Bundle: Unique Constraints

Premise

This bundle aims to allow the user to implement unique constraints in the objects (useful for properties like email or social security number).

How it works

The bundle works both in the server (using a PutTrigger and a DeleteTrigger) and in the client (using a DocumentStoreListener and providing extension methods on IDocumentSession).

When a document is stored in the database it generates "dummy" documents with the fields as "UniqueConstraints/" + entityName + "/" + propertyName + "/" + propertyValue. This way you don't require indexes (which would need to be stale to check for uniqueness).

UniqueConstraintsStoreListener

The listener works by using reflection when the document is stored on the database and generating metadata regarding it's unique constraints. The reflection result is cached in a ConcurrentDictionary to help with performance.

UniqueConstraintSessionExtensions

The bundle provides two extension methods for IDocumentSession.

LoadByUniqueConstraint

Allows to load a document by it's UniqueConstraint, returning null if the document doesn't exists.

CheckForUniqueConstraints

Checks a document to see if it's constraints are available in the server. It returns a UniqueConstraintCheckResult containing the loaded docs and what property they are responsible for.

UniqueConstraintsPutTrigger

The put trigger acts whenever it finds a document being inserted with constraints metadata. It checks for existing documents in the constraints. If any existing document is found, it returns a VetoResult.Deny informing the conflicting fields. This would need to be checked on the client-side using a try block for the OperationVetoedException.

If a document is being updated the trigger updates the generated constraint document.

UniqueConstraintsDeleteTrigger

The delete trigger acts whenever it find a document being delete with constraints metadata and deletes the referenced constraint documents.

Usage

Server side

Drop the Raven.Bundles.UniqueContraints assembly in the Plugins directory.

Client side

To use Unique Constraint features on Client side you need to reference Raven.Client.UniqueConstraints assembly.

using Raven.Client.UniqueConstraints;

When creating the DocumentStore, you'll need to register the UniqueConstraintsStoreListener in the store, like this:

store.RegisterListener(new UniqueConstraintsStoreListener());

To define unique constraint on a property use UniqueConstraint attribute as shown below

private class User
{
	[UniqueConstraint]
	public string Name { get; set; }

	[UniqueConstraint]
	public string Email { get; set; }

	public string FirstName { get; set; }

	public string LastName { get; set; }
}

Extension methods

To check if a value is available for use:

var existingUser = session.LoadByUniqueConstraint<User>(x => x.Email, "john@gmail.com");

To check document against the database use:

var user = new User() { Name = "John", Email = "john@gmail.com" };
var checkResult = session.CheckForUniqueConstraints(user);

// returns whether its constraints are available
if (checkResult.ConstraintsAreFree())
{
	session.Store(user);
}
else
{
	var existingUser = checkResult.DocumentForProperty(x => x.Email);
}