Creating OData Controllers via Reflection with ASPNET Core - asp.net-mvc

I am trying to use ASPNET Core's new ODATA feature to expose data from my application. All of my data access is exposed through a set of common base classes so instead of creating 50 different ODataController classes, I'd like to have one common class and just instantiate it with different type parameters. I have my common class created but I am at a loss as to how to tell ASPNETCORE to create a bunch of controllers using reflection.
Does anyone have any examples of how to do this? I basically want to be able to write code like:
ODataControllers.Add(new CommonApiController<MatterJson, IMatterCommand, MatterStorage, MatterApi>());
(Of course I'll automate that via reflection as well, I just want to give that as an example).
I have my controller class as follows:
public class CommonApiController<TJson, TAdd1, TStorage, TApi> : ODataController
where TJson : class, IDResult, ITimestamped, new()
where TAdd1 : class, IApiCommand
where TStorage : RepositoryItem<TJson, TStorage>, new()
where TApi : CrudApi<TJson, TAdd1> {
public ICachedCrudApi<TJson, TAdd1, TStorage, TApi> API { get; private set; }
public CommonApiController(ICachedCrudApi<TJson, TAdd1, TStorage, TApi> API) {
this.API = API;
}
public virtual IEnumerable<TJson> Get(ODataQueryOptions<TJson> options) {
var settings = new ODataValidationSettings() {
AllowedQueryOptions = AllowedQueryOptions.All
};
options.Validate(settings);
var query = API.List().AsQueryable();
var results = options.ApplyTo(query);
return (results as IQueryable<TJson>).ToList();
}
public virtual async Task<TJson> Get([FromODataUri] long key) {
var query = await API.Get(key)
.DefaultAwait()
;
return query.Response;
}
}

Related

Connect to 2 different MartenDB datastores with ASP.Net Core

When setting up a MartenDB datastore in ASP.Net Core, you normally put code like this in your Startup.cs:
services.AddMarten(o =>
{
o.Connection(configuration.GetConnectionString("MyDatabase"));
o.AutoCreateSchemaObjects = AutoCreate.All;
o.Serializer(new JsonNetSerializer { EnumStorage = EnumStorage.AsString });
});
This allows you to then inject IDocumentSession and IDocumentStore into your various classes for working with that database.
Now what do you do if you have to connect to a second database? I looked at the ISessionFactory but it is not apparent that you can change the connection string from here. Do you need to manually create and register a new DocumentStore?
To answer my own question, I wound up creating a custom DocumentStore and ISessionFactory for each database I wanted to connect to, and then injecting the custom SessionFactory.
Here's the code (only showing one instance of each class for the sake of brevity. Just replace Db1 with Db2 for the second version of each class):
The custom DocumentStore:
public class Db1Store : DocumentStore
{
public Db1Store(StoreOptions options) : base(options)
{
}
}
The custom SessionFactory:
public class Db1SessionFactory : ISessionFactory
{
private readonly Db1Store store;
public Db1SessionFactory(Db1Store store)
{
this.store = store;
}
public IQuerySession QuerySession()
{
return store.QuerySession();
}
public IDocumentSession OpenSession()
{
return store.OpenSession();
}
}
The service registration (this replaces the services.AddMarten call):
services.AddSingleton(p =>
{
var options = new StoreOptions();
options.Connection(configuration.GetConnectionString("DB1"));
options.AutoCreateSchemaObjects = AutoCreate.All;
options.Serializer(new JsonNetSerializer { EnumStorage = EnumStorage.AsString });
return new Db1Store(options);
});
services.AddSingleton<Db1SessionFactory>();
Then you inject the Db1SessionFactory instance into your class, and run a query like this:
var result = await db1SessionFactory.QuerySession().Query<MyAwesomeTable>().ToListAsync();
Downsides:
I would prefer to inject the QuerySession or DocumentSession, but I can't see a way to do that without moving to Autofac or a similar DI Container that supports named instances.
I am not sure what downsides there will be creating these QuerySession/DocumentSessions in this manner. It may be a bad tradeoff.

