Muhanad YOUNIS : ASP.NET

Global Timer (Background Timer)

mohi88 — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 13:22:00 GMT

Updated on 01.19.2009

Why do you need a Global Timer ?
There are many reason that you might want to use a global timer for, like pulling data from you database on time periods to prevent user from displaying empty data. I used the global timer to get signed up online users data ( like online user count, cities and assigned rules).

there are 3 types of timer class in ASP.NET;

Here i will not discus the deference between the above timer class (you may check the links and read msdn about them)but I'll show how to use System.Threading.Timer to create a background timer.

the time that I’ll create in this article will be created once and will keep working as long as my web application keep working. If the application stopped for any reason the timer will start again with the application restart.

First of all create a class that will star Threading.Timer, make sure to create the timer starter method as Static method because we’ll call that method from Global.asax applicathin start method. Make the class as below;

Add using System.Threading; as reference;

   1:  public class TimerStarter

   2:  {

   3:      private static Timer threadingTimer;

4:

   5:      public static void StartTimer()

   6:      {

   7:          if (null == threadingTimer)

   8:          {

   9:              threadingTimer = new Timer(new TimerCallback(CheckData),
                                           HttpContext.Current, 0, 600000);

  10:          }

  11:      }

  12:      private static void CheckData(object sender)

  13:      {

  14:          //ToDo check Data

  15:      }

  16:  }

Now Let me explain the code above; I declared a threadingTimer but did not initialize it. The main method here is StartTimer; Its a static method. The method checks if the threadingTimer Object is null or not. If its the first time that the method is called the threadingTimer will be null and will be created. line 9 creates and sets the timer object. TimerCallback is the delegate that will be called within timer intervals, here I call CheckData Method. CheckData method must be overloaded to match TimerCallback delegate. HttpContext.Curent is the object that will be used by the callback method; if you do not need any extra information for your method you can pass it as null. the 0 (zero) force the threadingtimer to call CheckData method as soon as the timer is created. You may set any milliseconds you want the timer to wait and call CheckData method. 600000 tells the timer to call CheckData method every 10 min. Call your timer from Global.asax as below;

   1:      void Application_Start(object sender, EventArgs e)

   2:      {

   3:          TimerStarter.StartTimer();

   4:      }

UPDATE : When your background thread throw and exception the working process will shout down! and IIS will recycle and start again so be careful.

That is all!

You may use System.Timers.Timer in a deferent way to achieve the same goal. Check MSDN for more details.

Hope this Helps

ScriptManager and MasterPage PageMethods !

mohi88 — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 20:23:43 GMT

I know that this subject has been asked many times therefore i would like to summarize it and give a small tutorial about how to do it.

I had some PageMethods on a default page which calls some web methods on code behind of the page. Before 1 week we decided to change the old structure of the project UI to use MasterPage. MaterPage triggered many problems with it, one of these problems that MasterPage does not support JS PageMethods! because MasterPage does not inherit from Web.UI.Page therefore you can not call PageMethods (its not a page!) – you can not call pagemethods on usercontrols too – so handle this problem and call your methods you can try this tutorial;

Create a MasterPage and add a ScriptManager on page.

On ScriptManager add the folowings

   1:  <asp:ScriptManager ID="ScriptManager" runat="server"
               EnableScriptGlobalization="true"

   2:          LoadScriptsBeforeUI="true" 
                         EnableScriptLocalization="true" 
                         EnablePageMethods="true">

   3:         <Scripts>

   4:              <asp:ScriptReference 
                      Path="~/Javascript/MasterPageWSJS.js" />

   5:          </Scripts>

   6:          <Services>

   7:              <asp:ServiceReference 
                       Path="~/WebServices/MasterPageWS.asmx" />

   8:          </Services>

   9:      </asp:ScriptManager>

        Here we have 2 important sections
                   - Scritps which includes our JS file location
                   - Sevices which includes our Webservices location
       Here to be mentioned that EnablePageMethods attribute means nothing on MasterPages!.

