In this session, we'll add the rest of our models and controllers that expose them. We'll also refactor our application, moving our DTOs to a shared project so they can be used by our front-end application later.
We'll start by creating the new shared project to hold our data transfer objects.
- If using Visual Studio, right-click on the Solution and select Add / New Project....
- Select .NET Standard from the project types on the left and select the Class Libarary (.NET Standard) template. Name the project ConferenceDTO and press OK.
- Delete the generated
Class1.cs
file from this new project.
- Open a command prompt and navigate to the root
ConferencePlanner
directory. - Run the following command:
dotnet new classlib -o ConferenceDTO -f netstandard2.0
- Next we'll need to add a reference to the ConferenceDTO project from the BackEnd project. From the command line, navigate to the BackEnd project directory and execute the following command:
dotnet add reference ../ConferenceDTO/ConferenceDTO.csproj
- Copy the
Speaker.cs
class from the BackEnd application into the root of the new ConferenceDTO project, and change the namespace toConferenceDTO
. - The data annotations references can't be resolved to a missing NuGet package. Add a reference to
System.ComponentModel.Annotations
<PackageReference Include="System.ComponentModel.Annotations" Version="4.4.0" />
. When the package restore completes, you should see that your data annotations are now resolved. - Go back to the BackEnd application and modify the code in
Speaker.cs
as shown:public class Speaker : ConferenceDTO.Speaker { }
- Run the application and view the Speakers data using the Swagger UI to verify everything still works.
We've got several more models to add, and unfortunately it's a little mechanical. You can copy the following classes manually, or open the completed solution which is shown at the end.
- Create an
Attendee.cs
class in the ConferenceDTO project with the following code:using System; using System.Collections.Generic; using System.ComponentModel.DataAnnotations; namespace ConferenceDTO { public class Attendee { public int ID { get; set; } [Required] [StringLength(200)] public virtual string FirstName { get; set; } [Required] [StringLength(200)] public virtual string LastName { get; set; } [Required] [StringLength(200)] public string UserName { get; set; } [StringLength(256)] public virtual string EmailAddress { get; set; } } }
- Create a
Conference.cs
class with the following code:using System; using System.Collections.Generic; using System.ComponentModel.DataAnnotations; using System.Text; namespace ConferenceDTO { public class Conference { public int ID { get; set; } [Required] [StringLength(200)] public string Name { get; set; } } }
- Create a
Session.cs
class with the following code:using System; using System.Collections; using System.Collections.Generic; using System.ComponentModel.DataAnnotations; namespace ConferenceDTO { public class Session { public int ID { get; set; } [Required] public int ConferenceID { get; set; } [Required] [StringLength(200)] public string Title { get; set; } [StringLength(4000)] public virtual string Abstract { get; set; } public virtual DateTimeOffset? StartTime { get; set; } public virtual DateTimeOffset? EndTime { get; set; } // Bonus points to those who can figure out why this is written this way public TimeSpan Duration => EndTime?.Subtract(StartTime ?? EndTime ?? DateTime.MinValue) ?? TimeSpan.Zero; public int? TrackId { get; set; } } }
- Create a new
Tag.cs
class with the following code:using System.Collections.Generic; using System.ComponentModel.DataAnnotations; namespace ConferenceDTO { public class Tag { public int ID { get; set; } [Required] [StringLength(32)] public string Name { get; set; } } }
- Create a new
Track.cs
class with the following code:using System; using System.Collections.Generic; using System.ComponentModel.DataAnnotations; namespace ConferenceDTO { public class Track { public int TrackID { get; set; } [Required] public int ConferenceID { get; set; } [Required] [StringLength(200)] public string Name { get; set; } } }
We're not going to create our EF models directly from the ConferenceDTO classes. Instead, we'll create some composite classes such as SessionSpeaker, since these will map more closely to what our application will be working with.
We're also going to take this opportunity to rename the Models
directory in the BackEnd project to Data
since it no longer just contains models.
