Blazor WebAssembly and Blazor Server — Complete Guide

Introduction

Blazor builds ShopNest admin dashboards in C# instead of JavaScript — Server (SignalR circuit), WebAssembly (runs in browser), or Blazor United (.NET 8+) mixing both.

After this article you will

• Compare Blazor Server, WASM, and United
• Build components with data binding
• Forms and validation in Blazor
• Call ShopNest REST API from WASM
• Auth and JS interop

Prerequisites

• Article 70 — Real-Time Chat App
• Articles 1–64 ShopNest foundations (MVC, EF Core, API, auth, deploy)

Architecture & design

@page "/dashboard"
@inject HttpClient Http
<h3>Orders today: @_count</h3>
@code {
    private int _count;
    protected override async Task OnInitializedAsync()
        => _count = await Http.GetFromJsonAsync<int>("api/stats/orders-today");
}

Hands-on build guide — ShopNest Interactive Dashboard

1. ShopNest.Blazor.Server dashboard project.
2. Chart component bound to API data.
3. EditForm with DataAnnotations validation.
4. JS interop for chart library if needed.

Common pitfalls

• Blazor Server on poor mobile network — latency on every interaction.
• Large WASM download — optimize AOT and trimming in .NET 8+.

Interview & portfolio questions

Q: Blazor vs React?
A: Blazor = C# full stack; React = larger ecosystem + hiring pool.

Summary

• Blazor option for ShopNest internal dashboards
• Server for LAN admin; WASM for public SPA
• United is the .NET 8+ default direction

Previous: Real-Time Chat App
Next: gRPC, GraphQL and Alternative APIs

FAQ