Question

I have a problem that is getting embarrassingly out of hand.

I’m working with MVC and EF and have a model that the user can edit. I just got a new requirement that if it is edited, the edited property shall appear in red in the view for other users to see.

My model has a lot of properties, but the primary key is a GUID, and the model can have multiple parentIDs. So, for one a given GUID and ParentID I want to find what properties have been changed.

So far, which feels wrong, I have some jquery in my view that does the following

$("[name*='Request.']")
        .not(":hidden")
        .each(function () {
            var $this = $(this);
            $.ajax({
                url: '@Url.Action("IsChanged", "Shared")',
                data: { fieldName: $this.attr("name"), parentID: @Model.Request.ID },
                success: function (data) {
                    if (data) {
                        if ($this.is(":radio")) {
                            $this.parent().addClass("isChanged");
                        } else
                            $this.addClass("isChanged");
                    }
                }
            });
        });

This script works fine, if I try it with simply returning true from my ajax function. However, it’s the ajax function that is the problem. How do I find the changes? What I got so far is this:

public ActionResult IsChanged(string fieldName, int parentID)
    {
        using (MyEntities _db = new MyEntities())
        {
            string[] aName = fieldName.Split('.');

            // Count the number of version
            int versionCount = _db.SubRequests.Count(r => r.ParentID == parentID);
            // Get the first version
            SubRequest sr = _db.SubRequests.FirstOrDefault(r => r.ParentID == parentID);
            // Check if the count is the same for the specific value
            int changeCount = _db.ExecuteStoreQuery<int>("select count(parentID) from "+aName[0]+" where parentID = " + parentID + " and " + aName[1] +"='{0}'", THEVALUEINORIGINAL);


            bool isChanged = changeCount == versionCount;

            return Json(isChanged, JsonRequestBehavior.AllowGet);
        }
    }

What I’ve done so far doesn’t feel right, and obviously this doesn’t work, but I’m lost.

Let me know if this is understandable, or if you need more information. Should I scrap this idea and build something completely different (probably), or is there a way to save me?

Answer 1

I’m sure it’s not the prettiest way to do it, but I thought I’d share what solution I finally decided on, in the end, in case anyone else would ever be looking to do something similar.

My jQuery ajax function remains the same, but in the controller I have the following:

public ActionResult IsChanged(string fieldName, int parentID)
{
    using (MyEntities _db = new MyEntities())
    {
        bool isChanged = false; 

            string[] aName = fieldName.Split('.');

            string strTableName = aName[0];
            string strFieldName = aName[1];

            string strQuery = String.Format("select distinct {0} from {1} where parentID = {2}", strFieldName, strTableName, parentID);

            isChanged = _db.ExecuteStoreQuery<dynamic>(strQuery).Count() > 1;

            return Json(isChanged, JsonRequestBehavior.AllowGet);
    }
}

Works fine for me. However, it’s a pretty heavy loading page, with all those ajax calls.