.NET SDK

This page provides an in-depth introduction to the .NET SDK.

Overview

Cloudinary's .NET SDK provides simple, yet comprehensive image and video upload, transformation, optimization, and delivery capabilities that you can implement using code that integrates seamlessly with your existing .NET application.

Quick example: Transformations

Take a look at the following transformation code and the image it delivers:

This relatively simple code performs all of the following on the original front_face.jpg image before delivering it:

• Crop to a 150x150 thumbnail using face-detection gravity to automatically determine the location for the crop
• Round the corners with a 20 pixel radius
• Apply a sepia effect
• Overlay the Cloudinary logo on the southeast corner of the image (with a slight offset). The logo is scaled down to a 50 pixel width, with increased brightness and partial transparency (opacity = 60%)
• Rotate the resulting image (including the overlay) by 10 degrees
• Convert and deliver the image in PNG format (the originally uploaded image was a JPG)

And here's the URL that would be included in the image tag that's automatically generated from the above code:

In a similar way, you can transform a video.

Quick example: File upload

The following .NET code uploads the dog.mp4 video using the public_id, my_dog. The video will overwrite the existing video if that public_id already exists. When the video upload is complete, the specified notification URL will receive details about the uploaded media asset.

.NET library features

Cloudinary provides an open source .NET library for further simplifying the integration:

• Build URLs for image and video transformations
• View helper methods for embedding and transforming assets
• API wrappers: file upload, administration, sprite generation and more
• Server-side file upload + direct unsigned file upload from the browser using the jQuery plugin

The library is built for .NET Framework 4.x and .NET Core. You can use any .NET language with the library, and the library itself is written in C#. Our documentation includes examples both in C# and VB.NET.

Installation

The easiest way to start using Cloudinary's .NET library is to use Visual Studio and NuGet Package Manager. See NuGet Documentation for instructions of how to use NuGet packages. Below are the steps required to start a new project using Visual Studio and Cloudinary's .NET library.

1. Download NuGet Package Manager at https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=NuGetTeam.NuGetPackageManager.
2. Use Visual Studio to create a new project and choose the relevant .NET 4.x version as the target framework.
3. Right click on the project in the Solution Explorer window and click on the menu item 'Manage NuGet packages...'
4. Type CloudinaryDotNet in the search box at the upper right corner.
5. When CloudinaryDotNet package appears, click on the Install button.
6. After the package is installed, click the Close button.

Use CloudinaryDotNet and CloudinaryDotNet.Actions namespaces in your code:

For C#:

For VB.NET:

The library contains powerful helper methods for using directly from views. This documentation provides examples of the integration with Cloudinary's .NET library for the ASP.NET MVC v4.0 framework, for both Razor and ASPX view engines.

Using namespaces in view code:

For Razor/C#:

For Razor/VB.NET:

For ASPX (C# and VB.NET):

• https://github.com/cloudinary/CloudinaryDotNet
• https://www.nuget.org/packages/CloudinaryDotNet/

Configuration

To use the Cloudinary .NET library, you have to configure at least your cloud_name. An api_key and api_secret are also needed for secure API calls to Cloudinary (e.g., image and video uploads). You can find your product environment configuration credentials in the API Keys page of the Cloudinary Console.

In addition to the required configuration parameters, you can define a number of optional configuration parameters if relevant.

Setting the configuration parameters can be done globally, using either an environment variable or a constructor of the Cloudinary class, or programmatically in each call to a Cloudinary method. Parameters set in a call to a Cloudinary method override globally set parameters.

Setting the CLOUDINARY_URL environment variable

You can configure the required cloud_name, api_key, and api_secret by defining the CLOUDINARY_URL environment variable. Copy the API environment variable format from the API Keys page of the Cloudinary Console Settings. Replace <your_api_key> and <your_api_secret> with your actual values, while your cloud name is already correctly included in the format. When using Cloudinary through a PaaS add-on (e.g., Heroku or AppFog), this environment variable is automatically defined in your deployment environment. For example:

Append additional configuration parameters, for example upload_prefix and secure_distribution, to the environment variable:

Setting configuration parameters globally

Here's an example of setting configuration parameters in your .NET application:

For C#:

For VB.NET:

.NET capitalization and data type guidelines

When using the .NET SDK, keep these guidelines in mind:

• Parameter names: PascalCase. For example: PublicId
• Classes: PascalCase. For example: ImageUploadResults
• Methods: PascalCase. For example: GetCloudinaryJsConfig
• Pass parameter data as: Typed

Sample projects

To find additional useful code samples and learn how to integrate Cloudinary with your .NET applications, take a look at our Sample Projects. These projects are based on the ASP.NET MVC v4.0 framework and Razor view engine.

Basic sample: Uploading local and remote images to Cloudinary and generating various transformation URLs.

Photo Album: A fully working web application that allows you to uploads photos, maintain a database with references to them, list them with their metadata, and display them using various cloud-based transformations. Image uploading is performed both from the server side and directly from the browser using a jQuery plugin.