I am currently developing an ASP.NET MVC 4 app for the African market and was hoping to register a custom culture using the steps detailed in the following link http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-gb/library/system.globalization.cultureandregioninfobuilder.register(v=vs.110).aspx. Most of my target countries are not in the pre-installed cultures so it sounds like I need to register these cultures. Problem is, my console app for doing the registration will need admin previlidges to complete the culture registration. I am presuming windows azure does not allow developers admin control of the cloud service environment.
Question: What is the best way to register a custom culture in Windows Azure without admin previlidges. Apparently there's a way to do this on Framework 2.0 using the cultureandregioninfobuilder.compile method but this is not a supported method. Is there a better solution? Don't want to have to maintain different project solutions for each culture just so I can support different languages.
Thanks in advance.
You could create a startup task that runs with elevated priviledges, and also run your application on a limited context. Your service configuration file should look like this:
<ServiceDefinition name="MyCloudService" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/ServiceHosting/2008/10/ServiceDefinition" schemaVersion="2012-10.1.8">
<WebRole name="MyWebRole" vmsize="Small">
<Runtime executionContext="limited">
</Runtime>
<Startup>
<Task executionContext="elevated" commandLine="scripts\SetupCulture.cmd" taskType="simple">
<Environment>
<Variable name="CULTURE">
<RoleInstanceValue xpath="/RoleEnvironment/CurrentInstance/ConfigurationSettings/ConfigurationSetting[#name='Culture']/#value" />
</Variable>
</Environment>
</Task>
</Startup>
...
</WebRole>
</ServiceDefinition>
Note with this you can specify the desired culture in the service configuration file. Finally you can use the environment variable "CULTURE" in your .cmd file to use it as parameter to a .NET executable doing the job.
Related
Our company is developing our new applications using Service Fabric.
A common problem we have, multiple developers use queues, databases, storages that are on remote servers, and each one has different configuration for this, all the settings are stored on ApplicationParameters file per environment, for Local development there is a single Local.5Node.xml. It is very common developers checkin their credentials and overwrite others when we get latest version of these files.
I'm trying to customize the ServiceFabric deployment script 'Deploy-FabricApplication.ps1' to use a custom PublishProfile depending on windows credentials of logged user. I can achieve that updating the deployment file, it works well when we deploy using the publish, but it seems that the default behavior of ServiceFabric when we hit F5(debug) is overwrite the parameters with a specific Local.5Node.xml application parameters.
I explored all service fabric .ps1 files and couldn't find where this is defined. I guess this is defined on .targets file, so I don't know how can I avoid this default behaviour.
Is there any other approach to use custom PublishProfiles on local development machines other than Local.5Node.xml?
I actually just ran into this with setting up some team specific environments. I borrowed information from the following sources:
Web Config Transformation
Replace String In File With MSBUILD
I added multiple parameters files based on what was needed for the different teams. Each one containing their specific resource settings.
I also added a Local.1Node.Template.xml and Local.5Node.Template.xml. I even removed the Local.1Node.xml and Local.5Node.xml from source control and set them up to be ignored while leaving them in the projects so that Visual Studio doesn't think they are truly missing. The contents of the 1Node (5Node is the same except for replacing 1Node with 5Node) are as follows:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<PublishProfile xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/2015/05/fabrictools">
<ClusterConnectionParameters />
<ApplicationParameterFile Path="..\ApplicationParameters\Local.1Node.$(Configuration).xml" />
</PublishProfile>
I then edited the sfproj file for the Service Fabric project to contain the following MSBuild Task and Target:
<UsingTask TaskName="ReplaceFileText" TaskFactory="CodeTaskFactory" AssemblyFile="$(MSBuildToolsPath)\Microsoft.Build.Tasks.v4.0.dll">
<ParameterGroup>
<InputFilename ParameterType="System.String" Required="true" />
<OutputFilename ParameterType="System.String" Required="true" />
<MatchExpression ParameterType="System.String" Required="true" />
<ReplacementText ParameterType="System.String" Required="true" />
</ParameterGroup>
<Task>
<Reference Include="System.Core" />
<Using Namespace="System" />
<Using Namespace="System.IO" />
<Using Namespace="System.Text.RegularExpressions" />
<Code Type="Fragment" Language="cs">
<![CDATA[
File.WriteAllText(
OutputFilename,
Regex.Replace(File.ReadAllText(InputFilename), MatchExpression, ReplacementText)
);
]]>
</Code>
</Task>
</UsingTask>
<Target Name="UpdateProfile" BeforeTargets="UpdateServiceFabricApplicationManifest">
<ReplaceFileText InputFilename="PublishProfiles\Local.1Node.Template.xml" OutputFilename="PublishProfiles\Local.1Node.xml" MatchExpression="\$\(Configuration\)" ReplacementText="$(Configuration)" />
<ReplaceFileText InputFilename="PublishProfiles\Local.5Node.Template.xml" OutputFilename="PublishProfiles\Local.5Node.xml" MatchExpression="\$\(Configuration\)" ReplacementText="$(Configuration)" />
</Target>
The final step was to setup the different Build Configurations for the teams. I created a FT1-Debug through FT6-Debug based on the Debug configuration in the Service Fabric Service project and the Service Fabric Host project. I left all of my other projects alone.
