Enabling remote desktop connection on ubuntu on Azure

Enable remote desktop connection on ubuntu VM on azure

There may be instances when you will need to setup a Linux/Ubuntu VM on a public cloud like azure do quickly do some Poc instead of bothering your own local machine which may not be linux based.

Create Ubuntu (v 18 in my case) VM (Resource Managed)

ssh into VM with Putty

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install lxde

sudo apt-get install xrdp

echo startlxde > ~/.xsession

sudo /etc/init.d/xrdp start

open port 3389 in Azure firewall

RDP to Ubuntu desktop :)

Steps to Open Port 3389 on VM

1. Sign in to the Azure portal.
2. In Virtual Machines, select the VM that has the problem.
3. In Settings, select Networking. 
4. In Inbound port rules, check whether the port for RDP is set correctly. The following is an example of the configuration:
1. Priority: 300 (set 310 if 300 is already taken)
2. Name: Port_3389
3. Port(Destination): 3389
4. Protocol: TCP
5. Source: Any
6. Destinations: Any
7. Action: Allow

All Set!

Creating Azure SQL Login and Assigning them permission

Creating Read-Only Users on Azure SQL

If you have admin rights please follow the following steps to create a read-only or a user with login who can just run select queries on azure sql.

1. Login to the Database Server as Admin and Select Master Database and run the following queries

--This will create a Login on the Server

CREATE LOGIN READ_USER WITH PASSWORD = 'StrongPassword';

2. Create User in the Database where the Read-Only permission is required

--Select the Database where you will be assigning the Read-only permission and run below command

CREATE USER READ_USER FROM LOGIN READ_USER ;

3. Assign db_datareader persmission to the user on the database

--Select the Database where you will be assigning read permission and run below query

EXEC sp_addrolemember 'db_datareader', 'READ_USER ';

Reference : https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/adding-users-to-your-sql-azure-database/

Linking Jupyter Notebook with Spark on ubuntu 16

Starting Jupyter Notebook with Apache Spark

Required Variable Setup

Open a terminal and enter command to edit the profile variable

$ gedit ~/.bashrc

Once the window opens, enter the following two lines

export PYSPARK_DRIVER_PYTHON=ipython

export PYSPARK_DRIVER_PYTHON_OPTS="notebook"

Once done hit save and exit the terminal.

Running the Notebook with Spark Cluster

Assuming that its a local standalone cluster, we can start it using the following commands

$ pyspark --master local[2]

How To Set Up a Jupyter Notebook to Run IPython on Ubuntu 16.04

Copied from : https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/how-to-set-up-a-jupyter-notebook-to-run-ipython-on-ubuntu-16-04

Introduction

IPython is an interactive command-line interface to Python. Jupyter Notebook offers an interactive web interface to many languages, including IPython.
This article will walk you through setting up a server to run Jupyter Notebook as well as teach you how to connect to and use the notebook. Jupyter notebooks (or simply notebooks) are documents produced by the Jupyter Notebook app which contain both computer code (e.g. Python) and rich text elements (paragraph, equations, figures, links, etc.) which aid in presenting reproducible research.
By the end of this guide, you will be able to run Python 2.7 code using Ipython and Jupyter Notebook running on a remote server. For the purposes of this tutorial, Python 2 (2.7.x) is used since many of the data science, scientific computing, and high-performance computing libraries support 2.7 and not 3.0+.

Prerequisites

To follow this tutorial, you will need the following:

• Ubuntu 16.04 Droplet
• Non-root user with sudo privileges (Initial Server Setup with Ubuntu 16.04 explains how to set this up.)

All the commands in this tutorial should be run as a non-root user. If root access is required for the command, it will be preceded by sudo. Initial Server Setup with Ubuntu 16.04 explains how to add users and give them sudo access.

