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  • problem with google chrome

    - by user365559
    hi. i have javscript file for history management.IT is not supported by chrome when i am trying to navigate to back page with backbutton in the browser.I can see the url change but it doesnt go to preceeding page. BrowserHistoryUtils = { addEvent: function(elm, evType, fn, useCapture) { useCapture = useCapture || false; if (elm.addEventListener) { elm.addEventListener(evType, fn, useCapture); return true; } else if (elm.attachEvent) { var r = elm.attachEvent('on' + evType, fn); return r; } else { elm['on' + evType] = fn; } } } BrowserHistory = (function() { // type of browser var browser = { ie: false, firefox: false, safari: false, opera: false, version: -1 }; // if setDefaultURL has been called, our first clue // that the SWF is ready and listening //var swfReady = false; // the URL we'll send to the SWF once it is ready //var pendingURL = ''; // Default app state URL to use when no fragment ID present var defaultHash = ''; // Last-known app state URL var currentHref = document.location.href; // Initial URL (used only by IE) var initialHref = document.location.href; // Initial URL (used only by IE) var initialHash = document.location.hash; // History frame source URL prefix (used only by IE) var historyFrameSourcePrefix = 'history/historyFrame.html?'; // History maintenance (used only by Safari) var currentHistoryLength = -1; var historyHash = []; var initialState = createState(initialHref, initialHref + '#' + initialHash, initialHash); var backStack = []; var forwardStack = []; var currentObjectId = null; //UserAgent detection var useragent = navigator.userAgent.toLowerCase(); if (useragent.indexOf("opera") != -1) { browser.opera = true; } else if (useragent.indexOf("msie") != -1) { browser.ie = true; browser.version = parseFloat(useragent.substring(useragent.indexOf('msie') + 4)); } else if (useragent.indexOf("safari") != -1) { browser.safari = true; browser.version = parseFloat(useragent.substring(useragent.indexOf('safari') + 7)); } else if (useragent.indexOf("gecko") != -1) { browser.firefox = true; } if (browser.ie == true && browser.version == 7) { window["_ie_firstload"] = false; } // Accessor functions for obtaining specific elements of the page. function getHistoryFrame() { return document.getElementById('ie_historyFrame'); } function getAnchorElement() { return document.getElementById('firefox_anchorDiv'); } function getFormElement() { return document.getElementById('safari_formDiv'); } function getRememberElement() { return document.getElementById("safari_remember_field"); } // Get the Flash player object for performing ExternalInterface callbacks. // Updated for changes to SWFObject2. function getPlayer(id) { if (id && document.getElementById(id)) { var r = document.getElementById(id); if (typeof r.SetVariable != "undefined") { return r; } else { var o = r.getElementsByTagName("object"); var e = r.getElementsByTagName("embed"); if (o.length > 0 && typeof o[0].SetVariable != "undefined") { return o[0]; } else if (e.length > 0 && typeof e[0].SetVariable != "undefined") { return e[0]; } } } else { var o = document.getElementsByTagName("object"); var e = document.getElementsByTagName("embed"); if (e.length > 0 && typeof e[0].SetVariable != "undefined") { return e[0]; } else if (o.length > 0 && typeof o[0].SetVariable != "undefined") { return o[0]; } else if (o.length > 1 && typeof o[1].SetVariable != "undefined") { return o[1]; } } return undefined; } function getPlayers() { var players = []; if (players.length == 0) { var tmp = document.getElementsByTagName('object'); players = tmp; } if (players.length == 0 || players[0].object == null) { var tmp = document.getElementsByTagName('embed'); players = tmp; } return players; } function getIframeHash() { var doc = getHistoryFrame().contentWindow.document; var hash = String(doc.location.search); if (hash.length == 1 && hash.charAt(0) == "?") { hash = ""; } else if (hash.length >= 2 && hash.charAt(0) == "?") { hash = hash.substring(1); } return hash; } /* Get the current location hash excluding the '#' symbol. */ function getHash() { // It would be nice if we could use document.location.hash here, // but it's faulty sometimes. var idx = document.location.href.indexOf('#'); return (idx >= 0) ? document.location.href.substr(idx+1) : ''; } /* Get the current location hash excluding the '#' symbol. */ function setHash(hash) { // It would be nice if we could use document.location.hash here, // but it's faulty sometimes. if (hash == '') hash = '#' document.location.hash = hash; } function createState(baseUrl, newUrl, flexAppUrl) { return { 'baseUrl': baseUrl, 'newUrl': newUrl, 'flexAppUrl': flexAppUrl, 'title': null }; } /* Add a history entry to the browser. * baseUrl: the portion of the location prior to the '#' * newUrl: the entire new URL, including '#' and following fragment * flexAppUrl: the portion of the location following the '#' only */ function addHistoryEntry(baseUrl, newUrl, flexAppUrl) { //delete all the history entries forwardStack = []; if (browser.ie) { //Check to see if we are being asked to do a navigate for the first //history entry, and if so ignore, because it's coming from the creation //of the history iframe if (flexAppUrl == defaultHash && document.location.href == initialHref && window['_ie_firstload']) { currentHref = initialHref; return; } if ((!flexAppUrl || flexAppUrl == defaultHash) && window['_ie_firstload']) { newUrl = baseUrl + '#' + defaultHash; flexAppUrl = defaultHash; } else { // for IE, tell the history frame to go somewhere without a '#' // in order to get this entry into the browser history. getHistoryFrame().src = historyFrameSourcePrefix + flexAppUrl; } setHash(flexAppUrl); } else { //ADR if (backStack.length == 0 && initialState.flexAppUrl == flexAppUrl) { initialState = createState(baseUrl, newUrl, flexAppUrl); } else if(backStack.length > 0 && backStack[backStack.length - 1].flexAppUrl == flexAppUrl) { backStack[backStack.length - 1] = createState(baseUrl, newUrl, flexAppUrl); } if (browser.safari) { // for Safari, submit a form whose action points to the desired URL if (browser.version <= 419.3) { var file = window.location.pathname.toString(); file = file.substring(file.lastIndexOf("/")+1); getFormElement().innerHTML = '<form name="historyForm" action="'+file+'#' + flexAppUrl + '" method="GET"></form>'; //get the current elements and add them to the form var qs = window.location.search.substring(1); var qs_arr = qs.split("&"); for (var i = 0; i < qs_arr.length; i++) { var tmp = qs_arr[i].split("="); var elem = document.createElement("input"); elem.type = "hidden"; elem.name = tmp[0]; elem.value = tmp[1]; document.forms.historyForm.appendChild(elem); } document.forms.historyForm.submit(); } else { top.location.hash = flexAppUrl; } // We also have to maintain the history by hand for Safari historyHash[history.length] = flexAppUrl; _storeStates(); } else { // Otherwise, write an anchor into the page and tell the browser to go there addAnchor(flexAppUrl); setHash(flexAppUrl); } } backStack.push(createState(baseUrl, newUrl, flexAppUrl)); } function _storeStates() { if (browser.safari) { getRememberElement().value = historyHash.join(","); } } function handleBackButton() { //The "current" page is always at the top of the history stack. var current = backStack.pop(); if (!current) { return; } var last = backStack[backStack.length - 1]; if (!last && backStack.length == 0){ last = initialState; } forwardStack.push(current); } function handleForwardButton() { //summary: private method. Do not call this directly. var last = forwardStack.pop(); if (!last) { return; } backStack.push(last); } function handleArbitraryUrl() { //delete all the history entries forwardStack = []; } /* Called periodically to poll to see if we need to detect navigation that has occurred */ function checkForUrlChange() { if (browser.ie) { if (currentHref != document.location.href && currentHref + '#' != document.location.href) { //This occurs when the user has navigated to a specific URL //within the app, and didn't use browser back/forward //IE seems to have a bug where it stops updating the URL it //shows the end-user at this point, but programatically it //appears to be correct. Do a full app reload to get around //this issue. if (browser.version < 7) { currentHref = document.location.href; document.location.reload(); } else { if (getHash() != getIframeHash()) { // this.iframe.src = this.blankURL + hash; var sourceToSet = historyFrameSourcePrefix + getHash(); getHistoryFrame().src = sourceToSet; } } } } if (browser.safari) { // For Safari, we have to check to see if history.length changed. if (currentHistoryLength >= 0 && history.length != currentHistoryLength) { //alert("did change: " + history.length + ", " + historyHash.length + "|" + historyHash[history.length] + "|>" + historyHash.join("|")); // If