Setting Up Our Project: Building a Postman Clone Course

In this lesson, we are going to be setting up our WinForms project and our Class Library project as well as adding them to Git and GitHub. After that, we will do some initial configuration to ensure we are ready to get started.
Now this is lesson number 2 in our complete course on building a Postman clone. This course has been designed to be beginner-friendly and an example of what you might put in a portfolio. Although, don't just directly put this course in your portfolio. Your portfolio needs to be uniquely yours, not just a copy of someone else's work.
Full Training Courses: IAmTimCorey.com

[@andergarcia1115]

Thanks, Master! It's definitely getting better with time.

[@IAmTimCorey]

You are welcome.

[@user-kd3kt5bl4z]

Thanks a lot Tim, your teaching videos have been very helpful to me.

[@IAmTimCorey]

You are welcome.

[@ademineshat]

Thanks 😊

[@IAmTimCorey]

You're welcome!

[@j0nathan550.]

Will do the project using Avalonia, nice crossplatform system that works like WPF, but allows to port app to different operating systems.

[@IAmTimCorey]

Great! That's a great platform.

[@abto6914]

Amazing, How frequent the lessons will be?

[@IAmTimCorey]

At least weekly.

[@iasonmax3473]

hi this might a bit to late but it would be amazing if could add links to the other videos you re referencing. Thanks for doing this much appriecieted

[@IAmTimCorey]

They are all in a playlist.

[@user-hm8zl1vv1b]

I was trying to put together a simple UI with the currrent WinForms. I've just been running into all sorts of bugs all over the place. This resulted in me having to constantly be unloading and reloading the solution just to get things working. In the forms designer, the toolbox controls were not showing up like they should. When they did it was really confusing because I couldn't add certain ones to the form. The controls I was trying were just in the "Common Controls" category. This thing is far from stable! You really think this is the best choice?

[@IAmTimCorey]

The toolbox depends on which item is active on the screen. So, if you don't have the form active, it won't show the toolbox items. As for it not allowing you to add certain controls, I've not seen that issue. I would recommend trying with a clean project first to see if you can replicate the issue consistently. If so, report the bug. If not then the issue is either intermittent or it has something to do with your particular setup or project.

[@ArchyAngle]

Hi, Mr Corey. Could you make a project with clean architecture and explain the structure of such a project?

[@IAmTimCorey]

Thanks for the suggestion. Please add it to the list on the suggestion site so others can vote on it as well: suggestions.iamtimcorey.com/

[@majedalshaikhi]

it seems that my version is .NET 6.0 !! Is that fine to follow along ?

[@IAmTimCorey]

I would recommend you update your version of Visual Studio. The update is free and there may be slight differences between the two versions. However, if you cannot update for whatever reason, you should be fine to follow along. You just may have to do things a bit differently.

[@masonskelton8274]

What can I use if I am doing this on a Mac?

[@IAmTimCorey]

You would need to use a different UI (probably web-based) since WinForms doesn't work on Mac.

[@MarvijoSoftware]

Great, well paced vid, Tim! Microsoft not committing hard to an LTS .NET based Desktop app type is somewhat surprising. MAUI and WinUI3 seem Beta and not for Production use. WinForms just looks outdated. They should just fully contribute to Avalonia dev, rather than using it to push MAUI integration with Avalonia

[@IAmTimCorey]

I think you touch on something that I've been mulling over, though. Why do we need Microsoft to build it? It creates a monopoly in the market that makes us more reliant on Microsoft, which leads to them being able to slack off more and still get by (always comes down to money, not the desire of their developers, by the way). Having Uno and Avalonia out there is a really good thing.

[@MarvijoSoftware]

​@@IAmTimCoreyWe agree. By MS "support" I did mean resource/dev time/money injection. Unfortunately many open source endeavours fail for lack of constant resource injection by some kind of Big Tech. Google K8s, MS .Net etc Following and watching every minute of your series!

[@gower1973]

There are two project templates for the class library though, One just called Class Library and another called Windows Forms Class Library, you used the former here, but whats the difference between them, surely if were building a Windows Forms app we should use the Windows Forms Class Library template? If there's no difference why have two templates, this is why this .NET stuff is a total nightmare

[@IAmTimCorey]

There is definitely a difference, which is why both exist. A Windows Forms Class Library is designed to be a tool to house UI elements that you can then use. A "regular" Class Library is used to house code that you can use with any UI (typically, although you can make it UI-specific). In our case, if we decide to, we can swap out our WinForms UI for WPF later and still use our same class library.

[@islamahmed-iq6il]

WHERE IS THE REST

[@IAmTimCorey]

These videos come out at least once a week. The series isn’t done yet. Thats a good thing, though. Just speed-running the series wouldn’t actually do you a lot of good. Practicing between episodes will grow your skills tremendously. If you watched until the end, you have an assignment to get done before next time.

[@musigahstallone]

Hello @IAmTimCorey why dont you use winui3??

[@IAmTimCorey]

My personal opinion is that WinUI isn't going to be around for long. It also isn't that popular for real projects. One of the most popular desktop project types for real projects is Windows Forms, which is why I chose it for this course.

[@j0nathan550.]

@@IAmTimCorey Why not WPF? or Avalonia? I know that Forms is a good thing for making robust application but, UI in there is not pretty as in WPF or WinUI3. WPF can allow people make UI for different screens fast using xaml. Meanwhile in Forms you can do the same, but half of things is hidden, and some features that you need to expose is also hidden. And takes some time to make nice UI. Big problems can come when you can accidently create an event that you don't need by double clicking. And you have to remove yourself events to not break designer. Or even entire form for the most part. Also no MVVM. Not sure if Forms has MVVM, but I think it doesn't since it doesn't have any xaml. And for this project I don't really think it's useful to make a MVVM Postman. Just thoughts, hope you will agree on some points.

[@RESIDENTECH1]

@@j0nathan550. win forms uses MVP Model View Presenter

[@paramjotsingh4019]

​@@IAmTimCoreyare you sure? Winui3 has actually taken over the win 11 and basis for future development for win12. With fluent ui 3 even blazor is actively supporting it, i havent actively worked much on it but have seen some stuff and it has been actively used by community? Please refer back to this✌️❤️😇

[@IAmTimCorey]

@paramjotsingh4019 - That's what it is looking like. Yes, Microsoft keeps trying to push it, but even that isn't very enthusiastic. Plus, being locked into only a current version of Windows isn't very attractive to a business audience. So even if individuals like it, it won't gain a lot of traction because of the lack of practicality. Technically it is different than WinUI 2, WinUI 1, and UWP, but only technically. It has the same flaws, which means it will most likely end up in the same place as those other ones: deprecated. @j0nathan550. - I chose WinForms because it is one of the most popular, if not the most popular, desktop application types in use today. Businesses use it a LOT because it has been around the longest. That means if you are looking for a job, having skills in WinForms will be of great benefit to you. New systems and technologies are great, but you cannot neglect what is currently being used in business. I will be doing content on those other technologies as well, but don't get caught in the trap of thinking that only the newest, "best" things are important to learn.