Re: Passing collection via Web Services - C# Discussion Boards

Re: Changing the fugly Setup Wizard icon in MSI files.

7-May-04 9:45

The one at the top? Yes. You can change this in VS.NET by opening the User Interface view with your installer project selected. Click on the form and you'll see a BannerBitmap property in the PropertyGrid. You can change it here, but it has to either be a file installed with the product, or there's a nifty little trick where you can put a bitmap in the File System Editor but mark the file as excluded (this gets compiled into the Binary table of the MSI package anyway - so a destination bitmap isn't necessary).

The problem is that you need to do this for each form. If you download and install the Windows Installer SDK (part of the Platform SDK, which is currently the Feb. 2003 edition), you can install the Orca utility. Load your compiled MSI into Orca, go to the Binary table, the double-click the second column for the DefBannerBitmap record (that's the key name). Just import a different bitmap of proportional size. This replaces the bitmap for every dialog in one shot.

If you need a better installer, I recommend either one from Wise Solutions[^] or InstallShield[^]. I have a lot of experience with both (having a been a beta-tester for Windows Installer since before 1.0) and I prefer Wise for extensibility (if you know how to modify the tables, which InstallShield added support for not until 4.0) and for cost.

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Tony Archer7-May-04 13:54

Tony Archer

7-May-04 13:54

Thank you. Modifying the form's graphic will do fine for my purposes. Just didn't want it to look too crappy

Smile | :)

--Tony Archer
"I can build it good, fast and cheap. Pick any two."

Passing collection via Web Services

Diego F.7-May-04 8:32

Diego F.

7-May-04 8:32

Hello. I've asked this in many places but nobody could help me. Let's try again.

I need to pass a custom object that has a collection (I don't mind which if it's a problem: I like the ArrayList) to a web service.
The class is defined in a DLL and the clients are Pocket PCs (Remoting can't be used).

My problems are because I have to use a modified version of my class to use with the web service. This class only exposes the properties. The main problem is that I don't find a good idea to make the List public, but then it's not accesible as the class only shows properties.

The original class can't be casted to that new class. The only thing that could save me is that I could wrap my class in any other object that can easily travel through the web service. XML or something.

Can you please help me?

Heath Stewart7-May-04 9:40

7-May-04 9:40

What classes are you talking about? The client-side proxy for the web service? Some other class? And who says you can't expose your ArrayList as a public property? Take this for example:

private ArrayList list;
//...
public IList MyList
{
  get { return this.list; }
  // No set accessor typically
}

You need to be a little more specific about your architecture. It's no wonder you can't get any help elsewhere. Remember - we don't know anything about your implementation, the what little "details" you give does not help one bit.

Microsoft MVP, Visual C#
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Diego F.7-May-04 12:33

Diego F.

7-May-04 12:33

Thank you for your answer. I'll try to be more specific.

I have a main class that is declared in a DLL. There are clients (Pocket PCs) that fill these objects and send them to a web service. The web service has to store these objects (in a Hashtable for instance) temporarily because the clients will access the objects later.

The problems:
- The web service has some web methods that receive and return my objects, but the proxy creates a ligth class with only the properties (not the methods). This class is incompatible with my original class, so I have to use this new class in my clients to use the web methods. The first problem with this is that the clients can't use the DLL; instead they'll use the modified class.
- I did some tests and it works with basic classes (with basic types as strings as attributes) but my original class has an ArrayList. In the modified class, the ArrayList is converted to Object[] and worst, I have to expose directly the ArrayList (well, the Object[]), instead of using methods, so the clients are more complex and I can't change the structure without modifying the clients.

My question:
- Is there any way to wrap the original class and send all to the web service(any kind of XML structure), so I can work in the clients with the original objects and send them directly to the web service?

If not, is my design wrong? I can't use Remoting as Compact Framework does not support it.

Regards,

Diego F.

Heath Stewart8-May-04 19:27

8-May-04 19:27

You should be able to modify your web service proxy and use the original types of whatever you're talking about. So long as the serialized form is correct, it really shouldn't matter. The biggest problem is that the Type references in the SOAP will be different. You can get around that using an intermediate step, such as transforming the SOAP body using XSLT or changing the DOM.

Another suggestion is to create a shared assembly (if possible) that both the client and web server use. Change the references in the web service proxy so that the shared Type (that the web service expects) is specified instead. This is common in .NET Remoting and I don't see why it wouldn't work in this case. You just have to do a little hacking on the VS.NET-generated class files, but it's really not so difficult.

Microsoft MVP, Visual C#
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Passing params to an embedded control in IE

Dave Brighton21-Jun-04 1:15

Dave Brighton

21-Jun-04 1:15

ASP.Net seems to be getting the majority of the attention from Microsoft. Apparently that is where the money is. There are some really cool methods already written for ASP.Net for passing values to wherever.

My article is intended for us poor, lonely, forgotten, C# Windows applications developers, that don't get that kind of attention from the experts.

Dave Brighton

TigerNinja_7-May-04 8:22

7-May-04 8:22

I am hosting a .NET control inside of IE.
Syntax:
<object id="PrintConfig" classid="http:PrintConfig.dll#PrintConfig.PrintConfig" VIEWASTEXT></object>

However, I want my .aspx page to be able to pass params to the PrintConfig.dll, is this possible ? If so, could you point me to a reference or documentation ?

Thanks.

R.Bischoff
.NET, Kommst du mit?

Heath Stewart7-May-04 9:37

7-May-04 9:37

First, your classid attribute should not include "http:". Use a relative path or an absolute path. Only include "http://" plus the host name if you want to use a control from another site (in which case that site needs to be configured in the Url evidence for the code access security group that must be created - all covered in my article I linked the other day.

