Category: .NET

Use the right language for the job–if you know

Many years ago I have done a site that lists the exchange rates from BNR and BCE ( www.infovalutar.ro ). It reads the exchanges from BNR html page and then put into a database. The use is for programmers – there are many methods to find latest exchange rates ( RSS, SOAP, url, by MVC, JSON… –  see  all there : http://infovalutar.ro/programatori )

I keep the values in a simple table like

IDMoneda    Valoare    DataValorii
EUR    3.5842    2006-07-07 00:00:00
EUR    3.5892    2006-06-29 00:00:00
EUR    3.5887    2006-07-13 00:00:00
EUR    3.5942    2006-07-19 00:00:00
EUR    3.5642    2006-07-20 00:00:00
EUR    3.5672    2006-07-24 00:00:00

As you see . the value of the date is not contiguous – in the weekends is not a new exchange rate.

Now, the problem:  How can we detect if there is an error with parsing the values  ? The usual error is putting different values from NBR ( maybe they have also some csv file to parse ?). For example take this

IDMoneda    Valoare    DataValorii
RSD    0.0396    2019-01-17 00:00:00
RSD    0.0397    2019-01-18 00:00:00
RSD    0.0398   2019-01-21 00:00:00
RSD    3.98E-06    2019-01-22 00:00:00
RSD    4.02E-06    2019-01-23 00:00:00
RSD    4.02E-06    2019-01-25 00:00:00

How can we find where the difference starts for the currency ? ( We assume a relatively stable Romanian economy …. not like Venezuela )

The answer how to calculate where the problem is relatively easy: the percentage of how much the value has varied : ( CurrentValue  – Last_Value)/ Last_Value * 100 .  It should not pass 1 or , maximum 2 % .

But how to calculate this ?

For C# – or any other OOP programs- it is normal to read record by record , order by IDMoneda and DataValorii – and calculate the percentage. However , C# is not made for this kind of calculus.

Then we can see that is a database involved – and we  think about SQL . It is a complicated SQL –because of the fact that the dates are not contiguous – because of the Weekends. However , there is a simple SQL construct, LAG:https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sql/t-sql/functions/lag-transact-sql?view=sql-server-2016

select
abs(LAG(Valoare,1,0)Over(Partition BY IDMoneda Order BY DataValorii) – Valoare)/Valoare *100 ,Valoare , from CV_Valori

order by 1 desc

This query executes in seconds and we can see the problems fast

Sq- if you know the tool , please use in your current task!((

If you ask me about functional programming(F#) my answer it will be DSL)

Dotnet Try

I have wrote a blog post about DotNet CLI Tools
I did not mention one that is super important: DotNet Try : https://github.com/dotnet/try

You can see at https://github.com/dotnet/try how to install it .

Or ,to use in Docker, check my files to install in Docker https://github.com/ignatandrei/Presentations/tree/master/2019/shorts/NetCoreGlobalTools/dotnetTry   . To edit files in Docker, use Visual Studio Code with Docker and Remote Development and Docker extension.

To see in action on the web, check out Noda Time  or

( for the moment is in preview, but it will work with GitHub and blogs…)

[PostEvent] Talks by Softbinator

The organizers from Talk from Softbinator were kind enough to select me for a presentation. Again , my presentation about .NET Core and Angular Everywhere. Source Code at https://github.com/ignatandrei/angNetCoreDemo/ 

The presentation was supposed to take 1/2 hour – and it took 1 hour with all the explanations.

Video at https://www.facebook.com/softbinator/videos/459024768242391

Correct abstraction–.NET Core IFileProvider

Create the right abstraction and they will implement it. I was delighted by finding that the .NET Core has an IFileProvider : https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/api/microsoft.extensions.fileproviders.ifileprovider?view=aspnetcore-2.2  .

An obvious implementation is PhysicalFileProvider : https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/api/microsoft.extensions.fileproviders.physicalfileprovider?view=aspnetcore-2.2

A not so obvious implementation, but normal from a programmers mind, is NullFileProvider: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/api/microsoft.extensions.fileproviders.nullfileprovider?view=aspnetcore-2.2

And, because we have already 2 providers, makes sense a CompositeFileProvider: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/api/microsoft.extensions.fileproviders.compositefileprovider?view=aspnetcore-2.2

And because we create assemblies, it is normal to have EmbeddedFileProvider: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/api/microsoft.extensions.fileproviders.embeddedfileprovider?view=aspnetcore-2.2

And , to complicate things, a ManifestEmbeddedFileProvider: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/api/microsoft.extensions.fileproviders.manifestembeddedfileprovider?view=aspnetcore-2.2

( You can read more details here: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/aspnet/core/fundamentals/file-providers?view=aspnetcore-2.2#physicalfileprovider)

But this is just what Microsoft provides in .NET Framework.

