DynamicRepository

Dynamic repository with many built-in data access methods for Repository Pattern implementation for .NET projects using EF6, EF Core or MongoDB.

With this package you get instant full CRUD data access for your project + advanced filtering methods with almost no additional code.

You can find the NuGet packages here: https://www.nuget.org/packages?q=DynamicRepository

Note: EF6's DynamicRepository implementation only supports version 1.2.0 of DynamicRepository due to lack of netstandard2.1 support on .NET Framework 4.8

Features

Full Crud Behavior

MyEntityRepository.Insert(MyEntity);
MyEntityRepository.Get(1);
MyEntityRepository.Update(MyEntity);
MyEntityRepository.Delete(MyEntity);
MyEntityRepository.Delete(1);
MyEntityRepository.ListAll();

For EF and EFCore you must call the "SaveChanges" of the DBContext in your Application after using any of the following methods since the DynamicRepository won't do it in order to support the Unit Of Work pattern:

• Insert
• Update
• Delete

For more information about the Unit Of Work pattern: https://www.asp.net/mvc/overview/older-versions/getting-started-with-ef-5-using-mvc-4/implementing-the-repository-and-unit-of-work-patterns-in-an-asp-net-mvc-application

Basic Filtering

MyEntityRepository.List(x => x.Name.Contains("Rafael"), x => x.OrderBy(y => y.Name));

Filters by data containing "Rafael" and then sorts by a "Name" property.

Advanced Search Engine

In most applications there is a need to filter paged-indexed collections (Useful for grids/lists). This project offers a built-in advanced search out of the box which can perform search, sorting and paging in all your repository entities.

Usage example:

MyEntityRepository.GetPagedData(settings);

Where "settings" is an instance of "PagedDataSettings" class. In this class you can define filters (+ conjunctions), sort, current page and result set size.

More on the usage of this can be found later on this documentation on the "Advanced Search Usage" section bellow.

Usage

Follow the next steps to configure the DynamicRepository on your ASP NET Core project.

Installing the package

On your project.json file, add DynamicRepository to your package dependencies (EFCore if you are using EF Core or EF if using EF6).

"DynamicRepository.EFCore": "1.1.2-*"

Implementation

To leverage the use of the package, just create a class for your entity repository (EG: MyEntityRepository.cs) and inherit from DynamicRepository.Core.Repository as following:

public class MyEntityRepository : Repository<int, MyEntity>
{
  // This is where you provide EF DB Context to "Repository" class. This should be your custom EF context. 
  public MyEntityRepository(DbContext context) : base(context)
  {
  }

  /* Any specialized methods comes here */
}

• The first type parameter is your database-entity key type. You can use a custom class type for composite primary keys or "object[]" if you prefer.
• The second type paremeter should be your entity type class.

Implementation (With Contracts)

If you use interfaces to define your repositories, follow this approach:

public class MyEntityRepository : Repository<int, MyEntity>, IMyEntityRepository
{
  // This is where you provide EF DB Context to "Repository" class. This should be your custom EF context.
  // As you are using interfaces I may assume you are also using DI. You can set DbContext to be inject through DI.
  public MyEntityRepository(DbContext context) : base(context)
  {
  }

  /* Any specialized methods comes here */
}

And on your interface define it as this:

public interface IMyEntityRepository :  IRepository<int, MyEntity>
{
  /* Any additional methods definitions comes here */
}

You are ready to go! Use it :)

This is all you need to set it up and access data in your project (Considering your EF or MongoDB DBContexts are working properly).

Advanced Search Usage

Call your Repository implementation as following to use the Advanced Search feature:

MyEntityRepository.GetPagedData(settings);

• The first argument is your IQueryable data source. For most cases just use the repository's list method which will return the current DbSet as the source.
• The data source of this method call will come from the repository's "List" method. If you override the "List" method and apply any kind of filter, this will inflict directly on the advanced search result. If you need to apply pre-filters to the search only, please check "PreConditionsToPagedDataFilter" extension bellow.

