Currently showing entries with the tag: HTTP
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Javascript and ASP.NET Hacks
September 12, 2007 • 7:25AM • permalink
Both ASP.NET and Javascript can be extremely useful, in entirely different ways. ASP.NET is a great server-side environment and Javascript can be used to enhance the client-side experience. In my experience, junior developers often have a difficult time getting the two to play nicely together, so I thought I would share a few common tricks. (Please note tricks apply whether you code using Visual Basic or C#. Also, many of these tricks or similar implementations of them are trivial to implement in many other server-side languages, such as PHP, Python or JSP.)
1) Data Injection (ASP.NET => Javascript)
First, in the code-behind area of the page, we setup a simple string variable from an external source:
private string username;
public string Username
{
get { return username; }
set { username = value; }
}
public void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
username = Request["username"];
}
Then, in the front-end part of the page, we can use this variable for a Javascript injection:
<head>
<script type="text/javascript">
alert('<% =Username %>');
</script>
</head>
The result, is that when the page loads, the value that is in username is injected into the Javascript. So if the value Adam is passed into the page, the Javascript is transformed at runtime to:
<head>
<script type="text/javascript">
alert('Adam');
</script>
</head>
So that when the page loads, the alert box appears with the requested username:
2) Input Injection (Javascript => ASP.NET)
There are many ways to get data from a HTML form to the ASP.NET code, including the basic query string and basic form post. Sometimes though, a server control doesn't contain the dynamic nature needed to properly collect user input. In the following example, we're going to collect data from multiple checkboxes and pass them back as a comma-delimited string.
Before I begin, you may ask why I wouldn't just use a CheckboxList or a series of single Checkboxes. You could (especially after reading the third trick that I will present below), but that would make it a little more difficult to do a few dynamic tricks with the checkboxes, like a Select All or Select None functionality.
First, the back-end code:
private string received_values;
public string ReceivedValues
{
get { return received_values; }
set { received_values = value; }
}
public void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
received_values = Request.Form["sent_value"];
}
All we're doing is making the results of a HTTP form post, with the input name "sent_value", publically accessible.
Then, on the front-end, we're going to create our checkboxes based on the contents of a static array. This is only to make a simple example, and our "IDValues" could represent anything from friends on a buddylist, stocks in a portfolio, books in a library, software titles in a shopping cart - anything you could retrieve from a database, XML feed, etc.
Here's the entire code listing. The explanation is below it.
<form id="the_form" method="post">
<% int[] IDValues = new int[] { 5, 10, 25, 50 }; %>
<% for (int x = 0, cnt = IDValues.Length; x < cnt; ++x) { %>
<input type="checkbox" id="someid_<% =IDValues[x] %>" /> <% =IDValues[x] %>
<% } %>
<input type="hidden" id="sent_value" name="sent_value" value="" />
<input type="button" onclick="doSubmit(); return false;" value="Submit" />
</form>
<% if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(ReceivedValues)) { %>
<strong>Received Values:</strong> <% =ReceivedValues %>
<% } %>
<script type="text/javascript">
function doSubmit()
{
var frm = document.getElementById('the_form');
var post_string = "";
for (var x = 0, cnt = frm.elements.length; x < cnt; ++x)
{
if (frm.elements[x].checked)
post_string += frm.elements[x].id.substring(7) + ",";
}
if (post_string.length > 0)
post_string = post_string.substring(0, post_string.length - 1);
document.getElementById('sent_value').value = post_string;
frm.submit();
}
</script>
It's actually very simple! We create four checkboxes, easily identified by the prefix 'someid_' in their id property. When the button is clicked, we obtain a reference to the form object and loop through all of its elements. If the item is checked (obviously indicating a checkbox in our example), then we remove the 'someid_' prefix and append the id to a running string, with a comma-delimeter.
After traversing the whole form, we cleanup the string by removing the extraneous comma and store the value in a hidden input tag we've created already. This is the key to posting the resulting values to the back-end.
Upon submission, the ReceivedValues string will be populated and will be output, like so:
3) Javascript on ASP.NET Controls (Javascript <=> ASP.NET)
Finally, there are a few additional tricks you can mix in to ease the integration of Javascript and ASP.NET. A very simple example would be a form that requires both client-side validation and server-side validation.
I'll assume the reader can already output an error message using either Javascript or ASP.NET. In this example, we'll assume that we have an existing system to validate a page and upon error, set the InnerHtml property of a div object with the ID 'ErrorMessage'. (Note that divs are implemented as HttpGenericControl objects on the back-end)
If we decided to add in Javascript validation as well (possibly to implement a 'strong password' indicator like Live.com), we don't want to have to create a new location for Javascript error messages.
