Develop Reference

How to call API using C#?

I am not a c# guy. Needless to say that I don't have experience on this topic.
I bought a software and I installed it on my computer. Now I thought of using some of it's functions on my software(that I make to plan in c#). So I messaged the person who sold me the software and he send me a two page pdf file explaining what to do.
It states:
This software features a COM interface.
And it goes saying it's API contains a function "stackAPI".
and the parameters used are apiname type string, apipass type string.
Return values type long. 0 for sucess and 1 for error.
That's all it states, I tired searching google, it could not help me at all. So how do I start?
when I write the following code on c# it gives me error.
string[] apiname;
string[] apipass;
stackAPI(apiname, apipass);
I know if I was using dll I would import it as
[DllImport("example.dll"]
But no dll is provided.
Do I need to add the path to the folder where the software is installed to call the API ?

To get started:
using example.dll;
Then in your main class:
example.CustomService api = new example.CustomService();
var response = api.Dostuff();
Console.WriteLine(response);

If anyone wants to know how I did it. After a week of searching I was able to find the solution today. I wanted to call the function stackAPI(apiname, apipass);.
stackAPI(apiname, apipass) was the member of stack.callapi
So I wrote:
dynamic lifestohack = Activator.CreateInstance(Type.GetTypeFromProgID("stack.callapi"));
than just you can call the function like this.
int rv;
string[] apiname;
string[] apipass;
rv=lifestoahck.stackAPI(apiname, apipass);
Hope it may help someone.

Trying to write a simple C# program to use password filter functions

I am trying to write a simple C# program to capture password change events using Microsoft's dll "passfilt.dll". I read about the functions provided by it. I just used "InitializeChangeNotify" and its returning true. Now how would I use the "PasswordChangeNotify" method and get the password as plaintext??
Here is my code !
using System.Text;
using System.Runtime.InteropServices;
class Program
{
[DllImport("passfilt.dll" ,EntryPoint="#1" )]
public extern static Boolean InitializeChangeNotify();
static void Main(string[] args)
{
Boolean ans= InitializeChangeNotify();
Console.WriteLine("Answer " + ans);
Console.ReadKey();
}
}
Note: I am new to C#. I couldn't find any sample prog for this. Help me out!

You cannot use passfilt.dll to capture password change events. The dll is a filter used by Windows to check the quality of a password.
The filter contains three functions that are called in sequence (InitializeChangeNotify, PasswordFilter and PasswordChangeNotify). The first is used to initialize the filter, the second is used to check the quality of a password, the last is used to notify the dll that Windows has changed the password. All functions are called by Windows.
You can call the functions as well but you cannot use PasswordChangeNotify to capture password change events.
If you want to capture password change events, you'll have to write a filter yourself and install it on your machine. Then Windows will call PasswordChangeNotify to let you know a password has changed.

Using Javascript for Google Maps API from WPF

I am creating an application that interfaces with Google's Maps API v3. My current approach is using a WebBrowser control by WebBrowser.Navigate("Map.html"). This is working correctly at the moment; however, I am also aware of WebBrowser.InvokeScript(). I have seen this used to execute a javascript function, but I would like to have something like the following structure:
APICalls.js - Contains different functions that can be called, or even separated out into a file for each function if necessary.
MapInterface.cs
WebBrowser.InvokeScript("APICalls.js", args) - Or control the javascript variables directly.
I have seen the InvokeScript method used, but none of the examples gave any detail to the source of the function, so I'm not sure if it was calling it from an html file or js file. Is it possible to have a structure like this, or a similarly organized structure, rather than creating an html file with javascript in each one and using Navigate()?
Additionally, are there any easier ways to use Google Maps with WPF. I checked around, but all of the resources I found were at least 2-3 years old, which I believe is older than the newest version of the maps API.

