Develop Reference

C# ASP.Net Errors on form submission

I was hoping to get some insight on the error that are produced by the system. I am using a already built message system that I got some time ago and it works but sometimes on the forms I will get errors that I do not understand. For instance on a Create I have a try / catch block that produces a message if it has successfully Executed. I have tried to search for these errors in my project and it does not come up with anything. Even if it was in meta data a search should find it.
I use System.Text.StringBuilder sb = new System.Text.StringBuilder(); for the message and the code looks like this:
public ActionResult Create(Vendors model)
{
System.Text.StringBuilder sb = new System.Text.StringBuilder();
try
{
if (ModelState.IsValid)
{
var userId = User.Identity.GetUserId();
//var getdata = ExtendedViewModels.VendorToEntity(model);
model.VendorId = Guid.NewGuid();
model.CreatedDate = System.DateTime.Now;
model.CreatedBy = User.Identity.Name;
model.Status = true;
db.Vendors.Add(model);
db.SaveChanges();
sb.Append("Submitted");
return Content(sb.ToString());
}
else
{
foreach (var key in this.ViewData.ModelState.Keys)
{
foreach (var err in this.ViewData.ModelState[key].Errors)
{
sb.Append(err.ErrorMessage + "<br/>");
}
}
}
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
sb.Append("Error :" + ex.Message);
}
return Content(sb.ToString());
}
When this returns or closes the Modal it produces a message or if there is an error it will produce that so you can fix it like a Required field. If everything is okay it will produce from this:
#Html.StarkAjaxFormSubmiter("frmVendors", "tbVendors", true, "Action Successfully Executed")
This is a green box that shows up as "Action Successfully Executed". If something is wrong a red box shows up and you get a message. In my case I am getting a red box that says Submitted Read Warnings Alerts This is how it is spelled. I doubt this is a error that comes from ASP.Net it looks more like a custom message, I dont know what it means and I cannot find it anywhere. Regardless, it does create the record in the db. The other error I have gotten shows Something is went wrong [object, object] Not only do I want to find out what these mean, I also want to clean them up and give a proper message that makes sense. Does anyone have any ideas as to how to correct this? Could they be encypted in the custom package that was written for this? That is why I cannot find them. I have also viewed the package and did not find anything for this.
This is from Meta data:
//
// Parameters:
// stark:
//
// FormId:
// Enter Here Form ID LIKE So you have to pass = frmCreate
//
// DataTableId:
// Which DataTable You have update after submit provide that ID
//
// IsCloseAfterSubmit:
// Do you want to opened popup close after submit , So pass=true or false any
//
// SuccessMessage:
// Give any Success message
public static MvcHtmlString StarkAjaxFormSubmiter(this HtmlHelper stark, string FormId, string DataTableId, bool IsCloseAfterSubmit, string SuccessMessage);
//
// Parameters:
// stark:
//
// FormId:
// Enter Here Form ID LIKE So you have to pass = frmCreate
//
// DataTableId:
// Which DataTable You have update after submit provide that ID
//
// IsCloseAfterSubmit:
// Do you want to opened popup close after submit , So pass=true or false any
//
// SuccessMessage:
// Give any Success message
//
// AfterSuccessCode:
// Add other JQuery code if you want
public static MvcHtmlString StarkAjaxFormSubmiter(this HtmlHelper stark, string FormId, string DataTableId, bool IsCloseAfterSubmit, string SuccessMessage, string AfterSuccessCode);
Thanks for our help
UPDATE:
I did some searching on the web and found a program called JetBrains dotPeek. I decompiled the dll and sure enough the messages are in there. So I should be able to change them and recompile it and add if I want, to it.

I was not able to edit the decompiled dll. So I decided to just create a class in the main project and copy the the code to that class. Changing what I needed. Where my trouble was, was with misspellings. The dll used Sumitted as the sb.Append("Sumitted") I changed that in the controller to be Submitted. So the dll did not find "Sumitted" in the action, and in the dll class there is an If statement that faults to error if not found - which was listed as Read Warnings Error. I changed that and fixed all the misspellings. I also got rid of the Something is went wrong and changed it to something more meaningful. I will continue to add to this to give more meaningful messages. It helps to know what the error is, instead of [object], [object]. I dont know if this will help others, maybe if they have downloaded the same code I have and have issues.

