Encryption and Decryption of strings with C#

Well I am checking out the Beale Street Historic District for the first time in Memphis, TN tonight. I have heard a lot about it since my arrival here so am excited to get to go. I think it will be fun.

Of course this would come up. I had written this previously in vb.net and I had the opportunity to use it again today. Of course in doing so, I discovered a bad coding practice violation I had committed. I had failed to return a value in my function’s Catch block of my code. C# doesn’t let you off the hook so easily and will bug you till you fix it. As noted previously, topic is encryption and decryption of strings. It is straightforward but you might find it useful. Simply pass in the string you want to encrypt/decrypt and the key you want to use.

using System;
using System.IO;
using System.Text;
using System.Security.Cryptography;
public class Crypto
{
    private static TripleDESCryptoServiceProvider DES = new TripleDESCryptoServiceProvider();
    private static MD5CryptoServiceProvider MD5 = new MD5CryptoServiceProvider();
    public static byte[] MD5Hash(string value)
    {
        return MD5.ComputeHash(ASCIIEncoding.ASCII.GetBytes(value));
    }
    public static string Encrypt(string stringToEncrypt, string key)
    {
        DES.Key = Crypto.MD5Hash(key);
        DES.Mode = CipherMode.ECB;
        byte[] Buffer = ASCIIEncoding.ASCII.GetBytes(stringToEncrypt);
        return Convert.ToBase64String(DES.CreateEncryptor().TransformFinalBlock(Buffer, 0, Buffer.Length));
    }
    public static string Decrypt(string encryptedString, string key)
    {
        try
        {
            DES.Key = Crypto.MD5Hash(key);
            DES.Mode = CipherMode.ECB;
            byte[] Buffer = Convert.FromBase64String(encryptedString);
            return ASCIIEncoding.ASCII.GetString(DES.CreateDecryptor().TransformFinalBlock(Buffer, 0, Buffer.Length));
        }
        catch (Exception ex)
        {
            MessageBox.Show(“Invalid Key”, “Decryption Failed”, MessageBoxButtons.OK, MessageBoxIcon.Exclamation);
        }
// Inserted the following ‘return’ since all code paths must return a value in C#:
        return null;
    }
}

And now it’s usage…..

public class Form1
{
    private void Button1_Click(object sender, System.EventArgs e)
    {
        string key = Microsoft.VisualBasic.Interaction.InputBox(“Enter a Key:”, “”, “”, -1, -1);
        Label1.Text = Crypto.Encrypt(TextBox1.Text, key);
        TextBox1.Clear();
    }
    private void Button2_Click(object sender, System.EventArgs e)
    {
        string key = Microsoft.VisualBasic.Interaction.InputBox(“Enter a Key:”, “”, “”, -1, -1);
        TextBox1.Text = Crypto.Decrypt(Label1.Text, key);
    }

    }

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Class Set as DataContext in XAML without Code Behind

In dealing with a problem at work and I am probably as guilty as anyone of relying on code behind to do basic functions without soley using XAML. Why? Because that’s the way I have always done it. But it’s a new day and time to learn new ways to do things. So here we go….

This example shows a class set as datacontext – the code behind file is completely empty.

Have a great week….

 

<Window x:Class=”cSharpTest.MainWindow”
        xmlns=”http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation”
        xmlns:x=”http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml”
        xmlns:vm=”clr-namespace:cSharpTest”
        Title=”MainWindow” Height=”350″ Width=”525″>
    <Window.Resources>
        <vm:MyData x:Key=”ViewModel”/>
    </Window.Resources>
    <Grid DataContext=”{StaticResource ViewModel}”>
        <ListBox Name=”MyListBox” ItemsSource=”{Binding Primes}”/>
    </Grid>
</Window>

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;

namespace cSharpTest
{
    class MyData
    {
        public MyData()
        {
            _primes = new int[5] { 1, 3, 5, 7, 11 };
        }
        private int[] _primes;
        public  int[] Primes
        {
            get { return this._primes; }
         }
    }
}

Get or Write Image Metadata with vb.net

I recently started a new contract with a local company and their project is quite image intensive. One of the tasks set before me was to store custom data in an image. Things such as the title, comments and keywords. Turned out to be quite an extensive undertaking. With the help of some other sources, I came up with this code. Ironically as it turned out we can’t use my solution because of some issues with custom image formats that are not respected in Microsoft Windows. But it is here for you! I will post the C# version soon. Also pay attention to your encoding. This was an issue that tripped me up here for a while.

