I am trying to find some examples of building a custom model binder for a unique binding scenario I need to handle, but all of the articles I found were for older versions of MVC which are no longer relevant in MVC2. I've been referencing the DefaultModelBinder source code to try to get a general feel for what I need to do, but it's entirely more complicated than my scenario and I'm having trouble isolating the specific logic I need to implement.
My goal is to take a collection of Checkbox/Textbox pairs and for all of the Checked pairs I would like to create a key/value pair of the Checkbox's value and the associated Textbox's value. After aggregating this data I need to do some string serialization on the collection so I can store it in a string property of the desired Model type. I already the data being sent from the form in a manageable format which will allow me to relate a given Checkbox to a specific Textbox, it's just a matter of figuring out how to get all the pieces where I need them.
Does anyone know of some up-to-date tutorials that can get me started with building a custom model binder?
I don't know why you think a lot has changed since MVC 1 regarding custom model binders. But If I understand what you are trying to do, it should be fairly easy.
public class CustomModelBinder : DefaultModelBinder {
public override object BindModel(ControllerContext controllerContext,
ModelBindingContext bindingContext) {
NameValueCollection form = controllerContext.HttpContext.Request.Form;
//get what you need from the form collection
//creata your model
SomeModel myModel = new SomeMode();
myModel.Property = "value";
//or add some model errors if you need to
ModelStateDictionary mState = bindingContext.ModelState;
mState.Add("Property", new ModelState { });
mState.AddModelError("Property", "There's an error.");
return myModel; //return your model
}
}
And your action :
public ActionResult Contact([ModelBinder(typeof(CustomModelBinder))]SomeModel m){
//...
}
Was that the kind of information you are looking for?
Take a look at several examples of Custom MVC Model binders on my blog.
Related
I'm working on an ASP.NET MVC project that will allow users to perform batch edits on the attributes of objects. The implementation is in a sort of "wizard" like form with four phases to the process as follows:
"Select the attributes you want to edit" - the first page will present the user with a list of checkboxes representing each of the attributes they want to edit. The user should check the attributes they wish to edit and select "Continue".
"Edit the selected attributes" - the second page will present the user with a list of distinct "editors" which will be unique for each of the attributes they selected on the first page.
"Review your changes" - this page will allow the user to review the changes they've made to the attributes they selected.
"Submit your changes" - this page will actually submit the information about the edits the user wishes to make to the selected attributes against the selected collection of objects.
Fairly straight-forward.
As I mentioned, the "editor" will be unique to each attribute, and could have any combination of different controls on it. Once a user has made their edits and the application posts that information to the "Review" page is where I'm currently having my problem.
We've developed the concept of an "EditorWorker" class that is unique to each attribute, which is responsible for generating the ViewModel necessary for each editor, but is also responsible for creating/returning (within the "Review" page controller action) an object that is the "model" object for the editor that the post data can be bound to, which can then be use to display the edited data for review. This object should have properties that match up with the IDs of the controls in the editor so that model binding can occur.
I've got the "EditorWorker" creating and returning the class needed, but for some reason, when I call TryUpdateModel and pass in that class, its properties aren't getting populated as a result of that method call as I would expect them to. I have verified that the values are in the posted FormCollection. Below is the code for my controller action where I'm attempting to do this. If someone can help me understand why TryUpdateModel isn't working in this scenario, I would be very appreciative.
[HttpPost]
public virtual ActionResult Review(ReviewBatchViewModel model)
{
var selectedAttributes = GetSelectedAttributes(model.SelectedAttributeIds.Split(',').Select(i => Int64.Parse(i)).ToArray());
var workers = new List<IEditorWorker>();
var reviewData = new Dictionary<ViewAttribute, IEditData>();
foreach (var attribute in selectedAttributes)
{
if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(attribute.EditorWorker)) // If there is no EditorWorker defined for this object, move on...
