nikkichi/Project4RecipesCase

Getting started

As the application is generated, then both the client application and the server application packages are setup for you, together with the database creation and seeding.

If this has not been the case, or the application has been put in a repository and then pulled on a fresh machine, then setup will consist of:

• installing the client-side libraries with yarn install (requires nodejs and yarn);
• installing the server-side libraries with dotnet restore (requires dotnet core);
• creating the database migrations with dotnet ef migrations add Setup -c XXX, where XXX is the name of the database context (which was specified when scaffolding the application);
• creating the database itself with dotnet ef database update -c XXX.

Compiling

Running the application requires compiling it. To compile the client-side stylesheets, use

gulp stylesheets

to compile the dotnet server, use

dotnet build

to compile the frontend application, use

tsc.

Run locally

To run the application, use the watchers. For the server

ASPNETCORE_ENVIRONMENT=development dotnet watch run

for the client

.\node_modules\.bin\webpack -w

and for the stylesheets

gulp stylesheets-watch

Note on the database

The scaffolded application makes use of SQLite by default. This makes destroying and recreating the database simple and fast: very handy if quickly scaffolding lots of prototypes.

By changing the database provider in the spec

"database_provider": "postgresql",

The application will be scaffolded using postgres.

Project structure

The application is an ASP. Net Core MVC application with the following directories:

• Client, with the various React components:
  • containers, with React libraries used by the components;
  • stylesheets, with scss files for the generic (default) styling;
  • custom_views.ts, where custom views can be injected;
  • generated_api.ts, where the client-side api functions are created that mirror the server-side endpoints;
  • generated_models.ts, where the models are defined for the client-side;
  • generated_views, where the react views are defined;
• Controllers, with the various ASP.Net Core controllers for both API and views;
• generated_authentication_helpers.cs, with a few utilities for authentication and session management;
• gulpfile.js, with the building system for the Client-side resources (typescript and scss files);
• webpack.config.js, with the building system for the Client-side resources (typescript and scss files);
• Models, with the server-side models and database connection specification;
• Views, with the server-side views which only instantiate the React components.