ASP.NET Core WebAPI Clean Architecture

ASP.NET Core WebAPI – Clean Architecture​

  • by Mukesh Murugan

ASP.NET Core WebAPI – Clean Architecture​ is a Solution Template that is built with Loosely-Coupled and Inverted-Dependency/Onion Architecture along with other essential integrations.

Features
  • Onion Architecture
  • CQRS with MediatR Library
  • Entity Framework Core – Code First
  • Repository Pattern – Generic
  • MediatR Pipeline Logging & Validation
  • Serilog
  • Swagger UI
  • Response Wrappers
  • Healthchecks
  • Pagination
  • Microsoft Identity with JWT Authentication
  • Role based Authorization
  • Database Seeding
  • Custom Exception Handling Middleware.
  • API Versioning
  • Complete User Management Module (Register / Generate Token / Forgot Password / Confirmation Mail)

The Problem this Project Solves

Does it really make sense to Setup your ASP.NET Core Solution everytime you start a new WebApi Project ? Aren’t we wasting quite a lot of time in doing this over and over gain?

This is the exact Problem that I intend to solve with this Full-Fledged ASP.NET Core 3.1 WebApi Solution Template, that also follows various principles of Clean Architecture.

The primary goal is to create a Full-Fledged implementation, that is well documented along with the steps taken to build this Solution from Scratch. This Solution Template will also be available within Visual Studio 2019 (by installing the required Nuget Package / Extension).

  • Demonstrate Clean Monolith Architecture in ASP.NET Core 3.1
  • This is not a Proof of Concept
  • Implementation that is ready for Production
  • Integrate the most essential libraries and packages
 

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I am currently working on a newer version of this Clean Architecture project which is on .NET 6 and has even more advanced features like Multitenancy support out of the box. Feel free to check it out!

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Clean Architecture with ASP.NET Core 3.1 WebApi - Swagger

ASP.NET Core 3.1 Web API

This is a Standalone ASP.NET Core WebAPI Solution with multiple Layers of Abstraction. The Library Projects are build on .NET Core 3.1 Libraries / .NET Standard 2.1 Libraries.

One-Click Install

This Project comes with a Visual Studio 2019 Solution Template that allows you to start new Projects using the Clean Architecture for WebAPI with ease. That’s a lot of time saved!

Open Source

This Project is licensed under MIT License, which means it is FREE to use , distribute. Feel free to contribute to this project as well. Let’s make this The Best Ever Template for ASP.NET Core 3.1 WebApi!

Everything is done for you.

Get the Complete Source Code of this Project here. Feel free to contribute as well. The Steps to get started are mentioned in the next section.

Download VS2019 Extension

Why ASP.NET Core WebAPI – Clean Architecture?

While getting started with this Project, I could not find any Clean Architecture implementation that is specifically built for ASP.NET Core 3.1 WebAPI.

Starting with a Clean Architecture in quite Important for the lifetime of your applications. You really don’t want to re-engineer you solutions half-way down the development stages, do you?

Releases

Every Major Update will be tagged as versioned Release. Included Features and Changes will be made available within the Release Pages.

Prerequisites

  • Make sure you are running on the latest .NET Core SDK (SDK 3.1 and above only). Get the latest one here.
  • Visual Studio 2019 ( You can check out my Installation Guide of Visual Studio 2019 Community which is completely Free to use.) Make sure that ASP.NET and web development workload is installed.
  • Install the latest DOTNET & EF CLI Tools by using this command – dotnet tool install –global dotnet-ef 
  • I Recommend that you read Onion Architecture In ASP.NET Core With CQRS – Detailed article to understand this implementation much better. This project is just an Advanced Version of the mentioned article.
  • Once you clear with Onion Architecture Implementation, you will also need to be aware of CQRS MediatR Pattern. I have written a step-by-step guide on how to implement CQRS using MediatR Library. Read it here.

Getting Started

To get started / check out this Boiler Plate Template for Clean Architecture with ASP.NET Core WebApi, there are quite a few ways. Let’s go through them,

1. Using the Visual Studio Project Template

Download the Visual Studio Project Template from Visual Studio Marketplace from here – https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=MukeshMurugan.CleanArchitectureWebApi

 
cleanArchitecture MarketPlace

Once Installed, Open Visual Studio and Create a New Project. You get to see our newly installed template. Use this Template to Create a new Project.

cleanArchitecture VisualStudio

I created a new Project with the Name, “PointOfSales.Basic”. Here is the Solution Structure that Visual Studio sets up for you. It’s that easy.

cleanArchitecture FolderStructure

After Visual Studio downloads the required packages, all you have to do is to open up appsettings.json, modify your connection string. With that done, Open up Package Manager Console and run the following commands.

update-database -Context IdentityContext
update-database -Context ApplicationDbContext

That’s it. Now Build and Run your New Application!

Clean Architecture with ASP.NET Core 3.1 WebApi - Swagger

2. Or, you can clone the Source Code

 

Navigate to the Project Repository – https://github.com/iammukeshm/CleanArchitecture.WebApi

Click on the Code -> Download ZIP, as mentioned below. This will download the entire source code for you locally to your machine (OR) Download the Latest Release from here.

