Scott Wojan

Extension Methods for ToXml and FromXml

Scott Wojan — Wed, 18 May 2011 16:47:38 GMT

So I've found these to be useful on a couple of projects, hopefully you will also

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.IO;
using System.Text;
using System.Xml;
using System.Xml.Serialization;
 
public static class XmlExtensionMethods
{
    private static readonly Dictionary<Type, XmlSerializer> Serializers;
    static XmlExtensionMethods()
    {
        Serializers = new Dictionary<Type, XmlSerializer>();
    }
 
    private static XmlSerializer GetSerializer(Type type)
    {
        //If it exists, return it
        if ((Serializers.ContainsKey(type)))
        {
            return Serializers[type];
        }
        //If not, create it, add it to the list and return it.
        var xmlSerializer = new XmlSerializer(type);
        Serializers.Add(type, xmlSerializer);
        return xmlSerializer;
    }
 
    /// <summary>
    /// Serializes the object to XML using the given xml writer settings.
    /// </summary>
    /// <param name="obj"></param>
    /// <param name="xmlWriterSettings"></param>
    /// <returns></returns>
    public static string ToXml<T>(this T obj, XmlWriterSettings xmlWriterSettings)
    {
        if (Equals(obj, default(T)))
        {
            return String.Empty;
        }
 
        using (var memoryStream = new MemoryStream())
        {
            var xmlSerializer = GetSerializer(obj.GetType());
 
            //Remove the xmlns attribute.
            var xmlnsEmpty = new XmlSerializerNamespaces();
            xmlnsEmpty.Add(String.Empty, String.Empty);
 
            using (var xmlTextWriter = XmlWriter.Create(memoryStream, xmlWriterSettings))
            {
                xmlSerializer.Serialize(xmlTextWriter, obj, xmlnsEmpty);
                memoryStream.Seek(0, SeekOrigin.Begin); //Rewind the Stream.
            }
 
            var xml = xmlWriterSettings.Encoding.GetString(memoryStream.ToArray());
            return xml;
        }
    }
 
    /// <summary>
    /// Serializes the object to XML, with or without the declaration.
    /// </summary>
    /// <param name="obj"></param>
    /// <param name="omitXmlDeclaration">Gets or sets a value indicating whether to write an XML declaration.</param>
    /// <returns></returns>
    public static string ToXml<T>(this T obj, bool omitXmlDeclaration)
    {
        return obj.ToXml(new XmlWriterSettings
        {
            Encoding = Encoding.UTF8,
            OmitXmlDeclaration = omitXmlDeclaration
        });
    }
 
    /// <summary>
    /// Serializes the object to XML
    /// </summary>
    /// <param name="obj"></param>
    /// <returns></returns>
    public static string ToXml<T>(this T obj)
    {
        return obj.ToXml(false);
    }
 
    /// <summary>
    /// Deserializes the object from xml.
    /// </summary>
    /// <typeparam name="T"></typeparam>
    /// <param name="xml"></param>
    /// <returns></returns>
    public static T FromXml<T>(this string xml)
    {
        var s = GetSerializer(typeof(T));
        var settings = new XmlReaderSettings { ConformanceLevel = ConformanceLevel.Auto };
        using (var stringReader = new StringReader(xml))
        {
            using (var xmlReader = XmlReader.Create(stringReader, settings))
            {
                var obj = s.Deserialize(xmlReader);
                return (T)obj;
            }
        }
    }
}

The following code...

