longtime lurker, first time poster.
I am writing a WEBAPI and have some questions on the default output. I know output is based upon the ACCEPT in the request (json/xml etc). However, I have a need to completely control the output. I will format my own XML.
I have found several examples on how to do this, most in .cs so I am trying to change this to vb.net.
Here is one of my tests:
Public Function Authenticate() As HttpResponseMessage
Dim XML As String = "Message content"
Return New HttpResponseMessage() With { _
.Content = New StringContent(XML, Encoding.UTF8, "application/xml") _
}
End Function
When In my calling function, when I try:
Return Authenticate()
I get an error:
Value of type 'System.net.http.httpresponsemessage' cannot be converted to String
It seems like this is used quite a bit in .cs as I see lots of examples. Anyone have an idea of how to accomplish this in VB.NET?
My Controller:
<HttpGet, HttpPost> _
Public Function [Login](<FromUri> staff As login) As String
Dim xmlheader As String
Dim head As New header
xmlheader = head.addheader()
If staff.password = "" Then
Dim result As String
Dim err As New messages
result = xmlheader & err.geterror("password")
Return Authenticate()
End If
End Function
Thank you!
Your problem is clear. YOu have
Public Function [Login](<FromUri> staff As login) As String
You need to declare your controller as
Public Function [Login](<FromUri> staff As login) As HttpResponseMessage
It looks like you are trying to use the return value from Authenticate as a string. I don't know exactly what you are trying to do, but I think .ToString() will work.
Dim foo As String = Authenticate().ToString()
' Do whatever with foo here...use it as a string
Related
I am using Window Application for my project. There is situation where i need to define string enum and using it in my project.
i.e.
Dim PersonalInfo As String = "Personal Info"
Dim Contanct As String = "Personal Contanct"
Public Enum Test
PersonalInfo
Contanct
End Enum
Now i want value of that variable PersonalInfo and Contract as "Personal Info" and "Personal Contanct".
How can i get this value using ENUM? or anyother way to do it.
Thanks in advance...
For non-integer values, Const in a Structure (or Class) can be used instead:
Structure Test
Const PersonalInfo = "Personal Info"
Const Contanct = "Personal Contanct"
End Structure
or in a Module for direct access without the Test. part:
Module Test
Public Const PersonalInfo = "Personal Info"
Public Const Contanct = "Personal Contanct"
End Module
In some cases, the variable name can be used as a value:
Enum Test
Personal_Info
Personal_Contanct
End Enum
Dim PersonalInfo As String = Test.Personal_Info.ToString.Replace("_"c, " "c)
' or in Visual Studio 2015 and newer:
Dim Contanct As String = NameOf(Test.Personal_Contanct).Replace("_"c, " "c)
You could just create a new type
''' <completionlist cref="Test"/>
Class Test
Private Key As String
Public Shared ReadOnly Contact As Test = New Test("Personal Contanct")
Public Shared ReadOnly PersonalInfo As Test = New Test("Personal Info")
Private Sub New(key as String)
Me.Key = key
End Sub
Public Overrides Function ToString() As String
Return Me.Key
End Function
End Class
and when you use it, it kinda looks like an enum:
Sub Main
DoSomething(Test.Contact)
DoSomething(Test.PersonalInfo)
End Sub
Sub DoSomething(test As Test)
Console.WriteLine(test.ToString())
End Sub
output:
Personal Contanct
Personal Info
How about using Tagging. Something like:
Public Enum MyEnum
<StringValue("Personal Contact")>Contact
<StringValue("My PersonalInfo")>PersonalInfo
End Enum
You would have to write the StringValue attribute as:
Public Class StringValueAttribute
Inherits Attribute
Public Property Value As String
Public Sub New(ByVal val As String)
Value = val
End Sub
End Class
To get it out:
Public Function GetEnumByStringValueAttribute(value As String, enumType As Type) As Object
For Each val As [Enum] In [Enum].GetValues(enumType)
Dim fi As FieldInfo = enumType.GetField(val.ToString())
Dim attributes As StringValueAttribute() = DirectCast(fi.GetCustomAttributes(GetType(StringValueAttribute), False), StringValueAttribute())
Dim attr As StringValueAttribute = attributes(0)
If attr.Value = value Then
Return val
End If
Next
Throw New ArgumentException("The value '" & value & "' is not supported.")
