JWT Authentication and Authorization: A Detailed Introduction

In this article, we will discuss authentication and authorization using the JWT token and different cryptographic algorithms and techniques. So, we will be looking at the following things one by one:

  • Introduction of JWT Token
  • Why JWT Token?
  • Structure of JWT Token
  • Client-Server Scenario With JWT Token
  • Client-Server Scenario With JWT Refresh Token

Let’s start one by one with the basics and real-time scenarios.

Dependency Injection and Ways to Inject It Using .NET Core API

In this article, we are going to discuss dependency injection and its usage and benefits. We will also discuss different ways to implement dependency injection.

Prerequisites

  • Basic understanding of the C# programming language.
  • Understanding of Object-Oriented programming.
  • Basic understanding of .NET Core.

Purpose of the Dependency Injection Design Pattern

In simple words, dependency means the object depends on another object to do some work. Using dependency injection, we can write loosely coupled classes and, because of that, our current functionality of one class does not directly depend on another class because we can easily maintain, change, and unit test code properly. It also takes care of the open-closed principle. Using abstraction and interface, we can make some future changes easily without modifying existing functionality.

Implement In-Memory Cache in the NET Core API

Caching is very popular nowadays in the software industry because it will improve the performance and scalability of the application, as we see with many web applications like e-mail and Facebook, and how responsive they are and how great the user experience is while using them. This is because there are a lot of users using the internet. So if an application has huge network traffic and demand, we need to take care of many things that help us improve the performance and responsiveness of the application. So because of that, one of the solutions is caching, and that’s why caching comes into the picture.

What Is Caching?

The cache is the memory storage that is used to store the frequent access data in the temporary storage; it will improve the performance drastically, avoid unnecessary database hits, and store frequently used data into the buffer whenever we need it.

Apache Kafka Introduction, Installation, and Implementation Using .NET Core 6

We will go over Apache Kafka basics, installation, and operation, as well as a step-by-step implementation using a .NET Core 6 web application.

Prerequisites

  • Visual Studio 2022
  • .NET Core 6 SDK
  • SQL Server
  • Java JDK 11
  • Apache Kafka

Agenda

  • Overview of Event Streaming
  • Introduction to Apache Kafka.
  • Main concepts and foundation of Kafka.
  • Different Kafka APIs.
  • Use cases of Apache Kafka.
  • Installation of Kafka on Windows 10.
  • Step-by-step implementation

Overview of Event Streaming

Events are the things that happen within our application when we navigate something. For example, we sign up on any website and order something, so, these are the events.

Hosting .NET Core Web API Image With Docker Compose Over HTTPS

We are going to talk about the SSL Certificate configuration for secure communication over the HTTPS using .NET Core Web API and Docker after running our application inside the docker container using docker-compose.

Prerequisites

  • Visual Studio 2022
  • Docker Desktop
  • .NET Core 6 SDK

Introduction

  • HTTPS is a standard internet protocol that makes the data to be encrypted and a more advanced and secure version of the HTTP protocol.
  • SSL stands for Secure Sockets Layer and standard technology, which keeps secure our application over the internet.
  • SSL is the part of HTTPS protocol, and it takes care of the encryption of data.
  • It enables a secure connection and prevents hacker attacks because of its encryption algorithm and many security layers.

Implementation of .NET Core Web API Application

Step 1

Create a new .NET Core Web API application.

Minimal API Using .NET Core 6 Web API

We will go over the purpose of minimal APIs in.NET Core 6, as well as how to implement them step by step.

Prerequisites

  • .NET Core 6 SDK
  • Visual Studio 2022
  • SQL Server

Introduction

  • Minimal APIs are used to create HTTP APIs with minimum dependencies and configuration.
  • Mostly, it is used in microservices that have fewer files and functionality within a single file.
  • But there are a few things that are not supported in minimal APIs, like action filters and built-in validation; also, a few more are still in progress and will get in the future by .NET Team.

Step-by-Step Implementation Using .NET Core 6

Step 1

Create a new .NET Core Web API.

Hangfire Introduction and Implementation in .NET Core 6 Web API

Prerequisites

  • Basic understanding of .NET Core 6 API and C#.
  • Visual Studio 2022
  • SQL Server

Agenda

  • Create .NET Core API using version 6
  • Configure Hangfire in .NET
  • Look into the different types of jobs that are present in Hangfire.

Overview

  • Hangfire is open-source and used to schedule the job at a particular event and time.
  • It is also used to create, process, and manage your background jobs.
  • We use this in background processing without user intervention.
  • Hangfire is reliable and persistent. It will take care of all things once the job is scheduled.
  • Hangfire dashboard is also available for us to manage all things easily.

Why Hangfire is Required in Background Processing

  • Sometimes we need to do lengthy operations like database updates and database maintenance so it’s managed periodically. 
  • Batch import from XML, JSON, and YAML files.
  • Recurring reports on a periodic basis.
  • Mass notification on subscription and sign up basis.

So, these are things that we are able to do periodically over a certain period of time as per our requirements.

There are different types of jobs that are present in Hangfire. We will look at them one by one.

RabbitMQ Message Queue Using .NET Core 6 Web API

We are going to discuss the RabbitMQ Message Queue and its implementation using .NET Core 6 API as a message producer and the console application as a message consumer.

