Skip to main content

From your ASP App to the Compiler with Compilation Directives

If you have some code that you want to run locally for testing, you can check current "Request" and look at methods like "Request.IsLocal" to conditionally include test modules. However, there are times you need to bypass the ASP.NET application life cycle and directly exclude or include a source code from compiling using compilation directives.

Here is an example of a use case where you might need to bypass the application life cycle in order to run code during development. Consider a case where you need to include some JS and CSS styles, say, you have QUnit  files stashed somewhere in a folder of your app, during development.

If you are working on an ASP.NET page, view or controller you can access incoming HTTP Request by using:

var currentRequest = Request;

or if you are accessing the "Request" object from a class that does not inherit from "Page" in ASP.NET or "ViewPage" in MVC (or any other object that has the current HTTP context) using: 

var currentRequest = System.Web.HttpContext.Current.Request;

The Problem: If you add "Request" or "System.Web.HttpContext.Current.Request" in your "BundleConfig" file, your application will throw an error. The error is prompted because the "Request" object is not yet available in the application life cycle.

Bundling runs in Application_Start routine (well before the "Request" object is instantiated)

 The "Request" object is only available during the "Application Event" looping routine which follows the path below depending on the ASP.NET application you are running.


Page life cycle for an ASP.NET request


Page life cycle for an ASP.MVC request

The Solution: You can use conditional compilation directives in the BundleConfig file to include and exclude the JS and CSS files in your bundles.

Here is an example directive that checks to see if you are running your application in "DEBUG" mode.

            #if DEBUG
            //Include testing bundles
            #else
            //Exclude testing bundles
            #endif

Compilation directives work outside the scope of the HTTP Context as a result your code will run without any issues. You can find more information about compilation directives on MSDN site.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Turning WCF Service into .asmx for debugging

Even though .asmx web services are becoming dinosaurs of the new .NET world of WCF. I missed the simplicity of debugging code right in visual studio without: Creating a client to consume WCF service Attaching w3p.exe process and Adding break points  One quick solution: Turn WCF service into .asmx service with few lines of code, debug your code with asmx, and turn .asmx off during deployment.  Detail steps: 1- First take your WCF class and add WebService attribute to it Code Snippet /// <summary> /// Dual mode with .ASMX and WCF /// </summary> [ WebService (Namespace = "http://www.yourdomain.com/" )] 2- Then add WebMethod attribute to a function you want to expose in .asmx Code Snippet [ WebMethod ] public List < PageController . Page > DualFunction() { 3- Take the .svc file from your solution - copy and rename the copied file [YourOriginalWCFFile.asmx]. Open up the copied file and rename "ServiceHost...
Post a Comment
Read more

Processing ASP MVC Web API Requests in Multi-threaded JS Web Worker

Unlike an asynchronous Ajax call, HTML5 Web workers provide an opportunity to run a Multi-threaded JavaScript code in modern browsers that support them . Each worker spawns an isolated thread with dedicated JavaScript Event Loop, Stack and Heap memory. For example a regular Ajax Call to MVC Web API service call goes through the following asynchronous call cycle. The JavaScript Event Loop in this case could be interrupted by events that are being executed on the UI; for instance, a "window.alert", could possibly stop all scripts on the page from executing until a user responds. Replacing the Ajax Call with HTML5 web worker provides a great way to run long running scripts in separate threads so that asynchronous code execution is not interrupted by UI events. Here is the a JavaScript worker implementation of the same MVC Web API call using a JavaScript web worker. Despite the advantages of using a web worker, implementing one requires working with some constr...
1 comment
Read more

ASP.MVC Real-time data processing with Sharded RavenDB and SignalR

In a move that some call "Radical” The Weather Channel recently swapped their enterprise Oracle and MySql Databases for NoSQL  MongoDB .  One word that could describe the rapid adoption of NoSQL databases compared to relational once is “ sharding .” Unlike relational databases, NoSQL systems allow developers to be active participants in the data storage process by providing a way to create logic (sharding strategy) that outlines how and where data could be stored, resulting in better scalability and improved performance. RavenDB , an open source NoSQL system for .NET that is easy to deploy (both as a standalone/embedded system) for an ASP.MVC application. SingalR is a tool that one can use in a .NET environment to add real-time client-server processing in an application. SignalR allows a developer to broadcast messages to all (or some) clients from a centralized client and/or server call. I was looking for a quick data-sharding example with embedded Rave...
Post a Comment
Read more