Question

I dont know how to name the question properly, so fell free to change it. My question is, I have around 10 methods that look like:

[WebMethod(EnableSession = true)]
public string ReadUserAdditional()
{
    EUser user = (EUser)Session["user"];

    var json = new { result = true, user.Image, user.Biography };

    return new JavaScriptSerializer().Serialize(json);
}


[WebMethod(EnableSession = true)]
public string ReadUserBasicInformation()
{
    EUser user = (EUser)Session["user"];

    var json = new { result = true, user.Name, user.Username};

    return new JavaScriptSerializer().Serialize(json);
}

The methods are very similar, but they return different fields. Im thinking about refactoring all methods into one, receveing the fields to return as parameters. Is it a good idea? How can I do that? Reflection?

Answer 1

First of all you need to know that object and dictionary are presented in json simmilar.

[WebMethod(EnableSession = true)]
public string ReadUserAdditional()
{
    return GetUserInfo(new [] 
    {
        new FieldInfo {Name = "Image", u => u.Image},
        new FieldInfo {Name = "Biography", u => u.Biography} 
    });
}

private string GetUserInfo(FieldInfo[] infos) 
{
    EUser user = (EUser)Session["user"];

    var dict = new Dictionary<string, object>{ { "result", true } };
    foreach(var info in infos) 
    {
        dictionary.Add(info.Name, info.Accessor(user));
    }

    return new JavaScriptSerializer().Serialize(dict );
}

public class FieldInfo 
{
    public Func<EUser, object> Accessor { get; set; }
    public string Name { get; set;}
}