Quick Start

//[doc-params]
{
    "UI": ["MVC", "Blazor", "BlazorServer", "NG"],
    "DB": ["EF", "Mongo"]
}

This is a single-part quick-start tutorial to build a simple todo application with the ABP Framework. Here's a screenshot from the final application:

You can find the source code of the completed application here.

This documentation has a video tutorial on YouTube!! You can watch it here:

Pre-Requirements

An IDE (e.g. Visual Studio) that supports .NET 7.0+ development.
Node v16.x

MongoDB Server 4.0+

Install ABP CLI Tool

We will use the ABP CLI to create new ABP solutions. You can run the following command on a terminal window to install this dotnet tool:

dotnet tool install -g Volo.Abp.Cli

Create Your ABP Solution

Create an empty folder, open a command-line terminal and execute the following command in the terminal:

abp new TodoApp{{if UI=="Blazor"}} -u blazor{{else if UI=="BlazorServer"}} -u blazor-server{{else if UI=="NG"}} -u angular{{end}}{{if DB=="Mongo"}} -d mongodb{{end}}

This will create a new solution, named TodoApp with angular and aspnet-core folders. Once the solution is ready, open the ASP.NET Core solution in your favorite IDE.

This will create a new solution, named TodoApp. Once the solution is ready, open it in your favorite IDE.

Create the Database

If you are using Visual Studio, right click on the TodoApp.DbMigrator project, select Set as StartUp Project, then hit Ctrl+F5 to run it without debugging. It will create the initial database and seed the initial data.

Some IDEs (e.g. Rider) may have problems for the first run since DbMigrator adds the initial migration and re-compiles the project. In this case, open a command-line terminal in the folder of the .DbMigrator project and execute the dotnet run command.

Run the Application

It is good to run the application before starting the development. Ensure the {{if UI=="BlazorServer"}}TodoApp.Blazor{{else}}TodoApp.Web{{end}} project is the startup project, then run the application (Ctrl+F5 in Visual Studio) to see the initial UI:

It is good to run the application before starting the development. The solution has two main applications;

TodoApp.HttpApi.Host hosts the server-side HTTP API.
TodoApp.Blazor is the client-side Blazor WebAssembly application.

Ensure the TodoApp.HttpApi.Host project is the startup project, then run the application (Ctrl+F5 in Visual Studio) to see the server-side HTTP API on the Swagger UI:

You can explore and test your HTTP API with this UI. Now, we can set the TodoApp.Blazor as the startup project and run it to open the actual Blazor application UI:

It is good to run the application before starting the development. The solution has two main applications:

TodoApp.HttpApi.Host (in the .NET solution) host the server-side HTTP API.
angular folder contains the Angular application.

Ensure that the TodoApp.HttpApi.Host project is the startup project, then run the application (Ctrl+F5 in Visual Studio) to see the server-side HTTP API on the Swagger UI:

You can explore and test your HTTP API with this UI. If it works, we can run the Angular client application.

You can run the application using the following command:

npm start

This command takes time, but eventually runs and opens the application in your default browser:

You can click on the Login button, use admin as the username and 1q2w3E* as the password to login to the application.

All ready. We can start coding!

Domain Layer

This application has a single entity and we'll start by creating it. Create a new TodoItem class inside the TodoApp.Domain project:

using System;
using Volo.Abp.Domain.Entities;

namespace TodoApp
{
    public class TodoItem : BasicAggregateRoot<Guid>
    {
        public string Text { get; set; }
    }
}

BasicAggregateRoot is the simplest base class to create root entities, and Guid is the primary key (Id) of the entity here.

Database Integration

Next step is to setup the Entity Framework Core configuration.

Mapping Configuration

Open the TodoAppDbContext class in the EntityFrameworkCore folder of the TodoApp.EntityFrameworkCore project and add a new DbSet property to this class:

public DbSet<TodoItem> TodoItems { get; set; }

Then navigate to the OnModelCreating method in the TodoAppDbContext class and add the mapping code for the TodoItem entity:

protected override void OnModelCreating(ModelBuilder builder)
{
    base.OnModelCreating(builder);

    /* Include modules to your migration db context */

    builder.ConfigurePermissionManagement();
    ...

