New JSON Serialization
In 3.0-preview5, ASP.NET Core MVC adds supports for reading and writing JSON using System.Text.Json. The System.Text.Json serializer can read and write JSON asynchronously, and is optimized for UTF-8 text making it ideal for REST APIs and backend applications. 

 PM> Install-Package Microsoft.AspNetCore.ResponseCompression

{
    "dependencies": {
        "Microsoft.AspNetCore.ResponseCompression": "1.0.0"
    }
}

public void ConfigureServices(IServiceCollection services)
{
    services.AddResponseCompression(options =>
    {
        options.MimeTypes = Microsoft.AspNetCore.ResponseCompression.ResponseCompressionDefaults.MimeTypes;
    });
}

namespace Microsoft.AspNetCore.ResponseCompression
{
    /// <summary>
    /// Defaults for the ResponseCompressionMiddleware
    /// </summary>
    public class ResponseCompressionDefaults
    {
        /// <summary>
        /// Default MIME types to compress responses for.
        /// </summary>
        // This list is not intended to be exhaustive, it's a baseline for the 90% case.
        public static readonly IEnumerable<string> MimeTypes = new[]
        {
            // General
            "text/plain",
            // Static files
            "text/css",
            "application/javascript",
            // MVC
            "text/html",
            "application/xml",
            "text/xml",
            "application/json",
            "text/json",
        };
    }
}

services.AddResponseCompression(options =>
{
    options.MimeTypes = ResponseCompressionDefaults.MimeTypes.Concat(new[]
                                {
                                    "image/svg+xml",
                                    "application/font-woff2"
                                });
            });

services.AddResponseCompression(options =>
{
  //If no compression providers are specified then GZip is used by default.
  //options.Providers.Add<GzipCompressionProvider>();

services.Configure<GzipCompressionProviderOptions>(options =>
{
  options.Level = System.IO.Compression.CompressionLevel.Optimal;
});

 options.EnableForHttps = true;

public void Configure(IApplicationBuilder app)
{
   app.UseResponseCompression()  // Adds the response compression to the request pipeline
   .UseStaticFiles(); // Adds the static middleware to the request pipeline  
}

public void Configure(IApplicationBuilder app,
                      IHostingEnvironment env,
                      ILoggerFactory loggerFactory)
{
    app.UseResponseCompression()
       .UseStaticFiles(
           new StaticFileOptions
           {
               OnPrepareResponse =
                   _ => _.Context.Response.Headers[HeaderNames.CacheControl] = 
                        "public,max-age=604800" // A week in seconds
           })
       .UseMvc(routes => routes.MapRoute("default", "{controller=Home}/{action=Index}/{id?}"));
}

 PM> Install-Package Microsoft.AspNetCore.Rewrite

public void Configure(IApplicationBuilder app)
{
    app.UseRewriter(new RewriteOptions()
                            .AddRedirectToHttps()
                            .AddRewrite(@"app/(\d+)", "app?id=$1", skipRemainingRules: false) // Rewrite based on a Regular expression
                            //.AddRedirectToHttps(302, 5001) // Redirect to a different port and use HTTPS
                            .AddRedirect("(.*)/$", "$1")  // remove trailing slash, Redirect using a regular expression
                            .AddRedirect(@"^section1/(.*)", "new/$1", (int)HttpStatusCode.Redirect)
                            .AddRedirect(@"^section2/(\\d+)/(.*)", "new/$1/$2", (int)HttpStatusCode.MovedPermanently)
                            .AddRewrite("^feed$", "/?format=rss", skipRemainingRules: false));

 app.UseRewriter(new RewriteOptions()
.AddIISUrlRewrite(env.ContentRootFileProvider, "web.config")
.AddApacheModRewrite(env.ContentRootFileProvider, ".htaccess"));

public class RedirectWwwRule : Microsoft.AspNetCore.Rewrite.IRule
{
    public int StatusCode { get; } = (int)HttpStatusCode.MovedPermanently;
    public bool ExcludeLocalhost { get; set; } = true;
    public void ApplyRule(RewriteContext context)
    {
        var request = context.HttpContext.Request;
        var host = request.Host;
        if (host.Host.StartsWith("www", StringComparison.OrdinalIgnoreCase))
        {
            context.Result = RuleResult.ContinueRules;
            return;
        }
        if (ExcludeLocalhost && string.Equals(host.Host, "localhost", StringComparison.OrdinalIgnoreCase))
        {
            context.Result = RuleResult.ContinueRules;
            return;
        }
        string newPath = request.Scheme + "://www." + host.Value + request.PathBase + request.Path + request.QueryString;
 
        var response = context.HttpContext.Response;
        response.StatusCode = StatusCode;
        response.Headers[HeaderNames.Location] = newPath;
        context.Result = RuleResult.EndResponse; // Do not continue processing the request
    }
}

 app.UseRewriter(new RewriteOptions().Add(new RedirectWwwRule()));

 var options = new RewriteOptions().Add(app.ApplicationServices.GetService<RedirectWwwRule>());

It comes with full support for .NET Core 2.0, adds MSTest, various NuGet improvements, a new debugger tool window for visualizing Parallel Stacks and marking of instances, new refactorings and more. And with ReSharper 2017.2 now released, we’ve updated the ReSharper version powering Rider, too. Which brings improved support for C# 7.0, initial support for C# 7.1, new code inspections, navigation improvements, and so on. Let’s look at a few highlights! 

My last post investigated ways to build a .NET Core desktop/console app with a web-rendered UI without bringing in the full weight of Electron. This seems to have interested a lot of people, so I decided to upgrade it to newer technologies and add cross-platform support.

The result is a little NuGet package called WebWindow that you can add to any .NET Core console app. It can open a native OS window (Windows/Mac/Linux) containing web-based UI, without your app having to bundle either Node or Chromium. 

Support for the full HTTP/2 protocol. HTTP/2 enables a faster, more scalable, and more responsive web. 

.NET Core consists of many repositories. To file an issue, make a PR, or engage on specific topics, it's best to engage with developers working in the correct repo. A largely complete set of .NET Core and related repositories follows.