.NET Development Workflow

Workflow Overview

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                    DEVELOPMENT WORKFLOW                          │
├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│                                                                 │
│  ┌──────────────┐                                               │
│  │  Understand  │  Read requirements, explore codebase          │
│  │    Task      │                                               │
│  └──────────────┘                                               │
│         │                                                       │
│         ▼                                                       │
│  ┌──────────────┐                                               │
│  │  Implement   │  Write code following patterns                │
│  │   Changes    │                                               │
│  └──────────────┘                                               │
│         │                                                       │
│         ▼                                                       │
│  ┌──────────────┐     ┌──────────────┐                         │
│  │   Validate   │────▶│   Report     │                         │
│  │ Build/Test/  │     │   Results    │                         │
│  │   Analyze    │     │              │                         │
│  └──────────────┘     └──────────────┘                         │
│         │                    │                                  │
│         ▼                    ▼                                  │
│    ┌─────────┐         ┌──────────┐                            │
│    │  PASS?  │───NO───▶│   Fix    │                            │
│    └─────────┘         │  Issues  │                            │
│         │              └──────────┘                            │
│         │                    │                                  │
│        YES                   │                                  │
│         │                    │                                  │
│         ▼                    │                                  │
│  ┌──────────────┐           │                                  │
│  │   Ready to   │◀──────────┘                                  │
│  │    Commit    │         (re-validate)                        │
│  └──────────────┘                                              │
│                                                                 │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Phase 1: Understand the Task

Feature Implementation

1. Read the feature requirements/user story
2. Identify affected components
3. Check existing patterns in codebase
4. Plan the implementation approach

Bug Fix

1. Reproduce the bug
2. Identify root cause
3. Find related code
4. Plan the fix

Refactoring

1. Understand current implementation
2. Identify what needs to change
3. Ensure test coverage exists
4. Plan incremental changes

Phase 2: Implement Changes

Follow Existing Patterns

// Find existing patterns
// Look for similar implementations in the codebase
// Follow established conventions

// Example: If services follow this pattern
public class ExistingService : IExistingService
{
    private readonly IRepository _repository;
    private readonly ILogger<ExistingService> _logger;

    public ExistingService(IRepository repository, ILogger<ExistingService> logger)
    {
        _repository = repository;
        _logger = logger;
    }
}

// New service should follow same pattern
public class NewService : INewService
{
    private readonly IRepository _repository;
    private readonly ILogger<NewService> _logger;

    public NewService(IRepository repository, ILogger<NewService> logger)
    {
        _repository = repository;
        _logger = logger;
    }
}

Make Small, Incremental Changes

1. One logical change at a time
2. Build after each change to catch errors early
3. Run relevant tests frequently
4. Keep commits focused

Phase 3: Validate Changes

Validation Steps

# 1. Build (catch compilation errors)
dotnet build --no-incremental

# 2. Run tests (verify behavior)
dotnet test --no-build

# 3. Static analysis (code quality)
dotnet build /p:TreatWarningsAsErrors=true
dotnet format --verify-no-changes

Quality Gates

Phase 4: Fix Issues

Build Errors

1. Read error message carefully
2. Go to the file and line indicated
3. Fix the issue
4. Rebuild to verify

Test Failures

1. Read the assertion failure
2. Check expected vs actual
3. Determine if test or code is wrong
4. Fix and re-run test

Analysis Warnings

1. Review each warning
2. Apply fix or suppress with justification
3. Use dotnet format for auto-fixable issues

Validation Before Commit

Checklist

• dotnet build succeeds with no errors
• dotnet test passes all tests
• No new critical analyzer warnings
• Code follows existing patterns
• Changes are focused on the task

Commands

# Full validation
dotnet build --no-incremental && \
dotnet test --no-build && \
dotnet format --verify-no-changes

Best Practices

Code Organization

// Group related code
// 1. Fields
private readonly IService _service;

// 2. Constructors
public MyClass(IService service) => _service = service;

// 3. Public methods
public void Execute() { }

// 4. Private methods
private void Helper() { }

Error Handling

// Be specific with exceptions
public User GetUser(int id)
{
    var user = _repository.Find(id);
    if (user == null)
        throw new EntityNotFoundException($"User {id} not found");
    return user;
}

// Use guard clauses
public void Process(Request request)
{
    ArgumentNullException.ThrowIfNull(request);
    ArgumentException.ThrowIfNullOrEmpty(request.Name);

    // Main logic
}

Async/Await

// Always use async suffix
public async Task<User> GetUserAsync(int id)
{
    return await _repository.FindAsync(id);
}

// Don't block on async
// BAD
var user = GetUserAsync(id).Result;

// GOOD
var user = await GetUserAsync(id);

Dependency Injection

// Register services
services.AddScoped<IUserService, UserService>();
services.AddSingleton<ICacheService, MemoryCacheService>();
services.AddTransient<IEmailSender, SmtpEmailSender>();

// Inject via constructor
public class UserController
{
    private readonly IUserService _userService;

    public UserController(IUserService userService)
    {
        _userService = userService;
    }
}

Common Patterns

See patterns.md for detailed implementation patterns.