Other creates more, such as :

LongFileProvider: https://github.com/v-kabanov/hdrepository/blob/master/trunk/Common/bfs.Repository.IO.WinNtfs/WinLongFileFrovider.cs

S3FileProvider: https://github.com/evorine/S3FileProvider/blob/master/src/S3FileProvider.cs, https://github.com/lamondlu/AWSS3FileProvider

AzureBlogFileProvider: https://github.com/filipw/Strathweb.AspNetCore.AzureBlobFileProvider

More Cloud Providers : https://github.com/jiabiao/NCloudFiles

ZipFileProviders: https://github.com/tagcode/Lexical.FileProvider , https://github.com/cloudscribe/cloudscribe/blob/master/src/cloudscribe.Web.Common/StaticFiles/GzipMappingFileProvider.cs

DatabaseFileProviders: https://github.com/mikebrind/RazorEngineViewOptionsFileProviders

And InMemory: https://github.com/dazinator/Dazinator.AspNet.Extensions.FileProviders

It is interesting how you can find various implementation of an so common thing, like a file / folder. But it is also rewarding to see that you have created the right abstractions – and other will implement !

Simple serialize of encoding

My problem was the serialize of the Encoding . Let’s suppose that we have a class that have a property Encoding( maybe to read a file ).


internal class MyTest
{
    public MyTest()
    {
        enc = ASCIIEncoding.ASCII;
    }
    public Encoding enc { get; set; }
}


We want to serialize this class in order to let the administrator/people to decide what will be the encoding.

When we serialize( obvious, with NewtonSoftJson) , we obtain this kind of data:

{
“enc”: {
“IsSingleByte”: true,
“BodyName”: “us-ascii”,
“EncodingName”: “US-ASCII”,
“HeaderName”: “us-ascii”,
WebName“: “us-ascii”,
“WindowsCodePage”: 1252,
“IsBrowserDisplay”: false,
“IsBrowserSave”: false,
“IsMailNewsDisplay”: true,
“IsMailNewsSave”: true,
“EncoderFallback”: {
“DefaultString”: “?”,
“MaxCharCount”: 1
},
“DecoderFallback”: {
“DefaultString”: “?”,
“MaxCharCount”: 1
},
“IsReadOnly”: true,
“CodePage”: 20127
}
}

This is too much for someone to edit . We want a simple string that can be edited easy – and the WebName ,  that is , in fact , a string from https://www.iana.org/assignments/character-sets/character-sets.xhtml seems the obvious choice.

So –  I have done a JSONConverter class just for this property. It is very simple:

public class JsonEncodingConverter : JsonConverter
{
    public override bool CanConvert(Type objectType)
    {
        return (typeof(Encoding).IsAssignableFrom(objectType));
    }

    public override object ReadJson(JsonReader reader, Type objectType, object existingValue, JsonSerializer serializer)
    {
        string webName = "";
        if (reader.TokenType == JsonToken.String)
        {

            webName = reader.Value?.ToString();
        }
        existingValue = Encoding.GetEncoding(webName);

        return existingValue;
    }

    public override void WriteJson(JsonWriter writer, object value, JsonSerializer serializer)
    {
        string webName = (value as Encoding).WebName;
        serializer.Serialize(writer, webName);
    }
}

And can be used very easy:

MyTest m = new MyTest();
JsonEncodingConverter[] conv = new[] { new JsonEncodingConverter() };
string original = JsonConvert.SerializeObject(m, Formatting.Indented);
string data = JsonConvert.SerializeObject(m, Formatting.Indented, conv);
//https://www.iana.org/assignments/character-sets/character-sets.xhtml
Console.WriteLine(data);
Console.WriteLine("and now the original");
Console.WriteLine(original);
MyTest s = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<MyTest>(data, conv);
Console.WriteLine(s.enc.WebName);

The result of serializing it is now

{
“enc”: “us-ascii”
}

And because it has this code

public override bool CanConvert(Type objectType)
{
    return (typeof(Encoding).IsAssignableFrom(objectType));
}

it means it will serialize just the encoding, not other tools.

