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C# get portable devices connected to PC

I am trying to get all usb devices(including portable devices) on Windows 7
now I searched all over and didnt find a good answer.
I tried this code:
static void Main(string[] args)
{
//
// Get an instance of the device manager
//
PortableDeviceApiLib.PortableDeviceManagerClass devMgr
= new PortableDeviceApiLib.PortableDeviceManagerClass();
//
// Probe for number of devices
//
uint cDevices = 1;
devMgr.GetDevices(null, ref cDevices);
//
// Re-allocate if needed
//
if (cDevices > 0)
{
string[] deviceIDs = new string[cDevices];
devMgr.GetDevices(deviceIDs, ref cDevices);
for (int ndxDevices = 0; ndxDevices < cDevices; ndxDevices++)
{
Console.WriteLine("Device[{0}]: {1}",
ndxDevices + 1, deviceIDs[ndxDevices]);
}
}
else
{
Console.WriteLine("No WPD devices are present!");
}
}
but i get this error:
interop type 'portabledeviceapilib.portabledevicemanagerclass' Cannot
be embedded
Now im pretty stuck.
If you could help me with this code/ give me an idea what should i try, ill be happy
all I need is to get which type of USB got connected,
if a phone is connected, or a mouse. i want to know what is connected.
Thanx Ahead

I am using the NuGet package PortableDevices (which is based on the tutorial by Christophe Geers).
Derived from part one of the tutorial:
public void ListDevices()
{
var devices = new PortableDeviceCollection();
devices.Refresh();
foreach (var device in devices)
{
device.Connect();
Console.WriteLine(#"DeviceId: {0}, FriendlyName: {1}", device.DeviceId, device.FriendlyName);
device.Disconnect();
}
}

To expand on #CodeFox's answer, and in order to make his code ListDevices() work:
Download the NuGet package PortableDevices
Add references to these 4 COM libraries:
PortableDeviceClassExtension
PortableDeviceConnectApi
PortableDeviceTypes
PortableDeviceApi
Take the dll's under obj\Debug and put them into bin\Debug:
Interop.PortableDeviceClassExtension.dll
Interop.PortableDeviceConnectApiLib.dll
Interop.PortableDeviceTypesLib.dll
Interop.PortableDeviceApiLib.dll
Now you can use this function, although FriendlyName does not seem to be working (it returns an empty string):
private IDictionary<string, string> GetDeviceIds()
{
var deviceIds = new Dictionary<string, string>();
var devices = new PortableDeviceCollection();
devices.Refresh();
foreach (var device in devices)
{
device.Connect();
deviceIds.Add(device.FriendlyName, device.DeviceId);
Console.WriteLine(#"DeviceId: {0}, FriendlyName: {1}", device.DeviceId, device.FriendlyName);
device.Disconnect();
}
return deviceIds;
}
The next step for me is getting the contents from the device, which is done like so:
var contents = device.GetContents();

Using C#, how do I determine if an uploaded file has any accessible metadata/document properties?

Suppose I have a program which allows a user to upload any kind of file. Along with getting generic information such as file type and file size, I would like to attempt to grab any extra information (such as document properties like author, last revised, etc) that may be transported along with the document.
Since I don't have any knowledge about the incoming document/file ahead of time, I can't simply use classes that are specific to, say Microsoft Office docs. I need to do this generically and then construct a dynamic object or dictionary to hold any found key/value results.
Is this possible? If so, how? Any help is appreciated!

I found a few answers on StackOverflow for this, but none gave me a nice, clean dictionary of document properties. Here is what I finally came up with and it seems to be working nicely (you will need to reference "Microsoft Shell Controls and Automation" from the COM folder and add using Shell32; to your code:
public static Dictionary<string,string> GetDocumentMetadata(string fileName)
{
var properties = new Dictionary<string,string>();
var arrHeaders = new List<string>();
var shell = new Shell();
var objFolder = shell.NameSpace(HttpContext.Current.Server.MapPath("~/RawFiles"));
var file = objFolder.ParseName(fileName);
for (var i = 0; i < short.MaxValue; i++)
{
var header = objFolder.GetDetailsOf(null, i);
if (String.IsNullOrEmpty(header))
break;
arrHeaders.Add(header);
}
for (var i = 0; i < arrHeaders.Count; i++)
{
var value = objFolder.GetDetailsOf(file, i);
if (!String.IsNullOrEmpty(value))
{
properties.Add(arrHeaders[i], value);
}
}
return properties;
}

How can I get the outlook contact's avatar image?