it did change, then we have to look the old state up // in our hand-maintained array since document.location.hash // won't have changed, then call back into BrowserManager. currentHistoryLength = history.length; var flexAppUrl = historyHash[currentHistoryLength]; if (flexAppUrl == '') { //flexAppUrl = defaultHash; } //ADR: to fix multiple if (typeof BrowserHistory_multiple != "undefined" && BrowserHistory_multiple == true) { var pl = getPlayers(); for (var i = 0; i < pl.length; i++) { pl[i].browserURLChange(flexAppUrl); } } else { getPlayer().browserURLChange(flexAppUrl); } _storeStates(); } } if (browser.firefox) { if (currentHref != document.location.href) { var bsl = backStack.length; var urlActions = { back: false, forward: false, set: false } if ((window.location.hash == initialHash || window.location.href == initialHref) && (bsl == 1)) { urlActions.back = true; // FIXME: could this ever be a forward button? // we can't clear it because we still need to check for forwards. Ugg. // clearInterval(this.locationTimer); handleBackButton(); } // first check to see if we could have gone forward. We always halt on // a no-hash item. if (forwardStack.length > 0) { if (forwardStack[forwardStack.length-1].flexAppUrl == getHash()) { urlActions.forward = true; handleForwardButton(); } } // ok, that didn't work, try someplace back in the history stack if ((bsl >= 2) && (backStack[bsl - 2])) { if (backStack[bsl - 2].flexAppUrl == getHash()) { urlActions.back = true; handleBackButton(); } } if (!urlActions.back && !urlActions.forward) { var foundInStacks = { back: -1, forward: -1 } for (var i = 0; i < backStack.length; i++) { if (backStack[i].flexAppUrl == getHash() && i != (bsl - 2)) { arbitraryUrl = true; foundInStacks.back = i; } } for (var i = 0; i < forwardStack.length; i++) { if (forwardStack[i].flexAppUrl == getHash() && i != (bsl - 2)) { arbitraryUrl = true; foundInStacks.forward = i; } } handleArbitraryUrl(); } // Firefox changed; do a callback into BrowserManager to tell it. currentHref = document.location.href; var flexAppUrl = getHash(); if (flexAppUrl == '') { //flexAppUrl = defaultHash; } //ADR: to fix multiple if (typeof BrowserHistory_multiple != "undefined" && BrowserHistory_multiple == true) { var pl = getPlayers(); for (var i = 0; i < pl.length; i++) { pl[i].browserURLChange(flexAppUrl); } } else { getPlayer().browserURLChange(flexAppUrl); } } } //setTimeout(checkForUrlChange, 50); } /* Write an anchor into the page to legitimize it as a URL for Firefox et al. */ function addAnchor(flexAppUrl) { if (document.getElementsByName(flexAppUrl).length == 0) { getAnchorElement().innerHTML += "<a name='" + flexAppUrl + "'>" + flexAppUrl + "</a>"; } } var _initialize = function () { if (browser.ie) { var scripts = document.getElementsByTagName('script'); for (var i = 0, s; s = scripts[i]; i++) { if (s.src.indexOf("history.js") > -1) { var iframe_location = (new String(s.src)).replace("history.js", "historyFrame.html"); } } historyFrameSourcePrefix = iframe_location + "?"; var src = historyFrameSourcePrefix; var iframe = document.createElement("iframe"); iframe.id = 'ie_historyFrame'; iframe.name = 'ie_historyFrame'; //iframe.src = historyFrameSourcePrefix; try { document.body.appendChild(iframe); } catch(e) { setTimeout(function() { document.body.appendChild(iframe); }, 0); } } if (browser.safari) { var rememberDiv = document.createElement("div"); rememberDiv.id = 'safari_rememberDiv'; document.body.appendChild(rememberDiv); rememberDiv.innerHTML = '<input type="text" id="safari_remember_field" style="width: 500px;">'; var formDiv = document.createElement("div"); formDiv.id = 'safari_formDiv'; document.body.appendChild(formDiv); var reloader_content = document.createElement('div'); reloader_content.id = 'safarireloader'; var scripts = document.getElementsByTagName('script'); for (var i = 0, s; s = scripts[i]; i++) { if (s.src.indexOf("history.js") > -1) { html = (new String(s.src)).replace(".js", ".html"); } } reloader_content.innerHTML = '<iframe id="safarireloader-iframe" src="about:blank" frameborder="no" scrolling="no"></iframe>'; document.body.appendChild(reloader_content); reloader_content.style.position = 'absolute'; reloader_content.style.left = reloader_content.style.top = '-9999px'; iframe = reloader_content.getElementsByTagName('iframe')[0]; if (document.getElementById("safari_remember_field").value != "" ) { historyHash = document.getElementById("safari_remember_field").value.split(","); } } if (browser.firefox) { var anchorDiv = document.createElement("div"); anchorDiv.id = 'firefox_anchorDiv'; document.body.appendChild(anchorDiv); } //setTimeout(checkForUrlChange, 50); } return { historyHash: historyHash, backStack: function() { return backStack; }, forwardStack: function() { return forwardStack }, getPlayer: getPlayer, initialize: function(src) { _initialize(src); }, setURL: function(url) { document.location.href = url; }, getURL: function() { return document.location.href; }, getTitle: function() { return document.title; }, setTitle: function(title) { try { backStack[backStack.length - 1].title = title; } catch(e) { } //if on safari, set the title to be the empty string. if (browser.safari) { if (title == "") { try { var tmp = window.location.href.toString(); title = tmp.substring((tmp.lastIndexOf("/")+1), tmp.lastIndexOf("#")); } catch(e) { title = ""; } } } document.title = title; }, setDefaultURL: function(def) { defaultHash = def; def = getHash(); //trailing ? is important else an extra frame gets added to the history //when navigating back to the first page. Alternatively could check //in history frame navigation to compare # and ?. if (browser.ie) { window['_ie_firstload'] = true; var sourceToSet = historyFrameSourcePrefix + def; var func = function() { getHistoryFrame().src = sourceToSet; window.location.replace("#" + def); setInterval(checkForUrlChange, 50); } try { func(); } catch(e) { window.setTimeout(function() { func(); }, 0); } } if (browser.safari) { currentHistoryLength = history.length; if (historyHash.length == 0) { historyHash[currentHistoryLength] = def; var newloc = "#" + def; window.location.replace(newloc); } else { //alert(historyHash[historyHash.length-1]); } //setHash(def); setInterval(checkForUrlChange, 50); } if (browser.firefox || browser.opera) { var reg = new RegExp("#" + def + "$"); if (window.location.toString().match(reg)) { } else { var newloc ="#" + def; window.location.replace(newloc); } setInterval(checkForUrlChange, 50); //setHash(def); } }, /* Set the current browser URL; called from inside BrowserManager to propagate * the application state out to the container. */ setBrowserURL: function(flexAppUrl, objectId) { if (browser.ie && typeof objectId != "undefined") { currentObjectId = objectId; } //fromIframe = fromIframe || false; //fromFlex = fromFlex || false; //alert("setBrowserURL: " + flexAppUrl); //flexAppUrl = (flexAppUrl == "") ? defaultHash : flexAppUrl ; var pos = document.location.href.indexOf('#'); var baseUrl = pos != -1 ? document.location.href.substr(0, pos) : document.location.href; var newUrl = baseUrl + '#' + flexAppUrl; if (document.location.href != newUrl && document.location.href + '#' != newUrl) { currentHref = newUrl; addHistoryEntry(baseUrl, newUrl, flexAppUrl); currentHistoryLength = history.length; } return false; }, browserURLChange: function(flexAppUrl) { var objectId = null; if (browser.ie && currentObjectId != null) { objectId = currentObjectId; } pendingURL = ''; if (typeof BrowserHistory_multiple != "undefined" && BrowserHistory_multiple == true) { var pl = getPlayers(); for (var i = 0; i < pl.length; i++) { try { pl[i].browserURLChange(flexAppUrl); } catch(e) { } } } else { try { getPlayer(objectId).browserURLChange(flexAppUrl); } catch(e) { } } currentObjectId = null; } } })(); // Initialization // Automated unit testing and other diagnostics function setURL(url) { document.location.href = url; } function backButton() { history.back(); } function forwardButton() { history.forward(); } function goForwardOrBackInHistory(step) { history.go(step); } //BrowserHistoryUtils.addEvent(window, "load", function() { BrowserHistory.initialize(); }); (function(i) { var u =navigator.userAgent;var e=/*@cc_on!@*/false; var st = setTimeout; if(/webkit/i.test(u)){ st(function(){ var dr=document.readyState; if(dr=="loaded"||dr=="complete"){i()} else{st(arguments.callee,10);}},10); } else if((/mozilla/i.test(u)&&!/(compati)/.test(u)) || (/opera/i.test(u))){ document.addEventListener("DOMContentLoaded",i,false); } else if(e){ (function(){ var t=document.createElement('doc:rdy'); try{t.doScroll('left'); i();t=null; }catch(e){st(arguments.callee,0);}})(); } else{ window.onload=i; } })( function() {BrowserHistory.initialize();} );

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  • How do I efficiently write a "toggle database value" function in AJAX?

