I'm using Visual Studio 2013 and ASP.Net MVC 5. I've created a bunch of views for my models and then I've changed them. I want to run scaffolding on some models and create some views automatically and then change the automatically-generated views. Is there another way other than re-naming some files or creating another solution and copying stuff?
Yes, you can re-scaffold by scaffolding the same model again, using the same model class and controller names as before. Your existing controller and views will be replaced.
Details:
Right click on your project or controller folder,
Add ... New Scaffolded Item,
MVC 5 Controller with views using Entity Framework,
Add
Choose your model and data class,
And ensure your controller name is the same as the one to replace.
I use version control - GIT to do it quickly and safely. I use Git Extensions (http://code.google.com/p/gitextensions/) user interface for git.
Have your code commited before re-scaffolding. Then re-scaffold the views, and go to staging (the button Commit in Git Extensions). It shows all changes that re-scaffold made and colors the new and deleted code lines. From there you can stage only the selected new lines, that changed in controller. After staging selected lines, reset the unstaged other changes.
There you have it! Your already modified code with new scaffolded parts. Do any edits and testing necessary and commit.
This is a new answer to an old question. It's somewhat similar to the existing answers, but I think different enough and easy enough to be of value.
1) Save the existing project/solution to version control just as good practice.
2) When re-scaffolding, use a different controller name which will create a controller class and it's 5 attendant views, but it won't overwrite anything that exists, preserving all your existing work.
3) Extract the appropriate methods from the re-scaffolded controller. Bindings for create/edit will likely change when the model changes, so capture those. Then delete the re-scaffolded controller.
4) That leaves the views in place to copy and paste the appropriate UI code for any new or redefined model properties. Once all the code needed has been copied, simply delete the re-scaffolded views.
It was a great question because we often have to change a model, and it's nice to have all the basic UI stuff automatically created for us.
Related
Is there a way to programmatically create folders? There was a way to do it in lotus script - that method also was not documented in designer help. I want to get a document collection and then put the whole collection into a folder. I can see in the documentation that this will create the folder - I want to add columns to the folder. I suppose at worst I can open the folder after it has been created from the "put" command.
You can use ViewEntryCollection.PutAllInFolder method https://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/en/SSVRGU_9.0.1/basic/H_PUTALLINFOLDER_METHOD_VEC_JAVA.html
The folder will be created from the view/folder flagged as "Default for new views/folders" property. To change its design, you can use createColumn method https://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/SSVRGU_9.0.0/com.ibm.designer.domino.main.doc/H_CREATECOLUMN_METHOD_VIEW_JAVA.html
If you want to modify the design by adding columns, it will need to run with a ID that has at least Designer access to the database. ODA has a design API that can be used to create design elements via DXL. I've used it to create views, but folders should work the same.
If you don't need to modify the design, you can create a Shared Private on First Use folder by running as the user and calling getView(). I don't think that needs designer access, but it's worth double-checking.
Note: the ODA methods haven't been tested from SSJS. If it works, you're lucky, but the focus is Java.
I am learning MVC3 and EF with DB first approach.
In some videos of MVC3 with code first approach from Scafolding Options they choosed "controller with read write actions and views" and after selecting Model and Data Context classes some code was automatically generated.
In my working I have a separate class library which has EF model in it (please see blue selected area in diagrame) . Please guide me how to access that EF and its generated classes to use with controller with read write actions and views ?
EDIT
I am adding new Controller.
I am not getting the comments you mentioned in your picture.
I am getting some classes in Model Classes drop down but not my EF classes are there in list.
I have not done any refrencing to class library in my MVC project. Please guie me how and what where to do ?
Thanks
I believe you're referring to MVC Scaffolding
Install-Package MvcScaffolding
If it shows No Model Classes availble, when you hover it will give you a more verbose description:
If you get this message, cleaning and rebuilding should fix your problem.
Is your database project referenced by your main project? In your main project click references, add new reference - then in the projects tab select the name of the project with your edmx:
After that, clean and build!
I am using LINQ to SQL with C#.
Is there a method through which we can generate entity class files from the table schema?
By dragging tables onto the graphical designer classes are generated but they are not the real class files(i mean actual files with the extension cs).
I am aware of that we can code the class files first and then create the schema manually or programmatically, but i wanted to know if the reverse is possible, may be using some third-party tools. I feel it will be very convenient to use LINQ that way.
Thanks in advance.
I'm not as familiar with LINQ to SQL as I am with Entity Framework (v4), but EF certainly would fit your requirements. You can download the POCO templates for EF from Microsoft, right through VS2010 in the Extension Manager (Tool > Extension Manager, click on Online Gallery, and search for POCO). The link is not just the download for the template, but a walkthrough on how to get started.
I also have started a series of blog posts that include some nice T4 templates for an Entity Framework EDMX model that auto generate DTO classes for all of your entity classes, whether you're using the default code generation model, or Microsoft's POCO template. The auto generated DTOs are handy for use in UI or service layers, and save you from having to bring in dependencies on Entity Framework in consuming layers. It's also very easy to get DTOs from your entity objects.
var people = from p in context.People select p;
return people.ToDtos();
Might be worth a look (shameless self promotion).
If you need/want to stick with LINQ to SQL, do a google search for "linq to sql POCO", it seems some people have had a degree of success with this, but most of the search results seem to be from 2008 and earlier, so I'm not sure about currency / relevancy.
All the classes generated when you drag tables to the designer are created as partial classes. There is no reason you can't just create a file for each one and use that to make the necessary modifications.
