TypeMock to fake DateTime.Parse - datetime

I need a way to fake DateTime.Parse with Typemock and have it return the same date when called with any parameters.
I have a DB field that stores an encrypted string that is parsed as date when loaded. The class that holds the data has a Load() method where it copies DB data into its properties, decrypts what's encrypted and does some basic validation, such as:
public class BusinessObject{
public DateTime ImportantDate{get;set;}
...
public void Load(DBObject dbSource){
...
ImportantDate = DateTime.Parse(DecryptionService.Decrypt(dbSource.ImportantDate));
}
}
Runtime all works well.
I'm trying to write a unit test using TypeMock to load some fake data into BusinessObject using its Load method. BusinessObject has way too many properties and can not be deserialized from XML, but DBObject can, so I've stored some XMLs that represent valid data.
It all works well until DecryptionService is called to decrypt the data - it doesn't work because my dev machine doesn't have the DB certificates used in the encryption process. I can't get those on my machine just for testing, that would be a security breach.
I added this to my unit test:
Isolate.Fake.StaticMethods<DecryptionService>(Members.ReturnRecursiveFakes);
Isolate.WhenCalled(() => DecryptionService .Decrypt(null)).WillReturn("***");
Isolate.Fake.StaticMethods<DateTime>(Members.ReturnNulls);
Isolate.WhenCalled(() => DateTime.Parse("***" /*DateStr*/)).WillReturn(DateTime.Now.AddYears(2));
The first part where DecryptionService is faked works, social security and other sensitive strings are "decrypting", but no matter what parameters I give to DateTime I still get one exception or another (ArgumentNullException: String reference not set to an instance of an object if DateStr is null, FormatException when it's "*")
How (if) can I override DateTime.Parse with typemock so that it returns valid DateTime with any invalid paramters passed?

My name is Nofar and i'm from Typemock's support team.
DateTime.Parse is not supported in the WhenCalled API, so in order to fake it's returned value you need to wrap it with a method from your class, for example:
public class BusinessObject
{
public DateTime Load (string s)
{
return DateTime.Parse(s);
}
}
And you test will look like this:
[TestMethod]
public void TestMethodDateTime()
{
BusinessObject b = new BusinessObject();
DateTime now= DateTime.Now.AddYears(2);
Isolate.WhenCalled(()=>b.Load(null)).WillReturn(now);
Assert.AreEqual(now, b.Load(null));
}
Supporting DateTime.Parse in the WhenCalled API is in our backlog.
Please feel free to contact us via mail at support#typemock.com
Nofar
Typemock Support

Related

How do QueryString parameters get bound to Action method parameters?

I have a webforms project, and am attempting to run some code that allows me to make a call to an MVC route and then render the result within the body of the web forms page.
There are a couple of HttpResponse/Request/Context wrappers which I use to execute a call to an MVC route, e.g.:
private static string RenderInternal(string path)
{
var responseWriter = new StringWriter();
var mvcResponse = new MvcPlayerHttpResponseWrapper(responseWriter, PageRenderer.CurrentPageId);
var mvcRequest = new MvcPlayerHttpRequestWrapper(Request, path);
var mvcContext = new MvcPlayerHttpContextWrapper(Context, mvcResponse, mvcRequest);
lock (HttpContext.Current)
{
new MvcHttpHandlerWrapper().PublicProcessRequest(mvcContext);
}
...
The code works fine for executing simple MVC routes, for e.g. "/Home/Index". But I can't specify any query string parameters (e.g. "/Home/Index?foo=bar") as they simply get ignored. I have tried to set the QueryString directly within the RequestWrapper instance, like so:
public class MvcPlayerHttpRequestWrapper : HttpRequestWrapper
{
private readonly string _path;
private readonly NameValueCollection query = new NameValueCollection();
public MvcPlayerHttpRequestWrapper(HttpRequest httpRequest, string path)
: base(httpRequest)
{
var parts = path.Split('?');
if (parts.Length > 1)
{
query = ExtractQueryString(parts[1]);
}
_path = parts[0];
}
public override string Path
{
get
{
return _path;
}
}
public override NameValueCollection QueryString
{
get
{
return query;
}
}
...
When debugging I can see the correct values are in the "request.QueryString", but the values never get bound to the method parameter.
Does anyone know how QueryString values are used and bound from an http request to an MVC controller action?
It seems like the handling of the QueryString value is more complex than I anticipated. I have a limited knowledge of the internals of the MVC Request pipeline.
I have been trying to research the internals myself and will continue to do so. If I find anything I will update this post appropriately.
I have also created a very simple web forms project containing only the code needed to produce this problem and have shared it via dropbox: https://www.dropbox.com/s/vi6erzw24813zq1/StackMvcGetQuestion.zip
The project simply contains one Default.aspx page, a Controller, and the MvcWrapper class used to render out the result of an MVC path. If you look at the Default.aspx.cs you will see a route path containing a querystring parameter is passed in, but it never binds against the parameter on the action.
As a quick reference, here are some extracts from that web project.
The controller:
public class HomeController : Controller
{
public ActionResult Index(string foo)
{
return Content(string.Format("<p>foo = {0}</p>", foo));
}
}
The Default.aspx page:
protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
string path = "/Home/Index?foo=baz";
divMvcOutput.InnerHtml = MvcWrapper.MvcPlayerFunctions.Render(path);
}
I have been struggling with this for quite a while now, so would appreciate any advice in any form. :)
MVC framework will try to fill the values of the parameters of the action method from the query string (and other available data such as posted form fields, etc.), that part you got right. The part you missed is that it does so by matching the name of the parameter with the value names passed in. So if you have a method MyMethod in Controller MyController with the signature:
public ActionResult MyMethod(string Path)
{
//Some code goes here
}
The query string (or one of the other sources of variables) must contain a variable named "Path" for the framework to be able to detect it. The query string should be /MyController/MyMethod?Path=Baz
Ok. This was a long debugging session :) and this will be a long response, so bear with me :)
First how MVC works. When you call an action method with input parameters, the framework will call a class called "DefaultModelBinder" that will try and provide a value for each basic type (int, long, etc.) and instance of complex types (objects). This model binder will depend on something called the ValueProvider collection to look for variable names in query string, submitted forms, etc. One of the ValueProviders that interests us the most is the QueryStringValueProvider. As you can guess, it gets the variables defined in the query string. Deep inside the framework, this class calls HttpContext.Current to retrieve the values of the query string instead of relying on the ones being passed to it. In your setup this is causing it to see the original request with localhost:xxxx/Default.aspx as the underlying request causing it to see an empty query string. In fact inside the Action method (Bar in your case) you can get the value this.QueryString["variable"] and it will have the right value.
I modified the Player.cs file to use a web client to make a call to an MVC application running in a separate copy of VS and it worked perfectly. So I suggest you run your mvc application separately and call into it and it should work fine.

