I've been starting out with Azure and have chosen to set up a Mobile Service using .NET in VS. I've been learning about the constituents of the Azure Todo get-started server project.
One thing I'm struggling to understand (even with extensive Googling) is what the TableController methods are for? I understand that TableController exposes the table to HTTP requests? But when I access data from my client I'm using ".LookupAsync" or ".UpdateAsync" methods on the Table returned by my MobileServiceClient instance.
Are the GetAllToDoItems(..), PathToDoItem(..), GetToDoItem(..), PostToDoItem(..), DeleteToDoItem(..) methods in the TableController being used behind the scenes somewhere when I make those calls on the MobileServiceClient Table?
Can I access those methods from my client? Are these methods standard/required method names?
Is TableController a good place to put server code for authorisation? E.g. the classic example of only returning that user's records?
Thanks for any help,
Tom.
Can I access those methods from my client? Are these methods standard/required method names?
At currently, Azure mobile app support C# and node.js as its backend language. From the Get started article, we can know that we can take advantage of Mobile App using native SDKs whether you're building native iOS, Android, and Windows apps or cross-platform Xamarin or Cordova (Phonegap) apps. We can see a lot of functions like GetAllToDoItems(..), PathToDoItem(..), GetToDoItem(..), PostToDoItem(..), DeleteToDoItem(..) in the backend project. This method is a MVC controller action name. Please note the SDK functions are the important, as we can see below, the backend project has a function called GetTodoItem.
public SingleResult<TodoItem> GetTodoItem(string id)
{
return Lookup(id);
}
However the function Lookup which under the namespace "Microsoft.Azure.Mobile.Server" is the key method in this function:
Is TableController a good place to put server code for authorisation? E.g. the classic example of only returning that user's records?
If you want to add authentication, I think this article may be give you helps. Just use Azure AD for example, if you want to protect some table controller, we only need to configure Azure AD then add [Authorize] attribute before table controller, it is not necessary to add authrize code in that table controller.
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I have developed an application which was MVC application. It has a requirement that the application will return json data for one get request.
So I have added apicontroller and created a get method to return json data.
So far so good. but then I thought, is it really needed to add apicontroller to create just one get method.
I started exploring and googling what is the difference other than content negotiation. Got lots of answers and articles but non of them were satisfactory.
So here is the actual confusion, why can't I just create a method in the MVC controller with JsonResponse and return the json data(Which I know only is need for my requirement, but other application on different domain will consume it).
Can anyone convince me why should I use apicontroller instead of MVC JsonResponse for my requirement or should I not be using apicontroller at all.
apology if there is any mistake.
If I get it right the question is Can we use MVC action to serve json content answer is yes! Is it okay to use Json Result? answer is It depends where do you want to consume it
Say I am an in a Web Environment where I have no need for the APIs (that means I am not going to serve my data to multiple clients) If that's the scenario where only your View is going to consume data returned from your Action Method you are good to go. An Action returning a Json Result is basically an Action Result and that's what it is made for.
but If you are in a REST scenario and you need your backend to serve your data to the client de facto standard is to use an independent Web API for that.
Controllers' main responsibility should be to work as an intermediary between your View and Model and whatever service layer you want to bring inside it. on the other hand, Web APIs are data-driven there only purpose is to serve data (use them if you need them)
Web APIs are good cause they give you the flexibility of serving the data to possibly any client that might need it. That's what I would pick if I am starting from scratch but if I only need to serve data to one client Controller Action methods will be way to go.
Hope this helps.
I'm migrating a combined Azure Website (with both Controllers and ApiControllers) to a split Web App and API App. Let's call it MyApp.
I've created MyAppDevApi, MyAppTestApi, and MyAppProductionApi API Apps (in different App Services) to host the three environments, expecting to promote code from one environment to another.
So far, I've only deployed to MyAppDevApi, since I'm just getting started.
When I do Add/Azure API App Client to my UI-only project to start referring to the API app, and I point it to MyAppDevApi, it uses AutoRest to create classes in my code. These classes now all have the name MyAppDevApi, rather than just MyAppApi, which is the actual namespace of the code I'm deploying to every environment. Obviously, I can't check that in... how can I promote that through Test and Prod?
There's nothing in the Swagger JSON that refers to this name, so it must be on the AutoRest side (I think).
Has anyone come up with a strategy or work-around to deal with this multiple-environment promotion issue with API Apps?
Edit
So far the best thing I've come up with is to download the Swagger from the API App to a local file (which, again, has only the namespace from the original code, not from the name of the API App), and then import it into the Web App. This will generate classes in the Web App that have the naming I expect.
