Search Results

Search found 9236 results on 370 pages for 'discrete space'.

Page 118/370 | < Previous Page | 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125  | Next Page >

  • Oracle Support Master Note for Troubleshooting Advanced Queuing and Oracle Streams Propagation Issues (Doc ID 233099.1)

    - by faye.todd(at)oracle.com
    Master Note for Troubleshooting Advanced Queuing and Oracle Streams Propagation Issues (Doc ID 233099.1) Copyright (c) 2010, Oracle Corporation. All Rights Reserved. In this Document  Purpose  Last Review Date  Instructions for the Reader  Troubleshooting Details     1. Scope and Application      2. Definitions and Classifications     3. How to Use This Guide     4. Basic AQ Propagation Troubleshooting     5. Additional Troubleshooting Steps for AQ Propagation of User-Enqueued and Dequeued Messages     6. Additional Troubleshooting Steps for Propagation in an Oracle Streams Environment     7. Performance Issues  References Applies to: Oracle Server - Enterprise Edition - Version: 8.1.7.0 to 11.2.0.2 - Release: 8.1.7 to 11.2Information in this document applies to any platform. Purpose This document presents a step-by-step methodology for troubleshooting and resolving problems with Advanced Queuing Propagation in both Streams and basic Advanced Queuing environments. It also serves as a master reference for other more specific notes on Oracle Streams Propagation and Advanced Queuing Propagation issues. Last Review Date December 20, 2010 Instructions for the Reader A Troubleshooting Guide is provided to assist in debugging a specific issue. When possible, diagnostic tools are included in the document to assist in troubleshooting. Troubleshooting Details 1. Scope and Application This note is intended for Database Administrators of Oracle databases where issues are being encountered with propagating messages between advanced queues, whether the queues are used for user-created messaging systems or for Oracle Streams. It contains troubleshooting steps and links to notes for further problem resolution.It can also be used a template to document a problem when it is necessary to engage Oracle Support Services. Knowing what is NOT happening can frequently speed up the resolution process by focusing solely on the pertinent problem area. This guide is divided into five parts: Section 2: Definitions and Classifications (discusses the different types and features of propagations possible - helpful for understanding the rest of the guide) Section 3: How to Use this Guide (to be used as a start part for determining the scope of the problem and what sections to consult) Section 4. Basic AQ propagation troubleshooting (applies to both AQ propagation of user enqueued and dequeued messages as well as Oracle Streams propagations) Section 5. Additional troubleshooting steps for AQ propagation of user enqueued and dequeued messages Section 6. Additional troubleshooting steps for Oracle Streams propagation Section 7. Performance issues 2. Definitions and Classifications Given the potential scope of issues that can be encountered with AQ propagation, the first recommended step is to do some basic diagnosis to determine the type of problem that is being encountered. 2.1. What Type of Propagation is Being Used? 2.1.1. Buffered Messaging For an advanced queue, messages can be maintained on disk (persistent messaging) or in memory (buffered messaging). To determine if a queue is buffered or not, reference the GV_$BUFFERED_QUEUES view. If the queue does not appear in this view, it is persistent. 2.1.2. Propagation mode - queue-to-dblink vs queue-to-queue As of 10.2, an AQ propagation can also be defined as queue-to-dblink, or queue-to-queue: queue-to-dblink: The propagation delivers messages or events from the source queue to all subscribing queues at the destination database identified by the dblink. A single propagation schedule is used to propagate messages to all subscribing queues. Hence any changes made to this schedule will affect message delivery to all the subscribing queues. This mode does not support multiple propagations from the same source queue to the same target database. queue-to-queue: Added in 10.2, this propagation mode delivers messages or events from the source queue to a specific destination queue identified on the database link. This allows the user to have fine-grained control on the propagation schedule for message delivery. This new propagation mode also supports transparent failover when propagating to a destination Oracle RAC system. With queue-to-queue propagation, you are no longer required to re-point a database link if the owner instance of the queue fails on Oracle RAC. This mode supports multiple propagations to the same target database if the target queues are different. The default is queue-to-dblink. To verify if queue-to-queue propagation is being used, in non-Streams environments query DBA_QUEUE_SCHEDULES.DESTINATION - if a remote queue is listed along with the remote database link, then queue-to-queue propagation is being used. For Streams environments, the DBA_PROPAGATION.QUEUE_TO_QUEUE column can be checked.See the following note for a method to switch between the two modes:Document 827473.1 How to alter propagation from queue-to-queue to queue-to-dblink 2.1.3. Combined Capture and Apply (CCA) for Streams In 11g Oracle Streams environments, an optimization called Combined Capture and Apply (CCA) is implemented by default when possible. Although a propagation is configured in this case, Streams does not use it; instead it passes information directly from capture to an apply receiver. To see if CCA is in use: COLUMN CAPTURE_NAME HEADING 'Capture Name' FORMAT A30COLUMN OPTIMIZATION HEADING 'CCA Mode?' FORMAT A10SELECT CAPTURE_NAME, DECODE(OPTIMIZATION,0, 'No','Yes') OPTIMIZATIONFROM V$STREAMS_CAPTURE; Also, see the following note:Document 463820.1 Streams Combined Capture and Apply in 11g 2.2. Queue Table Compatibility There are three types of queue table compatibility. In more recent databases, queue tables may be present in all three modes of compatibility: 8.0 - earliest version, deprecated in 10.2 onwards 8.1 - support added for RAC, asynchronous notification, secure queues, queue level access control, rule-based subscribers, separate storage of history information 10.0 - if the database is in 10.1-compatible mode, then the default value for queue table compatibility is 10.0 2.3. Single vs Multiple Consumer Queue Tables If more than one recipient can dequeue a message from a queue, then its queue table is multiple consumer. You can propagate messages from a multiple-consumer queue to a single-consumer queue. Propagation from a single-consumer queue to a multiple-consumer queue is not possible. 3. How to Use This Guide 3.1. Are Messages Being Propagated at All, or is the Propagation Just Slow? Run the following query on the source database for the propagation (assuming that it is running): select TOTAL_NUMBER from DBA_QUEUE_SCHEDULES where QNAME='<source_queue_name>'; If TOTAL_NUMBER is increasing, then propagation is most likely functioning, although it may be slow. For performance issues, see Section 7. 3.2. Propagation Between Persistent User-Created Queues See Sections 4 and 5 (and optionally Section 6 if performance is an issue). 3.3. Propagation Between Buffered User-Created Queues See Sections 4, 5, and 6 (and optionally Section 7 if performance is an issue). 3.4. Propagation between Oracle Streams Queues (without Combined Capture and Apply (CCA) Optimization) See Sections 4 and 6 (and optionally Section 7 if performance is an issue). 3.5. Propagation between Oracle Streams Queues (with Combined Capture and Apply (CCA) Optimization) Although an AQ propagation is not used directly in this case, some characteristics of the message transfer are inferred from the propagation parameters used. Some parts of Sections 4 and 6 still apply. 3.6. Messaging Gateway Propagations This note does not apply to Messaging Gateway propagations. 4. Basic AQ Propagation Troubleshooting 4.1. Double-check Your Code Make sure that you are consistent in your usage of the database link(s) names, queue names, etc. It may be useful to plot a diagram of which queues are connected via which database links to make sure that the logical structure is correct. 4.2. Verify that Job Queue Processes are Running 4.2.1. Versions 10.2 and Lower - DBA_JOBS Package For versions 10.2 and lower, a scheduled propagation is managed by DBMS_JOB package. The propagation is performed by job queue process background processes. Therefore we need to verify that there are sufficient processes available for the propagation process. We should have at least 4 job queue processes running and preferably more depending on the number of other jobs running in the database. It should be noted that for AQ specific work, AQ will only ever use half of the job queue processes available.An issue caused by an inadequate job queue processes parameter setting is described in the following note:Document 298015.1 Kwqjswproc:Excep After Loop: Assigning To Self 4.2.1.1. Job Queue Processes in Initalization Parameter File The parameter JOB_QUEUE_PROCESSES in the init.ora/spfile should be > 0. The value can be changed dynamically via connect / as sysdbaalter system set JOB_QUEUE_PROCESSES=10; 4.2.1.2. Job Queue Processes in Memory The following command will show how many job queue processes are currentlyin use by this instance (this may be different than what is in the init.ora/spfile): connect / as sysdbashow parameter job; 4.2.1.3. OS PIDs Corresponding to Job Queue Processes Identify the operating system process ids (spids) of job queue processes involved in propagation via select p.SPID, p.PROGRAM from V$PROCESS p, DBA_JOBS_RUNNING jr, V$SESSION s, DBA_JOBS j where s.SID=jr.SID and s.PADDR=p.ADDR and jr.JOB=j.JOBand j.WHAT like '%sys.dbms_aqadm.aq$_propaq(job)%'; and these SPIDs can be used to check at the operating system level that they exist.In 8i a job queue process will have a name similar to: ora_snp1_<instance_name>.In 9i onwards you will see a coordinator process: ora_cjq0_ and multiple slave processes: ora_jnnn_<instance_name>, where nnn is an integer between 1 and 999. 4.2.2. Version 11.1 and Above - Oracle Scheduler In version 11.1 and above, Oracle Scheduler is used to perform AQ and Streams propagations. Oracle Scheduler automatically tunes the number of slave processes for these jobs based on the load on the computer system, and the JOB_QUEUE_PROCESSES initialization parameter is only used to specify the maximum number of slave processes. Therefore, the JOB_QUEUE_PROCESSES initialization parameter does not need to be set (it defaults to a very high number), unless you want to limit the number of slaves that can be created. If JOB_QUEUE_PROCESSES = 0, no propagation jobs will run.See the following note for a discussion of Oracle Streams 11g and Oracle Scheduler:Document 1083608.1 11g Streams and Oracle Scheduler 4.2.2.1. Job Queue Processes in Initalization Parameter File The parameter JOB_QUEUE_PROCESSES in the init.ora/spfile should be > 0, and preferably be left at its default value. The value can be changed dynamically via connect / as sysdbaalter system set JOB_QUEUE_PROCESSES=10; To set the JOB_QUEUE_PROCESSES parameter to its default value, run: connect / as sysdbaalter system reset JOB_QUEUE_PROCESSES; and then bounce the instance. 4.2.2.2. Job Queue Processes in Memory The following command will show how many job queue processes are currently in use by this instance (this may be different than what is in the init.ora/spfile): connect / as sysdbashow parameter job; 4.2.2.3. OS PIDs Corresponding to Job Queue Processes Identify the operating system process ids (SPIDs) of job queue processes involved in propagation via col PROGRAM for a30select p.SPID, p.PROGRAM, j.JOB_namefrom v$PROCESS p, DBA_SCHEDULER_RUNNING_JOBS jr, V$SESSION s, DBA_SCHEDULER_JOBS j where s.SID=jr.SESSION_ID and s.PADDR=p.ADDRand jr.JOB_name=j.JOB_NAME and j.JOB_NAME like '%AQ_JOB$_%'; and these SPIDs can be used to check at the operating system level that they exist.You will see a coordinator process: ora_cjq0_ and multiple slave processes: ora_jnnn_<instance_name>, where nnn is an integer between 1 and 999. 4.3. Check the Alert Log and Any Associated Trace Files The first place to check for propagation failures is the alert logs at all sites (local and if relevant all remote sites). When a job queue process attempts to execute a schedule and fails it will always write an error stack to the alert log. This error stack will also be written in a job queue process trace file, which will be written to the BACKGROUND_DUMP_DEST location for 10.2 and below, and in the DIAGNOSTIC_DEST location for 11g. The fact that errors are written to the alert log demonstrates that the schedule is executing. This means that the problem could be with the set up of the schedule. In this example the ORA-02068 demonstrates that the failure was at the remote site. Further investigation revealed that the remote database was not open, hence the ORA-03114 error. Starting the database resolved the problem. Thu Feb 14 10:40:05 2002 Propagation Schedule for (AQADM.MULTIPLEQ, SHANE816.WORLD) encountered following error:ORA-04052: error occurred when looking up Remote object [email protected]: error occurred at recursive SQL level 4ORA-02068: following severe error from SHANE816ORA-03114: not connected to ORACLEORA-06512: at "SYS.DBMS_AQADM_SYS", line 4770ORA-06512: at "SYS.DBMS_AQADM", line 548ORA-06512: at line 1 Other potential errors that may be written to the alert log can be found in the following notes:Document 827184.1 AQ Propagation with CLOB data types Fails with ORA-22990 (11.1)Document 846297.1 AQ Propagation Fails : ORA-00600[kope2upic2954] or Ora-00600[Kghsstream_copyn] (10.2, 11.1)Document 731292.1 ORA-25215 Reported on Local Propagation When Using Transformation with ANYDATA queue tables (10.2, 11.1, 11.2)Document 365093.1 ORA-07445 [kwqppay2aqe()+7360] Reported on Propagation of a Transformed Message (10.1, 10.2)Document 219416.1 Advanced Queuing Propagation Fails with ORA-22922 (9.0)Document 1203544.1 AQ Propagation Aborted with ORA-600 [ociksin: invalid status] on SYS.DBMS_AQADM_SYS.AQ$_PROPAGATION_PROCEDURE After Upgrade (11.1, 11.2)Document 1087324.1 ORA-01405 ORA-01422 reported by Advanced Queuing Propagation schedules after RAC reconfiguration (10.2)Document 1079577.1 Advanced Queuing Propagation Fails With "ORA-22370 incorrect usage of method" (9.2, 10.2, 11.1, 11.2)Document 332792.1 ORA-04061 error relating to SYS.DBMS_PRVTAQIP reported when setting up Statspack (8.1, 9.0, 9.2, 10.1)Document 353325.1 ORA-24056: Internal inconsistency for QUEUE <queue_name> and destination <dblink> (8.1, 9.0, 9.2, 10.1, 10.2, 11.1, 11.2)Document 787367.1 ORA-22275 reported on Propagating Messages with LOB component when propagating between 10.1 and 10.2 (10.1, 10.2)Document 566622.1 ORA-22275 when propagating >4K AQ$_JMS_TEXT_MESSAGEs from 9.2.0.8 to 10.2.0.1 (9.2, 10.1)Document 731539.1 ORA-29268: HTTP client error 401 Unauthorized Error when the AQ Servlet attempts to Propagate a message via HTTP (9.0, 9.2, 10.1, 10.2, 11.1)Document 253131.1 Concurrent Writes May Corrupt LOB Segment When Using Auto Segment Space Management (ORA-1555) (9.2)Document 118884.1 How to unschedule a propagation schedule stuck in pending stateDocument 222992.1 DBMS_AQADM.DISABLE_PROPAGATION_SCHEDULE Returns ORA-24082Document 282987.1 Propagated Messages marked UNDELIVERABLE after Drop and Recreate Of Remote QueueDocument 1204080.1 AQ Propagation Failing With ORA-25329 After Upgraded From 8i or 9i to 10g or 11g.Document 1233675.1 AQ Propagation stops after upgrade to 11.2.0.1 ORA-30757 4.3.1. Errors Related to Incorrect Network Configuration The most common propagation errors result from an incorrect network configuration. The list below contains common errors caused by tnsnames.ora file or database links being configured incorrectly: - ORA-12154: TNS:could not resolve service name- ORA-12505: TNS:listener does not currently know of SID given in connect descriptor- ORA-12514: TNS:listener could not resolve SERVICE_NAME - ORA-12541: TNS-12541 TNS:no listener 4.4. Check the Database Links Exist and are Functioning Correctly For schedules to remote databases confirm the database link exists via. SQL> col DBLINK for a45SQL> select QNAME, NVL(REGEXP_SUBSTR(DESTINATION, '[^@]+', 1, 2), DESTINATION) dblink2 from DBA_QUEUE_SCHEDULES3 where MESSAGE_DELIVERY_MODE = 'PERSISTENT';QNAME DBLINK------------------------------ ---------------------------------------------MY_QUEUE ORCL102B.WORLD Connect as the owner of the link and select across it to verify it works and connects to the database we expect. i.e. select * from ALL_QUEUES@ ORCL102B.WORLD; You need to ensure that the userid that scheduled the propagation (using DBMS_AQADM.SCHEDULE_PROPAGATION or DBMS_PROPAGATION_ADM.CREATE_PROPAGATION if using Streams) has access to the database link for the destination. 4.5. Has Propagation Been Correctly Scheduled? Check that the propagation schedule has been created and that a job queue process has been assigned. Look for the entry in DBA_QUEUE_SCHEDULES and SYS.AQ$_SCHEDULES for your schedule. For 10g and below, check that it has a JOBNO entry in SYS.AQ$_SCHEDULES, and that there is an entry in DBA_JOBS with that JOBNO. For 11g and above, check that the schedule has a JOB_NAME entry in SYS.AQ$_SCHEDULES, and that there is an entry in DBA_SCHEDULER_JOBS with that JOB_NAME. Check the destination is as intended and spelled correctly. SQL> select SCHEMA, QNAME, DESTINATION, SCHEDULE_DISABLED, PROCESS_NAME from DBA_QUEUE_SCHEDULES;SCHEMA QNAME DESTINATION S PROCESS------- ---------- ------------------ - -----------AQADM MULTIPLEQ AQ$_LOCAL N J000 AQ$_LOCAL in the destination column shows that the queue to which we are propagating to is in the same database as the source queue. If the propagation was to a remote (different) database, a database link will be in the DESTINATION column. The entry in the SCHEDULE_DISABLED column, N, means that the schedule is NOT disabled. If Y (yes) appears in this column, propagation is disabled and the schedule will not be executed. If not using Oracle Streams, propagation should resume once you have enabled the schedule by invoking DBMS_AQADM.ENABLE_PROPAGATION_SCHEDULE (for 10.2 Oracle Streams and above, the DBMS_PROPAGATION_ADM.START_PROPAGATION procedure should be used). The PROCESS_NAME is the name of the job queue process currently allocated to execute the schedule. This process is allocated dynamically at execution time. If the PROCESS_NAME column is null (empty) the schedule is not currently executing. You may need to execute this statement a number of times to verify if a process is being allocated. If a process is at some time allocated to the schedule, it is attempting to execute. SQL> select SCHEMA, QNAME, LAST_RUN_DATE, NEXT_RUN_DATE from DBA_QUEUE_SCHEDULES;SCHEMA QNAME LAST_RUN_DATE NEXT_RUN_DATE------ ----- ----------------------- ----------------------- AQADM MULTIPLEQ 13-FEB-2002 13:18:57 13-FEB-2002 13:20:30 In 11g, these dates are expressed in TIMESTAMP WITH TIME ZONE datatypes. If the NEXT_RUN_DATE and NEXT_RUN_TIME columns are null when this statement is executed, the scheduled propagation is currently in progress. If they never change it would suggest that the schedule itself is never executing. If the next scheduled execution is too far away, change the NEXT_TIME parameter of the schedule so that schedules are executed more frequently (assuming that the window is not set to be infinite). Parameters of a schedule can be changed using the DBMS_AQADM.ALTER_PROPAGATION_SCHEDULE call. In 10g and below, scheduling propagation posts a job in the DBA_JOBS view. The columns are more or less the same as DBA_QUEUE_SCHEDULES so you just need to recognize the job and verify that it exists. SQL> select JOB, WHAT from DBA_JOBS where WHAT like '%sys.dbms_aqadm.aq$_propaq(job)%';JOB WHAT---- ----------------- 720 next_date := sys.dbms_aqadm.aq$_propaq(job); For 11g, scheduling propagation posts a job in DBA_SCHEDULER_JOBS instead: SQL> select JOB_NAME from DBA_SCHEDULER_JOBS where JOB_NAME like 'AQ_JOB$_%';JOB_NAME------------------------------AQ_JOB$_41 If no job exists, check DBA_QUEUE_SCHEDULES to make sure that the schedule has not been disabled. For 10g and below, the job number is dynamic for AQ propagation schedules. The procedure that is executed to expedite a propagation schedule runs, removes itself from DBA_JOBS, and then reposts a new job for the next scheduled propagation. The job number should therefore always increment unless the schedule has been set up to run indefinitely. 4.6. Is the Schedule Executing but Failing to Complete? Run the following query: SQL> select FAILURES, LAST_ERROR_MSG from DBA_QUEUE_SCHEDULES;FAILURES LAST_ERROR_MSG------------ -----------------------1 ORA-25207: enqueue failed, queue AQADM.INQ is disabled from enqueueingORA-02063: preceding line from SHANE816 The failures column shows how many times we have attempted to execute the schedule and failed. Oracle will attempt to execute the schedule 16 times after which it will be removed from the DBA_JOBS or DBA_SCHEDULER_JOBS view and the schedule will become disabled. The column DBA_QUEUE_SCHEDULES.SCHEDULE_DISABLED will show 'Y'. For 11g and above, the DBA_SCHEDULER_JOBS.STATE column will show 'BROKEN' for the job corresponding to DBA_QUEUE_SCHEDULES.JOB_NAME. Prior to 10g the back off algorithm for failures was exponential, whereas from 10g onwards it is linear. The propagation will become disabled on the 17th attempt. Only the last execution failure will be reflected in the LAST_ERROR_MSG column. That is, if the schedule fails 5 times for 5 different reasons, only the last set of errors will be recorded in DBA_QUEUE_SCHEDULES. Any errors need to be resolved to allow propagation to continue. If propagation has also become disabled due to 17 failures, first resolve the reason for the error and then re-enable the schedule using the DBMS_AQADM.ENABLE_PROPAGATION_SCHEDULE procedure, or DBMS_PROPAGATION_ADM.START_PROPAGATION if using 10.2 or above Oracle Streams. As soon as the schedule executes successfully the error message entries will be deleted. Oracle does not keep a history of past failures. However, when using Oracle Streams, the errors will be retained in the DBA_PROPAGATION view even after the schedule resumes successfully. See the following note for instructions on how to clear out the errors from the DBA_PROPAGATION view:Document 808136.1 How to clear the old errors from DBA_PROPAGATION view?If a schedule is active and no errors are being reported then the source queue may not have any messages to be propagated. 4.7. Do the Propagation Notification Queue Table and Queue Exist? Check to see that the propagation notification queue table and queue exist and are enabled for enqueue and dequeue. Propagation makes use of the propagation notification queue for handling propagation run-time events, and the messages in this queue are stored in a SYS-owned queue table. This queue should never be stopped or dropped and the corresponding queue table never be dropped. 10g and belowThe propagation notification queue table is of the format SYS.AQ$_PROP_TABLE_n, where 'n' is the RAC instance number, i.e. '1' for a non-RAC environment. This queue and queue table are created implicitly when propagation is first scheduled. If propagation has been scheduled and these objects do not exist, try unscheduling and rescheduling propagation. If they still do not exist contact Oracle Support. SQL> select QUEUE_TABLE from DBA_QUEUE_TABLES2 where QUEUE_TABLE like '%PROP_TABLE%' and OWNER = 'SYS';QUEUE_TABLE------------------------------AQ$_PROP_TABLE_1SQL> select NAME, ENQUEUE_ENABLED, DEQUEUE_ENABLED2 from DBA_QUEUES where owner='SYS'3 and QUEUE_TABLE like '%PROP_TABLE%';NAME ENQUEUE DEQUEUE------------------------------ ------- -------AQ$_PROP_NOTIFY_1 YES YESAQ$_AQ$_PROP_TABLE_1_E NO NO If the AQ$_PROP_NOTIFY_1 queue is not enabled for enqueue or dequeue, it should be so enabled using DBMS_AQADM.START_QUEUE. However, the exception queue AQ$_AQ$_PROP_TABLE_1_E should not be enabled for enqueue or dequeue.11g and aboveThe propagation notification queue table is of the format SYS.AQ_PROP_TABLE, and is created when the database is created. If they do not exist, contact Oracle Support. SQL> select QUEUE_TABLE from DBA_QUEUE_TABLES2 where QUEUE_TABLE like '%PROP_TABLE%' and OWNER = 'SYS';QUEUE_TABLE------------------------------AQ_PROP_TABLESQL> select NAME, ENQUEUE_ENABLED, DEQUEUE_ENABLED2 from DBA_QUEUES where owner='SYS'3 and QUEUE_TABLE like '%PROP_TABLE%';NAME ENQUEUE DEQUEUE------------------------------ ------- -------AQ_PROP_NOTIFY YES YESAQ$_AQ_PROP_TABLE_E NO NO If the AQ_PROP_NOTIFY queue is not enabled for enqueue or dequeue, it should be so enabled using DBMS_AQADM.START_QUEUE. However, the exception queue AQ$_AQ$_PROP_TABLE_E should not be enabled for enqueue or dequeue. 4.8. Does the Remote Queue Exist and is it Enabled for Enqueueing? Check that the remote queue the propagation is transferring messages to exists and is enabled for enqueue: SQL> select DESTINATION from USER_QUEUE_SCHEDULES where QNAME = 'OUTQ';DESTINATION-----------------------------------------------------------------------------"AQADM"."INQ"@M2V102.ESSQL> select OWNER, NAME, ENQUEUE_ENABLED, DEQUEUE_ENABLED from [email protected];OWNER NAME ENQUEUE DEQUEUE-------- ------ ----------- -----------AQADM INQ YES YES 4.9. Do the Target and Source Database Charactersets Differ? If a message fails to propagate, check the database charactersets of the source and target databases. Investigate whether the same message can propagate between the databases with the same characterset or it is only a particular combination of charactersets which causes a problem. 4.10. Check the Queue Table Type Agreement Propagation is not possible between queue tables which have types that differ in some respect. One way to determine if this is the case is to run the DBMS_AQADM.VERIFY_QUEUE_TYPES procedure for the two queues that the propagation operates on. If the types do not agree, DBMS_AQADM.VERIFY_QUEUE_TYPES will return '0'.For AQ propagation between databases which have different NLS_LENGTH_SEMANTICS settings, propagation will not work, unless the queues are Oracle Streams ANYDATA queues.See the following notes for issues caused by lack of type agreement:Document 1079577.1 Advanced Queuing Propagation Fails With "ORA-22370: incorrect usage of method"Document 282987.1 Propagated Messages marked UNDELIVERABLE after Drop and Recreate Of Remote QueueDocument 353754.1 Streams Messaging Propagation Fails between Single and Multi-byte Charactersets when using Chararacter Length Semantics in the ADT 4.11. Enable Propagation Tracing 4.11.1. System Level This is set it in the init.ora/spfile as follows: event="24040 trace name context forever, level 10" and restart the instanceThis event cannot be set dynamically with an alter system command until version 10.2: SQL> alter system set events '24040 trace name context forever, level 10'; To unset the event: SQL> alter system set events '24040 trace name context off'; Debugging information will be logged to job queue trace file(s) (jnnn) as propagation takes place. You can check the trace file for errors, and for statements indicating that messages have been sent. For the most part the trace information is understandable. This trace should also be uploaded to Oracle Support if a service request is created. 