6 ms·

To add to the author's list: * I seem to install Json.net in every .NET project I create (json serializer - thanks James Newton-King!) * NLog for logging. It'

by Cakez0r 12y ago

To add to the author's list: * I seem to install Json.net in every .NET project I create (json serializer - thanks James Newton-King!) * NLog for logging. It's fantastic. * Dapper is also excellent (Micro ORM) (and anything written by Marc Gravell is generally top-notch - see protobuf-net, miniprofiler, StackExchange.Redis) * Automapper, to avoid writing boilerplate code to convert between similarly shaped types (E.G. DTOs to DB models). * RestSharp makes talking to RESTful apis easier. * Microsoft's Unity is a great IOC framework, although most people seem to use NInject.

Griever 12y ago
Excellent list. Another addition I would make is another contribution from Stack Exchange, this time from Kevin Montrose. It's a high-performance JSON serializer/deserializer called Jil. https://github.com/kevin-montrose/Jil https://github.com/kevin-montrose/Jil I've been using it on most of my newer projects this year and I have to say I much prefer it over the (still excellent) Json.net.
mariusmg 12y ago
Never understood the point of Automapper when you can write explicit/implicit user defined typed conversions in C#.
- _camaya 12y ago
  could you elaborate a bit more on that?
  - UK-AL 12y ago
    https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/z5z9kes2.aspx https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/z5z9kes2.aspx Doesn't completely replace automapper
Someone1234 12y ago
How does Automapper compare to Entity Framework? We use Elmah instead of Nlog, which is also fine. Looks like NLog is a bit more flexible than Elmah is. But Elmah is KISS which is nice.
- louhike 12y ago
  AutoMapper does not really compare to EF. AutoMapper is used to copy automatically data between two objects of different classes (like a.UtilisateurName = b.Utilisateur.Name). It uses Reflection for that. I will try to link automatically properties by their names. The two classes do not have to have the same format. It works if one the classes is the flattened version of the other. It might not be really clear, sorry. Try to look on their website https://github.com/AutoMapper/AutoMapper/wiki/Getting-started https://github.com/AutoMapper/AutoMapper/wiki/Getting-starte....
- _camaya 12y ago
  Automapper and Entity Framework are two absolutely different things. The first one in a mappings library and the other one is a full ORM. Automapper basically allows you to convert a DB Model to a DTO or a ViewModel.
- tvjunky 12y ago
  I think you're asking about Dapper (ORM) which could be compared to Entity Framework. The two major things to think about if comparing would be simplicity and speed. Dapper is simple to setup and use. It uses standard SQL and it's very fast. On the other hand, this is not a fair comparison. EF is has many more features and options. Use the right tool for the right job depending on requirements. Elmah and NLog are not apples to apples either. Elmah make dealing with "Unhandled" exceptions very simple. Nlog is for application logging (Trace, Info) and exception management (A try catch scenario).
  - nightski 12y ago
    In fact it is not uncommon for me to use both Dapper and EF on the same project. Usually I'll use Dapper for the query/reporting side and EF for the domain model/update side. (Used to use nHibernate, but it seems to have really stagnated unfortunately)
    - Hakeashar 12y ago
      Even then, for query building I found EF (or any LINQ provider for SQL) to be easier solution than string concatenation. Well, at least for relatively simple queries with pagination and stuff. For filters, Dynamic.Linq would be helpful here. On the other side, if you need to work extensively with stored procedures or you have complicated or custom SQL to run, Dapper (or Insight.Database - https://github.com/jonwagner/Insight.Database https://github.com/jonwagner/Insight.Database, a library which I found really nice to use) will be your best friend.
eropple 12y ago
> NLog for logging. It's fantastic. I use NLog, but I access it through the Common.Logging facade. This is helpful when I need to bolt my code into an environment where NLog kind of sucks, like Xamarin.Android.
- russgray 12y ago
  If you're in a position to use it, I much prefer Anotar with Fody https://github.com/Fody/Anotar https://github.com/Fody/Anotar Commons.Logging always felt clunky in comparison.
  - GordonS 12y ago
    I prefer Timber myself https://github.com/cocowalla/Timber https://github.com/cocowalla/Timber In particular, it makes logging to the Windows event log much easier
dasboth 12y ago
