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• Integrating Code Metrics in TFS 2010 Build

  - by Jakob Ehn

  The build process template and custom activity described in this post is available here: http://cid-ee034c9f620cd58d.office.live.com/self.aspx/BlogSamples/CodeMetricsSample.zip Running code metrics has been available since VS 2008, but only from inside the IDE. Yesterday Microsoft finally releases a Visual Studio Code Metrics Power Tool 10.0, a command line tool that lets you run code metrics on your applications.  This means that it is now possible to perform code metrics analysis on the build server as part of your nightly/QA builds (for example). In this post I will show how you can run the metrics command line tool, and also a custom activity that reads the output and appends the results to the build log, and also fails he build if the metric values exceeds certain (configurable) treshold values. The code metrics tool analyzes all the methods in the assemblies, measuring cyclomatic complexity, class coupling, depth of inheritance and lines of code. Then it calculates a Maintainability Index from these values that is a measure f how maintanable this method is, between 0 (worst) and 100 (best). For information on hwo this value is calculated, see http://blogs.msdn.com/b/codeanalysis/archive/2007/11/20/maintainability-index-range-and-meaning.aspx. After this it aggregates the information and present it at the class, namespace and module level as well. Running Metrics.exe in a build definition Running the actual tool is easy, just use a InvokeProcess activity last in the Compile the Project sequence, reference the metrics.exe file and pass the correct arguments and you will end up with a result XML file in the drop directory. Here is how it is done in the attached build process template: In the above sequence I first assign the path to the code metrics result file ([BinariesDirectory]\result.xml) to a variable called MetricsResultFile, which is then sent to the InvokeProcess activity in the Arguments property. Here are the arguments for the InvokeProcess activity: Note that we tell metrics.exe to analyze all assemblies located in the Binaries folder. You might want to do some more intelligent filtering here, you probably don’t want to analyze all 3rd party assemblies for example. Note also the path to the metrics.exe, this is the default location when you install the Code Metrics power tool. You must of course install the power tool on all build servers. Using the standard output logging (in the Handle Standard Output/Handle Error Output sections), we get the following output when running the build: Integrating Code Metrics into the build Having the results available next to the build result is nice, but we want to have results integrated in the build result itself, and also to affect the outcome of the build. The point of having QA builds that measure, for example, code metrics is to make it very clear how the code being built measures up to the standards of the project/company. Just having a XML file available in the drop location will not cause the developers to improve their code, but a (partially) failing build will! To do this, we need to write a custom activity that parses the metrics result file, logs it to the build log and fails the build if the values frfom the metrics is below/above some predefined treshold values. The custom activity performs the following steps Parses the XML. I’m using Linq 2 XSD for this, since the XML schema for the result file is available, it is vey easy to generate code that lets you query the structure using standard Linq operators. Runs through the metric result hierarchy and logs the metrics for each level and also verifies maintainability index and the cyclomatic complexity with the treshold values. The treshold values are defined in the build process template are are sent in as arguments to the custom activity If the treshold values are exceeded, the activity either fails or partially fails the current build. For more information about the structure of the code metrics result file, read Cameron Skinner's post about it. It is very simpe and easy to understand. I won’t go through the code of the custom activity here, since there is nothing special about it and it is available for download so you can look at it and play with it yourself. The treshold values for Maintainability Index and Cyclomatic Complexity is defined in the build process template, and can be modified per build definition: I have taken the default value for these settings from my colleague Terje Sandström post on Code Metrics - suggestions for approriate limits. You’ll notice that this is quite an improvement compared to using code metrics inside the IDE, where Red/Yellow/Green limits are fixed (and the default values are somewaht strange, see Terjes post for a discussion on this) This is the first version of the code metrics integration with TFS 2010 Build, I will proabably enhance the functionality and the logging (the “tree view” structure in the log becomes quite hard to read) soon. I will also consider adding it to the Community TFS Build Extensions site when it becomes a bit more mature. Another obvious improvement is to extend the data warehouse of TFS and push the metric results back to the warehouse and make it visible in the reports.

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• SQL SERVER – Introduction to PERCENTILE_DISC() – Analytic Functions Introduced in SQL Server 2012

  - by pinaldave

  SQL Server 2012 introduces new analytical function PERCENTILE_DISC(). The book online gives following definition of this function: Computes a specific percentile for sorted values in an entire rowset or within distinct partitions of a rowset in Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Release Candidate 0 (RC 0). For a given percentile value P, PERCENTILE_DISC sorts the values of the expression in the ORDER BY clause and returns the value with the smallest CUME_DIST value (with respect to the same sort specification) that is greater than or equal to P. If you are clear with understanding of the function – no need to read further. If you got lost here is the same in simple words – find value of the column which is equal or more than CUME_DIST. Before you continue reading this blog I strongly suggest you read about CUME_DIST function over here Introduction to CUME_DIST – Analytic Functions Introduced in SQL Server 2012. Now let’s have fun following query: USE AdventureWorks GO SELECT SalesOrderID, OrderQty, ProductID, CUME_DIST() OVER(PARTITION BY SalesOrderID ORDER BY ProductID ) AS CDist, PERCENTILE_DISC(0.5) WITHIN GROUP (ORDER BY ProductID) OVER (PARTITION BY SalesOrderID) AS PercentileDisc FROM Sales.SalesOrderDetail WHERE SalesOrderID IN (43670, 43669, 43667, 43663) ORDER BY SalesOrderID DESC GO The above query will give us the following result: You can see that I have used PERCENTILE_DISC(0.5) in query, which is similar to finding median but not exactly. PERCENTILE_DISC() function takes a percentile as a passing parameters. It returns the value as answer which value is equal or great to the percentile value which is passed into the example. For example in above example we are passing 0.5 into the PERCENTILE_DISC() function. It will go through the resultset and identify which rows has values which are equal to or great than 0.5. In first example it found two rows which are equal to 0.5 and the value of ProductID of that row is the answer of PERCENTILE_DISC(). In some third windowed resultset there is only single row with the CUME_DIST() value as 1 and that is for sure higher than 0.5 making it as a answer. To make sure that we are clear with this example properly. Here is one more example where I am passing 0.6 as a percentile. Now let’s have fun following query: USE AdventureWorks GO SELECT SalesOrderID, OrderQty, ProductID, CUME_DIST() OVER(PARTITION BY SalesOrderID ORDER BY ProductID ) AS CDist, PERCENTILE_DISC(0.6) WITHIN GROUP (ORDER BY ProductID) OVER (PARTITION BY SalesOrderID) AS PercentileDisc FROM Sales.SalesOrderDetail WHERE SalesOrderID IN (43670, 43669, 43667, 43663) ORDER BY SalesOrderID DESC GO The above query will give us the following result: The result of the PERCENTILE_DISC(0.6) is ProductID of which CUME_DIST() is more than 0.6. This means for SalesOrderID 43670 has row with CUME_DIST() 0.75 is the qualified row, resulting answer 773 for ProductID. I hope this explanation makes it further clear. Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com) Filed under: Pinal Dave, PostADay, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Function, SQL Query, SQL Scripts, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, T SQL, Technology

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• Implementing set operations in TSQL

  - by dotneteer

  SQL excels at operating on dataset. In this post, I will discuss how to implement basic set operations in transact SQL (TSQL). The operations that I am going to discuss are union, intersection and complement (subtraction).   Union Intersection Complement (subtraction) Implementing set operations using union, intersect and except We can use TSQL keywords union, intersect and except to implement set operations. Since we are in an election year, I will use voter records of propositions as an example. We create the following table and insert 6 records into the table. declare @votes table (VoterId int, PropId int) insert into @votes values (1, 30) insert into @votes values (2, 30) insert into @votes values (3, 30) insert into @votes values (4, 30) insert into @votes values (4, 31) insert into @votes values (5, 31) Voters 1, 2, 3 and 4 voted for proposition 30 and voters 4 and 5 voted for proposition 31. The following TSQL statement implements union using the union keyword. The union returns voters who voted for either proposition 30 or 31. select VoterId from @votes where PropId = 30 union select VoterId from @votes where PropId = 31 The following TSQL statement implements intersection using the intersect keyword. The intersection will return voters who voted only for both proposition 30 and 31. select VoterId from @votes where PropId = 30 intersect select VoterId from @votes where PropId = 31 The following TSQL statement implements complement using the except keyword. The complement will return voters who voted for proposition 30 but not 31. select VoterId from @votes where PropId = 30 except select VoterId from @votes where PropId = 31 Implementing set operations using join An alternative way to implement set operation in TSQL is to use full outer join, inner join and left outer join. The following TSQL statement implements union using full outer join. select Coalesce(A.VoterId, B.VoterId) from (select VoterId from @votes where PropId = 30) A full outer join (select VoterId from @votes where PropId = 31) B on A.VoterId = B.VoterId The following TSQL statement implements intersection using inner join. select Coalesce(A.VoterId, B.VoterId) from (select VoterId from @votes where PropId = 30) A inner join (select VoterId from @votes where PropId = 31) B on A.VoterId = B.VoterId The following TSQL statement implements complement using left outer join. select Coalesce(A.VoterId, B.VoterId) from (select VoterId from @votes where PropId = 30) A left outer join (select VoterId from @votes where PropId = 31) B on A.VoterId = B.VoterId where B.VoterId is null Which one to choose? To choose which technique to use, just keep two things in mind: The union, intersect and except technique treats an entire record as a member. The join technique allows the member to be specified in the “on” clause. However, it is necessary to use Coalesce function to project sets on the two sides of the join into a single set.

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• How do you use blog content?

