Milan Jovanovic Tech

Founder

HTEC Group

Responsible for major architectural and software design decisions in various in-house projects. Acting as a technical advisor to teams solving challenging problems. Also working as the lead developer for an order placement and processing application for a luxury kitchen manufacturing company.

Application Architect Associate

Responsible for major architectural and design decisions in order placement and processing application for a luxury kitchen manufacturing company. The system has a set of unique challenges from a domain and technology perspective.

I developed a robust Outbox / Inbox messaging system for our event-driven application. Also commonly known as the "Outbox pattern".
The application is split into independent modules, which interact with each other by publishing events.
We needed to process outgoing messages "out of process", to avoid distributed transactions.
We also needed to ensure "at least once" message delivery, and ensure idempotency on the receiving side.

Another one of my responsibilities was application performance, where I focused on the following:
- Ensuring all our SQL queries were optimally written, often investigating the execution plan to make adjustments
- Creating the optimal database indexes for queries processing a large number of records
- Troubleshooting and optimizing algorithms

Senior Software Engineer

Developing an order placement and processing system for a luxury kitchen manufacturing company. The application has a set of unique challenges from a domain and technology perspective.

The domain itself is very rich and complex, which is why we have adopted DDD for modeling the core of the system.

We are developing the application itself using the Modular Monolith architecture.
Each Module is implemented with Clean Architecture and CQRS.
Modules interact with each other using messaging, through RabbitMQ.

Software Engineer

Ingsoftware

My responsibilities as a technical lead at Ingsoftware are managing a small development team that consists of front-end and back-end developers. I'm in charge of making important technical decisions aimed at providing the highest quality technical solutions for the present business problems. Communicating with clients (and sometimes stakeholders) on a daily basis and making sure everything is going smoothly.

Apart from these responsibilities, I also regularly take part in the interviewing process for new prospective candidates, as well as work as a mentor for our .NET interns.

Technical Lead

My responsibilities as a software developer at Ingsoftware are:
- Back-end development using C# with ASP.NET Core and .NET Core frameworks,
- Database modeling utilizing SQL Server,
- Proposing efficient and scalable solutions for client requirements,
- Providing accurate LOE estimates for client requirements,
- Mentoring less-experienced teammates and helping them improve (something I truly enjoy),
- Communicating directly with clients,
- Application deployment.

Apart from these responsibilities, I also regularly take part in the interviewing process for new prospective candidates, as well as work as a mentor for our .NET interns.

I won a paid internship through an entry exam that Ingsoftware organized at the annual Job Fair that is held at the Faculty of Electronic Engineering in Niš. The internship helped me learn many new skills that later paved my way into my first employment.

During the internship my responsibilities were:
- Back-end development using C# with ASP.NET MVC and .NET Framework,
- Front-end development using plain vanilla Javascript and Boostrap as a UI framework,
- Using SQL Server for database creation.

.NET Intern

I help you become a better .NET software engineer 👋 Microsoft MVP

Hi there! 👋

I'm a senior software engineer, primarily working in the .NET ecosystem.

Things I talk about on LinkedIn:
- C# and .NET ❤
- Software engineering and architecture 
- Distributed systems and how to build them
- Databases and optimization techniques
- Career and personal growth

One of my goals (i̶s̶) was to become a Microsoft MVP in Developer Technologies.
I became an MVP in March of 2023.

If this sounds interesting, let's connect!

The Application layer in Clean Architecture should express intent. 
 
It's part of the application core and contains the use cases. 
 
Use cases represent a feature of your application: 
 
- Get me the current user 
- Transfer funds between accounts 
- Send this order to the shipping department 
 
This is how I organize my use cases with CQRS: 
 
- Commands contain business logic and update the database 
- Commands can also trigger side effects in other systems 
- Queries return the required data from the database 
 
What about the Application layer folder structure? 
 
I don't use a purely technical approach: 
 
❌ Technical 
📂 Commands 
📂 Exceptions 
📂 Queries 
📂 Services 
 
The reason against? 
 
