Modeling multiple logical views of a document

Sun, 20 Feb 2011 21:49:24 -0500

Problem: The domain model contains the idea of a document, and one of the documents in the model has multiple purposes. By purpose, I mean that the physical document is filled out with different data depending on who the document is for. Each purpose may or may not have different logic associated with the creation. The document abstractions should be easily testable to make document creation as robust as possible.

A Solution: One solution that I found was based on the template method from the GoF book. The intent of this solution was to simplify the creation of the known views of the document. The key idea of the solution is to put as much of the logic involved in document creation into to the base class.

Implementation:

abstract class Document
{
	IDictionary FormTextFields
	{
		get
		{
			return new Dictionary
			{
				{ "NameField", this.NameField },
				{ "AgeField", this.AgeField }
			};
		}
	}
	
	private string NameField
	{
		get
		{
			if(this.DocumentType == DocumentType.Big)
			{
				return "Big name";
			}
			else if(this.DocumentType == DocumentType.Small)
			{
				return "Small name";
			}
			
			return string.Empty;
		}
	}
	
	private string AgeField
	{
		get
		{
			if(this.DocumentType == DocumentType.Big)
			{
				return "42";
			}
			
			return string.Empty;
		}
	}
	
	protected abstract DocumentType DocumentType { get; }
}

class BigDocument : Document
{
	protected override DocumentType DocumentType
	{
		get
		{
			return DocumentType.Big;
		}
	}
}

Benefits: As previously stated, the main purpose of the base class is to simplify the creation of the subclasses. This solution does just that by reducing the amount of work needed to create a new subclass. The subclasses have only two main actions required for creation. The first action is to define the type of the document which is an abstract method in the base class. The second action, not shown in the subclass, is the validation of the specific concrete document type. Just doing these two actions, as oppose to adding new creation logic, speeds up the creation of new subclasses.

Two other benefits to this solution are centralization of the logic for document creation and having reduced unit testing needs for the subclasses. When the logic of the document creation is centralized into a single base class, reasoning about the document creation becomes easier. Problems arising from document creation are easier to track down. The document base class becomes the focal point for the majority of the unit tests written for document creation. The focal point reduces the need to test the subclasses since the vast majority of the behavior is in the base.

Drawbacks: A large drawback of placing all the logic relating to the document creation in the base is that the rules for creation have to be completely available. If the rules of the creation of the document are not known then the base class will be incomplete. When the base class is incomplete, it has to be reopened every time a new rule is found. The problem of adding rules leads to the main drawback of the solution: extensibility. This solution is in no way extensible since all the logic is congregated in the base class. This drawback does pose problems, however with a little rejiggering the impact of this drawback can be minimized. One possible fix, that will reduce the extensibility problem, but will increase the work to create a subclass, is to add an abstract method to the base that filters the dictionary before it is sent out.

abstract class Document
{
	IDictionary FormTextFields
	{
		get
		{
			return new Dictionary
			{
				{ "NameField", this.NameField },
				{ "AgeField", this.AgeField }
			};
		}
	}
	
	protected abstract IDictionary FilterTextFields(IDictionary textFields);
}

class SmallDocument : Document
{
	protected override IDictionare FilterTextFields(IDictionary textFields)
	{
		textFields["NameField"] = SmallLogic();
		return textFields;
	}
	
	protected override DocumentType DocumentType
	{
		get
		{
			return DocumentType.Small;
		}
	}
}

Sharepoint ASP .Net Ajax Configuration

Tue, 02 Feb 2010 18:34:17 -0500

In the world of web development, there is a little thing called ajax. Ajax is so simple because it is built in to Javascript. I like to use ajax to make web applications that look like they are not stuck in the past. Tools like jQuery make ajax so simple with its commands like:

$.get $.post $.load

ASP .Net has, what they tout as ultra simple, the update panel for ajax post backs to the server. But, this tool is not as simple as it seems. While deceptively simple to stick on a page and wire up to the code behind, it takes much more to make this tool work.

Like everything else in the Microsoft world, to make ASP .Net have ajax requires a dll and, through reading the documentation, a crap load of changes to the web.config file. Sure, it is easy to get the web.config all nice and set up if you have Visual Studios do it for you. Just create a new Web Site and start debugging the website. Voila, all of the configuration setting needed to use ajax are there.

