New to Telerik UI for ASP.NET AJAX? Download free 30-day trial

Caching Provider

Since the Q2 2013 SP1 release of Telerik® UI for ASP.NET AJAX, the RadCaptcha makes it possible to create a custom caching provider that allows specifying a storage for the captcha code different than the cache and the session.

The following example demonstrates how to utilize a MS SQL database for this purpose:

  1. In the folder App_Code of the web site, a custom class that inherits the abstract class BaseCaptchaCachingProvider is created. The code sample from Example 1 shows the implementation of such class, which uses a database CachingProviderDatabase with table Table_1 that has columns TableKey (type nvarchar) and TableContent (type varbinary):

  2. The custom caching provider is registered in the web.config of the web site by setting the fully qualified name of the storage type to the following key. If the captcha is used in a web application scenario, the namespace of the application may need to be included in the fully qualified name:

    XML

    <appSettings>
      <add key="Telerik.Web.CaptchaImageStorageProviderTypeName" value="DBImageStorageProvider, App_Code.lfcwuanr, Version=0.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=null"/>
    </appSettings>
    
  3. Finally, the property ImageStorageLocation of RadCaptcha is set to Custom:

    ASPNET

    <telerik:RadCaptcha ID="Captcha1" runat="server" ErrorMessage="The entered code is incorrect" CaptchaMaxTimeout="1"
       ImageStorageLocation="Custom">
    </telerik:RadCaptcha>
    

Example 1: Implementation of custom caching provider (MS SQL database) for RadCaptcha.

using System;
using System.Data.SqlClient;
using System.IO;
using System.Linq;
using System.Runtime.Serialization.Formatters.Binary;
using System.Web;
using Telerik.Web.UI;
using Telerik.Web.UI.Captcha;


public class DBImageStorageProvider : BaseCaptchaCachingProvider
{
    public DBImageStorageProvider(HttpContext context) : base(context)
    {
    }

    // Defines if a cache dependency should be applied to the cached object.
    public override bool ShouldAddCacheDependecy
    {
        get{ return true; }
    }

    // Saves the CachedImage into the storage.
    public override void Save(string key, CaptchaImage image)
    {
        using(var conn = GetConnection(connectionString))
        {
            conn.Open();
            using(var command = new SqlCommand("INSERT INTO [Table_1] ([TableKey], [TableContent]) VALUES (@key, @value)", conn))
            {
                using(var ms = SerializeImage(image))
                {
                    command.Parameters.Add(new SqlParameter("key", key));
                    command.Parameters.Add(new SqlParameter("value", ms));

                    command.ExecuteNonQuery();
                }
            }
        }
    }

    // Retrieves the cached image from the storage.
    public override CaptchaImage Load(string key)
    {
        CaptchaImage result = null;
        using(var conn = GetConnection(connectionString))
        {
            conn.Open();
            using(var command = new SqlCommand("SELECT [TableContent] FROM [Table_1] WHERE [TableKey] = @key", conn))
            {
                command.Parameters.Add(new SqlParameter("key", key));
                byte[] bData = (byte[])command.ExecuteScalar();

                using(var ms = new MemoryStream())
                {
                    result = DeserializeImage(bData, ms);
                }
            }
        }

        return result;
    }

    // Removes the cached image from the storage.
    public override void Clear(string key)
    {
        using(var conn = GetConnection(connectionString))
        {
            conn.Open();
            using(var command = new SqlCommand("DELETE FROM [Table_1] WHERE [TableKey] = @key", conn))
            {
                command.Parameters.Add(new SqlParameter("key", key));
                command.ExecuteNonQuery();
            }
        }
    }

    private static string connectionString = @"Data Source=.\SQLEXPRESS;AttachDbFilename=|DataDirectory|CachingProviderDatabase.mdf;Integrated Security=True;User Instance=True;";

    // Creates a new SQL connection.
    private SqlConnection GetConnection(string connString)
    {
        return new SqlConnection(connString);
    }

