Here is simple c# extension method to format your XML data. This is useful for logging xml data to trace files, etc:
public static class XmlDocumentPrettyExtension
{
public static string Prettyify(this XmlDocument xmlDocument)
{
var stringWriter = new StringWriter(new StringBuilder());
var xmlTextWriter = new XmlTextWriter(stringWriter) { Formatting = Formatting.Indented };
xmlDocument.Save(xmlTextWriter);
return stringWriter.ToString();
}
}
I’ve been using Entity Framework for sometime now. But we all know using EF for everything may not be the best option. I decided to use Dapper for certain db queries.
Dapper requires an open SqlConnection object, I didn’t want to have to manage another connection string in my web.config so I looked at options for converting an EF connection string to an ADO connection string.
After some research I came up with the following:
private SqlConnection GetSqlConnection(DbContext dbContext)
{
var ec = dbContext.Database.Connection;
var adoConnStr = ec.ConnectionString;
return new SqlConnection(adoConnStr);
}
If you are like me and use git bash, powershell cmd or some other command line utility for git you quickly learn there is a lot of keystrokes to do repetitive tasks. Creating aliases in git is a convenient way to minimize the amount of keystrokes you will have to make. Here are some alias I have setup that I use on a daily basis:
Each time you create an alias you are adding it to one of 3 config files: local, system and global. In the examples above I add it to the global config file. To learn more about these config files take a look here: git-config
Using an Azure VM is a convenient way to test new software without having to corrupt your own terminal or using more resources for a virtual instance using Virtual Box, VMWare, etc.
As you may already know if a VM is stopped there are no charges for computing cost. However you will still incur a charge for the storage used by the VM (which is significantly less). Using a powershell script to manage the state of these VMs are helpful. I have the shutdown powershell script on a scheduler that runs nightly.
In order to use azure powershell you must do the following:
Install Azure PowerShell.
Connect to your subscription within Azure Powershell
Sometimes you need to generate a quick certificate to test your app. Using openssl you can easily accomplish this, take a look at my example below:
# Generate Cert and Key in seperate file
# Provide the .cert to the end user
openssl req -new -newkey rsa:1024 -days 365 -nodes -x509 -keyout QA.key -out QA.cert
# Merge cert and private key to make a p12 file, this file will be used by .NET's X509Certificate2 class, The private key will be accessible via the "PrivateKey" property
openssl pkcs12 -export -in qa.cert -inkey qa.key -out qa.p12 -name "QA"
Got a question? Send me a message on twitter: @tekguy
Recently I integrated my web app with Azure ACS but was having a difficult time signing out of ACS (deleting my cookie off the .accesscontrol.windows.net server). The following code will create a wsignout1.0 message. Essentially it will construct a url with the action parameter set to “wsignout1.0”. An additional parameter “wreply” allows you to specify a url to redirect to after you have been signed out:
public ActionResult LogOff()
{
// Load Identity Configuration
FederationConfiguration config = FederatedAuthentication.FederationConfiguration;
// Get wtrealm from WsFederationConfiguation Section
string wtrealm = config.WsFederationConfiguration.Realm;
string wreply;
// Construct wreply value from wtrealm (This will be the return URL to your app)
wreply = wtrealm;
// Read the ACS Ws-Federation endpoint from web.Config
// something like "https://<your-namespace>.accesscontrol.windows.net/v2/wsfederation"
string wsFederationEndpoint = ConfigurationManager.AppSettings["ida:Issuer"];
SignOutRequestMessage signoutRequestMessage = new SignOutRequestMessage(new Uri(wsFederationEndpoint));
signoutRequestMessage.Parameters.Add("wreply", wreply);
signoutRequestMessage.Parameters.Add("wtrealm", wtrealm);
FederatedAuthentication.SessionAuthenticationModule.SignOut();
string signoutUrl = signoutRequestMessage.WriteQueryString();
return this.Redirect(signoutUrl);
}
Got a question? Send me a message on twitter: @tekguy
Most web developers today have experience using jQuery. If you are new to AngularJs and would like to start learning it I would suggest reading this post on Stack Overflow before reviewing any Angular tutorials. It will help clear up a lot of issues when trying to use both (I don’t recommend it).
If you are coming from MvcSiteMapProvider version 3 you will notice some changes in version 4. One of the key changes in version 4 is using app setting key/values instead of the SiteMap node. To learn more about new features in version 4 click here.
Implementing a visibility provider in version 4 is simple. It requires a couple small steps:
Creating a class and derive it from “SiteMapNodeVisibilityProviderBase”.
Add a setting to your web.config file.
Update the site map file.
Creating our visibility class
Configuring web.config
Take caution and matchup your namespaces and classes correctly with the sample code I provided. Add a new app setting key/value:
