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• CodePlex Daily Summary for Sunday, June 17, 2012

  CodePlex Daily Summary for Sunday, June 17, 2012Popular ReleasesXDA ROM Hub: XDA ROM Hub v0.35 Beta: Download and install stock ROM -- Not all ROMS are online. Flash CWM On locked bootloader. Root. Unroot. Flash kernels. Flash system image Erase system. Erase boot. Erase Data and Cache. Install update.zip. Install ROM addons. Install Boot animations. Unlock bootloader. Please rate and reviewCodename 'Chrometro': Developer Preview: Welcome to the Codename 'Chrometro' Developer Preview! This is the very first public preview of the app. Please note that this is a highly primitive build and the app is not even half of what it is meant to be. The Developer Preview sports the following: 1) An easy to use application setup. 2) The Assistant which simplifies your task of customization. 3) The partially complete Metro UI. 4) A variety of settings 5) A partially complete web browsing experience To get started, download the Ins...Cosmos (C# Open Source Managed Operating System): Release 92560: Prerequisites Visual Studio 2010 - Any version including Express. Express users must also install Visual Studio 2010 Integrated Shell runtime VMWare - Cosmos can run on real hardware as well as other virtualization environments but our default debug setup is configured for VMWare. VMWare Player (Free). or Workstation VMWare VIX API 1.11AutoUpdaterdotNET : Autoupdate for VB.NET and C# Developer: AutoUpdater.NET 1.1: Release Notes *New feature added that allows user to select remind later interval.Sumzlib: API document: API documentMicrosoft SQL Server Product Samples: Database: AdventureWorks 2008 OLTP Script: Install AdventureWorks2008 OLTP database from script The AdventureWorks database can be created by running the instawdb.sql DDL script contained in the AdventureWorks 2008 OLTP Script.zip file. The instawdb.sql script depends on two path environment variables: SqlSamplesDatabasePath and SqlSamplesSourceDataPath. The SqlSamplesDatabasePath environment variable is set to the default Microsoft ® SQL Server 2008 path. You will need to change the SqlSamplesSourceDataPath environment variable to th...HigLabo: HigLabo_20120613: Bug fix HigLabo.Mail Decode header encoded by CP1252Jasc (just another script compressor): 1.3.1: Updated Ajax Minifier to 4.55.WipeTouch, a jQuery touch plugin: 1.2.0: Changes since 1.1.0: New: wipeMove event, triggered while moving the mouse/finger. New: added "source" to the result object. Bug fix: sometimes vertical wipe events would not trigger correctly. Bug fix: improved tapToClick handler. General code refactoring. Windows Phone 7 is not supported, yet! Its behaviour is completely broken and would require some special tricks to make it work. Maybe in the future...Phalanger - The PHP Language Compiler for the .NET Framework: 3.0.0.3026 (June 2012): Fixes: round( 0.0 ) local TimeZone name TimeZone search compiling multi-script-assemblies PhpString serialization DocDocument::loadHTMLFile() token_get_all() parse_url()BlackJumboDog: Ver5.6.4: 2012.06.13 Ver5.6.4 　(1) Web???????、???POST??????????????????CRM 2011 ERD Designer: CRM 2011 ERD Designer: CRM 2011 ERD Designer BETA version is now availableBumblebee: Version 0.3.1: Changed default config values to decent ones. Restricted visibility of Hive.fs to internal. Added some XML documentation. Added Array.shuffle utility. The dll is also available on NuGet My apologies, the initial source code referenced was missing one file which prevented it from building The source code contains two examples, one in C#, one in F#, illustrating the usage of the framework on the Travelling Salesman Problem: Source CodeSharePoint XSL Templates: SPXSLT 0.0.9: Added new template FixAmpersands. Fixed the contents of the MultiSelectValueCheck.xsl file, which was missing the stylesheet wrapper.ExcelFileEditor: .CS File: nothingWeapsy - ASP.NET MVC CMS: 1.0.0 RC: - Upgrade to Entity Framework 4.3.1 - Added AutoMapper custom version (by nopCommerce Team) - Added missed model properties and localization resources of Plugin Definitions - Minor changes - Fixed some bugsXenta Framework - extensible enterprise n-tier application framework: Xenta Framework 1.8.0 Beta: Catalog and Publication reviews and ratings Store language packs in data base Improve reporting system Improve Import/Export system A lot of WebAdmin app UI improvements Initial implementation of the WebForum app DB indexes Improve and simplify architecture Less abstractions Modernize architecture Improve, simplify and unify API Simplify and improve testing A lot of new unit tests Codebase refactoring and ReSharpering Utilize Castle Windsor Utilize NHibernate ORM ...Microsoft Ajax Minifier: Microsoft Ajax Minifier 4.55: Properly handle IE extension to CSS3 grammar that allows for multiple parameters to functional pseudo-class selectors. add new switch -braces:(new|same) that affects where opening braces are placed in multi-line output. The default, "new" puts them on their own new line; "same" outputs them at the end of the previous line. add new optional values to the -inline switch: -inline:(force|noforce), which can be combined with the existing boolean value via comma-separators; value "force" (which...Microsoft Media Platform: Player Framework: MMP Player Framework 2.7 (Silverlight and WP7): Additional DownloadsSMFv2.7 Full Installer (MSI) - This will install everything you need in order to develop your own SMF player application, including the IIS Smooth Streaming Client. It only includes the assemblies. If you want the source code please follow the link above. Smooth Streaming Sample Player - This is a pre-built player that includes support for IIS Smooth Streaming. You can configure the player to playback your content by simplying editing a configuration file - no need to co...Liberty: v3.2.1.0 Release 10th June 2012: Change Log -Added -Liberty is now digitally signed! If the certificate on Liberty.exe is missing, invalid, or does not state that it was developed by "Xbox Chaos, Open Source Developer," your copy of Liberty may have been altered in some (possibly malicious) way. -Reach Mass biped max health and shield changer -Fixed -H3/ODST Fixed all of the glitches that users kept reporting (also reverted the changes made in 3.2.0.2) -Reach Made some tag names clearer and more consistent between m...New ProjectsAir Sanity: its a Project for a Microsoft ContestAsp.Net Settings Checking: Simple page for review all settings for web application ASP.Net 2.0. Ex: email setting, MS SQL setting,...ATH Commander: Projekt tworzony na zaliczenie przedmiotuCold Flame Youtube Library: .net library to download youtube videos, get youtube video titles and rip audio from a youtube videoComponentModelEx: This project add functionalities to handle the INotifyPropertyChanged interface. It also includes a bit of the MVVM pattern.CRUD Services: Provides a single generic CRUD service that can handle CRUD operations for any entity. Includes wrappers for supporting backend frameworks like Entity Framework and Linq-To-Sql, as well as for communication stacks like WCF and ASP.NET Web API.DotNetNuke Persian Packages: ???? ????? ? ???? ??? ?? ???? ???? 6.1.5 ???? ????? ??? ?? ???? - ??? ?? ?? ??FactureManger: With Facture manager you can easily create products, users, business partners and add them into Factures. This application can help to any business. GetSP2010ListIDs: This application is most useful while performing a manual deployment or backup/restore of SP2010 sites/lists/libraries from one environment to anotherKTOP Homeworks: ???????? ??????? ?? ?????Minecraft Italian Utility: Applicazione originariamente pubblicata su minecraftitalia.net, qui ci saranno le release e gli aggiornamenti My_first_Codeplex_project: My first Codeplex projectOAuth .NET Client: This project implements an OAuth client library in C# .NET.Painter: Hello! This is the help file for the Painter program. With this file you will be introduced into the futures of the program and the secrets of the program. PDN C++ AMP Effects: Paint.NET Gaussian blur effect written in C++ AMPThe East Wedding: This is a website for the East WeddingXDesigner.Writer: .XDesigner.Writer is a Document Editor like MS Word , Written in 100% C# code , without any the 3th part component , without RTF Text box , MS Word component or

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• Making a login Using JavaScript, Will Incorporate PHP Later

  - by TIMOTHY

  not sure why my code wont work, im teaching myself javascript i know php moderatly and i also know the intelligence of using java to hold a password and username, but at the moment i just want the script to work. <html> <head> <title>34webs</title> <link rel="stylesheet" href="css/lightbox.css" type="text/css" media="screen" /> <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" media="screen" href="main.css"> <script type="text/javascript" src="js/prototype.js"></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="js/scriptaculous.js?load=effects,builder"></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="js/lightbox.js"></script> <script type="javascript" > function logintry (){ var usern = document.logn.username.value; var passw = document.logn.password.value; if(usern == blue && passw == bluee){ alert('password is correct!'); }else{ alert('password is wrong'); } } </script> </head> <body> <div id="bod"> <div id="nav"> <p id="buttonhead">34 web</p> <a href="#" class="button">HOME</a> <a href="#" class="button">NEWS</a> <a href="#" class="button">DOWNLOADS</a> <a href="#" class="button">ERA</a> <a href="#" class="button">IE BROWSER</a> <a href="#" class="button">DRIVERS</a> <form name="logn"> <table style="margin:0 auto; background:#0174DF; color:white;"> <tr> <td> Username<br> <input type="text" name="username" value=""> </td> </tr> <tr> <td> Password<br> <input type="password" name="password" value=""> </td> </tr> <tr> <td style="text-align:center;"> <input type="button" name="Submit" value="submit" onclick= javascript: logintry()> </td> </tr> </table> </form> </div>

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• clojure.algo.monad strange m-plus behaviour with parser-m - why is second m-plus evaluated?

  - by Mark Fisher

  I'm getting unexpected behaviour in some monads I'm writing. I've created a parser-m monad with (def parser-m (state-t maybe-m)) which is pretty much the example given everywhere (here, here and here) I'm using m-plus to act a kind of fall-through query mechanism, in my case, it first reads values from a cache (database), if that returns nil, the next method is to read from "live" (a REST call). However, the second value in the m-plus list is always called, even though its value is disgarded (if the cache hit was good) and the final return is that of the first monadic function. Here's a cutdown version of the issue i'm seeing, and some solutions I found, but I don't know why. My questions are: Is this expected behaviour or a bug in m-plus? i.e. will the 2nd method in a m-plus list always be evaluated if the first item returns a value? Minor in comparison to the above, but if i remove the call _ (fetch-state) from checker, when i evaluate that method, it prints out the messages for the functions the m-plus is calling (when i don't think it should). Is this also a bug? Here's a cut-down version of the code in question highlighting the problem. It simply checks key/value pairs passed in are same as the initial state values, and updates the state to mark what it actually ran. (ns monods.monad-test (:require [clojure.algo.monads :refer :all])) (def parser-m (state-t maybe-m)) (defn check-k-v [k v] (println "calling with k,v:" k v) (domonad parser-m [kv (fetch-val k) _ (do (println "k v kv (= kv v)" k v kv (= kv v)) (m-result 0)) :when (= kv v) _ (do (println "passed") (m-result 0)) _ (update-val :ran #(conj % (str "[" k " = " v "]"))) ] [k v])) (defn filler [] (println "filler called") (domonad parser-m [_ (fetch-state) _ (do (println "filling") (m-result 0)) :when nil] nil)) (def checker (domonad parser-m [_ (fetch-state) result (m-plus ;; (filler) ;; intitially commented out deliberately (check-k-v :a 1) (check-k-v :b 2) (check-k-v :c 3))] result)) (checker {:a 1 :b 2 :c 3 :ran []}) When I run this as is, the output is: > (checker {:a 1 :b 2 :c 3 :ran []}) calling with k,v: :a 1 calling with k,v: :b 2 calling with k,v: :c 3 k v kv (= kv v) :a 1 1 true passed k v kv (= kv v) :b 2 2 true passed [[:a 1] {:a 1, :b 2, :c 3, :ran ["[:a = 1]"]}] I don't expect the line k v kv (= kv v) :b 2 2 true to show at all. The first function to m-plus (as seen in the final output) is what is returned from it. Now, I've found if I pass a filler into m-plus that does nothing (i.e. uncomment the (filler) line) then the output is correct, the :b value isn't evaluated. If I don't have the filler method, and make the first method test fail (i.e. change it to (check-k-v :a 2) then again everything is good, I don't get a call to check :c, only a and b are tested. From my understanding of what the state-t maybe-m transformation is giving me, then the m-plus function should look like: (defn m-plus [left right] (fn [state] (if-let [result (left state)] result (right state)))) which would mean that right isn't called unless left returns nil/false. I'd be interested to know if my understanding is correct or not, and why I have to put the filler method in to stop the extra evaluation (whose effects I don't want to happen). Apologies for the long winded post!

