Agha Usman

Lives in Karachi (Pakistan) and work for Ciber Strategies

July 2009 - Posts

Get Countries Name in .Net

Introduction:

In this post, I will explain you how can we get the countries name filled in any collection using .net without using any database.

It is a regular task, which we all as developers did some past day but the difference is we used database table or xml file to hold the country names. But .net framework provide us with all the countries information in Globalization namespace.

So, here is the code for that 

Dictionary<string,string> objDic = new Dictionary<string,string>();
 
foreach (CultureInfo ObjCultureInfo in CultureInfo.GetCultures(CultureTypes.SpecificCultures))
{
    RegionInfo objRegionInfo = new RegionInfo(ObjCultureInfo.Name);
    if (!objDic.ContainsKey(objRegionInfo.EnglishName))
    {
        objDic.Add(objRegionInfo.EnglishName, objRegionInfo.TwoLetterISORegionName.ToLower());
    }
}
 
var obj = objDic.OrderBy(p => p.Key );
foreach (KeyValuePair<string,string> val in obj)
{
    ddlCountries.Items.Add(new ListItem(val.Key, val.Value));
}

 

Explanation:

Notice that, we have used typed dictionary object to store the name and the values of the countries.

Then, we use CultureInfo.GetCultures to get the cultural information of the countries.

Later on, we use RegionInfo to get the regional information of that  culture.

Since, there can be multiple cultures of the same country that is why there is a condition which check either the country is already added in dictionary. If not, then simply add the country name and country two letter name. (Note : We are treating the two letter country name as the value)

After the loop, I used some LinQ stuff to sort county names, and then iterate through the returned object to add the values in drop down list.

That’s it. Now you are not only limited to show the English name of the country but you can also show the native name. For example, the name of my country in English is “Islamic Republic of Pakistan” but the native name is پاکستان.

Also, you can get the following country information using RegionInfo

 

sc_clbn_1

Some developers are habitual of using country id along with the country name. if they still want to use some id to save the country information they can use the GeoId property of the RegionInfo.

Posted: Jul 26 2009, 07:37 PM by aghausman12 | with 7 comment(s)
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Show Loading Message in Asp.net AJAX

In this post, I will explain you how can we show Loading message in asp.net ajax without using Update Progress. Now some one may asked, why do I want to skip Update Progress ?

Well, there can be several reasons for this, fist of all you have to work on every single page, and on every update panel to get the update progress working.

There are basically three methods of meeting this requirement.

  1. Using Master Pages : A very smart way, but not all of us are using them .. right ?
  2. Extending Page Class  : A little harder but to me it is very elegant way.
  3. Extending Script Manager : Similar to the page class one, but implementation is comparatively simple.

The Basics:

Before I start with exploring the different approaches let me first create a ground by showing what things will be involve in creating a loading message.

I want the background to be grayed and displayed a simple loading text at the top, for that we need a style sheet, which will apply to the loading message div.  Create a stylesheet and call it style.css

.ModalProgressContainer
    {
        z-index: 10005;
        position: fixed;
        cursor: wait; 
        top:0%; 
        background-color: #ffffff; 
        filter: alpha(opacity=50);
        opacity: 0.5;
        -moz-opacity: .5; 
        height: 100%;
        width: 100%;
        text-align: center; 
        
        } 
    .ModalProgressContent
    {
        padding: 10px; 
        border: solid 0px #000040; 
        font-weight: bold; 
        background-color:#ffffff;
        margin-top:300px;
    }

Now lets read and understand the following script. 

var prm = Sys.WebForms.PageRequestManager.getInstance();
 
prm.add_initializeRequest(InitializeRequest);
prm.add_endRequest(EndRequest);
 
