Is it ok to have simple logic (without any dependencies) in ViewModels getters or it should contain just automatic properties? in this case just checking for null so I don't have to do that in controller each time I am using this ViewModel. TicketSearchParameters is a simple model containing string and date properties, there is no Repository or any other dependencies.
public class MyViewModel
{
private TicketSearchParameters _searchParams;
public TicketSearchParameters SearchParams
{
get
{
if (_searchParams == null)
{
_searchParams = new TicketSearchParameters();
_searchParams.CreatedFrom = DateTime.Now.AddDays(-7);
_searchParams.CreatedTo = DateTime.Now;
}
return _searchParams;
}
set
{
_searchParams = value;
}
}
/*** other properties ***/
}
You code is fairly ok. But you can use NULL Object Design Pattern to check null and create NullObject.
make a class named NullSearchParams inherited from SearchParams and initialize it when needed.
You can see Null design pattern documentation here.
https://sourcemaking.com/design_patterns/null_object
Is there a way to make a reflection for a view model property as an element with different name and id values on the html side.
That is the main question of what I want to achieve. So the basic introduction for the question is like:
1- I have a view model (as an example) which created for a filter operation in view side.
public class FilterViewModel
{
public string FilterParameter { get; set; }
}
2- I have a controller action which is created for GETting form values(here it is filter)
public ActionResult Index(FilterViewModel filter)
{
return View();
}
3- I have a view that a user can filter on some data and sends parameters via querystring over form submit.
#using (Html.BeginForm("Index", "Demo", FormMethod.Get))
{
#Html.LabelFor(model => model.FilterParameter)
#Html.EditorFor(model => model.FilterParameter)
<input type="submit" value="Do Filter" />
}
4- And what I want to see in rendered view output is
<form action="/Demo" method="get">
<label for="fp">FilterParameter</label>
<input id="fp" name="fp" type="text" />
<input type="submit" value="Do Filter" />
</form>
5- And as a solution I want to modify my view model like this:
public class FilterViewModel
{
[BindParameter("fp")]
[BindParameter("filter")] // this one extra alias
[BindParameter("param")] //this one extra alias
public string FilterParameter { get; set; }
}
So the basic question is about BindAttribute but the usage of complex type properties. But also if there is a built in way of doing this is much better.
Built-in pros:
1- Usage with TextBoxFor, EditorFor, LabelFor and other strongly typed view model helpers can understand and communicate better with each other.
2- Url routing support
3- No framework by desing problems :
In general, we recommend folks don’t write custom model binders
because they’re difficult to get right and they’re rarely needed. The
issue I’m discussing in this post might be one of those cases where
it’s warranted.
Link of quote
And also after some research I found these useful works:
Binding model property with different name
One step upgrade of first link
Here some informative guide
Result: But none of them give me my problems exact solution. I am looking for a strongly typed solution for this problem. Of course if you know any other way to go, please share.
Update
The underlying reasons why I want to do this are basically:
1- Everytime I want to change the html control name then I have to change PropertyName at compile time. (There is a difference Changing a property name between changing a string in code)
2- I want to hide (camouflage) real property names from end users. Most of times View Model property names same as mapped Entity Objects property names. (For developer readability reasons)
3- I don't want to remove the readability for developer. Think about lots of properties with like 2-3 character long and with mo meanings.
4- There are lots of view models written. So changing their names are going to take more time than this solution.
5- This is going to be better solution (in my POV) than others which are described in other questions until now.
Actually, there is a way to do it.
In ASP.NET binding metadata gathered by TypeDescriptor, not by reflection directly. To be more precious, AssociatedMetadataTypeTypeDescriptionProvider is used, which, in turn, simply calls TypeDescriptor.GetProvider with our model type as parameter:
public AssociatedMetadataTypeTypeDescriptionProvider(Type type)
: base(TypeDescriptor.GetProvider(type))
{
}
So, everything we need is to set our custom TypeDescriptionProvider for our model.
Let's implement our custom provider. First of all, let's define attribute for custom property name:
[AttributeUsage(AttributeTargets.Property)]
public class CustomBindingNameAttribute : Attribute
{
public CustomBindingNameAttribute(string propertyName)
{
this.PropertyName = propertyName;
}
public string PropertyName { get; private set; }
}
If you already have attribute with desired name, you can reuse it. Attribute defined above is just an example. I prefer to use JsonPropertyAttribute because in most cases I work with json and Newtonsoft's library and want to define custom name only once.
