Top 10 Must Have Tools for .NET Developers

Post content : inVerita

As a most loved C# runtime, the .NET Framework is used by 75% of all .NET engineers around the world. This is what has become the main catalyst for third-party development tools to appear on the market.

In this blog, we have listed 10 must-have tools for .NET developers as well as mentioned the resources where you can download each tool or get more information about their features and functionality.

Visual Studio

Visual Studio is the most advanced development environment for .NET that is used to build

computer software, as well as websites, web applications, web services, and mobile apps. Visual Studio supports 36 various programming languages and allows the code editor and debugger to work almost with any programming language.

Some of the striking Visual Studio features include:

Fast code navigation allows finding types easily and identifying where they are referenced in the code.

Dynamic/custom code analysis and debugging allows identifying errors and improving the code quality.

Advanced IntelliSense includes a prediction algorithm to help with code navigation.

Live unit testing allows automatically running impacted unit tests.

NDepend

NDepend is a static code analyzer that is easily integrated with Visual Studio. The tool allows measuring code quality with the help of various metrics and to visualize its design. It also gives a 10,000-foot view of the application and code organization. NDepend provides a custom querying language to check out the application’s coupling, as well as gives a possibility to analyze how well code adheres to standards.

NCrunch

NCrunch is an automated concurrent testing tool for Visual Studio. It collects code coverage while tests are executed, shows code performance metrics, runs several tests simultaneously, and prioritizes recent changes in the code.

Other NCrunch features include:

The distributed processing feature creates grids to run tests that can be shared between developers or even scaled into the cloud allowing development teams to pool their resources.

Small memory footprint tunes NCrunch’s CPU and memory consumption to fit the specific needs of developers.

Smart multiprocessor support controls the use of CPU preventing negative coding experience in Visual Studio.

Easy debugging allows using a single context menu command or shortcut key to break the lines of code.

LINQPad

For those who don’t enjoy querying old-fashioned SQL language, LINQPad is the best option to query databases using a modern programming language called LINQ (you can use SQL as well). LINQPad provides an opportunity to try out code lines and test snippets or programs. You can also take advantage of output formatting, optional autocompletion, and integrated debugging.

LINQPad is a completely free tool.

SQL Complete

SQL Complete is a top-notch tool for SQL database development, management, and administration. It completes Visual Studio by providing features necessary for effective and quick SQL code writing.

Available features:

SQL query formatting;

Code refactoring;

Code standards maintenance;

Easy data retrieval;

Easy snippets modification and management.

Read more about SQL Complete functionality, and start using this tool today.

Entity Developer

Entity Developer is a code generation and modeling ORM tool. ORM stands for Object Relational Mapping which means that the tool is used for mapping data between incompatible data stores.

Entity Developer facilitates the development process by allowing users to design their data access layer visually, via drag-n-drop, and then generate code automatically. There are code generation templates that help to avoid mistakes in the code and enhance productivity.

Other Entity Developer features:

Wide mapping support. Entity Developer includes visual editors for classes, properties, complex types, enums and supports various kinds of inheritances which makes mapping easier.

Database-first approach support. Allows quickly generating a model from a database and modifying it.

Visual Studio integration. The tool works with and without Visual Studio. If you’re already using Visual studio you can easily integrate it with Entity Developer.

Optimized work with large models. Entity Developer is optimized to allow convenient and effective work with large models, containing thousands of entities.

ReSharper

ReSharper is the Visual Studio extension for .NET Developers. It’s a great tool for beginners as well as experienced developers because it has many code editing helpers to transform and rearrange code and speed-up project delivery.

The tool:

Helps to analyze code quality on-the-fly;

Provides a lot of quick-fixes to solve code issues automatically;

Allows changing the codebase without any damage;

Allows navigating through the solution easily and align the code according to special formatting.

Chocolatey

Chocolatey is a free package manager for Windows. Chocolatey allows creating a software package and deploying it with the help of the tools you’ve already familiar with. This software management solution works with a wide range of Windows operating systems and cloud environments like Azure, and Amazon AWS.

Chocolatey is empowered by NuGet and PowerShell technology. Created by Microsoft, NuGet is a framework developed for the purposes of bundling code into “packages.” Besides NuGet Chocolatey uses PowerShell (a cross-platform task automation and configuration management framework) to add some functionality that helps to install and update packages.

Postman

Postman, the collaboration platform for API development, is an HTTP client used for creating APIs faster. Postman comes with wide support for all APIs and Schemas, including the possibility to make REST, SOAP, or plain HTTP calls. Collaboration platform allows inspecting even the largest responses. Developers can also easily run API tests there. The tool has a free version and Team, Business, or Enterprise editions.

Other Postman features include API client for testing GraphQL APIs, automated testing, easy generation of API documentation, and API monitoring.

Novi Builder

Novi Builder is a visual content HTML editor that allows altering texts, images, links, backgrounds, and other elements effortlessly.

Novi Builder allows:

Managing the script settings;

changing visual data;

publishing a website on a server and export it;

creating presets;

Editing HTML, CSS and JS code.

What’s more, Novi Builder has 200 plus elements and multiple plugins that allow creating new pages. 

Summing up

These must-have tools for .NET developers will set you free from monotonous tasks and optimize your performance. Indeed, you don’t have to install all these tools at once, you can adjust them according to your project needs.

If you need any help with .NET development, don’t hesitate to contact inVerita. Our experienced .NET engineers will solve any issue you may have with project development.

Originally published at  on November 19, 2020.