ASP.NET Bundling and minification include dynamic files from database - asp.net-mvc-4

I'm developing a multi-tenancy MVC 4 application on which the user has some theming possibilities.
He can override every single resource (css, js, jpg, png, ect...) by adding a relative path to a theming table e.g. /Scripts/booking.js
Which tenant to use is figured out by the URL e.g. http://myapp/tenant/Booking/New this is simply the name of the connection string which should be used.
Therefore if a request is made for a specific resource I first need to check if there is an overridden version of this resource in the database and use it if found.
Now I'd like to implement the new bundling and minification features which microsoft provides in the System.Web.Optimization namespace. But I couldn't figure out how to achieve this with the files in the database.
I've prototyped my own JsMinify implementation to achieve this
public class MyJsMinify : JsMinify
{
private static byte[] GetContentFile(FileInfo filePath)
{
string fullName = filePath.FullName;
int indexOf = fullName.IndexOf("content", StringComparison.OrdinalIgnoreCase);
string substring = fullName.Substring(indexOf + 8).Replace(#"\\", "/").Replace(#"\", "/");
ThemingService themingService = ObjectFactory.GetInstance<ThemingService>();
Theming myTheming = themingService.Find(new ThemingFilter { FilePathLike = substring });
if (myTheming == null)
{
return themingService.GetContentFile(fullName);
}
return myTheming.FileData;
}
public override void Process(BundleContext context, BundleResponse response)
{
StringBuilder newContent = new StringBuilder();
foreach (FileInfo fileInfo in response.Files)
{
using (MemoryStream memoryStream = new MemoryStream(GetContentFile(fileInfo)))
{
using (StreamReader myStreamReader = new StreamReader(memoryStream, true))
{
newContent.AppendLine(myStreamReader.ReadToEnd());
}
}
}
response.Content = newContent.ToString();
base.Process(context, response);
}
}
This seems to work if I'm in Release mode but while developing I'd like to get each single script referenced independently. This is automatically done throughout the bundling and minification framework. The Resource URL's generated by the framework looks like the following
<script src="/myapp/Content/Scripts/jquery-1.9.0.js"></script>
but should look like this
<script src="/myapp/tenant/Content/Scripts/jquery-1.9.0.js"></script>
I've configured the following Routes:
routeCollection.MapRoute("Content1", "{mandator}/Content/{*filePath}", new { mandator = defaultMandator, controller = "Environment", action = "ContentFile" }, new { mandator = mandatorConstraints });
routeCollection.MapRoute("Content2", "Content/{*filePath}", new { mandator = defaultMandator, controller = "Environment", action = "ContentFile" }, new { mandator = mandatorConstraints });
The ContentFile Method looks like this
[AcceptVerbs(HttpVerbs.Get)]
[AcceptType(HttpTypes.All)]
[OutputCache(CacheProfile = "ContentFile")]
public ActionResult ContentFile(string filePath)
{
if (string.Compare(filePath, "Stylesheets/Import.css", StringComparison.OrdinalIgnoreCase) == 0)
{
return GetContentImport(CssFileArray, "Stylesheets/");
}
if (string.Compare(filePath, "Stylesheets/ImportOutlook.css", StringComparison.OrdinalIgnoreCase) == 0)
{
return GetContentImport(OutlookCssFileArray, "Stylesheets/");
}
if (string.Compare(filePath, "Scripts/OutlookAddin/Import.js", StringComparison.OrdinalIgnoreCase) == 0)
{
return GetContentImport(OutlookJsFileArray, "Scripts/");
}
return new FileContentResult(GetContentFile(filePath), MimeType(filePath));
}
Does anybody have an idea how I could achieve this?
Is there a multi-tenancy pattern to follow?

So I'm not sure I completely understand your scenario, but I believe this is what VirtualPathProviders could be used for.
We added support in the 1.1-alpha1 release, so bundles will automatically use the VirtualPathProvider registered with ASP.NET to fetch the contents of the file.
If you were to write a custom VPP that is able to always return the correct version of ~/Scripts/booking.js, everything should just work.

