Is it possible for a Controller method to handle all Posted items which derive from a particular base class? The idea is to be able to dispatch Commands by posting them to an endpoint. When I try the following, the "cmd" parameter in the Post method is always null.
Example
//the model:
public abstract class Command{
public int CommandId{get; set;}
}
public class CommandA:Command{
public string StringParam{get; set;}
}
public class CommandB:Command{
public DateTime DateParam{get; set;}
}
//and in the controller:
public HttpResponseMessage Post([FromBody]Command cmd)
{
//cmd parameter is always null when I Post a CommandA or CommandB
//it works if I have separate Post methods for each Command type
if (ModelState.IsValid)
{
if (cmd is CommandA)
{
var cmdA = (CommandA)cmd;
// do whatever
}
if (cmd is CommandB)
{
var cmdB = (CommandB)cmd;
//do whatever
}
//placeholder return stuff
var response = Request.CreateResponse(HttpStatusCode.Created);
var relativePath = "/api/ToDo/" + cmd.TestId.ToString();
response.Headers.Location = new Uri(Request.RequestUri, relativePath);
return response;
}
throw new HttpResponseException(HttpStatusCode.BadRequest);
}
Again, when I try this approach the Post method gets called, but the parameter is always null from the framework. However if I replace it with a Post method with a specific CommandA parameter type, it works.
Is what I'm attempting possible? Or does every message type need a separate handler method in the controller?
If you are sending data in Json format, then following blog gives more details about how hierarchies deserialization can be achieved in json.net:
http://dotnetbyexample.blogspot.com/2012/02/json-deserialization-with-jsonnet-class.html
Related
I'm following Scott Allen's MVC4 course on PluralSight (I'm using MVC5 and WebAPI2 but they should be the same) and I am trying to pass an object via HTTP PUT. The model binder should bind it, but I am getting NULL for the parameter.
public HttpResponseMessage PutObjective(int id, [FromBody] Objective objective)
{
if (ModelState.IsValid && id == objective.ObjectiveID)
{
//todo: update - look up id, replace text
return Request.CreateResponse(HttpStatusCode.OK, objective);
}
else
{
return Request.CreateResponse(HttpStatusCode.BadRequest);
}
}
and in my front-end javascript I am doing the following (I'm creating an object for testing, so ignore 'objective' passed in):
var updateObjective = function (objective) {
var myobj = { "ObjectiveID": "3", "ObjectiveDescription": "test" };
return $.ajax(objectiveApiUrl + "/" + objective.ObjectiveID, {
type: "PUT",
data: myobj
});
}
My class looks like this:
public class Objective
{
public int ObjectiveID { get; private set; }
public string ObjectiveDescription { get; set; }
public Objective (int Id, string Desc)
{
this.ObjectiveID = Id;
this.ObjectiveDescription = Desc;
}
}
Any thoughts on why 'objective' in the backend is always 'null' ?
I've done what Scott Allen is doing, even tried adding in [FromBody] but no luck. $.ajax should have the correct content type by default I understand, so no need to set it.
I had Fiddler2 but I'm unsure as to what I am looking at to be honest. I can see my object as JSON being sent to the backend.
Well, if you're familiar with Model Binding you'll have seen the issue in my Objective class:
public int ObjectiveID { get; private set; }
with a private set, no instance can be created of the Objective class. To make it work, the 'private' access specifier needs to be removed.
What needs to happen really is that Objective becomes ObjectiveViewModel, and we convert what comes back to an Objective domain object (which may have more properties than we need for this screen). This can have a private set.
I have data coming into my form that looks like the image below (sessionsId: 1367,1368).
I've create c# in my webapi controller that works as below. when I've tried ot just make use SessionIds as the parameter (or sessionIds) by saying something like PostChargeForSessions(string SessionIds) either null gets passed in or I get a 404.
What is the proper way to catch a form parameter like in my request without declaring a structure.
