.NET

I had a use case for EF Core where I wanted to query a database view while still supporting classic add/update/delete methods on the base table. Specifically, I wanted to enrich entities with computed values, like a lookup or label, but allow full CRUD support. Example Problem Suppose we have two entities: Entity: (Id, DeviceId) Friendly: (DeviceId, FriendlyName) The goal is to filter Entity records by FriendlyName, even though it’s not part of the table directly. ...

In EF Core, you can easily filter to a list of known values using LINQ: int[] ids = { 1, 3, 7 }; myContext.Posts.Where(s => ids.Contains(s.Id)); But what if the list of values includes composite keys, like Type and Name? var filterBy = new[] { (PostTypes.Blog, "First"), (PostTypes.KnowledgeBase, "Last") }; myContext.Posts.Where(s => filterBy.Contains((s.Type, s.Name))); // But how? There’s no direct Contains() support for tuples or composite keys in EF Core. A Stack Overflow post outlines several options. Here, I’ll focus on Option 6 — building an expression tree to generate a SQL query like: ...

At work, we maintain a product with 400+ projects spread over 15 repositories. Making changes across them is painful—especially when debugging SDK-level code and publishing local packages repeatedly. To make this smoother, I created a tool: ElephantProject (also on NuGet). ElephantProject swaps NuGet <PackageReference>s with <ProjectReference>s, and generates solution files for local dev. These changes are never committed—this is for local development only. Use Case – Refactoring In my local dev directory (called “Work”), I clone all the repositories. Then I run: ...

This is part of my guide on how I manage multiple GitHub repositories. This post focuses on streamlining shared content, such as workflows and configuration files. Back to main guide. File Sets I define sets of reusable files that can be applied across multiple repositories: standardContent: Generic files like .gitignore standardDotnetNuget: Shared .NET workflows and Directory.Build.props standardDocker: Docker-related workflows and .dockerignore These sets are declared in repos.json: { "content": { "standardContent": { ".gitignore": "standard_content/.gitignore" }, "standardDocker": { ".github/workflows/docker-dev.yml": "standard_content/docker-dev.yml" } }, "repositories": { "LordMike/MBW.BlueRiiot2MQTT": { "standardContent": true, "standardDocker": true } } } Each repository opts into content sets by enabling the respective boolean key. ...

This is a part of my guide to how I manage multiple GitHub repositories. This post focuses on configuring repository settings on GitHub using Terraform. Back to main guide. Repository Management with Terraform I use Terraform to declaratively configure: Repo metadata: description, topics, features Branch settings: default branch and protection rules GitHub Actions secrets: shared credentials for NuGet and Docker Example Configuration Github.tf defines: locals { github_owner = "LordMike" github_token = "REPLACE_ME" repositories = jsondecode(file("repos.json")).repositories repos = keys(local.repositories) repos_public = [for r in local.repos : r if lookup(local.repositories[r], "public", true)] nuget_repos = [for r in local.repos : r if lookup(local.repositories[r], "nuget", true)] docker_repos = [for r in local.repos : r if lookup(local.repositories[r], "docker", false)] docker_username = "lordmike" docker_key = "REPLACE_ME" nuget_key = "REPLACE_ME" } provider "github" { owner = local.github_owner token = local.github_token } resource "github_repository" "repository" { for_each = toset(local.repos) name = split("/", each.key)[1] description = lookup(local.repositories[each.key], "description", "") topics = lookup(local.repositories[each.key], "topics", null) has_issues = lookup(local.repositories[each.key], "has_issues", true) has_wiki = lookup(local.repositories[each.key], "has_wiki", false) has_projects = lookup(local.repositories[each.key], "has_projects", false) has_downloads = lookup(local.repositories[each.key], "has_downloads", false) delete_branch_on_merge = lookup(local.repositories[each.key], "delete_branch_on_merge", true) } resource "github_branch_default" "default_branch" { for_each = toset(local.repos) repository = split("/", each.key)[1] branch = "master" } resource "github_branch_protection" "protect_master" { for_each = toset(local.repos_public) repository_id = split("/", each.key)[1] pattern = "master" enforce_admins = false allows_deletions = false allows_force_pushes = false } resource "github_actions_secret" "nuget_key" { for_each = toset(local.nuget_repos) repository = split("/", each.key)[1] secret_name = "NUGET_KEY" plaintext_value = local.nuget_key } resource "github_actions_secret" "docker_username" { for_each = toset(local.docker_repos) repository = split("/", each.key)[1] secret_name = "DOCKER_USERNAME" plaintext_value = local.docker_username } resource "github_actions_secret" "docker_key" { for_each = toset(local.docker_repos) repository = split("/", each.key)[1] secret_name = "DOCKER_KEY" plaintext_value = local.docker_key } Tips Use for_each and filtered locals (e.g. docker_repos) to simplify resource declarations Use lookup to define defaults and override per-repo settings Terraform Imports (for existing repos) Use terraform import with escaped resource keys: ...