ASP.NET GET parameters with square brackets - asp.net

I don't know what they are called, that's why I can't find a solution.
I have a querystring looks like an array
params[name]=john&params[age]=25&params[country]=ru
Is there a way to parse these parameters as string[] or Dictionary<string, string>?
UPD:
On php this type of query string is being parsed automaticaly using
$params = $_GET['params'];
$params['name']
But I can't find an equivalent on C#

If you're using the ASP.NET MVC Framework, the default parameter binder that converts query string values into typed parameters can deal with it automatically in the following way:
One-Dimensional Arrays
// GetData?filters[0]=v1&filters[1]=v2&filters[3]=v3
public ActionResult GetData(IEnumerable<string> filters)
{
// todo
}
Two-Dimensional Arrays
// GetData?filters[0][field]=name&filters[0][type]=1&filters[0][value]=val
public ActionResult GetData(IEnumerable<Dictionary<string,string>> filters)
{
// todo
}
... and so on.
For more info and examples, check out this blog post that I wrote on this topic.

Related

Return a data object with a BadRequestResult / BadRequestErrorMessageResult

I'd like to return a data object that contains the details of the error with a BadRequestErrorMessageResult or BadRequestErrorMessageResult object like so:
public IHttpActionResult Action(Model model)
{
var validationResult = model.Validate();
if (validationResult.Successful)
{
// this one's okay; it supports sending data with a 200
return Ok(validationResult);
}
else
{
// However, how do I return a custom data object here
// like so?
// No such overload, I wish there was
// return BadRequest(validationResult);
}
}
The only three overloads of the ApiController.BadRequest() method are:
1. BadRequest();
2. BadRequest(string message);
3. BadRequest(ModelStateDictionary modelState);
Even with #3, a model state dictionary is ultimate a deep collection with one layer upon another, at the bottom of which, though, is a bunch of KeyValuePair<string, ModelError> where each ModelError also only has either a string or an Exception object.
Therefore, even with #3, we are only able to pack a string to send and not a custom object like I want to.
I am really not asking how I may go about working a hack or a kludge around the situation. My question is: is there an overload or another way baked into the .NET API to send an object to the client with a Bad Request HTTP status code?
I am using ASP.NET Web API version 5.2.4 targeting .NET Framework version 4.6.1.
You can use the Content<T>(...) method to do this. It returns a NegotiatedContentResult, which is serialized depending on the request headers (e.g. json, xml), and allows you to specify a HttpStatusCode.
You can use it like this:
return Content(HttpStatusCode.BadRequest, myObject);
If you wanted to, you could create your own BadRequest<T>(T obj) method in the controller as a wrapper, so then you could call it as you wanted:
public IHttpActionResult BadRequest<T>(T obj)
{
return Content(HttpStatusCode.BadRequest, obj);
}
public IHttpActionResult Action()
{
// do whatever validation here.
var validationResult = Validate();
// then return a bad request
return BadRequest(validationResult);
}
You can build/format the string in JSON format, pass it as string in the BadRequest() parameter and convert it to JSON again or any object on the caller's backend.
Haven't tried that but that should work.

