Search Results

Search found 3121 results on 125 pages for 'leaving employee'.

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

  • How-to read data from selected tree node

    - by Frank Nimphius
    Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} By default, the SelectionListener property of an ADF bound tree points to the makeCurrent method of the FacesCtrlHierBinding class in ADF to synchronize the current row in the ADF binding layer with the selected tree node. To customize the selection behavior, or just to read the selected node value in Java, you override the default configuration with an EL string pointing to a managed bean method property. In the following I show how you change the selection listener while preserving the default ADF selection behavior. To change the SelectionListener, select the tree component in the Structure Window and open the Oracle JDeveloper Property Inspector. From the context menu, select the Edit option to create a new listener method in a new or an existing managed bean. Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} For this example, I created a new managed bean. On tree node select, the managed bean code prints the selected tree node value(s) import java.util.List; import javax.el.ELContext; import javax.el.ExpressionFactory; import javax.el.MethodExpression; import javax.faces.application.Application; import javax.faces.context.FacesContext; import java.util.Iterator; import oracle.adf.view.rich.component.rich.data.RichTree; import oracle.jbo.Row; import oracle.jbo.uicli.binding.JUCtrlHierBinding; import oracle.jbo.uicli.binding.JUCtrlHierNodeBinding; import org.apache.myfaces.trinidad.event.SelectionEvent; import org.apache.myfaces.trinidad.model.CollectionModel; import org.apache.myfaces.trinidad.model.RowKeySet; import org.apache.myfaces.trinidad.model.TreeModel; public class TreeSampleBean { public TreeSampleBean() {} public void onTreeSelect(SelectionEvent selectionEvent) { //original selection listener set by ADF //#{bindings.allDepartments.treeModel.makeCurrent} String adfSelectionListener = "#{bindings.allDepartments.treeModel.makeCurrent}";   //make sure the default selection listener functionality is //preserved. you don't need to do this for multi select trees //as the ADF binding only supports single current row selection     /* START PRESERVER DEFAULT ADF SELECT BEHAVIOR */ FacesContext fctx = FacesContext.getCurrentInstance(); Application application = fctx.getApplication(); ELContext elCtx = fctx.getELContext(); ExpressionFactory exprFactory = application.getExpressionFactory();   MethodExpression me = null;   me = exprFactory.createMethodExpression(elCtx, adfSelectionListener,                                           Object.class, newClass[]{SelectionEvent.class});   me.invoke(elCtx, new Object[] { selectionEvent });     /* END PRESERVER DEFAULT ADF SELECT BEHAVIOR */   RichTree tree = (RichTree)selectionEvent.getSource(); TreeModel model = (TreeModel)tree.getValue();  //get selected nodes RowKeySet rowKeySet = selectionEvent.getAddedSet();   Iterator rksIterator = rowKeySet.iterator();   //for single select configurations,this only is called once   while (rksIterator.hasNext()) {     List key = (List)rksIterator.next();     JUCtrlHierBinding treeBinding = null;     CollectionModel collectionModel = (CollectionModel)tree.getValue();     treeBinding = (JUCtrlHierBinding)collectionModel.getWrappedData();     JUCtrlHierNodeBinding nodeBinding = null;     nodeBinding = treeBinding.findNodeByKeyPath(key);     Row rw = nodeBinding.getRow();     //print first row attribute. Note that in a tree you have to     //determine the node type if you want to select node attributes     //by name and not index      String rowType = rw.getStructureDef().getDefName();       if(rowType.equalsIgnoreCase("DepartmentsView")){      System.out.println("This row is a department: " +                          rw.getAttribute("DepartmentId"));     }     else if(rowType.equalsIgnoreCase("EmployeesView")){      System.out.println("This row is an employee: " +                          rw.getAttribute("EmployeeId"));     }        else{       System.out.println("Huh????");     }     // ... do more useful stuff here   } } -------------------- Download JDeveloper 11.1.2.1 Sample Workspace

    Read the article

  • PostSharp, Obfuscation, and IL

    - by simonc
    Aspect-oriented programming (AOP) is a relatively new programming paradigm. Originating at Xerox PARC in 1994, the paradigm was first made available for general-purpose development as an extension to Java in 2001. From there, it has quickly been adapted for use in all the common languages used today. In the .NET world, one of the primary AOP toolkits is PostSharp. Attributes and AOP Normally, attributes in .NET are entirely a metadata construct. Apart from a few special attributes in the .NET framework, they have no effect whatsoever on how a class or method executes within the CLR. Only by using reflection at runtime can you access any attributes declared on a type or type member. PostSharp changes this. By declaring a custom attribute that derives from PostSharp.Aspects.Aspect, applying it to types and type members, and running the resulting assembly through the PostSharp postprocessor, you can essentially declare 'clever' attributes that change the behaviour of whatever the aspect has been applied to at runtime. A simple example of this is logging. By declaring a TraceAttribute that derives from OnMethodBoundaryAspect, you can automatically log when a method has been executed: public class TraceAttribute : PostSharp.Aspects.OnMethodBoundaryAspect { public override void OnEntry(MethodExecutionArgs args) { MethodBase method = args.Method; System.Diagnostics.Trace.WriteLine( String.Format( "Entering {0}.{1}.", method.DeclaringType.FullName, method.Name)); } public override void OnExit(MethodExecutionArgs args) { MethodBase method = args.Method; System.Diagnostics.Trace.WriteLine( String.Format( "Leaving {0}.{1}.", method.DeclaringType.FullName, method.Name)); } } [Trace] public void MethodToLog() { ... } Now, whenever MethodToLog is executed, the aspect will automatically log entry and exit, without having to add the logging code to MethodToLog itself. PostSharp Performance Now this does introduce a performance overhead - as you can see, the aspect allows access to the MethodBase of the method the aspect has been applied to. If you were limited to C#, you would be forced to retrieve each MethodBase instance using Type.GetMethod(), matching on the method name and signature. This is slow. Fortunately, PostSharp is not limited to C#. It can use any instruction available in IL. And in IL, you can do some very neat things. Ldtoken C# allows you to get the Type object corresponding to a specific type name using the typeof operator: Type t = typeof(Random); The C# compiler compiles this operator to the following IL: ldtoken [mscorlib]System.Random call class [mscorlib]System.Type [mscorlib]System.Type::GetTypeFromHandle( valuetype [mscorlib]System.RuntimeTypeHandle) The ldtoken instruction obtains a special handle to a type called a RuntimeTypeHandle, and from that, the Type object can be obtained using GetTypeFromHandle. These are both relatively fast operations - no string lookup is required, only direct assembly and CLR constructs are used. However, a little-known feature is that ldtoken is not just limited to types; it can also get information on methods and fields, encapsulated in a RuntimeMethodHandle or RuntimeFieldHandle: // get a MethodBase for String.EndsWith(string) ldtoken method instance bool [mscorlib]System.String::EndsWith(string) call class [mscorlib]System.Reflection.MethodBase [mscorlib]System.Reflection.MethodBase::GetMethodFromHandle( valuetype [mscorlib]System.RuntimeMethodHandle) // get a FieldInfo for the String.Empty field ldtoken field string [mscorlib]System.String::Empty call class [mscorlib]System.Reflection.FieldInfo [mscorlib]System.Reflection.FieldInfo::GetFieldFromHandle( valuetype [mscorlib]System.RuntimeFieldHandle) These usages of ldtoken aren't usable from C# or VB, and aren't likely to be added anytime soon (Eric Lippert's done a blog post on the possibility of adding infoof, methodof or fieldof operators to C#). However, PostSharp deals directly with IL, and so can use ldtoken to get MethodBase objects quickly and cheaply, without having to resort to string lookups. The kicker However, there are problems. Because ldtoken for methods or fields isn't accessible from C# or VB, it hasn't been as well-tested as ldtoken for types. This has resulted in various obscure bugs in most versions of the CLR when dealing with ldtoken and methods, and specifically, generic methods and methods of generic types. This means that PostSharp was behaving incorrectly, or just plain crashing, when aspects were applied to methods that were generic in some way. So, PostSharp has to work around this. Without using the metadata tokens directly, the only way to get the MethodBase of generic methods is to use reflection: Type.GetMethod(), passing in the method name as a string along with information on the signature. Now, this works fine. It's slower than using ldtoken directly, but it works, and this only has to be done for generic methods. Unfortunately, this poses problems when the assembly is obfuscated. PostSharp and Obfuscation When using ldtoken, obfuscators don't affect how PostSharp operates. Because the ldtoken instruction directly references the type, method or field within the assembly, it is unaffected if the name of the object is changed by an obfuscator. However, the indirect loading used for generic methods was breaking, because that uses the name of the method when the assembly is put through the PostSharp postprocessor to lookup the MethodBase at runtime. If the name then changes, PostSharp can't find it anymore, and the assembly breaks. So, PostSharp needs to know about any changes an obfuscator does to an assembly. The way PostSharp does this is by adding another layer of indirection. When PostSharp obfuscation support is enabled, it includes an extra 'name table' resource in the assembly, consisting of a series of method & type names. When PostSharp needs to lookup a method using reflection, instead of encoding the method name directly, it looks up the method name at a fixed offset inside that name table: MethodBase genericMethod = typeof(ContainingClass).GetMethod(GetNameAtIndex(22)); PostSharp.NameTable resource: ... 20: get_Prop1 21: set_Prop1 22: DoFoo 23: GetWibble When the assembly is later processed by an obfuscator, the obfuscator can replace all the method and type names within the name table with their new name. That way, the reflection lookups performed by PostSharp will now use the new names, and everything will work as expected: MethodBase genericMethod = typeof(#kGy).GetMethod(GetNameAtIndex(22)); PostSharp.NameTable resource: ... 20: #kkA 21: #zAb 22: #EF5a 23: #2tg As you can see, this requires direct support by an obfuscator in order to perform these rewrites. Dotfuscator supports it, and now, starting with SmartAssembly 6.6.4, SmartAssembly does too. So, a relatively simple solution to a tricky problem, with some CLR bugs thrown in for good measure. You don't see those every day! Cross posted from Simple Talk.

    Read the article

  • Cancelling Route Navigation in AngularJS Controllers

    - by dwahlin
    If you’re new to AngularJS check out my AngularJS in 60-ish Minutes video tutorial or download the free eBook. Also check out The AngularJS Magazine for up-to-date information on using AngularJS to build Single Page Applications (SPAs). Routing provides a nice way to associate views with controllers in AngularJS using a minimal amount of code. While a user is normally able to navigate directly to a specific route, there may be times when a user triggers a route change before they’ve finalized an important action such as saving data. In these types of situations you may want to cancel the route navigation and ask the user if they’d like to finish what they were doing so that their data isn’t lost. In this post I’ll talk about a technique that can be used to accomplish this type of routing task.   The $locationChangeStart Event When route navigation occurs in an AngularJS application a few events are raised. One is named $locationChangeStart and the other is named $routeChangeStart (there are other events as well). At the current time (version 1.2) the $routeChangeStart doesn’t provide a way to cancel route navigation, however, the $locationChangeStart event can be used to cancel navigation. If you dig into the AngularJS core script you’ll find the following code that shows how the $locationChangeStart event is raised as the $browser object’s onUrlChange() function is invoked:   $browser.onUrlChange(function (newUrl) { if ($location.absUrl() != newUrl) { if ($rootScope.$broadcast('$locationChangeStart', newUrl, $location.absUrl()).defaultPrevented) { $browser.url($location.absUrl()); return; } $rootScope.$evalAsync(function () { var oldUrl = $location.absUrl(); $location.$$parse(newUrl); afterLocationChange(oldUrl); }); if (!$rootScope.$$phase) $rootScope.$digest(); } }); .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; } The key part of the code is the call to $broadcast. This call broadcasts the $locationChangeStart event to all child scopes so that they can be notified before a location change is made. To handle the $locationChangeStart event you can use the $rootScope.on() function. For this example I’ve added a call to $on() into a function that is called immediately after the controller is invoked:   function init() { //initialize data here.. //Make sure they're warned if they made a change but didn't save it //Call to $on returns a "deregistration" function that can be called to //remove the listener (see routeChange() for an example of using it) onRouteChangeOff = $rootScope.$on('$locationChangeStart', routeChange); } This code listens for the $locationChangeStart event and calls routeChange() when it occurs. The value returned from calling $on is a “deregistration” function that can be called to detach from the event. In this case the deregistration function is named onRouteChangeOff (it’s accessible throughout the controller). You’ll see how the onRouteChangeOff function is used in just a moment.   Cancelling Route Navigation The routeChange() callback triggered by the $locationChangeStart event displays a modal dialog similar to the following to prompt the user:     Here’s the code for routeChange(): function routeChange(event, newUrl) { //Navigate to newUrl if the form isn't dirty if (!$scope.editForm.$dirty) return; var modalOptions = { closeButtonText: 'Cancel', actionButtonText: 'Ignore Changes', headerText: 'Unsaved Changes', bodyText: 'You have unsaved changes. Leave the page?' }; modalService.showModal({}, modalOptions).then(function (result) { if (result === 'ok') { onRouteChangeOff(); //Stop listening for location changes $location.path(newUrl); //Go to page they're interested in } }); //prevent navigation by default since we'll handle it //once the user selects a dialog option event.preventDefault(); return; } .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; } Looking at the parameters of routeChange() you can see that it accepts an event object and the new route that the user is trying to navigate to. The event object is used to prevent navigation since we need to prompt the user before leaving the current view. Notice the call to event.preventDefault() at the end of the function. The modal dialog is shown by calling modalService.showModal() (see my previous post for more information about the custom modalService that acts as a wrapper around Angular UI Bootstrap’s $modal service). If the user selects “Ignore Changes” then their changes will be discarded and the application will navigate to the route they intended to go to originally. This is done by first detaching from the $locationChangeStart event by calling onRouteChangeOff() (recall that this is the function returned from the call to $on()) so that we don’t get stuck in a never ending cycle where the dialog continues to display when they click the “Ignore Changes” button. A call is then made to $location.path(newUrl) to handle navigating to the target view. If the user cancels the operation they’ll stay on the current view. Conclusion The key to canceling routes is understanding how to work with the $locationChangeStart event and cancelling it so that route navigation doesn’t occur. I’m hoping that in the future the same type of task can be done using the $routeChangeStart event but for now this code gets the job done. You can see this code in action in the Customer Manager application available on Github (specifically the customerEdit view). Learn more about the application here.

    Read the article

  • Need personal advice on how to get out of a company..

    - by SOfan
    Hi, I am an SO user since past 6 months and this is the first time I am turning to SO for personal help. I have asked technical questions before with my real ID. I am stuck inside a service based IT company for the past one year and haven't been able to decide if to leave it, when to leave it and how to leave it. I had taken 2 weeks LWP on medical reason roughly at end of 1 year and then soon after reporting, I applied for 2 months more LWP (on medical/personal ground) with the intention of working on my health,take up a hobby class to ward off depression,pessimism, to have some fun in life, and to look for a job which I really would be excited about - that interests me and which matches with my strength. My leave starts from this Monday. So in any case, I had hard set in mind that I will leave the company after I join them back hopefully with some job offer already in hand (after figuring out what I want do). Neither I can stand the past project,past colleagues,company, HR, pathetically low salary. But if I really listen to my heart, I don't want to have to go back to that office after my sabbatical and again have to see those people. I will have to resign it after my sabbatical ends. Then HR people perhaps wont like it, may even accuse me on face or behind back that primary purpose of my leave must have been to hunt for a better job and I lied about medical and person reasons. Also, if they get nasty and force me to serve 2 months notice period. There is no way I see myself after sabbatical resuming in old project or starting new work. It will be a pain. Since they have already approved 2 months leave and stuff, ideally if they want, they should be just able to relieve me right on the next day after I join back. But, I don't know if they want to get nasty, will they mention about my 2 months sabbatical leave in my experience letter or more scary, the term medical/personal reason. I have hard earned my experience here, have worked against my will, mostly it has been painful and slogged like anything, because I realize the importance of work experience in IT industry. I don't have greed to have those 2 months included extra in my experience letter, but I don't want to mess up with my experience letter in a way which makes my next employer ask question, get suspicious, or be wary if I have any medical reason going on. Being an emotional,moody person or somebody who can't be in an environment, once my mind and heart starts hating it. I think it perhaps is best, if I resign on Monday itself telling them (in polite manner) something that look I took sabbatical for some reason but I don't want to resume working in the company after my sabbatical ends. So please accept my resignation. Now tell me what you want to do about my leave request, my notice period and when you are willing to relieve me. What should I write and how? Some background: I am working in an IT company in India.I am overqualified in the company. It is grossly underpaying me. My education qualifications far exceed anyone's in the whole company being a CS undergrad as well as a CS grad. I joined this company after finishing the grad. I had self-doubts about my skills and interest as a programmer. I like doing research oriented work, though didn't have any particular success during grad. My life here has been very hectic. The project containing many many sub-projects has kept me on my toes and I have never really liked the work. I have been playing against my strength. Also the company strict internet usage policy (you can't read gmails, can't browse any non-work related sites not even news). When working for a client, from the machine we can't even check company related emails.For this one has to go to kiosk like 5 machines in a small room etc. Most of the times those machines are not available, so it was not unusual to keep making rounds to these kiosk machines to check company emails, browse company related emails etc.So it was not so easy to keep in touch with company related basic affairs for a not particular careful person. Things like this which are new to me, make me feel restricted. I am an undecisive person with a sense of failure, self-doubt, not meeting up unrealistic expectation. Somewhere at back of mind, I envy my classmates who make a smooth transition from company to company without causing any gap in their resume. I on other hand have gaps in resume. I get tired after working in a place for sometime. problem with colleagues in general. I am not particular great with people, have few friends, not known for a fun nature, rather serious, scholar. I am not a typical conventional female. I think females are usually more disciplined. But I am not so. I reach office late (though after informing manager). I don't want to blame them entirely, because from my past, it is not unusual for me to get undecisive on things. Also I had doubts about my ability as researched and to succeed there. of building a relationship in a group, to have something to talk about, newspaper. I get cut-off from people. peer pressure. I make blunders in coding, lose patience. Consciously or unconsciously I feel contempt for people here, work here, environment here. I have doubts that either I go to a place which does innovation, does research oriented work, product biggies, have great motivated people, have competent people passionate about products they are building. But then I also doubt my ability to survive there. I have identified that an idea job for me would be 4 days a week, a high salary job. When among people in company/team, I can't think much. I need some time at home to read good authentic books written in good style on what work I am doing.So that I am comfortable with my understanding of work. I get into pressure easily under deadline and need 5th day to cool myself off. I took for 2 weeks leave, because each day was hell for me. May be the depression phase of bipolar is on and also partially it could be that being a work centered person, who derives happiness,self-esteem from work, haven't been enjoying work and have been working for the sole person of proving stability, and ability to stick, against all odds, and facing what challenges I see, bonding with people, identifying opportunities to learn in given task etc.have been averaging one day LWP in 1 week or 10 days. or may be because of my nature,ADD,not being able to switch context,out of touch with news, don't have a circle of friends with who I enjoy. less knowledge in general to talk about, just some technical stuff.anyway, so due to emotional reason, some practical reason etc, I wanted to be very sure before leaving. So my leave starts from Monday and I should feel happy about it. I have taken the leave to for a few purposes - to take care of my health by regular yoga/exercise (with project on, I just can't do anything regular), reassess myself to see what I want to try next which work I might like, look for next job, take up a hobby which I like say singing. I am not clear on my career,job aspiration. I have tried my hands on research. During this year appraisal yesterday, I even had some conflict with my last manager. In meeting with me one on one, he would say all nice things about me, but in feedback to new manager, he hasn't given any excellent feedback. It is all only good. I am angry at this old Manager. Also new manager also scolded me as I didn't agree to his appraisal and waited to hear myself from old Manager. He kind of scolded me for wasting his time. Am I being unethical somewhere? I am always very conscious of if I am cheating anywhere. What advice I am seeking? How to resign and what to write in resignation letter

