This is a simple ASP.NET Core 2 web api boilerplate project. It has Entity Framework Core, NLog, and JWT token authentication already implemented, so you can get up and running fast on a new project.

1. Clone or download the project and open it in Visual Studio.
2. Edit appsettings.json to set the connection string to match your database information.

...
  "Data": {
    "ConnectionString": "Data Source=(localdb)\\MSSQLLocalDB;Initial Catalog=TestApplication;Integrated Security=True;Connect Timeout=15;Encrypt=False;TrustServerCertificate=True;ApplicationIntent=ReadWrite;MultiSubnetFailover=False"
  },
...

3. Open the Visual Studio Package Manager Console, and execute Add-Migration and then Update-Database. Your database will be updated with the tables needed for ASP.NET Core 2 identity, and you're ready to get off and running.

1. Run the application in Visual Studio.
2. An unmodified request to /api/values should return a 401 status code, as the user is currently unauthorized.
3. Register a new user with the following request, and verify you get a 200 OK response.

POST /api/auth/register HTTP/1.1
Host: {baseUrl}
Content-Type: application/json

{
  "Email": "[email protected]",
  "Password": "my-secure-password"
}

4. Log the user in with the following request:

POST /api/auth/token HTTP/1.1
Host: {baseUrl}
Content-Type: application/json

{
  "Username": "[email protected]",
  "Password": "my-secure-password"
}

The response should look similar to the following:

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Content-Type: application/json

{
    "token": "eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.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.JMkAIf_0Zl7KA97Ya-wItDom6L2iBk_STYcjMadiIhM",
    "expiration": "2017-12-13T22:51:36Z"
}

5. Use the token from your login response as a bearer token in a new request to ValuesController.

GET /api/values HTTP/1.1
Host: localhost:53665
Authorization: Bearer eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.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.JMkAIf_0Zl7KA97Ya-wItDom6L2iBk_STYcjMadiIhM
Content-Type: application/json

6. Verify that logs are being recorded to dbo.Log in your database.

1. By default, this project's NLog configuration stores data in a table in your database called dbo.Log and stores the application's name as TestApplication. NLog configuration can be updated in the nlog.config file in the root of the project.
2. The appsettings.json file contains default placeholder values for allowed CORS urls and JWT token key/issuer/audience. These can be updated easily at any time.
3. When the app builds its hosting environment at runtime, it runs a SeedDatabase() method in Program.cs. This method is a home for any database seeding that must be run when the app starts. By default, this project includes one seeder, RoleInitializer::Seed(), which checks for the existence of the identity roles "Admin" and "User", and creates them if they don't exist.
4. All controllers derived from BaseController get a GlobalExceptionHandler filter for free, which contains an OnException method for any logic that should run on unhandled exceptions. By default, this project uses NLog to log data about the exception to the database.