Web applications are everywhere these days, from social media web apps and news sites to the apps on your phone. Behind the scenes, there’s almost always a server running a web application or an HTTP API. Web applications are expected to be infinitely scalable, deployed to the cloud, and highly performant. Getting started can be overwhelming at the best of times, and doing so with such high expectations can be even more of a challenge.
The good news for you as a reader is that ASP.NET Core was designed to meet those requirements. Whether you need a simple website, a complex e-commerce web app, or a distributed web of microservices, you can use your knowledge of ASP.NET Core to build lean web apps that fit your needs. ASP.NET Core lets you build and run web apps in Windows, Linux, or macOS. It’s highly modular, so you use only the components you need, keeping your app as compact and performant as possible.
In part 1 you’ll go from a standing start all the way to building your first API applications. Chapter 2 gives you a high-level overview of ASP.NET Core, which you’ll find especially useful if you’re new to web development in general. You’ll get your first glimpse of a full ASP.NET Core application in chapter 3; we’ll look at each component of the app in turn and see how they work together to generate a response.