Download - ASP.NET CORE MVC STUDENT WORKBOOK · Chapter 1 Introduction to ASP.NET Core MVC Chapter 2 Getting Started with ASP.NET Core MVC Chapter 3 ASP.NET MVC Architecture Chapter 4 The Model

ASP.NET CORE MVCSTUDENT WORKBOOK

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ASP.NET Core MVC Rev. 1.0 Student Guide Information in this document is subject to change without notice. Companies, names and data used in examples herein are fictitious unless otherwise noted. No part of this document may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, for any purpose, without the express written permission of Object Innovations. Product and company names mentioned herein are the trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners.

™ is a trademark of Object Innovations. Authors: Robert Hurlbut and Robert J. Oberg Copyright ©2017 Object Innovations Enterprises, LLC All rights reserved. Object Innovations 877-558-7246 www.objectinnovations.com Printed in the United States of America.

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Table of Contents (Overview) Chapter 1 Introduction to ASP.NET Core MVC

Chapter 2 Getting Started with ASP.NET Core MVC

Chapter 3 ASP.NET MVC Architecture

Chapter 4 The Model

Chapter 5 The Controller

Chapter 6 The View

Chapter 7 Routing

Chapter 8 ASP.NET Core Web API

Appendix A Learning Resources

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Directory Structure

The course software installs to the root directory C:\OIC\MvcCore.

Example programs for each chapter are in named subdirectories of chapter directories Chap02, Chap03, and so on.

The Labs directory contains one subdirectory for each lab, named after the lab number. Starter code is frequently supplied, and answers are provided in the chapter directories.

The Demos directory is provided for doing in-class demonstrations led by the instructor.

Data files install to the directory C:\OIC\Data.

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Table of Contents (Detailed)

Chapter 1: Introduction to ASP.NET Core MVC ............................................................. 1 Review of ASP.NET Web Forms ....................................................................................... 3 Advantages of ASP.NET Web Forms ................................................................................ 4 Disadvantages of ASP.NET Web Forms ............................................................................ 5 Model-View-Controller Pattern.......................................................................................... 6 ASP.NET MVC .................................................................................................................. 7 ASP.NET Core.................................................................................................................... 8 What is .NET Core?............................................................................................................ 9 Advantages of ASP.NET MVC ........................................................................................ 10 Disadvantages of ASP.NET MVC.................................................................................... 11 Goals of ASP.NET MVC.................................................................................................. 12 Unit Testing ...................................................................................................................... 13 Summary ........................................................................................................................... 14

Chapter 2: Getting Started with ASP.NET Core MVC .................................................. 15 An ASP.NET Core MVC Testbed .................................................................................... 17 Visual Studio ASP.NET MVC Demo............................................................................... 18 Restoring Packages ........................................................................................................... 20 Starter Application............................................................................................................ 21 Simple App with Controller Only..................................................................................... 23 Edit project.json File......................................................................................................... 24 Edit Startup.cs ................................................................................................................... 25 Action Methods and Routing............................................................................................ 31 Action Method Return Type ............................................................................................. 32 Rendering a View ............................................................................................................. 33 Creating a View ................................................................................................................ 34 The View Web Page ......................................................................................................... 35 Dynamic Output................................................................................................................ 36 Razor View Engine ........................................................................................................... 37 Embedded Scripts ............................................................................................................. 38 Embedded Script Example................................................................................................ 39 Using a Model with ViewBag .......................................................................................... 40 Controller Using Model and ViewBag ............................................................................. 41 View Using Model and ViewBag..................................................................................... 42 Using Model Directly ....................................................................................................... 43 Passing Parameters in Query String.................................................................................. 44 Lab 2 ................................................................................................................................. 45 Summary ........................................................................................................................... 46

Chapter 3: ASP.NET MVC Architecture......................................................................... 53 The Controller in ASP.NET MVC.................................................................................... 55 The View in ASP.NET MVC ........................................................................................... 56 The Model in ASP.NET MVC.......................................................................................... 57

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How MVC Works ............................................................................................................. 58 Using Forms...................................................................................................................... 59 HTML Helper Functions .................................................................................................. 60 Handling Form Submission .............................................................................................. 61 Model Binding .................................................................................................................. 62 Greet View........................................................................................................................ 63 Input Validation ................................................................................................................ 64 Nullable Type ................................................................................................................... 65 Checking Model Validity.................................................................................................. 66 Validation Summary ......................................................................................................... 67 Lab 3 ................................................................................................................................. 68 Summary ........................................................................................................................... 69

