DEV Community: Sven Glöckner

Running DevExpress XtraReports under Linux in App Service with custom fonts

Sven Glöckner — Wed, 06 Mar 2024 20:18:40 +0000

We have the need to convert our years-old SSRS reports to a newer technology to be able to lift a customer's web app to the Azure cloud. I decided to use DevExpress XtraReports, because there is a nice import feature of existing SSRS reports.

To reduce the overall monthly cost of running the Web App in Azure we decided to use a Azure App Service Linux plan.
The reports need the use of custom fonts, i.e. for displaying barcodes.
However, running XtraReports under Linux really isn't easy.

I've found several information in the DevExpress documentation and Knowledge Base. Though, some information was outdated and didn't work, so my journey was like an adventure.
Two years ago, I managed things getting to work using a custom Dockerfile to install missing Linux packages for the XtraReports.
But today, I didn't want the overhead of creating a custom Dockerfile. I like a solution with plain Azure App Service for Linux, we only deploy a ZIP package that contains our code.

Our web application runs on .NET 8.0 using DevExpress XtraReports v23.2.4 - The WebDocumentViewer is used to display a report preview to the end user in the browser.

Following are the steps needed to get things working.

Install these nuget packages

DevExpress.Drawing
DevExpress.Drawing.Skia
DevExpress.Reporting.Core
Microsoft.ICU.ICU4C.Runtime

Force the use of Skia rendering engine

This step is optional, see note below.
In Startup.cs force the use of the new Skia rendering engine



if (!RuntimeInformation.IsOSPlatform(OSPlatform.Windows))
{
      DevExpress.Drawing.Internal.DXDrawingEngine.ForceSkia();
}

DevExpress support note: The Skia engine automatically comes into use as long as you do not install libgdiplus.

Add custom font to solution

Add your custom font the Visual Studio solution and make sure it has the "Copy always" output folder property set. I decided to put my fonts in a folder named fonts.

Use a custom startup script for the App Service

Use a startup script for the App Service to install missing libraries. I decided to name the file run.sh and put it in my Visual Studio solution. The file should be set to "Copy Always" with no build process.

the contents of the file



#!/bin/bash

apt-get update &&

apt-get install -y libc6 libicu-dev libfontconfig1

cp fonts/FREE3OF9.TTF /usr/local/share/fonts

fc-cache -f -v

dotnet yourwebapp.dll

Configure the App Service to execute the startup script

Set the App Service startup script to our run.sh in the portal

Helpful resources:

Update _id of MongoDB items

Sven Glöckner — Thu, 08 Feb 2024 09:44:24 +0000

MongoServerError: Performing an update on the path '_id' would modify the immutable field '_id'

While updating the _id is not possible, because this is an immutable field, there is another way to make this happen.

iterate through the collection
save the old _id in a variable
set the new _id field value to ObjectId
remove the old item

Sample code:
db.products.find().forEach(function(doc){ var oldId = doc._id doc._id=ObjectId() db.products.insert(doc) db.products.deleteOne({ _id: oldId}) })

Document Versioning in MongoDB

Sven Glöckner — Thu, 08 Feb 2024 07:38:55 +0000

Recently, I'm working on a client's project with MongoDB. The need for versioning of documents came up. While searching the web I found really helpful information I'd like to share.

https://www.mongodb.com/blog/post/building-with-patterns-the-document-versioning-pattern

https://www.askasya.com/post/revisitversions/

I will go the way with "separate collection for previous versions".

Read Excel file from SharePoint Online into Azure SQL database

Sven Glöckner — Wed, 14 Oct 2020 07:49:21 +0000

We're already syncing files from on-premises network into our SPO (SharePoint Online) using OneDrive for Business.
For a fast mock-up we decided to automatically read an Excel file into our Web App's Azure SQL database.
I've been using Azure Data Factory for this task and I've been really amazed how mature this tool is.

I've started with this tutorial, it was really helpful.

In the task CopyDataFromSPO I've decided to store the Excel file in my already existing blob storage (sink).