[Serializable]
public class TestClass
{
    public DateTime? DateSent { get; set; }
    public string SomeTextValue { get; set; }
    public decimal SomeDecimalValue { get; set; }
}
 
class Program
{
    static void Main(string[] args)
    {
        var testClass = new TestClass
                            {
                                DateSent = DateTime.Now,
                                SomeDecimalValue = 22.33m,
                                SomeTextValue = "This is a test"
                            };
 
        Console.WriteLine(testClass.ToXml());
        Console.WriteLine(testClass.ToXml(true));
        var xml = testClass.ToXml(new XmlWriterSettings
                                         {
                                             Indent = true,
                                             Encoding = Encoding.ASCII
                                         });
        Console.WriteLine(xml);
 
 
        Console.ReadKey();
    }
}

Would produce:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?><TestClass><DateSent>2011-05-18T08:32:37.9236147-05:00</DateSent><SomeTextValue>This is a test</SomeTextValue><SomeDecimalValue>22.33</SomeDecimalValue></TestClass>
 
<TestClass><DateSent>2011-05-18T08:32:37.9236147-05:00</DateSent><SomeTextValue>This is a test</SomeTextValue><SomeDecimalValue>22.33</SomeDecimalValue></TestClass>
 
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="us-ascii"?>
<TestClass>
  <DateSent>2011-05-18T08:34:41.8800091-05:00</DateSent>
  <SomeTextValue>This is a test</SomeTextValue>
  <SomeDecimalValue>22.33</SomeDecimalValue>
</TestClass>

An open plea to Microsoft to fix the serializers in WCF.

Scott Wojan — Fri, 10 Dec 2010 18:40:12 GMT

I simply DO NOT understand how Microsoft can be this far along with a tool like WCF and it STILL tout it as being an "Enterprise" tool.

For example... The following is a simple xsd schema with a VERY simple data contract that any enterprise would expect an "enterprise system" to be able to handle:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>

<xs:schema id="Sample"

targetNamespace="http://tempuri.org/Sample.xsd"

elementFormDefault="qualified"

xmlns="http://tempuri.org/Sample.xsd"

xmlns:mstns="http://tempuri.org/Sample.xsd"

xmlns:xs="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema">

<xs:element name="SomeDataElement">

<xs:annotation>

<xs:documentation>This documents the data element. This sure would be nice for consumers to see!</xs:documentation>

</xs:annotation>

<xs:complexType>

<xs:all>

<xs:element name="Description" minOccurs="0">

<xs:simpleType>

<xs:restriction base="xs:string">

<xs:minLength value="0"/>

<xs:maxLength value="255"/>

</xs:restriction>

</xs:simpleType>

</xs:element>

</xs:all>

<xs:attribute name="IPAddress" use="required">

<xs:annotation>

<xs:documentation>Another explanation! WOW!</xs:documentation>

</xs:annotation>

<xs:simpleType>

<xs:restriction base="xs:string">

<xs:pattern value="(([1-9]?[0-9]|1[0-9][0-9]|2[0-4][0-9]|25[0-5])\.){3}([1-9]?[0-9]|1[0-9][0-9]|2[0-4][0-9]|25[0-5])"/>

</xs:restriction>

</xs:simpleType>

</xs:attribute>

</xs:complexType>

</xs:element>

</xs:schema>

An minimal example xml document would be:

<?xml version="1.0"encoding="utf-8" ?>

<SomeDataElementxmlns="http://tempuri.org/Sample.xsd" IPAddress="1.1.168.10">

</SomeDataElement>

With the max example being:

<?xml version="1.0"encoding="utf-8" ?>

<SomeDataElementxmlns="http://tempuri.org/Sample.xsd" IPAddress="1.1.168.10">

</SomeDataElement>

This schema simply CANNOT be exposed by WCF.

Let's list why:

svcutil.exe will not generate classes for you because it can't read an xsd with xs:annotation.
Even if you remove the documentation, the DataContractSerializer DOES NOT support attributes so IPAddress would become an element this not meeting the contract
xsd.exe could generate classes but it is a very legacy tool, generates legacy code, and you still suffer from the following issues:
NONE of the serializers support emitting of the xs:annotation documentation. You'd think a consumer would really like to have as much documentation as possible!
NONE of the serializers support the enforcement of xs:restriction so you can forget about the xs:minLength, xs:maxLength, or xs:pattern enforcement.

Microsoft... please, please, please, please look at putting the work into your serializers so that they support the very basics of designing enterprise data contracts!!