    - by AmbroseChapel
    Say I have a website which shows the user ten images and asks them to categorise each image by clicking on buttons. A button for "funny", a button for "scary", a button for "pretty" and so on. These buttons aren't exclusive. A picture can be both funny and scary. The user clicks the "funny" button. An AJAX request is sent off to the database to mark that image as funny. The "funny" button lights up, by assigning a class in the DOM to mark it as "on". But the user made a mistake. They meant to hit the next button over. They should click "funny" again to turn it off, right? At this point I'm not sure whats the most efficient way to proceed. The database knows that the "funny" flag is set, but it's inefficient to query the database every time a button is clicked to say, is this flag set or not, then go on with a second database call to toggle it. Should I infer the state of the database flag from the DOM, i.e. if that button has the class "on" then the flag must be set, and branch at that point? Or would it be better to have a data structure in Javascript in the page which duplicates the state of each image in the database, so that every time I set the database flag to true, I also set the value in the Javascript data to true and so on?

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  • Which database I can used and relationship in it ??

    - by mimo-hamad
    My projece make me confused which I didn't find clear things that make me understand the required database and the relationships in it So, would a super one help me to solve it ?!! ;D this is required: 1) Model the data stored in the database (Identify the entities, roles, relationships, constraints, etc.) 2) Write the Oracle commands to create the database, find appropriate data, and populate the database 3) Write five different queries on your database, using the SELECT/FROM/WHERE construct provided in SQL. Your five queries should illustrate several different aspects of database querying, such as: a. Queries over more than one relation (by listing more than one relation in the FROM clause) b. Queries involving aggregate functions, such as SUM, COUNT, and AVG c. Queries involving complicated selects and joins d. Queries involving GROUP BY, HAVING or other similar functions. e. Queries that require the use of the DISTINCT keyword. And this the condition that we need to determine it to solve the required Q's above : 5) It is desired to develop an Internet membership club to buy products at special prices online. To join, new members must be referred by another existing member of the club. The system will keep the following information for each member: The member ID, referring member, birth date, member name, address, phone, mobile, credit card type, number and expiration date. The items are always shipped to the member's address noted in the membership application. The shipping fees will differ for each order.For each item to be requested, the member will select an item from a long list of possible items. For each item in the database, we store an item ID, an item name, description, and list price. The list price will be different from the actual sale price. The available quantity and the back-ordered quantity (the back-ordered quantity is the quantity on-order by the club from its suppliers) is also noted

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  • Do I need a spatial index in my database?

    - by Sanoj
    I am designing an application that needs to save geometric shapes in a database. I haven't choosen the database management system yet. In my application, all database queries will have an bounding box as input, and as output I want all shapes within that database. I know that databases with a spatial index is used for this kind of application. But in my application there will not be any queries of type "give me objects nearby x/y" or other more complex queries that are useful in a GIS application. I am planning of having a database without a spatial index and have queries looking like: SELECT * FROM shapes WHERE x < max_x AND x > min_x AND y < max_y AND y > min_y And have an index on the columns x (double) and y (double). As long I can see, I don't really need a database with an spatial index, howsoever my application is close to that kind of applications. And even if I would like to have nearby queries, then I could create a big enough bounding box around that point. Or will this lead to poor performance? Do I really need a spatial database? And when is a spatial index needed?

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  • VLOOKUP in Excel, part 2: Using VLOOKUP without a database

    - by Mark Virtue
    In a recent article, we introduced the Excel function called VLOOKUP and explained how it could be used to retrieve information from a database into a cell in a local worksheet.  In that article we mentioned that there were two uses for VLOOKUP, and only one of them dealt with querying databases.  In this article, the second and final in the VLOOKUP series, we examine this other, lesser known use for the VLOOKUP function. If you haven’t already done so, please read the first VLOOKUP article – this article will assume that many of the concepts explained in that article are already known to the reader. When working with databases, VLOOKUP is passed a “unique identifier” that serves to identify which data record we wish to find in the database (e.g. a product code or customer ID).  This unique identifier must exist in the database, otherwise VLOOKUP returns us an error.  In this article, we will examine a way of using VLOOKUP where the identifier doesn’t need to exist in the database at all.  It’s almost as if VLOOKUP can adopt a “near enough is good enough” approach to returning the data we’re looking for.  In certain circumstances, this is exactly what we need. We will illustrate this article with a real-world example – that of calculating the commissions that are generated on a set of sales figures.  We will start with a very simple scenario, and then progressively make it more complex, until the only rational solution to the problem is to use VLOOKUP.  The initial scenario in our fictitious company works like this:  If a salesperson creates more than $30,000 worth of sales in a given year, the commission they earn on those sales is 30%.  Otherwise their commission is only 20%.  So far this is a pretty simple worksheet: To use this worksheet, the salesperson enters their sales figures in cell B1, and the formula in cell B2 calculates the correct commission rate they are entitled to receive, which is used in cell B3 to calculate the total commission that the salesperson is owed (which is a simple multiplication of B1 and B2). The cell B2 contains the only interesting part of this worksheet – the formula for deciding which commission rate to use: the one below the threshold of $30,000, or the one above the threshold.  This formula makes use of the Excel function called IF.  For those readers that are not familiar with IF, it works like this: IF(condition,value if true,value if false) Where the condition is an expression that evaluates to either true or false.  In the example above, the condition is the expression B1<B5, which can be read as “Is B1 less than B5?”, or, put another way, “Are the total sales less than the threshold”.  If the answer to this question is “yes” (true), then we use the value if true parameter of the function, namely B6 in this case – the commission rate if the sales total was below the threshold.  If the answer to the question is “no” (false), then we use the value if false parameter of the function, namely B7 in this case – the commission rate if the sales total was above the threshold. As you can see, using a sales total of $20,000 gives us a commission rate of 20% in cell B2.  If we enter a value of $40,000, we get a different commission rate: So our spreadsheet is working. Let’s make it more complex.  Let’s introduce a second threshold:  If the salesperson earns more than $40,000, then their commission rate increases to 40%: Easy enough to understand in the real world, but in cell B2 our formula is getting more complex.  If you look closely at the formula, you’ll see that the third parameter of the original IF function (the value if false) is now an entire IF function in its own right.  This is called a nested function (a function within a function).  It’s perfectly valid in Excel (it even works!), but it’s harder to read and understand. We’re not going to go into the nuts and bolts of how and why this works, nor will we examine the nuances of nested functions.  This is a tutorial on VLOOKUP, not on Excel in general. Anyway, it gets worse!  What about when we decide that if they earn more than $50,000 then they’re entitled to 50% commission, and if they earn more than $60,000 then they’re entitled to 60% commission? Now the formula in cell B2, while correct, has become virtually unreadable.  No-one should have to write formulae where the functions are nested four levels deep!  Surely there must be a simpler way? There certainly is.  VLOOKUP to the rescue! Let’s redesign the worksheet a bit.  We’ll keep all the same figures, but organize it in a new way, a more tabular way: Take a moment and verify for yourself that the new Rate Table works exactly the same as the series of thresholds above. Conceptually, what we’re about to do is use VLOOKUP to look up the salesperson’s sales total (from B1) in the rate table and return to us the corresponding commission rate.  Note that the salesperson may have indeed created sales that are not one of the five values in the rate table ($0, $30,000, $40,000, $50,000 or $60,000).  They may have created sales of $34,988.  It’s important to note that $34,988 does not appear in the rate table.  Let’s see if VLOOKUP can solve our problem anyway… We select cell B2 (the location we want to put our formula), and then insert the VLOOKUP function from the Formulas tab: The Function Arguments box for VLOOKUP appears.  We fill in the arguments (parameters) one by one, starting with the Lookup_value, which is, in this case, the sales total from cell B1.  We place the cursor in the Lookup_value field and then click once on cell B1: Next we need to specify to VLOOKUP what table to lookup this data in.  In this example, it’s the rate table, of course.  We place the cursor in the Table_array field, and then highlight the entire rate table – excluding the headings: Next we must specify which column in the table contains the information we want our formula to return to us.  In this case we want the commission rate, which is found in the second column in the table, so we therefore enter a 2 into the Col_index_num field: Finally we enter a value in the Range_lookup field. Important:  It is the use of this field that differentiates the two ways of using VLOOKUP.  To use VLOOKUP with a database, this final parameter, Range_lookup, must always be set to FALSE, but with this other use of VLOOKUP, we must either leave it blank or enter a value of TRUE.  When using VLOOKUP, it is vital that you make the correct choice for this final parameter. To be explicit, we will enter a value of true in the Range_lookup field.  It would also be fine to leave it blank, as this is the default value: We have completed all the parameters.  We now click the OK button, and Excel builds our VLOOKUP formula for us: If we experiment with a few different sales total amounts, we can satisfy ourselves that the formula is working. Conclusion In the “database” version of VLOOKUP, where the Range_lookup parameter is FALSE, the value passed in the first parameter (Lookup_value) must be present in the database.  In other words, we’re looking for an exact match. But in this other use of VLOOKUP, we are not necessarily looking for an exact match.  In this case, “near enough is good enough”.  But what do we mean by “near enough”?  Let’s use an example:  When searching for a commission rate on a sales total of $34,988, our VLOOKUP formula will return us a value of 30%, which is the correct answer.  Why did it choose the row in the table containing 30% ?  What, in fact, does “near enough” mean in this case?  Let’s be precise: When Range_lookup is set to TRUE (or omitted), VLOOKUP will look in column 1 and match the highest value that is not greater than the Lookup_value parameter. It’s also important to note that for this system to work, the table must be sorted in ascending order on column 1! If you would like to practice with VLOOKUP, the sample file illustrated in this article can be downloaded from here. Similar Articles Productive Geek Tips Using VLOOKUP in ExcelImport Microsoft Access Data Into ExcelImport an Access Database into ExcelCopy a Group of Cells in Excel 2007 to the Clipboard as an ImageShare Access Data with Excel in Office 2010 TouchFreeze Alternative in AutoHotkey The Icy Undertow Desktop Windows Home Server – Backup to LAN The Clear & Clean Desktop Use This Bookmarklet to Easily Get Albums Use AutoHotkey to Assign a Hotkey to a Specific Window Latest Software Reviews Tinyhacker Random Tips DVDFab 6 Revo Uninstaller Pro Registry Mechanic 9 for Windows PC Tools Internet Security Suite 2010 Quickly Schedule Meetings With NeedtoMeet Share Flickr Photos On Facebook Automatically Are You Blocked On Gtalk? Find out Discover Latest Android Apps On AppBrain The Ultimate Guide For YouTube Lovers Will it Blend? iPad Edition

