BindHelper

BindHelper provides functionality for generating objects on base of some Enum, while binding data contained in enum attributes to corresponding properties of specified objects.

Usage

One of common use cases of this helper is a permission-objects creating objects based on corresponding enumeration.

Let's say we've got some enumeration containing permission items:

public enum PermissionId
{
    [BindProperty("Name", "User details")]
    [BindProperty("Description", "Permission to view user details")]
    UserDetails = 1,
    [BindProperty("Name", "Create new user")]
    [BindProperty("Description", "Permission to create new user")]
    UserCreate = 2,
    [BindProperty("Name", "Edit user")]
    [BindProperty("Description", "Permission to edit user")]
    UserEdit = 3,
    /* etc. */
}

It's relatively simple to manage application users permissions in such way, but what to do if some asks to change name or description of permission?

Here comes permission-describing class which instances should be stored in DB. This will provide you with possibility to change their names and descriptions without touching source code:

public class Permission
{
    public int Id { get; private set; }
    public string Value { get; private set; }
    public string Name { get; private set; }
    public string Description { get; private set; };
}

Last question is how to populate such instances during first DB-seeding or when we have updated application and changed some permission? Here BindHelper comes to our aid - with it we can do such job in one statement:

var result = BindHelper.Bind<Permission, PermissionId>((obj, @enum) =>
{
    obj.Id = (int)@enum;
    obj.Value = @enum.ToString();
});

This returns the list of Permission-objects equivalent to:

{
    new Permisson
    { 
        Id = 1,
        Value = "UserDetails",
        Name = "User details",
        Description = "Permission to view user details"
    },
    new Permisson
    { 
        Id = 2,
        Value = "UserCreate",
        Name = "Create new user",
        Description = "Permission to create new user"
    },
    /* etc. */
}

Bind allows to specify method which will be used during creation process and populating properties. All other properties values will be taken from BindProperty attributes marking enum values. BindPropertyAttribute also allows to specify nested property to bind with using dots in property name. For example "Name.Eng".