Introducing the Model Thread View Thread Pattern

//===================================================================================
// Microsoft patterns & practices
// Composite Application Guidance for Windows Presentation Foundation and Silverlight
//===================================================================================
// Copyright (c) Microsoft Corporation.  All rights reserved.
// THIS CODE AND INFORMATION IS PROVIDED "AS IS" WITHOUT WARRANTY
// OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT
// LIMITED TO THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND
// FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
//===================================================================================
// The example companies, organizations, products, domain names,
// e-mail addresses, logos, people, places, and events depicted
// herein are fictitious.  No association with any real company,
// organization, product, domain name, email address, logo, person,
// places, or events is intended or should be inferred.
//===================================================================================
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;

namespace Microsoft.Practices.Composite
{
    /// <summary>
    /// Class that provides extension methods for the Exception class. These extension methods provide
    /// a mechanism for developers to get more easily to the root cause of an exception, especially in combination with 
    /// DI-containers such as Unity. 
    /// </summary>
    public static class ExceptionExtensions
    {
        private static List<Type> frameworkExceptionTypes = new List<Type>();

        /// <summary>
        /// Register the type of an Exception that is thrown by the framework. The <see cref="GetRootException"/> method uses
        /// this list of Exception types to find out if something has gone wrong.  
        /// </summary>
        /// <param name="frameworkExceptionType">The type of exception to register.</param>
        public static void RegisterFrameworkExceptionType(Type frameworkExceptionType)
        {
            if (frameworkExceptionType == null) throw new ArgumentNullException("frameworkExceptionType");

            if (!frameworkExceptionTypes.Contains(frameworkExceptionType))
                frameworkExceptionTypes.Add(frameworkExceptionType);
        }


        /// <summary>
        /// Determines whether the exception type is already registered using the <see cref="RegisterFrameworkExceptionType"/> 
        /// method
        /// </summary>
        /// <param name="frameworkExceptionType">The type of framework exception to find.</param>
        /// <returns>
        /// 	<c>true</c> if the exception type is already registered; otherwise, <c>false</c>.
        /// </returns>
        public static bool IsFrameworkExceptionRegistered(Type frameworkExceptionType)
        {
            return frameworkExceptionTypes.Contains(frameworkExceptionType);
        }

        /// <summary>
        /// Looks at all the inner exceptions of the <paramref name="exception"/> parameter to find the 
        /// most likely root cause of the exception. This works by skipping all registered exception types.
        /// </summary>
        /// <remarks>
        /// This method is not 100% accurate and should only be used to point a developer into the most likely direction.
        /// It should not be used to replace the Inner Exception stack of an exception, because this might hide required exception
        /// information. 
        /// </remarks>
        /// <param name="exception">The exception that will provide the list of inner exeptions to examine.</param>
        /// <returns>
        /// The exception that most likely caused the exception to occur. If it can't find the root exception, it will return the 
        /// <paramref name="exception"/> value itself.
        /// </returns>
        [System.Diagnostics.CodeAnalysis.SuppressMessage("Microsoft.Design", "CA1031:DoNotCatchGeneralExceptionTypes", Justification = "We have to catch exception. This method is used in exception handling code, so it must not fail.")]
        public static Exception GetRootException(this Exception exception)
        {
            Exception rootException = exception;

            try
            {
                while (true)
                {
                    if (rootException == null)
                    {
                        rootException = exception;
                        break;
                    }

                    if (!IsFrameworkException(rootException))
                    {
                        break;
                    }
                    rootException = rootException.InnerException;
                }
            }
            catch (Exception)
            {
                rootException = exception;
            }
            return rootException;
        }

        private static bool IsFrameworkException(Exception exception)
        {
            bool isFrameworkException = frameworkExceptionTypes.Contains(exception.GetType());
            bool childIsFrameworkException = false;

            if (exception.InnerException != null)
            {
                childIsFrameworkException = frameworkExceptionTypes.Contains(exception.InnerException.GetType());
            }

            return isFrameworkException || childIsFrameworkException;
        }
    }
}