ImageProcessor - Lightweight, Clean-Architecture Image Service

ImageProcessor is a small, self-contained service for handling image uploads, validation, transformation, and retrieval. Built with .NET, it explores Clean Architecture, modular design, and production-grade practices, even at a small scale.

Though simple in scope, the project was designed like a real-world system, balancing clarity, maintainability, and extensibility, making it a perfect playground to learn architectural principles.

The Journey

I built ImageProcessor as an experiment to answer:

How do I structure a small service to be clean and extensible?

How can I apply Clean Architecture in a tiny, focused domain?

How can I make it easy to deploy, test, and run in production-like environments?

This project became a sandbox for exploring .NET 8, dependency injection, RESTful design, and modular coding, while keeping the system predictable and testable.

Architecture & Design Choices

ImageProcessor follows a Clean Architecture-inspired layered design:

Domain Layer: Core entities and business rules (image validation, naming, transformations). Framework-agnostic C# logic.

Application Layer: Orchestration of commands, queries, and service interfaces. Abstracts storage, conversion, and code generation.

Infrastructure Layer: Concrete implementations for image handling (ImageSharp), storage, and ID/code generation. Easily extensible for cloud or CDN integration.

API Layer: ASP.NET Core REST API exposing endpoints for upload, retrieval, and redirection. Includes Swagger/OpenAPI for documentation.

Key Features & Decisions

Efficient image upload, validation, and conversion to WebP for optimal compression and quality.

Short code retrieval mimicking CDN-like behavior for easy access.

File size and dimension limits to ensure predictable performance.

Dockerized environment for smooth local testing and deployment.

Async streaming for responsive uploads and downloads.

Lessons Learned

Even in a small project, architectural discipline pays off:

Separation of concerns keeps code clean and testable.

Async and streaming in .NET drastically improve responsiveness.

Containerization encourages thinking about real-world deployment early.

Observability (logging, metrics) adds production-like awareness to small services.

Balancing simplicity and extensibility is key to maintainable design.

Challenges

Handling unsupported image formats gracefully.

Avoiding overengineering while maintaining clean, modular architecture.

Testing file uploads efficiently without bloating the codebase.

Keeping image metadata and retrieval codes consistent across endpoints.

Future Directions

ImageProcessor could evolve into:

A microservice within a larger platform.

A CDN proxy for automatic image optimization.

A plugin for CMS or event platforms (like Meet!).

Potential enhancements:

Cloud storage adapters (AWS S3, Azure Blob, Oracle Object Storage).

Background jobs for heavy image processing.

Caching and CDN integration for faster delivery.

Reflection

ImageProcessor reinforced that small projects teach big lessons. By building something end-to-end, from uploads to conversions to API design, I strengthened my foundation in architecture, modular design, and maintainable coding.

It’s a technical sandbox that demonstrates software craftsmanship, not just functionality.