Malvin Ly

Testability seems to be a misunderstood concept. I regularly see this type of code in reviews:

public class MyBusinessClass
{
	private MyDataAccess _dataAccess;

	public MyBusinessClass(bool isTest)
	{
		if (isTest)
			_dataAccess = new MockDataAccess();
		else
			_dataAccess = new ProductionDataAccess();
	}
}

I often see code that violates the single responsibility principle and developers have a difficult time testing the component in question. To me, having code that is difficult to test should raise a red flag. But I see many developers continue and write the same code, thinking that this is just a side effect of unit testing.

People tend to gravitate towards the simplest working solution at the time for the code they are working on. Normally that is a great thing. We want to keep things simple. However, I don’t believe simple “hacks” are correct solution at any time. As the project grows, the maintainability issues that these simple hacks introduce are compounded. I honestly can’t tell if people can’t see the problems they are about to run into, or they simply don’t care.

I often suggest using an inversion of control container to help manage dependencies, but people seem to reject using a container due to the fact that it adds complexity. I completely understand that a container may not be appropriate in all situations, but when you start writing static classes/factories to manage dependencies, people should reconsider.

How do I help promote better coding practices? Is it possible to change this culture? In a corporate environment with project deadlines, pressure from management, etc…, should people care about these topics?

Perhaps I’m just naive and I want to believe that people care, but I see conflicting opinions everyday. I have been attempting to give feedback, but have been met with much resistance. I am fully aware of the Dunning-Kruger effect, and strive to understand a topic before speaking about it. I realize that there isn’t one right way to do things and I absolutely respect other people’s opinion. However, I fully believe that there are ways to do things that introduce unnecessary pain and pressure points.

Is it worth trying to educate and encourage? In my current situation, I feel powerless to instigate real change. Is this a lost cause and I should just accept the fact that this will always be a problem in a corporate environment that is focused on product delivery rather than quality? What can I do to get things started?

Typically when I’m using LINQ to filter collections, my conditions aren’t very complex and usually contain a single boolean condition. For example, if I wanted to filter a collection of WorkItems, I’ll use the Where extension method:

workItems.Where(x => x.Status == Status.Done);

I’ve come across a scenario where I needed to chain multiple “OR” expressions. It’s easy to chain multiple “OR” expressions during compile time:

workItems.Where(x => x.Status == Status.Done || x.Status == Status.Processing);

However, this is difficult to do if the conditions are determined at runtime. In an application, I’m asking the user to select from a list of statuses. They may select one or more statuses.

Since I still work a lot with stored procedures, I’ll typically use dynamic SQL to generate a WHERE clause if these status were stored in a database. But with a collection, this isn’t easy to do without some help.

After looking around, I stumbled across the PredicateBuilder class that ships as part of LINQKit.

The PredicateBuilder allows me to easily chain multiple “AND” and “OR” conditions together at runtime. I can append an “OR” condition to the predicate if the respective checkbox is checked:

var predicate = PredicateBuilder.False<WorkItem>();

if (cbIdle.Checked)
    predicate = predicate.Or(x => x.Status == Status.Idle);

if (cbProcessing.Checked)
    predicate = predicate.Or(x => x.Status == Status.Processing);

if (cbDone.Checked)
    predicate = predicate.Or(x => x.Status == Status.Done);

workItems.Where(predicate.Compile());

The PredicateBuilder also allows me to nest predicates and create complex conditions. For example, if I wanted to create a predicate that is equivalent to the following:

workItems.Where(x => 
    x.Status == Status.Done &&
    (x.Description.Contains("report") || x.Description.Contains("summary"))
);

… I can create two predicates and append them together.

var description = PredicateBuilder.False<WorkItem>();
description = description.Or(x => x.Description.Contains("report"));
description = description.Or(x => x.Description.Contains("summary"));

var condition = PredicateBuilder.True<WorkItem>();
condition = condition.And(x => x.Status == Status.Done);
condition = condition.And(description);

workItems.Where(condition.Compile());

The default model binder in ASP.NET MVC does a good job of binding items that follow a certain naming convention. But if you’re using third party controls, you typically do not have control over the HTML they generate. One of the third party controls I’m using in my project allows a user to select a date range. At a minimum, the generated HTML looks something like this:

<p>
    Start date:
    <input type="text" name="StartMonth" />
    <input type="text" name="StartDay" />
    <input type="text" name="StartYear" />
</p>
<p>
    End date:
    <input type="text" name="EndMonth" />
    <input type="text" name="EndDay" />
    <input type="text" name="EndYear" />
</p>

I want to bind the results to my DateRange model:

public class DateRange
{
    public DateTime Start { get; set; }
    public DateTime End { get; set; }
}

