F# Record Types with Entity Framework Code-Last

So based on the experience with code-first, I decided to look at using EF code-last (OK, database first).   I considered three different possibilities

1. 1) Use AutoMapper
2. 2) Use Reflection
3. 3) Hand-Roll everything

AutoMapper

If you are not familiar, Automapper is a library to allow you to,well, map types. The first thing I did was to create a database schema like this:

 1 use FamilyDomain
 2 
 3 CREATE TABLE Family
 4 (
 5 Id int NOT NULL  IDENTITY(1,1) PRIMARY KEY,
 6 LastName varchar(255) NOT NULL
 7 )
 8 
 9 CREATE TABLE Parent
10 (
11 Id int NOT NULL  IDENTITY(1,1) PRIMARY KEY,
12 FamilyId int NOT NULL,
13 FirstName varchar(255) NOT NULL
14 )
15 
16 CREATE TABLE Child
17 (
18 Id int NOT NULL  IDENTITY(1,1) PRIMARY KEY,
19 FamilyId int NOT NULL,
20 FirstName varchar(255) NOT NULL,
21 Gender varchar(10) NOT NULL,
22 Grade int NOT NULL
23 )
24 
25 CREATE TABLE Pet
26 (
27 Id int NOT NULL  IDENTITY(1,1) PRIMARY KEY,
28 ChildId int NOT NULL,
29 GivenName varchar(255) NOT NULL
30 )
31 
32 CREATE TABLE HomeAddress
33 (
34 Id int NOT NULL  IDENTITY(1,1) PRIMARY KEY,
35 FamilyId int NOT NULL,
36 StateCode varchar(2) NOT NULL,
37 County varchar(255) NOT NULL,
38 City varchar(255) NOT NULL
39 )
40 
41 ALTER TABLE Parent
42 ADD CONSTRAINT fk_Parent_Family
43 FOREIGN KEY (FamilyId)
44 REFERENCES Family(Id)
45 
46 ALTER TABLE HomeAddress
47 ADD CONSTRAINT fk_HomeAddress_Family
48 FOREIGN KEY (FamilyId)
49 REFERENCES Family(Id)
50 
51 ALTER TABLE Child
52 ADD CONSTRAINT fk_Child_Family
53 FOREIGN KEY (FamilyId)
54 REFERENCES Family(Id)
55 
56 ALTER TABLE Pet
57 ADD CONSTRAINT fk_Pet_Child
58 FOREIGN KEY (ChildId)
59 REFERENCES Child(Id)
60 
61 
62 INSERT Family VALUES
63 ('Andersen')
64 
65 INSERT Parent VALUES
66 (1,'Thomas'),
67 (1,'Mary Kay')
68 
69 INSERT Child VALUES
70 (1,'Henriette Thaulow','Female',5)
71 
72 INSERT Pet VALUES
73 (1,'Fluffy')
74 
75 INSERT HomeAddress VALUES
76 (1,'WA','King','Seattle')
77 

I then  installed automapper and entity framework type provider to a FSharp project.

 1 #r @"../packages/AutoMapper.3.3.0/lib/net40/AutoMapper.dll"
 2 #r "FSharp.Data.TypeProviders.dll"
 3 #r "System.Data.Entity.dll"
 4 
 5 open Microsoft.FSharp.Data.TypeProviders
 6 open System.Data.Entity 
 7 open AutoMapper
 8 
 9 //Entity Framework Types via Type Provider
10 let connectionString = @"Server=.;Initial Catalog=FamilyDomain;Integrated Security=SSPI;MultipleActiveResultSets=true"
11 type EntityConnection = SqlEntityConnection<ConnectionString="Server=.;Initial Catalog=FamilyDomain;Integrated Security=SSPI;MultipleActiveResultSets=true",Pluralize=true>
12 

I then created some local FSharp record types the reflect the domain:

1 type Pet = {Id:int; GivenName:string}
2 type Child = {Id:int; FirstName:string; Gender:string; Grade:int; Pets: Pet list}
3 type Address = {Id:int; State:string; County:string; City:string}
4 type Parent = {Id:int; FirstName:string}
5 type Family = {Id:int; Parents:Parent list; Children: Child list; Address:Address}

So then I was ready to start mapping.  I started with a basic GET to a single type:

 1 //AutoMapper setup
 2 Mapper.CreateMap<EntityConnection.ServiceTypes.HomeAddress, Address>()
 3 
 4 //Get one from the database
 5 let context  = EntityConnection.GetDataContext()
 6 let addressQuery = query {for address in context.HomeAddresses do select address}
 7 let address = Seq.head addressQuery
 8 
 9 //map database to record type
10 let address' = Mapper.Map<Address>(address)
11 

And I got a fail:

Source value:

SqlEntityConnection1.HomeAddress —> System.ArgumentException: Type needs to have a constructor with 0 args or only optional args

Parameter name: type

So I added [<CLIMutable>] to the record types like so

 1 [<CLIMutable>]
 2 type Pet = {Id:int; GivenName:string}
 3 [<CLIMutable>]
 4 type Child = {Id:int; FirstName:string; Gender:string; Grade:int; Pets: Pet list}
 5 [<CLIMutable>]
 6 type Address = {Id:int; State:string; County:string; City:string}
 7 [<CLIMutable>]
 8 type Parent = {Id:int; FirstName:string}
 9 [<CLIMutable>]
10 type Family = {Id:int; Parents:Parent list; Children: Child list; Address:Address}
11 

And I get the expected results

With one thing kinda interesting.  The State is null because it is defined as “StateCode” on the server and “State” in the domain.  Autopmapper is customizable to allow field name differences so that was a small issue.  Feeling confident, I went ahead and created maps to all of the domain types and pulled down a complex type from the database

 1 //AutoMapper setup
 2 Mapper.CreateMap<EntityConnection.ServiceTypes.Pet, Pet>()
 3 Mapper.CreateMap<EntityConnection.ServiceTypes.Child, Child>()
 4 Mapper.CreateMap<EntityConnection.ServiceTypes.HomeAddress, Address>()
 5 Mapper.CreateMap<EntityConnection.ServiceTypes.Parent, Parent>()
 6 Mapper.CreateMap<EntityConnection.ServiceTypes.Family, Family>()
 7 
 8 //Get Family from the database
 9 let context  = EntityConnection.GetDataContext()
10 let familyQuery = query {for family in context.Families do select family}
11 let family = Seq.head familyQuery
12 
13 //map database to record type
14 let family' = Mapper.Map<Family>(family)

When I attempted to map it, I got a pretty ugly exception

Source value:

System.Data.Objects.DataClasses.EntityCollection`1[SqlEntityConnection1.Parent]

   at AutoMapper.MappingEngine.AutoMapper.IMappingEngineRunner.Map(ResolutionContext context)

So the problem is that automapper is not picking up on the foreign keys, which means I have to write the associations by hand.  Ugh!  I then tried to auto map to F# choice types like this:

1 type Gender = Male | Female

No dice.

Reflection

I quickly spun up another project that uses System.Reflection to map the types.

 1 #r "System.Data.Entity.dll"
 2 #r "FSharp.Data.TypeProviders.dll"
 3 
 4 open System.Reflection
 5 open System.Data.Entity
 6 open Microsoft.FSharp.Data.TypeProviders
 7 
 8 let connectionString = "Server=.;Database=FamilyDomain;Trusted_Connection=True;"
 9 
10 type entityConnection = SqlEntityConnection<ConnectionString = "Server=.;Database=FamilyDomain;Trusted_Connection=True;">
11 
12 let context = entityConnection.GetDataContext()
13 
14 //Local Idomatic Types
15 [<CLIMutable>]
16 type Pet = {Id:int; ChildId:int; GivenName:string}
17 [<CLIMutable>]
18 type Child = {Id:int; FirstName:string; Gender:string; Grade:int; Pets: Pet list}
19 [<CLIMutable>]
20 type Address = {Id:int; State:string; County:string; City:string}
21 [<CLIMutable>]
22 type Parent = {Id:int; FirstName:string}
23 [<CLIMutable>]
24 type Family = {Id:int; LastName:string; Parents:Parent list; Children: Child list; Address:Address}
25 
26 //Reflection
27 let AssignMatchingPropertyValues sourceObject targetObject =
28     let sourceType = sourceObject.GetType()
29     let targetType = targetObject.GetType()
30     let sourcePropertyInfos = sourceType.GetProperties(BindingFlags.Public ||| BindingFlags.Instance)
31     sourcePropertyInfos 
32         |> Seq.map(fun spi -> spi, targetObject.GetType().GetProperty(spi.Name))
33         |> Seq.iter(fun (spi,tpi) -> tpi.SetValue(targetObject, spi.GetValue(sourceObject,null),null))
34     targetObject
35 
36 
37 let newEfPet = entityConnection.ServiceTypes.Pet()
38 let newPet = {Id=0;ChildId=1;GivenName="Duke"}
39 
40 AssignMatchingPropertyValues newPet newEfPet
41 
42 context.DataContext.AddObject("Pet",newEfPet)
43 context.DataContext.SaveChanges()