    Read the article

  • CodePlex Daily Summary for Saturday, July 27, 2013

    CodePlex Daily Summary for Saturday, July 27, 2013Popular ReleasesSharpCompress - a fully native C# library for RAR, 7Zip, Zip, Tar, GZip, BZip2: SharpCompress 0.10: - Added support for RAR Decryption (thanks to https://github.com/hrasyid) - Embedded some BouncyCastle crypto classes to allow RAR Decryption and Winzip AES Decryption in Portable and Windows Store DLLs - Built in Release (I think)Memory Teaser Game: Full Release 1.1.0: -> Fixed Memory leak issue. -> Restart game button issue. -> Added Splash screen. -> Changed Release Icon. This is the version 1.1.0.0VG-Ripper & PG-Ripper: VG-Ripper 2.9.46: changes FIXED LoginOfflineBrowser: Preview Release: This is a preview release so that others can help me find bugs. This should be pretty stable, but any bugs found should be reported here as an Issue.Home Access Plus+: v9.4.0727: Released to allow you to disable secure LDAP queriesOpen Source Job board: Version X3: Full version of job board, didn't have monies to fund it so it's free.DSeX DragonSpeak eXtended Editor: Version 1.0.116.0726: Cleaned up Wizard Interface Added Functionality for RTF UndoRedo IE Inserting Text from Wizard output to the Tabbed Editor Added Sanity Checks to Search/Replace Dialog to prevent crashes Fixed Template and Paste undoredo Fix Undoredo Blank spots Added New_FileTag Const = "(New FIle)" Added Filename to Modified FileClose queries (Thanks Lothus Marque)Math.NET Numerics: Math.NET Numerics v2.6.0: What's New in Math.NET Numerics 2.6 - Announcement, Explanations and Sample Code. New: Linear Curve Fitting Linear least-squares fitting (regression) to lines, polynomials and linear combinations of arbitrary functions. Multi-dimensional fitting. Also works well in F# with the F# extensions. New: Root Finding Brent's method. ~Candy Chiu, Alexander Täschner Bisection method. ~Scott Stephens, Alexander Täschner Broyden's method, for multi-dimensional functions. ~Alexander Täschner ...Microsoft .NET Gadgeteer: .NET Gadgeteer Core 2.43.800: The .NET Gadgeteer Core installer includes the core libraries and end user project templates for Microsoft .NET Gadgeteer. This is a prerequisite for end users to build and deploy .NET Gadgeteer projects. It includes a project template wizard in the New Project dialog in Visual Studio 2012 or 2010 (or express versions) under the Gadgeteer tab - ".NET Gadgeteer Application". This template uses a graphical designer built for Visual Studio which allows end users to visually configure .NET Gadget...FogBugzPd - Project Dashboard For FogBugz: 1.0: First public release of FogBugzPd. Zip File includes web application. Requires: IIS 7+ Sql Server 2008/2012 or Sql Server Express 2012 .NET 4.5Open Url Rewriter for DotNetNuke: Open Url Rewriter Core 0.4.3 (Beta): bug fix for removing home page New Tab with rules count for each Portal with memory use estimation OpenUrlRewriter_00.04.03_Install.zip : for dnn 6.01 to 7.06 OpenUrlRewriter71_00.04.03_Install.zip : for dnn 7.1KerbalAlarmClock: v2.5.0.0 Release: Version 2.5.0.0 Recompiled it for 0.21 Fixed some issues with Hyperbolic orbits and AN/DN NodesAJAX Control Toolkit: July 2013 Release: AJAX Control Toolkit Release Notes - July 2013 Release Version 7.0725July 2013 release of the AJAX Control Toolkit. AJAX Control Toolkit .NET 4.5 – AJAX Control Toolkit for .NET 4.5 and sample site (Recommended). AJAX Control Toolkit .NET 4 – AJAX Control Toolkit for .NET 4 and sample site (Recommended). AJAX Control Toolkit .NET 3.5 – AJAX Control Toolkit for .NET 3.5 and sample site (Recommended). Notes: - Instructions for using the AJAX Control Toolkit with ASP.NET 4.5 can be found at...MJP's DirectX 11 Samples: Specular Antialiasing Sample: Sample code to complement my presentation that's part of the Physically Based Shading in Theory and Practice course at SIGGRAPH 2013, entitled "Crafting a Next-Gen Material Pipeline for The Order: 1886". Demonstrates various methods of preventing aliasing from specular BRDF's when using high-frequency normal maps. The zip file contains source code as well as a pre-compiled x64 binary.Kartris E-commerce: Kartris v2.5003: This fixes an issue where search engines appear to identify as IE and so trigger the noIE page if there is not a non-responsive skin specified.GoAgent GUI: GoAgent GUI 1.3.5 Alpha (20130723): ????????Alpha?,???????????,?????????????。 ??????????GoAgent???(???phus lu?GitHub??????GoAgent??????,??????????????????) ????????????????????????Bug ?????????。??????????????。 ????issue????,????????,????????????????。LogicCircuit: LogicCircuit 2.13.07.22: Logic Circuit - is educational software for designing and simulating logic circuits. Intuitive graphical user interface, allows you to create unrestricted circuit hierarchy with multi bit buses, debug circuits behavior with oscilloscope, and navigate running circuits hierarchy. Changes of this versionYou can make visual elements of the circuit been visible on its symbols. This way you can build composite displays, keyboards and reuse them. Please read about displays for more details http://ww...LINQ to Twitter: LINQ to Twitter v2.1.08: Supports .NET 3.5, .NET 4.0, .NET 4.5, Silverlight 4.0, Windows Phone 7.1, Windows Phone 8, Client Profile, Windows 8, and Windows Azure. 100% Twitter API coverage. Also supports Twitter API v1.1! Also on NuGet.AcDown?????: AcDown????? v4.4.3: ??●AcDown??????????、??、??、???????。????,????,?????????????????????????。???????????Acfun、????(Bilibili)、??、??、YouTube、??、???、??????、SF????、????????????。 ●??????AcPlay?????,??????、????????????????。 ● AcDown???????C#??,????.NET Framework 2.0??。?????"Acfun?????"。 ??v4.4.3 ?? ??Bilibili????????????? ???????????? ????32??64? Windows XP/Vista/7/8 ???? 32??64? ???Linux ????(1)????????Windows XP???,????????.NET Framework 2.0???(x86),?????"?????????"??? (2)???????????Linux???,????????Mono?? ??2.10?...Magick.NET: Magick.NET 6.8.6.601: Magick.NET linked with ImageMagick 6.8.6.6. These zip files are also available as a NuGet package: https://nuget.org/profiles/dlemstra/New Projectsagree grammar engineering environment: agree is a concurrent parse/generation engine, a .NET implementation of the DELPH-IN joint reference formalism for natural language analysis. AWF's Utility Library: A collection of awf utilities C# chat client with server: Newest chat with client and server.Charming components for Windows Phone: Build Charming apps for Windows Phone. Adds ready-made Search, Share and Settings functionality to Windows Phone. Share more code across platforms.Darkorbit Configuration Manager: config manager dark orbit darkorbit eltepvpers heaven 'Heaven. configuration manager configurationmanagerDarkorbit MultiTool: dark orbit darkorbit multi tool mulitool heaven 'Heaven. elitepvpers awesome skylab bot trade bot techcenter bot multiaccount diabind: Python binding of DIA (Debug Interface Access) SDKDoodle .Net Connector: This library allows an easy access to the Doodle REST API.DssCECB Version 2.0: aaaeCommunity: e-communityEFDemo: This is a demo for Entity frameworkEmployee Directory Webpart in SharePoint 2010: Employee Directory for SharePoint 2010EntityContext: A lightweight wrapper around Entity Framework allowing for accessing some internals of the framework, as well as, some functionality usually required.EwsRelentless: This is a sample application which demonstrates you might place a heavy load of EWS calls against an Exchange server in order to test performance. FogBugzPd - Project Dashboard For FogBugz: This tool helps PMs, Tech Leads and Executives to see actual progress on the projects tracked in FogBugz.HP Battery Health Scan Script: Silently runs HP Battery Check Utility and saves result to an Access DB.I am following: Users can follow nearly everything in SharePoint 2013. This solution provides a list of followed contend where ever you need it in you SharePoint.Image Viewer: Simple image viewer written for academic purposes LIBRERIA PRISA: sistema de ventasLiduv: Facilitate teachers daily work including creating marks and lesson drafts, curricula and calculating marks for written tests etc.Maze Builder Library: A builder for random maze generationPayPal Express Checkout for nopCommerce: nopCommerce plugin to allow for PayPal Express Checkout. Full integration with shipping options.PsTest - UnitTesting for PowerShell: PsTest is a lightweight UnitTesting Module for use in PowerShell. It lets PowerShell users create, discover and run UnitTests in PowerShell.SIGE: sistema integral gestion educativaSql Mass Dumper: Sql Mass Dumper. A simple project to dump all the data in your SQL Server in XML or in JSON format.SSIS Wait Task: A SSIS task which suspends execution for a time period or until a specific time. Additionally a sql statement can be defined that can also delay execution.Tactical Combat - Unity3d Game: A first person shooter! The main character is Billy Hills, need a story plot.The open source customer relation and billing software.: Memtem in a open source customer relation and billing software written in C#.NET.Tridion Gateway Service: WCF Support for the Tridion TOM COM APIWINJS CTK: WinJS Control kit is a set of custom WINJS controls that are not supported by Windows 8.

    Read the article

  • CodePlex Daily Summary for Monday, October 21, 2013

    CodePlex Daily Summary for Monday, October 21, 2013Popular ReleasesVirtual Wifi Hotspot for Windows 7 & 8: Virtual Router Plus 2.6.0: Virtual Router Plus 2.6.0Fast YouTube Downloader: Fast YouTube Downloader 2.3.0: Fast YouTube DownloaderABCat: ABCat v.2.0a: ?????? ????? ??? ????????? ????????????. ???????? ???, ?? ?? ????? ???? :) ?? ??????? ??????????? ???????? ?? Windows 7 - ????? ??????? ????????? ?? ???? ??? ?????? ??????.Magick.NET: Magick.NET 6.8.7.101: Magick.NET linked with ImageMagick 6.8.7.1. Breaking changes: - Renamed Matrix classes: MatrixColor = ColorMatrix and MatrixConvolve = ConvolveMatrix. - Renamed Depth method with Channels parameter to BitDepth and changed the other method into a property.VidCoder: 1.5.9 Beta: Added Rip DVD and Rip Blu-ray AutoPlay actions for Windows: now you can have VidCoder start up and scan a disc when you insert it. Go to Start -> AutoPlay to set it up. Added error message for Windows XP users rather than letting it crash. Removed "quality" preset from list for QSV as it currently doesn't offer much improvement. Changed installer to ignore version number when copying files over. Should reduce the chances of a bug from me forgetting to increment a version number. Fixed ...MSBuild Extension Pack: October 2013: Release Blog Post The MSBuild Extension Pack October 2013 release provides a collection of over 480 MSBuild tasks. A high level summary of what the tasks currently cover includes the following: System Items: Active Directory, Certificates, COM+, Console, Date and Time, Drives, Environment Variables, Event Logs, Files and Folders, FTP, GAC, Network, Performance Counters, Registry, Services, Sound Code: Assemblies, AsyncExec, CAB Files, Code Signing, DynamicExecute, File Detokenisation, GUI...VG-Ripper & PG-Ripper: VG-Ripper 2.9.49: changes NEW: Added Support for "ImageTeam.org links NEW: Added Support for "ImgNext.com" links NEW: Added Support for "HostUrImage.com" links NEW: Added Support for "3XVintage.com" linksMedia Companion: Media Companion MC3.583b: As before release but fixed for no movie poster sourcesNew* Both - Added 'An' as option to ignore in title * Movie - Renaming - added %Z - Sorttitle to Legend * Movie - Renaming - added %O - Audio Channels to Legend * Movie - Remove a poster source from priority list. Reset List back to defaults. * Made Media Companion truly portable application. Fixed* Movie - browse for Poster Or Fanart, allows for jpg, tbn, png and bmp images * Movie - Alt Fanart Browser - Url or Browse window now fully...MoreTerra (Terraria World Viewer): MoreTerra 1.11.3.1: Release 1.11.3.1 ================ = New Features = ================ Added markers for Copper Cache, Silver Cache and the Enchanted Sword. ============= = Bug Fixes = ============= Use Official Colors now no longer tries to change the Draw Wires option instead. World reading was breaking for people with a stock 1.2 Terraria version. Changed world name reading so it does not crash the program if you load MoreTerra while Terraria is saving the world. =================== = Feature Removal = =...patterns & practices - Windows Azure Guidance: Cloud Design Patterns: 1st drop of Cloud Design Patterns project. It contains 14 patterns with 6 related guidance.Player Framework by Microsoft: Player Framework for Windows and WP (v1.3): Includes all changes in v1.3 beta 1 and v1.3 beta 2 Support for Windows 8.1 RTM and VS2013 RTM Xaml: New property: AutoLoadPluginTypes to help control which stock plugins are loaded by default (requires AutoLoadPlugins = true). Support for SystemMediaTransportControls on Windows 8.1 JS: Support for visual markers in the timeline. JS: Support for markers collection and markerreached event. JS: New ChaptersPlugin to automatically populate timeline with chapter tracks. JS: Audio an...Json.NET: Json.NET 5.0 Release 8: Fix - Fixed not writing string quotes when QuoteName is falsePowerShell Community Extensions: 3.1 Production: PowerShell Community Extensions 3.1 Release NotesOct 17, 2013 This version of PSCX supports Windows PowerShell 3.0 and 4.0 See the ReleaseNotes.txt download above for more information.SQL Power Doc: Version 1.0.2.1: Misc. bug fixes Added logic to resolve members of a Windows Group server login Added columns to Excel workbooks to show definitions for server permissions, server roles, database permissions, and database rolesSocial Network Importer for NodeXL: SocialNetImporter(v.1.9): This new version includes: - Download latest status update and use it as vertex tooltip - Limit the timelines to parse to me, my friends or both - Fixed some reported bugs about the fan page and group importer - Fixed the login bug reported latelyTerrariViewer: TerrariViewer v7.1 [Terraria Inventory Editor]: You can now backspace in number fields Items added in 1.2.0.3 no longer corrupt player files Buff durations capped at 9999999 Item stacks capped at 9999999 Version info added Prefix IDs corrected Shoe and Eye color box are now properly clickable Moved Bank and Safe into their own tab Users will now be notified of new updatesPython Tools for Visual Studio: 2.0: PTVS 2.0 We’re pleased to announce the release of Python Tools for Visual Studio 2.0 RTM. Python Tools for Visual Studio (PTVS) is an open-source plug-in for Visual Studio which supports programming with the Python language. PTVS supports a broad range of features including CPython/IronPython, Edit/Intellisense/Debug/Profile, Cloud, IPython, and cross platform and cross language debugging support. QUICK VIDEO OVERVIEW For a quick overview of the general IDE experience, please watch this v...LINQ to Twitter: LINQ to Twitter v2.1.09: Supports .NET 3.5, .NET 4.0, .NET 4.5, Silverlight 4.0, Windows Phone 7.1, Windows Phone 8, Client Profile, Windows 8, and Windows Azure. 100% Twitter API coverage. Also supports Twitter API v1.1! Also on NuGet.Sandcastle Help File Builder: SHFB v1.9.8.0 with Visual Studio Package: General InformationIMPORTANT: On some systems, the content of the ZIP file is blocked and the installer may fail to run. Before extracting it, right click on the ZIP file, select Properties, and click on the Unblock button if it is present in the lower right corner of the General tab in the properties dialog. This new release contains bug fixes and feature enhancements. There are some potential breaking changes in this release as some features of the Help File Builder have been moved into...C++ REST SDK (codename "Casablanca"): C++ REST SDK 1.3.0: This release fixes multiple customer reported issues as well as the following: Full support for Dev12 binaries and project files Full support for Windows XP New sample highlighting the Client and Server APIs : BlackJack Expose underlying native handle to set custom options on http_client Improvements to Listener Library Note: Dev10 binaries have been dropped as of this release, however the Dev10 project files are still available in the Source CodeNew Projects4Elements game project: Project for a game were players will be able to earn money by just playingBible: This project aims to deliver an awesome Bible application for as many platforms as possible.cIFrex: cIFrexConnecting SharePoint with Exchange Server 2010/2013 using remote sessions: The project focuses on connecting SharePoint 2013 with Exchange Server 2010/2013 via Remote PowerShell with C# API Crzy Cms: Crzy CMS is a content management system created in ASP.NET using MVC/Entity Framework.DownloadsArchiver: Kann automatisch das Downloads-Verzeichnis aufräumen.GatePass: Gatepass SystemGenerate PowerShell scripts for SharePoint 2010 Site Collection Administration: Winform tool to generate PowerShell scripts, to move, create, backup and restore site collections It needs to be run on SharePoint Server 2010Generate PowerShell scripts for SharePoint 2013 Site Collection Administration: Winform tool to generate PowerShell scripts, to move, create, backup and restore site collections It needs to be run on SharePoint Server 2013GTerm: GTerm is alternative Terminal for Windows Vista/XP/7 and 8.Ignitron Chess: A newly created software product for playing chess by Ignitron Development Team.Introduccion a C# con VS2012: El curso de Introducción a C# con Visual Studio 2012, tiene como objetivo principal enseñar al estudiante los conceptos básicos de programación utilizando C#Punch Clock: Punch Clock is a online tool for any employee to sign up and calculate their daily,weekly monthly hours and download the report in PDF/Excel format. PVMonitor: This project will provide a monitoring dashboard for PV systems.qttexteditor: qttexteditorRegister Interest app: Register Interest is an app template where you can use to record interest of attendees, useful in marketing distribution.SharePoint Simple Developer: Project allows to simply SharePoint 2010 and SharePoint 2013 daily developers tasks. Main goal is to implement validation of built solutions. Silverlight QB Rating Calculator: Silverlight QB Rating Calculator is a Silverlight 5 App that calculates a QB's NFL and NCAA passing efficiency ratings.SimpleAdditionPage: This projects consists of a simple ASP.NET in VB.NET page that allows users to enter 2 numbers, and display their sum.SP SIN Store: SP SIN Store is an extension to SP SIN that allows users to install solutions in SharePoint similar to the WordPress plugins. Project is in Alpha stage.

    Read the article

  • Metrics - A little knowledge can be a dangerous thing (or 'Why you're not clever enough to interpret metrics data')

    - by Jason Crease
    At RedGate Software, I work on a .NET obfuscator  called SmartAssembly.  Various features of it use a database to store various things (exception reports, name-mappings, etc.) The user is given the option of using either a SQL-Server database (which requires them to have Microsoft SQL Server), or a Microsoft Access MDB file (which requires nothing). MDB is the default option, but power-users soon switch to using a SQL Server database because it offers better performance and data-sharing. In the fashionable spirit of optimization and metrics, an obvious product-management question is 'Which is the most popular? SQL Server or MDB?' We've collected data about this fact, using our 'Feature-Usage-Reporting' technology (available as part of SmartAssembly) and more recently our 'Application Metrics' technology: Parameter Number of users % of total users Number of sessions Number of usages SQL Server 28 19.0 8115 8115 MDB 114 77.6 1449 1449 (As a disclaimer, please note than SmartAssembly has far more than 132 users . This data is just a selection of one build) So, it would appear that SQL-Server is used by fewer users, but more often. Great. But here's why these numbers are useless to me: Only the original developers understand the data What does a single 'usage' of 'MDB' mean? Does this happen once per run? Once per option change? On clicking the 'Obfuscate Now' button? When running the command-line version or just from the UI version? Each question could skew the data 10-fold either way, and the answers only known by the developer that instrumented the application in the first place. In other words, only the original developer can interpret the data - product-managers cannot interpret the data unaided. Most of the data is from uninterested users About half of people who download and run a free-trial from the internet quit it almost immediately. Only a small fraction use it sufficiently to make informed choices. Since the MDB option is the default one, we don't know how many of those 114 were people CHOOSING to use the MDB, or how many were JUST HAPPENING to use this MDB default for their 20-second trial. This is a problem we see across all our metrics: Are people are using X because it's the default or are they using X because they want to use X? We need to segment the data further - asking what percentage of each percentage meet our criteria for an 'established user' or 'informed user'. You end up spending hours writing sophisticated and dubious SQL queries to segment the data further. Not fun. You can't find out why they used this feature Metrics can answer the when and what, but not the why. Why did people use feature X? If you're anything like me, you often click on random buttons in unfamiliar applications just to explore the feature-set. If we listened uncritically to metrics at RedGate, we would eliminate the most-important and more-complex features which people actually buy the software for, leaving just big buttons on the main page and the About-Box. "Ah, that's interesting!" rather than "Ah, that's actionable!" People do love data. Did you know you eat 1201 chickens in a lifetime? But just 4 cows? Interesting, but useless. Often metrics give you a nice number: '5.8% of users have 3 or more monitors' . But unless the statistic is both SUPRISING and ACTIONABLE, it's useless. Most metrics are collected, reviewed with lots of cooing. and then forgotten. Unless a piece-of-data could change things, it's useless collecting it. People get obsessed with significance levels The first things that lots of people do with this data is do a t-test to get a significance level ("Hey! We know with 99.64% confidence that people prefer SQL Server to MDBs!") Believe me: other causes of error/misinterpretation in your data are FAR more significant than your t-test could ever comprehend. Confirmation bias prevents objectivity If the data appears to match our instinct, we feel satisfied and move on. If it doesn't, we suspect the data and dig deeper, plummeting down a rabbit-hole of segmentation and filtering until we give-up and move-on. Data is only useful if it can change our preconceptions. Do you trust this dodgy data more than your own understanding, knowledge and intelligence?  I don't. There's always multiple plausible ways to interpret/action any data Let's say we segment the above data, and get this data: Post-trial users (i.e. those using a paid version after the 14-day free-trial is over): Parameter Number of users % of total users Number of sessions Number of usages SQL Server 13 9.0 1115 1115 MDB 5 4.2 449 449 Trial users: Parameter Number of users % of total users Number of sessions Number of usages SQL Server 15 10.0 7000 7000 MDB 114 77.6 1000 1000 How do you interpret this data? It's one of: Mostly SQL Server users buy our software. People who can't afford SQL Server tend to be unable to afford or unwilling to buy our software. Therefore, ditch MDB-support. Our MDB support is so poor and buggy that our massive MDB user-base doesn't buy it.  Therefore, spend loads of money improving it, and think about ditching SQL-Server support. People 'graduate' naturally from MDB to SQL Server as they use the software more. Things are fine the way they are. We're marketing the tool wrong. The large number of MDB users represent uninformed downloaders. Tell marketing to aggressively target SQL Server users. To choose an interpretation you need to segment again. And again. And again, and again. Opting-out is correlated with feature-usage Metrics tends to be opt-in. This skews the data even further. Between 5% and 30% of people choose to opt-in to metrics (often called 'customer improvement program' or something like that). Casual trial-users who are uninterested in your product or company are less likely to opt-in. This group is probably also likely to be MDB users. How much does this skew your data by? Who knows? It's not all doom and gloom. There are some things metrics can answer well. Environment facts. How many people have 3 monitors? Have Windows 7? Have .NET 4 installed? Have Japanese Windows? Minor optimizations.  Is the text-box big enough for average user-input? Performance data. How long does our app take to start? How many databases does the average user have on their server? As you can see, questions about who-the-user-is rather than what-the-user-does are easier to answer and action. Conclusion Use SmartAssembly. If not for the metrics (called 'Feature-Usage-Reporting'), then at least for the obfuscation/error-reporting. Data raises more questions than it answers. Questions about environment are the easiest to answer.

    Read the article

  • evaluating cost/benefits of using extension methods in C# => 3.0

    - by BillW
    Hi, In what circumstances (usage scenarios) would you choose to write an extension rather than sub-classing an object ? < full disclosure : I am not an MS employee; I do not know Mitsu Furota personally; I do know the author of the open-source Componax library mentioned here, but I have no business dealings with him whatsoever; I am not creating, or planning to create any commercial product using extensions : in sum : this post is from pure intellectal curiousity related to my trying to (continually) become aware of "best practices" I find the idea of extension methods "cool," and obviously you can do "far-out" things with them as in the many examples you can in Mitsu Furota's (MS) blog postslink text. A personal friend wrote the open-source Componax librarylink text, and there's some remarkable facilities in there; but he is in complete command of his small company with total control over code guidelines, and every line of code "passes through his hands." While this is speculation on my part : I think/guess other issues might come into play in a medium-to-large software team situation re use of Extensions. Looking at MS's guidelines at link text, you find : In general, you will probably be calling extension methods far more often than implementing your own. ... In general, we recommend that you implement extension methods sparingly and only when you have to. Whenever possible, client code that must extend an existing type should do so by creating a new type derived from the existing type. For more information, see Inheritance (C# Programming Guide). ... When the compiler encounters a method invocation, it first looks for a match in the type's instance methods. If no match is found, it will search for any extension methods that are defined for the type, and bind to the first extension method that it finds. And at Ms's link text : Extension methods present no specific security vulnerabilities. They can never be used to impersonate existing methods on a type, because all name collisions are resolved in favor of the instance or static method defined by the type itself. Extension methods cannot access any private data in the extended class. Factors that seem obvious to me would include : I assume you would not write an extension unless you expected it be used very generally and very frequently. On the other hand : couldn't you say the same thing about sub-classing ? Knowing we can compile them into a seperate dll, and add the compiled dll, and reference it, and then use the extensions : is "cool," but does that "balance out" the cost inherent in the compiler first having to check to see if instance methods are defined as described above. Or the cost, in case of a "name clash," of using the Static invocation methods to make sure your extension is invoked rather than the instance definition ? How frequent use of Extensions would affect run-time performance or memory use : I have no idea. So, I'd appreciate your thoughts, or knowing about how/when you do, or don't do, use Extensions, compared to sub-classing. thanks, Bill

    Read the article

  • Source code versioning with comments (organizational practice) - leave or remove?

