Quickstart

There are three main stages to getting started with the StarterApp. If you have followed all previous tutorials (the recommended approach), you may be able to skip some steps. Please make sure that you are using the required software versions to avoid errors due to incompatibility.

1. Prepare the database

Setting up a local Docker image of SQL Server is covered in the Adding a database tutorial.

2. Install the tools

Follow the instructions in the Getting started with Visual Studio Code tutorial to install

  • .NET 9.0
  • Visual Studio code
  • The Android emulator

Note

Running the app on Android may not be necessary - check the requirements of your project. If running on mobile is not essential, installing the Android emulator may not be necessary.

3. Configure the application

  1. Clone the StarterApp repo
  2. Open the solution in VSCode
  3. Configure appsettings.json The appsettings.json file contains setting that are specific to the local machine and which may be confidential. For both reasons, the file is not included in the source control repo. In our case, the file contains the connection details for the database. Create the file in the StarterApp.Database project and add the content below. Replace the placeholder values with those appropriate for your environment. 
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    {
  "ConnectionStrings": {
      "DevelopmentConnection": "Server=<IP Address>;Database=<Database name>;User Id=<Username>;Password=<Password>;TrustServerCertificate=True;Encrypt=True;"
  }
}
  4. Build solution This step checks that the code is correct. However, the app will not run yet because more work is needed on the database.

4. Configure the database

  1. Perform initial migration Follow the instructions in the Database migrations tutorial. Be sure to make any relevant value substitutions. For example, the command to create the initial migration should be

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     dotnet ef migrations add InitialCreate --project StarterApp.Database

    rather than referencing the Notes.Database project.

    Ensure that you make the final modification to the AppDbContext.cs file as specified in the tutorial. This will ensure that for all subsequent migrations, you can run the migration process from the StarterApp.Migrations project directory without having to add the --project option.

  2. Populate the database Although Entity Framework should be able to create seed data after creating new tables, the process is not reliable across all platforms. Instead, create the data required to run the application by executing the following SQL script using your chose database management tool (e.g. DataGrip):

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     insert into role (name, description, isdefault) values
 ('Admin', 'Administrator role with full access', 0),
 ('OrdinaryUser', 'Standard user role', 1),
 ('SpecialUser', 'Special user role with additional privileges', 0);
    
 insert into users (firstname, lastname, email, isActive, PasswordSalt, PasswordHash) values
 ('Admin', 'User', 'admin@company.com', 1, '$2a$11$dWb34DM7fBB0TA.8NSSjGO', '$2a$11$dWb34DM7fBB0TA.8NSSjGOrGDp9qrVkUbBQni8jA6y287hyO2Vz6a');
    
 insert into user_role (UserId, RoleId, IsActive) values
 (1,1,1);

    This will allow you to log into the application using email address admin@company.com and password Admin123!

  3. Run the app

5. Generate the documentation

  1. Install Doxygen Follow the installation instructions on the Doxygen website
  2. Run Doxygen Follow the instructions for running the Doxygen wizard.