linq to csv - Page 254 - Developer IT

ASP.NET SQLMembership Provider not logging in

- by cfdev9

My web app uses the sql memebership provider. Running it locally all is well, deploying to a dev server it works fine too in firefox, but in IE8 something unexpected is happening. Once a user logs in they're supposed to be redirected to home.aspx. What's happening when I attempt to login is it appears to accept the login credentials but then doesn't redirect to home.aspx. Instead it just redirects me to the login page as though I had attempted to access home.aspx directly without being logged in. The url parameter ReturnUrl is appended, Login.aspx?ReturnUrl=%2fhome.aspx Why is this only happening with IE8? My local PC is IIS7 but the server is IIS6. Using the same web.config Full code behind public partial class Login : System.Web.UI.Page { protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e) { if (!IsPostBack) { Session.Abandon(); FormsAuthentication.SignOut(); } } protected void btnSubmit_Click(object sender, EventArgs e) { if (Membership.ValidateUser(tbUsername.Text, tbPassword.Text)) { if (Request.QueryString["ReturnUrl"] != null) { FormsAuthentication.RedirectFromLoginPage(tbUsername.Text, false); } else { FormsAuthentication.SetAuthCookie(tbUsername.Text, false); Response.Redirect("~/Home.aspx"); } } } } Full web.config <?xml version="1.0"?> <configuration> <configSections> <sectionGroup name="system.web.extensions" type="System.Web.Configuration.SystemWebExtensionsSectionGroup, System.Web.Extensions, Version=3.5.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35"> <sectionGroup name="scripting" type="System.Web.Configuration.ScriptingSectionGroup, System.Web.Extensions, Version=3.5.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35"> <section name="scriptResourceHandler" type="System.Web.Configuration.ScriptingScriptResourceHandlerSection, System.Web.Extensions, Version=3.5.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35" requirePermission="false" allowDefinition="MachineToApplication"/> <sectionGroup name="webServices" type="System.Web.Configuration.ScriptingWebServicesSectionGroup, System.Web.Extensions, Version=3.5.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35"> <section name="jsonSerialization" type="System.Web.Configuration.ScriptingJsonSerializationSection, System.Web.Extensions, Version=3.5.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35" requirePermission="false" allowDefinition="Everywhere"/> <section name="profileService" type="System.Web.Configuration.ScriptingProfileServiceSection, System.Web.Extensions, Version=3.5.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35" requirePermission="false" allowDefinition="MachineToApplication"/> <section name="authenticationService" type="System.Web.Configuration.ScriptingAuthenticationServiceSection, System.Web.Extensions, Version=3.5.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35" requirePermission="false" allowDefinition="MachineToApplication"/> <section name="roleService" type="System.Web.Configuration.ScriptingRoleServiceSection, System.Web.Extensions, Version=3.5.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35" requirePermission="false" allowDefinition="MachineToApplication"/> </sectionGroup> </sectionGroup> </sectionGroup> </configSections> <appSettings/> <connectionStrings> <add name="ASPNET_DB" connectionString="..."/> </connectionStrings> <system.web> <membership defaultProvider="SqlMembershipProvider"> <providers> <add name="SqlMembershipProvider" type="System.Web.Security.SqlMembershipProvider, System.Web, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b03f5f7f11d50a3a" connectionStringName="ASPNET_DB" enablePasswordRetrieval="true" enablePasswordReset="true" requiresQuestionAndAnswer="false" applicationName="/" requiresUniqueEmail="false" passwordFormat="Clear" maxInvalidPasswordAttempts="5" passwordAttemptWindow="10" passwordStrengthRegularExpression="" minRequiredPasswordLength="1" minRequiredNonalphanumericCharacters="0"/> </providers> </membership> <roleManager enabled="true" defaultProvider="SqlRoleManager"> <providers> <add name="SqlRoleManager" type="System.Web.Security.SqlRoleProvider" connectionStringName="ASPNET_DB" applicationName="/"/> </providers> </roleManager> <authentication mode="Forms"> <forms name="CHOUSE.ASPXAUTH" loginUrl="login.aspx" protection="All" path="/"/> </authentication> <authorization> <allow roles="AccountManager"/> <allow roles="Client"/> <deny users="*"/> </authorization> <compilation debug="true"> <assemblies> <add assembly="System.Core, Version=3.5.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=B77A5C561934E089"/> <add assembly="System.Data.DataSetExtensions, Version=3.5.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=B77A5C561934E089"/> <add assembly="System.Web.Extensions, Version=3.5.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35"/> <add assembly="System.Xml.Linq, Version=3.5.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=B77A5C561934E089"/> </assemblies> </compilation> <pages> <controls> <add tagPrefix="asp" namespace="System.Web.UI" assembly="System.Web.Extensions, Version=3.5.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35"/> <add tagPrefix="asp" namespace="System.Web.UI.WebControls" assembly="System.Web.Extensions, Version=3.5.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35"/> </controls> </pages> <httpHandlers> <remove verb="*" path="*.asmx"/> <add verb="*" path="*.asmx" validate="false" type="System.Web.Script.Services.ScriptHandlerFactory, System.Web.Extensions, Version=3.5.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35"/> <add verb="*" path="*_AppService.axd" validate="false" type="System.Web.Script.Services.ScriptHandlerFactory, System.Web.Extensions, Version=3.5.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35"/> <add verb="GET,HEAD" path="ScriptResource.axd" type="System.Web.Handlers.ScriptResourceHandler, System.Web.Extensions, Version=3.5.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35" validate="false"/> </httpHandlers> <httpModules> <add name="ScriptModule" type="System.Web.Handlers.ScriptModule, System.Web.Extensions, Version=3.5.