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  • ODI - Creating a Repository in a 12c Pluggable Database

    - by David Allan
    To install ODI 11g into an Oracle 12c pluggable database, one way is to connect using a TNS string to the pluggable database service that is executing. For example when I installed my master repository, I used a JDBC URL such as; jdbc:oracle:thin:@(DESCRIPTION=(ADDRESS_LIST=(ADDRESS=(PROTOCOL=TCP)(HOST=mydbserver)(PORT=1522)))(CONNECT_DATA=(SERVER=DEDICATED)(SERVICE_NAME=PDBORA12.US.ORACLE.COM)))   I used the above approach rather than the host:port:sid which is a common mechanism many users use to quickly get up and going. Below you can see the repository creation wizard in action, I used the 11g release and simply installed the master and work repository into my pluggable database. Be wise with your repository IDs, I simply used the default, but you should be aware that these are key in larger deployments. The database in 12c has much more tighter control on users and resources, so just getting the user creating with sufficient resource on tablespaces etc in 12c was a little more work. Once you have the repositories up and running, then the fun starts using the 12c features. More to come.

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  • Database Developers Can Now Save 20%

    - by stephen.garth
    Database developers can now increase productivity and save money at the same time. For a limited time, Oracle Store is offering a 20% discount on Oracle SQL Developer Data Modeler. Just enter the code SQLDDM at checkout to get the discount. Oracle SQL Developer Data Modeler is an independent, standalone product with a full spectrum of data and database modeling tools and utilities, including modeling for Entity Relationship Diagrams (ERD), Relational (database design), Data Type and Multi-dimensional modeling, full forward and reverse engineering and DDL code generation. SQL Developer Data Modeler can connect to any supported Oracle Database and is platform independent. Save 20% on Oracle SQL Developer Data Modeler at Oracle Store - Discount Code SQLDDM Find out more about Oracle SQL Developer and Oracle SQL Developer Data Modeler var gaJsHost = (("https:" == document.location.protocol) ? "https://ssl." : "http://www."); document.write(unescape("%3Cscript src='" + gaJsHost + "google-analytics.com/ga.js' type='text/javascript'%3E%3C/script%3E")); try { var pageTracker = _gat._getTracker("UA-13185312-1"); pageTracker._trackPageview(); } catch(err) {}

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  • HealthSouth Upgrades to Oracle Database 11g Release 2 and Oracle RAC

    - by jenny.gelhausen
    HealthSouth Corporation, the nation's largest provider of inpatient rehabilitation services, has upgraded to Oracle Database 11g Release 2 underneath PeopleSoft Enterprise Human Capital Management. Additionally, HealthSouth improved the availability and performance of its Oracle PeopleSoft Enterprise applications and Enterprise Data Warehouse using Oracle Database 11g and Oracle Real Application Clusters. Oracle Database options -- Oracle Advanced Compression and Oracle Partitioning are key to HealthSouth's data lifecycle management practices and to utilizing storage systems more efficiently. Using compression on both partitioned as well as non-partitioned tables in its data warehouse, HealthSouth has seen a 4X storage reduction without any cost to performance. "Oracle Database 11g, along with Oracle Real Application Clusters, Advanced Compression and Partitioning, all lend themselves to delivering highly available, performant data warehousing," said Henry Lovoy, Data Manager, HealthSouth Corporation. Press Release var gaJsHost = (("https:" == document.location.protocol) ? "https://ssl." : "http://www."); document.write(unescape("%3Cscript src='" + gaJsHost + "google-analytics.com/ga.js' type='text/javascript'%3E%3C/script%3E")); try { var pageTracker = _gat._getTracker("UA-13185312-1"); pageTracker._trackPageview(); } catch(err) {}

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  • How should an object that uses composition set its composed components?

    - by Casey
    After struggling with various problems and reading up on component-based systems and reading Bob Nystrom's excellent book "Game Programming Patterns" and in particular the chapter on Components I determined that this is a horrible idea: //Class intended to be inherited by all objects. Engine uses Objects exclusively. class Object : public IUpdatable, public IDrawable { public: Object(); Object(const Object& other); Object& operator=(const Object& rhs); virtual ~Object() =0; virtual void SetBody(const RigidBodyDef& body); virtual const RigidBody* GetBody() const; virtual RigidBody* GetBody(); //Inherited from IUpdatable virtual void Update(double deltaTime); //Inherited from IDrawable virtual void Draw(BITMAP* dest); protected: private: }; I'm attempting to refactor it into a more manageable system. Mr. Nystrom uses the constructor to set the individual components; CHANGING these components at run-time is impossible. It's intended to be derived and be used in derivative classes or factory methods where their constructors do not change at run-time. i.e. his Bjorne object is just a call to a factory method with a specific call to the GameObject constructor. Is this a good idea? Should the object have a default constructor and setters to facilitate run-time changes or no default constructor without setters and instead use a factory method? Given: class Object { public: //...See below for constructor implementation concerns. Object(const Object& other); Object& operator=(const Object& rhs); virtual ~Object() =0; //See below for Setter concerns IUpdatable* GetUpdater(); IDrawable* GetRenderer(); protected: IUpdatable* _updater; IDrawable* _renderer; private: }; Should the components be read-only and passed in to the constructor via: class Object { public: //No default constructor. Object(IUpdatable* updater, IDrawable* renderer); //...remainder is same as above... }; or Should a default constructor be provided and then the components can be set at run-time? class Object { public: Object(); //... SetUpdater(IUpdater* updater); SetRenderer(IDrawable* renderer); //...remainder is same as above... }; or both? class Object { public: Object(); Object(IUpdater* updater, IDrawable* renderer); //... SetUpdater(IUpdater* updater); SetRenderer(IDrawable* renderer); //...remainder is same as above... };

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  • Oracle Database 12c By Example – SQL Developer and Multitenant

    - by thatjeffsmith
    As you may have heard, Oracle Database 12c is now available. In addition to the binaries and docs going out, we also published a few new Oracle By Example (OBE) chapters. You can find those links here on our product page. Do you know who found these, practically the minute they were published? An enterprising DBA-extraordinaire who was just happening to be presenting at the ODTUG KScope13 conference in New Orleans. He thought it would be a good idea to download the new software over a hotel WIFI, install and create a new multitenant database, watch a few OBEs, and then demo that live for his ‘SQL Developer for DBAs‘ session. Pretty crazy, right? Well, he did it, and I was there to watch. Way cool. You can listen to @leight0nn tell his story in his own words via this ODTUG interview with @oraclenered. In case you’re too giddy to sit through the video, I’ll give you a preview – he succesfully cloned a pluggable database in about a minute with only a couple of clicks using Oracle SQL Developer 3.2.20.09 while connected to a 12c database.

