Glense

A microservice-based video streaming platform built with .NET 8, React, and PostgreSQL.

Documentation map

Doc	What it covers
DEV_QUICKSTART.md	Local setup (Kubernetes + Docker Compose), iteration loop, troubleshooting
FRONTEND_SETUP.md	Frontend dev workflow, env vars, gateway integration
docs/architecture.md	High-level overview, responsibilities, data ownership
docs/flows.md	End-to-end sequence diagrams (registration, donation, video listing, chat)
docs/api-reference.md	All public endpoints across services with deep links
docs/deployment.md	Docker Compose vs Kubernetes, env vars per service
docs/testing.md	Test layout and how to run integration tests
glense.client/README.md	Frontend project structure, scripts, services layer
services/Glense.AccountService/README.md	Account service internals
services/Glense.AccountService/ACCOUNT_API.md	Account REST API reference
services/Glense.VideoCatalogue/README.md	Video Catalogue service internals
Glense.Server/DonationService/README.md	Donation service internals
services/Glense.ChatService/README.md	Chat service + SignalR hub

Architecture

                        ┌─────────────────┐
                        │    Frontend      │
                        │   (React/Vite)   │
                        └────────┬─────────┘
                                 │
                      ┌──────────▼──────────────┐
                      │      API Gateway        │
                      │      YARP :5050         │
                      │                         │
                      │ /api/auth/*    → Account │
                      │ /api/profile/* → Account │
                      │ /api/videos/*  → Video   │
                      │ /api/donation/*→ Donation│
                      │ /api/chats/*   → Chat    │
                      │ /hubs/chat     → Chat(WS)│
                      └──┬───┬───┬───┬──────────┘
           ┌─────────────┘   │   │   └──────────┐
           ▼                 ▼   ▼              ▼
    ┌─────────────┐  ┌────────────┐  ┌─────────────┐  ┌─────────────┐
    │   Account   │  │  Donation  │  │    Video    │  │    Chat     │
    │    :5001    │  │   :5100    │  │  Catalogue  │  │    :5004    │
    │             │  │            │  │    :5002    │  │             │
    │ Auth        │  │ Wallets    │  │ Upload      │  │ Rooms       │
    │ Profiles    │  │ Donations  │  │ Comments    │  │ Messages    │
    │ Notifs      │  │            │  │ Playlists   │  │ SignalR     │
    │ gRPC server │  │            │  │ gRPC client │  │             │
    └──────┬──────┘  └──────┬─────┘  └──────┬──────┘  └─────────────┘
           │                │               │
           │         ┌──────┴──────┐        │
           │         │  RabbitMQ   │        │
           │         │ :5672/:15672│        │
           │         └─────────────┘        │
           │                                │
           │◄─── RabbitMQ ──── Donation        wallet create on registration
           │◄─── HTTP ──────── Donation        validate recipient
           │◄─── RabbitMQ ──── Donation        donation notification
           │◄─── gRPC ──────────────── Video   resolve usernames
           │◄─── RabbitMQ ─────────── Video    subscription notification

Services

Service	Port	Database	What it does
API Gateway (YARP)	5050	--	Routes all requests, CORS whitelist, health checks
Account	5001 (REST), 5003 (gRPC)	PostgreSQL :5432	Auth, profiles, notifications, user search, gRPC username server
Video Catalogue	5002	PostgreSQL :5433	Upload, search, comments, playlists, subscriptions
Donation	5100	PostgreSQL :5434	Wallets, donations, balance transfers
Chat	5004	PostgreSQL :5435	Chat rooms, messages, real-time via SignalR
RabbitMQ	5672 / 15672	--	Async event broker (MassTransit)

Inter-service communication

Flow	Protocol	Why
Wallet creation on registration	Account → Donation via RabbitMQ	Fire-and-forget
Donation notifications	Donation → Account via RabbitMQ	Async, doesn't block payment
Subscription notifications	Video → Account via RabbitMQ	Async
Recipient validation	Donation → Account via HTTP	Sync check before transfer
Username resolution	Video → Account via gRPC	High-perf batch lookups (Protobuf)

All inter-service calls (HTTP and gRPC) are authenticated with a shared API key (INTERNAL_API_KEY).