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• Snake Game Help

  - by MuhammadA

  I am making a snake game and learning XNA at the same time. I have 3 classes : Game.cs, Snake.cs and Apple.cs My problem is more of a conceptual problem, I want to know which class is really responsible for ... detecting collision of snake head on apple/itself/wall? which class should increase the snakes speed, size? It seems to me that however much I try and put the snake stuff into snake.cs that game.cs has to know a lot about the snake, like : -- I want to increase the score depending on size of snake, the score variable is inside game.cs, which means now I have to ask the snake its size on every hit of the apple... seems a bit unclean all this highly coupled code. or -- I DO NOT want to place the apple under the snake... now the apple suddenly has to know about all the snake parts, my head hurts when I think of that. Maybe there should be some sort of AppleLayer.cs class that should know about the snake... Whats the best approach in such a simple scenario? Any tips welcome. Game.cs : using System; using System.Collections.Generic; using System.Linq; using Microsoft.Xna.Framework; using Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Audio; using Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Content; using Microsoft.Xna.Framework.GamerServices; using Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Graphics; using Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Input; using Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Media; using Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Design; namespace Snakez { public enum CurrentGameState { Playing, Paused, NotPlaying } public class Game1 : Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Game { private GraphicsDeviceManager _graphics; private SpriteBatch _spriteBatch; private readonly Color _niceGreenColour = new Color(167, 255, 124); private KeyboardState _oldKeyboardState; private SpriteFont _scoreFont; private SoundEffect _biteSound, _crashSound; private Vector2 _scoreLocation = new Vector2(10, 10); private Apple _apple; private Snake _snake; private int _score = 0; private int _speed = 1; public Game1() { _graphics = new GraphicsDeviceManager(this); Content.RootDirectory = "Content"; } /// <summary> /// Allows the game to perform any initialization it needs to before starting to run. /// This is where it can query for any required services and load any non-graphic /// related content. Calling base.Initialize will enumerate through any components /// and initialize them as well. /// </summary> protected override void Initialize() { base.Initialize(); } /// <summary> /// LoadContent will be called once per game and is the place to load /// all of your content. /// </summary> protected override void LoadContent() { _spriteBatch = new SpriteBatch(GraphicsDevice); _scoreFont = Content.Load<SpriteFont>("Score"); _apple = new Apple(800, 480, Content.Load<Texture2D>("Apple")); _snake = new Snake(Content.Load<Texture2D>("BodyBlock")); _biteSound = Content.Load<SoundEffect>("Bite"); _crashSound = Content.Load<SoundEffect>("Crash"); } /// <summary> /// UnloadContent will be called once per game and is the place to unload /// all content. /// </summary> protected override void UnloadContent() { Content.Unload(); } /// <summary> /// Allows the game to run logic such as updating the world, /// checking for collisions, gathering input, and playing audio. /// </summary> /// <param name="gameTime">Provides a snapshot of timing values.</param> protected override void Update(GameTime gameTime) { KeyboardState newKeyboardState = Keyboard.GetState(); if (newKeyboardState.IsKeyDown(Keys.Escape)) { this.Exit(); // Allows the game to exit } else if (newKeyboardState.IsKeyDown(Keys.Up) && !_oldKeyboardState.IsKeyDown(Keys.Up)) { _snake.SetDirection(Direction.Up); } else if (newKeyboardState.IsKeyDown(Keys.Down) && !_oldKeyboardState.IsKeyDown(Keys.Down)) { _snake.SetDirection(Direction.Down); } else if (newKeyboardState.IsKeyDown(Keys.Left) && !_oldKeyboardState.IsKeyDown(Keys.Left)) { _snake.SetDirection(Direction.Left); } else if (newKeyboardState.IsKeyDown(Keys.Right) && !_oldKeyboardState.IsKeyDown(Keys.Right)) { _snake.SetDirection(Direction.Right); } _oldKeyboardState = newKeyboardState; _snake.Update(); if (_snake.IsEating(_apple)) { _biteSound.Play(); _score += 10; _apple.Place(); } base.Update(gameTime); } /// <summary> /// This is called when the game should draw itself. /// </summary> /// <param name="gameTime">Provides a snapshot of timing values.</param> protected override void Draw(GameTime gameTime) { GraphicsDevice.Clear(_niceGreenColour); float frameRate = 1 / (float)gameTime.ElapsedGameTime.TotalSeconds; _spriteBatch.Begin(); _spriteBatch.DrawString(_scoreFont, "Score : " + _score, _scoreLocation, Color.Red); _apple.Draw(_spriteBatch); _snake.Draw(_spriteBatch); _spriteBatch.End(); base.Draw(gameTime); } } } Snake.cs : using System; using System.Collections.Generic; using System.Linq; using System.Text; using Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Graphics; using Microsoft.Xna.Framework; namespace Snakez { public enum Direction { Up, Down, Left, Right } public class Snake { private List<Rectangle> _parts; private readonly Texture2D _bodyBlock; private readonly int _startX = 160; private readonly int _startY = 120; private int _moveDelay = 100; private DateTime _lastUpdatedAt; private Direction _direction; private Rectangle _lastTail; public Snake(Texture2D bodyBlock) { _bodyBlock = bodyBlock; _parts = new List<Rectangle>(); _parts.Add(new Rectangle(_startX, _startY, _bodyBlock.Width, _bodyBlock.Height)); _parts.Add(new Rectangle(_startX + bodyBlock.Width, _startY, _bodyBlock.Width, _bodyBlock.Height)); _parts.Add(new Rectangle(_startX + (bodyBlock.Width) * 2, _startY, _bodyBlock.Width, _bodyBlock.Height)); _parts.Add(new Rectangle(_startX + (bodyBlock.Width) * 3, _startY, _bodyBlock.Width, _bodyBlock.Height)); _direction = Direction.Right; _lastUpdatedAt = DateTime.Now; } public void Draw(SpriteBatch spriteBatch) { foreach (var p in _parts) { spriteBatch.Draw(_bodyBlock, new Vector2(p.X, p.Y), Color.White); } } public void Update() { if (DateTime.Now.Subtract(_lastUpdatedAt).TotalMilliseconds > _moveDelay) { //DateTime.Now.Ticks _lastTail = _parts.First(); _parts.Remove(_lastTail); /* add new head in right direction */ var lastHead = _parts.Last(); var newHead = new Rectangle(0, 0, _bodyBlock.Width, _bodyBlock.Height); switch (_direction) { case Direction.Up: newHead.X = lastHead.X; newHead.Y = lastHead.Y - _bodyBlock.Width; break; case Direction.Down: newHead.X = lastHead.X; newHead.Y = lastHead.Y + _bodyBlock.Width; break; case Direction.Left: newHead.X = lastHead.X - _bodyBlock.Width; newHead.Y = lastHead.Y; break; case Direction.Right: newHead.X = lastHead.X + _bodyBlock.Width; newHead.Y = lastHead.Y; break; } _parts.Add(newHead); _lastUpdatedAt = DateTime.Now; } } public void SetDirection(Direction newDirection) { if (_direction == Direction.Up && newDirection == Direction.Down) { return; } else if (_direction == Direction.Down && newDirection == Direction.Up) { return; } else if (_direction == Direction.Left && newDirection == Direction.Right) { return; } else if (_direction == Direction.Right && newDirection == Direction.Left) { return; } _direction = newDirection; } public bool IsEating(Apple apple) { if (_parts.Last().Intersects(apple.Location)) { GrowBiggerAndFaster(); return true; } return false; } private void GrowBiggerAndFaster() { _parts.Insert(0, _lastTail); _moveDelay -= (_moveDelay / 100)*2; } } } Apple.cs : using System; using System.Collections.Generic; using System.Linq; using System.Text; using Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Graphics; using Microsoft.Xna.Framework; namespace Snakez { public class Apple { private readonly int _maxWidth, _maxHeight; private readonly Texture2D _texture; private readonly Random random = new Random(); public Rectangle Location { get; private set; } public Apple(int screenWidth, int screenHeight, Texture2D texture) { _maxWidth = (screenWidth + 1) - texture.Width; _maxHeight = (screenHeight + 1) - texture.Height; _texture = texture; Place(); } public void Place() { Location = GetRandomLocation(_maxWidth, _maxHeight); } private Rectangle GetRandomLocation(int maxWidth, int maxHeight) { // x and y -- multiple of 20 int x = random.Next(1, maxWidth); var leftOver = x % 20; x = x - leftOver; int y = random.Next(1, maxHeight); leftOver = y % 20; y = y - leftOver; return new Rectangle(x, y, _texture.Width, _texture.Height); } public void Draw(SpriteBatch spriteBatch) { spriteBatch.Draw(_texture, Location, Color.White); } } }

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• How do I implement SkyBox in xna 4.0 Reach Profile (for Windows Phone 7)?

  - by Biny

  I'm trying to Implement SkyBox in my phone game. Most of the samples in the web are for HiDef profile, and they are using custom effects (that not supported on Windows Phone). I've tried to follow this guide. But for some reason my SkyBox is not rendered. This is my SkyBox class: using System; using System.Collections.Generic; using Microsoft.Xna.Framework; using Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Graphics; using Rocuna.Core; using Rocuna.GameEngine.Graphics; using Rocuna.GameEngine.Graphics.Components; namespace Rocuna.GameEngine.Extension.WP7.Graphics { /// <summary> /// Sky box element for phone games. /// </summary> public class SkyBox : SkyBoxBase { /// <summary> /// Initializes a new instance of the <see cref="SkyBoxBase"/> class. /// </summary> /// <param name="game">The Game that the game component should be attached to.</param> public SkyBox(TextureCube cube, Game game) : base(game) { Cube = cube; CubeFaces = new Texture2D[6]; PositionOffset = new Vector3(20, 20, 20); CreateGraphic(512); StripTexturesFromCube(); InitializeData(Game.GraphicsDevice); } #region Properties /// <summary> /// Gets or sets the position offset. /// </summary> /// <value> /// The position offset. /// </value> public Vector3 PositionOffset { get; set; } /// <summary> /// Gets or sets the position. /// </summary> /// <value> /// The position. /// </value> public Vector3 Position { get; set; } /// <summary> /// Gets or sets the cube. /// </summary> /// <value> /// The cube. /// </value> public TextureCube Cube { get; set; } /// <summary> /// Gets or sets the pixel array. /// </summary> /// <value> /// The pixel array. /// </value> public Color[] PixelArray { get; set; } /// <summary> /// Gets or sets the cube faces. /// </summary> /// <value> /// The cube faces. /// </value> public Texture2D[] CubeFaces { get; set; } /// <summary> /// Gets or sets the vertex buffer. /// </summary> /// <value> /// The vertex buffer. /// </value> public VertexBuffer VertexBuffer { get; set; } /// <summary> /// Gets or sets the index buffer. /// </summary> /// <value> /// The index buffer. /// </value> public IndexBuffer IndexBuffer { get; set; } /// <summary> /// Gets or sets the effect. /// </summary> /// <value> /// The effect. /// </value> public BasicEffect Effect { get; set; } #endregion protected override void LoadContent() { } public override void Update(GameTime gameTime) { var camera = Game.GetService<GraphicManager>().CurrentCamera; this.Position = camera.Position + PositionOffset; base.Update(gameTime); } public override void Draw(GameTime gameTime) { DrawOrder = int.MaxValue; var graphics = Effect.GraphicsDevice; graphics.DepthStencilState = new DepthStencilState() { DepthBufferEnable = false }; graphics.RasterizerState = new RasterizerState() { CullMode = CullMode.None }; graphics.BlendState = new BlendState(); graphics.SamplerStates[0] = SamplerState.AnisotropicClamp; graphics.SetVertexBuffer(VertexBuffer); graphics.Indices = IndexBuffer; Effect.Texture = CubeFaces[0]; Effect.CurrentTechnique.Passes[0].Apply(); graphics.DrawIndexedPrimitives(PrimitiveType.TriangleList, 0, 0, _vertices.Count, 0, 2); Effect.Texture = CubeFaces[1]; Effect.CurrentTechnique.Passes[0].Apply(); graphics.DrawIndexedPrimitives(PrimitiveType.TriangleList, 0, 0, _vertices.Count, 6, 2); Effect.Texture = CubeFaces[2]; Effect.CurrentTechnique.Passes[0].Apply(); graphics.DrawIndexedPrimitives(PrimitiveType.TriangleList, 0, 0, _vertices.Count, 12, 2); Effect.Texture = CubeFaces[3]; Effect.CurrentTechnique.Passes[0].Apply(); graphics.DrawIndexedPrimitives(PrimitiveType.TriangleList, 0, 0, _vertices.Count, 18, 2); Effect.Texture = CubeFaces[4]; Effect.CurrentTechnique.Passes[0].Apply(); graphics.DrawIndexedPrimitives(PrimitiveType.TriangleList, 0, 0, _vertices.Count, 24, 2); Effect.Texture = CubeFaces[5]; Effect.CurrentTechnique.Passes[0].Apply(); graphics.DrawIndexedPrimitives(PrimitiveType.TriangleList, 0, 0, _vertices.Count, 30, 2); base.Draw(gameTime); } #region Fields private List<VertexPositionNormalTexture> _vertices = new List<VertexPositionNormalTexture>(); private List<ushort> _indices = new List<ushort>(); #endregion #region Private methods private void InitializeData(GraphicsDevice graphicsDevice) { VertexBuffer = new VertexBuffer(graphicsDevice, typeof(VertexPositionNormalTexture), _vertices.Count, BufferUsage.None); VertexBuffer.SetData<VertexPositionNormalTexture>(_vertices.ToArray()); // Create an index buffer, and copy our index data into it. IndexBuffer = new IndexBuffer(graphicsDevice, typeof(ushort), _indices.Count, BufferUsage.None); IndexBuffer.SetData<ushort>(_indices.ToArray()); // Create a BasicEffect, which will be used to render the primitive. Effect = new BasicEffect(graphicsDevice); Effect.TextureEnabled = true; Effect.EnableDefaultLighting(); } private void CreateGraphic(float size) { Vector3[] normals = { Vector3.Right, Vector3.Left, Vector3.Up, Vector3.Down, Vector3.Backward, Vector3.Forward, }; Vector2[] textureCoordinates = { Vector2.One, Vector2.UnitY, Vector2.Zero, Vector2.UnitX, Vector2.Zero, Vector2.UnitX, Vector2.One, Vector2.UnitY, Vector2.Zero, Vector2.UnitX, Vector2.One, Vector2.UnitY, Vector2.Zero, Vector2.UnitX, Vector2.One, Vector2.UnitY, Vector2.UnitY, Vector2.Zero, Vector2.UnitX, Vector2.One, Vector2.UnitY, Vector2.Zero, Vector2.UnitX, Vector2.One, }; var index = 0; foreach (var normal in normals) { var side1 = new Vector3(normal.Z, normal.X, normal.Y); var side2 = Vector3.Cross(normal, side1); AddIndex(CurrentVertex + 0); AddIndex(CurrentVertex + 1); AddIndex(CurrentVertex + 2); AddIndex(CurrentVertex + 0); AddIndex(CurrentVertex + 2); AddIndex(CurrentVertex + 3); AddVertex((normal - side1 - side2) * size / 2, normal, textureCoordinates[index++]); AddVertex((normal - side1 + side2) * size / 2, normal, textureCoordinates[index++]); AddVertex((normal + side1 + side2) * size / 2, normal, textureCoordinates[index++]); AddVertex((normal + side1 - side2) * size / 2, normal, textureCoordinates[index++]); } } protected void StripTexturesFromCube() { PixelArray = new Color[Cube.Size * Cube.Size]; for (int s = 0; s < CubeFaces.Length; s++) { CubeFaces[s] = new Texture2D(Game.GraphicsDevice, Cube.Size, Cube.Size, false, SurfaceFormat.Color); switch (s) { case 0: Cube.GetData<Color>(CubeMapFace.PositiveX, PixelArray); CubeFaces[s].SetData<Color>(PixelArray); break; case 1: Cube.GetData(CubeMapFace.NegativeX, PixelArray); CubeFaces[s].SetData(PixelArray); break; case 2: Cube.GetData(CubeMapFace.PositiveY, PixelArray); CubeFaces[s].SetData(PixelArray); break; case 3: Cube.GetData(CubeMapFace.NegativeY, PixelArray); CubeFaces[s].SetData(PixelArray); break; case 4: Cube.GetData(CubeMapFace.PositiveZ, PixelArray); CubeFaces[s].SetData(PixelArray); break; case 5: Cube.GetData(CubeMapFace.NegativeZ, PixelArray); CubeFaces[s].SetData(PixelArray); break; } } } protected void AddVertex(Vector3 position, Vector3 normal, Vector2 textureCoordinates) { _vertices.Add(new VertexPositionNormalTexture(position, normal, textureCoordinates)); } protected void AddIndex(int index) { if (index > ushort.MaxValue) throw new ArgumentOutOfRangeException("index"); _indices.Add((ushort)index); } protected int CurrentVertex { get { return _vertices.Count; } } #endregion } }