Step 1 — Installing Python 2.7 and Pip

In this section we will install Python 2.7 and Pip.
First, update the system's package index. This will ensure that old or outdated packages do not interfere with the installation.

sudo apt-get update

Next, install Python 2.7, Python Pip, and Python Development:

sudo apt-get -y install python2.7 python-pip python-dev

Installing python2.7 will update to the latest version of Python 2.7, and python-pip will install Pip which allows us to manage Python packages we would like to use. Some of Jupyter’s dependencies may require compilation, in which case you would need the ability to compile Python C-extensions, so we are installing python-dev as well.
To verify that you have python installed:

python --version

This will output:

Output
Python 2.7.11+

Depending on the latest version of Python 2.7, the output might be different.
You can also check if pip is installed using the following command:

pip --version

You should something similar to the following:

Output
pip 8.1.1 from /usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages (python 2.7)

Similarly depending on your version of pip, the output might be slightly different.

Step 2 — Installing Ipython and Jupyter Notebook

In this section we will install Ipython and Jupyter Notebook.
First, install Ipython:

sudo apt-get -y install ipython ipython-notebook

Now we can move on to installing Jupyter Notebook:

sudo -H pip install jupyter

Depending on what version of pip is in the Ubuntu apt-get repository, you might get the following error when trying to install Jupyter:

Output
You are using pip version 8.1.1, however version 8.1.2 is available.
You should consider upgrading via the 'pip install --upgrade pip' command.

If so, you can use pip to upgrade pip to the latest version:

sudo -H pip install --upgrade pip

Upgrade pip, and then try installing Jupyter again:

sudo -H pip install jupyter

Step 3 — Running Jupyter Notebook

You now have everything you need to run Jupyter Notebook! To run it, execute the following command:

jupyter notebook

If you are running Jupyter on a system with JavaScript installed, it will still run, but it might give you an error stating that the Jupyter Notebook requires JavaScript:

Output
Jupyter Notebook requires JavaScript.
Please enable it to proceed.
...

To ignore the error, you can press Q and then press Y to confirm.
A log of the activities of the Jupyter Notebook will be printed to the terminal. When you run Jupyter Notebook, it runs on a specific port number. The first notebook you are running will usually run on port 8888. To check the specific port number Jupyter Notebook is running on, refer to the output of the command used to start it:

Output
[I NotebookApp] Serving notebooks from local directory: /home/sammy
[I NotebookApp] 0 active kernels 
[I NotebookApp] The Jupyter Notebook is running at: http://localhost:8888/
[I NotebookApp] Use Control-C to stop this server and shut down all kernels (twice to skip confirmation).

If you are running Jupyter Notebook on a local Linux computer (not on a Droplet), you can simply navigate to localhost:8888 to connect to Jupyter Notebook. If you are running Jupyter Notebook on a Droplet, you will need to connect to the server using SSH tunneling as outlined in the next section.
At this point, you can keep the SSH connection open and keep Jupyter Notebook running or can exit the app and re-run it once you set up SSH tunneling. Let's keep it simple and stop the Jupyter Notebook process. We will run it again once we have SSH tunneling working. To stop the Jupyter Notebook process, press CTRL+C, type Y, and hit ENTER to confirm. The following will be displayed:

Output
[C 12:32:23.792 NotebookApp] Shutdown confirmed
[I 12:32:23.794 NotebookApp] Shutting down kernels

Step 4 — Connecting to the Server Using SSH Tunneling

In this section we will learn how to connect to the Jupyter Notebook web interface using SSH tunneling. Since Jupyter Notebook is running on a specific port on the Droplet (such as :8888, :8889 etc.), SSH tunneling enables you to connect to the Droplet's port securely.
The next two subsections describe how to create an SSH tunnel from 1) a Mac or Linux and 2) Windows. Please refer to the subsection for your local computer.

