Latest News in the category DevBlog
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Comparing Raw ASP.NET Request Throughput across Versions: 8.0 to 9.0 Edition
Whenever a new release of .NET comes out I run a comparison test of versions using some of my own load testing tools and in this post I look at .NET 8.0 to 9.0.WebSurge can also run non-UI tests from the command line and these tests tend to be a bit more efficient as they don't have to deal with the overhead of even minimal UI updates.NET's performance trajectory has been on a steep upward trend and in this release that trajectory has leveled out a bit.
1/19/2025
Back to Basics: Using the Parallel Library to Massively Boost Loop Performance
A few days ago I posted a quick note on X about a specific use case of using the Parallel library in .NET to massively optimize a link look up operation in Markdown Monster with very little code.The specific scenario I'm going to talk about is a Markdown link checker in my Markdown Monster editor that collects all links in a Markdown document and then checks those links - both local and online - for validity.However, after updating to using parallel code checking all links is drastically faster taking roughly the amount of time of the slowest link to process.
12/27/2024
Getting the Current TabItem when the Tab is not selected in WPF
The icon tabs on the left can be accessed with the context menu even when the tab is not active.The key here is a small utility function WindowUtilities.FindAncestor<T>() which is used to walk up the control hierarchy to see if there's a matching control of the provided generic type - in this case a MetroTabItem (a TabItem subclass from MahApps.Metro)./// Finds a type of element in the parent chain of an element
11/9/2024
Using Sql Server on Windows ARM
I recently picked up a Windows ARM device in the form of a Samsung Galaxy Book 4 with a SnapDragon X Elite chip.And yes, this is the SQL Server Express installer, but that installer also includes the LocalDb installer and so you go through most of the SQL Express setup - but without actually installing Express.If you want to do connect to the database in code you can do that with a connection string that looks like this:
10/24/2024
Webcam randomly pausing in OBS, Discord, and websites - LSVCam and TikTok Studio
If you want to get rid of it, delete HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{860BB310-5D01-11d0-BD3B-00A0C911CE86}\Instance\LSVCamThis is a regression that started recently for me, so it's my opinion that they are installing a virtual camera for their game streaming feature but they are doing it poorly.Nothing bad will happen if you delete the registry key BUT it'll show back up when you run TikTok Studio again.
10/9/2024
Getting the ASP.NET Core Server Hosting Urls at Startup and in Requests
Today I was helping out a customer with their ASP.NET core application that wasn't starting up on a live server, hosted in IIS.So the task at hand is to get the Hosting Urls as part of the startup code in program.cs so that it can be written out as part of a start up banner as shown in Figure 1.You can also retrieve the host urls inside of a request by requesting a IServerAddressesFeature from an IServer instance and then requesting the feature and the addresses:
9/4/2024
Getting the ASP.NET Core Server Hosting Urls at Startup and in Requests
So the task at hand is to get the Hosting Urls as part of the startup code in program.cs so that it can be written out as part of a start up banner as shown in Figure 1.Effectively you have to put the Url retrieval code towards the very end of your startup code after the server has been started.You can also retrieve the host urls inside of a request by requesting a IServerAddressesFeature from an IServer instance and then requesting the feature and the addresses:
9/4/2024
Nuking Local Nuget Package Sources to show newly Published Packages
The command to clear the caches is a NuGet command that also works through dotnet nuget, but it's not widely advertised and not easy to find unless you know what you're looking for in the first place.The command to force the NuGet package sources to reload is:But there's a drastic solution available in the dotnet nuget local all --clear command at least, if you have the bandwidth and speed to deal with the fallout of having to re-download all your packages.
8/4/2024
Nuking Local Nuget Package Sources to show newly Published Packages
The command to clear the caches is a NuGet command that also works through dotnet nuget, but it's not widely advertised and not easy to find unless you know what you're looking for in the first place.The command to force the NuGet package sources to reload is:But there's a drastic solution available in the .NET NuGet local all command, at least, if you have the bandwidth and speed to deal with the fallout of having to re-download all your packages.
8/4/2024
Create a .NET PlantUML Markdown Render Extension
In the process I'll highlight a useful library and service that is PlantUML, and how you can add support for it in your own C# code, or use a custom RenderExtension in Markdown Monster or elsewhere to pre-process Markdown for PlantUML diagrams.Once you've created the addin you can create a new RenderExtension class in the project:Next you need to hook the actual pre and post processing into your Markdown parsing pipeline.