Entity Framework: I set the foreign key, SaveChanges then access the navigation property, but it doesn't load the related entity. Why not?

I am using this Entity class with Entity Framework 5 Code First:
public class Survey
{
[DatabaseGenerated(DatabaseGeneratedOption.Identity)]
public int ID { get; set; }
public string SurveyName { get; set; }
[Required]
public int ClientID { get; set; }
[ForeignKey("ClientID")]
public virtual Client Client { get; set; }
}
And in my Controller's Create method I do this:
Survey entity = new Survey()
{
SurveyName = "Test Name",
ClientID = 4
};
db.Surveys.Add(entity);
db.SaveChanges();
Client c1 = entity.Client; //Why is this null?
Client c2 = db.Clients.Find(entity.ClientID); //But this isn't?
string s2 = c2.ClientName;
string s1 = c1.ClientName; //null reference thrown here
The Client navigation property remains null after SaveChanges. I expected the call to load the Client from the database because the foreign key exists. Why didn't it do that?
EDIT
The code here comes from when my controllers were dependent on DbContext. Not long after I got this working I re-factored the code to use repositories and a unit of work. Part of that move was driven by the fact that it just felt wrong to use Create when I wanted to use new. What happened then was that I hit a problem with how to ensure proxies are created when using the repository pattern.
To ensure that lazy loading of a navigation property will work after you've created the parent you must not create the Survey with the new operator but create it by means of the context instance because it will instantiate a dynamic proxy that is capable to lazily load the related Client. That's what the DbSet<T>.Create() method is for:
Survey entity = db.Surveys.Create();
entity.SurveyName = "Test Name";
entity.ClientID = 4;
db.Surveys.Add(entity);
db.SaveChanges();
Client c1 = entity.Client;
string s1 = c1.ClientName;
// will work now if a Client with ID 4 exists in the DB
Just to emphasize: It's not the line entity.ClientID = 4; or db.Surveys.Add(entity); or db.SaveChanges that loads the client from the DB, but the line Client c1 = entity.Client; (lazy loading).
Like #NicholasButler said, calling SaveChanges does what it says on the tin - you can see this if you debug your code: the Intellitrace output will show the SQL it has generated for the insert/update you are persisting, but there will be no subsequent select.
Keep in mind that unless you are eager loading (using the Include method), related entities are not loaded when performing a retrieval, so it stands to reason that creating/updating them wouldn't either.
The Entity Framework (from I think versions 4.1 and up) supports lazy loading. What this means is that if it's enabled, code like Client c1 = entity.Client; should load up that Client object. To be clear, this operation is not directly related to the SaveChanges call.
It would pay to check whether db.Configuration.LazyLoadingEnabled is set to true. If not, try setting it to be true and see if Client c1 = entity.Client; is still null.
In short, calling SaveChanges does not trigger a load, but if lazy loading is enabled, accessing entity.Client should trigger a load of the entity if it hasn't already been loaded.
Edit:
I should've though of this earlier, but you aren't going to be getting lazy loading on your Survey entity object. The reason is that EF works its lazy loading magic by creating a class derived from your one but overriding the properties marked as virtual to support lazy loading. It does this when you perform a retrieval, so your entity object will not lazy load anything as it stands.
Try this just after your call to SaveChanges:
Survey entity2 = db.Surveys.Find(entity.ID);
Client c1 = entity2.Client;
This should exhibit the behaviour you are after.
You need to define all the properties on the Survey class as virtual to enable lazy-loading.
See http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/vstudio/dd468057(v=vs.100).aspx for more information.
I expected the call to load the Client from the database because the foreign key exists. Why didn't it do that?
It didn't do that because you haven't asked it to. After the call to SaveChanges(), EF doesn't have the data in the referenced row and it won't make a potentially redundant database call to get it.
Calling db.Clients.Find(... tells EF to go and fetch the row from the database, which is why it returns the object.

