ASP.NET MVC with Authentication and DB-First

Goal: Build an ASP.NET Core MVC application with Entity Framework Core that manages domain entities with role-based authentication and authorization.

1. Create the MVC Project

• Create a new ASP.NET Core Web App (MVC) project on .NET 8.
• Enable HTTPS.
• Enable Individual Accounts authentication.

2. Add Dependencies

Install EF Core + Identity packages compatible with .NET 8.

3. Configure Connection Strings

In appsettings.json, define one or two connection strings depending on whether app data and identity data share the same database.

4. Reverse Engineer Models and DbContext

Use EF Core Power Tools or Scaffold-DbContext.

Example:

Scaffold-DbContext "Name=DefaultConn" Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.SqlServer -OutputDir Models -ContextDir Data -Context AppContext -DataAnnotations

5. Register Services in Program.cs

• Register DbContexts with AddDbContext.
• Register Identity.
• Enable authentication and authorization middleware.
• Map Razor pages.

6. Migrations and Seeding

Use migrations to evolve schema and optional seed data.

Add-Migration InitialCreate -Context IdentityContext -OutputDir Data/Migrations
Update-Database -Context IdentityContext

7. Authentication UI

Scaffold Identity pages (Login, Register, Logout) when customization is needed.

8. Protect Controllers with Roles

[Authorize(Roles = "admin")]
public class AdminController : Controller
{
  public IActionResult Index() => View();
}

9. Validation

Use data annotations such as [Required], [Range], and [EmailAddress] in model properties.

10. Optional Enhancements

• Pagination and sorting
• Filtering UI
• Better error handling and logging