Downloading a File with a Save As Dialog in ASP.NET

Downloading a File with a Save As Dialog in ASP.NET

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This seems to be a common question that I hear frequently: How do I download a file from a Web site, but instead of displaying it in the browser see it as a file that can be saved (ie. see the Save As dialog)?
Normally when you link a file that file will always display inside of the browser because the browser loads it and automatically determines the content type based on the file extension. So when you click on a link like a jpg image the browser knows it's an image and will display that image. You can of course always use the browser short cut menu and use the Save Target As option to save the file to disk.
If you want to do this automatically when a link is clicked from the server side, you have to send the file back yourself rather and add a couple of custom headers to the output. The way to do this is to use Response.TransmitFile() to explicitly send the file from your ASP.NET application and then add the Content Type and Content-Disposition headers.
For example:

Response.ContentType = "image/jpeg";

Response.AppendHeader("Content-Disposition","attachment; filename=SailBig.jpg");

Response.TransmitFile( Server.MapPath("~/images/sailbig.jpg") );

Response.End();

This will cause a Open / Save As dialog box to pop up with the filename of SailBig.jpg as the default filename preset.
This of course assumes you're feeding a file that already exists. If you need to feed dynamically generated - say an image that was generated in memory - you can use Response.BinaryWrite() to stream a byte array or write the output directly in Response.OutputStream.

Bitmap bmp = wwWebUtils.CornerImage(backcolor, color, c, Radius, Height, Width);

Response.ContentType = "image/jpeg";

Response.AppendHeader("Content-Disposition","attachment; filename=LeftCorner.jpg");

bmp.Save(Response.OutputStream, ImageFormat.Jpeg);

If at all possible though, use TransmitFile though especially if you plan on serving a file more than once. TransmitFile is very efficient because it basically offloads the file streaming to IIS including potentially causing the file to get cached in the Kernal cache (based on IIS's caching rules).

Source :- http://www.west-wind.com/weblog/posts/76293.aspx

Common Problems with rendering Bitmaps into ASP.NET OutputStream

Common Problems with rendering Bitmaps into ASP.NET OutputStream

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Raise your hand if you’ve loaded an image from a Resource (or a BLOB database field):

Bitmap bm2 = this.GetGlobalResourceObject("Resources", "_BitMap") as Bitmap;

Response.ContentType = "image/jpeg";

bm2.Save(Response.OutputStream, ImageFormat.Jpeg);

Response.End();

and finding out that you can’t save the image! You get a not so happy error:

A generic error occurred in GDI+.

Description: An unhandled exception occurred during the execution of the current web request. Please review the stack trace for more information about the error and where it originated in the code.
Exception Details: System.Runtime.InteropServices.ExternalException: A generic error occurred in GDI+.
Source Error:

Line 41: Line 42:         Response.ContentType = "image/jpeg";Line 43:           bm2.Save(Response.OutputStream, ImageFormat.Jpeg);Line 44:           Response.End();Line 45:

Source File: c:\projects2005\Articles\Internationalization\Test.aspx.cs    Line: 43

I know this isn’t the first time I’ve done this and scratched my head and go WTF. The bitmap’s there but it won’t save, not to the output stream or to disk (even with permissions for it).

So what gives? The documentation is not real clear on this, although MSDN has a little blurp on not saving to the same stream:

Remarks

You should avoid saving an image to the same stream that was used to construct it. Doing so might damage the stream.

I don’t think this applies here – the Bitmap resource comes from a database field’s raw byte stream into a memory stream from which the image is loaded in my custom Resource Provider out of a database. The original stream is long gone, but maybe that’s just the problem…

Whatever the problem is, the code above doesn’t work.