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• Looking into the jQuery LazyLoad Plugin

  - by nikolaosk

  I have been using JQuery for a couple of years now and it has helped me to solve many problems on the client side of web development.  You can find all my posts about JQuery in this link. In this post I will be providing you with a hands-on example on the JQuery LazyLoad Plugin.If you want you can have a look at this post, where I describe the JQuery Cycle Plugin.You can find another post of mine talking about the JQuery Carousel Lite Plugin here. Another post of mine regarding the JQuery Image Zoom Plugin can be found here. You can have a look at the JQuery Overlays Plugin here . There are times when when I am asked to create a very long page with lots of images.My first thought is to enable paging on the proposed page. Imagine that we have 60 images on a page. There are performance concerns when we have so many images on a page. Paging can solve that problem if I am allowed to place only 5 images on a page.Sometimes the customer does not like the idea of the paging.Believe it or not some people find the idea of paging not attractive at all.In that case I need a way to only load the initial set of images and as the user scrolls down the page to load the rest.So as someone scrolls down new requests are made to the server and more images are fetched. I can accomplish that with the jQuery LazyLoad Plugin.This is just a plugin that delays loading of images in long web pages.The images that are outside of the viewport (visible part of web page) won't be loaded before the user scrolls to them. Using jQuery LazyLoad Plugin on long web pages containing many large images makes the page load faster. In this hands-on example I will be using Expression Web 4.0.This application is not a free application. You can use any HTML editor you like. You can use Visual Studio 2012 Express edition. You can download it here.  You can download this plugin from this link. I launch Expression Web 4.0 and then I type the following HTML markup (I am using HTML 5)<!DOCTYPE html><html lang="en">  <head>    <title>Liverpool Legends</title>    <script type="text/javascript" src="jquery-1.8.3.min.js"></script>        <script type="text/javascript" src="jquery.lazyload.min.js" ></script></head>  <body>    <header>                <h1>Liverpool Legends</h1>    </header>        <div id="main">             <img src="barnes.JPG" width="800" height="1100" /><p />        <img src="dalglish.JPG" width="800" height="1100" /><p />                <img class="LiverpoolImage" src="loader.gif" data-original="fans.JPG" width="1200" height="900" /><p />        <img class="LiverpoolImage" src="loader.gif" data-original="lfc.JPG" width="1000" height="700" /><p />        <img class="LiverpoolImage" src="loader.gif" data-original="Liverpool-players.JPG" width="1100" height="900" /><p />        <img class="LiverpoolImage" src="loader.gif" data-original="steven_gerrard.JPG" width="1110" height="1000" /><p />        <img class="LiverpoolImage" src="loader.gif" data-original="robbie.JPG" width="1200" height="1000" /><p />          </div>            <footer>        <p>All Rights Reserved</p>      </footer>                    <script type="text/javascript">                $(function () {                    $("img.LiverpoolImage").lazyload();                });        </script>     </body>  </html> This is a very simple markup. I have  added references to the JQuery library (current version is 1.8.3) and the JQuery LazyLoad Plugin. Firstly, I add two images         <img src="barnes.JPG" width="800" height="1100" /><p />        <img src="dalglish.JPG" width="800" height="1100" /><p />  that will load immediately as soon as the page loads. Then I add the images that will not load unless they become active in the viewport. I have all my img tags pointing the src attribute towards a placeholder image. I’m using a blank 1×1 px grey image,loader.gif.The five images that will load as the user scrolls down the page follow.         <img class="LiverpoolImage" src="loader.gif" data-original="fans.JPG" width="1200" height="900" /><p />        <img class="LiverpoolImage" src="loader.gif" data-original="lfc.JPG" width="1000" height="700" /><p />        <img class="LiverpoolImage" src="loader.gif" data-original="Liverpool-players.JPG" width="1100" height="900" /><p />        <img class="LiverpoolImage" src="loader.gif" data-original="steven_gerrard.JPG" width="1110" height="1000" /><p />        <img class="LiverpoolImage" src="loader.gif" data-original="robbie.JPG" width="1200" height="1000" /><p /> Then we need to rename the image src to point towards the proper image placeholder. The full image URL goes into the data-original attribute.The Javascript code that makes it all happen follows. We need to make a call to the JQuery LazyLoad Plugin. We add the script just before we close the body element.         <script type="text/javascript">                $(function () {                    $("img.LiverpoolImage").lazyload();                });        </script>We can change the code above to incorporate some effects.          <script type="text/javascript">  $("img.LiverpoolImage").lazyload({    effect: "fadeIn"  });    </script> That is all I need to write to achieve lazy loading. It it true that you can do so much with less!!I view my simple page in Internet Explorer 10 and it works as expected. I have tested this simple solution in all major browsers and it works fine. You can test it yourself and see the results in your favorite browser. Hope it helps!!!

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• Geolocation through Android's GPS Provider on a website?

  - by Corey Ogburn

  I'm trying to get the geolocation of the mobile device in a regular website, not a webview of an application or anything native like that. I'm getting a location, but it's highly inaccurate, the accuracy comes back as 3230 or some other outrageous number. I'm assuming that's in meters, either way it's not nearly accurate enough. By comparison, the same webpage on a laptop gets an accuracy of 30-40. My first thought was that it was using the Network Provider instead of the GPS Provider, telling me where I am based on tower location and reach. A little research later I found enableHighAccuracy and set it true in the options that I pass. After including that, I still notice no difference. Here's the test page's HTML/javascript: <html> <head> <script type="text/javascript" src="http://ecn.dev.virtualearth.net/mapcontrol/mapcontrol.ashx?v=7.0"></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.4.3/jquery.min.js"></script> <script type="text/javascript"> function OnLoad() { $("#Status").text("Init"); if (navigator.geolocation) { $("#Status").text("Supports Geolocation"); navigator.geolocation.getCurrentPosition(HandleLocation, LocationError, { enableHighAccuracy: true }); $("#Status").text("Sent position request..."); } else { $("#Status").text("Doesn't support geolocation"); } } function HandleLocation(position) { $("#Status").text("Received response:"); $("#Position").text("(" + position.coords.latitude + ", " + position.coords.longitude + ") accuracy: " + position.coords.accuracy); var loc = new Microsoft.Maps.Location(position.coords.latitude, position.coords.longitude); GetMap(loc); } function LocationError(error) { switch(error.code) { case error.PERMISSION_DENIED: alert("Location not provided"); break; case error.POSITION_UNAVAILABLE: alert("Current location not available"); break; case error.TIMEOUT: alert("Timeout"); break; default: alert("unknown error"); break; } } function GetMap(loc) { var map = new Microsoft.Maps.Map(document.getElementById("mapDiv"), {credentials: "Aj59meaCR1e7rNgkfQy7j08Pd3mzfP1r04hGesGmLe2a3ZwZ3iGecwPX2SNPWq5a", center: loc, mapTypeId: Microsoft.Maps.MapTypeId.road, zoom: 15}); } </script> </head> <body onload="javascript:OnLoad()"> <div id="Status"></div> <div id="Position"></div><br/> <div id='mapDiv' style="position:relative; width:600px; height:400px;"></div> </body> </html> I'm testing this on a rooted MyTouch 3G running Cyanogen 6.1 stable, Android 2.2 and GPS is enabled. In case rooting was a problem, I have also had various friends and coworkers try the webpage on their non-rooted 2.0+ Android devices. Each phone had various effects on the accuracy, but none were better than 1000, I attribute this to the different carriers. I have not (but eventually will) tested with iPhone or other location-aware cell phones.

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• STL find performs bettern than hand-crafter loop

  - by dusha

  Hello all, I have some question. Given the following C++ code fragment: #include <boost/progress.hpp> #include <vector> #include <algorithm> #include <numeric> #include <iostream> struct incrementor { incrementor() : curr_() {} unsigned int operator()() { return curr_++; } private: unsigned int curr_; }; template<class Vec> char const* value_found(Vec const& v, typename Vec::const_iterator i) { return i==v.end() ? "no" : "yes"; } template<class Vec> typename Vec::const_iterator find1(Vec const& v, typename Vec::value_type val) { return find(v.begin(), v.end(), val); } template<class Vec> typename Vec::const_iterator find2(Vec const& v, typename Vec::value_type val) { for(typename Vec::const_iterator i=v.begin(), end=v.end(); i<end; ++i) if(*i==val) return i; return v.end(); } int main() { using namespace std; typedef vector<unsigned int>::const_iterator iter; vector<unsigned int> vec; vec.reserve(10000000); boost::progress_timer pt; generate_n(back_inserter(vec), vec.capacity(), incrementor()); //added this line, to avoid any doubts, that compiler is able to // guess the data is sorted random_shuffle(vec.begin(), vec.end()); cout << "value generation required: " << pt.elapsed() << endl; double d; pt.restart(); iter found=find1(vec, vec.capacity()); d=pt.elapsed(); cout << "first search required: " << d << endl; cout << "first search found value: " << value_found(vec, found)<< endl; pt.restart(); found=find2(vec, vec.capacity()); d=pt.elapsed(); cout << "second search required: " << d << endl; cout << "second search found value: " << value_found(vec, found)<< endl; return 0; } On my machine (Intel i7, Windows Vista) STL find (call via find1) runs about 10 times faster than the hand-crafted loop (call via find2). I first thought that Visual C++ performs some kind of vectorization (may be I am mistaken here), but as far as I can see assembly does not look the way it uses vectorization. Why is STL loop faster? Hand-crafted loop is identical to the loop from the STL-find body. I was asked to post program's output. Without shuffle: value generation required: 0.078 first search required: 0.008 first search found value: no second search required: 0.098 second search found value: no With shuffle (caching effects): value generation required: 1.454 first search required: 0.009 first search found value: no second search required: 0.044 second search found value: no Many thanks, dusha. P.S. I return the iterator and write out the result (found or not), because I would like to prevent compiler optimization, that it thinks the loop is not required at all. The searched value is obviously not in the vector.

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• How to make a player stay within bounds of world with 2D Camera

