Just another Tech blog

VS Code workspace settings to enable ESLint and StyleLint in a specific project

2026-09-02T23:31:11.139-04:00

Create a settings.json file in the local project (by adding settings in the project) and configure is as follows.

The following extensions need to be installed in VS Code for the settings.json to work:

.Net Core Application Settings reader

2026-09-02T23:20:41.300-04:00

This is how you read configuration from the config file (applicationSettings.json).

SQL Server Transaction Template

2026-09-02T23:17:20.852-04:00

This how you create a transaction in SQL server:

Using C# to read an update excel files (version 2)

2025-02-23T23:41:00.001-05:00

Create a new solution and add the ClosedXML.Excel Nuget packages to this solution. Add a new class ExcelManager.cs with the following code:

This provides the basic items like rows of excel data and functions to save text based on column header names and retrieve cell values.

To add logging, refer to my blog here.

Helpful GIT Commands

2024-03-15T16:54:00.001-04:00

Some helpful GIT Commands:

How to check if your machine supports SSL or TLS 1.1, 1.2 or 1.3

2022-06-28T16:22:00.001-04:00

Open the following link in the browser: https://clienttest.ssllabs.com:8443/ssltest/viewMyClient.html

Scroll down to section: Protocol Features

Avoid CORS issues in Chrome, Firefox, Safari and Edge for local JavaScript development

2021-12-07T17:04:00.004-05:00

Setup a simple proxy using nodejs and npm to bypass CORS issues.

This will solve the following issue in the web browsers:

No 'Access-Control-Allow-Origin' header is present on the requested resource. Origin 'http://localhost:3000' is therefore not allowed access. If an opaque response serves your needs, set the request's mode to 'no-cors' to fetch the resource with CORS disable

Install the following npm package globally:

npm install -g local-cors-proxy

Now you are ready to setup a local proxy. Let's say the URL that's throwing the CORS issue is:

https://www.example.com/v1/api

To start the proxy, execute the following command:

lcp --proxyUrl https://www.example.com

You will get the following output:

Note: Do not close this window as long as you need the proxy.

Now, in the JavaScript code, API endpoint will be:

http://localhost:8010/proxy/v1/api

This will make a request to URL: https://www.example.com/v1/api without any issues.

Additional options to setup the proxy:

Option	Example	Default
--proxyUrl	https://www.google.ie
--proxyPartial	foo	proxy
--port	8010	8010
--credentials	(no value needed)	false
--origin	http://localhost:4200	*

Original article can be viewed here.

Creating an angular service to share data between components using session storage

2020-07-15T16:23:00.001-04:00

Create the session storage service as:

To store and retrieve the session storage data, use the service as:

Creating an angular service to share data between components

2020-07-15T16:02:00.001-04:00

Create a Data store to save data as key and values. E.g:

Note: It uses build in Map data structure and it already has function to add, remove, delete and check objects.

Now let's create a service.

To store and save data call the service as:

Using C# to read an update excel files

2020-05-22T14:35:00.001-04:00

Create a new solution and add the DocumentFormat.OpenXml Nuget packages to this solution.

Add a new class ExcelManager.cs with the following code:

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using DocumentFormat.OpenXml.Packaging;
using DocumentFormat.OpenXml.Spreadsheet;
using System.IO;
using Logger;
using DocumentFormat.OpenXml;

namespace Demo
{
    class ExcelManager : IDisposable
    {
        #region Private Variables
        SpreadsheetDocument _document;
        Sheet _sheet;
        Worksheet _worksheet;
        #endregion

        #region Public Properties
        public IEnumerable<Row> Rows { get; private set; }
        #endregion

