EchoStream

An end-to-end ASP.NET content-management system: Razor SPA for browsing, WebForms for administration, and a centralized EF data model.

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Solutions Overview

es.view (Front End)

• Type: ASP.NET MVC Razor application (.NET Framework 4.7.2)
• Purpose: Single-page app for browsing and searching news posts
• Key components:
  • Controllers: Expose JSON endpoints under /api (e.g., GetPosts, GetCategories)
  • Views: Razor (.cshtml) templates in \Views folder
  • Client scripts: Knockout.js bindings and custom JS in Scripts/
  • Styling: Bootstrap CSS and Layout in Content/
• Config: Web.config holds two connection strings:
  1. DefaultConnection for LocalDB or Azure SQL
  2. DataEntities for Entity Framework EDMX model

es.admin (Admin Portal)

• Type: ASP.NET WebForms application (.NET Framework 4.7.2)
• Purpose: Manage news content, categories, and media uploads
• Key components:
  • Pages: CRUD pages under Pages/ (e.g., ListPosts.aspx, EditPost.aspx)
  • Authentication: Forms authentication via ~/Pages/Login.aspx
  • Data access: Uses the same DataEntities EDMX connection
• Config: Web.config includes DataEntities EF connection and auth settings

es.data (Data Layer)

• Type: Class Library (Entity Framework, Database-First)
• Purpose: Define data model and repository for EchoStream
• Key components:
  • EDMX model: Entities such as Post, Category, User
  • Repositories: DataHandlers namespace implementing CRUD methods
• Usage: Referenced by both es.view and es.admin solutions

Prerequisites

• Visual Studio Community 2022 (ASP.NET and web development workloads)
• Microsoft SQL Express for development (or Azure SQL for production)
• SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
• .NET Framework 4.7.2 SDK
• Entity Framework 6

Setup & Run

1. Clone the repo:

   git clone https://github.com/BenjaminDanker/EchoStream.git
   cd EchoStream

2. Open Solutions:

   • Launch es.data.sln, build to generate EF model classes
   • Launch es.admin.sln and es.view.sln
   • Run Update-Package Microsoft.CodeDom.Providers.DotNetCompilerPlatform -r in case of error

3. Configure connection strings in each Web.config:

   <connectionStrings>
     <add name="DefaultConnection"
          connectionString="Data Source=(LocalDb)\MSSQLLocalDB;Initial Catalog=EchoStreamDB;Integrated Security=True"
          providerName="System.Data.SqlClient" />
     <add name="DataEntities"
          connectionString="metadata=res://*/DataModel.csdl|res://*/DataModel.ssdl|res://*/DataModel.msl;provider=System.Data.SqlClient;provider connection string=\"Data Source=(LocalDb)\\MSSQLLocalDB;Initial Catalog=EchoStreamDB;Integrated Security=True;MultipleActiveResultSets=True\""
          providerName="System.Data.EntityClient" />
   </connectionStrings>

4. Ensure Database:

   • Create EchoStreamDB in SQL Server
   • Ensure schema matches EDMX (update model if needed using Visual Studio EDMX designer)

5. Run:

   • es.data: (class library) no execution
   • es.admin: Press F5, browse to /Pages/Login.aspx to access admin UI
   • es.view: Press F5, browse to / for the front-end SPA

Architecture Diagram

flowchart TD
    subgraph Solutions
      V[es.view: MVC Razor SPA front end]
      A[es.admin: WebForms Admin Portal]
      D[es.data: Entity Framework Data Layer]
    end
    V <--> D
    A <--> D

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graph LR
  User --> V[es.view]
  V --> API[API Controllers]
  API --> D[es.data]
  D --> SQL[(SQL Server)]
  AdminUser --> A[es.admin]
  A --> D

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Contributing

1. Fork and clone the repo
2. Create a feature branch: feature/YourFeature
3. Commit changes with clear messages
4. Push and open a Pull Request

License

MIT License. See LICENSE for details.