  - by Craig

  Im creating a simple top down survival game. At the moment, i have the sprite which is a ship and moves by rotating left or right then going forward in that direction. I have implemented a 2D camera, its always centered on the player. However, when i move towards the bounds of the world that the sprite is in it just keeps on going :( How to i sort it that it stops at the edge of the world and cant go beyond it? Cheers :) Below is the main game class using System; using System.Collections.Generic; using System.Linq; using Microsoft.Xna.Framework; using Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Audio; using Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Content; using Microsoft.Xna.Framework.GamerServices; using Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Graphics; using Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Input; using Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Media; namespace GamesCoursework_1 { /// <summary> /// This is the main type for your game /// </summary> public class Game1 : Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Game { GraphicsDeviceManager graphics; SpriteBatch spriteBatch; // player variables Texture2D Ship; Vector2 Ship_Position; float Ship_Rotation = 0.0f; Vector2 Ship_Origin; Vector2 Ship_Velocity; const float tangentialVelocity = 4f; float friction = 0.05f; static Point CameraViewport = new Point(800, 800); Camera2d cam = new Camera2d((int)CameraViewport.X, (int)CameraViewport.Y); //Size of world static Point worldSize = new Point(1600, 1600); // Screen variables static Point worldCenter = new Point(worldSize.X / 2, worldSize.Y / 2); Rectangle playerBounds = new Rectangle(CameraViewport.X / 2, CameraViewport.Y / 2, worldSize.X - CameraViewport.X, worldSize.Y - CameraViewport.Y); Rectangle worldBounds = new Rectangle(0, 0, worldSize.X, worldSize.Y); Texture2D background; public Game1() { graphics = new GraphicsDeviceManager(this); graphics.PreferredBackBufferWidth = CameraViewport.X; graphics.PreferredBackBufferHeight = CameraViewport.Y; Content.RootDirectory = "Content"; } /// <summary> /// Allows the game to perform any initialization it needs to before starting to run. /// This is where it can query for any required services and load any non-graphic /// related content. Calling base.Initialize will enumerate through any components /// and initialize them as well. /// </summary> protected override void Initialize() { // TODO: Add your initialization logic here base.Initialize(); } /// <summary> /// LoadContent will be called once per game and is the place to load /// all of your content. /// </summary> protected override void LoadContent() { // Create a new SpriteBatch, which can be used to draw textures. spriteBatch = new SpriteBatch(GraphicsDevice); // TODO: use this.Content to load your game content here Ship = Content.Load<Texture2D>("Ship"); Ship_Origin.X = Ship.Width / 2; Ship_Origin.Y = Ship.Height / 2; background = Content.Load<Texture2D>("aus"); Ship_Position = new Vector2(worldCenter.X, worldCenter.Y); cam.Pos = Ship_Position; cam.Zoom = 1f; } /// <summary> /// UnloadContent will be called once per game and is the place to unload /// all content. /// </summary> protected override void UnloadContent() { // TODO: Unload any non ContentManager content here } /// <summary> /// Allows the game to run logic such as updating the world, /// checking for collisions, gathering input, and playing audio. /// </summary> /// <param name="gameTime">Provides a snapshot of timing values.</param> protected override void Update(GameTime gameTime) { // Allows the game to exit if (GamePad.GetState(PlayerIndex.One).Buttons.Back == ButtonState.Pressed) this.Exit(); // TODO: Add your update logic here Ship_Position = Ship_Velocity + Ship_Position; keyPressed(); base.Update(gameTime); } /// <summary> /// This is called when the game should draw itself. /// </summary> /// <param name="gameTime">Provides a snapshot of timing values.</param> protected override void Draw(GameTime gameTime) { GraphicsDevice.Clear(Color.CornflowerBlue); // TODO: Add your drawing code here spriteBatch.Begin(SpriteSortMode.Deferred, BlendState.AlphaBlend, null, null, null,null, cam.get_transformation(GraphicsDevice)); spriteBatch.Draw(background, Vector2.Zero, Color.White); spriteBatch.Draw(Ship, Ship_Position, Ship.Bounds, Color.White, Ship_Rotation, Ship_Origin, 1.0f, SpriteEffects.None, 0f); spriteBatch.End(); base.Draw(gameTime); } private void Ship_Move(Vector2 move) { Ship_Position += move; } private void keyPressed() { KeyboardState keyState; // Move right keyState = Keyboard.GetState(); if (keyState.IsKeyDown(Keys.Right)) { Ship_Rotation = Ship_Rotation + 0.1f; } if (keyState.IsKeyDown(Keys.Left)) { Ship_Rotation = Ship_Rotation - 0.1f; } if (keyState.IsKeyDown(Keys.Up)) { Ship_Velocity.X = (float)Math.Cos(Ship_Rotation) * tangentialVelocity; Ship_Velocity.Y = (float)Math.Sin(Ship_Rotation) * tangentialVelocity; if ((int)Ship_Position.Y < playerBounds.Bottom && (int)Ship_Position.Y > playerBounds.Top) cam._pos.Y = Ship_Position.Y; if ((int)Ship_Position.X > playerBounds.Left && (int)Ship_Position.X < playerBounds.Right) cam._pos.X = Ship_Position.X; //tried world bounds here if (!worldBounds.Contains(new Point((int)Ship_Position.X, (int)Ship_Position.Y))) Ship_Position -= new Vector2(0.0f, -tangentialVelocity * 2); if (!worldBounds.Contains(new Point((int)Ship_Position.X, (int)Ship_Position.Y))) Ship_Position -= new Vector2(0.0f, 2 * tangentialVelocity); } else if(Ship_Velocity != Vector2.Zero) { float i = Ship_Velocity.X; float j = Ship_Velocity.Y; Ship_Velocity.X = i -= friction * i; Ship_Velocity.Y = j -= friction * j; if ((int)Ship_Position.Y < playerBounds.Bottom && (int)Ship_Position.Y > playerBounds.Top) cam._pos.Y = Ship_Position.Y; if ((int)Ship_Position.X > playerBounds.Left && (int)Ship_Position.X < playerBounds.Right) cam._pos.X = Ship_Position.X; } if (keyState.IsKeyDown(Keys.Q)) { if (cam.Zoom < 2f) cam.Zoom += 0.05f; } if (keyState.IsKeyDown(Keys.A)) { if (cam.Zoom > 0.3f) cam.Zoom -= 0.05f; } } } } my 2d camera class using System; using System.Collections.Generic; using System.Linq; using System.Text; using Microsoft.Xna.Framework; using Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Graphics; namespace GamesCoursework_1 { public class Camera2d { protected float _zoom; // Camera Zoom public Matrix _transform; // Matrix Transform public Vector2 _pos; // Camera Position protected float _rotation; // Camera Rotation public int _viewportWidth, _viewportHeight; // viewport size public Camera2d(int ViewportWidth, int ViewportHeight) { _zoom = 1.0f; _rotation = 0.0f; _pos = Vector2.Zero; _viewportWidth = ViewportWidth; _viewportHeight = ViewportHeight; } // Sets and gets zoom public float Zoom { get { return _zoom; } set { _zoom = value; if (_zoom < 0.1f) _zoom = 0.1f; } // Negative zoom will flip image } public float Rotation { get { return _rotation; } set { _rotation = value; } } // Auxiliary function to move the camera public void Move(Vector2 amount) { _pos += amount; } // Get set position public Vector2 Pos { get { return _pos; } set { _pos = value; } } public Matrix get_transformation(GraphicsDevice graphicsDevice) { _transform = // Thanks to o KB o for this solution Matrix.CreateTranslation(new Vector3(-_pos.X, -_pos.Y, 0)) * Matrix.CreateRotationZ(Rotation) * Matrix.CreateScale(new Vector3(Zoom, Zoom, 1)) * Matrix.CreateTranslation(new Vector3(_viewportWidth * 0.5f, _viewportHeight * 0.5f, 0)); return _transform; } } }

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• 12c - Invisible Columns...

  - by noreply(at)blogger.com (Thomas Kyte)

  Remember when 11g first came out and we had "invisible indexes"?  It seemed like a confusing feature - indexes that would be maintained by modifications (hence slowing them down), but would not be used by queries (hence never speeding them up).  But - after you looked at them a while, you could see how they can be useful.  For example - to add an index in a running production system, an index used by the next version of the code to be introduced later that week - but not tested against the queries in version one of the application in place now.  We all know that when you add an index - one of three things can happen - a given query will go much faster, it won't affect a given query at all, or... It will make some untested query go much much slower than it used to.  So - invisible indexes allowed us to modify the schema in a 'safe' manner - hiding the change until we were ready for it.Invisible columns accomplish the same thing - the ability to introduce a change while minimizing any negative side effects of that change.  Normally when you add a column to a table - any program with a SELECT * would start seeing that column, and programs with an INSERT INTO T VALUES (...) would pretty much immediately break (an INSERT without a list of columns in it).  Now we can add a column to a table in an invisible fashion, the column will not show up in a DESCRIBE command in SQL*Plus, it will not be returned with a SELECT *, it will not be considered in an INSERT INTO T VALUES statement.  It can be accessed by any query that asks for it, it can be populated by an INSERT statement that references it, but you won't see it otherwise.For example, let's start with a simple two column table:ops$tkyte%ORA12CR1> create table t  2  ( x int,  3    y int  4  )  5  /Table created.ops$tkyte%ORA12CR1> insert into t values ( 1, 2 );1 row created.Now, we will add an invisible column to it:ops$tkyte%ORA12CR1> alter table t add                     ( z int INVISIBLE );Table altered.Notice that a DESCRIBE will not show us this column:ops$tkyte%ORA12CR1> desc t Name              Null?    Type ----------------- -------- ------------ X                          NUMBER(38) Y                          NUMBER(38)and existing inserts are unaffected by it:ops$tkyte%ORA12CR1> insert into t values ( 3, 4 );1 row created.A SELECT * won't see it either:ops$tkyte%ORA12CR1> select * from t;         X          Y---------- ----------         1          2         3          4But we have full access to it (in well written programs! The ones that use a column list in the insert and select - never relying on "defaults":ops$tkyte%ORA12CR1> insert into t (x,y,z)                         values ( 5,6,7 );1 row created.ops$tkyte%ORA12CR1> select x, y, z from t;         X          Y          Z---------- ---------- ----------         1          2         3          4         5          6          7and when we are sure that we are ready to go with this column, we can just modify it:ops$tkyte%ORA12CR1> alter table t modify z visible;Table altered.ops$tkyte%ORA12CR1> select * from t;         X          Y          Z---------- ---------- ----------         1          2         3          4         5          6          7I will say that a better approach to this - one that is available in 11gR2 and above - would be to use editioning views (part of Edition Based Redefinition - EBR ).  I would rather use EBR over this approach, but in an environment where EBR is not being used, or the editioning views are not in place, this will achieve much the same.Read these for information on EBR:http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/issue-archive/2010/10-jan/o10asktom-172777.htmlhttp://www.oracle.com/technetwork/issue-archive/2010/10-mar/o20asktom-098897.htmlhttp://www.oracle.com/technetwork/issue-archive/2010/10-may/o30asktom-082672.html

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• Create / build / generate a web form that can be on my server and has modern looks and could be impl

  - by Luay

  I have a small web site and would like to add a 'contact us' form and a 'feedback' form. i would like the forms to satisfy the following: 1- be modern looking (with beautiful css effects) 2- the form fields are validated properly and 'inline'. What I mean is once a user skips a required field or enters an email address incorrectly some kind of tooltip or icon is displayed to ask him to cerrect the error (as opposed to a message box that appears after the user clicks 'submit') 3- once the submit button is clicked the form contents are emailed to me. 4- the whole thing can be setup by a noob like myself. 5- no ads on the form I have been searching for at least 5 days for a solution but I can't seem to find anything the would satisfy the above 5 conditions. I don't mind paying for a solution as long as it is hosted on my site and it is a one off payment and not a monthly payment. So far my search has lead me to the following: 1 wufoo. The good: the generated forms seem to look okay but not the best there is. The bad: the free service is limited to 100 submissions. ads on the form. it is not hosted on my server. Paid service requires monthly payments 2- emailmeform: almost same as above except the generated form looks old. They do have an offer where you pay only $4 to get the form and set it up on your own site but that doesn't solve the fact that the forms look old. 3- formAssembly: same as above with minor variations (the generated form looks better) 4- formchamp, formthis, kontaktr,... And other similar online services: the same problem. either the form generated looks outdated or require monthly payments or they put ads...they don't satisfy my conditions. 5- coffeecup form builder. a desktop software. The problem is the generated forms look too old and use flash. 6- simfatic. Another software. Much better than coffeecup. almost satisfies my conditions but the forms not as good as I like. 7- many, many php scripts or html templates that look so outdated or fail when tested (probably because they are too old). Seriously guys, how hard is this. At least 90%+ of website contain at least a 'contact us' form. Why aren't there better solutions? if there is I can't seem to find them. In terms of looks I want something similar to this: http://web-kreation.com/articles/lightform-free-ajaxphp-contact-form/ It is called lightform. And this is a perfect example of what I mean by 'inline' validation. the only problem: there is no script to handle sending the mail. Even if I find one, I don't know how to modify it for my needs. So could you please help me out. I really can't search anymore. I reached rock bottom with this issue. I need a complete solution. If nothing exists then at least a: 1- form template (html) that looks nice and can easily be modified 2- a validation script that does 'inline' validation like the example above (or similar to it) and can be easily implemented by a noob like me to work with the html form. 3- a php script that will handle sending the email and can be easily implemented (all three working in harmony). I hope there is a complete solution but am I asking for too much? Pretty please...help...

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• Explicit method tables in C# instead of OO - good? bad?

  - by FunctorSalad

  Hi! I hope the title doesn't sound too subjective; I absolutely do not mean to start a debate on OO in general. I'd merely like to discuss the basic pros and cons for different ways of solving the following sort of problem. Let's take this minimal example: you want to express an abstract datatype T with functions that may take T as input, output, or both: f1 : Takes a T, returns an int f2 : Takes a string, returns a T f3 : Takes a T and a double, returns another T I'd like to avoid downcasting and any other dynamic typing. I'd also like to avoid mutation whenever possible. 1: Abstract-class-based attempt abstract class T { abstract int f1(); // We can't have abstract constructors, so the best we can do, as I see it, is: abstract void f2(string s); // The convention would be that you'd replace calls to the original f2 by invocation of the nullary constructor of the implementing type, followed by invocation of f2. f2 would need to have side-effects to be of any use. // f3 is a problem too: abstract T f3(double d); // This doesn't express that the return value is of the *same* type as the object whose method is invoked; it just expresses that the return value is *some* T. } 2: Parametric polymorphism and an auxilliary class (all implementing classes of TImpl will be singleton classes): abstract class TImpl<T> { abstract int f1(T t); abstract T f2(string s); abstract T f3(T t, double d); } We no longer express that some concrete type actually implements our original spec -- an implementation is simply a type Foo for which we happen to have an instance of TImpl. This doesn't seem to be a problem: If you want a function that works on arbitrary implementations, you just do something like: // Say we want to return a Bar given an arbitrary implementation of our abstract type Bar bar<T>(TImpl<T> ti, T t); At this point, one might as well skip inheritance and singletons altogether and use a 3 First-class function table class /* or struct, even */ TDictT<T> { readonly Func<T,int> f1; readonly Func<string,T> f2; readonly Func<T,double,T> f3; TDict( ... ) { this.f1 = f1; this.f2 = f2; this.f3 = f3; } } Bar bar<T>(TDict<T> td; T t); Though I don't see much practical difference between #2 and #3. Example Implementation class MyT { /* raw data structure goes here; this class needn't have any methods */ } // It doesn't matter where we put the following; could be a static method of MyT, or some static class collecting dictionaries static readonly TDict<MyT> MyTDict = new TDict<MyT>( (t) => /* body of f1 goes here */ , // f2 (s) => /* body of f2 goes here */, // f3 (t,d) => /* body of f3 goes here */ ); Thoughts? #3 is unidiomatic, but it seems rather safe and clean. One question is whether there are any performance concerns with it. I don't usually need dynamic dispatch, and I'd prefer if these function bodies get statically inlined in places where the concrete implementing type is known statically. Is #2 better in that regard?

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• Where are the function address literals in c++?

  - by academicRobot

  First of all, maybe literals is not the right term for this concept, but its the closest I could think of (not literals in the sense of functions as first class citizens). <UPDATE> After some reading with help from answer by Chris Dodd, what I'm looking for is literal function addresses as template parameters. Chris' answer indicates how to do this for standard functions, but how can the addresses of member functions be used as template parameters? Since the standard prohibits non-static member function addresses as template parameters (c++03 14.3.2.3), I suspect the work around is quite complicated. Any ideas for a workaround? Below the original form of the question is left as is for context. </UPDATE> The idea is that when you make a conventional function call, it compiles to something like this: callq <immediate address> But if you make a function call using a function pointer, it compiles to something like this: mov <memory location>,%rax callq *%rax Which is all well and good. However, what if I'm writing a template library that requires a callback of some sort with a specified argument list and the user of the library is expected to know what function they want to call at compile time? Then I would like to write my template to accept a function literal as a template parameter. So, similar to template <int int_literal> struct my_template {...};` I'd like to write template <func_literal_t func_literal> struct my_template {...}; and have calls to func_literal within my_template compile to callq <immediate address>. Is there a facility in C++ for this, or a work around to achieve the same effect? If not, why not (e.g. some cataclysmic side effects)? How about C++0x or another language? Solutions that are not portable are fine. Solutions that include the use of member function pointers would be ideal. I'm not particularly interested in being told "You are a <socially unacceptable term for a person of low IQ>, just use function pointers/functors." This is a curiosity based question, and it seems that it might be useful in some (albeit limited) applications. It seems like this should be possible since function names are just placeholders for a (relative) memory address, so why not allow more liberal use (e.g. aliasing) of this placeholder. p.s. I use function pointers and functions objects all the the time and they are great. But this post got me thinking about the don't pay for what you don't use principle in relation to function calls, and it seems like forcing the use of function pointers or similar facility when the function is known at compile time is a violation of this principle, though a small one. Edit The intent of this question is not to implement delegates, rather to identify a pattern that will embed a conventional function call, (in immediate mode) directly into third party code, possibly a template.