HttpServletRequest - Get Literal Path

I have a method marked with Spring's #RequestMapping that includes an HttpServletRequest method parameter.
If I print out the results of a call to "request.getServletPath()" when the path is, say, "/things/{thingId}", I will get "/things/2489sdfjk43298f," where the {thingId} path parameter has been replaced with the actual value.
I want to print out the literal request path "/things/{thingId}"; I.e. with the curly-braced, un-replaced path parameter "{thingId}."
Is this possible in any way?
Edit: After looking at Sotirios's second comment below, I realize I may be looking at the problem backward. Here's what I'm actually trying to do...
I am trying to making a single endpoint under "/**" that gets the path from the HttpServletRequest, which I use to look up a value in an enum. This enum has several fields, one of which is obviously the aforementioned path, but another is the path of a target JSP file. I then put this path into a ModelAndView object and return it to display the page.
This was going just fine until I hit the first endpoint with a path parameter, because I obviously can't place the value "/things/2489sdfjk43298f" into the enum, because that will only match for that one specific thing with that one specific ID.
So perhaps the actual question would be: How would I do that look-up when parts of the path will change due to path parameters? Is there some sort of wildcard-containing String format I can use?
I guess this is turning into more of a enum-lookup/String-matching question. My bad.
Edit 2: Shortened example of the enum thing I'm talking about:
public enum JspEndpointType {
HOME("/home", "jsp/home");
private static final Map<String, String> pathMap;
private String requestPath;
private String jspPath;
static {
pathMap = new HashMap<>();
for (JspEndpointType jspEndpointType : JspEndpointType.values()) {
pathMap.put(jspEndpointType.getRequestPath(), jspEndpointType.getJspPath());
}
}
private JspEndpointValue(String requestPath, String jspPath) {
this.requestPath = requestPath;
this.jspPath = jspPath;
}
public String getRequestPath() {
return requestPath;
}
public String getJspPath() {
return jspPath;
}
public static String getByRequestPath(String requestPath) {
return pathMap.get(requestPath);
}
}
Shortened example of my endpoint:
#RequestMapping(value = "/**", method = RequestMethod.GET)
public ModelAndView showPage(HttpServletRequest request) {
return new ModelAndView(JspEndpointType.getByRequestPath(request.getServletPath()));
}
So things essentially boil down to trying to add to the enum a value like this:
THINGS("/things/{thingId}", "jsp/things/whatever")
..and then being able to pass in the path "/things/2489sdfjk43298f" and get back "/jsp/things/whatever."
Edit 3: I found this StackoverFlow question which directed me to Spring's UriComponentsBuilder, specifically the "fromPath" method. However, that seems to be the reverse of what I'm trying to do...
You may look for the #RequestMapping annotation on your own, using reflection.

What kind of datatypes should I use for the return value of a Web API method?

I have a Web API controller that returns data to my client. The code looks like this:
[HttpGet]
[ActionName("Retrieve")]
public IEnumerable<Reference> Retrieve(int subjectId)
{
return _referenceService.Retrieve(subjectId);
}
Can someone tell me is it necessary to specify the ActionName?
Also should I return an IEnumerable, an IList or something else?
I believe if your ASP.NET routing is setup correctly you don't need to specify the ActionName, for example:
protected void Application_Start()
{
RouteTable.Routes.MapHttpRoute("0", "{controller}/{action}/{arg1}");
}
Will match /YourControllerName/Retrieve/132
What you return is based entirely on your media-type formatters, of which the default is XmlFormatter and JsonFormatter. These can be found in GlobalConfiguration.Configuration.Formatters and will be chosen based on the Accept header provided by the client.
We, for example, use JSON.Net for our response formatting, configured by:
protected void Application_Start()
{
RouteTable.Routes.MapHttpRoute("0", "{controller}/{action}/{arg1}");
MediaTypeFormatterCollection formatters = GlobalConfiguration.Configuration.Formatters;
formatters.Remove(formatters.XmlFormatter);
var jsonFormatter = GlobalConfiguration.Configuration.Formatters.JsonFormatter.SerializerSettings;
jsonFormatter.Formatting = Formatting.Indented;
jsonFormatter.ContractResolver = new CamelCasePropertyNamesContractResolver();
}
This tells WebApi to disallow any XML formatting and only return JSON using the provided JSON.Net contract resolver. JSON.Net supports serializing IEnumerable.
I would, however, recommend returning a HttpResponseMessage instead. This allows you to set the status code as well (This still uses the media type formatter, it's just a cleaner wrapper). You can use this like so:
[HttpGet]
public HttpResponseMessage Retrieve(int subjectId)
{
var response _referenceService.Retrieve(subjectId);
return Request.CreateResponse(HttpStatusCode.OK, response);
}
You should return HttpStatusCode instead of data if have not requirement, like POST method should return OK or whatever.
or if want record like Get method should return type of record.
also you no need to add attribute on method like Get,Put,Delete etc because webapi automatically detect method according to action like if you are getting data then your method name should be start with Get like GetEmployee etc.