(the code below works, but I'm not happy with it)
public class ChargeForSessionRec
{
public string SessionIds { get; set; }
}
[HttpPost]
[ActionName("ChargeForSessions")]
public HttpResponseMessage PostChargeForSessions(ChargeForSessionRec rec)
{
HttpResponseMessage response = Request.CreateResponse(HttpStatusCode.OK, new ShirtSizeReturn()
{
Success = true,
//Data = shirtSizeRecs
});
return response;
}
You can declare the action method like this.
public HttpResponseMessage Post(string[] sessionIds) { }
If you don't want to define a class, the above code is the way to go. Having said that, the above code will not work with the request body you have. It must be like this.
=1381&=1380
The website that I'm working on is heavily depending on ajax/json and knockout.js.
I would like to have a lot of my Controllers return view-tailored 'json objects', without wrapping them in a JsonResult when returning the method.
This would mean I could easily composite multiple calls into one parent object, but still be able to call the Actions separately too.
Simplified example:
public object Main(int groupId)
{
var viewModel = new
{
Persons = Employees(groupId),
Messages = AllMessages()
};
return viewModel;
}
public object Employees(int groupId)
{
return DatabaseContext.Employees.Where(e => e.GroupId == groupId).ToList();
}
public object AllMessages()
{
return DatabaseContext.Messages.ToList();
}
I was hoping I could capture the returned object in OnActionExecuted and at that point wrap the whole result up in a final JsonResult.
The result is already converted to a string and captured in a ContentResult though.
Any ideas? :) Thanks,
A good approach on this is to create helper methods for your entity calls. Or if you have those methods already somewhere, they can actually serve as the helper methods. In that manner you can return a list of strongly-typed Messages and Employees as well as returning your desired parent object. You can then have individual controller methods that returns json objects. In addition, you can extend the parent viewmodel to return additional fields.
The Parent ViewModel
public class ParentModel {
public Employee Persons {get;set;}
public Message Messages {get;set;}
}
The Helper Methods
The beauty of using helper methods similar to what is defined here is that you can apply a few more logic to your query, and more, and you don't have to change anything in your controller methods.
public ParentModel GetMain(int groupId)
{
var viewModel = new ParentModel
{
Persons = Employees(groupId),
Messages = AllMessages()
};
return viewModel;
}
public IEnumerable<Employee> Employees(int groupId)
{
return DatabaseContext.Employees.Where(e => e.GroupId == groupId).ToList();
}
public IEnumerable<Message> AllMessages()
{
return DatabaseContext.Messages.ToList();
}
The Controller Methods
public ActionResult GetParent(int groupId){
return Json(helperinstance.GetMain());
}
public ActionResult GetEmployees(int groupId){
return Json(helperinstance.Employees());
}
public ActionResult GetMessages(int groupId){
return Json(helperinstance.AllMessages());
}
Thanks for the answer. I'm not going for the solution of von v. because I like to keep the boilerplate as small as possible.
In the end I am trying out the following approach. It seems to work pretty well for now, but I still have to test it in real production.
If anyone has some (security) concerns with this, I'm happy to hear them in the comments.
// BaseController
protected override void OnActionExecuting(ActionExecutingContext filterContext)
{
var returnType = ((ReflectedActionDescriptor)filterContext.ActionDescriptor).MethodInfo.ReturnType;
// is the returnType not deriving from ActionResult? Automatically wrap it in a JsonResult
if ( !typeof(ActionResult).IsAssignableFrom(returnType) )
{
var result = filterContext.ActionDescriptor.Execute(filterContext, filterContext.ActionParameters);
filterContext.Result = Json( result );
}
}
i have an object named VisitLabResult that should not have two records with the same LabTestID and VisitID ,, so to force this validation i have create a [remote] validation on the LabTestID property as follow:-
[Required]
[Remote("checkexsistence", "VisitLabResult",AdditionalFields= "VisitID")]
public int LabTestID { get; set; }
which will call the following action method:-
public JsonResult checkexsistence(int LabTestID, int VisitID)
{
var result = repository.checkexsistence(LabTestID, VisitID);
if (result == null)
{
var type = true;
return Json(type, JsonRequestBehavior.AllowGet);
}
else {
var type = false;
return Json(type, JsonRequestBehavior.AllowGet);
}
}
and the repository method is :-
public VisitLabResult checkexsistence(int labtestid, int visitid =20)
{
return (from vlr in entities.VisitLabResults
where (vlr.VisitID == visitid && vlr.LabTestID == labtestid)
select vlr).FirstOrDefault();}
Currently the visitid parameter which is mentioed in the AdditionalFields= "VisitID" inside the Remote data annotation is found in the query string for calling the CreateGet action method the query string looks as /VisitLabResult/Create?visitid=20.