  - by fatherjack

  Do you write a blog, have you ever thought about it? I think people fall into one of a few categories when it comes to blogs, especially blogs with technical content. Writing articles furiously - daily, twice daily and reading dozens of others. Writing the odd piece of content and read plenty of others' output. Started a blog once and its fizzled out but reading lots. Thought about starting a blog someday but never got around to it, hopping into the occasional blog when a link or a Tweet takes them there. Never thought about writing one but often catching content from them when Google (or other preferred search engine) finds content related to their search. Now I am not saying that either of these is right or wrong, nor am I saying that anyone should feel any compulsion to be in any particular category. What I would say is that you as a blog reader have the power to move blog writers from one category to another. How, you might ask? How do I have any power over a blog writer? It is very simple - feedback. If you give feedback then the blog writer knows that they are reaching an audience, if there is no response then they we are simply writing down our thoughts for what could amount to nothing more than a feeble amount of exercise and a few more key stokes towards the onset of RSI. Most blogs have a mechanism to alert the writer when there are comments, and personally speaking, if an email is received saying there has been a response to a blog article then there is a rush of enthusiasm, a moment of excitement that someone is actually reading and considering the text that was submitted and made available for the whole world to read. I am relatively new to this blog game and could be in some extended honeymoon period as I have also recently been incorporated into the Simple Talk 'stable'. I can understand that once you get to the "Dizzy Heights of Ozar" (www.brentozar.com) then getting comments and feedback might not be such a pleasure and may even be rather more of a chore but that, I guess, is the price of fame. For us mere mortals starting out blogging, getting feedback (or even at the moment for me, simply the hope of getting feedback) is what keeps it going. The hope that you will pick a topic that hasn't been done recently by Brad McGehee, Grant Fritchey,  Paul Randall, Thomas LaRock or any one of the dozen of rock star bloggers listed here or others from SQLServerPedia and so on, and then do it well enough to be found, reviewed, or <shudder> (re)tweeted to bring more visitors is what we are striving for, along with the fact that the content we might produce is something that will be of benefit to others. There is only so much point to typing content that no-one is reading and putting it on a blog. You may as well just write it in a diary. A technical blog is not like, say, a blog covering photography techniques where the way to frame and take a picture stands true whether it was written last week, last year or last century - technical content goes sour, quite quickly. There isn't much call for articles about yesterdays technology unless its something that still applies to current versions too, so some content written no more than 2 years ago isn't worth having now. The combination of a piece of content that you know is going to not last long and the fact that no-one reads it is a strong force against writing anything else. Getting feedback counters that despair and gives a value to writing something new. I would say that any feedback is good but there are obviously comments that are just so negative or otherwise badly phrased that they would hasten the demise of a blog but, in general most feedback will encourage a writer. It may not be a comment that supports or agrees with the main theme of a post but if it generates discussion or opens up a previously unexplored viewpoint it is contributing to the blog and is therefore encouraging to the writer. Even if you only say "thank you" before you leave a blog, having taken a section of script to use for yourself or having been given a few links to some content that has widened your knowledge it will be so welcome to the blog owner. Isn't it also the decent thing to do, acknowledging that you have benefited from another's efforts?

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• Keep website and webservices warm with zero coding

  - by oazabir

  If you want to keep your websites or webservices warm and save user from seeing the long warm up time after an application pool recycle, or IIS restart or new code deployment or even windows restart, you can use the tinyget command line tool, that comes with IIS Resource Kit, to hit the site and services and keep them warm. Here’s how: First get tinyget from here. Download and install the IIS 6.0 Resource Kit on some PC. Then copy the tinyget.exe from “c:\program files…\IIS 6.0 ResourceKit\Tools'\tinyget” to the server where your IIS 6.0 or IIS 7 is running. Then create a batch file that will hit the pages and webservices. Something like this: SET TINYGET=C:\Program Files (x86)\IIS Resources\TinyGet\tinyget.exe"%TINYGET%" -srv:dropthings.omaralzabir.com -uri:http://dropthings.omaralzabir.com/ -status:200"%TINYGET%" -srv:dropthings.omaralzabir.com -uri:http://dropthings.omaralzabir.com/WidgetService.asmx?WSDL - status:200 First I am hitting the homepage to keep the webpage warm. Then I am hitting the webservice URL with ?WSDL parameter, which allows ASP.NET to compile the service if not already compiled and walk through all the operations and reflect on them and thus loading all related DLLs into memory and reducing the warmup time when hit. Tinyget gets the servers name or IP in the –srv parameter and then the actual URI in the –uri. I have specified what’s the HTTP response code to expect in –status parameter. It ensures the site is alive and is returning http 200 code. Besides just warming up a site, you can do some load test on the site. Tinyget can run in multiple threads and run loops to hit some URL. You can literally blow up a site with commands like this: "%TINYGET%" -threads:30 -loop:100 -srv:google.com -uri:http://www.google.com/ -status:200 Tinyget is also pretty useful to run automated tests. You can record http posts in a text file and then use it to make http posts to some page. Then you can put matching clause to check for certain string in the output to ensure the correct response is given. Thus with some simple command line commands, you can warm up, do some transactions, validate the site is giving off correct response as well as run a load test to ensure the server performing well. Very cheap way to get a lot done.

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• ODI 11g – How to Load Using Partition Exchange

  - by David Allan

  Here we will look at how to load large volumes of data efficiently into the Oracle database using a mixture of CTAS and partition exchange loading. The example we will leverage was posted by Mark Rittman a couple of years back on Interval Partitioning, you can find that posting here. The best thing about ODI is that you can encapsulate all those ‘how to’ blog posts and scripts into templates that can be reused – the templates are of course Knowledge Modules. The interface design to mimic Mark's posting is shown below; The IKM I have constructed performs a simple series of steps to perform a CTAS to create the stage table to use in the exchange, then lock the partition (to ensure it exists, it will be created if it doesn’t) then exchange the partition in the target table. You can find the IKM Oracle PEL.xml file here. The IKM performs the follows steps and is meant to illustrate what can be done; So when you use the IKM in an interface you configure the options for hints (for parallelism levels etc), initial extent size, next extent size and the partition variable;   The KM has an option where the name of the partition can be passed in, so if you know the name of the partition then set the variable to the name, if you have interval partitioning you probably don’t know the name, so you can use the FOR clause. In my example I set the variable to use the date value of the source data FOR (TO_DATE(''01-FEB-2010'',''dd-MON-yyyy'')) Using a variable lets me invoke the scenario many times loading different partitions of the same target table. Below you can see where this is defined within ODI, I had to double single-quote the strings since this is placed inside the execute immediate tasks in the KM; Note also this example interface uses the LKM Oracle to Oracle (datapump), so this illustration uses a lot of the high performing Oracle database capabilities – it uses Data Pump to unload, then a CreateTableAsSelect (CTAS) is executed on the external table based on top of the Data Pump export. This table is then exchanged in the target. The IKM and illustrations above are using ODI 11.1.1.6 which was needed to get around some bugs in earlier releases with how the variable is handled...as far as I remember.

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• Entity Framework 4.0: Optimal and horrible SQL

  - by DigiMortal

  Lately I had Entity Framework 4.0 session where I introduced new features of Entity Framework. During session I found out with audience how Entity Framework 4.0 can generate optimized SQL. After session I also showed guys one horrible example about how awful SQL can be generated by Entity Framework. In this posting I will cover both examples. Optimal SQL Before going to code take a look at following model. There is class called Event and I will use this class in my query. Here is the LINQ To Entities query that uses small anonymous type. var query = from e in _context.Events             select new { Id = e.Id, Title = e.Title }; Debug.WriteLine(((ObjectQuery)query).ToTraceString()); Running this code gives us the following SQL. SELECT      [Extent1].[event_id] AS [event_id],      [Extent1].[title] AS [title]  FROM [dbo].[events] AS [Extent1] This is really small – no additional fields in SELECT clause. Nice, isn’t it? Horrible SQL Ayende Rahien blog shows us darker side of Entiry Framework 4.0 queries. You can find comparison betwenn NHibernate, LINQ To SQL and LINQ To Entities from posting What happens behind the scenes: NHibernate, Linq to SQL, Entity Framework scenario analysis. In this posting I will show you the resulting query and let you think how much better it can be done. Well, it is not something we want to see running in our servers. I hope that EF team improves generated SQL to acceptable level before Visual Studio 2010 is released. There is also morale of this example: you should always check out the queries that O/R-mapper generates. Behind the curtains it may silently generate queries that perform badly and in this case you need to optimize you data querying strategy. Conclusion Entity Framework 4.0 is new product with a lot of new features and it is clear that not everything is 100% super in its first release. But it still great step forward and I hope that on 12.04.2010 we have new promising O/R-mapper available to use in our projects. If you want to read more about Entity Framework 4.0 and Visual Studio 2010 then please feel free to follow this link to list of my Visual Studio 2010 and .NET Framework 4.0 postings.

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• ORACLE RIGHTNOW DYNAMIC AGENT DESKTOP CLOUD SERVICE - Putting the Dynamite into Dynamic Agent Desktop

  - by Andreea Vaduva

  Untitled Document There’s a mountain of evidence to prove that a great contact centre experience results in happy, profitable and loyal customers. The very best Contact Centres are those with high first contact resolution, customer satisfaction and agent productivity. But how many companies really believe they are the best? And how many believe that they can be? We know that with the right tools, companies can aspire to greatness – and achieve it. Core to this is ensuring their agents have the best tools that give them the right information at the right time, so they can focus on the customer and provide a personalised, professional and efficient service. Today there are multiple channels through which customers can communicate with you; phone, web, chat, social to name a few but regardless of how they communicate, customers expect a seamless, quality experience. Most contact centre agents need to switch between lots of different systems to locate the right information. This hampers their productivity, frustrates both the agent and the customer and increases call handling times. With this in mind, Oracle RightNow has designed and refined a suite of add-ins to optimize the Agent Desktop. Each is designed to simplify and adapt the agent experience for any given situation and unify the customer experience across your media channels. Let’s take a brief look at some of the most useful tools available and see how they make a difference. Contextual Workspaces: The screen where agents do their job. Agents don’t want to be slowed down by busy screens, scrolling through endless tabs or links to find what they’re looking for. They want quick, accurate and easy. Contextual Workspaces are fully configurable and through workspace rules apply if, then, else logic to display only the information the agent needs for the issue at hand . Assigned at the Profile level, different levels of agent, from a novice to the most experienced, get a screen that is relevant to their role and responsibilities and ensures their job is done quickly and efficiently the first time round. Agent Scripting: Sometimes, agents need to deliver difficult or sensitive messages while maximising the opportunity to cross-sell and up-sell. After all, contact centres are now increasingly viewed as revenue generators. Containing sophisticated branching logic, scripting helps agents to capture the right level of information and guides the agent step by step, ensuring no mistakes, inconsistencies or missed opportunities. Guided Assistance: This is typically used to solve common troubleshooting issues, displaying a series of question and answer sets in a decision-tree structure. This means agents avoid having to bookmark favourites or rely on written notes. Agents find particular value in these guides - to quickly craft chat and email responses. What’s more, by publishing guides in answers on support pages customers, can resolve issues themselves, without needing to contact your agents. And b ecause it can also accelerate agent ramp-up time, it ensures that even novice agents can solve customer problems like an expert. Desktop Workflow: Take a step back and look at the full customer interaction of your agents. It probably spans multiple systems and multiple tasks. With Desktop Workflows you control the design workflows that span the full customer interaction from start to finish. As sequences of decisions and actions, workflows are unique in that they can create or modify different records and provide automation behind the scenes. This means your agents can save time and provide better quality of service by having the tools they need and the relevant information as required. And doing this boosts satisfaction among your customers, your agents and you – so win, win, win! I have highlighted above some of the tools which can be used to optimise the desktop; however, this is by no means an exhaustive list. In approaching your design, it’s important to understand why and how your customers contact you in the first place. Once you have this list of “whys” and “hows”, you can design effective policies and procedures to handle each category of problem, and then implement the right agent desktop user interface to support them. This will avoid duplication and wasted effort. Five Top Tips to take away: Start by working out “why” and “how” customers are contacting you. Implement a clean and relevant agent desktop to support your agents. If your workspaces are getting complicated consider using Desktop Workflow to streamline the interaction. Enhance your Knowledgebase with Guides. Agents can access them proactively and can be published on your web pages for customers to help themselves. Script any complex, critical or sensitive interactions to ensure consistency and accuracy. Desktop optimization is an ongoing process so continue to monitor and incorporate feedback from your agents and your customers to keep your Contact Centre successful.   Want to learn more? Having attending the 3-day Oracle RightNow Customer Service Administration class your next step is to attend the Oracle RightNow Customer Portal Design and 2-day Dynamic Agent Desktop Administration class. Here you’ll learn not only how to leverage the Agent Desktop tools but also how to optimise your self-service pages to enhance your customers’ web experience.   Useful resources: Review the Best Practice Guide Review the tune-up guide   About the Author: Angela Chandler joined Oracle University as a Senior Instructor through the RightNow Customer Experience Acquisition. Her other areas of expertise include Business Intelligence and Knowledge Management.  She currently delivers the following Oracle RightNow courses in the classroom and as a Live Virtual Class: RightNow Customer Service Administration (3 days) RightNow Customer Portal Design and Dynamic Agent Desktop Administration (2 days) RightNow Analytics (2 days) Rightnow Chat Cloud Service Administration (2 days)