The PagedDataSettings class and relevant configuration

The "PagedDataSettings" defines the payload for the Advanced Search Engine. Following you can find the details of all relevant configuration:

• "Filter" Property: This is a collection of "FilterSettings" class which holds all properties definitions and values to be applied as search arguments.
• "Sorting" Property: This is a collection of "SortingSettings" with all properties that should be sorted by in the search result set.
• "Page" Property: This is a number that identifies the current page of the result set. This starts by 1.
• "TotalPerPage" Property: The total rows that will be returned per page on the result set. Default is 20.

The FilterSettings class and relevant configuration

• "Property" Property: This is the name of the property you want to filter in your search. You can use dot notation as you would use in any lambda expression. EG: MyEntityRelation.ChildEntityProperty (No nesting limit if there are no collections involved in the path). You can also use deep filtering into child collections (one level of nesting limit) as following EG: MyEntityRelationCollection.ChildEntityProperty.
• "Value" Property: This is any value to be matched as a "Contains" filter on the search. If you want full match of this value, you need to set the "IsExactMatch" Property to TRUE.
• "IsExactMatch" Property: If set to TRUE will match the "Value" property completely. Defaults to FALSE.
• "Conjunction" Property: This defines how this filter will be aggregated among many other filters on the payload. Most searchs on common scenarios use "AND" and this is the default but if you want you can use an "OR" conjunction as available in the "LogicalConjunctionEnum".
• "PostQueryFilterPath" Property: This is useful when you use deep nested collection filtering. This will remove the result value of a resulting Select expression in a child collection of the main result set batch. In EF you always get the full object graph so this is useful to remove undesired child collections content after executing the IQueryable search on your database.

The SortingSettings class and relevant configuration

• "Property" Property: This is the name of the property in your Entity class where you want the "OrderBy" expression to be applied.
• "Order" Property: This is the data sorting order you want to be applied in this "OrderBy" expression. Default is Ascending.

Oh no! I have a very unique scenario and I think this search won't be useful to me!

Don't worry about it if you are questioning this to yourself. If for any reason the default filtering mechanism does not fit your requirement you can use one of the following:

"AddPreConditionsPagedDataFilters" Extension:

Sometimes we want to add custom data filtering to the data source before returning it to the user for him to do any search, sorting, or whatever he wants to do on the UI. This may be to apply security filters, checking logical deletes, or etc (This can also be overriden in your base list method but if you want rules to be applied only on search keep with this event).

To do so, simply override the "AddPreConditionsPagedDataFilters" method within every repository and apply whatever rules you have. This uses Lambda Expressions that will be appended to the fetching of the advanced search (How cool is that?):

protected override Expression<Func<MyEntity, bool>> AddPreConditionsPagedDataFilters(PagedDataSettings settings)
{
  return x => x.MyProperty == "Whatever You Want";
}

The "settings" payload is available at this context and you can read all settings and its relevant values if you need to.

"AddExtraPagedDataFilters" Extension:

If you need to apply rules to the result set but they need to be appended among with the filter settings that compose a user's search (or any other case where the default mechanism does not fit. EG: When one filter applies to 2 or more properties combined together of an entity) you can use the "AddExtraPagedDataFilters" extension by overriding it as following:

protected override Expression<Func<MyEntity, bool>> AddExtraPagedDataFilters(PagedDataSettings settings)
{
  return x => x.MyProperty == "Whatever You Want";
}

This extension also supports Lambda expressions.

The "settings" payload is available at this context and you can read all settings and its relevant values if you need to.

MongoDB Transactions

The MongoDB package supports session transactions. Its repository class implements ITransactionRegister. Here's a usage example:

using var transaction = MyEntityRepository.StartTransaction();
AnotherEntityRepository.RegisterTransaction(transaction);
SomeOtherEntityRepository.RegisterTransaction(transaction);

To access these method APIs just mark/implement each repository contract with ITransactionRegister.

Dependencies

This project was implemented on top of these dependencies:

• https://github.com/StefH/System.Linq.Dynamic.Core
• https://github.com/scottksmith95/LINQKit
• https://github.com/App-vNext/Polly

Many thanks!