Save changes to Entity model to the database - asp.net

I'm new to Entity Framework and am expanding an existing codebase. I'm using jQuery to pass the needed info back to the server ajaxy style, so I can't use TryUpdateModel(). Here's the code:
<HttpPost()>
Function UpdateRoster() As JsonResult
Dim model As New Models.ViewModels.PlayerAdmin
Dim jsonString As String = Request.Form("json")
model = Deserialise(Of Models.ViewModels.PlayerAdmin)(jsonString)
For Each playerAdminPlayer As Models.ViewModels.PlayerAdminPlayer In model.Roster
Dim playerToTeam As New DAL.PlayersToTeam
Dim player As DAL.Player = PlayerAdminManager.GetPlayerById(playerAdminPlayer.PlayerId)
player.FirstName = playerAdminPlayer.FirstName
PlayerAdminManager.SaveChanges()
Next playerAdminPlayer
Dim playerAfter As DAL.Player = PlayerAdminManager.GetPlayerById(model.Roster.First.PlayerId)
Return Json(New With {.success = False, .message = playerAfter.FirstName})
End Function
Deserialise is a helper function that converts the incoming JSON string to a vb object.
Things seem to work fine in that player successfully loads from the DB and playerAdminPlayer is the correct object from the JSON string. However, when I call PlayerAdminManager.SaveChanges() (which just passes the call the db.SaveChanges() the result is always 0, even if there is a change (not sure if that is expected).
playerAfter was my attempt to see if changes were actually being saved. It seems to work correctly, in that playerAfter.FirstName is the newly updated first name.
PlayerAdminManager.GetPlayerById(integer) pulls from the DB, so I would think that, since changes are observed in playerAfter, that those changes were saved to the DB. However, when I reload the web page (which pulls from the DB), the old values are there.
Any ideas?
Here are some of the functions I mention:
Function GetPlayerById(ByVal Id As Integer) As DAL.Player
Return Container.Players.Where(Function(o) o.PlayerId = Id And o.IsVisible = True).SingleOrDefault
End Function
Sub SaveChanges()
Dim numberOfChanges As Integer = Container.SaveChanges()
Debug.WriteLine("No conflicts. " & numberOfChanges.ToString() & " updates saved.")
End Sub
EDIT
Container code:
Private _Container As DAL.LateralSportsContainer
Protected ReadOnly Property Container As DAL.LateralSportsContainer
Get
If _Container Is Nothing Then
Dim connStr As New System.Data.EntityClient.EntityConnectionStringBuilder
connStr.ProviderConnectionString = Web.Configuration.WebConfigurationManager.ConnectionStrings("ApplicationServices").ConnectionString
connStr.Metadata = "res://*/Lateral.csdl|res://*/Lateral.ssdl|res://*/Lateral.msl"
connStr.Provider = "System.Data.SqlClient"
_Container = New DAL.LateralSportsContainer(connStr.ConnectionString)
End If
Return _Container
End Get
End Property

Turns out I was using a non static (shared) Container. I had 2 Manager classes that both inherited from a BaseManager class were the Container was defined. I was executing the query command in one Manager and saving in another.
Doh!

