beecy.net

Resolving System.BadImageFormatException in ASP.Net app

Al Beecy — Fri, 29 Apr 2011 16:18:00 -0500

The typical cause of the ASP.Net "System.BadImageFormatException" exception is:

You are referencing a 32-bit library.
Your .NET application is compiled with the "Platform target" of either "Any CPU" or "x64".
You attempt to run/deploy the app on/to a 64-bit OS.
The application runs as a 64-bit app, but tries to load the 32-bit library.

The solution is to go to IIS Manager and click on "Advanced Settings" for the app pool running your website. Set "Enable 32-Bit Applications" to True.

How to change fat Windows 7 cursor to normal width

Al Beecy — Sat, 19 Mar 2011 09:07:00 -0500

Some idiot at Microsoft decided it would be a good idea to make the cursor look like it is always highlighting something. Since I spend most of my waking hours in a code editor, this has been driving me crazy. Finally, I'd had enough of it and went hunting around for a way to change it. Here's how to do it:

Go to: Control Panel -> Ease of Access Center -> Make the computer easier to see

Change the setting for "Set the thickness of the blinking cursor" to 1.

Save.

How to Remove a GPT Protective Partition

Al Beecy — Sun, 15 Aug 2010 11:09:00 -0500

On a WinXP box, I recently popped a harddrive that I was planning to install an OS onto into the external eSATA bay I use for backups and such. My plan was to blow away any partitions to make it easier to distinguish from the other drives in the desitination system during the install.

Unfortunately, the Disk Management utility didn't know what to make of the drive. It was listed, but all options wee greyed out. In the partition area, it said it was a "GPT Protective Partition".

After googling around for a while, it became clear that XP didn't know how to talk to such partitions and the solution (asuming you didn't care about the dat on the disk) was the following:

Open a Command Prompt window.
Enter "diskpart". This will start the the DiskPart utility.
Enter "list disk". This will display all drives in the machine with a number beside them.
Enter "select [number]" (where "[number]" is the number next to the disk you want to nuke), for example: "select disk 3".
Enter "list disk" again. Verify that there is an asterisk next to the drive you selected above.

WARNING: The following command will destroy all data on the disk. It will not prompt you or warn you. It will just wipe the drive with extreme prejudice. It is irreversible. Scared enough? Good.

Enter "clean". When it is done, it will tell you that "DiskPart succeeded in cleaning the disk."
Enter "exit" to exit the DiskPart utility. You can now close the Command Prompt window.
Go to Disk Management under Computer Management. The disk you just wiped will now be listed as "unknown". Right-click on the disk info block (to the left of the partition area), and select"Initialize Disk". Confirm that the correct disk is selected in the pop-up and press "Ok".

You can now create a partition on the disk (right-click on the partition area).

Applies to: Windows XP

How to get rid of the Shutdown Event Tracker in Win2003

Al Beecy — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 08:18:00 -0500

The Shutdown Event Tracker is that dialog that pops up when you attempt to reboot or shutdown your machine that demands to know why.

Now, I'm sure that somewhere out there is a dweeb who diligently logs the reason for each and every reboot (he also probably saves all his fingernail clippings -- indexed, of course, by finger and date). The rest of us, however, merely enter rude comments about Bill Gates' parentage.

Here's how to get rid of it:

Go to Start->Run and enter GPEDIT.MSC
Expand: Computer Configuration->Administrative Templates->System
Double-click Display Shutdown Event Tracker
Select Disabled
Click OK to close all dialog boxes

That's it.

How to Overload Constructors in C#

Al Beecy — Tue, 04 May 2010 12:03:00 -0500

When providing overloads for a method signature, developers often implement the business logic just once in the version having the full list of parameters to avoid writing redundant code. The methods with the simpler signatures fill in default values and hand the call off to another of the signatures.

This same approach can also be used with constructors, but the syntax is slightly different than a normal method call:

public class MyClass

{

private string _p1;

private int _p2;

private DateTime _p3;

//This constructor calls another construtor

//on this class to set default values.

public MyClass() : this("example", 1)

{

}

//This constructor also calls another construtor.

public MyClass(string p1, int p2) : this(p1, p2, DateTime.Now)

{

}

//This constructor does the actual work.

public MyClass(string p1, int p2, DateTime p3)

{

_p1 = p1;

_p2 = p2;

_p3 = p3;

}

Telerik ASP.Net RadFilter Event Signature Reference

Al Beecy — Sun, 25 Apr 2010 10:45:00 -0500

Here's a quick reference listing of all the event signatures for the Telerik RadFilter control.

