
<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<iframe loading="lazy" title="Intro to Programming (C#) - Part 0: Setting Up Your Development Environment" width="625" height="352" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ui6yITB3Mmw?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>
</div></figure>



<p>This is the first video in my <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLTRWSTA6FPGcP05yhbeufquXjECK7Zu9l" data-type="URL" data-id="https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLTRWSTA6FPGcP05yhbeufquXjECK7Zu9l" target="_blank">Intro to Programming (C#) series</a> on my YouTube channel in which I show you how to set up your development environment as a precursor to upcoming videos in the series.</p>



<p>I show you how to download and install .NET Core and configure Visual Studio Community.</p>



<p><strong>Video notes:</strong></p>



<ul><li>.NET Core download: <a href="https://dotnet.microsoft.com/download" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">https://dotnet.microsoft.com/download</a></li><li>Visual Studio Community download: <a href="https://visualstudio.microsoft.com/vs/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">https://visualstudio.microsoft.com/vs/</a></li></ul>



<p></p>


Intro to Programming (C#) – Part 0: Setting Up Your Development Environment


<figure class="wp-block-embed-youtube wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<iframe loading="lazy" title="What Would You Like to Learn in Software Dev?" width="625" height="352" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/m6Q0cuYEqnw?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>
</div></figure>



<p>I plan to produce a video series on <a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJjowuNoLywGC7ujP74zFJg" data-type="URL" data-id="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJjowuNoLywGC7ujP74zFJg" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">my YouTube channel</a> on how to get started with programming. I will cover how to set up your development environment and creating a basic &#8220;Hello World&#8221; console app using various methods and control structures in a programming language. It is important to get started with a very basic app to help get your feet off the ground and write code as fast as possible.</p>



<p>Later on, I can go over more advanced topics like computer science theory, data structures, setting up a database, and best practices when it comes to creating a desktop, web, or mobile app.</p>



<p>To all the aspiring software developers out there, I would like to ask: what would you like to learn about programming? Leave a comment down below with your ideas.</p>


What Would You Like to Learn in Software Dev?


<figure class="wp-block-image"><img loading="lazy" width="900" height="216" src="https://api.austinsdev.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/4A7u9VvGSRz.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-261" srcset="https://api.austinsdev.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/4A7u9VvGSRz.jpg 900w, https://api.austinsdev.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/4A7u9VvGSRz-500x120.jpg 500w, https://api.austinsdev.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/4A7u9VvGSRz-768x184.jpg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 900px) 100vw, 900px" /></figure>



<p>ASP.NET Core apps are usually built with SQL Server or MySQL and the Entity Framework ORM in mind, but what if you would like to use MongoDB, a document store NoSQL database, with your app instead?</p>



<h2>Add the MongoDB Driver</h2>



<p>First, you must add the official MongoDB driver to your project via NuGet:</p>



<pre class="wp-block-code lang-powershell"><code>Install-Package MongoDB.Driver</code></pre>



<p>This driver will also add annotations that you can use to configure your model definitions with.</p>



<h2>Add a Model</h2>



<p>Here is a basic model example:</p>



<pre class="wp-block-code lang-csharp"><code>public class Article
{
    [BsonId]
    [BsonRepresentation(BsonType.ObjectId)]
    public string Id { get; set; }
    public string Name { get; set; }
    public string Slug { get; set; }
    public string Body { get; set; }
    public DateTime Date { get; set; }
}</code></pre>



<p>The <code>[BsonId]</code> annotation designates the property you use it with as the primary key. You can define that property as an ObjectId, which is how MongoDB stores primary keys, but defining it as a string makes it easier to work with in your code thanks to the automatic conversion handled by the <code>[BsonRepresentation(BsonType.ObjectId)]</code> annotation.</p>



<p>With the model defined, you can start interfacing with MongoDB by creating an instance of MongoClient somewhere in your code, such as directly within a service class or a custom context that you can create similar to the DbContext from Entity Framework. In this article, I show you the latter way.</p>



<h2>Add a Custom Context</h2>



<p>Here is an example DB context class:</p>



<pre class="wp-block-code lang-csharp"><code>public class AppDbContext
{
    private readonly IMongoDatabase _db;
    
    public AppDbContext(IMongoClient client, string dbName)
    {
        _db = client.GetDatabase(dbName);
    }
    
    public IMongoCollection&lt;Article&gt; Articles =&gt; _db.GetCollection&lt;Article&gt;("articles");
}</code></pre>