Firebase data - error converting value

I have posted question regarding firebase two days ago:
Android Firebase - add authenticated user into database
I got help that I needed and that solved first problem. But now I have a new problem. I was googling for quite some time, there are some posts about this issue but nothing solved my problem. I din't want to spam the previous question so I posted a new one.
When I try reading inserted data from the firebase database I get this error:
Newtonsoft.Json.JsonSerializationException: Error converting value
"test#user.com" to type 'carServiceApp.My_Classes.Account'. Path
'email', line 1, position 24.
Here is the code:
private async Task LoadData()
{
FirebaseUser users = FirebaseAuth.GetInstance(loginActivity.app).CurrentUser;
id = users.Uid;
var firebase = new FirebaseClient(loginActivity.FirebaseURL);
var items = await firebase.Child("users").Child(id).OnceAsync<Account>();
foreach (var item in items)
{
Account user = new Account();
user.uid = item.Object.uid;
user.name = item.Object.name;
user.lastName = item.Object.lastName;
user.phone = item.Object.phone;
user.email = item.Object.email;
userInput_ime.Text = user.name;
userInput_prezime.Text = user.lastName;
userInput_broj.Text = user.phone;
userInput_email.Text = user.email;
}
}
This is firebase data:
-users
-jwAP2dYNzJeiF3QlmEIEQoruUkO2
email: "test#user.com"
lastName: "user"
name: "test"
phone: "12421"
uid: "jwAP2dYNzJeiF3QlmEIEQoruUkO2"
Interesting thing is that when I try reading data with this:
var items = await firebase.Child("users").OnceAsync<Account>();
This works fine (I get last inserted user) . But when I add 'uid' node, then I get error. I was trying to solve this for quite some time but I just can't figure it out. I guess that there is no problem with the account class because it works in the case without uid node but doesn't work when another child() method is added.
Other information (Account class code and the way of storing that data into the database) you can see in the link at the top.
Note: I tried adding constructor in Account class but that doesn't help.

Ok, so I didn't exactly find a solution for this problem nor do I really understand why was this happening but I have found a workaround. I believe it's not ideal solution and that it does not fix existing problem. Or maybe it was problem with me not understanding firebase logic but here is what I came up with.
So, considering that it was all working fine if I didn't specify that uid node it was obvious there was some problem with class and data in firebase, matching problem I guess. Anyway, I decided to have that last uid node so I can have specific user selected and also to have the same data in firebase as it was in case where it was all working. So, this is how I have inserted data into firebase:
var item = firebase.Child("users").Child(id).PostAsync<Account>(user);
This created users node and child node. And PostAsync method created one more node with random key.
So when I tried reading with this:
var data = await firebase.Child("users").Child(id).OnceAsync<Account>();
It worked without problem. Now firebase data looks like this:
users
JPKdQbwcXbhBatZ2ihBNLRauhV83
-LCXyLpvdfQ448KOPKUp
email: "spider#man.com"
lastName: "man"
name: "spider"
phone: "14412"
uid: "JPKdQbwcXbhBatZ2ihBNLRauhV83"
There is a bit of redundancy, I basically have two ID's, but I don't understand how to create my class so I can get that data any other way so I made it this way. It works fine.
If anyone has better solution, I will gladly change it. Cheers

