Sb2 Developers Blog

Microsoft Office Excel instance does not close.

yb.nospam@nospam.sb2.fr (razak) — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 13:36:16 +0200

Hi,

I found an issue, when an user quit an Excel instance created with Microsoft Office Interop library. The process does not exit properly, and i can't manange this issue with the calling application.

To set the context : The main application is an Addin for Office (Excel, Word and PowerPoint) and one action launches a new instance of Excel where the user can see and do some actions. And that's with this new instance that we encountered the issue.

Moreover the Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel.Application does not have event handlers to manage "Quit" or "Close" events of the application, so i had to found another way to kill my process =)

So here is the code used to create a new Excel instance :

        1: Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel.Application xlApp = null;

       2:  

       3: // Launch New Excel instance

       4: xlApp = new Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel.Application();

       5:  

       6: if (xlApp == null)

       7:    throw new Exception("EXCEL could not be started. Check that your office installation and project references are correct.");

       8:  

       9: xlApp.Visible = true;

      10: xlApp.UserControl = true;

      11: System.Threading.Thread.CurrentThread.CurrentCulture =

      12: System.Globalization.CultureInfo.CreateSpecificCulture("en-US");

      13:  

      14: // Open the file

      15: Workbook wb = xlApp.Workbooks.Open(filepath, Type.Missing,

      16:                                 Type.Missing, Type.Missing, Type.Missing,

      17:                                 Type.Missing, Type.Missing, Type.Missing,

      18:                                 Type.Missing, Type.Missing, Type.Missing,

      19:                                 Type.Missing, Type.Missing, Type.Missing,

      20:                                 Type.Missing);

      21:  

      22: Worksheet ws = (Worksheet)wb.Worksheets[1];

      23:  

      24: if (ws == null)

      25:     throw new Exception(

      26:         "Worksheet could not be created. Check that your office installation and project references are correct.");

And here the class used to manage the quit process :

       1: public class SubclassHWND : NativeWindow

       2:     {

       3:         protected override void WndProc(ref Message m)

       4:         {

       5:             if (m.Msg == 0x10)

       6:             {

       7:                 Process.GetCurrentProcess().Kill();

       8:                 

       9:                 // Confirmation message if needed

      10:                 //if (MessageBox.Show("Would you like to quit?", "Close?", MessageBoxButtons.YesNo) == DialogResult.Yes)

      11:                 //    Process.GetCurrentProcess().Kill();

      12:                 //else

      13:                 //    return;

      14:             }

      15:             base.WndProc(ref m);

      16:         }

      17:     }

And the code to attach the application handler :

       1: if (OfficeApplicationManager.OfficeApplication != null)

       2: {

       3:     s = new SubclassHWND();

       4:     s.AssignHandle(new IntPtr(OfficeApplicationManager.OfficeApplication.GetApplicationHwnd()));

       5: }

The OfficeAppliaction is the same as Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel.Application

FluentNHibernarte.Search 0.3 Beta Released Now Support Fluent XML-Less Configuration

yb.nospam@nospam.sb2.fr (xtc) — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 23:58:15 +0200

Just released FluentNHibernate.Search 0.3 Beta which now support Fluent XML-Less Configuration available on CodePlex.

No need to configure NHibernate.Search in web.config or app.config, you can know configure it like FluentNHibernate do for NHibernate.

        1: Configuration nhcfg = FluentSearch.Configure()

       2:     .DefaultAnalyzer().Standard()

       3:     .DirectoryProvider().FSDirectory()

       4:     .IndexBase("~/Index")

       5:     .IndexingStrategy().Event()

       6:     .MappingClass<SearchMappingImpl>()

       7:     .BuildConfiguration();

FHNS support both builtin Analyzers and Directory Providers :

Builtin Analyzers :

StandardAnalyzer
KeywordAnalyzer
SimpleAnalyzer
StopAnalyzer
WhitespaceAnalyzer

       1: // Some Builtin Analyzers

       2: FluentSearch.Configure().DefaultAnalyzer().Standard()

       3: FluentSearch.Configure().DefaultAnalyzer().Simple()

       4: FluentSearch.Configure().DefaultAnalyzer().Whitespace()

       5: ...

       6:  

       7: // Custom Analyzers

       8: FluentSearch.Configure().DefaultAnalyzer().Custom<MyAnalyzer>()

Builtin Directory Providers :

FSDirectoryProvider
RAMDirectoryProvider

       1: // Builtin Directory Providers

       2: FluentSearch.Configure().DirectoryProvider().FSDirectory()

       3: FluentSearch.Configure().DirectoryProvider().RAMDirectory()

       4: ...

       5:  

       6: // Custom Directory Providers

       7: FluentSearch.Configure().DirectoryProvider().Custom<MyDirectoryProvider>()

Working with FluentNHibernate for NHibernate Configuration ?

You can get FluentNHibernate.Search and FluentNHibernate in touch like this :

       1: // FluentNHibernate.Search Configuration

       2: var nhcfg = FluentSearch.Configure()

       3:     .DefaultAnalyzer().Standard()

       4:     .DirectoryProvider().FSDirectory()

       5:     .IndexBase("~/Index")

       6:     .IndexingStrategy().Event()

       7:     .MappingClass<SearchMappingImpl>()

       8:     .BuildConfiguration();

       9:  

      10: // FluentNHibernate Configuration

      11: var fcfg = Fluently.Configure(nhcfg);

      12:  

      13: var sessionFactory = fcfg.Database(MsSqlConfiguration.MsSql2008.ConnectionString(_settings.ConnectionString)

      14:                            .Cache(p => p.UseQueryCache().ProviderClass<SysCacheProvider>())

      15:                            .Dialect<MsSql2008Dialect>().UseReflectionOptimizer()

      16:                            .AdoNetBatchSize(50)

      17:                            .ProxyFactoryFactory<ProxyFactoryFactory>())

      18:                            .BuildSessionFactory();

      19:

Beta 0.3 is available on CodePlex : http://fnhsearch.codeplex.com/

Have fun :)

FluentNHibernarte.Search 0.2 Beta Released

yb.nospam@nospam.sb2.fr (xtc) — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 12:29:29 +0200

I’ve just released FluentNHibernate.Search 0.2 Beta which is available on CodePlex and support the following new features.

Field Mapping without specifying "Name"

Actually we needed to specify Field name using .Field(“FieldName”) :

        1: public class BookSearchMap : DocumentMap<Book>

       2: {

       3:     public BookSearchMap()

       4:     {

       5:         Id(p => p.BookId).Field("BookId").Bridge().Guid();

       6:     }

       7: }

Now if we don’t specify this, the field name will be automaticaly taken from the mapped property name.

       1: public class BookSearchMap : DocumentMap<Book>

       2: {

       3:     public BookSearchMap()

       4:     {

       5:         Id(p => p.BookId).Bridge().Guid();

       6:     }

       7: }

Id Mapping without specifiying "Field"

Actually to we needed to specify Field name using .Name(“FieldName”) for Field mapping, now we can forget this, it will be taken directly from the mapping property name.

However we can overrides that name using .Name(“FieldName”) method.

       1: public class BookSearchMap : DocumentMap<Book>

       2: {

       3:     public BookSearchMap()

       4:     {

       5:         Id(p => p.BookId).Bridge().Guid();

       6:         Name("Book");

       7:  

       8:         Map(x => x.Title)

       9:             .Store().Yes()

      10:             .Index().Tokenized();

      11:         Map(x => x.Description)

      12:             .Store().Yes()

      13:             .Index().Tokenized();

      14:     }

      15: }

Embedded Mapping

FluentNHibernate.Search now support embedded mapping using the Embedded method in DocumentMap.

       1: public class AuthorSearchMap : DocumentMap<Author>

       2: {

       3:     public AuthorSearchMap()

       4:     {

       5:         Id(p => p.AuthorId)Bridge().Guid();

       6:         Name("Author");

       7:  

       8:         Map(x => x.Name)

       9:             .Store().Yes()

      10:             .Index().Tokenized();

      11:  

      12:         Embedded(x => x.Books).AsCollection();

      13:     }

      14: }

Introducing FluentNhibernate.Search Mapping Interface

yb.nospam@nospam.sb2.fr (xtc) — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 23:46:39 +0200

Coming back for a long time…

I announce today a new project i’ve hosted on CodePlex about NHibernate.Search, a Lucene.NET provider implementation for NHibernate which is a part of the NHibernate Contrib project.

Actually NHibernate.Search is attributes based mapping.

