customize – I.T Delinquent

WPF Material Design Toggle Button

30 January 2020

Another short post today, here I modified the code for my Apple Style Toggle Button so that it more resembled the MaterialDesign toggle button. I thought of this whilst playing with the YouTube autoplay button. Here is my code:

<Style TargetType="{x:Type ToggleButton}">
    <Setter Property="Template">
        <Setter.Value>
            <ControlTemplate TargetType="{x:Type ToggleButton}">
                <Viewbox>
                    <Border x:Name="Border" CornerRadius="10"
                            Background="#FFE2E2E2"
                            Width="40" Height="20">
                        <Border.Effect>
                            <DropShadowEffect ShadowDepth="0.5" Direction="0" Opacity="0.3" />
                        </Border.Effect>
                        <Ellipse x:Name="Ellipse" Fill="#FF909090" Stretch="Uniform"
                                 Margin="-8 -4"
                                 Stroke="Gray" StrokeThickness="0.2"
                                 HorizontalAlignment="Stretch">
                            <Ellipse.Effect>
                                <DropShadowEffect BlurRadius="10" ShadowDepth="1" 
                                                  Opacity="0.3" Direction="260" />
                            </Ellipse.Effect>
                        </Ellipse>
                    </Border>
                </Viewbox>
                <ControlTemplate.Triggers>
                    <EventTrigger RoutedEvent="Checked">
                        <BeginStoryboard>
                            <Storyboard>
                                <ColorAnimation Storyboard.TargetName="Ellipse"
                                                    Storyboard.TargetProperty="(Ellipse.Fill).(SolidColorBrush.Color)"
                                                    To="#FF0069F3"
                                                    Duration="0:0:0.05"
                                                    AccelerationRatio="0.7"
                                                    DecelerationRatio="0.3"/>
                                <ThicknessAnimation Storyboard.TargetName="Ellipse"
                                                    Storyboard.TargetProperty="Margin"
                                                    To="20 -4 -8 -4"
                                                    Duration="0:0:0.15" 
                                                    AccelerationRatio="0.7"
                                                    DecelerationRatio="0.3"/>
                            </Storyboard>
                        </BeginStoryboard>
                    </EventTrigger>
                    <EventTrigger RoutedEvent="Unchecked">
                        <BeginStoryboard>
                            <Storyboard>
                                <ColorAnimation Storyboard.TargetName="Ellipse"
                                                    Storyboard.TargetProperty="(Ellipse.Fill).(SolidColorBrush.Color)"
                                                    To="#FF909090"
                                                    Duration="0:0:0.05" 
                                                    AccelerationRatio="0.7"
                                                    DecelerationRatio="0.3"/>
                                <ThicknessAnimation Storyboard.TargetName="Ellipse"
                                                    Storyboard.TargetProperty="Margin"
                                                    To="-8 -4"
                                                    Duration="0:0:0.15"
                                                    AccelerationRatio="0.7"
                                                    DecelerationRatio="0.3"/>
                            </Storyboard>
                        </BeginStoryboard>
                    </EventTrigger>
                </ControlTemplate.Triggers>
            </ControlTemplate>
        </Setter.Value>
    </Setter>
</Style>

And finally, here is a little GIF of the toggle button:

Enjoy!

Apple Style Toggle Button in WPF

22 January 2020

A nice short post here, I wanted to share with you some code I recently used to create an Apple-style toggle button for WPF applications. I was quite surprised with how easy this was to make. Obviously it isn’t perfect but it makes do for my applications.

This is the style that I used:

<Style TargetType="{x:Type ToggleButton}">
    <Setter Property="Template">
        <Setter.Value>
            <ControlTemplate TargetType="{x:Type ToggleButton}">
                <Viewbox>
                    <Border x:Name="Border" CornerRadius="10"
                            Background="#FFFFFFFF"
                            Width="40" Height="20">
                        <Border.Effect>
                            <DropShadowEffect ShadowDepth="0.5" Direction="0" Opacity="0.3" />
                        </Border.Effect>
                        <Ellipse x:Name="Ellipse" Fill="#FFFFFFFF" Stretch="Uniform"
                                 Margin="2 1 2 1"
                                 Stroke="Gray" StrokeThickness="0.2"
                                 HorizontalAlignment="Stretch">
                            <Ellipse.Effect>
                                <DropShadowEffect BlurRadius="10" ShadowDepth="1" Opacity="0.3" Direction="260" />
                            </Ellipse.Effect>
                        </Ellipse>
                    </Border>
                </Viewbox>
                <ControlTemplate.Triggers>
                    <EventTrigger RoutedEvent="Checked">
                        <BeginStoryboard>
                            <Storyboard>
                                <ColorAnimation Storyboard.TargetName="Border"
                                                    Storyboard.TargetProperty="(Border.Background).(SolidColorBrush.Color)"
                                                    To="#FF4CD661"
                                                    Duration="0:0:0.1" />
                                <ThicknessAnimation Storyboard.TargetName="Ellipse"
                                                        Storyboard.TargetProperty="Margin"
                                                        To="20 1 2 1"
                                                        Duration="0:0:0.1" />
                            </Storyboard>
                        </BeginStoryboard>
                    </EventTrigger>
                    <EventTrigger RoutedEvent="Unchecked">
                        <BeginStoryboard>
                            <Storyboard>
                                <ColorAnimation Storyboard.TargetName="Border"
                                                    Storyboard.TargetProperty="(Border.Background).(SolidColorBrush.Color)"
                                                    To="White"
                                                    Duration="0:0:0.1" />
                                <ThicknessAnimation Storyboard.TargetName="Ellipse"
                                                        Storyboard.TargetProperty="Margin"
                                                        To="2 1 2 1"
                                                        Duration="0:0:0.1" />
                            </Storyboard>
                        </BeginStoryboard>
                    </EventTrigger>
                </ControlTemplate.Triggers>
            </ControlTemplate>
        </Setter.Value>
    </Setter>
</Style>

Using this, I am able to have any size toggle button I want and it will still look the same. Thank goodness for view boxes! ?

Here is a little GIF showing the toggle button in action. I left it to just resize depending on the actual window to demonstrate it’s scalability:

Enjoy!

Using app.xaml and ResourceDictionaries for Cleaner WPF Customisation

21 January 2020

When I first started making WPF forms, I was using PowerShell. This was a good starting point I think as I felt really comfortable with PowerShell which let me experiment more freely and break things in a way that I still felt comfortable.

However, this also meant putting all of my XAML into a single string. This might not sound too bad, but when you have five buttons all with slightly different templates and behaviours, the code quickly becomes messy and hard to read. Note that XAML is easy to read in the first place ? I was no stranger to having code that looked like this:

<Border Grid.Column="0" Grid.Row="1" Background="#FFE87E31" HorizontalAlignment="Right" Width="25" Height="25" Margin="0,0,2,0" CornerRadius="20"  BorderBrush="White" BorderThickness="1">
                <Label Name="Search_Button" Cursor="Hand" Foreground="White" Content="?" FontSize="12" Width="25" Height="27" Margin="-1.667,-1.667,-0.334,-0.334" />
            </Border>
<!-- OBJECT PANEL AND OBJECTS -->
            <Border HorizontalAlignment="Stretch" Grid.Column="0" Grid.Row="2" VerticalAlignment="Stretch" Background="#FF34495F" >
                <ScrollViewer VerticalScrollBarVisibility="Auto">
                    <StackPanel>
        <!-- ALL OPTION OBJECTS HERE -->
                        <Border Height="35">
                            <Border.Style>
                                <Style>
                                    <Setter Property="Border.Background" Value="#FF34495F"/>
                                    <Style.Triggers>
                                        <Trigger Property="Border.IsMouseOver" Value="True">
                                            <Setter Property="Border.Background" Value="#FF1F2A36" />
                                        </Trigger>
                                    </Style.Triggers>
                                </Style>
                            </Border.Style>
                            <Label Name="General_Information_Button" Cursor="Hand" VerticalContentAlignment="Center" Foreground="White" Content="General Information" FontFamily="Century Gothic" FontSize="14" />
                        </Border>

Horrible I know…

But when I moved to use C# with WPF, I found that I could have separate resources that could be used by multiple controls at the same time. You do this by adding a resource dictionary to the app.xaml file inside the WPF project.