Sure enough, reflection does what it is supposed to do:

The problem quickly becomes that by using reflection, I have to hand roll all of the relations.  I might as well use Automapper (though apparently reflection is much faster than Automapper, even on a per-call basis).

Another problem with using reflection is that the field names in the database need to match the domain naming exactly.  Finally, like automapper, there is not out of the box way to map choice types

Hand Roll

On my last stop of the entity framework code-last hit parade, I looked at what it would take to roll my own mappings.  This has the greatest amount of yak shaving because I would have to spin up mapping from the domain and to the domain.  The nice thing is that with that kind of detail, naming mismatches can be handled and the nested hierarchy and choice types are accounted for.  I first started with a basic script that handled the gettting and setting as well as nested types:

 1 #r "System.Data.Entity.dll"
 2 #r "FSharp.Data.TypeProviders.dll"
 3 
 4 open System.Linq
 5 open System.Data.Entity
 6 open Microsoft.FSharp.Data.TypeProviders
 7 
 8 let connectionString = "Server=.;Database=FamilyDomain;Trusted_Connection=True;"
 9 type entity = SqlEntityConnection<ConnectionString = "Server=.;Database=FamilyDomain;Trusted_Connection=True;">
10 let context = entity.GetDataContext()
11 
12 type Pet = {Id:int; ChildId: int; GivenName:string}
13 type Child = {Id:int; FirstName:string; Gender:string; Grade:int; Pets: Pet list}
14 type Address = {Id:int; State:string; County:string; City:string}
15 type Parent = {Id:int; FirstName:string}
16 type Family = {Id:int; LastName:string; Parents:Parent list; Children: Child list; Address:Address}
17 
18 let MapPet(efPet: entity.ServiceTypes.Pet) =
19     {Id=efPet.Id; ChildId=efPet.ChildId; GivenName=efPet.GivenName}
20 
21 let MapChild(efChild: entity.ServiceTypes.Child) =
22     let pets = efChild.Pet |> Seq.map(fun p -> MapPet(p))
23                            |> Seq.toList
24     {Id=efChild.Id; FirstName=efChild.FirstName; 
25         Gender=efChild.Gender;Grade=efChild.Grade;Pets=pets}
26 
27 let GetPet(id: int)=
28     let efPet = context.Pet.FirstOrDefault(fun p -> p.Id = id)
29     MapPet(efPet)
30 
31 let GetChild(id: int)=
32     let efChild = context.Child.FirstOrDefault(fun c -> c.Id = id)
33     MapChild(efChild)
34 
35 let myPet = GetPet(1)
36 
37 let myChild = GetChild(1)
38 

Of all of the implementations, the hand-rolled actually made the most sense to me.  it was clean and, most importantly, it worked.

I then swapped out a Choice type for gender (was a string)

1 type Gender = Male | Female
2 type Pet = {Id:int; ChildId: int; GivenName:string}
3 type Child = {Id:int; FirstName:string; Gender:Gender; Grade:int; Pets: Pet list}
4 type Address = {Id:int; State:string; County:string; City:string}
5 type Parent = {Id:int; FirstName:string}
6 type Family = {Id:int; LastName:string; Parents:Parent list; Children: Child list; Address:Address}
7 

And then added the choice type mapping and then updated child mapping

 1 let MapGender(efGender) =
 2     match efGender with
 3     | "Male" -> Male
 4     | _ -> Female
 5 
 6 let MapChild(efChild: entity.ServiceTypes.Child) =
 7     let pets = efChild.Pet |> Seq.map(fun p -> MapPet(p))
 8                            |> Seq.toList
 9     {Id=efChild.Id; FirstName=efChild.FirstName; 
10         Gender=MapGender(efChild.Gender);
11         Grade=efChild.Grade;Pets=pets}
12 

Sure enough, it worked like a champ

And finally, I tested the add on both the happy path and an expected exception.

