Powershell: Tail file

You can easily tail a file on Windows using PowerShell.

Get-Content myFileName -Wait

Visual Studio 2019 - Favorite Less-Known Keyboard Shortcuts

Some of the less well-known keyboard shortcuts in Visual Studio 2019 that I enjoy.

Ctrl Q => VS command search
Alt ~ => special context menu
Ctrl Shift V - clipboard history
Ctrl ; => search solution explorer
Ctrl Alt Click => set multi-caret edit locations
Ctrl Alt . => select next multi-caret edit location
Ctrl Alt ; => select all multi-caret edit locations
Ctrl Shift Backspace => go to last edit location
Ctrl - => go to last cursor location
Ctrl T => type r for recent files opened
Ctrl K Ctrl X => insert code snippet
Ctrl K Ctrl S => surround code with snippet
Shift Alt [ => go to containing block

There are many other ones demo'd in this Microsoft video.

SQL Server: List all tables in a specific schema

SELECT * 
FROM sys.objects 
WHERE schema_id = SCHEMA_ID('schemaName') and type='U'


'U' stands for User table.

Windows Explorer: Search for files/folders with exact name only

Once and a while I want to search a directory structure and find all the files or folders that only match a specific name only.  Here is the quick way to do this in the Windows Explorer search box (Ctrl-E):

File

name:=seachName

Folder

kind:=folder name:=searchName

Spectacularly simple and flexible jQuery drop-down plugin (Bootstrap 4)

Here is a very simple, yet flexible, custom drop-down selection control.  Very lightweight JavaScript and all the needed options.  You can also register to be notified of a selection and have it pass you a HTML "data-" tag value.  You'll need jQuery and Bootstrap.

Note: You write your use normal Bootstrap 4 drop-down menu code, then just create an instance of the plugin, and wah-lah!  Very nice.

Give it a whirl on on JsFiddle.

[Solved] Convert complex C#/JSON object to query string, ASPNET Core 2.0

I had to call an internal web page using HttpClient to get the HTML.  The Razor Page's OnGetAsync expected a C# complex object (nested types) as a parameter.  Here is a string extension, JsonAsQueryString, to convert a complex object into a query string for ASPNET Core 2.0.  I just converted the C# complex object to JSON using JsonConvert.Serialize, then use this extension method.

    public static class StringExtensions
    {
        public static string JsonAsQueryString(this string json)
        {
            return ParseJObject(json, string.Empty);
        }

        private static string ParseJObject(string json, string parentField = "")
        {
            var jo = (JObject)JsonConvert.DeserializeObject(json);
            var query = String.Join("&",
                jo.Children().Cast<JProperty>()
                .Select(jp => StringExtensions.ParseJProperty(jp, parentField)));

            return query;
        }

        private static string ParseJProperty(JProperty jp, string parentField)
        {
            var parentFormat = string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(parentField) ? string.Empty : $"{parentField}.";

            if (jp.Value as JArray != null)
            {
                // this object is an array; repeat names
                var tokens = string.Join("&", jp.Value
                    .Select(t => $"{parentFormat}{jp.Name}={HttpUtility.UrlEncode(t.ToString())}"));

                return tokens;
            }
            else if (jp.Value.Type == JTokenType.Object)
            {
                // nested object; make a recursive call
                return StringExtensions.ParseJObject(jp.Value.ToString(), $"{parentFormat}{jp.Name}");
            }
            else
            {
                // normal member
                return $"{parentFormat}{jp.Name}={HttpUtility.UrlEncode(jp.Value.ToString())}";
            }
        }
    }

Vue 2.0 modal in Bootstrap 4, a confirmation modal example for everyone

I was a bit tired of looking for a suitable example of using a Bootstrap 4.0 modal within Vue.js.

Here is a Vue component to do just that.  I've included an example of how to use.  After the initial comments of the Example, everything else is your JavaScript component file.

I welcome comments if folks have improvements...but let's keep it simple for everyone else.