    - by ADTC
    Before you start admonishing me with "DON'T DO IT," "BAD PRACTICE!" and "Learn to use proper source code control", please hear me out first. I am fully aware that the practice of commenting out old code and leaving it there forever is very bad and I hate such practice myself. But here's the situation I'm in. A few months ago I joined a company as software developer. I had worked in the company for few months as an intern, about a year before joining recently. Our company uses source code version control (CVS) but not properly. Here's what happened both in my internship and my current permanent position. Each time I was assigned to work on a project (legacy, about 8-10 years old). Instead of creating a CVS account and letting me check out code and check in changes, a senior colleague exported the code from CVS, zipped it up and passed it to me. While this colleague checks in all changes in bulk every few weeks, our usual practice is to do fine-grained versioning in the actual source code itself (each file increments in versions independent from the rest). Whenever a change is made to a file, old code is commented out, new code entered below it, and this whole section is marked with a version number. Finally a note about the changes is placed at the top of the file in a section called Modification History. Finally the changed files are placed in a shared folder, ready and waiting for the bulk check-in. /* * Copyright notice blah blah * Some details about file (project name, file name etc) * Modification History: * Date Version Modified By Description * 2012-10-15 1.0 Joey Initial creation * 2012-10-22 1.1 Chandler Replaced old code with new code */ code .... //v1.1 start //old code new code //v1.1 end code .... Now the problem is this. In the project I'm working on, I needed to copy some new source code files from another project (new in the sense that they didn't exist in destination project before). These files have a lot of historical commented out code and comment-based versioning including usually long or very long Modification History section. Since the files are new to this project I decided to clean them up and remove unnecessary code including historical code, and start fresh at version 1.0. (I still have to continue the practice of comment-based versioning despite hating it. And don't ask why not start at version 0.1...) I have done similar something during my internship and no one said anything. My supervisor has seen the work a few times and didn't say I shouldn't do such clean-up (if at all it was noticed). But a same-level colleague saw this and said it's not recommended as it may cause downtime in the future and increase maintenance costs. An example is when changes are made in another project on the original files and these changes need to be propagated to this project. With code files drastically different, it could cause confusion to an employee doing the propagation. It makes sense to me, and is a valid point. I couldn't find any reason to do my clean-up other than the inconvenience of a ridiculously messy code. So, long story short: Given the practice in our company, should I not do such clean-up when copying new files from project to project? Is it better to make changes on the (copy of) original code with full history in comments? Or what justification can I give for doing the clean-up? PS to mods: Hope you allow this question some time even if for any reason you determine it to be unfit in SO. I apologize in advance if anything is inappropriate including tags.

    Read the article

  • making an array controller the target of a button

    - by ian
    I am working through a chapter of COCOA PROGRAMMING FOR MAC OS X (3RD EDITION) on NSArrayController and it tells me to: Control-Drag to make the array controller become the target of the Add New Employee button. Set the action to add: However when I drag over the array controller it does not highlight so I get no target options. How do I do this correctly in the new XCode full size image document.h: // // Document.h // RaiseMan // // Created by user on 11/12/11. // Copyright (c) 2011 __MyCompanyName__. All rights reserved. // #import <Cocoa/Cocoa.h> @interface Document : NSDocument { NSMutableArray *employees; } @end document.m: // // Document.m // RaiseMan // // Created by user on 11/12/11. // Copyright (c) 2011 __MyCompanyName__. All rights reserved. // #import "Document.h" @implementation Document - (id)init { self = [super init]; if (self) { employees = [[NSMutableArray alloc] init]; } return self; } - (void)dealloc { [self setEmployees:nil]; [super dealloc]; } -(void)setEmployees:(NSMutableArray *)a { //this is an unusual setter method we are goign to ad a lot of smarts in the next chapter if (a == employees) return; [a retain]; [employees release]; employees = a; } - (NSString *)windowNibName { // Override returning the nib file name of the document // If you need to use a subclass of NSWindowController or if your document supports multiple NSWindowControllers, you should remove this method and override -makeWindowControllers instead. return @"Document"; } - (void)windowControllerDidLoadNib:(NSWindowController *)aController { [super windowControllerDidLoadNib:aController]; // Add any code here that needs to be executed once the windowController has loaded the document's window. } - (NSData *)dataOfType:(NSString *)typeName error:(NSError **)outError { /* Insert code here to write your document to data of the specified type. If outError != NULL, ensure that you create and set an appropriate error when returning nil. You can also choose to override -fileWrapperOfType:error:, -writeToURL:ofType:error:, or -writeToURL:ofType:forSaveOperation:originalContentsURL:error: instead. */ NSException *exception = [NSException exceptionWithName:@"UnimplementedMethod" reason:[NSString stringWithFormat:@"%@ is unimplemented", NSStringFromSelector(_cmd)] userInfo:nil]; @throw exception; return nil; } - (BOOL)readFromData:(NSData *)data ofType:(NSString *)typeName error:(NSError **)outError { /* Insert code here to read your document from the given data of the specified type. If outError != NULL, ensure that you create and set an appropriate error when returning NO. You can also choose to override -readFromFileWrapper:ofType:error: or -readFromURL:ofType:error: instead. If you override either of these, you should also override -isEntireFileLoaded to return NO if the contents are lazily loaded. */ NSException *exception = [NSException exceptionWithName:@"UnimplementedMethod" reason:[NSString stringWithFormat:@"%@ is unimplemented", NSStringFromSelector(_cmd)] userInfo:nil]; @throw exception; return YES; } + (BOOL)autosavesInPlace { return YES; } - (void)setEmployees:(NSMutableArray *)a; @end person.h: // // Person.h // RaiseMan // // Created by user on 11/12/11. // Copyright (c) 2011 __MyCompanyName__. All rights reserved. // #import <Foundation/Foundation.h> @interface Person : NSObject { NSString *personName; float expectedRaise; } @property (readwrite, copy) NSString *personName; @property (readwrite) float expectedRaise; @end person.m: // // Person.m // RaiseMan // // Created by user on 11/12/11. // Copyright (c) 2011 __MyCompanyName__. All rights reserved. // #import "Person.h" @implementation Person - (id) init { self = [super init]; expectedRaise = 5.0; personName = @"New Person"; return self; } - (void)dealloc { [personName release]; [super dealloc]; } @synthesize personName; @synthesize expectedRaise; @end

    Read the article

  • Sending notification after an event has remained open for a specified period

    - by Loc Nhan
    Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 Enterprise Manager (EM) 12c allows you to create an incident rule to send a notification and/or create an incident after an event has been open for a specified period. Such an incident rule will help prevent premature alerts on issues that may correct themselves within a certain amount of time. For example, there are some agents in an unstable network area, and often there are communication failures between the agents and the OMS lasting three, four minutes at a time. In this scenario, you may only want to receive alerts after an agent in that area has been in the Agent Unreachable status for at least five minutes. Note: Many non-target availability metrics allow users to specify the “number of occurrences” or the number of consecutive times metric values reach thresholds before a notification is sent. It is best to use the feature for such metrics. This article provides a step-by-step guide for creating an incident rule set to cater for the above scenario, that is, to create an incident and send a notification after the Agent Unreachable event has remained open for a five-minute duration. Steps to create the incident rule 1.     Log on to the console and navigate to Setup -> Incidents -> Incident Rules. Note: A non-super user requires the Create Enterprise Rule Set privilege, which is a resource privilege, to create an incident rule. The Incident Rules - All Enterprise Rules page displays. 2.     Click Create Rule Set … The Create Rule Set page displays. 3.     Enter a name for the rule set (e.g. Rule set for agents in flaky network areas), optionally enter a description, and leave everything else at default values, and click + Add. The Search and Select: Targets page pops up. Note:  While you can create a rule set for individual targets, it is a best practice to use a group for this purpose. 4.     Select an appropriate group, e.g. the AgentsInFlakyNework group. The Select button becomes enabled, click the button. The Create Rule Set page displays. 5.     Leave everything at default values, and click the Rules tab. The Create Rule Set page displays. 6.     Click Create… The Select Type of Rule to Create page pops up. 7.     Leave the Incoming events and updates to events option selected, and click Continue. The Create New Rule : Select Events page displays. 8.     Select Target Availability from the Type drop-down list. The page shows more options for Target Availability. 9.     Select the Specific events of type Target Availability option, and click + Add. The Select Target Availability events page pops up. 10.   Select Agent from the Target Type dropdown list. The page expands. 11.   Click the Agent unreachable checkbox, and click OK. Note: If you want to also receive a notification when the event is cleared, click the Agent unreachable end checkbox as well before clicking OK. The Create New Rule : Select Events page displays. 12.   Click Next. The Create New Rule : Add Actions page displays. 13.   Click + Add. The Add Actions page displays. 14.   Do the following: a.     Select the Only execute the actions if specified conditions match option (You don’t want the action to trigger always). The following options appear in the Conditions for Actions section. b.     Select the Event has been open for specified duration option. The Conditions for actions section expands. c.     Change the values of Event has been open for to 5 Minutes as shown below. d.     In the Create Incident or Update Incident section, click the Create Incident checkbox as following: e.     In the Notifications section, enter an appropriate EM user or email address in the E-mail To field. f.     Click Continue (in the top right hand corner). The Create New Rule : Add Actions page displays. 15.   Click Next. The Create New Rule : Specify name and Description page displays. 16.   Enter a rule name, and click Next. The Create New Rule : Review page appears. 17.   Click Continue, and proceed to save the rule set. The incident rule set creation completes. After one of the agents in the group specified in the rule set is stopped for over 5 minutes, EM will send a mail notification and create an incident as shown in the following screenshot. In conclusion, you have seen the steps to create an example incident rule set that only creates an incident and triggers a notification after an event has been open for a specified period. Such an incident rule can help prevent unnecessary incidents and alert notifications leaving EM administrators time to more important tasks. - Loc Nhan

    Read the article

  • Help to argue why to develop software on a physical computer rather than via a remote desktop

    - by s5804
    Remote desktops are great and many times a blessing and cost effective (instead of leasing expensive cables). I am not arguing against remote desktops, just if one have the alternative to use either remote desktop or physical computer, I would choose the later. Also note that I am not arguing for or against remote work practices. But in my case I am required to be physically present in the office when developing software. Background, I work in a company which main business is not to develop software. Therefore the company IT policies are mainly focused on security and to efficiently deploying/maintaing thousands of computer to users. Further, the typical employee runs typical Office applications, like a word processors. Because safety/stability is such a big priority, every non production system/application, shall be deployed into a physical different network, called the test network. Software development of course also belongs in the test network. To access the test network the company has created a standard policy, which dictates that access to the test network shall go only via a remote desktop client. Practically from ones production computer one would open up a remote desktop client to a virtual computer located in the test network. On the virtual computer's remote desktop one would be able to access/run/install all development tools, like Eclipse IDE. Another solution would be to have a dedicated physical computer, which is physically only connected to the test network. Both solutions are available in the company. I have tested both approaches and found running Eclipse IDE, SQL developer, in the remote desktop client to be sluggish (keyboard strokes are delayed), commands like alt-tab takes me out of the remote client, enjoying... Further, screen resolution and colors are different, just to mention a few. Therefore there is nothing technical wrong with the remote client, just not optimal and frankly de-motivating. Now with the new policies put in place, plans are to remove the physical computers connected to the test network. I am looking for help to argue for why software developers shall have a dedicated physical software development computer, to be productive and cost effective. Remember that we are physically in office. Further one can notice that we are talking about approx. 50 computers out of 2000 employees. Therefore the extra budget is relatively small. This is more about policy than cost. Please note that there are lots of similar setups in other companies that work great due to a perfectly tuned systems. However, in my case it is sluggish and it would cost more money to trouble shoot the performance and fine tune it rather than to have a few physical computers. As a business case we have argued that productivity will go down by 25%, however it's my feeling that the reality is probably closer to 50%. This business case isn't really accepted and I find it very difficult to defend it to managers that has never ever used a rich IDE in their life, never mind developed software. Further the test network and remote client has no guaranteed service level, therefore it is down for a few hours per month with the lowest priority on the fix list. Help is appreciated.

    Read the article

  • The Execute SQL Task

    In this article we are going to take you through the Execute SQL Task in SQL Server Integration Services for SQL Server 2005 (although it appies just as well to SQL Server 2008).  We will be covering all the essentials that you will need to know to effectively use this task and make it as flexible as possible. The things we will be looking at are as follows: A tour of the Task. The properties of the Task. After looking at these introductory topics we will then get into some examples. The examples will show different types of usage for the task: Returning a single value from a SQL query with two input parameters. Returning a rowset from a SQL query. Executing a stored procedure and retrieveing a rowset, a return value, an output parameter value and passing in an input parameter. Passing in the SQL Statement from a variable. Passing in the SQL Statement from a file. Tour Of The Task Before we can start to use the Execute SQL Task in our packages we are going to need to locate it in the toolbox. Let's do that now. Whilst in the Control Flow section of the package expand your toolbox and locate the Execute SQL Task. Below is how we found ours. Now drag the task onto the designer. As you can see from the following image we have a validation error appear telling us that no connection manager has been assigned to the task. This can be easily remedied by creating a connection manager. There are certain types of connection manager that are compatable with this task so we cannot just create any connection manager and these are detailed in a few graphics time. Double click on the task itself to take a look at the custom user interface provided to us for this task. The task will open on the general tab as shown below. Take a bit of time to have a look around here as throughout this article we will be revisting this page many times. Whilst on the general tab, drop down the combobox next to the ConnectionType property. In here you will see the types of connection manager which this task will accept. As with SQL Server 2000 DTS, SSIS allows you to output values from this task in a number of formats. Have a look at the combobox next to the Resultset property. The major difference here is the ability to output into XML. If you drop down the combobox next to the SQLSourceType property you will see the ways in which you can pass a SQL Statement into the task itself. We will have examples of each of these later on but certainly when we saw these for the first time we were very excited. Next to the SQLStatement property if you click in the empty box next to it you will see ellipses appear. Click on them and you will see the very basic query editor that becomes available to you. Alternatively after you have specified a connection manager for the task you can click on the Build Query button to bring up a completely different query editor. This is slightly inconsistent. Once you've finished looking around the general tab, move on to the next tab which is the parameter mapping tab. We shall, again, be visiting this tab throughout the article but to give you an initial heads up this is where you define the input, output and return values from your task. Note this is not where you specify the resultset. If however you now move on to the ResultSet tab this is where you define what variable will receive the output from your SQL Statement in whatever form that is. Property Expressions are one of the most amazing things to happen in SSIS and they will not be covered here as they deserve a whole article to themselves. Watch out for this as their usefulness will astound you. For a more detailed discussion of what should be the parameter markers in the SQL Statements on the General tab and how to map them to variables on the Parameter Mapping tab see Working with Parameters and Return Codes in the Execute SQL Task. Task Properties There are two places where you can specify the properties for your task. One is in the task UI itself and the other is in the property pane which will appear if you right click on your task and select Properties from the context menu. We will be doing plenty of property setting in the UI later so let's take a moment to have a look at the property pane. Below is a graphic showing our properties pane. Now we shall take you through all the properties and tell you exactly what they mean. A lot of these properties you will see across all tasks as well as the package because of everything's base structure The Container. BypassPrepare Should the statement be prepared before sending to the connection manager destination (True/False) Connection This is simply the name of the connection manager that the task will use. We can get this from the connection manager tray at the bottom of the package. DelayValidation Really interesting property and it tells the task to not validate until it actually executes. A usage for this may be that you are operating on table yet to be created but at runtime you know the table will be there. Description Very simply the description of your Task. Disable Should the task be enabled or not? You can also set this through a context menu by right clicking on the task itself. DisableEventHandlers As a result of events that happen in the task, should the event handlers for the container fire? ExecValueVariable The variable assigned here will get or set the execution value of the task. Expressions Expressions as we mentioned earlier are a really powerful tool in SSIS and this graphic below shows us a small peek of what you can do. We select a property on the left and assign an expression to the value of that property on the right causing the value to be dynamically changed at runtime. One of the most obvious uses of this is that the property value can be built dynamically from within the package allowing you a great deal of flexibility FailPackageOnFailure If this task fails does the package? FailParentOnFailure If this task fails does the parent container? A task can he hosted inside another container i.e. the For Each Loop Container and this would then be the parent. ForcedExecutionValue This property allows you to hard code an execution value for the task. ForcedExecutionValueType What is the datatype of the ForcedExecutionValue? ForceExecutionResult Force the task to return a certain execution result. This could then be used by the workflow constraints. Possible values are None, Success, Failure and Completion. ForceExecutionValue Should we force the execution result? IsolationLevel This is the transaction isolation level of the task. IsStoredProcedure Certain optimisations are made by the task if it knows that the query is a Stored Procedure invocation. The docs say this will always be false unless the connection is an ADO connection. LocaleID Gets or sets the LocaleID of the container. LoggingMode Should we log for this container and what settings should we use? The value choices are UseParentSetting, Enabled and Disabled. MaximumErrorCount How many times can the task fail before we call it a day? Name Very simply the name of the task. ResultSetType How do you want the results of your query returned? The choices are ResultSetType_None, ResultSetType_SingleRow, ResultSetType_Rowset and ResultSetType_XML. SqlStatementSource Your Query/SQL Statement. SqlStatementSourceType The method of specifying the query. Your choices here are DirectInput, FileConnection and Variables TimeOut How long should the task wait to receive results? TransactionOption How should the task handle being asked to join a transaction? Usage Examples As we move through the examples we will only cover in them what we think you must know and what we think you should see. This means that some of the more elementary steps like setting up variables will be covered in the early examples but skipped and simply referred to in later ones. All these examples used the AventureWorks database that comes with SQL Server 2005. Returning a Single Value, Passing in Two Input Parameters So the first thing we are going to do is add some variables to our package. The graphic below shows us those variables having been defined. Here the CountOfEmployees variable will be used as the output from the query and EndDate and StartDate will be used as input parameters. As you can see all these variables have been scoped to the package. Scoping allows us to have domains for variables. Each container has a scope and remember a package is a container as well. Variable values of the parent container can be seen in child containers but cannot be passed back up to the parent from a child. Our following graphic has had a number of changes made. The first of those changes is that we have created and assigned an OLEDB connection manager to this Task ExecuteSQL Task Connection. The next thing is we have made sure that the SQLSourceType property is set to Direct Input as we will be writing in our statement ourselves. We have also specified that only a single row will be returned from this query. The expressions we typed in was: SELECT COUNT(*) AS CountOfEmployees FROM HumanResources.Employee WHERE (HireDate BETWEEN ? AND ?) Moving on now to the Parameter Mapping tab this is where we are going to tell the task about our input paramaters. We Add them to the window specifying their direction and datatype. A quick word here about the structure of the variable name. As you can see SSIS has preceeded the variable with the word user. This is a default namespace for variables but you can create your own. When defining your variables if you look at the variables window title bar you will see some icons. If you hover over the last one on the right you will see it says "Choose Variable Columns". If you click the button you will see a list of checkbox options and one of them is namespace. after checking this you will see now where you can define your own namespace. The next tab, result set, is where we need to get back the value(s) returned from our statement and assign to a variable which in our case is CountOfEmployees so we can use it later perhaps. Because we are only returning a single value then if you remember from earlier we are allowed to assign a name to the resultset but it must be the name of the column (or alias) from the query. A really cool feature of Business Intelligence Studio being hosted by Visual Studio is that we get breakpoint support for free. In our package we set a Breakpoint so we can break the package and have a look in a watch window at the variable values as they appear to our task and what the variable value of our resultset is after the task has done the assignment. Here's that window now. As you can see the count of employess that matched the data range was 2. Returning a Rowset In this example we are going to return a resultset back to a variable after the task has executed not just a single row single value. There are no input parameters required so the variables window is nice and straight forward. One variable of type object. Here is the statement that will form the soure for our Resultset. select p.ProductNumber, p.name, pc.Name as ProductCategoryNameFROM Production.ProductCategory pcJOIN Production.ProductSubCategory pscON pc.ProductCategoryID = psc.ProductCategoryIDJOIN Production.Product pON psc.ProductSubCategoryID = p.ProductSubCategoryID We need to make sure that we have selected Full result set as the ResultSet as shown below on the task's General tab. Because there are no input parameters we can skip the parameter mapping tab and move straight to the Result Set tab. Here we need to Add our variable defined earlier and map it to the result name of 0 (remember we covered this earlier) Once we run the task we can again set a breakpoint and have a look at the values coming back from the task. In the following graphic you can see the result set returned to us as a COM object. We can do some pretty interesting things with this COM object and in later articles that is exactly what we shall be doing. Return Values, Input/Output Parameters and Returning a Rowset from a Stored Procedure This example is pretty much going to give us a taste of everything. We have already covered in the previous example how to specify the ResultSet to be a Full result set so we will not cover it again here. For this example we are going to need 4 variables. One for the return value, one for the input parameter, one for the output parameter and one for the result set. Here is the statement we want to execute. Note how much cleaner it is than if you wanted to do it using the current version of DTS. In the Parameter Mapping tab we are going to Add our variables and specify their direction and datatypes. In the Result Set tab we can now map our final variable to the rowset returned from the stored procedure. It really is as simple as that and we were amazed at how much easier it is than in DTS 2000. Passing in the SQL Statement from a Variable SSIS as we have mentioned is hugely more flexible than its predecessor and one of the things you will notice when moving around the tasks and the adapters is that a lot of them accept a variable as an input for something they need. The ExecuteSQL task is no different. It will allow us to pass in a string variable as the SQL Statement. This variable value could have been set earlier on from inside the package or it could have been populated from outside using a configuration. The ResultSet property is set to single row and we'll show you why in a second when we look at the variables. Note also the SQLSourceType property. Here's the General Tab again. Looking at the variable we have in this package you can see we have only two. One for the return value from the statement and one which is obviously for the statement itself. Again we need to map the Result name to our variable and this can be a named Result Name (The column name or alias returned by the query) and not 0. The expected result into our variable should be the amount of rows in the Person.Contact table and if we look in the watch window we see that it is.   Passing in the SQL Statement from a File The final example we are going to show is a really interesting one. We are going to pass in the SQL statement to the task by using a file connection manager. The file itself contains the statement to run. The first thing we are going to need to do is create our file connection mananger to point to our file. Click in the connections tray at the bottom of the designer, right click and choose "New File Connection" As you can see in the graphic below we have chosen to use an existing file and have passed in the name as well. Have a look around at the other "Usage Type" values available whilst you are here. Having set that up we can now see in the connection manager tray our file connection manager sitting alongside our OLE-DB connection we have been using for the rest of these examples. Now we can go back to the familiar General Tab to set up how the task will accept our file connection as the source. All the other properties in this task are set up exactly as we have been doing for other examples depending on the options chosen so we will not cover them again here.   We hope you will agree that the Execute SQL Task has changed considerably in this release from its DTS predecessor. It has a lot of options available but once you have configured it a few times you get to learn what needs to go where. We hope you have found this article useful.

