🎨 ArtPlatform Microservices Project

A microservices-based ASP.NET Web API platform built for managing users, artists, critiques, subscriptions, portfolios, and artworks. This project helped me master RabbitMQ message queues in a distributed system with independent services, shared logic, and resilient communication.

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🛠️ Technologies Used

• .NET 8 Web API
• Entity Framework Core
• FluentValidation
• JWT Authentication (Custom implementation)
• AutoMapper
• RabbitMQ (required to run project)
• SMTP (Email Notifications)
• BCrypt (Password hashing)
• Docker (optional for RabbitMQ setup)

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📁 Project Structure

ArtPlatform/
├── src/
│   ├── AuthService/
│   ├── UserService/
│   ├── CategoryService/
│   ├── ArtworkService/
│   ├── CritiqueService/
│   ├── PortfolioService/
│   └── SubscriptionService/
└── shared/
    ├── CommonUtils/          # JWT config, SMTP logic, shared utilities
    └── Contracts/            # Event DTOs, Enums, Messaging Contracts

Service Architecture

Each service is independent and contains:

• Its own DbContext, Models, DTOs, Controllers, Validators
• A dedicated RabbitMQ folder for Consumers and Publishers
• Isolated database configuration

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🚀 Getting Started

Prerequisites

• .NET SDK 8+
• Visual Studio 2022+
• RabbitMQ Server – must be running before starting the services

Setup Steps

1. Clone the Repository

   git clone https://github.com/yourusername/artplatform.git
   cd artplatform

2. Open Solution in Visual Studio

   • Open ArtPlatform.sln in Visual Studio 2022+

3. Set Startup Projects

   • Right-click on the Solution → Set Startup Projects...
   • Choose Multiple startup projects
   • Set all services (ArtworkService, AuthService, UserService, CategoryService, CritiqueService, PortfolioService, SubscriptionService) to Start

4. Configure SMTP Credentials

   • Contact me for the SMTP app password and update in the relevant service (likely AuthService or UserService)

5. Start RabbitMQ Server

   • Ensure RabbitMQ is running on your machine
   • Access management interface at http://localhost:15672 (default: guest/guest)

6. Run the Solution

   • Press F5 or click Start in Visual Studio
   • All services will start simultaneously

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📡 RabbitMQ Messaging

Each service communicates via RabbitMQ event queues, enabling asynchronous event-driven interactions.

Example Flow:

• UserService publishes UserCreatedEvent
• SubscriptionService consumes it and reacts accordingly
• All messaging contracts are in the shared/Contracts project to keep event DTOs consistent

Key Benefits:

• Decoupled communication between services
• Resilient message delivery
• Scalable event-driven architecture

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🏗️ Development Notes

This project is intentionally split into 7 microservices to explore and learn:

• ✅ Service independence
• ✅ RabbitMQ messaging
• ✅ Resiliency and modular deployment
• ✅ Event-driven design patterns

Although the app isn't massive, its structure simulates real-world distributed systems and provides hands-on experience with microservices architecture.

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📚 What I Learned

This project gave me hands-on experience with:

• RabbitMQ message queues and event-driven communication
• Microservices architecture and service independence
• DTO separation and validation across services
• Event-driven design in .NET applications
• Distributed system challenges and solutions

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🔧 Configuration

Database Configuration

Each service maintains its own database context and migrations. Update connection strings in appsettings.json for each service as needed.

JWT Configuration

JWT settings are centralized in the CommonUtils shared project for consistency across services.

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📝 API Documentation

Once running, each service exposes its own Swagger documentation:

• AuthService: https://localhost:port/swagger
• UserService: https://localhost:port/swagger
• ArtworkService: https://localhost:port/swagger
• (and so on for each service)
• Postman Collection
• POSTMAN LINK: https://documenter.getpostman.com/view/44023225/2sB34fmgTs

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This project demonstrates microservices architecture with RabbitMQ messaging in a real-world-like distributed system built with .NET 8.