Building Modern SaaS Applications with C# and .NET

Building Modern SaaS Applications with C# and .NET

by Andy Watt
Released June 2023
Publisher(s): Packt Publishing
ISBN: 9781804610879

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Book description

Embark on a tech-tastic adventure and build Software as a Service (SaaS) applications using the Microsoft tech stack Purchase of the print or Kindle book includes a free PDF eBook

Key Features

  • Understand the core concepts of Software as a Service and their importance in building modern applications
  • Build a wide array of key elements for SaaS applications using practical examples
  • Learn to test, deploy, upgrade, and maintain a SaaS application

Book Description

There are several concepts that must be mastered to deliver functional and efficient SaaS applications. This book is perfect for developers and teams with experience in traditional application development looking to switch to SaaS and deliver slick and modern applications. You‘ll start with a general overview of SaaS as a concept and learn with the help of an example throughout the book to bring life to the technical descriptions. You’ll use the Microsoft .NET tech stack for development and C# as the programming language to develop your desired SaaS application.

Delivering SaaS requires a deep understanding of all layers in the application stack. As you progress, you’ll learn how to approach the database layer, the API, and the UI to confidently approach application development using the SaaS model. Additionally, you’ll explore how to test, deploy, maintain, and upgrade each component of the application.

By the end of this book, you will be well equipped to approach all aspects of delivering software using the SaaS paradigm.

What you will learn

  • Explore SaaS and understand its importance in modern application development
  • Discover multi-tenancy and its impact on design decisions for SaaS
  • Build, test, and deploy a database, API, and UI for a SaaS application
  • Approach authentication and authorization like a pro
  • Scale a SaaS application
  • Employ C# and .NET to build SaaS applications

Who this book is for

If you are a software developer with an interest in developing apps using the ‘SaaS’ paradigm, or a tech lead, scrum master, or a director and founder - this book will help you understand how to build a SaaS application. If you are a Java developer looking to start fresh with distributed systems, this book is for you. A basic understanding of Java, Spring/Spring Boot, and Web services will help you get the most out of this book.

