Silverlight 4 webclient authentication - anyone have this working yet? - silverlight

So one of the best parts about the new Silverlight 4 beta is that they finally implemented the big missing feature of the networking stack - Network Credentials!
In the below I have a working request setup, but for some reason I get a "security error" when the request comes back - is this because twitter.com rejected my api call or something that I'm missing in code?
It might be good to point out that when I watch this code execute via fiddler it shows that the xml file for cross domain is pulled down successfully, but that is the last request shown by fiddler ...
public void RequestTimelineFromTwitterAPI()
{
WebRequest.RegisterPrefix("https://", System.Net.Browser.WebRequestCreator.ClientHttp);
WebClient myService = new WebClient();
myService.AllowReadStreamBuffering = true;
myService.UseDefaultCredentials = false;
myService.Credentials = new NetworkCredential("username", "password");
myService.UseDefaultCredentials = false;
myService.OpenReadCompleted += new OpenReadCompletedEventHandler(TimelineRequestCompleted);
myService.OpenReadAsync(new Uri("https://twitter.com/statuses/friends_timeline.xml"));
}
public void TimelineRequestCompleted(object sender, System.Net.OpenReadCompletedEventArgs e)
{
//anytime I query for e.Result I get a security error
}

I found 2 issues that caused this request to throw the security exception
1) - In this video by Tim Heuer it turns out my VS2010 w/ Silverlight 4 toolkit installation didn't match the final build so I'm missing the option that shows up in the "out of browser settings" dialog that provides the checkbox for "Require elevated trust when running outside the browser".
In the video listed above Tim checks this so the Silverlight app can talk to the twitter API
But because my application didn't have this option I had to manually edit the xml file so it looked like the below. You can find this xml under properties in the project folder or inside visual studio directly.
<OutOfBrowserSettings ShortName="TrustedNetworkApp Application" EnableGPUAcceleration="False" ShowInstallMenuItem="True">
<OutOfBrowserSettings.Blurb>TrustedNetworkApp Application on your desktop; at home, at work or on the go.</OutOfBrowserSettings.Blurb>
<OutOfBrowserSettings.WindowSettings>
<WindowSettings Title="TrustedNetworkApp Application" Height="480" Width="640" />
</OutOfBrowserSettings.WindowSettings>
<OutOfBrowserSettings.SecuritySettings>
<SecuritySettings ElevatedPermissions="Required" />
</OutOfBrowserSettings.SecuritySettings>
<OutOfBrowserSettings.Icons />
</OutOfBrowserSettings>
Notice the **security settings ElevatedPermissions="Required"
After you save this it's equivalent to checking this as Tim did in the video.
2) - as I was watching that video by Tim I noticed that you have to debug this outside of the browser to get it working. So install the app and run it outside the browser. This app now works.
I'll write a short blog post to summarize my experience with the networking stack under the beta and link to it for anyone interested.
Update
I finally wrote a blog post about my experience building an out of browser twitter client using Silverlight 4 if anyone is interested.

