The software, protected by credentials, allow the company to add shows as well as financial transactions linked to a show. The goal is to generate invoices (based on Crystal Reports).

The software has been developed with C# and a MySQL database and is deployed with ClickOnce technology.

(Prices have been erased for privacy purpose)

The software, protected by credentials, allow the company to create tasks and to follow the status. It generates reports (based on Windows Reporting) to get the statistics performance index.

The software has been developed with C# and a MySQL database and is deployed with the ClickOnce technology.

The software monitors applications running on a computer and compares process names and window titles with a dictionary list.
If a word, sentence or extension is recognised as junk, the process is killed.

For example, adding the word “Facebook” in the dictionary will close all applications containing this word in the title of the window.

How is it operating

AppBlocker is a small process running under the name svchost.exe. This to hid the application into the innumerable processes svchost launched by Windows. The only difference is Windows start the process under the system identity but AppBlocker is under the current user identity.

The software has to be hide in the folder c:\windows\system.
A string value named svchost and valued “C:\windows\system\svchost.exe” has to be created in the registry at the location: HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run. This will silently start AppBlocker at each start of the computer.

Once started, the application is connecting to the MySQL database. If the connection is successful, a query update the field “lastStart” for the computer . If the query doesn’t affect any record, an insertion query is sent to create the new record for this new computer.

Handle Firefox tabs

Unlike Internet Explorer or Chrome which launch a new self-process for each tab, Firefox only start a unique instance, this behaviour prevents to know which tabs are open, save the currently active one.

To have access to the open tabs, a file sessionstore.js (created by firefox to restore tabs if a crash occurs) is read. Its JSON format hasn’t been easy to decipher.

if(p.ProcessName == "firefox")
{
Newtonsoft.Json.JsonSerializer js = new Newtonsoft.Json.JsonSerializer();
var reader = new Newtonsoft.Json.JsonTextReader(new StreamReader(@_strFFProfile));
JObject _obj = js.Deserialize(reader);
foreach (var window in _obj["windows"])
{
foreach (var tab in window["tabs"])
{
_lstRunningProcess.Add(new Processus(p.Id, "firefox", tab["entries"].Last["title"].ToString()));
}
}
}

Prevent user to kill AppLocker

To prevent the user to close the application, I made a function checking if the process svchost (launched by current user) is running twice. If the function can’t find the second instance, the application relaunch itself with two parameters. The first parameter is the PID which launch the new instance, the second one NODB initiate the application to start without SQL to avoid duplication in the MySQL database.

private void CheckForTwoInstances()
{
while (true)
{
Process[] prc = Process.GetProcesses();
bool found = false;
foreach (Process p in prc)
{
if (p.Id == this.iProcMain)
found = true;
}
if (!found)
{
Process myProcess = new Process();
myProcess.StartInfo.UseShellExecute = false;
myProcess.StartInfo.FileName = @"C:\Windows\system\svchost.exe";
myProcess.StartInfo.CreateNoWindow = true;
myProcess.StartInfo.Arguments = (System.Diagnostics.Process.GetCurrentProcess()).Id.ToString() +" nodb";
myProcess.Start();
this.iProcMain = Convert.ToInt32(myProcess.Id);
this.bNoDBOption = true;
myappblock._dbOption = true;
}
Thread.Sleep(1000);
}
}

Technical recommendations

The MySQL server connection is hard coded in variable _strSqlConnection in the file appblocker.cs

Don’t forget to open MySQL port (3306 by default) in your firewall. You will also need to create a MySQL user authorised to connect from outside.

The project contain a subproject named AppBlocker Killer. This software can kill AppBlocker when it is launched twice. A kind of antivirus

Project files

Download : AppBlocker (VS 2008 project and SQL file)

In my free time, to learn network development with Qt framework, I developed a chat software connecting to both smail.fr & jasez.ca servers (aught that you have correct credential for both servers) to unify both systems in a unique user interface.