7/29/2024
Create a .NET PlantUML Markdown Render Extension
In the process I'll highlight a useful library and service that is PlantUML, and how you can add support for it in your own C# code, or use a custom RenderExtension in Markdown Monster or elsewhere to pre-process Markdown for PlantUML diagrams.Once you've created the addin you can create a new RenderExtension class in the project:Next you need to hook the actual pre and post processing into your Markdown parsing pipeline.
7/29/2024
Back to Basics: Await a Task with a Timeout
Task natively doesn't have a way to provide for a timeout on a single task, and by default an await call on a task results in an indefinite wait on the task to complete which...If you prefer to retrieve the result, but deal with exceptions instead, you can use the TimeoutWithResult() method instead, which directly returns a result and throws an exception if the operation times out.I also added these functions into Westwind.Utilities in the AsyncUtils class as extension methods to Task.
7/25/2024
Work around the WebView2 NavigateToString() 2mb Size Limit
The WebView2 control's NavigateToString() method has a limit for the string size of 2mb, which can be a problem especially for HTML pages with embedded content. In this post I'll describe how this problem can show up and show a couple of ways to work around the issue.
7/23/2024
Work around the WebView2 NavigateToString() 2mb Size Limit
The WebView2 control's NavigateToString() method has a limit for the string size of 2mb, which can be a problem especially for HTML pages with embedded content. In this post I'll describe how this problem can show up and show a couple of ways to work around the issue.
7/23/2024
Dealing with Platform Specific Classes and Methods in CrossPlatform .NET
If you deal with old .NET library code that is sprinkled with some Windows specific code in places you've likely run into places where the Windows specific code is throwing up unwanted compiler warnings. Sometimes that matters, but often times these warnings are annoyances as these methods are highly unlikely to get called from x-platform code. In this post I describe some annoyances, how you can work around them and eventually fix the issues without throwing everything out the window.
7/19/2024
C# Version String Formatting
I'm tired of trying to format versions for user facing interfaces after fumbling with it again and again. In this short post I show a small helper extension method that lets you configure how to form user friendly version strings to display to end users.
6/14/2024
C# Version String Formatting
I'm tired of trying to format versions for user facing interfaces after fumbling with it again and again. In this short post I show a small helper extension method that lets you configure how to form user friendly version strings to display to end users.
6/14/2024
Mime Base64 is a Thing?
Ran into an old legacy application recently that required that attached data was preformatted to Mime Base64 which I never even heard of before. Turns out it's a 'url-safe' version of base64 that replaces certain characters that can be present in base64 with 'safe' characters. In this short post I show a small helper that handles several Base64 Mime operations.
5/27/2024
Speed up your Start Menu by disabling Web Search
If you're like me, you've probably cursed the Windows Start menu from time to time, when it's either very slow to pop up, or in some instances fails to pop up at all when you press the Windows key. This simple tip can drastically improve performance of your Windows Start Menu by simply disabling Web search.
5/4/2024
ASP.NET Core Hosting Module with Shadow Copy Not Starting: Separate your Shadow Copy Folders!
I recently ran into a major failure related to Shadow Copying for an ASP.NET Web app on IIS which was caused by corruption of the Shadow Copy directories. The app starts with the dreaded white ANCM Error page and event log entries that point at missing application folders. It turns out that this is caused by interference of multiple applications using the same shadow copy folder. In this post I describe the problem and how to work around it.
4/29/2024
ASP.NET Core Hosting Module with Shadow Copy Not Starting: Separate your Shadow Copy Folders!
I recently ran into a major failure related to Shadow Copying for an ASP.NET Web app on IIS which was caused by corruption of the Shadow Copy directories. The app starts with the dreaded white ANCM Error page and event log entries that point at missing application folders. It turns out that this is caused by interference of multiple applications using the same shadow copy folder. In this post I describe the problem and how to work around it.
4/29/2024
Open Sourcing DOS 4
This code holds an important place in history and is a fascinating read of an operating system that was written entirely in 8086 assembly code nearly 45 years ago. Today, in partnership with IBM and in the spirit of open innovation, we're releasing the source code to MS-DOS 4.00 under the MIT license.Amongst the floppies, Ray found unreleased beta binaries of DOS 4.0 that he was sent while he was at Lotus.
4/25/2024
Programmatic Html to PDF Generation using the WebView2 Control with .NET
In this post I describe how to use the Microsoft WebView2 control to automate HTML to PDF generation generically for any kind of Windows application, including services. We'll look at the WebView and it's printing functionality and some of the intricacies that are involved in hosting the WebView control outside of a desktop application context to provide unattended mode even in service context.
