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  • SEO Reports - The Importance of Having Proper Reporting

    SEO is a very dynamic and complex process and as important it is for a company to provide the service it is equally important to report it correctly because a webmaster can only know what's going on if he/she gets a detailed report of the status. In case you are opting for an SEO provider it is crucial for you to know the update on the task and therefore reporting becomes a core aspect of an SEO service.

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  • Dental SEO - What Exactly Are Discount Dental Plans?

    A dental plan is a type of club you join where we have a portion of providers and consumers. In a discounted plan, the providers have agreed to supply the services at a discounted rate. Being a consumer, one simply has to display his or her membership card while visiting the service provider. These types of discounted plans do not purport to insurance in any way, they're just discount programs.

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  • LogonUser function (2 replies)

    I am trying to access a server using LogonUser function as follows Dim returnValue As Boolean LogonUser(Domain\UserName, MachineName, password, LOGON32 LOGON NEW CREDENTIALS, LOGON32 PROVIDER DEFAULT, tokenHandle) I get a token, and seems to me that I get authenticated. However when I execute the following Dim AllCountersCategories As PerformanceCounterCategory() PerformanceCounterCategory.GetCate...

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  • Add Your Own Domain to Your WordPress.com Blog

    - by Matthew Guay
    Now that you’ve got a nice blog on WordPress.com, why not get your own domain to brand your site?  Here’s how you can easily register a new domain or move your existing domain to your WordPress site. By default, your free WordPress address is yourblog’sname.wordpress.com.  But whether this is a personal or a company blog, it can be nice to have your own domain to really brand your site and make it your own.  Or, if you already have another website and want to use WordPress as a blog for it, you could even add blog.yoursite.com or any other subdomain. Adding a domain to your WordPress.com is a paid upgrade; registering and mapping a new domain to your account costs $14.97 a year, while mapping a domain you already own to your WordPress blog costs $9.97 a year. Getting Started Login to your blog’s dashboard, click the arrow beside Upgrades in the sidebar, and select Domains. Enter the domain or subdomain you want to add to your site in the text box, and click Add domain to blog.   If you entered a new domain you want to register, WordPress will make sure the domain is available and then present you a registration form to register the domain.  Enter your information, and then click Register Domain.   Or, if you enter a domain that’s already registered, you will see the following prompt. If this domain is a domain you own, you can map it to WordPress.com.  Login to your domain registrar account and switch your nameserver to: NS1.WORDPRESS.COM NS2.WORDPRESS.COM NS3.WORDPRESS.COM Your DNS settings page for your domain may be different, depending on your registrar.  Here’s how our domain settings looked. Alternately, if you’re wanting to map a subdomain, such as blog.yoursite.com to your WordPress blog, create the following CNAME record on your domain register.  You may have to contact your domain registrar’s support to do this.  Substitute your subdomain, domain, and blog name when creating the record. subdomain.yourdomain.com. IN CNAME yourblog.wordpress.com. Once your settings are correct, click Try Again in your WordPress dashboard.  The DNS settings may take a while to update, but once WordPress can tell your DNS settings point to it, you will see the following confirmation screen.  Click Map Domain to add this domain to your WordPress blog. Now you’re ready to pay for your domain mapping or registration.  Depending on your purchase, the information and price shown may be different.  Here we’re mapping a domain we already have registered, so it costs $9.97.  Select your method of payment, enter your payment information or signin with your Paypal account, and continue as usual. Once your purchase is finished, you’ll be returned to the Domains page on WordPress.  Try going to your new domain, and make sure it opens your blog.  If it works, then click the bullet beside the new domain, and click Update Primary Domain.  Now, when people visit your WordPress site, they’ll see your new domain in the address bar.  You can still access your blog from your old yourname.wordpress.com address, but it will redirect to you new domain. Conclusion Having a personalized domain is a great way to make your blog more professional, while still taking advantage of the ease of use that WordPress.com offers.  And, if you have your own domain, you can easily move to your site traffic to a different hosting provider in the future if you need to.  The process is slightly complicated, but for $15/year we found this one of the best upgrades you could do to your WordPress.com blog. If you want to see an example of a site created with Wordpress, check out Matthew’s tech site techinch.com. And, if you’re just getting started with WordPress, check out our series on how to Start your WordPress.com blog, Personalize it, and Easily Post Content to it from anywhere. Similar Articles Productive Geek Tips Add Social Bookmarking (Digg This!) Links to your Wordpress BlogHow-To Geek SoftwareHow To Start Your Own Professional Blog with WordPressDisable Logon to Windows Computers When Not Connected to a DomainMake a Backup Copy of your Production Wordpress Blog on Ubuntu 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 Xobni Plus for Outlook All My Movies 5.9 CloudBerry Online Backup 1.5 for Windows Home Server Snagit 10 Use ILovePDF To Split and Merge PDF Files TimeToMeet is a Simple Online Meeting Planning Tool Easily Create More Bookmark Toolbars in Firefox Filevo is a Cool File Hosting & Sharing Site Get a free copy of WinUtilities Pro 2010 World Cup Schedule

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  • Complete Guide to Networking Windows 7 with XP and Vista

    - by Mysticgeek
    Since there are three versions of Windows out in the field these days, chances are you need to share data between them. Today we show how to get each version to be share files and printers with one another. In a perfect world, getting your computers with different Microsoft operating systems to network would be as easy as clicking a button. With the Windows 7 Homegroup feature, it’s almost that easy. However, getting all three of them to communicate with each other can be a bit of a challenge. Today we’ve put together a guide that will help you share files and printers in whatever scenario of the three versions you might encounter on your home network. Sharing Between Windows 7 and XP The most common scenario you’re probably going to run into is sharing between Windows 7 and XP.  Essentially you’ll want to make sure both machines are part of the same workgroup, set up the correct sharing settings, and making sure network discovery is enabled on Windows 7. The biggest problem you may run into is finding the correct printer drivers for both versions of Windows. Share Files and Printers Between Windows 7 & XP  Map a Network Drive Another method of sharing data between XP and Windows 7 is mapping a network drive. If you don’t need to share a printer and only want to share a drive, then you can just map an XP drive to Windows 7. Although it might sound complicated, the process is not bad. The trickiest part is making sure you add the appropriate local user. This will allow you to share the contents of an XP drive to your Windows 7 computer. Map a Network Drive from XP to Windows 7 Sharing between Vista and Windows 7 Another scenario you might run into is having to share files and printers between a Vista and Windows 7 machine. The process is a bit easier than sharing between XP and Windows 7, but takes a bit of work. The Homegroup feature isn’t compatible with Vista, so we need to go through a few different steps. Depending on what your printer is, sharing it should be easier as Vista and Windows 7 do a much better job of automatically locating the drivers. How to Share Files and Printers Between Windows 7 and Vista Sharing between Vista and XP When Windows Vista came out, hardware requirements were intensive, drivers weren’t ready, and sharing between them was complicated due to the new Vista structure. The sharing process is pretty straight-forward if you’re not using password protection…as you just need to drop what you want to share into the Vista Public folder. On the other hand, sharing with password protection becomes a bit more difficult. Basically you need to add a user and set up sharing on the XP machine. But once again, we have a complete tutorial for that situation. Share Files and Folders Between Vista and XP Machines Sharing Between Windows 7 with Homegroup If you have one or more Windows 7 machine, sharing files and devices becomes extremely easy with the Homegroup feature. It’s as simple as creating a Homegroup on on machine then joining the other to it. It allows you to stream media, control what data is shared, and can also be password protected. If you don’t want to make your Windows 7 machines part of the same Homegroup, you can still share files through the Public Folder, and setup a printer to be shared as well.   Use the Homegroup Feature in Windows 7 to Share Printers and Files Create a Homegroup & Join a New Computer To It Change which Files are Shared in a Homegroup Windows Home Server If you want an ultimate setup that creates a centralized location to share files between all systems on your home network, regardless of the operating system, then set up a Windows Home Server. It allows you to centralize your important documents and digital media files on one box and provides easy access to data and the ability to stream media to other machines on your network. Not only that, but it provides easy backup of all your machines to the server, in case disaster strikes. How to Install and Setup Windows Home Server How to Manage Shared Folders on Windows Home Server Conclusion The biggest annoyance is dealing with printers that have a different set of drivers for each OS. There is no real easy way to solve this problem. Our best advice is to try to connect it to one machine, and if the drivers won’t work, hook it up to the other computer and see if that works. Each printer manufacturer is different, and Windows doesn’t always automatically install the correct drivers for the device. We hope this guide helps you share your data between whichever Microsoft OS scenario you might run into! Here are some other articles that will help you accomplish your home networking needs: Share a Printer on a Home Network from Vista or XP to Windows 7 How to Share a Folder the XP Way in Windows Vista Similar Articles Productive Geek Tips Delete Wrong AutoComplete Entries in Windows Vista MailSvchost Viewer Shows Exactly What Each svchost.exe Instance is DoingFixing "BOOTMGR is missing" Error While Trying to Boot Windows VistaShow Hidden Files and Folders in Windows 7 or VistaAdd Color Coding to Windows 7 Media Center Program Guide TouchFreeze Alternative in AutoHotkey The Icy Undertow Desktop Windows Home Server – Backup to LAN The Clear & Clean Desktop Use This Bookmarklet to Easily Get Albums Use AutoHotkey to Assign a Hotkey to a Specific Window Latest Software Reviews Tinyhacker Random Tips DVDFab 6 Revo Uninstaller Pro Registry Mechanic 9 for Windows PC Tools Internet Security Suite 2010 Icelandic Volcano Webcams Open Multiple Links At One Go NachoFoto Searches Images in Real-time Office 2010 Product Guides Google Maps Place marks – Pizza, Guns or Strip Clubs Monitor Applications With Kiwi

