Inheriting LINQ-to-SQL data context from base controller

Question

My base controller class, BaseController, is inherited by public-facing controllers to access a shared data context between requests with LINQ-to-SQL.

Am I accessing my data context in an efficient and safe way by storing it in HttpContext.Current.Items for each HTTP request?

`DataContextHelper` class

internal static class DataContextHelper
{
    public static MyDataContext CurrentContext
    {
        get
        {
            if (HttpContext.Current.Items["MyDataContext"] == null)
            {
                MyDataContext context = new MyDataContext();
                HttpContext.Current.Items["MyDataContext"] = context;
            }
            return (MyDataContext)HttpContext.Current.Items["MyDataContext"];
        }
    }
}

`BaseController` class:

public class BaseController : Controller
{
    protected MyDataContext db
    {
        get {
            return DataContextHelper.CurrentContext;
        }
    }
}

`HomeController` class:

[HandleError]
public class HomeController : BaseController // inherits db member
{
    public ActionResult SomeAction(string id)
    {
        User user = db.Users.First(u => u.UserId == id);
        // ... do stuff
        db.SubmitChanges();
    }
}

John Farrell · Accepted Answer · 2010-04-21 16:53:48Z

4

Yes, this is a common pattern with all the major ORMs with both WebForms and MVC.

The only thing I would add a explicit dispose after each controller action is executed. just to make sure everything is disposed of correctly.

In BaseController.cs:

    protected override void OnActionExecuted(ActionExecutedContext filterContext)
    {
        if (HttpContext.Current.Items["MyDataContext"] == null)
            return;

        var context = (MyDataContext)HttpContext.Current.Items["MyDataContext"];

        context.Dispose();
    }

answered Apr 21, 2010 at 16:53

John Farrell

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4 Comments

GalacticCowboy Over a year ago

But if you dispose it, then there is no value in caching it (as he demonstrated in the OP) since you would need to re-instantiate it upon the next request. Not suggesting that caching it is a good idea, of course.

Petrus Theron Over a year ago

@GalacticCowboy: jfar is right. It's only being cached until the request, which is the next action anyway. The Dispose will just force a clean-up.

GalacticCowboy Over a year ago

Ok, I'll accept that. And you definitely do want to dispose it when you are done with it. My question is, how does this approach (instantiate in base, use in controller, dispose in base) provide any benefit?

Petrus Theron Over a year ago

Less db code, more logic in actions. Convenient, since most are db-intensive. Context is only instantiated once called and can be shared by pre- and post-action calls between actions.

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