Accessing the Identity object in a MVC repository

Question

Hi, I have a pretty generic repository that does basic CRUD for many of my business entities. The entities enherit form a generic object that has a few fields I maintain for all objects. eg. ModifiedBy, CreatedBy, CreatedDate, ModifiedDate.

These fields ModifiedBy and CreatedBy will always be set before any update/save.

My questions is: Is there any way to gain access to the Identity object from my MVC web application in my repositories? I was hoping to set the modifiedby to the identity user for any update in one shot??

Best Regard, Rod

Answer 1

Well, you could access HttpContext.Current.User.Identity directly in your repositories, but I wouldn't recommend it as it will make your repositories HttpContext-dependent.

Alternatives:

• Add an explicit IIdentity parameter in your Create/Update methods, e.g. void Update(T entity, IIdentity user)

• Decouple the logic of "getting the current user", e.g.:

  class GenericRepository<T>: IRepository<T> {
      private readonly ICurrentUserFetcher currentUserFetcher;
      public GenericRepository<T>(ICurrentUserFetcher currentUserFetcher) {
          this.currentUserFetcher = currentUserFetcher;
      }
      public void Update(T entity) {
          var currentUser = currentUserFetcher.Get();
          ...
      }
  }
  interface ICurrentUserFetcher {
      IIdentity Get();
  }
  class WebCurrentUserFetcher: ICurrentUserFetcher {
      public IIdentity Get() {return HttpContext.Current.User.Identity;}
  }
  

  Or even simpler:

  class GenericRepository<T>: IRepository<T> {
      private readonly ICurrentUserFetcher currentUserFetcher;
      public GenericRepository<T>(Func<IIdentity> currentUserFetcher) {
          this.currentUserFetcher = currentUserFetcher;
      }
      public void Update(T entity) {
          var currentUser = currentUserFetcher();
          ...
      }
  }
  var repo = new GenericRepository<Person>(() => HttpContext.Current.User.Identity);
  

  Use an IoC container to wire things up.