The solution is to create a second bitmap and basically copy the image into a new Bitmap object and then save  to the outputstream:

Bitmap bm2 = this.GetGlobalResourceObject("Resources", "_BitMap") as Bitmap;

Bitmap bm3 = new Bitmap(bm2);

Response.ContentType = "image/jpeg";

bm3.Save(Response.OutputStream, ImageFormat.Jpeg);

bm2.Dispose();

bm3.Dispose();

Response.End();

Works but it really bites that this unobvious piece of code should be necessary especially since Bitmap objects are not exactly lightweight objects to load and keep around even for a short period of time.

Remember PNG Images are ‘special’

In addition to the above issue remember that you can’t save PNG images directly into the output stream because of some issues with that particular format. Instead you need to write the image first into a memory stream:

Bitmap bm2 = this.GetGlobalResourceObject("Resources", "_BitMap") as Bitmap;

Bitmap bm3 = new Bitmap(bm2);

MemoryStream ms = new MemoryStream();

      

Response.ContentType = "image/png";

bm3.Save(MemStream, System.Drawing.Imaging.ImageFormat.Png);

MemStream.WriteTo(Response.OutputStream);

bm2.Dispose();

bm3.Dispose();

Response.End();

Note that you still need to do the Bitmap swapping if the image is loaded a certain way (like from the ResourceProvider) as you can’t save to a memory stream without it either.

Source :- http://www.west-wind.com/WebLog/posts/8230.aspx

Simple MySQL Search Function

Simple MySQL Search Function

// A quick and simple way to search a MySQL database. Example: mysqlsearch('items', 'title tags', isset($GET['q'])?$GET['q']:'', Array('columns'=>'*', 'method'=>'OR', 'extrasql'=>'AND active = "true" ORDER BY id DESC'));

if (!function_exists('mysql_search')) {

   function mysql_search($table, $columns, $query = '', $options = Array()) {

      if (empty($query)) { return Array(); }

      $sql_query = Array();

      $options['columns'] = isset($options['columns'])?$options['columns']:'*';
      $options['method'] = isset($options['method'])?$options['method']:'OR';
      $options['extra_sql'] = isset($options['extra_sql'])?$options['extra_sql']:'';

      $query = ereg_replace('[[:<:]](and|or|the)[[:>:]]', '', $query);
      $query = ereg_replace(' +', ' ', trim(stripslashes($query)));

      $pattern = '/([[:alpha:]:]+)([[:alpha:] ]+)[[:alpha:]]?+[ ]?/i';

      $regs = Array();

      preg_match_all($pattern, $query, $regs);

      $query = $regs[0];

      while (list($key, $value) = @each($query)) {

         $column = $columns;
         $keywords = urldecode($value);

         if (strpos($value, ':')) {

            $column = substr($value, 0, strpos($value, ':'));
            $keywords = trim(substr($keywords, strpos($keywords, ':') + 1));
            $keywords = ereg_replace('\'', '', $keywords);

         } else { $keywords = ereg_replace(' +', '|', $keywords); }

         $column_list = explode(' ', $column);

         $sql = Array();

         for ($i = 0; $i < count($column_list); $i++) { $sql[] = '' . $column_list[$i] . 

              ' REGEXP "' . $keywords . '"'; }

         $query[$key] = Array('orignal'=>$value, 'sql'=>implode(' ' . $options['method'] . ' ', $sql));

         $sql_query = array_merge($sql_query, $sql);
         $sql_query = implode(' ' . $options['method'] . ' ', $sql_query);

      }

      $results = mysql_fetch_results(mysql_query('SELECT ' . $options['columns'] . ' FROM ' . $table . ' 

             WHERE ' . $sql_query . ' ' . $options['extra_sql']));

      return $results;

   }

}

How to make PHP MYSQL Connection?

How to make PHP MYSQL CONNECTION ?

