Develop Reference

DinkToPDF PDF generation only works once on Azure before giving 502 errors

I've written a PDF generation API that uses dinktopdf to convert some templated HTML to a byte array. This all works fine on my local machine but when I deploy to my azure web application the API only works once. When I try it a second time I get the following message and a 502 error:
The specified CGI application encountered an error and the server terminated the process.
Here's a stripped down version of my code that still presents the same error:
static IPdfConverter pdfConverter = new SynchronizedConverter(new PdfTools());
public static byte[] BuildPdf(string html)
{
return pdfConverter.Convert(new HtmlToPdfDocument()
{
Objects =
{
new ObjectSettings
{
HtmlContent = html
}
}
});
}
I've also tried using IronPDF to do the HTML to PDF conversion and gotten the same exact issue (works perfectly on local machine but only once on Azure deployment before giving consistent 502 errors).

If you initialize converter with var converter = new SynchronizedConverter(new PdfTools());´, remove it, and just injectIConverterin your service.
I tried and this approach is working, after all, we already register the converter, we don't need to create an instance using thenew` keyword. My app is not on Azure, but I have the same problem, the converter hangs after the first call, for that reason I decide to write down this comment.

Update: Problem was solved by changing the Azure App Service Plan to Basic rather than free (PDF generation requires at minimum the Basic plan apparently).

WCF Azure create PDF file in virtual directory with DevExpress

We have a wcf service that uses DevExpress XtraReports to generate a pdf file.
How this normally works is we have in the web.config the physical directory Example C:\PdfDocs\ that we specify as the path when executing the devexpress ExportToPdf function. This works fine on a normal virtual machine.
We are now busy moving to Microsoft Azure enviroment and I am having trouble getting this to work.
My Setup - The wcf service is created as a App Service. Unfortunately I am not at liberty to give names so lets assume the following:
App Service Name - testdocservice,
Url Azure gives - https://testdocservices.azurewebsites.net
What I have tried:
In Application settings, I have created a virtual directory. In the project itself I have created a folder that the virtual directory will point to.
The virtual path is https://testdocservices.azurewebsites.net/ItinDocs and the physical path is site\wwwroot\ItinDocuments
This is setup correctly as I have tested it by FTP test pdf in and then hit the following url: https://testdocservices.azurewebsites.net/ItinDocs/test.pdf
So in the wcf service I took a chance and set the location to render the pdf to "site\wwwroot\ItinDocuments" - This did not work.
The exception was as follows: Access to the path 'D:\Windows\system32\site\wwwroot\ItinDocuments\TestQuote21.pdf' is denied.
I then tried using Server.MapPath example:
QuoteV3 oQuote = new QuoteV3();
oQuote.DataSource = dSource;
oQuote.ExportToPdf(System.Web.HttpContext.Current.Server.MapPath($"~{ConfigurationManager.AppSettings["DocLocation"]}{fileName}"));
The DocLocation look like the following: site\wwwroot\ItinDocuments\
This also did not work. The following error is given:
'~https:/testdocservices.azurewebsites.net/ItinDocs/TestQuote21.pdf' is not a valid virtual path.
I thought the first character "~" could be a problem so I removed it and got the same error as above - 'https:/testdocservices.azurewebsites.net/ItinDocs/TravelQuote21.pdf' is not a valid virtual path.
I then noticed that the above errors only have one forward-slash after the https. At this point I am not sure if that could be causing the problem and then how to correct it as the Server.MapPath is generating that part.
In conclusion, I am not sure if I am even working in the right direction with the above approach. My knowledge around azure is still minimal.
Any help/assistance/solution would be greatly appreciated.
Many thanks.

This can be closed as I have instead setup azure storage and my pdfs are saving in a container instead.
Thanks.

Converting docx to html with dotnet-mammoth fails at deploy server

I'm using dotnet-mammoth (mammoth.js with edge.js) to convert a docx document to html in .net
I added it to my project via its nuget package.
I'm using the code provided by the sample, which is working correctly in my development enviroment (running IIS Express):
var documentConverter = new Mammoth.DocumentConverter();
var result = documentConverter.ConvertToHtml(Server.MapPath("~/files/document.docx")); // problem here at production enviroment
string theResult = result.Value
However, once I deploy it to production server, when the executed code reaches documentConverter.ConvertToHtml() method, it's redirecting me to the login page. Without displaying any error messages, without saving anything on IIS log file.
If I remove that line, everything else executes normally.
I assume it could be an issue related to permissions but I don't know what could it be. Any ideas?

The latest version of Mammoth on NuGet no longer uses edge.js, and is now just .NET code, so should work more reliably.