SSH Tunneling with a Mac or Linux

If you are using a Mac or Linux, the steps for creating an SSH tunnel are similar to the How To Use SSH Keys with DigitalOcean Droplets using Linux or Mac guide except there are additional parameters added in the ssh command. This subsection will outline the additional parameters needed in the ssh command to tunnel successfully.
SSH tunneling can be done by running the following SSH command:

ssh -L 8000:localhost:8888 your_server_username@your_server_ip

The ssh command opens an SSH connection, but -L specifies that the given port on the local (client) host is to be forwarded to the given host and port on the remote side (Droplet). This means that whatever is running on the second port number (i.e. 8888) on the Droplet will appear on the first port number (i.e. 8000) on your local computer. You should change 8888 to the port which Jupyter Notebook is running on. Optionally change port 8000 to one of your choosing (for example, if 8000 is used by another process). Use a port greater or equal to 8000 (ie 8001, 8002, etc.) to avoid using a port already in use by another process. server_username is your username (i.e. sammy) on the Droplet which you created and your_server_ip is the IP address of your Droplet. For example, for the username sammy and the server address 111.111.111.111, the command would be:

ssh -L 8000:localhost:8888 sammy@111.111.111.111

If no error shows up after running the ssh -L command, you can run Jupyter Notebook:

jupyter notebook

Now, from a web browser on your local machine, open the Jupyter Notebook web interface with http://localhost:8000 (or whatever port number you chose).

SSH Tunneling with Windows and Putty

If you are using Windows, you can also easily create an SSH tunnel using Putty as outlined in How To Use SSH Keys with PuTTY on DigitalOcean Droplets (Windows users).
First, enter the server URL or IP address as the hostname as shown:

Next, click SSH on the bottom of the left pane to expand the menu, and then click Tunnels. Enter the local port number to use to access Jupyter on your local machine. Choose 8000 or greater (ie 8001, 8002, etc.) to avoid ports used by other services, and set the destination as localhost:8888 where :8888 is the number of the port that Jupyter Notebook is running on. Now click the Add button, and the ports should appear in the Forwarded ports list:

Finally, click the Open button to connect to the server via SSH and tunnel the desired ports. Navigate to http://localhost:8000 (or whatever port you chose) in a web browser to connect to Jupyter Notebook running on the server.

Step 5 — Using Jupyter Notebook

This section goes over the basics of using Jupyter Notebook. By this point you should have Jupyter Notebook running, and you should be connected to it using a web browser. Jupyter Notebook is very powerful and has many features. This section will outline a few of the basic features to get you started using the notebook. Automatically, Jupyter Notebook will show all of the files and folders in the directory it is run from.
To create a new notebook file, select New > Python 2 from the top right pull-down menu:

This will open a notebook. We can now run Python code in the cell or change the cell to markdown. For example, change the first cell to accept Markdown by clicking Cell > Cell Type > Markdown from the top navigation bar. We can now write notes using Markdown and even include equations written in LaTeX by putting them between the $$ symbols. For example, type the following into the cell after changing it to markdown:

# Simple Equation

Let us now implement the following equation:
$$ y = x^2$$

where $x = 2$

To turn the markdown into rich text, press CTRL+ENTER, and the following should be the results:

You can use the markdown cells to make notes and document your code. Let's implement that simple equation and print the result. Select Insert > Insert Cell Below to insert and cell and enter the following code:

x = 2
y = x*x
print y

To run the code, press CTRL+ENTER. The following should be the results:

You now have the ability to include libraries and use the notebook as you would with any other Python development environment!

Conclusion

Congratulations! You should be now able to write reproducible Python code and notes using markdown using Jupyter notebook running on a Droplet. To get a quick tour of Jupyter notebook, select Help > User Interface Tour from the top navigation menu.

R Script arguments from Command Line

Passing RScript arguments from Command Line

There may be situations where you might want to execute R scripts from command line and passing appropriate arguments as batch. So here is an example below

C:\Users\UserName\Documents\>

"C:\Program Files\R\R-3.3.0\bin\RScript.exe" args.R 2016-08-01 28 1 30 > args.t

In the above I have specified the location of the RScript.exe on my local computer and args.R is the R script that I want to run from command line and the arguments are 2016-08-01 which is a Date in the format yyyy-mm-dd, then 28 and then 1 and 30 and the result of the execution will get saved in args.txt file which is the output of the execution.

