Relationship Manager

A full-stack application designed to track and manage relationships, people, places, and events, featuring offline-first capabilities and secure cloud synchronization.

Project Overview

This system is divided into two main components:

• Frontend (flutter_app): A cross-platform Flutter client app representing the user interface. It works offline using a local database and synchronizes data when a network connection is available. Data is encrypted prior to sync.
• Backend (backend/RelationshipManager.Api): An ASP.NET Core 8 Web API that provides authentication, metadata synchronization, and chunked blob storage.

Tech Stack

• Client: Flutter / Dart (Local DB: sqflite)
• API: C# / .NET 8 / ASP.NET Core
• Databases/Storage:
  • ScyllaDB (Cassandra): High-performance NoSQL database for structured user metadata and sync entries.
  • MinIO: S3-compatible object storage for storing binary blobs and encrypted data chunks.
• Infrastructure: Docker & Docker Compose.

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Getting Started for Developing

Prerequisites

• Docker & Docker Compose (for running the database, object storage, and backend)
• Flutter SDK (for running the frontend client)
• .NET 8 SDK (Optional: if you plan on debugging the backend locally outside of Docker)

1. Starting the Backend Environment

The entire backend infrastructure (ScyllaDB, MinIO, and the .NET API) is containerized for easy local development.

From the root of the workspace, run:

docker compose up -d

Note: On the first launch, initialization containers (scylla-init and minio-init) will automatically run to create the required keyspace, tables, and S3 buckets.

Local Services:

• ASP.NET API: http://localhost:5000
  • Check the Swagger UI for testing endpoints at: http://localhost:5000/swagger
• MinIO Storage Console: http://localhost:9001
  • Username: minioadmin
  • Password: minioadmin123
• ScyllaDB: Port 9042

2. Running the Flutter Client

The Flutter app is configured to talk to your local backend API (http://localhost:5000).

Open a new terminal and navigate to the flutter_app directory to acquire packages and start the app:

cd flutter_app
flutter pub get

# To run on the web:
flutter run -d chrome

# To run on an emulator or connected device:
flutter run

3. Backend Development (Debugging Locally)

If you need to make changes to the C# API and wish to debug it using Visual Studio, Rider, or VS Code (instead of running it via Docker):

1. Spin up only the backing services:

   docker compose up -d scylladb minio scylla-init minio-init

2. Navigate to backend/RelationshipManager.Api or open the root directory in your IDE.
3. Start the project using your debugger or run:

   dotnet run

The application will map to configurations in appsettings.Development.json which are already set to point to localhost:9042 (ScyllaDB) and localhost:9000 (MinIO).

Project Structure

• /backend/RelationshipManager.Api/ - Source code for the REST backend.
  • Controllers/ - Auth and Sync API endpoints.
  • Services/ - S3 Service logic and Sync Metadata logic.
• /flutter_app/ - Source code for the Flutter mobile/web client.
  • lib/models/ - Domain logic and classes (Events, Persons, Places, etc.).
  • lib/screens/ - UI feature views.
  • lib/services/ - Sub-services managing DB, Sync, Encryption, and HTTP routing.
• docker-compose.yml - Defines the orchestration of ScyllaDB, MinIO, and the API.