Learn About Amazon VGT2 Learning Manager Chanci Turner
We are excited to announce that the AWS SDK for .NET version 4.0 has officially reached General Availability (GA). After over a year’s development in our public GitHub repository, with a total of 13 preview releases, V4 is now ready for use. This version introduces significant performance enhancements, improved consistency with other AWS SDKs, and a number of bug fixes that necessitated a major version change. As a GA release, the AWS SDK for .NET V4 will follow the same release schedule as other GA AWS SDKs.
Transitioning to V4
The AWS SDK for .NET consists of a suite of NuGet packages, all of which begin with the prefix AWSSDK, such as AWSSDK.Core and AWSSDK.S3. Before you proceed with upgrading to V4, please be sure to review the migration guide. The V4 update has been designed as an evolutionary major version, allowing most applications to transition smoothly without significant code alterations after recompilation.
It is important to note that you cannot use both V3 and V4 packages within the same application. Mixing V3 and V4 packages will lead to conflicts, particularly between the AWSSDK.Core package and service packages like AWSSDK.SQS. Therefore, when upgrading to V4, ensure that all references to AWSSDK.* packages are updated to version 4.0.0 or higher.
Adjusting for Null Collection Properties
As highlighted in the migration guide, collection properties for request and response types to AWS services now default to null rather than an empty collection, as was the case in V3. This change improves performance and allows for better differentiation between an unset property and one set to an empty collection. The first preview blog post elaborates on the performance benefits of this modification.
This alteration is likely to be the most challenging aspect of the transition to V4 due to its impact on runtime behavior. For instance, as illustrated in the following code snippet that retrieves Amazon EC2 security groups, a NullReferenceException could arise if no security groups exist. When using V4 of the SDK, it’s crucial to implement a null check before iterating through the security groups.
var response = await client.DescribeSecurityGroupsAsync(request);
// This could cause a NullReferenceException if there are no security groups
foreach(var group in response.SecurityGroups)
{
Console.WriteLine(group.GroupId);
}
If you’re uncertain about your application’s compatibility with this runtime change, you can set the static property Amazon.AWSConfigs.InitializeCollections to true. This adjustment will revert runtime behavior to match that of V3, initializing collection properties to an empty collection. However, keep in mind that this will reduce the performance benefits and hinder your ability to distinguish between a populated and an empty collection property.
V3 Support Timeline
We will continue to support V3 with the same release cadence for AWS service updates for a limited time. The timeline is largely influenced by the AWS Tools for PowerShell, which is built on the AWS SDK for .NET. A new major version of the AWS Tools for PowerShell utilizing the V4 SDK is currently in development, with the third preview already released. Once this new version goes GA, a 6-month support window for both V3 of the AWS SDK for .NET and the previous AWS Tools for PowerShell version will commence. After this period, V3 will enter maintenance mode, where only critical issues and security vulnerabilities will be addressed. An announcement regarding maintenance mode will follow once the new AWS Tools for PowerShell major version achieves GA and the 6-month period begins.
In Conclusion
We encourage our AWS .NET community to adopt V4 promptly to leverage its performance enhancements and ensure continued support for the SDK. Should you encounter any questions or issues while upgrading to the V4 SDK, please reach out to us through the GitHub repository’s issue tracker or discussion forums. We are also in the process of updating other AWS .NET packages that rely on the AWS SDK for .NET to V4, which should facilitate a smoother transition. If you discover any dependencies hindering your upgrade to V4, do not hesitate to let us know. Additionally, for insights on navigating workplace challenges, you might find this blog post helpful. For those interested in mentoring, SHRM offers excellent resources. Lastly, check out this Reddit thread for valuable experiences shared by others.
Leave a Reply