At this point everyone on the different teams can debug locally with the correct configuration for the cluster they are doing work in just by changing the Build Configuration and pressing F5 to debug.
The VS extension for Service Fabric define a hard coded publish profile when we debug the solution using Visual Studio, it check how many nodes my cluster has and create a link to Local.5Node.xml and Local.1Node.xml depending how many nodes my cluster have.
To accomplish the same results, we end up using custom Application Parameters per developer and each developer update the Publish Profile (Local.5node.xml) to point to their respective Application parameter files.
It is not automated as the required feature, but can solve the main problem.
It is possible in Azure Web App to override web.config AppSettings section easily. E.g. if I have the following web.config:
<appSettings>
<add key="AllowedCORSOrigin" value="http://localhost:26674"/>
</appSettings>
I can override it in the app settings UI in the portal like that:
I have also a custom section in the web.config:
<AdWordsApi>
<add key="OAuth2RefreshToken" value="TOKEN" />
</AdWordsApi>
Is it possible to override it somehow as well? I have tried AdWordsApi.OAuth2RefreshToken and AdWordsApi:OAuth2RefreshToken, but that does not work that easily.
P.S. It's interesting to know if it's possible with other custom sections like e.g if I want another authentication mode on the server.
<system.web>
<authentication mode="None" />
</system.web>
Short answer is that it is not possible.
The mechanism you describes only works with App Settings and Connection Strings. High level, the way it works is:
Your Azure App Settings become environment variables
At runtime, a special module sets those dynamically in the .NET config system. Note that the physical web.config is never modified.
But it would be hard to make such mechanism work on arbitrary config sections, as those could not be dynamically affected without modifying the physical file.
If you are using Visual Studio use web.config transformations to change configuration settings depending on whether you are running locally or deploying to Azure:
How to Transform Web.config
In simple terms you create one more more build configurations (typically Debug & Release). In your Visual Studio solution right-click on your existing web.config file and click "Add Config Transform", this will create a Web.Debug.Config and Web.Release.Config file which you can then customise with specific settings depending on the environment. Link this with your Azure build configuration and you can then have any combination of settings for local and remote deployment.
This is old but leaving this reference to how to use Azure Resource Manager to potentially solve this.
You can transform the values by the listed in VSTS by doing the following steps in App.Release.config:-
Add xmlns:xdt="http://schemas.microsoft.com/XML-Document-Transform" in configuration section
<configuration xmlns:xdt="http://schemas.microsoft.com/XML-Document-Transform">
</configuration>
Add xdt:Transform="Replace" in custom section like below
<AdWordsApi xdt:Transform="Replace">
<add key="OAuth2RefreshToken" value="TOKEN" />
</AdWordsApi>
Create variable token in the release pipeline e.g OAuth2RefreshToken
Then in file config use it as following
<AdWordsApi xdt:Transform="Replace">
<add key="OAuth2RefreshToken" value="#{OAuth2RefreshToken}#" />
</AdWordsApi>
If you are adding any in web.config --> Appsetting, you can overirde it in Azure App Service using variable prefix
Key Name: APPSETTING_AllowedCORSOrigin
Value: http://localhost:26674
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/app-service/reference-app-settings?tabs=kudu%2Cdotnet#variable-prefixes
Having a few issues with environment variables in Azure Cloud Services.
I'm trying to set a "NODE_ENV" environment variable during deployment via the ServiceDefentition.csdef file.
The variable is to be read in by my node.js app via process.env.NODE_ENV.
