Overview

Bogus.CLI is organized into 3 projects following a layered architecture with clear separation of responsibilities. Each layer depends only on the layer below it, and all dependencies are injected via interfaces.

Bogus.CLI.App  →  Bogus.CLI.Core  →  Bogus.CLI.Infrastructure

Layers

Bogus.CLI.App — Presentation Layer

Entry point of the application. Responsible for receiving CLI commands, parsing arguments/options, and displaying output to the user.

  • Registers all services in the DI container (Program.cs)
  • Uses Cocona as the CLI framework
  • Contains one class per command: DatasetCommand, ListDatasetCommand, ListLocaleCommand, SeedDatabaseCommand
  • Has no business logic — delegates everything to Core services

Bogus.CLI.Core — Business Logic Layer

Heart of the application. Contains all logic for generating fake data, parsing dataset specifications, managing locales, and orchestrating database seeding.

Key responsibilities:

  • Services — orchestrate data generation and database seeding
  • Parser services — parse dataset strings (e.g. name.firstName(gender=male)) and invoke the correct generator
  • Dataset services — wrap Bogus generators (Name, Lorem, Phone)
  • Helpers — validate dataset/property names and parse parameters
  • Constants — define available dataset names and their properties
  • Models — represent the YAML seed file structure (SeedFileModel, TableModel, Field)

Bogus.CLI.Infrastructure — Data Access Layer

Responsible for communicating with external databases. Currently supports SQL Server.

  • SqlServerRepository — builds and executes parameterized INSERT statements in batches using transactions
  • IRepository — interface that abstracts the database, making it straightforward to add support for other engines (PostgreSQL, MySQL, etc.) in the future

Project Dependencies

Bogus.CLI.App
├── Bogus.CLI.Core
│   └── Bogus.CLI.Infrastructure
│       └── Microsoft.Data.SqlClient
├── Cocona (CLI framework)
└── Microsoft.Extensions.DependencyInjection

Bogus.CLI.Core
├── Bogus (fake data generation)
└── Microsoft.Extensions.Logging

Bogus.CLI.Infrastructure
└── Microsoft.Data.SqlClient

Key Classes

Class Project Role
Program.cs App Entry point, DI configuration
DatasetCommand App Handles the dataset CLI command
SeedDatabaseCommand App Handles the seed-database CLI command
DatasetService Core Orchestrates fake data generation
FakerService Core Singleton wrapper around Bogus.Faker, manages locale
DatasetHelper Core Validates dataset names and parses dataset strings
ParserDatasetNameService Core Parses and generates name.* data
ParserDatasetLoremService Core Parses and generates lorem.* data
ParserDatasetPhoneService Core Parses and generates phone.* data
DatasetNameService Core Wraps Bogus.Name methods
DatasetLoremService Core Wraps Bogus.Lorem methods
DatasetPhoneService Core Wraps Bogus.Phone methods
SeedDatabaseService Core Orchestrates batch generation and DB insertion
TemplateService Core Applies output templates with placeholders
SqlServerRepository Infrastructure Executes batch INSERTs into SQL Server

Design Patterns

  • Dependency Injection — all dependencies resolved via interfaces through Cocona + Microsoft.Extensions.DI
  • Repository Pattern — IRepository abstracts database access from business logic
  • Adapter Pattern — Dataset*Service classes adapt the Bogus library API to the application’s interface
  • Strategy Pattern — ParserDataset*Service classes implement different generation strategies per dataset type
  • Singleton — FakerService is registered as singleton so locale is consistent across all generators
Previous: Lorem Dataset Next: Execution Flow