Quick Tip

Block libwww-perl attack in ASP.NET Application hosted in IIS

Libwww-perl (LWP) is a WWW client/server library for perl which can be used by hackers, spammers or automated bots to attack a website to steal information so we need to apply security to our web application to eliminate many simpler attacks on the website. In order to fix this issue in an ASP.NET web application we can use the following code. Add the code in Application_BeginRequest method of Global.asax file in your web application protected void Application_BeginRequest(object sender, EventArgs e) { string userAgent = HttpContext.Current.Request.ServerVariables[“HTTP_USER_AGENT”]; if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(userAgent)) { if (“Libwww-perl”.ToLower().Equals(userAgent.ToLower())) { Send403(Response); } } } internal void Send403(HttpResponse response) { SendResponse(response, 0x193, “403 FORBIDDEN”); } internal void SendResponse(HttpResponse response, int code, string strBody) { HttpContext current = HttpContext.Current; object obj2 = current.Items[“ResponseEnded”]; if ((obj2 == null) || !((bool)obj2)) { current.Items[“ResponseEnded”] = true; response.StatusCode = code; response.Clear(); if (strBody != null) { response.Write(strBody); } response.End(); } } Another option is to disallow Libwww-perl user[…]

SEO Tip: Set Preferred URL in ASP.NET Application

Search engines treat website URL with and without “www” differently. Though both URLs point to the same destination, it’s important to pick one and set as your preferred URL so that search engines don’t two URLs as duplicate content. Websites use 301 redirect for this. The example code to redirect non-www URL to www URL in an ASP.NET application would be as following. Add following code snippet in Application_BeginRequest method of your Global.asax. Replace URL (somewebsite.com) with your website URL in the code and you are all set. protected void Application_BeginRequest(object sender, EventArgs e) { if (HttpContext.Current.Request.Url.AbsoluteUri.ToLower().StartsWith(“http://somewebsite.com”)) { string newUrl = HttpContext.Current.Request.Url.AbsoluteUri.ToLower().Replace(“http://somewebsite.com”, “http://www.somewebsite.com”); Response.Status = “301 Moved Permanently”; Response.AddHeader(“Location”, newUrl); } } If you want to do the opposite and direct www URL to non-www URL simply change the code as following protected void Application_BeginRequest(object sender, EventArgs e) { if (HttpContext.Current.Request.Url.AbsoluteUri.ToLower().StartsWith(“http://www.somewebsite.com”)) { string newUrl = HttpContext.Current.Request.Url.AbsoluteUri.ToLower().Replace(“http://www.somewebsite.com”, “http://somewebsite.com”); Response.Status = “301 Moved Permanently”;[…]

Add SEO Friendly URL’s to ASP.NET Application

It’s very important for a web site to create SEO friendly URL’s and remove page extensions such as .aspx. When search engines look at a site, the first thing they analyze is the page URL which help them ascertain what the page content is about. In ASP.NET application Routes can be used for this which are URL patterns used for processing requests and can be used to construct URLs dynamically. The Global.asax file is a special file that contains event handlers for ASP.NET application lifecycle events. The route table is created during the Application Start event in Global.asax. In order to do so add Global Application Class (Global.asax) to your ASP.NET Web Application if it is not created yet. The following example shows how to add a route. protected void Application_Start(object sender, EventArgs e) { try { RegisterRoutes(RouteTable.Routes); } catch (Exception ex) { // Log Exception here } } protected static void RegisterRoutes(RouteCollection routes) { if[…]

Publish an ASP.NET website without roslyn folder

If you create a ASP.ENT website using Visual Studio 2015 or higher and .NET Framework 4.5.2, it by default uses Roslyn which is a set of open-source compilers and code analysis APIs for C# and Visual Basic. Publishing this would also include “roslyn” folder in bin directory containing a bunch of libraries and exe files which creates issues if you are using a shared hosting service as normally shared hosting do not run under full trust. We can simply remove this by going to Tools -> NuGet Package Manager -> Manager NuGet Packages for Solution -> Uninstall following packages Microsoft.CodeDom.Providers.DotNetCompilerPlatform Microsoft.Net.Compilers Check web.config and make sure the following section was removed by the NuGet package uninstall. If it did not get removed for any reason, then clean it up manually <system.codedom> <compilers> <compiler language=”c#;cs;csharp” extension=”.cs” type=”Microsoft.CodeDom.Providers.DotNetCompilerPlatform.CSharpCodeProvider, Microsoft.CodeDom.Providers.DotNetCompilerPlatform, Version=1.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31bf3856ad364e35″ warningLevel=”4″ compilerOptions=”/langversion:6 /nowarn:1659;1699;1701″/> <compiler language=”vb;vbs;visualbasic;vbscript” extension=”.vb” type=”Microsoft.CodeDom.Providers.DotNetCompilerPlatform.VBCodeProvider, Microsoft.CodeDom.Providers.DotNetCompilerPlatform, Version=1.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31bf3856ad364e35″ warningLevel=”4″ compilerOptions=”/langversion:14[…]