4.11.2. Attaching to a Specific Process We can also attach to an existing job queue processes that is running a propagation schedule and trace it individually using the oradebug utility, as follows:10.2 and below connect / as sysdbaselect p.SPID, p.PROGRAM from v$PROCESS p, DBA_JOBS_RUNNING jr, V$SESSION s, DBA_JOBS j where s.SID=jr.SID and s.PADDR=p.ADDR and jr.JOB=j.JOB and j.WHAT like '%sys.dbms_aqadm.aq$_propaq(job)%';-- For the process id (SPID) attach to it via oradebug and generate the following traceoradebug setospid <SPID>oradebug unlimitoradebug Event 10046 trace name context forever, level 12oradebug Event 24040 trace name context forever, level 10-- Trace the process for 5 minutesoradebug Event 10046 trace name context offoradebug Event 24040 trace name context off-- The following command returns the pathname/filename to the file being written tooradebug tracefile_name 11g connect / as sysdbacol PROGRAM for a30select p.SPID, p.PROGRAM, j.JOB_NAMEfrom v$PROCESS p, DBA_SCHEDULER_RUNNING_JOBS jr, V$SESSION s, DBA_SCHEDULER_JOBS j where s.SID=jr.SESSION_ID and s.PADDR=p.ADDR and jr.JOB_NAME=j.JOB_NAME and j.JOB_NAME like '%AQ_JOB$_%';-- For the process id (SPID) attach to it via oradebug and generate the following traceoradebug setospid <SPID>oradebug unlimitoradebug Event 10046 trace name context forever, level 12oradebug Event 24040 trace name context forever, level 10-- Trace the process for 5 minutesoradebug Event 10046 trace name context offoradebug Event 24040 trace name context off-- The following command returns the pathname/filename to the file being written tooradebug tracefile_name 4.11.3. Further Tracing The previous tracing steps only trace the job queue process executing the propagation on the source. At times it is useful to trace the propagation receiver process (the session which is enqueueing the messages into the target queue) on the target database which is associated with the job queue process on the source database.These following queries provide ways of identifying the processes involved in propagation so that you can attach to them via oradebug to generate trace information.In order to identify the propagation receiver process you need to execute the query as a user with privileges to access the v$ views in both the local and remote databases so the database link must connect as a user with those privileges in the remote database. The <DBLINK> in the queries should be replaced by the appropriate database link.The queries have two forms due to the differences between operating systems. The value returned by 'Rem Process' is the operating system identifier of the propagation receiver on the remote database. Once identified, this process can be attached to and traced on the remote database using the commands given in Section 4.11.2.10.2 and below - Windows select pl.SPID "JobQ Process", pl.PROGRAM, sr.PROCESS "Rem Process" from v$PROCESS pl, DBA_JOBS_RUNNING jr, V$SESSION s, DBA_JOBS j, V$SESSION@<DBLINK> sr where s.SID=jr.SID and s.PADDR=pl.ADDR and jr.JOB=j.JOB and j.WHAT like '%sys.dbms_aqadm.aq$_propaq(job)%' and pl.SPID=substr(sr.PROCESS, instr(sr.PROCESS,':')+1); 10.2 and below - Unix select pl.SPID "JobQ Process", pl.PROGRAM, sr.PROCESS "Rem Process" from V$PROCESS pl, DBA_JOBS_RUNNING jr, V$SESSION s, DBA_JOBS j, V$SESSION@<DBLINK> sr where s.SID=jr.SID and s.PADDR=pl.ADDR and jr.JOB=j.JOB and j.WHAT like '%sys.dbms_aqadm.aq$_propaq(job)%' and pl.SPID=sr.PROCESS; 11g - Windows select pl.SPID "JobQ Process", pl.PROGRAM, sr.PROCESS "Rem Process" from V$PROCESS pl, DBA_SCHEDULER_RUNNING_JOBS jr, V$SESSION s, DBA_SCHEDULER_JOBS j, V$SESSION@<DBLINK> sr where s.SID=jr.SESSION_ID and s.PADDR=pl.ADDR and jr.JOB_NAME=j.JOB_NAME and j.JOB_NAME like '%AQ_JOB$_%%' and pl.SPID=substr(sr.PROCESS, instr(sr.PROCESS,':')+1); 11g - Unix select pl.SPID "JobQ Process", pl.PROGRAM, sr.PROCESS "Rem Process" from V$PROCESS pl, DBA_SCHEDULER_RUNNING_JOBS jr, V$SESSION s, DBA_SCHEDULER_JOBS j, V$SESSION@<DBLINK> sr where s.SID=jr.SESSION_ID and s.PADDR=pl.ADDR and jr.JOB_NAME=j.JOB_NAME and j.JOB_NAME like '%AQ_JOB$_%%' and pl.SPID=sr.PROCESS;   5. Additional Troubleshooting Steps for AQ Propagation of User-Enqueued and Dequeued Messages 5.1. Check the Privileges of All Users Involved Ensure that the owner of the database link has the necessary privileges on the aq packages. SQL> select TABLE_NAME, PRIVILEGE from USER_TAB_PRIVS;TABLE_NAME PRIVILEGE------------------------------ ----------------------------------------DBMS_LOCK EXECUTEDBMS_AQ EXECUTEDBMS_AQADM EXECUTEDBMS_AQ_BQVIEW EXECUTEQT52814_BUFFER SELECT Note that when queue table is created, a view called QT<nnn>_BUFFER is created in the SYS schema, and the queue table owner is given SELECT privileges on it. The <nnn> corresponds to the object_id of the associated queue table. SQL> select * from USER_ROLE_PRIVS;USERNAME GRANTED_ROLE ADM DEF OS_------------------------------ ------------------------------ ---- ---- ---AQ_USER1 AQ_ADMINISTRATOR_ROLE NO YES NOAQ_USER1 CONNECT NO YES NOAQ_USER1 RESOURCE NO YES NO It is good practice to configure central AQ administrative user. All admin and processing jobs are created, executed and administered as this user. This configuration is not mandatory however, and the database link can be owned by any existing queue user. If this latter configuration is used, ensure that the connecting user has the necessary privileges on the AQ packages and objects involved. Privileges for an AQ Administrative user Execute on DBMS_AQADM Execute on DBMS_AQ Granted the AQ_ADMINISTRATOR_ROLE Privileges for an AQ user Execute on DBMS_AQ Execute on the message payload Enqueue privileges on the remote queue Dequeue privileges on the originating queue Privileges need to be confirmed on both sites when propagation is scheduled to remote destinations. Verify that the user ID used to login to the destination through the database link has been granted privileges to use AQ. 5.2. Verify Queue Payload Types AQ will not propagate messages from one queue to another if the payload types of the two queues are not verified to be equivalent. An AQ administrator can verify if the source and destination's payload types match by executing the DBMS_AQADM.VERIFY_QUEUE_TYPES procedure. The results of the type checking will be stored in the SYS.AQ$_MESSAGE_TYPES table. This table can be accessed using the object identifier OID of the source queue and the address database link of the destination queue, i.e. [schema.]queue_name[@destination]. Prior to Oracle 9i the payload (message type) had to be the same for all the queue tables involved in propagation. From Oracle9i onwards a transformation can be used so that payloads can be converted from one type to another. The following procedural call made on the source database can verify whether we can propagate between the source and the destination queue tables. connect aq_user1/[email protected] serverout onDECLARErc_value number;BEGINDBMS_AQADM.VERIFY_QUEUE_TYPES(src_queue_name => 'AQ_USER1.Q_1', dest_queue_name => 'AQ_USER2.Q_2',destination => 'dbl_aq_user2.es',rc => rc_value);dbms_output.put_line('rc_value code is '||rc_value);END;/ If propagation is possible then the return code value will be 1. If it is 0 then propagation is not possible and further investigation of the types and transformations used by and in conjunction with the queue tables is required. With regard to comparison of the types the following sql can be used to extract the DDL for a specific type with' %' changed appropriately on the source and target. This can then be compared for the source and target. SET LONG 20000 set pagesize 50 EXECUTE DBMS_METADATA.SET_TRANSFORM_PARAM(DBMS_METADATA.SESSION_TRANSFORM, 'STORAGE',false); SELECT DBMS_METADATA.GET_DDL('TYPE',t.type_name) from user_types t WHERE t.type_name like '%'; EXECUTE DBMS_METADATA.SET_TRANSFORM_PARAM(DBMS_METADATA.SESSION_TRANSFORM, 'DEFAULT'); 5.3. Check Message State and Destination The first step in this process is to identify the queue table associated with the problem source queue. Although you schedule propagation for a specific queue, most of the meta-data associated with that queue is stored in the underlying queue table. The following statement finds the queue table for a given queue (note that this is a multiple-consumer queue table). SQL> select QUEUE_TABLE from DBA_QUEUES where NAME = 'MULTIPLEQ';QUEUE_TABLE --------------------MULTIPLEQTABLE For a small amount of messages in a multiple-consumer queue table, the following query can be run: SQL> select MSG_STATE, CONSUMER_NAME, ADDRESS from AQ$MULTIPLEQTABLE where QUEUE = 'MULTIPLEQ';MSG_STATE CONSUMER_NAME ADDRESS-------------- ----------------------- -------------READY AQUSER2 [email protected] AQUSER1READY AQUSER3 AQADM.INQ In this example we see 2 messages ready to be propagated to remote queues and 1 that is not. If the address column is blank, the message is not scheduled for propagation and can only be dequeued from the queue upon which it was enqueued. The MSG_STATE column values are discussed in Document 102330.1 Advanced Queueing MSG_STATE Values and their Interpretation. If the address column has a value, the message has been enqueued for propagation to another queue. The first row in the example includes a database link (@M2V102.ES). This demonstrates that the message should be propagated to a queue at a remote database. The third row does not include a database link so will be propagated to a queue that resides on the same database as the source queue. The consumer name is the intended recipient at the target queue. Note that we are not querying the base queue table directly; rather, we are querying a view that is available on top of every queue table, AQ$<queue_table_name>.A more realistic query in an environment where the queue table contains thousands of messages is8.0.3-compatible multiple-consumer queue table and all compatibility single-consumer queue tables select count(*), MSG_STATE, QUEUE from AQ$<queue_table_name>  group by MSG_STATE, QUEUE; 8.1.3 and 10.0-compatible queue tables select count(*), MSG_STATE, QUEUE, CONSUMER_NAME from AQ$<queue_table_name>group by MSG_STATE, QUEUE, CONSUMER_NAME; For multiple-consumer queue tables, if you did not see the expected CONSUMER_NAME , check the syntax of the enqueue code and verify the recipients are declared correctly. If a recipients list is not used on enqueue, check the subscriber list in the AQ$_<queue_table_name>_S view (note that a single-consumer queue table does not have a subscriber view. This view records all members of the default subscription list which were added using the DBMS_AQADM.ADD_SUBSCRIBER procedure and also those enqueued using a recipient list. SQL> select QUEUE, NAME, ADDRESS from AQ$MULTIPLEQTABLE_S;QUEUE NAME ADDRESS---------- ----------- -------------MULTIPLEQ AQUSER2 [email protected] AQUSER1 In this example we have 2 subscribers registered with the queue. We have a local subscriber AQUSER1, and a remote subscriber AQUSER2, on the queue INQ, owned by AQADM, at M2V102.ES. Unless overridden with a recipient list during enqueue every message enqueued to this queue will be propagated to INQ at M2V102.ES.For 8.1 style and above multiple consumer queue tables, you can also check the following information at the target: select CONSUMER_NAME, DEQ_TXN_ID, DEQ_TIME, DEQ_USER_ID, PROPAGATED_MSGID from AQ$<queue_table_name> where QUEUE = '<QUEUE_NAME>'; For 8.0 style queues, if the queue table supports multiple consumers you can obtain the same information from the history column of the queue table: select h.CONSUMER, h.TRANSACTION_ID, h.DEQ_TIME, h.DEQ_USER, h.PROPAGATED_MSGIDfrom AQ$<queue_table_name> t, table(t.history) h where t.Q_NAME = '<QUEUE_NAME>'; A non-NULL TRANSACTION_ID indicates that the message was successfully propagated. Further, the DEQ_TIME indicates the time of propagation, the DEQ_USER indicates the userid used for propagation, and the PROPAGATED_MSGID indicates the message ID of the message that was enqueued at the destination. 6. Additional Troubleshooting Steps for Propagation in an Oracle Streams Environment 6.1. Is the Propagation Enabled? For a propagation job to propagate messages, the propagation must be enabled. For Streams, a special view called DBA_PROPAGATION exists to convey information about Streams propagations. If messages are not being propagated by a propagation as expected, then the propagation might not be enabled. To query for this: SELECT p.PROPAGATION_NAME, DECODE(s.SCHEDULE_DISABLED, 'Y', 'Disabled','N', 'Enabled') SCHEDULE_DISABLED, s.PROCESS_NAME, s.FAILURES, s.LAST_ERROR_MSGFROM DBA_QUEUE_SCHEDULES s, DBA_PROPAGATION pWHERE p.DESTINATION_DBLINK = NVL(REGEXP_SUBSTR(s.DESTINATION, '[^@]+', 1, 2), s.DESTINATION) AND s.SCHEMA = p.SOURCE_QUEUE_OWNER AND s.QNAME = p.SOURCE_QUEUE_NAME AND MESSAGE_DELIVERY_MODE = 'PERSISTENT' order by PROPAGATION_NAME; At times, the propagation job may become "broken" or fail to start after an error has been encountered or after a database restart. If an error is indicated by the above query, an attempt to disable the propagation and then re-enable it can be made. In the examples below, for the propagation named STRMADMIN_PROPAGATE where the queue name is STREAMS_QUEUE owned by STRMADMIN and the destination database link is ORCL2.WORLD, the commands would be:10.2 and above exec dbms_propagation_adm.stop_propagation('STRMADMIN_PROPAGATE'); exec dbms_propagation_adm.start_propagation('STRMADMIN_PROPAGATE'); If the above does not fix the problem, stop the propagation specifying the force parameter (2nd parameter on stop_propagation) as TRUE: exec dbms_propagation_adm.stop_propagation('STRMADMIN_PROPAGATE',true); exec dbms_propagation_adm.start_propagation('STRMADMIN_PROPAGATE'); The statistics for the propagation as well as any old error messages are cleared when the force parameter is set to TRUE. Therefore if the propagation schedule is stopped with FORCE set to TRUE, and upon restart there is still an error message in DBA_PROPAGATION, then the error message is current.9.2 or 10.1 exec dbms_aqadm.disable_propagation_schedule('STRMADMIN.STREAMS_QUEUE','ORCL2.WORLD'); exec dbms.aqadm.enable_propagation_schedule('STRMADMIN.STREAMS_QUEUE','ORCL2.WORLD'); If the above does not fix the problem, perform an unschedule of propagation and then schedule_propagation: exec dbms_aqadm.unschedule_propagation('STRMADMIN.STREAMS_QUEUE','ORCL2.WORLD'); exec dbms_aqadm.schedule_propagation('STRMADMIN.STREAMS_QUEUE','ORCL2.WORLD'); Typically if the error from the first query in Section 6.1 recurs after restarting the propagation as shown above, further troubleshooting of the error is needed. 6.2. Check Propagation Rule Sets and Transformations Inspect the configuration of the rules in the rule set that is associated with the propagation process to make sure that they evaluate to TRUE as expected. If not, then the object or schema will not be propagated. Remember that when a negative rule evaluates to TRUE, the specified object or schema will not be propagated. Finally inspect any rule-based transformations that are implemented with propagation to make sure they are changing the data in the intended way.The following query shows what rule sets are assigned to a propagation: select PROPAGATION_NAME, RULE_SET_OWNER||'.'||RULE_SET_NAME "Positive Rule Set",NEGATIVE_RULE_SET_OWNER||'.'||NEGATIVE_RULE_SET_NAME "Negative Rule Set"from DBA_PROPAGATION; The next two queries list the propagation rules and their conditions. The first is for the positive rule set, the second is for the negative rule set: set long 4000select rsr.RULE_SET_OWNER||'.'||rsr.RULE_SET_NAME RULE_SET ,rsr.RULE_OWNER||'.'||rsr.RULE_NAME RULE_NAME,r.RULE_CONDITION CONDITION fromDBA_RULE_SET_RULES rsr, DBA_RULES rwhere rsr.RULE_NAME = r.RULE_NAME and rsr.RULE_OWNER = r.RULE_OWNER and RULE_SET_NAME in(select RULE_SET_NAME from DBA_PROPAGATION) order by rsr.RULE_SET_OWNER, rsr.RULE_SET_NAME;   set long 4000select c.PROPAGATION_NAME, rsr.RULE_SET_OWNER||'.'||rsr.RULE_SET_NAME RULE_SET ,rsr.RULE_OWNER||'.'||rsr.RULE_NAME RULE_NAME,r.RULE_CONDITION CONDITION fromDBA_RULE_SET_RULES rsr, DBA_RULES r ,DBA_PROPAGATION cwhere rsr.RULE_NAME = r.RULE_NAME and rsr.RULE_OWNER = r.RULE_OWNER andrsr.RULE_SET_OWNER=c.NEGATIVE_RULE_SET_OWNER and rsr.RULE_SET_NAME=c.NEGATIVE_RULE_SET_NAMEand rsr.RULE_SET_NAME in(select NEGATIVE_RULE_SET_NAME from DBA_PROPAGATION) order by rsr.RULE_SET_OWNER, rsr.RULE_SET_NAME; 6.3. Determining the Total Number of Messages and Bytes Propagated As in Section 3.1, determining if messages are flowing can be instructive to see whether the propagation is entirely hung or just slow. If the propagation is not in flow control (see Section 6.5.2), but the statistics are incrementing slowly, there may be a performance issue. For Streams implementations two views are available that can assist with this that can show the number of messages sent by a propagation, as well as the number of acknowledgements being returned from the target site: the V$PROPAGATION_SENDER view at the Source site and the V$PROPAGATION_RECEIVER view at the destination site. It is helpful to query both to determine if messages are being delivered to the target. Look for the statistics to increase.Source: select QUEUE_SCHEMA, QUEUE_NAME, DBLINK,HIGH_WATER_MARK, ACKNOWLEDGEMENT, TOTAL_MSGS, TOTAL_BYTESfrom V$PROPAGATION_SENDER; Target: select SRC_QUEUE_SCHEMA, SRC_QUEUE_NAME, SRC_DBNAME, DST_QUEUE_SCHEMA, DST_QUEUE_NAME, HIGH_WATER_MARK, ACKNOWLEDGEMENT, TOTAL_MSGS from V$PROPAGATION_RECEIVER; 6.4. Check Buffered Subscribers The V$BUFFERED_SUBSCRIBERS view displays information about subscribers for all buffered queues in the instance. This view can be queried to make sure that the site that the propagation is propagating to is listed as a subscriber address for the site being propagated from: select QUEUE_SCHEMA, QUEUE_NAME, SUBSCRIBER_ADDRESS from V$BUFFERED_SUBSCRIBERS; The SUBSCRIBER_ADDRESS column will not be populated when the propagation is local (between queues on the same database). 6.5. Common Streams Propagation Errors 6.5.1. ORA-02082: A loopback database link must have a connection qualifier. This error can occur if you use the Streams Setup Wizard in Oracle Enterprise Manager without first configuring the GLOBAL_NAME for your database. 6.5.2. ORA-25307: Enqueue rate too high. Enable flow control DBA_QUEUE_SCHEDULES will display this informational message for propagation when the automatic flow control (10g feature of Streams) has been invoked.Similar to Streams capture processes, a Streams propagation process can also go into a state of 'flow control. This is an informative message that indicates flow control has been automatically enabled to reduce the rate at which messages are being enqueued into at target queue.This typically occurs when the target site is unable to keep up with the rate of messages flowing from the source site. Other than checking that the apply process is running normally on the target site, usually no action is required by the DBA. Propagation and the capture process will be resumed automatically when the target site is able to accept more messages.The following document contains more information:Document 302109.1 Streams Propagation Error: ORA-25307 Enqueue rate too high. Enable flow controlSee the following document for one potential cause of this situation:Document 1097115.1 Oracle Streams Apply Reader is in 'Paused' State 6.5.3. ORA-25315 unsupported configuration for propagation of buffered messages This error typically occurs when the target database is RAC and usually indicates that an attempt was made to propagate buffered messages with the database link pointing to an instance in the destination database which is not the owner instance of the destination queue. To resolve the problem, use queue-to-queue propagation for buffered messages. 6.5.4. ORA-600 [KWQBMCRCPTS101] after dropping / recreating propagation For cause/fixes refer to:Document 421237.1 ORA-600 [KWQBMCRCPTS101] reported by a Qmon slave process after dropping a Streams Propagation 6.5.5. Stopping or Dropping a Streams Propagation Hangs See the following note:Document 1159787.1 Troubleshooting Streams Propagation When It is Not Functioning and Attempts to Stop It Hang 6.6. Streams Propagation-Related Notes for Common Issues Document 437838.1 Streams Specific PatchesDocument 749181.1 How to Recover Streams After Dropping PropagationDocument 368912.1 Queue to Queue Propagation Schedule encountered ORA-12514 in a RAC environmentDocument 564649.1 ORA-02068/ORA-03114/ORA-03113 Errors From Streams Propagation Process - Remote Database is Available and Unschedule/Reschedule Does Not ResolveDocument 553017.1 Stream Propagation Process Errors Ora-4052 Ora-6554 From 11g To 10201Document 944846.1 Streams Propagation Fails Ora-7445 [kohrsmc]Document 745601.1 ORA-23603 'STREAMS enqueue aborted due to low SGA' Error from Streams Propagation, and V$STREAMS_CAPTURE.STATE Hanging on 'Enqueuing Message'Document 333068.1 ORA-23603: Streams Enqueue Aborted Eue To Low SGADocument 363496.1 Ora-25315 Propagating on RAC StreamsDocument 368237.1 Unable to Unschedule Propagation. Streams Queue is InvalidDocument 436332.1 dbms_propagation_adm.stop_propagation hangsDocument 727389.1 Propagation Fails With ORA-12528Document 730911.1 ORA-4063 Is Reported After Dropping Negative Prop.RulesetDocument 460471.1 Propagation Blocked by Qmon Process - Streams_queue_table / 'library cache lock' waitsDocument 1165583.1 ORA-600 [kwqpuspse0-ack] In Streams EnvironmentDocument 1059029.1 Combined Capture and Apply (CCA) : Capture aborts : ORA-1422 after schedule_propagationDocument 556309.1 Changing Propagation/ queue_to_queue : false -> true does does not work; no LCRs propagatedDocument 839568.1 Propagation failing with error: ORA-01536: space quota exceeded for tablespace ''Document 311021.1 Streams Propagation Process : Ora 12154 After Reboot with Transparent Application Failover TAF configuredDocument 359971.1 STREAMS propagation to Primary of physical Standby configuation errors with Ora-01033, Ora-02068Document 1101616.1 DBMS_PROPAGATION_ADM.DROP_PROPAGATION FAILS WITH ORA-1747 7. Performance Issues A propagation may seem to be slow if the queries from Sections 3.1 and 6.3 show that the message statistics are not changing quickly. In Oracle Streams, this more usually is due to a slow apply process at the target rather than a slow propagation. Propagation could be inferred to be slow if the message statistics are changing, and the state of a capture process according to V$STREAMS_CAPTURE.STATE is PAUSED FOR FLOW CONTROL, but an ORA-25307 'Enqueue rate too high. Enable flow control' warning is NOT observed in DBA_QUEUE_SCHEDULES per Section 6.5.2. If this is the case, see the following notes / white papers for suggestions to increase performance:Document 335516.1 Master Note for Streams Performance RecommendationsDocument 730036.1 Overview for Troubleshooting Streams Performance IssuesDocument 780733.1 Streams Propagation Tuning with Network ParametersWhite Paper: http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/database/features/availability/maa-wp-10gr2-streams-performance-130059.pdfWhite Paper: Oracle Streams Configuration Best Practices: Oracle Database 10g Release 10.2, http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/database/features/availability/maa-10gr2-streams-configuration-132039.pdf, See APPENDIX A: USING STREAMS CONFIGURATIONS OVER A NETWORKFor basic AQ propagation, the network tuning in the aforementioned Appendix A of the white paper 'Oracle Streams Configuration Best Practices: Oracle Database 10g Release 10.2' is applicable. References NOTE:102330.1 - Advanced Queueing MSG_STATE Values and their InterpretationNOTE:102771.1 - Advanced Queueing Propagation using PL/SQLNOTE:1059029.1 - Combined Capture and Apply (CCA) : Capture aborts : ORA-1422 after schedule_propagationNOTE:1079577.1 - Advanced Queuing Propagation Fails With "ORA-22370: incorrect usage of method"NOTE:1083608.1 - 11g Streams and Oracle SchedulerNOTE:1087324.1 - ORA-01405 ORA-01422 reported by Adavanced Queueing Propagation schedules after RAC reconfigurationNOTE:1097115.1 - Oracle Streams Apply Reader is in 'Paused' StateNOTE:1101616.1 - DBMS_PROPAGATION_ADM.DROP_PROPAGATION FAILS WITH ORA-1747NOTE:1159787.1 - Troubleshooting Streams Propagation When It is Not Functioning and Attempts to Stop It HangNOTE:1165583.1 - ORA-600 [kwqpuspse0-ack] In Streams EnvironmentNOTE:118884.1 - How to unschedule a propagation schedule stuck in pending stateNOTE:1203544.1 - AQ PROPAGATION ABORTED WITH ORA-600[OCIKSIN: INVALID STATUS] ON SYS.DBMS_AQADM_SYS.AQ$_PROPAGATION_PROCEDURE AFTER UPGRADENOTE:1204080.1 - AQ Propagation Failing With ORA-25329 After Upgraded From 8i or 9i to 10g or 11g.NOTE:219416.1 - Advanced Queuing Propagation fails with ORA-22922NOTE:222992.1 - DBMS_AQADM.DISABLE_PROPAGATION_SCHEDULE Returns ORA-24082NOTE:253131.1 - Concurrent Writes May Corrupt LOB Segment When Using Auto Segment Space Management (ORA-1555)NOTE:282987.1 - Propagated Messages marked UNDELIVERABLE after Drop and Recreate Of Remote QueueNOTE:298015.1 - Kwqjswproc:Excep After Loop: Assigning To SelfNOTE:302109.1 - Streams Propagation Error: ORA-25307 Enqueue rate too high. Enable flow controlNOTE:311021.1 - Streams Propagation Process : Ora 12154 After Reboot with Transparent Application Failover TAF configuredNOTE:332792.1 - ORA-04061 error relating to SYS.DBMS_PRVTAQIP reported when setting up StatspackNOTE:333068.1 - ORA-23603: Streams Enqueue Aborted Eue To Low SGANOTE:335516.1 - Master Note for Streams Performance RecommendationsNOTE:353325.1 - ORA-24056: Internal inconsistency for QUEUE and destination NOTE:353754.1 - Streams Messaging Propagation Fails between Single and Multi-byte Charactersets when using Chararacter Length Semantics in the ADT.NOTE:359971.1 - STREAMS propagation to Primary of physical Standby configuation errors with Ora-01033, Ora-02068NOTE:363496.1 - Ora-25315 Propagating on RAC StreamsNOTE:365093.1 - ORA-07445 [kwqppay2aqe()+7360] reported on Propagation of a Transformed MessageNOTE:368237.1 - Unable to Unschedule Propagation. Streams Queue is InvalidNOTE:368912.1 - Queue to Queue Propagation Schedule encountered ORA-12514 in a RAC environmentNOTE:421237.1 - ORA-600 [KWQBMCRCPTS101] reported by a Qmon slave process after dropping a Streams PropagationNOTE:436332.1 - dbms_propagation_adm.stop_propagation hangsNOTE:437838.1 - Streams Specific PatchesNOTE:460471.1 - Propagation Blocked by Qmon Process - Streams_queue_table / 'library cache lock' waitsNOTE:463820.1 - Streams Combined Capture and Apply in 11gNOTE:553017.1 - Stream Propagation Process Errors Ora-4052 Ora-6554 From 11g To 10201NOTE:556309.1 - Changing Propagation/ queue_to_queue : false -> true does does not work; no LCRs propagatedNOTE:564649.1 - ORA-02068/ORA-03114/ORA-03113 Errors From Streams Propagation Process - Remote Database is Available and Unschedule/Reschedule Does Not ResolveNOTE:566622.1 - ORA-22275 when propagating >4K AQ$_JMS_TEXT_MESSAGEs from 9.2.0.8 to 10.2.0.1NOTE:727389.1 - Propagation Fails With ORA-12528NOTE:730036.1 - Overview for Troubleshooting Streams Performance IssuesNOTE:730911.1 - ORA-4063 Is Reported After Dropping Negative Prop.RulesetNOTE:731292.1 - ORA-25215 Reported On Local Propagation When Using Transformation with ANYDATA queue tablesNOTE:731539.1 - ORA-29268: HTTP client error 401 Unauthorized Error when the AQ Servlet attempts to Propagate a message via HTTPNOTE:745601.1 - ORA-23603 'STREAMS enqueue aborted due to low SGA' Error from Streams Propagation, and V$STREAMS_CAPTURE.STATE Hanging on 'Enqueuing Message'NOTE:749181.1 - How to Recover Streams After Dropping PropagationNOTE:780733.1 - Streams Propagation Tuning with Network ParametersNOTE:787367.1 - ORA-22275 reported on Propagating Messages with LOB component when propagating between 10.1 and 10.2NOTE:808136.1 - How to clear the old errors from DBA_PROPAGATION view ?NOTE:827184.1 - AQ Propagation with CLOB data types Fails with ORA-22990NOTE:827473.1 - How to alter propagation from queue_to_queue to queue_to_dblinkNOTE:839568.1 - Propagation failing with error: ORA-01536: space quota exceeded for tablespace ''NOTE:846297.1 - AQ Propagation Fails : ORA-00600[kope2upic2954] or Ora-00600[Kghsstream_copyn]NOTE:944846.1 - Streams Propagation Fails Ora-7445 [kohrsmc]