Was going to post Dapper, Automapper and RestSharp myself. I use ELMAH for logging but I'll give NLog a look!
- mandlar 12y ago
  I also can recommend StackExchange Exceptional and Opserver from the StackExchange crew for logging: https://github.com/opserver/Opserver https://github.com/opserver/Opserver
- NicoJuicy 12y ago
  Would give a headsup for Elmah and the MVC integration... It's pretty easy and awesome.
topbanana 12y ago
> * Microsoft's Unity is a great IOC framework, although most people seem to use NInject Autofac is my favorite. Once built, containers are immutable, there is deterministic disposal of components in 'lifetime scopes', and delegate factories make it much easier to instantiate classes with a mixture of services and data.
odinserj 12y ago
Dapper is a really awesome library when you want to write complex queries (full of table hints, output clauses, merges and other advanced stuff), but don't want to write enormous amount of code for adding parameters and reading result sets.
- rjbwork 12y ago
  Personally, I think it's great even for crud...It's an order of magnitude faster than things like EF/LINQ2SQL
  - aggieben 12y ago
    Agreed. And really it's pretty simple to get it working and start using it even for straight crud - much easier than EF or other heavy ORMs, I think.
  - odinserj 12y ago
    I've also used BLToolkit, and it is pretty fast too, plus it has Linq support to build strongly-typed queries that sometimes better than raw SQL queries. But when it comes to table hints, Linq and other stuff does not help. So, it always depends :)
    - radicalbyte 12y ago
      BLToolkit and the replacement (linq2db) are great. Excellent performance and it has some excellent developers contributing.
bratsche 12y ago
> RestSharp makes talking to RESTful apis easier. Another interesting library for doing REST APIs is Refit: https://github.com/paulcbetts/refit https://github.com/paulcbetts/refit
- Hakeashar 12y ago
  Damn, thanks for pointing me in that direction. It's exactly what I've been looking for. Technically, I implemented some of that stuff myself because I needed REST client that would work with PCLs and be a bit 'nicer' to use than just juggling strings/routes everywhere, so using annotations and wrapping Microsoft's HttpClient was obvious and relatively easy way out. Anyway, I'll probably just phase out my own solution and start using the library. [EDIT] After checking it out, RefitStubs.cs file seems a little bit clunky, but the library as a whole looks solid enough. I'll look further into it.
  - xpaulbettsx 12y ago
    RefitStubs is necessary because on certain platforms (iOS, WinRT), you cannot JIT and therefore can't use something like Castle Core to generate a class
    - Hakeashar 12y ago
      I figured as much. Unfortunately there's no Emit for AOT where you could do something like: https://github.com/jonwagner/Insight.Database/blob/master/Insight.Database/CodeGenerator/InterfaceGenerator.cs https://github.com/jonwagner/Insight.Database/blob/master/In... On the other hand, I wonder if it wouldn't be easier to ship a T4 template? I know for sure that would integrate with VS (both the IDE and build process) without any issues, not sure about Xamarin Studio...
kjhughes 12y ago
Thanks for these. Adding a couple others: * EPPlus for reading or creating Excel spreadsheets without using Excel (such as on a server). http://epplus.codeplex.com/ http://epplus.codeplex.com/ * RTFConverter for parsing RTF. http://www.codeproject.com/Articles/27431/Writing-Your-Own-RTF-Converter http://www.codeproject.com/Articles/27431/Writing-Your-Own-R... These are good enough to drive the decision to use C#/.NET for projects needing these capabilities.
- keithly 12y ago
  I found SpreadsheetLight much more performant than EPPlus. http://spreadsheetlight.com/download/ http://spreadsheetlight.com/download/
- NicoJuicy 12y ago
  I prefer DoddleReport for creating reports from a dynamic source to Excel, PDF, OpenExcell, txt or csv :) They also have a great MVC integration
NicoJuicy 12y ago
I'd add ImageResizer for resizing images ( and in MVC resizing them in a restfull way...). You can also localcache them or cache external images (resized). You can also store them in the cloud and add effects to the images. Many things are possible : http://imageresizing.net/ http://imageresizing.net/ It isn't possible in Asp.Net 5 (vNext) though :( - because of the cross platform integration. Also, https://github.com/jamietre/CsQuery https://github.com/jamietre/CsQuery is pretty nice for parsing webpages and using CSS Selectors (jquery style) With CsQuery, you could use aBot ( https://github.com/sjdirect/abot https://github.com/sjdirect/abot ) for crawling ;)

