Jason Watmore's Blog A Web Developer in Sydney
Published: May 25 2021
Last updated: January 07 2022

.NET 5.0 - Simple API for Authentication, Registration and User Management

Tutorial built with .NET 5.0

Other versions available:

In this tutorial we'll go through an example .NET 5.0 API that supports user registration, login with JWT authentication and user CRUD operations.

For an extended example that includes email verification, role based authorization and forgot password functionality see .NET 5.0 - Boilerplate API with Email Sign Up, Verification, Authentication & Forgot Password.

The API is configured to use a local SQLite database in development and a SQL Server database in production. It uses Entity Framework Core migrations to automatically generate the database on startup, for more info on EF Core migrations see https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/ef/core/managing-schemas/migrations.

The tutorial project code is available on GitHub at https://github.com/cornflourblue/dotnet-5-registration-login-api.


.NET 5.0 Tutorial Contents


Tools required to run the .NET 5.0 Tutorial Example Locally

To develop and run .NET 5.0 applications locally, download and install the following:

  • .NET SDK - includes the .NET runtime and command line tools
  • Visual Studio Code - code editor that runs on Windows, Mac and Linux
  • C# extension for Visual Studio Code - adds support to VS Code for developing .NET applications


Run the .NET Tutorial API Locally

  1. Download or clone the tutorial project code from https://github.com/cornflourblue/dotnet-5-registration-login-api
  2. Start the api by running dotnet run from the command line in the project root folder (where the WebApi.csproj file is located), you should see the message Now listening on: http://localhost:4000. Follow the instructions below to test with Postman or hook up with one of the example single page applications available (Angular, Blazor, React or Vue).

NOTE: You can also start the application in debug mode in VS Code by opening the project root folder in VS Code and pressing F5 or by selecting Debug -> Start Debugging from the top menu. Running in debug mode allows you to attach breakpoints to pause execution and step through the application code.


Test the .NET 5.0 API with Postman

Postman is a great tool for testing APIs, you can download it at https://www.postman.com/downloads.

Below are instructions on how to use Postman to register a new user with the .NET api, authenticate a user to get a JWT token, and then make authenticated requests with the JWT token to fetch all users and update a single user.

How to register a new user with Postman

To register a new user with the api follow these steps:

  1. Open a new request tab by clicking the plus (+) button at the end of the tabs.
  2. Change the HTTP method to POST with the dropdown selector on the left of the URL input field.
  3. In the URL field enter the address to the register route of your local API - http://localhost:4000/users/register.
  4. Select the Body tab below the URL field, change the body type radio button to raw, and change the format dropdown selector to JSON.
  5. Enter a JSON object containing the required user properties in the Body textarea, e.g: 
    {
    "firstName": "Jason",
    "lastName": "Watmore",
    "username": "jason",
    "password": "my-super-secret-password"
}
  6. Click the Send button, you should receive a "200 OK" response with a "Registration successful" message.

Here's a screenshot of Postman after the request is sent and the new user has been registered:


How to authenticate a user with Postman

To authenticate a user with the api and get a JWT token follow these steps:

  1. Open a new request tab by clicking the plus (+) button at the end of the tabs.
  2. Change the HTTP method to POST with the dropdown selector on the left of the URL input field.
  3. In the URL field enter the address to the authenticate route of your local API - http://localhost:4000/users/authenticate.
  4. Select the Body tab below the URL field, change the body type radio button to raw, and change the format dropdown selector to JSON.
  5. Enter a JSON object containing the username and password in the Body textarea: 
    {
    "username": "jason",
    "password": "my-super-secret-password"
}
  6. Click the Send button, you should receive a "200 OK" response with the user details including a JWT token in the response body, make a copy of the token value because we'll be using it in the next step to make an authenticated request.

Here's a screenshot of Postman after the request is sent and the user has been authenticated:


How to make an authenticated request to retrieve all users

To make an authenticated request using the JWT token from the previous step, follow these steps:

  1. Open a new request tab by clicking the plus (+) button at the end of the tabs.
  2. Change the HTTP method to GET with the dropdown selector on the left of the URL input field.
  3. In the URL field enter the address to the users route of your local API - http://localhost:4000/users.
  4. Select the Authorization tab below the URL field, change the type to Bearer Token in the type dropdown selector, and paste the JWT token from the previous authenticate step into the Token field.
  5. Click the Send button, you should receive a "200 OK" response containing a JSON array with all the user records in the system.

