMessage helper method on the base ApiController:

// DELETE api/<controller>/5
[HttpDelete]
public IHttpActionResult Delete(int id)
{
var brandToDelete = _service.GetCatalogBrands().FirstOrDefault(x => x.Id == id);
if (brandToDelete == null)
{
return ResponseMessage(new HttpResponseMessage(HttpStatusCode.NotFound));
}

// demo only - don't actually delete

return ResponseMessage(new HttpResponseMessage(HttpStatusCode.OK));
}

In ASP.NET Core MVC, there are helper methods available for all of the common HTTP response status
codes, so the above method would be ported to the following code:

[HttpDelete("{id}")]
public IActionResult Delete(int id)
{
var brandToDelete = _service.GetCatalogBrands().FirstOrDefault(x => x.Id == id);
if (brandToDelete == null)
{
return NotFound();
}

// demo only - don't actually delete

return Ok();
}

If you do find that you need to return a custom status code for which no helper exists, you can always
use return StatusCode(int statusCode) to return any numeric code you like.

Migrate content negotiation from ASP.NET Web API to ASP.NET Core

ASP.NET Web API 2 supports content negotiation natively. The sample app includes a
BrandsController that demonstrates this support by listing its results in either XML or JSON. This is
based on the request’s Accept header, and changes when it includes application/xml or
application/json.

67 CHAPTER 4 | Example migration of eShop to ASP.NET Core

ASP.NET MVC 5 apps do not have content negotiation support built in.

Content negotiation is preferable to returning a specific encoding type, as it is more flexible and
makes the API available to a larger number of clients. If you currently have action methods that return
a specific format, you should consider modifying them to return a result type that supports content
negotiation when you port the code to ASP.NET Core.

The following code returns data in JSON format regardless of client Accept header content:

[HttpGet]
public ActionResult Index()
{
return Json(new { Message = "Hello World!" });
}

ASP.NET Core MVC supports content negotiation natively, provided an appropriate return type is
used. Content negotiation is implemented by [ObjectResult] which is returned by the status code-
specific action results returned by the controller helper methods. The previous action method,
implemented in ASP.NET Core MVC and using content negotiation, would be:

public IActionResult Index()

{
return Ok(new { Message = "Hello World!"} );
}

This will default to returning the data in JSON format. XML and other formats will be used if the app
has been configured with the appropriate formatter.

References
• ASP.NET Web API Content Negotiation
• Format response data in ASP.NET Core Web API

68 CHAPTER 4 | Example migration of eShop to ASP.NET Core

 CHAPTER 5
Deployment scenarios
when migrating to
ASP.NET Core
Existing ASP.NET MVC and Web API apps run on IIS and Windows. Large apps may require a phased
or side-by-side approach when porting to ASP.NET Core. In previous chapters, you learned a number
of strategies for migrating large .NET Framework apps to ASP.NET Core in phases. In this chapter, you
will see how different deployment scenarios can be achieved when there is a need to maintain the
original app in production while migrating portions of it.

Split a large web app

Consider the common scenario of a large web app that currently is hosted on IIS in a single web site.
Within the large app, functionality is segmented into different routes and/or directories. The app is a
mix of MVC views and API endpoints. The MVC routes include many different paths based on
functionality and all start from the root of the app using the standard /{controller}/{action}/{id?} route
template. The API endpoints follow a similar pattern, but are all under an /api root.

Assuming the task of porting the app is split such that either the MVC functionality or the API
functionality is migrated to ASP.NET Core first, how would the original site continue to function
seamlessly with the new ASP.NET Core app running somewhere else? Users of the system should
continue to see the same URLs they did prior to the migration, unless it’s absolutely necessary to
change them.

Fortunately, IIS is a very feature-rich web server, and two features it has had for some time are its URL
Rewrite module and Application Request Routing. Using these features, IIS can act as a reverse proxy,
routing client requests to the appropriate back-end web app. To configure IIS as a reverse proxy,
check the Enable proxy checkbox in the Application Request Routing feature, then add a URL Rewrite
rule like this one:

<rule name="NetCoreProxy">
<match url="(.*)> />
<action type="Rewrite" url="http://servername/{R:1}" />
</rule>

69 CHAPTER 5 | Deployment scenarios when migrating to ASP.NET Core

As a reverse proxy, IIS can route traffic matching certain patterns to entirely separate apps, potentially
on different servers.

Using just the URL Rewrite module (perhaps combined with host headers), IIS can easily support
multiple web sites, each potentially running different versions of .NET. A large web app might be
deployed as a collection of individual sites, each responding to different IP addresses and/or host
headers, or as a single web site with one or more sub-applications in it responding to certain URL
paths (which doesn’t even require URL Rewrite).

Important

Subdomains typically refer to the portion of a domain preceding the top two levels. For example, in
the domain api.contoso.com, api is a subdomain of the contoso.com domain (which itself is
composed of the contoso domain name and the .com top-level domain or TLD). URL paths refer to
portion of the URL that follows the domain name, starting with a /. The URL https://contoso.com/api
has a path of /api.

There are pros and cons to using the same or different subdomains (and domains) to host a single
app. Features like cookies and intra-app communication using mechanisms like CORS may require
more configuration to work properly in distributed apps. However, apps that use different
subdomains can more easily use DNS to route requests to entirely different network destinations, and
so can more easily be deployed to many different servers (virtual or otherwise) without the need for
IIS to act as a reverse proxy.

In the example described above, assume the API endpoints are designated as the first part of the app
to be ported to ASP.NET Core. In this case, a new ASP.NET Core app is created and hosted in IIS as a
separate web application within the existing ASP.NET MVC web site. Since it will be added as a child of
the original web site and will be named api, its default route should no longer begin with api/.
Keeping this would result in it matching URLs of the form /api/api/endpoint.

