DEV Community: raddevus

Meme Monday (belated)

raddevus — Tue, 08 Sep 2026 19:11:34 +0000

Modern Software Architecture Explained

Hello, Architect. Can you build a dog house?
You can!?

Well, then, you can build a Skyscraper!

How Does The Same Company Make Something So Bad, But Another Thing So Good!?!

raddevus — Fri, 31 Jul 2026 13:36:48 +0000

XCode is so annoying.
But, SWiftUI is an amazing system for creating User Interfaces.
How?!

IT Industry Secrets Revealed

raddevus — Wed, 29 Jul 2026 17:51:22 +0000

All of the IT Industry is explained with just one meme:

Funny, right? Right?

Meme Monday

raddevus — Mon, 02 Mar 2026 18:31:16 +0000

Meme Monday

I can't wait all day for this site to start the Meme Monday post, so here it is.

Longest amount of time on any project?

raddevus — Mon, 20 Oct 2025 20:50:36 +0000

(from https://x.com/aarondotdev/status/1978478524916015513)

More Details From Wikipedia

Makes Me Question Myself As A Dev

"Hmm...I don't know if I've ever actually really focused entirely on project for 2 years (2080 hours x 2) on one project.
I've put a lot of hours into my C'YaPass (FOSS Password manager - source at GitHub.) program but realistically it isn't 4160 hours.

I have a couple of work projects that I've worked on for that many hours over 10 years probably. But again, I don't think I've ever focused on one project for 2 years straight.

How about you?

Have you worked on any Work Projects with that kind of focus?
Have you worked on any Personal Projects with that kind of focus?

I thinking of "intense focus" (2 years straight) especially, but please share any experiences you've had.

Why No New (Quality) Android Programming Books?

raddevus — Mon, 23 Sep 2024 18:22:23 +0000

Why haven't there any new books since the great Android Programming Big Nerd Ranch 5th ed., 2022?

There have been a lot of changes in the Development Process and in Android Studio over that period of time, but no quality books published on the new changes.

I'm going to try out Programming Android With Kotlin (Jan. 2022) but I haven't seen any other good ones since those two.

Have you read any great Android Programming books? Please share in the comments.

10 Reasons You Should Never Hire a Dev Who Writes a List Article On Dev.To

raddevus — Fri, 09 Aug 2024 13:19:57 +0000

10 - Lowest common denominator.

The list article is the easiest of all articles to write and requires the least amount of creativity. Is that the type of Software Dev you want to work with? One who takes the easy way out.

9 - Attention Getter

The list article is only written to gain attention. A writer who writes a list article is likely vainglorious and attention-seeking with no substance behind them. Is this the kind of employee you want working for our company?

One who just wants to get attention: be ready to experience tons of drama if you hire the list article writer.

8 - Lack of Creativity

The fact that the dev has chosen to write a list article is proof that they have very little creativity and cannot think of an interesting article that focuses on a specific topic. Do you want to work with non-creative employee?

7 - Boring

Imagine listening to a person who just rambles off a list of facts. It's so boring. Do you want to work with boring people? If you're answer is no, then don't hire a person who writes a list article on Dev.to

6 - Doesn't Really Know the Topic

If the person has written a list article, it is because they don't really know how the topic. Instead, they've just jammed some interesting pieces together in an attempt to create content and post an article.

However, when the person begins to write code, look out. The important thing about code is not if you know a bunch of interesting facts, but if you know how to put things together to create a solution.

5 - Unlikely Able To Write Complete Solutions

It is unlikely that the person who is writing a list article has the ability and focus to complete an entire app. Keep in mind that coding (creating software solutions) is not just about writing code. To create a complete app you will have to do many thing such as:

use version control system (git)
translate user stories into the solution
communicate with other devs
communicate with project manager
write unit tests
deploy your code And much more. The person who writes a list article shows only that she can understand small snippets of code in isolation from everything else. That's not very helpful.

4 - Doesn't Have the Stamina

Writing a list article shows that the dev doesn't have the stamina to do everything it takes to write a complete solution. Instead, they just want to drop some fast facts and run. That's not how coding happens at any real company which is trying to produce software solutions.

3 - Probably Written By AI

The list article is probably written by AI anyways. Most likely if you're reading a list article, it was written by AI, so when you hire the dev who "wrote" the list article they won't understand the content of their article anyways. Don't be fooled, don't hire a list article writer.

