Skip to main content

Strong typed MVC routing on TypeScript/JavaScript

Very often we mess up with routing by giving path which does not exist due to various reason like spelling mistake, name confusions etc. for forming correct URLs . This happens on both server side codes and client side code. There are few strong typed routing provider library present for server side but none is present on the client side.

We will look into creating a classes and function to set up our routing paths which will help us to give correct URL based on MVC routing.
The idea is to create T4 template file which will be generating client side codes based on MVC routing.

I have tried to keep it simple in this version which reads up MVC controllers and public function.

The end result looks like this, which is TypeScript code. Makes it pretty simple to use these classes directly without worrying about correct URLs.

 module Routing {  
   export declare var DomainName: string;  
   export function GetDomainName(): string {  
     return (DomainName != undefined && DomainName.length) ?  
       (DomainName.lastIndexOf("/") == -1 ? DomainName + "/" : DomainName)  
       : "";  
   }  
   // Routing for Web.Controllers.TestController  
   export class TestRoute {  
         static TestConfiguration() : string  
     {  
       return GetDomainName() + "Test/" + "QuestionConfiguration";  
     }  
     static GetAnswerTypes() : string  
     {  
       return GetDomainName() + "Test/" + "GetAnswerTypes";  
     }  
     static GetCascadeValues() : string  
     {  
       return GetDomainName() + "Test/" + "GetCascadeValues";  
     }  
   }  
 }  

The DomainName variable can be initialized out of the class to get full path for URLs.
Ex:
 Routing.DomainName = '@MvcApplication.WebsiteDomainName';  

Let's look into T4 template, which generates above code.

 <#@ template debug="true" hostSpecific="true" #>  
 <#@ assembly name="System.Core" #>  
 <#@ Assembly Name="EnvDTE" #>  
 <#@ import namespace="EnvDTE" #>  
 <#@ import namespace="System.Linq" #>  
 <#@ import namespace="System.Text" #>  
 <#@ import namespace="System.Collections.Generic" #>  
 <#@ output extension=".ts" #>  
 module Routing {  
   export declare var DomainName: string;  
   export function GetDomainName(): string {  
     return (DomainName != undefined && DomainName.length) ?  
       (DomainName.lastIndexOf("/") == -1 ? DomainName + "/" : DomainName)  
       : "";  
   }  
 <#  
   // TODO: Give any controllers which need to be avoided.  
   var avoidClassNames = new List<string>{"BaseController"};  
   // TODO: Function names to avoid in code generation.  
   var avoidFunctionNames = new List<string>();  
   var env = (DTE)((IServiceProvider)this.Host)  
     .GetService(typeof(EnvDTE.DTE));  
   var project = env.ActiveDocument.ProjectItem.ContainingProject;  
   foreach(CodeClass clas in   
     GetAllCodeElementsOfType(project.CodeModel.CodeElements,EnvDTE.vsCMElement.vsCMElementClass,false)  
     .OfType<CodeClass>()  
     .Where(cc => cc.IsDerivedFrom["System.Web.Mvc.Controller"] &&  
         !avoidClassNames.Contains(cc.Name)  
       )  
     )  
   {  
     var clasName = clas.Name.Substring(0, clas.Name.Length-10);  
     #>  
   // Routing for <#= clas.FullName #>  
   export class <#=      clasName #>Route {  
     <#  
     var allFunctions = GetAllCodeElementsOfType(clas.Members, EnvDTE.vsCMElement.vsCMElementFunction, false);  
         foreach(var funcName in allFunctions.OfType<CodeFunction>()  
             .Where(fun => fun.Access == EnvDTE.vsCMAccess.vsCMAccessPublic &&   
               fun.Name != clas.Name &&  
               !avoidFunctionNames.Contains(fun.Name)  
             )          
             .Select(fun=>fun.Name).Distinct()  
           )          
     {  
 #>  
     static <#=funcName #>() : string  
     {  
       return GetDomainName() + "<#=clasName #>/" + "<#=funcName #>";  
     }  
 <#  
     }  
     #>  
   }  
 <#  
   }  
     #>  
 }  
 <#+  
   // https://github.com/PombeirP/T4Factories/blob/master/T4Factories.Testbed/CodeTemplates/VisualStudioAutomationHelper.ttinclude  
   // This function is from Tangible T4. All credit goes to them  
   public List<EnvDTE.CodeElement> GetAllCodeElementsOfType(EnvDTE.CodeElements elements, EnvDTE.vsCMElement elementType, bool includeExternalTypes)  
   {  
     var ret = new List<EnvDTE.CodeElement>();  
     foreach (EnvDTE.CodeElement elem in elements)  
     {  
       // iterate all namespaces (even if they are external)  
       // > they might contain project code  
       if (elem.Kind == EnvDTE.vsCMElement.vsCMElementNamespace)  
       {  
         ret.AddRange(GetAllCodeElementsOfType(((EnvDTE.CodeNamespace)elem).Members, elementType, includeExternalTypes));  
       }  
         // if its not a namespace but external  
         // > ignore it  
       else if (elem.InfoLocation == EnvDTE.vsCMInfoLocation.vsCMInfoLocationExternal  
         && !includeExternalTypes)  
         continue;  
         // if its from the project  
         // > check its members  
       else if (elem.IsCodeType)  
       {  
         ret.AddRange(GetAllCodeElementsOfType(((EnvDTE.CodeType)elem).Members, elementType, includeExternalTypes));  
       }  
       // if this item is of the desired type  
       // > store it  
       if (elem.Kind == elementType)  
         ret.Add(elem);  
     }  
     return ret;  
   }  
  #>  