<p>The constructor will allow us to inject an instance of MongoClient and the DB connection string for your database. This class contains properties for the collections of your models. <code>_db.GetCollection&lt;Article&gt;("articles")</code> will create or retrieve documents from the &#8220;articles&#8221; collection in your database and map the results to the model definition. You can rename the collection from &#8220;articles&#8221; to another if you wish. I prefer to keep it pluralized and lowercase to follow the common camel case naming convention. Later on, you should have this context class implement an interface so you can inject mock class instances for testing.</p>



<p>Add a DB connection string and a DbName property to your appsettings.json file with your MongoDB host and port like so:</p>



<pre class="wp-block-code lang-json"><code>{
    "ConnectionStrings": {
        "MongoDb": "mongodb://localhost:27017"
    },
    "DbName": "example"
}</code></pre>



<p>Refer to &#8220;<a rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label="Connection String URI Format (opens in a new tab)" href="https://docs.mongodb.com/manual/reference/connection-string/" target="_blank">Connection String URI Format</a>&#8221; in the MongoDB documentation if you would like to specify a username and password.</p>



<p>In your startup class, you should instantiate the context with the configuration settings you just added by adding these lines to the ConfigureServices method like so:</p>



<pre class="wp-block-code lang-csharp"><code>public void ConfigureServices(IServiceCollection services)
{
    ConventionRegistry.Register("Camel Case", new ConventionPack {new CamelCaseElementNameConvention()}, _ =&gt; true);
    services.AddSingleton&lt;IMongoClient&gt;(s =&gt; new MongoClient(Configuration.GetConnectionString("MongoDb")));
    services.AddScoped(s =&gt; new AppDbContext(s.GetRequiredService&lt;IMongoClient&gt;(), Configuration["DbName"]));
}</code></pre>



<p>The MongoClient instance should be a singleton as <a rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label="recommended by the MongoDB documentation (opens in a new tab)" href="https://mongodb.github.io/mongo-csharp-driver/2.7/reference/driver/connecting/#re-use" target="_blank">recommended by the MongoDB documentation</a> because it represents a pool of connections. AppDbContext should have a scoped lifetime so that it can be reused efficiently. I also added a line to register a convention to force model properties to save with camel case as it saves your properties with the case you defined them with by default. With the context dependency configured, you can now create service classes to handle data access and business logic for your collections.</p>



<h2>Add a Service</h2>



<p>Here is a simple service class example using asynchronous methods:</p>



<pre class="wp-block-code lang-csharp"><code>public class ArticleService
{
    private readonly AppDbContext _db;
    public ArticleService(AppDbContext db)
    {
        _db = db;
    }
    public async Task&lt;Article&gt; GetByIdAsync(string id)
    {
        return await _db.Articles.Find(a =&gt; a.Id == id).SingleOrDefaultAsync();
    }
    public async Task&lt;Article&gt; GetBySlugAsync(string slug)
    {
        return await _db.Articles.Find(a =&gt; a.Slug == slug).SingleOrDefaultAsync();
    }
    
    public async Task AddAsync(Article article)
    {
        await _db.Articles.InsertOneAsync(article);
    }
}</code></pre>



<p>The InsertOneAsync method will set the ID of the new document in the object if the document was successfully created. Refer to the <a rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label="MongoDB documentation (opens in a new tab)" href="https://mongodb.github.io/mongo-csharp-driver/2.7/reference/driver/crud/writing/" target="_blank">MongoDB documentation</a> for more information on methods you can use.</p>



<p>Add a dependency to this service in your startup class:</p>



<pre class="wp-block-code lang-csharp"><code>services.AddTransient&lt;ArticleService&gt;();</code></pre>



<h2>Use the Service</h2>



<p>Here is a brief example of how you can use the service in an API controller:</p>



<pre class="wp-block-code lang-csharp"><code>[Route("api/[controller]")]
[ApiController]
public class ArticlesController : ControllerBase
{
    private readonly ArticleService _articleService;
    public ArticlesController(ArticleService articleService)
    {
        _articleService = articleService;
    }
    
    [HttpGet("{id}")]
    public async Task&lt;Article&gt; GetAsync(string id)
    {
        return await _articleService.GetByIdAsync(id);
    }
    