Related

Application Insights for WPF Application

There is a WPF application written in Visual Studio.
Can I add Application Insights to this WPF app?
I would like to know how many times a button/tile is clicked. Since there are multiple installations
of the same application, I would like to know which button was clicked how many times from which user/installation. Can this be done with Application Insights?
Thanks
Avanti
While not listed as a supported app type this means there isn't default telemetry data collected/sent to application insights nor is there support for adding AI/creating an application insights resource. That being said it is possible to add to your WPF with a few manual steps so that you can track the specific scenarios you mention (like a button/tile click).
-From Visual studio add the "Application Insights API" NuGet to the project (.11 is the latest today).
This will add the Application Insights API reference and create an application insights configuration file to your project.
The applicationinsights.config file needs to be updated with your instrumentation key as follows:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<ApplicationInsights xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/ApplicationInsights/2013/Settings" schemaVersion="2014-05-30">
<TelemetryChannel>
<DeveloperMode>false</DeveloperMode>
</TelemetryChannel>
<TelemetryModules>
<Add Type="Microsoft.ApplicationInsights.Tracing.DiagnosticsTelemetryModule, Microsoft.ApplicationInsights"/>
</TelemetryModules>
<InstrumentationKey>**your-instrumentation-key-guid**</InstrumentationKey>
</ApplicationInsights>
To create an application insights instrumentation key login to your azure subscription.
https://portal.azure.com
Click + to create an Application Insights resource.
Then choose the properties tile on the application insights blade and copy the Instrumentation key and add it to your applicationinsights.config file.
Now in your WPF app you can use the Application Insights sdk as described here: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/visualstudioalm/archive/2014/10/21/application-insights-sdk-0-11-0-prerelease.aspx
your events will be visible in the diagnostic search blade which can be selected on the application insights blade.
Note: telemetry is batched locally for 1 min before being sent to the service unless > 500 telemetry events are queued at which point they are sent.
https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/documentation/articles/app-insights-windows-desktop/
An official link from Microsoft on how to add Application Insights to a Windows Forms application. From the link:
In Azure - portal.azure.com
Create an Application Resource. ::New / Developer Services / Application Insights.
Notice the instrumentation key generated, grab a copy and set it aside, we'll need it when we configure your application.
In Your Application
NuGet - Add 'Application Insights API'
Configure your TelemetryClient.
I'm using MvvmCross in a WPF application, on startup I create a single TelemetryClient that I re-use throughout the application.
var telemetryClient = new TelemetryClient();
telemetryClient.InstrumentationKey = "your key here from Azure";
telemetryClient.Context.Session.Id = Guid.NewGuid().ToString();
telemetryClient.Context.User.AccountId = Username;
telemetryClient.Context.Component.Version = Settings.Default.Version;
telemetryClient.TrackEvent("Application Start");
Mvx.RegisterSingleton<TelemetryClient>(telemetryClient);
Record an event/screen/exception, etc
Any time 'something happens' I'll resolve the TelemetryClient and record the event. This is just like any other Application Insights implementation with regards to tracking and recording.
As an example -
//Resolve the telemetry client
readonly TelemetryClient telemetryClient = Mvx.Resolve<TelemetryClient>();
//Record a page View with some extra information
var pageviewTelemetry = new PageViewTelemetry("Observations");
pageviewTelemetry.Properties.Add("Breadcrumb", breadcrumb);
telemetryClient.TrackPageView(pageviewTelemetry);
//Track an event
var eventTelemetry = new EventTelemetry("Observation Saved");
eventTelemetry.Properties.Add("Saved Observation", observation);
telemetryClient.TrackEvent(eventTelemetry);
//Track an exception
try
{
// do work here
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
telemeteryClient.TrackException(ex);
}
Flush on Application Exit
Application Insights for Windows Desktop applications does not automatically gather/send anything. As a developer one needs to force a flush at application exit.
private void PowerButton_OnClick(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
{
var tc = Mvx.Resolve<TelemetryClient>();
if (null != tc)
{
tc.Flush(); // only for desktop apps
}
Application.Current.Shutdown();
}
Or setup an RxTimer to flush on a schedule...I decided to flush every 30 minutes:
var observable = Observable.Interval(new TimeSpan(0, 0, 30, 0));
observable.Subscribe(_ => Application.Current.Dispatcher.Invoke(new Action(() =>
{
var tc = Mvx.Resolve<TelemetryClient>();
if (null != tc)
{
tc.Flush(); // only for desktop apps
Console.WriteLine("Flush TC");
}
})));
FYI - As of 0.17.0 of the Application Insights API NuGet Package if you are offline the flush call doesn't hang, but appears to. Online, the call completes immediately, offline there is a solid 5 second pause before the call completes.
Application Insights (AI) for desktop applications is being deprecated in favor of HockeyApp. It's not overly mature yet, but it works (events essentially reach the same place AI events go).
For example, here's how it looks in RoslynPad (a WPF C# Editor):
using Microsoft.HockeyApp;
//In your initialization method:
var hockeyClient = (HockeyClient)HockeyClient.Current;
hockeyClient.Configure(HockeyAppId)
.RegisterCustomDispatcherUnhandledExceptionLogic(OnUnhandledDispatcherException)
.UnregisterDefaultUnobservedTaskExceptionHandler();
var platformHelper = (HockeyPlatformHelperWPF)hockeyClient.PlatformHelper;
platformHelper.AppVersion = _currentVersion.ToString();
hockeyClient.TrackEvent("App Start");
//sometime later:
hockeyClient.TrackEvent("Something happened");
EDIT Looks like the following NuGet package is required in order for this to work properly: https://www.nuget.org/packages/HockeySDK.WPF.TelemetryWorkaround (see https://github.com/bitstadium/HockeySDK-Windows/pull/88).

