MVC Project - E-Commerce Application

A comprehensive ASP.NET Core MVC e-commerce application built with .NET 10, Entity Framework Core, and ASP.NET Identity for user authentication and management.

🎯 Project Overview

This is a full-featured e-commerce web application that allows users to browse products, manage shopping carts, place orders, and manage their profiles. The application implements a hierarchical category system, user authentication, and order management.

🏗️ Architecture

Technology Stack

• Framework: ASP.NET Core with .NET 10
• Database: SQL Server with Entity Framework Core
• Authentication: ASP.NET Identity
• Pattern: MVC (Model-View-Controller)
• Session Management: ASP.NET Core Session

Project Structure

MVC_Project/
├── Entities/                          # Core domain models
│   ├── AppUser.cs                    # Extended Identity user
│   ├── Product.cs                    # Product catalog
│   ├── Category.cs                   # Category hierarchy
│   ├── Order.cs                      # Customer orders
│   ├── OrderItem.cs                  # Order line items
│   └── Address.cs                    # Shipping addresses
├── Controllers/                       # MVC controllers
│   ├── CatalogController.cs          # Product browsing & search
│   ├── AccountController.cs          # Authentication & registration
│   ├── ProfileController.cs          # User profile management
│   └── HomeController.cs             # Home page
├── Views/                             # Razor views
├── Models/ViewModels/                 # View model objects
├── Infrastructure/
│   ├── Data/
│   │   └── AppDbContext.cs           # EF Core database context
│   └── Configurations/               # EF Core entity configurations
├── Repo/                             # Data access layer
│   ├── UnitOfWork.cs                # Unit of Work pattern
│   ├── EntityRepo.cs                # Generic repository
│   ├── ProductRepo.cs               # Product-specific queries
│   ├── CategoryRepo.cs              # Category-specific queries
│   └── ...
└── Migrations/                        # Database migrations

📋 Core Entities

AppUser

Extended ASP.NET Identity user with:

• Full name storage
• Multiple shipping addresses
• Order history

Product

E-commerce product representation:

• Name and SKU (Stock Keeping Unit)
• Pricing with decimal precision
• Stock quantity tracking
• Active/inactive status
• Category association
• Creation timestamp

Category

Hierarchical category system:

• Parent-child category relationships
• Supports unlimited nesting levels
• Associated products

Order

Customer order management:

• Order number and status tracking
• Associated user and shipping address
• Order date and total amount
• Collection of order items
• Decimal precision for amounts

OrderItem

Individual line items in orders:

• Product and order references
• Unit price and quantity
• Computed line total

Address

Shipping address management:

• Complete address fields (country, city, street, zip)
• Multiple addresses per user
• Default address flag
• Associated orders

🔑 Key Features

1. Product Catalog

• Browse products with pagination
• Search by product name or SKU
• Sort by name, price, or popularity
• Filter by category with hierarchical support
• Advanced filtering with descendant categories

2. User Authentication

• User registration with email verification
• Secure login/logout
• Role-based access control (User roles)
• Password security

3. User Profile Management

• View and edit profile information
• Manage multiple shipping addresses
• Set default address
• Order history tracking

4. Shopping Cart

• Session-based cart storage
• Add/remove products
• Quantity adjustment

5. Order Management

• Create orders from cart
• Order status tracking
• Order history for users
• Order number generation

🗄️ Database Configuration

Connection String

"DefaultConnection": "Data Source=.;Initial Catalog=MVC_Project;Integrated Security=True;TrustServerCertificate=True"

Database Provider

• SQL Server with local database or network instance support
• Entity Framework Core for ORM

🚀 Getting Started

Prerequisites

• .NET 10 SDK
• SQL Server (local or remote)
• Visual Studio 2026 (or compatible IDE)

Setup Instructions

1. Clone the repository

git clone https://github.com/abdallagaber/MVC_Project.git

2. Navigate to project directory

cd MVC_Project

3. Update database connection

   • Edit appsettings.json
   • Update DefaultConnection if needed

4. Apply database migrations

dotnet ef database update

5. Run the application

dotnet run

6. Access the application
   • Open browser to https://localhost:5001 (or configured port)
   • Default route: Catalog Index

📦 Dependencies

NuGet Packages (Key)

• Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore
• Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.SqlServer
• Microsoft.AspNetCore.Identity.EntityFrameworkCore
• Microsoft.AspNetCore.Session

🏛️ Design Patterns

Unit of Work Pattern

• IUnitOfWork interface for transaction management
• Provides access to all repositories
• Ensures data consistency across operations

Repository Pattern

• Generic EntityRepo<T> base repository
• Specialized repositories for complex queries:
  • ProductRepo: Product-specific queries and active product filtering
  • CategoryRepo: Hierarchical category queries
  • AddressRepo: User address management

Dependency Injection

• Constructor injection for services
• Scoped lifetime for repositories and DbContext
• Configured in Program.cs

🔒 Security Features

• ASP.NET Identity for authentication
• Password hashing and validation
• Entity Framework Core parameterized queries (SQL injection protection)
• Authorization attributes on protected controllers
• Session-based state management

🗂️ Configuration

Program.cs Setup

// Database context
builder.Services.AddDbContext<AppDbContext>(options =>
{
	options.UseSqlServer(builder.Configuration.GetConnectionString("DefaultConnection"));
});

// Unit of Work
builder.Services.AddScoped<IUnitOfWork, UnitOfWork>();

// Identity
builder.Services.AddIdentity<AppUser, IdentityRole>(options =>
{
	options.User.RequireUniqueEmail = true;
})
	.AddEntityFrameworkStores<AppDbContext>();

// Sessions
builder.Services.AddSession();

📊 Data Flow

1. Catalog Browsing

   • User accesses Catalog/Index
   • CatalogController queries products through UnitOfWork
   • Results paginated and displayed with filters/sorting

2. User Registration/Login

   • User submits registration form
   • AccountController uses UserManager for identity operations
   • User assigned "User" role

3. Order Creation

   • Cart data retrieved from session
   • OrderController creates Order and OrderItems
   • Order associated with user and shipping address
   • UnitOfWork ensures data consistency

🔄 Database Migrations

The project uses Entity Framework Core Code-First approach with migrations:

• Located in Migrations/ folder
• Initial migration: 20260310204100_InitialCreate.cs
• Run migrations with: dotnet ef database update

🛠️ Development

Common Tasks

Add new entity:

1. Create entity class in Entities/
2. Add DbSet to AppDbContext
3. Add configuration if needed in Configurations/
4. Create migration: dotnet ef migrations add MigrationName
5. Update database: dotnet ef database update

Add new repository:

1. Create repository class extending EntityRepo<T>
2. Add interface to IUnitOfWork
3. Register in UnitOfWork implementation
4. Inject through DI container

📝 Logging

Logging configuration in appsettings.json:

"Logging": {
	"LogLevel": {
		"Default": "Information",
		"Microsoft.AspNetCore": "Warning"
	}
}

🔗 Repository

• Repository URL: https://github.com/abdallagaber/MVC_Project
• Branch: master

🎓 Learning Context

This project is developed as an educational exercise to demonstrate:

• ASP.NET Core MVC fundamentals
• Entity Framework Core with SQL Server
• ASP.NET Identity integration
• Repository and Unit of Work patterns
• Hierarchical data management
• E-commerce domain modeling
• Session-based state management

🤝 Contributing

This is an educational project. For improvements or bug fixes, please create issues or pull requests on the GitHub repository.