Imports System.Collections.Generic
Imports System.Text
Imports System.Drawing
Imports System.Drawing.Imaging
Imports System.Reflection
Imports System.IO
Public Class clsReadMetaData

Public Function ReadEXIFMetadata(ByVal filepath As String) As ImageMetadata
Dim fs As New FileStream(filepath, FileMode.Open, FileAccess.Read)
Dim image__1 As Image = Image.FromStream(fs)
Dim imagePropertyItems As PropertyItem() = image__1.PropertyItems
Dim imageMetadata As New ImageMetadata()
For Each pi As PropertyItem In imagePropertyItems
Select Case CType(pi.Id, EXIFProperty)
Case EXIFProperty.Title
imageMetadata.Title = Encoding.Unicode.GetString(pi.Value)
‘imageMetadata.Title = Encoding.UTF32.GetString(pi.Value)
Exit Select
Case EXIFProperty.Author
imageMetadata.Author = Encoding.Unicode.GetString(pi.Value)
‘imageMetadata.Author = Encoding.UTF8.GetString(pi.Value)
Exit Select
Case EXIFProperty.Keywords
imageMetadata.Keywords = Encoding.Unicode.GetString(pi.Value)
‘imageMetadata.Keywords = Encoding.UTF8.GetString(pi.Value)
Exit Select
Case EXIFProperty.Comments
imageMetadata.Comments = Encoding.Unicode.GetString(pi.Value)
‘imageMetadata.Comments = Encoding.UTF8.GetString(pi.Value)
Exit Select
Case Else
Exit Select
End Select
Next
fs.Close()
Return imageMetadata
End Function
Public Sub SaveEXIFMetadata(ByVal image As Image, ByVal metadata As ImageMetadata, ByVal filepath As String)
SaveEXIFMetadataProperty(image, EXIFProperty.Title, metadata.Title, filepath)
SaveEXIFMetadataProperty(image, EXIFProperty.Author, metadata.Author, filepath)
SaveEXIFMetadataProperty(image, EXIFProperty.Keywords, metadata.Keywords, filepath)
SaveEXIFMetadataProperty(image, EXIFProperty.Comments, metadata.Comments, filepath)
End Sub
Private Sub SaveEXIFMetadataProperty(ByVal image As Image, ByVal [property] As EXIFProperty, ByVal propertyValue As String, ByVal filepath As String)
Dim propertyItem As PropertyItem = CreatePropertyItem()
propertyItem.Id = CInt([property])
‘ Type=1 means Array of Bytes.
propertyItem.Type = 2
propertyItem.Len = propertyValue.Length
‘propertyItem.Value = Encoding.Unicode.GetBytes(propertyValue)
propertyItem.Value = Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(propertyValue)
image.SetPropertyItem(propertyItem)
image.Save(filepath)
End Sub
Private Function CreatePropertyItem() As PropertyItem
Dim ci As System.Reflection.ConstructorInfo = GetType(PropertyItem).GetConstructor(BindingFlags.NonPublic Or BindingFlags.Instance Or BindingFlags.[Public], Nothing, New Type() {}, Nothing)
Return DirectCast(ci.Invoke(Nothing), PropertyItem)
End Function
End Class
Public Enum EXIFProperty
Title = 40091
Author = 40093
Keywords = 40094
Comments = 40092
End Enum
Public Class ImageMetadata
Private _title As String = String.Empty
Private _author As String = String.Empty
Private _keywords As String = String.Empty
Private _comments As String = String.Empty
Public Sub New()
Me._title = String.Empty
Me._author = String.Empty
Me._keywords = String.Empty
Me._comments = String.Empty
End Sub
Public Sub New(ByVal title As String, ByVal author As String, ByVal keywords As String, ByVal comments As String)
Me._title = title
Me._author = author
Me._keywords = keywords
Me._comments = comments
End Sub
Public Property Title() As String
Get
Return Me._title
End Get
Set(ByVal value As String)
Me._title = value
End Set
End Property
Public Property Author() As String
Get
Return Me._author
End Get
Set(ByVal value As String)
Me._author = value
End Set
End Property
Public Property Keywords() As String
Get
Return Me._keywords
End Get
Set(ByVal value As String)
Me._keywords = value
End Set
End Property
Public Property Comments() As String
Get
Return Me._comments
End Get
Set(ByVal value As String)
Me._comments = value
End Set
End Property
End Class