Related

ASP.NET Core Resolve Controller and call Action by name

I have a generic catch all controller/action that receive files, parse the json content and find out the controller name and action name to be called from that.
Here my previous .NET Framework (old ASP) implementation which worked great:
public async Task<ActionResult> Run(PackingSlip packingSlip, IEnumerable<HttpPostedFileBase> files)
{
var controllerName = packingSlip.service_name;
var actionName = packingSlip.service_object;
// get the controller
var ctrlFactory = ControllerBuilder.Current.GetControllerFactory();
var ctrl = ctrlFactory.CreateController(this.Request.RequestContext, controllerName) as Controller;
var ctrlContext = new ControllerContext(this.Request.RequestContext, ctrl);
var ctrlDescAsync = new ReflectedAsyncControllerDescriptor(ctrl.GetType());
ctrl.ControllerContext = ctrlContext;
// get the action
var actionDesc = ctrlDescAsync.FindAction(ctrlContext, actionName);
// execute
ActionResult result;
if (actionDesc is AsyncActionDescriptor actionDescAsync)
result = await Task.Factory.FromAsync((asyncCallback, asyncState) => actionDescAsync.BeginExecute(ctrlContext, new Dictionary<string, object> { { "packingSlip", packingSlip }, { "files", files } }, asyncCallback, asyncState), asyncResult => actionDescAsync.EndExecute(asyncResult), null) as ActionResult;
else
result = actionDesc.Execute(ctrlContext, new Dictionary<string, object> { { "packingSlip", packingSlip }, { "files", files } }) as ActionResult;
// return the other action result as the current action result
return result;
}
Now with ASP.NET Core (or .NET 5), ControllerBuilder doesn't exist anymore and most of those things changed.
I tried to inject a IControllerFactory and use it, but can't find the proper way to use it to call an action knowing the "controllerName" and "actionName". It should also, like before, determine if it was an async action or not and act accordingly.
Found the answer by myself.
AspCore have an hidden barely documented extension method that registers controllers in the DI container: AddControllersAsServices.
services.AddMvc().AddControllersAsServices();
Then you can use IServiceProvider to resolve your controllers.

How do I use IViewLocationExtender with Razor Pages to render device specific pages