I am trying to get the contact's avatar image.
using Microsoft.Office.Interop.Outlook;
public sealed class OutlookAvatarFetcher
{
private static void FetchAvatars()
{
var outlook = new Application();
var folder = outlook.GetNamespace("MAPI").GetDefaultFolder(OlDefaultFolders.olFolderContacts);
var items = folder.Items;
for (var i = 0; i < items.Count; ++i)
{
var contact = items[i + 1] as ContactItem;
if (contact == null)
continue;
if (contact.HasPicture)
{
// TODO store the picture somehow.
}
}
}
}
But unfortunately I can't find a picture accessor.

You can use the attachments property of the ContactItem:
contact.Attachments["ContactPicture.jpg"]
If you want to save the file to disk, for example, you could do something like this:
contact.Attachments["ContactPicture.jpg"].SaveAsFile(#"{some_path}\ContactPicture.jpg")

Do you mean the picture that comes from Facebook or LinkedIn?
You cannot access it - MS did not provide any API to do that for legal purposes. Remember, that data comes from a third party service, and quite a few lawyers are involved in cases like this.

Taking input from a joystick with C# .NET

I searched around on Google for this, but the only things I came up with were outdated and did not work.
Does anyone have any information on how to get joystick data using C# .NET?

Since this was the top hit I got on google while researching joystick / gamepad input in C#, I thought I should post a response for others to see.
The easiest way I found was to use SharpDX and DirectInput. You can install it via NuGet (SharpDX.DirectInput)
After that, it's simply a matter of calling a few methods:
Sample code from SharpDX
static void Main()
{
// Initialize DirectInput
var directInput = new DirectInput();
// Find a Joystick Guid
var joystickGuid = Guid.Empty;
foreach (var deviceInstance in directInput.GetDevices(DeviceType.Gamepad,
DeviceEnumerationFlags.AllDevices))
joystickGuid = deviceInstance.InstanceGuid;
// If Gamepad not found, look for a Joystick
if (joystickGuid == Guid.Empty)
foreach (var deviceInstance in directInput.GetDevices(DeviceType.Joystick,
DeviceEnumerationFlags.AllDevices))
joystickGuid = deviceInstance.InstanceGuid;
// If Joystick not found, throws an error
if (joystickGuid == Guid.Empty)
{
Console.WriteLine("No joystick/Gamepad found.");
Console.ReadKey();
Environment.Exit(1);
}
// Instantiate the joystick
var joystick = new Joystick(directInput, joystickGuid);
Console.WriteLine("Found Joystick/Gamepad with GUID: {0}", joystickGuid);
// Query all suported ForceFeedback effects
var allEffects = joystick.GetEffects();
foreach (var effectInfo in allEffects)
Console.WriteLine("Effect available {0}", effectInfo.Name);
// Set BufferSize in order to use buffered data.
joystick.Properties.BufferSize = 128;
// Acquire the joystick
joystick.Acquire();
// Poll events from joystick
while (true)
{
joystick.Poll();
var datas = joystick.GetBufferedData();
foreach (var state in datas)
Console.WriteLine(state);
}
}
I hope this helps.
I even got this to work with a DualShock3 and the MotioninJoy drivers.

One: use SlimDX.
Two: it looks something like this (where GamepadDevice is my own wrapper, and the code is slimmed down to just the relevant parts).
Find the joystick / pad GUIDs:
public virtual IList<GamepadDevice> Available()
{
IList<GamepadDevice> result = new List<GamepadDevice>();
DirectInput dinput = new DirectInput();
foreach (DeviceInstance di in dinput.GetDevices(DeviceClass.GameController, DeviceEnumerationFlags.AttachedOnly))
{
GamepadDevice dev = new GamepadDevice();
dev.Guid = di.InstanceGuid;
dev.Name = di.InstanceName;
result.Add(dev);
}
return result;
}
Once the user has selected from the list, acquire the gamepad:
private void acquire(System.Windows.Forms.Form parent)
{
DirectInput dinput = new DirectInput();
pad = new Joystick(dinput, this.Device.Guid);
foreach (DeviceObjectInstance doi in pad.GetObjects(ObjectDeviceType.Axis))
{
pad.GetObjectPropertiesById((int)doi.ObjectType).SetRange(-5000, 5000);
}
pad.Properties.AxisMode = DeviceAxisMode.Absolute;
pad.SetCooperativeLevel(parent, (CooperativeLevel.Nonexclusive | CooperativeLevel.Background));
pad.Acquire();
}
Polling the pad looks like this:
JoystickState state = new JoystickState();
if (pad.Poll().IsFailure)
{
result.Disconnect = true;
return result;
}
if (pad.GetCurrentState(ref state).IsFailure)
{
result.Disconnect = true;
return result;
}
result.X = state.X / 5000.0f;
result.Y = state.Y / 5000.0f;
int ispressed = 0;
bool[] buttons = state.GetButtons();

