Programming – LockTar’s Blog

Apply same validation rules on different classes with FluentValidation

01/10/201801/10/2018 Ralph Jansen Leave a comment

In this blog post I will explain how to apply the same validation rules on the same properties in different classes with FluentValidation. This post will continue on the previous one where I explained how to create Custom Validators for your properties.

So in the previous example we had the Person class with a PersonValidator class. Let’s say you have some pages in your application to create and edit instances of that Person class. In order to create those pages, we use separate ViewModels for those pages. So let’s say you have a PersonCreateViewModel and a PersonEditViewModel. In this way, you have 3 classes with the same validation rules, because in example the property FirstName is the same in all those classes. If the validation rules of the FirstName changes (in example the MaxLength changes) you have to change the rules on 3 different places. If you forget to change it on one place a new bug is introduced.

Reuse validators for property

In order to reuse the validators we are going to extend the static CustomValidators class from our previous post. Again we are creating an extension method but now for the FirstName property. We put all the validation rules that we have for this FirstName in this custom validator. The end result will than be the following:

public static IRuleBuilderOptions<T, string> FirstNameValidation<T>(this IRuleBuilder<T, string> rule)
{
    return rule
        .NotEmpty()
        .NotNull()
        .MaximumLength(30)
        .NotStartWithWhiteSpace()
        .NotEndWithWhiteSpace();
}

public static IRuleBuilderOptions<T, string> FirstNameValidation<T>(this IRuleBuilder<T, string> rule)

{

return rule

.NotEmpty()

.NotNull()

.MaximumLength(30)

.NotStartWithWhiteSpace()

.NotEndWithWhiteSpace();

}

We can now change the PersonValidator (and PersonCreateViewModel and PersonEditViewModel) to use the power of the new FirstNameValidation extension method. The end result will than be the following:

public class PersonValidator : AbstractValidator<Person>
{
    public PersonValidator()
    {        
        RuleFor(e => e.FirstName).FirstNameValidation();
        RuleFor(e => e.LastName).LastNameValidation();
    }
}

public class PersonValidator : AbstractValidator<Person>

{

public PersonValidator()

{

RuleFor(e => e.FirstName).FirstNameValidation();

RuleFor(e => e.LastName).LastNameValidation();

}

The PersonValidator class is now smaller and easier to read. The cool thing as well is that you can combine your custom FirstNameValidation extension method with your other extension methods as well. So when you have in example slightly different validation rules for your create and edit viewmodels you can use in example the FirstNameValidation method for the generic rules and add the specific rules in the particular validator class. See the following example where the edit viewmodel has extra validation rules:

public class PersonCreateViewModelValidator : AbstractValidator<PersonCreateViewModel>
{
    public PersonValidator()
    {        
        RuleFor(e => e.FirstName).FirstNameValidation();
        RuleFor(e => e.LastName).LastNameValidation();
    }
}

public class PersonEditViewModelValidator : AbstractValidator<PersonEditViewModel>
{
    public PersonValidator()
    {        
        RuleFor(e => e.FirstName).FirstNameValidation().NotContainWhiteSpace();
        RuleFor(e => e.LastName).LastNameValidation();
    }
}

public class PersonCreateViewModelValidator : AbstractValidator<PersonCreateViewModel>

{

public PersonValidator()

{

RuleFor(e => e.FirstName).FirstNameValidation();

RuleFor(e => e.LastName).LastNameValidation();

}

public class PersonEditViewModelValidator : AbstractValidator<PersonEditViewModel>

{

public PersonValidator()

{

RuleFor(e => e.FirstName).FirstNameValidation().NotContainWhiteSpace();

RuleFor(e => e.LastName).LastNameValidation();

}

Conclusion

Reusing validators saves you a lot of time and duplicate code. This will eventually result in less bugs. Nice is as well that your validator classes like the PersonValidator class is easier to read because it isn’t that long.

Creating custom validators with FluentValidation

21/09/201801/10/2018 Ralph Jansen Leave a comment

This blog post will explain how creating custom validators with FluentValidation. A while back I wrote a blog post about how to start with FluentValidation in your project. In this post we will continue on that foundation.

Let’s say in example you have the class Person.

public class Person
{
    public int Id { get; set; }
    public string FirstName { get; set; }
    public string LastName { get; set; }
    public DateTime BirthDay { get; set; }
}

public class Person

{

public int Id { get; set; }

public string FirstName { get; set; }

public string LastName { get; set; }

public DateTime BirthDay { get; set; }

}

You need to validate that Person class. So let’s say, you want to validate the FirstName and LastName property. Those properties are similar to each other because both are name and a string so both could have the same (custom) validators.

So let’s create a PersonValidator class which of course will validate the Person class.

public class PersonValidator : AbstractValidator<Person>
{
    public PersonValidator()
    {        
        RuleFor(e => e.FirstName).NotEmpty().MaximumLength(30);
        RuleFor(e => e.LastName).NotEmpty().MaximumLength(30);
    }
}

public class PersonValidator : AbstractValidator<Person>

{

public PersonValidator()

{

RuleFor(e => e.FirstName).NotEmpty().MaximumLength(30);

RuleFor(e => e.LastName).NotEmpty().MaximumLength(30);

}

Custom Validator

Now, you want to extend the basic validators. So let’s say you want a validator that the name must not start with a whitespace. You can validate this on multiple ways but the most logical way is to create a custom validator once and use that validator on multiple places.

