WCF DataServiceQuery for derived type - wcf

I have a base entity, and a derived entity, with an extra boolean property. My WCF Data Service exposes an EntitySet of the base entity. I can query it in a browser:
http://myserver/myservice/BaseSet/Namespace.Derived()?$filter=(BoolProp eq false)
And I get a collection of objects of my Derived type. All good.
In my client I have a grid which takes a DataServiceQuery. So I constructed my query:
var query = context.CreateQuery<Proxy.Derived>("BaseSet");
But when I try to filter on derived properties it returns an error. And when I examined the URL it used in its request it's missing the chunk for my derived type, i.e. it looked like:
http://myserver/myservice/BaseSet()?filter=(BoolProp eq false)
What's the proper way to construct a DataServiceQuery that I can use to query using properties on my derived type?

Turns out all I needed was to extend the entitySetName argument to include my derived type:
var query = context.CreateQuery<Proxy.Derived>("BaseSet/Namespace.Derived")();
The name of the argument isn't great. Now I actually bother to read the documentation it does tell me that the entitySetName should be "A string that resolves to a URI." Not sure that helps most people but I should have checked it sooner.

Related

Jackson constructParametricType is deprecated, but constructParameterizedType doesn't work the same

Here is my code snippet, and the newer "constructParameterizedType" doesn't match my needs (unless I am missing something, which I assume I am). I have a genericized class called Result where T is any basic class that extends my "Inflatable" base class. represents the data records coming back from Salesforce REST API... so here is example of code that is working:
Class c = Class.forName("sfshare.UserRecord" );
JavaType type = mapper.getTypeFactory().constructParametricType(Result.class, c);
Result<T> res = mapper.readValue(rspData, type);
But if I use the newer (non-deprecated) "constructParameterizedType()" method, this same code will not compile because it isn't matching the parameters of constructParameterizedType. But constructParameterizedType isn't in use much yet and there are no examples to use... only the Javadoc - which doesn't make sense for my use-case.
If you look at arguments and specifically Javadocs, you will note that there is a new type: 2nd argument is the intended 'target' for parameters.
To give an example of meaning is that if you want to construct equivalent of:
ArrayList<String>
what you want to pass as arguments are:
constructParameterizedType(ArrayList.class, List.class, String.class)
or, possibly, Collection.class for second argument.
Think of it as the underlying relevant type you are trying to provide parameters for.
The underlying reason for this change is somewhat complicated and has to do with handling of "add-on" interfaces like Iterable<T>: for those cases it is necessary to provide different classes.
But in most end-user use cases you will just need to pass the same class as first and second argument.
Try this:
Class c = Class.forName("sfshare.UserRecord");
TypeFactory typeFactory = mapper.getTypeFactory();
JavaType type = typeFactory.constructParametrizedType(Result.class, Result.class, c);
Result<T> res = mapper.readValue(rspData, type);
or if your Result<T> class implements an interface:
JavaType type = typeFactory.constructParametrizedType(Result.class, ResultInterface.class, c);

AliasToBean DTO with known type

All the examples I am finding for using the AliasToBean transformer use the sessions CreateSqlQuery method rather than the CreateQuery method. They also only return the basic value types, and not any object's of the existing mapped types.
I was hoping it would be possible that my DTO have a property of one of my mapped Domain objects, like below, but I am not getting traction. I get the following exception:
Could not find a setter for property '0' in class 'namespace.DtoClass'
My select looks like the following on my mapped classes (I have confirmed the mappings pull correctly):
SELECT
fcs.MeasurementPoint,
fcs.Form,
fcs.MeasurementPoint.IsUnscheduled as ""IsVisitUnscheduled"",
fcs.MultipleEntryAllowed
FROM FormCollectionSchedule fcs
My end query will be more complex, but I wanted to confirm if this AliasToBean method can return mapped domain objects as well as basic field values from tables retrieved via sql.
the query execution looks like the following:
var result = session.CreateQuery(hqlQuery.ToString())
.SetResultTransformer(NHibernate.Transform.Transformers.AliasToBean(typeof (VisitFormCollectionResult)))
.List<VisitFormCollectionResult>();
note: the VisitFormCollectionResult DTO has more properties, but I wanted to know if I could populate the domain object properties matching the names
update found my problem! I have to explicitly alias each of the fields. once I added an alias, even though the member property on the class matched my DTO's property name, the hydration of the object worked correctly.
The answer to my own question was that each of the individual fields in the select needed an explicit alias matching the property, regardless if the field name already matched the property name of the DTO object:
SELECT
fcs.MeasurementPoint as "MeasurementPoint",
fcs.Form as "Form",
fcs.MeasurementPoint.IsUnscheduled as "IsVisitUnscheduled",
fcs.MultipleEntryAllowed as "MultipleEntryAllowed"
FROM FormCollectionSchedule fcs

