Writing unicode characters to an ASCII INI File (yes, you can!) - .NET (Core and Framework) Discussion Boards

hello. Looking for friends here.

The Term Papers wrote:
Looking for friends here.

OK. I'll tell them you're here. Please have a seat.

There are only 10 types of people in the world, those who understand binary and those who don't.

I fear it is the wrong place.
You'd rather try at the lounge.
The Lounge[^]

Patrice

“Everything should be made as simple as possible, but no simpler.” Albert Einstein

I am witnessing something odd with the COM object/s I import. Before the lectures, I am importing the objects as a private member, using their functionality, and then, in the Dispose method of the class, attempting to get rid of them.
If I import the COM object as an RCW object, it all looks fine. I keep the reference while I need it, and calling Marshal.ReleaseComObject in Dispose brings its reference count back to zero - all nicely as expected.
However, if I import the COM object as a pointer to IUnknown in an IntPtr, when I use Marshal.Release on that pointer, it tells me there are still 3 references to it. Not only do I not know what it is that has a hold of these references, it strikes me as a probable memory leak, as I can't see how the GC will locate them just from a pointer. Perhaps I should be looping through Marshal.Release until the reference count gets to zero?

Thoughts anyone?

Cheers,

Mick
------------------------------------------------
It doesn't matter how often or hard you fall on your arse, eventually you'll roll over and land on your feet.

Here is some code that demos exactly what I am talking about, except in the demo, the Marshal.Release is returning only one extraneous reference. You'll just have to believe me when I say the code is pretty much the same in my project, except that I only have the one dll import and I just modify the signature for the method to use, and it tells me that the pointer has 3 references when I use that signature.

If you copy and paste the code below into a console application, it should just work. The output I get is

Release COM pointer = 1

Release COM object = 0

Release COM object = 0
Release COM pointer = 1

Release COM object = 0
Release COM pointer = 1

C#

[ComImport, Guid("ca724e8a-c3e6-442b-88a4-6fb0db8035a3")]
interface IPropertySystem {
	void GetPropertyDescription(
		[In] IntPtr propkey,    // ref PROPERTYKEY
		[In] IntPtr riid,       // ref IID_IPropertyDescription
		[Out] out IntPtr ppv);    // IPropertyDescription
	void GetPropertyDescriptionByName(
		[In, MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.LPWStr)] string pszCanonicalName,
		[In] IntPtr riid,       // ref IID_IPropertyDescription
		[Out] out IntPtr ppv);    // IPropertyDescription
	void GetPropertyDescriptionListFromString(
		[In, MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.LPWStr)] string pszPropList,
		[In] IntPtr riid,       // ref IID_IPropertyDescriptionList
		[Out] out IntPtr ppv);  // IPropertyDescriptionList
	void EnumeratePropertyDescriptions(
		[In] int filterOn,
		[In] IntPtr riid,       // ref IID_IPropertyDescriptionList
		[Out] out IntPtr ppv);  // IPropertyDescriptionList
	void FormatForDisplay(
		[In] IntPtr propkey,    // ref PROPERTYKEY
		[In] IntPtr propvar,    // ref PROPVARIANT 
		[In] int pdff,
		[Out] IntPtr pszText,   // LPWSTR Buffer
		[In] uint cchText);
	void FormatForDisplayAlloc(
		[In] IntPtr propkey,    // ref PROPERTYKEY
		[In] IntPtr propvar,    // ref PROPVARIANT 
		[In] int pdff,
		[Out] out IntPtr ppszDisplay); // LPWSTR*
	void RegisterPropertySchema([In, MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.LPWStr)] string pszPath);
	void UnregisterPropertySchema([In, MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.LPWStr)] string pszPath);
	void RefreshPropertySchema();
}

class PropertySystem : IDisposable {
	[DllImport("Propsys.dll", CharSet = CharSet.Unicode)]
	public static extern int PSGetPropertySystem(
		[In] ref Guid riid,   // IID_IPropertySystem
		[Out, MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.Interface)] out IPropertySystem ppv);
	[DllImport("Propsys.dll", CharSet = CharSet.Unicode)]
	public static extern int PSGetPropertySystem(
		[In] ref Guid riid,   // IID_IPropertySystem
		[Out] out IntPtr ppv); // IPropertySystem **

	public void Dispose() {
		if (_pPropSystem != null) {
			WriteLine("Release COM object = {0}", Marshal.ReleaseComObject(_pPropSystem));
			_pPropSystem = null;
		}
		if (_ppv != IntPtr.Zero) {
			WriteLine("Release COM pointer = {0}", Marshal.Release(_ppv));
			_ppv = IntPtr.Zero;
		}
	}