And it is more easy to be edited by someone.

Moral: Aim for simple string that can be edited can be achieved when serializing. Do not stay with defaults!

 

( you can easy achieve backwards compatibility for already serialized Encoding by asking

if (reader.TokenType == JsonToken.StartObject)
{
    webName = reader.Value?.ToString();
    //handling old data format for encoding
    while (reader.TokenType != JsonToken.EndObject)
    {
        if (!reader.Read())
            break;
        if (reader.TokenType != JsonToken.PropertyName)
            continue;
        var val = reader.Value?.ToString();
        if (string.Compare("webname", val, StringComparison.InvariantCultureIgnoreCase) == 0)
        {
            webName = reader.ReadAsString();
            //do not break - advance reading to the end
            //break;
        }
    }

}

)

C# integration testing in AzureDevOps with Docker containers– SqlServer and Cachet example

Every software that we make depends on others. For Stankins , as a general ETL data, it is more important to be tested with real data providers.For example, we may want to take data from Sql Server and send to Cachet . How can we have a SqlServer and a Cachet up and running easy ? The obvious answer our days is Docker.

Let’s see how a test for SqlServer looks

using FluentAssertions;
using Stankins.Alive;
using Stankins.Interfaces;
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using System.Threading.Tasks;
using Xbehave;
using Xunit;

namespace StankinsTestXUnit
{
    [Trait("ReceiverSqlServer", "")]
    [Trait("ExternalDependency","SqlServer")]
    public class TestReceiverSqlServer
    {
        [Scenario]
        [Example("Server=(local);Database=master;User Id=SA;Password = <YourStrong!Passw0rd>;")]
        public void TestReceiverDBServer(string connectionString)
        {
            IReceive status = null;
            IDataToSent data = null;
            $"Assume Sql Server instance {connectionString} exists , if not see docker folder".w(() => {

            });
            $"When I create the ReceiverDBServer ".w(() => status = new ReceiverDBSqlServer(connectionString));
            $"and receive data".w(async () =>
            {
                data = await status.TransformData(null);
            });
            $"the data should have a table".w(() =>
            {
                data.DataToBeSentFurther.Count.Should().Be(1);
            });
            $"and the result should be true".w(() =>
            {
                data.DataToBeSentFurther[0].Rows[0]["IsSuccess"].Should().Be(true);
            });


        }
    }
}

and for cachet :



using FluentAssertions;
using Stankins.FileOps;
using Stankins.Interfaces;
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.IO;
using System.Text;
using System.Threading.Tasks;
using Stankins.Rest;
using Xbehave;
using Xunit;
using static System.Environment;
using Stankins.Trello;
using Stankins.Cachet;

namespace StankinsTestXUnit
{
    [Trait("Cachet", "")]
    [Trait("ExternalDependency", "Cachet")]
    public class TestSenderCachet
    {
        [Scenario]
        [Example("Assets/JSON/CachetV1Simple.txt", 3)]
        public void TestSimpleJSON(string fileName,int NumberRows)
        {
            IReceive receiver = null;
           
            IDataToSent data=null;
            var nl = Environment.NewLine;
            $"Given the file {fileName}".w(() =>
            {
                File.Exists(fileName).Should().BeTrue();
            });
            $"When I create the {nameof(ReceiveRest)} for the {fileName}".w(() => receiver = new ReceiveRestFromFile(fileName));
            $"And I read the data".w(async () =>data= await receiver.TransformData(null));
            $"Then should be a data".w(() => data.Should().NotBeNull());
            $"With a table".w(() =>
            {
                data.DataToBeSentFurther.Should().NotBeNull();
                data.DataToBeSentFurther.Count.Should().Be(1);
            });
            $"The number of rows should be {NumberRows}".w(() => data.DataToBeSentFurther[0].Rows.Count.Should().Be(NumberRows));
            $"and now I transform with {nameof(SenderCachet)}".w(async ()=>
                data=await new SenderCachet("http://localhost:8000","5DiHQgKbsJqck4TWhMVO").TransformData(data)
            );

        } 

    }
}

( I have use XBehave for extensions)

Nice and easy , right ? Not so!