 1 let SavePet(pet: Pet)=
 2     let efPet = entity.ServiceTypes.Pet()
 3     efPet.ChildId <- pet.ChildId
 4     efPet.GivenName <- pet.GivenName
 5     context.DataContext.AddObject("Pet",efPet)
 6     context.DataContext.SaveChanges()
 7 
 8 let newPet = {Id=0;ChildId=1;GivenName="Lucky Sue"}
 9 SavePet(newPet)
10 
11 let failurePet = {Id=0;ChildId=0;GivenName="Should Fail"}
12 SavePet(failurePet)

  Both worked as expected.  Here is the exception case where there is not a child to be associated to a pet:

System.Data.UpdateException: An error occurred while updating the entries. See the inner exception for details. —> System.Data.SqlClient.SqlException: The INSERT statement conflicted with the FOREIGN KEY constraint "fk_Pet_Child". The conflict occurred in database "FamilyDomain", table "dbo.Child", column ‘Id’.

The statement has been terminated.

   at System.Data.SqlClient.SqlConnection.OnError(SqlException exception, Boolean breakConnection, Action`1 wrapCloseInAction)

So of all three ways, hand-rolling worked the best for me.

F# Record Types With Entity Framework Code-First

I was spinning up a data layer in a new FSharp project and I thought I would take EF Code-first out for a test drive.  I have use EF-CF in a couple of C# projects so I am familiar with the premise (and the promise) of code-first.  The FSharp project uses record types, nested record types, and choice types exclusively so I I thought of attaching each of these types for code first in turn.  The first article that I ran across was this one, which seemed like a good start.  I went ahead a created a family record type like so, matching the example verbatim except I swapped out the class implementation with a record type:

 1 #r "../packages/EntityFramework.6.1.2/lib/net45/EntityFramework.dll"
 2 
 3 open System.Collections.Generic
 4 open System.ComponentModel.DataAnnotations
 5 open System.Data.Entity
 6 
 7 type Family = {Id:int; LastName:string; IsRegistered:bool}
 8 
 9 type CLFamily() =
10     inherit DbContext()
11     [<DefaultValue>]
12     val mutable m_families: DbSet<Family>
13     member public this.Families with get() = this.m_families
14                                 and set v = this.m_families <- v
15     
16 let db = new CLFamily()
17 let family = {Id=0;LastName="New Family"; IsRegistered=true}
18 db.Families.Add(family) |> ignore
19 db.SaveChanges() |> ignore
20 

But I ran into this:

So I added the Key attribute to the Record type

So I hit up stack overflow with this question and sure enough, I forgot to add a reference to that assembly.  Once I added it, then it compiled.  I then ran the script and I got the following error message:

1     <add name="CLFamily" 
2          connectionString="Server=.;Database=FamilyDomain;Trusted_Connection=True;" 
3          providerName="System.Data.SqlClient"/>
4 

Ugh!  It was still hitting the default connection string.    I went ahead and adjusted my script to account for the connection string and I swapped out the backing values with CLIMutable:

 1 #r "../packages/EntityFramework.6.1.2/lib/net45/EntityFramework.dll"
 2 #r "C:/Program Files (x86)/Reference Assemblies/Microsoft/Framework/.NETFramework/v4.5.1/System.ComponentModel.DataAnnotations.dll"
 3 
 4 open System.Collections.Generic
 5 open System.ComponentModel.DataAnnotations
 6 open System.Data.Entity
 7 
 8 [<CLIMutable>]
 9 type Family = {[<Key>]Id:int; LastName:string; IsRegistered:bool;}
10 
11 
12 type FamilyContext() =
13     inherit DbContext()
14         [<DefaultValue>] val mutable families: DbSet<Family>
15         member this.Families with get() = this.families and set f = this.families <- f
16 
17 let context = new FamilyContext()
18 let connectionString = "Server=.;Database=FamilyDomain;Trusted_Connection=True;"
19 context.Database.Connection.ConnectionString <- connectionString
20 let family = {Id=0; LastName="Test"; IsRegistered=true}
21 context.Families.Add(family) |> ignore
22 context.SaveChanges() |> ignore

And sure enough, the table is created in the database and the record is persisted:

And the cool thing is that even though this is a record type, the Id does adjust to the identity value given by the database.