by Cakez0r 12y ago

Griever 12y ago

Excellent list. Another addition I would make is another contribution from Stack Exchange, this time from Kevin Montrose. It's a high-performance JSON serializer/deserializer called Jil. https://github.com/kevin-montrose/Jil https://github.com/kevin-montrose/Jil I've been using it on most of my newer projects this year and I have to say I much prefer it over the (still excellent) Json.net.

mariusmg 12y ago

Never understood the point of Automapper when you can write explicit/implicit user defined typed conversions in C#.

_camaya 12y ago
could you elaborate a bit more on that?
- UK-AL 12y ago
  https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/z5z9kes2.aspx https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/z5z9kes2.aspx Doesn't completely replace automapper

Someone1234 12y ago

How does Automapper compare to Entity Framework? We use Elmah instead of Nlog, which is also fine. Looks like NLog is a bit more flexible than Elmah is. But Elmah is KISS which is nice.

louhike 12y ago
AutoMapper does not really compare to EF. AutoMapper is used to copy automatically data between two objects of different classes (like a.UtilisateurName = b.Utilisateur.Name). It uses Reflection for that. I will try to link automatically properties by their names. The two classes do not have to have the same format. It works if one the classes is the flattened version of the other. It might not be really clear, sorry. Try to look on their website https://github.com/AutoMapper/AutoMapper/wiki/Getting-started https://github.com/AutoMapper/AutoMapper/wiki/Getting-starte....
_camaya 12y ago
Automapper and Entity Framework are two absolutely different things. The first one in a mappings library and the other one is a full ORM. Automapper basically allows you to convert a DB Model to a DTO or a ViewModel.
tvjunky 12y ago
I think you're asking about Dapper (ORM) which could be compared to Entity Framework. The two major things to think about if comparing would be simplicity and speed. Dapper is simple to setup and use. It uses standard SQL and it's very fast. On the other hand, this is not a fair comparison. EF is has many more features and options. Use the right tool for the right job depending on requirements. Elmah and NLog are not apples to apples either. Elmah make dealing with "Unhandled" exceptions very simple. Nlog is for application logging (Trace, Info) and exception management (A try catch scenario).
- nightski 12y ago
  In fact it is not uncommon for me to use both Dapper and EF on the same project. Usually I'll use Dapper for the query/reporting side and EF for the domain model/update side. (Used to use nHibernate, but it seems to have really stagnated unfortunately)
  - Hakeashar 12y ago
    Even then, for query building I found EF (or any LINQ provider for SQL) to be easier solution than string concatenation. Well, at least for relatively simple queries with pagination and stuff. For filters, Dynamic.Linq would be helpful here. On the other side, if you need to work extensively with stored procedures or you have complicated or custom SQL to run, Dapper (or Insight.Database - https://github.com/jonwagner/Insight.Database https://github.com/jonwagner/Insight.Database, a library which I found really nice to use) will be your best friend.

eropple 12y ago

> NLog for logging. It's fantastic. I use NLog, but I access it through the Common.Logging facade. This is helpful when I need to bolt my code into an environment where NLog kind of sucks, like Xamarin.Android.

russgray 12y ago
If you're in a position to use it, I much prefer Anotar with Fody https://github.com/Fody/Anotar https://github.com/Fody/Anotar Commons.Logging always felt clunky in comparison.
- GordonS 12y ago
  I prefer Timber myself https://github.com/cocowalla/Timber https://github.com/cocowalla/Timber In particular, it makes logging to the Windows event log much easier

dasboth 12y ago

Was going to post Dapper, Automapper and RestSharp myself. I use ELMAH for logging but I'll give NLog a look!

mandlar 12y ago
I also can recommend StackExchange Exceptional and Opserver from the StackExchange crew for logging: https://github.com/opserver/Opserver https://github.com/opserver/Opserver
NicoJuicy 12y ago
Would give a headsup for Elmah and the MVC integration... It's pretty easy and awesome.