Unit testing value objects in isolation from its dependencies

TL;DR
How do you test a value object in isolation from its dependencies without stubbing or injecting them?
In Misko Hevery's blog post To “new” or not to “new”… he advocates the following (quoted from the blog post):
An Injectable class can ask for other Injectables in its constructor.(Sometimes I refer to Injectables as Service Objects, but
that term is overloaded.). Injectable can never ask for a non-Injectable (Newable) in its constructor.
Newables can ask for other Newables in their constructor, but not for Injectables (Sometimes I refer to Newables as Value Object, but
again, the term is overloaded)
Now if I have a Quantity value object like this:
class Quantity{
$quantity=0;
public function __construct($quantity){
$intValidator = new Zend_Validate_Int();
if(!$intValidator->isValid($quantity)){
throw new Exception("Quantity must be an integer.");
}
$gtValidator = new Zend_Validate_GreaterThan(0);
if(!$gtvalidator->isValid($quantity)){
throw new Exception("Quantity must be greater than zero.");
}
$this->quantity=$quantity;
}
}
My Quantity value object depends on at least 2 validators for its proper construction. Normally I would have injected those validators through the constructor, so that I can stub them during testing.
However, according to Misko a newable shouldn't ask for injectables in its constructor. Frankly a Quantity object that looks like this
$quantity=new Quantity(1,$intValidator,$gtValidator); looks really awkward.
Using a dependency injection framework to create a value object is even more awkward. However now my dependencies are hard coded in the Quantity constructor and I have no way to alter them if the business logic changes.
How do you design the value object properly for testing and adherence to the separation between injectables and newables?
Notes:
This is just a very very simplified example. My real object my have serious logic in it that may use other dependencies as well.
I used a PHP example just for illustration. Answers in other languages are appreciated.
A Value Object should only contain primitive values (integers, strings, boolean flags, other Value Objects, etc.).
Often, it would be best to let the Value Object itself protect its invariants. In the Quantity example you supply, it could easily do that by checking the incoming value without relying on external dependencies. However, I realize that you write
This is just a very very simplified example. My real object my have serious logic in it that may use other dependencies as well.
So, while I'm going to outline a solution based on the Quantity example, keep in mind that it looks overly complex because the validation logic is so simple here.
Since you also write
I used a PHP example just for illustration. Answers in other languages are appreciated.
I'm going to answer in F#.
If you have external validation dependencies, but still want to retain Quantity as a Value Object, you'll need to decouple the validation logic from the Value Object.
One way to do that is to define an interface for validation:
type IQuantityValidator =
abstract Validate : decimal -> unit
In this case, I patterned the Validate method on the OP example, which throws exceptions upon validation failures. This means that if the Validate method doesn't throw an exception, all is good. This is the reason the method returns unit.
(If I hadn't decided to pattern this interface on the OP, I'd have preferred using the Specification pattern instead; if so, I'd instead have declared the Validate method as decimal -> bool.)
The IQuantityValidator interface enables you to introduce a Composite:
type CompositeQuantityValidator(validators : IQuantityValidator list) =
interface IQuantityValidator with
member this.Validate value =
validators
|> List.iter (fun validator -> validator.Validate value)
This Composite simply iterates through other IQuantityValidator instances and invokes their Validate method. This enables you to compose arbitrarily complex validator graphs.
One leaf validator could be:
type IntegerValidator() =
interface IQuantityValidator with
member this.Validate value =
if value % 1m <> 0m
then
raise(
ArgumentOutOfRangeException(
"value",
"Quantity must be an integer."))
Another one could be:
type GreaterThanValidator(boundary) =
interface IQuantityValidator with
member this.Validate value =
if value <= boundary
then
raise(
ArgumentOutOfRangeException(
"value",
"Quantity must be greater than zero."))
Notice that the GreaterThanValidator class takes a dependency via its constructor. In this case, boundary is just a decimal, so it's a Primitive Dependency, but it could just as well have been a polymorphic dependency (A.K.A a Service).
You can now compose your own validator from these building blocks:
let myValidator =
CompositeQuantityValidator([IntegerValidator(); GreaterThanValidator(0m)])
When you invoke myValidator with e.g. 9m or 42m, it returns without errors, but if you invoke it with e.g. 9.8m, 0m or -1m it throws the appropriate exception.
If you want to build something a bit more complicated than a decimal, you can introduce a Factory, and compose the Factory with the appropriate validator.
Since Quantity is very simple here, we can just define it as a type alias on decimal:
type Quantity = decimal
A Factory might look like this:
type QuantityFactory(validator : IQuantityValidator) =
member this.Create value : Quantity =
validator.Validate value
value
You can now compose a QuantityFactory instance with your validator of choice:
let factory = QuantityFactory(myValidator)
which will let you supply decimal values as input, and get (validated) Quantity values as output.
These calls succeed:
let x = factory.Create 9m
let y = factory.Create 42m
while these throw appropriate exceptions:
let a = factory.Create 9.8m
let b = factory.Create 0m
let c = factory.Create -1m
Now, all of this is very complex given the simple nature of the example domain, but as the problem domain grows more complex, complex is better than complicated.
Avoid value types with dependencies on non-value types. Also avoid constructors that perform validations and throw exceptions. In your example I'd have a factory type that validates and creates quantities.
Your scenario can also be applied to entities. There are cases where an entity requires some dependency in order to perform some behaviour. As far as I can tell the most popular mechanism to use is double-dispatch.
I'll use C# for my examples.
In your case you could have something like this:
public void Validate(IQuantityValidator validator)
As other answers have noted a value object is typically simple enough to perform its invariant checking in the constructor. An e-mail value object would be a good example as an e-mail has a very specific structure.
Something a bit more complex could be an OrderLine where we need to determine, totally hypothetical, whether it is, say, taxable:
public bool IsTaxable(ITaxableService service)
In the article you reference I would assert that the 'newable' relates quite a bit to the 'transient' type of life cycle that we find in DI containers as we are interested in specific instances. However, when we need to inject specific values the transient business does not really help. This is the case for entities where each is a new instance but has very different state. A repository would hydrate the object but it could just as well use a factory.
The 'true' dependencies typically have a 'singleton' life-cycle.
So for the 'newable' instances a factory could be used if you would like to perform validation upon construction by having the factory call the relevant validation method on your value object using the injected validator dependency as Mark Seemann has mentioned.
This gives you the freedom to still test in isolation without coupling to a specific implementation in your constructor.
Just a slightly different angle on what has already been answered. Hope it helps :)