2 - Boring, Non-Creative, Drama-Seeker

If you hire a list article writer, you are going to get the trifecta of bad employees:
Boring Non-Creative Drama-Seeker who just wants to stir up drama about which syntax to use but who cannot create great software solutions that people want to use.

1 - Know-It-All

The person who writes the list article will probably be jabbering on about how you "should've used this latest feature of the language" or "oh, you could've used JavaScript Map here...".
Meanwhile you are writing the code that creates the over all solution and rolling your eyes at the list article author's comments.

I'm sure you'll agree that the list article is the worst of all article types and any dev who writes a list article should be avoided.

List Article Upvoter

However, if you are wary of hiring the list article writer, you should be doubly-wary of hiring the List ARticle Upvoter.
If you see a dev who upvotes a list article and says the article is great, it is obvious that they are someone who knows even less than the list article writer.

That's an amazing amount of un-knowledge.

These list article upvoters don't even know as much as the list article writers. Beware! You don't want these people on your dev project.

Conclusion

The list article is over & should never be written again. Do not trust list article writers or list article upvoters.

50 + 50 Basic Linux Commands (100 Total)

raddevus — Fri, 12 Jul 2024 15:41:52 +0000

ls - List directory contents.
cd - Change the current directory.
pwd - Print the current working directory.
mkdir - Create a new directory.
rmdir - Remove an empty directory.
rm - Remove files or directories.
cp - Copy files or directories.
mv - Move or rename files or directories.
touch - Create an empty file or update the timestamp of an existing file.
cat - Concatenate and display file content.
more - View file content one screen at a time.
less - View file content with backward movement.
head - Display the first few lines of a file.
tail - Display the last few lines of a file.
echo - Display a line of text.
man - Display the manual for a command.
info - Display command information.
which - Locate a command.
whereis - Locate the binary, source, and manual page files for a command.
find - Search for files in a directory hierarchy.
grep - Search text using patterns.
sed - Stream editor for filtering and transforming text.
awk - Pattern scanning and processing language.
sort - Sort lines of text files.
uniq - Report or omit repeated lines.
diff - Compare files line by line.
cmp - Compare two files byte by byte.
comm - Compare two sorted files line by line.
wc - Print newline, word, and byte counts for each file.
cut - Remove sections from each line of files.
paste - Merge lines of files.
tr - Translate or delete characters.
split - Split a file into pieces.
join - Join lines of two files on a common field.
tee - Read from standard input and write to standard output and files.
xargs - Build and execute command lines from standard input.
chmod - Change file modes or Access Control Lists.
chown - Change file owner and group.
chgrp - Change group ownership.
ln - Create hard and symbolic links.
df - Report file system disk space usage.
du - Estimate file space usage.
mount - Mount a file system.
umount - Unmount file systems.
fsck - File system consistency check and repair.
mkfs - Build a Linux file system.
mkswap - Set up a Linux swap area.
swapon - Enable devices and files for paging and swapping.
swapoff - Disable devices and files for paging and swapping.
free - Display amount of free and used memory in the system.
top - Display Linux tasks.
htop - Interactive process viewer.
ps - Report a snapshot of current processes.
kill - Send a signal to a process.
pkill - Send a signal to processes based on name and other attributes.
killall - Kill processes by name.
bg - Resume a suspended job in the background.
fg - Bring a job to the foreground.
jobs - List active jobs.
nohup - Run a command immune to hangups.
screen - Terminal multiplexer.
tmux - Terminal multiplexer.
ssh - OpenSSH SSH client (remote login program).
scp - Secure copy (remote file copy program).
rsync - Remote file and directory synchronization.
wget - Non-interactive network downloader.
curl - Transfer data from or to a server.
ping - Send ICMP ECHO_REQUEST to network hosts.
traceroute - Print the route packets take to the network host.
netstat - Print network connections, routing tables, interface statistics, masquerade connections, and multicast memberships.
ss - Another utility to investigate sockets.
ip - Show/manipulate routing, devices, policy routing, and tunnels.
ifconfig - Configure a network interface.
iwconfig - Configure wireless network interfaces.
nmcli - Command-line client for NetworkManager.
systemctl - Examine and control the systemd system and service manager.
service - Run a System V init script.
init - System V-style initialization.
shutdown - Halt, power-off, or reboot the machine.
reboot - Reboot the system.
halt - Halt the system.
poweroff - Power off the system.
crontab - Schedule periodic background jobs.
at - Schedule commands to run at a particular time.
uptime - Tell how long the system has been running.
dmesg - Print or control the kernel ring buffer.
uname - Print system information.
lsb_release - Print distribution-specific information.
hostname - Show or set the system’s host name.
date - Display or set the system date and time.
cal - Display a calendar.
bc - An arbitrary precision calculator language.
dc - An arbitrary precision calculator.
dd - Convert and copy a file.
tar - Archive files.
gzip - Compress files.
gunzip - Decompress files.
bzip2 - Compress files.
bunzip2 - Decompress files.
zip - Package and compress files.

