I'm trying to go through the NerdDinner example chapter from the ASP.Net MVC 1.0 and I've come across an error. Everything was hunky dory until I got to the part where I need to edit a dinner. I've followed the guide word for word from the creation of the project until this point (at least the best I can tell). However, when I call the SubmitChanges method on the NerdDinnerDataContext object I get an exception that says:
Rule violations prevent saving
I don't notice any differences between my code right now and the code that is in the final project (other than some additional functionality that I haven't added yet, obviously). Basically, I have no idea how to go about troubleshooting this error at this point. I've tried to look for some answers online, with no luck.
Here are some code snippets from my project, though I'm not sure how much good they will be.
from my DinnerRepository class:
private NerdDinnerDataContext db = new NerdDinnerDataContext();
...
public void Save()
{
db.SubmitChanges();
}
from the DinnersController
[AcceptVerbs(HttpVerbs.Post)]
public ActionResult Edit(int id, FormCollection formValues)
{
// Retrieve existing dinner
Dinner dinner = dinnerRepository.GetDinner(id);
// Update dinner with form posted values
dinner.Title = Request.Form["Title"];
dinner.Description = Request.Form["Description"];
dinner.EventDate = DateTime.Parse(Request.Form["EventDate"]);
dinner.Address = Request.Form["Address"];
dinner.Country = Request.Form["Country"];
dinner.ContactPhone = Request.Form["ContactPhone"];
// Persist changes back to database
dinnerRepository.Save();
// Perform HTTP redirect to details page for the saved Dinner
return RedirectToAction("Details", new { id = dinner.DinnerID });
}
How can I go about troubleshooting this issue? How can I find what these "rule violations" are?
This is my first SO question, so my apologies if it isn't that great.
RuleViolations is how Scott Hanselman, the creator of NerdDinners, decided to encapsulate business logic.
He partialed out the Linq To SQL classes and added a function named GetRuleViolations(), which is where he added all of his business rules. Take a look at that method to see what's going on.
I had the same problem like atcrawford, but thanx to Giovanni i managed to resolve it.
First, when i began this tutorial i populated the phone number from the database with some random numbers.
Now when i tried to edit my existing data i received this "rule violations" because the phone number hadn't the correct form.
So look in Models folder at Dinner.cs at:
public IEnumerable<RuleViolation> GetRuleViolations()
{//if (!PhoneValidator.IsValidNumber(ContactPhone, Country))
// yield return new RuleViolation("Phone# does not match country", "ContactPhone");
}
You can see that i commented that line, so the IsValidNumber method on PhoneValidator class is never called.
Or, you can enter the data for the phone number according to the regular expressions from PhoneValidator
For more information on the set up of nerd dinner, be sure to look at the ASP.NET MVC 1.0 book and the free first chapter.
There is a link to it on website you mentioned. Here it is again, http://tinyurl.com/aspnetmvc
Related
We're working diligently at learning Orchard, with a goal of creating not websites, but business-centric web applications that we would normally write in months using MVC, but hope to be much more efficient by using the various Parts already available.
The last mile, though, seems to be a big block -- how to tell Orchard that it should create a shape that allows the end-user to edit some data? There's a good bit on most of end-user editing at Creating a module for Orchard that stores data from the front-end but it picks up after the data's already been entered and carries it through the controller's POST operation. What I can't figure out is how to get through the initial GET operation.
To elaborate, in straight MVC I might allow the user to enter information about themselves. So I'd have /Controllers/PersonController.cs and there write a Create() function. I'd add a View in /Views/Person/Create.cshtml and simply "return View()" from the controller. In Create(Person p), an HTTPGet method, I'd do the heavy lifting to save the object.
Now in Orchard I have my PersonPart and its PersonPartDriver which, as I understand from the above article, I would write my POST method to accept the PersonPart and save the object.
class PersonController : Controller
{
private readonly IRepository<PersonPartRecord> personRepository;
public PersonController(IRepository<PersonPartRecord> _personRepository) {
personRepository = _personRepository;
}
[HttpPost]
public Create(PersonPart part) {
personRepository.Create(part.Record);
}
}
All well, but how would I get Orchard to invoke the GET Editor(PersonPart, dynamic) method to get the form up for the user to do the initial data entry?
protected override DriverResult Editor(PersonPart part, dynamic shapeHelper)
{
return ContentShape("Parts_Person_Edit",
() => shapeHelper.EditorTemplate(
TemplateName: "Parts/Person",
Model: part,
Prefix: Prefix));
}
Or do I write the GET Create() method in the controller? If I do that, though, I'm bypassing the entire shape creation system, no? Something itches in the back of my brain saying I should rather be doing a Display() and, in the template, just making it an editable form, but I have a Display() for the readonly view of Person ... how to make it know I want the editable view?
Hope the question makes sense, and hope that someone can assist.
Thanks.
Have a look to Orchard.CustomForms
var model = _contentManager.BuildEditor(contentItem);
return View(model);
but you'll need something like the code above. You could return ShapeResult(this,model) too
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.
