ASP.NET Core Basics

ASP.NET Core 2.1: ActionResult

This post is going to take the Contacts API from my ASP.NET Basics set of posts and move it from using IActionResultto ActionResult<T> which was introduced with the 2.1 release. The changes are really simple, but if you are using OpenAPI/Swagger I have a call out later in the post about something I noticed. The code before any changes can be found here.

IActionResult vs ActionResult<T>

The official docs explain the three different ways to return data in an API which are a specific type, IActionResult type, or ActionResult<T> type.

A specific type is great if you don’t have to do any sort of validation or the like, but as soon as you need to return a different HTTP status than OK is no longer sufficient. This is where you would have to move to IActionResult.

IActionResult allows different HTTP statuses to be returned. In the following example, NotFound is returned if a contact with the supplied ID isn’t found or OK(contact) if a contact is found.

public async Task<IActionResult> GetContact([FromRoute] int id)
{
     var contact = await _context.Contact
                                 .SingleOrDefaultAsync(m => m.Id == id);

     if (contact == null)
     {
        return NotFound();
     }
    
     return Ok(contact);
}

The advantage of ActionResult<T> it is the return type of the function is clear. You can see in the following example where GetContact has been changed to use ActionResult<T> that if all goes well you will be dealing with a Contact object in the end without the need to wrap the result in an OK.

public async Task<ActionResult<Contact>> GetContact([FromRoute] int id)
{
     var contact = await _context.Contact
                             .SingleOrDefaultAsync(m => m.Id == id);

     if (contact == null)
     {
        return NotFound();
    }

    return contact;
}

OpenAPI/Swagger

If you are using OpenAPI/Swagger in your project with a function with the following definition it will automatically pick up the return type if you switch to using ActionResult<T>.

public async Task<ActionResult<Contact>> GetContact([FromRoute] int id)

The above function results in the following in OpenAPI/Swagger UI.

This is awesome and saves you from having to ProducesResponseType attributes to your API functions. Just note that as soon as you do add a ProducesResponseType for say a NotFound response you will still need include a response for OK with the proper type or you will lose the return type in the OpenAPI/Swagger UI.

I’m calling that last bit out because I spent time trying to figure out why all the samples I saw the return type was automatically picked up, but in my sample application it wasn’t.

Wrapping Up

I’m a huge fan of ActionResult<T> mostly because of the clarity it adds to API function definitions. The fact that OpenAPI/Swagger can pick up on it in the simple cases is an added bonus.

If you are looking for more info check out the Exploring ActionResult<T> in ASP.NET Core 2.1 post by Joonas Westlin in which there is more info on how the functionality is actually implemented. If you didn’t already make sure and check out the Controller action return types in ASP.NET Core Web API page in the official docs for a detailed comparison of the return type options for APIs.

The completed code can be found here.

ASP.NET Core 2.1: ActionResult Read More »

ASP.NET Core Basics: Blazor

Blazor is a single page application framework that uses .NET running in the browser through the magic of WebAssembly and Mono. Check out How Blazor runs .NET in the browser for more information. You can think of Blazor like you do Angular or React, but written in .NET.

Please make note that this project is still an unsupported experiment and shouldn’t be used for production applications. This is part of the reason I held off on trying it until now.

I will be adding the Blazor project to my ASP.NET Core Basics repo. The code before any changes can be found here.

Getting Started

For an experiment, Blazor already has some really good docs. A lot of this post is going to mirror the Get started with Blazor docs page, but I try and document as I go. First, make sure you have the latest version of .NET Core 2.1.x SDK installed.

If you are going to be using Visual Studio you will need at least version 15.7. In addition, you will need to install the Blazor Language Services extension. From within Visual Studio, this can be done from the Tools > Extension and Updates menu. Select Online and search for Blazor. It should come up with just one item and you can click Download to start the install process.

Project Creation

We are going to use the .NET CLI to install the Blazor templates and add the resulting project to the ASP.NET Core Basics solution. First, open a command prompt and use the following command to get the Blazor template installed.

dotnet new -i Microsoft.AspNetCore.Blazor.Templates

If you are using the sample code I am running the commands from a new Blazor directory in the existing src directory. Then run the following command to create the Blazor project.

dotnet new blazor

The next command will add the new project to the existing solution. The path to the solution file isn’t required if the command is being run from the same directory as the solution file, but in our case, we are running the commands two level down from where the solution file is located.

dotnet sln "../../ASP.NET Core Basics.sln" add Blazor.csproj

At this point, you can use the following command to run the application.

dotnet run

Adding the Contact List

As with the other post in the ASP.NET Basics category, we are going to add a contact list page that pulls a list of contacts from an API. For this example, the API is part of the Contacts project that already exists in the sample solution. All the changes in the section take place in the Blazor project we created above.

In the Pages directory add a ContactList.cshtml file with the following contents. A break down of some of the parts of this file will follow.

@page "/contacts"
@inject HttpClient Http

<h1>Contact List</h1>

@if (contacts == null)
{
    <p><em>Loading...</em></p>
}
else
{
    <table class="table">
        <thead>
            <tr>
                <th>ID</th>
                <th>Name</th>
            </tr>
        </thead>
        <tbody>
            @foreach (var contact in contacts)
            {
                <tr>
                    <td>@contact.Id</td>
                    <td>@contact.Name</td>
                </tr>
            }
        </tbody>
    </table>
}

@functions {
    Contact[] contacts;

    protected override async Task OnInitAsync()
    {
        contacts = await Http.GetJsonAsync<Contact[]>("http://localhost:13322/api/contactsApi/");
    }

    class Contact
    {
        public int Id { get; set; }
        public string Name { get; set; }
        public string Address { get; set; }
        public string City { get; set; }
        public string State { get; set; }
        public string PostalCode { get; set; }
        public string Phone { get; set; }
        public string Email { get; set; }
    }
}

This has a lot going on so we are going to start with the functions section which is essentially a way to block off code needed by the page. It can contain functions, classes, or whatever else C# construct the page may need. The following is just the functions section of the above page.