Chapter 4: The Model ........................................................................................................ 77 Complex Models............................................................................................................... 79 MvcBooks Example.......................................................................................................... 80 The View........................................................................................................................... 81 The Model: Book and Category........................................................................................ 82 The Model: DB ................................................................................................................. 83 MvcBooks – Step 2........................................................................................................... 84 Books by Category............................................................................................................ 85 Books by Category – View............................................................................................... 86 Running Step 2.................................................................................................................. 87 Microsoft Technologies for the Model ............................................................................. 88 NuGet Package Manager .................................................................................................. 89 Installed Packages............................................................................................................. 90 Installing a Package .......................................................................................................... 91 Updated project.json ......................................................................................................... 92 XML Serialization Demo.................................................................................................. 93 Running the Starter Code.................................................................................................. 95 XML Serialization: Save .................................................................................................. 96 System.Xml.XmlSerializer Package................................................................................. 98 Deserialization ................................................................................................................ 101 XML Serialization .......................................................................................................... 102 What Will Not Be Serialized .......................................................................................... 103 Lab 4 ............................................................................................................................... 104 XML as a Data Store ...................................................................................................... 105 MvcBooks – Model ........................................................................................................ 106 Save() .............................................................................................................................. 107 Restore().......................................................................................................................... 108 AddCategory() ................................................................................................................ 109 MvcBooks – Controller .................................................................................................. 110 Adding a Category .......................................................................................................... 111 View for Adding a Category........................................................................................... 112 Running the Example...................................................................................................... 113 SmallPub Database ......................................................................................................... 114

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Using ADO.NET............................................................................................................. 116 Model .............................................................................................................................. 117 Controller and View........................................................................................................ 118 Running the Database Example ...................................................................................... 119 Summary ......................................................................................................................... 120

Chapter 5: The Controller ............................................................................................... 127 Controller Base Class...................................................................................................... 129 Controller Base Class...................................................................................................... 130 Action Methods............................................................................................................... 131 Action Method Example ................................................................................................. 132 Index() Action Method ................................................................................................... 133 Info() Action Method...................................................................................................... 134 Info.cshtml ...................................................................................................................... 135 Running the Example...................................................................................................... 136 Receiving Input............................................................................................................... 137 Binding Example ............................................................................................................ 138 Non-Nullable Parameters................................................................................................ 139 Nullable Parameters ........................................................................................................ 140 Using a Model................................................................................................................. 141 Action Results................................................................................................................. 142 Action Result Example ................................................................................................... 143 Output Demo................................................................................................................... 144 JavaScript Object Notation ............................................................................................. 147 Serving Static Files ......................................................................................................... 148 Action Method Attributes ............................................................................................... 149 Lab 5 ............................................................................................................................... 150 Filters .............................................................................................................................. 151 Asynchronous Controllers .............................................................................................. 153 Summary ......................................................................................................................... 154

Chapter 6: The View......................................................................................................... 161 View Responsibility........................................................................................................ 163 A Program with a View .................................................................................................. 164 View Page ....................................................................................................................... 165 Passing Data to the View ................................................................................................ 166 Dynamic and ExpandoObject ......................................................................................... 167 Passing Lists to the View................................................................................................ 168 HTML Helper Methods .................................................................................................. 169 Link-Building Helpers .................................................................................................... 170 Form Helpers .................................................................................................................. 171 Html Helper Example ..................................................................................................... 172 Validation Helpers .......................................................................................................... 174 Templated Helpers .......................................................................................................... 175 Validation in Model ........................................................................................................ 177 Validation in Controller .................................................................................................. 178

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ValidationMessage Helper.............................................................................................. 179 Running the Example...................................................................................................... 180 Lab 6 ............................................................................................................................... 181 Summary ......................................................................................................................... 182

