I'm in progress of optimizing a ASP.NET site by storing commonly used database objects in a cache and I'm wondering what are good tools to manage the cache?
I found http://aspalliance.com/cachemanager/ which seem pretty cool, but old? Also I have to install this in the webapp itself. I'd prefer an external tool? What else is out there?
(I also found Visual Studio 2005 add-in "Cache Visualizer" but download page http://blog.bretts.net is broken?)
Is there any way to access one webapps's Cache from other webapp running on the same server?
For example a typical object in my cache is the "type of user" (individual, company, student, etc.) that is pretty much static data. But once every year I might update this table and add a value. This is done in our admin app. Is there any way the admin app can access and invalidate "type of user" cache in the public app? (Without restarting the entire app).
I've looked at SqlCacheDependency but this won't work for us in this case.
The Cache is specific to an AppDomain so if you have more than one Web Application neither can access the other's Cache.
You might want to look into external cache arrangements such as Memcached, redis or perhaps even ASP.NET State Server.
You can still find the download for brett's visualizers using the internet wayback machine.
http://web.archive.org/web/20060512123557/http://blog.bretts.net/wp-content/uploads/2006/03/Johnson.Visualizers.zip
Related
In code, we're referencing "athirdpartydomain.com"
Page.Response.Redirect("www.athirdpartydomain.com");
However, the owners of "athirdpartydomain.com" have decided to change their domain. This will involved a fairly considerable amount of work for us eventually, and they're letting the domain go completely.
We will of course change it in time, but I'm wondering if there's a quicker way to do this. Like changing something on the server to make sure all requests to "athirdpartydomain.com" all go to "theirnewdomain.com"
Considering you're using .NET, I can imagine you're also using IIS and, so, you can do this using IIS Redirects. NB, this will only work if you're hosting www.athirdpartydomain.com and have access to the IIS on that server.
You can learn how to do this here: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/313074
In .net you can't do that, but yes you can do that using cpanel of that domain.
You have to open that domain with admin login.
and you have to set "a name" or "a point" to particular server where you wants to redirect to site when some one browse the site this will redirect to particular site without load of that site.
Is there any way to specify a permanent port for ASP.NET Configuration site (Web Site Administration Tool)?
I need to add a link to the ASP.NET Configuration site, but I can't due to the port changing each time it starts.
Its the port for ASP.NET Development server
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms178109.aspx
I'm not sure that you can.
The Web Site Administration Tool isn't really meant to be "linked" to as such, it's a fairly powerful, unsecured application, that's only really meant to be run by a developer/admin.
The "Considerations" section of the documentation explain why:
The following sections provide some considerations for working with the Web Site Administration Tool.
Restarting the Application When Saving
Most changes to configuration settings that you make in the Web Site Administration Tool take effect immediately. This requires the Web site to which the change applies to be restarted. Because this will cause currently active sessions in the Web site to be lost, you should make configuration changes to a staged or development version of the Web site before publishing these changes to the production server.
Saving Your Settings
Most changes to configuration settings that you make in the Web Site Administration Tool take effect immediately. For settings for which the Web Site Administration Tool interface has a dedicated Save button, leaving the Web Site Administration Tool idle or allowing the Web Site Administration Tool to time out before you click Save will cause your configuration settings changes to be lost.
Time Out
As a security measure, the Web Site Administration Tool times out after a period of inactivity. Any settings that did not take effect immediately and were not saved will be lost. If the Web Site Administration Tool has timed out, close your browser, and then reopen the Web Site Administration Tool in a new window.
The Web Site Administration Tool manages only some of the configuration settings that are available to the Web site. Many other settings require direct modification of configuration files either manually, by using the MMC Snap-In for ASP.NET, or programmatically, by using the ASP.NET Configuration API.
From that you can see that this isn't something that's intended to be kept around.
That said, with a little bit of hacking around, you could probably shoot yourself in the foot achieve what you're after:
If you right click on the ASP.NET Development server task tray item for the admin tool, and select "Show Details", you can see that the virtual directory that the tool runs under is mapped to (something like):
C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v4.0.30319\asp.netwebadminfiles\
If you were to create (and secure) a virtual directory on your application mapped to that path, you might well be able to get this all up and running as you want.
As pseudocoder points out in his comment below, while going down the Virtual Directory route does "work", there are some limitations to the tool that, coupled with the security issues mean that you probably wouldn't want to use it going forward.
If you were to stick with the Development Server option, the tool won't respond to non-local requests, and once you've deployed the site to a proper web server (IIS) for users to access the Admin site won't be running anyway.
It would probably be better if you could explain why you want to use this permanently so we can advise you on some better options - for example the Membership, Profile and Role providers both provide nice APIs for managing user details that can be easily built into a custom admin area.
Tricky one, however I think to get this working correctly, you're going to have to spend some time doing something, and it's probably better for you in the long run to spend that time doing the right thing rather than hacking in the wrong option.
The Development server can be started from a command line, using a commands along the lines of:
call "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 9.0\vc\vcvarsall.bat"
"C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\DevServer\9.0\WebDev.WebServer.exe" /port:3900 /path:"PATHSITE" /vpath:"PathSite"
The first line sets up the CMD instance to use the variables and path settings needed to run most of the Dev tooling
You'll want to change the path to the DevServer as appropriate for your environment (mine's in \10.0\ for example, and has a 2.0 and 4.0 version).
Armed with this information, you could do something along the lines of:
Add a link to your site to a page called /StartAdmin.aspx or similar.
In that page, you would then need to have the logic to:
Check through the running processes for the instance of the DevServer that was previously used to host the Admin site.
Close that process down.
