What's new in Intent Architect (July 2023)

Welcome to the July 2023 edition of highlights of What's New in Intent Architect.

Update details

Module based documentation

We are adding module orientated documentation, which can be accessed through the modules ProjectUrl. This documentation takes the form of a mark down readme file, which is available in the module repository, the idea being, all our modules will eventually have documentation available in this way.

Module Documentation

As an example, the Intent.Modules.EntityFrameworkCore modules documentation is available here.

SignalR (Preview)

Introduced capability to model communication from Service to Clients using SignalR.

This makes working with SignalR not only simple but opens up the ability to model contracts which can be shared between Clients and Services and can be automated.

Note

This is in Preview and may be subject to change.

Overview

Available from:

  • Intent.AspNetCore.SignalR 1.0.0-beta.0

ASP.NET Health Checks

Add Health checks to your ASP.NET Core app to monitor various aspects of your application to determine if is responding to requests normally.

Health check endpoint

See how your application fares by inspecting database connections, message bus connections, etc. All updated automatically when modules that are aware of the health check module's presence.

Health Check Endpoint

Publish metrics to your APM

Automatically publish metrics that help track your application's heartbeat to something like Azure Application Insight's Metrics to measure how healthy your application is and setup alerts under certain conditions.

Health Check Metrics

Health Check UI

View visually how your application is doing if you're not planning on using an APM. Health Check UI gives you webhook capabilities to notify in the event if something goes wrong.

Health Check UI

Available from:

  • Intent.AspNetCore.HealthChecks 1.0.0

Basic Auditing for Entity Framework Core

Extend Domain Entities to have fields that record which user created / updated them and at what time.

It is now only a matter of opening the context menu for a Class and selecting Toggle Basic Auditing.

Basic Auditing Apply

It will produce these fields that are maintained by the module.

Basic Auditing Applied

When a Class gets created / updated, it will automatically update the timestamps and the user who touched it.

Available from:

  • Intent.EntityFrameworkCore.BasicAuditing 1.0.0

Support for CustomAsync(…) to FluentValidation modules

FluentValidation's CustomAsync(…) allows adding of custom validation failure messages which, as with other validation failure messages, is populated into a ASP.NET Core's RFC 7807 compliant ProblemDetails response.

Previously, the Validations' stereotype had a Has Custom Validation checkbox property which would create a .MustAsync(…) invocation and corresponding method stub on the validator. This property has now been replaced with a more appropriately named Must property and its value is automatically migrated from the old Has Custom Validation property.

A new Custom checkbox property has been added to the stereotype and when checked it will create a .CustomAsync(…) invocation and corresponding method stub:

private void ConfigureValidationRules()
{
        RuleFor(v => v.Field)
                .NotNull()
                .CustomAsync(ValidateFieldAsync);
}

[IntentManaged(Mode.Fully, Body = Mode.Ignore)]
private async Task ValidateFieldAsync(
        string value,
        ValidationContext<ValidatedCommand> validationContext,
        CancellationToken cancellationToken)
{
        validationContext.AddFailure("Custom failure message");
}

The Validations' stereotype now appears (depending on the field's type) similar to the following:

Validations stereotype properties

Available from:

  • Intent.Application.FluentValidation 3.7.2
  • Intent.Application.FluentValidation.Dtos 3.6.1
  • Intent.Application.MediatR.FluentValidation 4.3.0

Blazor HttpClients

It is now possible to generate Blazor compatible HttpClients for services/operations/CQRS endpoints modelled in the Service Designer of same or different Intent Architect applications.

Once the module is installed, in the Web Client Designer use the New Service Proxy context menu option to get started.

Details and examples on using this module are available in the module's README.

Available from:

  • Intent.Blazor.HttpClients 1.0.1

Entity Framework Core - Module Documentation

We have released documentation around using and configuring EF in Intent. This documentation takes the form of a mark down read me, which is available in the module repository. We have also included this link as the modules Project Url, the idea being, all our modules will eventually have documentation available in this way.

The documentation is viewable here.

Available from:

  • Intent.EntityFrameworkCore 4.4.6

Services Paginate feature

The Service Designer now has a Paginate command to make it easier to configure pagination on your Querys and Operations.

Paginate Command

Configuring the relevant paging data.

Paginated Command

Available from:

  • Intent.Application.Dtos.Pagination 4.0.5

Swagger - OAuth 2.0 Implicit Flows

The Swagger modules now support setting up OAuth 2.0 Implicit Flow authentication for the Swagger UI. To enable this, in your application settings change Authentication to OAuth 2.0 - Implicit.

Configure Swagger UI

You then need to configure the relevant security settings in the app.setting file.

"Swashbuckle": {
    "Security": {
        "OAuth2": {
            "Implicit": {
                "AuthorizationUrl": "[AuthorizationUrl]",
                "TokenUrl": "[TokenUrl]",
                "Scope": {
                    "[Scope Description]": "[ScopeUrl]"
                },
                "ClientId": "[ClientId]"
                        }
                    }
                }
            }

Available from:

  • Intent.AspNetCore.Swashbuckle.Security 4.0.4

RDBMS Improved Schema modeling

A new Schema stereotype has been added, which can be applied to Classs, Folders and / or Packages.

