Getting Ready for .NET 6 and .NET MAUI

David Ortinau (@davidortinau) writes:

With .NET 6 previews starting right around the corner, it is time to start getting excited for the new .NET Multi-platform App UI (MAUI) that was announced at BUILD 2020. This year of .NET has a lot of amazing things for client application developers.

.NET MAUI is the evolution of Xamarin.Forms, a cross-platform mobile first framework for Android, iOS, and UWP. Building upon 7 years of experience supporting customers from independent developers to some of the world’s largest companies, we are improving the core of the product, speeding up UI rendering, investing in consistent design systems, and extending from mobile to desktop.

Source: The New .NET Multi-platform App UI | Xamarin Blog

WinUI 3.0 Misconceptions – Nick’s .NET Travels

WinUI 3 is a new, cross-platform UI initiative from MS that has as a goal to separate the UWP UI/Application framework away from Windows.

Recently Nick came across a twitter thread talking about WinUI 3.0 (WinUI3) and how it failed to live up to expectations. Hopefully @JaykeBirdCoding won’t mind him going through his tweets and providing his thoughts. @JaykeBirdCoding!

Summary: You need to look into both Uno and outside the .NET ecosystem if you’re serious about cross platform.

Source: WinUI 3.0 Misconceptions – Nick’s .NET Travels

.NET 5 Networking Improvements

.NET 5 introduces networking features which includes improvements around HTTP, Sockets, networking-related security, and other primitives, such as

  • The ability to distinguish timeouts from cancellations
  • Consistent Cross-Platform Implementation
  • SocketsHttpHandler Extension Points
  • Sync API for HttpClient.Send
  • Multiple Connections with HTTP/2
  • HTTP/2 Configurable Ping
  • Preview of HTTP/3 and QUIC protocol
  • Better Cancellation Support
    … and lots more

Source: .NET 5 Networking Improvements | .NET Blog

.NET 5 Breaking Changes

Breaking changes in .NET 5

The final topic in our .NET 5 Breaking Changes series is WPF and Windows Forms. These desktop technologies were unavailable before .NET Core 3.0, as earlier versions of .NET Core focused on web-based applications via ASP.NET Core.

Source: .NET 5 Breaking Changes for WPF/Windows Forms

See also

Post a message to Teams from Delphi using WebHooks

Want to send a message to a Teams channel from your Delphi Application?
It is easy – simply post the message to your Teams channel’s WebHook URL.

Update – added Uwe Raabe’s TRESTClient version.

Well, perhaps not these hooks.
Photo by cottonbro on Pexels.com

Here is the low down basics of how to do it from Delphi. You simply do a http post with a preformatted Json string.

unit O365WebHook;

// Lars Fosdal, 2020 OCT 16
// Simple example without error handling

interface
uses
  System.Classes, System.SysUtils, System.Json, Rest.Json,
  IDGlobal, IdHTTP, IdIOHandler, IdSSL, IdSSLOpenSSL;

type
  TWebHookMessage = class
  end;

/// <summary> See https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoftteams/platform/webhooks-and-connectors/how-to/connectors-using
/// for examples of how to structure the json for creating advanced formats</summary>
  TSimpleText = class(TWebHookMessage)
  private
    FText: String;
  public
    property Text: String read FText write FText;
    constructor Create(const aText: string);
  end;

type
  TWebHook = class
  private
    FHTTP: TIdHTTP;
    FURL: string;
  protected
    property HTTP: TIdHTTP read FHTTP;
  public
    constructor Create(const aURL: string = '');
    destructor Destroy; override;

    procedure Post(const aJson: string);
    procedure PostMessage(const aMsg: TWebhookMessage);

    property URL:String read FURL write FURL;
  end;


implementation

{ TWebHook }

constructor TWebHook.Create(const aURL: string);
begin
  FURL := aURL;
  // Remember that you need libeay32.dll and ssleay32.dll in the path for https to work
  FHTTP := TIdHTTP.Create(nil);
  HTTP.Request.ContentType := 'application/json';
  HTTP.Request.ContentEncoding := 'utf-8';
  HTTP.Request.CacheControl := 'no-cache';
  HTTP.HTTPOptions := HTTP.HTTPOptions - [hoForceEncodeParams] + [hoNoProtocolErrorException, hoWantProtocolErrorContent];
end;

destructor TWebHook.Destroy;
begin
  FHTTP.Free;
  inherited;
end;

