Alright, let’s talk about this whole “2024 razor” thing I’ve been tinkering with.
So, beginning of the year, I had this small project idea buzzing around in my head. Nothing huge, just a little something to keep my hands busy. I’d been hearing bits and pieces about the newer Razor stuff, you know, how it’s supposed to be smoother, faster, all that jazz for .NET 8.
Getting Started
I figured, why not give it a shot? Fired up Visual Studio, went through the usual motions: new project, selected the latest * Core Web App template. Chose the Razor Pages option because, honestly, it felt simpler for what I needed. Didn’t want to get bogged down in a heavy SPA framework right off the bat.
First steps were pretty standard. Got the basic structure up. Added a few pages, messed with the layout file. It felt familiar, mostly. If you’ve used Razor Pages before, it wasn’t like stepping onto a different planet in 2024.
Hitting a Few Bumps
Then I started trying to do something a bit more interactive. You know, update parts of the page without a full reload. This is where things got… interesting. Heard a lot about Blazor components fitting into Razor Pages now. Okay, cool concept.
- Tried integrating a simple Blazor component.
- Got tangled up a bit with the render modes. Server-side, WebAssembly, Auto… felt like choosing difficulty levels in a game I hadn’t played before.
- Had to fiddle quite a bit to get the component talking back to the Razor Page properly. It wasn’t exactly plug-and-play like some demos made it seem.
Honestly, there were moments I just wanted to chuck it and go back to plain old JavaScript fetch calls. Felt like I was fighting the framework sometimes, instead of it helping me. Maybe it’s just me, getting stuck in old habits.
Making it Work (Sort Of)
Eventually, I got the interactive bits working. Used some server-side rendering for the Blazor component within the Razor Page. Performance seemed okay for my little app. Can’t say how it’d scale for something massive, though.
I also played around with the new minimal API stuff for backend endpoints. That part actually felt pretty clean. Less boilerplate code compared to the older ways of setting up controllers. So, thumbs up for that bit.
Final Thoughts (For Now)
So, my “2024 razor” experience? It’s been a mixed bag. Some parts feel genuinely improved, streamlined. The minimal API integration is nice. But mixing in newer concepts like Blazor components into existing Razor Pages felt a bit clunky to me initially. Took some head-scratching.
It works, yeah. Got my little project running. But was it revolutionary? Nah. Just another step in the evolution. Maybe once I use it more, it’ll click better. For now, it’s just another tool in the box, sometimes handy, sometimes a bit awkward.