Chapter 7: Routing ........................................................................................................... 189 ASP.NET Routing........................................................................................................... 191 Routing in ASP.NET Core MVC.................................................................................... 192 Simple Route Example ................................................................................................... 193 Math Controller............................................................................................................... 194 Default Values for URL Parameters ............................................................................... 196 Using a Default Route..................................................................................................... 197 Home Controller ............................................................................................................. 198 Assigning Parameter Values ........................................................................................... 199 Controller Code............................................................................................................... 200 View Code ...................................................................................................................... 201 Running the Example...................................................................................................... 202 Properties of Routes........................................................................................................ 203 Optional Parameter ......................................................................................................... 204 Optional Parameter Demo............................................................................................... 205 Matching URLs to Route ................................................................................................ 210 Defaults ........................................................................................................................... 211 Multiple Routes Example ............................................................................................... 212 Attribute Routing ............................................................................................................ 216 Combining Routes .......................................................................................................... 217 Empty String for Route Attribute ................................................................................... 218 Token Replacement ........................................................................................................ 219 Summary ......................................................................................................................... 220

Chapter 8: ASP.NET Core Web API.............................................................................. 221 ASP.NET Core Web API................................................................................................ 223 REST............................................................................................................................... 224 Representation, State and Transfer ................................................................................. 225 Collections and Elements................................................................................................ 226 Web API Demo............................................................................................................... 227 Strings Controller............................................................................................................ 230 Project Settings ............................................................................................................... 233 HTTP Testing Tools ....................................................................................................... 234 Using Postman ................................................................................................................ 235 Implementing and Testing POST.................................................................................... 237 Lab 8A ............................................................................................................................ 240 HTTP Response Codes ................................................................................................... 241 Testing Improved Code for GET .................................................................................... 242 POST Response Code ..................................................................................................... 243 Named Route .................................................................................................................. 244 Testing Improved Code for POST .................................................................................. 245

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Location Header.............................................................................................................. 246 Response Code for PUT and DELETE........................................................................... 247 Web API Clients ............................................................................................................. 248 HttpClient........................................................................................................................ 249 Initializing HttpClient ..................................................................................................... 250 Issuing a GET Request ................................................................................................... 251 Issuing a POST Request ................................................................................................. 252 Lab 8B............................................................................................................................. 253 Summary ......................................................................................................................... 254

Appendix A Learning Resources .............................................................................. 263 Evaluation Copy


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MvcCore Chapter 1

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Chapter 1

Introduction to ASP.NET Core MVC

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Introduction to ASP.NET Core MVC

Objectives

After completing this unit you will be able to:

Describe advantages and disadvantages of ASP.NET Web Forms.

Understand the Model-View-Controller (MVC) pattern

Outline the parts of an ASP.NET MVC application.

Describe advantages and disadvantages of ASP.NET MVC.

Describe ASP.NET Core.

Understand the use of unit testing in creating ASP.NET MVC applications.

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Review of ASP.NET Web Forms

ASP.NET Web Forms provide a way to build web applications.

You can use compiled, object-oriented languages with ASP.NET, including C# and Visual Basic.

All the power of the .NET Framework is available to you, including the extensive class library.

Code and presentation elements can be cleanly separated.

Code can be provided in a separate section of a Web page from user interface elements.

The separation can be carried a step further by use of separate “code behind” files.

ASP.NET Web Forms comes with an extensive set of server controls that provide significant functionality out of the box.

Server controls transparently handle browser compatibility issues.

A special set of Mobile Controls can emit either HTML or WML, depending on the characteristics of the client device.

Configuration is handled by XML files without need of any registry settings, and deployment can be done simply by copying files.

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Advantages of ASP.NET Web Forms

ASP.NET Web Forms continue to be supported and have their own advantages:

A rich event model supported in hundreds of server controls facilitates easy development of Web server applications, following a familiar GUI development paradigm.

View state makes it easy to manage state information.

The model works well for individuals and small teams doing rapid application development.

The large number of built-in and third-party components also facilitates rapid application development.

In general, Web Forms are quite easy to work with and generally require less code.

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Disadvantages of ASP.NET Web

Forms

Key disadvantages of ASP.NET Web Forms include

ViewState tends to be large depending on the number of server controls contained on the page, thus increasing the size of the page and the length of the response time from server to browser

ASP.NET Web Forms provide tight coupling with the code-behind classes which make automated testing of the back-end code apart from the web pages more difficult

Because the code-behind classes are so tightly coupled to the web forms, developers are encouraged to mix presentation code with application logic in the same code-behind classes which can lead to fragile and unintelligible code

Limited control of HTML rendered through use of server controls

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Model-View-Controller Pattern

The Model-View-Controller (MVC) design pattern divides an application into three conceptual components:

A model represents the data and operations that are meaningful to the domain of the application. It implements the application logic for the domain.