I hope you find this list helpful! If you have any questions or need further details about any of these commands, feel free to ask.

Yes, this was written with the following prompt to Copilot
"Please write an article that consistents solely of 100 linux commands and what they do"

#SysAdmin #DeveloperTips #LinuxTips #DevOps #CodingLife #CommandLine #LinuxTutorial #aws #linux #bash #devops

Cover image from : https://pixabay.com/illustrations/teacher-profession-education-5322852/

Your boss no longer accepts this idle excuse...

raddevus — Wed, 10 Jul 2024 13:15:37 +0000

Just a few short months ago, it was wasy to go to your boss and say, "StackOverflow is down so I can't move forward with my project." 🙄

But, she will no longer accept that answer.

Here's why:

The Dev game has changed to a whole new level.

10 Billion Passwords Cracked: Do You Even Understand Password Cracking? Do You, Really?

raddevus — Tue, 09 Jul 2024 20:13:35 +0000

Introduction

If you understood how passwords were cracked, you'd never use a natural-language word in your password again. And, that alone could make you entirely safe. Yes, I'll explain how that could make you safe further along in this article.

I'm taking a bit of an alternate view so we can think differently about what password cracks actually mean, and if passwords are just entirely unusable or not.

Background

All of the Security Geniuses tell you that passwords are a failed technology because so many passwords are cracked. But, why don't they ever clearly explain how passwords are cracked?

There seems to be a Movement that is trying to get rid of passwords that you own.

The Bombastic News

One of the problems is that the news covers low-brow technical issues in a bombastic way ("High-sounding but with little meaning".

Check out this article from today on LinkedIn.

Nearly 10 billion passwords leaked | LinkedIn

10 Billion passwords!? What?

Let's Rip That Article Apart Now, Shall We?

The article states:

"...almost 10 billion unique passwords have been posted to a hacking forum"

That leads you to believe that 10 Billion plaintext passwords ripe for the using have been posted.

However, that cannot be true. Because if it were, then what would the other sentences in the article mean? Especially the last one:

It could enable "brute-force attacks," which use trial and error to rapidly test a large number of passwords and gain access to systems that aren't protected.

Why would attackers need to do "brute-force attacks which use trial and error" when they have the passwords in the clear? Well, that's because they don't.

It is Alarmist reporting. I followed the links to the source article (on qz.com) and that article is even shorter and doesn't explain it at all. So, they did not post 10 Billion plaintext passwords at all.

But you already knew that Journalists do no work at all. They just make up sentences, then other "news" sites pick up the information and repeat it and it provides it with gravitas so the truth is no longer necessary. As long as you have shocking headlines, you win.

The Thing They Never Explain

Often the news reports these kinds of numbers and they report bad passwords, right?

It is obvious that many of those accounts and passwords are just for fake accounts or "pass-by" accounts where users have created a quick account to discover more information about a company or get a free item or whatever.

The Point: Fake Accounts With Bad Passwords

So, even though there are really bad passwords like (password1, abc123) what they don't explain to the reader is that there are millions of accounts created by pass-by users and others created by hackers and those users don't care about the password at all.

Yes, Normal People Create Bad Passwords

Yes, I know, normal people create terrible passwords. However, there is a simple thing they can do to make their passwords safe: Never use a natural-language word in the password.

The Solution

Instead, create a completely random set of characters as your password.

The Problem

Normal users would have no way to remember a set of random characters.

Obviously, that can be solved by forcing the user to use a Password Manager which generates random passwords.

The Weird Solution: Hamster Method

Here's a way to make a normal user's accounts almost entirely safe. Please chime in and comment below to argue why this might not be true.

