We've used the Validation Block of MS Enterprise Library for some time with great success in conjunction with custom DALs but we've recently started using the Entity Framework and can't get the Validation Block to work with it. The objects are dynamically created in EF and putting attributes on top of them will simply get wiped out when the models are re-genned.
Can these two co-exist? If not, does anyone have any recommendations for what validation library/simple rules engine would be a good candidate to use along with EF?
Thank you.
You need a validator which supports a "buddy class" (like this example for Dynamic Data). This seems to be a work in progress for VAB. I can't find an example of anyone actually using it yet, but it might work.
Validation Application Block supports the concept of configuration based validation. This way you can separate your generated domain entities from validation. You can use the Enterprise Library configuration tool for this. Simply right-click on your configuration file and start adding validation configuration.
I advise you to read the VAB Hands on Lab document (ValidationHOL.pdf) which is included in the Hands On Lab download. After reading that document, read this article. It explains how to integrate VAB with Entity Framework.
Good luck.
Related
I am looking for an easy-to-implement solution for form-based ontology editing and I wonder if there are any active projects and which of them is the right path to follow.
I need to create instances of an ontology (lets call it ontology A) using forms (either web or desktop) and store them in a triple store (e.g. Virtuoso). I would like to hide as much details as possible regarding the ontological relationships between the entities defined in ontology A and provide a plain simple user interface for CRUD (Create-Retrieve-Update-Delete) operations based on the entity schema defined in ontology A.
For example, I have found two possible solutions in the protege ecosystem:
PropertyFormPortlet It is not a live feature in the current webprotege version.
facsimile project
As described in the respective paper this is a solution that has been implemented for a specific context. Therefore, adapting it to another domain would not be as straightforward as I would like.
I wonder, is there another solution (even out of the protege ecosystem) that could facilitate such a form-based ontology editing. Could somebody provide some guidance?
Just in case someone lands in this question, I write down my conclusions. Practically, none of which I tried worked, but still I found out some interesting things.
OpenLink Structured Data Editor:
OSDE is a browser plugin which aims at populating RDF graphs in the form of files, based on Linked Vocabularies. In my case it didn't work as my locally hosted ontology cannot play the role of a "Linked Vocabulary". However, OpenLink team said they will work on it.
OData2SPARQL:
In our test, the WebIDE did not manage to create the forms out of the box as suggested by the respective video tutorial. However, we managed to use OpenUI library as a client of the OData services automatically created by OData2SPARQL, providing a web service interface for our ontology.
Ontowiki:
In our test environment, OntoWiki partially worked. We could save data but there were some bugs when trying to add properties etc. OntoWiki developers said that they plan to refactor in order to actively support it in newer hosting settings, but this is not the case right now.
How can I manipulate other modules without editing them ? very the same thing that wordpress modules do .
They add functionality to core system without changing the core code and they work together like a charm.
I always wanted to know how to implement this in my own modular application
A long time ago I wrote the blog post "Use 3rd party modules in Zend Framework 2" specifically about extending Zend Framework 2 modules. The answer from Bez is technically correct, it could be a bit more specific about the framework.
Read the full post at https://juriansluiman.nl/article/117/use-3rd-party-modules-in-zend-framework-2, but it gives you a clue about:
Changing a route from a module (say, you want to have the url /account/login instead of /user/login)
Overriding a view script, so you can completely modify the page's rendering
Changing a form object, so you could add new form fields or mark some required field as not required anymore.
This is a long topic, but here is a short gist.
Extensibility in Zend Framework 2 heavily relies on the premise that components can be interchanged, added, and/or substituted.
Read up on SOLID principles: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SOLID_(object-oriented_design)
Modules typically consists of objects working together as a well-oiled machinery, designed to accomplish one thing or a bunch of related things, whatever that may be. These objects are called services, and managed by the service locator/service manager.
A big part of making your module truly extensible is to expect your developers to extend a class or implement a certain interface, which the developer register as services. You should provide a mode of definition wherein the developers can specify which things he wants to substitute, and/or add their own services to -- and this is where the application configuration comes in.
Given the application configuration, you should construct your machinery a.k.a. module services according to options the developer has specified i.e., use the developer defined Foo\Bar\UserService service as the YourModule\UserServiceInterface within your module, etc. (This is usually delegated to service factories, which has the opportunity to read the application configuration, and constructs the appropriate object given a particular set of configuration values.)
