I have a single controller that I want to use for CRUD operations on two different entities which implement the same interface. I'd like for Ninject to give it a different repository based on a query string value in the URL (or maybe a different URL, routed to the same controller). Is this possible? How can I do it?
That's usually a design smell but you could define the binding like this:
kernel.Bind<IRepo>().ToMethod(ctx =>
{
var a = HttpContext.Current.Request["a"];
if (a == "b")
{
return new RepoA();
}
return new RepoB();
}).InRequestScope();
The following worked for me, Getting A Specific value from a route
kernel.Bind<IRepo>().ToMethod(ctx =>
{
var a = HttpContext.Current.Request.RequestContext.RouteData.Values["RouteDateValue"]
if (a != null)
{
return new RepoA(a);
}
return new RepoB();
})
Related
I am working on asp.net mvc3 web application using MS Sql server 2008 express rc2. In my app I have two different brands in DB and one of them have few Null or 'unknown' values (e.g. 'unknown' is added to DB instead of Null). My question is how to pass only non null values to View Engine instead of using If/Else statements in View?
in controller:
var model = _data.GetViewModel(query);
if (model != null)
{
return View(model);
}
else
return View("Error");
in ViewModel;
public int Id { get; set; }
public string Query { get; set; }
public string Brand { get; set; }
public string Family { get; set; }
public string Type { get; set; }
in Model:
public ViewModel GetViewModel(string query)
{
var data = _comp.Get(p => p.Query == query);
if (data == null) return null;
return new ViewModel
{
Id = data.id,
Brand = data.brand,
Family = data.family,
Type = data.type
};
}
in View (I am currently using If statement):
#if (Model.Brand != null)
{
<span class="brand">#Model.Brand</span>
}
#if (Model.Family != null)
{
<span class="family">#Model.Family</span>
}
#if (Model.Type != null)
{
<span class="type">#Model.Type</span>
}
Note: I want to avoid If statement because there are too many values in the Database of each brand, and many of the them are Null, So I don't want to generate Html for those Null values. I am using If/Else statement like above code, and for checking too many values in View using If, it costs Memory on server and processor, and it also slow down server response time.
I want to have an alternative method to do this. Should I use Partial views or anything else?
Please Please help me to solve this, Your help is very appreciated.
Thanks and Regards.
First, some background/context, then my suggestion.
(By the way, this all applies to any version of ASP.NET MVC or ASP.NET NancyFX (yes, there's another option out there!!), etc)
Context / Background
To solve this, people generally fall into two types of categories:
Just get data and let the View decide what to show (common one, not the proper way IMO).
The Controller should handle all the heavy lifting and give the view the exact answer (proper way, IMO).
The first way is quick and dirty. Sure it works, but it puts too much logic into the view. Views are not supposed to do any logic at all (exception: for loops, and maybe the odd if/else, maybe). The main reason for this is testing. Yep, that dirty word which people hate and think it's for hippies only. Or .. I don't have the time to test.. so I manually test, etc.. If you put any business logic into a view, you cannot test that.
The second way might seem a bit slower at first, but that's like anything - the more you practice, the faster you go. This is (IMO) the preferred method of doing things because you can test the controller. The controller should create a view model which will have -the exact- results that the view needs. Not extra. For example, imagine you want to return a list of Brands to the display/view. Most people do (the equivalent of) Get-all-brands into a list, and send that list to the view, even though 80% of those properties are -not- going to be used by that view! Even if ONE property is not going to be used by that view, do not retrieve it nor send it to the view!
So - TL;DR; do all the heavy lifting in the controller. The View is dumb. Just dump the exact view model data, to the view.
Solution to your problem
Ok, so let's roll with idea #2 and get all this stuff happening in the controller.
// Grab the results.
// ASSUMPTION: It is only returning the -exact- data I need. No more, no less.
var results = _data.GetViewModel(query);
if (model == null)
{
// Project the results into a perfectly tight & svelte view model
// 100% specific for this view.
var viewModel = results.
Select(x => new ViewModel
{
Id = x.Id,
Brand = string.IsNullOrEmpty(x.Brand)
? string.Empty
: x.Brand,
Family = string.IsNullOrEmpty(x.Family)
? string.Empty
: x.Family,
Type = string.IsNullOrEmpty(x.Type)
? string.Empty
: x.Type,
}).ToList();
return viewModel;
Testing this..
[Fact]
public void GivenSomeBrands_Index_ReturnsAViewModel()
{
// Arrange.
// NOTE: Our fake repostitory has some fake data. In it ..
// Id: 1, Brand: Gucci.
// Id: 22, Brand: null.
var controller = new BrandController(SomeFakeRepositoryThingy);
// Act.
var result = controller.Index(); // This calls that controller code, above.