Multithreaded queue with exception handling and progress reporting

Scott Wojan — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 16:46:44 GMT

Below is a multithreaded queue with progress reporting and nice exception handling that I implemented for a project. I hope it might help someone else. You can copy and paste the following code into a console app to see how to use it.

using System;

using System.Collections.Generic;

using System.ComponentModel;

using System.Diagnostics;

using System.Threading;

namespace WorkQueueTest

{

class Program

{

static readonly object locker = new object();

static void Main(string[] args)

{

//You can play with these values to test

var workQueueSettings = new {NumberOfTasks = 6, NumberOfTaskSteps = 3, TaskStepSleepTime = 500, NumberOfThreads = 3};

var nonThreadingTime = workQueueSettings.NumberOfTasks * workQueueSettings.NumberOfTaskSteps * workQueueSettings.TaskStepSleepTime;

Console.WriteLine("====================\nWithout a work queue, this would take {0} milliseconds\n====================", nonThreadingTime);

var workQueue = new WorkQueue(workQueueSettings.NumberOfThreads);

var stopWatch = new Stopwatch();

stopWatch.Start();

for (var i = 0; i < workQueueSettings.NumberOfTasks; i++)

{

var index = i;

workQueue.Enqueue(new WorkItem

{

OnException = OnException,

OnProgressChanged = OnProgressChanged,

Task = onProgressChangedCallBack =>

{

#region - Code to actually do stuff goes here... the rest of this is sample fluff

var taskName = "Task #" + index;

//fake some long running process

for (var j = 0; j < workQueueSettings.NumberOfTaskSteps; j++)

{

Thread.Sleep(workQueueSettings.TaskStepSleepTime);

var percent = (int)(((decimal)j / workQueueSettings.NumberOfTaskSteps) * 100);

onProgressChangedCallBack(new ProgressChangedEventArgs(percent, taskName));

}

if (workQueueSettings.NumberOfTasks>2 && index == 2)//fake a sample exception

throw new Exception("Some fake exception.");

onProgressChangedCallBack(new ProgressChangedEventArgs(100, taskName));

#endregion

}

});

}

workQueue.WaitForTasksToComplete();//wait for the tasks to complete before continuing

workQueue.Stop(false);

stopWatch.Stop();

Console.WriteLine("====================\nTotal time = {0} milliseconds\n====================\nPress any key to exit", stopWatch.ElapsedMilliseconds);

Console.ReadLine();

}

private static void OnException(Exception ex)

{

lock (locker)

{

Console.ForegroundColor = ConsoleColor.Red;

Console.WriteLine("EXCEPTION: {0}", ex);

Console.ResetColor();

}

private static void OnProgressChanged(ProgressChangedEventArgs eventArgs)

{

lock (locker)

{

switch (eventArgs.ProgressPercentage)

{

case 0:

Console.ForegroundColor = ConsoleColor.Yellow;

Console.WriteLine("Starting {0}", eventArgs.UserState);

break;

case 100:

Console.ForegroundColor = ConsoleColor.Green;

Console.WriteLine("Completed 100% of {0}", eventArgs.UserState);

break;

default:

Console.WriteLine("Completed {0} of {1}", eventArgs.ProgressPercentage, eventArgs.UserState);

break;

}

Console.ResetColor();

}

public class WorkItem

{

public virtual Action<Exception> OnException { get; set; }

public virtual Action<ProgressChangedEventArgs> OnProgressChanged { get; set; }

public virtual Action<Action<ProgressChangedEventArgs>> Task { get; set; }

}

public class WorkQueue

{

private readonly object locker = new object();

private readonly Thread[] threads;

private readonly Queue<WorkItem> queue = new Queue<WorkItem>();

internal class QueueStopWorkItem : WorkItem{}

public WorkQueue(int workerCount)

{

threads = new Thread [workerCount];

// Create and start a separate thread for each worker

for (var i = 0; i < workerCount; i++)

(threads [i] = new Thread (RunWorkItem)).Start();

}

public void Stop (bool waitForWorkersToComplete)

{

if (waitForWorkersToComplete == false)

{

lock (locker)

{

queue.Clear();

}

// Enqueue stop worker item for each worker to make each exit.

for (var i = 0; i < threads.Length; i++)

{

Enqueue(new QueueStopWorkItem());

}

// Wait for threads to finish

if (waitForWorkersToComplete)

{

for (var i = 0; i < threads.Length; i++)

{

threads[i].Join();

}

public void Enqueue (WorkItem workItem)

{

lock (locker)

{

queue.Enqueue(workItem); //Push one element into the queue.