Currently we are building a web application, desktop first, that needs device specific Razor Pages for specific pages. Those pages are really different from their Desktop version and it makes no sense to use responsiveness here.
We have tried to implement our own IViewLocationExpander and also tried to use the MvcDeviceDetector library (which is basically doing the same). Detection of the device type is no problem but for some reason the device specific page is not picked up and it is constantly falling back to the default Index.cshtml.
(edit: We're thinking about implementing something based on IPageConvention, IPageApplicationModelProvider or something ... ;-))
Index.mobile.cshtml
Index.cshtml
We have added the following code using the example of MvcDeviceDetector:
public static IMvcBuilder AddDeviceDetection(this IMvcBuilder builder)
{
builder.Services.AddDeviceSwitcher<UrlSwitcher>(
o => { },
d => {
d.Format = DeviceLocationExpanderFormat.Suffix;
d.MobileCode = "mobile";
d.TabletCode = "tablet";
}
);
return builder;
}
and are adding some route mapping
routes.MapDeviceSwitcher();
We expected to see Index.mobile.cshtml to be picked up when selecting a Phone Emulation in Chrome but that didnt happen.
edit Note:
we're using a combination of Razor Views/MVC (older sections) and Razor Pages (newer sections).
also not every page will have a mobile implementation. That's what would have a IViewLocationExpander solution so great.
edit 2
I think the solution would be the same as how you'd implement Culture specific Razor Pages (which is also unknown to us ;-)). Basic MVC supports Index.en-US.cshtml
Final Solution Below
If this is a Razor Pages application (as opposed to an MVC application) I don't think that the IViewLocationExpander interface is much use to you. As far as I know, it only works for partials, not routeable pages (i.e. those with an #page directive).
What you can do instead is to use Middleware to determine whether the request comes from a mobile device, and then change the file to be executed to one that ends with .mobile. Here's a very rough and ready implementation:
public class MobileDetectionMiddleware
{
private readonly RequestDelegate _next;
public async Task Invoke(HttpContext context)
{
if(context.Request.IsFromAMobileDevice())
{
context.Request.Path = $"{context.Request.Path}.mobile";
}
await _next.Invoke(context);
}
}
It's up to you how you want to implement the IsFromAMobileDevice method to determine the nature of the user agent. There's nothing stopping you using a third party library that can do the check reliably for you. Also, you will probably only want to change the path under certain conditions - such as where there is a device specific version of the requested page.
Register this in your Configure method early:
app.UseMiddleware<MobileDetectionMiddleware>();
I've finally found the way to do it convention based. I have implemented a IViewLocationExpander in order to tackle the device handling for basic Razor Views (including Layouts) and I've implemented IPageRouteModelConvention + IActionConstraint to handle devices for Razor Pages.
Note: this solution only seems to be working on ASP.NET Core 2.2 and up though. For some reason 2.1.x and below is clearing the constraints (tested with a breakpoint in a destructor) after they've been added (can probably be fixed).
Now I can have /Index.mobile.cshtml /Index.desktop.cshtml etc. in both MVC and Razor Pages.
Note: This solution can also be used to implement a language/culture specific Razor Pages (eg. /Index.en-US.cshtml /Index.nl-NL.cshtml)
public class PageDeviceConvention : IPageRouteModelConvention
{
private readonly IDeviceResolver _deviceResolver;
public PageDeviceConvention(IDeviceResolver deviceResolver)
{
_deviceResolver = deviceResolver;
}
public void Apply(PageRouteModel model)
{
var path = model.ViewEnginePath; // contains /Index.mobile
var lastSeparator = path.LastIndexOf('/');
var lastDot = path.LastIndexOf('.', path.Length - 1, path.Length - lastSeparator);
if (lastDot != -1)
{
var name = path.Substring(lastDot + 1);
if (Enum.TryParse<DeviceType>(name, true, out var deviceType))
{
var constraint = new DeviceConstraint(deviceType, _deviceResolver);
for (var i = model.Selectors.Count - 1; i >= 0; --i)
{
var selector = model.Selectors[i];
selector.ActionConstraints.Add(constraint);
var template = selector.AttributeRouteModel.Template;
var tplLastSeparator = template.LastIndexOf('/');
var tplLastDot = template.LastIndexOf('.', template.Length - 1, template.Length - Math.Max(tplLastSeparator, 0));
template = template.Substring(0, tplLastDot); // eg Index.mobile -> Index
selector.AttributeRouteModel.Template = template;
var fileName = template.Substring(tplLastSeparator + 1);
if ("Index".Equals(fileName, StringComparison.OrdinalIgnoreCase))
{
selector.AttributeRouteModel.SuppressLinkGeneration = true;
template = selector.AttributeRouteModel.Template.Substring(0, Math.Max(tplLastSeparator, 0));
model.Selectors.Add(new SelectorModel(selector) { AttributeRouteModel = { Template = template } });
}
}
}
}
}
protected class DeviceConstraint : IActionConstraint
{
private readonly DeviceType _deviceType;
private readonly IDeviceResolver _deviceResolver;
public DeviceConstraint(DeviceType deviceType, IDeviceResolver deviceResolver)
{
_deviceType = deviceType;
_deviceResolver = deviceResolver;
}
public int Order => 0;
public bool Accept(ActionConstraintContext context)
{
return _deviceResolver.GetDeviceType() == _deviceType;
}
}
}
public class DeviceViewLocationExpander : IViewLocationExpander
{
private readonly IDeviceResolver _deviceResolver;
private const string ValueKey = "DeviceType";
public DeviceViewLocationExpander(IDeviceResolver deviceResolver)
{
_deviceResolver = deviceResolver;
}
public void PopulateValues(ViewLocationExpanderContext context)
{
var deviceType = _deviceResolver.GetDeviceType();
if (deviceType != DeviceType.Other)
context.Values[ValueKey] = deviceType.ToString();
}
public IEnumerable<string> ExpandViewLocations(ViewLocationExpanderContext context, IEnumerable<string> viewLocations)
{
var deviceType = context.Values[ValueKey];
if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(deviceType))
{
return ExpandHierarchy();
}
return viewLocations;
IEnumerable<string> ExpandHierarchy()
{
var replacement = $"{{0}}.{deviceType}";
foreach (var location in viewLocations)
{
if (location.Contains("{0}"))
yield return location.Replace("{0}", replacement);
yield return location;
}
}
}
}
public interface IDeviceResolver
{
DeviceType GetDeviceType();
}
public class DefaultDeviceResolver : IDeviceResolver
{
public DeviceType GetDeviceType() => DeviceType.Mobile;
}
public enum DeviceType
{
Other,
Mobile,
Tablet,
Normal
}
Startup
services.AddMvc(o => { })
.SetCompatibilityVersion(CompatibilityVersion.Version_2_2)
.AddRazorOptions(o =>
{
o.ViewLocationExpanders.Add(new DeviceViewLocationExpander(new DefaultDeviceResolver()));
})
.AddRazorPagesOptions(o =>
{
o.Conventions.Add(new PageDeviceConvention(new DefaultDeviceResolver()));
});