ASP.NET MVC provides an extension point to do custom model binding. We simply need to implement IModelBinder and register it in global.asax.cs in the Application_Start method:

public class DateRangeModelBinder : IModelBinder
{
    public object BindModel(ControllerContext controllerContext, ModelBindingContext bindingContext)
    {
        int startMonth = this.GetValue(bindingContext, "StartMonth");
        int startDay = this.GetValue(bindingContext, "StartDay");
        int startYear = this.GetValue(bindingContext, "StartYear");

        int endMonth = this.GetValue(bindingContext, "EndMonth");
        int endDay = this.GetValue(bindingContext, "EndDay");
        int endYear = this.GetValue(bindingContext, "EndYear");

        return new DateRange
        {
            Start = new DateTime(startYear, startMonth, startDay),
            End = new DateTime(endYear, endMonth, endDay)
        };
    }

    private int GetValue(ModelBindingContext context, string name)
    {
        return (int)context
            .ValueProvider
            .GetValue(name)
            .ConvertTo(typeof(int));
    }
}

ModelBinders.Binders.Add(typeof(DateRange), new DateRangeModelBinder());

I’m omitting error checking in the custom model binder for this post, but normally you’ll want to catch format exceptions, add model state errors, etc…. At this point, I can add a DateRange as the action method parameter and get the expected result.

[HttpPost]
public ActionResult Index(DateRange input)
{
    return View();
}

If I want to keep my form submission as simple as this, everything works perfectly. However, the model binding above does not work if I create a new model with DateRange as a property.

public class Incoming
{
    public string Name { get; set; }
    public DateRange DateRange { get; set; }
}

In the Incoming model, I’ve added a Name property and a DateRange property. My form submission now includes other information in addition to a date range. When I swap out the DateRange parameter in my action method with the Incoming class, the model binding does not work as expected. If I put a breakpoint inside the action method and inspect the input, I’ll see that the date range is null.

The problem seems to indicate that the DefaultModelBinder in ASP.NET MVC does not check the type, but rather matches on names. In this case, my property is named “DateRange” and since my HTML is generated by a third party control, I can’t change the names. What I need to do is override the DefaultModelBinder and replace it with a custom one that checks property types.

public class CustomModelBinder : DefaultModelBinder
{
    protected override void BindProperty(ControllerContext controllerContext, ModelBindingContext bindingContext, PropertyDescriptor propertyDescriptor)
    {
        if (propertyDescriptor.PropertyType != typeof(DateRange))
        {
            base.BindProperty(controllerContext, bindingContext, propertyDescriptor);
            return;
        }

        DateRangeModelBinder modelBinder = new DateRangeModelBinder();
        object dateProperty = modelBinder.BindModel(controllerContext, bindingContext);
        propertyDescriptor.SetValue(bindingContext.Model, dateProperty);
    }
}

I’ve created a custom model binder and have overridden the BindProperty method. If the property is a type of DateRange, I’ll use the DateRangeModelBinder and manually map the property on the model. I also need to register it in global.asax.cs in the Application_Start method:

ModelBinders.Binders.DefaultBinder = new CustomModelBinder();

At this point, I’ve set the default model binder to the one I’ve created and everything works as expected. But this only works for the date range control. If I had multiple third party controls, I don’t want to pollute the CustomModelBinder with multiple if statements. To make it easier to add additional model binders in the future, I’ve created an interface:

public interface IPropertyBinder
{
    bool ShouldHandle(Type propertyType);
    void Bind(ControllerContext controllerContext, ModelBindingContext bindingContext, PropertyDescriptor propertyDescriptor);
}

The implementation for the date range control looks like this:

public class DateRangePropertyBinder : IPropertyBinder
{
    public bool ShouldHandle(Type propertyType)
    {
        return propertyType == typeof(DateRange);
    }

    public void Bind(ControllerContext controllerContext, ModelBindingContext bindingContext, PropertyDescriptor propertyDescriptor)
    {
        DateRangeModelBinder modelBinder = new DateRangeModelBinder();
        object dateProperty = modelBinder.BindModel(controllerContext, bindingContext);
        propertyDescriptor.SetValue(bindingContext.Model, dateProperty);
    }
}

The ShouldHandle method will check to see if it’s the type expected. The Bind method will use DateRangeModelBinder and manually set the property. To use this new interface, I’ll need to update the CustomModelBinder.

public class CustomModelBinder : DefaultModelBinder
{
    private readonly IPropertyBinder[] propertyBinders;

    public CustomModelBinder(IPropertyBinder[] propertyBinders)
    {
        this.propertyBinders = propertyBinders;
    }

    protected override void BindProperty(ControllerContext controllerContext, ModelBindingContext bindingContext, PropertyDescriptor propertyDescriptor)
    {
        foreach (IPropertyBinder binder in propertyBinders)
        {
            if (binder.ShouldHandle(propertyDescriptor.PropertyType))
            {
                binder.Bind(controllerContext, bindingContext, propertyDescriptor);
                return;
            }
        }

        base.BindProperty(controllerContext, bindingContext, propertyDescriptor);
    }
}

I’ve updated the BindProperty method to loop over the list of property binders. The list of property binders is typically supplied by an inversion of control container. Again, I’ll need to update the Application_Start method in global.asax.cs.

CustomModelBinder modelBinder = container.Resolve<CustomModelBinder>();
ModelBinders.Binders.DefaultBinder = modelBinder;

To add additional model binders in the future, I simply need to implement the IPropertyBinder interface and make sure that it’s registered with my inversion of control container.

One of the new additions in ASP.NET MVC 2 was areas, which allows me to organize my projects into smaller sections. The ASP.NET MVC project that I’ve been working on has grown to a point where splitting it into smaller sections made sense. After adding areas, I noticed a few quirks.

Here I’ve created a new area called “About” with a HomeController. I’ve also added a HomeController to my root controllers folder. At this point, I’d expect to be able to visit “/Home” and “/About/Home”, each displaying their own pages. However, I received an error whenever I try to visit “/Home”.

Multiple types were found that match the controller named 'Home'. This can happen if the route that services this request ('{controller}/{action}/{id}') does not specify namespaces to search for a controller that matches the request. If this is the case, register this route by calling an overload of the 'MapRoute' method that takes a 'namespaces' parameter.

The request for 'Home' has found the following matching controllers:
MvcDemo.Controllers.HomeController
MvcDemo.Areas.About.Controllers.HomeController

Turns out that I can’t have duplicate controller names across my areas. To remedy this issue, I needed to make an adjustment to the default route found in global.asax.cs.

routes.MapRoute(
    "Default",
    "{controller}/{action}/{id}",
    new { controller = "Home", action = "Index", id = UrlParameter.Optional },
    new string[] { "MvcDemo.Controllers" }  
);

Adding a fourth argument to the MapRoute method informs the handler that it should look in the specified namespace first. If it can’t find an appropriate controller in that namespace, fall back to the default behavior. After adding that, I was able to successfully visit “/Home” and “/About/Home” and hit the correct controllers.

Here I’ve created an additional controller in the About area named ContactMeController. I was able to successfully visit “/About/ContactMe” and have it display the correct page. When I visit “/ContactMe”, I expected to receive a HTTP 404 back. However, I received a different error.

The view 'Index' or its master was not found or no view engine supports the searched locations. The following locations were searched:

~/Views/ContactMe/Index.aspx
~/Views/ContactMe/Index.ascx
~/Views/Shared/Index.aspx
~/Views/Shared/Index.ascx
~/Views/ContactMe/Index.cshtml
~/Views/ContactMe/Index.vbhtml
~/Views/Shared/Index.cshtml
~/Views/Shared/Index.vbhtml

This indicates that the handler found a controller, but the ViewResult could not find a view. This is the same scenario we encountered above with the two HomeControllers since the handler by default does not respect area namespaces. The namespace I added earlier was a namespace that has priority, but does not constrain it to that namespace. At this point, I want the controllers in the root controllers folder to be restricted to their namespace.

Route route = routes.MapRoute(
    "Default",
    "{controller}/{action}/{id}",
    new { controller = "Home", action = "Index", id = UrlParameter.Optional },
    new string[] { "MvcDemo.Controllers.*" }  
);

route.DataTokens["UseNamespaceFallback"] = false;

I’ve updated the namespace to include everything in that namespace and below. I’ve added an extra DataToken “UseNamespaceFallback” and set it to false. This extra DataToken indicates that the handler should not fall back to other namespaces in the project if it cannot find a controller in the specified namespace. Now I can visit “/ContactMe” and receive back the expected HTTP 404. At the same time, I can visit “/About/ContactMe” and have it return the correct page.

We have a WCF Data Service (Astoria) that uses most of the default configuration settings. Every once in a while, a client would receive the following exception:

System.Data.Services.Client.DataServiceRequestException: An error occurred while processing this request. ---> System.Data.Services.Client.DataServiceClientException: BadRequest

This exception only occurs when the client sends a large message. The default message size in WCF is 65536. Since we’re using a WCF Data Service and not a normal WCF Service, adding a WCF Data Service (.svc) to the project does not auto-generate the service/binding information in the config. To increase the message size, I needed to manually enter the service/binding information:

<system.serviceModel>
  <services>
    <service name="MyNamespace.MyService">
      <endpoint bindingConfiguration="msgSize" address="" binding="webHttpBinding" contract="System.Data.Services.IRequestHandler" />
    </service>
  </services>
  <bindings>
    <webHttpBinding>
      <!-- 2097152 = 2 MB-->
      <binding name="msgSize" maxReceivedMessageSize="2097152" maxBufferSize="2097152" />
    </webHttpBinding>
  </bindings>
</system.serviceModel>

The service name is the class (.svc) that inherits from System.Data.Services.DataService<T>.