I can't suggest a better way of using Google Maps API with WPF (although I'm sure it exists), but I can try to answer the rest of the question.
First, make sure to enable FEATURE_BROWSER_EMULATION for your WebBrowser app, so Google Maps API recognizes is it as modern HTML5-capable browser.
Then, navigate to your "Map.html" page and let it finish loading. Here's how it can be done using async/await (the code is for the WinForms version of WebBrowser control, but the concept remains the same).
You can have your APICalls.js as a separate local file, but you'd need to create and populate a <script> element for it from C#. You do it once for the session.
Example:
var scriptText = File.ReadAllText("APICalls.js");
dynamic htmlDocument = webBrowser.Document;
var script = htmlDocument.createElement("script");
script.type = "text/javascript";
script.appendChild(htmlDocument.createTextNode(scriptText));
htmlDocument.body.appendChild(script);
Then you can call functions from this script in a few different ways.
For example, your JavaScript entry point function in APICalls.js may look like this:
(function() {
window.callMeFromCsharp = function(arg1, arg2) {
window.alert(arg1 + ", " +arg2);
}
})();
Which you could call from C# like this:
webBrowser.InvokeScript("callMeFromCsharp", "Hello", "World!");
[UPDATE] If you're looking for a bit more modular or object-oriented approach, you can utilize the dynamic feature of C#. Example:
JavaScript:
(function() {
window.apiObject = function() {
return {
property: "I'm a property",
Method1: function(arg) { alert("I'm method 1, " + arg); },
Method2: function() { return "I'm method 2"; }
};
}
})();
C#:
dynamic apiObject = webBrowser.InvokeScript("apiObject");
string property = apiObject.property;
MessageBox.Show(property);
apiObject.Method1("Hello!");
MessageBox.Show(apiObject.Method2());

How do I automate SAP GUI with c#

I would like to automate an SAP GUI window using the C# language. I am able to do it in VBScript but code reuse is horrible. Besides Id like to use threading instead of having 80 or more processes running. Where can I find any documentation and samples of how to do this? Here is the code I am working with. Basically, the problem I am facing is - how do I make a connection to SAP GUI then create an SAP GUI on the fly then start making transactions and entering text in some fields.
using System;
using System.Collections;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using White.Core.Factory;
using White.Core.UIItems.Finders;
using White.Core.InputDevices;
using System.Threading;
using System.Diagnostics;
using SAP.Connector;
using SAP;
namespace SAP_Automation
{
class Program
{
public static void Main(string[] args)
{
string ExeSourceFile = #"C:\Program Files\SAP\SapSetup\setup\SAL\SapLogon.s8l";
White.Core.Application _application;
White.Core.UIItems.WindowItems.Window _mainWindow;
var c = SAP.Connector.Connection.GetConnection("**");
var c = new SAPConnection("ASHOST=*; GWHOST=*; GWSERV=*; ASHOST=*; SYSNR=00;USER=user; PASSWD=**;");
c.Open();
}
}
}
}
As you can see I can create a connection but I dont know how to create a session to the GUI and start entering text in fields. Any examples and samples would be appreciated.

