Category Archives: Development

All things to do with coding

textarea highlight / select and scroll to text – cross browser – pure javascript

24th January 2017 andre Leave a comment

I wanted a cross browser solution to select and highlight text within a text area. Trawling the internet yielded some partial solutions.

But I could not find one that scrolled to the correct location without a hack or some jiggery pockery

So I took what others had done and made it better. This is a cross browser solution that works in IE, firefox and chrome

the code pure javascript

function selectTextareaText(tarea, txt) {
	if (txt === undefined || ''){return;}
        var startPos = tarea.value.indexOf(txt);
	var endPos = startPos + txt.length;


	if (typeof (tarea.selectionStart) != "undefined") {
		tarea.focus();
		tarea.selectionStart = startPos;
		tarea.selectionEnd = endPos;                
		var totalHeight = tarea.scrollHeight;
		var totalLines = tarea.value.split(/\r\n|\r|\n/).length;
		var linesAfterStartpos = tarea.value.substring(startPos).split(/\r\n|\r|\n/).length;
		var lineheight = totalHeight / totalLines;
		var scrollTo = lineheight * (totalLines - linesAfterStartpos);
		tarea.scrollTop = scrollTo;
		return true;
	}

	// IE
	if (document.selection && document.selection.createRange) {
		tarea.focus();
		tarea.select();
		var range = document.selection.createRange();
		range.collapse(true);
		range.moveEnd("character", endPos);
		range.moveStart("character", startPos);
		range.select();              
		return true;
	}         

	return false;
}

function selectTextareaText(tarea, txt) {

if (txt === undefined || ''){return;}

var startPos = tarea.value.indexOf(txt);

var endPos = startPos + txt.length;

if (typeof (tarea.selectionStart) != "undefined") {

tarea.focus();

tarea.selectionStart = startPos;

tarea.selectionEnd = endPos;

var totalHeight = tarea.scrollHeight;

var totalLines = tarea.value.split(/\r\n|\r|\n/).length;

var linesAfterStartpos = tarea.value.substring(startPos).split(/\r\n|\r|\n/).length;

var lineheight = totalHeight / totalLines;

var scrollTo = lineheight * (totalLines - linesAfterStartpos);

tarea.scrollTop = scrollTo;

return true;

}

// IE

if (document.selection && document.selection.createRange) {

tarea.focus();

tarea.select();

var range = document.selection.createRange();

range.collapse(true);

range.moveEnd("character", endPos);

range.moveStart("character", startPos);

range.select();

return true;

}

return false;

}

Uasage

this is how to use it

var txtArea = document.getElementById('txtCustomList');
selectTextareaText(txtArea, txt);

1 2	var txtArea = document.getElementById('txtCustomList'); selectTextareaText(txtArea, txt);

how it works

Essentially, it uses the textareas full height (totalHeight), and the total number of new lines (totalLines). From this we can determine the line height

Now that we have the number of lines and the line height all we need now is to determine which line the selected text is on. To find this we take the total number of lines in the textare and deduct the number of new lines after our selected text

Finally to get the scroll to position we multiply the line number by the line position of the selected text

.NET, Development, optimisation, VB

Windows.Forms Settings : Auto Save state (size and position) of all my Forms

8th November 2016 andre Leave a comment

We will cover three topics in one

Using a single settings variable to save ever forms window state
Base class inheritance in winforms
Data contracts and JSON

In a nutshell, we will serialise and deserialise into a strongly typed custom settings class to and from JSON to store out our windows forms window states, in a settings variable in the project, using a custom settings class that is present in a baseClass that every form within your project will inherit from

What are data contracts

A data contract is essentially a simple way of serialising a class into a string for storage and/or transport

In simple terms, when you mark a class as a data contract you are telling .NET that this class will have properties that can be stored as a string (in our case serialised to JSON).

this is how to mark a class as a data contract

<Runtime.Serialization.DataContract()>
Friend Class ScreenSizePosition

1 2	<Runtime.Serialization.DataContract()> Friend Class ScreenSizePosition

And members that you would like to store in your JSON should be marked as data members like so

<Runtime.Serialization.DataContract()>
Friend Class FormSizeLocation
     <Runtime.Serialization.DataMember>
     Property name As String

<Runtime.Serialization.DataContract()>

Friend Class FormSizeLocation

<Runtime.Serialization.DataMember>

Property name As String

How do data contracts work with JSON?

