MEAN stack environment on the AWS EC2 instance server for free

Before we start, we have to make sure that AWS account is created. If you don't have AWS account then please create an account with AWS.  By default All new AWS users are placed in the free usage tier. AWS free tire grants, among other features, 750 hrs/month of free Amazon EC2 micro access .  While creating an account, be sure to choose the Basic (Free) option.

After this click on Sign into Console and login using your credentials, after login go to AWS Management Console  & as shown in image Click on EC2

On click of EC2, you will be landed on Dashboard. check following image for same. To create Bitnami Mean Instance on EC2 Free Tier on AWS, click on Launch Instance

On click of Launch Instance, you will be redirected to Choose An Amazon Machine Image (AMI), at this point search for "BITNAMI MEAN"

After search click on AWS Marketplace, select Mean Certified by Bitnami

 

On click of select,  you will see screen mentioning following details

• MEAN Certified by Bitnami: MEAN gives you the abilty to start building dynamic web applications by providing a complete framework to write your app code. This image is configured for production environments. It includes SSL auto-configuration with Let's Encrypt certificates, and the latest releases of Javascript components: MongoDB, Express, Angular, and Node.js. It ..

Highlights

• Ready to run JavaScript software stack consisting of MongoDB, Express, Angular, and Node.js. It includes everything necessary to build modern, scalable web applications. Just launch the Bitnami MEAN Stack in the cloud and add your code in minutes.
• In addition to the core components, the stack also includes an Apache web server, PHP, RockMongo, and Git.
• This image is regularly updated with the latest stable release of each component.

On click of continue- choose an Instance Type

On final of Review and Launch  you will be redirected to Review screen. This is final screen to create MEAN stack environment on the AWS EC2 instance server for free.

Now we shall get a screen to download Key, this key we will be using to connect to our MEAN stack EC2 instance. Here we shall generate new key pair.

Here select Create a new key pair, and give name to the key, and Download Key Pair

After downloading Key Pair, Launch Instances button will be Enabled. Then click on Launch Instance. Now we can see our instance running in Console

Now we have successfully created MEAN stack Bitnami instance on the AWS EC2 server for free. 

Connecting to MEAN stack Bitnami instance on AWS EC2 server

This is important step, please read carefully, As Bitnami MEAN installation is pre-configured with Mongo Admin and Password, we need to get Root user password from System Log. This password is set only once.

To obtain our Mongo Root user password, right click on the row of Mean EC2 instance and navigate to Instance Settings > Get System Log

Scroll through the system log, till you see a box with word : 

Setting bitnami application password to 

This is your initial mongo db password, copy it and keep it safe, Do not lose the password, You will only be shown it Once!!!  You will need this password in order to get access to your Mongo DB

 

Connect MEAN Bitnami AWS EC2 instance using SSH

To connect our MEAN EC2 instance using SSH, we are going to use PUTTY .

Once we are done in installing Putty, lets get back to Aws dashboard, click on our running instance. Check in Description tab, there is Public DNS (IPv4); this represent the Url where our application will sit and the hostname we will be connecting to.

to check if server is working, simply copy paste this in browser, and browser should display default landing page of BITNAMI.

we will be using this Host Name along with the .pem security key we downloaded earlier to connect to your EC2 instance.

But before we can proceed with our connection, we need to convert your .pem file into a .ppk file that PuTTY can recognize. For this you will need the program PuTTYgen. Download and install PuTTY.  After download simply run PuTTYgen

Once we start PuTTYgen load downloaded .pem file, make sure you switch the file types to "All files" when browsing for your key. Once its loaded, click “Save Private Key” and re-save your file as a PuTTY Private Key file (.ppk).

Now lets connect to our server using Putty, open Putty, Add our DNS IP from AWS console, we discussed earlier in this article.

Add our SSH key in Auth, check following images for better understanding.

Now click on open, this will connect us to Our MEAN stack AWS EC2 instance, default user name is bitnami.

Now we have successfully create AWS EC2 MEAN instance and connected to it using SSH.

Introduction to React JS

React JS is a popular JavaScript Library for building User Interfaces, which has created by Facebook. With React Js we can build fast Single Page Applications or websites with React.

