ILINX Content Store

We are working on adding full text into the product.  If this is a feature you have been waiting for, contact your sales rep for more info.

Retry Logic

Sometimes an exception isn’t just an exception. For example, SQL can have connection or timeout issues and file IO can have problems competing for file access. In these situations, sometimes it makes sense to try executing the code again rather than letting it completely error out. Below is some C# sample code for executing some simple retry logic.

for (int retryAttempt = 1; retryAttempt <= MAX_RETRY_ATTEMPTS; retryAttempt++)
{
     try
     {
          // Perform code execution here
          break;
     }
     catch (Exception ex)
     {
          // Perform any logging here

          if (retryAttempt < MAX_RETRY_ATTEMPTS)
          {
               Thread.Sleep(1000); // Sleep 1 second before retrying
          }
          else
          {
               throw;
          }
     }
}

As you can see, it’s pretty simple.  Execute the actual code logic within the try block, and perform any necessary exception logging within the catch block.
Richard Franzen
Sr. Developer
ImageSource, Inc.

ILINX Content Store

We recently put a new version of Content Store that contained a few enhancements from our customers.  For more info, refer to the Download Center.

How to Convert Office File to PDF File Format in C#

How to Convert Office file to pdf in C#.

These codes are used for Microsoft Office products with the Save As PDF add-in installed.

Note that You will need to add a reference to Microsoft.Office.Interop.(word,excel, or powerpoint)

<Word To PDF>

public string ConvertWordToPdf(string inputFile)
{
string outputFileName = “Desired Output File Path”;
Microsoft.Office.Interop.Word.ApplicationClasswordApp =
new rosoft.Office.Interop.Word.ApplicationClass();
Microsoft.Office.Interop.Word.Document wordDoc = null;
object inputFileTemp = inputFile;

try
{
wordDoc = wordApp.Documents.Open(refinputFileTemp);
wordDoc.ExportAsFixedFormat(outputFileName, WdExportFormat.wdExportFormatPDF);
}
finally
{
if (wordDoc != null)
{
wordDoc.Close(WdSaveOptions.wdDoNotSaveChanges);
}
if (wordApp != null)
{
wordApp.Quit(WdSaveOptions.wdDoNotSaveChanges);
wordApp = null;
}
}

return outputFileName;
}

<Excel To PDF>

public static string ConvertExcelToPdf(string inputFile)
{
string outputFileName = “DesireOutput File Path”;
Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel.Application excelApp =
new Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel.Application();
excelApp.Visible = false;
Workbook workbook = null;
Workbooks workbooks = null;
try
{
workbooks = excelApp.Workbooks;
workbook = workbooks.Open(inputFile);
workbook.ExportAsFixedFormatXlFixedFormatType.xlTypePDF,outputFileName,
XlFixedFormatQuality.xlQualityStandard, true, true, Type.Missing,Type.Missing, false,Type.Missing);
}
finally
{
if (workbook != null)
{
workbook.Close(XlSaveAction.xlDoNotSaveChanges);
while(Marshal.FinalReleaseComObject(workbook) != 0) { };
workbook = null;
}
if (workbooks != null)
{
workbooks.Close();
while(Marshal.FinalReleaseComObject(workbooks) != 0) { };
workbooks = null;
}
if(excelApp != null)
{
excelApp.Quit();
excelApp.Application.Quit();
while(Marshal.FinalReleaseComObject(excelApp) != 0) { };
excelApp = null;
}
}

return outputFileName;
}

<PowerPoint To PDF>

public static string ConvertPowerPointToPdf(string inputFile)
{
string outputFileName = “DesireOutput File Path”;
Microsoft.Office.Interop.PowerPoint.ApplicationClass powerPointApp =
new Microsoft.Office.Interop.PowerPoint.ApplicationClass();
Presentation presentation = null;
Presentations presentations = null;
try
{
presentations = powerPointApp.Presentations;
presentation = presentations.Open(inputFile, MsoTriState.msoFalse,MsoTriState.msoFalse,
MsoTriState.msoFalse);

presentation.ExportAsFixedFormat(outputFileName, PpFixedFormatType.ppFixedFormatTypePDF,
PpFixedFormatIntent.ppFixedFormatIntentScreen, MsoTriState.msoFalse,
PpPrintHandoutOrder.ppPrintHandoutVerticalFirst,PpPrintOutputType.ppPrintOutputSlides,
MsoTriState.msoFalse,null,PpPrintRangeType.ppPrintAll, string.Empty, false, true, true, true, false,
Type.Missing);
}
finally
{
if (presentation != null)
{
presentation.Close();
Marshal.ReleaseComObject(presentation);
presentation = null;
}
if (powerPointApp != null)
{
powerPointApp.Quit();
Marshal.ReleaseComObject(powerPointApp);
powerPointApp = null;
}
}
return outputFileName;

}

Kyoungsu Do
Software Quality Engineer
ImageSource, Inc.

Windows Presentation Foundation Host Has Encountered a Problem

Problem:

Every now and then we run across a weird deployment issue where certain XP machines are not able to run ILINX Content Store with the weird exception below

 

 

 

 

 

 

Solution:
The issue is caused by either an incorrect/corrupted permissions set on the user working folder or the registry key.  The fix is to run the tool below from Microsoft.

http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?displaylang=en&id=5766

Phong Hoang
ImageSource, Inc. 