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  • Blending the Sketchflow Action

    - by GeekAgilistMercenary
    Started a new Sketchflow Prototype in Expression Blend recently and documented each of the steps.  This blog entry covers some of those steps, which are the basic elements of any prototype.  I will have more information regarding design, prototype creation, and the process of the initial phases for development in the future.  For now, I hope you enjoy this short walk through.  Also, be sure to check out my last quick entry on Sketchflow. I started off with a Sketchflow Project, just like I did in my previous entry (more specifics in that entry about how to manipulate and build out the Sketchflow Map). Once I created the project I setup the following Sketchflow Map. The CoreNavigation is a ComponentScreen setup solely for the page navigation at the top of the screen.  The XAML markup in case you want to create a Component Screen with the same design is included below. <UserControl xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation" xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml" xmlns:d="http://schemas.microsoft.com/expression/blend/2008" xmlns:mc="http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/markup-compatibility/2006" mc:Ignorable="d" xmlns:i="clr-namespace:System.Windows.Interactivity;assembly=System.Windows.Interactivity" xmlns:pb="clr-namespace:Microsoft.Expression.Prototyping.Behavior;assembly=Microsoft.Expression.Prototyping.Interactivity" x:Class="RapidPrototypeSketchScreens.CoreNavigation" d:DesignWidth="624" d:DesignHeight="49" Height="49" Width="624">   <Grid x:Name="LayoutRoot"> <TextBlock HorizontalAlignment="Stretch" Margin="307,3,0,0" Style="{StaticResource TitleCenter-Sketch}" Text="Aütøchart Scorecards" TextWrapping="Wrap"> <i:Interaction.Triggers> <i:EventTrigger EventName="MouseLeftButtonDown"> <pb:NavigateToScreenAction TargetScreen="RapidPrototypeSketchScreens.Screen_1"/> </i:EventTrigger> </i:Interaction.Triggers> </TextBlock> <Button HorizontalAlignment="Left" Margin="164,8,0,11" Style="{StaticResource Button-Sketch}" Width="144" Content="Scorecard"> <i:Interaction.Triggers> <i:EventTrigger EventName="Click"> <pb:NavigateToScreenAction TargetScreen="RapidPrototypeSketchScreens.Screen_1_2"/> </i:EventTrigger> </i:Interaction.Triggers> </Button> <Button HorizontalAlignment="Left" Margin="8,8,0,11" Style="{StaticResource Button-Sketch}" Width="152" Content="Standard Reports"> <i:Interaction.Triggers> <i:EventTrigger EventName="Click"> <pb:NavigateToScreenAction TargetScreen="RapidPrototypeSketchScreens.Screen_1_1"/> </i:EventTrigger> </i:Interaction.Triggers> </Button> </Grid> </UserControl> Now that the CoreNavigation Component Screen is done I built out each of the others.  In each of those screens I included the CoreNavigation Screen (all those little green lines in the image) as the top navigation.  In order to do that, as I created each of the pages I would hover over the CoreNavigation Object in the Sketchflow Map.  When the utilities drawer (the small menu that pops down under a node when you hover over it) shows click on the third little icon and drag it onto the page node you want a navigation screen on. Once I created all the screens I setup the navigation by opening up each screen and right clicking on the objects that needed to point to somewhere else in the prototype. Once I was done with the main page, my Home Navigation Page, it looked something like this in the Expression Blend Designer. I fleshed out each of the additional screens.  Once I was done I wanted to try out the deployment package.  The way to deploy a Sketchflow Prototype is to merely click on File –> Package SketchFlow Project and a prompt will appear.  In the prompt enter what you want the package to be called. I like to see the files generated afterwards too, so I checked the box to see that.  When Expression Blend is done generating everything you’ll have a directory like the one shown below, with all the needed files for deployment. Now these files can be copied or moved to any location for viewing.  One can even copy them (such as via FTP) to a server location to share with others.  Once they are deployed and you run the "TestPage.html" the other features of the Sketchflow Package are available. In the image below I have tagged a few sections to show the Sketchflow Player Features.  To the top left is the navigation, which provides a clearly defined area of movement in a list.  To the center right is the actual prototype application.  I have placed lists of things and made edits.  On the left hand side is the highlight feature, which is available in the Feedback section of the lower left.  On the right hand list I underlined the Autochart with an orange marker, and marked out two list items with a red marker. In the lower left hand side in the Feedback section is also an area to type in your feedback.  This can be useful for time based feedback, when you post this somewhere and want people to provide subsequent follow up feedback. Overall lots of great features, that enable some fairly rapid prototyping with customers.  Once one is familiar with the steps and parts of this Sketchflow Prototype Capabilities it is easy to step through an application without even stopping.  It really is that easy.  So get hold of Expression Blend 3 and get ramped up on Sketchflow, it will pay off in the design phases to do so! Original Entry

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  • Creating packages in code – Execute SQL Task

    The Execute SQL Task is for obvious reasons very well used, so I thought if you are building packages in code the chances are you will be using it. Using the task basic features of the task are quite straightforward, add the task and set some properties, just like any other. When you start interacting with variables though it can be a little harder to grasp so these samples should see you through. Some of these more advanced features are explained in much more detail in our ever popular post The Execute SQL Task, here I’ll just be showing you how to implement them in code. The abbreviated code blocks below demonstrate the different features of the task. The complete code has been encapsulated into a sample class which you can download (ExecSqlPackage.cs). Each feature described has its own method in the sample class which is mentioned after the code block. This first sample just shows adding the task, setting the basic properties for a connection and of course an SQL statement. Package package = new Package(); // Add the SQL OLE-DB connection ConnectionManager sqlConnection = AddSqlConnection(package, "localhost", "master"); // Add the SQL Task package.Executables.Add("STOCK:SQLTask"); // Get the task host wrapper TaskHost taskHost = package.Executables[0] as TaskHost; // Set required properties taskHost.Properties["Connection"].SetValue(taskHost, sqlConnection.ID); taskHost.Properties["SqlStatementSource"].SetValue(taskHost, "SELECT * FROM sysobjects"); For the full version of this code, see the CreatePackage method in the sample class. The AddSqlConnection method is a helper method that adds an OLE-DB connection to the package, it is of course in the sample class file too. Returning a single value with a Result Set The following sample takes a different approach, getting a reference to the ExecuteSQLTask object task itself, rather than just using the non-specific TaskHost as above. Whilst it means we need to add an extra reference to our project (Microsoft.SqlServer.SQLTask) it makes coding much easier as we have compile time validation of any property and types we use. For the more complex properties that is very valuable and saves a lot of time during development. The query has also been changed to return a single value, one row and one column. The sample shows how we can return that value into a variable, which we also add to our package in the code. To do this manually you would set the Result Set property on the General page to Single Row and map the variable on the Result Set page in the editor. Package package = new Package(); // Add the SQL OLE-DB connection ConnectionManager sqlConnection = AddSqlConnection(package, "localhost", "master"); // Add the SQL Task package.Executables.Add("STOCK:SQLTask"); // Get the task host wrapper TaskHost taskHost = package.Executables[0] as TaskHost; // Add variable to hold result value package.Variables.Add("Variable", false, "User", 0); // Get the task object ExecuteSQLTask task = taskHost.InnerObject as ExecuteSQLTask; // Set core properties task.Connection = sqlConnection.Name; task.SqlStatementSource = "SELECT id FROM sysobjects WHERE name = 'sysrowsets'"; // Set single row result set task.ResultSetType = ResultSetType.ResultSetType_SingleRow; // Add result set binding, map the id column to variable task.ResultSetBindings.Add(); IDTSResultBinding resultBinding = task.ResultSetBindings.GetBinding(0); resultBinding.ResultName = "id"; resultBinding.DtsVariableName = "User::Variable"; For the full version of this code, see the CreatePackageResultVariable method in the sample class. The other types of Result Set behaviour are just a variation on this theme, set the property and map the result binding as required. Parameter Mapping for SQL Statements This final example uses a parameterised SQL statement, with the coming from a variable. The syntax varies slightly between connection types, as explained in the Working with Parameters and Return Codes in the Execute SQL Taskhelp topic, but OLE-DB is the most commonly used, for which a question mark is the parameter value placeholder. Package package = new Package(); // Add the SQL OLE-DB connection ConnectionManager sqlConnection = AddSqlConnection(package, ".", "master"); // Add the SQL Task package.Executables.Add("STOCK:SQLTask"); // Get the task host wrapper TaskHost taskHost = package.Executables[0] as TaskHost; // Get the task object ExecuteSQLTask task = taskHost.InnerObject as ExecuteSQLTask; // Set core properties task.Connection = sqlConnection.Name; task.SqlStatementSource = "SELECT id FROM sysobjects WHERE name = ?"; // Add variable to hold parameter value package.Variables.Add("Variable", false, "User", "sysrowsets"); // Add input parameter binding task.ParameterBindings.Add(); IDTSParameterBinding parameterBinding = task.ParameterBindings.GetBinding(0); parameterBinding.DtsVariableName = "User::Variable"; parameterBinding.ParameterDirection = ParameterDirections.Input; parameterBinding.DataType = (int)OleDBDataTypes.VARCHAR; parameterBinding.ParameterName = "0"; parameterBinding.ParameterSize = 255; For the full version of this code, see the CreatePackageParameterVariable method in the sample class. You’ll notice the data type has to be specified for the parameter IDTSParameterBinding .DataType Property, and these type codes are connection specific too. My enumeration I wrote several years ago is shown below was probably done by reverse engineering a package and also the API header file, but I recently found a very handy post that covers more connections as well for exactly this, Setting the DataType of IDTSParameterBinding objects (Execute SQL Task). /// <summary> /// Enumeration of OLE-DB types, used when mapping OLE-DB parameters. /// </summary> private enum OleDBDataTypes { BYTE = 0x11, CURRENCY = 6, DATE = 7, DB_VARNUMERIC = 0x8b, DBDATE = 0x85, DBTIME = 0x86, DBTIMESTAMP = 0x87, DECIMAL = 14, DOUBLE = 5, FILETIME = 0x40, FLOAT = 4, GUID = 0x48, LARGE_INTEGER = 20, LONG = 3, NULL = 1, NUMERIC = 0x83, NVARCHAR = 130, SHORT = 2, SIGNEDCHAR = 0x10, ULARGE_INTEGER = 0x15, ULONG = 0x13, USHORT = 0x12, VARCHAR = 0x81, VARIANT_BOOL = 11 } Download Sample code ExecSqlPackage.cs (10KB)