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• The Red Gate Guide to SQL Server Team based Development Free e-book

  - by Mladen Prajdic

  After about 6 months of work, the new book I've coauthored with Grant Fritchey (Blog|Twitter), Phil Factor (Blog|Twitter) and Alex Kuznetsov (Blog|Twitter) is out. They're all smart folks I talk to online and this book is packed with good ideas backed by years of experience. The book contains a good deal of information about things you need to think of when doing any kind of multi person database development. Although it's meant for SQL Server, the principles can be applied to any database platform out there. In the book you will find information on: writing readable code, documenting code, source control and change management, deploying code between environments, unit testing, reusing code, searching and refactoring your code base. I've written chapter 5 about Database testing and chapter 11 about SQL Refactoring. In the database testing chapter (chapter 5) I cover why you should test your database, why it is a good idea to have a database access interface composed of stored procedures, views and user defined functions, what and how to test. I talk about how there are many testing methods like black and white box testing, unit and integration testing, error and stress testing and why and how you should do all those. Sometimes you have to convince management to go for testing in the development lifecycle so I give some pointers and tips how to do that. Testing databases is a bit different from testing object oriented code in a way that to have independent unit tests you need to rollback your code after each test. The chapter shows you ways to do this and also how to avoid it. At the end I show how to test various database objects and how to test access to them. In the SQL Refactoring chapter (chapter 11) I cover why refactor and where to even begin refactoring. I also who you a way to achieve a set based mindset to solve SQL problems which is crucial to good SQL set based programming and a few commonly seen problems to refactor. These problems include: using functions on columns in the where clause, SELECT * problems, long stored procedure with many input parameters, one subquery per condition in the select statement, cursors are good for anything problem, using too large data types everywhere and using your data in code for business logic anti-pattern. You can read more about it and download it here: The Red Gate Guide to SQL Server Team-based Development Hope you like it and send me feedback if you wish too.

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• Keep it Professional &ndash; Multiple Environments

  - by AjarnMark

  I have certainly been reading blogs a whole lot more than writing them the last several weeks, and it’s about time I got back to writing.  I have been collecting several topics and references for blog posts…some of which will probably just never get written as the timeliness of the topics fade over time.  Nonetheless, I’m back, and I think it is time to revive my Doing Business Right series, this time coming from the slant of managing a development team rather than the previous angle of being self-employed.  First up: separating Dev, Test, and Prod. A few months ago, Colin Stasiuk (@BenchmarkIT) wrote a great post about separating your Dev, Test/UAT, and Prod environments.  This post covers all the important points such as removing Developer access from both PROD and UAT, and the importance of proper deployment (a.k.a. promotion) procedures.  I won’t repeat it all here, go read the original!  But what I do want to address is what I believe to be the #1 excuse people use for not having separate environments:  Money.  I discussed this briefly in my comment on Colin’s post at the time, but let me repeat it here and expand on it a bit. Don’t let the size of your company or the size of its budget dictate whether you do things professionally or not.  I am convinced that most developers and development teams would agree that it is a best practice to have separate environments for development, testing, and production (a.k.a. Live).  So why don’t they?  Because they think that it means separate servers which means more money.  While having separate physical servers for the different environments would be ideal, it is not an absolute requirement in order to make this work.  Here are a few ideas: Use multiple instances of SQL Server and multiple Web Sites with Headers or Ports.  For no additional fees* you can install multiple instances of SQL Server on the same machine.  This gives you a nice separation, allowing you to even use the same database names as will appear in PROD, yet isolating the data and security access.  And in IIS, you can create multiple Web Sites on the same server just by using Host Headers or different port numbers to separate them.  This approach does still pose the risk of non-Prod environments impacting performance on Prod, but when your application is busy enough for that to be a concern, you can probably afford one of the other options. Use desktop PCs instead of servers.  Instead of investing in full server-grade hardware, you can mimic the separate environments on old desktop PCs and at least get functional equivalency, if not performance matching.  The last I checked, Microsoft did not require separate licensing for SQL Server if that installation was used exclusively for dev or test purposes*.  There may be some version or performance differences between this approach and what you have in Prod, but you have isolated test from impacting Prod resources this way. Virtualization.  This is of course one of the hot topics of the day, and I would be remiss if I did not suggest this.  It is quite easy these days to setup virtual machines so that, again, your environments are fairly isolated from one another, and you retain all the security and procedural benefits of having separate environments. So the point is, keep your high professional standards intact.  You don’t need to compromise on using proper procedure just because you work in a small company with a small budget.  Keep doing things the right way! By the way, where I work, our DEV environment is not on a server.  All development is done on the developer’s individual workstation where it can be isolated from other developers’ work for the duration of writing the code, but also where the developers have to reconcile (merge) differences in code under concurrent development.  This usually means that each change is executed multiple times (once per developer to update their environments with the latest changes from others) giving us an extra, informal. test deployment before even going to the Test/UAT server.  It also means that if the network goes down, the developers can continue to hum along because they are not dependent on networked resources.  In fact, they will likely be even more productive because they aren’t being interrupted by email…but that’s another post I need to write. * I am not a lawyer, nor a licensing specialist, but it appeared to be so the last time I checked.  When in doubt, consult an expert on the topic.

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• User-Defined Customer Events & their impact (FA Type Profile)

  - by Rajesh Sharma

  CC&B automatically creates field activities when a specific Customer Event takes place. This depends on the way you have setup your Field Activity Type Profiles, the templates within, and associated SP Condition(s) on the template. CC&B uses the service point type, its state and referenced customer event to determine which field activity type to generate.   Customer events available in the base product include: Cut for Non-payment (CNP) Disconnect Warning (DIWA) Reconnect for Payment (REPY) Reread (RERD) Stop Service (STOP) Start Service (STRT) Start/Stop (STSP)   Note the Field values/codes defined for each event.   CC&B comes with a flexibility to define new set of customer events. These can be defined in the Look Up - CUST_EVT_FLG. Values from the Look Up are used on the Field Activity Type Profile Template page.     So what's the use of having user-defined Customer Events? And how will the system detect such events in order to create field activity(s)?   Well, system can only detect such events when you reference a user-defined customer event on a Severance Event Type for an event type Create Field Activities.     This way you can create additional field activities of a specific field activity type for user-defined customer events.   One of our customers adopted this feature and created a user-defined customer event CNPW - Cut for Non-payment for Water Services. This event was then linked on a Field Activity Type Profile and referenced on a Severance Event - CUT FOR NON PAY-W. The associated Severance Process was configured to trigger a reconnection process if it was cancelled (done by defining a Post Cancel Algorithm). Whenever this Severance Event was executed, a specific type of Field Activity was generated for disconnection purposes. The Field Activity type was determined by the system from the Field Activity Type Profile referenced for the SP Type, SP's state and the referenced user-defined customer event. All was working well until the time when they realized that in spite of the Severance Process getting cancelled (when a payment was made); the Post Cancel Algorithm was not executed to start a Reconnection Severance Process for the purpose of generating a reconnection field activity and reconnecting the service.   Basically, the Post Cancel algorithm (if specified on a Severance Process Template) is triggered when a Severance Process gets cancelled because a credit transaction has affected/relieved a Service Agreement's debt.   So what exactly was happening? Now we come to actual question as to what is the impact in having a user-defined customer event.   System defined/base customer events are hard-coded across the entire system. There is an impact even if you remove any customer event entry from the Look Up. User-defined customer events are not recognized by the system anywhere else except in the severance process, as described above.   There are few programs which have routines to first validate the completion of disconnection field activities, which were raised as a result of customer event CNP - Cut for Non-payment in order to perform other associated actions. One such program is the Post Cancel Algorithm, referenced on a Severance Process Template, generally used to reconnect services which were disconnected from other Severance Event, specifically CNP - Cut for Non-Payment. Post cancel algorithm provided by the product - SEV POST CAN does the following (below is the algorithm's description):   This algorithm is called after a severance process has been cancelled (typically because the debt was paid and the SA is no longer eligible to be on the severance process). It checks to see if the process has a completed 'disconnect' event and, if so, starts a reconnect process using the Reconnect Severance Process Template defined in the parameter.    Notice the underlined text. This algorithm implicitly checks for Field Activities having completed status, which were generated from Severance Events as a result of CNP - Cut for Non-payment customer event.   Now if we look back to the customer's issue, we can relate that the Post Cancel algorithm was triggered, but was not able to find any 'Completed' CNP - Cut for Non-payment related field activity. And hence was not able to start a reconnection severance process. This was because a field activity was generated and completed for a customer event CNPW - Cut for Non-payment of Water Services instead.   To conclude, if you introduce new customer events that extend or simulate base customer events, the ones that are included in the base product, ensure that there is no other impact either direct or indirect to other business functions that the application has to offer.  

