OrchardLite CMS

A legacy .NET Core 3.1 content management system built with ASP.NET Core MVC and MySQL.

Overview

OrchardLite CMS is a sample enterprise content management application that demonstrates common patterns found in legacy .NET applications. The application provides basic content management capabilities including creating, viewing, and organizing blog posts and articles.

Technology Stack

• .NET Core 3.1 (End of Life: December 2022)
• ASP.NET Core MVC - Web framework
• MySQL 8.0 - Database
• Bootstrap 5 - UI framework
• Docker - Containerization

Features

• Content item management (blog posts, articles, pages)
• MySQL database integration
• Responsive Bootstrap UI
• Health check endpoint
• Automatic database initialization with sample data
• Docker support for containerized deployment

Application Structure

/OrchardLiteApp/
├── OrchardLite.sln              # Solution file
├── Dockerfile                    # Container definition
└── OrchardLite.Web/             # MVC application
    ├── Controllers/             # MVC controllers
    ├── Models/                  # Data models
    ├── Views/                   # Razor views
    ├── Services/                # Business logic
    └── appsettings.json         # Configuration

Database Schema

The application uses a simple content management schema:

ContentItems Table:

• Id (Primary Key)
• Title
• Summary
• Body
• ContentType (BlogPost, Article, Page, Tutorial)
• AuthorId
• PublishedDate
• ViewCount
• IsPublished
• CreatedDate

Environment Variables

The application requires the following environment variables:

• DB_HOST - MySQL database hostname
• DB_PORT - MySQL database port (default: 3306)
• DB_NAME - Database name (default: OrchardLiteDB)
• DB_USER - Database username
• DB_PASSWORD - Database password

Running Locally

Prerequisites

• .NET Core 3.1 SDK
• MySQL 8.0
• Docker (optional)

Using .NET CLI

# Navigate to the application directory
cd OrchardLiteApp/OrchardLite.Web

# Set environment variables
export DB_HOST=localhost
export DB_PORT=3306
export DB_NAME=OrchardLiteDB
export DB_USER=root
export DB_PASSWORD=yourpassword

# Run the application
dotnet run

Using Docker

# Build the Docker image
cd OrchardLiteApp
docker build -t orchardlite-cms:latest .

# Run the container
docker run -p 80:80 \
  -e DB_HOST=your-db-host \
  -e DB_PORT=3306 \
  -e DB_NAME=OrchardLiteDB \
  -e DB_USER=your-user \
  -e DB_PASSWORD=your-password \
  orchardlite-cms:latest

Endpoints

• / - Home page with content listing
• /all-content - View all content items
• /health - Health check endpoint (returns JSON)

Database Initialization

The application automatically initializes the database on first run:

• Creates the OrchardLiteDB database if it doesn't exist
• Creates the ContentItems table
• Seeds 100 sample content records for demonstration

Legacy Patterns

This application intentionally uses legacy patterns typical of older .NET applications:

• .NET Core 3.1 (end of life, no longer supported)
• Legacy MySQL connector (MySql.Data)
• Traditional Startup.cs configuration pattern
• No modern performance optimizations
• Missing security best practices

License

This is a demonstration application for educational purposes.