MvcContrib Grid with custom layout

I’m using the Grid Html Helper from the MvcContrib project (www.mvccontrib.org).  The default grid can create automatic pagination links at the bottom of the grid, which is a pretty nice feature.  However, in order to accomodate our design, I needed some more functionality:

1. I needed paging at the top of the grid too
2. I needed to add some custom markup surrounding the grid to make it look right

Luckily, this wasn’t too hard.  I started by creating a class that inherits from MvcContrib.UI.Html.Grid.Grid<T>.  Something like this:

public class AdminMerchantGrid<T> : MvcContrib.UI.Html.Grid.Grid<T> where T : class

In order to render pagination at the top I had to override the RenderGridStart like so:

        protected override void RenderGridStart()
        {
            MvcContrib.Pagination.IPagination items = base.Items as MvcContrib.Pagination.IPagination;
            RenderPagination(items, true);
            base.RenderGridStart();
        }

And I overrode the RenderGridEnd too:

        protected override void RenderGridEnd(bool isEmpty)
        {
            base.RenderText("</table>");
            MvcContrib.Pagination.IPagination items = base.Items as MvcContrib.Pagination.IPagination;
            this.RenderPagination(items, false);
        }

Now these are using a RenderPagination method that takes into account whether the pagination is on the top or bottom in order to fit into our design.  Notice how I could put in the custom CSS class names too which is kind of cool.  :

      protected void RenderPagination(MvcContrib.Pagination.IPagination pagedList, bool isTop)
        {
            StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();
            if (!isTop)
            {
                sb.AppendLine("<div class=\"mainbox\">");
            }
            if (pagedList != null && pagedList.TotalItems > 0)
            {
                sb.AppendLine("<div class=\"paging\">");
                sb.AppendLine("<span>");
                for (int i = 1; i <= pagedList.TotalPages; i++)
                {
                    sb.Append(this.CreatePageLink(i, i.ToString()));
                    if (i < pagedList.TotalPages)
                        sb.Append(" ");
                }
                sb.AppendLine("</span>");
                sb.AppendLine("<span class=\"position\">");
                sb.Append("Page ");
                sb.Append(pagedList.PageNumber);
                sb.Append(" of ");
                sb.Append(pagedList.TotalPages);
                if (pagedList.PageNumber > 1)
                    sb.Append(this.CreatePageLink(pagedList.PageNumber - 1, "<"));
                else
                    sb.Append("<");
                sb.Append(" ");
                if (pagedList.PageNumber < pagedList.TotalPages)
                    sb.Append(this.CreatePageLink(pagedList.PageNumber + 1, ">"));
                else
                    sb.Append(">");
                sb.AppendLine("</span>");
                sb.AppendLine("</div>");
                sb.AppendLine("<div class=\"cl\">&nbsp;</div>");
            }
            if (isTop)
                sb.AppendLine("</div>");

            if (!isTop)
                sb.AppendLine("</div>");
            base.RenderText(sb.ToString());
        }

Boy do I love Reflector!  Most of the RenderPagination method came from the original MvcContrib’s method.  I just added couple things in there like if (isTop) and such.  So not only is MvcContrib’s Grid a simple, easy to use solution for building a grid, it’s pretty easily extensible too!

ASP.NET Strongly Typed Profile

I’m not a huge fan of the out-of-the-box functionality of ASP.NET Profiles.  I really dislike the way everything is is just serialized as a blob and there’s no out-of-the-box alternative.  That aside, I’m using Profiles for an ASP.NET MVC site right now and wanted a way to strongly type the data (and remove the need for string literals).  Here’s what I ended up with:

public class StronglyTypedProfile
    {
        private ProfileBase profile;

        public int MerchantId
        {
            get
            {
                object ob = profile.GetPropertyValue("MerchantId");
                if (ob == null)
                    return -1;
                return (int)ob;
            }
            set
            {
                profile.SetPropertyValue("MerchantId", value);
            }
        }

        public string ForumNick
        {
            get { return (string)profile.GetPropertyValue("ForumNick"); }
            set
            {
                profile.SetPropertyValue("ForumNick", value);
            }
        }

        public string FirstName {
            get
            {
                return (string)profile.GetPropertyValue("FirstName");
            }
            set
            {
                profile.SetPropertyValue("FirstName", value);
            }
        }

        public string LastName
        {
            get
            {
                return (string)profile.GetPropertyValue("LastName");
            }
            set
            {
                profile.SetPropertyValue("LastName", value);
            }
        }

        public void Save()
        {
            profile.Save();
        }

        private StronglyTypedProfile() { }
        public static StronglyTypedProfile Create(string username)
        {
            StronglyTypedProfile p = new StronglyTypedProfile();
            p.profile = ProfileBase.Create(username);
            //profile = ProfileBase.Create(username);
            return p;
        }
    }

Now I can use it like so:

StronglyTypedProfile profile = StronglyTypedProfile.Create(Username);
profile.FirstName = u.FirstName;
profile.LastName = u.LastName;
profile.Save();

Very simple, and it works.

