How do I write middleware for Rebus? - rebus

I want to be able to write custom middleware for Rebus which will wrap around message handlers: executing before and after each handler, regardless of the message type. Is this possible with Rebus, and if so, how do I do that?
Browsing the source code of Rebus, I think it should be possible, as the library is very neatly built around the concept of IPipeline with customizable "steps". But although it looks like it should be easy to add custom steps, I cannot find any public API exposing the pipline. Is this possible to modify the pipeline from the client code?
What I am looking for is essentially an equivalent to MassTransit's IFilter<>. We are about to choose between MassTransit and Rebus (or possibly a custom implementation on top of Microsoft.Azure.ServiceBus) for a new project, and at this moment this looks like a major feature missing from Rebus.

With Rebus, you add custom steps by decorating IPipeline, which makes it possible to change both incoming and outgoing messages pipelines however you want.
To make it more convenient to inject steps into a specific position in the pipeline, Rebus comes with a PipelineStepInjector, which is a decorator that enables positioning the injected step relative to another step.
Check out the Pipelines section on the wiki page about extensibility – it shows how an outgoing step can be used to automatically enrich the headers of all outgoing messages.
Incoming steps can be added in a similar manner, only using the OnReceive method instead of OnSend to add the step:
Configure.With(...)
.(...)
.Options(o => {
o.Decorate<IPipeline>(c =>
{
var pipeline = c.Get<IPipeline>();
var step = new YourIncomingStep();
return new PipelineStepInjector(pipeline)
.OnReceive(step, PipelineRelativePosition.Before, typeof(DispatchIncomingMessageStep));
});
})
.Start();

Related

Adding a tag to the ASP.NET Request Activity

I would like to add a tag to the System.Diagnostics.Activity object for each incoming ASP.NET Request, as soon as the request-handling starts. Is there a way I can access the ActivitySource for the Request Pipeline, and add a listener to it?
Currently I'm thinking of using a Pipeline middleware, but there has to be a more lightweight way. Especially one where other developers can't add any other middleware handlers before this one. Any ideas?
Looks like you can add it via DI at startup. The Key thing is the name of the ActivitySource. I couldn't find it in any documentation. I had to trawl through the aspnetcore code, and it looks like registers an empty name ActivitySource for the DiagnosticListener.
In any case ...
Add the following to Configure(...):
var requestActivityListener= new ActivityListener();
requestActivityListener.ShouldListenTo = activitySource => activitySource.Name == "";
requestActivityListener.ActivityStarted = activity => LetsShapeThisActivityToOurLiking(activity);
ActivitySource.AddActivityListener(requestActivityListener);
That should be it.

Can I modify a Policy after it is built?

I'm creating an API method call which takes a Policy as an argument.
However, in my method I'd like to 'add onto' this policy by including my own retry Action(s) so that I can perform intermediate logging and telemetry of my own. Similar in concept to adding Click events to a Windows UI control.
Is there a way to modify a Policy after it's created?
Or, is there a hook mechanism where I can define my own callbacks in the Execute method perhaps?
A Polly Policy is immutable; it cannot be modified after configuration. However, there are several ways in which you can attach extra behaviour to a policy.
There could be several approaches depending what you want to achieve.
Note: All examples in this answer refer to synchronous policies / policy-hooks used when executing delegates synchronously, but all the same behaviour exists for the async forms of policies.
Option 1: All policy types do offer delegate hooks such as onRetry; onBreak; onCacheHit, and similar. Extra behaviour (for example logging) can be added in these. The delegates attached to these hooks must be defined at policy configuration time. There are many examples in the Polly readme and Polly-Samples project. The Polly wiki covers all such delegate hooks in depth.
Option 2: If the fact that these delegates (onRetry etc) must be defined at policy configuration time is a restriction: you can overcome this using Polly.Context. Most of the delegates such as onRetry exist in a form which takes Context as an input parameter. That Context is execution-scoped, can carry arbitrary data, and a Context instance can be passed in to the call to .Execute(...).
So you could define Context["ExtraAction"] = /* some Action */ and pass that in to .Execute(...). Then, the onRetry delegate could extract Action extraAction = Context["ExtraAction"] (with some defensive checks) and execute it extraAction(). This allows you to inject arbitrary behaviour to the onRetry delegate after the policy has been configured.
Option 3: Perform your extra logic in the delegate executed. Of course, you could write your own Execute(...) wrapper method which takes a delegate to execute, and a policy, but wraps in extra behaviour.
public TResult MyExecute(ISyncPolicy policy, Func<TResult> toExecute)
{
return policy.Execute(() =>
{
/* do my extra stuff */
return toExecute();
}
}

How to do .Net Web Api versioning/routing for an app client?