Write DataTable to an MS Word Table Efficiently with C# using a Dynamic Type

This is a C# adaptation of the code I wrote to write a datatable to a Microsoft Word document table for vb.net . But that doesn’t really begin to tell the story here. In vb.net we have been accustomed to being allowed to leave parameters empty when automating the creation of a table in Microsoft Word. C# has not permitted me that luxury which to be honest is probably a better code practice. So prepare to meet the Type.Missing object! In addition the default item that we learned to love/hate in Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) code years ago also is not used in C#. Finally in declaring the range object for the table it became an opportunity to use the new dynamic reference type keyword, which was designed for such situations. Check out this video on the subject which is quite excellent.

http://channel9.msdn.com/Shows/Going+Deep/Inside-C-40-dynamic-type-optional-parameters-more-COM-friendly/player?w=512&h=288

For these reasons you will see key differences between the two sets of code. Don’t forget to import Microsoft Word as a COM reference and do your import statements. As always feel free to comment or email. Have a great day!

using Office = Microsoft.Office.Core;
using Word = Microsoft.Office.Interop.Word;

public void CreateWordTableWithDataTable(DataTable dt)
        {
            int RowCount = dt.Rows.Count; int ColumnCount = dt.Columns.Count;
            Object[,] DataArray = new object[RowCount + 1, ColumnCount + 1];
            //int RowCount = 0; int ColumnCount = 0;
            int r = 0;
            for (int c = 0; c <= ColumnCount – 1; c++)
            {
                DataArray[r, c] = dt.Columns[c].ColumnName;
                for (r = 0; r <= RowCount – 1; r++)
                {
                    DataArray[r, c] = dt.Rows[r][c];
                } //end row loop
            } //end column loop

            Word.Document oDoc = new Word.Document();
            oDoc.Application.Visible = true;
            oDoc.PageSetup.Orientation = Word.WdOrientation.wdOrientLandscape;
           
            dynamic oRange = oDoc.Content.Application.Selection.Range;
            String oTemp = “”;
            for (r = 0; r <= RowCount – 1; r++)
            {
                for (int c = 0; c <= ColumnCount – 1; c++)
                {
                    oTemp = oTemp + DataArray[r, c] + “\t”;
                  
                }
            }

oRange.Text = oTemp;
           
object Separator = Word.WdTableFieldSeparator.wdSeparateByTabs;
object Format = Word.WdTableFormat.wdTableFormatWeb1;
object ApplyBorders = true;
object AutoFit = true;

object AutoFitBehavior = Word.WdAutoFitBehavior.wdAutoFitContent;
            oRange.ConvertToTable(ref Separator,
        ref RowCount, ref ColumnCount, Type.Missing, ref Format,
        ref ApplyBorders, Type.Missing, Type.Missing, Type.Missing,
         Type.Missing, Type.Missing, Type.Missing,
         Type.Missing, ref AutoFit, ref AutoFitBehavior,
         Type.Missing);
           
            oRange.Select();
            oDoc.Application.Selection.Tables[1].Select();
            oDoc.Application.Selection.Tables[1].Rows.AllowBreakAcrossPages = 0;
            oDoc.Application.Selection.Tables[1].Rows.Alignment = 0;
            oDoc.Application.Selection.Tables[1].Rows[1].Select();
            oDoc.Application.Selection.InsertRowsAbove(1);
            oDoc.Application.Selection.Tables[1].Rows[1].Select();

            //gotta do the header row manually
            for (int c = 0; c <= ColumnCount – 1; c++)
            {
               oDoc.Application.Selection.Tables[1].Cell(1, c + 1).Range.Text = dt.Columns[c].ColumnName;
            }

            oDoc.Application.Selection.Tables[1].Rows[1].Select();
            oDoc.Application.Selection.Cells.VerticalAlignment = Word.WdCellVerticalAlignment.wdCellAlignVerticalCenter;
                      
                    }

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Tag Generator for Live Writer: Problems and Workarounds

One topic of emails and questions I receive are in relation to the Tag Generator, a plugin available for download, for Live Writer, a blog writing tool.

First some history. The Tag Generator was originally written over two years ago to provide myself a way to automatically generate tags for my blog posts. I got tired of doing it manually. It worked well for me so I decided to create a plugin that others could use. It uses the Microsoft Word thesaurus to verify words in the blog and their meanings. It isn’t perfect but its better than nothing. Obviously some of you agreed as over 14,000 downloads took place. However over the last couple of years, for various reasons, no work was done on this plugin and a new version of Live Writer was released. While the Tag Generator plugin still works, it does not support the options feature for plugins that came out with this version of Live Writer. In addition, as you all know, Windows Live Spaces no longer supports blogging, instead choosing to support the Word Press blogging resources. Generating these tags are obviously pointless.

