Author: Chuck Conway

Have you ever had to encrypt data in the database? In this post, I’ll explore how using nHibernate Listeners to encrypt and decrypt data coming from and going into your database. The cryptography will be transparent to your application.

Why would you want to do this? SQL Server has encryption baked into the product. That is true, but if you are moving to the cloud and want to use SQL Azure you’ll need some sort of cryptography strategy. SQL Azure does not support database encryption.

What is an nHibernate Listener? I think of a Listener as a piece of code that I can inject into specific extensibility points in the nHibernate persistence and data hydration lifecycle.

As of this writing the following extensibility points are available in nHibernate.

• IAutoFlushEventListener
• IDeleteEventListener
• IDirtyCheckEventListener
• IEvictEventListener
• IFlushEntityEventListener
• IFlushEventListener
• IInitializeCollectionEventListener
• ILoadEventListener
• ILockEventListener
• IMergeEventListener
• IPersistEventListener
• IPostCollectionRecreateEventListener
• IPostCollectionRemoveEventListener
• IPostCollectionUpdateEventListener
• IPostDeleteEventListener
• IPostInsertEventListener
• IPostLoadEventListener
• IPostUpdateEventListener
• IPreCollectionRecreateEventListener
• IPreCollectionRemoveEventListener
• IPreCollectionUpdateEventListener
• IPreDeleteEventListener
• IPreInsertEventListener
• IPreLoadEventListener
• IPreUpdateEventListener
• IRefreshEventListener
• IReplicateEventListener
• ISaveOrUpdateEventListener

The list is extensive.

To implement transparent cryptography, we need to find the right place to encrypt and decrypt the data. For encrypting the data we’ll use IPostInsertEventListener and IPostUpdateEventListener. With these events we’ll catch the new data and the updated data going into the database. For decrypting, we’ll use the IPreLoadEventListener.

For this demonstration we’ll be using DatabaseCryptography class for encrypting and decrypting. The cryptography implementation is not important for this article.

IPreLoadEventListener

public class PreLoadEventListener : IPreLoadEventListener
{
readonly DatabaseCryptography _crypto = new DatabaseCryptography();

///
/// Called when [pre load].
///

///The event. public void OnPreLoad(PreLoadEvent @event)
{
_crypto.DecryptProperty(@event.Entity, @event.Persister.PropertyNames, @event.State);
}
}

IPreInsertEventListener

public class PreInsertEventListener : IPreInsertEventListener
{
readonly DatabaseCryptography _crypto = new DatabaseCryptography();

///
/// Return true if the operation should be vetoed
///

///The event. /// true if XXXX, false otherwise.
public bool OnPreInsert(PreInsertEvent @event)
{
_crypto.EncryptProperties(@event.Entity, @event.State, @event.Persister.PropertyNames);

return false;
}
}

IPreUpdateEventListener

public class PreUpdateEventListener : IPreUpdateEventListener
{
readonly DatabaseCryptography _crypto = new DatabaseCryptography();

///
/// Return true if the operation should be vetoed
///

///The event. /// true if XXXX, false otherwise.
public bool OnPreUpdate(PreUpdateEvent @event)
{
_crypto.EncryptProperties(@event.Entity, @event.State, @event.Persister.PropertyNames);

return false;
}
}

It’s important to note that on both IPreUpdateEventListener and IPreInsertEventListener must return false, otherwise the insert/update event will be aborted.

Now that we have the Listeners implemented we need to register them with nHibernate. I am using FluentNHibernate so this will be different if you are using raw nHibernate.

SessionFactory

public class SessionFactory
{
///
/// Creates the session factory.
///

/// ISessionFactory.
public static ISessionFactory CreateSessionFactory()
{
return Fluently.Configure()

.Database(MsSqlConfiguration.MsSql2012
.ConnectionString(c => c
.FromConnectionStringWithKey("DefaultConnection")))

.Mappings(m => m.FluentMappings.AddFromAssemblyOf())
.ExposeConfiguration(s =>
{
s.SetListener(ListenerType.PreUpdate, new PreUpdateEventListener());
s.SetListener(ListenerType.PreInsert, new PreInsertEventListener());
s.SetListener(ListenerType.PreLoad, new PreLoadEventListener());
})
.BuildConfiguration()
.BuildSessionFactory();
}

When decrypting and encrypting data at the application level it makes the data useless in the database. You’ll need to bring the data back into the application to read the values of the encrypted fields. We want to limit the fields that are encrypted and we only want to encrypt string values. Encrypting anything other that string values complicates things. There is nothing saying we can’t encrypt dates, but doing so will require the date field in the database to become a string(nvarchar or varchar) field, to hold the encrypted data, once we do this we lose the ability to operate on the date field from the database.

