I'm building an ASP.Net MVC4 application and the customer wants to be able to supply an XML configuration file, to configure a vendor list in the application, something like this:
<Vendor>
<Vendor name="ABC Computers" deliveryDays="10"/>
<Vendor name="XYZ Computers" deliveryDays="15"/>
</Vendors>
The file needs to be dropped onto a network location (i.e. not on the web server) and I don't have a database to import and store the data.
The customer also wants the ability to update it daily. So I'm thinking I'll have to do some kind of import (and validate the file) when the application starts up.
Any good ideas on the best way to accomplish this?
- The data needs to be quickly accessible
- Ideally I just want to import/store it once, or be able to access it quickly
- I need to be able to validate the file, so it might be prudent to be able to be able to switch to a backup
One thought was to use something like Entity Framework and simply read the file whenever I needed it, but if possible I'd hold it in memory in the application if possible.
Cheers
Vincent
No need to import it into a database or use Entity Framework. You can simply use .NET Xml Serialization to accomplish this.
The command line tool xsd.exe will generate c# classes from your Xml file. From the command line:
xsd.exe myfile.xml
xsd.exe /c myfile.xsd
The first command will infer and create an xml schema file (myfile.xsd) from your xml. The second command will convert the schema file to c# classes.
Then use the XmlSerializer class to deserialize your xml file into objects (assuming multiple objects in one file):
MyCollection myObjects= null;
string path = "mydata.xml";
XmlSerializer serializer = new XmlSerializer(typeof(MyCollection));
StreamReader reader = new StreamReader(path);
myObjects = (MyCollection)serializer.Deserialize(reader);
reader.Close();
You can use the .xsd file generated above to validate your xml files. Here's a link showing how: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms162371.aspx.
Related
In Data Integration module, I have created a mapping to load data from Csv file to Oracle table. I want to give a file pattern as the file name will have date in it. When I try to provide file pattern in the Source object, it is throwing the below error.
If someone can assist on letting me know how to load file with a file pattern, it will be very helpful.
Please let me know if you need any further details.
Try using a File Listener as the source for this mapping. In File Listener settings you can provide the pattern - and in turn, File Listener will trigger the mapping with the file found.
Moving from nlog to serilog, I would like my .NET framework desktop application to reuse a statically-named log file each time I run it, but to clear out the contents of the file with each new process. Is it possible to configure serilog this way?
This is a similar question, but it's not quite the same. In the linked question, the user uses a new log file each time with a unique filename. In my case, I want to use the same log file name each time.
This is not something Serilog can do for you as of this writing.
Serilog.Sinks.File is hard-coded to open the file with FileMode.Append thus if the file already exists, it will always append contents at the end of the file.
FileLifecycleHooks allows you to intercept when the file is being opened, and that would give you an opportunity to remove the contents of the file (by calling SetLength(0) on the stream), but unfortunately the stream implementation that Serilog.Sinks.File uses (WriteCountingStream) does not support SetLength.
Your best bet is to just truncate or delete the log file yourself at the start of the app, and let Serilog create a new one.
e.g.
// Ensure that the log file is empty
using (var fs = File.OpenWrite("mylog.log")) { fs.SetLength(0); }
// ... Configure Serilog pipeline
I have an XML file in my app resources folder. I am trying to update that file with new dictionaries dynamically. In other words I am trying to edit an existing XML file to add new keys and values to it.
First of all can we edit a static XML file and add new dictionary with keys and values to it. What is the best way to do this.
In general, you can read an XML file into a document object (choose your language), use methods to modify it (add your new dictionary), and (re-)write it back out to either the original XML file, or a new one.
That's straightforward ... just roll up the ol' sleeves and code it up.
The real problem comes in with formatting in the XML file before and after said additions.
If you are going to 'unix diff' the XML file before and after, then order is important. Some standard XML processors do better with order than others.
If the order changes behind the scenes, and is gratuitously propagated into your output file, you lose standard diffing advantages, such as some gui differs, and some scm diffs (svn, cvs, etc.).
For example, browse to:
Order of XML attributes after DOM processing
They discuss that DOM loses order where SAX does not.
You can also write a custom XML 'diff'er (there may be such off-the-shelf ... for example check out 'http://diffxml.sourceforge.net/') that compares 2 XML documents tag-by-tag, attribute-by-attribute, etc.
Perhaps some standard XML-related tool such as XSLT will allow you to keep the formatting constant without changing tag or attribute order. You'd have to research that.
BTW, a related problem is the config (.ini) file problem ... many common processors flippantly announce that the write-order may not agree with the read-order.
When my Grails application starts, I build up a data structure from a CSV file downloaded from a remote URL. If the file is not accessible, I'd like to fall back to a local copy. Currently processing the file in the service layer, initiated using a Quartz job.
What is the best practice, using Groovy, for reading a local resource in Grails?
Where should I stash the file?
How do I safely and properly read the file?
General-case answers will be very acceptable.
I think the best way to deal with this is to store the file's location in an externalized configuration file.
So, you'd determine a standardized location (such as /etc/myappname/CSVFileConfig.groovy), or pass the config file path in using an environment variable or something similar. See Externalized Configuration for examples.
Then you can simply add the actual path to the local file to that extenal config, like so:
// CSVFileConfig.groovy
my.custom.csv.path = ...
Finally, access it using normal config operations:
// in your Quartz job
def path = grailsApplication.config.my?.custom?.csv?.path
if(!path) {
// no file to load
} else {
// load file
}
As far as reading the file, what are your primary concerns? If you are using a CSV library, such as OpenCSV (used in most of the Grails libraries for CSV parsing), it will handle the opening and parsing of the file.
For security issues beyond that, I'm not sure how to handle them in a generic way. It will depend on your specific scenario. I think the one coming from a URL has a higher risk factor.
I need to implement a web app, but instead of using relational database I need to use different SOAP Web Services as a back-end. An important part of application only calls web services and displays the result. Since Web Services are clearly defined in form of Operation: In parameters and Return Type it seems to me that basic GUI could be easily constructed just like in the case of scaffolding based on Domain Entities.
For example in case of SearchProducts web service operation I need to enter search parameters as input, so the search page can be constructed. Operation will return a list of products, so I need a page that will display this list in some kind of table.
Is there already some library in grails that let you achieve this. If not, how would you go about creating one?
Probably the easiest approach is to use wsimport on the WSDL files to generate the client-side stubs. Then you can call methods in the stubs from Groovy just as you would have called them from Java.
For example, consider the WSDL file for Microsoft's TerraServer, located at http://terraservice.net/TerraService.asmx?wsdl . Then you run something like
wsimport -d src -keep http://terraservice.net/TerraService.asmx?WSDL
which puts all the compiled stubs in the src directory. Then you can write Groovy code like
import com.terraserver_usa.terraserver.*;
TerraServiceSoap sei = new TerraService().getTerraServiceSoap()
Place home = new Place(city:'Boston',state:'MA',country:'US')
def pt = sei.convertPlaceToLonLatPt(home)
println "$pt.lat, $pt.lon"
assert Math.abs(pt.lat - 42.360000) < 0.001
assert Math.abs(pt.lon - -71.05000) < 0.001
If you want to access a lot of web services, generate the stubs for all of them. Or you can use dynamic proxies instead.
The bottom line, though, is to let Java do what it already does well, and use Groovy where it makes your life easier.
You should be able to use XFire or CXF Plugins. For automatic scaffolding, modify your Controller.groovy template in scaffolding templates so it auto-generates methods you need.