Hook up C# with Windows Sharepoint Services (WSS) tutorial

Posted by stratosg in C#, Sharepoint, Tutorials on Dec 22nd, 2009 | 2 comments

In this small tutorial i shall demonstrate how to hook up C# to use the Windows Sharepoint Services API (WSS). It’s fairly simple and straightforward. You need the following:

  1. A machine running Windows server 2003/08 with Sharepoint installed.
  2. Microsoft Visual Studio 2005.
  3. About 15 minutes.

For the purposes of this example, we will create a small console application that will list all the sites of a Sharepoint site. First of open Visual Studio and create a new Visual C# console application. Next step is adding the reference to the WSS API on our project. To do so, you can go on the explorer window, right click on the “References” and click “Add Reference…”. On the window that will show up choose “Windows Sharepoint Services” dll from the .NET packages.

Once this step is done, off to the code:

  1. using System;
  2. using System.Collections.Generic;
  3. using System.Text;
  4. using Microsoft.SharePoint;
  5.  
  6. namespace TestApp
  7. {
  8.     class Program
  9.     {
  10.         static void Main(string[] args)
  11.         {
  12.             SPSite root = new SPSite("http://testsite");//this is the URL to the sharepoint site we want to connect to
  13.             foreach (SPWeb site in root.AllWebs)//looping through the collection of the sites
  14.             {
  15.                 Console.WriteLine(site.Name);
  16.             }
  17.             Console.ReadLine();
  18.         }
  19.     }
  20. }

From here on, sky is the limit! You can view a documentation of the WSS API here.

How to use bindings in the backing beans in ADF 10g

Posted by stratosg in Tutorials on Dec 21st, 2009 | 0 comments

This is a follow up to the original post about acquiring a bindings object in backing beans in ADF. Some have had the question, how to use the bindings for standard operations in the backing beans. Hence this post!

The answer is – easy. As soon as you’ve got the bindings (oracle.binding.BindingContainer object) instance, you can do a lot of interesting stuff with it.

Always keep in mind, that it represents the page definition, meaning that it “contains” whatever the pageDef does.

Create a class like the following one:

  1. import oracle.adfinternal.view.faces.model.binding.FacesCtrlActionBinding;
  2. import javax.faces.application.FacesMessage;
  3. import javax.faces.context.FacesContext;
  4. import javax.faces.el.ValueBinding;
  5. import oracle.adf.model.binding.DCBindingContainer;
  6. import oracle.binding.BindingContainer;
  7. import oracle.jbo.Transaction;
  8. import oracle.jbo.domain.Number;
  9. import oracle.jbo.server.ApplicationModuleImpl;
  10. import oracle.jbo.uicli.binding.JUIteratorBinding;
  11.  
  12. public class ADFUtils {
  13.  
  14. private BindingContainer bindings; //this is mainly used to store bindings, but in fact its just an implementation of java.util.Map
  15. private DCBindingContainer dcBindings; //whilst this class gives much more control over the bindings
  16. private FacesContext ctx;
  17. private static Utils instance;
  18. private Transaction transaction;
  19.  
  20. public ADFUtils(BindingContainer bindings) {
  21. this.bindings = bindings;
  22. this.ctx = FacesContext.getCurrentInstance();
  23. ValueBinding vb = this.ctx.getApplication().createValueBinding("#{bindings}");
  24. this.dcBindings = (DCBindingContainer) vb.getValue(this.ctx);
  25. this.transaction = dcBindings.getDataControl().getApplicationModule().getTransaction();
  26. }
  27.  
  28. public Object resolveExpresssion(String expression) {
  29. Object obj = this.bindings.get(expression);
  30. return obj;
  31. }
  32.  
  33. public JUIteratorBinding resolveIterator(String iterName) {
  34. JUIteratorBinding iter = (JUIteratorBinding)this.getBindings().get(iterName);
  35. return iter;
  36. }
  37.  
  38. public FacesCtrlActionBinding resolveAction(String actionName) {
  39. FacesCtrlActionBinding action = (FacesCtrlActionBinding) this.getBindings().get(actionName);
  40. return action;
  41. }
  42.  
  43. public void resolveActionAndExecute(String actionName) {
  44. FacesCtrlActionBinding action = resolveAction(actionName);
  45. action.execute();
  46. }
  47.  
  48. public JUIteratorBinding executeActionAndGetIterator(String actionName) {
  49. FacesCtrlActionBinding action = resolveAction(actionName);
  50. action.execute();
  51. JUIteratorBinding iter = action.getIteratorBinding();
  52. return iter;
  53. }
  54.  
  55. /*
  56. * This affects only the application module the bindings object belongs to.
  57. */
  58. public void globalCommit() throws Exception {
  59. if (transaction.isDirty()) {
  60. transaction.commit();
  61. System.out.println("Changes have been committed");
  62. }
  63. else {
  64. System.err.println("No unmodified data to commit");
  65. }
  66. }
  67.  
  68. /*
  69. * This affects only the application module the bindings object belongs to.
  70. */
  71. public void globalRollback() {
  72. if (transaction.isDirty()) { //and transaction has modified data
  73. transaction.rollback();
  74. System.out.println("Changes have been rollbacked");
  75. }
  76. else {
  77. System.err.println("No unmodified data to rollback");
  78. }
  79. }
  80.  
  81. //MESSAGES
  82.  
  83. public boolean hasErrors() {
  84. FacesMessage.Severity maxSeverity = this.ctx.getMaximumSeverity();
  85. return (maxSeverity != null? maxSeverity.compareTo(FacesMessage.SEVERITY_ERROR) == 0 || maxSeverity.compareTo(FacesMessage.SEVERITY_FATAL) == 0 : false);
  86. }
  87.  
  88. public void inform(String messageText) {
  89. FacesMessage message = new FacesMessage(messageText);
  90. message.setSeverity(FacesMessage.SEVERITY_INFO);
  91. this.ctx.addMessage(null, message);
  92. }
  93.  
  94. public void setBindings(BindingContainer bindings) {
  95. this.bindings = bindings;
  96. }
  97.  
  98. public BindingContainer getBindings() {
  99. return bindings;
  100. }
  101.  
  102. public Transaction getTransaction() {
  103. return transaction;
  104. }
  105.  
  106. public DCBindingContainer getDcBindings() {
  107. return dcBindings;
  108. }
  109.  
  110. public ApplicationModuleImpl getAppModuleImpl(String dataControlName){
  111. javax.faces.context.FacesContext ctx = javax.faces.context.FacesContext.getCurrentInstance();
  112. javax.faces.el.ValueBinding bind = ctx.getApplication().createValueBinding("#{data}");
  113. oracle.adf.model.BindingContext bindingContext = (oracle.adf.model.BindingContext) bind.getValue(ctx); //resolve binding context
  114. oracle.adf.model.binding.DCDataControl dataControl = bindingContext.findDataControl(dataControlName);//find data control by name (defined in DataBindings.cpx) from BindingContext
  115. /*
  116. * finally get the View Object instance which the iterator is bound to (see the attribute Binds in the iterator definition in the pageDef)
  117. * then invoke the magic method executeEmptyRowSet on it
  118. */
  119. return (ApplicationModuleImpl) dataControl.getDataProvider();
  120. }
  121.  
  122. }

So now all you have to do is instantiate the ADFUtil class and invoke its methods!

The all wrong story about comments

Posted by stratosg in Thoughts on Oct 30th, 2009 | 13 comments

It’s been a seriously long time since i wrote here. But i can’t remember the last time i felt this urge, this itch to write about something. All this time that i haven’t updated my blog and i seldom comment on blogs i haven’t been all away. I’ve been reading the usual blogs i always read. Then why didn’t i comment? Because i had nothing to say!

One would ask, why do i say this? Well, i am sick of reading blog posts saying “how commenting can improve your traffic”, or “comment on do-follow blogs” and the such. You won’t believe how much annoyed i am when i read those kind of posts. Just today i read this post where someone was explaining what makes him comment or stops him from commenting on a blog. None of the reasons he mentioned was about the content and the article he was actually reading! This tipped me of. I wanted to write this a long time ago but this just made the cut.

What he basically said was that if it doesn’t have commentluv, it is a do-follow blog or it has a CAPTCHA, it doesn’t make him want to comment. And here is what i say. Commentluv, in my humble opinion, is one of the worst plugins out there. Why? Because an article on your blog has links to other articles on other blogs that are irrelevant with that content you are writing about! They call this link love. It’s all bullshit! Why? Because it would be link love if you posted in your article “blah blah blah here is an excellent example of what i am talking about [link] blah blah blah”. That is link love. On the other hand this:

SomeStupidPrick wrote:

Man this is a great article!