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• when importing multiple javascript files the javascript seems to break

  - by waywardmd

  I am trying to incorperate several different js files into one page. For some reason though whichever ones are first, seem to break. Here is the code I am using: <link href="inc/css/style.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" /> <link rel="stylesheet" href="inc/css/lightbox.css" type="text/css" media="screen" /> <script type="text/javascript" src="inc/js/prototype.js"></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="inc/js/scriptaculous.js?load=effects"></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="inc/js/lightbox.js"></script> <script type="text/javascript"> <!-- function MM_swapImgRestore() { //v3.0 var i,x,a=document.MM_sr; for(i=0;a&&i<a.length&&(x=a[i])&&x.oSrc;i++) x.src=x.oSrc; } function MM_preloadImages() { //v3.0 var d=document; if(d.images){ if(!d.MM_p) d.MM_p=new Array(); var i,j=d.MM_p.length,a=MM_preloadImages.arguments; for(i=0; i<a.length; i++) if (a[i].indexOf("#")!=0){ d.MM_p[j]=new Image; d.MM_p[j++].src=a[i];}} } function MM_findObj(n, d) { //v4.01 var p,i,x; if(!d) d=document; if((p=n.indexOf("?"))>0&&parent.frames.length) { d=parent.frames[n.substring(p+1)].document; n=n.substring(0,p);} if(!(x=d[n])&&d.all) x=d.all[n]; for (i=0;!x&&i<d.forms.length;i++) x=d.forms[i][n]; for(i=0;!x&&d.layers&&i<d.layers.length;i++) x=MM_findObj(n,d.layers[i].document); if(!x && d.getElementById) x=d.getElementById(n); return x; } function MM_swapImage() { //v3.0 var i,j=0,x,a=MM_swapImage.arguments; document.MM_sr=new Array; for(i=0;i<(a.length-2);i+=3) if ((x=MM_findObj(a[i]))!=null){document.MM_sr[j++]=x; if(!x.oSrc) x.oSrc=x.src; x.src=a[i+2];} } </script> <script type="text/javascript" src="inc/js/jquery-1.3.2.min.js"></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="inc/js/jquery.slideshow.lite-0.4.js"></script> <script type="text/javascript" charset="utf-8"> $(document).ready(function(){ $("#slideshow2").slideshow({ pauseSeconds: 6, height: 196 }); }); </script> The first files are used for a lightbox and other functions and the second ones are used for a slideshow. Depending on the order one or the other will work, but never both at the same time. What am I doing wrong? Any help is greatly appreciated, thanks.

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• customizing into a reusable component in flex

  - by Fresher4Flex

  need to make a reusable custom component from the existing code here. So that I can use this code to make this effect(view stack) to work in any direction. In the code it has user specified height and works from downside. I need to make this component customizable, something like user is able do it in any direction.I need it urgently. I appreciate your help. 1)main Application: <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> <mx:WindowedApplication xmlns:mx="http://www.adobe.com/2006/mxml" layout="absolute" xmlns:sh="windowShade.*"> <sh:Shade id="i1" height="15" headerHeight="14" thisHeight="215" alwaysOnTop="false" y="{this.height - 14}"/> </mx:WindowedApplication> 2)Custom Comp: Shade.mxml <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> <mx:VBox xmlns:mx="http://www.adobe.com/2006/mxml" width="100%" height="300" creationComplete="init()" verticalScrollPolicy="off" verticalGap="0" > <mx:Script> <![CDATA[ import mx.core.Container; import mx.core.Application; import mx.controls.Alert; import mx.effects.easing.*; import mx.binding.utils.BindingUtils; /** * Need host to adjust this object to Top */ public var alwaysOnTop:Boolean = false; /** * User can custom the height of this component */ public var thisHeight:int = 0; /** * User can custom the header height of this component */ [Bindable] public var headerHeight:int = 14; /** * The bindable value of this height */ [Bindable] public var tHeight:int = 0; /** * The bindable value of parent height */ [Bindable] public var pHeight:int = 0; /** * Initialize method */ private function init():void { if (this.thisHeight > 0 ) this.height = this.thisHeight; BindingUtils.bindProperty(this, "tHeight",this,"height" ); BindingUtils.bindProperty(this, "pHeight",this.parent,"height" ); } /** * Toggle button */ private function toggleBtn(e:MouseEvent):void { if (this.alwaysOnTop) { var container:Container = Application.application as Container; container.setChildIndex(this.parent, container.numChildren - 1 ); } if ( vs.selectedIndex == 0 ) panelOut.play(); else panelIn.play(); } ]]> </mx:Script> <mx:Move id="panelOut" target="{this}" yTo="{ pHeight - this.tHeight }" effectEnd="vs.selectedIndex = 1" duration="600" easingFunction="Back.easeOut"/> <mx:Move id="panelIn" target="{this}" yTo="{ this.pHeight - headerHeight }" effectEnd="vs.selectedIndex = 0" duration="600" easingFunction="Back.easeIn"/> <mx:VBox horizontalAlign="center" width="100%"> <mx:ViewStack id="vs" width="100%"> <mx:VBox horizontalAlign="center" > <mx:Label text="VBox 1"/> <mx:Image source="@Embed('/windowShade/add.png')" click="toggleBtn(event)"/> </mx:VBox> <mx:VBox horizontalAlign="center"> <mx:Label text="2nd VBox"/> <mx:Image source="@Embed('/windowShade/back.png')" click="toggleBtn(event)"/> </mx:VBox> </mx:ViewStack> </mx:VBox> <mx:VBox id="drawer" height="100%" width="100%" backgroundColor="#000000"> </mx:VBox> </mx:VBox>

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• C++ Serial Port Question

  - by Pfeffer

  Problem: I have a hand held device that scans those graphic color barcodes on all packaging. There is a track device that I can use that will slide the device automatically. This track device functions by taking ascii code through a serial port. I need to get this thing to work in FileMaker on a Mac. So no terminal programs, etc... What I've got so far: I bought a Keyspan USB/Serial adapter. Using a program called ZTerm I was successful in sending commands to the device. Example: "C,7^M^J" I was also able to do the same thing in Terminal using this command: screen /dev/tty.KeySerial1 57600 and then type in the same command above(but when I typed in I just hit Control-M and Control-J for the carriage return and line feed) Now I'm writing a plug-in for FileMaker(in C++ of course). I want to get what I did above happen in C++ so when I install that plug-in in FileMaker I can just call one of those functions and have the whole process take place right there. I'm able to connect to the device, but I can't talk to it. It is not responding to anything. I've tried connecting to the device(successfully) using these: FILE *comport; if ((comport = fopen("/dev/tty.KeySerial1", "w")) == NULL){...} and int fd; fd = open("/dev/tty.KeySerial1", O_RDWR | O_NOCTTY | O_NDELAY); This is what I've tried so far in way of talking to the device: fputs ("C,7^M^J",comport); or fprintf(comport,"C,7^M^J"); or char buffer[] = { 'C' , ',' , '7' , '^' , 'M' , '^' , 'J' }; fwrite (buffer , 1 , sizeof(buffer) , comport ); or fwrite('C,7^M^J', 1, 1, comport); Questions: When I connected to the device from Terminal and using ZTerm, I was able to set my baud rate of 57600. I think that may be why it isn't responding here. But I don't know how to do it here.... Does any one know how to do that? I tried this, but it didn't work: comport->BaudRate = 57600; There are a lot of class solutions out there but they all call these include files like termios.h and stdio.h. I don't have these and, for whatever reason, I can't find them to download. I've downloaded a few examples but there are like 20 files in them and they're all calling other files I can't find(like the ones listed above). Do I need to find these and if so where? I just don't know enough about C++ Is there a website where I can download libraries?? Another solution might be to put those terminal commands in C++. Is there a way to do that? So this has been driving me crazy. I'm not a C++ guy, I only know basic programming concepts. Is anyone out there a C++ expert? I ideally I'd like this to just work using functions I already have, like those fwrite, fputs stuff. Thanks!

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• C# slowdown while creating a bitmap - calculating distances from a large List of places for each pixel

  - by user576849

  I'm creating a graphic of the glow of lights above a geographic location based upon Walkers Law: Skyglow=0.01*Population*DistanceFromCenter^-2.5 I have a CSV file of places with 66,000 records using 5 fields (id,name,population,latitude,longitude), parsed on the FormLoad event and stored it in: List<string[]> placeDataList Then I set up nested loops to fill in a bitmap using SetPixel. For each pixel on the bitmap, which represents a coordinate on a map (latitude and longitude), the program loops through placeDataList – calculating the distance from that coordinate (pixel) to each place record. The distance (along with population) is used in a calculation to find how much cumulative sky glow is contributed to the coordinate from each place record. So, for every pixel, 66,000 distance calculations must be made. The problem is, this is predictably EXTREMELY slow – on the order of one line of pixels per 30 seconds or so on a 320 pixel wide image. This is unrelated to SetPixel, which I know is also slow, because the speed is similarly slow when adding the distance calculation results to an array. I don’t actually need to test all 66,000 records for every pixel, only the records within 150 miles (i.e. no skyglow is contributed to a coordinate from a small town 3000 miles away). But to find which records are within 150 miles of my coordinate I would still need to loop through all the records for each pixel. I can't use a smaller number of records because all 66,000 places contribute to skyglow for SOME coordinate in my map as it loops. This seems like a Catch-22, so I know there must be a better method out there. Like I mentioned, the slowdown is related to how many calculations I’m making per pixel, not anything to do with the bitmap. Any suggestions? private void fillPixels(int width) { Color pixelColor; int pixel_w = width; int pixel_h = (int)Math.Floor((width * 0.424088664)); Bitmap bmp = new Bitmap(pixel_w, pixel_h); for (int i = 0; i < pixel_h; i++) for (int j = 0; j < pixel_w; j++) { pixelColor = getPixelColor(i, j); bmp.SetPixel(j, i, pixelColor); } bmp.Save("Nightfall", System.Drawing.Imaging.ImageFormat.Jpeg); pictureBox1.Image = bmp; MessageBox.Show("Done"); } private Color getPixelColor(int height, int width) { int c; double glow,d,cityLat,cityLon,cityPop; double testLat, testLon; int size_h = (int)Math.Floor((size_w * 0.424088664)); ; testLat = (height * (24.443136 / size_h)) + 24.548874; testLon = (width * (57.636853 / size_w)) -124.640767; glow = 0; for (int i = 0; i < placeDataList.Count; i++) { cityPop=Convert.ToDouble(placeDataList[i][2]); cityLat=Convert.ToDouble(placeDataList[i][3]); cityLon=Convert.ToDouble(placeDataList[i][4]); d = distance(testLat, testLon, cityLat, cityLon,"M"); if(d<150) glow = glow+(0.01 * cityPop * Math.Pow(d, -2.5)); } if (glow >= 1) glow=1; c = (int)Math.Ceiling(glow * 255); return Color.FromArgb(c, c, c); }

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• I'm trying to make lots of the same object appear randomly on the screen subject to conditions and k

  - by Katsideswide

  Hi! A good friend recommended this site to me, it looks really useful! I'm a bit of a shameless noob at actionscript and after 3 days of tutorials and advice I've hit a brick wall. I've managed to get a sensor attached to an arduino talking to flash using something called AS3glue. it works, when i set up a trace("leaf") for the contition that the sensor reads 0, i get a printout of the word "leaf". however i want the program to make a graphic appear on the screen when this condition is met, not just trace something. I'm trying to get the program to generate a library object called "Enemy" on the screen at a random position each time the conditions are met. It's called enemy because I was following a game tutorial...actually it's a drawing of a leaf. Here's the bit of the code which is causing me problems: var army:Array; var enemy:Enemy; function AvoiderGame() { army = new Array(); var newEnemy = new Enemy( 100, 100 ); army.push( newEnemy ); addChild( newEnemy ); } function timerEvent(event:Event):void { if (a.getAnalogData(0) ==0 && a.getAnalogData(0) != this.lastposition){ trace("leaf"); var randomX:Number = (Math.random() * 200) + 100; var randomY:Number = (Math.random() * 150) + 50; var newEnemy = new Enemy( randomX, randomY); army.push( newEnemy ); addChild( newEnemy ); } else if (a.getAnalogData(0) == 0) { //don't trace anything } else { //don't trace anything } this.lastposition = a.getAnalogData(0); //afterwards, set the position to be the new lastposition and repeat. } I've imported "import flash.display.MovieClip;" and the code for the Enemy class looks like this: package { import flash.display.MovieClip; public class Enemy extends MovieClip { public function Enemy( startX:Number, startY:Number ) { x = startX; y = startY; } } } Here's my error. I've tried googling, it seems like a pretty general error: TypeError: Error #1009: Cannot access a property or method of a null object reference. at as3glue_program_fla::MainTimeline/timerEvent() at flash.utils::Timer/_timerDispatch() at flash.utils::Timer/tick() I've made sure that the "Enemy" object is exported for AS3. I'm going for something like this when it's programmed in AS2: leafCounter = 0; //set the counter to 0 counter.swapDepths(1000); //puts the counter on top of pretty much anything, unless you make more than 1000 leaves! counter.textbox.text = 0; //shows "0" in the text box in the "counter" movie clip this.onMouseDown = function() { //triggers when the mouse is clicked this.attachMovie("Leaf","Leaf"+leafCounter,leafCounter,{_x:Math.random()*Stage.width,_y:Math.random()*Stage.height,_rotation:Math.random()*360}); //adds a leaf to rthe stage with a random position and random rotation leafCounter++; //adds 1 to the leaf counter counter.textbox.text = leafCounter; //shows that number in the text box } I'm sure it must be a simple error, I can get the logic working when it just traces something on the screen but i can't get it to generate an "enemy" Any help or hints would be really useful! I know this is a bit of a ham-fisted job of altering existing code.

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• LINQ-like or SQL-like DSL for end-users to run queries to select (not modify) data?

