I need to restrict the values that I return to my page in a web method without using some sort of proxy object.
Let's say I have a Car class with the following class
public class Car
{
public int Id { get; set; }
public string Name { get; set; }
public string Engine { get; set; }
}
and a webmethod which looks like;
[WebMethod]
public static List<Car> SearchCars(string search)
{
var cars = car.All().Where(x => x.name.StartsWith(search));
return cars.ToList();
}
The list that get's return to my page has all attributes. How can I exclude say .. the engine attribute so only ID and Name are return?
The above is a purely fictional example, in the real world I'm using Subsonic3 objects to return a list etc.
You can use a projection to select only the fields you want returned. Something like this:
[WebMethod]
public static List<Car> SearchCars(string search)
{
var cars = car.All().Where(x => x.name.StartsWith(search)).Select(x => new { x.Id, x.Name });
return cars.ToList();
}
Related
I am developing a Web API using Core 6.0 with localization. Localization should be supported for both static (e.g., basic strings like greeting) and dynamic content (e.g., Values of the Product Instance).
I have implemented the localization for static content using JsonStringLocalizerFactory as discussed in this article - https://christian-schou.dk/how-to-add-localization-in-asp-net-core-web-api/.
public class LocalizerController : ControllerBase
{
private readonly IStringLocalizer<LocalizerController> _stringLocalizer;
public LocalizerController(IStringLocalizer<LocalizerController> stringLocalizer)
{
_stringLocalizer = stringLocalizer;
}
[HttpGet]
public IActionResult Get()
{
var message = _stringLocalizer["hi"].ToString();
return Ok(message);
}
[HttpGet("{name}")]
public IActionResult Get(string name)
{
var message = string.Format(_stringLocalizer["welcome"], name);
return Ok(message);
}
[HttpGet("all")]
public IActionResult GetAll()
{
var message = _stringLocalizer.GetAllStrings();
return Ok(message);
}
}
Next, I would like to implement localization for dynamic content (e.g., Details of the Product which will be sent to the WEB API and stored in the postgresql database table).
A possible approach is to duplicate the postgresql database table for each language (English and French). Could there be a better approach to avoid duplicate data and additional manual work?
You can create language table for each multi-language entity.
Langugage model;
public class Language
{
public int Id { get; set; }
public string Name { get; set; }
public string IsoCode { get; set; }
}
Static language list;
public class Constant
{
public static List<Language> Languages { get; set; } = new()
{
new Language
{
Id = 1,
Name = "English(United States)",
IsoCode = "en-US"
},
new Language
{
Id = 2,
Name = "Turkish",
IsoCode = "tr-TR"
}
};
}
Entities;
public class Product
{
public int Id { get; set; }
public decimal Price { get; set; }
public virtual ICollection<ProductLang> ProductLangs { get; set; }
}
public class ProductLang
{
public int Id { get; set; }
public string Name { get; set; }
public string Description { get; set; }
[ForeignKey("Products")]
public Guid ProductId { get; set; }
public virtual Product Product { get; set; }
public int LanguageId { get; set; }
}
You can change the LanguageId property name. If you want to store languages in database, you can create a Languages table and create a relationship with that table from entity language tables. This can reduce duplication.
After include the language table to the entity, you can write an extension method to easily get the requested language data.
