How to install window service

A window service need to be installed at first. Under Windows 10, click on window button, type dev inside the search input, and choose Developer Command Prompt for VS2012, which is the service installer named installutil.exe.

Note, when you applying installutil to install window service, you need to run it with Administrator privilege.

Then go to the directory of compiled service, usually it's inside directory of bin/debug, and type
installutil yourservice.exe.

Your service will be installed successfully.

Reference:
http://www.c-sharpcorner.com/uploadfile/naresh.avari/develop-and-install-a-windows-service-in-c-sharp/

Integrated R.Net within your ASP.Net MVC applicaiton

R is a programming language used for statistical computing. For business intelligence, R is very useful for prediction marketing. To better integrating R into Microsoft .Net system, there is one tool named R.Net. You can use NuGet to install R.Net to your .net project. The latest version of R.Net is 1.6.5. You can use the following command to install the latest R.Net:
Install-Package R.NET.Community
Note R.Net didn't set the environment variable correctly. So the first issue you suffered for R.Net would be package installation.

REngine r = REngine.GetInstance();
r.Evaluate("library(RODBC)");

An unhandled exception of type 'RDotNet.EvaluationException' occurred in RDotNet.dll
Additional information: Error: package or namespace load failed for 'RODBC'

This is happened because R.net can't find r.dll as the Path doesn't included. To set the correct Path under windows 10, click on windows button, choose Settings, click on System, choose About from the left menu, scroll down to the bottom, click on System Info, choose Advanced System Setting from the left menu, choose the Tab of Advanced, click on Environment Variables button, then click on Edit button, click on New button, add following path:
C:\\Program Files\\R\\R-3.3.1\\bin\\i386
After this, restart windows 10, you should resolve this issue. Note other resources prefer to add more paths such as library, it's wrong!!! It will affect some packages installation.


Reference:
https://www.nuget.org/packages/R.NET.Community/
http://jmp75.github.io/rdotnet/ts_asp_dot_net/

How to align an image center inside div

HTML Blocks are elements established as a block-level element, which are created by using the <div> element.

The most common way to center blocks with CSS is to set both the left and right margins to auto. Here is the CSS:

<style>
  div.center {
    margin: auto;
  }
</style>

The most common way to center blocks with CSS is to set both the left and right margins to auto. Here is the CSS:

Reference:
https://www.w3.org/Style/Examples/007/center.en.html

How to vertical align an image inside an anchor

To vertical align an image inside an anchor, there are 3 necessary parts inside the CSS:

1. Your anchor should have same  height and inline-height.
2. Your image should have vertical-align: middle;
3. Your image should have display: inline-block;

<style>
    .thumbnail {
        width: 150px;
        height: 150px;
        text-align: center;
        line-height: 150px;
    }
    .thumbnail img {
        margin: auto;
        vertical-align: middle; 
    }  
</style>

Reference:
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/20700475/vertical-align-image-inside-an-anchor-with-css
http://plnkr.co/edit/b5jEtK5EWVglrhEkj14e?p=preview

jsPDF AutoTable Plugin examples

Bundle.cfg

bundles.Add(new ScriptBundle("~/bundles/jsPDF").Include(
    "~/Scripts/plugins/jsPDF/jspdf.js",
    "~/Scripts/plugins/jsPDF/jspdf.plugin.text-align.js",
    "~/Scripts/plugins/jsPDF/jspdf.plugin.autotable.js"));

jspdf.plugin.text-align.js

(function (api, $) {
    'use strict';
    api.writeText = function (x, y, text, options) {
        options = options || {};
        var defaults = {
            align: 'left',
            width: this.internal.pageSize.width
        }

        var settings = $.extend({}, defaults, options);

        // Get current font size
        var fontSize = this.internal.getFontSize();

        // Get the actual text's width
        /* You multiply the unit width of your string by your font size and divide
         * by the internal scale factor. The division is necessary
         * for the case where you use units other than 'pt' in the constructor
         * of jsPDF.
         */
        var txtWidth = this.getStringUnitWidth(text) * fontSize / this.internal.scaleFactor;

        if (settings.align === 'center')
            x += (settings.width - txtWidth) / 2;
        else if (settings.align === 'right')
            x += (settings.width - txtWidth);