This was suppose to be a comment, but this is just suppose to be an addition for anyone that needs help with this issue.
I know that this answer has been out there for a while but this still seems to be a running structural quirk with Firebase and the usage of their rules. I ran into this issue with a complex structure that looked kind of like this
-Orders
-9876trfghji (User ID)
-0
BusnID: "ty890oihg"
Name: "Some Name"
AddOns: Object
ItemData: Object(containing other objects)
UserID: "9876trfghji"
Note: In this case as well as the case with cordas, you will see that both of the final objects has a UserID or uid.
I also was running into the issue of class de-serialization of the object without having the actual User ID in the objects data when it was being sent back to the device.
The reason that you have a “redundant” usage of the user id is for a security measure with the Firebase rules. The first UserID with the structure above you are able to control the access to the information based off of the users id without having to have an extra validation clause in the rules. Currently as of this post the the rule below would protect the data based on the User ID.
“Orders” : {
"$uid":{
".read":"auth != null",
".write":"auth.uid == $uid"
}
}
this allows the user with only the authorized user id to write content but anyone that has valid credentials can view the data.
The second User ID has to be placed in the object because without it you would not be able to do a standard cast to the object because your object would not have all of the data it would need to create the object. Regardless of if you are using a package like GoogleGson or Newtonsoft.Json the object still isn't full.
There is how ever a work around for this problem besides re-entering the User ID into the object. With the object that I have above I decided to just re-enter the User ID in my personal code to save the time and hassle of manual creation.
Using the Firebase.Database NuGet package you can manually create the object. Here is an example of the object in cordas problem
public static void GetUser_Firebase(User user, FirebaseApp app)
{
FirebaseDatabase database = FirebaseDatabase.GetInstance(app);
DatabaseReference reference = database.GetReference($"/users/{user.UserID}");
//"Using for getting firebase information", $"/users/{user.UserID}"
reference.AddListenerForSingleValueEvent(new UserInfo_DataValue());
}
class UserInfo_DataValue : Java.Lang.Object, IValueEventListener
{
private string ID;
public UserInfo_DataValue(string uid)
{
this.ID = uid;
}
public void OnCancelled(DatabaseError error)
{
//"Failed To Get User Information For User "
}
public void OnDataChange(DataSnapshot snapshot)
{
Dictionary<string, string> Map = new Dictionary<string, string>();
var items = snapshot.Children?.ToEnumerable<DataSnapshot>(); // using Linq
foreach(DataSnapshot item in items)
{
try
{
Map.Add(item.Key, item.Value.ToString()); // item.value is a Java.Lang.Object
}
catch(Exception ex)
{
//"EXCEPTION WITH DICTIONARY MAP"
}
}
User toReturn = new User();
toReturn.UserID this.ID;
foreach (var item in Map)
{
switch (item.Key)
{
case "email":
toReturn.email = item.Value;
break;
case "lastName":
toReturn.lastName = item.Value;
break;
case "name":
toReturn.name = item.Value;
break;
case "phone":
toReturn.phone = item.Value;
break;
}
}
}
}
Update
There is something that I would like to mention that I left out when I was writing this and that is the usage of Firebase.Database NuGet package with the Gson NuGet package and the Newtonsoft.Json Library
If you decide to use the FIrebase.Database library just know that you will be working very close with the Java.Lang and the Java.Util libraries. Objects like Java.Lang.Object can be very difficult and time consuming to write the code needed to de-serialize the data, but don't fear Gson is here!
The Gson package if you allow it can take a large load of work off of your hands for class de-serialization if you allow it. Gson is a library that will allow you to do Java.Lang.Obj to json string de-serialization. I know it seems weird, hand it an object get back a string sounds counter intuitive I know but just bear with me.
Here is an example of how to us the Gson Library with the object in cordas problem.
public static void Get_User(User user, FirebaseApp app)
{
FirebaseDatabase database = FirebaseDatabase.GetInstance(app);
DatabaseReference reference = database.GetReference($"Users/{user.UserID}");
reference.AddListenerForSingleValueEvent(new User_DataValue(user, app));
//$"Trying to make call for user orders Users/{user.UserID}");
}
class User_DataValue : Java.Lang.Object, IValueEventListener
{
private User User;
private FirebaseApp app;
public UserOrderID_Init_DataValue(User user, FirebaseApp app)
{
this.User = user;
this.app = app;
}
public void OnCancelled(DatabaseError error)
{
//$"Failed To Get User Orders {error.Message}");
}
public void OnDataChange(DataSnapshot snapshot)
{
//"Data received for user orders");
var gson = new GsonBuilder().SetPrettyPrinting().Create();
var json = gson.ToJson(snapshot.Value); // Gson extention method obj -> string
Formatted_Output("Data received for user order json ", json);
User user = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<User>(json); //Newtonsoft.Json extention method string -> object
//now the user is a fully populated object with very little work
}
For anyone that might run into this in the future I hope that this helps

Simple password validation c# MVC

I'm making a simple news feed where i enter a new item from a form hidden on a url that i manually need to type in (no account functionality). But i wanted a additional line of defense if the form is found so i added a password field so if the password match the preset i have then the form saves the data in to a xml file.
Now the question is, whats the best practice here to make that validation and where do i put the password?
At the moment my code looks like this:
[HttpPost]
[ValidateAntiForgeryToken()]
public ActionResult AddPost(AddPostModel model)
{
if (ModelState.IsValid && model.Password == "MyPassword")
{
AddPostModel.AddPostToXML(model);
}
return RedirectToAction("Index");
}
The thing is that its a small site and at worst they add news item that should not be there. So do i need to take additional precautions or is it secure enough for what its supposed to protect?
Since i'm quite new i don't have a lot of experience in security so any guidelines or what to keep in mind would also be much appreciated.
Thanks!

