Subdomain with ASP.NET MVC using Attribute Routing

ASP.NET MVC Routing allows defining various mappings and recently I have looked at an interesting framework known as Attribute Routing.

Using Attribute Routing setting up a subdomain for your website that uses ASP.NET MVC is very simple. Now consider you have a website www.csharptechies.com and you would want to define subdomains such as blog.csharptechies.com, projects.csharptechies.com, labels.csharptechies.com etc.... Each of these subdomain can be a different project (any technology such as webforms, MVC etc) by themselves or can be an area defined in an ASP.NET MVC project.

Lets consider we are going to follow the approach of having areas inside ASP.NET MVC project. Here are the list of steps to achieve this.

1. Create your ASP.NET MVC project with all the content and publish to your IIS. You should now be able to access your website using http://localhost/csharptechies or based on your machine http://saifpc.localhost.com/csharptechies. You could define hosts file to include the references.

I have added following to "hosts" file under C:\Windows\System32\Drivers\etc with data as

127.0.0.1 www.csharptechies.com

Now website can be accessed as www.csharptechies.com\csharptechies(ie.. http://localhost/csharptechies)

2. Lets code for subdomain routing. First add references for attribute routing via nuget using "Install-Package AttributeRouting"

3. Create an area with the name "Blog".

4. Add a new folder "Blog" under "Areas\Blog\Views". create a new view "articles" under "Areas\Blog\Views\Blog"

5. Add a controller BlogController.cs with following code under "Areas\Blog\Controllers"

 [RouteArea("Blog", Subdomain = "blog")]
    public class BlogController : Controller
    {
        //
        // GET: /articles/
        [GET("")]
        public ActionResult articles()
        {
            return View();
        }
    }

6. Update "AttributeRoutingConfig.cs" to add routing to blog

public static class AttributeRoutingConfig
 {
  public static void RegisterRoutes(RouteCollection routes) 
  {   
routes.MapAttributeRoutes(config => config.AddRoutesFromController());
  }

        public static void Start() 
  {
            RegisterRoutes(RouteTable.Routes);
        }
    }

7. Now add new entry to hosts file

127.0.0.1 blog.csharptechies.com

8. Publish latest version of the project and using IE browse to the website as

http://blog.csharptechies.com/csharptechies

This will show the view as articles, since BlogController now understands the attribute definition of subdomain as "blog" it will route the url to blog instead of standard csharptechies website. You could also look at possible routing via www.csharptechies.com\csharptechies\routes.axd

Technology is just a tool. In terms of getting the kids working together and motivating them, the teacher is the most important.
Bill Gates

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Restricting access to a webservice in ASP.NET

Restricting access to a webservice can be done via web.config but if you would want to make the decision at runtime then here is an example of how you could achieve this

 

protected void Application_BeginRequest(Object sender, EventArgs e)
{
  if (/*Condition*/)
  {
    if (HttpContext.Current.Request.Url.ToString().Contains("Admin.asmx"))
    {
       HttpContext.Current.Response.StatusCode = 404;
    }
   }
}

Genius ain't anything more than elegant common sense.
Josh Billings

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Mock frameworks for .NET Part 2

As we have already seen the basics of Mock framework, let's look at some of Mock frameworks that are available and understand what they do or don't support.

NMock

---

Software License	Apache License 2.0
Last Active	Jul-2011
Latest Version	NMock3
Supported .NET Version	.NET 4.0
Build Server Integration	No
Code Coverate Integration	No
Mock Interfaces	Yes
Mock Everything	No
Mock Legacy Code	No
Auto Recursive Fakes	No
Fake Dependencies	No
Url	http://nmock3.codeplex.com/

TypeMock

---

Software License	Commercial
Last Active	Jul-2013
Latest Version	Isolater 7.4.1
Supported .NET Version	.NET 4.0
Build Server Integration	Yes (Microsoft TFS, MSBuild, Nant, Final Builder)
Code Coverate Integration	Yes (CoverageEye, NCover, PartCover, DevPartner, Clover.NET, ExactMagic's TestMatrix, MSTest Code Coverage (Visual Studio and Team System), dotTrace, ReSharper, AQtime)
Mock Interfaces	Yes
Mock Everything	Yes
Mock Legacy Code	Yes
Auto Recursive Fakes	Yes
Fake Dependencies	Yes
Url	http://www.typemock.com/isolator-product-page

Rhino Mocks

---

Software License	BSD license
Last Active	Jan-2010
Latest Version	Rhino Mocks 3.6
Supported .NET Version	.NET 3.5
Build Server Integration	No
Code Coverate Integration	No
Mock Interfaces	Yes
Mock Everything	Yes
Mock Legacy Code	No
Auto Recursive Fakes	No
Fake Dependencies	No
Url	http://hibernatingrhinos.com/oss/rhino-mocks

Moq

---

Software License	BSD license
Last Active	Apr-2011
Latest Version	Moq 4.0
Supported .NET Version	.NET 3.5
Build Server Integration	No
Code Coverate Integration	No
Mock Interfaces	Yes
Mock Everything	Yes
Mock Legacy Code	No
Auto Recursive Fakes	No
Fake Dependencies	No
Url	https://code.google.com/p/moq/

