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 simple helper to integrate and validate Asirra in ASP.Net MVC.

People use CAPTCHA (Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart) to prevent their websites from automatic posting. Asirra is such a technique which can be used to protect websites from automatic posting.

What is Asirra

Asirra is a human interactive proof that asks users to identify photos of cats and dogs. It’s powered by over three million photos from Petfinder.com.

Asirra (Animal Species Image Recognition for Restricting Access) is a HIP that works by asking users to identify photographs of cats and dogs. This task is difficult for computers, but people can accomplish it quickly and accurately. You can learn more about Asirra here MSR Asirra: A Human Interactive Proof.

How to use it

You can easily use it in your website. You can find details of how to use it from MSR Asirra Project – Installation.

I have prepared a helper to use it in ASP.Net MVC application and I will show how to use this helper in your website. First look at the following sample pictures of user registration form.

Integrate Asirra challenge

Import the namespace at the top of your view aspx page.

<%@ Import Namespace="Valentica.Helpers" %>

Then call the GenerateAsirra() method of the helper where you like to put the Asirra challenge. For example:

<%= AsirraHelper.GenerateAsirra() %>
 
// Or
// You can control where the big version of the photos appear by
// changing EnlargedPosition to Top, Bottom, Left, or Right
<%= AsirraHelper.GenerateAsirra(EnlargedPosition.Right) %>
 
// Or
// You can control the aspect ratio of the box by changing rowsPerCell value 
<%= AsirraHelper.GenerateAsirra(4) %>
 
// Or
<%= AsirraHelper.GenerateAsirra(EnlargedPosition.Right, 4) %>

Perform client side validation

To validate Asirra in client side use the following steps.

Step 1:

Call MySubmitForm() method in onsubmit properties of your form. For example:

<form id="mainForm" action="/Account/Register" method="post"
         onsubmit="return MySubmitForm();">

Step 2:

Then simply use the following javascript code.

<script type="text/javascript">
    var passThroughFormSubmit = false;
 
    function MySubmitForm()
    {
         if (passThroughFormSubmit) {
              return true;
         }
         // Do site-specific form validation here, then...
         Asirra_CheckIfHuman(HumanCheckComplete);
         return false;
    }
 
    function HumanCheckComplete(isHuman)
    {
         if (!isHuman)
         {
              alert("Please correctly identify the cats.");
         }
         else
         {
              passThroughFormSubmit = true;
              formElt = document.getElementById("mainForm");
              formElt.submit();
         }
    }
</script>

Server side validation

In your action field together with other validation use IsValidate() method of AsirraHelper.

// Validate Assira Here
if (AsirraHelper.IsValidAsirra(Request.Form["Asirra_Ticket"]))
{
    ModelState.AddModelError("Asirra_Ticket", "Asirra Invalid");
}

Try it now!

References

1. MSR Asirra: A Human Interactive Proof
2. MSR Asirra Project – Installation

Source Codes

You can download full source code from here. Asirra Sample

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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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