topbanana 12y ago

> * Microsoft's Unity is a great IOC framework, although most people seem to use NInject Autofac is my favorite. Once built, containers are immutable, there is deterministic disposal of components in 'lifetime scopes', and delegate factories make it much easier to instantiate classes with a mixture of services and data.

odinserj 12y ago

Dapper is a really awesome library when you want to write complex queries (full of table hints, output clauses, merges and other advanced stuff), but don't want to write enormous amount of code for adding parameters and reading result sets.

rjbwork 12y ago
Personally, I think it's great even for crud...It's an order of magnitude faster than things like EF/LINQ2SQL
- aggieben 12y ago
  Agreed. And really it's pretty simple to get it working and start using it even for straight crud - much easier than EF or other heavy ORMs, I think.
- odinserj 12y ago
  I've also used BLToolkit, and it is pretty fast too, plus it has Linq support to build strongly-typed queries that sometimes better than raw SQL queries. But when it comes to table hints, Linq and other stuff does not help. So, it always depends :)
  - radicalbyte 12y ago
    BLToolkit and the replacement (linq2db) are great. Excellent performance and it has some excellent developers contributing.

bratsche 12y ago

> RestSharp makes talking to RESTful apis easier. Another interesting library for doing REST APIs is Refit: https://github.com/paulcbetts/refit https://github.com/paulcbetts/refit

Hakeashar 12y ago
Damn, thanks for pointing me in that direction. It's exactly what I've been looking for. Technically, I implemented some of that stuff myself because I needed REST client that would work with PCLs and be a bit 'nicer' to use than just juggling strings/routes everywhere, so using annotations and wrapping Microsoft's HttpClient was obvious and relatively easy way out. Anyway, I'll probably just phase out my own solution and start using the library. [EDIT] After checking it out, RefitStubs.cs file seems a little bit clunky, but the library as a whole looks solid enough. I'll look further into it.
- xpaulbettsx 12y ago
  RefitStubs is necessary because on certain platforms (iOS, WinRT), you cannot JIT and therefore can't use something like Castle Core to generate a class
  - Hakeashar 12y ago
    I figured as much. Unfortunately there's no Emit for AOT where you could do something like: https://github.com/jonwagner/Insight.Database/blob/master/Insight.Database/CodeGenerator/InterfaceGenerator.cs https://github.com/jonwagner/Insight.Database/blob/master/In... On the other hand, I wonder if it wouldn't be easier to ship a T4 template? I know for sure that would integrate with VS (both the IDE and build process) without any issues, not sure about Xamarin Studio...

kjhughes 12y ago

Thanks for these. Adding a couple others: * EPPlus for reading or creating Excel spreadsheets without using Excel (such as on a server). http://epplus.codeplex.com/ http://epplus.codeplex.com/ * RTFConverter for parsing RTF. http://www.codeproject.com/Articles/27431/Writing-Your-Own-RTF-Converter http://www.codeproject.com/Articles/27431/Writing-Your-Own-R... These are good enough to drive the decision to use C#/.NET for projects needing these capabilities.

keithly 12y ago
I found SpreadsheetLight much more performant than EPPlus. http://spreadsheetlight.com/download/ http://spreadsheetlight.com/download/
NicoJuicy 12y ago
I prefer DoddleReport for creating reports from a dynamic source to Excel, PDF, OpenExcell, txt or csv :) They also have a great MVC integration

NicoJuicy 12y ago

I'd add ImageResizer for resizing images ( and in MVC resizing them in a restfull way...). You can also localcache them or cache external images (resized). You can also store them in the cloud and add effects to the images. Many things are possible : http://imageresizing.net/ http://imageresizing.net/ It isn't possible in Asp.Net 5 (vNext) though :( - because of the cross platform integration. Also, https://github.com/jamietre/CsQuery https://github.com/jamietre/CsQuery is pretty nice for parsing webpages and using CSS Selectors (jquery style) With CsQuery, you could use aBot ( https://github.com/sjdirect/abot https://github.com/sjdirect/abot ) for crawling ;)