Microsoft has officially advanced .NET 9 to the release candidate stage, bringing with it a variety of exciting new features and improvements. Among the notable updates, the WebSocket APIs have been enhanced, providing developers with greater control over connection management. This includes new options for sending WebSocket pings and aborting connections when peers fail to respond within a specified time frame. Previously, developers could only adjust the KeepAliveInterval to prevent idle connections, but this new feature offers a more direct way to enforce peer response requirements, improving reliability in real-time communication scenarios.
The release candidate also introduces significant updates to the .NET library, including the addition of ZLibCompressionOptions and BrotliCompressionOptions. These new types offer developers more granular control over compression strategies and levels, allowing them to fine-tune their application’s performance for specific needs. This change provides more flexibility than the previous CompressionLevel setting and lays the foundation for future enhancements in compression capabilities. Additionally, a change has been made to HttpClientFactory, with LogLevel.Trace events no longer including header values by default, improving the clarity and efficiency of logs.
For developers working with .NET MAUI, version 9 brings a continued focus on improving product quality. Throughout the preview phase, there has been a concerted effort to enhance test coverage, ensure more robust end-to-end scenario testing, and fix various bugs. These improvements aim to streamline the development process and ensure that .NET MAUI applications are more reliable and efficient. One of the standout features in this release is the improved Visual Studio Code extension for .NET MAUI, which now includes support for horizontally aligning text in Labels using the HorizontalTextAlignment.justify option. This is a welcome addition for developers focused on fine-tuning the user interface of their applications.
The first of two release candidates for .NET 9 was made available on September 11, and it can be downloaded directly from dotnet.microsoft.com. With the production release expected in November, developers now have the opportunity to test these new features and improvements ahead of the official rollout. This release candidate marks a critical step toward the final version of .NET 9, offering developers new tools and capabilities that will help streamline the development process and improve the overall quality of .NET applications.