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.Net Core Identity SignInManager in Console App w/o DI/WebHost

I'm attempting to write a generic .Net Core 2.2 Console Application that allows me to use Identity. Specifically I have a database and am simply tring to call SignInManager.PasswordSignInAsync() to authenticate the username/password against my DB.
If I run this in a full blown .NetCore WebApp, where the HttpContext and DI are all built out, it works fine. If I strip it down and simply call the base services I get the same error every time.
I've been trying variants for a few days now and simply cannot figure out what I'm missing.
Any assistance would be greatly appreciated.
I have a class which manages the buildout of the services available for the console app.
public class FXLoginProvider
{
private readonly IServiceCollection _svccoll;
private UserManager<FXUser> _um = null;
private SignInManager<FXUser> _sm = null;
public UserManager<FXUser> UserMgr
{
get { return _um ?? (_um = _svccoll.BuildServiceProvider().GetService<UserManager<FXUser>>()); }
}
public SignInManager<FXUser> SignInMgr
{
get { return _sm ?? (_sm = _svccoll.BuildServiceProvider().GetService<SignInManager<FXUser>>()); }
}
public FXLoginProvider()
{
string s = "Data Source=.\\SQLEXPRESS;Initial catalog=csNextGen;Integrated Security=True;TrustServerCertificate=True;ApplicationIntent=ReadWrite";
_svccoll = new ServiceCollection();
_svccoll.AddDbContext<FXDataContext>(options => { options.UseSqlServer(s); });
_svccoll.AddIdentity<FXUser, FXUserRole>().AddDefaultTokenProviders();
_svccoll.AddTransient<IUserStore<FXUser>, FXUserStore>();
_svccoll.AddTransient<IRoleStore<FXUserRole>, FXRoleStore>();
_svccoll.AddLogging();
_svccoll.AddSingleton<IHttpContextAccessor, HttpContextAccessor>();
}
}
Then in my main app...
class Program
{
static void Main(string[] args)
{
try
{
FXUser uu = null;
string sUsername = "user";
string sPassword = "P$sSw0rrD#!";
// create the service provider
FXLoginProvider icp = new FXLoginProvider();
// grab the sign in manager
SignInManager<FXUser> sm1 = icp.SignInMgr;
// fetch the user from the db, this works.
uu = icp.UserMgr.FindByNameAsync(sUsername).Result;
// update my security stamp, this works too
sm1.UserManager.UpdateSecurityStampAsync(uu).GetAwaiter().GetResult();
// I was receiving a Null context error, so I added a default context.
sm1.Context = new DefaultHttpContext();
var r = sm1.PasswordSignInAsync(sUsername, sPassword, false, false).GetAwaiter().GetResult();
Console.WriteLine(r);
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
Console.WriteLine(ex.Message);
}
}
}
and it always throws the same exception:
Value cannot be null.\r\nParameter name: provider
I do see in the StackTrace it is throwing down in DependencyInjection.ServiceProviderServiceExtensions (source code for DI.SPSE) because the IServiceProvider is null; so I guess I'm missing a service in my list?

I was able to figure out the problem with my implementation. My error was simply that I had not completely filled in the default http context properly.
sm1.Context = new DefaultHttpContext();
should have been
sm1.Context = new DefaultHttpContext() { RequestServices = icp._svccoll.BuildServiceProvider() };
Note: I needed to change the access level of the _svccoll too.
With this change in place I was able to use the SignInManager to authenticate against my back end database.
I battled this problem for days so I'm happy to share my solution (solution is available on GitHub). I hope this helps!