But, for those whose have to do through code for, say, a Sharepoint web site that has to be deployed anywhere, they feel the pain of drudging through the required assembly strings and making SPWebConfigModifications. So, the first step on the path to Sharepoint ajaxiness is to go out to all the dlls and collect all the assembly strings needed:

const string scriptResourceHandler = "System.Web.Handlers.ScriptResourceHandler,System.Web.Extensions, Version=3.5.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31bf3856ad364e35";
const string scripthandlerfactory = "ScriptHandlerFactory";
const string scripthandlerfactoryappservice = "ScriptHandlerFactoryAppService";
const string scriptresource = "ScriptResource";
const string scriptModuleAssembly = "System.Web.Handlers.ScriptModule,System.Web.Extensions,Version=3.5.0.0,Culture=Neutral,PublicKeyToken=31bf3856ad364e35";
const string webScriptAssembly = "System.Web.Script.Services.ScriptHandlerFactory, System.Web.Extensions, Version=3.5.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35";
const string webExtensionAssembly = "System.Web.Extensions,Version=3.5.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31bf3856ad364e35"

After you have done that, or just copied the above assemblies, those assemblies have to be added to the web.config. That is where the SPWebConfigModification comes into play. First, you'll want to clear the modifications otherwise, modifications might appear for items that are long gone.

webApp.WebConfigModifications.Clear();

After that is set up, there is quite a bit to add to the WebConfigModification collection. Here OWNER, is something you set somewhere else and keep handy for when you have to remove all of the changes from the web.config.

webApp.WebConfigModifications.Add(CreateControlSection());		webApp.WebConfigModifications.Add(CreateSafeControl(webExtensionAssembly,"System.Web.UI"));
webApp.WebConfigModifications.Add(CreateAjaxAssembly(webExtensionAssembly));			webApp.WebConfigModifications.Add(CreateHttpScriptHandler(scriptModuleAssembly,"ScriptModule"));
webApp.WebConfigModifications.Add(CreateScriptResource(scriptResourceHandler,"ScriptResource.axd","GET,HEAD"))
webApp.WebConfigModifications.Add(CreateScriptResource(webScriptAssembly,"*_AppService.axd","*"));
webApp.WebConfigModifications.Add(CreateScriptResource(webScriptAssembly,"*.asmx","*"));
webApp.WebConfigModifications.Add(CreateWebServerSection());
webApp.WebConfigModifications.Add(CreateWebServerHandlerSection());
webApp.WebConfigModifications.Add(RemoveWebServiceHandler(scripthandlerfactory));
webApp.WebConfigModifications.Add(RemoveWebServiceHandler(scripthandlerfactoryappservice));
webApp.WebConfigModifications.Add(RemoveWebServiceHandler(scriptresource));
webApp.WebConfigModifications.Add(CreateWebServiceHandler(webScriptAssembly,"*.asmx","*",scripthandlerfactory));
webApp.WebConfigModifications.Add(CreateWebServiceHandler(webScriptAssembly,"*_AppService.axd","*",scripthandlerfactoryappservice));webApp.WebConfigModifications.Add(CreateWebServiceHandler(scriptResourceHandler,"ScriptResource.axd", "GET,HEAD", scriptresource));
webApp.Farm.Services.GetValue().ApplyWebConfigModifications();
webApp.Update();
/* Thus begins the many methods to add each little piece of the web.config */
private SPWebConfigModification CreateScriptResource(string assembly,string path,string verb) {
      return new SPWebConfigModification {
		Path = "configuration/system.web/httpHandlers",
		Type = SPWebConfigModification.SPWebConfigModificationType.EnsureChildNode,
		Name = string.Format(CultureInfo.InvariantCulture,"add[@verb='{2}'][@path='{1}'][@type='{0}'][@validate='false']",assembly,path,verb),
		Owner = OWNER,
		Sequence = 0,
		Value = string.Format("", assembly,path,verb)
	};
}

