ASP.NET MVC 3 Booking System with EF Code First - asp.net-mvc-3

Hello I have a question about a booking scheme. I want a Member to be able to Rent one-or-more Movies. My question is how should I structure it so you can't rent the same movie when it's out on loan. Should I have a variable named Avaliable as a bolean value in the Renting class or something else? thx
public class Member
{
public virtual int MemberId { get; set; }
public virtual int Name { get; set; }
public virtual List<Rental> Rentals { get; set; }
}
public class Movie
{
public virtual int MovieId { get; set; }
public virtual string Name { get; set; }
}
public class Renting
{
public virtual int RentalId { get; set; }
public virtual int MovieId { get; set; }
public virtual Movie Movie { get; set; }
public virtual int MemberId { get; set; }
public virtual Member Member { get; set; }
public DateTime startDate { get; set; }
public DateTime endDate { get; set; }
public DateTime dueDate { get; set; }
}

Well, you can solve the problem in different ways:
Solution #1 - Or you add a flag on the class Movie > public virtual Bool IsOnStock{get;set;} and when u want to show the available movies to let other member to book it, you just need to select the movies.where(x=> x.IsOnStock) Simple solution, but keep in mind to UPDATE this field anytime the "status" of renting change.... otherwise it will not work. But I think it's a good idea, because when someone rents a movie and says that will return it in 2 days, maybe that will not happen and you only change that flag when that really happens.
Solution #2- Instead of having a new "property" now you can start "filtering" by accessing the renting entries, taking in consideration the "DateTime.Now" and the date fields in that renting entry. Do something like this: select all movies where ID is NOT in the list of movies where there is an entry where "DateTime.Now" is between the renting dates.
There are more solutions in case if you have multiple copies of the same movie, etc.. but to keep it simple, just use one of the solutions above.

Related

MVC3 View Model versus Entity Framework Model

Not sure how to explain this, but here goes...
I've built a code first data model using EF 4.3. One of classes, "Address" contains typical address data, street, city, state, etc. Other classes in the model contain instances of the "Address" class.
The problem. The data will be gathered/presented using different views, some of which will require the address fields, others that will not.
I can build different view models, each having the necessary validation attributes, and copy the data back and forth between data model and view model but that seems wrong.
What am I missing? There has to be a smarter way to do this.
Thanks for your help,
Jimmy
First read these questions and their answers:
MVC: Data Models and View Models
Why Two Classes, View Model and Domain Model?
also this article could help:
ASP.NET MVC View Model Patterns
In conclusion, I think in most scenarios it's helpful to have a chubby domain model (DM) but light weight presentation models (PM) related to it. So when we want to edit only a small chunk of that fat DM, one of our PMs will raise its hand.
Imagine this class in DM:
namespace DomainModels
{
public class Person
{
public int ID { get; set; }
public string FirstName { get; set; }
public string MiddleName { get; set; }
public string LastName { get; set; }
public DateTime? DoB { get; set; }
public MyAddressDM Address { get; set; }
public string Phone { get; set; }
public IEnumerable<MyCarModel> Cars { get; set; }
//etc.
}
}
Now imagine that in one view we need to edit only Address and Phone. A light weight PM could be like:
namesapce PresentationModels
{
public PersonAddressPhone
{
public int ID { get; set;}
public string FullName { get; set;}
public string AddressSteet { get; set; }
public string AddressCity { get; set; }
public string AddressState { get; set; }
public string AddressZipCode { get; set; }
public string Phone { get; set; }
}
}
and in another view we need to add/remove cars for a person:
namesapce PresentationModels
{
public PersonCars
{
public int ID { get; set;}
public string FullName { get; set;}
public IEnumerable<PMCar> Cars { get; set;}
}
}
Mapping between DO and PM is the golden piece of this puzzle. Be sure to take a look at AutoMapper.