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• Package Manager Console For More Than Managing Packages

  - by Steve Michelotti

  Like most developers, I prefer to not have to pick up the mouse if I don’t have to. I use the Executor launcher for almost everything so it’s extremely rare for me to ever click the “Start” button in Windows. I also use shortcuts keys when I can so I don’t have to pick up the mouse. By now most people know that the Package Manager Console that comes with NuGet is PowerShell embedded inside of Visual Studio. It is based on its PowerConsole predecessor which was the first (that I’m aware of) to embed PowerShell inside of Visual Studio and give access to the Visual Studio automation DTE object. It does this through an inherent $dte variable that is automatically available and ready for use. This variable is also available inside of the NuGet Package Manager console. Adding a new class file to a Visual Studio project is one of those mundane tasks that should be easier. First I have to pick up the mouse. Then I have to right-click where I want it file to go and select “Add –> New Item…” or “Add –> Class…”   If you know the Ctrl+Shift+A shortcut, then you can avoid the mouse for adding a new item but you have to manually assign a shortcut for adding a new class. At this point it pops up a dialog just so I can enter the name of the class I want. Since this is one of the most common tasks developers do, I figure there has to be an easier way and a way that avoids picking up the mouse and popping up dialogs. This is where your embedded PowerShell prompt in Visual Studio comes in. The first thing you should do is to assign a keyboard shortcut so that you can get a PowerShell prompt (i.e., the Package Manager console) quickly without ever picking up the mouse. I assign “Ctrl+P, Ctrl+M” because “P + M” stands for “Package Manager” so it is easy to remember:   At this point I can type this command to add a new class: PM> $dte.ItemOperations.AddNewItem("Code\Class", "Foo.cs") which will result in the class being added: At this point I’ve satisfied my original goal of not having to pick up a mouse and not having the “Add New Item” dialog pop up. However, having to remember that $dte method call is not very user-friendly at all. The best thing to do is to make this a re-usable function that always loads when Visual Studio starts up. There is a $profile variable that you can use to figure out where that location is for your machine: PM> $profile C:\Users\steve.michelotti\Documents\WindowsPowerShell\NuGet_profile.ps1 If the NuGet_profile.ps1 file does not already exist, you can just create it yourself and place it in the directory. Now you can put a function inside like this: 1: function addClass($className) 2: { 3: if ($className.EndsWith(".cs") -eq $false) { 4: $className = $className + ".cs" 5: } 6: 7: $dte.ItemOperations.AddNewItem("Code\Class", $className) 8: } Since it’s in the NuGet_profile.ps1 file, this function will automatically always be available for me after starting Visual Studio. Now I can simply do this: PM> addClass Foo At this point, we have a *very* nice developer experience. All I did to add a new class was: “Ctrl-P, Ctrl-M”, then “addClass Foo”. No mouse, no pop up dialogs, no complex commands to remember. In fact, PowerShell gives you auto-completion as well. If I type “addc” followed by [TAB], then intellisense pops up: You can see my custom function appear in intellisense above. Now I can type the next letter “c” and [TAB] to auto-complete the command. And if that’s still too many key strokes for you, then you can create your own PowerShell custom alias for your function like this: PM> Set-Alias addc addClass PM> addc Foo While all this is very useful, I did run into some issues which prompted me to make even further customization. This command will add the new class file to the current active directory. Depending on your context, this may not be what you want. For example, by convention all view model objects go in the “Models” folder in an MVC project. So if the current document is in the Controllers folder, it will add your class to that folder which is not what you want. You want it to always add it to the “Models” folder if you are adding a new model in an MVC project. For this situation, I added a new function called “addModel” which looks like this: 1: function addModel($className) 2: { 3: if ($className.EndsWith(".cs") -eq $false) { 4: $className = $className + ".cs" 5: } 6: 7: $modelsDir = $dte.ActiveSolutionProjects[0].UniqueName.Replace(".csproj", "") + "\Models" 8: $dte.Windows.Item([EnvDTE.Constants]::vsWindowKindSolutionExplorer).Activate() 9: $dte.ActiveWindow.Object.GetItem($modelsDir).Select([EnvDTE.vsUISelectionType]::vsUISelectionTypeSelect) 10: $dte.ItemOperations.AddNewItem("Code\Class", $className) 11: } First I figure out the path to the Models directory on line #7. Then I activate the Solution Explorer window on line #8. Then I make sure the Models directory is selected so that my context is correct when I add the new class and it will be added to the Models directory as desired. These are just a couple of examples for things you can do with the PowerShell prompt that you have available in the Package Manager console. As developers we spend so much time in Visual Studio, why would you not customize it so that you can work in whatever way you want to work?! The next time you’re not happy about the way Visual Studio makes you do a particular task – automate it! The sky is the limit.

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• Subterranean IL: Exception handler semantics

  - by Simon Cooper

  In my blog posts on fault and filter exception handlers, I said that the same behaviour could be replicated using normal catch blocks. Well, that isn't entirely true... Changing the handler semantics Consider the following: .try { .try { .try { newobj instance void [mscorlib]System.Exception::.ctor() // IL for: // e.Data.Add("DictKey", true) throw } fault { ldstr "1: Fault handler" call void [mscorlib]System.Console::WriteLine(string) endfault } } filter { ldstr "2a: Filter logic" call void [mscorlib]System.Console::WriteLine(string) // IL for: // (bool)((Exception)e).Data["DictKey"] endfilter }{ ldstr "2b: Filter handler" call void [mscorlib]System.Console::WriteLine(string) leave.s Return } } catch object { ldstr "3: Catch handler" call void [mscorlib]System.Console::WriteLine(string) leave.s Return } Return: // rest of method If the filter handler is engaged (true is inserted into the exception dictionary) then the filter handler gets engaged, and the following gets printed to the console: 2a: Filter logic 1: Fault handler 2b: Filter handler and if the filter handler isn't engaged, then the following is printed: 2a:Filter logic 1: Fault handler 3: Catch handler Filter handler execution The filter handler is executed first. Hmm, ok. Well, what happens if we replaced the fault block with the C# equivalent (with the exception dictionary value set to false)? .try { // throw exception } catch object { ldstr "1: Fault handler" call void [mscorlib]System.Console::WriteLine(string) rethrow } we get this: 1: Fault handler 2a: Filter logic 3: Catch handler The fault handler is executed first, instead of the filter block. Eh? This change in behaviour is due to the way the CLR searches for exception handlers. When an exception is thrown, the CLR stops execution of the thread, and searches up the stack for an exception handler that can handle the exception and stop it propagating further - catch or filter handlers. It checks the type clause of catch clauses, and executes the code in filter blocks to see if the filter can handle the exception. When the CLR finds a valid handler, it saves the handler's location, then goes back to where the exception was thrown and executes fault and finally blocks between there and the handler location, discarding stack frames in the process, until it reaches the handler. So? By replacing a fault with a catch, we have changed the semantics of when the filter code is executed; by using a rethrow instruction, we've split up the exception handler search into two - one search to find the first catch, then a second when the rethrow instruction is encountered. This is only really obvious when mixing C# exception handlers with fault or filter handlers, so this doesn't affect code written only in C#. However it could cause some subtle and hard-to-debug effects with object initialization and ordering when using and calling code written in a language that can compile fault and filter handlers.

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• It's called College.

  - by jeffreyabecker

  Today I saw yet another 'GUID vs int as your primary key' article. Like most of the ones I've read this was filled with technical misrepresentations and out-right fallices. Chef's famous line that "There's a time and a place for everything children" applies here. GUIDs have distinct advantages and disadvantages which should be considered when choosing a data type for the primary key. Fallacy 1: "Its easier" An integer data type(tinyint, smallint, int, bigint) is a better artifical key than a GUID because its easier to remember. I'm a firm believer that your artifical primary keys should be opaque gibberish. PK's are an implementation detail which should never be exposed to the user or relied on for business logic. If you want things to come back in an order, add and ORDER BY clause and SortOrder fields. If you want a human-usable look-up add a business key with a unique constraint. If you want to know what order things were inserted into a table add a timestamp. Fallacy 2: "Size Matters" For many applications, the size of the artifical primary key is going to be irrelevant. The particular article which kicked this post off stated repeatedly that joining against an int has better performance than joining against a GUID. In computer science the performance of your algorithm is always a function of the number of data points. This still holds true for databases. Unless your table is very large, the performance difference between an int and a guid probably isnt going to be mesurable let alone noticeable. My personal experience is that the performance becomes an issue when you start having billions of rows in the table. At this point, you should probably start looking to move from int to bigint so the effective space/performance gain isnt as much as you'd think. GUID Advantages: Insert-ability / Mergeability: You can reliably insert guids into tables without key collisions. Database Independence: Saving entities to the database often requires knowing ids. With identity based ids the id must be selected back after every insert. GUIDs can be generated application-side allowing much faster inserts. GUID Disadvantages: Generatability: You can calculate the next id for an integer pk pretty easily in your head but will need a program to generate GUIDs. Solution: "Select top 100 newid() from sysobjects" Fragmentation: most GUID generation algorithms generate pseudo random GUIDs. This can cause inserts into the middle of your clustered index. Solutions: add a default of newsequentialid() or use GuidComb in NHibernate.

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• Deep in the Heart of Texas

  - by Applications User Experience

  Author: Erika Webb, Manager, Fusion Applications UX User Assistance When I was first working in the usability field, the only way I could consider conducting a usability study was to bring a potential user to a lab environment where I could show them whatever I was interested in learning more about and ask them questions. While I hate to reveal just how long I have been working in this field, let's just say that pads of paper and a stopwatch were key tools for any test I conducted. Over the years, I have worked in simple labs with basic video taping equipment and not much else, and I have worked in corporate environments with sophisticated usability labs and state-of-the-art equipment. Years ago, we conducted all usability studies at the location of the user. If we wanted to see if there were any differences between users in New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles, we went to those places to run the test. A lab environment is very useful for many test situations. However, there has always been a debate in the usability field about whether bringing someone into a lab environment, however friendly we make it, somehow intrinsically changes the behavior of the user as compared to having them work in their own environment, at their own desk, and on their own computer. We developed systems to create a portable usability lab, so that we could go to the users that we needed to test.  Do lab environments change user behavior patterns? Then 9/11 hit. You may not remember, but no planes flew for weeks afterwards. Companies all over the world couldn't fly-in employees for meetings. Suddenly, traveling to the location of the users had an additional difficulty. The company I was working for at the time had usability specialists stuck in New York for days before they could finally rent a car and drive home to Colorado. This changed the world pretty suddenly, and technology jumped on the change. Companies offering Internet meeting tools were strugglinguntil no one could travel. The Internet boomed with collaboration tools that enabled people to work together wherever they happened to be. This change in technology has made a huge difference in my world. We use collaborative tools to bring our product concepts and ideas to the user across the Internet. As a global company, we benefit from having users from all over the world inform our designs. We now run usability studies with users all over the world in a single day, a feat we couldn't have accomplished 10 years ago by plane! Other technology companies have started to do more of this type of usability testing, since the tools have improved so dramatically. Plus, in our busy world, it's not always easy to find users who can take the time away from their jobs to come to our labs. reaching users where it is convenient for them greatly improves the odds that people do participate. I manage a team of usability specialists who live in India and California, whlie I live in Colorado. We have wonderful labs that we bring users into to show them our products. But very often, we run our studies remotely. We used to take the lab to the users now we use the labs, but we let the users stay where they are. We gain users who might not have been able to leave work to come to our labs, and they get to use the system they are familiar with. And we gain users nearly anywhere that we can set up an Internet connection, as long as the users have a phone, a broadband connection, and a compatible Web browser (with no pop-up blockers). After we recruit participants in a traditional manner, we send them an invitation to participate through the use of a telephone conference call and Web conferencing tool. At Oracle, we use Oracle Web Conference part of Oracle Collaboration Suite, which enables us to give the user control of the mouse, while we present a prototype or wireframe pictures. We can record the sessions over the Web and phone conference. We send the users instructions, plus tips to ensure that we won't have problems sharing screens. In some cases, when time is tight, we even run a five-minute "test session" with users a day in advance to be sure that we can connect. Prior to the test, we send users a participant script that contains information about the study, including any questionnaires. This is exactly the same script we give to participants who come to the labs. We ask users to print this before the beginning of the session. We generally run these studies by having a usability engineer in our usability labs, so that we can record the session as though the user were in the lab with us. Roughly 80% of our application software usability testing at Oracle is performed using remote methods. The probability of getting a   remote test participant decreases the higher up the person is in the target organization. We have a methodology checklist available to help our usability engineers work through the remote processes.

