Update settings table with extension methods

So after working with the Settings table from my previous post a bit, it’s clear to me that creating some extension methods would make working with settings easier. To do this though we have to modify the Model a bit first and rename “Value” to lowercase “value”. The summary xml documentation is there to inform the user there’s an Extension method

public class Setting {
    public int SettingID { get; set; }

    public string Name { get; set; }

    /// <summary>
    /// Use the extension methods instead of this value; ex: Value&lt;T&gt;
    /// <summary>
    public byte[] value { get; set; }
    public string Type { get; set; }
}

Creating the Extension Method

[Extension]
public static T Value<T>(this Setting setting) {
    if (setting == null) return default(T);

    if (setting.Type != typeof(T).FullName)
        throw new InvalidCastException(
            string.Format("Unable to cast: {0} to {1}",
                typeof(T).FullName,
                setting.Type));

    return (T)(new BinaryFormatter()
                        .Deserialize(new System.IO.MemoryStream(setting.value)));
}

[Extension]
public static void Value<T>(this Setting setting, T value) {
    if (setting == null) throw new ArgumentNullException("setting");

    System.IO.MemoryStream ms = new System.IO.MemoryStream();
    new BinaryFormatter().Serialize(ms, value);

    if (setting.Type != typeof(T).FullName)
        throw new InvalidCastException(
            string.Format("Unable to cast: {0} to {1}",
                typeof(T).FullName,
                setting.Type));

    setting.value = ms.ToArray();
}

Doing this also has the added benefit of making the Generic methods in the DataContext cleaner

public T Setting<T>(string Name) {
    var setting = Settings.SingleOrDefault(s => s.Name == Name);
    return setting.Value<T>();
}

public void Setting<T>(string Name, T Value) {
    var setting = Settings.SingleOrDefault(s => s.Name == Name);
    setting.Value<T>(Value);
}

As you can see the extension methods are very easy to create. This gives us the benefit of accessing the values in a cleaner way

var setting = db.Settings.First();
setting.Value<string>("this is a new value");
var theValue = setting.Value<string>();

The generic methods are what make the settings Model powerful and (almost) seamless.

- Ben