Monitor.Pulse(locker); //Release the waiting thread

}

void RunWorkItem()

{

while (true)// loop until a stop work item is found.

{

WorkItem item;

lock (locker)

{

while (queue.Count == 0)

Monitor.Wait(locker); ////Wait, if the queue is busy.

item = queue.Dequeue();

}

if (item is QueueStopWorkItem)

return; // Time to exit.

try

{

item.Task(item.OnProgressChanged); // Execute item.

}

catch(Exception ex)

{

if (item.OnException != null)

item.OnException(ex);

else

throw;

}

public void WaitForTasksToComplete()

{

Stop(true);

}

The result should look like the following:

SimpleWcf - WCF 4.0 made easy

Scott Wojan — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 15:18:46 GMT

I just released a new project on CodePlex called SimpleWcf"

SimpleWcf provides a way to essentially do “simple, configuration-less, file-less, WCF 4.0”. It works by discovering services using reflection and assumes a convention is intended for the namespaces.

It leverages a lot of the great new baked in defaults in WCF 4.0.

http://simplewcf.codeplex.com/documentation

Loading symbols in Visual Studio 2008 Slow

Scott Wojan — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 20:32:12 GMT

I was fighting with this issue today... Visual Studio was taking FOREVER to load the symbol files (.pdb) in order to start debugging. It seems if you clear all of your break points, the issue is corrected. Hope this helps someone.

Is it cold in here?

Scott Wojan — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 18:01:56 GMT

Wow, so I just had to install the JRE for a product and was shocked to see the following:

AND they recommend it!

Hell hath frozen!

JQuery LightBox Max Height and Width

Scott Wojan — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 14:19:54 GMT

I needed lightbox 2 functionality for a project I'm working on, but didn't want the overhead of having to include prototype, scriptaculous, et al that comes with it since we are already using JQuery. I found the excellent JQuery lightbox plugin written by Leandro Vieira Pinho and works well, but I needed to be able to set the max height and width so I had to mod the code as follows:

settings = jQuery.extend({
    maxWidth: null,
    maxHeight: null,

...

function _resize_container_image_box(intImageWidth,intImageHeight) {
    //rescale if necessary
    if((settings.maxWidth != null && settings.maxHeight != null) && (intImageWidth > settings.maxWidth || intImageHeight > settings.maxHeight)){
	var isWider = intImageWidth > intImageHeight;//is the image wide or tall?
	var scale = isWider ?  settings.maxWidth/intImageWidth : settings.maxHeight/intImageHeight;
	intImageWidth = intImageWidth * scale;
	intImageHeight = intImageHeight * scale;
     }

     $('#lightbox-image').height(intImageHeight); 
     $('#lightbox-image').width(intImageWidth);  

...

Now you can specify a max width and height like:

    $('.yourClass a').lightBox({
            maxHeight: 500,
            maxWidth: 700
    });

Sir... We're not the taco stand...

Scott Wojan — Thu, 28 May 2009 23:35:29 GMT

This hits home also!

The Downfall of Agile Hitler...

Scott Wojan — Sat, 09 May 2009 15:49:33 GMT

This had me rolling on the floor. Hope someone else can appreciate it.

Using PostSharp without installing via the MSI

Scott Wojan — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 02:32:11 GMT

So, it took me forever today to figure out how to get PostSharp working without installing it 'globally' with the msi installer.

