ASP – PR Code

How to build Azure Service Bus Relay Sender and Listener?

September 4, 2017August 31, 2017Chris Pateman - PR Coder

This is one of them, I tried to do and found it hard so here is how I did it, post. I was assigned to look into how to build a Sender and Listener using the Azure Service Bus Relay, so we could send data from Azure to On Premise securely. Now there might be debates on is this is secure and compared to other methods, but that is not for what I was asked and what this post is about.

Therefore I will demo how to create the Net TCP Relay in Azure, the code to a listener and the code for the sender in C#.net, but remember this is what worked for me and there are other protocols, technologies and languages this can be done in.

How to build the Service Bus Relay

First you need to get to the Azure Portal using ‘https://portal.azure.com‘. This will take you to the dashboard or to the login page, which will then take you there. You can create a new dashboard to put all your resources in one place, which is advised for organisation.

Click on the ‘New’ button in the side navigation, then search for ‘Relay’. This should then show in the results the Relay service with the blue icon. Click ‘Create’ on this and you will be promoted for the details of the relay.

Add in the Azure name for the relay, this is the base URL for the service. Select your preferred Subscription, Resource group and Location as you see fit. Once the details are in and the fields have a green tick in for being ok, then press the ‘Create’ button. If you want this pinned on your dashboard, then don’t forget to check the ‘Pin to dashboard’ box.

Once this is created then you can go to the Relay and you will see the Overview page of the new Relay as below.

Now the method that I create this was using the ‘WCF Relay’ and it was a ‘NetTcp’ version. To do this click on the ‘WCF Relay’ menu in the side navigation below the ‘Overview’ item. This will load the list view of all the WCF Relays you have, which is none yet. Click on the ‘WCF Relay’ button at the top with the big plus symbol next to it.

Enter the name of the Relay, remember that you can have many of these so it doesn’t have to be to generic. The other details I left as they were and you will notice that ‘NetTcp’ is selected for ‘Relay Type’. Click ‘Create’ and now you have a Relay.

Note that if you can’t see the Relay after pressing the button, then reload the screen and it will load in this time.

Now you can move on to the code.

How to build a Relay Sender in C#.Net

A key part to the two code segments working together is that the interface they both use must match or the data will not get received or sent.

We start by creating the 3 variables that are needed for each Relay account. This is the Service Bus Key, the Namespace and the Relay name.

To get the Service Bus Key, go to the Relay account page and under ‘Properties’ on the side navigation there should be ‘Shared access policies’, click on this. You will know if you are on the correct page as there will already be a ‘RootManageShareAccessKey’, which new keys can be made to separate security, but for this POC I just used this one.
If you click on this you will see the keys associated with the policy. You need the ‘Primary key’, which you can copy and put into the variable below:

private string _serviceBusKey = "[RootManageShareAccessKey-PrimaryKey]";

The other two you can get from the WCF Relay Overview page. The Namespace is the name of the Relay Account and the Relay name is what the WCF Relay is called. These can also be taken from the ‘WCF Relay Url’ on the overview page.

http:// [NAMESPACE] .servicebus.windows.net/ [WCF RELAY NAME]

private string _namespace = "[Namespace]";
private string _relayName = "[WcfRelayName]";

Next we create the variable for the connection to the Relay, by creating a new Net TCP binding and the Endpoint. The scheme I used was ‘sb’ but this again can be changed.

var binding = new NetTcpRelayBinding();
var endpoint =
new EndpointAddress(ServiceBusEnvironment.CreateServiceUri("sb", _namespace, _relayName));

Visual Studio should help you import the correct variable, but if not then you need the following
• NetTcpRelayBinding
• Microsoft.Servicebus
• EndpointAddress

Now we connect these to the interface that is the same as the Listener and create the tunnel between them.

// Factory
var factory = new ChannelFactory<IMyService>(binding, endpoint);
factory.Endpoint.Behaviors.Add(
new TransportClientEndpointBehavior
{
TokenProvider =
TokenProvider.CreateSharedAccessSignatureTokenProvider("RootManageSharedAccessKey",
_serviceBusKey)
}
);

IMyService client = factory.CreateChannel();

From now on when you want to call a method to the listener, you use ‘client’ dot, the method or variable, for example.

client.CallMyService();

How to build a Relay Listener in C#.Net

Now to get this side working is very simple as it is all managed from the Web Configuration file (Web.config).