SingInManager relies on cookie, you can’t use it in console app. Instead of it use UserManager<> there a method to verify password

COM+ activation on a remote server with partitions in C#

I want to access partitioned COM+ applications on a remote server.
I have tried this:
using COMAdmin
using System.Runtime.InteropServices;
_serverName = myRemoteServer;
_partionName = myPartionName;
_message = myMessage;
ICOMAdminCatalog2 catalog = new COMAdminCatalog();
catalog.Connect(_serverName);
string moniker = string.Empty;
string MsgInClassId = "E3BD1489-30DD-4380-856A-12B959502BFD";
//we are using partitions
if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(_partitionName))
{
COMAdminCatalogCollection partitions = catalog.GetCollection("Partitions");
partitions.Populate();
string partitionId = string.Empty;
foreach (ICatalogObject item in partitions)
{
if (item.Name == _partitionName)
{
partitionId = item.Key;
break;
}
}
if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(partitionId) )
{
moniker = $"partition:{partitionId}/new:{new Guid(MsgInClassId)}";
try
{
var M = (IMsgInManager)Marshal.BindToMoniker(moniker);
M.AddMsg(_message);
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
throw new Exception($"We can not use: {_partitionName} with Id {partitionId}. {ex.ToString()}");
}
}
else
{
throw;
}
}
else
//we don't have partitions and this will work
{
Type T = Type.GetTypeFromCLSID(new Guid(MsgInClassId), _serverName, true);
var M = (IMsgInManager)Activator.CreateInstance(T);
M.AddMsg(_message);
}
}
So when we are local on the (remote) machine, partitions are working with the moniker and Marshal.BindToMoniker.
But when I try do the same remotely from my machine, I get an error from
Marshal.BindToMoniker that Partitons is not enabled. Because on my machine partitions is not enabled.
Message = "COM+ partitions are currently disabled. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x80110824)"
How can I use Marshal.BindToMoniker to run on the remote server.
Is it something I can add to the moniker string i.e.
moniker = $"server:_server/partition:{partitionId}/new:{new Guid(MsgInClassId)}"
My questions is very simular to this:
COM+ object activation in a different partition

tl;dr
According to MS documentation there is a way to do this by setting the pServerInfo in BIND_OPTS2 structure for binding the moniker. Unfortunately this is not working for the COM class moniker.
see:
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/ms694513(v=vs.85).aspx
where it says for *pServerInfo:
COM's new class moniker does not currently honor the pServerInfo flag.
But maybe just try your scenario and at some future time it might be supported (or already is and documentation is wrong).
also see:
http://thrysoee.dk/InsideCOM+/ch11c.htm
where it also says in the footnote it does not work for class moniker: http://thrysoee.dk/InsideCOM+/footnotes.htm#CH1104
Theory and suggested solution if it was supported in c#
Disclaimer: I couldn't test the code as I don't have a test setup. This is off the top of my head. A bit pseudo code.
To do this you would have to code the COM/Moniker calls yourself. For this you could look at the source of microsofts implementation as a starting point.
There BindToMoniker is implemented like:
public static Object BindToMoniker(String monikerName)
{
Object obj = null;
IBindCtx bindctx = null;
CreateBindCtx(0, out bindctx);
UInt32 cbEaten;
IMoniker pmoniker = null;
MkParseDisplayName(bindctx, monikerName, out cbEaten, out pmoniker);
BindMoniker(pmoniker, 0, ref IID_IUnknown, out obj);
return obj;
}
CreateBindCtx, MkParseDisplayName and BindMoniker are OLE32.dll functions.
IBindCtx has methods to change the binding context. For this you call IBindCtx.GetBindContext(out BIND_OPTS2) and change the settings to what you need. Then set the new binding context with IBindCtx.SetBindContext(BIND_OPTS2). So essentially your own version of code would look something like this (pseudo code):
public static Object BindToMoniker(String monikerName)
{
Object obj = null;
IBindCtx bindctx = null;
CreateBindCtx(0, out bindctx);
BIND_OPTS2 bindOpts;
bindOpts.cbStruct = Marshal.SizeOf(BIND_OPTS2);
bindctx.GetBindOptions(ref bindOpts);
// Make your settings that you need. For example:
bindOpts.dwClassContext = CLSCTX_REMOTE_SERVER;
// Anything else ?
bindOpts.pServerInfo = new COSERVERINFO{pwszName = "serverName"};
bindctx.SetBindOptions(ref bindOpts);
UInt32 cbEaten;
IMoniker pmoniker = null;
MkParseDisplayName(bindctx, monikerName, out cbEaten, out pmoniker);
BindMoniker(pmoniker, 0, ref IID_IUnknown, out obj);
return obj;
}
As said, unfortunately this code is not possible to write in C# out of the box. Even the OLE32.dll method declarations CreateBindCtx, MkParseDisplayName and BindMoniker are privately declared in Marshal.cs so you will have to declare them in your project again.
But we are lucky with the IBindCtx declaration using a BIND_OPTS2 and the BIND_OPTS2 structure definition itself. They are declared in Microsoft.VisualStudio.OLE.Interop (interesting declarations in this namespace anyway). So you can try using them because inside the Marshal object and marshal.cs only the BIND_OPTS structure is used. I don't know if this is part of the framework and redistributable (I doubt it) but for testing this should be good enough. If it works these things can be declared again in your own solution.
Some Info on the used functions:
BindMoniker
CreateBindCtx
MkParseDisplayName
BIND_OPTS2