Table of contents

  1. Building Modern SaaS Applications with C# and .NET
  2. Contributors
  3. About the author
  4. About the reviewers
  5. Preface
    1. Who this book is for
    2. What this book covers
    3. To get the most out of this book
    4. Download the example code files
    5. Download the color images
    6. Conventions used
    7. Get in touch
    8. Share Your Thoughts
    9. Download a free PDF copy of this book
  6. Part 1: Getting Started
  7. Chapter 1: SaaS – the Modern Distribution Model that We All Need
    1. What is SaaS?
    2. What other types of applications are there?
      1. Desktop application
      2. On-premises web application
      3. What is “the cloud”?
    3. Where did it all begin?
    4. Why is SaaS a popular choice for businesses large and small?
    5. Which tools are required to build SaaS apps?
      1. Database development
      2. API development
      3. Frontend development
      4. Authentication and authorization
      5. Hosting
      6. Docker
    6. Which techniques will be used to build SaaS apps?
      1. Test-driven development (TDD)
      2. Domain-driven design (DDD)
      3. Microservices
      4. Multi-tenancy
      5. Reactive design
      6. Progressive web apps (PWAs)
      7. No installations needed
      8. Browser-based delivery
      9. Scalability
      10. Upgradability
      11. Iterate quickly
      12. Analytics
      13. Global market
      14. Flexible payment model
      15. Security
    7. How does this affect the development process?
      1. Release often, release early
      2. Testing, testing, testing
      3. You’d better be full stack
      4. Know thy user
    8. What to expect from this book
    9. How to assess and pay off technical debt
    10. Summary
    11. Further reading
  8. Chapter 2: Building a Simple Demo Application
    1. Technical requirements
    2. Setting up
      1. Visual Studio Code
      2. Docker
      3. Dev containers
      4. What is a dev container?
      5. Configuring the Docker containers
      6. Configuring dev containers in VSCode
      7. Starting the environment
      8. Configuring VSCode
      9. Exiting the environment
    3. Building out a sample application
      1. Database technologies
      2. API technology
      3. User interface technology
      4. Starting the application
      5. Adding a solution file
    4. Where do we go from here?
    5. Summary
    6. Further reading
    7. Questions
  9. Part 2: Building the Backend
  10. Chapter 3: What Is Multi-Tenancy, and Why Is It Important in SaaS Applications?
    1. Technical requirements
    2. What is multi-tenancy?
      1. Disambiguating customers, tenants, and users
      2. What are the alternatives to multi-tenancy?
      3. The advantages and disadvantages of multi-tenancy
    3. Options for data storage with multi-tenant applications
      1. Key considerations
    4. Design considerations through the application layers
      1. One database per tenant
      2. Shared schema
      3. One schema per tenant
      4. One table per tenant
      5. Examples
    5. Security considerations
      1. Potential security pitfalls
      2. Good security practices for multi-tenant applications
    6. Summary
    7. Further reading
  11. Chapter 4: Building Databases and Planning for Data-Rich Applications
    1. Technical requirements
    2. The importance of data in a SaaS application
    3. Building a database
      1. Types of database
      2. What is ACID?
      3. Entity Framework
    4. Testing data-rich applications
    5. Upgrading a database
      1. Applying the migrations
    6. Summary
    7. Further reading
    8. Questions
  12. Chapter 5: Building Restful APIs
    1. Technical requirements
    2. What are RESTful APIs?
      1. Idempotency
      2. Safety
      3. HTTP status codes
      4. Dealing with errors
      5. JSON data formatting
    3. Matching API operations to HTTP verbs
      1. GET
      2. POST
      3. DELETE
      4. PUT
      5. PATCH
    4. Data transfer objects
    5. Designing better with REST
      1. An example API design
    6. Versioning public APIs
      1. Example code showing how to version an API
    7. Testing APIs
    8. Summary
    9. Further reading
    10. Questions
  13. Chapter 6: Microservices for SaaS Applications
    1. Technical requirements
    2. What are microservices and why use them?
      1. The difference between loose and tight coupling
      2. Docker
    3. Best practices for building microservices
      1. Design for failure
      2. Focus on decoupling
      3. Embrace automation
      4. Use contract-driven development
      5. Monitor and log aggressively
      6. Implement security
      7. Focus on scalability
      8. Separate data stores
    4. Mixing microservices and RESTful APIs
      1. Splitting up a single REST API into microservices
    5. Common pitfalls and how to avoid them
    6. Some practical advice
      1. A microservice architecture example
      2. The services
    7. A practical example
      1. UserService
      2. API gateway
      3. Running the combined application
    8. Summary
    9. Further reading
    10. Questions
  14. Part 3: Building the Frontend
  15. Chapter 7: Building a User Interface
    1. Technical requirements
    2. Introduction to the tech stack
      1. What is WebAssembly?
      2. The development environment
    3. UX considerations – knowing your customer
      1. User personas
      2. User journey mapping
      3. Accessibility
      4. Visually appealing design
      5. Navigation and information architecture
      6. Responsive design