Clean Architecture with ASP.NET Core WebApi

Extract the Zip file and navigate to the Root of the WebAPI Project (Not the Solution File). In this directory, open up Power Shell and run the following commands.

Before proceeding do not forget to open up the appsettings.json and change the connection strings / email settings and so on. Note that you can use separation connection strings for both Identity and Application!

dotnet restore
dotnet ef database update -Context ApplicationDbContext
dotnet ef database update -Context IdentityContext
dotnet run (OR) Run the Solution using Visual Studio 2019

When you run the application, Swagger Opens up. Here you can find the available endpoint.

Folder Structure

Here is how the Solution Folder Looks like.

clean architecture webapi folder structure

1. Core

The Core Layers will never depend on any other layer. Therefore what we do is that we create interfaces in the Application Layer and these interfaces get implemented in the external layers. This is also known and DIP or Dependency Inversion Principle.

It is also important to note that these layers are .NET Standard 2.1 Libraries. This is so because we need to make these layers as comptatible as possible with other projects. Let’s say tommorow your client wants a .NET 4.7 Solutions (quite unlikely though) with the near-same business logics. At such scenarios, .NET Standard Libraries will be of great help.

1.1 Domain

All the Entities and the most common models are available here. Note that this Layer will NEVER depend on anything else.

1.2 Application

Interfaces, CQRS Features, Exceptions, Behaviors are available here.

 

2. Infrastructure

Whenever there is a requirement to communicate with an external source, we implement it on the Infrastructure Layer. For example, Database or other Services will be included here. To make the separation more visible, We will maintain further sub projects with the naming convention as ‘Infrastructure.xxxxxx’ where xxxxxx is the actual Point of Concern.

2.1 Infrastructure.Identity

In this implementation, we will make use of the already AWESOME Microsoft Identity. Let’s seperate the User Managment Database from the Main Application Database. This is made possible by multiple – DbContext Classes in each of the required Infrastructure Project

2.2 Infrastructure.Persistence

An Application Specific Database will be maintained. This is to ensure that there is no relation between the DBContext classes of Application and the Identity.

2.3 Infrastructure.Shared

Now, there are some services that are common to the other Infrastructure Layers and has the possibility of use in nearly all the Infrastructure Layers. This includes Mail Service, Date Time Service and so on. Thus it is a better Idea to have a shared Infrastructure project as well.

3. WebApi

This is also known as the Presentation Layer, where you would put in the project that the user can interact with. In our case it is the WebAPI Project.

Support the Project

Your small contribution can help support the project and motivate me to make frequent updates to this Open Source Project. If you find this Project helpful or you learnt something from here, consider supporting.

Did you like this content? Found this article helpful? Consider Supporting by buying me a coffee.

Buy me a coffee  Buy me a coffee

Also, Leave a Star / Review on
Github – https://github.com/iammukeshm/CleanArchitecture.WebApi
Visual Studio Marketplace – https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=MukeshMurugan.CleanArchitectureWebApi

This would help me reach this project to the eyes of many more developers around the world! Thanks

Additional Resources

  • Onion Architecture In ASP.NET Core With CQRS – Detailed – We will talk about Onion Architecture In ASP.NET Core and it’s advantages. We will also together build a WebApi that follows a variant of Onion Architecture so that we get to see why it is important to implement such an architecture in your upcoming projects. 
  • CQRS with MediatR in ASP.NET Core 3.1 – Ultimate Guide – Let’s talk about CQRS in ASP.NET Core 3.1 and it’s implementation along with MediatR and Entity Framework Core – Code First Approach. I will implement this pattern on a WebApi Project. The source code of this sample is linked at the end of the post. Of the several design patterns available, CQRS is one of the most commonly used patterns that helps architect the Solution to accommodate the Onion Architecture.

Credits

There are a lot of References that I had taken in-order to build up this Solution. Few of them are Jason Taylor, Steve Smith , Nick, and many more. The eShop Repository Series of Microsoft has helped quite a lot.

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118 Comments

    1. Hi Arthur,

      First step, check what the issue is .
      add-migration Added_something -verbose

      Run this command on package manager console. It will pinpoint you to the issue. From there you can debug the issue.
      However, i think this issue is because you have not set the default project properly.
      1. Set API Project as the Staryup project.
      2. Open up package manager console.
      3. There you can see a small dropdown for default project. Choose the project where the specific context class lives.
      Run this then,

      add-migration migration_name -Context IdentityContext

      Try this and let me know.

      Thanks and regards

      Reply

      1. Very interesting, how will you make .net standard libs to work with .net framework 4.7 if 2.1 is not supported even by .net framework 4.8…

        Reply

  3. hi mukesh,
    i really appreciate you. can you please work on multi tenant based architectures also. that would be so great. takecare

    Reply

  4. Can you also add a new template for ASP.Net core Web Api Including these
    Onion Architecture
    CQRS with MediatR Library
    Dapper (Instead of Entity Framework Core – Code First)
    Dommel
    Repository Pattern – Generic
    MediatR Pipeline Logging & Validation
    Serilog or Nlog
    Swagger UI
    Response Wrappers
    Healthchecks
    Pagination
    Redis Caching
    In-Memory Database
    Microsoft Identity with JWT Authentication
    Role based Authorization
    Custom Exception Handling Middlewares
    API Versioning
    Fluent Validation
    Fluent mapper
    SMPT / Mailkit / Sendgrid Email Service
    Complete User Management Module (Register / Generate Token / Forgot Password / Confirmation Mail)

    Reply

    1. Hi, Thanks for reaching out.

      Yes, I am already working on adding Dapper to this Solution as new Infrastructure Layer, so that you easily switch the ORM whenever you want. Just working on the architecture part.