        1: [Indexed]

       2: public class Book

       3: {

       4:     [DocumentId]

       5:     public Guid BookId { get; set; }

       6:  

       7:     [Field(Index=Index.Tokenized, Name="Title", Store=Store.Yes)]

       8:     public string Title { get; set; }

       9:  

      10:     [Field(Index = Index.Tokenized, Name = "Description", Store = Store.Yes)]

      11:     public string Description { get; set; }

      12: }

In my recent projects I needed to keep my domain entites true POCO and persistant ignorant.

Since there was no Fluent inteface to map Lucene.NET documents without attributes outside domain entities, I decided to start this project which I hope should make us feel better :)

FluentNHibernate.Search mapping is quite equivalent to FluentNHibernate for NHibernate XML-Less entity mapping initialy developped by Jeremy Miller.

Mapping Lucene.NET documents are now very simple, attribute-less, here is a sample :

       1: public class Book

       2: {

       3:     public Guid BookId { get; set; }

       4:     public string Title { get; set; }

       5:     public string Description { get; set; }

       6: }

Woow, that’s clean :)

And here is the mapping class :

       1: public class BookSearchMap : DocumentMap<Book>

       2: {

       3:     public BookSearchMap()

       4:     {

       5:         Id(p => p.BookId).Field("BookId").Bridge().Guid();

       6:         Name("Book");

       7:         Boost(500);

       8:         Analyzer<StandardAnalyzer>();

       9:  

      10:         Map(x => x.Title)

      11:             .Analyzer<StandardAnalyzer>()

      12:             .Boost(500);

      13:  

      14:         Map(x => x.Description)

      15:             .Boost(500)

      16:             .Name("Description")

      17:             .Store().Yes()

      18:             .Index().Tokenized();

      19:     }

      20: }

Pretty nice isn’t it ? :)

FluentNHibernate.Search is still in developpement but I hope I will release a stable version soon.

Until a stable version be released you can check the current source code at CodePlex and give feedbacks !

Windows 7 RTM Now Available in Both x64 and x86 for MSDN Subscribers

yb.nospam@nospam.sb2.fr (xTC) — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 22:39:23 +0200

Hi !

All editions of Windows 7 RTM are now available in both x64 and x68 for MSDN subscribers!

Currently only available in English but an MUI with other languages is also available.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/subscriptions/bb608344.aspx

Have a good day ! :)

Trick for Firefox who doesn't read all the bytes sent with ASP.Net HttpHandler in C#.

yb.nospam@nospam.sb2.fr (Razak) — Mon, 25 May 2009 17:06:23 +0200

We found an issue where Firefox wasn't getting the entire file bytes sent by our ASP Server (in our case, the last byte of the stream was not read so the file were corrupt) but this bug never happens in Internet Explorer.

Here is the problematic code :

        1: Response.Clear();

       2: Response.ContentType = file.Mime;

       3: Response.Cache.SetCacheability(HttpCacheability.Private);

       4: Response.Expires = -1;

       5: Response.Buffer = false;

       6: Response.AddHeader("Content-Disposition", String.Format("{0};FileName=\"{1}\"", "attachment", file.Name));

       7: Response.OutputStream.Write(file.Contents, 0, file.Contents.Length);

       8: Response.End();

We found 2 solutions :

First, just change the Response.Buffer = False to Response.Buffer = true, this will have for effect that the response will not be sent until all the scripts are processed or the call of Response.End(), Response.Flush() call.

       1: Response.Clear();

       2: Response.ContentType = file.Mime;

       3: Response.Cache.SetCacheability(HttpCacheability.Private);

       4: Response.Expires = -1;

       5: Response.Buffer = true;

       6: Response.AddHeader("Content-Disposition", String.Format("{0};FileName=\"{1}\"", "attachment", file.Name));

       7: Response.OutputStream.Write(file.Contents, 0, file.Contents.Length);

       8: Response.End();

Or do not set the Response.Buffer, and use Response.BinaryWrite() (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms524318.aspx) instead of Response.OutputStream() :

       1: Response.Clear();

       2: Response.ContentType = file.Mime;

       3: Response.Cache.SetCacheability(HttpCacheability.Private);

       4: Response.Expires = -1;

       5: Response.AddHeader("Content-Disposition", String.Format("{0};FileName=\"{1}\"", "attachment", file.Name));

       6: Response.BinaryWrite(file.Contents);

       7: Response.End();

How to Change System Date Programmatically With C#

yb.nospam@nospam.sb2.fr (xTC) — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 16:53:23 +0200

Hi,

After a long time without posting, I come back with a useful class in order to change, get or set Local System DateTime.

Here is the code :

        1: public class LocalDateTime

       2: {

       3:     [StructLayout(LayoutKind.Sequential)]

       4:     private struct SYSTEMTIME

       5:     {

       6:         public short wYear;

       7:         public short wMonth;

       8:         public short wDayOfWeek;

       9:         public short wDay;

        public short wHour;

        public short wMinute;

        public short wSecond;

        public short wMilliseconds;

    }

  

    [DllImport("kernel32.dll", EntryPoint = "SetSystemTime", SetLastError = true)]

    private static extern bool SetSystemTime(ref SYSTEMTIME st);

  

    [DllImport("kernel32.dll", EntryPoint = "GetSystemTime", SetLastError = true)]

    private extern static void GetSystemTime(ref SYSTEMTIME sysTime);

  

    /// <summary>

    /// Set the Local System DateTime

    /// </summary>

    /// <param name="date"></param>

    public static void SetDateTime(DateTime date)

    {

        SYSTEMTIME st = new SYSTEMTIME();

        st.wYear = (short)date.Year;

        st.wMonth = (short)date.Month;

        st.wDay = (short)date.Day;

        st.wHour = (short)date.Hour;

        st.wMinute = (short)date.Minute;

        st.wSecond = (short)date.Second;

        st.wMilliseconds = (short)date.Millisecond;

  

        SetSystemTime(ref st);

    }

  

    /// <summary>

    /// Get the Local System DateTime

    /// </summary>

    /// <returns></returns>

    public static DateTime GetDateTime()

    {

        SYSTEMTIME st = new SYSTEMTIME();

        GetSystemTime(ref st);

  

        return new DateTime(st.wYear, st.wMonth, st.wDay,

            st.wHour, st.wMinute, st.wSecond, st.wMilliseconds);

    }

}

Hope this help’s!

Windows 7 Beta Available For MSDN Subscribers (x86) And (x64)

yb.nospam@nospam.sb2.fr (xTC) — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 13:18:03 +0200

Hi,

Windows 7 is now available in Beta for MSDN Subscribers. Both x86 and x64 versions are available.

Windows 7 Beta (x64) - DVD (English)
Windows 7 Beta (x86) - DVD (English)
Windows 7 Beta Language Pack (x86) - DVD (English)

If you got MSDN Subscription Check it out !

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/subscriptions/default.aspx

Scheduled ASP.NET Task Manager

yb.nospam@nospam.sb2.fr (xTC) — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 05:14:49 +0200

Hi,

In this article I’ll talk about Scheduled Task Manager in a ASP.NET Environment. We often need to make scheduled tasks running in background but it’s not very simple to make it with ASP.NET.

I based my article on the StackOverFlow article which uses ASP.NET Cache to schedule tasks.

First of all here is the IScheduledTask Interface in order to Implements our Custom Tasks

public interface IScheduledTask
{
    TimeSpan Expiration { get; set; }
    Boolean IsOnce { get; set; }
    String Name { get; set; }
    void Run();
}

Now the ScheduledTaskManager

public class ScheduledTaskManager
{
    #region Singleton

    static readonly ScheduledTaskManager instance = new ScheduledTaskManager();

    static ScheduledTaskManager()
    {
    }

    ScheduledTaskManager()
    {
    }

    public static ScheduledTaskManager Instance
    {
        get
        {
            return instance;
        }
    }

    #endregion

    #region Private Fields

    private static CacheItemRemovedCallback OnCacheRemove = null;

    #endregion

    #region Public Methods

    public void AddTask(IScheduledTask task)
    {
        OnCacheRemove = new CacheItemRemovedCallback(CacheItemRemoved);

        HttpRuntime.Cache.Insert(task.Name, task, null,
        DateTime.Now.Add(task.Expiration), Cache.NoSlidingExpiration,
        CacheItemPriority.NotRemovable, OnCacheRemove);
    }

    #endregion

    #region Private Methods

    private void CacheItemRemoved(string k, object v, CacheItemRemovedReason r)
    {
        var task = v as IScheduledTask;
        if (task == null) return;

        task.Run();
        if (!task.IsOnce)
            AddTask((IScheduledTask)v);
    }

    #endregion
}

We can now implement our Custom Task

public class MyTask : IScheduledTask
{
    #region IScheduledTask Members

    public TimeSpan Expiration
    {
        get; set;
    }

    public string Name
    {
        get; set;
    }

    public void Run()
    {
        Debug.WriteLine("Running !");
    }

    public bool IsOnce
    {
        get; set;
    }

    #endregion
}

Sample Usage :

public class Global : System.Web.HttpApplication
{

    protected void Application_Start(object sender, EventArgs e)
    {
        var task = new MyTask {Name = "MyTask", Expiration = new TimeSpan(0, 0, 10)};
        ScheduledTaskManager.Instance.AddTask(task);

        var task2 = new MyTask { Name = "MyTask2", Expiration = new TimeSpan(0, 0, 5) };
        ScheduledTaskManager.Instance.AddTask(task2);
    }
}

Simple :)

Hope this help’s !