Add a javascript file to the project ( here its MasterPageWSJS.js)
```
   1:  function CallService() {
```
```
   2:  //CallFromMasterJS() is the name of the service method
```
```
   3:            MasterPageWS.CallFromMasterJS();
```
```
   4:    }
```

Add a Webservice file to the project (here it is MasterPageWS.asmx)

   1:  <%@ WebService Language="C#" Class="MasterPageWS" %>

2:

   3:  using System;

   4:  using System.Web;

   5:  using System.Web.Services;

   6:  using System.Web.Services.Protocols;

   7:  using System.Web.Script.Services;

8:

   9:  [WebService(Namespace = "http://tempuri.org/")]

  10:  [WebServiceBinding(ConformsTo = WsiProfiles.BasicProfile1_1)]

  11:  [ScriptService]

  12:  public class MasterPageWS : System.Web.Services.WebService

  13:  {

14:

  15:      [WebMethod(EnableSession = true)]

  16:      public void CallFromMasterJS()

  17:      {

  18:   // todo: write the needed codes

  19:      }

  20:  }

Here some important notes about the service:

- decorate the service class with [ScriptService]

- Decorate your methods with [WebMethod] add if you want to use

session variables with it decorate it with

[WebMethod(EnableSession = true)] because webservices are

stateless by default

at the end add this code lines to your MasterPage codebehind:
```
   1:  if(!IsPostBack)
```
```
   2:  {
```
```
   3:  // masterBody is the ID of the masterpage body html tag       
        HtmlGenericControl body = 
      (HtmlGenericControl)Page.Master.FindControl("masterBody");
```
```
   4:          body.Attributes.Add("onunload", "CallService();");
```
```
   5:  }
```

That is all !. when you start your page and refresh it the master page will unloaded and that will fire the event onunload on the page body which will call the JS and from there the web service will be called.

Hope this helps

this tutorial based on Calling Web Services from Client Script in ASP.NET AJAX

Publish Server Performance Monitors with MsChart

mohi88 — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 10:30:00 GMT

In this article I'll try to show you how to to use MsChart Controls with ajax update panel to publish your server performance counter variables.

Be sure to install these packages before your start;

MsChart Controls are free and new, I used to use owc 11 and later versions to achieve needed works on projects.

After you install these packages goon and create a new website in your visual studio. On vs2008 toolbox you’ll find some new controls which installed with MsChart package. You’ll find chart control under data tab. First add a ajax script manager and an update panel to your page. Inside the update panel drop a timer and set its interval to 3000 milliseconds (3 seconds). Drag and drop a chart control for toolbox to your update panel content section. You will have a chart section looks like below;

<asp:Chart ID="Chart2" runat="server">

        <Series>

            <asp:Series Name="Series1">

            </asp:Series>

        </Series>

        <ChartAreas>

            <asp:ChartArea Name="ChartArea1">

            </asp:ChartArea>

        </ChartAreas>

</asp:Chart>

Here you can see that the chart control have got to main section Series and ChartArea, I’ll not discus these two section widely; you may have more information about chart control and its section from Microsoft Chart Controls for .NET Framework Documentation. the series section is related with graph it self and the chartarea section is related with chart area that will hold hold the drawn graph. In my project I configured chart section as below;

<asp:Chart ID="Chart1" runat="server" Height="592px" Width="412px" 
ImageUrl="~/TempImages/ChartPic_#SEQ(300,3)"

BackColor="#D3DFF0" BorderLineStyle="Solid"

BackGradientEndColor="White" BackGradientType="TopBottom"

BorderlineColor="DarkGray" EnableViewState="true"

BackImageTransparentColor="White"

BackSecondaryColor="White" BorderlineDashStyle="Solid">

Do not change ImageUrl location!.

for Series;

<Series>

     <asp:Series Name="MySeries" XValueType="Double" ChartType="Spline"

BorderColor="180, 26, 59, 105"

YValueType="Double" BorderWidth="2"

ShadowColor="254, 0, 0, 0"

ShadowOffset="1"

 ChartArea="MyChartArea">

                            <Points>

                                <asp:DataPoint XValue="0" YValues="0" />

                            </Points>

                        </asp:Series>

  <asp:Series XValueType="Double"