    // Serializes image to memory stream.
    private MemoryStream SerializeImage(CaptchaImage image)
    {
        var ms = new MemoryStream();
        var bFormatter = new BinaryFormatter();
        bFormatter.Serialize(ms, image);
        ms.Seek(0,0);

        return ms;
    }

    // De-serializes image from memory stream.
    private CaptchaImage DeserializeImage(byte[] bData, MemoryStream ms)
    {
        var bFormatter = new BinaryFormatter();

        ms.Write(bData, 0, bData.Length);
        ms.Seek(0, 0);

        return (CaptchaImage)bFormatter.Deserialize(ms);
    }
}           
Imports System.Data.SqlClient
Imports System.IO
Imports System.Linq
Imports System.Runtime.Serialization.Formatters.Binary
Imports System.Web
Imports Telerik.Web.UI
Imports Telerik.Web.UI.Captcha


    Public Class DBImageStorageProvider
        Inherits BaseCaptchaCachingProvider
        Public Sub New(context As HttpContext)
            MyBase.New(context)
        End Sub

        ' Defines if a cache dependency should be applied to the cached object.
        Public Overrides ReadOnly Property ShouldAddCacheDependecy() As Boolean
            Get
                Return True
            End Get
        End Property

        ' Saves the CachedImage into the storage.
        Public Overrides Sub Save(key As String, image As CaptchaImage)
            Using conn = GetConnection(connectionString)
                conn.Open()
                Using command = New SqlCommand("INSERT INTO [Table_1] ([TableKey], [TableContent]) VALUES (@key, @value)", conn)
                    Using ms = SerializeImage(image)
                        command.Parameters.Add(New SqlParameter("key", key))
                        command.Parameters.Add(New SqlParameter("value", ms))

                        command.ExecuteNonQuery()
                    End Using
                End Using
            End Using
        End Sub

        ' Retrieves the cached image from the storage.
        Public Overrides Function Load(key As String) As CaptchaImage
            Dim result As CaptchaImage = Nothing
            Using conn = GetConnection(connectionString)
                conn.Open()
                Using command = New SqlCommand("SELECT [TableContent] FROM [Table_1] WHERE [TableKey] = @key", conn)
                    command.Parameters.Add(New SqlParameter("key", key))
                    Dim bData As Byte() = DirectCast(command.ExecuteScalar(), Byte())

                    Using ms = New MemoryStream()
                        result = DeserializeImage(bData, ms)
                    End Using
                End Using
            End Using

            Return result
        End Function

        ' Removes the cached image from the storage.
        Public Overrides Sub Clear(key As String)
            Using conn = GetConnection(connectionString)
                conn.Open()
                Using command = New SqlCommand("DELETE FROM [Table_1] WHERE [TableKey] = @key", conn)
                    command.Parameters.Add(New SqlParameter("key", key))
                    command.ExecuteNonQuery()
                End Using
            End Using
        End Sub

        Private Shared connectionString As String = "Data Source=.\SQLEXPRESS;AttachDbFilename=|DataDirectory|CachingProviderDatabase.mdf;Integrated Security=True;User Instance=True;"

        ' Creates a new SQL connection.
        Private Function GetConnection(connString As String) As SqlConnection
            Return New SqlConnection(connString)
        End Function

        ' Serializes image to memory stream.
        Private Function SerializeImage(image As CaptchaImage) As MemoryStream
            Dim ms = New MemoryStream()
            Dim bFormatter = New BinaryFormatter()
            bFormatter.Serialize(ms, image)
            ms.Seek(0, 0)

            Return ms
        End Function

        ' De-serializes image from memory stream.
        Private Function DeserializeImage(bData As Byte(), ms As MemoryStream) As CaptchaImage
            Dim bFormatter = New BinaryFormatter()

            ms.Write(bData, 0, bData.Length)
            ms.Seek(0, 0)

            Return DirectCast(bFormatter.Deserialize(ms), CaptchaImage)
        End Function
    End Class
In this article