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  • Creating packages in code – Execute SQL Task

    The Execute SQL Task is for obvious reasons very well used, so I thought if you are building packages in code the chances are you will be using it. Using the task basic features of the task are quite straightforward, add the task and set some properties, just like any other. When you start interacting with variables though it can be a little harder to grasp so these samples should see you through. Some of these more advanced features are explained in much more detail in our ever popular post The Execute SQL Task, here I’ll just be showing you how to implement them in code. The abbreviated code blocks below demonstrate the different features of the task. The complete code has been encapsulated into a sample class which you can download (ExecSqlPackage.cs). Each feature described has its own method in the sample class which is mentioned after the code block. This first sample just shows adding the task, setting the basic properties for a connection and of course an SQL statement. Package package = new Package(); // Add the SQL OLE-DB connection ConnectionManager sqlConnection = AddSqlConnection(package, "localhost", "master"); // Add the SQL Task package.Executables.Add("STOCK:SQLTask"); // Get the task host wrapper TaskHost taskHost = package.Executables[0] as TaskHost; // Set required properties taskHost.Properties["Connection"].SetValue(taskHost, sqlConnection.ID); taskHost.Properties["SqlStatementSource"].SetValue(taskHost, "SELECT * FROM sysobjects"); For the full version of this code, see the CreatePackage method in the sample class. The AddSqlConnection method is a helper method that adds an OLE-DB connection to the package, it is of course in the sample class file too. Returning a single value with a Result Set The following sample takes a different approach, getting a reference to the ExecuteSQLTask object task itself, rather than just using the non-specific TaskHost as above. Whilst it means we need to add an extra reference to our project (Microsoft.SqlServer.SQLTask) it makes coding much easier as we have compile time validation of any property and types we use. For the more complex properties that is very valuable and saves a lot of time during development. The query has also been changed to return a single value, one row and one column. The sample shows how we can return that value into a variable, which we also add to our package in the code. To do this manually you would set the Result Set property on the General page to Single Row and map the variable on the Result Set page in the editor. Package package = new Package(); // Add the SQL OLE-DB connection ConnectionManager sqlConnection = AddSqlConnection(package, "localhost", "master"); // Add the SQL Task package.Executables.Add("STOCK:SQLTask"); // Get the task host wrapper TaskHost taskHost = package.Executables[0] as TaskHost; // Add variable to hold result value package.Variables.Add("Variable", false, "User", 0); // Get the task object ExecuteSQLTask task = taskHost.InnerObject as ExecuteSQLTask; // Set core properties task.Connection = sqlConnection.Name; task.SqlStatementSource = "SELECT id FROM sysobjects WHERE name = 'sysrowsets'"; // Set single row result set task.ResultSetType = ResultSetType.ResultSetType_SingleRow; // Add result set binding, map the id column to variable task.ResultSetBindings.Add(); IDTSResultBinding resultBinding = task.ResultSetBindings.GetBinding(0); resultBinding.ResultName = "id"; resultBinding.DtsVariableName = "User::Variable"; For the full version of this code, see the CreatePackageResultVariable method in the sample class. The other types of Result Set behaviour are just a variation on this theme, set the property and map the result binding as required. Parameter Mapping for SQL Statements This final example uses a parameterised SQL statement, with the coming from a variable. The syntax varies slightly between connection types, as explained in the Working with Parameters and Return Codes in the Execute SQL Taskhelp topic, but OLE-DB is the most commonly used, for which a question mark is the parameter value placeholder. Package package = new Package(); // Add the SQL OLE-DB connection ConnectionManager sqlConnection = AddSqlConnection(package, ".", "master"); // Add the SQL Task package.Executables.Add("STOCK:SQLTask"); // Get the task host wrapper TaskHost taskHost = package.Executables[0] as TaskHost; // Get the task object ExecuteSQLTask task = taskHost.InnerObject as ExecuteSQLTask; // Set core properties task.Connection = sqlConnection.Name; task.SqlStatementSource = "SELECT id FROM sysobjects WHERE name = ?"; // Add variable to hold parameter value package.Variables.Add("Variable", false, "User", "sysrowsets"); // Add input parameter binding task.ParameterBindings.Add(); IDTSParameterBinding parameterBinding = task.ParameterBindings.GetBinding(0); parameterBinding.DtsVariableName = "User::Variable"; parameterBinding.ParameterDirection = ParameterDirections.Input; parameterBinding.DataType = (int)OleDBDataTypes.VARCHAR; parameterBinding.ParameterName = "0"; parameterBinding.ParameterSize = 255; For the full version of this code, see the CreatePackageParameterVariable method in the sample class. You’ll notice the data type has to be specified for the parameter IDTSParameterBinding .DataType Property, and these type codes are connection specific too. My enumeration I wrote several years ago is shown below was probably done by reverse engineering a package and also the API header file, but I recently found a very handy post that covers more connections as well for exactly this, Setting the DataType of IDTSParameterBinding objects (Execute SQL Task). /// <summary> /// Enumeration of OLE-DB types, used when mapping OLE-DB parameters. /// </summary> private enum OleDBDataTypes { BYTE = 0x11, CURRENCY = 6, DATE = 7, DB_VARNUMERIC = 0x8b, DBDATE = 0x85, DBTIME = 0x86, DBTIMESTAMP = 0x87, DECIMAL = 14, DOUBLE = 5, FILETIME = 0x40, FLOAT = 4, GUID = 0x48, LARGE_INTEGER = 20, LONG = 3, NULL = 1, NUMERIC = 0x83, NVARCHAR = 130, SHORT = 2, SIGNEDCHAR = 0x10, ULARGE_INTEGER = 0x15, ULONG = 0x13, USHORT = 0x12, VARCHAR = 0x81, VARIANT_BOOL = 11 } Download Sample code ExecSqlPackage.cs (10KB)

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  • Introducing Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 - Business Intelligence Samples