{
var worker = ServiceLocator.Current.GetInstance(Type.GetType(string.Format("{0}.{1}", EditorWorkerNamespace, attribute.EditorWorker)));
var attributeEditData = ((IEditorWorker)worker).LoadEditData();
if (TryUpdateModel(attributeEditData))
model.EditData.Add(attributeEditData); // model.EditData is a List<IEditData> that will be iterated on the Review page
reviewData.Add(attribute, attributeEditData);
}
}
return View(model);
}
// ReviewBatchViewModel.cs
public class ReviewBatchViewModel : BaseViewModel
{
public ReviewBatchViewModel() { EditData = new List<IEditData>(); }
public string SelectedAttributeIds { get; set; }
public List<ViewAttribute> SelectedAttributes { get; set; }
public List<IEditData> EditData { get; set; }
}
// IEditData.cs
public interface IEditData
{
}
// BroadcastStatusEditData.cs
public class BroadcastStatusEditData : IEditData
{
public int BroadcastStatus { get; set; }
}
I totally understand that this controller action is incomplete in its current state. I'm presently working on just trying to get those EditData objects populated correctly before I move on. As mentioned, any thoughts would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.
UPDATE: With regards to #mare's comment, I should have explained that part more clearly, sorry. The call to TryUpdateModel actually is returning true, but the fields on the model object being passed into it aren't actually being populated from the values that have been confirmed present in the posted form data. The model object being passed into the call is not a List, its just a poco. The resulting, ultimately hopefully populated model object is then being added to a List collection of model objects that will then be used for displaying the posted data for review on the Review page. I'm not loading anything from a datastore at all. Unique editors for each selected attribute are being rendered to the Edit screen, and I'm attempting to capture the edit values for display on a Review screen prior to submitting the batch of edits to a service. Hopefully that's more clear. Thanks.
UPDATE 2: I've included the definition of the ReviewBatchViewModel class as requested by #mare in the comments. The use of the var keyword in most cases in this code sample is largely due to the fact that the methods that are populating those variables is going to be returning an object of a different type for each attribute selected, so I never know exactly what its going to be at runtime (although it will always implement an interface, in this case either IEditorWorker and/or IEditData). There is a single class in the Model called "Attribute". The provided code sample has three variables relative that class: 1) SelectedAttributeIds is a comma-separated list of the Id's of the attributes that the user has selected to edit, which gets passed from the Edit page to the Review page via hidden field, 2) selectedAttributes is a collection of the actual Attribute objects that correspond to those Ids that I can work with, and 3) attributeEditData is an instance of the IEditData class specific to each given attribute that I'm attempting to bind the posted data from the Edit page to.
Hopefully this additional information clears things up even more.
TryUpdateModel is a generic method, and therefore attempts to infer all type information based on the Generic Type Parameter.
From what I understand in your example above, you are always passing in a IEditData correct?
In effect you are saying:
TryUpdateModel<IEditData>(attributeEditData)
This is most likely the cause for not seeing any properties being set, since IEditData doesn't have any properties ;)
To do what you want you will probably have to create a custom ModelBinder.
As a quick code review side note, your solution seems overly complicated. I had to stare at your solution for a good while just to figure out where to start. Creating a custom model binder may solve your immediate problem, but you might be looking at a big time maintenance headache here. I'm willing to bet there is a simpler approach that will lead to fewer problems down the road.
Based on your comments I have changed the code around from System.Object to your IEditData interface, but everything still holds. I noticed in an earlier comment you mentioned using var because you didn't know the type until runtime. However, there is nothing magic about the var keyword. The only thing it does is give you implicit typing, but it is still statically typed.
