Ticket Management System - Database Setup Guide

This guide provides step-by-step instructions to set up the database and integrate it with the Ticket Management System API using Entity Framework Core.

Prerequisites

• .NET 8 SDK installed
• SQL Server instance (e.g., SQL Server Express)
• Visual Studio or VS Code

1. Install Required NuGet Packages

Navigate to the API project directory and run the following commands:

dotnet add package Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.SqlServer --version 8.0.8

dotnet add package Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.Tools --version 8.0.8

dotnet add package Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.Design --version 8.0.8

dotnet add package Microsoft.AspNetCore.Authentication.JwtBearer --version 8.0.8

dotnet add package FluentValidation.AspNetCore --version 11.3.0

dotnet add package BCrypt.Net-Next

2. Prepare the Database

• Ensure your SQL Server is running.
• Create a database named TicketManagementSystem (or use the provided SQL script in Database/SQLQuery.sql).

3. Scaffold the Database Context and Models

Run the following command in the API project directory to generate models and DbContext from your database:

dotnet ef dbcontext scaffold "Server=DESKTOP-VISHAL\SQLEXPRESS;Database=TicketManagementSystem;Trusted_Connection=True;TrustServerCertificate=True;" Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.SqlServer -o Models -f

• This will create entity classes and a DbContext in the Models folder.
• The -f flag forces overwrite if models already exist.

4. Update Connection String

• Move your connection string to appsettings.json for security.
• Example:

"ConnectionStrings": {
  "DefaultConnection": "Server=server_name;Database=database_name;Trusted_Connection=True;TrustServerCertificate=True;"
}

• Update Program.cs or Startup.cs to use the connection string from configuration.

5. Run the Application

Start the API:

dotnet run