Here's a screenshot of Postman after making an authenticated request to get all users:


How to update a user with Postman

To update a user with the api follow these steps:

  1. Open a new request tab by clicking the plus (+) button at the end of the tabs.
  2. Change the HTTP method to PUT with the dropdown selector on the left of the URL input field.
  3. In the URL field enter the address to the /users/{id} route with the id of the user you registered above, e.g - http://localhost:4000/users/1.
  4. Select the Authorization tab below the URL field, change the type to Bearer Token in the type dropdown selector, and paste the JWT token from the previous authenticate step into the Token field.
  5. Select the Body tab below the URL field, change the body type radio button to raw, and change the format dropdown selector to JSON.
  6. Enter a JSON object in the Body textarea containing the properties you want to update, for example to update the first and last names: 
    {
    "firstName": "Foo",
    "lastName": "Bar"
}
  7. Click the Send button, you should receive a "200 OK" response with the message "User updated successfully".

Here's a screenshot of Postman after the request is sent and the user has been updated:

 


Run an Angular client app with the .NET 5.0 Tutorial API

For full details about the example Angular application see the post Angular 10 - User Registration and Login Example & Tutorial. But to get up and running quickly just follow the below steps.

  1. Install Node.js and npm from https://nodejs.org.
  2. Download or clone the Angular 10 tutorial code from https://github.com/cornflourblue/angular-10-registration-login-example
  3. Install all required npm packages by running npm install from the command line in the project root folder (where the package.json is located).
  4. Remove or comment out the line below the comment // provider used to create fake backend located in the /src/app/app.module.ts file.
  5. Start the application by running npm start from the command line in the project root folder, this will launch a browser displaying the application and it should be hooked up with the .NET 5.0 API that you already have running.


Run a Blazor WebAssembly (WASM) client app with the .NET 5.0 Tutorial API

For full details about the example Blazor application see the post Blazor WebAssembly - User Registration and Login Example & Tutorial. But to get up and running quickly just follow the below steps.

  1. Download or clone the tutorial project code from https://github.com/cornflourblue/blazor-webassembly-registration-login-example
  2. Change the "fakeBackend" setting to "false" in the /wwwroot/appsettings.json file.
  3. Start the Blazor app by running dotnet run from the command line in the project root folder (where the BlazorApp.csproj file is located)
  4. Open a new browser tab and navigate to the URL http://localhost:5000, the Blazor app should be hooked up with the .NET 5.0 API that you already have running.

NOTE: To enable hot reloading during development so the Blazor app automatically restarts when a file is changed, start the app with the command dotnet watch run.


Run a React client application with the .NET 5.0 Tutorial API

For full details about the example React application see the post React Hooks + Redux - User Registration and Login Tutorial & Example. But to get up and running quickly just follow the below steps.

  1. Install Node.js and npm from https://nodejs.org.
  2. Download or clone the React tutorial code from https://github.com/cornflourblue/react-hooks-redux-registration-login-example
  3. Install all required npm packages by running npm install from the command line in the project root folder (where the package.json is located).
  4. Remove or comment out the 2 lines below the comment // setup fake backend located in the /src/index.jsx file.
  5. Start the application by running npm start from the command line in the project root folder, this will launch a browser displaying the application and it should be hooked up with the .NET 5.0 API that you already have running.


Running a Vue client application with the .NET 5.0 Tutorial API

For full details about the example Vue application see the post Vue + Vuex - User Registration and Login Tutorial & Example. But to get up and running quickly just follow the below steps.

  1. Install Node.js and npm from https://nodejs.org.
  2. Download or clone the Vue tutorial code from https://github.com/cornflourblue/vue-vuex-registration-login-example
  3. Install all required npm packages by running npm install from the command line in the project root folder (where the package.json is located).
  4. Remove or comment out the 2 lines below the comment // setup fake backend located in the /src/index.js file.
  5. Start the application by running npm start from the command line in the project root folder, this will launch a browser displaying the application and it should be hooked up with the .NET 5.0 API that you already have running.


.NET 5.0 Tutorial Project Structure

The .NET tutorial project is organised into the following folders:

Authorization
Contains the classes responsible for implementing custom JWT authentication and authorization in the api.

Controllers
Define the end points / routes for the web api, controllers are the entry point into the web api from client applications via http requests.

Migrations
Database migration files based on the classes in the /Entities folder that are used to automatically create and update the database for the api. Migrations are generated with the Entity Framework Core CLI, the migrations in this example were generated with the following commands for the different database providers.
SQLite EF Core Migrations:
dotnet ef migrations add InitialCreate --context SqliteDataContext --output-dir Migrations/SqliteMigrations
SQL Server EF Core Migrations (Windows Command):
set ASPNETCORE_ENVIRONMENT=Production
dotnet ef migrations add InitialCreate --context DataContext --output-dir Migrations/SqlServerMigrations
SQL Server EF Core Migrations (Windows PowerShell):
$env:ASPNETCORE_ENVIRONMENT="Production"
dotnet ef migrations add InitialCreate --context DataContext --output-dir Migrations/SqlServerMigrations
SQL Server EF Core Migrations (MacOS):
ASPNETCORE_ENVIRONMENT=Production dotnet ef migrations add InitialCreate --context DataContext --output-dir Migrations/SqlServerMigrations
For more info see .NET 5.0 - Entity Framework Migrations for Multiple Databases.