Entity doubts - following Contoso University Tutorial

I've been following the contoso university tutorial on Microsoft´s site and I have some doubts about how the Entity Framework is doing some stuff. Here we go...
On the beginning of the tutorial, we created three classes that will be turned into tables in my database.
I´d like to know when and how entity instantiates my classes to populate the objects.
Im using code-first approach.
Example:
The classes im using:
public class Course
{
public int CourseID { get; set; }
public string Title { get; set; }
public int Credits { get; set; }
public virtual ICollection<Enrollment> Enrollments { get; set; }
}
public class Enrollment
{
public int EnrollmentID { get; set; }
public int CourseID { get; set; }
public int StudentID { get; set; }
public decimal? Grade { get; set; }
public virtual Course Course { get; set; }
public virtual Student Student { get; set; }
}
public class Student
{
public int StudentID { get; set; }
public string LastName { get; set; }
public string FirstMidName { get; set; }
public DateTime EnrollmentDate { get; set; }
public virtual ICollection<Enrollment> Enrollments { get; set; }
}
After following the tutorial I can now list all my Students and theirs respectives Course(s), as well as their properties in enrollments lists.
When did entity instantiated my Student classes and populated it with the respective Enrollment(s) lists?
How does it know what enrollments are linked to that student?
I dont see any new constructor() ever beeing called.
This might be simple but Im kinda lost here.
Thanks
It doesn't instantiate anything ahead of time, and it doesn't have to. And there won't be anything in the table representing the virtual property as such, either.
These virtual properties are used by EF at runtime to store navigation information, and the collections can be null or contain 0 or more elements. There's no magic, it's just by design that EF "new"s up the collection when it needs to.
If you want to be explicit about it, you can create a constructor on your POCO as well and set your collection equal to a new hashtable.

EF multiple relationships between entities

I'm using the Code First approach to build the database in this problem. I have the following (partial) entity:
public class Tournament {
public int TournamentID { get; set; }
public String Name { get; set; }
public DateTime? StartDate { get; set; }
public DateTime? EndDate { get; set; }
public int? SportID { get; set; }
public virtual Sport Sport { get; set; }
public virtual ICollection<Official> Officials { get; set; }
}
In the Official Entity I have this:
public class Official {
public int OfficialID { get; set; }
public String Surname { get; set; }
public String FirstName { get; set; }
public int? TournamentID { get; set; }
public virtual Tournament Tournament { get; set; }
public virtual ICollection<Match> Matches { get; set; }
}
Using some sample data and checking the SQL Server database, this works as I would expect it to. The tournament has a one-to-many relationship with officials.
The problem I'm having is that I would like the tournament to hold the primary key of an official as the head official. So I would add to the Tournament entity:
public int? OfficialID { get; set; } // foreign key to official table
public virtual Official HeadOfficial { get; set; } // navigation property
If I do this I get an attribute OfficialID and HeadOfficial_OfficialID in my Tournament table and I get TournamentID, Tournament_TournamentID and Tournament_TournamentID1 in my Officials table. I realise I now not only have a one-to-many relationship between Tournament and Official (seeing as a tournament can have many officials), but I also have a one-to-one relationship (seeing as a tournament can only have one head official).
How can I fix this problem?
You can fix the problem by giving EF a hint which navigation properties belong together. EF conventions cannot decide this anymore when you have two navigation properties in a class which refer to the same target class:
public class Tournament {
public int TournamentID { get; set; }
//...
public int? OfficialID { get; set; }
[ForeignKey("OfficialID")]
public virtual Official HeadOfficial { get; set; }
[InverseProperty("Tournament")] // the navigation property in Official class
public virtual ICollection<Official> Officials { get; set; }
}
It's also possible with Fluent API if you prefer that:
modelBuilder.Entity<Tournament>()
.HasOptional(t => t.HeadOfficial)
.WithMany()
.HasForeignKey(t => t.OfficialID);
modelBuilder.Entity<Tournament>()
.HasMany(t => t.Officials)
.WithOptional(o => o.Tournament)
.HasForeignKey(o => o.TournamentID);

Entity Framework 4.1 - Segregating an entity into multiple tables (Code-First)