How-To Change Visual Studio CSS Editor Default Format Settings

yb.nospam@nospam.sb2.fr (xTC) — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 16:34:53 +0200

Hi,

Here is a Quick Tip in order to Change Visual Studio CSS Editor Default Format Settings

Visual Studio Allow us to choose between 3 different CSS Formats :

Compact
Semi-Expanded
Expanded

You can change this Settings in Tools > Options > Text Editor > CSS > Format

Compact Format Sample

a:link { color: #034af3; text-decoration: underline; }
a:visited { color: #505abc; }
a:hover { color: #1d60ff; text-decoration: none; }
a:active { color: #12eb87; }

Semi-Expanded Format Sample

a:link {
    color: #034af3;
    text-decoration: underline;
}
a:visited {
    color: #505abc;
}
a:hover {
    color: #1d60ff;
    text-decoration: none;
}
a:active {
    color: #12eb87;
}

Expanded Format Sample

a:link
{
    color: #034af3;
    text-decoration: underline;
}
a:visited
{
    color: #505abc;
}
a:hover
{
    color: #1d60ff;
    text-decoration: none;
}
a:active
{
    color: #12eb87;
}

Hope this help’s.

Regular Expression MapRoute With ASP.NET MVC

yb.nospam@nospam.sb2.fr (xTC) — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 16:17:22 +0200

Hi,

In this article I’ll talk about ASP.NET MVC Routes and Regular Expression. I based my article from the Fredrik Kalseth’s Blog about Defining Routes using Regular Expressions in ASP.NET MVC.

Fredrik provides a Custom Implementation of Route in order to be able to use Regular Expression Patterns with MVC Routing.

However we are not able to use that with the MapRoute Extension Method of RouteCollection.

So Here is a Custom Implementation of the MapRoute Extension Method which takes advantage of RegexRoute Implementation made by Fredrik.

RegexRoute :

public class RegexRoute : Route
{
    #region Private Fields

    private readonly Regex _urlRegex;

    #endregion

    #region Constructors

    public RegexRoute(Regex urlPattern, IRouteHandler routeHandler)
        : this(urlPattern, null, routeHandler)
    {

    }

    public RegexRoute(Regex urlPattern, RouteValueDictionary defaults, IRouteHandler routeHandler)
        : base(null, defaults, routeHandler)
    {
        _urlRegex = urlPattern;
    }

    #endregion

    #region Public Overrides Methods

    public override RouteData GetRouteData(HttpContextBase httpContext)
    {
        var requestUrl = httpContext.Request.AppRelativeCurrentExecutionFilePath.Substring(2) + httpContext.Request.PathInfo;

        var match = _urlRegex.Match(requestUrl);

        RouteData data = null;

        if (match.Success)
        {
            data = new RouteData(this, RouteHandler);

            // add defaults first
            if (null != Defaults)
            {
                foreach (var def in Defaults)
                {
                    data.Values[def.Key] = def.Value;
                }
            }

            // iterate matching groups
            for (var i = 1; i < match.Groups.Count; i++)
            {
                var group = match.Groups[i];

                if (!group.Success) continue;
                var key = _urlRegex.GroupNameFromNumber(i);

                if (!String.IsNullOrEmpty(key) && !Char.IsNumber(key, 0))
                {
                    data.Values[key] = group.Value;
                }
            }
        }

        return data;
    }

    #endregion
}

RegexRouteCollectionExtensions

public static class RegexRouteCollectionExtensions
{
    public static Route MapRoute(this RouteCollection routes, string name, Regex urlPattern)
    {
        return routes.MapRoute(name, urlPattern, null, null);
    }
    public static Route MapRoute(this RouteCollection routes, string name, Regex urlPattern, object defaults)
    {
        return routes.MapRoute(name, urlPattern, defaults, null);
    }
    public static Route MapRoute(this RouteCollection routes, string name, Regex urlPattern, string[] namespaces)
    {
        return routes.MapRoute(name, urlPattern, null, null, namespaces);
    }
    public static Route MapRoute(this RouteCollection routes, string name, Regex urlPattern, object defaults, object constraints)
    {
        return routes.MapRoute(name, urlPattern, defaults, constraints, null);
    }
    public static Route MapRoute(this RouteCollection routes, string name, Regex urlPattern, object defaults, string[] namespaces)
    {
        return routes.MapRoute(name, urlPattern, defaults, null, namespaces);
    }
    public static Route MapRoute(this RouteCollection routes, string name, Regex urlPattern, object defaults, object constraints, string[] namespaces)
    {
        if (routes == null)
        {
            throw new ArgumentNullException("routes");
        }
        if (urlPattern == null)
        {
            throw new ArgumentNullException("urlPattern");
        }
        var route2 = new RegexRoute(urlPattern, new MvcRouteHandler())
                         {
                             Defaults = new RouteValueDictionary(defaults),
                             Constraints = new RouteValueDictionary(constraints)
                         };
        var item = route2;
        if ((namespaces != null) && (namespaces.Length > 0))
        {
            item.DataTokens = new RouteValueDictionary();
            item.DataTokens["Namespaces"] = namespaces;
        }
        routes.Add(name, item);
        return item;
    }
}

Sample Usage (Global.asax)

public class Global : HttpApplication
{
    public static void RegisterRoutes(RouteCollection routes)
    {
        routes.MapRoute("Books", new Regex(@"^Books/((?<ssn>[\d]{3}(-?)[\d]{2}\1[\d]{4})|(?<query>.+)?)$", RegexOptions.Compiled),
                new { controller = "Books", action = "Index" });
    }

    protected void Application_Start()
    {
        RegisterRoutes(RouteTable.Routes);
    }
}

Hope this help’s!

Using IQueryable Extension Methods With LinqToSql

yb.nospam@nospam.sb2.fr (xTC) — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 03:16:49 +0200

Hi,

In this article I’ll shows a pretty useful way to build simple LinqToSql Queries with reusable IQueryable<T> Extension Methods.

Assuming a LinqToSql DataContext which contains a single Class named “User”

Now we want to Query a User by it’s Email Address.

Using Standard Linq Query we do the following in our UserController Class :

public User GetByEmail(String email)
{
    return Context.Users.Where(p => p.Email == email).SingleOrDefault();
}

This works fine but we can make this Where clause Reusable for further usages.

So we create a Extension Methods Class called UserExtensions :

public static class UserExtensions
{
    public static IQueryable<User> WithEmail(this IQueryable<User> q, String email)
    {
        return q.Where(p => p.Email == email);
    }
}

We can now modify our GetByEmail method and use our Extension method :

public User GetByEmail(String email)
{
    return Context.Users.WithEmail(email).SingleOrDefault();
}

This is now clear and Reusable !

Some other Examples :

public Boolean IsValidUser(String email, String password)
{
    var q = Context.Users.WithEmail(email).WithPassword(password);
    return q.SingleOrDefault() != null;
}

public Boolean UserExists(String email)
{
    return Context.Users.WithEmail(email).SingleOrDefault() != null;
}

So here is how to take Advantage of the IQueryable Interface with Extension Methods.

Hope this help’s!

Most Interesting .NET StackOverFlow Questions

yb.nospam@nospam.sb2.fr (xTC) — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 15:15:59 +0200

Hi,

Today a short list of My Personal Most Interesting .NET Questions asked on StackOverFlow I founded.

StackOverFlow is a great place for IT Developers for sharing and collaboratively editing IT professionals Questions and Answers.

1 - Visual Studio Optimizations

Visual studio is a pretty awesome IDE, but sometimes you just wish it would go faster. I was wondering if people have any tips or tricks to help speed up visual studio in day to day use.

Check it out : http://stackoverflow.com/questions/8440/visual-studio-optimizations

2 - Hidden .NET Base Class Library Classes

What are your favorite, lesser-known .NET Base Class Library classes?

Check it out : http://stackoverflow.com/questions/122784/hidden-net-base-class-library-classes

10 - Most Useful .NET Utility Classes Developers Tend To Reinvent Rather Than Reuse

Check it out : http://stackoverflow.com/questions/178524/most-useful-net-utility-classes-developers-tend-to-reinvent-rather-than-reuse

That’s all, hope this will be useful.

If anyone got some other interesting Questions on StackOverFlow I’ll be pretty happy to check them out too.

Thanks and Good Reading.

Hidden Features of C#

yb.nospam@nospam.sb2.fr (xTC) — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 23:52:09 +0200

Hi,

In this article, I’ll just link to a pretty great StackOverFlow Question about Hidden Features of C#.

Most of C# Features are obscure for us and need some explanations, the following list and explain how to use it.

For Example, Using the @ for variable names that are keywords

Using @ for variable names that are keywords.
var @object = new object();
var @string = "";
var @if = IpsoFacto();

Or even Aliased Generics

aliased generics:
using ASimpleName = Dictionary<string, Dictionary<string, List<string>>>;
allows you to use ASimpleName, instead of Dictionary<string, Dictionary<string, List<string>>>

use it when you would use the same generic big long complex thing in a lot of places

Check this out here : http://stackoverflow.com/questions/9033

Hope this Help’s.

Enum String Values Revised

yb.nospam@nospam.sb2.fr (xTC) — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 14:12:02 +0200

Hi,

In this article I’ll provide an improvement about my previous post talking about String Values from Enumerations.

Previously we was only able to handle String Values for Enums but with the following we are now able to handle any type of values like DateTime, String, Decimal, etc..

Here is a Sample of Custom Enum :

public enum MyStringEnum
{
    [EnumValue("Hello")]
    Foo,
    [EnumValue("Merry Christmas")]
    Something
}

public enum MyDateTimeEnum
{
    [EnumValue("12/30/2008")]
    Foo,
    [EnumValue("12/01/2008")]
    Something
}

Note : We must still using String Values in EnumValue Constructor since Attribute cannot be Generic and Constructor Parameter must be a constant expression, typeof expression or array creation expression.

The EnumValueAttribute is the same as described in my previous post.

public class EnumValueAttribute : Attribute
{
    #region Public Properties

    public String Value { get; private set; }

    #endregion

    public EnumValueAttribute(String val)
    {
        Value = val;
    }
}

The Trick resides in the GetValue Extension Method which is now Generic and use TypeConverter

public static T GetValue<T>(this Enum o)
{
    Type type = o.GetType();
    FieldInfo fieldInfo = type.GetField(o.ToString());
    EnumValueAttribute[] attribs = fieldInfo.GetCustomAttributes(
        typeof(EnumValueAttribute), false) as EnumValueAttribute[];

    if (attribs.Length > 0)
    {
        return (T)Convert.ChangeType(attribs[0].Value, typeof(T));
    }
    else
    {
        return default(T);
    }
}

Now we can use it simply like that :

MyStringEnum StringEnum = MyStringEnum.Foo;
String s = StringEnum.GetValue<String>();
Console.WriteLine(s);

MyDateTimeEnum DateEnum = MyDateTimeEnum.Something;
DateTime date = DateEnum.GetValue<DateTime>();
Console.WriteLine(date);

Hope this help’s!.

DotNetKicks And AddToAny Buttons Extension For BlogEngine

yb.nospam@nospam.sb2.fr (xTC) — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 20:19:28 +0200

Hi,

Here is a very useful Extension for BlogEngine in order to simply Add DotNetKicks Button and also AddToAny Features (Share and Subscribe)

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Web;
using BlogEngine.Core.Web.Controls;
using BlogEngine.Core;
using System.Text;

/// <summary>
/// Summary description for AddToAny With DotNetKick
/// </summary>
[Extension("Add AddtoAny Share and Subscribe and DotNetKick to Post", "1.0", "http://blog.sb2.fr")]
public class Sharing
{
    public Sharing()
    {
        Post.Serving += new EventHandler<ServingEventArgs>(Post_Serving);
    }

    private static void Post_Serving(object sender, ServingEventArgs e)
    {
        Post post = sender as Post;
        if (post == null)
            return;

        if (e.Location != ServingLocation.SinglePost)
            return;

        StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder(e.Body);
        sb.Append("<br/><br/>");

        // Add DotNetKick Button
        sb.AppendFormat("<a href=\"http://www.dotnetkicks.com/kick/?url={0}&amp;title={1}\"", post.AbsoluteLink, post.Title);
        sb.Append("target=\"_blank\" style=\"background-color:Transparent;border:none;padding:0;margin:0\">");
        sb.AppendFormat("<img src=\"http://www.dotnetkicks.com/Services/Images/KickItImageGenerator.ashx?url={0}\"", post.AbsoluteLink);
        sb.Append("border=\"0\" alt=\"kick it on DotNetKicks.com\" style=\"background-color:Transparent;border:none;padding:0;margin:0\" />");

        sb.Append("<br/><br/>");

        // Add AddToAny Buttons
        sb.AppendFormat("<a class=\"a2a_dd\" href=\"http://www.addtoany.com/share_save?linkname=&amp;linkurl={0}\">", post.AbsoluteLink);
        sb.Append("<img src=\"http://static.addtoany.com/buttons/share_save_171_16.gif\" width=\"171\" height=\"16\" border=\"0\" alt=\"Share/Save/Bookmark\"/></a>");
        sb.AppendFormat("<script type=\"text/javascript\">a2a_linkname=document.title;a2a_linkurl=\"{0}\";</script>", post.AbsoluteLink);
        sb.Append("<script type=\"text/javascript\" src=\"http://static.addtoany.com/menu/page.js\"></script>");

        sb.Append("&nbsp;");

        sb.AppendFormat("<a class=\"a2a_dd\" href=\"http://www.addtoany.com/subscribe?linkname=&amp;linkurl={0}\">", post.AbsoluteLink);
        sb.Append("<img src=\"http://static.addtoany.com/buttons/subscribe_171_16.gif\" width=\"171\" height=\"16\" border=\"0\" alt=\"Subscribe\"/></a>");
        sb.AppendFormat("<script type=\"text/javascript\">a2a_linkname=document.title;a2a_linkurl=\"{0}\";</script>", post.AbsoluteLink);
        sb.Append("<script type=\"text/javascript\" src=\"http://static.addtoany.com/menu/feed.js\"></script>");

        e.Body = sb.ToString();
    }
}

You can See the Result of this Extension at this Post Bottom.

Just put the Sharing.cs into your “~/App_Code/Extensions” Folder and It Works !

Sharing.cs

Hope this help’s!.

How-To Get Human Friendly File Size With C#

yb.nospam@nospam.sb2.fr (xTC) — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 17:03:46 +0200

Hi,

In this article I’ll provide a simple way to Display Human Friendly File Sizes with C#.

In order to do that I created a simple Class Called FriendlySize.

FriendlySize

public class FriendlySize
{
    #region Private Fields

    private long _length;
    private String[] _sizes = { "B", "KB", "MB", "GB" };

    #endregion

    #region Constructors

    public FriendlySize(FileInfo file)
    {
        _length = file.Length;
    }
    public FriendlySize(String file)
        : this(new FileInfo(file))
    {
    }
    public FriendlySize(long size)
    {
        _length = size;
    }

    #endregion

    #region Public Overrides Methods

    public override string ToString()
    {
        double len = _length;
        int order = 0;
        while (len >= 1024 && order + 1 < _sizes.Length)
        {
            order++;
            len = len / 1024;
        }
        return String.Format("{0:0.##} {1}", len, _sizes[order]);
    }

    #endregion
}

Sample Usage :

string path = @"C:\test.zip";
FriendlySize size = new FriendlySize(path);
Console.WriteLine(size);

Output :

1,17 KB

Hope this help’s!.

Useful HttpResponse Extension Methods

yb.nospam@nospam.sb2.fr (xTC) — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 15:58:43 +0200

Hi,

In this article a few useful Extension Methods for HttpResponse.

We often need to Write something to Response with New Line at the End or Switch Current Response to Ssl Mode.

Instread of using :

Response.Write("Something<br/>");

Response.WriteLine

public static void WriteLine(this HttpResponse response, Char o)
{
    response.Write(String.Concat(o, "<br/>"));
}
public static void WriteLine(this HttpResponse response, String o)
{
    response.Write(String.Concat(o, "<br/>"));
}
public static void WriteLine(this HttpResponse response, Object o)
{
    response.Write(String.Concat(o.ToString(), "<br/>"));
}

Response.SwitchToSsl

public static void SwitchToSsl(this HttpResponse response)
{
    String baseUrl = HttpContext.Current.Request.Url.OriginalString;
    Uri uri = new Uri(baseUrl);
    String url = baseUrl.Replace(uri.Scheme, Uri.UriSchemeHttps);
    response.Redirect(url, true);
}

Hope this help’s.