After some discussion i settled on having a hashed password in the web.config that i then check against to see if the password is the right one. Then during the check i just hash the entered password with the same function and check if its a match.
Here is the class i built if any one else is looking for something similar. =)
public class Security
{
public static bool ValidatePassword(string password)
{
string hashValue = HashPassword(password);
if (hashValue == ConfigurationManager.AppSettings["password"])
{
return true;
}
return false;
}
private static string HashPassword(string passwordToHash)
{
HashAlgorithm hash = new SHA256Managed();
byte[] plainTextBytes = System.Text.Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(passwordToHash);
byte[] hashBytes = hash.ComputeHash(plainTextBytes);
//in this string you got the encrypted password
return Convert.ToBase64String(hashBytes);
}
}

I found useful link that might help you to have an idea about customising the security level http://www.c-sharpcorner.com/uploadfile/jitendra1987/password-validator-in-C-Sharp/
Have you looked at the Ajax toolkits!? They have good mechanisms to setup your first line of security defence i.e. length of password, adding complexity and other features. Please have a look at: http://www.ajaxcontroltoolkit.com/PasswordStrength/PasswordStrength.aspx

Get Search Queries from UrlReferer

I'm developing a website in ASP.Net 4. One of the requirements is to log search queries that people use to find our website. So, assuming that a URL parameter named "q" is present in Referrer, I've written the following code in my MasterPage's Page_Load:
if (!CookieHelper.HasCookie("mywebsite")) CookieHelper.CreateSearchCookie();
And my CookieHelper class is like this:
public class CookieHelper
{
public static void CreateSearchCookie()
{
if (HttpContext.Current.Request.UrlReferrer != null)
{
if (HttpContext.Current.Request.UrlReferrer.Query != null)
{
string q = HttpUtility.ParseQueryString(HttpContext.Current.Request.UrlReferrer.Query).Get("q");
if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(q))
{
HttpCookie adcookie = new HttpCookie("mywebsite");
adcookie.Value = q;
adcookie.Expires = DateTime.Now.AddYears(1);
HttpContext.Current.Response.Cookies.Add(adcookie);
}
}
}
}
public static bool HasCookie(string cookiename)
{
return (HttpContext.Current.Request.Cookies[cookiename] != null);
}
}
It seems ok at the first glance. I created a page to mimic a link from Google and worked like a charm. But it doesn't work on the host server. The reason is that when you search blah blah you see something like www.google.com/?q=blah+blah in your browser address bar. You expect clicking on your link in the results, will redirect to your site and you can grab the "q" parameter. But ,unfortunately, it is not true! Google, first redirects you to an address like:
http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CCgQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.mywebsite.com%2F&ei=cks5Uof4G-aX0QXKhIGoCA&usg=AFQjCNEdmmYFpeRRRBiT_MGH5a1x9wUUlg&bvm=bv.52288139,d.d2k&cad=rja
and this will redirect to your website. As you can see the "q" parameter is empty this time! And my code gets an empty string and actually doesn't create the cookie (or whatever).
I need to know if there is a way to solve this problem and get the real "q" value. The real search term user typed to find my website. Does anybody know how to solve this?

Google stopped passing the search keyword:
http://www.searchenginepeople.com/blog/what-googles-keyword-data-grab-means-and-five-ways-around-it.html

C# MVC NerdDinner authorization helper method problem

I'm currently going through the ASP.NET MVC NerdDinner tutorial and am having a problem with a particular helper method related to user authorization. The idea is that only users who "own" a particular dinner should be able to edit or delete it (based on the Dinner object's HostedBy property).
I have the following method in my Dinner object:
public partial class Dinner {
public bool IsHostedBy(string userName) {
return HostedBy.Equals(userName, StringComparison.InvariantCultureIgnoreCase);
}
// other stuff removed for brevity
}
and in my View I'm trying to show/hide links based on whether the logged in user is the dinner's host:
<% if (Model.IsHostedBy(Context.User.Identity.Name)) { %>
<%= Html.ActionLink("Edit Dinner", "Edit", new { id = Model.DinnerID })%>
|
<%= Html.ActionLink("Delete Dinner", "Delete", new { id = Model.DinnerID })%>
<% } %>
The problem is that IsHostedBy() never returns true. I've written User.Identity.Name and Dinner.HostedBy to the screen to verify they're the same, but the method still returns false. I'm uncertain how to track down the problem.
I'm new to both C# and ASP.NET MVC, so it's very likely I'm missing something easy. Any help is appreciated and I'd be happy to post more information if it's needed.

While I'm at it I may as well write the Answer.
Check for errent spaces in the two strings.

I'm guessing that HostedBy and userName aren't actually the same string!
Some debugging ideas:
1st) Try forcing it to always return true:
public bool IsHostedBy(string userName) {
return true;
}
If this lets you return true back into the view, at least you can know that the code you're writing in the IsHostedBy method is being executed.
2nd) Add a console-out to see for yourself if the two strings are indeed equal:
public bool IsHostedBy(string userName) {
Console.WriteLine("userName: {0} / HostedBy: {1}", userName, HostedBy);
return true;
}
This will help you inspect the values of these items. Or you could just set a breakpoint at the return statement and see what they are as well.