Archive for category HowTo

Simple messaging system -database configuration

Oct 3

Posted by Andrei Ignat in ASP.NET MVC, MVC 4, MVC Messaging System, projects

Contents
We will create the database tables and user to access the database from the application
You will find at bottom the

scripts for creating database

materials to read further

homework for you

As an older database programmer, I have started with database configuration.

The selected database engine is Sql Server 2008 R2 Express – the free version that can be downloaded from here : http://www.microsoft.com/express
To create tables , just start Sql Server Management Studio, point to your database, right click “Tables” node and press “New Table”
I have created the following tables in the diagram:

Several comments:

The smsg_User table can ( and will !) be replaced by the owner of the site with his table of users . More, this will be configurable by the owner. That’s why I choose IDUser being varchar(150) – maybe the user id will be GUID ?
The messages are stored in the smsg_Message
The message archive table(smsg_Message_Archive) is simply to make the search faster on smsg_Message table. We will put here the messages older than (1 month? 2 months?)
The smsg_MessageThread contains the possibility for the user to reply more than one time to a message.
IDMessage is bigint . We can also put guid to have unlimited number of messages -but 9,223,372,036,854,775,807 messages ( * 2 -we will see it in action) will be enough for a small site.
You can download the script from here:
http://msprogrammer.serviciipeweb.ro/wp-content/uploads/MVC-4_94F/smsgV1.zip

Also you should not rely on Windows Identity to access the database. Why ? Because , usually , on Web hosting you have only some user name and password for database – not Active Directory user.

We will create an user that can access the Database and have full rights. We will manage further the rights for everyone.

Open SQL Server Management Studio and go to Security.

Please right click on “Logins ” in “Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio”

Step 2: Please left click on “New Login… “

Step 3: Please introduce “smsg” in “Login – New”

Step 4: Please left click on “SQL Server authentication ” in “Login – New”

Step 5: Please left click on “Password ” in “Login – New”

Step 6: Please put “smsg” in “Login – New”

Step 7: Please “smsg” in “Login – New” for confirm password

Step 8: Please left click in “Login – New”

Step 9: Please left click on “Enforce password policy ” in “Login – New”

Step 10: Please left click on “Database ” in “Login – New”

Step 11: Please keyboard input in “Login – New” [...]

Step 12: Add rights : Please left click on “SMsgS “

Step 13: Please left click on “User Mapping ” in “Login – New”

Step 15: Please mouse drag end on “Current view pane ” in “Login – New”

Step 16: Please left click on “Smsg” database

Step 17: smsg user will be in the dbo schema

Step 18: Please put “dbo” as schema

Step 19: Please select “db_datareader “

Step 20: Please select on “db_datawriter ” in “Login – New”

Step 21: Please select “db_owner ” in “Login – New”

Step 22: Please left click on “OK ” in “Login – New”

Now we will verify on database:

Step 23: Please left click on “Object Explorer Hierarchy ” in “Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio”

Step 24: Please left click on “Object Explorer Hierarchy ” in “Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio”

Step 25: Please left click on “smsg ” in “Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio”

Summary
We have created database tables . We also generate a script for you that can be found here:
http://msprogrammer.serviciipeweb.ro/wp-content/uploads/MVC-4_94F/smsgV1.zip
But the security login ( user : smsg , pwd: smsg) you do have to do yourself.
You can also download the database backup from http://messagemvc.codeplex.com/releases/view/74250

To read:
3 Normal Form from Database Normalization, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Database_normalization

Homework:
What if we want to send messages to a further date( let’s say, after on day 1 on the next month) ? What database changes do you envision ?

Tags: Simple messaging system

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MVC4 and Simple messaging system

Sep 25

Posted by Andrei Ignat in ASP.NET MVC, MVC 4, MVC Messaging System, projects

MVC4 Developer preview with mobile support just released. And, because best way to deal with is within an application, I decide to create a simple messaging system for any site that is made with MVC.