@functions {
    Contact[] contacts;

    protected override async Task OnInitAsync()
    {
        contacts = await Http.GetJsonAsync<Contact[]>("http://localhost:13322/api/contactsApi/");
    }

    class Contact
    {
        public int Id { get; set; }
        public string Name { get; set; }
        public string Address { get; set; }
        public string City { get; set; }
        public string State { get; set; }
        public string PostalCode { get; set; }
        public string Phone { get; set; }
        public string Email { get; set; }
    }
}

In our sample, we are using the functions to define a Contact class to hold the data we get back from the API call in the OnInitAsync function. The OnInitAsync function is one of the lifecycle functions provided by the Blazor components. We aren’t going to dive into components, I recommend you check out the component docs for more information.

The @page "/contacts" is defining the route that the page will be served for. Next, @inject HttpClient Http is showing how to use ASP.NET Core’s dependency injection to get an instance of an HttpClient.

The remaining bit of the file is normal Razor. Everything defined in the functions section is available for use in your layout. For example, we are using the list of contacts filled by the OnInitAsync to loop and create a table to display our contact list.

<h1>Contact List</h1>

@if (contacts == null)
{
    <p><em>Loading...</em></p>
}
else
{
    <table class="table">
        <thead>
            <tr>
                <th>ID</th>
                <th>Name</th>
            </tr>
        </thead>
        <tbody>
            @foreach (var contact in contacts)
            {
                <tr>
                    <td>@contact.Id</td>
                    <td>@contact.Name</td>
                </tr>
            }
        </tbody>
    </table>
}

Wrapping Up

Blazor is a very interesting concept. I hope it is able to make it through the experimental phase into a supported project. It seems like it would be a great option for .NET developers. It was a lot of fun to finally try out. Go give it a try and make sure and provide feedback to Microsoft so they can make an informed decision on how to proceed with the project.

The finished code can be found here.

ASP.NET Core Basics: Blazor Read More »

Migration from ASP.NET Core 2.0 to 2.1

On May 30th .NET Core 2.1 was released including the corresponding version of ASP.NET Core 2.1 and Entity Framework Core 2.1. In this post, I will be taking one of the projects used in my ASP.NET Basics series and converting it from its current 2.0.x version into the newly released 2.1 version. The starting point for the code can be found here. This is all based on the official migration guide.

If you are looking at the sample solution it is the Contacts project that this post is going to be dealing with.

Installation

Thankfully the download page is much improved over the last time there was a release. Head here and to download and install the .NET Core 2.1 SDK. It is available for Windows, Linux, and Mac. The link should drop you on the appropriate page for your OS.

After installation, open a command prompt and run the following command. If all worked well you should see version 2.1.300 listed.

dotnet --list-sdks

If you are on Windows make sure and install at least Visual Studio 2017 15.7.

Project File Changes

Right-click on the project and select Edit {projectName}.csproj from the menu.

First, change the TargetFramework to netcoreappp2.1.

Before:
<TargetFramework>netcoreapp2.0</TargetFramework>

After:
<TargetFramework>netcoreapp2.1</TargetFramework>

The other required changes it to move away from the Microsoft.AspNetCore.All package to the version-less Microsoft.AspNetCore.App package.

Before:
<PackageReference Include="Microsoft.AspNetCore.All" Version="2.0.0" />

After:
<PackageReference Include="Microsoft.AspNetCore.App" />

I did a bit more digging and it turns out that the project file can be greatly simplified from the version I had for this application. The following is the full project file will all the bits that were not required removed and the two changes above already made.

<Project Sdk="Microsoft.NET.Sdk.Web">

  <PropertyGroup>
    <TargetFramework>netcoreapp2.1</TargetFramework>
    <UserSecretsId>Your-Secrests-ID</UserSecretsId>
  </PropertyGroup>

  <ItemGroup>
    <PackageReference Include="Microsoft.AspNetCore.App" />
    <PackageReference Include="Microsoft.VisualStudio.Web.CodeGeneration.Design" Version="2.1.0" PrivateAssets="All" />
    <PackageReference Include="Swashbuckle.AspNetCore" Version="1.0.0" />
  </ItemGroup>

</Project>

Main Changes

There have been changes to how what the Main function looks like to better allow for integration tests. This is the original code in the Program.cs file.

public class Program
{
    public static void Main(string[] args)
    {
        BuildWebHost(args).Run();
    }

    public static IWebHost BuildWebHost(string[] args) =>
        WebHost.CreateDefaultBuilder(args)
            .UseStartup<Startup>()
            .Build();
}

And the following is the new version.

public class Program
{
    public static void Main(string[] args)
    {
        CreateWebHostBuilder(args).Build().Run();
    }

    public static IWebHostBuilder CreateWebHostBuilder(string[] args) =>
        WebHost.CreateDefaultBuilder(args)
            .UseStartup<Startup>();
}

Startup Changes

Startup.cs has one change that is required which is the removal of the following line from the Configure function.

app.UseBrowserLink();

In the ConfigureServices function if you want to use the new features in 2.1 change the services.AddMvc() to set the compatibility version. This allows you to upgrade the version of the SDK without having to change your whole application since you have to opt into the version you want to target.