Related

Can i use a single session variable to store all the field values

I have 9 pages with 10 fields in each page. Can i use a single session variable to store all the field(textbox,drop downlist,radiobuttons) values of 9 pages? If so could you give me small example inorder to proceed. Im kind of stuck.
Could you? Yes. Should you? Most likely not - though I can't say for sure without understanding what problem you are intending to solve.
Update with one sample solution
OK, I'm going to assume you want to store the values from the controls and not the controls themselves. If so, the easiest solution is stuff them in using some meaningful token to separate them. Like:
Session("MyControlValueList") = "name='txt1',value='hello'|name='txt2', value'world'"
To retrieve you would split them into a string array:
myArray = Session("MyControlValueList").Split("|")
And then iterate through to find the control/value you want.
So strictly speaking that's an answer. I still question whether it is the best answer for your particular scenario. Unfortunately I can't judge that until you provide more information.
Create a custom class with all the fields you want to save, then populate an instance of that and save that instance as a session variable.
I have something similar, but not identical - I'm saving various shipping address fields for an order, and I'm allowing the admins to update the order, either the shipping information or the order line items. Since that information is kept on separate tables, I store the shipping information in a session variable, and then compare it to what's on the form when they hit the "Update" button. If nothing has changed, I skip the update routine on the SQL Server database.
The easiest way for me to do this was to create a "OrderInfo" class. I saved the shipping information to this class, then saved that class to a session variable. Here's the code showing the class -
Public Class OrderInfo
Private v_shipname As String
Private v_add1 As String
Private v_add2 As String
Private v_city As String
Private v_state As String
Private v_zipcd As String
Private v_dateneeded As Date
Private v_billingmeth As Integer
Public Property ShipName() As String
Get
Return v_shipname
End Get
Set(value As String)
v_shipname = value
End Set
End Property
Public Property Add1() As String
Get
Return v_add1
End Get
Set(value As String)
v_add1 = value
End Set
End Property
Public Property Add2() As String
Get
Return v_add2
End Get
Set(value As String)
v_add2 = value
End Set
End Property
Public Property City() As String
Get
Return v_city
End Get
Set(value As String)
v_city = value
End Set
End Property
Public Property State() As String
Get
Return v_state
End Get
Set(value As String)
v_state = value
End Set
End Property
Public Property ZipCd() As String
Get
Return v_zipcd
End Get
Set(value As String)
v_zipcd = value
End Set
End Property
Public Property DateNeeded() As Date
Get
Return v_dateneeded
End Get
Set(value As Date)
v_dateneeded = value
End Set
End Property
Public Property BillingMeth() As Integer
Get
Return v_billingmeth
End Get
Set(value As Integer)
v_billingmeth = value
End Set
End Property
End Class
Here's the code for when I tested the concept to see if I could store a custom class in a session variable. This routine gets the order record, populates the fields in an instance of the custom class, and on the web form, as well. I save that instance to a session variable, then I initialize another new instance of that custom class, load the session variable to it. I then display the field values from the "retrieved" custom class, and what showed on the label matched what it should be -
Protected Sub LoadOrderInfo(ByVal ordID As Integer)
Dim connSQL As New SqlConnection
connSQL.ConnectionString = ConfigurationManager.ConnectionStrings("sqlConnectionString").ToString
Dim strProcName As String = "uspGetOrderInfoGeneral"
Dim cmd As New SqlCommand(strProcName, connSQL)
cmd.CommandType = CommandType.StoredProcedure
cmd.Parameters.AddWithValue("OrderID", ordID)
If connSQL.State <> ConnectionState.Open Then
cmd.Connection.Open()
End If
Dim drOrderInfo As SqlDataReader
drOrderInfo = cmd.ExecuteReader
If drOrderInfo.Read Then
Dim orgOrder As New OrderInfo
orgOrder.ShipName = drOrderInfo("shipName")
orgOrder.Add1 = drOrderInfo("ShipAdd1")
orgOrder.Add2 = drOrderInfo("ShipAdd2")
orgOrder.City = drOrderInfo("ShipCity")
orgOrder.State = drOrderInfo("ShipState")
orgOrder.ZipCd = drOrderInfo("ShipZip")
orgOrder.DateNeeded = drOrderInfo("DateNeeded")
orgOrder.BillingMeth = drOrderInfo("BillingMethodID")
If Session.Item("orgOrder") Is Nothing Then
Session.Add("orgOrder", orgOrder)
Else
Session.Item("orgOrder") = orgOrder
End If
' I could just as easily populate the form from the class instance here
txtShipName.Text = drOrderInfo("shipName")
txtAdd1.Text = drOrderInfo("ShipAdd1")
txtAdd2.Text = drOrderInfo("ShipAdd2")
txtCity.Text = drOrderInfo("ShipCity")
txtState.Text = drOrderInfo("ShipState")
txtZipCd.Text = drOrderInfo("ShipZip")
selDate.Value = drOrderInfo("DateNeeded")
ddlBillMeth.SelectedValue = drOrderInfo("BillingMethodID")
End If
cmd.Connection.Close()
Dim retOrder As New OrderInfo
retOrder = Session.Item("orgOrder")
lblWelcomeMssg.Text = retOrder.ShipName & ", " & retOrder.Add1 & ", " & retOrder.City & ", " & retOrder.DateNeeded.ToShortDateString & ", " & retOrder.BillingMeth.ToString
End Sub
This might not be practical or desirable, given the number of fields you are trying to hold onto that way, but I'm not here to judge, so this is one possibility. I've worked with other projects where you create a table, and save that table as a session variable, so whatever structure you put into an object is retained if you save that object as a session variable.

DataContext Disposal error resolved but why?