Consume SOAP Web Service in Silverlight

I'm attempting to consume a SOAP service in a Silverlight 5 application and I'm completely lost. This is my first Silverlight app and only my second time using web services in a .NET application.
In a separate .NET application, the only way I was able to get it to work was by adding the WSDL as a Web Reference; the application would not build when I added it as a Service Reference. In talking to the WSDL provider, I discovered that the WSDL was compiled using the .NET 2.0 framework...hence the need to add it as a Web Reference.
From the research I've done thus far, I see that Silverlight doesn't support adding a Web Reference. So I tried adding it to the hosting ASP.NET application as a Web Reference then started the server.
Back in my Silverlight app, I selected the option to add a Service Reference and pointed to the WSDL file now at http://localhost:55265/Web%20References/THINKWebService/SLWebSvc_734_Upgrade.wsdl. Visual Studio seemed to pick it up just fine and generate the proxies.
Here's where I start to get stuck. If my research is correct, a WCF reference was created and should be used in that manner. I've never used WCF so I did some reading on how to send/receive requests and this is the best code I've come up with, based on examples in the MSDN library (I inserted it into a button click event so I would know exactly when the code was executing):
private void Button1Click(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
{
var client = new ThinkSoapClient();
var userLoginData = new user_login_data {login = "foo", password = "bar"};
var customerIdentifier = new customer_identifier {customer_id = 6677070};
// the debugger halts on this next line and
// references the "dsn"...it's the 4th argument
client.CustomerLoginInfoSelectAsync(userLoginData, customerIdentifier, "", "myDSN");
// I'm not sure if this next line is even needed
client.CustomerLoginInfoSelectCompleted += CustomerLoginInfoSelectCallback;
MessageBox.Show(string.Format("CustomerLoginInfoSelectAsync({0},{1})", userLoginData, customerIdentifier));
}
// here's the callback method
static void CustomerLoginInfoSelectCallback(object sender, CustomerLoginInfoSelectCompletedEventArgs e)
{
MessageBox.Show(string.Format("CustomerLoginInfoSelect Result: {0}", e.Result));
}
As I mentioned in the code above, the debugger halts when executing the client.CustomerLoginInfoSelectAsync method. Here's the error message: XmlSerializer attribute System.Xml.Serialization.XmlAttributeAttribute is not valid in dsn. Only XmlElement, XmlArray, XmlArrayItem and XmlAnyElement attributes are supported when IsWrapped is true.
From the research I've done, I think this error is being caused because the the SOAP action element contains an attribute dsn (not sure, though, if I would be getting this error if the sub-elements also had attributes).
I did a find/replace for IsWrapped=true to IsWrapped=false in Reference.cs but I got the same error but the last word was false instead of true.
I'm not sure if I'm making any sense as to what I'm after, so here's what the generated XML should look like in case it helps:
...
<customer_login_info_select_request dsn="myDSN">
<user_login_data>
<login>foo</login>
<password>bar</password>
</user_login_data>
<customer_identifier>
<customer_id>6677070</customer_id>
</customer_identifier>
<login/> <!--corresponds to the empty string in the call to CustomerLoginInfoSelectAsync-->
</customer_login_info_select_request>
...
So at this point, I'm completely lost. Any insights would be greatly appreciated. If there's any other info I can provide, please let me know.
While possible the normal solution would be to assume it is "just another data source" and use the Web reference on your Server side instead to provide data (and to provide insulation against future changes).
Silverlight App <=> Silverlight Web Services <= External/Legacy Web Service
Keep your Silverlight app slim and let the server do any heavy lifting for you.

