Ignore DateTime prop from being serialized (not working) - asp.net-mvc-3

i have tried the solution proposed in this solution
i have a class
public class MyClass
{
[IgnoreDataMember]
public DateTime? Date { get; set; }
}
when the JavaScriptSerializer serializes the result it changes the date time for example if i have 2012-07-20 in my database after the serialization it is returned as 2012-07-21 because the application is hosted at a location that is outside my time zone i am facing a lot of problems because of it

You could use the [ScriptIgnore] attribute to exclude properties from being serialized with the JavaScriptSerializer:
public class MyClass
{
[ScriptIgnore]
public DateTime? Date { get; set; }
... some other properties
}
This being said, the correct way to do this is to use a view model that simply won't contain the property that you don't want to be contained in the response and then return this view model instead of torturing your domain models with plumbing code about serialization which they should be absolutely agnostic of.

Related

How to make single controller for two database classes - MVC3

I have two database classes as defined below:
public class TopDate
{
[Key]
public int DateId { get; set; }
public DateTime Date { get; set; }
}
public class TopSong
{
[Key]
public int SongId { get; set; }
public string Title { get; set; }
public int DateId { get; set; }
}
where DateId is foreign key to TopSong
I am creating a controller through which i can create, delete or edit these database values.
When i right click on controller class and add controller i can only select one of the two classes defined above. Is there a way to make 1 controller to handle database updates to both these tables on one page?
Error Image:
Your controller should not be dealing directly with domain objects (meaning those things that are directly associated with your database). Create a ViewModel that contains the properties that you need, use your service layer to populate the ViewModel and your controller will use that as the Model for its base. An example of your ViewModel could be something like the following given your description above:
public class MusicViewModel
{
public int SongId {get;set;}
public string Title {get;set;}
public IEnumerable<DateTime> TopDates {get;set;}
}
This view model would contain a list of all dates that a specific song was a Top Song.
The objects you showing (code) are database classes (so called domain objects).
What you need to do is to define a view model, a standard ASP MVC practice:
you define a class, that is tailored for specific view and only containing data relevant to that particular view. So you will have a view model for a view that will create a song, another that will update it etc.
Actually situation you describing is classical situation to use view models. Using domain objects in the views, however, is really really bad practice and prone to more problems than you want to deal with.
Hope this helps.

Giving error while creating partial class

I am developing MVC application in which , I am trying to create the partial class of class generated by MVC application lets say Location class.
Now I want to create the partial class of Location class in new class file.
The below class code is auto genrated by MVC of Location code.
namespace CRM
{
public partial class Location
{
public int Id { get; set; }
public string Name { get; set; }
public string Remark { get; set; }
}
}
I have added new class file which contain the partial class of above file
namespace CRMEntities.Partial_Class
{
public interface ILocation
{
[StringLength(50, ErrorMessage = "Region can accept maximum 50 characters.")]
string Region { get; set; }
[Key]
int Id { get; set; }
[Required]
string Name { get; set; }
string Remark { get; set; }
}
public partial class Location : ILocation
{
}
}
Its giving the below error...
CRMEntities.Partial_Class.Location' does not implement interface member 'CRMEntities.Partial_Class.ILocation.Name
First, you don't need to do this, what I understand is you are trying to do validation right? Think about, the object generated by EF is not ViewModel, they are domain model. Data annotation should be in View Model, not domain model.
Most of cases, often mis-use is to use domain model as view model, but it is not correct much. Because sometime, view models need more than one domain model to provide data for your UI.
So for separation of concerns, you need to define your View Model different with domain model.
Example: you have Location class, you need to add LocationViewModel class and put data annotation in here.
You can map manually or use AutoMapper for mapping bettween View Model and Domain Model.
Another solution is you can use Fluent Validation, with this way, needless to have more partial class just for validation.
You don't show the definition of ILocation in your question, but the error says that the Location.Name property is declared differently than the ILocation.Name member.
Edit: Your two partial classes appear to be in two different namespaces, hence they are actually two entirely different classes, not two parts of the same class. That would explain the compiler error.
Having said that, I do agree with the other answer (+1!) that you should do your UI validation on a view model instead.

Failing to get unobtrusive client validation

I figured out that property i want to be validated has to have [Required] attribute in C#
(am i right?)
If so -my model is linq generated class - how to add this attribute?
You can do it a couple of ways:
If it's possible, make the field non-nullable in the database. This will make the field required at the data layer.
Create a partial class that adds a property to your model class. Use this property instead of the database-generated property.
For example:
public partial class YourEntity
{
[Required]
public string YourNewProperty
{
get { return this.TheRealProperty; }
set { this.TheRealProperty = value; }
}
}
Hopefully this helps
well, you could always make a new class, as a part of a Data access layer, with the same attributes, just put [required] where you want.
I believe your LINQ classes are partials. With MVC, you can use the "MetatDataTypeAttribute"
Like so
[MetadataType(typeof(UserMetadataSource))]
public partial class User {
}
class UserMetadataSource {
[HiddenInput(DisplayValue = false)]
public int UserId { get; set; }
}