 Name="Exceps Thrown"

 ChartType="Spline"

BorderColor="180, 26, 59, 105"

YValueType="Double"

BorderWidth="2"

ShadowColor="254, 0, 0, 0" ShadowOffset="1"

ChartArea="Default" IsVisibleInLegend="true">

    <Points>

          <asp:DataPoint XValue="0" YValues="0" />

    </Points>

  </asp:Series>

</Series>

Here I used 2 series which mean that I’ll have to graphs in my chart. You can see that I used two different chartareas that is because I’ll use two chart areas on the same chart control.There many charttypes that you can select depending on your project demands, in my example it choose Spline. Beside that I added a Points section which will give the graph a starting position ( in static chart and charts with out code behind you can add many datapoints to draw the graph needed).

and for Chart Area;

 <ChartAreas>

    <asp:ChartArea Name="Default" BorderColor="64, 64, 64, 64"

BorderDashStyle="Solid"

     BackSecondaryColor="White" BackColor="64, 165, 191, 228" 
ShadowColor="Transparent"

     BackGradientStyle="TopBottom" Area3DStyle-Enable3D="true" 
Area3DStyle-PointDepth="1000"

      Area3DStyle-PointGapDepth="200" AlignmentOrientation="Horizontal">

          <Position Y="5" Height="50" Width="94" X="0"></Position>

                <AxisY LineColor="64, 64, 64, 64">

                     <MajorGrid LineColor="64, 64, 64, 64"></MajorGrid>

               <LabelStyle Font="Trebuchet MS, 8.25pt, style=Bold">
                  </LabelStyle>

                            </AxisY>

                            <AxisX LineColor="64, 64, 64, 64" 
IsMarginVisible="False" Maximum="100" Minimum="0"

                                IsStartedFromZero="False">

                                <MajorGrid LineColor="64, 64, 64, 64">
</MajorGrid>

                                <LabelStyle Font="Trebuchet MS, 8.25pt, 
style=Bold"></LabelStyle>

                            </AxisX>

                        </asp:ChartArea>

   <asp:ChartArea Name="MyChartArea" BorderColor="64, 64, 64, 64" 
BorderDashStyle="Solid"

       BackSecondaryColor="White" BackColor="64, 165, 191, 228" 
ShadowColor="Transparent"

       BackGradientStyle="TopBottom" Area3DStyle-Enable3D="true" 
Area3DStyle-PointDepth="1000"

       Area3DStyle-PointGapDepth="200" AlignmentOrientation="Horizontal">

              <Position Y="50" Height="45" Width="94" X="0"></Position>

                 <Area3DStyle Enable3D="true" PointDepth="1000"
 PointGapDepth="200" />

                     <AxisY LineColor="64, 64, 64, 64">

                        <MajorGrid LineColor="64, 64, 64, 64"></MajorGrid>

                                <LabelStyle Font="Trebuchet MS, 8.25pt, 
style=Bold"></LabelStyle>

                            </AxisY>

                            <AxisX LineColor="64, 64, 64, 64" 
IsMarginVisible="False" Maximum="100" Minimum="0"

                                IsStartedFromZero="False">

                                <MajorGrid LineColor="64, 64, 64, 64">
</MajorGrid>

                                <LabelStyle Font="Trebuchet MS, 8.25pt, 
style=Bold"></LabelStyle>

                            </AxisX>

                        </asp:ChartArea>

                    </ChartAreas>

Points of intrest in ChartAreas are Position, AxisX and AxisY section. In position section you give the locations of your chartarea over the chart control it self. Since I have two chartareas I replaced them under each other. AxisX and AxisY are used to configure your graph axes; even if you don’t configure this section you can still use your chart but you’ll have some graphical problems until you data is sent to chart and display start. after all that configuration the chart control will look as below ( you may download the project from the link in the bottom of the article )

Now let us go to code behind and see how to send our performance monitors values to chart.

on Timer tick event I replaced 2 methods; the first one will set the performance monitors and the other will fill the chart as below;
(Do not forget to add using System.Web.UI.DataVisualization as a reference)

   1:  protected void Unnamed1_Tick(object sender, EventArgs e)