I am working with VB.Net. I have resolved a behavior where the code returns with an error of "Cannot access a disposed object. Object name: 'DataContext accessed after Dispose.'."
My problem : I simply don't understand why it works !
Here is my code when happens the error :
Public Function Element_Import(ByVal id_element As Integer) As elements
Using db As New GlobalDataContext(MyConnexion)
Return (From element In db.elements
Select element
Where element.id_element = id_element).First
End Using
End Function
Then I try to retreave the data :
Dim myElement As elements = _MyConnection.Element_Import(id_element)
Dim myLocal As List(Of elements_localisation) = myElement.elements_localisation.ToList '-- ObjectDisposedException !
When I import my element then try to access sub-tables called "elements_localisation" and "elements_files" an ObjectDisposedException occures. That's fair as the DataContext is not available.
So I have done something different :
Public Function Element_ImportContext(ByVal id_element As Integer) As elements
Dim myElement As elements
Dim myElementLocalisation As New List(Of elements_localisation)
Dim myElementFiles As New List(Of elements_files)
Using db As New GlobalDataContext(MyConnexion)
myElement = (From element In db.elements
Select element
Where element.id_element = id_element).First
myElementLocalisation = myElement.elements_localisation.ToList
myElementFiles = myElement.elements_files.ToList
End Using
Return myElement
End Function
Then I try to retreave the data :
Dim myElement As elements = _MyConnection.Element_ImportContext(id_element)
Dim myLocal As List(Of elements_localisation) = myElement.elements_localisation.ToList '-- IT WORKS !
I really wanna understand what happened as, in both case, the DataContext is disposed.
Can anyone explain ?
When you write LINQ, you write a query to be executed against some data, that query is only executed when another part of the code needs the data.
In your case, you are returning the myElement variable because you have used .First(), which forces the query to be executed and the first item to be returned.
The properties elements_localisation and elements_files are likely to be virtual properties that are only loaded when you request them. (This is certainly the case with Entity Framework, I'm not sure what you're using here).
Your program will try to access the virtual property which will then go off to the data context to get the next bit of data you requested, but in your case the data context is disposed.
Your second approach works because you have used ToList() on the virtual properties, which forces the data to be retrieved then and there, before your data context has been disposed.

How to get Description of Youtube embeded videos in my asp.net application?

I am using the below code to get the Title and description of the youtube video embeded in my asp.net application. I am able to see the Title, but not description.
I use Atomfeed to do this...
Problem is i get the Description as "Google.GData.Client.AtomTextConstruct" for all my videos.
Private Function GetTitle(ByVal myFeed As AtomFeed) As String
Dim strTitle As String = ""
For Each entry As AtomEntry In myFeed.Entries
strTitle = entry.Title.Text
Next
Return strTitle
End Function
Private Function GetDesc(ByVal myFeed As AtomFeed) As String
Dim strDesc As String = ""
For Each entry As AtomEntry In myFeed.Entries
strDesc = entry.Summary.ToString()
Next
Return strDesc
End Function
I believe that when the XML from the atom feed is parsed, that the description is not handled. Take a look at this: http://code.google.com/p/google-gdata/wiki/UnderstandingTheUnknown
But what happens with things that are not understood? They end up as
an element of the ExtensionElements collection, that is a member of
all classes inherited from AtomBase, like AtomFeed, AtomEntry,
EventEntry etc...
So, what we can do is pull out the description from the extensionelement like this:
Dim query As New FeedQuery()
Dim service As New Service()
query.Uri = New Uri("https://gdata.youtube.com/feeds/api/standardfeeds/top_rated")
Dim myFeed As AtomFeed = service.Query(query)
For Each entry In myFeed.Entries
For Each obj As Object In entry.ExtensionElements
If TypeOf obj Is XmlExtension Then
Dim xel As XElement = XElement.Parse(TryCast(obj, XmlExtension).Node.OuterXml)
If xel.Name = "{http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/}group" Then
Dim descNode = xel.Descendants("{http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/}description").FirstOrDefault()
If descNode IsNot Nothing Then
Console.WriteLine(descNode.Value)
End If
Exit For
End If
End If
Next
Next
Also, the reason why you are getting "Google.GData.Client.AtomTextConstruct" is because Summary is an object of type Google.GData.Client.AtomTextConstruct, so doing entry.Summary.ToString() is just giving you the default ToString() behavior. You would normally do Summary.Text, but this of course is blank because as I say above, it's not handled properly by the library.
For youtube, I fetch the information for each video using the Google.GData.YouTube.
Something like this returns a lot of information from the video.
Dim yv As Google.YouTube.Video
url = New Uri("http://gdata.youtube.com/feeds/api/videos/" & video.Custom)
r = New YouTubeRequest(New YouTubeRequestSettings("??", "??"))
yv = r.Retrieve(Of Video)(url)
Then it's possible to get the description with: yv.Description