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• Guidance: How to layout you files for an Ideal Solution

  - by Martin Hinshelwood

  Creating a solution and having it maintainable over time is an art and not a science. I like being pedantic and having a place for everything, no matter how small. For setting up the Areas to run Multiple projects under one solution see my post on  When should I use Areas in TFS instead of Team Projects and for an explanation of branching see Guidance: A Branching strategy for Scrum Teams. Update 17th May 2010 – We are currently trialling running a single Sprint branch to improve our history. Whenever I setup a new Team Project I implement the basic version control structure. I put “readme.txt” files in the folder structure explaining the different levels, and a solution file called “[Client].[Product].sln” located at “$/[Client]/[Product]/DEV/Main” within version control. Developers should add any projects you need to create to that solution in the format “[Client].[Product].[ProductArea].[Assembly]” and they will automatically be picked up and built automatically when you setup Automated Builds using Team Foundation Build. All test projects need to be done using MSTest to get proper IDE and Team Foundation Build integration out-of-the-box and be named for the assembly that it is testing with a naming convention of “[Client].[Product].[ProductArea].[Assembly].Tests” Here is a description of the folder layout; this content should be replicated in readme files under version control in the relevant locations so that even developers new to the project can see how to do it. Figure: The Team Project level - at this level there should be a folder for each the products that you are building if you are using Areas correctly in TFS 2010. You should try very hard to avoided spaces as these things always end up in a URL eventually e.g. "Code Auditor" should be "CodeAuditor". Figure: Product Level - At this level there should be only 3 folders (DEV, RELESE and SAFE) all of which should be in capitals. These folders represent the three stages of your application production line. Each of them may contain multiple branches but this format leaves all of your branches at the same level. Figure: The DEV folder is where all of the Development branches reside. The DEV folder will contain the "Main" branch and all feature branches is they are being used. The DEV designation specifies that all code in every branch under this folder has not been released or made ready for release. And feature branches MUST merge (Forward Integrate) from Main and stabilise prior to merging (Reverse Integration) back down into Main and being decommissioned. Figure: In the Feature branching scenario only merges are allowed onto Main, no development can be done there. Once we have a mature product it is important that new features being developed in parallel are kept separate. This would most likely be used if we had more than one Scrum team working on a single product. Figure: when we are ready to do a release of our software we will create a release branch that is then stabilised prior to deployment. This protects the serviceability of of our released code allowing developers to fix bugs and re-release an existing version. Figure: All bugs found on a release are fixed on the release.  All bugs found in a release are fixed on the release and a new deployment is created. After the deployment is created the bug fixes are then merged (Reverse Integration) into the Main branch. We do this so that we separate out our development from our production ready code.  Figure: SAFE or RTM is a read only record of what you actually released. Labels are not immutable so are useless in this circumstance.  When we have completed stabilisation of the release branch and we are ready to deploy to production we create a read-only copy of the code for reference. In some cases this could be a regulatory concern, but in most cases it protects the company building the product from legal entanglements based on what you did or did not release. Figure: This allows us to reference any particular version of our application that was ever shipped.   In addition I am an advocate of having a single solution with all the Project folders directly under the “Trunk”/”Main” folder and using the full name for the project folders.. Figure: The ideal solution If you must have multiple solutions, because you need to use more than one version of Visual Studio, name the solutions “[Client].[Product][VSVersion].sln” and have it reside in the same folder as the other solution. This makes it easier for Automated build and improves the discoverability of your code and its dependencies. Send me your feedback!   Technorati Tags: VS ALM,VSTS Developing,VS 2010,VS 2008,TFS 2010,TFS 2008,TFBS

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• Ubutu 14.04 triple screen, third screen black and X cursor

  - by Horse

  I am having some issues getting my third screen working properly. I had triple screens working fine on 12.04, using 2 nvidia cards. Did a fresh install of 14.04 and having no end of problems getting it working. It either will just be disabled, or the screen is black with the cursor as an X. I can only enable it from the nvidia server settings tool. The Ubuntu native display settings won't even show the 3rd screen. I tried copying the xorg.conf from my old install, which upon restarting X worked fine on the login screen, but then it just sat there after I logged in and didn’t do anything (mouse was still working). I am using gnome-session-fallback instead of unity if that makes any difference. Still having these issues if I try unity though. How do I get my 3rd screen working and displaying a desktop? Here is my current xorg.conf # nvidia-settings: X configuration file generated by nvidia-settings # nvidia-settings: version 331.20 (buildd@roseapple) Mon Feb 3 15:07:22 UTC 2014 Section "ServerLayout" Identifier "Layout0" Screen 0 "Screen0" 0 0 Screen 1 "Screen1" RightOf "Screen0" InputDevice "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard" InputDevice "Mouse0" "CorePointer" Option "Xinerama" "0" EndSection Section "Files" EndSection Section "InputDevice" # generated from default Identifier "Mouse0" Driver "mouse" Option "Protocol" "auto" Option "Device" "/dev/psaux" Option "Emulate3Buttons" "no" Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5" EndSection Section "InputDevice" # generated from default Identifier "Keyboard0" Driver "kbd" EndSection Section "Monitor" # HorizSync source: edid, VertRefresh source: edid Identifier "Monitor0" VendorName "Unknown" ModelName "DELL 1907FP" HorizSync 30.0 - 81.0 VertRefresh 56.0 - 76.0 Option "DPMS" EndSection Section "Monitor" # HorizSync source: unknown, VertRefresh source: unknown Identifier "Monitor1" VendorName "Unknown" ModelName "DELL 1907FP" HorizSync 0.0 - 0.0 VertRefresh 0.0 Option "DPMS" EndSection Section "Monitor" Identifier "Monitor2" VendorName "Unknown" ModelName "DELL 1907FP" HorizSync 30.0 - 81.0 VertRefresh 56.0 - 76.0 EndSection Section "Device" Identifier "Device0" Driver "nvidia" VendorName "NVIDIA Corporation" BoardName "GeForce GTX 580" BusID "PCI:1:0:0" EndSection Section "Device" Identifier "Device1" Driver "nvidia" VendorName "NVIDIA Corporation" BoardName "GeForce GT 520" BusID "PCI:3:0:0" EndSection Section "Device" Identifier "Device2" Driver "nvidia" VendorName "NVIDIA Corporation" BoardName "GeForce GT 520" BusID "PCI:3:0:0" EndSection Section "Screen" # Removed Option "metamodes" "DVI-I-2: nvidia-auto-select +0+0, DVI-I-3: nvidia-auto-select +1280+0" # Removed Option "metamodes" "DVI-I-2: nvidia-auto-select +0+0" # Removed Option "SLI" "Off" # Removed Option "BaseMosaic" "off" # Removed Option "metamodes" "GPU-109d4eb8-b40b-87d7-3fd6-95830d1d5215.DVI-I-2: nvidia-auto-select +0+0, GPU-109d4eb8-b40b-87d7-3fd6-95830d1d5215.DVI-I-3: nvidia-auto-select +1280+0, GPU-82e96214-175e-5e6a-218c-5bdbc948daf2.DVI-I-1: nvidia-auto-select +3200+0" # Removed Option "SLI" "off" # Removed Option "BaseMosaic" "on" Identifier "Screen0" Device "Device0" Monitor "Monitor0" DefaultDepth 24 Option "Stereo" "0" Option "nvidiaXineramaInfoOrder" "DFP-0" Option "metamodes" "DVI-I-2: nvidia-auto-select +0+0, DVI-I-3: nvidia-auto-select +1280+0" Option "SLI" "Off" Option "MultiGPU" "Off" Option "BaseMosaic" "off" SubSection "Display" Depth 24 EndSubSection EndSection Section "Screen" # Removed Option "metamodes" "nvidia-auto-select +0+0" # Removed Option "metamodes" "DVI-I-3: nvidia-auto-select +0+0" Identifier "Screen1" Device "Device1" Monitor "Monitor1" DefaultDepth 24 Option "Stereo" "0" Option "metamodes" "nvidia-auto-select +0+0" Option "SLI" "Off" Option "MultiGPU" "Off" Option "BaseMosaic" "off" SubSection "Display" Depth 24 EndSubSection EndSection Section "Screen" Identifier "Screen2" Device "Device2" Monitor "Monitor2" DefaultDepth 24 Option "Stereo" "0" Option "metamodes" "nvidia-auto-select +0+0" Option "SLI" "Off" Option "MultiGPU" "Off" Option "BaseMosaic" "off" SubSection "Display" Depth 24 EndSubSection EndSection Here is my old 'working in 12.04' xorg.conf # nvidia-settings: X configuration file generated by nvidia-settings # nvidia-settings: version 310.19 ([email protected]) Thu Nov 8 02:08:55 PST 2012 Section "ServerLayout" # Removed Option "Xinerama" "0" Identifier "Layout0" Screen 0 "Screen0" 0 0 Screen 1 "Screen1" RightOf "Screen2" Screen 2 "Screen2" RightOf "Screen0" InputDevice "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard" InputDevice "Mouse0" "CorePointer" Option "Xinerama" "1" EndSection Section "Files" EndSection Section "InputDevice" # generated from default Identifier "Mouse0" Driver "mouse" Option "Protocol" "auto" Option "Device" "/dev/psaux" Option "Emulate3Buttons" "no" Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5" EndSection Section "InputDevice" # generated from default Identifier "Keyboard0" Driver "kbd" EndSection Section "Monitor" # HorizSync source: edid, VertRefresh source: edid Identifier "Monitor0" VendorName "Unknown" ModelName "DELL 1907FP" HorizSync 30.0 - 81.0 VertRefresh 56.0 - 76.0 Option "DPMS" EndSection Section "Monitor" # HorizSync source: unknown, VertRefresh source: unknown Identifier "Monitor1" VendorName "Unknown" ModelName "DELL 1907FP" HorizSync 30.0 - 81.0 VertRefresh 56.0 - 76.0 Option "DPMS" EndSection Section "Monitor" Identifier "Monitor2" VendorName "Unknown" ModelName "Apple Cinema HD" HorizSync 74.0 - 74.6 VertRefresh 59.9 - 60.0 EndSection Section "Device" Identifier "Device0" Driver "nvidia" VendorName "NVIDIA Corporation" BoardName "GeForce GTX 580" BusID "PCI:1:0:0" Screen 0 EndSection Section "Device" Identifier "Device1" Driver "nvidia" VendorName "NVIDIA Corporation" BoardName "GeForce GT 520" BusID "PCI:3:0:0" EndSection Section "Device" Identifier "Device2" Driver "nvidia" VendorName "NVIDIA Corporation" BoardName "GeForce GTX 580" BusID "PCI:1:0:0" Screen 1 EndSection Section "Screen" # Removed Option "metamodes" "DFP-0: nvidia-auto-select +0+0, DFP-2: nvidia-auto-select +1280+0" Identifier "Screen0" Device "Device0" Monitor "Monitor0" DefaultDepth 24 Option "Stereo" "0" Option "metamodes" "DFP-0: nvidia-auto-select +0+0; DFP-0: nvidia-auto-select +0+0; DFP-0: 1280x1024_75 +0+0; DFP-0: 1152x864 +0+0; DFP-0: 1024x768 +0+0; DFP-0: 1024x768_60 +0+0; DFP-0: 800x600 +0+0; DFP-0: 800x600_60 +0+0; DFP-0: 640x480 +0+0; DFP-0: 640x480_60 +0+0; DFP-0: nvidia-auto-select +0+0 {viewportout=1280x720+0+152}" SubSection "Display" Depth 24 EndSubSection EndSection Section "Screen" Identifier "Screen1" Device "Device1" Monitor "Monitor1" DefaultDepth 24 Option "Stereo" "0" Option "metamodes" "nvidia-auto-select +0+0" SubSection "Display" Depth 24 EndSubSection EndSection Section "Screen" Identifier "Screen2" Device "Device2" Monitor "Monitor2" DefaultDepth 24 Option "Stereo" "0" Option "metamodes" "DFP-2: nvidia-auto-select +0+0" SubSection "Display" Depth 24 EndSubSection EndSection Section "Extensions" Option "Composite" "Disable" EndSection

