A Tale of Valentica

A class to upload files in ASP.NET and ASP.NET MVC.

Introduction

Uploading files is a common scenario and an essential part of many web applications. Here I have created a class which can be used to upload files easily. The uploader class automatically validate all the necessities i.e. validation of upload directory, file extensions etc.

Background

There are plenty of resources on uploading a file in ASP.NET. But I have felt to have a class which would be easier and customizable as well as can perform validation, add prefix and/or suffix to file, encrypt filename, allow choice to overwrite existing file or not and so on. You have to just set the necessary properties you need. You can use it in your ASP.NET as well as ASP.NET MVC application.

Using this Class

Here I am giving an example to use this class.

    Uploader uploader = new Uploader();
 
    uploader.UploadPath     = Server.MapPath("~\Content\Uploads");
    uploader.IsLowerName    = true;
    uploader.IsEncryptName  = false;
 
    uploader.Prefix = "Hello_";
    uploader.Suffix = "_Boom";
 
    uploader.AllowedExtensions.Add(".jpg");
    uploader.AllowedExtensions.Add(".jpeg");
    uploader.AllowedExtensions.Add(".gif");
    uploader.AllowedExtensions.Add(".png");
 
    bool success = uploader.DoUpload("MyFile");
 
    if (success)
    {
        //TODO: Code to handle success
    }
    else
    {
        //TODO: Code to handle failure
    }

Here MyFile is the name of file input type.

 <!-- In Html -->
<input type="file" name="MyFile" id="MyFile" />

<%--In tradition ASP.NET --%>
<asp:FileUpload ID="MyFile" runat="server" />

There is an overload of DoUpload() method. You can either pass the name of the file input as above or HttpPostedFile file object as follows.

HttpPostedFile postedFile = HttpContext.Current.Request.Files["MyFile"] as HttpPostedFile;
uploader.DoUpload(postedFile);

There is also a method by which you can get the HttpPostedFile object by supplying the name of the file input.

HttpPostedFile postedFile = uploader.GetHttpPostedFile("MyFile");
uploader.DoUpload(postedFile);

Configuration Settings

If your upload is not succeded then you can get the error code and message by UploadError property. For example:

strring erroCode    = uploader.UploadError.Code;
string errorMessage = uploader.UploadError.Message;

Remember, here error code is not actual http error number. I have used numbers from 1 to 10 so that corresponding message can be customized.

On the other hand, if your upload attempt is succeeded, then you can use information related to the posted file as well as uploaded file by PostedFile and UploadedFile. For example:

string previousFilename = uploader.PostedFile.FileName;
string previousFilePath = uploader.PostedFile.FilePath;
 
string uploadedFilename = uploader.UploadedFile.FileName;
string uploadedFilePath = uploader.UploadedFile.FilePath;

Enjoy this!

Downloads

Download Uploader class here. Uploader Class

Download Uploader Sample In ASP.NET here. Uploader Sample In ASP.NET

Download Uploader Sample In ASP.NET MVC here. Uploader Sample In ASP.NET MVC

Here is the .Net 2.0 version of Uploader class. Uploader Class For ASP.NET 2.0 Application

A class for creating different types of pagination link in Asp.Net Mvc.

Pagination For Asp.Net Mvc

Introduction

I was looking for a pagination class to use in Asp.Net Mvc. I found ASP.NET MVC: PagedList<T> and ASP.NET MVC – Pagination View User Control. But I felt for an easier and customizable pagination class. I have developed many projects using CodeIgniter framework and that time I found their pagination class is pretty better and easier. So, I have decided to prepare a pagination class like this for Asp.Net Mvc.

Using the Code

Controller

In your controller, to get your current (i.e. selected) page number put this code snippet.

string pageString = "";
 
try
{
    pageString = Request.Url.Segments[3];
}
catch (Exception)
{
    pageString = null;
}
 
int page = (String.IsNullOrEmpty(pageString)) ? 1 : Int32.Parse(pageString);

Here 3 is the segment which holds the page number. It can vary as per your URL.

Then use the pagination class as shown in the following example.

Pagination pagination = new Pagination();
 
pagination.BaseUrl      = "/Users/List/";
pagination.TotalRows    = totalRows;
pagination.CurPage      = page;
pagination.PerPage      = 10;
 
string pageLinks = pagination.GetPageLinks();
 
int start   = (page - 1) * pagination.PerPage;
int offset  = pagination.PerPage;

In BaseUrl you can write full path like "http://www.sitename.com/Controller/Action/" or relative path like "/Controller/Action/". Here "start" is the number from which row should be counted and "offset" is the number of rows should be returned. “totalRows” is the total number of rows.

Now you can use this "pageLinks" string which is the generated page link.