Before:
services.AddMvc();

After:
services.AddMvc().SetCompatibilityVersion(CompatibilityVersion.Version_2_1);

If you check out the official migration guide they also point out how to enable a couple more features such as HTTPS and some things to help with GDPR. Neither of these is needed in this application so I’m skipping them in this guide.

Identity Changes

I had to make one change in ManageLogins.cshtml to get my project to build because of a rename/removal AuthenticationScheme to DisplayName.

Before:
<button type="submit" class="btn btn-default" name="provider" value="@provider.AuthenticationScheme" title="Log in using your @provider.DisplayName account">@provider.AuthenticationScheme</button>

After:
<button type="submit" class="btn btn-default" name="provider" value="@provider.DisplayName" title="Log in using your @provider.DisplayName account">@provider.DisplayName</button>

If you haven’t made many changes to the identity code in your project you might consider using the new identity razor class library. You can find the details here.

Wrapping Up

Migrations between versions of ASP.NET Core have gotten easier over time as you can tell by the smaller length of these posts. One thing to note is while this will get you targeting 2.1 with all the performance benefits and access to a lot of the new features there will still be work needed if you want to do everything the new 2.1 style. I highly recommend creating a new 2.1 application to get a feel for the other changes you might want to make to your existing applications.

The code with all the changes can be found here. Remember that the only project that was upgraded was the Contacts project.

Migration from ASP.NET Core 2.0 to 2.1 Read More »

Trying the New ASP.NET Core Angular Template with CLI Support

I got hit by the flu that has been going around and now that the fever has passed I thought it would be a good time to try out the new version of the Angular template for ASP.NET Core that works well with the Angular CLI.

Template Installation

Note that at the time of this writing the templates are in the release candidate stage and a new version could be available by the time you are reading this so make sure and check this page for potential updates.

Running the following command from a command prompt will install the RC version of the templates.

dotnet new --install Microsoft.DotNet.Web.Spa.ProjectTemplates::2.0.0-rc1-final

Project Creation

Create a directory for the project and navigate to it in a command prompt. Run the following command to create the new Angular project.

dotnet new angular

Next, if you have a solution you want to add the new project to that can be done with the following command adjusting for the naming of your project and solution.

dotnet sln "ASP.NET Core Basics.sln" add src\AngularWithCli\AngularWithCli.csproj

Installation of Angular CLI

From the command prompt run the following command to install the Angular CLI globally.

npm install -g @angular/cli

After the above, I got the following error trying to run any Angular CLI commands.

You seem to not be depending on “@angular/core”. This is an error.

The problem ended up being that I had not installed all the packages for the project. The issue was cleared up by the following command.

npm install

Angular CLI Usage

Navigate to the ClientApp directory and you can then use all the Angular CLI commands as you would in a stand along Angular application. Some of which can be found here. If you are looking for a quick command to verify all is work the following command works well by running a linter on your project.

ng lint

Wrapping Up

Having templates that are compatible with the Angular and React CLI is a big step forward. The CLIs provide a lot of functionality and by having a setup that doesn’t restrict their usages is a great move. Make note that server-side rendering is no longer enabled by default, but can still be enabled for Angular projects, but not React based projects.

I recommend you check out the official documentation which can be found here.

I hope we see these functionality moves to the other templates that are outside of the templates in this package in order to support Aurelia and Vue.

Trying the New ASP.NET Core Angular Template with CLI Support Read More »

ASP.NET Core Basics: Razor Pages

As part of the ASP.NET Core 2.0 release, a new feature called Razor Pages was added to better handle page-focused scenarios. This post is going to cover adding usage of Razor Pages to an existing ASP.NET Core MVC application. This is part of the ASP.NET Core Basics series and the repo before any changes for this post can be found here. All the changes will be in the Contacts project if you are using the sample repo.

Add the end of this post the Razor Pages example will have the same level of functionality as the existing Razor example in the project.

Setup

To follow the conventions of a new Razor Pages project add a Pages directory to the root of the project. As another level of grouping add a ContactsRazorPages directory under the Pages directory. The strange name of the directory is just to make it super clear this is different than the existing Contact List already in the application.

Scaffolding

Razor Pages supports the same level of scaffolding as the existing Razor/MVC setup we are all used to in Visual Studio. To start, right-click on the ContactsRazorPages directory and select Add > Razor Page.

This will open the Add Scaffold dialog. We are using entity framework and want to generate a full set of CRUD operations so select Razor Pages using Entity Framework (CRUD) and click Add.

Next, we have to select the Model and DB Context. We want to use the same model and context as our existing Razor/MVC setup so we are going to select the Contact class and the ContactsContext DB Context. Finally, since this is part of an existing application make sure and check the Use a layout page and use the existing _Layout.cshtml page used by the rest of the application. Click the Add button and hang out while the magic happens.

After a couple of minutes, the directory will be filled with a set of pages to do contact CRUD operations. Since this is a page-centric method of working all the files you need are in this one directory. No separate controller and views as in traditional MVC. By default, routing is handled via the folder structure.

View Imports

I had to a _ViewImports.cshtml file to the Pages to get things working. I tried adding the needed imports to the existing import, but it didn’t work for some reason. Here are the contents of the file.