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• Collision Detection on floor tiles Isometric game

  - by Anivrom

  I am having a very hard to time figuring out a bug in my code. It should have taken me 20 minutes but instead I've been working on it for over 12 hours. I am writing a isometric tile based game where the characters can walk freely amongst the tiles, but not be able to cross over to certain tiles that have a collides flag. Sounds easy enough, just check ahead of where the player is going to move using a Screen Coordinates to Tile method and check the tiles array using our returned xy indexes to see if its collidable or not. if its not, then don't move the character. The problem I'm having is my Screen to Tile method isn't spitting out the proper X,Y tile indexes. This method works flawlessly for selecting tiles with the mouse. NOTE: My X tiles go from left to right, and my Y tiles go from up to down. Reversed from some examples on the net. Here's the relevant code: public Vector2 ScreentoTile(Vector2 screenPoint) { //Vector2 is just a object with x and y float properties //camOffsetX,Y are my camera values that I use to shift everything but the //current camera target when the target moves //tilescale = 128, screenheight = 480, the -46 offset is to center // vertically + 16 px for some extra gfx in my tile png Vector2 tileIndex = new Vector2(-1,-1); screenPoint.x -= camOffsetX; screenPoint.y = screenHeight - screenPoint.y - camOffsetY - 46; tileIndex.x = (screenPoint.x / tileScale) + (screenPoint.y / (tileScale / 2)); tileIndex.y = (screenPoint.x / tileScale) - (screenPoint.y / (tileScale / 2)); return tileIndex; } The method that calls this code is: private void checkTileTouched () { if (Gdx.input.justTouched()) { if (last.x >= 0 && last.x < levelWidth && last.y >= 0 && last.y < levelHeight) { if (lastSelectedTile != null) lastSelectedTile.setColor(1, 1, 1, 1); Sprite sprite = levelTiles[(int) last.x][(int) last.y].sprite; sprite.setColor(0, 0.3f, 0, 1); lastSelectedTile = sprite; } } if (touchDown) { float moveX=0,moveY=0; Vector2 pos = new Vector2(); if (player.direction == direction_left) { moveX = -(player.moveSpeed); moveY = -(player.moveSpeed / 2); Gdx.app.log("Movement", String.valueOf("left")); } else if (player.direction == direction_upleft) { moveX = -(player.moveSpeed); moveY = 0; Gdx.app.log("Movement", String.valueOf("upleft")); } else if (player.direction == direction_up) { moveX = -(player.moveSpeed); moveY = player.moveSpeed / 2; Gdx.app.log("Movement", String.valueOf("up")); } else if (player.direction == direction_upright) { moveX = 0; moveY = player.moveSpeed; Gdx.app.log("Movement", String.valueOf("upright")); } else if (player.direction == direction_right) { moveX = player.moveSpeed; moveY = player.moveSpeed / 2; Gdx.app.log("Movement", String.valueOf("right")); } else if (player.direction == direction_downright) { moveX = player.moveSpeed; moveY = 0; Gdx.app.log("Movement", String.valueOf("downright")); } else if (player.direction == direction_down) { moveX = player.moveSpeed; moveY = -(player.moveSpeed / 2); Gdx.app.log("Movement", String.valueOf("down")); } else if (player.direction == direction_downleft) { moveX = 0; moveY = -(player.moveSpeed); Gdx.app.log("Movement", String.valueOf("downleft")); } //Player.moveSpeed is 1 //tileObjects.x is drawn in the center of the screen (400px,240px) // the sprite width is 64, height is 128 testX = moveX * 10; testY = moveY * 10; testX += tileObjects.get(player.zIndex).x + tileObjects.get(player.zIndex).sprite.getWidth() / 2; testY += tileObjects.get(player.zIndex).y + tileObjects.get(player.zIndex).sprite.getHeight() / 2; moveX += tileObjects.get(player.zIndex).x + tileObjects.get(player.zIndex).sprite.getWidth() / 2; moveY += tileObjects.get(player.zIndex).y + tileObjects.get(player.zIndex).sprite.getHeight() / 2; pos = ScreentoTile(new Vector2(moveX,moveY)); Vector2 pos2 = ScreentoTile(new Vector2(testX,testY)); if (!levelTiles[(int) pos2.x][(int) pos2.y].collides) { Vector2 newPlayerPos = ScreentoTile(new Vector2(moveX,moveY)); CenterOnCoord(moveX,moveY); player.tileX = (int)newPlayerPos.x; player.tileY = (int)newPlayerPos.y; } } } When the player is moving to the left (downleft-ish from the viewers point of view), my Pos2 X values decrease as expected but pos2 isnt checking ahead on the x tiles, it is checking ahead on the Y tiles(as if we were moving DOWN, not left), and vice versa, if the player moves down, it will check ahead on the X values (as if we are moving LEFT, instead of DOWN). instead of the Y values. I understand this is probably the most confusing and horribly written post ever, but I'm confused myself so I'm having a hard time explaining it to others lol. if you need more information please ask!! I'm so frustrated after over 12 hours of working on it I'm about to give up.

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• Limitations of User-Defined Customer Events (FA Type Profile)

  - by Rajesh Sharma

  CC&B automatically creates field activities when a specific Customer Event takes place. This depends on the way you have setup your Field Activity Type Profiles, the templates within, and associated SP Condition(s) on the template. CC&B uses the service point type, its state and referenced customer event to determine which field activity type to generate.   Customer events available in the base product include: Cut for Non-payment (CNP) Disconnect Warning (DIWA) Reconnect for Payment (REPY) Reread (RERD) Stop Service (STOP) Start Service (STRT) Start/Stop (STSP)   Note the Field values/codes defined for each event.   CC&B comes with a flexibility to define new set of customer events. These can be defined in the Look Up - CUST_EVT_FLG. Values from the Look Up are used on the Field Activity Type Profile Template page.     So what's the use of having user-defined Customer Events? And how will the system detect such events in order to create field activity(s)?   Well, system can only detect such events when you reference a user-defined customer event on a Severance Event Type for an event type Create Field Activities.     This way you can create additional field activities of a specific field activity type for user-defined customer events.   One of our customers adopted this feature and created a user-defined customer event CNPW - Cut for Non-payment for Water Services. This event was then linked on a Field Activity Type Profile and referenced on a Severance Event - CUT FOR NON PAY-W. The associated Severance Process was configured to trigger a reconnection process if it was cancelled (done by defining a Post Cancel Algorithm). Whenever this Severance Event was executed, a specific type of Field Activity was generated for disconnection purposes. The Field Activity type was determined by the system from the Field Activity Type Profile referenced for the SP Type, SP's state and the referenced user-defined customer event. All was working well until the time when they realized that in spite of the Severance Process getting cancelled (when a payment was made); the Post Cancel Algorithm was not executed to start a Reconnection Severance Process for the purpose of generating a reconnection field activity and reconnecting the service.   Basically, the Post Cancel algorithm (if specified on a Severance Process Template) is triggered when a Severance Process gets cancelled because a credit transaction has affected/relieved a Service Agreement's debt.   So what exactly was happening? Now we come to actual question as to what are limitations in having user-defined customer event.   System defined/base customer events are hard-coded across the entire system. There is an impact even if you remove any customer event entry from the Look Up. User-defined customer events are not recognized by the system anywhere else except in the severance process, as described above.   There are few programs which have routines to first validate the completion of disconnection field activities, which were raised as a result of customer event CNP - Cut for Non-payment in order to perform other associated actions. One such program is the Post Cancel Algorithm, referenced on a Severance Process Template, generally used to reconnect services which were disconnected from other Severance Event, specifically CNP - Cut for Non-Payment. Post cancel algorithm provided by the product - SEV POST CAN does the following (below is the algorithm's description):   This algorithm is called after a severance process has been cancelled (typically because the debt was paid and the SA is no longer eligible to be on the severance process). It checks to see if the process has a completed 'disconnect' event and, if so, starts a reconnect process using the Reconnect Severance Process Template defined in the parameter.    Notice the underlined text. This algorithm implicitly checks for Field Activities having completed status, which were generated from Severance Events as a result of CNP - Cut for Non-payment customer event.   Now if we look back to the customer's issue, we can relate that the Post Cancel algorithm was triggered, but was not able to find any 'Completed' CNP - Cut for Non-payment related field activity. And hence was not able to start a reconnection severance process. This was because a field activity was generated and completed for a customer event CNPW - Cut for Non-payment of Water Services instead.   To conclude, if you introduce new customer events, you should be aware that you don't extend or simulate base customer events, the ones that are included in the base product, as they are further used to provide/validate additional business functions.  

