Develop Reference

How to design ASP.NET Core - SQL application where user should be able to create forms of different input items and store values in database

I've started working on a web application project, where a feature is: the admin user can create/update few custom forms choosing different input types from the database and the end users can update the form data in a repetitive fashion/sometimes daily and the data stores in the database for further use cases. To elaborate, the admin user can choose any of "checkbox", "textbox", "textarea", "datetime", "temperature" etc. input types and create a form. The end user then can read the form and input the values that is to be saved in the database for reporting to admin.
I need to use ASP.NET Core MVC, SQL, EF, code first migration at the back-end of the project.
I am thinking maybe (as an example) a Form model with Id and Name properties, TextBox model with Id, Name, FormId, DateTime model with Id, Name, FormId etc. for creating the forms and then when user inputs values that can be updated using other models/tables in the database like TextBoxRecord model with Id, TextBoxId, Value, UserId, DateEntered etc. But then it will be too many tables to update and read every time when entering values and displaying reports to the admin.
I appreciate any help with a good design idea of the data model or how to attain this kind of logic. Also feel free ask, if you have any questions. Thanks.

Some time ago, I was working on some simular project. We don't store each of our form field in DB, because we don't want to update DB each time we need to add some new-kind-of-form-field. We believe it's up to HTML+JS to decide what kind of input to use with particular object property.
We create a serializer, that serialize form structure in xml and store it in DB. In this xml we keep a TableName (EF DataSet<> name) and ColumnName (name of model property) for each FormField.
When we need to show a form to user, we deserialize it from DB, pack in ViewModel (because we don't want to show to user real names of our DB tables) and send it to JavaScript code as JSON. JS then constructs the form element and show it to user. When user submits the data, we again deserialize corresponding form from DB and update actual models in db with data from user input.
Hope this will help.

To all the, eurhm, people, who find this an interesting question and "would like to know the answer too", there's an interesting article to read at
https://www.red-gate.com/simple-talk/opinion/opinion-pieces/bad-carma/
That story started with (at least as good as) exactly the same kind of user requirement as the OP's here.
(And to those who want to downvote this because "not an answer" : it is MORE of an answer because it shows in intimate detail WHY you NEVER want to even start going down that alley.)

Assign user based on another table in asp.net mvc4

I'm not even sure how to search for this question, so forgive me if I'm asking a duplicate question and would be grateful for any redirection needed.
I have data (Account Number, Password, Internal Y/N) that is being submitted to an Account Table from Navision. I want to use this data to automatically create a user in the UserProfile table (Username = Account Number, Password = Password) and assign that user to the Admin role if Internal = Y and DealerAdmin if Internal = N.
The data will continue to be maintained for Account numbers in Navision, but the DealerAdmin can add additional users from the website. Is this possible? If so, please provide any pointers to tutorials as to where to start? I presume it's a simple SQL statement. Where do I add this code in MVC so that it gets updated every time there's new data in the Account Table?

If you are using SQL why not use a trigger to create a new record in your User UserProfile when your conditions are met?
If this does not work for you can take a look at the post below and call your proc to move the data over if needed.
ASP.NET MVC 4 intercept all incoming requests

Umbraco Architecture with query string parameters for document

I have a client web app that I've been asked to make some updates to. I have a small number of development hours to work within so a redesign of the system is not an option at this time.
The app was written using classic asp with logic to pull certain content dynamically from a custom database and to write back certain user actions to the same custom database. There is an admin area for viewing these logged user actions.
At some point in time portions of the web app were migrated to use Umbraco 4 for the cms. I've been tasked with migrating some additional content, that is still being pulled from the original custom database, into the context of the CMS.
The content in question is structured so that the content node's document type points to a special masterpage. The master page has codebehind logic that checks for a query string parameter and uses that parameter to query the database for content specific to that parameter. In then populates one specific section on the page with that content.
The logic also uses the query string parameter when writing user actions back to the custom database.
I need to maintain the url syntax and behavior of writing user actions back to the custom database but move the displayed content specific to that parameter into the CMS somewhere. Where should I place this content in the CMS and how can I access it from those pages via the query string parameter?
Url Examples:
/site_home/Node1/Node2/Node3/
/site_home/Node1/Node2/Node3/?partner=partner1
/site_home/Node1/Node2/Node3/?partner=partner2
/site_home/Node1/Node2/Node3/Review/
/site_home/Node1/Node2/Node3/Review/?partner=partner1
/site_home/Node1/Node2/Node3/Review/?partner=partner2
/site_home/Node1/Node2/Node3/Checkout/
/site_home/Node1/Node2/Node3/Checkout/?partner=partner1
/site_home/Node1/Node2/Node3/Checkout/?partner=partner2