The nice thing about MVC is that you can just pop over to Codeplex and have a look at the source for TryUpdateModel if you want. Digging down a few layers you will eventually find a call to this internal method:
protected internal bool TryUpdateModel<TModel>(TModel model, string prefix, string[] includeProperties, string[] excludeProperties, IDictionary<string, ValueProviderResult> valueProvider) where TModel : class {
if (model == null) {
throw new ArgumentNullException("model");
}
//valueProvider is passed into this internal method by
// referencing the public ControlerBase.ValueProvider property
if (valueProvider == null) {
throw new ArgumentNullException("valueProvider");
}
Predicate<string> propertyFilter = propertyName => BindAttribute.IsPropertyAllowed(propertyName, includeProperties, excludeProperties);
//Binders is an internal property that can be replaced by
// referencing the static class ModelBinders.Binders
IModelBinder binder = Binders.GetBinder(typeof(TModel));
ModelBindingContext bindingContext = new ModelBindingContext() {
Model = model,
ModelName = prefix,
ModelState = ModelState,
ModelType = typeof(TModel),
PropertyFilter = propertyFilter,
ValueProvider = valueProvider
};
binder.BindModel(ControllerContext, bindingContext);
return ModelState.IsValid;
}
Notice the use of typeof(TModel) everywhere... in your case that is getting translated into typeof(IEditData), which isn't very useful since it is only a marker interface. You should be able to adapt this code for your own use, making sure to use GetType() in order to get the actual type at runtime.
I hope this helps out!
P.S. I've added some comments to the above code to help out a little
#Josh, you were very helpful in helping me understand why TryUpdateModel wasn't working for me, and I appreciate that. Unfortunately, I think the larger issue here was that fact that I (not exactly sure which) was either unable or unwilling to try to document all of the details of the requirements for the problem I'm trying to solve here, which I think made it difficult for anyone to be able to provide much meaningful input. The biggest problem for us is that, because we have no idea until runtime which attributes a user has selected for editing, we don't know which objects we'll be working with in the context of these controller actions, or what their types will be. The one place that we safely can work with known data and types, is within the context of each of the unique EditorWorker objects, which is where I've chosen to do the heavy lifting here.
I was hoping and attempting to take advantage of all of the heavy lifting that MSFT has done for us within the MVC framework to handle model binding, but I've come to the conclusion at this point that I don't think that's going to work for us. The solution that I've come up with at this point, is to allow the LoadEditData method of the EditorWorker classes handle loading up the EditData classes for for me. As each EditorWorker class is unique to, and has knowledge of the attribute that it is associated with. The problem I was having originally was that I was letting the EditorWorker.LoadEditData method just return an empty instance of the specific type of EditData class that I needed for the attribute I was currently working with, and let the MVC framework handle model binding to that object for me. That wasn't working because that method is designed to return an object of type IEditData, and I never really knew exactly what type it was that I was currently working with, so I had no way of specifying the type in the call to either of the typed methods: TryUpdateModel<T> or UpdateModel<T>.
So the solution I've come up with, and am going with at least for now (re-education and/or refactoring may very well change this in the future, who knows) is to just pass the Request.Form object into the call to EditorWorker.LoadEditData and let that method handle actually loading up the EditData object that it knows it needs to return for the attribute it's responsible for, which it can do as it knows what information should be in the posted form collection to load up its EditData object.
So that's where I'm at for now. Thanks for the help.
So I'm looking into writing some custom MVC extensions and the first one I'm attempting to tackle is a FormattedTextBox to handle things such as currency, dates, and times. I have the rendering of it working perfectly, formatting it, working with strong types and everything all golden. However, the problem I'm now running into is cleaning up the formatted stuff when the page posts the data back.
Take for example, a currency format. Let's use USD for these examples. When an object has a property as a decimal, the value would be 79.95. Your edit view would be something like:
<%= Html.FormattedTextBox(model => Model.Person.HourlyWage, "{0:C}") %>
This is all well and good for the GET request, but upon POST, the value is going to be $79.95, which when you assign to that decimal, gets unhappy very quickly and ends up shoving a 0 in there.
So my question is, how do I get code working somewhere to work with that value before the MVC Framework goes and starts shoving it back into my ViewModel? I'd much rather this be done server-side than client-side.
Thanks!!
One solution would be to write a custom model binder which will be able to convert bind $79.95 to a decimal field in your model. Another solution is to do it on the client side. In a jQuery form.submit handler you could modify the values of the input fields to be posted.