- Right-click the
Models
directory and selectRename
, changing the name toData
. - In the BackEnd project, add a
ConferenceAttendee.cs
class to theData
directory with the following code:using System; using System.Collections.Generic; using System.Linq; using System.Threading.Tasks; namespace BackEnd.Data { public class ConferenceAttendee { public int ConferenceID { get; set; } public Conference Conference { get; set; } public int AttendeeID { get; set; } public Attendee Attendee { get; set; } } }
- Add a
SessionSpeaker.cs
class to theData
directory with the following code:using System; using System.Collections.Generic; using System.Linq; using System.Threading.Tasks; namespace BackEnd.Data { public class SessionSpeaker { public int SessionId { get; set; } public Session Session { get; set; } public int SpeakerId { get; set; } public Speaker Speaker { get; set; } } }
- Add a
SessionTag.cs
class to theData
directory with the following code:using System; using System.Collections.Generic; using System.Linq; using System.Threading.Tasks; namespace BackEnd.Data { public class SessionTag { public int SessionID { get; set; } public Session Session { get; set; } public int TagID { get; set; } public Tag Tag { get; set; } } }
- Add an
Attendee.cs
class with the following code:using System; using System.Collections.Generic; namespace BackEnd.Data { public class Attendee : ConferenceDTO.Attendee { public virtual ICollection<ConferenceAttendee> ConferenceAttendees { get; set; } public virtual ICollection<Session> Sessions { get; set; } } }
- Add a
Conference.cs
class with the following code:using System; using System.Collections.Generic; using System.Text; namespace BackEnd.Data { public class Conference : ConferenceDTO.Conference { public virtual ICollection<Track> Tracks { get; set; } public virtual ICollection<Speaker> Speakers { get; set; } public virtual ICollection<Session> Sessions { get; set; } public virtual ICollection<ConferenceAttendee> ConferenceAttendees { get; set; } } }
- Add a
Session.cs
class with the following code:using System; using System.Collections; using System.Collections.Generic; namespace BackEnd.Data { public class Session : ConferenceDTO.Session { public Conference Conference { get; set; } public virtual ICollection<SessionSpeaker> SessionSpeakers { get; set; } public Track Track { get; set; } public virtual ICollection<SessionTag> SessionTags { get; set; } } }
- Modify the
Speaker.cs
class we wrote previously to make the following two changes: update to the namespace to match our directory rename, and add a referece to theSessionSpeaker
composite class:using System; using System.Collections.Generic; namespace BackEnd.Data { public class Speaker : ConferenceDTO.Speaker { public virtual ICollection<SessionSpeaker> SessionSpeakers { get; set; } = new List<SessionSpeaker>(); } }
Okay, now we need to update our ApplicationDbContext
so Entity Framework knows about our new models.
- Update
ApplicationDbContext.cs
to use the following code:using System; using System.Collections.Generic; using System.Linq; using System.Threading.Tasks; using Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore; using Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.Infrastructure; using Microsoft.Extensions.DependencyInjection; namespace BackEnd.Data { public class ApplicationDbContext : DbContext { public ApplicationDbContext(DbContextOptions<ApplicationDbContext> options) : base(options) { } protected override void OnModelCreating(ModelBuilder modelBuilder) { modelBuilder.Entity<Attendee>() .HasIndex(a => a.UserName) .IsUnique(); // Many-to-many: Conference <-> Attendee modelBuilder.Entity<ConferenceAttendee>() .HasKey(ca => new { ca.ConferenceID, ca.AttendeeID }); // Many-to-many: Speaker <-> Session modelBuilder.Entity<SessionSpeaker>() .HasKey(ss => new { ss.SessionId, ss.SpeakerId}); // Many-to-many: Session <-> Tag modelBuilder.Entity<SessionTag>() .HasKey(st => new { st.SessionID, st.TagID }); } public DbSet<Conference> Conferences { get; set; } public DbSet<Session> Sessions { get; set; } public DbSet<Track> Tracks { get; set; } public DbSet<Tag> Tags { get; set; } public DbSet<Speaker> Speakers { get; set; } public DbSet<Attendee> Attendees { get; set; } } public class ApplicationDbContextFactory : IDesignTimeDbContextFactory<ApplicationDbContext> { public ApplicationDbContext CreateDbContext(string[] args) => Program.BuildWebHost(args).Services.CreateScope().ServiceProvider.GetRequiredService<ApplicationDbContext>(); } }
- Fix errors due to the rename from
BackEnd.Models
toBackEnd.Data
. You can either do this using a find / replace (replacing "BackEnd.Models" with "BackEnd.Data") or you can do a build and fix errors. - Due to a rename in our
ApplicationDbContext
that changed fromSpeaker
toSpeakers
, you'll need to replace instances of_context.Speaker
with_context.Speakers
in theSpeakersController
. - Ensure that the application builds now.
- Run the following commands in the command prompt:
dotnet ef migrations add Refactor dotnet ef database update
- Now take a deep breath and run the application and navigate to
/swagger
. You should see the Swagger UI.
Save point for above code changes is here
Let's fix a few remaining details before moving on to the remaining API Controllers.
- In the BackEnd project, delete
ScaffoldingReadMe.txt
if present. - Delete
.bowerrc
from the root of the project. - Delete
ValuesController.cs
from theControllers
directory. - Delete the
wwwroot
directory.