    /* Configure your own tables/entities inside here */
    builder.Entity<TodoItem>(b =>
    {
        b.ToTable("TodoItems");
    });
}

We've mapped the TodoItem entity to the TodoItems table in the database.

Code First Migrations

The startup solution is configured to use Entity Framework Core Code First Migrations. Since we've changed the database mapping configuration, we should create a new migration and apply changes to the database.

Open a command-line terminal in the directory of the TodoApp.EntityFrameworkCore project and type the following command:

dotnet ef migrations add Added_TodoItem

This will add a new migration class to the project:

You can apply changes to the database using the following command, in the same command-line terminal:

dotnet ef database update

If you are using Visual Studio, you may want to use the Add-Migration Added_TodoItem and Update-Database commands in the Package Manager Console (PMC). In this case, ensure that {{if UI=="MVC"}}TodoApp.Web{{else if UI=="BlazorServer"}}TodoApp.Blazor{{else if UI=="Blazor" || UI=="NG"}}TodoApp.HttpApi.Host{{end}} is the startup project and TodoApp.EntityFrameworkCore is the Default Project in PMC.

Next step is to setup the MongoDB configuration. Open the TodoAppMongoDbContext class in the MongoDb folder of the TodoApp.MongoDB project and make the following changes:

Add a new property to the class:

public IMongoCollection<TodoItem> TodoItems => Collection<TodoItem>();

Add the following code inside the CreateModel method:

modelBuilder.Entity<TodoItem>(b =>
{
    b.CollectionName = "TodoItems";
});

Now, we can use the ABP repositories to save and retrieve the todo items, as we'll do in the next section.

Application Layer

An Application Service is used to perform the use cases of the application. We need to perform the following use cases:

Get the list of the todo items
Create a new todo item
Delete an existing todo item

Application Service Interface

We can start by defining an interface for the application service. Create a new ITodoAppService interface in the TodoApp.Application.Contracts project, as shown below:

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Threading.Tasks;
using Volo.Abp.Application.Services;

namespace TodoApp
{
    public interface ITodoAppService : IApplicationService
    {
        Task<List<TodoItemDto>> GetListAsync();
        Task<TodoItemDto> CreateAsync(string text);
        Task DeleteAsync(Guid id);
    }
}

Data Transfer Object

GetListAsync and CreateAsync methods return TodoItemDto. ApplicationService typically gets and returns DTOs (Data Transfer Objects) instead of entities. So, we should define the DTO class here. Create a new TodoItemDto class inside the TodoApp.Application.Contracts project:

using System;

namespace TodoApp
{
    public class TodoItemDto
    {
        public Guid Id { get; set; }
        public string Text { get; set; }
    }
}

This is a very simple DTO class that matches our TodoItem entity. We are ready to implement the ITodoAppService.

Application Service Implementation

Create a TodoAppService class inside the TodoApp.Application project, as shown below:

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Threading.Tasks;
using Volo.Abp.Application.Services;
using Volo.Abp.Domain.Repositories;

namespace TodoApp
{
    public class TodoAppService : ApplicationService, ITodoAppService
    {
        private readonly IRepository<TodoItem, Guid> _todoItemRepository;

        public TodoAppService(IRepository<TodoItem, Guid> todoItemRepository)
        {
            _todoItemRepository = todoItemRepository;
        }
        
        // TODO: Implement the methods here...
    }
}

This class inherits from the ApplicationService class of the ABP Framework and implements the ITodoAppService that was defined before. ABP provides default generic repositories for the entities. We can use them to perform the fundamental database operations. This class injects IRepository<TodoItem, Guid>, which is the default repository for the TodoItem entity. We will use it to implement the use cases described before.

