Intranet Application - Data Access in separate project

Question

I have an MVC intranet application which uses EF 6. I have setup the DataAccess project in a separate class library which has EF 6 referenced. I have an entity which implements an interface:

public interface IAuditable
{
    DateTime CreatedDateTime { get; set; }
    string CreatedBy { get; set; }
}

public class Collection : IAuditable
{
    // Properties
}

However, in the SaveChanges method I obviously don't have access to HttpContext.Current.User.Identity.Name as it is in a separate class library, so I was wondering how one would set this in SaveChanges?

public override int SaveChanges()
{
    var addedEntries = ChangeTracker.Entries().Where(x => x.State == EntityState.Added);

    foreach (var dbEntityEntry in addedEntries)
    {
        var entity = dbEntityEntry.Entity as IAuditable;

        if (entity != null)
        {
            entity.CreatedDateTime = DateTime.Now;
            // how do I set entity.CreatedBy = HttpContext.Current.User.Identity.Name?
        }
    }

    return base.SaveChanges();
}

Edit

Following on from @CodeCaster solution, I have the following:

[BreezeController]
public class BreezeController : ApiController
{
    private readonly BTNIntranetRepository _repository; 

    public BreezeController(BTNIntranetRepository repository)
    {
        _repository = repository;
        _repository.LoggedInUser = HttpContext.Current.User.Identity.Name;
    }

    // Methods
}

But HttpContext.Current.User is null

The fact your `HttpContext.Current.User` is null is an entirely different issue, that might arise from how you set up your authentication and IoC container. What's it set to in an action method? A hack would be to set it each time on a repository before using it, but in that case you might as wel do `entity.CreatedBy=...`. — CodeCaster, Jan 07 '14 at 15:38
I've enabled Windows Auth and I can see the value of `Identity.Name` if I don't set it in the constructor (for example in one of the methods on the ApiController) but if I do, then `User` is null — CallumVass, Jan 07 '14 at 15:42

CodeCaster · Accepted Answer · 2014-01-07T15:30:24.513

1

This can be solved in many ways.

You're not really showing relevant code, but you can for example give the library class you expose a public string LoggedInUser (or ActingUser or give it a name) property which you set when instantiating it:

public class SomeController : Controller
{
    private IDataSource _dataSource;

    public SomeController(IDataSource dataSource)
    {
        _dataSource = dataSource;
        _dataSource.LoggedInUser = HttpContext.Current.User.Identity.Name
    }
}

You can then simply use that property in your IDataSource.SaveChanges() method:

public override int SaveChanges()
{
    // ...

    entity.CreatedBy = this.LoggedInUser;
}

edited Jan 07 '14 at 15:30

answered Jan 07 '14 at 15:25

CodeCaster

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The controller is an ApiController. The problem with setting it in the constructor is that the HttpContext.Current.User isn't set when I instantiate the controller in my IoC – CallumVass Jan 07 '14 at 15:33
1

I've edited my question to hopefully show more relevant code? – CallumVass Jan 07 '14 at 15:38
1

What I've done, is prior to calling SaveChanges on my repo, I call a method to set the current user on my repo, this in turn sets the value of `LoggedInUser` in the context and solved the problem! Thanks! – CallumVass Jan 07 '14 at 15:53

Intranet Application - Data Access in separate project

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