Next, set your data in the ViewData like the following.

ViewData["title"]       = "Pagination in Asp.Net Mvc";
ViewData["totalRows"]   = totalRows;
ViewData["result"]      = result;
ViewData["pageLinks"]   = pageLinks;

Here, "totalRows" is the total number of rows and "result" is the desired resultset.

View

In view page, you can show the page link as follows:

<% if ((string)ViewData["pageLinks"] != "")
   { %>
   <%= ViewData["pageLinks"] %>
   <br /><br />
<% } %>

Model

You can create a model and make two methods to get total rows and the data from table using LINQ, as shown in the following example.

public int GetTotalUsers()
{
    return new MyDataContext().Users.Count();
}
 
public List GetUsers(int start, int offset)
{
    var users = new MyDataContext().Users.Skip(start)
                                                 .Take(offset);
 
    return users.ToList();
}

Configuration Settings

You can set configuration settings in three ways.

1. Set as regular property is set. Example:

objPagination.PerPage  = 10;
objPagination.PrevLink = "Prev";
objPagination.NextLink = "Next";

2. Put a Pagination.xml file in "Content" folder and create object of Pagination class as:

Pagination objPagination = new Pagination(true);

Pagination.xml file should be as following pattern as example.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<Pagination>
    <NumLinks><![CDATA[5]]></NumLinks>
    <FullTagOpen><![CDATA[<p class='pagination'>]]></FullTagOpen>
    <FullTagClose><![CDATA[</p>]]></FullTagClose>
    <CurTagOpen><![CDATA[<span class='current'>]]></CurTagOpen>
    <CurTagClose><![CDATA[</span>]]></CurTagClose>
</Pagination>

3. Create a any xml file like the above Pagination.xml file and call the method LoadPaginationXml with the file full path as argument. Example:

objPagination.LoadPaginationXml("C:\MyProject\MyPagination.xml");

Different types of pagination

By this pagination class you can build different types of page link for your page. Just call the method GetPageLinks with your desired PaginationType as argument. Example:

objPagination.GetPageLinks(PaginationType.FirstPreviousNextLastItemRight);

If you want to display item set item type as follows:

objPagination.ItemType = ItemTypes.Page;

Conclusion

I think thats enough to use this pagination class easily. Bye for this time.

Download

You can download the Pagination class from here.

PaginationClass

You can download sample project from here.

PaginationInAspNetMvc

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Introduction

In Basic ASP.Net, FCKeditor can be easily integrated. Here is the link where I found that. http://docs.fckeditor.net/FCKeditor_2.x/Developers_Guide/Integration/ASP.NET

However, to integrate FCKeditor in ASP.Net MVC environment, we have to follow some tricky steps. Here I will show how to integrate using core javascript as well as using Jquery.

Using Javascript:

Step 1

Download the FCKeditor from http://www.fckeditor.net/download.

Step 2

Unzip the package and put in your project content directory. I liked to make a directory “Javascript” under “Content” directory and put “unzipped fckeditor” here. I have also put fckeditorapi.js in “Javascript” folder. You can get more information on FCKeditor API here

http://docs.fckeditor.net/FCKeditor_2.x/Developers_Guide/JavaScript_API

Step 3

I have added a MVC view file in Home folder and named it as “Fck.aspx”. To view this file, I included a method in HomeController, as follows.

/// <summary>
/// Show FCK Editor View Page
/// </summary>
public void Show()
{
    RenderView("Fck");
}

Step 4

In Fck.aspx, include the fckeditor.js and fckeditorapi.js file:

<script type="text/javascript" src="../../Content/Javascript/fckeditor/fckeditor.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript" src="../../Content/Javascript/fckeditorapi.js"></script>

Include the following to replace textarea (named ‘content’) by FCKeditor. Here I have included InsertContent(), ShowContent() and ClearContent() methods to perform some extra actions.

<script type="text/javascript">
window.onload = function()
{
    var oFCKeditor = new FCKeditor( 'content' ) ;
    oFCKeditor.BasePath = "/Content/Javascript/fckeditor/" ;
    oFCKeditor.Height = 300;
    oFCKeditor.ReplaceTextarea() ;
}
 
function InsertContent()
{
    var oEditor = FCKeditorAPI.GetInstance('content') ;
    var sample = document.getElementById("sample").value;
    oEditor.InsertHtml(sample);
}
 
function ShowContent()
{
    var oEditor = FCKeditorAPI.GetInstance('content') ;
    alert(oEditor.GetHTML());
}
 
function ClearContent()
{
    var oEditor = FCKeditorAPI.GetInstance('content');
    oEditor.SetHTML("");
}
</script>

Here is the html content:

<div>
  <input id="sample" type="text" />
  <input id="cmdInsert" type="button" value="Insert Content" onclick="InsertContent()" />

  <input id="cmdClear" type="button" value="Clear Content" onclick="ClearContent()" />
  <br /> <br />
  <textarea id="content" cols="30" rows="10"></textarea>
  <br />
  <input id="cmdShow" type="button" value="Show Content" onclick="ShowContent()" />
</div>

Step 5

Now build the application and run. Click the “FCK Editor” link and get the result.

