Category: projects

SideCARCLI–Finish process after some time

Summary links SideCarCLI

NoName + Link 
1Description
2Specifications
3Refactor specifications and code
4Create Release
5Finish interceptors
6Send part of command to interceptors
7Line Interceptors
8Finish process after some time
9Documetation Diagram
10Technical Summary
11Create dotnet tool
( Description : SideCar for CLI applications. Interceptors for Line, Finish, Timer . See Code )

One of the feature is to let the original process execute just a limited amount of time. For this, I have defined an option

var maxSeconds = app.Option(“-mS|–maxSeconds”, “max seconds for the StartApp to run”, CommandOptionType.SingleOrNoValue);

and the code for waiting is

Process p = new Process()
{
StartInfo = pi
};

//code

var res=p.WaitForExit(this.MaxSeconds);

//code

if (res)
{
exitCode = p.ExitCode;
RunFinishInterceptors(exitCode);
}
else
{
Console.WriteLine($”timeout {MaxSeconds} elapsed”);
exitCode = int.MinValue;
}

 

where the default value for this.MaxSeconds is –1 – wait undefinetely

SideCarCLI – Line interceptors

Summary links SideCarCLI

NoName + Link 
1Description
2Specifications
3Refactor specifications and code
4Create Release
5Finish interceptors
6Send part of command to interceptors
7Line Interceptors
8Finish process after some time
9Documetation Diagram
10Technical Summary
11Create dotnet tool
( Description : SideCar for CLI applications. Interceptors for Line, Finish, Timer . See Code )

For the SideCarCLI I have the concept of Line Interceptors. That means for each line from the original program another program will be start .

The json looks like this

“LineInterceptors”: [
{
“Name”: “WindowsStandardWindowsOutputInterceptor”,
“Arguments”: “/c echo \”{site} {line}\””,
“FullPath”: “cmd.exe”,
“FolderToExecute”: null,
“InterceptOutput”: true
},
{
“Name”: “NextInterceptor”,
“Arguments”: “/c echo {line}”,
“FullPath”: “cmd.exe”,
“FolderToExecute”: null,
“InterceptOutput”: true
}
]

and you can activate by command line

-aLi WindowsStandardWindowsOutputInterceptor

Pretty simple , right ? For the code , means intercepting each line

p.OutputDataReceived += P_OutputDataReceived;
p.ErrorDataReceived += P_ErrorDataReceived;

and then run the process

foreach(var item in runningInterceptors.LineInterceptors)
{
try
{

var local = item;
var dataToBeParsed=new Dictionary<string, string>();

if(this.argsRegex.Count>0)
{
foreach (var reg in argsRegex)
{
dataToBeParsed.Add(“{“+reg.Key+”}”, reg.Value);
}
}
dataToBeParsed[“{line}”]= e.Data;
allProcesses.TryAdd(local.Name, local.RunLineInterceptor(local.Name,dataToBeParsed));

}
catch (Exception ex)
{
Console.WriteLine($”LineInterceptor:{item?.Name} error:!!!” + ex.Message);
}
}

Every time it is interesting how a simple specification means multiple lines of code….

SideCarCLI | Command Line – description –part 1

Summary links SideCarCLI

NoName + Link 
1Description
2Specifications
3Refactor specifications and code
4Create Release
5Finish interceptors
6Send part of command to interceptors
7Line Interceptors
8Finish process after some time
9Documetation Diagram
10Technical Summary
11Create dotnet tool
( Description : SideCar for CLI applications. Interceptors for Line, Finish, Timer . See Code )

There are those days a great deal of command line applications that performs a variety of things. The problem is that you cannot control them . The command line performs their duty well – but , from time to time, you need something else integrated with this.

The pattern for this is https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/architecture/patterns/sidecar – it is applied to microservices , but why not applied to command lines ?

So – let’s start this project  with specifications.