      Dommel? Have not heard about. Will give it a look though. Will have to check out Fluent Mapper too.

      NLOG/Serilog will be integrated soon.

      Thanks,
      Hope you liked the implementation.

      Reply

      1. Thanks Mukesh ,
        I really loved the architecture that you have created.
        The only point where i am stuck is using Dapper since i also have SQL stored procedure and for me to implement SP’s are from dapper.

        Regards
        Aarun

        Reply

        1. Hi, Thanks for your feedback.
          You can easily add Dapper in the Infrastructure Layer, by adding a new Infrastructure Project named Infrastructure.Persistence.Dapper or something, and have your dapper implementations there. However, in the next version of this Architecture (v1.1) , I am planning to add this option as well, where users can switch between the ORM.

          Regards

          Reply

          2. Good Work Mukesk!

            I’m expecting on Dapper implementation or Could you guide me by presenting an article for Implementing Dapper Identity at-least.

            Thanks
            Prabhakar

          3. Hi, Thanks for the feedback.
            Dapper with Identity can be a bit complicated. I will try to write an article on with along with complete source. Maybe that could help you out as well. Will keep you posted.
            Regards

  5. Hi, that is a very interesting architecture.

    Just a quick question:
    I always use the same context for the application and identity, so I can use a join when I want to get the user information that is linked in a entity.
    How would that work in this scenario? I would have to do 2 queries?

    Reply

    1. Hi, yes.In cases where you actually need data from the Identity table, you would have to use both these contexts in your call. I guess it is like adding a bit more security and a cleaner separation. However I am still in the process of making this architecture simple and logical to use. What are your thoughts?

      Reply

      1. I think this may lead to some performance issues.
        For example, if I want to get a list of products with the name of the user that created it I would have to get the list of products, and for each product do a query to get the name of the user.

        I can think of two solutions:
        – Put the ApplicationUser in the ApplicationDbContext as well, as it allows foreign keys for another schemas (at least in SQL Server)
        – Or create another user table in the ApplicationDbContext containing only the necessary information (name, email, etc) so it does not expose all the user data to the application

        Reply

        1. What about using a store procedure to fetch the data accross databases? In that case we need to add the GUID of the user in AuditableBaseEntity to store it in the Products table and then join with that in the SP. It is a good practice?

          Reply

    1. It’s almost done. The documentation is pending. Will release it by this weekend hopefully, along with the Solution Template which will be available on the Visual Studio Market Place 😀
      Regards

      Reply

  7. Only one question Mukesh, for the database seeding, do you know Bogus? Do you consider it as a good option to use with EF Core?
    Thanks again.

    Reply

    1. Yes, Bogus is good option if you want to generate bulk sample data for testing purposes and seed it with efcore. But I think it might be an overkill in this scenario. The ultimate aim is to reduce the number of dependencies. When we can do the essential seeding in code, i really don’t see the need to use bogus. But this is quite a scenario specific requirement.

      Reply

      1. You are right Mukesh. For this reason I’m waiting your solution for seeding in code. It will be interesting to seed more than one related entities to see how to seed the relations between them.
        Thanks again

        Reply

  9. Thank you very much for sharing this great project.
    I installed the extension and create a new project and every thing is fine, but when i run the project as https://localhost:41112/swagger
    it show this error “This site can’t be reached”
    Did i missed some thing.
    Again thank you very much

    Reply

      1. Hello Mukeshbhai,

        I have used setup your application.
        While running as Kestrel it getting exception without any details error.

        The webpage at https://localhost:9001/
        might be temporarily down or it may have moved permanently to a new web address.

        Can you suggest to find real error logs behind this error?

        Thanks and regards

        Reply

        1. Hi, as mentioned earlier, Kindly change the port settings of your WebAPI Application. This error usually occurs with a misconfigured IIS / Kestrel and used Ports. Try to change your ports from WebApi -> Properties -> launchsettings.json. Here change both application URL and SSL Port . That should fix it.

          Regards

          Reply

          1. Hello Mukesh,

            I changed the application URL and SSL port. Also I switched to Kestrel to run the application. Still, I am getting This site can’t be reached error.