// Assert.
Assert.IsNotNull(result); // Controller returned some result.
Assert.IsNotNull(result.Model); // We have some model data.
var model = result.Model as IList<ViewModel>(); // Cast the Model value.
Assert.NotNull(model); // We have a strongly typed view model.
// We check the first brand value.
Assert.Equal("Gucci", model.First().Brand);
// We know this item has a null Brand,
Assert.Equal(string.Empty, model[21].Brand); but the ViewModel converted it.
}
You could write a custom HTML helper:
public static string MyHelper<V>(this HtmlHelper helper, V value, string css)
{
if (value == null)
return "";
return String.Format("<span class='{0}'>{1}</span>", value, css);
}
Then in your view:
#Html.MyHelper(Model.Brand, "brand");
#Html.MyHelper(Model.Family, "family");
#Html.MyHelper(Model.Type, "type");
I have an object which has a circular reference to another object. Given the relationship between these objects this is the right design.
To Illustrate
Machine => Customer => Machine
As is expected I run into an issue when I try to use Json to serialize a machine or customer object. What I am unsure of is how to resolve this issue as I don't want to break the relationship between the Machine and Customer objects. What are the options for resolving this issue?
Edit
Presently I am using Json method provided by the Controller base class. So the serialization I am doing is as basic as:
Json(machineForm);
Update:
Do not try to use NonSerializedAttribute, as the JavaScriptSerializer apparently ignores it.
Instead, use the ScriptIgnoreAttribute in System.Web.Script.Serialization.
public class Machine
{
public string Customer { get; set; }
// Other members
// ...
}
public class Customer
{
[ScriptIgnore]
public Machine Machine { get; set; } // Parent reference?
// Other members
// ...
}
This way, when you toss a Machine into the Json method, it will traverse the relationship from Machine to Customer but will not try to go back from Customer to Machine.
The relationship is still there for your code to do as it pleases with, but the JavaScriptSerializer (used by the Json method) will ignore it.
I'm answering this despite its age because it is the 3rd result (currently) from Google for "json.encode circular reference" and although I don't agree with the answers (completely) above, in that using the ScriptIgnoreAttribute assumes that you won't anywhere in your code want to traverse the relationship in the other direction for some JSON. I don't believe in locking down your model because of one use case.
It did inspire me to use this simple solution.
Since you're working in a View in MVC, you have the Model and you want to simply assign the Model to the ViewData.Model within your controller, go ahead and use a LINQ query within your View to flatten the data nicely removing the offending circular reference for the particular JSON you want like this:
var jsonMachines = from m in machineForm
select new { m.X, m.Y, // other Machine properties you desire
Customer = new { m.Customer.Id, m.Customer.Name, // other Customer properties you desire
}};
return Json(jsonMachines);
Or if the Machine -> Customer relationship is 1..* -> * then try:
var jsonMachines = from m in machineForm
select new { m.X, m.Y, // other machine properties you desire
Customers = new List<Customer>(
(from c in m.Customers
select new Customer()
{
Id = c.Id,
Name = c.Name,
// Other Customer properties you desire
}).Cast<Customer>())
};
return Json(jsonMachines);
Based on txl's answer you have to
disable lazy loading and proxy creation and you can use the normal methods to get your data.
Example:
//Retrieve Items with Json:
public JsonResult Search(string id = "")
{
db.Configuration.LazyLoadingEnabled = false;
db.Configuration.ProxyCreationEnabled = false;
var res = db.Table.Where(a => a.Name.Contains(id)).Take(8);
return Json(res, JsonRequestBehavior.AllowGet);
}
Use to have the same problem. I have created a simple extension method, that "flattens" L2E objects into an IDictionary. An IDictionary is serialized correctly by the JavaScriptSerializer. The resulting Json is the same as directly serializing the object.
Since I limit the level of serialization, circular references are avoided. It also will not include 1->n linked tables (Entitysets).
private static IDictionary<string, object> JsonFlatten(object data, int maxLevel, int currLevel) {
var result = new Dictionary<string, object>();
var myType = data.GetType();
var myAssembly = myType.Assembly;
var props = myType.GetProperties();
foreach (var prop in props) {
// Remove EntityKey etc.