 // jQuery required as Bootstrap uses it, but if you use another non-jQuery  
 // modal framework, you can modify the show() function to remove jQuery modal 'show'  
 //  
 // Example:  
 //  
 // <div id="app">  
 //  <button type="button" class="btn btn-secondary" v-on:click="$refs.modal.show()">Modal</button>  
 //  <confirm-component ref="modal" v-bind:options="confirmOptions()" v-on:closeCancel="cancel" v-on:closeNo="no" v-on:closeYes="yes"></confirm-component>  
 // </div>  
 //  
 // <script>  
 // var vueApp = new Vue({  
 //  el: '#app',  
 //  ...  
 //  
 // confirmOptions() {  
 //  return {  
 //    title: '<i>Do you really want to do this?</i>',  
 //    message: 'Going to do something really <strong>major</strong>...continue?',  
 //  
 //    textCancel: 'CANCEL', // defaults to 'Cancel'  
 //    textNo: 'NO',     // defaults to 'No'  
 //    textYes: 'YES',    // defaults to 'Yes'  
 //  
 //    showNo: true,     // defaults to true  
 //    showNo: false,     // defaults to false  
 //    showYes: true     // defaults to true  
 //  };  
 // }  
 // cancel() {  
 //  alert('cancel');  
 // },  
 // no() {  
 //  alert('no');  
 // },  
 // yes() {  
 //  alert('yes');  
 // }  
 // });  
 // </script>  
   
   
 "use strict";  
 Vue.component('confirm-component', {  
    props: ['options'],  
    methods: {  
       show() {  
          $('#confirmModalComponent').modal('show');  
       }  
    },  
    computed: {  
       modalTitle() {  
          return this.options.title ? this.options.title : '';  
       },  
       modalMessage() {  
          return this.options.message ? this.options.message : '';  
       },  
       modalTextCancel() {  
          return this.options.textCancel ? this.options.textCancel : 'Cancel';  
       },  
       modalTextNo() {  
          return this.options.textNo ? this.options.textNo : 'No';  
       },  
       modalTextYes() {  
          return this.options.textYes ? this.options.textYes : 'Yes';  
       },  
       showCancel() {  
          return this.options.showCancel ? this.options.showCancel : true;  
       },  
       showNo() {  
          return this.options.showNo ? this.options.showNo : false;  
       },  
       showYes() {  
          return this.options.showYes ? this.options.showYes : true;  
       },  
       closeCancel() {  
          this.$emit('closeCancel');  
       },  
       closeNo() {  
          this.$emit('closeNo');  
       },  
       closeYes() {  
          this.$emit('closeYes');  
       }  
    },  
    template: `  
 <div class="modal fade" id="confirmModalComponent" tabindex="-1" role="dialog" aria-labelledby="confirmModalComponentLabel" aria-hidden="true">  
  <div class="modal-dialog" role="document">  
   <div class="modal-content">  
    <div class="modal-header">  
     <h5 class="modal-title" id="confirmModalComponentLabel" v-html="modalTitle"></h5>  
     <button type="button" class="close" data-dismiss="modal" aria-label="Close">  
      <span aria-hidden="true">&times;</span>  
     </button>  
    </div>  
    <div class="modal-body" v-html="modalMessage">  
    </div>  
    <div class="modal-footer justify-content-between">  
     <div>  
       <button v-if="showCancel" type="button" class="btn btn-primary" :click="closeCancel" data-dismiss="modal">{{modalTextCancel}}</button>  
     </div>  
     <div>  
       <button v-if="showNo" type="button" class="btn btn-primary" :click="closeNo" data-dismiss="modal">{{modalTextNo}}</button>  
       <button v-if="showYes" type="button" class="btn btn-success" :click="closeYes" data-dismiss="modal">{{modalTextYes}}</button>  
     </div>  
    </div>  
   </div>  
  </div>  
 </div>  
 `  
 });  

Easily convert JSON to C# strongly-typed classes

Check out this handy online tool to convert JSON to C# strongly-typed classes!

https://quicktype.io

URL rewrite for https and www in ASPNET Core (Solved)

If you want to url rewrite to both https and www using ASP.NET Core 2.0, here is some pretty straight-forward C# you can add to your Startup.cs.

Woo-hoo!

// ...

public void Configure(IApplicationBuilder app, IHostingEnvironment env)
{
    if (env.IsDevelopment())
    {
        // ...
    }
    else
    {
        // url rewrite; do this before UseStaticFiles
        var options = new RewriteOptions().Add(
            new RedirectRules(rewriteHttps: true, rewriteWww: true));
        app.UseRewriter(options);
    }

    // ...
}

// ...

public class RedirectRules : Microsoft.AspNetCore.Rewrite.IRule
{
    private readonly bool _rewriteHttps;
    private readonly bool _rewriteWww;

    public RedirectRules(bool rewriteHttps, bool rewriteWww)
    {
        _rewriteHttps = rewriteHttps;
        _rewriteWww = rewriteWww;
    }

    public void ApplyRule(RewriteContext context)
    {
        //
        // redirect two ways
        //    - http to https (if enabled)
        //    - non-www host to www host (if enabled)
        //

        const string hostRoot = "mydomain.com";
        var request = context.HttpContext.Request;
        var currentHost = request.Host;
        HostString newHost;