Let’s suppose that I want to run an command line application – let name it StartApp. But I want also:

  1. Intercept every line of the StartApp that is outputting to the console and run something with that with the line ( send to HTTP endpoint, log somewhere, and so on).
  2. Intercept the finish of the StartApp and run something with the output ( either all lines, either with the result of the application)
  3. Timers:
    • Do not let the StartApp to run more than an maximum amount of time
    • Run something periodically  with arguments  from the StartApp arguments

 

 

The solution is to make another application ( let’s name SideCarCLI ) that runs the  StartApplication.

What it is complicated her is how we pass the arguments of the SideCarCLI versus the arguments of the StartApp .

Full Projects

My first blog post in English is from 14 nov 2009 ( http://msprogrammer.serviciipeweb.ro/2009/11/14/jquery-learning/ ). It was on the time that Jquery was just integrated in VS 2010.

My first blog post about programming was from 13 March 2005 (http://serviciipeweb.ro/iafblog/2005/03/13/pentru-inceput/ ). I was working on “ log4Net, NUnit , C#, asp.net, VB.Net sai VB6” …..

From the old blog in Romanian, those are the projects that remains ok: http://serviciipeweb.ro/iafblog/2015/03/23/proiecte-codeplex/

From the new blog in English , those are the projects that I have created:  http://msprogrammer.serviciipeweb.ro/full-projects/

Enjoy!

YouTube playlist exporter

 

The point here is about how simple is in our days to make a simple script as a programmer.

I wanted to export my playlists ( 5 minutes .NET , Export Word Exce l PDF  , EF 6 , Traceability ) videos into a simple HTML file that I could put into my website.

I searched first on internet – however, I found just you tube google api .

So I read the documentation (e.g. https://developers.google.com/youtube/v3/docs/videos/list)  , grab a developer key from https://console.developers.google.com/ and made a simple project.

Used also a NuGet package for JSON( Newtonsoft.Json) and one for export in Excel /Word /HTML / PDF /ODS (ExporterWordExcelPDF).

Total time : 2 hours. You can find the project here https://github.com/ignatandrei/YouTube . It has only console application  – but it will have soon a GUI .

The point is that in our days it is easy to use third party application – and , for a programmer, easy as pie( eating, not making ; – ) )

MVC planning poker -Test driven development and Version control and Continuous Integration– foundation – 2

After setting the use cases, I have now think about code. ( Ok, maybe it should be first architecture, but I am a programmer first )

So I start to code the first Use case :

 
public class UseCase1CreateTable
    {
        [TestMethod]
        public void UseCase1RightPath()
        {
            var ModeratorName = "ignat andrei";
            var roundName = "UseCase1 - Create Table";
            var table = TableFactory.CreateTable(ModeratorName);
            table.AddDuration(1);
            table.AddDuration(2);
            table.AddDuration(3);
            table.AddRoundName(roundName);
            
            Assert.AreNotEqual(0,table.Id.Length);
            Assert.AreEqual(true,table.CanAddUser);
            Assert.AreEqual(ModeratorName,table.ModeratorName);
            Assert.AreEqual(1,table.Rounds.Length);
            Assert.AreEqual(roundName, table.Rounds[0].Name);


        }
    }

Running the test was a no-brainer – it does not even compile. And it is good, according to https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa730844(v=vs.80).aspx 

Now I want to test the code, so I created the classes and now the  tests were all red (because there is nothing implemented yet, just compiling) . A hour and all is going smoothly until the test was green – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Test-driven_development

Now the point is to enforce this behavior every time the programmer checks in some code.

So I think about Visual Studio Online – to test if , aside Version Control, it can help me with running test.

And yes, they have builds.And, being the single contributor to this project, I choose Gated Checkins

image

 

Now every time I check-in some code, the build will start and see what’s happening.