Nsubstitute

---

Software License	BSD license
Last Active	Aug-13
Latest Version	NSubstitute-1.6.1.0
Supported .NET Version	.NET 4.0
Build Server Integration	No
Code Coverate Integration	No
Mock Interfaces	Yes
Mock Everything	Yes
Mock Legacy Code	No
Auto Recursive Fakes	No
Fake Dependencies	No
Url	http://nsubstitute.github.io/

JustMock

---

Software License	Full Version - Commercial, Lite - Free
Last Active	Oct-2013
Latest Version	V 2013.3.1015.0
Supported .NET Version	.NET 4.0
Build Server Integration	Yes (TFS, CruiseControl.NET, Team City & Jenkins etc)
Code Coverate Integration	Yes (NCover, PartCover, JetBrains dotTrace, PostSharp etc)
Mock Interfaces	Yes
Mock Everything	Yes
Mock Legacy Code	Yes
Auto Recursive Fakes	Yes
Fake Dependencies	Yes
Url	http://www.telerik.com/products/mocking.aspx

FakeItEasy

---

Software License	MIT License
Last Active	Oct-2013
Latest Version	v 1.13.1
Supported .NET Version	.NET 3.5
Build Server Integration	No
Code Coverate Integration	No
Mock Interfaces	Yes
Mock Everything	Yes
Mock Legacy Code	No
Auto Recursive Fakes	Yes
Fake Dependencies	No
Url	https://github.com/FakeItEasy/FakeItEasy

Microsoft Flakes

---

Software License	Commercial with Visual Studio
Last Active	Mar-2013
Latest Version	-
Supported .NET Version	.NET 4.0
Build Server Integration	No
Code Coverate Integration	No
Mock Interfaces	Yes
Mock Everything	Yes
Mock Legacy Code	No
Auto Recursive Fakes	No
Fake Dependencies	No
Url	http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh549175.aspx

Now you should be able to select the right framework that suits your needs.

It's fine to celebrate success but it is more important to heed the lessons of failure.
Bill Gates

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Mock frameworks for .NET Part 1

Mock frameworks are used for unit testing your code and are used for Test Driven Development (TDD). A mock framework should support Arrange Act Assert (AAA) pattern. There are various mock frameworks available and choosing the right one is not easy. Before looking at various frameworks available let's understand some basics of what a framework should have to be known as a Mock framework.

Mock Interfaces & abstract classes

Interfaces or Abstract classes allows Mock framework to be able to create stubs, A stub is a small block of code that is replacement of another component or code block. TDD approach of R-G-R (Red-Green-Refactor) is an example where a stub might be useful. In order to make a test successfull (Green), you would need a stub for places where actual definition is either not written or unknown.

Mock Everything in .NET

Able to mock everything in a class, such as

• mock dependent objects
• non-virtual methods
• sealed classes
• static methods
• static classes
• non-public members
• non-public types

Mock Legacy Code

Assume some legacy code that has got some core business logic but has been designed/coded way before TDD has even started

• no interfaces
• no abstract classes
• has dependencies

Auto Recursive Fakes

Once a mock is created some methods and properties will automatically return non null values such as interfaces, delegate, virtual class etc. This is also known as recursive mock.

Fake Dependencies

If a mock is dependent on another object, framework should allow to either populate or assign dependency so as to make the test succeed. Most of the frameworks will support it by default.

Unit Test Integration

Allow easy integration with unit test tools such as NUnit, MSTest, Xunit etc.

Build Server Integration

Mock framework should allow you to be able to automate unit tests as part of your build & continuous integration. It should be able to support various build servers such as TFS, MSBuild, Nant, CruiseControl.NET etc

Code coverage Integration

Mock framework should allow to be integrated with 3rd party code coverage so as to produce various metrics that can easily point out areas of code that has not been covered by a unit test or has been wrongly written. It should be able to support various 3rd party code coverage software such as NCover, MSTest Code Coverage, ReSharper etc.

All of the these are only related to .net code. The mock framework features that are required for javascript mocking is out of scope of this article. The list of mock frameworks can be seen at Mock frameworks for .NET Part 2

Intelligence is the ability to adapt to change.
Stephen Hawking

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Using ASP.NET Web API for streaming pictures

ASP.NET Web API 2.0 provides various new features and one of which is Attribute Routing. Attribute routing allows custom configuration for routing by assigning attribute to the web method.