Views display a user interface for portions of the model. Typically the UI is created from model data.

Controllers handle incoming requests, work with the model, and select a view to render a UI back to the user.

Controller

Model

View

User

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ASP.NET MVC

ASP.NET MVC is a framework based on ASP.NET for creating Web applications.

It is an alternative to Web Forms in classical .NET.

ASP.NET MVC 1.0 was installed on top of .NET 3.5 SP1 and Visual Studio 2008 SP.

ASP.NET MVC 2.0 is integrated into .NET 4.0 and Visual Studio 2010.

ASP.NET MVC 3.0 is a separate download and adds important new features, such as the Razor view engine.

ASP.NET MVC 4.0 is integrated into .NET 4.5 and Visual Studio 2012.

ASP.NET MVC 5.0 is integrated into .NET 4.5.x/4.6 and Visual Studio 2013/2015.

ASP.NET MVC 6.0, part of ASP.NET Core unifies MVC with Web API.

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ASP.NET Core

ASP.NET Core is a completely new version of ASP.NET that is open-source and cross-platform.

It runs on Windows, Mac and Linux.

It runs on either .NET Core or the full .NET Framework.

ASP.NET Core is very modular providing flexibility in using what is needed for an application with minimal overhead.

ASP.NET Core supports both MVC and Web API in an integrated manner but it does not support Web Forms.

This course focuses on MVC running on .NET Core, with an introduction to Web API in the final chapter.

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What is .NET Core?

.NET Core is a general purpose development platform that is cross-platform, supporting:

Windows

macOS

Linux

It is open-source (MIT license) maintained by Microsoft and the .NET community on GitHub.

.NET Core is composed of:

A .NET runtime

A set of framework libraries

A set of SDK tools and language compilers

The app host dotnet, which is used to launch .NET Core apps.

.NET Core is distributed through NuGet packages.

Packages are relatively fine grained, allowing smaller app size.

Metapackages are more coarse-grained, describing a set of packages that are meaningful together.

NuGet is the package manager for the Microsoft development platform. It provides a gallery as a central repository.

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Advantages of ASP.NET MVC

Key advantages of ASP.NET MVC include:

The MVC pattern promotes separation of concerns into input logic (controller), business logic (model) and UI (view). This aids in managing complexity.

These components are loosely coupled, promoting parallel development.

This loose coupling also facilitates automated testing.

Views are created using standard HTML and cascading style sheets, giving the developer a high degree of control over the user interface.

There is no view state, reducing the load on the browser in rendering a page.

Separation of Concerns:

Each component has one responsibility

SRP – Single Responsibility Principle

DRY – Don’t Repeat Yourself

More easily testable

Helps with concurrent development

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Disadvantages of ASP.NET MVC

Key disadvantages of ASP.NET MVC include:

Writing View contents the old ASP-like way (though this is now easier with the newer Razor view syntax).

Unit testing and Test Driven Development (TDD) are encouraged and used more but also bring a steep learning curve.

Need to understand HTML controls and style sheets, but at the same time this allows a designer to work independently of the coders.

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Goals of ASP.NET MVC

The ASP.NET MVC Framework has the following goals:

Frictionless Testability

Tight control over markup

User/Search Engine friendly URLs

Leverage the benefits of ASP.NET

Conventions and Guidance

Extensibility

Replace any component of the system

Interface-based architecture

Very few sealed methods / classes

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Unit Testing

Unit testing lets you specify the expected behavior of individual classes or other small code units in isolation.

ASP.NET MVC encourages unit testing of the Models and the Controllers of the application to verify expected behaviors.

Separation of concerns makes unit testing of individual components feasible.

There are several choices for unit testing in .NET Core.

The new dotnet test supports cross-platform testing.

Microsoft’s MSTest is integrated into Visual Studio and can be used for testing .NET Core on Windows.

The open-source xUnit can be used for testing .NET Core applications.

This link provides information on unit testing in .NET Core:

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/articles/core/testing/

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Summary

ASP.NET Web Forms is still used and has both advantages and disadvantages compared to MVC.

But Web Forms is not available in ASP.NET Core.