You can use custom Model Binders to shove the posted data into an object.
[AcceptVerbs(HttpVerbs.Post)]
public ActionResult Create(
[ModelBinder(typeof(YourModelBinderAttribute))]YourClass obj)
{
// your code here
return View();
}
public class MessageModelBinderAttribute : IModelBinder
{
#region IModelBinder Members
public object BindModel(
ControllerContext controllerContext,
ModelBindingContext bindingContext)
{
YourClass obj = new YourClass();
ValueProviderResult result;
if (bindingContext.ValueProvider.TryGetValue(
"YourPostedInputName", out result))
{
obj.Price = result.AttemptedValue;
}
return message;
}
#endregion
}
I want to be able to send JSON as opposed to the standard QueryStrings when making a post to my controllers in ASP.Net MVC. I have the Front-End stuff working fine (building and then submitting my JSON objects).
The problem is on the controller side where the default ModelBinders that ship with the MVC framework do not support this.
I have seen a combination of ways around this, one of them is to apply a filter which takes the object as a parameter, uses a JSON library to de-serialise it, and adds that to the action parameters. This is not ideal.
The other, better, way is to use a custom Model Binder. All the ones I have seen though presume you will have only one model and that will be a class rather than a variable. If you have multiple ones it breaks down.
Has anyone else encountered this? One idea I had was if I could simply override how MVC deals with the FormCollection and intercept there, adding the values to the collection myself and hoping MVC can do the rest in it's normal fashion. Does anyone know if that is possible?
The key issue, I think, is that my problem is not with binding because my view models are no different to how they where before. The problem is getting the values from the JSON Post.
If I am correct MVC get's the values from the QueryString and puts it into the form collection which is then used for ModelBinding. So shouldn't the correct method be to change the way the FormCollection gets assigned?
Example of an action:
public ActionResult MyFirstAction(Int32 ID, PersonObject Person, ClassObject ClassDetails)
{
//etc
}
The normal binding works, JSON doesn't and all the example of Model Binders will not work either. My best solution so far is to convert the object to a dictionary and loop though each param and match it up. Doesn't seem ideal.
I use a custom model binder for json like this:
public class JsonModelBinder<T> : IModelBinder {
private string key;
public JsonModelBinder(string requestKey) {
this.key = requestKey;
}
public object BindModel(ControllerContext controllerContext, ...) {
var json = controllerContext.HttpContext.Request[key];
return new JsonSerializer().Deserialize<T>(json);
}
}
And then wire it up in Global.asax.cs like this:
ModelBinders.Binders.Add(
typeof(Product),
new JsonModelBinder<Product>("ProductJson"));
You can read more about this here: Inheritance is Evil: The Epic Fail of the DataAnnotationsModelBinder
EDIT
The JsonModelBinder should be used on the controller action parameter typed as Product only. The Int32 and ClassObject should fall back to the DefaultModelBinder. Are you experiencing a different result?
Currently I'm passing my domain objects to my views, and binding directly to them from POSTs. Everyone says this is bad, so I'm attempting to add in the ViewModel concept.
However, I can't find a way to do this very elegantly, and I'd like to know what other people's solutions are to not ending up with a very messy controller action.
the typical process for say some "add person" functionality looks like this:
make a GET request for a view representing a blank Person viewmodel
post back (in)valid data
controller binds posted data onto a person viewmodel
if binding fails, i need to do the same action as in (1) but with some data, not a blank object and errors
if the binding suceeded, i need to map the properties from the VM onto a real model
validate the model
if validation passed: save the person, commit, map the users details to a display VM and return it in a view
if validation failed, do the same actions as in (1) but with some data and errors
Doing all this in a controller action (ignoring the GET) certainly isnt SRP or DRY.
Im trying to think of a way of breaking this process up so that it does abide by SRP, is clean, modular and above all testable.
What are peoples solution to this?
I've been experimenting with custom controller-action-invokers to separate the concerns up into individual methods, smart modelbinders and just plain brute force but i havent yet come across a solution in happy with.