This might be necro-threading but I was in a similar situation where I work. We needed SAP GUI Automation for testing purposes that could integrate with the rest of our homegrown automation platform written in C#. I helped create a proposal for one solution that took advantage of a SAP provided library for GUI automation that could be used as the basis for an automation layer for SAP.
Does the following file exist on your SAP file installation? x:\Program Files\SAP\FrontEnd\SAPGui\sapfewse.ocx?
If so, add it to Visual Studio (or whatever IDE you're using) as a reference. It is basically a class library which contains a bunch of SAP specific objects that will allow you to interact with. It is very effective because it exposes most of what you need from the SAP GUI. We discovered in other attempts that a lot of the objects in SAP were not available.
This is an early proof of concept I did. Start SAP with a connection string, enter credentials, navigate to a transaction code.
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Collections;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using SAPFEWSELib;
namespace SAPGuiAutomated
{
//created a class for the SAP app, connection, and session objects as well as for common methods.
public class SAPActive
{
public static GuiApplication SapGuiApp { get; set; }
public static GuiConnection SapConnection { get; set; }
public static GuiSession SapSession { get; set; }
public static void openSap(string env)
{
SAPActive.SapGuiApp = new GuiApplication();
string connectString = null;
if (env.ToUpper().Equals("DEFAULT"))
{
connectString = "1.0 Test ERP (DEFAULT)";
}
else
{
connectString = env;
}
SAPActive.SapConnection = SAPActive.SapGuiApp.OpenConnection(connectString, Sync: true); //creates connection
SAPActive.SapSession = (GuiSession)SAPActive.SapConnection.Sessions.Item(0); //creates the Gui session off the connection you made
}
public void login(string myclient, string mylogin, string mypass, string mylang)
{
GuiTextField client = (GuiTextField)SAPActive.SapSession.ActiveWindow.FindByName("RSYST-MANDT", "GuiTextField");
GuiTextField login = (GuiTextField)SAPActive.SapSession.ActiveWindow.FindByName("RSYST-BNAME", "GuiTextField");
GuiTextField pass = (GuiTextField)SAPActive.SapSession.ActiveWindow.FindByName("RSYST-BCODE", "GuiPasswordField");
GuiTextField language = (GuiTextField)SAPActive.SapSession.ActiveWindow.FindByName("RSYST-LANGU", "GuiTextField");
client.SetFocus();
client.text = myclient;
login.SetFocus();
login.Text = mylogin;
pass.SetFocus();
pass.Text = mypass;
language.SetFocus();
language.Text = mylang;
//Press the green checkmark button which is about the same as the enter key
GuiButton btn = (GuiButton)SapSession.FindById("/app/con[0]/ses[0]/wnd[0]/tbar[0]/btn[0]");
btn.SetFocus();
btn.Press();
}
}
//--------------------------//
//main method somewhere else
public static void Main(string[] args)
{
SAPActive.openSAP("my connection string");
SAPActive.login("10", "jdoe", "password", "EN");
SAPActive.SapSession.StartTransaction("VA03");
}
You're right there is not a lot of documentation on this subject. Below are a few sources that helped me get started
-Original source of our plan
http://scn.sap.com/thread/1729689
-Documentation on the API (For VB and javascript but the general rules and objects are identical). Definitely read the portion on the SAP GUI Runtime hierarchy. It'll answer a lot of questions.
http://www.synactive.com/download/sap%20gui%20scripting/sap%20gui%20scripting%20api.pdf

It is very important here to understand what UI Automation can do and what its limitations are. It was designed to automate a user interface's capabilities. You can click buttons, enter text in a textbox, move windows, etcetera, whatever a user can do using the mouse and keyboard.
What it can not do is bridge the tall wall that the operating system puts up between processes. A wall that prevents a process from accessing the memory of another process. This is a very important security and safety feature. It for one prevents a process from accessing data that should be private to a process. Like a password. And for another it stops a crashing process from affecting other processes that run on the machine. You can kill a process with Task Manager and everything keeps motoring along happily as though nothing happened.
A consequence of this is that creating a SAPConnection object in your program is a connection that only your program can use. There is no mechanism to somehow pass this object to another process with UI Automation. At best you could use the data you retrieve from the connection to affect what buttons you click.
The kind of process interop that would allow sharing data between processes is well supported in .NET. Low-level approaches are socket and named pipes, high-level are Remoting and WCF. Older programs have COM Automation support, Office is a good example of that. That however requires two to tango, both programs must be written to take advantage of it.
So if you are trying to automate an existing SAP application and this app does not otherwise explicitly support automation, the kind that an Office program supports, then you are pretty much stuck with just filling text boxes and clicking buttons.

