Don Wibier's Blog

Be more productive on Blazor with CodeRush

Don Wibier (DevExpress) — Tue, 13 Oct 2020 09:36:00 Z

Did you know CodeRush already has some really cool features to make you even more productive in Blazor?

The last few CodeRush sprints have added several features. I thought it might be a good idea to summarize all of these in a single blogpost as reference material.

Lifecycle Methods

You may have noticed the Visual Studio Editor has some issues with overriding members and code completion inside @code sections in Blazor files.

For example, this happens when you try to override one of the lifecycle methods like OnInitialized(Async) or OnParametersSet(Async) etc.

Fortunately, CodeRush already has code templates to help take away those frustrations.
Just move the caret to the @code section and type one of the templates below (followed by a Tab or Space, depending on your template expansion settings):

Template	Description
oar	Creates an OnAfterRenderAsync override.
oi	Creates an OnInitializedAsync override.
onch	Creates an OnChangeAsync override.
ops	Creates an OnParametersSetAsync override.
sr	Creates a ShouldRender override.

If you want to override one of the synchronous equivalents, just expand the same template followed by a comma. For example, “oi,” generates a synchronous OnInitialized method.

Component Creation

Some other useful templates for creating components including dependency injection, parameters and cascading values, which will save you a boatload of keystrokes include:

Template	Description
bch	Creates a child component with a parameter.
bcmp	Creates a blank component.
bht	Creates a component with an HTTP call.
cv	Creates a <CascadingValue> component.
dav	Creates a <DataAnnotationsValidator> component.
en	Creates an <EditForm> component.

These templates all work in the markup sections of razor files.

Input Control Creation

For creating standard html input controls, you can use the following templates:

Template	Description
icb	Creates an <InputCheckbox> component.
idt	Creates an <InputDate> component.
in	Creates an <InputNumber> component.
it	Creates an <InputText> component.
ita	Creates an <InputTextArea> component.
isel	Creates an <InputSelect> component.

Blazor Directives

To quickly add a directive above your Blazor component, you can use the following templates:

Template	Description
ba	Creates an @attribute directive.
bc	Creates a Blazor @code block.
bf	Creates a Blazor @functions block.
bh	Creates an @inherits directive.
bj	Creates an @inject directive.
bjc	Creates an @inject IConfiguration configuration directive.
bjh	Creates an @inject HttpClient Http directive.
bl	Creates a @layout directive.
bm	Creates a @model directive.
bp	Creates a @page "/" directive.

Blazor Markup Templates for Conditionals and Controls

One of the beautiful things about Razor is that you can put conditional logic inside your markup.
CodeRush offers the following templates to help control program flow:

Template	Description
do, dw	Creates a @do (do/while) control statement.
fe	Creates a @foreach control statement.
for, fri, frj	Creates @for control statement.
if	Creates an @if conditional.
ife, ifl	Creates an @if @else conditional.
sw	Creates a @switch conditional.
tc	Creates a @try/catch block.
tcf	Creates a @try/catch/finally block.
tf	Creates a @try/finally block.
u	Creates a @using statement.
wh, while	Creates a @while control statement.

Blazor Refactoring

One of the other great things in CodeRush is its refactoring power, which is based on the Roslyn engine.

For Blazor there are some awesome refactorings which can help save you a lot of work.

Move to Code Behind

Suppose you are building a Blazor Component, adding features and functionality. Over time you realize the @code section is growing in size. There comes to be a point where it makes a lot of sense to put all that code in a separate C# class.

With CodeRush, this can be done in seconds! Just navigate to the @code section.

Activate the CodeRush Action Menu by pressing Ctrl + ` or Ctrl + . (depending on your configuration) and select “Move to Code Behind”.

CodeRush creates a new code-behind file (if it doesn’t already exist), including the partial class. It will then move code from the razor page right into the partial class, including attributes, comments and references.

Extract Razor Component

Another powerful refactoring, Extract Razor Component, allows you to extract the currently selected markup and create a component from it. CodeRush will ask for a new component name inside the original code, and next it will put the extracted code in a new razor file in the ~/Components folder of your project.

Let me know how this works for you!

If you find this post has helped you be more productive by using these features, please let me know by replying to this post below. More importantly, if you have any ideas or tips on how we can improve CodeRush to become even more productive in Blazor, reply as well.

Download CodeRush Today!

Check out CodeRush and discover how to become more productive with your Blazor development!

Get it at https://devexpress.com/coderush or at the Visual Studio Gallery.

DevExpress at Frontend Developer Love in Amsterdam

Don Wibier (DevExpress) — Mon, 17 Feb 2020 23:55:00 Z

This week, Mehul, Alex and I will be at the Front End Developer Love Conference in Amsterdam.

This conference is packed with everything you need to know about React, Vue.js and Angular. There is an incredible speaker line up with Evan You - creator of Vue.js, Sarah Drasner and others. I will do a session about Blazor WASM as well.

We'll have daily raffles at the booth and we've brought `I'd rather be coding` T-Shirts for all of you.