  - by Mark Rushakoff

  For a utility I'm working on, the client would like to be able to generate graphic reports on the data that has been collected. I can already generate a couple canned graphs (using ZedGraph, which is a very nice library); however, the utility would be much more flexible if the graphs were more programmable or configurable by the end-user. TLDR version I want users to be able to use something like SQL to safely extract and select data from a List of objects that I provide and can describe. What free tools or libraries will help me accomplish this? Full version I've given thought to using IronPython, IronRuby, and LuaInterface, but frankly they're all a bit overpowered for what I want to do. My classes are fairly simple, along the lines of: class Person: string Name; int HeightInCm; DateTime BirthDate; Weight[] WeighIns; class Weight: int WeightInKg; DateTime Date; Person Owner; (exact classes have been changed to protect the innocent). To come up with the data for the graph, the user will choose whether it's a bar graph, scatter plot, etc., and then to actually obtain the data, I would like to obtain some kind of List from the user simply entering something SQL-ish along the lines of SELECT Name, AVG(WeighIns) FROM People SELECT WeightInKg, Owner.HeightInCm FROM Weights And as a bonus, it would be nice if you could actually do operations as well: SELECT WeightInKg, (Date - Owner.BirthDate) AS Age FROM Weights The DSL doesn't have to be compliant SQL in any way; it doesn't even have to resemble SQL, but I can't think of a more efficient descriptive language for the task. I'm fine filling in blanks; I don't expect a library to do everything for me. What I would expect to exist (but haven't been able to find in any way, shape, or form) is something like Fluent NHibernate (which I am already using in the project) where I can declare a mapping, something like var personRequest = Request<Person>(); personRequest.Item("Name", (p => p.Name)); personRequest.Item("HeightInCm", (p => p.HeightInCm)); personRequest.Item("HeightInInches", (p => p.HeightInCm * CM_TO_INCHES)); // ... var weightRequest = Request<Weight>(); weightRequest.Item("Owner", (w => w.Owner), personRequest); // Indicate a chain to personRequest // ... var people = Table<Person>("People", GetPeopleFromDatabase()); var weights = Table<Weight>("Weights", GetWeightsFromDatabase()); // ... TryRunQuery(userInputQuery); LINQ is so close to what I want to do, but AFAIK there's no way to sandbox it. I don't want to expose any unnecessary functionality to the end user; meaning I don't want the user to be able to send in and process: from p in people select (p => { System.IO.File.Delete("C:\\something\\important"); return p.Name }) So does anyone know of any free .NET libraries that allow something like what I've described above? Or is there some way to sandbox LINQ? cs-script is close too, but it doesn't seem to offer sandboxing yet either. I'd be hesitant to expose the NHibernate interface either, as the user should have a read-only view of the data at this point in the usage. I'm using C# 3.5, and pure .NET solutions would be preferred. The bottom line is that I'm really trying to avoid writing my own parser for a subset of SQL that would only apply to this single project.

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• Tool or library for end-users to run queries to select (not modify) data?

  - by Mark Rushakoff

  For a utility I'm working on, the client would like to be able to generate graphic reports on the data that has been collected. I can already generate a couple canned graphs (using ZedGraph, which is a very nice library); however, the utility would be much more flexible if the graphs were more programmable or configurable by the end-user. TLDR version I want users to be able to use something like SQL to safely extract and select data from a List of objects that I provide and can describe. What free tools or libraries will help me accomplish this? Full version I've given thought to using IronPython, IronRuby, and LuaInterface, but frankly they're all a bit overpowered for what I want to do. My classes are fairly simple, along the lines of: class Person: string Name; int HeightInCm; DateTime BirthDate; Weight[] WeighIns; class Weight: int WeightInKg; DateTime Date; Person Owner; (exact classes have been changed to protect the innocent). To come up with the data for the graph, the user will choose whether it's a bar graph, scatter plot, etc., and then to actually obtain the data, I would like to obtain some kind of List from the user simply entering something SQL-ish along the lines of SELECT Name, AVG(WeighIns) FROM People SELECT WeightInKg, Owner.HeightInCm FROM Weights And as a bonus, it would be nice if you could actually do operations as well: SELECT WeightInKg, (Date - Owner.BirthDate) AS Age FROM Weights The DSL doesn't have to be compliant SQL in any way; it doesn't even have to resemble SQL, but I can't think of a more efficient descriptive language for the task. I'm fine filling in blanks; I don't expect a library to do everything for me. What I would expect to exist (but haven't been able to find in any way, shape, or form) is something like Fluent NHibernate (which I am already using in the project) where I can declare a mapping, something like var personRequest = Request<Person>(); personRequest.Item("Name", (p => p.Name)); personRequest.Item("HeightInCm", (p => p.HeightInCm)); personRequest.Item("HeightInInches", (p => p.HeightInCm * CM_TO_INCHES)); // ... var weightRequest = Request<Weight>(); weightRequest.Item("Owner", (w => w.Owner), personRequest); // Indicate a chain to personRequest // ... var people = Table<Person>("People", GetPeopleFromDatabase()); var weights = Table<Weight>("Weights", GetWeightsFromDatabase()); // ... TryRunQuery(userInputQuery); LINQ is so close to what I want to do, but AFAIK there's no way to sandbox it. I don't want to expose any unnecessary functionality to the end user; meaning I don't want the user to be able to send in and process: from p in people select (p => { System.IO.File.Delete("C:\\something\\important"); return p.Name }) So does anyone know of any free .NET libraries that allow something like what I've described above? Or is there some way to sandbox LINQ? cs-script is close too, but it doesn't seem to offer sandboxing yet either. I'd be hesitant to expose the NHibernate interface either, as the user should have a read-only view of the data at this point in the usage. I'm using C# 3.5, and pure .NET solutions would be preferred. The bottom line is that I'm really trying to avoid writing my own parser for a subset of SQL that would only apply to this single project.

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• Cant center dropdown menu

  - by sonicboom

  I have a dropdown below ive creaeted, but im having troulbe centering the the menu. Ive tried to put <center> tags around it and also set the ul to margin auto 0 but its not working. Is there anything im missing? <style type="text/css"> ul { font-family: Arial, Verdana; font-size: 14px; margin: 0; padding: 0; list-style: none; } ul li { display: block; position: relative; float: left; } li ul { display: none; } ul li a { display: block; text-decoration: none; color: #ffffff; border-top: 1px solid #ffffff; padding: 5px 15px 5px 15px; background: #1e7c9a; margin-left: 1px; white-space: nowrap; } ul li a:hover { background: #3b3b3b; } li:hover ul { display: block; position: absolute; } li:hover li { float: none; font-size: 11px; } li:hover a { background: #3b3b3b; } li:hover li a:hover { background: #1e7c9a; } </style> </head> <body> <ul id="menu"> <li><a href="#">Home</a></li> <li><a href="#">Portfolio</a> <ul> <li><a href="#">Web Design</a></li> <li><a href="#">Graphic Design</a></li> <li><a href="#">Logo Design</a></li> <li><a href="#">Blog Design</a></li> </ul> </li> <li><a href="#">Projects</a> <ul> <li><a href="#">This is a project</a></li> <li><a href="#">So is this</a></li> <li><a href="#">and this</a></li> <li><a href="#">don't forget this too</a></li> </ul> </li> <li><a href="#">Contact</a> <ul> <li><a href="#">Support</a></li> <li><a href="#">Quote</a></li> <li><a href="#">General Enquiry</a></li> </ul> </li> </ul> I went ahead and put it on jsfiddle Here

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• CodePlex Daily Summary for Friday, March 12, 2010

  CodePlex Daily Summary for Friday, March 12, 2010New Projects.NET DEPENDENCY INJECTION: Abel Perez Enterprise FrameworkAutodocs - WCF REST Automatic API Documentation Generator: Autodocs is an automatic API documentation generator for .NET applications that use Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) to establish REST API's.BlockBlock: Block Block is a free game. You know Lumines and you will like BlockBlock.C4F XNA ASCII Post-Processing: This is the source code for the Coding4Fun article "XNA Effects – ASCII Art in 3D"ChequePrinter: this is ChequePrinterCompiladores MSIL usando Phoenix (PLP 2008.1 - CIn/UFPE): Este projeto foi feito com o intuito de explorar a plataforma Microsoft Phoenix para a construção de compiladores para MSIL de duas linguagens de E...CRM External View: CRM External View enables more robust control over exposing Microsoft CRM data (in a form of views) for external parties. The solution uses web ser...CS Project2: This is for the projectDotNetNuke IM Module of Facebook Like Messenger: Help you integrate 123 Web Messenger into DotNetNuke, and add a powerful 1-to-1 IM Software named "Facebook Messenger Style Web Chat Bar" at the bo...DotNetNuke® RadPanelBar: DNNRadPanelBar makes it easy to add telerik RadPanelBar functionality to your module or skin. Licensing permits anyone to use the components (incl...DotNetNuke® Skin Blocks: A DotNetNuke Design Challenge skin package submitted to the "Modern Business" category by Armand Datema of Schwingsoft. This skin uses a bit of jQu...Drilltrough and filtering on SSAS-cubes in SSRS: We will describe a technique to create Reporting services (SSRS) reports that use Analysis services (SSAS) cubes as data sources, have a very intu...Ecosystem Diagnosis & Treatment: The Ecosystem DIagnosis & Treatment community provides tools, analyses and applications of the medical model to natural resource problems. EDT sof...ExIf 35: A utility for use by film photographers for keeping track of critical facts about images taken on a roll of film, just as digital cameras do automa...FabricadeTI: Desenvolvimento do framework FabricadeTI.Find and Replace word in the sentences: This program used Java Development Kid 6.0 and i were using HighLighter class. It was completed code with source code and then everybody can use in...Flash Nut: Flash Nut is a flash card program. You can build and review decks of flash cards. The project is a vs2008 wpf application.Free DotNetNuke Chat Module (Popup Mode): With this free DotNetNuke Chat Module (Popup Mode), master will assist to integrate DotNetNuke with 123 Flash Chat seamlessly, and add a popup mode...Free DotNetNuke IM of 123 Web Messenger -- Web-based Friend List: With this FREE application, you could integrate DNN website Database with 123 Web Messenger seamlessly and embed a web-based Friends List into anyw...Free DotNetNuke Live Help Module: With DotNetNuke Live Help Module, integrate 123 Live Help into DotNetNuke website and add Live Chat Button anywhere you like. Let visitors to chat ...G52GRP Videowall: NottinghamHappy Turtle Plugins for BVI :: Repository Based Versioning for Visual Studio: The Happy Turtle project creates plugins for the Build Version Increment Add-In for Visual Studio (BVI). The focus is to automatically version asse...Hasher: Hasher es capaz de generar el hash MD5 y SHA de textos de hasta 100.000 caracteres y ficheros. También te permitirá comprobar dos hash para verifi...Infragistics Silverlight Extended Controls: This project is a group of controls that extend or add functionality to the Infragistics Silverlight control suite. This control requires Infragis...Insert Video Jnr: This is a baby version of my Video plugin, it is intended for Hosted Wordpress blogs only and shouldn't be used with other blog providers.jccc .NET smart framework: jccc .NET smart framework allows the creation of fast connections to MSSQL or MYSQL databases, and the data manipulation by using of c# class's tha...LytScript: 函数式脚本语言Microsoft - DDD NLayerApp .NET 4.0 Example (Microsoft Spain): DDD NLayered App .NET 4.0 Example By Microsoft - Spain Domain Driven Design NLayered App .NET 4.0 Example Implementation Example of our local Arc...mimiKit: Lightweight ASP.NET MVC / Javascript Framework for creating mobile applications PHPWord: With PHPWord you can easily create a Word document with PHP. 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• Use IIS Application Initialization for keeping ASP.NET Apps alive