Description:

I begin with a registered user. What he can do:

1. Create messages ( subject + body ) to send to another registered user. The list of the users on the system will be taken either from database, either from an Application variable. The message will be recorded to a database( configured by the owner of the site ) with the possibility to be send also by email

2. When login, the registered user can see the list of messages and replies send to/by him. Also, if he has unread messages he can see an advertisement.

3. The application could be seen also from a mobile device.

What should be done also:

4. The install of the application should be easy for any developer ( xcopy or some package – like Nuget or recipe)

Wish me luck to finish !

Tags: Simple messaging system

4 Comments

Asp.NET MVC, Jquery and Razor – Cascading dropdown, retrieving partial views, Json send objects, handling errors

Feb 13

Posted by Andrei Ignat in ASP.NET MVC

There are many blogs and other posts on using jQuery with MVC. You can find individual posts on:

· How to send objects to an action method via JavaScript.

· How to retrieve partial views.

· How to handle errors.

I have written a sample showing how to do all of these together. The sample is written in MVC 3 using Razor views

The sample demonstrates:

Cascading dropdown ( see the button Populate from action and Cascading drop down)
Populating a table from a Partial View(see the button Add New Employee(jquery call action and render)
How to handle error from action ( press Save 2 )
How to send id parameters (long) from javascript to action ( press Delete 1 or Delete 2)
How to send objects(Employee) from javascript to action ( press Save 1 or Save 2)

Without further ado, this is the project . Enjoy!

Jquery MVC Razor demo full

PS: If you seems that the code is too hard, here is a more detailed explanation :http://msprogrammer.serviciipeweb.ro/2011/12/05/jquery-ajax-request-and-mvcdetailed/

Tags: cascading drop down list, jquery, partial views

11 Comments

MVC Zip Result

Jan 31

Posted by Andrei Ignat in ASP.NET MVC, mini tools list, tools

Sometimes you need to send to the user more than 1 file – or, maybe, the file is too large
The simplest way is : made a zip file that contains the others.

What do you need
1. SharpzipLib from http://www.icsharpcode.net/opensource/sharpziplib/ ( or download via NuGet in VS)
2. obtain the file(s) that you want as a string or as a byte[] – let’s say you have a byte[] to store in a str variable
3. make in your action something like that:

 var fcr = new ZipResult("Export.xls", str);
            fcr.AddFile("readme.txt","this zip file contains ..");
            return fcr;

4. copy the following code in your asp.net mvc projects:


using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Web;
using System.Web.Mvc;
using System.IO;
using ICSharpCode.SharpZipLib.Zip;
using System.Text;

namespace utilsResult
{
    public class ZipResult : FileResult
    {

        private Dictionary<string, byte[]> content = new Dictionary<string, byte[]>();
        public string FileNameZip;
        public ZipResult(string FileName, byte[] Contents)
            : base("application/octet-stream")
        {
            this.FileDownloadName = Path.GetFileNameWithoutExtension(FileName) + ".zip";
            AddFile(FileName, Contents);
        }
        public void AddFile(string FileName,  byte[] Contents)
        {
            content.Add(FileName, Contents);
        }
        public void AddFile(string FileName,string Contents, Encoding e = null)
        {
            if (e == null)
                e = ASCIIEncoding.ASCII;

            content.Add(FileName, e.GetBytes(Contents));
        }

        protected override void WriteFile(HttpResponseBase response)
        {

            using (ZipOutputStream zos = new ZipOutputStream(response.OutputStream))
            {
                zos.SetLevel(3);
                zos.UseZip64=UseZip64.Off;

                foreach (var item in content)
                {
                    ZipEntry ze = new ZipEntry(item.Key);
                    ze.DateTime = DateTime.Now;
                    zos.PutNextEntry(ze);
                    int count=item.Value.Length;
                    zos.Write(item.Value, 0, count);

                }
            }
        }
    }
}

5. future improvements:
Zip the file(s) in a dll project to made fully testable!

