ClearTools.Abstraction 1.1.0

ClearTools

A comprehensive .NET Standard 2.1 utility library providing robust, production-ready tools for common development tasks. ClearTools offers utilities for string manipulation, cryptography, image processing, Azure services integration, HTTP client operations, and much more.

👁 NuGet Version
👁 License: MIT

🚀 Quick Start

Installation

dotnet add package ClearTools

Basic Usage

using ClearTools.Extensions;
using Clear.Tools;

// String extensions
string text = "Hello 123 World!";
int number = text.ToInt32(); // Extracts numbers: 123
string cleaned = StringUtility.StripSymbols(text); // Removes symbols, preserves spaces: "Hello 123 World"

// Image processing
var scaledImage = ImageUtility.ScaleImage(originalImage, 800, 600);

// Cryptography
string salt = Crypto.CreateSalt();
string hash = Crypto.EncodeSHA256("password", salt);

// OTP generation
var otpResult = OtpUtility.GenerateCode("user@example.com", 12345, TimeSpan.FromMinutes(5));

� Connection String Framework

NEW! Strongly-typed, attribute-driven configuration framework for parsing and managing connection strings and key-value configuration strings.

Key Features

• ✅ Strongly-typed connection strings with compile-time safety
• ✅ Attribute-driven property mapping with [ConnectionStringKey]
• ✅ Built-in validation using [Required] attribute
• ✅ 10+ pre-built types for Azure and non-Azure services
• ✅ DI integration via AddConnectionString<T>()
• ✅ Customizable delimiters, escaping, and case sensitivity
• ✅ Bidirectional parsing and serialization (ToString())
• ✅ Extensible - easily create custom configuration types

Quick Example

using ClearTools.Configuration.BuiltIn;
using ClearTools.Extensions;

// Parse SQL Server connection string
var sqlConfig = new SqlServerConnectionString(
 "Server=localhost;Database=MyDb;User Id=sa;Password=mypass");

Console.WriteLine(sqlConfig.Server); // "localhost"
Console.WriteLine(sqlConfig.Database); // "MyDb"

// Register with DI
services.AddConnectionString<SqlServerConnectionString>(
 configuration, "ConnectionStrings:MyDatabase");

// Inject into services
public class MyService
{
 public MyService(SqlServerConnectionString config)
 {
 _connectionString = config.ToString();
 }
}

Built-in Connection String Types

Azure Services:

• ServiceBusConnectionString - Azure Service Bus
• AppConfigurationConnectionString - Azure App Configuration
• KeyVaultConnectionString - Azure Key Vault
• SqlServerConnectionString - SQL Server / Azure SQL
• CosmosDbConnectionString - Azure Cosmos DB
• BlobStorageConnectionString - Azure Blob Storage

Non-Azure Services:

• MongoDbConnectionString - MongoDB
• PostgreSqlConnectionString - PostgreSQL
• RedisConnectionString - Redis
• RabbitMqConnectionString - RabbitMQ

Custom Configuration Types

public class MyServiceConfig : ConnectionStringBase
{
 [ConnectionStringKey("ApiUrl")]
 [Required]
 public string? ApiUrl { get; set; }
 
 [ConnectionStringKey("ApiKey")]
 [Required]
 public string? ApiKey { get; set; }
 
 [ConnectionStringKey("Timeout")]
 public int? Timeout { get; set; }
 
 public MyServiceConfig(string connectionString) 
 : base(connectionString) { }
}

// Store in Key Vault as single string
// "ApiUrl=https://api.example.com;ApiKey=secret123;Timeout=30"

// Use with DI
services.AddConnectionString<MyServiceConfig>(keyVaultSecret);

Advanced Features

• Custom delimiters: Use |, ,, or any delimiter instead of ;
• Escaping support: Include delimiters in values with \;
• Case sensitivity: Configure case-sensitive or insensitive key matching
• Validation: Required properties throw exceptions if missing
• Serialization: Convert back to string with ToString() (excludes nulls)

See for comprehensive examples.

�📋 Table of Contents

• Connection String Framework
• Core Utilities
• Extension Methods
• Azure Integration
• HTTP Client
• Middleware
• Data Models
• Installation & Setup
• Examples
• Documentation
• Publishing to NuGet
• Contributing
• License

🔧 Core Utilities

String Utilities (StringUtility)

Comprehensive string manipulation and processing tools:

// URL and SEO-friendly string generation
string urlKey = StringUtility.GenerateUrlKey("My Blog Post Title!"); // "my-blog-post-title"

// HTML and symbol stripping
string cleanText = StringUtility.StripHTML("<p>Hello <b>World</b></p>"); // "Hello World"
string alphanumeric = StringUtility.StripSymbols("Hello @World! 123"); // "Hello World 123"

// Date-based unique identifiers
string dateCode = StringUtility.GetDateCode(); // File time-based code
string updateId = StringUtility.AddUpDate(); // Timestamp-based ID

// Tag generation
string tags = StringUtility.GenerateTags("tag1", "tag2", "tag3"); // "tag1,tag2,tag3"

Image Processing (ImageUtility)

Advanced image manipulation capabilities:

// Image scaling with aspect ratio preservation
Image scaledImage = ImageUtility.ScaleImage(sourceImage, 800, 600, ImageSizePreference.Width);

// Image cropping and resizing
Image croppedImage = ImageUtility.CropImage(sourceBitmap, 300, 300);
Bitmap resizedImage = ImageUtility.ResizeImage(sourceImage, 400, 300);

// Format conversion
byte[] imageBytes = ImageUtility.ConvertBitmapToBytes(bitmap, ImageFormat.Jpeg);
string base64Image = ImageUtility.ConvertImageToBase64(image, ImageFormat.Png);

// High-quality JPEG saving
ImageUtility.SaveJpegToFile("output.jpg", image, quality: 85);

Cryptography & Security

Encryption (Encryption)

string key = "MySecretEncryptionKeyThatIsLongEnough123"; // 32+ chars required
string encrypted = Encryption.Encrypt("sensitive data", key);
string decrypted = Encryption.Decrypt(encrypted, key);

Cryptography (Crypto)

// Hashing algorithms
string salt = Crypto.CreateSalt(128);
string sha256Hash = Crypto.EncodeSHA256("password", salt);
string sha512Hash = Crypto.EncodeSHA512("password", salt);
string sha1Hash = Crypto.EncodeSHA1("password");

// Base64 encoding/decoding
string encoded = Crypto.EncodeBase64("text to encode");
string decoded = Crypto.DecodeBase64(encoded);

OTP (One-Time Password) Utilities (OtpUtility)

// Generate OTP with custom expiry
var otpResult = OtpUtility.GenerateCode("user@example.com", 12345, TimeSpan.FromMinutes(5));
Console.WriteLine($"Code: {otpResult.Code}, Expires: {otpResult.ExpiryTime}");

// Validate OTP
bool isValid = OtpUtility.ValidateCode("user@example.com", 12345, "123456", otpResult.ExpiryTime);

Number Base Conversion (BaseConverter)

Convert numbers between different bases and formats:

// Convert from any base to decimal
long decimal = BaseConverter.ConvertToDecimal("1010", 2); // Binary to decimal: 10
long hexDecimal = BaseConverter.ConvertToDecimal("FF", 16); // Hex to decimal: 255

// Convert decimal to any base
string binary = BaseConverter.ConvertFromDecimal(10, 2); // "1010"
string hex = BaseConverter.ConvertFromDecimal(255, 16); // "FF"

// Convert to alphabetic representation
string alpha = BaseConverter.ConvertToAlpha(26); // "BA"

EditorJS Integration (EditorJS)

Parse and convert EditorJS content to HTML:

// Parse EditorJS JSON to HTML
string html = EditorJS.Parse(editorJsJsonString);

// Supports: headers, paragraphs, lists, images, embeds (YouTube, Vimeo)

🔌 Extension Methods

String Extensions (StringExtensions)

Powerful string manipulation extensions:

// Value toggling
string toggled = "active".Toggle("inactive"); // "inactive"

// Case-insensitive operations 
bool contains = "Hello World".Search("WORLD"); // true
bool equals = "Hello".EqualsNoCase("HELLO"); // true

// Number and symbol extraction
string numbers = "abc123def456".ExtractNumbers(); // "123456"
string clean = "Hello;World*".StripSymbols(); // "HelloWorld" (removes specific symbols)

// Type conversions
int number = "abc123".ToInt32(); // 123
decimal price = "Price: $29.99".ToDecimal(); // 29.99

// CSV processing
List<string> items = "apple,banana,cherry".ToListFromCsv();
HashSet<string> uniqueItems = "apple,banana,apple".ToHashSetFromCsv();

DateTime Extensions (DateTimeExtensions)

Enhanced DateTime formatting:

DateTime now = DateTime.Now;
string dateStr = now.ToDateString(); // "15/Aug/2025"
string dateTimeStr = now.ToDateTimeString(); // "15/Aug/2025 14:30:15"

StringBuilder Extensions (StringBuilderExtensions)

NEW in v3.2.1 - Fluent conditional string building:

using System.Text;
using ClearTools.Extensions;

var sb = new StringBuilder();

// Conditionally append content based on boolean conditions
sb.AppendIfTrue(isActive, "Active")
 .AppendIfTrue(hasWarnings, " (warnings)")
 .AppendLineIfTrue(isComplete, "Process complete");

// Example: Build dynamic messages
bool isAdmin = true;
bool hasErrors = false;
string message = new StringBuilder()
 .Append("User logged in")
 .AppendIfTrue(isAdmin, " with admin privileges")
 .AppendIfTrue(hasErrors, " - errors detected")
 .ToString();
// Result: "User logged in with admin privileges"

// Example: Conditional HTML generation
var html = new StringBuilder()
 .Append("<div class='user'")
 .AppendIfTrue(isPremium, " premium")
 .AppendIfTrue(isVerified, " verified")
 .AppendLine(">")
 .AppendLineIfTrue(showDetails, "<p>User details...</p>")
 .Append("</div>");

☁️ Azure Integration

Azure App Configuration Integration (AppConfigurationExtensions)

NEW in v3.2.0 - Comprehensive Azure App Configuration support with advanced features:

// Define settings class with regular config and feature flags
public class AppSettings
{
 public string DatabaseConnectionString { get; set; }
 
 [AppConfigurationKey("MyApp:ApiKey")]
 public string ApiKey { get; set; }
 
 public int MaxRetries { get; set; }
 
 // Feature flags (bool/bool? only)
 [FeatureFlag("enable-new-ui")]
 public bool NewUiEnabled { get; set; }
 
 [FeatureFlag("beta-features")]
 public bool? BetaFeaturesEnabled { get; set; }
}

// Web Applications - Using Managed Identity (recommended for Azure)
var builder = WebApplication.CreateBuilder(args);
builder.AddAppConfigurationForWebApplication<AppSettings>(
 appConfigEndpoint: new Uri("https://myapp.azconfig.io"),
 out AppSettings settings,
 label: "Production", // Environment-specific config
 keyFilter: "MyApp:*", // Filter keys by prefix
 credential: new DefaultAzureCredential()
);

// Web Applications - Using Connection String (flexible)
builder.AddAppConfigurationForWebApplication<AppSettings>(
 connectionString: Environment.GetEnvironmentVariable("AppConfigConnectionString"),
 out AppSettings settings,
 label: "Staging"
);

// Azure Functions - Direct client access with environment fallback
hostBuilder.AddAppConfigurationForAzureFunctions<AppSettings>(
 appConfigEndpoint: new Uri("https://myapp.azconfig.io"),
 out AppSettings functionSettings,
 skipDevelopment: true // Uses environment variables in dev
);

// Optional: Configuration refresh with sentinel keys
var refreshOptions = new AppConfigurationRefreshOptions
{
 EnableRefresh = true,
 RefreshInterval = TimeSpan.FromMinutes(5), // Minimum 30s recommended
 SentinelKeys = new[] { "AppSettings:Version" }, // Trigger refresh
 OnRefreshError = ex => logger.LogWarning(ex, "Config refresh failed")
};

builder.AddAppConfigurationForWebApplication<AppSettings>(
 appConfigEndpoint: new Uri("https://myapp.azconfig.io"),
 out AppSettings settings,
 refreshOptions: refreshOptions
);

Key Features:

• ✅ Label-based environment configs (Production, Staging, Development)
• ✅ Key filtering with wildcards (MyApp:*, Database:*)
• ✅ Attribute-based feature flags with bool validation
• ✅ Optional auto-refresh with sentinel keys
• ✅ Managed Identity or connection string authentication
• ✅ Development fallback to environment variables
• ✅ Automatic type conversion and error handling

Key Vault Integration (KeyVaultExtensions)

Robust Azure Key Vault integration for secrets management:

// Define your settings class
public class AppSettings
{
 public string DatabaseConnectionString { get; set; }
 
 [KeyVaultKey("api-key")]
 public string ApiKey { get; set; }
}

// For ASP.NET Web Applications
var builder = WebApplication.CreateBuilder(args);
builder.AddKeyVaultForWebApplication<AppSettings>(
 keyVaultUri: "https://your-keyvault.vault.azure.net/",
 out AppSettings settings
);

// For Azure Functions
hostBuilder.AddKeyVaultForAzureFunctions<AppSettings>(
 keyVaultUri: "https://your-keyvault.vault.azure.net/",
 out AppSettings functionSettings
);

Azure Storage (AzureStorageManager)

Azure Blob Storage operations:

string connectionString = "DefaultEndpointsProtocol=https;AccountName=...";

// Upload operations
AzureStorageManager.UploadToAzure(connectionString, "container", stream, "application/pdf", "file.pdf", "folder");

// Download operations 
AzureStorageManager.DownloadFromAzure(connectionString, "container", fileInfo, "folder");

// Check folder existence
bool exists = AzureStorageManager.AzureFolderExists(connectionString, "container", "folder");

Service Collection Extensions (ServicesExtensions)

Automatic service registration by interface:

// Register all services implementing IService
services.AddScopedServicesByInterface<IService>();
services.AddSingletonServicesByInterface<IRepository>();
services.AddTransientServicesByInterface<IValidator>();

🌐 HTTP Client

API Client (ApiClient)

Comprehensive HTTP client with built-in error handling and serialization:

// Initialize
var apiClient = new ApiClient(httpClient);

// GET with various options
var user = await apiClient.GetAsync<User>("https://api.example.com/users/1");
var userWithAuth = await apiClient.GetAsync<User>("https://api.example.com/users/1", bearerToken);

// POST operations
var response = await apiClient.PostAsync("https://api.example.com/users", newUser);
var createdUser = await apiClient.PostAsync<User, User>("https://api.example.com/users", newUser);

// reCAPTCHA validation
var captchaResult = await apiClient.ValidateGoogleCaptcharAsync(secretKey, response, remoteIp);

🛡️ Middleware

Request Validation Middleware (RequestValidationMiddleware)

ASP.NET Core middleware for API key validation with flexible path exclusion:

// Basic setup
services.AddRequestValidation("your_secret_api_key", skipForDevelopment: true);
app.UseRequestValidation();