NVelocity extension method ASP.NET webform

I was wondering if it's possible to use an extension method with asp.net webforms and nvelocity. I would like to set some defaults if the string value is null or empty.
Example of .vm file:
Example of my email body...
Billable Status: $billableStatus.Evaluate()
rest of my email body...
Attempted extension method:
public static class Helper
{
public static string Evaluate(this string value)
{
if (String.IsNullOrEmpty(value))
return "Not Provided";
else
return value;
}
}
Or is there an alternative to what I'm tryting to accomplish?
I don't think NVelocity can resolve extension methods with C#/VB.NET syntax sugar. What I do is register an instance of a helper in the velocity context:
var context = VelocityContext();
context.Put("helper", new Helper());
context.Put("billableStatus", "something");
...
and then in your template:
$helper.Evaluate($billableStatus)
You have to make your helper non-static for this to work, of course.
I came across something similar in past and I was looking for something more sophisticated and with more control. I found that NVelocity does provide a way to intercept the method and property calls but for that you will have to implement certain things. In order to make your custom interceptor you will need to implement NVelocity.IDuck. For example
public class MyClass : NVelocity.IDuck
{
public object GetInvoke(string propName)
{
....
}
public object Invoke(string method, params object[] args)
{
....
}
public void SetInvoke(string propName, object value)
{
....
}
}
Now any instance of MyClass will intercept and pass the method and property calls to our these three function implementation and give us a chance to resolve and return the output. You may notice from these three function signatures that in order to implement them we may need some reflection where we can locate respective methods on available extension types and execute them. If needed you can read following blog post for more details about going this way. NVelocity and extension methods