Make sure to visit our booth and find out everything you need to know about DevExtreme and our other products.

DevExpress will be at KCDC Conference

Don Wibier (DevExpress) — Tue, 16 Jul 2019 14:34:00 Z

This week, the KCDC Conference is being organized in Kansas City and DevExpress is proud to be gold sponsor of this conference. Julian and I will be available to answer all your question about our v19.1 release as well as all the new technology we're releasing. If you want to know what we have for Blazor or Xamarin or what's going on with DevExpress and the upcoming .NET Core v3, stop by and ask.

I will also present a really cool session about AI and Machine Learning so make sure to check that out.

If you're attending to the KCDC Conference, make sure to come by and say 'Hi'.

DeveloperWeek Nuremberg Impressions

Don Wibier (DevExpress) — Mon, 15 Jul 2019 13:02:00 Z

Last week, John and I put up our booth at the DeveloperWeek Nuremberg. This time we were able to do something extra – we put up a putting green.

We did a small contest on the putting green to win some additional prices depending on the number of balls putted.

I had a very well attended session about Generics and Abstract Classes in C# and people came to our booth with question about it afterwards.

Besides my session, we did a lot of demos on DevExtreme, CodeRush, WPF and reporting and even Scott Hunter from Microsoft stopped by which gave me the opportunity to show our new Blazor control set.

I was also able to discuss some technical details on WPF and WinForms running on .NET Core 3.

Below is an impression what DeveloperWeek Nuremberg is all about

NDC Oslo Impressions

Don Wibier (DevExpress) — Wed, 26 Jun 2019 12:13:00 Z

Last week, we where present at the NDC Oslo conference held in the Spektrum Arena.
With more than 2000 attendees it was a full house and we had a lot of interesting questions and discussions with existing customers as well as possible new ones.

Since there was quite a lot of talking about Blazor, we also got quite some questions about it and we where able to show our new Blazor controls.

Then there was the awesome attendee party with live performances from Dylan Beatie as well as the ultimate 80's coverband Love Shack

Here is an impression of NDC Oslo.

DevExpress at DeveloperWeek Nuremberg

Don Wibier (DevExpress) — Mon, 24 Jun 2019 02:26:00 Z

This week, DevExpress is sponsoring the DWX DeveloperWeek Nuremberg, Germany. John and I will be there with our cool “I’d rather be coding” T-Shirts and other giveaways.

I will do a session as well on Generics and abstract classes in C#.

On our daily raffles you could win one of the DevExpress backpacks or even a Platform Subscription of choice!

Make sure to visit our booth to find out what’s new in our v19.1 release and grab a T-Shirt.

We’re at NDC Oslo this week

Don Wibier (DevExpress) — Mon, 17 Jun 2019 08:18:00 Z

This week, one of the coolest conferences in Europe is taking place in Oslo, Norway. It is the annual NDC Oslo with an awesome speaker line-up.

John and I will be there with our booth and we brought T-Shirts with our new design on it so you better stop by our booth to get one. I’m sure you’ll like it.

While you’re there I’m more than happy to show you all the new features we have released with our v19.1 version incl. our Blazor components.

If you’re attending to NDC Oslo, make sure to stop by to tell us what you’re developing.

Techorama Belgium 2019 Impressions

Don Wibier (DevExpress) — Fri, 24 May 2019 03:36:00 Z

This week Julian, John, Alexander, Dmitry and I traveled to Antwerp, Belgium for the Techorama 2019 Event.

It was nice to catch up with our customers as well as some international speakers and Microsoft people involved in the latest developments on dotNET Core, Blazor and other exiting things.

We had a lot of people visiting our booth so I was able to demo all the new features in our v19.1 release. As always, we had some great fun during the drawing of our daily raffles.

The second day, I had a session about CodeRush which working out pretty nice and people where shocked when I inserted an image as comments in my code.

To see what Techorama Belgium is al about? Below are some pictures to get an impression:

DevExpress at Techorama Conference in Antwerp, Belgium

Don Wibier (DevExpress) — Mon, 20 May 2019 03:38:00 Z

This week the awesome Techorama conference is taking place in the Kinepolis Cinema complex in Antwerp, Belgium.

The opening keynote will be presented by Scott Hanselman and the closing keynote by Dutch astronaut André Kuipers!

DevExpress will be there as well, and we’ll be proud to show off all the latest features of our v19.1 release!

If you’re attending to Techorama, make sure to come by and get your DevExpress T-Shirt and a raffle ticket to win a subscription or a DevExpress Backpack.

dotnet Cologne Impressions

Don Wibier (DevExpress) — Sun, 12 May 2019 16:01:00 Z

Last week, John and I where in Cologne at the dotnet Cologne conference.

It was good to meet a large number of existing clients but we were also able to show our products to a lot of people not familiar with DevExpress.

The session I did on Dependency Injection on .NET Core was well attended and I got some people coming to our booth with questions afterwards.

Below is a small impression about dotnet Cologne: