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Paxton offers a product range including IP, wireless and battery powered access control solutions to provide reliable security for any site requirement.

We ordered one door access card reader & control unit, with it comes net2 software shipped, in wich you can manage users access cards (wich doors who can open and when, expiration date etc..)

I will use the access control for a gym, where members can open the front door with their personal (rfid) card, untill their membership expires.

There was no way to automatically re-activate the members card after they renewed their subscription online, but since the net2 software paxton develops has a net2 sdk available, I created a c# application that updates the user automatically.

In this case a simple console application would be enough, wich runs every 5 minutes, checking a directory for xml files.
If a member renews their subscription or a new member is created an xml is sent to the server where the application picks up the xml and updates / creates the user in the net2 database:

class Program
    {

        private const int REMOTE_PORT = 8025;
        private const string REMOTE_HOST = "IPADDRESS NET2 SERVER";
        private OemClient _net2Client = new OemClient(REMOTE_HOST, REMOTE_PORT);
        private static string logFile = string.Format("log/log-{0}-{1}-{2}.txt", DateTime.Now.Day.ToString(), DateTime.Now.Month.ToString(), DateTime.Now.Year.ToString());
        private string sourceDirectory = @"xml";
        private string archiveDirectory = @"archive\";
        private StreamWriter log = File.AppendText(logFile);

        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            Program main = new Program();
            main.startUp();
        }
        
        //Check if there are xml files with user updates in the directory
        public int startUp()
        {
            IEnumerable xmlFiles = Directory.EnumerateFiles(sourceDirectory, "*.xml");
            if (xmlFiles.Count() <= 0)
            {
                Log("Nothing to do, shutting down..");

                return 1;
            }

            bool res = AuthenticateUser("OEM Client", "password");
            if(res != true)
            {
                Log("Authentication failed, exiting application");
                return 1;
            }
            Log("Authentication success");
            //Check for available xml files
            loadAndParseXml(xmlFiles);
            return 1;
        }

        private void loadAndParseXml(IEnumerable xmlFiles)
        {      
            //Check if there are files
            foreach (string file in xmlFiles)
            {
                Log(file);
                string contents = File.ReadAllText(file);
                if(parseXml(contents) == true)
                {
                    string fileName = file.Substring(sourceDirectory.Length + 1);
                    File.Move(file, archiveDirectory + fileName);
                }
            }
        }

        private bool parseXml(string xmlstr)
        {
            Log("Parse XML");
            XElement users = XElement.Parse(xmlstr);
            Log(users.Name.ToString());
            if(users.Name.ToString() == "update")
            {
                Log("This user needs an update");
                updateUsers(users);
            }
            if(users.Name.ToString() == "create")
            {
                Log("This user needs an add");
                addUsers(users);
            }

            return true;
        }

        private DateTime stringToDateTime(string date)
        {
            // Date strings are interpreted according to the current culture. 
            // If the culture is en-US, this is interpreted as "January 8, 2008",
            // but if the user's computer is fr-FR, this is interpreted as "August 1, 2008" 
            
            DateTime dt = Convert.ToDateTime(date);

            return dt;
        }

        /**
        * Update existing users in Net2
        * Field9_50 is Emailaddress (don't ask me why)
        **/
        private void updateUsers(XElement users)
        {
            var data = from item in users.Descendants("user")
                       select new
                       {
                           email = item.Element("emailaddress").Value,
                           expiration = item.Element("expirationdate").Value,
                       };

            foreach (var p in data)
            {


                //IUser interface object is returned
                IUsers userList = _net2Client.ViewUserRecords(String.Format("Field9_50 = '{0}' AND active=1", p.email));

                if (userList.UsersList().Count - 1 > 1)
                {
                    Log("Houston, we've got a problem, multiple users!! Abort Abort!");
                    Environment.Exit(0);
                }

                //Since there is always only one user, we can assume the only one in the list is the correct user
                var user = userList.UsersList()[userList.UsersList().Keys.ElementAt(userList.UsersList().Count - 1)];

                DateTime expDate;
               
                expDate = stringToDateTime(p.expiration);

                string[] customFields = new string[] { "" };

                bool blnResult = false;

                blnResult = _net2Client.UpdateUserRecord(user.UserId,
                    user.AccessLevelId,
                    user.DepartmentId,
                    user.AntiPassbackUser,
                    user.AlarmUser,
                    user.FirstName,
                    user.MiddleName,
                    user.Surname,
                    user.Telephone,
                    user.Extension,
                    user.PIN,
                    user.Picture,
                    user.ActivationDate,
                    user.Active,
                    user.Fax,
                    expDate,
                    customFields);

                Log(string.Format("Update user Status: {0}, Name: {1}, ExpirationDate: {2}", blnResult, user.FirstName, expDate));

            }
        }

       /**
        * Authenticate user
        * For some reason we can't authenticate with username password, only with userId Password..
        * So we need to get the userId and Authenticate with it..
        **/
        private bool AuthenticateUser(string userName, string password)
        {
            IOperators operators = _net2Client.GetListOfOperators();
            Dictionary<int, string> operatorsList = operators.UsersDictionary();
            foreach (int userID in operatorsList.Keys)
            {
                if (operatorsList[userID] == userName)
                {
                    Dictionary<string, int> methodList = _net2Client.AuthenticateUser(userID, password);
                    return (methodList != null);
                }
            }
            return false;
        }

        private void Log(string logMessage)
        {
            Console.WriteLine(logMessage);
            log.Write("\r\nLog Entry : ");
            log.WriteLine("{0} {1} : {2}", DateTime.Now.ToShortDateString(),
            DateTime.Now.ToLongDateString(), logMessage);
            log.WriteLine("-------------------------------");
        }
}

The xml files that are added in the xml directory look like this:

<update>
<user>
	<email>[email protected]</email>
	<expiration>10-08-2016</expiration>
</user>
</update>

After the file has been parsed it will be moved to the archive folder, for later reference or checking.