Figure 5-1 shows how the ASP.NET Core 2.1 api app appears in IIS Manager as a part of the existing
DotNetMvcApp site.

70 CHAPTER 5 | Deployment scenarios when migrating to ASP.NET Core

Figure 5-1. .NET Framework Site with .NET Core app in IIS.

The DotNetMvcApp site is hosted as an MVC 5 app running on .NET Framework 4.7.2. It has its own IIS
app pool configured in integrated mode and running .NET CLR version 4.0.30319. The api app is an
ASP.NET Core app running on .NET Framework 4.6.1 (net461). It was added to the DotNetMvcApp as a
new IIS app and configured to use its own Application Pool. Its Application Pool is also running in
integrated mode but is configured with a .NET CLR version of No Managed Code since it will be
executed using the ASP.NET Core Module. The version of the ASP.NET Core app is just an example. It
could also be configured to run on .NET Core 3.1 or .NET 5.0. Though at that point, it would no longer
be able to target .NET Framework libraries (see Choose the Right .NET Core Version)

Configured in this manner, the only change that must be made in order for the ASP.NET Core app’s
APIs to be routed properly is to change its default route template from [Route("[api/controller]")] to
[Route("[controller]")].

Alternately the ASP.NET Core app can be another top-level web site in IIS. In this case, you can
configure the original site to use a rewrite rule (with URL Rewrite) that will redirect to the other app if
the path starts with /api. The ASP.NET Core app can use a different host header for its route so that it
doesn’t conflict with the main app but can still respond to requests using root-based routes.

As an example, the same ASP.NET Core app used in Figure 5-1 can be deployed to another folder
configured as an IIS web site. The site should use an app pool configured just as before, with No

71 CHAPTER 5 | Deployment scenarios when migrating to ASP.NET Core

Managed Code. Configure its bindings to respond to a unique host name on the server, such as
api.contoso.com. To configure URL Rewrite to rewrite requests matching /api just add a new inbound
rule at the IIS server (or individual site) level. Match the pattern ^/api(.*) and specify an Action type of
Rewrite and a Rewrite URL of api.contoso.com/{R:1}. The combination of using (.*) in the matching
pattern and {R:1} in the rewrite URL will ensure the rest of the path gets used with the new URL. With
this in place, separate sites on the same IIS server can coexist running separate versions of .NET, but
they can be made to appear to the Internet as one web app. Figure 5-2 shows the rewrite rule as
configured in IIS with the separate web site.

Figure 5-2. Rewrite rule to rewrite subfolder requests to another web site.

If your app requires single sign-on between different sites or apps within IIS, refer to the
documentation on how to share authentication cookies among ASP.NET apps for detailed instructions
on supporting this scenario.

Summary
A common approach to porting large apps from .NET Framework to ASP.NET Core is to choose
individual portions of the app to migrate one by one. As each piece of the app is ported, the entire
app remains running and usable, with some parts of it running in its original configuration and other
parts running on some version of .NET Core. By following this approach, a large app migration can be
performed incrementally. This approach results in limiting risk by providing more rapid feedback and
reducing total surface area involved in testing. It also allows for more rapid realization of benefits of
.NET Core, such as performance increases. Although ASP.NET Core apps are no longer required to be
hosted on IIS, IIS remains a very flexible and powerful web server that can be configured to support a

72 CHAPTER 5 | Deployment scenarios when migrating to ASP.NET Core

variety of hosting scenarios involving both .NET Framework and ASP.NET Core apps on the same IIS
instance or even hosted on different servers.

References
• Host ASP.NET Core on Windows with IIS
• URL Rewrite module and Application Request Routing
• URL Rewrite
• ASP.NET Core Module
• Share authentication cookies among ASP.NET apps
• Samples used in this section

73 CHAPTER 5 | Deployment scenarios when migrating to ASP.NET Core

 CHAPTER 6
Summary
In this book, you’ve been given the resources needed to decide whether it makes sense to port your
organization’s existing ASP.NET apps running on .NET Framework to ASP.NET Core. You’ve learned
about important considerations for choosing when it makes sense to migrate to .NET Core, and when
it may be appropriate to keep (parts of) your app on .NET Framework. There are differences between
.NET Core versions and their capabilities and compatibilities with .NET Framework, and you learned
how to choose the right version of .NET Core for your app.

Porting a large app often entails a fair amount of risk and effort. You learned how to mitigate this risk
by employing one or more incremental migration strategies along with several deployment strategies
for keeping partially migrated apps running in production.

There are many architectural differences between ASP.NET and ASP.NET Core. In chapter 2, you
learned about many of these differences and how they relate to your app’s migration. This chapter
covered everything from app startup and low-level middleware to high-level controller and Web API
differences and new features enabling much better testing scenarios.

Large apps are often comprised of many projects and packages, and dependencies can play a major
role in determining how easy or difficult migration may be. Chapter 3 helped you identify the
sequence in which to migrate projects and how to understand and update your app’s dependencies. It
also detailed additional strategies for migrating apps while keeping them running in production.

In chapter 4, you saw how a real ASP.NET MVC reference app was migrated to ASP.NET Core. This
chapter included a detailed breakdown of all the changes that were needed to take the existing app
and port it over to run on ASP.NET Core. Refer back to it if you have specific questions about the
porting process and some of its more specific details.

Finally, chapter 5 detailed specific deployment scenarios focused on IIS. You saw how you can use
your existing IIS web server to host parts of your app that have been ported to ASP.NET Core while
keeping the app’s public URLs consistent. IIS includes great support for URL rewriting and request
routing that enables it to host multiple versions of your site side by side or even on different servers,
with no change to the public-facing URLs the app exposes.

74 CHAPTER 6 | Summary