A long time ago I wrote a generic serialiser/deserialiser to convert datacontract classes to and from JSON, this is the code

Public Class JSONHelper
    Public Shared Function Serialize(Of T)(ByVal obj As T) As String
        Dim serializer As New System.Runtime.Serialization.Json.DataContractJsonSerializer(obj.[GetType]())
        Dim ms As New IO.MemoryStream()
        serializer.WriteObject(ms, obj)
        Dim retVal As String = System.Text.Encoding.[Default].GetString(ms.ToArray())
        ms.Dispose()
        Return retVal
    End Function

    Public Shared Function Deserialize(Of T)(ByVal json As String) As T
        Dim obj As T = Activator.CreateInstance(Of T)()
        Dim ms As New IO.MemoryStream(System.Text.Encoding.Unicode.GetBytes(json))
        Dim serializer As New System.Runtime.Serialization.Json.DataContractJsonSerializer(obj.[GetType]())
        obj = DirectCast(serializer.ReadObject(ms), T)
        ms.Close()
        ms.Dispose()
        Return obj
    End Function
End Class

Public Class JSONHelper

Public Shared Function Serialize(Of T)(ByVal obj As T) As String

Dim serializer As New System.Runtime.Serialization.Json.DataContractJsonSerializer(obj.[GetType]())

Dim ms As New IO.MemoryStream()

serializer.WriteObject(ms, obj)

Dim retVal As String = System.Text.Encoding.[Default].GetString(ms.ToArray())

ms.Dispose()

Return retVal

End Function

Public Shared Function Deserialize(Of T)(ByVal json As String) As T

Dim obj As T = Activator.CreateInstance(Of T)()

Dim ms As New IO.MemoryStream(System.Text.Encoding.Unicode.GetBytes(json))

Dim serializer As New System.Runtime.Serialization.Json.DataContractJsonSerializer(obj.[GetType]())

obj = DirectCast(serializer.ReadObject(ms), T)

ms.Close()

ms.Dispose()

Return obj

End Function

End Class

we are going to reference these function later in this article

How do we use inheritance in winforms

Windows forms classes that you are exposed to are essentially partial classes. If you have a project open that contains a Windows.Forms.Form, then unhide all documents and take a look at the difference between the code behind the form that you see and the designer generated code. The file names will have this structure

frmName.vb

Public Class frmName

1

Public Class frmName
frmName.designer.vb

Partial Class frmName Inherits System.Windows.Forms.Form

1
2

Partial Class frmName
Inherits System.Windows.Forms.Form

Partial classes are a really nice way to extend the reach of a single class, but separate the code file

So, create a baseclass ready to be inherited by all of your windows forms

frmName.vb

Public Class frmName

1

Public Class frmName
frmName.designer.vb

Partial Class frmName Inherits BaseForm

1
2

Partial Class frmName
Inherits BaseForm
BaseForm.vb

Public Class BaseForm Inherits System.Windows.Forms.Form

1
2

Public Class BaseForm
Inherits System.Windows.Forms.Form

create the project settings property

next we create our custom project settings property “FormSizesAndLocations”

The custom settings class

we need our settings class to be able to do the following

read the settings from the config
save a forms window state to the config
name, width, height, x position, y position, maximised, minimised

here is our custom settings class for saving window state and reading window state, note the data contract attribute and the data member attributes to those properties we want to persist

<Serializable, Runtime.Serialization.DataContract()>
    Friend Class ScreenSizePosition
        Const SettingsVarName As String = "FormSizesAndLocations"

        <Runtime.Serialization.DataMember>
        Public Property SizeLocationOfForms As New List(Of FormSizeLocation)


        <Serializable, Runtime.Serialization.DataContract()>
        Friend Class FormSizeLocation
            <Runtime.Serialization.DataMember>
            Property name As String

            <Runtime.Serialization.DataMember>
            Property width As Integer

            <Runtime.Serialization.DataMember>
            Property height As Integer

            <Runtime.Serialization.DataMember>
            Property X As Integer

            <Runtime.Serialization.DataMember>
            Property Y As Integer

            <Runtime.Serialization.DataMember>
            Property maximised As Boolean

            <Runtime.Serialization.DataMember>
            Property minimised As Boolean
        End Class

        Sub New()

        End Sub

        Sub New(bool As Boolean)
            Dim myforms As ScreenSizePosition = Nothing
            Dim str As String = Nothing
            If bool Then str = My.Settings.FormSizesAndLocations

            Try
                myforms = JSONHelper.Deserialize(Of ScreenSizePosition)(str)
                Me.SizeLocationOfForms = myforms.SizeLocationOfForms
            Catch ex As Exception
                'cannot read the state, dont really care
                '
            End Try
        End Sub