      2. Hi,
        When i switch to kestrel that working.
        When i public to IIS local that not working.
        Issue:
        WRN] Unable to bind to https://localhost:5001 on the IPv4 loopback interface: ‘An attempt was made to access a socket in a way forbidden by its access permissions.’.
        2021-01-21 22:08:23.411 +07:00 [WRN] Unable to bind to https://localhost:5001 on the IPv6 loopback interface: ‘An attempt was made to access a socket in a way forbidden by its access permissions.’.
        2021-01-21 22:08:23.414 +07:00 [FTL] Unable to start Kestrel.
        System.IO.IOException: Failed to bind to address https://localhost:5001.
        —> System.AggregateException: One or more errors occurred. (An attempt was made to access a socket in a way forbidden by its access permissions.) (An attempt was made to access a socket in a way forbidden by its access permissions.)
        —> System.Net.Sockets.SocketException (10013): An attempt was made to access a socket in a way forbidden by its access permissions.
        at System.Net.Sockets.Socket.UpdateStatusAfterSocketErrorAndThrowException(SocketError error, String callerName)
        at System.Net.Sockets.Socket.DoBind(EndPoint endPointSnapshot, SocketAddress socketAddress)
        at System.Net.Sockets.Socket.Bind(EndPoint localEP)

        Reply

  10. Thank You, Mukesh, Just install extension – it’s working fine, Can you add 1 more entity like Product Category and return the product list with category name.

    Reply

  12. Hi Mukesh, I just trying to consume Authenticate API. But the response comes correctly. but when I try to get in the AuthenticationResponse DTO class. that time data come to null. I think something is required on following line

    var returnUser = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject(responseBody);

    Can you please help – where I am wrong.

    Full code:-
    public async Task ValidateUser()
    {
    HttpClient = new HttpClient();
    string serializedUser = JsonConvert.SerializeObject(user);
    HttpRequestMessage httpRequestMessage = new HttpRequestMessage();
    httpRequestMessage.Method = new HttpMethod(“POST”);
    httpRequestMessage.RequestUri = new Uri(“https://localhost:9001/api/Account/authenticate”);
    httpRequestMessage.Content = new StringContent(serializedUser);
    httpRequestMessage.Content.Headers.ContentType
    = new System.Net.Http.Headers.MediaTypeHeaderValue(“application/json”);

    // var response=await HttpClient.SendAsync(httpRequestMessage);
    HttpResponseMessage response = HttpClient.SendAsync(httpRequestMessage).Result;
    var responseStatusCode = response.StatusCode;
    var responseBody = response.Content.ReadAsStringAsync().Result;
    // AuthenticationResponse authenticationResponse = new AuthenticationResponse();
    if (responseStatusCode.ToString()==”OK”)
    {

    var returnUser = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject(responseBody);

    ((CustomeAuthenticationProvider)AuthenticationStateProvider)
    .MarkUserAsAuthenticated(user.Email);
    NavigationManager.NavigateTo(“/”);
    await SessionStorage.SetItemAsync(“email”, user.Email);
    //await SessionStorage.SetItemAsync(“token”, authenticationResponse.JWToken);
    }

    Response

    {
    “succeeded”: true,
    “message”: “Authenticated xyz@gmail.com“,
    “errors”: null,
    “data”: {
    “id”: “4f3cbcea-fcfc-42c0-940a-0e26f0323301”,
    “userName”: “xyz@gmail.com”,
    “email”: “xyz@gmail.com”,
    “roles”: [
    “Basic”
    ],
    “isVerified”: true,
    “jwToken”: “xxxx”
    }
    }

    Reply

  13. Hi Mikesh, awesome work. Learned a lot by using your code, since I am a beginner in C#.

    Shouldn’t there be a parameter in the PagedResponse that tells, how many pages the response has? Otherwise it will be hard to implement a client.

    Regards

    Reply

  14. Hi Mukesh, thanks a lot for the hard work. I’m also just a beginner in C# that’s been learning by going through your code. I’m currently trying to deploy this to Heroku with ClearDB mySql but I also wanted to be able to keep using local sql server with microsoft management studio so I tried changing the usesqlserver code to usemysql using pomelo as a provider if there was a database url environment variable and parsing my ClearDB database url to connection string to use it. However, when I auto generate migrations after deploying to Heroku using exec commands in webapi.csproj with dotnet ef update database –context ApplicationDbContext and IdentityContext, it tells me that there is wrong SQL syntax. Generating it locally after deleting migrations folder also still has sql server in it. Is there a nice and clean way to do this or completely move to mysql to use remote db?

    Reply

  15. Hi, thank you for this. Is it correct to assume that the WebApi project can also be replaced with a normal MVC project?

    Reply

    1. Yes, I am planning. But do not have much of other features in the TODO list. Do you have any other suggestions. In a month or so , I am thinking to build another similar project but with AdminLTE + IS4 + MVC/Razor + Hangfire. Any Suggestion? Thanks

      Reply

  19. Hi, thanks for sharing, is there I need to config. call ILogger.loginformation(“error”) doesn’t log in file and console.

    Reply

      1. In Email service;
        public ILogger _logger { get; }

        public EmailService(IOptions mailSettings,ILogger logger)
        {
        _mailSettings = mailSettings.Value;
        _logger = logger;
        _logger.LogInformation(“Test log”);
        }

        “Test log” doesn’t display in console or in file.

        Reply

  20. Hi Mukesh, Thanks for this great architecture. I noticed that due to the routing & versioning done from BaseApiController, developer cannot change the controller name in the route from the actual controller level.

    Is there any way of doing so? Or I need to remove the BaseApiController to implement this?

    For example, I want the UserProfileController to be called as “/api/v1/user-profile/” rather than being called as “/api/v1/UserProfile”.