- Harder to navigate 
- Doesn't communicate intent 
- Low cohesion between folders 
 
Instead, I use a mix of technical and use case driven folders: 
 
✅ Use case driven  
📂 Attendance 
📂 Events 
📂 Orders 
📂 TicketTypes 
📂 Users 
 
This folder structure allows me to focus on use cases. While still having a dedicated place for technical concerns. 
 
The benefits of grouping around use cases are: 
 
- Easier navigation 
- Improved cohesion 
- Simplified maintenance 
- High coupling for a single feature 
- Low coupling between unrelated features 
 
Good software architecture communicates the intent. 
 
This is also known as "screaming architecture". 
 
If you're ready to improve your software architecture skills, you will love the .NET Weekly. 
 
Join here: https://bit.ly/4cuKWnx 
 
How do you approach the Application layer folder structure? 
 
--- 
 
✍️ What would you add? 
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Milan Jovanović

Will this new EF Core 8 feature be the end of Dapper? 
 
Here's what you should know about EF Raw SQL queries. 👇 
 
EF Core 8 supports returning unmapped types from raw SQL queries. 
 
Why is this so important? 
 
Previously, you could only return entity types or scalar values. 
 
But now, you can map raw SQL queries to any C# type. 
 
Is it faster than Dapper? 
 
No, not in the tests I've performed. 
 
Right now, it's on par with LINQ queries. 
 
And this might be all the performance you need. 
 
The big benefit is you can now do everything with only EF. 
 
Here's what's possible with EF raw SQL queries: 
 
- Querying unmapped types with SQL 
- Composing SQL queries with LINQ 
- Executing updates with SQL 
 
You can also query views, functions, and stored procedures. 
 
Here's how to get started with EF Raw SQL queries:  https://lnkd.in/exDU7v3X 
 
--- 
 
✍️ What would you add? 
♻️ Reshare if you like EF Core.

Don't use Clean Architecture if: 
 
- You have a small, simple project 
- You are working on a tight deadline 
- You have limited resources or expertise 
 
Clean Architecture is a popular architectural approach. It separates the business logic from implementation details. 
 
It also promotes a modular and scalable approach to software development. 
 
However, it's far from a silver bullet for complex systems. 
 
There are certain situations where it's not the best choice. 
 
1. 𝗪𝗵𝗲𝗻 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗵𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝗮 𝘀𝗺𝗮𝗹𝗹, 𝘀𝗶𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗲 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗷𝗲𝗰𝘁 
 
- Clean Architecture is excellent for complex systems 
- Not worth it for small systems (unnecessary complexity) 
- Can slow down your development process (initially) 
 
2. 𝗪𝗵𝗲𝗻 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗼𝗻 𝗮 𝘁𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁 𝗱𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗲 
 
- Clean Architecture is an investment in the long run 
- Requires a decent amount of upfront boilerplate 
- It helps if you have previous projects to reuse 
 
3. 𝗪𝗵𝗲𝗻 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗵𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝗹𝗶𝗺𝗶𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝗿𝗲𝘀𝗼𝘂𝗿𝗰𝗲𝘀 𝗼𝗿 𝗲𝘅𝗽𝗲𝗿𝘁𝗶𝘀𝗲 
 
- Easy to overengineer if you don't know what you are doing 
- Clean Architecture has a strict set of rules you need to follow 
- The main principle of Clean Architecture is dependency inversion 
- Requires an understanding of software design principles and patterns 
 
If you've been following me for a while, you know I love Clean Architecture. 
 
But it's important to be pragmatic and use the proper tool for the job. 
 
Here's why I think Clean Architecture is great for complex projects: https://lnkd.in/eECucPy2 
 
--- 
 
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EF Core added some amazing features. 
 
The highlight? 
 
For me, it has to be the bulk update APIs. 
 
There are two bulk update methods: 
 
- ExecuteUpdate 
- ExecuteDelete 
 
Of course, there is a respective async overload for each. 
 
Why should you care? 
 
Performance. 
 
ExecuteUpdate allows you to run a bulk update using LINQ. 
 
ExecuteDelete allows you to write a delete query using LINQ. 
 