Step 1 is under the ‘Configuration > system.seriveModel > behaviors > endpointBehavoirs’
In this node add a new behavior called ‘ServiceBusBehavior’ and inside this you need a ‘transportClientEndpointBehavior’ with a sub node of a ‘tokenProvider’. In this you will have the ‘sharedAccessSignature’ which is the ‘RootManageSahredAccessKey’ mentioned before.

You can get this from the Service Bus Key, go to the Relay account page and under ‘Properties’ on the side navigation there should be ‘Shared access policies’, click on this. You will know if you are on the correct page as there will already be a ‘RootManageShareAccessKey’, which new keys can be made to separate security, but for this POC I just used this one.
If you click on this you will see the keys associated with the policy. You need the ‘Primary key’, which you can copy and put into the variable below:

<endpointBehaviors>
<behavior name="ServiceBusBehavior">
<transportClientEndpointBehavior>
<tokenProvider>
<sharedAccessSignature keyName="RootManageSharedAccessKey" key="PRIMARY KEY"/>
</tokenProvider>
</transportClientEndpointBehavior>
</behavior>
</endpointBehaviors>

Step 2 is to create the new binding for the Net TCP connection under ‘Configuration > system.seriveModel > bindings’. Add in this a ‘netTcpRelayBinding’ node, with a ‘binding’ node. The name of this will be called ‘ServiceBinding’, but can be custom if you would like.

<bindings>
<basicHttpBinding>
<binding name="DefaultBinding" />
</basicHttpBinding>
<netTcpRelayBinding>
<binding name="ServiceBusBinding" />
</netTcpRelayBinding>
</bindings>

Step 3 is the connection settings for the Service Bus. Again you will need the ‘RootManageSahredAccessKey’ and also the Relay Namespace or the URL. The below sits under ‘Configuration > appSettings’, replacing the items in [] with the correct values.

<appSettings>

<add key="Microsoft.ServiceBus.ConnectionString"
value="Endpoint=sb://[Namespace].servicebus.windows.net;SharedAccessKeyName=RootManageSharedAccessKey;SharedAccessKey=[PrimaryKey]"/>
</appSettings>

Step 4 is the last on, ish. This is to bind the service to all the configurations we just made. To complete this step you would have needed to create the WCF service and the above bindings. Under the ‘Configuration > system.seriveModel > services’ add a new service node as below:

<service name="[WCF_Service]">
<endpoint address="" binding="basicHttpBinding" bindingConfiguration="DefaultBinding" contract="[WCF_Interface]"/>
<endpoint address="sb://[Namespace].servicebus.windows.net/[WCF_Relay]" binding="netTcpRelayBinding" behaviorConfiguration="ServiceBusBehavior"
contract="[WCF_Interface]" />
</service>

Replace the above variables as below:
• [WCF_Service] = the WCF service class
• [WCF_Interface] = the WCF service Interface
• [Namespace] = the Relay name
• [WCF_Relay] = the WCF Relay name

This one is an optional step, or more of a put it in if you want all the functionality. I would advise unless you know what you are playing with, then don’t touch it. In the ‘Configuration > system.seriveModel > extensions’ node you need to add the below, which are all the service bus extensions.

