Separate caches with ASP.NET? - asp.net

Does ASP.NET support the notion of multiple caches with the built-in caching? My end goal is to be able to pull out all items of a certain type from the cache. This could be done with a separate cache per type, or through some sort of naming convention. Ideally, I'd be able to use LINQ in the following manner:
var items = (from item in cache.Items where item.Key.StartsWith("person") select item);
Or perhaps I could define a separate "person" cache. Is this possible with the built-in system or will I need to use a third party alternative?
Thanks

In fact, Cache class already implements IEnumerable, so you can foreach over it (and query it with LINQ, for that matter). Documentation does not state what is the type of an object this enumerator yields, but this can be found out in debugger once and forever.

public partial class _Default : System.Web.UI.Page
{
protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
Cache.Insert("nord", new Person("Nord"));
Cache.Insert("bert", new Person("Bert"));
Cache.Insert("frog", new Animal("Kermit"));
foreach (Person p in Cache.CacheOfType<Person>())
{
Response.Write(p.Name); //prints NordBert
}
Response.Write("<br>");
foreach (Animal a in Cache.CacheOfType<Animal>())
{
Response.Write(a.Name); //prints Kermit
}
}
}
public static class CacheExt
{
public static IEnumerable<T> CacheOfType<T>(this System.Web.Caching.Cache cache) where T : class
{
foreach (System.Collections.DictionaryEntry i in cache)
{
if (i.Value as T != null) yield return (T)i.Value;
}
}
}

Related

ASP.net cache access causing Collection Modified exception in foreach loop

Ok first things first. This is some exception information given by the support team. I know the line and code where it happens. It happens in a FirstOrDefault call over a dictionary obtained from cache.
1) Exception Information
*********************************************
Exception Type: System.InvalidOperationException
Message: Collection was modified; enumeration operation may not execute.
Data: System.Collections.ListDictionaryInternal
Now I wanted to simulate the problem and I could do it in a simple ASP.net application.
My page has 2 Buttons - Button_Process and Button_Add
The code behind is as follows:
public partial class _Default : System.Web.UI.Page
{
protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
if (!IsPostBack)
{
var data = Cache["key"];
if (data == null)
{
var dict = new Dictionary<int, string>();
for (int i = 0; i < 10; i++)
{
dict.Add(i, "i");
}
Cache["key"] = dict;
}
}
}
protected void ButtonProcess_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
var data = Cache["key"] as Dictionary<int, string>;
if (data != null)
{
foreach (var d in data.Values) //In actual code there is FirstOrDefault here
{
Thread.Sleep(1000);
if (d.Contains("5"))
{
//some operation
}
}
}
}
protected void Button2_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
var data = Cache["key"] as Dictionary<int, string>;
if (data != null)
{
data.Add(new Random().Next(), "101");
Cache["key"] = data;
}
}
}
Now assume there are 2 requests:
Request 1 - Someone clicks on button_Process and some operation on cache object is taking place
Request 2 - Someone clicks on button_Add and the first person gets an exception - collection modified blah blah
I understand the problem - it is happening because we are accessing same bit of memory. I have 2 solutions in my mind:
1. I use a for loop instead of for each (to replace FirstOrDefault in actual code) - I dunno how efficient this operation will be after I make the changes. - I don't ever delete any item from cache so I was thinking of this solution
2. I put some lock over cache object or something on those lines - but I dunno exactly where and how should I lock this object.
Please help me with this. I am not able to figure out an efficient solution. What is the best way to handle such situations?
This happens because you're working directly with object, locating in cache. Good practise, to avoid those exceptions and other wierd behavior (when you accidentally modify cache object) is working with copy of cache data. And there are several ways of achieving it, like doing clone or some kind of deep copy. What i prefer is keeping objects in cache serialized (any kind you like - json/xml/binary or w/e else), since (de)serialization makes a deep copy of your object. Following small code snippet will clarify things:
public static class CacheManager
{
private static readonly Cache MyCache = HttpRuntime.Cache;
public static void Put<T>(T data, string key)
{
MyCache.Insert(key, Serialize(data));
}
public static T Get<T>(string key)
{
var data = MyCache.Get(key) as string;
if (data != null)
return Deserialize<T>(data);
return default(T);
}
private static string Serialize(object data)
{
//this is Newtonsoft.Json serializer, but you can use the one you like
return JsonConvert.SerializeObject(data);
}
private static T Deserialize<T>(string data)
{
return JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<T>(data);
}
}
And usage:
var myObj = new Dictionary<int, int>();
CacheManager.Put(myObj, "myObj");
//...
var anotherObj = CacheManager.Get<Dictionary<int, int>>("myObj");
Check Task Parallel Library for .NET 3.5. It has Concurrent Collections such as ConcurrentStack, ConcurentQueue and ConcurrentDictionary.
http://www.nuget.org/packages/TaskParallelLibrary
The problem is that the cache object is global for appdomain and the data stored in are shared between all request.
The only solution to this problem is to activate a lock when you want to access to the collection and then release the lock (https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/vstudio/c5kehkcz%28v=vs.100%29.aspx).
(sorry form my bad english)