        #region Constructor
        public ExcelManager(string filePath)
        {
            if(!File.Exists(filePath))
            {
                Logger.log.Error($"Error in DataManager(). File with the following path does not exists:{filePath}");
                return;
            }
            else
            {
                Logger.log.Info($"Processing file at path: {filePath}");
                //Open the Excel file in Edit Mode using OpenXml.
                _document = SpreadsheetDocument.Open(filePath, true);
                _sheet = _document.WorkbookPart.Workbook.Sheets.GetFirstChild<Sheet>();
                _worksheet = (_document.WorkbookPart.GetPartById(_sheet.Id.Value) as WorksheetPart).Worksheet;
                Rows = _worksheet.GetFirstChild<SheetData>().Descendants<Row>();
            }
        }
        #endregion

        public void Dispose()
        {
            _document.Dispose();
            _document = null;
            _sheet = null;
            _worksheet = null;
        }

        #region Public Excel Functions
        public string GetCellValue(Cell cell)
        {
            return _document.WorkbookPart.SharedStringTablePart.SharedStringTable.Elements<SharedStringItem>().ElementAt(Convert.ToInt32(cell.InnerText)).InnerText;
        }

        public string GetCellValueByReference(string cellReference)
        {
            var cell = _worksheet.Descendants<Cell>().Where(c => c.CellReference == cellReference).FirstOrDefault();

            if (cell != null)
            {
                return GetCellValue(cell);
            }
            else
            {
                return null;
            }
        }

        public void UpdateCell(string columnName, uint rowIndex, string value)
        {
            try
            {
                Cell cell = GetCellByColumnName(columnName, rowIndex);
                if (cell != null)
                {
                    cell.CellValue = new CellValue(value);
                    cell.DataType = new EnumValue<CellValues>(CellValues.SharedString);

                    // Save the worksheet.
                    _worksheet.Save();
                }
                else
                {
                    Logger.log.Warn($"Error in DataManager.UpdateCell(). Error: Cell is null");
                }
            }
            catch (Exception ex)
            {
                Logger.log.Error($"Error in DataManager.UpdateCell().Error: {ex.Message} StackTrace:{ex.StackTrace}");
            }
        }
        #endregion

        #region Private Excel functions
        private Cell GetCellByColumnName(string columnName, uint rowIndex)
        {
            Row row = GetRow(rowIndex);

            if (row == null)
                return null;

            string cellReference = GetColumnReference(columnName).FirstOrDefault().ToString();

            if (cellReference == null)
            { 
                Logger.log.Warn($"Error in DataManager.GetCellByColumnName(). Error: Cell Reference is null");
                return null;
            }
            else
                return row.Elements<Cell>().Where(c => string.Compare(c.CellReference.Value, cellReference + (rowIndex + 1), true) == 0).First();
        }

        private string GetColumnReference(string columnName)
        {
            var cell = GetRow(0).Elements<Cell>().FirstOrDefault(c => GetCellValue(c) == columnName);

            if (cell == null)
            {
                Logger.log.Warn($"Error in DataManager.GetColumnReference(). Error: Cannot retrieve cell with column name: {columnName}");
                return null;
            }
            else
                return cell.CellReference.Value;
        }

        private Row GetRow(uint rowIndex)
        {
            return Rows.ElementAt(int.Parse(rowIndex.ToString()));
        }
        #endregion
    }
}

This provides the basic items like rows of excel data and functions to save text based on column header names and retrieve cell values.

To add logging, refer to my blog here.

SQL Server: Converting Column type from INT to BIT

2019-09-03T13:56:00.002-04:00

The following query creates a temporary column (INT) copies the data to it and recreates the original column as BIT and copies the data back.

Please note that column order will not be retained. If you need the same column order, go to Design view of the table and drag the column to the location you want and save.

Change the value in variable @name and @tableName. The query takes care of the rest.