@using RazorPages
@namespace RazorPages.Pages
@addTagHelper *, Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc.TagHelpers

Add to the Navigation Menu

Our last step is going to be to add the new contact list to the site’s navigation menu. Open the _Layout.cshtml file in the Views/Shared directory and a link to the new contact list.

Existing MVC based contact list:
<li><a asp-area="" asp-controller="Contacts" asp-action="Index">Contact List</a></li>

New Razor Pages based contact list:
<li><a asp-page="/ContactsRazorPages/Index">Contact List (Razor Pages)</a></li>

Notice that the link uses the asp-page tag helper instead of asp-controller.

Wrapping Up

The above covers adding Razor Pages to an existing MVC application and rounds out the all the major UI options for the ASP.NET Basics series. Keep in mind that Razor Pages functionality is fully on par with tradition MVC and has been recommended by Microsoft as the way to do when page-centric work. If you haven’t check out the getting started docs to get a better feel for how to use pages.

The completed code can be found here.

ASP.NET Core Basics: Razor Pages Read More »

Identity Server: Upgrade Client to Angular 5

I have been working a lot on my basics sample project to explore some new client-side frameworks (React and Vue if you are interested). Since I have been away from the Identity Server sample for a while I thought it would be good to see what updates the project might need. It turns out that Angular was the big thing that was out of date. This post is going to cover the changes to get the project updated to Angular 5.

Package.json

In the Client App project open the package.json file and update the version of the @angular packages to at least the following version, and of course feel free to pin the exact version. I don’t just because of the nature of this sample.

"@angular/animations": "^5.0.0",
"@angular/common": "^5.0.0",
"@angular/compiler": "^5.0.0",
"@angular/compiler-cli": "^5.0.0",
"@angular/core": "^5.0.0",
"@angular/forms": "^5.0.0",
"@angular/http": "^5.0.0",
"@angular/platform-browser": "^5.0.0",
"@angular/platform-browser-dynamic": "^5.0.0",
"@angular/platform-server": "^5.0.0",
"@angular/router": "^5.0.0"

At this point, I tried to run and got an error about the version of rxjs being used. Instead of just blindly going package by package and seeing which versions were required I installed the Angular CLI and created a new Angular 5 application and used it as an example of what version I needed. Use the following commands if you would like to follow the same process since the current versions have changed by the time you are reading this post.

npm install -g @angular/cli
ng new sample-app

The above led me to the following version changes.

"rxjs": "^5.5.2",
"zone.js": "^0.8.14"

Attempt 2

At this point, I tried running the application again and received the following error.

Error: Version of @angular/compiler-cli needs to be 2.3.1 or greater. Current version is “5.0.1”.

As you can imagine I was surprised that 5.0.1 < 2.3.1. Turns out this is related to the version of @ngtools/webpack. This package deals with ahead-of-time compiling which my sample application uses, but the application I generated using the Angular CLI doesn’t. Updating to the following version cleared up the issue.

"@ngtools/webpack": "^1.8.0"

Open ID Connect Client

There was a much new version of the Open ID Connect Client that the Angular application is using so I upgrade it as well to the following version.

"angular-auth-oidc-client": "3.0.4"

This version dropped the startup_route so the following line had to be removed from the AuthService class.

openIdImplicitFlowConfiguration.startup_route = '/home';

Final Steps

Now that the package versions are sorted run the following commands from a command prompt to make sure that all the new version are installed and in the proper places.

npm install
node node_modules/webpack/bin/webpack.js --config webpack.config.vendor.js
node node_modules/webpack/bin/webpack.js

Wrapping Up

I am glad to have this upgrade done. It seems that every time I do one of these upgrades I end up down some rabbit hole. On the plus side, I seem to be getting faster at resolving the rabbit hole issues, or the frameworks have made a lot of progress on making sure the upgrade processes are simpler than they used to be. Either way, I get to expand my knowledge. I just need to schedule a bit more time before attempting upgrades.

The code in its finished state can be found here.

Identity Server: Upgrade Client to Angular 5 Read More »

Vue: Contact Detail

Last week’s post covered adding a Vue project to the ASP.NET Core Basics example solution. This post is going to cover adding a read-only view of a contact’s detail to being the Vue sample a step closer to being in line with the Angular, Aurelia and React samples. The code before any changes can be found here.

Contact Class

The Contact interface in the contactlist.ts file should be deleted. Add a contact.ts file to the ClientApp/components/contacts/ directory. This will hold the replacement for the interface we just deleted. The full class definition follows.

export class Contact {
    id: number;
    name: string;
    address: string;
    city: string;
    state: string;
    postalCode: string;
    phone: string;
    email: string;

    constructor(data?: any) {
        if (data == null) return;
        (<any>Object).assign(this, data);
    }

    getAddress(): string {
        return `${this.address} ${this.city}, ${this.state} ${this.postalCode}`;
    }

}

This class is very simple and will be used later to show how a function call can be used as part of a view.

Contact Service

Since the application will now have two places that need to access the ASP.NET Core API lets to refactor the API access into a service. This is the same style used by the Aurelia, Angular and React applications. Add a contactService.ts file to the contacts directory. The service will provide functions to get all contacts or a single contact an ID. The following is the full class.

import { Contact } from './contact';

export class ContactService {
    private baseUrl = 'http://localhost:13322/api/contactsApi/';

    getAll(): Promise<Contact[]> {
        return fetch(this.baseUrl)
            .then(response => response.json() as Promise<Contact[]>)
            .then(contacts => Array.from(contacts, c => new Contact(c)));
    }

    getById(id: string): Promise<Contact> {
        return fetch(`${this.baseUrl}${id}`)
            .then(response => response.json())
            .then(contact => new Contact(contact));
    }
}

Now the API access in the ContactListComponent can be refactored to use the service. First, add imports for contact and service.

import { Contact } from './contact';
import { ContactService } from './contactService';

Next, replace the fetch call with a service call.