The next step is to define custom type descriptor. We will not implement whole type descriptor logic and use default implementation. Only property accessing will be overridden:
public class MyTypeDescription : CustomTypeDescriptor
{
public MyTypeDescription(ICustomTypeDescriptor parent)
: base(parent)
{
}
public override PropertyDescriptorCollection GetProperties()
{
return Wrap(base.GetProperties());
}
public override PropertyDescriptorCollection GetProperties(Attribute[] attributes)
{
return Wrap(base.GetProperties(attributes));
}
private static PropertyDescriptorCollection Wrap(PropertyDescriptorCollection src)
{
var wrapped = src.Cast<PropertyDescriptor>()
.Select(pd => (PropertyDescriptor)new MyPropertyDescriptor(pd))
.ToArray();
return new PropertyDescriptorCollection(wrapped);
}
}
Also custom property descriptor need to be implemented. Again, everything except property name will be handled by default descriptor. Note, NameHashCode for some reason is a separate property. As name changed, so it's hash code need to be changed too:
public class MyPropertyDescriptor : PropertyDescriptor
{
private readonly PropertyDescriptor _descr;
private readonly string _name;
public MyPropertyDescriptor(PropertyDescriptor descr)
: base(descr)
{
this._descr = descr;
var customBindingName = this._descr.Attributes[typeof(CustomBindingNameAttribute)] as CustomBindingNameAttribute;
this._name = customBindingName != null ? customBindingName.PropertyName : this._descr.Name;
}
public override string Name
{
get { return this._name; }
}
protected override int NameHashCode
{
get { return this.Name.GetHashCode(); }
}
public override bool CanResetValue(object component)
{
return this._descr.CanResetValue(component);
}
public override object GetValue(object component)
{
return this._descr.GetValue(component);
}
public override void ResetValue(object component)
{
this._descr.ResetValue(component);
}
public override void SetValue(object component, object value)
{
this._descr.SetValue(component, value);
}
public override bool ShouldSerializeValue(object component)
{
return this._descr.ShouldSerializeValue(component);
}
public override Type ComponentType
{
get { return this._descr.ComponentType; }
}
public override bool IsReadOnly
{
get { return this._descr.IsReadOnly; }
}
public override Type PropertyType
{
get { return this._descr.PropertyType; }
}
}
Finally, we need our custom TypeDescriptionProvider and way to bind it to our model type. By default, TypeDescriptionProviderAttribute is designed to perform that binding. But in this case we will not able to get default provider that we want to use internally. In most cases, default provider will be ReflectTypeDescriptionProvider. But this is not guaranteed and this provider is inaccessible due to it's protection level - it's internal. But we do still want to fallback to default provider.
TypeDescriptor also allow to explicitly add provider for our type via AddProvider method. That what we will use. But firstly, let's define our custom provider itself:
public class MyTypeDescriptionProvider : TypeDescriptionProvider
{
private readonly TypeDescriptionProvider _defaultProvider;
public MyTypeDescriptionProvider(TypeDescriptionProvider defaultProvider)
{
this._defaultProvider = defaultProvider;
}
public override ICustomTypeDescriptor GetTypeDescriptor(Type objectType, object instance)
{
return new MyTypeDescription(this._defaultProvider.GetTypeDescriptor(objectType, instance));
}
}
The last step is to bind our provider to our model types. We can implement it in any way we want. For example, let's define some simple class, such as:
public static class TypeDescriptorsConfig
{
public static void InitializeCustomTypeDescriptorProvider()
{
// Assume, this code and all models are in one assembly
var types = Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().GetTypes()
.Where(t => t.GetProperties().Any(p => p.IsDefined(typeof(CustomBindingNameAttribute))));
foreach (var type in types)
{
var defaultProvider = TypeDescriptor.GetProvider(type);
TypeDescriptor.AddProvider(new MyTypeDescriptionProvider(defaultProvider), type);
}
}
}
And either invoke that code via web activation:
[assembly: PreApplicationStartMethod(typeof(TypeDescriptorsConfig), "InitializeCustomTypeDescriptorProvider")]
Or simply call it in Application_Start method:
public class MvcApplication : HttpApplication
{
protected void Application_Start()
{
TypeDescriptorsConfig.InitializeCustomTypeDescriptorProvider();
// rest of init code ...
