OR Installing from a ZIP File Download and Extract: Download the ZIP file that contains the solution. Extract the ZIP file to a folder of your choice on your computer.

OR Installing from Git Clone the Repository: Open a terminal or Git Bash. Clone the repository by running:bash
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git clone 

Replace with the actual URL of your private or public Git repository.

Open the Solution: Open your IDE (for example, Visual Studio). In Visual Studio, go to File > Open > Project/Solution and select the solution file (e.g., DiscussionApiSolution.sln) from the extracted folder. Alternatively, open the folder in Visual Studio Code. Restore NuGet Packages: Open a terminal/command prompt in the solution’s root folder. Run the following command:bash
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dotnet restore

 Build the Solution: From the terminal, run:bash
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dotnet build
 Or use your IDE’s build functionality. Run the API: To start the Web API, run:bash
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dotnet run --project Discussion.API
 The API should start and typically listen on a local port (e.g., http://localhost:5000). Test the API: Open a browser and navigate to the Swagger UI at:bash
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http://localhost:5000/swagger Alternatively, use Postman or another API client to test the endpoints. Run Unit Tests (Optional): In the solution root, run:bash
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dotnet test This will execute all the unit tests (which use xUnit).

END POINTS

Create a New Discussion URL: POST /api/discussions Request Body:
json
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{ "username": "professor1", "content": "How is your day going so far?" } 

 Response:
json
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{ "discussionId": 1 } 

 2. Create a Reply (Comment) URL: POST /api/discussions/comments Request Body:
json
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{ "username": "student1", "parentId": 1, "content": "It is going great, thanks!" } 

 Response:
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{ "commentId": 2 } 

 3. Retrieve All Comments for a Discussion URL: GET /api/discussions/{discussionId}/comments Response Example:
json
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[ { "id": 1, "parentId": null, "username": "professor1", "content": "How is your day going so far?", "createdAt": "2025-02-08T12:34:56Z" }, { "id": 2, "parentId": 1, "username": "student1", "content": "It is going great, thanks!", "createdAt": "2025-02-08T12:35:30Z" } ]