    Read the article

  • Visual Studio 2010 Productivity Power Tool Extensions

    - by ScottGu
    Last month I blogged about the Extension Manager that is built-into VS 2010 – as well as about a cool VS 2010 PowerCommands extension that provides some extra features for Visual Studio.  The Visual Studio 2010 Extension Manager provides an easy way for developers to quickly find and install extensions and plugins that enhance the built-in functionality to VS 2010. New VS 2010 Productivity Power Tools Release Earlier this week Jason Zander announced the availability of a new VS 2010 Productivity Power Tools release that includes a bunch of great new VS 2010 extensions that provide a bunch of cool new functionality for you to take advantage of.  You can download and install the release for free here.  Some of the code editor improvements it provides include: Entire Line Highlighting: Makes it easier to track cursor location within the editor Entire Line Selection: Triple Clicking a line in the code editor now selects the entire line (like with MS Word) Code Block Movement: Use Alt+Up/Down Arrow now moves selected code blocks up/down in the editor Consistent Tabs vs. Spaces: Ensure consistent tab vs. space usage across your projects Colorized Parameters: It is now easier to see/identify method parameters Column Guide: You can now add vertical column guidelines to help with text alignment and sizes Align assignments: Makes it easier to line-up multiple variable assignments within your code HTML Clipboard Support: Copy/paste code from VS into an HTML buffer (useful for blogging!) Ctrl + Click Go to Definition: You can now hold down the Ctrl key and click a type to go to its definition It also includes several tab management improvements for managing document tabs within the IDE: Show Close Button in Tab Well: Shows a close button in document well for the active tab (like VS 2008 did) Colored Tabs: You can now select the color of each document tab by project or by regex Pinned Tabs: Enables you to pin tabs to keep them always visible and available Vertical Tabs: You can now show document tabs vertically to fit more tabs than normal Remove Tabs by Usage Order: Better behavior when adding new tabs and one needs to be hidden for space reasons Sort Tabs by Project: Tabs can be sorted by project they belong to, keeping them grouped together Sort Tabs Alphabetically: Tabs can be sorted alphabetically And last – but not least – it includes a new and improved “Add Reference” dialog: This new Add Reference dialog caches assembly information – which means it loads within a second or two (note: the very first time it still loads assembly data – but it then caches it and makes it fast afterwards). The new Add Reference dialog also now includes searching support – making it easier to find the assembly you are looking for. You can read more about all of the above improvements in Jason’s blog post about the release. New Visualization and Modeling Feature Pack Release Earlier this week we also shipped a new feature pack that adds additional modeling and code visualization features to VS 2010 Ultimate.  You can download it here. The Visualization and Modeling Feature Pack includes a bunch of great new capabilities including: Web Site Visualization: New support for generating a DGML visualization for ASP.NET projects C/C++ Native Code Visualization: New support for generating DGML diagrams for C/C++ projects Generate Code from UML Class Diagrams: You can now generate code from your UML diagrams Create UML Class Diagrams from Code: Create UML diagrams from existing code bases Import UML from XML: Import UML class, sequence, and use case elements from XMI 2.1 files Custom Validation Layer Rules: Write custom code to create, modify, and validate layer diagrams Jason’s blog post covers more about these features as well. Hope this helps, Scott P.S. In addition to blogging, I am also now using Twitter for quick updates and to share links. Follow me at: twitter.com/scottgu

