This release introduces significant enhancements to the Zentient.Results library, focusing on improved consistency, robustness, and internal clarity. Key updates include renaming DefaultResultStatus for better alignment, refining the ErrorInfo message retrieval, and enhancing the Result<T> structure for more explicit value handling.

• Renamed DefaultResultStatus to ResultStatus: The concrete implementation of IResultStatus has been renamed from DefaultResultStatus to ResultStatus. This change simplifies the naming convention and makes it more intuitive for users, reflecting its primary role as the standard status object.
• Refined ErrorInfo Message Retrieval in Result<T>: The lazy evaluation of the Error property in Result<T> has been enhanced. It now prioritizes ErrorInfo.Message, then ErrorInfo.Code, and finally ErrorInfo.Data.ToString() for a more robust and predictable retrieval of the primary error message when multiple pieces of information are available.
• Explicit Value Handling in Result<T>.Failure Factory Methods: All Result<T>.Failure factory methods now explicitly accept a T? value parameter. This allows for scenarios where a default or partially constructed value might still be useful even in a failed result, providing more flexibility in error handling pipelines.
• Introduced ResultException for ThrowIfFailure: A new custom exception type, ResultException, has been introduced. This exception is specifically thrown by the ThrowIfFailure() extension method (which now lives in ResultExtensions), providing a structured way to expose IReadOnlyList<ErrorInfo> when a result is forcibly unwrapped on failure.
• Improved Error Handling in Result<T>.Failure Overloads:
  • The Failure(T? value, IEnumerable<ErrorInfo> errors, IResultStatus status) method now includes explicit Guard clauses to prevent null or empty errors collections, enhancing robustness and preventing invalid result states.
  • The error message for ArgumentException now correctly states "Error messages cannot be null or empty."
• Enhanced ResultStatus Equality: ResultStatus now explicitly implements IEquatable<ResultStatus>, ensuring correct and consistent value equality comparisons for result statuses throughout the application.
• Added Result<T>.NoContent() Factory Method: A new static factory method Result<T>.NoContent(string? message = null) has been added for generic results. This provides a clear and consistent way to indicate a successful operation with no content, aligning with HTTP 204 No Content semantics, particularly useful when T is a value type or when an empty value is ambiguous.

This is the inaugural release of the Zentient.Results library, providing a robust and flexible framework for handling operation outcomes with explicit success and failure states.

• ErrorCategory Enum: Introduced a comprehensive set of predefined error categories to classify different types of operation failures, including General, Validation, Authentication, Authorization, NotFound, Conflict, Exception, Network, Database, Timeout, Security, and Request.
• ErrorInfo Struct: A lightweight, immutable structure for detailed error representation, including Category, Code, Message, optional Data, and InnerErrors for nested error scenarios.
  • Provides a static Aggregate method for creating validation-related ErrorInfo instances.
• IResultStatus Interface & DefaultResultStatus Struct: Defines a standard for representing the status of an operation with a Code (intended to align with HTTP status codes) and Description.
  • DefaultResultStatus provides a concrete implementation and a Custom static method for creating custom statuses.
• IResult Interface: Defines the fundamental contract for an operation result, providing properties to check for IsSuccess or IsFailure, access Errors, Messages, a single Error message, and the Status of the operation.
• Result<T> Struct: A generic, immutable struct representing an operation result that can carry a Value upon success.
  • Success Factory Methods: Success, Created, and NoContent for common successful outcomes.
  • Failure Factory Methods: Failure (for single or multiple errors), Validation, FromException, Unauthorized, Forbidden, NotFound, Conflict, and InternalError for various failure scenarios.
  • Monadic Operations: Includes Map, Bind, Tap, OnSuccess, and OnFailure for functional-style composition and error handling.
  • Value Retrieval: GetValueOrThrow(), GetValueOrThrow(string message), GetValueOrThrow(Func<Exception> exceptionFactory), and GetValueOrDefault(T fallback) for safe or explicit value access.
  • Pattern Matching: Match method allows for elegant handling of success and failure branches.
  • Implicit Conversion: Supports implicit conversion from T to Result<T> for concise success returns.
• Result Struct (Non-Generic): A non-generic version of Result for operations that do not return a specific value, but still convey success or failure.
  • Provides similar success and failure factory methods as Result<T>.
  • Includes implicit conversion from ErrorInfo for direct error returns.
• ResultJsonConverter: Custom JsonConverterFactory to enable proper JSON serialization and deserialization of Result and Result<T> types, ensuring IsSuccess, IsFailure, Status, Messages, Errors, and Value (for Result<T>) are correctly handled.
• ResultStatuses Class: A static class providing a comprehensive collection of predefined IResultStatus instances, largely mapping to standard HTTP status codes (e.g., Success (200), Created (201), BadRequest (400), Unauthorized (401), NotFound (404), InternalError (500)).
• ResultStatusExtensions: An extension method ToHttpStatusCode() for converting an IResultStatus to its integer HTTP status code.