You can write optimal UPDATE and DELETE queries. 
 
Here's how: https://lnkd.in/ebsBSC3h 
 
--- 
 
✍️ What would you add? 
♻️ Reshare if you like EF Core.

I've been using Clean Architecture for 5+ years.

Here's why I think it's amazing. 👇

The biggest pain point I see with enterprise applications is a lack of structure. Every project uses a different approach.

It's difficult to transfer technical knowledge from one system to another.

Thankfully, there are proven approaches to solving this problem.

My favorite?

Clean Architecture.

What is the value of Clean architecture?

- Modularity
- Separation of concerns
- Testability of business logic
- Improved team productivity
- Loose coupling of components

There's no "right" way to build software.

You should decide what works for you.

Clean architecture works well for me.

I've used it to build incredible products.

And I will continue to use it and talk about it.

If you're ready to learn more about software architecture, consider joining the .NET Weekly, where I share practical tips like this.

Join here → https://bit.ly/3x8W1dU

---

✍️ What would you add?
♻️ Reshare if you agree.

Clean Architecture 101

I failed an interview because I didn't know this. 
 
So, I'm making this post to make sure it never happens to you. 
 
If you've ever had to implement locking in your application, you're not alone. Locking allows us to control how many threads can access a section of code. 
 
Where do you need this? 
 
- Protecting access to expensive resources 
- Competing consumers problem 
- Preventing duplicate payments 
 
How did I try to solve this in the interview? 
 
I rarely work with low-level code. 
 
So, I tried to achieve this using the `lock` statement. 
 
And that's where it all went to 💩 
 
The `lock` statement doesn't work inside async code. 
 
And it makes sense because you can't guarantee which thread will complete the method. 
 
So what's the solution? 
 
A Semaphore or Mutex works great if you're in a single process. 
 
Distributed locking options? 
 
- Postgres advisory locks 
- Redis + RedLock 
 
After the interview, I documented my learnings in an in-depth article on the lock statement and a few other C# synchronization primitives. 
 
Read it here (it only takes 3 minutes): https://lnkd.in/et3K3y-u 
 
--- 
 
✍️ What would you add? 
♻️ Reshare to pass your next interview.

Thamsanqa Bengu

Imagine if you could automatically generate end-to-end API tests.

All you have to do is send a request, and AI can take care of the rest.

What if you could do this from your favorite API client?

That's right, Postman has an integrated AI that can do many cool things.

It's called Postbot, and here's how you can use it to generate API tests.

I'm excited about the innovation AI will bring to software development.

Here's a 3-step guide to generate API tests with Postbot:

- Send a request to your API
- Open up Postbot and ask it to add tests for this request
- Voila, you've got a bunch of tests, and you can easily add more

Now, you can send a request, and your tests will run.

Here are a few things you could test:

- API responses, 2xx/4xx status codes
- Contract testing, verifying response format
- Performance testing with a custom threshold

You can also generate more test cases, like how you'd use Copilot.

I also saved one more surprise for the end.

Postman V11 was just released! 🔥

You can learn more about the awesome new features here: https://lnkd.in/dTmjJ_Ex

Postman's Postbot in action 🚀

Azeem Rasydan

I've been writing the .NET Weekly for more than 1.5 years. 
 
I hand-picked the 11 best articles 👇 
 
1. Vertical Slice Architecture 
https://lnkd.in/eRwgTjRP 
 
2. Using Multiple EF Core DbContexts In a Single Application 
https://lnkd.in/er3ns7Cg 
 
3. The Right Way To Use HttpClient In .NET 
https://lnkd.in/ekdYxHT6 
 
4. Why Clean Architecture Is Great For Complex Projects 
https://lnkd.in/eECucPy2 
 
5. What Is a Modular Monolith? 
https://lnkd.in/eku__qGi 
 
6. Monolith to Microservices: How a Modular Monolith Helps 
https://lnkd.in/eiK8ixDq 
 
7. Implementing an API Gateway For Microservices With YARP  
https://lnkd.in/ew6yaEt4 
 
8. Health Checks In ASP .NET Core For Monitoring Your Applications 
https://lnkd.in/eBfPiBCK 
 
9. Running Background Tasks In ASP .NET Core 
https://lnkd.in/e-JQenYr 
 
10. Functional Error Handling in .NET With the Result Pattern 
https://lnkd.in/ewcFSR2H 
 
11. CQRS Pattern With MediatR  
https://lnkd.in/eTmEPAfe 
 
I hope this is helpful. 
 