    Read the article

  • You Might Be a DBA

    - by BuckWoody
    With all apologies to Jeff Foxworthy, I was up late Friday night on a holiday weekend (which translated into T-SQL becomes “Maintenance Window”) and I got bored in between the two or three minutes I had between clicks. So I started a “Twitter” meme – and it just took off. I haven’t cleaned these up much, but here, in author order as of Saturday the 29th of May is the list “You might be a DBA” from around the Twitterverse: buckwoody Your two main enemies are developers and SAN admins #youmightbeaDBA  buckwoody People can use Access as a cross or garlic on you #youmightbeaDBA  buckwoody You always plan an exit strategy, even when entering a McDonald's #youmightbeaDBA  buckwoody You can't explain to your family what you really do for a living #youmightbeaDBA  buckwoody You have at least one set of scripts you won't share #youmightbeaDBA  buckwoody You have an opinion on the best code-beautifier #youmightbeaDBA  buckwoody You have children older than the rest of your team #youmightbeaDBA  buckwoody You and the Oracle DBA would kill each other, but you'll happily fight off a developer together first #youmightbeaDBA  buckwoody You've threatened to quit if they give anyone the sa password on production #youmightbeaDBA  buckwoody You've sent a vendor suggestions on improving their database design or code (and been ignored) #youmightbeaDBA  buckwoody You've sent a vendor suggestions on improving their database design or code (and been ignored) #youmightbeaDBA  buckwoody You have an opinion on the best code-beautifier #youmightbeaDBA  buckwoody You have at least one set of scripts you won't share #youmightbeaDBA  buckwoody You refer to co-workers as "carbon-units" #youmightbeaDBA  buckwoody Being paranoid is on your resume at the top #youmightbeaDBA  buckwoody Everyone comes to your cube to find the MSDN DVD's #youmightbeaDBA  buckwoody You always plan an exit strategy, even when entering a McDonald's #youmightbeaDBA  buckwoody You've worn down developers to get your way by explaining normalization levels #youmightbeaDBA  buckwoody You refer to clothes as "Data Abstractions" #youmightbeaDBA  buckwoody Users pester you to be able to put data in a database, then they pester you to take it out and put it in Excel #youmightbeaDBA  buckwoody Others try to de-duplicate data, you try to copy it to more than three locations #youmightbeaDBA  buckwoody You have at least one DLT tape in the trunk of your car #youmightbeaDBA  buckwoody You use twitter and facebook to talk with colleagues because there's no one else in your company that does what you do #youmightbeaDBA  buckwoody Your spouse knows what "ETL" means #youmightbeaDBA  buckwoody You've referred to yourself as the "Data Janitor" #youmightbeaDBA  buckwoody You don't have positive connotations of the word "upgrade" #youmightbeaDBA  buckwoody You get your coffee before you check your servers, because you know you won't get any if you don't #youmightbeaDBA  buckwoody You always come to work through the back door so no one hijacks you on the way to your cube #youmightbeaDBA  buckwoody You check your server logs before you check your e-mail in the morning so you can reply "Yeah, I already fixed that." #youmightbeaDBA  buckwoody You have more conference badges than clean socks #youmightbeaDBA  buckwoody Your coffee mug says "It depends" #youmightbeaDBA  buckwoody You can convince a boss that you need 16GB of RAM in your laptop #youmightbeaDBA  buckwoody You've used ebay to find production equipment #youmightbeaDBA  buckwoody You pad all project timelines by 2X, and you still miss them #youmightbeaDBA  buckwoody You know when your company is acquiring another even before the CFO #youmightbeaDBA  buckwoody You pad all project timelines by 2X, and you still miss them #youmightbeaDBA  buckwoody You call aspirin "work vitamins" #youmightbeaDBA  buckwoody You get the same amount of sleep even after you have a child #youmightbeaDBA  buckwoody You obsess about performance metrics from over one year ago #youmightbeaDBA  buckwoody The first thing you buy after the database software is aftermarket tools to manage the database software #youmightbeaDBA  buckwoody You've tried to convince someone else to become a DBA #youmightbeaDBA  buckwoody You use twitter and facebook to talk with colleagues because there's no one else in your company that does what you do #youmightbeaDBA  buckwoody You only know other DBA's by their Tweet Handle #youmightbeaDBA  buckwoody You've explained the difference between 32 and 64-bit to more than one manager in terms they can understand, using puppets #youmightbeaDBA  buckwoody Your two main enemies are developers and SAN admins #youmightbeaDBA  buckwoody You've driven to the Datacenter to install SQL Server because "you don't trust those NOC admins" #youmightbeaDBA  buckwoody You pay more for faster Internet connections than cable at home so you don't have to drive in #youmightbeaDBA  buckwoody You call texting a "queuing system" #youmightbeaDBA  buckwoody You know that if someone can read Perl, they manage an Oracle system #youmightbeaDBA  buckwoody You have an e-mail rule for backup notifications #youmightbeaDBA  buckwoody Your food pyramid includes coffee, salt and fat #youmightbeaDBA  buckwoody You wish everything had a graphical query plan #youmightbeaDBA  buckwoody You refactor your e-mails #youmightbeaDBA  buckwoody You've gotten more help from twitter and facebook than all your years in college #youmightbeaDBA  buckwoody You would pay money for a license plate that has the letters S-Q-L together #youmightbeaDBA  buckwoody You have actually considered making a RAID array from thumb drives #youmightbeaDBA  buckwoody Everything on your laptop is installed from your MSDN subscription #youmightbeaDBA  buckwoody You've written blog posts on technology you've never actually implemented in production #youmightbeaDBA  buckwoody Everything on your laptop is installed from your MSDN subscription #youmightbeaDBA  buckwoody @MidnightDBA Click the #youmightbeaDBA tag. I've had WAY too much coffee today.  buckwoody There is no other position that is 1-deep except you and the CEO #youmightbeaDBA  buckwoody When you watch "The Office" you call it "OJT" #youmightbeaDBA  buckwoody You would pay money for a license plate that has the letters S-Q-L together #youmightbeaDBA  buckwoody Your blog would make a "best practices" or "worst practices" book #youmightbeaDBA  buckwoody You have actually considered making a RAID array from thumb drives #youmightbeaDBA  buckwoody The first thing you install on your netbook is SSMS #youmightbeaDBA  buckwoody Everything on your laptop is installed from your MSDN subscription #youmightbeaDBA  buckwoody Your watch is set to UTC because it's just easier #youmightbeaDBA  buckwoody You make plenty of money, but you're excited to get a $2.00 squeeze-ball from Quest and Redgate #youmightbeaDBA  buckwoody You make plenty of money, but you're excited to get a $2.00 squeeze-ball from Quest and Redgate #youmightbeaDBA  buckwoody You think data can be represented as something OTHER than XML #youmightbeaDBA  buckwoody You tell people that you made a database query go faster, and expect them to be happy for you #youmightbeaDBA  buckwoody You take the word "NoSQL" as a personal attack #youmightbeaDBA  buckwoody People can use Access as a cross or garlic on you #youmightbeaDBA  buckwoody * == bad #youmightbeaDBA  buckwoody * == bad #youmightbeaDBA  buckwoody There are just as many females in your technical field as males #youmightbeaDBA  buckwoody People can use Access as a cross or garlic on you #youmightbeaDBA  buckwoody You've gotten more help from twitter and facebook than all your years in college #youmightbeaDBA  buckwoody You think that something OTHER than the database might be the performance bottleneck #youmightbeaDBA  buckwoody You refer to time as a "Clustered Index" #youmightbeaDBA  buckwoody You know why "user" refers to both business people and crack addicts #youmightbeaDBA  buckwoody You make plenty of money, but you're excited to get a $2.00 squeeze-ball from Quest and Redgate #youmightbeaDBA  buckwoody You can't explain to your family what you really do for a living #youmightbeaDBA  buckwoody You tell people that you made a database query go faster, and expect them to be happy for you #youmightbeaDBA  buckwoody You think a millisecond is a really long time #youmightbeaDBA  buckwoody You're sitting and typing #youmightbeaDBA when you could be outside #youmightbeaDBA  buckwoody You can't wait for a technical conference so you can wear a kilt - and you're not Scottish #youmightbeaDBA  buckwoody You know that "DBA" stands for "Default Blame Acceptor" #youmightbeaDBA  buckwoody People can use Access as a cross or garlic on you #youmightbeaDBA  buckwoody You know what "the truth, thole truth and nothing but the truth, so help me Codd" means #youmightbeaDBA  buckwoody You've gotten more help from twitter and facebook than all your years in college #youmightbeaDBA  buckwoody You can't talk fast enough to get a concept out of your head so you tweet it instead #youmightbeaDBA  buckwoody You cry when someone doesn't use a WHERE clause #youmightbeaDBA  buckwoody You think data can be represented as something OTHER than XML #youmightbeaDBA  buckwoody You think "Set theory" is not an verb but a noun #youmightbeaDBA  buckwoody You try to convince random strangers to vote on your Connect item #youmightbeaDBA  buckwoody You think 3 hours of contiguous sleep is a good thing #youmightbeaDBA or #youmightbeamother  buckwoody You don't like Oracle, and not just because of what she did to Neo #youmightbeaDBA  buckwoody You know when to say "sequel" and "s-q-l" #youmightbeaDBA  buckwoody You know where the data is #youmightbeaDBA  buckwoody You refer to your children as "Fully Redundant Mirrors" #youmightbeaDBA  buckwoody Holiday == "Maintenance Window" #youmightbeaDBA  buckwoody Your laptop is more powerful than the servers in most companies - including your own #youmightbeaDBA  buckwoody You capitalize SELECTed words #youmightbeaDBA  buckwoody You take the word "NoSQL" as a personal attack #youmightbeaDBA  buckwoody You know why "user" refers to both business people and crack addicts #youmightbeaDBA  buckwoody You cringe in public when the word "upgrade" is used in a sentence #youmightbeaDBA  buckwoody Holiday == "Maintenance Window" #youmightbeaDBA  buckwoody All Data Is MetaData means something to you #youmightbeaDBA  buckwoody You've never seen the driveway to your house in the daylight #youmightbeaDBA  buckwoody You think that something OTHER than the database might be the performance bottleneck #youmightbeaDBA  buckwoody Most of your bloodstream is composed of caffeine #youmightbeaDBA  buckwoody Your task list is labeled "CRUD Matrix" #youmightbeaDBA  buckwoody You call your wife/husband a "Linked Server" #youmightbeaDBA  anonythemouse When someone tells you they are going to take a dump and you wonder of which database then #youmightbeaDBA  anonythemouse When it's 11pm on a holiday weekend and you are working #youmightbeaDBA  anonythemouse When you sit down at a table and look for it's primary key #youmightbeaDBA  anonythemouse When getting milk from the fridge you check the expiry date is > getdate() #youmightbeaDBA  blakmk when you wake up dreaming about sql #youmightbeaDBA  CharlesGarver You think a @buckwoody bobblehead would be a cool thing to have on the dashboard of your car #youmightbeaDBA  CharlesGarver Your friends don't understand why you think there's a difference between single and double quotes #youmightbeaDBA  CharlesGarver Even the newest employees know your name from all the downtime notices you've sent out #youmightbeaDBA  CharlesGarver You sometimes feel anxious and think "I should test restoring those backups" and then the feeling passes #youmightbeadba  CharlesGarver You know what a co-worker means when they ask "how is your squirrel server?" #youmightbeadba  CharlesGarver You can't sleep at night and you ponder the logisitcs of collecting every copy of Access for the world's biggest bonfire #youmightbeaDBA  CharlesGarver You can't sleep at night and you ponder the logisitcs of collecting every copy of Access for the world's biggest bonfire #youmightbeaDBA  CharlesGarver You're willing to move someone's job up in priority for a box of #voodoodonuts #youmightbeaDBA  CharlesGarver Each person in your company seems to think you work for THEM #youmightbeaDBA  CharlesGarver You have a Love/Hate relationship going on with #Microsoft #youmightbeaDBA  CharlesGarver People ask you to troubleshoot their Access program #youmightbeaDBA  CharlesGarver The first words you hear in the morning are 'your voicemail box is full' #youmightbeaDBA  CharlesGarver The thought of disrupting 500 people's work so you can do something doesn't phase you #youmightbeaDBA  CharlesGarver You can't sleep at night and you ponder the logisitcs of collecting every copy of Access for the world's biggest bonfire #youmightbeaDBA  CharlesGarver Your home computer is backed up in 3 different places #youmightbeaDBA  CharlesGarver Your wardrobe for work includes pajamas #youmightbeaDBA  CharlesGarver Someone tells you to look in the INDEX and you look puzzled before finally going to the back of the book. #youmightbeaDBA  chuckboycejr If you have ever set up a SQLAgent job to email your mobile phone to serve as an alarm clock #youmightbeaDBA  chuckboycejr If you'd rather meet Itzik than Jay Z #youmightbeaDBA  chuckboycejr If you'd rather meet Itzik than Jay Z #youmightbeaDBA  chuckboycejr If you'd wrestle a SysAdmin to the ground to implement #DPA best practices as per @aspiringgeek #youmightbeaDBA  databaseguy I need to be up in 7 hours, so I'm off to bed! I'll have to read the rest of @buckwoody's #youmightbeaDBA posts in the AM. (g'night Buck!)  databaseguy When people ask you about your house, the first thing you describe is the network. #youmightbeaDBA  databaseguy The last thing you say at the office each day is, "is anybody else here? I'm shutting off the lights!" #youmightbeaDBA  databaseguy Your blood pressure rises when you read application specs drafted by marketing. #youmightbeaDBA  databaseguy A good day at work is one when nobody pays you no mind. #youmightbeaDBA  databaseguy You care about latches and wait states. #youmightbeaDBA  databaseguy You have worked over 200 hours on a performance tuning project that required no application changes at all. #youmightbeaDBA  databaseguy The late-night security guard knows the names of your spouse and kids. #youmightbeaDBA  databaseguy You have had vigorous debates about whether it should be pronounced "sequel" or "ess-queue-ell". #youmightbeaDBA  databaseguy You have VPN and RDP software installed on your phone ... just in case. #youmightbeaDBA  databaseguy You have edited a data file by hand, just to see what would happen. #youmightbeaDBA  databaseguy You decorate your office walls with database catalog posters. #youmightbeaDBA  databaseguy You've built programs that access data just to keep other developers from asking you to run queries all the time. #youmightbeaDBA  databaseguy When you watch movies like The Matrix, you find yourself calculating the fasibility of storing all that data. #youmightbeaDBA  databaseguy You have tried to convince someone to spend money on an SSD storage array. #youmightbeaDBA  databaseguy When CPU is spiked on a server, you want to gather forensic evidence. #youmightbeaDBA  databaseguy You have to remind developers not to push code to production without checking if the database is ready. #youmightbeaDBA  databaseguy Nobody cares what you wear to work, as long as the thing keeps running. #youmightbeaDBA  databaseguy Telepathy is a job requirement when working with app dev teams. #youmightbeaDBA  databaseguy You read database statistics for the educational value. #youmightbeaDBA  databaseguy And your boss freely admits this to anyone within earshot. #youmightbeaDBA  databaseguy Your boss cannot explain or understand what you do. #youmightbeaDBA  databaseguy You envision ERDs when you see a GUI. #youmightbeaDBA  databaseguy You say things like "applications come and go, but data lasts forever." #youmightbeaDBA  databaseguy You have memorized the names of several of the AdventureWorks employees. #youmightbeaDBA  databaseguy You know what MAXDOP setting you can get away with for a big query based on current server load. #youmightbeaDBA  databaseguy And you immediately recognize the recursion in my last tweet. #youmightbeaDBA  databaseguy You find 50 simultaneous tweets from @buckwoody about #youmightbeaDBA :O)  DBAishness You have "funny stories" about the times your developers accidentally deleted the T-log in their test environment. #youmightbeaDBA  DBAishness Planning to slice and dice your MDW data with PowerPivot makes you giggle like a schoolgirl. #youmightbeaDBA  donalddotfarmer You think @buckwoody lives in the "real world." #youmightbeaDBA  jamach09 @buckwoody #youmightbeaDBA Why go outside when you can sit in the nice cool server room?  jamach09 If you refer to procreation as "Replication", #youmightbeaDBA.  jamach09 If you think ORM is a four-letter word, #youmightbeaDBA  JamesMarsh If you have ever preached the value of Source Code Control, #YouMightBeADBA  jethrocarr @venzann You store your shopping list in a ACID compliant DB #youmightbeaDBA  joe_positive @buckwoody thought it stood for "Don't Bother Asking" #youmightbeaDBA  joe_positive when you check your IT Events Calendar before making weekend plans #youmightbeaDBA  LadyRuna You cringe whenever someone calls Excel a database #youmightbeaDBA  LadyRuna When the waiter says he'll be your server today, you ask how many terabytes he is #youmightbeaDBA  LadyRuna you always call the asterisk a "Star" #youmightbeaDBA  LadyRuna You walk into a server room, say "Nice RACK!" and everyone there knows you're talking about server rack... #youmightbeaDBA  LadyRuna You receive more messages from servers than from friends #youmightbeaDBA  LadyRuna hmmm... #youmightbeaDBA if your recipe for gumbo is "SELECT * FROM Refrigerator"  markjholmes @SQLSoldier Heh. #youmightbeaDBA if you correct other DBAs' spelling of @PaulRandal  markjholmes #youmightbeaDBA if you actually test RAID5 vs RAID10 on your SAN because when it comes to configuration, "it depends."  markjholmes #youmightbeaDBA if you have at least 3 definitions of the word "cluster"  MarlonRibunal 3 Words: @BrentO, snicker, & Access #youmightbeaDBA  MarlonRibunal @onpnt @mikeSQL my appeal was a couple of mins late. Enjoying #youmightbeaDBA  MarlonRibunal @mikeSQL @onpnt pls, don't mention bacon #youmightbeaDBA  merv @buckwoody You HATE 3-way joins #youmightbeaDBA  MidnightDBA If you're up at midnight Tweeting about SQL #youmightbeaDBA  MidnightDBA @buckwoody I'd noticed that. :) #youmightbeaDBA  mikeSQL when people talk about "their type" you're thinking varchar, bigint, binary, etc #youmightbeadba  mikeSQL people ask you to go to lunch , but you can't go because you're attending #SQLlunch #youmightbeadba  mikeSQL you laugh for hours at all of the #sqlmoviequotes ....things in which a normal individual would scratch their head at. #youmightbeadba  mikeSQL you laugh for hours at all of the #sqlmoviequotes ....things in which a normal individual would scratch their head at. #youmightbeadba  mrdenny If you think that @buckwoody's demo using PowerPivot to analyze index usage data from DMVs is awesome then #youmightbeaDBA  mrdenny You wish @PaulRandal still worked at Microsoft so that they would make a bobble head of him #youmightbeadba  mrdenny When it's 11pm on a holiday weekend, and your posting stupid jokes on Twitter then #youmightbeadba  mrdenny If you go out with friends and wonder why no one's wearing a kilt then #YouMightBeADBA  mrdenny You can't do basic math, but you know off the top of your head how many CALs $14,412 can buy you. #YoumightbeaDBA  mrdenny If you've ever setup a SQL Job to email you to get you out of a regularly scheduled meeting #YouMightBeADBA.  mrdenny You throw up in your mouth a little when ever you here the word "Access". Even if it doesn't relate to a MS product. #YouMightBeADBA  msdtjones You spend more time listening to @buckwoody than your wife #youmightbeaDBA  NFDotCom You perform "hail deltas" on a regular basis. #YouMightBeADBA  NoelMcKinney If you tell your wife you want to go to Columbus Ohio for your wedding anniversary so you can attend #sqlsat42 then #youmightbeaDBA  NoelMcKinney You read a union is on strike and wonder if it's a UNION ALL #youmightbeaDBA  NoelMcKinney You read a union is on strike and wonder if it's a UNION ALL #youmightbeaDBA  NoelMcKinney Someone asks you to throw another log on the fire and you tell them not to worry about it because Autogrowth is turned on #youmightbeaDBA  Nuurdygirl Even if you have a girlfriend...its possible #youmightbeadba. Yeah-i said its possible!  Nuurdygirl When your girlfriend has to lean around the laptop to kiss you goodnight #youmightbeadba  Old_Man_Fish If you worry about how big your package is and how long it takes to finish #youmightbeaDBA  Old_Man_Fish If you no longer wonder if someone is in trouble or died if you are getting calls at 2AM #youmightbeaDBA  Old_Man_Fish If, when you hear the word ACCESS with no connotation you blood pressure jumps 50 points, #youmightbeaDBA  onpnt When you hear the word inject you immediately get concerned if your databases are OK #youmightbeaDBA  onpnt Your servers haven't been rebooted in a year #youmightbeaDBA  onpnt You know why it's funny when @PaulRandal has the word, "Sheep" in a tweet #youmightbeaDBA  onpnt You have read BOL without actually having a problem to figure out #youmightbeaDBA  onpnt You can type "SELECT columns FROM tables" without typos but tipen ni Banglish ares a messis #youmightbeaDBA  onpnt DR strategies doesn't include the word, RAID in them #youmightbeaDBA  onpnt you can move a SQL Server instance to a new server without the users ever knowing #youmightbeaDBA  onpnt You have made an SSIS package that is more than one step #youmightbeaDBA  onpnt You have the balls to say no to your boss when they ask for the sa password #youmightbeaDBA  onpnt you google to trouble shoot a problem and end up at your own blog (and it fixes it) #youmightbeaDBA  onpnt You talk your wife into moving the family vacation a week earlier so you can attend the areas local SSUG meeting #youmightbeaDBA  onpnt you can explain to a nontechnical person what a deadlock is #youmightbeaDBA  onpnt You hope a girl asks you what your collation is #youmightbeaDBA  onpnt you make jokes that include the words shrink, truncate and 1205. And you are the only one that laughs at them #youmightbeaDBA  onpnt You rate your ability to stay awake to work longer on blogs, twitter, forums and your day to day job with the 5 9's goal #youmightbeaDBA  onpnt you have major surgery and beg the doctor to release you back to work 5 days later because you miss your servers #youmightbeaDBA #TrueStory  onpnt You do have backups and you know how to use them #youmightbeaDBA  onpnt It's the network #youmightbeaDBA  onpnt When the developers get to work your mood changes rapidly #youmightbeaDBA  onpnt When someone says, "PASS", you first think of karaoke #youmightbeaDBA  onpnt Recruiters try to get you to call them *just* because they think you'll give them @BrentO contact info #youmightbeaDBA  onpnt You chuckle every time you go to grab the "CLR" Calcium, Lime and Rust Remover to clean something #youmightbeaDBA  onpnt @MarlonRibunal @mikeSQL Sorry man, it was already in motion ;-) #youmightbeaDBA  onpnt When you have an "I love bacon" sticker on your laptop. #youmightbeaDBA http://twitpic.com/1ry671  onpnt You sing SELECT statements in the shower #youmightbeaDBA  onpnt When you see a chicken it doesn't remind you of food. It reminds you of a guy named Jorge #youmightbeaDBA  onpnt At time, SQL is your mistress #youmightbeaDBA  onpnt Your wife wonders if SQL is the code name of your mistress at times #youmightbeaDBA  onpnt it's Friday and you are on twitter thinking really hard about what would be funny for hash tag #youmightbeaDBA  onpnt You organize your wife's "decorative"pillows on the bed in a B-Tree structure #youmightbeaDBA  PaulWhiteNZ If you: SELECT TOP (1) milk FROM fridge WHERE use_by_date >= GET_DATE() ORDER BY use_by_date ASC #YouMightBeaDBA  RonDBA #youmightbeaDBA if you read @buckwoody's and @BrentO's blogs.  ryaneastabrook @buckwoody omg, you have to stand up a website with these on them, they are awesome #youmightbeaDBA  soulvy @StrateSQL @LadyRuna Or a "Splat" #youmightbeaDBA  speedracer You can still fall asleep after three cups of coffee #youmightbeaDBA  speedracer You retweet @buckwoody on a Friday night #youmightbeaDBA  speedracer You can still fall asleep after three cups of coffee #youmightbeaDBA  speedracer Developers make you twitch #youmightbeaDBA  sqlagentman You know what X/1024*8 is. #YouMightBeADBA  SqlAsylum Your still in the office at 5:00 on memorial day weekend. #youmightbeadba :)  SQLBob Whenever someone you know gets pregnant you bring up INNER JOINs or SQL Injection attacks... #youmightbeaDBA  SQLChicken You know one or more SQL folks in the community with an animal in their username #youmightbeaDBA  SQLChicken You've used one or more car analogies to explain how a database works #youmightbeaDBA  SQLChicken “@sqljoe: #youmightbeaDBA if you applied to attend #sqlu and requested @SQLChicken to pull strings for you” lmao nice!  SQLChicken When talking about SSIS your discussions break down into various jokes about packages #youmightbeaDBA  SQLChicken Just SEEING the code for cursors makes you break out in hives #youmightbeaDBA  SQLChicken Just SEEING the code for cursors makes you break out in hives #youmightbeaDBA  SQLCraftsman You coined the phrase "Magic SAN Dust" because calling a vendor's marketing claims BS is not acceptable in a meeting. #YouMightBeADBA  SQLCraftsman If you hear about a new feature with the acronym "DAC" and wonder what disaster of a feature it is attached to this time. #YouMightBeADBA  SQLCraftsman You really own a "Stick of Much Developer Whacking" #YouMightBeADBA  SQLCraftsman You coined the phrase "Magic SAN Dust" because calling a vendor's marketing claims BS is not acceptable in a meeting. #YouMightBeADBA  SQLCraftsman Default Blame Acceptor #YouMightBeADBA  SQLCraftsman If you hear about a new feature with the acronym "DAC" and wonder what disaster of a feature it is attached to this time. #YouMightBeADBA  SQLCraftsman Default Blame Acceptor #YouMightBeADBA  SQLCraftsman If you hear about a new feature with the acronym "DAC" and wonder what disaster of a feature it is attached to this time. #YouMightBeADBA  sqljoe #youmightbeaDBA if you wished your wife knew T-sql. USE ShoppingList SELECT NecessaryItems from Supermarket WHERE Category<> ("junk food")  sqljoe #youmightbeaDBA if the first thing you kiss when you wake up is your mobile for not waking you up in the middle of the night  sqljoe #youmightbeaDBA if your wife has a "Do Not Fly" family vacation list of her own including your laptop and mobile  sqljoe #youmightbeaDBA if you have researched for DBA Anonymous groups and attended a #SSUG willing to drop your database (vice)  sqljoe #youmightbeaDBA if your only maintenance windows are staff meetings  sqljoe #youmightbeaDBA if you think of yourself as "The One" in The Matrix "balancing the equation" from The Architect's (developers) poor coding  sqljoe #youmightbeaDBA if you think @PaulRandal should have played the Oracle in The Matrix  sqljoe #youmightbeaDBA if home CD & Movie collection is stored in secured containers,in logical order & naming convention,and with a backup copy  sqljoe #youmightbeaDBA if you applied to attend #sqlu and requested @SQLChicken to pull strings for you  sqljoe #youmightbeaDBA if you have tried to TiVo @MidnightDBA broadcasts  sqljoe #youmightbeaDBA if your #sql user group feels like #AA meetings  sqljoe #youmightbeaDBA if you thought of bringing your #sql books to #sqlsaturday and #sqlpass for autographs  sqljoe #youmightbeaDBA if #sqlpass feels like the #oscars  sqljoe #youmightbeaDBA if you are proud of your small package  SQLLawman #youmightbeaDBA when you hear MDX and Acura is not first thought that comes to mind.  sqlrunner If your wife double checks that there isn't a SQLSat within 200 miles of your vacation destination #youmightbeaDBA  sqlrunner When you're on a conference call and your wife thinks your speaking in a foreign language #youmightbeaDBA  sqlrunner When you're on a conference call and your wife thinks your speaking in a foreign language #youmightbeaDBA  sqlrunner You treat the word 'access' as a verb, not a noun #youmightbeaDBA  sqlrunner If you are happy with sub-second performance #youmightbeaDBA  sqlrunner When you know the names of the NOC people AND their families #youmightbeadba  sqlrunner When you know the names of the NOC people AND their families #youmightbeadba  sqlrunner Your company set's up international phone coverage for your cruise #youmightbeaDBA  sqlsamson @buckwoody if your manager asks you for data and you respond with "there's a script for that" #youmightbeadba  sqlsamson @buckwoody If you receive more messages from your server then your spouse #youmightbeadba  SQLSoldier You've spent all night Valentines Day upgrading the SQL Servers and forgot to tell your wife you'd be working late. #youmightbeadba  SQLSoldier You're flattered when someone calls you a geek. #youmightbeadba  SQLSoldier @llangit @mrdenny it's 11pm on a holiday weekend, & your reading stupid jokes on Twitter then #youmightbeadba  SQLSoldier Your manager borrows lunch money from you because your salary is 30% higher than his. #youmightbeaDBA  SQLSoldier You think "intellisense" is a double negative because it's not intelligent nor makes sense. #youmightbeaDBA  SQLSoldier 75% of the emails you receive at home have the phrase "now following you on Twitter!" in the subject line. #youmightbeaDBA  SQLSoldier You petition Ken Burns to remake Office Space because it should have been 18 hours long. #youmightbeaDBA  SQLSoldier You select a candidate for a Jr DBA position because his resume said he's willing to get your coffee. #youmightbeaDBA  SQLSoldier Somebody misquotes @PaulRandall and you call him on your cell to verify. #youmightbeaDBA  SQLSoldier You wish the elevator in your building was slower because it's the last time you'll be left alone all day. #youmightbeaDBA  SQLSoldier The developers sacrifice small animals before giving you their code for review. #youmightbeaDBA  SQLSoldier Developers bring you coffee and a BLT when you review their code. #youmightbeaDBA #IWish  SQLSoldier You can get out of any family get-together by saying you have to work and nobody questions it. #youmightbeaDBA  SQLSoldier You've requested a HP Superdome for you "test" box. #youmightbeaDBA  SQLSoldier Your leave work early because your internet connection to the data center is better at home #youmightbeaDBA  SQLSoldier The new CEO asks you to justify your salary, so you go on vacation for 2 weeks. And he never questions you again. #youmightbeaDBA  SQLSoldier You cheer when Milton burns down the company in Office Space #youmightbeaDBA  SQLSoldier A dev. asks if you've heard about some great new feature in SQL and you show the 16 blog posts you wrote on it ... last year #youmightbeaDBA  SQLSoldier Your dev team is still testing SQL 2008 and you're already planning for SQL 11. #youmightbeaDBA #TrueStory  SQLSoldier The new CEO asks you to justify your salary, so you go on vacation for 2 weeks. And he never questions you again. #youmightbeaDBA  SQLSoldier Your dev team is still testing SQL 2008 and you're already planning for SQL 11. #youmightbeaDBA  SQLSoldier You use a cell phone service coverage map to plan your next vacation. #youmightbeaDBA  SQLSoldier You come in to work at 7 AM because it gives you at least 3 hours without any developers around. #youmightbeaDBA  SQLSoldier You figure out a way to make take your wife on a cruise and deduct it as a business expense. #youmightbeaDBA #sqlcruise  SQLSoldier You name your cat SQLDog because the name @SQLCat was already taken. #youmightbeaDBA  SQLSoldier You rate your blog posts based on the number of retweets you get. #youmightbeaDBA  SQLSoldier You disable random logins just to mess with people. #youmightbeaDBA  SQLSoldier You fall for the pickup line, "Hey baby, what's your collation?" #youmightbeaDBA  SQLSoldier You can blame an outage on anyone in the company because you're the only one that knows how to find out what really happened #youmightbeaDBA  SQLSoldier You can blame an outage on anyone in the company because you're the only one that knows how to find out what really happened #youmightbeaDBA  SQLSoldier You cheer when Milton burns down the company in Office Space #youmightbeaDBA  SQLSoldier Your leave work early because your internet connection to the data center is better at home #youmightbeaDBA  SQLSoldier You cheer when Milton burns down the company in Office Space #youmightbeaDBA  SQLSoldier Your think the 4 food groups are coffee, bacon, fast food, and Mountain Dew. #youmightbeaDBA  SQLSoldier You tell someone your job title and they ask "What?" You describe it and they ask "What?". So you say "computer geek". #youmightbeaDBA  SQLSoldier The #1 referrer to your blog is Twitter.com. #youmightbeaDBA  SQLSoldier Your idea of a good time on a Saturday involves free training. #youmightbeaDBA #sqlsat43  SQLSoldier You write a book that all of your co-workers have and none have read it. #youmightbeaDBA  SQLSoldier You write a book that sells a couple thousand copies and is heralded a best seller. #youmightbeaDBA  SQLSoldier No matter how sick you are, you go to work if it's time to pass the pager on to the next guy. #youmightbeaDBA #TrueStory  SQLSoldier You go out on the town, and strangers walk up to you and say, "Hey you're that SQL guy" #youmightbeaDBA #TrueStory  SQLSoldier Your wife asks you to fix something, and you request a downtime window. #youmightbeaDBA  SQLSoldier Your wife asks when you'll be home, and you tell her that you wish you knew. #youmightbeaDBA  SQLSoldier Your best pickup line, "Hey baby, what's your collation?" #youmightbeaDBA  SQLSoldier Your wife asks when you'll be home, and you tell her that you wish you knew. #youmightbeaDBA  SQLSoldier You know that @BuckWoody is not someone's porno name. #youmightbeaDBA  SQLSoldier You list TSQL as your native language on the 2010 census. #youmightbeaDBA  SQLSoldier Starbucks' stock price drops every time you go on vacation. #youmightbeaDBA  SQLSoldier You're happy when the web master says that the website is down. #youmightbeaDBA  SQLSoldier You know that @BuckWoody is not someone's porno name. #youmightbeaDBA  SQLSoldier You get mad when someone calls your car a "heap" because you've always considered it to be a "clustered index". #youmightbeaDBA  SQLSoldier Your blog has more hits than your company's website. #youmightbeaDBA  SQLSoldier You systematically remove the asterisk key from all keyboards in the company except yours. #youmightbeaDBA  SQLSoldier When asked if you recycle, you reply that you run sp_cycle_errorlog every night at midnight #youmightbeaDBA  SQLSoldier You wouldn't allow someone named @AdamMachanic to work on your car. #youmightbeaDBA  SQLSoldier You switch offices every 3 days to avoid developers #youmightbeaDBA  SQLSoldier PSS has your number on speed dial. #youmightbeaDBA  SQLSoldier You frown when you they tell Neo that he's going to the Oracle #youmightbeaDBA  swhaley you regretted saying "This shouldn't effect production" #youmightbeaDBA  swhaley you regretted saying "This shouldn't effect production" #youmightbeaDBA  Tarwn A pleasurable saturday means spending the day learning more about what you already do the rest of the week #youmightbeaDBA ...oh, wait...  thelostforum For great justice; all our base are belong to YOU !! #youmightbeadba  thelostforum @SQLSoldier: You need a witness to use a mirror #youmightbeaDBA ;)  TimCost you capitalize key words. always. everywhere. you can't help it, usually don't even notice. #youmightbeaDBA  Toshana Your the only one in your company not impressed with the developers new application. #youmightbeaDBA  venzann Coming soon from a (respected) book publisher - @buckwoody's #youmightbeaDBA  venzann He's on a role tonight. @buckwoody is summing up my life with his #youmightbeaDBA tweets...  venzann I love the #youmightbeaDBA tag. Found at least 6 new DBAs to follow..  venzann He's on a role tonight. @buckwoody is summing up my life with his #youmightbeaDBA tweets...  venzann You use #sqlhelp as a primary resource during troubleshooting #youmightbeaDBA  venzann You insist on stricter password security for your sql servers than you implement on your own laptop #youmightbeaDBA  WesBrownSQL @buckwoody you are up so late the only tweets you see are from @buckwoody #youmightbeaDBA  WesBrownSQL @SQLSoldier you are upgrading all your 2005 prod servers to 2008 R2 on a three day weekend... #youmightbeaDBA  zippy1981 #youmightbeaDBA if everytime you do something with #mongodb you think of the Vulcan proverb "only Nixon could go to China."  Share this post: email it! | bookmark it! | digg it! | reddit! | kick it! | live it!