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35"/> </httpModules> </system.web> <location path="Admin"> <system.web> <authorization> <allow roles="AccountManager"/> <deny users="*"/> </authorization> </system.web> </location> <system.codedom> <compilers> <compiler language="c#;cs;csharp" extension=".cs" warningLevel="4" type="Microsoft.CSharp.CSharpCodeProvider, System, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089"> <providerOption name="CompilerVersion" value="v3.5"/> <providerOption name="WarnAsError" value="false"/> </compiler> </compilers> </system.codedom> <system.webServer> <validation validateIntegratedModeConfiguration="false"/> <modules> <remove name="ScriptModule"/> <add name="ScriptModule" preCondition="managedHandler" type="System.Web.Handlers.ScriptModule, System.Web.Extensions, Version=3.5.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35"/> </modules> <handlers> <remove name="WebServiceHandlerFactory-Integrated"/> <remove name="ScriptHandlerFactory"/> <remove name="ScriptHandlerFactoryAppServices"/> <remove name="ScriptResource"/> <add name="ScriptHandlerFactory" verb="*" path="*.asmx" preCondition="integratedMode" type="System.Web.Script.Services.ScriptHandlerFactory, System.Web.Extensions, Version=3.5.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35"/> <add name="ScriptHandlerFactoryAppServices" verb="*" path="*_AppService.axd" preCondition="integratedMode" type="System.Web.Script.Services.ScriptHandlerFactory, System.Web.Extensions, Version=3.5.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35"/> <add name="ScriptResource" preCondition="integratedMode" verb="GET,HEAD" path="ScriptResource.axd" type="System.Web.Handlers.ScriptResourceHandler, System.Web.Extensions, Version=3.5.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35"/> </handlers> </system.webServer> <runtime> <assemblyBinding xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:asm.v1"> <dependentAssembly> <assemblyIdentity name="System.Web.Extensions" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35"/> <bindingRedirect oldVersion="1.0.0.0-1.1.0.0" newVersion="3.5.0.0"/> </dependentAssembly> <dependentAssembly> <assemblyIdentity name="System.Web.Extensions.Design" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35"/> <bindingRedirect oldVersion="1.0.0.0-1.1.0.0" newVersion="3.5.0.0"/> </dependentAssembly> </assemblyBinding> </runtime>

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Sensible Way to Pass Web Data in XML to a SQL Server Database

- by Emtucifor

After exploring several different ways to pass web data to a database for update purposes, I'm wondering if XML might be a good strategy. The database is currently SQL 2000. In a few months it will move to SQL 2005 and I will be able to change things if needed, but I need a SQL 2000 solution now. First of all, the database in question uses the EAV model. I know that this kind of database is generally highly frowned on, so for the purposes of this question, please just accept that this is not going to change. The current update method has the web server inserting values (that have all been converted first to their correct underlying types, then to sql_variant) to a temp table. A stored procedure is then run which expects the temp table to exist and it takes care of updating, inserting, or deleting things as needed. So far, only a single element has needed to be updated at a time. But now, there is a requirement to be able to edit multiple elements at once, and also to support hierarchical elements, each of which can have its own list of attributes. Here's some example XML I hand-typed to demonstrate what I'm thinking of. Note that in this database the Entity is Element and an ID of 0 signifies "create" aka an insert of a new item. <Elements> <Element ID="1234"> <Attr ID="221">Value</Attr> <Attr ID="225">287</Attr> <Attr ID="234"> <Element ID="99825"> <Attr ID="7">Value1</Attr> <Attr ID="8">Value2</Attr> <Attr ID="9" Action="delete" /> </Element> <Element ID="99826" Action="delete" /> <Element ID="0" Type="24"> <Attr ID="7">Value4</Attr> <Attr ID="8">Value5</Attr> <Attr ID="9">Value6</Attr> </Element> <Element ID="0" Type="24"> <Attr ID="7">Value7</Attr> <Attr ID="8">Value8</Attr> <Attr ID="9">Value9</Attr> </Element> </Attr> <Rel ID="3827" Action="delete" /> <Rel ID="2284" Role="parent"> <Element ID="3827" /> <Element ID="3829" /> <Attr ID="665">1</Attr> </Rel> <Rel ID="0" Type="23" Role="child"> <Element ID="3830" /> <Attr ID="67" </Rel> </Element> <Element ID="0" Type="87"> <Attr ID="221">Value</Attr> <Attr ID="225">569</Attr> <Attr ID="234"> <Element ID="0" Type="24"> <Attr ID="7">Value10</Attr> <Attr ID="8">Value11</Attr> <Attr ID="9">Value12</Attr> </Element> </Attr> </Element> <Element ID="1235" Action="delete" /> </Elements> Some Attributes are straight value types, such as AttrID 221. But AttrID 234 is a special "multi-value" type that can have a list of elements underneath it, and each one can have one or more values. Types only need to be presented when a new item is created, since the ElementID fully implies the type if it already exists. I'll probably support only passing in changed items (as detected by javascript). And there may be an Action="Delete" on Attr elements as well, since NULLs are treated as "unselected"--sometimes it's very important to know if a Yes/No question has intentionally been answered No or if no one's bothered to say Yes yet. There is also a different kind of data, a Relationship. At this time, those are updated through individual AJAX calls as things are edited in the UI, but I'd like to include those so that changes to relationships can be canceled (right now, once you change it, it's done). So those are really elements, too, but they are called Rel instead of Element. Relationships are implemented as ElementID1 and ElementID2, so the RelID 2284 in the XML above is in the database as: ElementID 2284 ElementID1 1234 ElementID2 3827 Having multiple children in one relationship isn't currently supported, but it would be nice later. Does this strategy and the example XML make sense? Is there a more sensible way? I'm just looking for some broad critique to help save me from going down a bad path. Any aspect that you'd like to comment on would be helpful. The web language happens to be Classic ASP, but that could