The API for FlightNode is essentially structured along the lines of the onion architecture concept. Follow that link for a full description of the concept. Because my graphics toolkit is currently limited, my diagram for FlightNode has boxes instead of concentric onion-looking circles...
This release candidate nearly wraps up the user management and volunteer work tracking functionality. There are a small few "should have" features that will be added in a future release. So what's new?
The .NET projects for FlightNode were created in several different Git repositories, thus giving us several small, well-contained, and re-usable projects. These small projects would be installed into the Service project as NuGet packages, which also makes for a faster compile in each discrete solution:
But… this has approach has caused problems.
The first beta release of FlightNode is now alive and in the hands of testers. So what's been delivered?
Wow, you'd think nothing had been happening for the past two months. But that's not the case at all. There are now 6 different GitHub repositories (perhaps a few too many). November and December were heads-down coding months. But now the product is almost ready for an MVP launch... and that has me thinking about error handling. Specifically, logging.
Originally I decided to look into NLog for .NET logging, a product I've never used before. I have experience with the Enterprise Library logging block and with Log4Net, and find them both to be useful but not as... pleasant... as I would like. They don't have the interface I would prefer. But they work. It turns out NLog has basically the same interface, and the same tedious configuration.
In order to run FlightNode locally:
Make local copies of all the repositories mentioned in the Architecture
page. Be sure to configure an upstream remote and follow the workflow
described in Git Tutorials, Workflow, and GUI.
Open the FlightNode.Identity solution in Visual Studio 2015. Open the
Package Manager Console (menu: Tools > NuGet Package Manager > Package Manager Console).
Updated 2021-05-25
Git is a fabulous tool for source control management. While incredibly powerful, it can be a little daunting to learn at first. The following tutorials will help. They are organized from basic to more advanced.
Here is a a brief demonstration of authentication and authorization using the FlightNode.Identity API. Significant help developing this received from ASP.NET Identity 2.1 with ASP.NET Web API 2.2 (Accounts Management) by Taiseer Joudeh.
Requires cloning the FlightNode.Identity and FlightNode.Common repositories.
Once upon a time, not far from downtown high rises, the greens and ponds of a golf course took over a portion of forested river bottomland. The river, having a mind of its own, would periodically flood out the golf course. The players complained about the mosquitoes and the stench of sewage from the treatment plant not far upstream.
Concerned about the quality of the water, and needing an outlet to lower the river's flood levels near downtown, someone decided to do something. The City took over the courses, much to the unfortunate owner's chagrin, and partnered with experts to remake the land. Where fairways once stood, now wetland ponds flow, further cleaning the already-treated waters. The greens were pulled up and natives plants installed, leading to a beautiful renaissance of prairie grasses, wildflowers, and their marshy kin too.
Recently I ran across and old article from Phil Haack, about moving his blog to Jekyll using GitHub. And I realized that this is (or might be?) a perfect solution for managing content about the FlightNode project (though it will not be part of the platform itself).
There is a lot of work to do in terms of getting content up and getting it formatted. This is just the start of getting the framework going, so that I can get all the text and pictures out of my head and into documentation that other team members can use.