}
}
But this is not the end of the story. :(
Consider following model:
public class TestModel
{
[CustomBindingName("actual_name")]
[DisplayName("Yay!")]
public string TestProperty { get; set; }
}
If we try to write in .cshtml view something like:
#model Some.Namespace.TestModel
#Html.DisplayNameFor(x => x.TestProperty) #* fail *#
We will get ArgumentException:
An exception of type 'System.ArgumentException' occurred in System.Web.Mvc.dll but was not handled in user code
Additional information: The property Some.Namespace.TestModel.TestProperty could not be found.
That because all helpers soon or later invoke ModelMetadata.FromLambdaExpression method. And this method take expression we provided (x => x.TestProperty) and takes member name directly from member info and have no clue about any of our attributes, metadata (who cares, huh?):
internal static ModelMetadata FromLambdaExpression<TParameter, TValue>(/* ... */)
{
// ...
case ExpressionType.MemberAccess:
MemberExpression memberExpression = (MemberExpression) expression.Body;
propertyName = memberExpression.Member is PropertyInfo ? memberExpression.Member.Name : (string) null;
// I want to cry here - ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
// ...
}
For x => x.TestProperty (where x is TestModel) this method will return TestProperty, not actual_name, but model metadata contains actual_name property, have no TestProperty. That is why the property could not be found error thrown.
This is a design failure.
However despite this little inconvenience there are several workarounds, such as:
The easiest way is to access our members by theirs redefined names:
#model Some.Namespace.TestModel
#Html.DisplayName("actual_name") #* this will render "Yay!" *#
This is not good. No intellisense at all and as our model change we will have no any compilation errors. On any change anything can be broken and there is no easy way to detect that.
Another way is a bit more complex - we can create our own version of that helpers and forbid anybody from calling default helpers or ModelMetadata.FromLambdaExpression for model classes with renamed properties.
Finally, combination of previous two would be preferred: write own analogue to get property name with redefinition support, then pass that into default helper. Something like this:
#model Some.Namespace.TestModel
#Html.DisplayName(Html.For(x => x.TestProperty))
Compilation-time and intellisense support and no need to spend a lot of time for complete set of helpers. Profit!
Also everything described above work like a charm for model binding. During model binding process default binder also use metadata, gathered by TypeDescriptor.
But I guess binding json data is the best use case. You know, lots of web software and standards use lowercase_separated_by_underscores naming convention. Unfortunately this is not usual convention for C#. Having classes with members named in different convention looks ugly and can end up in troubles. Especially when you have tools that whining every time about naming violation.
ASP.NET MVC default model binder does not bind json to model the same way as it happens when you call newtonsoft's JsonConverter.DeserializeObject method. Instead, json parsed into dictionary. For example:
{
complex: {
text: "blabla",
value: 12.34
},
num: 1
}
will be translated into following dictionary:
{ "complex.text", "blabla" }
{ "complex.value", "12.34" }
{ "num", "1" }
And later these values along with others values from query string, route data and so on, collected by different implementations of IValueProvider, will be used by default binder to bind a model with help of metadata, gathered by TypeDescriptor.
So we came full circle from creating model, rendering, binding it back and use it.
The short answer is NO and long answer still NO. There is no built-in helper, attribute, model binder, whatever is it (Nothing out of box).
But what I did in before answer (I deleted it) was an awful solution that I realized yesterday. I am going to put it in github for who still wants to see (maybe it solves somebody problem) (I don't suggest it also!)
Now I searched it for again and I couldn't find anything helpful. If you are using something like AutoMapper or ValueInjecter like tool for mapping your ViewModel objects to Business objects and if you want to obfuscate that View Model parameters also, probably you are in some trouble. Of course you can do it but strongly typed html helpers are not going to help you alot. I even not talking about the if other developers taking branch and working over common view models.
Luckily my project (4 people working on it, and its commercial use for) not that big for now, so I decided to change View Model property names! (It is still lot work to do. Hundreds of view models to obfuscate their properties!!!) Thank you Asp.Net MVC !
There some ways in the links which I gave in question. But also if you still want to use the BindAlias attribute, I can only suggest you to use the following extension methods. At least you dont have to write same alias string which you write in BindAlias attribute.