<extensions>

<behaviorExtensions>
<add name="connectionStatusBehavior"
type="Microsoft.ServiceBus.Configuration.ConnectionStatusElement, Microsoft.ServiceBus, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31bf3856ad364e35"/>
<add name="transportClientEndpointBehavior"
type="Microsoft.ServiceBus.Configuration.TransportClientEndpointBehaviorElement, Microsoft.ServiceBus, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31bf3856ad364e35"/>
<add name="serviceRegistrySettings"
type="Microsoft.ServiceBus.Configuration.ServiceRegistrySettingsElement, Microsoft.ServiceBus, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31bf3856ad364e35"/>
</behaviorExtensions>
<bindingElementExtensions>
<add name="netMessagingTransport"
type="Microsoft.ServiceBus.Messaging.Configuration.NetMessagingTransportExtensionElement, Microsoft.ServiceBus, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31bf3856ad364e35"/>
<add name="tcpRelayTransport"
type="Microsoft.ServiceBus.Configuration.TcpRelayTransportElement, Microsoft.ServiceBus, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31bf3856ad364e35"/>
<add name="httpRelayTransport"
type="Microsoft.ServiceBus.Configuration.HttpRelayTransportElement, Microsoft.ServiceBus, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31bf3856ad364e35"/>
<add name="httpsRelayTransport"
type="Microsoft.ServiceBus.Configuration.HttpsRelayTransportElement, Microsoft.ServiceBus, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31bf3856ad364e35"/>
<add name="onewayRelayTransport"
type="Microsoft.ServiceBus.Configuration.RelayedOnewayTransportElement, Microsoft.ServiceBus, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31bf3856ad364e35"/>
</bindingElementExtensions>
<bindingExtensions>
<add name="basicHttpRelayBinding"
type="Microsoft.ServiceBus.Configuration.BasicHttpRelayBindingCollectionElement, Microsoft.ServiceBus, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31bf3856ad364e35"/>
<add name="webHttpRelayBinding"
type="Microsoft.ServiceBus.Configuration.WebHttpRelayBindingCollectionElement, Microsoft.ServiceBus, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31bf3856ad364e35"/>
<add name="ws2007HttpRelayBinding"
type="Microsoft.ServiceBus.Configuration.WS2007HttpRelayBindingCollectionElement, Microsoft.ServiceBus, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31bf3856ad364e35"/>
<add name="netTcpRelayBinding"
type="Microsoft.ServiceBus.Configuration.NetTcpRelayBindingCollectionElement, Microsoft.ServiceBus, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31bf3856ad364e35"/>
<add name="netOnewayRelayBinding"
type="Microsoft.ServiceBus.Configuration.NetOnewayRelayBindingCollectionElement, Microsoft.ServiceBus, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31bf3856ad364e35"/>
<add name="netEventRelayBinding"
type="Microsoft.ServiceBus.Configuration.NetEventRelayBindingCollectionElement, Microsoft.ServiceBus, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31bf3856ad364e35"/>
<add name="netMessagingBinding"
type="Microsoft.ServiceBus.Messaging.Configuration.NetMessagingBindingCollectionElement, Microsoft.ServiceBus, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31bf3856ad364e35"/>
</bindingExtensions>
</extensions>

Side Note

To pass custom classes between the two you need to decorate the class with the data attributes, but also make sure you have a unique namespace on the contract. It doesn’t have to be a valid running namespace, just as long as they match and are unique.

[DataContract(Name= "CarClass",Namespace = "http://MyDomain.com/namespace/CarClass")]
public class CarClass
{
[DataMember]
public string CarName { get; set; }
[DataMember]
public string CarType { get; set; }
[DataMember]
public string CarSize { get; set; }
}

How to test a WCF service with Visual Studio Command Prompt?

June 27, 2017May 4, 2017Chris Pateman - PR Coder

It can be a pain sometime to test your web service and a longer process than wanted. I then found a method from the glorious web of how to use Visual Studio to test and thought I would share this with you.

To test we are going to use the WCF Test Client from Visual Studio 2010. You can find this by either going to the programs folder, which is located at ‘Start > All Programs > Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 > Visual Studio Tools > Visual Studio Command Prompt (2010)‘. The other way would to be search for ‘visual studio command prompt’ in the start menu like below.

1) Once it is loaded you should get the command prompt showing like below:

2) Type in the following command ‘wcftestclient‘ and click enter.

3) You should then be presented with the WCF Test Client window like this:

4) To add a new service, click the ‘File’ button from the menu, then ‘Add Service…’

5) You will now be prompted with another window to enter the endpoint of your service. This can be a full domain or even a local one as long as it has a WSDL.

6) Once your service is added, you will see the public methods with the pink box next to them and there is also the configuration file called ‘Config File’. If you double click on the public method you will be presented with the Request and Response sections.