    - by smisner
    On April 14, 2010, Microsoft Press (blog | twitter) released my latest book, co-authored with Ross Mistry (twitter), as a free ebook download - Introducing Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2. As the title implies, this ebook is an introduction to the latest SQL Server release. Although you'll find a comprehensive review of the product's features in this book, you will not find the step-by-step details that are typical in my other books. For those readers who are interested in a more interactive learning experience, I have created two samples file for download: IntroSQLServer2008R2Samples project Sales Analysis workbook Here's a recap of the business intelligence chapters and the samples I used to generate the screen shots by chapter: Chapter 6: Scalable Data Warehousing covers a new edition of SQL Server, Parallel Data Warehouse. Understandably, Microsoft did not ship me the software and hardware to set up my own Parallel Data Warehouse environment for testing purposes and consequently you won't see any screenshots in this chapter. I received a lot of information and a lot of help from the product team during the development of this chapter to ensure its technical accuracy. Chapter 7: Master Data Services is a new component in SQL Server. After you install Master Data Services (MDS), which is a separate installation from SQL Server although it's found on the same media, you can install sample models to explore (which is what I did to create screenshots for the book). To do this, you deploying packages found at \Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\Master Data Services\Samples\Packages. You will first need to use the Configuration Manager (in the Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2\Master Data Services program group) to create a database and a Web application for MDS. Then when you launch the application, you'll see a Getting Started page which has a Deploy Sample Data link that you can use to deploy any of the sample packages. Chapter 8: Complex Event Processing is an introduction to another new component, StreamInsight. This topic was way too large to cover in-depth in a single chapter, so I focused on information such as architecture, development models, and an overview of the key sections of code you'll need to develop for your own applications. StreamInsight is an engine that operates on data in-flight and as such has no user interface that I could include in the book as screenshots. The November CTP version of SQL Server 2008 R2 included code samples as part of the installation, but these are not the official samples that will eventually be available in Codeplex. At the time of this writing, the samples are not yet published. Chapter 9: Reporting Services Enhancements provides an overview of all the changes to Reporting Services in SQL Server 2008 R2, and there are many! In previous posts, I shared more details than you'll find in the book about new functions (Lookup, MultiLookup, and LookupSet), properties for page numbering, and the new global variable RenderFormat. I will confess that I didn't use actual data in the book for my discussion on the Lookup functions, but I did create real reports for the blog posts and will upload those separately. For the other screenshots and examples in the book, I have created the IntroSQLServer2008R2Samples project for you to download. To preview these reports in Business Intelligence Development Studio, you must have the AdventureWorksDW2008R2 database installed, and you must download and install SQL Server 2008 R2. For the map report, you must execute the PopulationData.sql script that I included in the samples file to add a table to the AdventureWorksDW2008R2 database. The IntroSQLServer2008R2Samples project includes the following files: 01_AggregateOfAggregates.rdl to illustrate the use of embedded aggregate functions 02_RenderFormatAndPaging.rdl to illustrate the use of page break properties (Disabled, ResetPageNumber), the PageName property, and the RenderFormat global variable 03_DataSynchronization.rdl to illustrate the use of the DomainScope property 04_TextboxOrientation.rdl to illustrate the use of the WritingMode property 05_DataBar.rdl 06_Sparklines.rdl 07_Indicators.rdl 08_Map.rdl to illustrate a simple analytical map that uses color to show population counts by state PopulationData.sql to provide the data necessary for the map report Chapter 10: Self-Service Analysis with PowerPivot introduces two new components to the Microsoft BI stack, PowerPivot for Excel and PowerPivot for SharePoint, which you can learn more about at the PowerPivot site. To produce the screenshots for this chapter, I created the Sales Analysis workbook which you can download (although you must have Excel 2010 and the PowerPivot for Excel add-in installed to explore it fully). It's a rather simple workbook because space in the book did not permit a complete exploration of all the wonderful things you can do with PowerPivot. I used a tutorial that was available with the CTP version as a basis for the report so it might look familiar if you've already started learning about PowerPivot. In future posts, I'll continue exploring the new features in greater detail. If there's any special requests, please let me know! Share this post: email it! | bookmark it! | digg it! | reddit! | kick it! | live it!

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  • Optimizing collision engine bottleneck

    - by Vittorio Romeo
    Foreword: I'm aware that optimizing this bottleneck is not a necessity - the engine is already very fast. I, however, for fun and educational purposes, would love to find a way to make the engine even faster. I'm creating a general-purpose C++ 2D collision detection/response engine, with an emphasis on flexibility and speed. Here's a very basic diagram of its architecture: Basically, the main class is World, which owns (manages memory) of a ResolverBase*, a SpatialBase* and a vector<Body*>. SpatialBase is a pure virtual class which deals with broad-phase collision detection. ResolverBase is a pure virtual class which deals with collision resolution. The bodies communicate to the World::SpatialBase* with SpatialInfo objects, owned by the bodies themselves. There currenly is one spatial class: Grid : SpatialBase, which is a basic fixed 2D grid. It has it's own info class, GridInfo : SpatialInfo. Here's how its architecture looks: The Grid class owns a 2D array of Cell*. The Cell class contains two collection of (not owned) Body*: a vector<Body*> which contains all the bodies that are in the cell, and a map<int, vector<Body*>> which contains all the bodies that are in the cell, divided in groups. Bodies, in fact, have a groupId int that is used for collision groups. GridInfo objects also contain non-owning pointers to the cells the body is in. As I previously said, the engine is based on groups. Body::getGroups() returns a vector<int> of all the groups the body is part of. Body::getGroupsToCheck() returns a vector<int> of all the groups the body has to check collision against. Bodies can occupy more than a single cell. GridInfo always stores non-owning pointers to the occupied cells. After the bodies move, collision detection happens. We assume that all bodies are axis-aligned bounding boxes. How broad-phase collision detection works: Part 1: spatial info update For each Body body: Top-leftmost occupied cell and bottom-rightmost occupied cells are calculated. If they differ from the previous cells, body.gridInfo.cells is cleared, and filled with all the cells the body occupies (2D for loop from the top-leftmost cell to the bottom-rightmost cell). body is now guaranteed to know what cells it occupies. For a performance boost, it stores a pointer to every map<int, vector<Body*>> of every cell it occupies where the int is a group of body->getGroupsToCheck(). These pointers get stored in gridInfo->queries, which is simply a vector<map<int, vector<Body*>>*>. body is now guaranteed to have a pointer to every vector<Body*> of bodies of groups it needs to check collision against. These pointers are stored in gridInfo->queries. Part 2: actual collision checks For each Body body: body clears and fills a vector<Body*> bodiesToCheck, which contains all the bodies it needs to check against. Duplicates are avoided (bodies can belong to more than one group) by checking if bodiesToCheck already contains the body we're trying to add. const vector<Body*>& GridInfo::getBodiesToCheck() { bodiesToCheck.clear(); for(const auto& q : queries) for(const auto& b : *q) if(!contains(bodiesToCheck, b)) bodiesToCheck.push_back(b); return bodiesToCheck; } The GridInfo::getBodiesToCheck() method IS THE BOTTLENECK. The bodiesToCheck vector must be filled for every body update because bodies could have moved meanwhile. It also needs to prevent duplicate collision checks. The contains function simply checks if the vector already contains a body with std::find. Collision is checked and resolved for every body in bodiesToCheck. That's it. So, I've been trying to optimize this broad-phase collision detection for quite a while now. Every time I try something else than the current architecture/setup, something doesn't go as planned or I make assumption about the simulation that later are proven to be false. My question is: how can I optimize the broad-phase of my collision engine maintaining the grouped bodies approach? Is there some kind of magic C++ optimization that can be applied here? Can the architecture be redesigned in order to allow for more performance? Actual implementation: SSVSCollsion Body.h, Body.cpp World.h, World.cpp Grid.h, Grid.cpp Cell.h, Cell.cpp GridInfo.h, GridInfo.cpp

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  • Code Structure / Level Design: Plants vs Zombies game level dissection

    - by lalan
    Hi Friends, I am interested in learning the class structure of Plants vs Zombies, particularly level design; for those who haven't played it - this video contains nice play-through: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=89DfdOIJ4xw. How would I go ahead and design the code, mostly structure & classes, which allows for maximum flexibility & clean development? I am familiar with data driven design concepts, and would use events to handle most of dynamic behavior. Dissection at macro level: (Once every Level) Load tilemap, props, etc -- basically build the map (Once every Level) Camera Movement - might consider it as short cut-scene (Once every Level) Show Enemies you'll face during present level (Once every Level) Unit Selection Window/Panel - selection of defensive plants (Once every Level) Camera Movement - might consider it as short cut-scene (Once every Level) HUD Creation - based on unit selection (Level Loop) Enemy creation - based on types of zombies allowed (Level Loop) Sun/Resource generation (Level Loop) Show messages like 'huge wave of zombies coming', 'final wave' (Level Loop) Other unique events - Spawn gifts, money, tombstones, etc (Once every Level) Unlock new plant Potential game scripts: a) Level definitions: Level_1_1.xml, Level_1_2.xml, etc. Level_1_1.xml :: Sample script <map> <tilemap>tilemapFrontLawn</tilemap> <SpawnPoints> tiles where particular type of zombies (land vs water) may spawn</spawnPoints> <props> position, entity array -- lawnmower, </props> </map> <zombies> <... list of zombies who gonna attack by ids...> </zombies> <plants> <... list by plants which are available for defense by ids...> </plants> <progression> <ZombieWave name='first wave' spawnScript='zombieLightWave.lua' unlock='null'> <startMessages time=1.5>Ready</startMessages> <endMessages time=1.5>Huge wave of zombies incoming</endMessages> </ZombieWave> </progression> b) Entities definitions: .xmls containing zombies, plants, sun, lawnmower, coins, etc description. Potential classes: //LevelManager - Based on the level under play, it will load level script. Few of the // functions it may have: class LevelManager { public: bool load(string levelFileName); bool enter(); bool update(float deltatime); bool exit(); private: LevelData* mLevelData; } // LevelData - Contains the details of level loaded by LevelManager. class LevelData { private: string file; // array of camera,dialog,attackwaves, etc in active level LevelCutSceneCamera** mArrayCutSceneCamera; LevelCutSceneDialog** mArrayCutSceneDialog; LevelAttackWave** mArrayAttackWave; .... // which camera,dialog,attackwave is active in level uint mCursorCutSceneCamera; uint mCursorCutSceneDialog; uint mCursorAttackWave; public: // based on cursor, get the next camera,dialog,attackwave,etc in active level // return false/true based on failure/success bool nextCutSceneCamera(LevelCutSceneCamera**); bool nextCutSceneDialog(LevelCutSceneDialog**); } // LevelUnderPlay- LevelManager class LevelUnderPlay { private: LevelCutSceneCamera* mCutSceneCamera; LevelCutSceneDialog* mCutSceneDialog; LevelAttackWave* mAttackWave; Entities** mSelectedPlants; Entities** mAllowedZombies; bool isCutSceneCameraActive; public: bool enter(); bool update(float deltatime); bool exit(); } I am totally confused.. :( Does it make sense of using class composition (have flat class hierarchy) for managing levels. Is it a good idea to just add/remove/update sprites (or any drawable stuff) to current scene from LevelManager or LevelUnderPlay? If I want to make non-linear level design, how should I go ahead? Perhaps I would need a LevelProgression class, which would decide what to do based on decision tree. Any suggestions would be appreciated very much. Thank for your time, lalan