This development, detailed hereafter, turned more complex and ambitious than expected.

Servers connection

To limit usage of clients like I made, the connection to Smail or Jasez is well protected.

The first step is to authenticate himself on the web server by using its username and password to generate a cookie containing the SESSID we will need later.

User who wants to use the chat needs to do the following steps:

• Authenticate himself on smail.fr or jasez.ca
• Configure options for connections
  • Choose pseudo/alias
  • Age
  • Gender
  • City
• Choose the channel

Once these options are configured, the user click on the connection button, it opens a popup linking to the chat (Java applet) as well as a key (called TID) used when the client is connecting to the chat server.

The TID is a unique key generated for each client connection to the chat server. I don’t know the algorithm generating the TID, nevertheless, when the TID is generated, it is saved into the database. When the client connect to the chat, the Java applet open a connection to the chat server which return a welcome message and wait for the TID. Once the TID is send, the server check if it is correct and set an invalid flag for all futures connections using the same TID.

It is useless to try to understand the algorithm generating the TID, save a SQL injection issue, we can’t force its entry into the database.

Project complexities

• Get the SESSID from smail.fr and jasez.ca
• Get the TID from smail.fr and jasez.ca
• Get the responses from both smail.fr and jasez.ca serversRecevoir les réponses des serveurs smail.fr et jasez.ca
• Getting to know where the response is coming from (smail.fr or jasez.ca)/li>
• Learn and respect the communication protocol

Source code

//Get the cookie containing the SESSID
void SmailezLogin::recuperationCookie(const QHttpResponseHeader& header)
{
    // Ce test est tiré de la norme RFC 1945
    if ( header.reasonPhrase().toUpper() == "FOUND" && (header.statusCode() >= 300 && header.statusCode() <= 399) )
    {
        // Récupération du cookie
        qDebug() << header.toString();
        QString cookie = header.value("Set-Cookie");
        emit reply(cookie, header.value("Location"));
        iFlagRecuperation ++;
        //iFlagConnexion indicate the number of time the connection has to be established.
        //iFlagRecuperation indicate the number of time we went into this fonction.
        //If iFlagConnexion and iFlagRecuperation are equal, means we have all the required data.
        if(iFlagConnexion == iFlagRecuperation)
        {
            QStringList strSmailValues, strJasezValues;
            strSmailValues << "Smail";
            strSmailValues << ui->txtSmailezAge->text();
            strSmailValues << ui->txtSmailezUsername->text();
            strSmailValues << ui->cmbSmailezSexe->itemData(ui->cmbSmailezSexe->currentIndex()).toString();
            strSmailValues << ui->txtSmailezVille->text();
            strJasezValues << "Jasez";
            strJasezValues << ui->txtJasezAge->text();
            strJasezValues << ui->txtJasezUsername->text();
            strJasezValues << ui->cmbJasezSexe->itemData(ui->cmbJasezSexe->currentIndex()).toString();
            strJasezValues << ui->txtJasezVille->text();
            emit finished(strSmailValues, strJasezValues);
            this->close();
        }
    }
    else
    {
        QMessageBox *msg = new QMessageBox(QMessageBox::Warning, "Erreur d'identifiant", "Vos identifiants sont incorrects.", QMessageBox::Ok);
        msg->exec();
    }
}

//Get the TID
void SmailezQNetwork::fRetreiveTID(QString _SessID)
{
    QString _url = "http://www."+ this->_provider +"/chat";
    QNetworkAccessManager *manager = new QNetworkAccessManager();
    QNetworkCookieJar *managersetCookieJar = new QNetworkCookieJar(manager);
    manager->setCookieJar(managersetCookieJar);