P.S. as it adds so much complexity, convince me why i even need to bother
I've felt the same discomfort. My only way around it has been to do the following:
Create a binder to bind and validate the view model
Create a binder to get the entity from the database (or just do this in the controller)
Call an inherited Save method in the superclass. This method takes the viewmodel and the entity that will be updated, and does all the work you listed in your steps.
The action method looks like this:
public ActionResult Whatever(TViewModel viewModel, TEntity entity)
{
return Save(viewModel, entity);
}
The base controller has a generic definition, like so:
public abstract BaseController<TEntity, TViewModel>
where TEntity : Entity
where TViewModel : ViewModel
The constructor has two dependencies, one for the entity repository and another for the model mapper, like so:
protected BaseController(IRepository<TEntity> repository, IMapper<TEntity, TViewModel> mapper)
With this in place, you can then write a protected Save method that can be called from the controller actions in the subclass, like so:
protected ActionResult Save(TViewModel viewModel, TEntity entity)
{
if (!ModelState.IsValid)
return View(viewModel);
_mapper.Map(viewModel, entity);
if (!entity.IsValid)
{
// add errors to model state
return View(viewModel);
}
try
{
_repository.Save(entity);
// either redirect with static url or add virtual method for defining redirect in subclass.
}
catch (Exception)
{
// do something here with the exception
return View(viewModel);
}
}
As far as testability, you can test the save method passing in valid/invalid view models and entities. You can test the implementation of the model mapper, the valid state of the view model, and the valid state of the entity separately.
By making the base controller generic, you can repeat this pattern for each entity/viewmodel combo in your domain, if you're creating many controllers to do the same thing.
I'm very interested to hear what others have to say about this. Great question.
The MVVM (ViewModel) pattern is definitely the one to go for, I had a similar question about POSTing back to an action a few days back - here is the link: MVVM and ModelBinders in the ASP.NET MVC Framework
The result was that you can use the Bind attribute to post back the complex type you want.
I have many good solutions in the asp.net mvc sample application which is in the download of valueinjecter (mapper that I use to map ViewModels to/from Entities, you can also map FormCollection/Request to Entities)
here's one:
public class TinyController :Controller
{
private readonly IModelBuilder<Person, PersonViewModel> modelBuilder;
public TinyController()
{
modelBuilder = new PersonModelBuilder();
}
public ActionResult Index()
{
return View(modelBuilder.BuildModel(new PersonRepository().Get()));
}
[HttpPost]
public ActionResult Index(PersonViewModel model)
{
if (!ModelState.IsValid)
return View(modelBuilder.RebuildModel(model));
var entity = modelBuilder.BuildEntity(model);
...
//save it or whatever
}
}
I've got a number of tables in my db that share common cols: modified by, modified date, etc. Not every table has these cols. We're using LINQ to Enties to generate the
I'd like to create a custom binder class that can handle the automatic binding of these fields. Is there a way to do this without having a custom binding class for each entity class?
Here's the code I have:
In global.asax.cs, Application_Start():
ModelBinders.Binders.Add(typeof(Foo),new FooBinder());
Then in FooBinder.cs:
public override Object BindModel(ControllerContext controllerContext, ModelBindingContext bindingContext)
{
var obj = (Foo)base.BindModel(controllerContext, bindingContext);
var user = controllerContext.HttpContext.User.Identity;
obj.modified_by = user.Name;
obj.modified_date = DateTime.Now;
return obj;
}
Is there a way to generalize this so it can handle multiple types?
We do this in the repository, not in the binder. We have an interface with the common fields (Modified on). We implement the interface in partial classes which we codegen for our entities using a T4 template.
You can use reflection to set fields by name, so that you can do foreach over property names. This is not a big deal since model binder uses reflection itself to get to the properties, anyway. Then you can just register binder for each of the "common" types - which is also OK to do using reflection, for example by checking that entity has all fields required present - so it works even if you add new such entities.
Just have your binder call default one and then update the fields.