ASP.NET MVC Captcha

I was looking for an ASP.NET MVC Captcha control and stumbled upon Nick Berardi’s (http://www.coderjournal.com/2008/06/mvc-captcha-for-preview-release-3/).

First of all I’m using IIS7 and had trouble getting the HttpHandler to register properly.  I ended up with the following steps to get it to work:

1. Add <add verb=”GET” path=”captcha.ashx” validate=”false” type=”ManagedFusion.Web.Handlers.CaptchaImageHandler, ManagedFusion.Web.Captcha” /> to <httpHandlers> in Web.config
2. Add <add name=”CaptchaImageHandler” verb=”GET” path=”captcha.ashx” type=”ManagedFusion.Web.Handlers.CaptchaImageHandler, ManagedFusion.Web.Captcha” /> to the <handlers> section within <system.webserver> in Web.config
3. Add routes.IgnoreRoute(“{handler}.ashx”); to Global.asax

So that got it working, but there were a few pieces of functionality I felt were missing:

1) I wanted the ability to style the CaptchaTextBox

The site I’m working with is pretty design intensive and I needed a way to inject CSS information into the CaptchaTextBox Html Helper.  I reworked the CaptchaHelper and modified the CaptchaTextBox as well as added some overloads:

        public static string CaptchaTextBox(this HtmlHelper helper, string name)
        {
            return helper.CaptchaTextBox(name, null);
        }

        public static string CaptchaTextBox(this HtmlHelper helper, string name, Object htmlAttributes)
        {
            return helper.CaptchaTextBox(name, ((IDictionary<string, object>)new RouteValueDictionary(htmlAttributes)));
        }

        public static string CaptchaTextBox(this HtmlHelper helper, string name, IDictionary<String, Object> htmlAttributes)
        {
            ModelState state;

            TagBuilder builder = new TagBuilder("input");
            builder.MergeAttributes<string, object>(htmlAttributes);
            builder.MergeAttribute("type", "text");
            builder.MergeAttribute("name", name);
            builder.MergeAttribute("id", name);
            builder.MergeAttribute("value", "");
            builder.MergeAttribute("maxlength", ManagedFusion.Web.Controls.CaptchaImage.TextLength.ToString());
            builder.MergeAttribute("autocomplete", "off");

            if (helper.ViewData.ModelState.TryGetValue(name, out state) && (state.Errors.Count > 0))
            {
                builder.AddCssClass("input-validation-error");
            }

            return builder.ToString(TagRenderMode.SelfClosing);
        }

I got the TagBuilder idea from checking out the Reflector on System.Web.MVC.  Pretty cool stuff there.  So now I can use the CaptchaTextBox like so:

<%= Html.CaptchaTextBox(“captcha”, new { @class = “field” })%>

2) I wanted the CaptchaValidationAttribute to invalidate my Model if the captcha isn’t valid

(instead of inject a captchaValid with a value of false into my routedata which is what it does off the shelf)

For this I modified the CaptchaValidationAttribute class.  The first thing I did was make add an ErrorMessage string property.  Then I modified the OnActionExecutingContext method to look like this:

        public override void OnActionExecuting(ActionExecutingContext filterContext)
        {
            // get the guid from the post back
            string guid = filterContext.HttpContext.Request.Form["captcha-guid"];

            // check for the guid because it is required from the rest of the opperation
            if (String.IsNullOrEmpty(guid))
            {
                filterContext.Controller.ViewData.ModelState.AddModelError(Field, ErrorMessage);
                return;
            }

            // get values
            CaptchaImage image = CaptchaImage.GetCachedCaptcha(guid);
            string actualValue = filterContext.HttpContext.Request.Form[Field];
            string expectedValue = image == null ? String.Empty : image.Text;

            // removes the captch from cache so it cannot be used again
            filterContext.HttpContext.Cache.Remove(guid);

            // validate the captch
            if (String.IsNullOrEmpty(actualValue) || String.IsNullOrEmpty(expectedValue) || !String.Equals(actualValue, expectedValue, StringComparison.OrdinalIgnoreCase))
            {
                filterContext.Controller.ViewData.ModelState.AddModelError(Field, ErrorMessage);
                return;
            }
        }

Now I can use the CaptchaValidationAttribute like this:

[CaptchaValidationAttribute()]
public ActionResult Register(FormCollection form)
        {
// INCREDIBLY OVER-SIMPLIFIED BUT YOU GET THE IDEA
            if (!ViewData.ModelState.IsValid)
            {
                return View();
            }
        }