	IPropertySystem _pPropSystem = null;
	IntPtr _ppv = IntPtr.Zero;

	static Guid IID_IPropertySystem = typeof(IPropertySystem).GUID;

	public PropertySystem(bool asPointer) {
		if (asPointer) {
			int hr = PSGetPropertySystem(ref IID_IPropertySystem, out _ppv);
			if (hr < 0)
				Marshal.ThrowExceptionForHR(hr);
		}
		else {
			int hr = PSGetPropertySystem(ref IID_IPropertySystem, out _pPropSystem);
			if (hr < 0)
				Marshal.ThrowExceptionForHR(hr);
		}
	}
	public void CreatePointerFromObject() {
		_ppv = Marshal.GetIUnknownForObject(_pPropSystem);
	}
	public void CreateObjectFromPointer() {
		_pPropSystem = (IPropertySystem)Marshal.GetObjectForIUnknown(_ppv);
	}
}

class Program {
	static void Main(string[] args) {
		PropertySystem ps;
		ps = new PropertySystem(true);
		ps.Dispose();
		WriteLine();
		ps = new PropertySystem(false);
		ps.Dispose();
		WriteLine();
		ps = new PropertySystem(true);
		ps.CreateObjectFromPointer();
		ps.Dispose();
		WriteLine();
		ps = new PropertySystem(false);
		ps.CreatePointerFromObject();
		ps.Dispose();
		ReadKey(true);
	}
}

Cheers,

Mick
------------------------------------------------
It doesn't matter how often or hard you fall on your arse, eventually you'll roll over and land on your feet.

This is my first message so Hello Every One Smile | :)

I'm writing software for Intermec CK3X mobile barcode collector, I use the Intermec reference dll files (Intermec.DataCollection.CF2.dll). When a barcode is read the bcr_BarcodeRead method is executed. The problem is that when some error appear inside this method, for example format exception in line:

int x = Convert.ToInt16("some text");

then in Visual Studio 2008 in debug mode I get "No symbols are loaded for any call stack frame. The source code cannot be displayed". But when I put those line in onButtonClick() method then VS can show me exactly a line with the error.

Why VS can't show me error line in bcr_BarcodeRead method?

I hope it will be understandable Smile | :)

Best regards
Andrew

I'm a C++ programmer but the answer should be the same for .Net.

To debug code located in a DLL, you need a PDB file for the DLL. To show also the source code it must be off course present. For your code the PDB files are generated when building the application.

If you have access to the source code you can build your own debug version of the DLL which creates the PDB file. If not, you have to ask the author for a PDB file.

If you have the PDB file but it is not located in the directory of your DLL or the executable, you can specify the path. See How to: Specify a Symbol Path[^] (link is for VS 2008).

See also Debugging with Symbols (Windows)[^].

I was looking for a way to write unicode characters to an INI file. I stumbled upon some solutions which were not satisfactory: they involved ANSI/UTF-8 files. So here is a workaround.

C#

Module INI
    Private Declare Ansi Function WritePrivateProfileString _
       Lib "kernel32.dll" Alias "WritePrivateProfileStringA" _
       (ByVal lpApplicationName As String, _
       ByVal lpKeyName As String, ByVal lpString As String, _
       ByVal lpFileName As String) As Integer

    Private Declare Auto Function GetPrivateProfileString Lib "kernel32" (ByVal lpAppName As String, _
    ByVal lpKeyName As String, _
    ByVal lpDefault As String, _
    ByVal lpReturnedString As StringBuilder, _
    ByVal nSize As Integer, _
    ByVal lpFileName As String) As Integer



