Universal data management system based on scaffolding technology and the .NET Core platform

" Scaffolding is a metaprogramming method for creating web applications that interact with the database. This method is supported by some modern MVC frameworks (Grails, Yii, Ruby on Rails, Django, CakePHP, Phalcon PHP, Symfony, ASP.NET Dynamic Data and other .) The developer in them sets the specifications for which the program code is subsequently generated for creating, reading, updating and deleting certain records in the database. "[1]

" ASP.NET Dynamic Data is a framework that allows you to quickly develop full-featured data-driven applications using LINQ to SQL or the Entity Framework, and also extends the capabilities of the DetailsView, FormView, GridView and ListView controls in terms of functionality, data validation and display.
To put it simply, Dynamic Data is designed to quickly generate front-end for Microsoft SQL Server databases. "[2]

• Building a model not directly from the database, but according to the generated Entity Framework model, which in turn implies the need to transfer a project containing the model in case of a change in the base structure.
• The project was based on obsolete WebForms technology today.
• Only SQL Server supported

• Cross Platform Support
• Support for various databases (currently supports SQL Server and is working on implementing support for MySQL. The plans also include: PostgreSQL, Oracle Database, SQLite).
• Generate database model directly from the database.
• Lookup with advanced search options

The general principle of the system

1. A working directory is created for the database, which is specified in the base application configuration file.
   
   
2. In this directory, a file is created with information about the database connection parameters and file storage connection parameters, as well as the system user accounts are configured.
   
   
3. Then, after the first launch of the system, the user goes to the Administration section and starts the process of building a database model, which will be saved to the working directory in the db.json file.
   
   
4. After the model is built, in principle, you can already work with the system. However, for completely comfortable work, you may need to clarify the parameters of some fields. To simplify the procedure of supporting the configuration file in the future, I provided the opportunity to describe the updated configuration in a separate db_ex.json file. This file is similar in structure to db.json , but it only needs to specify the name of the field, which requires additional configuration and specify those parameters that differ from those generated by default. Splitting the configuration into two separate files allows you not to worry that if in the future you have to update the data model, all custom settings will be lost. And this can happen, for example, if new fields were added to the table, or a new table was created in the database.

Configuration

• db.json - file with description of database schemas
• db_ex.json - file with an extended description of the scheme. Allows you to override field types and other meta information.
• configuration.json - file containing information about connecting to the database, system users and information for connecting to file storages

{ "Tables": [ { "Columns": [ { "Position": 1, "IsKey": true, "IsNullable": false, "Reference": null, "ShowInGrid": false, "AutoIncrement": true, "MaxValue": null, "MinValue": null, "MaxLength": null, "Readonly": true, "Type": 40, "Name": "Id", "Title": "Id", "Description": "" }, { "Position": 2, "IsKey": true, "IsNullable": false, "Reference": null, "ShowInGrid": false, "AutoIncrement": true, "MaxValue": null, "MinValue": null, "MaxLength": null, "Readonly": true, "Type": 40, "Name": "Name", "Title": "Name", "Description": "" }, { "Position": 3, "IsKey": true, "IsNullable": false, "Reference": null, "ShowInGrid": false, "AutoIncrement": true, "MaxValue": null, "MinValue": null, "MaxLength": null, "Readonly": true, "Type": 40, "Name": "Value", "Title": "Value", "Description": "" } ], "ShowInList": false, "Name": "Setting", "Title": "", "Description": " " } ], "Generated": "2016-09-27T00:40:48.9189786+03:00", "ExtendedConfigurationLoaded": false, "Name": "Database", "Title": "Database" } 

 { "Tables": [ { "Columns": [ { "Type": 40, "ShowInGrid": false, "AutoIncrement": true, "Readonly": true, "Name": "Id", "Title": " " }, { "Type": 10, "Name": "Name", "Title": "" }, { "Type": 10, "Name": "Value", "Title": "" } ], "ShowInList": false, "Name": "Setting", "Title": "", "Description": " " } ], "Name": " ", "Title": " " } 

 { "ConnectionString": "Server=...;Database=...;User Id=...;Password=..;", "SecretKey": "secret-key-123", "ApplicationRestartCommand": "", "StorageConfiguration": { "Type": 0, "Url": "http://static.exapmle.com/user_upload/", "Connection": { "Path": "/var/www/example.com/user_upload/" } }, "Users": [{ "Login": "admin", "Password": "admin", "Administrator": true } ] } 

File storage

• FileSystem is the most frequent option when file storage is located on the same server where the management system is running. In this case, the path to the file is specified.
• FTP - file storage is located on a remote server, files are downloaded via FTP (implementation in plans)
• AzureStorage - file storage is located in Microsoft Azure, files are uploaded to Azure Blob Storage (implementation in plans)
• SSH - file storage is located on a remote server, files are downloaded via SSH protocol (implementation in plans)

Afterword