The documentation for this isn't very extensive (as it appears to be a very simple thing to do) but this is what I have been following: link1 link2
The section of the ServiceDefinition file I have is the following:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<ServiceDefinition name="userApiServer" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/ServiceHosting/2008/10/ServiceDefinition" schemaVersion="2015-04.2.6">
<WebRole name="userApiWebRole" vmsize="Large">
...
<Runtime>
<Environment>
<Variable name="NODE_ENV" value="dev" />
</Environment>
</Runtime>
...
</WebRole>
</ServiceDefinition>
I've tried numerous variations; setting the env variable under a startup task instead on runtime, using xpaths to configuration settings but they just don't seem to be creating the env variables for me.
When messing around with the xpaths approach I did find that my configuration settings were being created on the instance, so the definition file is being read.
Are there any common (or uncommon) gotcha's or hidden details that I'm missing because for something apparently very simple I'm having a lot of trouble with it.
You can do it be editing either do it in web.config or iisnode.yml. Check out this answer
Set Node.js Environment Variable (NODE_ENV) in iisnode to Production/Development/Test
It is correct to set node_env variable in web.config and iisnode.yml as #AIDAN CASEY said.
Additionally, we can leverage pure Node.js 3rd part module dotenv. Just need to create a file named .env with the content:
node_env=production
include and initialize the module in Nodejs script:
require('dotenv').load();
I have an old C++/MFC app written with VS 6. I am trying to make it compliant with Windows Vista and 7 by moving the DB directory to the Common Application Data area. But when I try to open the Access DB using DAO it reads the primary table, finds no records, and reports that no data is found. However, if I select "Run as Admin", then I can access it without an issue.
Should I be storing the database in another location? If not, why does it fail to read the table correctly?
Also, I have tried using the manifest listed below, that I found online, but it does not seem to force the application to run as admin and so I still get the no data found message. But I don't know much about manifests yet, so it could be that I didn't configure it correctly.
Thanks for any help or advise you can give.
FieldAppl
Here is the manifest I used to ensure my custom-written installer ran as an administrator. In addition to this manifest, I also digitally signed the application with a Verisign certificate.
Scott
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?>
<assembly xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:asm.v1" manifestVersion="1.0">
<assemblyIdentity version="1.0.0.0"
processorArchitecture="X86"
name="Setup"
type="win32"/>
<description>Software Installation</description>
<!-- Identify the application security requirements. -->
<trustInfo xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:asm.v3">
<security>
<requestedPrivileges>
<requestedExecutionLevel
level="requireAdministrator"
uiAccess="false"/>
</requestedPrivileges>
</security>
</trustInfo>
</assembly
>
I have an Azure Web Role running in the new 1.3 SDK and I am having permissions issues when trying to make changes to IIS using the Microsoft.Web.Administration.ServerManager. Whenever I execute CommitChanges() it throws this error:
an UnauthorizedAccessException "Cannot write configuration file due to insufficient permissions".
My ServerManager code is executing in the OnStart method of the RoleEntryPoint.
My understanding was that the purpose of moving to full IIS support in 1.3 was so that we could have greater control over the configuration of our application, including creating new IIS sites on the fly if desired.
Make sure your role is running with elevated privileges.
I think there are two questions here. Firstly the use of IIS in Azure. Yes using the 1.3 SDK means that we now have access to more features than we did previously. This means that we can setup more than one site and virtual directories for our sites in the configs as shown in the training kit.
Secondly there is the privileges issue that you're getting while trying to make changes programatically. I'm going to presume that you're not trying to do one of the things that you can simply do through the config above. The most likely reason your code is erroring is because web roles are not run with admin privileges. Fortunately in the 1.3 SDK we also have a way to run code with elevated privileges. As shown elsewhere in the training kit you can create a separate .exe that you specify to be run at startup with elevated privileges in the config.
Providing a clear example for reference to #smarx answer.
Here is the configuration to run RoleEntryPoint.OnStart (WebRole.Onstart) with Admin-level privileges.
<ServiceDefinition name="MyProject.Azure" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/ServiceHosting/2008/10/ServiceDefinition" schemaVersion="2015-04.2.6">
<WebRole name="MyProject.WebRole" vmsize="Small">
<Runtime executionContext="elevated"/> <!-- Required for certain WebRoleOnStart tasks (avoid insufficient permission errors) -->
<Sites>
<!-- ... -->
</Sites>
</WebRole>
</ServiceDefinition>