MVC3 - Where to place custom attribute classes - asp.net-mvc-3

I am delving into custom validation attributes and am curious to know how others structure the projects. Where do you typically store custom attributes?
My first thought was to simply create a new folder and be done with it.
Any suggestions?

My first thought was to simply create a new folder and be done with
it.
It would depend on the nature of those attributes and what thety are supposed to do. For example if they are validation attributes you could put them into a Validators folder. If they are action filters you could put them in the ActionFilters folder, etc... so your initial thought is correct. Personally I group those attributes based on their function and place them in a separate folder which indicates this function.

I use 2 different approaches.
Set up a common Class Library to store common validation that will be used on many MVC applications. Then reference this library from your MVC application. You can use http://dataannotationsextensions.org/ to view the source code on how to setup this project.
Place them in folders as suggested by Darin. This folder would be used to store custom validation. If you app was used to keep golf scores a custom validation only to the application could have something to do with a handicap calculation or something specific.
Thanks,

Related

what is the correct approach in order to host / integrate / show my existing MVC3 project inside orchard?

I've an existing MVC3 project that implements a certain functionality, this project has it's own views, and a separate Database.
now I'm required to use the same functionality inside one of my orchard project,so I thought that I can host this solution in somewhere and view it inside an iframe or something.
Am I thinking right?,
is this the correct step to take in order to achieve this requirement inside Orchard?
to make it more clear, all I need to do is to view this solution and interact with it's controls and views from a hosting page inside orchard, and the subsequent requests should be handled by my solution in order to hit it's own data store and get back with the requested data in order to be displayed to the user.
any help would be appreciated.
Update:
thanks for Bertrand Le Roy for his answer, I can now view my solution inside my
orchard website.
I came in to one more HUGE problem, which is that my application can no longer connect to my external database.
I've a DB that is hosted in some where else, and I'm using EntityFramework to deal with it.
the problem is that if I put the connection string inside my module web.config, or main orchard web.config, I run into several types of errors like:
"System.Reflection.TargetException: Object does not match target type."
or
"System.Data.MetadataException: Unable to load the specified metadata resource."
My question is: How could I pass my connectionstring correctly to my solution, assuming that I'm using Entity framework as my ORM.
Many thanks.
You will need to put it into a module.
You will have to move route definitions to a Routes.cs file (look at any existing such file for examples).
You will also need, in order to access your data store, to opt out of the ambient Orchard transaction around the data access code (using (var scope = new TransactionScope(TransactionScopeOption.Suppress))).
If you are using dependency injection, you may have some work to move that to the Autofac-based way of doing things in Orchard.
If you want your work to appear seamlessly in the Orchard admin, you may want to decorate your admin controllers with the Admin attribute. If you want your front-end to use the current theme, you'll have to add Themed attributes and maybe refactor your views so that they only emit HTML for the content zone instead of for the whole page.
Add a manifest (module.txt) to your module folder and you should be good to go.

MVC/Codeigniter file structure

I have been doing a lot of research on MVC and file structure. Mainly I've been looking at how to start a new layout. I have downloaded a few open source applications to take a look at file structure and how files are developed.
In the first application it was set up to use the standard way (at least the way it seems to me) of putting all the controllers, models and views each in their respective folders. This is the way that all the books say to do it.
In the second application, all folders are in a modules_core or modules folder where each controller (at least what I would assume to be controllers) are in a folder in there that contain three folders: controller, model, view.
Which of the two versions is accepted as standard and common practice? Are the two applications different because of versions of Codeigniter?
The standard of Code Igniter is to use those three folders:
Controllers
Models
Views
You can also create sub folders to better separate your files.
Searching a bit, I found that MyClientBase use something called codeigniter-modular-extensions-hmvc that is like a extension for CI.
Modular Extensions makes the CodeIgniter PHP framework modular.
Modules are groups of independent components, typically model,
controller and view, arranged in an application modules sub-directory,
that can be dropped into other CodeIgniter applications.
HMVC stands for Hierarchical Model View Controller.
I don't have experience with hmvc so I cannot tell you what is better. For the standard CI structure, try to separate well in sub-folders (controllers, views and models) related files and try to use helpers to better reuse your code when you need to use functions in more than one place.
I think MyClientBase (which seems to be far from the "standard" exemple), seems to be using HMVC more then MVC.