Models
Represent request and response models for controller methods, request models define the parameters for incoming requests, and response models define the data that is returned.

Services
Contain business logic, validation and database access code.

Entities
Represent the application data that is stored in the database.
Entity Framework Core (EF Core) maps relational data from the database to instances of C# entity objects to be used within the application for data management and CRUD operations.

Helpers
Anything that doesn't fit into the above folders.

Click any of the below links to jump down to a description of each file along with its code:

 

Allow Anonymous Attribute

Path: /Authorization/AllowAnonymousAttribute.cs

The custom [AllowAnonymous] attribute is used to allow anonymous access to specified action methods of controllers that are decorated with the [Authorize] attribute. It's used in the users controller to allow anonymous access to the register and login action methods. The custom authorize attribute below skips authorization if the action method is decorated with [AllowAnonymous].

I created a custom allow anonymous (instead of using the built in one) for consistency and to avoid ambiguous reference errors between namespaces.

using System;

namespace WebApi.Authorization
{
    [AttributeUsage(AttributeTargets.Method)]
    public class AllowAnonymousAttribute : Attribute
    { }
}
 

Authorize Attribute

Path: /Authorization/AuthorizeAttribute.cs

The custom [Authorize] attribute is used to restrict access to controllers or specified action methods. Only authorized requests are allowed to access action methods that are decorated with the [Authorize] attribute.

When a controller is decorated with the [Authorize] attribute all action methods are restricted to authorized requests, except for methods decorated with the custom [AllowAnonymous] attribute above.

Authorization is performed by the OnAuthorization method which checks if there is an authenticated user attached to the current request (context.HttpContext.Items["User"]). An authenticated user is attached by the custom jwt middleware if the request contains a valid JWT access token.

On successful authorization no action is taken and the request is passed through to the controller action method, if authorization fails a 401 Unauthorized response is returned.

using Microsoft.AspNetCore.Http;
using Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc;
using Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc.Filters;
using System;
using System.Linq;
using WebApi.Entities;

namespace WebApi.Authorization
{
    [AttributeUsage(AttributeTargets.Class | AttributeTargets.Method)]
    public class AuthorizeAttribute : Attribute, IAuthorizationFilter
    {
        public void OnAuthorization(AuthorizationFilterContext context)
        {
            // skip authorization if action is decorated with [AllowAnonymous] attribute
            var allowAnonymous = context.ActionDescriptor.EndpointMetadata.OfType<AllowAnonymousAttribute>().Any();
            if (allowAnonymous)
                return;

            // authorization
            var user = (User)context.HttpContext.Items["User"];
            if (user == null)
                context.Result = new JsonResult(new { message = "Unauthorized" }) { StatusCode = StatusCodes.Status401Unauthorized };
        }
    }
}
 

JWT Middleware

Path: /Authorization/JwtMiddleware.cs

The custom JWT middleware extracts the JWT token from the request Authorization header (if there is one) and validates it with the jwtUtils.ValidateToken() method. If validation is successful the user id from the token is returned, and the authenticated user object is attached to the HttpContext.Items collection to make it accessible within the scope of the current request.

If token validation fails or there is no token, the request is only allowed to access public (anonymous) routes because there isn't an authenticated user object attached to the HTTP context. The authorization logic that checks the user object is attached is located in the custom authorize attribute, and if authorization fails it returns a 401 Unauthorized response.

using Microsoft.AspNetCore.Http;
using Microsoft.Extensions.Options;
using System.Linq;
using System.Threading.Tasks;
using WebApi.Helpers;
using WebApi.Services;

namespace WebApi.Authorization
{
    public class JwtMiddleware
    {
        private readonly RequestDelegate _next;

        public JwtMiddleware(RequestDelegate next)
        {
            _next = next;
        }

        public async Task Invoke(HttpContext context, IUserService userService, IJwtUtils jwtUtils)
        {
            var token = context.Request.Headers["Authorization"].FirstOrDefault()?.Split(" ").Last();
            var userId = jwtUtils.ValidateToken(token);
            if (userId != null)
            {
                // attach user to context on successful jwt validation
                context.Items["User"] = userService.GetById(userId.Value);
            }

            await _next(context);
        }
    }
}
 

JWT Utils

Path: /Authorization/JwtUtils.cs

The JWT utils class contains methods for generating and validating JWT tokens.

The GenerateToken() method generates a JWT token with the id of the specified user as the "id" claim, meaning the token payload will contain the property "id": <userId> (e.g. "id": 1).