Here is the sample R script code below

#READ THE ARGUMENTS

args <- commandArgs(TRUE)

# test if there is at least one argument: if not, return an error

if (length(args)==0) {

  stop("First parameter is a required argumenst.n", call.=FALSE)

} 

print(args)

#GETTING ARGUMENT OF THE R SCRIPT.

startDate <- as.Date(args[1])

sId <- eval(parse(text=args[2]))

min <- eval(parse(text=args[3]))

max <- eval(parse(text=args[4]))

#write the variables as observations of a dataframe

columnNames <- c('sId', 'startDate', 'min', 'max')

columnValues <- c(sId, startDate, min, max)

df = data.frame(columnNames, columnValues)

str(df)

print(df)

write.csv(df, file = "C:/args.csv", row.names=F)

The data frame created above gets saved as a csv file for review. Please note internally Date is represented as integer in R.

Self-Signed Certificates with Microsoft Enhanced RSA and AES Cryptographic Provider

Creating Enhanced SHA256 self-signed certificates

There are 2 options to create self-signed certificates very easily

using windows makecert

The following command can be run from the command prompt to create a self-signed certificate. Based on location of the makecert.exe on you machine, the path might differ. I am using a Windows 8.1

"C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Kits\8.1\bin\x86\makecert.exe" -n "CN=Local" -r -pe -a sha256 -len 2048 -cy authority -e 03/03/2017 -sv Local.pvk Local.cer

"C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Kits\8.1\bin\x86\pvk2pfx.exe" -pvk Local.pvk -spc Local.cer -pfx Local.pfx -po MyPassword -sy 24

using openSSL

you can use openSSL that comes with Apache Webserver to get the same thing done as follows

openssl.exe req -x509 -nodes -sha256 -days 3650 -subj "/CN=Local" -newkey rsa:2048 -keyout Local.key -out Local.crt

openssl.exe pkcs12 -export -in Local.crt -inkey Local.key -CSP "Microsoft Enhanced RSA and AES Cryptographic Provider" -out Local.pfx

Difference Between Above two

One major and most important difference between the 2 above is makecert is not able to create the certificate file with CSP of 24 as provided as provided as parameter so while using this *pfx file to sign any XML as SHA256 will give exception like "Invalid Algorithm Specified" because the CSP value remains 1 instead of 24.

The one created by Open SSL will come out with correct CSP value and will give any errors.

Check Keys of Generated Certificate

You can write a small test program to test the Keys generated by the certificates in the above 2 methods.

class Program

    {

        static void Main(string[] args)

        {

            var x509Certificate = new X509Certificate2(@"Local.pfx", 

                "LocalSTS", X509KeyStorageFlags.Exportable);

            Console.WriteLine(x509Certificate.ToString(true));

            Console.ReadLine();

        }

    }

Azure SQL query slow performance

Azure SQL Intermittently slow at intervals

If you do not have any maintenance job scheduled on the database, then you will need to run some maintenance queries to update the stats if your data in the database is having frequent inserts and updates. Here is  how you can do it as below

Connect to your database from SSMS (SQL Server Management Studio), or another client of your choosing.

Update all your tables data distribution statistics, with a 100% sampling rate (Fullscan). This data is used by the query optimizer to choose an execution plan for the queries, and it’s vital that they are updated to get effective execution plans.

---------------------------Update statistics of all database tables
DECLARE @sql nvarchar(MAX);
SELECT @sql = (SELECT 'UPDATE STATISTICS ' + DB_NAME() + '.' + rtrim(sc.name) + '.' + rtrim(so.name) + ' WITH FULLSCAN, ALL; '
from sys.sysobjects so
join sys.schemas sc
on so.uid = sc.schema_id
where so.xtype = 'U'
               FOR XML PATH(''), TYPE).value('.', 'nvarchar(MAX)');
PRINT @sql
EXEC (@sql)
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Then follow with a recompilation of all objects, by using sp_recompile.