Tags: ASP.NET MVC, zipresult

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ASP.NET MVC make users–roles fast

Jan 17

Posted by Andrei Ignat in ASP.NET MVC, HowTo

please left click on “Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio (push button)”

please create a database in “Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio”


please left click on “C:\Windows\system32\cmd.exe (push button)” and enter the following command : aspnet_regsql.exe -E -S .\SQLExpress -d proprii -A rm



please left click on “ListPanel (list)” in “Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio”

please left click on “Tables (outline item)” in “Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio”

please keyboard input in “Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio” [F5]

please right click on “aspnet_Applications (list item)” in “Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio”

please left click on “Select Top 1000 Rows (menu item)”

please left click in “Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio”

please left click on “aspnet_Users (list item)” in “Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio”

please right click on “aspnet_Users (list item)” in “Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio”

please left click on “Select Top 1000 Rows (menu item)”

please left click on “RdcDAL – Microsoft Visual Web Developer 2010 Express (Administrator) (push button)”

please edit web.config in your MVC application and change the connection string to point to your database


please scroll down until membership and change application name from / to /applicationName

please run your application and left click on “Log On (editable text)” in “Home Page – Windows Internet Explorer”

please left click on “User name (editable text)” in “Log On – Windows Internet Explorer”

please left click on “Register (editable text)” in “Log On – Windows Internet Explorer”

please left click on “User name (editable text)” in “Register – Windows Internet Explorer”


please input your details (I have put mine : ignatandrei)

please see that I am registered to the site

please verify to the database – left click on “Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio (push button)”

please left click in “Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio”

please press [F5] in “Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio”

please see the results – application name

please left click on “Execute (push button)” in “Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio” for the query that lists users.

Tags: ASP.NET MVC, roles, users

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mvc windows authentication

Dec 6

Posted by Andrei Ignat in ASP.NET MVC

If you want to use Windows Authentication with MVC :

Step 1 : In web.config, put authentication mode windows

Step 2 : in IIS disable anonymous

Step 3 : go to Views\Shared\LogOnUserControl.ascx and remove logoff / logon links.

Tags: .NET 4.0, ASP.NET MVC

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Optimizing EF4 and EDMGen2

Nov 22

Posted by Andrei Ignat in mini tools list, tips and tricks

Just reading (from Adrian Florea links ) how the EF4 could be optimized : http://www.codeproject.com/KB/database/PerfEntityFramework.aspx

First modification is to “Pre-generated Your View”. For this you must have .ssdl, .csdl, and .msl files – so you change the “Metadata Artifact Processing property to: Copy to Output Directory.”. Then you process the .ssdl, .csdl, and .msl with edmgen in order to can have the views.

Until here , all ok.

But, in the next advice, is to keep “Metadata Artifact Processing property to: Embed in Output Assembly.”

One solution is to put “Metadata Artifact Processing property to: Copy to Output Directory.” , compile, put again “Metadata Artifact Processing property to: Embed in Output Assembly.” and compile again. But , if you change the edmx (add fields or tables ) you must redo the operation – so you will have more things to do(if you remember)

A solution is to build them on the pre-build step .But how to generate the .ssdl, .csdl, and .msl files ?

Edmgen2 , http://code.msdn.microsoft.com/EdmGen2 , to the rescue. Download, put into a lib folder under your solution folder and put a pre-build like this :

$(SolutionDir)lib\edmgen2\edmgen2 /FromEdmx $(ProjectDir)prod.edmx”

“%windir%\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v4.0.30319\EdmGen.exe” /mode:ViewGeneration /language:CSharp /nologo “/inssdl:prod.ssdl” “/incsdl:prod.csdl” “/inmsl:prod.msl” “/outviews:$(ProjectDir)prod.Views.cs”

What you must change on your project?

1. IF you are on 64 bit, change Framework to Framework64

2. change the prod with your edmx name.

What is the performance?