I generated it using the C# event signature reflection example I posted previously.

protected void RadFilter1_ItemCommand(object sender,

Telerik.Web.UI.RadFilterCommandEventArgs e) { }

protected void RadFilter1_ApplyExpressions(object sender,

Telerik.Web.UI.RadFilterApplyExpressionsEventArgs e) { }

protected void RadFilter1_FieldEditorCreating(object sender,

Telerik.Web.UI.RadFilterFieldEditorCreatingEventArgs e) { }

protected void RadFilter1_FieldEditorCreated(object sender,

Telerik.Web.UI.RadFilterFieldEditorCreatedEventArgs e) { }

protected void RadFilter1_Disposed(object sender,

System.EventArgs e) { }

protected void RadFilter1_DataBinding(object sender,

System.EventArgs e) { }

protected void RadFilter1_Init(object sender,

System.EventArgs e) { }

protected void RadFilter1_Load(object sender,

System.EventArgs e) { }

protected void RadFilter1_PreRender(object sender,

System.EventArgs e) { }

protected void RadFilter1_Unload(object sender,

System.EventArgs e) { }

Applies to: RadFilter for ASP.NET AJAX
Version Q1 2010 (2010.1.415.35)

How to Troubleshoot Sys.WebForms.PageRequestManagerServerErrorException when Debugging

Al Beecy — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 18:55:00 -0500

Today I was busily working on an ASP.Net app when I was confronted with the dreaded "Sys.WebForms.PageRequestManagerServerErrorException":

As anybody who has spent a fair amount of time working with ASP.Net can attest, this is one of the last things you want to see pop up because it is next to useless for figuring out what is actually wrong. Assuming you follow good practices in terms of error handling, odds are pretty good that when you see this the bugs isn't even in your code. Usually, it will end up being a bug in some flaky declarative control you're using.

Personally, I think that the Microsoft Moron who decided that bubbling server errors up to javascript before breaking should be tarred, feathered, and made to watch the Complete Works of Pee-wee Herman. Twice!

Anyway, enough ranting. So how do you get at some useful info? Basically, you need to trap the error somewhere that will allow you to interact with it.

One place is the Global.asax file's Application_Error event handler. This will catch anything not handled elsewhere:

protected void Application_Error(Object sender, EventArgs e)

{

try

{

Exception ex = Server.GetLastError();

if (ex != null)

{

//log it or do something else useful...

}

Context.ClearError();

Server.ClearError();

}

catch { }

}

Another is the page in question's Page_Error handler:

protected void Page_Error(object sender, EventArgs e)

{

Exception ex = Server.GetLastError();

if (ex != null)

{

//log it or do something else useful...

}

Context.ClearError();

Server.ClearError();

}

In either case, put a breakpoint in the location where the logging goes. You'll now have full access to the exception, complete with call stacks, etc.

BTW, in case you were wondering: no, the actual problem above was not because the "Status" field was missing from the "Pages" table -- that would have been way too easy.

Sys.WebForms.PageRequestManager is null or not an object

Al Beecy — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 12:21:00 -0500

After merging two ASP.Net projects, one that used Ajax, and one that did not, I began getting a stange error: "Sys.WebForms.PageRequestManager is null or not an object".

After googling around and trying various things, the problem turned out to be an optional tag in the web.config file that I had carried over from the non-Ajax project:

<xhtmlConformance mode="Legacy"/>

Turns out that MS's Ajax doesn't like this. Some folks suggested changing "Legacy" to "Transitional", but when I looked the "xhtmlConformance" tag up on MSDN, it says that "Transitional" is the default, so I just deleted it and the problem went away.

Hope this saves someone a little time.

Telerik ASP.Net RadTreeView Event Signature Reference

Al Beecy — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 14:16:00 -0500

Here's a quick reference listing of all the event signatures for the Telerik RadTreeView control.

