Using Business Objects As Models In MVC

Now, we will add a ClassLibrary to our project.

Name it as a BusinessLayer.

In SQL Server, we will create a simple store procedure, which will retrieve the data.

Now, we will assign get and set properties in an Employee Class, as given below.

Now, we will add another class file, EmployeeBusinessLayer in this class file. It will contain all the business logic. In this class, we will have some data access code, which will retrieve the code from the database table.

public class EmployeeBusinessLayer 
{
    public IEnumerable<Employee> Employees 
    {
        get 
        {
            string connectionString = ConfigurationManager.ConnectionStrings["Test"].ConnectionString;
            List<Employee> employees = new List<Employee>();

            using (SqlConnection con = new SqlConnection(connectionString)) 
            {
                SqlCommand cmd = new SqlCommand("spGetAllStudents", con);
                con.Open();
                SqlDataReader rdr = cmd.ExecuteReader();
                
                while (rdr.Read()) 
                {
                    Employee employee = new Employee();
                    employee.id = Convert.ToInt32(rdr["id"]);
                    employee.name = rdr["name"].ToString();
                    employee.gender = rdr["gender"].ToString();
                    employee.city = rdr["city"].ToString();
                    employees.Add(employee);
                }
            }

            return employees;
        }
    }
}

When you look at the code, it's a pretty straightforward one. We have a configuration manager class to read the connection string from our web.config file, as given below.

<connectionStrings>  
    <add name="Test" 
         connectionString="Data Source=DESKTOP-QOMPPF7;Initial Catalog=TEST;Persist Security Info=True;User ID=sa;Password=***********" 
         providerName="System.Data.SqlClient" />  
</connectionStrings>

Thus, we are reading the connection string as we want the list of employees. We had created an employee object, which will return the list of the employees and then we built our SQL connection object. We are executing SQL commands, and we are using our stored procedure to get the desired output. We are opening the connection, executing our command and then looping through each row. We are converting a row to an employee object and with an employee object with a list, and then we are returning employees.

Now, we will add a reference to our main project. We want to consume this Business Layer Library in our main project, so kindly add a reference, as given below.

Now, we will add a controller, and we will call this controller as EmployeeController.

Import the namespace of your BusinessLayer, as given below.

public class EmployeeController : Controller 
{   
    // GET: Employee   
    public ActionResult Index() 
    {   
        EmployeeBusinessLayer employeeBusinessLayer = new EmployeeBusinessLayer();   
        List<Employee> employees = employeeBusinessLayer.Employees.ToList();   
        return View(employees);   
    }   
}

As we want to return the list of employees, the next step is to add a view.

Select Template as List and click Add. When you click Add, a view with index.cshtml is created under the Employee folder inside the Views folder.

In it, view a code that has automatically been created. Kindly add some styles and run the solution, and you will see.

We successfully retrieved the information from the database.

When you click Create New, it will give you an error, as given below.

Do we have an action method in Employee Controller as Create? No, due to this, it’s giving an error.