Rendering #Html.Action("actionName","controllerName") at runtime , fetching from database in MVC4

My requirement is to fetch html data from database and render it on view. But if that string contains #Html.Action("actionName","controllerName"), i need to call perticular controller action method also.
I am rendering my html on view using #Html.Raw().
Eg: Below is the html string stored in my database
'<h2> Welcome To Page </h2> <br/> #Html.Action("actionName", "controllerName")'
So when it render the string, it execute mentioned controller and action too.
Any help will be appreciated.
You can try RazorEngine to allow string template in razor executed.
For example, sample code from the project site http://antaris.github.io/RazorEngine/:
using RazorEngine;
using RazorEngine.Templating; // For extension methods.
string template = "Hello #Model.Name, welcome to RazorEngine!";
var result =
Engine.Razor.RunCompile(template, "templateKey", null, new { Name = "World" });
But there is one catch, Html and Url helpers are defined in the Mvc framework, hence it is not supported by default.
I will suggest you try to create your template by passing model so that you don't have to use #Html.Action.
If you can not avoid it, then there is possible a solution suggested by another so answer https://stackoverflow.com/a/19434112/2564920:
[RequireNamespaces("System.Web.Mvc.Html")]
public class HtmlTemplateBase<T>:TemplateBase<T>, IViewDataContainer
{
private HtmlHelper<T> helper = null;
private ViewDataDictionary viewdata = null;
public HtmlHelper<T> Html
{
get
{
if (helper == null)
{
var writer = this.CurrentWriter; //TemplateBase.CurrentWriter
var context = new ViewContext() { RequestContext = HttpContext.Current.Request.RequestContext, Writer = writer, ViewData = this.ViewData };
helper = new HtmlHelper<T>(vcontext, this);
}
return helper;
}
}
public ViewDataDictionary ViewData
{
get
{
if (viewdata == null)
{
viewdata = new ViewDataDictionary();
viewdata.TemplateInfo = new TemplateInfo() { HtmlFieldPrefix = string.Empty };
if (this.Model != null)
{
viewdata.Model = Model;
}
}
return viewdata;
}
set
{
viewdata = value;
}
}
public override void WriteTo(TextWriter writer, object value)
{
if (writer == null)
throw new ArgumentNullException("writer");
if (value == null) return;
//try to cast to RazorEngine IEncodedString
var encodedString = value as IEncodedString;
if (encodedString != null)
{
writer.Write(encodedString);
}
else
{
//try to cast to IHtmlString (Could be returned by Mvc Html helper methods)
var htmlString = value as IHtmlString;
if (htmlString != null) writer.Write(htmlString.ToHtmlString());
else
{
//default implementation is to convert to RazorEngine encoded string
encodedString = TemplateService.EncodedStringFactory.CreateEncodedString(value);
writer.Write(encodedString);
}
}
}
}
Then you have to use HtmlTemplateBase (modified base on https://antaris.github.io/RazorEngine/TemplateBasics.html#Extending-the-template-Syntax):
var config = new TemplateServiceConfiguration();
// You can use the #inherits directive instead (this is the fallback if no #inherits is found).
config.BaseTemplateType = typeof(HtmlTemplateBase<>);
using (var service = RazorEngineService.Create(config))
{
string template = "<h2> Welcome To Page </h2> <br/> #Html.Action(\"actionName\", \"controllerName\")";
string result = service.RunCompile(template, "htmlRawTemplate", null, null);
}
in essence, it is telling the RazorEngine to use a base template where mvc is involved, so that Html and Url helper can be used.

