Overview of ASP.NET Core updates

[guardrex]

Fixes #35739
Fixes #35823

NOTES

• Focusing on Blazor/Minimal APIs.
• Streamlining the coverage of the primary landing page: I moved guidance on downloading samples, preproc directives, and regions in samples to the Fundamentals > Overview.

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📄 File	🔗 Preview link
aspnetcore/blazor/hosting-models.md	aspnetcore/blazor/hosting-models
aspnetcore/blazor/tooling.md	aspnetcore/blazor/tooling
aspnetcore/fundamentals/host/generic-host.md	aspnetcore/fundamentals/host/generic-host
aspnetcore/fundamentals/index.md	aspnetcore/fundamentals/index
aspnetcore/fundamentals/logging/index.md	aspnetcore/fundamentals/logging/index
aspnetcore/fundamentals/servers/httpsys.md	aspnetcore/fundamentals/servers/httpsys
aspnetcore/get-started.md	aspnetcore/get-started
aspnetcore/grpc/diagnostics.md	aspnetcore/grpc/diagnostics
aspnetcore/grpc/troubleshoot.md	aspnetcore/grpc/troubleshoot
aspnetcore/grpc/why-migrate-wcf-to-dotnet-grpc.md	aspnetcore/grpc/why-migrate-wcf-to-dotnet-grpc
aspnetcore/host-and-deploy/azure-iis-errors-reference.md	aspnetcore/host-and-deploy/azure-iis-errors-reference
aspnetcore/host-and-deploy/directory-structure.md	aspnetcore/host-and-deploy/directory-structure
aspnetcore/host-and-deploy/docker/visual-studio-tools-for-docker.md	aspnetcore/host-and-deploy/docker/visual-studio-tools-for-docker
aspnetcore/host-and-deploy/iis/hosting-bundle.md	aspnetcore/host-and-deploy/iis/hosting-bundle
aspnetcore/host-and-deploy/iis/index.md	aspnetcore/host-and-deploy/iis/index
aspnetcore/host-and-deploy/linux-nginx.md	aspnetcore/host-and-deploy/linux-nginx
aspnetcore/host-and-deploy/visual-studio-publish-profiles.md	aspnetcore/host-and-deploy/visual-studio-publish-profiles
aspnetcore/host-and-deploy/windows-service.md	aspnetcore/host-and-deploy/windows-service
aspnetcore/introduction-to-aspnet-core.md	aspnetcore/introduction-to-aspnet-core
aspnetcore/performance/memory.md	aspnetcore/performance/memory
aspnetcore/razor-pages/sdk.md	aspnetcore/razor-pages/sdk
aspnetcore/security/authentication/configure-jwt-bearer-authentication.md	aspnetcore/security/authentication/configure-jwt-bearer-authentication
aspnetcore/security/authentication/cookie.md	aspnetcore/security/authentication/cookie
aspnetcore/security/authentication/windowsauth.md	aspnetcore/security/authentication/windowsauth
aspnetcore/security/samesite.md	aspnetcore/security/samesite
aspnetcore/test/razor-pages-tests.md	aspnetcore/test/razor-pages-tests
aspnetcore/test/troubleshoot-azure-iis.md	aspnetcore/test/troubleshoot-azure-iis
aspnetcore/toc.yml	aspnetcore/toc
aspnetcore/tutorials/grpc/grpc-start.md	aspnetcore/tutorials/grpc/grpc-start
aspnetcore/tutorials/publish-to-iis.md	aspnetcore/tutorials/publish-to-iis

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This table shows preview links for the 30 files with the most changes. For preview links for other files in this PR, select OpenPublishing.Build Details within checks.

[guardrex]

@danroth27 ... I'll get these updates applied tomorrow morning and ping you back for a second round.

[danroth27]

I've reviewed the updates to bring the content in line with our modern offerings. These updates look good. But I'd also like to make some more structural changes to this doc so that it hopefully resonates better with new users. This doc needs to be welcoming, compelling, and inviting.

I think the ASP.NET Core overview doc should at a high-level cover the following things:

• What is ASP.NET Core?
• What are the key features of ASP.NET Core?
• Why choose ASP.NET Core?
• How to get started
• Additional resources

So basically, after someone is done reading the ASP.NET Core overview, they should know what ASP.NET is and want to use it.