You can automate any kind of application (browser, desktop, java, etc) with UiPath.
Here's a tutorial on how to automate data entry, menu navigation and screen scraping on SAP.
You can
use it from code (SDK). It has a tool that auto-generates C# code
create and run workflows (visual automation) directly from UiPath Studio.
Here's a sample of the C# auto-generated code:
// Attach window menu
UiNode wnd3 = UiFactory.Instance.NewUiNode().FromSelector("<wnd app='sap business one.exe' cls='#32768' idx='1' />");
// Click 'Business Pa...' menu
UiNode uiClickBusinessPamenu_3 = wnd3.FindFirst(UiFindScope.UI_FIND_DESCENDANTS, "<ctrl name='Business Partners' role='popup menu' /><ctrl automationid='2561' />");
uiClickBusinessPamenu_3.Click(88, 9, UiClickType.UI_CLICK_SINGLE, UiMouseButton.UI_BTN_LEFT, UiInputMethod.UI_HARDWARE_EVENTS);
// Attach window 'SAP Business'
UiNode wnd4 = UiFactory.Instance.NewUiNode().FromSelector("<wnd app='sap business one.exe' cls='TMFrameClass' title='SAP Business One 9.0 - OEC Computers' />");
// Click 'Add' button
UiNode uiClickAddbutton_4 = wnd4.FindFirst(UiFindScope.UI_FIND_DESCENDANTS, "<wnd cls='ToolbarWindow32' title='View' /><ctrl name='View' role='tool bar' /><ctrl name='Add' role='push button' />");
uiClickAddbutton_4.Click(13, 24, UiClickType.UI_CLICK_SINGLE, UiMouseButton.UI_BTN_LEFT, UiInputMethod.UI_HARDWARE_EVENTS);
Here's how workflow automation of SAP Business One menus, buttons or typing looks like:
And finally the SDK documentation is located here... in case you don't want to use workflows.
Note: I work at UiPath. You should also try other automation tools like Automation Anywhere, WinAutomation, Jacada, Selenium, Ranorex use them side by side and choose the one that suits better your needs.

Excel sheet as frontend for C# backend server

I have a C# feeder that generates some data and sends them to some sort of frontend. Is there a direct way in which I can receive these data using excel microsoft office ?
P.S. I do not want to write a code that recieves the data and then writes it into excel sheet. I want to be able to directly get the data from excel itself, as a frontend for my C# backend. Is that ever possible ?!

I did a quick dr. Google search for WebService calls from Excel and found the following article
Option Explicit
' Excel VBA Function wrapper to call currency conversion Web Service on the web!
Public Function ccyConvert(rsCurrIn As String, rsCurrOut As String,
ByVal vfAmtIn As Single) As Single
Dim objSClient As MSSOAPLib30.SoapClient30
' Remove the 30 if using an earlier version of SOAP
Dim fResult As Single
' Point the SOAP API to the web service that we want to call...
Set objSClient = New SoapClient30
Call objSClient.mssoapinit(
par_WSDLFile:="http://webcontinuum.net/webservices/ccydemo.wsdl")
' Call the web service
fResult = objSClient.calcExcRate(rsCurrIn, rsCurrOut, vfAmtIn)
Set objSClient = Nothing
ccyConvert = fResult
End Function
As Excel has the possibility to access data (from different dataSources) it may be a proper solution to create a c# WebService which delivers the requested data.
Pls note that this is not my code - it's just a copy from the mentioned article - so credit goes to the author!
I just thought about another solution. You may consider making your own C# com component. Within any excel VBA code you are now able to call any method within your assembly. Once again mr. google found an article describing how to achieve this!
c# code for your own com component
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Text;
using System.Runtime.InteropServices;
namespace DotNetLibrary
{
[ClassInterface(ClassInterfaceType.AutoDual)]
public class DotNetClass
{
public DotNetClass()
{
}
public string DotNetMethod(string input)
{
return "Hello " + input;
}
}
}
VBA code within an excel macro
Private Sub TestDotNetCall()
Dim testClass As New DotNetClass
' or do whatever you want with return value
MsgBox testClass.DotNetMethod(“World”)
End Sub