Configure Unity container per-request in OWIN middleware

I'm wanting to configure registrations in a Unity container being used by ASP.NET Web API 2 based on properties of a HTTP request. For example, a request to /api/database1/values should result in a Unity container configuration with an IDbContext configured for database1, while a request to /api/database4/values will get an IDbContext configured for database4.
I've gotten so far as using UnityHierarchicalDependencyResolver as the dependency resolver, so types registered with HierarchicalLifetimeManager last only for the lifetime of the request. This works well for getting types resolved per request. But how to get them registered per request using OWIN middleware is beyond me.
In my middleware, a call to System.Web.Http.GlobalConfiguration.Configuration.DependencyResolver.GetService(typeof(IUnityContainer)) gets an instance of IUnityContainer, but it's the same container for all requests, including any registrations from previous requests.
By encapsulating UnityHierarchicalDependencyResolver with my own implementation of IDependencyResolver I can see that IDependencyResolver.BeginScope isn't called until much later in the process. So the problem would seem to be that the child container isn't created until Web API wakes up, long after my middleware calls Next(..).
Is there a way I can get the scope of my dependency resolver to start sooner? Is there some other strategy that I'm missing. In case it makes any difference, I'm hosting in IIS, but favouring the OWIN middleware approach.
Update
This isn't an answer, and it's too big for a comment, but after struggling to solve this with Unity I decided to switch to Autofac and it all just fell into place.
The Autofac OWIN packages (Autofac.Mvc5.Owin, Autofac.Owin, Autofac.WebApi2.Owin) make it dead easy to use Autofac within the OWIN pipeline and ensure appropriate lifetime management in ASP.NET MVC and Web API. This was the missing link.
I couldn't find a way to reconfigure the container per-request, but it did at least make it possible to configure a factory per-request (so yes, #Haukinger and #alltej, you were right to push in that direction.
So I register a factory like:
builder.RegisterType<DataDependencyFactory>().InstancePerRequest();
And register the create method of that factory like:
builder
.Register(c => c.Resolve<DataDependencyFactory>().CreateDataDependency())
.As<IDataDependency>()
.InstancePerRequest();
Registering the factory this way is particularly useful, because downstream dependents don't need to be aware of the factory. I like this because my dependents don't need a factory, they need an instance. The container bends to the needs of my dependents, not the other way around :)
Then, in a piece of OWIN middleware, I resolve the factory, and set a property on it according to the properties of the request. Subsequent resolution of IDataDependency in an MVC or Web API controller, or anything else later in the OWIN pipeline, will get an instance configured according to the property on the factory.
Based on your api URL ("/api/database4/values"), I suggest that you create a filter attribute(e.g. DbIdFilter) so that you can reuse the filter attribute to other controller methods that follow similar url path/segment like this below:
[HttpGet]
[DbIdFilter]
[Route("{databaseId}/values")]
public IHttpActionResult GetValues()
{
return Ok();
}
[HttpGet]
[DbIdFilter]
[Route("{databaseId}/products")]
public IHttpActionResult GetProducts()
{
return Ok();
}
First, create the filter attribute:
public class DbIdFilterAttribute : ActionFilterAttribute
{
private readonly string _routeDataId;
private const string defaultRouteName = "databaseId";
public DbIdFilterAttribute():this(defaultRouteName)
{}
public DbIdFilterAttribute(string routeDataId)
{
_routeDataId = routeDataId;
}
public override void OnActionExecuting(HttpActionContext actionContext)
{
var routeData = actionContext.Request.GetRouteData();
var dbId = routeData.Values[_routeDataId] as string;
//here we create the db instance at the filter level.
DbInstanceFactory.RegisterDbInstance(dbId);
}
}
Next, create an instance factory that will register/resolve the db instance during runtime:
public class DbInstanceFactory : IDbInstanceFactory
{
public static IDbInstance RegisterDbInstance(string databaseId)
{
var factory = UnityConfig.GetConfiguredContainer().Resolve<IDbInstanceFactory>();
return factory.CreateInstance(databaseId);
}
public IDbInstance CreateInstance(string databaseId)
{
var container = UnityConfig.GetConfiguredContainer();
//container.RegisterType<IDbInstance, DbInstance>();
container.RegisterType<IDbInstance, DbInstance>(new InjectionConstructor(databaseId));
var dbInstance = container.Resolve<IDbInstance>();
return dbInstance;
}
public IDbInstance GetInstance()
{
var container = UnityConfig.GetConfiguredContainer();
var dbInstance = container.Resolve<IDbInstance>();
return dbInstance;
}
}
public interface IDbInstanceFactory
{
IDbInstance CreateInstance(string databaseId);
IDbInstance GetInstance();
}
Register this factory class in UnityConfig.cs (or wherever you currently register the types):
container.RegisterType<IDbInstanceFactory, DbInstanceFactory>
(new ContainerControlledLifetimeManager());
It's registered ContainerControlledLifetimeManager since this factory does not have to be a per request.
So just a basic DbInstance class below(for clarity) that takes a parameter in the constructor (this parameter can be your connection string or a named connection):
public class DbInstance : IDbInstance
{
public string DbId { get; }
public DbInstance(string databaseId)
{
DbId = databaseId;
}
}
public interface IDbInstance
{
string DbId { get; }
}
In controller class, you can use it like this:
....
private IDbInstanceFactory _dbFactory;
public MyController(IDbInstanceFactory dbFactory)
{
_dbFactory = dbFactory;
}
// Alternate, if you want to use property injection instead of constructor injection
//[Dependency]
//public IDbInstanceFactory DbFactory { get; set; }
[HttpGet]
[DbIdFilter]
[Route("{databaseId}/test")]
public IHttpActionResult Test()
{
var db = _dbFactory.GetInstance();
return Ok(db.DbId);
}
...