I would like to strip out non-numeric elements from the POST data before using UpdateModel to update the copy in the database. Is there a way to do this?
// TODO: it appears I don't even use the parameter given at all, and all the magic
// happens via UpdateModel and the "controller's current value provider"?
[HttpPost]
public ActionResult Index([Bind(Include="X1, X2")] Team model) // TODO: stupid magic strings
{
if (this.ModelState.IsValid)
{
TeamContainer context = new TeamContainer();
Team thisTeam = context.Teams.Single(t => t.TeamId == this.CurrentTeamId);
// TODO HERE: apply StripWhitespace() to the data before using UpdateModel.
// The data is currently somewhere in the "current value provider"?
this.UpdateModel(thisTeam);
context.SaveChanges();
this.RedirectToAction(c => c.Index());
}
else
{
this.ModelState.AddModelError("", "Please enter two valid Xs.");
}
// If we got this far, something failed; redisplay the form.
return this.View(model);
}
Sorry for the terseness, up all night working on this; hopefully my question is clear enough? Also sorry since this is kind of a newbie question that I might be able to get with a few hours of documentation-trawling, but I'm time-pressured... bleh.
Instead of using the automatic model-binding in your action method's parameters, you could accept the posted FormCollection and work with that. You might be able to (1) modify the values in this special collection, then (2) bind your model manually, using UpdateModel/TryUpdateModel.
for example,
public ActionResult Index(FormCollection formCollection)
{
DoWhateverToFormCollection(formCollection);
Team model;
// TO-DO: Use TryUpdateModel here and handle more nicely
// Should also pass in binding whitelist/blacklist to the following, if didn't remove from the formCollection already...
UpdateModel<Team>(model, formCollection);
// rest of your code...
}
Hopefully this should work as advertised, and best of luck!
I believe you can use a Custom Model Binder for this. Scott Hanselman has an article here that describes the process, using the concept of splitting a DateTime into two separate parts as an example.
After a pair programming session, an interesting question came up which I think I know the answer for.
Question: Is there any other desired way in ASP.NET MVC to retain 'state' other than writing to database or a text file?
I'm going to define state here to mean that we have a collection of person objects, we create a new one, and go to another page, and expect to see the newly created person. (so no Ajax)
My thoughts are we don't want any kung-fu ViewState or other mechanisms, this framework is about going back to a stateless web.
What about user session? There are plenty of valid use cases to store things in session. And what about a distributed caching system like memcached? You also seem to leave out the query string - which is an excellent state saver (?page=2). To me those seem like other desirable methods to save state across requests...?
My thoughts are we don't want any kung-fu ViewState or other mechanisms, this framework is about going back to a stateless web.
The example you provided is pretty easy to do without any sort of "view state kung fu" using capabilities that are already in MVC. "User adds a person and sees that on the next screen." Let me code up a simple PersonController that does exactly what you want:
public ActionResult Add()
{
return View(new Person());
}
[HttpPost]
public ActionResult Add(PersonViewModel myNewPersonViewModel)
{
//validate, user entered everything correctly
if(!ModelState.IsValid)
return View();
//map model to my database/entity/domain object
var myNewPerson = new Person()
{
FirstName = myNewPersonViewModel.FirstName,
LastName = myNewPersonViewModel.LastName
}
// 1. maintains person state, sends the user to the next view in the chain
// using same action
if(MyDataLayer.Save(myNewPerson))
{
var persons = MyDataLayer.GetPersons();
persons.Add(myNewPersion);
return View("PersonGrid", persons);
}
//2. pass along the unique id of person to a different action or controller
//yes, another database call, but probably not a big deal
if(MyDataLayer.Save(myNewPerson))
return RedirecToAction("PersonGrid", ...etc pass the int as route value);
return View("PersonSaveError", myNewPersonViewModel);
}
Now, what I'm sensing is that you want person on yet another page after PersonSaveSuccess or something else. In that case, you probably want to use TempData[""] which is a single serving session and only saves state from one request to another or manage the traditional Session[""] yourself somehow.
What is confusing to me is you're probably going to the db to get all your persons anyway. If you save a person it should be in your persons collection in the next call to your GetPersons(). If you're not using Ajax, than what state are you trying to persist?
ASP.NET MVC offers a cleaner way of working with session storage using model binding. You can write a custom model binder that can supply instances from session to your action methods. Look it up.
I was reading Steven Sanderson's book Pro ASP.NET MVC Framework and he suggests using a repository pattern:
public interface IProductsRepository
{
IQueryable<Product> Products { get; }
void SaveProduct(Product product);
}
He accesses the products repository directly from his Controllers, but since I will have both a web page and web service, I wanted to have add a "Service Layer" that would be called by the Controllers and the web services:
public class ProductService
{
private IProductsRepository productsRepsitory;
public ProductService(IProductsRepository productsRepository)
{
this.productsRepsitory = productsRepository;
}
public Product GetProductById(int id)
{
return (from p in productsRepsitory.Products
where p.ProductID == id
select p).First();
}
// more methods
}
This seems all fine, but my problem is that I can't use his SaveProduct(Product product) because:
1) I want to only allow certain fields to be changed in the Product table
2) I want to keep an audit log of each change made to each field of the Product table, so I would have to have methods for each field that I allow to be updated.