EF: Update entity stored in session

I'm using EF 5 with Web Forms (ASP.NET 4.5), with the "one DbContext instance per request" approach.
But this situation is a bit complicated: I have a multi-step create/edit screen, and I store the current entity in Session, then I manipulate it and in the final step, I commit it to the Database.
Creating a new instance was fine, but I can't for the life of me edit an existing entity... Because it's another request, my original DbContext instance was lost and when I attach it to a new one, I get the An entity object cannot be referenced by multiple instances of IEntityChangeTracker error.
My code is far too complex to post here, but I'll try and summarize it accurately:
My DbContext:
public class AppContext : DbContext
{
// DbSet declarations...
public static AppContext Current {
get { var context = HttpContext.Current.Items["Contexts.AppContext"] as AppContext;
if (context == null)
{
context = new AppContext();
HttpContext.Current.Items["Contexts.AppContext"] = context;
}
return context;
}
}
}
An example of what the page code looks like:
protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
int? id = null; // After this, I try to get it from the QueryString, parse it, etc.. Omitted for sake of brevity
// If I have an ID, it means I'm editing...
Session["Product"] = id.HasValue ? new Product() : AppContext.Current.Products.Find(id));
MethodToPopulateFields(); // Internally, it uses the Session variable
}
protected void Step1(){ // through n
// Manipulates the Session["Product"] based on page input...
}
protected void Save(){
var product = Session["Product"] as Product;
if(product.ID == 0)
product = AppContext.Current.Products.Add(product);
// throws an exception:
// AppContext.Current.Entry(product).State = EntityState.Modified;
// this too:
// AppContext.Products.Attach(product);
AppContext.Current.SaveChanges();
}
I know I can get the old entity from the database, update it manually and save, all in the last step, but I really don't want to do that...
Thank you.
Try calling
AppContext.Current.Entry(product).State = EntityState.Detached;
in the first method.

How do I share a function that uses "Response" or "Request" in ASP.NET?

I'd like to have a utility function that conditionally updates my request and response across several pages in my site.
Using a standard .CS class doesn't seem to give me access to these objects. How can I (generall speaking) create a utility function that checks for a cookie and update it across multiple pages?
You can always get at these things via
System.Web.HttpContext.Current.Request
System.Web.HttpContext.Current.Response
HttpContext Class and the Current Property
Encapsulates all HTTP-specific information about an individual HTTP request.
And to manage some cookie value throughout your site I would suggest either create a BasePage class that all of your Pages inherited from and do the checks there:
public class BasePage : System.Web.UI.Page
{
protected override void OnPreRender(EventArgs e)
{
UpdateCookie();
base.OnPreRender(e);
}
}
do the same in your MasterPage:
public class SiteMasterPage : MasterPage
{
protected override void OnPreRender(EventArgs e)
{
UpdateCookie();
base.OnPreRender(e);
}
}
public static void UpdateCookie()
{
HttpContext context = System.Web.HttpContext.Current;
HttpCookie cookie = context.Response.Cookies.Get("Update")
?? new HttpCookie("Update");
int value = 0;
int.TryParse(cookie.Value, out value);
value++;
cookie.Expires = DateTime.Now.AddDays(30);
cookie.Value = value.ToString();
context.Response.Cookies.Set(cookie);
}
use HttpContext.Current.Request and HttpContext.Current.Response
Use the fully qualified namespace:
System.Web.HttpContext.Current.Request
System.Web.HttpContext.Current.Response
-- or --
using System.Web.HttpContext.Current;
Then you should be able to access Request/Response throughout your class.
There are several ways to do this. Other have mentioned doing this with System.Web.HttpContext.Current, but I'd think (guessing from what I think your intent is) that doing this on a method that runs on load on your master pages is a better idea.