Lync 2010 Plugin - Silverlight WPF with elevated permissions

I'm developing a CWE (Conversation Extensibility Window) with WPF and Silverlight 4 on Visual Studio 2010, for Lync 2010.
My application reads a list of .xml from the root directory of the application and into a string array.
I've this code:
bool featureComplete = Application.Current.HasElevatedPermissions;
if (featureComplete)
{
List<string> files = new List<string>(Directory.EnumerateFiles(textBox1.Text, "*.*"));
mensajes.Content = files.Count;
}
else
{
mensajes.Content = "no trust";
}
In the event handler of a button event. With any path (my documents, root, application, etc) the application says "no trust".
I change the properties on the build to Out-of-browser settings and also check "require elevated trust" but nothing happens.
I tried and tried looking for an answer on google and msdn but I could not find a solution.
So there's a checklist or step list to make a trusted CWE on Lync2010 with silverlight? I forgot something?
Please remember: this is not a usual web application, its a lync 2010 app.
ALSO: I can do it with "debug mode" with special folders like this tutorial: http://www.silverlight.net/learn/graphics/file-and-local-data/local-file-access
and it works, but when I run it under lync 2010 it says "access denied" for that folder.
There is the code that works only on debug as an application, and not works like lync applet:
List<string> picsinfolder = new List<string>();
var pics = Directory.EnumerateFiles
(Environment.GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder.MyPictures));
foreach (var item in pics)
{
picsinfolder.Add(item);
}
listBox1.ItemsSource = picsinfolder;
Thanks a lot in advance.
PD: Work-arounds that fix the issue can be accepted as an answer
PD2: No, signing the xap doesn't work.
The work around I'm using and works is open an XML, reading, copy into Isolated Storage, read it again from there. Everytime I need to change the file, I read it and copy again on Isolated Storage

WebClient fails with remote server "NotFound"

I'm building a wp7 app. I'm using WebClient to grab data from a server. In the past, it's been working, although all of a sudden it's failing.
static void downloadData(string uri, Action<object, DownloadStringCompletedEventArgs> onComplete)
{
Debug.WriteLine("Downloading: " + uri);
WebClient data = new WebClient();
data.DownloadStringCompleted += new DownloadStringCompletedEventHandler(onComplete);
data.DownloadStringAsync(new Uri(uri));
}
static void data_SectionDownloadCompleted(object sender, DownloadStringCompletedEventArgs e)
{
if (e.Error != null)
{
// throws NotFound
throw e.Error;
}
// ...
}
When I go to the URI in question in my browser, it works fine.
The exception:
"The remote server returned an error: NotFound." {System.Net.WebException}
What am I doing wrong here?
Update: I restarted the emulator, and now it works fine. Weird. Maybe it's an issue in the emulator? Hopefully I won't be able to reproduce it on the actual device.
NotFound is a generic error that basically means 'Error'. There is a real exception behind it that you need to dig to find. The easiest method I have found is Intellitrace which allows you to view every exception that ever happened on your web server. If you look just before your NotFound, you will find the real exception that backs it.
If Intellitrace is not an option, add more/better logging on your server and client. Google has many tips, a good example of deeper debugging:
http://www.mostlydevelopers.com/blog/post/2009/01/14/debugging-tips-ndash3b-the-remote-server-returned-an-error-notfound.aspx
I had similar experience with the emulator. I often open Internet Explorer and browse a site before I test any application that uses the network. Also, it is best not to change the IP address of the machine running the emulator, DHCP or manually. Lastly, I would suggest you handle any error scenarios with an error message displayed in a MessageBox.
HTH, indyfromoz
I get this occassionaly too. Even on real devices. A retry usually fixes it though.
Unfortunately this is one of the issues you need to be aware of and write code to cater for when working in an occassionally connected environment.

Can silverlight detect or communicate across browser instances?

User starts up a silverlight application in their browser by navigating to a given URL.
User then opens another browser and starts up the same silverlight application by navigating to the same URL.
Can the second instance of the application detect that there is already an instance running on the same computer?
Can it detect itself if both applications are running within the same browser instance?
I would expect the answer to be 'no' but thought that i would ask it anyway. Otherwise i believe that i will have to setup a webservice and have each instance register itself and send requests to other instances from the same IP. does that sound reasonable?
I think you may be looking for LocalMessageSender and LocalMessageReceiver. I believe these are new classes in Silverlight 3 allowing two Silverlight applications running on the same local computer to communicate.
More detail: Communication Between Local Silverlight-Based Applications (msdn)
This will work, I've done it myself. This code from the Microsoft site demonstrates how you set up a LocalMessage 'receiver". If it throws an error, it is because another instance of the Silverlight app is already running.
public Receiver()
{
InitializeComponent();
LocalMessageReceiver messageReceiver =
new LocalMessageReceiver("receiver",
ReceiverNameScope.Global, LocalMessageReceiver.AnyDomain);
messageReceiver.MessageReceived += messageReceiver_MessageReceived;
try
{
messageReceiver.Listen();
}
catch (ListenFailedException)
{
output.Text = "Cannot receive messages." + Environment.NewLine +
"There is already a receiver with the name 'receiver'.";
}
}
I think you're right you can't do it cross-application, but you can do it within a single browser instance using cookies or Isolated Storage.

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