DECLARE @name NVARCHAR(255), @tempName NVARCHAR(255), 
        @tableName NVARCHAR(255), @sql NVARCHAR(max);

SET @name = 'ColumnName';
SET @tempName = @name +'1';
SET @tableName = 'TableName';

--SELECT @name, @tempName, @tableName

-- create new temp column
SET @SQL = 'ALTER TABLE [dbo].[' + @tableName + '] ADD ' + @tempName + ' INT';
EXEC sp_executesql @sql


--copy data in temp column
SET @SQL = 'UPDATE [dbo].[' + @tableName + '] SET ' + @tempName + ' = ' + @name;
EXEC sp_executesql @sql

--drop column which you want to modify
SET @SQL = 'ALTER TABLE [dbo].[' + @tableName + '] DROP COLUMN ' + @name;
EXEC sp_executesql @sql

--create again that column with bit type
SET @SQL = 'ALTER TABLE [dbo].[' + @tableName + '] ADD ' + @name +' BIT';
EXEC sp_executesql @sql

--copy data back
SET @SQL = 'UPDATE [dbo].[' + @tableName + '] SET ' + @name + ' = ' + @tempName;
EXEC sp_executesql @sql

--drop temp column
SET @SQL = 'ALTER TABLE [dbo].[' + @tableName + '] DROP COLUMN ' + @tempName;
EXEC sp_executesql @sql

Using log4net in ASP.Net web application

2018-08-28T13:25:00.000-04:00

Instead of keeping a separate log4net.config file, we could move the log4net.config inside the web.config of the ASP.Net application. E.g.:-

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<configuration>
  <configSections>
    <section name="log4net" type="log4net.Config.Log4NetConfigurationSectionHandler, log4net" />
  </configSections>
  <log4net>
    <root>
      <level value="ALL" />
      <appender-ref ref="RollingLogFileAppender" />
    </root>
    <appender name="RollingLogFileAppender" type="log4net.Appender.RollingFileAppender">
      <rollingStyle value="Composite" />
      <file value="D:\logs\mylogs_"  type="log4net.Util.PatternString"/>
      <datePattern value="yyyy-MM-dd'.log'" />
      <staticLogFileName value="false" />
      <lockingModel type="log4net.Appender.FileAppender+MinimalLock" />
      <appendToFile value="true" />
      <maxSizeRollBackups value="5" />
      <maximumFileSize value="10MB" />
      <layout type="log4net.Layout.PatternLayout">
        <conversionPattern value="%date [%thread] %level %logger - %message%newline" />
      </layout>
    </appender>
  </log4net>
  <appSettings></appSettings>
  <system.web></system.web>
</configuration>

The code to initialize the log4net can then be placed in a separate class file as:

public class Logger
{
    public readonly static log4net.ILog log = log4net.LogManager.GetLogger(System.Reflection.MethodBase.GetCurrentMethod().DeclaringType);

    static Logger ()
    {
        log4net.Config.XmlConfigurator.Configure();
    }
}

Note that the log variable and the constructor are static. This makes sure that log4net is available as soon as the application is initialized. To log something you may use the code as:

Logger.log.Error("Error Message");

If you do not want to keep config for log4net in web.config, create a separate log4net.config file at some location. The file can be created as:

<log4net>
    <root>
      <level value="ALL" />
      <appender-ref ref="RollingLogFileAppender" />
    </root>
    <appender name="RollingLogFileAppender" type="log4net.Appender.RollingFileAppender">
      <rollingStyle value="Composite" />
      <file value="D:\logs\ProductAttributes_"  type="log4net.Util.PatternString"/>
      <datePattern value="yyyy-MM-dd'.log'" />
      <staticLogFileName value="false" />
      <lockingModel type="log4net.Appender.FileAppender+MinimalLock" />
      <appendToFile value="true" />
      <maxSizeRollBackups value="5" />
      <maximumFileSize value="10MB" />
      <layout type="log4net.Layout.PatternLayout">
        <conversionPattern value="%date [%thread] %level %logger - %message%newline" />
      </layout>
    </appender>
</log4net>

The code to initialize the log4net can then be placed in a separate class file as:

public class Logger
{
    public readonly static log4net.ILog log = log4net.LogManager.GetLogger(System.Reflection.MethodBase.GetCurrentMethod().DeclaringType);

    static Logger ()
    {
        /// setting log4net config file path programatically
        /// var log4ConfigPath = AppDomain.CurrentDomain.BaseDirectory + "Logger\\log4net.config";
        /// setting log4net config file path
        var log4ConfigPath = "C:\\Logger\\log4net.config"; //log4net.config location

        log4net.Config.XmlConfigurator.Configure();
    }
}

To log something you may use the code as mentioned above:

Logger.log.Error("Error Message");

Telnet on Windows with no Telnet Client using Powershell

2018-08-10T15:58:00.000-04:00

If you do not have telnet client installed on your machine, you can use PowerShell to run a telnet command as shown below:

$Computer= "<server-name>";
$Port = <port-number>;
$nl = [Environment]::NewLine

Write-Host "$nl Trying to telnet to '$Computer' on Port: '$Port'$nl"
Try {
    $tcp = New-Object System.Net.Sockets.TcpClient
    $tcp.connect($Computer, $Port)
    Write-Host "Successfully connected to $Computer on Port: $Port"$nl -ForegroundColor Green
    $tcp.close() 
}
Catch {
    Write-Host "Could not connect to $Computer on Port: $Port"$nl -ForegroundColor Red
    Write-Host $_.Exception.Message -ForegroundColor Red
}

Add JS files to SDL Tridion CMS without a GUI element

2018-08-03T12:46:00.001-04:00

I went through several blogs specially here. But still I found it difficult to do this simple task. I have created a step by step guide here in case if someone needs it.

1. Create a JS file. Sample file here from this link.

//If you only want your code to affect certain screens/views, you should listen to Anguilla events like this:
$evt.addEventHandler($display, "start", onDisplayStarted);

// This callback is called when any view has finished loading
function onDisplayStarted() {

$evt.removeEventHandler($display, "start", onDisplayStarted);

if ($display.getView().getId() == "ComponentView") {
        //Work your magic!
   }
}

2. Create a folder SampleModel at location: %TRIDION_HOME%\web\WebUI\Models and add the JS file to it. We will call the JS file as sample.js.

3. In the same folder create a config file as SampleModel.config as:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<Configuration xmlns="http://www.sdltridion.com/2009/GUI/Configuration/Merge"
               xmlns:cfg="http://www.sdltridion.com/2009/GUI/Configuration">
  <resources cache="true">
    <cfg:filters/>
    <cfg:extensiongroups>
        <cfg:extensiongroup name="SampleModel.extension">
            <cfg:extension target="Tridion.Web.UI.Editors.CME.Views.Component">
            <cfg:insertafter>SampleModel</cfg:insertafter>
            </cfg:extension> 
        </cfg:extensiongroup>
    </cfg:extensiongroups>
    <cfg:groups>
      <cfg:group name="SampleModel" merger="Tridion.Web.UI.Editors.CME.Views.Component" merge="never" include="always">
        <cfg:fileset>
          <cfg:file type="script" id="sample">/sample.js</cfg:file>
        </cfg:fileset>
        <cfg:dependencies>
          <cfg:dependency></cfg:dependency>
        </cfg:dependencies>
      </cfg:group>
    </cfg:groups>
  </resources>
  <definitionfiles/>
  <extensions>
    <editorextensions xmlns="http://www.sdltridion.com/2009/GUI/extensions"/>
    <dataextenders xmlns="http://www.sdltridion.com/2009/GUI/extensions"/>
  </extensions>
  <commands/>
  <contextmenus/>
  <localization/>
  <settings>
    <defaultpage/>
    <navigatorurl/>
    <editurls/>
    <listdefinitions/>
    <itemicons/>
    <theme>
      <path/>
    </theme>
    <resourceextensions>
        <resourceextension>SampleModel.extension</resourceextension>
    </resourceextensions>
    <customconfiguration/>
  </settings>
</Configuration>

4. Modify the System.config file at location: %TRIDION_HOME%\web\WebUI\WebRoot\Configuration and add the following information under <models>:

<model name="SampleModel">
    <installpath>C:\Tridion\web\WebUI\Models\SampleModel\</installpath>
    <configuration>SampleModel.config</configuration>
    <vdir>SampleModel</vdir>
</model>

5. Open IIS and open the SDL Tridion site. Goto SDL Tridion -> WebUI -> Models and add a Virtual Directory. Give the path as: %TRIDION_HOME%\web\WebUI\Models\SampleModel

6. Restart IIS. If your code has no JS issues. The files should load in SDL Tridion CMS.

Random ID / Text generator in Java Script

2018-04-17T16:49:00.005-04:00

To generate random ids in JS use the following code:

Math.random().toString(36).substr(2, 9)

The length of the item can be increased/decreased by changing the value in functions toString(36) and substr(2, 9).

Create JWT token using HMACSHA256 and no external libraries

2018-02-02T11:02:00.001-05:00

The following code generates JWT token using HMACSHA256 algorithm. The function Sign() below can be changed to suit other algortihms.

using System.Security.Cryptography;

/// <summary>
/// Generates the JWT token
/// </summary>
private void GetJWT()
{
    Dictionary<string, object> _header;
    Dictionary<string, object> _payload;
    String _secretKey;

    try
    {
        _secretKey = ConfigurationManager.AppSettings[SITE_SECRET_KEY];

        _header = new Dictionary<string, object>
        {
            { "header1", "value1" }
        };

        /// May change as per requirement
        _payload = new Dictionary<string, object>
        {
            { "feature1", "value1" },
            { "feature2", "value2" },
            { "feature3", "value3" }
        };

        /// Creates JWT token
        var token = EncodeBytes(Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(Newtonsoft.Json.JsonConvert.SerializeObject(_payload)),
                            Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(_secretKey),
                            Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(Newtonsoft.Json.JsonConvert.SerializeObject(_header)));

    }
    catch (Exception ex)
    {
        Console.Log("Exception in GetToken(): " + ex.Message);
    }
    finally
    {
        _header = null;
        _payload = null;
        _secretKey = null;
    }
}

/// <summary>
/// Encodes given binary data to JWT token and sign it using HMAC256 algorithm.        
/// </summary>
/// <param name="payload">Binary data to encode</param>
/// <param name="key">key for signing</param>
/// <returns>JWT in compact serialization form, digitally signed.</returns>
private string EncodeBytes(byte[] payload, byte[] key, byte[] headers)
{
    var bytesToSign = Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(Serialize(headers, payload));
    byte[] signature = Sign(bytesToSign, key);

    return Serialize(headers, payload, signature);
}

/// <summary>
/// 
/// </summary>
/// <param name="parts"></param>
/// <returns></returns>
private string Serialize(params byte[][] parts)
{
    var builder = new StringBuilder();
    foreach (var part in parts)
    {
        builder.Append(Base64UrlEncode(part)).Append(".");
    }
    builder.Remove(builder.Length - 1, 1);
    return builder.ToString();
}

/// <summary>
/// 
/// </summary>
/// <param name="securedInput"></param>
/// <param name="key"></param>
/// <returns></returns>
private byte[] Sign(byte[] securedInput, byte[] key)
{
    if (!(key is byte[]))
    {
        Console.Log("Exception in Sign(): HmacUsingSha alg expectes key to be byte[] array.");
        return null;
    }

    using (var sha = new HMACSHA256(key))
    {
        return sha.ComputeHash(securedInput);
    }
}

/// <summary>
/// 
/// </summary>
/// <param name="input"></param>
/// <returns></returns>
public string Base64UrlEncode(byte[] input)
{
    var output = Convert.ToBase64String(input);
    output = output.Split('=')[0]; // Remove any trailing '='s
    output = output.Replace('+', '-'); // 62nd char of encoding
    output = output.Replace('/', '_'); // 63rd char of encoding
    return output;
}

Obfuscate a String

2018-01-18T15:58:00.000-05:00

The following code explains how to obfuscate and deobfuscate a Base64 encoded string by using a XOR in the string.

public class Test
{
    /// <summary>
    /// Constant for Obfuscating Base64 encoded text
    /// </summary>
    const byte xorConstant = 0x53;