Afterwards, I created a data flow named SaveExcelFileToDb where I read the Excel file from my blob and save it to my Azure SQL database. I always want to recreate the table with new data. This way I can easily workaround merge conflicts. However, this is a really simple solution for only demonstration purposes. In a real production environment there should be some additional and more fault-tolerant steps necessary.

ASP.NET Core: Invalid log file path leads to startup failure on Azure App Service

Sven Glöckner — Wed, 14 Oct 2020 06:58:36 +0000

I've been using the default web.config with the setting stdoutLogFile=".\LogFiles\stdout" for a while now.
Yesterday, I created new App Service Slot as Staging environment.
My build and release pipeline in Azure DevOps was running fine, but after deployment the App didn't start and I had several errors in the Application Event Logs, for instance:

Could not find 'aspnetcorev2_inprocess.dll'. Exception message: Invalid runtimeconfig.json [D:\home\site\wwwroot\MyApp.runtimeconfig.json] [D:\home\site\wwwroot\MyApp.runtimeconfig.dev.json]

I searched the web and found this issue on GitHub.
It's already closed so we cannot add additional feedback there.

I've tried the solution there and I was really amazed that afterwards my App Service is running fine.

TL;DR
Change the stdoutLogFile setting to: stdoutLogFile="\\?\%home%\LogFiles\stdout" 😏

Refreshing DxTreeView items and keep selection

Sven Glöckner — Wed, 26 Feb 2020 16:19:08 +0000

Today, I want to refresh the treeview items in a DevExpress Blazor DxTreeView.

Imagine you edited one of the node's items and want to refresh the whole tree without loosing the selected node.

My DxTreeView

<DxTreeView @ref="@_treeView" AllowSelectNodes="true" SelectionChanged=@(async e => await SelectChildNodeAsync(e))
    Data=@TreeViewItems
    NameExpression="@(dataItem => ((Model.TreeViewItem)dataItem).Id.ToString())"
    TextExpression="@(dataItem => ((Model.TreeViewItem)dataItem).Name)"
    ChildrenExpression="@(dataItem => ((Model.TreeViewItem)dataItem).Items)">
</DxTreeView>

After editing finished, you could programmatically refresh the treeview's datasource, expand and select the current node with the help of the API:

TreeViewItems = await DataAccess.GetTreeViewData();
await InvokeAsync(StateHasChanged);
_treeView.ExpandToNode(nodeInfo => nodeInfo.Name == DetailItem.Id.ToString());
_treeView.SelectNode(nodeInfo => nodeInfo.Name == DetailItem.Id.ToString());

Microsoft Graph API access denied in search for driveItems

Sven Glöckner — Tue, 25 Feb 2020 12:08:30 +0000

Currently, I'm developing a Blazor Web App that reads files from another tenant's OneDrive. We need to have a search functionality through the files using the search for files capability.

I'm using MS Graph SDK.
The code boils down to a simple one-liner:

_graphClient.Users[userId].Drive.Search(term).Request().GetAsync();

However, it didn't work and throwed a 401 error:
Status Code: Forbidden Microsoft.Graph.ServiceException: Code: accessDenied Message: The caller does not have permission to perform the action.

I already registered my App and added the Files.Read.All permission but it just didn't work.
Now I remembered, that OneDrive for Business uses Sharepoint as backend and it organizes files within sites.
So they key is to also add the Sites.Read.All permission.

Using custom claims for Azure AD B2C roles

Sven Glöckner — Fri, 14 Feb 2020 11:49:24 +0000

As we already know, currently Azure AD B2C does not support roles out-of-the-box. But I think there is a fairly easy way to workaround this limitation by using a custom claim for this requirement.

First, add a custom claim in Azure AD B2C portal - name it "Role". Remember to check this claim in your SignIn/SignUp user workflow so that it will be put into the authentication token.

Then you can add a custom authorization Policy in your .NET Core project:

services.AddAuthorization(options =>
{
      options.AddPolicy("Admin", policy =>
         policy.RequireClaim("extension_Role", "Admin"));
});

Afterwards you're able to use this in your controller or Page (I'm using Blazor).

[Authorize(Policy = "Admin")]

And voilà - that's it!