The Model-View-Controller (MVC) pattern is useful in creating applications that have separation of concerns.

ASP.NET Core is open-source and cross platform and unifies MVC and Web API.

Unit testing is helpful and encouraged in developing ASP.NET MVC applications.

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Chapter 5

The Controller

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The Controller

Objectives

After completing this unit you will be able to:

Describe the facilities provided by the Controller base class:

Action methods

Action results

Filters

Describe the ways controllers can receive input.

Describe the principal types of output from a controller.

Use attributes to control how actions are invoked.

Describe how asynchronous controllers work and how they can be used.

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Controller Base Class

In a nutshell, controllers are responsible for application logic.

The Controller class is responsible for the following processing stages:

Locating the appropriate action method to call and validating that it can be called.

Getting the values to use as the action method's arguments.

Handling all errors that might occur during the execution of the action method.

Providing the default RazorViewEngine class for rendering views, populating it in the ViewEngineCollection property.

ASP.NET Core does not give you access to the IController interface.

You always implement a controller by deriving from the Controller base class.

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Controller Base Class

The Controller base class introduces the following facilities:

Action Methods

Action Results

Filters

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Action Methods

Every public method in a controller is an action method.

This means the method can be invoked by some URL

When a user enters a URL into the browser, the MVC application uses routing rules defined in the Startup.cs file.

app.UseMvc(routes => { routes.MapRoute( name: "default", template: "{controller=Home}/{action=Index}/{id?}"); });

The controller then determines the appropriate action method to handle the request

For example, if the URL contains /Products/Detail/5, then the MVC application will attempt to match the Products with a Products controller, the Detail with an action method in Products, and 5 as a parameter to the Detail action method

public class ProductsController : Controller { public IActionResult Detail(int id) { ... Product product = prodRepository.Get(id); return View(product); } }

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Action Method Example

The CtlHello example illustrates some of the functionality of the Controller base class.

There is one controller.

HomeController implements actions to display a help screen and to display selected information about the request.

Note various features from use of the base class.

There is an automatic dispatch to the proper action method based on the URL.

Properties give convenient access to context data of the request.

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Index() Action Method

public class HomeController : Controller { // GET: /Home public IActionResult Index() { return View(); } ...

The corresponding view Index.cshtml provides the HTML for a simple help screen.

<html> <head> <title>Index</title> </head> <body> <h2>Supported Action</h2> <ul> <li>/Home</li> <li>/Home/Info</li> </ul> </body> </html>

Build and run.

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Info() Action Method

The Info() action method displays context information about the HTTP request, using the Request property.

// GET: /Home/Info public IActionResult Info() { List<string> info = new List<string>(); string queryString = Request.QueryString.ToString(); info.Add("query string = " + queryString); info.Add("HttpContext:"); var dict = Request.HttpContext.Items; foreach(KeyValuePair<object, object> kvp in dict) { string item = string.Format( "Key = {0}, Value = {1}", kvp.Key, kvp.Value); info.Add(item); } var req = Request.Method; info.Add("method = " + req); long? length = Request.ContentLength; if (length.HasValue) info.Add("content length = " + length); req = Request.Path.ToString(); info.Add("path = " + req); ViewBag.Info = info; return View(); }

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Info.cshtml

The controller stores the retrieved information in a List<string> object that is passed to the view by using the ViewBag.

The view provides Razor code to display this information in a bulleted list.

<html> <head> <title>Info</title> </head> <body> <h2>Info About Request Object</h2> <ul> @foreach (string item in ViewBag.Info) { @:<li>@item</li> } </ul> </body> </html>

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Running the Example

Build and run. Provide the following URL. Note the query string, which we will be using in our next example of a simple Math controller.

http://localhost:59665/Home/Info?x=5&y=7

This is the output:

We will sometimes use the Chrome browser in our screenshots, because it conveniently displays the whole URL in the address field.

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Receiving Input

A straightforward way that action methods can receive input is through context objects.

The Controller base class has properties for various context objects, including Request, Response, RouteData, HttpContext, and Server.

The previous example illustrates this approach. For example, parameters could be retrieved by parsing the query string. However, this is not very convenient, as you would need to provide the parsing code.

Parameters can be passed to your action methods.