    Read the article

  • Working with PivotTables in Excel

    - by Mark Virtue
    PivotTables are one of the most powerful features of Microsoft Excel.  They allow large amounts of data to be analyzed and summarized in just a few mouse clicks. In this article, we explore PivotTables, understand what they are, and learn how to create and customize them. Note:  This article is written using Excel 2010 (Beta).  The concept of a PivotTable has changed little over the years, but the method of creating one has changed in nearly every iteration of Excel.  If you are using a version of Excel that is not 2010, expect different screens from the ones you see in this article. A Little History In the early days of spreadsheet programs, Lotus 1-2-3 ruled the roost.  Its dominance was so complete that people thought it was a waste of time for Microsoft to bother developing their own spreadsheet software (Excel) to compete with Lotus.  Flash-forward to 2010, and Excel’s dominance of the spreadsheet market is greater than Lotus’s ever was, while the number of users still running Lotus 1-2-3 is approaching zero.  How did this happen?  What caused such a dramatic reversal of fortunes? Industry analysts put it down to two factors:  Firstly, Lotus decided that this fancy new GUI platform called “Windows” was a passing fad that would never take off.  They declined to create a Windows version of Lotus 1-2-3 (for a few years, anyway), predicting that their DOS version of the software was all anyone would ever need.  Microsoft, naturally, developed Excel exclusively for Windows.  Secondly, Microsoft developed a feature for Excel that Lotus didn’t provide in 1-2-3, namely PivotTables.  The PivotTables feature, exclusive to Excel, was deemed so staggeringly useful that people were willing to learn an entire new software package (Excel) rather than stick with a program (1-2-3) that didn’t have it.  This one feature, along with the misjudgment of the success of Windows, was the death-knell for Lotus 1-2-3, and the beginning of the success of Microsoft Excel. Understanding PivotTables So what is a PivotTable, exactly? Put simply, a PivotTable is a summary of some data, created to allow easy analysis of said data.  But unlike a manually created summary, Excel PivotTables are interactive.  Once you have created one, you can easily change it if it doesn’t offer the exact insights into your data that you were hoping for.  In a couple of clicks the summary can be “pivoted” – rotated in such a way that the column headings become row headings, and vice versa.  There’s a lot more that can be done, too.  Rather than try to describe all the features of PivotTables, we’ll simply demonstrate them… The data that you analyze using a PivotTable can’t be just any data – it has to be raw data, previously unprocessed (unsummarized) – typically a list of some sort.  An example of this might be the list of sales transactions in a company for the past six months. Examine the data shown below: Notice that this is not raw data.  In fact, it is already a summary of some sort.  In cell B3 we can see $30,000, which apparently is the total of James Cook’s sales for the month of January.  So where is the raw data?  How did we arrive at the figure of $30,000?  Where is the original list of sales transactions that this figure was generated from?  It’s clear that somewhere, someone must have gone to the trouble of collating all of the sales transactions for the past six months into the summary we see above.  How long do you suppose this took?  An hour?  Ten?  Probably. If we were to track down the original list of sales transactions, it might look something like this: You may be surprised to learn that, using the PivotTable feature of Excel, we can create a monthly sales summary similar to the one above in a few seconds, with only a few mouse clicks.  We can do this – and a lot more too! How to Create a PivotTable First, ensure that you have some raw data in a worksheet in Excel.  A list of financial transactions is typical, but it can be a list of just about anything:  Employee contact details, your CD collection, or fuel consumption figures for your company’s fleet of cars. So we start Excel… …and we load such a list… Once we have the list open in Excel, we’re ready to start creating the PivotTable. Click on any one single cell within the list: Then, from the Insert tab, click the PivotTable icon: The Create PivotTable box appears, asking you two questions:  What data should your new PivotTable be based on, and where should it be created?  Because we already clicked on a cell within the list (in the step above), the entire list surrounding that cell is already selected for us ($A$1:$G$88 on the Payments sheet, in this example).  Note that we could select a list in any other region of any other worksheet, or even some external data source, such as an Access database table, or even a MS-SQL Server database table.  We also need to select whether we want our new PivotTable to be created on a new worksheet, or on an existing one.  In this example we will select a new one: The new worksheet is created for us, and a blank PivotTable is created on that worksheet: Another box also appears:  The PivotTable Field List.  This field list will be shown whenever we click on any cell within the PivotTable (above): The list of fields in the top part of the box is actually the collection of column headings from the original raw data worksheet.  The four blank boxes in the lower part of the screen allow us to choose the way we would like our PivotTable to summarize the raw data.  So far, there is nothing in those boxes, so the PivotTable is blank.  All we need to do is drag fields down from the list above and drop them in the lower boxes.  A PivotTable is then automatically created to match our instructions.  If we get it wrong, we only need to drag the fields back to where they came from and/or drag new fields down to replace them. The Values box is arguably the most important of the four.  The field that is dragged into this box represents the data that needs to be summarized in some way (by summing, averaging, finding the maximum, minimum, etc).  It is almost always numerical data.  A perfect candidate for this box in our sample data is the “Amount” field/column.  Let’s drag that field into the Values box: Notice that (a) the “Amount” field in the list of fields is now ticked, and “Sum of Amount” has been added to the Values box, indicating that the amount column has been summed. If we examine the PivotTable itself, we indeed find the sum of all the “Amount” values from the raw data worksheet: We’ve created our first PivotTable!  Handy, but not particularly impressive.  It’s likely that we need a little more insight into our data than that. Referring to our sample data, we need to identify one or more column headings that we could conceivably use to split this total.  For example, we may decide that we would like to see a summary of our data where we have a row heading for each of the different salespersons in our company, and a total for each.  To achieve this, all we need to do is to drag the “Salesperson” field into the Row Labels box: Now, finally, things start to get interesting!  Our PivotTable starts to take shape….   With a couple of clicks we have created a table that would have taken a long time to do manually. So what else can we do?  Well, in one sense our PivotTable is complete.  We’ve created a useful summary of our source data.  The important stuff is already learned!  For the rest of the article, we will examine some ways that more complex PivotTables can be created, and ways that those PivotTables can be customized. First, we can create a two-dimensional table.  Let’s do that by using “Payment Method” as a column heading.  Simply drag the “Payment Method” heading to the Column Labels box: Which looks like this: Starting to get very cool! Let’s make it a three-dimensional table.  What could such a table possibly look like?  Well, let’s see… Drag the “Package” column/heading to the Report Filter box: Notice where it ends up…. This allows us to filter our report based on which “holiday package” was being purchased.  For example, we can see the breakdown of salesperson vs payment method for all packages, or, with a couple of clicks, change it to show the same breakdown for the “Sunseekers” package: And so, if you think about it the right way, our PivotTable is now three-dimensional.  Let’s keep customizing… If it turns out, say, that we only want to see cheque and credit card transactions (i.e. no cash transactions), then we can deselect the “Cash” item from the column headings.  Click the drop-down arrow next to Column Labels, and untick “Cash”: Let’s see what that looks like…As you can see, “Cash” is gone. Formatting This is obviously a very powerful system, but so far the results look very plain and boring.  For a start, the numbers that we’re summing do not look like dollar amounts – just plain old numbers.  Let’s rectify that. A temptation might be to do what we’re used to doing in such circumstances and simply select the whole table (or the whole worksheet) and use the standard number formatting buttons on the toolbar to complete the formatting.  The problem with that approach is that if you ever change the structure of the PivotTable in the future (which is 99% likely), then those number formats will be lost.  We need a way that will make them (semi-)permanent. First, we locate the “Sum of Amount” entry in the Values box, and click on it.  A menu appears.  We select Value Field Settings… from the menu: The Value Field Settings box appears. Click the Number Format button, and the standard Format Cells box appears: From the Category list, select (say) Accounting, and drop the number of decimal places to 0.  Click OK a few times to get back to the PivotTable… As you can see, the numbers have been correctly formatted as dollar amounts. While we’re on the subject of formatting, let’s format the entire PivotTable.  There are a few ways to do this.  Let’s use a simple one… Click the PivotTable Tools/Design tab: Then drop down the arrow in the bottom-right of the PivotTable Styles list to see a vast collection of built-in styles: Choose any one that appeals, and look at the result in your PivotTable:   Other Options We can work with dates as well.  Now usually, there are many, many dates in a transaction list such as the one we started with.  But Excel provides the option to group data items together by day, week, month, year, etc.  Let’s see how this is done. First, let’s remove the “Payment Method” column from the Column Labels box (simply drag it back up to the field list), and replace it with the “Date Booked” column: As you can see, this makes our PivotTable instantly useless, giving us one column for each date that a transaction occurred on – a very wide table! To fix this, right-click on any date and select Group… from the context-menu: The grouping box appears.  We select Months and click OK: Voila!  A much more useful table: (Incidentally, this table is virtually identical to the one shown at the beginning of this article – the original sales summary that was created manually.) Another cool thing to be aware of is that you can have more than one set of row headings (or column headings): …which looks like this…. You can do a similar thing with column headings (or even report filters). Keeping things simple again, let’s see how to plot averaged values, rather than summed values. First, click on “Sum of Amount”, and select Value Field Settings… from the context-menu that appears: In the Summarize value field by list in the Value Field Settings box, select Average: While we’re here, let’s change the Custom Name, from “Average of Amount” to something a little more concise.  Type in something like “Avg”: Click OK, and see what it looks like.  Notice that all the values change from summed totals to averages, and the table title (top-left cell) has changed to “Avg”: If we like, we can even have sums, averages and counts (counts = how many sales there were) all on the same PivotTable! Here are the steps to get something like that in place (starting from a blank PivotTable): Drag “Salesperson” into the Column Labels Drag “Amount” field down into the Values box three times For the first “Amount” field, change its custom name to “Total” and it’s number format to Accounting (0 decimal places) For the second “Amount” field, change its custom name to “Average”, its function to Average and it’s number format to Accounting (0 decimal places) For the third “Amount” field, change its name to “Count” and its function to Count Drag the automatically created field from Column Labels to Row Labels Here’s what we end up with: Total, average and count on the same PivotTable! Conclusion There are many, many more features and options for PivotTables created by Microsoft Excel – far too many to list in an article like this.  To fully cover the potential of PivotTables, a small book (or a large website) would be required.  Brave and/or geeky readers can explore PivotTables further quite easily:  Simply right-click on just about everything, and see what options become available to you.  There are also the two ribbon-tabs: PivotTable Tools/Options and Design.  It doesn’t matter if you make a mistake – it’s easy to delete the PivotTable and start again – a possibility old DOS users of Lotus 1-2-3 never had. We’ve included an Excel that should work with most versions of Excel, so you can download to practice your PivotTable skills. Download Our Practice Excel File Similar Articles Productive Geek Tips Magnify Selected Cells In Excel 2007Share Access Data with Excel in Office 2010Make Excel 2007 Print Gridlines In Workbook FileMake Excel 2007 Always Save in Excel 2003 FormatConvert Older Excel Documents to Excel 2007 Format 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 Revo Uninstaller Pro Registry Mechanic 9 for Windows PC Tools Internet Security Suite 2010 PCmover Professional Ben & Jerry’s Free Cone Day, 3/23/10 New Stinger from McAfee Helps Remove ‘FakeAlert’ Threats Google Apps Marketplace: Tools & Services For Google Apps Users Get News Quick and Precise With Newser Scan for Viruses in Ubuntu using ClamAV Replace Your Windows Task Manager With System Explorer

    Read the article

  • Is your team is a high-performing team?

    As a child I can remember looking out of the car window as my father drove along the Interstate in Florida while seeing prisoners wearing bright orange jump suits and prison guards keeping a watchful eye on them. The prisoners were taking part in a prison road gang. These road gangs were formed to help the state maintain the state highway infrastructure. The prisoner’s primary responsibilities are to pick up trash and debris from the roadway. This is a prime example of a work group or working group used by most prison systems in the United States. Work groups or working groups can be defined as a collection of individuals or entities working together to achieve a specific goal or accomplish a specific set of tasks. Typically these groups are only established for a short period of time and are dissolved once the desired outcome has been achieved. More often than not group members usually feel as though they are expendable to the group and some even dread that they are even in the group. "A team is a small number of people with complementary skills who are committed to a common purpose, performance goals, and approach for which they are mutually accountable." (Katzenbach and Smith, 1993) So how do you determine that a team is a high-performing team?  This can be determined by three base line criteria that include: consistently high quality output, the promotion of personal growth and well being of all team members, and most importantly the ability to learn and grow as a unit. Initially, a team can successfully create high-performing output without meeting all three criteria, however this will erode over time because team members will feel detached from the group or that they are not growing then the quality of the output will decline. High performing teams are similar to work groups because they both utilize a collection of individuals or entities to accomplish tasks. What distinguish a high-performing team from a work group are its characteristics. High-performing teams contain five core characteristics. These characteristics are what separate a group from a team. The five characteristics of a high-performing team include: Purpose, Performance Measures, People with Tasks and Relationship Skills, Process, and Preparation and Practice. A high-performing team is much more than a work group, and typically has a life cycle that can vary from team to team. The standard team lifecycle consists of five states and is comparable to a human life cycle. The five states of a high-performing team lifecycle include: Formulating, Storming, Normalizing, Performing, and Adjourning. The Formulating State of a team is first realized when the team members are first defined and roles are assigned to all members. This initial stage is very important because it can set the tone for the team and can ultimately determine its success or failure. In addition, this stage requires the team to have a strong leader because team members are normally unclear about specific roles, specific obstacles and goals that my lay ahead of them.  Finally, this stage is where most team members initially meet one another prior to working as a team unless the team members already know each other. The Storming State normally arrives directly after the formulation of a new team because there are still a lot of unknowns amongst the newly formed assembly. As a general rule most of the parties involved in the team are still getting used to the workload, pace of work, deadlines and the validity of various tasks that need to be performed by the group.  In this state everything is questioned because there are so many unknowns. Items commonly questioned include the credentials of others on the team, the actual validity of a project, and the leadership abilities of the team leader.  This can be exemplified by looking at the interactions between animals when they first meet.  If we look at a scenario where two people are walking directly toward each other with their dogs. The dogs will automatically enter the Storming State because they do not know the other dog. Typically in this situation, they attempt to define which is more dominating via play or fighting depending on how the dogs interact with each other. Once dominance has been defined and accepted by both dogs then they will either want to play or leave depending on how the dogs interacted and other environmental variables. Once the Storming State has been realized then the Normalizing State takes over. This state is entered by a team once all the questions of the Storming State have been answered and the team has been tested by a few tasks or projects.  Typically, participants in the team are filled with energy, and comradery, and a strong alliance with team goals and objectives.  A high school football team is a perfect example of the Normalizing State when they start their season.  The player positions have been assigned, the depth chart has been filled and everyone is focused on winning each game. All of the players encourage and expect each other to perform at the best of their abilities and are united by competition from other teams. The Performing State is achieved by a team when its history, working habits, and culture solidify the team as one working unit. In this state team members can anticipate specific behaviors, attitudes, reactions, and challenges are seen as opportunities and not problems. Additionally, each team member knows their role in the team’s success, and the roles of others. This is the most productive state of a group and is where all the time invested working together really pays off. If you look at an Olympic figure skating team skate you can easily see how the time spent working together benefits their performance. They skate as one unit even though it is comprised of two skaters. Each skater has their routine completely memorized as well as their partners. This allows them to anticipate each other’s moves on the ice makes their skating look effortless. The final state of a team is the Adjourning State. This state is where accomplishments by the team and each individual team member are recognized. Additionally, this state also allows for reflection of the interactions between team members, work accomplished and challenges that were faced. Finally, the team celebrates the challenges they have faced and overcome as a unit. Currently in the workplace teams are divided into two different types: Co-located and Distributed Teams. Co-located teams defined as the traditional group of people working together in an office, according to Andy Singleton of Assembla. This traditional type of a team has dominated business in the past due to inadequate technology, which forced workers to primarily interact with one another via face to face meetings.  Team meetings are primarily lead by the person with the highest status in the company. Having personally, participated in meetings of this type, usually a select few of the team members dominate the flow of communication which reduces the input of others in group discussions. Since discussions are dominated by a select few individuals the discussions and group discussion are skewed in favor of the individuals who communicate the most in meetings. In addition, Team members might not give their full opinions on a topic of discussion in part not to offend or create controversy amongst the team and can alter decision made in meetings towards those of the opinions of the dominating team members. Distributed teams are by definition spread across an area or subdivided into separate sections. That is exactly what distributed teams when compared to a more traditional team. It is common place for distributed teams to have team members across town, in the next state, across the country and even with the advances in technology over the last 20 year across the world. These teams allow for more diversity compared to the other type of teams because they allow for more flexibility regarding location. A team could consist of a 30 year old male Italian project manager from New York, a 50 year old female Hispanic from California and a collection of programmers from India because technology allows them to communicate as if they were standing next to one another.  In addition, distributed team members consult with more team members prior to making decisions compared to traditional teams, and take longer to come to decisions due to the changes in time zones and cultural events. However, team members feel more empowered to speak out when they do not agree with the team and to notify others of potential issues regarding the work that the team is doing. Virtual teams which are a subset of the distributed team type is changing organizational strategies due to the fact that a team can now in essence be working 24 hrs a day because of utilizing employees in various time zones and locations.  A primary example of this is with customer services departments, a company can have multiple call centers spread across multiple time zones allowing them to appear to be open 24 hours a day while all a employees work from 9AM to 5 PM every day. Virtual teams also allow human resources departments to go after the best talent for the company regardless of where the potential employee works because they will be a part of a virtual team all that is need is the proper technology to be setup to allow everyone to communicate. In addition to allowing employees to work from home, the company can save space and resources by not having to provide a desk for every team member. In fact, those team members that randomly come into the office can actually share one desk amongst multiple people. This is definitely a cost cutting plus given the current state of the economy. One thing that can turn a team into a high-performing team is leadership. High-performing team leaders need to focus on investing in ongoing personal development, provide team members with direction, structure, and resources needed to accomplish their work, make the right interventions at the right time, and help the team manage boundaries between the team and various external parties involved in the teams work. A team leader needs to invest in ongoing personal development in order to effectively manage their team. People have said that attitude is everything; this is very true about leaders and leadership. A team takes on the attitudes and behaviors of its leaders. This can potentially harm the team and the team’s output. Leaders must concentrate on self-awareness, and understanding their team’s group dynamics to fully understand how to lead them. In addition, always learning new leadership techniques from other effective leaders is also very beneficial. Providing team members with direction, structure, and resources that they need to accomplish their work collectively sounds easy, but it is not.  Leaders need to be able to effectively communicate with their team on how their work helps the company reach for its organizational vision. Conversely, the leader needs to allow his team to work autonomously within specific guidelines to turn the company’s vision into a reality.  This being said the team must be appropriately staffed according to the size of the team’s tasks and their complexity. These tasks should be clear, and be meaningful to the company’s objectives and allow for feedback to be exchanged with the leader and the team member and the leader and upper management. Now if the team is properly staffed, and has a clear and full understanding of what is to be done; the company also must supply the workers with the proper tools to achieve the tasks that they are asked to do. No one should be asked to dig a hole without being given a shovel.  Finally, leaders must reward their team members for accomplishments that they achieve. Awards could range from just a simple congratulatory email, a party to close the completion of a large project, or other monetary rewards. Managing boundaries is very important for team leaders because it can alter attitudes of team members and can add undue stress to the team which will force them to loose focus on the tasks at hand for the group. Team leaders should promote communication between team members so that burdens are shared amongst the team and solutions can be derived from hearing the opinions of multiple sources. This also reinforces team camaraderie and working as a unit. Team leaders must manage the type and timing of interventions as to not create an even bigger mess within the team. Poorly timed interventions can really deflate team members and make them question themselves. This could really increase further and undue interventions by the team leader. Typically, the best time for interventions is when the team is just starting to form so that all unproductive behaviors are removed from the team and that it can retain focus on its agenda. If an intervention is effectively executed the team will feel energized about the work that they are doing, promote communication and interaction amongst the group and improve moral overall. High-performing teams are very import to organizations because they consistently produce high quality output and develop a collective purpose for their work. This drive to succeed allows team members to utilize specific talents allowing for growth in these areas.  In addition, these team members usually take on a sense of ownership with their projects and feel that the other team members are irreplaceable. References: http://blog.assembla.com/assemblablog/tabid/12618/bid/3127/Three-ways-to-organize-your-team-co-located-outsourced-or-global.aspx Katzenbach, J.R. & Smith, D.K. (1993). The Wisdom of Teams: Creating the High-performance Organization. Boston: Harvard Business School.

