We Keep Coding

Entity Framework connection string from .DSN file

I have a problem, so I thought I would come to the brightest minds on the web.
I have written an ASP.NET MVC application that interfaces with a web service provided by another application. My app basically just adds some features to the other web application.
Both applications have a database. I am trying to limit the configuration for my application by using the other applications SQL Server credentials. This is so that if they decide to change the password for the other application, mine will just start working.
These credentials are saved in a .DSN file that my application can reach. How can I get my application, which uses Entity Framework, to use a connection string that is created from the details read in the .DSN file?
I can figure out the code to read the .DSN file, so if you wish to provide some code examples you can base them around setting the connection string for EF.
I am also open to other solutions, or even reasons why I shouldn't do this.
Thanks in advance.
PS. As I was writing this, I came up with a little concept. I am going to test it out now to see how it goes. But here is the basics:
On start up, read the needed details into static properties.
public MyContext() : base(getConnectionString()) { }
3.
private SomeObjectTypeHere getConnectionString()
{
//read static properties
//return .....something..... not sure yet....
}
Thoughts on that maybe?
EDIT
I have created a method that reads the .DSN file and gets the server, the user id and the password. I now have these stored in static properties. In my context, how can I set my connection string now that i have the required details.

So, the biggest issue that I was really having was how to set my connection string in Entity Framework. But I was also hoping that maybe someone else had worked with .DSN files.
Anyway, here was my solution. Still looking for problems that might arise from this, so if you can see any issues, let me know!
First, I created a method that was run on startup. This method ran through the .DSN file and picked out the gems.
Keep in mind that I have never worked with .DSN files, and the section that gets the password is unique to my situation.
var DSNFileContents = File.ReadAllLines(WebConfigurationManager.AppSettings["AppPath"] + #"\App.DSN");//reads DSN into a string array
//get UID
string uid = DSNFileContents.Where(line => line.StartsWith("UID")).First().Substring(4);//get UID from array
//test if uid has quotes around it
if (uid[0] == '"' && uid[uid.Length - 1] == '"')
{
//if to starts with a quote AND ends with a quote, remove the quotes at both ends
uid = uid.Substring(1, uid.Length - 2);
}
//get server
string server = DSNFileContents.Where(line => line.StartsWith("SERVER")).First().Substring(7);//get the server from the array
//test if server has quotes around it
if (server[0] == '"' && server[server.Length - 1] == '"')
{
//if to starts with a quote AND ends with a quote, remove the quotes at both ends
server = server.Substring(1, server.Length - 2);
}
//THIS WON'T WORK 100% FOR ANYONE ELSE. WILL NEED TO BE ADAPTED
//test if PWD is encoded
string password = "";
if (DSNFileContents.Where(line => line.StartsWith("PWD")).First().StartsWith("PWD=/Crypto:"))
{
string secretkey = "<secret>";
string IV = "<alsoSecret>";
byte[] encoded = Convert.FromBase64String(DSNFileContents.Where(line => line.StartsWith("PWD")).First().Substring(12));
//THIS LINE IN PARTICULAR WILL NOT WORK AS DecodeSQLPassword is a private method I wrote to break the other applications encryption
password = DecodeSQLPassword(encoded, secretkey, IV);
}
else
{
//password was not encrypted
password = DSNFileContents.Where(line => line.StartsWith("PWD")).First().Substring(4);
}
//build connection string
SqlConnectionStringBuilder cString = new SqlConnectionStringBuilder();
cString.UserID = uid;
cString.Password = password;
cString.InitialCatalog = "mydatabase";
cString.DataSource = server;
cString.ConnectTimeout = 30;
//statProps is a static class that I have created to hold some variables that are used globally so that I don't have to I/O too much.
statProps.ConnectionString = cString.ConnectionString;
Now that I have the connection string saved, I just have my database Context use it as below,
public class myContext : DbContext
{
public myContext() : base(statProps.ConnectionString) { }
//all my DbSets e.g.
public DbSet<Person> Persons{ get; set; }
}
This is simple, yes, but I hoping that it can provide some information to anyone that was looking to do something similar but was not sure about how it should be handled.
Again, let me know if you like or dislike this solution and if you dislike it, what is your solution and why.
Thanks again!