This causes stored procedures, triggers, and user-defined functions to be recompiled the next time that they are run. It does this by dropping the existing plan from the procedure cache forcing a new plan to be created the next time that the procedure or trigger is run. This ensures the new data distribution statistics or indexes are used in execution plans.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
--Force recompilation of all objects

SET QUOTED_IDENTIFIER OFF
DECLARE @sql nvarchar(MAX);
SELECT @sql = (SELECT "EXEC sp_recompile '" + rtrim(sc.name) + "." + rtrim(so.name) + "' "
from sys.sysobjects so
join sys.schemas sc
on so.uid = sc.schema_id
where so.xtype = "U"
               FOR XML PATH(''), TYPE).value('.', 'nvarchar(MAX)');
PRINT @sql
EXEC (@sql)
SET QUOTED_IDENTIFIER ON
----------------------------------------------------------------------
References

UPDATE STATISTICS (Transact-SQL)

https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms187348.aspx

sp_recompile (Transact-SQL)

https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms181647.aspx  

jquery ui autosuggest dropdown in ASP.NET

Jquery UI Autosugget dropdown in ASP.NET

Very recently, I came across a requirement where I have a conventional ASP.NET site which has a dropdown, I have to make

1. Enabling filtering on the dropdown by its bound text.

2. Provide another search field which will enable search by the Id and the same will get selected in the auto suggest dropdown.

Problem : The default jquery ui events in the demos of their official site will not have this functionality, since its an existing dropdown which is used in numerous places in the code behind, its not really advisable to change the code behind.

Solution : We know for sure that the dropdown is bound to values in the code behind, all we have to do is to enable filtering by its text, which is pretty straight forward with the jquery ui in play.

Now coming to 2nd part, here we have to bind the source of the search field by the values of the dropdown that is already bound in the code behind. Then we have to enable search by id not by the text and select the appropriate dropdown item on select of the search field.

The following code snippet just does that.

First bind the dropdown in the code behind, (please note that this already existed)

//bind dropdown

            ddLangs.Items.Clear();

            ddLangs.Items.Add(new ListItem("select", "0"));

            ddLangs.Items.Add(new ListItem("vb.net", "1"));

            ddLangs.Items.Add(new ListItem("c#", "2"));

            ddLangs.Items.Add(new ListItem("java", "3"));

            ddLangs.Items.Add(new ListItem("pascal", "4"));

Secondly Add the Search elements to the form and enclose the existing dropdown in a div and style class

<p>

        Search lang Id:<input type="text" id="autoLangs" style="width:500px;" /><input type="hidden" id="autoLangId" />

        <span id="autoResult"></span>

    </p>

    

        Languages : <div class="ui-widget"><asp:DropDownList ID="ddLangs" runat="server"></asp:DropDownList></div>

Thirdly add the javscript starting with the reference to the UI and Jquery libraries needed to refer and then the custom style and coding, I have highlighted the calls that initiates the combobox feature and the search by ID feature.

<script src="https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.11.2/jquery.min.js"></script>

<link rel="stylesheet" href="https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jqueryui/1.11.3/themes/smoothness/jquery-ui.css" />

    <script src="https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jqueryui/1.11.3/jquery-ui.min.js"></script>

<style>

        .ui-autocomplete { 

        /* these sets the height and width */

        max-height:200px; 

        max-width: 500px; 

        /* these make it scroll for anything outside */

        overflow-x:auto;

        overflow-y:auto;

        }

      .custom-combobox {

        position: relative;

        display: inline-block;

      }

      .custom-combobox-toggle {

        position: absolute;

        top: 0;

        bottom: 0;

        margin-left: -1px;

        padding: 0;

      }

      .custom-combobox-input {

        margin: 0;

        padding: 5px 10px;

      }

    </style>

    <script type="text/javascript">

        $(document).ready(function () {

            (function ($) {

                $.widget("custom.combobox", {

                    _create: function () {

                        this.wrapper = $("<span>")

                      .addClass("custom-combobox")

                      .insertAfter(this.element);

                        this.element.hide();

                        this._createAutocomplete();

                        this._createShowAllButton();

                    },

                    _createAutocomplete: function () {

                        var selected = this.element.children(":selected"),

                      value = selected.val() ? selected.text() : "";

                        this.input = $("<input>")

                      .appendTo(this.wrapper)

                      .val(value)

                      .attr("title", "")