To identify which fields we want encrypted and decrypted I’ll use marker attributes.

Encrypt Attribute

public class EncryptAttribute : Attribute
{
}

Decrypted Attribute

public class DecryptAttribute : Attribute
{
}

To see the EncryptAttribute and the DecryptedAttribute in action we’ll take a peek into the DatabaseCryptography class.

DatabaseCryptography

public class DatabaseCryptography
{
    private readonly Crypto _crypto = ObjectFactory.GetInstance();

    ///
    /// Encrypts the properties.
    ///
    ///The entity. ///The state. ///The property names. 
    public void EncryptProperties(object entity, object[] state, string[] propertyNames)
    {
        Crypt(entity, propertyNames, s = >
        _crypto.Encrypt(s),
        state)
        ;
    }

    ///
    /// Crypts the specified entity.
    ///

    ///
    ///The entity. ///The state. ///The property names. ///The crypt.
    private void Crypt(object entity, string[] propertyNames, Func<string, string> crypt, object[] state) where T : Attribute
    {
        if (entity != null)
        {
            var properties = entity.GetType().GetProperties();

            foreach (var info in properties)
            {
                var attributes = info.GetCustomAttributes(typeof (T), true);

                if (attributes.Any())
                {
                    var name = info.Name;
                    var count = 0;

                    foreach (var s in propertyNames)
                    {
                        if (string.Equals(s, name, StringComparison.InvariantCultureIgnoreCase))
                        {
                            var val = Convert.ToString(state[count]);
                            if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(val))
                            {

                                val = crypt(val);
                                state[count] = val;
                            }

                            break;
                        }

                        count++;
                    }
                }
            }
        }
    }

    ///
    /// Decrypts the property.
    ///
    ///The entity. ///The state. ///The property names. 
    public void DecryptProperies(object entity, string[] propertyNames, object[] state)
    {
        Crypt(entity, propertyNames, s = >
        _crypto.Decrypt(s),
        state)
        ;
    }

}

That’s it. Now the encryption and decryption of data will be transparent to the application and you can go on your merry way building the next Facebook.

It’s critical this is done first. Web deploy may not install correctly if it’s installed with the Management Service icon missing. Check IIS for the Management Delegation icon, it’ll be under the Management section.

If it’s missing run the following commands.

Windows 2012

dism /online /enable-feature /featurename:IIS-WebServerRole
dism /online /enable-feature /featurename:IIS-WebServerManagementTools
dism /online /enable-feature /featurename:IIS-ManagementService
Reg Add HKLM\Software\Microsoft\WebManagement\Server /V EnableRemoteManagement /T REG_DWORD /D 1
net start wmsvc
sc config wmsvc start= auto

Run Web Deploy.

Check to see if the icon is there. If it’s not, run web deploy again. It should be there.

One of the weaknesses of Entity Framework 6 Code First is the lack of support for natively calling database constructs (views, stored procedures… etc). For those who have not heard of or used Code-First in Entity Framework (EF), Code-First is simply a Fluent mapping API. The idea is to create all your database mappings in code (i.e. C#) and the framework then creates and track the changes in the database schema.

In traditional Entity Framework to call a stored procedure you’d map it in your EDMX file. This is a multi-step process. Once the process is completed a method is created, which hangs off the DataContext.

I sought to making a calling stored procedure easier. At the heart of a stored procedure you have a procedure name, N number of parameters and a results set. I’ve written a small extension method that takes a procedure name, parameters and a return type. It just works. No mapping the procedure and it’s parameters.

public static List<TReturn> CallStoredProcedure<TParameters, TReturn>(this DataContext context, string storedProcedure, TParameters parameters) where TParameters : class where TReturn : class, new()
{
IDictionary<string,object> procedureParameters = new Dictionary<string, object>();
PropertyInfo[] properties = parameters.GetType().GetProperties();

var ps = new List<object>();

foreach (var property in properties)
{
object value = property.GetValue(parameters);
string name = property.Name;

procedureParameters.Add(name, value);

ps.Add(new SqlParameter(name, value));
}

var keys = procedureParameters.Select(p => string.Format("@{0}", p.Key)).ToList();
var parms = string.Join(", ", keys.ToArray());

return context.Database.SqlQuery<TReturn>(storedProcedure + " " + parms, ps.ToArray()).ToList();
}

