Development Environment

Let's get started with setting up the Development Environment for .NET WebApi Boilerplate Development!

fullstackhero’s .NET WebApi Boilerplate Project Development needs you to have the following applications / tools available on your machine. Please Note that this project is being built on a Windows 10 Machine using Visual Studio Code IDE.

.NET SDK #

As mentioned earlier, this project is built with the latest available .NET SDK, which is .NET 7.0.

Ensure that you have the latest version of the SDK available - Download from Microsoft

IDE #

Visual Studio Code IDE is the recommended IDE to use for fullstackhero’s .NET WebApi Boilerplate Project Development. If you are not already using this IDE, consider switching to it. It’s definitely worth it! (Fun Fact : I recently switched from Visual Studio 2019 Community to Visual Studio Code and it’s been awesome!)

However, you are always free to use your choice of IDEs as well.

Incase you intend to use Visual Studio Code for development, here are a bunch of helpful extensions that I use:

• EditorConfig for VS Code
• C#
• C# Extensions
• Docker
• Markdown All in One
• NuGet Gallery
• Material Icon Theme
• REST Client

Database Servers #

fullstackhero’s .NET WebApi Boilerplate gives you the freedom to choose between the following 4 popular Database Providers. Please note that with the current architecture of the API Project, it would rather be easy to add in support for more DB Providers with minimal change of code. But as of now, here are the 4 Supported Database Providers! By default, PostgreSQL is chosen as the Database Provider.

PostgreSQL #

Probably the best Open Source Database Server with lots of Enterprise level features.

• Download postgresql Installer - Get from postgresql.org

MSSQL #

There are high chances that you already have this installed on your machine. This is ideal for development and production for small-mid server applications.

• Check out the Community versions of this Server - Get from Microsoft
• Download SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) - Get from Microsoft
• Download Azure Data Studio to browse your MSSQL Databases - Get from Microsoft

MySQL #

• Check out the Community versions of this Server - Get from mysql
• Download MySQL Workbench - Get from mysql

Oracle #

• Download

API Testing Tools #

POSTMAN #

When it comes to API Testing, Postman is the recommended tool. I have made sure to include a Postman Collection within the Repository under /postman folder to make sure you can test out all the existing endpoints. Note that there will be a detailed guide on how to use the given Postman Collection.

• Download Postman - Get from postman.com

Thunderclient Extension #

This is my current personal favorite for testing APIs. It’s lightweight when compared to Postman,and also let’s you test without leaving the IDE. If you are using Visual Code, you would love this! Search for Thunderclient under extensions and get it installed.

All the required files for testing the API with thunderclient and present under /thunder-tests folder at the root of the solution!

Docker (Optional) #

Ensure that Docker Desktop is intalled on your machine.

Get from docker.com