Here is a quick example of what I mean. I created a Styles folder in the root of my WPF project and added a new ResourceDictionary(WPF). I called this resource dictionary “TextStyles” and it looks like this:

<ResourceDictionary xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
                    xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml">
    
    <Style TargetType="{x:Type TextBlock}">
        <Setter Property="FontFamily" Value="Arial"/>
        <Setter Property="FontSize" Value="28"/>
        <Setter Property="FontWeight" Value="Bold"/>
        <Setter Property="Foreground" Value="White"/>
    </Style>
</ResourceDictionary>

Perfect, I then added this to my app.xaml file which now looks like this:

<Application x:Class="WPFUI.App"
             xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
             xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
             xmlns:local="clr-namespace:WPFUI">
    <Application.Resources>
        <ResourceDictionary>
            <ResourceDictionary.MergedDictionaries>
                <ResourceDictionary Source="/Styles/TextStyles.xaml"/>
            </ResourceDictionary.MergedDictionaries>
        </ResourceDictionary>
    </Application.Resources>
</Application>

From now on, all the text blocks in the WPF application would use the Arial font, use font size 28, be bold and also be white.

Important Notes:

It’s important to add your resource dictionaries to the app.xaml file in the correct order. You want to work from top to bottom. Meaning you don’t want a resource dictionary using something from another resource dictionary below it. For example, if you are using custom colours and want your text blocks to be that colour, you would put your colour resource first and then your text block resource.
If you don’t want a resource to be used everywhere in your application if you style inside the resource dictionary a name. Then you can reference the style inside your WPF XAML code.

Enjoy!

PowerShell Classes and Class Lists

10 October 2019

I found that I could use classes in PowerShell similar to how I use them in C#. I instantly wanted to play with this and I thought I would share this as well.

To create a class in PowerShell, it’s as simple as:

#Person class
class PersonClass{
	[String]$Name
	[Int]$Age
}

This allows a “Person” to be created that has the attributed of a name and an age. Simple stuff.

Say I wanted to have a bunch of these “Person”s in a list, a “People” list if you will. Then I could do something like this:

#Creating a list to hold the people using the PersonClass
$People = New-Object 'System.Collections.Generic.List[PSObject]'

#Creating a new person
$newPerson = [PersonClass]::new()
$newPerson.Name = "Roy Orbison"
$newPerson.Age = "24"

#Adding the new person to the people list
$People.Add($newPerson)

What if I wanted to add something like a “Pets” attribute onto the person? Well, I could create a new class to hold a framework for each pet and create a new list attribute in the PersonClass. Here is my PetClass:

#Pet class
class PetClass{
    [String]$Name
    [Int]$Age
    [String]$Color
}

And here is how I add it to my PersonClass so that I can have a list of pets for each user:

#Person class
class PersonClass{<br>    [String]$Name
    [Int]$Age
    [PetClass[]]$Pets
}

Now its really simple to create a list of people with a list of any pets that they might have. Stitching this all together, it looks like this:

#Person class
class PersonClass{
	[String]$Name
	[Int]$Age
    [PetClass[]]$Pets
}

#Pet class
class PetClass{
    [String]$Name
    [Int]$Age
    [String]$Color
}

#Creating a list to hold the people using the PersonClass
$People = New-Object 'System.Collections.Generic.List[PSObject]'

#Creating a new person
$newPerson = [PersonClass]::new()
$newPerson.Name = "Roy Orbison"
$newPerson.Age = "24"

#Adding pets to the new person
for ($i = 0; $i -le 5; $i++){
    $newPet = [PetClass]::new()
    $newPet.Name = $i
    $newPet.Age = $i + 2
    $newPet.Color = "Brown"

    #Adding the pet to the new person
    $newPerson.Pets += $newPet
}

#Adding the new person to the people list
$People.Add($newPerson)

Above you can see that I have created a new person called “Roy Orbison” with an age of “24” and I have added five pets. The pet names and age aren’t really accurate but it’s good enough for this demonstration.

Continuing from this, I could add as many users as I want or even create new classes to add extra framework information for existing classes.

Searching this information isn’t as straight forward in PowerShell as it is in C# but it’s still quite easy. You can see how I get a list of all the pets that Roy Orbison has below:

$People | Where-Object {$_.Name -eq "Roy Orbison"} | Select-Object -ExpandProperty Pets

Upon finishing this, I realised that it would have been much more appropriate to do the users and albums, instead of pets. But I’m far too lazy to change what I already have…

Enjoy!

Caliburn.Micro Notify Change for Static Property

28 September 2019

Normally in Caliburn.Micro and MVVM in general, you would have non-static properties that would be updated and notified like this:

private string _name;

public string Name
{
    get { return _name; }
    set
    {
        _name = value;
        NotifyOfPropertyChange(() => Name);
    }
}

However, if I had a static property, for example, if I wanted a property that could be accessed by another namespace, I would need to implement my own event handler as the default NotifyOfPropertyChange doesn’t operate on static properties.

