When using the Microsoft.IdentityModel.Clients.ActiveDirectory nuget package to deal with ADAL token cache, you can ctaully serialize the state of your cache to use it at a later point:

public class RefreshTokenCache : TokenCache
{
    private void AfterAccessNotification(TokenCacheNotificationArgs args)
    {
        if (this.HasStateChanged)
        {
            var data = Convert.ToBase64String(this.Serialize());
        }
    }
}

When migrating from 2.x to 3.x versions of the library, I encountered some issues trying to serialize back my token cache to its initial state:

var tc = new RefreshTokenCache();
tc.Deserialize(Convert.FromBase64String(data));

The problem was that serialized data obtained on v2.x was not de-serialized properly when using 3.x versions.

I that case, I am forcing the token to be asked again to the end-user, so that I can serialize it back to the 3.x format.

Happy coding!

Last part of my blog posts about getting rid of System.Web.

We are going to look into some pretty gluing parts of System.Web now.

1. HtmlEncode & UrlEncode

This one is pretty easy, System.Net is actually coming with System.Web equivalents methods here.

2. Querystring value access

Same for easiness here, based on Rick Strahl’s extensions found here.

3. MachineKey

This one gets a litle more tricky, but looking around can bring you a replacement, as the one below:

public class LogrrMachineKey
{
    private static string _decryption = "AES";

    private static byte[] _cryptKey;
    private static string _decryptionKey;

    public static string DecryptionKey
    {
        set
        {
            _decryptionKey = value;
            var key = HexStringToByteArray(_decryptionKey);
            _cryptKey = key;
        }
    }

    public static byte[] Encrypt(byte[] inputBuffer)
    {
        SymmetricAlgorithm algorithm;
        byte[] outputBuffer;

        if (inputBuffer == null)
        {
            throw new ArgumentNullException("inputBuffer");
        }

        algorithm = GetCryptAlgorithm();

        using (var ms = new MemoryStream())
        {
            algorithm.GenerateIV();
            ms.Write(algorithm.IV, 0, algorithm.IV.Length);

            using (var cs = new CryptoStream(ms, algorithm.CreateEncryptor(), CryptoStreamMode.Write))
            {
                cs.Write(inputBuffer, 0, inputBuffer.Length);
                cs.FlushFinalBlock();
            }
            outputBuffer = ms.ToArray();
        }
        return outputBuffer;
    }

    public static byte[] Decrypt(byte[] inputBuffer)
    {
        SymmetricAlgorithm algorithm;
        byte[] inputVectorBuffer, outputBuffer;

        if (inputBuffer == null)
            throw new ArgumentNullException("inputBuffer");

        algorithm = GetCryptAlgorithm();
        outputBuffer = null;

        try
        {
            inputVectorBuffer = new byte[algorithm.IV.Length];
            Array.Copy(inputBuffer, inputVectorBuffer, inputVectorBuffer.Length);
            algorithm.IV = inputVectorBuffer;

            using (var ms = new MemoryStream())
            {
                using (var cs = new CryptoStream(ms, algorithm.CreateDecryptor(), CryptoStreamMode.Write))
                {
                    cs.Write(inputBuffer, inputVectorBuffer.Length, inputBuffer.Length - inputVectorBuffer.Length);
                    cs.FlushFinalBlock();
                }
                outputBuffer = ms.ToArray();
            }
        }
        catch (FormatException e)
        {
            throw new CryptographicException("The string could not be decoded.", e);
        }
        return outputBuffer;
    }

    private static SymmetricAlgorithm GetCryptAlgorithm()
    {
        SymmetricAlgorithm algorithm;
        string algorithmName;

        algorithmName = _decryption;
        if (algorithmName == "Auto")
        {
            throw new Exception("Explicit algorithm is required");
        }

        switch (algorithmName)
        {
            case "AES":
                algorithm = new RijndaelManaged();
                break;
            case "3DES":
                algorithm = new TripleDESCryptoServiceProvider();
                break;
            case "DES":
                algorithm = new DESCryptoServiceProvider();
                break;
            default:
                throw new Exception($"Algorithm {algorithmName} is not recognized");
        }