3/27/2024
Programmatic Html to PDF Generation using the WebView2 Control with .NET
In this post I describe how to use the Microsoft WebView2 control to automate HTML to PDF generation generically for any kind of Windows application, including services. We'll look at the WebView and it's printing functionality and some of the intricacies that are involved in hosting the WebView control outside of a desktop application context to provide unattended mode even in service context.
3/27/2024
Comparing Raw ASP.NET Request Throughput across Versions
When I set up a new machine I usually use a small ASP.NET test project to get a feel of performance of the machine and when that happens I also take a moment to compare performance across recent versions of .NET to see how things are improving - and improved they have.Both due to the new hardware I'm using but also ASP.NET continues to bump up performance in every new version that comes out.In this post I describe a simple project with minimal do nothing requests to test the ASP,.NET pipeline locally and how to test these request as well as discussing the results.
3/8/2024
Updating to .NET 8, updating to IHostBuilder, and running Playwright Tests within NUnit headless or headed on any OS
public class WebApplicationTestBuilderFactory { public static WebApplicationBuilder CreateBuilder<T>() where T : class { //This ungodly code requires an unused reference to the MvcTesting package that hooks up // MSBuild to create the manifest file that is read here. //spin up a real live web application inside TestHost.exe var builder = WebApplication.CreateBuilder( new WebApplicationOptions() { ContentRootPath = contentRootPath, ApplicationName = asmFullName });Because the test runs in the context of a different directory and my website needs to run within the context of its own content root path, I have to force the content root path to be correct and the only way to do that is by getting the apps base directory from a file generated within MSBuild from the (aging) MvcTesting package.
3/7/2024
Reading Raw ASP.NET Request.Body Multiple Times
Some time ago I wrote about accessing raw request body content in ASP.NET Core which ended up being one of the most popular posts on this blog. But I failed to mention one major caveat: By default Request.Body can only be read once. In this post I discuss why frequently when you need raw Request.Body access you actually need to read the body more than once, and you can enable that functionality and deal with the caveats of doing so.
2/20/2024
Sharing Tab Missing in Windows 11 Folder Properties
For some unfathomable reason, Windows 11 has removed the Sharing Tab on the Explorer Properties Context menu by default. The Sharing Tab allows you to shared folders and drives for remote access. In this post I discuss how to get the Sharing Tab back and also touch on how to make sure your machine can actually accept remote connections so you can share your folders and drives.
1/10/2024
Sharing Tab Missing in Windows 11 Folder Properties
For some unfathomable reason, Windows 11 has removed the Sharing Tab on the Explorer Properties Context menu by default. The Sharing Tab allows you to shared folders and drives for remote access. In this post I discuss how to get the Sharing Tab back and also touch on how to make sure your machine can actually accept remote connections so you can share your folders and drives.
1/10/2024
Working around the WPF ImageSource Blues
The WPF Image control and its ImageSource property can be problematic if you are loading a lot of images in a list. Depending on where you load images from, and how, you can very easily get bogged down with slow, blocking load operations, and memory leaks when the controls are released. In this post I describe a couple of specific problems I ran into loading a sizable list of images from files and show a few ways how to avoid the potential pitfalls related to ImageSource peculiarities.
1/4/2024
Integrating OpenAI Image Generation into a .NET Application
Image Generation AIs are proving to be very good at creating images that can be used for all sorts of purposes. In this article I discuss how you can integrate image generation right into your own .NET applications using the OpenAI REST API. In addition I'll show how you can integrated this functionality into a larger application and discuss some general thoughts on image AI usage based on some of the experiences from a developer/non-designer user perspective.
12/21/2023
Integrating OpenAI Image Generation into a .NET Application
Image Generation AIs are proving to be very good at creating images that can be used for all sorts of purposes. In this article I discuss how you can integrate image generation right into your own .NET applications using the OpenAI REST API. In addition I'll show how you can integrated this functionality into a larger application and discuss some general thoughts on image AI usage based on some of the experiences from a developer/non-designer user perspective.
12/21/2023
Embedding a minimal ASP.NET Web Server into a Desktop Application
Did you ever need to embed a Web Server into a non-Web application? In this post I describe how you can use host ASP.NET in a non-Web application and specifically in a WPF desktop app. What do you need, how is it different and some of the issues that you need to consider if you want to use ASP.NET in your non-Web applications.
11/28/2023
Embedding a minimal ASP.NET Web Server into a Desktop Application
Did you ever need to embed a Web Server into a non-Web application? In this post I describe how you can use host ASP.NET in a non-Web application and specifically in a WPF desktop app. What do you need, how is it different and some of the issues that you need to consider if you want to use ASP.NET in your non-Web applications.
