The first preview of ASP.NET Core 2.2 is due (very) soon and it will be our first chance to test the changes and new features which are expected to be released by the end of this year.

ASP.NET Core 2.2 marks the next minor release of the ASP.NET Core framework, following on from the ASP.NET Core 2.1 release at the end of May. With these minor releases, the team are able to provide new features to us quickly and iterate on an already great product. ASP.NET Core 2.2 will be a “Current” release for those wanting to take advantage of the latest features more quickly. For some, the “current” releases may not be suitable as while offering newer features they do not offer the same long support commitment as long-term support (LTS). If you choose the “current” release train then you need to keep updating as new “current” releases are available (See the ASP.NET Core support policy for more details).

I’ve been watching the features planned for ASP.NET Core 2.2 since version 2.1 shipped. There are quite a few things which look pretty interesting. Today I want to take an early look at a new feature whose final name is Global Endpoint Routing. You may also see this referred to by its former name “Dispatcher”.

Update 18-08-2018: James Newton-King who works on the ASP.NET team, has confirmed that the name for this feature with be Endpoint routing.

NOTE: This post is based on reading and watching some limited early coverage of Dispatcher (Global Routing) from the ASP.NET team over the last few months. I’ve also spent a small amount of time looking at the source code and some early samples to form the content below. As a result, there are things I may not have 100% correct! This post is written prior to the first preview of ASP.NET Core 2.2 and as a result, some of this could change before the final release of ASP.NET Core 2.2. If you’re reading this in the future, treat it with some caution and keep an eye out for more recent posts where I will cover using the released versions of the feature. If you’re reading this in the past, I’m pleased to see that time travel is now a thing!!

Update 18-08-2018: After feedback from James Newton-King who works on the ASP.NET team, I understand that in the 2.2 timeframe the only supported way to use Endpoint Routing will be via MVC.

What is Global Endpoint Routing (the feature formerly known as Dispatcher)?

The current routing story with ASP.NET Core 2.1 MVC is that we define routes within MVC using either convention-based routing which uses a RouteBuilder when we register MVC into the middleware pipeline or via Route Attributes on our action methods. Personally, I tend towards the attribute approach for the APIs I build.

When a request reaches MVC, the route information is used to determine which Controller and Action should be invoked to handle the request, based on the URL path. At this point, MVC can invoke that action which will then return the response. If a suitable route is not found then a 404 is returned instead.

One issue with this approach to routing is that as the request flows through the middleware chain, all other middleware has no idea of where that request is eventually going to be handled.

With the Global Endpoint Routing feature, routing decisions can occur earlier into the pipeline so that incoming requests can be mapped to their eventual endpoint before MVC is even invoked. This gives other middleware an opportunity to make more reasoned choices and process requests armed with the knowledge of which Endpoint will eventually handle the request.

Implemented as middleware the URL matching can now be registered to run very early in the application middleware pipeline. After which, a set of known Endpoints will be registered. When a request is passed through the pipeline, other middleware will be able to inspect the final matched Endpoint and view/update its associated metadata.

In addition, Global Endpoint Routing looks like it should allow developers to build ASP.NET Core applications that don’t use MVC, but which can still rely on routing to handle requests. Developers can provide their own EndpointDataSource, complete with a set of route patterns and the corresponding RequestDelegates to be invoked for matches. There are opportunities here for some very lightweight APIs to be built without the sometimes unnecessary additional overhead of MVC.

Note: Based on the feedback from James Newton-King this feature is expected to work with MVC as the support way to use it in 2.2. For the 3.0 timeframe a public API for non MVC use is expected to be ready.

The original ASP.NET Core 2.2 features announcement (where the feature is known as “Dispatcher”) included a good example of where this Global Endpoint Routing concept can be useful. CORS is currently implemented as both a feature of MVC and as middleware. This is necessary as some requests will be handled outside of MVC, such as serving static files. However, to apply CORS for requests which do reach MVC, the policy can’t be applied until the MVC routing selects the controller and action for the request. Global Routing will enable CORS to be implemented more consistently since the routing and Endpoints will be known up front when a request is matched through the middleware.

Global Endpoint Routing is also integrated with the latest ASP.NET Core 2.2 MVC functionality, allowing MVC to work on top of this new Global Endpoint Routing feature. MVC in ASP.NET Core 2.2 includes code changes to support building up a list of available Endpoints for Global Endpoint Routing, using the existing MVC route provider.

I plan to dive into all of this more deeply in future posts. I’m currently spending a fair bit of time in the Microsoft.AspNetCore.Routing source code understanding the building blocks and Types involved.

A Small Sample

I’ll end with a basic example of what the services and middleware pipeline for an ASP.NET Core 2.2 application using Global Endpoint Routing could look like. In this case, there’s no MVC involved (this is based on the current RoutingSample from the Routing repository).

Update 18-08-2018: After feedback from James Newton-King who works on the ASP.NET team, I understand that in the 2.2 timeframe the only supported way to use Endpoint Routing will be via MVC.

Inside the Startup class, we must register the routing services in the ConfigureServices method as follows…

This sample manually adds a DefaultEndpointDataSource with a single Endpoint which is not necessary if you wish to use the MVC routes. MVC will populate Endpoints for you.

Once registered we can add Global Endpoint Routing to the pipeline as middleware in the Configure method…

The first middleware, UseEndpointRouting is responsible for inspecting the incoming request and matching it to an Endpoint. The matched Endpoint is set in the HttpContext.Features collection. At this point, all other middleware can retrieve the Endpoint from the Features collection as necessary.

Since we’re not using MVC in this sample we need something to invoke the matched RequestDelegate for the Endpoint. UseEndpoint registers the middleware which does exactly that.

Summary