The default route {controller}/{action}/{id} provides for a single id parameter as part of the URL.

public IActionResult Detail(int id)

Model binding can automatically associate named values from the context with parameters having the same name. This binding can also do type conversions for you.

public string Add(int x, int y)

If the model binder can’t find a match for a parameter, it will pass null for reference types. For a value type, you will get a zero. You can distinguish between the absence of a parameter and zero as a real value if you make the type nullable, such as int?.

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Binding Example

CtlBinding illustrates parameter passing via the parameter binding feature of ASP.NET MVC.

In Step 1 the parameters “x” and “y” are mandatory, and zero will be returned if they are not present.

Here is the code for Step 1. We don’t have to extract data from context objects; it is supplied through parameters to the action methods. Simple!

public class MathController : Controller { // GET: /Math/Add public string Add(int x, int y) { int sum = x + y; return string.Format("{0} + {1} = {2}", x, y, sum); } // GET: /Math/Subtract public string Subtract(int x, int y) { int diff = x - y; return string.Format("{0} - {1} = {2}", x, y, diff); } }

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Non-Nullable Parameters

The parameters “x” and “y” in Step 1 are not nullable.

This means if we leave one out, say by misspelling it, a zero will be returned.

This is different behavior in ASP.NET Core from classical ASP.NET, where an exception will be thrown.

URL (port number varies):

http://localhost:61005/Math/Add?x=7&yy=5

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Nullable Parameters

The parameters “x” and “y” in Step 2 are nullable.

The parameters are declared to be of type int?.

We test for the presence of a value with the HasValue property, and when we use the variable as an integer we must perform an explicit cast.

// GET: /Math/Add public string Add(int? x, int? y) { if (x.HasValue & y.HasValue) { int sum = (int)x + (int)y; return string.Format("{0} + {1} = {2}", x, y, sum); } else return "Please supply values for parameters x and y"; }

Now if we leave one out, we’ll get an error message rather than a zero.

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Using a Model

If there is a Model in our application, we can extend the binding process a step further.

Create a class whose properties associate with named values from the context having the same name.

See CtlModel in the chapter folder.

namespace CtlModel.Models { public class Pair { public int x { get; set; } public int y { get; set; } } }

You can then automatically use objects of this class type in your action methods.

// GET: /Math/Add public string Add(Pair p) { int sum = p.x + p.y; return string.Format("{0} + {1} = {2}", p.x, p.y, sum); }

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Action Results

An action method normally returns a result of type IActionResult.

An action method can return any type, such as string, int, and so on, but then the return value is wrapped in an ActionResult

The most common action of an action method is to call the View() helper method, which returns a result of type ViewResult, which derives from ActionResult.

This table shows some of the important action result types, which all derive from ActionResult.

Action Result Helper Method Description

ViewResult View() Renders a view as a Web page, typically HTML

RedirectResult Redirect() Redirects to another action method using its URL

JsonResult Json() Returns a serialized Json object

FileResult File() Returns binary data to write to the response

ContentResult Content() Returns a string

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Action Result Example

CtlOutput illustrates a number of different Action Results.

A simple view file Index.cshtml provides a user interface.

<!DOCTYPE html> <html> <head> <title>Controller Output Demo</title> </head> <body> <form method="post" action="/Home/Json"> <a href="/Home/Download"> Download Objectives.txt</a><br /> <a href="/Home/Redirect">Redirect</a><br /> <a href="/Home/Json"> Json representation of a Person object</a> (Uses GET)<br /> <input id="Submit1" type="submit" value="Json" /> (Uses POST) </form> </body> </html>

The hyperlinks will generate GET requests, and the submit button will generate a POST request.

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Output Demo

1. Build and run the example.

2. Click on the first link. You can download the text file (which can be displayed by a choice of programs, such as Notepad). Examine the code in the controller.

// GET: /Home/Download public ActionResult Download() { return File( "/Objectives.txt", "application/text"); } 3. Click on the second link. You will be redirected to another

HTML page. Examine the code in the controller.

// GET: /Home/Redirect public ActionResult Redirect() { return Redirect("/RedirectTarget.html"); }

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Output Demo (Cont’d)

4. Click on the third link. The result depends on the browser. In IE you will see a message box allowing you to download the JSON data in a file. In Chrome the JSON will be displayed directly.

5. A more secure practice is to make such a request only through a POST. Examine the code in the controller. (We’ll discuss the attributes shortly.)

