Javascript’s escape() in C# – a C# equivalent to the escape()-function

csharp_vs_javascriptThe .NET framework provides a large number of ways to encode HTML code and URLs. There exist, for example, Uri.EscapeDataString(), Uri.EscapeUriString(), System.Web.HttpUtility.UrlEncode(), System.Web.HttpUtility.UrlPathEncode(), System.Web.HttpUtility.HtmlEncode() or System.Web.HttpUtility.HtmlAttributeEncode().
However, if you are looking for equivalent functionality to Javascript’s escape(), so you will be disappointed by all of these aforementioned functions. None of these inherently with the .NET framework delivered functions is equivalent to the Javascript escape() function.  For better understanding, I made the following example:
The test text is in german, because the ‘ä’ is a nice character to show the problems. Translated to english it means: “Raffi’s annoying C# testcode”.

// Original source text
// Raffi’s ärgerlicher C# Teststring/Testcode.

// Javascript original (produced by escape())
// Raffi%27s%20%E4rgerlicher%20C%23%20Teststring/Testcode.

// Uri.EscapeDataString():
// Raffi’s%20%C3%A4rgerlicher%20C%23%20Teststring%2FTestcode.

// Uri.EscapeUriString():
// Raffi’s%20%C3%A4rgerlicher%20C#%20Teststring/Testcode.

// System.Web.HttpUtility.UrlEncode():
// Raffi%27s+%c3%a4rgerlicher+C%23+Teststring%2fTestcode.

// System.Web.HttpUtility.UrlPathEncode():
// Raffi’s%20%c3%a4rgerlicher%20C#%20Teststring/Testcode.

// System.Web.HttpUtility.HtmlEncode():
// Raffi's ärgerlicher C# Teststring/Testcode.

// System.Web.HttpUtility.HtmlAttributeEncode():
// Raffi's ärgerlicher C# Teststring/Testcode.

But I would not blog about it if I did not have a […]

QRCoder – an Open Source QR code generator implementation in C#

QRCoder demoIn modern times QR codes should be known by pretty much everyone. Since smartphones are becoming increasingly popular, QR codes can also be found at more and more places in our everyday lives. As a fairly serious geek this should be reason enough to engage a bit more in detail with the technology behind it. And what way seems to be more suitable than implementing a QR code generator by yourself?
Because C# is my favourite programming language, the choice fell accordingly to this language. Sadly information on the QR code are not so easy to get. The easiest way of course would be the official way – simply buy the ISO/IEC document. That would be the ISO/IEC 18004. But there’s also a crux on that. The ISO 18004 costs round […]

How to convert C# DateTime.Ticks into Unix timestamp

C# DateTime.Ticks ConverterWith the .NET frameworks DateTime functions you can do a lot of nice things. The handling turns out, in my opinion, very pleasant. The only requirement: You find yourself in a pure .NET environment. When other systems come into play, the trouble begins. But why is it that you can not compare DateTime.Ticks with the PHP mktime()-function?
If you request the “timestamp” from a DateTime-object (DateTime.Ticks), so you get back the number of ticks since 01.01.0001 00:00. A tick in turn is 100 nanoseconds long.
A Unix timestamp, as produced by mktime() for example, is to the contrary, the number of seconds since 01/01/1970. A direct comparison is not possible. So you have to convert between the both units at first. And how to do this, is what I want to show you today, based on a […]

Simple XML serialization in C#

C# XML SerialisierungToday I want to show you how to perform a XML serialization in C#. Serialization itself, means that you convert an object to another, transportable form.
Using XML serialization, it is possible, for example, to store an object of a class in the form of an XML file and restore it later.
This can make sense if you if you want to transfer an object, for example, via HTTP or  restore an object to its state after closing and reopening an application.
For our example, I created the following class “Blog”:

public class Blog
{
public string User { get; set; }
public string Pass { get; set; }
public string Subdomain { get; set; }
public string BaseUrl { get; set; }
}

The method used to serialize is as follows:

public […]

How to create articles on Blogspot with C#

Blogger C# API LogoToday I want to show you how to create a blog article on Blogger.com/Blogspot.com with C#. For this you need first of all the Google.GData.Client.dll, which you can find inside the Google .Net API package.
You can download the API package here from Google. (The file is called Google_Data_API_Setup_2.2.0.msi (Please note that the version number – 2.2.0 – over time may change of course.)
If the download is complete, install the package, open a new project in Visual Studio and add a reference to the Google.GData.Client.dll.
The .dll file can be found in the installation directory of the API package. (Click on the link “add a reference” above, if you need help embedding .dlls into a Visual Studio project.)
If you have included the DLL, you can start already. Blog posts (aka articles) can be created as follows:

private static int […]