Application Architecture - MVC

Separation of concern makes our code reusable and easier to manage. In that sense, it is considered a good practice to separate business logic and data handling. MVC pattern is one such implementation that divides an application into three major parts (model, view, and controller). In this writing, we will use Entity Framework to implement the MVC pattern in the .NET application

Project Configurations

Creating a Project with MVC Structure

Server Architecture - Distributing Projects

 

Installing Packages

We need packages to connect our project to a database. Open the search bar at the top then find NuGet Gallery

NuGet: Open NuGet Gallery

▶ Packages needed

When installing a package, The version of the package must match the version of .NET you are using. For example, if you are using .NET 7 you should download packages that start with 7.

 

Search each of the packages below and check the check box beside the project that will deal with data handling (here the Infrastructure folder) and click 'install'. This package allows us to use the SQLite database. 

Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.Sqlite

This package is for converting our code to a database. Add this to the API folder

Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.Design

This package is for data migration. Add this to the API folder

dotnet-ef

Creating Model

Create a folder to hold the entity in the core folder

Add an entity class

Creating Context

Create a folder to hold the context in the infrastructure folder

Add a context class

Inherit from the 'DbContext' class

Add the entity as a property

using Core.Entities;
using Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore;

namespace Infrastructure.Data
{
  public class StoreContext : DbContext
  {
    public StoreContext(DbContextOptions options) : base(options)
    {
    }

    public DbSet<Item> Items { get; set; }
  }
}

Context Registration as a Service

Working with SQLite in .NET (Code first)

Migration

Working with SQLite in .NET (Code first)

Creating a DB

Working with SQLite in .NET (Code first)

Creating Controller

Add a controller class in the API folder

Inherit from the 'ControllerBase' class

Then, add decorators to easily set up controllers

[ApiController]

[Route("[controller]")]

Add a constructor and inject the context class

private readonly StoreContext _context;
public StoreController(StoreContext context)
{
  this._context = context;
}

How to Use

We can access the database with the context class injected in the controller class. For example, we can get all the items with the code below

[HttpGet]
public ActionResult<List<Item>> GetItems()
{
  return _context.Items.ToList();
}

In this writing, we have seen how we can use the MVC pattern in .NET with EntityFramework

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References

https://www.tutorialspoint.com/design_pattern/mvc_pattern.htm

Design Patterns - MVC Pattern