I have an existing controller where [FromBody] is working as expect in HttpPost methods. When writing tests, I found it necessary to use a customer serializer in order to avoid a circular reference due to the parent object having a child that references the parent. The serializer uses these settings:
JsonSerializerSettings Settings = new JsonSerializerSettings()
{
TypeNameHandling = TypeNameHandling.Auto,
ConstructorHandling = ConstructorHandling.AllowNonPublicDefaultConstructor,
PreserveReferencesHandling = PreserveReferencesHandling.Objects,
ObjectCreationHandling = ObjectCreationHandling.Auto
};
The problem is that [FromBody] is unable to parse the object produced by that serializer (it throws a Newtonsoft.Json.JsonSerializationException). However, if I change [FromBody] to be dynamic, e.g.
public IActionResult Update([FromBody]dynamic json)
{
var obj = Newtonsoft.Json.JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<MyType>(json);
...
}
then I'm able to parse the object without a problem. This is confusing me, and I am wondering if I can override what WebApi does for [FromBody] so that I can get the correct object without having to make every method accept a dynamic parameter?
Here is something I did in my WebAPI. I had a Team entity which has many Player entities. Each Player entity had a reference to a Team entity. When I retrieve a Player it will have a Team, and Team will have all players and each player again will have have a team in it.
To Handle this, I had to change the approach of exposing data and using the data. I created Models for each entities and exposed the model objects. Model objects are flat objects. In case of Player model, it has a TeamID and Team Name rather than using a whole Team object.
I used a Model-Factory to create Models out of Entities and Entities out of Models. In WebAPI controller, used something like below
[ModelValidator]
public IHttpActionResult Post([FromBody] DoctorModel doctorModel)
{
try
{
var doctorEntity = ModelFactory.Create(doctorModel);
doctorEntity.UserId = Userid;
var doctor = UnitOfWork.Doctors.Add(doctorEntity);
var doctorModelNew = ModelFactory.Create(doctor);
return Ok(doctorModelNew);
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
//Logging
#if DEBUG
return InternalServerError(ex);
#endif
return InternalServerError();
}
}
Related
I am using code first with an existing database, EF5, Web API and Breeze and I havent used any of these techs before. I am writing my own pocos.
I am trying to expose a read only property that requires several table joins to obtain the data. If we were using Web API only, we could just run some sql, populate the property and send some JSON back to the client.
Because we are using EF and breeze this obviously changes quite alot.
For example:
public class Employee
{
[Key]
public int EmployeeID { get; set; }
public string FirstName { get; set; }
public string LastName { get; set; }
[NotMapped]
public string FooBar
{
get { return getFooBar(); }
}
}
private string getFooBar()
{
// Do stuff here
}
This will send FooBar back to the client in the JSON result but because it is not mapped, and consequently not in the Metadata, I dont seem to be able to use it within Breeze.
I have read articles that say I can do this when using designer based methods (ie edit the edmx file) but how can it be done using code first?
I am aware that I can extend a Breeze entity on the client side but Im not really sure how I would get this value which hasnt been mapped, after Breeze has created all of the entities.
What I really want is to extend my code first entity. I also vaguely understand that this might not be in line with EF ideals but I also struggle with the idea that I dont have the freedom to define what is and what isnt a property of my employee.
I dont need to track changes. I dont need to save. I dont seem to be able the use the EF context provider to join the (many) tables and get the data because the entities for each table dont share a primary key and dont inherit from the same class.
I think this SO post here suggests something similar but once again its for generated classes. Is there a way to do this? Thanks.
Edit
In reply to Wards suggestion I tried a few tests.
