Quick Start
This is a single-part quick-start tutorial to build a simple todo application with the ABP Framework. Here's a screenshot from the final application:
You can find the source code of the completed application here.
Pre-Requirements
- An IDE (e.g. Visual Studio) that supports .NET 6.0+ development.
- Node v14.x
Creating a New Solution
In this tutorial, we will use the ABP CLI to create the sample application with the ABP Framework. You can run the following command in a command-line terminal to install the ABP CLI, if you haven't installed it yet:
dotnet tool install -g Volo.Abp.Cli
Then create an empty folder, open a command-line terminal and execute the following command in the terminal:
abp new TodoApp -t app-nolayers -u blazor-server
This will create a new solution with a single project, named TodoApp. Once the solution is ready, open it in your favorite IDE.
Create the Database
You can run the following command in the root directory of your project (in the same folder of the .csproj
file) to create the database and seed the initial data:
dotnet run --migrate-database
This command will create the database and seed the initial data for you. Then you can run the application.
Run the Application
It is good to run the application before starting the development. Running the application is pretty straight-forward, you can run the application with any IDE that supports .NET or by running the dotnet run
CLI command in the directory of your project:
You can click on the Login button and use admin
as the username and 1q2w3E*
as the password to login to the application.
All right. We can start coding!
Defining the Entity
This application will have a single entity and we can start by creating it. So, create a new TodoItem
class under the Entities
folder of the project:
using Volo.Abp.Domain.Entities;
namespace TodoApp.Entities;
public class TodoItem : BasicAggregateRoot<Guid>
{
public string Text { get; set; }
}
BasicAggregateRoot
is the simplest base class to create root entities, and Guid
is the primary key (Id
) of the entity here.
Database Integration
Next step is to setup the Entity Framework Core configuration.
Mapping Configuration
Open the TodoAppDbContext
class (in the Data
folder) and add a new DbSet
property to this class:
public DbSet<TodoItem> TodoItems { get; set; }
Then navigate to the OnModelCreating
method in the same class and add the following mapping code for the TodoItem
entity:
protected override void OnModelCreating(ModelBuilder builder)
{
base.OnModelCreating(builder);
/* Include modules to your migration db context */
builder.ConfigurePermissionManagement();
...
/* Configure your own tables/entities inside here */
builder.Entity<TodoItem>(b =>
{
b.ToTable("TodoItems");
});
}
We've mapped the TodoItem
entity to the TodoItems
table in the database. The next step is to create a migration and apply the changes to the database.
Code First Migrations
The startup solution is configured to use Entity Framework Core Code First Migrations. Since we've changed the database mapping configuration, we should create a new migration and apply changes to the database.
Open a command-line terminal in the root directory of your project and type the following command:
dotnet ef migrations add Added_TodoItem
This will add a new migration class to the project. You should see the new migration in the Migrations
folder:
Then, you can apply changes to the database using the following command, in the same command-line terminal:
dotnet ef database update
After the database integrations, now we can start to create application service methods and implement our use-cases.
Creating the Application Service
An application service is used to perform the use cases of the application. We need to perform the following use cases in this application:
- Get the list of the todo items
- Create a new todo item
- Delete an existing todo item
Before starting to implement these use cases, first we need to create a DTO class that will be used in the application service.
Creating the Data Transfer Object (DTO)
Application services typically get and return DTOs (Data Transfer Objects) instead of entities. So, create a new TodoItemDto
class under the Services/Dtos
folder:
namespace TodoApp.Services.Dtos;
public class TodoItemDto
{
public Guid Id { get; set; }
public string Text { get; set; }
}
This is a very simple DTO class that has the same properties as the TodoItem
entity. Now, we are ready to implement our use-cases.
The Application Service Implementation
Create a TodoAppService
class under the Services
folder of your project, as shown below:
using TodoApp.Entities;
using Volo.Abp.Application.Services;
using Volo.Abp.Domain.Repositories;
namespace TodoApp.Services;
public class TodoAppService : ApplicationService
{
private readonly IRepository<TodoItem, Guid> _todoItemRepository;
public TodoAppService(IRepository<TodoItem, Guid> todoItemRepository)
{
_todoItemRepository = todoItemRepository;
}
// TODO: Implement the methods here...
}
This class inherits from the ApplicationService
class of the ABP Framework and implements our use-cases. ABP provides default generic repositories for the entities. We can use them to perform the fundamental database operations. This class injects IRepository<TodoItem, Guid>
, which is the default repository for the TodoItem
entity. We will use it to implement our use cases.