        //default is 'left' alignment
        this.text(text, x, y);
    }
})(jsPDF.API, jQuery);

jsPDF example

/*
 |--------------------------------------------------------------------------
 | This file contains examples of how to use this plugin
 |--------------------------------------------------------------------------
 |
 | To see what the pdfs generated by these examples looks like you can open
 | ´examples.html´ or go to http://simonbengtsson.github.io/jsPDF-AutoTable.
 |
 | To make it possible to view each example in examples.html some extra code
 | are added to the examples below. For example they return their jspdf
 | doc instance and gets generated data from the library faker.js. However you
 | can of course use this plugin how you wish and the simplest first example
 | below would look like this without any extras:
 |
 | var columns = ["ID", "Name", "Age", "City"];
 |
 | var data = [
 |     [1, "Jonatan", 25, "Gothenburg"],
 |     [2, "Simon", 23, "Gothenburg"],
 |     [3, "Hanna", 21, "Stockholm"]
 | ];
 |
 | var doc = new jsPDF('p', 'pt');
 | doc.autoTable(columns, data);
 | doc.save("table.pdf");
 |
 */

var examples = {};

// Default - shows what a default table looks like
examples.auto = function () {
    var doc = new jsPDF('p', 'pt');
    doc.autoTable(getColumns(), getData());
    return doc;
};

// Minimal - shows how compact tables can be drawn
examples.minimal = function () {
    var doc = new jsPDF('p', 'pt');
    doc.autoTable(getColumns(), getData(), {
        tableWidth: 'wrap',
        styles: {cellPadding: 2},
        headerStyles: {rowHeight: 15, fontSize: 8},
        bodyStyles: {rowHeight: 12, fontSize: 8, valign: 'middle'}
    });
    return doc;
};

// Long data - shows how the overflow features looks and can be used
examples.long = function () {
    var doc = new jsPDF('l', 'pt');
    var columnsLong = getColumns().concat([
        {title: shuffleSentence(), dataKey: "text"},
        {title: "Text with a\nlinebreak", dataKey: "text2"}
    ]);

    doc.text("Overflow 'ellipsize' (default)", 10, 40);
    doc.autoTable(columnsLong, getData(), {
        startY: 55,
        margin: {horizontal: 10},
        columnStyles: {text: {columnWidth: 250}}
    });

    doc.text("Overflow 'hidden'", 10, doc.autoTableEndPosY() + 30);
    doc.autoTable(columnsLong, getData(), {
        startY: doc.autoTableEndPosY() + 45,
        margin: {horizontal: 10},
        styles: {overflow: 'hidden'},
        columnStyles: {email: {columnWidth: 160}}
    });

    doc.text("Overflow 'linebreak'", 10, doc.autoTableEndPosY() + 30);
    doc.autoTable(columnsLong, getData(3), {
        startY: doc.autoTableEndPosY() + 45,
        margin: {horizontal: 10},
        styles: {overflow: 'linebreak'},
        bodyStyles: {valign: 'top'},
        columnStyles: {email: {columnWidth: 'wrap'}},
    });

    return doc;
};

// Content - shows how tables can be integrated with any other pdf content
examples.content = function () {
    var doc = new jsPDF('p', 'pt');

    doc.setFontSize(18);
    doc.text('A story about Miusov', 40, 60);
    doc.setFontSize(11);
    doc.setTextColor(100);
    var text = doc.splitTextToSize(shuffleSentence(faker.lorem.words(55)) + '.', doc.internal.pageSize.width - 80, {});
    doc.text(text, 40, 80);

    var cols = getColumns();
    cols.splice(0, 2);
    doc.autoTable(cols, getData(40), {startY: 150});

    doc.text(text, 40, doc.autoTableEndPosY() + 30);

    return doc;
};

// Multiple - shows how multiple tables can be drawn both horizontally and vertically
examples.multiple = function () {
    var doc = new jsPDF('p', 'pt');
    doc.setFontSize(22);
    doc.text("Multiple tables", 40, 60);
    doc.setFontSize(12);

    doc.autoTable(getColumns().slice(0, 3), getData(), {
        startY: 90,
        pageBreak: 'avoid',
        margin: {right: 305}
    });

    doc.autoTable(getColumns().slice(0, 3), getData(), {
        startY: 90,
        pageBreak: 'avoid',
        margin: {left: 305}
    });

    for (var j = 0; j < 6; j++) {
        doc.autoTable(getColumns(), getData(9), {
            startY: doc.autoTableEndPosY() + 30,
            pageBreak: 'avoid',
        });
    }

    return doc;
};