change to ASP.Net at some point. A persistence engine like Linq or nHibernate is probably not acceptable right now--I just want to get this already working application enhanced without a huge amount of development time. I'll choose the answer that shows experience and has a balance of good warnings about what not to do, confirmations of what I'm planning to do, and recommendations about something else to do. I'll make it as objective as possible. P.S. I'd like to handle unicode characters as well as very long strings (10k +). UPDATE I have had this working for some time and I used the ADO Recordset Save-To-Stream trick to make creating the XML really easy. The result seems to be fairly fast, though if speed ever becomes a problem I may revisit this. In the meantime, my code works to handle any number of elements and attributes on the page at once, including updating, deleting, and creating new items all in one go. I settled on a scheme like so for all my elements: Existing data elements Example: input name e12345_a678 (element 12345, attribute 678), the input value is the value of the attribute. New elements Javascript copies a hidden template of the set of HTML elements needed for the type into the correct location on the page, increments a counter to get a new ID for this item, and prepends the number to the names of the form items. var newid = 0; function metadataAdd(reference, nameid, value) { var t = document.createElement('input'); t.setAttribute('name', nameid); t.setAttribute('id', nameid); t.setAttribute('type', 'hidden'); t.setAttribute('value', value); reference.appendChild(t); } function multiAdd(target, parentelementid, attrid, elementtypeid) { var proto = document.getElementById('a' + attrid + '_proto'); var instance = document.createElement('p'); target.parentNode.parentNode.insertBefore(instance, target.parentNode); var thisid = ++newid; instance.innerHTML = proto.innerHTML.replace(/{prefix}/g, 'n' + thisid + '_'); instance.id = 'n' + thisid; instance.className += ' new'; metadataAdd(instance, 'n' + thisid + '_p', parentelementid); metadataAdd(instance, 'n' + thisid + '_c', attrid); metadataAdd(instance, 'n' + thisid + '_t', elementtypeid); return false; } Example: Template input name _a678 becomes n1_a678 (a new element, the first one on the page, attribute 678). all attributes of this new element are tagged with the same prefix of n1. The next new item will be n2, and so on. Some hidden form inputs are created: n1_t, value is the elementtype of the element to be created n1_p, value is the parent id of the element (if it is a relationship) n1_c, value is the child id of the element (if it is a relationship) Deleting elements A hidden input is created in the form e12345_t with value set to 0. The existing controls displaying that attribute's values are disabled so they are not included in the form post. So "set type to 0" is treated as delete. With this scheme, every item on the page has a unique name and can be distinguished properly, and every action can be represented properly. When the form is posted, here's a sample of building one of the two recordsets used (classic ASP code): Set Data = Server.CreateObject("ADODB.Recordset") Data.Fields.Append "ElementID", adInteger, 4, adFldKeyColumn Data.Fields.Append "AttrID", adInteger, 4, adFldKeyColumn Data.Fields.Append "Value", adLongVarWChar, 2147483647, adFldIsNullable Or adFldMayBeNull Data.CursorLocation = adUseClient Data.CursorType = adOpenDynamic Data.Open This is the recordset for values, the other is for the elements themselves. I step through the posted form and for the element recordset use a Scripting.Dictionary populated with instances of a custom Class that has the properties I need, so that I can add the values piecemeal, since they don't always come in order. New elements are added as negative to distinguish them from regular elements (rather than requiring a separate column to indicate if it is new or addresses an existing element). I use regular expression to tear apart the form keys: "^(e|n)([0-9]{1,10})_(a|p|t|c)([0-9]{0,10})$" Then, adding an attribute looks like this. Data.AddNew ElementID.Value = DataID AttrID.Value = Integerize(Matches(0).SubMatches(3)) AttrValue.Value = Request.Form(Key) Data.Update ElementID, AttrID, and AttrValue are references to the fields of the recordset. This method is hugely faster than using Data.Fields("ElementID").Value each time. I loop through the Dictionary of element updates and ignore any that don't have all the proper information, adding the good ones to the recordset. Then I call my data-updating stored procedure like so: Set Cmd = Server.CreateObject("ADODB.Command") With Cmd Set .ActiveConnection = MyDBConn .CommandType = adCmdStoredProc .CommandText = "DataPost" .Prepared = False .Parameters.Append .CreateParameter("@ElementMetadata", adLongVarWChar, adParamInput, 2147483647, XMLFromRecordset(Element)) .Parameters.Append .CreateParameter("@ElementData", adLongVarWChar, adParamInput, 2147483647, XMLFromRecordset(Data)) End With Result.Open Cmd ' previously created recordset object with options set Here's the function that does the xml conversion: Private Function XMLFromRecordset(Recordset) Dim Stream Set Stream = Server.CreateObject("ADODB.Stream") Stream.Open Recordset.Save Stream, adPersistXML Stream.Position = 0 XMLFromRecordset = Stream.ReadText End Function Just in case the web page needs to know, the SP returns a recordset of any new elements, showing their page value and their created value (so I can see that n1 is now e12346 for example). Here are some key snippets from the stored procedure. Note this is SQL 2000 for now, though I'll be able to switch to 2005 soon: CREATE PROCEDURE [dbo].