EDIT:
To add, a lot can be accomplished by leveraging Zend's Zend\EventManager component. This allows you to give developers the freedom to hook and listen to certain operations of your module and act accordingly (See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Observer_pattern)
I have existing project written in Zend Framework 1, it is long term project, constantly developed and without possibility of migrating to ZF2. It would be really neat to use Symfony2 Web Profiler bundle in it.
Currently, in development, I am using zfdebug (https://packagist.org/packages/spekkionu/zfdebug) which is great, but bundle from Symfony2 has so much more to offer...
I managed to incorporate Composer into my application (in Bootstrap), so loading something with it should be no problem. Also I found package on Packgaist (https://packagist.org/packages/symfony/web-profiler-bundle) but to be honest - I don't know if it is even usable without Symfony2.
Thanks for any tips.
No, this is not possible. If you take a look at the requirements on packagist you see it requires symfony/http-kernel, symfony/routing and symfony/twig-bridge to work. That's because the way the WebProfilerBundle works:
It registers himself at the most common events, the events happening in the HttpKernel and Routing component. If he cannot register to these events, he will not be able to give you timer information.
Moreover, it uses another event to inject imself in your page, meaning that if you don't have that event, you will never see the bar.
And the bundle is using Symfony conventions and techniques, meaning that it cannot run on ZF conventions and techniques. This is why it is called a Bundle instead of a Component, components are stand alone, bundles aren't.
I could be totally misunderstanding Entity Framework here. I want to use that in my latest project (how else do you learn?) The problem is that the IBM i driver doesn't have support for that built in. Is is possible to create that framework from scratch? It is worth it?
It sounds like you'd be writing your own ADO.NET data provider to connect to IBM DB2 for i. Microsoft provides documentation for creating your own provider and a sample.
The data provider would be responsible for communicating with the database, so I'm not sure how you'd accomplish that. Either you'd be implementing your own connection to the database server running on the i (maybe you can port the SQL piece of JTOpen), or you'd be delegating your calls to the IBM-provided data provider (if that's even possible) or other data access method.
I couldn't decide whether I thought this was (1) a huge pain in the butt or (2) an opportunity for an open source project. (I guess it could be both.) It seems like it'd be easier to lobby IBM to make this part of their stock provider. You might complain about it on MIDRANGE-L and see if people will take up the cause.
Disclaimer: I am a newbie in the .NET world, so maybe there's an easier way to accomplish what you're trying to do.
I'm in the middle of converting an existing app built on top of zend framework to work as a plugin within wordpress as opposed to the standalone application it currently is.
I've never really used zend so I've had to learn about it in order to know where to begin. I must say that at first I didn't think much of zend, but it's funny because the more I understand how it works the more I keep questioning why I'd want to remove dependency when it's a clearly well thought out framework. Then I'm reminded that it's because of wordpress.
Now I already know there are WP plugins to make zend play nice with WP. In fact I'm aleady using a zend framework plugin just to get the app functional within the WP admin area which is allowing me to review code, modify code, refresh the browser, review changes, debug code, again and again.
Anyway, I really don't have a specific question but instead I'm looking for advice from any zend masters out there to offer advice on how to best go about a task like this one.... so any comments, advice, examples or suggestions would be super.
One area I'm a little stuck on is converting parts of zend->db calls to work as wpdb calls instead... specifically the zend->db->select.... not sure what to do with that one.
Also on how to handle all the URL routing with automatic calls to "whatverAction" within thier respective controllers files.
Any help would be great! Thanks
You're probably facing an uphill battle trying to get some of the more major components of ZF to work in harmony with Wordpress. It sounds like you've got a full MVC app that you're trying to integrate into a second app that has very different architecture.
You probably want to think about which components handle which responsibilities. Wordpress has it's own routing and controller system that revolves around posts, pages and 'The Loop'. This is entirely different from Zend's Action Controllers and routing system.
It's possible you could write a WP hook to evaluate every incoming request and decide if it should be handled by WP or a ZF controller. However, it is doubtful you would be able to replace WP's routing system outright with ZF's or vice versa.
Same idea, where Zend_Db is concerned. There's nothing stopping you from using Zend_Db to access Wordpress's database, but trying to somehow convert or adapt Zend_db calls into wpdb calls sounds painful. If you have a large model layer, you probably want to hang on to it, and find a way to translate data from those models into the posts/pages conventions that Wordpress uses.
Personally, I would use ZF to build a robust business layer that can be queried through an object model via a Wordpress plugin, and then rely on Wordpress to do the routing and handle the views.
Zend_DB_Select is simple SQL query (but created using objects) that can be used like any other query. Just turn it into string. Ex.:
mysql_query((string)$zendDbSelectObject);