    Read the article

  • BI and EPM Landscape

    - by frank.buytendijk
    Most of my blog entries are not about Oracle products, and most of the latest entries are about topics such as IT strategy and enterprise architecture. However, given my background at Gartner, and at Hyperion, I still keep a close eye on what's happening in BI and EPM. One important reason is that I believe there is significant competitive value for organizations getting BI and EPM right. Davenport and Harris wrote a great book called "Competing on Analytics", in which they explain this in a very engaging and convincing way. At Oracle we have defined the concept of "management excellence" that outlines what organizations have to do to keep or create a competitive edge. It's not only in the business processes, but also in the management processes. Recently, Gartner published its 2009 market shares report for BI, Analytics, and Performance Management. Gartner identifies the same three segments that Oracle does: (1) CPM Suites (Oracle refers not to Corporate Performance Management, but Enterprise Performance Management), (2) BI Platform, and (3) Analytic Applications & Performance Management. According to Gartner, Oracle's share is increasing with revenue growing by more than 5%. Oracle currently holds the #2 market share position in the overall BI Software space based on total BI software revenue. Source: Gartner Dataquest Market Share: Business Intelligence, Analytics and Performance Management Software, Worldwide, 2009; Dan Sommer and Bhavish Sood; Apr 2010 Gartner has ranked Oracle as #1 in the CPM Suites worldwide sub-segment based on total BI software revenue, and Oracle is gaining share with revenue growing by more than 6% in 2009. Source: Gartner Dataquest Market Share: Business Intelligence, Analytics and Performance Management Software, Worldwide, 2009; Dan Sommer and Bhavish Sood; Apr 2010 The Analytic Applications & Performance Management subsegment is more fragmented. It has for instance a very large "Other Vendors" category. The largest player traditionally is SAS. Analytic Applications are often meant for very specific analytic needs in very specific industry sectors. According to Gartner, from the large vendors, again Oracle is the one who is gaining the most share - with total BI software revenue growth close to 15% in 2009. Source: Gartner Dataquest Market Share: Business Intelligence, Analytics and Performance Management Software, Worldwide, 2009; Dan Sommer and Bhavish Sood; Apr 2010 I believe this shows Oracle's integration strategy is working. In fact, integration actually is the innovation. BI and EPM have been silo technology platforms and application suites way too long. Management and measuring performance should be very closely linked to strategy execution, which is the domain of other business application areas such as CRM, ERP, and Supply Chain. BI and EPM are not about "making better decisions" anymore, but are part of a tangible action framework. Furthermore, organizations are getting more serious about ecosystem thinking. They do not evaluate single tools anymore for different application areas, but buy into a complete ecosystem of hardware, software and services. The best ecosystem is the one that offers the most options, in environments where the uncertainty is high and investments are hard to reverse. The key to successfully managing such an environment is middleware, and BI and EPM become increasingly middleware intensive. In fact, given the horizontal nature of BI and EPM, sitting on top of all business functions and applications, you could call them "upperware". Many are active in the BI and EPM space. Big players can offer a lot, but there are always many areas that are covered by specialty vendors. Oracle openly embraces those technologies within the ecosystem as well. Complete, open and integrated still accurately describes the Oracle product strategy. frank

    Read the article

  • Silverlight Cream for March 21, 2010 -- #816

    - by Dave Campbell
    In this Issue: Michael Washington, John Papa(-2-, -3-, -4-), Jonas Follesø, David Anson, Scott Guthrie, Andrej Tozon, Bill Reiss(-2-), Pete Blois, and Lee. Shoutouts: Frank LaVigne has a Mix10 Session Downloader for us all to use... thanks Frank! Read what Ward Bell has to say about MVVM, Josh Smith’s Way ... it's all good. Robby Ingebretsen posts on his 10 Favorite Open Source Fonts You Can Embed in WPF or Silverlight Mike Harsh posted Slides and Demos from my MIX10 Session . The download link at Drop.io is down for maintenance until Sunday evening, March 21. From SilverlightCream.com: Blend 4: TreeView SelectedItemChanged using MVVM Michael Washington has a post up about doing SelectedItemChanged on a TreeView with MVVM, oh and he's starting out in Blend 4... Silverlight TV 14: Developing for Windows Phone 7 with Silverlight John Papa hit Silverlight TV pretty hard at the beginning of MIX10. This first one is with Mike Harsh talking about WP7. (Hi Mike ... wondered where you'd run off to!), and you can go to the shoutout section to get Mike's session material from MIX as well. Silverlight TV 15: Announcing Silverlight 4 RC at MIX 10 In this next Silverlight TV(15), John Papa and Adam Kinney discuss Silverlight 4RC ... thank goodness it's out, we can all let go of the breath we've been holding in :) Silverlight TV 16: Tim Heuer and Jesse Liberty Talk about Silverlight 4 RC at MIX 10 Silverlight TV 16 has John Papa sharing the spotlight with Jesse Liberty and Tim Heuer ... geez... can you find 3 more kowledgable Silverlight folks to listen to? No? then go listen to this :) Silverlight TV 17: Build a Twitter Client for Windows Phone 7 with Silverlight The latest Silverlight TV has John Papa bringing Mike Harsh back to produce a Twitter Client for WP7. Simulating multitouch on the Windows Phone 7 Emulator Jonas Follesø has a great post up about simulating multi-touch on WP7 using multiple mice ... yeah, you read that right :) Using IValueConverter to create a grouped list of items simply and flexibly David Anson demonstrates grouping items in a ListBox using IValueConverter. I think I can pretty well guarantee I would NOT have thought of doing this.. :) Building a Windows Phone 7 Twitter Application using Silverlight In the MIX10 first-day keynote, Scott Guthrie did File->New Project and built a WP7 Twitter app. He has that up as a tutorial with all sorts of external links including one to the keynote itself. Named and optional parameters in Silverlight 4 Andrej Tozon delves into the optional parameters that are now available to Silverlight developers... pretty cool stuff. Space Rocks game step 4: Inheriting from Sprite Bill Reiss continues with his game development series with this one on inheriting from the Sprite class and centering objects Space Rocks game step 5: Rotating the ship Bill Reiss's episode 5 is on rotating the ship you setup in episode 4. Don't worry about the transforms, Bill gives it all to us :) Labyrinth Sample for Windows Phone Wow... check out the sample Pete Blois did for the Phone... Silverlight coolness :) PathListBox in SL4 – firstlook Lee has a post up on the PathListBox. I think this is going to catch on quick... it's just too cool not to! Stay in the 'Light! Twitter SilverlightNews | Twitter WynApse | WynApse.com | Tagged Posts | SilverlightCream Join me @ SilverlightCream | Phoenix Silverlight User Group Technorati Tags: Silverlight    Silverlight 3    Silverlight 4    Windows Phone MIX10

    Read the article

  • Using the Katana Authentication handlers with NancyFx

    - by cibrax
    Once you write an OWIN Middleware service, it can be reused everywhere as long as OWIN is supported. In my last post, I discussed how you could write an Authentication Handler in Katana for Hawk (HMAC Authentication). Good news is NancyFx can be run as an OWIN handler, so you can use many of existing middleware services, including the ones that are ship with Katana. Running NancyFx as a OWIN handler is pretty straightforward, and discussed in detail as part of the NancyFx documentation here. After run the steps described there and you have the application working, only a few more steps are required to register the additional middleware services. The example bellow shows how the Startup class is modified to include Hawk authentication. public class Startup { public void Configuration(IAppBuilder app) { app.UseHawkAuthentication(new HawkAuthenticationOptions { Credentials = (id) => { return new HawkCredential { Id = "dh37fgj492je", Key = "werxhqb98rpaxn39848xrunpaw3489ruxnpa98w4rxn", Algorithm = "hmacsha256", User = "steve" }; } }); app.UseNancy(); } } .csharpcode, .csharpcode pre { font-size: small; color: black; font-family: consolas, "Courier New", courier, monospace; background-color: #ffffff; /*white-space: pre;*/ } .csharpcode pre { margin: 0em; } .csharpcode .rem { color: #008000; } .csharpcode .kwrd { color: #0000ff; } .csharpcode .str { color: #006080; } .csharpcode .op { color: #0000c0; } .csharpcode .preproc { color: #cc6633; } .csharpcode .asp { background-color: #ffff00; } .csharpcode .html { color: #800000; } .csharpcode .attr { color: #ff0000; } .csharpcode .alt { background-color: #f4f4f4; width: 100%; margin: 0em; } .csharpcode .lnum { color: #606060; } This code registers the Hawk Authentication Handler on top of the OWIN pipeline, so it will try to authenticate the calls before the request messages are passed over to NancyFx. The authentication handlers in Katana set the user principal in the OWIN environment using the key “server.User”. The following code shows how you can get that principal in a NancyFx module, public class HomeModule : NancyModule { public HomeModule() { Get["/"] = x => { var env = (IDictionary<string, object>)Context.Items[NancyOwinHost.RequestEnvironmentKey]; if (!env.ContainsKey("server.User") || env["server.User"] == null) { return HttpStatusCode.Unauthorized; } var identity = (ClaimsPrincipal)env["server.User"]; return "Hello " + identity.Identity.Name; }; } } .csharpcode, .csharpcode pre { font-size: small; color: black; font-family: consolas, "Courier New", courier, monospace; background-color: #ffffff; /*white-space: pre;*/ } .csharpcode pre { margin: 0em; } .csharpcode .rem { color: #008000; } .csharpcode .kwrd { color: #0000ff; } .csharpcode .str { color: #006080; } .csharpcode .op { color: #0000c0; } .csharpcode .preproc { color: #cc6633; } .csharpcode .asp { background-color: #ffff00; } .csharpcode .html { color: #800000; } .csharpcode .attr { color: #ff0000; } .csharpcode .alt { background-color: #f4f4f4; width: 100%; margin: 0em; } .csharpcode .lnum { color: #606060; } Thanks to OWIN, you don’t know any details of how these cross cutting concerns can be implemented in every possible web application framework.