SomeStupidPrick’s latest blog post “How to have an irrelevant link on someone else’s blog”

This is not link love. It’s disguised spam comment.

Now, i don’t want to be unfair. I know a lot of my readers who have blogs, are commentluv enabled and i still like their blogs. But, i believe, they have been tricked into some stupid marketing useless idea. And let me put it this way. If you will comment only if i am commentluv enabled then guess what. Get the heck out! (besides i don’t have commentluv and i appreciate people leaving comments just for the pure purpose of it).

On the do-follow part. Things are pretty much the same as above. The purpose search engines rank your content in a certain way is to make it easier to be discoverable on relevant search queries. If you go ahead on a spree and start planting your link everywhere you will definitely get results but they won’t be quality results. Think as a user for crying out loud! How many times have you been searching for something and you stumble on completely irrelevant posts just because of these kind of stuff? So, once more, if you comment here after checking if this is a do-follow blog, get the heck out!

Finally, once and for all, let’s tackle the CAPTCHA thing. I want to make things easier to my readers to drop a line. On the other hand i want to make things easier for me to moderate. I hate all this wise-ass people/bots trying to plant their links on my blog. So, if this is what i have to do then i’ll do it. Besides, you fill up so many CAPTCHA’s a day for useless things and registration forms, and you are too lazy to fill an easy one here ti have your say? Get the heck out!

And what do i mean by “The all wrong story about comments”? Well, comments where named comments and not “advertise here”, because they are intended to serve as a way to give feedback or thank someone. They where not intended to boost or promote your own stuff.

I know that after a long time, writing with such hatred is not such a good idea. On the other hand, i think it perfectly explains my absence. The blogosphere has been contaminated with people trying to make money writing crappy blogs. I fear that that will drive quality blogging to a halt.

I have been disappointed on the majority of the content posted these days. So little things are informative or worth a read. Most of the stuff are junk. And don’t get me wrong here loyal readers. I love your blogs. I have been following you and “you” know who you are.

Intrusion detection with Perl

Posted by stratosg in My Coding, Tutorials on Aug 4th, 2009 | 17 comments

There has been a lot of hype lately concerning WordPress security and vulnerabilities that are out in the open. This is an open source project so the big advantage is that (and i will quote):

Luckily, the entire WordPress community has our backs.  Several folks in the community dug deeper and discovered areas that were overlooked.  With their help, the remaining issues are fixed in 2.8.3

This is the heart of any open source project. Since the code is out there in the open, many can take a look and, therefore, discover any potential issues.

Now, i know that many users think that, whenever a new version comes out, they should let other people do the upgrade, check it out and then, they will go on with it. This might be the case with major versions (for instance 2.7.1 -> 2.8.3 as we speak) but it is definitely not the case when we have security patches and fixes (for instance 2.8.1 -> 2.8.2). In these situations, if you don’t upgrade, it means that your WordPress installation is compromised to an outside attack and you shouldn’t be surprised if that happens.

But, does being updated to the latest version, mean that you are absolutely exploit-free? Unfortunately, not. You can never be sure. Not with open source, not with closed source. Never. You never know what someone can come up with to bring down your service. Being updated minimizes that to the absolute minimum, but there is still a chance that it may happen.

Focusing back on WordPress, a very popular exploit is that of the hacker adding his own chunk of code to the core of your installation, hiding it fine. The privilege of that is that they can insert anything they want, for instance, an affiliate link of theirs or a link to a site that contains malicious software, thus their code will be downloaded and executed by every visitor of yours. This is not the only thing an attacker can do, of course, but it is a large portion of the consequences (see this example).

(more…)

Member Of The Month: July

Posted by stratosg in MOTM on Aug 1st, 2009 | 7 comments

Since postponing declaring a “Member Of The Month” for last month, this one has been slightly better. I found myself posting a bit more regularly and this gave you guys the chance to come back here and comment. A lot of my regular visitors commented as always, but, and without further ado, Raju was the top commentator with 13 comments! I want to thank everybody for sticking around, and want to tell you to keep sticking around cause i have some aces up my sleeve ;)

As for the things that are going on my personal life, they are still flowing. There are some major changes to be made this month that i might tell you at some point. In general though, besides those changes, i have a few post ideas that i want to make. Stay tuned!

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