ASP.NET MVC - Posting a form with custom fields of different data types

In my ASP.NET MVC 2 web application, I allow users to create custom input fields of different data types to extend our basic input form. While tricky, building the input form from a collection of custom fields is straight-forward enough.
However, I'm now to the point where I want to handle the posting of this form and I'm not certain what the best way to handle this would be. Normally, we'd use strongly-typed input models that get bound from the various statically-typed inputs available on the form. However, I'm at a loss for how to do this with a variable number of input fields that represent different data types.
A representative input form might look something like:
My date field: [ date time input
control ]
My text field: [ text input
field ]
My file field: [ file upload
control ]
My number field: [ numerical input control ]
My text field 2: [text input field ]
etc...
Ideas I've thought about are:
Sending everything as strings (except for the file inputs, which would need to be handled specially).
Using a model with an "object" property and attempting to bind to that (if this is even possible).
Sending a json request to my controller with the data encoded properly and attempting to parse that.
Manually processing the form collection in my controller post action - certainly an option, but I'd love to avoid this.
Has anyone tackled an issue like this before? If so, how did you solve it?
Update:
My "base" form is handled on another input area all together, so a solution doesn't need to account for any sort of inheritence magic for this. I'm just interested in handling the custom fields on this interface, not my "base" ones.
Update 2:
Thank you to ARM and smartcaveman; both of you provided good guidance for how this could be done. I will update this question with my final solution once its been implemented.
This is how I would begin to approach the issue. A custom model binder would be pretty easy to build based on the FormKey property (which could be determined by the index and/or label, depending).
public class CustomFormModel
{
public string FormId { get; set; }
public string Label { get; set; }
public CustomFieldModel[] Fields { get; set; }
}
public class CustomFieldModel
{
public DataType DateType { get; set; } // System.ComponentModel.DataAnnotations
public string FormKey { get; set; }
public string Label { get; set; }
public object Value { get; set; }
}
public class CustomFieldModel<T> : CustomFieldModel
{
public new T Value { get; set; }
}
Also, I noticed one of the comments below had a filtered model binder system. Jimmy Bogard from Automapper made a really helpful post about this method at http://www.lostechies.com/blogs/jimmy_bogard/archive/2009/03/17/a-better-model-binder.aspx , and later revised in, http://www.lostechies.com/blogs/jimmy_bogard/archive/2009/11/19/a-better-model-binder-addendum.aspx . It has been very helpful for me in building custom model binders.
Update
I realized that I misinterpreted the question, and that he was specifically asking how to handle posting of the form "with a variable number of input fields that represent different data types". I think the best way to do this is to use a structure similar to above but leverage the Composite Pattern. Basically, you will need to create an interface like IFormComponent and implement it for each datatype that would be represented. I wrote and commented an example interface to help explain how this would be accomplished:
public interface IFormComponent
{
// the id on the html form field. In the case of a composite Id, that doesn't have a corresponding
// field you should still use something consistent, since it will be helpful for model binding
// (For example, a CompositeDateField appearing as the third field in the form should have an id
// something like "frmId_3_date" and its child fields would be "frmId_3_date_day", "frmId_3_date_month",
// and "frmId_3_date_year".
string FieldId { get; }
// the human readable field label
string Label { get; }
// some functionality may require knowledge of the
// Parent component. For example, a DayField with a value of "30"
// would need to ask its Parent, a CompositeDateField
// for its MonthField's value in order to validate
// that the month is not "February"
IFormComponent Parent { get; }
// Gets any child components or null if the
// component is a leaf component (has no children).
IList<IFormComponent> GetChildren();
// For leaf components, this method should accept the AttemptedValue from the value provider
// during Model Binding, and create the appropriate value.
// For composites, the input should be delimited in someway, and this method should parse the
// string to create the child components.
void BindTo(string value);
// This method should parse the Children or Underlying value to the
// default used by your business models. (e.g. a CompositeDateField would
// return a DateTime. You can get type safety by creating a FormComponent<TValue>
// which would help to avoid issues in binding.
object GetValue();
// This method would render the field to the http response stream.
// This makes it easy to render the forms simply by looping through
// the array. Implementations could extend this for using an injected
// formatting
void Render(TextWriter writer);
}
I am assuming that the custom forms can be accessed via some sort of id which can be contained as a form parameter. With that assumption, the model binder and provider could look something like this.
public interface IForm : IFormComponent
{
Guid FormId { get; }
void Add(IFormComponent component);
}
public interface IFormRepository
{
IForm GetForm(Guid id);
}
public class CustomFormModelBinder : IModelBinder
{
private readonly IFormRepository _repository;
public object BindModel(ControllerContext controllerContext, ModelBindingContext bindingContext)
{
ValueProviderResult result;
if(bindingContext.ValueProvider.TryGetValue("_customFormId", out result))
{
var form = _repository.GetForm(new Guid(result.AttemptedValue));
var fields = form.GetChildren();
// loop through the fields and bind their values
return form;
}
throw new Exception("Form ID not found.");
}
}
Obviously, all the code here is just to get the point across, and would need to be completed and cleaned up for actual use. Also, even if completed this would only bind to an implementation of the IForm interface, not a strongly typed business object. (It wouldn't be a huge step to convert it to a dictionary and build a strongly typed proxy using the Castle DictionaryAdapter, but since your users are dynamically creating the forms on the site, there is probably no strongly typed model in your solution and this is irrelevant). Hope this helps more.
Take a peek at what I did here: MVC2 Action to handle multiple models and see if can get you on the right track.
If you use a FormCollection as one of your parameters to your action, you can then go thru that form collection looking for bits of data here or there in order to bind those values to whatever an then save the data. You are most likely going to need to take advantage of both strategy and command patterns to get this to work.
Best of luck, feel free to ask follow-up questions.
Edit:
Your method which does the work should look something like this:
private/public void SaveCustomFields(var formId, FormCollection collection) //var as I don't know what type you are using to Id the form.
{
var binders = this.binders.select(b => b.CanHandle(collection)); //I used IOC to get my list of IBinder objects
// Method 1:
binders.ForEach(b => b.Save(formId, collection)); //This is the execution implementation.
// Method 2:
var commands = binders.Select(b => b.Command(formId, collection));
commands.ForEach(c => c.Execute());
}
public DateBinder : IBinder //Example binder
{
public bool CanHandle(FormCollection collection)
{
return (null != collection["MyDateField"]); //Whatever the name of this field is.
}
//Method 1
public void Save(var formId, FormCollection collection)
{
var value = DateTime.Parse(collection["MyDateField"]);
this.someLogic.Save(formId, value); //Save the value with the formId, or however you wish to save it.
}
//Method 2
public Command Command(var formId, FormCollection collection)
{
//I haven't done command pattern before so I'm not sure exactly what to do here.
//Sorry that I can't help further than that.
}
}
I would think one of the best options is to create a custom model binder, which makes it possible to have custom logic behind the scenes and still very customizable code behind.
Maybe these articles can help you:
http://www.gregshackles.com/2010/03/templated-helpers-and-custom-model-binders-in-asp-net-mvc-2/
http://www.singingeels.com/Articles/Model_Binders_in_ASPNET_MVC.aspx
More specifically I would probably take as the controller argument a custom class with all "base" properties included. The class could then for example include a dictionary linking the name of each field to either just an object or an interface which you implement once for each data-type making it simple to process the data later.
/Victor

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