Here are the steps:

Create one random password for the user's main email account by having a hamster run across the keyboard.
I just dropped my hamster on my keyboard and got : adgy788t6ops;ldfkyudt621@DCG32#@&
Use this one for her master password on her email account. That way her main email account is protected with a random strong password.
Write this down and keep in a sealed lock box -- at some point the user will have it memorized
After that, every time the user creates a new account she should drop the hamster on the keyboard again and generate a password, but for these accounts they do not need to be written down anywhere? What?
Each time the user goes to sign into any of the other accounts she will always simply say, "oh, I don't know my password, please reset the account" sent to her main email account.
She will retrieve the reset from the main email account and login
Now there is only one Main password to remember / use and the other ones will all just be reset every time. Isn't this GENIUS?!

My point is: If No One Knows Your Password (including you), It's Secure

My Real Point Is : Random!

My real point is that passwords must be random so they cannot be guessed.

But, to better state that point, I'd like to say this:

Passwords ust not include any pattern that someone can detect as a pattern.

That's true random.

How Crackers Crack Passwords

People seem to forget how crackers actually crack the passwords.

Ignore PlainText Storage

Let's ignore the companies which are storing your password in plaintext, ok? Do they still exist? I hope not. If they do then you are toast. No getting around that. Crackers going to crack and they going to get a password trove that is in plaintext.

Generate All The Hashes & Compare

The real way that crackers get passwords is:

Write an algorithm which hashes suspected passwords and password phrases to generate a huge database of hashes
Compare those hashes to what they find in the trove they exfilitrate from a company.
That's it!

Think About The Size of SHA256 Hash

So, 256-bit value is the value of 2^256.

The max value is :

115,792,089,237,316,195,423,570,985,008,687,907,853,269,984,665,640,564,039,457,584,007,913,129,639,935

Let's refer to that number as HUGE-NUMBER.

Reach In Bag, Pull One Random Item Out

Think about this experiment.

Reach into a bag (without looking) which contains HUGE-NUMBER of items and randomly pull one item out.
Throw the item back into the bag with the rest of HUGE-NUMBER items.
Reach in a second time (without looking) and attempt to randomly pull the same one out again. Theoretically impossible!

Why does this matter?

This matters because any unique input will produce a new and unique output. At this point there are no collisions known in the SHA256 algorithm.

Why does any of this matter?

It matters, because we are going to use a SHA256 hash as our password.

Why? Because the SHA256 value is random. It's the equivalent of having a hamster run over your keyboard and create a password.

But How Are SHA256 Hashes Generated?

Well, we don't have to know how the dark details of the SHA256 algorithm work exactly, but we do need to know how to generate one.

We can use libraries which contain the SHA256 algorithm to generate SHA256 hashes.

Microsoft provides such a library and you can get to it via PowerShell

PowerShell Script to Create SHA256 From Any Text

param (
  [string]$target = $(Read-Host)
)
$stringAsStream = [System.IO.MemoryStream]::new()
$writer = [System.IO.StreamWriter]::new($stringAsStream)
$writer.write($target)
$writer.Flush()
$stringAsStream.Position = 0
$outHash = Get-FileHash -InputStream $stringAsStream | Select-Object Hash
$outHash.hash.ToLower()

First we read in a string value provided by the user ($target) at the command line.
Next, we set up a StringStream and set the value to the user-supplied string ($target)
Next, we call Get-FileHash (generates SHA256) and pass the user-supplied string to it
Finally, we lowercase the hash just for consistency.

Here are some words that I've hashed for you. I ran this on my Ubuntu 22.04.4 system.

64 Characters Long

The hashes are 64 characters long, because each of the 32 bytes (256 bits / 8 bits = number of bytes = 32) are represented by a 2 char Hexadecimal value.

Get the source (at the top this article) and you can try it too.

Here's a list of random words and their SHA256 hashes.

My Suggestion Is One I Use

My suggestion is that instead of making up a password again, you instead generate a SHA256 hash and use that as your password.

Couldn't A Cracker Generate The Same Hash?

But, wait, can't someone just use the same words I used to generate a SHA256 hash and then compare their hash to mine and then know what my password is?

Well, not really. Here's why.

Make Your Hash Salty

First of all you'd need to use two pieces of data in your hash so you could create very random hashes.

In order to make it more difficult (or theoretically impossible) for someone to get our original value, we need to add a 2nd value to our initial input. This 2nd value is called a salt.

Salt: Additional Word Or Phrase

For example we could create an additional word or phrase that we would append to every input that we will hash.

Here's all of the previous words with their associated hashes after adding the same salt to each one.

See how different the hashes are now? They're not guessable by any means. If they were then SHA256 hash algorithm would be cracked.

Keep That Salt Secret

But, you have to keep that salt secret. If it gets out then the cracker can generate all the words in the dictionary and hash them and then brute-force compare them all to the trove of SHA256 hashes that are in the 10 Billion password vault.