    Read the article

  • 10 Essential Tools for building ASP.NET Websites

    - by Stephen Walther
    I recently put together a simple public website created with ASP.NET for my company at Superexpert.com. I was surprised by the number of free tools that I ended up using to put together the website. Therefore, I thought it would be interesting to create a list of essential tools for building ASP.NET websites. These tools work equally well with both ASP.NET Web Forms and ASP.NET MVC. Performance Tools After reading Steve Souders two (very excellent) books on front-end website performance High Performance Web Sites and Even Faster Web Sites, I have been super sensitive to front-end website performance. According to Souders’ Performance Golden Rule: “Optimize front-end performance first, that's where 80% or more of the end-user response time is spent” You can use the tools below to reduce the size of the images, JavaScript files, and CSS files used by an ASP.NET application. 1. Sprite and Image Optimization Framework CSS sprites were first described in an article written for A List Apart entitled CSS sprites: Image Slicing’s Kiss of Death. When you use sprites, you combine multiple images used by a website into a single image. Next, you use CSS trickery to display particular sub-images from the combined image in a webpage. The primary advantage of sprites is that they reduce the number of requests required to display a webpage. Requesting a single large image is faster than requesting multiple small images. In general, the more resources – images, JavaScript files, CSS files – that must be moved across the wire, the slower your website. However, most people avoid using sprites because they require a lot of work. You need to combine all of the images and write just the right CSS rules to display the sub-images. The Microsoft Sprite and Image Optimization Framework enables you to avoid all of this work. The framework combines the images for you automatically. Furthermore, the framework includes an ASP.NET Web Forms control and an ASP.NET MVC helper that makes it easy to display the sub-images. You can download the Sprite and Image Optimization Framework from CodePlex at http://aspnet.codeplex.com/releases/view/50869. The Sprite and Image Optimization Framework was written by Morgan McClean who worked in the office next to mine at Microsoft. Morgan was a scary smart Intern from Canada and we discussed the Framework while he was building it (I was really excited to learn that he was working on it). Morgan added some great advanced features to this framework. For example, the Sprite and Image Optimization Framework supports something called image inlining. When you use image inlining, the actual image is stored in the CSS file. Here’s an example of what image inlining looks like: .Home_StephenWalther_small-jpg { width:75px; height:100px; background: url(data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAEsAAABkCAIAAABB1lpeAAAAB GdBTUEAALGOfPtRkwAAACBjSFJNAACHDwAAjA8AAP1SAACBQAAAfXkAAOmLAAA85QAAGcxzPIV3AAAKL s+zNfREAAAAASUVORK5CYII=) no-repeat 0% 0%; } The actual image (in this case a picture of me that is displayed on the home page of the Superexpert.com website) is stored in the CSS file. If you visit the Superexpert.com website then very few separate images are downloaded. For example, all of the images with a red border in the screenshot below take advantage of CSS sprites: Unfortunately, there are some significant Gotchas that you need to be aware of when using the Sprite and Image Optimization Framework. There are workarounds for these Gotchas. I plan to write about these Gotchas and workarounds in a future blog entry. 2. Microsoft Ajax Minifier Whenever possible you should combine, minify, compress, and cache with a far future header all of your JavaScript and CSS files. The Microsoft Ajax Minifier makes it easy to minify JavaScript and CSS files. Don’t confuse minification and compression. You need to do both. According to Souders, you can reduce the size of a JavaScript file by an additional 20% (on average) by minifying a JavaScript file after you compress the file. When you minify a JavaScript or CSS file, you use various tricks to reduce the size of the file before you compress the file. For example, you can minify a JavaScript file by replacing long JavaScript variables names with short variables names and removing unnecessary white space and comments. You can minify a CSS file by doing such things as replacing long color names such as #ffffff with shorter equivalents such as #fff. The Microsoft Ajax Minifier was created by Microsoft employee Ron Logan. Internally, this tool was being used by several large Microsoft websites. We also used the tool heavily on the ASP.NET team. I convinced Ron to publish the tool on CodePlex so that everyone in the world could take advantage of it. You can download the tool from the ASP.NET Ajax website and read documentation for the tool here. I created the installer for the Microsoft Ajax Minifier. When creating the installer, I also created a Visual Studio build task to make it easy to minify all of your JavaScript and CSS files whenever you do a build within Visual Studio automatically. Read the Ajax Minifier Quick Start to learn how to configure the build task. 3. ySlow The ySlow tool is a free add-on for Firefox created by Yahoo that enables you to test the front-end of your website. For example, here are the current test results for the Superexpert.com website: The Superexpert.com website has an overall score of B (not perfect but not bad). The ySlow tool is not perfect. For example, the Superexpert.com website received a failing grade of F for not using a Content Delivery Network even though the website using the Microsoft Ajax Content Delivery Network for JavaScript files such as jQuery. Uptime After publishing a website live to the world, you want to ensure that the website does not encounter any issues and that it stays live. I use the following tools to monitor the Superexpert.com website now that it is live. 4. ELMAH ELMAH stands for Error Logging Modules and Handlers for ASP.NET. ELMAH enables you to record any errors that happen at your website so you can review them in the future. You can download ELMAH for free from the ELMAH project website. ELMAH works great with both ASP.NET Web Forms and ASP.NET MVC. You can configure ELMAH to store errors in a number of different stores including XML files, the Event Log, an Access database, a SQL database, an Oracle database, or in computer RAM. You also can configure ELMAH to email error messages to you when they happen. By default, you can access ELMAH by requesting the elmah.axd page from a website with ELMAH installed. Here’s what the elmah page looks like from the Superexpert.com website (this page is password-protected because secret information can be revealed in an error message): If you click on a particular error message, you can view the original Yellow Screen ASP.NET error message (even when the error message was never displayed to the actual user). I installed ELMAH by taking advantage of the new package manager for ASP.NET named NuGet (originally named NuPack). You can read the details about NuGet in the following blog entry by Scott Guthrie. You can download NuGet from CodePlex. 5. Pingdom I use Pingdom to verify that the Superexpert.com website is always up. You can sign up for Pingdom by visiting Pingdom.com. You can use Pingdom to monitor a single website for free. At the Pingdom website, you configure the frequency that your website gets pinged. I verify that the Superexpert.com website is up every 5 minutes. I have the Pingdom service verify that it can retrieve the string “Contact Us” from the website homepage. If your website goes down, you can configure Pingdom so that it sends an email, Twitter, SMS, or iPhone alert. I use the Pingdom iPhone app which looks like this: 6. Host Tracker If your website does go down then you need some way of determining whether it is a problem with your local network or if your website is down for everyone. I use a website named Host-Tracker.com to check how badly a website is down. Here’s what the Host-Tracker website displays for the Superexpert.com website when the website can be successfully pinged from everywhere in the world: Notice that Host-Tracker pinged the Superexpert.com website from 68 locations including Roubaix, France and Scranton, PA. Debugging I mean debugging in the broadest possible sense. I use the following tools when building a website to verify that I have not made a mistake. 7. HTML Spell Checker Why doesn’t Visual Studio have a built-in spell checker? Don’t know – I’ve always found this mysterious. Fortunately, however, a former member of the ASP.NET team wrote a free spell checker that you can use with your ASP.NET pages. I find a spell checker indispensible. It is easy to delude yourself that you are capable of perfect spelling. I’m always super embarrassed when I actually run the spell checking tool and discover all of my spelling mistakes. The fastest way to add the HTML Spell Checker extension to Visual Studio is to select the menu option Tools, Extension Manager within Visual Studio. Click on Online Gallery and search for HTML Spell Checker: 8. IIS SEO Toolkit If people cannot find your website through Google then you should not even bother to create it. Microsoft has a great extension for IIS named the IIS Search Engine Optimization Toolkit that you can use to identify issue with your website that would hurt its page rank. You also can use this tool to quickly create a sitemap for your website that you can submit to Google or Bing. You can even generate the sitemap for an ASP.NET MVC website. Here’s what the report overview for the Superexpert.com website looks like: Notice that the Sueprexpert.com website had plenty of violations. For example, there are 65 cases in which a page has a broken hyperlink. You can drill into these violations to identity the exact page and location where these violations occur. 9. LinqPad If your ASP.NET website accesses a database then you should be using LINQ to Entities with the Entity Framework. Using LINQ involves some magic. LINQ queries written in C# get converted into SQL queries for you. If you are not careful about how you write your LINQ queries, you could unintentionally build a really badly performing website. LinqPad is a free tool that enables you to experiment with your LINQ queries. It even works with Microsoft SQL CE 4 and Azure. You can use LinqPad to execute a LINQ to Entities query and see the results. You also can use it to see the resulting SQL that gets executed against the database: 10. .NET Reflector I use .NET Reflector daily. The .NET Reflector tool enables you to take any assembly and disassemble the assembly into C# or VB.NET code. You can use .NET Reflector to see the “Source Code” of an assembly even when you do not have the actual source code. You can download a free version of .NET Reflector from the Redgate website. I use .NET Reflector primarily to help me understand what code is doing internally. For example, I used .NET Reflector with the Sprite and Image Optimization Framework to better understand how the MVC Image helper works. Here’s part of the disassembled code from the Image helper class: Summary In this blog entry, I’ve discussed several of the tools that I used to create the Superexpert.com website. These are tools that I use to improve the performance, improve the SEO, verify the uptime, or debug the Superexpert.com website. All of the tools discussed in this blog entry are free. Furthermore, all of these tools work with both ASP.NET Web Forms and ASP.NET MVC. Let me know if there are any tools that you use daily when building ASP.NET websites.

    Read the article

  • CodePlex Daily Summary for Saturday, April 24, 2010

    CodePlex Daily Summary for Saturday, April 24, 2010New ProjectsAutoWorkLoad: Is an application intended to load hours to accounting system such as TimeTracker automatically.Chemistry Add-in for Word: The Chemistry Add-in for Word makes it easier for students, chemists, and researchers to insert and modify chemical information, such as labels, fo...Exceptional Visualizer: A Debugger Visualizer for VS 2008 that allows for effective visual tracing of an Exception stack. Useful for Unity Resolution Exceptions as seen i...FTE Owner Requirement: FIM 2010 Activity: Forefront Identity Manager 2010 (FIM) activity designed to ensure that group object has at least one assigned Full Time Employee owner. This policy...Globus CB: Group project 2009-2010Highlighterr for Visual C++ 2010: A simple code syntax highlighter to change the colors of classes, structs, interfaces, macros and typedefs in the Visual C++ 2010 IDE. It is implem...HTML to word (.doc): easy to export your HTML code to Microsoft Word (.doc extension)IETT Hat Güzergah Importer: http://www.iett.gov.tr sitesinden otobüs hat ve güzergahlarını indirerek RegEx ile parse eder. Elde ettiği verileri SQL Server'a kaydeder.Industrial Dashboard: WCF service that allows executing SQL Server stored procedures straight from javascript code, enabling sending and receiving structured data withou...iSafePDF: iSafePDF is a PDF protection software. it allows you to encrypt PDF document, signe them using a certificate and timestamp the signature. all those...Kordinat Dönüştürücü: * UTM Koordinatlardan DDD koordinatlara iki yönlü dönüşüm. * Google Earth üzerinde koordinat, polygon ve ruhsat gösterimi. * Türkiye Paftalarının...LinkedIn® for Windows Mobile: LinkedIn® for Windows Mobile brings your LinkedIn® account to your Window Mobile powered phone. See networkupdates / connections / profile etc. Macrosome: An F# project demonstrates recording and replaying user operations.Markov Text Generator: Markov Text Generator.MEFedMVVM: Library for building MEF MVVM applications for Silverlight and WPF. By using this library you can easily build MVVM application. *UNDER Constructi...Mercurial to Team Foundation Server Work Item Hook: This is a Mercurial hook that will mark Team Foundation Server work items as resolved with a specific format in the commit description.Metaball WPF HLSL: Metaballs in WPF 3 with pixel shaders.Project Audiophile: Project Audiophile is a suite of applications and libraries built for .Net and Mono for the purposes of listening and organising music.RSS Application Updater: A Libbrary that helps you to update your app from your web site's feed. works very good with drupal .Sherwood Content Management Suite: A project that aims to provide a powerful and flexible tool for aggregating data from different data sources. Add your own plugins to store wanted ...Sonic.Net: Sonic.Net is a .Net Library designed to facilitate development of rich client applications both in Silverlight and WPF. Sonic.Net makes use of all ...StoichiometriCS: Stoichiometric Chemical Equation Solver.Vate Game Engine: Vate is a new XNA Game Engine. For more information about this project, please visit http://blog.aphysoft.com.Yahoo OpenID YQL Demo: This is demo program how to use Yahoo OpenID and Yahoo Query Language (YQL)New ReleasesBasic Sprite Sheet Creator: Sprite Tool V1.11: I had a small error when using multiple animations without the one pixel border that I overlooked when rewriting the code. It should be completely ...Braintree Client Library: Braintree-2.0.0: Updated IsSuccess() on transaction results to return false on declined transactions Search results now implement IEnumerable and will automatical...BV Commerce 5 Import Export Tools: Version 5.7.0 (for BV Commerce 5.7): Updated version compatible with BV Commerce 5.7. Do not use on earlier versions.Chemistry Add-in for Word: Chemistry Add-in for Word Beta 2: This is the source code release of the Chemistry Add-in for Word Beta 2. System Requirements To run this software, you’ll need the following: Wind...Controlled Vocabulary: 1.0.0.5: System Requirements Outlook 2007 / 2010 .Net Framework 3.5 VSTO 2010 Runtime Installation 1. Close Outlook (Use Task Manager to ensure no running ...DotNetNuke® Store: 02.01.33 RC: What's New in this release? Bugs corrected: - Fixed a bug related to encryption cookie. New Features: - Adden token pair [IFLOGGED] [/IFLOGGED] us...EdiliOS: Beta 0.2.1: Aggiunto supporto a FidoCadJ, editor FidoCad multipiattaforma di Davide Bucci, con Libreria di Ingegneria Civile integrata.Event Scavenger: Admin tool Version 3.1.1: Fixed the Admin tool that fails on editing general settings. Only Admin tool is affected.Exceptional Visualizer: Exception Visualizer: A Debugger Visualizer to help with long chains of exceptions where digging through the inner exceptions is hard to do. Specifically, this release ...fracback: Binaries: Use at your own riskFree Silverlight & WPF Chart Control - Visifire: Visifire for SL 4 and WPF Charts 3.5.1 Released: Hi, This release contains fix for the following bug: Chart threw exception with DateTime axis if IntervalType property was set as ‘Minutes’ in Ax...Free Silverlight & WPF Chart Control - Visifire: Visifire Silverlight and WPF Charts 3.0.8 Released: Hi, This release contains fix for the following bug: * Chart threw exception with DateTime axis if IntervalType property was set as ‘Minutes’...GeoUtility Library: GeoUtility Library 3.1.5.0: Please Note: This is an open source version. The commercial version offers much more functionality. Help files (english/german) are only available ...Highlighterr for Visual C++ 2010: Highlighterr for Visual C++ 2010 Test Release 1.0: To install the extension, download the and then double-click on the Highlighterr.vsix file. This should bring up a dialog saying something about wh...Highlighterr for Visual C++ 2010: Highlighterr for Visual C++ 2010 Test Release 1.01: The lack of support for /* */ comments was annoying me, so I added it. To install the extension, download the and then double-click on the Highlig...Home Access Plus+: v4.0.1.0: v4.0.1.0 Beta Change Log: Fixed an issue with laptops and the booking system (CSS and code fixes) Moved filters to top Added some Javascript to...HTML to word (.doc): FullSourceDownload: the full source contain: bin/AppWebdx7wusqu.dll Default.aspx htw.ascx htw.ascx.vb Web.configIndustrial Dashboard: 3.0 Beta: Added Example with Dojox.DataGrid Added Example with Ext.js ChartiSafePDF: iSafePDF v1.2: This is the first public release, this version support : PDF signature, timestamped signature, multi-signature, PDF encryption and meta-data modifi...linq.js - LINQ for JavaScript: ver 2.0.0.0: all code rewrite from scratch. enumerator support Dispose. namespace changed E, Linq.Enumerable -> Enumerable delete methods ToJSON ToTable Trace...LogikBug's IoC Container: Third Release: This project is dependent upon Microsoft.Practices.ServiceLocation and must be referenced when referencing LogikBug.Injection. Click here to view d...Macrosome: 0.0.1 preview: Key pointsOnly mouse clicks supported Just for preview: not stable How to useStart from Macrosome.Wpf.exe Click "Record" button will start oper...Mercurial to Team Foundation Server Work Item Hook: Version 0.1: This is the first version of the Mercurial to Team Foundation Server hook. It currently supports only adding comments to existing work items.MOSSDAL: MOSS Data Access Layer for data from the Sharepoint Lists Service: MOSSDAL Silverlight Framework Release 1: This is the first release of MOSSDAL for silverlight. For the MOSSDAL Framework for .NET release 1 click hereMOSSDAL: MOSS Data Access Layer for data from the Sharepoint Lists Service: MOSSDAL Silverlight Sample Release 1: This is the first release of the MOSSDAL framework samples for Silverlight. For the MOSSDAL .NET Release 1 Sample click hereMyWSAT - ASP.NET Membership Administration Tool: MyWSAT v3.5.1: MyWSAT 3.5.1 Update Notes - April 23rd 2010 1.) Fixed standard profile problem in web.config as well as on all the forms the profiles are used. The...NetPE: NetPE v1.0: Initial Release of NetPE. Features: -View & Editing Portable Executable -Hex editor -Full Metadata Support -Disassemble Cil/x86 codeNSIS Autorun: NSIS Autorun 0.1.1: NSIS Autorun 0.1.1 This release includes source code, application binary, and example materials.Over Store: OverStore Release 1.17.0.0: Version 1.17.0.0 - AdoNetStorage: AdoNetStorage refactored. Detailed Log messages added on each event. Database resource management moved to A...RoTwee: RoTwee (11.0.0.3): Fix for "17385 Remove saved degree val from code"Silverlight 4.0 Popup Menu: Popup Menu for Silverlight 4.0: This is the first project release. Added drop shadow and fade in effects. Left click and hover events are also supported.Silverlight 4.0 Popup Menu: Popup menu for Silverlight 4.0 Version 0.8: - Placed the invoker for the 'Opening' event handler within a dispatcher. This ensures that the visual tree is created before it is accessed.sNPCedit: sNPCedit v0.9: + Some changes in GUI and Behaviour + Added: Search functionSonic.Net: Sonic.Net v1.0.0: Sonic.Net v1.0.0 Targets Net 3.5 sp1 and Sinverlight 3 Includes: sonic.UnityConfiguration.Silverlight sonic.UnityConfiguration.WpfSurvey - web survey & form engine: Survey™ 1.2.1: Survey™ 1.2.1 release (based on the original Nsurvey 1.9.1. source files) New Features & fixes: 1. Final bits of code rewritten to become 100% ...SysPad: 4.10.10.2: Release Notes A folder management and scratchpad utility; especially useful in a business network setting that utilizes numerous, commonly used fol...Third Hand - Use your voice to control Visual Studio: Update for VS2010: Added support for VS2010, and minor improvements when using the grid.TiledLib: TiledLib 1.2: - Added overload of Map.Draw that specifies the area to draw - Added demo of a camera control for a mapXMLPreprocess: 2.0.12: What's new in this release: This release contains a number of enhancements based on feedback given through the discussion forums and issue tracker....Xrns2XMod: Xrns2Xmod 0.8: Added >> Real preliminary sound conversion for XM >> Some code optimizations Note Some samples might not be converted due to a flac parsing error ...Yahoo OpenID YQL Demo: Yahoo YQL .Net Demo: This is a demo program for using YQL with C#.netYahoo OpenID YQL Demo: YQL Demo: This is a demo program using Yahoo YQL with C#.NetYahoo OpenID YQL Demo: YQLDemo using .Net: This is a demo program for using Yahoo YQL with C#.NetMost Popular ProjectsRawrWBFS ManagerAJAX Control ToolkitSilverlight ToolkitMicrosoft SQL Server Product Samples: Databasepatterns & practices – Enterprise LibraryWindows Presentation Foundation (WPF)ASP.NETMicrosoft SQL Server Community & SamplesPHPExcelMost Active Projectspatterns & practices – Enterprise LibraryRawrBlogEngine.NETParticle Plot PivotNB_Store - Free DotNetNuke Ecommerce Catalog ModuleDotNetZip LibraryGMap.NET - Great Maps for Windows Forms & Presentationturing machine simulatorIonics Isapi Rewrite Filterpatterns & practices: Composite WPF and Silverlight