The ValidateToken() method attempts to validate the provided JWT token and return the user id ("id") from the token claims. If validation fails null is returned.

using Microsoft.Extensions.Options;
using Microsoft.IdentityModel.Tokens;
using System;
using System.IdentityModel.Tokens.Jwt;
using System.Linq;
using System.Security.Claims;
using System.Text;
using WebApi.Entities;
using WebApi.Helpers;

namespace WebApi.Authorization
{
    public interface IJwtUtils
    {
        public string GenerateToken(User user);
        public int? ValidateToken(string token);
    }

    public class JwtUtils : IJwtUtils
    {
        private readonly AppSettings _appSettings;

        public JwtUtils(IOptions<AppSettings> appSettings)
        {
            _appSettings = appSettings.Value;
        }

        public string GenerateToken(User user)
        {
            // generate token that is valid for 7 days
            var tokenHandler = new JwtSecurityTokenHandler();
            var key = Encoding.ASCII.GetBytes(_appSettings.Secret);
            var tokenDescriptor = new SecurityTokenDescriptor
            {
                Subject = new ClaimsIdentity(new[] { new Claim("id", user.Id.ToString()) }),
                Expires = DateTime.UtcNow.AddDays(7),
                SigningCredentials = new SigningCredentials(new SymmetricSecurityKey(key), SecurityAlgorithms.HmacSha256Signature)
            };
            var token = tokenHandler.CreateToken(tokenDescriptor);
            return tokenHandler.WriteToken(token);
        }

        public int? ValidateToken(string token)
        {
            if (token == null) 
                return null;

            var tokenHandler = new JwtSecurityTokenHandler();
            var key = Encoding.ASCII.GetBytes(_appSettings.Secret);
            try
            {
                tokenHandler.ValidateToken(token, new TokenValidationParameters
                {
                    ValidateIssuerSigningKey = true,
                    IssuerSigningKey = new SymmetricSecurityKey(key),
                    ValidateIssuer = false,
                    ValidateAudience = false,
                    // set clockskew to zero so tokens expire exactly at token expiration time (instead of 5 minutes later)
                    ClockSkew = TimeSpan.Zero
                }, out SecurityToken validatedToken);

                var jwtToken = (JwtSecurityToken)validatedToken;
                var userId = int.Parse(jwtToken.Claims.First(x => x.Type == "id").Value);

                // return user id from JWT token if validation successful
                return userId;
            }
            catch
            {
                // return null if validation fails
                return null;
            }
        }
    }
}
 

Users Controller

Path: /Controllers/UsersController.cs

The .NET users controller defines and handles all routes / endpoints for the api that relate to users, this includes authentication, registration and standard CRUD operations. Within each route the controller calls the user service to perform the action required, this enables the controller to stay 'lean' and completely separated from the database / persistence code.

The controller actions are secured with JWT using the [Authorize] attribute, with the exception of the Authenticate and Register methods which allow public access by overriding the [Authorize] attribute on the controller with [AllowAnonymous] attributes on each action method. I chose this approach so any new action methods added to the controller will be secure by default unless explicitly made public.

using AutoMapper;
using Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc;
using Microsoft.Extensions.Options;
using WebApi.Authorization;
using WebApi.Helpers;
using WebApi.Models.Users;
using WebApi.Services;

namespace WebApi.Controllers
{
    [Authorize]
    [ApiController]
    [Route("[controller]")]
    public class UsersController : ControllerBase
    {
        private IUserService _userService;
        private IMapper _mapper;
        private readonly AppSettings _appSettings;

        public UsersController(
            IUserService userService,
            IMapper mapper,
            IOptions<AppSettings> appSettings)
        {
            _userService = userService;
            _mapper = mapper;
            _appSettings = appSettings.Value;
        }

        [AllowAnonymous]
        [HttpPost("authenticate")]
        public IActionResult Authenticate(AuthenticateRequest model)
        {
            var response = _userService.Authenticate(model);
            return Ok(response);
        }

        [AllowAnonymous]
        [HttpPost("register")]
        public IActionResult Register(RegisterRequest model)
        {
            _userService.Register(model);
            return Ok(new { message = "Registration successful" });
        }

        [HttpGet]
        public IActionResult GetAll()
        {
            var users = _userService.GetAll();
            return Ok(users);
        }

        [HttpGet("{id}")]
        public IActionResult GetById(int id)
        {
            var user = _userService.GetById(id);
            return Ok(user);
        }

        [HttpPut("{id}")]
        public IActionResult Update(int id, UpdateRequest model)
        {
            _userService.Update(id, model);
            return Ok(new { message = "User updated successfully" });
        }

        [HttpDelete("{id}")]
        public IActionResult Delete(int id)
        {
            _userService.Delete(id);
            return Ok(new { message = "User deleted successfully" });
        }
    }
}
 

User Entity

Path: /Entities/User.cs

The user entity class represents the data stored in the database for users.

Entity classes are also used to pass data between different parts of the application (e.g. between services and controllers) and can be used to return http response data from controller action methods.

