.NET Framework, Software Development, Web

Blazor United: Combining Server-Side and Client-Side Rendering in .NET

Web development frameworks have come a long way in the past decade, with the rise of powerful tools like React, Vue, and Angular enabling developers to create dynamic, interactive user interfaces. However, the tradeoff for this interactivity is often slower initial page load times, as more and more work is pushed to the client side.

In ASP.NET Core, developers have a few different options for building web UI. MVC and Razor Pages use server-side rendering to generate HTML from the server in response to requests, which can help improve initial load times. However, for richly interactive UI, client-side rendering (CSR) is often a better choice, as it offers lower latency and greater access to client capabilities.

Enter Blazor, Microsoft’s C#-based framework for building web UI using either WebAssembly or server-side rendering. Blazor offers a component-based model that allows developers to create interactive UI using C# and .NET, with full access to the power of the .NET ecosystem.

Blazor’s server-side rendering option, Blazor Server, offers a particularly compelling combination of interactivity and server-side rendering. With Blazor Server, UI interactions are handled on the client side, with only the necessary updates sent to the server, minimizing the amount of data sent over the wire and improving latency.

However, up until now, developers who wanted to use a combination of server-side and client-side rendering in their .NET applications had to use multiple frameworks together, including MVC, Razor Pages, and Blazor. This added complexity and made it harder to create a cohesive, full-stack architecture.

That’s where Blazor United comes in. In .NET 8, Microsoft is working to combine the benefits of server-side and client-side rendering into a single full-stack programming model based on Blazor. With Blazor United, developers can use a single Blazor-based architecture for server-side rendering and full client-side interactivity, all within a single project.

This means that developers can create web applications that take advantage of the speed and indexing benefits of server-side rendering for certain pages, while still offering rich interactivity and low latency for others. And because it’s all based on Blazor, developers can use their existing C# and .NET skills to build these applications.

Blazor United also offers new rendering capabilities, including streaming rendering and progressive enhancement of navigations and form posts. These capabilities allow for even faster load times and smoother UI interactions, making it even easier to create high-performance web applications.

In conclusion, Blazor United represents an exciting step forward for .NET web development, offering a unified, full-stack programming model that combines the benefits of server-side and client-side rendering. With Blazor United, developers can create fast, responsive, and interactive web applications using their existing C# and .NET skills, all within a single project