So there are several parts to this question.
The 2 example endpoints (in simplest form):
user/{id}/profile
movie/{id}/info
I expect to create 2 controllers (UserController & MovieController).
How do I implement a view area before controller name?
Both of these are what I would consider a view. Therefore I would like to append a "view" in the url before the controller, as both controllers ONLY supply views. I later expect to also have a user controller in a different place that does NOT return views.
However, ALL my endpoints should start with /api/.
i.e. I want this:
api/view/user/{id}/profile
api/view/movie/{id}/info
But how do I register an area (/view/) while using "custom routing" (i.e.: httpConfiguration.MapHttpAttributeRoutes())? Any examples of this I couldn't find?
Where should I put versioning?
The client is an app, and will require versioning, so that we can make changes to the methods without breaking old versions of the app.
We are unsure where it would be best to place the versioning, and how the placement affects the development of new versions (if it does so at all?).
Possibilities:
1. api/v1/view/user/{id}/profile
2. api/view/v1/user/{id}/profile
3. api/view/user/{id}/profile/v1
version the whole API. This would upgrade the whole API to a new version, even if we only required a single method/endpoint to make an app-breaking change.
Are there any advantages to this that I am not seeing?
version the area. Same as above, just slightly fewer controllers affected.
version the method. Seems like the simplest, as only the single changed method is affected. But the url is very ugly.
Does anyone have an example of versioning in an MVC or Web Api structure that doesn't upgrade the whole API, but still keeps a somewhat nice structure in their URLs?
I ended up using https://github.com/Microsoft/aspnet-api-versioning as suggested by NightOwl888.
1.
Made my 2 controllers extend another controller with a const field that defined the routeprefix that they should share:
protected const string RoutePrefix = "api/view/v{version:apiVersion}";
...
[RoutePrefix(RoutePrefix + "/user")]
2.
The placement of the /v1/ doesn't matter with this Library. And allowed for either updating the controller or individuals methods, as seen fit per case basis.

In Meteor.js, what's the difference between method-based database API design and the subclass approach?

Namely, what are the advantages and disadvantages of the following approaches to building a server-side database API in Meteor?
Method-based
import Db from 'Db';
Meteor.method({"insert": (data) => {Db.insert(data)});
Subclass-based
import {Mongo} from "meteor/mongo";
class MyCollcetion extends Mongo.Collection {
insert: (data) => {super.insert(data);}
}
This problem has been solved below; there is a similar question for further reading: Meteor method vs. deny/allow rules
This is mainly a matter of ease vs control. Subclassing may be easier for simple things, and methods are more powerful.
This can also be affected by your state of mind (or affect it): CRUD vs. action-based mutation.
insert/update/remove go well with a CRUD state-of-mind, while you can associate methods with action-centric RPC mutators.
Eventually, this is a matter of personal preference, so I will try to give a short factual description and let the readers to decide based on their taste.
Subclassing
By default, Meteor automatically generates mutation methods (insert, update, remove) when a collection is instantiated.
Those methods are called behind the scenes when calling MyCollection.insert(mutator, cb) on the client side (outside client-side method code). When arriving to the server, the data are first passed through allow/deny rules and then executed.
When subclassing, you override those methods and get a 'hook' into the process.
Using methods
When defining a Meteor method you get full control of the process.
You set the parameters and the name of the method and you can perform the validation and authorization as you wish.
You can also create a method stub for client-side use, which generates optimistic UI until the results of the method server execution are received.
You can use something like a validatedMethod to get some extra validation logic and modularity to your method.
You can also prevent the creation of the default mutation methods by setting a false value for the defineMutationMethods option when instantiating the collection. You can also forbid direct mutation from the client by supplying the appropriate deny rules.
While subclassing allows you to use MyCollection.insert(...), etc. on the client, you need to call the method name with the arguments that you defined in order to mutate data.

Passing value between two components in angular2-meteor project

I am using angular2-meteor.
When I try to pass a value between two components (when the value change in the first component, create an event in second component and use this new value), I have two ways right now:
One way is meteor way: using this.autorun and Session.get.
Another way is angular2 way: using Injectable service with EventEmitter.
Which way should be prior? Or is there any other better way? Thanks
Now I used angular2-meteor a while.
Although the angular2-meteor tutorial has no example so far about using or choosing Angular 2 service or Meteor Session.
But I feel angular 2 takes the lead in the front end, while meteor makes reactivity easier and also handle all back end things.
So I went with angular2 way using service to share between components. And service is very powerful like #todd-w-crone said.
If anyone has better answer, I will switch to accept that one.
I find it practical to create a new service called App.states.ts which is accessed globally and mimics Session (get / set).
I commonly import this service to all necessary components to get or set new value such as User.status, company.profile, lastProduct, etc.
Since this service is #injectable it can also make use of other services, in case a value hasn't been set already.
This allows me to ask for a variable in a component appState.getLastModifiedItem(), then in app.states.ts I'll write this function to pass this.modifiedItem or either:
Request another service item.service.ts to fetch data
Call another function with itemCollection.findOne({...}) and return such value.
You can configure Mongo queries as you want and either store static data in appState or keep subscription items in appState.
Do take into consideration that all subscriptions handled by an #injectable within a component are imported by such component. Be wary of conflicting subscriptions between components/services.

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