Using JQuery

Step 1

Download jquery from http://www.jquery.com. I have put jquery-1.2.6.pack.js and jquery.FCKEditor.js in my “Javascript” folder”.

Step 2

I have added a MVC view file in Home folder and named it as “FckJquery.aspx”. To view this file, I included a method in HomeController, as follows.

/// <summary>
/// Show FCK Editor By JQuery
/// </summary>
public void View()
{
    RenderView("FckJquery");
}

Step 3

In FckJquery.aspx, include the jquery-1.2.6.pack.js, fckeditor.js and jquery.FCKEditor.js file:

<script type="text/javascript" src="../../Content/Javascript/jquery-1.2.6.pack.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript" src="../../Content/Javascript/fckeditor/fckeditor.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript" src="../../Content/Javascript/jquery.FCKEditor.js"></script>

Include the following to replace textarea (named ‘content’) by FCKeditor. Here I have included InsertContent(), ShowContent() and ClearContent() methods to perform some extra actions.

<script type="text/javascript">
$(document).ready(function(){
    $.fck.config = {path: '/Content/Javascript/fckeditor/', height: 300 };
    $('textarea#content').fck();
});
 
function InsertContent()
{
    var sample = document.getElementById("sample").value;
    $.fck.insertHtml('fck1', sample);
}
 
function ShowContent()
{
    alert($.fck.content('fck1', ''));
}
 
function ClearContent()
{
    $.fck.clearHtml('fck1');
}
</script>

Here is the html content:

<div>
  <input id="sample" type="text" />
  <input id="cmdInsert" type="button" value="Insert Content" onclick="InsertContent()" />

  <input id="cmdClear" type="button" value="Clear Content" onclick="ClearContent()" />
  <br /> <br />
  <textarea id="content" cols="30" rows="10"></textarea>
  <br />
  <input id="cmdShow" type="button" value="Show Content" onclick="ShowContent()" />
</div>

Step 4

In jquery.FCKEditor.js file, I have included two functions. Function insertHtml() inserts html content into fckeditor and clearHtml() clears the content.

// insert Html Content
insertHtml: function(i, v) {
  try{
    var x = FCKeditorAPI.GetInstance(i);
 
    if(v) x.InsertHtml(v);
    else return '';
  }
  catch(e) { return ''; };
},
 
// clear Html Content
clearHtml: function(i) {
  try{
    var x = FCKeditorAPI.GetInstance(i);
 
    x.SetHTML('');
  }
  catch(e) { return ''; };
},

Step 5

Now build the application and run. Click the “FCK Editor By JQuery” link and get the result. Enjoy It!

Source Code

Here is the source code FCKeditorMvcDemo

References

http://docs.fckeditor.net

http://www.jquery.com

http://www.fyneworks.com/jquery/FCKEditor

Conclusion

Next I will try to give some demonstration on how to build plugins in FCKeditor. Till then bye.

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CAPTCHA – Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart. It is used in webpages to protect your page from automatic posting from outside of the site. CodeIgniter framework has a plugin named “captcha_pi.php” in plugins folder. Here I’ve demonstrated an example how to use this captcha plugin in your website built in CodeIgniter framework.

Make a controller named "captcha.php" and place in “controllers” folder. This controller is as follows:

<?php
class Captcha extends Controller
{
  public function __construct()
  {
    parent::Controller();
 
    $this->load->model('captcha_model');
 
    session_start();
  }
 
  public function index()
  {
    if(empty($_POST))
    {
      $captcha = $this->captcha_model->generateCaptcha();
 
      $_SESSION['captchaWord'] = $captcha['word'];
 
      $data['captcha'] = $captcha;
 
      $this->load->view('show_view', $data);
    }
    else
    {
      //check captcha matches
      if(strcasecmp($_SESSION['captchaWord'],
                   $_POST['confirmCaptcha']) == 0)
      {
        $this->load->view('success_view');
      }
      else
      {
        $this->load->view('failure_view');
      }
    }
  }
}
?>

Here I’ve made a model named "captcha_model" that has a method generateCaptcha(), which generates the captcha using CodeIgniter captcha plugin and returns the array. Captcha word is saved in session and after submitting the form this session word is compared with the posted word for matching.