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  • Join Oracle Database at Microsoft TechEd next week.

    - by Mandy Ho
    For the past nine years, Oracle has been a proud sponsor of Microsoft TechEd. TechEd is Mircosoft's premier technology conference for IT professionals and developers. This year, Oracle will demonstrate its latest database software for MS Windows, including Oracle Database 11g Enterprise and Express editions, TimesTen and MySQL.  Developers can learn how to develop .Net applications for the Oracle Database using the latest technologies, such as Entity Framework, LINQ and WCF Data Services. Attendees can also learn the new MySQL features enabling rapid installation, GUI Based application design, backup & recovery and much more within a Windows environment. Oracle will have a BOF (Birds of a Feather Session) on Tuesday, June 12, from 3:15 to 4:30. The topic will be Big Data: The Next Frontier for Innovation, Competition and Productivity. Otherwise you can visit Oracle everyday during the expo hours from Mon, June 11 to Thursday, June 14 at our booth #613. Talk to experts on TimesTen and MySQL on Windows and .NET. Also, we will have our 3D interactive demos on Oracle's engineered systems showing off Oracle Exadata, Database Appliance and more. Visit  http://northamerica.msteched.com/ for more information. 

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  • Announcing Oracle Database Mobile Server 11gR2

    - by Eric Jensen
    I'm pleased to announce that Oracle Database Mobile Server 11gR2 has been released. It's available now for download by existing customers, or anyone who wants to try it out. New features include: Support for J2ME platforms, specifically CDC platforms including OJEC(this is in addition to our existing support for Java SE and SE Embedded) Per-application integration with Berkeley DB on Android Server-side support for Apache TomEE platform Adding support for Oracle Java Micro Edition Embedded Client (OJEC for short) is an important milestone for us; it enables Database Mobile Server to work with any of the incredibly wide array of devices that run J2ME. In particular, it enables management of  networks of embedded devices, AKA machine to machine (M2M) networks. As these types of networks become more common in areas like healthcare, automotive, and manufacturing, we're seeing demand for Database Mobile Server from new and different areas. This is in addition to our existing array of mobile device use cases. The Android integration feature with Berkeley DB represents the completion of phase I of our Android support plan, we now offer a full set of sync, device and app management features for that platform. Going forward, we plan to continue the dual-focus approach, supporting mobile platforms such as Android, and iOS (hint) on the one hand, and networks of embedded M2M devices on the other. In either case, Database Mobile Server continues to be the best way to connect data-driven applications to an Oracle backend.

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  • Flashback Database

    - by Sebastian Solbach (DBA Community)
    Flashback Database bezeichnet die Funktionalität der Oracle Datenbank, die Datenbank zeitlich auf einen bestimmten Punkt, respektive eine bestimmte System Change Number (SCN) zurücksetzen zu können - vergleichbar mit einem Rückspulknopf eines Kassettenrekorders oder der Rücksetztaste eines CD-Players. Mag dieses Vorgehen bei Produktivsystemen eher selten Einsatz finden, da beim Rücksetzten alle Daten nach dem zurückgesetzten Zeitpunkt verloren wären (es sei denn man würde dieser vorher exportieren), gibt es gerade für Test- oder Standby Systeme viele Einsatzmöglichkeiten: Rücksetzten des Systems bei fehlgeschlagenen Applikations-Upgrade Alternatives Point in Time Recovery (PITR) mit anschließendem Roll Forward (besonders geeignet bei Standby Systemen) Testdatenbank mit definiertem, reproduzierbaren Ausgangspunkt (z.B. für Real Application Testing) Datenbank Upgrade Test Einige bestehende Datenbank Funktionalitäten verwenden Flashback Database implizit: Snapshot Standby Reinstanziierung der Standby (z.B. bei Fast Start Failover) Obwohl diese Funktionalität gerade für Standby Systeme und Testsysteme bestens geeignet ist, gibt es eine gewisse Zurückhaltung Flashback Database einzusetzen. Eine Ursache ist oft die Angst vor zusätzlicher Last, die das Schreiben der Flashback Logs erzeugt, sowie der zusätzlich benötigte Plattenplatz. Dabei ist die Last im Normalfall relativ gering (ca. 5%) und auch der zusätzlich benötigte Platz für die Flashback Logs lässt sich relativ genau bestimmen. Ebenfalls wird häufig nicht beachtet, dass es auch ohne das explizite Einschalten der Flashback Logs möglich ist, einen garantieren Rücksetzpunkt (Guaranteed Restore Point kurz GRP) festzulegen, und die Datenbank dann auf diesen Restore Point zurückzusetzen. Das Setzen eines garantierten Rücksetzpunktes funktioniert in 11gR2 im laufenden Betrieb. Wie dies genau funktioniert, welche Unterschiede es zum generellen Einschalten von Flashback Logs gibt, wie man Flashback Database monitoren kann und was es sonst noch zu berücksichtigen gibt, damit beschäftigt sich dieser Tipp.

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  • SQL Server Database Settings

    - by rbishop
    For those using Data Relationship Management on Oracle DB this does not apply, but for those using Microsoft SQL Server it is highly recommended that you run with Snapshot Isolation Mode. The Data Governance module will not function correctly without this mode enabled. All new Data Relationship Management repositories are created with this mode enabled by default. This mode makes SQL Server (2005+) behave more like Oracle DB where readers simply see older versions of rows while a write is in progress, instead of readers being blocked by locks while a write takes place. Many common sources of deadlocks are eliminated. For example, if one user starts a 5 minute transaction updating half the rows in a table, without snapshot isolation everyone else reading the table will be blocked waiting. With snapshot isolation, they will see the rows as they were before the write transaction started. Conversely, if the readers had started first, the writer won't be stuck waiting for them to finish reading... the writes can begin immediately without affecting the current transactions. To make this change, make sure no one is using the target database (eg: put it into single-user mode), then run these commands: ALTER DATABASE [DB] SET ALLOW_SNAPSHOT_ISOLATION ONALTER DATABASE [DB] SET READ_COMMITTED_SNAPSHOT ON Please make sure you coordinate with your DBA team to ensure tempdb is appropriately setup to support snapshot isolation mode, as the extra row versions are stored in tempdb until the transactions are committed. Let me take this opportunity to extremely strongly highly recommend that you use solid state storage for your databases with appropriate iSCSI, FiberChannel, or SAN bandwidth. The performance gains are significant and there is no excuse for not using 100% solid state storage in 2013. Actually unless you need to store petabytes of archival data, there is no excuse for using hard drives in any systems, whether laptops, desktops, application servers, or database servers. The productivity benefits alone are tremendous, not to mention power consumption, heat, etc.

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  • Oracle NoSQL Database: Cleaner Performance

    - by Charles Lamb
    In an earlier post I noted that Berkeley DB Java Edition cleaner performance had improved significantly in release 5.x. From an Oracle NoSQL Database point of view, this is important because Berkeley DB Java Edition is the core storage engine for Oracle NoSQL Database. Many contemporary NoSQL Databases utilize log based (i.e. append-only) storage systems and it is well-understood that these architectures also require a "cleaning" or "compaction" mechanism (effectively a garbage collector) to free up unused space. 10 years ago when we set out to write a new Berkeley DB storage architecture for the BDB Java Edition ("JE") we knew that the corresponding compaction mechanism would take years to perfect. "Cleaning", or GC, is a hard problem to solve and it has taken all of those years of experience, bug fixes, tuning exercises, user deployment, and user feedback to bring it to the mature point it is at today. Reports like Vinoth Chandar's where he observes a 20x improvement validate the maturity of JE's cleaner. Cleaner performance has a direct impact on predictability and throughput in Oracle NoSQL Database. A cleaner that is too aggressive will consume too many resources and negatively affect system throughput. A cleaner that is not aggressive enough will allow the disk storage to become inefficient over time. It has to Work well out of the box, and Needs to be configurable so that customers can tune it for their specific workloads and requirements. The JE Cleaner has been field tested in production for many years managing instances with hundreds of GBs to TBs of data. The maturity of the cleaner and the entire underlying JE storage system is one of the key advantages that Oracle NoSQL Database brings to the table -- we haven't had to reinvent the wheel.

