MyBlog

A hands-on learning project for .NET Aspire orchestration, Blazor Server rendering, and clean architecture.

⚠️ Training Project — This is a learning exercise focused on .NET practices, not a production application.

Overview

MyBlog is a Blazor Server blog application demonstrating modern .NET patterns: Aspire orchestration, CQRS with MediatR, MongoDB persistence, Redis distributed caching, Auth0 authentication, TailwindCSS v4 theming, and comprehensive testing (unit, architecture, integration, bUnit, E2E).

Features

• Blog Management: Create, edit, delete, publish/unpublish blog posts
• CQRS with MediatR: All blog operations handled by MediatR command/query handlers with FluentValidation pipeline
• Redis Caching: L1 (in-memory) + L2 (Redis distributed) cache via IBlogPostCacheService abstraction
• Auth0 Authentication: Secure login with Authorization Code + PKCE flow; Role-Based Authorization (Admin/User policies)
• Blazor TailwindCSS Theming: Dark/light/system modes, 4 color schemes (Blue, Red, Green, Yellow), localStorage persistence
• Aspire Orchestration: MongoDB + Redis as Aspire resources with health checks and OpenTelemetry

Technology Stack

• .NET 10 with C# 14
• .NET Aspire 13.2.3 — Service orchestration, MongoDB + Redis resources, health checks
• Blazor Server (Interactive Server Rendering) — Dynamic UI with TailwindCSS v4 theming
• MongoDB with MongoDB.EntityFrameworkCore — Blog post persistence
• Redis — Distributed caching (L2 cache via IDistributedCache)
• MediatR — CQRS pattern (Create/Update/Delete/GetAll/GetById handlers)
• FluentValidation — Validation pipeline behavior
• Auth0 — Authentication + role-based authorization
• xUnit + FluentAssertions + NSubstitute — Test framework
• bUnit — Blazor component testing
• NetArchTest.Rules — Architecture validation

Project Structure

MyBlog/
├── src/
│   ├── AppHost/              # .NET Aspire orchestration (MongoDB + Redis resources)
│   ├── Domain/               # BlogPost entity, MediatR handlers, validators, IBlogPostCacheService
│   │   ├── Abstractions/     # Result<T>, IBlogPostRepository, IBlogPostCacheService
│   │   ├── Behaviors/        # ValidationBehavior MediatR pipeline
│   │   ├── Entities/         # BlogPost domain entity
│   │   └── Interfaces/       # Repository and cache interfaces
│   ├── ServiceDefaults/      # OpenTelemetry, health checks, Aspire extensions
│   └── Web/                  # Blazor Server application
│       ├── Features/BlogPosts/  # Vertical slice: commands, queries, Blazor pages
│       ├── Infrastructure/Caching/  # BlogPostCacheService (L1+L2 implementation)
│       ├── Components/Theme/ # TailwindCSS theme components
│       ├── Security/         # Auth0 endpoints
│       └── Styles/           # TailwindCSS input.css
├── tests/
│   ├── Unit.Tests/           # Domain entity + handler unit tests
│   ├── Architecture.Tests/   # Layer dependency enforcement
│   ├── Integration.Tests/    # Aspire integration tests
│   ├── AppHost.Tests/        # Aspire AppHost + E2E tests
│   ├── Web.Tests/            # Web layer unit tests
│   ├── Web.Tests.Bunit/      # Blazor component tests (bUnit)
│   └── Web.Tests.Integration/# Web integration tests
├── docs/                     # Documentation + GitHub Pages blog
├── Directory.Build.props     # Centralized build settings
├── Directory.Packages.props  # Centralized NuGet versioning (CPM)
├── global.json               # SDK version lock (.NET 10.0.202)
├── GitVersion.yml            # Semantic versioning config
└── MyBlog.slnx               # Solution file

Getting Started

Prerequisites

• .NET 10 SDK — Download
• Node.js 18+ — for TailwindCSS compilation
• Auth0 account — required for authentication (free tier). See AUTH0_SETUP.md
• MongoDB — MongoDB Atlas or local instance (or let Aspire provision via Docker)
• Redis — Redis instance (or let Aspire provision via Docker)

Setup

1. Clone the repository

   git clone https://github.com/mpaulosky/MyBlog.git
   cd MyBlog

2. Restore .NET dependencies

   dotnet restore

3. Install npm dependencies (for TailwindCSS)

   npm ci

4. Build the solution

   dotnet build

5. Run tests

   dotnet test

6. Run the application (via Aspire AppHost)

   cd src/AppHost
   dotnet run

   The Aspire dashboard will be available at the URL shown in the console.