This is the new EventHandler that I implemented:

public static event EventHandler<PropertyChangedEventArgs> StaticPropertyChanged;
private static void NotifyStaticPropertyChanged(string propertyName)
{
    StaticPropertyChanged?.Invoke(null, new PropertyChangedEventArgs(propertyName));
}

Finally, in order to use it. I would use this instead of the first example for non-static properties:

private string _name;

public string Name
{
    get { return _name; }
    set
    {
        _name = value;
        NotifyStaticPropertyChanged(() => Name);
    }
}

I hope this helps someone. Enjoy!

Caliburn.Micro MVVM Boolean To Visibility Converter

27 September 2019

Say I wanted to toggle the visibility of a WPF object in an MVVM way, what would I need to do?

Here is what I currently have:

ViewModels
- ShellViewModel
- LoadingViewModel
Views
- ShellView
- LoadingView

When the application is loaded, the ShellViewModel is used to display the LoadingView in a ContentControl object. I have a button on there that I want to become visible after the LoadingView has been activated for 5 seconds.

What I need to do is created a custom class that has two methods: a way of converting a boolean to a visibility; and a way of converting a visibility to a visibility.

So I created a new folder in my tree called “Converters“. In here, I create a new class called “BooleanToVisiblityConverter“. Here is what my tree now looks like:

ViewModels
- ShellViewModel
- LoadingViewModel
Views
- ShellView
- LoadingView
Converters
- BooleanToVisibilityConverter

In my BooleanToVisibilityConverter class, I inherited from IValueConverter and added the necessary two methods. You can see the entire class below:

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Globalization;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using System.Threading.Tasks;
using System.Windows;
using System.Windows.Data;

namespace Project.Converters
{
    /// <summary>
    /// Contains the converter and convertback methods for the boolean to visibility conversions
    /// </summary>
    public sealed class BooleanToVisibilityConverter : IValueConverter
    {
        /// <summary>
        /// Used to convert a boolean to a visibility
        /// </summary>
        /// <param name="value">This is the boolean input</param>
        /// <param name="targetType"></param>
        /// <param name="parameter"></param>
        /// <param name="culture"></param>
        /// <returns>Returns a visibility</returns>
        public object Convert(object value, Type targetType, object parameter, CultureInfo culture)
        {
            if (!(value is bool))
            {
                //If there is an issue with the input, return collapsed
                return Visibility.Collapsed;
            }
            return (bool)value ? Visibility.Visible : Visibility.Collapsed;
        }

        /// <summary>
        /// Used to take a visibility and returns a visibility
        /// </summary>
        /// <param name="value">This is the boolean input</param>
        /// <param name="targetType"></param>
        /// <param name="parameter"></param>
        /// <param name="culture"></param>
        /// <returns>Returns a visibility</returns>
        public object ConvertBack(object value, Type targetType, object parameter, CultureInfo culture)
        {
            if (!(value is Visibility))
            {
                //If there is an issue wtih the input, return collapsed
                return Visibility.Collapsed;
            }
            return (Visibility)value == Visibility.Visible;
        }
    }
}

Next, in my LoadingView, I added “ xmlns:sp=”clr-namespace:Project.Converters” so that the view could use the converter namespace. This is what my view dependancies look like:

<UserControl x:Class="Project.Views.MainView"
             xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
             xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
             xmlns:mc="http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/markup-compatibility/2006" 
             xmlns:d="http://schemas.microsoft.com/expression/blend/2008" 
             xmlns:cal="http://www.caliburnproject.org"
             xmlns:sp="clr-namespace:Project.Converters"
             xmlns:local="clr-namespace:Project.Views"
             mc:Ignorable="d" FontSize="14" FontFamily="/Project;component/Assets/Fonts/#Roboto"
             d:DesignHeight="550" d:DesignWidth="400">

I then added the binding to the visibility property of my button. You can see this below:

<Button Name="LoadingButton" Content="Press Me" Visibility="{Binding ButtonIsVisible, Converter={StaticResource BooleanConverter}, FallBackValue=Collapsed}"

This means that it will get its visibility value from the LoadingViewModel and if this fails, it will fall back to being collapsed.