// With excluded paths (e.g., health checks, public endpoints)
services.AddRequestValidation(
 "your_secret_api_key", 
 skipForDevelopment: true,
 skipRootEndPoint: true,
 excludedPaths: new[] { "/health", "/api/public", "/webhooks" }
);
app.UseRequestValidation();

// Using RequestValidationOption for more control
var options = new RequestValidationOption(
 validationKey: "your_secret_api_key",
 skipForDevelopment: true,
 skipForRootEndPoint: true,
 excludedPaths: new[] { "/health", "/metrics", "/api/public" }
);
services.AddSingleton(new RequestValidationMiddleware(options));
app.UseRequestValidation();

// Client usage - include key in headers
client.DefaultRequestHeaders.Add("key", "your_secret_api_key");

Features:

• API Key Validation: Validates incoming requests using a header-based key
• Development Skip: Optionally skip validation for localhost during development
• Root Endpoint Skip: Optionally skip validation for the root endpoint (/)
• Path Exclusion: Exclude specific paths from validation (case-insensitive)
  • Supports exact path matching: /health matches only /health
  • Supports prefix matching: /api/public matches /api/public, /api/public/users, etc.
• Flexible Configuration: Use simple parameters or RequestValidationOption for advanced scenarios

Common Use Cases for Excluded Paths:

• Health check endpoints (/health, /healthz)
• Metrics endpoints (/metrics, /prometheus)
• Public API routes (/api/public)
• Webhook receivers that use their own validation
• Static file paths or public documentation

📊 Data Models

Smart Enums (SmartEnum<TEnum>)

Type-safe enumeration base class with value and name support:

// Define your SmartEnum
public class OrderStatus : SmartEnum<OrderStatus>
{
 public static readonly OrderStatus Pending = new OrderStatus("Pending", 1);
 public static readonly OrderStatus Processing = new OrderStatus("Processing", 2);
 public static readonly OrderStatus Shipped = new OrderStatus("Shipped", 3);
 public static readonly OrderStatus Delivered = new OrderStatus("Delivered", 4);
 
 private OrderStatus(string name, int value) : base(name, value) { }
}

// Usage examples
var status = OrderStatus.Parse(2); // Get by value: Processing
var statusByName = OrderStatus.Parse("Shipped"); // Get by name: Shipped

// List all values
foreach (var status in OrderStatus.List())
{
 Console.WriteLine($"{status.Name}: {status.Value}");
}

// Type-safe comparisons
OrderStatus current = OrderStatus.Processing;
if (current.Equals(OrderStatus.Processing))
{
 Console.WriteLine("Order is being processed");
}

Features:

• Type-safe enumeration pattern
• Parse by value or name (case-insensitive)
• List all enum values
• Strongly-typed with compile-time safety
• Thread-safe initialization

Fluent Dictionary (FluentDictionary<TKey, TValue>)

Chainable dictionary operations with fluent API:

using Clear;

// Create and populate in one fluent chain
var config = new FluentDictionary<string, string>()
 .Add("host", "localhost")
 .Add("port", "5432")
 .Add("database", "mydb")
 .Add("username", "admin");

// Use the static factory method
var settings = FluentDictionary<string, int>.Create("timeout", 30)
 .Add("retries", 3)
 .Add("maxConnections", 100);

// Chain Add and Remove operations
var userPrefs = new FluentDictionary<string, bool>()
 .Add("darkMode", true)
 .Add("notifications", true)
 .Add("autoSave", false)
 .Remove("autoSave")
 .Add("autoSave", true);

// All Dictionary<TKey, TValue> methods available
bool hasKey = config.ContainsKey("host");
bool hasValue = config.TryGetValue("port", out string portValue);

Features:

• Fluent, chainable API for dictionary operations

• Returns this for method chaining on Add() and Remove()