Sparx EA .feap projects images saved as blank

In addin for Sparx EA I use this code to get pictures and assign to entity. Then I use images from entities, to, as example, save at some folders or insert in word report etc (from this answer)
/// <summary>
/// Access to diagram image without using clipboard
/// </summary>
/// <param name="projectInterface">Ea Sparx interface</param>
/// <param name="eaDiagramGuid">Guid of the diagramm</param>
/// <returns></returns>
public static Image GetDiagramImage(this Project projectInterface, Guid eaDiagramGuid, ApplicationLogger _logger)
{
Image diagramImage;
try
{
var diagramByGuid = projectInterface.GUIDtoXML(eaDiagramGuid.ToString("B"));
string tempFilename = string.Format("{0}{1}{2}", Path.GetTempPath(), Guid.NewGuid().ToString(), ".png");
bool imageToFileSuccess = projectInterface.PutDiagramImageToFile(diagramByGuid, tempFilename, FileExtensionByName);
if (imageToFileSuccess)
{
using (var imageStream = new MemoryStream(File.ReadAllBytes(tempFilename)))
{
diagramImage = Image.FromStream(imageStream);
}
File.Delete(tempFilename);
}
else
{
throw new Exception(string.Format("Image to file exprot fail {0}", projectInterface.GetLastError()));
}
}
catch (Exception e)
{
throw;
}
return diagramImage;
}
The problem is - it works if project I work with saved as .eap file.
If it's .feap file, which, as I believe means that it works with Firebird database (instead of Access), all saved/exproted to report images are blank, like this down below
Why does it happens and is there workaround?
UPD
It works if I use projectInterface.PutDiagramImageOnClipboard instead but I don't wont to use clipboard at all
UPD 2
After some experiments today at the morning (at my timezone, gmt+3, it's still morning) I found out that the problem was with GUIDs register!
After I decided to apply .toUpper() here
var diagramByGuid = projectInterface.GUIDtoXML(eaDiagramGuid.ToString("B").ToUpper());
it started work fine!
Strange thing thou that if project is *.EAP type everything works even when guid is not in upper register!
UPD3
Well, unfortunately, I was wrong. Some pictures are still blank. But somehow that changes got impact on diagrams, I keep testing this stuff.
And some of the pictures are appeared twice or in wrong place.
But it's kinda interesting (if I could say so) behaviour.
UPD 4
I was wrong in my UPD2 part! GUID can contain down register symbols as well as upper ones.
So, first I removed that part.
What I done next - I started to pass GUID directly from diagram, so signature changed like that
public static Image GetDiagramImage(this Project projectInterface, string eaDiagramGuid, ApplicationLogger _logger)
and eaDiagramGuid should be passed right from EA.Diagram object.
When we parse it as Guid by Guid.Parse(eaDiagramGuid) it convert everything in lowercase like here
so, thats why I got the problem.
But for some reason it was not appeared in *.EAP type of projects!
Also it strange that register matters in that case, really. Seems like GUID in common and GUID in sparx ea are different things!