public static string GetLang<TEntity>(this IEnumerable<TEntity> langs, Expression<Func<TEntity, string>> propertyExpression, int defaultLangId)
{
var languageIdPropName = nameof(ProductLang.LanguageId);
var requestedLangId = GetCurrentOrDefaultLanguageId(defaultLangId);
if (langs.IsNullOrEmpty())
return string.Empty;
var propName = GetPropertyName(propertyExpression);
TEntity requestedLang;
if (requestedLangId != defaultLangId)
requestedLang = langs.FirstOrDefault(lang => (int)lang.GetType()
.GetProperty(languageIdPropName)
.GetValue(lang) == requestedLangId)
?? langs.FirstOrDefault(lang => (int)lang.GetType()
.GetProperty(languageIdPropName)
.GetValue(lang) == defaultLangId);
else requestedLang = langs.FirstOrDefault(lang => (int)lang.GetType().GetProperty(languageIdPropName).GetValue(lang) == defaultLangId);
requestedLang ??= langs.FirstOrDefault();
return requestedLang.GetType().GetProperty(propName).GetValue(requestedLang, null)?.ToString();
static int GetCurrentOrDefaultLanguageId(int defaultLanguageId)
{
var culture = CultureInfo.CurrentCulture;
var currentLanguage = Constant.Languages.FirstOrDefault(i => i.IsoCode == culture.Name);
if (currentLanguage != null)
return currentLanguage.Id;
else
return defaultLanguageId;
}
static string GetPropertyName<T, TPropertyType>(Expression<Func<T, TPropertyType>> expression)
{
if (expression.Body is MemberExpression tempExpression)
{
return tempExpression.Member.Name;
}
else
{
var op = ((UnaryExpression)expression.Body).Operand;
return ((MemberExpression)op).Member.Name;
}
}
}
This extension method checks for 3 conditions;
If there is data in the requsted language, it returns this data,
If there is no data in the requsted language, it checks if there is data in the default language. If the data is available in the default language, it will return the data,
Returns the first available language data if there is no data in the default language
Usage;
var defaultLangId = 1;
Product someProduct = await _dbContext.Set<Product>().Include(i => i.ProductLangs).FirstOrDefaultAsync();
var productName = someProduct.ProductLangs.GetLang(i => i.Name, defaultLangId);
It is up to you to modify this extension method according to your own situation. I gave you an example scenario where languages are kept in a static list.
I am new to AutoFixture so I hope you can help. How do you set some properties in an object but leave others as the AutoFixture default - while using XUnit's [Theory] attribute and an AutoDataAttribute.
For example, in the contrived Airport example below based on Jason Robert's Pluralsight course, when setting the property (or the Airport object) e.g.
f.Customize<Mock<IAirport>>(c => c.Do(m => m.SetupGet(i => i.code).Returns("NOO")));
the other properties are often null, or I have to manually set them rather than letting AutoFixture do it. I would prefer to have cleaner code where the fixtureFactory sets all the properties for the Airport so that the V2 unit test only passed in a single Airport parameter.
So, within the fixtureFactory
How do you set MULTIPLE properties?
How does one use the default AutoFixture values rather than leaving the uninitialized values as
null?
Thanks!
using AutoFixture;
using AutoFixture.AutoMoq;
using AutoFixture.Xunit2;
using Moq;
using System;
using Xunit;
namespace AirportTesterWithAutoFixture
{
public interface IAirport
{
string city { get; set; }
string code { get; set; }
string country { get; set; }
string name { get; set; }
void CallAirTrafficControl();
}
public class Airport : IAirport
{
public string name { get; set; }
public string city { get; set; }
public string code { get; set; }
public string country { get; set; }
public Airport()
{
}
public Airport(string name, string code, string country, string city)
{
this.name = name;
this.code = code;
this.country = country;
this.city = city;
}
public void CallAirTrafficControl()
{
if (this.country.Equals("Canada") && this.code.StartsWith("Y"))
{
// Send "Bonjour!"();
}
else
{
throw new Exception("Invalid code for Canada");
}
}
}
public class UnitTest1
{
[Fact]
public void V1_Validate_ExceptionThrown_ForInvalidCanadianAirportCode()
{
var fixture = new Fixture();
var sut = fixture.Create<Airport>();
// Overwrite code and country with invalid setting for Canada.
sut.country = "Canada";
sut.code = "NOT";
Assert.ThrowsAny<Exception>(() => sut.CallAirTrafficControl());
}
[Theory]
[AutoMoqInvalidAirportDataAttribute]
public void V2_Validate_ExceptionThrown_ForInvalidCanadianAirportCode(IAirport sut, string name, string city)
{
Airport airport = new Airport(name, sut.code, sut.country, city);
Assert.ThrowsAny<Exception>(() => airport.CallAirTrafficControl());
}
}
// https://stackoverflow.com/questions/58998834/how-to-use-ifixture-buildt-with-automoqcustomization-when-t-is-an-interface
public class AutoMoqInvalidAirportDataAttribute : AutoDataAttribute
{
public static Func<IFixture> fixtureFactory = () =>
{
IFixture f = new Fixture().Customize(new AutoMoqCustomization());
f.RepeatCount = 5;
// How do you set MULTIPLE properties?
// How does one use the default AutoFixture values rather than leaving the uninitialized values as null?
