LibAdminSystem

A library management enterprise system built using ASP.NET Core + Entity Framework Core + LINQ + MySQL. Provides REST endpoints for managing books, members and loans.

Introduction • Features • Tech Stack • Getting Started • API Endpoints • Documentation

Introduction

LibAdminSystem is a lightweight library management system built with ASP.NET Core Minimal APIs, Entity Framework Core, and MySQL. It provides RESTful endpoints for managing core library operations such as tracking books, members, and loans.

The goal of this project is to serve as both:

• A practical example of using modern .NET technologies (Minimal APIs, EF Core, LINQ) in a clean, modular design.

• A foundation for building out more complex administrative systems where database backed CRUD operations are exposed through REST services.

Features

• CRUD operations for:

  • Books

  • Members

  • Loans

• REST API endpoints with ASP.NET Core Minimal APIs

• Entity Framework Core with MySQL provider

• LINQ queries for flexible data access

• Seed data on first run

Tech Stack

Language: C# (.NET Core 9.0.x) + LINQ

Frameworks: ASP.NET Core, EF Core

Database: MySQL

ORM: Entity Framework Core

CI/CD: GitHub Actions

Getting Started

Prerequisites

Install the following NuGet packages (if it doesnt get installed automatically):

• Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore

• Pomelo.EntityFrameworkCore.MySql - Pomelo is the go-to EF Core provider for MySQL.

• Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.Tools

• Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.Design

• Swashbuckle.AspNetCore - For Swagger REST API documentation support

Setup

1. Clone the repo

git clone https://github.com/DivyenduDutta/LibAdminSystem.git
cd LibAdminSystem

2. Ensure that your MySQL server is running and the proper connection string is mentioned in appsettings.json as below:

{
   "ConnectionStrings": {
		"LibAdminSystem": "<your MySQL connection string>"
  }
}

See this regarding how to change MySQL server port.

3. Run dotnet tool install --global dotnet-ef to install dotnet-ef if you haven't already.

4. Generate the EF migrations and create the MySQL database with the required tables (Note - Make sure to delete the existing Migrations folder as part of this repo before doing the below).

dotnet ef migrations add InitialCreate
dotnet ef database update

5. Run Program.cs to seed the database with sample data on first run and to start the REST server. The REST services can be tested with the LibAdminSystem.http file using Endpoints Explorer.

Sanity

Run dotnet format LibAdminSystem.sln --verify-no-changes to check first for formatting/linting errors.

Then either fix manually or run dotnet format LibAdminSystem.sln

API Endpoints

Refer to LibAdminSystem.http for example JSON payloads for POST/PUT

Books

Method	Endpoint	Description
GET	/api/books	Get all books
GET	/api/books/{id}	Get a book by ID

Members

Method	Endpoint	Description
GET	/api/members/{id}	Get a member by ID
POST	/api/members/add	Register a new member

Loans

Method	Endpoint	Description
GET	/api/loans/{id}	Get a loan by ID
PUT	/api/loans/{id}	Update details of a borrowed book
DELETE	/api/loans/{id}	Cancel a loan

Documentation

REST Api Documentation

LibAdminSystem uses Swagger UI via Swashbuckle. This provides a full interactive web UI where we can test endpoints right from the browser.

Run Program.cs and this will open up the API document UI at http://localhost:<port>/index.html

The following functionality is provided via Swagger:

• API endpoints grouped by route

• Request/response schemas auto-generated from the model classes

• “Try it out” button to execute requests against the running service

UML Diagram

classDiagram
    class Book {
      +int Id
      +string BookTitle
      +string Author
      +int Year
      +string Genre
      +int CopiesAvailable
    }

    class Member {
      +int Id
      +string Name
      +string Email
      +DateTime JoinDate
    }

    class Loan {
      +int Id
      +int BookId
      +int MemberId
      +DateTime LoanDate
      +DateTime? ReturnDate
    }

    Book "1" --> "*" Loan
    Member "1" --> "*" Loan

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System Architecture

flowchart TD
    subgraph API[ASP.NET Core Minimal APIs]
        A[REST Endpoints]
    end

    subgraph EF[Entity Framework Core]
        B[DbContext]
        C[LINQ Queries]
    end

    subgraph DB[MySQL Database]
        D[(Books Table)]
        E[(Members Table)]
        F[(Loans Table)]
    end

    A --> B
    B --> C
    C --> D
    C --> E
    C --> F

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