What's new in Intent Architect (February 2024)

Welcome to the February 2024 edition of highlights of What's New in Intent Architect.

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Smarter Merging for C# files

Previously, when Merge mode was used in C# files, the merging algorithm would add any content generated by the template which is missing in the existing file and no content would ever be removed.

As of Intent Architect 4.2, the Software Factory will now also store pre-code merging template output of all files allowing the code merging to intelligently know when content is no longer generated and should be removed.

This means now that for most templates, Merge mode is the ideal mode to operate in.

Available from:

  • Intent Architect 4.2+ (presently in beta)
  • Intent.OutputManager.RoslynWeaver 4.7.0 (currently in pre-release)

Model your Domain and persist it in a Redis Stack through Object Mapper

Redis Domain Modeling

This module brings in a new Document Database Provider, Redis OM, allowing you to realize your Document DB paradigm Domain Models with a Redis Stack persistence layer. This module includes:

  • Modeler customizations.
  • Repositories using Object Mapper.
  • Unit of work pattern.

For more detail, refer to the module documentation.

Available from:

  • Intent.Redis.Om.Repositories 1.0.0

Send Integration Commands using MassTransit

Send a command to a specific recipient through a designated queue.

New Integration Command

For more detail, refer to the module documentation.

Available from:

  • Intent.Eventing.MassTransit 6.0.2

Model Request/Response interactions over message brokers with MassTransit

Use MassTransit to exchange commands/queries between applications, similar to HTTP calls, via a message broker.

Request/Response proxies

For more detail, refer to the module documentation.

Available from:

  • Intent.Eventing.MassTransit.RequestResponse 1.0.0

ASP.NET Core Integration Tests module

This module adds an xUnit testing project to your ASP.NET Core application with integrations tests which can be run to validate that your application is working end-to-end against containerized infrastructure, like databases, e.g. MS SQL Server, PostgreSQL or Cosmos DB Emulator. These tests do not replace Unit testing but rather compliment them ensuring the individually tested pieces work together correctly.

[IntentManaged(Mode.Merge, Signature = Mode.Fully)]
[Collection("SharedContainer")]
public class MyCustomEndpointTests : BaseIntegrationTest
{
    public MyCustomEndpointTests(IntegrationTestWebAppFactory factory) : base(factory)
    {
    }

    [Fact]
    public async Task MyCustomEndpoint_ShouldDoX()
    {
        //Arrange
        var client = new MyCustomServiceHttpClient(CreateClient());

        //Act
        client.InvokeMyCustomEndpoint();

        //Assert
        ...
    }
}

See the module documentation for more details.

Available from:

  • Intent.AspNetCore.IntegrationTesting 1.0.1

ASP.NET Core Integration Tests CRUD module

This module extends the Intent.AspNetCore.IntegrationTesting module, offering test implementations for CRUD style services. It does this by consuming your Service Designer's Services, Commands and Querys, generating an Integration test for each Endpoint.

For a service to be eligible is must implement at least:

  • Create{Entity} - returning either the Primary Key or a DTO with a mapped Primary Key.
  • Get{Entity}ById - returning an Entity based DTO taking a single parameter of the entity's primary key.
[Fact]
public async Task CreateCustomer_ShouldCreateCustomer()
{
    //Arrange
    var client = new CustomersServiceHttpClient(CreateClient());

    var dataFactory = new TestDataFactory(WebAppFactory);
    await dataFactory.CreateCustomerDependencies();

    var command = dataFactory.CreateCommand<CustomerCreateDto>();

    //Act
    var customerId = await client.CreateCustomerAsync(command);

    //Assert
    var customer = await client.FindCustomerByIdAsync(customerId);
    Assert.NotNull(customer);
}

See the module documentation for more details.

Available from:

  • Intent.AspNetCore.IntegrationTests.CRUD 1.0.1

Quartz.NET Scheduler

This module allows you to model scheduled jobs in the Services Designer. These scheduled job are then realized using the Quartz.NET Scheduler.

Modeled scheduled jobs

See the module documentation for more details.

Available from:

  • Intent.QuartzScheduler 1.0.0

HTTP file upload / download support

In Service Designer there are 2 new content menu options :

  • Expose as Http File Upload, available on Commands and Service Operations
  • Expose as Http File Download, available on Commands, Querys and Service Operations

Content Menu

Leading to service endpoints as follows:

Service Endpoint

These options will configure your service endpoint to Upload / Download a file.

Available from:

  • Intent.AspNetCore.Controllers 6.0.3

Windows Service Hosting

A new Windows Service Host Application Template is now available for designing Windows Service applications.

Windows Service Application Template

Available from:

  • Intent.WindowsServiceHost 1.0.0

Cosmos DB optimistic concurrency through eTags

We have introduced optimistic concurrency using eTags into our Cosmos DB patterns, this pattern ensures documents which are read and written back, within a transaction, are not modified externally between the read and the write.

To this end we introduced a new setting to the Cosmos DB module:

  • Use Optimistic Concurrency, this setting enables / disables optimistic concurrency through the use of eTags and is on by default.

Cosmos DB Config

This is a behavioral change in the module, you can simply turn off this feature to have parity with what the module was doing previously.

Available from:

  • Intent.CosmosDB 1.1.0

Document DB Domain Designer key automation enhancements

The designers key automation is now configurable:

  • All - The designer will manage keys on document / aggregate roots, as well as Compositional child collections.
  • Only on Documents - The designer will only manage keys on documents / aggregate roots

All is how the designer previously worked and is the default, Only on Documents is a new option for teams who want to manage child keys more explicitly.

Document DB Key Automation Options

Available from:

  • Intent.Metadata.DocumentDB 1.1.10

Support for Oracle Database Provider for Entity Framework Core

"Oracle" is now an available option under "Database Provider" within "Database Settings" for which the correct configuration will now be generated.

Available from:

  • Intent.EntityFrameworkCore 4.6.1

Visual Studio Solution Folder creation for static content templates

When a static content template's output is set to a solution folder, it will now create corresponding solution sub-folders for sub-folders of the static content files.

Additionally, it is now possible to set an output folder prefix for the file system output path of the static content files.

For more information refer to the How to generate static files article.

Available from:

  • Intent.VisualStudio.Projects 3.6.0