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  • Service Catalogs for Database as a Service

    - by B R Clouse
    At the end of last month, I had the opportunity to present a speaking session at Oracle OpenWorld: Database as a Service: Creating a Database Cloud Service Catalog.  The session was well-attended which would have surprised me several months ago when I started researching this topic.  At that time, I thought of service catalogs as something trivial which could be explained in a few simple slides.  But while looking at all the different options and approaches available, I came to learn that designing a succinct and effective catalog is not a trivial task, and mistakes can lead to confusion and unintended side effects.  And when the room filled up, my new point of view was confirmed. In case you missed the session, or were able to attend but would like more details, I've posted a white paper that covers the topics from the session, and more.  We start with an overview of the components of a service catalog: And then look at several customer case studies of service catalogs for DBaaS.  Synthesizing those examples, we summarize the main options for defining the service categories and their levels.  We end with a template for defining Bronze | Silver | Gold service tiers for Oracle Database Services. The paper is now available here - watch for updates as we work to expand some sections and incorporate readers' feedback (hint - that includes your feedback). Visit our OTN page for additional Database Cloud collateral.

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  • 256 Windows Azure Worker Roles, Windows Kinect and a 90's Text-Based Ray-Tracer

    - by Alan Smith
    For a couple of years I have been demoing a simple render farm hosted in Windows Azure using worker roles and the Azure Storage service. At the start of the presentation I deploy an Azure application that uses 16 worker roles to render a 1,500 frame 3D ray-traced animation. At the end of the presentation, when the animation was complete, I would play the animation delete the Azure deployment. The standing joke with the audience was that it was that it was a “$2 demo”, as the compute charges for running the 16 instances for an hour was $1.92, factor in the bandwidth charges and it’s a couple of dollars. The point of the demo is that it highlights one of the great benefits of cloud computing, you pay for what you use, and if you need massive compute power for a short period of time using Windows Azure can work out very cost effective. The “$2 demo” was great for presenting at user groups and conferences in that it could be deployed to Azure, used to render an animation, and then removed in a one hour session. I have always had the idea of doing something a bit more impressive with the demo, and scaling it from a “$2 demo” to a “$30 demo”. The challenge was to create a visually appealing animation in high definition format and keep the demo time down to one hour.  This article will take a run through how I achieved this. Ray Tracing Ray tracing, a technique for generating high quality photorealistic images, gained popularity in the 90’s with companies like Pixar creating feature length computer animations, and also the emergence of shareware text-based ray tracers that could run on a home PC. In order to render a ray traced image, the ray of light that would pass from the view point must be tracked until it intersects with an object. At the intersection, the color, reflectiveness, transparency, and refractive index of the object are used to calculate if the ray will be reflected or refracted. Each pixel may require thousands of calculations to determine what color it will be in the rendered image. Pin-Board Toys Having very little artistic talent and a basic understanding of maths I decided to focus on an animation that could be modeled fairly easily and would look visually impressive. I’ve always liked the pin-board desktop toys that become popular in the 80’s and when I was working as a 3D animator back in the 90’s I always had the idea of creating a 3D ray-traced animation of a pin-board, but never found the energy to do it. Even if I had a go at it, the render time to produce an animation that would look respectable on a 486 would have been measured in months. PolyRay Back in 1995 I landed my first real job, after spending three years being a beach-ski-climbing-paragliding-bum, and was employed to create 3D ray-traced animations for a CD-ROM that school kids would use to learn physics. I had got into the strange and wonderful world of text-based ray tracing, and was using a shareware ray-tracer called PolyRay. PolyRay takes a text file describing a scene as input and, after a few hours processing on a 486, produced a high quality ray-traced image. The following is an example of a basic PolyRay scene file. background Midnight_Blue   static define matte surface { ambient 0.1 diffuse 0.7 } define matte_white texture { matte { color white } } define matte_black texture { matte { color dark_slate_gray } } define position_cylindrical 3 define lookup_sawtooth 1 define light_wood <0.6, 0.24, 0.1> define median_wood <0.3, 0.12, 0.03> define dark_wood <0.05, 0.01, 0.005>     define wooden texture { noise surface { ambient 0.2  diffuse 0.7  specular white, 0.5 microfacet Reitz 10 position_fn position_cylindrical position_scale 1  lookup_fn lookup_sawtooth octaves 1 turbulence 1 color_map( [0.0, 0.2, light_wood, light_wood] [0.2, 0.3, light_wood, median_wood] [0.3, 0.4, median_wood, light_wood] [0.4, 0.7, light_wood, light_wood] [0.7, 0.8, light_wood, median_wood] [0.8, 0.9, median_wood, light_wood] [0.9, 1.0, light_wood, dark_wood]) } } define glass texture { surface { ambient 0 diffuse 0 specular 0.2 reflection white, 0.1 transmission white, 1, 1.5 }} define shiny surface { ambient 0.1 diffuse 0.6 specular white, 0.6 microfacet Phong 7  } define steely_blue texture { shiny { color black } } define chrome texture { surface { color white ambient 0.0 diffuse 0.2 specular 0.4 microfacet Phong 10 reflection 0.8 } }   viewpoint {     from <4.000, -1.000, 1.000> at <0.000, 0.000, 0.000> up <0, 1, 0> angle 60     resolution 640, 480 aspect 1.6 image_format 0 }       light <-10, 30, 20> light <-10, 30, -20>   object { disc <0, -2, 0>, <0, 1, 0>, 30 wooden }   object { sphere <0.000, 0.000, 0.000>, 1.00 chrome } object { cylinder <0.000, 0.000, 0.000>, <0.000, 0.000, -4.000>, 0.50 chrome }   After setting up the background and defining colors and textures, the viewpoint is specified. The “camera” is located at a point in 3D space, and it looks towards another point. The angle, image resolution, and aspect ratio are specified. Two lights are present in the image at defined coordinates. The three objects in the image are a wooden disc to represent a table top, and a sphere and cylinder that intersect to form a pin that will be used for the pin board toy in the final animation. When the image is rendered, the following image is produced. The pins are modeled with a chrome surface, so they reflect the environment around them. Note that the scale of the pin shaft is not correct, this will be fixed later. Modeling the Pin Board The frame of the pin-board is made up of three boxes, and six cylinders, the front box is modeled using a clear, slightly reflective solid, with the same refractive index of glass. The other shapes are modeled as metal. object { box <-5.5, -1.5, 1>, <5.5, 5.5, 1.2> glass } object { box <-5.5, -1.5, -0.04>, <5.5, 5.5, -0.09> steely_blue } object { box <-5.5, -1.5, -0.52>, <5.5, 5.5, -0.59> steely_blue } object { cylinder <-5.2, -1.2, 1.4>, <-5.2, -1.2, -0.74>, 0.2 steely_blue } object { cylinder <5.2, -1.2, 1.4>, <5.2, -1.2, -0.74>, 0.2 steely_blue } object { cylinder <-5.2, 5.2, 1.4>, <-5.2, 5.2, -0.74>, 0.2 steely_blue } object { cylinder <5.2, 5.2, 1.4>, <5.2, 5.2, -0.74>, 0.2 steely_blue } object { cylinder <0, -1.2, 1.4>, <0, -1.2, -0.74>, 0.2 steely_blue } object { cylinder <0, 5.2, 1.4>, <0, 5.2, -0.74>, 0.2 steely_blue }   In order to create the matrix of pins that make up the pin board I used a basic console application with a few nested loops to create two intersecting matrixes of pins, which models the layout used in the pin boards. The resulting image is shown below. The pin board contains 11,481 pins, with the scene file containing 23,709 lines of code. For the complete animation 2,000 scene files will be created, which is over 47 million lines of code. Each pin in the pin-board will slide out a specific distance when an object is pressed into the back of the board. This is easily modeled by setting the Z coordinate of the pin to a specific value. In order to set all of the pins in the pin-board to the correct position, a bitmap image can be used. The position of the pin can be set based on the color of the pixel at the appropriate position in the image. When the Windows Azure logo is used to set the Z coordinate of the pins, the following image is generated. The challenge now was to make a cool animation. The Azure Logo is fine, but it is static. Using a normal video to animate the pins would not work; the colors in the video would not be the same as the depth of the objects from the camera. In order to simulate the pin board accurately a series of frames from a depth camera could be used. Windows Kinect The Kenect controllers for the X-Box 360 and Windows feature a depth camera. The Kinect SDK for Windows provides a programming interface for Kenect, providing easy access for .NET developers to the Kinect sensors. The Kinect Explorer provided with the Kinect SDK is a great starting point for exploring Kinect from a developers perspective. Both the X-Box 360 Kinect and the Windows Kinect will work with the Kinect SDK, the Windows Kinect is required for commercial applications, but the X-Box Kinect can be used for hobby projects. The Windows Kinect has the advantage of providing a mode to allow depth capture with objects closer to the camera, which makes for a more accurate depth image for setting the pin positions. Creating a Depth