Pluggable Generic ASP.NET Cache Manager

yb.nospam@nospam.sb2.fr (xTC) — Sun, 28 Dec 2008 01:52:48 +0200

Hi,

In this article I’ll provide a simple way in order to build a Pluggable Generic ASP.NET Cache Manager.

I based my article on the John Sheehan article who make a pretty great work and Added Some Features to this Pluggable Cache Manager

Thread Safe Singleton
Multiple Cache Providers Support
Multiple Cache Provider Instances

We often need to store and retrieve Cache Items, but there is a lot of Caching way : Cache, Session, Memcached, Velocity etc…

The is the “Magic” Interface which only provide 3 common methods

public interface ICacheProvider
{
    void Save<T>(String key, T data);
    void Remove(String key);
    T Get<T>(String key);
}

Now the Implementation of the Cache Manager which will allow us to Register and Get Cache Providers.

public class CacheManager
{
    #region Private Static Fields

    private static Dictionary<String, ICacheProvider> _providers;
    private static ReaderWriterLockSlim _lock;

    #endregion

    #region Singleton

    static readonly CacheManager instance = new CacheManager();

    static CacheManager()
    {
        _providers = new Dictionary<String, ICacheProvider>();
        _lock = new ReaderWriterLockSlim();
    }

    CacheManager()
    {
    }

    public static CacheManager Instance
    {
        get
        {
            return instance;
        }
    }

    #endregion

    #region Public Methods

    public void RegisterCacheManager<T>(String cacheName) where T : ICacheProvider, new()
    {
        _lock.EnterUpgradeableReadLock();
        if (!_providers.ContainsKey(cacheName))
        {
            _lock.EnterWriteLock();

            T provider = new T();
            _providers.Add(cacheName, provider);

            _lock.ExitWriteLock();
        }
        _lock.ExitUpgradeableReadLock();
    }
    public void RegisterCacheManager<T>() where T : ICacheProvider, new()
    {
        RegisterCacheManager<T>(typeof(T).Name);
    }
    public T GetCacheManager<T>() where T : ICacheProvider
    {
        return GetCacheManager<T>(typeof(T).Name);
    }
    public T GetCacheManager<T>(String cacheName) where T : ICacheProvider
    {
        T provider = default(T);

        _lock.EnterUpgradeableReadLock();
        if (_providers.ContainsKey(cacheName))
        {
            provider = (T)_providers[cacheName];
        }
        else
        {
            throw new Exception("Unable to Locate Cache Manager");
        }
        _lock.ExitUpgradeableReadLock();

        return provider;
    }

    #endregion
}

We have now the ICacheProvider interface and our CacheManager. Now let’s implements a simple CacheProvider for ASP.NET

public class MyCacheProvider : ICacheProvider
{
    #region ICacheProvider Members

    public void Save<T>(string key, T data)
    {
        HttpContext.Current.Items.Add(key, data);
    }

    public void Remove(string key)
    {
        HttpContext.Current.Items.Remove(key);
    }

    public T Get<T>(string key)
    {
        T data = default(T);
        if (HttpContext.Current.Items[key] != null)
        {
            data = (T)HttpContext.Current.Items[key];
        }
        return data;
    }

    #endregion
}

We can now Register it in the CacheManager, Global.asax should be a great place for that.

protected void Application_Start(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
    // Register Default Cache
    CacheManager.Instance.RegisterCacheManager<MyCacheProvider>();

    // Register Configuration Cache
    CacheManager.Instance.RegisterCacheManager<MyCacheProvider>("Configuration");
}

So, we have created our Custom Cache Provider and Registered it into the Cache Manager. Now let’s use it in a sample web page.

Using Default Cache

public partial class _Default : Page
{
    protected override void OnLoad(EventArgs e)
    {
        // Get Default Cache Provider
        MyCacheProvider DefaultCache = CacheManager.Instance.GetCacheManager<MyCacheProvider>();

        // Save something to the Cache
        DefaultCache.Save("MyKey", "Hello !");

        // Retrieve the Saved Value From Cache
        String s = DefaultCache.Get<String>("MyKey");
        Response.Write(s);

        // Remove the Item from Cache
        DefaultCache.Remove("MyKey");

        base.OnLoad(e);
    }
}

Using Configuration Cache

public partial class _Default : Page
{
    protected override void OnLoad(EventArgs e)
    {
        // Get Configuration Cache Provider
        MyCacheProvider ConfigCache = CacheManager.Instance.GetCacheManager<MyCacheProvider>("Configuration");

        // Save something to the Cache
        ConfigCache.Save("MyKey", "My Config Value");

        // Retrieve the Saved Value From Cache
        String s = ConfigCache.Get<String>("MyKey");
        Response.Write(s);

        // Remove the Item from Cache
        ConfigCache.Remove("MyKey");

        base.OnLoad(e);
    }
}

Hope this will helpful :)

Avoiding Busby SEO Test Comment Spamming For BlogEngine

yb.nospam@nospam.sb2.fr (xTC) — Sat, 27 Dec 2008 15:52:06 +0200

Hi,

Not very sure what is the Busby SEO Test Project, but it seems to be a f***** project for Blog Comment Spamming.

I’ve a lot of no sense spam comments on my blog... But I don’t want to moderate Comments, just block these spammers.

Here is a simple way to avoid them to post spam comments for BlogEngine.

Just Add the Following Lines in the “~/User Controls/CommentView.ascx” Code Behind.

// Block Busby SPAMMERS
if (comment.Author.ToUpperInvariant().Contains("BUSBY")
    || comment.Author.ToUpperInvariant().Contains("SEO"))
{
    return;
}
//

if (!isPreview)
{
    Post.AddComment(comment);
    SetCookie(author, email, website, country);
}

Hope this Helps!.

Dealing With Enterprise Library Injection Policy And Unity IoC

yb.nospam@nospam.sb2.fr (xTC) — Fri, 26 Dec 2008 14:10:31 +0200

Hi,

In this article I’ll provide a Generic Unity Factory Class in order to take advantage of Unity and Injection Policy easily.

For Example purpose I created a simple Web Application Project and referenced the following assemblies

Microsoft.Practices.EnterpriseLibrary.Common
Microsoft.Practices.EnterpriseLibrary.PolicyInjection
Microsoft.Practices.EnterpriseLibrary.PolicyInjection.CallHandlers
Microsoft.Practices.EnterpriseLibrary.ObjectBuilder2

The goal of this article is to use Unity as an IoC Container and Use Policy Injection provided by Enterprise Library Policy Injection Application Block to handle CachingCallHandler on our Data Access Class Methods.

Firstly assuming a Book Model Class.

public class Book
{
    public Int32 BookId { get; set; }
    public String Title { get; set; }
}

Then the BookDAO

public interface IBookDAO
{
    List<Book> GetBooks();
}

public class BookDAO : IBookDAO
{
    [CachingCallHandler(0, 0, 10)]
    public List<Book> GetBooks()
    {
        HttpContext.Current.Trace.Warn("Called GetBooks from BookDAO.");
        return new List<Book>();
    }
}

For this Example purpose I defined the CachingCallHandler from InjectionPolicy Call Handlers to Expire every 10 seconds and the GetBooks method only Show a Trace Message when Method will be called then returns an empty List of Book.

Now in my Default.aspx Page I enabled Tracing in order to display BookDAO Message.

<%@ Page Language="C#" AutoEventWireup="true" Trace="true" CodeBehind="Default.aspx.cs" Inherits="WebApplication9._Default" %>

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head runat="server">
    <title></title>
</head>
<body>
    <form id="form1" runat="server">
    <div>
    </div>
    </form>
</body>
</html>

So we got our Basic Web Application.

Now talk about Unity and the UnityFactory Class :)

The UnityFactory Class use the Singleton Pattern since we only need a single instance of it.

public class UnityFactory<T> where T : class
{
    private static readonly UnityFactory<T> instance = new UnityFactory<T>();
    private static readonly IUnityContainer container = null;
    private static readonly List<Object> instances = new List<Object>();

    static UnityFactory()
    {
        var Config = ConfigurationManager.GetSection("unity") as UnityConfigurationSection;
        if (Config != null && Config.Containers.Default != null)
        {
            Config.Containers.Default.Configure(container);
        }
        else
        {
            container = new UnityContainer();
        }
    }

    UnityFactory()
    {
    }

    public static T GetObject()
    {
        T o = default(T);

        var q = instances.Where(p => p is T);
        if (q.Count() > 0)
        {
            o = q.FirstOrDefault() as T;
        }
        else
        {
            o = container.Resolve<T>();
            if (o != null) instances.Add(o);
        }
        if (o != null)
            o = PolicyInjection.Wrap<T>(o);
        return o;
    }
    public static void Register<TConcret>()
    {
        if (container != null)
        {
            container.RegisterType(typeof(T), typeof(TConcret));
        }
    }
}

Note the GetObject Method : This will firstly check in the Instance Collection if there is an Instance of the Asked Object, if yes return it.