Naming 'ArrayOf' when serialising using DataContractSerializer

I have created a WCF service that has multiple operation contracts defined. One of my contracts returns a collection of known types. The type is defined separately as a data contract.
When the collection is serialised by the DataContractSerializer the xml representation defines the name of the collection as
<ArrayOfMyType*></ArrayOfMyType>
I want to alter this to return it as
<MyTypes></MyTypes>
but can seem to find the required attribute within the documentation. I have used XmlRootAttribute in another part of the system but that is designed for the XMLSerialiser
Try to define custom collection type:
[CollectionDataContract(Name = "MyTypes", ItemName = "MyType")]
public class MyTypeList : List<MyType>
{ }
And use this type as return value from your operation.

Specifying properties to be updated in linq query

I want to be able to specify the properties to get populated/updated in the linq expression.
Something in the following fashion:
Proxy.UpdateEmployee(List<string> propertiesNames)
Proxy.GetEmployee() //inside the method populate only certain properties
The return values must be of known type(no anonymous types accepted).
DLINQ enable to select by specifying properties' names but the result is IQueryable interface and I'm unable to AsEnumerable() it in order to build the known type query afterwards.
You have to use reflection to modify instance properties by name.
So wherever you're updating your object with LINQ you need to do something like this:
foreach (string propName in propertiesNames)
{
PropertyInfo prop = this.GetType().GetProperty(propName);
prop.SetValue(valueForProp);
}