        // do we need to rewrite from http to https
        var isNewProtocol = _rewriteHttps && request.Scheme.ToLower() == "http";

        // do we need to rewrite from non-www host to www host
        if (_rewriteWww && currentHost.Host == hostRoot)
            newHost = new HostString($"www.{hostRoot}", currentHost.Port ?? 80);

        // if either rewrite done, create a new url
        if (isNewProtocol || newHost.HasValue)
        {
            var newUrl = new StringBuilder()
                .Append(isNewProtocol ? "https" : request.Scheme)
                .Append("://")
                .Append(newHost.HasValue ? newHost : currentHost)
                .Append(request.PathBase)
                .Append(request.Path)
                .Append(request.QueryString);
            context.HttpContext.Response.Redirect(newUrl.ToString(), permanent: true);
            context.Result = RuleResult.EndResponse;
        }
    }
}

Dotnet Core 1.1 to 2.0 conversion

Microsoft recently released Dotnet core 2.0.  I was eager to convert my Core 1.1 code so I jumped right in.  Just a bit of background on what I was dealing with (all Core 1.1):

- Around 18 class libraries

- Two MVC Core websites

- Entity Framework Core

- Identity Authentication

- MailKit (for SMTP email)

It took me probably four (4) hours to do the migration.  Not too painful, but I wanted to share several of the other websites that I bookmarked to help me get through it all.  Hopefully these will help you as well.

Migration from ASP.NET Core 1.1.x to 2.0 – Eric L. Anderson

Migrating Auth and Identity to ASP.NET Core 2.0 | Microsoft Docs

Mission Impossible: Migrating .NET Core 1.x to 2.0 - CodeProject

Announcing Entity Framework Core 2.0 | .NET Blog

I think the issue that caused me the most pain (i.e. changes) was the Identity stuff.  It was a large number of changes, but just working to determine the differences between what the Core 1.1 template originally added vs. what Core 2.0 template had (which BTW, the 2.0 template still used Core 1.1 except for ASP.NET).

I was also able to remove MailKit totally once SmtpClient support came back to Dotnet Core.

Best of luck!

Entity Framework Core: Migrate and update a repository in class library

As of April 2017, Entity Framework Core (and Visual Studio 2017) does not support having your database repository in a separate class library.  Here are the steps I followed in order to work around this.  This was done successfully even with multiple repositories (i.e. more than one DbContext).

Hope this can help others as it took me awhile to get it right.  I did these steps for more than one DbContext and database so I'm sure this works as of the time I wrote this post.

Here is what I did to get things working nicely:

Added nuget packages:
Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore
Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.SqlServer
Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.SqlServer.Design
Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.Tools

Added Program.cs to the class library project:

public class Program
{
 public static void Main(string[] args)
 {

 }

 public class xxxxContextFactory : IDbContextFactory<xxxxDbContext>
 {
  public xxxxDbContext Create(DbContextFactoryOptions options)
  {
   //
   // this is only used for data migrations and db updates; the connection
   // string is not used for production
   //

   var optionsBuilder = new DbContextOptionsBuilder<xxxxDbContext>();
   optionsBuilder.UseSqlServer("Server=.;Database=xxxxDatabase;Trusted_Connection=True;MultipleActiveResultSets=true");

   return new xxxxDbContext(optionsBuilder.Options);
  }
 }
}

Added property group to .csproj:
<PropertyGroup>
<GenerateRuntimeConfigurationFiles>true</GenerateRuntimeConfigurationFiles>
</PropertyGroup>

Set xxxxRepositoryModel as startup project.

Set the Package Manager Console "Default project" to your repository project.

Open Package Manager Console and then:
   PM> cd xxxxRepositoryModel
   PM> Add-Migration Initial -context xxxxDbContext
   PM> Update-Database -c xxxxDbContext

Note: If this is a brand new repository based on an EXISTING database and you have done the Package Manager command, Scaffold-DbContext, then you will need to:

1. After you perform an Add-Migration...
2. Modify your Migrations/yyyymmddhhmmss_Initial.cs file and...
3. Completely empty the Up and Down methods
4. Then continue to perform the Update-Database
5. This gives you a clean starting point from which to make new database model changes (migrations) in the future.