The code is at https://ignatandrei.visualstudio.com/DefaultCollection/MVC%20Planning%20Poker 

Exercise  for home:

Do you spot what is missing from
this test code ?

 
public class UseCase1CreateTable
    {
        [TestMethod]
        public void UseCase1RightPath()
        {
            var ModeratorName = "ignat andrei";
            var roundName = "UseCase1 - Create Table";
            var table = TableFactory.CreateTable(ModeratorName);
            table.AddDuration(1);
            table.AddDuration(2);
            table.AddDuration(3);
            table.AddRoundName(roundName);
            
            Assert.AreNotEqual(0,table.Id.Length);
            Assert.AreEqual(true,table.CanAddUser);
            Assert.AreEqual(ModeratorName,table.ModeratorName);
            Assert.AreEqual(1,table.Rounds.Length);
            Assert.AreEqual(roundName, table.Rounds[0].Name);


        }
    }

MVC planning poker – use cases and mockups – 1

 

I have decided to start a new project – MVC planning poker . This is inspired by http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planning_poker  – and it is a program to sharpen my skills

The project is aimed to software enterprises using Active Directory – however, it can be used by any organization.

 

UseCase 1: Create table
Moderator identified by Name -  creates the table and the duration times(1,2,3,5,10) and optional the round name.

He has an ID to share to the next participants

UseCase 2: Participants join the table
Any user can join the table by entering the ID + name .

Use Case 3: Moderator can boot from the table
Moderator can boot from the table( permanently of just for this session ) any participant.
If permanently, the participant with this name can not join anymore

Use Case 4: Estimation saved
Moderator enters a round name (?) .
Participants choose a value.
When all participants have choosen the value, the cards are shown
The cards with  high estimates and low estimates are highlighted
Host press "create new estimation" and create new estimation
The old estimation is saved in history

Use Case 5: Round reset
Moderator enters a round name (?) .
Participants choose a value.
Host press "reset round " and a fresh new round is created
The old one is not saved

Use Case 6: Round save
After a round is saved, the users can see the history round names and picked value
They can see also a total

Use Case 7: Export
Participants can choose if they download the results in CSV / EXCEL / Word /PDF format

Use Case 8: Round delete
The host can delete a round previously saved

 

The mockups are the following:

 

create_table table

Browser history–part 5–conclusions

This is the part 5 of 5 of my implementing of a MVC Browser history

MVC browser history – idea

Browser history –2 – implementing, small bugs

Browser history 3–trying to Nuget – modifications in order to can be transformed from an application to a component

Browser history 4–NuGet again -  finally Nuget deployment

Browser history–part 5–conclusions  – conclusions

 

 

I have reached the (partial) final for my MVC Browser History .  It has started as a simple application – and now it is a NuGet component ready to be used and a demo project at app harbour

What can do for you as a MVC programmer :

  • The component can be integrated in any MVC application easily (via NuGet)
  • you will have a page that displays the list of links that are part of the project and the top 5(configurable) accessed pages
  • You can have this filtered per user basis – or per administrator( small changes in the controller action)
  • It can save the history in memory or in sql server database( configurable in History page, ) or you can make your saving data by implementing  IBrowserUserHistoryRepository

    •  

    You can see in action at app harbour

    If you use, please send me an email.

    If you worry about code source, you can find at github . If you want to improve, feel free to participate Winking smile

    Browser history 4–NuGet again

    This is the part 4 of 5 of my implementing of a MVC Browser history

    MVC browser history – idea

    Browser history –2 – implementing, small bugs

    Browser history 3–trying to Nuget – modifications in order to can be transformed from an application to a component

    Browser history 4–NuGet again – finally Nuget deployment

    Browser history–part 5–conclusions – conclusions

    Prior to Nuget, I think that will be better if the user of my app could play with sql server or memory implementation. So the new GUI is here:

    image

     

    But how could I show to the user where it is saved? Easy – to the history page

    image

     

    And now I can make the NuGet Package .

    In order to can download a controller and not overwrite the Home controller, I must create a controller of its own – so make a modification : History Controller

    Now adding dependencies, fighting with NuGet Explorer,

    In the first test  StructureMap dll reference missing and the Views folder was in the wrong place.

