OrchardLite CMS — AWS Modernization Workshop

A legacy .NET Core 3.1 content management system used as the starting point for the AWS Enterprise Breakthrough Advance (EBA) Modernization Workshop. The workshop demonstrates transforming a legacy .NET application to .NET 8 using AWS Transform, with automated CI/CD deployment via CodePipeline.

Workshop Flow

1. Current State — Deploy the legacy .NET Core 3.1 application on ECS Fargate with RDS MySQL
2. Database Migration — Use AWS DMS to migrate data from RDS MySQL to Aurora Serverless v2
3. Application Transformation — AWS Transform analyzes the codebase and upgrades to .NET 8
4. Automated Deployment — Transform checks the upgraded code into a new branch, triggering the CI/CD pipeline
5. Validation — The UI dynamically reflects the modernized state (framework version, database type, network security)

Repository Structure

├── buildspec.yml                        # Unified build spec (works for both 3.1 and .NET 8)
├── OrchardLiteApp/
│   ├── OrchardLite.sln
│   ├── Dockerfile                       # Legacy Dockerfile (3.1)
│   └── OrchardLite.Web/
│       ├── Program.cs                   # Host builder entry point
│       ├── Startup.cs                   # MVC + DB initialization
│       ├── OrchardLite.Web.csproj       # Target framework (netcoreapp3.1 → net8.0)
│       ├── appsettings.json             # Connection string template
│       ├── Controllers/
│       │   └── HomeController.cs        # Content listing, health check, dynamic env detection
│       ├── Models/
│       │   └── ContentItem.cs           # Content data model
│       ├── Services/
│       │   └── DatabaseInitializer.cs   # Auto-creates DB, table, seeds 100 records
│       └── Views/
│           ├── Home/
│           │   ├── Index.cshtml         # Dashboard with dynamic modernization status
│           │   └── AllContent.cshtml    # Full content listing
│           └── Shared/
│               ├── _Layout.cshtml       # Dynamic layout (badges adapt to runtime)
│               └── Error.cshtml         # Error page

How the Dual-Mode Build Works

The buildspec.yml is designed to work for both the legacy main branch and the transformed branch without any manual changes:

1. Reads TargetFramework from .csproj to detect netcoreapp3.1 vs net8.0
2. Sets the appropriate SDK and runtime Docker image tags
3. Auto-fixes common AWS Transform compilation issues (e.g., CS0136 duplicate variable declarations)
4. Generates a Dockerfile.generated matching the detected framework
5. Builds, pushes to ECR, and outputs imagedefinitions.json for ECS deployment

The Razor views are also self-adapting — _Layout.cshtml and Index.cshtml detect the .NET runtime version and database host at runtime to render the correct badges, warnings, and status indicators.

Technology Stack

Component	Legacy (main)	Transformed
Framework	.NET Core 3.1	.NET 8
Database	RDS MySQL 8.0	Aurora Serverless v2
Network	Public subnets	Private subnets with NAT
Connector	MySql.Data 8.0.33	Updated by Transform
Config	Startup.cs pattern	Modernized by Transform

Environment Variables

Variable	Description	Default
DB_HOST	MySQL/Aurora hostname	localhost
DB_PORT	Database port	3306
DB_NAME	Database name	OrchardLiteDB
DB_USER	Database username	root
DB_PASSWORD	Database password	password

Endpoints

Path	Description
/	Dashboard with content listing and modernization status
/all-content	All content items
/health	JSON health check (framework version, database type, phase)

Running Locally

cd OrchardLiteApp/OrchardLite.Web

export DB_HOST=localhost
export DB_PORT=3306
export DB_NAME=OrchardLiteDB
export DB_USER=root
export DB_PASSWORD=yourpassword

dotnet run

Legacy Patterns (Intentional)

This application intentionally uses patterns that AWS Transform will detect and modernize:

• .NET Core 3.1 (EOL December 2022)
• Legacy MySql.Data connector
• Traditional Startup.cs configuration
• Manual ADO.NET data access (no ORM)
• Direct new DatabaseInitializer() instead of DI registration

License

This project is licensed under the MIT-0 License. See the LICENSE file.