But the above is not working at all ; no error will be displayed incase the visitid and labtestid are already exists, so how can i fix this ???
DataAnnotations are more about making sure that the data itself is potentially valid. You should not be trying to determine uniqueness to the rest of the items in you database with a DataAnnotation. If you really want to go down this route, I suggest looking into making custom validators.
Is field VisitID being a part(property) of your model class? The additional field has to be a part of Your model class. For example, if the field Id is in your model(where LabTestID property is) then you shout annotate LabTestID remote like this:
[Remote("checkexsistence", "VisitLabResult",AdditionalFields= "Id")]
I am using a Remote validation attribute on my view model to validate a Bank Account that is specified for my Company:
ViewModel:
[Remote("CheckDefaultBank", "Company")]
public string DefaultBank
{
This in the controller I have:
[HttpGet]
public JsonResult CheckDefaultBank(string defaultBank)
{
bool result = BankExists(defaultBank);
return Json(result, JsonRequestBehavior.AllowGet);
}
That all works well. But, I have two other banks related to my company as well. However, when the remote validation js calls the action it uses a parameter mactching the field name of "DefaultBank"... so I use that as a parameter in my action.
Is there some attribute I can add in the view so that it will use a parameter of say "bankId" on the ajax get so I don't need an action for each field which are basically exactly the same?
The goal here is to eliminate now having to have this in my controller:
[HttpGet]
public JsonResult CheckRefundBank(string refundBank)
{
bool result = BankExists(defaultBank);
return Json(result, JsonRequestBehavior.AllowGet);
}
[HttpGet]
public JsonResult CheckPayrollBank(string payrollBank)
{
bool result = BankExists(defaultBank);
return Json(result, JsonRequestBehavior.AllowGet);
}
I was hoping I could do something like this in the view:
#Html.EditorFor(model => model.DefaultBank, new { data-validate-parameter: bankId })
This way I could just use the same action for all of the Bank entries like:
[HttpGet]
public JsonResult CheckValidBank(string bankId)
{
bool result = BankExists(bankId);
return Json(result, JsonRequestBehavior.AllowGet);
}
Possible?
For just such a situation, I wrote a RemoteReusableAttribute, which may be helpful to you. Here is a link to it: Custom remote Validation in MVC 3
Since MVC uses the default model binder for this, just like a normal action method. You could take a FormsCollection as your parameter and lookup the value. However, I personally would find it much easier to just use several parameters to the function, unless you start having dozens of different parameters.
You could also write a custom model binder, that would translate the passed parameter to a generic one.
Consider encapsulating the logic, "BankExists" in this case into a ValidationAttribute (Data Annotations Validator). This allows other scenarios as well.
Then use a wrapper ActionResult like the one below, which lets you pass in any validator.
[HttpGet]
public ActionResult CheckRefundBank(string refundBank)
{
var validation = BankExistsAttribute();
return new RemoteValidationResult(validation, defaultBank);
}
Here is the code for the ActionResult that works generically with Validators.
using System.ComponentModel.DataAnnotations;
using System.Web.Mvc;
public class RemoteValidationResult : ActionResult
{
public RemoteValidationResult(ValidationAttribute validation, object value)
{
this.Validation = validation;
this.Value = value;
}
public ValidationAttribute Validation { get; set; }
public object Value { get; set; }
public override void ExecuteResult(ControllerContext context)
{
var json = new JsonResult();
json.JsonRequestBehavior = JsonRequestBehavior.AllowGet;
if (Validation.IsValid(Value))
{
json.Data = true;
}
else
{
json.Data = Validation.FormatErrorMessage(Value.ToString());
}
json.ExecuteResult(context);
}
}
As an extra enhancement consider creating a Controller Extension method to dry up your return call even more.