End Function
Public Function GetEnumByStringValueAttribute(Of YourEnumType)(value As String) As YourEnumType
Return CType(GetEnumByStringValueAttribute(value, GetType(YourEnumType)), YourEnumType)
End Function
And then a call to get the Enum (using string attribute):
Dim mEnum as MyEnum = GetEnumByStringValueAttribute(Of MyEnum)("Personal Contact")
To get the "Attribute" value out (removed handling 'Nothing' for clarity):
Public Function GetEnumValue(Of YourEnumType)(p As YourEnumType) As String
Return DirectCast(Attribute.GetCustomAttribute(ForValue(p), GetType(StringValueAttribute)), StringValueAttribute).Value
End Function
Private Function ForValue(Of YourEnumType)(p As YourEnumType) As MemberInfo
Return GetType(YourEnumType).GetField([Enum].GetName(GetType(YourEnumType), p))
End Function
And the call to get the string attribute (using Enum):
Dim strValue as String = GetEnumValue(Of MyEnum)(MyEnum.Contact)
How can i get this value using ENUM? or anyother way to do it.
There are three common ways of mapping enum values to strings:
Use a Dictionary(Of YourEnumType, String)
Decorate the enum values with attributes (e.g. DescriptionAttribute) and fetch them with reflection
Use a Switch statement
The first of these options is probably the simplest, in my view.
I know this is an old post put I found a nice solution that worth sharing:
''' <summary>
''' Gives acces to strings paths that are used often in the application
''' </summary>
Public NotInheritable Class Link
Public Const lrAutoSpeed As String = "scVirtualMaster<.lrAutoSpeed>"
Public Const eSimpleStatus As String = "scMachineControl<.eSimpleStatus>"
Public Const xLivebitHMI As String = "scMachineControl<.xLivebitHMI>"
Public Const xChangeCycleActive As String = "scMachineControl<.xChangeCycleActive>"
End Class
Usage:
'Can be anywhere in you applicaiton:
Link.xChangeCycleActive
This prevents unwanted extra coding, it's easy to maintain and I think this minimizes extra processor overhead.
Also visual studio shows the string attributes right after you type "Link"
just like if it is a regular Enum
If all you want to do is display the enums in a list or combo, you can use tagging such as
Private Enum MyEnum
Select_an_option___
__ACCOUNTS__
Invoices0
Review_Invoice
__MEETINGS__
Scheduled_Meetings0
Open_Meeting
Cancelled_Meetings0
Current_Meetings0
End Enum
Then pull the MyEnum into a string and use Replace (or Regex) to replace the tags: "___" with "...", "__" with "**", "_" with " ", and remove trailing numbers. Then repack it up into an array and dump it into a combobox which will look like:
Select an option...
**ACCOUNTS**
Invoices
Review Invoice
**MEETINGS**
Scheduled Meetings
Open Meeting
Cancelled Meetings
Current Meetings
(You can use the numbers to, say, disable a text field for inputting an invoice number or meeting room. In the example, Review Invoice and Open Meeting might be expecting additional input so a text box might be enabled for those selections.)
When you parse the selected combo item, the enumeration will work as expected but you only really need to add a single line of code - the text replacement - to get the combo to look as you wish.
(The explanation is about 10 times as involved as the actual solution!)
This technique from Microsoft - "How to: Determine the String Associated with an Enumeration Value (Visual Basic)" - will be useful in some situations (it didn't help with mine unfortunately though :( ). Microsoft's example:
VB:
Public Enum flavorEnum
salty
sweet
sour
bitter
End Enum
Private Sub TestMethod()
MsgBox("The strings in the flavorEnum are:")
Dim i As String
For Each i In [Enum].GetNames(GetType(flavorEnum))
MsgBox(i)
Next
End Sub
I needed to get values out of a string in a QueryString format, that is such as: data1=value1&data2=value2...
Someone suggested I used HttpUtility.ParseQueryString to get the value, I've searched and searched but I can't find any documentation or implementation of this and the Microsoft documentation for it doesn't explain how it works, can someone tell me hwat I'm doing wrong, my code is below;
Public Shared Sub ProcessString(ByVal Vstring As String)
Dim var As NameValueCollection = HttpUtility.ParseQueryString(Vstring)
Dim vname As String = var.QueryString("VNAME")
End Sub
MSDN has an example.