    /// <summary>
    /// Obfuscates string by Base64 encoding using constant "xorConstant"
    /// </summary>
    /// <param name="text">String to encode</param>
    /// <returns>Base64 encoded obfuscated string</returns>
    public static string Obfuscate(string text)
    {
        if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(text))
        {
            return null;
        }
        else
        {
            byte[] data = Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(text);
            for (int i = 0; i < data.Length; i++)
            {
                data[i] = (byte)(data[i] ^ xorConstant);
            }
            return Convert.ToBase64String(data);
        }
    }

    /// <summary>
    /// Deobfuscates string by Base64 decoding using constant "xorConstant"
    /// </summary>
    /// <param name="text">String to decode</param>
    /// <returns>Original string</returns>
    public static string DeObfuscate(string text)
    {
        if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(text))
        {
            return null;
        }
        else
        {
            byte[] data = Convert.FromBase64String(text);
            for (int i = 0; i < data.Length; i++)
            {
                data[i] = (byte)(data[i] ^ xorConstant);
            }
            return Encoding.UTF8.GetString(data);
        }
    }
}

Clearing / resetting images in Outlook cache

2017-05-10T10:16:00.000-04:00

While creating emails, quite a few times you will not see the updated images in the email. this is because Outlook caches the images. These images are displayed from the cache even for newer mails. To remove any files from cache in Windows (for Outlook 2010 and above) do the following.

Close Outlook.

Press "Windows+R". and type or paste the following:

%USERPROFILE%\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files\Content.Outlook

Delete all the files and folder in this location.
Open Outlook.

In Mac do the following:

Right-click (or control-click) your Exchange Inbox NHSD folder
Click Folder Properties
Click the General Tab
Click Empty Cache

ASP.Net | POST request in C# with content-type being x-www-form-urlencoded

2017-05-01T13:06:00.001-04:00

The following code makes a POST request in C# with content-type being x-www-form-urlencoded:

HttpWebRequest webRequest = (HttpWebRequest)WebRequest.Create(url);
webRequest.Method = "POST";
webRequest.AllowAutoRedirect = true;
webRequest.Timeout = 20 * 1000;
webRequest.ContentType = "application/x-www-form-urlencoded";
webRequest.Accept = "text/html,application/xhtml+xml,application/xml;q=0.9,image/webp,*/*;q=0.8";
webRequest.UserAgent = "Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; WOW64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/54.0.2840.99 Safari/537.36";

//write the data to post request
//Postdata : a=1&b=2&c=3
byte[] buffer = Encoding.Default.GetBytes(Postdata);
if (buffer != null)
{
     webRequest.ContentLength = buffer.Length;
     webRequest.GetRequestStream().Write(buffer, 0, buffer.Length);
}

HttpWebResponse response = (HttpWebResponse)webRequest.GetResponse();
Stream dataStream = response.GetResponseStream();
StreamReader reader = new StreamReader(dataStream);
string strResponse = reader.ReadToEnd();

OpenSSL | Creating Certification Authority & Domain Certificates for IIS

2017-03-30T10:44:00.001-04:00

Setup

Download the OpenSSL binaries from this location.

(Please note that version 1.0.2 works better in windows)

Extract the binaries at location:

C:\OpenSSL\

The binaries will be downloaded in bin folder. Now create a demo folder at this location

Add the following location to windows PATH variable.

C:\OpenSSL\bin

Create 2 Environment Variables:

set RANDFILE=C:\OpenSSL\demo\.rnd
set OPENSSL_CONF=C:\OpenSSL\bin\openssl.cfg

Open Command Prompt and type openssl. You should get a window like this:

This means that the setup is correct and complete. Else fix your windows PATH variable. Close this window.

Create a Root Certification Authority

Now we need to create a certificate for Root Certification Authority. Open Command Prompt and change location to demo folder using command:

cd C:\OpenSSL\demo

Create key as (location: C:\OpenSSL\demo):

openssl genrsa -out RootCA.key 4096

Use this key to create a Root Certificate using command:

openssl req -new -x509 -days 7300 -key RootCA.key -out RootCA.crt

The certificate expiration is set to 20 years (7300 days). Change to match your requirements.