    [HttpPost]
    public async Task&lt;IActionResult&gt; PostAsync([FromBody] Article article)
    {
        await _articleService.AddAsync(article);
        
        return article.Id != null ? (IActionResult) Ok(article.Id) : BadRequest();
    }
}</code></pre>



<h2>Summary</h2>



<p>In this article, you learned how to connect and interface with MongoDB in your ASP.NET Core project. If you find this guide helpful or have any questions on this topic, please leave a comment below.</p>


Using MongoDB in Your ASP.NET Core App


<figure class="wp-block-embed-youtube wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<iframe loading="lazy" title="Intro to Windows Forms (WinForms)" width="625" height="352" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/-VgPhGZl9Ss?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>
</div></figure>



<p>One way to build graphical user interfaces (GUI) for Windows is with <a rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label="Windows Forms (opens in a new tab)" href="https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/framework/winforms/" target="_blank">Windows Forms</a> (WinForms). It lets you build rich client applications with an event-driven design. Although it has already been succeeded by <a rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label="WPF (opens in a new tab)" href="https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/framework/wpf/" target="_blank">WPF</a>, another graphical library in the .NET framework, it is still supported by Microsoft today. Many developers still use WinForms for rapid GUI development, existing in-house tools, and educational purposes.</p>



<p>In WinForms, a form is basically a window or dialog box where you can add controls to receive user interactions or show output, such as via a label, text box, or button. With Microsoft&#8217;s <a rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label="Visual Studio IDE (opens in a new tab)" href="https://visualstudio.microsoft.com/vs/" target="_blank">Visual Studio IDE</a>, adding a control is a simple drag and drop. Clicking a control will reveal its properties in the Visual Studio window where you can change its values. In addition, every object has a set of events, such as a click event, that you can handle with code.</p>



<p>In the video above, I show how to create a simple tip calculator using WinForms. The programming language I use is C#, but you could use Visual Basic instead. If you would like to learn more about creating a WinForms application, please leave a comment below.</p>


Intro to Windows Forms

<p>While developing applications with Java, you should use a dependency manager to install libraries that your projects need. Two frequency used dependency managers that also serve as build automation tools for Java are <a href="https://maven.apache.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Maven</a> and <a href="https://gradle.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Gradle</a>.</p>
<p>Maven supports archetypes, a way for you to generate a sample project that may give an example of best practices in usage for a library or framework. In this article, you will learn how to create a new Maven project from an archetype in the IntelliJ IDEA IDE.</p>
<ol>
<li>Go to &#8220;Create New Project&#8221; in the IDE. From the sidebar, select &#8220;Maven.&#8221;</li>
<li>Add or select the JDK you would like to use via the &#8220;Project SDK&#8221; drop-down box.</li>
<li>Check &#8220;Create from archetype&#8221; and click &#8220;Add archetype&#8230;&#8221;<br />
<img loading="lazy" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-115" src="https://api.austinsdev.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/a63cf11f25f3ea0091b3478f4bd8357d.jpg" alt="" width="822" height="746" srcset="https://api.austinsdev.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/a63cf11f25f3ea0091b3478f4bd8357d.jpg 822w, https://api.austinsdev.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/a63cf11f25f3ea0091b3478f4bd8357d-500x454.jpg 500w, https://api.austinsdev.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/a63cf11f25f3ea0091b3478f4bd8357d-768x697.jpg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 822px) 100vw, 822px" /></li>
<li>From the dialog box, you can see the information needed to use an archetype:<br />
<img loading="lazy" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-116" src="https://api.austinsdev.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/4f497dd7cfbcb108d5572610027ef3b8.jpg" alt="" width="296" height="255" /><br />
As an example, we will enter an archetype for Ninja, a full-stack web framework. The information and version number for <a href="http://www.ninjaframework.org/documentation/getting_started/create_your_first_application.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Ninja&#8217;s starting point archetype</a> is found on their website.</p>
<pre>GroupId: org.ninjaframework
ArtifactId: ninja-servlet-archetype-simple
Version: 6.2.2</pre>
<p>After adding the archetype, select it from the main window.</li>
<li>At this point, you can specify the properties for your Maven project and decide whether to use your own installation of Maven or the bundled version in the IDE.</li>
</ol>
<p>Finally, you should retrieve dependencies and compile classes for the first run of your project. Open the &#8220;Execute Maven Goal&#8221; window and type &#8220;<code>clean install</code>&#8221; to do so. You can also enable auto-importing of dependencies in the IDE.</p>


