Category Archives: dotNet

ASP.net Sending mail using gmail

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In order to send mail using a gmail address this can be used:

In Web.config

	<system.net>
		<mailSettings>
			<smtp from="myemail@gmail.com" deliveryMethod="Network">
				<network
					defaultCredentials="true"
					host="smtp.gmail.com"
					port="587"
					enableSsl="true" />
			</smtp>
		</mailSettings>
	</system.net>

And then in the code (in this case C# is used)

SmtpClient smtpClient = new SmtpClient();
smtpClient.UseDefaultCredentials = true; //reads the settings from web.config
smtpClient.Credentials = new System.Net.NetworkCredential("myemail@gmail.com", "mypassword");
//and then send the message
smtpClient.Send(mailMessage);

Or if you don’t wish to save any settings in web.config

string host = "smtp.gmail.com";
int port = 587;
SmtpClient smtpClient = new SmtpClient(host, port);
smtpClient.UseDefaultCredentials = false;
smtpClient.EnableSsl = true;
smtpClient.Credentials = new System.Net.NetworkCredential("myemail@gmail.com", "mypassword");
//and then send the message contained in mailMessage
smtpClient.Send(mailMessage);

SmtClient at msdn
It might also be interesting to read up on mailmessage

C# parsing through Outlook Calendar items

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This code sample will simply parse through all Calendar Items and let us do something with them.
Note: Be aware of what is done here, if there are Items in the Calender with infinite reccurrences (no end date) then this will take forever to parse, so make sure something in the loop causes a break at some point.

	//using the Microsoft Outlook 12 Object library (Microsoft.Office.Interop.Outlook)
	using Microsoft.Office.Interop.Outlook
 
	Microsoft.Office.Interop.Outlook.Application oApp = new Microsoft.Office.Interop.Outlook.Application();
	Microsoft.Office.Interop.Outlook.NameSpace mapiNamespace= oApp.GetNamespace("MAPI"); ;
	Microsoft.Office.Interop.Outlook.MAPIFolder CalendarFolder= mapiNamespace.GetDefaultFolder(Microsoft.Office.Interop.Outlook.OlDefaultFolders.olFolderCalendar);
	Microsoft.Office.Interop.Outlook.Items outlookCalendarItems = CalendarFolder.Items;
 
	outlookCalendarItems.Sort("Start");
	//include recurring events (just a "normal" events i.e once per time it occurs)
	//Have to Sort by Start before setting IncludeRecurrences.
	outlookCalendarItems.IncludeRecurrences = true;
	foreach (Outlook.AppointmentItem item in outlookCalendarItems)
	{
		//Do something with the item
	}

Hiding routevalues when using RedirectToAction – ie don’t show GET params after using RedirectToAction

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When we simply try and do a RedirectToAction and simply passes along a model with this then the model is serialized and sent as GET parameters to the next page. This happens because the RedicrectToAction simply returns a HTTP 302 code witch tells the browser to get the next page. If this is not what you want (perhaps you don’t wish to show the user the parameters or allow user modification), or perhaps you wish to pass along some object or similar.

One way around this is to store the data for the next Action in TempData and re-read it in the next action.

public ActionResult Index(MyModel myModel)
{
    TempData["MyModel"] = myModel;
    return RedirectToAction("NextStep", "MyController");
}
 
public ActionResult NextStep(MyModel myModel)
{
    myModel = TempData["MyModel"] as MyModel ?? myModel;
    return View(myModel);
}

system.web.mvc.controller.redirecttoaction at msdn

MVC3 check what url was called (regardless of server/interface)

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In some cases there is a need to check if the url that is used to access a page corresponds to what we expect.

This can be done like this

if ( Request.RawUrl.ToString() == Url.Action("LogOut", "Account") ){
    //The url of the action was used to access this page (and no extra GET parameters or anything hinkey) - and any servername/ip we listen to was used
}

This differs from getting the URI in the way that this is the RawUrl is only the part after the server (so for http://example.com/url/to/stuffs RawUrl would contain /url/to/stuffs where the URI would contain details about how the user got there.

system.web.httprequest.rawurl at msdn

Adding htmlattributes to a ActionLink

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To add htmlattributes to a ActionLink might be needed for instance for the layout of the page.

@Html.ActionLink("Link text", "action", "Controller", null, new {style="float:left"})
//Adding a css class (need the @sign as class is a keyword for the compiler). It is also possible to use a Capitol C in Class but then it fails some validations.
@Html.ActionLink("Link text", "action", "Controller", null, new {@class="myCssClassName"})
 
//the syntax for the Html.ActionLink (used in this example is)
public static MvcHtmlString ActionLink(
	string linkText,
	string actionName,
	string controllerName,
	RouteValueDictionary routeValues,
	IDictionary<string, Object> htmlAttributes
)

C# MVC# create a URI from a Url.Action

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Sometimes the need arises to create a URI object instead of just a link. This can be done by using Url.Action.

new Uri(Url.Action("action", "controller", null, Request.Url.Scheme))
 
//definitions 
public Uri(
	string uriString
)
 
public string Action(
	string actionName,
	string controllerName,
	Object routeValues,
	string protocol
)

Specifying what area an ActionLink should use

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Using routevalues you can tell the html helper what area you want to create a action link to.

//create a link that will go to AreaName
Html.ActionLink("Link Text", "ActionName", "ControllerName", new { Area = "AreaName" }, new{})
//Default area (= no area)
Html.ActionLink("Link Text", "ActionName", "ControllerName", new { Area = "" }, new{})
 
//create a link that will go to AreaName and with some htmlAttributes
Html.ActionLink("Link Text", "ActionName", "ControllerName", new { Area = "AreaName" }, new{@class="myCssClass"})
 
 
//Definition
public static MvcHtmlString ActionLink(
	string linkText,
	string actionName,
	string controllerName,
	RouteValueDictionary routeValues,
	IDictionary<string, Object> htmlAttributes
)

asp.net C# Url.Action with routevalues

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Using routevales you can change area and/or pass parameters on to the link you wish to hit.

//"normal" Url.Action - creates a link in the area where it is called from (and don't pass any values along)
<a href="@Url.Action("action", "controller")" class="myCssClass">link text</a>
//Url.Action with a that links to another area (area name or empty for the default area); also sets the category to shoes and it passes along the id that this view has.
<a href="@Url.Action("action", "controller", new { Area = "", id = Model.id, category="shoes"})" class="myCssClass">link text</a>

MVC3 Getting the URI in a controller

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If there is a need to get the URI that the was used to reach the controller then the Request holds that information and it can be retrieved to a URI object

public ActionResult MyAction()
{
    var uri = Request.Url;
    var port = uri.Port;
    var absoluteUri = uri.AbsoluteUri
 
    //... do things here
 
    return View();    
}