CandleWise is a portfolio management app that I built as part of my exploration journey into .NET Core development. This series documented my learning process with Visual Studio, Docker, and deployment to Azure. While this was a learning project rather than a real-world application, I shared all the steps as I discovered them. In that guide, I covered setting up a development environment by installing Visual Studio 2022 and .NET Core 6.0 SDK, then creating an ASP.NET Core Web API project as my foundation.
I chose .NET Core 6, an open-source, cross-platform framework from Microsoft, for this learning project. As I explored its features and capabilities, I documented how its tools and libraries could be used to build a simple portfolio tracking system, which helped me understand the fundamentals of modern .NET development.
After setting up my environment, I created my first model and configured the API. This established the groundwork for how data was stored and how client-server communication worked. I set up endpoints for creating, reading, updating, and deleting data—critical operations for any portfolio management system. Future articles explored these aspects in greater detail.
CandleWise - A Portfolio Management App (Part 1): Environment Setup
CandleWise - Part 2: Integrating a third party API
CandleWise - Part 3: Deploying App to Azure
CandleWise - Part 4: Automating Deployment CI/CD
The foundation of any successful software development project lies in a well-prepared development environment. For developing my stock exchange system with .NET Core 6, I used Visual Studio 2022 and .NET Core 6.0 SDK.
First, I downloaded and installed Visual Studio from the official Microsoft website. I started with the Community Edition that was free to use. I made sure to install the .NET Core 6.0 SDK, which provided me with all the necessary libraries and command-line tools needed for .NET development.
Next, I created a new project in Visual Studio. In the 'Create a new project' window, I searched for 'ASP.NET Core Web API'. I selected the 'ASP.NET Core Web API' template, then clicked 'Next'.
I provided a name and location for my project, then clicked 'Next'. This set up a new ASP.NET Core Web API project, which became the backbone of my stock exchange system.
In the "Additional Information" dialog box, I chose ".NET 6.0" from the "Framework" dropdown. I checked the options "Configure for HTTPS", "Enable OpenAPI support" and "Use controllers". These settings ensured my project was set up with secure communication, API documentation, and a more traditional MVC-style controller structure. Finally I clicked "Create".