My initial plan was to have a method in ProductService like this:
public void ChangeProductName(Product product, string newProductName);
Which then calls IProductsRepository.SaveProduct(Product)
But there are a few problems I see with this:
1) Isn't it not very "OO" to pass in the Product object like this? However, I can't see how this code could go in the Product class since it should just be a dumb data object. I could see adding validation to a partial class, but not this.
2) How do I ensure that no one changed any other fields other than Product before I persist the change?
I'm basically torn because I can't put the auditing/update code in Product and the ProductService class' update methods just seem unnatural (However, GetProductById seems perfectly natural to me).
I think I'd still have these problems even if I didn't have the auditing requirement. Either way I want to limit what fields can be changed in one class rather than duplicating the logic in both the web site and the web services.
Is my design pattern just bad in the first place or can I somehow make this work in a clean way?
Any insight would be greatly appreciated.
I split the repository into two interfaces, one for reading and one for writing.
The reading implements IDisposeable, and reuses the same data-context for its lifetime. It returns the entity objects produced by linq to SQL. For example, it might look like:
interface Reader : IDisposeable
{
IQueryable<Product> Products;
IQueryable<Order> Orders;
IQueryable<Customer> Customers;
}
The iQueryable is important so I get the delayed evaluation goodness of linq2sql. This is easy to implement with a DataContext, and easy enough to fake. Note that when I use this interface I never use the autogenerated fields for related rows (ie, no fair using order.Products directly, calls must join on the appropriate ID columns). This is a limitation I don't mind living with considering how much easier it makes faking read repository for unit tests.
The writing one uses a separate datacontext per write operation, so it does not implement IDisposeable. It does NOT take entity objects as input or out- it takes the specific fields needed for each write operation.
When I write test code, I can substitute the readable interface with a fake implementation that uses a bunch of List<>s which I populate manually. I use mocks for the write interface. This has worked like a charm so far.
Don't get in a habit of passing the entity objects around, they're bound to the datacontext's lifetime and it leads to unfortunate coupling between your repository and its clients.
To address your need for the auditing/logging of changes, just today I put the finishing touches on a system I'll suggest for your consideration. The idea is to serialize (easily done if you are using LTS entity objects and through the magic of the DataContractSerializer) the "before" and "after" state of your object, then save these to a logging table.
My logging table has columns for the date, username, a foreign key to the affected entity, and title/quick summary of the action, such as "Product was updated". There is also a single column for storing the change itself, which is a general-purpose field for storing a mini-XML representation of the "before and after" state. For example, here's what I'm logging:
<ProductUpdated>
<Deleted><Product ... /></Deleted>
<Inserted><Product ... /></Inserted>
</ProductUpdated>
Here is the general purpose "serializer" I used:
public string SerializeObject(object obj)
{
// See http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb546184.aspx :
Type t = obj.GetType();
DataContractSerializer dcs = new DataContractSerializer(t);
StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();
XmlWriterSettings settings = new XmlWriterSettings();
settings.OmitXmlDeclaration = true;
XmlWriter writer = XmlWriter.Create(sb, settings);
dcs.WriteObject(writer, obj);
writer.Close();
string xml = sb.ToString();
return xml;
}
Then, when updating (can also be used for logging inserts/deletes), grab the state before you do your model-binding, then again afterwards. Shove into an XML wrapper and log it! (or I suppose you could use two columns in your logging table for these, although my XML approach allows me to attach any other information that might be helpful).
Furthermore, if you want to only allow certain fields to be updated, you'll be able to do this with either a "whitelist/blacklist" in your controller's action method, or you could create a "ViewModel" to hand in to your controller, which could have the restrictions placed upon it that you desire. You could also look into the many partial methods and hooks that your LTS entity classes should have on them, which would allow you to detect changes to fields that you don't want.
Good luck! -Mike
Update:
For kicks, here is how I deserialize an entity (as I mentioned in my comment), for viewing its state at some later point in history: (After I've extracted it from the log entry's wrapper)
public Account DeserializeAccount(string xmlString)
{
MemoryStream s = new MemoryStream(Encoding.Unicode.GetBytes(xmlString));
DataContractSerializer dcs = new DataContractSerializer(typeof(Product));
Product product = (Product)dcs.ReadObject(s);
return product;
}
I would also recommend reading Chapter 13, "LINQ in every layer" in the book "LINQ in Action". It pretty much addresses exactly what I've been struggling with -- how to work LINQ into a 3-tier design. I'm leaning towards not using LINQ at all now after reading that chapter.