Here is the validator for checking whitespaces in the begin or end of a string.

public static class CustomValidators
{
    public static IRuleBuilderOptions<T, string> NotStartWithWhiteSpace<T>(this IRuleBuilder<T, string> ruleBuilder)
    {
        return ruleBuilder.Must(m => m != null && !m.StartsWith(" ")).WithMessage("'{PropertyName}' should not start with whitespace");
    }

    public static IRuleBuilderOptions<T, string> NotEndWithWhiteSpace<T>(this IRuleBuilder<T, string> ruleBuilder)
    {
        return ruleBuilder.Must(m => m != null && !m.EndsWith(" ")).WithMessage("'{PropertyName}' should not end with whitespace");
    }
}

public static class CustomValidators

{

public static IRuleBuilderOptions<T, string> NotStartWithWhiteSpace<T>(this IRuleBuilder<T, string> ruleBuilder)

{

return ruleBuilder.Must(m => m != null && !m.StartsWith(" ")).WithMessage("'{PropertyName}' should not start with whitespace");

}

public static IRuleBuilderOptions<T, string> NotEndWithWhiteSpace<T>(this IRuleBuilder<T, string> ruleBuilder)

{

return ruleBuilder.Must(m => m != null && !m.EndsWith(" ")).WithMessage("'{PropertyName}' should not end with whitespace");

}

You can use the custom validators in the PersonValidator in the following way:

public class PersonValidator : AbstractValidator<Person>
{
    public PersonValidator()
    {        
        RuleFor(e => e.FirstName).NotEmpty().MaximumLength(30).NotStartWithWhiteSpace().NotEndWithWhiteSpace();
        RuleFor(e => e.LastName).NotEmpty().MaximumLength(30).NotStartWithWhiteSpace().NotEndWithWhiteSpace();
    }
}

public class PersonValidator : AbstractValidator<Person>

{

public PersonValidator()

{

RuleFor(e => e.FirstName).NotEmpty().MaximumLength(30).NotStartWithWhiteSpace().NotEndWithWhiteSpace();

RuleFor(e => e.LastName).NotEmpty().MaximumLength(30).NotStartWithWhiteSpace().NotEndWithWhiteSpace();

}

With this above custom validator is validating your objects very easy to do.

In the next blog post we go one step further. I will then show you how to apply the same validation rules on multiple classes.

Use AzureAD PowerShell cmdlets on VSTS agent

14/08/201814/08/2018 Ralph Jansen 11 Comments

Today, I continued working on my custom VSTS extension that I will publish in the near future. In the extension I needed a way how to use AzureAD PowerShell cmdlets on VSTS agent because it isn’t installed by default.

Ship cmdlets in extension

Installing AzureAD cmdlets is not really that difficult. You just download the AzureAD cmdlets module from the PowerShell gallery and put them in your extension so they will be installed with your extension.

Importing the cmdlets

After you put the cmdlets as artifact in your extension, you need to import them. You can do this in example in your execution PowerShell file (in my case Main.ps1) with the following code:

Write-Verbose "Import AzureAD module because is not on default VSTS agent"
$azureAdModulePath = $PSScriptRoot + "\AzureAD\2.0.1.16\AzureAD.psd1"
Import-Module $azureAdModulePath

Write-Verbose "Import AzureAD module because is not on default VSTS agent"

$azureAdModulePath = $PSScriptRoot + "\AzureAD\2.0.1.16\AzureAD.psd1"

Import-Module $azureAdModulePath

Connect-AzureAD

After imported, you can use them. Of course you first need to login. Because we don’t want to hard code credentials in our extension, you will have to pass them to the Connect-AzureAD cmdlet. There are multiple ways on how to do this. Think in example of a credential file as variable. I used an Azure Resource Manager endpoint for this. I did this because I actually only wanted to use the AzureRM module for my extension but some of the cmdlets are only in the AzureAD module.

So how do we login? Connect-AzureAD doesn’t allow to login with a Service Principal and a key. You need to use a self-signed certificate for this what I don’t want. I already have an Azure Resource Manager endpoint with a key. I want to use that key so the login procedures for AzureRM and AzureAD are the same. I already wrote a post on how to login with a SP and key but with an existing Azure Resource Manager endpoint in your task you can use the following code:

Write-Verbose "Import AzureAD module because is not on default VSTS agent"
$azureAdModulePath = $PSScriptRoot + "\AzureAD\2.0.1.16\AzureAD.psd1"
Import-Module $azureAdModulePath 

# Workaround to use AzureAD in this task. Get an access token and call Connect-AzureAD
$serviceNameInput = Get-VstsInput -Name ConnectedServiceNameSelector -Require
$serviceName = Get-VstsInput -Name $serviceNameInput -Require
$endPointRM = Get-VstsEndpoint -Name $serviceName -Require

$clientId = $endPointRM.Auth.Parameters.ServicePrincipalId
$clientSecret = $endPointRM.Auth.Parameters.ServicePrincipalKey
$tenantId = $endPointRM.Auth.Parameters.TenantId

$adTokenUrl = "https://login.microsoftonline.com/$tenantId/oauth2/token"
$resource = "https://graph.windows.net/"

$body = @{
    grant_type    = "client_credentials"
    client_id     = $clientId
    client_secret = $clientSecret
    resource      = $resource
}

$response = Invoke-RestMethod -Method 'Post' -Uri $adTokenUrl -ContentType "application/x-www-form-urlencoded" -Body $body
$token = $response.access_token

Write-Verbose "Login to AzureAD with same application as endpoint"
Connect-AzureAD -AadAccessToken $token -AccountId $clientId -TenantId $tenantId

Write-Verbose "Import AzureAD module because is not on default VSTS agent"

$azureAdModulePath = $PSScriptRoot + "\AzureAD\2.0.1.16\AzureAD.psd1"