Okay, as I founded out here, the thing is, in case of *.FEAP all items GUIDs are surprisingly case sensetive.
So, my mistake was to store item GUID as Guid type - when we use Guid.Parse(myGuidString) function and then we converting it back to string - all symbols are appers to be in lowercase.
Also, I got my answer from support (they were surprisingly fast, I really like that)
Hello Danil,
Running over the Stack Overflow - it sounds like it's effectively
answered. The core point is that the Feap files are case sensitive.
To be technical, the collation used for our Firebird databases is case
sensitive.
So, in the Automation script you do need to adhere to the case.
So, I just change things to work directly with GUID string from project item like
Image diagramImage = _eaProjectInterface.GetDiagramImage(diagram.DiagramGUID, _logger);
and function now look like this
public static Image GetDiagramImage(this Project projectInterface, string eaDiagramGuid, ApplicationLogger _logger)
{
Image diagramImage;
try
{
var diagramByGuid = projectInterface.GUIDtoXML(eaDiagramGuid);
string tempFilename = string.Format("{0}{1}{2}", Path.GetTempPath(), Guid.NewGuid().ToString(), ".png");
bool imageToFileSuccess = projectInterface.PutDiagramImageToFile(diagramByGuid, tempFilename, FileExtensionByName);
if (imageToFileSuccess)
{
using (var imageStream = new MemoryStream(File.ReadAllBytes(tempFilename)))
{
diagramImage = Image.FromStream(imageStream);
}
File.Delete(tempFilename);
}
else
{
throw new Exception(string.Format("Image to file exprot fail {0}", projectInterface.GetLastError()));
}
}
catch (Exception e)
{
throw;
}
return diagramImage;
}
So, this means that Sparx EA *.FEAP project GUIDs are NOT really GUIDs but just string-keys (as I assume).
Be careful when your work with them :-)

How to find the other part of a string

I'm trying to make C# program that gets a line on a website and use it.
Unfortunately, I don't know the full line on the site. I only know "steam://joinlobby/730/". Although, what comes after "/730/" is always different.
So i need help getting the full line that comes after it.
What I've got:
public void Main()
{
WebClient web = new WebClient();
// here is the site that i want to download and read text from it.
string result = web.DownloadString("http://steamcommunity.com/id/peppahtank");
if (result.Contains("steam://joinlobby/730/"))
{
//get the part after /730/
}
}
I can tell you that it always ends with "xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx/xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx"
so: steam://joinlobby/730/xxxxxxxxx/xxxxxxxx.

What's to prevent you from just splitting the string on '/730/'?
result.Split(#"/730/")[1]
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.string.split(v=vs.110).aspx

The easiest method for this particular case would be to take the first part, and then just skip that many characters
const string Prefix = #"steam://joinlobby/730/";
//...
if(result.StartsWith(Prefix))
{
var otherPart = result.SubString(Prefix.Length);
// TODO: Process other part
}

Make sure your result is not null and begins with steam://joinlobby/730/
if(string.IsNullOrWhiteSpaces(result) && result.StartsWith("steam://joinlobby/730/"))
{
string rest = result.SubString(("steam://joinlobby/730/").Length);
}

Auto-generated code needs to make static class

I decided to help my friend with a project he's working on. I'm trying to write a test webpage for him to verify some new functionality, but in my auto-generated code I get
CS1106: Extension method must be defined in a non-generic static class
Implementing the code in index.cshtml isn't the best way to do this, but we are just trying to do a proof of concept and will do a proper implementation later.
In all the places I looked they pretty much said that all the functions I define must be in a static class (as the error states). That wouldn't be so bad except for the class that holds all my functions is auto-generated and not static. I'm not really sure what settings I can change to fix this.
Here is a copy of the relevant (I believe) parts of code. The implementation of some or all of the functions may be incorrect. I haven't tested them yet
#{
HttpRequest req = System.Web.HttpContext.Current.Request;
HttpResponse resp = System.Web.HttpContext.Current.Response;
var url = req.QueryString["url"];
//1 Download web data from URL
//2 Write the final edited version of the document to the response object using resp.write(String x);
//3 Add Script tag for dom-outline-1.0 to html agility pack document
//4 Search for relative URLs and correct them to become absolute URL's that point back to the hostname
}
#functions
{
public static void PrintNodes(this HtmlAgilityPack.HtmlNode tag)
{
HttpResponse resp = System.Web.HttpContext.Current.Response;
resp.Write(tag.Name + tag.InnerHtml);
if (!tag.HasChildNodes)
{
return;
}
PrintNodes(tag.FirstChild);
}
public static void AddScriptNode(this HtmlAgilityPack.HtmlNode headNode, HtmlAgilityPack.HtmlDocument htmlDoc, string filePath)
{
string content = "";
using (StreamReader rdr = File.OpenText(filePath))
{
content = rdr.ReadToEnd();
}
if (headNode != null)
{
HtmlAgilityPack.HtmlNode scripts = htmlDoc.CreateElement("script");
scripts.Attributes.Add("type", "text/javascript");
scripts.AppendChild(htmlDoc.CreateComment("\n" + content + "\n"));
headNode.AppendChild(scripts);
}
}
}
<HTML CODE HERE>