    Read the article

  • MSCC: Global Windows Azure Bootcamp

    Mauritius participated and contributed to the Global Windows Azure Bootcamp 2014 (GWAB). Again! And this time stronger than ever, and together with 137 other locations in 56 countries world-wide. We had 62 named registrations, 7 guest additions and approximately 10 offline participants prior to the event day. Most interestingly the organisation of the GWAB through the MSCC helped to increased the number of craftsmen. The Mauritius Software Craftsmanship Community has currently 138 registered members - in less than one year! Only with those numbers we can proudly say that all the preparations and hard work towards this event already paid off. Personally, I'm really grateful that we had this kind of response and the feedback from some attendees confirmed that the MSCC is on the right track here on Cyber Island Mauritius. Inspired and motivated by the success of this event, rest assured that there will be more public events like the GWAB. This time it took some time to reflect on our meetup, following my first impression right on spot: "Wow, what an experience to organise and participate in this global event. Overall, I've been very pleased with the preparations and the event itself. Surely, there have been some nicks that we have to address and to improve for future activities like this. Quite frankly, we are not professional event organisers (not yet) but we learned a lot over the past couple of days. A big Thank You to our event sponsors, namely Microsoft Indian Ocean Islands & French Pacific, Ceridian Mauritius and Emtel. Without them this event wouldn't have happened - Thank You! And to the cool team members of Microsoft Student Partners (MSPs). You geeks did a great job! Thanks!" So, how many attendees did we actually have? 61! - Awesome - 61 cloud computing instances to help on the research of diabetes. During Saturday afternoon there was even an online publication on L'Express: Les développeurs mauriciens se joignent au combat contre le diabète Reactions of other attendees Don't take my word for granted... Here are some impressions and feedback from our participants: "Awesome event, really appreciated the presentations :-)" -- Kevin on event comments "very interesting and enriching." -- Diana on event comments "#gwab #gwabmru 2014 great success. Looking forward for gwab 2015" -- Wasiim on Twitter "Was there till the end. Awesome Event. I'll surely join upcoming meetup sessions :)" -- Luchmun on event comments "#gwabmru was not that cool. left early" -- Mohammad on Twitter The overall feedback is positive but we are absolutely aware that there quite a number of problems we had to face. We are already looking into that and ideas / action plans on how we will be able to improve it for future events. The sessions We started the day with welcoming speeches by Thierry Coret, Sr. Marketing Manager of Microsoft Indian Ocean Islands & French Pacific and Vidia Mooneegan, Managing Director and Sr. Vice President of Ceridian Mauritius. The clear emphasis was on the endless possibilities of cloud computing and how it can enable any kind of sectors here in the country. Then it was about time to set up the cloud computing services in order to contribute each attendees cloud computing resources to the global research of diabetes, a step by step guide presented by Arnaud Meslier, Technical Evangelist at Microsoft. Given a rendering package and a configuration file it was very interesting to follow the single steps in Windows Azure. Also, during the day we were not sure whether the set up had been correctly, as Mauritius didn't show up on the results board - which should have been the case after approximately 20 to 30 minutes. Anyways, let the minions work... Next, Arnaud gave a brief overview of the variety of services Windows Azure has to offer. Whether you need a development environment for your websites or mobiles app, running a virtual machine with your existing applications or simply putting a SQL database online. No worries, Windows Azure has the right packages available and the online management portal is really easy t handle. After this, we got a little bit more business oriented while Wasiim Hosenbocus, employee at Ceridian, took the attendees through the inerts of a real-life application, and demoed a couple of the existing features. He did a great job by showing how the different services of Windows Azure can be created and pulled together. After the lunch break it is always tough to keep the audience awake... And it was my turn. I gave a brief overview on operating and managing a SQL database on Windows Azure. Well, there are actually two options available and depending on your individual requirements you should be aware of both. The simpler version is called SQL Database and while provisioning only takes a couple of seconds, you should take into consideration that SQL Database has a number of constraints, like limitations on the actual database size - up to 5 GB as web edition and up to 150 GB maximum as business edition -, among others. Next, it was Chervine Bhiwoo's session on Windows Azure Mobile Services. It was absolutely amazing to see that the mobiles services directly offers you various project templates, like Windows 8 Store App, Android app, iOS app, and even Xamarin cross-platform app development. So, within a couple of minutes you can have your first mobile app active and running on Windows Azure. Furthermore, Chervine showed the attendees that adding another user interface, like Web Sites running on ASP.NET MVC 4 only takes a couple of minutes, too. And last but not least, we rounded up the day with Windows Azure Websites and hosting of Virtual Machines presented by some members of the local Microsoft Students Partners programme. Surely, one of the big advantages using Windows Azure is the availability of pre-defined installation packages of known web applications, like WordPress, Joomla!, or Ghost. Compared to running your own web site with a traditional web hoster it is surely en par, and depending on your personal level of expertise, Windows Azure provides you more liberty in terms of configuration than maybe a shared hosting environment. Running a pre-defined web application is one thing but in case that you would like to have more control over your hosting environment it is highly advised to opt for a virtual machine. Provisioning of an Ubuntu 12.04 LTS system was very simple to do but it takes some more minutes than you might expect. So, please be patient and take your time while Windows Azure gets everything in place for you. Afterwards, you can use a SecureShell (ssh) client like Putty in case of a Linux-based machine, or Remote Desktop Services when operating a Windows Server system to log in into your virtual machine. At the end of the day we had a great Q&A session and we finalised the event with our raffle of goodies. Participation in the raffle was bound to submission of the session survey and most gratefully we had a give-away for everyone. What a nice coincidence to finish of the day. Note: All session slides (and demo codes) will be made available on the MSCC event page. Please, check the Files section over there. (Some) Visual impressions from the event Just to give you an idea about what has happened during the GWAB 2014 at Ebene... Speakers and Microsoft Student Partners are getting ready for the Global Windows Azure Bootcamp 2014 GWAB 2014 attendees are fully integrated into the hands-on-labs and setting up their individuals cloud computing services 60 attendees at the GWAB 2014. Despite some technical difficulties we had a great time running the event GWAB 2014: Using the lunch break for networking and exchange of ideas - Great conversations and topics amongst attendees There are more pictures on the original event page: Questions & Answers Following are a couple of questions which have been asked and didn't get an answer during the event: Q: Is it possible to upload static pages via FTP? A: Yes, you can. Have a look at the right side column on the dashboard of your website. There you'll find information about the FTP and SFTP host names. You can use any FTP client, like ie. FileZilla to log in. FTP also gives you access to your log files. Q: What are the size limitations on SQL Database? A: 5 GB on the Web Edition, and 150 GB on the business edition. A maximum 150 databases (inclusing 'master') per SQL Database server. More details here: General Guidelines and Limitations (Azure SQL Database) Q: What's the maximum size of a SQL Server running in a Virtual Machine? A: The maximum Windows Azure VM has currently 8 CPU cores, 14 or 56 GB of RAM and 16x 1 TB hard drives. More details here: Virtual Machine and Cloud Service Sizes for Azure Q: How can we register for Windows Azure? A: Mauritius is currently not listed for phone verification. Please get in touch with Arnaud Meslier at Microsoft IOI & FP Q: Can I use my own domain name for Windows Azure websites? A: Yes, you can. But this might require to upscale your account to Standard. In case that I missed a question and answer, please use the comment section at the end of the article. Thanks! Final results Every participant was instructed during the hands-on-lab session on how to set up a cloud computing service in their account. Of course, I won't keep the results from you... Global Azure Lab GWAB 2014: Our cloud computing contribution to the research of diabetes And I would say Mauritius did a good job! Upcoming Events What are the upcoming events here in Mauritius? So far, we have the following ones (incomplete list as usual) in chronological order: Launch of Microsoft SQL Server 2014 (15.4.2014) Corsair Hackers Reboot (19.4.2014) WebCup (TBA ~ June 2014) Developers Conference (TBA ~ July 2014) Linuxfest 2014 (TBA ~ November 2014) Hopefully, there will be more announcements during the next couple of weeks and months. If you know about any other event, like a bootcamp, a code challenge or hackathon here in Mauritius, please drop me a note in the comment section below this article. Thanks! Networking and job/project opportunities Despite having technical presentations on Windows Azure an event like this always offers a great bunch of possibilities and opportunities to get in touch with new people in IT, have an exchange of experience with other like-minded people. As I already wrote about Communities - The importance of exchange and discussion - I had a great conversation with representatives of the University des Mascareignes which are currently embracing cloud infrastructure and cloud computing for their various campuses in the Indian Ocean. As for the MSCC it would be a great experience to stay in touch with them, and to work on upcoming, common activities. Furthermore, I had a very good conversation with Thierry and Ludovic of Microsoft IOI & FP on the necessity of user groups and IT communities here on the island. It's great to see that the MSCC is currently on a run and that local companies are sharing our thoughts on promoting IT careers and exchange of IT knowledge in such an open way. I'm also looking forward to be able to participate and to contribute on more events in the near future. My resume of the day We learned a lot today and there is always room for improvement! It was an awesome event and quite frankly it was a pleasure to spend the day with so many enthuastic IT people in the same room. It was a great experience to organise such event locally and participate on a global scale to support the GlyQ-IQ Technology in their research on diabetes. I was so pleased to see the involvement of new MSCC members in taking the opportunity to share and learn about the power of cloud computing. The Mauritius Software Craftsmanship Community is on the right way and this year's bootcamp on Windows Azure only marked the beginning of our journey. Thank you to our sponsors and my kudos to the MSPs! Update: Media coverage The event has been reported in local media, too. Following are some resources: Orange - Local - Business: Le cloud, pour des recherches approfondies sur le diabète Maurice Info.mu: Le cloud, pour des recherches approfondies sur le diabète Le Quotidien Pg 2: Global Windows Azure Bootcamp 2014 - Le cloud pour des recherches approfondies sur le diabète The Observer Pg 12: Le cloud, pour des recherches approfondies sur le diabète

    Read the article

  • CodePlex Daily Summary for Monday, June 06, 2011

    CodePlex Daily Summary for Monday, June 06, 2011Popular ReleasesSharepoint 2010 Diagnostic Log Compression: Sharepoint 2010 Diagnostic Log Compression v1.0: ====================== Requirements: Microsoft Sharepoint 2010 Foundation or Microsoft Sharepoint 2010 Server Release Version : 1.0PowerShell SQL Developer Tools: SQLDevTools_Module (folder) Version 0.1.0: SQLDevTools Module version 0.1.0(alpha release) Just unzip the file and move the folder "SQLDevTools" into your User "WindowsPowerShell\Modules" folder. "C:\Users\UserName...\Documents\WindowsPowerShell\Modules\SQLDevTools" Then, to load *module at either the PowerShell Console or ISE, use: Import-Module SQLDevTools To remove module use: Remove-Module SQLDevTools Again, you need have SQL Server 2008 (or above). or the standalone version of "SQL Server Management Studio 2008 R2 " installed ...ShowUI: Write-UI -in PowerShell: ShowUI: ShowUI is a PowerShell module to help you write rich user interfaces in script.SQL Compact Query Analyzer: Build 0.2.0.0: Beta build of SQL Compact Query Analyzer Features: - Execute SQL Queries against a SQL Server Compact Edition database - Easily edit the contents of the database - Supports SQLCE 3.5 and 4.0 Prerequisites: - .NET Framework 4.0Media Companion: MC 3.405b weekly: Extract the entire archive to a folder which has user access rights, eg desktop, documents etc. Refer to the documentation on this site for the Installation & Setup Guide Important! If you are upgrading from a version of MC before 3.404 then..... Due to an issue where the date added & the full genre information was not being read into the Movie cache, it is highly recommended that you perform a Rebuild Movies when first running this latest version. This will read in the information from the ...Babylon Toolkit: Babylon.Toolkit v1.0.4: Note about samples: In order to run samples, you need to configure visual studio to run them as an "Out-of-browser application". in order to do that, go to the property page of a sample project, go to the Debug tab, and check the "Out-of-browser application" radio. New features : New Effects BasicEffect3Lights (3 dir lights instead of 1 position light) CartoonEffect (work in progress) SkinnedEffect (with normal and specular map support) SplattingEffect (for multi-texturing with smooth ...SizeOnDisk: 1.0.8.2: With installerTerrariViewer: TerrariViewer v2.5: Added new items associated with Terraria v1.0.3 to the character editor. Fixed multiple bugs with Piggy Bank EditorySterling NoSQL OODB for .NET 4.0, Silverlight 4 and 5, and Windows Phone 7: Sterling OODB v1.5: Welcome to the Sterling 1.5 RTM. This version is backwards compatible without modification to the 1.4 beta. For the 1.0, you will need to upgrade your database. Please see this discussion for details. You must modify your 1.0 code for persistence. The 1.5 version defaults to an in-memory driver. To save to isolated storage or use one of the new mechanisms, see the available drivers and pass an instance of the appropriate one to your database (different databases may use different drivers). ...patterns & practices: Project Silk: Project Silk Community Drop 10 - June 3, 2011: Changes from previous drop: Many code changes: please see the readme.mht for details. New "Application Notifications" chapter. Updated "Server-Side Implementation" chapter. Guidance Chapters Ready for Review The Word documents for the chapters are included with the source code in addition to the CHM to help you provide feedback. The PDF is provided as a separate download for your convenience. Installation Overview To install and run the reference implementation, you must perform the fol...Claims Based Identity & Access Control Guide: Release Candidate: Highlights of this release This is the release candidate drop of the new "Claims Identity Guide" edition. In this release you will find: All code samples, including all ACS v2: ACS as a Federation Provider - Showing authentication with LiveID, Google, etc. ACS as a FP with Multiple Business Partners. ACS and REST endpoints. Using a WP7 client with REST endpoints. All ACS specific chapters. Two new chapters on SharePoint (SSO and Federation) All revised v1 chapters We are now ...Terraria Map Generator: TerrariaMapTool 1.0.0.4 Beta: 1) Fixed the generated map.html file so that the file:/// is included in the base path. 2) Added the ability to use parallelization during generation. This will cause the program to use as many threads as there are physical cores. 3) Fixed some background overdraw.Caliburn Micro: WPF, Silverlight and WP7 made easy.: Caliburn.Micro v1.1 RTW: Download ContentsDebug and Release Assemblies Samples Changes.txt License.txt Release Highlights For WP7A new Tombstoning API based on ideas from Fluent NHibernate A new Launcher/Chooser API Strongly typed Navigation SimpleContainer included The full phone lifecycle is made easy to work with ie. we figure out whether your app is actually Resurrecting or just Continuing for you For WPFSupport for the Client Profile Better support for WinForms integration All PlatformsA power...VidCoder: 0.9.1: Added color coding to the Log window. Errors are highlighted in red, HandBrake logs are in black and VidCoder logs are in dark blue. Moved enqueue button to the right with the other control buttons. Added logic to report failures when errors are logged during the encode or when the encode finishes prematurely. Added Copy button to Log window. Adjusted audio track selection box to always show the full track name. Changed encode job progress bar to also be colored yellow when the enco...AutoLoL: AutoLoL v2.0.1: - Fixed a small bug in Auto Login - Fixed the updaterEPPlus-Create advanced Excel 2007 spreadsheets on the server: EPPlus 2.9.0.1: EPPlus-Create advanced Excel 2007 spreadsheets on the server This version has been updated to .Net Framework 3.5 New Features Data Validation. PivotTables (Basic functionalliy...) Support for worksheet data sources. Column, Row, Page and Data fields. Date and Numeric grouping Build in styles. ...and more And some minor new features... Ranges Text-Property|Get the formated value AutofitColumns-method to set the column width from the content of the range LoadFromCollection-metho...jQuery ASP.Net MVC Controls: Version 1.4.0.0: Version 1.4.0.0 contains the following additions: Upgraded to MVC 3.0 Upgraded to jQuery 1.6.1 (Though the project supports all jQuery version from 1.4.x onwards) Upgraded to jqGrid 3.8 Better Razor View-Engine support Better Pager support, includes support for custom pagers Added jqGrid toolbar buttons support Search module refactored, with full suport for multiple filters and ordering And Code cleanup, bug-fixes and better controller configuration support.NetOffice - The easiest way to use Office in .NET: NetOffice Release 0.8b: Changes: - fix critical issue 15922(AccessViolationException) once and for all ...update is strongly recommended Known Issues: - some addin ribbon examples has a COM Register function with missing codebase entry(win32 registry) ...the problem is only affected to c# examples. fixed in latest source code. NetOffice\ReleaseTags\NetOffice Release 0.8.rar Includes: - Runtime Binaries and Source Code for .NET Framework:......v2.0, v3.0, v3.5, v4.0 - Tutorials in C# and VB.Net:...................Serviio for Windows Home Server: Beta Release 0.5.2.0: Ready for widespread beta. Synchronized build number to Serviio version to avoid confusion.AcDown????? - Anime&Comic Downloader: AcDown????? v3.0 Beta4: ??AcDown?????????????,??????????????,????、????。?????Acfun????? ????32??64? Windows XP/Vista/7 ????????????? ??:????????Windows XP???,?????????.NET Framework 2.0???(x86)?.NET Framework 2.0???(x64),?????"?????????"??? ??v3.0 Beta4 2011-5-31?? ???Bilibili.us????? ???? ?? ???"????" ???Bilibili.us??? ??????? ?? ??????? ?? ???????? ?? ?? ???Bilibili.us?????(??????????????????) ??????(6.cn)?????(????) ?? ?????Acfun?????????? ?????????????? ???QQ???????? ????????????Discussion...New Projects.NET library for Audiogalaxy: AgNet is a .NET Client library for the Audiogalaxy APIAsuro scanner: A asuro programm which can recognize light values and perform predefined actions for them. This was realised for school project.AutoComplete.Net (for Asp.Net and Asp.Net MVC): AutoComplete.Net is a wrapper around the JQuery UI Autocomplete widget. It makes it easier to add autocomplete functionalities without having to bother with tons of javascript. Includes a WebControl for your Asp.Net web applications and a bunch of extension methods for your Asp.Net MVC web applications. Their purpose is to provide developers with an easy interface to the cool JQuery UI autocomplete Widget. It's developed in C#.AveSoft Advance Keylogger: Free and completely open source keystroke logging application, allows you to capture and record all keyboard input to file. Program is extremely small and lightweight, can run in a hidden mode, upload log file to specified web server. Due to open source nature, software is secure and transparent. Main Features Captures all keyboard input Caching and low level hooks uses minimal amount of CPU cycles Highly customizable Hidden mode Windows integration Log file...DDDProjector: DDDPrjector ?、DDD (Domain Driven Design: ????????) ?????????????????????????????????????、C# ???????????????????。 ???????????????????? C# ????????????????、??????????????????????????。 O/R ?????? NHibernate ??????。DogTouch: DogTouchEVMDOCS Reports: This project contain diploma of student VSTU. The project is devoted to automating the learning process at the university. Contains reports in OpenOfficeFidely - Search Query Compilation Framework: Fidely is a framework to implement a search query compiler that parses a search query string and builds up an expression tree (Expression<Func<T, bool>>) to filter a collection object. Fidely allows you to customize processes of parsing a query string and building up an expression tree, so you can create various search query compilers. The goal of this project is to make it easy to implement collection filtering features into your application.Frets: Frets is a library for creating and printing guitar chord diagrams. FuncLib: C# automatic differentiation library, transparent use with operator overloading, unlimited order of differentiation and unlimited number of variables, on-the-fly function compilation to IL code for very fast evaluation.ITAP: a management system for HCM IU's IELTS simulation examjQXB/M Expression Binder: JQ Expression Binder is a lightweigth framework (10 kbytes) for the association between javascript objects and HTML elements. Based on jQuery provides a natural and flexible way to process the data exchanged between client and server in a real WEB 2.0 paradigm. Using a few custom attributes to decorate yout HTML tags now you are enabled to take complete control over the managing of your business data directly inside yours web pages. Easy integration with ASP.NET WEBForm web applications, ...Log Processor: This software helps you to automatically analyze and process data in files (such as plain text logs, binary dumps...) based on : - plugins (for multiple input/output file types support) - plain text rules files (for a complete customization of the analysis needed) You'll then be able to easily produce stats reports from you application logs.MiniIndexer: A web application the demonstrates how to make a simple indexing search engine backed by a relational database. Monads: Monads helpers for .NET, Silverlight and Windows Phone 7.Movie Browser: Movie Browser helps collecting information from imdb and manage personal movie folders.Opc Configurable Xml Server/Service (OCXS): A Microsoft .NET 4.0 C# OPC XML Data Access 1.0 Server/ServiceSQL DAL: Data access layerTankMate: A simple Visual Basic application that lists and manages all your fish tanks. software initially designed to list fish tanks and enter their width/height/depth in inches and it display their volume in litres tank calculator was then expanded to alert if water needs changing after set interval of days number of days between changes is settable for each tank any sound file can be used for alert sounds has online update feature to keep it up to date Twoosh!: Simply, a fully-functional Twitter client for Windows... Twoosh makes it easier for Tweeple to Tweet. You'll no longer have to wait for the Twitter page to load or see the fail whale error page. It's developed in Visual Basic .NET 2008.WCF RIA Services for Azure Tables and SQL/Azure: Th project demos RIA services with POCO objects using two different back end data storage technologies, SQL/Azure and Azure Table Storage. The example shows a simple association between two tables - department and employee for read, insert and update operationsWindows Azure Storage Console Client: Windows Azure Storage Console ClientXNA 4.0 VirtualCompass: VirtualCompass is an incredibly simple and easy to use library for path finding in Microsoft's XNA 4.0 . It implements A* (A-star) path finding techniques to find the shortest path. This is an alpha status project. Limited testing and optimization thus far. Developed in C#.

    Read the article

  • CodePlex Daily Summary for Saturday, October 06, 2012

    CodePlex Daily Summary for Saturday, October 06, 2012Popular ReleasesVidCoder: 1.4.2 Beta: Added Modulus dropdown to Loose anamorphic choice. Fixed a problem where the incorrect scaling would be chosen and pick the wrong aspect ratio. Fixed issue where old window objects would stick around and continue to respond to property change events We now clear locked width/height values when switching to loose or strict anamorphic. Fixed problems with Custom Anamorphic and display width specification. Fixed text in number box incorrectly being shown in gray in some circumstances.RiP-Ripper & PG-Ripper: PG-Ripper 1.4.02: changes NEW: Added Support Big Naturals Only forum NEW: Added Setting to enable/disable "Show last download image"patterns & practices: Prism: Prism for .NET 4.5: This is a release does not include any functionality changes over Prism 4.1 Desktop. These assemblies target .NET 4.5. These assemblies also were compiled against updated dependencies: Unity 3.0 and Common Service Locator (Portable Class Library).Configuration Manager 2012 Automation: Beta Code (v0.1): Beta codeWinRT XAML Toolkit: WinRT XAML Toolkit - 1.3.2: WinRT XAML Toolkit based on the Windows 8 RTM SDK. Download the latest source from the SOURCE CODE page. For compiled version use NuGet. You can add it to your project in Visual Studio by going to View/Other Windows/Package Manager Console and entering: PM> Install-Package winrtxamltoolkit Features AsyncUI extensions Controls and control extensions Converters Debugging helpers Imaging IO helpers VisualTree helpers Samples Recent changes NOTE: Namespace changes DebugConsol...Snoop, the WPF Spy Utility: Snoop 2.8.0: Snoop 2.8.0Announcing Snoop 2.8.0! It's been exactly six months since the last release, and this one has a bunch of goodies in it. In particular, there is now a PowerShell scripting tab, compliments of Bailey Ling. With this tab, the possibilities are limitless. It basically lets you automate/script the application that you are Snooping. Bailey has a couple blog posts (one and two) on his tab already, and I am sure more is to come. Please note that if you do not have PowerShell installed, y....NET Micro Framework: .NET MF 4.3 (Beta) -- warning for SDK below: WARNING!!! There is a known issue with the SDK installer that may prevent you from installing. We are working on the issue and will update the SDK as soon as we have a fix. Thank you. This is the 4.3 Beta version of the .NET Micro Framework. Feature List for v4.3 Support for Visual Studio 2012 (including the Windows Desktop Express version) All v4.2 QFEs features and bug fixes (PWM enhancements, lwIP and network driver reliability improvements, Analog Output, WinUSB and latest GCC suppo...MCEBuddy 2.x: MCEBuddy 2.3.1: 2.3.1All new Remote Client Server architecture. Reccomended Download. The Remote Client Installation is OPTIONAL, you can extract the files from the zip archive into a local folder and run MCEBuddy.GUI directly. 2.2.15 was the last standalone release. Changelog for 2.3.1 (32bit and 64bit) 1. All remote MCEBuddy Client Server architecture (GUI runs remotely/independently from engine now) 2. Fixed bug in Audio Offset 3. Added support for remote MediaInfo (right click on file in queue to get ...D3 Loot Tracker: 1.5: Support for session upload to website. Support for theme change through general settings. Time played counter will now also display a count for days. Tome of secrets are no longer logged as items.NTCPMSG: V1.2.0.0: Allocate an identify cableid for each single connection cable. * Server can asend to specified cableid directly.Team Foundation Server Word Add-in: Version 1.0.12.0622: Welcome to the Visual Studio Team Foundation Server Word Add-in Supported Environments Microsoft Office Word 2007 and 2010 X86 (32-bit) Team Foundation Server 2010 Object Model TFS 2010, 2012 and TFS Service supported, using TFS OM / Explorer 2010. Quality-Bar Details Tool has been reviewed by Visual Studio ALM Rangers Tool has been through an independent technical and quality review All critical bugs have been resolved Known Issues / Bugs WI#43553 - The Acceptance criteria is not pu...Viva Music Player: Viva Music Player v0.6.7: Initial release.Korean String Extension for .NET: ?? ??? ??? ????(v0.2.3.0): ? ?? ?? ?? ???? - string.KExtract() ?? ???? - string.AppendJosa(...) AppendJosa(...)? ?? ???? KAppendJosa(...)? ??? ?????UMD????? - PC?: UMDEditor?????V2.7: ??:http://jianyun.org/archives/948.html =============================================================================== UMD??? ???? =============================================================================== 2.7.0 (2012-10-3) ???????“UMD???.exe”??“UMDEditor.exe” ?????????;????????,??????。??????,????! ??64????,??????????????bug ?????????????,???? ???????????????? ???????????????,??????????bug ------------------------------------------------------- ?? reg.bat ????????????。 ????,??????txt/u...Untangler: Untangler 1.0.0: Add a missing file from first releaseDirectX Tool Kit: October 2012: October 2, 2012 Added ScreenGrab module Added CreateGeoSphere for drawing a geodesic sphere Put DDSTextureLoader and WICTextureLoader into the DirectX C++ namespace Renamed project files for better naming consistency Updated WICTextureLoader for Windows 8 96bpp floating-point formats Win32 desktop projects updated to use Windows Vista (0x0600) rather than Windows 7 (0x0601) APIs Tweaked SpriteBatch.cpp to workaround ARM NEON compiler codegen bugCRM 2011 Visual Ribbon Editor: Visual Ribbon Editor (1.3.1002.3): Visual Ribbon Editor 1.3.1002.3 What's New: Multi-language support for Labels/Tooltips for custom buttons and groups Support for base language other than English (1033) Connect dialog will not require organization name for ADFS / IFD connections Automatic creation of missing labels for all provisioned languages Minor connection issues fixed Notes: Before saving the ribbon to CRM server, editor will check Ribbon XML for any missing <Title> elements inside existing <LocLabel> elements...SubExtractor: Release 1029: Feature: Added option to make i and ¡ characters movie-specific for improved OCR on Spanish subs (Special Characters tab in Options) Feature: Allow switch to Word Spacing dialog directly from Spell Check dialog Fix: Added more default word spacings for accented characters Fix: Changed Word Spacing dialog to show all OCR'd characters in current sub Fix: Removed application focus grab during OCR Fix: Tightened HD subs fuzzy logic to reduce false matches in small characters Fix: Improved Arrow k...WallSwitch: WallSwitch 1.0.6: Version 1.0.6 Changes: Added hotkeys to perform a variety of operations (next/previous image, pause, clear history, etc.) Added color effects for grayscale, sepia and intense color. Various fixes.Readable Passphrase Generator: KeePass Plugin 0.7.1: See the KeePass Plugin Step By Step Guide for instructions on how to install the plugin. Changes Built against KeePass 2.20New ProjectsBackup Mirth To TFS: You're a developer managing a handful of Mirth Connect HL7 integration servers. You want to ensure that your servers are under change control.Capability Mapping Tool: Capability Mapping Tool provides an intuitive interface to input and prepare reports about the capabilities in university programs and their development also prCRM 2011 Global Quick Search: This CRM 2011 Silverlight WebResource will facilitate User to do Quick Search on multiple CRM Entities and results will be shown on single pageDatabaseUtil: Useful database utilities. Currently only for Entity Framework 4.DevTxt Blog Engine: The blog engine I use.Distrib(uted) Processing Grid: Distrib is a simple yet powerful distributed processing system.Download Organizer: Download Organizer is a Windows service developed in C# on .NET 4 to monitor your downloads folder and move inbound files to various locations on your PC.Example for Tutorial: Lorem IpsumExternal scripts plugin for nopCommerce: This plugin allows you to add any script to any page of your nopCommerce websiteGLMET Next Generation: A user of GLMET/MLT and want to use again? This is right for YOU! A great Folder Locker just for only you!Håvard Fjær: Code I make that might be useful to others. Mostly C#, .NET, NETMF and Gadgeteer stuff. IdentifyUI - An automation tool to identify objects: IdentifyUI - An automation tool to identify objects It works only on windows operating system. It has been tested on Windows XP. iFinity Google Analytics for DotNetNuke: The iFinity Google Analytics module is a simple way to implement Google Analytics tracking for your DotNetNuke website, but also contains advanced features.Labmodel: Modelling of flow around islandMachineSLATStatusCheck: This helps to check the SLAT capability of a machine, so that it can run hyper-v client or not.OneNote HTML Export: The OneNote HTML Export tool allows HTML export of an entire OneNote notebookPreactor Power Tools: The Preactor Power Tools are a collection of tools to enhance the functionality of Preactor.qlevel: sadasdasdroucheng: C# Hello worldSBB - Serial Browser Bridge: Stelle eingehende Daten von einer seriellen Schnittstellen in einem Browser zur Verfügung.Sendine Net: - Sendine.NET ??????????? Socket ???? - ???????????????? - ????(Router)???? - ??????????(IProtocolParser) - ????(Multi-Core)?? - ????????? - ???????Service Sheet for SharePoint: Creates ServiceSheet for each employee and customer that contains the data from Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 in relation to the done Services by each Consultant.SharePoint Bulk Uploader: This is client SharePoint tool that can upload a bulk of files to SharePoint document library using SharePoint Client Object Model. sharepoint foundation 2013 persian language pack: SharePoint 2013 Persian Language Pack . this project started for create a language pack for SharePoint 2013 for supporting Persian Language Pack , this project SharePoint Managed Metadata Navigator: Use SharePoint Managed Metadata Navigator to browse, explore, create, update, delete, export and import MMD Groups, Termsets, and Terms for SharePoint 2010.SharePoint Site template for PRINCE2: PRINCE2 is a Project Management Guidance from UK OGC. This project aims to provide a SharePoint site template for SharePoint 2010 and SharePoint 2013Simple Code Gen: This project will generate c# generated files from SQL server databaseTiwanaku Book Builder: Web application for the development and construction of publication formats, including ePub, docBook, etc.Tris: The all new Tris 2.0 appWalkingGraph: Test