My client side constructor:
function Employee() {
this.DisplayName = ""; // unmapped property
};
My Controller:
function TestController($scope, $routeParams) {
var manager = new breeze.EntityManager('breeze/employees');
var metadataStore = manager.metadataStore;
metadataStore.registerEntityTypeCtor("Employee", Employee);
var query = new breeze.EntityQuery()
.from("Employees")
.orderBy("FirstName");
manager.executeQuery(query).then(function (data) {
// Check unmapped property name
var employeeType = metadataStore.getEntityType("Employee");
var unmapped = employeeType.unmappedProperties;
alert(unmapped[0].name) // Returns 'DisplayName'
alert(employeeType.dataProperties[3].name) // Returns 'DisplayName'
var prop = manager.metadataStore.getEntityType('Employee').getProperty('DisplayName');
alert(prop.name) // Returns 'DisplayName'
var first = data.results[0]
var fullName = first.DisplayName
alert(fullName) // Returns empty string
$scope.employees = data.results;
$scope.$apply();
}).fail(function (e) {
alert(e);
});
};
My Angular:
<div>
<ul>
<li data-ng-repeat="employee in employees">
{{employee.DisplayName}}
</li>
</ul>
</div>
So the property seems to be setup correctly as an unmapped property, but it only returns the empty string. If I change
this.DisplayName = ""; // unmapped property
to
this.DisplayName = "Foo"; // unmapped property
then DisplayName always contains "Foo". The values from the payload are not being applied to DisplayName.
Am I missing something?
It's pretty easy on the Breeze client as explained in the Extending Entities documentation topic: you define an unmapped property in a custom constructor and register that constructor.
var metadataStore = myEntityManager.metadataStore;
metadataStore .registerEntityTypeCtor("Employee", Employee);
function Employee ()
this.FooBar = ""; // unmapped property
};
Now the Breeze metadata includes a definition of the FooBar unmapped property. The server will send a value for FooBar to the client and Breeze will populate that client Employee entity (unmapped) property when it materializes Employee entities from a query.
How you obtain that FooBar property value on the server is up to you. I don't know enough about your app. What you've shown us is a perfectly valid Code First entity definition.
Maybe you're asking an Entity Framework question rather than a Breeze question.
One way to get this working has been discussed in this SO answer from CassidyK. Here is the code snippet.
proto.initializeFrom = function (rawEntity) {
// HACK:
// copy unmapped properties from newly created client entity to the rawEntity.
// This is so that we don't lose them when we update from the rawEntity to the target.
// Something that will occur immediately after this method completes.
var that = this;
this.entityType.unmappedProperties.forEach(function(prop) {
var propName = prop.name;
that[propName] = rawEntity[propName]; // CassidyK
//rawEntity[propName] = that[propName]; // Breeze
});
if (!this._backingStore) {
this._backingStore = { };
}
};
I dont know what the side effects of this are. Perhaps one of the Breeze devs can better explain.
It seems this is only a problem when Breeze is configured for Angular.
IE
breeze.config.initializeAdapterInstance("modelLibrary", "backingStore", true);
I've been playing with MVC3 with KnockoutJs for a few weeks and I've been wondering about something
say I have an mvc action which returns a simple list
public ActionResult AddFoos()
{
List<Foo> funds = new List<Foo>();
.. etc
return Json(funds.ToList(), JsonRequestBehavior.AllowGet);
}
which is then passed into the view model
var viewModel = {
fooChocies: ko.mapping.fromJS([]),
fooOptions: ko.mapping.fromJS([]),
loadInitialData: function () {
ko.mapping.fromJS(serverData, dataMappingOptions, viewModel.fooOptions);
},
};
In my type Foo I also have properties that show or hide ui elements
var Foo = function (data, preselect) {
var self = this;
self.id = ko.observable(data.id);
self.Name = ko.observable(data.Name);
self.number = ko.observable('');
self.showProducts = ko.observable(false); <---
self.displayBigPanel = ko.observable(false); <---
}
My approach so far as been to dynamically create elements of the form
which passes through the ModelBinder and creates a List< Foo > as a parameter for controller action.
Finally the question...
When the user navigates back to this page I need to restore the UI with the fooChoices the user made.