// Can one pass a custom property used earlier in the Fixture creation process to another custom property used later?
f.Customize<Mock<IAirport>>(c => c.Do(m => m.SetupGet(i => i.code).Returns("NOT")));
return f;
};
public AutoMoqInvalidAirportDataAttribute() : base(fixtureFactory)
{
}
}
}
AutoFixture does not populate mock properties by default, but it can be done. These blog posts describe how to do it:
https://blog.ploeh.dk/2013/04/05/how-to-configure-automoq-to-set-up-all-properties/
https://blog.ploeh.dk/2013/04/08/how-to-automatically-populate-properties-with-automoq/
Author of AutoFixture does not recommend this approach, however, as he considers declaration of properties in interfaces a design smell.
I could not find the original discussion about this topic unfortunately, but it is hidden somewhere on StackOverflow in the comments. Maybe you will be able to find it if you go through Mark Seemann's profile.
How to solve one to many relational issue in asp.net?
I have Topic which contain many playlists.
My code:
public class Topic
{
public int Id { get; set; }
public String Name { get; set; }
public String Image { get; set; }
---> public virtual List<Playlist> Playlist { get; set; }
}
and
public class Playlist
{
public int Id { get; set; }
public String Title { get; set; }
public int TopicId { get; set; }
---> public virtual Topic Topic { get; set; }
}
My controller function
[Route("data/binding/search")]
public JsonResult Search()
{
var search = Request["term"];
var result= from m in _context.Topics where m.Name.Contains(search) select m;
return Json(result, JsonRequestBehavior.AllowGet);
}
When I debug my code I will see an infinite data because Topics will call playlist then playlist will call Topics , again the last called Topic will recall playlist and etc ... !
In general when I just use this relation to print my data in view I got no error and ASP.NET MVC 5 handle the problem .
The problem happens when I tried to print the data as Json I got
Is there any way to prevent an infinite data loop in JSON? I only need the first time of data without call of reference again and again
You are getting the error because your entity classes has circular property references.
To resolve the issue, you should do a projection in your LINQ query to get only the data needed (Topic entity data).
Here is how you project it to an anonymous object with Id, Name and Image properties.
public JsonResult Search(string term)
{
var result = _context.Topics
.Where(a => a.Name.Contains(term))
.Select(x => new
{
Id = x.Id,
Name = x.Name,
Image = x.Image
});
return Json(result, JsonRequestBehavior.AllowGet);
}
If you have a view model to represent the Topic entity data, you can use that in the projection part instead of the anonymous object
public class TopicVm
{
public int Id { set;get;}
public string Name { set;get;}
public string Image { set;get;}
}
public JsonResult Search(string term)
{
var result = _context.Topics
.Where(a => a.Name.Contains(term))
.Select(x => new TopicVm
{
Id = x.Id,
Name = x.Name,
Image = x.Image
});
return Json(result, JsonRequestBehavior.AllowGet);
}
If you want to include the Playlist property data as well, you can do that in your projection part.
public JsonResult Search(string term)
{
var result = _context.Topics
.Where(a => a.Name.Contains(term))
.Select(x => new
{
Id = x.Id,
Name = x.Name,
Image = x.Image,
Playlist = x.Playlist
.Select(p=>new
{
Id = p.Id,
Title = p.Title
})
});
return Json(result, JsonRequestBehavior.AllowGet);
}
First of all, this is not exactly a duplication of the dozens of other posts and I have tried all of them and none of them work.
I have a model that contains many more values than my web api consumers need.
public class Publication
{
[Key]
public int PublicationID { get; set; }
public string PublicationTitle { get; set; }
public string Frequency { get; set; }
public DateTime NextIssueDate { get; set; }
public DateTime SpaceDeadline { get; set; }
public DateTime MaterialsDeadline { get; set; }
public DateTime CreatedDt { get; set; }
public string CreatedBy { get; set; }
public DateTime UpdatedDt { get; set; }
public string UpdatedBy { get; set; }
}
I only want say a few of the fields to be passed in the API. I've tried this code but instead of leaving out say UpdateBy in the Json result, it returns it with a null value. How do I get rid of that? I've tried several dozen variations but they either fail to compile or fail to return results.