  - by Rick Strahl

  I've been working quite a bit with Windows Services in the recent months, and well, it turns out that Windows Services are quite a bear to debug, deploy, update and maintain. The process of getting services set up,  debugged and updated is a major chore that has to be extensively documented and or automated specifically. On most projects when a service is built, people end up scrambling for the right 'process' to use for administration. Web app deployment and maintenance on the other hand are common and well understood today, as we are constantly dealing with Web apps. There's plenty of infrastructure and tooling built into Web Tools like Visual Studio to facilitate the process. By comparison Windows Services or anything self-hosted for that matter seems convoluted.In fact, in a recent blog post I mentioned that on a recent project I'd been using self-hosting for SignalR inside of a Windows service, because the application is in fact a 'service' that also needs to send out lots of messages via SignalR. But the reality is that it could just as well be an IIS application with a service component that runs in the background. Either way you look at it, it's either a Windows Service with a built in Web Server, or an IIS application running a Service application, neither of which follows the standard Service or Web App template.Personally I much prefer Web applications. Running inside of IIS I get all the benefits of the IIS platform including service lifetime management (crash and restart), controlled shutdowns, the whole security infrastructure including easy certificate support, hot-swapping of code and the the ability to publish directly to IIS from within Visual Studio with ease.Because of these benefits we set out to move from the self hosted service into an ASP.NET Web app instead.The Missing Link for ASP.NET as a Service: Auto-LoadingI've had moments in the past where I wanted to run a 'service like' application in ASP.NET because when you think about it, it's so much easier to control a Web application remotely. Services are locked into start/stop operations, but if you host inside of a Web app you can write your own ticket and control it from anywhere. In fact nearly 10 years ago I built a background scheduling application that ran inside of ASP.NET and it worked great and it's still running doing its job today.The tricky part for running an app as a service inside of IIS then and now, is how to get IIS and ASP.NET launched so your 'service' stays alive even after an Application Pool reset. 7 years ago I faked it by using a web monitor (my own West Wind Web Monitor app) I was running anyway to monitor my various web sites for uptime, and having the monitor ping my 'service' every 20 seconds to effectively keep ASP.NET alive or fire it back up after a reload. I used a simple scheduler class that also includes some logic for 'self-reloading'. Hacky for sure, but it worked reliably.Luckily today it's much easier and more integrated to get IIS to launch ASP.NET as soon as an Application Pool is started by using the Application Initialization Module. The Application Initialization Module basically allows you to turn on Preloading on the Application Pool and the Site/IIS App, which essentially fires a request through the IIS pipeline as soon as the Application Pool has been launched. This means that effectively your ASP.NET app becomes active immediately, Application_Start is fired making sure your app stays up and running at all times. All the other features like Application Pool recycling and auto-shutdown after idle time still work, but IIS will then always immediately re-launch the application.Getting started with Application InitializationAs of IIS 8 Application Initialization is part of the IIS feature set. For IIS 7 and 7.5 there's a separate download available via Web Platform Installer. Using IIS 8 Application Initialization is an optional install component in Windows or the Windows Server Role Manager: This is an optional component so make sure you explicitly select it.IIS Configuration for Application InitializationInitialization needs to be applied on the Application Pool as well as the IIS Application level. As of IIS 8 these settings can be made through the IIS Administration console.Start with the Application Pool:Here you need to set both the Start Automatically which is always set, and the StartMode which should be set to AlwaysRunning. Both have to be set - the Start Automatically flag is set true by default and controls the starting of the application pool itself while Always Running flag is required in order to launch the application. Without the latter flag set the site settings have no effect.Now on the Site/Application level you can specify whether the site should pre load: Set the Preload Enabled flag to true.At this point ASP.NET apps should auto-load. This is all that's needed to pre-load the site if all you want is to get your site launched automatically.If you want a little more control over the load process you can add a few more settings to your web.config file that allow you to show a static page while the App is starting up. This can be useful if startup is really slow, so rather than displaying blank screen while the user is fiddling their thumbs you can display a static HTML page instead: <system.webServer> <applicationInitialization remapManagedRequestsTo="Startup.htm" skipManagedModules="true"> <add initializationPage="ping.ashx" /> </applicationInitialization> </system.webServer>This allows you to specify a page to execute in a dry run. IIS basically fakes request and pushes it directly into the IIS pipeline without hitting the network. You specify a page and IIS will fake a request to that page in this case ping.ashx which just returns a simple OK string - ie. a fast pipeline request. This request is run immediately after Application Pool restart, and while this request is running and your app is warming up, IIS can display an alternate static page - Startup.htm above. So instead of showing users an empty loading page when clicking a link on your site you can optionally show some sort of static status page that says, "we'll be right back".  I'm not sure if that's such a brilliant idea since this can be pretty disruptive in some cases. Personally I think I prefer letting people wait, but at least get the response they were supposed to get back rather than a random page. But it's there if you need it.Note that the web.config stuff is optional. If you don't provide it IIS hits the default site link (/) and even if there's no matching request at the end of that request it'll still fire the request through the IIS pipeline. Ideally though you want to make sure that an ASP.NET endpoint is hit either with your default page, or by specify the initializationPage to ensure ASP.NET actually gets hit since it's possible for IIS fire unmanaged requests only for static pages (depending how your pipeline is configured).What about AppDomain Restarts?In addition to full Worker Process recycles at the IIS level, ASP.NET also has to deal with AppDomain shutdowns which can occur for a variety of reasons:Files are updated in the BIN folderWeb Deploy to your siteweb.config is changedHard application crashThese operations don't cause the worker process to restart, but they do cause ASP.NET to unload the current AppDomain and start up a new one. Because the features above only apply to Application Pool restarts, AppDomain restarts could also cause your 'ASP.NET service' to stop processing in the background.In order to keep the app running on AppDomain recycles, you can resort to a simple ping in the Application_End event:protected void Application_End() { var client = new WebClient(); var url = App.AdminConfiguration.MonitorHostUrl + "ping.aspx"; client.DownloadString(url); Trace.WriteLine("Application Shut Down Ping: " + url); }which fires any ASP.NET url to the current site at the very end of the pipeline shutdown which in turn ensures that the site immediately starts back up.Manual Configuration in ApplicationHost.configThe above UI corresponds to the following ApplicationHost.config settings. If you're using IIS 7, there's no UI for these flags so you'll have to manually edit them.When you install the Application Initialization component into IIS it should auto-configure the module into ApplicationHost.config. Unfortunately for me, with Mr. Murphy in his best form for me, the module registration did not occur and I had to manually add it.<globalModules> <add name="ApplicationInitializationModule" image="%windir%\System32\inetsrv\warmup.dll" /> </globalModules>Most likely you won't need ever need to add this, but if things are not working it's worth to check if the module is actually registered.Next you need to configure the ApplicationPool and the Web site. The following are the two relevant entries in ApplicationHost.config.<system.applicationHost> <applicationPools> <add name="West Wind West Wind Web Connection" autoStart="true" startMode="AlwaysRunning" managedRuntimeVersion="v4.0" managedPipelineMode="Integrated"> <processModel identityType="LocalSystem" setProfileEnvironment="true" /> </add> </applicationPools> <sites> <site name="Default Web Site" id="1"> <application path="/MPress.Workflow.WebQueueMessageManager" applicationPool="West Wind West Wind Web Connection" preloadEnabled="true"> <virtualDirectory path="/" physicalPath="C:\Clients\…" /> </application> </site> </sites> </system.applicationHost>On the Application Pool make sure to set the autoStart and startMode flags to true and AlwaysRunning respectively. On the site make sure to set the preloadEnabled flag to true.And that's all you should need. You can still set the web.config settings described above as well.ASP.NET as a Service?In the particular application I'm working on currently, we have a queue manager that runs as standalone service that polls a database queue and picks out jobs and processes them on several threads. The service can spin up any number of threads and keep these threads alive in the background while IIS is running doing its own thing. These threads are newly created threads, so they sit completely outside of the IIS thread pool. In order for this service to work all it needs is a long running reference that keeps it alive for the life time of the application.In this particular app there are two components that run in the background on their own threads: A scheduler that runs various scheduled tasks and handles things like picking up emails to send out outside of IIS's scope and the QueueManager. Here's what this looks like in global.asax:public class Global : System.Web.HttpApplication { private static ApplicationScheduler scheduler; private static ServiceLauncher launcher; protected void Application_Start(object sender, EventArgs e) { // Pings the service and ensures it stays alive scheduler = new ApplicationScheduler() { CheckFrequency = 600000 }; scheduler.Start(); launcher = new ServiceLauncher(); launcher.Start(); // register so shutdown is controlled HostingEnvironment.RegisterObject(launcher); }}By keeping these objects around as static instances that are set only once on startup, they survive the lifetime of the application. The code in these classes is essentially unchanged from the Windows Service code except that I could remove the various overrides required for the Windows Service interface (OnStart,OnStop,OnResume etc.). Otherwise the behavior and operation is very similar.In this application ASP.NET serves two purposes: It acts as the host for SignalR and provides the administration interface which allows remote management of the 'service'. I can start and stop the service remotely by shutting down the ApplicationScheduler very easily. I can also very easily feed stats from the queue out directly via a couple of Web requests or (as we do now) through the SignalR service.Registering a Background Object with ASP.NETNotice also the use of the HostingEnvironment.RegisterObject(). This function registers an object with ASP.NET to let it know that it's a background task that should be notified if the AppDomain shuts down. RegisterObject() requires an interface with a Stop() method that's fired and allows your code to respond to a shutdown request. Here's what the IRegisteredObject::Stop() method looks like on the launcher:public void Stop(bool immediate = false) { LogManager.Current.LogInfo("QueueManager Controller Stopped."); Controller.StopProcessing(); Controller.Dispose(); Thread.Sleep(1500); // give background threads some time HostingEnvironment.UnregisterObject(this); }Implementing IRegisterObject should help with reliability on AppDomain shutdowns. Thanks to Justin Van Patten for pointing this out to me on Twitter.RegisterObject() is not required but I would highly recommend implementing it on whatever object controls your background processing to all clean shutdowns when the AppDomain shuts down.Testing it outI'm still in the testing phase with this particular service to see if there are any side effects. But so far it doesn't look like it. With about 50 lines of code I was able to replace the Windows service startup to Web start up - everything else just worked as is. An honorable mention goes to SignalR 2.0's oWin hosting, because with the new oWin based hosting no code changes at all were required, merely a couple of configuration file settings and an assembly directive needed, to point at the SignalR startup class. Sweet!It also seems like SignalR is noticeably faster running inside of IIS compared to self-host. Startup feels faster because of the preload.Starting and Stopping the 'Service'Because the application is running as a Web Server, it's easy to have a Web interface for starting and stopping the services running inside of the service. For our queue manager the SignalR service and front monitoring app has a play and stop button for toggling the queue.If you want more administrative control and have it work more like a Windows Service you can also stop the application pool explicitly from the command line which would be equivalent to stopping and restarting a service.To start and stop from the command line you can use the IIS appCmd tool. To stop:> %windir%\system32\inetsrv\appcmd stop apppool /apppool.name:"Weblog"and to start> %windir%\system32\inetsrv\appcmd start apppool /apppool.name:"Weblog"Note that when you explicitly force the AppPool to stop running either in the UI (on the ApplicationPools page use Start/Stop) or via command line tools, the application pool will not auto-restart immediately. You have to manually start it back up.What's not to like?There are certainly a lot of benefits to running a background service in IIS, but… ASP.NET applications do have more overhead in terms of memory footprint and startup time is a little slower, but generally for server applications this is not a big deal. If the application is stable the service should fire up and stay running indefinitely. A lot of times this kind of service interface can simply be attached to an existing Web application, or if scalability requires be offloaded to its own Web server.Easier to work withBut the ultimate benefit here is that it's much easier to work with a Web app as opposed to a service. While developing I can simply turn off the auto-launch features and launch the service on demand through IIS simply by hitting a page on the site. If I want to shut down an IISRESET -stop will shut down the service easily enough. I can then attach a debugger anywhere I want and this works like any other ASP.NET application. Yes you end up on a background thread for debugging but Visual Studio handles that just fine and if you stay on a single thread this is no different than debugging any other code.SummaryUsing ASP.NET to run background service operations is probably not a super common scenario, but it probably should be something that is considered carefully when building services. Many applications have service like features and with the auto-start functionality of the Application Initialization module, it's easy to build this functionality into ASP.NET. Especially when combined with the notification features of SignalR it becomes very, very easy to create rich services that can also communicate their status easily to the outside world.Whether it's existing applications that need some background processing for scheduling related tasks, or whether you just create a separate site altogether just to host your service it's easy to do and you can leverage the same tool chain you're already using for other Web projects. If you have lots of service projects it's worth considering… give it some thought…© Rick Strahl, West Wind Technologies, 2005-2013Posted in ASP.NET  SignalR  IIS   Tweet !function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js";fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document,"script","twitter-wjs"); (function() { var po = document.createElement('script'); po.type = 'text/javascript'; po.async = true; po.src = 'https://apis.google.com/js/plusone.js'; var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(po, s); })();

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• What’s new in ASP.NET 4.0: Core Features