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  • RTS Voxel Engine using LWJGL - Textures glitching

    - by Dieter Hubau
    I'm currently working on an RTS game engine using voxels. I have implemented a basic chunk manager using an Octree of Octrees which contains my voxels (simple square blocks, as in Minecraft). I'm using a Voronoi-based terrain generation to get a simplistic yet relatively realistic heightmap. I have no problem showing a 256*256*256 grid of voxels with a decent framerate (250), because of frustum culling, face culling and only rendering visible blocks. For example, in a random voxel grid of 256*256*256 I generally only render 100k-120k faces, not counting frustum culling. Frustum culling is only called every 100ms, since calling it every frame seemed a bit overkill. Now I have reached the stage of texturing and I'm experiencing some problems: Some experienced people might already see the problem, but if we zoom in, you can see the glitches more clearly: All the seams between my blocks are glitching and kind of 'overlapping' or something. It's much more visible when you're moving around. I'm using a single, simple texture map to draw on my cubes, where each texture is 16*16 pixels big: I have added black edges around the textures to get a kind of cellshaded look, I think it's cool. The texture map has 256 textures of each 16*16 pixels, meaning the total size of my texture map is 256*256 pixels. The code to update the ChunkManager: public void update(ChunkManager chunkManager) { for (Octree<Cube> chunk : chunks) { if (chunk.getId() < 0) { // generate an id for the chunk to be able to call it later chunk.setId(glGenLists(1)); } glNewList(chunk.getId(), GL_COMPILE); glBegin(GL_QUADS); faces += renderChunk(chunk); glEnd(); glEndList(); } } Where my renderChunk method is: private int renderChunk(Octree<Cube> node) { // keep track of the number of visible faces in this chunk int faces = 0; if (!node.isEmpty()) { if (node.isLeaf()) { faces += renderItem(node); } List<Octree<Cube>> children = node.getChildren(); if (children != null && !children.isEmpty()) { for (Octree<Cube> child : children) { faces += renderChunk(child); } } return faces; } Where my renderItem method is the following: private int renderItem(Octree<Cube> node) { Cube cube = node.getItem(-1, -1, -1); int faces = 0; float x = node.getPosition().x; float y = node.getPosition().y; float z = node.getPosition().z; float size = cube.getSize(); Vector3f point1 = new Vector3f(-size + x, -size + y, size + z); Vector3f point2 = new Vector3f(-size + x, size + y, size + z); Vector3f point3 = new Vector3f(size + x, size + y, size + z); Vector3f point4 = new Vector3f(size + x, -size + y, size + z); Vector3f point5 = new Vector3f(-size + x, -size + y, -size + z); Vector3f point6 = new Vector3f(-size + x, size + y, -size + z); Vector3f point7 = new Vector3f(size + x, size + y, -size + z); Vector3f point8 = new Vector3f(size + x, -size + y, -size + z); TextureCoordinates tc = textureManager.getTextureCoordinates(cube.getCubeType()); // front face if (cube.isVisible(CubeSide.FRONT)) { faces++; glTexCoord2f(TEXTURE_U_COORDINATES[tc.u], TEXTURE_V_COORDINATES[tc.v]); glVertex3f(point1.x, point1.y, point1.z); glTexCoord2f(TEXTURE_U_COORDINATES[tc.u + 1], TEXTURE_V_COORDINATES[tc.v]); glVertex3f(point4.x, point4.y, point4.z); glTexCoord2f(TEXTURE_U_COORDINATES[tc.u + 1], TEXTURE_V_COORDINATES[tc.v + 1]); glVertex3f(point3.x, point3.y, point3.z); glTexCoord2f(TEXTURE_U_COORDINATES[tc.u], TEXTURE_V_COORDINATES[tc.v + 1]); glVertex3f(point2.x, point2.y, point2.z); } // back face if (cube.isVisible(CubeSide.BACK)) { faces++; glTexCoord2f(TEXTURE_U_COORDINATES[tc.u + 1], TEXTURE_V_COORDINATES[tc.v]); glVertex3f(point5.x, point5.y, point5.z); glTexCoord2f(TEXTURE_U_COORDINATES[tc.u + 1], TEXTURE_V_COORDINATES[tc.v + 1]); glVertex3f(point6.x, point6.y, point6.z); glTexCoord2f(TEXTURE_U_COORDINATES[tc.u], TEXTURE_V_COORDINATES[tc.v + 1]); glVertex3f(point7.x, point7.y, point7.z); glTexCoord2f(TEXTURE_U_COORDINATES[tc.u], TEXTURE_V_COORDINATES[tc.v]); glVertex3f(point8.x, point8.y, point8.z); } // left face if (cube.isVisible(CubeSide.SIDE_LEFT)) { faces++; glTexCoord2f(TEXTURE_U_COORDINATES[tc.u], TEXTURE_V_COORDINATES[tc.v]); glVertex3f(point5.x, point5.y, point5.z); glTexCoord2f(TEXTURE_U_COORDINATES[tc.u + 1], TEXTURE_V_COORDINATES[tc.v]); glVertex3f(point1.x, point1.y, point1.z); glTexCoord2f(TEXTURE_U_COORDINATES[tc.u + 1], TEXTURE_V_COORDINATES[tc.v + 1]); glVertex3f(point2.x, point2.y, point2.z); glTexCoord2f(TEXTURE_U_COORDINATES[tc.u], TEXTURE_V_COORDINATES[tc.v + 1]); glVertex3f(point6.x, point6.y, point6.z); } // ETC ETC return faces; } When all this is done, I simply render my lists every frame, like this: public void render(ChunkManager chunkManager) { glBindTexture(GL_TEXTURE_2D, textureManager.getCubeTextureId()); // load all chunks from the tree List<Octree<Cube>> chunks = chunkManager.getTree().getAllItems(); for (Octree<Cube> chunk : chunks) { if (frustum.cubeInFrustum(chunk.getPosition(), chunk.getSize() / 2)) { glCallList(chunk.getId()); } } } I don't know if anyone is willing to go through all of this code or maybe you can spot the problem right away, but that is basically the problem, and I can't find a solution :-) Thanks for reading and any help is appreciated!

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  • Camera Projection back Into 3D world, offset error