Absolutely you can, if you use the T4 template for L2S - http://l2st4.codeplex.com/
You still use the .DBML file, but you need to set the "build action" to "none" on the file to turn off the compilation of the default code that gets generated. Then you add the .tt file and the .ttinclude file from your codeplex download.
The T4 template has a line of code in it that you can modify to suit your purposes:
FilePerEntity = false, // Put each class into a separate file
Oddly, Entity Framework 4 is using this approach too with the dual methods of generating the code from the model file, but with EF, the T4 template is included with VS2010. With Linq-to-sql, you have to download the T4 template separately. The nice part with using T4 is you can add other customizations as you go. However, initially the code that's generated is identical as what you got from the .DBML designer.
I was going through Unity 2.0 to check if it has an effective use in our new application. My application is a Windows Forms application and uses a traditional bar menu (at the top), currently.
My UIs (Windows Forms) more or less support Dependency Injection pattern since they all work with a class (Presentation Model Class) supplied to them via the constructor. The form then binds to the properties of the supplied P Model class and calls methods on the P Model class to perform its duties. Pretty simple and straightforward.
How P Model reacts to the UI actions and responds to them by co-ordinating with the Domain Class (Business Logic/Model) is irrelevant here and thus not mentioned.
The object creation sequence to show up one UI from menu then goes like this -
Create Business Model instance
Create Presentation Model instance with Business Model instance passed to P Model constructor.
Create UI instance with Presentation Model instance passed to UI constructor.
My present solution:
To show an UI in the method above from my menu I would have to refer all assemblies (Business, PModel, UI) from my Menu class. Considering I have split the modules into a number of physical assemblies, that would be a dificult task to add references to about 60 different assemblies. Also the approach is not very scalable since I would certainly need to release more modules and with this approach I would have to change the source code every time I release a new module.
So primarily to avoid the reference of so many assemblies from my Menu class (assembly) I did as below -
Stored all the dependency described above in a database table (SQL Server), e.g.
ModuleShortCode | BModelAssembly | BModelFullTypeName | PModelAssembly | PModelFullTypeName | UIAssembly | UIFullTypeName
Now used a static class named "Launcher" with a method "Launch" as below -
Launcher.Launch("Discount");
Launcher.Launch("Customers");
The Launcher internally uses data from the dependency table and uses Activator.CreateInstance() to create each of the objects and uses the instance as constructor parameter to the next object being created, till the UI is built. The UI is then shown as a modal dialog. The code inside Launcher is somewhat like -
Form frm = ResolveForm("Discount");
frm.ShowDialog();`
The ResolveForm does the trick of building the chain of objects.
Can Unity help me here?
Now when I did that I did not have enough information on Unity and now that I have studied Unity I think I have been doing more or less the same thing. So I tried to replace my code with Unity.
However, as soon as I started I hit a block. If I try to resolve UI forms in my Menu as
Form customers = myUnityContainer.Resolve<Customers>();
or
Form customers = myUnityContainer.Resolve(typeof(Customers));
Then either way, I need to refer to my UI assembly from my Menu assembly since the target Type "Customers" need to be known for Unity to resolve it. So I am back to same place since I would have to refer all UI assemblies from the Menu assembly. I understand that with Unity I would have to refer fewer assemblies (only UI assemblies) but those references are needed which defeats my objectives below -
Create the chain of objects dynamically without any assembly reference from Menu assembly. This is to avoid Menu source code changing every time I release a new module. My Menu also is built dynamically from a table.
Be able to supply new modules just by supplying the new assemblies and inserting the new Dependency row in the table by a database patch.
At this stage, I have a feeling that I have to do it the way I was doing, i.e. Activator.CreateInstance() to fulfil all my objectives. I need to verify whether the community thinks the same way as me or have a better suggestion to solve the problem.
The post is really long and I sincerely thank you if you come til this point. Waiting for your valuable suggestions.
Rajarshi
As I can see from this code
Form customers = myUnityContainer.Resolve<Customers>();
all your code need to know about the customer - is that it's a Form class. So if you use xml configuration for unity you can do the following:
<type type="Form" mapTo="Customer" name="Customer">
</type>
And then you'll be able to resolve it like this:
Form customers = myUnityContainer.Resolve<Form>("Customer");
and there is no need to refference your UI assembly. Offcourse it should be presented in the bin directory or GAC. In this case if you'll develop new Assembly - all you need is to change config and put in in bin or gac.
If you want to make unity configuration from db then you'll have to add referrence to your ui, becouse you'll have to call Register("Customer").
I want to put context-sensitive, dynamic command options on my asp.net pages.
I tried coding my own command structure but it's not very good, and I'm sure there must be a framework for doing this somewhere I can re-use?
Example:
I have a detailsview for some database object, I want to code in the object class what commands are available, based on the state of the object. I then want a UI object I can place on the webform that will pass commands back to the object when user clicks them, or jump to a different link (e.g. when additional parameters are available).
e.g. form might look like this
Product Details
Name: XXXX product
Price: $1.00
Qty: 1
Commands:
> Edit
> New Stock
> Mark as obsolete
So the commands at the bottom would have very little UI code and pass actions back to the object. For example the New Stock command would jump to a new page to ask for a quantity.
I don't know of the framework, but you could create something yourself. Let's say you are using MVP pattern, and assuming that this is a CRUD application, you could tell each view what type of object it is related to, then annotate you object with operations that are available. Then Presenter could call Service to perform the operation. You could name your methods using some convention so that you can wire it up in a Service. It is a lot of work, and unless you have 100s of views it is not worth while. I am building app that is about that size, and I am in process of creating GenericMVP framework, that would make wiring a breeze.