// POST: /Home/Json [HttpPost] [ActionName("Json")] public ActionResult Json2() { return Json(new Person()); }

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Output Demo (Cont’d)

6. Click the button. This will cause a POST. In IE you will see a message box allowing you to download the JSON data in a file.

7. Click Open. You can now examine this file in Visual Studio.

8. Look again at the source code in the controller.

public ActionResult Json2() { return Json(new Person()); }

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JavaScript Object Notation

9. JavaScript Object Notation or JSON is a very terse way of representing objects. Examine the Person class, which is defined in the file Person.cs in the Models folder.

public class Person { public string Name { get; set; } public int Age { get; set; } public Person() { Name = "John"; Age = 33; } } 10. Examine again the file in Visual Studio. Observe how

concisely this object instance has been represented.

{"Name":"John","Age":33} 11. Finally, there is one additional action method Path(), which

returns a string using the Content() helper.

// GET: /Home/Path public string Path() { string strPath = Request.Path.ToString(); return strPath; } 12. This concludes the demo.

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Serving Static Files

There are two more features in ASP.NET Core that are required to make this example work.

First, in the Configure() method in Startup.cs you must call UseStaticFiles().

public void Configure(IApplicationBuilder app, IHostingEnvironment env, ILoggerFactory loggerFactory) { loggerFactory.AddConsole(); if (env.IsDevelopment()) { app.UseDeveloperExceptionPage(); } app.UseStaticFiles(); ...

This requires package Microsoft.AspNetCore.StaticFiles.

Second, the static files to be served must be put in the wwwroot folder of your project.

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Action Method Attributes

You can control how actions are invoked by using various attributes.

Attributes such as [HttpGet] and [HttpPost] specify which HTTP verbs an action method will respond to.

[HttpGet] public ActionResult Json() { return Json(new Person()); }

The [ActionName] attribute allows you to specify a name for your action method different from the name of the method. It is useful if we have two action operations taking the same signature.

[HttpPost] [ActionName("Json")] public ActionResult Json2() { return Json(new Person()); }

The [NoAction] attribute specifies that a public method will not be treated as an action method.

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Lab 5

User Interface via a Controller

In this lab you will implement an ASP.NET Core MVC application to welcome a new contact who supplies a first and last name. Your program should be implemented using a controller and a static web page but without a view.

Detailed instructions are contained in the Lab 5 write-up at the end of the chapter.

Suggested time: 40 minutes

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Filters

Filters are .NET attributes that add extra steps to the request processing pipeline, letting you inject extra logic: before and after action methods run,

before and after action results are executed,

in the event of an unhandled exception.

Filters are a clean and powerful way to implement cross-cutting concerns.

This means behavior gets reused all over the place, not naturally fitting at any one place in a traditional object-oriented hierarchy.

Classic examples: logging, authorization, and caching.

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Filters (Cont’d)

This table shows the four basic filter types.

Filter Type Interface When Run

Authorization Filter

IAuthorizationFilter First, before running any other filters or the action method

Action Filter IActionFilter Before and after the action method is run

Result Filter IResultFilter Before and after the action result is executed

Exception Filter

IExceptionFilter Only if another filter, the action method, or the action result throws an unhandled exception

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Asynchronous Controllers

Getting heavy traffic to your web site can be a good thing for your business, but it can also be bad if it introduces performance problems.

Your web site may be suffering from long-running I/O operations such as slow database queries or HTTP requests to external web services

Asynchronous controllers are introduced as a way to improve performance and scalability.

To take advantage of processing asynchronous requests, your controller can inherit from AsyncController rather than Controller.

public class ProductController : AsyncController { // ...

}

Your action methods would split into two methods:

One with a suffix of Async and another with a suffix of Completed.

public void ProductsListAsync() { // Asynchronously call a Web Service } public ContentResult ProductsListCompleted( IEnumerable<Product> products) { }

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Summary

Controllers are responsible for application logic.

You can implement a controller by deriving from the Controller base class.

Controllers use Action Methods, Action Results, and Filters to process requests.

Input data to action methods can come from model binding.

There are many kinds of output data available from an HTTP request.

You can use attributes to control how actions are invoked.

Asynchronous controllers provide a scalable solution for certain situations.

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Lab 5

User Interface via a Controller

Introduction In this lab you will implement an ASP.NET Core MVC application to welcome a new contact who supplies a first and last name. Your program should be implemented using a controller and a static web page but without a view.