' Parse the query string variables into a NameValueCollection.
Dim qscoll As System.Collections.Specialized.NameValueCollection = HttpUtility.ParseQueryString(Vstring)
Dim vname As String = qscoll("VNAME")
A NameValueCollection represents a collection of associated String keys and String values that can be accessed either with the key or with the index.
I found the problem, I was referencing everything fine but I was doing it in a separate .VB dependency file, once I did it on the actual code behind of the aspx form that solved the problem and it all worked. So now I'm just passing the string from Codebehind as a specialised.NameValue collection in to the function.
Our client is asking to encrypt the URL because it is passing values in the query string. We have used encryption and are able to encrypt the URL; however, existing code uses querystring["var"] in so many places and fails because of the encrypted URL. Hence, on page load, we will have to decrypt the URL. If I decrypt and alter the query string using response.redirect, then again query string will be visible in the URL and can be misused.
Please help.
EDIT
I was reading about RESTfull web service. I have not yet understood entire concept. I wonder if I can use this with my application to hide query string. Please let me know if so.
Thanks.
One way to achieve this with little headache is to decrypt the query string as you currently do, then set its values to some object which can be stored in the session. Storing it in a session variable would be useful if you wanted to exclude this information (hide) from the query string - you'd essentially be passing the data around behind the scenes.
Once stored in session, you would then change your code, such that wherever you use querystring["var"], you will instead refer to the object that has been stored in the session.
Edit
Note, though, that this doesn't have to be relegated to a single value. This object can have multiple properties each representing a query string value:
MyQueryStringObject myQueryStringObject = new MyQueryStringObject(SomeUrl);
//MyQueryStringObject decrypts the query string and assigns the values to properties in its constructor
string abc = myQueryStringObject.abc;
string xyz = myQueryStringObject.xyz;
Now, that uses properties to represent each query string value. You may have tons of them. In that case, you can store the values into some sort of Dictionary or a NameValueCollection perhaps.
There are various ways to achieve this which I think is beyond topic, but, note that the key to all of this, the very essence is to simply decrypt the url on the server (during postback) and save the unencrypted data into a session variable should you want to hide it from the URL.
There is a much better way of going about this. I deal with a client with that has the same requirement. This class has soared through security scans as well.
Public Class QueryStringManager
Public Shared Function BuildQueryString(ByVal url As String, ByVal queryStringValues As NameValueCollection) As String
Dim builder As New StringBuilder()
builder.Append(url & "?")
Dim count = queryStringValues.Count
If count > 0 Then
For Each key In queryStringValues.AllKeys
Dim value As String = queryStringValues(key)
Dim param As String = BuildParameter(key, value)
builder.Append(param)
Next
End If
Return builder.ToString()
End Function
Public Shared Function DeconstructQueryString(ByVal Request As HttpRequest) As NameValueCollection
Dim queryStringValues As New NameValueCollection
For Each key In Request.QueryString.AllKeys
Dim value As String = Request.QueryString(key)
value = DeconstructParameter(value)
queryStringValues.Add(key, value)
Next
Return queryStringValues
End Function
Private Shared Function BuildParameter(ByVal key As String, ByVal value As String) As String
Dim builder As New StringBuilder()
builder.Append(key.ToString() & "=")
value = GetSafeHtmlFragment(value)
Dim encrypt As Security = New Security()
value = encrypt.Encrypt(value)
builder.Append(value)
builder.Append("&")
Return builder.ToString()
End Function
Public Shared Function DeconstructParameter(ByVal value As Object) As String
Dim decrypt As New Security()
value = decrypt.Decrypt(value)
value = GetSafeHtmlFragment(value)
End Function
End Class
Use
Dim nvc As NameValueCollection = New NameValueCollection()
nvc.Add("value", 1)
Dim builtUrl As String = QueryStringManager.BuildQueryString(url, nvc)
Response.Redirect(builtUrl, false);
Then when you get to the page you simply write:
Dim decryptedValues As NameValueCollection = QueryStringManager.DeconstructQueryString(Request)
The reason why I use NameValueCollection is because that's the same type as QueryString. You can build on to the class to add an object into the QueryString based on it's properties and their values as well. This keeps all of the complex and tedious logic encapsulated away.
