Set global cultureinfo for decimal values - xamarin.forms

How to set CultureInfo globally for all decimal values.
Take one decimal value like
15.00
we may use
DecimalValue.ToString("C", new CultureInfo("en-GB"))
so that it will convert for that culture and output is
€15.00
But the question is am I able to Set the culture info for all decimal values that are going to display in the project?

Your better approach is too declare a converter for Decimal values, and use it wherever you need to display the values.
First you write your converter:
public class DecimalConverter : IValueConverter
{
public object Convert(object value, Type targetType, object parameter, CultureInfo culture)
{
if (value == null)
return "0";
decimal decimalValue = (decimal)value;
return decimalValue.ToString("C", new CultureInfo("en-GB"))
}
public object ConvertBack(object value, Type targetType, object parameter, CultureInfo culture)
{
throw new NotImplementedException();
}
}
then, in your App.xaml.cs, inside ResourceDictionary you declare it to use it in your application
Now, in your pages, wherever you bind decimal values, you can use it like this:
<Label Text="{Binding YourDecimalValue, Converter={StaticResource DecimalConverter}}"/>

Related

Xamarin Forms Converter being called on page disappearing?

<Label Grid.Row="0" Grid.Column="1"
Text="{Binding Date, Converter={StaticResource localTimeConverter}, StringFormat='{0:MMMM dd, yyyy}'}"
LineBreakMode="NoWrap"
FontSize="16"
Style="{DynamicResource FieldLabel}"/>
I have the above Xaml and the below Converter:
public class UtcToLocalDateTimeConverter : IValueConverter
{
public object Convert(object value, Type targetType, object parameter, CultureInfo culture)
{
return ((DateTime)value).ToLocalTime();
}
public object ConvertBack(object value, Type targetType, object parameter, CultureInfo culture)
{
throw new NotSupportedException();
}
}
However the Converter is not being called when the page starts instead it gets called when navigating away from the page. I add a break point in the convert method and that's when the method is being called. This is confusing!?
Please can someone offer some help?
Whoops ! This was my bad.
I was adding the converter into the SelectedItemTemplate of the ListView instead of the ItemTemplate of the ListView. Thats why the converter never got called. All fixed now.

Ignore UTC offsets when deserializing with Json.NET

I've written a REST endpoint with ASP.NET Web API 2 that receives dates. The backend system has no concept of UTC times or DST, the dates stored in the database are just the UK date and time.
The website feeding the endpoint, however, is including UTC offset values in the data sent to the end point (e.g. a date looks like "1939-01-08T00:00:00+01:00"). This happens when a summer date is entered in the winter or vice-versa (because of the adjustment for DST).
Is it possible for me to set the JSON deserializer to completely ignore those UTC offset values? I've looked at the docs here and the examples here and tried all of the different enum options, but none of them are giving me the behaviour I'm looking for.
If the date parsing isn't working the way you want, you can turn it off and use a custom JsonConverter to handle the dates instead.
Here is a converter that should do the job:
class OffsetIgnoringDateConverter : JsonConverter
{
public override bool CanConvert(Type objectType)
{
return (objectType == typeof(DateTime) || objectType == typeof(DateTime?));
}
public override object ReadJson(JsonReader reader, Type objectType, object existingValue, JsonSerializer serializer)
{
string rawDate = (string)reader.Value;
if (rawDate == null) return existingValue;
if (rawDate.Length > 19) rawDate = rawDate.Substring(0, 19);
DateTime date = DateTime.ParseExact(rawDate, "yyyy'-'MM'-'dd'T'HH':'mm':'ss",
CultureInfo.CurrentCulture, DateTimeStyles.AssumeLocal);
return date;
}
public override bool CanWrite
{
get { return false; }
}
public override void WriteJson(JsonWriter writer, object value, JsonSerializer serializer)
{
throw new NotImplementedException();
}
}
To install this converter into the Web API pipeline, add the following to your Application_Start() method in Global.asax:
var config = GlobalConfiguration.Configuration;
var jsonSettings = config.Formatters.JsonFormatter.SerializerSettings;
jsonSettings.DateParseHandling = DateParseHandling.None;
jsonSettings.Converters.Add(new OffsetIgnoringDateConverter());
Here is a demo (console app): https://dotnetfiddle.net/kt9pFl

Binding errors in Xamarin Forms

Is there a way I can see the binding errors in while developing Xamarin Forms apps? The Application Output tab shows nothing but the binding doesn't work. How can I debug bindings?
I'd like to suggest you to add EmptyConverter:
public class EmptyConverter : IValueConverter
{
public object Convert(object value, Type targetType, object parameter, CultureInfo culture)
{
return value;
}
public object ConvertBack(object value, Type targetType, object parameter, CultureInfo culture)
{
return value;
}
}
Then create instance of converter on your page:
<ContentPage.Resources>
<ResourceDictionary>
<converters:EmptyConverter x:Key="EmptyConverter"/>
</ResourceDictionary>
</ContentPage.Resources>
Then add converter to label:
<Label Text="{Binding Text, Converter={StaticResource EmptyConverter}}"/>
Put breakpoints in Convert and ConvertBack methods and you'll be able to see all changes of binded values.
Hope this will help you.
You can try to use the Compiled Bindings:
https://learn.microsoft.com/xamarin/xamarin-forms/app-fundamentals/data-binding/compiled-bindings
You will have gain performance and precise error reporting

