the tar pit

In the last entry, we created designed our controller through a test:

[Test]
public void SuccessfulIndex()
{
    GivenController.As<UserController>()
        .ShouldRenderItself(RestfulAction.Index)
        .WhenCalling(x => x.Index());
}

Now, we need to code this:

A Fluent Controlller in action

In fact, to make test run above, you need to do nothing else than inherit from the AbstractRestfulFluentController.

using MvcContrib.FluentController;

public class UserController : AbstractRestfulFluentController
{
    public ActionResult Index()
    {
        return View();
    }
}	

Let’s now look at how to create a skinny controller. Let’s take a redirection design:

GivenController.As<UserController>()
    .ShouldRedirectTo(RestfulAction.Index)
    .IfCallSucceeds()
    .WhenCalling(x => x.Create(null));

Here’s the controller code we need:

public ActionResult Create(object model)
{
    return CheckValidCall()
        .Valid(x => RedirectToAction(RestfulAction.Index))
        .Invalid(() => View("New", model));
}

A more complex example of Create is where it calls a repository. Here if the Repository throws an exception it will execute .Invalid otherwise it will execute .Valid.

public ActionResult Create(object model)
{
    return CheckValidCall(() => UserRepository.Create(model))
        .Valid(x => View(RestfulAction.New, x))
        .Invalid(() => RedirectToAction(RestfulAction.Index));
}

So far you have seen two fluent controller actions available, however, also available are:

• InvalidNoNewErrors
• Other

And within the context of CheckValidCall you also get access:

• controller
• model
• isValid
• newErrors

Another feature to be aware of is that you can create own extensions. The current CheckValidCall returns a FluentControllerAction<T> so all you have to do is create an extension on this as you would with an extension method. You can even rewrite the CheckValidCall and create your own one.