Disable Session state per-request in ASP.Net MVC

I am creating an ActionResult in ASP.Net MVC to serve images. With Session state enabled, IIS will only handle one request at a time from the same user. (This is true not just in MVC.)
Therefore, on a page with multiple images calling back to this Action, only one image request can be handled at a time. It's synchronous.
I'd like this image Action to be asynchronous -- I'd like multiple image requests to each execute without needing the previous one to complete. (If the images were just static files, IIS would serve them up this way.)
So, I'd like to disable Session just for calls to that Action, or to specify that certain requests do not have Session state. Anyone know how this is done in MVC? Thanks!
If anyone is in the situation I was in, where your image controller actually needs read only access to the session, you can put the SessionState attribute on your controller
[SessionState(SessionStateBehavior.ReadOnly)]
See http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.web.mvc.sessionstateattribute.aspx for more info.
Thanks to https://stackoverflow.com/a/4235006/372926
Rather than implementing an action filter for this, why don't you implement a RouteHandler?
Here's the deal - IRouteHandler has one method - GetHttpHandler. When you make an ASP.Net MVC request to a controller, by default the routing engine handles the request by creating a new instance of MvcRouteHandler, which returns an MvcHandler. MvcHandler is an implementation of IHttpHandler which is marked with the (surprise!) IRequiresSessionState interface. This is why a normal request uses Session.
If you follow my blog post on how to implement a custom RouteHandler (instead of using MvcRouteHandler) for serving up images - you can skip returning a session-tagged IHttpHandler.
This should free IIS from imposing synchronicity on you. It would also likely be more performant because it's skipping all the layers of the MVC code dealing with filters.
I also came across the same problem and after doing R&D this link worked for me
Reference:
https://techatfingers.wordpress.com/2016/06/14/session-state-on-action/
Create custom Attribute
Override the “GetControllerSessionBehavior” method present in class DefaultControllerFactory.
Register it in global.aspx
1> Create custom Attribute
public sealed class ActionSessionStateAttribute : Attribute
{
public SessionStateBehavior SessionBehavior { get; private set; }
public ActionSessionStateAttribute(SessionStateBehavior sessionBehavior)
{
SessionBehavior = sessioBehavior;
}
}
2. Override
public class SessionControllerFactory : DefaultControllerFactory
{
protected override SessionStateBehavior GetControllerSessionBehavior(RequestContext requestContext, Type controllerType)
{
if (controllerType == null)
return SessionStateBehavior.Default;
var actionName = requestContext.RouteData.Values["action"].ToString();
Type typeOfRequest=requestContext.HttpContext.Request.RequestType.ToLower() =="get"?typeof(HttpGetAttribute):typeof(HttpPostAttribute);
// [Line1]
var cntMethods = controllerType.GetMethods()
.Where(m =>
m.Name == actionName &&
( ( typeOfRequest == typeof(HttpPostAttribute) &&
m.CustomAttributes.Where(a => a.AttributeType == typeOfRequest).Count()>0
)
||
( typeOfRequest == typeof(HttpGetAttribute) &&
m.CustomAttributes.Where(a => a.AttributeType == typeof(HttpPostAttribute)).Count() == 0
)
)
);
MethodInfo actionMethodInfo = actionMethodInfo = cntMethods != null && cntMethods.Count() == 1 ? cntMethods.ElementAt(0):null;
if (actionMethodInfo != null)
{
var sessionStateAttr = actionMethodInfo.GetCustomAttributes(typeof(ActionSessionStateAttribute), false)
.OfType<ActionSessionStateAttribute>()
.FirstOrDefault();
if (sessionStateAttr != null)
{
return sessionStateAttr.Behavior;
}
}
return base.GetControllerSessionBehavior(requestContext, controllerType);
}
3. Register class in Global.asax
public class MvcApplication : System.Web.HttpApplication
{
protected void Application_Start()