Windows Azure access POST data

Ok, so I can't seem to find decent Windows Azure examples. I have a simple hello world application that's based on this tutorial. I want to have custom output instead of JSON or XML. So I created my interface like:
[ServiceContract]
public interface IService
{
[OperationContract]
[WebInvoke(UriTemplate = "session/create", Method = "POST")]
string createSession();
}
public class MyService : IService
{
public string createSession()
{
// get access to POST data here: user, pass
string sessionid = Session.Create(user, pass);
return "sessionid=" + sessionid;
}
}
For the life of me, I can't seem to figure out how to access the POST data. Please help. Thanks!
If you have an HttpContext there may be a Request object that would have the form data. I'm basing part of this off the ASP.Net tag on this question, so if that is incorrect then there may be the need to handle this another way but it looks a lot like a web service to my mind.
EDIT: HttpRequest is the class that has the Form property that should be where the POST data is stored if this is an HTTP request. This is part of System.Web so it should be ready to be used pretty easily, as I recall.
Sample code showing the Request.Form property:
int loop1;
NameValueCollection coll;
//Load Form variables into NameValueCollection variable.
coll=Request.Form;
// Get names of all forms into a string array.
String[] arr1 = coll.AllKeys;
for (loop1 = 0; loop1 < arr1.Length; loop1++)
{
Response.Write("Form: " + arr1[loop1] + "<br>");
}
This presumed there was an HttpRequest instance around.
WCF Simplified Part 4: Comparing the Request/Reply and One-Way Patterns passes in a parameter so that your "createSession" method would have to take in those strings it would appear. I'm used to the ASP.Net world where there are some built-in objects like Request, Response, Server, Application and Session.
Yes, if you did try changing the method signature as there are ways to pass in parameters in that last example I linked though I don't know if that would work in your case or not.