Here it is:
public static string AliasNameFor<TModel, TProperty>(this HtmlHelper<TModel> htmlHelper,
Expression<Func<TModel, TProperty>> expression)
{
var memberExpression = ExpressionHelpers.GetMemberExpression(expression);
if (memberExpression == null)
throw new InvalidOperationException("Expression must be a member expression");
var aliasAttr = memberExpression.Member.GetAttribute<BindAliasAttribute>();
if (aliasAttr != null)
{
return MvcHtmlString.Create(aliasAttr.Alias).ToHtmlString();
}
return htmlHelper.NameFor(expression).ToHtmlString();
}
public static string AliasIdFor<TModel, TProperty>(this HtmlHelper<TModel> htmlHelper,
Expression<Func<TModel, TProperty>> expression)
{
var memberExpression = ExpressionHelpers.GetMemberExpression(expression);
if (memberExpression == null)
throw new InvalidOperationException("Expression must be a member expression");
var aliasAttr = memberExpression.Member.GetAttribute<BindAliasAttribute>();
if (aliasAttr != null)
{
return MvcHtmlString.Create(TagBuilder.CreateSanitizedId(aliasAttr.Alias)).ToHtmlString();
}
return htmlHelper.IdFor(expression).ToHtmlString();
}
public static T GetAttribute<T>(this ICustomAttributeProvider provider)
where T : Attribute
{
var attributes = provider.GetCustomAttributes(typeof(T), true);
return attributes.Length > 0 ? attributes[0] as T : null;
}
public static MemberExpression GetMemberExpression<TModel, TProperty>(Expression<Func<TModel, TProperty>> expression)
{
MemberExpression memberExpression;
if (expression.Body is UnaryExpression)
{
var unaryExpression = (UnaryExpression)expression.Body;
memberExpression = (MemberExpression)unaryExpression.Operand;
}
else
{
memberExpression = (MemberExpression)expression.Body;
}
return memberExpression;
}
When you want to use it:
[ModelBinder(typeof(AliasModelBinder))]
public class FilterViewModel
{
[BindAlias("someText")]
public string FilterParameter { get; set; }
}
In html:
#* at least you dont write "someText" here again *#
#Html.Editor(Html.AliasNameFor(model => model.FilterParameter))
#Html.ValidationMessage(Html.AliasNameFor(model => model.FilterParameter))
So I am leaving this answer here like this. This is even not an answer (and there is no answer for MVC 5) but who searching in google for same problem might find useful this experience.
And here is the github repo: https://github.com/yusufuzun/so-view-model-bind-20869735
The idea (simplified) is to have user definable properties in ViewModel contained in a dictionary. Something along these lines:
public class MyViewModel
{
[Required]
public string Name { get; set; }
[DisplayName("User address")]
public string Address { get; set; }
// ...
public IDictionary<string, string> MetaData { get; set; }
}
Let's say that MetaData contains several additional properties: PhoneNumber, Email, etc. that you can access with myViewModel.MetaData["PhoneNumber"].
What I would like to do is to be able to use those additional MetaData properties in Html helpers on View side, just like I would use normal properties.
So, in addition to using standard properties as:
Html.TextBox("Name")
I would also like to use those additional properties:
Html.TextBox("PhoneNumber")
My research lead me to inheriting from DataAnnotationsModelMetadataProvider (since it's necessary to also support standard DataAnnotations attributes for standard properties) and trying to figure out what exactly to override there in order to inject additional properties as additional ModelMetadata elements, but I'm kind of stuck.
Am I on the right path? Any additional pointer that could help me here?
Thanks
An alternative option might be to construct a dynamic object similar to ViewBag/ViewData in MVC 3. You would have an object which you could access via Model.MetaData.Foo and Foo would actually map to a key in your dictionary.
The type which backs the ViewBag object is System.Web.Mvc.DynamicViewDataDictionary; this class is internal and sealed so you would have to make a custom implementation of it (unless there's a better option I'm unaware of). A quick glance at the MVC 3 sources furnished this:
internal sealed class DynamicViewDataDictionary : DynamicObject {
private readonly Func<ViewDataDictionary> _viewDataThunk;
public DynamicViewDataDictionary(Func<ViewDataDictionary> viewDataThunk) {
_viewDataThunk = viewDataThunk;
}
private ViewDataDictionary ViewData {
get {
ViewDataDictionary viewData = _viewDataThunk();
Debug.Assert(viewData != null);
return viewData;
}
}
// Implementing this function improves the debugging experience as it provides the debugger with the list of all
// the properties currently defined on the object
public override IEnumerable<string> GetDynamicMemberNames() {
return ViewData.Keys;
}
public override bool TryGetMember(GetMemberBinder binder, out object result) {
result = ViewData[binder.Name];
// since ViewDataDictionary always returns a result even if the key does not exist, always return true
return true;
}
public override bool TrySetMember(SetMemberBinder binder, object value) {
ViewData[binder.Name] = value;
// you can always set a key in the dictionary so return true
return true;
}
}
One possible advantage to this solution over modifying the ModelMetadataProvider is that you wouldn't have to spend time building all the custom components for your scenario- the default providers should be sufficient.