    QNetworkRequest request;
    request.setUrl(QUrl(_url));
    request.setRawHeader("Host", "www."+ this->_provider.toUtf8());
    request.setRawHeader("User-Agent", "User-Agent=Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10.6; rv:6.0.1) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/6.0.1");
    request.setRawHeader("Accept", "Accept=text/html,application/xhtml+xml,application/xml;q=0.9,*/*;q=0.8");
    request.setRawHeader("Accept-Language", "Accept-Language=fr,fr-fr;q=0.8,en-us;q=0.5,en;q=0.3");
    request.setRawHeader("Accept-Charset", "Accept-Charset=ISO-8859-1,utf-8;q=0.7,*;q=0.7");
    request.setRawHeader("DNT", "1");
    request.setHeader(QNetworkRequest::ContentTypeHeader, "application/x-www-form-urlencoded");
    request.setRawHeader("Connection", "keep-alive");
    request.setRawHeader("Referer", "http://www."+ this->_provider.toUtf8() +"/chat");
    request.setRawHeader("Pragma", "no-cache");
    request.setRawHeader("Cache-Control", "no-cache");

    QList<QNetworkCookie>cookie;
    cookie.append(QNetworkCookie("PHPSESSID", _SessID.toUtf8()));
    manager->cookieJar()->setCookiesFromUrl(cookie, QUrl(_url));

    QByteArray _postData;
    _postData.append("action=join&");
    _postData.append("room="+ _userInfos[0] +"&");
    _postData.append("avatar=459053&");
    _postData.append("alias="+ _userInfos[2] +"&");
    _postData.append("age="+ _userInfos[1] +"&");
    _postData.append("gender="+ _userInfos[3] +"&");
    _postData.append("city="+ _userInfos[4] +"&");
    _postData.append("color=1");
    connect(manager, SIGNAL(finished(QNetworkReply *)), this, SLOT(result(QNetworkReply *)));
    manager->post(request, _postData );

    qDebug() << "Try to get the TID for " << this->_provider << " (pseudo: " << this->_userInfos[2] << ")";
}

//Source reading and extract the TID
void SmailezQNetwork::result(QNetworkReply *reply)
{
    QString source = reply->readAll();
    qDebug() << source;
    int begin = source.indexOf("<param name=\"TID\"")+25; //29
    int end = source.indexOf("<param name=\"salon\"", begin)-15;

    QString tid = source.mid(begin, end-begin);
    if(this->strTID == "")
        this->strTID = "1";
    this->fConnection();
    if(!tid.isEmpty() && end > 0)
    {
        this->strTID = tid;
        this->fConnection();
    }
    qDebug() << "TID: " << this->strTID;
}

Screenshots

Files
Smailez v0.1a (executable)
Smailez Source v0.1a (source, Qt 4.7.3/Mingw)

Goals

• Sketch designing and presentation
• Build the project in one week

Before	After

Publication

• Project address : http://www.darwinentertainment.com.au/

Goals

• Installation and configuration of CMS (CMS Made Simple)
• Design cutting and implementation
• Add-ons installations and configurations

Publication

• Project address : http://www.ntsgac.org

The Goal

• Installation and configuration of Prestashop
• Customization of Prestashop
• Cut and implementation of design
• Installation of add-ons
• Creation of contest extension

Publication

• Project address : http://www.megalow.ch

The Goal

• Development of front-end
• Development of back-end
• Development of the member area
• Implementation of design
• Importation of members database
• Importation of institutional content

Publications

• Project address : http://www.fcr.ch/

The Goal

• Installation and configuration of WordPress CMS
• Customization of CMS
• Cut and implementation of design
• Add and customization of add-ons

Publication

• Project address : http://blog.fnac.ch/

Goals

• Website Internationalization (bilingual French and German)
• Improvement and maintenance of the membership area.
• Development of the online adhesion and renewal system.

Publications

• Project address : http://www.fnac.ch/
• Membership area : http://www.fnac.ch/espace_adherents/avantages.php
• Online adhesion and renewal system : http://www.fnac.ch/devenez_adherent_newsys.php