Spool up another instance of the DevServer with a known port, pointing to the path for the WebAdmin Site.
Redirect the user to this new site.
All of which is possible, but it's not trivial, and you'll find you'll need to be doing odd things with the process your starting, and you'll need to be very careful you don't shut down the instance of the DevServer that's actually running your site by mistake.
However, this would probably take as long as it would to knock up a quick set of user admin screens, and you'd learn something more useful along the way*
* Which isn't to say that learning how to start and leave running a process isn't useful, it's more to say that I'm guessing its not what you're supposed to be learning at the moment, and you should probably be focusing on that ;)
I am building a very simple asp.net application that will have a SQL Server 2008 backend.
Some users will be entering data and storing in the database and some users will be viewing data.
The SQL Server 2008 is working with Windows authentication for every user; however, I am unable to get ASP.NET working with Windows authentication yet. Is there a simple way to allow windows authentication with ASP.NET? I found a very convoluted way, but I don't like it.
I will need to audit every action that the users perform.
Should I audit the users at the application level or at the SQL Server level?
Are there already built in methods to do this? If so, how?
On the contrary, I have always found Windows Authentication to be quite easy to set up and relatively painless. Here's some guides:
Setting up
More Setting up
I didn't realize that you could audit what users did at the ASP.NET level. My answer would be to use SQL Server for this one. You'd need to log:
timestamps and user name for every action
do you need to log workstation or location where the actions were performed?
can users go to mul
if multiple locations use this application, consider storing UTC time only
all actions, even deletes, which mean that delete's only get "hidden" from the user, but never erased from the database. Same for edits, the old record should never be changed or taken out of the database.
Your best bet here is to talk to your boss about this one. Auditors can have very specific needs, and you definitely don't want to forget anything. Every situation is different, so be sure to sit down and double check all your requirements and specifications.
Two things:
Here is example on Win auth on asp.net app:
http://weblogs.asp.net/scottgu/archive/2006/07/12/Recipe_3A00_-Enabling-Windows-Authentication-within-an-Intranet-ASP.NET-Web-application.aspx
I suggest you implement a log framework like log4net to log your application. It's simple and easy to use http://logging.apache.org/log4net/download.html
I would do this from the application if it is significant HOW people accessed the data as much as the WHO, but that's quite different from rlb.usa's answer. In my past jobs, it's often been as important to know which application the person changed data from as when/who. If it's primarily for application issues, log4net is a good option.
I am going to write up a webapp hosted on a windows 2003 server to allow me to connect to local and remote servers to do some basic things.
The webapp will be hosted on serverA. It will need to be able to copy files/folders from one folder to another on this server.
It will need to be able to connect to ServerB and copy files in the same way, e.g. copy \serverB\path\to\sourcefiles to \serverB\path\to\destinationfiles
ServerB hosts an installation of MSSQL 2008, I want to be able to create new database/login etc.
How do I go about this please? I've been reading a bit about Windows Authentication, Impersonation, Delegation but i don't know where to focus on.
thanks
S
To be honest there isn't really a one size fits all complete answer to your question, however there are a number of things that you need to take into consideration early in development to ensure that your platform is built on solid foundations.
From the description you have given the most critical consideration has to be security and everything you develop has to have this at its core. Judging by your post if the wrong person was to access your front end then they could wreak havoc.
As for the model to use, I would suggest Windows Authentication as this is built into the framework and gives you the ability to segregate into usergroups with differing levels of access. It will also open up some of the functionality you need, i.e. network copy of files etc
As for the database management aspect, this again can easily be done via Windows Authentication as you can grant (in SQL) windows users the ability to perform certain tasks, i.e. Create Database, Create Login, drop x, etc
All this said, it of course assumes that the two servers share user credentials, i.e. domain controller etc.
Another method, would be to use the web "interface" as a pass through onto a WCF service that operates under a specific user account that has the access you need. You would then seperately manage authentication/authorisation in a manner that you decide.
Like I said, no simple one size answer - but hopefully this will give you something to chew on.
If your goal is to create new databases or logins, why can't you use the create database and create login commands?
I am using sharepoint solely as a repository to store and retrieve large files (~100 MBs). How can I authenticate a web application such that it can upload and download files to a document list on Sharepoint 2007 without using Windows intergrated authentication?
The web application will handle the authorization - it'll figure out which users are allowed to access the repository via integrated windows authentication and a bunch of business rules that depend on the application's state. When the user wants a file they will use the web app. The web app will then download that file on the user's behalf using some sort of credentials. I prefer that these credentials be somewhat permanent so it's password doesn't expire every so often. I was thinking of using basic authentication because the files that I'm access controlling aren't high valued files (so its poor security is tolerable), and it seems to be the simplest. What are my options?
I wouldn't recommend using SharePoint for this at all. Its value comes from the features it provides through its user interface. If you remove this then you are looking at an expensive and over-complicated data store.
SharePoint stores all data in a database. Storage for databases is more expensive than storage for files. It's more costly to configure, administer, backup, load balance, scale, etc...
Development time is more costly with SharePoint. It's a big and complex product that's not trivial or quick to develop against. There needs to be a solid business case and using SharePoint for its back end only isn't a good one.
Please seriously consider this approach before going down it!
You are better off just enabling windows auth on your web application and then setting the permissions to the folders/files.
If you do need to get just the files however...go to www.codeplex.com and search for sharepoint powershell. There is a script there to upload stuff. This could be modified to download I believe.
As mentioned above, using SharePoint as a repository pretty much nullifies any of its benefits. You might as well just use a database to store your content (that's what SharePoint is doing behind the scenes anyway.)