[DataPost] @ElementMetaData ntext, @ElementData ntext AS DECLARE @hdoc int --- snip --- EXEC sp_xml_preparedocument @hdoc OUTPUT, @ElementMetaData, '<xml xmlns:s="uuid:BDC6E3F0-6DA3-11d1-A2A3-00AA00C14882" xmlns:dt="uuid:C2F41010-65B3-11d1-A29F-00AA00C14882" xmlns:rs="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:rowset" xmlns:z="#RowsetSchema" />' INSERT #ElementMetadata (ElementID, ElementTypeID, ElementID1, ElementID2) SELECT * FROM OPENXML(@hdoc, '/xml/rs:data/rs:insert/z:row', 0) WITH ( ElementID int, ElementTypeID int, ElementID1 int, ElementID2 int ) ORDER BY ElementID -- orders negative items (new elements) first so they begin counting at 1 for later ID calculation EXEC sp_xml_removedocument @hdoc --- snip --- UPDATE E SET E.ElementTypeID = M.ElementTypeID FROM Element E INNER JOIN #ElementMetadata M ON E.ElementID = M.ElementID WHERE E.ElementID >= 1 AND M.ElementTypeID >= 1 The following query does the correlation of the negative new element ids to the newly inserted ones: UPDATE #ElementMetadata -- Correlate the new ElementIDs with the input rows SET NewElementID = Scope_Identity() - @@RowCount + DataID WHERE ElementID < 0 Other set-based queries do all the other work of validating that the attributes are allowed, are the correct data type, and inserting, updating, and deleting elements and attributes. I hope this brief run-down is useful to others some day! Converting ADO Recordsets to an XML stream was a huge winner for me as it saved all sorts of time and had a namespace and schema already defined that made the results come out correctly. Using a flatter XML format with 2 inputs was also much easier than sticking to some ideal about having everything in a single XML stream.

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Sensible Way to Pass Web Data to Sql Server Database

- by Emtucifor

After exploring several different ways to pass web data to a database for update purposes, I'm wondering if XML might be a good strategy. The database is currently SQL 2000. In a few months it will move to SQL 2005 and I will be able to change things if needed, but I need a SQL 2000 solution now. First of all, the database in question uses the EAV model. I know that this kind of database is generally highly frowned on, so for the purposes of this question, please just accept that this is not going to change. The current update method has the web server inserting values (that have all been converted first to their correct underlying types, then to sql_variant) to a temp table. A stored procedure is then run which expects the temp table to exist and it takes care of updating, inserting, or deleting things as needed. So far, only a single element has needed to be updated at a time. But now, there is a requirement to be able to edit multiple elements at once, and also to support hierarchical elements, each of which can have its own list of attributes. Here's some example XML I hand-typed to demonstrate what I'm thinking of. Note that in this database the Entity is Element and an ID of 0 signifies "create" aka an insert of a new item. <Elements> <Element ID="1234"> <Attr ID="221">Value</Attr> <Attr ID="225">287</Attr> <Attr ID="234"> <Element ID="99825"> <Attr ID="7">Value1</Attr> <Attr ID="8">Value2</Attr> <Attr ID="9" Action="delete" /> </Element> <Element ID="99826" Action="delete" /> <Element ID="0" Type="24"> <Attr ID="7">Value4</Attr> <Attr ID="8">Value5</Attr> <Attr ID="9">Value6</Attr> </Element> <Element ID="0" Type="24"> <Attr ID="7">Value7</Attr> <Attr ID="8">Value8</Attr> <Attr ID="9">Value9</Attr> </Element> </Attr> <Rel ID="3827" Action="delete" /> <Rel ID="2284" Role="parent"> <Element ID="3827" /> <Element ID="3829" /> <Attr ID="665">1</Attr> </Rel> <Rel ID="0" Type="23" Role="child"> <Element ID="3830" /> <Attr ID="67" </Rel> </Element> <Element ID="0" Type="87"> <Attr ID="221">Value</Attr> <Attr ID="225">569</Attr> <Attr ID="234"> <Element ID="0" Type="24"> <Attr ID="7">Value10</Attr> <Attr ID="8">Value11</Attr> <Attr ID="9">Value12</Attr> </Element> </Attr> </Element> <Element ID="1235" Action="delete" /> </Elements> Some Attributes are straight value types, such as AttrID 221. But AttrID 234 is a special "multi-value" type that can have a list of elements underneath it, and each one can have one or more values. Types only need to be presented when a new item is created, since the ElementID fully implies the type if it already exists. I'll probably support only passing in changed items (as detected by javascript). And there may be an Action="Delete" on Attr elements as well, since NULLs are treated as "unselected"--sometimes it's very important to know if a Yes/No question has intentionally been answered No or if no one's bothered to say Yes yet. There is also a different kind of data, a Relationship. At this time, those are updated through individual AJAX calls as things are edited in the UI, but I'd like to include those so that changes to relationships can be canceled (right now, once you change it, it's done). So those are really elements, too, but they are called Rel instead of Element. Relationships are implemented as ElementID1 and ElementID2, so the RelID 2284 in the XML above is in the database as: ElementID 2284 ElementID1 1234 ElementID2 3827 Having multiple children in one relationship isn't currently supported, but it would be nice later. Does this strategy and the example XML make sense? Is there a more sensible way? I'm just looking for some broad critique to help save me from going down a bad path. Any aspect that you'd like to comment on would be helpful. The web language happens to be Classic ASP, but that could change to ASP.Net at some point. A persistence engine like Linq or nHibernate is probably not acceptable right now--I just want to get this already working application enhanced without a huge amount of development time. I'll choose the answer that shows experience and has a balance of good warnings about what not to do, confirmations of what I'm planning to do, and recommendations about something else to do. I'll make it as objective as possible. P.S. I'd like to handle unicode characters as well as very long strings (10k +). UPDATE I have had this working for some time and I used the ADO Recordset Save-To-Stream trick to make creating the XML really easy. The result seems to be fairly fast, though if speed ever becomes a problem I may revisit this. In the meantime, my code works to handle any number of elements and attributes on the page at once, including updating, deleting, and creating new items all in one go. I settled on a scheme like so for all my elements: Existing data elements Example: input name e12345_a678 (element 12345, attribute 678), the input value is the value of the attribute. New elements Javascript copies a hidden template of the set