Building an Inventory & Order Management System in ASP.NET Core (Setup & Core Features) Part 1

Introduction

Imagine you’re running a wholesale shop. You need to track hundreds of products, manage suppliers, handle customer orders, and ensure stock levels are accurate. Doing this manually is a nightmare. That’s why we’ll build an Inventory & Order Management System using ASP.NET Core MVC and SQL Server.

By the end of Part 1, you’ll have a working project with Products, Categories, Suppliers, and Customers fully managed through CRUD operations.

Step 1: Project Setup

Clone the repo:

bash

git clone https://github.com/go2ismail/Asp.Net-Core-Inventory-Order-Management-System.git
cd Asp.Net-Core-Inventory-Order-Management-System

Configure SQL Server in appsettings.json:

json

"ConnectionStrings": {"DefaultConnection": "Server=.;Database=InventoryDB;Trusted_Connection=True;"}

Run migrations:
bash
```
dotnet ef database update
```
Launch the app:
bash
```
dotnet run
```

Step 2: Architecture Overview

The repo follows a clean MVC + EF Core structure

Layer	Purpose	Example
Controllers	Handle HTTP requests	`ProductController`, `OrderController`
Models	Define entities	`Product`, `Order`, `Customer`
Views	UI with Razor Pages	`Product/Index.cshtml`
Data	EF Core DbContext	`ApplicationDbContext`
Services	Business logic	`OrderService`

Entity Framework Code-First: A Step-by-Step Guide for C# Developers ...

Step 3: Product & Category Management

Define a Product model:

csharp

public class Product {
    public int Id { get; set; }
    public string Name { get; set; }
    public int CategoryId { get; set; }
    public decimal Price { get; set; }
    public int Quantity { get; set; }
    public Category Category { get; set; }
}

Products are linked to Categories via foreign keys.
CRUD operations allow adding, editing, deleting, and listing products.
Razor views provide UI for product management.

Step 4: Supplier & Customer Management

Suppliers provide products.
Customers place orders.
Separate controllers and views manage their CRUD operations.
EF Core navigation properties establish relationships.

Example:

csharp

public class Supplier {
    public int Id { get; set; }
    public string Name { get; set; }
    public string Contact { get; set; }
    public ICollection<Product> Products { get; set; }
}

Wrap-Up (Part 1)

At this stage, you’ll have:

Product & Category Management
Supplier & Customer modules
Database integration with SQL Server

👉 In Part 2, we’ll add Order Processing, Authentication, Reporting, and Deployment.