Field Animation The depth field animation used to set the positions of the pin in the pin board was created using a modified version of the Kinect Explorer sample application. In order to simulate the pin board accurately, a small section of the depth range from the depth sensor will be used. Any part of the object in front of the depth range will result in a white pixel; anything behind the depth range will be black. Within the depth range the pixels in the image will be set to RGB values from 0,0,0 to 255,255,255. A screen shot of the modified Kinect Explorer application is shown below. The Kinect Explorer sample application was modified to include slider controls that are used to set the depth range that forms the image from the depth stream. This allows the fine tuning of the depth image that is required for simulating the position of the pins in the pin board. The Kinect Explorer was also modified to record a series of images from the depth camera and save them as a sequence JPEG files that will be used to animate the pins in the animation the Start and Stop buttons are used to start and stop the image recording. En example of one of the depth images is shown below. Once a series of 2,000 depth images has been captured, the task of creating the animation can begin. Rendering a Test Frame In order to test the creation of frames and get an approximation of the time required to render each frame a test frame was rendered on-premise using PolyRay. The output of the rendering process is shown below. The test frame contained 23,629 primitive shapes, most of which are the spheres and cylinders that are used for the 11,800 or so pins in the pin board. The 1280x720 image contains 921,600 pixels, but as anti-aliasing was used the number of rays that were calculated was 4,235,777, with 3,478,754,073 object boundaries checked. The test frame of the pin board with the depth field image applied is shown below. The tracing time for the test frame was 4 minutes 27 seconds, which means rendering the2,000 frames in the animation would take over 148 hours, or a little over 6 days. Although this is much faster that an old 486, waiting almost a week to see the results of an animation would make it challenging for animators to create, view, and refine their animations. It would be much better if the animation could be rendered in less than one hour. Windows Azure Worker Roles The cost of creating an on-premise render farm to render animations increases in proportion to the number of servers. The table below shows the cost of servers for creating a render farm, assuming a cost of $500 per server. Number of Servers Cost 1 $500 16 $8,000 256 $128,000   As well as the cost of the servers, there would be additional costs for networking, racks etc. Hosting an environment of 256 servers on-premise would require a server room with cooling, and some pretty hefty power cabling. The Windows Azure compute services provide worker roles, which are ideal for performing processor intensive compute tasks. With the scalability available in Windows Azure a job that takes 256 hours to complete could be perfumed using different numbers of worker roles. The time and cost of using 1, 16 or 256 worker roles is shown below. Number of Worker Roles Render Time Cost 1 256 hours $30.72 16 16 hours $30.72 256 1 hour $30.72   Using worker roles in Windows Azure provides the same cost for the 256 hour job, irrespective of the number of worker roles used. Provided the compute task can be broken down into many small units, and the worker role compute power can be used effectively, it makes sense to scale the application so that the task is completed quickly, making the results available in a timely fashion. The task of rendering 2,000 frames in an animation is one that can easily be broken down into 2,000 individual pieces, which can be performed by a number of worker roles. Creating a Render Farm in Windows Azure The architecture of the render farm is shown in the following diagram. The render farm is a hybrid application with the following components: ·         On-Premise o   Windows Kinect – Used combined with the Kinect Explorer to create a stream of depth images. o   Animation Creator – This application uses the depth images from the Kinect sensor to create scene description files for PolyRay. These files are then uploaded to the jobs blob container, and job messages added to the jobs queue. o   Process Monitor – This application queries the role instance lifecycle table and displays statistics about the render farm environment and render process. o   Image Downloader – This application polls the image queue and downloads the rendered animation files once they are complete. ·         Windows Azure o   Azure Storage – Queues and blobs are used for the scene description files and completed frames. A table is used to store the statistics about the rendering environment.   The architecture of each worker role is shown below.   The worker role is configured to use local storage, which provides file storage on the worker role instance that can be use by the applications to render the image and transform the format of the image. The service definition for the worker role with the local storage configuration highlighted is shown below. <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> <ServiceDefinition name="CloudRay" >   <WorkerRole name="CloudRayWorkerRole" vmsize="Small">     <Imports>     </Imports>     <ConfigurationSettings>       <Setting name="DataConnectionString" />     </ConfigurationSettings>     <LocalResources>       <LocalStorage name="RayFolder" cleanOnRoleRecycle="true" />     </LocalResources>   </WorkerRole> </ServiceDefinition>     The two executable programs, PolyRay.exe and DTA.exe are included in the Azure project, with Copy Always set as the property. PolyRay will take the scene description file and render it to a Truevision TGA file. As the TGA format has not seen much use since the mid 90’s it is converted to a JPG image using Dave's Targa Animator, another shareware application from the 90’s. Each worker roll will use the following process to render the animation frames. 1.       The worker process polls the job queue, if a job is available the scene description file is downloaded from blob storage to local storage. 2.       PolyRay.exe is started in a process with the appropriate command line arguments to render the image as a TGA file. 3.       DTA.exe is started in a process with the appropriate command line arguments convert the TGA file to a JPG file. 4.       The JPG file is uploaded from local storage to the images blob container. 5.       A message is placed on the images queue to indicate a new image is available for download. 6.       The job message is deleted from the job queue. 7.       The role instance lifecycle table is updated with statistics on the number of frames rendered by the worker role instance, and the CPU time used. The code for this is shown below. public override void Run() {     // Set environment variables     string polyRayPath = Path.Combine(Environment.GetEnvironmentVariable("RoleRoot"), PolyRayLocation);     string dtaPath = Path.Combine(Environment.GetEnvironmentVariable("RoleRoot"), DTALocation);       LocalResource rayStorage = RoleEnvironment.GetLocalResource("RayFolder");     string localStorageRootPath = rayStorage.RootPath;       JobQueue jobQueue = new JobQueue("renderjobs");     JobQueue downloadQueue = new JobQueue("renderimagedownloadjobs");     CloudRayBlob sceneBlob = new CloudRayBlob("scenes");     CloudRayBlob imageBlob = new CloudRayBlob("images");     RoleLifecycleDataSource roleLifecycleDataSource = new RoleLifecycleDataSource();       Frames = 0;       while (true)     {         // Get the render job from the queue         CloudQueueMessage jobMsg = jobQueue.Get();           if (jobMsg != null)         {             // Get the file details             string sceneFile = jobMsg.AsString;             string tgaFile = sceneFile.Replace(".pi", ".tga");             string jpgFile = sceneFile.Replace(".pi", ".jpg");               string sceneFilePath = Path.Combine(localStorageRootPath, sceneFile);             string tgaFilePath = Path.Combine(localStorageRootPath, tgaFile);             string jpgFilePath = Path.Combine(localStorageRootPath, jpgFile);               // Copy the scene file to local storage             sceneBlob.DownloadFile(sceneFilePath);               // Run the ray tracer.             string polyrayArguments =                 string.Format("\"{0}\" -o \"{1}\" -a 2", sceneFilePath, tgaFilePath);             Process polyRayProcess = new Process();             polyRayProcess.StartInfo.FileName =                 Path.Combine(Environment.GetEnvironmentVariable("RoleRoot"), polyRayPath);             polyRayProcess.StartInfo.Arguments = polyrayArguments;             polyRayProcess.Start();             polyRayProcess.WaitForExit();               // Convert the image             string dtaArguments =                 string.Format(" {0} /FJ /P{1}", tgaFilePath, Path.GetDirectoryName (jpgFilePath));             Process dtaProcess = new Process();             dtaProcess.StartInfo.FileName =                 Path.Combine(Environment.GetEnvironmentVariable("RoleRoot"), dtaPath);             dtaProcess.StartInfo.Arguments = dtaArguments;             dtaProcess.Start();             dtaProcess.WaitForExit();               // Upload the image to blob storage             imageBlob.UploadFile(jpgFilePath);               // Add a download job.             downloadQueue.Add(jpgFile);               // Delete the render job message             jobQueue.Delete(jobMsg);               Frames++;         }         else         {             Thread.Sleep(1000);         }           // Log the worker role activity.         roleLifecycleDataSource.Alive             ("CloudRayWorker", RoleLifecycleDataSource.RoleLifecycleId, Frames);     } }     Monitoring Worker Role Instance Lifecycle In order to get more accurate statistics about the lifecycle of the worker role instances used to render the animation data was tracked in an Azure storage table. The following class was used to track the worker role lifecycles in Azure storage.   