The problem is that I then have to edit the generated MyAppApi.cs file's _baseUri property to pull from an AppSetting, have the different web.config.dev, .test, .prod, and then do the web.config transform. I mean, that'll work, but then every time I change the API App's interface, I'll regenerate... and then I'll have remember to change the _baseUri again... and someone, sometime is going to forget to do this and then deploy to production. It's really, really fragile.
So... anyone have a better idea?
I'm not quite sure why you're creating three different apps, one for each environment? One application is fine and use web.config transforms for each environment. This is the general way I do all of my apps and works fine.
Information about how to apply web.config transforms can be found here which may help in your situation.
Hope that helps.
Well, here's how I've solved this:
Download Swagger file from API App to local hard drive.
Import local Swagger file into Web App to generate classes that have the naming from my code, not from the environment.
Use AppSettings to specify the environment-specific settings to point to the API App. This can be either a web.config transform, or you can just specify them in the Azure Portal on the Web App in Application Settings.
Instantiate the generated API App Client using the constructor that takes in a URL to point to the API App (these are at class level, hence static):
private readonly static Uri apiAppUrl = new Uri(CloudConfigurationManager.GetSetting("ApiAppUrl"));
private readonly static MyAppApi myAppApi = new MyAppApi(apiAppUrl);
I'd still love a solution to this that doesn't require downloading the Swagger file, but, all in all, if that's the only workaround necessary, it's not all that bad.
I read in an article that odata can be used for different combination of clients/servers.
Say I would like to develop a web application where i store data(say information about all mobile products on market) using mongoDB and use python as backend with Bottle framework to access data through browser as GET.
Then i decide to extend web app as android app. i can extend it to android without any code change on server side.
My doubt is does using odata here helps in any way? Say if i want to extend it to other clients?
Yes, you are right, you don't need to change even a single line of code on the server side if you change a client app. OData defines many conventions for the communications between the client and the server. such as:
What the URL looks like if you want to query some data
http://services.odata.org/V4/OData/OData.svc/Products?$filter=ID gt 2&$select=ID,Name,Rating,Price&$orderby=Price desc
Which http method should be used to Create/Retrieve/Update/Delete an entity
Generally speaking, Post for Create, Get for Retrieve, Patch/Put for Update, Delete for Delete.
What the payload looks like.
How to invoke a function/action
As long as the requests conform to these conventions, the server side always returns the predictable responsese regardless whether the clients is a browser or a mobile device.
I also find the examples for the odata:
https://aspnet.codeplex.com/SourceControl/latest#Samples/WebApi/OData/v4/ .
Hope this helps you.
When you create a model/controller using sails generate user, which models are available? For instance, I know there some like basic CRUD, etc, but how to see all available methods?
PS: Unless I got it all wrong and there are no CRUD methods at all. I'm still learning Sails, so please forgive if its a silly question.
Basically, there are two groups of actions provided by Sails.js blueprints for a newly generated model/controller pair:
REST API: get /:controller/:id?, post /:controller, put /:controller/:id, delete /:controller/:id. These are classic REST set that should be the one being used in production. You can enable/disable these blueprints via rest property in config/controllers.js.
CRUD actions aka shortcuts: /:controller/find/:id?, /:controller/create, /:controller/update/:id, /:controller/destroy/:id. Inspired, by Rails' RESTful conventions, the shortcuts provide a way to call all the REST actions from browser address string, using GET HTTP method only, which can be very handy for developers. These can be enabled/disabled using shortcuts property in config/controllers.js, and it's a good idea to disable them in production (for example, using local environment settings (config/local.js)).
A bit of an edge case here:
I need to call a servicestack service from razor (same website)
Right now I'm doing
CheckIfConfiguredResponse aResponse= new JsonServiceClient("http:\\localhost:2000").Get<CheckIfConfiguredResponse>("/CheckIfConfigured");
Is that the proper way to go about doing it? Or is there better?
Also, How do I eliminate having to specify the web address manually and have it automatically populate the host (since it's the same web site)
Thanks in advance,
Will.
You never want to make a HTTP call back to yourself just to call a ServiceStack service.
Unlike other frameworks, Services in ServiceStack are simply auto-wired C# types which you can access from the IOC like every other registered IOC dependency. i.e. Inside a Razor View you can simply resolve it and call it directly from the IOC with:
var response = base.Get<CheckIfConfiguredService>().Get(new CheckIfConfigured());
This resolves and calls the service like a normal auto-wired C# dependency, but doesn't inject the current request context. If your service does need it, you can instead use AppHostBase.ResolveService which does, e.g:
var response = AppHostBase
.ResolveService<CheckIfConfiguredService>(HttpContext.Current)
.Get(new CheckIfConfigured());