Usage

var context = new DataContext();

List<User> users = context.CallStoredProcedure<object,User>("User_GetUserById", new{userId = 3});

The problem is a the nHibernate’s CreateSqlQuery needs a complete sql string to be created, but you can’t create a string until you’ve evaluated the parameters. The only work around is to evaluate the conditional parameters to create the sql string to create the nHibernate session and then revaluate the parameters again to add them to the nHibernate query object. The problem with this, is the same evaluation logic is written twice. What is needed is a simple fluent api that will do everything for you and spit out the ISQLQuery when it’s done.

Before

public IList<AppointmentScheduleSummary> FillQuantityOld(DateTime? fromDate, DateTime? toDate, string CompanyID)
{
    string sql = "select VA.Userid as ID, E.FirstName + ' ' + E.LastName as Name,VA.Userid,count(*) as Total, getdate() as Date  from V_AppointmentScheduleStat VA, Appointment A, Employee E, Office O where";

    if (fromDate.HasValue)
    {
        sql += "  VA.Date >= '" + fromDate.Value.ToShortDateString() + "' and";

    }

    if (toDate.HasValue)
    {
        sql += "  VA.Date <= '" + toDate.Value.AddDays(1).ToShortDateString() + "' and";
    }

    sql += "  VA.date = A.date  and VA.UserId = E.UserId and O.OfficeNum = A.OfficeNum ";
    sql += " and A.appttypeid is not null";
    sql += " and O.CompanyID='" + CompanyID + "'";
    sql += " group by E.FirstName + ' ' + E.LastName ,VA.Userid  ";

    ISQLQuery query = _NHibernateSessionManager.GetSession().CreateSQLQuery(sql)
     .AddEntity("K", typeof(AppointmentScheduleSummary));
    return query.List<AppointmentScheduleSummary>();
}

After

public IList<AppointmentScheduleSummary> FillQuantity(DateTime? fromDate, DateTime? toDate,string CompanyID)
{
   var query = _NHibernateSessionManager.GetSession()
        .SQLQuery("select VA.Userid as ID, E.FirstName + ' ' + E.LastName as Name,VA.Userid,count(*) as Total, getdate() as Date  from V_AppointmentScheduleStat VA, Appointment A, Employee E, Office O where")

        .If(fromDate.HasValue, "VA.Date >= :fromDate and", parameters =>
        {
            parameters.SetParameter("fromDate", fromDate.Value.ToShortDateString());
        })

        .If(toDate.HasValue, "VA.Date <=:toDate and ", parameters =>
        {
            parameters.SetParameter("toDate", toDate.Value.AddDays(1).ToShortDateString());
            parameters.SetParameterList("", new[] {2, 3, 4,});

        })

        .Sql(" VA.date = A.date and VA.UserId = E.UserId and O.OfficeNum = A.OfficeNum and A.appttypeid is not null and O.CompanyID = :companyId" +
             " group by E.FirstName + ' ' + E.LastName ,VA.Userid")
            .SetParameter("companyId", CompanyID)
        .ToQuery();

     query.AddEntity("K", typeof(AppointmentScheduleSummary));
     return query.List<AppointmentScheduleSummary>();
}

SqlStringBuilder

using System;
using System.Collections;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Text;
using NHibernate;

namespace IT2.DataAccess.Extensions
{
    public class SqlStringBuilder
    {
        private readonly ISession _session;
        private readonly Action<string> _logging;
        readonly StringBuilder _builder = new StringBuilder();
        readonly ParameterBuilder _parameterBuilder;

        /// <summary>
        /// Initializes a new instance of the <see cref="SqlStringBuilder" /> class.
        /// </summary>
        /// <param name="session">The session.</param>
        /// <param name="sql">The SQL.</param>
        /// <param name="logging"></param>
        public SqlStringBuilder(ISession session, string sql, Action<string> logging)
        {
            _session = session;
            _logging = logging;
            _builder.Append(sql);
            Parameters = new Dictionary<string, object>();
            ParameterList = new Dictionary<string, IEnumerable>();
            _parameterBuilder = new ParameterBuilder(this);
        }

