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Muhammd Rehman Tahir
Muhammd Rehman Tahir

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FlowBased.NetCore v1.0.1 — Enterprise Documentation & Business Flow Management for .NET

#flowbased #nuget #rehmantahir #documentation

I'm excited to announce the release of FlowBased.NetCore v1.0.1, now available on NuGet!

What is FlowBased.NetCore?

FlowBased.NetCore is a plug-and-play documentation and business flow management framework for ASP.NET Core applications. It gives you an embedded enterprise-grade documentation portal with zero frontend setup — just two lines of code and you're running.

Two-line integration 

builder.Services.AddFlowBased();
app.UseFlowBased();
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That's it. You now have:

  • A full admin dashboard with CRUD for applications, modules, and flows
  • A public documentation portal (separately themed, independently authenticated)
  • Markdown/HTML editing with a rich toolbar
  • File attachments with drag-and-drop
  • Automatic versioning on every edit
  • Full-text search
  • Technical dependency mapping (APIs, services, repositories, database tables)
  • Code snippet support
  • Dark mode

What's New in v1.0.1

Annotation-Driven Discovery

This release introduces three new attribute types that make it even easier to document and discover your application's architecture:

  • [BusinessFlow] — Mark classes that orchestrate business processes (e.g., CheckoutFlow, RefundFlow)
  • [Integration] — Mark classes that integrate with external providers (e.g., Stripe, PayPal, SendGrid)
  • [EventHandler] — Mark classes that handle domain events (e.g., OrderCreatedHandler, PaymentReceivedHandler)

These join the existing attribute family: [ApiEndpoint], [Service], [Repository], and [Entity].

New Discovery API Endpoints

The admin API now exposes:

Endpoint Description
GET /{prefix}/api/discovery/annotated/business-flows Classes with [BusinessFlow]
GET /{prefix}/api/discovery/annotated/integrations Classes with [Integration]
GET /{prefix}/api/discovery/annotated/event-handlers Classes with [EventHandler]

All seven annotation types are now discoverable via the API, and the admin dashboard's flow editor includes multi-select dropdowns for the new types.

Display Annotations on Enums

DocumentationType and FlowBasedRole now carry [Display(Name, Description)] attributes, making dropdown labels in the UI much more descriptive.

NuGet Packaging Fix

Sub-project DLLs are now bundled correctly into the NuGet package without requiring consumers to add them as separate NuGet dependencies.

Getting Started

Install 

dotnet add package FlowBased.NetCore
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Configure 

using FlowBased.NetCore.AspNetCore.DependencyInjection;

var builder = WebApplication.CreateBuilder(args);

builder.Services.AddFlowBased(options =>
{
    options.Title = "My App Docs";
    options.RoutePrefix = "flowdocs";
    options.StoragePath = Path.Combine(builder.Environment.WebRootPath ?? "wwwroot", "FlowBasedDocs");
    options.EnableVersioning = true;
    options.AllowMarkdown = true;
});

var app = builder.Build();

// Seed demo data (optional)
using (var scope = app.Services.CreateScope())
{
    var service = scope.ServiceProvider.GetRequiredService<IFlowService>();
    await SeedData.SeedAsync(service);
}

app.UseFlowBased();
app.Run();
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Annotate your code 

[BusinessFlow("Order Processing", "Handles the complete order lifecycle")]
public class OrderProcessingService { ... }

[Integration("Stripe", "Stripe", "Payment processing via Stripe")]
public class StripePaymentGateway { ... }

[EventHandler("OrderCreated", "OrderCreated", "Sends notifications when an order is created")]
public class OrderCreatedHandler { ... }
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The dashboard will automatically surface these annotations in the flow editor.

Features at a Glance

  • Zero-config embedded SPA — No npm, no webpack, no separate deployment
  • JSON file storage — No database required
  • Full-text search — Names, descriptions, tags, content
  • Automatic versioning — Every edit is a snapshot
  • File attachments — Drag-and-drop, paste, GUID storage
  • Markdown + HTML — Both content types, server-side Markdig rendering
  • Code snippets — Named, language-tagged examples
  • Technical dependency mapping — Link flows to APIs, services, repos, DB tables
  • Auto-discovery — Scans assemblies for controllers, services, repositories, entities, and now business flows, integrations, and event handlers
  • Lines-of-code estimation — Categorized by type
  • RBAC — 6-level role hierarchy with per-application permissions
  • Public documentation portal — Read-only, separately themed, independently auth-controlled
  • Dark mode — Independent toggles for admin and docs portal
  • Custom branding — Accent color, title, route prefix
  • Broad compatibility — Works with .NET 6 through .NET 10

Package Details

Package FlowBased.NetCore
Version 1.0.1
License MIT
Author Muhammad Rehman Tahir
Repository github.com/MRehmanTahir/FlowBased.NetCore
Target net8.0+ (Shared library targets netstandard2.1)

What's Next

  • buildTransitive support for automatic using directives
  • Searchable annotation dropdowns in the flow editor (already in the dashboard UI)
  • Further API refinements based on feedback

Give it a try and let me know what you think! Feedback, issues, and PRs are welcome on GitHub.

Built by Muhammad Rehman Tahir

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