Unit Testing a Controller - How Do I Handle the Connection String?

I can make it work, but I want to know what the best practice is and why. I have a Controller, a Model, and a Repository and now I want to Unit Test the Controller. I am just writing a simple test to ensure that the correct view is being returned.
This is my method in the controller:
public ActionResult Selections(SelectionsViewModel model)
{
for (int i = 0; i < model.Sends.Count; i++)
{
Send send = new Send(new SendService(new Database().GetConnectionString()))
{
SendID = model.Sends[i].SendID,
Title = model.Sends[i].Title,
Subject = model.Sends[i].Subject,
SentDate = model.Sends[i].SentDate,
TimesViewed = model.Sends[i].TimesViewed,
Include = model.Sends[i].Include,
Exclude = model.Sends[i].Exclude
};
send.UpdateIncludeExclude();
}
return View(model);
}
Here is my GetConnectionString() method in the Database class that is being sent via my SendService constructor.
public string GetConnectionString()
{
return System.Configuration.ConfigurationManager.ConnectionStrings["DEVConnectionString"].ToString();
}
And lastly, my unit test:
[Test]
public void TestAssignmentSelections()
{
var obj = new AssignmentController();
var actResult = obj.Selections() as ViewResult;
NUnit.Framework.Assert.That(actResult.ViewName, Is.EqualTo("Selections"));
}
Now, my unit test fails, and I get why. My unit test project has no access to the web.config of the project I am testing where my connection string resides.
I've done some research, and apparently just adding a web.config to my unit test project and putting the connection string in there as well will make it work.. but that seems like a hack.
What's the best way to go about this? Is there another way to write my code to accommodate for this?
You want to make your controller unit testable ? Don't do this.
new SendService(
With this code,you are hardcoding your concrete service implementation & your data access code implementation. In your unit test, you should not be really accessing the data from your database. Instead you should be providing a mock data access implementation.
Here comes interfaces, you need to create an interface for your SendService.
public interface ISendService
{
void SomeMethod();
}
now your SendService will be a concrete implementation of this interface
public class SendService : ISendService
{
public void SomeMethod()
{
// Do something
}
}
Now update your controller to have a constructor where we will inject an implementation of ISendService.
public class YourController : Controller
{
private ISendService sendService;
public YourController(ISendService sendService)
{
this.sendService = sendService;
}
public ActionResult YourActionMethod()
{
// use this.sendService.SomeMethod();
}
}
And you may use some dependency injection frameworks to tell the MVC framework which implementation of the interface to use when the code runs. If you are using MVC6,It has an inbuilt dependency injection provider you can use. So go to your Startup class and in your ConfigureServices method, you can map an interface to a concrete implementation.
public class Startup
{
public void ConfigureServices(IServiceCollection services)
{
services.AddTransient<ISendService, SendService>();
}
}
If you are in a previous version of MVC, You may consider DI frameworks like Unity,Ninject etc. You can do the same approach for your Data access later / Service layers. ie: Create an interface for data access and inject that to your SendService.
public Interface IDataAccess
{
string GetName(int id);
}
and an implementation which uses your specific data access code/ORM
public class EFDataAccess : IDataAccess
{
public string GetName(int id)
{
// return a string from db using EF
}
}
So now your Service class will be
public class SendService : ISendService
{
private IDataAccess dataAccess;
public SendService(IDataAccess dataAccess)
{
this.dataAccess=dataAccess;
}
// to do : Implement methods of your ISendService interface.
// you may use this.dataAccess in those methods as needed.
}
In your unit tests, you can create a mock implementation of your interfaces which returns static data instead of accessing the database.
For example, If you are using Moq mocking framework, you can do this.
var m = new Mock<IDataAccess>();
var m.Setup(s=>s.GetName(It.IsAny<int>())).Returns("Test");
var s = new SendService(m);
var result= s.SomeMethod();