Otherwise it will try to Resolve it according to the Unity Configuration in Web.config. If there is no configuration in Web.config it will Resolve the Object according to the RegisteredTypes in the Container.

So in our Web Application we need to Add a Global.asax file in order to register the mapping between the interface IBookDAO and the concret class BookDAO.

protected void Application_Start(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
    // Register Mapping Between IBookDAO and the Concret Class BookDAO in Unity Container
    UnityFactory<IBookDAO>.Register<BookDAO>();
}

Now we can use the UnityFactory to Inject Dependency of the IBookDao Interface in the Default.aspx Code-Behind.

public partial class _Default : System.Web.UI.Page
{
    protected override void OnLoad(EventArgs e)
    {
        IBookDAO dao = UnityFactory<IBookDAO>.GetObject();
        List<Book> books = dao.GetBooks();
        base.OnLoad(e);
    }
}

Really simple isn’t it ? :)

Now take a look at the ASP.NET Trace results

On first Page Call, we got the Trace Message from the BookDAO : “Called GetBooks from BookDAO.”

The BookDAO.GetBooks() was Called and Cached.

Now Refresh the Page.

Data are Cached ! There is no Trace Message from BookDAO anymore. If you wait a few second and refresh again the page, the message will reappear since the Cache Expired.

Conclusion : Enterprise Library Policy Injection is a pretty good way in order to simply Manage Cache Policies and moreover taking Advantage of Unity IoC for Dependencies Injection.

Hope this help’s!

WebApplication9.rar

More Informations :

http://www.codeplex.com/entlib

http://www.codeplex.com/unity

Generic EventHandler Raising Extension Method

yb.nospam@nospam.sb2.fr (xTC) — Thu, 25 Dec 2008 22:51:09 +0200

Hi,

Raising EventHandlers is a repetitive task in .NET Development. But this can be improved with C# 3 Feature with Extension Methods.

Actually you need to do the following :

public event EventHandler<EventArgs> MyEventHandler;
 
public void DoSomething()
{
    var e = MyEventHandler;
    if(e != null)
    {
        e(this, new EventArgs());
    }
}

In order to avoid this repetitive Task, my friend Brian on this blog post talked about a useful Extension Method.

Generic EventArgs EventHandler

public static void Raise<TEventArgs>(this EventHandler<TEventArgs> eventHandler, Object sender, TEventArgs args)
{
    var e = eventHandler;
    if (e != null)
    {
        e(sender, args);
    }
}

However he didn’t provide a standard EventHandler EventArgs-less Implementation of the Extension Method.

Here is the Code.

Standard EventHandler

public static void Raise(this EventHandler eventHandler, Object sender)
{
    var e = eventHandler;
    if (e != null)
    {
        e(sender, null);
    }
}

Hope this help’s!

Useful ASP.NET Videos And WebCasts

yb.nospam@nospam.sb2.fr (xTC) — Thu, 25 Dec 2008 17:59:16 +0200

Hi,

Today a pretty big list of some useful Videos and WebCasts talking about ASP.NET.

Beginning with ASP.NET

So Far With ASP.NET

Advanced ASP.NET

Hope this will be Helpful :)

BlogEngine.NET Backup Manager

yb.nospam@nospam.sb2.fr (xTC) — Thu, 25 Dec 2008 15:52:00 +0200

Hi,

I wrote a simple Backup Manager for BlogEngine.NET in order to perform some entire Weblog Backups.

The Following Backup Manager only support Xml Based DataStore at this moment, but I’ll improve it to support any Datastore providers.

Here is the Steps in order to make this working :

Put the “Admin/BackupManager” Folder to your “Admin” Folder.
Put the “App_Code/BackupManager” Folder to your “App_Code” Folder
Copy the ICSharpCode.SharpZipLib.dll to your “Bin” Folder
Create an Empty “Backups” Folder into “/App_Data”
Then make the Following changes in Web.sitemap and Web.config

Web.Sitemap

<siteMapNode url="~/admin/BackupManager/Default.aspx" title="Backup Manager"  description=""  roles="administrators"/>

Web.Config

<httpHandlers><add verb="*" path="backup.axd" type="BackupManager" validate="false"/></httpHandlers>

Now all should works :)

UPDATED : The Backup Manager now Displays Backup File Size.

Just Replace Default.aspx and Default.aspx.cs into “~/Admin/BackupManager”.

Download It :

BackupManager.rar

Storing ViewState On Server Instead Of Client With ASP.NET

yb.nospam@nospam.sb2.fr (xTC) — Thu, 25 Dec 2008 14:09:29 +0200

ViewState is a great way in order to save Control State. But when working with large ViewState Data (GridView, DataList etc..) this will add a lot of overhead to your Web Application.

In order to avoid this overhead, we can store ViewState on the Server instead of Client. Because ViewState is only useful for Control Rendering or Server processing there is no sense to store it on the client.

To Store the ViewState in the Server we are going to use the PageStatePersister class.

MSDN :

PageStatePersister Class

Provides the base functionality for ASP.NET view state persistence mechanisms.

Namespace: System.Web.UI
Assembly: System.Web (in System.Web.dll)

In order to use it you only need to Override the PageStatePersister Property of your Page (System.Web.UI.Page) as the following

Override PageStatePersister

protected override PageStatePersister PageStatePersister
{
    get
    {
        return new SessionPageStatePersister(this);
    }
}

Page ViewState Before our Customization

<input type="hidden" name="__VIEWSTATE" id="__VIEWSTATE" value="/wEPDwUJMjkyMzAwMzQxZBgEBR5fX0NvbnRyb2xzUmVxdWl
yZVBvc3RCYWNrS2V5X18WDQURTG9naW4xJFJlbWVtYmVyTWUFF0xvZ2luMSRMb2dpbkltYWdlQnV0dG9uBTxDcmVhdGVVc2VyV2l6YXJkMSRfX0
N1c3RvbU5hdjAkU3RlcFByZXZpb3VzQnV0dG9uSW1hZ2VCdXR0b24FOENyZWF0ZVVzZXJXaXphcmQxJF9fQ3VzdG9tTmF2MCRTdGVwTmV4dEJ1d
HRvbkltYWdlQnV0dG9uBTZDcmVhdGVVc2VyV2l6YXJkMSRfX0N1c3RvbU5hdjAkQ2FuY2VsQnV0dG9uSW1hZ2VCdXR0b24FSUNyZWF0ZVVzZXJX
aXphcmQxJFN0YXJ0TmF2aWdhdGlvblRlbXBsYXRlQ29udGFpbmVySUQkU3RhcnROZXh0SW1hZ2VCdXR0b24FRkNyZWF0ZVVzZXJXaXphcmQxJFN
0YXJ0TmF2aWdhdGlvblRlbXBsYXRlQ29udGFpbmVySUQkQ2FuY2VsSW1hZ2VCdXR0b24FT0NyZWF0ZVVzZXJXaXphcmQxJEZpbmlzaE5hdmlnY
XRpb25UZW1wbGF0ZUNvbnRhaW5lcklEJEZpbmlzaFByZXZpb3VzSW1hZ2VCdXR0b24FR0NyZWF0ZVVzZXJXaXphcmQxJEZpbmlzaE5hdmlnYXRp
b25UZW1wbGF0ZUNvbnRhaW5lcklEJEZpbmlzaEltYWdlQnV0dG9uBUdDcmVhdGVVc2VyV2l6YXJkMSRGaW5pc2hOYXZpZ2F0aW9uVGVtcGxhdGV
Db250YWluZXJJRCRDYW5jZWxJbWFnZUJ1dHRvbgVLQ3JlYXRlVXNlcldpemFyZDEkU3RlcE5hdmlnYXRpb25UZW1wbGF0ZUNvbnRhaW5lcklEJF
N0ZXBQcmV2aW91c0ltYWdlQnV0dG9uBUdDcmVhdGVVc2VyV2l6YXJkMSRTdGVwTmF2aWdhdGlvblRlbXBsYXRlQ29udGFpbmVySUQkU3RlcE5le
HRJbWFnZUJ1dHRvbgVFQ3JlYXRlVXNlcldpemFyZDEkU3RlcE5hdmlnYXRpb25UZW1wbGF0ZUNvbnRhaW5lcklEJENhbmNlbEltYWdlQnV0dG9
uBRFDcmVhdGVVc2VyV2l6YXJkMQ8QZBQrAAFmZmQFIUNyZWF0ZVVzZXJXaXphcmQxJFdpemFyZE11bHRpVmlldw8PZGZkBQpMb2dpblZpZXcxD
w9kAgFkeRepZwn7jve5rLMjGzMIzhcPCXo=" />

Page ViewState After our Customization

<input type="hidden" name="__VIEWSTATE" id="__VIEWSTATE" value="/wEPaA8FDzhjYjM0YjBjYmRiNWFlYmTsPQ5CpZN/tzgLGEb8hwbihwVFuw==" />

NOTE : Note that Server-Side Stored ViewState Data will be lost if your Web Application Restart. I’ll provide later a simple way in order to Implement a Database ViewState Persister.

