Predicates- small but beautiful

A predicate is a function that returns true or false & a predicate delegate is a reference to a predicate. So basically a predicate delegate is a reference to a function that returns true or false. Predicates are very useful for filtering a list of values - here is an example.   using System; using System.Collections.Generic; class Program { static void Main() { List list = new List { 1, 2, 3 }; Predicate predicate = new Predicate(greaterThanTwo); List newList = list.FindAll(predicate); } static bool greaterThanTwo(int arg) { return arg > 2; } } Now if you are using C# 3 you can use a lambda to represent the predicate in a cleaner fashion: using System; using System.Collections.Generic; class Program { static void Main() { List list = new List { 1, 2, 3 }; List newList = list.FindAll(i => i > 2); } }   OR use the plane old inline Function delegate:   using System; using System.Collections.Generic; class Program { static void Main() { List list = new List { 1, 2, 3 }; List newList = list.FindAll(delegate(int arg) { return arg> 2; }); } }

Signing Third Party Dll's

Faced a problem today where I was not able to refer a third party dll (MessageGearsSDK.dll) into my project.
Problem was simple- My project dll is signed but MessageGearsSDK.dll is unsigned (Shame on them to release a non-signed dll for redistribution).

Binged a lot and then slapped myself when I found that the solution was also so simple (shame on me for not able to think it by myself) -

Use Ildasm to create .il file and then recreate the dll by signing it with my own key :-)

ildasm /all /out=MessageGearsSDK.il MessageGearsSDK.dll
ilasm /dll /key=xxxx.snk MessageGearsSDK.il

For more information and some exceptions (like, you cannot do this for a assembly which uses a un-managed code or uses delay signing), please refer following link-

http://buffered.io/posts/net-fu-signing-an-unsigned-assembly-without-delay-signing/

Sliding expiration explained

Sliding expiration was always a confusion to me unless I decided to dig inside the code.

This is what happening inside

Declaring Type:

System.Web.Security.FormsAuthentication

public static FormsAuthenticationTicket RenewTicketIfOld(FormsAuthenticationTicket tOld)
{
    if (tOld == null)
    {
        return null;
    }
    DateTime utcNow = DateTime.UtcNow;
    TimeSpan span = (TimeSpan) (utcNow - tOld.IssueDateUtc);
    TimeSpan span2 = (TimeSpan) (tOld.ExpirationUtc - utcNow);
    if (span2 > span) <--------So it will renew only after mid of the total timeout minutes
    {
        return tOld;
    }
    TimeSpan span3 = (TimeSpan) (tOld.ExpirationUtc - tOld.IssueDateUtc);
    DateTime expirationUtc = utcNow + span3;
    return FormsAuthenticationTicket.FromUtc(tOld.Version, tOld.Name, utcNow, expirationUtc, tOld.IsPersistent, tOld.UserData, tOld.CookiePath);
}

Above function get called by OnAuthenticate of System.Web.Security.FormsAuthenticationModule

private void OnAuthenticate(FormsAuthenticationEventArgs e);

{

…...

          if (FormsAuthentication.SlidingExpiration)
                {
                    ticket = FormsAuthentication.RenewTicketIfOld(tOld);
                }
…….

}

This implementation makes some sense because Authentication ticket's Expiration property doesn't allow it to set, so we need to create new authentication ticket.

But for me, I have to problem using slidingExpiration-

It messed up my 'about to timeout' popup (I have a SPA) at browser (although I can fix it now after understanding this logic)

It's hard to tell the QA guy that if you ideal for 16 minutes (in a timeout of 30 minutes), you will be logged-out . And all this is because ticket is not renewed when you sent your get/post at 14th minute :-(

Looks like I can’t win that battle (with QA and business) so I need to let go slidingExpiration (by setting it to false) and manually renew (recreate) the ticket for each request :-(

Wish they had allowed expiration property of FormAuthenticationTicket so that I need not to recreate the whole ticket again and again…