What You Really Need Is A Program To Do This For You

I just so happen to have written such a program and it is FOSS (Fully Open Source Software) and it is FREE forever.

That means:

You can try it for FREE
You can use it for FREE
You can examine and alter the software all you want...for FREE
Try It For Free
You can try it, right now in your browser if you want.

Just go to C'YaPass : Never type a password again and you'll see something like the following:

SiteKeys: Add Your Own

Of course, you won't have any siteKeys, but you can add them.

There are two parts to generating your password.

The SiteKey - unique string you make up to remember which site you'll use this pwd on.
A pattern you draw which generates a value - this is the salt to randomize the SHA256 hash

Finally, the value in at the lower right of the screen is a 64 character password (SHA256 hash) you can use on the site.

Your Passwords Aren't Stored Anywhere, They're Generated Every Time

This is cutting edge technology because your passwords are never stored anywhere.

To generate your password, you have to:

Select your SiteKey
Draw your pattern

You Only Need One Pattern

Because the pattern is the salt, each time you change your sitekey (select a different one on the left side) you will get a new password for the associated site. So you don't have to change the pattern for every sitekey.

Your Passwords Will Not Be Based On Natural-Language Words

This means your passwords will be random numbers and characters. They will not be in cracker's rainbow tables as targets to match.

Sites Will Hash Your Hash

When you use these hashes as your password, the sites you log into will then hash it to save it on their site which is interesting too.

But, I've added another layer of protection.

Multi-Hash: Hash Your Hash Numerous Times

Take a look at the updated C'YaPass and you'll see I've added the ability for you to hash the initial value X number of times (selectable by you). See the red highlighted section. If you change that value, then all of your hashes will be hashed X (10 in the example) extra times.

Conclusion

If you wanted really strong passwords, you would never use natural-language words in your passwords. EVER!
It seems that Password Problems are being reported on improperly to gain attention and to scare people for some reason. Passwords are fine and you own them yourself. But, they should never include words from natural-language. NEVER!
The reported password breach of 10 Billion passwords is obviously reported improperly. Those are not plaintext passwords but instead are (most likely) hashes of passwords which, if they include natural-language words the crackers may be able to use after brute-forcing their algorithm to generate SHA256 hash matches. That's the real password cracking technology today: hash matching.

Hash Matching

Since hash matching is the real way crackers are cracking passwords then it means you understand better what crackers are doing. Since you understand it better, you undersand you NEVER want to have natural-language words in your passwords.

To protect yourself, use a password generator which generates random passwords.

If you liked this article, check out my github sources for C'YaPass:

Web based solution - (also seen at https://cyapass.com/)
ElectronJS (cross-platform solution) - runs on macOs, Windows, Linux

And don't believe everything you read about passwords. 🤓

.NET Core WebAPI (Auto)Binding Parameters When Calling Via JavaScript Fetch

raddevus — Fri, 14 Jun 2024 15:27:13 +0000

Get the Source Code For This Article

All of the source code for this article is located at my github repo. It's all C# .NET Core 8.x and JavaScript code.

Introduction

This is a fast article with multiple examples of how to leverage the user of .NET Core WebAPI Auto-Binding feature. I know this is often called Model Binding, but my examples cover the case where you are just passing in one parameter value to a WebAPI method.

I also wrote this up at my blog in a slightly less refined article so you can check there for more details & to post comments if you like: JavaScript Fetch With .NET Core WebAPI: Fetch Method Examples For Auto Binding – Build In Public Developer

How This Article Will Work

I will provide two things for every example so you can see exactly how the Auto-Binding feature works in .NET Core WebAPI.

WebAPI method definitions (sample code via minimal API)

JavaScript Fetch examples you can use to POST to the WebAPI & see the result WebAPI Parameter Attributes
.NET Core WebAPI methods allow you to mark parameters with a numnber of different attributes:

[FromQuery]
[FromForm]
[FromBody]
[FromHeader]
[FromServices]*
[FromKeyedServices]*

*The last two are brand new to .NET Core 8.x & I will not cover them here. However, I will cover the first four Attributes with full examples.

Background

While writing another article where every user gets their own database (coming soon) I hit an issue with Auto-Binding parameters in .NET Core WebAPIs.

I have written a number of .NET Core WebAPIs but I've noticed that at times it has been easier than others. I generally like my WebAPIs to use [FromBody] to get the data from the posted body.