dynamically change querystring in asp.net

Our client is asking to encrypt the URL because it is passing values in the query string. We have used encryption and are able to encrypt the URL; however, existing code uses querystring["var"] in so many places and fails because of the encrypted URL. Hence, on page load, we will have to decrypt the URL. If I decrypt and alter the query string using response.redirect, then again query string will be visible in the URL and can be misused.
Please help.
EDIT
I was reading about RESTfull web service. I have not yet understood entire concept. I wonder if I can use this with my application to hide query string. Please let me know if so.
Thanks.
One way to achieve this with little headache is to decrypt the query string as you currently do, then set its values to some object which can be stored in the session. Storing it in a session variable would be useful if you wanted to exclude this information (hide) from the query string - you'd essentially be passing the data around behind the scenes.
Once stored in session, you would then change your code, such that wherever you use querystring["var"], you will instead refer to the object that has been stored in the session.
Edit
Note, though, that this doesn't have to be relegated to a single value. This object can have multiple properties each representing a query string value:
MyQueryStringObject myQueryStringObject = new MyQueryStringObject(SomeUrl);
//MyQueryStringObject decrypts the query string and assigns the values to properties in its constructor
string abc = myQueryStringObject.abc;
string xyz = myQueryStringObject.xyz;
Now, that uses properties to represent each query string value. You may have tons of them. In that case, you can store the values into some sort of Dictionary or a NameValueCollection perhaps.
There are various ways to achieve this which I think is beyond topic, but, note that the key to all of this, the very essence is to simply decrypt the url on the server (during postback) and save the unencrypted data into a session variable should you want to hide it from the URL.
There is a much better way of going about this. I deal with a client with that has the same requirement. This class has soared through security scans as well.
Public Class QueryStringManager
Public Shared Function BuildQueryString(ByVal url As String, ByVal queryStringValues As NameValueCollection) As String
Dim builder As New StringBuilder()
builder.Append(url & "?")
Dim count = queryStringValues.Count
If count > 0 Then
For Each key In queryStringValues.AllKeys
Dim value As String = queryStringValues(key)
Dim param As String = BuildParameter(key, value)
builder.Append(param)
Next
End If
Return builder.ToString()
End Function
Public Shared Function DeconstructQueryString(ByVal Request As HttpRequest) As NameValueCollection
Dim queryStringValues As New NameValueCollection
For Each key In Request.QueryString.AllKeys
Dim value As String = Request.QueryString(key)
value = DeconstructParameter(value)
queryStringValues.Add(key, value)
Next
Return queryStringValues
End Function
Private Shared Function BuildParameter(ByVal key As String, ByVal value As String) As String
Dim builder As New StringBuilder()
builder.Append(key.ToString() & "=")
value = GetSafeHtmlFragment(value)
Dim encrypt As Security = New Security()
value = encrypt.Encrypt(value)
builder.Append(value)
builder.Append("&")
Return builder.ToString()
End Function
Public Shared Function DeconstructParameter(ByVal value As Object) As String
Dim decrypt As New Security()
value = decrypt.Decrypt(value)
value = GetSafeHtmlFragment(value)
End Function
End Class
Use
Dim nvc As NameValueCollection = New NameValueCollection()
nvc.Add("value", 1)
Dim builtUrl As String = QueryStringManager.BuildQueryString(url, nvc)
Response.Redirect(builtUrl, false);
Then when you get to the page you simply write:
Dim decryptedValues As NameValueCollection = QueryStringManager.DeconstructQueryString(Request)
The reason why I use NameValueCollection is because that's the same type as QueryString. You can build on to the class to add an object into the QueryString based on it's properties and their values as well. This keeps all of the complex and tedious logic encapsulated away.

Must I use parameters with an ObjectDataSource update?

I have a business object that I've been using, which has a bunch of properties and a Save method, which inserts/updates to the database. The save method is NOT status, so the object needs to be instantiated, and the properties for the DB update/insert get pulled from the object.
Now I'm trying to bind the object to a FormView with the ObjectDataSource. I have it working so it instantiates based on the QueryString parameter, no problem, and populates the textboxes just fine. The UpdateMethod I have set to the Save function. Now it gets stuck.
It seems the ObjectDataSource needs a method with all the fields/properties/textboxes as parameters. I would have thought it would update the object's properties and then call the parameterless Save function. Is this wishful thinking?
Do I now need to change my Save function to include parameters, and change all the instances where it's getting used to this new method, just for this reason?
Thanks
Sean
Unfortunatly it does require params.
I overloaded my insert/update methods to include a few params. Attach the ObjectDataSource to the method with params.
The overloaded Update method calls the original Update method saving all the data. Seems kind of hackish to me, but it works.
Public Sub Update()
Dim isUpdated As Boolean = False
sql = "UPDATE AudioFiles SET Title = #Title, [desc] = #desc, Active = #Active WHERE fileID = #fileID"
conn = New SqlConnection(connString)
conn.Open()
...
End Sub
Public Sub Update(ByVal upFileID As Integer, ByVal upTitle As String, ByVal upDesc As String, ByVal upActive As Boolean)
Dim isUpdated As Boolean = False
Dim audioFile As New AudioFiles(fileID)
If Len(upTitle) > 0 Then
_title = title
End If
...
audioFile.Update()
End Sub

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