Notes on Blazor

At work, I have started using Blazor as the base for a new web project - and I have compiled some notes that I would like to share about my experience with it so far. There is no particular format or ordering here. Also note that I am still only exploring Blazor, my notes are generally in comparison to some other similar web technologies.

Without further ado, begin brain-dump;

• Being able to re-use class libraries and components from existing .NET projects is huge
• Quite easy to pick up, particularly if you're at all familiar with ASP.NET
• Remember that the code that is published with WebAssembly is publicly decompile-able - much like how you wouldn't connect directly to a database, you shouldn't reference projects which contain sensitive code (like license key generators)
• WebAssembly Blazor is definitely the more attractive project type, server-based Blazor has the drawback of requiring an active connection for the entire lifetime of the application - I have seen Blazor apps that stopped working while I was reading some text, because it lost connection to the server. It was probably just a poorly implemented app, but it gave me a moment of pause
• The benefit of having a web application as a first-class csproj is clear, interacting with the project is simple inside of Visual Studio / Rider, and organisation is similar to ASP.NET and WPF projects (thinking like CSS files presented as WPF 'code behind' files if they are named similarly to a Blazor component file)
• You'll probably still want to use a server API, and you'll definitely be wanting to implement JWT-like authentication for that - the application I was developing uses single-tenant AAD auth, and this guide was perfect for securing the client and server side together
• WebAssembly definitely shines with a CDN in front for speedy delivery of comparatively large assets that all need to be downloaded up-front, but:
• Deployment in tandem with a CDN seems precarious, because if any of the binaries don't match the manifest, the application breaks - this can be an issue where the new version's manifest is served, but some of the old version's binaries are cached
• Probably wouldn't use Blazor for a home page or news site just yet, plain HTML would still reign king for that - but complex applications in the browser seem like a perfect fit

End of brain-dump.

I might come back and add more things here as I go, but that is about where I'm at with the technology so far.

Generally I am pleased however, I think this might stick with me and find their way into my own personal projects.