To start with React Introduction, lets answer the very basic question

Is React JS a Library or a Framework?

Answer to this basic and unclear question is, React is a Library and not a Framework. 

React Definition from its official site says - React is a Library for Building User Interfaces.

What is a Library ? 

Library in a very simple terms is nothing but a collection of codes, which can be used easily by developers e.g. JQuery is a library, we can simply use it. 

What is a Framework ?

Framework is a complete code package with its own libraries and functionalities. Framework has its own rules. E.g. Angular is a Framework 

How override ASP.NET Core Identity's password policy or How To Customize Password Policy in asp.net Core

ASP.NET Core Identity uses default values for  password policy settings, in this article we shall see how to override or customize Asp.net Core Identity's password policy ?

By default, Identity requires that passwords contain an

• uppercase character
• lowercase character,
• a digit
• a non-alphanumeric character. 
• Passwords must be at least six characters long. 

PasswordOptions can be set in Startup.ConfigureServices.

To change password Policy, we shall add following lines of code in startup.cs file

 services.Configure(options =>
             {
                 // Password settings
                 options.Password.RequireDigit = true;
                 options.Password.RequiredLength = 6;
                 options.Password.RequireNonAlphanumeric = false;
                 options.Password.RequireUppercase = false;
                 options.Password.RequireLowercase = false;
             });

ionic 4 bluetooth low energy - example code - Read Data from BLE Devices

Please refer two articles, for better understanding of BLE and IONIC connectivity and how to implement ionic 4 Bluetooth low energy devices communication.

• Ionic-4 Bluetooth Low Energy Devices - List BLE Devices
• Ionic 4 bluetooth low energy - sample code - Connect to BLE Devices

In this article we shall communicate with BLE (Bluetooth Low energy) device with IONIC4.

To start BLE device we need to send some Command in my case it is ST (start + enter). 

Note: BLE takes one character at a time and also in HEX 

Hex code for S - 53 

Hex code for T - 54

Hex code for LF (Line feed) - 0A 

Also BLE device has their own Services and Characteristics, in previous article we had listed all the services associated with selected device. ref following code in previous article in details page (details.page.html)

<ion-list>
<ion-item ngfor="let service of peripheral.services">
  {{service}}
</ion-item>
</ion-list>

Standard BLE service is FFE0 and BLE characteristic with WriteWithoutResponse is FFE1

After connecting to BLE devices; we need to do following tasks to start reading data

1. WriteWithoutResponse (Service FFE0 and Characteristic FFE1)
2. Then Subscribe  to start getting value change notification  for Service FFE0 and Characteristic FFE1

Check following two snippets one for WriteWithoutResponse and another for StartGettingNotification

BleWrite() {

        // Subscribe for notifications when the resitance changes
        var inputdata = new Uint8Array(3);
        inputdata[0] = 0x53; // S
        inputdata[1] = 0x54; // T
        inputdata[2] = 0x0a; // LF

        this.ble
            .writeWithoutResponse(
                this.peripheral.id,
                BLE_SERVICE,
                BLE_CHARACTERISTIC,
                inputdata.buffer
            )
            .then(
                data => {
                    debugger;   
                    
                    console.log(data);
                    this.subscribe();
                },
                err => {
                    console.log(err);
                }
            );
    }

And for reading values from BLE device

subscribe() {
        this.ble
            .startNotification(this.peripheral.id,
 BLE_SERVICE, BLE_CHARACTERISTIC)
            .subscribe(
                data => {
                    console.log(data);
                    this.onValueChange(data);
                },
                () =>
               
        this.showAlert(
                 "Unexpected Error",
                 "Failed to subscribe for changes, please try to re-connect."
               )
            );
    }

In above function we are capturing data and passing it to onValueChange function. You can handle your data in onValueChange function. Data which we send and receive from BLE devices is always an ArrayBuffer. In above functions we have passed ST + LineFeed as array buffer input.buffer