With that out of the way, I went to tackle nested types.  I added a Child class and a list of children to the family class. 

 1 [<CLIMutable>]
 2 type Child = {[<Key>]Id:int; FamilyId: int; FirstName:string; Gender:string; Grade:int}
 3 
 4 [<CLIMutable>]
 5 type Family = {[<Key>]Id:int; LastName:string; IsRegistered:bool; Children:Child list}
 6 
 7 type FamilyContext() =
 8     inherit DbContext()
 9         [<DefaultValue>] val mutable families: DbSet<Family>
10         member this.Families with get() = this.families and set f = this.families <- f
11         [<DefaultValue>] val mutable children: DbSet<Child>
12         member this.Chidlren with get() = this.children and set c = this.children <- c
13 
14 let context = new FamilyContext()
15 let connectionString = "Server=.;Database=FamilyDomain;Trusted_Connection=True;"
16 context.Database.Connection.ConnectionString <- connectionString
17 let children = [{Id=0; FamilyId=0; FirstName="Test"; Gender="Male"; Grade=5}]
18 let family = {Id=0; LastName="Test"; IsRegistered=true; Children=children }
19 context.Families.Add(family) |> ignore
20 context.SaveChanges() |> ignore

Everything compiled and  ran, but the Children table was not added to the database –> though the new record was added.

Going back to stack overflow, it looks like EF Code First will not auto-update the schema unless you add some more glue code.  Ugh.  At that point, I might as well give up on code-first if all it brings is not having to write sql scripts…

Implementing (Parts Of) ASP.NET Identity Using F#

I started working though this and this article for implementing security in a new Web Api 2 site I am spinning up.  Everything is working out OK – not great but better than prior ASP.NET implementations I have done.  I do think the ASP.NET team has made security better and I am really excited about token based security.  My biggest gripe is that there is still too much magic going on and it is still hard to introduce non-out of the box implementations.  For example, the sample code that you can add via Nuget has a placeholder for en email provider.  The article has the code for a specific implementation of a company called SendGrid (the sample is here and the email is here).

The CSharp implementation looks like this (I did add some constructor injection b/c I am opposed to touching the Configuration (or any part of the file system for that matter) outside of Main on sanity grounds):

 1     public class SendGridEmailProvider: IIdentityMessageService
 2     {
 3         String _mailAccount = String.Empty;
 4         String _mailPassword = String.Empty;
 5         String _fromAddress = String.Empty;
 6 
 7         public SendGridEmailProvider(String mailAccount, String mailPassword, String fromAddress)
 8         {
 9             _mailAccount = mailAccount;
10             _mailPassword = mailPassword;
11             _fromAddress = fromAddress
12         }
13 
14         public System.Threading.Tasks.Task SendAsync(IdentityMessage message)
15         {
16             var sendGridMessage = new SendGridMessage();
17             sendGridMessage.From = new MailAddress(_fromAddress);
18             List<String> recipients = new List<string>();
19             recipients.Add(message.Destination);
20             sendGridMessage.AddTo(recipients);
21             sendGridMessage.Subject = message.Subject;
22             sendGridMessage.Html = message.Body;
23             sendGridMessage.Text = message.Body;
24 
25             var credentials = new NetworkCredential(_mailAccount, _mailPassword);
26             var transportWeb = new Web(credentials);
27             if (transportWeb != null)
28                 return transportWeb.DeliverAsync(sendGridMessage);
29             else
30                 return Task.FromResult(0);
31         }
32     }

I then decided to implement a SMS Text Provider along the same lines.  The 1st company I came to was CDyne but when I went to their sample code, they are still using a SOAP-based service and the last thing I wanted to do was to clutter up my project with all of the WSDL and files that you needs when consuming a service like that.