I generated it using the C# event signature reflection example I posted previously.

protected void RadTreeView_NodeClick(object sender,
Telerik.Web.UI.RadTreeNodeEventArgs e) { }

protected void RadTreeView_NodeDataBound(object sender,
Telerik.Web.UI.RadTreeNodeEventArgs e) { }

protected void RadTreeView_NodeCreated(object sender,
Telerik.Web.UI.RadTreeNodeEventArgs e) { }

protected void RadTreeView_NodeExpand(object sender,
Telerik.Web.UI.RadTreeNodeEventArgs e) { }

protected void RadTreeView_NodeCollapse(object sender,
Telerik.Web.UI.RadTreeNodeEventArgs e) { }

protected void RadTreeView_NodeCheck(object sender,
Telerik.Web.UI.RadTreeNodeEventArgs e) { }

protected void RadTreeView_NodeDrop(object sender,
Telerik.Web.UI.RadTreeNodeDragDropEventArgs e) { }

protected void RadTreeView_NodeEdit(object sender,
Telerik.Web.UI.RadTreeNodeEditEventArgs e) { }

protected void RadTreeView_ContextMenuItemClick(object sender,
Telerik.Web.UI.RadTreeViewContextMenuEventArgs e) { }

protected void RadTreeView_DataBound(object sender,
System.EventArgs e) { }

protected void RadTreeView_Disposed(object sender,
System.EventArgs e) { }

protected void RadTreeView_DataBinding(object sender,
System.EventArgs e) { }

protected void RadTreeView_Init(object sender,
System.EventArgs e) { }

protected void RadTreeView_Load(object sender,
System.EventArgs e) { }

protected void RadTreeView_PreRender(object sender,
System.EventArgs e) { }

protected void RadTreeView_Unload(object sender,
System.EventArgs e) { }

Applies to: RadTreeView for ASP.NET AJAX Version Q2 2009.

Creating an FTP-Only Site in Plesk 9

Al Beecy — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 19:20:00 -0500

Plesk can be really annoying at times. Sometimes tasks that should be dirt simple like making a basic FTP site without associated web hosting can be next to impossible.

After wasting about a half hour hunting around in Plesk 9 for a way to make an FTP site (authenticated) that did not also set up a website, I concluded that it simply could not be done through the interface.

Fine, I'll do it the old-fashioned way: I'll Google up an answer. After visiting a couple sites courtesy of Google, a consensus emerged. The way to create an ftp site/account was to connect via SSH and use the following three commands, followed by a little tweaking of the /etc/passwd file.

/# mkdir /home/ftp

/# useradd -d /home/ftp/ftpuser/ -s /dev/null ftpuser > /dev/null 2>&1

/# passwd ftpuser

The first line creates an /ftp folder beneath /home. The second creates a new user named "ftpuser". And the third allows you to set his pasword. So far, so good.

The next generally recommended step was to edit the /etc/passwd file, changing this:

ftpuser:x:502:502::/home/ftp/ftpuser/:/dev/null

to this:

ftpuser:x:502:502::/home/ftp/./ftpuser/:/dev/null

adding an extra dot slash between "ftp/" and "ftpuser". I used nano.

Didn't work. All the commands were successful, but FileZilla could not connect. Kept getting "bad login".

Back to the drawing board. My problem was that sites created in Plesk allowed too much access to uploaded content, specifically, HTTP access. It also subjected the ftp user to a hodgepodge of silly folders since the ftp account wa rooted above all the folders associated with the domain like:

/anon_ftp

/bin

/conf

/error_docs

/httpsdocs

/pd

/private

/statistics

/web_users

/cgi-bin

/httpdocs

Even worse, some of these folders could not be deleted, nor could files be wrtten to the "root" of this structure. Very annoying.

I decided that to make this mess usable for an FTP-only site, I needed to do two things:

Prevent access to the bogus website via HTTP.
Re-root the login to a secure folder just in case someone found a way around my solution to step 1.

The first part was pretty straight forward. I would drop a simple one-line .htaccess file in the various web-accessible directories to punt unwanted browsers from my site:

deny from all

The next required a secure directory to which I could re-root my ftp user. Fortunately, there already was such a directory, named "private". So off I went to the /etc/passwd file again, where I changed this:

ftpuser:x:10021:2522::/var/www/vhosts/ftp.foo.com:/bin/false

to this:

ftpuser:x:10021:2522::/var/www/vhosts/ftp.foo.com/private:/bin/false

Now to test. I popped open a browser and went to my site. Got nada via HTTP except a stupid Apache message providing way more information about my server than I thought was sensible to reveal. Seems if httpdocs can't be accessed, Apache gets stupid.

Fine. I replaced the .htaccess files with a zero-byte index.html. Now all I get is a blank white screen. "Good enough for government work", as we used to say in the Army.

Now the real test: ftp. First I go to the site using various browsers using ftp://. Up pops a login screen on all of them. I provide crdentials and land in my nice empty, private root. Looking good.

One last test: FilleZilla. I enter my site and credentials and click connect. It connects, and I'm again in my private root. Time for a beer!

Hope this helps someone.