Athen Tech Bytes – April Edition II

Welcome to another exhilarating edition of our technical newsletter!?

This month, we're delighted to guide you through the latest innovations in the realmWelcome to another exhilarating edition of our technical newsletter!?

This month, we're delighted to guide you through the latest innovations in the realms of C#, .NET, and the Power Platform. Prepare to elevate your development experience and supercharge your applications with these groundbreaking enhancements!?

Spotlight:?

1. Building a scalable gateway with .NET for Microsoft AI?
2. Build & test resilient apps in .NET with Dev Proxy?
3. Power Platform is leading a new era of AI-generated low-code app development?
4. Refactor your C# code with primary constructors?s of C#, .NET, and the Power Platform. Prepare to elevate your development experience and supercharge your applications with these groundbreaking enhancements!?

Building a scalable gateway with .NET for Microsoft AI?

The Microsoft AI team needed a reliable and performant gateway to manage traffic for various services like Bing and Cortana.??

Here's how they achieved it:?

• Built on modern .NET: Leveraged the latest .NET 8 for cross-platform compatibility, performance, and ease of development.?
• YARP for Routing: Used YARP (Yet Another Reverse Proxy) for efficient routing and load balancing across multiple services.?
• Flexible Configuration: Enabled teams to define custom routes and configurations through a central location.?
• Advanced Features: Implemented functionalities like rate limiting and traffic mirroring using built-in .NET features.?

This approach resulted in a scalable and efficient gateway, empowering different teams within Microsoft AI.?

• Reference: Click here to view the details ?

Build & test resilient apps in .NET with Dev Proxy?

We're here to keep you up to speed with all the latest happenings in .NET check out what's new:?

Introducing Dev Proxy: Your API Simulator?

Dev Proxy is a game-changer for API testing. This tool lets you simulate various API behaviors without touching your app's code. You can:?

• Simulate errors: Test how your app handles different error codes.?
• Introduce delays: See how your app reacts to slow API responses.?
• Simulate rate limiting: Prepare your app for APIs that restrict access.?

Benefits of Dev Proxy?

• Improved App Resilience: By testing with simulated failures, you identify and fix weaknesses in your app's error handling.?
• Reduced Development Time: No more complex mocks! Dev Proxy streamlines your testing process.?
• Peace of Mind: Deploy your app with confidence, knowing it can handle unexpected API issues.?

Testing a .NET Aspire App?

• Let's see how Dev Proxy can be used to test a sample e-commerce app built with .NET Aspire. We'll simulate API throttling to see how the app's default resilience features handle it.?
• Simulating API Throttling: We configure Dev Proxy to intercept all requests to the product catalog API. Dev Proxy will then simulate a "429 Too Many Requests" error, instructing the app to back off.?
• The Result: The app encounters errors and displays a raw stack trace to the user - not ideal! This highlights the need to improve the app's error handling and implement proper backoff logic for throttling scenarios.?
• Beyond Throttling: Dev Proxy lets you simulate a wide range of API behaviors, helping you test your app's resilience thoroughly.?
• How it Works: Dev Proxy runs locally and intercepts API calls. Configure it to simulate specific behaviors and see how your app reacts.?
• Reference: Click here to view the details ?

Power Platform is leading a new era of AI-generated low-code app development?

Introducing Copilot: Democratize App Development with AI on Microsoft Power Platform?

Microsoft Power Platform is supercharging app development with Copilot, an AI-powered assistant. Now you can describe your app, flow, or bot in plain English, and Copilot will build it for you!?

Benefits:?

• Citizen Developers: Build apps easily, no coding required.?
• Professional Developers: Save time on routine tasks.?
• Everyone: Develop faster with Copilot's automation.?

Specific Enhancements by Product:?

• Power Apps:?

• Effortlessly generate data tables based on your app's purpose.?
• Refine your app using natural language prompts.?

• Power Automate:?

• Automate flow creation with natural language descriptions.?
• Reduce development time by 50% (based on October 2022 preview).?

• Power Virtual Agents:?

• Build intelligent chatbots in minutes with Copilot's generative AI.?
• Leverage natural language to create and refine conversation topics.?

Beyond Copilot: Microsoft also introducing additional AI-powered features:?

• Embedded GPT Chatbots: Enhance user experience with in-app assistants powered by GPT.?

• GPT Data Exploration: Analyze data intelligently using natural language queries in Power Apps.?

Unleash Your Innovation: With Copilot and low-code development, anyone can bring their ideas to life, regardless of technical background. IT departments can empower organizations to innovate rapidly while maintaining control with built-in governance tools.?

Building Responsible AI:?

Microsoft prioritizes responsible AI development. Copilot is designed with human oversight, ensuring suggestions are reviewed and approved before implementation. These features align with Microsoft's Responsible AI principles, promoting ethical and beneficial AI advancements.?

• Reference: Click here to view the details ?

Refactor your C# code with primary constructors??

Level Up your C# Code! Explore proven techniques to enhance readability and maintainability.?

C# 12 introduces primary constructors, a new way to define classes and structs in a single line. This simplifies code and improves readability!?

Benefits:?

• Clearer Code: Easier to understand how objects are initialized.?
• Less Code: Reduce repetitive field initialization.?
• Easier Maintenance: Changes to initialization are centralized.?

Important Note:?

While refactoring with primary constructors removes manual field declarations, there's a caveat. If your fields are readonly, changes are needed. Primary constructor parameters are mutable for non-record types, altering code semantics. To maintain readonly behavior, keep the field declaration and assign it using the parameter.?

Additional Constructors:?

Primary constructors don't prevent defining additional constructors. However, those constructors must call the primary constructor to ensure proper initialization. Use the this keyword for these calls.?

Bonus Tip:?

C# offers file-scoped namespaces, which improve readability by reducing nesting. Place your cursor at the namespace name's end and press; (not supported in VS Code but can be done manually).?

• Reference: Click here to view the details ?

We're excited to have you here! Prepare to ignite the full potential of your skills in .NET, C#, and Power Platform as you set sail on a journey of boundless creativity and discovery. Get ready to embark on an exhilarating journey!?