What is .NET, ASP.NET, looking over them the verbiage is extremely foreign to me.

Okay so I have VS 2015 and tried to develop on it to build some small apps but soon had to drop it for the lack of, well in short understandable tutorials. I am coming from Linux and only using Ubuntu to build my apps with MEAN or Meteor. So to me those seem very native and simple.

When looking for a job all I see online are C# or .NET developers. I tried to learn by going to MS and watching tutorials or going online but I feel like a mouse in a forest trying to find anything. While it seems like a very robust ad mature environment to me a newcomer it's rather daunting. I recently got a web app working using MEAN stack on windows using VS coder.

How does .NET fit into all of this. What exactly is .NET? Is it the backend framework? Does it interfere with the front end. Does anyone know of any tutorials for skilled Javascript stack developers to move over to the C# side? I have looked over C# and it is very similar to Java but am still confused on how VS, ASP.NET, C#, and the front end fit together. I just want to make an API server side and then have a front end like Angular 2 that talks to the API.

C#, .NET, etc. are my native languages and I literally build ASP.NET services and solutions everyday as part of my career. Hopefully, I can provide some insight.

First, C#, .NET and ASP.NET while related are not all the same thing:

C# is a programming language that's generally associated with .NET but can be used elsewhere. That's all. It's just the language

.NET is a Framework. It's a set of API's, classes, etc. that all come together to make programming easier. In general, you write C# code (or VB, F#, etc.) utilizing the .NET Framework and that all gets compiled during build or run time for execution by the .NET compiler. With the latest release of .NET (Core) you can either use the default compiler Roselyn, use a third party compiler or roll your own. There's a lot more to it than that, but I could write pages on just the compilation stuff alone and you really don't need it to get started.

ASP.NET is a subset of the .NET Framework specifically geared towards web development. Initially it consisted of what Microsoft called WebForms which were Microsoft's way of pulling traditional application developers over to web development. I personally don't work with WebForms anymore as they are too reliant on session and ViewState and for the most part, most people are moving on to MVC. MVC and WebApi are the kids on the block and with .NET Core, they have been merged. MVC tacked rending Html views as well as returning data, whereas WebApi was geared specifically to returning data via REST generally via XML or JSON although you have full access to the HttpContext so you could theoretically can return whatever you want.

Ok, so. With that wall of text out of the way, what you're looking to do is actually pretty simple. Crack open Visual Studio (preferably 2015 with Update 2 or 3 installed) and create a new ASP.NET Web Application or ASP.NET Core Web Application. I'd personally say go with the first for the time being even though ASP.NET Core is the new hotness because Core was literally just released and there isn't a ton of documentation on it. StackOverflow, on the other hand, is full of questions about ASP.NET.

Once you've selected your project type, go ahead and select the WebApi template. This will create a project template with everything you need to get started with WebApi. There will be a controllers folder where you'll put your data controllers, a models folder for your models, etc. These controllers are going to be your server side code. By default, they'll all be prefixed by '/API' when you call them.

Now, to add a client, you have one of two options:

You can dump your files into the same project and have everything there.
You can create a new empty web project and put your files there

Regardless of where you put our client code, you'll need to make a note of the port number that the web api project runs under (usually http://localhost:SomePortNumber) and have your Angular project point to that for data.

That's a REALLY high level overview of how to get started and I'm sure you have more questions but a Hashnode post is a very limited area for a tutorial :)

Check out this tutorial: asp.net/web-api/overview/getting-started-with-asp…

Also, feel free to hit me up if you need help or a starter project to get going with as an example. I'm more than happy to help.

I love C#. It's super powerful, really elegant and the .NET Framework has a lot to offer, but I can understand how difficult it can be coming from another language. Once you get past the initial hurdles, it's all pretty much downhill for a while.

Ahh. Right. No PM. Feel free to private message me on Twitter at @HousePandas. I'll try and work up a lengthier answer when I get back to my PC. I'm mobile at the moment. 😁

So. The 3 project types are thus:

Web Application - This is the classic .NET 4.6.1 template. It's been around for a while but you can't use NPM very easily with this project type.
ASP.NET Core (.NET Framework) - This is still .NET 4.6.1, but it uses the new ASP.NET 5 setup. A nice intermediary bridge between .NET Framework and .NET Core.
ASP.NET Core (.NET Core) - This is the same as the previous project, but with everything initially setup for .NET Core.

Out of the 3, I'd choose the first or second; probably the second. .NET Core is still really new and there isn't a tonne of documentation. The second option is a little more flexible and lets you use NPM, Bower, etc. within VS easily.

So when you get to the project template selection, that's all they are, templates. They are just projects with certain pages, controllers, etc created for you. At their core they're all the same; just showing off different aspects of the platform. I usually role with the empty project, but I've been doing this for years.

Also, you'll be given the option to host in Azure. This is up to you. Everything of my generally ends up there at some point, but you don't have to use it. When your project loads and you click the debug button (or press F5), VS will launch a mini version of IIS called IIS Express to run your website. It runs locally and within its own memory space. When you stop debugging, it stops IIS Express as well; though you can changes this in the options.

Creating your own folder structure is done through the GUI for the most part UNLESS you use the ASP.NET Core project types. These project types will pick up folder and file changes made outside of the IDE, so feel free to BASH/PowerShell/Console it up.

Nuget packages are generally for .NET libraries only; like NPM is for JavaScript, etc. You should use them, but you don't need to use them for any of your client side stuff. If it's .NET use Nuget; if it's client-side/javascript stuff, go NPM.

You can use whatever database you like. There are drivers for just about every major database out there. SQL is generally included by default via EntityFramework.

If you want to use MongoDB type: "Install-Package MongoDB.Driver" in your package manager console.

I guess no notifications of this were sent to me but great to know more in depth about C# and .NET. I think my favorite choice would be to use VS Code with after setting up a ASP.NET Core project since I like to use npm and am used folder manipulation through the [etc]. I would of course only do this to learn. I like starting from a blank slate and not getting overwhelmed with all the boilerplate code facing me and I have no idea how it works. I am on Udemy and am currently too broke to enroll in better courses but these fit my price range. about one course a month is all I can afford.

https://www.udemy.com/crossplatformaspnetcoremvc/ This is the course I want to take. It seems very up to date and kind of what I think I should learn. Any thoughts? I just want to get a grasp of C# and the .NET. It sounds like .NET is like a backend framework to me but more of like Rails and not like express. Express feels kind of like a partner to its back end buddies while Rails to me is like an over achiever of control but good control.

I guess my biggest issue right now is that all the websites I design are RESTful API back ends with a front end completely separated. I like this separation but am not sure if I can achieve this with ASP.NET. Do you think I can keep this separation? I also wanted to thank you for all this. I don't know any programmers and have no mentor for learning and zero peers. I just graduated and spend all my time learning.

Im almost done with Angular 2 course and I am not sure if I should go straight into learning C# ASP.NET and then trying to deploy a real world site ( my Portfolio Page) . Or stick to what I know and develop my portfolio page using the MEAN stack, deploy it, and then learn ASP.NET. I am very excited to learn these technologies and can't wait to dive in.

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