In this challenge, you'll update the Issue Tracker API's Issues endpoint to prevent under-posting.

Tasks

Here are the tasks that you need to complete for this code challenge. If you get stuck completing any of these tasks, see below for a list of detailed tasks.

Set up the DTO...

• Add a folder to the root of the "IssueTracker" project named "Dto"
• Add a class to the "Dto" folder named IssueDto
• Add properties to the IssueDto class using the Issue model class as a guide
  • Be sure to use nullable types where appropriate
• Add Required data annotation attributes to the appropriate properties
• Add a MaxLength data annotation attribute to the Name property in order to restrict the length of the value to 100 characters
• Add a MaxLength data annotation attribute to the Email property in order to restrict the length of the value to 255 characters
• Add a method named ToModel that converts the DTO to an instance of the Issue model class

Update the IssueController...

• Update the Post action method to use the DTO
• Update the Put action method…
  • Update the action method to use the DTO
  • Update the return type to IHttpActionResult
  • Return a call to the BadRequest method if the ModelState.IsValid property is false
  • Return a call to the StatusCode method passing

Project Overview

As you complete the code challenges in this course, you'll be working on a simple API for creating, reading, updating, and deleting user issues. When completed, this API could be used as the back-end for a simple issue tracker client.

The provided Visual Studio solution includes an empty ASP.NET project, a shared class library project, and a test project. The shared class library project contains Entity Framework related classes (repository, database context, database initializer, and two model classes) to enable data persistence. The test project contains a collection of unit tests that will verify if your code implements all of the necessary requirements for each code challenge.

Note: When opening the Visual Studio solution for the first time, you'll be prompted with a security warning, for each project. Visual Studio does this to ensure that you're aware of the risks of executing code from untrusted sources. Go ahead and click the "OK" button to continue with opening the project.

Getting Started

Once you've downloaded the files for the code challenge, extract the ZIP file, and open into Visual Studio 2017 the IssueTracker.sln file located in the "src" folder.

Each code challenge will include instructions listing the specific tasks that you need to complete. To help determine when you've successfully completed all of the tasks, you can use Visual Studio's Test Explorer window to run all of the provided unit tests. If all of the tests pass, you're ready to upload your solution! If a one or more tests fail, review the error messages for hints on how you can resolve the issues.

Some of the challenges are purely setup or configuration related, so there won't necessarily be something that you easily manually test by debugging the application. For those challenges, you'll have to rely solely upon the provided unit tests to check if you've successfully completed all of the required tasks. Other challenges will have you adding a controller or adding/updating action methods. For those challenges, you can manually debug the application using a browser or a tool like Postman, in addition to running the provided unit tests.

As a convenience, the root of the "IssueTracker" ASP.NET project contains a gulp script that you can run using Visual Studio's Task Runner Explorer window. The gulp script contains a "default" task that will restore NuGet packages (if necessary), build the solution, run the unit tests, and if all of the tests pass, create a ZIP file of your solution. You'll find the "project.zip" file in the root folder (the folder that contains the README.md file). Upload this file when you're ready to complete the challenge.

Detailed Tasks

Set up the DTO...

• Add a folder to the root of the "IssueTracker" project named "Dto"
• Add a class to the "Dto" folder named IssueDto
• Add properties to the IssueDto class using the Issue model class as a guide
  • A property of type int named Id
  • A property of type DateTime? named ReportedOn
  • A property of type string named Name
  • A property of type string named Email
  • A property of type int? named DepartmentId
  • A property of type string named DescriptionOfProblem
  • A property of type Issue.SeverityLevel? named Severity
  • A property of type bool named Reproducible
• Add Required data annotation attributes to the appropriate properties
  • ReportedOn
  • Name
  • Email
  • DepartmentId
  • DescriptionOfProblem
  • Severity
• Add a MaxLength data annotation attribute to the Name property in order to restrict the length of the value to 100 characters
• Add a MaxLength data annotation attribute to the Email property in order to restrict the length of the value to 255 characters
• Add a method named ToModel that converts the DTO to an instance of the Issue model class

Update the IssueController...

Update the Post action method to use the DTO...

• Update the issue parameter's type to IssueDto
• Call the DTO's ToModel method to get an instance of a model to pass to the repository's Add method
• Set the DTO's Id property with the model's Id property value after calling the IssueRepository's Add method
  • This is necessary to do in order to update the DTO with the ID value that was generated from the database before the DTO is returned to the client

Update the Put action method...

• Update the return type to IHttpActionResult
• Return a call to the BadRequest method if the ModelState.IsValid property is false
• Return a call to the StatusCode method passing in the HttpStatusCode.NoContent enum value
• Update the issue parameter's type to IssueDto
• Call the DTO's ToModel method to get an instance of a model to pass to the IssuesRepository's Update method