public IQueryable<Publication> GetPublications()
{
return db.Publications
.ToList()
.Select(p => new Publication {
PublicationID = p.PublicationID,
PublicationTitle = p.PublicationTitle,
Frequency = p.Frequency,
NextIssueDate = p.NextIssueDate
})
.AsQueryable();
}
Don't serialize your DAO. Create a complete contract and then serialize it selectively. To creating different contracts for different cases, you could simplify it using Json.Net; you could just create a custom contract resolver and use it as a parameter of SerializeObject() like so
static void Main(string[] args)
{
var person = new TestContract {FirstName = "John", LastName = "Doe", Age = 36};
var firstNameContract = new SelectiveSerializer("firstname");
var allPropertiesContract = new SelectiveSerializer("firstname, lastname, age");
var allJson = JsonConvert.SerializeObject(
person,
Formatting.Indented,
new JsonSerializerSettings {ContractResolver = allPropertiesContract});
var firstNameJson = JsonConvert.SerializeObject(
person,
Formatting.Indented,
new JsonSerializerSettings {ContractResolver = firstNameContract});
Console.WriteLine(allJson);
// {
// "FirstName": "John",
// "LastName": "Doe",
// "Age": 36
// }
Console.WriteLine(firstNameJson);
// {
// "FirstName": "John",
// }
}
public class SelectiveSerializer : DefaultContractResolver
{
private readonly string[] _fields;
public SelectiveSerializer(string fields)
{
var fieldColl = fields.Split(',');
_fields = fieldColl
.Select(f => f.ToLower().Trim())
.ToArray();
}
protected override JsonProperty CreateProperty(MemberInfo member, MemberSerialization memberSerialization)
{
var property = base.CreateProperty(member, memberSerialization);
property.ShouldSerialize = o => _fields.Contains(member.Name.ToLower());
return property;
}
}
public class TestContract
{
public string FirstName { get; set; }
public string LastName { get; set; }
public int Age { get; set; }
}
Without much effort, you could probably work this into your default mediatype formatter (in the pipeline) to look for a parameter in the request called 'fields' or whatever and then use the custom contract resolver if present, and then it would be seamless default behavior to limit fields if specified or serialize the entire object if not specified.
On the academic side, here is the justification:
Any modification to the data is considered a "view concern" which means, in an API, it should controlled by query parameters and accept header. In this case, the "representation" of the data is application/json and you've chose to "filter" the returned fields. All of this can (and should be, imo) be handled during serialization. So your "model" in this case will always be the full model vs. some subset of the model. The full model in this example contains first name, last name, and age. In reality, this could be hundreds of properties. If you want to allow the client to choose a subset of the complete model, this is how you could do it with selective serialization.
You can similar behaviors in graph apis. There, the default for large models is that you get an empty object if you don't specify fields, forcing the client to be very specific about what it asks for, which is great when payload size matters (e.g. mobile applications). And, there's nothing stopping from creating field presets like 'name' which could mean 'firstname, lastname' or 'all' which includes all properties.
I've never been a fan of having hundreds of data objects that all serve some ad hoc requirement for a data set that is used in 20 different contexts where some cases require more data while others require less. IMO if you have to go through the same process to get the data, whether it complete or not, you shouldn't waste your time creating additional objects to frame the data for the sake of the client, and this should help you achieve that.
It's because you're returning a collection of Publication objects so you will get every property that is contained in that class, whether you populate it or not. If you want to return a subset of the properties then create a class that has only the properties you want to return and create an instance of that class in your query.
public IQueryable<WhatIReallyWantToReturn> GetPublications()
{
return db.Publications
.ToList()
.Select(p => new WhatIReallyWantToReturn {
PublicationID = p.PublicationID,
PublicationTitle = p.PublicationTitle,
Frequency = p.Frequency,
NextIssueDate = p.NextIssueDate
})
.AsQueryable();
}
private class WhatIReallyWantToReturn
{
public int PublicationID { get; set; }
public string PublicationTitle { get; set; }
public string Frequency { get; set; }
public DateTime NextIssueDate { get; set; }
}
using Newtonsoft.Json;
public class Publication
{
[Key]
public int PublicationID { get; set; }
public string PublicationTitle { get; set; }
public string Frequency { get; set; }
public DateTime NextIssueDate { get; set; }
public DateTime SpaceDeadline { get; set; }
public DateTime MaterialsDeadline { get; set; }
[JsonIgnore]
public DateTime CreatedDt { get; set; }
[JsonIgnore]
public string CreatedBy { get; set; }
[JsonIgnore]
public DateTime UpdatedDt { get; set; }
[JsonIgnore]
public string UpdatedBy { get; set; }
}
as Craig W. said you can use viewmodel ,also you can use anonymous type
(notice viewmodel is better way because you can use some utilities like automapper for mapping your property automatically)
JsonIgnore annotation has worked for me
[JsonIgnore]
public int Ranking { get; set; }
Here is a great article (Dec 2019) on the subject. It offers a solution for data shaping by making use of ExpandoObject and Type Reflection. The properties that the client requires can then be passed through the request as a query parameter (i.e. separated by a comma). The article also offers solution to the JSON Serialization problem.