Using a simple trick, we don't have to:
<form runat="server">
<div id="ErrorMessage" runat="server"></div>
<script type="text/javascript">
document.getElementById("<% =ErrorMessage.ClientID %>").innerHTML = "Cool, eh?";
</script>
</form>
That's all there is to it! While this example is oversimplified, it is easy to see how it can be implemented and extended. This applies to all the examples given above. With the plethora of ASP server controls and Javascript methods available, not to mention AJAX implementations, it's very easy to see how you can make your sites much more dynamic by using the above tricks.
1) Data Injection (ASP.NET => Javascript)
First, in the code-behind area of the page, we setup a simple string variable from an external source:
private string username;
public string Username
{
get { return username; }
set { username = value; }
}
public void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
username = Request["username"];
}
Then, in the front-end part of the page, we can use this variable for a Javascript injection:
<head>
<script type="text/javascript">
alert('<% =Username %>');
</script>
</head>
The result, is that when the page loads, the value that is in username is injected into the Javascript. So if the value Adam is passed into the page, the Javascript is transformed at runtime to:
<head>
<script type="text/javascript">
alert('Adam');
</script>
</head>
So that when the page loads, the alert box appears with the requested username:
2) Input Injection (Javascript => ASP.NET)
There are many ways to get data from a HTML form to the ASP.NET code, including the basic query string and basic form post. Sometimes though, a server control doesn't contain the dynamic nature needed to properly collect user input. In the following example, we're going to collect data from multiple checkboxes and pass them back as a comma-delimited string.
Before I begin, you may ask why I wouldn't just use a CheckboxList or a series of single Checkboxes. You could (especially after reading the third trick that I will present below), but that would make it a little more difficult to do a few dynamic tricks with the checkboxes, like a Select All or Select None functionality.
First, the back-end code:
private string received_values;
public string ReceivedValues
{
get { return received_values; }
set { received_values = value; }
}
public void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
received_values = Request.Form["sent_value"];
}
All we're doing is making the results of a HTTP form post, with the input name "sent_value", publically accessible.
Then, on the front-end, we're going to create our checkboxes based on the contents of a static array. This is only to make a simple example, and our "IDValues" could represent anything from friends on a buddylist, stocks in a portfolio, books in a library, software titles in a shopping cart - anything you could retrieve from a database, XML feed, etc.
Here's the entire code listing. The explanation is below it.
<form id="the_form" method="post">
<% int[] IDValues = new int[] { 5, 10, 25, 50 }; %>
<% for (int x = 0, cnt = IDValues.Length; x < cnt; ++x) { %>
<input type="checkbox" id="someid_<% =IDValues[x] %>" /> <% =IDValues[x] %>
<% } %>
<input type="hidden" id="sent_value" name="sent_value" value="" />
<input type="button" onclick="doSubmit(); return false;" value="Submit" />
</form>
<% if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(ReceivedValues)) { %>
<strong>Received Values:</strong> <% =ReceivedValues %>
<% } %>
<script type="text/javascript">
function doSubmit()
{
var frm = document.getElementById('the_form');
var post_string = "";
for (var x = 0, cnt = frm.elements.length; x < cnt; ++x)
{
if (frm.elements[x].checked)
post_string += frm.elements[x].id.substring(7) + ",";
}
if (post_string.length > 0)
post_string = post_string.substring(0, post_string.length - 1);
document.getElementById('sent_value').value = post_string;
frm.submit();
}
</script>
It's actually very simple! We create four checkboxes, easily identified by the prefix 'someid_' in their id property. When the button is clicked, we obtain a reference to the form object and loop through all of its elements. If the item is checked (obviously indicating a checkbox in our example), then we remove the 'someid_' prefix and append the id to a running string, with a comma-delimeter.
After traversing the whole form, we cleanup the string by removing the extraneous comma and store the value in a hidden input tag we've created already. This is the key to posting the resulting values to the back-end.
Upon submission, the ReceivedValues string will be populated and will be output, like so:
3) Javascript on ASP.NET Controls (Javascript <=> ASP.NET)
Finally, there are a few additional tricks you can mix in to ease the integration of Javascript and ASP.NET. A very simple example would be a form that requires both client-side validation and server-side validation.
I'll assume the reader can already output an error message using either Javascript or ASP.NET. In this example, we'll assume that we have an existing system to validate a page and upon error, set the InnerHtml property of a div object with the ID 'ErrorMessage'. (Note that divs are implemented as HttpGenericControl objects on the back-end)
If we decided to add in Javascript validation as well (possibly to implement a 'strong password' indicator like Live.com), we don't want to have to create a new location for Javascript error messages.
