Network Programming in .NET

Here’s a tool that you can use to track the location (lat/lon) of someone via their email account:

http://howto.findpeoplefree.co.uk

Offline Adverts.com is an advertising platform for apps that is designed to work specifically when the user’s device is offline, and not connected to the Internet. This is where most ad platforms just show an empty space, this backup solution allows you to fill that unused ad space with a paid ad.

As an advertiser, it lets you gain brand exposure, even for a fraction of the cost of the mainstream ad networks.

Want to find out more? visit – OfflineAdverts.com

If you want to show a map in your Phonegap app, you can always use the google maps API to show a map, or even use the in-app browser to link out to a google map page. But nothing quite matches the Google maps native app, with it’s funky satnav-like features, and slick interface

Thing is, the Google Maps App isn’t installed by default, so in this case, I’m failing-over to a in-App Browser version. This code is iOS only, but anyone wishing to provide a port to Android will be rewarded* (Yes, I’d pay for the port)

– (void) openGoogleMaps:(CDVInvokedUrlCommand *)command

{

NSLog(@”openGoogleMaps”);

NSString* callbackId = [command callbackId];

NSArray* arguments = [command arguments];

NSString* map = [arguments objectAtIndex:0];

CDVPluginResult* result;

NSURL *testURL = [NSURL URLWithString:@”comgooglemaps://”];

if ([[UIApplication sharedApplication] canOpenURL:testURL]) {

NSString *directionsRequest = [NSString stringWithFormat:@”%@%@”,

@”comgooglemaps://?” ,

map];

NSURL *directionsURL = [NSURL URLWithString:directionsRequest];

[[UIApplication sharedApplication] openURL:directionsURL];

result = [CDVPluginResult

resultWithStatus:CDVCommandStatus_OK

messageAsBool:true];

} else {

NSLog(@”Can’t use comgooglemaps:// on this device.”);

result = [CDVPluginResult

resultWithStatus:CDVCommandStatus_OK

messageAsBool:false];

}

[self success:result callbackId:callbackId];

}

Then, this is called from Javascript as follows:

function openGoogleMaps(route)

{

console.log(“openGoogleMaps”);

cordova.exec(function(data)

{

console.log(“Returned from google maps:” + data);

if (!data)

{

// Failed to find native app.

var strUrl = “http://maps.google.com/maps?”;

strUrl += route;

var ref = window.open(strUrl, “_blank”, “location=yes”);

}

}, function(data)

{

console.log(“Plugin failure”);

}, ‘StatusBar’, ‘openGoogleMaps’, [route]);

}

This code example is probably online a million times, but just to include it again here;

string existingBucketName = “mybucket”;
string filePath = @”c:\users\you\desktop\file.png”;
Amazon.Util.ProfileManager.RegisterProfile(“test”, “xxxxx”,”XXXX”);
AWSCredentials credentials = new StoredProfileAWSCredentials(“test”);
IAmazonS3 s3Client = new AmazonS3Client(credentials, RegionEndpoint.EUWest1);
TransferUtility fileTransferUtility = new TransferUtility(s3Client);
var uploadRequest = new TransferUtilityUploadRequest
{

FilePath = filePath,
BucketName = existingBucketName,
CannedACL = S3CannedACL.PublicRead
};
fileTransferUtility.Upload(uploadRequest);

This is a quick demo of how to use the iTunes API to extract the hi-res icon of any iOS app;

WebClient wc = new WebClient();
string strUrl = @”http://itunes.apple.com/search?term=” + HttpUtility.UrlEncode(tbSearch.Text) + “&entity=iPadSoftware”;
string strHtml = wc.DownloadString(strUrl);
const string strArtRegex = “artworkUrl100.:\”(.*?)\””;
Match mArt = Regex.Match(strHtml, strArtRegex);
string Url = mArt.Groups[1].Value;
imgArtwork.Src = Url;

This assumes a user interface somewhat like this:

<asp:TextBox runat=”server” ID=”tbSearch”></asp:TextBox>
<asp:Button runat=”server” ID=”btnSearch” OnClick=”btnSearchClick” Text=”Search”/>
<br/>
<img id=”imgArtwork” runat=”server”/>

Hope this helps someone.

If you want to make noise on twitter, favouriting people’s tweets does draw a little attention, so I decided to try to do this automatically, to see if I could build followers.- Here is the code I used in C# (authentication details removed) – you need a reference to TweetSharp

var service = new TwitterService(“########”, “######”);
service.AuthenticateWith(“###”, “#####”);
TwitterSearchResult res = service.Search(new SearchOptions { Q = args[0], Count = 100});
IEnumerable<TwitterStatus> status = res.Statuses;
foreach (var tweet in status)
{
Console.WriteLine(tweet.Text);
service.FavoriteTweet(new FavoriteTweetOptions{Id = tweet.Id});
}

It takes a command line argument, which it uses as a search term, so you can favourite tweets that are relevant.

And, hey if you want to follow me, please go to: https://twitter.com/webtropy

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2014 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

The concert hall at the Sydney Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 50,000 times in 2014. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 19 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.

Click here to see the complete report.

You need to make a reference to the COM library “Microsoft Shell controls and automation”

[STAThread]
public static void Main(string[] args)
{
List<string> arrHeaders = new List<string>();

Shell32.Shell shell = new Shell32.Shell();
var strFileName = @”C:\Users\Fiach\Desktop\sample_iTunes.mov”;
Shell32.Folder objFolder = shell.NameSpace(System.IO.Path.GetDirectoryName(strFileName));
Shell32.FolderItem folderItem = objFolder.ParseName(System.IO.Path.GetFileName(strFileName));

for (int i = 0; i < short.MaxValue; i++)
{
string header = objFolder.GetDetailsOf(null, i);
if (String.IsNullOrEmpty(header))
break;
arrHeaders.Add(header);
}

for (int i = 0; i < arrHeaders.Count; i++)
{
Console.WriteLine(“{0}\t{1}: {2}”, i, arrHeaders[i], objFolder.GetDetailsOf(folderItem, i));
}
Console.ReadLine();
}

$url = ‘https://posttestserver.com/post.php&#8217;;
$data = array(‘key1’ => ‘value1’, ‘key2’ => ‘value2’);

// use key ‘http’ even if you send the request to https://&#8230;
$options = array(
‘http’ => array(
‘header’ => “Content-type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded\r\n”,
‘method’ => ‘POST’,
‘content’ => http_build_query($data),
),
);
$context = stream_context_create($options);
$result = file_get_contents($url, false, $context);
echo($result);

—- And the cool thing is that posttestserver.com lets you see what you posted to it. cool service!