11/28/2023
Save Files With Elevated Permissions on UnauthorizedAccessException
If you have an application that generically allows you to edit and save files, you might on rare occasions need to save files in locations that where a regular user account does not have permissions to save. Rather than failing wouldn't it be nice to let the user know and optionally allow saving with elevated permissions? In this post I describe the workflow and implementation on how to do just that.
11/3/2023
Caching your WebView Environment to manage multiple WebView2 Controls
I've been struggling with rare WebView initialization errors in one of my applications, that have been difficult to debug and track down. After a lot of trial and error I discovered that the problem is related to WebView Environment instantiations that might be stepping on each other. In this post I describe the problem and a solution that involves creating a single WebView Environment and reusing it for all WebView initialization.
10/31/2023
Rolling Forward to Major Versions in .NET
.NET Core has sophisticated policies that allows your applications that are compiled to specific versions of the .NET Runtime can roll forward to newer versions. You can specify what part of the version to roll forward and that generally works well, except for preview releases which require an extra step.
10/3/2023
IIS Error 500.19 with ASP.NET Core Application
Running on IIS locally is pretty rare, but if for some odd reason you decide to run IIS locally on your dev machine you might find yourself getting a 500.19 error which relates to an issue in the web.config configuration. The solution is simple enough: Make sure the ASP.NET Core Hosting Module is installed. In this post I describe in more detail what the problem is and why you need a seemingly superfluous extra install to get IIS and ASP.NET Core to cooperate on local dev machine.
9/19/2023
IIS Error 500.19 with ASP.NET Core Application
Running on IIS locally is pretty rare, but if for some odd reason you decide to run IIS locally on your dev machine you might find yourself getting a 500.19 error which relates to an issue in the web.config configuration. The solution is simple enough: Make sure the ASP.NET Core Hosting Module is installed. In this post I describe in more detail what the problem is and why you need a seemingly superfluous extra install to get IIS and ASP.NET Core to cooperate on local dev machine.
9/19/2023
Dotnet Tool Component not found on the Mac
I've run into this problem a few times: I install a new Mac OS and then install the .NET SDK. A bit later I install a dotnet tool using `dotnet tool install -g` and then try to run it, only to find out that the SDK is not able find it. This post is a note to self on how to fix the pathing for .NET tools to be found correctly and to be able to run your dotnet tools.
9/12/2023
Map Physical Paths with an HttpContext.MapPath() Extension Method in ASP.NET
ASP.NET Core doesn't have a Server.MapPath() method as classic ASP.NET had, and getting at the root path in Core is a little bit more involved than in those older versions. In this post I describe how to find the application Content and Web root folders and describe a MapPath() helper that simulates the old behavior.
8/16/2023
A WPF Statusbar Control
Statusbar controls are boring, but because of the way that they are used there are a number of caveats like ensuring the UI updates even in linear code, allowing for timeouts of status messages and resetting to default, and to provide some visual clues to draw attention to the status messages displayed. In this post I talk about a custom status bar control and helper that make it super easy to use a new status bar control or attach additional functionality to an existing status bar.
8/8/2023
Using WSL and Let's Encrypt to create Azure App Service SSL Wildcard Certificates
There are many let's encrypt automatic tools for azure but I also wanted to see if I could use certbot in wsl to generate a wildcard certificate for the azure Friday website and then upload the resulting certificates to azure app service. Azure app service ultimately needs a specific format called dot PFX that includes the full certificate path and all intermediates. Per the docs, App Service private certificates must meet the following requirements: Exported as a password-protected PFX file, encrypted using triple DES.Then upload the cert to the Certificates section of your App Service, under Bring Your Own Cert. Then under Custom Domains, click Update Binding and select the new cert (with the latest expiration date).