We’re almost done. In the LoadingViewModel create a full property which will hold and change the value for the visibility. This needs to be named the same as the binding given in the LoadingView (i.e ButtonVisibility). You can see this below:

private bool _buttonIsVisible;

public bool ButtonIsVisible
{
    get {return _buttonIsVisible;
    set
    {
        if (value != _buttonIsVisible)
        {
            _buttonIsVisible = value;
            NotifyOfPropertyChange(() => ButtonIsVisible);
        }
    }
}

So now if you want the button to be visible, you can just update the ButtonIsVisible property in the LoadingViewModel. Here is an example below (Don’t actually do this):

public LoadingViewModel(){
    ButtonIsVisible = false;
    Task.Delay(5000);
    ButtonIsVisible = true;
}

I hope this helped you. Enjoy!

Setting Up Caliburn.Micro MVVM

12 September 2019

This is a fairly lengthy post that shows how to set up an initial MVVM WPF form using Caliburn.Micro.

Let’s get started, we’ll open up Visual Studio and chose to create a new WPF:

Visual Studio -> New Project -> WPF App (.Net Framework)

I usually set the project name to something like WPFUI and my solution name to be something like MVVMProject or the actual product name. For example, Microsoft might use Microsoft Outlook. Probably not, but you get what I’m saying…

1)

First I will add Caliburn.Micro to my project. To do this go to Solution Explorer -> References -> Add NuGet Packages and search for Caliburn.Micro:

2)

Now we can delete the MainWindow.xaml

3)

Create a Views and ViewModels folder. This is where your viewmodels and views will call home.

4)

Create a new class in the ViewModels folder and call it ShellViewModel and make it public. You’ll also want to inherit from screen and add the using statement for Caliburn.Micro:

5)

Create a new window in the Views folder and call it ShellView

6)

Create a new class in the root directory called Bootstrapper and inherit from BootstrapperBase and add the using statement for Caliburn.Micro

7)

In App.xaml remove the StartupUri element and add the bootstrapper class as a resource by adding:

<ResourceDictionary>
    <ResourceDictionary.MergedDictionaries>
        <ResourceDictionary>
            <local:Bootstrapper x:Key="Bootstrapper" />
        </ResourceDictionary>
    </ResourceDictionary.MergedDictionaries>
</ResourceDictionary>

Your app.xaml should look like this:

8)

Now go back into your Bootstrapper class and add the following:

public Bootstrapper()
{
    Initialize();
}
protected override void OnStartup(object sender, StartupEventArgs e)
{
    DisplayRootViewFor<ShellViewModel>();
}

You’ll also need to add a using statement for System.Windows and ProjectName.ViewModels.

The program should now launch and show an empty white screen with “ShellView” as the window’s title. This is the first entry into a hopefully long series into the world of Caliburn.Micro.

Enjoy! ?

WPF Spinning Image – Loading Wheel

10 September 2019

This is just a quick post for something that caused me quite a bit of hassle. How to spin an image in WPF. This is useful for creating loading icons such as a spinning icon.

This is what my implementation looks like:

To create this effect, I first added a resource to my user control. This is what that looks like:

    <UserControl.Resources>
        <Storyboard x:Key="imageRotationStoryboard" Storyboard.TargetName="loadingImage" Storyboard.TargetProperty="RenderTransform.(RotateTransform.Angle)">
            <DoubleAnimation From="0" To="360" BeginTime="0:0:0" Duration="0:0:1.5" RepeatBehavior="Forever"/>
        </Storyboard>
    </UserControl.Resources>

What this does is create a story animation that rotates the image from 0 degrees to 360 degrees (a full circle) in 5 seconds. It also does this forever, hence the spinning effect ?

I then created an image object and set my source. I also changed the RenderTransformOrigin to be 0.5,0.5, this means that the rotation happens in the centre of the image instead of the default top left corner. I then created an event on the image at loaded to start the storyboard animation and set the rotate to 0 on load. Heres what that looks like:

<Image Name="loadingImage" Margin="200"  RenderTransformOrigin="0.5,0.5" Source="/SlickRHI;component/Assets/Images/Loading.png">
	<Image.Triggers>
		<EventTrigger RoutedEvent="FrameworkElement.Loaded">
			<EventTrigger.Actions>
				<BeginStoryboard Storyboard="{StaticResource imageRotationStoryboard}" />
			</EventTrigger.Actions>
		</EventTrigger>
	</Image.Triggers>
	<Image.RenderTransform>
		<RotateTransform Angle="0"/>
	</Image.RenderTransform>
</Image>

Hope this helps someone, I know I will need this at least once again in the future. Enjoy ?

Office Click-To-Run and XML Files

09 September 2019

So, it used to be that we would install Office using a batch script that would invoke a setup.exe, assign a specific /configure flag and manually assign a specific XML file that contained the product that we wanted to install. This was bulky. It got too bulky when we needed to install 32-bit and 64-bit versions.