Import-Module $azureAdModulePath

# Workaround to use AzureAD in this task. Get an access token and call Connect-AzureAD

$serviceNameInput = Get-VstsInput -Name ConnectedServiceNameSelector -Require

$serviceName = Get-VstsInput -Name $serviceNameInput -Require

$endPointRM = Get-VstsEndpoint -Name $serviceName -Require

$clientId = $endPointRM.Auth.Parameters.ServicePrincipalId

$clientSecret = $endPointRM.Auth.Parameters.ServicePrincipalKey

$tenantId = $endPointRM.Auth.Parameters.TenantId

$adTokenUrl = "https://login.microsoftonline.com/$tenantId/oauth2/token"

$resource = "https://graph.windows.net/"

$body = @{

grant_type = "client_credentials"

client_id = $clientId

client_secret = $clientSecret

resource = $resource

}

$response = Invoke-RestMethod -Method 'Post' -Uri $adTokenUrl -ContentType "application/x-www-form-urlencoded" -Body $body

$token = $response.access_token

Write-Verbose "Login to AzureAD with same application as endpoint"

Connect-AzureAD -AadAccessToken $token -AccountId $clientId -TenantId $tenantId

After the above code, you can run any cmdlet that you want (if your AzureRM endpoint SP has permission on it).

Connect to AzureAD with Service Principal

14/08/201814/08/2018 Ralph Jansen 7 Comments

I needed this already multiple times but never got it working. Today, I needed again the ability to Connect to AzureAD with Service Principal because some actions can’t be done (yet) via the Azure Resource Manager.

You can’t login into the Azure AD with a key as a Service Principal. You need a certificate for this. Read for more information the documentation of Connect-AzureAD. In order to use a key for logging into the Azure AD, we need to login first into AzureRM because there it is possible by default. Then call something from the Azure AD (in example a group or application) with AzureRM so the tokencache of the AzureRM context is filled with a valid token to “https://graph.windows.net/”. After that, use the token to login with Connect-AzureAD AadAccessToken cmdlet.

Sample

This script (written in AzureRM 5.1.1 because VSTS hosted agents are using that as well) will get an Azure AD application via AzureRM and then via AzureAD cmdlets.

$ObjectIdOfApplicationToChange = "82bd7dd3-accf-4808-97ef-6bc6e27ade9b"

$TenantId = "You tenant here"
$ApplicationId = "Your application id to login here"
$ServicePrincipalKey = ConvertTo-SecureString -String "Put a key of the application here" -AsPlainText -Force

Write-Information "Login to AzureRM as SP: $ApplicationId"
$AzureADCred = New-Object System.Management.Automation.PSCredential($ApplicationId, $ServicePrincipalKey)
Add-AzureRmAccount -ServicePrincipal -Credential $AzureADCred -TenantId $TenantId

# Get application with AzureRM because this will fill the tokencache for AzureAD as well (hidden feature).
Write-Information "Get application with AzureRM: $ObjectIdOfApplicationToChange"
Get-AzureRmADApplication -ObjectId $ObjectIdOfApplicationToChange

$ctx = Get-AzureRmContext
$cache = $ctx.TokenCache
$cacheItems = $cache.ReadItems()

$token = ($cacheItems | where { $_.Resource -eq "https://graph.windows.net/" })

Write-Information "Login to AzureAD with same SP: $ApplicationId"
Connect-AzureAD -AadAccessToken $token.AccessToken -AccountId $ctx.Account.Id -TenantId $ctx.Tenant.Id

Write-Information "Now get same application with AzureAD: $ObjectIdOfApplicationToChange"
Get-AzureADApplication -ObjectId $ObjectIdOfApplicationToChange

$ObjectIdOfApplicationToChange = "82bd7dd3-accf-4808-97ef-6bc6e27ade9b"

$TenantId = "You tenant here"

$ApplicationId = "Your application id to login here"

$ServicePrincipalKey = ConvertTo-SecureString -String "Put a key of the application here" -AsPlainText -Force

Write-Information "Login to AzureRM as SP: $ApplicationId"

$AzureADCred = New-Object System.Management.Automation.PSCredential($ApplicationId, $ServicePrincipalKey)

Add-AzureRmAccount -ServicePrincipal -Credential $AzureADCred -TenantId $TenantId

# Get application with AzureRM because this will fill the tokencache for AzureAD as well (hidden feature).

Write-Information "Get application with AzureRM: $ObjectIdOfApplicationToChange"

Get-AzureRmADApplication -ObjectId $ObjectIdOfApplicationToChange

$ctx = Get-AzureRmContext

$cache = $ctx.TokenCache

$cacheItems = $cache.ReadItems()

$token = ($cacheItems | where { $_.Resource -eq "https://graph.windows.net/" })

Write-Information "Login to AzureAD with same SP: $ApplicationId"

Connect-AzureAD -AadAccessToken $token.AccessToken -AccountId $ctx.Account.Id -TenantId $ctx.Tenant.Id

Write-Information "Now get same application with AzureAD: $ObjectIdOfApplicationToChange"

Get-AzureADApplication -ObjectId $ObjectIdOfApplicationToChange

Upgrading PowershellGet to the latest version

13/08/201820/08/2018 Ralph Jansen Leave a comment

This is a small tutorial on how to upgrade PowershellGet to the latest version. The easiest way to upgrade your PowershellGet module is to run the following command:

Find-Module powershellget | Install-Module

1	Find-Module powershellget \| Install-Module

After that, check your installed versions:

Get-Module powershellget -ListAvailable
Get-Module packagemanagement -ListAvailable

1 2	Get-Module powershellget -ListAvailable Get-Module packagemanagement -ListAvailable

If you have multiple versions, the best thing todo is to remove the older versions. To remove the older versions, do the following:

Browse to C:\Program Files\WindowsPowerShell\Modules\
Go into C:\Program Files\WindowsPowerShell\Modules\PowershellGet folder, and delete the older version folders
Then do the same for C:\Program Files\WindowsPowerShell\Modules\PackageManagement

Now run the Get-Module commands again and see if the old versions are gone.