    Public Function GetPrivateProfileStringUnicode(ApplicationName As String, KeyName As String, FileName As String) As String
        Dim sb As New StringBuilder(500)
        GetPrivateProfileString(ApplicationName, KeyName, "", sb, sb.Capacity, FileName)
        Dim Value As String = sb.ToString
        If InStr(Value, "#") = 0 Then
            'No #-character found, so there is nothing to convert back
            Return Value
        Else
            Dim i As Integer
            Dim Parts() As String = Split(Value, "#") 'Split value to array
            For i = 1 To UBound(Parts) Step 2         'If i is an odd number Parts(i) always contains a integer which should be converted back
                Parts(i) = Trim(ChrW(CInt(Parts(i))))
            Next
            Return Join(Parts, "")                    'Return the joined array Parts
        End If
    End Function

    Public Sub WritePrivateProfileStringUnicode(ApplicationName As String, KeyName As String, Value As String, FileName As String)
        'First escape the #-character

        Dim NewValue As String = Replace(Value, "#", "#" & Asc("#") & "#")


        If IsUnicode(NewValue) Then
            'Value has unicode characters; we convert them to integer value preceded and followed by a #-character
            Dim i As Integer
            Dim ValueUnicode As String = ""
            For i = 1 To Len(NewValue)
                Dim strChar As String = Mid(NewValue, i, 1)
                If AscW(strChar) > 255 Or AscW(strChar) < 0 Then
                    strChar = "#" & AscW(strChar) & "#"
                End If
                ValueUnicode = ValueUnicode & strChar
            Next
            'Write converted string to INI file directly
            WritePrivateProfileString(ApplicationName, KeyName, ValueUnicode, FileName)
        Else
            'No unicode characters, so write to INI file directly
            WritePrivateProfileString(ApplicationName, KeyName, NewValue, FileName)
        End If
    End Sub

    Private Function IsUnicode(input As String) As Boolean
        Dim asciiBytesCount = Encoding.ASCII.GetByteCount(input)
        Dim unicodBytesCount = Encoding.UTF8.GetByteCount(input)
        Return asciiBytesCount <> unicodBytesCount
    End Function

End Module

If this is supposed to be a Tip, then please post it in the proper place. This forum is for technical questions.

Yes. It is a tip and I marked it as a 'Sugestion' (and isn't that the same), so why the barking? BTW: I posted it also as an article. Cheer up man!

Cees Verburg wrote:
why the barking

Because this is the wrong place, that's why.

Cees Verburg wrote:
sn't that the same

Not it's not the same.

Cees Verburg wrote:
I posted it also as an article

Good. Closer, it's not an article either.

Speed of sound - 1100 ft/sec
Speed of light - 186,000 mi/sec
Speed of stupid - instantaneous.

OMG, this was my first post ever. I wonder if I can handle all those critical and above all critical viewers (who don't use their real names but use hot shot names like NotPolitcallyCorrect).

Cees Verburg wrote:
OMG, this was my first post ever.

Technically, the one where you state that is not the first in the thread, but welcome to CodeProject Smile | :)

Cees Verburg wrote:
I wonder if I can handle all those critical and above all critical viewers (who don't use their real names but use hot shot names like NotPolitcallyCorrect).

You run that risk on most forums.

Personally, I'd recommend encoding such values in base64 Smile | :)

Bastard Programmer from Hell Suspicious | :suss:

If you can't read my code, try converting it here[^]

Cees Verburg wrote:
all those critical and above all critical viewers

If you are so easily offended by people POLITELY telling you this is the wrong place, especially after you being a member for over 7 YEARS and you have apparently not read any of the posting guidelines in that time, then you really need to grow a much thicker skin.

Speed of sound - 1100 ft/sec
Speed of light - 186,000 mi/sec
Speed of stupid - instantaneous.

I think it's a cultural thing.

Not everyone is as heavy-handed as westerners.

Cees Verburg wrote:
why the barking?

Woof!

Richard MacCutchan wrote:
Woof!

Why so ruff?

Speed of sound - 1100 ft/sec
Speed of light - 186,000 mi/sec
Speed of stupid - instantaneous.

Cees Verburg wrote:
Yes. It is a tip and I marked it as a 'Sugestion'

When you hover over articles in the menu choose "Submit an article or tip." Then post it as a tip, not as an article.