The Request section shows all the parameters, that the method accepts including the Type as well. Enter in the correct values and then press ‘Invoke’ to trigger the service.

You should now have a response back in the Response section.

How to get the users IP Address in C#.NET?

March 26, 2017March 2, 2017Chris Pateman - PR Coder

When you search this on your favourite search engine, (Google) you will get flooded by load of different way to get the end result. This is great in a sense as you know there are thousands of people with different answers, but then that is where the problem is at. There are so many single responses to how you can get the users IP Address in C#.NET, but not one that shows you everything. Therefore I will present to you below different methods to get the users IP and how I have implemented it in a project.

All the methods I found to be best are using the Request Server Variables. These are predetermined environment variables and request header information. This is why you can get IP address as it is part of the header information.

The standard server variable to use is ‘REMOTE_ADDR’, which is done as the following:

HttpContext.Current.Request.ServerVariables["REMOTE_ADDR"];

However if the user is behind a proxy server, then the above will return that IP Address and not the actual users. The server variable to get the users IP address from behind the proxy server is ‘HTTP_X_FORWARDED_FOR’ done as below:

HttpContext.Current.Request.ServerVariables["HTTP_X_FORWARDED_FOR"];

Then you get that issue of not knowing if the user is behind a proxy or not, as the first example will return one or the other and the second example will only return a value if there is a proxy server. Therefore we need to find out if there is a proxy server or not. You can do this with the server variable ‘HTTP_VIA’, if this has a value then they must be using a proxy server and so you can get the correct IP as below:

If (HttpContext.Current.Request.ServerVariables[“HTTP_VIA”] != null) {return HttpContext.Current.Request.ServerVariables["HTTP_X_FORWARDED_FOR"];}

return HttpContext.Current.Request.ServerVariables["REMOTE_ADDR"];

Or another method is to do it in reverse and check if the proxy method is not null first instead like:

string userIp = HttpContext.Current.Request.ServerVariables["HTTP_X_FORWARDED_FOR"];

if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(userIp)){return HttpContext.Current.Request.ServerVariables["REMOTE_ADDR"];}

return userIp;

This is the best method I found to get the users IP Address in ASP.NET C#, but if you think there is a better way then please comment below with your solution.

Kentico the mule of development

March 21, 2017March 20, 2017Chris Pateman - PR Coder

I have talked before about how Content Management Systems(CMS) are getting so good, that it means they are doing more of the work so you don’t have too. Instead of doing the donkey work, you can be improving the whole application and doing the most advance features. However over my time of working with such a CMS called Kentico I have found some pro’s and con’s of this mode of working, so I wanted to share my thoughts of if it is a favourable idea to be working on these CMS’.

Kentico’s power

First off an overview of what Kentico is, in case you have not heard of it. Kentico is a C#.NET Swiss army knife of a CMS as it can do Content Management, E-commerce, Online Marketing and basically most of the work for a developer.

Some of the features are:

Kentico uses the name ‘Page Types’ for its content templates. In these you describe the format of how this content should be held, like a database table. You tell it what the field is called in the database, the size, the data format and things like the caption the Content Editor sees. When the Content Editor then adds new content and chooses that Page Type, they are presented with a form with these fields to enter the content. What it then means for the developer, is they have a standard format of how to pull different content from the CMS and not just get a blob of data. (Find out more http://www.kentico.com/product/all-features/web-content-management/custom-pages)

As well as just getting well formatted content, you can use ‘Web Parts’. Web Parts are like functional modules that get used on a template. These can be things like a navigation bar that is on each page, but you can also have different types on each template. Also these can pull content from the database using the Page Type like a news feed or list of blog posts. (Find out more http://www.kentico.com/product/all-features/web-content-management/webparts)

However the Web Parts are added by the developer and are only a single instance of the Web Parts. What we really want is the Content Editor to be able to choose what pages have what modules and for this there are ‘Widgets’. These are instances of the Web Parts, which means you create a Web Part and then the Widget references it. When the Content Editor uses the Widget it takes a copy of the Web Part that it stores on the Page. The control it gives is for the Content Editor to decide what module shows where, when and how. These can get very complex to give more control to the Content Editor or the Developer can keep some control by limiting the functionality of the module. (Find out more http://www.kentico.com/product/all-features/web-content-management/widgets)