    If possible, please respond asap. 🙂

    Reply

    1. Hi, I had placed it in the BaseAPI Controller because you don’t have to worry about it everytime you create a new API. Yes, alternatively you can remove the inheritance from BaseAPIController and switch back to the default ControllerBase for your new APIs. This way you can have your own custom routes.

      Regards

      Reply

  21. How to handle API response if user token expired ( unauthorised )?

    If token expired then how it would handle? currently it throwing below error message.

    Microsoft.IdentityModel.Tokens.SecurityTokenExpiredException: IDX10223: Lifetime validation failed. The token is expired. ValidTo: ‘System.DateTime’, Current time: ‘System.DateTime’.
    at Microsoft.IdentityModel.Tokens.Validators.ValidateLifetime(Nullable`1 notBefore, Nullable`1 expires, SecurityToken securityToken, TokenValidationParameters validationParameters)
    at System.IdentityModel.Tokens.Jwt.JwtSecurityTokenHandler.ValidateLifetime(Nullable`1 notBefore, Nullable`1 expires, JwtSecurityToken jwtToken, TokenValidationParameters validationParameters)
    at System.IdentityModel.Tokens.Jwt.JwtSecurityTokenHandler.ValidateTokenPayload(JwtSecurityToken jwtToken, TokenValidationParameters validationParameters)
    at System.IdentityModel.Tokens.Jwt.JwtSecurityTokenHandler.ValidateToken(String token, TokenValidationParameters validationParameters, SecurityToken& validatedToken)
    at Microsoft.AspNetCore.Authentication.JwtBearer.JwtBearerHandler.HandleAuthenticateAsync()

    Share your thought.
    Thank you.

    Reply

  22. Hello Mukesh, Thanks for the great article and extension. Is there an example of authorizing an endpoint based on the user roles. Also would the future updates include refresh token endpoint ?

    Reply

    1. Refresh tokens are already included in the application partly. But yeah, it will be included in the upcoming update for sure. About your first question, authorizing based on user role is pretty straight forward. Just have a [Authorize(Roles=”SuperAdmin”)] attribute over the required controller / action method.

      Regards

      Reply

      1. Hi Mukesh,

        We are still waiting for your refresh token implementation with Identity User.
        Are there any plan to update with?

        Reply

  23. Thanks in advance,
    Hi Mukesh Can you tell how i use ApplicationUser entity id property under Infrastructure.Identity in Core.Domain enitty

    Reply

  25. Hello Mukesh,

    I learned a lot from this, thanks a lot.

    I do have a query, I have installed the template but I’m not sure what I should do in order to create a new table? I’ve gone through the simpler tutorial but whenever I hit update database command, the model isn’t getting generated in the database.

    Thanks!

    Reply

  26. Hi Mukesh,

    I’m also just a beginner in C# so

    Do you have any sample Web Project using this API for Authentication ?

    Best regards

    Reply

    1. Hi Mukesh,

      I just trying to consume Authenticate API. The response comes correctly. but when I always get @User.Identity.Name a= NULL.

      Here is my code to get authentication from api, please help me – where I am wrong?

      // In Http service to call api

      public async Task<Response> AuthenticateAsync(AuthenticationRequest request, string ipAddress)
      {
      var json = JsonConvert.SerializeObject(request);
      var httpContent = new StringContent(json, Encoding.UTF8, “application/json”);
      var client = _httpClientFactory.CreateClient();
      client.BaseAddress = new Uri(_configuration[“BaseAddress”]);
      var httpResponse = await client.PostAsync(“/api/Account/authenticate”, httpContent);
      string jsonData = await httpResponse.Content.ReadAsStringAsync();
      return JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<Response>(jsonData);

      }

      // In MVC Web app AccountController

      public async Task Login(LoginViewModel model, string returnUrl = null)
      {

      ……
      var request = new AuthenticationRequest();
      request.Email = model.Email;
      request.Password = model.Password;
      var result = await _accountService.AuthenticateAsync(request, null);

      if (result.Succeeded)
      {
      var userPrincipal = this.ValidateToken(result.Data.JWToken);
      var authProperties = new AuthenticationProperties
      {
      ExpiresUtc = DateTimeOffset.UtcNow.AddMinutes(10),
      IsPersistent = false
      };

      HttpContext.Session.SetString(SystemConstants.AppSettings.DefaultLanguageId, _configuration[SystemConstants.AppSettings.DefaultLanguageId]);
      HttpContext.Session.SetString(SystemConstants.AppSettings.Token, result.Data.JWToken);
      await HttpContext.SignInAsync(
      CookieAuthenticationDefaults.AuthenticationScheme,
      userPrincipal,
      authProperties);
      return RedirectToLocal(returnUrl);
      }
      else
      {
      ModelState.AddModelError(string.Empty, result.Message);
      return View(model);
      }
      }

      private ClaimsPrincipal ValidateToken(string jwtToken)
      {
      IdentityModelEventSource.ShowPII = true;

      SecurityToken validatedToken;

      TokenValidationParameters validationParameters = new TokenValidationParameters();
      validationParameters.ValidateLifetime = true;
      validationParameters.ValidAudience = _configuration[“Tokens:Audience”];
      validationParameters.ValidIssuer = _configuration[“Tokens:Issuer”];
      validationParameters.IssuerSigningKey = new SymmetricSecurityKey(Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(_configuration[“Tokens:Key”]));

      ClaimsPrincipal principal = new JwtSecurityTokenHandler().ValidateToken(jwtToken, validationParameters, out validatedToken);

      return principal;
      }

      Reply

  28. Hi Mukesh,

    Great and easy to follow architecture layout. Just a quick question, If I want to add database project to the solution, which layer does it go to?

