Re: Auto generated number - C# Discussion Boards

Re: System.Diagnostics.Process.StartInfo Username= "default user"?

27-Mar-07 6:59

Hello,

Problem is that I am trying to launch a windows forms application process from the context of a windows service, via a intermediate update process.

The service launches the update process just fine. The update process determines if it needs to shutdown the service and apply an update to it. It then restarts the service. This update process is currently launching under the context of the service. IE: Its parent process is the service process, and is owned / its User is "NT Authority\System".

Everything is fine to this point. After the service is updated and restarted I then have to open a windows form application (the service's controlling interface) "IF" there is a user logged into the system, and it must run under that users account (I believe).

I launch the interface process like so:

<br />
 // launch the UI<br />
Process process = new Process();<br />
process.StartInfo.UseShellExecute = true;<br />
process.StartInfo.RedirectStandardOutput = false;<br />
process.StartInfo.RedirectStandardError = false;<br />
process.StartInfo.FileName = Application.StartupPath + "\\serviceInterface.exe";<br />
process.StartInfo.Arguments = " -updated";<br />
process.StartInfo.LoadUserProfile = true;<br />
process.StartInfo.WorkingDirectory = Application.StartupPath;<br />
process.StartInfo.CreateNoWindow = false;<br />
process.StartInfo.WindowStyle = ProcessWindowStyle.Normal;<br />
process.Start();<br />

The process starts and is diplayed under processes in taskmanager. It does not get a window handle though it seems.
Whatever I try I cannot bring the process to focus. If I try to bring the processes main window to front I get an error that there is no window associated with the process.

I have determined that the problem roots from the user account that the process is launched under, as when I lauch the update process manually under the default users account every thing works fine.

Hard coding a username and password is not an option as I would then have to create that account on each machine the service is installed on.

How can I get my process to start under the context of the local users account, if there is one logged in? Also what if there are mutlipule terminal sessions open to the server, how do I pick the approperate one to launch under?

Thanks a ton for any info.

Been stumped here for a little bit.

kubben27-Mar-07 7:57

Re: System.Diagnostics.Process.StartInfo Username= "default user"?

27-Mar-07 7:57

You must not be using .net 2.0. There is a UserName and Password property in the StartInfo object of the Process in .net 2.0. Otherwise you are kind of stuck since what ever the service launches will be run under the user that the windows service is installed as.

The only other thing I can think of is not very clean. You could have the windows service send a windows message to your app. When that app receives that windows message, it could launch a small exe who's only purpose is to poll a directory or register setting that will get set when the update is done. One this little app see the update is done it launches the app again. Since it was started by the orignal application it should work fine.

Or you could just upgrade your service to .net 2.0.

Hope that helps.
Ben

Austin Harris27-Mar-07 8:48

Re: System.Diagnostics.Process.StartInfo Username= "default user"?

27-Mar-07 8:48

I am using .net 2.0
I do see the startinfo.Username
and startinfo.Password

I suppose Knowing how to get the password for the default active user would do the trick as well.

kubben27-Mar-07 9:19

27-Mar-07 9:19

I haven't tried it, but it might just work to set the UserName and the domain properties if the user is logged in.

This would get you the logged in user:
WindowsPrincipal wp = new WindowsPrincipal(WindowsIdentity.GetCurrent());
String username = wp.Identity.Name;

I believe this will include the domain.

Hope that helps.
Ben

Auto generated number

Neo_Shehpar27-Mar-07 6:44

Neo_Shehpar

27-Mar-07 6:44

Dear All,
i have problem in producing the auto generated number. my requirements are to produce series of numbers like that
AAA-0000
AAA-0001
up
.
.
.
AAA-9999

after that the number changes to

AAB-0000
AAB-0001
.
.
.
.
AAB-9999

the last number should be
ZZZ-9999

If there is any person who help me in producing that module / algorithm or piece of code in C# / T-SQL, i will be thankful for that.

NOTE:- the number should me auto generated i.e., after one transaction the new number would be generated.
or. in case of T-SQL, when inserting new record, the eky would be that number like the example that i stated above.

Hope that there is someone which will help me.

Best regards.

Leslie Sanford27-Mar-07 7:23

Leslie Sanford

27-Mar-07 7:23

I don't know if I can offer help here as I'm not familiar with "T-SQL." Do you just need an algorithm for generating the numbers?

Off the top of my head, one way to do it would be to have an integer representing the first part of the number, the 0000 part. Also have three characters, each representing one of the letters in the letter part of the number. Initialize the number to 0 and each character to 'A', and do something like this:

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Text;
 
namespace AutoNumber
{
    class Program
    {
        static int number = 0;
        static char[] characters = { 'A', 'A', 'A' };
 
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            for(int i = 0; i < 10000; i++)
            {
                Console.WriteLine(GenerateNumber());
            }
 
            Console.Read();
        }
 
        static string GenerateNumber()
        {
            number++;
 
            if(number > 9999)
            {
                number = 0;
 
                for(int i = characters.Length - 1; i >= 0; i--)
                {
                    if(characters[i] == 'Z')
                    {
                        characters[i] = 'A';
                    }
                    else
                    {
                        characters[i]++;
 
                        break;
                    }
                }
            }
 
            return new string(characters) + "-" + number.ToString();
        }
    }
}

The algorithm rolls over after you reach ZZZ-9999.