The remote COM needs to be accessed by Queue or DCOM. You need to export the application proxy on the server when accessing by DCOM. And install the proxy in the client PC.
The COM activation type must be configured as "Server Application" to export application proxy.
After installing application proxy, the client can directly call
moniker = $"new:{new Guid(MsgInClassId)}";
try
{
var M = Marshal.BindToMoniker(moniker);
}
For the partition, it's designed to show each user with own application set. If the current partition is associated to the user, the partition needs not to be written in codes.

Set Service Start Parameter using Topshelf

I have a service with multiple instances with different parameters for each instance, at the moment I'm setting these parameters manually (in another code to be exact) to Image Path of the service in Registry (e.g. HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\MyService$i00). so our service installation is done in two steps.
I'm really interested to merge these steps in Topshelf installation for example like
MyService.exe install -instance "i00" -config "C:\i00Config.json"
First Try
I tried AddCommandLineDefinition from TopShelf but it seems it only works during installation and running through console not the service itself (will not add anything to service Image Path).
Second Try
I tried to see if its possible to do this with AfterInstall from Topshelf without any luck. here is a test code to see if it going to work or not (but unfortunately Topshelf overwrites the registry after AfterInstall call).
HostFactory.Run(x =>
{
x.UseNLog();
x.Service<MyService>(sc =>
{
sc.ConstructUsing(hs => new MyService(hs));
sc.WhenStarted((s, h) => s.Start(h));
sc.WhenStopped((s, h) => s.Stop(h));
});
x.AfterInstall(s =>
{
using (var system = Registry.LocalMachine.OpenSubKey("SYSTEM"))
using (var controlSet = system.OpenSubKey("CurrentControlSet"))
using (var services = controlSet.OpenSubKey("services"))
using (var service = services.OpenSubKey(string.IsNullOrEmpty(s.InstanceName)
? s.ServiceName
: s.ServiceName + "$" + s.InstanceName, true))
{
if (service == null)
return;
var imagePath = service.GetValue("ImagePath") as string;
if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(imagePath))
return;
var appendix = string.Format(" -{0} \"{1}\"", "config", "C:\i00config.json"); //only a test to see if it is possible at all or not
imagePath = imagePath + appendix;
service.SetValue("ImagePath", imagePath);
}
});
x.SetServiceName("MyService");
x.SetDisplayName("My Service");
x.SetDescription("My Service Sample");
x.StartAutomatically();
x.RunAsLocalSystem();
x.EnableServiceRecovery(r =>
{
r.OnCrashOnly();
r.RestartService(1); //first
r.RestartService(1); //second
r.RestartService(1); //subsequents
r.SetResetPeriod(0);
});
});
I couldn't find any relevant information about how it can be done using TopShelf so the question is, is it possible to do this with TopShelf?