    Reply

  29. Wow! Hi Mukesh,

    Great work man and I was having so much trouble especially with Role Management. Can I suggest the idea of developing a Blog project?

    I have always wanted to do one just don’t know where to start

    Reply

  30. Hi Mukesh,

    I just trying to consume Authenticate API. The response comes correctly. but when I try to get username in view by using @User.Identity.Name, data come to null.

    Here is my code, please help – where I am wrong ?

    // In Http service to call api

    public async Task<Response> AuthenticateAsync(AuthenticationRequest request, string ipAddress)
    {
    var json = JsonConvert.SerializeObject(request);
    var httpContent = new StringContent(json, Encoding.UTF8, “application/json”);
    var client = _httpClientFactory.CreateClient();
    client.BaseAddress = new Uri(_configuration[“BaseAddress”]);
    var httpResponse = await client.PostAsync(“/api/Account/authenticate”, httpContent);
    string jsonData = await httpResponse.Content.ReadAsStringAsync();
    return JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<Response>(jsonData);
    }

    // In MVC Web app AccountController

    public async Task Login(LoginViewModel model, string returnUrl = null)
    {

    ……
    var request = new AuthenticationRequest();
    request.Email = model.Email;
    request.Password = model.Password;
    var result = await _accountService.AuthenticateAsync(request, null);

    if (result.Succeeded)
    {
    var userPrincipal = this.ValidateToken(result.Data.JWToken);
    var authProperties = new AuthenticationProperties
    {
    ExpiresUtc = DateTimeOffset.UtcNow.AddMinutes(10),
    IsPersistent = false
    };

    HttpContext.Session.SetString(SystemConstants.AppSettings.DefaultLanguageId, _configuration[SystemConstants.AppSettings.DefaultLanguageId]);
    HttpContext.Session.SetString(SystemConstants.AppSettings.Token, result.Data.JWToken);
    await HttpContext.SignInAsync(
    CookieAuthenticationDefaults.AuthenticationScheme,
    userPrincipal,
    authProperties);
    return RedirectToLocal(returnUrl);
    }
    else
    {
    ModelState.AddModelError(string.Empty, result.Message);
    return View(model);
    }
    }

    private ClaimsPrincipal ValidateToken(string jwtToken)
    {
    IdentityModelEventSource.ShowPII = true;

    SecurityToken validatedToken;

    TokenValidationParameters validationParameters = new TokenValidationParameters();
    validationParameters.ValidateLifetime = true;
    validationParameters.ValidAudience = _configuration[“Tokens:Audience”];
    validationParameters.ValidIssuer = _configuration[“Tokens:Issuer”];
    validationParameters.IssuerSigningKey = new SymmetricSecurityKey(Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(_configuration[“Tokens:Key”]));

    ClaimsPrincipal principal = new JwtSecurityTokenHandler().ValidateToken(jwtToken, validationParameters, out validatedToken);

    return principal;
    }

    Reply

  31. Hi Mukesh,
    I just trying to consume Authenticate API. But when I get ClaimsPrincipal for Cookie Authentication in MVC web, @User.Identity.Name is null,

    Please help me . Below is my code:

    // in AccountController

    private ClaimsPrincipal GetPrincipal(string token)
    {
    try
    {
    var tokenHandler = new JwtSecurityTokenHandler();
    var jwtToken = tokenHandler.ReadToken(token) as JwtSecurityToken;

    if (jwtToken == null)
    return null;

    TokenValidationParameters validationParameters = new TokenValidationParameters();
    validationParameters.ValidateLifetime = true;
    validationParameters.ValidAudience = _configuration[“Tokens:Audience”];
    validationParameters.ValidIssuer = _configuration[“Tokens:Issuer”];
    validationParameters.IssuerSigningKey = new SymmetricSecurityKey(Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(_configuration[“Tokens:Key”]));

    SecurityToken securityToken;
    var principal = tokenHandler.ValidateToken(token, validationParameters, out securityToken);
    return principal;
    }

    public async Task Login(LoginViewModel model, string returnUrl = null)
    {

    var request = new AuthenticationRequest();
    request.Email = model.Email;
    request.Password = model.Password;
    var result = await _accountService.AuthenticateAsync(request, null);
    if (result == null)
    {
    ModelState.AddModelError(“”, result.Message);
    return View(model);
    }
    if (result.Succeeded)
    {
    _logger.LogInformation(“User logged in.”);

    var userPrincipal = GetPrincipal(result.Data.JWToken);
    var authProperties = new AuthenticationProperties
    {
    ExpiresUtc = DateTimeOffset.UtcNow.AddMinutes(10),
    IsPersistent = false
    };

