Tag: .NET

RestSharp with Async Await

RestSharp is an excellent open source project to use in a Windows Phone app if you want make http calls to a json api. However it doesn't have any inbuilt support for the async await syntax. Thankfully with C#'s extensions methods we can add this support in our app.

1namespace RestSharpEx
2{
3    public static class RestClientExtensions
4    {
5      public static Task<IRestResponse> ExecuteTaskAsync(this RestClient @this, RestRequest request)
6      {
7        if (@this == null)
8            throw new NullReferenceException();
9 
10        var tcs = new TaskCompletionSource<IRestResponse>();
11 
12        @this.ExecuteAsync(request, (response) =>
13        {
14            if (response.ErrorException != null)
15                tcs.TrySetException(response.ErrorException);
16            else
17                tcs.TrySetResult(response);
18        });
19 
20        return tcs.Task;
21      }
22    }
23}

This will add a new function to the RestSharp client type called ExecutreTaskAsync. Inside the method it will call the ExecuteAsync function as you normally would, but has also implemented returning a Task and setting it's results when its complete.

To use the function would be as follows

1var client = new RestClient("http://www.YOUR SITE.com/api/");
2var request = new RestRequest("Products", Method.GET);
3var response = await client.ExecuteTaskAsync(request);

Creating 301 redirects in web.config

For various reasons at times you may need to create a 301 redirect to another URL. This could be as a result of a page moving or you just need to create some friendly URLS.

As a developer you may be tempted to do something like this in code...

1private void Page_Load(object sender, System.EventArgs e)
2{
3    Response.Status = "301 Moved Permanently";
4    Response.AddHeader("Location","http://www.new-url.com");
5}

But do you really want your project cluttered up with files who's only purpose is to redirect to another page!

You may also be tempted to try doing something with .NET's RouteCollection. This would certainly solve an issue on creating a redirect for anything without a file extension, but there is a better way.

In your web.config file under the configuration node create something like this

1<location path="twitter">
2  <system.webServer>
3    <httpRedirect enabled="true" destination="http://twitter.com/TwitterName" httpResponseStatus="Permanent" />
4  </system.webServer>
5</location>

The location path specifies that path on your site that this redirect will apply to. The destination value in the httpRedirect is where the redirect will go to. As well as setting Permanent for the httpResponseStatus you can also specify Found or Temporary depending on your needs.

ASP.NET Session Timeout

A users session on an ASP.NET site by default will time-out after 20 minutes. This however can be changed through either the web.config file or IIS.

To edit through the web.config file you need to edit the sessionState tag under system.web

1<system.web>
2  <sessionState timeout="30"></sessionState>
3</system.web>

Or through IIS click on your site name and then click Session State under the ASP.NET heading. There will be a field labeled Time-out (in minutes).

The value you enter for time-out must be an integer.

Help it doesn't seem to work!

If your sessions still seem like there timing out after 20 minutes it could be because your site isn't very active.

The application pool for your site also has an idle time-out that is set by default to 20 minutes. When the idle time-out is reached it will cause your application pool to recycle and therefore loose any active sessions (that's assuming you have the session state mode set to In Proc). Therefore it is a good idea to increase this to whatever you have set the session time-out to.

To do this go to your sites application pool in IIS, click advanced settings on the right and then look for the Idle Time-out (minutes) setting and update this to be the same as your session time-out value.