Get latest version of ASP.NET Web API 2.0 via Nuget package

Install-Package Microsoft.AspNet.WebApi.WebHost

Update WebApiConfig to include config.MapHttpAttributeRoutes()

 public static class WebApiConfig
    {
        public static void Register(HttpConfiguration config)
        {
            config.MapHttpAttributeRoutes();

            config.Routes.MapHttpRoute(
                name: "DefaultApi",
                routeTemplate: "api/{controller}/{id}",
                defaults: new { id = RouteParameter.Optional }
            );
        }
    }

The [HttpGet] attribute defines an HTTP GET method. Now create RESTful endpoint using web api

[HttpGet("api/invoice/scan/{id}")]
public HttpResponseMessage GetScannedInvoiceById(string id)
{
 HttpResponseMessage result = new HttpResponseMessage();
 string isPath = GetInoviceScanPath(id);
        result.Content = new StreamContent(new FileStream(isPath, FileMode.Open));
 result.Content.Headers.ContentType = new MediaTypeHeaderValue("image/png");
 return result;
}

http://localhost/csharptechies/api/invoice/scan/1908765 will now get the image as HttpResponseMessage.

Apart from using attributes to define an uri for controller methods, Route Prefixes can be defined as a controller attribute that will become base uri for for all of the controller methods.

Do you realize if it weren't for Edison we'd be watching TV by candlelight.
Al Boliska

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Server Side MVC vs Client Side MVC

MVC (Model–view–controller) is an architecture patterns that addresses separation of concerns, test driven development, statelessness, extensibility, SEO, REST and many more. Choosing MVC pattern for developing web application is a very easy decision, but that is just the beginning. Rest of decision is deciding how to design, develop and implement the web application.Now deciding on "Server Side MVC" or "Client Side MVC" is not any easy job as there are number of options available.

Server Side MVC

Overview

Server side MVC is a combination of server-side framework and javascript/jquery. There are various server-side framework's available depending on the platform you are developing. Here is a list of few of them

• ASP.NET MVC
• Ruby on Rails MVC
• Java MVC
• PHP MVC
• Perl MVC

Why

Various benefits of using Server Side MVC are

• Mature (been there for year)
• Routing decided by Server
• Server renders the views
• Server binds model to views
• View request can return html, json, xml, text, binary etc
• CRUD managed by Controller & Data Models on Server
• Code security
• Routing decided on application start
• Supports multi-page application

Client Side MVC

Overview

Client Side MVC is a combination of js frameworks and REST API. Partially still relies on server side application for providing REST API. There are various client-side framework's available depending on your choice of coding style. Here is a list of few of them

• Backbone.js
• Ember.js
• Knockout.js
• AngularJS
• Dojo
• Agility.js
• Knockback.js

Why

• Recently introduced but got more attention now (look at the list of examples where backbone.js is used
• Routing decided by Client
• Client renders the views
• Client binds model to views via javascript frameworks
• Uses REST API for getting data from server
• CRUD managed by Controller & Data Models on Client via REST API
• Started with single-page application, but now various frameworks support multi-page application
• Routing can be modified dynamically as it is maintained on client

Look at TODO MVC for more options on Client Side MVC.

Also you could use mixture of both Server Side MVC and Client Side MVC. I have used this combination ASP.NET MVC + KnockoutJS on Techcipher.

Think? Why think! We have computers to do that for us.
Jean Rostand

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Streaming millions of rows as a csv in ASP.NET MVC

Generating reports using the data from the database is something any project will generally have, but to be able to actually download all of the data as a csv is not easy. Not just thousands of rows but if database has millions of rows then challange will be to decide best approach. Consider following approaches

1. Generate the report on server and then stream the file to clients machine

2. Stream data in batches onto client machine

First approach is not a good idea as there is no feedback to the user when download will actually start, but with second option user will actually see the streaming immediately.

So let's look at option 2 and how that can be achieved

1. Define a custom result that derives from FileResult

public class CsvResult : FileResult
{
   protected override void WriteFile(HttpResponseBase response)
   {
            response.Clear();
            response.ClearContent();
            response.BufferOutput = false;
            var streamWriter = new StreamWriter(response.OutputStream, Encoding.UTF8);
            //write the header line first
            streamWriter.WriteLine("InvoiceDate,InvoiceNumber,Quantity,Price");
            long count = GetInvoiceRecCount();
            
            long batchSize = 10000;
            long numberOfBatches = count / batchSize;
            long startRow = 0;
            for (int i = 0; i < numberOfBatches; i++)
            {
                startRow = i * batchSize;
                //Get batch of rows
                var invoiceRows = GetInvoiceRows(startRow, batchSize);
                foreach(DataRow row in invoiceRows)
                {
                    //write data 
                    streamWriter.WriteLine(dataLine);
                }

                streamWriter.Flush();
            }

            if (startRow + batchSize < count)
            {
                batchSize = count - startRow;
                //Get batch of rows
                var invoiceRows = GetInvoiceRows(startRow, batchSize);
                //write final batch
                foreach (DataRow row in invoiceRows)
                {
                    //write data 
                    streamWriter.WriteLine(dataLine);
                }

                streamWriter.Flush();
            }
   }

}

2. Now write controller action

public ActionResult ExportInvoicesToCsv()
{
   CsvResult csvResult = new CsvResult();
   csvResult.FileDownloadName = "InvoiceReport.csv";
   return csvResult;
}

And that's it all done. Now when user tries to download millions of rows as csv they are batches in the size of 10000 and will be streamed to users machine.

Technology is just a tool. In terms of getting the kids working together and motivating them, the teacher is the most important.
Bill Gates

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