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Complex nested Array trying to find if an object is null c# asp.net

I am using an api for a shopping cart that has some complex json (very complicated to me) data structured like in my screenshot below. In this scenario in my code I am trying to fix an error which I am going to explain by illustrating the data and how its structured as I am very new to JSON and arrays.
This is from the Visual Studio json reader of the data that belongs to an order placed by a customer. This item at the index of [0] has a customFields which has a value.
When a customer completes a purchase, some items they bought can have custom fields, like the size of a shirt (Large) or (Medium) or (Small) etc... In the JSON these customFields have a value which in this case is the size of the shirt for me to display at the thank you page so the customer knows what size he bought. Essentially I am trying to have the data ready to pass to the thank you page view.
When I am calling for these items in my controller, the code only works if ALL the items that were purchased have a customFields. If the customer buys something like a coffee mug that has NO custom fields, then the application breaks because I guess my code is only accounting for items that actually have customFields.
This is the code that I have so far that only works when ALL items that were purchased have a custom field. This is inside my controller.
public ActionResult Thankyou(string token)
{
int itemsCountAddedToCart = (int)obj["items"].Count();
var items = obj["items"].Select(o =>
new Item
{
name = o["name"].ToString(),
quantity = int.Parse(o["quantity"].ToString()),
price = double.Parse(o["price"].ToString()),
image = o["image"].ToString(),
url = o["url"].ToString(),
//This customFields is what works, but only if all items had custom fields.
customFields = o["customFields"][0]["value"].ToString(),
});
thankYouViewModel.OrderItems = items;
}
//ThankYou View Model that loads hold the data to be able to show in the view.
public class ThankYouViewModel
{
public IEnumerable<Item> OrderItems { get; set; }
}
public class Item
{
public string name { get; set; }
public double price { get; set; }
public int quantity { get; set; }
public string image { get; set; }
public string url { get; set; }
//customFields
public string customFields { get; set; }
}
So that code above works, but breaks when I have items that do not have customFields. This is the error that I get:
System.ArgumentOutOfRangeException: 'Index was out of range. Must be non-negative and less than the size of the collection.
Parameter name: index'
So how should my code look where its currently breaking so that it can account for situations where one of the items from the JSON does not have a customFields attribute? I am very stuck and have tried to add some conditional statements but did not work because I am dealing with some complex json I do not understand very well yet.

If you want to forget the possibility of more than one element in the customFields array, and only cast the first element value to a string, then use this:
customFields = (o["customFields"] == null || o["customFields"].Count() == 0)?null:o["customFields"][0]["value"].ToString(),

With customFields = o["customFields"][0]["value"].ToString(), you directly receive the value from the customFields Array. If there is no Array in your case then there is nothing to get.
I would recommend you to check if your customFields exists:
var item = new Item ();
item.name = o["name"].ToString();
item.quantity = int.Parse(o["quantity"].ToString());
item.price = double.Parse(o["price"].ToString());
item.image = o["image"].ToString();
item.url = o["image"].ToString();
if(o["customFields"] != null)
{
item.customFields = o["customFields"][0]["value"].ToString();
}

Wpf - How to control observable collection updates

In the parent there is a Observable Collection PendingPayment that has a list of all pending payments of sales with a column amount paid.
Then the user can select a particular sale and open it in new child window.
The thing thats going wrong is if the user just edits the text box paid amount in child window and closes the window without saving the new paid amount to database,the observable collection containing Amount paid column in the parent window gets updated.
What I want is it the collection to get updated only when the values are updated in the database.

This can be achieved by creating a copy of your sale object when the user select it in the list, and then using this copy as the view model of your child view.
You will then be able to set the new values in the original object from your list only once the save button has been clicked and the database update succeed.
An other way to proceed if you need to edit only few of the object properties would be to create and editor object and use it as the child window's view model.
Something like this :
public class Sale
{
public int PaidAmount { get; set; }
public int Some { get; set; }
public int More { get; set; }
public int Properties { get; set; }
}
public class SaleEditor
{
private Sale _sale;
public int PaidAmount { get; set; }
public SaleEditor(Sale sale)
{
_sale = sale;
PaidAmount = sale.PaidAmount;
}
public void Save()
{
// update your data here
_sale.PaidAmount = PaidAmount;
}
}
If you need your original object to update the database, then the save method could first update the object and the revert the changes if DB update failed :
public void Save()
{
var oldAmount = _sale.PaidAmount;
_sale.PaidAmount = PaidAmount;
if (!SalesDB.Update(_sale))
_sale.PaidAmount = oldAmount;
// you could also read back the value from DB
}

Whenever possible (I've never see a reason why it cannot),for listing purpose use proxy or flatted objects, you can implement this using projections query. Then user select an item from a list and the only thing you need to grab is a key to load the full object with its required object graph as the use case might dictate.
Here is a sample implementation using Entity Framework and c# lambda expressions:
Using anonymous object:
var anonymousListProjection = DbContext.PendingPayments.Select( pp=>
new { pp.Order, pp.Amount})
Using a hardcoded proxy:
var hardcodedListProjection = DbContext.PendingPayments.Select( pp=>
new PendingPaymentProxy { Order = pp.Order, Amount = pp.Amount})
//To return an observable:
var observableColl = new ObservableCollection<PendingPaymentProxy>
(hardcodedListProjection.Tolist());
public class PendingPaymentProxy
{
public string Order { get; set; }
public decimal Amount{ get; set; }
}
Apart from avoiding possibles performance problems due to unintentional loading real objects, this way you only have to worry for your list when the user do save in the detail view.