The other great content editor control is to build forms, yes full forms. With the CMS you can use a bit of a WYSIWYG to construct a form with various types of fields and then get them submitted to the database. These can also have customisation to send emails to the user or the administrator, create A/B split testing of forms and the editor can even customise the layout of the form. This will spare some hours building custom forms each time with the same validation, same submitting pattern and same design. (Find out more http://www.kentico.com/product/all-features/web-content-management/on-line-forms)

You can read more about all the features in depth and download a demo from the Kentico website. [http://www.kentico.com/product/all-features]

Tell me why?

Other than just showing you the brochure, I wanted to explain what makes using a full customisable CMS like Kentico brings.

In my opinion DevOps is all about empowering the next person to do more with less work, for example an Operations Engineer could make it easier for a Developer to spin up development environment. This kind of this means the Operations Engineer can keep doing other work and the Developer can get on with their work faster. This is the same thing with Kentico and the Content Editors. The more generic and bespoke Web Parts you make, the more the Content Editor can do without the assistance of the Developer, which then leaves the Developer to get on with other work like improving the systems.

When you have a bespoke website that you need to do all the changes within the code, then the Developer needs to do all the leg work for even the smallest change. If the Content Editor wants a box moved to another location of the page, then that’s a boring task for the Developer. However with a CMS like Kentico, the Content Editor will be able to move this by themselves.

I would rather this kind of work pattern as for both Front End and Back End development, as I want to be working on the next great and latest thing, while also looking to improve my code and the testing. This work pattern removes them small tasks that interrupt your work, plus also if you work in Scrum like myself then it takes up your sprint points working in the more Developer heavy pattern.

As mentioned above its not just moving Widgets and custom Web Parts that make this CMS great. It is also the fact that the Content Editors can create their own forms. I remember having to built every simple form from scratch each time, but this now puts the work in their hand, but also in a simple way. I also say simple forms, but it is as simple as you the Developer wants to make it. As you can customise or custom build the Form Controls that build up the form and the Form Web Part that is the base of loading plus saving the form, then you can make them as complex as you want. If you want the form to be in different style, then build different Form Widgets. If you want multiple fields that result in a single field of content, like an Address, then build a custom Form Control. The ideas are only limited by you the Developer or the Content Editors ideas.

The downsides I have seen are where the Content Editors have a lot of great simple ideas. I have been given tasks of adding a new type of button or adding a new content area to a Widget. Although we are empowering them, we also still need to provide the tools to them, which aren’t always the most inventive ones. There is also a balance between empowering them and giving them the code. You could expose all the customisable features of the Web Part, like a button so the colour, size, wording, features but then it’s a huge amount of work for one button. This would then put them off using it, however the other way of closing it down can then put more tasks on you.

Another challenge is what you can customise and what you should. Kentico’s recommendation for when you are customising anything, is if it is default to Kentico then clone it and customise the clone. This is so if or when you need to upgrade the CMS, you haven’t broken anything that the upgrade will use, plus it could get over written when the upgrade is then place. Even though Kentico is full customisable, the method in which it performs some task might not be how you like and at best practice you need to leave them how they are.

Final thoughts?

Although there are downsides to using a CMS like Kentico, I think any method of using a CMS will have its downsides. I feel with this set up I am more looking at improving the code, myself and the product, rather than doing the same task each time.

What CMS do you use and do you think it helps you become a better developer, comment below?

Guide to the Style Guide

November 29, 2016November 28, 2016Chris Pateman - PR Coder

Let first start with what this post is not and that is a style guide for clothing, make up or hair. This is about Coding Style Guides, what they are, if you should have one and if so then what one. I will mainly be following it through with JavaScript, but the knowledge can be transferred to other languages as it is the principle that I am looking at.

What is a style guide?

A Style Guide is a set of rules for your code to follow. These rules start from as simple as putting a semicolon at the end of the lines, and only using single quotes around strings. However the rules can be expanded to describe how you should format your code, for example how to format a function, the file naming convention and how to set up error checking. In short it is a guide of rules and patterns for developers to follow to create a consistent and fluent code.

