ASP.NET MVC architecture questions

Question 1

I haven't done much .NET development in several years. Now I'm enjoying some of the new stuff with modern .NET. I just want to make sure I'm using things correctly. I'm a solo developer with no one else to bounce ideas off of.

I have a new MVC web application. I'm using the Massive micro-ORM. I'm a big believer in caching database requests. I've also created an EnumWrapper class.

Does anything look terrible in this code?

My caching class:

using System;using System.Runtime.Caching;namespace ULH.Common{    public static class Caching    {        private static readonly object _cacheLock = new object();        public static dynamic LoadFromCache(string cacheKey, int secondsToCache, Func<object> query)        {            object result;            if (secondsToCache == 0)            {                // if we're not caching, clear the cache and return result directly                MemoryCache.Default.Remove(cacheKey);                result = query.Invoke();            }            else            {                // otherwise do the caching, but use a double-check lock                result = MemoryCache.Default[cacheKey];                if (result == null)                {                    lock (_cacheLock)                    {                        result = MemoryCache.Default[cacheKey];                        if (result == null)                        {                            result = query.Invoke();                            MemoryCache.Default.Add(cacheKey, result, DateTime.UtcNow.AddSeconds(secondsToCache));                        }                    }                }            }            return result;        }    }}

An example of one of my data model objects:

using System;using ULH.Common;namespace ULH.Intranet.Chaplaincy{    public class EncounterTypes : BaseModel    {        private EncounterTypes()        {            this.TableName = "EncounterTypes";            this.PrimaryKeyField = "Id";        }        public static dynamic GetActive()        {            return Caching.LoadFromCache("EncounterTypes_GetActive", 120,                () =>                 {                    dynamic tbl = new EncounterTypes();                    return tbl.Find(Enabled: 1);                 });        }        public static dynamic GetById(int id)        {            string cacheKey = "EncounterTypes_GetById_" + id.ToString();            return Caching.LoadFromCache(cacheKey, 600,                () =>                {                    dynamic tbl = new EncounterTypes();                    return tbl.First(ID: id);                });        }    }}

Here is my EnumWrapper class, where I also cache the List that is created:

using System;using System.Collections;using System.Collections.Generic;namespace ULH.Common{    public sealed class EnumWrapper : ReadOnlyCollectionBase    {        Type _enumType;        Type _basetype;        public static EnumWrapper Wrap(Type type)        {            if (type == null || !type.IsEnum)                throw new ArgumentException("Type must be an enum", "type");            return Caching.LoadFromCache("EnumWrapper:" + type.ToString() , 600,                () =>                {                    return new EnumWrapper(type);                });        }        private EnumWrapper(Type type)        {            _enumType = type;            _basetype = Enum.GetUnderlyingType(type);            foreach (var item in Enum.GetValues(_enumType))            {                this.InnerList.Add(                    new KeyValuePair<object, string>(                        Convert.ChangeType(item, _basetype),                         item.ToString()                        )                    );            }        }    }}

I'm usingdynamic quite a bit due to the Massive ORM.

This won't be a huge system, so I don't want to deal with IOC containers. I'll have one common library (ULH.Common) with caching, the Massive ORM, EnumWrapper, and other common functions. There will then be several small websites using that library.

Suggestions? Does everything look okay?

Edit:George Howarth made some interesting points. I was unaware that MemoryCache was thread-safe. I've now modified my LoadFromCache() method to this:

public static dynamic LoadFromCache(string cacheKey, int secondsToCache, Func<object> query){    object tocache = null;    // result will always get the value here    // tocache will only have the value when it was pulled from our method    object result = MemoryCache.Default[cacheKey] ?? (tocache = query.Invoke());    if (secondsToCache > 0)    {        if (tocache != null) // only save to cache if it wasn't there            MemoryCache.Default.Add(cacheKey, tocache, DateTime.UtcNow.AddSeconds(secondsToCache));    }    else    {        // remove from cache only if secondsToCache was zero or less        MemoryCache.Default.Remove(cacheKey);    }    return result;}

Question 2

A question. If you are loading the enum from cache what happens if two different objects with the same enum type get cached. Will you lose information as one will overwrite the other?

Question 3

@dreza, MyEnumWrapper class is used to store an instance of the enum for populating drop-downs and other UI widgets. It's selected value is not saved.

Question 4

MemoryCache is actually thread-safe, so you don't need a double-check lock

public static class Caching{    public static dynamic LoadFromCache(string cacheKey, int secondsToCache, Func<object> query)    {        object result = query.Invoke();        if (secondsToCache == 0)        {            // if we're not caching, clear the cache and return result directly            MemoryCache.Default.Remove(cacheKey);        }        else        {            if (!MemoryCache.Default.Contains(cacheKey))            {                MemoryCache.Default.Add(cacheKey, result, DateTime.UtcNow.AddSeconds(secondsToCache));            }        }        return result;    }}

Edit: Updated answer about the if statement, wasn't thinking straight.

Question 5

Your changes always do the query.Invoke(), which could be an expensive operation. I was unaware that MemoryCache was threadsafe. I checked MSDN, and am happy to confirm it. I'm editing my post to show my new LoadFromCache() method.

Question 6

Yeah, looking at your code again it looks like a mistake. I guess you could callContains first before adding.

Question 7

Your edited version will return null when the value is cached. Go ahead. Have another cup of coffee. :)

Question 8

Yes this is what happens when you can't rely on ReSharper...

Question 9

I found a huge problem with the architecture I was working on. The cached object is still an object inheriting fromDynamicModel - part of the Massive ORM.

This led to the database being queried even from a cached collection. That defeats the purpose of caching.

One way of handling this would be to add a new method to createExpandoObjects (and collections of them) that did not inherit fromDynamicModel. This seems more effort than it's worth. I'm still trying to determine my best course of action.

George Howarth 7883 silver badges5 bronze badges · Answer 1 · 2014-05-06 13:23:09Z

MemoryCache is actually thread-safe, so you don't need a double-check lock

public static class Caching{    public static dynamic LoadFromCache(string cacheKey, int secondsToCache, Func<object> query)    {        object result = query.Invoke();        if (secondsToCache == 0)        {            // if we're not caching, clear the cache and return result directly            MemoryCache.Default.Remove(cacheKey);        }        else        {            if (!MemoryCache.Default.Contains(cacheKey))            {                MemoryCache.Default.Add(cacheKey, result, DateTime.UtcNow.AddSeconds(secondsToCache));            }        }        return result;    }}

Edit: Updated answer about the if statement, wasn't thinking straight.

Your changes always do the query.Invoke(), which could be an expensive operation. I was unaware that MemoryCache was threadsafe. I checked MSDN, and am happy to confirm it. I'm editing my post to show my new LoadFromCache() method.
Yeah, looking at your code again it looks like a mistake. I guess you could callContains first before adding.
Your edited version will return null when the value is cached. Go ahead. Have another cup of coffee. :)
Yes this is what happens when you can't rely on ReSharper...

David Crowell 3462 silver badges7 bronze badges · Answer 2 · 2014-05-09 17:02:33Z

I found a huge problem with the architecture I was working on. The cached object is still an object inheriting fromDynamicModel - part of the Massive ORM.

This led to the database being queried even from a cached collection. That defeats the purpose of caching.

One way of handling this would be to add a new method to createExpandoObjects (and collections of them) that did not inherit fromDynamicModel. This seems more effort than it's worth. I'm still trying to determine my best course of action.

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ASP.NET MVC architecture questions

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