I then thought, this is stupid.  I might was well use FSharp type providers to do the implementation.  Less Code, less files, less clutter, more goodness.  I first swapped out the Email to a FSharp implementation:

 1 type SendGridEmailService(account:string, password:string, fromAddress:string) =
 2     interface IIdentityMessageService with
 3         member this.SendAsync(identityMessage) =
 4             let sendGridMessage = new SendGridMessage()
 5             sendGridMessage.From = new MailAddress(fromAddress) |> ignore
 6             let recipients = new List<string>() 
 7             recipients.Add(identityMessage.Destination)
 8             sendGridMessage.AddTo(recipients)
 9             sendGridMessage.Subject <- identityMessage.Subject
10             sendGridMessage.Html <- identityMessage.Body
11             sendGridMessage.Text <- identityMessage.Body
12 
13             let credentials = new NetworkCredential(account, password)
14             let transportWeb = new Web(credentials)
15             match transportWeb with
16                 | null -> Task.FromResult(0):> Task
17                 | _ -> transportWeb.DeliverAsync(sendGridMessage) 

I then did a SMS text provider using type providers.

 1 type cDyneService = Microsoft.FSharp.Data.TypeProviders.WsdlService<"http://sms2.cdyne.com/sms.svc?wsdl">
 2 
 3 type CDyneSMSService(licenseKey:Guid) =
 4     interface IIdentityMessageService with
 5         member this.SendAsync(identityMessage) =
 6             let cDyneClient = cDyneService.Getsms2SOAPbasicHttpBinding
 7             let client = cDyneService.Getsms2SOAPbasicHttpBinding()
 8             match client with
 9                 | null -> Task.FromResult(0):> Task
10                 | _ -> client.SimpleSMSsendAsync(identityMessage.Destination,identityMessage.Body,licenseKey):> Task

Compared to a CSharp implementation, this is joyous.  Less noise, more signal.  And thanks to Lee on Stack Overflow for helping with the upcast of Task…

Consuming Azure ML web api endpoint from an array

Last week, I blogged about creating an Azure ML experiment, publishing it as a web service, and then consuming it from F#.  I then wanted to consume the web service using an array – passing in several values and seeing the results.  I created added on to my existing F #script with the following code

 1 let input1 = new Dictionary<string,string>()
 2 input1.Add("Zip Code","27519")
 3 input1.Add("Race","W")
 4 input1.Add("Party","UNA")
 5 input1.Add("Gender","M")
 6 input1.Add("Age","45")
 7 input1.Add("Voted Ind","1")
 8 
 9 let input2 = new Dictionary<string,string>()
10 input2.Add("Zip Code","27519")
11 input2.Add("Race","W")
12 input2.Add("Party","D")
13 input2.Add("Gender","F")
14 input2.Add("Age","47")
15 input2.Add("Voted Ind","1")
16 
17 let inputs = new List<Dictionary<string,string>>()
18 inputs.Add(input1)
19 inputs.Add(input2)
20 
21 inputs 
22     |> Seq.map(fun i -> invokeService(i)) 
23     |> Async.Parallel
24     |> Async.RunSynchronously
25 

And sure enough, I can run the model using multiple inputs:

Sql Server and “Saving Changes Are Not Permitted”

Dear Future Jamie:

If you are trying to add a identity column to a table after it is created and you get this message:

Make the change in Management Studio here:

Love,

Current Jamie

Remote Debugging On Azure

I decided that I needed to learn a bit about remote debugging on Azure.  I know that you are supposed to use the Azure emulator to hash out your problems before hand, but I still would like the ability to debug remotely in case the need comes up.

I Googled on Bing how to do it and I ran across this article that seems to be a good place to start.  It looks like I need to upload the VS2010 remote tools to Azure as a necessary but not sufficient step.  The thing is, I have no idea how to do that.  Do I upload the tools only once to my azure account?  Is it site && project specific?  I don’t know and Binging on Google doesn’t seem to help.

I then looked at this article but it assumes that I am using a Virtual Machine and installing the MSVSMON.exe to the VM.  If that was the case, I would just install VS2010 to the VM and debug there.  So that article is of no help.

I am stuck on this line of the 1st article: “You can find the tools on Microsoft Download Center here, and then upload to your storage account using whatever Windows Azure Storage account tool of your choice. “  Going over to my Azure account, I see a “Storage” section.