Startup.cs file:
services.AddControllers(config =>
{
config.RespectBrowserAcceptHeader = true;
config.ReturnHttpNotAcceptable = true;
})
.AddXmlDataContractSerializerFormatters()
.AddNewtonsoftJson();
+1 for Sinaesthetic's answer.
I just finished reading an article, about GraphQL which solves exactly this problem. You can define exactly which fields do you need in the same request. No need for creating new endpoints every single time, when the caller needs just a specific subset of the properties.
If you can do this in .NET WEB API too without creating new models and endpoints, with just a very little extra effort, why wouldn't you (instead of exchanging Web Api for GraphQL).
Actually his SelectiveSerializer could be upgarded with reflection, so if you want to define which props you need in
C#, you can do this by providing property expressions, so you don't have to worry about misstyping prop names.
I bet there are other solutions for this, but the basic concept is the most important that we can define which fields we need in our json without creating new models.
Im fairly new to ASP.NET MCV 4 as well as Mongo DB and trying to build web API.
I thought I had finally got it right but when I start the app and enter: http://localhost:50491/api/document into my browser I get this error message
The 'ObjectContent`1' type failed to serialize the response body for content type 'application/xml; charset=utf-8'.
Here is my code
This is the Document Class
public class Document
{
[BsonId]
public ObjectId DocumentID { get; set; }
public IList<string> allDocs { get; set; }
}
This is where the Connection to the DB is made:
public class MongoConnectionHelper
{
public MongoCollection<BsonDocument> collection { get; private set; }
public MongoConnectionHelper()
{
string connectionString = "mongodb://127.0.0.1";
var server = MongoServer.Create(connectionString);
if (server.State == MongoServerState.Disconnected)
{
server.Connect();
}
var conn = server.GetDatabase("cord");
collection = conn.GetCollection("Mappings");
}
Here is the ApiController Class:
public class DocumentController : ApiController
{
public readonly MongoConnectionHelper docs;
public DocumentController()
{
docs = new MongoConnectionHelper();
}
public IList<BsonDocument> getAllDocs()
{
var alldocs = (docs.collection.FindAll().ToList());
return alldocs;
}
}
I read futher on and the error message suggested:
Type 'MongoDB.Bson.BsonObjectId' with data contract name 'BsonObjectId:http://schemas.datacontract.org/2004/07/MongoDB.Bson' is not expected. Consider using a DataContractResolver or add any types not known statically to the list of known types - for example, by using the KnownTypeAttribute attribute or by adding them to the list of known types passed to DataContractSerializer.
That is all good and well but how do I do that?
Either a) don't serialize your document classes over Web API, and create some DTOs meant to be serialized, or b) use something else as ID.
If you want an easy auto-generated ID, and you're OK with the fact that it will consume slightly more space, you can resort to the following "hack":
public class Document
{
public Document()
{
Id = ObjectId.GenerateNewId().ToString();
}
public string Id { get; set; }
}
This way, you'll get MongoIDs, but they'll be stored as a string.
If you need Web API2 responce in XML format , you need to handle the default Id like below
eg: ObjectId("507f191e810c19729de860ea")
Either you need to remove the Id from serialization.
[DataContract]
public class Document
{
[BsonId]
public string Id { get; set; }
[DataMember]
public string Title { get; set; } //other properties you use
}
Or You can change the Type of ID with custom logic
public class GuidIdGenerator : IIdGenerator
{
public object GenerateId(object container, object document)
{
return Guid.NewGuid();
}
public bool IsEmpty(object id)
{
return string.IsNullOrEmpty(id.ToString());
}
}
public class Document
{
[BsonId(IdGenerator = typeof(GuidIdGenerator))]
public string Id { get; set; }
public string Title { get; set; } //other properties you use
}