    Read the article

  • Adobe Photoshop CS5 vs Photoshop CS5 extended

    - by Edward
    Adobe Photoshop has been an industry standard for most web designers & photographers worldwide. Photoshop CS5 has made photography editing much more refined and the composition process has become much easier than ever before.  To study the advantage of Photoshop CS5 extended over Photoshop CS5 we have written this comparison article, with both a Designer’s & Photographer’s perspective. Hopefully it shall help you in your buying/upgrade decision. Photoshop CS5 Photoshop CS5 has refining feature with powerful photography tools. It made editing process easy as fewer steps are involved to remove noise, add grain, create vignettes, correct lens distortions, sharpen, and create HDR images. It has quick image correction and color and tone control for professional purpose. Intelligent image editing and enhancement , extraordinary advanced compositing has made it a better tool than earlier versions for photographers. It allows users to accelerate workflow with fast performance on 64-bit Windows® and Mac hardware systems and smoother interactions due to more GPU-accelerated features. It also boasts of a state-of-the-art processing with Adobe Photoshop Camera Raw 6 and helps to maximize creative impact. It provides for tremendous precision and freedom. It allows user to easily select intricate image elements, such as hair and create realistic painting effects. It also allows to remove any image element and see the space fill in almost magically. It has easy access to core editing and streamlined work flow and flexible work ambience. It has creative tools and contents. Photoshop CS5 Extended Photoshop CS5 extended is quite innovative and has incorporated 3D elements to 2D artwork directly within digital imaging application, which enables user to do an easy on-ramp to 3D image creation. It also provides for 3D editing. It has intelligent image editing and enhancement. It offers advance composing and has extraordinary painting and drawing toolset. It provides for video and animation designing. It helps to work with specialized images for architecture, manufacturing, engineering, science, and medicine. Where CS5 extended scores over CS5 CS5 extended has many features, which were not included in CS5. These features make it score more over CS5. These features are: Technology for creating 3D extrusion 3D material library and picker Field depth for 3D 3D merging and scene composition improvements 3D workflow improvement Customization of 3D features Image based light source Shadow catcher for shadow creation Enhanced ray tracer Context sensitive widgets, which allows easy control of objects, lights and cameras. Overlays for materials and mesh boundaries Photoshop CS5 extended is far better than CS5 as it incorporates all the features of CS5 and have more advanced features. It allows 3D creation and editing and has other advanced tools to make it better. Redefining the Image-Editing Experience  : A Photographer’s point of View Photoshop CS5 delivers amazing features and creative options so even new users can perform advanced image manipulations and compositions. Breath taking image intelligence behind Content-Aware Fill magically removes any image detail or object, examines the surroundings and seamlessly fills in the space left behind. Lighting, tone and noise of the surrounding area can be matched. New Refine Edge makes nearly-impossible image selections possible. Masking was never easier, the toughest types of edges, such as hair and foliage seem easier to fix. To sum up following are few advantages of CS5 extended over previous versions 64-bit processing Content Aware Fill Refine Edge, “makes nearly-impossible image selections impossible” HDR Pro, including ghost artifact removal and HDR toning, which gives the look of HDR with a single exposure New brush options Improved image management with enhanced Adobe Bridge Lens corrections Improved black-and-white conversions Puppet Warp: Precisely reposition or warp any image element Adobe Camera Raw 6 Upgrade Buy Online Pricing and Availability Adobe Photoshop CS5 and CS5 Extended are available through Adobe Authorized Resellers & the Adobe Store. Estimated street price for Adobe Photoshop CS5 is US$699 and US$999 for Photoshop CS5 Extended. Upgrade pricing and volume licensing are also available. Related posts:10 Free Alternatives for Adobe Photoshop Software Web based Alternatives to Photoshop 15 Useful Adobe Illustrator Tutorials For Designers

    Read the article

  • FFmpeg Video Hosting for Linux and Windows Server

    - by Aditi
    FFmpeg hosting is a special type of web hosting where the host servers have video transcoding software loaded on them, which allows the automatic conversion of videos from one format to another. FFmpeg is a cross-platform solution for recording, converting, transcoding and stream audio and video. It includes libavcodec – the leading audio/video codec library. FFmpeg hosting gets its name from a set of server side programs (modules) called FFmpeg. There are a number of applications or web scripts available, which allow webmasters to create their own video sharing websites. Video hosting typically requires: PHP 4.3 and above (including support of CLI) Mencoder and also Mplayer FFMpeg-PHP MySQL database server LAME MP3 Encoder Libogg + Libvorbis GD Library 2 or higher CGI-BIN There are number of web service providers who provide FFmpeg hosting service. Following is a list of some of the Best FFmpeg hosting providers for both Linux and Windows Server below. Dream Host Dreamhost provides for web based email access, mail filtering, spam filtering, unlimited email ids, vacation autoresponder, python support, full CGI access and many more services. Price: $7.95 View Details Micfo It offers unlimited disk space and bandwidth. Other services include free domain for life and free Website Transfer with many more services. All in all one of the best option to consider. Price: $5 View Details Host Upon HostUpon offers FFMpeg Hosting on all their hosting packages, with readily installed modules to start a Video website or Social Network with Video uploading. These scripts such as Boonex Dolphin / PHPMotion / Social Engine / ABKsoft Scripts / Joomla Video Plugin / Clipshare / ClipBucket / Social Media / Rayzz / Vidi Script work with their ffmpeg. Their FFMPEG hosting plan offers 24/7/365 support with typical response time of 15min or less. Price: $5.95 View Details DownTown Host DownTown Host provides full and exceptional support by live chat and telephone. It has high-power, modern servers and the finest web server technology. It offers free search engine Submission and continuous data backup protection with free email forwarding and site move. There are many more services too. Site5 This ffmpeg service provider offers uptime guarantee, a real time stats on each server and many more attractive services. Price: $4.95 View Details Cirtex Hosting Cirtex Hosting allows to host 7 websites & domains and provides for unlimited storage space and monthly bandwidth. It also offers FTP and email accounts and many more services. Price: $2.49 View Details FLV Hosting FLV hosting supplies RTMP SERVER STREAMING for large size video streaming and server side recording. It is flexible and costs less. They customize to the clients requirements. Price: $9.95 View Details AptHost This hosting service provides for 24x7x365 Premium Support and fully ffmpeg enabled services. Price: $4.95 View Details HostMDS Great Support, Priced Low. It provides for SSH access, CGI, Ruby on Rails, Perl, PHP, MySQL, front page extentions, 24/7 Support, FREE Domain transfer and spam filtering. It offers instant account setup, low latency fast bandwidth & much more! They were formerly known as Vistapages. Price: $4.95 View Details Related posts:Best WordPress Video Themes for a Video Blog Free Web Based Applications 24+ Coda Alternatives for Windows and Linux

    Read the article

  • How Exactly Is One Linux OS “Based On” Another Linux OS?

    - by Jason Fitzpatrick
    When reviewing different flavors of Linux, you’ll frequently come across phrases like “Ubuntu is based on Debian” but what exactly does that mean? Today’s Question & Answer session comes to us courtesy of SuperUser—a subdivision of Stack Exchange, a community-driven grouping of Q&A web sites. The Question SuperUser reader PLPiper is trying to get a handle on how Linux variants work: I’ve been looking through quite a number of Linux distros recently to get an idea of what’s around, and one phrase that keeps coming up is that “[this OS] is based on [another OS]“. For example: Fedora is based on Red Hat Ubuntu is based on Debian Linux Mint is based on Ubuntu For someone coming from a Mac environment I understand how “OS X is based on Darwin”, however when I look at Linux Distros, I find myself asking “Aren’t they all based on Linux..?” In this context, what exactly does it mean for one Linux OS to be based on another Linux OS? So, what exactly does it mean when we talk about one version of Linux being based off another version? The Answer SuperUser contributor kostix offers a solid overview of the whole system: Linux is a kernel — a (complex) piece of software which works with the hardware and exports a certain Application Programming Interface (API), and binary conventions on how to precisely use it (Application Binary Interface, ABI) available to the “user-space” applications. Debian, RedHat and others are operating systems — complete software environments which consist of the kernel and a set of user-space programs which make the computer useful as they perform sensible tasks (sending/receiving mail, allowing you to browse the Internet, driving a robot etc). Now each such OS, while providing mostly the same software (there are not so many free mail server programs or Internet browsers or desktop environments, for example) differ in approaches to do this and also in their stated goals and release cycles. Quite typically these OSes are called “distributions”. This is, IMO, a somewhat wrong term stemming from the fact you’re technically able to build all the required software by hand and install it on a target machine, so these OSes distribute the packaged software so you either don’t need to build it (Debian, RedHat) or they facilitate such building (Gentoo). They also usually provide an installer which helps to install the OS onto a target machine. Making and supporting an OS is a very complicated task requiring a complex and intricate infrastructure (upload queues, build servers, a bug tracker, and archive servers, mailing list software etc etc etc) and staff. This obviously raises a high barrier for creating a new, from-scratch OS. For instance, Debian provides ca. 37k packages for some five hardware architectures — go figure how much work is put into supporting this stuff. Still, if someone thinks they need to create a new OS for whatever reason, it may be a good idea to use an existing foundation to build on. And this is exactly where OSes based on other OSes come into existence. For instance, Ubuntu builds upon Debian by just importing most packages from it and repackaging only a small subset of them, plus packaging their own, providing their own artwork, default settings, documentation etc. Note that there are variations to this “based on” thing. For instance, Debian fosters the creation of “pure blends” of itself: distributions which use Debian rather directly, and just add a bunch of packages and other stuff only useful for rather small groups of users such as those working in education or medicine or music industry etc. Another twist is that not all these OSes are based on Linux. For instance, Debian also provide FreeBSD and Hurd kernels. They have quite tiny user groups but anyway. Have something to add to the explanation? Sound off in the the comments. Want to read more answers from other tech-savvy Stack Exchange users? Check out the full discussion thread here.     

    Read the article

  • Enable Multi-Column Google Searches with a User Script

    - by Asian Angel
    Are you wanting to improve the search results view at Google and make better use of the webpage space? With a little user script magic you can make those search results look and fit better in your favorite browser. Note: This user script may conflict with the AutoPager extension if you have it installed in your favorite browser. Before Here is the standard single column view of search results at Google. Not too bad but the available space could certainly be better utilized. Note: For the purposes of our example we are using Google Chrome but this user script can be easily added to other browsers. After If you have never installed a user script in Chrome before it is just as simple as the regular extensions at the official Google website. Here you can see the details for the user script we are installing. Notice that you can view the source code if desired. To add the user script to Chrome click on “Install”. Once you start the install process you will see an intermediary message asking if you wish to continue in the lower left corner of your browser. Click “Continue” to move to the next step in the install process. From this point on the install process is practically identical to the official extensions. You can see the final confirmation window here…click “Install” to finish adding the user script to Chrome. As with regular extensions you will see a post-install message in the upper right corner. So, what does a user script look like in the “Extensions Page”? You can see the user script entry here…outside of an icon it looks rather identical to a normal extension. After refreshing the search page shown above we now have two columns of search results (default setting). This looks much much better than a single column view and there is little to no page scrolling required now. To switch to a three column view simply use the keyboard shortcut “Alt + 3”. To return to a single column view use “Alt + 1” and for the default two column view use “Alt + 2”. Three keyboard shortcuts for three different views…definitely a good thing. Note: On our test system we needed to use the number keys at the top of our keyboard to switch views…this is most likely the result of unique settings on our test system. Conclusion If you are wanting a better viewing experience when conducting searches at Google then this user script will make a very nice addition to your favorite browser. For those using Firefox you can add user scripts with the Greasemonkey & Stylish extensions. Using Opera Browser? See our how-to for adding user scripts to Opera here. Links Install the Multi-Column View of Google Search Results User Script Similar Articles Productive Geek Tips Hide Flash Animations in Google ChromeEnable Google Search From Shortcut Key in KDE on (k)UbuntuSet Gmail as Default Mail Client in UbuntuSet Up User Scripts in Opera BrowserHow To Enable Favicons for Google Reader Subscriptions 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 Yes, it’s Patch Tuesday Generate Stunning Tag Clouds With Tagxedo Install, Remove and HIDE Fonts in Windows 7 Need Help with Your Home Network? Awesome Lyrics Finder for Winamp & Windows Media Player Download Videos from Hulu

    Read the article

  • Silverlight Cream for March 31, 2010 -- #826

    - by Dave Campbell
    In this Issue: Andrea Boschin, Radenko Zec, Andrej Tozon, Bobby Diaz, Brad Abrams, Wolf Schmidt, Colin Eberhardt, Anand Iyer, Matthias Shapiro, Jaime Rodriguez, Bill Reiss, and Lee. Shoutouts: Cigdem has a post up about here MIX10 Interviewing experiences: MIX10 SilverlightShow Interviews Ian T. Lackey has his material up from his talk Silverlight SEO at the St. Louis .Net Users Group Not Silverlight but definitely WP7 cool, Michael Klucher reports that there are New Windows Phone Samples on Creators Club Online Tim Heuer posted a survey: What tools are the minimum to get started in Silverlight? From SilverlightCream.com: A RoleManager to apply roles declaratively to user interface Andrea Boschin also has a new post at SilverlightShow discussing the use of a RoleManager in WCF RIA Services to apply user roles to elements of the UI... good stuff, Andrea. Virtualization in Silverlight 4 RC Radenko Zec has a post out at SilverlightShow where he explains UI and Data Virtualization then gives some examples of their use in Silverlight 4RC, and some issues as well. MS Word Mail Merge with Silverlight 4 COM Automation Andrej Tozon has a post up at SilverlightShow that I missed in the rush of MIX10. He's doing MailMerge with COM automation and Silverlight 4... actually prett cool stuff and all the source! KISS and Tell - MVVM and the ViewModelLocator Bobby Diaz is blogging about a very popular subject right now: ViewModelLocator. He's not showing production code, but it's a thought... check it out. Silverlight 4 + RIA Services - Ready for Business: Validating Data I'm running behind, but Brad Abrams' next post in his series is about validating data in the business application. He also discusses setting up shared code validation. A One-stop Shopping XAML Namespace for Silverlight Client SDK Controls Wolf Schmidt at the Silverlight SDK has a post up highlighting the SL4 XAML namespace prefix. He starts with SL3 then demonstrates the feature's use in SL4. Binding a Silverlight 3 DataGrid to dynamic data via IDictionary (Updated) Colin Eberhardt has an update to his previous article of the same title. This one is a bug fix on an upgrade to SL3 and also an expansion of the previous post. Demo Apps from MIX10 on Windows Phone 7 Anand Iyer posted links to all the WP7 demos used at MIX10 and at least in the case of FourSquare, the source is on CodePlex. XAML Files for Location Visualizations in Silverlight and WPF Matthias Shapiro has graciously provided XAML for us for Silverlight and WPF for a bunch of different US maps... too cool, now we don't have to be asking 'where did you get that map?'... thanks Matthias! Theming in Windows Phone Jaime Rodriguez has a post up that deep-dives theming in general and demonstrates using it on WP7... end-user configurations and developer stuff. Space Rocks game step 7: Moving the ship It appears that in the heat of battle (blogging) I said Bill Reiss' Space Rocks game he's building is for WP7... obviously it's not, but it's a game folks... :) THis is Episode 7 and he's moving the ship now. SL4(RC) RichTextBox and Access Violation Lee has some code that looks like it should work for a RichTextBox in SL4RC, and it's throwing an error... see if you have a solution for him... or is it a bug? Stay in the 'Light! Twitter SilverlightNews | Twitter WynApse | WynApse.com | Tagged Posts | SilverlightCream Join me @ SilverlightCream | Phoenix Silverlight User Group Technorati Tags: Silverlight    Silverlight 3    Silverlight 4    Windows Phone MIX10

    Read the article

  • Willy Rotstein on Supply Chain Planning

    - by sarah.taylor(at)oracle.com
    Each time a merchandiser, buyer or planner in Retail makes a business decision around assortment, inventory, pricing and promotions there is an opportunity to improve both Profitability and Customer Service. Improving decision making, however, has always been a tricky business for retailers.  I have worked in this space for more than 15 years. I began my career as an academic, at Imperial College London, and then broadened this interest with Retailers, aiming to optimize their merchandising and supply chain decisions. Planning the business and optimizing profit is a complex process. The complexity arises from the variety of people involved, the large number of decisions to take across all business processes, the uncertainty intrinsic to the retail environment as well as the volume of data available for analysis.  Things are not getting any easier either. The advent of multi-channel, social media and mobile is taking these complexities to a new level and presenting additional opportunities for those willing to exploit them. I guess it is due to the complexities of the decision making process that, over the last couple of years working with Oracle Retail, I have witnessed a clear trend around the deployment of planning systems. Retailers are aiming to simplify their decision making processes. They want to use one joined up planning platform across the business and enhance it with "actionable" data mining and optimization techniques. At Oracle Retail, we have a vibrant community of international retailers who regularly come together to discuss the big issues in retail planning. It is a combination of fashion, grocery and speciality retailers, all sharing their best practice vision for planning and optimizing merchandise decisions. As part of the Retail Exchange program, at the recent National Retail Federation event in New York, I jointly hosted a Planning dinner with Peter Fitzgerald from Google UK, Retail Division. Those retailers from our international planning community who were in New York for the annual NRF event were able to attend. The group comprised some of Europe's great International Retail brands.  All sectors were represented by organisations like Mango, LVMH, Ahold, Morrisons, Shop Direct and River Island. They confirmed the current importance of engaging with Planning and Optimization issues. In particular the impact of the internet was a key topic. We had a great debate about new retail initiatives.  Peter highlighted how mobility is changing retail - in particular with the new "local availability search" initiative. We also had an exciting discussion around the opportunities to improve merchandising using the new data that is becoming available from search, social media and ecommerce sites. It will be our focus to continue to help retailers translate this data into better results while keeping their business operations simple. New developments in "actionable" analytics and computing capacity make this a very exciting area today. Watch this space for my contributions on these topics which will be made available through this blog. Oracle Retail has a strong Planning community. if you are a category manager, a planner, a buyer, a merchandiser, a retail supplier or any retail executive with a keen interest in planning then you would be very welcome to join Oracle Retail's Planning Community. As part of our community you will be able to join our in-person and virtual events, download topical white papers and best practice information specifically tailored to your area of interest.  If anyone would like to register their interest in joining our community of retailers discussing planning then please contact me at [email protected]   Willy Rotstein, Oracle Retail

    Read the article

  • Migrating SQL Server Compact Edition (SQL CE) database to SQL Server using Web Matrix

    - by Harish Ranganathan
    One of the things that is keeping us busy is the Web Camps we are delivering across 5 cities.  If you are a reader of this blog, and also attended one of these web camps, there is a good chance that you have seen me since I was there in all the places, so far.  The topics that we cover include Visual Studio 2010 SP1, SQL CE, ASP.NET MVC & HTML5.  Whenever I talk about SQL CE, the immediate response is that, people are wow that Microsoft has shipped a FREE compact edition database, which is an embedded database that can be x-copy deployed.  If you think, well didn’t Microsoft ship SQL Express which is FREE?  The difference is that, SQL Express runs as a service in the machine (if you open SQL Configuration Manager, you can notice that SQL Express is running as a service along with your SQL Server Engine (if you have installed ).  This makes it that, even if you are willing to use SQL Express when you deploy your application, it needs to be installed on the production machine (hosting provider) and it needs to run as a service.  Many hosters don’t allow such services to run on their space. SQL CE comes as a x-Copy deploy-able database with just a few DLLs required to run it on the machine and they don’t even need to be installed in GAC on the production machine.  In fact, if you have Visual Studio 2010 SP1 installed, you can use the “Add Deployable Dependencies” option in Project-Properties and it would detect that SQL CE is something you would probably want to add as a deploy-able dependency for your project.  With that, it bundles the required DLLs as a part of the “_bin_deployableAssemblies” folder.  So your project can be x-Copy deployed and just works fine. However, SQL CE has the limit of 4GB storage space.  Real world applications often require more than just 4GB of data storage and it often turns out that people would like to use SQL CE for development/ramp up stages but would like to migrate to full fledged SQL Server after a while.  So, its only natural that the question arises “How do I move my SQL CE database to SQL Server”  And honestly, it doesn’t come across as a straight forward support.  I was talking to Ambrish Mishra (PM in SQL CE Team, Hyderabad) since I got this question in almost all the places where we talked about SQL CE.   He was kind enough to demonstrate how this can be accomplished using Web Matrix.  Open Web Matrix (Web Matrix can be installed for free from www.microsoft.com/web) and click on “Site from Template” Click on the “Bakery” template (since by default it uses a SQL CE database and has all the required sample data) and click “Ok”. In the project, you can navigate to the Database tab and will be able to find that the Bakery site uses a SQL CE database “bakery.sdf” Select the “bakery.sdf” and you will be able to see the “Migrate” button on the top right Once you click on the “Migrate” button, you will notice that the popup wizard opens up and by default is configured for SQL Express.  You can edit the same to point to your local SQL Server instance, or a remote server. Upon filling in the Server Name, Username and Password, when you click “Ok”, couple of things happen.  1. The database is migrated to SQL Server (local or remote – subject to permissions on remote server).   You can open up SQL Server Management Studio and connect to the server to verify that the “bakery” database exists under “Databases” node. 2. You can also notice that in Web Matrix, when you navigate to the “Files” tab and open up the web.config file, connection string now points to the SQL Server instance (yes, the Migrate button was smart enough to make this change too ) And there it is, your SQL Server Compact Edition database, now migrated to SQL Server!! In a future post, I would explain the steps involved when using Visual Studio. Cheers !!!

