The Readup API server is written in ASP.NET 3.1. Its main functions are:

• Serving as an interface between the Postgres database and any front-end applications for user data.
• Handling authentication with Apple and Twitter.
• Sending transactional emails, and offers endpoints to send marketing email.
• Generating images from comments, and posting these to connected Twitter accounts via the Twitter API

See the dev-env instructions to set up this API server as a service within a Docker Compose project. This is the easiest way to get started.

By using the container of the Docker Compose service as a VSCode Remote, you can leverage the OmniSharp .NET language tools and IntelliSense while developing without having to install them on your host system.

The .devcontainer/devcontainer.json and Dockerfile have already been set up with the right OmniSharp configuration for this .NET 3.1 project, as long as you installed the Docker Compose project as suggested above.

Learn more about how to load this folder into a VSCode instance within the container here: Developing inside a Container.

To debug the watcher started by default by the container, attach VSCode to the /api/bin/Debug/netcoreapp3.1/api process.

1. Install the .NET Core 3.1 SDK: https://dotnet.microsoft.com/download

2. Configure the ASP.NET core environment for development: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/aspnet/core/fundamentals/environments?view=aspnetcore-3.1#set-the-environment

    export ASPNETCORE_ENVIRONMENT=Development
   

3. Create the following configuration files, making these changes:

   • Replace PG_USER, PG_PASS and DB_NAME under the Database section with the values you chose during the database setup.
   • Set the value for SystemEmojiFontName under the TwitterImageRendering section. The default values are Apple Color Emoji or Segoe UI Emoji for macOS and Windows respectively. When running with Linux, find, install and enter Noto Color Emoji.
   • Optionally set values for Host and Port under the Email.SmtpServer section if you want to capture email messages that would be sent by the server.
   • Optionally set the value for StripeApiSecretKey under the Subscriptions section if you want to perform test purchases through Stripe.
   • Optionally set the value for StripeWebhookSigningSecret under the Subscriptions section if you want to receive and process Stripe webhook events.

   Note the following regarding 3rd party services:

   • AppleID authentication is not supported in development mode.
   • Apple Push Notifications are not supported in development mode.
   • Twitter integration is supported in development mode using the Readup Twitter Test Server: https://github.com/reallyreadit/twitter-test-server

    hostsettings.json
   

   {
   	"urls": "http://0.0.0.0:5000"
   }

    appsettings.json
   

   {
   	"Authentication": {
   		"ApiKey": "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA==",
   		"CookieName": "devSessionKey",
   		"CookieSecure": "Always",
   		"Scheme": "rrit-auth-scheme",
   		"TwitterAuth": {
   			"BrowserAuthCallback": "https://api.dev.readup.org/Auth/TwitterAuthenticationCallback",
   			"BrowserLinkCallback": "https://api.dev.readup.org/Auth/TwitterLinkCallback",
   			"BrowserPopupCallback": "https://api.dev.readup.org/Auth/TwitterPopupCallback",
   			"ConsumerKey": "",
   			"ConsumerSecret": "",
   			"SearchAccount": {
   				"Handle": "",
   				"OAuthToken": "",
   				"OAuthTokenSecret": ""
   			},
   			"TwitterApiServerUrl": "https://twitter-test.dev.readup.org",
   			"TwitterUploadServerUrl": "https://twitter-test.dev.readup.org",
   			"WebViewCallback": "readup://"
   		}
   	},
   	"Captcha": {
   		"VerifyCaptcha": false
   	},
   	"Cookies": {
   		"Domain": ".dev.readup.org"
   	},
   	"Cors": {
   		"AllowedOrigins": [
   			"chrome-extension://",
   			"https://blog.dev.readup.org",
   			"https://dev.readup.org",
   			"moz-extension://",
   			"safari-web-extension://"
   		]
   	},
   	"Database": {
   		"ConnectionString": "Host=localhost;Username=PG_USER;Password=PG_PASS;Database=DB_NAME"
   	},
   	"Embed": {
   		"AllowedHosts": [
   			"blog.dev.readup.org"
   		]
   	},
   	"Email": {
   		"DeliveryMethod": "Smtp",
   		"From": {
   			"Name": "Readup",
   			"Address": "no-reply@readup.org"
   		},
   		"SmtpServer": {
   			"Host": "",
   			"Port": 0
   		}
   	},
   	"Hashids": {
   		"Salt": "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA=="
   	},
   	"PushNotifications": {
   		"ApnsServer": {
   			"Protocol": "https",
   			"Host": "api.sandbox.push.apple.com"
   		},
   		"ClientCertThumbprint": ""
   	},
   	"ReadingVerification": {
   		"EncryptionKey": "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA=="
   	},
   	"ServiceEndpoints": {
   		"ApiServer": {
   			"Protocol": "https",
   			"Host": "api.dev.readup.org"
   		},
   		"StaticContentServer": {
   			"Protocol": "https",
   			"Host": "static.dev.readup.org"
   		},
   		"WebServer": {
   			"Protocol": "https",
   			"Host": "dev.readup.org"
   		}
   	},
   	"Subscriptions": {
   		"AppStoreSandboxUrl": "https://sandbox.itunes.apple.com/verifyReceipt",
   		"AppStoreProductionUrl": "https://buy.itunes.apple.com/verifyReceipt",
   		"ProviderAccountEnvironment": "Production",
   		"StripeApiSecretKey": "",
   		"StripeSubscriptionProductId": "prod_v1_subscription",
   		"StripeWebhookSigningSecret": ""
   	},
   	"Tokenization": {
   		"EncryptionKey": "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA=="
   	},
   	"TwitterImageRendering": {
   		"SystemEmojiFontName": ""
   	}
   }

4. Restore packages

    dotnet restore
   

5. Build and run the server

    dotnet watch run