    Read the article

  • Windows Azure: Major Updates for Mobile Backend Development

    - by ScottGu
    This week we released some great updates to Windows Azure that make it significantly easier to develop mobile applications that use the cloud. These new capabilities include: Mobile Services: Custom API support Mobile Services: Git Source Control support Mobile Services: Node.js NPM Module support Mobile Services: A .NET API via NuGet Mobile Services and Web Sites: Free 20MB SQL Database Option for Mobile Services and Web Sites Mobile Notification Hubs: Android Broadcast Push Notification Support All of these improvements are now available to use immediately (note: some are still in preview).  Below are more details about them. Mobile Services: Custom APIs, Git Source Control, and NuGet Windows Azure Mobile Services provides the ability to easily stand up a mobile backend that can be used to support your Windows 8, Windows Phone, iOS, Android and HTML5 client applications.  Starting with the first preview we supported the ability to easily extend your data backend logic with server side scripting that executes as part of client-side CRUD operations against your cloud back data tables. With today’s update we are extending this support even further and introducing the ability for you to also create and expose Custom APIs from your Mobile Service backend, and easily publish them to your Mobile clients without having to associate them with a data table. This capability enables a whole set of new scenarios – including the ability to work with data sources other than SQL Databases (for example: Table Services or MongoDB), broker calls to 3rd party APIs, integrate with Windows Azure Queues or Service Bus, work with custom non-JSON payloads (e.g. Windows Periodic Notifications), route client requests to services back on-premises (e.g. with the new Windows Azure BizTalk Services), or simply implement functionality that doesn’t correspond to a database operation.  The custom APIs can be written in server-side JavaScript (using Node.js) and can use Node’s NPM packages.  We will also be adding support for custom APIs written using .NET in the future as well. Creating a Custom API Adding a custom API to an existing Mobile Service is super easy.  Using the Windows Azure Management Portal you can now simply click the new “API” tab with your Mobile Service, and then click the “Create a Custom API” button to create a new Custom API within it: Give the API whatever name you want to expose, and then choose the security permissions you’d like to apply to the HTTP methods you expose within it.  You can easily lock down the HTTP verbs to your Custom API to be available to anyone, only those who have a valid application key, only authenticated users, or administrators.  Mobile Services will then enforce these permissions without you having to write any code: When you click the ok button you’ll see the new API show up in the API list.  Selecting it will enable you to edit the default script that contains some placeholder functionality: Today’s release enables Custom APIs to be written using Node.js (we will support writing Custom APIs in .NET as well in a future release), and the Custom API programming model follows the Node.js convention for modules, which is to export functions to handle HTTP requests. The default script above exposes functionality for an HTTP POST request. To support a GET, simply change the export statement accordingly.  Below is an example of some code for reading and returning data from Windows Azure Table Storage using the Azure Node API: After saving the changes, you can now call this API from any Mobile Service client application (including Windows 8, Windows Phone, iOS, Android or HTML5 with CORS). Below is the code for how you could invoke the API asynchronously from a Windows Store application using .NET and the new InvokeApiAsync method, and data-bind the results to control within your XAML:     private async void RefreshTodoItems() {         var results = await App.MobileService.InvokeApiAsync<List<TodoItem>>("todos", HttpMethod.Get, parameters: null);         ListItems.ItemsSource = new ObservableCollection<TodoItem>(results);     }    Integrating authentication and authorization with Custom APIs is really easy with Mobile Services. Just like with data requests, custom API requests enjoy the same built-in authentication and authorization support of Mobile Services (including integration with Microsoft ID, Google, Facebook and Twitter authentication providers), and it also enables you to easily integrate your Custom API code with other Mobile Service capabilities like push notifications, logging, SQL, etc. Check out our new tutorials to learn more about to use new Custom API support, and starting adding them to your app today. Mobile Services: Git Source Control Support Today’s Mobile Services update also enables source control integration with Git.  The new source control support provides a Git repository as part your Mobile Service, and it includes all of your existing Mobile Service scripts and permissions. You can clone that git repository on your local machine, make changes to any of your scripts, and then easily deploy the mobile service to production using Git. This enables a really great developer workflow that works on any developer machine (Windows, Mac and Linux). To use the new support, navigate to the dashboard for your mobile service and select the Set up source control link: If this is your first time enabling Git within Windows Azure, you will be prompted to enter the credentials you want to use to access the repository: Once you configure this, you can switch to the configure tab of your Mobile Service and you will see a Git URL you can use to use your repository: You can use this URL to clone the repository locally from your favorite command line: > git clone https://scottgutodo.scm.azure-mobile.net/ScottGuToDo.git Below is the directory structure of the repository: As you can see, the repository contains a service folder with several subfolders. Custom API scripts and associated permissions appear under the api folder as .js and .json files respectively (the .json files persist a JSON representation of the security settings for your endpoints). Similarly, table scripts and table permissions appear as .js and .json files, but since table scripts are separate per CRUD operation, they follow the naming convention of <tablename>.<operationname>.js. Finally, scheduled job scripts appear in the scheduler folder, and the shared folder is provided as a convenient location for you to store code shared by multiple scripts and a few miscellaneous things such as the APNS feedback script. Lets modify the table script todos.js file so that we have slightly better error handling when an exception occurs when we query our Table service: todos.js tableService.queryEntities(query, function(error, todoItems){     if (error) {         console.error("Error querying table: " + error);         response.send(500);     } else {         response.send(200, todoItems);     }        }); Save these changes, and now back in the command line prompt commit the changes and push them to the Mobile Services: > git add . > git commit –m "better error handling in todos.js" > git push Once deployment of the changes is complete, they will take effect immediately, and you will also see the changes be reflected in the portal: With the new Source Control feature, we’re making it really easy for you to edit your mobile service locally and push changes in an atomic fashion without sacrificing ease of use in the Windows Azure Portal. Mobile Services: NPM Module Support The new Mobile Services source control support also allows you to add any Node.js module you need in the scripts beyond the fixed set provided by Mobile Services. For example, you can easily switch to use Mongo instead of Windows Azure table in our example above. Set up Mongo DB by either purchasing a MongoLab subscription (which provides MongoDB as a Service) via the Windows Azure Store or set it up yourself on a Virtual Machine (either Windows or Linux). Then go the service folder of your local git repository and run the following command: > npm install mongoose This will add the Mongoose module to your Mobile Service scripts.  After that you can use and reference the Mongoose module in your custom API scripts to access your Mongo database: var mongoose = require('mongoose'); var schema = mongoose.Schema({ text: String, completed: Boolean });   exports.get = function (request, response) {     mongoose.connect('<your Mongo connection string> ');     TodoItemModel = mongoose.model('todoitem', schema);     TodoItemModel.find(function (err, items) {         if (err) {             console.log('error:' + err);             return response.send(500);         }         response.send(200, items);     }); }; Don’t forget to push your changes to your mobile service once you are done > git add . > git commit –m "Switched to use Mongo Labs" > git push Now our Mobile Service app is using Mongo DB! Note, with today’s update usage of custom Node.js modules is limited to Custom API scripts only. We will enable it in all scripts (including data and custom CRON tasks) shortly. New Mobile Services NuGet package, including .NET 4.5 support A few months ago we announced a new pre-release version of the Mobile Services client SDK based on portable class libraries (PCL). Today, we are excited to announce that this new library is now a stable .NET client SDK for mobile services and is no longer a pre-release package. Today’s update includes full support for Windows Store, Windows Phone 7.x, and .NET 4.5, which allows developers to use Mobile Services from ASP.NET or WPF applications. You can install and use this package today via NuGet. Mobile Services and Web Sites: Free 20MB Database for Mobile Services and Web Sites Starting today, every customer of Windows Azure gets one Free 20MB database to use for 12 months free (for both dev/test and production) with Web Sites and Mobile Services. When creating a Mobile Service or a Web Site, simply chose the new “Create a new Free 20MB database” option to take advantage of it: You can use this free SQL Database together with the 10 free Web Sites and 10 free Mobile Services you get with your Windows Azure subscription, or from any other Windows Azure VM or Cloud Service. Notification Hubs: Android Broadcast Push Notification Support Earlier this year, we introduced a new capability in Windows Azure for sending broadcast push notifications at high scale: Notification Hubs. In the initial preview of Notification Hubs you could use this support with both iOS and Windows devices.  Today we’re excited to announce new Notification Hubs support for sending push notifications to Android devices as well. Push notifications are a vital component of mobile applications.  They are critical not only in consumer apps, where they are used to increase app engagement and usage, but also in enterprise apps where up-to-date information increases employee responsiveness to business events.  You can use Notification Hubs to send push notifications to devices from any type of app (a Mobile Service, Web Site, Cloud Service or Virtual Machine). Notification Hubs provide you with the following capabilities: Cross-platform Push Notifications Support. Notification Hubs provide a common API to send push notifications to iOS, Android, or Windows Store at once.  Your app can send notifications in platform specific formats or in a platform-independent way.  Efficient Multicast. Notification Hubs are optimized to enable push notification broadcast to thousands or millions of devices with low latency.  Your server back-end can fire one message into a Notification Hub, and millions of push notifications can automatically be delivered to your users.  Devices and apps can specify a number of per-user tags when registering with a Notification Hub. These tags do not need to be pre-provisioned or disposed, and provide a very easy way to send filtered notifications to an infinite number of users/devices with a single API call.   Extreme Scale. Notification Hubs enable you to reach millions of devices without you having to re-architect or shard your application.  The pub/sub routing mechanism allows you to broadcast notifications in a super-efficient way.  This makes it incredibly easy to route and deliver notification messages to millions of users without having to build your own routing infrastructure. Usable from any Backend App. Notification Hubs can be easily integrated into any back-end server app, whether it is a Mobile Service, a Web Site, a Cloud Service or an IAAS VM. It is easy to configure Notification Hubs to send push notifications to Android. Create a new Notification Hub within the Windows Azure Management Portal (New->App Services->Service Bus->Notification Hub): Then register for Google Cloud Messaging using https://code.google.com/apis/console and obtain your API key, then simply paste that key on the Configure tab of your Notification Hub management page under the Google Cloud Messaging Settings: Then just add code to the OnCreate method of your Android app’s MainActivity class to register the device with Notification Hubs: gcm = GoogleCloudMessaging.getInstance(this); String connectionString = "<your listen access connection string>"; hub = new NotificationHub("<your notification hub name>", connectionString, this); String regid = gcm.register(SENDER_ID); hub.register(regid, "myTag"); Now you can broadcast notification from your .NET backend (or Node, Java, or PHP) to any Windows Store, Android, or iOS device registered for “myTag” tag via a single API call (you can literally broadcast messages to millions of clients you have registered with just one API call): var hubClient = NotificationHubClient.CreateClientFromConnectionString(                   “<your connection string with full access>”,                   "<your notification hub name>"); hubClient.SendGcmNativeNotification("{ 'data' : {'msg' : 'Hello from Windows Azure!' } }", "myTag”); Notification Hubs provide an extremely scalable, cross-platform, push notification infrastructure that enables you to efficiently route push notification messages to millions of mobile users and devices.  It will make enabling your push notification logic significantly simpler and more scalable, and allow you to build even better apps with it. Learn more about Notification Hubs here on MSDN . Summary The above features are now live and available to start using immediately (note: some of the services are still in preview).  If you don’t already have a Windows Azure account, you can sign-up for a free trial and start using them today.  Visit the Windows Azure Developer Center to learn more about how to build apps with it. 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

  • Selling Federal Enterprise Architecture (EA)

    - by TedMcLaughlan
    Selling Federal Enterprise Architecture A taxonomy of subject areas, from which to develop a prioritized marketing and communications plan to evangelize EA activities within and among US Federal Government organizations and constituents. Any and all feedback is appreciated, particularly in developing and extending this discussion as a tool for use – more information and details are also available. "Selling" the discipline of Enterprise Architecture (EA) in the Federal Government (particularly in non-DoD agencies) is difficult, notwithstanding the general availability and use of the Federal Enterprise Architecture Framework (FEAF) for some time now, and the relatively mature use of the reference models in the OMB Capital Planning and Investment (CPIC) cycles. EA in the Federal Government also tends to be a very esoteric and hard to decipher conversation – early apologies to those who agree to continue reading this somewhat lengthy article. Alignment to the FEAF and OMB compliance mandates is long underway across the Federal Departments and Agencies (and visible via tools like PortfolioStat and ITDashboard.gov – but there is still a gap between the top-down compliance directives and enablement programs, and the bottom-up awareness and effective use of EA for either IT investment management or actual mission effectiveness. "EA isn't getting deep enough penetration into programs, components, sub-agencies, etc.", verified a panelist at the most recent EA Government Conference in DC. Newer guidance from OMB may be especially difficult to handle, where bottom-up input can't be accurately aligned, analyzed and reported via standardized EA discipline at the Agency level – for example in addressing the new (for FY13) Exhibit 53D "Agency IT Reductions and Reinvestments" and the information required for "Cloud Computing Alternatives Evaluation" (supporting the new Exhibit 53C, "Agency Cloud Computing Portfolio"). Therefore, EA must be "sold" directly to the communities that matter, from a coordinated, proactive messaging perspective that takes BOTH the Program-level value drivers AND the broader Agency mission and IT maturity context into consideration. Selling EA means persuading others to take additional time and possibly assign additional resources, for a mix of direct and indirect benefits – many of which aren't likely to be realized in the short-term. This means there's probably little current, allocated budget to work with; ergo the challenge of trying to sell an "unfunded mandate". Also, the concept of "Enterprise" in large Departments like Homeland Security tends to cross all kinds of organizational boundaries – as Richard Spires recently indicated by commenting that "...organizational boundaries still trump functional similarities. Most people understand what we're trying to do internally, and at a high level they get it. The problem, of course, is when you get down to them and their system and the fact that you're going to be touching them...there's always that fear factor," Spires said. It is quite clear to the Federal IT Investment community that for EA to meet its objective, understandable, relevant value must be measured and reported using a repeatable method – as described by GAO's recent report "Enterprise Architecture Value Needs To Be Measured and Reported". What's not clear is the method or guidance to sell this value. In fact, the current GAO "Framework for Assessing and Improving Enterprise Architecture Management (Version 2.0)", a.k.a. the "EAMMF", does not include words like "sell", "persuade", "market", etc., except in reference ("within Core Element 19: Organization business owner and CXO representatives are actively engaged in architecture development") to a brief section in the CIO Council's 2001 "Practical Guide to Federal Enterprise Architecture", entitled "3.3.1. Develop an EA Marketing Strategy and Communications Plan." Furthermore, Core Element 19 of the EAMMF is advised to be applied in "Stage 3: Developing Initial EA Versions". This kind of EA sales campaign truly should start much earlier in the maturity progress, i.e. in Stages 0 or 1. So, what are the understandable, relevant benefits (or value) to sell, that can find an agreeable, participatory audience, and can pave the way towards success of a longer-term, funded set of EA mechanisms that can be methodically measured and reported? Pragmatic benefits from a useful EA that can help overcome the fear of change? And how should they be sold? Following is a brief taxonomy (it's a taxonomy, to help organize SME support) of benefit-related subjects that might make the most sense, in creating the messages and organizing an initial "engagement plan" for evangelizing EA "from within". An EA "Sales Taxonomy" of sorts. We're not boiling the ocean here; the subjects that are included are ones that currently appear to be urgently relevant to the current Federal IT Investment landscape. Note that successful dialogue in these topics is directly usable as input or guidance for actually developing early-stage, "Fit-for-Purpose" (a DoDAF term) Enterprise Architecture artifacts, as prescribed by common methods found in most EA methodologies, including FEAF, TOGAF, DoDAF and our own Oracle Enterprise Architecture Framework (OEAF). The taxonomy below is organized by (1) Target Community, (2) Benefit or Value, and (3) EA Program Facet - as in: "Let's talk to (1: Community Member) about how and why (3: EA Facet) the EA program can help with (2: Benefit/Value)". Once the initial discussion targets and subjects are approved (that can be measured and reported), a "marketing and communications plan" can be created. A working example follows the Taxonomy. Enterprise Architecture Sales Taxonomy Draft, Summary Version 1. Community 1.1. Budgeted Programs or Portfolios Communities of Purpose (CoPR) 1.1.1. Program/System Owners (Senior Execs) Creating or Executing Acquisition Plans 1.1.2. Program/System Owners Facing Strategic Change 1.1.2.1. Mandated 1.1.2.2. Expected/Anticipated 1.1.3. Program Managers - Creating Employee Performance Plans 1.1.4. CO/COTRs – Creating Contractor Performance Plans, or evaluating Value Engineering Change Proposals (VECP) 1.2. Governance & Communications Communities of Practice (CoP) 1.2.1. Policy Owners 1.2.1.1. OCFO 1.2.1.1.1. Budget/Procurement Office 1.2.1.1.2. Strategic Planning 1.2.1.2. OCIO 1.2.1.2.1. IT Management 1.2.1.2.2. IT Operations 1.2.1.2.3. Information Assurance (Cyber Security) 1.2.1.2.4. IT Innovation 1.2.1.3. Information-Sharing/ Process Collaboration (i.e. policies and procedures regarding Partners, Agreements) 1.2.2. Governing IT Council/SME Peers (i.e. an "Architects Council") 1.2.2.1. Enterprise Architects (assumes others exist; also assumes EA participants aren't buried solely within the CIO shop) 1.2.2.2. Domain, Enclave, Segment Architects – i.e. the right affinity group for a "shared services" EA structure (per the EAMMF), which may be classified as Federated, Segmented, Service-Oriented, or Extended 1.2.2.3. External Oversight/Constraints 1.2.2.3.1. GAO/OIG & Legal 1.2.2.3.2. Industry Standards 1.2.2.3.3. Official public notification, response 1.2.3. Mission Constituents Participant & Analyst Community of Interest (CoI) 1.2.3.1. Mission Operators/Users 1.2.3.2. Public Constituents 1.2.3.3. Industry Advisory Groups, Stakeholders 1.2.3.4. Media 2. Benefit/Value (Note the actual benefits may not be discretely attributable to EA alone; EA is a very collaborative, cross-cutting discipline.) 2.1. Program Costs – EA enables sound decisions regarding... 2.1.1. Cost Avoidance – a TCO theme 2.1.2. Sequencing – alignment of capability delivery 2.1.3. Budget Instability – a Federal reality 2.2. Investment Capital – EA illuminates new investment resources via... 2.2.1. Value Engineering – contractor-driven cost savings on existing budgets, direct or collateral 2.2.2. Reuse – reuse of investments between programs can result in savings, chargeback models; avoiding duplication 2.2.3. License Refactoring – IT license & support models may not reflect actual or intended usage 2.3. Contextual Knowledge – EA enables informed decisions by revealing... 2.3.1. Common Operating Picture (COP) – i.e. cross-program impacts and synergy, relative to context 2.3.2. Expertise & Skill – who truly should be involved in architectural decisions, both business and IT 2.3.3. Influence – the impact of politics and relationships can be examined 2.3.4. Disruptive Technologies – new technologies may reduce costs or mitigate risk in unanticipated ways 2.3.5. What-If Scenarios – can become much more refined, current, verifiable; basis for Target Architectures 2.4. Mission Performance – EA enables beneficial decision results regarding... 2.4.1. IT Performance and Optimization – towards 100% effective, available resource utilization 2.4.2. IT Stability – towards 100%, real-time uptime 2.4.3. Agility – responding to rapid changes in mission 2.4.4. Outcomes –measures of mission success, KPIs – vs. only "Outputs" 2.4.5. Constraints – appropriate response to constraints 2.4.6. Personnel Performance – better line-of-sight through performance plans to mission outcome 2.5. Mission Risk Mitigation – EA mitigates decision risks in terms of... 2.5.1. Compliance – all the right boxes are checked 2.5.2. Dependencies –cross-agency, segment, government 2.5.3. Transparency – risks, impact and resource utilization are illuminated quickly, comprehensively 2.5.4. Threats and Vulnerabilities – current, realistic awareness and profiles 2.5.5. Consequences – realization of risk can be mapped as a series of consequences, from earlier decisions or new decisions required for current issues 2.5.5.1. Unanticipated – illuminating signals of future or non-symmetric risk; helping to "future-proof" 2.5.5.2. Anticipated – discovering the level of impact that matters 3. EA Program Facet (What parts of the EA can and should be communicated, using business or mission terms?) 3.1. Architecture Models – the visual tools to be created and used 3.1.1. Operating Architecture – the Business Operating Model/Architecture elements of the EA truly drive all other elements, plus expose communication channels 3.1.2. Use Of – how can the EA models be used, and how are they populated, from a reasonable, pragmatic yet compliant perspective? What are the core/minimal models required? What's the relationship of these models, with existing system models? 3.1.3. Scope – what level of granularity within the models, and what level of abstraction across the models, is likely to be most effective and useful? 3.2. Traceability – the maturity, status, completeness of the tools 3.2.1. Status – what in fact is the degree of maturity across the integrated EA model and other relevant governance models, and who may already be benefiting from it? 3.2.2. Visibility – how does the EA visibly and effectively prove IT investment performance goals are being reached, with positive mission outcome? 3.3. Governance – what's the interaction, participation method; how are the tools used? 3.3.1. Contributions – how is the EA program informed, accept submissions, collect data? Who are the experts? 3.3.2. Review – how is the EA validated, against what criteria?  Taxonomy Usage Example:   1. To speak with: a. ...a particular set of System Owners Facing Strategic Change, via mandate (like the "Cloud First" mandate); about... b. ...how the EA program's visible and easily accessible Infrastructure Reference Model (i.e. "IRM" or "TRM"), if updated more completely with current system data, can... c. ...help shed light on ways to mitigate risks and avoid future costs associated with NOT leveraging potentially-available shared services across the enterprise... 2. ....the following Marketing & Communications (Sales) Plan can be constructed: a. Create an easy-to-read "Consequence Model" that illustrates how adoption of a cloud capability (like elastic operational storage) can enable rapid and durable compliance with the mandate – using EA traceability. Traceability might be from the IRM to the ARM (that identifies reusable services invoking the elastic storage), and then to the PRM with performance measures (such as % utilization of purchased storage allocation) included in the OMB Exhibits; and b. Schedule a meeting with the Program Owners, timed during their Acquisition Strategy meetings in response to the mandate, to use the "Consequence Model" for advising them to organize a rapid and relevant RFI solicitation for this cloud capability (regarding alternatives for sourcing elastic operational storage); and c. Schedule a series of short "Discovery" meetings with the system architecture leads (as agreed by the Program Owners), to further populate/validate the "As-Is" models and frame the "To Be" models (via scenarios), to better inform the RFI, obtain the best feedback from the vendor community, and provide potential value for and avoid impact to all other programs and systems. --end example -- Note that communications with the intended audience should take a page out of the standard "Search Engine Optimization" (SEO) playbook, using keywords and phrases relating to "value" and "outcome" vs. "compliance" and "output". Searches in email boxes, internal and external search engines for phrases like "cost avoidance strategies", "mission performance metrics" and "innovation funding" should yield messages and content from the EA team. This targeted, informed, practical sales approach should result in additional buy-in and participation, additional EA information contribution and model validation, development of more SMEs and quick "proof points" (with real-life testing) to bolster the case for EA. The proof point here is a successful, timely procurement that satisfies not only the external mandate and external oversight review, but also meets internal EA compliance/conformance goals and therefore is more transparently useful across the community. In short, if sold effectively, the EA will perform and be recognized. EA won’t therefore be used only for compliance, but also (according to a validated, stated purpose) to directly influence decisions and outcomes. The opinions, views and analysis expressed in this document are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Oracle.

