ASP.NET Core Web API – Portfolio Project

Overview

This repository contains a RESTful ASP.NET Core Web API developed as a personal portfolio project.

The project started as a guided learning exercise based on a YouTube tutorial and was later extended to reflect real-world backend development practices such as authentication, database persistence, and containerized deployment.

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Motivation

The purpose of this project was to:

• Gain hands-on experience with ASP.NET Core Web APIs
• Understand JWT-based authentication and authorization
• Work with Entity Framework Core and SQL Server
• Apply clean backend architecture principles
• Prepare an API for real deployment scenarios using Docker

The initial implementation was inspired by the following tutorial:

👉 YouTube Tutorial
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL82C6-O4XrHfrGOCPmKmwTO7M0avXyQKc

The final result goes beyond the tutorial and reflects personal extensions and refinements.

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How the Application Works

• The API is built using ASP.NET Core 8 following REST principles
• Authentication is handled via JWT tokens
• Users authenticate and receive a token, which is required for protected endpoints
• ASP.NET Core Identity manages users and roles
• Entity Framework Core handles database access and migrations
• The database schema is automatically created and updated on startup
• Initial data is seeded to allow immediate interaction with the API
• External financial data is fetched via an HTTP client
• The entire system runs inside Docker containers for consistency and portability

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Tech Stack

• ASP.NET Core 8
• Entity Framework Core
• ASP.NET Core Identity
• JWT (JSON Web Tokens)
• SQL Server
• Docker & Docker Compose
• Swagger / OpenAPI

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Authentication & Authorization

• JWT Bearer authentication
• Token validation (issuer, audience, lifetime, signing key)
• Role-based authorization
• Stateless and secure API communication

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Database & Persistence

• SQL Server as the relational database
• Entity Framework Core as the ORM
• Automatic execution of migrations on application startup
• Pre-seeded data for development and testing

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API Documentation

Swagger is enabled and provides:

• Interactive endpoint testing
• JWT authorization support
• Clear visibility of available API endpoints

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Running the Project (Docker)

The entire backend stack is containerized.

docker compose up --build

Once running:

API available at:

http://localhost:8080

Swagger UI:

http://localhost:8080/swagger

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Why This Project Matters

This project reflects my ability to:

• Build secure backend APIs
• Work with modern .NET tooling
• Design maintainable server-side architectures
• Prepare applications for real deployment scenarios

It represents both learning progression and practical backend development experience.

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License

This project is intended for educational and portfolio purposes.