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• My Red Gate Experience

  - by Colin Rothwell

  I’m Colin, and I’ve been an intern working with Mike in publishing on Simple-Talk and SQLServerCentral for the past ten weeks. I’ve mostly been working “behind the scenes”, making improvements to the spam filtering, along with various other small tweaks. When I arrived at Red Gate, one of the first things Mike asked me was what I wanted to get out of the internship. It wasn’t a question I’d given a great deal of thought to, but my immediate response was the same as almost anybody: to support my growing family. Well, ok, not quite that, but money was certainly a motivator, along with simply making sure that I didn’t get bored over the summer. Three months is a long time to fill, and many of my friends end up getting bored, or worse, knitting obsessively. With the arrogance which seems fairly common among Cambridge people, I wasn’t expecting to really learn much here! In my mind, the part of the year where I am at Uni is the part where I learn things, whilst Red Gate would be an opportunity to apply what I’d learnt. Thankfully, the opposite is true: I’ve learnt a lot during my time here, and there has been a definite positive impact on the way I write code. The first thing I’ve really learnt is that test-driven development is, in general, a sensible way of working. Before coming, I didn’t really get it: how could you test something you hadn’t yet written? It didn’t make sense! My problem was seeing a test as having to test all the behaviour of a given function. Writing tests which test the bare minimum possible and building them up is a really good way of crystallising the direction the code needs to grow in, and ensures you never attempt to write too much code at time. One really good experience of this was early on in my internship when Mike and I were working on the query used to list active authors: I’d written something which I thought would do the trick, but by starting again using TDD we grew something which revealed that there were several subtle mistakes in the query I’d written. I’ve also been awakened to the value of pair programming. Whilst I could sort of see the point before coming, I also thought that it was impossible that two people would ever get more done at the same computer than if they were working separately. I still think that this is true for projects with pieces that developers can easily work on independently, and with developers who both know the codebase, but I’ve found that pair programming can be really good for learning a code base, and for building up small projects to the point where you can start working on separate components, as well as solving particularly difficult problems. Later on in my internship, for my down tools week project, I was working on adding Python support to Glimpse. Another intern and I we pair programmed the entire project, using ping pong pair programming as much as possible. One bonus that this brought which I wasn’t expecting was that I found myself less prone to distraction: with someone else peering over my shoulder, I didn’t have the ever-present temptation to open gmail, or facebook, or yammer, or twitter, or hacker news, or reddit, and so on, and so forth. I’m quite proud of this project: I think it’s some of the best code I’ve written. I’ve also been really won over to the value of descriptive variables names. In my pre-Red Gate life, as a lone-ranger style cowboy programmer, I’d developed a tendency towards laziness in variable names, sometimes abbreviating or, worse, using acronyms. I’ve swiftly realised that this is a bad idea when working with a team: saving a few key strokes is inevitably not worth it when it comes to reading code again in the future. Longer names also mean you can do away with a majority of comments. I appreciate that if you’ve come up with an O(n*log n) algorithm for something which seemed O(n^2), you probably want to explain how it works, but explaining what a variable name means is a big no no: it’s so very easy to change the behaviour of the code, whilst forgetting about the comments. Whilst at Red Gate, I took the opportunity to attend a code retreat, which really helped me to solidify all the things I’d learnt. To be completely free of any existing code base really lets you focus on best practises and think about how you write code. If you get a chance to go on a similar event, I’d highly recommend it! Cycling to Red Gate, I’ve also become much better at fitting inner tubes: if you’re struggling to get the tube out, or re-fit the tire, letting a bit of air out usually helps. I’ve also become quite a bit better at foosball and will miss having a foosball table! I’d like to finish off by saying thank you to everyone at Red Gate for having me. I’ve really enjoyed working with, and learning from, the team that brings you this web site. If you meet any of them, buy them a drink!

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• Sorting and Filtering By Model-Based LOV Display Value

  - by Steven Davelaar

  If you use a model-based LOV and you use display type "choice", then ADF nicely displays the display value, even if the table is read-only. In the screen shot below, you see the RegionName attribute displayed instead of the RegionId. This is accomplished by the model-based LOV, I did not modify the Countries view object to include a join with Regions.  Also note the sort icon, the table is sorted by RegionId. This sorting typically results in a bug reported by your test team. Europe really shouldn't come before America when sorting ascending, right? To fix this, we could of course change the Countries view object query and add a join with the Regions table to include the RegionName attribute. If the table is updateable, we still need the choice list, so we need to move the model-based LOV from the RegionId attribute to the RegionName attribute and hide the RegionId attribute in the table. But that is a lot of work for such a simple requirement, in particular if we have lots of model-based choice lists in our view object. Fortunately, there is an easier way to do this, with some generic code in your view object base class that fixes this at once for all model-based choice lists that we have defined in our application. The trick is to override the method getSortCriteria() in the base view object class. By default, this method returns null because the sorting is done in the database through a SQL Order By clause. However, if the getSortCriteria method does return a sort criteria the framework will perform in memory sorting which is what we need to achieve sorting by region name. So, inside this method we need to evaluate the Order By clause, and if the order by column matches an attribute that has a model-based LOV choicelist defined with a display attribute that is different from the value attribute, we need to return a sort criterria. Here is the complete code of this method: public SortCriteria[] getSortCriteria() {   String orderBy = getOrderByClause();          if (orderBy!=null )   {     boolean descending = false;     if (orderBy.endsWith(" DESC"))      {       descending = true;       orderBy = orderBy.substring(0,orderBy.length()-5);     }     // extract column name, is part after the dot     int dotpos = orderBy.lastIndexOf(".");     String columnName = orderBy.substring(dotpos+1);     // loop over attributes and find matching attribute     AttributeDef orderByAttrDef = null;     for (AttributeDef attrDef : getAttributeDefs())     {       if (columnName.equals(attrDef.getColumnName()))       {         orderByAttrDef = attrDef;         break;       }     }     if (orderByAttrDef!=null && "choice".equals(orderByAttrDef.getProperty("CONTROLTYPE"))          && orderByAttrDef.getListBindingDef()!=null)     {       String orderbyAttr = orderByAttrDef.getName();       String[] displayAttrs = orderByAttrDef.getListBindingDef().getListDisplayAttrNames();       String[] listAttrs = orderByAttrDef.getListBindingDef().getListAttrNames();       // if first list display attributes is not the same as first list attribute, than the value       // displayed is different from the value copied back to the order by attribute, in which case we need to       // use our custom comparator       if (displayAttrs!=null && listAttrs!=null && displayAttrs.length>0 && !displayAttrs[0].equals(listAttrs[0]))       {                  SortCriteriaImpl sc1 = new SortCriteriaImpl(orderbyAttr, descending);         SortCriteria[] sc = new SortCriteriaImpl[]{sc1};         return sc;                           }     }     }   return super.getSortCriteria(); } If this method returns a sort criteria, then the framework will call the sort method on the view object. The sort method uses a Comparator object to determine the sequence in which the rows should be returned. This comparator is retrieved by calling the getRowComparator method on the view object. So, to ensure sorting by our display value, we need to override this method to return our custom comparator: public Comparator getRowComparator() {   return new LovDisplayAttributeRowComparator(getSortCriteria()); } The custom comparator class extends the default RowComparator class and overrides the method compareRows and looks up the choice display value to compare the two rows. The complete code of this class is included in the sample application.  With this code in place, clicking on the Region sort icon nicely sorts the countries by RegionName, as you can see below. When using the Query-By-Example table filter at the top of the table, you typically want to use the same choice list to filter the rows. One way to do that is documented in ADF code corner sample 16 - How To Customize the ADF Faces Table Filter.The solution in this sample is perfectly fine to use. This sample requires you to define a separate iterator binding and associated tree binding to populate the choice list in the table filter area using the af:iterator tag. You might be able to reuse the same LOV view object instance in this iterator binding that is used as view accessor for the model-bassed LOV. However, I have seen quite a few customers who have a generic LOV view object (mapped to one "refcodes" table) with the bind variable values set in the LOV view accessor. In such a scenario, some duplicate work is needed to get a dedicated view object instance with the correct bind variables that can be used in the iterator binding. Looking for ways to maximize reuse, wouldn't it be nice if we could just reuse our model-based LOV to populate this filter choice list? Well we can. Here are the basic steps: 1. Create an attribute list binding in the page definition that we can use to retrieve the list of SelectItems needed to populate the choice list <list StaticList="false" Uses="LOV_RegionId"               IterBinding="CountriesView1Iterator" id="RegionId"/>  We need this "current row" list binding because the implicit list binding used by the item in the table is not accessible outside a table row, we cannot use the expression #{row.bindings.RegionId} in the table filter facet. 2. Create a Map-style managed bean with the get method retrieving the list binding as key, and returning the list of SelectItems. To return this list, we take the list of selectItems contained by the list binding and replace the index number that is normally used as key value with the actual attribute value that is set by the choice list. Here is the code of the get method:  public Object get(Object key) {   if (key instanceof FacesCtrlListBinding)   {     // we need to cast to internal class FacesCtrlListBinding rather than JUCtrlListBinding to     // be able to call getItems method. To prevent this import, we could evaluate an EL expression     // to get the list of items     FacesCtrlListBinding lb = (FacesCtrlListBinding) key;     if (cachedFilterLists.containsKey(lb.getName()))     {       return cachedFilterLists.get(lb.getName());     }     List<SelectItem> items = (List<SelectItem>)lb.getItems();     if (items==null || items.size()==0)     {       return items;     }     List<SelectItem> newItems = new ArrayList<SelectItem>();     JUCtrlValueDef def = ((JUCtrlValueDef)lb.getDef());     String valueAttr = def.getFirstAttrName();     // the items list has an index number as value, we need to replace this with the actual     // value of the attribute that is copied back by the choice list     for (int i = 0; i < items.size(); i++)     {       SelectItem si = (SelectItem) items.get(i);       Object value = lb.getValueFromList(i);       if (value instanceof Row)       {         Row row = (Row) value;         si.setValue(row.getAttribute(valueAttr));                 }       else       {         // this is the "empty" row, set value to empty string so all rows will be returned         // as user no longer wants to filter on this attribute         si.setValue("");       }       newItems.add(si);     }     cachedFilterLists.put(lb.getName(), newItems);     return newItems;   }   return null; } Note that we added caching to speed up performance, and to handle the situation where table filters or search criteria are set such that no rows are retrieved in the table. When there are no rows, there is no current row and the getItems method on the list binding will return no items.  An alternative approach to create the list of SelectItems would be to retrieve the iterator binding from the list binding and loop over the rows in the iterator binding rowset. Then we wouldn't need the import of the ADF internal oracle.adfinternal.view.faces.model.binding.FacesCtrlListBinding class, but then we need to figure out the display attributes from the list binding definition, and possible separate them with a dash if multiple display attributes are defined in the LOV. Doable but less reuse and more work. 3. Inside the filter facet for the column create an af:selectOneChoice with the value property of the f:selectItems tag referencing the get method of the managed bean:  <f:facet name="filter">   <af:selectOneChoice id="soc0" autoSubmit="true"                       value="#{vs.filterCriteria.RegionId}">     <!-- attention: the RegionId list binding must be created manually in the page definition! -->                       <f:selectItems id="si0"                    value="#{viewScope.TableFilterChoiceList[bindings.RegionId]}"/>   </af:selectOneChoice> </f:facet> Note that the managed bean is defined in viewScope for the caching to take effect. Here is a screen shot of the tabe filter in action: You can download the sample application here. 