It seems I have 2 choices with rebuilding the user selections (both via extension methods)
Use raw json as seen by
ko.toJSON(viewModel.fooChoices))
which in addition to basic model properties also provides info on hiding and displaying UI elements,
sb.Append("viewModel.fooCghoices= ko.mapping.fromJS(" + json + ");");
sb.Append("ko.applyBindings(viewModel);");
return new HtmlString(sb.ToString());
thus sending client ui info to the server and back
or
Manipulate the ViewModel directly in effect simulating the user actions
sb.Append("viewModel.fooChoices.push(new Foo(1509));");
sb.Append("viewModel.fooChoices()[0].selectedSubFoo = new Foo(273);");
sb.Append("viewModel.fooChoices()[0].showProducts(true);");
In either case it feels a bit off and that a better pattern is out there. Would like to know if one way is better than the other or none of the above.
Many Thanks
Presently, your controller method returns a list of Foo. Consider creating a more complex object that holds both your Foos and your choices.
public class FooViewModel
{
public List<Foo> Foos { get; set; };
public UserChoices { get; set; }
}
Change your controller method so that it returns FooViewModel. This means user choices will be returned along with any Foos you are interested in.
public ActionResult AddFoos()
{
// Are there any choices stored in session?
// Use those first, otherwise create a new UserChoices object
UserChoices choices =
Session["User.Choices"] as UserChoices ?? new UserChoices();
List<Foo> funds = new List<Foo>();
.. etc
FooViewModel vm = new FooViewModel() { Foos = funds; UserChoices = choices };
// Return the whole object, containing Choices and Foos
return Json(vm, JsonRequestBehavior.AllowGet);
}
Also, consider some kind of action filter to allow you to pass complete objects easily. ObjectFilter is a good approach. It allows you to pass complex object structures easily without having to rely on specific markup.
http://www.c-sharpcorner.com/blogs/863/passing-json-into-an-asp-net-mvc-controller.aspx
ObjectFilter above a controller method. Pretty simple, just declaring that the controller should attempt to treat any incoming parameter called fooStuff as type FooViewModel.
[HttpPost,
ObjectFilter(Param = "fooStuff", RootType = typeof(FooViewModel)),
UnitOfWork]
public JsonResult ProcessFoos(FooViewModel fooStuff) {
By defining a corresponding JavaScript view model, you can just convert the whole thing to a json string and pass it to the controller method fully populated.
So, example of corresponding js vm would be:-
var fooViewModel = function(data) {
var self = this;
self.Foos = ko.observableArray(data.Foos);
self.UserChoices = ko.observable(data.UserChoices);
// Don't worry about properties or methods that don't exist
// on the C# end of things. They'll just be ignored.
self.usefulJSOnlyMethod = function() {
// behaviour
};
}
var userChoice = function(data) {
var self = this;
self.DinnerId = ko.observable(data.DinnerId);
}
Typical call to a controller method decorated by ObjectFilter would be something like this ( assuming self is a fooViewModel ):-
var queryData = ko.mapping.toJSON(self);
$.ajax(
//...
data: queryData,
Any matching ( same name, same type case-sensitive ) property from the js vm will automatically end up in the fooStuff parameter of your controller method. Time to save those choices:-
Also note that I'm persisting user choices in the session here. This'll allow them to be picked up by any other controller method which may need them ( example in AddFoos above ).
[HttpPost,
ObjectFilter(Param = "fooStuff", RootType = typeof(FooViewModel)),
UnitOfWork]
public JsonResult ProcessFoos(FooViewModel fooStuff)
{
// hey! I have a fully mapped FooViewModel right here!
// ( _fooServices.ProcessFoos will return updated version of viewmodel )
FooViewModel vm = _fooServices.ProcessFoos(fooStuff);
// What about those choices?
// Put them in the session at this point in case anyone else comes asking
// after them.
Session["User.Choices"] = vm.UserChoices;
return Json(vm);
}
Because we've:-
Defined a better C# view model
Defined a corresponding JS view model
Including UserChoices as part of that view model
....restoring the choice is simple at this point. Reference the part of the view model that contains the user's selected choice.
<select id="dinnerChoice"
data-bind="value: UserChoices.DinnerId"
>
</select>
What I have is the following extension method:
public MyCustomAttribute[] GetActionAttributes(
this Controller #this,
string action,
string controller,
string area,
string method)
{
}
How does ASP.NET MVC 3 find the action method, given the area, controller, action names and the method (GET, POST)?
