Network Programming in .NET

Say you wanted to get an access token for facebook from a desktop app, but don’t want to display the normal facebook login screen. – and you somehow know the user’s facebook username and password  – then this approach might help you get the access token you need;

first, you need to set up a facebook app, and get the client_id

public void GetAccessToken(Action<string,string> Callback)
{
this.Callback = Callback;
string strUrl = “https://www.facebook.com/dialog/oauth?&#8221;;
strUrl += “type=user_agent&”;
strUrl += “client_id=xxxx&”;
strUrl += “redirect_uri=xxxxx”;
this.webBrowser1.DocumentCompleted += WebBrowser1OnDocumentCompleted;
this.webBrowser1.Navigate(strUrl);
}

Here, I’m assuming you have a windows form, with a web browser control called webBrowser1 – redirect_uri has to be whatever was configured in the facebook app, but other than that, it doesn’t matter.

then we fill out the username / password and click the login burron on Document completed;

private void WebBrowser1OnDocumentCompleted(object sender, WebBrowserDocumentCompletedEventArgs webBrowserDocumentCompletedEventArgs)
{
if (webBrowser1.Url.Host == “<domain>”)
{
var variables = HttpUtility.ParseQueryString(webBrowser1.Url.Fragment);
var access_token = variables[“#access_token”];
var expires_in = variables[“expires_in”];
Callback(access_token, expires_in);
}
else
{
var strJs1 = @”document.getElementsByName(’email’)[0].value ='” + strUsername + “‘”;
var strJs2 = @”document.getElementsByName(‘pass’)[0].value = ‘” + strPassword + “‘”;
var strJs3 = @”document.getElementsByName(‘login’)[0].click()”;
SendJs(strJs1);
SendJs(strJs2);
SendJs(strJs3);
}
}

SendJS is defined as follows;

protected string SendJs(string jScript)
{
object[] args = { jScript };
var strReturn = webBrowser1.Document == null ? “” : webBrowser1.Document.InvokeScript(“eval”, args);
System.Diagnostics.Debug.WriteLine(jScript);
System.Diagnostics.Debug.WriteLine(strReturn);
return strReturn == null ? “” : strReturn.ToString();
}

You’ll also need the following global variables

public string strUsername = “<email>”;
public string strPassword = “<password>”;

public Action<string, string> Callback;

Hope this helps someone out!

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

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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?&#8221;;

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=&#8221; + 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();
}