On your class interface, declare a property of type object or IWebBrowser2 (requires that you reference the shdocvw.dll native COM server, which creates an interop assembly (default is typically Interop.SHDocVw.dll) that must be in the same directory (or if you read the documentation about the assembly binding configuration settings - you can figure out other places to put it) as the PrintConfig.dll.

Make sure you implement this property in your user control.

Then, in your .aspx page for the onload event of your OBJECT (to make sure it's loaded first, otherwise an error will occur), set that property to the window object of the web browser.

You must use a dispatch interface or the scripting engine cannot access the object model. My article I linked also covers this, as well as why auto-generated class interfaces should not be used (declare them explicitly and implement them as the first interface in your class declaration).

Microsoft MVP, Visual C#
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TigerNinja_7-May-04 10:57

7-May-04 10:57

Sorry about that Heath, I just skimmed your article, I should have read more thoroughly. Filling the gap of the .aspx page (server) and the embedded control (local machine) with the web browser interface makes perfect sense.

I'll give it a go!

Thanks again for the tips.

R.Bischoff
.NET, Kommst du mit?

TigerNinja_18-May-04 8:34

Denn Gott hat die Menschen so sehr geliebt, daß er seinen einzigen Sohn für sie hergab. Jeder, der an ihn glaubt, wird nicht verlorengehen, sondern das ewige Leben haben

18-May-04 8:34

Heath Stewart wrote:
Then, in your .aspx page for the onload event of your OBJECT (to make sure it's loaded first, otherwise an error will occur), set that property to the window object of the web browser.

Does OBJECT has an onload event ? During the step of setting the property, say Prop1 to the window object, what does this syntax look like ?

p.s. Is it possible for my .aspx to read values from the embedded c# control ?

thanks again.

R.Bischoff

Heath Stewart18-May-04 9:24

how can I clear out null characters in a string var?

18-May-04 9:24

No, but you could use onreadystatechanged:

<object id="myControl" clsid="MyAssembly.dll#MyNamespace.MyControl"
  onreadystatechanged="setProperties();">
</object>
<script language="javascript">
function setProperties()
{
  if (myControl.readyState == "complete")
    myControl.Prop1 = "something";
}

Don't forget, though, that you can use the <param> tags inside the <object> element to set public properties on the control as well.

Microsoft MVP, Visual C#
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djkno37-May-04 8:03

djkno3

7-May-04 8:03

I read in a chunk of a file in bytes, converted it to ascii, made it a string and now I am trying to clear out the '\0' characters. Any advice?

Re: how can I clear out null characters in a string var?

Jeff Varszegi7-May-04 8:15

Jeff Varszegi

7-May-04 8:15

The simplest single-line call is to do this:

<your string>.Replace('\0'.ToString(), ""));

or

<your string>.Replace("\0", ""));

I would probably recommend stripping unneeded chars as you're reading in the bytes, or when you convert to ascii, if you're doing that work yourself and can find a good place to insert the logic; it'd probably be faster that way.

-Jeff

here, bloggy bloggy

Re: how can I clear out null characters in a string var?

djkno37-May-04 8:17

djkno3

7-May-04 8:17

dammit I knew it was somthing simple like that Wink | ;)

thanks

A theoretical question involving Direct3D

Andres Coder7-May-04 7:59

Andres Coder

7-May-04 7:59

I just started wondering how are those modern 3D RTS-games made. The 3D world structure I mean. How are those 3D mountains (that are not models but can be dynamicalle be altered in runtime) and stuff like that made ...

Isn't there a article somewhere covering something like this ?

Regards, Desmond

Re: A theoretical question involving Direct3D

TigerNinja_7-May-04 8:26

Re: A theoretical question involving Direct3D

7-May-04 8:26

I am not sure, but I think meshes are used.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/dndrive/html/directx11192002.asp[^]

or try a search on "Managed DirectX"

Good luck

R.Bischoff
.NET, Kommst du mit?

Heath Stewart7-May-04 9:32

Re: A theoretical question involving Direct3D

7-May-04 9:32

Search for books on Amazon about DirectX. I'm reading a couple and they explain a bit of this, though not using the advanced techniques of modern 3D engines for games. That takes experience and deep research into modern game programming.

Microsoft MVP, Visual C#
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Dave Brighton21-Jun-04 1:20

Dave Brighton

21-Jun-04 1:20

No, Mueller hints at this in his book "In Search of the Lost Win32API."
I have not seen anybody actually write code for a Windows Application.
All the texts write their code for Console Applications.

Dave Brighton

How do I send messages to another form

kayhustle7-May-04 7:31

kayhustle

7-May-04 7:31

I want to know how to send data from one form to another? Like lets say I want my program to put data in the textbox of another form, how would I go about doing this?
Thanks,
K

CWIZO7-May-04 7:39

CWIZO

7-May-04 7:39

This was anwserd so many times in thsi forum ...
Search a little.

But the idea is to pass a refrence of the form with the textvox to the form that wants to change that textbox in the constructor.

Q:What does the derived class in C# tell to it's parent?
A:All your base are belong to us!

Jeff Varszegi7-May-04 7:45

Jeff Varszegi

7-May-04 7:45

Even better, use MVC with or without a Mediator.

-Jeff

here, bloggy bloggy

kayhustle7-May-04 8:10

kayhustle

7-May-04 8:10

Thanks, but what if I didn't create the class for the textbox I want to send to. For example, if I wanted to send info to a text box in a web browser, where I can start the process with the Process class, but how would I access a reference to it?

Heath Stewart7-May-04 9:31