You will have to enter details as:

The certificate name is the input entered against field: Common Name

Please note that if you press enter without entering a value, the default value (value displayed in []) will be used to create certificate. The certificate RootCA.crt will be created at location:

C:\OpenSSL\demo

This certificate will have to be installed in Trusted Root Certification Authority in any machine which the website is installed or used.

Create a Domain Certificate

Now we need to create a domain certificate. Create a folder contoso at location:

C:\OpenSSL\demo

Create a file csr_detail.cnf using the details below in contoso folder:

[req]
distinguished_name = req_distinguished_name
req_extensions = v3_req

[req_distinguished_name]
countryName = US
countryName_default = US
stateOrProvinceName = New York
stateOrProvinceName_default = NY
localityName = New York
localityName_default = New York
organizationalUnitName = Contoso Unit
organizationalUnitName_default = Contoso Unit
commonName = contoso.com
commonName_default = contoso.com
organizationName = Contoso
organizationName_default = Contoso
commonName_max  = 64

[ v3_req ]
# Extensions to add to a certificate request
basicConstraints = CA:FALSE
keyUsage = nonRepudiation, digitalSignature, keyEncipherment
subjectAltName = @alt_names

[alt_names]
DNS.1 = www.contoso.com
DNS.2 = files.contoso.com
IP.1 = 0.0.0.0

Edit it to match your needs.

Open Command Prompt and change location to contoso folder using command:

cd C:\OpenSSL\demo\contoso

Create a KEY for the certificate using the command:

openssl genrsa -out contoso.com.key 2048

Create a CSR file for the certificate using the command:

openssl req -new -out contoso.com.csr -key contoso.com.key -config csr_details.cnf

You will be asked to input fields as:

Press enter in each field to add default value already set from CNF file.

Create a certificate using the CNF file, KEY and the CSR file using the command:

openssl x509 -req -days 3650 -in contoso.com.csr -CA ..\RootCA.crt -CAkey ..\RootCA.key -set_serial 01  -extensions v3_req -extfile csr_details.cnf -out contoso.com.crt

This certificate will be created as contoso.com.crt at location:

C:\OpenSSL\demo\contoso

Now we need to create a PFX file so that this certificate can be imported in IIS. Use the following command:

openssl pkcs12 -export -out contoso.com.pfx -inkey contoso.com.key -in contoso.com.crt

You will be asked to enter a password (at least 4 characters) as:

Import this PFX file in IIS and use it in both the domains: www.contoso.com & files.contoso.com

Iterating over string array in template in SDL Tridion 2013 SP1

2016-11-07T12:07:00.001-05:00

Now we can add any string array to template package and iterate over its members in Dreamweaver template. We need to serialize your array and then create package string item out of it as mentioned below:

var list = new[] { "aaa", "bbb", "ccc" };           

StringWriter stringWriter = new StringWriter();
XmlSerializer xmlSerializer = new XmlSerializer(list.GetType());
xmlSerializer.Serialize(stringWriter, list); 

package.PushItem("ItemName",
                  package.CreateStringItem(ContentType.StringArray, stringWriter.ToString()));

The DWT for this array will be as:

  <!-- TemplateBeginRepeat name="ItemName" -->
    <div>@@Value@@</div>
  <!-- TemplateEndRepeat -->

Fixing Chrome resolution issue

2016-11-07T10:09:00.000-05:00

There is a very simple solution it fix the chrome resolution issue. Follow the steps below:

Find the Chrome icon that you click on. It may be on the Windows taskbar, a shortcut on the desktop, or in the start menu or on the start screen.
Right-click the icon and select properties from the context menu if the icon is on the desktop or start menu/screen.If it is on the taskbar, right-click Google Chrome in the context menu that opens up and select properties here.
The 'Target' field should end like this afterwards: chrome.exe" /high-dpi-support=1 /force-device-scale-factor=1

Click OK to confirm the change.