Ok, as Travis mentioned, It seems there is no built-in feature or simple workaround for this problem. so I wrote a little extension for Topshelf based on a Custom Environment Builder (most of the code is borrowed form Topshelf project itself).
I posted the code on Github, in case others may find it useful, here is the Topshelf.StartParameters extension.
based on the extension my code would be like:
HostFactory.Run(x =>
{
x.EnableStartParameters();
x.UseNLog();
x.Service<MyService>(sc =>
{
sc.ConstructUsing(hs => new MyService(hs));
sc.WhenStarted((s, h) => s.Start(h));
sc.WhenStopped((s, h) => s.Stop(h));
});
x.WithStartParameter("config",a =>{/*we can use parameter here*/});
x.SetServiceName("MyService");
x.SetDisplayName("My Service");
x.SetDescription("My Service Sample");
x.StartAutomatically();
x.RunAsLocalSystem();
x.EnableServiceRecovery(r =>
{
r.OnCrashOnly();
r.RestartService(1); //first
r.RestartService(1); //second
r.RestartService(1); //subsequents
r.SetResetPeriod(0);
});
});
and I can simply set it with:
MyService.exe install -instance "i00" -config "C:\i00Config.json"

To answer you question, no this isn't possible with Topshelf. I am excited you figured out how to manage the ImagePath. But that's the crux of the problem, there's been some discussion on the mailing list (https://groups.google.com/d/msg/topshelf-discuss/Xu4XR6wGWxw/8mAtyJFATq8J) on this topic and issues about it in the past.
The big problem is that managing expectations of behavior when applying custom arguments to the ImagePath will be unintuitive. For example, what happens when you call start with custom command line arguments? I'm open to implementing this or accepting a PR if we get something that doesn't confuse me just thinking about it, let alone trying to use. Right now, I strongly encourage you to use configuration, not command line arguments, to manage this, even if it means duplicating code on disk.

The following work-around is nothing more than a registry update. The update operation expects the privileges the installer requires in order to write our extended arguments.
Basically, we're responding to the AfterInstall() event. As of Topshelf v4.0.3, calling the AppendImageArgs() work-around from within the event will cause your args to appear before the TS args. If the call is deferred, your args will appear after the TS args.
The work-around
private static void AppendImageArgs(string serviceName, IEnumerable<Tuple<string, object>> args)
{
try
{
using (var service = Registry.LocalMachine.OpenSubKey($#"System\CurrentControlSet\Services\{serviceName}", true))
{
const string imagePath = "ImagePath";
var value = service?.GetValue(imagePath) as string;
if (value == null)
return;
foreach (var arg in args)
if (arg.Item2 == null)
value += $" -{arg.Item1}";
else
value += $" -{arg.Item1} \"{arg.Item2}\"";
service.SetValue(imagePath, value);
}
}
catch (Exception e)
{
Log.Error(e);
}
}
An example call
private static void AppendImageArgs(string serviceName)
{
var args = new[]
{
new Tuple<string, object>("param1", "Hello"),
new Tuple<string, object>("param2", 1),
new Tuple<string, object>("Color", ConsoleColor.Cyan),
};
AppendImageArgs(serviceName, args);
}
And the resulting args that would appear in the ImagePath:
-displayname "MyService Display Name" -servicename "MyServiceName" -param1 "Hello" -param2 "1" -Color "Cyan"
Notice the args appeared after the TS args, -displayname & -servicename. In this example, the AppendImageArgs() call was invoked after TS finished its installation business.
Command line args can be specified normally using Topshelf methods such as AddCommandLineDefinition(). To force processing of the args, call ApplyCommandLine().