I'm trying to find out how I can re-use a simple 'Comment' entity type for multiple scenarios where something is 'commentable' in my application.
At the moment, I have a couple of entities that a user is able to post comments to. Examples include Blogs, Profiles and Photos - these can all be 'commented' on.
I'd like to be able to use the same 'Comment' class for each of these scenarios, but I don't want to end up with one HUGE table full of comments for everything. I figure it would be much more efficient to at least store a table of BlogComments, PhotoComments, and ProfileComments. At the moment, my Comment class looks like this:
public class Comment
{
[Key]
public int Id { get; set; }
public int ContextId { get; set; }
[StringLength(256)]
public string Content { get; set; }
public DateTime DatePosted { get; set; }
public virtual Member Author { get; set; }
}
Presumably, I'd need the 'ContextId' field to refer to the particular thing being commented on. This Id might be the Id of a Blog, a Profile or a Photo. I was hoping to be able to refer to comments much like a normal ICollection in these classes, and I have some code like this for the Photos as an example:
public class Photo
{
[Key]
public int Id { get; set; }
[StringLength(48)]
public string FileName { get; set; }
public virtual Member Owner { get; set; }
public virtual ICollection<Comment> Comments { get; set; }
}
I've been pointed to various articles during my searches, but none really seem relevant to my particular situation. How can I map these comment collections to different tables, and avoid having a comment "super-table"?
Any help, pointers or advice would be hugely appreciated :)
You can create an abstract Comment class and inherit from it specific comments such as PhotoComment, ProfileComment. You will be able to map the comments to different tables.
public abstract class Comment
{
[Key]
public int Id { get; set; }
[StringLength(256)]
public string Content { get; set; }
public DateTime DatePosted { get; set; }
public virtual Member Author { get; set; }
}
public class PhotoComment : Comment
{
public int PhotoId { get; set; }
public virtual Photo Photo { get; set; }
}
public class Photo
{
[Key]
public int Id { get; set; }
[StringLength(48)]
public string FileName { get; set; }
public virtual Member Owner { get; set; }
public virtual ICollection<PhotoComment> Comments { get; set; }
}

Complex tabbed form with panels in .NET MVC 3

I'm trying to create some complex form scheme in a .NET MVC 3 project (or so I think). I'll show a wireframe so that you can understand better.
As you can see from the pic above, it's a form to create a new Car Dealership. I can choose from many available car's manufacturers (in the Add a tab), and each selection creates a new tab in the panel underneath it. In each panel there's a html fieldset, and I can add some new cars on it.
In the end, I want to submit all the form, which comprehends the data from the dealership (e.g. name), the car's brands that it has and the cars available for each brand. How can I do it with MVC 3? I don't know how exactly should I instantiate the model Car Dealership and its respective View. What should the cars in the panels be? An array of inputs? And how can I separate the inputs from one tab from the ones of another? All of this, using Razor!
My real-world scenario is a little bit more complicated, but I'll start by this so that I can try to solve the rest by myself. I'm using jQuery/jQuery UI, but I'm opened to other javascript alternatives (like Backbone, etc - I just don't know them yet). Thanks in advance!
UPDATE (1):
These are my models so far:
public class CarDealership
{
public int Id { get; set; }
public string Name { get; set; }
public virtual ICollection<ManufactorOnDealership> ManufactorsOnDealership { get; set; }
}
public class Manufactor
{
public int Id { get; set; }
public string Name { get; set; }
public virtual ICollection<ManufactorOnDealership> DealershipsOfManufactor { get; set; }
}
// Junction class: I believe it's needed because the list of Cars belongs to this relationship
public class ManufactorOnDealership
{
public int Id { get; set; }
public int CarDealershipId { get; set; }
public int ManufactorId { get; set; }
public virtual CarDealership CarDealership { get; set; }
public virtual Manufactor Manufactor { get; set; }
public virtual ICollection<Car> CarsOnDealership { get; set; }
}
public class Car
{
public int Id { get; set; }
public string Name { get; set; }
public virtual ICollection<ManufactorOnDealership> Manufactors { get; set; }
}

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