    - by Anthony
    I'm using XNA to simulate a robot in a 3D world and then do image analysis on what the camera sees. I have my camera looking down in front of the direction that the robot is going, and I have the robot detecting white pixels. I'm trying to take the white pixels that it finds and project them back into the 3D world so that I can see if it is actually detecting the correct pixels. I almost have it working, but there is an offset between where the white is in in the World and were I put my orange triangles (which represent what the robot things is white). /// <summary> /// Takes a bool map of and makes vertex positions based on the map. /// </summary> /// <param name="c"> The bool map</param> private void ProjectBoolMapOnGroundAnthony2(bool[,] c) { float triangleSize = 0.04f; // Point of interest in World W cordinate system. Vector3 pointOfInterest_W = Vector3.Zero; // Point of interest in Robot Cordinate system R Vector3 pointOfInterest_R = Vector3.Zero; // alpha is the angle from the robot camera to where it is looking in the center. //double alpha = Math.Atan(1.8f / 1); /// Matrix representation of the view determined by the position, target, and updirection. Matrix View = ((SimulationMain)Game).mainRobot.robotCameraView.View; /// Matrix representation of the view determined by the angle of the field of view (Pi/4), aspectRatio, nearest plane visible (1), and farthest plane visible (1200) Matrix Projection = ((SimulationMain)Game).mainRobot.robotCameraView.Projection; /// Matrix representing how the real world cordinates differ from that of the rendering by the camera. Matrix World = ((SimulationMain)Game).mainRobot.robotCameraView.World; Plane groundPlan = new Plane(Vector3.UnitZ, 0.0f); for (int x = 0; x < this.screenWidth; x++) { for (int y = 0; y < this.screenHeight; ) { if (c[x, y] == true && this.count1D < 62000) { int j = 1; Vector3 nearPlanePoint = Game.GraphicsDevice.Viewport.Unproject(new Vector3(x, y, 0), Projection, View, World); Vector3 farPlanePoint = Game.GraphicsDevice.Viewport.Unproject(new Vector3(x, y, 1), Projection, View, World); //Vector3 pointOfInterest_W = Vector3.in Ray ray = new Ray(nearPlanePoint, farPlanePoint); pointOfInterest_W = ray.Position + ray.Direction * (float) ray.Intersects(groundPlan); this.vertexArray2[this.count1D + 0].Position.X = pointOfInterest_W.X - triangleSize; this.vertexArray2[this.count1D + 0].Position.Y = pointOfInterest_W.Y - triangleSize * j; this.vertexArray2[this.count1D + 0].Position.Z = pointOfInterest_W.Z; this.vertexArray2[this.count1D + 0].Color = Color.DarkOrange; // Put another vertex a the position but +1 in the X direction triangleSize //this.vertexArray2[this.count1D + 1].Position.X = pointOnGroud.X + 3; //this.vertexArray2[this.count1D + 1].Position.Y = pointOnGroud.Y + j; this.vertexArray2[this.count1D + 1].Position.X = pointOfInterest_W.X; this.vertexArray2[this.count1D + 1].Position.Y = pointOfInterest_W.Y + triangleSize * j; this.vertexArray2[this.count1D + 1].Position.Z = pointOfInterest_W.Z; this.vertexArray2[this.count1D + 1].Color = Color.Red; // Put another vertex a the position but +1 in the X direction //this.vertexArray2[this.count1D + 0].Position.X = pointOnGroud.X; //this.vertexArray2[this.count1D + 0].Position.Y = pointOnGroud.Y + 3 + j; this.vertexArray2[this.count1D + 2].Position.X = pointOfInterest_W.X + triangleSize; this.vertexArray2[this.count1D + 2].Position.Y = pointOfInterest_W.Y - triangleSize * j; this.vertexArray2[this.count1D + 2].Position.Z = pointOfInterest_W.Z; this.vertexArray2[this.count1D + 2].Color = Color.Orange; this.count1D += 3; y += j; } else { y++; } } } } The world is a grass texture with lines on it. The world plane is normal at (0,0,1). Any ideas on why there is an offset? Any Ideas? Thanks for the help, Anthony G.

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  • Normal maps red in OpenGL?

    - by KaiserJohaan
    I am using Assimp to import 3d models, and FreeImage to parse textures. The problem I am having is that the normal maps are actually red rather than blue when I try to render them as normal diffuse textures. http://i42.tinypic.com/289ing3.png When I open the images in a image-viewing program they do indeed show up as blue. Heres when I create the texture; OpenGLTexture::OpenGLTexture(const std::vector<uint8_t>& textureData, uint32_t textureWidth, uint32_t textureHeight, TextureType textureType, Logger& logger) : mLogger(logger), mTextureID(gNextTextureID++), mTextureType(textureType) { glGenTextures(1, &mTexture); CHECK_GL_ERROR(mLogger); glBindTexture(GL_TEXTURE_2D, mTexture); CHECK_GL_ERROR(mLogger); glTexImage2D(GL_TEXTURE_2D, 0, GL_RGBA, textureWidth, textureHeight, 0, glTextureFormat, GL_UNSIGNED_BYTE, &textureData[0]); CHECK_GL_ERROR(mLogger); glGenerateMipmap(GL_TEXTURE_2D); CHECK_GL_ERROR(mLogger); glBindTexture(GL_TEXTURE_2D, 0); CHECK_GL_ERROR(mLogger); } Here is my fragment shader. You can see I just commented out the normal-map parsing and treated the normal map texture as the diffuse texture to display it and illustrate the problem. As for the rest of the code it interacts as expected with the diffuse textures so I dont see a obvious problem there. "#version 330 \n \ \n \ layout(std140) uniform; \n \ \n \ const int MAX_LIGHTS = 8; \n \ \n \ struct Light \n \ { \n \ vec4 mLightColor; \n \ vec4 mLightPosition; \n \ vec4 mLightDirection; \n \ \n \ int mLightType; \n \ float mLightIntensity; \n \ float mLightRadius; \n \ float mMaxDistance; \n \ }; \n \ \n \ uniform UnifLighting \n \ { \n \ vec4 mGamma; \n \ vec3 mViewDirection; \n \ int mNumLights; \n \ \n \ Light mLights[MAX_LIGHTS]; \n \ } Lighting; \n \ \n \ uniform UnifMaterial \n \ { \n \ vec4 mDiffuseColor; \n \ vec4 mAmbientColor; \n \ vec4 mSpecularColor; \n \ vec4 mEmissiveColor; \n \ \n \ bool mHasDiffuseTexture; \n \ bool mHasNormalTexture; \n \ bool mLightingEnabled; \n \ float mSpecularShininess; \n \ } Material; \n \ \n \ uniform sampler2D unifDiffuseTexture; \n \ uniform sampler2D unifNormalTexture; \n \ \n \ in vec3 frag_position; \n \ in vec3 frag_normal; \n \ in vec2 frag_texcoord; \n \ in vec3 frag_tangent; \n \ in vec3 frag_bitangent; \n \ \n \ out vec4 finalColor; " " \n \ \n \ void CalcGaussianSpecular(in vec3 dirToLight, in vec3 normal, out float gaussianTerm) \n \ { \n \ vec3 viewDirection = normalize(Lighting.mViewDirection); \n \ vec3 halfAngle = normalize(dirToLight + viewDirection); \n \ \n \ float angleNormalHalf = acos(dot(halfAngle, normalize(normal))); \n \ float exponent = angleNormalHalf / Material.mSpecularShininess; \n \ exponent = -(exponent * exponent); \n \ \n \ gaussianTerm = exp(exponent); \n \ } \n \ \n \ vec4 CalculateLighting(in Light light, in vec4 diffuseTexture, in vec3 normal) \n \ { \n \ if (light.mLightType == 1) // point light \n \ { \n \ vec3 positionDiff = light.mLightPosition.xyz - frag_position; \n \ float dist = max(length(positionDiff) - light.mLightRadius, 0); \n \ \n \ float attenuation = 1 / ((dist/light.mLightRadius + 1) * (dist/light.mLightRadius + 1)); \n \ attenuation = max((attenuation - light.mMaxDistance) / (1 - light.mMaxDistance), 0); \n \ \n \ vec3 dirToLight = normalize(positionDiff); \n \ float angleNormal = clamp(dot(normalize(normal), dirToLight), 0, 1); \n \ \n \ float gaussianTerm = 0.0; \n \ if (angleNormal > 0.0) \n \ CalcGaussianSpecular(dirToLight, normal, gaussianTerm); \n \ \n \ return diffuseTexture * (attenuation * angleNormal * Material.mDiffuseColor * light.mLightIntensity * light.mLightColor) + \n \ (attenuation * gaussianTerm * Material.mSpecularColor * light.mLightIntensity * light.mLightColor); \n \ } \n \ else if (light.mLightType == 2) // directional light \n \ { \n \ vec3 dirToLight = normalize(light.mLightDirection.xyz); \n \ float angleNormal = clamp(dot(normalize(normal), dirToLight), 0, 1); \n \ \n \ float gaussianTerm = 0.0; \n \ if (angleNormal > 0.0) \n \ CalcGaussianSpecular(dirToLight, normal, gaussianTerm); \n \ \n \ return diffuseTexture * (angleNormal * Material.mDiffuseColor * light.mLightIntensity * light.mLightColor) + \n \ (gaussianTerm * Material.mSpecularColor * light.mLightIntensity * light.mLightColor); \n \ } \n \ else if (light.mLightType == 4) // ambient light \n \ return diffuseTexture * Material.mAmbientColor * light.mLightIntensity * light.mLightColor; \n \ else \n \ return vec4(0.0); \n \ } \n \ \n \ void main() \n \ { \n \ vec4 diffuseTexture = vec4(1.0); \n \ if (Material.mHasDiffuseTexture) \n \ diffuseTexture = texture(unifDiffuseTexture, frag_texcoord); \n \ \n \ vec3 normal = frag_normal; \n \ if (Material.mHasNormalTexture) \n \ { \n \ diffuseTexture = vec4(normalize(texture(unifNormalTexture, frag_texcoord).xyz * 2.0 - 1.0), 1.0); \n \ // vec3 normalTangentSpace = normalize(texture(unifNormalTexture, frag_texcoord).xyz * 2.0 - 1.0); \n \ //mat3 tangentToWorldSpace = mat3(normalize(frag_tangent), normalize(frag_bitangent), normalize(frag_normal)); \n \ \n \ // normal = tangentToWorldSpace * normalTangentSpace; \n \ } \n \ \n \ if (Material.mLightingEnabled) \n \ { \n \ vec4 accumLighting = vec4(0.0); \n \ \n \ for (int lightIndex = 0; lightIndex < Lighting.mNumLights; lightIndex++) \n \ accumLighting += Material.mEmissiveColor * diffuseTexture + \n \ CalculateLighting(Lighting.mLights[lightIndex], diffuseTexture, normal); \n \ \n \ finalColor = pow(accumLighting, Lighting.mGamma); \n \ } \n \ else { \n \ finalColor = pow(diffuseTexture, Lighting.mGamma); \n \ } \n \ } \n"; Why is this? does normal-map textures need some sort of special treatment in opengl?