So we need two more functions one to convert array buffer into plain character string and another function to capture valuechange

onValueChange(buffer: ArrayBuffer) {
        this.ngZone.run(() => {
            try {
                if (this.dataFromDevice == undefined)
 this.dataFromDevice = this.bytesToString(buffer).replace(/\s+/g, " ");
                else this.dataFromDevice += '
' + this.bytesToString(buffer).replace(/\s+/g, " ");

//Simply assign data to variable dataFromDevice and string concat
            } catch (e) {
                console.log(e);
            }
        });
    }

    bytesToString(buffer) {
        return String.fromCharCode.apply(null, new Uint8Array(buffer));
    }

This is how we read data from BLE devices using IONIC4. Ionic4 Ble example.

ionic 4 bluetooth low energy - sample code - Connect to BLE Devices

In the previous article I had mentioned how to list BLE (Bluetooth Low energy devices), Please refer to Ionic-4 Bluetooth Low Energy Devices - List BLE Devices article.

• Ionic-4 Bluetooth Low Energy Devices - List BLE Devices

In last article we had page Home, we had displayed BLE devices as follows. 

List BLE Devices - IONIC 4

Now on click of Device, we shall redirect to Detail page, we shall pass BLE device information to Detail page. Thus we have modified our code of home.page.ts file as follows 

import { BLE } from '@ionic-native/ble/ngx';
import { Component, NgZone } from '@angular/core';
import { ToastController } from '@ionic/angular';
import { Router, NavigationExtras } from '@angular/router';

@Component({
  selector: 'app-home',
  templateUrl: 'home.page.html',
  styleUrls: ['home.page.scss'],
})
export class HomePage {
  devices: any[] = [];
  statusMessage: string;
  deviceMode = true;

  constructor(
    public router: Router,
    private toastCtrl: ToastController,
    private ble: BLE,
    private ngZone: NgZone
  ) {}

  ionViewDidEnter() {
    console.log('ionViewDidEnter');
    this.scan();
  }

  scan() {
    this.setStatus('Scanning for Bluetooth LE Devices');
    this.devices = []; // clear list

    this.ble.scan([], 5).subscribe(
      device => this.onDeviceDiscovered(device),
      error => this.scanError(error)
    );

    setTimeout(this.setStatus.bind(this), 5000, 'Scan complete');
  }

  onDeviceDiscovered(device) {
    console.log('Discovered ' + JSON.stringify(device, null, 2));
    this.ngZone.run(() => {
      this.devices.push(device);
    });
  }

  // If location permission is denied, you'll end up here
  async scanError(error) {
    this.setStatus('Error ' + error);
    const toast = await this.toastCtrl.create({
      message: 'Error scanning for Bluetooth low energy devices',
      position: 'middle',
      duration: 5000
    });
    toast.present();
  }

  setStatus(message) {
    console.log(message);
    this.ngZone.run(() => {
      this.statusMessage = message;
    });
  }

  deviceSelected(device: any) {
    console.log(JSON.stringify(device) + ' selected');
      let navigationExtras: NavigationExtras = {
          queryParams: {
              special: JSON.stringify(device)
          }
      };
      this.router.navigate(['detail'], navigationExtras);
  }

}

Please note we have added one function named deviceSelected(device: any) This function take device information and sends it to details page.

We get BLE (Blue tooth low energy) device info as follows (This is log)

After we select device, we are navigated to details.page.html . 

In details.page.ts file, there three main activities

1.   Read device information sent from home page - we are doing it in constructor
2. Ble Connect function
3. Ble Disconnect function

Check details.page.ts code carefully to understand how BLE (Bluetooth low energy) devices is connected and disconnected. 

import { Component, OnInit, NgZone } from '@angular/core';
import { ToastController } from '@ionic/angular';
import { ActivatedRoute, Router } from '@angular/router';
import { BLE } from '@ionic-native/ble/ngx';

@Component({
  selector: 'app-detail',
  templateUrl: './detail.page.html',
  styleUrls: ['./detail.page.scss']
 
})
export class DetailPage implements OnInit {

  peripheral: any = {};
  statusMessage: string;

    constructor(public route: ActivatedRoute, public router: Router, 
private ble: BLE,
      private toastCtrl: ToastController, private ngZone: NgZone) {

        this.route.queryParams.subscribe(params => {
          if (params && params.special) {
              const device = JSON.parse(params.special);
              this.setStatus('Connecting to ' + device.name || device.id);