        Function GetForm(name As String) As FormSizeLocation
            Dim rtn As FormSizeLocation = Nothing
            rtn = Me.SizeLocationOfForms.Find(Function(e) e.name = name)
            Return rtn
        End Function

        Sub AddUpdateForm(frm As FormSizeLocation)
            Dim removeItem As FormSizeLocation = Me.SizeLocationOfForms.Find(Function(e) e.name = frm.name)
            If removeItem IsNot Nothing Then Me.SizeLocationOfForms.Remove(removeItem)
            Me.SizeLocationOfForms.Add(frm)
            Save()
        End Sub

        Sub Save()
            My.Settings.GetType.GetProperty(SettingsVarName).SetValue(My.Settings, JSONHelper.Serialize(Of ScreenSizePosition)(Me))
            'My.Settings.FormSizesAndLocations = SFCL.CFC.JSONHelper.Serialize(Of ScreenSizePosition)(Me)
            '
            'My.Settings.Save()
            '
        End Sub
    End Class

<Serializable, Runtime.Serialization.DataContract()>

Friend Class ScreenSizePosition

Const SettingsVarName As String = "FormSizesAndLocations"

<Runtime.Serialization.DataMember>

Public Property SizeLocationOfForms As New List(Of FormSizeLocation)

<Serializable, Runtime.Serialization.DataContract()>

Friend Class FormSizeLocation

<Runtime.Serialization.DataMember>

Property name As String

<Runtime.Serialization.DataMember>

Property width As Integer

<Runtime.Serialization.DataMember>

Property height As Integer

<Runtime.Serialization.DataMember>

Property X As Integer

<Runtime.Serialization.DataMember>

Property Y As Integer

<Runtime.Serialization.DataMember>

Property maximised As Boolean

<Runtime.Serialization.DataMember>

Property minimised As Boolean

End Class

Sub New()

End Sub

Sub New(bool As Boolean)

Dim myforms As ScreenSizePosition = Nothing

Dim str As String = Nothing

If bool Then str = My.Settings.FormSizesAndLocations

Try

myforms = JSONHelper.Deserialize(Of ScreenSizePosition)(str)

Me.SizeLocationOfForms = myforms.SizeLocationOfForms

Catch ex As Exception

'cannot read the state, dont really care

End Try

End Sub

Function GetForm(name As String) As FormSizeLocation

Dim rtn As FormSizeLocation = Nothing

rtn = Me.SizeLocationOfForms.Find(Function(e) e.name = name)

Return rtn

End Function

Sub AddUpdateForm(frm As FormSizeLocation)

Dim removeItem As FormSizeLocation = Me.SizeLocationOfForms.Find(Function(e) e.name = frm.name)

If removeItem IsNot Nothing Then Me.SizeLocationOfForms.Remove(removeItem)

Me.SizeLocationOfForms.Add(frm)

Save()

End Sub

Sub Save()

My.Settings.GetType.GetProperty(SettingsVarName).SetValue(My.Settings, JSONHelper.Serialize(Of ScreenSizePosition)(Me))

'My.Settings.FormSizesAndLocations = SFCL.CFC.JSONHelper.Serialize(Of ScreenSizePosition)(Me)

'My.Settings.Save()

End Sub

End Class

The BasePage class that will do all the work

Now lets create a base page class, in this class we will put the logic to handle the position save and load of any form that then inherits this class

Rather than describe the code, you should really be able to understand it, so lets dive into the forms base class

Imports System.ComponentModel
Imports System.Windows.Forms
Public Class BaseForm
    Inherits System.Windows.Forms.Form
    Property HasSavedWindowsState As Boolean = False

    Private Sub BaseForm_Closing(sender As Object, e As CancelEventArgs) Handles Me.Closing
        SaveWindowPosition()
    End Sub

    Private Sub BaseForm_Load(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles Me.Load
        loadWindowPosition()
    End Sub

    Sub loadWindowPosition()
        Dim curSizePosition As New ScreenSizePosition(True)
        Dim thisForm As ScreenSizePosition.FormSizeLocation = curSizePosition.GetForm(Me.Name)
        If thisForm IsNot Nothing Then
            With thisForm
                HasSavedWindowsState = True
                Me.Location = New Drawing.Point(thisForm.X, thisForm.Y)
                Me.Size = New Drawing.Size(thisForm.width, thisForm.height)