{
// --- other code ---
ControllerBuilder.Current.SetControllerFactory(typeof(SessionControllerFactory));
}
}
Try serving the images from another domain. So something like images.mysite.com.
This will provide you two benefits: One, sessions are tracked by a cookie, so images.mysite.com won't have the cookie. Two, it will give you an additional two concurrent requests to retrieve images.
Have you considered setting up a HttpHandler to serve up your images?
SessionState attribute is quite helpful if u use mvc3. How to achieve this with mvc2 needs a little more coding.
Idea is to tell the asp.net that specific request wont use session object.
So, Create a custom route handler for specific requests
public class CustomRouteHandler : IRouteHandler
{
public System.Web.IHttpHandler GetHttpHandler(RequestContext requestContext)
{
requestContext.HttpContext.SetSessionStateBehavior(System.Web.SessionState.SessionStateBehavior.ReadOnly);
return new MvcHandler(requestContext);
}
}
SessionStateBehavior enum has 4 members, you should use "disabled" or "readonly" modes to get async behavior.
After creating this custom route handler, be sure that your specific requests goes through this handler. This can be done via defining new routes at Global.asax
routes.Add("Default", new Route(
"{controller}/{action}",
new RouteValueDictionary(new { controller = "Home", action = "Index"}),
new CustomRouteHandler()
));
Adding this route makes all your requests to be handled by your custom route handler class. You can make it specific by defining different routes.
Change DefaultCOntrollerFactory to custom ControllerFactory class. Default Controller.TempDataProvider use SessionStateTempDataProvider. you can change it.
1.Set web.config/system.web/sessionState:mode="Off".
2.create DictionaryTempDataProvider class.
public class DictionaryTempDataProvider : ITempDataProvider
{
public IDictionary<string, object> LoadTempData(ControllerContext controllerContext)
{
return new Dictionary<string, object>();
}
public void SaveTempData(ControllerContext controllerContext, IDictionary<string, object> values)
{
}
}
3.Create DictionaryTempDataControllerFactory
public class DictionaryTempDataControllerFactory : DefaultControllerFactory
{
public override IController CreateController(System.Web.Routing.RequestContext requestContext, string controllerName)
{
var controller = base.CreateController(requestContext, controllerName) as Controller;
if (controller!=null)
controller.TempDataProvider = new DictionaryTempDataProvider();
return controller;
}
}
4.In global.asax.cs Apprication_Start event set DictionaryTempDataControllerFactory.
protected void Application_Start()
{
RegisterRoutes(RouteTable.Routes);
ControllerBuilder.Current.SetControllerFactory(
new DictionaryTempDataControllerFactory()
);
}
On our server, IIS doesn't even know about sessions - it's the ASP.NET stack that handles one request per session at a time. Static files, like images, are never affected.
Is it possible that your ASP.NET app is serving the files instead of IIS?
Create new Controller
Decorate controler with [SessionState(SessionStateBehavior.Disabled)]
Refactor code you want seesion stated disabled for to that controller
I would to share my solution for disable ASP.NET Session for an specific request (in my case, a WCF Service) using an HttpModule:
public class AspNetSessionFilterModule : IHttpModule
{
public void Init(HttpApplication context)
{
context.PostMapRequestHandler += OnPostMapRequestHandler;
}
private void OnPostMapRequestHandler(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
var context = (sender as HttpApplication).Context;
DisableSessionForSomeRequests(context);
}
private void DisableSessionForSomeRequests(HttpContext context)
{
if ("~/Services/MyService.svc".Equals(context.Request.AppRelativeCurrentExecutionFilePath, StringComparison.InvariantCultureIgnoreCase))
{
context.SetSessionStateBehavior(System.Web.SessionState.SessionStateBehavior.Disabled);
}
}
public void Dispose()
{ }
}