MVC model properties returning default value

Something weird is happening and I am not able to understand why.. here's the scenario -
I have a model with few properties when I populate the model the properties in model does have values set (checked by putting breakpoints). It comes on the view also but it is not being shown on textbox. It is showing the default value (guessing by seeing the item textbox on the page as it has 0).
Below is my model -
public class PriceEnquiryModel
{
[DisplayName("Item")]
public int item { get; set; }
[DisplayName("Description")]
public string description { get; set; }
[DisplayName("UOP")]
public string uop { get; set; }
[DisplayName("UOS")]
public string uos { get; set; }
[DisplayName("Pack Description")]
public string pack_description { get; set; }
[DisplayName("Pack Size")]
public string PackSize { get; set; }
}
This is the controller;s code -
public ActionResult Search(PriceEnquiryModel price)
{
var priceEnquiryModel = new PriceEnquiryModel();
// Read parameter values from form.
int item = Convert.ToInt32(Request.Form["txtSearch"].ToString());
int maxrow = Convert.ToInt32(Request.Form["txtmaxrow"].ToString());
string priceType = !string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(price.priceType) && price.priceType.ToUpper().Equals("STA") ? "N" : "Y";
// Get the price information
var operationResult = priceBal.SearchPriceEnquiry(0, item, price.price_scheme, priceType, maxrow);
var priceEnquiryDomList = (List<PriceEnquiryDom>)operationResult[0].Result;
// Check if we have something
if (priceEnquiryDomList != null && priceEnquiryDomList.Count > 0)
{
// Parse the model.
priceEnquiryModel = helper.ConvertDomToModel(priceEnquiryDomList[0]);
// Prepare the list.
priceEnquiryModel.PriceEnquiryModelList = new List<PriceEnquiryModel>();
foreach (var priceEnquiryDom in priceEnquiryDomList)
{
var priceEnquiryModelListItem = helper.ConvertDomToModel(priceEnquiryDom);
priceEnquiryModel.PriceEnquiryModelList.Add(priceEnquiryModelListItem);
}
Session["mainModel"] = priceEnquiryModel;
}
// Prepare product drop down list items if searched by product desc
if (TempData.Count > 0 && TempData["Products"] != null)
{
var products = TempData["Products"] as List<ProductSearchByDescModel>;
ViewBag.Products = products;
}
return View("Index", priceEnquiryModel);
}
This is the model on the View (while debugging) -
This is how I am rendering the model on the view -
This is the page after running -
Does anyone has any idea what is going on ? I have done the same thing on multiple pages and all run as expected.
Thanks in Advance.
Rohit

The issue is that your method has parameter PriceEnquiryModel price but then you return a new instance of PriceEnquiryModel (named priceEnquiryModel). The process of model binding includes binding your model and adding its values to ModelState (along with any validation errors).
When you return the view, the html helper methods use the values from ModelState (not the models values) so attempting to change the values (which I assume is what priceEnquiryModel = helper.ConvertDomToModel(priceEnquiryDomList[0]); is doing) is ignored by the helpers.
For an explanation of why this is the default behavior, refer the second part of this answer
One option to call ModelState.Clear() before setting new values for the properties of PriceEnquiryModel

Getting error at time of binding ListBoxFor control in MVC4

When I am changing the "model => model.id" to "model => model.Supplierid" i am getting below error
"The parameter 'expression' must evaluate to an IEnumerable when
multiple selection is allowed."
please have look on below code
// this my model class
public class clslistbox{
public int id { get; set; }
public int Supplierid { get; set; }
public List<SuppDocuments> lstDocImgs { get; set; }
public class SuppDocuments
{
public string Title { get; set; }
public int documentid { get; set; }
}
public List<SuppDocuments> listDocImages()
{
List<SuppDocuments> _lst = new List<SuppDocuments>();
SuppDocuments _supp = new SuppDocuments();
_supp.Title = "title";
_supp.documentid = 1;
_lst.Add(_supp);
return _lst;
}
}
// this my controller
[HttpGet]
public ActionResult AddEditSupplier(int id)
{
clslistbox _lst = new clslistbox();
_lst.lstDocImgs= _lst.listDocImages();
return View(_lst);
}
// this is view where i am binding listboxfor
#model clslistbox
#using (Html.BeginForm("AddEditSupplier", "Admin", FormMethod.Post))
{
#Html.ListBoxFor(model => model.id, new SelectList(Model.lstDocImgs, "documentid", "title"))
}
Can anyone see the reason for it?