You can resolve this by getting the exact error when the process is trying to read the file. Below is the code from dotnet-mammoth DocumentConverter.cs. As shown below on call it is trying to read all bytes to be sent to edge
public Result<string> ConvertToHtml(string path)
{
var mammothJs = ReadResource("Mammoth.mammoth.browser.js") + ReadResource("Mammoth.mammoth.edge.js");
var f = Edge.Func(mammothJs);
var result = f(File.ReadAllBytes(path));
Task.WaitAll(result);
return ReadResult(result.Result);
}
I suppose you are giving absolute path to the input. In that case the absolute path should be accessible by app identity hosting the app pool of the web application.
If the path specified is in web root directory - (not advised) - but if it is then you can use Server.MapPath

Load SSRS Report from file in C# in a service

We are looking into replacing Crystal with SSRS.
I would like to know if it is at all possible to load the .rdl or .rdl.data file in C# and generate the report to a memory stream.
I have seen some examples using the LocalReport, but this seems to be part of either the WinForms or WebForms assemblies.
So what I would like to know is:
Is it possible to load the report from file as part of our service.
Can we then generate the report to a Stream (lets say a memory
stream)
Can I do this without using the WebForms/WinForms assemblies in my
service
Can we achieve this without using the webservice for SSRS

I'm not sure that this is an answer, but lets call it supporting material.
I have this code example from msdn that shows how you can do this by creating a service client and calling a given report as a PDF and saves it to file stream.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/reportexecution2005.reportexecutionservice.render.aspx
The problem I'm currently having is finding the correct client object to interact with after pointing VS to the SSRS service. The object I'm using to interact with the service is:
ReportExecutionServiceSoapClient rs = new ReportExecutionServiceSoapClient();
However, the interface doesn't match my code example. So this is a little closer, but not an answer.
UPDATE: The correct Proxy class generator
Here's the link to how to generate the proxy correctly. You'll need the windows sdk installed (current is 7.1). You can find that on microsoft.com, like I did. Execute the command line and it'll generate a file for you. Include in project:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms155134%28v=SQL.110%29.aspx
UPDATE: Got the thing workin
I just had to generate the correct proxy. Ok, so for SSRS 2010, apparently they split report execution and management out into two services. The only one I needed to generate my report from a C# console app was the execution service. Maybe that's totally obvious to everyone but me :) ?
Ok so open up a Windows SDK command shell and put this stuff in it for the execution service:
wsdl /language:CS /n:"Microsoft.SqlServer.ReportExecution" http://<Server Name>/reportserver/reportexecution2010.asmx?wsdl /o:"ReportExecution.cs"
Go to C:\Program Files\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\v7.1 and pick up your ReportExecution.cs file. Copy and paste it in your project.
Then you just have to say this:
Microsoft.SqlServer.ReportExecution.ReportExecutionService rsExec =
new Microsoft.SqlServer.ReportExecution.ReportExecutionService();
rsExec.Credentials = System.Net.CredentialCache.DefaultCredentials;
rsExec.Url = #"http://<ServerName>/reportserver/ReportExecution2005.asmx";
Follow along the example from this link, which is the same one as above, and you should be generating some pretty awesome reports from your handy C# app.

PasswordEncoderNotFoundException using Jira SOAP API

I am working on integrating my company's product with Jira so users can log bug reports directly from the application. Everything was wqorking smoothly so i decided to import the data from our live Jira system into my development system so that i had some real world data to play with. Since then when i try to get an authtication token it throws the following exception "com.atlassian.crowd.exception.PasswordEncoderNotFoundException: The PasswordEncoder 'atlassian-security' was not found in the Internal Encoders list by the PasswordEncoderFactory". I have checked and the Atlassian Security Password Encoder is enabled in the Crown Password Encoders plugin.
My code is super simple just an ASP.net based text based issues search with the results wired to a grid view code as below:
JiraSoapServiceService service = new JiraSoapServiceService();
string token = service.login("integration", "test");
if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(txtSearch.Text))
{
RemoteIssue[] issues = service.getIssuesFromTextSearchWithLimit(token, txtSearch.Text, 0, 100);
gvwIssues.DataSource = issues;
gvwIssues.DataBind();
}
I get the error on the call to service.login, it worked fine before I imported the live data. And yes i did add the integration user again after i had imported the data.
Anyone any ideas on this.

No idea what was causing this but rebooting the PC that the dev Jira was installed on fixed it.
EDIT
I have had this a few times now. It tends to happen when you do something like restart the SQL server, restore the jira database via SQL server, restore jira via the inbuilt XML file import method or similar. You don't have to restart the machine just the jira windows service. No idea if this is a problem with other DBs or server types.