MVC 3: Use a VERY custom format for a Date with automapping on server-side

I have a very confusing problem, and I am able to solve it, but there has to be a Out-Of-The-Box-Solution.
The situation is as following:
An user inputs on the client-side a date (i.e. with a date-picker) which outputs the following value to the textbox:
Mi 22.02.2012 (KW 8)
I have a Button which posts my form with this textbox to an controller-action.
Let's say you have the following controller action which takes a MyType as Parameter
[HttpPost]
public ActionResult Create(MyType model)
{
//model.Date is always null
//(or in case the DateTime is not Nullable<T>, the value is DateTime.Min
}
public class MyType
{
public DateTime? Date { get; set; }
}
The question is simple:
How do I map the input to the DateTime?
I do not want to add properties to my class like in the following example:
public class IDontWantThis
{
public DateTime? Date { get { /* Some custom string parsing with DateText */ } }
public string DateText { get; set; } //this would be the auto-mapped property
}
How a date is displayed in the view is of no concern to the controller.
I would add a hidden field with the name of the property you want the datetime to map on the viewmodel (Date). On the client, using javascript, you can format this date any way you want, as long as the hidden field contains the datetime you need to work with.
So let the datepicker store the selected date twice, once with your weird date formatting for display and another time in a hidden field in a common format the modelbinder will understand.
This is what ViewModels are for. I understand that you don't want your domain Model to include a DateText member, but you really should consider something like this:
public class MyType
{
public DateTime? Date { get; set; }
}
public class MyTypeViewModel
{
public MyType MyType { get; set; }
public string DateText { get; set; }
}
What your requirement is one of the main points that makes ViewModels so powerful. Using an intermediate class between your View and your Model to link them together. This way, you won't have any trace of "formatting" data in your Model (MyType).

Serializing EF4.1 Entities using JSON.Net

I am building an application using MVC3, Razor view engine, Repository Pattern with Unit of Work and using EF4.1 Code First to define my data model.
Here is a bit of background (gloss over it if you want).
The application itself is just an Intranet 'Menu'.
The 2 main entities are MenuItem and Department of which:
MenuItem can have many Departments
Departments can have many MenuItems
MenuItem may have a MenuItem as a parent
This is how I have defined my Entities
public class MenuItem
{
public int MenuItemId { get; set; }
public string Name { get; set; }
public string Url { get; set; }
public virtual ICollection<Department> Departments { get; set; }
public int? ParentId { get; set; }
public virtual MenuItem ParentMenuItem { get; set; }
}
public class Department
{
public int DepartmentId { get; set; }
public string Name { get; set; }
public virtual ICollection<MenuItem> MenuItems { get; set; }
}
I am using the FluentAPI to define the Self Reference Many-to-Many for the MenuItem.
The issue I am having is passing a MenuItem to the view via JSON.
The central issues are that I have a circular reference between my entities that the built in JSON parser can't deal with and I have lazy loading and proxy generation still enabled.
I am using JSON.net library from Nuget as my JSON Serializer as this seems to be a nice way round the circular reference issue. I now am unsure how to 'fix' the proxy generation issue. Currently the serializer throws The RelationshipManager object could not be serialized. This type of object cannot be serialized when the RelationshipManager belongs to an entity object that does not implement IEntityWithRelationships.
Can anyone help me with this? If I turn off proxy generation, I am going to have a hell of a time loading all of the MenuItem children so I am keen leave this on. I have read a fair amount and there seems to be a variety of different answers including projecting the entities into another object and serialize that, etc, etc. Ideally there would be some way of configuring JSON.net to ignore the RelationshipManager object?
Update
Here is what I have used as a Custom ContractResolver for JSON.Net serializer. This seems to have sorted out my issue.
public class ContractResolver : DefaultContractResolver
{
private static readonly IEnumerable<Type> Types = GetEntityTypes();
private static IEnumerable<Type> GetEntityTypes()
{
var assembly = Assembly.GetAssembly(typeof (IEntity));
var types = assembly.GetTypes().Where(t => String.Equals(t.Namespace, "Namespace", StringComparison.Ordinal));
return types;
}
protected override List<MemberInfo> GetSerializableMembers(Type objectType)
{
if (!AllowType(objectType))
return new List<MemberInfo>();
var members = base.GetSerializableMembers(objectType);
members.RemoveAll(memberInfo => (IsMemberEntityWrapper(memberInfo)));
return members;
}
private static bool AllowType(Type objectType)
{
return Types.Contains(objectType) || Types.Contains(objectType.BaseType);
}
private static bool IsMemberEntityWrapper(MemberInfo memberInfo)
{
return memberInfo.Name == "_entityWrapper";
}
}
IEntity is an interface all my Code First entity objects implement.
I realise this question has an accepted answer, but I thought I would post my EF Code First solution for future viewers. I was able to get around the error message with the contract resolver below:
class ContractResolver : DefaultContractResolver
{
protected override List<System.Reflection.MemberInfo> GetSerializableMembers(Type objectType)
{
if (objectType.Namespace.StartsWith("System.Data.Entity.Dynamic"))
{
return base.GetSerializableMembers(objectType.BaseType);
}
return base.GetSerializableMembers(objectType);
}
}
This works because EF Code First classes inherit from the POCO class that you actually want serialized, so if we can identify when we are looking at an EF generated class (by checking the namespace) we are able to just serialize using the properties from the base class, and therefore only serialize the POCO properties that we were really after in the first place.
Well, you used powerful serialization API which serializes references and all members as well and now you complains that it serializes all members :)
I didn't test it but I believe this will bring you close to the solution.
JSON.NET is quite powerful tool and it should offer you the extensibility point to avoid this behavior but you will have to code it yourselves. You will need custom DataContractResolver where you define which members should be serialized. Here is the similar example for NHibernate.
You can implement some logic which will take only members present in the parent class of dynamic proxy. I hope this will not break lazy loading. To validate that current entity is proxy you can use this code to get all known proxy types:
IEnumerable<Type> types = ((IObjectContextAdapter)dbContext).ObjectContext.GetKnownProxyTypes();

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