Testing

Multiple test tiers, all passing:

• Unit.Tests — Domain entity logic and MediatR handler behavior
• Architecture.Tests — Layer dependency enforcement
• Integration.Tests — Aspire integration tests
• AppHost.Tests — .NET Aspire host + E2E tests
• Web.Tests — Web layer unit tests
• Web.Tests.Bunit — Blazor component tests (bUnit)
• Web.Tests.Integration — Web integration tests

Run all tests:

dotnet test

Documentation

• ARCHITECTURE.md — Solution structure, layer diagram, design decisions
• CONTRIBUTING.md — Contribution guidelines and project setup
• AUTH0_SETUP.md — Step-by-step Auth0 configuration for local development
• TESTING.md — Test strategy and running instructions
• THEMING.md — TailwindCSS theme system guide
• SECURITY.md — Security guidelines
• CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md — Community standards
• REFERENCES.md — NuGet and npm package references

Dev Blog

Date	Title	Tags
2026-05-23	Release: v1.5.2 — Markdown Editor and Blog Post Categories	release, v1.5.2, blazor, ui, categories, markdown, sprint-19
2026-05-08	Release: v1.5.1 — AppHost MongoDB Dev Commands Refactor	release, v1.5.1, aspire, mongodb, sprint-18
2026-05-08	Release: v1.5.0 — MongoDB Resource Refactoring and Aspire Dev Commands	release, v1.5.0, aspire, mongodb, devops, sprint-14-18
2026-05-08	Release: v1.4.0 — Board Automation and Test Harness Hardening	release, v1.4.0, board-automation, testing, ci-cd, sprints-10-13
2026-04-30	Release: v1.3.0 — Complete xUnit v3 Migration and Code Quality	release, v1.3.0, testing, xunit, code-quality, sprints-6-8
2026-04-24	Release: v1.2.0 — Redis Caching and L1/L2 Cache Strategy	release, v1.2.0, redis, caching, aspire, sprint-5
2026-04-24	Release: v1.1.0 — Blazor Theme System with TailwindCSS v4	release, v1.1.0, blazor, tailwind, theme, testing, sprint-4
2026-04-20	Release: v1.0.0 — Semantic Versioning and Production Readiness	release, semver, ci, devops
2026-04-20	Sprint 3: E2E Testing and CI Hardening	e2e, aspire, ci, testing, sprint-3
2026-04-20	Sprint 2: CQRS and MediatR Deep Dive	cqrs, mediatr, testing, domain, sprint-2

Release History

Version	Date	Highlights
v1.5.2	2026-05-23	Markdown Editor & Categories — Blog post categories, markdown editing, ObjectId migration
v1.5.1	2026-05-08	MongoDB Dev Commands — AppHost diagnostic commands, resource refinement
v1.5.0	2026-05-08	MongoDB Refactoring — Resource abstractions, Aspire dev commands, infrastructure hardening
v1.4.0	2026-05-08	Board Automation — GitHub project automation, test harness hardening, CI/CD improvements
v1.3.0	2026-04-30	xUnit v3 Migration — Complete test framework upgrade, code quality enhancements
v1.2.0	2026-04-24	Redis & Caching — IBlogPostCacheService L1+L2, handler cache integration
v1.1.0	2026-04-24	Themes & Testing — TailwindCSS v4 themes, test project reorganization, E2E fixes
v1.0.1	2026-04-20	Automatic semver versioning enabled
v1.0.0	2026-04-20	First semantic version release

License

Licensed under the MIT License. See LICENSE file for details.

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Status: Training Project | .NET 10 | v1.5.2 | Maintained by: @mpaulosky