In a nutshell, you have to include a directory for example /lib/ with all of the PostSharp baggage:

Default.psproj
PostSharp.targets
PostSharp-1.0.targets
PostSharp-1.0.version
PostSharp-AppDomain.config
PostSharp-Platform.config
PostSharp.Core.dll
PostSharp.Core.pdb*
PostSharp.Core.XmlSerializers.dll
PostSharp.exe
PostSharp.exe.config
PostSharp.pdb*
PostSharp.Laos.dll
PostSharp.Laos.pdb*
PostSharp.Laos.psplugin
PostSharp.Laos.Weaver.dll
PostSharp.Laos.Weaver.pdb*
PostSharp.MSBuild.dll
PostSharp.MSBuild.pdb*
PostSharp.Public.dll
PostSharp.Public.pdb*

* = Optional

Add a reference to the PostSharp.Laos and PostSharp.Public assemblies in your project.

Then you have to edit your .csproj file around the existing <Import Project="$(MSBuildToolsPath)\Microsoft.CSharp.targets" /> section to be:
<PropertyGroup>
<DontImportPostSharp>True</DontImportPostSharp>
<PostSharpDirectory>lib\</PostSharpDirectory>
</PropertyGroup>
<Import Project="$(MSBuildToolsPath)\Microsoft.CSharp.targets" />
<Import Project="$(PostSharpDirectory)PostSharp.targets" />

You can download a working demo: http://rapidshare.com/files/183439996/PostSharpTest.zip.html

Mapping an NCLOB to a String property in NHibernate

Scott Wojan — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 01:32:07 GMT

So I ran into an issue this evening where I needed to map a string property to a NCLOB column but I kept getting:

"ORA-01461: can bind a LONG value only for insert into a LONG column"

Turns out that you should set the column type to "AnsiString" as in:

- Hope this helps someone else out.

Calling a Static Method on a Generic Class

Scott Wojan — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 18:55:15 GMT

I needed to be able to call a static method on a generic class today, so I thought I would post it up here to share with the world. Enjoy.

//Our Generic Class

public class SomeGenericClass<T>

{

public static char[] ConvertToCharArray(T something)

{

return something.ToString().ToCharArray();

}

The example code:

// Get the type of the generic class

Type typeofClassWithGenericStaticMethod = typeof(SomeGenericClass<>);

//Get a typed version of the generic type

Type type = Type.GetType("System.String");

Type[] args = new[] { type };

Type genericType = typeofClassWithGenericStaticMethod.MakeGenericType(args);

// Get a reference to the method you want to call.

MethodInfo methodInfo = genericType

.GetMethod("ConvertToCharArray", System.Reflection.BindingFlags.Static | BindingFlags.Public);

// Invoke the method with parameters. (If it doesn't have a pameter, use null instead of the object array)

object returnValue = methodInfo.Invoke(null, new object[]{"Hello World"});

char[] characters = (char[])returnValue;

foreach (char character in characters)

{

Console.Write(character);

}

ASP.NET MVC to Ship with JQuery!!

Scott Wojan — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 13:04:12 GMT

Wow, the ASP.NET MVC team just keeps getting it right!

I am truly shocked that Microsoft is going to take advantage of a well-known, well-tested open source framework instead of trying to (poorly) invent their own... (cough... ASP.NET Ajax)

Scott Gu - jQuery and Microsoft :

http://weblogs.asp.net/scottgu/archive/2008/09/28/jquery-and-microsoft.aspx

Visual Studio 2008 & .NET 3.5 Quick Changes Overview

Scott Wojan — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 17:04:36 GMT

Visual Studio 2008 & .NET 3.5 Quick Changes Overview

I AM NOT TRYING TO REPRESENT THIS WORK AS MY OWN, I AM MERELY AGGRIGATING EXISTING INFORMATION HERE FOR MY OWN BENIFIT AND MAYBE YOURS

Visual Studio 2008

General

· Can target framework versions 2, 3, and 3.5

· Built in ORM

ASP.NET

· Now supports nested master pages in the designer

· Faster switching between markup and designer

· Split view for seeing the designer and markup at the same time

· Drastically improved CSS support with new “Manage Styles” property window

· ASP.NET AJAX 1.0 is now baked in

· Built in JavaScript intellisense

o C# style code comments for additional information via intellisense

C# Language Changes

· Automatic Properties

o No longer required to have a private member variables and public getter/setters. The compiler figures out what is meant by the new syntax and automatically generates it for you in the resulting IL.