Mark that avoidClassNames and avoidFunctionNames is used to avoid classes and function which we want to avoid in generation of codes. In my case, class named with BaseController.

There are few things which are not supported in this version:
1. Attribute routing of MVC.
2. WebApi routing.

Note: GetAllCodeElementsOfType is taken from https://github.com/PombeirP/T4Factories/blob/master/T4Factories.Testbed/CodeTemplates/VisualStudioAutomationHelper.ttinclude 
.


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Elegantly dealing with TimeZones in MVC Core / WebApi

In any new application handling TimeZone/DateTime is mostly least priority and generally, if someone is concerned then it would be handled by using DateTime.UtcNow on codes while creating current dates and converting incoming Date to UTC to save on servers. Basically, the process is followed by saving DateTime to UTC format in a database and keep converting data to native format based on user region or single region in the application's presentation layer. The above is tedious work and have to be followed religiously. If any developer misses out the manual conversion, then that area of code/view would not work. With newer frameworks, there are flexible ways to deal/intercept incoming or outgoing calls to simplify conversion of TimeZones. These are steps/process to achieve it. 1. Central code for storing user's state about TimeZone. Also, central code for conversion logic based on TimeZones. 2. Dependency injection for the above class to ...

Trim text in MVC Core through Model Binder

Trimming text can be done on client side codes, but I believe it is most suitable on MVC Model Binder since it would be at one place on infrastructure level which would be free from any manual intervention of developer. This would allow every post request to be processed and converted to a trimmed string. Let us start by creating Model binder using Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc.ModelBinding; using System; using System.Threading.Tasks; public class TrimmingModelBinder : IModelBinder { private readonly IModelBinder FallbackBinder; public TrimmingModelBinder(IModelBinder fallbackBinder) { FallbackBinder = fallbackBinder ?? throw new ArgumentNullException(nameof(fallbackBinder)); } public Task BindModelAsync(ModelBindingContext bindingContext) { if (bindingContext == null) { throw new ArgumentNullException(nameof(bindingContext)); } var valueProviderResult = bindingContext.ValueProvider.GetValue(bin...

Handling JSON DateTime format on Asp.Net Core

This is a very simple trick to handle JSON date format on AspNet Core by global settings. This can be applicable for the older version as well. In a newer version by default, .Net depends upon Newtonsoft to process any JSON data. Newtonsoft depends upon Newtonsoft.Json.Converters.IsoDateTimeConverter class for processing date which in turns adds timezone for JSON data format. There is a global setting available for same that can be adjusted according to requirement. So, for example, we want to set default formatting to US format, we just need this code. services.AddMvc() .AddJsonOptions(options => { options.SerializerSettings.DateTimeZoneHandling = "MM/dd/yyyy HH:mm:ss"; });

Centralized model validation both for MVC/WebApi and SPA client-side validation using FluentValidation

Validation is one of the crucial parts of any application. It has to validate on both client side and server side requests. What are target features or implementation from this article? Model validation for any given model. Centralized/One code for validation on both server-side and client-side. Automatic validation of model without writing any extra codes on/under actions for validation.  NO EXTRA/ANY codes on client-side to validate any form. Compatible with SPA. Can be compatible with any client-side validation framework/library. Like Angular Reactive form validation or any jquery validation libraries. Tools used in the implementation? FluentValidation : I feel DataAnnotation validation are excellent and simple to use, but in case of complex validation or writing any custom validations are always tricker and need to write a lot of codes to achieve whereas FluentValidations are simple even in case of complex validation. Generally, we need to validate inc...