    Read the article

  • HSSFS Part 2.1 - Parsing @@VERSION

    - by Most Valuable Yak (Rob Volk)
    For Part 2 of the Handy SQL Server Function Series I decided to tackle parsing useful information from the @@VERSION function, because I am an idiot.  It turns out I was confused about CHARINDEX() vs. PATINDEX() and it pretty much invalidated my original solution.  All is not lost though, this mistake turned out to be informative for me, and hopefully for you. Referring back to the "Version" view in the prelude I started with the following query to extract the version number: SELECT DISTINCT SQLVersion, SUBSTRING(VersionString,PATINDEX('%-%',VersionString)+2, 12) VerNum FROM VERSION I used PATINDEX() to find the first hyphen "-" character in the string, since the version number appears 2 positions after it, and got these results: SQLVersion VerNum ----------- ------------ 2000 8.00.2055 (I 2005 9.00.3080.00 2005 9.00.4053.00 2008 10.50.1600.1 As you can see it was good enough for most of the values, but not for the SQL 2000 @@VERSION.  You'll notice it has only 3 version sections/octets where the others have 4, and the SUBSTRING() grabbed the non-numeric characters after.  To properly parse the version number will require a non-fixed value for the 3rd parameter of SUBSTRING(), which is the number of characters to extract. The best value is the position of the first space to occur after the version number (VN), the trick is to figure out how to find it.  Here's where my confusion about PATINDEX() came about.  The CHARINDEX() function has a handy optional 3rd parameter: CHARINDEX (expression1 ,expression2 [ ,start_location ] ) While PATINDEX(): PATINDEX ('%pattern%',expression ) Does not.  I had expected to use PATINDEX() to start searching for a space AFTER the position of the VN, but it doesn't work that way.  Since there are plenty of spaces before the VN, I thought I'd try PATINDEX() on another character that doesn't appear before, and tried "(": SELECT SQLVersion, SUBSTRING(VersionString,PATINDEX('%-%',VersionString)+2, PATINDEX('%(%',VersionString)) FROM VERSION Unfortunately this messes up the length calculation and yields: SQLVersion VerNum ----------- --------------------------- 2000 8.00.2055 (Intel X86) Dec 16 2008 19:4 2005 9.00.3080.00 (Intel X86) Sep 6 2009 01: 2005 9.00.4053.00 (Intel X86) May 26 2009 14: 2008 10.50.1600.1 (Intel X86) Apr 2008 10.50.1600.1 (X64) Apr 2 20 Yuck.  The problem is that PATINDEX() returns position, and SUBSTRING() needs length, so I have to subtract the VN starting position: SELECT SQLVersion, SUBSTRING(VersionString,PATINDEX('%-%',VersionString)+2, PATINDEX('%(%',VersionString)-PATINDEX('%-%',VersionString)) VerNum FROM VERSION And the results are: SQLVersion VerNum ----------- -------------------------------------------------------- 2000 8.00.2055 (I 2005 9.00.4053.00 (I Msg 537, Level 16, State 2, Line 1 Invalid length parameter passed to the LEFT or SUBSTRING function. Ummmm, whoops.  Turns out SQL Server 2008 R2 includes "(RTM)" before the VN, and that causes the length to turn negative. So now that that blew up, I started to think about matching digit and dot (.) patterns.  Sadly, a quick look at the first set of results will quickly scuttle that idea, since different versions have different digit patterns and lengths. At this point (which took far longer than I wanted) I decided to cut my losses and redo the query using CHARINDEX(), which I'll cover in Part 2.2.  So to do a little post-mortem on this technique: PATINDEX() doesn't have the flexibility to match the digit pattern of the version number; PATINDEX() doesn't have a "start" parameter like CHARINDEX(), that allows us to skip over parts of the string; The SUBSTRING() expression is getting pretty complicated for this relatively simple task! This doesn't mean that PATINDEX() isn't useful, it's just not a good fit for this particular problem.  I'll include a version in the next post that extracts the version number properly. UPDATE: Sorry if you saw the unformatted version of this earlier, I'm on a quest to find blog software that ACTUALLY WORKS.

    Read the article

  • Skewed: a rotating camera in a simple CPU-based voxel raycaster/raytracer

    - by voxelizr
    TL;DR -- in my first simple software voxel raycaster, I cannot get camera rotations to work, seemingly correct matrices notwithstanding. The result is skewed: like a flat rendering, correctly rotated, however distorted and without depth. (While axis-aligned ie. unrotated, depth and parallax are as expected.) I'm trying to write a simple voxel raycaster as a learning exercise. This is purely CPU based for now until I figure out how things work exactly -- fow now, OpenGL is just (ab)used to blit the generated bitmap to the screen as often as possible. Now I have gotten to the point where a perspective-projection camera can move through the world and I can render (mostly, minus some artifacts that need investigation) perspective-correct 3-dimensional views of the "world", which is basically empty but contains a voxel cube of the Stanford Bunny. So I have a camera that I can move up and down, strafe left and right and "walk forward/backward" -- all axis-aligned so far, no camera rotations. Herein lies my problem. Screenshot #1: correct depth when the camera is still strictly axis-aligned, ie. un-rotated. Now I have for a few days been trying to get rotation to work. The basic logic and theory behind matrices and 3D rotations, in theory, is very clear to me. Yet I have only ever achieved a "2.5 rendering" when the camera rotates... fish-eyey, bit like in Google Streetview: even though I have a volumetric world representation, it seems --no matter what I try-- like I would first create a rendering from the "front view", then rotate that flat rendering according to camera rotation. Needless to say, I'm by now aware that rotating rays is not particularly necessary and error-prone. Still, in my most recent setup, with the most simplified raycast ray-position-and-direction algorithm possible, my rotation still produces the same fish-eyey flat-render-rotated style looks: Screenshot #2: camera "rotated to the right by 39 degrees" -- note how the blue-shaded left-hand side of the cube from screen #2 is not visible in this rotation, yet by now "it really should"! Now of course I'm aware of this: in a simple axis-aligned-no-rotation-setup like I had in the beginning, the ray simply traverses in small steps the positive z-direction, diverging to the left or right and top or bottom only depending on pixel position and projection matrix. As I "rotate the camera to the right or left" -- ie I rotate it around the Y-axis -- those very steps should be simply transformed by the proper rotation matrix, right? So for forward-traversal the Z-step gets a bit smaller the more the cam rotates, offset by an "increase" in the X-step. Yet for the pixel-position-based horizontal+vertical-divergence, increasing fractions of the x-step need to be "added" to the z-step. Somehow, none of my many matrices that I experimented with, nor my experiments with matrix-less hardcoded verbose sin/cos calculations really get this part right. Here's my basic per-ray pre-traversal algorithm -- syntax in Go, but take it as pseudocode: fx and fy: pixel positions x and y rayPos: vec3 for the ray starting position in world-space (calculated as below) rayDir: vec3 for the xyz-steps to be added to rayPos in each step during ray traversal rayStep: a temporary vec3 camPos: vec3 for the camera position in world space camRad: vec3 for camera rotation in radians pmat: typical perspective projection matrix The algorithm / pseudocode: // 1: rayPos is for now "this pixel, as a vector on the view plane in 3d, at The Origin" rayPos.X, rayPos.Y, rayPos.Z = ((fx / width) - 0.5), ((fy / height) - 0.5), 0 // 2: rotate around Y axis depending on cam rotation. No prob since view plane still at Origin 0,0,0 rayPos.MultMat(num.NewDmat4RotationY(camRad.Y)) // 3: a temp vec3. planeDist is -0.15 or some such -- fov-based dist of view plane from eye and also the non-normalized, "in axis-aligned world" traversal step size "forward into the screen" rayStep.X, rayStep.Y, rayStep.Z = 0, 0, planeDist // 4: rotate this too -- 0,zstep should become some meaningful xzstep,xzstep rayStep.MultMat(num.NewDmat4RotationY(CamRad.Y)) // set up direction vector from still-origin-based-ray-position-off-rotated-view-plane plus rotated-zstep-vector rayDir.X, rayDir.Y, rayDir.Z = -rayPos.X - me.rayStep.X, -rayPos.Y, rayPos.Z + rayStep.Z // perspective projection rayDir.Normalize() rayDir.MultMat(pmat) // before traversal, the ray starting position has to be transformed from origin-relative to campos-relative rayPos.Add(camPos) I'm skipping the traversal and sampling parts -- as per screens #1 through #3, those are "basically mostly correct" (though not pretty) -- when axis-aligned / unrotated.

    Read the article

  • Finding the maximum value/date across columns

    - by AtulThakor
    While working on some code recently I discovered a neat little trick to find the maximum value across several columns….. So the starting point was finding the maximum date across several related tables and storing the maximum value against an aggregated record. Here's the sample setup code: USE TEMPDB IF OBJECT_ID('CUSTOMER') IS NOT NULL BEGIN DROP TABLE CUSTOMER END IF OBJECT_ID('ADDRESS') IS NOT NULL BEGIN DROP TABLE ADDRESS END IF OBJECT_ID('ORDERS') IS NOT NULL BEGIN DROP TABLE ORDERS END SELECT 1 AS CUSTOMERID, 'FREDDY KRUEGER' AS NAME, GETDATE() - 10 AS DATEUPDATED INTO CUSTOMER SELECT 100000 AS ADDRESSID, 1 AS CUSTOMERID, '1428 ELM STREET' AS ADDRESS, GETDATE() -5 AS DATEUPDATED INTO ADDRESS SELECT 123456 AS ORDERID, 1 AS CUSTOMERID, GETDATE() + 1 AS DATEUPDATED INTO ORDERS .csharpcode, .csharpcode pre { font-size: small; color: black; font-family: consolas, "Courier New", courier, monospace; background-color: #ffffff; /*white-space: pre;*/ } .csharpcode pre { margin: 0em; } .csharpcode .rem { color: #008000; } .csharpcode .kwrd { color: #0000ff; } .csharpcode .str { color: #006080; } .csharpcode .op { color: #0000c0; } .csharpcode .preproc { color: #cc6633; } .csharpcode .asp { background-color: #ffff00; } .csharpcode .html { color: #800000; } .csharpcode .attr { color: #ff0000; } .csharpcode .alt { background-color: #f4f4f4; width: 100%; margin: 0em; } .csharpcode .lnum { color: #606060; }   Now the code used a function to determine the maximum date, this performed poorly. After considering pivoting the data I opted for a case statement, this seemed reasonable until I discovered other areas which needed to determine the maximum date between 5 or more tables which didn't scale well. The final solution involved using the value clause within a sub query as followed. SELECT C.CUSTOMERID, A.ADDRESSID, (SELECT MAX(DT) FROM (Values(C.DATEUPDATED),(A.DATEUPDATED),(O.DATEUPDATED)) AS VALUE(DT)) FROM CUSTOMER C INNER JOIN ADDRESS A ON C.CUSTOMERID = A.CUSTOMERID INNER JOIN ORDERS O ON O.CUSTOMERID = C.CUSTOMERID .csharpcode, .csharpcode pre { font-size: small; color: black; font-family: consolas, "Courier New", courier, monospace; background-color: #ffffff; /*white-space: pre;*/ } .csharpcode pre { margin: 0em; } .csharpcode .rem { color: #008000; } .csharpcode .kwrd { color: #0000ff; } .csharpcode .str { color: #006080; } .csharpcode .op { color: #0000c0; } .csharpcode .preproc { color: #cc6633; } .csharpcode .asp { background-color: #ffff00; } .csharpcode .html { color: #800000; } .csharpcode .attr { color: #ff0000; } .csharpcode .alt { background-color: #f4f4f4; width: 100%; margin: 0em; } .csharpcode .lnum { color: #606060; } As you can see the solution scales well and can take advantage of many of the aggregate functions!

    Read the article

  • SQL SERVER – Clustered Index and Primary Key – Contest Win Joes 2 Pros Combo (USD 198) – Day 3 of 5

    - by pinaldave
    August 2011 we ran a contest where every day we give away one book for an entire month. The contest had extreme success. Lots of people participated and lots of give away. I have received lots of questions if we are doing something similar this month. Absolutely, instead of running a contest a month long we are doing something more interesting. We are giving away USD 198 worth gift every day for this week. We are giving away Joes 2 Pros 5 Volumes (BOOK) SQL 2008 Development Certification Training Kit every day. One copy in India and One in USA. Total 2 of the giveaway (worth USD 198). All the gifts are sponsored from the Koenig Training Solution and Joes 2 Pros. The books are available here Amazon | Flipkart | Indiaplaza How to Win: Read the Question Read the Hints Answer the Quiz in Contact Form in following format Question Answer Name of the country (The contest is open for USA and India residents only) 2 Winners will be randomly selected announced on August 20th. Question of the Day: Which of the following datatype is usually NOT the best choice for Primary Key and Clustered Index? a) INT b) BIGINT c) GUID d) SMALLINT Query Hints: BIG HINT POST The clustered index is the placement order of a table’s records in memory pages. When you insert new records, then each record will be inserted into the memory page in the order it belongs. In the figure below we see another new record (Major Disarray) being inserted, in sequence, between Jonny and Rick. Since there is no room in this memory page, some records will need to shift around. The page split occurs when Irenes’ record moves to the second page. Page splits are considered very bad for performance, and there are a number of techniques to reduce, or even eliminate, the risk of page splits. You can create a clustered index on the table on any field you choose. Sometime SQL will create a clustered index for you. Often times the field having the Primary Key makes a great candidate for the clustered index. Additional Hints: I have previously discussed various concepts from SQL Server Joes 2 Pros Volume 3. SQL Joes 2 Pros Development Series – All about SQL Statistics SQL Joes 2 Pros Development Series – Introduction to Page Split SQL Joes 2 Pros Development Series – The Clustered Index – Simple Understanding SQL Joes 2 Pros Development Series – Geography Data Type – Calculating Distance Between Two Points on the Earth SQL Joes 2 Pros Development Series – Sparse Data and Space Used by Sparse Data SQL Joes 2 Pros Development Series – System and Time Data Types SQL Joes 2 Pros Development Series – Data Row Space Usage and NULL Storage Next Step: Answer the Quiz in Contact Form in following format Question Answer Name of the country (The contest is open for USA and India) Bonus Winner Leave a comment with your favorite article from the “additional hints” section and you may be eligible for surprise gift. There is no country restriction for this Bonus Contest. Do mention why you liked it any particular blog post and I will announce the winner of the same along with the main contest. Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.sqlauthority.com) Filed under: Joes 2 Pros, PostADay, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Puzzle, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, T SQL, Technology

    Read the article

  • Ubuntu 12.04 Bootloader failed to install

    - by Chris
    Sorry about the excessively long question, but I figured giving more information would be better. I recently bought a new desktop for myself, running Windows 7. It has two hard drives, and I wanted to install Ubuntu on a small partition on the second hard drive. I created 25GB "free space" in Windows and ran a LiveCD install. I wanted to select the install options myself but accidentally selected "Install alongside Windows 7," but it seemed to pick up the free space and installed itself there as I wanted it to. However, I was told that the bootloader installation had failed. I chose to "Cancel installation," leaving my computer unable to boot. I wiped my computer and reinstalled Windows. After that, I tried installing Ubuntu through Windows using WUBI, once using files from my LiveCD and once downloading everything again. Both times the install succeeded, but both times when I restarted and tried to load Ubuntu, it gave me an error - wubildr.mbr was corrupt or missing. I checked in Windows - it was indeed present on the C:\ drive. I went back to the LiveCD installation, this time going the custom options route. I assigned 16GB to an Ext4 journaling file system and 10GB to a swap file. I got the same bootloader error as before. Being prompted to select a different partition to install the bootloader to, I first tried the partition Ubuntu was installed on. A window came up saying that the install had succeeded, but a second window gave me the same error and choices as before. I went through every single option it gave me, including the Windows partition and the hard drives themselves (dev/sda, dev/sdb). Same result. I then chose to not install a bootloader. Windows still works fine, and I assume Ubuntu has installed but is unbootable. Knowing that my computer could potentially brick itself again - and, this time around, with a lot of data to lose and hassle to go through if I mess it up - I really don't want to do anything without some advice. So I'll ask this: a) Why did the bootloader fail to install? Can I fix the error and install Ubuntu fresh? b) Is there any way to get around the error, install the bootloader, and point it towards an existing installation of Ubuntu? c) Is there a quicker and easier solution I might have missed? EDIT: Thanks for the tip, AthloX. After testing the liveCD in Virtualbox with no installation problems, I looked around for some alternate bootloaders but had no success. I attempted another install, which installed the bootloader and Ubuntu just fine but bricked Windows 7. I wiped both hard disks clean, including some "System Reserved" partitions I hadn't noticed before, before re-installing Windows 7 on one hard drive and immediately afterwards installing Ubuntu on the other. Now the computer boots into Windows, but I can pop into the BIOS at startup to boot into Ubunbtu via it's bootloader, and I'm guessing it'll only take a bit of poking at the BIOS to swap the load order. Many thanks!

    Read the article

  • Countdown of Top 10 Reasons to Never Ever Use a Pie Chart

    - by Tony Wolfram
      Pie charts are evil. They represent much of what is wrong with the poor design of many websites and software applications. They're also innefective, misleading, and innacurate. Using a pie chart as your graph of choice to visually display important statistics and information demonstrates either a lack of knowledge, laziness, or poor design skills. Figure 1: A floating, tilted, 3D pie chart with shadow trying (poorly)to show usage statistics within a graphics application.   Of course, pie charts in and of themselves are not evil. This blog is really about designers making poor decisions for all the wrong reasons. In order for a pie chart to appear on a web page, somebody chose it over the other alternatives, and probably thought they were doing the right thing. They weren't. Using a pie chart is almost always a bad design decision. Figure 2: Pie Chart from an Oracle Reports User Guide   A pie chart does not do the job of effectively displaying information in an elegant visual form.  Being circular, they use up too much space while not allowing their labels to line up. Bar charts, line charts, and tables do a much better job. Expert designers, statisticians, and business analysts have documented their many failings, and strongly urge software and report designers not to use them. It's obvious to them that the pie chart has too many inherent defects to ever be used effectively. Figure 3: Demonstration of how comparing data between multiple pie charts is difficult.   Yet pie charts are still used frequently in today's software applications, financial reports, and websites, often on the opening page as a symbol of how the data inside is represented. In an attempt to get a flashy colorful graphic to break up boring text, designers will often settle for a pie chart that looks like pac man, a colored spinning wheel, or a 3D floating alien space ship.     Figure 4: Best use of a pie chart I've found yet.   Why is the pie chart so popular? Through its constant use and iconic representation as the classic chart, the idea persists that it must be a good choice, since everyone else is still using it. Like a virus or an urban legend, no amount of vaccine or debunking will slow down the use of pie charts, which seem to be resistant to logic and common sense. Even the new iPad from Apple showcases the pie chart as one of its options.     Figure 5: Screen shot of new iPad showcasing pie charts. Regardless of the futility in trying to rid the planet of this often used poor design choice, I now present to you my top 10 reasons why you should never, ever user a pie chart again.    Number 10 - Pie Charts Just Don't Work When Comparing Data Number 9 - You Have A Better Option: The Sorted Horizontal Bar Chart Number 8 - The Pie Chart is Always Round Number 7 - Some Genius Will Make It 3D Number 6 - Legends and Labels are Hard to Align and Read Number 5 - Nobody Has Ever Made a Critical Decision Using a Pie Chart Number 4 - It Doesn't Scale Well to More Than 2 Items Number 3 - A Pie Chart Causes Distortions and Errors Number 2 - Everyone Else Uses Them: Debunking the "Urban Legend" of Pie Charts Number 1 - Pie Charts Make You Look Stupid and Lazy  

    Read the article

  • Where to start with game development?