However, I discovered the exact reason why this would fail for me in certain situations.

Using FromQuery On the WebAPI Parameter

Let's start out with what I consider the simplest method of posting data, using the [FromQuery] attribute on the WebAPI method.

Source Code

I'll add the shortest amount of code here that makes it possible to create a quick discussion but if you want to see the source code you can download it from the top of this article or get it at my GitHub repo.

I'll create very small project of minimal WebAPIs and the methods will be named the same in almost every case, except they will include a number for each example so you can fired up the WebAPI locally and try the examples yourself if you like.

Start WebAPI: Use Browser To Test

Once you start the WebAPI (from the downloaded code) you can load the URL and use your browser console to use JavaScript Fetch API to POST to the WebAPI. Here's snapshot of what that looks like:

[FromQuery] Sample Code

C#
[HttpPost] public ActionResult RegisterUser1([FromQuery] string uuid)

In our Minimal API you will see this method defined in the following way:

app.MapPost("/RegisterUser1", IResult ([FromQuery] string uuid) =>   {
    return Results.Ok(new { Message = $"QUERY - You sent in uuid: {uuid}" });
});

JavaScript Fetch For [FromQuery]

JavaScript

fetch(`http://localhost:5247/RegisterUser1?uuid=987-fake-uuid-1234`,
      {method: 'POST'})
        .then(response => response.json())
        .then(data => console.log(data));

That one is easy enough. If you provide the queryString item (?uuid) in the URL then the item will be auto-bound to the uuid string variable and you'll get a valid result back. However, if you don't provide the queryString value, then an error will occur in the WebAPI when it attempts to auto-bind.

Error

An unhandled exception has occurred while executing the request.
Microsoft.AspNetCore.Http.BadHttpRequestException:
Required parameter "string uuid" was not provided from query string.

Using FromForm On the WebAPI Parameter

Let's define our second WebAPI method using the [FromForm] attribute.

app.MapPost("/RegisterUser2", IResult ([FromForm] string uuid) =>   {
    return Results.Ok(new { Message = $"FORM - You sent in uuid: {uuid}" });
})

NOTE - AntiForgery

As soon as I started running Fetch against the command above, I started getting an odd error message on the WebAPI side which looked like:

Unhandled exception. System.InvalidOperationException: Unable to find the required services. Please add all the required services by calling 'IServiceCollection.AddAntiforgery' in the application startup code. at Microsoft.AspNetCore.Builder .AntiforgeryApplicationBuilderExtensions .VerifyAntiforgeryServicesAreRegistered(IApplicationBuilder builder)

Breaking Change To .NET Core Minimal WebAPIs

Luckily I was able to search and discover what the problem is and how to fix it. Sheesh!

Breaking change: IFormFile parameters require anti-forgery checks - .NET | Microsoft Learn

Slightly Changed WebAPI for FromForm

app.MapPost("/RegisterUser2", IResult ([FromForm] string uuid) =>   {
    return Results.Ok(new { Message = $"FORM - You sent in uuid: {uuid}" });
})
.DisableAntiforgery()

Sheesh! It's always something!

JS Fetch Call For FromForm

There's some setup to pass our data on a web form. First we have to create the FormData object and add our name/value pairs. After that we can post the data.

JavaScript

// 1. Create the FormData object
var fd = new FormData();
// 2. Append the name/value pair(s) for values you want to send
fd.append("uuid", "123-test2-2345-uuid-551");
fetch(`http://localhost:5247/RegisterUser2`,{
      method:'POST',
     body:fd,   // add the FormData object to the body data which will be posted
})
.then(response => response.json())
.then(data => console.log(data));

Now that we've used two different attributes that have worked well. Let's delve into using [FromBody] attribute which will present great difficulty.

Using FromBody On the WebAPI Parameter

app.MapPost("/RegisterUser3", IResult ([FromBody] string uuid) =>   {
    return Results.Ok(new { Message = $"FORM - You sent in uuid: {uuid}" });
})

JavaScript Fetch Call for FromBody Is Problematic

At first look, this one should be easy, because you may think you should just be able to pass in a string value on the body. That's what I thought, anyways.

Doesn't Work

JavaScript

fetch(`http://localhost:5247/RegisterUser3`,{
      method:'POST',
     body:"yaka-yaka",   
})
.then(response => response.json())
.then(data => console.log(data));

However, that won't even make it past your browser, because it expects you to define an object (between two { } curly braces) for the body.