Create a Maven Project from an Archetype in IntelliJ IDEA

<p><img loading="lazy" class="alignright size-full wp-image-110" src="https://api.austinsdev.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/e6f10cf8d1f0d86f07b64b90f7791ec6.png" alt="" width="200" height="200" srcset="https://api.austinsdev.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/e6f10cf8d1f0d86f07b64b90f7791ec6.png 200w, https://api.austinsdev.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/e6f10cf8d1f0d86f07b64b90f7791ec6-50x50.png 50w" sizes="(max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px" />In some cases, you may want to prohibit users within a Linux server from creating a Secure Shell (SSH) session and only allow them to connect to the SSH File Transfer Protocol (SFTP). This is commonly done in web hosting environments in which each customer should only be able to connect to the SFTP to transfer files to their own website directories. In order to configure your Linux server to work this way, follow the steps below.</p>
<h3>Configure the SSH Server with an &#8220;sftponly&#8221; Group</h3>
<p>These steps are necessary to configure the SSH server to provide a different file system root directory for each user within the &#8220;sftponly&#8221; group you will be adding.</p>
<ol>
<li>Add a group named &#8220;sftponly&#8221; by running this command:
<pre>sudo groupadd sftponly</pre>
</li>
<li>Open the SSH server config file for editing:
<pre>sudo nano /etc/ssh/sshd_config</pre>
</li>
<li>Find the line that says <code>Subsystem sftp /usr/lib/openssh/sftp-server</code> and change it to:
<pre>Subsystem sftp internal-sftp</pre>
</li>
<li>At the end of the file, under the line containing the UsePAM setting, add these lines:
<pre>Match Group sftponly
    ChrootDirectory %h
    ForceCommand internal-sftp
    AllowTcpForwarding no
    X11Forwarding no</pre>
</li>
<li>Save and close the file, then restart the SSH server with this command:
<pre>sudo service ssh restart</pre>
</li>
</ol>
<p>At this point, you have configured your SSH server to handle SFTP access properly.</p>
<h3>Add a User to the Group</h3>
<p>For these instructions, &#8220;bob&#8221; is an example of a user&#8217;s name. Replace the name &#8220;bob&#8221; with the name of the user you want to apply these changes to. To begin with, if you have not created the user yet, you can run the <code>sudo adduser bob</code> command, which will create a home directory at <code>/home/bob</code>.</p>
<ol>
<li>Add a user to the group by running this command:
<pre>sudo usermod -G sftponly bob</pre>
</li>
<li>Prevent the user from logging into the SSH:
<pre>sudo usermod -s /bin/false bob</pre>
</li>
</ol>
<p>After running these commands, the user cannot access the SSH and can only connect to the SFTP to upload or download files within their home directory.</p>
<h3>Create a Permissive Directory</h3>
<p>You may want to disallow the user from transferring files at any location within their home directory except for a specific directory, such as <code>/home/bob/www/example.com</code>. Follow the steps below to do this.</p>
<ol>
<li>Change the ownership of the user&#8217;s home directory to the root user by running this command:
<pre>sudo chown root:root /home/bob</pre>
</li>
<li>Change the access permissions of the user&#8217;s home directory to have suitable read, write, and execute permissions:
<pre>sudo chmod 755 /home/bob</pre>
</li>
<li>Create the permissive directory:
<pre>sudo mkdir -p /home/bob/www/example.com</pre>
</li>
<li>Give the user permission to the directory you just created:
<pre>sudo chown bob:bob /home/bob/www/example.com</pre>
</li>
</ol>
<p>Now, the user can only write and remove files within the &#8220;example.com&#8221; directory and cannot remove the directory itself.</p>