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• Archbeat Link-O-Rama Top 10 Facebook Faves for October 20-26, 2013

  - by OTN ArchBeat

  What are the 4,460 fans of the OTN ArchBeat Facebook Page talking about? The list below represents the Top 10 most popular articles, blog posts, and other content from across the community. Enterprise Grade Deployment Considerations for Oracle Identity Manager AD Connector | Firdaus Fraz Oracle Fusion Middleware solution architect Firdaus Fraz illustrates provides best practice recommendations for setting up an enterprise deployment environment for the OIM connector for Microsoft Active Directory. A Roadmap for SOA Development and Delivery | Mark Nelson Do you know the way to S-O-A? Mark Nelson does. His latest blog post, part of an ongoing series, will help to keep you from getting lost along the way. The road ahead for WebLogic 12c | Edwin Biemond Oracle ACE Edwin Biemond shares his thoughts on announced new features in Oracle WebLogic 12.1.3 & 12.1.4 and compares those upcoming releases to Oracle WebLogic 12.1.2. Oracle GoldenGate 12c - New Release, New Features | Michael Rainey Rittman Mead's Michael Rainey takes you on guided tour through the GoldenGate 12c features that "are relevant to data warehouse and data migration work we typically see in the business intelligence world." Reproducing WebLogic Stuck Threads with ADF CreateInsert Operation and ORDER BY Clause | Andrejus Baranovsikis Another post from Oracle ACE Director Andrejus Baranovsikis on dealing with WebLogic Stuck Threads. This one includes a test case application you can download. The Impact of SaaS - The Times They Are A-Changin' | Floyd Teter Oracle ACE Director Floyd Teter shares some truly interesting insight gained in conversations with three Fortune 500 CIOs. Configure Oracle Identity Manager AD/LDAP Authentication | Arda Eralp A step-by-step how-to from a member of the Fusion Middleware Applications Consultancy team. Java-Powered Robot Named NAO Wows Crowds | Tori Wieldt Tori Wieldt interviews a robot and human. Updated ODI Statement of Direction | Robert Schweighardt Heads up Oracle Data Integrator fans! A new product statement of direction document is available, offering "an overview of the strategic product plans for Oracle’s data integration products for bulk data movement and transformation, specifically Oracle Data Integrator (ODI) and Oracle Warehouse Builder (OWB)." Oracle BI Apps 11.1.1.7.1 – GoldenGate Integration - Part 2: Setup and Configuration | Michael Rainey Michael Rainey continues his series with another technical article for you GoldenGate fans. Thought for the Day "Intuition will tell the thinking mind where to look next." — Jonas Salk, American medical researcher and virologist (October 28, 1914 – June 23, 1995) Source: brainyquote.com

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• New TPerlRegEx Compatible with Delphi XE

  - by Jan Goyvaerts

  The new RegularExpressionsCore unit in Delphi XE is based on the PerlRegEx unit that I wrote many years ago. Since I donated full rights to a copy rather than full rights to the original, I can continue to make my version of TPerlRegEx available to people using older versions of Delphi. I did make a few changes to the code to modernize it a bit prior to donating a copy to Embarcadero. The latest TPerlRegEx includes those changes. This allows you to use the same regex-based code using the RegularExpressionsCore unit in Delphi XE, and the PerlRegEx unit in Delphi 2010 and earlier. If you’re writing new code using regular expressions in Delphi 2010 or earlier, I strongly recomment you use the new version of my PerlRegEx unit. If you later migrate your code to Delphi XE, all you have to do is replace PerlRegEx with RegularExrpessionsCore in the uses clause of your units. If you have code written using an older version of TPerlRegEx that you want to migrate to the latest TPerlRegEx, you’ll need to take a few changes into account. The original TPerlRegEx was developed when Borland’s goal was to have a component for everything on the component palette. So the old TPerlRegEx derives from TComponent, allowing you to put it on the component palette and drop it on a form. The new TPerlRegEx derives from TObject. It can only be instantiated at runtime. If you want to migrate from an older version of TPerlRegEx to the latest TPerlRegEx, start with removing any TPerlRegEx components you may have placed on forms or data modules and instantiate the objects at runtime instead. When instantiating at runtime, you no longer need to pass an owner component to the Create() constructor. Simply remove the parameter. Some of the property and method names in the original TPerlRegEx were a bit unwieldy. These have been renamed in the latest TPerlRegEx. Essentially, in all identifiers SubExpression was replaced with Group and MatchedExpression was replaced with Matched. Here is a complete list of the changed identifiers: Old Identifier New Identifier StoreSubExpression StoreGroups NamedSubExpression NamedGroup MatchedExpression MatchedText MatchedExpressionLength MatchedLength MatchedExpressionOffset MatchedOffset SubExpressionCount GroupCount SubExpressions Groups SubExpressionLengths GroupLengths SubExpressionOffsets GroupOffsets Download TPerlRegEx. Source is included under the MPL 1.1 license.

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• SQL SERVER – DELETE, TRUNCATE and RESEED Identity

  - by pinaldave

  Yesterday I had a headache answering questions to one of the DBA on the subject of Reseting Identity Values for All Tables. After talking to the DBA I realized that he has no clue about how the identity column behaves when there is DELETE, TRUNCATE or RESEED Identity is used. Let us run a small T-SQL Script. Create a temp table with Identity column beginning with value 11. The seed value is 11. USE [TempDB] GO -- Create Table CREATE TABLE [dbo].[TestTable]( [ID] [int] IDENTITY(11,1) NOT NULL, [var] [nchar](10) NULL ) ON [PRIMARY] GO -- Build sample data INSERT INTO [TestTable] VALUES ('val') GO When seed value is 11 the next value which is inserted has the identity column value as 11. – Select Data SELECT * FROM [TestTable] GO Effect of DELETE statement -- Delete Data DELETE FROM [TestTable] GO When the DELETE statement is executed without WHERE clause it will delete all the rows. However, when a new record is inserted the identity value is increased from 11 to 12. It does not reset but keep on increasing. -- Build sample data INSERT INTO [TestTable] VALUES ('val') GO -- Select Data SELECT * FROM [TestTable] Effect of TRUNCATE statement -- Truncate table TRUNCATE TABLE [TestTable] GO When the TRUNCATE statement is executed it will remove all the rows. However, when a new record is inserted the identity value is increased from 11 (which is original value). TRUNCATE resets the identity value to the original seed value of the table. -- Build sample data INSERT INTO [TestTable] VALUES ('val') GO -- Select Data SELECT * FROM [TestTable] GO Effect of RESEED statement If you notice I am using the reseed value as 1. The original seed value when I created table is 11. However, I am reseeding it with value 1. -- Reseed DBCC CHECKIDENT ('TestTable', RESEED, 1) GO When we insert the one more value and check the value it will generate the new value as 2. This new value logic is Reseed Value + Interval Value – in this case it will be 1+1 = 2. -- Build sample data INSERT INTO [TestTable] VALUES ('val') GO -- Select Data SELECT * FROM [TestTable] GO Here is the clean up act. -- Clean up DROP TABLE [TestTable] GO Question for you: If I reseed value with some random number followed by the truncate command on the table what will be the seed value of the table. (Example, if original seed value is 11 and I reseed the value to 1. If I follow up with truncate table what will be the seed value now? Here is the complete script together. You can modify it and find the answer to the above question. Please leave a comment with your answer. Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.sqlauthority.com) Filed under: PostADay, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, T SQL, Technology

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• Reporting on common code smells : A POC

  - by Dave Ballantyne

  Over the past few blog entries, I’ve been looking at parsing TSQL scripts in a variety of ways for a variety of tasks.  In my last entry ‘How to prevent ‘Select *’ : The elegant way’, I looked at parsing SQL to report upon uses of SELECT *.  The obvious question leading on from this is, “Great, what about other code smells ?”  Well, using the language service parser to do that was turning out to be a bit of a hard job,  sure I was getting tokens but no real context.  I wasn't even being told when an end of statement had been reached. One of the other parsing options available from Microsoft is exposed in the assembly ‘Microsoft.SqlServer.TransactSql.ScriptDom’,  this is ,I believe, installed with the client development tools with SQLServer.  It is much more feature rich than the original parser I had used and breaks a TSQL script into intuitive classes for analysis. So, what sort of smells can I now find using it ?  Well, for an opening gambit quite a nice little list. Use of NOLOCK Set of READ UNCOMMITTED Use of SELECT * Insert without column references Explicit datatype conversion on Sargs Cross server selects Non use of two-part naming convention Table and Query hint usage Changes in set options Use of single line comments Use of ordinal column positions in ORDER BY clause Now, lets not argue the point that “It depends” as smells on some of these, but as an academic exercise it is quite interesting.  The code is available from this link :https://www.dropbox.com/s/rfk32sou4fzl2cw/TSQLDomTest.zip  All the usual disclaimers apply to this code, I cannot be held responsible for anything ranging from mild annoyance through to universe destruction due to the use of this code or examples. The zip file contains a powershell script and my test cases.  The assembly used requires .Net 4 to run, which means that you will need powershell 3 ( though im running through PowerGUI and all works ok ) .  The code searches for all .sql files in the folder hierarchy for the workingpath,  you can override this if you want by simply changing the $Folder variable, and processes each in turn for the smells.  Feedback is not great at the moment, all it does is output to an xml file (Smells.xml) the offset position and a description of the smell found. Right now, I am interested in your feedback.  What do you think ?  Is this (or should it be) more than an academic exercise ?  Can tooling such as this be used as some form of code quality measure ?  Does it Work ? Do you have a case listed above which is not being reported ? Do you have a case that you would love to be reported ? Let me know , please mailto: [email protected]. Thanks

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