Next, you may believe you can just create an object which includes the name of the target param (uuid) and pass that, something like the following:

Doesn't Work 2

JavaScript

var data = {"uuid":"yaka-yaka"};
fetch(`http://localhost:5247/RegisterUser3`,{
      method:'POST',
     body:data,   
})
.then(response => response.json())
.then(data => console.log(data));

That doesn't work and won't get past your browser either. Again, it believes the body object is constructed improperly.

Doesn't Work 3

JavaScript

fetch(`http://localhost:5247/RegisterUser3`,{
      method:'POST',
     body:{"uuid":"this-is-uuid-123"},   
})
.then(response => response.json())
.then(data => console.log(data));

Still doesn't work. you will get a 415 Unsupported Media type. So you need to add the Content-Type object and set it to JSON so the Fetch call knows you intend to make the call with JSON. That has happened because you added the curly brackets to the body.

Doesn't Work 4: But Does Hit WebAPI

This one does actually hit the WebAPI.

JavaScript

fetch(`http://localhost:5247/RegisterUser3`,{
      method:'POST',
     body:{"uuid":"this-is-uuid-123"},   
    headers: {
           'Content-type':'application/json; charset=UTF-8',
       },
})
.then(response => response.json())
.then(data => console.log(data));

However, now you get the error from the Server which states:

Auto-Bind Error: WebAPI Couldn't Bind to Variable

Microsoft.AspNetCore.Http.BadHttpRequestException: Failed to read parameter "string uuid" from the request body as JSON.

This is an auto-bind error, because the WebAPI didn't see the uuid value, even though we did pass it in with our body object.

At this point I was flabbergasted.

What's The Issue: How Do You Solve It?

Well, you can't solve it on the JavaScript side. Come to find out, you cannot pass a string value directly to the WebAPI as a parameter. Instead you have to create a server-side object that matches the client-side object.

Creating The Server-Side Object

Here's the new class we'll add to our Program.cs (just for sample purposes):

record UuidHolder{
    public string uuid{get;set;}
}

Define RegisterUser4 For Working Example
We will use the following WebAPI for our working example:

app.MapPost("/RegisterUser4", IResult ([FromBody] UuidHolder uuid) =>   {
    return Results.Ok(new { Message = $"BODY - You sent in uuid: {uuid.uuid}" });
})

This will keep the RegisterUser3 WebAPI method so you can see that it is impossible to get it to bind.

Now, we have to slightly alter our JavaScript Fetch call to also use JSON.stringify() and then everything will work.

JS Fetch For FromBody & Using JSON.Stringify

JavaScript

fetch(`http://localhost:5247/RegisterUser4`,{
      method:'POST',
     body:JSON.stringify({"uuid":"this-is-uuid-123"}),   
    headers: {
           'Content-type':'application/json; charset=UTF-8',
       },
})
.then(response => response.json())
.then(data => console.log(data));

It works!

I thought that sending the data in on the body would've been the easiest way, but it is the most difficult. Let's cover the last one (FromHeader) and wrap this up.

Using FromHeader On the WebAPI Parameter

Here's the last one which allows us to put our data in the header and post it.

app.MapPost("/RegisterUser5", IResult ([FromHeader] string uuid) =>   {
    return Results.Ok(new { Message = $"HEADER - You sent in uuid: {uuid}" });
})

JavaScript Fetch For [FromHeader]

This one is very easy to do, but I'm not entirely sure why we'd post data using headers.

However, it does help us auto-bind data to some header value we may have.

fetch(`http://localhost:5247/RegisterUser5`,{
      method:'POST', 
    headers: {
           'Content-type':'application/json; charset=UTF-8',
            "uuid":"123-456-789"
       },
})
.then(response => response.json())
.then(data => console.log(data));

Now, you can auto-bind in .NET Core WebAPI methods using any of the basic attributes and your data will get through. When it doesn't, you'll understand where to look.

Bonus Material OpenApi Documentation

Wow! I just discovered (after publishing my article) that I actually got some free documentation of my APIs via OpenApi.

The dotnet project template added a few lines in the Program.cs file which handles generating documentation.

app.UseSwagger();
app.UseSwaggerUI();

Then, on each post method I had added the following call:

.WithOpenApi();

How Do You View OpenApi Documentation?

I searched all over the web and scanned this lengthy document that explains OpenApi documentation but it never showed me how to view the docs. It's crazy! I finally found out how to view the autogenerated docs here.