Create a Linux User with Only SFTP Access

<p>IntelliJ IDEA is a powerful Java IDE written by JetBrains. It comes with a dark UI theme called Darcula along with its own editor scheme as seen in the following screenshot:</p>
<p><div id="attachment_58" style="width: 850px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-58" loading="lazy" class="wp-image-58 size-full" title="" src="https://api.austinsdev.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/c4ca4238a0b923820dcc509a6f75849b.jpg" alt="IntelliJ IDEA Darcula Theme" width="840" height="547" srcset="https://api.austinsdev.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/c4ca4238a0b923820dcc509a6f75849b.jpg 840w, https://api.austinsdev.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/c4ca4238a0b923820dcc509a6f75849b-500x326.jpg 500w, https://api.austinsdev.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/c4ca4238a0b923820dcc509a6f75849b-768x500.jpg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 840px) 100vw, 840px" /><p id="caption-attachment-58" class="wp-caption-text">The Darcula theme and editor scheme in IntelliJ IDEA.</p></div></p>
<p>Darcula can begin to feel bland at times if you use the IDE often, so I searched for another dark UI theme and discovered <a href="https://plugins.jetbrains.com/plugin/8006" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Material Theme</a>. Its default theme along with its own editor scheme offers a selective contrast similar to the widely known <a href="http://ethanschoonover.com/solarized" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Solarized editor scheme</a>. It also comes with a darker and lighter version of Material Theme that you can switch to.</p>
<p><div id="attachment_59" style="width: 850px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-59" loading="lazy" class="wp-image-59 size-full" src="https://api.austinsdev.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/c81e728d9d4c2f636f067f89cc14862c.jpg" alt="IntelliJ IDEA Material Theme" width="840" height="525" srcset="https://api.austinsdev.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/c81e728d9d4c2f636f067f89cc14862c.jpg 840w, https://api.austinsdev.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/c81e728d9d4c2f636f067f89cc14862c-500x313.jpg 500w, https://api.austinsdev.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/c81e728d9d4c2f636f067f89cc14862c-768x480.jpg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 840px) 100vw, 840px" /><p id="caption-attachment-59" class="wp-caption-text">Material Theme&#8217;s default theme and editor scheme.</p></div></p>
<p>Additionally, Material Theme supports JetBrain&#8217;s other products, including PyStorm, PhpStorm, and WebStorm to name a few. I use PhpStorm as my PHP IDE of choice and I combine Material Theme with an <a href="https://github.com/matthiasweller/phpstorm-theme-vs2015" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">editor scheme inspired by Microsoft&#8217;s Visual Studio 2015</a> with tweaks to the font style and line number color.</p>
<p><div id="attachment_60" style="width: 850px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-60" loading="lazy" class="wp-image-60 size-full" title="" src="https://api.austinsdev.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/eccbc87e4b5ce2fe28308fd9f2a7baf3.jpg" alt="PhpStorm with Material Theme &amp; Visual Studio 2015 Editor Scheme" width="840" height="488" srcset="https://api.austinsdev.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/eccbc87e4b5ce2fe28308fd9f2a7baf3.jpg 840w, https://api.austinsdev.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/eccbc87e4b5ce2fe28308fd9f2a7baf3-500x290.jpg 500w, https://api.austinsdev.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/eccbc87e4b5ce2fe28308fd9f2a7baf3-768x446.jpg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 840px) 100vw, 840px" /><p id="caption-attachment-60" class="wp-caption-text">PhpStorm with Material Theme and Visual Studio 2015 editor scheme.</p></div></p>
<p>What theme and editor scheme do you use for your JetBrains IDE? Leave a comment to let me know.</p>


IntelliJ IDEA Dark Theme


<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="alignright is-resized"><img loading="lazy" src="https://api.austinsdev.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/f3479ec71a85c3161337196a70e32156.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-46" width="220" height="293"/></figure></div>



<p>Howdy! My name is Austin. I&#8217;m a software developer specializing in web applications and proficient in Java, SQL, PHP, JavaScript, C#, HTML, and CSS.</p>



<p><em>Austin&#8217;s Dev</em> is a new blog in which I&#8217;ll be sharing my software development experiences and updates on my products. I&#8217;ll also share tips covering beginner and advanced topics through articles and videos. Stay tuned to hear my thoughts on interesting coding technologies and my stories on dealing with coding atrocities that you may run into occasionally.</p>



<p>I&#8217;ve put together several desktop applications and many web applications that you can find on my <a href="https://github.com/austins" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">GitHub page</a>. Check out my <a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJjowuNoLywGC7ujP74zFJg" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">YouTube channel</a> for videos and feel free to leave comments under articles here.</p>