Before:
fetch('http://localhost:13322/api/contactsApi/')
    .then(response => response.json() as Promise<Contact[]>)

After:
let contactService = new ContactService();
contactService.getAll()

Contact Detail Component

Add a contactDetail.ts which will be the backing component for the contact detail view. The following is the full class. Pretty much all it is doing is using get contact service to get contact detail by ID when it is mounted.

import Vue from 'vue';
import { Component, Prop } from 'vue-property-decorator';
import { Contact } from './contact';
import { ContactService } from './contactService';

@Component
export default class ContactDetailComponent extends Vue {
    contact: Contact = new Contact();
    @Prop() id: string;

    mounted() {
        let contactService = new ContactService();
        contactService.getById(this.id)
            .then(data => {
                this.contact = data;
            });
    }
}

Now add a contactDetail.vue.html file for the UI bits of the contact detail. This is basically just HTML with the same binding syntax as before. Notice that the binding of address is a function call. The other Vue things to note are that the details will only show if contact is truthy using the v-if.

<template>
    <div>
        <h1>Contact Details</h1>
        <hr />
        <div v-if="contact">
            <dl class="dl-horizontal">
                <dt>ID</dt>
                <dd>{{ contact.id }}</dd>
                <dt>Name</dt>
                <dd>{{ contact.name }}</dd>
                <dt>Address</dt>
                <dd>{{ contact.getAddress() }}</dd>
                <dt>Phone</dt>
                <dd>{{ contact.phone }}</dd>
                <dt>Email</dt>
                <dd>{{ contact.email }}</dd>
            </dl>
        </div>
        <router-link to="/contactlist">Back to List</router-link>
        <hr />
    </div>
</template>

<script src="./contactDetail.ts"></script>

Routing with a Parameter

Finding the proper way to route with at parameter in Vue was not easy. The way it is done has evolved over time making find the right way a little challenging. The first step is to add a route for the contact detail by adding a new item to the routes array in the boot.ts file.

{ path: '/contactdetail/:id', component: require('./components/contacts/contactDetail.vue.html'), props: true }

The :id in the path denotes a parameter. The props: true bit is also key to getting the ID when in the contact detail component. The contactlist.vue.html needs to be updated to link to the contact detail route.

Before:
<td>{{ contact.id }}</td>

After:
<td>
  <router-link :to="'/contactdetail/' +  contact.id">{{ contact.id }}
  </router-link>
</td>

Finally, in the ContactDetailComponent we need to use the ID. To do so we need an import to allow the use of the Prop decorator.

import { Component, Prop } from 'vue-property-decorator';

Now all that is needed is to apply the decorator to a property of the class that matches the name of the parameter in the route.

@Prop() id: string;

Now the ID can be used to get the proper contact from the contact service. The following is code that was already shown, but the full context of how the prop decorator is used is important so I am repeating it here.

@Component
export default class ContactDetailComponent extends Vue {
    contact: Contact = new Contact();
    @Prop() id: string;

    mounted() {
        let contactService = new ContactService();
        contactService.getById(this.id)
            .then(data => {
                this.contact = data;
            });
    }
}

Wrapping Up

This brings the projects one step closer to being on the same level feature-wise. Look for one more post to get the Vue project features lined up with the other samples in the solution.

Keep in mind that this is my first look at Vue and my examples may or may not be idiomatic.

The code in a finished state can be found here.

Vue: Contact Detail Read More »

ASP.NET Core Basics: Vue with an API

In the past, I have done some exploration on Aurelia, Angular and React via the ASP.NET Core Basics series. This post is going to take a similar approach using Vue. The code for the project will be in the same repo as the previous basics examples and will be utilizing the same API to pull data. The code before adding the Vue project can be found here.

Project Creation

There is not a template for Vue built into Visual Studio, but there is a set of templates that can be used via the .NET CLI with the dotnet new that includes Vue (as well as Aurelia and Knockout). A full list of available templates can be found here. The template we need is Microsoft.AspNetCore.SpaTemplates and can be installed using the following command from a command prompt.

dotnet new -i "Microsoft.AspNetCore.SpaTemplates::*"

Create a Vue folder at the same level as the other projects, for the samples this would be in the src folder. In the command prompt navigate to the src/Vue/ directory. Run the following command to create the Vue project.

dotnet new vue

After the project generation completes run the following to get the needed npm packages installed.

npm  install

The last step is to get the new project added to the existing solution. Navigate the command prompt to your solution file. For the sample project, this is the root of the repo. Then run the following command (this could also be done through Visual Studio instead of using the CLI).

dotnet sln add src/Vue/Vue.csproj

Adding the Contact List

In the ClientApp/components directory add a new contacts directory to house all the awesome contact related functionality we will be adding. Next, add a new contactlist.ts. To this new file add the interface which defines what a Contact looks like.

interface Contact {
    id: number;
    name: string;
    address: string;
    city: string;
    state: string;
    postalCode: string;
    phone: string;
    email: string;
}

Above the contact interface, add the following imports needed to create a Vue component.

import Vue from 'vue';
import { Component } from 'vue-property-decorator';

Finally, add the contact list component. This component maintains a list of contacts which gets filled from our existing API when the component is mounted (see the docs for more information on Vue’s lifecycle hooks).