Constructor not created in proxy class with Add Service Reference

I have created a web service with ServiceStack which returns List<SyncUserDTO>.
It has more properties, but I simplified it to one field, Timestamp.
[DataContract]
public class SyncUserDTO
{
public SyncUserDTO()
{
Timestamp = new TimestampDTO();
}
[DataMember(Order = 1)]
public TimestampDTO Timestamp { get; set; }
}
[DataContract]
public class TimestampDTO
{
[DataMember]
public bool DataValid { get; set; }
[DataMember]
public DateTime? Value { get; set; }
}
The service seems to work perfectly (with other tests), but when I create a client console application and Add Service Reference, the SyncUserDTO does not have the constructor, meaning this doesn't work:
static void SendUsersServiceReference()
{
var users = new List<SyncUserDTO>();
for (var i = 0; i < 5; i++)
{
var user = new SyncUserDTO();
user.Timestamp.Value = DateTime.Now; // NullReferenceException,
user.Timestamp.DataValid = true; // as Timestamp is null
}
}
When pressing F12 on SyncUserDTO, I can't seem to find any Constructor method in Reference.cs, explaining why the above doesn't work.
But why is the constructor not created in my proxy classes in the client application?
I need to do the "construction" myself in the client, and then it works:
var user = new SyncUserDTO() { Timestamp = new TimestampDTO() };
Of cause, I don't want the people who consumes my service to have to create this themselves. They should really note care about the underlying TimestampDTO. The constructor should do this.
Btw, I searched Google and SO for terms like "Constructor not created in proxy class with Add Service Reference" with and without "ServiceStack", no results to aid me in this quest...
Pps. Demis (ServiceStack), if you're reading this, yes SOAP is on the way out, REST is the new black - but I want to support both, which it seems like ServiceStack does, which is really great. I love ServiceStack :D
try to instanciate your property by the time you are going to access it, I know that´s a workaround but it could be convenient in your scenario.
private TimestampDTO _timestamp;
public TimestampDTO Timestamp
{
get
{
if(_timestamp==null) _timestamp=new TimestampDTO();
return _timestamp;
}
set
{
_Timestamp=value;
}
}
This is my solution (for now):
I created a new service method in my service, where the client gets a new UserDTO complete with all fields. This way, the constructor is run on the server. I bet I have quite a performance hit this way, but it doesn't matter that much (now...).
Service DTO's:
[DataContract]
public class ReturnNewEmptyUser : IReturn<ReturnNewEmptyUserResponse> {}
[DataContract]
public class ReturnNewEmptyUserResponse
{
[DataMember]
public SyncUserDTO User { get; set; }
}
The Service:
public class SyncService : Service
{
public ReturnNewEmptyUserResponse Any(ReturnNewEmptyUser request)
{
var user = new ReturnNewEmptyUserResponse { User = new SyncUserDTO() };
return user;
}
}
On the client:
static void SendUsersServiceReference()
{
var webservice = new ServiceReference1.SyncReplyClient();
var users = new List<User>();
for (var i = 0; i < 5; i++)
{
var userResponse = webservice.ReturnNewEmptyUser(new ReturnNewEmptyUser());
var user = userResponse.User;
user.Timestamp.Value = DateTime.Now;
user.Timestamp.DataValid = true;
// Continue with field population...
users.Add(user);
}
// Send users with webservice method
// ...
}
We're wondering if it is a bad way to expose the fields this way. It is nice, because the client can use autocomplete and know exactly the types used - but is it better to force the client to create an XML/JSON in a specific format.
This should be in another question - this question I guess has been answered: Add service reference/proxy classes does not contain methods (incl. constructors for types), only types. If you really need the constructor, have it run and then exposed on the server and then consume it from the client. Like a factory-thing, as Adam wrote here: Class constructor (from C# web service) won't auto-implement properties in C# MVC
Btw - is there any security issues with this design? User is logged in via url-credentials (should probably be header authentication), only a few systems has access to it.
A proxy class does not keep implementation details, like a constructor. It is just a DTO. This can only be done if you share the classes, through a shared project.
Think about that servicestack is just telling the client which properties it needs, and their type.. the implementation is up to the client.