   2:          {

   3:              StartMonitor();

   4:              ChartCondfig();

   5:           }

for StartMonitor method;

 private void StartMonitor()

   pc1 = new PerformanceCounter(".NET CLR Exceptions", "# of Exceps Thrown", 
         "_Global_");

  // get the current value

  float dResult1 = pc1.NextValue();

  pc2 = new PerformanceCounter("ASP.NET", "Application Restarts", "");

   float dResult2 = pc2.NextValue();

  pc3 = new PerformanceCounter("ASP.NET", "Requests Current", "");

 float dResult3 = pc3.NextValue();

   pc4 = new PerformanceCounter("ASP.NET", "Requests Queued", "");

   float dResult4 = pc4.NextValue();

   pc5 = new PerformanceCounter("ASP.NET", "Worker Process Restarts", "");

   float dResult5 = pc5.NextValue();

  pc6 = new PerformanceCounter("ASP.NET", "Request Execution Time", "");

  float dResult6 = pc6.NextValue();

   pc10 = new PerformanceCounter("Memory", "Available MBytes", "");

  float dResult10 = pc10.NextValue();

Here pc1 – 10 are declared on page load. and you can add much performance counter as you want. In this example I selected pc1 and 10 to be shown in the graph.

For ChartCondfig method; (sorry the code is not well formatted)

   1:  private void ChartCondfig()

   2:          {

   3:              double lastXValue =

   4:           this.Chart1.Series[0].Points[this.Chart1.Series[0]
                  .Points.Count - 1].XValue + 1;

   5:              this.Chart1.Series[0].Points.AddXY(lastXValue++, 
                  Convert.ToDouble(pc1.NextValue()));

6:

   7:              double lastXValue1 = this.Chart1.Series["MySeries"]
       .Points[this.Chart1.Series["MySeries"].Points.Count - 1].XValue + 1;

   8:              this.Chart1.Series[1].Points.AddXY(lastXValue1++, 
          Convert.ToDouble(pc10.NextValue()));

9:

  10:              // Adjust categorical scale

  11:              double axisMinimum = this.Chart1.Series[0]
                 .Points[0].XValue;

  12:              this.Chart1.ChartAreas[0].AxisX.Minimum = axisMinimum;

  13:              this.Chart1.ChartAreas[0].AxisX.Maximum =
                                         axisMinimum + 100;

14:

  15:              this.Chart1.ChartAreas[1].AxisX.Minimum = axisMinimum;

  16:              this.Chart1.ChartAreas[1].AxisX.Maximum =
                                                 axisMinimum + 100;

17:

  18:              // Remove points from the left chart side if number of 
                   points exceeds 100.

  19:              while (this.Chart1.Series[0].Points.Count > 100)

  20:              {

  21:                  // Remove series points

  22:                  foreach (Series series in this.Chart1.Series)

  23:                  {

  24:                      series.Points.RemoveAt(0);

  25:                  }

  26:              }

  27:          }

on line 3 a double value named lastXvalue is declared this variable will hold the last point position over the X axes. on line 5 our first series on the chart will add a new point on X axes and Y axes.For X axes ,increasing lastXvalue variable will be enough and for Y axes point performance monitor current value is given.

   5:  this.Chart1.Series[0].Points.AddXY(lastXValue++, 
       Convert.ToDouble(pc1.NextValue()));

Adjusting the categorical scale of the chartarea is important; otherwise win your lastXValue reaches the end of the scale you’ll have a problem, there for on line 16 we tell the chart to extend the scale. From line 19 to 26 I removed the points from series after the left side of the chart exceeds 100.

If you are debugging your project you well receive no exception but on runtime a small exception will rise; your application will look for a folder named TempImageFiles; goon and create this folder on the location shown in the exception and your application will run.

When you run the project you’ll have your chart as below;

To make with example work on your server and other computers you need to install the Download the free Microsoft Chart Controls package.

That's all. In this article I tried to explain how to use MsChart to publish you server performance monitoring values. You can change and play around with charttypes and do many other nice works with that.