If matches which is in (strcasecmp($_SESSION['captchaWord'], $_POST['confirmCaptcha']) == 0), then success is shown. Otherwise failure is shown. Here I’ve used strcasecmp() function of php to compare the word as case-insensitively. If u want user to enter the captcha words as they are shown (i.e. capital letter in capital and small letter in small), then you can use strcmp() function.

The captcha_model.php is as follows:

<?php
class Captcha_model extends Model
{
  private $vals = array();
 
  private $baseUrl  = 'http://localhost/captchademo/';
  private $basePath = 'D:/apache2triad/htdocs/captchademo/';
 
  private $captchaImagePath = 'tmp/captcha/';
  private $captchaImageUrl  = 'tmp/captcha/';
  private $captchaFontPath  = 'c:/windows/fonts/verdana.ttf';
 
  public function __construct($configVal = array())
  {
    parent::Model();
 
    $this->load->plugin('captcha');
 
    if(!empty($config))
      $this->initialize($configVal);
    else
      $this->vals = array(
                 'word'             => '',
                 'word_length'   => 6,
                 'img_path'       => $this->basePath
                                 .  $this->captchaImagePath,
                 'img_url'        => $this->baseUrl
                                 . $this->captchaImageUrl,
                 'font_path'      => $this->captchaFontPath,
                 'img_width'      => '150',
                 'img_height'     => 50,
                 'expiration'      => 3600
               );
  }
 
  /**
   * initializes the variables
   *
   * @author     Mohammad Jahedur Rahman
   * @access     public
   * @param     array     config
   */
  public function initialize ($configVal = array())
  {
    $this->vals = $configVal;
  } //end function initialize
 
  //---------------------------------------------------------------
 
  /**
   * generate the captcha
   *
   * @author     Mohammad Jahedur Rahman
   * @access     public
   * @return     array
   */
  public function generateCaptcha ()
  {
    $cap = create_captcha($this->vals);
 
    return $cap;
  } //end function generateCaptcha
}
?>

You have to change the $baseUrl, $basePath, $captchaImagePath, $captchaImageUrl and $captchaFontPath etc. To store the captcha images at first I’ve created a folder “tmp” and sub-folder “captcha” in the main directory where index.php exists. If u run on server be sure this two folder are given write permission.

By default, Captcha plugin generates 8 words in length. But I desire to very this length. So, I’ve made a little change in this plugin. In line 156 of "captcha_pi.php" there was

$defaults = array('word' => '', 'img_path' => '',
                 'img_url' => '', 'img_width' => '150',
                 'img_height' => '30', 'font_path' => '',
                 'expiration' => 7200);

which I made

$defaults = array('word' => '', 'word_length' => 8,
                 'img_path' => '', 'img_url' => '',
                 'img_width' => '150', 'img_height' => '30',
                 'font_path' => '', 'expiration' => 7200);

Next, in line 226, there was

for ($i = 0; $i < 8; $i++)

which I made

for ($i = 0; $i < $word_length; $i++)

Now if u pass word_length as parameter then it will generate captcha image of word length as you specify.

You can download the whole package from here.

captchademo

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I found that, novice programmers always face problem while trying to run CakePHP for the first time. So, here I’m describing a “Hello World” program in CakePHP.

1. First download the CakePHP from http://www.cakephp.org. You can download Stable: 1.1.19.6305 package or Beta: 1.2.0.6311 package.

2. Make a folder in your htdocs folder named “hello” and unzip the CakePHP package in that folder. Your files and folders will be like:

htdocs/hello
           /app
           /cake
           /docs
           /vendors
           /index.php
           .htaccess

3. Now copy app_controller.php file from .cakelibscontrollerapp_controller.php to .app folder (.appapp_controller.php).

4. Copy .cakelibsmodelapp_model.php to .app folder (.appapp_model.php).

5. Make a controller hello_controller.php in .appcontrollers. Content of this controller.

<?php
 
class HelloController extends AppController {
  function index () {}
  function show () {
    $this->set('test', 'Hello World');
  }
}
?>

5. Make a model hello.php in .appmodels. Content of this model.

<?php
 
class Hello extends AppModel {
 
  function index () { }
}
?>

6. Create a folder “hello” in .appviews. Then make a view file "show.ctp". Content of this file.

<html>
<head><title>Hello World Program</title>
<head>
<body>
<h1><?php echo $test; ?></h1>
</body>
</html>

7. Open database.php in .appconfig folder and provide login, password, database etc. as your settings. Be sure that you have a table named “hello” in your provided database.

8. Enable mod_rewrite in your httpd.conf file. Uncomment (remove #).

LoadModule rewrite_module modules/mod_rewrite.so

Then restart your apache service.

Now you are ready to run this program. http://localhost/hello/hello/show

It will show “Hello World” in your browser.

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