NOTE 2 : Note that if you use SQL Server Session State Management, the SessionPageStatePersister should store ViewState in Session Items in SQL Server. So even a Application Restart, ViewState Data should be kept.

Hope this help’s!

Some ASP.NET Optimizations And Best Practices

yb.nospam@nospam.sb2.fr (xTC) — Thu, 25 Dec 2008 02:39:10 +0200

Hi,

In this article I’ll talk about ASP.NET Optimization and Best Practices. As everyone know ASP.NET has a lot of hidden secrets and by revealing them you got performance and scalability boost ! Here some of them in order to make powerful ASP.NET Applications.

1 - Use Output Buffering

<% Response.Buffer = true %>

...

<% Response.Flush = true %>

2 - Use HttpResponse.IsClientConnected

Take advantage of this feature in order to make sure that the client is still connected before start large operations.

if (Response.IsClientConnected)
{
    // Do Large Operations
}

3 - Always Check Page.IsValid

In order to avoid Client Side Validation, you must always perform a Server-Side validation. cf. My previous Post

if (Page.IsValid)
{
    // Do Something
}

4 - Always Deploy in Release Build

Make sure you deploy your Web Application in Release Mode, this will ensure not deploying Debug Informations which really slow down your application..

5 – Turn Off ASP.NET Tracing

ASP.NET Tracing is pretty useful, but will add a lot of overhead to your Web Application. So don’t forget to Turn it Off.

<configuration>
    <system.web>
        <trace enabled="false" pageOutput="false" />
        <trace enabled="false" requestLimit="10" pageOutput="false" traceMode="SortByTime" localOnly="true"/>
        <compilation debug="false" />
    </system.web>
</configuration>

6 – Turn off Compilation Debug

Make sure turn off Compilation Debug in Web.Config. Otherwise, it will add a lot of overhead to your Web Application due to Debug Informations at JIT Compilation..

<configuration>
    <system.web>
        <compilation debug="false" />
    </system.web>
</configuration>

Trick : In order to make sure you use Best Configuration in Web.Config and avoid Compilation mistakes use the following attribute

<configuration>
    <system.web>
        <deployment retail="true"/>
    </system.web>
</configuration>

7 – Use Caching

Caching is probably the best performance key point in order to make your Web Application very powerful and optimized.

Here is some article I written about Caching with ASP.NET

8 – Turn Off ViewState

ViewState is pretty useful when working with PostBacks. By Default ASP.NET Controls will turn on ViewState and may slow your Web Site.

If you don’t use PostBacks, don’t forget to turn it off. This will make your Web Page weight lighter !

Hope this help’s! :)

Merry Christmas GeeK’s

yb.nospam@nospam.sb2.fr (xTC) — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 18:33:01 +0200

Hi,

Today a very useless Post, but a little bit Funny :)

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year
GeeK’s

I hope I would not have bugs for Christmas :D

See you next Year :)

ReadOnlyDictionnary And ReadOnlyList Wrappers

yb.nospam@nospam.sb2.fr (xTC) — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 18:12:45 +0200

In this article two Simple Implementations of ReadOnlyDictionary<TKey,TValue> and ReadOnlyList<T>.

ReadOnlyDictionary<TKey,TValue>

public class ReadOnlyDictionary<TKey, TValue> : IDictionary<TKey, TValue>
{
    #region Private Fields

    private IDictionary<TKey, TValue> _original;

    #endregion

    #region Constructors

    public ReadOnlyDictionary(IDictionary<TKey, TValue> original)
    {
        _original = original;
    }

    #endregion

    #region IDictionary<TKey,TValue> Members

    public void Add(TKey key, TValue value)
    {
        throw new NotSupportedException();
    }

    public bool ContainsKey(TKey key)
    {
        return _original.ContainsKey(key);
    }

    public ICollection<TKey> Keys
    {
        get { return _original.Keys; }
    }

    public bool Remove(TKey key)
    {
        throw new NotSupportedException();
    }

    public bool TryGetValue(TKey key, out TValue value)
    {
        return _original.TryGetValue(key, out value);
    }

    public ICollection<TValue> Values
    {
        get { return _original.Values; }
    }

    public TValue this[TKey key]
    {
        get
        {
            return _original[key];
        }
        set
        {
            throw new NotSupportedException();
        }
    }

    #endregion

    #region ICollection<KeyValuePair<TKey,TValue>> Members

    public void Add(KeyValuePair<TKey, TValue> item)
    {
        throw new NotSupportedException();
    }

    public void Clear()
    {
        throw new NotSupportedException();
    }

    public bool Contains(KeyValuePair<TKey, TValue> item)
    {
        return _original.Contains(item);
    }

    public void CopyTo(KeyValuePair<TKey, TValue>[] array, int arrayIndex)
    {
        _original.CopyTo(array, arrayIndex);
    }

    public int Count
    {
        get { return _original.Count; }
    }

    public bool IsReadOnly
    {
        get { return true; }
    }

    public bool Remove(KeyValuePair<TKey, TValue> item)
    {
        throw new NotSupportedException();
    }

    #endregion

    #region IEnumerable<KeyValuePair<TKey,TValue>> Members

    public IEnumerator<KeyValuePair<TKey, TValue>> GetEnumerator()
    {
        return _original.GetEnumerator();
    }

    #endregion

    #region IEnumerable Members

    System.Collections.IEnumerator System.Collections.IEnumerable.GetEnumerator()
    {
        return _original.GetEnumerator();
    }

    #endregion
}

ReadOnlyList<T>

public class ReadOnlyList<T> : IList<T>
{
    #region Private Fields

    private IList<T> _original;

    #endregion

    #region Constructors

    public ReadOnlyList(IList<T> original)
    {
        _original = original;
    }

    #endregion

    #region IList<T> Members

    public int IndexOf(T item)
    {
        return _original.IndexOf(item);
    }

    public void Insert(int index, T item)
    {
        throw new NotSupportedException();
    }

    public void RemoveAt(int index)
    {
        throw new NotSupportedException();
    }

    public T this[int index]
    {
        get
        {
            return _original[index];
        }
        set
        {
            throw new NotSupportedException();
        }
    }

    #endregion

    #region ICollection<T> Members

    public void Add(T item)
    {
        throw new NotSupportedException();
    }

    public void Clear()
    {
        throw new NotSupportedException();
    }

    public bool Contains(T item)
    {
        return _original.Contains(item);
    }

    public void CopyTo(T[] array, int arrayIndex)
    {
        _original.CopyTo(array, arrayIndex);
    }

    public int Count
    {
        get { return _original.Count; }
    }

    public bool IsReadOnly
    {
        get { return true; }
    }

    public bool Remove(T item)
    {
        throw new NotSupportedException();
    }

    #endregion

    #region IEnumerable<T> Members

    public IEnumerator<T> GetEnumerator()
    {
        return _original.GetEnumerator();
    }

    #endregion

    #region IEnumerable Members

    System.Collections.IEnumerator System.Collections.IEnumerable.GetEnumerator()
    {
        return _original.GetEnumerator();
    }

    #endregion
}

Hope this help’s!

How-To Ensure and Make Http Session State Read-Only

yb.nospam@nospam.sb2.fr (xTC) — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 17:38:42 +0200

When working with Http Handlers or Http Modules, we often need to use Session State.

The Simple way to make an Http Handler “SessionState Enabled” is to inherit it with the IRequiresSessionState Interface

MSDN :

IRequiresSessionState Interface

Specifies that the target HTTP handler requires read and write access to session-state values. This is a marker interface and has no methods.

Namespace: System.Web.SessionState
Assembly: System.Web (in System.Web.dll)

Now we want to make an Http Handler with SessionState support by just Read-Only. So after a quick search on the MSDN Library, I founded the IReadOnlySessionState

MSDN :

IReadOnlySessionState Interface

Specifies that the target HTTP handler requires only read access to session-state values. This is a marker interface and has no methods.