                If .maximised Then
                    Me.WindowState = FormWindowState.Maximized
                ElseIf .minimised Then
                    Me.WindowState = FormWindowState.Minimized
                End If
            End With

        End If
    End Sub
    Sub SaveWindowPosition()
        Dim curSizePosition As New ScreenSizePosition(True)
        Dim thisForm As ScreenSizePosition.FormSizeLocation = curSizePosition.GetForm(Me.Name)
        If thisForm Is Nothing Then thisForm = New ScreenSizePosition.FormSizeLocation
        With thisForm
            .name = Me.Name
            .X = Me.Location.X
            .Y = Me.Location.Y
            .height = Me.Size.Height
            .width = Me.Size.Width

            If WindowState = FormWindowState.Maximized Then
                .maximised = True
                .minimised = False
            ElseIf WindowState = FormWindowState.Normal Then
                .maximised = False
                .minimised = False
            Else
                .maximised = False
                .minimised = True
            End If
        End With

        curSizePosition.AddUpdateForm(thisForm)
    End Sub
End Class

Imports System.ComponentModel

Imports System.Windows.Forms

Public Class BaseForm

Inherits System.Windows.Forms.Form

Property HasSavedWindowsState As Boolean = False

Private Sub BaseForm_Closing(sender As Object, e As CancelEventArgs) Handles Me.Closing

SaveWindowPosition()

End Sub

Private Sub BaseForm_Load(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles Me.Load

loadWindowPosition()

End Sub

Sub loadWindowPosition()

Dim curSizePosition As New ScreenSizePosition(True)

Dim thisForm As ScreenSizePosition.FormSizeLocation = curSizePosition.GetForm(Me.Name)

If thisForm IsNot Nothing Then

With thisForm

HasSavedWindowsState = True

Me.Location = New Drawing.Point(thisForm.X, thisForm.Y)

Me.Size = New Drawing.Size(thisForm.width, thisForm.height)

If .maximised Then

Me.WindowState = FormWindowState.Maximized

ElseIf .minimised Then

Me.WindowState = FormWindowState.Minimized

End If

End With

End If

End Sub

Sub SaveWindowPosition()

Dim curSizePosition As New ScreenSizePosition(True)

Dim thisForm As ScreenSizePosition.FormSizeLocation = curSizePosition.GetForm(Me.Name)

If thisForm Is Nothing Then thisForm = New ScreenSizePosition.FormSizeLocation

With thisForm

.name = Me.Name

.X = Me.Location.X

.Y = Me.Location.Y

.height = Me.Size.Height

.width = Me.Size.Width

If WindowState = FormWindowState.Maximized Then

.maximised = True

.minimised = False

ElseIf WindowState = FormWindowState.Normal Then

.maximised = False

.minimised = False

Else

.maximised = False

.minimised = True

End If

End With

curSizePosition.AddUpdateForm(thisForm)

End Sub

End Class

And there you have it

.NET, Development, Exchange, Linq, VB

EWS & .NET how to get started

5th June 2013 andre Leave a comment

Getting started with Exchange Web Service (EWS)

Firstly you might want to configure your security groups as per my article titled “Exchange Web Service (EWS) configuration” then return and continue.

EWS is a powerful way to access Microsoft Exchange over https. Doing this via .NET is a doddle.

I am going to assume you know how to add a web reference to your .net project.

your exchange server will be publishing EWS on the following URL

https://<DomainName|IPAddress|Servaername>/EWS/Services.wsdl

All you need to do is add a webreference to your .NET project by pointing to the above url. The important thing to remember is that you will actually be using a different URL when it comes to binding in code. The url shape will be like this

https://<DomainaName|IPAddress|Servaername>/EWS/exchange.asmx

Once you have your web reference in place, and in this example we will be calling the reference EWS, the first thing you are going to need to do is declare a new instance like so

Dim binding As EWS.ExchangeServiceBinding = GetNewEWSBinding()

1	Dim binding As EWS.ExchangeServiceBinding = GetNewEWSBinding()

The GetNewEWSBinding() returns a binding. The binding is on one of the mailboxes within the saEWSImpersonatable security group mentioned in the article previously mentioned at the begining of this one.
The following version of the function has a default binding mailbox defined in a variable at the package level of the SSIS package this script task resides in; it also checks for an InTest switch to swap between two mailboxes when in test or production. Binding credentials can be configured manually for a specific user, this user must be a member of the security group sgEWSImpersonate as described in the article mentioned at the beginning of this one. Finally there is an override optional parameter to provide if you wish to specify a specific mailbox to bind to instead of the default.
You can amend this to your requirements