This stereotype works hierarchically i.e. if you apply it to a Package all tables / views in the package will belong to that schema. Similarly you can apply the Schema stereotype to a folder, all tables / views under that folder belong to that schema.

The "Closest" Schema stereotype to the Class will apply.

Note. If you have Table or View stereotypes with schema's specified these are more specific and will override the Schema stereotype. If you do not fill the schema in on these stereotypes, the schema name will fall back to the "Closest" Schema stereotype.

Available from:

  • Intent.EntityFrameworkCore 4.4.6

Clone/Copy App feature

The Clone Application, which was available in previous versions of Intent Architect, is now available in version 4. It is now called Copy Application and is available on the Application context menu.

Clone / Copy Application available on application context menu

Available from:

  • Intent Architect 4.0.2

MediatR NuGet packages upgraded to 12.1

We have upgraded our MediatR modules from using version 10.x of the NuGet packages to use the latest 12.1.x packages. Although the changes to MediatR NuGet packages are considered "breaking", Intent Architect's MediatR module is able to fix these breaking changes in your codebase automatically.

Note

Intent Architect 4.0.3 is required for this update.

Noteworthy changes you can expect to see.

  • Dependency Injection registrations for MediatR are now done through the MediatrServiceConfiguration.
  • CommandHandlers and QueryHandlers which do not return results now return Task instead of Task<Unit> and no longer need to return Unit.Value.
  • CommandHandlers, QueryHandlers and PipelineBehaviours method signatures changed in some scenarios.
  • PipelineBehaviours must be registered with MediatrServiceConfiguration not directly with the container.
  • PipelineBehaviours generic constraints change from TRequest : IRequest<TResponse> to TRequest : notnull.
Important

If you have any custom MediatR PipelineBehaviours, please ensure you upgrade them appropriately and ensure they are still running as expected.

Relevant MediatR migration guides:

Available from:

  • Intent.Application.MediatR 4.1.0
  • Intent.Application.DependencyInjection.MediatR 3.5.0
  • Intent.Application.MediatR.Behaviours 4.2.0
  • Intent.MediatR.DomainEvents 4.3.0
  • Intent.Application.MediatR.CRUD 5.2.0

Control index column sort directions

When defining Indexes either through the Add Index or the Index stereotype, you can now specify the sort direction of either Ascending or Descending. Sort direction is Ascending by default.

Sort Direction

Available from:

  • Intent.EntityFrameworkCore 4.4.6

CRUD CQRS available on folders

Create CQRS CRUD Operations is now also available on Folders within the Services Designer.

CRUD from Folders

The Rest route generation algorithm has also been enhanced to include the folder structure into the default REST route.

CRUD from Folders

Available from:

  • Intent.Metadata.WebApi 4.2.4
  • Intent.Application.MediatR.CRUD 5.1.4

EF SQL Table name pluralization convention

There is a new Database Settings setting named Table naming convention available in your application settings.

This setting allows you to configure a convention for your SQL table names. The available options are as follows:

  • Pluralized: The SQL table name will be the pluralized version of the domain model Class's name.
  • Singularized: The SQL table name will be the singularized version of the domain model Class's name.
  • None: The SQL table name will be the same as the domain model Class's name.

The default setting is Pluralized to maintain backwards compatibility.

Available from:

  • Intent.EntityFrameworkCore 4.4.5

Duplicate REST route validation

Added a Services Designer validation to detect duplicate REST Routes for Commands, Querys and Operations.

Available from:

  • Intent.Metadata.WebApi 4.2.5

Duplicate Operation validation

Add a Service Designer validation to detect duplicate operations, i.e. operations where the name and parameter types are identical.

Available from:

  • Intent.Modelers.Services 3.4.7

CQRS - Map Constructor / Operation support inheritance mappings

Both Map Constructor and Map Operation commands now support mapping from base classes.

Map constructor to base class

Available from:

  • Intent.Modelers.Domain 3.4.5

XML documentation comment support for Operation parameters

Enhanced XML Documentation Comment generation to add Operation Parameter comments to the generated Service and Service Interface classes.

/// <summary>
/// Removes a customer.
/// </summary>
/// <param name="id">>The customer Id of the customer to remove.</param>
[IntentManaged(Mode.Fully, Body = Mode.Fully)]
public async Task DeleteCustomer(Guid id, CancellationToken cancellationToken = default)

Available from:

  • Intent.Application.ServiceImplementations 4.3.1
  • Intent.Application.Contracts 5.0.2

Composite primary key support for repositories

Repositories now provide support for composite primary keys if required. The syntax for composite usage is as follows.

var existingMyEntity = await _myEntityRepository.FindByIdAsync((request.KeyPart1Id, request.KeyPart2), cancellationToken);

Available from:

  • Intent.Entities.Repositories.Api 4.1.1
  • Intent.EntityFrameworkCore.Repositories 4.2.6

Improved composite and general key support for Expose as Http

There was a general overhaul of the algorithm which generated the default REST routes. The algorithm now better supports:

  • Composite Primary Keys
  • Non-conventionally names primary keys i.e. primary keys not named id or {entity name}Id

Composite keys will result in routes similar to /api/entity/{key1}/{key2}.