                      .addClass("custom-combobox-input ui-widget ui-widget-content ui-state-default ui-corner-left")

                      .css("width", "500px")

                      .autocomplete({

                          delay: 0,

                          minLength: 0,

                          source: $.proxy(this, "_source")

                      })

                      .tooltip({

                          tooltipClass: "ui-state-highlight"

                      });

                        this._on(this.input, {

                            autocompleteselect: function (event, ui) {

                                //alert('select fired');

                                //search ruleId text box value set as dropRules

                                $("#autoLangs").val('');

                                $("#autoLangId").val('0');

                                $("#autoResult").text('');

                                ui.item.option.selected = true;

                                this._trigger("select", event, {

                                    item: ui.item.option

                                });

                            },

                            autocompletechange: "_removeIfInvalid"

                        });

                    },

                    _createShowAllButton: function () {

                        var input = this.input,

                      wasOpen = false;

                        $("<a>")

                      .attr("tabIndex", -1)

                      .attr("title", "Show All Items")

                      .tooltip()

                      .appendTo(this.wrapper)

                      .button({

                          icons: {

                              primary: "ui-icon-triangle-1-s"

                          },

                          text: false

                      })

                      .removeClass("ui-corner-all")

                      .addClass("custom-combobox-toggle ui-corner-right")

                      .mousedown(function () {

                          wasOpen = input.autocomplete("widget").is(":visible");

                      })

                      .click(function () {

                          input.focus();

                          // Close if already visible

                          if (wasOpen) {

                              return;

                          }

                          // Pass empty string as value to search for, displaying all results

                          input.autocomplete("search", "");

                      });

                    },

                    _source: function (request, response) {

                        var matcher = new RegExp($.ui.autocomplete.escapeRegex(request.term), "i");

                        response(this.element.children("option").map(function () {

                            var text = $(this).text();

                            if (this.value && (!request.term || matcher.test(text)))

                                return {

                                    label: text,

                                    value: text,

                                    option: this

                                };

                        }));

                    },

                    _removeIfInvalid: function (event, ui) {

                        try {

                            // Selected an item, nothing to do

                            if (ui.item) {

                                return;

                            }

                            // Search for a match (case-insensitive)

                            var value = this.input.val(),

                          valueLowerCase = value.toLowerCase(),

                          valid = false;

                            this.element.children("option").each(function () {

                                if ($(this).text().toLowerCase() === valueLowerCase) {

                                    this.selected = valid = true;

                                    return false;

                                }

                            });

                            // Found a match, nothing to do

                            if (valid) {

                                return;

                            }

                            // Remove invalid value

                            this.input

                          .val("")

                          .attr("title", value + " didn't match any item")

                          .tooltip("open");

                            this.element.val("");

                            this._delay(function () {

                                this.input.tooltip("close").attr("title", "");

                            }, 2500);

                            this.input.autocomplete("instance").term = "";

                        }

                        catch (e) {

                        }

                    },

                    autocomplete: function (searchVal, searchTxt) {

                        this.element.val(searchVal);

                        this.input.val(searchTxt);

                        // Search for a match (case-insensitive)

                        var value = this.input.val(),

                      valueLowerCase = value.toLowerCase(),

                      valid = false;

                        this.element.children("option").each(function () {

                            if ($(this).text().toLowerCase() === valueLowerCase) {

                                this.selected = valid = true;

                                return false;

                            }

                        });

                        // Found a match, nothing to do

                        if (valid) {

                            return;

                        }

                    },

                    _destroy: function () {

                        this.wrapper.remove();

                        this.element.show();

                    }

                });

            })(jQuery);

            $(function () {

                $('#<%= ddLangs.ClientID %>').combobox();

                bindAutoSuggest();

            });

            

        });

        //bind auto suggest search

        function bindAutoSuggest() {

            var rules = [];

            var rule = { value: "", label: "", desc: "" };

            $('#<%= ddLangs.ClientID %>' + ' option').each(function () {

                var rule = { value: $(this).val(), label: $(this).val() + '-' + $(this).text(), desc: $(this).text() }

                rules.push(rule);

            });