    In the second test , I discovered that I was missing adding the following essential lines

    filters.Add(new BrowserHistory.Models.BrowserUserHistoryFilter());
    ObjectFactory.Configure(ce => ce.For<IBrowserUserHistoryRepository>().Use<BrowserUserHistoryRepositoryMemory>());

     

    So I began reading how to add to global.asax at nuget package installing time – and coming with this:http://blogs.msdn.com/b/davidebb/archive/2010/10/11/light-up-your-nupacks-with-startup-code-and-webactivator.aspx

    Adding code,testing -  another 15 minutes.

    Adding readme.txt – in order to explain what have I done and how to use it – another 30 minutes.

    Now it is ready to be used by you.

    If you want to test it, you can see in action at http://browserhistory.apphb.com/
    Detailed history of creating project at http://msprogrammer.serviciipeweb.ro/category/browserhistory/
    Source code at https://github.com/ignatandrei/MVCbrowserHistory

     

    Next time will do a summary of what I have done in order to build this simple utility project.

    Browser history 3–trying to Nuget

    This is the part 3 of 5 of my implementing of a MVC Browser history

    MVC browser history – idea

    Browser history –2 – implementing, small bugs

    Browser history 3–trying to Nuget – modifications in order to can be transformed from an application to a component

    Browser history 4–NuGet again – finally Nuget deployment

    Browser history–part 5–conclusions – conclusions

    TL;DR : Trying to add a feature (NuGET ) will conduce you to other features – apparently easy to implement – but took 2 hours…

     

    Content:

     

    First, source control is more important – http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/fog0000000043.html .I choose github  – deploy is a breeze with GitHub for windows . More, appharbor integration with github is awesome – you can see the application live at http://browserhistory.apphb.com/ .

     

    Now , for generating Nuget package, I should be moving the classes on their own assembly / dll. Also , added this blog to the info. Ensure it works the same. Uploaded to GitHub

    image

    And appharbor just deployed

    image

     

    Now, it will be good if I let user switch implementation between memory saving  and database saving… in order to developers( that have installed the dll with  NuGet  ) switch easily to their database.

    Created 

    BrowserUserHistoryRepositorySqlServer

    and , after some implementing of IBrowserUserHistoryRepository , the method

    public IBrowserUserHistoryRepository FilterByUser(string UserName)

    put some problems – but solved with a private variable.

     

    Now must decide the best way to switch between MemoryRepository and SqlServerRepository in 

    public static T AddOrRetrieveFromApplication<T>(HttpApplicationStateBase app)
    where T:new()

    First, we must retrieve at runtime the instance of the interface – so structuremap to the rescure.

    Second, if we need to retrieve a class – must have at least a default constructor.

    So the constraint of the T was gone away   – and the code is

    T result;

    if (typeof(T).IsInterface) {

    result =(T) ObjectFactory.GetInstance(type) ;

    }

    else

    {

    result = (T)Activator.CreateInstance(type);

    }

    Also, in global.asax the following lines were added:

    //ObjectFactory.Configure(ce => ce.For<IBrowserUserHistoryRepository>().Use<BrowserUserHistoryRepositoryMemory>());             //uncomment those for sql server ce             ObjectFactory.Configure(ce => ce.For<IBrowserUserHistoryRepository>().Use<BrowserUserHistoryRepositorySqlServer>());

    Now, when deploy , AppHarbor will NOT found EntityFramework dll.

    Added HintPath to csproj to find EF

    <HintPath>..\packages\EntityFramework.5.0.0\lib\net40\EntityFramework.dll</HintPath>
    as seen at
    http://blog.appharbor.com/2012/04/24/automatic-migrations-with-entity-framework-4-3

    and it works!

    More, it works with sql server AppHarbor addon  and transformation of web.config.

    image

     
    It took 2 hours to do this thing, apparently simple.
    image
    Now you can find the code source on github at https://github.com/ignatandrei/MVCbrowserHistory
    You can browse the application at http://browserhistory.apphb.com/

    Next time: (maybe some tests and ) NuGET!

    Andrei Ignat weekly software news(mostly .NET)

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