Getting started with Dapr

If you’re involved in developing applications with a microservices architecture, you’ve likely heard of Dapr.

In simple terms, Dapr aims to simplify microservices development by focusing on core application logic, keeping the code clean, and abstracting away infrastructural concerns. Dapr introduces itself as a runtime for running applications.

The initial release of this exciting product was on February 17, 2021, and it’s ready for production use.

Introduction

Prerequisites

• Install Dapr CLI
• Install .NET 5 SDK

Getting Started

Let’s create a simple ASP.NET Core project:

mkdir WeatherForecastService
cd WeatherForecastService
dotnet new webapi
dotnet run

As you know, this creates a basic ASP.NET Core project. The default template usually includes a controller that returns weather data.

Running the API with Dapr

Dapr uses the sidecar pattern. Dapr can run our API and expose it externally.

Run the following command in your project directory:

dapr run --app-id weatherforecastservice --dapr-http-port 3500 --app-port 5001 --app-ssl -- dotnet run

Let’s break down this command:

• app-id: An identifier for your application/service, used for discovery.
• dapr-http-port: The port that the Dapr sidecar listens on.
• app-port: The port that your application/service listens on.
• app-ssl: Specifies whether requests to the service should use SSL.
• dotnet run: The command to run your project.

Advantages of Using Dapr

Before running the project with Dapr, you can access it at https://localhost:5001/weatherforecast. However, when running with Dapr, in addition to the above, you can invoke the method through the Dapr sidecar:

http://localhost:3500/v1.0/invoke/weatherforecastservice/method/weatherforecast

This might seem simple at first glance. However, the crucial point is that it doesn’t matter what platform the service behind Dapr is running on. For example, even if it’s running on gRPC, we can easily invoke it using Dapr’s APIs.

This provides a standard way to invoke methods between different services:

http://localhost:<dapr-http-port>/v1.0/invoke/<app-id>/method/<method-name>

Importantly, this method is language and technology agnostic. You can directly invoke a service developed in another language using this API.

But that’s not all. This standard method for invoking services enables us to achieve much more in microservices development. Many of these features are built into Dapr:

• Service discovery
• Distributed tracing
• Metrics
• Error handling
• Encryption

A significant advantage of Dapr is that you don’t need to think about all these issues while writing code. Instead, you can focus on proper architecture and implementing high-quality application logic.

Libraries are available to simplify using Dapr’s features, which you can easily find on NuGet.

Summary This post provided a brief introduction to Dapr. You can find more information at [dapr.io(https://dapr.io/)].

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