6/27/2023
Getting the .NET Desktop Runtime Installed with a Custom Runtime Checker and Installer
I've recently moved my Markdown Monster Desktop Application to .NET 7.0 and I had to make a decision on how to get the Runtime installed or packaged with my application. In this post I review the different deployment modes, the plus's and cons and the solution I ended up with which was to build a custom install wrapper that can check and install the runtime if not already present from an Installer or interactively.,
6/22/2023
Getting the .NET Desktop Runtime Installed with a Custom Runtime Checker and Installer
I've recently moved my Markdown Monster Desktop Application to .NET 7.0 and I had to make a decision on how to get the Runtime installed or packaged with my application. In this post I review the different deployment modes, the plus's and cons and the solution I ended up with which was to build a custom install wrapper that can check and install the runtime if not already present from an Installer or interactively.,
6/22/2023
Getting .NET Library Projects to Output Dependent Assemblies
Recent .NET Core versions have changed how .NET Core Library projects output dependencies into the build folder. The new behavior doesn't output depdencies, unlike full framework .NET projects which always automatically dumped dependencies into the build output folder. This isn't a common requirement, but when you need it, the options are sufficiently obscure and this post discusses how you can make your dependencies output into the build folder
5/29/2023
GitHub Copilot for CLI for PowerShell
GitHub Next has this cool project that is basically Copilot for the CLI (command line interface).So this means I should be able to to do the same/similar aliases for my PowerShell prompt AND change the injected prompt (look at me I'm a prompt engineer) to add 'use powershell to.' It also then offers to run the command.
4/25/2023
Use your own user @ domain for Mastodon discoverability with the WebFinger Protocol without hosting a server
Mastodon is a free, open-source social networking service that is decentralized and distributed.It was created in 2016 as an alternative to centralized social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook.One of the key features of Mastodon is the use of the WebFinger protocol, which allows users to discover and access information about other users on the Mastodon network.
12/18/2022
I got tired
But last year, without planning it, I got tired and stopped.I did find joy on TikTok and amassed a small group of like-minded followers there.I enjoy my YouTube as well, and my weekly podcast is going strong with nearly 900 (!) episodes of interviews with cool people.
12/18/2022
Using Home Assistant to integrate a Unifi Protect G4 Doorbell and Amazon Alexa to announce visitors
Every object (entity) in your house that is even remotely connected can become programmable.Get the UniFi Protect 3rd party integration for Home Assistant NOTE: Unifi Protect support is being promoted in Home Assistant v2022.2 so you won't need this step soon as it'll be included. "The UniFi Protect Integration adds support for retrieving Camera feeds and Sensor data from a UniFi Protect installation on either an Ubiquiti CloudKey+, Ubiquiti UniFi Dream Machine Pro or UniFi Protect Network Video Recorder." Authenticate and configure this integration. Get the Alexa Media Player integration This makes all your Alexas show up in Home Assistant as "media players" and also allows you to tts (text to speech) to them. Authenticate and configure this integration.Provide the convenient login features your customers want, like social login, multi-factor authentication, single sign-on, passwordless, and more.
12/14/2021
JavaScript and TypeScript Projects with React, Angular, or Vue in Visual Studio 2022 with or without .NET
You need to consider the responsibilities of your various projects or subsystems and the multiple totally valid ways you can build a web site or web app.VS2022 brings JavaScript and TypeScript support into VS with a full JavaScript Language Service based on TS. NEW: Starting in Visual Studio 2022, there is a new JavaScript/TypeScript project type (.esproj) that allows you to create standalone Angular, React, and Vue projects in Visual Studio.
11/25/2021
A Nightscout Segment for OhMyPosh shows my realtime Blood Sugar readings in my Git Prompt
I've also worked with my buddy TooTallNate to put my real-time blood sugar into a bash or PowerShell prompt, but this was back in 2017.Now that I'm "Team OhMyPosh" I have been meaning to write a Nightscout "segment" for my prompt.Nightscout is an open source self-hosted (there are commercial hosts also like T1Pal) website and API for remote display of real-time and near-real-time glucose readings for Diabetics like myself.
11/23/2021
Upgrading a 20 year old University Project to .NET 6 with dotnet-upgrade-assistant
I wrote a Tiny Virtual Operating System for a 300-level OS class in C# for college back in 2001 (?) and later moved it to VB.NET in 2002.This evening, as the children slept, I wanted to see if I could run the .NET Upgrade Assistant on this now 20 year old app and get it running on .NET 6. Let's start:$ upgrade-assistant upgrade .\TinyOS.sln-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Microsoft .NET Upgrade Assistant v0.3.256001+3c4e05c787f588e940fe73bfa78d7eedfe0190bdWe are interested in your feedback!
11/18/2021
.NET 6 Hot Reload and "Refused to connect to ws: because it violates the Content Security Policy directive" because Web Sockets
DasBlog is a pretty large and cool app and we noticed immediately upon Mark upgrading it to .NET 6 that we were unable to use Hot Reload (via dotnet watch or from VS 2022).dotnet run will always assume it's in Development (you literally tell it to restore, build, and exec in one run command) if you run it.Don't ship your .NET SDK to your webserver and don't recompile the whole thing on startup in production!