/*
** Connect to database:
*/

// connect to the database
$con = mysql_connect('localhost','testuser','testpassword')
or die('Could not connect to the server!');

// select a database:
mysql_select_db('testdb')
or die('Could not select a database.');


/*
** Fetch some rows from database:
*/

// read username from URL
$username = $_GET['username'];

// escape bad chars:
$username = mysql_real_escape_string($username);

// build query: Denizli Haber
$sql = "SELECT id, timestamp, text FROM logs WHERE username = '$username'";

// execute query:
$result = mysql_query($sql) Barbie Oyunları
or die('A error occured: ' . mysql_error());

// get result count:
$count = mysql_num_rows($result);
print "Showing $count rows:

---

";

// fetch results:
while ($row = mysql_fetch_assoc($result)) {
$row_id = $row['id'];
$row_text = $row['text'];

print "#$row_id: $row_text
\n";
}


/*
** Do a insert query:
*/

// create SQL query:
$sql = "INSERT INTO logs (timestamp, text) VALUES (NOW(), 'some text here!')";

// execute query:
$result = mysql_query($sql) or die('A error occured: ' . mysql_error());

// get the new ID of the last insert command
$new_id = mysql_insert_id();



/*
** Do a update query:
*/

// create SQL query:
$sql = "UPDATE logs SET text='New text!' WHERE id='1'";

// execute query:
$result = mysql_query($sql) or die('A error occured: ' . mysql_error());



/*
** Do a delete query:
*/

// create SQL query:
$sql = "DELETE FROM logs WHERE id='1'";

// execute query:
$result = mysql_query($sql) or die('A error occured: ' . mysql_error());



// Have fun!

Reduce memory footprint of a .NET application

   try
   {
      Process process = Process.GetCurrentProcess();
      process.MaxWorkingSet = loProcess.MaxWorkingSet;
      process.Dispose();
   }
   catch { }

css transparency problems in IE

Imagine that, IE has formatting problems with css standards...

So... working with some transparency today, and for the life of me I couldn't figure out what was going on.  I had 2 menus, both falling under the same a:hover transparency.  Firefox: everything looks good, Opera: everything looks good, Safari: who cares, IE: transparency works in one menu, but not the other? Here is was my css 

a{text-decoration:none;color:#5C756C; }
a:hover{background-color:#EAE9D9;filter:alpha(opacity=80);opacity:0.8;}
.side_menu{float:left;display:block;width:250px;margin:0 20px -10px 0;}
.side_menu a{padding:10px; border-bottom:dotted 1px #888671; display:block; }

So the links that were inside the .side_menu class showed transparency while the ones that weren't did not?

So I started playing around with the elements one by one, and you know which one made it go non-transparent? width! If I took away the width:250px;, it was no longer transparent. So, All I had to do was add in a width:100%; to the a element and this problem was fixed. But then this leads to another problem: you don't want to necessarily have all of your links to be 100% width, so you have to make a choice: make different classes for widths, inline css, forget about transparency, forget about IE, or a million others.

Imagine if the most popular browser on the planet actually followed set standards... I may as well keep dreaming.

Sidenote: The CSS you need for transparency (non IE compliant, for IE, just add a width declaration) is simply this:

.class_name{filter:alpha(opacity=80);opacity:0.8}

If IE would follow standards, you would not need the 'filter' property, just 'opacity'. The 80 and .8 mean 80% opaque, the higher the number, the less transparent and vise versa. 

 

Source :- http://naspinski.net/category/css.aspx  

Simple Dynamic Sorting Headers for GridView using indication arrows

A simple centralized way to make a nice flipping indicator (arrow) of which way you are sorting on a GridView

When sorting with gridviews, it is nice to have an indicator of which direction you are sorting on which field like the use at Yahoo! Autos. To copy this idea, I simply made 3 Css classes 'sort', which is a base class with no backgorund image, 'up' which has an up arrow, and 'down' which has a down arrow in it. I made sure to put the backgorund image in just once, and push the text away so it can show through. Also, since these will be applied to the Header element of the GridView, you have to make sure you declase '.class a':

.up a, .down a, .sort a { display:block; padding:0 4px 0 15px; }
.up a, .down a { color:#8F5F00; }
.sort a:hover { background:#ffcc66; }
.up a { background:url(../images/up.gif) left no-repeat; }
.up a:hover { background:url(../images/up.gif) left no-repeat #ffcc66; }
.down a { background:url(../images/down.gif) left no-repeat }
.down a:hover { background:url(../images/down.gif) left no-repeat #ffcc66; }

Now, I made a function in a helper Class that will take in the same arguments that a GridView Sorting event throws, that way the transition will be easy.

