AutoLotManagerWPF

Software to manage a fictional car lot using WPF, XAML, C#, Autofac, Prism, and MVVM.

📋 Table of Contents

• Features
• Technology Stack
• Architecture
• Getting Started
• Project Structure
• Documentation
• Roadmap
• Contributing
• License

✨ Features

Current Functionality

Core Features

• Vehicle Management: Manage car inventory with properties including VIN, Make, Model, Year, and Color
• MVVM Architecture: Clean separation of concerns using the Model-View-ViewModel pattern
• Navigation System: Convention-based navigation infrastructure with dependency injection
• Modular Design: Organized into separate projects for Core domain logic, ViewModels, and Desktop UI

User Interface

• Modern WPF UI: Built with Material Design and MahApps.Metro for a modern look and feel
• Hamburger Menu Navigation: Intuitive side navigation menu for accessing different modules
• Multiple Pages/Views:
  • Home Page: Main dashboard and landing page
  • Inventory Management: View, add, edit, and manage vehicle inventory
  • Export Inventory: Export inventory data to external formats
  • Sales Management: Track and manage vehicle sales
  • Settings: Application configuration and preferences
  • About: Application information and version details

Technical Features

• Dependency Injection: Full IoC container support using Autofac
• Centralized Navigation: Menu labels mapped to pages in one registration file
• Extensible Architecture: Easy to add new pages and features
• View Model Resolution: Automatic view model creation and binding via DI container

🛠️ Technology Stack

Framework & Platform

• .NET Framework 4.7.2: Target framework for Windows desktop applications
• WPF (Windows Presentation Foundation): Modern Windows desktop UI framework
• XAML: Declarative markup for UI design

Libraries & Packages

• Autofac: Dependency injection and IoC container
• Prism: Framework for building loosely coupled, maintainable, and testable XAML applications
• MahApps.Metro: Toolkit for creating modern WPF applications
• Bogus: Library for generating fake data (used in development/testing)

Architecture Patterns

• MVVM (Model-View-ViewModel): Primary architectural pattern
• Dependency Injection: For loose coupling and testability
• Repository Pattern: For data access abstraction (ready for implementation)
• Navigation Service: Convention-based page navigation

🏗️ Architecture

Solution Structure

The solution is organized into four projects:

1. AutoLotManager.Core: Domain models and business logic

   • Contains the Car entity and core domain types
   • Framework-agnostic business logic

2. AutoLotManager.ViewModel: View Models and presentation logic

   • All ViewModel classes implementing ViewModelBase
   • Separated from UI concerns for testability
   • Page-specific ViewModels organized by feature

3. AutoLotManager.Desktop: WPF UI project

   • XAML views and code-behind
   • Navigation infrastructure (INavigationService, NavigationService)
   • Startup and bootstrapping logic
   • Material Design UI components

4. AutoLotManager.Tests: NUnit test project

   • Unit tests for the navigation service and ViewModels
   • Targets net472 to match the Desktop project, since navigation returns a WPF Page
   • Run automatically by CI on every pull request

Navigation Architecture

The application uses a custom convention-based navigation system:

• INavigationService: Interface defining navigation operations
• NavigationService: Implementation that handles page creation and ViewModel binding
• NavigationConfiguration: Centralized registration of all navigable pages
• Automatic ViewModel Resolution: ViewModels are resolved from the DI container and bound to views automatically

For detailed information, see NAVIGATION.md and NAVIGATION_EXAMPLE.md.

🚀 Getting Started

Prerequisites

• Windows Operating System (Windows 10 or later recommended)
• Visual Studio 2019 or later (Visual Studio 2022 fully supported)
• .NET Framework 4.7.2 Developer Pack (targeting pack) or later
• NuGet Package Manager (included with Visual Studio)

Installation

1. Clone the repository

   git clone https://github.com/aycee247/AutoLotManagerWPF.git
   cd AutoLotManagerWPF

2. Restore NuGet packages

   nuget restore AutoLotManager.sln

   Or restore via Visual Studio: Right-click solution → Restore NuGet Packages

3. Build the solution

   msbuild AutoLotManager.sln /p:Configuration=Release

   Or build via Visual Studio: Build → Build Solution (Ctrl+Shift+B)

4. Run the application

   • Set AutoLotManager.Desktop as the startup project
   • Press F5 to run in debug mode, or Ctrl+F5 to run without debugging