Download the sample project from here

For more information about MsChart you can check these links;

This article is based on Microsoft Chart Controls Web Samples project ajax section.

WRN: Assembly binding logging turned off

mohi88 — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 11:25:00 GMT

I started to received this error since yesterday and after i add an assembly reflection to retrieve the assembly version. Interesting thing that when the application is deployed to IIS it starts to work fine! but after some time i started to receive this error "WRN: Assembly binding logging turned off", my reflected assembly can not be found! WHAT!!!!! just before 10 sec it was working!!. I debugged my codes and find out that there is nothing wrong, after that i decided to clean all asp.net temp files on the iis server and restart iis again.But before i restart iis i recopied the "Lost DLL" ( which it was not lost) to my application bin folder and yuppie its working again. in my situation it usually takes about 30 min to lose the dll :D, 1 hour passed and nothing happened until now.

Update : I used ildasm tool to find out what happens to my assembly after build. I found out that the assembly is built with a different Culture! normally on development no culture assigned to the assembly but after that when CCNET build the application a new culture is assigned!. that made other assemblies do not find the refrance of the wanted assembly!.

hope this helps

Log Off OWA from Code Behind

mohi88 — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 16:56:00 GMT

After many tries and havey googling to find out the best way to log off OWA from asp.net page code behind while logging out from my main application, i found out that this can be achieved in one way ( in my position). Rise a small popup window and call OWA log out page!

All done with a small javascript. the script is below ;

private void LogoffOwa()
    {
        string popupScript = "<script language='javascript'>" +
   "var mywindow=window.open('https://OWA_SERVER_Adress/owa/auth/logoff.aspx?Cmd=logoff', 'CustomPopUp', " +
   "'width=1, height=1, menubar=no, resizable=no');" +
   "setTimeout(\"mywindow.close();\",3000);" +
   "</script>";
        Response.Write(popupScript);
    }

in the script you have to set the time out of the window. Do not close the window directly or you will not log off. Just give it some time to open the log off page.

Hope this helps

Access OWA with C# inside Asp.net Site

mohi88 — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 08:10:00 GMT

One of my work needs was to open OWA inside our web application to make clients more related with the application and let them easy access their emails while working. After some researches i found a simple way to do that, actually it is not that much hard to find the code below, but you have to search well to find it!. An here is the way that i have done that, we have a page with 2 iframes inside it. Upper frame holds the links banner and the bottom frame which holds whatever is clicked from the links banner. The work is to open OWA inside the bottom Banner. To open OWA you have to create a small JavaScript for that which will send the user name and password to be authenticated in from owaauth.dll and if everything goes fine you'll successed to open your email. The code is as below;

public partial class OpenOwaPage : System.Web.UI.Page
{
    private string userName;
    private string passWord;

    protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
    {

            passWord = "password";
            userName ="username";
            Response.Write(CreateOWAFrom());
            Response.Write(LoadOWAPostJS("logonForm"));

    }

    private string LoadOWAPostJS(string strFormId)
    {
        //Constructs the JS needed to post the data to Realex and returns it
        StringBuilder strScript = new StringBuilder();
        strScript.Append("<script language='javascript'>");
        strScript.Append("var ctlForm = document.forms.namedItem('{0}');");
        strScript.Append("ctlForm.username.value=\"" + userName + "\";");
        strScript.Append("ctlForm.password.value=\"" + passWord + "\";");
        strScript.Append("ctlForm.submit();");
        strScript.Append("</script>");
        return String.Format(strScript.ToString(), strFormId);