// From html - shows how pdf tables can be be drawn from html tables
examples.html = function () {
    var doc = new jsPDF('p', 'pt');
    doc.text("From HTML", 40, 50);
    var res = doc.autoTableHtmlToJson(document.getElementById("basic-table"));
    doc.autoTable(res.columns, res.data, {startY: 60});
    return doc;
};

// Header and footers - shows how header and footers can be drawn
examples['header-footer'] = function () {
    var doc = new jsPDF('p', 'pt');

    var header = function (data) {
        doc.setFontSize(20);
        doc.setTextColor(40);
        doc.setFontStyle('normal');
        doc.addImage(headerImgData, 'JPEG', data.settings.margin.left, 40, 25, 25);
        doc.text("Report", data.settings.margin.left + 35, 60);
    };

    var totalPagesExp = "{total_pages_count_string}";
    var footer = function (data) {
        var str = "Page " + data.pageCount;
        // Total page number plugin only available in jspdf v1.0+
        if (typeof doc.putTotalPages === 'function') {
            str = str + " of " + totalPagesExp;
        }
        doc.text(str, data.settings.margin.left, doc.internal.pageSize.height - 30);
    };

    var options = {
        beforePageContent: header,
        afterPageContent: footer,
        margin: {top: 80}
    };
    doc.autoTable(getColumns(), getData(40), options);

    // Total page number plugin only available in jspdf v1.0+
    if (typeof doc.putTotalPages === 'function') {
        doc.putTotalPages(totalPagesExp);
    }

    return doc;
};

// Themes - shows how the different themes looks
examples.themes = function () {
    var doc = new jsPDF('p', 'pt');
    doc.setFontSize(12);
    doc.setFontStyle('bold');

    doc.text('Theme "striped"', 40, 50);
    doc.autoTable(getColumns(), getData(), {startY: 60});

    doc.text('Theme "grid"', 40, doc.autoTableEndPosY() + 30);
    doc.autoTable(getColumns(), getData(), {startY: doc.autoTableEndPosY() + 40, theme: 'grid'});

    doc.text('Theme "plain"', 40, doc.autoTableEndPosY() + 30);
    doc.autoTable(getColumns(), getData(), {startY: doc.autoTableEndPosY() + 40, theme: 'plain'});

    return doc;
};

// Horizontal - shows how tables can be drawn with horizontal headers
examples.horizontal = function () {
    var doc = new jsPDF('p', 'pt');
    doc.autoTable(getColumns().splice(1,4), getData(), {
        drawHeaderRow: function() {
            // Don't draw header row
            return false;
        },
        columnStyles: {
            first_name: {fillColor: [41, 128, 185], textColor: 255, fontStyle: 'bold'}
        }
    });
    return doc;
};


// Custom style - shows how custom styles can be applied to tables
examples.custom = function () {
    var doc = new jsPDF('p', 'pt');
    doc.autoTable(getColumns().slice(2, 6), getData(20), {
        styles: {
            font: 'courier',
            fillStyle: 'DF',
            lineColor: [44, 62, 80],
            lineWidth: 2
        },
        headerStyles: {
            fillColor: [44, 62, 80],
            fontSize: 15,
            rowHeight: 30
        },
        bodyStyles: {
            fillColor: [52, 73, 94],
            textColor: 240
        },
        alternateRowStyles: {
            fillColor: [74, 96, 117]
        },
        columnStyles: {
            email: {
                fontStyle: 'bold'
            }
        },
        createdCell: function (cell, data) {
            if (data.column.dataKey === 'expenses') {
                cell.styles.halign = 'right';
                if (cell.raw > 600) {
                    cell.styles.textColor = [255, 100, 100];
                    cell.styles.fontStyle = 'bolditalic';
                }
                cell.text = '$' + cell.text;
            } else if (data.column.dataKey === 'country') {
                cell.text = cell.raw.split(' ')[0];
            }
        }
    });
    return doc;
};