        algorithm.Key = _cryptKey;

        return algorithm;
    }

    private static byte[] HexStringToByteArray(string str)
    {
        byte[] buffer;

        if (str == null)
            throw new ArgumentNullException("str");

        if (str.Length % 2 == 1)
            str = '0' + str;

        buffer = new byte[str.Length / 2];

        for (int i = 0; i < buffer.Length; ++i)
        {
            buffer[i] = byte.Parse(str.Substring(i * 2, 2), NumberStyles.HexNumber, CultureInfo.InvariantCulture);
        }
        return buffer;
    }
}

This class is not a one-to-one replacement of the existing MachineKey classes found in System.Web, so please make sure you migrate/ reset your values first.

Happy coding!

Second part of my blog posts about getting rid of System.Web.

I will cover 2 part fo this object that I usually use: browser info & mobile device detection

1. Web browser information

We will he make use of the UAParser-csharp (c-sharp equivalent or the UAParser.js) which provides us a parsing mechanism of the User Agent string.

After installing the lib using Nuget, just a simple extension make the day (here returning “Windows 10 using Chrome“):

public static string GetBrowserName(this HttpRequestMessage request)
{
    var ua = request.Headers.UserAgent.ToString();
    var uaParser = Parser.GetDefault();
    var c = uaParser.Parse(ua);
    return $"{c.OS.Family} using {c.UA.Family}";
}

2. Mobile device detection

As far as you want to make sure you are rendering the web page for a mobile device or not, you can just use this extension method (inspired by this SO answer):

public static bool IsMobileDevice(this HttpRequestMessage request)
{
    string u = request.Headers.UserAgent.ToString();
    var b = new Regex(@"(android|bb\d+|meego).+mobile|avantgo|bada\/|blackberry|blazer|compal|elaine|fennec|hiptop|iemobile|ip(hone|od)|iris|kindle|lge |maemo|midp|mmp|mobile.+firefox|netfront|opera m(ob|in)i|palm( os)?|phone|p(ixi|re)\/|plucker|pocket|psp|series(4|6)0|symbian|treo|up\.(browser|link)|vodafone|wap|windows ce|xda|xiino", RegexOptions.IgnoreCase | RegexOptions.Multiline);
    var v = new Regex(@"1207|6310|6590|3gso|4thp|50[1-6]i|770s|802s|a wa|abac|ac(er|oo|s\-)|ai(ko|rn)|al(av|ca|co)|amoi|an(ex|ny|yw)|aptu|ar(ch|go)|as(te|us)|attw|au(di|\-m|r |s )|avan|be(ck|ll|nq)|bi(lb|rd)|bl(ac|az)|br(e|v)w|bumb|bw\-(n|u)|c55\/|capi|ccwa|cdm\-|cell|chtm|cldc|cmd\-|co(mp|nd)|craw|da(it|ll|ng)|dbte|dc\-s|devi|dica|dmob|do(c|p)o|ds(12|\-d)|el(49|ai)|em(l2|ul)|er(ic|k0)|esl8|ez([4-7]0|os|wa|ze)|fetc|fly(\-|_)|g1 u|g560|gene|gf\-5|g\-mo|go(\.w|od)|gr(ad|un)|haie|hcit|hd\-(m|p|t)|hei\-|hi(pt|ta)|hp( i|ip)|hs\-c|ht(c(\-| |_|a|g|p|s|t)|tp)|hu(aw|tc)|i\-(20|go|ma)|i230|iac( |\-|\/)|ibro|idea|ig01|ikom|im1k|inno|ipaq|iris|ja(t|v)a|jbro|jemu|jigs|kddi|keji|kgt( |\/)|klon|kpt |kwc\-|kyo(c|k)|le(no|xi)|lg( g|\/(k|l|u)|50|54|\-[a-w])|libw|lynx|m1\-w|m3ga|m50\/|ma(te|ui|xo)|mc(01|21|ca)|m\-cr|me(rc|ri)|mi(o8|oa|ts)|mmef|mo(01|02|bi|de|do|t(\-| |o|v)|zz)|mt(50|p1|v )|mwbp|mywa|n10[0-2]|n20[2-3]|n30(0|2)|n50(0|2|5)|n7(0(0|1)|10)|ne((c|m)\-|on|tf|wf|wg|wt)|nok(6|i)|nzph|o2im|op(ti|wv)|oran|owg1|p800|pan(a|d|t)|pdxg|pg(13|\-([1-8]|c))|phil|pire|pl(ay|uc)|pn\-2|po(ck|rt|se)|prox|psio|pt\-g|qa\-a|qc(07|12|21|32|60|\-[2-7]|i\-)|qtek|r380|r600|raks|rim9|ro(ve|zo)|s55\/|sa(ge|ma|mm|ms|ny|va)|sc(01|h\-|oo|p\-)|sdk\/|se(c(\-|0|1)|47|mc|nd|ri)|sgh\-|shar|sie(\-|m)|sk\-0|sl(45|id)|sm(al|ar|b3|it|t5)|so(ft|ny)|sp(01|h\-|v\-|v )|sy(01|mb)|t2(18|50)|t6(00|10|18)|ta(gt|lk)|tcl\-|tdg\-|tel(i|m)|tim\-|t\-mo|to(pl|sh)|ts(70|m\-|m3|m5)|tx\-9|up(\.b|g1|si)|utst|v400|v750|veri|vi(rg|te)|vk(40|5[0-3]|\-v)|vm40|voda|vulc|vx(52|53|60|61|70|80|81|83|85|98)|w3c(\-| )|webc|whit|wi(g |nc|nw)|wmlb|wonu|x700|yas\-|your|zeto|zte\-", RegexOptions.IgnoreCase | RegexOptions.Multiline);
    var returnVal = b.IsMatch(u) || v.IsMatch(u.Substring(0, 4));
    return returnVal;
}

