ASP.NET Web API Scaffolding

AWAS is a simple, opinionated code generation package for ASP.NET built on top of T4Scaffolding. AWAS allows you to quickly scaffold the standard boilerplates for Web API Controllers, Services, Repositories based on a provided Entity model.

GitHub

NuGet

Dependencies

T4Scaffolding (≥ 1.0.8)

Installation

• Open the Package Manager Console Window:

  Tools > Library Package Manager > Package Manager Console
  

• Run the follwing command:

  Install-Package ASP.NET.WebApiScaffolding
  

Usage

All commands are executed in Package Manager Console after installation.

####To generate a Web API Controller for Student

Scaffold WebApiController Student

*This will also automatically generate the DbContext and Service for Student, to disable such behaviour use the -NoChildItems flag.

*The Web API Controller and all child items generated are based on the Service Layer Pattern, to generate based on Repository Pattern instead use the -Repository flag.

####To generate a Service for Student

Scaffold Service Student

*As above.

####To generate a Repository for Student

Scaffold Repository Student

*This command obviously do not have the -Repository flag

####Optional Flags

Flags	Behavior
-Repository	Switch to Repository Pattern for generated boilerplates
-NoChildItems	Do not generate any other dependencies automatically
-Force	Overwrite existing file if exists

All Commands

Scaffold WebApiController <ModelType> [-Project] [-CodeLanguage] [-DbContextType] [-Area] [-NoChildItems] [-Repository] [-TemplateFolders] [-Force]

Scaffold Service <ModelType> [-Project] [-CodeLanguage] [-DbContextType] [-Area] [-NoChildItems] [-Repository] [-TemplateFolders] [-Force]

Scaffold Repository <ModelType> [-Project] [-CodeLanguage] [-DbContextType] [-Area] [-NoChildItems] [-TemplateFolders] [-Force]

Scaffold DbContext <ModelType> [-Project] [-CodeLanguage] [-DbContextType] [-Area] [-NoChildItems] [-TemplateFolders] [-Force]

<required parameter>
[-optional flag]

Layers

Assuming we are working with a model called Student, AWAS will generate boilerplates based on the Service Layer Pattern. For a given model, the stack will be as follows:

StudentController
StudentService

Alternatively, you can add the -Repository flag to generate boiletplates based on the Repository Pattern, the stack will be as follows:

StudentController
StudentService
StudentRepository

Folder Structure

Project/
    ...
	Controllers/
		StudentController.cs
		CourseController.cs
		...
	DataAccessLayer/
		ProjectContext.cs
		ProjectInitializer.cs
	Repositories/
		StudentRepository.cs
		CourseRepository.cs
		...
	Services/
		StudentService.cs
		CourseService.cs
		...
    ...

Customization

Since the package is built on top of T4Scaffolding, we can leverage the CustomScaffolder and CustomTemplate that T4Scaffolding provides.

####Custom Scaffolder Custom scaffolder allows us to create custom boiletplate scaffolder so that we can generate the same boiletplate easily.

To generate a custom scaffolder call Foo:

Scaffold CustomScaffolder Foo

A folder will be generated:

Project/
    ...
	CodeTemplates/
        Scaffolders/
            Foo/
                Foo.ps1
                FooTemplate.cs.t4
    ...
	

You can now customize the Foo.ps1 and FooTemplate.cs.t4 to your needs. To use your newly created custom scaffolder, run:

Scaffold Foo <parameters> [flags]

####Custom Template Custom templates allows us to reuse the existing scaffolders that comes with T4Scaffolding and AWAS but with a template style of your choice.

To generate a custom Template for WebApiController:

Scaffold CustomTemplate WebApiController WebApiControllerTemplate

A folder will be generated:

Project/
    ...
	CodeTemplates/
        Scaffolders/
            WebApiController/
                WebApiControllerTemplate.cs.t4
    ...
	

You can now customize WebApiControllerTemplate.cs.t4 to your needs. As long as the custom template exists in the folder, the package will use your template for all WebApiController scaffolded:

Scaffold WebApiController <parameters> [flags]

Useful Commands

Scaffold CustomTemplate WebApiController WebApiControllerTemplate
Scaffold CustomTemplate Service ServiceWithContextTemplate
Scaffold CustomTemplate Service ServiceWithRepositoryTemplate
Scaffold CustomTemplate Repository RepositoryTemplate
Scaffold CustomTemplate Initializer InitializerTemplate
Scaffold CustomTemplate DbContext DbContextTemplate
Scaffold CustomTemplate DbContext DbContextEntityMemberTemplate

Useful Resources

Some of the resources I used along the way...

• Code First Conventions
• You can use .NET Data Annotation to customize/override CodeFirst convention. In particular, the primary key.
• T4Scaffolding tutorial

Troubleshoot

The 'ObjectContent`1' type failed to serialize the response body for content type 'application\xml; charset=utf-8'.

If you are getting this exception message, add the following snippet into App_Start/WebApiConfig.cs > Register(), restart.

var json = config.Formatters.JsonFormatter;
json.SerializerSettings.PreserveReferencesHandling = Newtonsoft.Json.PreserveReferencesHandling.Objects;
config.Formatters.Remove(config.Formatters.XmlFormatter);

Notes

The package is inspired by MvcScaffolding. It can be view as a Web API, asynchronous version but with some opinionated perspective in terms of the layers and folder structures.