@Component
export default class ContactListComponent extends Vue {
    contacts: Contact[] = [];

    mounted() {
        fetch('http://localhost:13322/api/contactsApi/')
            .then(response => response.json() as Promise<Contact[]>)
            .then(data => {
                this.contacts = data;
            });
    }
}

The following if the full component just to provide full context.

import Vue from 'vue';
import { Component } from 'vue-property-decorator';

@Component
export default class ContactListComponent extends Vue {
    contacts: Contact[] = [];

    mounted() {
        fetch('http://localhost:13322/api/contactsApi/')
            .then(response => response.json() as Promise<Contact[]>)
            .then(data => {
                this.contacts = data;
            });
    }
}

interface Contact {
    id: number;
    name: string;
    address: string;
    city: string;
    state: string;
    postalCode: string;
    phone: string;
    email: string;
}

Next up is the UI for this contact list component. In the same directory add contactlist.vue.html.  The following is the full file.

<template>
    <div>
        <h1>Contact List</h1>
        <table v-if="contacts.length" class="table">
            <thead>
            <tr>
                <th>ID</th>
                <th>Name</th>
            </tr>
            </thead>
            <tbody>
            <tr v-for="contact in contacts">
                <td>{{ contact.id }}</td>
                <td>{{ contact.name }}</td>
            </tr>
            </tbody>
        </table>

        <p v-else><em>Loading...</em></p>
    </div>
</template>

<script src="./contactlist.ts"></script>

All of the above is pretty straightforward. All the Vue specific items have a v- prefix.

Add the Contact List to Navigation

The last bit needed to have a working contact list is adding it to navigation so the user can get to the list. The routes are defined in the boot.ts file in the routes array. Add the following line to the array to handle our contact list.

{ path: '/contactlist', component: require('./components/contacts/contactlist.vue.html') }

Now that the router knows to handle the contact list it needs to be added to the navigation UI. Open the /navmenu/navmenu.vue.html file and find the unordered list that is the navigation menu. Add a new list item to provide a link to the contact list.

<li>
    <router-link to="/contactlist">
        <span class="glyphicon glyphicon-list-alt"></span> Contact List
    </router-link>
</li>

Wrapping Up

Vue reminds me a lot of Aurelia in its simplicity so far which is awesome. Look for the same progression of posts for Vue that happened with React over the last few weeks.

The code in its final state can be found here.

ASP.NET Core Basics: Vue with an API Read More »

React: Form for Contact Add

Last week’s post covered adding a read-only view of a contact’s details. As before the goal is to get the React project’s features in line with the Aurelia and Angular samples. This week we will be adding a form to all addition of a new contact. The code before any changes can be found here.

Contact List

On the contact list page, we need to add a link to create a contact. This will be added just after the header in the ContactList.tsx file.

<h1>Contact List</h1>
<Link to={'contactdetail'}>Create New Contact</Link>

Routing

In order to stay in line with the other sample, the ContactDetail component is going to be handling both the read-only view and the view to add a contact. This means the ID that is currently part of the contact detail needs to be optional. The following is the change to make ID optional by adding a question mark.

Before:
<Route path='/contactdetail/:id' component={ContactDetail} />

After:
<Route path='/contactdetail/:id?' component={ContactDetail} />

Contact Service

In the ContactService class, we need to add a save function. This new function will make a post request to the contacts API and return the new contact with the ID from the API to the caller.

save(contact: Contact): Promise<Contact> {
    return fetch(this.baseUrl,
            {
                method: 'post',
                headers: {
                    'Accept': 'application/json',
                    'Content-Type': 'application/json' 
                },
                body: JSON.stringify(contact)
            })
        .then(response => response.json())
        .then(contact => new Contact(contact));
}

Contact Detail

The ContactDetail class is where most of the changes are. I had some trouble getting React’s forms to work directly with the instance of the contact class and ended up just storing the parts of a contact directly in state instead of as an object. I expect this is a failure on my part and not an issue with React. I may revisit this in the future. Below is the new structure of the state used by contact details.

interface ContactDetailState {
    id: string;
    name: string;
    address: string;
    city: string;
    state: string;
    postalCode: string;
    phone: string;
    email: string;
    loading: boolean;
    redirect: boolean;
}

Next, the constructor needed to be changed to handle the new state structure and to handle being called without an ID.

constructor(props: any) {
    super();

    if (props.match.params.id == undefined) {
        this.state = {
            id: props.match.params.id,
            name: '', address: '', city: '',
            state: '', postalCode: '', phone: '',
            email: '',
            loading: false,
            redirect: false
        };
    }
    else {
        this.state = {
            id: props.match.params.id,
            name: '', address: '', city: '',
            state: '', postalCode: '', phone: '',
            email: '',
            loading: true,
            redirect: false
        };

        let contactService = new ContactService();
        contactService.getById(this.state.id)
            .then(data => {
                this.setState({
                    name: data.name, address: data.address, city: data.city,
                    state: data.state, postalCode: data.postalCode, phone: data.phone,
                    email: data.email,
                    loading: false
                });
            });
    }
}

Again, this is way more code than it would be the contact class were being used. Next, the render function needs to be adjusted to render the UI for the read-only view or the contact creation. The decision is based on the ID being set or undefined.

public render() {
    let contents = this.state.loading
        ? <p><em>Loading...</em></p>
        : this.state.id != undefined &&
          !this.state.redirect
            ? this.renderExistingContact()
            : this.renderNewContact();

    return <div>
        <h1>Contact Detail</h1>
        <hr />
        {contents}
        <NavLink to={'/contactlist'}>Back to List</NavLink>
        <hr />
    </div>;
}