Suggested Time: 40 minutes Root Directory: C:\OIC\MvcCore Directories: Labs\Lab5 (do your work here) Labs\Lab5\Default.html (web page for form) Chap05\CtlForm\Step1 (answer to Part 1) Chap05\CtlForm\Step2 (answer to Part 2) Part 1. Display a Static Web Page 1. Create a new ASP.NET Core Empty Web Application CtlForm in the working

directory.

2. In the usual manner enable the application for MVC. Begin by editing project.json to bring in the Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc package.

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{ "dependencies": { "Microsoft.NETCore.App": { "version": "1.0.1", "type": "platform" }, "Microsoft.AspNetCore.Diagnostics": "1.0.0", "Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc": "1.0.1", "Microsoft.AspNetCore.Server.IISIntegration": "1.0.0", "Microsoft.AspNetCore.Server.Kestrel": "1.0.1", "Microsoft.Extensions.Logging.Console": "1.0.0" }, ... 3. Build the application to restore the package you just added.

4. Edit Startup.cs to bring in the MVC service.

public void ConfigureServices(IServiceCollection services) { services.AddMvc(); } 5. Continue editing Startup.cs to define the standard default routing in Configure().

public void Configure(IApplicationBuilder app, IHostingEnvironment env, ILoggerFactory loggerFactory) { loggerFactory.AddConsole(); if (env.IsDevelopment()) { app.UseDeveloperExceptionPage(); } app.UseMvc(routes => { routes.MapRoute( name: "default", template: "{controller=Home}/{action=Index}/{id?}"); }); ...

6. Add a HomeController to the project. Supply the following code for the Index() action method. Note that we also modified the comment.

// GET: /Home public IActionResult Index() { return Redirect("/Default.html"); }

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7. Copy the file to the wwwroot folder in the project. The Index() method is intended to redirect to the Default.html page.

8. Set a breakpoint on the call to Redirect() and run under the debugger. You should hit the breakpoint.

9. Step out of the method. You won’t come to Default.html but rather to the project’s default action of displaying a “Hello World” message.

10. You need to enable access to static files. Edit the Configure() method in Startup.cs.

public void Configure(IApplicationBuilder app, IHostingEnvironment env, ILoggerFactory loggerFactory) { loggerFactory.AddConsole(); if (env.IsDevelopment()) { app.UseDeveloperExceptionPage(); } app.UseStaticFiles(); ... 11. If you build the application now, you will get an error message. Use the NuGet

Package Manager to install the package Microsoft.AspNetCore.StaticFiles.

12. Build and run. Now the program should compile, and you will hit the page Default.html, which displays a form for entering first and last name.

Part 2. Display the Greeting 1. Examine the file Default.html. There is a form with an action specified:

<form method="post" action="/Home/Index" > 2. Build and run. Click the button. You will come back to the same page. If you put a

breakpoint at the Redirect() call, you will see that it is hit every time you click the button. Was the method called from a GET or a POST?

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3. It was called from a POST, in response to submitting the form when you clicked the Greet button.

4. Now start to think about how you can obtain data from the form when you do a POST. You can do this through model binding, with or without creating a model. The code is clearest if we do implement a model. Create a Models folder and add a class Contact to it.

5. Provide code to implement properties FirstName and LastName.

public class Contact { public string FirstName { get; set; } public string LastName { get; set; } } 6. In the controller, provide an override of Index() with a Contact object passed as a

parameter. This action method is intended to respond to POST requests, so you should provide a suitable comment.

// POST: /Home/Index public string Index(Contact con) { ... 7. For the symbol Contact to be recognized you need to import the namespace

CtlForm.Models.

8. Now supply code in your new action method to extract the first and last names from the Contact object and return a suitable greeting message.

public string Index(Contact con) { string first = con.FirstName; string last = con.LastName; return "Welcome, " + first + " " + last; } 9. Build the application. You should get a clean compile, as the two Index() methods

have different signatures.

10. But you hit an exception when you run the application and click the Greet button.

11. Provide a suitable attribute on the second Index() method to specify it will respond to a POST, thus removing the ambiguity.

// POST: /Home/Index [HttpPost] public string Index(Contact con) { ...

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12. Build and run. You should now see the greeting displayed on a separate page. You are done!

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