Which article did you like the most? 
 
--- 
 
✍️ Which video is your favorite? 
♻️ Reshare if this was helpful.

𝗖𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗻 𝗰𝗼𝗱𝗲 𝘁𝗶𝗽: Replace complex if statement with descriptive method. 
 
It isn't easy to read complex if statements.  
The more conditions, the harder it is.  
And it tends to grow out of control. 
 
But you can fix this with a bit of refactoring. 
 
Move the condition into a method (or variable) with a descriptive name. 
 
The method name should be as detailed as possible. 
 
It's a significant improvement in code readability. 
 
If you enjoy practical tips like this one, I think you will love the .NET Weekly. 
 
Join 46,000+ engineers: https://bit.ly/3x8W1dU 
 
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Why do you need background tasks in .NET?

Sometimes, you want to move some processing to the background.

This background processing should run outside the normal application flow.

Here are a few examples:

- Sending an email after completing a sale
- Retrying a failed payment for an order
- Processing messages from a queue
- Clearing stale cache items

Background tasks can improve overall performance, and here's why.

Let's take the example of sending an email after a sale.

I don't want to slow down the API response by waiting for the email.

Instead, I can queue an email and process it in the background.

You can set up a background task in .NET within minutes.

The most straightforward approach is using the BackgroundService class.

Looking for a more robust option?

I think you will like Quartz: https://lnkd.in/eczy9s4c

Do you prefer the built-in support for background jobs or a more robust library?

Background jobs in ASP.NET Core

Using multiple EF Core DbContexts in a single application? 
 
It's possible (and sometimes required), here's how. 👇 
 
Where you'll need this: 
 
- Working with multiple databases 
- Separating concerns 
- Modular monolith 
- Read replicas 
 
But, multiple DbContexts have some limitations: 
 
1. It's not possible to do a join between different DbContext instances because EF Core doesn't know if they are using the same database 
 
2. Transactions will only work if the DbContexts are using the same database. You have to create a new transaction and share it between the DbContexts by calling the UseTransaction method. 
 
Ready to implement this? 
 
Here's a complete guide: https://lnkd.in/emvW7wx6 
 
--- 
 
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Fatih Deniz

How do you implement API Versioning in .NET Core? 
 
A few years ago, I built and maintained a large public API. 
 
The API has dozens of integrations. And when your API is serving so many clients, breaking changes are expensive. 
 
So, everything I implemented on the public API had to be planned. 
 
✅ Changing the behavior of existing APIs? 
❌ Forget about it. 
 
✅ Removing or renaming APIs or API parameters? 
❌ Forget about it. 
 
If I wanted to introduce breaking changes, I had to version the API. 
 
API versioning allows your API to evolve independently from the clients using it. 
 
The 3 common API versioning implementations: 
 
- URL versioning 
- Header versioning 
- Query parameter versioning 
 
Microsoft's API versioning guidelines suggest using URL or query string parameter versioning. 
 
I use URL versioning almost exclusively in the applications I'm developing. 
 
Here's how you can implement API versioning: https://lnkd.in/eWFPAvCT 
 
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Using the EF in-memory provider for testing? 
 
Here's why you might be wasting your time. 
 
I've seen many developers use the EF in-memory provider for integration testing. 
 
The problem? 
 
That's not even a database. 
 
Which means you're not testing any integrations. 
 
There's no value in writing your integration tests like this. 
 
A better way: 
 
- Run your database using Docker 
- Connect to an actual DB instance 
- Run your integration test against it 
 
If you're ready to start writing proper integration tests, I wrote a guide on using Testcontainers for integration testing. 
 