best way to multi-language asp.net mvc 3

I'm trying to create a asp.net mvc3 project for a academic project, and one of the requirements is it has to be able to change between different languages. Currently what i have is the following:
I have a external project that works as a repository for languages and for each view i have an interface for each view that defines all the "placeholders" do define all the changeable text.
At the beginning of any action i obtain the language that is in the uri (something like /{lng}/{command}/{action}) and pass it to the view using the ViewBag, once inside the view i user the repository to obtain the current implementation of the interface for that view in the chosen language.
I can't find any good topic on this mater. I'm just curios if there is a better way to do this and more efficient. And how is it normally done in a professional level.
I'm not very experienced with asp.net just started learning it about a month ago.
Also if it's important i am using the razor engine for the views, and we can't use any JavaScript in this phase of the project.
You may go through the following guide.
I'm working with a project called Griffin.MvcContrib which has some localization features.
First of all, I use the query string and a cookie to switch language. (Just create a link with a flag in your layout English)
and tag your controller with my attribute:
[LocalizedAttribute]
public class YourController : Controller
{
}
The next thing is to get localization of views, models and validation messages.
The localization of models and validations are described here. As for views, you only need to use #T() to get translated texts:
#Model.Title
<div>#T("This text will get translated")</div>
(you need to change pageBaseType in Views\Web.config to Griffin.MvcContrib.GriffinWebViewPage)
I'm almost done with an adminstration area that any non-technical user can use to manage all translations. Check the Griffin.MvcContrib.Admin project here: https://github.com/jgauffin/griffin.mvccontrib/tree/localization/source/Griffin.MvcContrib.Admin

ASP.NET - MVC 3: Localization

I am about to implement localization for my MVC3 web application. Googling my way through large amounts of ways to do it, I was left unsure which way to implement this. I found few ways how to do it:
First option I found was to use App_GlobalResources and ViewData and culture select with Map Routing. (Link)
Second was to make a separate Resources folder in my project and structure it like Model and View folders. Then create the resource files in those folders. To use those resource strings would be like using the Viewbag. Then edit the Global.asax to handle culture changing and create a partial view to allow changing cultures. The instructions to do this are very thorough so this might be the best bet.
(Link)
Third was to use DisplayAttribute and resx-files. This one was a bit hazy, I could not find the sort of information so that I could grasp how this actually is implemented and its restrictions. (Link)
Fourth was to create a custom class to handle resources. This seemed pretty fancy and easy to implement and use but no real information was found if it actually worked. (Link)
Then I found a post that warned about using the App_GlobalResouces and App_LocalResources. (Link)
After going through possible ways of doing localization. I could not find a way which was universally approved or accepted. This left me pondering, which of these, or some I didn't find, would be the best way to implement localization in ASP.NET MVC3?
Then I found a post that warned about
using the App_GlobalResouces and
App_LocalResources. (Link)
I found that post extremely useful. The method explained there is very clean. Here is a snippet of my newly created index view using that method:
#using Resources.Index
#{
ViewBag.Title = "Index";
}
<h1>#Index.Title</h1>
I don't think there is a definitive do-it-this-way-or-else method, so going for the cleanest method seems to me like a good deal.
I've come up with an easier way to handle localization where you don't have to use resource files or attributes. It involves custom metadata providers.
MVC3 uses metadata providers to get all text strings. My approach allows you to either use string tables, a database, flat files or any other source to provide the translations. All you need to do is to inherit two interfaces.
Read about it here: http://blog.gauffin.org/2011/09/easy-model-and-validation-localization-in-asp-net-mvc3/
Edit
Everything is now documented at github and there are nuget packages: https://github.com/jgauffin/griffin.mvccontrib

.NET MVC Localization and Globalization

I continue with a MVC Web App, and now I'm between the concepts of DRY (dont repeat yourself) and decoupling (be independent).
I divided my big Web Site in diferent projects within a Solution, and as you may already know in MVC the Validations are done in the Model or Service Layer, that in my case its in a diferent project than the one holding the App_GLobalResources, and here is the thing:
How can i access the GLobalResources from a different project, so I can access the strings to set the errors on the model in the service layer?
So far i created a new project like stand-alone resx files and complied them to set the reference to the DLL but it doesnt work, because the main resx files are internals or privates.
I tried one of those custom tools to make resx files public (cross assembly avaiblable) but it didn't work either, because it throws:
No matching culture found
The best aproach so far is to create a resx file just for the Model Project and it works good, but I'm repeating the same strings twice, one for the Views (to set the jQuery string validation errors on client side) and another one for the Model Validations (server side), these give me the benefit of decoupling, but what happen with DRY in this case?
Any advise or tips?
Well i have decided to follow two separetes resx (for strings), one for the Views & Controllers and another for the Model->Service layer, Im using a service layer for validation, so i isolate that layer, in that way i can reuse the layer "Service" or (BLL), in a way that i can reuse it later in somthing like a WPF app, with out any reference to the resx of the Views or Controller. SO decoupling won here ... =)

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