// ----------------------------- //
// the below script will be saved in JS File, create a JS file and call it ajaxload.js and save the following script
 
function InitializeRequest(sender, args) {
    if (document.getElementById('ProgressDiv') != null)
        $get('ProgressDiv').style.display = 'block';
    else
        createContorl();
}
 
function EndRequest(sender, args) {
    if (document.getElementById('ProgressDiv') != null)
        $get('ProgressDiv').style.display = 'none';
    else
        createContorl();
}
 
function createContorl() {
 
    var parentDiv = document.createElement("div");
    parentDiv.setAttribute("class", "ModalProgressContainer");
    parentDiv.setAttribute("Id", "ProgressDiv");
 
 
    var innerContent = document.createElement("div");
    innerContent.setAttribute("class", "ModalProgressContent");
 
    var img = document.createElement("img");
    img.setAttribute("src", "/Images/Images/Loading.gif");
 
    var textDiv = document.createElement("div");
    textDiv.innerHTML = 'Loading....';
 
 
 
    innerContent.appendChild(img);
    innerContent.appendChild(textDiv);
 
    parentDiv.appendChild(innerContent);
 
    
 
    document.body.appendChild(parentDiv);
}

Notice,in the first three lines. We are getting the instance of PageRequestManager and then defining InitilizeRequest and EndRequest functions to display or hide the loading div. Where as, in createControl function we are simply writing DHTML, to be more specific there is no HTML of the loading div in our markup. So, we are writing that from JavaScript.

Also, note the that I have break down this script into two part by using comments. First is the declaration and second is definition of the functions.

note: The definition will take place on a seperate JS file where as the declaration need to be made in the page, under body markup.  Now we are all set to explore different approaches.

 

Using Master Pages :

A very simple approach, all you need to do is open your master page and paste the following lines in the head section.

<link href="style.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" />
<script type="text/javascript" src="ajaxload.js"></script>

And in body, after form tag create a script section and paste the following JavaScript.

var prm = Sys.WebForms.PageRequestManager.getInstance();
 
prm.add_initializeRequest(InitializeRequest);
prm.add_endRequest(EndRequest);

Notice it is the same declaration section which we have discussed above and that’s it you are done. All the content form of your web application should now display loading div on each partial postback.

 

Extending Page Class  :

For this, create a class file and call it ajaxPage and inherit it from System.Web.UI.Page and write the following code. 

public class ajaxPage : Page
 
   protected override void OnLoad(EventArgs e)
   {
       //Include CSS File
       Page.Header.Controls.Add(new LiteralControl("<link href='style.css' rel='stylesheet' type='text/css' />"));
 
 
       //Include JS file on the page
       ClientScript.RegisterClientScriptInclude("ajaxload", ResolveUrl("~/ajaxload.js"));
 
       //Writing declaration script 
       String script = "var prm = Sys.WebForms.PageRequestManager.getInstance();";
       script += "prm.add_initializeRequest(InitializeRequest);";
       script += "prm.add_endRequest(EndRequest);";
 
       ClientScript.RegisterStartupScript(typeof(string), "body", script, true);
 
       base.OnLoad(e);
   }
 

Well, we have simply extend the System.Web.UI.Page into our own class and override OnLoad function to include the JS file and write the declaration markup.

Now, on the page code behind where you want to implement Loading message change the inherit namespace from System.Web.UI.Page to ajaxPage (make sure you namespace).

 

Extending Script Manager :

Now instead of extending page class we will extend Script Manager control and for that create a new class file and call it ScrtipManagerExt and write the following code. 

public class ScriptManagerExt : ScriptManager
{
    protected override void OnLoad(EventArgs e)
    {
 
        //Include CSS File
        Page.Header.Controls.Add(new LiteralControl("<link href='style.css' rel='stylesheet' type='text/css' />"));
 
        RegisterClientScriptInclude(this, typeof(Page), "ajaload", ResolveClientUrl("~/ajaxload.js"));
 
        String script = "var prm = Sys.WebForms.PageRequestManager.getInstance();";
        script += "prm.add_initializeRequest(InitializeRequest);";
        script += "prm.add_endRequest(EndRequest);";
 
        RegisterStartupScript(this, typeof(Page), "ajaxtest", script, true);
        base.OnLoad(e);
    }
}

Almost the same thing we did in extend page approach, only the implementation will be change. Instead of using the old Script Manager we will use our new one. the include directive and markup will look like as below.

<%@ Register Assembly="AssmblyName" Namespace="NameSpace" TagPrefix="cc1" %>
 
<cc1:ScriptManagerExt ID="ScriptManagerExt1" runat="server">
</cc1:ScriptManagerExt>

That’s it we are done. I tried to make it simpler and show you every possible way I know of doing this task. Again, any approach selection will be on you and your project type. You can also download  the VS 2008 project file.