For up and running SqlServer I have used a docker compose file

version: '3'
services:
   db:
     image: mcr.microsoft.com/mssql/server
     ports:
       - "1433:1433"
     environment:
       SA_PASSWORD: "<YourStrong!Passw0rd>"
       ACCEPT_EULA: "Y"
     healthcheck:
       test: sqlcmd -S (local) -U SA -P '<YourStrong!Passw0rd>' -Q 'select 1'

and in AzureDevOps yaml start the containers, run the tests, collect the code coverage, stop the containers

docker-compose -f stankinsv2/solution/StankinsV2/StankinsTestXUnit/Docker/docker-sqlserver-instance-linux.yaml up -d  
        

echo 'start regular test'
        
         dotnet build -c $(buildConfiguration) stankinsv2/solution/StankinsV2/StankinsV2.sln
        
         dotnet test stankinsv2/solution/StankinsV2/StankinsTestXUnit/StankinsTestXUnit.csproj --logger trx  --logger "console;verbosity=normal" --collect "Code coverage"
         echo 'coverlet'
         coverlet stankinsv2/solution/StankinsV2/StankinsTestXUnit/bin/$(buildConfiguration)/netcoreapp2.2/StankinsTestXUnit.dll --target "dotnet" --targetargs "test stankinsv2/solution/StankinsV2/StankinsTestXUnit/StankinsTestXUnit.csproj --configuration $(buildConfiguration) --no-build" --format opencover --exclude "[xunit*]*"
        
         echo 'compose down'
         docker-compose -f stankinsv2/solution/StankinsV2/StankinsTestXUnit/Docker/docker-sqlserver-instance-linux.yaml down
        

Easy, right ? That’s because SqlServer is well behaved and has a fully functional image on Docker

That is not so easy with Cachet . Cachet requires configuration – and more, after configuration, it generates a random token for write data  ( http://localhost:8000","5DiHQgKbsJqck4TWhMVO ) .

So it will be a task for docker to export the container and import again  - easy stuff, right ? Again, not.

So I start a small docker container with

docker run -p 8000:8000 –name myCachetContainer -e APP_KEY=base64:ybug5it9Koxwhfi5a6CORbWdpjVqXxkz/Tyj4K45GKc= -e DEBUG=false -e DB_DRIVER=sqlite cachethq/docker

and then browsing to http://localhost:8000 I have configured and grab the token

Now it is time to export :

docker export myCachetContainer -o cachet.tar

And to import as an image

docker import cachet.tar  mycac

And to run the image again

docker run -p 8000:8000  -e APP_KEY=base64:ybug5it9Koxwhfi5a6CORbWdpjVqXxkz/Tyj4K45GKc= -e DEBUG=false -e DB_DRIVER=sqlite cachethq/docker

And the image stopped! After many tries and docker inspect the initial image , I have resulted to

docker run -it -p 8000:8000 -e APP_KEY=base64:ybug5it9Koxwhfi5a6CORbWdpjVqXxkz/Tyj4K45GKc= -e DEBUG=false -e DB_DRIVER=sqlite --workdir /var/www/html --user 1001:1001 mycac "/sbin/entrypoint.sh"

So the workdir, user, and the entry point are not copied into the image and you should do youurself.

The final preparing for CI with Docker for Cachet ? I have docker push myimage to Docker Hub , and I will run it from docker compose.

So now my docker compose with sql server and cachet looks this way

version: '3'
services:
   db:
     image: mcr.microsoft.com/mssql/server
     ports:
       - "1433:1433"
     environment:
       SA_PASSWORD: "<YourStrong!Passw0rd>"
       ACCEPT_EULA: "Y"
     healthcheck:
       test: sqlcmd -S (local) -U SA -P '<YourStrong!Passw0rd>' -Q 'select 1'

  cachet:
     image: ignatandrei/ci_cachet
     ports:
       - "8000:8000"
      
     environment:
       APP_KEY: "base64:ybug5it9Koxwhfi5a6CORbWdpjVqXxkz/Tyj4K45GKc="
       DEBUG: "false"
       DB_DRIVER: "sqlite"
       
     user: "1001"   
     working_dir: "/var/www/html"
     entrypoint: "/sbin/entrypoint.sh"

And I have a nice C# integration tests with Azure Devops, Docker, Sql Server and Cachet ! You can see the code coverage report at https://codecov.io/gh/ignatandrei/stankins/src/master/stankinsv2/solution/StankinsV2/Stankins.Cachet/SenderCachet.cs

Create a new exception–add fields and/or properties

This post is not about why we need custom exception (https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/jaredpar/2008/10/20/custom-exceptions-when-should-you-create-them/ ) . It is (more a rant ) about a specific  item in best practices in Exceptions( https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/standard/exceptions/best-practices-for-exceptions )

It says:

In custom exceptions, provide additional properties as needed

Provide additional properties for an exception (in addition to the custom message string) only when there’s a programmatic scenario where the additional information is useful. For example, the FileNotFoundExceptionprovides the FileName property.