Style Guides and their practice have been about for many years, but I feel with more languages and standards being put in place they have become more prominent. One of the earliest writing is a book called The Elements of Programming Style, which talks about the coding rules from its time for Fortran and PL/I languages. Though the languages are more out of date, the principles are not and can still be taken into account for todays standards. Most tutorials and beginners guide to languages, will also have some kind of style guide in them, so you can learn from their patterns what to conform to.

These guides don’t have to just be words on a page as well. The guides are able to be built into your Continuous Integration Builds. This would mean when your application builds it can produce errors or warning about your code and how to fix them before you merge into the shared code base. Better yet, you can get extensions built into most all the common coding editors that will evaluate your code as you type or on save of the code. Therefore you don’t need to wait until the end point when you are checking in to find out your problems. This can save time and also drill in the practices to your mind, so soon you will be throwing out the styles as you go with no help.

Should you have one?

This is a simple question with a simple answer, yes. Why would you not have one of these in practice at your company or even in your personal workflow. To conform to a style guide is an easy task for anyone to get started as there are so many tools to test your code. However if you have a large code base and then you decide to get a guide in place then it could take sometime, but worth it. Think if you have all types of developers putting their own twist in the code base and then they need to read each other code. It would create a bit of a muddle as they would need to understand the previous developer patterns to understand the code. Worst thing would be, does that developer conform to the previous developer standard or put their own in. This would then create a hybrid that creates more hassle for the next developer.

As you can see the guides can benefit you a lot, but not just for other developers reading your code. When you are creating code you want to make sure it is readable by yourself as well. If you think about, that you might not come back to a peace of code for a long time, with a style guide in place and in practice, you would be able to read the code more easily. It also then gives you a standard of coding, so your not just spitting out some Frankenstein code that just about works, but instead you always have a consistent level of code produced. With consistence code and naming conventions it then also make life easier when your 30,000 lines down the bottom of the page and you need to remember how you call that method. The style guide that pushes you to have a pattern to your naming, will then give you the ability to know how the method will be named. Therefore you won’t need to hunt it down as you will either just know the name or at minimal know how to search for it.

The people it should also be benefitting is the other developers working on the same code and also the company that could be recruiting another developer. If the standard is in place then it doesn’t matter who walks up to your code, they will be able to read it easy and also be able to update the code easier. The other perks of following the guide are the same that will benefit the individual user like simpler to find files names, update code and keep consistency.

Which one?

Well 99% of the time I would say not to build your own, but there is that small 1% I would say yes. This 1% time I would say yes, is for if you are a big enough company to require your own style guide. As the guide is just for coding then there is not customer vision of this, therefore it is not vital that the style guide represents your company image. Saying that though, some companies may prefer to have there own rules to follow as it might fall inline with other style guide or other company procedures. Either way it should only really be done if they must have to.

The reason to still use a popular open source one is because it is just that, open source. This would mean that when the ECMAScript gets updated or any other language versioned, the community will update the style guide to comply with the latest version. This can take some time if it is your own, to update to a new version and have meetings internally to decide what the update is. However if the open source owner or community do it, then you don’t have to.

This then also back up the point that if another developer is recruited, they may know the open source style guide and be able to pick up the code base easier. If the style guide managed by your company or yourself, then you have no chance of the developer understanding the guide first time.

If you do decide to be in the 99% section, then which guide do you go for? This is where the power of the internet comes in. As I mentioned at the beginning, I am focusing this on JavaScript, but it can be transferred to other languages. Therefore for the JavaScript world I would suggest Airbnb Style Guide, because from what I have read and researched it is the most used guide. Of course this doesn’t make it the right guide, but other than the majority of the developer community can’t be wrong, the guide also looks good. From me using it I can tell it is up to date, well maintained and well supported by other extensions like linters. This for me says it is a good choice to go for and so I would use the same method for looking at other style guides for other languages.

To find other guide I would suggest using a search engine to find a guide for your chosen language, or speaking of search engine, Google has a style guide for a lot of languages and it will of course be up to date. You can find it here on Git Hub.

Tag: ASP