I am using the Suggestion icon for this specific message as I am suggesting to you what to do.

Cees Verburg wrote:
Cheer up man!

He was very polite in his response.

There are only 10 types of people in the world, those who understand binary and those who don't.

Hey, it was worth some "high 5's" to them.

Don't you get it? ... That's what matters.

I need help for sign an XML files with (signature tag). Nothing problem if the platform is a standard PC but in .NET COMPACT FRAMEWORK for windows mobile 6 I have problems. First .. exist Systems.Security in .NET CF? 2.0 or 3.5? Where are?

this is my code for Pc ..:

VB

Public Function Firma(ByVal XmlFile as String) As Boolean
Dim signedXML as String = "c:\signedXML.xml"
    ' setup the document to sign 
    Dim doc As XmlDocument = New XmlDocument()
    doc.Load(XmlFile)
    Dim signer As SignedXml = New SignedXml(doc)

    'setup the key used to sign 
    Dim key As Security.Cryptography.RSA = New Security.Cryptography.RSACryptoServiceProvider()
    signer.KeyInfo = New Security.Cryptography.Xml.KeyInfo()

    signer.KeyInfo.AddClause(New Security.Cryptography.Xml.RSAKeyValue(key))
    signer.SigningKey = key

    'create a reference to the root of the document 
    Dim orderRef As Security.Cryptography.Xml.Reference = New Security.Cryptography.Xml.Reference("")
    orderRef.AddTransform(New Security.Cryptography.Xml.XmlDsigEnvelopedSignatureTransform())
    orderRef.DigestMethod = "http://www.w3.org/2001/04/xmlenc#sha256"

    signer.AddReference(orderRef)

    'add transforms that only select the order items, type, and 
    'compute the signature, and add it to the document 
    signer.ComputeSignature()
    doc.DocumentElement.AppendChild(signer.GetXml())
    doc.Save(signedXML)
End Function

Alex

Hi,

For my school, I developed a small Access database application using Visual Studio 2010 (VB). The application installed just fine on the laptop I use and on another teacher’s laptop, too. The application runs on my laptop, but the other teacher receives the following error message when she tries to run the application: “The feature you are trying to use is on a CD-ROM or other removable disk that is not available. Insert the program disk and click OK.”

Please point me in the right direction. Is this a setup project/installation design problem, or is it something that can be fixed in Windows?

I'd be glad to provide more details if that would help ... just didn't want to write a book.

Thanks!

That error is as generic as it gets. It could be from Windows where a feature your code used is set to "install on first use" or it be from a missing pre-requisite that your application needs to run.

Given that you're using Access as a database, any machine that runs your code either needs the version of Office installed that you wrote the code against (Access is part of Office) or you need to install the appropriate Access Runtime for whatever version of Access you targeted.

A guide to posting questions on CodeProject

Click this: Asking questions is a skill.
Seriously, do it.

Dave Kreskowiak

Thanks for your reply … it got me thinking.

On my home (development) PC I had the same problem if I logged in to my Family account rather than my Admin account. Even though the application (and Access) were installed for both accounts, the error occurred. Strange ... but I could at least duplicate the problem again here at home.

So I tried launching the application again from the Family account. This time when the error message appeared, I just plugged in the flash drive containing the .MSI file and pointed the dialog to it. The application then proceeded to launch normally. As a further test, I then unplugged the flash drive, logged out, and logged back in. This time I was able to launch the application without getting the error message at all. So apparently something was “fixed” by pointing the dialog at the .MSI file the first time.

I wish I understood why this was necessary. Then maybe I could do something to prevent it in the future. I don't want to waste your time trying to track down the source of such a generic error, but if you have any more quick-and-easy insight I'd appreciate it.

Meanwhile, at least I know the work-around. Thanks again for your help!

It's probably because when you built your MSI, the/a Feature containing your application, or some part of it, is flagged as "Install on first use".

A guide to posting questions on CodeProject

Click this: Asking questions is a skill.
Seriously, do it.

Dave Kreskowiak

I am looking for a .net developer to fix and update an existing application. let me know if anyone is interested.