    - by steven_desu
    I asked this earlier in this thread at stackoverflow.com. One of the early comments redirected me here to gamedev.stackexchange.com, so I'm reposting here. Searching for related questions I found a number of very specific questions, but I'm afraid the specifics have proved fruitless for me and after 4 hours on Google I'm no closer than I started, so I felt reaching out to a community might be in order. First, my goal: I've never made a game before, although I've muddled over the possibility several times. I decided to finally sit down and start learning how to code games, use game engines, etc. All so that one day (hopefully soon) I'll be able to make functional (albeit simple) games. I can start adding complexity later, for now I'd be glad to have a keyboard-controlled camera moving in a 3D world with no interaction beyond that. My background: I've worked in SEVERAL programming languages ranging from PHP to C++ to Java to ASM. I'm not afraid of any challenges that come with learning the new syntax or limitations inherent in a new language. All of my past programming experience, however, has been strictly non-graphical and usually with little or extremely simple interaction during execution. I've created extensive and brilliant algorithms for solving logical and mathematical problems as well as graphing problems. However in every case input was either defined in a file, passed form an HTML form, or typed into the console. Real-time interaction with the user is something with which I have no experience. My question: Where should I start in trying to make games? Better yet- where should I start in trying to create a keyboard-navigable 3D environment? In searching online I've found several resources linking to game engines, graphics engines, and physics engines. Here's a brief summary of my experiences with a few engines I tried: Unreal SDK: The tutorial videos assume that you already have in-depth knowledge of 3D modeling, graphics engines, animations, etc. The "Getting Started" page offers no formal explanation of game development but jumps into how Unreal can streamline processes it assumes you're already familiar with. After downloading the SDK and launching it to see if the tools were as intuitive as they claimed, I was greeted with about 60 buttons and a blank void for my 3D modeling. Clicking on "add volume" (to attempt to add a basic cube) I was met with a menu of 30 options. Panicking, I closed the editor. Crystal Space: The website seemed rather informative, explaining that Crystal Space was just for graphics and the companion software, CEL, provided entity logic for making games. A demo game was provided, which was built using "CELStart", their simple tool for people with no knowledge of game programming. I launched the game to see what I might look forward to creating. It froze several times, the menus were buggy, there were thousands of graphical glitches, enemies didn't respond to damage, and when I closed the game it locked up. Gave up on that engine. IrrLicht: The tutorial assumes I have Visual Studio 6.0 (I have Visual Studio 2010). Following their instructions I was unable to properly import the library into Visual Studio and unable to call any of the functions that they kept using. Manually copying header files, class files, and DLLs into my project's folder - the project failed to properly compile. Clearly I'm not off to a good start and I'm going in circles. Can someone point me in the right direction? Should I start by downloading a program like Blender and learning 3D modeling, or should I be learning how to use a graphics engine? Should I look for an all-inclusive game engine, or is it better to try and code my own game logic? If anyone has actually made their own games, I would prefer to hear how they got their start. Also- taking classes at my school is not an option. Nothing is offered.

    Read the article

  • Where to start with game development?

    - by steven_desu
    Searching for related questions I found a number of very specific questions, but I'm afraid the specifics have proved fruitless for me and after 4 hours on Google I'm no closer than I started, so I felt reaching out to a community might be in order. First, my goal: I've never made a game before, although I've muddled over the possibility several times. I decided to finally sit down and start learning how to code games, use game engines, etc. All so that one day (hopefully soon) I'll be able to make functional (albeit simple) games. I can start adding complexity later, for now I'd be glad to have a keyboard-controlled camera moving in a 3D world with no interaction beyond that. My background: I've worked in SEVERAL programming languages ranging from PHP to C++ to Java to ASM. I'm not afraid of any challenges that come with learning the new syntax or limitations inherent in a new language. All of my past programming experience, however, has been strictly non-graphical and usually with little or extremely simple interaction during execution. I've created extensive and brilliant algorithms for solving logical and mathematical problems. However in every case input was either defined in a file, passed form an HTML form, or typed into the console. Real-time interaction with the user is something with which I have no experience. My question: Where should I start in trying to make games? Better yet- where should I start in trying to create a keyboard-navigable 3D environment? In searching online I've found several resources linking to game engines, graphics engines, and physics engines. Here's a brief summary of my experiences with a few engines I tried: Unreal SDK: The tutorial videos assume that you already have in-depth knowledge of 3D modeling, graphics engines, animations, etc. The "Getting Started" page offers no formal explanation of game development but jumps into how Unreal can streamline processes it assumes you're already familiar with. After downloading the SDK and launching it to see if the tools were as intuitive as they claimed, I was greeted with about 60 buttons and a blank void for my 3D modeling. Clicking on "add volume" (to attempt to add a basic cube) I was met with a menu of 30 options. Panicking, I closed the editor. Crystal Space: The website seemed rather informative, explaining that Crystal Space was just for graphics and the companion software, CEL, provided entity logic for making games. A demo game was provided, which was built using "CELStart", their simple tool for people with no knowledge of game programming. I launched the game to see what I might look forward to creating. It froze several times, the menus were buggy, there were thousands of graphical glitches, enemies didn't respond to damage, and when I closed the game it locked up. Gave up on that engine. IrrLicht: The tutorial assumes I have Visual Studio 6.0 (I have Visual Studio 2010). Following their instructions I was unable to properly import the library into Visual Studio and unable to call any of the functions that they kept using. Manually copying header files, class files, and DLLs into my project's folder - the project failed to properly compile. Clearly I'm not off to a good start and I'm going in circles. Can someone point me in the right direction? Should I start by downloading a program like Blender and learning 3D modeling, or should I be learning how to use a graphics engine? Should I look for an all-inclusive game engine, or is it better to try and code my own game logic? If anyone has actually made their own games, I would prefer to hear how they got their start. Also- taking classes at my school is not an option. Nothing is offered.

    Read the article

  • New JavaScript Editor

    - by Petr
    I did not write a blog post here for a few weeks. I think the last my post was  about releasing NetBeans 7.1 in the beginning of January. The reason is not that I would change the job:), but that I have concentrated on new JavaScript support/editor. The new JavaScript editor is written basically from scratch. The answer for the question "Why from beginning again, why do you just improve the old one?" is not easy and the decision has more aspects. One of the main reasons is that the old support was written 4 years ago and the architecture is limited. Also during the time, the APIs were changed and it was very hard to keep the editor up to date. Also there is a license issue etc. In short, it is time to rewrite the old JS editor.  We build up strong community about the PHP support in NetBeans and because many PHP developers also write JavaScript code I would like to ask you for a help. There is a continual PHP build with the new JavaScript support. You can download the result of the builds here. It's a zip file. You can unzip the file anywhere, where you want. I recommend to run the build with the new userdir, to avoid damaging your current userdir. It shouldn't happened, but just to be sure:). You can achieve this through the switch --userdir. So start the unzipped file from command line from the folder, where you unzipped it, can be done with this command on unix: bin/netbeans.sh --userdir /path/to/new/userdir and on windows: bin\netbeans.exe --userdir D:\path\to\new\userdir For the developers who use continual php build already, it's well known. There is also full IDE build with the new JavaScript support for people, who need more than only PHP support.  Because the builds with the new JavaScript editor is created from a branch, there are not nightly builds available. They will be, when we merge the branch to the trunk, but so far we have to work only with the mentioned continual build. We will merge our branch after branching NetBeans 7.2 from trunk. This is also answer for the question, what release of NetBeans will contain the new JS support. It should be the release after NetBeans 7.2. I'm asking you whether you could play with the builds or better, could work in the builds with new JavaScript support and tell us every issue that you run in. It can be everything what doesn't fit you, something doesn't work as you expected, something is slow, you want change the behaviour of a feature etc. Your input / comments are very important for us and it will help us to achieve the new JavaScript support that you need.  The best way how to communicate issues is through our Bugzilla, because it is simple to track them. Sure you can write comment here:), but still I prefer Bugzilla for any issue. You can click here (you should be already log in Bugzilla), a form for the new JavaScript issue is opened, with pre-filled component Editor and NO72 keyword. I will write about the single features later, but now I will mentioned a few features that should work in better way than in the old support.  Syntactic and semantic colouring Navigator Mark Occurrences and GoTo Declaration  Code Completion Code Completion is invoked through keyboard shortcut CTRL+SPACE. The first invocation offers items that are found through a source model. Almost all editor features are based on the model, that is build from source code. There is a lot of work on the model yet, but it should offer better results. When the pop up window with code completion items is open and you press CTRL+SPACE again, then the code completion offers all elements that are in the project. In the pictures all elements that starts with letter 't'. Formatter with many options and more :) A few features are not still implemented that are supported in the old JavaScript support (for example jQuery support), but we are adding this features ASAP.

    Read the article

  • Old School Wizardry Tip: Batch File Comments

    - by jkauffman
    Johnny, the Endangered Keyboard-Driven Windows User Some of my proudest, obscure Windows tricks are losing their relevance. I know I’m not alone. Keyboard shortcuts are going the way of the dodo. I used to induce fearful awe by slapping Ctrl+Shift+Esc in front of the lowly, pedestrian Windows users. No windows key on the keyboard? No problem: Ctrl+Esc. No menu key on the keyboard: Shift+F10. I am also firmly planted in the habit of closing windows with the Alt+Space menu (Alt+Space, C); and I harbor a brooding, slow=growing list of programs that fail to support this correctly (that means you, Paint.NET). Every time a new version of windows comes out, the support for some of these minor time-saving habits get pared out. Will I complain publicly? Nope, I know my old ways should be axed to conserve precious design energy. In fact, I disapprove of fierce un-intuitiveness for the sake of alleged productivity. Like vim, for example. If you approach a program after being away for 5 years, having to recall encyclopedic knowledge is a flaw. The RTFM disciples have lost. Anyway, some of the items in my arsenal of goofy time-saving tricks are still relevant today. I wanted to draw attention to one that’s stood the test of time. Remember Batch Files? Yes, it’s true, batch files are fading faster than the world of print. But they're not dead yet. I still run into some situations where I opt to use batch files. They are still relevant for build processes, or just various development workflow tools. Sure, there’s powershell, but there’s that stupid Set-ExecutionPolicy speed bump standing in your way; can you really spare the time to A) hunt down that setting on all machines affected and/or B) make futile efforts to convince your coworkers/boss that the hassle was worth it? When possible, I prefer the batch file wild card. And whenever I return to batch files, I end up researching some of the unintuitive aspects such as parameters, quote handling, and ERRORLEVEL. But I never have to remember to use “REM” for comment lines, because there’s a cleaner way to do them! Double Colon For Eye-Friendly Comments Here is a very simple batch file, with pretty much minimal content: @ECHO OFF SETLOCAL REM This is a comment ECHO This batch file doesn’t do much If you code on a daily basis, this may be more suitable to your eyes: @ECHO OFF SETLOCAL :: This is a comment ECHO This batch file doesn’t do much Works great! I imagine I find it preferable due to the similarity to comments in other situations: // or ;  or # I’ve often make visual pseudo-line breaks in my code, and this colon-based syntax works wonders: @ECHO OFF SETLOCAL :: Do stuff ECHO Doing Stuff :::::::::::::::::::::::::::: :: Do more stuff ECHO This batch file doesn’t do much Not only is it more readable, but there’s a slight performance benefit. The batch file engine sees this as an invalid line label and immediately reads the following line. Use that fact to your advantage if this trick leads you into heated nerd debate. Two Pitfalls to Avoid Be aware of that there are a couple situations where this hack will fail you. It most likely won’t be a problem unless you’re getting really sophisticated with your batch files. Pitfall #1: Inline comments @ECHO OFF SETLOCAL IF EXIST C:\SomeFile.txt GOTO END ::This will fail :END Unfortunately, this fails. You can only have whitespace to the left of your comments. Pitfall #2: Code Blocks @ECHO OFF SETLOCAL IF EXIST C:\SomeFile.txt (         :: This will fail         ECHO HELLO ) Code blocks, such as if statements and for loops, cannot contain these comments. This is ultimately due to the fact that entire code blocks are processed as a single line. I originally learned this from Rob van der Woude’s site. He goes into more depth about the behavior of the pitfalls as well, if you are interested in further details. I hope this trick earns you serious geek rep!

    Read the article

  • FrameBuffer Render to texture not working all the way

    - by brainydexter
    I am learning to use Frame Buffer Objects. For this purpose, I chose to render a triangle to a texture and then map that to a quad. When I render the triangle, I clear the color to something blue. So, when I render the texture on the quad from fbo, it only renders everything blue, but doesn't show up the triangle. I can't seem to figure out why this is happening. Can someone please help me out with this ? I'll post the rendering code here, since glCheckFramebufferStatus doesn't complain when I setup the FBO. I've pasted the setup code at the end. Here is my rendering code: void FrameBufferObject::Render(unsigned int elapsedGameTime) { glBindFramebuffer(GL_FRAMEBUFFER, m_FBO); glClearColor(0.0, 0.6, 0.5, 1); glClear(GL_COLOR_BUFFER_BIT | GL_DEPTH_BUFFER_BIT); // adjust viewport and projection matrices to texture dimensions glPushAttrib(GL_VIEWPORT_BIT); glViewport(0,0, m_FBOWidth, m_FBOHeight); glMatrixMode(GL_PROJECTION); glLoadIdentity(); glOrtho(0, m_FBOWidth, 0, m_FBOHeight, 1.0, 100.0); glMatrixMode(GL_MODELVIEW); glLoadIdentity(); DrawTriangle(); glPopAttrib(); // setting FrameBuffer back to window-specified Framebuffer glBindFramebuffer(GL_FRAMEBUFFER, 0); //unbind // back to normal viewport and projection matrix //glViewport(0, 0, 1280, 768); glMatrixMode(GL_PROJECTION); glLoadIdentity(); gluPerspective(45.0, 1.33, 1.0, 1000.0); glMatrixMode(GL_MODELVIEW); glLoadIdentity(); glClearColor(0, 0, 0, 0); glClear(GL_COLOR_BUFFER_BIT | GL_DEPTH_BUFFER_BIT); render(elapsedGameTime); } void FrameBufferObject::DrawTriangle() { glPushMatrix(); glBegin(GL_TRIANGLES); glColor3f(1, 0, 0); glVertex2d(0, 0); glVertex2d(m_FBOWidth, 0); glVertex2d(m_FBOWidth, m_FBOHeight); glEnd(); glPopMatrix(); } void FrameBufferObject::render(unsigned int elapsedTime) { glEnable(GL_TEXTURE_2D); glBindTexture(GL_TEXTURE_2D, m_TextureID); glPushMatrix(); glTranslated(0, 0, -20); glBegin(GL_QUADS); glColor4f(1, 1, 1, 1); glTexCoord2f(1, 1); glVertex3f(1,1,1); glTexCoord2f(0, 1); glVertex3f(-1,1,1); glTexCoord2f(0, 0); glVertex3f(-1,-1,1); glTexCoord2f(1, 0); glVertex3f(1,-1,1); glEnd(); glPopMatrix(); glBindTexture(GL_TEXTURE_2D, 0); glDisable(GL_TEXTURE_2D); } void FrameBufferObject::Initialize() { // Generate FBO glGenFramebuffers(1, &m_FBO); glBindFramebuffer(GL_FRAMEBUFFER, m_FBO); // Add depth buffer as a renderbuffer to fbo // create depth buffer id glGenRenderbuffers(1, &m_DepthBuffer); glBindRenderbuffer(GL_RENDERBUFFER, m_DepthBuffer); // allocate space to render buffer for depth buffer glRenderbufferStorage(GL_RENDERBUFFER, GL_DEPTH_COMPONENT, m_FBOWidth, m_FBOHeight); // attaching renderBuffer to FBO // attach depth buffer to FBO at depth_attachment glFramebufferRenderbuffer(GL_FRAMEBUFFER, GL_DEPTH_ATTACHMENT, GL_RENDERBUFFER, m_DepthBuffer); // Adding a texture to fbo // Create a texture glGenTextures(1, &m_TextureID); glBindTexture(GL_TEXTURE_2D, m_TextureID); glTexParameterf(GL_TEXTURE_2D, GL_TEXTURE_MAG_FILTER, GL_LINEAR); glTexParameterf(GL_TEXTURE_2D, GL_TEXTURE_MIN_FILTER, GL_LINEAR); glTexParameterf(GL_TEXTURE_2D, GL_TEXTURE_WRAP_S, GL_CLAMP_TO_EDGE); glTexParameterf(GL_TEXTURE_2D, GL_TEXTURE_WRAP_T, GL_CLAMP_TO_EDGE); glTexImage2D(GL_TEXTURE_2D, 0, GL_RGBA8, m_FBOWidth, m_FBOHeight, 0, GL_RGBA, GL_UNSIGNED_BYTE, 0); // onlly allocating space glBindTexture(GL_TEXTURE_2D, 0); // attach texture to FBO glFramebufferTexture2D(GL_FRAMEBUFFER, GL_COLOR_ATTACHMENT0, GL_TEXTURE_2D, m_TextureID, 0); // Check FBO Status if( glCheckFramebufferStatus(GL_FRAMEBUFFER) != GL_FRAMEBUFFER_COMPLETE) std::cout << "\n Error:: FrameBufferObject::Initialize() :: FBO loading not complete \n"; // switch back to window system Framebuffer glBindFramebuffer(GL_FRAMEBUFFER, 0); } Thanks!

    Read the article

  • What C++ coding standard do you use?

    - by gablin
    For some time now, I've been unable to settle on a coding standard and use it concistently between projects. When starting a new project, I tend to change some things around (add a space there, remove a space there, add a line break there, an extra indent there, change naming conventions, etc.). So I figured that I might provide a piece of sample code, in C++, and ask you to rewrite it to fit your standard of coding. Inspiration is always good, I say. ^^ So here goes: #ifndef _DERIVED_CLASS_H__ #define _DERIVED_CLASS_H__ /** * This is an example file used for sampling code layout. * * @author Firstname Surname */ #include <stdio> #include <string> #include <list> #include "BaseClass.h" #include "Stuff.h" /** * The DerivedClass is completely useless. It represents uselessness in all its * entirety. */ class DerivedClass : public BaseClass { //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// // CONSTRUCTORS / DESTRUCTORS //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// public: /** * Constructs a useless object with default settings. * * @param value * Is never used. * @throws Exception * If something goes awry. */ DerivedClass (const int value) : uselessSize_ (0) {} /** * Constructs a copy of a given useless object. * * @param object * Object to copy. * @throws OutOfMemoryException * If necessary data cannot be allocated. */ ItemList (const DerivedClass& object) {} /** * Destroys this useless object. */ ~ItemList (); //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// // PUBLIC METHODS //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// public: /** * Clones a given useless object. * * @param object * Object to copy. * @return This useless object. */ DerivedClass& operator= (const DerivedClass& object) { stuff_ = object.stuff_; uselessSize_ = object.uselessSize_; } /** * Does absolutely nothing. * * @param useless * Pointer to useless data. */ void doNothing (const int* useless) { if (useless == NULL) { return; } else { int womba = *useless; switch (womba) { case 0: cout << "This is output 0"; break; case 1: cout << "This is output 1"; break; case 2: cout << "This is output 2"; break; default: cout << "This is default output"; break; } } } /** * Does even less. */ void doEvenLess () { int mySecret = getSecret (); int gather = 0; for (int i = 0; i < mySecret; i++) { gather += 2; } } //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// // PRIVATE METHODS //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// private: /** * Gets the secret value of this useless object. * * @return A secret value. */ int getSecret () const { if ((RANDOM == 42) && (stuff_.size() > 0) || (1000000000000000000 > 0) && true) { return 420; } else if (RANDOM == -1) { return ((5 * 2) + (4 - 1)) / 2; } int timer = 100; bool stopThisMadness = false; while (!stopThisMadness) { do { timer--; } while (timer > 0); stopThisMadness = true; } } //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// // FIELDS //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// private: /** * Don't know what this is used for. */ static const int RANDOM = 42; /** * List of lists of stuff. */ std::list <Stuff> stuff_; /** * Specifies the size of this object's uselessness. */ size_t uselessSize_; }; #endif

    Read the article

< Previous Page | 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125  | Next Page >