Quick start

Prerequisites

• Docker or Podman
• Node.js v22 (for frontend)

1. Configure environment

cp .env.example .env
# Edit .env with your secrets (defaults work for local dev)

2. Start everything

# Using the dev script:
./dev.sh

# Or manually:
docker compose up --build -d

3. Start the frontend

cd glense.client && npm install && npm run dev

Verify it works

# Health checks
curl http://localhost:5050/health          # Gateway
curl http://localhost:5001/health          # Account
curl http://localhost:5002/health          # Video
curl http://localhost:5100/health          # Donation
curl http://localhost:5004/health          # Chat

# Register + login
curl -X POST http://localhost:5050/api/auth/register \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"username":"test","email":"test@test.com","password":"Password123!"}'

curl -X POST http://localhost:5050/api/auth/login \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"usernameOrEmail":"test","password":"Password123!"}'

Seed test data

./scripts/seed.sh

Creates 3 users (password: Password123!): keki, irena, branko -- each with $500 wallets.

Doxygen docs

• HTML output: docs/doxygen/html/index.html
• Config: Doxyfile
• Helper script: scripts/generate_docs.ps1

To (re)generate the API docs locally (requires Doxygen installed):

# From the repo root
doxygen Doxyfile

# On Windows PowerShell, then open the generated HTML:
doxygen Doxyfile
Start-Process docs\\doxygen\\html\\index.html

Regenerate after changing public APIs, comment blocks, or the Doxyfile. If you switch branches and the Doxyfile or source changed, rerun the command so the HTML matches the checked-out code.

Other commands

./dev.sh down          # Stop everything
./dev.sh restart       # Clean restart + seed
./dev.sh logs          # Follow all logs
./dev.sh logs gateway  # Follow one service
./dev.sh prune         # Wipe everything (containers, volumes, images)

Configuration

All secrets live in .env (gitignored). The .env.example template shows every variable:

Variable	Used by	Purpose
JWT_SECRET_KEY	All services	JWT token signing (min 32 chars)
JWT_ISSUER / JWT_AUDIENCE	All services	Token validation
INTERNAL_API_KEY	Account, Video, Donation	Service-to-service auth
POSTGRES_USER / POSTGRES_PASSWORD	All databases	DB credentials
RABBITMQ_USER / RABBITMQ_PASS	RabbitMQ + consumers	Broker credentials
*_DB_CONNECTION_STRING	Each service	Full Npgsql connection string

Services read from environment variables first, then fall back to appsettings.json.

Security

• CORS: All services restrict origins to a configurable whitelist (default: localhost:5173, :3000, :50653, :50654)
• JWT: BCrypt password hashing, 7-day token expiry, validated on all services
• Inter-service auth: gRPC and HTTP calls between services require INTERNAL_API_KEY header
• Secrets: No credentials in code or config files -- all in .env (gitignored)

Search

The platform supports searching across videos and channels from a single search bar.

Backend: GET /api/videos/search?q={query}&category={category}

• Searches video titles and descriptions (case-insensitive, DB-level filtering)
• Optional category parameter to narrow results
• Returns videos with resolved uploader usernames (via gRPC)

Swagger docs

Service	URL
Account	http://localhost:5001/swagger
Video Catalogue	http://localhost:5002/swagger
Donation	http://localhost:5100
Chat	http://localhost:5004/swagger

Testing

Integration tests cover all four services (Account, Video Catalogue, Donation, Chat) using WebApplicationFactory with EF Core InMemory databases and mocked external dependencies (RabbitMQ, gRPC, HTTP clients). No Docker or real databases are needed to run them.

# Run all tests
dotnet test

# Run tests for a single service
dotnet test tests/AccountService.IntegrationTests

# Use the PowerShell runner for formatted output
./scripts/run_integration_tests.ps1
./scripts/run_integration_tests.ps1 -Project Account
./scripts/run_integration_tests.ps1 -Filter "FullyQualifiedName~Auth"

Test projects live under tests/ and share a common Glense.TestUtilities library for JWT token generation and service configuration helpers.

Development

# Setup pre-commit hook for C# formatting
./scripts/setup-hooks.sh

# Setup git pp branch prefixes
./scripts/setup-pp.sh yourname

PRs require at least one approval before merge.