Use MiniProfiler in .NET Core API to Boost Performance

Introduction:

Performance is a critical aspect of any application, and as developers, we need to ensure that our applications perform optimally to provide the best user experience. One way to achieve this is by using MiniProfiler, a lightweight profiling tool that can help identify performance bottlenecks in your .NET Core API. In this blog post, we’ll walk you through the process of using MiniProfiler in .NET Core API, using a fun business problem alongside some examples so it can make sense. We’ll also showcase different types of charts to help you understand and visualize the profiling data.

Step 1: Installing MiniProfiler

The first step is to install MiniProfiler. You can do this by adding the MiniProfiler.AspNetCore.Mvc NuGet package to your .NET Core API project. Once installed, you can add the MiniProfiler middleware to your API’s request pipeline in the Configure method of your Startup.cs file.

public void Configure(IApplicationBuilder app, IWebHostEnvironment env)
{
    // ... other middleware

    app.UseMiniProfiler();

    // ... other middleware
}

Step 2: Using MiniProfiler in Your API

Once MiniProfiler is installed, you can start using it in your API. The easiest way to use MiniProfiler is by wrapping your code inside a MiniProfiler.Step method. This will create a new profiling step that can be viewed in the MiniProfiler UI.