of HTML elements needed for the type into the correct location on the page, increments a counter to get a new ID for this item, and prepends the number to the names of the form items. var newid = 0; function metadataAdd(reference, nameid, value) { var t = document.createElement('input'); t.setAttribute('name', nameid); t.setAttribute('id', nameid); t.setAttribute('type', 'hidden'); t.setAttribute('value', value); reference.appendChild(t); } function multiAdd(target, parentelementid, attrid, elementtypeid) { var proto = document.getElementById('a' + attrid + '_proto'); var instance = document.createElement('p'); target.parentNode.parentNode.insertBefore(instance, target.parentNode); var thisid = ++newid; instance.innerHTML = proto.innerHTML.replace(/{prefix}/g, 'n' + thisid + '_'); instance.id = 'n' + thisid; instance.className += ' new'; metadataAdd(instance, 'n' + thisid + '_p', parentelementid); metadataAdd(instance, 'n' + thisid + '_c', attrid); metadataAdd(instance, 'n' + thisid + '_t', elementtypeid); return false; } Example: Template input name _a678 becomes n1_a678 (a new element, the first one on the page, attribute 678). all attributes of this new element are tagged with the same prefix of n1. The next new item will be n2, and so on. Some hidden form inputs are created: n1_t, value is the elementtype of the element to be created n1_p, value is the parent id of the element (if it is a relationship) n1_c, value is the child id of the element (if it is a relationship) Deleting elements A hidden input is created in the form e12345_t with value set to 0. The existing controls displaying that attribute's values are disabled so they are not included in the form post. So "set type to 0" is treated as delete. With this scheme, every item on the page has a unique name and can be distinguished properly, and every action can be represented properly. When the form is posted, here's a sample of building one of the two recordsets used (classic ASP code): Set Data = Server.CreateObject("ADODB.Recordset") Data.Fields.Append "ElementID", adInteger, 4, adFldKeyColumn Data.Fields.Append "AttrID", adInteger, 4, adFldKeyColumn Data.Fields.Append "Value", adLongVarWChar, 2147483647, adFldIsNullable Or adFldMayBeNull Data.CursorLocation = adUseClient Data.CursorType = adOpenDynamic Data.Open This is the recordset for values, the other is for the elements themselves. I step through the posted form and for the element recordset use a Scripting.Dictionary populated with instances of a custom Class that has the properties I need, so that I can add the values piecemeal, since they don't always come in order. New elements are added as negative to distinguish them from regular elements (rather than requiring a separate column to indicate if it is new or addresses an existing element). I use regular expression to tear apart the form keys: "^(e|n)([0-9]{1,10})_(a|p|t|c)([0-9]{0,10})$" Then, adding an attribute looks like this. Data.AddNew ElementID.Value = DataID AttrID.Value = Integerize(Matches(0).SubMatches(3)) AttrValue.Value = Request.Form(Key) Data.Update ElementID, AttrID, and AttrValue are references to the fields of the recordset. This method is hugely faster than using Data.Fields("ElementID").Value each time. I loop through the Dictionary of element updates and ignore any that don't have all the proper information, adding the good ones to the recordset. Then I call my data-updating stored procedure like so: Set Cmd = Server.CreateObject("ADODB.Command") With Cmd Set .ActiveConnection = MyDBConn .CommandType = adCmdStoredProc .CommandText = "DataPost" .Prepared = False .Parameters.Append .CreateParameter("@ElementMetadata", adLongVarWChar, adParamInput, 2147483647, XMLFromRecordset(Element)) .Parameters.Append .CreateParameter("@ElementData", adLongVarWChar, adParamInput, 2147483647, XMLFromRecordset(Data)) End With Result.Open Cmd ' previously created recordset object with options set Here's the function that does the xml conversion: Private Function XMLFromRecordset(Recordset) Dim Stream Set Stream = Server.CreateObject("ADODB.Stream") Stream.Open Recordset.Save Stream, adPersistXML Stream.Position = 0 XMLFromRecordset = Stream.ReadText End Function Just in case the web page needs to know, the SP returns a recordset of any new elements, showing their page value and their created value (so I can see that n1 is now e12346 for example). Here are some key snippets from the stored procedure. Note this is SQL 2000 for now, though I'll be able to switch to 2005 soon: CREATE PROCEDURE [dbo].[DataPost] @ElementMetaData ntext, @ElementData ntext AS DECLARE @hdoc int --- snip --- EXEC sp_xml_preparedocument @hdoc OUTPUT, @ElementMetaData, '<xml xmlns:s="uuid:BDC6E3F0-6DA3-11d1-A2A3-00AA00C14882" xmlns:dt="uuid:C2F41010-65B3-11d1-A29F-00AA00C14882" xmlns:rs="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:rowset" xmlns:z="#RowsetSchema" />' INSERT #ElementMetadata (ElementID, ElementTypeID, ElementID1, ElementID2) SELECT * FROM OPENXML(@hdoc, '/xml/rs:data/rs:insert/z:row', 0) WITH ( ElementID int, ElementTypeID int, ElementID1 int, ElementID2 int ) ORDER BY ElementID -- orders negative items (new elements) first so they begin counting at 1 for later ID calculation EXEC sp_xml_removedocument @hdoc --- snip --- UPDATE E SET E.ElementTypeID = M.ElementTypeID FROM Element E INNER JOIN #ElementMetadata M ON E.ElementID = M.ElementID WHERE E.ElementID >= 1 AND M.ElementTypeID >= 1 The following query does the correlation of the negative new element ids to the newly inserted ones: UPDATE #ElementMetadata -- Correlate the new ElementIDs with the input rows SET NewElementID = Scope_Identity() - @@RowCount + DataID WHERE ElementID < 0 Other set-based queries do all the other work of validating that the attributes are allowed, are the correct data type, and inserting, updating, and deleting elements and attributes. I hope this brief run-down is useful to others some day! Converting ADO Recordsets to an XML stream was a huge winner for me as it saved all sorts of time and had a namespace and schema already defined that made the results come out correctly. Using a flatter XML format with 2 inputs was also much easier than sticking to some ideal about having everything in a single XML stream.