// This is used to flip the sorting arrow up/down
// Base Css class is 'sort', the Ascending Css Class is 'up' and Descending is 'down'
public static void GVSort(object sender, GridViewSortEventArgs e)
{ // call on sort and sets the sorted field to the proper Css Class, while setting all others to the base class
  string BASE = "sort";
  string UP = "up";
  string DOWN = "down";
  GridView g = (GridView)sender;
  for (int i = 0; i < g.Columns.Count; i++)
  {
    var c = g.Columns[i];
    c.HeaderStyle.CssClass = c.HeaderStyle.CssClass.Replace(UP, BASE).Replace(DOWN, BASE);
    if (c.SortExpression.Equals(e.SortExpression))
    {
      c.HeaderStyle.CssClass =
        e.SortDirection.Equals(System.Web.UI.WebControls.SortDirection.Ascending) ?
          c.HeaderStyle.CssClass.Replace(BASE, UP).Replace(DOWN, UP) :
          c.HeaderStyle.CssClass.Replace(BASE, DOWN).Replace(UP, DOWN);
    }
  }
}

Now say I had this in a class utils.cs I would just call it one the GridView Sorting event:

protected void gv_Sorting(object sender, GridViewSortEventArgs e)
{
  sao.GVSort(sender, e);
}

And there you have it! You can call that from every Gridview in your application that you want to look similar - code only once! 

 

Source :- http://naspinski.net/category/css.aspx 

Setting the row background color in a GridView based on a value in the the row

This is something that needs to be done often, but it is not always obvious how to do it

Often times you want a row to be colored different or highlighted based on values, this can be useful for multiple reasons. This is a very simple thing, but not all that obvious.

Make your different CSS classes

Set up some CSS classes that will be used for the row coloring:

.blue { background:Blue; }
.orange { background:Orange; }
.normal { background:Transparent; }

Set your RowDataBound event in your GridView

This is going to happen on the RowDataBound event, so be sure to call one in your GridView:

<asp:Repeater ID="gv" onrowdatabound="gv_RowDataBound" ...

Set up your event to handle the row

Now handle each row in the event:

protected void gv_RowDataBound(object sender, GridViewRowEventArgs e)
{
  e.Row.CssClass = e.Row.Cells[0].Text.Equals("1") ? "blue" : "normal";
}

It's just that simple. Now, if the text in Cell[0] (the first cell) of a row is equal to "1" the row will have it's CssClass set to "blue", otherwise it will be "normal".

Now if you want to have multiple different cases:

protected void gv_RowDataBound(object sender, GridViewRowEventArgs e)
{
  switch(e.Row.Cells[0].Text)
  {
    case "1" : e.Row.CssClass = "blue"; break;
    case "2" : e.Row.CssClass = "orange"; break;
    default : e.Row.CssClass = "normal"; break;
  }
}

Now if the first cell is equal to "1", it will be blue, if it is equal to "2" is will be orange, or else it will be transparent; so simple! 

Source :- http://naspinski.net/category/css.aspx

Creating Nice '|' Divided Menus with CSS

Home      |          Contact        |         FAQ         |         Other         |        Crap

You dont need to actually put in the '|' character, you can do it with just the following advanced css selectors:

<style type="text/css">
        ul#nav li{
                float:left; 
                margin-right:20px;
        }
        
        ul#nav li:after{
                content:'|';
                margin-left:20px;
        }
        
        ul#nav > li:last-child:after{
                content:'';     
                margin-left:0;
        }
style>
<ul id="nav">
    <li><a href="#">Homea>li>
    <li><a href="#">Contacta>li>
    <li><a href="#">FAQa>li>
    <li><a href="#">Other Crapa>li>
ul>

I realize it's not exactly space-saving, but it is a cool trick that could be adapted to all sorts of possible situations.

inline asp.net tags

inline asp.net tags... sorting them all out (<%$, <%=, <%, <%#, etc.)