- Start by deleting the the attribute that reads
[Produces("application/json")]
. This attribute locks the controller's return type to JSON. By removing this attribute, we'll allow ASP.NET Core's content negotiatiation to output the response type the client requests. - Change the Route attribute from
[Route("api/Speakers")]
to[Route("api/[controller]")]
. - We'll rename
_context
to_db
, so your context will appear as shown:private readonly ApplicationDbContext _db; public SpeakersController(ApplicationDbContext db) { _db = db; }
- Rename the first action from
GetSpeaker()
toGetSpeakers()
. Since the mapping is via HTTP verbs, the method name is inconsequential. - Make this controller asynchronous by adding the
async
keyword and to returnTask<IActionResult>
as shown:public async Task<IActionResult> GetSpeakers()
- Modify the query as shown below:
var speakers = await _db.Speakers.AsNoTracking() .Include(s => s.SessionSpeakers) .ThenInclude(ss => ss.Session) .ToListAsync(); return Ok(speakers);
- While the above will work, this is directly returning our model class. A better practice is to return an output model class. Create a
SpeakerResponse.cs
class in the ConferenceDTO project with the following code:using System; using System.Collections.Generic; using System.Text; namespace ConferenceDTO { public class SpeakerResponse : Speaker { // TODO: Set order of JSON proeprties so this shows up last not first public ICollection<Session> Sessions { get; set; } = new List<Session>(); } }
- Now we'll add a utility method to map between these classes. In the BackEnd project, create an
Infrastructure
directory. Add a class namedEntityExtensions.cs
with the following mapping code:using BackEnd.Data; using System; using System.Collections.Generic; using System.Linq; using System.Threading.Tasks; namespace BackEnd.Data { public static class EntityExtensions { public static ConferenceDTO.SpeakerResponse MapSpeakerResponse(this Speaker speaker) => new ConferenceDTO.SpeakerResponse { ID = speaker.ID, Name = speaker.Name, Bio = speaker.Bio, WebSite = speaker.WebSite, Sessions = speaker.SessionSpeakers? .Select(ss => new ConferenceDTO.Session { ID = ss.SessionId, Title = ss.Session.Title }) .ToList() }; } }
- Now we can update the
GetSpeakers()
method of the SpeakersController so that it returns our response model. Update the last few lines so that the method reads as follows:[HttpGet] public async Task<IActionResult> GetSpeakers() { var speakers = await _db.Speakers.AsNoTracking() .Include(s => s.SessionSpeakers) .ThenInclude(ss => ss.Session) .ToListAsync(); var result = speakers.Select(s => s.MapSpeakerResponse()); return Ok(result); }
- Update the
GetSpeaker()
method to use our mapped response models as follows:[HttpGet("{id:int}")] public async Task<IActionResult> GetSpeaker([FromRoute]int id) { var speaker = await _db.Speakers.AsNoTracking() .Include(s => s.SessionSpeakers) .ThenInclude(ss => ss.Session) .SingleOrDefaultAsync(s => s.ID == id); if (speaker == null) { return NotFound(); } var result = speaker.MapSpeakerResponse(); return Ok(result); }
- Update the remaining actions in the SpeakerController as shown below:
[HttpPost] public async Task<IActionResult> CreateSpeaker([FromBody]ConferenceDTO.Speaker input) { if (!ModelState.IsValid) { return BadRequest(ModelState); } var speaker = new Speaker { Name = input.Name, WebSite = input.WebSite, Bio = input.Bio }; _db.Speakers.Add(speaker); await _db.SaveChangesAsync(); var result = speaker.MapSpeakerResponse(); return CreatedAtAction(nameof(GetSpeaker), new { id = speaker.ID }, result); } [HttpPut("{id:int}")] public async Task<IActionResult> UpdateSpeaker([FromRoute]int id, [FromBody]ConferenceDTO.Speaker input) { var speaker = await _db.FindAsync<Speaker>(id); if (speaker == null) { return NotFound(); } if (!ModelState.IsValid) { return BadRequest(ModelState); } speaker.Name = input.Name; speaker.WebSite = input.WebSite; speaker.Bio = input.Bio; // TODO: Handle exceptions, e.g. concurrency await _db.SaveChangesAsync(); var result = speaker.MapSpeakerResponse(); return Ok(result); } [HttpDelete("{id:int}")] public async Task<IActionResult> DeleteSpeaker([FromRoute]int id) { var speaker = await _db.FindAsync<Speaker>(id); if (speaker == null) { return NotFound(); } _db.Remove(speaker); // TODO: Handle exceptions, e.g. concurrency await _db.SaveChangesAsync(); return NoContent(); }
- Add the following response DTO classes from the save point folder
AttendeeResponse
SessionRespsone
ConferenceResponse
TrackResponse
TagResponse
- Update the
EntityExtensions
class with the extra mapping methods from the save point folder - Copy the following controllers from the save point folder into the current project's
BackEnd/Controllers
directory:SessionsController
ConferencesController
AttendeesController
- Copy the
NDCSydneyData.cs
class from here into the current project's/src/BackEnd/Data/
directory. - Add the following lines at the end of the
Configure()
method in the BackEndStartup.cs
file to seed the database on application startup:// Comment out the following line to avoid resetting the database each time NDCSydneyData.Seed(app.ApplicationServices);
- Run the application to see the updated data via Swagger UI.