Get-Module powershellget -ListAvailable
Get-Module packagemanagement -ListAvailable

1 2	Get-Module powershellget -ListAvailable Get-Module packagemanagement -ListAvailable

Add Azure AD Application as owner of another AD Application

24/07/201820/08/2018 Ralph Jansen Leave a comment

This is just to explain to myself how to add Azure AD Application as owner of another AD Application because I have searched to many times for it.

You can’t do this as Global Admin. You need to be a normal user that is of course owner of the AD Application that you want to change.

This script uses both AzureAD and AzureRM PowerShell modules because on this moment not everything is available in AzureRM.

First get the owners of the application where you want to add the owner to. Check if it’s not already there.

Get-AzureADApplicationOwner -ObjectId $objectIdOfApplicationToChange

1	Get-AzureADApplicationOwner -ObjectId $objectIdOfApplicationToChange

Then get the service principal object id (property id) of the Azure AD Application

Get-AzureRmADApplication -ObjectId $objectIdOfApplicationThatNeedsToBeAdded | Get-AzureRmADServicePrincipal

1	Get-AzureRmADApplication -ObjectId $objectIdOfApplicationThatNeedsToBeAdded \| Get-AzureRmADServicePrincipal

The result will be the ApplicationId, DisplayName, Id and Type. Copy the Id property (ObjectId) to add it as owner. You can also use the following shortcut:

(Get-AzureRmADApplication -ObjectId $objectIdOfApplicationThatNeedsToBeAdded | Get-AzureRmADServicePrincipal).Id

1	(Get-AzureRmADApplication -ObjectId $objectIdOfApplicationThatNeedsToBeAdded \| Get-AzureRmADServicePrincipal).Id

Add the new ObjectId as owner:

Add-AzureADApplicationOwner -ObjectId $objectIdOfApplicationToChange -RefObjectId $objectIdOfOtherAppServicePrincipal

1	Add-AzureADApplicationOwner -ObjectId $objectIdOfApplicationToChange -RefObjectId $objectIdOfOtherAppServicePrincipal

Check if the new owner is set (you can check this as well in the portal):

Get-AzureADApplicationOwner -ObjectId $objectIdOfApplicationToChange

1	Get-AzureADApplicationOwner -ObjectId $objectIdOfApplicationToChange

Oneliner

Or everything in one line:

$objectIdOfApplicationToChange = "976876-6567-49e0-ab8c-e40848205883"
$objectIdOfApplicationThatNeedsToBeAdded = "98098897-86b9-4dc5-b447-c94138db3a61"

Add-AzureADApplicationOwner -ObjectId $objectIdOfApplicationToChange -RefObjectId (Get-AzureRmADApplication -ObjectId $objectIdOfApplicationThatNeedsToBeAdded | Get-AzureRmADServicePrincipal).Id

$objectIdOfApplicationToChange = "976876-6567-49e0-ab8c-e40848205883"

$objectIdOfApplicationThatNeedsToBeAdded = "98098897-86b9-4dc5-b447-c94138db3a61"

Add-AzureADApplicationOwner -ObjectId $objectIdOfApplicationToChange -RefObjectId (Get-AzureRmADApplication -ObjectId $objectIdOfApplicationThatNeedsToBeAdded | Get-AzureRmADServicePrincipal).Id

FluentValidation in ASP.NET Core

18/07/201821/09/2018 Ralph Jansen 1 Comment

FluentValidation is a wonderful validation package that is around for years. Last week I was busy with a new application in ASP.NET core. I wanted to add some validation and didn’t used FluentValidation in ASP.NET Core before. So I wanted to see if things where changed. This blog post contains some examples from the official FluentValidation Getting started documentation. In the next blog posts I will go into deeper validation of properties and reusing validators in different models.

Installation

For integration with ASP.NET Core, install the FluentValidation.AspNetCore package:

Install-Package FluentValidation.AspNetCore

1	Install-Package FluentValidation.AspNetCore

Basic validation

Using the package is very easy. Let’s say you have to following class:

public class Customer {
  public int Id { get; set; }
  public string Surname { get; set; }
  public string Forename { get; set; }
  public decimal Discount { get; set; }
  public string Address { get; set; }
}

public class Customer {

public int Id { get; set; }

public string Surname { get; set; }

public string Forename { get; set; }

public decimal Discount { get; set; }

public string Address { get; set; }

}

You would define a set of validation rules for this class by inheriting from AbstractValidator:

using FluentValidation; 

public class CustomerValidator : AbstractValidator<Customer> {
}

using FluentValidation;

public class CustomerValidator : AbstractValidator<Customer> {

}

To specify a validation rule for a particular property, call the RuleFor method, passing a lambda expression that indicates the property that you wish to validate. For example, to ensure that the Surname property is not null, the validator class would look like this:

using FluentValidation;

public class CustomerValidator : AbstractValidator<Customer> {
  public CustomerValidator() {
    RuleFor(customer => customer.Surname).NotNull();
  }
}

using FluentValidation;

public class CustomerValidator : AbstractValidator<Customer> {

public CustomerValidator() {

RuleFor(customer => customer.Surname).NotNull();

}

To run the validator, instantiate the validator object and call the Validate method, passing in the object to validate.

Customer customer = new Customer();
CustomerValidator validator = new CustomerValidator();

ValidationResult result = validator.Validate(customer);

Customer customer = new Customer();

CustomerValidator validator = new CustomerValidator();

ValidationResult result = validator.Validate(customer);

The following code would write any validation failures to the console:

if(! results.IsValid) {
  foreach(var failure in results.Errors) {
    Console.WriteLine("Property " + failure.PropertyName + " failed validation. Error was: " + failure.ErrorMessage);
  }
}

if(! results.IsValid) {

foreach(var failure in results.Errors) {

Console.WriteLine("Property " + failure.PropertyName + " failed validation. Error was: " + failure.ErrorMessage);

}

Deeper validation

In the next blog posts I will go into deeper validation with custom validators for properties and reusing validators in different models.