Agenda

  • Introduction of RabbitMQ
  • Benefits of using RabbitMQ
  • Implementation of RabbitMQ in .NET Core 6

Prerequisites

  • Visual Studio 2022
  • Docker Desktop
  • .NET Core 6 SDK

Introduction to RabbitMQ

  • RabbitMQ acts as a middleware while using multiple microservices.
  • It is open-source message broker software, and is sometimes also called message-oriented middleware.
  • It is written in the Erlang programming language.
  • RabbitMQ is used to reduce the load and delivery time of our web applications when some of the resources have taken a lot of time to process data.

As you can see in the above diagram, there is one producer which sends a message to the RabbitMQ server and the server will store that message inside the queue in a FIFO manner.

gRPC Introduction and Implementation Using .NET Core 6

Prerequisites

  1. "Visual Studio 2022"
  2. Basic Knowledge of C#

Agenda

  • Introduction of gRPC
  • Scenarios Where gRPC is Used
  • Pros and Cons of gRPC
  • Implementation of gRPC

Introduction

  • gRPC stands for Google Remote Procedure Calls.
  • gRPC is a modern, open-source, high-performance remote procedure call (RPC) framework that can run in any environment. It can efficiently connect services in and across data centers with pluggable support for load balancing, tracing, health checking, and authentication. It is also applicable in the last mile of distributed computing to connect devices, mobile applications, and browsers to back-end services. — gRPC Website
gRPC Server

Figure From grpc.io

  • gRPC is the framework used to implement APIs using HTTP/2.
  • gRPC uses protocol buffers (protobuf) for serialization and the HTTP/2 protocol, which provides more advantages than HTTP.
  • gRPC clients and servers intercommunicate using a variety of environments and machines. It also supports many languages like Java, C#, Go, Ruby, and Python.
  • The binary layer of gRPC will do all data operations like encoding and uses protobuf as an intermediator between client and server, improving performance.
  • It is also used for communication between multiple microservices efficiently.

Scenarios Where gRPC Is Used

  • When we use microservice architecture, we use it for internal communication from one or more servers.
  • When performance is a high priority and low latency.
  • When we require duplex communication between services with different types of data.

Pros and Cons of gRPC

gRPC Pros

  • High performance—faster than REST and SOAP
  • Lightweight messages—gRPC messages are more lightweight than other types like JSON.
  • Higher efficiency 
  • Duplex data streaming

gRPC Cons

  • Limited browser support
  • Uses binary data because it’s not easily readable like JSON or XML.

Implementation of gRPC

Step 1

Create a new gRPC project

Upload Single and Multiple Files Using the .NET Core 6 Web API

We will discuss single and multiple file uploads with the help of the IFormFile Interface and others provided by .NET and step-by-step implementation using .NET Core 6 Web API.

Agenda

  • Introduction
  • Step-by-step Implementation

Prerequisites

  • .NET Core 6 SDK
  • Visual Studio 2022
  • SQL Server
  • Postman

Introduction

  • .NET provides an IFormFile interface representing transmitted files in an HTTP request.
  • It also provides many properties like ContentDisposition, ContentType, FileName, Headers, Name, and Length.
  • IFormFile also provides many methods, like copying the request stream content, opening the request stream for reading, and many more.

Step-By-Step Implementation

Step 1

Create a new .NET Core Web API.

Docker Introduction, Architecture, and Command Details

Docker Overview

Its primary focus is to automate the deployment of applications inside software containers and the automation of operating system-level virtualization on Linux. It’s more lightweight than standard containers and boots up in seconds.

Why Does Docker Come Into the Picture?

Before Docker, all of us faced many issues. For example, when we built the application and after testing all the scenarios, we passed them to the QA environment, and then on the machines of QA members, we needed to take care of all the dependencies and versions of assemblies and frameworks. So there is a gap between the QA and the development team, and it also wastes time. So, when we use Docker, this problem will get sorted, and we can use Docker Images on any platform without too much configuration.

Architecture of Kubernetes

We are going to discuss things related to Kubernetes architecture in this blog.

Prerequisites

  1. Basic Understanding of Cloud.
  2. Basic Understanding of Docker.

Kubernetes

  • Kubernetes is the Container Management Orchestration Tool which Google develops for managing their own microservices across the different clusters.
  • Kubernetes, also called K8s, basically is Numeronym Standard that is used since the 1980s. For Example, In the K8s, there are 8 words in between K and S like that.
  • Google developed an internal system called Borg and later named Omega, which they use to Orchestrate the Data Center.
  • In 2014, Google introduced Kubernetes as an Open Source, and it is written in Golang language. Later on, donated to CNCF.
  • Kubernetes is a tool that automates container deployment, load balancing, and auto-scaling. It will manage all the containers which are running in different environments.

Feature of Kubernetes

  • Orchestration Support: Kubernetes provides a cluster to manage multiple containers which are running in different environments.
  • Auto Scale Application: It will auto-scale the application as per our requirements and network traffic.
  • Automate the Deployment: Using Kubernetes, we automate our deployment process using different cloud provider services.
  • Fault Tolerance: It will manage all the things related to the container; suppose our container is running under different nodes and pods, and Kubernetes found one of the pods, and the container stops working, then it will manage incoming network traffic.
  • Load Balancing: It will balance a load of our application using different nodes and pods which are in running mode.
  • Platform Independent: It will manage all types of applications that are running under a different environment like virtual, cloud, and physical machines.
  • Health Monitoring: It will manage the health of containers that are running under different types of pods.
  • Rollback: We are also able to roll back the application version using Kubernetes.
  • Batch Execution: We are also able to execute some functionality simultaneously and parallelly.

The Architecture of Kubernetes

Architecture of Kubernetes

There are two nodes which is used by Kubernetes while running the application, which will see one by one.