Entity framework add a where clause to all queries

I am using Entity framework 5 and using repository pattern. Say I got these entities Customer, Files, Images, Tasks, Invoice, User.
Each entity (apart from Customer) has a foreign key of Customer. When a user logs in I store the customerid in session (aps.net mvc). What I want is any CRUD taken on all entities to be limited to the customer who's user is logged in. e.g I can't afford to delete a Task belonging to customer 1 to be deleted by user who is from customer 2.
Is adding an argument of customerid for each method of repositories the best way to achieve this or are there any better/clever ways of doing it?
Tricky to give a definitive answer but you could make it a bit more extensible by implementing higer order functions, like this:
public interface IRepository<T>
{
public T GetBy(Expression<Func<T, bool>> query)
}
public class FileRepository : IRepository<File>
{
public File GetBy(Expression<Func<T, bool>> query)
{
using(var context = new FilesContext())
{
return context.Files.Where(query).FirstOrDefault();
}
}
}
public class SomeController
{
private IRepository<File> _repo;
public SomeController(IRepository<File> repo)
{
_repo = repo;
}
public ActionResult Index()
{
var model = _repo.GetBy(f => f.CustomerId == Session.Whatever.CustomerId);
return View(model);
}
}
This way you can vary the search query when required, rather than tie yourself in to using a hardcoded customer id property. For example, if you wanted to get the File object by the FileID, not the CustomerID, then:
var model = _repo.GetBy(f => f.FileId == someId);
and that's the only part of the code that needs to change.
Some really good info on Higher Order functions and functional programming in C# here: http://www.codeproject.com/Articles/375166/Functional-programming-in-Csharp
Edit:
You might be able to isolate the "Always use the customer ID when hitting DB" into a repository of it's own, using a decorator style pattern, thus: (massive disclaimer - I haven't tested this, but something along these lines should work)
public class SpecialFileRepo : IRepository<File>
{
private readonly IRepository<File> _baseRepo;
public SpecialFileRepo(IRepository<File> baseRepo)
{
_baseRepo = baseRepo;
}
public SpecialFileRepo() : this(new FileRepository())
{
}
public File GetBy(Expression<Func<File, bool>> query)
{
var parameters = query.Parameters;
var newParam = Expression.Parameter(typeof (File), "f");
var additionalQuery = Expression.AndAlso(query.Body,
Expression.Equal(
Expression.PropertyOrField(newParam, "CustomerId"),
Expression.Constant(HttpContext.Current.Session["customerId"])));
var newQuery = query.Update(additionalQuery, parameters);
return _baseRepo.GetBy(newQuery);
}
}
Then anything that's talking to a repository, as far as it's concerned, it's just a base repository, but this class is sitting in between and always grafting the "customerid = sessionwhatever" expression onto what finally gets passed to the database. And of course, anything that only cares about using the base repository, can still do so.

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