-
Create a new solution called
ConferencePlanner
, and add a new project namedBackEnd
using File / New / ASP.NET Core Web Application. Select the Web API template, No Auth, no Docker support.Note: If not using Visual Studio, create the project using
dotnet new webapi
at the cmd line, details as follows:- Create folder ConferencePlanner and call
dotnet new sln
at the cmd line to create a solution - Create sub-folder BackEnd and create a project using
dotnet new webapi
at the cmd line inside the folder BackEnd - Add the project to the solution using
dotnet sln add BackEnd/BackEnd.csproj
- Create folder ConferencePlanner and call
-
Add a new
Models
folder to the root of the application. -
Add a new
Speaker
class using the following code:using System; using System.Collections.Generic; using System.ComponentModel.DataAnnotations; using System.Linq; using System.Threading.Tasks; using Microsoft.Extensions.DependencyInjection; using Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.Design; namespace BackEnd.Models { public class Speaker { public int ID { get; set; } [Required] [StringLength(200)] public string Name { get; set; } [StringLength(4000)] public string Bio { get; set; } [StringLength(1000)] public virtual string WebSite { get; set; } } }
-
Next we'll create a new Entity Framework DbContext. Create a new
ApplicationDbContext
class in theModels
folder using the following code:using Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore; namespace BackEnd.Models { public class ApplicationDbContext : DbContext { public ApplicationDbContext(DbContextOptions<ApplicationDbContext> options) : base(options) { } public DbSet<Speaker> Speakers { get; set; } } }
-
Add a connection string to the appsettings.json file for this database:
{ "ConnectionStrings": { "DefaultConnection": "Server=(localdb)\\mssqllocaldb;Database=aspnet-BackEnd-931E56BD-86CB-4A96-BD99-2C6A6ABB0829;Trusted_Connection=True;MultipleActiveResultSets=true" }, "Logging": { "LogLevel": { "Default": "Warning" } }, "AllowedHosts": "*" }
-
Add the following code to the top of the
ConfigureServices()
method inStartup.cs
:services.AddDbContext<ApplicationDbContext>(options => { if (RuntimeInformation.IsOSPlatform(OSPlatform.Windows)) { options.UseSqlServer(Configuration.GetConnectionString("DefaultConnection")); } else { options.UseSqlite("Data Source=conferences.db"); } });
This code registers the
ApplicationDbContext
service so it can be injected into controllers. Additionally, it configures operating system specific database technologies and connection strings -
Add a reference to the NuGet package
Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.Sqlite
. Note that you'll need to resolve several references by adding missingusing
statements (Ctrl + .
is your friend).If you're not using Visual Studio install the package from the command line with
dotnet add package Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.Sqlite --version 2.2.1
-
In Visual Studio, select the Tools -> NuGet Package Manager -> Package Manager Console
-
Run the following commands in the Package Manager Console
Add-Migration Initial Update-Database
-
Open a command prompt and navigate to the project directory. (The directory containing the
Startup.cs
file). -
Run the following commands in the command prompt:
dotnet build dotnet ef migrations add Initial dotnet ef database update
Commands Explained
Command | Description |
---|---|
dotnet ef migrations add Initial / Add-Migration Initial |
generates code to create the initial database schema based on the model specified in 'ApplicationDbContext.cs'. Initial is the name of the migration. |
dotnet ef database update / Update-Database |
creates the database |
For more information on these commands and scaffolding in general, see this tutorial.
If your database ever gets in a bad state and you'd like to reset things, you can use
dotnet ef database drop
followed bydotnet ef database update
to remove your database and run all migrations again.
First, open the Controllers
folder and take a quick look at the ValuesController
. You'll see simple functions that correspond to HTTP verbs. You'll see the output of this controller in a bit, but first we'll build our own API controller for the Speakers
model class.
- Right-click the
Controllers
folder and select Add/Controller. Select "API Controller with actions, using Entity Framework". - In the dialog, select the
Speaker
model for the Model Class,ApplicationDbContext
for the "Data Context Class" and click theAdd
button.
- Install the "Microsoft.VisualStudio.Web.CodeGeneration.Design" package
dotnet add package Microsoft.VisualStudio.Web.CodeGeneration.Design --version 2.2.0
- Install the
aspnet-codegenerator
global tool by running the following command:
dotnet tool install --global dotnet-aspnet-codegenerator
Note: You will need to close and reopen the console window to be able to use this tool.
- Run the following in the project folder at the cmd line:
dotnet aspnet-codegenerator controller -api -name SpeakersController -m Speaker -dc BackEnd.Models.ApplicationDbContext -outDir Controllers
In this section, we'll be adding documentation to our API using the Swashbuckle NuGet package.
Swashbuckle.AspNetCore is an open source project for generating Swagger documents for Web APIs that are built with ASP.NET Core.
Swagger is a machine readable representation of a RESTful API that enables support for interactive documentation, client SDK generation and discoverability.
Additional information on using Swashbuckle in ASP.NET Core is available in this tutorial: ASP.NET Web API Help Pages using Swagger
-
Add the
Swashbuckle.AspNetCore
NuGet package.This can be done from the command line using
dotnet add package Swashbuckle.AspNetCore
-
Add the Swashbuckle services in your
ConfigureServices
method:services.AddMvc().SetCompatibilityVersion(CompatibilityVersion.Version_2_2); services.AddSwaggerGen(options => options.SwaggerDoc("v1", new Info { Title = "Conference Planner API", Version = "v1" }) );
-
Configure Swashbuckle by adding the following lines to top of the
Configure
method inStartup.cs
:app.UseSwagger(); app.UseSwaggerUI(options => options.SwaggerEndpoint("/swagger/v1/swagger.json", "Conference Planner API v1") );
Note: Due to how the middleware and pipeline are structured, you'll want to place this before the
app.UseMvc()
statement. -
Add a redirect to the end of the pipeline that redirects to the swagger end point.
app.Run(context => { context.Response.Redirect("/swagger"); return Task.CompletedTask; });
-
Run the application (F5 in Visual Studio or
dotnet run
from console). -
Browse to the Swagger UI at
http://localhost:<random_port>/swagger
. -
First, click on the GET button in Values section. You'll see the values that were listed in the
ValuesController
earlier. -
In the Speakers section, click on the GET button. You'll see there are not speakers returned. Let's add one!
-
In the Speakers section, click on the POST button. Referencing the example on the right, fill in a speaker request. Leave the
ID
blank, that will be filled in by the database.{ "name": "Tyrion Lannister", "bio": "Drinks and knows things", "webSite": "http://giphy.com/search/tyrion-lannister" }
-
When you click the Try it out! button, you should see a success response from the server. Now, clicking the GET button above should show your newly added speaker.
Next: Session #2 - Back-end