Christian Graus27-Mar-07 7:26

Christian Graus

27-Mar-07 7:26

You need to use a format string so that he gets 0000 and not 0. Otherwise, this looks pretty good to me. I was just too lazy to do it for him Smile | :)

Christian Graus - Microsoft MVP - C++
Metal Musings - Rex and my new metal blog
"I am working on a project that will convert a FORTRAN code to corresponding C++ code.I am not aware of FORTRAN syntax" ( spotted in the C++/CLI forum )

Christian Graus27-Mar-07 7:24

Christian Graus

27-Mar-07 7:24

Generating it in C# should be easy enough. Remember that a char implictly converts to int. So, you can store three chars, and a number, and increment from there.

Austin Harris27-Mar-07 7:27

27-Mar-07 7:27

Something like this do the trick?

<code>
public static string nextNumber(string num)
{
if (num == "")
num = "AAA-0000";
string[] parts = num.Split(new char[] { '-' }, System.StringSplitOptions.RemoveEmptyEntries);
if(parts.Length == 2) // else incorect format
{
string charPart = parts[0];
string intPart = parts[1];
int part = 0;
int.TryParse(intPart, out part);
if (part < 9999)
{
part++;
}
else
{
part = 0;
// we must now increment the char part.
bool incrementedChar = false;
int position = charPart.Length - 1;
while (!incrementedChar)
{
if (charPart[position] >= 'Z')
{
// set last char to A,
char[] chars = charPart.ToCharArray();// = charPart[position]+1;
chars[position] = 'A';
charPart = chars.ToString();
if (position > 0)
{--position;}
else
{
// we are at 'ZZZZ'
}
// and the next position to char++ (do this in the next iteration).
}
else
{
// we increment the char at this position
char[] chars = charPart.ToCharArray();// = charPart[position]+1;
++chars[position];
charPart = chars.ToString();
incrementedChar = true;
}
}

num = charPart + part.ToString("-0000");
}
}
return num;
}
</code>

kubben27-Mar-07 7:42

27-Mar-07 7:42

This seems to work. Just pass in the current max key.

private string NextKey(string currentKey)
{
string ret = string.Empty;
string[] parts = currentKey.Split('-');
if (parts.Length == 2)
{
string alpha = parts[0];
Int32 numeric = Convert.ToInt32(parts[1]);
numeric++;
if (numeric > 999)
{
numeric = 0;
alpha = UpdateAlpha(alpha);
}
ret = alpha + "-" + Convert.ToString(numeric).PadLeft(3, '0');
}
return ret;
}

private string UpdateAlpha(string alpha)
{
string ret = string.Empty;
Char c = ' ';

for (Int32 i = alpha.Length-1; i >= 0;i-- )
{
c = alpha[i];
if (c == 'Z' && i != 0)
{

ret += 'A';
}
else if ((Int32)c < (Int32)'Z')
{
if (i == alpha.Length - 1)
{
ret += Convert.ToChar((Int32)c + 1);
}
else
{
ret = Convert.ToChar((Int32)c + 1) + ret;
}
for (Int32 j = i - 1; j >= 0; j--)
{
ret = alpha[j] + ret;
}
break;
}
else
{
ret += c;
}
} //foreach
return ret;
}

I tested it with this:
string key = "AAA-999";
richTextBox1.AppendText(key + Environment.NewLine);
// Int32 cnt = 0;
while (key != "ZZZ-999")// && cnt < 30001)
{
key = NextKey(key);
richTextBox1.AppendText(key+Environment.NewLine);
// cnt++;
} //while

Hope that helps.
Ben

Austin Harris27-Mar-07 8:52

27-Mar-07 8:52

Its amazing to see how there are so many ways to achive the same result.

Is there an optimal way?

ie: your else if ((Int32)c < (Int32)'Z')
could be written as
else if (c < 'Z')
and be cleaner, and skip the cast correct?

What do you see in my code that is 'sloppy' for lack of a better term. :P

kubben27-Mar-07 9:13

27-Mar-07 9:13

Yes for sure it could be written as c < 'Z' I guess my coding background doesn't include C++. So I start with Cobol then SAS then Delphi (Pascal) then vb.net finally settled on C#. So with the baggage I bring to programming I always tend to cast things. In this case I am not sure if it is faster with the cast or not. I think C# actually see the Char as the ordinal value so there is probably no speed different. I am pretty sure in VB.net there would be a speed difference. Anyway, it was kind of a fun problem to work on since I had a little time.

Ben