Getting Todo Items

Let's start by implementing the GetListAsync method:

public async Task<List<TodoItemDto>> GetListAsync()
{
    var items = await _todoItemRepository.GetListAsync();
    return items
        .Select(item => new TodoItemDto
        {
            Id = item.Id,
            Text = item.Text
        }).ToList();
}

We are simply getting the complete TodoItem list from the database, mapping them to TodoItemDto objects and returning as the result.

Creating a New Todo Item

Next method is CreateAsync and we can implement it as shown below:

public async Task<TodoItemDto> CreateAsync(string text)
{
    var todoItem = await _todoItemRepository.InsertAsync(
        new TodoItem {Text = text}
    );

    return new TodoItemDto
    {
        Id = todoItem.Id,
        Text = todoItem.Text
    };
}

The repository's InsertAsync method inserts the given TodoItem to the database and returns the same TodoItem object. It also sets the Id, so we can use it on the returning object. We are simply returning a TodoItemDto by creating from the new TodoItem entity.

Deleting a Todo Item

Finally, we can implement the DeleteAsync as the following code block:

public async Task DeleteAsync(Guid id)
{
    await _todoItemRepository.DeleteAsync(id);
}

The application service is ready to be used from the UI layer.

User Interface Layer

It is time to show the todo items on the UI! Before starting to write the code, it would be good to remember what we are trying to build. Here's a sample screenshot from the final UI:

We will keep the UI side minimal for this tutorial to make the tutorial simple and focused. See the web application development tutorial to build real-life pages with all aspects.

Index.cshtml.cs

Open the Index.cshtml.cs file in the Pages folder of the TodoApp.Web project and replace the content with the following code block:

using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Threading.Tasks;

namespace TodoApp.Web.Pages
{
    public class IndexModel : TodoAppPageModel
    {
        public List<TodoItemDto> TodoItems { get; set; }

        private readonly ITodoAppService _todoAppService;

        public IndexModel(ITodoAppService todoAppService)
        {
            _todoAppService = todoAppService;
        }

        public async Task OnGetAsync()
        {
            TodoItems = await _todoAppService.GetListAsync();
        }
    }
}

This class uses the ITodoAppService to get the list of todo items and assign the TodoItems property. We will use it to render the todo items on the razor page.

Index.cshtml

Open the Index.cshtml file in the Pages folder of the TodoApp.Web project and replace it with the following content:

@page
@model TodoApp.Web.Pages.IndexModel
@section styles {
    <abp-style src="/Pages/Index.css" />
}
@section scripts {
    <abp-script src="/Pages/Index.js" />
}
<div class="container">
    <abp-card>
        <abp-card-header>
            <abp-card-title>
                TODO LIST
            </abp-card-title>
        </abp-card-header>
        <abp-card-body>            
            <!-- FORM FOR NEW TODO ITEMS -->
            <form id="NewItemForm" class="row row-cols-lg-auto g-3 align-items-center">
                <div class="col-12">
                    <div class="input-group">
                        <input id="NewItemText" type="text" class="form-control" placeholder="enter text...">
                    </div>
                </div>
                <div class="col-12">
                  <button type="submit" class="btn btn-primary">Submit</button>
                </div>
            </form>
            <!-- TODO ITEMS LIST -->
            <ul id="TodoList">
                @foreach (var todoItem in Model.TodoItems)
                {
                    <li data-id="@todoItem.Id">
                        <i class="fa fa-trash-o"></i> @todoItem.Text
                    </li>
                }
            </ul>
        </abp-card-body>
    </abp-card>
</div>

We are using ABP's card tag helper to create a simple card view. You could directly use the standard bootstrap HTML structure, however the ABP tag helpers make it much easier and type safe.

This page imports a CSS and a JavaScript file, so we should also create them.