Function GetNewEWSBinding(Optional ByVal ImpersonateMailAddress As String = "") As ExchangeServiceBinding
        Dim binding As local.swisscantouk.exch01.ExchangeServiceBinding = _
                New local.swisscantouk.exch01.ExchangeServiceBinding()

        With binding
            .Url = Dts.Variables("ExchangeEWS").Value
            'specify binding credentials like so
            'binding.Credentials = New Net.NetworkCredential("username", "password", "domain")
            'or use the default credentials the code is executing under
            .UseDefaultCredentials = True
            .PreAuthenticate = True

            'set the version on the request
            .RequestServerVersionValue = New RequestServerVersion With {.Version = ExchangeVersionType.Exchange2010_SP1}
            'setup the default mailbox for this binding
            .ExchangeImpersonation = New ExchangeImpersonationType With {.ConnectingSID = New ConnectingSIDType With {.ItemElementName = ItemChoiceType.PrimarySmtpAddress}}

            'connect to the package level mailbox defined in the variables of this package
            If Dts.Variables("InTest").Value Then
                .ExchangeImpersonation.ConnectingSID.Item = emailImpersonationTEST '"main SMTP email address of account someone@contoso.co.uk"
            Else
                .ExchangeImpersonation.ConnectingSID.Item = emailImpersonationLIVE '"main SMTP email address of account someone@contoso.co.uk"
            End If

            'connect to a specified mailbox defined specifically in the program sequence 'overriding the default 
            If Not String.IsNullOrEmpty(ImpersonateMailAddress) Then .ExchangeImpersonation.ConnectingSID.Item = ImpersonateMailAddress
        End With

        Return binding
    End Function

Function GetNewEWSBinding(Optional ByVal ImpersonateMailAddress As String = "") As ExchangeServiceBinding

Dim binding As local.swisscantouk.exch01.ExchangeServiceBinding = _

New local.swisscantouk.exch01.ExchangeServiceBinding()

With binding

.Url = Dts.Variables("ExchangeEWS").Value

'specify binding credentials like so

'binding.Credentials = New Net.NetworkCredential("username", "password", "domain")

'or use the default credentials the code is executing under

.UseDefaultCredentials = True

.PreAuthenticate = True

'set the version on the request

.RequestServerVersionValue = New RequestServerVersion With {.Version = ExchangeVersionType.Exchange2010_SP1}

'setup the default mailbox for this binding

.ExchangeImpersonation = New ExchangeImpersonationType With {.ConnectingSID = New ConnectingSIDType With {.ItemElementName = ItemChoiceType.PrimarySmtpAddress}}

'connect to the package level mailbox defined in the variables of this package

If Dts.Variables("InTest").Value Then

.ExchangeImpersonation.ConnectingSID.Item = emailImpersonationTEST '"main SMTP email address of account someone@contoso.co.uk"

Else

.ExchangeImpersonation.ConnectingSID.Item = emailImpersonationLIVE '"main SMTP email address of account someone@contoso.co.uk"

End If

'connect to a specified mailbox defined specifically in the program sequence 'overriding the default

If Not String.IsNullOrEmpty(ImpersonateMailAddress) Then .ExchangeImpersonation.ConnectingSID.Item = ImpersonateMailAddress

End With

Return binding

End Function

As soon as you have your binding you are ready to start working with the mailbox.

In my next article on EWS, I will discuss how to declare your EWS binding objects using object initialisers, you will be able to declare and run requests against EWS using less code.
ie Dim x as object With {.parameter = value, .parameter = value}
Example

 'construct the request
Dim reqFindFolder As FindFolderType = New FindFolderType
'setup the properties of the FindFolder request object
With reqFindFolder
    .Traversal = FolderQueryTraversalType.Deep 'change to deep to include subfolders
    .ParentFolderIds = New DistinguishedFolderIdType() {New DistinguishedFolderIdType With {.Id = DistinguishedFolderIdNameType.msgfolderroot}}
    .FolderShape = New FolderResponseShapeType With {.BaseShape = DefaultShapeNamesType.IdOnly}
    .Restriction = New RestrictionType
    .Restriction.Item = New ContainsExpressionType With { _
	.ContainmentMode = ContainmentModeType.FullString _
	, .ContainmentModeSpecified = True _
	, .ContainmentComparison = ContainmentComparisonType.Exact _
	, .ContainmentComparisonSpecified = True _
	, .Constant = New ConstantValueType With {.Value = FolderName} _
	, .Item = New PathToUnindexedFieldType With {.FieldURI = UnindexedFieldURIType.folderDisplayName} _
	}
End With