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  • Simple Project Templates

    - by Geertjan
    The NetBeans sources include a module named "simple.project.templates": In the module sources, Tim Boudreau turns out to be the author of the code, so I asked him what it was all about, and if he could provide some usage code. His response, from approximately this time last year because it's been sitting in my inbox for a while, is below. Sure - though I think the javadoc in it is fairly complete.  I wrote it because I needed to create a bunch of project templates for Javacard, and all of the ways that is usually done were grotesque and complicated.  I figured we already have the ability to create files from templates, and we already have the ability to do substitutions in templates, so why not have a single file that defines the project as a list of file templates to create (with substitutions in the names) and some definitions of what should be in project properties. You can also add files to the project programmatically if you want.Basically, a template for an entire project is a .properties file.  Any line which doesn't have the prefix 'pp.' or 'pvp.' is treated as the definition of one file which should be created in the new project.  Any such line where the key ends in * means that file should be opened once the new project is created.  So, for example, in the nodejs module, the definition looks like: {{projectName}}.js*=Templates/javascript/HelloWorld.js .npmignore=node_hidden_templates/npmignore So, the first line means:  - Create a file with the same name as the project, using the HelloWorld template    - I.e. the left side of the line is the relative path of the file to create, and the right side is the path in the system filesystem for the template to use       - If the template is not one you normally want users to see, just register it in the system filesystem somewhere other than Templates/ (but remember to set the attribute that marks it as a template)  - Include that file in the set of files which should be opened in the editor once the new project is created. To actually create a project, first you just create a new ProjectCreator: ProjectCreator gen = new ProjectCreator( parentFolderOfNewProject ); Now, if you want to programmatically generate any files, in addition to those defined in the template, you can: gen.add (new FileCreator("nbproject", "project.xml", false) {     public DataObject create (FileObject project, Map<String,String> substitutions) throws IOException {          ...     } }); Then pass the FileObject for the project template (the properties file) to the ProjectCreator's createProject method (hmm, maybe it should be the string path to the project template instead, to save the caller trouble looking up the FileObject for the template).  That method looks like this: public final GeneratedProject createProject(final ProgressHandle handle, final String name, final FileObject template, final Map<String, String> substitutions) throws IOException { The name parameter should be the directory name for the new project;  the map is the strings you gathered in the wizard which should be used for substitutions.  createProject should be called on a background thread (i.e. use a ProgressInstantiatingIterator for the wizard iterator and just pass in the ProgressHandle you are given). The return value is a GeneratedProject object, which is just a holder for the created project directory and the set of DataObjects which should be opened when the wizard finishes. I'd love to see simple.project.templates moved out of the javacard cluster, as it is really useful and much simpler than any of the stuff currently done for generating projects.  It would also be possible to do much richer tools for creating projects in apisupport - i.e. choose (or create in the wizard) the templates you want to use, generate a skeleton wizard with a UI for all the properties you'd like to substitute, etc. Here is a partial project template from Javacard - for example usage, see org.netbeans.modules.javacard.wizard.ProjectWizardIterator in javacard.project (or the much simpler one in contrib/nodejs). #This properties file describes what to create when a project template is#instantiated.  The keys are paths on disk relative to the project root. #The values are paths to the templates to use for those files in the system#filesystem.  Any string inside {{ and }}'s will be substituted using properties#gathered in the template wizard.#Special key prefixes are #  pp. - indicates an entry for nbproject/project.properties#  pvp. - indicates an entry for nbproject/private/private.properties #File templates, in format [path-in-project=path-to-template]META-INF/javacard.xml=org-netbeans-modules-javacard/templates/javacard.xmlMETA-INF/MANIFEST.MF=org-netbeans-modules-javacard/templates/EAP_MANIFEST.MF APPLET-INF/applet.xml=org-netbeans-modules-javacard/templates/applet.xmlscripts/{{classnamelowercase}}.scr=org-netbeans-modules-javacard/templates/test.scrsrc/{{packagepath}}/{{classname}}.java*=Templates/javacard/ExtendedApplet.java nbproject/deployment.xml=org-netbeans-modules-javacard/templates/deployment.xml#project.properties contentspp.display.name={{projectname}}pp.platform.active={{activeplatform}} pp.active.device={{activedevice}}pp.includes=**pp.excludes= I will be using the above info in an upcoming blog entry and provide step by step instructions showing how to use them. However, anyone else out there should have enough info from the above to get started yourself!

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  • 2D isometric picking

    - by Bikonja
    I'm trying to implement picking in my isometric 2D game, however, I am failing. First of all, I've searched for a solution and came to several, different equations and even a solution using matrices. I tried implementing every single one, but none of them seem to work for me. The idea is that I have an array of tiles, with each tile having it's x and y coordinates specified (in this simplified example it's by it's position in the array). I'm thinking that the tile (0, 0) should be on the left, (max, 0) on top, (0, max) on the bottom and (max, max) on the right. I came up with this loop for drawing, which googling seems to have verified as the correct solution, as has the rendered scene (ofcourse, it could still be wrong, also, forgive the messy names and stuff, it's just a WIP proof of concept code) // Draw code int col = 0; int row = 0; for (int i = 0; i < nrOfTiles; ++i) { // XOffset and YOffset are currently hardcoded values, but will represent camera offset combined with HUD offset Point tile = IsoToScreen(col, row, TileWidth / 2, TileHeight / 2, XOffset, YOffset); int x = tile.X; int y = tile.Y; spriteBatch.Draw(_tiles[i], new Rectangle(tile.X, tile.Y, TileWidth, TileHeight), Color.White); col++; if (col >= Columns) // Columns is the number of tiles in a single row { col = 0; row++; } } // Get selection overlay location (removed check if selection exists for simplicity sake) Point tile = IsoToScreen(_selectedTile.X, _selectedTile.Y, TileWidth / 2, TileHeight / 2, XOffset, YOffset); spriteBatch.Draw(_selectionTexture, new Rectangle(tile.X, tile.Y, TileWidth, TileHeight), Color.White); // End of draw code public Point IsoToScreen(int isoX, int isoY, int widthHalf, int heightHalf, int xOffset, int yOffset) { Point newPoint = new Point(); newPoint.X = widthHalf * (isoX + isoY) + xOffset; newPoint.Y = heightHalf * (-isoX + isoY) + yOffset; return newPoint; } This code draws the tiles correctly. Now I wanted to do picking to select the tiles. For this, I tried coming up with equations of my own (including reversing the drawing equation) and I tried multiple solutions I found on the internet and none of these solutions worked. Trying out lots of solutions, I came upon one that didn't work, but it seemed like an axis was just inverted. I fiddled around with the equations and somehow managed to get it to actually work (but have no idea why it works), but while it's close, it still doesn't work. I'm not really sure how to describe the behaviour, but it changes the selection at wrong places, while being fairly close (sometimes spot on, sometimes a tile off, I believe never more off than the adjacent tile). This is the code I have for getting which tile coordinates are selected: public Point? ScreenToIso(int screenX, int screenY, int tileHeight, int offsetX, int offsetY) { Point? newPoint = null; int nX = -1; int nY = -1; int tX = screenX - offsetX; int tY = screenY - offsetY; nX = -(tY - tX / 2) / tileHeight; nY = (tY + tX / 2) / tileHeight; newPoint = new Point(nX, nY); return newPoint; } I have no idea why this code is so close, especially considering it doesn't even use the tile width and all my attempts to write an equation myself or use a solution I googled failed. Also, I don't think this code accounts for the area outside the "tile" (the transparent part of the tile image), for which I intend to add a color map, but even if that's true, it's not the problem as the selection sometimes switches on approx 25% or 75% of width or height. I'm thinking I've stumbled upon a wrong path and need to backtrack, but at this point, I'm not sure what to do so I hope someone can shed some light on my error or point me to the right path. It may be worth mentioning that my goal is to not only pick the tile. Each main tile will be divided into 5x5 smaller tiles which won't be drawn seperately from the whole main tile, but they will need to be picked out. I think a color map of a main tile with different colors for different coordinates within the main tile should take care of that though, which would fall within using a color map for the main tile (for the transparent parts of the tile, meaning parts that possibly belong to other tiles).