You might wonder to yourself why I just don’t sit down and rewrite the plugin and be done with it. Basically it is because I am too busy at the moment to do so. I will at some point I promise. I apologize to those of you who have been frustrated. But this blog post today is to tell you how I still make use of this plugin and how  you can too.

First after you are done writing your post, right click on your document and click select all.

Then click “Insert” in the Live Writer toolbar and click “Generate Tags”.

Click the option or options you wish to generate the tags for and click the button “Generate”

Add, modify or delete the tags you wish…..but do not click the Insert button at the bottom! Instead select all of the words in the “Tags” text box and copy them. Then in the Set tags text box at the top of Live Writer, paste these words in their textbox.

Now your post will be tag ready for publication whenever you choose!

I am sorry for the hassle. I still find this plugin extremely useful for me and I promise I will get around to redoing it for you at some point. But this works fine for me for now and hopefully will for you as well.

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Write Microsoft Word Document Header and Footer with C#

Again I am rewriting some of the more popular entries in this blog as C#. It’s good exercise for me and good for you because you get the code another way. Well at least that’s the theory! This entry writes to the header and footer of a document in Microsoft Word The vb.net version was here. The only downside to all of this is that this is only tested against Office 2010. The old version I had Office 2000, XP and 2003 on my machine. Essentially however it is the same code. If you have any questions of course please feel free to leave a comment or email me.

public void WriteHeaderandFooterinWordDocument()
{
Word.Document oDoc = new Word.Document();
oDoc.Application.Visible = true;
oDoc.Content.Application.ActiveWindow.ActivePane.View.SeekView = Word.WdSeekView.wdSeekCurrentPageHeader;// = Convert.ToInt32(Word.WdSeekView.wdSeekCurrentPageHeader);
oDoc.Content.Application.Selection.TypeText(“Martens “);
oDoc.Content.Application.Selection.Fields.Add(oDoc.Content.Application.Selection.Range, Word.WdFieldType.wdFieldEmpty, “PAGE”);
oDoc.Content.Application.ActiveWindow.ActivePane.View.SeekView = Word.WdSeekView.wdSeekMainDocument;
oDoc.Content.Application.ActiveWindow.ActivePane.View.SeekView = Word.WdSeekView.wdSeekCurrentPageFooter;
oDoc.Content.Application.Selection.TypeText(“Martens”);
oDoc.Content.Application.ActiveWindow.ActivePane.View.SeekView = Word.WdSeekView.wdSeekMainDocument;
}

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Write Data From DataTable To Excel With an Array Using C#

This is actually a redo of code written in vb.net a while back that dumps data from a datatable in a dataset into an excel spreadsheet in an effective and fast manner. I am always getting asked how to do this in C# so I decided to put that up today. Yes, I do C# too! Just didn’t want to admit it….

It’s pretty self explanatory. Don’t forget to clean up your excel instance when done. If you have any questions please feel free to send me an email.

Import an excel reference and at the top of your code you need your import statements. Then simply pass your dataset and datatable (granted you could just pass the datatable – I had my reasons for passing the dataset too at the time) to the method. The array is declared as an object because sometimes the compiler has to deal with unforeseen data issues that might arise and it has been effective for me to do let it handle those situations as they arise. I hope you find this useful.

using Excel = Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel;
using Office = Microsoft.Office.Core;

public void CreateSpreadSheetFromDataSet(DataSet ds, DataTable dt)
        {

            Excel.Application Excel = new Excel.Application();
            Excel.Visible = true;
            Excel.Worksheet WSheet = new Excel.Worksheet();
            Excel.Workbooks.Add();
            WSheet = Excel.ActiveWorkbook.ActiveSheet;
            int rows = ds.Tables[dt.TableName].Rows.Count;
            int columns = ds.Tables[dt.TableName].Columns.Count;
            int r = 0; int c = 0;
            object[,] DataArray = new object[rows + 1, columns + 1];
            for (c = 0; c <= columns – 1; c++)
            {
                DataArray[r, c] = ds.Tables[dt.TableName].Columns[c].ColumnName;
                for (r = 0; r <= rows – 1; r++)
                {
                    DataArray[r, c] = ds.Tables[dt.TableName].Rows[r][c];
                } //end row loop
            } //end column loop

//actually write array to Excel Spreadsheet
            WSheet.Range[“A2”].Resize[rows, columns].Value = DataArray;