private SPWebConfigModification CreateWebServiceHandler(string assembly,string path,string verb,string name) {
	return new SPWebConfigModification {
		Path = "configuration/system.webServer/handlers",
		Type = SPWebConfigModification.SPWebConfigModificationType.EnsureChildNode,
		Name = string.Format(CultureInfo.InvariantCulture,"add[@verb='{2}'][@path='{1}'][@type='{0}'][@preCondition='integratedMode'][@name='{3}']",assembly,path,verb,name),
		Owner = OWNER,
		Sequence = 0,
		Value = string.Format("", assembly,path,verb,name)
	};
}
private SPWebConfigModification RemoveWebServiceHandler(string name) {
	return new SPWebConfigModification {
		Path = "configuration/system.webServer/handlers",
		Type = SPWebConfigModification.SPWebConfigModificationType.EnsureChildNode,
		Name = string.Format(CultureInfo.InvariantCulture,"add[@name='{0}']",name),
		Owner = OWNER,
		Sequence = 0,
		Value = string.Format("",name)
	};
}

private static SPWebConfigModification CreateHttpScriptHandler(string assembly,string name) {
	return new SPWebConfigModification {
		Path = "configuration/system.web/httpModules",
		Type = SPWebConfigModification.SPWebConfigModificationType.EnsureChildNode,
		Name = string.Format(CultureInfo.InvariantCulture, "add[@name='{0}'] [@type='{1}']",name, assembly),
		Owner = OWNER,
		Sequence = 0,
		Value = string.Format("",name, assembly)
	};
}

private static SPWebConfigModification CreateAssembly(string assembly) {
	return new SPWebConfigModification {
	        Path = "configuration/system.web/compilation/assemblies",
		Type = SPWebConfigModification.SPWebConfigModificationType.EnsureChildNode,
		Name = string.Format(CultureInfo.InvariantCulture, "add[@assembly='{0}']", assembly),
		Owner = OWNER,
		Sequence = 0,
		Value = string.Format(CultureInfo.InvariantCulture, "", assembly)
	};
}
private static SPWebConfigModification CreateAjaxAssembly(string assembly) {
	return new SPWebConfigModification {
		Path = "configuration/system.web/pages/controls",
		Type = SPWebConfigModification.SPWebConfigModificationType.EnsureChildNode,
		Name = string.Format(CultureInfo.InvariantCulture, "add[@tagPrefix='{0}'][@namespace='{1}'][@assembly='{2}']","asp","System.Web.UI", assembly),
		Owner = OWNER,
		Sequence = 0,
		Value = string.Format(CultureInfo.InvariantCulture, "","asp","System.Web.UI", assembly)
	};
}
private static SPWebConfigModification CreateSafeControl(string assembly, string nameSpace) {
	return new SPWebConfigModification {
		Path = "configuration/SharePoint/SafeControls",
		Type = SPWebConfigModification.SPWebConfigModificationType.EnsureChildNode,
		Name = string.Format(CultureInfo.InvariantCulture, "SafeControl[@Assembly='{0}'][@Namespace='{1}'][@TypeName='*'][@Safe='True']", assembly, nameSpace),
		Owner = OWNER,
		Sequence = 0,
		Value = string.Format(CultureInfo.InvariantCulture, "", assembly,				nameSpace)
	};
}
private static SPWebConfigModification CreateControlSection() {
	return new SPWebConfigModification {
		Path = "configuration/system.web/pages",
		Type = SPWebConfigModification.SPWebConfigModificationType.EnsureSection,
		Name = "controls",
		Value =@"",
		Sequence = 0,
		Owner = OWNER
	};
}
private static SPWebConfigModification CreateWebServerSection() {
	return new SPWebConfigModification {
		Path = "configuration",
	        Type = SPWebConfigModification.SPWebConfigModificationType.EnsureSection,
		Name = "system.webServer",
		Value =@"",
		Sequence = 0,
		Owner = OWNER
	};
}
private static SPWebConfigModification CreateWebServerHandlerSection() {
       return new SPWebConfigModification {
		Path = "configuration/system.webServer",
		Type = SPWebConfigModification.SPWebConfigModificationType.EnsureSection,
		Name = "handlers",
		Value =@"",
		Sequence = 0,
		Owner = OWNER
	};		
}

So, why on earth does it take that much code to generate the xml required to use ajax in Sharepoint?

Sean Howell - Blogs at Near Infinity

Modeling multiple logical views of a document

Sharepoint ASP .Net Ajax Configuration