Getting the Todo Items
Let's start by implementing the GetListAsync
method, which is used to get a list of todo items:
public async Task<List<TodoItemDto>> GetListAsync()
{
var items = await _todoItemRepository.GetListAsync();
return items
.Select(item => new TodoItemDto
{
Id = item.Id,
Text = item.Text
}).ToList();
}
We are simply getting the TodoItem
list from the repository, mapping them to the TodoItemDto
objects and returning as the result.
Creating a New Todo Item
The next method is CreateAsync
and we can implement it as shown below:
public async Task<TodoItemDto> CreateAsync(string text)
{
var todoItem = await _todoItemRepository.InsertAsync(
new TodoItem {Text = text}
);
return new TodoItemDto
{
Id = todoItem.Id,
Text = todoItem.Text
};
}
The repository's InsertAsync
method inserts the given TodoItem
to the database and returns the same TodoItem
object. It also sets the Id
, so we can use it on the returning object. We are simply returning a TodoItemDto
by creating from the new TodoItem
entity.
Deleting a Todo Item
Finally, we can implement the DeleteAsync
as the following code block:
public async Task DeleteAsync(Guid id)
{
await _todoItemRepository.DeleteAsync(id);
}
The application service is ready to be used from the UI layer. So, let's implement it.
User Interface
It is time to show the todo items on the UI! Before starting to write the code, it would be good to remember what we are trying to build. Here's a sample screenshot from the final UI:
Index.razor.cs
Open the Index.razor.cs
file in the Pages
folder and replace the content with the following code block:
using Microsoft.AspNetCore.Components;
using TodoApp.Services;
using TodoApp.Services.Dtos;
namespace TodoApp.Pages;
public partial class Index
{
[Inject]
private TodoAppService TodoAppService { get; set; }
private List<TodoItemDto> TodoItems { get; set; } = new List<TodoItemDto>();
private string NewTodoText { get; set; }
protected override async Task OnInitializedAsync()
{
TodoItems = await TodoAppService.GetListAsync();
}
private async Task Create()
{
var result = await TodoAppService.CreateAsync(NewTodoText);
TodoItems.Add(result);
NewTodoText = null;
}
private async Task Delete(TodoItemDto todoItem)
{
await TodoAppService.DeleteAsync(todoItem.Id);
await Notify.Info("Deleted the todo item.");
TodoItems.Remove(todoItem);
}
}
This class uses the TodoAppService
to get the list of todo items. It manipulates the TodoItems
list after create and delete operations. This way, we don't need to refresh the whole todo list from the server.
Index.razor
Open the Index.razor
file in the Pages
folder and replace the content with the following code block:
@page "/"
@inherits TodoAppComponentBase
<div class="container">
<Card>
<CardHeader>
<CardTitle>
TODO LIST
</CardTitle>
</CardHeader>
<CardBody>
<!-- FORM FOR NEW TODO ITEMS -->
<form id="NewItemForm" @onsubmit:preventDefault @onsubmit="() => Create()" class="row row-cols-lg-auto g-3 align-items-center">
<div class="col-12">
<div class="input-group">
<input name="NewTodoText" type="text" @bind-value="@NewTodoText" class="form-control" placeholder="enter text..." />
</div>
</div>
<div class="col-12">
<button type="submit" class="btn btn-primary">Submit</button>
</div>
</form>
<!-- TODO ITEMS LIST -->
<ul id="TodoList">
@foreach (var todoItem in TodoItems)
{
<li data-id="@todoItem.Id">
<i class="far fa-trash-alt"
@onclick="() => Delete(todoItem)"></i>
@todoItem.Text
</li>
}
</ul>
</CardBody>
</Card>
</div>
Index.razor.css
As the final touch, open the Index.razor.css
file in the Pages
folder and replace it with the following content:
#TodoList{
list-style: none;
margin: 0;
padding: 0;
}
#TodoList li {
padding: 5px;
margin: 5px 0px;
border: 1px solid #cccccc;
background-color: #f5f5f5;
}
#TodoList li i
{
opacity: 0.5;
}
#TodoList li i:hover
{
opacity: 1;
color: #ff0000;
cursor: pointer;
}
This is a simple styling for the todo page. We believe that you can do much better :)
Now, you can run the application again to see the result.
Conclusion
In this tutorial, we've built a very simple application to warm up with the ABP Framework.
Source Code
You can find the source code of the completed application here.
See Also
- Check the Web Application Development Tutorial to see a real-life web application development in a layered architecture using the Application Startup Template.