            $("#autoLangs").autocomplete({

                minLength: 0,

                source: rules,

                focus: function (event, ui) {

                    $("#autoLangs").val(ui.item.label);

                    return false;

                },

                select: function (event, ui) {

                    $("#autoLangs").val(ui.item.label);

                    $("#autoLangId").val(ui.item.value);

                    $("#autoResult").text('You selected ruleId : ' + $("#autoLangId").val());

                    var selectedRuleId = $("#autoLangId").val();

                    var selectedText = ui.item.desc;

                    $('#<%= ddLangs.ClientID %>').combobox('autocomplete', selectedRuleId, selectedText);

                    return false;

                }

            });

        }

       

        

    </script>

asp.net mvc 4 json post max limit problem

Sending Long JSON complex objects content length problem

While working on a project, I was faced with a very difficult to resolve issue. At first it was very difficult to detect what was wrong and then what boiled down to was that my JSON complex object that I was POSTing back to the server on ajax call was too big and hence the server was not able to handle it.

Problem

In my scenario, the call from the client side was an ajax post call to the MVC controller and the mvc site is actually running as a subsite of the main asp.net website. An initial search on the google will give you resolutions like below

var jsonResult = Json(dataPlot, JsonRequestBehavior.AllowGet);

jsonResult.maxJsonLength = int.MaxValue;

return jsonResult;

Possible configuration change

<configuration>

    <system.web.extensions>

        <scripting>  

             <webServices>                                                   

                 <jsonSerialization maxJsonLength="1000000" />                 

             </webServices>

        </scripting>

    </system.web.extensions>

</configuration>

But believe me, none of the above will resolve the issue as the inbuilt Javascript serializer is not going to check this setting while serializing and deserializing data to the object.

Solution

I came across a blogpost from a gentleman called Robert and his explanation seemed very good. I went with the jquery plugin that he wrote and it actually resolved my issue. I am going to paste the jquery plugin that he wrote and also how I have called it in my code to resolve it is pasted below.

Call from my Code

Here you can see below I have commented the datatype and content type of Json and used the plugin to convert it to a dictionary of object.

$.ajax({

                    url: '@Url.Action("save", "CmpgnView")',

                    type: 'POST',

                    //dataType: 'json',

                    //contentType: 'application/json; charset=utf-8',

                    //data: JSON.stringify(reqObj),

                    data: $.toDictionary(reqObj),

                    async: false,

                    success: function (data) {

                      //do something

                    },

                    error: function (data, status, xhr) {

                       alert("Error: " + xhr.status + " : " + xhr.statusText);

                    }

                });

Controller Method on Server Side

[HttpPost]

        public async Task<ActionResult> save(Req req)

        {

            string userId = UserId;

            Response result = await Task.Run(() =>

            {

                return validateAndSave(req, userId);

            });

            return Json(result);

            

        }

Jquery Plugin Code from this WebSite

Please also read the explanations given by Robert, its excellent from his blog

(http://erraticdev.blogspot.com/2010/12/sending-complex-json-objects-to-aspnet.html)

/*!

 * jQuery toDictionary() plugin

 *

 * Version 1.2 (11 Apr 2011)

 *

 * Copyright (c) 2011 Robert Koritnik

 * Licensed under the terms of the MIT license

 * http://www.opensource.org/licenses/mit-license.php

 */

(function ($) {

    // #region String.prototype.format

    // add String prototype format function if it doesn't yet exist

    if ($.isFunction(String.prototype.format) === false)

    {

        String.prototype.format = function () {

            var s = this;

            var i = arguments.length;

            while (i--)

            {

                s = s.replace(new RegExp("\\{" + i + "\\}", "gim"), arguments[i]);

            }

            return s;

        };

    }

    // #endregion

    // #region Date.prototype.toISOString

    // add Date prototype toISOString function if it doesn't yet exist

    if ($.isFunction(Date.prototype.toISOString) === false)

    {

        Date.prototype.toISOString = function () {

            var pad = function (n, places) {

                n = n.toString();

                for (var i = n.length; i < places; i++)