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Steganography Experiment - Trouble hiding message bits in DCT coefficients

- by JohnHankinson

I have an application requiring me to be able to embed loss-less data into an image. As such I've been experimenting with steganography, specifically via modification of DCT coefficients as the method I select, apart from being loss-less must also be relatively resilient against format conversion, scaling/DSP etc. From the research I've done thus far this method seems to be the best candidate. I've seen a number of papers on the subject which all seem to neglect specific details (some neglect to mention modification of 0 coefficients, or modification of AC coefficient etc). After combining the findings and making a few modifications of my own which include: 1) Using a more quantized version of the DCT matrix to ensure we only modify coefficients that would still be present should the image be JPEG'ed further or processed (I'm using this in place of simply following a zig-zag pattern). 2) I'm modifying bit 4 instead of the LSB and then based on what the original bit value was adjusting the lower bits to minimize the difference. 3) I'm only modifying the blue channel as it should be the least visible. This process must modify the actual image and not the DCT values stored in file (like jsteg) as there is no guarantee the file will be a JPEG, it may also be opened and re-saved at a later stage in a different format. For added robustness I've included the message multiple times and use the bits that occur most often, I had considered using a QR code as the message data or simply applying the reed-solomon error correction, but for this simple application and given that the "message" in question is usually going to be between 10-32 bytes I have plenty of room to repeat it which should provide sufficient redundancy to recover the true bits. No matter what I do I don't seem to be able to recover the bits at the decode stage. I've tried including / excluding various checks (even if it degrades image quality for the time being). I've tried using fixed point vs. double arithmetic, moving the bit to encode, I suspect that the message bits are being lost during the IDCT back to image. Any thoughts or suggestions on how to get this working would be hugely appreciated. (PS I am aware that the actual DCT/IDCT could be optimized from it's naive On4 operation using row column algorithm, or an FDCT like AAN, but for now it just needs to work :) ) Reference Papers: http://www.lokminglui.com/dct.pdf http://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/1006/1006.1186.pdf Code for the Encode/Decode process in C# below: using System; using System.Collections.Generic; using System.Linq; using System.Text; using System.Drawing.Imaging; using System.Drawing; namespace ImageKey { public class Encoder { public const int HIDE_BIT_POS = 3; // use bit position 4 (1 << 3). public const int HIDE_COUNT = 16; // Number of times to repeat the message to avoid error. // JPEG Standard Quantization Matrix. // (to get higher quality multiply by (100-quality)/50 .. // for lower than 50 multiply by 50/quality. Then round to integers and clip to ensure only positive integers. public static double[] Q = {16,11,10,16,24,40,51,61, 12,12,14,19,26,58,60,55, 14,13,16,24,40,57,69,56, 14,17,22,29,51,87,80,62, 18,22,37,56,68,109,103,77, 24,35,55,64,81,104,113,92, 49,64,78,87,103,121,120,101, 72,92,95,98,112,100,103,99}; // Maximum qauality quantization matrix (if all 1's doesn't modify coefficients at all). public static double[] Q2 = {1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1, 1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1, 1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1, 1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1, 1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1, 1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1, 1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1, 1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1}; public static Bitmap Encode(Bitmap b, string key) { Bitmap response = new Bitmap(b.Width, b.Height, PixelFormat.Format32bppArgb); uint imgWidth = ((uint)b.Width) & ~((uint)7); // Maximum usable X resolution (divisible by 8). uint imgHeight = ((uint)b.Height) & ~((uint)7); // Maximum usable Y resolution (divisible by 8). // Start be transferring the unmodified