📁 Project Structure

AutoLotManagerWPF/
├── AutoLotManager.Core/              # Domain models and business logic
│   ├── Car.cs                        # Car entity model
│   ├── Navigation/                   # UI-free navigation seam for ViewModels
│   │   ├── IPageNavigator.cs
│   │   └── PageNavigator.cs
│   └── AutoLotManager.Core.csproj
│
├── AutoLotManager.ViewModel/         # ViewModels and presentation logic
│   ├── ViewModelBase.cs              # Base class for all ViewModels
│   ├── MainWindowViewModel.cs        # Main window ViewModel
│   ├── MainHomePageViewModel.cs      # Home page ViewModel
│   ├── Pages/                        # Feature-specific ViewModels
│   │   └── Inventory/
│   │       ├── InventoryHomePageViewModel.cs
│   │       └── ExportInventoryListPageViewModel.cs
│   └── AutoLotManager.ViewModel.csproj
│
├── AutoLotManager.Desktop/           # WPF UI project
│   ├── App.xaml                      # Application entry point
│   ├── MainWindow.xaml               # Main window with hamburger menu
│   ├── Navigation/                   # Navigation infrastructure
│   │   ├── INavigationService.cs
│   │   ├── NavigationService.cs
│   │   └── NavigationConfiguration.cs
│   ├── Startup/                      # Application bootstrapping
│   │   └── Bootstrapper.cs           # DI container configuration
│   ├── Pages/                        # All page views
│   │   ├── MainHomePage.xaml
│   │   ├── About/
│   │   ├── Inventory/
│   │   ├── Sales/
│   │   └── Settings/
│   └── AutoLotManager.Desktop.csproj
│
├── AutoLotManager.Tests/             # NUnit test project
│   ├── NavigationServiceTests.cs     # Navigation registration and behaviour
│   ├── ViewModelTests.cs             # ViewModelBase and MainWindowViewModel
│   ├── TestDoubles.cs                # Minimal Page/ViewModel stand-ins
│   └── AutoLotManager.Tests.csproj
│
├── CLAUDE.md                         # Guidance for Claude Code, incl. doc upkeep
├── CONTRIBUTING.md                   # Build, style, branching and PR flow
├── docs/adr/                         # Architecture decision records
├── README.md                         # This file
├── NAVIGATION.md                     # Navigation system documentation
├── NAVIGATION_EXAMPLE.md             # Step-by-step navigation guide
├── IMPLEMENTATION_SUMMARY.md         # Implementation details
└── AutoLotManager.sln                # Visual Studio solution file

📚 Documentation

Additional documentation is available in the following files:

• NAVIGATION.md: Comprehensive guide to the navigation infrastructure
• NAVIGATION_EXAMPLE.md: Step-by-step example of adding a new page
• IMPLEMENTATION_SUMMARY.md: Detailed implementation notes and architectural decisions

Adding a New Page

To add a new page to the application:

1. Create the Page (View) in AutoLotManager.Desktop/Pages/
2. Add the new .xaml and .xaml.cs to AutoLotManager.Desktop.csproj — it is a legacy (non-SDK) project and does not pick up files automatically, so a file that is not listed there simply will not compile into the application
3. Create the ViewModel in AutoLotManager.ViewModel/Pages/ (SDK-style, no project edit needed)
4. Register the ViewModel in Bootstrapper.cs
5. Register the page in NavigationConfiguration.cs
6. Add a menu item in MainWindow.xaml whose Label matches the registered key

See NAVIGATION_EXAMPLE.md for a complete walkthrough.

🗺️ Roadmap

Planned Enhancements

Each item below is tracked as a GitHub issue — follow the link for scope and implementation notes.

Core Functionality

• Database Integration (#6): Implement Entity Framework or Dapper for data persistence
• Customer Management (#7): Add customer entity and CRUD operations
• Sales Transaction Processing (#8): Complete sales workflow with pricing and payment tracking
• Inventory Reporting (#9): Generate reports on inventory status, sales trends, and analytics
• Search & Filter (#10): Advanced search capabilities across inventory and sales
• Data Import/Export (#11): Support for CSV, Excel, and JSON formats

User Interface

• Dashboard with Analytics (#12): Charts and graphs for sales and inventory metrics
• Print Functionality (#13): Print invoices, reports, and inventory lists
• Multi-Language Support (#14): Internationalization (i18n) for global use
• Themes (#15): Light/dark mode and customizable color schemes
• Responsive Design (#16): Better layout adaptation for different screen sizes

Technical Improvements

• Unit Tests (#17): Comprehensive test coverage for ViewModels and business logic
• Integration Tests (#18): End-to-end testing of key workflows
• Logging Framework (#19): Implement structured logging (Serilog, NLog)
• Error Handling (#20): Global exception handling and user-friendly error messages
• Configuration Management (#21): External configuration for app settings
• API Integration (#22): RESTful API for external system integration
• Authentication & Authorization (#23): User login and role-based access control

Developer Experience

• CI/CD Pipeline (#24): Automated build, test, and deployment
• Code Documentation (#25): XML documentation comments for all public APIs
• Style Guide (#26): Coding standards and conventions document
• Docker Support (#27): Containerization for easier development and deployment

Ideas for Future Features

Speculative, not committed work — each is tracked as an issue for discussion.

• Vehicle History Tracking (#28): Maintenance records, service history, accident reports
• Photo Management (#29): Upload and display vehicle photos
• Pricing Calculator (#30): Automated pricing based on market data and vehicle condition
• Email Notifications (#31): Automated alerts for low inventory, pending sales, etc.
• Barcode/QR Code Integration (#32): Quick vehicle lookup and tracking
• Mobile Companion App (#33): MAUI-based mobile application
• Cloud Sync (#34): Multi-device synchronization via cloud storage
• Audit Trail (#35): Track all changes to inventory and sales data
• Financial Dashboard (#36): Integration with accounting systems
• Customer Portal (#37): Self-service portal for customers to view inventory

🤝 Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Here's how you can help:

1. Fork the repository
2. Create a feature branch (git checkout -b feature/AmazingFeature)
3. Commit your changes (git commit -m 'Add some AmazingFeature')
4. Push to the branch (git push origin feature/AmazingFeature)
5. Open a Pull Request

Please ensure your code:

• Follows the existing code style and conventions
• Includes appropriate documentation
• Works with the existing architecture
• Does not break existing functionality

📄 License

This project is provided as-is for educational and demonstration purposes.

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Note: This is a demonstration/portfolio project showcasing WPF, MVVM, and modern C# development practices. The "Auto Lot" is fictional, and the software is designed to demonstrate technical capabilities rather than for production use.