Howto automatically fill fields during save or update with Castle ActiveRecord

Question

The Problem: All tables in our database have CreatedDate, CreatedBy, ChangedDate, ChangedBy fields which I want to be set automatically when Saving / Updating an ActiveRecord entity.

My first try was to override the Save() and Update() methods. But these methods only get called when I do a direct Save() or Update() on the entity. They are not being called in a Master - Detail scenario where I call Save() only on the master.

Next try were the OnSave() and OnUpdate() methods, but here changes in the fields were not persisted in the database.

Finally I tried the BeforeSave() method. But this method is not called when updating.

The Question: How can set these CreatedDate, CreatedBy, ChangedDate, ChangedBy fields automatically during a Save() or Update()?

Answer 1

you could do like this

[ActiveRecord("PostTable")]
public class Post : ActiveRecordBase<Post>
{
     private int _id;
     private DateTime _created;

     [PrimaryKey]
     public int Id
     {
        get { return _id; }
        set { _id = value; }
     }

     [Property("created")]
     public DateTime Created
     {
        get { return _created; }
        set { _created = value; }
     }

     private void BeforeUpdate()
     {
        // code that run before update
        Created = DateTime.Now;
     }

    public override void Update()
    {
        BeforeUpdate();
        base.Update();            
    }

Answer 2

To modify data as you you want you have to override the BeforeSave method like this:

    protected override bool BeforeSave(IDictionary state)
    {
        bool retval = base.BeforeSave(state);
        state["Password"] = Global.Encrypt("password");
        return retval;
    }

And finally save your instance:

protected void btnSave_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
    try
    {
        qfh.User user = null;

        user = new qfh.User();

        user.UserName = txtUserName.Text;
        user.Name = txtName.Text;
        user.IsAdministrator = cboIsAdministrador.SelectedValue == "Yes";
        user.IsActive = cboIsActive.SelectedValue == "Yes";

        user.SaveCopy();
    }
    catch (Exception ex)
    {
        ex = Utilities.GetInnerException(ex);
        JSLiteral.Text = Utilities.GetFormattedExceptionMessage(ex);
    }
}

I usually use SaveCopy() to make use of the overriden method FindDirty(object id, IDictionary previousState, IDictionary currentState, NHibernate.Type.IType[] types) to get the previous values of the class.

Hope it helps.

Answer 3

I had a same problem and solved it this way:

I use OnUpdate() and OnSave(). As you mentioned this solution does not work with master detail scenarios. For this I set parent of each child explicitly. Note following codes:

[ActiveRecord(Lazy = true)]
public class Lookup : ActiveRecordBase<Lookup>
{
    [HasMany(typeof(LookupItem), Cascade = ManyRelationCascadeEnum.All)]
    public virtual IList Items { set; get; }

    //other properties...
}


[ActiveRecord(Lazy = true)]
public class LookupItem : ActiveRecordBase<LookupItem>
{
    [BelongsTo("Lookup_id")]
    public virtual Lookup ContainerLookup { set; get; }

    //other properties...
}

void SaveLookup()
{
    Lookup lookup = GetLookup();
    LookupItem lookupItem = new LookupItem()
    {
        Title = LookupItemName,
        ContainerLookup = lookup
    };
    lookup.Items.Add(lookupItem);
    lookup.Save();
}

Answer 4

Use BeforeSave() for saving and OnFlushDirty() for updating.