Pandatech.EFCore.AuditBase

Pandatech.EFCore.AuditBase is a comprehensive auditing library for Entity Framework Core, designed to make entity tracking, deletion management, and concurrency control straightforward and efficient.

Features

• Automatic Auditing: Automatically tracks creation and update times, along with the corresponding user IDs.
• Soft Delete Support: Implements soft deletion logic, allowing entities to be marked as deleted without physical removal from the database.
• Concurrency Control: Integrates versioning to handle concurrency, minimizing data conflicts.
• Enforced Best Practices: Enforces the use of provided methods for updates and deletions, ensuring consistent audit trails.
• Query Filter Management: Allows for the exclusion of soft-deleted entities from queries, with an option to include them when necessary.
• Seamless Integration: Designed to integrate smoothly with EF Core projects, enhancing data integrity and compliance.

Getting Started

To integrate Pandatech.EFCore.AuditBase into your project, install the NuGet package:

Install-Package Pandatech.EFCore.AuditBase

Usage

1. Inherit from AuditEntityBase in your entity classes to enable auditing.
2. Use MarkAsUpdated(userId) and MarkAsDeleted(userId) methods to handle entity updates and deletions.
3. Apply DbContextExtensions.UseAuditPropertyValidation in your DbContext to enforce audit method usage.
4. Leverage ModelBuilderExtensions.FilterOutDeletedMarkedObjects to automatically exclude soft-deleted entities from EF Core queries.

Entity Inheritance Example:

Assuming you have a Product entity in your application, you would inherit from AuditEntityBase to include auditing properties:

using Pandatech.VerticalSlices.Domain.Shared;

public class Product : AuditEntityBase
{
    public int Id { get; set; }
    public string Name { get; set; }
    public decimal Price { get; set; }
}

By inheriting from AuditEntityBase, Product automatically gains auditing properties like CreatedAt, CreatedByUserId, UpdatedAt, UpdatedByUserId, Deleted and Version.

Using MarkAsUpdated and MarkAsDeleted:

When updating or deleting an entity, use the provided methods to ensure the audit properties are correctly updated:

public void UpdateProduct(Product product, long updatingUserId)
{
    // Perform your update logic...
    
    product.MarkAsUpdated(updatingUserId); //optional UpdatedAt DateTime parameter
    _dbContext.SaveChanges();
}

public void DeleteProduct(Product product, long deletingUserId)
{
    product.MarkAsDeleted(deletingUserId); //optional UpdatedAt DateTime parameter
    _dbContext.SaveChanges();
}

DbContext Configuration:

In your DbContext, ensure you call UseAuditPropertyValidation to enforce the usage of audit methods and FilterOutDeletedMarkedObjects to apply the global filter for soft-deleted entities:

using Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore;
using Pandatech.VerticalSlices.Infrastructure.Context;

public class MyDbContext : DbContext
{
    public DbSet<Product> Products { get; set; }

    protected override void OnModelCreating(ModelBuilder modelBuilder)
    {
        base.OnModelCreating(modelBuilder);

        modelBuilder.FilterOutDeletedMarkedObjects(); // Apply global query filter for soft deletes
    }

    public MyDbContext(DbContextOptions<MyDbContext> options) : base(options)
    {
        this.UseAuditPropertyValidation(); // Enforce audit method usage
    }
}

Using ExecuteUpdateAndMarkUpdatedAsync:

This extension method allows developers to update multiple properties while still maintaining audit consistency by updating UpdatedAt, UpdatedByUserId, and Version behind the scenes.

public async Task UpdateProductPricesAsync(MyDbContext dbContext, long userId)
{
    var expensiveProducts = dbContext.Products.Where(p => p.Price > 100);

    await expensiveProducts.ExecuteUpdateAndMarkUpdatedAsync(
        userId,
        x => x.SetProperty(p => p.Price, p => p.Price * 0.9) // Apply 10% discount
    );
}

Using ExecuteSoftDeleteAsync:

To perform a soft delete on multiple entities, use the ExecuteSoftDeleteAsync extension method.

public async Task SoftDeleteProductsAsync(MyDbContext dbContext, long userId)
{
    var productsToSoftDelete = dbContext.Products.Where(p => p.Price > 100);

    await productsToSoftDelete.ExecuteSoftDeleteAsync(userId);
}

Ignoring Soft Delete Filter:

If you need to include soft-deleted entities in a specific query, use IgnoreQueryFilters():

var allProductsIncludingDeleted = _dbContext.Products.IgnoreQueryFilters().ToList();

Handling Concurrency

The AuditEntityBase includes a versioning mechanism to manage concurrent updates. In the event of a conflict, a concurrency exception will be thrown. This can be gracefully handled using try-catch blocks or integrated with Pandatech.ResponseCrafter for automated response management.

However, ExecuteUpdateAndMarkUpdatedAsync and ExecuteSoftDeleteAsync ignore optimistic locking, meaning they will not throw a concurrency exception if the Version field changes during the operation. This is because these methods only increment the Version field by one, regardless of the current value.

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please submit a pull request or open an issue to propose changes or report bugs.

License

Pandatech.EFCore.AuditBase is licensed under the MIT License.