Blog2

ASP.NET Core 8 MVC blog with Identity, EF Core, SQL Server, Bootstrap 5, Markdig, and HtmlSanitizer.

Features

• Posts — Create, edit, delete; Markdown content; optional excerpt, cover image; draft/publish
• Comments — Add, edit, delete (owner only); shown on each post
• Auth — Email/password registration + Google OAuth; DisplayName for authors
• Slug-based URLs — Unique, SEO-friendly URLs for posts
• Reading time — Estimated from word count (200 wpm)
• Pagination — 10 posts per page on home
• Markdown — Markdig for rendering; HtmlSanitizer for safe HTML output

Tech Stack

Component	Technology
Framework	ASP.NET Core 8 MVC
Data	Entity Framework Core 8, SQL Server
Auth	ASP.NET Core Identity (email/password, Google OAuth)
UI	Bootstrap 5.3 (CDN)
Markdown	Markdig
HTML sanitization	HtmlSanitizer (Ganss.Xss)

Prerequisites

• .NET 8 SDK
• SQL Server or LocalDB

Setup

1. Connection string
   Set ConnectionStrings:DefaultConnection in Blog2/appsettings.json or User Secrets. Example:

   "ConnectionStrings": {
     "DefaultConnection": "Server=(localdb)\\mssqllocaldb;Database=Blog2;Trusted_Connection=True;MultipleActiveResultSets=true"
   }

2. Database
   In Development the app applies migrations on startup. Otherwise:

   cd Blog2
   dotnet ef database update

3. Google OAuth (optional)
   Set Authentication:Google:ClientId and Authentication:Google:ClientSecret in appsettings.json or User Secrets. If unset or using placeholder YOUR_GOOGLE_CLIENT_ID, Google sign-in is not registered.

4. Run

   cd Blog2
   dotnet run

   Open http://localhost:5000

Project Structure

Blog2/
├── Blog2/                 # Main web project
│   ├── Controllers/       # Home, Account, Post, Comment
│   ├── Data/              # ApplicationDbContext
│   ├── Extensions/        # IdentityExtensions
│   ├── Migrations/        # EF Core migrations
│   ├── Models/            # Post, Comment, ApplicationUser
│   ├── Services/          # PostService, CommentService, SlugService, MarkdownService
│   ├── ViewModels/        # View models for views
│   ├── Views/             # Razor views
│   └── wwwroot/css/       # site.css (custom styles)
├── Blog2.sln
└── README.md

Routes

Method	Route	Description
GET	/	Published posts (paginated, ?page=)
GET	/blog/{slug}	Single post and comments
GET	/login, POST /login	Sign in (email/password)
POST	/logout	Sign out
GET	/register, POST /register	Register
GET, POST	/external-login	External auth (provider=Google)
GET	/external-login-callback	OAuth callback
GET	/post/create, POST /post/create	New post (auth)
GET	/post/edit/{id}, POST /post/edit/{id}	Edit post (owner only)
POST	/post/delete/{id}	Delete post (owner only)
POST	/comment/add	Add comment (auth)
POST	/comment/edit/{id}	Edit comment (owner only)
POST	/comment/delete/{id}	Delete comment (owner only)
GET	/Home/Error	Error page (non-dev)