So I create a new storage like so:

The illogical meter is running high.  Why should I need to install Data Services to install MSVSMON?  I can do Computer-> Cloud Service, but that us the same as creating a Cloud Service.

I decided to work in the other direction.  I created a new Azure hosted WCF Service in VS2010 like so:

and after the default template of this:

I changed Service1 name and then added a single method that returns the sum of two numbers:

public class AddingMachine : IAddingMachine
{
    public Int32 Add(Int32 number1, Int32 number2)
    {
        return number1 + number2;
    }

}

I then deployed his to the Azure server via Visual Studio – 1st I set up the deployment parameters

Then I added a certificate

And during the deployment I got this:

After a couple of minutes, I got the site up on Azure:

Which I assume might be the way to remote debug?  I then hit myself in the head that the Build Configuration is Release (the default) and not debug and I need the debug symbols to remote debug.  I deployed again and then I opened attach to process in Visual Studio:

I then pumped in the name of the site:

Doh!

Time to go to Brian Hitney’s office hours!

Web Performance Test

So I decided I wanted to learn more about the testing capabilities of VS2010 – esp. load testing a web service.  I fired up Visual Studio and created an out of the box WCF Service with the following 1 method:

public class AddingMachine : IAddingMachine
{
    public int GetData(int value1, int value2)
    {
        Random random = new Random();
        Int32 delay = random.Next(15);
        Thread.Sleep(TimeSpan.FromSeconds(delay));

        return value1 + value2;
    }
}

I then added a new test project using a Web Performance Test template:

I then hit record, closed IE which automatically popped up, and navigated to the service using the WCF Test Client. 

I am sure you are not surprised that nothing was recorded.  The problem is that the out of the box Web Performance Test assumes that you are calling a web site so I couldn’t just hit a recording and navigate to a webservice the same way I would navigate to a website.

Instead, I had to right click and add a new web service request.  I then changed the Url property to the service location and tried to run the test.

I then binged on Google and ran across a couple of Stack Overflow posts and this nugget on MSDN.  Apparently, I need to use Fiddler to capture the request.  I fired up Fiddler and WCF Test Client (remember the “.” after local host) and sure enough and can make the call and intercept the traffic:

I copied the entire request from Fiddler:

But I got this when I ran the test I got the same exception.  The problem is that the article assumes an .asmx web service and I am using WCF.  Digging into the article’s code sample, I realized that I needed a Header like so:

and I needed to put only the body from Fiddler into the String Body property

Fiddler:

WebTest:

And green is good

Calling Command

I know I am supposed to be using (and loving) power shell, but I ran across a problem this weekend and the good-old command window worked fine.  I was building a one-click application that moved data from one location to another and then manipulating the data.  As part of the workflow, I created a DTS/SSIS package.  To execute this package, I used the following code to shell out to the command prompt and fire up the package:

            String sourceConnectionString = CreateSourceConnectionString();
            String targetConnectionString = CreateTargetConnectionString();

            Process process = new Process();
            process.StartInfo.FileName = "cmd";
            StringBuilder stringBuilder = new StringBuilder();
            stringBuilder.AppendFormat(@"/k");
            stringBuilder.AppendFormat(@"dtexec");
            stringBuilder.AppendFormat(@" /F");
            stringBuilder.AppendFormat(@" TransferAllTables.dtsx");

            stringBuilder.AppendFormat(" /Conn {0};\"{1}\"", "SourceConnectionOLEDB", sourceConnectionString);
            stringBuilder.AppendFormat(" /Conn {0};\"{1}\"", "DestinationConnectionOLEDB", targetConnectionString);
            process.StartInfo.Arguments = stringBuilder.ToString();

            process.Start();

I also want to thank my friend Ian (who doesn’t have a blog yet so I can’t point you to him) for mentioning  the StringBuilder.AppendFormat() function.  Append() + String.Format() in 1 place.  Nice! Thanks  Ian!

NOAA and how not to do a web service

I came across the NOAA API when I was looking at various providers of weather data via the programmable web.  Thinking that the government might be a great place to get (free) data, I dove into their API.  I am glad I didn’t go head-first.  The API is, well, wretched.  In fact, it probably is the worst public API I have come across in my limited travels.

Why is so bad?