TIME FOR A CHANGE!

This is when I started thinking: “wow I really hate batch. I’m really glad I’m not the one that had to write this old script. Lets PowerShell this shit!”

First I needed a template XML file to modify, So this is what that looks like:

<Configuration>
  <Add OfficeClientEdition="64" Channel="Current">
    <Product ID="O365BusinessRetail">
      <Language ID="MatchOS" />
    </Product>
  </Add>
</Configuration>

This is the file that we will edit to say which product we want installing also if we want 64-bit or 32-bit.

Next, I needed to create a PowerShell script that would take a user’s input, edit the XML file accordingly and start the setup.exe with this flag. I also needed the bit-version that they wanted.

I started by defining the variables I would need for the script:

#Variables used for the installation
$bitVersion = ""
$officeProduct = ""
$pathToOffice = "\\path\to\office\folder"
$xmlFile = "OfficeXML.xml"
$pathToXMLFile = Join-Path -Path $pathToOffice -ChildPath $xmlFile

Then I created a function I would use to update the XML file. I needed two parameters, the product that they wanted installing and the bit version they wanted:

#Updates the XML file based on the input
function Update-XMLFile([string]$product, [string]$bit){

    try{
        #Loading the XML document
        $xmlDoc = Get-Content -Path $pathToXMLFile

        #Edit the document
        $xmlDoc.Configuration.Add.OfficeClientEdition = $bit
        $xmlDoc.Configuration.Add.Product.ID = $product

        #Save the document
        $xmlDoc.Save($pathToXMLFile)
    }catch{
        $errorMessage = $_.Exception.Message
        Write-Host $errorMessage -ForegroundColor Red
        Read-Host "The script encountered the above error - will now exit"
    }
}

I then created another function to start the installation. This also required two parameters, the bit version and the XML file name

#Function to start the installation
function Start-Installation([string]$bit, [string]$xmlName){
    try{
        .\setup.exe /configure $bit\$xmlName
    }catch{
        $errorMessage = $_.Exception.Message
        Write-Host $errorMessage
        Read-Host "The script encountered the above error - will now exit"
    }
}

My final function was a verification test. Since we want to only use 64-bit for future installations, I had to make sure that whoever was using the script knew this and would be competent enough to do a little bit of math:

#Function to check the user wants 32 bit
function Get-Verification(){
    $output = $false

    Write-Host "Are you sure you want to install 32-bit?" -ForegroundColor Red
    Write-Host "All new installs should use 64-bit instead"
    Write-Host "If you want to install 32-bit, complete the test below, otherwise enter the wrong answer"

    $firstNumber = Get-Random -Minimum 1 -Maximum 11
    $secondNumber = Get-Random -Minimum 1 -Maximum 11

    $sumToCheck = $firstNumber + $secondNumber

    $verificationInput = Read-Host "$($firstNumber) + $($secondNumber) = ?"

    if ($verificationInput -eq $sumToCheck){
        Write-Host "Fine! 32-bit will be installed..."
        $output = $true
    }else{
        Write-Host "Finally! 64-bit will be installed"
        $output = $false
    }
    return $output
}

Now that all my functions were defined, I could start with the actual meat of the script. This included cleaning the screen, asking the user some questions, launching the 32-bit verification is needed, updating the XML file using a switch statement and finally kicking off the installation. Heres what that looked like:

#Clear the screen
Clear-Host

#region Checking if the user wants 64 bit or 32 bit

do{

    Write-Host "Do you want" -NoNewline
    Write-Host " 64-bit " -NoNewline -ForegroundColor Yellow
    Write-Host "or" -NoNewline
    Write-Host " 32-bit " -NoNewline -ForegroundColor Green
    Write-Host "? (64 or 32): " -NoNewline
    $bitVersionInput = (Read-Host).ToUpper()
}while((64 ,32) -notcontains $bitVersionInput)

#endregion

#Check the user definitely wants 32 bit
if ($bitVersionInput -eq "32"){
    if (Get-Verification){
        $bitVersion = $bitVersionInput
    }else{
        $bitVersionInput = "64"
    }
}

#Update the bitVersion variable
$bitVersion = $bitVersionInput

#region Asking what product to install

#Ask the user what product they want to install
Write-Host @"

