# AyaNova project overview

Background for anyone, human or AI, working on this code: what the products are, who runs
them where, and the development setup.

## Business

Ground Zero Tech-Works Inc. sells AyaNova, commercial service management software
(https://ayanova.com), directly to customers online since 1998. One person, John, does all
development, support and administration.

Revenue comes from three streams:

- **Hosted subscriptions**: AyaNova v8 run by Ground Zero on DigitalOcean droplets. Built with `SUBSCRIPTION_BUILD=true`
- **Self-hosted v8 licences** with yearly support and update subscriptions. Customers install it on their own Windows or Linux machines
- **v7 legacy support**: maintenance only

Practical consequence for code changes: a change can reach customer-run servers that
Ground Zero cannot see or update, and deployed clients cannot be pushed an update. API
routes, licence handling and database behaviour have to stay compatible.

## Products

| Product | Stack | Status |
|---|---|---|
| **AyaNova v8** | ASP.NET Core 8, C#, PostgreSQL; Vue 2 front end | Active. Customers are slowly moving to it from v7 |
| **AyaNova v7** | Windows desktop app, C#, 20+ years old, Firebird database | Sunset: maintenance only. Depends on discontinued commercial components. Builds in an isolated Windows 7 VirtualBox VM. Customers were told in 2022 it may become unsupportable |
| **Sockeye** | Same stack as v8, a near-copy of its code | Internal: licensing, customer database, cases (history back to FogBugz). Ported to .NET 10 in October 2026 |
| **AyaNova QBI** | .NET Framework 4.8, Windows Forms | QuickBooks Desktop integration for v8. Separate release cycle, rarely changes |

## v8 deployment targets

`build-release.bat` produces five packages; QBI is built separately.

| Target | Package | Runtime |
|---|---|---|
| Hosted subscription, Linux | `ayanova-subscription-linux-x64-server.zip` | Framework-dependent |
| Self-hosted Linux server | `ayanova-linux-x64-server.zip` | Framework-dependent |
| Self-hosted Linux desktop (single user) | `ayanova-linux-x64-desktop.zip` | Framework-dependent |
| Windows standalone (single user) | `ayanova-windows-x64-single-setup.exe` | Self-contained, embedded PostgreSQL, launcher |
| Windows LAN server | `ayanova-windows-x64-lan-setup.exe` | Framework-dependent; customer installs the ASP.NET Core Hosting Bundle and PostgreSQL |
| QuickBooks integration | `ayanova-qbi-setup.exe` | .NET Framework 4.8 |

Hosted customers run on DigitalOcean Ubuntu droplets. They are updated by hand weekly:
Ground Zero's own test droplet first, then customers through the day by time zone.

## Development environment

- **Workstation:** Beelink SER9 Pro+, 32 GB, Windows 11 Pro. Backup: ThinkPad X13 Gen 3
- **Editors:** VS Code for everything except QBI, which needs Visual Studio for the Windows Forms designer
- **Build VM:** a complete Windows 11 build environment in VirtualBox, exported and backed up to several drives (`devdocs/build/DEV-VM-SETUP.md`)
- **Source control:** Git on a self-hosted Gitea on DigitalOcean. Moved from SVN in early 2026
- **Location:** off-grid, Starlink internet, solar power. The workstation is not left running overnight in winter, so do not plan work that depends on overnight runs on it

### Pinned tool versions

| Tool | Version | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Node.js | 12.22.9 | Newer versions break `fibers` |
| Python | 3.11 | MkDocs for the customer manual |
| .NET SDK | 8.0.x, plus 10.x for the port | Server, launcher |
| .NET Framework | 4.8 | QBI only |
| Inno Setup | 6.x | Windows installers |
| 7-Zip | current | Linux zips |

## Working style

- Reliability over speed; patient with build times
- Keep all historical data: cases, emails, old releases
- Careful about backups and disaster recovery
- Changes are reviewed before they are committed; nothing is accepted blindly