Using a simple trick, we don't have to:
<form runat="server">
<div id="ErrorMessage" runat="server"></div>
<script type="text/javascript">
document.getElementById("<% =ErrorMessage.ClientID %>").innerHTML = "Cool, eh?";
</script>
</form>
That's all there is to it! While this example is oversimplified, it is easy to see how it can be implemented and extended. This applies to all the examples given above. With the plethora of ASP server controls and Javascript methods available, not to mention AJAX implementations, it's very easy to see how you can make your sites much more dynamic by using the above tricks.
0 comments
HTTP Status Code 307 - Temporary Redirect
August 19, 2007 • 9:41AM • permalink
I'm sure that many of you haven't gotten past the title before saying, "No, a HTTP Status Code of 302 is the Temporary Redirect." I'd like to briefly explain the difference between the two and show you how you can benefit from a 307 redirect. Please also note, that this is a temporary redirect and should probably be avoided in most production situations. You will see one case in particular below where this can be useful.
In .NET, the standard way to redirect between pages is to use the Response.Redirect() method. This implicitly flushes the Response buffer and instead of sending back HTML (with a status code 200 OK), it sends the user a 302 Found code, meaning the requested page was found, but under a different URI. The server also sends back the new URI in the Location header that should be subsequently retrieved by the client.
This works in most cases, except for one minor problem: the case when you're trying to POST data to the server. There are many ways around this problem (including changing it to a GET/QueryString combo), but if a POST is necessary a 307 Temporary Redirect status code will indicate to the browser that the POST method should be retained.
This can be very valuable when developing on a machine with Windows XP Pro (and hence IIS 5.1 which doesn't allow you to identify web sites with host headers.) Under IIS, I setup multiple projects with the directory schema C:\Inetpub\wwwroot\ProjectName\. In my code, I prefix all links with an Web.config driven value that indicates the subdirectory off the root that the project resides in. This way, I can use the value /ProjectName/ in dev and / in production and the links will work in both environments. I don't like to pass these values around though, so when I recently wrote a small Flash application specifically for one website, I wanted to hardcode the SWF to POST to 'http://www.domainname.com/'. It seemed like a lot of work at first, but with a 307 redirect, it was simple!
If the Flash file was hardcoded to POST to 'http://www.domainname.com/PageName.aspx', you just create a file in the localhost root directory (C:\Inetpub\wwwroot\ in my example) called PageName.aspx and run the following on Page_Load():
Response.StatusCode = 307;
Response.RedirectLocation = "/ProjectName/PageName.aspx";
This will allow proper testing in IIS 5.1 and will redirect to the correct page with a POST method and all associated form data.
One final note as to why this should only be used for testing. Part of the definition of a 307 status code directs that browsers should prompt the user of the redirect and allow them to replicate the action (for older browsers). Firefox, in particular, is one browser that fully supports the standard and prompts the user, asking if they want to allow the form data to be sent via a POST. Since this could lead to a very poor user experience, I would recommend limiting use of the 307 status code to development and testing environments only.
In .NET, the standard way to redirect between pages is to use the Response.Redirect() method. This implicitly flushes the Response buffer and instead of sending back HTML (with a status code 200 OK), it sends the user a 302 Found code, meaning the requested page was found, but under a different URI. The server also sends back the new URI in the Location header that should be subsequently retrieved by the client.
This works in most cases, except for one minor problem: the case when you're trying to POST data to the server. There are many ways around this problem (including changing it to a GET/QueryString combo), but if a POST is necessary a 307 Temporary Redirect status code will indicate to the browser that the POST method should be retained.
This can be very valuable when developing on a machine with Windows XP Pro (and hence IIS 5.1 which doesn't allow you to identify web sites with host headers.) Under IIS, I setup multiple projects with the directory schema C:\Inetpub\wwwroot\ProjectName\. In my code, I prefix all links with an Web.config driven value that indicates the subdirectory off the root that the project resides in. This way, I can use the value /ProjectName/ in dev and / in production and the links will work in both environments. I don't like to pass these values around though, so when I recently wrote a small Flash application specifically for one website, I wanted to hardcode the SWF to POST to 'http://www.domainname.com/'. It seemed like a lot of work at first, but with a 307 redirect, it was simple!
If the Flash file was hardcoded to POST to 'http://www.domainname.com/PageName.aspx', you just create a file in the localhost root directory (C:\Inetpub\wwwroot\ in my example) called PageName.aspx and run the following on Page_Load():
Response.StatusCode = 307;
Response.RedirectLocation = "/ProjectName/PageName.aspx";
This will allow proper testing in IIS 5.1 and will redirect to the correct page with a POST method and all associated form data.
One final note as to why this should only be used for testing. Part of the definition of a 307 status code directs that browsers should prompt the user of the redirect and allow them to replicate the action (for older browsers). Firefox, in particular, is one browser that fully supports the standard and prompts the user, asking if they want to allow the form data to be sent via a POST. Since this could lead to a very poor user experience, I would recommend limiting use of the 307 status code to development and testing environments only.
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