image portions. // As we'll be using slightly less width/height for the encoding process we'll need the edges to be populated. for (int y = 0; y < b.Height; y++) for (int x = 0; x < b.Width; x++) { if( (x >= imgWidth && x < b.Width) || (y>=imgHeight && y < b.Height)) response.SetPixel(x, y, b.GetPixel(x, y)); } // Setup the counters and byte data for the message to encode. StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder(); for(int i=0;i<HIDE_COUNT;i++) sb.Append(key); byte[] codeBytes = System.Text.Encoding.ASCII.GetBytes(sb.ToString()); int bitofs = 0; // Current bit position we've encoded too. int totalBits = (codeBytes.Length * 8); // Total number of bits to encode. for (int y = 0; y < imgHeight; y += 8) { for (int x = 0; x < imgWidth; x += 8) { int[] redData = GetRedChannelData(b, x, y); int[] greenData = GetGreenChannelData(b, x, y); int[] blueData = GetBlueChannelData(b, x, y); int[] newRedData; int[] newGreenData; int[] newBlueData; if (bitofs < totalBits) { double[] redDCT = DCT(ref redData); double[] greenDCT = DCT(ref greenData); double[] blueDCT = DCT(ref blueData); int[] redDCTI = Quantize(ref redDCT, ref Q2); int[] greenDCTI = Quantize(ref greenDCT, ref Q2); int[] blueDCTI = Quantize(ref blueDCT, ref Q2); int[] blueDCTC = Quantize(ref blueDCT, ref Q); HideBits(ref blueDCTI, ref blueDCTC, ref bitofs, ref totalBits, ref codeBytes); double[] redDCT2 = DeQuantize(ref redDCTI, ref Q2); double[] greenDCT2 = DeQuantize(ref greenDCTI, ref Q2); double[] blueDCT2 = DeQuantize(ref blueDCTI, ref Q2); newRedData = IDCT(ref redDCT2); newGreenData = IDCT(ref greenDCT2); newBlueData = IDCT(ref blueDCT2); } else { newRedData = redData; newGreenData = greenData; newBlueData = blueData; } MapToRGBRange(ref newRedData); MapToRGBRange(ref newGreenData); MapToRGBRange(ref newBlueData); for(int dy=0;dy<8;dy++) { for(int dx=0;dx<8;dx++) { int col = (0xff<<24) + (newRedData[dx+(dy*8)]<<16) + (newGreenData[dx+(dy*8)]<<8) + (newBlueData[dx+(dy*8)]); response.SetPixel(x+dx,y+dy,Color.FromArgb(col)); } } } } if (bitofs < totalBits) throw new Exception("Failed to encode data - insufficient cover image coefficients"); return (response); } public static void HideBits(ref int[] DCTMatrix, ref int[] CMatrix, ref int bitofs, ref int totalBits, ref byte[] codeBytes) { int tempValue = 0; for (int u = 0; u < 8; u++) { for (int v = 0; v < 8; v++) { if ( (u != 0 || v != 0) && CMatrix[v+(u*8)] != 0 && DCTMatrix[v+(u*8)] != 0) { if (bitofs < totalBits) { tempValue = DCTMatrix[v + (u * 8)]; int bytePos = (bitofs) >> 3; int bitPos = (bitofs) % 8; byte mask = (byte)(1 << bitPos); byte value = (byte)((codeBytes[bytePos] & mask) >> bitPos); // 0 or 1. if (value == 0) { int a = DCTMatrix[v + (u * 8)] & (1 << HIDE_BIT_POS); if (a != 0) DCTMatrix[v + (u * 8)] |= (1 << HIDE_BIT_POS) - 1; DCTMatrix[v + (u * 8)] &= ~(1 << HIDE_BIT_POS); } else if (value == 1) { int a = DCTMatrix[v + (u * 8)] & (1 << HIDE_BIT_POS); if (a == 0) DCTMatrix[v + (u * 8)] &= ~((1 << HIDE_BIT_POS) - 1); DCTMatrix[v + (u * 8)] |= (1 << HIDE_BIT_POS); } if (DCTMatrix[v + (u * 8)] != 0) bitofs++; else DCTMatrix[v + (u * 8)] = tempValue; } } } } } public static void MapToRGBRange(ref int[] data) { for(int i=0;i<data.Length;i++) { data[i] += 128; if(data[i] < 0) data[i] = 0; else if(data[i] > 255) data[i] = 255; } } public static int[] GetRedChannelData(Bitmap b, int sx, int sy) { int[] data = new int[8 * 8]; for (int y = sy; y < (sy + 8); y++) { for (int x = sx; x < (sx + 8); x++) { uint col = (uint)b.GetPixel(x,y).ToArgb(); data[(x - sx) + ((y - sy) * 8)] = (int)((col >> 16) & 0xff) - 128; } } return (data); } public static int[] GetGreenChannelData(Bitmap b, int sx, int sy) { int[] data = new int[8 * 8]; for (int y = sy; y < (sy + 8); y++) { for (int x = sx; x < (sx + 8); x++) { uint col = (uint)b.GetPixel(x, y).ToArgb(); data[(x - sx) + ((y - sy) * 8)] = (int)((col >> 8) & 0xff) - 128; } } return (data); } public static int[] GetBlueChannelData(Bitmap b, int sx, int sy) { int[] data = new int[8 * 8]; for (int y = sy; y < (sy + 8); y++) { for (int x = sx; x < (sx + 8); x++) { uint col = (uint)b.GetPixel(x, y).ToArgb(); data[(x - sx) + ((y - sy) * 8)] = (int)((col >> 0) & 0xff) - 128; } } return (data); } public static int[] Quantize(ref double[] DCTMatrix, ref double[] Q) { int[] DCTMatrixOut = new int[8*8]; for (int u = 0; u < 8; u++) { for (int v = 0; v < 8; v++) { DCTMatrixOut[v + (u * 