Conversion Patterns for Log4Net

Looks like Apache Log4Net decided to take down the pattern page.  I still need it so posting it here.

[C#]
ILog log = LogManager.GetLogger(typeof(TestApp));
log.Debug("Message 1");
log.Warn("Message 2");   

DEBUG [main]: Message 1
WARN  [main]: Message 2  

%timestamp [%thread] %level %logger %ndc - %message%newline

%-6timestamp [%15.15thread] %-5level %30.30logger %ndc - %message%newline

Insert HTML at Cursor/Caret within a Content Editable Div

First we need to capture the cursor position within the Div it self.

$scope.editorSelection;

    $scope.SetupEditor = function () {
        var editable = document.getElementById('editor'),
selection, range;
        var captureSelection = function (e) {
            // Don't capture selection outside editable region
            var isOrContainsAnchor = false,
                isOrContainsFocus = false,
                sel = window.getSelection(),
                parentAnchor = sel.anchorNode,
                parentFocus = sel.focusNode;

            while (parentAnchor && parentAnchor != document.documentElement) {
                if (parentAnchor == editable) {
                    isOrContainsAnchor = true;
                }
                parentAnchor = parentAnchor.parentNode;
            }

            while (parentFocus && parentFocus != document.documentElement) {
                if (parentFocus == editable) {
                    isOrContainsFocus = true;
                }
                parentFocus = parentFocus.parentNode;
            }

            if (!isOrContainsAnchor || !isOrContainsFocus) {
                return;
            }
            selection = window.getSelection();

            // Get range (standards)
            if (selection.getRangeAt !== undefined) {
                range = selection.getRangeAt(0);

                // Get range (Safari 2)
            } else if (
                document.createRange &&
                selection.anchorNode &&
                selection.anchorOffset &&
                selection.focusNode &&
                selection.focusOffset
            ) {
                range = document.createRange();
                range.setStart(selection.anchorNode, selection.anchorOffset);
                range.setEnd(selection.focusNode, selection.focusOffset);
            } else {
                // Failure here, not handled by the rest of the script.
                // Probably IE or some older browser
            }
            $scope.editorSelection = range;
        };
        editable.onkeyup = captureSelection;
    }

From here, we need to be able to insert HTML at the selection when we choose to.

    function insertHtmlAfterSelection(html) {
        var range, expandedSelRange, node;
        if ($scope.editorSelection) {
            range = $scope.editorSelection;
            expandedSelRange = range.cloneRange();
            range.collapse(false);
            var el = document.createElement("div");
            el.innerHTML = html;
            var frag = document.createDocumentFragment(), node, lastNode;
            while ((node = el.firstChild)) {
                lastNode = frag.appendChild(node);
            }
            range.insertNode(frag);
        }
    }

That will be it.

High Precision Stop Watch Class For C#

Requirements were to make a very high precision stop watch class for one of our projects.  This is what we came up with.  This class is used in one application by many sports teams around the world.

public class StopwatchWrapper : INotifyPropertyChanged
    {
        public event PropertyChangedEventHandler PropertyChanged;
        Timer timer;

        private bool _isPaused;
        /// <summary>
        /// is the clock currently counting down.
        /// </summary>
        public bool IsPaused
        {
            get { return _isPaused; }
            set
            {
                _isPaused = value;
                OnPropertyChanged("IsPaused");
            }
        }
        /// <summary>
        /// we need to track how many milliseconds occured since the last elapsed timer interval.
        /// </summary>
        private long _millisecondsSinceLastInterval = 0;

        private bool _isRunning;
        /// <summary>
        /// is the clock currently counting down.
        /// </summary>
        public bool IsRunning
        {
            get { return _isRunning; }
            set
            {
                _isRunning = value;
                OnPropertyChanged("IsRunning");
            }
        }
        private long _timerLength;
        public long TimerLength
        {
            get { return _timerLength; }
            set
            {
                _timerLength = value;
                OnPropertyChanged("TimerLength");
            }
        }
        private DateTime _startTime;
        public DateTime StartTime
        {
            get { return _startTime; }
            set
            {
                _startTime = value;
                OnPropertyChanged("StartTime");
            }
        }

        private long _timeElapsed;
        public long TimeElapsed
        {
            get { return _timeElapsed; }
            set
            {
                _timeElapsed = value;
                OnPropertyChanged("TimeElapsed");
            }
        }