Please select one product from the below list

"@

Write-Host @"
1) Business Retail
2) ProPlus Retail

"@ -ForegroundColor Cyan

Write-Host @"
3) Visio Std Volume
4) Visio Pro Volume
5) Visio Pro Retail

"@ -ForegroundColor Green

Write-Host @"
6) Project Std Volume
7) Project Pro Volume
8) Project Pro Retail

"@ -ForegroundColor Gray

Write-Host @"
C) Cancel

"@ -ForegroundColor Red

do{
    $officeProductInput = (Read-Host "Enter a number").ToUpper()
}while((1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8, "C") -notcontains $officeProductInput)

#endregion

#Update the product variable
$officeProduct = $officeProductInput

#region Switch the input to see what it is and perform the required operation

switch($officeProduct){
    
    #Business Retail
    1 { Update-XMLFile -product "O365BusinessRetail" -bit $bitVersion}
    #ProPlus
    2 { Update-XMLFile -product "O365ProPlusRetail" -bit $bitVersion}
    #Visio Std Volume
    3 { Update-XMLFile -product "VisioStd2019Volume" -bit $bitVersion}
    #Visio Pro Volume
    4 { Update-XMLFile -product "VisioPro2019Volume" -bit $bitVersion}
    #Visio Pro Retail
    5 { Update-XMLFile -product "VisioPro2019Retail" -bit $bitVersion}
    #Project Std Volume
    6 { Update-XMLFile -product "ProjectStd2019Volume" -bit $bitVersion}
    #Project Pro Volume
    7 { Update-XMLFile -product "ProjectPro2019Volume" -bit $bitVersion}
    #Project Pro Retail
    8 { Update-XMLFile -product "ProjectPro2019Retail" -bit $bitVersion}
    #Cancel
    "C" {Exit}
    default {Exit}
}

#endregion

#Start the installation
Write-Host "Installing..." -ForegroundColor Green
Start-Installation -bit $bitVersion -xmlName $xmlFile
Write-Host "This window can be closed"
Read-Host

Done!

If you’re wondering what the script looks like as a whole, wonder no longer:

#Variables used for the installation
$bitVersion = ""
$officeProduct = ""
$pathToOffice = "\\sandpdc\software\Office"
$xmlFile = "OfficeXML.xml"
$pathToXMLFile = Join-Path -Path $pathToOffice -ChildPath $xmlFile

#Updates the XML file based on the input
function Update-XMLFile([string]$product, [string]$bit){

    try{
        #Loading the XML document
        $xmlDoc = Get-Content -Path $pathToXMLFile

        #Edit the document
        $xmlDoc.Configuration.Add.OfficeClientEdition = $bit
        $xmlDoc.Configuration.Add.Product.ID = $product

        #Save the document
        $xmlDoc.Save($pathToXMLFile)
    }catch{
        $errorMessage = $_.Exception.Message
        Write-Host $errorMessage -ForegroundColor Red
        Read-Host "The script encountered the above error - will now exit"
    }
}

#Function to start the installation
function Start-Installation([string]$bit, [string]$xmlName){
    try{
        .\setup.exe /configure $bit\$xmlName
    }catch{
        $errorMessage = $_.Exception.Message
        Write-Host $errorMessage
        Read-Host "The script encountered the above error - will now exit"
    }
}

#Function to check the user wants 32 bit
function Get-Verification(){
    $output = $false

    Write-Host "Are you sure you want to install 32-bit?" -ForegroundColor Red
    Write-Host "All new installs should use 64-bit instead"
    Write-Host "If you want to install 32-bit, complete the test below, otherwise enter the wrong answer"

    $firstNumber = Get-Random -Minimum 1 -Maximum 11
    $secondNumber = Get-Random -Minimum 1 -Maximum 11

    $sumToCheck = $firstNumber + $secondNumber

    $verificationInput = Read-Host "$($firstNumber) + $($secondNumber) = ?"

    if ($verificationInput -eq $sumToCheck){
        Write-Host "Fine! 32-bit will be installed..."
        $output = $true
    }else{
        Write-Host "Finally! 64-bit will be installed"
        $output = $false
    }
    return $output
}

#Clear the screen
Clear-Host

#region Checking if the user wants 64 bit or 32 bit

do{

    Write-Host "Do you want" -NoNewline
    Write-Host " 64-bit " -NoNewline -ForegroundColor Yellow
    Write-Host "or" -NoNewline
    Write-Host " 32-bit " -NoNewline -ForegroundColor Green
    Write-Host "? (64 or 32): " -NoNewline
    $bitVersionInput = (Read-Host).ToUpper()
}while((64 ,32) -notcontains $bitVersionInput)