'construct the request

Dim reqFindFolder As FindFolderType = New FindFolderType

'setup the properties of the FindFolder request object

With reqFindFolder

.Traversal = FolderQueryTraversalType.Deep 'change to deep to include subfolders

.ParentFolderIds = New DistinguishedFolderIdType() {New DistinguishedFolderIdType With {.Id = DistinguishedFolderIdNameType.msgfolderroot}}

.FolderShape = New FolderResponseShapeType With {.BaseShape = DefaultShapeNamesType.IdOnly}

.Restriction = New RestrictionType

.Restriction.Item = New ContainsExpressionType With { _

.ContainmentMode = ContainmentModeType.FullString _

, .ContainmentModeSpecified = True _

, .ContainmentComparison = ContainmentComparisonType.Exact _

, .ContainmentComparisonSpecified = True _

, .Constant = New ConstantValueType With {.Value = FolderName} _

, .Item = New PathToUnindexedFieldType With {.FieldURI = UnindexedFieldURIType.folderDisplayName} _

}

End With

.NET, Configuration, Development, optimisation, VB

ASP.NET Combine & Minify CSS & JSS on the fly (Also tested in Umbraco) in 5 easy steps

20th September 2011 andre 2 Comments

Automatically Combine, minify, compress and much more on the fly.
Here you will learn in 5 steps how to implement the combine and minify project originally from codeplex into any .net application. I’ve just tested this on an Umbraco installation and it works flawlessly, the project also makes use of 2 open source libraries.

The original project can be found http://combineandminify.codeplex.com/ I have converted this project from c# to vb and made some considerable further optimisations in the code around the caching mechanism.

The two other libraries included are:

EcmaScript.NET.modified.dll
Yahoo.Yui.Compressor.dll

Along with a lot of custom code to automatically provide a cached based minify & compress for your css & jss files. But it doesn’t stop there you can also use this project to remove white space from the html rendering to the client (default operation), all comments and commented code in .js and .css file includes is striped , you can insert VersionId’s in font urls and images and even preload images.

Ok so lets break it down.

What does it do and how?

Taking the .js and .css includes in particular, during the request life-cycle of the .net engine combineAndMinify will scan the header of the page just prior to rendering to the client, it will collect up the .js and .css includes, minify, compress, remove comments and white spaces and place the new combined content into the cache. So that’s one cache record for the .js and one for the .css. It will then strip out all the include references from the page header and replace them with a unique include reference pointing to the cached version for the browser to process. in your webconfig you have told IIS that all requests to .js and .css files must be routed through the combineandminify class, so when the browser then requests the include eg 33212cce52b6065a.js, the combineAndMinify handler then pulls the content from the cache and sends it to the client.

This process optimises your site in two ways, it caches the includes, and provides the client with only one include per type to request from the server.

The unique names are calculated using logic on various aspects, for example if you wished that the caching occur per page or for the entire website at domain level.

Out of the box the combineAndMinify is intelligent enough not to touch any include that references a different domain, and is in fact very customisable in that respect.

Furthermore it also knows when any of the files that it has cached change and will automatically update the cached version on the active request the change has been detected on.

See the full spec on codeplex.

Configuration settings:

configuration>combineAndMinify
Config Attribute	Default Value	Possbile Values
removeWhitespace	false	true/false
insertVersionIdInFontUrls	false	true/false
insertVersionIdInImageUrls	false	true/false
makeImageUrlsLowercase	false	true/false
prioritizedImages	true	true/false
preloadAllImages	false	true/false
cookielessDomains
enableCookielessDomains	Always	Never Always/ReleaseModeOnly/DebugModeOnly
minifyJavaScript	true	true/false
minifyCSS	true	true/false
combineJavaScriptFiles	PerGroup	None/PerGroup/All
combineCSSFiles	PerGroup	None/PerGroup/All
headCaching	None	None/PerSite/PerFolder/PerPage/PerUrl
exceptionOnMissingFile	Never	Never/Always/ReleaseModeOnly/DebugModeOnly
active	ReleaseModeOnly	Never/Always/ReleaseModeOnly/DebugModeOnly

If your even half technical you can guess what half of these configuration settings do, if you need a further understanding on all the configuration settings please visit the codeplex project website because its beyond the scope of this how to.