    }

    private string CreateOWAFrom()
    {
        //Constructs the Realex HTML form and returns it
        StringBuilder strForm = new StringBuilder();
        strForm.AppendLine("<form id=\"logonForm\" name=\"logonForm\" target=\"_self\" action=\"https://your_Owa_Adress/exchweb/bin/auth/owaauth.dll\" method=\"post\">");
        strForm.AppendLine("<input type=\"hidden\" name=\"destination\" value=\"https://your_Owa_Adress/exchange/\"/>");
        strForm.AppendLine("<input type=\"hidden\" name=\"flags\" value=\"0\"/>");
        strForm.AppendLine("<input type=\"hidden\" name=\"username\" id=\"username\"/>");
        strForm.AppendLine("<input type=\"hidden\" name=\"password\" id=\"password\"/>");
        strForm.AppendLine("<input type=\"hidden\" id=\"SubmitCreds\" name=\"SubmitCreds\" value=\"Connection\"/>");
        strForm.AppendLine("<input type=\"hidden\" id=\"rdoRich\" name=\"forcedownlevel\" value=\"0\"/>");
        strForm.AppendLine("<input type=\"hidden\" id=\"rdoPublic\" name=\"trusted\" value=\"0\"/>");
        strForm.AppendLine("</form>");
        return strForm.ToString();

    }
}
Sometimes you maybe not able to access your OWA because of your Browser configuration, add your OWA website address to your Browser trusted site to solve this problem. If you do not want to logoff from OWA with the regular logoff button, read this (click here). Otherwise you'll enter OWA any time you type OWA address.

Hope This Helps

Asp.net Unhandled Exception (Elmah)

mohi88 — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 14:04:00 GMT

My client asked to handle all unhandled exception and log then in sql database. Beside that they want to log handled exception too. So after some googling i found an open source project for exception handling, ELMAH (Error Logging Modules and Handlers). I found it very easy to configure Elmah to the project, i forgot to say that the project is a Running project. There is no need to write and single code line, all about web.config configuration. I wrote some lines to log the handled exception and log them.

I do recommend you to try ELMAH.

AspNetCompiler inside Cruise Control (ccnet) Blocks

mohi88 — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 11:16:00 GMT

AspNetCompiler block made my go crazy in the last two days until i was able to use it with ccnet. I'll show a small sample about how to use AspNetCompiler with ccnet:

in the ccnet.config between task blocks but these lines;

<msbuild>
                                <executable>C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v3.5\MSBuild.exe</executable>
                                <workingDirectory>D:\develop\CCnet\myProject\</workingDirectory>
                                <projectFile>C:\Program Files\CruiseControl.NET\server\AspNetCompilerConfiguration.xml</projectFile>
                                <logger>C:\Program Files\CruiseControl.NET\server\ThoughtWorks.CruiseControl.MsBuild.dll</logger>
                        </msbuild>

now create a new xml file and call it AspNetCompilerConfiguration.xml which will contain the lines below;

<Project
        xmlns = "http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003"
        name = "AspNetPreCompile"
        DefaultTargets = "PrecompileWeb">
        <Target Name = "PrecompileWeb">
                <AspNetCompiler
                        VirtualPath = "DeployTemp" 
                        PhysicalPath = "D:\develop\CCnet\myProject\WebSite"
                        TargetPath = "D:\develop\CCnet\myProject\PreCompiled"
                        Force = "true"
                        Debug = "true"
                        Updateable = "true"/>
        </Target>
</Project>

and that is all !! hope this helps you.

When TO SOA

mohi88 — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 14:41:00 GMT

In the last few years developer start to use SOA in many applications, because of that many new developers are too much excited to use SOA and apply the architecture of it to their applications. I found out that many applications start to be more complicated (while the application is too much simple without SOA). So, when to use SOA.
First we must know what is the meaning of SOA (not as Service-oriented architecture); it’s a kind of architecture to be used over software and web applications to increase the applications flexibility according to business requirements. SOA gives the ability to software and applications to exchange data and functionality by using xml services over the network.

So let us see when to use SOA;

If you have a business requirement that force you to develop an application that will be used on multiple platforms. (mobiles, desktops, laptops…)
If you have to divide the application into parts (and the parts still communicate with each other) like ERP developments. ( you may divide an ERP application into parts like Financial, HR, Logistic and these part can still communicate with each other.
If you need to open one of your services to another developer or company.
If you want to exchange data over the network in a secured way.

………
There is many other ways and needs to use SOA depending on your customer application needs.
We must keep on mind that SOA include N-tier programing, but N-tier does not include or use SOA all the time. I do believe that each software or application must be build over tiers to achieve the OOP most important principle “Encapsulate what varies”.
So use tiers in all applications but use SOA according to your business demends.