If you can provide a bit clearer explanation of what you are trying to accomplish, I am sure that I can assist you further. However, the code below and link to the discussion from which I pulled it may help get you on the path. Give me some feedback or edit your question and I will edit my answer to assist.
#{
if(!string.IsNullOrEmpty(Request.QueryString["query"]))
{
int result= 0;
if(Int32.TryParse(HttpContext.Current.Request.QueryString["query"].ToString(), out result))
{
umbraco.MacroEngines.DynamicNode node = new umbraco.MacroEngines.DynamicNode(result);
<h1> #node.Name </h1>
}
else
{
<h2>No query found</h2>
}
}
}
Umbraco Forums - Render Node content from querystring

Persisting data for catch-all search

We have a set of catch all search pages we're creating in our ASP.NET application. We have an initial search page, a SERP, and then a single item details page. All 3 pages have a search bar with initial criteria, more criteria, and advanced criteria choices.
When we put all of our criteria together, in addition to the main search box we have 20 different criteria parameters (from price, to price, sale item, date created, etc.) and then three collections of parameter IDs. These collections are from a list of the Manufacturers, Product Lines, and Categories our users can search from. So we have this fixed set of 20 fields and then 3 collections that could have a manufacturer or two, or could hold a collection of 100 Guids for the lines whose checkboxes they selected and want to search through.
In our old system we had a single form solution and we just posted back and submitted everything to our business object, passing it into a method that returned the results. In this new form we need to submit the results from page to page and persist this criteria. We're trying to figure out the best way to persist the data, when I say best I mean most efficient.
Querystring - This isn't going to work with large collections of Guid values for the 3 collections.
Session - We would create a criteria object and store it in the Session. As they move from page to page we can pull it out. At our peak we probable have 200-300 people using the server concurrently and the search is our most used form. I'm worried about performance with all those session variables.
Database - We were thinking of serializing and stashing this criteria object into the database (SQL Server 2k5) and the users would always have a current Search or last Search in the database. This eliminates some of the web server load from the Session solution but I'm worried this object load, serialization, db round trip, and unload is going to slow the forms down and affect user experience.
I'm looking for advice on which method is going to work most efficiently for us or if there is an accepted best practice or pattern I've overlooked.

With HTML5 you can use localStorage and sessionStorage, which makes the client keep the information in their browser.
http://www.w3schools.com/html/html5_webstorage.asp

Can I pass a .net Object via querystring?

I stucked at a condition , where i need to share values between the pages. I want to share value from Codebehind via little or no javascript. I already have a question here on SO , but using JS. Still did'nt got any result so another approach i am asking.
So I want to know can i pass any .net object in query string. SO that i can unbox it on other end conveniently.
Update
Or is there any JavaScript approach, by passing it to windows modal dialog. or something like that.
What I am doing
What i was doing is that on my parent page load. I am extracting the properties from my class that has values fetched from db. and put it in a Session["mySession"]. Some thing like this.
Session["mySession"] = myClass.myStatus which is List<int>;
Now on one my event that checkbox click event from client side, i am opening a popup. and on its page load, extracting the list and filling the checkbox list on the child page.
Now from here user can modify its selection and close this page. Close is done via a button called save , on which i am iterating through the checked items and again sending it in Session["mySession"].
But the problem is here , when ever i again click on radio button to view the updated values , it displays the previous one. That is , If my total count of list is 3 from the db, and after modification it is 1. After reopening it still displays 3 instead of 1.

Yes, you could but you would have to serialize that value so that it could be encoded as a string. I think a much better approach would be to put the object in session rather than on the URL.

I would so something like this.
var stringNumbers = intNumbers.Select(i => i.ToString()).ToArray();
var qsValue = string.Join(",", stringNumbers);
Request.Redirect("Page.aspx?numbers=" + sqValue);
Keep in mind that if there are too many numbers the query string is not the best option. Also remember that anyone can see the query string so if this data needs to be secure do not use the query string. Keep in mind the suggestions of other posters.
Note
If you are using .NET 4 you can simplify the above code:
var qsValue = string.Join(",", intNumbers);

Make the object serializable and store it in an out-of-process session.
All pages on your web application will then be able to access the object.

you could serialize it and make it printable but you shouldn't
really, you shouldn't
The specification does not dictate a minimum or maximum URL length, but implementation varies by browser and version. For example, Internet Explorer does not support URLs that have more than 2083 characters.[6][7] There is no limit on the number of parameters in a URL; only the raw (as opposed to URL encoded) character length of the URL matters. Web servers may also impose limits on the length of the query string, depending on how the URL and query string is stored. If the URL is too long, the web server fails with the 414 Request-URI Too Long HTTP status code.

I would probably use a cookie to store the object.