Tested by loading a table with 301 rows by doing the steps :

1. open connection, load all table in objects(POCO), closing connection

2. open connection , find object with PK = 1, closing connection

3. open connection , loading 1 tables with 2 related (include ) , closing connection

The results are in milliseconds:

Without pre-compiled views

LoadTable	LoadID	LoadMultiple	Total Time
579	800	172	1551
563	755	171	1489
559	754	169	1482
568	762	240	1570

With pre-compiled views:

LoadTable	LoadID	LoadMultiple	Total Time
606	807	183	1596
509	706	177	1392
852	137	192	1181
530	733	221	1484
523	722	183	1428

The average / min / max results:

	average	max	min
without	1523	1570	1482
with	1413.25	1596	1181

In the next picture the smaller the duration(milliseconds), is the better :

Conclusions:

1. For the average and min the difference is 7%, respectively 20%. Please remember we are using only 3 queries.

For the max, it is vey curious : the with is more than without. The penalty is 1%, I think that is a measuring error ? – or maybe not. However , the penalty is small comparing with others.

2. Very curious, find after ID, with a table with 301 rows, took longer than loading the whole table.However, did not take into accound finding in the list the object( it is in memory also)

3. It may worth to add the pre-build step shown before to pre-compile views.

Links :

http://www.codeproject.com/KB/database/PerfEntityFramework.aspx

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb896240.aspx

Tags: .NET 4.0, edmgen2, EF, Entity framework, mini tools list

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Error intercepting in MVC when saving data

Nov 8

Posted by Andrei Ignat in ASP.NET MVC

I have seen many times in MVC the following code , when doing a post and saving data :

try
{
        //code to save to database
}
catch
{
         ModelState.AddRuleViolations(TheModel.GetRuleViolations());
}

Why is not good ?
I will do a simple example : if some error occurs on the database level ( such as simple unique index on a name column ) or even some error occurs whenestablishing the database connection – you will never see what’s happening. And you will have no chance to repair the problem
A slighty better code is :

try
{
     ModelState.AddRuleViolations(TheModel.GetRuleViolations());
     if(ModelState.Count == 0)// no error in the model
     {
     //code to save to database
     }
}
catch(Exception ex)
{
      ModelState.AddModelError("", ex.Message);
}

Please see also how to do logging to the exception at
http://msprogrammer.serviciipeweb.ro/2010/04/19/logging-and-instrumentation/

Tags: ASP.NET MVC, C#, error

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Five common mistakes for ASP.NET (MVC) accesing resources : css, js, images, ajax

Oct 9

Posted by Andrei Ignat in ASP.NET MVC, tips and tricks

To have once for all the link to show to people, because too much makes the same error again and again.

(From here – you can use ResolveUrl or Url.Content – it’s the same for me. I use ResolveUrl because I used first …)

Case 1 The image does not display

Please check you have the following :

<img src='<%= ResolveUrl("~/Content/images/YOURIMAGE.jpg" )%>'  alt="image" style="border:0" />

Case 2 The css does not show

Please check you have the following :

<%= string.Format("<link href='{0}' type='text/css' rel='stylesheet' />", ResolveUrl("~/Content/your.css")) %>

<style type="text/css">
@import '<%= ResolveUrl("~/Content/your.css") %>';

</style>

Case 3 The js does not execute (undefined error)

Please check you have the following :

<script type="text/javascript" src='<%= ResolveUrl("~/Scripts/yourjs.js")%>'></script>

Case 4 The js does execute in aspx page, but did not execute under js file

Please check you DO NOT have the following

in the js file. The js file is not interpreted by the same engine as aspx, so can not interpret asp.net tags. Instead , add a parameter to your function : the path.

Simple example : Let’s say in aspx you have :

<script type=”text/javascript”>

function Generate(){

window.open(‘<% Url.Action(“About”)%>’);
}

</script>

and you call Generate();

When you put in .js file, please put this :

function Generate(url){

window.open(url);
}

and call like this :

Generate('<% Url.Action(“About”)%>');

Case 5 The ajax request gives you a 404 error.