        /// <summary>
        /// Gets or sets the parameters.
        /// </summary>
        /// <value>The parameters.</value>
        public IDictionary<string, object> Parameters { get; set; }

        /// <summary>
        /// Gets or sets the parameters.
        /// </summary>
        /// <value>The parameters.</value>
        public IDictionary<string, IEnumerable> ParameterList { get; set; }

        /// <summary>
        /// To the query.
        /// </summary>
        /// <returns>IQuery.</returns>
        public ISQLQuery ToSqlQuery() 
        {
            string sql = _builder.ToString();

            if (_logging != null)
            {
                _logging(sql);
            }

            var query = _session.CreateSQLQuery(sql);

            foreach (var parameter in Parameters)
            {
                query.SetParameter(parameter.Key, parameter.Value);
            }

            foreach (var parameter in ParameterList)
            {
                query.SetParameterList(parameter.Key, parameter.Value);
            }

            return query;
        }

        /// <summary>
        /// To the query.
        /// </summary>
        /// <returns>IQuery.</returns>
        public IQuery ToQuery()
        {
            string sql = _builder.ToString();

            if (_logging != null)
            {
                _logging(sql);
            }

            var query = _session.CreateQuery(sql);

            foreach (var parameter in Parameters)
            {
                query.SetParameter(parameter.Key, parameter.Value);
            }

            foreach (var parameter in ParameterList)
            {
                query.SetParameterList(parameter.Key, parameter.Value);
            }

            return query;
        }

        /// <summary>
        /// Ifs the specified evaluation.
        /// </summary>
        /// <param name="evaluation">if set to <c>true</c> [evaluation].</param>
        /// <param name="sql">The SQL.</param>
        /// <returns>ParameterBuilder.</returns>
        public ParameterBuilder If(bool evaluation, string sql)
        {
            return If(evaluation, sql, null);
        }

        /// <summary>
        /// Conditionals the specified evaluation.
        /// </summary>
        /// <param name="evaluation">if set to <c>true</c> [evaluation].</param>
        /// <param name="sql">The SQL.</param>
        /// <param name="parameters">The parameters.</param>
        /// <returns>SqlStringBuilder.</returns>
        public ParameterBuilder If(bool evaluation, string sql, Action<ParameterBuilder> parameters)
        {
            if (evaluation)
            {
                _builder.Append(string.Format(" {0} ", sql));

                if (parameters != null)
                {
                    parameters(_parameterBuilder);
                }
            }

            return _parameterBuilder;
        }

        /// <summary>
        /// Sets the parameters.
        /// </summary>
        /// <typeparam name="T"></typeparam>
        /// <param name="key">The key.</param>
        /// <param name="value">The value.</param>
        /// <returns>ParameterBuilder.</returns>
        public ParameterBuilder SetParameter<T>(string key, T value)
        {
            _parameterBuilder.SetParameter(key, value);
            return _parameterBuilder;
        }

        /// <summary>
        /// Sets the parameter list.
        /// </summary>
        /// <typeparam name="T"></typeparam>
        /// <param name="key">The key.</param>
        /// <param name="value">The value.</param>
        /// <returns>ParameterBuilder.</returns>
        public ParameterBuilder SetParameterList<T>(string key, T value) where T : IEnumerable
        {
            _parameterBuilder.SetParameterList(key, value);
            return _parameterBuilder;
        }

        /// <summary>
        /// SQLs the specified SQL.
        /// </summary>
        /// <param name="sql">The SQL.</param>
        /// <returns>IT2.DataAccess.SqlStringBuilder.</returns>
        public SqlStringBuilder Sql(string sql)
        {
            _builder.Append(string.Format(" {0} ", sql));
            return this;
        }
    }

    public class ParameterBuilder
    {
        private readonly SqlStringBuilder _builder;

        /// <summary>
        /// Initializes a new instance of the <see cref="ParameterBuilder" /> class.
        /// </summary>
        /// <param name="builder">The builder.</param>
        public ParameterBuilder(SqlStringBuilder builder)
        {
            _builder = builder;
        }

        /// <summary>
        /// Parameters the specified key.
        /// </summary>
        /// <typeparam name="T"></typeparam>
        /// <param name="key">The key.</param>
        /// <param name="value">The value.</param>
        /// <returns>ParameterBuilder.</returns>
        public ParameterBuilder SetParameter<T>(string key, T value)
        {
            _builder.Parameters.Add(key, value);
            return this;
        }

        /// <summary>
        /// Parameters the specified key.
        /// </summary>
        /// <typeparam name="T"></typeparam>
        /// <param name="key">The key.</param>
        /// <param name="value">The value.</param>
        /// <returns>ParameterBuilder.</returns>
        public ParameterBuilder SetParameterList<T>(string key, T value) where T : IEnumerable
        {
            _builder.ParameterList.Add(key, value);
            return this;
        }

        /// <summary>
        /// Ifs the specified evaluation.
        /// </summary>
        /// <param name="evaluation">if set to <c>true</c> [evaluation].</param>
        /// <param name="sql">The SQL.</param>
        /// <returns>ParameterBuilder.</returns>
        public ParameterBuilder If(bool evaluation, string sql)
        {
            return _builder.If(evaluation, sql);
        }

        /// <summary>
        /// Conditions the specified evaluation.
        /// </summary>
        /// <param name="evaluation">if set to <c>true</c> [evaluation].</param>
        /// <param name="sql">The SQL.</param>
        /// <param name="parameters">The parameters.</param>
        /// <returns>ParameterBuilder.</returns>
        public ParameterBuilder If(bool evaluation, string sql, Action<ParameterBuilder> parameters)
        {
            return _builder.If(evaluation, sql, parameters);
        }

        /// <summary>
        /// SQLs the specified SQL.
        /// </summary>
        /// <param name="sql">The SQL.</param>
        /// <returns>SqlStringBuilder.</returns>
        public SqlStringBuilder Sql(string sql)
        {
            _builder.Sql(sql);
            return _builder;
        }

        /// <summary>
        /// To the query.
        /// </summary>
        /// <returns>ISQLQuery.</returns>
        public IQuery ToQuery()
        {
            return _builder.ToQuery();
        }

        /// <summary>
        /// To the query.
        /// </summary>
        /// <returns>ISQLQuery.</returns>
        public ISQLQuery ToSqlQuery()
        {
            return _builder.ToSqlQuery();
        }
    }
}

In the Visual Studio 2012 version of Crystal Reports 13 there is a threshold that throttles concurrent reports, this also includes subreports, to 75 reports across a machine. This means if there are 5 web applications on a given server all opened reports across all 5 web applications counts toward the 75 report limit.

The error manifests itself in different ways and may result in the following errors “Not enough memory for operation.” or “The maximum report processing jobs limit configured by your system administrator has been reached”.

The problem is the reports are not disposed and they continue accumulate until the 75 limit is hit. To fix this issue, the reports have to be disposed of at the earliest possible time. This sounds simple, but is not as straightforward as it seems. Depending how the reports are generated there are two scenarios: First is generating PDF’s or Excel spreadsheets and the second is using the Crystal Report Viewer. Each scenario has a different lifetime, which we need to take into account when crafting our solution.

Solution

There are two reports lifetimes we have to manage: generated reports: PDF, Excel Spreadsheet and the Crystal Report viewer.

PDF’s and Excel Spreadsheets are generated during the request. They can be disposed on the Page Unload event. The Crystal Report viewer is a bit different. It needs to span requests and is stored in session. This makes disposing the viewer reports a bit challenging, but not impossible.

Disposing the Viewer on the Page Unload event won’t work. The Viewer has paging functionality which requests each new page from the server. To get around this issue we implemented a report reference counter. Each time a report is created, it is stored in a concurrent dictionary. When a report is disposed the report is removed from the dictionary. Upon opening a type of a report we check that the user does not already have this report open, if they do, we simply dispose the existing report and open a new one in it’s place. Other opportunities to dispose the report is on Session End (the user signs out), on Application End and when navigating away from report page.

Our internal QA team tested a non fixed version of Crystal Reports. Crystal Reports fell over at around 100 concurrent connections. After applying the fix our QA team ran a load against the servers at 750 concurrent connections without any issues.