#endregion

#Check the user definitely wants 32 bit
if ($bitVersionInput -eq "32"){
    if (Get-Verification){
        $bitVersion = $bitVersionInput
    }else{
        $bitVersionInput = "64"
    }
}

#Update the bitVersion variable
$bitVersion = $bitVersionInput

#region Asking what product to install

#Ask the user what product they want to install
Write-Host @"

Please select one product from the below list

"@

Write-Host @"
1) Business Retail
2) ProPlus Retail

"@ -ForegroundColor Cyan

Write-Host @"
3) Visio Std Volume
4) Visio Pro Volume
5) Visio Pro Retail

"@ -ForegroundColor Green

Write-Host @"
6) Project Std Volume
7) Project Pro Volume
8) Project Pro Retail

"@ -ForegroundColor Gray

Write-Host @"
C) Cancel

"@ -ForegroundColor Red

do{
    $officeProductInput = (Read-Host "Enter a number").ToUpper()
}while((1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8, "C") -notcontains $officeProductInput)

#endregion

#Update the product variable
$officeProduct = $officeProductInput

#region Switch the input to see what it is and perform the required operation

switch($officeProduct){
    
    #Business Retail
    1 { Update-XMLFile -product "O365BusinessRetail" -bit $bitVersion}
    #ProPlus
    2 { Update-XMLFile -product "O365ProPlusRetail" -bit $bitVersion}
    #Visio Std Volume
    3 { Update-XMLFile -product "VisioStd2019Volume" -bit $bitVersion}
    #Visio Pro Volume
    4 { Update-XMLFile -product "VisioPro2019Volume" -bit $bitVersion}
    #Visio Pro Retail
    5 { Update-XMLFile -product "VisioPro2019Retail" -bit $bitVersion}
    #Project Std Volume
    6 { Update-XMLFile -product "ProjectStd2019Volume" -bit $bitVersion}
    #Project Pro Volume
    7 { Update-XMLFile -product "ProjectPro2019Volume" -bit $bitVersion}
    #Project Pro Retail
    8 { Update-XMLFile -product "ProjectPro2019Retail" -bit $bitVersion}
    #Cancel
    "C" {Exit}
    default {Exit}
}

#endregion

#Start the installation
Write-Host "Installing..." -ForegroundColor Green
Start-Installation -bit $bitVersion -xmlName $xmlFile
Write-Host "This window can be closed"
Read-Host

Quering and Adding Info To Access Database Using C#

22 August 2019

In this post, I will show you how I created a program to extract and add data to an Access database. Before we get started, you can see my current specifications below:

Windows 10 (64-Bit)
Office 365 (64-Bit)
Microsoft Access Database Engine 2016 Redistributable

Getting values from a table:

Using System.Data.OleDB;

//Create a new list to hold all the values
List<String> values = new List<String>();

//Build the connection string and SQL string
string connectionString = @$"Provider=Microsoft.ACE.OLEDB;Data Source = C:\Path\To\Access.accdb";
string sqlString = "SELECT * FROM Table_Name";

//Create a new connection to the Access file
using (OleDbConnection connection = new OleDbConnection(connectionString)){

    //Creating a new command
    OleDbCommand command = new OleDbCommand(sqlString, connection);
    
    //Try/catch to catch errors, DON'T DO THIS IN SERIOUS PROJECTS!
    try{
        
        //Opening the connection and reading the data
        connection.Open();
        using(OleDbDataReader reader = command.ExecuteReader()){
            while(reader.Read()){
                
                //Adding the value to the values list
                values.Add(reader["Field_Name"].ToString());
            }
        }
    }catch{ }
    
    //Closing the connection
    connection.Close();
}

//Sorting the list in ascending order
values.Sort();

Adding a new row to the table:

Using System.Data.OleDb;

//Building the connection string and SQL string
string connectionString = @$"Provider=Microsoft.ACE.OLEDB.12.0;Data Source = C:\Path\To\Access.accdb";
string sqlString = $"INSERT INTO Table_Name(Field_Name1, Field_Name2) VALUES ('{Field_Value1}','{Field_Value2}')";

//Creating a new connection to the Access file
using (OleDbConnection connection = new OleDbConnection(connectionString))
{
    //Build a new command
    using(OleDbCommand command = new OleDbCommand(sqlString, connection))
    {
        //Open the database connection and execute the write
        connection.Open();
        command.ExecuteReader();
    }
    //Close the database connection
    connection.Close();
}

Enjoy!