• Static Create() factory method for initialization

• Inherits all standard Dictionary<TKey, TValue> functionality

• Type-safe with full generic support

• Simplifies builder pattern and configuration setup

• ValidationCodeResult: OTP generation results with code and expiry

• CaptcherResponse: Google reCAPTCHA validation response

• EditorJS Models: Complete data structures for EditorJS content parsing

📦 Installation & Setup

Package Installation

# Via .NET CLI
dotnet add package ClearTools

# Via PackageReference 
<PackageReference Include="ClearTools" Version="3.1.0" />

Dependencies

ClearTools targets .NET Standard 2.1 and includes:

• Azure.Storage.Blobs (12.25.0)
• Azure.Security.KeyVault.Secrets (4.8.0)
• Newtonsoft.Json (13.0.3)
• System.Drawing.Common (9.0.8)
• Microsoft.AspNetCore.Http.Abstractions (2.3.0)

📖 Examples

Complete Image Processing Pipeline

public class ImageProcessor
{
 public async Task<string> ProcessAndUploadImage(IFormFile file)
 {
 using var stream = file.OpenReadStream();
 var image = Image.FromStream(stream);
 
 // Process image
 var scaledImage = ImageUtility.ScaleImage(image, 800, 600);
 var imageBytes = ImageUtility.ConvertBitmapToBytes((Bitmap)scaledImage, ImageFormat.Jpeg);
 
 // Generate unique filename
 var fileName = StringUtility.GenerateFileName(file.FileName, "jpg");
 
 // Upload to Azure
 using var uploadStream = new MemoryStream(imageBytes);
 AzureStorageManager.UploadToAzure(connectionString, "images", uploadStream, "image/jpeg", fileName, "uploads");
 
 return fileName;
 }
}

OTP Service Implementation

public class OtpService
{
 private readonly int _secretKey = 123456;

 public ValidationCodeResult GenerateOtp(string email)
 {
 return OtpUtility.GenerateCode(email, _secretKey, TimeSpan.FromMinutes(5));
 }

 public bool ValidateOtp(string email, string code, DateTime expiry)
 {
 return OtpUtility.ValidateCode(email, _secretKey, code, expiry);
 }
}

📚 Documentation

For comprehensive documentation covering all methods and use cases, see:

• - Detailed documentation with examples for every class and method
• API Reference - Complete API documentation
• - Version history and changes

🏷️ Features Summary

✅ String Utilities: URL generation, HTML stripping, text processing
✅ Image Processing: Scaling, cropping, format conversion, quality optimization
✅ Cryptography: Hashing, encryption, salt generation, secure tokens
✅ OTP Management: Generation, validation, expiry handling
✅ Azure Integration: Key Vault, Blob Storage, managed identity support
✅ HTTP Client: RESTful API client with authentication and serialization
✅ Extensions: String, DateTime, Byte array, and service collection extensions
✅ Middleware: Request validation, API key authentication
✅ EditorJS: Content parsing and HTML conversion
✅ Base Conversion: Number base conversion utilities
✅ File Management: File I/O operations and utilities

📦 Publishing to NuGet

This repository includes a GitHub Actions workflow that manually publishes both NuGet packages (ClearTools and ClearTools.Abstraction) to nuget.org.

Setup

1. Create a NuGet API key on nuget.org (scope it to the package IDs you publish).
2. Add the secret to GitHub:
   • Go to Settings → Secrets and variables → Actions → New repository secret
   • Name: NUGET_API_KEY
   • Value: your nuget.org API key

Running the workflow

1. Go to the Actions tab in this repository.
2. Select "Publish NuGet Packages" from the left sidebar.
3. Click "Run workflow" → "Run workflow" to trigger a manual publish.

The workflow will restore, build (Release), pack both projects, and push all .nupkg files to nuget.org, skipping any versions that are already published.

🤝 Contributing

We welcome contributions! Please see our for details.

📄 License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the file for details.

📞 Support

• Issues: GitHub Issues
• NuGet Package: ClearTools on NuGet
• Documentation:

ClearTools - Making .NET development clearer, one utility at a time. 🚀