Last step, will be removing MachineKey and utilities dependencies.

Happy coding!

Being doing some .NET code for a while now, you sure saw how much dependencies your code has on it.

With .NET core coming in sight, but also for optimizing you existing ASP.NET code base, you probably would want to start lowering your dependencies on it…

The first step (but not the smallest) for me is to kick out ASP.NET MVC.

DISCLAIMER: don’t get me wrong, ASP.NET MVC is a great framework for some use cases, but in my search for boot time optimization and lower memory footprint, this is not exactly what I need.

1. Replacing ASPNET.MVC by RazorEngine

Not having much linked to it anyway, I replaced it with Razor Engine, a decoupled open source version for the MVC Razor engine (that you can also use to render other things than pages: emails, documents…)

Here is a piece of code to end up using the Razor Engine to render html views and use it the way you alwazs used ASP.NET MVC:

HttpRequestMessage extensions first:

public static class HttpRequestMessageExtensions
{
    public static TemplateServiceConfiguration TemplateConfig = new TemplateServiceConfiguration
    {
        TemplateManager = new EmbeddedResourceTemplateManager(typeof(Startup))
    };

    public static IHttpActionResult View<T>(this ApiController controller, string viewName, T model)
    {
        return GetResponseView(controller.Request, viewName, model);
    }

    public static IHttpActionResult GetResponseView<T>(this HttpRequestMessage request, string viewName, T model)
    {
        var service = RazorEngineService.Create(TemplateConfig);

        var result = service.RunCompile($"Views.{viewName}", typeof(T), model);

        return new HtmlActionResult(request, result);
    }
}

Using the extension in a controller:

public IHttpActionResult Index()
{
    var model = new AppModel();
    // filling the model accordingly.
    return this.View("Index", model);
}

Warning: this does not handle partial views, so this has to be managed additionally.

1. Replace ASPNET.MVC with SPAs

The ultimate goal is to only have service-side code running as services (leveraging ASP.NET Web API), then to build your UI using a front-end stack for that (Angular. React, whichever suits you).

Next step, will be removing Browser HttpBrowserCapabilities dependencies.

Happy coding!