What I want to add : In EVERY exception that you create in code, DEFINE a custom field. It  is useless without !

Why this rant ? In Stankins I have to intercept KeyNotFoundException  and I want to find the Key that was not found ( problem with some dictionary ) to provide it (Yes, it is a flawed design – but this is not the point here) . The problem was the definition:

public class KeyNotFoundException : SystemException, ISerializable
{

public KeyNotFoundException();

public KeyNotFoundException(string message);

public KeyNotFoundException(string message, Exception innerException);

protected KeyNotFoundException(SerializationInfo info, StreamingContext context);
}

See the problem ? No way to find WHAT is the Key that was not found. So I ended up with this code:

name =innerKeyEx.Message;
// The given key 'nameColumn' was not present in the dictionary.
var first=name.IndexOf("'");
var last= name.IndexOf("'",first+1);
name= name.Substring(first+1,last-first-1);

Moral of the post ? Do NOT define a custom Exception without defining a field / property inside!

OpenSource library- publishing

Following the rules at https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/standard/library-guidance/publish-nuget-package

Nr

Recomandation

AOP Roslyn

1

DO publish stable packages and pre-release packages you want community feedback on to NuGet.org.

Done

2

CONSIDER publishing pre-release packages to a MyGet feed from a continuous integration build.

No

3

CONSIDER testing packages in your development environment using a local feed or MyGet. Check the package works then publish it to NuGet.org.

Yes

4

DO use a Microsoft account to sign in to NuGet.

Yes

5

DO enable two-factor authentication for accessing NuGet.

Yes

6

DO enable email notification when a package is published.

Yes

For 1: Done already. However, I do not like pre-release packages

For 2: Too much hassle for a single developer. Using instead NuGet

For 3: Yes , I have already a build.bat to do this

For 4: Yes.(NuGet allows only that now)

For 5 : Yes

For 6: Yes.

OpenSource library–Strong naming

The strong naming is something that I have not have done usually, so it will be interesting following https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/standard/library-guidance/strong-naming .

Nr

Recomandation

AOP Roslyn

1

CONSIDER strong naming your library’s assemblies.

Not –see below

2

CONSIDER adding the strong naming key to your source control system.

easy- not

3

CONSIDER incrementing the assembly version
on only major version changes to help
users reduce binding redirects, and how often they’re updated.

not

4

DO NOT add, remove, or change the strong naming key.

easy- not

5

DO NOT publish strong-named and non-strong-named versions of your library.

easy – not

I have tried to add signing – it is pretty easy in Visual Studio to generate a new pfx fiel to sign code. However, when compiling, it requires all dependencies to be signed

CSC : error CS8002: Referenced assembly ‘PortableConsoleLibs, Version=1.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=null’ does not have a strong name. [C:\projects\aop-with-roslyn\AOPRoslyn\aopCmd\aop.csproj]

So , if one of your referenced libraries is not code signed, it is a big no

The other requirements are pretty easy..

My Async Await tutorials

Rule of thumb: just await / async from top to down.

 

To deeply understand async await in .NET Core , please follow the following resources:

 

1. https://channel9.msdn.com/Events/TechDays/Techdays-2014-the-Netherlands/Async-programming-deep-dive  – to gain inner knowledge about what code is async / await

2. Read https://blog.stephencleary.com/2012/02/async-and-await.html to have started into async await

3. Read MSDN for a better understanding : https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/jj991977.aspx?f=255&MSPPError=-2147217396

4. Common pitfalls in ASP.NET  Framework( not in console! ) with async await: https://blog.stephencleary.com/2012/07/dont-block-on-async-code.html

5. No problem in ASP.NET Core: https://blog.stephencleary.com/2017/03/aspnetcore-synchronization-context.html

Happy reading !

Andrei Ignat weekly software news(mostly .NET)

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