Namespace: System.Web.SessionState
Assembly: System.Web (in System.Web.dll)

But in fact this Interface just mark the HttpSessionState.IsReadOnly as “True” and we are still able to modify Session Items ... (or I missed something ..)

This is why I created a Custom SessionState Class Called : ReadOnlySessionState

public class ReadOnlySessionState : IHttpSessionState
{
    #region Private Properties

    private HttpSessionState Session { get; set; }

    #endregion

    #region Contructors

    public ReadOnlySessionState(HttpSessionState sessionState)
    {
        Session = sessionState;
    } 

    #endregion

    #region IHttpSessionState Members

    public void Abandon()
    {
        Session.Abandon();
    }

    public void Add(string name, object value)
    {
        throw new NotSupportedException();
    }

    public void Clear()
    {
        throw new NotSupportedException();
    }

    public int CodePage
    {
        get
        {
            return Session.CodePage;
        }
        set
        {
            throw new NotSupportedException();
        }
    }

    public System.Web.HttpCookieMode CookieMode
    {
        get { return Session.CookieMode; }
    }

    public void CopyTo(Array array, int index)
    {
        throw new NotSupportedException();
    }

    public int Count
    {
        get { return Session.Count; }
    }

    public System.Collections.IEnumerator GetEnumerator()
    {
        return Session.GetEnumerator();
    }

    public bool IsCookieless
    {
        get { return Session.IsCookieless; }
    }

    public bool IsNewSession
    {
        get { return Session.IsNewSession; }
    }

    public bool IsReadOnly
    {
        get { return true; }
    }

    public bool IsSynchronized
    {
        get { return Session.IsSynchronized; }
    }

    public System.Collections.Specialized.NameObjectCollectionBase.KeysCollection Keys
    {
        get { return Session.Keys; }
    }

    public int LCID
    {
        get
        {
            return Session.LCID;
        }
        set
        {
            throw new NotSupportedException();
        }
    }

    public SessionStateMode Mode
    {
        get { return Session.Mode; }
    }

    public void Remove(string name)
    {
        throw new NotSupportedException();
    }

    public void RemoveAll()
    {
        throw new NotSupportedException();
    }

    public void RemoveAt(int index)
    {
        throw new NotSupportedException();
    }

    public string SessionID
    {
        get { return Session.SessionID; }
    }

    public System.Web.HttpStaticObjectsCollection StaticObjects
    {
        get { return Session.StaticObjects; }
    }

    public object SyncRoot
    {
        get { return Session.SyncRoot; }
    }

    public int Timeout
    {
        get
        {
            return Session.Timeout;
        }
        set
        {
            throw new NotSupportedException();
        }
    }

    public object this[int index]
    {
        get
        {
            return Session[index];
        }
        set
        {
            throw new NotSupportedException();
        }
    }

    public object this[string name]
    {
        get
        {
            return Session[name];
        }
        set
        {
            throw new NotSupportedException();
        }
    }

    #endregion
}

Now we can use it in an Http Handler as the following

public class MySessionStateReadOnlyHandler : IHttpHandler,IReadOnlySessionState
{
    protected ReadOnlySessionState Session
    {
        get { return new ReadOnlySessionState(HttpContext.Current.Session); }
    }

    public void ProcessRequest(HttpContext context)
    {
        Session["MyItem"] = "Hello World"; // Will throw a NotSupportedException : Good !
    }

    public bool IsReusable
    {
        get
        {
            return false;
        }
    }
}

Hope this help’s!

Some Common Errors With ASP.NET

yb.nospam@nospam.sb2.fr (xTC) — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 14:42:58 +0200

Hi,

In this article I’ll start a list a few Common Errors about ASP.NET Developers are confronted and give solutions.

1 - Are you missing a using directive or an assembly reference ?

When using Inline Code in ASPX Page we often got this Exception. This Exception occurs when you don’t Import Namespace as you do with “using” statement in Code-Behind.

Server Error in '/' Application.

Compilation Error

Description: An error occurred during the compilation of a resource required to service this request. Please review the following specific error details and modify your source code appropriately.
Compiler Error Message: CS1061: 'string' does not contain a definition for 'RemoveExtraHyphen' and no extension method 'RemoveExtraHyphen' accepting a first argument of type 'string' could be found (are you missing a using directive or an assembly reference?)
Source Error:

Line 9:      <form id="form1" runat="server">
Line 10:     <div>
Line 11:         <%= "Hello--World--!".RemoveExtraHyphen()%>
Line 12:     </div>
Line 13:     </form>

Solution : Add a Namespace Reference in the ASPX Page :

<%@ Import Namespace="Sb2.Core.Extensions" %>

2 - A potentially dangerous Request.Form value was detected from the client

This Exception occurs when “EnableEventValidation” directive in WebForm is set as “True” and when you tries to POST some potentially dangerous values.

Server Error in '/' Application.

A potentially dangerous Request.Form value was detected from the client (TextBox1="<!=").

Description: Request Validation has detected a potentially dangerous client input value, and processing of the request has been aborted. This value may indicate an attempt to compromise the security of your application, such as a cross-site scripting attack. You can disable request validation by setting validateRequest=false in the Page directive or in the configuration section. However, it is strongly recommended that your application explicitly check all inputs in this case.
Exception Details: System.Web.HttpRequestValidationException: A potentially dangerous Request.Form value was detected from the client (TextBox1="<!=").
Source Error:

Solution : Set EnableEventValidation directive a “False” in WebPage or in Web.config

<%@ Page Language="C#" EnableEventValidation="false" AutoEventWireup="true" CodeBehind="Default.aspx.cs" Inherits="Sb2.Web.Tests._Default" %>

3 – Usage of IsPostBack

Now a pretty common mistake when working with ASP.NET …

Assuming the following ASP.NET WebForm

<%@ Page Language="C#" AutoEventWireup="true" CodeBehind="Default.aspx.cs" Inherits="Sb2.Web.Tests._Default" %>

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head runat="server">
    <title></title>
</head>
<body>
    <form id="form1" runat="server">
    <div>
        <asp:TextBox ID="txtEmail" runat="server"></asp:TextBox><br />
        <asp:Button ID="btSave" runat="server" Text="Save" onclick="btSave_Click" />
    </div>
    </form>
</body>
</html>

And the Associated Code-Behind

[Serializable]
public class Customer
{
    public String Email { get; set; }
}
public partial class _Default : Page
{
    public Customer CurrentCustomer
    {
        get { return ViewState["Customer"] as Customer; }
        set { ViewState["Customer"] = value; }
    }
    protected override void OnLoad(EventArgs e)
    {
        // Load Customer Data
        LoadData();

        base.OnLoad(e);
    }

    private void LoadData()
    {
        if (CurrentCustomer != null)
        {
            this.txtEmail.Text = CurrentCustomer.Email;
        }
    }

    protected void btSave_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
    {
        if (CurrentCustomer == null)
        {
            CurrentCustomer = new Customer();
        }

        CurrentCustomer.Email = this.txtEmail.Text;

        // Reload Data
        LoadData();
    }
}

What I do here ?

On Page Load, i retrieved the Customer Data (Email Address) and Display it in my WebForm TextBox.
I modify the Email Address on the Web Page and I Click “Save” button and then Reload Data in order to verify my changes
BUT I saw that the Email Address is always the previous value and not my modified value .. WHY ?

When passing in Debug Mode we see that the PageLoad is called before Enter the Button Click Event, so the Email Address is replaced by the Previous Value of Customer.Email and then when Button Click Event fired it saves the previous value again ..

Solution : Just Modify the OnLoad method like that

protected override void OnLoad(EventArgs e)
{
    if (!IsPostBack)
    {
        // Load Customer Data
        LoadData();
    }

    base.OnLoad(e);
}

By this, when we are in a PostBack Event (Save Button Click), we don’t call LoadData on PageLoad ! So we keep the modified value in the TextBox.

Hope this help’s!

Sb2 Developers Blog

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2 - Use HttpResponse.IsClientConnected

3 - Always Check Page.IsValid

4 - Always Deploy in Release Build

5 – Turn Off ASP.NET Tracing

6 – Turn off Compilation Debug

7 – Use Caching

8 – Turn Off ViewState

Merry Christmas GeeK’s

Hi,

Today a very useless Post, but a little bit Funny :)

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year GeeK’s

I hope I would not have bugs for Christmas :D

ReadOnlyDictionnary And ReadOnlyList Wrappers

ReadOnlyDictionary<TKey,TValue>

ReadOnlyList<T>

How-To Ensure and Make Http Session State Read-Only

Some Common Errors With ASP.NET

1 - Are you missing a using directive or an assembly reference ?

Server Error in '/' Application.

Compilation Error

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year
GeeK’s