There are all sorts of different inline tags, and I haven't found a place that explains them all in one place, so here is the quick and dirty...

<% ... %>

The most basic inline tag, basically runs normal code:

<% if (User.IsInRole("admin")) { %>
  You can see this
<% } else { %>
  You are no admin fool!
<%} %>

http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms178135(vs.80).aspx

<%= ... %>

Used for small chunks of information, usually from objects and single pieces of information like a single string or int variable:

The Date is now <%= DateTime.Now.ToShortDateString() %>
The value of string1 is <%= string1 %> 

http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/6dwsdcf5(VS.71).aspx
*note: <%= is the equivalent of Response.Write() -  Courtesy of Adam from the US,thanks!

<%# .. %>

Used for Binding Expressions; such as Eval and Bind, most often found in data controls like GridView, Repeater, etc.:

   
        <%# Eval("MeetingName") %>
   

  

http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms178366.aspx

<%$ ... %>

Used for expressions, not code; often seen with DataSources:

http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/d5bd1tad.aspx

<%@ ... %>

This is for directive syntax; basically the stuff you see at the top your your aspx pages like control registration and page declaration:

<%@ Page Language="C#" MasterPageFile="~/MasterPage.master" AutoEventWireup="true" CodeFile="Default.aspx.cs" Inherits="_Default" Title="Untitled Page" %>
<%@ Register TagPrefix="wp" Namespace="CustomWebParts" %>

http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/xz702w3e(VS.80).aspx

<%-- ... --%>

This is a server side comment, stuff you don't want anyone without code access to see:

   
    <%-- sometimes end users make me angry --%>
   

http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/4acf8afk.aspx

Panel.DefaultButton property with LinkButton control in ASP.NET

Using Panel.DefaultButton property with LinkButton control in ASP.NET

LinkButton as the DefaultButton fix for ASP.Net

As we know that the the asp.net have many limitations.One of them very common is that we can only make asp button as deafult for a panel not LinkButton.But we know that linkbutton is better in the sense of its CSS implementation but we can't make this as default button when a user want to save their data on Press Enter.

So here i will so you how to overcome this problem with simple example.

Just place the following class into your App_Code folder.

 

Then on page where you want to implement this just add the following directive-

<%@ Register Namespace="CustomLinkButton" TagPrefix="CC" %>

And now do what you want into a panel like-

<asp:text box..........................blah blah

 <asp:Panel runat="server" ID="Pnl_login" DefaultButton="lnkLogIn">

  <CC:LinkButtonDefault ID="lnkLogIn" runat="server" CssClass="fromBtn" ValidationGroup="LogIn"

                                OnClick="lnkLogIn_Click"><Span style="cursor:pointer;">Login</Span></CC:LinkButtonDefault>

</asp:Panel>

  Now if you hit enter after writing some text into the textboxes,you will see that the linkbutton onclick event "lnkLogIn_Click" will fire.

So here is the solution .Enjoy your coding..............