              //Call BLE Connect - Connect to BLE Device
              this.BleConnect(device);
    
          }
      });
   }


    ngOnInit() {
  }

    BleConnect(device) {
        this.ble.connect(device.id).subscribe(
            peripheral => this.onConnected(peripheral),
            peripheral => this.onDeviceDisconnected(peripheral)
        );
    }

    BleDisconnect() {
        this.ble.disconnect(this.peripheral.id).then(
    () => console.log('Disconnected ' + JSON.stringify(this.peripheral)),
    () => console.log('ERROR disconnecting ' + JSON.stringify(this.peripheral)));
    }


    onConnected(peripheral) {
    this.ngZone.run(() => {
      this.setStatus('');
      this.peripheral = peripheral;
    });
  }

 async onDeviceDisconnected(peripheral) {
    const toast = await this.toastCtrl.create({
      message: 'The peripheral unexpectedly disconnected',
      duration: 3000,
      position: 'middle'
    });
    toast.present();
  }

  // Disconnect peripheral when leaving the page
  ionViewWillLeave() {
    console.log('ionViewWillLeave disconnecting Bluetooth');
      this.BleDisconnect();
  }

  setStatus(message) {
    console.log(message);
    this.ngZone.run(() => {
      this.statusMessage = message;
    });
  }

}

 

In detail.page.html, we are simply displaying Device information, Devices services

 
<ion-header>
    <ion-toolbar>
        <ion-title>{{ peripheral.name || 'Device' }}</ion-title>
    </ion-toolbar>
</ion-header>

<ion-content class="padding">

    <ion-card>
        <ion-card-header>
            {{ peripheral.name || 'Unnamed' }}
        </ion-card-header>
        <ion-card-content>
            {{ peripheral.id }}
        </ion-card-content>
    </ion-card>

    <ion-card>
        <ion-card-header>
            Services
        </ion-card-header>

        <ion-list>
            <ion-item ngfor="let service of peripheral.services">
                {{service}}
            </ion-item>
        </ion-list>
    </ion-card>

    <ion-card>
        <ion-card-header>
            Details
        </ion-card-header>
        <ion-card-content>
            <pre>{{peripheral | json }}</pre>
</ion-card-content>
    </ion-card>
</ion-content>

<ion-footer>
    <ion-toolbar>
        <ion-item>
            <ion-label>{{ statusMessage }}</ion-label>
        </ion-item>
    </ion-toolbar>
</ion-footer>

This is how we can connect to BLE Devices, using IONIC4.

 In next Article ionic 4 Bluetooth low energy - example code - Read Data from BLE Devices we shall read data from BLE devices.

ionic 4 bluetooth low energy - sample code - List BLE Devices

This article will demonstrate usage of cordova-plugin-ble-central with IONIC 4. i.e. Mobile application connectivity with BlueTooth Low Energy Devices.

Before we start I assume that you already have ionic4 blank project working.

When you run ionic server command following screen should open in browser

Ionic4 BLE (Bluetooth Low energy sample/example code)

On command line or in visual studio terminal use following commands to install BLE  Ionic plugin

$ ionic cordova plugin add cordova-plugin-ble-central
$ npm install @ionic-native/ble

Above commands will add required cordova plugin and ionic4 wrapper for Bluetooth low energy devices communication. I am using default Home page to display list of available BLE Devices, on TAP of device it will be redirected to details page for further operations. We shall add following line of code to import BLE Home.page.ts file looks as follows

import { BLE } from '@ionic-native/ble/ngx';
import { Component, NgZone } from '@angular/core';
import { NavController, ToastController } from '@ionic/angular';


@Component({
  selector: 'app-home',
  templateUrl: 'home.page.html',
  styleUrls: ['home.page.scss'],
})
export class HomePage {

  constructor(
    public navCtrl: NavController,
    private toastCtrl: ToastController,
    private ble: BLE,
    private ngZone: NgZone
  ) {}