        private bool _isClockAtZero;
        public bool IsClockAtZero
        {
            get { return _isClockAtZero; }
            set
            {
                _isClockAtZero = value;
                OnPropertyChanged("IsClockAtZero");
            }
        }

        private long _timeRemaining;
        /// <summary>
        /// time remaing in milliseconds from the timer Length
        /// </summary>
        public long TimeRemaining
        {
            get { return _timeRemaining; }
            set
            {
                _timeRemaining = value;
                OnPropertyChanged("TimeRemaining");
            }
        }

        public StopwatchWrapper(long timeForClockInMilliseconds)
        {
            timer = new Timer(500);
            timer.Elapsed += new ElapsedEventHandler(timer_Elapsed);
            TimerLength = timeForClockInMilliseconds;
            TimeRemaining = timeForClockInMilliseconds;
            TimeElapsed = 0;
        }
        /// <summary>
        /// dummy constructor for the xport of xml games
        /// </summary>
        public StopwatchWrapper()
        {
        }

        void timer_Elapsed(object sender, ElapsedEventArgs e)
        {
            TimeSpan ts = DateTime.UtcNow - StartTime;
            _millisecondsSinceLastInterval = (long)ts.TotalMilliseconds - _millisecondsSinceLastInterval;

            TimeElapsed += _millisecondsSinceLastInterval;
            TimeRemaining = _timerLength - TimeElapsed;

            _millisecondsSinceLastInterval = (long)ts.TotalMilliseconds;



            Console.WriteLine(TimeElapsed);
            Console.WriteLine(_timerLength);
            Console.WriteLine(TimeRemaining);
            Console.WriteLine(StartTime);
            IsRunning = true;
            if (TimeRemaining <= 0)
                IsClockAtZero = true;
        }

        public void Stop()
        {
            if (timer != null)
                timer.Stop();
            IsRunning = false;
        }
        public void Pause()
        {
            if (timer != null && IsRunning)
            {
                timer.Stop();
                IsPaused = true;
            }
        }
        public void Start()
        {
            StartTime = DateTime.UtcNow;
            timer.Start();
            IsRunning = true;
            IsClockAtZero = false;
            _millisecondsSinceLastInterval = 0;
        }
        /// <summary>
        /// resumes the clock.
        /// </summary>
        public void Resume()
        {
            if (IsPaused)
            {
                StartTime = DateTime.UtcNow;
                timer.Start();
                IsRunning = true;
                IsPaused = false;
                _millisecondsSinceLastInterval = 0;
                Console.WriteLine(TimeElapsed);
                Console.WriteLine(_timerLength);
                Console.WriteLine(TimeRemaining);
                Console.WriteLine(StartTime);
            }
        }
        /// <summary>
        /// adds seconds to the clock.
        /// </summary>
        /// <param name="seconds">seconds to be added.  Can be negative or positive.</param>
        public void AddSecondsToClock(int seconds)
        {
            if (StartTime == new DateTime())
            {
                StartTime = DateTime.UtcNow;
                TimeRemaining = _timerLength;
            }
            StartTime = StartTime.AddSeconds(seconds);
            TimeRemaining += seconds * 1000;
            TimerLength += seconds * 1000;
            //Console.WriteLine("change");
            //Console.WriteLine("change"+TimeRemaining);
            //Console.WriteLine("change"+TimerLength);
        }
        /// <summary>
        /// changes the amount of seconds of a clock
        /// </summary>
        /// <param name="seconds"></param>
        public void changeSecondsOfClock(int seconds)
        {
            TimeElapsed = 0;
            TimeRemaining = seconds * 1000;
            TimerLength = seconds * 1000;
            //Console.WriteLine("change");
            //Console.WriteLine("change" + seconds);
            //Console.WriteLine("change" + TimeRemaining);
            //Console.WriteLine("change" + TimerLength);
        }

        public void Reset()
        {
            IsRunning = false;
            StartTime = DateTime.UtcNow;
        }


        protected void OnPropertyChanged(string name)
        {
            PropertyChangedEventHandler handler = PropertyChanged;
            if (handler != null)
            {
                handler(this, new PropertyChangedEventArgs(name));
            }
        }

    }

Don’t Give Up

I'd like to share a story of a sushi restaurant owner that I know. I was a bartender there, many, many years ago.