Localization With Database MVC

I am working on a multilingual ASP.NET MVC application (MVC4).
I want to make my resource file strings to be editable at runtime without recompiling the application and without app pool recycling And it doesn't look possible with .resx file, so I migrate to store string resources in Database.
I have to Get Each Label/String Resource From Database, so there will be more hits to database for each request. How to fix that?
I have googled around and someone suggests to load the resource in a dictionary and store it as application variable, at login/Sign In page and use that dictionary as resource instead of database hit.
I am confused, what will be effective approach.Can someone guide me in right direction to avoid more database hits?
Any help/suggestions will be highly appreciated.
Thanks
I ran into the same concerns using .resx files for localization. They just did not work well when the persons doing the translation were not programmers. Now, we have a translation page in our admin area. Works great.
One area which we still don't have a good solution for are the data annotations, which still use the .resx files. I have trimmed the source below to remove any references to our actual database structures or tables.
There is a fallback to using the underlying .resx file, if an entry does not exist in the database. If there is not an entry in the .resx file, I split the word whenever a capitol letter is found ( CamelSpace is a string extension method ).
Lastly, depending on your implementation, you may need to remove the context caching, especially if you are caching out of process.
A few examples of usage:
#LanguageDb.Translate("Enter your first name below","FirstNamePrompt")
#LanguageDb.Me.FirstName
#String
.Format(LanguageDb
.Translate(#"You can be insured for
{0} down and {1} payments of {2}"),
Model.Down,Model.NumPayments,
Model.InstallmentAmount)
public class LanguageDb : DynamicObject
{
public static dynamic Me = new LanguageDb();
private LanguageDb() { }
public static string Translate(string englishPhrase, string resourceCode = null)
{
return GetTranslation(englishPhrase, resourceCode) ?? englishPhrase;
}
public override bool TryGetMember(GetMemberBinder binder, out object result)
{
result = GetTranslation(binder.Name);
return true;
}
private static string GetTranslation(string resourceName, string resourceCode = null)
{
resourceCode = resourceCode ?? resourceName;
if (resourceCode.Contains(" ") || resourceCode.Length > 50)
{
resourceCode = resourceName.GetHashCode().ToString(CultureInfo.InvariantCulture);
}
var lang = (string)HttpContext.Current.Request.RequestContext.RouteData.Values["lang"] ?? "en";
// cache entries for an hour
var result = Get(subagent + "_" + lang + "_" + resourceCode, 3600, () =>
{
// cache a datacontext object for 30 seconds.
var context = Get("_context", 30, () => new YourDataContext()) as YourDataContext;
var translation = context.Translations.FirstOrDefault(row => row.lang == lang && row.Code == resourceCode);
if (translation == null)
{
translation = new Lookup {
Code = resourceCode,
lang = lang,
Value = Language.ResourceManager.GetString(resourceName, Language.Culture)
?? resourceName.CamelSpace()
};
context.Translations.Add(translation);
context.SaveChanges();
}
return translation.Value;
});
return result;
}
public override bool TrySetMember(SetMemberBinder binder, object value)
{
// ignore this
return true;
}
public static T Get<T>(string cacheId, int secondsToCache, Func<T> getItemCallback) where T : class
{
T item = HttpRuntime.Cache.Get(cacheId) as T;
if (item == null)
{
item = getItemCallback();
if (secondsToCache > 0)
{
HttpRuntime.Cache.Insert(
cacheId, item, null, Cache.NoAbsoluteExpiration,
new TimeSpan(0, 0, secondsToCache), CacheItemPriority.Normal, null);
}
else
{
HttpRuntime.Cache.Insert(cacheId, item);
}
}
return item;
}
}