procedure TWebHook.Post(const aJson: string);
var
  ReqString: TStringList;
  ResStream: TStringStream;
begin
  ReqString := TStringList.Create;
  try
    try
      ReqString.Text := aJson;
      ResStream := TStringStream.Create;
      try
//        DebugOut('HTTP Post ' + ReqString.Text);
        HTTP.Post(URL, ReqString, ResStream, IndyTextEncoding_UTF8);
//        DebugOut('Response: ' + ResStream.DataString);
      finally
        ResStream.Free;
      end;
    except // HTTP Exception
      on E: Exception
      do begin
//        DebugOutException(E, 'HTTP Post');
      end;
    end;
  finally
    ReqString.Free;
  end;
end;

procedure TWebHook.PostMessage(const aMsg: TWebhookMessage);
begin
  try
    Post(
      TJson.ObjectToJsonString(
        aMsg,
        [joIgnoreEmptyStrings, joIgnoreEmptyArrays, joDateIsUTC, joDateFormatISO8601]
      )
    );
  finally
    aMsg.Free;
  end;
end;

{ TSimpleText }

constructor TSimpleText.Create(const aText: string);
begin
  Text := aText;
end;

end.

How to use it. This is a very minimal example for a single text line.

procedure TestExampleToATeamsChannel;
var
  Teams: TWebhook;
begin
  Teams := TWebhook.Create('https:// ... YourLongWebHookURLHere ... ');
  try
    Teams.PostMessage(TSimpleText.Create('Hello from Delphi! :"{/=''æ}[øå] ÆØÅ'));
  finally
    Teams.Free;
  end;
end;

Make sure to read up on throttling and other rules of engagement before you start spamming your Teams channels. See the MS article on WebHooks for more detail.

Update! Uwe Raabe did a refurbished version that eliminates Indy and the need for the the OpenSLL DLLs, and makes the code work cross platform!

unit O365WebHook;

// Lars Fosdal, 2020 OCT 16
// Simple example without error handling
// Uwe Raabe replaced Indy for TRESTClient, eliminating the need for the OpenSLL DLLS

interface
uses
  System.Classes, System.SysUtils,
  REST.Json, REST.Client, REST.Types;

type
  TWebHookMessage = class
  end;

/// <summary> See https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoftteams/platform/webhooks-and-connectors/how-to/connectors-using
/// for examples of how to structure the json for creating advanced formats</summary>
  TSimpleText = class(TWebHookMessage)
  private
    FText: String;
  public
    property Text: String read FText write FText;
    constructor Create(const aText: string);
  end;

type
  TWebHook = class
  private
    FClient: TRESTClient;
    FRequest: TCustomRESTRequest;
    FURL: string;
  protected
    property Client: TRESTClient read FClient;
    property Request: TCustomRESTRequest read FRequest;
  public
    constructor Create(const aURL: string = '');
    destructor Destroy; override;
    function PostMessage(const aMsg: TWebhookMessage; aOwnsMsg: Boolean = False): Boolean;
    property URL: string read FURL write FURL;
  end;

implementation

{ TWebHook }

constructor TWebHook.Create(const aURL: string);
begin
  inherited Create;
  FURL := aURL;

  FClient := TRESTClient.Create(nil);
  FRequest := TCustomRESTRequest.Create(nil);
  FRequest.Client := FClient;
end;

destructor TWebHook.Destroy;
begin
  FRequest.Free;
  FClient.Free;
  inherited;
end;

function TWebHook.PostMessage(const aMsg: TWebhookMessage; aOwnsMsg: Boolean = False): Boolean;
begin
  try
    Request.Client.BaseURL := URL;
    Request.Method := rmPOST;
    Request.AddBody(aMsg);
    Request.Execute;
    Result := Request.Response.Status.Success;
  finally
    if aOwnsMsg then
      aMsg.Free;
  end;
end;

{ TSimpleText }

constructor TSimpleText.Create(const aText: string);
begin
  inherited Create;
  FText := aText;
end;

end.

There is a known issue with a workaround for Delphi 10.2.

Have fun!

First Steps with Blazor – Simple Talk

It is always fun to play with new toys! This article from Julio Sampaio introduces you to Blazor – Web pages done in C#.

Blazor stands for Browser + Razor, which gives you an idea of what’s behind the new framework. Razor is the ASP.NET programming syntax that Microsoft uses to create its C# (or VB.NET) dynamic pages. Now, you can create web applications using only C# and run them in a web browser.

Source: First Steps with Blazor – Simple Talk