This restaurant owner came from Japan with his wife when they were in their twenties. They both spoke limited English and settled down in a part of New York that is predominantly Caucasian. For many years, he worked as a dishwasher while saving up diligently.

When he saved up enough money, he entered into a partnership with 2 others to open up a restaurant. One of the partners screwed the other two and he had to declare bankruptcy.

He went back to being a dishwasher, then later a cook, as he saved up money again. Finally, he had a chance to purchase a hole-in-the-wall restaurant that he thought he could improve. Unfortunately, that one also failed. And he declared bankruptcy for a second time.

That still didn't deter him. He worked again, saved up again, and opened up his third restaurant, a sushi restaurant. And for him, the third time was the charm.

This one became a success. It grew to 3 locations total. Every morning, he drove for hours to the fish market at 4am to select the best fish, then transported it to his restaurants in the back of his truck. He still has that truck. We all called it his "fishmobile" because it stunk of fish like you wouldn't believe.

He didn't reach this success until his 50s. Through it all, his wife was amazingly supportive. She worked alongside him in these restaurants too. They are retired now. He shared his story with me when I told him I was starting a business of my own.

I can't imagine having to lose so much, but in his perspective, he started out with nothing, so it wasn't that painful to return to nothing. I'm not saying I would want to do this with my wife and daughter, but hearing his story definitely gave me perspective.

Do You Care About the NSA Spying On You?

The protection from snooping government for law abiders isn't for humdrum people like you. It's for people working to make the world better who come under fire through no illegal activity of their own.

Did you know the FBI put MLK under surveillance at the orders of Bobby Kennedy (then-Attorney General)? They didn't find evidence of crimes, so they threatened to publicize his extramarital affair if he didn't give up his civil rights work.

It's about preventing unchecked government power over those who aren't criminals who are working against the status quo.

OF COURSE you don't care if the NSA reads your email. You don't change anything, and subsequently don't matter.

We as a society care if the NSA reads the private emails of the next important up-and-coming political party leader who will break us out of the corporate-owned two-party system. THAT'S the person we're trying to protect, not boring uninspired people who "have nothing to hide".

TinyMCE writer Image Upload for C# MVC

Just a quick code sample on how to plug an Image Upload into C# and MVC.  Since I searched all around the internet with no real easy example.

Put this somewhere on the page. This will be where the person adds the image.  As you can see, we will be posting the image to the “data-action” attribute.

  @Html.TextArea("Message", string.Empty, new
                           {
                               id = "wmd-input"
                           })
                            <div id="insertImageDialog" title="Insert Image">
                                <input type="file" name="file" id="file" data-action="/forum/postimageupload" />
                            </div>

Here is the Javascript. 

1. Below, you can see in the first block, I create another button for TinyMCE panel.  I call it the imageUpload.
2. I then add it to the Plugin Manager.
3. I then enable it in the plugins: options called imageUpload.
4. I create a Modal Dialog as I am using Jquery and the Jquery.UI library within my project.
5. Below that is the hook up for the Image Upload Modal.  As you can see I use the AjaxFileUpload by jquery.

$(function () {
        tinymce.create('tinymce.plugins.imageUpload', {
            createControl: function (n, cm) {
                switch (n) {
                    case 'imageupload':
                        var c = cm.createButton('mysplitbutton', {
                            title: 'Upload Image',
                            image: '@Url.Content("~/content/images/icons/imageUpload.png")',
                            onclick: function () {
                                $dialog.dialog('open');
                            }
                        });
                        return c;
                }
                return null;
            }
        });
        tinymce.PluginManager.add('imageIupload', tinymce.plugins.imageUpload);
        tinymce.init({
            mode: "textareas",
            elements: "elm2",
            theme: "advanced",
            skin: "o2k7",
            skin_variant: "silver",
            plugins: "imageIupload,safari,style,layer,table,advhr,advimage,advlink,inlinepopups,preview,media,contextmenu,directionality,fullscreen,noneditable,visualchars,nonbreaking,xhtmlxtras,template",