Posted: Jul 20 2009, 01:47 AM by aghausman12 | with 7 comment(s)
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Migrate from WordPress to BlogEngine.net

In this post, I will explain how to migrate a blog running on Word Press (Self Hosted) to BlogEngine. But before I start let me say, that Word Press simply rocks. The reason why I plan to switch my blog is customization. Since I am a dotnet geek, I really have no great idea of what I can make out of Word Press using PHP and when it comes to Blogging in .net, I guess I made a very right decision to use BlogEngine. It is open source and included all the necessary blogging utilities.

The main thing which I want to migrate is as follows

  • Post
  • Categories
  • Tags
  • Comments

The moment I start, I was thinking to get some export / import tool. Then I came to know about BlogML. A format that is created to interchange content between different bloging engines. Natively, Word Press don’t support BlogML but Robert McLaws did great job on wiring this tool. Unfortunately, that tool didn’t work for me, for some reason it is keep giving me error.

Finally, I tried it in my own way. Since that blog was self hosted, I have access to mysql database engine through phpMyAdmin. Hence, I decided to export SQL of my related tables and data in MSSQL (TSQL) format.

 

  1. After the login into phpMyAdmin, go to the table list by selecting the databases comes at left.
  2. From the tab at the top select export.
  3. In the export group, select SQL and tables in my case it is wp_comments, wp_posts, wp_term_relationships, wp_term_taxonomy, and wp_term
  4. Now from the SQL Compatibility Mode, Select MSSQL. Save the file and your are complete.

Your selection screen should like like below.

sc_wp_to_be

 

Now open the generated SQL in MSSQL and before you run you might need to fix some column names and some data type issues of the table. But believe that is pretty easy. To help you more, please see the table creation script below

CREATE TABLE [dbo].[wp_comments](
    [comment_ID] [bigint] IDENTITY(1,1) NOT NULL,
    [comment_post_ID] [int] NOT NULL,
    [comment_author] [varchar](200) NOT NULL,
    [comment_author_email] [varchar](100) NOT NULL,
    [comment_author_url] [varchar](200) NOT NULL,
    [comment_author_IP] [varchar](100) NOT NULL,
    [comment_date] [datetime] NOT NULL,
    [comment_date_gmt] [datetime] NOT NULL,
    [comment_content] [text] NOT NULL,
    [comment_karma] [int] NOT NULL,
    [comment_approved] [varchar](20) NOT NULL,
    [comment_agent] [varchar](255) NOT NULL,
    [comment_type] [varchar](20) NOT NULL,
    [comment_parent] [bigint] NOT NULL,
    [user_id] [bigint] NOT NULL,
    [comment_subscribe] [varchar](1) NOT NULL,
PRIMARY KEY CLUSTERED 
(
    [comment_ID] ASC
)WITH (PAD_INDEX  = OFF, STATISTICS_NORECOMPUTE  = OFF, IGNORE_DUP_KEY = OFF, ALLOW_ROW_LOCKS  = ON, ALLOW_PAGE_LOCKS  = ON) ON [PRIMARY]
) ON [PRIMARY] TEXTIMAGE_ON [PRIMARY]
 
GO
 
CREATE TABLE [dbo].[wp_posts](
    [ID] [bigint] NOT NULL,
    [post_author] [bigint] NOT NULL,
    [post_date] [datetime] NOT NULL,
    [post_date_gmt] [datetime] NOT NULL,
    [post_content] [text] NOT NULL,
    [post_title] [text] NOT NULL,
    [post_category] [int] NOT NULL,
    [post_excerpt] [text] NOT NULL,
    [post_status] [varchar](20) NOT NULL,
    [comment_status] [varchar](20) NOT NULL,
    [ping_status] [varchar](20) NOT NULL,
    [post_password] [varchar](20) NOT NULL,
    [post_name] [varchar](200) NOT NULL,
    [to_ping] [text] NOT NULL,
    [pinged] [text] NOT NULL,
    [post_modified] [datetime] NOT NULL,
    [post_modified_gmt] [datetime] NOT NULL,
    [post_content_filtered] [text] NOT NULL,
    [post_parent] [bigint] NOT NULL,
    [guid] [varchar](255) NOT NULL,
    [menu_order] [int] NOT NULL,
    [post_type] [varchar](20) NOT NULL,
    [post_mime_type] [varchar](100) NOT NULL,
    [comment_count] [bigint] NOT NULL,
PRIMARY KEY CLUSTERED 
(
    [ID] ASC
)WITH (PAD_INDEX  = OFF, STATISTICS_NORECOMPUTE  = OFF, IGNORE_DUP_KEY = OFF, ALLOW_ROW_LOCKS  = ON, ALLOW_PAGE_LOCKS  = ON) ON [PRIMARY]
) ON [PRIMARY] TEXTIMAGE_ON [PRIMARY]
 