Here's how to write integration tests the right way: https://lnkd.in/d9N_JGhU 
 
The best part? 
 
If you write your tests using Docker, you can easily execute them in CI pipelines like GitHub Actions or Azure DevOps. 
 
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Using Task.WhenAll can yield a 180% performance improvement. 
 
But it comes at a price... 
 
I made a simple benchmark: 
 
- HttpClient calling a GET endpoint 
- We're calling three distinct URLs 
- Testing two implementations 
 
The results? 
 
1. Serial execution - 139 ms 
2. Task.WhenAll - 77 ms 
 
The Task.WhenAll version is almost 2x faster. 
 
What makes causes such a large difference? 
 
Serial vs concurrent execution. 
 
In the first example, we wait for all calls to be completed one by one. So, we can't benefit from concurrency. 
 
In the second example, we await all the calls simultaneously. 
 
Here are a few bonus tips: 
 
- Use this when your calls don't depend on each other 
- Make sure to implement proper error handling 
- Test this at scale to confirm it's reliable 
 
If you enjoy practical tips like this one, you will love the .NET Weekly. 
 
Join 46,000+ engineers: https://bit.ly/3x8W1dU 
 
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You have to insert 1M records into the database fast. 
 
What tool would you choose? 
 
Whether you're building a data analytics platform, migrating a legacy system, or onboarding a surge of new users, you will likely need to insert a massive amount of data into your database at some point. 
 
Inserting the records one by one feels like watching paint dry in slow motion. 
 
The alternatives? 
 
- Dapper + SQL INSERT 
- EF Core + AddRange 
- EF Bulk Extensions 
- SQL Bulk Copy 
 
I compared these implementations with a benchmark, inserting from 100 to 1,000,000 records. 
 
Here are the results: https://lnkd.in/egwwpADP

A simple tip to write more readable LINQ expressions: 
 
- When writing LINQ, try to go tall, not wide. 
 
Here's what I mean 👇 
 
Instead of writing a LINQ expression like this: 
 
𝚊𝚗𝚒𝚖𝚊𝚕𝚜.𝚆𝚑𝚎𝚛𝚎(𝚊 => 𝚊.𝙷𝚊𝚜𝙱𝚒𝚐𝙴𝚊𝚛𝚜).𝙾𝚛𝚍𝚎𝚛𝙱𝚢(𝚊 => 𝚊.𝙸𝚜𝙳𝚊𝚗𝚐𝚎𝚛𝚘𝚞𝚜).𝚂𝚎𝚕𝚎𝚌𝚝(𝚊 => (𝚊.𝙸𝚍, 𝚊.𝙽𝚊𝚖𝚎)).𝚃𝚘𝙻𝚒𝚜𝚝(); 
 
Try to follow the "𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘥𝘰𝘵 𝘱𝘦𝘳 𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘦 𝘳𝘶𝘭𝘦": 
 
𝚊𝚗𝚒𝚖𝚊𝚕𝚜 
⠀⠀.𝚆𝚑𝚎𝚛𝚎(𝚊 => 𝚊.𝙷𝚊𝚜𝙱𝚒𝚐𝙴𝚊𝚛𝚜) 
⠀⠀.𝙾𝚛𝚍𝚎𝚛𝙱𝚢(𝚊 => 𝚊.𝙸𝚜𝙳𝚊𝚗𝚐𝚎𝚛𝚘𝚞𝚜) 
⠀⠀.𝚂𝚎𝚕𝚎𝚌𝚝(𝚊 => (𝚊.𝙸𝚍, 𝚊.𝙽𝚊𝚖𝚎)) 
⠀⠀.𝚃𝚘𝙻𝚒𝚜𝚝(); 
 
The second variant is: 
 
- Easier to read 
- Easier to extend 
- Merge-conflict friendlier 
 
This also works with SQL queries. 
 
Don't be a sloppy coder. 
 
𝗣.𝗦. If you liked this, you will love The .NET Weekly newsletter. Join 48,000+ engineers to improve your .NET and software architecture skills. 
 
Subscribe here → https://bit.ly/3xWaUAJ

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