Index.js

Open the Index.js file in the Pages folder of the TodoApp.Web project and replace it with the following content:

$(function () {
    
    // DELETING ITEMS /////////////////////////////////////////
    $('#TodoList').on('click', 'li i', function(){
        var $li = $(this).parent();
        var id = $li.attr('data-id');
        
        todoApp.todo.delete(id).then(function(){
            $li.remove();
            abp.notify.info('Deleted the todo item.');
        });
    });
    
    // CREATING NEW ITEMS /////////////////////////////////////
    $('#NewItemForm').submit(function(e){
        e.preventDefault();
        
        var todoText = $('#NewItemText').val();        
        todoApp.todo.create(todoText).then(function(result){
            $('<li data-id="' + result.id + '">')
                .html('<i class="fa fa-trash-o"></i> ' + result.text)
                .appendTo($('#TodoList'));
            $('#NewItemText').val('');
        });
    });
});

In the first part, we are subscribing to the click events of the trash icons near the todo items, deleting the related item on the server and showing a notification on the UI. Also, we are removing the deleted item from the DOM, so we don't need to refresh the page.

In the second part, we are creating a new todo item on the server. If it succeeds, we are then manipulating the DOM to insert a new <li> element to the todo list. This way we don't need to refresh the whole page after creating a new todo item.

The interesting part here is how we communicate with the server. See the Dynamic JavaScript Proxies & Auto API Controllers section to understand how it works. But now, let's continue and complete the application.

Index.css

As the final touch, open the Index.css file in the Pages folder of the TodoApp.Web project and replace it with the following content:

#TodoList{
    list-style: none;
    margin: 0;
    padding: 0;
}

#TodoList li {
    padding: 5px;
    margin: 5px 0px;
    border: 1px solid #cccccc;
    background-color: #f5f5f5;
}

#TodoList li i
{
    opacity: 0.5;
}

#TodoList li i:hover
{
    opacity: 1;
    color: #ff0000;
    cursor: pointer;
}

This is a simple styling for the todo page. We believe that you can do much better :)

Now, you can run the application again and see the result.

Dynamic JavaScript Proxies & Auto API Controllers

In the Index.js file, we've used the todoApp.todo.delete(...) and todoApp.todo.create(...) functions to communicate with the server. These functions are dynamically created by the ABP Framework, thanks to the Dynamic JavaScript Client Proxy system. They perform HTTP API calls to the server and return a promise, so you can register a callback to the then function as we've done above.

However, you may notice that we haven't created any API Controllers, so how does the server handle these requests? This question brings us to the Auto API Controller feature of the ABP Framework. It automatically converts the application services to API Controllers by convention.

If you open the Swagger UI by entering the /swagger URL in your application, you can see the Todo API:

Index.razor.cs

Open the Index.razor.cs file in the Pages folder of the TodoApp.Blazor project and replace the content with the following code block:

using Microsoft.AspNetCore.Components;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Threading.Tasks;

namespace TodoApp.Blazor.Pages
{
    public partial class Index
    {
        [Inject]
        private ITodoAppService TodoAppService { get; set; }

        private List<TodoItemDto> TodoItems { get; set; } = new List<TodoItemDto>();
        private string NewTodoText { get; set; }

        protected override async Task OnInitializedAsync()
        {
            TodoItems = await TodoAppService.GetListAsync();
        }
        
        private async Task Create()
        {
            var result = await TodoAppService.CreateAsync(NewTodoText);
            TodoItems.Add(result);
            NewTodoText = null;
        }

        private async Task Delete(TodoItemDto todoItem)
        {
            await TodoAppService.DeleteAsync(todoItem.Id);
            await Notify.Info("Deleted the todo item.");
            TodoItems.Remove(todoItem);
        }
    }
}

This class uses ITodoAppService to perform operations for the todo items. It manipulates the TodoItems list after create and delete operations. This way, we don't need to refresh the whole todo list from the server.

See the Dynamic C# Proxies & Auto API Controllers section below to learn how we could inject and use the application service interface from the Blazor application which is running on the browser! But now, let's continue and complete the application.