if (prop.Name.StartsWith("Entity")) {
continue;
}
if (prop.Name.EndsWith("Reference")) {
continue;
}
// Do not include lookups to linked tables
Type typeOfProp = prop.PropertyType;
if (typeOfProp.Name.StartsWith("EntityCollection")) {
continue;
}
// If the type is from my assembly == custom type
// include it, but flattened
if (typeOfProp.Assembly == myAssembly) {
if (currLevel < maxLevel) {
result.Add(prop.Name, JsonFlatten(prop.GetValue(data, null), maxLevel, currLevel + 1));
}
} else {
result.Add(prop.Name, prop.GetValue(data, null));
}
}
return result;
}
public static IDictionary<string, object> JsonFlatten(this Controller controller, object data, int maxLevel = 2) {
return JsonFlatten(data, maxLevel, 1);
}
My Action method looks like this:
public JsonResult AsJson(int id) {
var data = Find(id);
var result = this.JsonFlatten(data);
return Json(result, JsonRequestBehavior.AllowGet);
}
In the Entity Framework version 4, there is an option available: ObjectContextOptions.LazyLoadingEnabled
Setting it to false should avoid the 'circular reference' issue. However, you will have to explicitly load the navigation properties that you want to include.
see: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb896272.aspx
Since, to my knowledge, you cannot serialize object references, but only copies you could try employing a bit of a dirty hack that goes something like this:
Customer should serialize its Machine reference as the machine's id
When you deserialize the json code you can then run a simple function on top of it that transforms those id's into proper references.
You need to decide which is the "root" object. Say the machine is the root, then the customer is a sub-object of machine. When you serialise machine, it will serialise the customer as a sub-object in the JSON, and when the customer is serialised, it will NOT serialise it's back-reference to the machine. When your code deserialises the machine, it will deserialise the machine's customer sub-object and reinstate the back-reference from the customer to the machine.
Most serialisation libraries provide some kind of hook to modify how deserialisation is performed for each class. You'd need to use that hook to modify deserialisation for the machine class to reinstate the backreference in the machine's customer. Exactly what that hook is depends on the JSON library you are using.
I've had the same problem this week as well, and could not use anonymous types because I needed to implement an interface asking for a List<MyType>. After making a diagram showing all relationships with navigability, I found out that MyType had a bidirectional relationship with MyObject which caused this circular reference, since they both saved each other.
After deciding that MyObject did not really need to know MyType, and thereby making it a unidirectional relationship this problem was solved.
What I have done is a bit radical, but I don't need the property, which makes the nasty circular-reference-causing error, so I have set it to null before serializing.
SessionTickets result = GetTicketsSession();
foreach(var r in result.Tickets)
{
r.TicketTypes = null; //those two were creating the problem
r.SelectedTicketType = null;
}
return Json(result);
If you really need your properties, you can create a viewmodel which does not hold circular references, but maybe keeps some Id of the important element, that you could use later for restoring the original value.
Given a url that follows the following pattern:
firstcolor={value1}/secondcolor={value2}
where value1 and value2 can vary and an action method like:
ProcessColors(string color1, string color2) in say a controller called ColorController.
I want the following route evaluation:
URL '/firstcolor=red' results in a call like ProcessColors("red", null)
URL '/secondcolor=blue'results in a call like ProcessColors(null, "blue")
URL 'firstcolor=red/secondcolor=blue' ends up in a call like ProcessColors("red", "blue")
Now from I think this can be achieved with a few routes, something like this
route.MapRoute(null,
"firstcolor={color1}/secondcolor={color2}",
new { controller=ColorController, action = ProcessColors })
route.MapRoute(null,
"firstcolor={color1}}",
new { controller=ColorController, action = ProcessColors, color2 = (string)null })
route.MapRoute(null,
"secondcolor={color2}}",
new { controller=ColorController, action = ProcessColors, color1 = (string)null })
This is sufficient for just 2 colors, but as far as I can tell we'll end up with a proliferation of routes if we wanted to have, say 4 colors and be able to have URL's like this:
'/firstcolor=blue/secondcolor=red/thirdcolor=green/fourthcolor=black'
'/firstcolor=blue/thirdcolour=red'
'/thirdcolour=red/fourthcolour=black'
and so on, i.e. we need to cater for any combination given that firstcolor will always be before 2nd, 2nd will always be before 3rd and so on.
Ignoring my ridiculous example, is there any nice way to deal with this sort of situation that doesn't involve lots of routes and action methods needing to be created?
First of all, if you are going to use that key=value format, then I suggest using QueryString instead of the URL.
But if not, you can do this :
//register this route
routes.MapRoute("color", "colors/processcolors/{*q}",
new { controller = "Color", action ="ProcessColors" });
Then in your ColorController :
public ActionResult ProcessColors(string q) {
string[] colors = GetColors(q);
return View();
}
private string[] GetColors(string q) {
if (String.IsNullOrEmpty(q)) {
return null;
}
return q.Split("/".ToCharArray(), StringSplitOptions.RemoveEmptyEntries);
}
In this case your URLs will be like this :
site.com/colors/processcolors/red
site.com/colors/processcolors/red/green
In the case that we use the wildcard mapping I suppose we lose the ability to use Html.ActionLink to build our URL's for us?