1) Ambiguous Website.  Their use of jargon is over-whelming.  To understand the API, you need to learn about the NDFD .  What is that?  What about current weather?  Nope, I need to know about the National Digital Forecast Database.  How about the NCDC?  What is DWML? On to issue #2.

2) They invented their own version of SOAP: Digital Weather Markup Language.  Enough said.

3)  The web site is rife with links that show graphics that no one can use.  The API help is in clear language?  No where to be seen.

4) Hooking up to their WSDL is not much better.  I made a connection and this is what I got back:

Got that?  You need to create an instance of ndfdXMLPortTypeClient.  Say that 3 times fast.  How about a weather class?  A forecast class?  Nope, this API assumes that other developers give a hoot about their internal implementation (and no one does). 

5) I tried a simple call to the web service just to see what it sent back:

public WeatherReading GetReading(string zipCode)
{
    ndfdXMLPortTypeClient client = new ndfdXMLPortTypeClient();
    String output = client.LatLonListZipCode("27519");
    return null;
}

And what did I get?

Got that – a non-standard encoding.  PTF (Palm to face…)

So I am giving up on the government and trying some of the other providers.

Using Pointers In Managed Code

I am getting ready for my Kinect presentation at RDU’s code camp.  One of the techniques that you have to absolutely use with the tidal wave of data that the Kinect sends you is pointers.  For example, I have some code that is straight from this book where I turn the video image from the the Kinect ColorSensor a darker shade of blue.

In a default WPF application, I added the following class-level variables:

KinectSensor kinectSensor = null;
WriteableBitmap colorImageBitmap = null;
Byte[] colorData = null;

I then wired up the Kinect:

kinectSensor = KinectSensor.KinectSensors[0];
kinectSensor.ColorStream.Enable();
kinectSensor.ColorFrameReady += new EventHandler<ColorImageFrameReadyEventArgs>(kinectSensor_ColorFrameReady);
kinectSensor.Start();

I then added the following code to the event handler as the video frames come in (30 per second, each frame about 1.5 megs):

if (colorImageFrame != null)
{
    if (colorImageBitmap == null)
    {
        colorImageBitmap = new WriteableBitmap(
            colorImageFrame.Width,
            colorImageFrame.Height,
            96, 96,
            PixelFormats.Bgr32,
            null);
        this.kinectImage.Source = colorImageBitmap;
    }
    if (colorData == null)
    {
        colorData = new Byte[colorImageFrame.PixelDataLength];
    }

    colorImageFrame.CopyPixelDataTo(colorData);
    
   
    Int32 newColor = 0;
    for (int i = 0; i < colorData.Length; i = i + 4)
    {
        Int32 oldColor = colorData[i];
        newColor = (Int32)colorData[i] + 50;
        if (newColor > 255)
        {
            newColor = 255;
        }
        colorData[i] = (byte)newColor;
    }  
  

    colorImageBitmap.WritePixels(
        new Int32Rect(0, 0, colorImageFrame.Width, colorImageFrame.Height),
        colorData,
        colorImageFrame.Width * colorImageFrame.BytesPerPixel, 0);
    
}

This code works – but it gets too slow when using an under powered computer.  To use pointers, I first needed to mark my project as unsafe:

I then added the unsafe keyword to the event handler:

unsafe void kinectSensor_ColorFrameReady(object sender, ColorImageFrameReadyEventArgs e)

And finally, I replaced the managed loop with a loop that uses pointers:

int noOfPixelBytes = colorData.Length;
fixed (byte* imageBase = colorData)
{
    byte* imagePosition = imageBase;
    byte* imageEnd = imageBase + noOfPixelBytes;

    Int32 newColor = 0;
    while (imagePosition != imageEnd)
    {
        newColor = *imagePosition + 50;
        if (newColor > 255)
        {
            newColor = 255;
        }
        *imagePosition = (byte)newColor;
        imagePosition += 4;
    }
}

This speed things up considerably.  A couple of things to note:

The fixed keyword pins the location of imageBase to 1 location so the garbage collector doesn’t move it around.  Also, note that I refer the to value of the current byte via imagePosition* (*imagePosition = (byte)newColor) – when I want to move 4 bytes over, I increment the imagePosition (imagePosition += 4)

I am looking forward to Saturday  hopefully this presentation will go off without a hitch…