ASP.NET - Avoid hardcoding paths

I'm looking for a best practice solution that aims to reduce the amount of URLs that are hard-coded in an ASP.NET application.
For example, when viewing a product details screen, performing an edit on these details, and then submitting the changes, the user is redirected back to the product listing screen. Instead of coding the following:
Response.Redirect("~/products/list.aspx?category=books");
I would like to have a solution in place that allows me to do something like this:
Pages.GotoProductList("books");
where Pages is a member of the common base class.
I'm just spit-balling here, and would love to hear any other way in which anyone has managed their application redirects.
EDIT
I ended up creating the following solution: I already had a common base class, to which I added a Pages enum (thanks Mark), with each item having a System.ComponentModel.DescriptionAttribute attribute containing the page's URL:
public enum Pages
{
[Description("~/secure/default.aspx")]
Landing,
[Description("~/secure/modelling/default.aspx")]
ModellingHome,
[Description("~/secure/reports/default.aspx")]
ReportsHome,
[Description("~/error.aspx")]
Error
}
Then I created a few overloaded methods to handle different scenarios. I used reflection to get the URL of the page through it's Description attribute, and I pass query-string parameters as an anonymous type (also using reflection to add each property as a query-string parameter):
private string GetEnumDescription(Enum value)
{
Type type = value.GetType();
string name = Enum.GetName(type, value);
if (name != null)
{
FieldInfo field = type.GetField(name);
if (field != null)
{
DescriptionAttribute attr = Attribute.GetCustomAttribute(field, typeof(DescriptionAttribute)) as DescriptionAttribute;
if (attr != null)
return attr.Description;
}
}
return null;
}
protected string GetPageUrl(Enums.Pages target, object variables)
{
var sb = new StringBuilder();
sb.Append(UrlHelper.ResolveUrl(Helper.GetEnumDescription(target)));
if (variables != null)
{
sb.Append("?");
var properties = (variables.GetType()).GetProperties();
foreach (var property in properties)
sb.Append(string.Format("{0}={1}&", property.Name, property.GetValue(variables, null)));
}
return sb.ToString();
}
protected void GotoPage(Enums.Pages target, object variables, bool useTransfer)
{
if(useTransfer)
HttpContext.Current.Server.Transfer(GetPageUrl(target, variables));
else
HttpContext.Current.Response.Redirect(GetPageUrl(target, variables));
}
A typical call would then look like so:
GotoPage(Enums.Pages.Landing, new {id = 12, category = "books"});
Comments?
I'd suggest that you derive your own class ("MyPageClass") from the Page class and include this method there:
public class MyPageClass : Page
{
private const string productListPagePath = "~/products/list.aspx?category=";
protected void GotoProductList(string category)
{
Response.Redirect(productListPagePath + category);
}
}
Then, in your codebehind, make sure that your page derives from this class:
public partial class Default : MyPageClass
{
...
}
within that, you can redirect just by using:
GotoProductList("Books");
Now, this is a bit limited as is since you'll undoubtedly have a variety of other pages like the ProductList page. You could give each one of them its own method in your page class but this is kind of grody and not smoothly extensible.
I solve a problem kind of like this by keeping a db table with a page name/file name mapping in it (I'm calling external, dynamically added HTML files, not ASPX files so my needs are a bit different but I think the principles apply). Your call would then use either a string or, better yet, an enum to redirect:
protected void GoToPage(PageTypeEnum pgType, string category)
{
//Get the enum-to-page mapping from a table or a dictionary object stored in the Application space on startup
Response.Redirect(GetPageString(pgType) + category); // *something* like this
}
From your page your call would be: GoToPage(enumProductList, "Books");
The nice thing is that the call is to a function defined in an ancestor class (no need to pass around or create manager objects) and the path is pretty obvious (intellisense will limit your ranges if you use an enum).
Good luck!
You have a wealth of options availible, and they all start with creating a mapping dictionary, whereas you can reference a keyword to a hard URL. Whether you chose to store it in a configuration file or database lookup table, your options are endless.
You have a huge number of options available here. Database table or XML file are probably the most commonly used examples.
// Please note i have not included any error handling code.
public class RoutingHelper
{
private NameValueCollecton routes;
private void LoadRoutes()
{
//Get your routes from db or config file
routes = /* what ever your source is*/
}
public void RedirectToSection(string section)
{
if(routes == null) LoadRoutes();
Response.Redirect(routes[section]);
}
}
This is just sample code, and it can be implemented any way you wish. The main question you need to think about is where you want to store the mappings. A simple xml file could do it:
`<mappings>
<map name="Books" value="/products.aspx/section=books"/>
...
</mappings>`
and then just load that into your routes collection.
public class BasePage : Page
{
public virtual string GetVirtualUrl()
{
throw new NotImplementedException();
}
public void PageRedirect<T>() where T : BasePage, new()
{
T page = new T();
Response.Redirect(page.GetVirtualUrl());
}
}
public partial class SomePage1 : BasePage
{
protected void Page_Load()
{
// Redirect to SomePage2.aspx
PageRedirect<SomePage2>();
}
}
public partial class SomePage2 : BasePage
{
public override string GetVirtualUrl()
{
return "~/Folder/SomePage2.aspx";
}
}

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