// Custom style - shows how custom styles can be applied to tables
examples.spans = function () {
    var doc = new jsPDF('p', 'pt');
    doc.setFontSize(12);
    doc.setTextColor(0);
    doc.setFontStyle('bold');
    doc.text('Col and row span', 40, 50);
    var data = getData(20);
    data.sort(function (a, b) {
        return parseFloat(b.expenses) - parseFloat(a.expenses);
    });
    doc.autoTable(getColumns(), data, {
        theme: 'grid',
        startY: 60,
        drawRow: function (row, data) {
            // Colspan
            doc.setFontStyle('bold');
            doc.setFontSize(10);
            if (row.index === 0) {
                doc.setTextColor(200, 0, 0);
                doc.rect(data.settings.margin.left, row.y, data.table.width, 20, 'S');
                doc.autoTableText("Priority Group", data.settings.margin.left + data.table.width / 2, row.y + row.height / 2, {
                    halign: 'center',
                    valign: 'middle'
                });
                data.cursor.y += 20;
            } else if (row.index === 5) {
                doc.rect(data.settings.margin.left, row.y, data.table.width, 20, 'S');
                doc.autoTableText("Other Groups", data.settings.margin.left + data.table.width / 2, row.y + row.height / 2, {
                    halign: 'center',
                    valign: 'middle'
                });
                data.cursor.y += 20;
            }
        },
        drawCell: function (cell, data) {
            // Rowspan
            if (data.column.dataKey === 'id') {
                if (data.row.index % 5 === 0) {
                    doc.rect(cell.x, cell.y, data.table.width, cell.height * 5, 'S');
                    doc.autoTableText(data.row.index / 5 + 1 + '', cell.x + cell.width / 2, cell.y + cell.height * 5 / 2, {
                        halign: 'center',
                        valign: 'middle'
                    });
                }
                return false;
            }
        }
    });
    return doc;
};

/*
 |--------------------------------------------------------------------------
 | Below is some helper functions for the examples
 |--------------------------------------------------------------------------
 */

// Returns a new array each time to avoid pointer issues
var getColumns = function () {
    return [
        {title: "ID", dataKey: "id"},
        {title: "Name", dataKey: "first_name"},
        {title: "Email", dataKey: "email"},
        {title: "City", dataKey: "city"},
        {title: "Country", dataKey: "country"},
        {title: "Expenses", dataKey: "expenses"}
    ];
};

// Uses the faker.js library to get random data.
function getData(rowCount) {
    rowCount = rowCount || 4;
    var sentence = faker.lorem.words(12);
    var data = [];
    for (var j = 1; j <= rowCount; j++) {
        data.push({
            id: j,
            first_name: faker.name.findName(),
            email: faker.internet.email(),
            country: faker.address.country(),
            city: faker.address.city(),
            expenses: faker.finance.amount(),
            text: shuffleSentence(sentence),
            text2: shuffleSentence(sentence)
        });
    }
    return data;
}

function shuffleSentence(words) {
    words = words || faker.lorem.words(8);
    var str = faker.helpers.shuffle(words).join(' ').trim();
    return str.charAt(0).toUpperCase() + str.slice(1);
}

// Use http://dopiaza.org/tools/datauri or similar service to convert an image into image data
var headerImgData = 'data:image/jpeg;base64,/9j/4AAQSkZJRgABAQEASABIAAD/4g';

References:
https://simonbengtsson.github.io/jsPDF-AutoTable/#custom
https://github.com/simonbengtsson/jsPDF-AutoTable/tree/master/examples

How to use PDFMake to generate PDF under IE, Safari, and Android

PDFMake can be used to create pdf on client side. It worked nice under Chrome and Firefox, however, it doesn't work under IE, Safari, and Android. The reason it doesn't work because PDFMake simply created the pdf using a popup window to display it.

So to make it work, another javascript lib called PDF.js can be used. The PDF.js itself is a pdf viewer, and we can create a modal dialog to contain the pdf viewer, instead of using popup window.

Note PDF.js is not working with Safari, to get it working on Safari,

1. compatibility.js must be included.
2. PDFJS.workerSrc must be assigned.

<script type="text/javascript" src="compatibility.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript" src="pdf.js"></script>

<!-- NEED THIS for Safari Mac to render work -->
<script type="text/javascript">
    // Specify the main script used to create a new PDF.JS web worker.  
    // In production, change this to point to the combined `pdf.js` file.  
    PDFJS.workerSrc = 'pdf.worker.js';  
</script>

HTML part:
The pdf.js actually use modal to display pdf content.