Error deserializing IEnumerable<byte> properties with json.net 6.0.3

Given the following class:
[DataContract]
public class Enumerables
{
[DataMember]
public IEnumerable<Byte> ByteMember { get; set; }
}
And an instance initialized as:
var bytes = new byte[] { ... };
var o = new Enumerables { ByteMember = bytes };
Serialization produces this:
{"ByteMember": "<<base-64-encoded-string>>"}
But this string cannot be deserialized. The error produced is:
Newtonsoft.Json.JsonSerializationException : Error converting value
"vbMBTToz9gyZj6gZuA59rE7ryu3fCfimjVMn8R6A0277Xs9u" to
type 'System.Collections.Generic.IEnumerable`1[System.Byte]'.
Path 'ByteMember', line 1, position 8084.
----> System.ArgumentException : Could not cast or convert from
System.String to System.Collections.Generic.IEnumerable`1[System.Byte].
I don't see this happening for byte[], List<byte> or Collection<byte> properties, which are correctly serialized to and from base-64 strings. And I don't see this happening for any IEnumerable<T> where T is not a byte -- for example, a property of type IEnumerable<int> deserializes to a List<double>, an effective implementation.
How an IEnumerable<byte> gets serialized depends on the concrete type that is assigned to it. If the concrete type is a byte[] then it will get serialized specially as a base-64 encoded string, whereas if it is some other concrete type like a List<byte>, it will be serialized as a normal array of numbers. The same is true of ICollection<byte> and IList<byte>. (DEMO)
On deserialization, Json.Net looks at the types of the member properties of the target class to determine what types of objects to create. When the member property is a concrete type, no problem; it creates an instance of that type and tries to populate it from the JSON. If the member type is an interface, then Json.Net has to make a guess, or throw an error. You could argue that Json.Net should be smart enough to guess that if the member variable is an IEnumerable<byte> and the JSON value is a base-64 encoded string, it should convert the string to a byte[]. But that is not how it is implemented. In fact, the special handling for base-64 encoded byte arrays is only triggered if the member property is byte[] specifically. With no special handling for IEnumerable<byte>, this results in an error because a string can't be assigned directly to an IEnumerable<byte>. Again, the same is true for ICollection<byte> or IList<byte>.
(DEMO)
If you want it to work the same for types implementing IEnumerable<byte> as it does for byte[], you can make a custom JsonConveter like this:
public class EnumerableByteConverter : JsonConverter
{
public override bool CanConvert(Type objectType)
{
return typeof(IEnumerable<byte>).IsAssignableFrom(objectType);
}
public override void WriteJson(JsonWriter writer, object value, JsonSerializer serializer)
{
byte[] bytes = ((IEnumerable<byte>)value).ToArray();
writer.WriteValue(Convert.ToBase64String(bytes));
}
public override object ReadJson(JsonReader reader, Type objectType, object existingValue, JsonSerializer serializer)
{
byte[] bytes = Convert.FromBase64String(reader.Value.ToString());
if (objectType == typeof(byte[]))
{
return bytes;
}
return new List<byte>(bytes);
}
}
To use the converter, create an instance of JsonSerializerSettings and add an instance of the converter to the Converters collection. Then, pass the settings to SerializerObject() and DeserializeObject() methods. For example:
JsonSerializerSettings settings = new JsonSerializerSettings();
settings.Converters.Add(new EnumerableByteConverter());
string json = JsonConvert.SerializeObject(obj, settings);
Here is a working round-trip demo. Note, however, that this converter doesn't (and can't) handle every possible IEnumerable<byte> that might be out there. For example, it won't work with ISet<byte> as currently implemented. If you need support for this or other additional types, you will need to extend the ReadJson method to handle that. I leave this to you.

Can't Deserialize a Nullable KeyValuePair from JSON with ASP.NET AJAX

The following class does not deserialize (but does serialize) using System.Web.Script.Serialization.JavaScriptSerializer.
public class foo {
public KeyValuePair<string, string>? bar {get;set;}
}
The attempt to deserialize results in a System.NullReferenceException when System.Web.Script.Serialization.ObjectConverter.ConvertDictionaryToObject reaches the bar property. (Note, that is a surmise based on the stack trace.)
Changing the property type to KeyValuePair<string,string> fixes the problem, but I'd like to keep the Nullable type if at all possible.
The JSON is exactly what you would expect:
{"foo": {
"bar": {
"Key":"Jean-Luc",
"Value":"Picard"
}
}}
Help?
The reason this happens is that when the JavaScriptSerializer tries to deserialize it will create a new instance of the class (in this the KeyValuePair) and then assign the values to properties.
This causes an issue as the KeyValuePair can only have the key and values assigned as part of the constructor and not via properties so results in an empty key and value.
You will be able to resolve this and the null issue by creating a class that implements JavaScriptConverter and Registering It. I have used the code below to handle a standard KeyValuePair but I am sure you can extend it to handle nulls.
public class DictionaryJavaScriptConverter<k, v> : JavaScriptConverter
{
public override object Deserialize(System.Collections.Generic.IDictionary<string, object> dictionary, System.Type type, System.Web.Script.Serialization.JavaScriptSerializer serializer)
{
return new KeyValuePair<k, v>((k)dictionary["Key"], (v)dictionary["Value"]);
}
public override System.Collections.Generic.IDictionary<string, object> Serialize(object obj, System.Web.Script.Serialization.JavaScriptSerializer serializer)
{
throw new NotImplementedException();
}
public override System.Collections.Generic.IEnumerable<System.Type> SupportedTypes {
get { return new System.Type[] { typeof(KeyValuePair<k, v>) }; }
}
}
Alternately you can create a simple class that has two properties key and value.
You can have a look at this wrapper:
http://www.codeproject.com/KB/aspnet/Univar.aspx
I've successfully Json serialized and deserialized the nullable KeyValue pair using it.

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