                {

                    n = "0" + n;

                }

                return n;

            };

            var d = this;

            return "{0}-{1}-{2}T{3}:{4}:{5}.{6}Z".format(

                d.getUTCFullYear(),

                pad(d.getUTCMonth() + 1, 2),

                pad(d.getUTCDate(), 2),

                pad(d.getUTCHours(), 2),

                pad(d.getUTCMinutes(), 2),

                pad(d.getUTCSeconds(), 2),

                pad(d.getUTCMilliseconds(), 3)

            );

        };

    }

    // #endregion

    var _flatten = function (input, output, prefix, includeNulls) {

        if ($.isPlainObject(input))

        {

            for (var p in input)

            {

                if (includeNulls === true || typeof (input[p]) !== "undefined" && input[p] !== null)

                {

                    _flatten(input[p], output, prefix.length > 0 ? prefix + "." + p : p, includeNulls);

                }

            }

        }

        else

        {

            if ($.isArray(input))

            {

                $.each(input, function (index, value) {

                    _flatten(value, output, "{0}[{1}]".format(prefix, index));

                });

                return;

            }

            if (!$.isFunction(input))

            {

                if (input instanceof Date)

                {

                    output.push({ name: prefix, value: input.toISOString() });

                }

                else

                {

                    var val = typeof (input);

                    switch (val)

                    {

                        case "boolean":

                        case "number":

                            val = input;

                            break;

                        case "object":

                            // this property is null, because non-null objects are evaluated in first if branch

                            if (includeNulls !== true)

                            {

                                return;

                            }

                        default:

                            val = input || "";

                    }

                    output.push({ name: prefix, value: val });

                }

            }

        }

    };

    $.extend({

        toDictionary: function (data, prefix, includeNulls) {

            /// <summary>Flattens an arbitrary JSON object to a dictionary that Asp.net MVC default model binder understands.</summary>

            /// <param name="data" type="Object">Can either be a JSON object or a function that returns one.</data>

            /// <param name="prefix" type="String" Optional="true">Provide this parameter when you want the output names to be prefixed by something (ie. when flattening simple values).</param>

            /// <param name="includeNulls" type="Boolean" Optional="true">Set this to 'true' when you want null valued properties to be included in result (default is 'false').</param>

            // get data first if provided parameter is a function

            data = $.isFunction(data) ? data.call() : data;

            // is second argument "prefix" or "includeNulls"

            if (arguments.length === 2 && typeof (prefix) === "boolean")

            {

                includeNulls = prefix;

                prefix = "";

            }

            // set "includeNulls" default

            includeNulls = typeof (includeNulls) === "boolean" ? includeNulls : false;

            var result = [];

            _flatten(data, result, prefix || "", includeNulls);

            return result;

        }

    });

})(jQuery);

Reading XML in SQL Server 2005/2008

XML Processing in SQL Server

SQL Server has very good support for reading/processing XML. Here are some of the examples below with different XML structures. I found it extremely handy when using them for passing as collections to stored procedures.

Example 1: Entire data is passed as an attribute so that the XML is short formed. The below example shows how to read the element name along with the attribute value.

SQL :  DECLARE @xml XML = 

'<root>

<offer old="old1" new="new1" module="1" />

<offer old="old2" new="new2" module="2" />

</root>'

SELECT  T.c.value('local-name(.)[1]', 'varchar(100)') AS Element,

        T.c.value('@new', 'varchar(20)') as New

FROM   @xml.nodes('/root/offer') T(c);

Example 2: XML had Node value and as well as attributes

SQL : 

DECLARE @xml XML = 

'

<root>

<item>

    <node1 offer="1">2.09</node1>

    <node2 offer="2">2.97</node2>

</item>

</root>

'

SELECT  T.c.value('local-name(.)[1]', 'varchar(100)') AS Element,

        T.c.value('./text()[1]', 'decimal(17,2)') AS Value,

        T.c.value('@offer', 'varchar(20)') as Offer

FROM   @xml.nodes('//item/child::node()') T(c);

Both the above examples (xml structures), have been very effective and useful ones for me.