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  • .bat file - Nagios v3.2 service check and start if stopped

    - by LbakerIT
    I'm just barely getting into programming so I do apologize for my ignorance. I'm trying to create a .bat file that will check if a service is running on XP Pro. If service is running it will exit 0. If the service is stopped start service wait 10 seconds (via ping i'm guessing) check if service is running if service is running exit 0 if service is stopped start service wait 10 seconds Do this check a total of 3 times. if service does not come up within that time: exit 2 Exit 0 = ok exit 1 = warning exit 3 = critical (and this will alert) I need to do this for 3 different services but i'm expecting that it would be better to create one per service. That way you get notified on the specific service that is not coming back up. The goal is that if the service stops it will start it. If after 30 seconds it is unable to start the service then it will send an alert. The reason I'm trying to do it with a .bat is this is consistent with all other scripts and I did not want to complicate it further by adding different kinds of code. Yay for consistency! Again I do apologize for my ignorance I've been thrown into this project last minute. Thank you for the help and reading my question!

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  • ELMAH error logging for Windows Service

    - by Gabriel Susai
    We are using ELMAH to log the web application exception which works great!. Also we want to know how to customize ELMAH to log the windows service exception. I am not interested in using another application for logging only windows service exception. Any help would be appreciated.

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  • NullPointerException when linking to Service that uses ContentProvider