On a side note, we have encountered latency when disposing reports with multiple sub reports.

public static class ReportFactory
{
static readonly ConcurrentDictionary<string, ConcurrentDictionary<string, UserReport>> _sessions = new ConcurrentDictionary<string, ConcurrentDictionary<string, UserReport>>();

/// <summary>
/// Creates the report dispose on unload.
/// </summary>
/// <typeparam name="T"></typeparam>
/// <param name="page">The page.</param>
/// <returns>``0.</returns>
public static T CreateReportDisposeOnUnload<T>(this Page page) where T : IDisposable, new()
{
    var report = new T();
    DisposeOnUnload(page, report);
    return report;
}

/// <summary>
/// Disposes on page unload.
/// </summary>
/// <typeparam name="T"></typeparam>
/// <param name="page">The page.</param>
/// <param name="instance">The instance.</param>
private static void DisposeOnUnload<T>(this Page page, T instance) where T : IDisposable
{
    page.Unload += (s, o) =>
    {
        if (instance != null)
        {
            CloseAndDispose(instance);
        }
    };
}

/// <summary>
/// Unloads the report when user navigates away from report.
/// </summary>
/// <param name="page">The page.</param>
public static void UnloadReportWhenUserNavigatesAwayFromPage(this Page page)
{
    var sessionId = page.Session.SessionID;
    var pageName = Path.GetFileName(page.Request.Url.AbsolutePath);

    var contains = _sessions.ContainsKey(sessionId);

    if (contains)
    {
        var reports = _sessions[sessionId];
        var report = reports.Where(r => r.Value.PageName != pageName).ToList();

        foreach (var userReport in report)
        {
            UserReport instance;

            bool removed = reports.TryRemove(userReport.Key, out instance);

            if (removed)
            {
                CloseAndDispose(instance.Report);
            }
        }
    }
}

/// <summary>
/// Gets the report.
/// </summary>
/// <typeparam name="T"></typeparam>
/// <returns>ReportClass.</returns>
public static T CreateReportForCrystalReportViewer<T>(this Page page) where T : IDisposable, new()
{
    var report = CreateReport<T>(page);
    return report;
}

/// <summary>
/// Creates the report.
/// </summary>
/// <typeparam name="T"></typeparam>
/// <param name="page">The page.</param>
/// <returns>``0.</returns>
private static T CreateReport<T>(Page page) where T : IDisposable, new()
{
    MoreThan70ReportsFoundRemoveOldestReport();

    var sessionId = page.Session.SessionID;

    bool containsKey = _sessions.ContainsKey(sessionId);
    var reportKey = typeof(T).FullName;
    var newReport = GetUserReport<T>(page);

    if (containsKey)
    {
        //Get user by session id
        var reports = _sessions[sessionId];

        //check for the report, remove it and dispose it if it exists in the collection
        RemoveReportWhenMatchingTypeFound<T>(reports);

        //add the report to the collection

        reports.TryAdd(reportKey, newReport);

        //add the reports to the user key in the concurrent dictionary
        _sessions[sessionId] = reports;
    }
    else //key does not exist in the collection
    {
        var newDictionary = new ConcurrentDictionary<string, UserReport>();
        newDictionary.TryAdd(reportKey, newReport);

        _sessions[sessionId] = newDictionary;

    }

    return (T)newReport.Report;
}

/// <summary>
/// Ifs the more than 70 reports remove the oldest report.
/// </summary>
private static void MoreThan70ReportsFoundRemoveOldestReport()
{
    var reports = _sessions.SelectMany(r => r.Value).ToList();

    if (reports.Count() > 70)
    {
        //order the reports with the oldest on top.
        var sorted = reports.OrderByDescending(r => r.Value.TimeAdded);

        //remove the oldest
        var first = sorted.FirstOrDefault();
        var key = first.Key;
        var sessionKey = first.Value.SessionId;

        if (first.Value != null)
        {
            //close and depose of the first report
            CloseAndDispose(first.Value.Report);

            var dictionary = _sessions[sessionKey];
            var containsKey = dictionary.ContainsKey(key);

            if (containsKey)
            {
                //remove the disposed report from the collection
                UserReport report;
                dictionary.TryRemove(key, out report);
            }
        }

    }
}

/// <summary>
/// Removes the report if there is a report with a match type.
/// </summary>
/// <typeparam name="T"></typeparam>
/// <param name="reports">The reports.</param>
private static void RemoveReportWhenMatchingTypeFound<T>(ConcurrentDictionary<string, UserReport> reports) where T : IDisposable, new()
{
    var key = typeof(T).FullName;
    var containsKey = reports.ContainsKey(key);

    if (containsKey)
    {
        UserReport instance;

        bool removed = reports.TryRemove(key, out instance);

        if (removed)
        {
            CloseAndDispose(instance.Report);
        }

    }
}

/// <summary>
/// Removes the reports for session.
/// </summary>
/// <param name="sessionId">The session identifier.</param>
public static void RemoveReportsForSession(string sessionId)
{
    var containsKey = _sessions.ContainsKey(sessionId);

    if (containsKey)
    {
        ConcurrentDictionary<string, UserReport> session;

        var removed = _sessions.TryRemove(sessionId, out session);

        if (removed)
        {
            foreach (var report in session.Where(r => r.Value.Report != null))
            {
                CloseAndDispose(report.Value.Report);
            }
        }
    }
}