  - by Rick Strahl

  Microsoft released the .NET Runtime 4.0 and with it comes a brand spanking new version of ASP.NET – version 4.0 – which provides an incremental set of improvements to an already powerful platform. .NET 4.0 is a full release of the .NET Framework, unlike version 3.5, which was merely a set of library updates on top of the .NET Framework version 2.0. Because of this full framework revision, there has been a welcome bit of consolidation of assemblies and configuration settings. The full runtime version change to 4.0 also means that you have to explicitly pick version 4.0 of the runtime when you create a new Application Pool in IIS, unlike .NET 3.5, which actually requires version 2.0 of the runtime. In this first of two parts I'll take a look at some of the changes in the core ASP.NET runtime. In the next edition I'll go over improvements in Web Forms and Visual Studio. Core Engine Features Most of the high profile improvements in ASP.NET have to do with Web Forms, but there are a few gems in the core runtime that should make life easier for ASP.NET developers. The following list describes some of the things I've found useful among the new features. Clean web.config Files Are Back! If you've been using ASP.NET 3.5, you probably have noticed that the web.config file has turned into quite a mess of configuration settings between all the custom handler and module mappings for the various web server versions. Part of the reason for this mess is that .NET 3.5 is a collection of add-on components running on top of the .NET Runtime 2.0 and so almost all of the new features of .NET 3.5 where essentially introduced as custom modules and handlers that had to be explicitly configured in the config file. Because the core runtime didn't rev with 3.5, all those configuration options couldn't be moved up to other configuration files in the system chain. With version 4.0 a consolidation was possible, and the result is a much simpler web.config file by default. A default empty ASP.NET 4.0 Web Forms project looks like this: <?xml version="1.0"?> <configuration> <system.web> <compilation debug="true" targetFramework="4.0" /> </system.web> </configuration> Need I say more? Configuration Transformation Files to Manage Configurations and Application Packaging ASP.NET 4.0 introduces the ability to create multi-target configuration files. This means it's possible to create a single configuration file that can be transformed based on relatively simple replacement rules using a Visual Studio and WebDeploy provided XSLT syntax. The idea is that you can create a 'master' configuration file and then create customized versions of this master configuration file by applying some relatively simplistic search and replace, add or remove logic to specific elements and attributes in the original file. To give you an idea, here's the example code that Visual Studio creates for a default web.Release.config file, which replaces a connection string, removes the debug attribute and replaces the CustomErrors section: <?xml version="1.0"?> <configuration xmlns:xdt="http://schemas.microsoft.com/XML-Document-Transform"> <connectionStrings> <add name="MyDB" connectionString="Data Source=ReleaseSQLServer;Initial Catalog=MyReleaseDB;Integrated Security=True" xdt:Transform="SetAttributes" xdt:Locator="Match(name)"/> </connectionStrings> <system.web> <compilation xdt:Transform="RemoveAttributes(debug)" /> <customErrors defaultRedirect="GenericError.htm" mode="RemoteOnly" xdt:Transform="Replace"> <error statusCode="500" redirect="InternalError.htm"/> </customErrors> </system.web> </configuration> You can see the XSL transform syntax that drives this functionality. Basically, only the elements listed in the override file are matched and updated – all the rest of the original web.config file stays intact. Visual Studio 2010 supports this functionality directly in the project system so it's easy to create and maintain these customized configurations in the project tree. Once you're ready to publish your application, you can then use the Publish <yourWebApplication> option on the Build menu which allows publishing to disk, via FTP or to a Web Server using Web Deploy. You can also create a deployment package as a .zip file which can be used by the WebDeploy tool to configure and install the application. You can manually run the Web Deploy tool or use the IIS Manager to install the package on the server or other machine. You can find out more about WebDeploy and Packaging here: http://tinyurl.com/2anxcje. Improved Routing Routing provides a relatively simple way to create clean URLs with ASP.NET by associating a template URL path and routing it to a specific ASP.NET HttpHandler. Microsoft first introduced routing with ASP.NET MVC and then they integrated routing with a basic implementation in the core ASP.NET engine via a separate ASP.NET routing assembly. In ASP.NET 4.0, the process of using routing functionality gets a bit easier. First, routing is now rolled directly into System.Web, so no extra assembly reference is required in your projects to use routing. The RouteCollection class now includes a MapPageRoute() method that makes it easy to route to any ASP.NET Page requests without first having to implement an IRouteHandler implementation. It would have been nice if this could have been extended to serve *any* handler implementation, but unfortunately for anything but a Page derived handlers you still will have to implement a custom IRouteHandler implementation. ASP.NET Pages now include a RouteData collection that will contain route information. Retrieving route data is now a lot easier by simply using this.RouteData.Values["routeKey"] where the routeKey is the value specified in the route template (i.e., "users/{userId}" would use Values["userId"]). The Page class also has a GetRouteUrl() method that you can use to create URLs with route data values rather than hardcoding the URL: <%= this.GetRouteUrl("users",new { userId="ricks" }) %> You can also use the new Expression syntax using <%$RouteUrl %> to accomplish something similar, which can be easier to embed into Page or MVC View code: <a runat="server" href='<%$RouteUrl:RouteName=user, id=ricks %>'>Visit User</a> Finally, the Response object also includes a new RedirectToRoute() method to build a route url for redirection without hardcoding the URL. Response.RedirectToRoute("users", new { userId = "ricks" }); All of these routines are helpers that have been integrated into the core ASP.NET engine to make it easier to create routes and retrieve route data, which hopefully will result in more people taking advantage of routing in ASP.NET. To find out more about the routing improvements you can check out Dan Maharry's blog which has a couple of nice blog entries on this subject: http://tinyurl.com/37trutj and http://tinyurl.com/39tt5w5. Session State Improvements Session state is an often used and abused feature in ASP.NET and version 4.0 introduces a few enhancements geared towards making session state more efficient and to minimize at least some of the ill effects of overuse. The first improvement affects out of process session state, which is typically used in web farm environments or for sites that store application sensitive data that must survive AppDomain restarts (which in my opinion is just about any application). When using OutOfProc session state, ASP.NET serializes all the data in the session statebag into a blob that gets carried over the network and stored either in the State server or SQL Server via the Session provider. Version 4.0 provides some improvement in this serialization of the session data by offering an enableCompression option on the web.Config <Session> section, which forces the serialized session state to be compressed. Depending on the type of data that is being serialized, this compression can reduce the size of the data travelling over the wire by as much as a third. It works best on string data, but can also reduce the size of binary data. In addition, ASP.NET 4.0 now offers a way to programmatically turn session state on or off as part of the request processing queue. In prior versions, the only way to specify whether session state is available is by implementing a marker interface on the HTTP handler implementation. In ASP.NET 4.0, you can now turn session state on and off programmatically via HttpContext.Current.SetSessionStateBehavior() as part of the ASP.NET module pipeline processing as long as it occurs before the AquireRequestState pipeline event. Output Cache Provider Output caching in ASP.NET has been a very useful but potentially memory intensive feature. The default OutputCache mechanism works through in-memory storage that persists generated output based on various lifetime related parameters. While this works well enough for many intended scenarios, it also can quickly cause runaway memory consumption as the cache fills up and serves many variations of pages on your site. ASP.NET 4.0 introduces a provider model for the OutputCache module so it becomes possible to plug-in custom storage strategies for cached pages. One of the goals also appears to be to consolidate some of the different cache storage mechanisms used in .NET in general to a generic Windows AppFabric framework in the future, so various different mechanisms like OutputCache, the non-Page specific ASP.NET cache and possibly even session state eventually can use the same caching engine for storage of persisted data both in memory and out of process scenarios. For developers, the OutputCache provider feature means that you can now extend caching on your own by implementing a custom Cache provider based on the System.Web.Caching.OutputCacheProvider class. You can find more info on creating an Output Cache provider in Gunnar Peipman's blog at: http://tinyurl.com/2vt6g7l. Response.RedirectPermanent ASP.NET 4.0 includes features to issue a permanent redirect that issues as an HTTP 301 Moved Permanently response rather than the standard 302 Redirect respond. In pre-4.0 versions you had to manually create your permanent redirect by setting the Status and Status code properties – Response.RedirectPermanent() makes this operation more obvious and discoverable. There's also a Response.RedirectToRoutePermanent() which provides permanent redirection of route Urls. Preloading of Applications ASP.NET 4.0 provides a new feature to preload ASP.NET applications on startup, which is meant to provide a more consistent startup experience. If your application has a lengthy startup cycle it can appear very slow to serve data to clients while the application is warming up and loading initial resources. So rather than serve these startup requests slowly in ASP.NET 4.0, you can force the application to initialize itself first before even accepting requests for processing. This feature works only on IIS 7.5 (Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2) and works in combination with IIS. You can set up a worker process in IIS 7.5 to always be running, which starts the Application Pool worker process immediately. ASP.NET 4.0 then allows you to specify site-specific settings by setting the serverAutoStartEnabled on a particular site along with an optional serviceAutoStartProvider class that can be used to receive "startup events" when the application starts up. This event in turn can be used to configure the application and optionally pre-load cache data and other information required by the app on startup.  The configuration settings need to be made in applicationhost.config: <sites> <site name="WebApplication2" id="1"> <application path="/" serviceAutoStartEnabled="true" serviceAutoStartProvider="PreWarmup" /> </site> </sites> <serviceAutoStartProviders> <add name="PreWarmup" type="PreWarmupProvider,MyAssembly" /> </serviceAutoStartProviders> Hooking up a warm up provider is optional so you can omit the provider definition and reference. If you do define it here's what it looks like: public class PreWarmupProvider System.Web.Hosting.IProcessHostPreloadClient { public void Preload(string[] parameters) { // initialization for app } } This code fires and while it's running, ASP.NET/IIS will hold requests from hitting the pipeline. So until this code completes the application will not start taking requests. The idea is that you can perform any pre-loading of resources and cache values so that the first request will be ready to perform at optimal performance level without lag. Runtime Performance Improvements According to Microsoft, there have also been a number of invisible performance improvements in the internals of the ASP.NET runtime that should make ASP.NET 4.0 applications run more efficiently and use less resources. These features come without any change requirements in applications and are virtually transparent, except that you get the benefits by updating to ASP.NET 4.0. Summary The core feature set changes are minimal which continues a tradition of small incremental changes to the ASP.NET runtime. ASP.NET has been proven as a solid platform and I'm actually rather happy to see that most of the effort in this release went into stability, performance and usability improvements rather than a massive amount of new features. The new functionality added in 4.0 is minimal but very useful. A lot of people are still running pure .NET 2.0 applications these days and have stayed off of .NET 3.5 for some time now. I think that version 4.0 with its full .NET runtime rev and assembly and configuration consolidation will make an attractive platform for developers to update to. If you're a Web Forms developer in particular, ASP.NET 4.0 includes a host of new features in the Web Forms engine that are significant enough to warrant a quick move to .NET 4.0. I'll cover those changes in my next column. Until then, I suggest you give ASP.NET 4.0 a spin and see for yourself how the new features can help you out. © Rick Strahl, West Wind Technologies, 2005-2010Posted in ASP.NET  

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• Mobile Friendly Websites with CSS Media Queries

  - by dwahlin

  In a previous post the concept of CSS media queries was introduced and I discussed the fundamentals of how they can be used to target different screen sizes. I showed how they could be used to convert a 3-column wide page into a more vertical view of data that displays better on devices such as an iPhone:     In this post I'll provide an additional look at how CSS media queries can be used to mobile-enable a sample site called "Widget Masters" without having to change any server-side code or HTML code. The site that will be discussed is shown next:     This site has some of the standard items shown in most websites today including a title area, menu bar, and sections where data is displayed. Without including CSS media queries the site is readable but has to be zoomed out to see everything on a mobile device, cuts-off some of the menu items, and requires horizontal scrolling to get to additional content. The following image shows what the site looks like on an iPhone. While the site works on mobile devices it's definitely not optimized for mobile.     Let's take a look at how CSS media queries can be used to override existing styles in the site based on different screen widths. Adding CSS Media Queries into a Site The Widget Masters Website relies on standard CSS combined with HTML5 elements to provide the layout shown earlier. For example, to layout the menu bar shown at the top of the page the nav element is used as shown next. A standard div element could certainly be used as well if desired.   <nav> <ul class="clearfix"> <li><a href="#home">Home</a></li> <li><a href="#products">Products</a></li> <li><a href="#aboutus">About Us</a></li> <li><a href="#contactus">Contact Us</a></li> <li><a href="#store">Store</a></li> </ul> </nav>   This HTML is combined with the CSS shown next to add a CSS3 gradient, handle the horizontal orientation, and add some general hover effects.   nav { width: 100%; } nav ul { border-radius: 6px; height: 40px; width: 100%; margin: 0; padding: 0; background: rgb(125,126,125); /* Old browsers */ background: -moz-linear-gradient(top, rgba(125,126,125,1) 0%, rgba(14,14,14,1) 100%); /* FF3.6+ */ background: -webkit-gradient(linear, left top, left bottom, color-stop(0%,rgba(125,126,125,1)), color-stop(100%,rgba(14,14,14,1))); /* Chrome,Safari4+ */ background: -webkit-linear-gradient(top, rgba(125,126,125,1) 0%, rgba(14,14,14,1) 100%); /* Chrome10+,Safari5.1+ */ background: -o-linear-gradient(top, rgba(125,126,125,1) 0%, rgba(14,14,14,1) 100%); /* Opera 11.10+ */ background: -ms-linear-gradient(top, rgba(125,126,125,1) 0%, rgba(14,14,14,1) 100%); /* IE10+ */ background: linear-gradient(top, rgba(125,126,125,1) 0%, rgba(14,14,14,1) 100%); /* W3C */ filter: progid:DXImageTransform.Microsoft.gradient( startColorstr='#7d7e7d', endColorstr='#0e0e0e',GradientType=0 ); /* IE6-9 */ } nav ul > li { list-style: none; float: left; margin: 0; padding: 0; } nav ul > li:first-child { margin-left: 8px; } nav ul > li > a { color: #ccc; text-decoration: none; line-height: 2.8em; font-size: 0.95em; font-weight: bold; padding: 8px 25px 7px 25px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; } nav ul > li a:hover { background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1); color: #fff; }   When mobile devices hit the site the layout of the menu items needs to be adjusted so that they're all visible without having to swipe left or right to get to them. This type of modification can be accomplished using CSS media queries by targeting specific screen sizes. To start, a media query can be added into the site's CSS file as shown next: @media screen and (max-width:320px) { /* CSS style overrides for this screen width go here */ } This media query targets screens that have a maximum width of 320 pixels. Additional types of queries can also be added – refer to my previous post for more details as well as resources that can be used to test media queries in different devices. In that post I emphasize (and I'll emphasize again) that CSS media queries only modify the overall layout and look and feel of a site. They don't optimize the site as far as the size of the images or content sent to the device which is important to keep in mind. To make the navigation menu more accessible on devices such as an iPhone or Android the CSS shown next can be used. This code changes the height of the menu from 40 pixels to 100%, takes off the li element floats, changes the line-height, and changes the margins.   @media screen and (max-width:320px) { nav ul { height: 100%; } nav ul > li { float: none; } nav ul > li a { line-height: 1.5em; } nav ul > li:first-child { margin-left: 0px; } /* Additional CSS overrides go here */ }   The following image shows an example of what the menu look like when run on a device with a width of 320 pixels:   Mobile devices with a maximum width of 480 pixels need different CSS styles applied since they have 160 additional pixels of width. This can be done by adding a new CSS media query into the stylesheet as shown next. Looking through the CSS you'll see that only a minimal override is added to adjust the padding of anchor tags since the menu fits by default in this screen width.   @media screen and (max-width: 480px) { nav ul > li > a { padding: 8px 10px 7px 10px; } }   Running the site on a device with 480 pixels results in the menu shown next being rendered. Notice that the space between the menu items is much smaller compared to what was shown when the main site loads in a standard browser.     In addition to modifying the menu, the 3 horizontal content sections shown earlier can be changed from a horizontal layout to a vertical layout so that they look good on a variety of smaller mobile devices and are easier to navigate by end users. The HTML5 article and section elements are used as containers for the 3 sections in the site as shown next:   <article class="clearfix"> <section id="info"> <header>Why Choose Us?</header> <br /> <img id="mainImage" src="Images/ArticleImage.png" title="Article Image" /> <p> Post emensos insuperabilis expeditionis eventus languentibus partium animis, quas periculorum varietas fregerat et laborum, nondum tubarum cessante clangore vel milite locato per stationes hibernas. </p> </section> <section id="products"> <header>Products</header> <br /> <img id="gearsImage" src="Images/Gears.png" title="Article Image" /> <p> <ul> <li>Widget 1</li> <li>Widget 2</li> <li>Widget 3</li> <li>Widget 4</li> <li>Widget 5</li> </ul> </p> </section> <section id="FAQ"> <header>FAQ</header> <br /> <img id="faqImage" src="Images/faq.png" title="Article Image" /> <p> <ul> <li>FAQ 1</li> <li>FAQ 2</li> <li>FAQ 3</li> <li>FAQ 4</li> <li>FAQ 5</li> </ul> </p> </section> </article>   To force the sections into a vertical layout for smaller mobile devices the CSS styles shown next can be added into the media queries targeting 320 pixel and 480 pixel widths. Styles to target the display size of the images in each section are also included. It's important to note that the original image is still being downloaded from the server and isn't being optimized in any way for the mobile device. It's certainly possible for the CSS to include URL information for a mobile-optimized image if desired. @media screen and (max-width:320px) { section { float: none; width: 97%; margin: 0px; padding: 5px; } #wrapper { padding: 5px; width: 96%; } #mainImage, #gearsImage, #faqImage { width: 100%; height: 100px; } } @media screen and (max-width: 480px) { section { float: none; width: 98%; margin: 0px 0px 10px 0px; padding: 5px; } article > section:last-child { margin-right: 0px; float: none; } #bottomSection { width: 99%; } #wrapper { padding: 5px; width: 96%; } #mainImage, #gearsImage, #faqImage { width: 100%; height: 100px; } }   The following images show the site rendered on an iPhone with the CSS media queries in place. Each of the sections now displays vertically making it much easier for the user to access them. Images inside of each section also scale appropriately to fit properly.     CSS media queries provide a great way to override default styles in a website and target devices with different resolutions. In this post you've seen how CSS media queries can be used to convert a standard browser-based site into a site that is more accessible to mobile users. Although much more can be done to optimize sites for mobile, CSS media queries provide a nice starting point if you don't have the time or resources to create mobile-specific versions of sites.

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