    HttpContext.Session.SetString(SystemConstants.AppSettings.DefaultLanguageId, _configuration[SystemConstants.AppSettings.DefaultLanguageId]);
    HttpContext.Session.SetString(SystemConstants.AppSettings.Token, result.Data.JWToken);
    await HttpContext.SignInAsync(
    CookieAuthenticationDefaults.AuthenticationScheme,
    userPrincipal,
    authProperties);

    return RedirectToLocal(returnUrl);
    }
    else
    {
    ModelState.AddModelError(string.Empty, result.Message);
    return View(model);
    }
    }

    // In AccountService

    public async Task<Response> AuthenticateAsync(AuthenticationRequest request, string ipAddress)
    {
    var json = JsonConvert.SerializeObject(request);
    var httpContent = new StringContent(json, Encoding.UTF8, “application/json”);
    var client = _httpClientFactory.CreateClient();
    client.BaseAddress = new Uri(_configuration[“BaseAddress”]);
    var httpResponse = await client.PostAsync(“/api/Account/authenticate”, httpContent);
    string jsonData = await httpResponse.Content.ReadAsStringAsync();
    return JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<Response>(jsonData);
    }

    Reply

  32. Thank you very much for your valuable information sharing. It has become a source of information for me that I will constantly review. I have two requests from you. The first is to explain the microservice architecture in the same way in the project with Identity, cache, log, api gatway, docker, RabbitMQ technologies. My second request is that you never close your web page :). Best regards

    Reply

  33. Thanks for sharing such an awesome implementation. I truly support what you just did… but that issue we are having while trying to use IIS does not allow your project to be publish to a shared web hosting as http://www.smarterasp.net and i do not know how to solve that issue.

    Do you have any experience doing a web deploy of your project? I do not know how to solve this.

    Reply

  34. i am trying to run the API from swagger but what Autheticate Berear Key i have to put it gives me you are not Authorized

    Reply

    1. @Mukesh I’m getting the same thing. It says “You are not authorized” after I have logged in and have a valid Bearer token. Can you please check, because the authorization does not work.

      Reply

  36. Hi Mukesh,

    Very impressive. We would like to use this template in project.

    However we have to follow database first approach due to reason our DB team has made db tables and schema already.
    Would you please share or guide how to use this with “Database First Approach”

    regards

    Jawad

    Reply

    1. Hi. Switching to DB first should be quite simple. Just generate your db classes and remove the ones already generated. Make sure of the naming of the context class as well.

      Regards

      Reply

  37. Hola Mukesh

    Por mas que modifico “applicationUrl”: “https://localhost:XXXX/” desde WebApi -> Propiedades -> launchsettings.json no se muestra la Api

    Reply

    1. Hi, Sorry for the delayed response. I had pinged you back in Linkedin as well. On my side, I don’t actually face any issue while opening with IIS. If you face any such issues, the ideal suspect is the clash of certain SSL ports. I am attaching a GIST of my launchsettings.json that works for me. I can confirm that with these settings, I am able to run the API via IIS.

      https://gist.github.com/iammukeshm/45d1e3ea9caed25212d96d2ba6309cf6

      Thanks

      Reply

  38. Hi Mukesh,

    Thanks for this amazing template. I have 3 questions and was wondering if you can help.

    1. After Create, Delete or Update we do a query of the whole database again to get the updated record.

    Will there not be performance issues with a large database?

    2. Can we just get the updated or created record?

    3. Also do you have any plan of turning this into multi-tenant App in the future?

    I have learnt a lot reading through your code

    Kind REgards,

    Zak

    Reply

  39. Thanks a lot Mukesh. It’s great project. Good on you.
    I was just wondering If there is any plan to add unit tests as well?

    Reply

  40. Hi
    I am using your structure. that is very good and usefull.
    but i have problem, I add new service to “[].Infrastructure.Shared” project and use it in a Repository.
    But when i use this repository in QueryHandler contructor, i faceup bellow error when call this query :
    “Message”: “Error constructing handler for request of type MediatR.IRequestHandler`2[.Application.Features.MT4.Queries.GetEquity.GetEquityQuery,AspNetCoreHero.Results.Result`1[.Application.Features.MT4.Queries.GetEquity.GetEquityResponse]]. Register your handlers with the container. See the samples in GitHub for examples.”,
    could you help me please.

    Reply

    1. Hi, I believe that you have not registered the Dependency into the containers. If that’s not the reason, please check if you have added services.AddMediatR(Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly()); to the Infrastructure.Shared Project. This line of code actually registers all the mediatr handlers that are available in Shared Project with the Service Container. I guess this should solve your issue. Do Let me know. Also, please feel free to leave a review of the Project here – https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=MukeshMurugan.CleanArchitectureWebApi. Much Appreciated. Thanks and Regards

      Reply

  41. This is very nice and clean Architecture.
    Is OAuth included in this? How to add OAuth with JWToken in existing project?

    Reply

  42. When I try running a template project which I have created I am getting “This site can’t be reached”. I have also tried cloning the repo but I got the same. I am new to web API development. Can you help me out to solve this?

    Reply

      1. Hi, to answer your question, I quote this from a Microsoft IIS Documentation ;
        “If you want to test SSL access to your site, you can do this with IIS Express by using an SSL port between 44300 and 44399 and using the IIS Express self-signed certificate. Trying to use SSL with a port outside this range results in a URL binding failure when your website is launched under IIS Express.”