Naming conventions for view pages and setting controller action for view

I am unsure on how I should be naming my View pages, they are all CamelCase.cshtml, that when viewed in the browser look like "http://www.website.com/Home/CamelCase".
When I am building outside of .NET my pages are named like "this-is-not-camel-case.html". How would I go about doing this in my MVC4 project?
If I did go with this then how would I tell the view to look at the relevant controller?
Views/Home/camel-case.cshtml
Fake edit: Sorry if this has been asked before, I can't find anything via search or Google. Thanks.
There are a few ways you can do this:
Name all of your views in the style you would like them to show up in the url
This is pretty simple, you just add the ActionName attribute to all of your actions and specify them in the style you would like your url to look like, then rename your CamelCase.cshtml files to camel-case.cshtml files.
Use attribute routing
Along the same lines as above, there is a plugin on nuget to enable attribute routing which lets you specify the full url for each action as an attribute on the action. It has convention attributes to help you out with controller names and such as well. I generally prefer this approach because I like to be very explicit with the routes in my application.
A more framework-y approach
It's probably possible to do something convention based by extending the MVC framework, but it would be a decent amount of work. In order to select the correct action on a controller, you'd need to map the action name on its way in to MVC to its CamelCase equivalent before the framework uses it to locate the action on the controller. The easiest place to do this is in the Route, which is the last thing to happen before the MVC framework takes over the request. You'll also need to convert the other way on the way out so the urls generated look like you want them to.
Since you don't really want to alter the existing method to register routes, it's probably best write a function in application init that loops over all routes after they have been registered and wraps them with your new functionality.
Here is an example route and modifications to application start that achieve what you are trying to do. I'd still go with the route attribute approach however.
public class MvcApplication : System.Web.HttpApplication
{
protected void Application_Start()
{
AreaRegistration.RegisterAllAreas();
WebApiConfig.Register(GlobalConfiguration.Configuration);
FilterConfig.RegisterGlobalFilters(GlobalFilters.Filters);
RouteConfig.RegisterRoutes(RouteTable.Routes);
WrapRoutesWithNamingConvention(RouteTable.Routes);
BundleConfig.RegisterBundles(BundleTable.Bundles);
AuthConfig.RegisterAuth();
}
private void WrapRoutesWithNamingConvention(RouteCollection routes)
{
var wrappedRoutes = routes.Select(m => new ConventionRoute(m)).ToList();
routes.Clear();
wrappedRoutes.ForEach(routes.Add);
}
private class ConventionRoute : Route
{
private readonly RouteBase baseRoute;
public ConventionRoute(RouteBase baseRoute)
: base(null, null)
{
this.baseRoute = baseRoute;
}
public override RouteData GetRouteData(HttpContextBase httpContext)
{
var baseRouteData = baseRoute.GetRouteData(httpContext);
if (baseRouteData == null) return null;
var actionName = baseRouteData.Values["action"] as string;
var convertedActionName = ConvertHyphensToPascalCase(actionName);
baseRouteData.Values["action"] = convertedActionName;
return baseRouteData;
}
private string ConvertHyphensToPascalCase(string hyphens)
{
var capitalParts = hyphens.Split('-').Select(m => m.Substring(0, 1).ToUpper() + m.Substring(1));
var pascalCase = String.Join("", capitalParts);
return pascalCase;
}
public override VirtualPathData GetVirtualPath(RequestContext requestContext, RouteValueDictionary values)
{
var valuesClone = new RouteValueDictionary(values);
var pascalAction = valuesClone["action"] as string;
var hyphens = ConvertPascalCaseToHyphens(pascalAction);
valuesClone["action"] = hyphens;
var baseRouteVirtualPath = baseRoute.GetVirtualPath(requestContext, valuesClone);
return baseRouteVirtualPath;
}
private string ConvertPascalCaseToHyphens(string pascal)
{
var pascalParts = new List<string>();
var currentPart = new StringBuilder();
foreach (var character in pascal)
{
if (char.IsUpper(character) && currentPart.Length > 0)
{
pascalParts.Add(currentPart.ToString());
currentPart.Clear();
}
currentPart.Append(character);
}
if (currentPart.Length > 0)
{
pascalParts.Add(currentPart.ToString());
}
var lowers = pascalParts.Select(m => m.ToLower());
var hyphens = String.Join("-", lowers);
return hyphens;
}
}
}