The [JsonIgnore] attribute prevents the PasswordHash property from being serialized and returned in api responses.

using System.Text.Json.Serialization;

namespace WebApi.Entities
{
    public class User
    {
        public int Id { get; set; }
        public string FirstName { get; set; }
        public string LastName { get; set; }
        public string Username { get; set; }

        [JsonIgnore]
        public string PasswordHash { get; set; }
    }
}
 

App Exception

Path: /Helpers/AppException.cs

The app exception is a custom exception class used to differentiate between handled and unhandled exceptions in the .NET API. Handled exceptions are generated by application code and used to return friendly error messages, for example business logic or validation exceptions caused by invalid request parameters, whereas unhandled exceptions are generated by the .NET framework or caused by bugs in application code.

using System;
using System.Globalization;

namespace WebApi.Helpers
{
    // Custom exception class for throwing application specific exceptions (e.g. for validation) 
    // that can be caught and handled within the application
    public class AppException : Exception
    {
        public AppException() : base() {}

        public AppException(string message) : base(message) { }

        public AppException(string message, params object[] args) 
            : base(String.Format(CultureInfo.CurrentCulture, message, args))
        {
        }
    }
}
 

App Settings

Path: /Helpers/AppSettings.cs

The app settings class contains properties defined in the appsettings.json file and is used for accessing application settings via objects that are injected into classes using the .NET 5.0 dependency injection (DI) system. For example the users controller accesses app settings via an IOptions<AppSettings> appSettings object that is injected into its constructor.

Mapping of configuration sections to classes is done in the ConfigureServices method of the project startup file.

namespace WebApi.Helpers
{
    public class AppSettings
    {
        public string Secret { get; set; }
    }
}
 

AutoMapper Profile

Path: /Helpers/AutoMapperProfile.cs

The automapper profile contains the mapping configuration used by the application, AutoMapper is a package available on Nuget that enables automatic mapping of one type of classes to another. In this example we're using it to map between User entities and a few different model types - AuthenticateResponse, RegisterRequest and UpdateRequest.

using AutoMapper;
using WebApi.Entities;
using WebApi.Models.Users;

namespace WebApi.Helpers
{
    public class AutoMapperProfile : Profile
    {
        public AutoMapperProfile()
        {
            // User -> AuthenticateResponse
            CreateMap<User, AuthenticateResponse>();

            // RegisterRequest -> User
            CreateMap<RegisterRequest, User>();

            // UpdateRequest -> User
            CreateMap<UpdateRequest, User>()
                .ForAllMembers(x => x.Condition(
                    (src, dest, prop) =>
                    {
                        // ignore null & empty string properties
                        if (prop == null) return false;
                        if (prop.GetType() == typeof(string) && string.IsNullOrEmpty((string)prop)) return false;

                        return true;
                    }
                ));
        }
    }
}
 

Data Context

Path: /Helpers/DataContext.cs

The data context is used for accessing application data through Entity Framework Core and is configured to connect to a SQL Server database. It derives from the EF Core DbContext class and has a public Users property for accessing and managing user data. The data context is used by the user service for handling all low level data operations.

In development environments the api is configured to use the SQLite data context which inherits from DataContext and overrides the db provider to connect to a local SQLite database instead of SQL Server.

using Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore;
using Microsoft.Extensions.Configuration;
using WebApi.Entities;

namespace WebApi.Helpers
{
    public class DataContext : DbContext
    {
        protected readonly IConfiguration Configuration;

        public DataContext(IConfiguration configuration)
        {
            Configuration = configuration;
        }

        protected override void OnConfiguring(DbContextOptionsBuilder options)
        {
            // connect to sql server database
            options.UseSqlServer(Configuration.GetConnectionString("WebApiDatabase"));
        }

        public DbSet<User> Users { get; set; }
    }
}
 

Global Error Handler Middleware

Path: /Helpers/ErrorHandlerMiddleware.cs

The global error handler is used catch all errors and remove the need for duplicated error handling code throughout the .NET api. It's configured as middleware in the Configure method of the project startup file.

Errors of type AppException are treated as custom (app specific) errors that return a 400 Bad Request response, the .NET built-in KeyNotFoundException class is used to return 404 Not Found responses, all other exceptions are unhandled and return a 500 Internal Server Error response.

See the user service for examples of custom errors and not found errors thrown by the api.

using Microsoft.AspNetCore.Http;
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Net;
using System.Text.Json;
using System.Threading.Tasks;

namespace WebApi.Helpers
{
    public class ErrorHandlerMiddleware
    {
        private readonly RequestDelegate _next;

        public ErrorHandlerMiddleware(RequestDelegate next)
        {
            _next = next;
        }

        public async Task Invoke(HttpContext context)
        {
            try
            {
                await _next(context);
            }
            catch (Exception error)
            {
                var response = context.Response;
                response.ContentType = "application/json";

                switch(error)
                {
                    case AppException e:
                        // custom application error
                        response.StatusCode = (int)HttpStatusCode.BadRequest;
                        break;
                    case KeyNotFoundException e:
                        // not found error
                        response.StatusCode = (int)HttpStatusCode.NotFound;
                        break;
                    default:
                        // unhandled error
                        response.StatusCode = (int)HttpStatusCode.InternalServerError;
                        break;
                }

                var result = JsonSerializer.Serialize(new { message = error?.Message });
                await response.WriteAsync(result);
            }
        }
    }
}
 