GO
 
CREATE TABLE [dbo].[wp_terms](
    [term_id] [bigint] IDENTITY(1,1) NOT NULL,
    [name] [varchar](200) NOT NULL,
    [slug] [varchar](200) NOT NULL,
    [term_group] [bigint] NOT NULL,
PRIMARY KEY CLUSTERED 
(
    [term_id] ASC
)WITH (PAD_INDEX  = OFF, STATISTICS_NORECOMPUTE  = OFF, IGNORE_DUP_KEY = OFF, ALLOW_ROW_LOCKS  = ON, ALLOW_PAGE_LOCKS  = ON) ON [PRIMARY]
) ON [PRIMARY]
 
GO
 
SET ANSI_PADDING OFF
GO
 
CREATE TABLE [dbo].[wp_term_relationships](
    [object_id] [bigint] NOT NULL,
    [term_taxonomy_id] [bigint] NOT NULL,
    [term_order] [int] NOT NULL,
PRIMARY KEY CLUSTERED 
(
    [object_id] ASC,
    [term_taxonomy_id] ASC
)WITH (PAD_INDEX  = OFF, STATISTICS_NORECOMPUTE  = OFF, IGNORE_DUP_KEY = OFF, ALLOW_ROW_LOCKS  = ON, ALLOW_PAGE_LOCKS  = ON) ON [PRIMARY]
) ON [PRIMARY]
 
GO
CREATE TABLE [dbo].[wp_term_taxonomy](
    [term_taxonomy_id] [bigint] IDENTITY(1,1) NOT NULL,
    [term_id] [bigint] NOT NULL,
    [taxonomy] [varchar](32) NOT NULL,
    [description] [text] NOT NULL,
    [parent] [bigint] NOT NULL,
    [count] [bigint] NOT NULL,
PRIMARY KEY CLUSTERED 
(
    [term_taxonomy_id] ASC
)WITH (PAD_INDEX  = OFF, STATISTICS_NORECOMPUTE  = OFF, IGNORE_DUP_KEY = OFF, ALLOW_ROW_LOCKS  = ON, ALLOW_PAGE_LOCKS  = ON) ON [PRIMARY]
) ON [PRIMARY] TEXTIMAGE_ON [PRIMARY]
 
GO 
 

Please note  that it is just the schema script. All you data will be included in mysql generated SQL File which we have created before.

Now, we have all the required tables with data imported from Word Press to Blog Engine Db but we will fill Blog engine tables to show imported data. Lets first start with category.

 

Category:

There is no such table in wp_categories in word press instead it uses wp_term and wp_term_taxonomy to store categories where as in Blog engine we have a table called be_categories which hold categories information. So following query will dump the data from wp_terms , wp_taxonomy to be_categories.

INSERT INTO [dbo].[be_Categories]
           ([CategoryID]
           ,[CategoryName]
           ,[Description]
           ,[ParentID]
           ,[Slug])
     SELECT
           NEWID(),
           w1.[name],
           ('Posts in ' + w1.[name]) as Description,
           NULL, -- as I am not going to make any parent child relation now ...
           w1.[slug]
           FROM [BlogEngine].[dbo].[wp_terms] w1
  INNER JOIN  wp_term_taxonomy w2 on w1.term_id = w2.term_id and w2.taxonomy = 'category'
GO

Posts:

Now lets deal with posts, a very easy query because we have the post table in both the blogging engines. In Word Press it is wp_posts where as in Blog Engine it is be_post.