//#################Class for custom Linkbutton###################

//Please add this class into your app code folder

using System;

using System.Web.UI.WebControls;

using System.Web.UI;



/// <summary>

/// Summary description for CustomLinkButton

/// </summary>

namespace CustomLinkButton

{

    public class LinkButtonDefault : LinkButton

    {

        protected override void OnLoad(System.EventArgs e)

        {

            ScriptManager.RegisterStartupScript(this.Page, GetType(), "addClickFunctionScript", _addClickFunctionScript, true);



            string script = String.Format(_addClickScript, ClientID);

            ScriptManager.RegisterStartupScript(this.Page, GetType(), "click_" + ClientID,

                script, true);

            base.OnLoad(e);

        }



        private const string _addClickScript = "addClickFunction('{0}');";



        private const string _addClickFunctionScript =

            @"  function addClickFunction(id) {{

            var b = document.getElementById(id);

            if (b && typeof(b.click) == 'undefined') b.click = function() {{

                var result = true; if (b.onclick) result = b.onclick();

                if (typeof(result) == 'undefined' || result) {{ eval(b.getAttribute('href')); }}

            }}}};";

    }

}

//#################End of Class for custom Linkbutton#############

Cache a page conditonally

Cache is one of the ways to improve site performance, one most used caching policy is page level cache. In .NET, we will use below directive in the page to cache the whole page(10 minutes as example).
<%@ OutputCache VaryByParam="none" Duration="600" %>
But many times we find cases that we do not want cache the entire page, but part of the page, this can be done by including the caching part of content in a user control and set OutPutCache at control level. What happens if we can not include those content in a user control or user controls? Or we want to cache multiple version of the page based on different status? For example, we have a banner with sign in/out section, based on the sign in status, we need to display the corresponding banner, however, the rest part of the page is mostly static or not frequently updated. In this case, what we can do is adding VaryByCustom, so that we can control how many versions of caching the page has. Below is the sample code.
1, Change the OutputCache directive to <%@ OutputCache VaryByParam="none" Duration="600" VaryByCustom="SignIn" %>
2, Add event handler to Global.ascx or a customized HttpModule to handle the custom status...
public override string GetVaryByCustomString(HttpContext context, string custom)
    {
        if (custom.Equals("SignIn", StringComparison.CurrentCultureIgnoreCase))
        {
            return "SignIn=" + User.Identity.IsAuthenticated.ToString();
        }
        else
        {
            return base.GetVaryByCustomString(context, custom);
        }
    }
We can apply this example to basically any status based cache or conditional cache.

Source:- http://mypath2us.com/post/2009/10/16/Cache-a-page-conditonally.aspx

Get Client Geo Location in C#

There are two things to do in order to get the Geo location of a request client.
1,  Get the IP address of the request using below code...
string strClientIP = Request.ServerVariables["REMOTE_ADDR"].Trim();
2, Get the country code by calling free webservice, as an example, I am using freegeoip.appspot.com.
private string GetGeoLocationByIP(string strIPAddress)
{

        //Create a WebRequest
        WebRequest rssReq = WebRequest.Create("http://freegeoip.appspot.com/xml/" + strIPAddress);

        //Create a Proxy
        WebProxy px = new WebProxy("http://freegeoip.appspot.com/xml/" + strIPAddress, true);

        //Assign the proxy to the WebRequest
        rssReq.Proxy = px;

        //Set the timeout in Seconds for the WebRequest
        rssReq.Timeout = 2000;

        try
        {

            //Get the WebResponse

            WebResponse rep = rssReq.GetResponse();

            //Read the Response in a XMLTextReader

            XmlTextReader xtr = new XmlTextReader(rep.GetResponseStream());

            //Create a new DataSet

            DataSet ds = new DataSet();

            //Read the Response into the DataSet
            //true
            //72.14.247.141
            //US
            //United States
            //CA
            //California
            //Mountain View
            //94043
            //37.4192
            //-122.057

            ds.ReadXml(xtr);
            DataTable dt = ds.Tables[0];

            if (dt != null && dt.Rows.Count > 0)
            {
              
                if(dt.Rows[0]["Status"].ToString().Equals("true",StringComparison.CurrentCultureIgnoreCase))
                {
                      return dt.Rows[0]["CountryCode"].ToString();

                }      
           }
           return String.Empty;
        catch
        {
            return String.Empty;
        }
}

Source : - http://mypath2us.com/post/2009/10/18/Get-Client-Geo-Location-in-C.aspx