SeedPacket Examples

Extending

how to extend SeedPacket functionality

Overview

SeedPacket has been created from the beginning for extensibility. The logic for data generation is contained in Rules that can be easily removed, replaced, or expanded. Individual rules have access to a plethora of functionality that is passed in via dependency injection. The Generators are passed in as interfaces that can be easily switched out with new implementations, as can the DataSources, and all the source data that popluates the DataSources (in either an XML/JSON file or string).

We are going to focus on two extensibility points, Custom Extension Methods and Custom Generators

Custom Extension Methods

This example shows a simple yet extremely powerful way to customize data generation for a whole project. The extension method overloads in the SeedPacket.Extensions for the main .Seed() methods have purposely been separated from the actual implementations in the SeedCore class in the root SeedPacket namespace. This means you can easily create your own custom implementation of .Seed() that just works everywhere in you project with your own Rules, defaults and data!

The actual code on this page is trivial as it a streamlined version of the SeedPacket.Extensions that you can find in the SeedPacket source code and is a good starting point for your own custom extensions with but with defaults set to your own liking. It simplifies and removes some of the overloads from the source code version, and sets the source data to come from our own XML file. Once you have your ideal solution, you will find it generic enough that you will be able to take it to other projects to use for prototyping.

One thing to note is that the namespace Examples.Extensions is imported into the page, but the SeedPacket.Extensions namespace is NOT. This allows our custom version(s) of .Seed() to work without namespace collisions. Another is that we are using a CustomGenerator that inherits from MultiGenerator. We will look at this a little later on the page.

To Run Code:

Create a folder called Extensions and copy the code below into a file called CustomSeedExtensions.cs using the name of your own namespace in place of {YourNamespace}.

Create a folder called SourceFiles. Download the file XmlSeedSourcePlus.xml and save it into this folder.

	Title	Album	Artist	Released
1	Butterfly Blues	The Asking	Sea Lion	2/4/2024
2	Extemporaneous	Quartet	Rap Crew	9/8/2023
3	Only One	Know Your Friends	Hurt No More	1/18/2024
4	The Man and the Stars	Gorilla Joint	Fiddly Bits	2/17/2026
5	Troubles Will Come	Fresh	Trixy OldHouse	6/1/2023
6	Groovy Tunes	Thanks for the Fish	Temper Flare	3/22/2026
7	You Will Find Love	Egg in the Eye	Jon ColdRidge	12/8/2025
8	Take Your Time	Fresh	Mac Truck	8/13/2023
9	A Brighter Shade of Gray	Fresh	Temper Flare	3/19/2025
10	The Stream	The Asking	Audacious Criminal	8/1/2026
11	Seredipity2	Hope for the Masses	The Bad Ones	8/1/2024
12	A Brighter Shade of Gray	Fresh	Like More Water	9/9/2024
13	Take Your Time	Freshly Rejected	Boodle Jones	9/2/2024
14	Don't Worry	Partial Mission	Dylan Dylan	12/20/2025
15	A Brighter Shade of Gray	Gangland Frame	Boodle Jones	12/7/2024

CODE:
    Import the main SeedPacket namespace and not
    the SeedPacket.Extensions to avoid conflicts with your own new custom extension methods.

using SeedPacket;
using SeedPacket.Functions;
using SeedPacket.Generators;
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using static SeedPacket.Examples.Helpers.Common;

namespace {YourNamespace}.Extensions
{
    // See source of SeedPacket.Examples/Logic/Extensions/CustomSeedExtensions.cs for code.
    public static class CustomSeedExtensions
    {
        private static int defaultSeed = 34567;
        private static readonly string sourcePath = $@"{GetApplicationRoot()}\Logic\SourceFiles\xmlSeedSourcePlus.xml";

        // Simplified and streamlined version of SeedPacket.Seed() extension
        public static List<T> Seed<T>(  this IEnumerable<T> iEnumerable,
                                                    int? seedEnd = null, int? seedBegin = null,
                                                    int? randomSeed = null, string customPropertyName = null )
        {
            var gen = CustomGenerator(sourcePath, seedEnd, seedBegin, randomSeed, customPropertyName);

            return new SeedCore(gen).SeedList(iEnumerable).ToList();
        }

        // Remove and simplify if you are not going to use need a Dictionary implementation
        public static IDictionary<TKey, TValue> Seed<TKey, TValue> 
                                    ( this IDictionary<TKey, TValue> iDictionary, 
                                      int? seedEnd = null, int? seedBegin = null, 
                                      int? randomSeed = null, string customPropertyName = null )
        {
            var gen = CustomGenerator(sourcePath, seedEnd, seedBegin, randomSeed, customPropertyName);

            return new SeedCore(gen).SeedList(iDictionary);
        }

        // Set common defaults here
        private static CustomGenerator CustomGenerator( string xmlSourcePath, 
                                                        int? seedEnd, int? seedBegin, 
                                                        int? randomSeed, string customPropertyName)
        {
            return new CustomGenerator(xmlSourcePath, dataInputType: DataInputType.XmlFile)
            {
                SeedBegin       = seedBegin ?? 1,
                SeedEnd         = seedEnd ?? 10,
                BaseRandom      = new Random(randomSeed ?? defaultSeed),
                BaseDateTime    = DateTime.Now,
                CustomName      = customPropertyName
            };
        }
     }
}