Please ensure that you have

<%= ResolveUrl("~/path”)%>

and not

/path

Bonus 1: T4MVC , http://mvccontrib.codeplex.com/releases

Bonus 2: Edit the project file and put <MvcBuildViews>true</MvcBuildViews>

( short url: http://bit.ly/asp5Mistakes)

Tags: ajax, ASP.NET MVC, common mistakes, css, HTML, img, js

8 Comments

Generating history trigger with EF , edmx and TT files

Sep 27

Posted by Andrei Ignat in .tt, Entity Framework, HowTo, Visual Studio, tips and tricks

I have wrote in an older post ( http://msprogrammer.serviciipeweb.ro/2010/06/28/ef-automatic-history-of-table-and-t4-files-tt-files/ ) how to generate history code for tables . The easy solution was to create a tt file that track for the ObjectContext the SaveChanges for each table that has a “history” in name. the limitation is that , when you raise an sql command such as “update table ” you must load from database a lot of rows for this….

Now I want to show the same thing, but generating triggers in database for that ! I start also from edmx file and with a template stealed from http://forums.asp.net/p/1599616/4083198.aspx ( to have type of fields in the database ) and another stealed and modified from StackOverflow(to generate trigger for after insert , update, delete) I manage to have a solution to generate sql tables and trigger code.

When is that good ?At the beginning stages of a project when the table structure changes by adding a new parameter.

Sample code generated for table Notes(ID, TextNote, PersonID)

print 'Create table Notes_History ';
Create Table Notes_History(
		ID_Notes_History BIGINT IDENTITY NOT NULL
		,History_Action varchar(50)
		,History_From varchar(100) default HOST_NAME()
		,History_User varchar(50) default SYSTEM_USER
		,History_Date varchar(50) default  getdate()
	   ,Id  int   NOT NULL
	   ,Textnote  nvarchar (255)  NULL
	   ,PersonId  int   NULL
	)
print 'end Create table Notes_History ';
GO
print 'create trigger for Notes'
GO
CREATE TRIGGER dbo.TR_IUP_Notes
   ON  Notes
   AFTER INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE
AS
BEGIN
    SET NOCOUNT ON;
	DECLARE @Ins int

DECLARE @Del int

SELECT @Ins = Count(*) FROM inserted

SELECT @Del = Count(*) FROM deleted
if(@Ins  + @Del = 0)
	return;

declare @operation varchar(50)
	set @operation ='update';
	if(@ins < @del)
		set @operation ='delete';
	if(@ins > @del)
		set @operation ='insert';

	if(@ins <= @del)
	begin
		INSERT INTO Notes_History(History_Action ,Id,Textnote,PersonId)
			select @operation ,Id,Textnote,PersonId from deleted
	end
    else
	begin
    INSERT INTO Notes_History(History_Action ,Id,Textnote,PersonId)
			select @operation ,Id,Textnote,PersonId from inserted
	end
END

The drawback of the code : the user that executes is not always the logged sql server user…
Anyway, what you have to do to use this automatically generated history/audit for tables ?

download historysql and modify

string inputFile = @”Model1.edmx”;

from historysql.tt to your edmx name. Then take the generated code and execute in sql server.

Tags: .tt, EF, HowTo

5 Comments

A Programmer with Microsoft tools

A programmer journey through code, books and tools

Archive for category HowTo

Simple messaging system -database configuration

MVC4 and Simple messaging system

Asp.NET MVC, Jquery and Razor – Cascading dropdown, retrieving partial views, Json send objects, handling errors

MVC Zip Result

ASP.NET MVC make users–roles fast

mvc windows authentication

Optimizing EF4 and EDMGen2

Error intercepting in MVC when saving data

Five common mistakes for ASP.NET (MVC) accesing resources : css, js, images, ajax

Case 1 The image does not display

Case 2 The css does not show

Case 3 The js does not execute (undefined error)

Case 4 The js does execute in aspx page, but did not execute under js file

Case 5 The ajax request gives you a 404 error.

Bonus 1: T4MVC , http://mvccontrib.codeplex.com/releases

Bonus 2: Edit the project file and put <MvcBuildViews>true</MvcBuildViews>

Generating history trigger with EF , edmx and TT files

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