Decibels - Real-world E-commerce Application

Decibels is a real-world e-commerce application for musical instruments, deployed on Azure. It showcases the use of a wide range of modern technologies and development practices. (To complete a test purchase, use card number 4242424242424242 with any valid future expiry date and CVC)

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Technologies & Architecture

.NET Stack

• .NET 8 (ASP.NET Core MVC)
• Entity Framework Core (Code-First): For seamless database interaction and schema management.
• ASP.NET Core Identity: Robust user authentication and authorization system.
• Role Management: Implemented for granular access control (e.g., Customer, Admin, Employee, Company).
• Areas: For better organization and modularity of the application.
• Session & Cookie Management: For handling user sessions and preferences.
• LINQ: For efficient data querying.
• Repository and Unit of Work Patterns: Applied for a clean, testable, and maintainable data access layer.
• N-Tier Architecture: Ensuring clear separation of concerns within the application layers.

Azure Services & Cloud Practices

• Azure App Service: Hosting the web application with a focus on scalability and reliability.   - Deployment Slots (Staging and Production): For zero-downtime deployments and testing in a pre-production environment.   - Secure Configuration with Application Settings: Managing sensitive data (e.g., connection strings, API keys) securely in the cloud, separate from source code.
• Azure SQL Server & SQL Database: Reliable and scalable relational database for storing application data.
• Azure Blob Storage: Utilized for persistent storage and serving of product images, enhancing performance and scalability.
• Azure Active Directory Workload Identity: For secure, automated authentication of CI/CD pipelines to Azure resources, eliminating the need for secrets in GitHub Actions.
• GitHub Actions CI/CD: Automated pipelines for Continuous Integration and Continuous Deployment to both staging and production environments.

Core Features

• Product Catalog: Users can view and browse a wide range of musical instruments.
• User Registration & Authentication: Secure registration and login functionalities.
• Shopping Cart Management: Comprehensive CRUD operations for customers to manage their cart items.
• Order Management: Full CRUD capabilities for order processing, accessible by authorized roles (Customer/Admin/Employee/Company).
• Secure Payments (Stripe): Integration of Stripe for seamless and secure payment processing.
• Social Login: Enhanced user experience with Facebook registration/login.
• Responsive Design: Ensuring optimal viewing experience across various devices (desktop, tablet, mobile).
• REST API: Underlying API design for data interaction.

Libraries & Tools

• Bootstrap v5: Modern and responsive frontend framework for UI components.
• DataTables: For interactive and efficient display of tabular data.
• Toastr: For elegant and non-intrusive notification messages.
• SSMS (SQL Server Management Studio): For database management and querying.
• TinyMCE: Rich text editing