The render of an existing contact needs to be changed to use state instead of an instance of a contact.

private renderExistingContact() {
    return <dl className="dl-horizontal">
        <dt>ID</dt>
        <dd>{this.state.id}</dd>
        <dt>Name</dt>
        <dd>{this.state.name}</dd>
        <dt>Address</dt>
        <dd>{this.state.address} {this.state.city}, {this.state.state} {this.state.postalCode}</dd>
        <dt>Phone</dt>
        <dd>{this.state.phone}</dd>
        <dt>Email</dt>
        <dd>{this.state.email}</dd>
    </dl>;
}

The following is the render of the add contact UI. I will call out a couple of parts after. The bulk of the code is just rending of the form.

    private renderNewContact() {
        return (
            <div>
                {this.state.redirect && <Redirect to={`/contactdetail/${this.state.id}`}/>}
                <form role="form" className="form-horizontal" onSubmit={(e: any) => this.handleSubmit(e)}>
                    <div className="form-group">
                        <label className="col-sm-2 control-label">Name</label>
                        <div className="col-sm-10">
                            <input type="text" placeholder="name" className="form-control" name="name" value={this.state.name} onChange={(e: any) => this.handleChange(e)} />
                        </div>
                    </div>
                    <div className="form-group">
                        <label className="col-sm-2 control-label">Address</label>
                        <div className="col-sm-10">
                            <input type="text" placeholder="address" className="form-control" name="address" value={this.state.address} onChange={(e: any) => this.handleChange(e)} />
                        </div>
                    </div>
                    <div className="form-group">
                        <label className="col-sm-2 control-label">City</label>
                        <div className="col-sm-10">
                            <input type="text" placeholder="city" className="form-control" name="city" value={this.state.city} onChange={(e: any) => this.handleChange(e)} />
                        </div>
                    </div>
                    <div className="form-group">
                        <label className="col-sm-2 control-label">State</label>
                        <div className="col-sm-10">
                            <input type="text" placeholder="state" className="form-control" name="state" value={this.state.state} onChange={(e: any) => this.handleChange(e)} />
                        </div>
                    </div>
                    <div className="form-group">
                        <label className="col-sm-2 control-label">Zip</label>
                        <div className="col-sm-10">
                            <input type="text" placeholder="zip" className="form-control" name="postalCode" value={this.state.postalCode} onChange={(e: any) => this.handleChange(e)} />
                        </div>
                    </div>
                    <div className="form-group">
                        <label className="col-sm-2 control-label">Phone</label>
                        <div className="col-sm-10">
                            <input type="text" placeholder="phone" className="form-control" name="phone" value={this.state.phone} onChange={(e: any) => this.handleChange(e)} />
                        </div>
                    </div>
                    <div className="form-group">
                        <label className="col-sm-2 control-label">Email</label>
                        <div className="col-sm-10">
                            <input type="email" placeholder="email" className="form-control" name="email" value={this.state.email} onChange={(e: any) => this.handleChange(e)} />
                        </div>
                    </div>
                    <div className="text-center">
                        <button className="btn btn-success btn-lg" type="submit">Save</button>
                        <button className="btn btn-danger btn-lg" onClick={() => this.reset()}>Reset</button>
                    </div >
                </form>
            </div>
        );
    }

The following is the input for the contact’s name.

<input type="text" placeholder="name" className="form-control" name="name" value={this.state.name} onChange={(e: any) => this.handleChange(e)} />

Since I decided to go with the controlled component route React will be responsible for being the source of truth, not the form its self. To accomplish this it is important that the input has a name and an onChange event handler set up. The following is the handleChange function which uses the name from the on change event to update the proper property in the component’s state.

private handleChange(event: any): void {
    const target = event.target;
    const value = target.value;
    const name = target.name;

    this.setState({ [name]: value });
}

The following line is the reset button which will reset the state to blank out all the fields in the form.

<button className=”btn btn-danger btn-lg” onClick={() => this.reset()}>Reset</button>

The reset function just uses setState to blank out all the fields.

private reset() {
    this.setState({
        name: '', address: '', city: '',
        state: '', postalCode: '', phone: '',
        email: ''
    });
}

Not surprisingly the submit button triggers a submit of the form. What happens on submit is defined in the opening form tag.

<form role="form" className="form-horizontal" onSubmit={(e: any) => this.handleSubmit(e)}>

The handleSubmit function takes the contact information in state and uses it to create a new instance of a Contact which is then passed to the ContactService to be saved. The service returns a new contact object from the server and the ID is stored to state.

handleSubmit(event: any): void {
    event.preventDefault();

    let contact = new Contact();
    contact.name = this.state.name;
    contact.address = this.state.address;
    contact.city = this.state.city;
    contact.state = this.state.state;
    contact.postalCode = this.state.postalCode;
    contact.phone = this.state.phone;
    contact.email = this.state.email;

    let contactService = new ContactService();
    contactService.save(contact)
        .then(c => this.setState({ id: String(c.id) }));

    if (this.state.id) {
        this.setState({ redirect: true });
    }
}

If the server does return an ID for the new contact then the redirect is set to true. Then will case the following code to run in renderNewContact which will redirect the user back to the read-only view of the new contact.

{this.state.redirect && <Redirect to={`/contactdetail/${this.state.id}`}/>}

Wrapping Up

This pretty much gets the React application in line with the Aurelia and Angular sample applications. It has been fun getting a handle on the very, very basics of React. While I am back in the basics sample projects I may go ahead and tackle a Vue sample next.