8)] = (int)Math.Round(DCTMatrix[v + (u * 8)] / Q[v + (u * 8)]); } } return(DCTMatrixOut); } public static double[] DeQuantize(ref int[] DCTMatrix, ref double[] Q) { double[] DCTMatrixOut = new double[8*8]; for (int u = 0; u < 8; u++) { for (int v = 0; v < 8; v++) { DCTMatrixOut[v + (u * 8)] = (double)DCTMatrix[v + (u * 8)] * Q[v + (u * 8)]; } } return(DCTMatrixOut); } public static double[] DCT(ref int[] data) { double[] DCTMatrix = new double[8 * 8]; for (int v = 0; v < 8; v++) { for (int u = 0; u < 8; u++) { double cu = 1; if (u == 0) cu = (1.0 / Math.Sqrt(2.0)); double cv = 1; if (v == 0) cv = (1.0 / Math.Sqrt(2.0)); double sum = 0.0; for (int y = 0; y < 8; y++) { for (int x = 0; x < 8; x++) { double s = data[x + (y * 8)]; double dctVal = Math.Cos((2 * y + 1) * v * Math.PI / 16) * Math.Cos((2 * x + 1) * u * Math.PI / 16); sum += s * dctVal; } } DCTMatrix[u + (v * 8)] = (0.25 * cu * cv * sum); } } return (DCTMatrix); } public static int[] IDCT(ref double[] DCTMatrix) { int[] Matrix = new int[8 * 8]; for (int y = 0; y < 8; y++) { for (int x = 0; x < 8; x++) { double sum = 0; for (int v = 0; v < 8; v++) { for (int u = 0; u < 8; u++) { double cu = 1; if (u == 0) cu = (1.0 / Math.Sqrt(2.0)); double cv = 1; if (v == 0) cv = (1.0 / Math.Sqrt(2.0)); double idctVal = (cu * cv) / 4.0 * Math.Cos((2 * y + 1) * v * Math.PI / 16) * Math.Cos((2 * x + 1) * u * Math.PI / 16); sum += (DCTMatrix[u + (v * 8)] * idctVal); } } Matrix[x + (y * 8)] = (int)Math.Round(sum); } } return (Matrix); } } public class Decoder { public static string Decode(Bitmap b, int expectedLength) { expectedLength *= Encoder.HIDE_COUNT; uint imgWidth = ((uint)b.Width) & ~((uint)7); // Maximum usable X resolution (divisible by 8). uint imgHeight = ((uint)b.Height) & ~((uint)7); // Maximum usable Y resolution (divisible by 8). // Setup the counters and byte data for the message to decode. byte[] codeBytes = new byte[expectedLength]; byte[] outBytes = new byte[expectedLength / Encoder.HIDE_COUNT]; int bitofs = 0; // Current bit position we've decoded too. int totalBits = (codeBytes.Length * 8); // Total number of bits to decode. for (int y = 0; y < imgHeight; y += 8) { for (int x = 0; x < imgWidth; x += 8) { int[] blueData = ImageKey.Encoder.GetBlueChannelData(b, x, y); double[] blueDCT = ImageKey.Encoder.DCT(ref blueData); int[] blueDCTI = ImageKey.Encoder.Quantize(ref blueDCT, ref Encoder.Q2); int[] blueDCTC = ImageKey.Encoder.Quantize(ref blueDCT, ref Encoder.Q); if (bitofs < totalBits) GetBits(ref blueDCTI, ref blueDCTC, ref bitofs, ref totalBits, ref codeBytes); } } bitofs = 0; for (int i = 0; i < (expectedLength / Encoder.HIDE_COUNT) * 8; i++) { int bytePos = (bitofs) >> 3; int bitPos = (bitofs) % 8; byte mask = (byte)(1 << bitPos); List<int> values = new List<int>(); int zeroCount = 0; int oneCount = 0; for (int j = 0; j < Encoder.HIDE_COUNT; j++) { int val = (codeBytes[bytePos + ((expectedLength / Encoder.HIDE_COUNT) * j)] & mask) >> bitPos; values.Add(val); if (val == 0) zeroCount++; else oneCount++; } if (oneCount >= zeroCount) outBytes[bytePos] |= mask; bitofs++; values.Clear(); } return (System.Text.Encoding.ASCII.GetString(outBytes)); } public static void GetBits(ref int[] DCTMatrix, ref int[] CMatrix, ref int bitofs, ref int totalBits, ref byte[] codeBytes) { for (int u = 0; u < 8; u++) { for (int v = 0; v < 8; v++) { if ((u != 0 || v != 0) && CMatrix[v + (u * 8)] != 0 && DCTMatrix[v + (u * 8)] != 0) { if (bitofs < totalBits) { int bytePos = (bitofs) >> 3; int bitPos = (bitofs) % 8; byte mask = (byte)(1 << bitPos); int value = DCTMatrix[v + (u * 8)] & (1 << Encoder.HIDE_BIT_POS); if (value != 0) codeBytes[bytePos] |= mask; bitofs++; } } } } } } } UPDATE: By switching to using a QR Code as the source message and swapping a pair of coefficients in each block instead of bit manipulation I've been able to get the message to survive the transform. However to get the message to come through without corruption I have to adjust both coefficients as well as swap them. For example swapping (3,4) and (4,3) in the DCT matrix and then respectively adding 8 and subtracting 8 as an arbitrary constant seems to work. This survives a re-JPEG'ing of 96 but any form of scaling/cropping destroys the message again. I was hoping that by operating on mid to low frequency values that the message would be preserved even under some light image manipulation.

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