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  • Pirates, Treasure Chests and Architectural Mapping

    Pirate 1: Why do pirates create treasure maps? Pirate 2: I do not know.Pirate 1: So they can find their gold. Yes, that was a bad joke, but it does illustrate a point. Pirates are known for drawing treasure maps to their most prized possession. These documents detail the decisions pirates made in order to hide and find their chests of gold. The map allows them to trace the steps they took originally to hide their treasure so that they may return. As software engineers, programmers, and architects we need to treat software implementations much like our treasure chest. Why is software like a treasure chest? It cost money, time,  and resources to develop (Usually) It can make or save money, time, and resources (Hopefully) If we operate under the assumption that software is like a treasure chest then wouldn’t make sense to document the steps, rationale, concerns, and decisions about how it was designed? Pirates are notorious for documenting where they hide their treasure.  Shouldn’t we as creators of software do the same? By documenting our design decisions and rationale behind them will help others be able to understand and maintain implemented systems. This can only be done if the design decisions are correctly mapped to its corresponding implementation. This allows for architectural decisions to be traced from the conceptual model, architectural design and finally to the implementation. Mapping gives software professional a method to trace the reason why specific areas of code were developed verses other options. Just like the pirates we need to able to trace our steps from the start of a project to its implementation,  so that we will understand why specific choices were chosen. The traceability of a software implementation that actually maps back to its originating design decisions is invaluable for ensuring that architectural drifting and erosion does not take place. The drifting and erosion is prevented by allowing others to understand the rational of why an implementation was created in a specific manor or methodology The process of mapping distinct design concerns/decisions to the location of its implemented is called traceability. In this context traceability is defined as method for connecting distinctive software artifacts. This process allows architectural design models and decisions to be directly connected with its physical implementation. The process of mapping architectural design concerns to a software implementation can be very complex. However, most design decision can be placed in  a few generalized categories. Commonly Mapped Design Decisions Design Rationale Components and Connectors Interfaces Behaviors/Properties Design rational is one of the hardest categories to map directly to an implementation. Typically this rational is mapped or document in code via comments. These comments consist of general design decisions and reasoning because they do not directly refer to a specific part of an application. They typically focus more on the higher level concerns. Components and connectors can directly be mapped to architectural concerns. Typically concerns subdivide an application in to distinct functional areas. These functional areas then can map directly back to their originating concerns.Interfaces can be mapped back to design concerns in one of two ways. Interfaces that pertain to specific function definitions can be directly mapped back to its originating concern(s). However, more complicated interfaces require additional analysis to ensure that the proper mappings are created. Depending on the complexity some Behaviors\Properties can be translated directly into a generic implementation structure that is ready for business logic. In addition, some behaviors can be translated directly in to an actual implementation depending on the complexity and architectural tools used. Mapping design concerns to an implementation is a lot of work to maintain, but is doable. In order to ensure that concerns are mapped correctly and that an implementation correctly reflects its design concerns then one of two standard approaches are usually used. All Changes Come From ArchitectureBy forcing all application changes to come through the architectural model prior to implementation then the existing mappings will be used to locate where in the implementation changes need to occur. Allow Changes From Implementation Or Architecture By allowing changes to come from the implementation and/or the architecture then the other area must be kept in sync. This methodology is more complex compared to the previous approach.  One reason to justify the added complexity for an application is due to the fact that this approach tends to detect and prevent architectural drift and erosion. Additionally, this approach is usually maintained via software because of the complexity. Reference:Taylor, R. N., Medvidovic, N., & Dashofy, E. M. (2009). Software architecture: Foundations, theory, and practice Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons  

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  • OIM 11g - Multi Valued attribute reconciliation of a child form

    - by user604275
    This topic gives a brief description on how we can do reconciliation of a child form attribute which is also multi valued from a flat file . The format of the flat file is (an example): ManagementDomain1|Entitlement1|DIRECTORY SERVER,EMAIL ManagementDomain2|Entitlement2|EMAIL PROVIDER INSTANCE - UMS,EMAIL VERIFICATION In OIM there will be a parent form for fields Management domain and Entitlement.Reconciliation will assign Servers ( which are multi valued) to corresponding Management  Domain and Entitlement .In the flat file , multi valued fields are seperated by comma(,). In the design console, Create a form with 'Server Name' as a field and make it a child form . Open the corresponding Resource Object and add this field for reconcilitaion.While adding , choose 'Multivalued' check box. (please find attached screen shot on how to add it , Child Table.docx) Open process definiton and add child form fields for recociliation. Please click on the 'Create Reconcilitaion Profile' buttton on the resource object tab. The API methods used for child form reconciliation are : 1.           reconEventKey =   reconOpsIntf.createReconciliationEvent(resObjName, reconData,                                                            false); ·                                    ‘False’  here tells that we are creating the recon for a child table . 2.               2.       reconOpsIntf.providingAllMultiAttributeData(reconEventKey, RECON_FIELD_IN_RO, true);                RECON_FIELD_IN_RO is the field that we added in the Resource Object while adding for reconciliation, please refer the screen shot) 3.    reconOpsIntf.addDirectBulkMultiAttributeData(reconEventKey,RECON_FIELD_IN_RO, bulkChildDataMapList);                 bulkChildDataMapList  is coded as below :                 List<Map> bulkChildDataMapList = new ArrayList<Map>();                   for (int i = 0; i < stokens.length; i++) {                            Map<String, String> attributeMap = new HashMap<String, String>();                           String serverName = stokens[i].toUpperCase();                           attributeMap.put("Server Name", stokens[i]);                           bulkChildDataMapList.add(attributeMap);                         } 4                  4.       reconOpsIntf.finishReconciliationEvent(reconEventKey); 5.       reconOpsIntf.processReconciliationEvent(reconEventKey); Now, we have to register the plug-in, import metadata into MDS and then create a scheduled job to execute which will run the reconciliation.

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  • BizTalk: namespaces

    - by Leonid Ganeline
    BizTalk team did a good job hiding the .NET guts from developers. Developers are working with editors and hardly with .NET code. The Orchestration editor, the Mapper, the Schema editor, the Pipeline editor, all these editors hide what is going on with artifacts created and deployed. Working with the BizTalk artifacts year after year brings us some knowledge which could help to understand more about the .NET guts. I would like to highlight the .NET namespaces. What they are, how they influence our everyday tasks in the BizTalk application development. What is it? Most of the BizTalk artifacts are compiled into the NET classes. Not all of them… but I will show you later. Classes are placed inside the namespaces. I will not describe here why we need namespaces and what is it. I assume you all know about it more then me. Here I would like to emphasize that almost each BizTalk artifact is implemented as a .NET class within a .NET namespace. Where to see the namespaces in development? The namespaces are inconsistently spread across the artifact parameters. Let’s start with namespace placement in development. Then we go with namespaces in deployment and operations. I am using pictures from the BizTalk Server 2013 Beta and the Visual Studio 2012 but there was no changes regarding the namespaces starting from the BizTalk 2006. Default namespace When a new BizTalk project is created, the default namespace is set up the same as a name of a project. This namespace would be used for all new BizTalk artifacts added to this project. Orchestrations When we select a green or a red markers (the Begin and End orchestration shapes) we will see the orchestration Properties window. We also can click anywhere on the space between Port Surfaces to see this window.   Schemas The only way to see the NET namespace for map is selecting the schema file name into the Solution Explorer. Notes: We can also see the Type Name parameter. It is a name of the correspondent .NET class. We can also see the Fully Qualified Name parameter. We cannot see the schema namespace when selecting any node on the schema editor surface. Only selecting a schema file name gives us a namespace parameter. If we select a <Schema> node we can get the Target Namespace parameter of the schema. This is NOT the .NET namespace! It is an XML namespace. See this XML namespace inside the XML schema, it is shown as a special targetNamespace attribute Here this XML namespace appears inside the XML document itself. It is shown as a special xmlns attribute.   Maps It is similar to the schemas. The only way to see the NET namespace for map is selecting a map file name into the Solution Explorer. Pipelines It is similar to the schemas. The only way to see the NET namespace for pipeline is selecting a pipeline file name into the Solution Explorer. z Ports, Policies and Tracking Profiles The Send and Receive Ports, the Policies and the BAM Tracking Profiles do not create the .NET classes and they do not have the associated .NET namespaces. How to copy artifacts? Since the new versions of the BizTalk Server are going to production I am spending more and more time redesigning and refactoring the BizTalk applications. It is good to know how the refactoring process copes with the .NET namespaces. Let see what is going on with the namespaces when we copy the artifacts from one project to another. Here is an example: I am going to group the artifacts under the project folders. So, I have created a Group folder, have run the Add / Existing Item.. command and have chosen all artifacts in the project root. The artifact copies were created in the Group folder: What was happened with the namespaces of the artifacts? As you can see, the folder name, the “Group”, was added to the namespace. It is great! When I added a folder, I have added one more level in the name hierarchy and the namespace change just reflexes this hierarchy change.  The same namespace adjustment happens when we copy the BizTalk artifacts between the projects. But there is an issue with the namespace of an orchestration. It was not changed. The namespaces of the schemas, maps, pipelines are changed but not the orchestration namespace. I have to change the orchestration namespace manually. Now another example: I am creating a new Project folder and moving the artifacts there from the project root by drag and drop. We will mention the artifact namespaces are not changed. Another example: I am copying the artifacts from the project root by (drag and drop) + Ctrl. We will mention the artifact namespaces are changed. It works exactly as it was with the Add / Existing Item.. command. Conclusion: The namespace parameter is put inconsistently in different places for different artifacts Moving artifacts changes the namespaces of the schemas, maps, pipelines but not the orchestrations.

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