Architecture solution composting Repository Pattern, Unit Of Work, Dependency Injection, Factory Pattern and others

Project architecture is like garden, we plant the things in certain order and eventually they grow in similar manner. If things are planted well then they will all look(work) great and easier to manage. If they grow as cumbersome it would difficult to maintain and with time more problems would be happening in maintenance. There is no any fixed or known approach to decide project architecture and specially with Agile Methodology. In Agile Methodology, we cannot predict how our end products will look like similarly we cannot say a certain architecture will fit well for entire development lifespan for project. So, the best thing is to modify the architecture as per our application growth. I understand that it sounds good but will be far more problematic with actual development. If it is left as it is then more problems will arise with time. Just think about moving plant vs a full grown tree. Coming to technical side, In this article, I will be explaining about the various techniques ...

Blazor 0.5.0 Interop JavaScript from C# and C# to JavaScript call

Blazor provides two-way communication from JS to C# and C# to JS which is called Interop. The version upgrade to Blazor 0.5.0 changed the approach in interactions between cshtml and JS files. The newer version simplifies JS calling by avoiding pre-registration of JS function. In this article, we would see how to call a JS method by passing multiple parameters from cshtml and parameterized call from JS to cshtml. The scenario that is used in this article has a Kendo AutoComplete to search book and populate information based on the selection. An example of a call to JS from cshtml await JSRuntime.Current.InvokeAsync<string>( "searchBook.Init", "#SearchTitle", new DotNetObjectRef(this)); Takeaways from the above example: - JSRuntime.Current give environment to execute out-process JS. - InvokeAsync is a function that would allow executing the JS function. - The searchBook.Init is a JS function call, we would see it in details in the second sec...

Channel, ChannelReader and ChannelWriter to manage data streams in multi-threading environment

I came across Channel class while working with SignalR which looks really interesting. By looking into NuGet packages ( https://www.nuget.org/packages/System.Threading.Channels ), it seems just 4 months old. The Channel class provides infrastructure to have multiple reads and write simuletensely through it's Reader and Writer properties. This is where it is handy in case of SignalR where data streaming needs to be done but is not just limited to that but wherever something needs to be read/write/combination of both in a multi-threading environment. In my case with SignalR, I had to stream stock data at a regular interval of time. public ChannelReader<StockData> StreamStock() { var channel = Channel.CreateUnbounded<StockData>(); _stockManager.OnStockData = stockData => { channel.Writer.TryWrite(stockData); }; return channel.Reader; } The SignalR keeps return type of ChannelReader<StockData> open so that whatev...

LDAP with ASP.Net Identity Core in MVC with project.json

Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP), the name itself explain it. An application protocol used over an IP network to access the distributed directory information service. The first and foremost thing is to add references for consuming LDAP. This has to be done by adding reference from Global Assembly Cache (GAC) into project.json "frameworks": { "net461": { "frameworkAssemblies": { "System.DirectoryServices": "4.0.0.0", "System.DirectoryServices.AccountManagement": "4.0.0.0" } } }, These  System.DirectoryServices  and  System.DirectoryServices.AccountManagement  references are used to consume LDAP functionality. It is always better to have an abstraction for irrelevant items in consuming part. For an example, the application does not need to know about PrincipalContext or any other dependent items from those two references to make it extensible. So, we can begin wi...

A wrapper implementation for Kendo Grid usage

A wrapper implementation for any heavily used item is always a good practice. Whatever is not written by us and used at a lot of places should be wrapped within specific functionality to keep it future proof and easily changeable. This also encourages DRY principle to keep our common setting at a central place. Kendo UI items are enormous in configuration, one of an issue I find people keep repeating codes for Kendo Grid configuration. They have built very flexible system to have any configuration, but in most of the cases, we do not need all of those complicated configuration. We would try to see a simpler configuration of same. The actual core implementation is bit complex, but we do not have to bother about it once done since the focus is just on usage only. I recommend doing this practice for as simple as jQuery events, form handling or as simple as any notification system. This just won't make things simple but makes codes much more manageable, easy understand, read or open f...

Voice control Sony Bravia Television through Alexa

This is my second useful thing done through Alexa after simple implementation of switching on/off light. This is not just applicable to Sony Bravia TVs but any device which can be controlled through HTTP/JSON request or via any other protocol. Hardware prerequisites for making whole thing work are as follows: 1. Sony Bravia Android TV or other devices which can accept input through HTTP or different protocol. 2. Raspberry Pi to keep running program/service. 3. Alexa device. Software prerequisites: 1. Alexa Skill: https://developer.amazon.com/edw/home.html#/skills 2. Lambda: https://console.aws.amazon.com/lambda/home?region=us-east-1#/functions 3. AWS IoT: https://console.aws.amazon.com/iot/home?region=us-east-1 How the whole process would work? Alexa would accept voice commands and converts it to intend to make a request to Lambda function. Lambda function would use converted user-friendly commands to MQTT request on AWS IoT service which would be listened through MQTT ...