To this moment I have nothing... no clues on how to do this.
I am currently looking for the stack trace inside a controller action, to find out how MVC dicovered it.
Why I need these attributes
My attributes contain information about whether a given user can or not access it... but depending on whether they can or not access it, I wan't to show or hide some html fields, links, and other things that could call that action.
Other uses
I have thought of using this to place an attribute over an action, that tells the css class of the link that will be rendered to call it... and some other UI hints... and then build an HtmlHelper that will render that link, looking at these attributes.
Not a duplicate
Yes, some will say this is possibly a duplicate of this question...
that does not have the answer I want:
How can i get the MethodInfo of the controller action that will get called given a request?
That's why I have specified the circumstances of my question.
I have looked inside MVC 3 source code, and tested with MVC 4, and discovered how to do it.
I have tagged the question wrong... it is not for MVC 3, I am using MVC 4. Though, as I could find a solution looking at MVC 3 code, then it may work with MVC 3 too.
At the end... I hope this is worth 5 hours of exploration, with a lot trials and errors.
Works with
MVC 3 (I think)
MVC 4 (tested)
Drawbacks of my solution
Unfortunately, this solution is quite complex, and dependent on things that I don't like very much:
static object ControllerBuilder.Current (very bad for unit testing)
a lot of classes from MVC (high coupling is always bad)
not universal (it works with MVC 3 default objects, but may not work with other implementations derived from MVC... e.g. derived MvcHandler, custom IControllerFactory, and so on ...)
internals dependency (depends on specific aspects of MVC 3, (MVC 4 behaves like this too) may be MVC 5 is different... e.g. I know that RouteData object is not used to find the controller type, so I simply use stub RouteData objects)
mocks of complex objects to pass data (I needed to mock HttpContextWrapper and HttpRequestWrapper in order to set the http method to be POST or GET... these pretty simple values comes from complex objects (oh god! =\ ))
The code
public static Attribute[] GetAttributes(
this Controller #this,
string action = null,
string controller = null,
string method = "GET")
{
var actionName = action
?? #this.RouteData.GetRequiredString("action");
var controllerName = controller
?? #this.RouteData.GetRequiredString("controller");
var controllerFactory = ControllerBuilder.Current
.GetControllerFactory();
var controllerContext = #this.ControllerContext;
var otherController = (ControllerBase)controllerFactory
.CreateController(
new RequestContext(controllerContext.HttpContext, new RouteData()),
controllerName);
var controllerDescriptor = new ReflectedControllerDescriptor(
otherController.GetType());
var controllerContext2 = new ControllerContext(
new MockHttpContextWrapper(
controllerContext.HttpContext.ApplicationInstance.Context,
method),
new RouteData(),
otherController);
var actionDescriptor = controllerDescriptor
.FindAction(controllerContext2, actionName);
var attributes = actionDescriptor.GetCustomAttributes(true)
.Cast<Attribute>()
.ToArray();
return attributes;
}
EDIT
Forgot the mocked classes
class MockHttpContextWrapper : HttpContextWrapper
{
public MockHttpContextWrapper(HttpContext httpContext, string method)
: base(httpContext)
{
this.request = new MockHttpRequestWrapper(httpContext.Request, method);
}
private readonly HttpRequestBase request;
public override HttpRequestBase Request
{
get { return request; }
}
class MockHttpRequestWrapper : HttpRequestWrapper
{
public MockHttpRequestWrapper(HttpRequest httpRequest, string httpMethod)
: base(httpRequest)
{
this.httpMethod = httpMethod;
}
private readonly string httpMethod;
public override string HttpMethod
{
get { return httpMethod; }
}
}
}
Hope all of this helps someone...
Happy coding for everybody!
You can achieve this functionality by using the AuthorizeAttribute. You can get the Controller and Action name in OnAuthorization method. PLease find sample code below.
public sealed class AuthorizationFilterAttribute : AuthorizeAttribute
{
/// <summary>
/// Use for validate user permission and when it also validate user session is active.