INSERT INTO [dbo].[be_Posts]
      ([PostID]
      ,[Title]
      ,[Description]
      ,[PostContent]
      ,[DateCreated]
      ,[DateModified]
      ,[Author]
      ,[IsPublished]
      ,[IsCommentEnabled]
      ,[Raters]
      ,[Rating]
      ,[Slug])
 
SELECT newid(),
       post_title,
       post_excerpt,
       post_content,
       post_date,
       post_modified,
      'username',
      1,
      1,
      0,
      0,
      post_name
from wp_posts where post_type ='post'

Post Category Relation:

Now its time to set, which post have which categories. The table which is repsonsible for saving this information is called wp_term_relationship in Word Press and be_PostCategory in Blog Engine. See the following query.

select  wp.post_title ,wtr.name into #temp1 from wp_term_relationships wr inner join 
wp_term_taxonomy wt on wr.term_taxonomy_id = wt.term_taxonomy_id and wt.taxonomy = 'category' 
inner join wp_terms wtr on wt.term_id = wtr.term_id
inner join wp_posts wp on wr.object_id = wp.ID and post_type = 'post'
 
 
 
INSERT INTO [dbo].[be_PostCategory]
           ([PostID]
           ,[CategoryID])
select (select postId from be_Posts where Title= convert(nvarchar(max),t.post_title)),
(select CategoryID from  be_Categories where CategoryName = t.name) from #temp1 t
 
drop table #temp1
 
GO

I guess this query might need some explanation. See, in the top query I am getting the title of posts and name of categories and storing it to temp table.

Now come to the second part, here I insert new reords in be_postcategory based on the category names and post titles we filled before.

 

Tag:

In Blog Engine we have a table called be_PostTag which manage all the tags related stuff but in wordpress again involve all the tables containing wp_term. So, I write the following query which get the data from those tables and store it in Tags.

INSERT INTO [dbo].[be_PostTag]
         ([PostID]
         ,[Tag])
         
         
         
   SELECT
         (select postId from be_Posts where Title= convert(nvarchar(max),wp.post_title)) ,SUBSTRING(w1.[name], 1, 50)
         FROM [BlogEngine].[dbo].[wp_terms] w1
INNER JOIN  wp_term_taxonomy w2 on w1.term_id = w2.term_id and w2.taxonomy = 'post_tag'
inner join  wp_term_relationships wr on wr.term_taxonomy_id = w2.term_taxonomy_id
inner join  wp_posts wp on wr.object_id = wp.ID 
 

Comment:

This one is comparatively easy. We have table called wp_comments in Word Press and be_postcomment in Blog Engine to manage the comments. Here is the final query. 

INSERT INTO be_PostComment]
         ([PostCommentID]
         ,[PostID]
         ,[ParentCommentID]
         ,[CommentDate]
         ,[Author]
         ,[Email]
         ,[Website]
         ,[Comment]
         ,[Country]
         ,[Ip]
         ,[IsApproved])
 
SELECT 
      newId()
    ,(select postId from be_Posts where Title= convert(nvarchar(max),wpp.post_title)) as PostID
    ,(select postId from be_Posts where Title= convert(nvarchar(max),wpp.post_title)) as PostID
    ,[comment_date_gmt]
    ,[comment_author]
    ,[comment_author_email]
    ,[comment_author_url]
    ,[comment_content]
    ,NULL
    ,[comment_author_IP]
    ,1
    
FROM [wp_comments] wpc
INNER JOIN BlogEngine.dbo.wp_posts wpp on wpc.comment_post_ID = wpp.ID
where wpc.comment_approved = '1'

Note : You might see some /r/n between some post and comments. Don’t get afraid of this, just replace “/r/n”  with “<br/>” on effected using Replace function of TSQL.

 

That’s how you can  import all the data from Word Press to Blog Engine and this is fairly a huge issue why people don’t move their blogs.  I have tried to explain the method by making it more simple, if you still face any issue please feel free to contact me.

Posted: Jul 20 2009, 12:42 AM by aghausman12 | with 7 comment(s)
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