/// <summary>
/// Closes the and dispose.
/// </summary>
/// <param name="report">The report.</param>
private static void CloseAndDispose(IDisposable report)
{
    report.Dispose();
}

/// <summary>
/// Gets the user report.
/// </summary>
/// <typeparam name="T"></typeparam>
/// <returns>UserReport.</returns>
private static UserReport GetUserReport<T>(Page page) where T : IDisposable, new()
{
    string onlyPageName = Path.GetFileName(page.Request.Url.AbsolutePath);

    var report = new T();
    var userReport = new UserReport { PageName = onlyPageName, TimeAdded = DateTime.UtcNow, Report = report, SessionId = page.Session.SessionID };

    return userReport;
}

/// <summary>
/// Removes all reports.
/// </summary>
public static void RemoveAllReports()
{
    foreach (var session in _sessions)
    {
        foreach (var report in session.Value)
        {
            if (report.Value.Report != null)
            {
                CloseAndDispose(report.Value.Report);
            }
        }

        //remove all the disposed reports
        session.Value.Clear();
    }

    //empty the collection
    _sessions.Clear();
}

private class UserReport
{
    /// <summary>
    /// Gets or sets the time added.
    /// </summary>
    /// <value>The time added.</value>
    public DateTime TimeAdded { get; set; }

    /// <summary>
    /// Gets or sets the report.
    /// </summary>
    /// <value>The report.</value>
    public IDisposable Report { get; set; }

    /// <summary>
    /// Gets or sets the session identifier.
    /// </summary>
    /// <value>The session identifier.</value>
    public string SessionId { get; set; }

    /// <summary>
    /// Gets or sets the name of the page.
    /// </summary>
    /// <value>The name of the page.</value>
    public string PageName { get; set; }
}
}

A co-worker sent an email with some code he’s struggling with. He’s trying to avoid using try/catches to drive business logic.

The problem is not the try/catches it’s simply a symptom of the problem. Can you spot the problem? You’ll have to make some assumption, but I have faith you’ll come to the same conclusion I came too.

The code is below; I changed it to protect the innocent:

private Customer GetOrCreateCustomer(long customerTelephoneNumberOrCustomerId)
        {
           Customer customer;
            try
            {
                customer = this.DoMagic(customerMasterTelephoneNumberOrCustomerId);
            }
            catch (DataException)
            {
                try
                {
                    //TODO: I know this isn't ideal. Still thinking of a better way to do this. 
                    customer = this. GetCustomer(customerMasterTelephoneNumberOrCustomerId);
                }
                catch (DataException)
                {
                    customer = this.GetCustomerFromExternal(customerMasterTelephoneNumberOrCustomerId);
                    customer.CustomerId = this.CreateCustomer(customer);
                }
            }

            return customer;
        }

There is an underlining philosophy in this system that nulls are bad. In most cases where a null can be generated an exception is thrown. At first I did not see a problem with this. I saw it as an architecture decision, an aesthetic, but as I interface with the code, it’s apparent to me it’s an architectural mistake.

You might ask, why is throwing an exception in the case of nulls bad?

Below are some guidelines when considering throwing an exception:

1. The fact that you have to check for the null to throw the exception should be a hint that it is not needed. It an expected outcome, thus not an exception.

2. Throwing an exception is a resource intensive operation, one of the most resource intensive operations that can be done in .Net.

3. An exception is just that, an exception. It’s an exception to the assumptions made in the code – when these assumptions are broken, the system must terminate, it cannot move on because the system is in an unknown state (i.e. the database is no longer available) this could also be an attack vector.

4. Throwing an exception means you have to wrap the upstream call in a try/catch block to enforce business rules. A null value is a business opportunity to control the flow of the application. The action upon the null value should be done at the point in which a business decision must take place. For example, a customer variable is null, at the UI layer a message is shown to the user stating the customer with id ‘1234’ cannot be found.