Seed database with users and roles in dotnet core 2.0

14/09/201719/09/2017 Ralph Jansen 9 Comments

In this post I will explain how to seed database users roles dotnet core 2.0 ef. For this we use the UserManager and RoleManager of the AspNetCore Identity framework. In that way, your application already has a default user and role for in example logging into the application. You can use it for test data but also for new installations of your application. In my case I will create a default Administrator user with the Administrator role attached to it for new installations of the application.

Seeding a database in dotnet core 2.0 is different than earlier versions. I followed the basics of the new documentation of Microsoft to get to a good solution. So I first created a new project with the authentication set to Individual Accounts.

Program.cs

In the program.cs class I changed the code to the following:

public class Program
{
    public static void Main(string[] args)
    {
        var host = BuildWebHost(args);

        using (var scope = host.Services.CreateScope())
        {
            var services = scope.ServiceProvider;
            try
            {
                var context = services.GetRequiredService<ApplicationDbContext>();
                var userManager = services.GetRequiredService<UserManager<ApplicationUser>>();
                var roleManager = services.GetRequiredService<RoleManager<IdentityRole>>();

                var dbInitializerLogger = services.GetRequiredService<ILogger<DbInitializer>>();
                DbInitializer.Initialize(context, userManager, roleManager, dbInitializerLogger).Wait();
            }
            catch (Exception ex)
            {
                var logger = services.GetRequiredService<ILogger<Program>>();
                logger.LogError(ex, "An error occurred while seeding the database.");
            }
        }

        host.Run();
    }

    public static IWebHost BuildWebHost(string[] args) =>
        WebHost.CreateDefaultBuilder(args)
            .UseStartup<Startup>()
            .Build();
}

public class Program

{

public static void Main(string[] args)

{

var host = BuildWebHost(args);

using (var scope = host.Services.CreateScope())

{

var services = scope.ServiceProvider;

try

{

var context = services.GetRequiredService<ApplicationDbContext>();

var userManager = services.GetRequiredService<UserManager<ApplicationUser>>();

var roleManager = services.GetRequiredService<RoleManager<IdentityRole>>();

var dbInitializerLogger = services.GetRequiredService<ILogger<DbInitializer>>();

DbInitializer.Initialize(context, userManager, roleManager, dbInitializerLogger).Wait();

}

catch (Exception ex)

{

var logger = services.GetRequiredService<ILogger<Program>>();

logger.LogError(ex, "An error occurred while seeding the database.");

}

host.Run();

}

public static IWebHost BuildWebHost(string[] args) =>

WebHost.CreateDefaultBuilder(args)

.UseStartup<Startup>()

.Build();

}

This is almost the same code as the documentation but I also injected a RoleManager and UserManager so we can create the default user and role for the application. When the instances are created the Initialize method of the DbInitializer is called. This can be used to seed your database.

Because I want to know more information about my users than just their email and username, I extended the ApplicationUser object that is used to create a user in the database with the UserManaer.

// Add profile data for application users by adding properties to the ApplicationUser class
public class ApplicationUser : IdentityUser
{

    public ApplicationUser()
        : base()
    {
    }
   
    public ApplicationUser(string userName, string firstName, string lastName, DateTime birthDay)
        : base(userName)
    {
        base.Email = userName;

        this.FirstName = firstName;
        this.LastName = lastName;
        this.BirthDay = birthDay;

    }

    [Required]
    [StringLength(50)]
    public string FirstName { get; set; }

    [Required]
    [StringLength(50)]
    public string LastName { get; set; }

    [Required]
    [DataType(DataType.Date)]
    public DateTime BirthDay { get; set; }

    public string FullName => $"{this.FirstName} {this.LastName}";
}

// Add profile data for application users by adding properties to the ApplicationUser class

public class ApplicationUser : IdentityUser

{

public ApplicationUser()

: base()

{

}

public ApplicationUser(string userName, string firstName, string lastName, DateTime birthDay)

: base(userName)

{

base.Email = userName;

this.FirstName = firstName;

this.LastName = lastName;

this.BirthDay = birthDay;

}

[Required]

[StringLength(50)]

public string FirstName { get; set; }

[Required]

[StringLength(50)]

public string LastName { get; set; }

[Required]

[DataType(DataType.Date)]

public DateTime BirthDay { get; set; }

public string FullName => $"{this.FirstName} {this.LastName}";

}

I like constructors for new objects so I will use the long constructor to create my default user.

DbInitializer

The DbInitializer is the class that is used to seed the database. It is created by the program class. It has a static method Initialize that will be used to pass the external dependencies. The Initialize method will be used to orchestrate all the actions.

public class DbInitializer
{
    public static async Task Initialize(ApplicationDbContext context, UserManager<ApplicationUser> userManager,
        RoleManager<IdentityRole> roleManager, ILogger<DbInitializer> logger)
    {
        context.Database.EnsureCreated();