Catching JavaScript Errors with window.onerror

2016-06-13T10:46:00.001-04:00

First we need to override the handler as:

window.onerror = function (errorMsg, url, lineNumber) {
    console.log('Error: ' + errorMsg + ' Script: ' + url + ' Line: ' + lineNumber);
}

We can add two more variables to get more information: column number and error object.

window.onerror = function (errorMsg, url, lineNumber, column, errorObj) {
    console.log('Error: ' + errorMsg + ' Script: ' + url + ' Line: ' + lineNumber 
    + ' Column: ' + column + ' StackTrace: ' +  errorObj);
}

Note: This will work only in the latest browsers.

Encrypt in SQL Server and Decrypt in C#

2016-02-08T10:49:00.002-05:00

Recently, I had a requirement to fetch the encrypted string passed from SQL Server using function EncryptByPassPhrase (more details about this function here). This encrypted string was passed from a totally different setup to my ASP.Net web application.

My ASP.Net web Application required the decoded text. To do this I had to create a stored procedure which accepted the pass phrase and encrypted string as input and returned the decrypted string. The encrypted string type was VARBINARY. The stored procedure was:

CREATE PROCEDURE [dbo].sp_DecryptText 
    (@PassPhrase NVARCHAR(128), 
    @EncryptedText VARBINARY(MAX),
    @DecryptedText NVARCHAR(MAX) OUTPUT)
AS
BEGIN
    SET @DecryptedText = DECRYPTBYPASSPHRASE(@PassPhrase, @EncryptedText);
    RETURN
END

So I wrote a C# code to connect to stored procedure passing all the values as:

command.Parameters.AddWithValue("@PassPhrase", PassPhrase);
command.Parameters.Add("@EncryptedText", SqlDbType.VarBinary, 8000).Value = Encoding.Unicode.GetBytes(encryptedString);
command.Parameters.Add("@DecryptedText", SqlDbType.NVarChar, -1).Direction = ParameterDirection.Output;

But this did not work as the encryptedString was already in hexadecimal format and converting it to bytes resulted in a totally different string.

To get the stored procedure working, I converted the encryptedString to hexadecimal before passing it to the stored procedure by writing a separate function ParseHexString as:

static byte[] ParseHexString(string value)
{
    if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(value)) return null;
    if (1 == (1 & value.Length)) throw new ArgumentException("Invalid length for a hex string.", "value");

    int startIndex = 0;
    int length = value.Length;
    char[] input = value.ToCharArray();
    if ('0' == input[0] && 'x' == input[1])
    {
        if (2 == length) return null;
        startIndex = 2;
        length -= 2;
    }

    Func<char, byte> charToWord = c =>
    {
        if ('0' <= c && c <= '9') return (byte)(c - '0');
        if ('A' <= c && c <= 'F') return (byte)(10 + c - 'A');
        if ('a' <= c && c <= 'f') return (byte)(10 + c - 'a');
        throw new ArgumentException("Invalid character for a hex string.", "value");
    };

    byte[] result = new byte[length >> 1];
    for (int index = 0, i = startIndex; index < result.Length; index++, i += 2)
    {
        byte w1 = charToWord(input[i]);
        byte w2 = charToWord(input[i + 1]);
        result[index] = (byte)((w1 << 4) + w2);
    }

    return result;
}

So my call to stored procedure changed to:

command.Parameters.AddWithValue("@PassPhrase", PassPhrase);
command.Parameters.Add("@EncryptedText", SqlDbType.VarBinary, 8000).Value = ParseHexString(encryptedString);
command.Parameters.Add("@DecryptedText", SqlDbType.NVarChar, -1).Direction = ParameterDirection.Output;

And the output was correct and in the right format!!

Change Creation Date of file to Modified Date using PowerShell

2015-10-31T22:36:00.001-04:00

Use the following PowerShell command to change the Creation Date to the Modified Date of all files in a folder.

Get-ChildItem -recurse -filter *.JPG | % { $_.CreationTime = $_.LastWriteTime }