SQLite Data Context

Path: /Helpers/SqliteDataContext.cs

The SQLite data context is used by the api in development environments, it inherits from the main data context and overrides the provider to use SQLite instead of SQL Server.

using Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore;
using Microsoft.Extensions.Configuration;

namespace WebApi.Helpers
{
    public class SqliteDataContext : DataContext
    {
        public SqliteDataContext(IConfiguration configuration) : base(configuration) { }

        protected override void OnConfiguring(DbContextOptionsBuilder options)
        {
            // connect to sqlite database
            options.UseSqlite(Configuration.GetConnectionString("WebApiDatabase"));
        }
    }
}
 

SQLite Migrations

Path: /Migrations/SqliteMigrations

Entity Framework Core migrations for the SQLite database provider used in development environments.

The migrations in this example were generated with the command dotnet ef migrations add InitialCreate --context SqliteDataContext --output-dir Migrations/SqliteMigrations.

The migrations are generated for SQLite because the SqliteDataContext class is configured to connect to a SQLite database. The SqliteDataContext inherits from the main DataContext class and overrides the provider to use SQLite instead of SQL Server. This enables the project to support multiple different database providers for different environments.

 

SQL Server Migrations

Path: /Migrations/SqlServerMigrations

Entity Framework Core migrations for the SQL Server database provider used in production environments.

The migrations in this example were generated with the below command.

Windows Command:
set ASPNETCORE_ENVIRONMENT=Production
dotnet ef migrations add InitialCreate --context DataContext --output-dir Migrations/SqlServerMigrations
Windows PowerShell:
$env:ASPNETCORE_ENVIRONMENT="Production"
dotnet ef migrations add InitialCreate --context DataContext --output-dir Migrations/SqlServerMigrations
MacOS:
ASPNETCORE_ENVIRONMENT=Production dotnet ef migrations add InitialCreate --context DataContext --output-dir Migrations/SqlServerMigrations

The environment variable ASPNETCORE_ENVIRONMENT must be set to Production for the SQL Server DataContext class to be configured with the .NET dependency injection system, see the ConfigureServices() method of the startup class.

 

Authenticate Request Model

Path: /Models/Users/AuthenticateRequest.cs

The authenticate request model defines the parameters for incoming POST requests to the /users/authenticate route, it is attached to the route by setting it as the parameter to the Authenticate action method of the users controller. When an HTTP POST request is received by the route, the data from the body is bound to an instance of the AuthenticateRequest class, validated and passed to the method.

.NET Data Annotations are used to automatically handle model validation, the [Required] attribute sets both the username and password as required fields so if either are missing a validation error message is returned from the api.

using System.ComponentModel.DataAnnotations;

namespace WebApi.Models.Users
{
    public class AuthenticateRequest
    {
        [Required]
        public string Username { get; set; }

        [Required]
        public string Password { get; set; }
    }
}
 

Authenticate Response Model

Path: /Models/Users/AuthenticateResponse.cs

The authenticate response model defines the data returned by the Authenticate method of the users controller. It includes basic user details and a JWT token.

namespace WebApi.Models.Users
{
    public class AuthenticateResponse
    {
        public int Id { get; set; }
        public string FirstName { get; set; }
        public string LastName { get; set; }
        public string Username { get; set; }
        public string Token { get; set; }
    }
}
 

Register Request Model

Path: /Models/Users/RegisterRequest.cs

The register request model defines the parameters for incoming POST requests to the /users/register route, it is attached to the route by setting it as the parameter to the Register action method of the users controller. When an HTTP POST request is received by the route, the data from the body is bound to an instance of the RegisterRequest class, validated and passed to the method.

.NET Data Annotations are used to automatically handle model validation, the [Required] attribute sets all fields as required so if any are missing a validation error message is returned from the api.

using System.ComponentModel.DataAnnotations;

namespace WebApi.Models.Users
{
    public class RegisterRequest
    {
        [Required]
        public string FirstName { get; set; }

        [Required]
        public string LastName { get; set; }

        [Required]
        public string Username { get; set; }

        [Required]
        public string Password { get; set; }
    }
}
 

Update Request Model

Path: /Models/Users/UpdateRequest.cs

The update request model defines the parameters for incoming PUT requests to the /users/{id} route, it is attached to the route by setting it as the parameter to the Update action method of the users controller. When an HTTP PUT request is received by the route, the data from the body is bound to an instance of the UpdateRequest class, validated and passed to the method.