 

 

 

 

 

SQL Transactions in .NET

In my last blog post, I talked about performing SQL transactions as part of the SQL statement itself.  Now I want to talk about an alternative method for implementing SQL transactions within .NET code.  Basically, the SqlTransaction object can perform the function of grouping together the execution of multiple SQL statements within .NET code.

Below is an example of a SqlTransaction object in action:

 //Create and open a connection to the datase
 using (SqlConnection conn = new SqlConnection(connStr))
 {
      conn.Open();

      //Next, create a sql transaction using our current connection.
      using (SqlTransaction transact = conn.BeginTransaction())
      {
           try
           {
                //Execute the first sql command
                string sqlStr1 =
                    "INSERT INTO TestTable1 (Field1) values ('This is a sample value.')";
                using (SqlCommand cmd1 = new SqlCommand(sqlStr1, conn, transact))
                {
                     cmd1.ExecuteNonQuery();
                }

                //Execute the second sql command
                string sqlStr2 =
                     "INSERT INTO TestTable2 (Field1, Field2) values ('Performing a test insert', 'Into SQL')";
                using (SqlCommand cmd2 = new SqlCommand(sqlStr2, conn, transact))
                {
                     cmd2.ExecuteNonQuery();
                }

                //Execute the third sql command
                string sqlStr3 =
                     "INSERT INTO TestTable3 (Field1) values ('All of these inserts should be successful.')";
                using (SqlCommand cmd3 = new SqlCommand(sqlStr3, conn, transact))
                {
                     cmd3.ExecuteNonQuery();
                }

                //Finally, make sure to commit the transaction
                transact.Commit();
           }
           catch (Exception)
           {
                //If there is a sql exception, we need to back out the transaction
                transact.Rollback();
                throw;
           }
      }
  }

As you can see, the SqlTransaction object is created through a SqlConnection object’s BeginTransaction method.   It must be included with all of the SqlCommand objects for all of the commands to function as part of the same transaction.  The Commit method must be called on the SqlTransaction object in order to complete the transaction.  If there is an exception thrown, it must be caught and dealt with using the Rollback method in the SqlTransaction object.  I hope that helps with any future SQL coding.

 

Richard Franzen
Sr. Developer
ImageSource, Inc. 

How to Count Multi-Page TIFF Files

Here is the simple TIFF file page counter using TiffBitmapDecode.

This code works for most cases. Some TIFF file compression may not work.

 

Kyoungsu Do
Software Quality Engineer
ImageSource, Inc. 

 

Inline Code with XAML

One of the hidden tricks in XAML is that you can actually write inline code directly on the page instead of using the typical code-behind files.  Below is an example on how this works

 

And here is the running code

Backing Out Of A SQL Transaction

When writing MS SQL statements, sometimes it’s necessary to have several queries that work together in unison.  Whether it’s updating, deleting or inserting multiple rows into multiple, different tables, it’s nice to be able to run a series of SQL commands as one single step.  This is where running a batch transaction comes in handy, as the following set of sample code demonstrates.

BEGIN TRANSACTION BigGroupInsert;
INSERT INTO TestTable1 (Field1) values ('This is a sample value.');
INSERT INTO TestTable2 (Field1, Field2) values ('Performing a test insert', 'Into SQL');
INSERT INTO TestTable3 (Field1) values ('All of these inserts should be successful.');
COMMIT TRANSACTION BigGroupInsert;

As you can see, this transaction will perform all of the Insert statements specified.  If there is an error processing one of the statements, like one of the values being to large for the target column, an error will occur for just that statement and all of the rest of the SQL commands will process.  That includes commands that were intended to occur after the failed step, not just the ones before.

But it’s possible this is not the correct course of action to take.  What if the entire batch needs to either perform all of the changes correctly or not make any changes at all?  It could be bad for data integrity if some tables have the updated rows, but related data is missing from other tables because of a SQL error.  Well fear not, there is a solution.  Add the command SET XACT_ABORT ON before the BEGIN TRANSACTION command to have SQL back out all changes in the Transaction if any error occurs.  This way the transaction works as a single unit and you can be guaranteed that that the entire transaction either worked or it didn’t, and there is nothing in between.

SET XACT_ABORT ON;
BEGIN TRANSACTION BigGroupInsert;
INSERT INTO TestTable1 (Field1) values ('If one of these values was too long.');
INSERT INTO TestTable2 (Field1, Field2) values ('Then this whole transaction', 'should fail');
INSERT INTO TestTable3 (Field1) values ('And none of these values should be inserted.');
COMMIT TRANSACTION BigGroupInsert;

For more information about SET XACT_ABORT, please refer to the MSDN article.

Serialization and Deserialization

Serialization is a process of converting an object into a stream of data. So it easily transfers over the network or can save to disk.   So, using this concept of serialization, we can serialize any object to XML string.
Here is a person class that we can serialize.

Here is the code that takes the person object into string of xml format.

Using Serialization in .NET is provided by the System.Runtim.Serialization name space.

Once you have the XML string, now you can save it to disk, store it into database, or transfer over the network.
Here is the deserialization method that takes serialized string of XML into the person object.

 

Kyoungsu Do
Software Quality Engineer
ImageSource, Inc.