Best Practices for Improving .NET Application Performance

Every developer frequently looks for innovative ideas to optimize the performance and scalability of his applications. Many developers also want to implement some of the best practices that have already been successfully tried and tested by others. If you are exploring best practices to make your .NET application more powerful, it is a good idea to start reading the performance best practices provided by Microsoft. At the same time, you also need to learn some of the tricks implemented by .NET developers based on different parameters. However, you must choose and use the best practices that complement the type and usage of your application.

Best Practices to Improve .NET Application’s Performance and Scalability

1. Validate Input using Client Side Scripts: The data validation technique used by the developers can boost the performance of the application by reducing the server overload. The .NET framework enables developers to validate all types of user input using a set of service side controls. However, they still have option to validate the input using client side controls in ASP.NET. It is always a good idea to maintain a proper balance between the client side and server side validation controls to process user requests quickly by reducing load on server.

2. Try Not to Throw Exceptions: Most developers use exceptions in both windows and web applications. But the exceptions often consume a huge amount of resources, and results in slowing down the application. They can alternately improve the performance of the application by incorporating try/catch blocks to monitor the control flow. As the try/catch blocks do not use high resources, they can use these again and again in your code. However, the programmer must use exceptions when the application’s performance is lost and the user needs to see some user-friendly error message.

3. Use .Transfer to Redirect to Another Page: The Response.Redirect() method is widely used by programmers to instruct the browser to redirect to another page. But the chatty nature of this function makes it usable only when the users are being transferred to another web server. You can always avoid using additional and unnecessary HTTP requests by using .transfer, while transferring the user within the same sever. Instead of transferring the requests, .transfer will simply shift the focus on your webs server. The reduced number of HTTP requests will put less pressure on the web server, while boosting the speed and efficiency of your application.

4. Disable the Debug Option in Web.Config File: When you create a new .NET application, the debug is by default set as true in web.config. The attribute will be useful for programmers during the asp.net web development phase, but the attribute must be changed to false before deploying the web application. If you forget set debug=false in web.config, it will require PDB information to be inserted into the file. The larger size of the file will further slow down your application.

5. Turn Tracing Off: Often developers are required to track the trace and sequence of the application. They use the tracing feature provided by .NET framework to easily monitor trace logging. But when you turn the tracing feature on, it will increase the performance overhead. Also, there are chances that the user might see some of your private information. So you have to turn the tracing feature on only when the application is being analyzed actively. Once the analysis is over, and you are not required to monitor tracing, the options must be turned off before deploying the .NET application.

6. Kill Resources using the Finally Method: You can further optimize the speed of your web application by killing resources like open files and database connections. The killing of these resources will reduce the server overhead, and make your application run faster. Regardless of the outcome of a Block, you can use the finally method independently. So the method can be invoked independently in the code included either in the Try or Catch block.

Each .NET developer can also decide best practices based on his personal experience in writing code. However, a programmer must share the tricks with other members of his team to reduce the normal time required to develop a robust web application.

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