Setting ModelState values in custom model binder - asp.net-mvc-2

I am using custom model binder in ASP.NET MVC 2 that looks like this:
public override object BindModel(ControllerContext controllerContext, ModelBindingContext bindingContext)
{
if (controllerContext == null)
{
throw new ArgumentNullException("controllerContext");
}
if (bindingContext == null)
{
throw new ArgumentNullException("bindingContext");
}
BaseContentObject obj = (BaseContentObject)base.BindModel(controllerContext, bindingContext);
if(string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(obj.Slug))
{
// creating new object
obj.Created = obj.Modified = DateTime.Now;
obj.ModifiedBy = obj.CreatedBy = controllerContext.HttpContext.User.Identity.Name;
// slug is not provided thru UI, derivate it from Title; property setter removes chars that are not allowed
obj.Slug = obj.Title;
ModelStateDictionary modelStateDictionary = bindingContext.ModelState;
modelStateDictionary.SetModelValue("Slug", new ValueProviderResult(obj.Slug, obj.Slug, null));
...
When I get back from this binder into controller action, my business object that is provided as a parameter to the action is correctly altered (the lines obj.Created = .... work).
However, the ModelState is not updated. I know this because I have Required on my business object's Slug property and although I altered ModelStateDictionary in my custom model binder, providing a Slug to it (as you can see above), the ModelState.IsValid is still false.
If I put ModelState["Slug"] in my Watch window in Debug session, it says it has Errors (1), so apparently it is empty and as such fails.
How can I correctly alter the ModelState inside the custom model binder code?

Apparently there is no way to revalidate the ModelState once you change a value of some key. The IsValid remains false because setting a new value to some key does not trigger revalidation.
The solution is to first remove the key that triggered IsValid to be false and recreate it and assign the value to it. When you do that the ModelState automatically revalidates and if everything is fine, IsValid returns true.
Like this:
bindingContext.ModelState.Remove("Slug");
bindingContext.ModelState.Add("Slug", new ModelState());
bindingContext.ModelState.SetModelValue("Slug", new ValueProviderResult(obj.Slug, obj.Slug, null));

Related

How to validate inputs and prevent save actions using databinding in eclipse?

I want to create input forms which validate user input and prevent the model from being saved with invalid data. I have been using databinding which works up to a point but my implementation is not as intuitive as I would like.
Imagine an input which contains '123' and the value must not be empty. The user deletes the characters one by one until empty. The databinding validator shows an error decoration.
However, if the user saves the form and reloads it, then a '1' is displayed in the field - i.e. the last valid input. The databinding does not transmit the invalid value into the model.
I have a ChangeListener but this is called before the databinding so at that point the invalid state has not been detected.
I would like the error to be displayed in the UI but the model remains valid (this is already so). Also, for as long as the UI contains errors, it should not be possible to save the model.
/**
* Bind a text control to a property in the view model
**/
protected Binding bindText(DataBindingContext ctx, Control control,
Object viewModel, String property, IValidator validator)
{
IObservableValue value = WidgetProperties.text(SWT.Modify).observe(
control);
IObservableValue modelValue = BeanProperties.value(
viewModel.getClass(), property).observe(viewModel);
Binding binding = ctx.bindValue(value, modelValue, getStrategy(validator), null);
binding.getTarget().addChangeListener(listener);
ControlDecorationSupport.create(binding, SWT.TOP | SWT.LEFT);
return binding;
}
private UpdateValueStrategy getStrategy(IValidator validator)
{
if (validator == null)
return null;
UpdateValueStrategy strategy = new UpdateValueStrategy();
strategy.setBeforeSetValidator(validator);
return strategy;
}
private IChangeListener listener = new IChangeListener()
{
#Override
public void handleChange(ChangeEvent event)
{
// notify all form listeners that something has changed
}
};
/**
* Called by form owner to check if the form contains valid data e.g. before saving
**/
public boolean isValid()
{
System.out.println("isValid");
for (Object o : getDataContext().getValidationStatusProviders())
{
ValidationStatusProvider vsp = (ValidationStatusProvider) o;
IStatus status = (IStatus)vsp.getValidationStatus()
.getValue();
if (status.matches(IStatus.ERROR))
return false;
}
return true;
}
Your best bet is to steer clear of ChangeListeners - as you've discovered, their order of execution is either undefined or just not helpful in this case.
Instead, you want to stick with the 'observable' as opposed to 'listener' model for as long as possible. As already mentioned, create an AggregateValidationStatus to listen to the overall state of the DataBindingContext, which has a similar effect to your existing code.
Then you can either listen directly to that (as below) to affect the save ability, or you could even bind it to another bean.
IObservableValue statusValue = new AggregateValidationStatus(dbc, AggregateValidationStatus. MAX_SEVERITY);
statusValue.addListener(new IValueChangeListener() {
handleValueChange(ValueChangeEvent event) {
// change ability to save here...
}
});
You can use AggregateValidationStatus to observe the aggregate validation status:
IObservableValue value = new AggregateValidationStatus(bindContext.getBindings(),
AggregateValidationStatus.MAX_SEVERITY);
You can bind this to something which accepts an IStatus parameter and it will be called each time the validation status changes.