public class RoleLifecycle : TableServiceEntity {     public string ServerName { get; set; }     public string Status { get; set; }     public DateTime StartTime { get; set; }     public DateTime EndTime { get; set; }     public long SecondsRunning { get; set; }     public DateTime LastActiveTime { get; set; }     public int Frames { get; set; }     public string Comment { get; set; }       public RoleLifecycle()     {     }       public RoleLifecycle(string roleName)     {         PartitionKey = roleName;         RowKey = Utils.GetAscendingRowKey();         Status = "Started";         StartTime = DateTime.UtcNow;         LastActiveTime = StartTime;         EndTime = StartTime;         SecondsRunning = 0;         Frames = 0;     } }     A new instance of this class is created and added to the storage table when the role starts. It is then updated each time the worker renders a frame to record the total number of frames rendered and the total processing time. These statistics are used be the monitoring application to determine the effectiveness of use of resources in the render farm. Rendering the Animation The Azure solution was deployed to Windows Azure with the service configuration set to 16 worker role instances. This allows for the application to be tested in the cloud environment, and the performance of the application determined. When I demo the application at conferences and user groups I often start with 16 instances, and then scale up the application to the full 256 instances. The configuration to run 16 instances is shown below. <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> <ServiceConfiguration serviceName="CloudRay" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/ServiceHosting/2008/10/ServiceConfiguration" osFamily="1" osVersion="*">   <Role name="CloudRayWorkerRole">     <Instances count="16" />     <ConfigurationSettings>       <Setting name="DataConnectionString"         value="DefaultEndpointsProtocol=https;AccountName=cloudraydata;AccountKey=..." />     </ConfigurationSettings>   </Role> </ServiceConfiguration>     About six minutes after deploying the application the first worker roles become active and start to render the first frames of the animation. The CloudRay Monitor application displays an icon for each worker role instance, with a number indicating the number of frames that the worker role has rendered. The statistics on the left show the number of active worker roles and statistics about the render process. The render time is the time since the first worker role became active; the CPU time is the total amount of processing time used by all worker role instances to render the frames.   Five minutes after the first worker role became active the last of the 16 worker roles activated. By this time the first seven worker roles had each rendered one frame of the animation.   With 16 worker roles u and running it can be seen that one hour and 45 minutes CPU time has been used to render 32 frames with a render time of just under 10 minutes.     At this rate it would take over 10 hours to render the 2,000 frames of the full animation. In order to complete the animation in under an hour more processing power will be required. Scaling the render farm from 16 instances to 256 instances is easy using the new management portal. The slider is set to 256 instances, and the configuration saved. We do not need to re-deploy the application, and the 16 instances that are up and running will not be affected. Alternatively, the configuration file for the Azure service could be modified to specify 256 instances.   <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> <ServiceConfiguration serviceName="CloudRay" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/ServiceHosting/2008/10/ServiceConfiguration" osFamily="1" osVersion="*">   <Role name="CloudRayWorkerRole">     <Instances count="256" />     <ConfigurationSettings>       <Setting name="DataConnectionString"         value="DefaultEndpointsProtocol=https;AccountName=cloudraydata;AccountKey=..." />     </ConfigurationSettings>   </Role> </ServiceConfiguration>     Six minutes after the new configuration has been applied 75 new worker roles have activated and are processing their first frames.   Five minutes later the full configuration of 256 worker roles is up and running. We can see that the average rate of frame rendering has increased from 3 to 12 frames per minute, and that over 17 hours of CPU time has been utilized in 23 minutes. In this test the time to provision 140 worker roles was about 11 minutes, which works out at about one every five seconds.   We are now half way through the rendering, with 1,000 frames complete. This has utilized just under three days of CPU time in a little over 35 minutes.   The animation is now complete, with 2,000 frames rendered in a little over 52 minutes. The CPU time used by the 256 worker roles is 6 days, 7 hours and 22 minutes with an average frame rate of 38 frames per minute. The rendering of the last 1,000 frames took 16 minutes 27 seconds, which works out at a rendering rate of 60 frames per minute. The frame counts in the server instances indicate that the use of a queue to distribute the workload has been very effective in distributing the load across the 256 worker role instances. The first 16 instances that were deployed first have rendered between 11 and 13 frames each, whilst the 240 instances that were added when the application was scaled have rendered between 6 and 9 frames each.   Completed Animation I’ve uploaded the completed animation to YouTube, a low resolution preview is shown below. Pin Board Animation Created using Windows Kinect and 256 Windows Azure Worker Roles   The animation can be viewed in 1280x720 resolution at the following link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n5jy6bvSxWc Effective Use of Resources According to the CloudRay monitor statistics the animation took 6 days, 7 hours and 22 minutes CPU to render, this works out at 152 hours of compute time, rounded up to the nearest hour. As the usage for the worker role instances are billed for the full hour, it may have been possible to render the animation using fewer than 256 worker roles. When deciding the optimal usage of resources, the time required to provision and start the worker roles must also be considered. In the demo I started with 16 worker roles, and then scaled the application to 256 worker roles. It would have been more optimal to start the application with maybe 200 worker roles, and utilized the full hour that I was being billed for. This would, however, have prevented showing the ease of scalability of the application. The new management portal displays the CPU usage across the worker roles in the deployment. The average CPU usage across all instances is 93.27%, with over 99% used when all the instances are up and running. This shows that the worker role resources are being used very effectively. Grid Computing Scenarios Although I am using this scenario for a hobby project, there are many scenarios where a large amount of compute power is required for a short period of time. Windows Azure provides a great platform for developing these types of grid computing applications, and can work out very cost effective. ·         Windows Azure can provide massive compute power, on demand, in a matter of minutes. ·         The use of queues to manage the load balancing of jobs between role instances is a simple and effective solution. ·         Using a cloud-computing platform like Windows Azure allows proof-of-concept scenarios to be tested and evaluated on a very low budget. ·         No charges for inbound data transfer makes the uploading of large data sets to Windows Azure Storage services cost effective. (Transaction charges still apply.) Tips for using Windows Azure for Grid Computing Scenarios I found the implementation of a render farm using Windows Azure a fairly simple scenario to implement. I was impressed by ease of scalability that Azure provides, and by the short time that the application took to scale from 16 to 256 worker role instances. In this case it was around 13 minutes, in other tests it took between 10 and 20 minutes. The following tips may be useful when implementing a grid computing project in Windows Azure. ·         Using an Azure Storage queue to load-balance the units of work across multiple worker roles is simple and very effective. The design I have used in this scenario could easily scale to many thousands of worker role instances. ·         Windows Azure accounts are typically limited to 20 cores. If you need to use more than this, a call to support and a credit card check will be required. ·         Be aware of how the billing model works. You will be charged for worker role instances for the full clock our in which the instance is deployed. Schedule the workload to start just after the clock hour has started. ·         Monitor the utilization of the resources you are provisioning, ensure that you are not paying for worker roles that are idle. ·         If you are deploying third party applications to worker roles, you may well run into licensing issues. Purchasing software licenses on a per-processor basis when using hundreds of processors for a short time period would not be cost effective. ·         Third party software may also require installation onto the worker roles, which can be accomplished using start-up tasks. Bear in mind that adding a startup task and possible re-boot will add to the time required for the worker role instance to start and activate. An alternative may be to use a prepared VM and use VM roles. ·         Consider using the Windows Azure Autoscaling Application Block (WASABi) to autoscale the worker roles in your application. When using a large number of worker roles, the utilization must be carefully monitored, if the scaling algorithms are not optimal it could get very expensive!

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