Index.razor

Open the Index.razor file in the Pages folder of the TodoApp.Blazor project and replace the content with the following code block:

@page "/"
@inherits TodoAppComponentBase
<div class="container">
    <Card>
        <CardHeader>
            <CardTitle>
                TODO LIST
            </CardTitle>
        </CardHeader>
        <CardBody>
            <!-- FORM FOR NEW TODO ITEMS -->
            <form id="NewItemForm" @onsubmit:preventDefault @onsubmit="() => Create()" class="row row-cols-lg-auto g-3 align-items-center">
                <div class="col-12">
                  <div class="input-group">
                    <input name="NewTodoText" type="text" @bind-value="@NewTodoText" class="form-control" placeholder="enter text..." />
                  </div>
                </div>
                <div class="col-12">
                  <button type="submit" class="btn btn-primary">Submit</button>
                </div>
            </form>
            <!-- TODO ITEMS LIST -->
            <ul id="TodoList">
                @foreach (var todoItem in TodoItems)
                {
                    <li data-id="@todoItem.Id">
                        <i class="far fa-trash-alt"
                           @onclick="() => Delete(todoItem)"
                           ></i> @todoItem.Text
                    </li>
                }
            </ul>
        </CardBody>
    </Card>
</div>

Index.razor.css

As the final touch, open the Index.razor.css file in the Pages folder of the TodoApp.Blazor project and replace it with the following content:

#TodoList{
    list-style: none;
    margin: 0;
    padding: 0;
}

#TodoList li {
    padding: 5px;
    margin: 5px 0px;
    border: 1px solid #cccccc;
    background-color: #f5f5f5;
}

#TodoList li i
{
    opacity: 0.5;
}

#TodoList li i:hover
{
    opacity: 1;
    color: #ff0000;
    cursor: pointer;
}

This is a simple styling for the todo page. We believe that you can do much better :)

Now, you can run the application again to see the result.

Dynamic C# Proxies & Auto API Controllers

In the Index.razor.cs file, we've injected (with the [Inject] attribute) and used the ITodoAppService just like using a local service. Remember that the Blazor application is running on the browser while the implementation of this application service is running on the server.

The magic is done by the ABP Framework's Dynamic C# Client Proxy system. It uses the standard HttpClient and performs HTTP API requests to the remote server. It also handles all the standard tasks for us, including authorization, JSON serialization and exception handling.

However, you may ask that we haven't created any API Controller, so how does the server handle these requests? This question brings us to the Auto API Controller feature of the ABP Framework. It automatically converts the application services to API Controllers by convention.

If you run the TodoApp.HttpApi.Host application, you can see the Todo API:

Service Proxy Generation

ABP provides a handy feature to automatically create client-side services to easily consume HTTP APIs provided by the server.

You first need to run the TodoApp.HttpApi.Host project since the proxy generator reads API definitions from the server application.

Warning: There is an issue with IIS Express: it doesn't allow connecting to the application from another process. If you are using Visual Studio, select the TodoApp.HttpApi.Host instead of IIS Express in the run button drop-down list, as shown in the figure below:

Once you run the TodoApp.HttpApi.Host project, open a command-line terminal in the angular folder and type the following command:

abp generate-proxy -t ng

If everything goes well, it should generate an output as shown below:

CREATE src/app/proxy/generate-proxy.json (170978 bytes)
CREATE src/app/proxy/README.md (1000 bytes)
CREATE src/app/proxy/todo.service.ts (794 bytes)
CREATE src/app/proxy/models.ts (66 bytes)
CREATE src/app/proxy/index.ts (58 bytes)

We can then use todoService to use the server-side HTTP APIs, as we'll do in the next section.

home.component.ts

Open the /angular/src/app/home/home.component.ts file and replace its content with the following code block:

import { ToasterService } from '@abp/ng.theme.shared';
import { Component, OnInit } from '@angular/core';
import { TodoItemDto, TodoService } from '@proxy';

@Component({
  selector: 'app-home',
  templateUrl: './home.component.html',
  styleUrls: ['./home.component.scss']
})
export class HomeComponent implements OnInit {

  todoItems: TodoItemDto[];
  newTodoText: string;

  constructor(
      private todoService: TodoService,
      private toasterService: ToasterService)
  { }

  ngOnInit(): void {
    this.todoService.getList().subscribe(response => {
      this.todoItems = response;
    });
  }
  
  create(): void{
    this.todoService.create(this.newTodoText).subscribe((result) => {
      this.todoItems = this.todoItems.concat(result);
      this.newTodoText = null;
    });
  }

  delete(id: string): void {
    this.todoService.delete(id).subscribe(() => {
      this.todoItems = this.todoItems.filter(item => item.id !== id);
      this.toasterService.info('Deleted the todo item.');
    });
  }  
}