Implementation

Copy the binaries to your bin folder and add references to them or include the project into your solution
Copy and rename “HeadAdapter.browser.txt” to HeadAdapter.browser to your App_Browsers folder
make the required changes to your web.config file
change the combineAndMinify config attribute “active” from “Never” to “Always”
test the solution in firefox, ie or chrome and verify the compression in firebug F12 Developer tools or FireBug Lite respectively.

The vb.net converted, enhanced version of the project compiled to binaries and other files you will need:

CombineAndMinify_Dlls

HeadAdapter.browser.txt

web.config.txt

If anyone has any problems at all, I will help where I can. If you want the vb.net version of this project then let me know and I’ll send it over.

.NET, Development, VB

How to make a copy of a NameValueCollection

5th May 2011 andre Leave a comment

This is a rare requirement but should you need to heres how

Dim New_NVC As New NameValueCollection
New_NVC = HttpUtility.ParseQueryString(OLD_NVC.ToString)

1 2	Dim New_NVC As New NameValueCollection New_NVC = HttpUtility.ParseQueryString(OLD_NVC.ToString)

Where New_NVC is your new declared NameValueCollection and OLD_NVC is the NameValueCollection you wish to copy.

.NET, Development, VB

How to convert NameValueCollection to a QueryString and visa versa

5th May 2011 andre Leave a comment

I needed a full proof way to desipher a querystring that might potentially be slightly malformed
Similarly i also needed a way to build up a querystring, potentially replacing existing values while building the string

So a malformed querystring could be

http://domain.com?&v=1&&&x=y

I say malformed, this isn’t strictly malformed but if you tried to split this into an array of strings you might run into errors
So to pull this into a valid collection you do the following

Dim QS As New NameValueCollection
QS = System.Web.HttpUtility.ParseQueryString(Request.QueryString.ToString)

1 2	Dim QS As New NameValueCollection QS = System.Web.HttpUtility.ParseQueryString(Request.QueryString.ToString)

Then to perform operations on the collection simply do the following

If QS.HasKeys Then
  If Not IsNothing(QS.Item("q")) Then 
    <do something>
  End If
End If

If QS.HasKeys Then

If Not IsNothing(QS.Item("q")) Then

End If

Here’s how to build a querystring, including easy ability to change existing values and turn it into a valid encoded querystring in one line

'how to build a fullproof querystring
Dim qry As New NameValueCollection
qry = HttpUtility.ParseQueryString("")
qry("q") = "first value"
qry("ch") = "something with a space"
qry("q") = "replaced value"

Dim FinishedEncodedQueryString = "?" & qry.ToString

'how to build a fullproof querystring

Dim qry As New NameValueCollection

qry = HttpUtility.ParseQueryString("")

qry("q") = "first value"

qry("ch") = "something with a space"

qry("q") = "replaced value"

Dim FinishedEncodedQueryString = "?" & qry.ToString

The output of FinishedEncodedQueryString is

“?q=replaced+value&ch=something+with+a+space”

.NET, Annoyances, Configuration, Development

Visual Studio VS 2010 not stopping at breakpoints

3rd April 2011 andre 4 Comments

Ever wondered why suddenly you cannot debug because the compiler isnt breaking on your breakpoints.

There are several reasons for this.

make sure that.
1. Your project is compiling when you begin debugging (check this in build > configuration manager)
2. Ensure your projects are compiling in debug mode not release (check this in build >configuration manager)
3. In the Webconfig ensure you are in debug mode

<System.web> 
<compilation debug="true" strict="false" explicit="true" targetFramework="4.0">

1 2	<System.web> <compilation debug="true" strict="false" explicit="true" targetFramework="4.0">

4. The (project properties > startup options > debuggers has the ASP.NET checkbox checked)
5. Delete all pdb files in your bin folder
6. Ensure every project referenced is set to build under (build > configuration manager)
7. Do a full clean and rebuild. (build > clean solution) (build > rebuild solution)

Finally and this is the one that caught me out
8. Check you are not setting a cookie cache timeout of positive time, I was expiring my page after 1 day. The best way to check this is to load a page in debug, knowing your break point will not be stopped at. Once the page is fully loaded hit ctrl F5 to force full reload of the page. If your breakpoint is stopped at then you know its a cache problem.

Development, Uncategorized

jcarousel No width / height set for items

31st March 2011 andre 3 Comments

If you use jquery, then the chances are you are using the jcarousel library.

Well im new to jquery but have come along at an accelerated rate, perhaps because of my OO background.