            //write header row to spreadsheet
            int DataTableColumnCounter;
            int ExcelColumnCounter = 1; //excel spreadsheets start at 1 when counting columns not zero!
            for (DataTableColumnCounter = 0; DataTableColumnCounter <= ds.Tables[dt.TableName].Columns.Count – 1; DataTableColumnCounter++)
            {
                WSheet.Cells[1, ExcelColumnCounter].Value = ds.Tables[dt.TableName].Columns[DataTableColumnCounter].ColumnName;
                ExcelColumnCounter = ExcelColumnCounter + 1; //moving to next column
            }
        }

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Getting Images from Microsoft Office Document Imaging (MODI) with vb.net

Hello! It has been a long time since my last blog post and I am happy to be getting back to this. I have missed writing this blog more than you have missed me I guarantee it!

That being said, now that this blog has resumed there will be a few changes. The landscape has changed a bit since my last blog entry. While I will still focus primarily on vb.net code I will also be including what I am working on that is WPF and C# related as well as other .NET related topics. Why? Simply because as my skillset has expanded I wanted to share what I have learned and am learning with you as well. I hope you won’t mind!

Today’s topic revolves around getting images from Microsoft Office Document Imaging (MODI). As you recall I have done a lot of Office automation over the years and I was asked to do this for a friend. As I said, it is good to be back!

add a reference -> Com -> Microsoft Office Document Imaging

Private Sub ConvertMdi2Tif(ByVal ModiFilePath As String)
Dim miDoc As New MODI.Document
Dim myViewer As New MODI.MiDocView
Dim myImg As MODI.Image
Try
Dim Folder As New DirectoryInfo(ModiFilePath)
pbReportGenerate.Minimum = 0
pbReportGenerate.Maximum = Folder.GetFiles(“*.MDI”).Length
pbReportGenerate.Step = 1
pbReportGenerate.Value = pbReportGenerate.Minimum
For Each File As FileInfo In Folder.GetFiles(“*.MDI”)
miDoc.Create(File.FullName)
myViewer.Document = miDoc
For i As Long = 0 To miDoc.Images.Count – 1
Dim tempDoc As New MODI.Document
myImg = miDoc.Images(i)
tempDoc.Create()
tempDoc.Images.Add(myImg, Nothing)
tempDoc.SaveAs(TIFPath & “\” + GetFileNameWithoutExtension(File.FullName) & i & “.Tif”, MiFILE_FORMAT.miFILE_FORMAT_TIFF_LOSSLESS, MiCOMP_LEVEL.miCOMP_LEVEL_HIGH)
tempDoc.Close()
tempDoc = Nothing
Exit For
Next
pbReportGenerate.PerformStep()
Application.DoEvents()
Next
miDoc.Close()
miDoc = Nothing
myViewer.Document = Nothing
myViewer = Nothing
Catch ex As Exception
MsgBox(ex.Message)
End Try
GC.Collect()
End Sub

Private Sub ConvertTif2Bmp(ByVal TIFFilePath As String)
Dim Folder As New DirectoryInfo(TIFFilePath)
Dim index As Long = 0
pbReportGenerate.Minimum = 0
pbReportGenerate.Maximum = Folder.GetFiles(“*.TIF”).Length
pbReportGenerate.Step = 1
pbReportGenerate.Value = pbReportGenerate.Minimum
For Each File As FileInfo In Folder.GetFiles(“*.TIF”)
GC.WaitForPendingFinalizers()
Dim streamBinary As New FileStream(File.FullName, FileMode.Open)
Dim g As System.Drawing.Image = System.Drawing.Image.FromStream(streamBinary)
Dim imgOutput As New Bitmap(g, g.Width, g.Height)

Dim qualityEncoder As Encoder = Encoder.Quality
Dim ratio As EncoderParameter = New EncoderParameter(qualityEncoder, 40)
Dim codecParams As New EncoderParameters(1)
codecParams.Param(0) = ratio
‘bmp.Save(fileName, jpegCodecInfo, codecParams)
Dim encoder1 As ImageCodecInfo = GetEncoderInfo(“image/bmp”)
imgOutput.Save(BMPPath + “\” + GetFileNameWithoutExtension(File.FullName) + “.” & System.Drawing.Imaging.ImageFormat.Bmp.ToString, encoder1, codecParams)
streamBinary.Close()
streamBinary = Nothing
g.Dispose()
g = Nothing
imgOutput.Dispose()
imgOutput = Nothing
pbReportGenerate.PerformStep()
Application.DoEvents()
Next
GC.Collect()
End Sub

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