My last question was not clear. Im trying to make a web service in VB.net is their a way that i can return the results that i get from LINQ. ie "return objreturnLINQResults"
I have tryed to set my Public Function GetAlarmsByGUIS(ByVal DeptGUID As String, ByVal IdNumber As String) As Linq.DataContext . i just keep getting errors. help please.
Public Function GetAlarmsByGUIS(ByVal DeptGUID As String, ByVal IdNumber As String) As Linq.DataContext
Dim lqAlarms As New linqAlarmDumpDataContext
Dim Temp As String = ""
Dim n As Integer = 0
Dim GetAlrms = From r In lqAlarms.AlarmDrops _
Where r.DeptGUID = DeptGUID And Not r.AlarmsHandled.Contains(IdNumber) _
Order By r.TimeDate Descending _
Select r
Return GetAlrms
End Function
1) You can't create web service's method which returns DataContext object.Return values and input parameters of Web service methods must be serializable through the XmlSerializer class. DataContext is not serializable
2) The simplest way to avoid errors it is return an array of serializable objects. Like this Return GetAlrms.ToArray();
I wrote the following function that works about 95% of the time, but I need it to work 100% (obviously):
Public Shared Function getPassedVars() As String
Const keyCount As Integer = 54 ' 54 seems to be the number of parameter keys passed by default (for this web_app).
' there are more if there is a form involved (ie. from search page)
Dim oParams As String = ""
Try
With HttpContext.Current
If .Request.Params.AllKeys.Count > keyCount Then
For i As Integer = 0 To (.Request.Params.AllKeys.Count - (keyCount + 1))
oParams &= String.Format("{0}={1}{2}", .Request.Params.Keys.Item(i), .Request.Params(i), IIf(i < .Request.Params.AllKeys.Count - (keyCount + 1), ";", ""))
Next
End If
End With
Return oParams
Catch ex As Exception
Return Nothing
End Try
End Function
It scrubs the Request.Params object for passed variables, which are in the beginning of the array (the remaining ones are ASP parameters). I am pretty sure I've seen a different way to get these parameters, but I haven't been able to figure it out. Any suggestions?
EDIT
So it looks like I can use the Request.URL.Query to achieve this, I will investigate this and post back.
Here is what I came up with:
Public Shared Function getPassedVars() As String
Dim oParams As String = ""
Dim qString As String = ""
Dim oSplit As New List(Of String)
Try
With HttpContext.Current
qString = .Request.Url.Query
If qString.Length > 0 Then 'do we have any passed variables?
If qString.StartsWith("?") Then qString = qString.Remove(0, 1) 'remove leading ? from querystring if it is there
oSplit.AddRange(qString.Split("&"))
For i As Integer = 0 To oSplit.Count - 1
oParams &= String.Format("{0}{1}", oSplit.Item(i), IIf(i < oSplit.Count - 1, ";", ""))
Next
Return oParams
Else
Return Nothing
End If
End With
Catch ex As Exception
Return Nothing
End Try
End Function
So far so good.
Request.QueryString is a NameValueCollection, so the easiest way to get the "parameters" is to do the following:
foreach (String s in Request.QueryString) {
Response.Write(s + " = " + Request.QueryString[s]);
}
Where is your function located? If it's executing in the page's code behind then you definitely do not need to use the HttpContext variable.
It looks like you are trying to get values from the query string.
For example, for this URL:-
http://www.tempuri.org/mypage.aspx?param1=x¶m2=y
I assume you want retreive the values of the query string parameters param1 and param2?
If so, just use:-
Dim param1 as String = Request.QueryString("param1")
Otherwise, if these parameters are contained in a form (an HTTP POST request) then use the method which Mitchel Sellers suggests.
If you know the name you can use the following to get it by key value
Dim myParamValue as String = Request.Form("MyKeyName")
Otherwise, you can loop through the form collection, by key etc, to get the values. The key is, do you really need to be parsing all 54 items? Or are you simply looking for a few specific values?
httpcontext.Current.Request.QueryString("KeyName")
Request.Params will contain the query parameters you're after.
There's no need to parse the info from Request.URL since it's already done for you.