None of the properties have the [Required] attribute so they are all optional, and any omitted fields are not updated in the database.

namespace WebApi.Models.Users
{
    public class UpdateRequest
    {
        public string FirstName { get; set; }
        public string LastName { get; set; }
        public string Username { get; set; }
        public string Password { get; set; }
    }
}
 

User Service

Path: /Services/UserService.cs

The user service is responsible for all database interaction and core business logic related to user authentication, registration and management (CRUD operations).

The top of the file contains an interface that defines the user service, just below that is the concrete user service class that implements the interface. BCrypt is used to hash and verify passwords, for more info see .NET 5.0 - Hash and Verify Passwords with BCrypt.

using AutoMapper;
using BCryptNet = BCrypt.Net.BCrypt;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using WebApi.Authorization;
using WebApi.Entities;
using WebApi.Helpers;
using WebApi.Models.Users;

namespace WebApi.Services
{
    public interface IUserService
    {
        AuthenticateResponse Authenticate(AuthenticateRequest model);
        IEnumerable<User> GetAll();
        User GetById(int id);
        void Register(RegisterRequest model);
        void Update(int id, UpdateRequest model);
        void Delete(int id);
    }

    public class UserService : IUserService
    {
        private DataContext _context;
        private IJwtUtils _jwtUtils;
        private readonly IMapper _mapper;

        public UserService(
            DataContext context,
            IJwtUtils jwtUtils,
            IMapper mapper)
        {
            _context = context;
            _jwtUtils = jwtUtils;
            _mapper = mapper;
        }

        public AuthenticateResponse Authenticate(AuthenticateRequest model)
        {
            var user = _context.Users.SingleOrDefault(x => x.Username == model.Username);

            // validate
            if (user == null || !BCryptNet.Verify(model.Password, user.PasswordHash))
                throw new AppException("Username or password is incorrect");

            // authentication successful
            var response = _mapper.Map<AuthenticateResponse>(user);
            response.Token = _jwtUtils.GenerateToken(user);
            return response;
        }

        public IEnumerable<User> GetAll()
        {
            return _context.Users;
        }

        public User GetById(int id)
        {
            return getUser(id);
        }

        public void Register(RegisterRequest model)
        {
            // validate
            if (_context.Users.Any(x => x.Username == model.Username))
                throw new AppException("Username '" + model.Username + "' is already taken");

            // map model to new user object
            var user = _mapper.Map<User>(model);

            // hash password
            user.PasswordHash = BCryptNet.HashPassword(model.Password);

            // save user
            _context.Users.Add(user);
            _context.SaveChanges();
        }

        public void Update(int id, UpdateRequest model)
        {
            var user = getUser(id);

            // validate
            if (model.Username != user.Username && _context.Users.Any(x => x.Username == model.Username))
                throw new AppException("Username '" + model.Username + "' is already taken");

            // hash password if it was entered
            if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(model.Password))
                user.PasswordHash = BCryptNet.HashPassword(model.Password);

            // copy model to user and save
            _mapper.Map(model, user);
            _context.Users.Update(user);
            _context.SaveChanges();
        }

        public void Delete(int id)
        {
            var user = getUser(id);
            _context.Users.Remove(user);
            _context.SaveChanges();
        }

        // helper methods

        private User getUser(int id)
        {
            var user = _context.Users.Find(id);
            if (user == null) throw new KeyNotFoundException("User not found");
            return user;
        }
    }
}
 

.NET App Settings (Development)

Path: /appsettings.Development.json

Configuration file with application settings that are specific to the development environment, including the connection string for the local SQLite development database.

{
  "ConnectionStrings": {
    "WebApiDatabase": "Data Source=LocalDatabase.db"
  },
  "Logging": {
    "LogLevel": {
      "Default": "Debug",
      "System": "Information",
      "Microsoft": "Information"
    }
  }
}
 

.NET App Settings

Path: /appsettings.json

Root configuration file containing default application settings for all environments (unless overridden in environment config). Includes placeholder for your production SQL Server connection string.

IMPORTANT: The "Secret" property is used by the api to sign and verify JWT tokens for authentication, update it with your own random string to ensure nobody else can generate a JWT to gain unauthorized access to your application.

{
  "AppSettings": {
    "Secret": "THIS IS USED TO SIGN AND VERIFY JWT TOKENS, REPLACE IT WITH YOUR OWN SECRET, IT CAN BE ANY STRING"
  },
  "ConnectionStrings": {
    "WebApiDatabase": "ENTER PRODUCTION SQL SERVER CONNECTION STRING HERE"
  },
  "Logging": {
    "LogLevel": {
      "Default": "Information",
      "Microsoft": "Warning",
      "Microsoft.Hosting.Lifetime": "Information"
    }
  },
  "AllowedHosts": "*"
}
 

OmniSharp Config

Path: /omnisharp.json

This file contains configuration options for the C# extension in VS Code. The useBundledOnly option tells the C# extension to use the bundled version of MSBuild instead of the global version to prevent errors if you have an older version of MSBuild installed globally (e.g. as part of Visual Studio).