WF 4 different IDs on the same activities

Due to a strange behavior in my application, i am forced to reload the designer before calling WorkflowInvoker.Invoke on it.
wd.Flush();
SaveXamlFile(currentXamlPath, wd.Text);
I just flush the content, and write the wd.Text to a file.
//cleanup the previous designer
if (wd != null)
{
wd.ModelChanged -= new EventHandler(Designer_ModelChanged);
}
//designer
wd = new WorkflowDesigner();
designerArea.Child = wd.View;
this.DebuggerService = this.wd.DebugManagerView;
//property grid
propertiesArea.Child = wd.PropertyInspectorView;
//event handler
wd.ModelChanged += new EventHandler(Designer_ModelChanged);
//error service
wd.Context.Services.Publish<IValidationErrorService>(errorService);
wd.Context.Items.Subscribe<Selection>(OnItemSelected);
I then recreate a new instance of the WorkflowDesigner and load the previously saved file.
wd.Load(currentXamlPath);
I call WorkflowInvoker.Invoke and inside my custom activity which derives from CodeActivity i am taking it's name:
OK, fine until now, i have a 1.2 Id there.
I want to update some of the fields of this Activity via its ModelItem in order to display them in the GUI right away.
IEnumerable<ModelItem> activityCollection = currentWorkflow.Find(currentWorkflow.Root, typeof(Activity));
But here comes the issue:
I can't find that my Activity id there. Is now transformed from 1.2 to 2. Why is this happening?
I've tried to send a this reference from my Activity Execute method and searched it by ref but all i get is nulls.
ModelItem temp = activityCollection.FirstOrDefault((m) => (m.GetCurrentValue() == a));
I am sure i am missing something here, but i can't figure out what is it.
I found a workaround on this :
On my custom activities i am adding a Guid property and I override CacheMetadata:
public Guid unique { get; set; }
protected override void CacheMetadata(CodeActivityMetadata metadata)
{
if (unique.ToString() == "00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000")
unique = Guid.NewGuid();
}
When i drag the activity on the designer, the unique id is generated. I make sure that this portion of code is called only once.
Why is that?
Because after a call like this,
IEnumerable<ModelItem> activityCollection = currentWorkflow.Find(currentWorkflow.Root, typeof(Activity));
each model in the activity collection contains that property ( unique of type Guid ) with the value of the first assignment made in CacheMetadata. I can't explain this behavior, i've just taken it into consideration.
Who calls again that CacheMetadata ? something like this :
Activity root = ActivityXamlServices.Load(currentXamlPath);
WorkflowInspectionServices.CacheMetadata(root);
And so, the Guid is changed and its utility is gone.
This way, i am able to get the ModelItem for my custom activity and update some of its properties which are immediately displayed in the GUI.

DbContext only validate changed properties

I'm experimenting with updating properties on an entity without getting the entity first from the database.
The trouble is I only wish to update some properties and the entity validator complains that the non-nullable values have not been filled even though I'm not updating those.
Is my only option to turn of the validator?
I'd rather not turn of the validator, as I'd like to validate the properties I'm updating.
TestContext context = new TestContext();
LearningResource learningResource = new LearningResource();
learningResource.LearningResourceID = 132;
DbEntityEntry<LearningResource> entry = context.Entry(learningResource);
context.LearningResources.Attach(learningResource);
entry.State = EntityState.Unchanged;
learningResource.Title = "alex";
entry.Property(e => e.Title).IsModified = true;
//Only seems to work if I do this.
//context.Configuration.ValidateOnSaveEnabled = false;
context.SaveChanges();
That is "a feature". You must turn off global validation and validate every changed property separately.
var result = entry.Property(e => e.Title).GetValidationResult();
I also don't understand why this doesn't happen out of the box.

WizardForm in Spring 3

I found a code from Spring forums that seems to be an interesting way to implement wizardForms in Spring 3:
#RequestMapping(method = RequestMethod.POST)
public ModelAndView processSubmit(
#ModelAttribute("pet") Pet pet,
SessionStatus status) {
if (pet.getFieldOne() == null) {
//return the form that will set field one's value
return new ModelAndView( ... );
} else if (pet.getFieldTwo() == null) {
//return the form that will set field two's value
return new ModelAndView( ... );
} //and so on for all the other field that need to be set...
...
else {
//once the object has all necessary fields
//set and validated, then do what needs
//to be done to finish. Store object, end
//session, and return your success view.
this.clinic.storePet(pet);
status.setComplete();
return new ModelAndView( ... );
}
}
Can anyone tell me what the storing here means, and is this a good way?
If by "storing" you mean this.clinic.storePet(pet);, it's an action of saving the complete object in your database when wizard is finished, so that it's completely unrelated to wizard implementation.
The approach itself is a standard way to implement wizard forms in Spring 3 that replaces the deprectated AbstractWizardFormController.
Note that it also requires #SessionAttribute("pet") as a class-level annotation. This annotation makes Spring to store the corresponding model attribute in the session between requests, so that each form submission sets fields of the same object. When all fields are set and wizard is finished, object is saved to the database, and removed from the session by status.setComplete();.

