Using RavenDb with Mvc WebApi

April 07, 2012

I’m starting this post with a disclaimer. I’m not a RavenDb expect, actually far from it, in fact I’ve only started working with it this evening!

I’m working on a pet project and getting the initial building blocks in place. I read about RavenDB in a recent edition of CODE magazine. The same magazine dealt with some other NoSql databases, e.g. Mongo Db, I’ve had a passing interest in NoSql in the last while so I wanted to get me a piece of the pie, and RavenDB jumped out at me for a few reasons.

Written in .NET
Scalability over RDBMS
RestAPI (although i won’t be using it, my app will have its own REST API using RavenDb managed api underneath)
.NET API with Linq querying
Automatic indexing
Scalability

So lets get started, We want to follow what’s advised in this article: http://ravendb.net/kb/3/using-ravendb-in-an-asp-net-mvc-website however we will be using an ApiController not your standard Controller so we have to modify the solution a little.

Create project

Fire up visual studio and create an new MVC4 project

Add the RavenDb package,

Global.asax.cs

Do the very same that is indicated on the Raven website, We need a single Document Store in our application.

 protected void Application_Start()
        {
            AreaRegistration.RegisterAllAreas();
                        
            RegisterGlobalFilters(GlobalFilters.Filters);
            RegisterRoutes(RouteTable.Routes);

            BundleTable.Bundles.RegisterTemplateBundles();

            InitRaven();
        }

        private void InitRaven()
        {
            Store = new DocumentStore { ConnectionStringName = "RavenDB" };
            Store.Initialize();

            IndexCreation.CreateIndexes(Assembly.GetCallingAssembly(), Store);

        }

        public static DocumentStore Store;

Create RavenController

public abstract class RavenController : ApiController
    {
        public RavenController()
        {
            this.AutoSave = true;
            RavenSession = TickTockBaby.Mvc.WebApiApplication.Store.OpenSession();
        }

        public bool AutoSave { get; set; }

        public IDocumentSession RavenSession { get; protected set; }

        protected override void Dispose(bool disposing)
        {
            if (disposing)
            {
                if (RavenSession != null)
                {
                    using (RavenSession)
                    {
                        if (this.AutoSave)
                            RavenSession.SaveChanges();
                        RavenSession.Dispose();
                        RavenSession = null;
                    }
                }
            }

            base.Dispose(disposing);
        } 
    }

Let me explain what I’ve done here…

I’ve initialized the session in the constructor, and cleaned it up in dispose, I also SaveChanges by default unless it gets switched off in a derived class.

Derive from RavenController

public class UsersController : RavenController
    {       
        // GET /api/values
        public IEnumerable<string> Get()
        {
            this.AutoSave = false;
            return RavenSession.Query<User>().Select(u => u.Name);            
        }        
    }

That’s my initial attempt, hope it helps someone out a little.

I’ll post my final solution possibly using Ninject DI after I’ve used RavenDb for a while and get a better feel for it.