Is it possible to get all controllers available to a ControllerFactory?
What I want to do is get a list of all controller types in application, but in a consistent way.
So that all controllers I get are the same ones default request resolution is using.
(The actual task is to find all action methods that have a given attribute).
You can use reflection to enumerate all classes in an assembly, and filter only classes inherit from Controller class.
The best reference is asp.net mvc source code. Take a look of the implementations of ControllerTypeCache and ActionMethodSelector class.
ControllerTypeCache shows how to get all controller classes available.
internal static bool IsControllerType(Type t) {
return
t != null &&
t.IsPublic &&
t.Name.EndsWith("Controller", StringComparison.OrdinalIgnoreCase) &&
!t.IsAbstract &&
typeof(IController).IsAssignableFrom(t);
}
public void EnsureInitialized(IBuildManager buildManager) {
if (_cache == null) {
lock (_lockObj) {
if (_cache == null) {
List<Type> controllerTypes = GetAllControllerTypes(buildManager);
var groupedByName = controllerTypes.GroupBy(
t => t.Name.Substring(0, t.Name.Length - "Controller".Length),
StringComparer.OrdinalIgnoreCase);
_cache = groupedByName.ToDictionary(
g => g.Key,
g => g.ToLookup(t => t.Namespace ?? String.Empty, StringComparer.OrdinalIgnoreCase),
StringComparer.OrdinalIgnoreCase);
}
}
}
}
And ActionMethodSelector shows how to check if a method has desired attribute.
private static List<MethodInfo> RunSelectionFilters(ControllerContext controllerContext, List<MethodInfo> methodInfos) {
// remove all methods which are opting out of this request
// to opt out, at least one attribute defined on the method must return false
List<MethodInfo> matchesWithSelectionAttributes = new List<MethodInfo>();
List<MethodInfo> matchesWithoutSelectionAttributes = new List<MethodInfo>();
foreach (MethodInfo methodInfo in methodInfos) {
ActionMethodSelectorAttribute[] attrs = (ActionMethodSelectorAttribute[])methodInfo.GetCustomAttributes(typeof(ActionMethodSelectorAttribute), true /* inherit */);
if (attrs.Length == 0) {
matchesWithoutSelectionAttributes.Add(methodInfo);
}
else if (attrs.All(attr => attr.IsValidForRequest(controllerContext, methodInfo))) {
matchesWithSelectionAttributes.Add(methodInfo);
}
}
// if a matching action method had a selection attribute, consider it more specific than a matching action method
// without a selection attribute
return (matchesWithSelectionAttributes.Count > 0) ? matchesWithSelectionAttributes : matchesWithoutSelectionAttributes;
}
I don't think it's possible to give a simple answer to this question, because it depends on a lot of different things, including the implementation of IControllerFactory.
For instance, if you have a completely custom-built IControllerFactory implementation, all bets are off, because it may use any sort of mechanism to create Controller instances.
However, the DefaultControllerFactory looks after the appropriate Controller type in all the assemblies defined in the RouteCollection (configured in global.asax).
In this case, you could loop through all the assemblies associated with the RouteCollection, and look for Controllers in each.
Finding Controllers in a given assembly is relatively easy:
var controllerTypes = from t in asm.GetExportedTypes()
where typeof(IController).IsAssignableFrom(t)
select t;
where asm is an Assembly instance.
In handling a form post I have something like
public ActionResult Insert()
{
Order order = new Order();
BindingHelperExtensions.UpdateFrom(order, this.Request.Form);
this.orderService.Save(order);
return this.RedirectToAction("Details", new { id = order.ID });
}
I am not using explicit parameters in the method as I anticipate having to adapt to variable number of fields etc. and a method with 20+ parameters is not appealing.
I suppose my only option here is mock up the whole HttpRequest, equivalent to what Rob Conery has done. Is this a best practice? Hard to tell with a framework which is so new.
I've also seen solutions involving using an ActionFilter so that you can transform the above method signature to something like
[SomeFilter]
public Insert(Contact contact)
I'm now using ModelBinder so that my action method can look (basically) like:
public ActionResult Insert(Contact contact)
{
if (this.ViewData.ModelState.IsValid)
{
this.contactService.SaveContact(contact);
return this.RedirectToAction("Details", new { id = contact.ID });
}
else
{
return this.RedirectToAction("Create");
}
}
Wrap it in an interface and mock it.
Use NameValueDeserializer from http://www.codeplex.com/MVCContrib instead of UpdateFrom.