Custom Generators

Another extensibility point is demonstrated in the code below by building a custom IGenerator. The CustomGenerator inherits all functionality from the MultiGenerator and adds few new features. In this case, it adds a RulesSet.Advanced option as the default and adds some additional rules, including a Rule that fills the CEO property. Of course these could be more extensive, including a completely new default Rules implementation, etc.

The GetRules() method of the MultiGenerator is declared as virtual so that it can be overriden by a derived class. This method is called by the constructor to load its Rules collection based on the RulesSet enum that it is passed. So be overriding it, you can redefine which Rules are loaded for each enum. In fact, 3 values in the enum, Advanced, UnitTest, and Custom do not have an implementation are there purely for customization in derived classes.

To Run Code:

Create a folder called Generators and copy the code above into a file called CustomGenerator.cs using the name of your own namespace in place of {YourNamespace}.

To use in the CustomSeedExtensions above, replace all references to the MultiGenerator class with a reference to the new CustomGenerator in {YourNamespace}.

CEO	Company	City	State
John Smith	City Inc	Winterspring	CA
Patricia Johnson	Capital	Pinetown	RI
Michael Williams	Acme LLC	Gotham	AL
Susan Jones	Tyrell Ind	Brighton	AR
William Brown	Oscorp Co	Austin	KS
Mary Davis	Virtucon Co	Eastdale	NM
Robert Miller	More Corporation	Pinetown	SC
Sarah Wilson	Oscorp Co	Metropolis	SC
Peter Moore	Stark Co	Oakleaf	TX
Ann Taylor	Umbrella Inc	Stone Bridge	NH
Roger Anderson	Sunrise LLC	Westmoor	GA
Theresa Thomas	Stark Co	Westmoor	NH

CODE:
    Replace {YourNamespace} with your own namespace.

using SeedPacket;
using SeedPacket.Functions;
using SeedPacket.Generators;
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;

namespace {YourNamespace}.Generators
{
    public class CustomGenerator : MultiGenerator
    {
        public CustomGenerator( string sourceFilepath = null,
                                string sourceString = null,
                                DataInputType dataInputType = DataInputType.Auto,
                                RulesSet rulesSet = RulesSet.Advanced
            )
            : base(sourceFilepath, sourceString, dataInputType, rulesSet)
        {
        }
        
        // Can create custom sets of Rules
        protected override void GetRules(RulesSet ruleSet)
        {
            switch (ruleSet)
            {
                case RulesSet.None:
                    // No rules loaded. Add rules manually
                    break;

                case RulesSet.Basic:
                    Rules.AddBasicRules();
                    break;

                case RulesSet.Common:
                    Rules.AddBasicRules();
                    Rules.AddCommonRules();
                    break;

                case RulesSet.Advanced:  // Used by default
                    Rules.AddBasicRules();
                    Rules.AddCommonRules();
                    AddAdvancedRules(Rules);
                    break;

                case RulesSet.UnitTest:
                    Rules.AddBasicRules();
                    // Can Add or change Rules here
                    break;

                case RulesSet.Custom:
                    Rules.AddBasicRules();
                    Rules.AddCommonRules();
                    // Can Add or change Rules here
                    break;

                default:
                    throw new NotImplementedException("That is not a valid RulesSet.");
            }
        }
            
        // Example. Obviously this could be more extensive...
        public static void AddAdvancedRules(IRules rules, bool overwrite = true)
        {
            var advanceRules = new List
            {
                new Rule(typeof(DateTime),  "Create%",      g => g.BaseDateTime.AddDays(g.RowRandom.Next(-30, 1)),                  "DateTimeInLastMonth"),
                new Rule(typeof(string),    "Description%", g => g.GetElementRandom("Description"),                                 "Description", "Gets Description from custom XML file"),
                new Rule(typeof(string),    "Ceo",          g => GetCeoName(g), "Random CEO Name"),
            };

            rules.AddRange(advanceRules, overwrite);
        }

        // Can break out rules into separate methods for easier debugging or if Rule is complex.
        private static dynamic GetCeoName(IGenerator g)
        {
            return $"{g.GetElementNext("FirstName")} {g.GetElementNext("LastName")}";
        }
    }
}

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