        Thus, there is a limitation in the port you can use for https while running under IIS.This is mostly due to the certificate signature within the server. Hope it cleared a few things.

        Regards

        Reply

  44. I’m really impressed with your architecture and used it in my projects.
    Can you please provide this architecture with StoreProcedure Layer?

    Reply

  45. This is really nice! Could you do a blog on how to use this web api with like say a web project (something like jquery or telerik kendo)?

    Reply

  47. Hi Mukesh,

    Can you provide the steps on how to deploy this to Azure Application services using CI/CD build and release pipelines in DevOps? We’re having some
    issues trying to deploy this.

    This is the error we’re getting:
    This page isn’t working right now clean-architecture-api.azurewebsites.net can’t currently handle this request.
    HTTP ERROR 500

    Thanks in advance!

    Reply

      1. Hi Mukesh,

        We haven’t modified the launchSettings.json. Is there any particular setting in the launchSettings.json needs to be modified? We also tried to deploy this on an IIS server and we’re having the same error. Any suggestion will be appreciated.

        Thank you!

        Reply

        1. Are you facing the same issue while deploying locally as well? I mean in the lower test envs?
          Are there any other internal error logs or dumps available? What does the terminal say?

          Reply

          1. Hi Mukesh,

            We’re only experiencing the issue when deploying into IIS and Azure. But its running fine locally. We figured out the reason behind the error after deployment. It is related to the project’s configuration setting for release.

            We went to the projects properties > Build > Configuration is set to “Active (Release)”.

            And under Output > Output path, we set it to “bin\Release\netcoreapp3.1\”

            Lastly, we checked the XML documentation file.

            Just a suggestion, can you make this the default to your template so that other developers will not experience this issue that we had. It was a really a waste of time. They would really appreciate this setting.

            Thanks!

  48. Hi Mukesh,

    I need to add ApplicationUser UserId to Product class as foreign Key.
    How should I implement this in this solution?

    Reply

  49. hello i got this question , how can i get totalnumber of records for pagination purpose on front end ?
    the current response is like this
    {
    “pageNumber”: 1,
    “pageSize”: 5,
    “succeeded”: true,
    “message”: null,
    “errors”: null,
    “data”: []
    }

    Reply

  50. Hi Mukesh,
    First of all this is the BEST architecture, i have ever seen. Each and every thing is so perfect, that we can consume it as it is. No more modifications required. Really appreciate your hard work. ThankYou!!!
    Now, I have a curiosity to know, do we need to implement the UnitOfWork into this solution? Or this framework automatically handles everything? Please suggest, how can we implement UnitOfWork into this solution.
    Regards
    Himanshu R.

    Reply

    1. It should be more flexible if we implement UnitOfWork pattern ,Because of same instance of dbcontext passed through various repositories and single commit will be taken for multiple repositories CUD(Create/Update/Delete) transactions.

      Reply

  53. Hi Mukesh,
    this is really a very good and helpful. Thanks

    Question :
    I want to know that in this article you are using two DbContext one is for “IdentityContext” and second one is “ApplicationDbContext” I have created a new table “Table1” inside “ApplicationDbContext” and I made relationship with “Identity user table”. I am trying to write LINQ to join “Table1” with “Identity user table” but I am getting errors that we can not use multiple DbContext in a single query. for more details I am attaching screenshot.

    public class SchoolRatingRepository : ISchoolRatingRepository
    {
    private readonly IRepositoryAsync _repository;
    private readonly IDistributedCache _distributedCache;
    private readonly DbSet _user;

    public SchoolRatingRepository(IDistributedCache distributedCache, IRepositoryAsync repository,
    IdentityContext identityContext)
    {//ApplicationDbContext dbContext, IdentityContext identityContext
    _distributedCache = distributedCache;
    _repository = repository;
    _user = identityContext.Set();
    }

    public async Task<List> GetAllListAsync(int schoolId)
    {

    var rating = (from R in _repository.Entities
    join U in _user on R.CreatedBy equals U.Id
    where R.SchoolId == schoolId
    select new GetAllSchoolRatingResponse
    {
    Id = R.Id,
    SchoolId = R.SchoolId,
    OverAll = R.OverAll,
    Description = R.Description,
    UserName = U.FirstName + ” ” + U.LastName

    });
    return await rating.ToListAsync();

    }

    Would you please help me on this.
    Thank you in advance

    Reply

  54. I am using DataAnnotations in my entity classes. Is it fine to add the System.ComponentModel.DataAnnotations NuGet package to the Domain project? I am wondering since you said that the Domain project should never have any dependencies.

    Reply

  55. Hello, Many thanks for sharing this content. I have but one question However, How do you work with files using this architechture?

    Reply

  56. @Mukesh – It says “You are not authorized” after I have logged in and have a valid Bearer token. Can you please check, because the authorization does not work. Your project as is does not work for any controller using [Authorize] attribute. Thank you.

    Reply

  59. Hello Mukesh,

    I just wanted to ask that the project only runs when i run it on kestral server and not on iis on my development machine. Can there be any problem when i deploy it on server iis? or what if i deploy it on Azure? is there any chance i face deployment problem? and lastly, why is there problem in dev environment using iis in the first place can u explain that? Thanks in advance

    Reply