Entity Framework - Auditing activity

My database has a 'LastModifiedUser' column on every table in which I intend to collect the logged in user from an application who makes a change. I am not talking about the database user so essentially this is just a string on each entity. I would like to find a way to default this for each entity so that other developers don't have to remember to assign it any time they instantiate the entity.
So something like this would occur:
using (EntityContext ctx = new EntityContext())
{
MyEntity foo = new MyEntity();
// Trying to avoid having the following line every time
// a new entity is created/added.
foo.LastModifiedUser = Lookupuser();
ctx.Foos.Addobject(foo);
ctx.SaveChanges();
}
There is a perfect way to accomplish this in EF 4.0 by leveraging ObjectStateManager
First, you need to create a partial class for your ObjectContext and subscribe to
ObjectContext.SavingChanges Event. The best place to subscribe to this event is inside the OnContextCreated Method. This method is called by the context object’s constructor and the constructor overloads which is a partial method with no implementation:
partial void OnContextCreated() {
this.SavingChanges += Context_SavingChanges;
}
Now the actual code that will do the job:
void Context_SavingChanges(object sender, EventArgs e) {
IEnumerable<ObjectStateEntry> objectStateEntries =
from ose
in this.ObjectStateManager.GetObjectStateEntries(EntityState.Added
| EntityState.Modified)
where ose.Entity != null
select ose;
foreach (ObjectStateEntry entry in objectStateEntries) {
ReadOnlyCollection<FieldMetadata> fieldsMetaData = entry.CurrentValues
.DataRecordInfo.FieldMetadata;
FieldMetadata modifiedField = fieldsMetaData
.Where(f => f.FieldType.Name == "LastModifiedUser").FirstOrDefault();
if (modifiedField.FieldType != null) {
string fieldTypeName = modifiedField.FieldType.TypeUsage.EdmType.Name;
if (fieldTypeName == PrimitiveTypeKind.String.ToString()) {
entry.CurrentValues.SetString(modifiedField.Ordinal, Lookupuser());
}
}
}
}
Code Explanation:
This code locates any Added or Modified entries that have a LastModifiedUser property and then updates that property with the value coming from your custom Lookupuser() method.
In the foreach block, the query basically drills into the CurrentValues of each entry. Then, using the Where method, it looks at the names of each FieldMetaData item for that entry, picking up only those whose Name is LastModifiedUser. Next, the if statement verifies that the LastModifiedUser property is a String field; then it updates the field's value.
Another way to hook up this method (instead of subscribing to SavingChanges event) is by overriding the ObjectContext.SaveChanges Method.
By the way, the above code belongs to Julie Lerman from her Programming Entity Framework book.
EDIT for Self Tracking POCO Implementation:
If you have self tracking POCOs then what I would do is that I first change the T4 template to call the OnContextCreated() method. If you look at your ObjectContext.tt file, there is an Initialize() method that is called by all constructors, therefore a good candidate to call our OnContextCreated() method, so all we need to do is to change ObjectContext.tt file like this:
private void Initialize()
{
// Creating proxies requires the use of the ProxyDataContractResolver and
// may allow lazy loading which can expand the loaded graph during serialization.
ContextOptions.ProxyCreationEnabled = false;
ObjectMaterialized += new ObjectMaterializedEventHandler(HandleObjectMaterialized);
// We call our custom method here:
OnContextCreated();
}
And this will cause our OnContextCreated() to be called upon creation of the Context.
Now if you put your POCOs behind the service boundary, then it means that the ModifiedUserName must come with the rest of data from your WCF service consumer. You can either expose this
LastModifiedUser property to them to update or if it stores in another property and you wish to update LastModifiedUser from that property, then you can modify the 2nd code as follows:
foreach (ObjectStateEntry entry in objectStateEntries) {
ReadOnlyCollection fieldsMetaData = entry.CurrentValues
.DataRecordInfo.FieldMetadata;
FieldMetadata sourceField = fieldsMetaData
.Where(f => f.FieldType.Name == "YourPropertyName").FirstOrDefault();
FieldMetadata modifiedField = fieldsMetaData
.Where(f => f.FieldType.Name == "LastModifiedUser").FirstOrDefault();
if (modifiedField.FieldType != null) {
string fieldTypeName = modifiedField.FieldType.TypeUsage.EdmType.Name;
if (fieldTypeName == PrimitiveTypeKind.String.ToString()) {
entry.CurrentValues.SetString(modifiedField.Ordinal,
entry.CurrentValues[sourceField.Ordinal].ToString());
}
}
}
Hope this helps.
There is a nuget package for this now : https://www.nuget.org/packages/TrackerEnabledDbContext
Github: https://github.com/bilal-fazlani/tracker-enabled-dbcontext