ASP.NET Backend + WPF Frontend

A robust, distributed desktop application architecture consisting of a WPF (Windows Presentation Foundation) client and an ASP.NET Core Web API backend.

This project was built to demonstrate enterprise-level .NET engineering practices, strictly separating the user interface (Desktop Client) from business logic and data persistence (RESTful API).

🧠 What I Learned & Implemented

This architecture was designed to showcase modern C# engineering standards. Key technical milestones include:

• Distributed System Architecture: Decoupled the desktop client from direct database access. The WPF app communicates exclusively via asynchronous HTTP requests to a secure ASP.NET Core REST API.
• MVVM Pattern Mastery (WPF): Strictly adhered to the Model-View-ViewModel pattern in the desktop application to ensure total separation of concerns, testability, and UI responsiveness. Implemented INotifyPropertyChanged and custom ICommand interfaces.
• RESTful API Design (ASP.NET): Built a scalable backend using ASP.NET Core controllers, handling routing, status codes, and JSON serialization.
• Asynchronous Programming: Extensive use of async/await and Task throughout the entire data flow (from UI button clicks to database queries) to prevent UI thread blocking.
• Data Access (Entity Framework Core): Implemented EF Core for database operations using the Code-First approach, managing migrations and relationships cleanly.
• Dependency Injection: Utilized the built-in .NET IoC container in the API for injecting database contexts and services.

🛠 Technologies & Architecture

Frontend (Client):

• Framework: WPF (.NET 10.0)
• Language: C#
• Architecture: MVVM (Model-View-ViewModel)
• Libraries: Newtonsoft.Json / System.Text.Json, HttpClient

Backend (API):

• Framework: ASP.NET Core Web API
• Language: C#
• ORM: Entity Framework Core
• Database: MariaDB
• Documentation: Swagger / OpenAPI

🚀 Quick Start (Developer Experience)

The solution is divided into two main projects. To run the application locally, you must start the API backend first, followed by the WPF desktop client.

Prerequisites

• IDE (with .NET desktop development and ASP.NET workloads)
• .NET 10.0 SDK
• A local SQL server running

1. Setup & Run the ASP.NET Core API

1. Clone the repository: git clone https://github.com/JUSICK/ASP.NET-WPF.git
2. Open the .slnx (Solution) file in your IDE.
3. Set the CsFullStackApp project as the Startup Project.
4. Open appsettings.json and ensure the MariaDbConnection points to your local database instance. (IF you are opening using CLI - dotnet restore for installing NuGet packages)
5. Open the Package Manager Console and update the database (FOR Visual Studio):

   Update-Database

6. Open the CLI and update the database (FOR Rider JetBrains):

   cd .\MyFullStackAppApi\
   dotnet ef database update