<div id="containerPDFViewer" class="modal modal-info fade" role="dialog">
    <div class="modal-dialog modal-lg">
        <div class="modal-content">
            <div class="modal-header">
  <button type="button" class="close" data-dismiss="modal">&times;</button>
  <h4 class="modal-title">@GeneralResources.PDFViewer</h4>
            </div>
            <div class="modal-body">
  <canvas id="pdfviewer"></canvas>
            </div>
        </div>
        <!-- /.modal-content -->
    </div>
    <!-- /.modal-dialog -->
</div>

Javascript part:

//save the pdf into base64 strings
var pdfstr;
try {
    pdfMake.createPdf(docDefinition).getDataUrl(function (result) {   
        pdfstr = result;
        var pdfAsArray = convertDataURIToBinary(pdfstr);
        PDFJS.getDocument(pdfAsArray).then(function getPdf(pdf) {
            //  
            // Fetch the first page
            //  
            pdf.getPage(1).then(function getPdfPage(page) {
                var scale = 1.4;
                var viewport = page.getViewport(scale);
                //
                // Prepare canvas using PDF page dimensions
                //
                var canvas = $("#pdfviewer").get(0);
                var context = canvas.getContext('2d');
                canvas.height = viewport.height;
                canvas.width = viewport.width;           
                //
                // Render PDF page into canvas context
                //
                var renderContext = {
                    canvasContext: context,
                    viewport: viewport
                };
                page.render(renderContext);
                $('#containerPDFViewer').modal({ backdrop: 'static' }); //disable backdrop so user need to make choice
            });
        });
    });
}
catch (e) {     
    throw e;
}

var BASE64_MARKER = ';base64,';
function convertDataURIToBinary(dataURI) {
    var base64Index = dataURI.indexOf(BASE64_MARKER) + BASE64_MARKER.length;
    var base64 = dataURI.substring(base64Index);
    var raw = window.atob(base64);
    var rawLength = raw.length;
    var array = new Uint8Array(new ArrayBuffer(rawLength));

    for (var i = 0; i < rawLength; i++) {
        array[i] = raw.charCodeAt(i);
    }
    return array;
}

Note the 1st parameter of getDataUrl is a call back function, will will be executed after getDataUrl is done. We need to put pdf.js code inside the call back function.

Here we didn't use getBase64 because it only return Base64 string, and getDataUrl actually returned Base64 string with leading pdf string. I have tested the code, the getBase64 failed to call convertDataURIToBinary() as there is base64 code error, but getDataUrl is OK.

Note as I tested, the pdf content will be displayed within the modal, but the effect is not as good as normal pdf viewer. In addition, even pdf.js still has issue in IE and Safari.

As result, for supporting IE and Safari, we should not use PDFMake and pdf.js.


References:
http://gonehybrid.com/how-to-create-and-display-a-pdf-file-in-your-ionic-app/
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/17022052/pdf-js-not-working-with-safari
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/12092633/pdf-js-rendering-a-pdf-file-using-a-base64-file-source-instead-of-url
https://developer.tizen.org/community/tip-tech/displaying-pdf-files-pdf.js-library

How to apply Typeahead with ASP.Net MVC using Ajax Source

Twitter typeahead javascript library is a fast and fully-featured autocomplete library inspired by the autocomplete search functionality from twitter.
Following script is HTML code for defining input with typeahead. Note there is one
data-provide="typeahead" defined within the input node. This attribute notifies the plugin that we are going to perform a lookup with this textbox.

<div class="col-md-3 col-xs-6">
    <label for="StudentID" class="control-label">Enter Student ID</label>
    <div id="details"></div>
    <div class="input-group input-group-sm">
        <input type="text" name="studentId" id="studentId" class="form-control input-sm" data-provide="typeahead">
    </div>
</div>

Javascript part:

$("#studentId").typeahead({
    minLength: 4,
    source: function (query, process) {
        var students = [];
        map = {};

        // This is going to make an HTTP post request to the controller
        return $.post('/Student/StudentLookup', {studentId: query}, function (data) {
            // Loop through and push to the array
            $.each(data, function (i, student) {
                map[student.Name] = student;
                students.push(student.Name);
            });
            // Process the details
            process(students);
        });
    },
    updater: function (item) {
        var studentId = map[item].StudentId;
        // Set the text to our selected id
        $("#details").text("Selected : " + studentId);
        return item;
    }
});

Controller Part:

public class StudentController : Controller
{
  public ActionResult StudentLookup()
  {
    var students = new List<StudentEntity>
        {
            new StudentEntity {StudentId = "01", Name = "Frank Zhang"},
            new StudentEntity {StudentId = "02", Name = "Andrew Chen"},
            new StudentEntity {StudentId = "03", Name = "John Smith"},
            new StudentEntity {StudentId = "03", Name = "Johnson Stone"},
        };
    return Json(students, JsonRequestBehavior.AllowGet);
  }
}

Reference:
https://github.com/bassjobsen/Bootstrap-3-Typeahead
http://www.deanhume.com/Home/BlogPost/twitter-bootstrap-typeahead-and-asp-net-mvc---key-value-pairs/88