Ok so you hit this page likely because you got this error

jCarousel: No width/height set for items. This will cause an infinite loop. Aborting…

When i tried to nail down what the cause was i stumbled across a post that told me to add css styles for width and height. This was all well and good until i wanted to apply styling to more than one carousel on the page. Anyway what took me a few hours to figure out I support open and collaborative minds by sharing it here.

The error occurs regardless of widthand height attribute of you jarousel item. You need to set the width and height of the first parent of the carousel. If you follow this design pattern below, you cant go wrong

Firstly im assuming you have already included a reference to your already downloaded jcarousel library. There is really only one of them so you cant go wrong in finding it. here

1. Markup for your page containing the jcarousel element (note wrapped in a containing div)

<h1>Partners</h1>
<div id="hltr">
  <ol id="hmprt" runat="server" clientidmode="Static">
    <li class="l">
      <!--your stuff in here-->
    </li>
  </ol>
</div>

<h1>Partners</h1>

</li>

</ol>

</div>

Your initialising jscript to bring your carousel to life (note applied to the ordered list)

//initialise the partners
$('#hmprt').jcarousel({
    vertical: true,
    easing: 'easeInOutQuad',
    scroll: 4,
    auto: 5,
    wrap: 'circular',
    animation: 3000            
});

//initialise the partners

$('#hmprt').jcarousel({

vertical: true,

easing: 'easeInOutQuad',

scroll: 4,

auto: 5,

wrap: 'circular',

animation: 3000

});

Your CSS (note applied to the wrapping div)

#hltr .jcarousel-item-vertical,
#hltr .jcarousel-item-placeholder-vertical {
    width: 330px;
    height: auto;    
}
#hltr .jcarousel-container-vertical {
    width: 330px;
    height: 350px;    
    border: 1px solid #fff;
}
#hltr .jcarousel-clip-vertical {
    width: 330px;
    height: 350px;
    z-index: 20;
}

#hltr .jcarousel-item-vertical,

#hltr .jcarousel-item-placeholder-vertical {

width: 330px;

height: auto;

}

#hltr .jcarousel-container-vertical {

width: 330px;

height: 350px;

border: 1px solid #fff;

}

#hltr .jcarousel-clip-vertical {

width: 330px;

height: 350px;

z-index: 20;

}

The reason why we do this is because the jcarousel class ammends the html markup so that styles will no longer apply because the objects will no longer exist, or have the same name at the jcarousel object level.

Hope this helped those who were stuck as I was.

Annoyances, ASP, Development

ASP.NET Master Page Nested inheritance

14th February 2011 andre Leave a comment

I seem to be asked this a lot so i thought i would mention this online so hopefully people will no longer ask me, they’ll find the answer when they ask google

You are trying to inherit from a masterpage and you recieve the following error

the page has one or more < asp:content> that do not correspond with < asp:ContentPlaceHolder> controls in masterpage

Script tags are the culprit around 80% of the time. For some reason the visual studio designer doesnt like not fully closing your script tags at design time.

Change all of you script tags from this

< script type="text/javascript" src="js/myjs.js" /> 
correcting it to this:
< script type="text/javascript" src="js/myjs.js" ><  /script>
Any you should be good to go.

Configuration, Development, Infrastructure

Diagnostics.PerformanceCounter Input string was not in a correct format

4th February 2010 andre 1 Comment

when you try to get performance information you receive the following error at the initialiser

Dim Ram As New Diagnostics.PerformanceCounter(“Memory”, “Available MBytes”)

Input string was not in a correct format

Starting “perfmon” from your run box to open the performance monitor presents you with a message box

—————————
Performance Monitor Control
—————————
Unable to add these counters:

\Memory\Available MBytes
\Memory\% Committed Bytes In Use
\Memory\Cache Faults/sec
\Memory\Cache Faults/sec
\PhysicalDisk(*)\% Idle Time
\PhysicalDisk(*)\Avg. Disk Queue Length
\Network Interface(*)\Bytes Total/sec
—————————
OK
—————————

Easy fix, you need to rebuild your performance counters. I copied c:\windows\system32\PerfStringBackup.ini from a machine whos counters were working, replaced the one on the broken machine. Open a command prompt, navigate to the same location and run the following

lodctr /R:PerfStringBackup.INI

This will reload your counters

If that fails try what microsoft suggest Here

Information Technology, Life, Interesting Stumbles, Servers, Configuration, Topology, Security, Best Practices, Developing, Fire Fighting, Problem solving, Visual Studio 2005 – 2015 .NET 1.1 – 4.5, jQuery, JSON & much much more