Does the inbuilt Ninject assembly loaders have error handling

I've written a plugin manager so
public class WeinCadPluginManager : NinjectModule, IEnableSerilog
{
public override void Load()
{
var codeBaseUrl = new Uri(Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().CodeBase);
var codeBasePath = Uri.UnescapeDataString(codeBaseUrl.AbsolutePath);
var dirPath = Path.GetDirectoryName(codeBasePath);
Debug.Assert(dirPath != null, "dirPath != null");
var path = dirPath;
var types = Directory
.GetFiles(path, "*.dll")
.Select (Assembly.LoadFile)
.SelectMany (assembly =>
{
try
{
return assembly.GetExportedTypes();
}
catch (Exception e)
{
this.Serilog()
.Error
(e, "Failed to load assembly {assembly}", assembly);
return new Type[]
{
};
}
})
.Where(type=>typeof(IWeinCadPlugin).IsAssignableFrom(type))
.ToList();
foreach (var assembly in types)
{
Kernel.Bind<IWeinCadPlugin>().To(assembly).InSingletonScope();
}
}
}
Now this pretty much duplicates
Kernel.Load("*.dll")
except if there are any errors exporting the types from an assembly then Kernel.Load crashes with no error handling possible. I wouldn't want the failure to load a single plugin assembly to crash my app. Is my solution the only viable way or does Ninject have some error handling available?

I think a try { } catch { } around each Kernel.Load("specificplugin.dll") should suffice.
You would still have to find all the assemblies yourself, but would have to write less code.
var codeBaseUrl = new Uri(Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().CodeBase);
var codeBasePath = Uri.UnescapeDataString(codeBaseUrl.AbsolutePath);
var dirPath = Path.GetDirectoryName(codeBasePath);
var dllPaths = Directory.GetFiles(dirpath, "*.dll");
foreach(string dllPath in dllPaths)
{
try
{
kernel.Load(dllPath);
}
catch (Exception e)
{
this.Serilog()
.Error(e, "Failed to load assembly {assembly}", assembly);
}
}
Drawback: ninject must be adding the binding to the kernel either on .Bind() or on .To(..), because all the rest of the fluent syntax methods are optional. So if there would be an exception in the .When(), .InScope(),.. any other optional method, you would be left with a non-complete binding and thus, most likely, a faulty software.
(However i suspect that most errors will not materialize when creating the binding, but rather when activating the binding. And you are not protected against that.)
As far as i know there is no way to remove bindings from ninject once you've added them. Except for the .Rebind() - but that is always replacing a binding with a different one.
So no, i don't think there's something like "rollback on exception".
So we must be looking for an alternative solution. There is one: child kernels. https://github.com/ninject/ninject.extensions.childkernel
Load each plugin into it's own child kernel. in case the fooplugin.dll load fails, dispose the child kernel. In case it works.. well you're good to go! :)
This also has the advantage that plugin's can't influence one another. Imagine two plugins would do IBindingRoot.Bind<string>().ToConstant("some constant") ;-)
(please note that i haven't tested whether disposing the child kernel before the parent kernel works "as expected", so you should test it out first. Simple enough, right?)

In C# how to stop/start/check whether registered or not if the Log On As account is of non-admin user?

I have a service whose LogOnAs is not Local System.It is a different user (say test with administrative privilege).Using Normal code :doesnt work it always throws exception.
public bool IsServiceInstalled(String serviceName)
{
bool IsInstalled = false;
// get list of Windows services
ServiceController[] services = ServiceController.GetServices();
// try to find service name
foreach (ServiceController service in services)
{
if (service.ServiceName == serviceName)
{
IsInstalled = true;
break;
}
}
return IsInstalled;
}
Any help will be greatly appreciated...

To begin with, you can simplify your logic with:
public bool IsServiceInstalled(String aServiceName)
{
ServiceController sc = ServiceController.GetServices()
.FirstOrDefault(s => s.ServiceName == aServiceName);
return (sc != null) ;
}
This uses linq to get the first matching service with the passed name (I've changed the parameter to aServiceName, the a stands for argument).
It won't solve your problem, but will be easier to read and maintain.
Does this work for you when you're logged on normally?