Summary

This PR consolidates 31 separate showcase/testing applications — previously scattered across individual library component directories — into a single, unified showcase application at src/showcase/app. This eliminates massive duplication of boilerplate (hardware config, Blazor scaffolding, build artifacts), simplifies the build pipeline, and provides a centralized place for documentation, integration testing, and live feature demonstration.

The unified showcase app includes both the PLC-side Structured Text code and a Blazor Server UI with 43+ documentation pages covering every component and core feature in AXOpen.

Motivation

• Duplication problem: Each library component maintained its own standalone app/ folder with near-identical scaffolding: hardware config, Blazor host, security setup, data repositories, and build configuration. This resulted in ~1.5M lines of redundant generated/boilerplate code.
• Maintenance burden: Any change to the showcase infrastructure (e.g., updating the Blazor host, adjusting security, or changing the PLC configuration) had to be replicated across 31+ directories.
• Testing fragmentation: Integration tests were spread across individual app folders with no unified test surface.
• Onboarding friction: New contributors had to navigate dozens of nearly identical app folders to understand how components work together.

What Changed

1. Removed Individual App Folders (31 directories, ~1,511 files deleted)

The following library app/ directories were completely removed:

2. New Unified Showcase App (src/showcase/app/)

PLC Application (src/)

src/showcase/app/src/
├── Foundation/
│   ├── AbstractionsShowcase.st
│   ├── FoundationShowcase.st
│   ├── InspectorsShowcase.st
│   └── IoShowcase.st
├── IO/
│   ├── HwIdentifiers.st
│   ├── Inputs.st / Outputs.st / IoStructures.st
├── ShowcaseContext.st          # Unified context for all showcases
├── configuration.st            # Hardware/PLC configuration
└── program.st                  # Main program entry point

Blazor UI (ix-blazor/showcase.blazor/)

ix-blazor/showcase.blazor/
├── Pages/                          # 43+ documentation pages
│   ├── Core/                       # AxoComponent, AxoTask, AxoSequencer, AxoMessaging, AxoDialogs, ...
│   ├── Foundation/                 # DataExchange, DistributedData, Rendering, Security
│   └── Components/                 # All 20+ hardware component showcases
├── Shared/
│   ├── MainLayout.razor
│   ├── NavMenu.razor               # Expandable navigation with all features
│   ├── TopRow.razor
│   └── Showcase/                   # Reusable showcase UI components
│       ├── AxoStepCard.razor       # Step-by-step guide cards
│       ├── CodeBlock.razor         # Syntax-highlighted code display
│       ├── MaturityBadge.razor     # Component maturity indicators
│       ├── SourceFileLink.razor    # Links to source files
│       └── SourceViewerModal.razor # Modal source code viewer
├── Services/
│   └── CodeSnippetProvider.cs      # Dynamic code snippet loader with line-range support
├── wwwroot/
│   ├── css/momentum.css            # Operon/Momentum design system
│   └── css/tailwind.css
└── Program.cs                      # App configuration & startup

Key features of the Blazor UI:

• Living documentation — CodeSnippetProvider loads real source code from .st and .cs files, supporting line-range extraction and automatic language detection
• Momentum/Operon styling — Consistent design system matching the Simatic AX visual language
• Data exchange showcase — Demonstrates all 4 data exchange patterns: AxoDataExchange, AxoDataFragmentExchange, AxoDataPersistentExchange, AxoDataDistributed
• Security — Roles-based access control with JSON repository

3. Solution File Updates

4. Build Pipeline Updates (cake/)

cake/BuildContext.cs:

• Disabled HasApp flag for all 32 library configurations (e.g., ("core", "axopen.core", true, true, true) → ("core", "axopen.core", true, false, true))
• Removed app folder paths from GetControllerAxFolders(), GetApplicationAxFolders(), and GetApaxYmlFiles()

cake/Program.cs:

• Simplified test runner to no longer traverse individual app/ directories
• Changed folder discovery from checking both app and ax to only ax

5. Documentation Updates (60+ files)

• Updated all component documentation links to point to the unified showcase app
• Link pattern changed from ../app/... to ../../showcase/app/...
• Minor API reference fix in README.md: Entry.Plc.AxoRemoteTasks → Entry.Plc.Ctx.AxoRemoteTasks
• Updated docs across all component categories: core, data, drives, robotics, vision, tightening, pneumatics, inspectors, IO

6. Configuration Changes

Directory.Packages.props:

• Added Markdig v0.40.0 — Markdown parsing library used by CodeSnippetProvider for documentation rendering in the Blazor UI

Commit History

Architecture Diagram

BEFORE (31 separate apps):                AFTER (1 unified app):
                                          
src/core/app/          ─┐                 src/showcase/app/
  ├── src/              │                   ├── src/
  ├── ix-blazor/        │                   │   ├── Foundation/
  ├── hwc/              │                   │   │   ├── AbstractionsShowcase.st
  └── apax.yml          │                   │   │   ├── FoundationShowcase.st
                        │                   │   │   ├── InspectorsShowcase.st
src/data/app/          ─┤                   │   │   └── IoShowcase.st
  ├── src/              │                   │   ├── IO/
  ├── ix-blazor/        ├──► CONSOLIDATED   │   ├── ShowcaseContext.st
  ├── hwc/              │    INTO            │   ├── configuration.st
  └── apax.yml          │                   │   └── program.st
                        │                   ├── ix-blazor/showcase.blazor/
src/components.*/app/  ─┤                   │   ├── Pages/ (43+ pages)
  ├── src/              │                   │   ├── Shared/ (layout + components)
  ├── ix-blazor/        │                   │   ├── Services/ (CodeSnippetProvider)
  ├── hwc/              │                   │   └── wwwroot/ (CSS, assets)
  └── apax.yml         ─┘                   ├── hwc/
                                            └── apax.yml

Testing Considerations

• Verify apax build succeeds for src/showcase/app
• Verify the Blazor showcase app starts and all 43+ pages render correctly
• Verify CodeSnippetProvider resolves source files from the correct paths
• Verify all documentation links in component docs point to valid files
• Verify cake build pipeline correctly skips removed app folders
• Run L1 and L3 test suites to confirm no regressions
• Verify data exchange scenarios (JSON persistence, fragments, distributed) function correctly
• Confirm no remaining references to deleted app/ paths in solution or project files

Breaking Changes

• Removed 31 standalone app directories — Any workflow, script, or CI job that references individual src/<component>/app/ paths will need to be updated to use src/showcase/app/ instead.
• Build configuration — HasApp flag is now false for all library components in BuildContext.cs. The build no longer looks for or processes individual app folders.
• Solution structure — Projects removed from solutions; showcase projects added. IDE users will need to reload solutions.

Risk Assessment