.Net Web service Encrypt Decrypt Dataset

Does anyone know of examples which show how to encrypt a dataset at the client side and send it over to a web service and have it decrypted there?
Another question:
What i need to do is a send hundreds of rows of data from a client to a web service and have the web service update the database with these records. I can't think of any other way to do this without using a dataset. Is there a better method?
Thanks in advance!
As far as the encryption is concerned, why try to reinvent the wheel? Just connect to the webservice over SSL - it'll most likely be much safer than a homegrown alternative.
I would probably create a custom struct/object and send an array of those to the webservice rather than a DataSet. It will mean (slightly) less network traffic; it will make the webservice's WSDL more descriptive; and it will make it easier for any non-Microsoft apps to talk to the webservice, if that becomes necessary in the future.
EDIT: An example...
At the server-side you can declare a custom type (eg, ExampleUser), and then setup your method to accept an array of that type instead of a DataSet:
[WebService(Namespace="http://example.yourdomain.com/ExampleWebService/")]
public class ExampleWebService : System.Web.Services.WebService
{
// this is your custom type
public class ExampleUser
{
public int UserID { get; set; }
public string Name { get; set; }
public DateTime DateOfBirth { get; set; }
}
// this is your method
// accepts an array of ExampleUser rather than a DataSet
[WebMethod]
public void UploadUsers(ExampleUser[] usersArray)
{
// do something...
}
}
In the client application you would add a reference to the webservice. This will enable you to use the ExampleUser type declared in the server-side code above.
You could then just convert your DataSet to an array of ExampleUser objects before sending it to the webservice:
// get the number of rows in the DataTable
int rowCount = yourDataSet.Tables[0].Rows.Count;
// create an array of ExampleUser with the correct capacity
ExampleWebService.ExampleUser[] usersArray =
new ExampleWebService.ExampleUser[rowCount];
// iterate through each row in the table
for (int i = 0; i < rowCount; i++)
{
DataRow dr = yourDataSet.Tables[0].Rows[i];
// create an ExampleUser object and populate it from the DataRow columns
ExampleWebService.ExampleUser eu = new ExampleWebService.ExampleUser();
eu.UserID = (int)dr["User_ID"];
eu.Name = (string)dr["Name"];
eu.DateOfBirth = (DateTime)dr["Date_Of_Birth"];
// add the ExampleUser object to the array
usersArray[i] = eu;
}
// the array is populated so let's call the webservice
ExampleWebService.UploadUsers(usersArray);
EDIT: Another example...
If you're using .NET 3.5 then you can get the client-side down to just a few lines of code by using LINQ and object initialisers to create your array:
// create and populate the array
ExampleWebService.ExampleUser[] usersArray =
yourDataSet.Tables[0].AsEnumerable().Select
(
s => new ExampleWebService.ExampleUser()
{
UserID = (int)s["User_ID"],
Name = (string)s["Name"],
DateOfBirth = (DateTime)s["Date_Of_Birth"]
}
).ToArray();
// the array is populated so let's call the webservice
ExampleWebService.UploadUsers(usersArray);
Well, there are a lot of approaches to this. Since you are sending this over the wire, you could: 1) Write the data to an XML stream (this is very much what the DataSet is meant to do) then 2) you could compress the XML (the compression ratio would be best at this stage) then 3) Encrypt using one of the .NET cryptographic schemes and finally 4) decrypt, unzip, and deserialize your XML into a DataSet object or whatever you want to do with it.
Note, you might need to Base64 the result of the encryption. Another alternative is to not encrypt and use the Web Service over SSL and just use that native encryption. Depending on the type of data a DataSet may not be the best choice in terms of performance. You could send a CSV or JSON style data block; this would potentially be smaller, especially if there is only one "DataTable" object in your DataSet. A lot of this is situation dependent as far as what the best method do use is.

IRepository confusion on objects returned

I have some e-commerce code that I use often that uses Linq To SQL for saving orders to the database. I want to remove the tightly coupled Linq to SQL bit and pass in an IRepository instead but I am still a little confused on things.
Say I have a GetCustomer() method on my ICustomerRepository that returns a Customer object.
Do I need it to really return an ICustomer object that gets passed back from that method so if I switch from Linq To SQL to say SubSonic it's not a problem?
I believe I do, if that is the case is there a way in Linq To SQL to easily convert my Linq To SQL Customer object to my ICustomer object like SubSonics ExecuteSingle(Of ) method?
If you want your Customer class to be a plain object with no attachment to LINQ, then you will most likely need to write a mapper method to convert your LINQ-based Customer object to your plain Customer domain object. LINQ to SQL does not have such functionality built-in.
I have begun to wrap my mapping methods in an extension method for readability, and it really helps to keep the Repository code simple. For instance, an example CustomerRepository method my look like:
public Customer GetById(int id)
{
return dataContext.LINQCustomers.Where(c => c.Id == id)
.Single()
.ToDomainObject();
}
and the ToDomainObject() method is defined in an extension method like:
public static class ObjectMapper
{
public static Customer ToDomainObject(this Customer linqObject)
{
var domainObject = null
if (linqObject != null)
{
domainObject = new Customer
{
Id = linqObject.Id,
FirstName = linqObject.FirstName,
LastName = linqObject.LastName
}
}
return domainObject;
}
}
or something similar. You can do the same to convert your domain object back to a LINQ object to pass back into your repository for persistence.
You can have it return a Customer as long as Customer is a plain old .NET object, and not some db-generated entity. Your Customer domain object should have no knowledge about how (or if) it might be persisted to a database, and this is what should be returned from your repository. In your repository you might have some mapping code - this is quite common - that maps from [however you get the data back from its storage location] to your domain object. If you're using Linq-to-sql then this mapping would be from the Linq-To-Sql generated Customer table (and perhaps other tables - your Customer domain object likely won't map 1:1 to a particular table in the database) to your Customer domain object, which would live in a different namespace (and most likely, assembly).
There is no need to make it an ICustomer at all. A repository acts in a way as to make it look as though your persistent instances are in memory.
public interface ICustomerRepository
{
Customer GetByID(int id);
IEnumerable<Customer> GetByName(string name);
Customer GetByVatCode(string vatCode);
}
Some people would additionally include methods such as
void Add(Customer newCustomer);
void Delete(Customer deleted);
void Update(Customer modified);
The latter method implementations would most likely just update a unit of work.
The concept though is that these are just common ways of asking for Customer instances, the repository acts as a way of asking for them without defining how to ask for them.

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