            theme_advanced_buttons1: "bold,italic,underline,strikethrough,|,justifyleft,justifycenter,justifyright,justifyfull,|,bullist,numlist,|,outdent,indent,blockquote,|,formatselect,fontsizeselect",
            theme_advanced_buttons2: "link,unlink,anchor,image,imageupload,cleanup,code,|,preview,|,forecolor,backcolor,|tablecontrols,|,hr,removeformat,visualaid,|,iespell,media,|,ltr,rtl",
            theme_advanced_buttons3: "",
            theme_advanced_buttons4: "",
            theme_advanced_toolbar_location: "top",
            theme_advanced_toolbar_align: "left",
            theme_advanced_statusbar_location: "bottom",
            theme_advanced_resizing: true,
            language: "en",
            relative_urls: false
        });
        var $dialog = $('#insertImageDialog').dialog({
            autoOpen: true,
            closeOnEscape: false,
            modal: false,
            open: function (event, ui) {
                $(this).parent().css('position', 'fixed');
                $(".ui-dialog-titlebar-close").hide();
            }
        });
        var $loader = $('span.loading-small', $dialog);
        var $url = $('input[type=text]', $dialog);
        var $file = $('input[type=file]', $dialog);
        var dialogInsertClick = function () {
            dialogClose();
        };
        var dialogCancelClick = function () {
            dialogClose();
        };
        var dialogClose = function () {
            $url.val('');
            $file.val('');
            $dialog.dialog('close');
        };
        $dialog.dialog('option', 'buttons', {
            'Insert': dialogInsertClick,
            'Cancel': dialogCancelClick
        });
        var uploadStart = function () {
            $loader.show();
        };
        var uploadComplete = function (response) {
            $loader.hide();
            if (response.success) {
                tinyMCE.execCommand("mceInsertContent", false, "<img src='" + response.imagePath + "'/>");
                dialogClose();
            } else {
                alert(response.message);
                $file.val('');
            }
        };
        $file.unbind('change').ajaxfileupload({
            action: $file.attr('data-action'),
            onStart: uploadStart,
            onComplete: uploadComplete,
            'params': {
                'Id': '@Model.Id',
                'TopicId': '@Model.Id'
            },
        });
        $dialog.dialog('close');
    });

Here is the MVC Model Method.

As you can see from above, within the AjaxFileUpload, I am posting a C# Model.  Its called NewPost.  Below is the Model I am passing in.

    [HttpPost]
        public ActionResult PostImageUpload(NewPost model)
        {
            string result;
            var serializer = new JavaScriptSerializer();
            try
            {
                // upload the file
                if (model.File != null && model.File.ContentLength > 0)
                {
                   
                }
            }
            catch (Exception exception)
            {
                ErrorDatabaseManager.AddException(exception, exception.GetType());
            }
            result = serializer.Serialize(
                        new { success = false, message = "Invalid image file" });
            return Content(result);
        }

public HttpPostedFileBase File { get; set; }

Hope this little write up helps someone.

List of SMS Gateways

Xamarin iOS Problem and Fix with Visual Studio

I kept running into two error messages.  My iOS Hello world app wasn’t starting up.  Just a simple app after the host machine was synced and built. So kept looking for solutions until I found one here: http://forums.xamarin.com/discussion/5217/communication-issues-from-windows-8-to-mac-mini

Here are the two messages I was running into:

1. There was an error launching the application: iOS Simulator failed to install the application.
2. has exited with code 0 or has exited with code –1

The solution was of two parts.  I had to reset the iPhone Simulator and add the identifier information in.  Once done, it seemed to work the proper way.

On iOS

Click iPhone Simulator a the top title bar, then Reset Content and Settings.

Hope that helps for someone.

What Scares Me about the Tech Behind Healthcare.gov

We are all aware of the problems with the new roll out of the healthcare.gov website.  The large amount of JS files being sent back and forth, the slow down and the inability to sign up at most hours of the day.  But thats not what worries me.

What worries me is if this thing was so POORLY designed on the UI side, what do you think it look like on the back end side?  Do you actually think they offer encryption, data protection and have taken the time to implement industry standards to protect our most important information?

Seeing that the front end is soo poorly designed, I don't really have any faith in the back end.  This is what the news should be wondering, questioning and even guessing. 

What say you?  Do you believe they did good on the back end?

Please don't bring Politics into this.  Its a purely technical talk.

Get Parameter From Url with Javascript

function getParameterByName(name){
var match = (RegExp('[?&]' + name + '=([^&]*)').exec(window.location.search);
return match && decodeURIComponent(match[1].replace(/\+/g, ' '));
}