        // Look for any users.
        if (context.Users.Any())
        {
            return; // DB has been seeded
        }

        await CreateDefaultUserAndRoleForApplication(userManager, roleManager, logger);
    }

    private static async Task CreateDefaultUserAndRoleForApplication(UserManager<ApplicationUser> um, RoleManager<IdentityRole> rm, ILogger<DbInitializer> logger)
    {
        const string administratorRole = "Administrator";
        const string email = "noreply@your-domain.com";

        await CreateDefaultAdministratorRole(rm, logger, administratorRole);
        var user = await CreateDefaultUser(um, logger, email);
        await SetPasswordForDefaultUser(um, logger, email, user);
        await AddDefaultRoleToDefaultUser(um, logger, email, administratorRole, user);
    }

    private static async Task CreateDefaultAdministratorRole(RoleManager<IdentityRole> rm, ILogger<DbInitializer> logger, string administratorRole)
    {
        logger.LogInformation($"Create the role `{administratorRole}` for application");
        var ir = await rm.CreateAsync(new IdentityRole(administratorRole));
        if (ir.Succeeded)
        {
            logger.LogDebug($"Created the role `{administratorRole}` successfully");
        }
        else
        {
            var exception = new ApplicationException($"Default role `{administratorRole}` cannot be created");
            logger.LogError(exception, GetIdentiryErrorsInCommaSeperatedList(ir));
            throw exception;
        }
    }

    private static async Task<ApplicationUser> CreateDefaultUser(UserManager<ApplicationUser> um, ILogger<DbInitializer> logger, string email)
    {
        logger.LogInformation($"Create default user with email `{email}` for application");
        var user = new ApplicationUser(email, "First", "Last", new DateTime(1970, 1, 1));

        var ir = await um.CreateAsync(user);
        if (ir.Succeeded)
        {
            logger.LogDebug($"Created default user `{email}` successfully");
        }
        else
        {
            var exception = new ApplicationException($"Default user `{email}` cannot be created");
            logger.LogError(exception, GetIdentiryErrorsInCommaSeperatedList(ir));
            throw exception;
        }

        var createdUser = await um.FindByEmailAsync(email);
        return createdUser;
    }

    private static async Task SetPasswordForDefaultUser(UserManager<ApplicationUser> um, ILogger<DbInitializer> logger, string email, ApplicationUser user)
    {
        logger.LogInformation($"Set password for default user `{email}`");
        const string password = "YourPassword01!";
        var ir = await um.AddPasswordAsync(user, password);
        if (ir.Succeeded)
        {
            logger.LogTrace($"Set password `{password}` for default user `{email}` successfully");
        }
        else
        {
            var exception = new ApplicationException($"Password for the user `{email}` cannot be set");
            logger.LogError(exception, GetIdentiryErrorsInCommaSeperatedList(ir));
            throw exception;
        }
    }

    private static async Task AddDefaultRoleToDefaultUser(UserManager<ApplicationUser> um, ILogger<DbInitializer> logger, string email, string administratorRole, ApplicationUser user)
    {
        logger.LogInformation($"Add default user `{email}` to role '{administratorRole}'");
        var ir = await um.AddToRoleAsync(user, administratorRole);
        if (ir.Succeeded)
        {
            logger.LogDebug($"Added the role '{administratorRole}' to default user `{email}` successfully");
        }
        else
        {
            var exception = new ApplicationException($"The role `{administratorRole}` cannot be set for the user `{email}`");
            logger.LogError(exception, GetIdentiryErrorsInCommaSeperatedList(ir));
            throw exception;
        }
    }

    private static string GetIdentiryErrorsInCommaSeperatedList(IdentityResult ir)
    {
        string errors = null;
        foreach (var identityError in ir.Errors)
        {
            errors += identityError.Description;
            errors += ", ";
        }
        return errors;
    }
}

100

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108

public class DbInitializer

{

public static async Task Initialize(ApplicationDbContext context, UserManager<ApplicationUser> userManager,

RoleManager<IdentityRole> roleManager, ILogger<DbInitializer> logger)

{

context.Database.EnsureCreated();

// Look for any users.

if (context.Users.Any())

{

return; // DB has been seeded

}

await CreateDefaultUserAndRoleForApplication(userManager, roleManager, logger);

}

private static async Task CreateDefaultUserAndRoleForApplication(UserManager<ApplicationUser> um, RoleManager<IdentityRole> rm, ILogger<DbInitializer> logger)

{

const string administratorRole = "Administrator";

const string email = "noreply@your-domain.com";

await CreateDefaultAdministratorRole(rm, logger, administratorRole);

var user = await CreateDefaultUser(um, logger, email);

await SetPasswordForDefaultUser(um, logger, email, user);

await AddDefaultRoleToDefaultUser(um, logger, email, administratorRole, user);

}

private static async Task CreateDefaultAdministratorRole(RoleManager<IdentityRole> rm, ILogger<DbInitializer> logger, string administratorRole)

{

logger.LogInformation($"Create the role `{administratorRole}` for application");

var ir = await rm.CreateAsync(new IdentityRole(administratorRole));

if (ir.Succeeded)

{

logger.LogDebug($"Created the role `{administratorRole}` successfully");

}

else

{

var exception = new ApplicationException($"Default role `{administratorRole}` cannot be created");

logger.LogError(exception, GetIdentiryErrorsInCommaSeperatedList(ir));

throw exception;

}

private static async Task<ApplicationUser> CreateDefaultUser(UserManager<ApplicationUser> um, ILogger<DbInitializer> logger, string email)

{

logger.LogInformation($"Create default user with email `{email}` for application");

var user = new ApplicationUser(email, "First", "Last", new DateTime(1970, 1, 1));

var ir = await um.CreateAsync(user);

if (ir.Succeeded)

{

logger.LogDebug($"Created default user `{email}` successfully");

}

else

{

var exception = new ApplicationException($"Default user `{email}` cannot be created");

logger.LogError(exception, GetIdentiryErrorsInCommaSeperatedList(ir));

throw exception;

}

var createdUser = await um.FindByEmailAsync(email);

return createdUser;

}

private static async Task SetPasswordForDefaultUser(UserManager<ApplicationUser> um, ILogger<DbInitializer> logger, string email, ApplicationUser user)

