Question

I am trying to implement a base controller, app services, repository design. I am new to this level of OO design but have gotten it pretty much complete. The remaining hurdle is how to handle extending my base controller.

My Goals:

1. have a base controller that can stand on its own…i.e. you could have a specific controller inherit from it but itself be empty and have it work.
2. In cases where I need to extend the base controller, have the
   ability to do so in the specific controller.

Here is what I have:

Base Controller:

public class BaseControllerSingle<TRepository, TViewModelSingle> : BaseController
...
// GET: /InventoryMgmt/ManageItems/Edit/5
        public virtual ActionResult Edit( 
            int id = 0,
            string pageTitleNoun = "",
            Expression<Func<TRepository, bool>> predicate = null
        )
        {
            TViewModelSingle viewModelSingle = new TViewModelSingle();

            ViewBag.Mode = "EDIT";

            if (id == 0) //Add new company mode
            {
                viewModelSingle = _baseAppServSingle.CreateNewViewModel(CurrentUserId);
                ViewBag.Header = "Create New " + pageTitleNoun;
                ViewBag.Mode = "NEW";
                return View(viewModelSingle);
            }

            //else edit existing record mode
            viewModelSingle = _baseAppServSingle.CreateEditViewModel(id, predicate);
            ViewBag.Header = "Edit " + pageTitleNoun;

            return View(viewModelSingle);
        }

And my specific controller. Note the code in this is incorrect (specifically”ItemViewModel viewModel = actionResult(ItemViewModel);”…but trying to show what I am attempting, which is essentially to extract the view model from the action result, manipulate it further, then return it.

public class ManageItemsController : BaseController
...
// GET: /InventoryMgmt/ManageItems/Edit/5
        public ActionResult Edit(int id = 0)
        {
            ActionResult actionResult = GetBaseControllerSingle().Edit(
                "Material", 
                id, 
                x => x.Id == id && x.CompanyId == CurrentCompanyId);

            ItemViewModel viewModel = actionResult(ItemViewModel);
            if (id == 0)
            {
                viewModel = _manageItemsAppServ.CreateNewViewModel(viewModel, CurrentCompanyId);
            }

            viewModel.DDLOptions = _manageItemsAppServ.CreateFilterOptionsViewModel(CurrentCompanyId);
            return View(viewModel);
        }

Answer 1

I have decided to re-write some of the code to remove this necessity. I think maybe it could be done with Ninject…but that’s not something I wanted to get into right now