A small inventory management application built with ASP.NET Core MVC and an integrated REST API.
The project demonstrates:
- MVC views for a lightweight web UI.
- A documented REST API with OpenAPI.
- Entity Framework Core (SQLite) for data access.
- FluentValidation for input validation.
- Service-layer business rules (duplicate SKU detection, category deletion checks).
- Manage Products (create, update, search/filter, delete).
- Manage Categories (create, delete – protected if products exist).
- API endpoints documented via OpenAPI JSON and Scalar interactive docs.
- .NET 9 SDK (or the SDK targeted by the project)
- Optional:
dotnet-efCLI if you plan to run migrationsdotnet tool install -g dotnet-ef
git clone https://github.com/TheodoulosChristou/.NET-MVC-API-Simple-Inventory.git
cd .NET-MVC-API-Simple-Inventory
dotnet restore
### Clone & Restore
The app uses SQLite with a connection string in appsettings.json.
First run will create the DB file automatically.
If you add EF migrations:
```bash
dotnet ef database update --project SimpleInventory
### Run
```bash
dotnet run --project SimpleInventory
The app will start at something like:
https://localhost:7110 (HTTPS)
https://localhost:7110/scalar/ (HTTP) (you can find documentation in scalar)
### Design Decisions & Trade-offs
SQLite for dev/demo – portable and zero-config.
Trade-off: limited for high-concurrency production; swap for Postgres or SQL Server if needed.
Service Layer – business rules (duplicate SKU, category deletion rule) live in services, not controllers, making them testable and reusable.
Validation – FluentValidation
enforces clean rules (price ≥ 0, name/sku required) instead of scattered checks.
OpenAPI first – auto-generated spec used by both Scalar (modern docs) and Swagger UI for a great developer experience.
Paging & Filtering – endpoints accept page and pageSize plus filters (name, sku, categoryId) to avoid over-fetching.