I'm creating a MVC-application which currently uses EditorFor to gennerate a lot of views. The whole view is basically just an EditorForModel, and it works great. However, I've reached one small problem, which I can't seem to find a solution for, and it is important that it works the way I need it to, and that is when trying to render EditorFor an interface. The bindings and everything like that's been taken care of, but the problem is that the EditorFor sees that it's an interface, and defaults to the "Object" template. I need it to look at the interface and see if it can find a template with that name, and if it can't, I need it to look trough all the interfaces present to see if it matches any of them. To explain it more simply look at this example:
interfaces:
public interface IAppProvider
{
string Name { get; set; }
}
public interface IAppMusicProvider : IAppProvider
{
int GetPlaylistCount();
} // Yeah, I know, this interface is not smart, but it's only for show.
If I now create a View with model = "IAppMusicProvider", and run Html.EditorForModel(), I need it to find the "~Views\Shared\EditorTemplates\IAppProvider.cshtml"-template. Is there any simple way I can achieve this?
You could try changing ModelMetadata.TemplateHint in the ModelMetadataProvider. One way to do this is with the decorator pattern:
public class AbstractTypeTemplateSupportingModelMetadataProvider : ModelMetadataProvider
{
private readonly ModelMetadataProvider wrapped;
public AbstractTypeTemplateSupportingModelMetadataProvider(ModelMetadataProvider wrapped)
{
this.wrapped = wrapped;
}
public override IEnumerable<ModelMetadata> GetMetadataForProperties(object container, Type containerType)
{
var result = this.wrapped.GetMetadataForProperties(container, containerType).ToList();
result.ForEach(ChangeTemplateHint);
return result;
}
public override ModelMetadata GetMetadataForProperty(Func<object> modelAccessor, Type containerType, string propertyName)
{
var result = this.wrapped.GetMetadataForProperty(modelAccessor, containerType, propertyName);
ChangeTemplateHint(result);
return result;
}
public override ModelMetadata GetMetadataForType(Func<object> modelAccessor, Type modelType)
{
var result = this.wrapped.GetMetadataForType(modelAccessor, modelType);
ChangeTemplateHint(result);
return result;
}
private void ChangeTemplateHint(ModelMetadata source)
{
if (source.Model is IAppProvider) //Or use source.ModelType if you want to support the model being null.
source.TemplateHint = typeof(IAppProvider).Name;
}
}
And in your start-up logic:
ModelMetadataProviders.Current = new AbstractTypeTemplateSupportingModelMetadataProvider(ModelMetadataProviders.Current);
Did you try using the [TemplateHint] attribute?
I like the Validation Application Block from the Enterprise Library :-)
Now i would like to use the DataAnnotations in Winforms, as we use asp.net Dynamic Data as well. So that we have common technologies over the whole company.
And also the Data Annotations should be easier to use.
How can I do something similiar in Winforms like Stephen Walter did within asp.net MVC?
I adapted a solution found at http://blog.codeville.net/category/validation/page/2/
public class DataValidator
{
public class ErrorInfo
{
public ErrorInfo(string property, string message)
{
this.Property = property;
this.Message = message;
}
public string Message;
public string Property;
}
public static IEnumerable<ErrorInfo> Validate(object instance)
{
return from prop in instance.GetType().GetProperties()
from attribute in prop.GetCustomAttributes(typeof(ValidationAttribute), true).OfType<ValidationAttribute>()
where !attribute.IsValid(prop.GetValue(instance, null))
select new ErrorInfo(prop.Name, attribute.FormatErrorMessage(string.Empty));
}
}
This would allow you to use the following code to validate any object using the following syntax:
var errors = DataValidator.Validate(obj);
if (errors.Any()) throw new ValidationException();