GamaEdtech Backend (Gamatrain)

GamaEdtech Backend is the ASP.NET Core REST API behind the Gamatrain education platform: a crowdsourced school directory with reviews, a blog, curriculum/exam content, gamified points, crypto (Solana) + Stripe payments, subscriptions, and support tickets.

This README is a short entry point. The full documentation set lives in docs/ and is kept up to date alongside the code — start with PROJECT_SNAPSHOT.md for the current state of the system, or jump straight to a topic below.

Documentation map

Topic	Where
Current system snapshot (start here)	PROJECT_SNAPSHOT.md
Architecture, layering, design patterns	docs/architecture/
Business domains & workflows	docs/business/
Database schema, entities, migrations	docs/database/
API endpoints, auth, response envelope	docs/api/
Local dev setup, coding standards, testing	docs/development/
CI/CD, deployment targets, configuration	docs/deployment/
How to contribute (commits, branches, PRs)	CONTRIBUTING.md
Instructions for AI coding agents	CLAUDE.md

Technology stack (verified, src/Directory.Packages.props)

• Runtime: .NET 10 (net10.0), C# 14, TreatWarningsAsErrors + full analyzer set (SonarAnalyzer, VS Threading Analyzers), Central Package Management.
• Web: ASP.NET Core, Asp.Versioning (URL-segment versioning api/v{version}), Swashbuckle 9 (Swagger UI at /swagger), output caching middleware (registered, not yet used by any endpoint), health checks (/health) + Hangfire dashboard (/hangfire).
• Data: EF Core 10 + SQL Server, NetTopologySuite (geospatial school search), EntityFramework.Exceptions (typed constraint-violation exceptions). ~107 migrations.
• Auth: ASP.NET Core Identity (cookie scheme) plus a custom opaque bearer-token scheme and an API-key scheme — see docs/api/authentication.md. There is no JWT.
• Background jobs: Hangfire (SQL Server storage) — recurring jobs for school scoring, reaction counters, sitemap generation, and more; see docs/architecture/cross-cutting-concerns.md.
• Caching: Redis (StackExchangeRedisCache).
• Logging: Serilog.
• External providers: Resend (email), Google reCAPTCHA, Google OAuth, Stripe + a custom "GamaTrain" Solana payment gateway, Local/Azure/S3 file storage, YouTube.
• Tests: xUnit — currently integration-style, requiring a live SQL Server; not run in CI yet (see docs/development/testing.md).

Getting started

Full instructions (prerequisites, connection strings, migrations, URLs once running): docs/development/setup.md. Quick version:

cd src
dotnet restore
dotnet build
dotnet run --project Presentation/Api --launch-profile GamaEdtech

The app applies pending EF Core migrations automatically at startup against whatever connection string is configured — no separate update-database step is required. Once running: Swagger UI at https://localhost:7001/swagger, health check at https://localhost:7001/health.

Project structure

src/
├── Core/           # in-house framework (Common), DTOs (Data), localization resources (Resource)
├── Domain/         # EF entities, smart enumerations, specifications
├── Application/    # service interfaces + business-logic implementations
├── Infrastructure/ # EF DbContext, migrations, provider implementations (email/file/payment/...)
├── Presentation/   # view models + the ASP.NET Core API host (Controllers, Areas/Admin, Areas/Finance)
└── Test/           # xUnit tests

Full breakdown, request-flow diagram, and the dependency graph: docs/architecture/overview.md.

Contributing

See CONTRIBUTING.md for commit message and branch naming conventions, and docs/development/coding-standards.md for the entity → specification → DTO → service → view model → controller pattern every new feature follows.

Security

See SECURITY.md for how to report a vulnerability.

License

No license file is currently present in this repository; treat the code as proprietary to GamaEdtech unless told otherwise.