Force Windows Store App to Full Screen Mode

In order to launch windows store app to full screen mode, check out the code here. Once app is launched in full screen mode, it can be resized by user by using the resize option which is available in all app windows and can not be removed. For windows pc, we can capture window resize event and try to enter full screen again which in effect doesn’t let user resize the application window. The java script code for achieving this: var page = WinJS.UI.Pages.define(“/index.html”, { ready: function (element, options) { // Add event for window resize event window.addEventListener(“resize”, onResizeView); } }); function onResizeView() { // Whenever window is resized, enter it to full screen mode var ViewManagement = Windows.UI.ViewManagement; var ApplicationView = ViewManagement.ApplicationView; var view = ApplicationView.getForCurrentView(); view.tryEnterFullScreenMode(); }  

Launch External Url in Browser from Windows Store App

The java script code for achieving this: // Create a Uri object from a URI string var uri = new Windows.Foundation.Uri(“http://test.com”); var options = new Windows.System.LauncherOptions(); // Launch the URI with a warning prompt options.treatAsUntrusted = true; // Launch the URI Windows.System.Launcher.launchUriAsync(uri, options).then( function (success) { if (success) { // URI launched } else { // URI launch failed } });  

Quick Tip

Convert C# Object to JSON and create object from JSON string

Json.Net is the preferred way to go about it because of performance gain it gets compared to JavascriptSerializer. Download and install Newtonsoft.Json using Nuget Now in order to create Json for an object simply use SerializeObject method as following Product product = new Product(); product.Name = “Apple”; product.Expiry = new DateTime(2008, 12, 28); product.Sizes = new string[] { “Small” }; string json = JsonConvert.SerializeObject(product); // { // “Name”: “Apple”, // “Expiry”: “2008-12-28T00:00:00”, // “Sizes”: [ // “Small” // ] // } In order to convert Json to the object use DeserializeObject method as following string json = @”{ ‘Name’: ‘Bad Boys’, ‘ReleaseDate’: ‘1995-4-7T00:00:00’, ‘Genres’: [ ‘Action’, ‘Comedy’ ] }”; Movie m = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<Movie>(json); string name = m.Name; // Bad Boys  

Manage Amazon Promotions in ASP.NET Application

If you are into affiliate marketing then you must be getting promo codes from your partners which are promoted on various platforms. For ex, Amazon publishes promo codes for Associates which can then be pormoted by the Associates and they get a cut from the sales. Its a nice way to boost conversion and earn commission. Associates share the link to temporary promotion pages which is tagged with their affiliate id. These promotions run for a short duration and need to be managed more frequently by adding/removing them from your site almost on a daily basis so it makes sense to have a small database at your end which you can use to manage it at your end and it can also take care of the promotions which have ended. If a promotion has ended, Amazon takes you to the deals page when a promotion link is clicked but it makes[…]

URL Rewrite SEO in IIS

Since the advent of search engines URL rewriting has become mandatory. It makes URLs look nicer and clearer in terms of what content to expect at the given URL. Recently I uploaded few static HTML files to an IIS site. I wanted a nice looking URL without .html extension which was quite straight-forward to achieve in ASP.NET site. You can install URL Rewrite Module in IIS 7 or above versions and a few configuration steps is all that is required to achieve the desired results. Read this article from Microsoft to get in-depth understanding of the steps. Below is the sample web.config entry I had to make to achieve the results <configuration> <system.webServer> <rewrite> <rules> <rule name=”Rewrite to .html Rule”> <match url=”^games/([_0-9a-z-]+)” /> <action type=”Rewrite” url=”games/{R:1}.html” /> </rule> </rules> </rewrite> </system.webServer> </configuration> You will need some understanding of the regular expressions to create a matching pattern for your URL (match tag in[…]

Asp.Net Error: There is no build provider registered for the extension ‘.html’

When you try to map an html file in ASP.net and rewrite the URL to remove .html extension such as the example below routes.MapPageRoute(“myhtml”, “myhtml”, “~/Resources/demo/myhtml.html”); It throws an error as following There is no build provider registered for the extension ‘.html’. You can register one in the <compilation><buildProviders> section in machine.config or web.config The following configuration changes in web.config fixes it. <compilation debug=”true” targetFramework=”4.5″ > <buildProviders > <add extension=”.htm” type=”System.Web.Compilation.PageBuildProvider” /> <add extension=”.html” type=”System.Web.Compilation.PageBuildProvider”/> </buildProviders> </compilation>