{
    "msbuild": {
        "useBundledOnly": true
    }
}
 

.NET Program

Path: /Program.cs

The program class is a console app that is the main entry point to start the application, it configures and launches the web api host and web server using an instance of IHostBuilder. .NET 5.0 applications require a host in which to execute.

Kestrel is the web server used in the example, it's a new cross-platform web server for .NET that's included in new project templates by default. Kestrel is fine to use on it's own for internal applications and development, but for public facing websites and applications it should sit behind a more mature reverse proxy server (IIS, Apache, Nginx etc) that will receive HTTP requests from the internet and forward them to Kestrel after initial handling and security checks.

using Microsoft.AspNetCore.Hosting;
using Microsoft.Extensions.Hosting;

namespace WebApi
{
    public class Program
    {
        public static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            CreateHostBuilder(args).Build().Run();
        }

        public static IHostBuilder CreateHostBuilder(string[] args) =>
            Host.CreateDefaultBuilder(args)
                .ConfigureWebHostDefaults(webBuilder =>
                {
                    webBuilder.UseStartup<Startup>()
                        .UseUrls("http://localhost:4000");
                });
    }
}
 

.NET Startup

Path: /Startup.cs

The startup class configures the services available to the .NET Dependency Injection (DI) container in the ConfigureServices method, and configures the .NET request pipeline for the application in the Configure method.

using Microsoft.AspNetCore.Builder;
using Microsoft.AspNetCore.Hosting;
using Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore;
using Microsoft.Extensions.Configuration;
using Microsoft.Extensions.DependencyInjection;
using Microsoft.Extensions.Hosting;
using System;
using WebApi.Authorization;
using WebApi.Helpers;
using WebApi.Services;

namespace WebApi
{
    public class Startup
    {
        private readonly IWebHostEnvironment _env;
        private readonly IConfiguration _configuration;

        public Startup(IWebHostEnvironment env, IConfiguration configuration)
        {
            _env = env;
            _configuration = configuration;
        }

        // add services to the DI container
        public void ConfigureServices(IServiceCollection services)
        {
            // use sql server db in production and sqlite db in development
            if (_env.IsProduction())
                services.AddDbContext<DataContext>();
            else
                services.AddDbContext<DataContext, SqliteDataContext>();

            services.AddCors();
            services.AddControllers();
            services.AddAutoMapper(AppDomain.CurrentDomain.GetAssemblies());

            // configure strongly typed settings objects
            services.Configure<AppSettings>(_configuration.GetSection("AppSettings"));

            // configure DI for application services
            services.AddScoped<IJwtUtils, JwtUtils>();
            services.AddScoped<IUserService, UserService>();
        }

        // configure the HTTP request pipeline
        public void Configure(IApplicationBuilder app, IWebHostEnvironment env, DataContext dataContext)
        {
            // migrate any database changes on startup (includes initial db creation)
            dataContext.Database.Migrate();

            app.UseRouting();

            // global cors policy
            app.UseCors(x => x
                .AllowAnyOrigin()
                .AllowAnyMethod()
                .AllowAnyHeader());

            // global error handler
            app.UseMiddleware<ErrorHandlerMiddleware>();

            // custom jwt auth middleware
            app.UseMiddleware<JwtMiddleware>();

            app.UseEndpoints(x => x.MapControllers());
        }
    }
}
 

.NET Web Api csproj

Path: /WebApi.csproj

The csproj (C# project) is an MSBuild based file that contains target framework and NuGet package dependency information for the application.

<Project Sdk="Microsoft.NET.Sdk.Web">
  <PropertyGroup>
    <TargetFramework>net5.0</TargetFramework>
  </PropertyGroup>
  <ItemGroup>
    <PackageReference Include="AutoMapper" Version="10.1.1" />
    <PackageReference Include="AutoMapper.Extensions.Microsoft.DependencyInjection" Version="8.1.1" />
    <PackageReference Include="BCrypt.Net-Next" Version="4.0.2" />
    <PackageReference Include="Microsoft.AspNetCore.Authentication.JwtBearer" Version="5.0.6" />
    <PackageReference Include="Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore" Version="5.0.6" />
    <PackageReference Include="Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.Design" Version="5.0.6">
      <IncludeAssets>runtime; build; native; contentfiles; analyzers; buildtransitive</IncludeAssets>
      <PrivateAssets>all</PrivateAssets>
    </PackageReference>
    <PackageReference Include="Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.Sqlite" Version="5.0.6" />
    <PackageReference Include="Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.SqlServer" Version="5.0.6" />
    <PackageReference Include="System.IdentityModel.Tokens.Jwt" Version="6.11.0" />
  </ItemGroup>
</Project>

 


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