I think the changing of the property in the expression here is a red-herring - it won't work in either case.
Update
However, see at the end of my answer for some probably needlessly detailed exposition on why you didn't get an error first-time round.
End Update
You're using ListBoxFor - which is used to provide users with multiple selection capabilities - but you're trying to bind that to an int property - which cannot support multiple selection. (It needs to be an IEnumerable<T> at least to be able to bind a list box to it by default in MVC)
I think you mean to be using DropDownListFor - i.e. to display a list of items from which only one can be selected?
If you're actually looking for single-selection semantics in a listbox, that's trickier to do in MVC because it's Html helpers are geared entirely around listboxes being for multiple selection. Someone else on SO has asked a question about how to get a dropdown to look like a list box: How do I create a ListBox in ASP.NET MVC with single selection mode?.
Or you could generate the HTML for such a listbox yourself.
(Update) - Potentially needlessly detailed exposition(!)
The reason you don't get an exception first time round is probably because there was no value for id in ModelState when the HTML was generated. Here's the reflected MVC source (from SelectExtensions.SelectInternal) that's of interest (the GetSelectListWithDefaultValue call at the end is the source of your exception):
object obj =
allowMultiple ? htmlHelper.GetModelStateValue(fullHtmlFieldName, typeof(string[])) :
htmlHelper.GetModelStateValue(fullHtmlFieldName, typeof(string));
if (!flag && obj == null && !string.IsNullOrEmpty(name))
{
obj = htmlHelper.ViewData.Eval(name);
}
if (obj != null)
{
selectList =
SelectExtensions.GetSelectListWithDefaultValue(selectList, obj, allowMultiple);
}
Note first that the control variable allowMultiple is true in your case, because you've called ListBoxFor. selectList is the SelectList you create and pass as the second parameter. One of the things that MVC (unfortunately in some cases) does is to use ModelState to modify the select list you pass when re-displaying a view in order to ensure that values which were set in ModelState via a POST are re-selected when the view is reloaded (this is useful when page validation fails because you won't copy the values to your underlying model from ModelState, but the page should still show those values as being selected).
So as you can see on the first line, the model's current value for the expression/field you pass is fished out of model state; either as a string array or as a string. If that fails (returns null)then it makes another go to execute the expression (or similar) to grab the model value. If it gets a non-null value from there, it calls SelectExtensions.GetSelectListWithDefaultValue.
As I say - what you're trying to do will ultimately not work in either the case of Id or SupplierId (because they would need to be IEnumerable) but I believe this ModelState->Eval process is yielding a null value when you use Id, so the process of getting an 'adjusted' SelectList is skipped - so the exception doesn't get raised. The same is not true when you use SupplierId because I'll wager that there's either a value in ModelState at that point, or the ViewData.Eval successfully gets an integer value.
Not throwing an exception is not the same as working!.
End update

Try changing your property from int to int[]
public class SuppDocuments
{
public string Title { get; set; }
public int documentid { get; set; }
}
Assuming above is the class used for binding the model , try changing the documentid property as below
public class SuppDocuments
{
public string Title { get; set; }
public int[] documentid { get; set; }
}

IValidatableObject only in some actions

I have a model that implement IValidatlableObject, and so custom error checking through Validate method.
When I create an object all is fine, but when I try to edit that object, I wan't to do that custom validation.
How can I know from wich action I'm calling the Validate method in order to no do the validation?
UPDATED:
This is mi model:
public class Ingredient : IValidatableObject
{
public int Id { get; set; }
[Required(ErrorMessage = "Required!!")]
public string Name { get; set; }
public virtual List<Product> Products { get; set; }
public Ingredient()
{
Products = new List<Product>();
}
public IEnumerable<ValidationResult> Validate(ValidationContext validationContext)
{
using (var uow = new UnitOfWork())
{
var ingredient = uow.IngredientRepository.Get(i => i.Name ==Name).FirstOrDefault();
if (ingredient != null)
yield return new ValidationResult("Duplicate!!!.", new[] { "Name" });
}
}
}
}
So When I create an Ingredient I want to validate ALL (Attributes + IValidatable)
but when I edit an Ingrendient I only want to validate attributes (so I mean skip IValidatable)
Any method to know, inside the IValidatable method, from where I'm calling Validate ?
Thanks!!!

Check primary key of model - whether it is not null :)

The more "MVCish" correct way here is you actually have two classes, one for the Create method one for the edit. You can call off to a base class for any shared validation, anything then not shared wouldn't be checked here.

If you don't want to validate an object, don't call Model.IsValid (or Validate(), if you're doing it explicitly. Can't answer more than that without knowing more details about your problem.