}

After this make sure BLE provider is added in app.module.ts

import { NgModule } from '@angular/core';
import { BrowserModule } from '@angular/platform-browser';
import { RouteReuseStrategy } from '@angular/router';

import { IonicModule, IonicRouteStrategy } from '@ionic/angular';
import { SplashScreen } from '@ionic-native/splash-screen/ngx';
import { StatusBar } from '@ionic-native/status-bar/ngx';

import { AppComponent } from './app.component';
import { AppRoutingModule } from './app-routing.module';

import { BLE } from '@ionic-native/ble/ngx';

@NgModule({
  declarations: [AppComponent],
  entryComponents: [],
  imports: [BrowserModule, IonicModule.forRoot(), AppRoutingModule],
  providers: [
    StatusBar,
    SplashScreen, BLE,
    { provide: RouteReuseStrategy, useClass: IonicRouteStrategy }
  ],
  bootstrap: [AppComponent]
})
export class AppModule {}

Now we shall add following functions for Bluetooth low energy (BLE) device discovery and listing BLE devices.

• scan - scan for ble devices for 5 seconds.
• onDeviceDiscovered - this function will execute if any BLE device is discovered.
• scanError - this function will be called if any error occurs in scan function
• setStatus - simple function to set message 

Above functions we are adding in home.page.ts file. Location setting should be on while scanning devices, else you will see error message

scan() {
    this.setStatus("Scanning for Bluetooth LE Devices");
    this.devices = []; // clear list

    this.ble.scan([], 5).subscribe(
      device => this.onDeviceDiscovered(device),
      error => this.scanError(error)
    );

    setTimeout(this.setStatus.bind(this), 5000, "Scan complete");
  }

  onDeviceDiscovered(device) {
    console.log("Discovered " + JSON.stringify(device, null, 2));
    this.ngZone.run(() => {
      this.devices.push(device);
    });
  }

  // If location permission is denied, you'll end up here
  async scanError(error) {
    this.setStatus("Error " + error);
    let toast = await this.toastCtrl.create({
      message: "Error scanning for Bluetooth low energy devices",
      position: "middle",
      duration: 5000
    });
    toast.present();
  }

  setStatus(message) {
    console.log(message);
    this.ngZone.run(() => {
      this.statusMessage = message;
    });
  }

Please check HTML of home.page.html

<ion-header>
  <ion-toolbar>
    <ion-title>
      BLE Connect
    </ion-title>
    <ion-buttons slot="end">
      <ion-button click="" scan="">
        Scan
      </ion-button>
    </ion-buttons>
  </ion-toolbar>
</ion-header>

<ion-content>
  <ion-list> 
    <ion-item click="" device="" deviceselected=""
 ngfor="let device of devices">
      <ion-label>
      <h2>
{{ device.name || 'Unnamed' }}</h2>
{{ device.id }}
     RSSI: {{ device.rssi }}


      </ion-label> 
    </ion-item>
   
   </ion-list> 
</ion-content>

<ion-footer>
  <ion-toolbar>
    <ion-item>
    <ion-label>{{ statusMessage }}</ion-label>
    </ion-item>
  </ion-toolbar>
</ion-footer>

 

Now build app using following command

ionic cordova build android 

This will create an APK file which will list BLE devices after scan. You can click on scan button or can add scan() function in ionViewDidEnter()

ionViewDidEnter() {
    console.log('ionViewDidEnter');
    this.scan();
  }

Now we are able to build Bluetooth low energy device listing app in ionic4

In next Article ionic 4 bluetooth low energy - sample code - Connect to BLE Devices we shall connect to BLE devices.

Windows 10 Set time automatically not working

After completing fresh installation of Windows 10 Enterprise Edition, I was setting Date and Time and every time I restart computer it use to get back to some other timings.

I had set time automatically and also set time zone automatically as per the screenshot

Windows 10 Set time automatically not working

To resolve this issue, I followed following steps

1. Press Windows key + r ( + r).
2. Type services.msc.
3. Click Windows Time in the Name column.
   
4. Alternate click/ Right click and then click Properties.
5. Change Startup type to Automatic (if it’s not already set to Automatic).
   