To examine the documents start up the webapi and go to : http://localhost:5247/swagger

You will see the following:

You Can Also Try Out The Api Via Curl

The document is active and you can now try out the API via the UI. It uses curl in the background to post to the webapi and you're going to see that curl can post properly to the body method. However, it fails on the FromForm one. Really interesting.

So Long Again, Wayland, You Were Almost There

raddevus — Tue, 11 Jun 2024 19:05:57 +0000

Originally published at my blog: So Long Again, Wayland, You Were Almost There

Background

I’m running Ubuntu 22.04.4 LTS on my main desktop machine.

I switched from Windows 10 (after 28 years of using Windows exclusively) and I’m quite happy on Ubuntu.

I use my Ubuntu machine to :

Remote into Win10 work machines (I use Remmina (Remmina remote desktop client – Remmina[^]) & it is far better than Windows RDP)
Run VirtualBox which hosts my Win10 machine for rare instances when I need to do something Windows-based

The Bug That Drove Me Crazy: Stutter-typing

A few months ago a bug arose in an uknown-to-me package named Mutter which caused the Linux terminal to stutter when you’re typing.

At times, because I type so fast, the terminal would drop letters and I’d have to back up and retype my command. Oh it was agonizing — and it was subtle because I kept thinking, “maybe it is fixed…can’t tell…” then the stuttering!! Oy!

Special Set Of Hardware & Software Causes the Problem
A user had to be running Ubuntu 22.04 and have the following:

Mutter: 46.0
Present in XOrg (aka X11): Yes
Graphics: NVIDIA 550.67

I have an NVIDIA 1660 installed on my machine and I was still on X11.

Suggested Fixes

The suggested fixes were not great and one of them was ridiculous. The ridiculous one was “update to Ubuntu 24.04” which is kind of a major change. I was against it so I suffered through.

I Noticed Wayland

But, then, on Jun 07, 2024 I finally had enough because the terminal slowness was just driving me crazy.

I read over the solution posted at AskUbuntu (https://askubuntu.com/questions/1509058/input-delay-on-terminal-ubuntu-22-04-4/1516935#1516935)[https://askubuntu.com/questions/1509058/input-delay-on-terminal-ubuntu-22-04-4/1516935#1516935] and I noticed that it said:

Present in XOrg: Yes
Present in Wayland: No

“Ok, that sinks it”, I thought. “I’m moving to Wayland.”

Let’s Move To Wayland
But, you may ask, why weren’t you already on Wayland?

That’s a great question. It’s becuase when I upgraded to Ubuntu 22.04 and tried Wayland I had two major issues:

When connecting to remote Win10 boxes using Remmina I couldn’t ALT-TAB through processes (Why doesn’t Remmina handle sending Alt-Tab to remote computer on 22.04 Jammy Jellyfish?)
The Android emulator wouldn’t start under Wayland (Why won’t my Android emulator start on Ubuntu 22.04?)
So I figured I’d switch over to Wayland and try those two things and if they worked I’d stay on Wayland.

Tried It & Both Were Resolved

I switched over to Wayland — the new system makes it very easy to do so — both of those issues were resolved.

“That’s great”, I thought. “I guess I’m a Wayland user now.” But, unfortunately, it was too fast.

Why I Left Wayland Again

Today, I needed to share my screen in MS Teams but when I went to the area where the functionality should be in my Linux MS Teams installation, I could not find the Share Screen functionality.

MS Teams: No Share Screen Functionality

I couldn’t figure it out at first and then it dawned on me, “I wonder if this is because of Wayland!?!”

NOTE: This is the MS Teams Linux installation (a .deb pkg) which Microsoft has basically hidden now. But you can still get it at: (https://mirror.slackware.hr/sources/teams/teams_1.5.00.23861_amd64.deb)[https://mirror.slackware.hr/sources/teams/teams_1.5.00.23861_amd64.deb]

I logged out, hit the gear icon and started Ubuntu 22.04.4 without Wayland (running X11 again).

I started up MS Teams and started a call with one of my Team members and discovered that I do have the Share Screen functionality again.

This may very well be a bug in MS Teams, however, I need that functionality so I’ll be running X11 until it is resolved.

I was happy to finally be on Wayland, but unfortuantely it wasn’t meant to be. X11 is running great and the Mutter bug is resolved (sooooo glad) so all is good again. Too bad I had to say bye to Wayland though.

What’s Your Experience On Wayland or X11?

Which one are you running: Wayland or X11?

What is your experience with Wayland?

Are your apps working properly?
Leave a comment and let me know.