Traditional Way	New Less Verbose Way
public class Person { private string name; public string Name { get { return this.name; } set { this.name = value; } } }	public class Person { public string Name { get; set; } }

· Object Initializers

o No longer have to build constructors for every possible way you want to initialize the object.

Traditional Way	New Less Verbose Way
public class Person { private string name; public Person() { } public Person(string name) { this.name = name; } public string Name { get { return this.name; } set { this.name = value; } } }	public class Person { public string Name { get; set; } } //*notice no constructors are defined
Person person = new Person(); person.Name = "Scott"; // -- or – person.Name = new Person("Scott");	Person person = new Person(); person.Name = "Scott"; //-- or –- person = new Person{Name = "Scott"}; //Note the use of curly braces ^

· Collection Initializers

List<Person> people = new List<Person>();

people.Add(new Person("Frank"));

people.Add(new Person("Dean"));

people.Add(new Person("Sammy"));

List<Person> people = new List<Person> {

new Person { Name = "Scott"}

,new Person { Name = "Bill"}

,new Person { Name = "Susanne"}

};

· Extension Methods

o Allows developers to add new methods to existing CLR types.

Traditional Way	Using Extension Methods
namespace Validation { public static class Validator { public static bool IsInt(string s) { Regex regex = new Regex(@"^[-+]?\d*$"); return regex.IsMatch(s); } } } using Validation; if (Validator.IsInteger(textBox.Text)) { //Do Something }	namespace LanguageExtensions { public static class StringExtensions { public static bool IsInt(this string s) { Regex regex = new Regex(@"^[-+]?\d*$"); return regex.IsMatch(s); } } } using LanguageExtensions; if (textBox.Text.IsInt()) { //Do Something }

· Anonymous Types

o A variable’s type is inferred from its initialization

Traditional Way	Using Anonymous Types + Object Initializers
Person person = new Person(); person.Name = "Scott";	var person = new Person{Name="Scott"};

· Lambda Expressions

o A less verbose way of accomplishing anonymous methods which were introduced in 2.0

Traditional Way	Using Lambda Expressions + Anonymous Types
List<Person> people = new List<Person>(); people.Add(new Person("Bob")); people.Add(new Person("Bobby")); people.Add(new Person("Susanne")); List<Person> filtered = people.FindAll ( delegate(Person p) { return p.Name.StartsWith("Bob"); } );	List<Person> people = new List<Person> { new Person { Name = "Scott"} ,new Person { Name = "Bill"} ,new Person { Name = "Susanne"} }; var filtered2 = peeps.FindAll(p => p.Name.StartsWith("Bob"));

· LINQ (Language Integrated Query)

o LINQ is the attempt of adding the expressiveness of SQL to .NET languages

Traditional Way	Using LINQ Query Syntax
List<Person> results = new List<Person>(); foreach (Person p in people) { if(p.Name.StartsWith("Bob")) { results.Add(p); } } // -- or – List<Person> results = people.FindAll ( delegate(Person p) { return p.Name.StartsWith("Bob"); } );	var results = from p in people where p.Name.StartsWith("Bob") select p;

o Additional Examples

§ 101 LINQ Examples

Fasten your seat belts, turbulence ahead...

Scott Wojan — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 17:00:22 GMT

So I was just reading this post by ScottGu outlining what is in store for 2008 and my head started spinning and I got faint.

<rant>
Did I read " ASP.NET MVC"?? Microsoft is now going to provide an MVC framework for ASP.NET instead of their dumb arse postback method? Guys, the java camp was doing this with struts almost EIGHT YEARS AGO!?! Why didn't you do this out of the box!?!?!
</rant>

Whew, sorry for that... back to my question...
Is it just me or do you also feel like your are getting left in the dust with all the changes that came out in the past year and what is in store for 2008?