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Setting Up Your Development Environment

This guide walks you through cloning the FlightPlan repositories, creating a combined solution, and running the server locally.

Choose a Project Folder

Select a folder for all your FlightPlan projects. A short path near the root of your drive works best:

C:\VS_Proj

Clone the Repositories

Open Visual Studio and clone each repository one at a time, in this order:

1. FlightPlan.Core - (https://github.com/tedlowery/FlightPlan.Core)
2. FlightPlan.Server - (https://github.com/tedlowery/FlightPlan.Server)
3. FlightPlan.Guide - (https://github.com/tedlowery/FlightPlan.Guide)

Do these 1 at a time in the order list. After cloning each one, just close the .sln file. Do not build the individual projects, or you will have to clean them all manually later.

Create the Combined Solution

Step 1: Create the Solution Folder

Create a new folder in your VS_Proj folder called FlightPlan. This will hold the combined solution.

C:\VS_Proj\FlightPlan

Step 2: Create a Blank Solution

Open Visual Studio and create a new Blank Solution inside the FlightPlan folder.

Step 3: Add the Projects

Right-click the solution and use "Add Existing Project" for each of the 3 repositories you cloned.

Step 4: Set the Startup Project

Right-click on FlightPlan.Server and select "Set as Startup Project".

Configure Project Dependencies

Setting up dependencies ensures dependent projects rebuild automatically when you make changes.

1. Go to Project → Project Dependencies...
2. Select FlightPlan.Guide and check FlightPlan.Core
3. Change to FlightPlan.Server, and check each project

Now when you run FlightPlan.Server, Core and Guide will be rebuilt automatically if there are any changes.

Register the Guide Application

When the server runs for the first time, you'll see a page showing "No applications registered". Follow these steps to register Guide:

1. Using the FlightPlan UI window, stop the server
2. Select Manage Applications
3. Click Add
4. Browse to the FlightPlan output folder and select FlightPlan.Guide.dll

The output folder will be something like:

C:\VS_Proj\FlightPlan\Debug\net8.0-windows

Restart the server. The Guide application should now be available. Test to ensure that Guide works.

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