We've used todoService to get the list of todo items and assigned the returning value to the todoItems array. We've also added create and delete methods. These methods will be used on the view side.

home.component.html

Open the /angular/src/app/home/home.component.html file and replace its content with the following code block:

<div class="container">
  <div class="card">
    <div class="card-header">
      <div class="card-title">TODO LIST</div>
    </div>
    <div class="card-body">
      <!-- FORM FOR NEW TODO ITEMS -->
      <form class="row row-cols-lg-auto g-3 align-items-center" (ngSubmit)="create()">
        <div class="col-12">
          <div class="input-group">
            <input name="NewTodoText" type="text" [(ngModel)]="newTodoText" class="form-control" placeholder="enter text..." />
          </div>
        </div>
        <div class="col-12">
          <button type="submit" class="btn btn-primary">Submit</button>
        </div>
      </form>
      <!-- TODO ITEMS LIST -->
      <ul id="TodoList">
        <li *ngFor="let todoItem of todoItems">
          <i class="fa fa-trash-o" (click)="delete(todoItem.id)"></i> {%{{{ todoItem.text }}}%}
        </li>
      </ul>
    </div>
  </div>
</div>

home.component.scss

As the final touch, open the /angular/src/app/home/home.component.scss file and replace its content with the following code block:

#TodoList{
    list-style: none;
    margin: 0;
    padding: 0;
}

#TodoList li {
    padding: 5px;
    margin: 5px 0px;
    border: 1px solid #cccccc;
    background-color: #f5f5f5;
}

#TodoList li i
{
    opacity: 0.5;
}

#TodoList li i:hover
{
    opacity: 1;
    color: #ff0000;
    cursor: pointer;
}

This is a simple styling for the todo page. We believe that you can do much better :)

Now, you can run the application again to see the result.

Conclusion

In this tutorial, we've built a very simple application to warm up for the ABP Framework. If you are looking to build a serious application, please check the web application development tutorial which covers all the aspects of real-life web application development.

Source Code

You can find source code of the completed application here.

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Index.md

Index.md

Quick Start

Pre-Requirements

Install ABP CLI Tool

Create Your ABP Solution

Create the Database

Run the Application

Domain Layer

Database Integration

Mapping Configuration

Code First Migrations

Application Layer

Application Service Interface

Data Transfer Object

Application Service Implementation

Getting Todo Items

Creating a New Todo Item

Deleting a Todo Item

User Interface Layer

Index.cshtml.cs

Index.cshtml

Index.js

Index.css

Dynamic JavaScript Proxies & Auto API Controllers

Index.razor.cs

Index.razor

Index.razor.css

Dynamic C# Proxies & Auto API Controllers

Service Proxy Generation

home.component.ts

home.component.html

home.component.scss

Conclusion

Source Code

See Also

Files

Index.md

Latest commit

History

Index.md

File metadata and controls

Quick Start

Pre-Requirements

Install ABP CLI Tool

Create Your ABP Solution

Create the Database

Run the Application

Domain Layer

Database Integration

Mapping Configuration

Code First Migrations

Application Layer

Application Service Interface

Data Transfer Object

Application Service Implementation

Getting Todo Items

Creating a New Todo Item

Deleting a Todo Item

User Interface Layer

Index.cshtml.cs

Index.cshtml

Index.js

Index.css

Dynamic JavaScript Proxies & Auto API Controllers

Index.razor.cs

Index.razor

Index.razor.css

Dynamic C# Proxies & Auto API Controllers

Service Proxy Generation

home.component.ts

home.component.html

home.component.scss

Conclusion

Source Code

See Also