6. Click Start if the service isn’t started.

Now Windows 10 Set time automatically starts working.

How to force HTTPS using a web.config file / Redirect Http to Https using web.config

How to redirect http to https using web config ? To do permanent redirect to https using web.config under Configuration section in web.config file simply add following Rewriting rules.

This way we can redirect all Http request to Https using web.config

• Web.config URL rewrite - force www prefix and https
• Use web.config to redirect HTTP to HTTPs
• How to configure your web.config to Redirect http to https
• Web.config redirects with rewrite rules - https
• 301 redirect entire site http to https using web.config
• How to force HTTPS from web.config file

Asp.Net Core 2.2 - HTTP Error 500.0 - ANCM In-Process Handler Load Failure

While deploying .net core web application, I got an Error saying

HTTP Error 500.0 - ANCM In-Process Handler Load Failure

Common causes of this issue:

• The specified version of Microsoft.NetCore.App or Microsoft.AspNetCore.App was not found.
• The in process request handler, Microsoft.AspNetCore.Server.IIS, was not referenced in the application.
• ANCM could not find dotnet.

Troubleshooting steps:

• Check the system event log for error messages
• Enable logging the application process' stdout messages
• Attach a debugger to the application process and inspect

For more information visit: https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=2028526

When I checked web.config there is following line of code

Change AspNetCoreModuleV2 to AspNetCoreModule make the application work.

You may face this issue in Azure environment too.
Aspnetcore 2.2 Targetting .Net Framework, InProcess fails on azure app service with error TTP Error 500.0 - ANCM In-Process Handler Load Failure


http error 500.0 - ancm in-process handler load failure iis express

http error 500.0 - ancm in-process handler load failure localhost

http error 500.0 - ancm in-process handler load failure stackoverflow

ancm in-process handler load failure swagger

swagger http error 500.0 - ancm in-process handler load failure

azure http error 500.0 - ancm in-process handler load failure

ancm in-process handler load failure azure

ancm could not find dotnet.

Mvc Core - Multiple custom attributes of the same type found - new scaffoled item - controller with view

While working on myAttendance.io project in mvc.net core 2.2, I was creating a company and wanted to generate Controller with Views. My company Class is as follows

 public class Company : BaseModel
    {
        public string Logo { get; set; }

        [DisplayName("Company Name")]
        [Required]
        [MaxLength(150)]
        public string CompanyName { get; set; }

        [RegularExpression(@"^([a-zA-Z0-9_\-\.]+)@((\[[0-9]{1,3}\.[0-9]{1,3}\.[0-9]{1,3}\.)|(([a-zA-Z0-9\-]+\.)+))([a-zA-Z]{2,4}|[0-9]{1,3})(\]?)$", ErrorMessage = "Please enter a valid e-mail address")]
        [EmailAddress(ErrorMessage = "Please enter valid email address.")]
        [Required]
        [MaxLength(150)]
        public string Email { get; set; }
        [Required]
        [DataType(DataType.Url)]
        [Url(ErrorMessage = "Invalid URL!")]
        [MaxLength(150)]
        public string Web { get; set; }

        [Phone]
        [Required]
        [MaxLength(15)]
        public string Phone { get; set; }

        [Required]
        [MaxLength(10)]
        public string Currency { get; set; }
        [Required]
        [MaxLength(250)]
        public string Address { get; set; }

    }

When I tried adding New Scaffolded item, I got error saying

 There was an error running the selected code generator: 'Multiple custom attributes of the same type found'

To resolve this error I had to remove

[DataType(DataType.Url)]

If we see model then I have already used

[Url(ErrorMessage = "Invalid URL!")]

This same is applicable for followings

[EmailAddress(ErrorMessage = "Please enter valid email address.")]

[Phone(ErrorMessage = "Please enter valide phone number.")]

We have EmailAddress and PhoneNumber as Datatype also

[DataType(DataType.EmailAddress)]

[DataType(DataType.PhoneNumber)]

So Just make sure we have DataType or corresponding Tag to avoid 'Multiple custom attributes of the same type found.'