{

logger.LogInformation($"Set password for default user `{email}`");

const string password = "YourPassword01!";

var ir = await um.AddPasswordAsync(user, password);

if (ir.Succeeded)

{

logger.LogTrace($"Set password `{password}` for default user `{email}` successfully");

}

else

{

var exception = new ApplicationException($"Password for the user `{email}` cannot be set");

logger.LogError(exception, GetIdentiryErrorsInCommaSeperatedList(ir));

throw exception;

}

private static async Task AddDefaultRoleToDefaultUser(UserManager<ApplicationUser> um, ILogger<DbInitializer> logger, string email, string administratorRole, ApplicationUser user)

{

logger.LogInformation($"Add default user `{email}` to role '{administratorRole}'");

var ir = await um.AddToRoleAsync(user, administratorRole);

if (ir.Succeeded)

{

logger.LogDebug($"Added the role '{administratorRole}' to default user `{email}` successfully");

}

else

{

var exception = new ApplicationException($"The role `{administratorRole}` cannot be set for the user `{email}`");

logger.LogError(exception, GetIdentiryErrorsInCommaSeperatedList(ir));

throw exception;

}

private static string GetIdentiryErrorsInCommaSeperatedList(IdentityResult ir)

{

string errors = null;

foreach (var identityError in ir.Errors)

{

errors += identityError.Description;

errors += ", ";

}

return errors;

}

First a new Administrator role is created. In my application this is the highest role a user can have. When the role is created, a new default user is created with the earlier provided constructor. After the user is created, the user needs a password to sign into the application. So a password is set. The last step is to connect the user to the Administrator role so he has all the permissions that he needs.

For logging, I use the default logging extension framework provided by dotnet core. I connected Serilog to the logging extension for better control.

Unit testing with xUnit in .NET Core

06/06/201706/06/2017 Ralph Jansen Leave a comment

This post is about Unit testing with xUnit in .NET Core. The last few weeks I was working on a new project in .NET Core. What I didn’t expected was that so many features weren’t documented or very bad documented. Many articles of Microsoft explained a different solution for the same result. I understand the framework is changing but the documentation should be changing as well then.

So I started unit testing with xUnit. I like the framework a lot so I hoped everything was working in the latest version of .NET Core. What I wanted to achieve was to create of course unit tests but also good integration in Visual Studio and TFS. That was not so easy as I hoped for. It took me a lot of searching and combining of solution to get everything working. Just because of the poor documentation. If you see the result to get this to work then it looks to easy.

First, which version of all the tools and Frameworks did I use:

Visual Studio 2017 Enterprise 15.2 (26430.12)
ReSharper 2017.1.2
dotnet version 1.0.4 (dotnet –version in command prompt)
Team Foundation Server 2017 Update 1

When I used the xUnit Nuget package I got with little effort the tests working in Visual Studio. But I wanted more. Because I’m CI/CD engineer, I wanted some automated builds in Team Foundation Server. So I created a new CI build for my project. I couldn’t get everything to work with the tasks that where in TFS so I used the command prompt task. I found this post from xUnit for testing in .NET Core that got me pointing in the right direction.

I installed the following Nuget packages in my project:

<ItemGroup>
  <PackageReference Include="Microsoft.NET.Test.Sdk" Version="15.0.0" />
  <PackageReference Include="xunit" Version="2.3.0-beta2-build3683" />
  <PackageReference Include="xunit.runner.visualstudio" Version="2.2.0" />
  <DotNetCliToolReference Include="dotnet-xunit" Version="2.3.0-beta2-build3683" />
</ItemGroup>

</ItemGroup>

This gave me access to the new xunit CLI. I also installed the VS runner package so you could also run the unittests with the “Test Explorer” window in Visual Studio.

Now I could finish my CI Build definition. I removed all the tasks because in every combination that I tried I couldn’t get a part to work. I still wanted, to build the project, run the test, see the results back in Visual Studio and in TFS. As a bonus I wanted to see the Code Coverage of the tests in TFS as well.

First restore all external dependencies:

Then build the project:

Run the tests:

The trick is to use the right configuration and to export the result to an xml file. Place that file in the “$(Build.ArtifactStagingDirectory)” so we can use it in the next step. We already build the solution so add the “-nobuild” option.

Upload the test results:

The Code Coverage was not possible because that is still under development by Microsoft for the .NET Core framework. In the next version of Visual Studio will this be possible. You can already test it in the Visual Studio 2017 15.3 preview version. See this thread on Github for more information.

The result is:

Connect SoapUI to WCF service certificate authentication

30/12/201630/12/2016 Ralph Jansen 8 Comments

Is it possible to connect SoapUI to WCF Service certificate authentication, the answer is yes! If you search on the internet, there is little information about this topic but it is really possible!

Adding security to your WCF service is a best practice. Not only when your creating services connected by the internet but also inside your company.

One way for securing your WCF service is adding certificates for authentication. But also signing your message is good way to preserve the integrity of your message. So to use a secure service we can enable transport and message security. See a list of common security scenarios with WCF for a good reference. In that way we can use SSL in IIS.