      7. Feedback and user testing
    4. Building a simple UI
      1. Planning the UI
      2. Writing a ticket
      3. What is Blazor?
      4. Setting up the Blazor project
      5. Building the UI
    5. Connecting the UI to the backend
      1. Dealing with CORS issues
      2. Logic, including calling the API
    6. Building usable UIs
      1. Responsive UI frameworks
      2. Responsive design techniques
      3. Designing for different screen sizes
      4. Accessibility
    7. Summary
    8. Further reading
    9. Questions
  16. Chapter 8: Authentication and Authorization
    1. Technical requirements
    2. What are authentication and authorization
      1. Authentication
      2. Authorization
      3. The synergy of authentication and authorization
      4. Criticality of secure authentication and authorization
    3. Multi-tenancy and microservices
      1. Multi-tenancy considerations
      2. Microservices architecture considerations
    4. Managing users, roles, and permissions
      1. User provisioning and deprovisioning
      2. Role management and assignment
      3. Permission management and fine-grained access control
    5. Summary
    6. Further reading
    7. Questions
  17. Part 4: Deploying and Maintaining the Application
  18. Chapter 9: Testing Strategies for SaaS Applications
    1. Technical requirements
    2. Testing strategies for SaaS applications
      1. The importance of testing for SaaS applications
      2. Testing best practices
      3. Test-driven development (TDD)
      4. Testing techniques
    3. The testing pyramid – unit, integration, and E2E testing
      1. Unit testing
      2. Integration testing
      3. E2E testing
    4. An overview of testing tools and frameworks for SaaS applications
      1. General testing of .NET applications
      2. Testing APIs
      3. Testing Blazor applications
      4. The challenges of writing tests for databases
    5. A practical demonstration
    6. Summary
    7. Further reading
    8. Questions
  19. Chapter 10: Monitoring and Logging
    1. Overview
    2. Monitoring
      1. Key aspects of monitoring
      2. Monitoring tools
      3. How to do this
      4. Best practices for monitoring
    3. Logging
      1. Key aspects of logging
      2. Logging tools
      3. How to do this
      4. Best practices for logging
    4. Monitoring and logging considerations for SaaS applications
    5. Summary
    6. Further reading
    7. Questions
  20. Chapter 11: Release Often, Release Early
    1. Understanding CI/CD
      1. CI
      2. CD
      3. Environments
      4. Benefits of adopting CI/CD
      5. Is CI/CD DevOps?
    2. Configuring CI/CD pipelines
      1. Source control integration
      2. Build triggers and build agents
      3. Defining build tasks and stages
      4. Release triggers and environments
      5. Deploying to multiple tenants
      6. Deploying microservices in SaaS applications
      7. Approvals and gates for quality control
    3. CI/CD pipelines and tools overview
      1. Popular CI/CD tools
      2. Factors to consider when choosing a CI/CD tool
      3. Building a flexible and adaptable CI/CD process
    4. SaaS-specific considerations
      1. Containerization
      2. Upgrades
      3. Security and compliance in CI/CD pipelines
    5. Summary
    6. Further reading
    7. Questions
  21. Chapter 12: Growing Pains – Operating at Scale
    1. The challenges of operating at scale
      1. Performance and response time
      2. Reliability and availability
      3. Security and compliance
      4. Infrastructure scalability
      5. Cost and resource management
      6. Data consistency and integrity
      7. Planning for scaling and growth
      8. Embracing DevOps and automation
    2. Scaling the database
      1. Sharding
      2. Scaling
      3. Partitioning
      4. Caching
      5. Indexing and query optimization
      6. Data archiving and retention
    3. Scaling the API
      1. Load balancing and API gateway optimization
      2. API versioning and backward compatibility
      3. Rate limiting and throttling
      4. Caching strategies for API performance
      5. Asynchronous communication and message queuing
      6. Stateless and idempotent API design
      7. Security and authentication at scale
    4. Scaling the UI
      1. Best practices for designing scalability and performance for the UI
      2. Optimizing static assets and bundling
      3. Implementing progressive loading and lazy loading techniques
      4. Leveraging caching strategies for UI components
    5. Summary
    6. Further reading
    7. Questions
  22. Part 5: Concluding Thoughts
  23. Chapter 13: Wrapping It Up
    1. Well done!
      1. Commitment to learning
      2. Mastering SaaS development skills
      3. Embracing industry best practices
      4. Personal and professional growth
    2. What have you learned?
    3. How can you use these skills?
      1. Apply your knowledge to your current job or projects
      2. Freelance or consulting opportunities
      3. Build your own SaaS product or start-up
      4. Contribute to open source projects
      5. Stay up to date with industry trends and best practices
      6. Mentor and teach others
      7. What to do next
    4. Summary
  24. Index
    1. Why subscribe?
  25. Other Books You May Enjoy
    1. Packt is searching for authors like you
    2. Share Your Thoughts
    3. Download a free PDF copy of this book

Product information

  • Title: Building Modern SaaS Applications with C# and .NET
  • Author(s): Andy Watt
  • Release date: June 2023
  • Publisher(s): Packt Publishing
  • ISBN: 9781804610879