/// </summary>
/// <param name="filterContext">Filter Context.</param>
public override void OnAuthorization(AuthorizationContext filterContext)
{
string actionName = filterContext.ActionDescriptor.ActionName;
string controller = filterContext.ActionDescriptor.ControllerDescriptor.ControllerName;
if (!IsUserHasPermission(controller, actionName))
{
// Do your required opeation
}
}
}
if you have a default route configured like
routes.MapRoute(
"Area",
"",
new { area = "MyArea", controller = "Home", action = "MyAction" }
);
you can get the route information inside the controller action like
ht tp://localhost/Admin
will give you
public ActionResult MyAction(string area, string controller, string action)
{
//area=Admin
//controller=Home
//action=MyAction
//also you can use RouteValues to get the route information
}
here is a great blog post and a utility by Phil Haack RouteDebugger 2.0
This is a short notice! Be sure to use filterContext.RouteData.DataTokens["area"]; instead of filterContext.RouteData.Values["area"];
Good Luck.
I am using Automapper within an ASP.Net MVC application to map DTO's to ViewModel objects.
in one of my mappings I need access to an object stored in the Session object.
public override void OnAuthorization(AuthorizationContext filterContext)
{
...
SecurityToken token = SecurityTokenFactory.CreateSecurityToken(userNode);
filterContext.HttpContext.Session[securityToken] = token;
...
}
In the constructor of my controller I set up the Automapper mapping.
Mapper.CreateMap<UserReportDTO, UserDefinedReportModel>()
.ForMember(dest => dest.IsEditable, opt=>opt.ResolveUsing(src => this.IsEditable(src)));
private bool IsEditable(UserReportDTO report)
{
if (this.GetCurrentUserToken().UserVisibilityLevel == VisibilityLevel.Root)
{
return true;
}
return false;
}
public JsonResult GetVisibleUserReports()
{
...
int ID = this.GetCurrentUserToken().UserId; //This works!
var reports = Mapper.Map < UserReportDTO[], UserDefinedReportModel[] >(inputarray); //This doesn't work
...
}
What happens is that the context.Session is null.
I'm guessing this is something to do with the way Automapper resolves the mapping - maybe a reference to one Context is set when the mapping is created, and then this Context no longer exists at mapping time?
How can I resolve the issue - is there a way to pass a parameter to a mapping operation?
My temporary workaround is to map all the other fields, and then manually loop through the mapped-collection, setting the field that requires the current context, but I'm loathe to keep this approach.
A couple thoughts that might put you on the right track:
Does it make any difference if you replace ResolveUsing with MapFrom? Both seem to accept a Func<TSource, TMember>, but perhaps there are subtle differences.
Would it be possible to turn your IsEditable method into an IValueResolver then pass the required session data into the constructor using AutoMapper's ConstructedBy() feature? Here's the relevant documentation. Scroll to the "Custom constructor methods" section.
I'm creating my first linq based project. The DAL consists of LinqToSQL classes. And the logic layer is just another DLL for keeping it simple.
I wanted to know how do I pass the var object (result of select query) from Login Layer to Presentation Layer?
Should I write my own DTO layer between Login layer and Presentation Layer to transfer the from BLL to Presentation layer or should I serialize the data as XML?
Thanks, Vikas
I would avoid serializing whenever you have the opportunity to just pass the data as a strongly typed class. And that is what you're going to have to do. I believe when .Net 4.0 comes out you will be able to pass vars, but until then, try returning your query as an IEnumerable instead of a var when you need to pass it to another function.
IE:
public class myClass
{
public int RecordID { get; set; }
public string Field1 { get; set; }
}
public void GetDataAndSendToOtherLayer()
{
using (DBDataContext db = new DBDataContext)
{
IEnumerable<myClass> Recs =
from tab in db.table
select new myClass
{
RecordID = tab.RecordID,
Field1 = tab.Field1
};
OtherLayer.DoSomething(Recs);
}
}
Load each row result into an object, place the each object into a Collection and then pass the Collection from the DAL to your BOL where it can then be handled by your business rules before the Collection is passed on to your presentation.