If you were really smart you would encapsulate the design to take Delegates, reason being if you use a delegate you don't have to worry about referencing something static.
public delegate void MyUrlThing(string url, object optional = null);
Possibly some state...
public enum UrlState
{
None,
Good,
Bad
}
Then void would become UrlState...
Also if you wanted you could also setup a text box and blindly give it CIL....
Then you would compile the delegates using something like this
http://www.codeproject.com/Articles/578116/Complete-Managed-Media-Aggregation-Part-III-Quantu
This way you can use also then optionally just use the IL to augment whatever you wanted.
You could also give it CSharp code I suppose...
If you want to keep you design you can also then optionally use interfaces... and then put the compiled dll in a directory and then load it etc... as traditionally

Add an attachment to Bugzilla using XML-RPC in VBA

I am currently developing an Excel macro which allows creating Bugs in a Bugzilla instance.
After some trial and error this now turns out to work fine.
I wanted to enhance the client so that it's also possible to add screenshots to the newly created bug.
The environment I'm using is a little bit tricky:
I have to use MS Excel for my task.
As Excel does not understand XML-RPC, I downloaded an interface DLL (CookComputing.XmlRpcV2.dll from xml-rpc.net) which makes the XML-RPC interface accessible from .NET.
Then I created an additional DLL which can be called from Excel macros (using COM interop).
As already mentioned, this is working fine for tasks like browsing or adding new bugs.
But when adding an attachment to the bug, the image must be converted into a base64 data type. Although this seems to work fine and although the creation of the screenshot seems to succeed, the image seems to be corrupted and cannot be displayed.
Here's what I do to add the image:
The Bugzilla add_attachment method accepts a struct as input:
http://www.bugzilla.org/docs/4.0/en/html/api/Bugzilla/WebService/Bug.html#add_attachment.
This type was defined in C# and is visible also in VBA.
This is the struct definition:
[ClassInterface(ClassInterfaceType.AutoDual)]
public class TAttachmentInputData
{
public string[] ids;
public string data; // base64-encoded data
public string file_name;
public string summary;
public string content_type;
public string comment;
public bool is_patch;
public bool is_private;
public void addId(int id)
{
ids = new string[1];
ids[0] = id.ToString();
}
public void addData(string strData)
{
try
{
byte[] encData_byte = new byte[strData.Length];
encData_byte = System.Text.Encoding.ASCII.GetBytes(strData);
string encodedData = Convert.ToBase64String(encData_byte);
data = new Byte[System.Text.Encoding.ASCII.GetBytes(encodedData).Length];
data = System.Text.Encoding.ASCII.GetBytes(encodedData);
}
catch (Exception e)
{
throw new Exception("Error in base64Encode" + e.Message);
}
}
This is the part in my macro where I would like to add the attachment:
Dim attachmentsStruct As New TAttachmentInputData
fname = attachmentFileName
attachmentsStruct.file_name = GetFilenameFromPath(fname)
attachmentsStruct.is_patch = False
attachmentsStruct.is_private = False
'multiple other definitions
Open fname For Binary As #1
attachmentsStruct.addData (Input(LOF(1), #1))
Close #1
attachmentsStruct.file_name = GetFilenameFromPath(fname)
Call BugzillaClass.add_attachment(attachmentsStruct)
Where BugzillaClass it the interface exposed from my DLL to Excel VBA.
The method add_attachment refers to the XML-RPC method add_attachment.
I assume that my problem is the conversion from the binary file into base64.
This is done using the addData method in my C# DLL.
Is the conversion done correctly there?
Any idea why the images are corrupted?

I think the issue is that you are reading in binary data in the macro, but the addData method is expecting a string. Try declaring the parameter in addData as byte[].