Available from:

  • Intent.Metadata.WebApi 4.2.4

Blazor account controller proxy module

The module will generate a HttpClient proxy for the AccountController produced by the Intent.AspNetCore.Identity.AccountController module. This proxy can be used to easily interact with the controller's endpoints from within a Blazor application.

Available from:

  • Intent.Blazor.HttpClients.AccountController 1.0.0

Code generated by CORS module is now configuration driven

The CORS policies to apply are now configuration driven. A CorsPolicies section is automatically added to your appsettings.json file(s) with the following default configuration:

{
  "CorsPolicies": {
    "Default": {
      "Origins": [
        "*"
      ],
      "Methods": [
        "*"
      ],
      "Headers": [
        "*"
      ]
    }
  }
}

As this default configuration is completely open, it's advised to update it to be more restrictive based on your application URLs. The configuration supports optional Default and Named sections, here is an example of a more complex configuration as JSON:

{
  "CorsPolicies": {
    "Default": {
      "Origins": [
        "https://application1.example.com/",
        "https://application2.example.com/"
      ],
      "Methods": [
        ["POST", "GET"]
      ],
      "Headers": [
        "*"
      ],
      "ExposedHeaders": [
        "*"
      ],
      "AllowCredentials": true
    },
    "Named": {
      "CustomPolicy1": {
        "Origins": [
          "https://application3.example.com/"
        ],
        "Methods": [
          ["GET"]
        ],
        "Headers": [
          "*"
        ],
        "ExposedHeaders": [
          "Content-Encoding"
        ]
      },
      "CustomPolicy2": {
        "Origins": [
          "https://application4.example.com/"
        ],
        "Methods": [
          ["PUT"]
        ],
        "Headers": [
          "*"
        ],
        "PreflightMaxAge": "00:01:00"
      }
    }
  }
}

For reference, the configuration is deserialized into the following C# classes so will need to match their structure:

public class CorsPolicies
{
    public PolicyOptions? Default { get; set; }
    public Dictionary<string, PolicyOptions>? Named { get; set; }
}

public class PolicyOptions
{
    public string[]? Origins { get; set; }
    public string[]? Methods { get; set; }
    public string[]? Headers { get; set; }
    public string[]? ExposedHeaders { get; set; }
    public bool AllowCredentials { get; set; }
    public TimeSpan? PreflightMaxAge { get; set; }
}

Available from:

  • Intent.AspNetCore.Cors 3.3.11

Additional SDK options for .csproj files

All .NET Core Available SDKs are now available for selection on .NET Projects in the Visual Studio designer.

Available from:

  • Intent.AspNetCore.Cors 3.3.29

Support for modeling generalizations in Document DB packages in the Domain Designer

Modeling of generalizations is now properly supported for Classes in Document DB packages, in particular, primary keys are updated/removed from derived types based on their presence in base types and associations will correctly check inheritance hierarchies when generating foreign keys.

Relatedly, modules which generate files based on Document DB packages have been updated as needed to work properly in cases of generalization.

Note

At this time, only abstract base types are supported.

Available from:

  • Intent.CosmosDB 1.0.0-alpha.11
  • Intent.Dapr.AspNetCore.StateManagement 1.0.2
  • Intent.Metadata.DocumentDB 1.1.2
  • Intent.MongoDb 1.0.2

FluentValidation max length rules for fields mapped to Class Operation/Constructor parameters

The FluentValidation modules would already generate max length validation rule for Command and DTO fields mapped to Class Attributes of type string with a Text Constraints stereotype with its MaxLength value set. An equivalent rule is now generated for fields mapped to Operation or Constructor Parameters.

FluentValidation NuGet packages upgraded to 11.6.0

Fluent Validation's NuGet packages have been updated from 9.3.0 to version 11.6.0.

More detail can be found with the upgrade guide to version 11.

Available from:

  • Intent.Application.FluentValidation 3.7.0
  • Intent.Application.FluentValidation.Dtos 3.6.0
  • Intent.Application.MediatR.FluentValidation 4.2.0

Microsoft.AspNetCore.Authentication.JwtBearer NuGet package upgraded due to security advisory

Important

Microsoft.AspNetCore.Authentication.JwtBearer NuGet package versions before 6.x may be affected by this security advisory.

So as to not be affected by this known vulnerability, it's advised you install the latest modules listed below which will update the NuGet package as needed.

Available from:

  • Intent.AspNetCore.Identity.AccountController 2.0.2
  • Intent.Security.JWT 4.1.4
  • Intent.Security.MSAL 4.1.4

Http Client mapping to a Service can select specific operations now

Referencing a Service from the Service Proxy designer will now allow you to select specific operations from that Service as opposed to pulling all the operations all the time.

Http Client Operation Selection

Available from:

  • Intent.Integration.HttpClients 4.1.0