The finished code can be found here.

React: Form for Contact Add Read More »

React: Contact Detail

Last week’s post covered adding a React project to the ASP.NET Core Basics solution. As I stated last week the goal is to get the React project’s features in line with the Aurelia and Angular samples. This week we will be adding a read-only view of a contact’s details. The code before any changes can be found here.

Contact Class

The Contact interface in the ContactList.tsx should be deleted and in its please we will add a Contact class. As part of this change, I also moved the contact related items to a contact directory. Add a contact.ts file to the ClientApp/components/contacts/ directory with the following contents.

export class Contact {
    id: number;
    name: string;
    address: string;
    city: string;
    state: string;
    postalCode: string;
    phone: string;
    email: string;

    constructor(data?: any) {
        if (data == null) return;
        (<any>Object).assign(this, data);
    }

    getAddress(): string {
        return `${this.address} ${this.city}, ${this.state} ${this.postalCode}`;
    }

}

This class is very simple and will be used later to show how a function call can be used as part of rendering.

Contact Service

Since the application will now have two places that need to access the ASP.NET Core API I decided to refactor the API access behind a service. This is the same style used by the Aurelia and Angular applications. Add a contactService.ts file to the Contacts directory. The service will provide functions to get all contacts or a single contact using its ID. The following is the full class.

import 'isomorphic-fetch';
import { Contact } from './contact';

export class ContactService {

    private baseUrl = 'http://localhost:13322/api/contactsApi/';

    getAll(): Promise<Contact[]> {
        return fetch(this.baseUrl)
            .then(response => response.json() as Promise<Contact[]>)
            .then(contacts => Array.from(contacts, c => new Contact(c)));
    }

    getById(id: string): Promise<Contact> {
        return fetch(`${this.baseUrl}${id}`)
            .then(response => response.json())
            .then(contact => new Contact(contact));
    }

}

The final step in this refactor is to use the new service in the ContactList class. First, add imports for the service and Contact class.

import { Contact } from './contact';
import { ContactService } from './contactService';

Then, replace the fetch call with the service.

Before:
fetch('http://localhost:13322/api/contactsApi/')
    .then(response => response.json() as Promise<Contact[]>)

After:
let contactService = new ContactService();
contactService.getAll()

Contact Detail Component

Add a ContactDetail.tsx file which will be used to show the details of a contact including using the getAddress function of the Contact class. The following is the full contents of the file.

import * as React from 'react';
import { RouteComponentProps } from 'react-router';
import { Link, NavLink } from 'react-router-dom';
import 'isomorphic-fetch';
import { Contact } from './contact';
import { ContactService } from './contactService';

interface ContactDetailState {
    id: string;
    contact: Contact | undefined;
    loading: boolean;
}

export class ContactDetail extends React.Component<RouteComponentProps<{}>, ContactDetailState> {

    constructor(props: any) {
        super();
        this.state = { id: props.match.params.id, contact: undefined, loading: true };

        let contactService = new ContactService();
        contactService.getById(this.state.id)
            .then(data => {
                this.setState({ contact: data, loading: false });
            });
    }

    public render() {
        let contents = this.state.loading
            ? <p><em>Loading...</em></p>
            : this.state.contact
                ? ContactDetail.renderContactsTable(this.state.contact)
                : <p>No contacts</p>;

        return <div>
            <h1>Contact Detail</h1>
            <hr />
            {contents}
            <NavLink to={'/contactlist'}>Back to List</NavLink>
            <hr />
        </div>;
    }

    private static renderContactsTable(contact: Contact) {
        return <dl className="dl-horizontal">
                   <dt>ID</dt>
                   <dd>{contact.id}</dd>
                   <dt>Name</dt>
                   <dd>{contact.name}</dd>
                   <dt>Address</dt>
                   <dd>{contact.getAddress()}</dd>
                   <dt>Phone</dt>
                   <dd>{contact.phone}</dd>
                   <dt>Email</dt>
                   <dd>{contact.email}</dd>
               </dl>;
    }
}

This is all very similar to the things I have covered before. Now that we have a contact detail component we need a way to display it.

Routing with a Parameter

Import the contact detail in the route.tsx file.

import { ContactDetail } from './components/contacts/ContactDetail';

Next, add a route path for contact detail that expects an ID.

<Route path='/contactdetail/:id' component={ContactDetail} />

Back in the ContactList component change the ID to be a link to the new contact detail route using the ID of the contact.

Before:
<td>{contact.id}</td>

After:
<td><Link to={`contactdetail/${contact.id}`}>{contact.id}</Link></td>

The code for pulling the route parameter was in the ContactDetail component above, but I am going to show it again just so all the route with parameter information is together. The route parameters can be accessed using props.match.params.{parameter name} which in this case ends up being props.match.params.id. The following is the constructor of the ContactDetail component which is using a route parameter.

constructor(props: any) {
    super();
    this.state = { id: props.match.params.id, contact: undefined, loading: true };

    let contactService = new ContactService();
    contactService.getById(this.state.id)
        .then(data => {
            this.setState({ contact: data, loading: false });
        });
}

Wrapping Up

This brings the projects one step closer to being on the same level feature-wise. I expect at least one more post to get the project features lined up so make sure and keep a lookout for the next post.

Keep in mind that this is my first look at React and my examples may or may not be idiomatic. So far I am really enjoying working with React.

The code in a finished state can be found here.

React: Contact Detail Read More »