The bad news is that Microsoft seems to stop supporting their NET libraries for DirectX and focus on XNA instead. I don't work in GameDev so I don't need to use XNA but you may try it if you developing computer games. The good news is that there are other approaches. One is SlimDX the new framework to help you to wok with DirectX from C#. The other way is to directly add references of "Microsoft.DirectX.dll" and "Microsoft.DirectX.DirectInput.dll" to your project. you can find them "..\Windows\Microsoft.NET\DirectX for Managed Code\". if you you are going to use last approach here is a link to codeproject where you can read how to work with a joystick.
EDIT:
If your application is based on NET version newer then 2.0 the application may hang on. To fix this problem change config file and add this:
<startup useLegacyV2RuntimeActivationPolicy="true">

Google led me here and while not a requirement of this question, OpenTK is a good option for Windows and Linux (under mono) support.
From the OpenTK docs, this code works on Raspberry Pi + Raspbian + Mono 3.12.0:
for (int i = 0; i < 4; i++)
{
var state = Joystick.GetState(i);
if (state.IsConnected)
{
float x = state.GetAxis(JoystickAxis.Axis0);
float y = state.GetAxis(JoystickAxis.Axis1);
// Print the current state of the joystick
Console.WriteLine(state);
}
}

This question is old, but it seems to be active even to this day, so I'm posting anyway.
If you need to get input from XInput only, take a look at XInputium. This is a .NET library that is specialized in XInput controllers. It is pretty straightforward, and has many code samples you can look at.

Read Song Title/Artist from a live audio stream with Silverlight 4?

I have a SL4 project that is successfully streaming a great sounding WMA audio stream from a remote location. All of the MediaElement actions are straight forward.
What I want to do is read the attributes that are passed as text along with the Audio stream. For instance the encoder of the stream embeds the title of the stream, the title of the song playing and the name of the artist for the current song.
How would I pick this out using Silverlight 4 and then display it in a Label to the user?
It sure would be easier than writing a bunch of web services to do the same thing. Windows Media Player and WinAmp all get the information I am just not seeing it in the MediaElement object collection.

I found the answer after searchting the web as well as fiddling with Expression 3 a little as well.
It turns out that a live audio stream has markers that are sent across as well as the audio. Markers can contain almost anything but one is called a "Caption". The caption is basically a free-form string field that you can read. With my stream the encoder sends a lot of information across as a caption that can then be broken down. So here is the code I am using:
Starts with registering a few events, the last one is the important one.
public MainPage()
{
InitializeComponent();
this.mediaElement1.BufferingProgressChanged += new RoutedEventHandler(mediaElement1_BufferingProgressChanged);
this.mediaElement1.MarkerReached += new TimelineMarkerRoutedEventHandler(mediaElement1_MarkerReached);
}
Then the actual marker handler does the following:
private void mediaElement1_MarkerReached(object sender, TimelineMarkerRoutedEventArgs e)
{
Dictionary<string, string> songAttribs = new Dictionary<string, string>();
string playerFeed = HttpUtility.UrlDecode(e.Marker.Text);
char[] delims = { '&' };
string[] Attribs = playerFeed.Split(delims);
foreach (String attrib in Attribs)
{
string[] keypair = attrib.Split('=');
string key = "";
string value = "";
try
{
key = keypair[0];
}
catch
{
key = null;
}
if (key != null)
{
try
{
value = keypair[1];
}
catch
{
value = "";
}
songAttribs.Add(keypair[0], keypair[1]);
}
}
nowplaying.Title = songAttribs["title"];
nowplaying.Artist = songAttribs["artist"];
nowplaying.Duration = 0;
this.label2.Content = "Artist: " + nowplaying.Artist;
this.label3.Content = "Title: " + nowplaying.Title;
this.label1.Content = playerFeed;
}
Still working on some of the code but so far things seem to be working.

Mayba WMP and WinAmp get the Informations from a Website or something like this, and dont read it out of the stream...
Werewolve