Right now, I think the benefits list is actually mostly a features list. Having the feature list is good, and I think it should be part of this doc, but I don't think that's really the list you'd take to your CTO to convince them to choose ASP.NET Core. Instead, I think we need a section called "Why choose ASP.NET Core?" that describes how ASP.NET Core is differentiated and unique.

I would break up the key features and benefits into something like this:

Key features:

• Lightweight & modular HTTP request pipeline.
• Kestrel: A high-performance and cross-platform HTTP server.
• Integrated dependency-injection.
• Environment-based configuration.
• Rich logging, tracing, and runtime metrics.
• Blazor: Create rich interactive web UI components using C#—no JavaScript required.
• Integrate seamlessly with popular client-side frameworks and libraries, including Angular, React, Vue, and Bootstrap.
• Minimal APIs: Build fast web APIs with minimal code and configuration by fluently declaring API routes and endpoints.
• SignalR: Add real-time web functionality.
• gRPC: High performance Remote Procedure Call (RPC) services.
• Security: Built-in security features for authentication, authorization, and data protection.
• Testing: Easily create unit and integration tests.
• Tooling: Maximize your development productivity with Visual Studio and Visual Studio Code.

Why choose ASP.NET Core?

• Unified framework: ASP.NET Core is a complete and fully integrated web framework with built-in production-ready components to handle all of your web development needs.
• Full stack productivity: Build more faster by enabling your team to work full stack, from the frontend to the backend, using a single development framework.
• Secure by design: ASP.NET Core is built with security as a top concern and includes built-in support for authentication, authorization, and data protection.
• Cloud-ready: Whether you're deploying to your own data centers or to the cloud, ASP.NET Core simplifies deployment, monitoring, and configuration.
• Performance & scalability: Handle the most demanding workloads with ASP.NET Core's industry leading performance.
• Trusted and mature: ASP.NET Core is used and proven at hyperscale by some of the largest services in the world including Bing, Xbox, Microsoft 365, and Azure.

The "Build web apps and web APIs" section seems to just repeat some of the key features, so I think it can be removed.

The main call to action for the overview doc should be to get started with ASP.NET Core using our Get started doc, which has you install .NET and build your first ASP.NET Core app in just a few minutes. Once you've completed the getting started experience, I think it then makes sense to learn some ASP.NET Core fundamentals, the basics of ASP.NET Core that every ASP.NET Core dev really needs to know, which should be covered in the ASP.NET Core fundamentals overview doc. Alternatively, for folks that want to learn by doing, we can recommend one of the various tutorials that are currently listed here. So, I think the tutorials list should move to the Get started doc as well as a link to the ASP.NET Core fundamentals overview.

So, in summary the doc flow becomes:

1. ASP.NET Core overview: What is ASP.NET Core and why should you choose it?
2. Get started with ASP.NET Core: They're sold, so get them started fast!
3. ASP.NET Core fundamentals overview: Learn the basics that every ASP.NET Core dev should know
4. Tutorials: Learn ASP.NET Core by using it.

Let me know what you think of these ideas!

[guardrex]

@danroth27 ... Try it now. In addition to your changes, I provide three layout options for the "Why choose ASP.NET Core?" section.

[danroth27]

Suggested change

	* [Download .NET](https://dotnet.microsoft.com/download)
	* [Introduction to .NET](/dotnet/core/introduction)
	* [Download .NET](https://dotnet.microsoft.com/download)

[guardrex]

@danroth27 ... I made this change; but given your earlier remark about focusing on moving the reader into the Get Started experience, I also moved the additional resource section to the bottom of the Get Started article. Let me know if you want these links moved back over here to the bottom of the introduction. 👂

[guardrex]

@danroth27 ... I had a merge conflict that I couldn't resolve here. During a rebase to get it fixed, this PR received the changes that dropped "Core." The merge conflict is fixed, and the build warnings are just the MIA API and the doc author metadata that Wade is working on. I'm confused why GH is claiming that this PR is changing the content (dropping "Core") on the main branch because these main branch files already have that change. Anyway ... if you go back one commit to ...

440bfeb

... you can see the changes that I made this morning to address your feedback.

... and BTW ...

Since the "choose framework" article was dropped, I was able to move the "key features" content into the introduction article from its INCLUDES file and 🔪 that INCLUDES file, as it was only used in the two articles.

... and ... bonus points 🥇😆 ...

I found and 🔪 a few more circa 6.0 ref source links. It's a good idea to sweep the whole repo for a cleanup of old ref source links, so I opened to address it later, probably an EOY ⛄ holiday-era task.