Single Layer Application Solution Template
Introduction
This template provides a simple solution structure with a single project. This document explains that solution structure in details.
The Difference Between the Application Solution Templates
ABP's Layered Application Solution Template provides a well-organized and layered solution to create maintainable business applications based on the Domain Driven Design (DDD) practices. However, some developers find this template a little bit complex for simple and short-term applications. The single-layer application template has been created to provide a simpler development model for such applications. This template has the same functionality, features and modules on runtime with the Layered Application Solution Template but the development model is minimal and everything is in a single project (.csproj
).
How to Start with It?
You can use the ABP CLI to create a new project using this startup template. Alternatively, you can generate a CLI command for this startup template from the Get Started page. In this section, we will use the ABP CLI.
Firstly, install the ABP CLI if you haven't installed it before:
dotnet tool install -g Volo.Abp.Studio.Cli
Then, use the abp new
command in an empty folder to create a new solution:
abp new Acme.BookStore -t app-nolayers
Acme.BookStore
is the solution name, like YourCompany.YourProduct. You can use single-level, two-level or three-level naming.- In this example, the
-t
(or--template
) option specifies the template name.
Specify the UI Framework
This template provides multiple UI frameworks:
mvc
: ASP.NET Core MVC UI with Razor Pages (default)blazor
: Blazor UIblazor-server
: Blazor Server UIangular
: Angular UInone
: Without UI (for HTTP API development)
Use the -u
(or --ui
) option to specify the UI framework while creating the solution:
abp new Acme.BookStore -t app-nolayers -u angular
This example specifies the UI type (the -u
option) as angular
. You can also specify mvc
, blazor
, blazor-server
or none
for the UI type.
Specify the Database Provider
This template supports the following database providers:
ef
: Entity Framework Core (default)mongodb
: MongoDB
Use the -d
(or --database-provider
) option to specify the database provider while creating the solution:
abp new Acme.BookStore -t app-nolayers -d mongodb
Solution Structure
If you don't specify any additional options while creating an app-nolayers
template, you will have a solution as shown below:
In the next sections, we will explain the structure based on this example. Your startup solution can be slightly different based on your preferences.
Folder Structure
Since this template provides a single-project solution, we've separated concerns into folders instead of projects. You can see the pre-defined folders as shown below:
- Define your database mappings (for EF Core or MongoDB and repositories in the
Data
folder. - Define your entities in the
Entities
folder. - Define your UI localization keys/values in the
Localization
folder. - Define your UI menu items in the
Menus
folder. - Define your object-to-object mapping classes in the
ObjectMapping
folder. - Define your UI pages (Razor Pages) in the
Pages
folder (createControllers
andViews
folder yourself if you prefer the MVC pattern). - Define your application services in the
Services
folder.
How to Run?
Before running the application, you need to create the database and seed the initial data. To do that, you can run the following command in the directory of your project (in the same folder of the .csproj
file):
dotnet run --migrate-database
This command will create the database and seed the initial data for you. Then you can run the application with any IDE that supports .NET or by running the dotnet run
command in the directory of your project. The default username is admin
and the password is 1q2w3E*
.
While creating a database & applying migrations seem only necessary for relational databases, you should run this command even if you choose a NoSQL database provider (like MongoDB). In that case, it still seeds the initial data which is necessary for the application.
The Angular UI
If you choose Angular
as the UI framework, the solution will be separated into two folders:
- An
angular
folder that contains the Angular UI application, the client-side code. - An
aspnet-core
folder that contains the ASP.NET Core solution (a single project), the server-side code.
The server-side is similar to the solution described in the Solution Structure section above. This project serves the API, so the Angular application can consume it.
The client-side application consumes the HTTP APIs as mentioned. You can see the folder structure of the Angular project shown below: