public static class UrlHelperExtension
{
public static string Image(this UrlHelper helper, string fileName)
{
return helper.Content(string.Format("~/Content/Images/{0}",fileName));
}

public static string Stylesheet(this UrlHelper helper, string fileName)
{
return helper.Content(string.Format("~/Content/Css/{0}.css",fileName));
}

public static string Javascript(this UrlHelper helper, string fileName)
{
return helper.Content(string.Format("~/Content/Scripts/{0}.js", fileName));
}
}

And here is how I use it :

For CSS :

<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="<%= Url.Stylesheet("reset") %>" media="all" />

For javascript

<script src="<%= Url.Javascript("jquery-1.3.2.min") %>" type="text/javascript" language="javascript"></script>

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As I told you before, I want to separate my application in 3 parts. I know that architecture could be discussed but I would make this point clear, it should be “re-factored”. Anyway, for the moment, I think it is enough flexible for what I want to do NOW.

Here is a reminder of my layers:

• The Web application which will be the view of my application.

• The controller with all my business logic embedded in a library Service.

• The model library which will contain my models, my data access (repository) and all my filter static classes.

To improve my explanations, I hand draw a little pseudo UML diagram :

What I want it is to keep as much as I can the “Soc” (separation of concern). My service should make what a service should do and if I want to change my repository with a Oracle one, I could change it only by modifying the instantiation of my service (with DI for the future). I want to keep that “philosophy” all along the development but philosophy is not obligation.

In the same way, you’ve certainly noticed that I often return an IQueryable for my “get” method (see listing 1). I know this should be better to return a List type cause it is a more “standard” and you do not have to use the Linq library. Nevertheless I think I will keep it. I do not want to call to often the .IEnumerable function and also it will be easier to use my filter classes.

As the only developer for this application, I assume my choices. If you have remarks about this, please leave a comment.

Listing 1 : Example of the getPages method who retreive all the page from my db

public IQueryable<Page> getPages()
{

return from p in _db.Posts
where p.Type == "Page"
let lp = getLocalizedPages(p.PostID)
select new Page
{
PageID = p.PostID,
Author = p.Author,
Date = p.Date,
PageLozalized = new LazyList<PageLocalized>(lp),
ModifiedDate = p.ModifiedDate,
Password = p.Password ?? string.Empty,
Permalink = p.Permalink,
Status = p.PostStatusID,
Version = p.RevisionOf

};
}

private IQueryable<PageLocalized> getLocalizedPages(int postID)
{
return from lp in _db.PostCultureDetails
where lp.PostID == postID
select new PageLocalized()
{
Description = lp.Excerpt,
Text = lp.Text,
Title = lp.Title,
LanguageCode = (from culture in _db.Cultures
where culture.CultureID == lp.CultureID
select culture.LanguageCode).SingleOrDefault()

};

}

Why I did not use Entity framework ? I hate when the framework decide for me which object I should use. Also, the time I would spend to make it work as I want is doubtless longer than the time I wrote my custom Linq to Sql Class. Entity framework could be great for simple application but for an application who will grow in the future (as I expect Kiwi will do) I do not think it’s a good choice.

Why I did not use NHibernate ? I could have chosen NHibernate, but I absolutely wanted to play with Linq. Also, maybe in the future I could make the data access with it and compare what’s better for my application. Anyway, this is not the time to do this.

If you have other questions like this, please, do not hesitate.

And now the service :

As I mentioned, my data access is almost finished (for the moment). I am going to create the services I need for my application. Evidently, always in a TDD approach.

Kiwi Part 4 was bullshit :

Maybe it was but the aim of that post was to show you how to start with TDD. And I know that I was going in front of a wall. Indeed, I had an empty db and the post object was the most connected object. As you know in TDD, you write a test, you write some code. I realized that I should have written a lot (before creating the “SaveFunction” for it). I needed the category object, the comment object,… Thus, I begin to create a save function for the category object (alway with a tdd style).

Create the test :

//Spike Test !!!
[TestMethod]
public void SqlPostRepositoryTest_can_add_category()
{

Category category = new Category();
category.CreatedDate = DateTime.Now;
category.CategoryParentID = 0;
var categoryEn = new CategoryLocalized() {Description = "This is a test", Value = "Software Development", LangageCode = "EN"};
var categoryFR = new CategoryLocalized() { Description = "Ceci est un test", Value = "Développement Logiciel", LangageCode = "FR" };

var list = new LazyList<CategoryLocalized>();
list.Add(categoryEn);
list.Add(categoryFR);

category.LocalizedCategory = list;

_repository.Save(category);

Assert.IsNotNull(category);

}

And after the function I need :

//save or add a category

public void Save (Category category)
{
var dbCategory = (from c in _db.Categories
where c.CategoryID == category.CategoryID
select c).SingleOrDefault();
if(dbCategory == null)
{
dbCategory = new SqlRepository.Category();
dbCategory.CreatedDate = DateTime.Now;
dbCategory.ParentID = category.CategoryParentID;
//commit the change to have the id and insert the culture
_db.Categories.InsertOnSubmit(dbCategory);
_db.SubmitChanges();

//foreach culture we have in the objec we add it in the table CategoryCultureDetail
foreach (CategoryLocalized item in category.LocalizedCategory)
{
var dbitem = new CategoryCultureDetail();
//some Object to DB
dbitem.CategoryID = dbCategory.CategoryID;
dbitem.Description = item.Description;
dbitem.Value = item.Value;
dbitem.CultureID =
(from culture in _db.Cultures
where culture.LanguageCode == item.LangageCode
select culture.CultureID).SingleOrDefault();
dbCategory.CategoryCultureDetails.Add(dbitem);
_db.SubmitChanges();
}

}
else
{

foreach (CategoryLocalized item in category.LocalizedCategory)
{
var thisCategoryLocalized = (from cn in _db.CategoryCultureDetails
where cn.CategoryID == category.CategoryID
where cn.CultureID ==   (from culture in _db.Cultures
where culture.LanguageCode == item.LangageCode
select culture.CultureID).SingleOrDefault()
select cn).SingleOrDefault();
thisCategoryLocalized.Description = item.Description;
thisCategoryLocalized.Value = item.Value;
_db.CategoryCultureDetails.InsertOnSubmit(thisCategoryLocalized);
_db.SubmitChanges();

}
}
}

Of course, you see the “final” result. To have that, I went by little piece of code. Test, write, build, test, write, build, test …

I also know the test you see above is not a unit test, it is more an integration test or a spike test and it will be deleted or commented in the future.

But the name is test driven design and not “make pure unit test” design.

NOTE : I know I am saying that each time I post but I will try to add the source code in my codeplex project this afternoon.

UPDATE  : I put the source on code plex, if you would like to see it : http://dervalp.codeplex.com/

I have some troubles with codeplex, I will check this out tomorrow cause I am a bit tired today.

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Too often, I saw developers rewriting their own membership system in place to use what the framework (no matter which one) can offer.

It is the main raison why I choose to implement the ASP.NET Membership system in Kiwi.  It has a lot of interesting functionalities but on the other hand it is like riding a big monster.  Thus, I am going to use it as pluggableas as I can do.

The User Object :

Today, creating an object called User is being strange. If you want to choose the OOP way, a user is often too generic. If you developed an e-commerce, you will certainly choose customer in place of user. But a customer and an admin can login in your system, so are-you going to create two objects? One called “customer” and the other called “vip”? That sounds weird no?

Here is my point of view. A membership system is for me an additional layer you can implement (or not). It is not the hearth of your application; it is just a security layer. That why I am going to use it without any “User” object.  I saw 3 mains services that a Membership system could offer :

• authentication (who is this guy)
• personalization (what the guy like)
• authorization (what the guy can do)

Sql membership :

We saw in one of my previous post that ASP.NET has 2 differents way to manage the membership layer. There we saw the active directory membership provider. Today, we will use the SqlMembershipProvider.

First, to use Sql membership you need a sql server with a database up. Therefore, I went to the Microsoft website to download Sql Server 2008 express and I installed it.

I create an empty db called Kiwi.

Then in the folder “C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727″, I execute the aspnet_regsql.exe and provide the right information to allow the connection to the database. Finish the setup and let’s take a look on the database called Kiwi:

Now, I configure the Webconfig to use the SqlMemberShipProvider with my application.
Here is the connection string I added to my webconfig file:

To test if everything works well,

Change the name of the connection string under membership to make the connection with your db.

Now make a test, go to the ASP.NET configuration when you are on your MVC.WEB in your website.

You will enter in the Web Site Administation Tool :

If you click on Security you will access a page where you can manage the users, the roles and the access rules.
For the test, click on the “Create User” link and create one :

Create the user and go to the server explorer on your Visual Studio. If you do not have a connection to your db yet in server explorer, add it.

On the table aspnet_Users, right-click on Show Table Data and you will see the user you created above.

Cool stuff isn’t it ?
Now we have a db called Kiwi with some tables created by the .NET framwork.
The web application can connect to the Kiwi database and you are now able to manage user with the ASP.NET administation tools.

In the next post : I will begin to code with the Test driven design approach. I will create the different layer we need in our repository to make the authentication working.

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