RichStokoe.BetterTemplates 1.1.0

Better .NET Templates

Better Templates provides templates for .NET developers that are designed around good practices and patterns.

The default .NET templates are revised frequently to showcase new runtime features, which often means reinforcing anti-patterns (technology-centric folder layouts, an ever-expanding Program.cs, mixed concerns). Better Templates aims to provide a set of stable templates that help you build long-lasting, well-architected applications that scale.

Installation

dotnet new install RichStokoe.BetterTemplates

Or install locally during development:

dotnet new install <path-to-nupkg>

MVC with Feature Slices (btmvc)

The standard dotnet new mvc template organises code by technology layer: a Controllers/ folder, a Models/ folder, a Views/ folder. This feels tidy at first, but as an application grows it becomes a navigation burden. Adding a new "Checkout" feature means touching three separate top-level folders. The folders become ever-expanding dumping grounds rather than meaningful boundaries.

With the "btmvc" template, code is organised by feature. Each feature gets its own folder containing everything it owns:

MyApp/
├── Home/
│   ├── HomeController.cs
│   └── Views/
│       ├── Index.cshtml
│       └── Privacy.cshtml
├── Checkout/
│   ├── CheckoutController.cs
│   ├── CheckoutService.cs
│   ├── CheckoutViewModel.cs
│   └── Views/
│       ├── Index.cshtml
│       └── Confirm.cshtml
├── Shared/
│   ├── ErrorViewModel.cs
│   └── Views/
│       ├── _Layout.cshtml
│       └── Error.cshtml
├── SetupServices.cs
├── SetupPipeline.cs
└── Program.cs

The Razor view engine is configured to look for views in /{Feature}/Views/{Action}.cshtml before falling back to the conventional Views/{Controller}/{Action}.cshtml paths, so you can adopt the feature-slice layout incrementally when migrating an existing app.

Program.cs stays thin. Service registrations live in SetupServices.cs and middleware configuration in SetupPipeline.cs, both as extension methods on the builder/app — easy to find, easy to split further if needed.

Usage

dotnet new btmvc -n MyApp
dotnet new btmvc -n MyApp --framework net8.0

Supported frameworks: net8.0, net9.0, net10.0 (default).

React + TypeScript SPA with MVC Back End (bthybrid)

Microsoft have mostly abandoned their SPA templates. The original dotnet new react template used a development proxy and UseProxyToSpaDevelopmentServer, which added configuration complexity and a fragile dev-time dependency. More fundamentally, it didn't give you a clear model for how the front and back ends would relate in production.

The BetterTemplates template produces a single deployable .NET application that serves a Vite-built React front end as static files from wwwroot/, alongside an MVC back end for server-side concerns (authentication flows, API endpoints, error pages, server-rendered fallbacks).

The React app lives in ClientApp/ and is built with Vite. vite.config.ts outputs directly into wwwroot/ so there are no separate deployment artefacts to coordinate. MapFallbackToFile("index.html") means the React router handles all client-side routes, while MVC controllers intercept any routes explicitly registered (e.g. /login, /error).

The MVC back end uses the same feature-slice layout as btmvc:

MyApp/
├── ClientApp/           # React + TypeScript (Vite)
│   └── src/
├── Home/
│   ├── HomeController.cs
│   └── Views/
│       └── Error.cshtml
├── Shared/
│   ├── ErrorViewModel.cs
│   └── Views/
│       └── _Layout.cshtml
├── wwwroot/             # Built SPA output lands here
├── SetupServices.cs
├── SetupPipeline.cs
└── Program.cs

The .csproj automatically runs npm install on a debug build if node_modules is missing, and runs npm run build as part of dotnet publish.

Usage

dotnet new bthybrid -n MyApp
dotnet new bthybrid -n MyApp --Framework net8.0

Supported frameworks: net8.0, net9.0, net10.0 (default).

Prerequisites: Node.js must be installed for the front-end build steps.

Contributing

Templates are under templates/. The package is built with:

dotnet pack -c Release

To test locally after building:

./reinstalltemplate.sh

License

MIT — provided as-is, without warranty of any kind. See the LICENSE file for the full terms.