Service configuration

Add a service to your application with a WsHttpBinding. See for an example the following config:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<system.serviceModel>
  <services>
    <service name="SampleService">
      <endpoint binding="wsHttpBinding" contract="ISampleService" bindingNamespace="http://your/binding/namespace"/>
    </service>
  </services>
  <behaviors>
    <serviceBehaviors>
      <behavior name="">
        <serviceMetadata httpsGetEnabled="true" />
        <serviceCredentials>
          <serviceCertificate findValue="YourThumbprint" storeName="My" storeLocation="LocalMachine" x509FindType="FindByThumbprint" />
          <clientCertificate>
            <certificate findValue="YourThumbprint" storeName="My" storeLocation="LocalMachine" x509FindType="FindByThumbprint" />
            <authentication certificateValidationMode="ChainTrust" revocationMode="NoCheck" />
            <!-- Check revocationMode for production -->
          </clientCertificate>
        </serviceCredentials>
        <serviceDebug includeExceptionDetailInFaults="true" />
      </behavior>
    </serviceBehaviors>
  </behaviors>
  <bindings>
    <wsHttpBinding>
      <binding maxReceivedMessageSize="10485760">
        <readerQuotas maxDepth="32" maxStringContentLength="2147483647" maxArrayLength="2147483647" maxBytesPerRead="4096" maxNameTableCharCount="16384" />
        <security mode="TransportWithMessageCredential">
          <message clientCredentialType="Certificate" algorithmSuite="Basic256Sha256Rsa15" negotiateServiceCredential="false" establishSecurityContext="false" />
        </security>
      </binding>
    </wsHttpBinding>
  </bindings>
  <serviceHostingEnvironment aspNetCompatibilityEnabled="true" multipleSiteBindingsEnabled="true" />
</system.serviceModel>

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>

<system.serviceModel>

</service>

</services>

</clientCertificate>

</serviceCredentials>

</behavior>

</serviceBehaviors>

</behaviors>

</security>

</binding>

</wsHttpBinding>

</bindings>

</system.serviceModel>

Client Configurations

Configuration .NET

Then use in your .NET client the following config. The assumption is that you already know how to add a service.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<configuration>
  <system.serviceModel>
    <bindings>
      <wsHttpBinding>
        <binding name="WsHttpBinding_ISampleService">
          <security mode="TransportWithMessageCredential">
            <message clientCredentialType="Certificate" algorithmSuite="Basic256Sha256Rsa15"/>
          </security>
        </binding>
      </wsHttpBinding>
    </bindings>
    <behaviors>
      <endpointBehaviors>
        <behavior name="">
          <clientCredentials>
            <clientCertificate findValue="your thumbprint" storeName="My" storeLocation="LocalMachine" x509FindType="FindByThumbprint" />

            <serviceCertificate>
              <defaultCertificate findValue="your thumbprint" storeName="My" storeLocation="LocalMachine" x509FindType="FindByThumbprint" />
              <authentication certificateValidationMode="ChainTrust" revocationMode="NoCheck" /><!-- Check revocationMode for production -->
            </serviceCertificate>
          </clientCredentials>
        </behavior>
      </endpointBehaviors>
    </behaviors>
    <client>
      <endpoint address="https://url/SampleService.svc"
          binding="wsHttpBinding" bindingConfiguration="WsHttpBinding_ISampleService"
          contract="ISampleService" name="WsHttpBinding_ISampleService1">
        <identity>
          <dns value="IngHubServerTest"/>
        </identity>
      </endpoint>
    </client>
  </system.serviceModel>
</configuration>

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>

<system.serviceModel>

</security>

</binding>

</wsHttpBinding>

</bindings>

</serviceCertificate>

</clientCredentials>

</behavior>

</endpointBehaviors>

</behaviors>

<endpoint address="https://url/SampleService.svc"

binding="wsHttpBinding" bindingConfiguration="WsHttpBinding_ISampleService"

contract="ISampleService" name="WsHttpBinding_ISampleService1">

</identity>

</endpoint>

</client>

</system.serviceModel>

</configuration>

Configuration SoapUI

If you want to connect to this service with SoapUI it is more difficult. I’m not a Java developer so I use SoapUI for an easier understanding of connecting to our WCF Service in a different language. For this example I use the curret latest version 5.3. See for an overview of WS-Security the following help page.

Follow the steps below for adding a new project to SoapUI with the right configuration.

Project configuration

First of all create a new project and add the url to the wsdl. A new project is generated with a sample request for your service.
Now double click the project or use right click of the mouse to open the “Project view”.
Navigate to the “WS-Security Configurations” tab
Select the “Keystores” tab and add the certificate with private key so we can sign the request.
Go to the “Outgoing WS-Security Configurations” and add a new configuration with the name that you like.
Add in the newly created configuration a “Signature”.
Configure the keystore that you’ve added.
Use “Binary Security Token” as Key Identifier Type.
Set the right Algorithms that you have configured in the service. I change the configuration to a higher security because the default uses SHA1 and that is not a best practice anymore. I changed the configuration in my WCF service to algorithmSuite=”Basic256Sha256Rsa15″ in the message element of the binding. See this page for more information. Then it uses RSA-SHA256 for signature algorithm, XML-EXC-C14n# for Signature Canonicalization and XMLENC#SHA256 for the Digest Algorithm.
Check the “Use single certificate” checkbox.
By default SoapUI signs the whole request but that isn’t the default by WCF so we have to set the parts that we want to sign. So add as Name “To”, Namespace “http://www.w3.org/2005/08/addressing” (this is my namespace but check yours) and set Encode to “Element”.
Add a timestamp and set it to 300. Use milisecond precision.
Check the order on the left. So first signature and then timestamp!

Request configuration

Adjust the sample request body so it is a valid request.
Go back to your request.
Under the request open the “Auth” panel. Add Basic security. Leave everything blank except the “Outgoing WSS” configuration. Select the configuration that you have created.
Go to the WS-A panel and check the “Enable WS-A addressing” checkbox.
Finally the last thing that you have to do is check the checkbox “Add default wsa:To”. This in combination with the signature parts “To” configuration passes the right header values to the server. If you don’t do this you will get the following exception “The message received over Transport security has unsigned ‘To’ header”. See this StackOverflow post for simulair issue.

Hopefully this helped somebody. I spend to much time to this issue with SoapUI. Just to show that SoapUI works with a WCF soap service and high security configuration. The conclusion is that it works! It’s just soap… why wouldn’t…