    Read the article

  • OpenVPN Error : TLS Error: local/remote TLS keys are out of sync: [AF_INET]

    - by Lucidity
    Fist off thanks for reading this, I appreciate any and all suggestions. I am having some serious problems reconnecting to my OpenVPN client using Riseup.net's VPN. I have spent a few days banging my head against the wall in attempts to set this up on my iOS devices....but that is a whole other issue. I was however able to set it up on my Mac OS X specifically on my Windows Vista 32 bit BootCamp VM with relatively little trouble. To originally connect I only had to modify the recommended Config file very slightly (Config file included at the end of this post): - I had to enter the code directly into my config file - And change "dev tap" to "dev tun" So I was connected. (Note - I did test to ensure the VPN was actually working after I originally connected, it was. Also verified the .pem file (inserted as the coding in my config file) for authenticity). I left the VPN running. My computer went to sleep. Today I went to use the internet expecting (possibly incorrectly - I am now unsure if I was wrong to leave it running) to still be connected to the VPN. However I saw immediately I was not. I went to reconnect. And was (am) unable to. My logs after attempting to connect (and getting a connection failed dialog box) show everything working as it should (as far as I can tell) until the end where I get the following lines: Mon Sep 23 21:07:49 2013 us=276809 Initialization Sequence Completed Mon Sep 23 21:07:49 2013 us=276809 MANAGEMENT: >STATE:1379995669,CONNECTED,SUCCESS, OMITTED Mon Sep 23 21:22:50 2013 us=390350 Authenticate/Decrypt packet error: packet HMAC authentication failed Mon Sep 23 21:23:39 2013 us=862180 TLS Error: local/remote TLS keys are out of sync: [AF_INET] VPN IP OMITTED [2] Mon Sep 23 21:23:57 2013 us=395183 Authenticate/Decrypt packet error: packet HMAC authentication failed Mon Sep 23 22:07:41 2013 us=296898 TLS: soft reset sec=0 bytes=513834601/0 pkts=708032/0 Mon Sep 23 22:07:41 2013 us=671299 VERIFY OK: depth=1, C=US, O=Riseup Networks, L=Seattle, ST=WA, CN=Riseup Networks, [email protected] Mon Sep 23 22:07:41 2013 us=671299 VERIFY OK: depth=0, C=US, O=Riseup Networks, L=Seattle, ST=WA, CN=vpn.riseup.net Mon Sep 23 22:07:46 2013 us=772508 Data Channel Encrypt: Cipher 'BF-CBC' initialized with 128 bit key Mon Sep 23 22:07:46 2013 us=772508 Data Channel Encrypt: Using 160 bit message hash 'SHA1' for HMAC authentication Mon Sep 23 22:07:46 2013 us=772508 Data Channel Decrypt: Cipher 'BF-CBC' initialized with 128 bit key Mon Sep 23 22:07:46 2013 us=772508 Data Channel Decrypt: Using 160 bit message hash 'SHA1' for HMAC authentication Mon Sep 23 22:07:46 2013 us=772508 Control Channel: TLSv1, cipher TLSv1/SSLv3 DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA, 2048 bit RSA So I have searched for a solution online and I have included what I have attempted below, however I fear (know) I am not knowledgeable enough in this area to fix this myself. I apologize in advance for my ignorance. I do tech support for a living, but not this kind of tech support unfortunately. Other notes and troubleshooting done - - Windows Firewall is disabled completely, as well as other Anti-virus programs - Tor is disabled completely - No Proxies running - Time is correct in all locations - Router Firmware is up to date - Able to connect to the internet and as far as I can tell all necessary ports are open. - No settings have been altered since I was able to connect successfully. - Ethernet as well as wifi connections attempted, resulted in same error. Also tried adding the following lines to my config file (without success or change in error): persist-key persist-tun proto tcp (after reading that this error generally occurs on UDP connections, and is extremely rare on TCP) resolv-retry infinite (thinking the connection may have timed out since the issues occurred after leaving VPN connected during about 10 hrs of computer in sleep mode) All attempts resulted in exact same error code included at the top of this post. The original suggestions I found online stated - (regarding the TLS Error) - This error should resolve itself within 60 seconds, or if not quit wait 120 seconds and try again. (Which isnt the case here...) (regarding the Out of Sync" error) - If you continue to get "out of sync" errors and the link does not come up, then it means that something is probably wrong with your config file. You must use either ping and ping-restart on both sides of the connection, or keepalive on the server side of a client/server connection, in order to gracefully recover from "local/remote TLS keys are out of sync" errors. I wouldn't be surprised if my config file is lacking, or not correct. However I can confirm I followed the instructions to a tee. And was able to connect originally (and have not modified my settings or config file since I was able to connect to when the error began occurring). I have a very simple config file: client dev tun tun-mtu 1500 remote vpn.riseup.net auth-user-pass ca RiseupCA.pem redirect-gateway verb 4 <ca> -----BEGIN CERTIFICATE----- [OMITTED] -----END CERTIFICATE----- </ca> I would really appreciate any help or suggestions. I am at a total loss here, I know I'm asking a lot here. Though I am a new user on this site I help others on many forums including Microsoft's support community and especially Apple's support communities, so I will definitely pass on anything I learn here to help others. Thanks so so so much in advance for reading this.

    Read the article

  • Windows 7 Machine Makes Router Drop -All- Wireless Connections

    - by Hammer Bro.
    Some background: My home network consists of my Desktop, a two-month old Windows 7 (x64) machine which is online most frequently (N-spec), as well as three other Windows XP laptops (all G) that only connect every now and then (one for work, one for Netflix, and the other for infrequent regular laptop uses). I used to have a Belkin F5D8236-4 wireless router, and everything worked great. A week ago, however, I found out that the Belkin absolutely in no way would establish a VPN connection, something that has become important for work. So I bought a Netgear WNR3500v2/U/L. The wireless was acting a little sketchy at first for just the Windows 7 machine, but I thought it had something to do with 802.11N and I was in a hurry so I just fished up an ethernet cable and disabled the computer's wireless. It has now become apparent, though, that whenever the Windows 7 machine is connected to the router, all wireless connections become unstable. I was using my work laptop for a solid six hours today with no trouble, having multiple SSH connections open over VPN and streaming internet radio in the background. Then, within two minutes of turning on this Windows 7 box, I had lost all connectivity over the wireless. And I was two feet away from the router. The same sort of thing happens on all of the other laptops -- Netflix can be playing stuff all weekend, but if I come up here and do things on this (W7) computer, the streaming will be dead within ten minutes. So here are my basic observations: If the Windows 7 machine is off, then all connections will have a Signal Strength of Very Good or Excellent and a Speed of 48-54 Mbps for an indefinite amount of time. Shortly after the Windows 7 machine is turned on, all wireless connections will experience a consistent decline in Speed down to 1.0 Mbps, eventually losing their connection entirely. These machines will continue to maintain 70% signal strength, as observed by themselves and router. Once dropped, a wireless connection will have difficulty reconnecting. And, if a connection manages to become established, it will quickly drop off again. The Windows 7 machine itself will continue to function just fine if it's using a wired connection, although it will experience these same issues over the wireless. All of the drivers and firmwares are up to date, and this happened both with the stock Netgear firmware as well as the (current) DD-WRT. What I've tried: Making sure each computer is being assigned a distinct IP. (They are.) Disabling UPnP and Stateful Packet Inspection on the router. Disabling Network Sharing, SSDP Discovery, TCP/IP NetBios Helper and Computer Browser services on the Windows 7 machine. Disabling QoS Packet Scheduler, IPv6, and Link Layer Topology Discovery options on my ethernet controller (leaving only Client for Microsoft Networks, File and Printer Sharing, and IPv4 enabled). What I think: It seems awfully similar to the problems discussed in detail at http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en/wsk/thread/1064e397-9d9b-4ae2-bc8e-c8798e591915 (which was both the most relevant and concrete information I could dig up on the internet). I still think that something the Windows 7 IP stack (or just Operating System itself) is doing is giving the router fits. However, I could be wrong, because I have two key differences. One is that most instances of this problem are reported as the entire router dying or restarting, and mine still works just fine over the wired connection. The other is that it's a new router, tested with both the factory firmware and the (I assume) well-maintained DD-WRT project. Even if Windows 7 is still secretly sending IPv6 packets or the TCP Window Scaling implementation that I hear Vista caused some trouble with (even though I've tried my best to disable anything fancy), this router should support those functions. I don't want to get a new or a replacement router unless someone can convince me that this is a defective unit. But the problem seems too specific and predictable by my instincts to be a hardware hiccup. And I don't want to deal with the inevitable problems that always seem to take half a day to resolve when getting a new router, since I'm frantically working (including tomorrow) to complete a project by next week's deadline. Plus, I think in the worst case scenario, I could keep this router connected directly to the modem, disable its wireless entirely, and connect the old Belkin to it directly. That should allow me to still use VPN (although I'll have to plug my work laptop directly into that router), and then maintain wireless connections for all of the other computers. But that feels so wrong to me. Anyone have any ideas what the cause and possible solution could be? Clarifications: The Windows 7 machine is directly connected via an ethernet cable to the router for everything above. But while it is online, all other computers' wireless connections become unusable. It is not an issue of signal strength or interference -- no other devices within scanning range are using Channel 1, and the problem will affect computers that are literally feet away from the router with 95% signal strength.

    Read the article

  • httpd keeps crashing without any reference to why in the logs

    - by Fred
    I have the logs set to debug in the hopes of tracking down what's causing the crash, but I can't find anything. Here is the error_log. [Thu Jan 06 10:27:35 2011] [debug] proxy_util.c(1967): proxy: initialized single connection worker 0 in child 19999 for (*) [Thu Jan 06 14:47:04 2011] [notice] suEXEC mechanism enabled (wrapper: /usr/sbin/suexec) [Thu Jan 06 14:47:04 2011] [info] Init: Seeding PRNG with 256 bytes of entropy [Thu Jan 06 14:47:04 2011] [info] Init: Generating temporary RSA private keys (512/1024 bits) [Thu Jan 06 14:47:04 2011] [info] Init: Generating temporary DH parameters (512/1024 bits) [Thu Jan 06 14:47:04 2011] [info] Init: Initializing (virtual) servers for SSL [Thu Jan 06 14:47:04 2011] [info] Server: Apache/2.2.3, Interface: mod_ssl/2.2.3, Library: OpenSSL/0.9.8e-fips-rhel5 [Thu Jan 06 14:47:04 2011] [notice] Digest: generating secret for digest authentication ... [Thu Jan 06 14:47:04 2011] [notice] Digest: done [Thu Jan 06 14:47:04 2011] [debug] util_ldap.c(2021): LDAP merging Shared Cache conf: shm=0xb9dc2480 rmm=0xb9dc24b0 for VHOST: server.fredfinn.com [Thu Jan 06 14:47:04 2011] [info] APR LDAP: Built with OpenLDAP LDAP SDK [Thu Jan 06 14:47:04 2011] [info] LDAP: SSL support available [Thu Jan 06 14:47:05 2011] [info] Init: Seeding PRNG with 256 bytes of entropy [Thu Jan 06 14:47:05 2011] [info] Init: Generating temporary RSA private keys (512/1024 bits) [Thu Jan 06 14:47:05 2011] [info] Init: Generating temporary DH parameters (512/1024 bits) [Thu Jan 06 14:47:05 2011] [debug] ssl_scache_shmcb.c(374): shmcb_init allocated 512000 bytes of shared memory [Thu Jan 06 14:47:05 2011] [debug] ssl_scache_shmcb.c(554): entered shmcb_init_memory() [Thu Jan 06 14:47:05 2011] [debug] ssl_scache_shmcb.c(576): for 512000 bytes, recommending 4266 indexes [Thu Jan 06 14:47:05 2011] [debug] ssl_scache_shmcb.c(619): shmcb_init_memory choices follow [Thu Jan 06 14:47:05 2011] [debug] ssl_scache_shmcb.c(621): division_mask = 0x1F [Thu Jan 06 14:47:05 2011] [debug] ssl_scache_shmcb.c(623): division_offset = 64 [Thu Jan 06 14:47:05 2011] [debug] ssl_scache_shmcb.c(625): division_size = 15998 [Thu Jan 06 14:47:05 2011] [debug] ssl_scache_shmcb.c(627): queue_size = 1604 [Thu Jan 06 14:47:05 2011] [debug] ssl_scache_shmcb.c(629): index_num = 133 [Thu Jan 06 14:47:05 2011] [debug] ssl_scache_shmcb.c(631): index_offset = 8 [Thu Jan 06 14:47:05 2011] [debug] ssl_scache_shmcb.c(633): index_size = 12 [Thu Jan 06 14:47:05 2011] [debug] ssl_scache_shmcb.c(635): cache_data_offset = 8 [Thu Jan 06 14:47:05 2011] [debug] ssl_scache_shmcb.c(637): cache_data_size = 14386 [Thu Jan 06 14:47:05 2011] [debug] ssl_scache_shmcb.c(650): leaving shmcb_init_memory() [Thu Jan 06 14:47:05 2011] [info] Shared memory session cache initialised [Thu Jan 06 14:47:05 2011] [info] Init: Initializing (virtual) servers for SSL [Thu Jan 06 14:47:05 2011] [info] Server: Apache/2.2.3, Interface: mod_ssl/2.2.3, Library: OpenSSL/0.9.8e-fips-rhel5 [Thu Jan 06 14:47:05 2011] [warn] pid file /etc/httpd/run/httpd.pid overwritten -- Unclean shutdown of previous Apache run? [Thu Jan 06 14:47:05 2011] [debug] proxy_util.c(1854): proxy: grabbed scoreboard slot 0 in child 26527 for worker proxy:reverse [Thu Jan 06 14:47:05 2011] [debug] proxy_util.c(1967): proxy: initialized single connection worker 0 in child 26527 for (*) [Thu Jan 06 14:47:05 2011] [debug] proxy_util.c(1854): proxy: grabbed scoreboard slot 0 in child 26528 for worker proxy:reverse [Thu Jan 06 14:47:05 2011] [debug] proxy_util.c(1873): proxy: worker proxy:reverse already initialized [Thu Jan 06 14:47:05 2011] [debug] proxy_util.c(1967): proxy: initialized single connection worker 0 in child 26528 for (*) [Thu Jan 06 14:47:05 2011] [debug] proxy_util.c(1854): proxy: grabbed scoreboard slot 0 in child 26529 for worker proxy:reverse [Thu Jan 06 14:47:05 2011] [debug] proxy_util.c(1873): proxy: worker proxy:reverse already initialized [Thu Jan 06 14:47:05 2011] [debug] proxy_util.c(1967): proxy: initialized single connection worker 0 in child 26529 for (*) [Thu Jan 06 14:47:05 2011] [debug] proxy_util.c(1854): proxy: grabbed scoreboard slot 0 in child 26530 for worker proxy:reverse [Thu Jan 06 14:47:05 2011] [debug] proxy_util.c(1873): proxy: worker proxy:reverse already initialized [Thu Jan 06 14:47:05 2011] [debug] proxy_util.c(1967): proxy: initialized single connection worker 0 in child 26530 for (*) [Thu Jan 06 14:47:05 2011] [debug] proxy_util.c(1854): proxy: grabbed scoreboard slot 0 in child 26532 for worker proxy:reverse [Thu Jan 06 14:47:05 2011] [debug] proxy_util.c(1873): proxy: worker proxy:reverse already initialized [Thu Jan 06 14:47:05 2011] [debug] proxy_util.c(1967): proxy: initialized single connection worker 0 in child 26532 for (*) [Thu Jan 06 14:47:05 2011] [debug] proxy_util.c(1854): proxy: grabbed scoreboard slot 0 in child 26533 for worker proxy:reverse [Thu Jan 06 14:47:05 2011] [debug] proxy_util.c(1873): proxy: worker proxy:reverse already initialized [Thu Jan 06 14:47:05 2011] [debug] proxy_util.c(1967): proxy: initialized single connection worker 0 in child 26533 for (*) [Thu Jan 06 14:47:05 2011] [debug] proxy_util.c(1854): proxy: grabbed scoreboard slot 0 in child 26534 for worker proxy:reverse [Thu Jan 06 14:47:05 2011] [debug] proxy_util.c(1873): proxy: worker proxy:reverse already initialized [Thu Jan 06 14:47:05 2011] [debug] proxy_util.c(1967): proxy: initialized single connection worker 0 in child 26534 for (*) [Thu Jan 06 14:47:05 2011] [notice] Apache/2.2.3 (CentOS) configured -- resuming normal operations [Thu Jan 06 14:47:05 2011] [info] Server built: Aug 30 2010 12:32:08 [Thu Jan 06 14:47:05 2011] [debug] prefork.c(991): AcceptMutex: sysvsem (default: sysvsem) [Thu Jan 06 14:47:05 2011] [debug] proxy_util.c(1854): proxy: grabbed scoreboard slot 0 in child 26531 for worker proxy:reverse [Thu Jan 06 14:47:05 2011] [debug] proxy_util.c(1873): proxy: worker proxy:reverse already initialized [Thu Jan 06 14:47:05 2011] [debug] proxy_util.c(1967): proxy: initialized single connection worker 0 in child 26531 for (*) The logs are setup as: ErrorLog logs/error_log LogLevel debug LogFormat "%h %l %u %t \"%r\" %>s %b \"%{Referer}i\" \"%{User-Agent}i\"" combined LogFormat "%h %l %u %t \"%r\" %>s %b" common LogFormat "%{Referer}i -> %U" referer LogFormat "%{User-agent}i" agent CustomLog logs/access_log common CustomLog logs/access_log combined ServerSignature On

    Read the article

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