CulturePOS Cultural-Retail POS Desktop System
A cross-platform cultural-retail point-of-sale app built with .NET 10 and Avalonia
CulturePOS is a cross-platform desktop POS system built with C# .NET 10 and Avalonia UI, targeting bookstores, museum shops, and cultural retail. It uses a clean App/Core/Infrastructure/Tests layered architecture with MVVM, and has delivered three core modules so far: product management, inventory management, and POS checkout, all persisted via EF Core + SQLite.
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Project overview
## Overview CulturePOS Desktop is a cross-platform point-of-sale (POS) application built with **C# .NET 10** and **Avalonia UI**, targeting bookstores, museum shops, library gift shops, and campus co-ops in the cultural-retail space. It is scoped as a portfolio-grade business system rather than stopping at an MVP. ## Architecture The system follows a clean layered architecture across four projects: `Core` holds pure business models, enums, and service interfaces with no UI or database dependencies; `Infrastructure` implements data access and business services on EF Core + SQLite; `App` composes the UI with MVVM (CommunityToolkit.Mvvm) and the Microsoft DI container; and `Tests` validates service logic with xUnit. Architecture rules explicitly forbid business logic in the UI and direct database access from ViewModels. ## Core Features Three modules are implemented: **Product management** (categories, unique SKU/barcode, activation toggles, and multi-criteria search), **Inventory management** (stock adjustment, safety stock, low-stock alerts, and a complete InventoryTransaction audit trail), and **POS checkout** (barcode/SKU product search, cart management, payment methods, and automatic stock deduction with Sale/SaleItem persistence at checkout). Login uses role-based mock authentication (cashier/manager/admin) and drives role-based sidebar visibility. ## Engineering Notes The data layer uses a DbContextFactory to manage connections, matching desktop best practice of not holding a single long-lived DbContext; the schema is managed with EF Core migrations. ## Roadmap Per the roadmap, upcoming work expands into membership & points, a discount/promotion engine, purchase orders, returns handling, sales reports, PDF receipts, and Excel import/export, growing toward a complete, real-world retail desktop business system.
My role
Full-stack & architecture owner (personal portfolio project)
Problem
Small and mid-sized cultural retailers (bookstores, museum shops, campus co-ops) need an offline-capable, cross-platform POS that fully handles products, inventory, and checkout, but most off-the-shelf options are Windows-locked or cloud-bound and hard to self-host or customize on Linux.
Solution
Build a cross-platform desktop app on .NET 10 and Avalonia UI with a clean layered architecture: Core holds pure business models and interfaces, Infrastructure holds EF Core/SQLite data access and services, and App wires up views via MVVM and dependency injection. Connections are managed through a DbContextFactory, every stock change is recorded as an InventoryTransaction, and checkout automatically deducts stock while writing Sale/SaleItem records.
Current outcome
Delivered a role-based, navigable desktop shell plus product CRUD, inventory adjustment with safety-stock and low-stock alerts, and a POS checkout flow with barcode search and payment methods. Four core services are covered by xUnit unit tests, and the schema is managed through EF Core migrations.
Highlights
- Clean layered architecture (App / Core / Infrastructure / Tests): UI holds no business logic and ViewModels never touch the database directly
- Products, inventory, transactions, and sales persisted with EF Core + SQLite, with schema evolution managed via migrations
- POS checkout supports barcode/SKU search, cart quantity edits, payment methods, and automatic stock deduction
- Inventory module provides safety-stock and low-stock alerts plus a full InventoryTransaction audit trail
- CommunityToolkit.Mvvm and a DI container cut boilerplate; desktop connections managed via DbContextFactory
- Four core services (Product/Inventory/Pos/Auth) covered by xUnit unit tests
Engineering challenges
- Correctly managing the EF Core DbContext lifecycle in a desktop app, switching to DbContextFactory to avoid holding a single long-lived connection
- Writing the sale record while deducting stock and recording the movement within one consistent operation at checkout
Target users
- Portfolio reviewers and interviewers
- Technical readers who need a quick view of purpose, stack, and maturity
Technical highlights
- Detected technical signals: C#, .NET 10, Avalonia, MVVM, CommunityToolkit.Mvvm, Entity Framework Core, SQLite, Microsoft.Extensions.DependencyInjection, xUnit
- README evidence exists and can support a fuller reviewed case study
- A public GitHub repository is not verified yet; the portfolio marks it as pending
Architecture
This case study is generated from the portfolio catalog pipeline using README, Git metadata, package/build configuration, and media signals. The final architecture narrative still needs source-level review. Current detected technology signals include: C#, .NET 10, Avalonia, MVVM, CommunityToolkit.Mvvm, Entity Framework Core, SQLite, Microsoft.Extensions.DependencyInjection, xUnit.
Data flow
A public data-flow narrative is not fully reviewed yet. If the project includes data processing, AI pipelines, or backend APIs, the next pass should document input, processing, storage, and UI/output flow end to end.
Project structure
CulturePOS/ README.md # project documentation, when available source files # implementation reviewed by local audit package/build config # detected capability signals
Setup / Run guide
This project does not expose a verified runnable web command yet. Review the README/source tree and add exact install, run, test, and build commands before interview use. No verified build command was detected. Treat the current portfolio page as a case-study placeholder until build steps are reviewed.
Future improvements
- Complete the production-quality README, screenshots, and demo recording
- Add architecture diagrams, data-flow notes, and key technical decisions
- Verify build/test status and update the portfolio release report
Interview notes
- State the current maturity and demonstrable scope first
- Focus on verified stack, source structure, and completed behavior
- Do not claim unverified deployment, video, or test coverage as finished
Next steps
- Implement membership & points and the discount/promotion engine (Roadmap Phase 5-6)
- Add sales reports, PDF receipts, and Excel import/export (Phase 9-11)