    - by Danny Chia
    H.i everyone, this is my first post here! Anyways, I'm trying to write a "todo list" application. It stores the data in a ContentProvider, which is accessed via a Service. However, my app crashes at launch. My code is below: Manifest file: <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> <manifest xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android" package="com.examples.todolist" android:versionCode="1" android:versionName="1.0"> <application android:icon="@drawable/icon" android:label="@string/app_name" android:debuggable="True"> <activity android:name=".ToDoList" android:label="@string/app_name" android:theme="@style/ToDoTheme"> <intent-filter> <action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN" /> <category android:name="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER" /> </intent-filter> </activity> <service android:name="TodoService"/> <provider android:name="TodoProvider" android:authorities="com.examples.provider.todolist" /> </application> <uses-sdk android:minSdkVersion="7" /> </manifest> ToDoList.java: package com.examples.todolist; import com.examples.todolist.TodoService.LocalBinder; import java.util.ArrayList; import java.util.Date; import android.app.Activity; import android.content.SharedPreferences; import android.database.Cursor; import android.os.AsyncTask; import android.os.Bundle; import android.view.ContextMenu; import android.content.ComponentName; import android.content.Context; import android.content.Intent; import android.content.ServiceConnection; import android.os.IBinder; import android.view.KeyEvent; import android.view.Menu; import android.view.MenuItem; import android.view.View; import android.view.View.OnKeyListener; import android.widget.AdapterView; import android.widget.EditText; import android.widget.ListView; import android.widget.Toast; public class ToDoList extends Activity { static final private int ADD_NEW_TODO = Menu.FIRST; static final private int REMOVE_TODO = Menu.FIRST + 1; private static final String TEXT_ENTRY_KEY = "TEXT_ENTRY_KEY"; private static final String ADDING_ITEM_KEY = "ADDING_ITEM_KEY"; private static final String SELECTED_INDEX_KEY = "SELECTED_INDEX_KEY"; private boolean addingNew = false; private ArrayList<ToDoItem> todoItems; private ListView myListView; private EditText myEditText; private ToDoItemAdapter aa; int entries = 0; int notifs = 0; //ToDoDBAdapter toDoDBAdapter; Cursor toDoListCursor; TodoService mService; boolean mBound = false; /** Called when the activity is first created. */ public void onCreate(Bundle icicle) { super.onCreate(icicle); setContentView(R.layout.main); myListView = (ListView)findViewById(R.id.myListView); myEditText = (EditText)findViewById(R.id.myEditText); todoItems = new ArrayList<ToDoItem>(); int resID = R.layout.todolist_item; aa = new ToDoItemAdapter(this, resID, todoItems); myListView.setAdapter(aa); myEditText.setOnKeyListener(new OnKeyListener() { public boolean onKey(View v, int keyCode, KeyEvent event) { if (event.getAction() == KeyEvent.ACTION_DOWN) if (keyCode == KeyEvent.KEYCODE_DPAD_CENTER) { ToDoItem newItem = new ToDoItem(myEditText.getText().toString(), 0); mService.insertTask(newItem); updateArray(); myEditText.setText(""); entries++; Toast.makeText(ToDoList.this, "Entry added", Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show(); aa.notifyDataSetChanged(); cancelAdd(); return true; } return false; } }); registerForContextMenu(myListView); restoreUIState(); populateTodoList(); } private void populateTodoList() { // Get all the todo list items from the database. toDoListCursor = mService. getAllToDoItemsCursor(); startManagingCursor(toDoListCursor); // Update the array. updateArray(); Toast.makeText(this, "Todo list retrieved", Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show(); } private void updateArray() { toDoListCursor.requery(); todoItems.clear(); if (toDoListCursor.moveToFirst()) do { String task = toDoListCursor.getString(toDoListCursor.getColumnIndex(ToDoDBAdapter.KEY_TASK)); long created = toDoListCursor.getLong(toDoListCursor.getColumnIndex(ToDoDBAdapter.KEY_CREATION_DATE)); int taskid = toDoListCursor.getInt(toDoListCursor.getColumnIndex(ToDoDBAdapter.KEY_ID)); ToDoItem newItem = new ToDoItem(task, new Date(created), taskid); todoItems.add(0, newItem); } while(toDoListCursor.moveToNext()); aa.notifyDataSetChanged(); } private void restoreUIState() { // Get the activity preferences object. SharedPreferences settings = getPreferences(0); // Read the UI state values, specifying default values. String text = settings.getString(TEXT_ENTRY_KEY, ""); Boolean adding = settings.getBoolean(ADDING_ITEM_KEY, false); // Restore the UI to the previous state. if (adding) { addNewItem(); myEditText.setText(text); } } @Override public void onSaveInstanceState(Bundle outState) { outState.putInt(SELECTED_INDEX_KEY, myListView.getSelectedItemPosition()); super.onSaveInstanceState(outState); } @Override public void onRestoreInstanceState(Bundle savedInstanceState) { int pos = -1; if (savedInstanceState != null) if (savedInstanceState.containsKey(SELECTED_INDEX_KEY)) pos = savedInstanceState.getInt(SELECTED_INDEX_KEY, -1); myListView.setSelection(pos); } @Override protected void onPause() { super.onPause(); // Get the activity preferences object. SharedPreferences uiState = getPreferences(0); // Get the preferences editor. SharedPreferences.Editor editor = uiState.edit(); // Add the UI state preference values. editor.putString(TEXT_ENTRY_KEY, myEditText.getText().toString()); editor.putBoolean(ADDING_ITEM_KEY, addingNew); // Commit the preferences. editor.commit(); } @Override public boolean onCreateOptionsMenu(Menu menu) { super.onCreateOptionsMenu(menu); // Create and add new menu items. MenuItem itemAdd = menu.add(0, ADD_NEW_TODO, Menu.NONE, R.string.add_new); MenuItem itemRem = menu.add(0, REMOVE_TODO, Menu.NONE, R.string.remove); // Assign icons itemAdd.setIcon(R.drawable.add_new_item); itemRem.setIcon(R.drawable.remove_item); // Allocate shortcuts to each of them. itemAdd.setShortcut('0', 'a'); itemRem.setShortcut('1', 'r'); return true; } @Override public boolean onPrepareOptionsMenu(Menu menu) { super.onPrepareOptionsMenu(menu); int idx = myListView.getSelectedItemPosition(); String removeTitle = getString(addingNew ? R.string.cancel : R.string.remove); MenuItem removeItem = menu.findItem(REMOVE_TODO); removeItem.setTitle(removeTitle); removeItem.setVisible(addingNew || idx > -1); return true; } @Override public void onCreateContextMenu(ContextMenu menu, View v, ContextMenu.ContextMenuInfo menuInfo) { super.onCreateContextMenu(menu, v, menuInfo); menu.setHeaderTitle("Selected To Do Item"); menu.add(0, REMOVE_TODO, Menu.NONE, R.string.remove); } @Override public boolean onOptionsItemSelected(MenuItem item) { super.onOptionsItemSelected(item); int index = myListView.getSelectedItemPosition(); switch (item.getItemId()) { case (REMOVE_TODO): { if (addingNew) { cancelAdd(); } else { removeItem(index); } return true; } case (ADD_NEW_TODO): { addNewItem(); return true; } } return false; } @Override public boolean onContextItemSelected(MenuItem item) { super.onContextItemSelected(item); switch (item.getItemId()) { case (REMOVE_TODO): { AdapterView.AdapterContextMenuInfo menuInfo; menuInfo =(AdapterView.AdapterContextMenuInfo)item.getMenuInfo(); int index = menuInfo.position; removeItem(index); return true; } } return false; } @Override public void onDestroy() { super.onDestroy(); } private void cancelAdd() { addingNew = false; myEditText.setVisibility(View.GONE); } private void addNewItem() { addingNew = true; myEditText.setVisibility(View.VISIBLE); myEditText.requestFocus(); } private void removeItem(int _index) { // Items are added to the listview in reverse order, so invert the index. //toDoDBAdapter.removeTask(todoItems.size()-_index); ToDoItem item = todoItems.get(_index); final long selectedId = item.getTaskId(); mService.removeTask(selectedId); entries--; Toast.makeText(this, "Entry deleted", Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show(); updateArray(); } @Override protected void onStart() { super.onStart(); Intent intent = new Intent(this, TodoService.class); bindService(intent, mConnection, Context.BIND_AUTO_CREATE); } @Override protected void onStop() { super.onStop(); // Unbind from the service if (mBound) { unbindService(mConnection); mBound = false; } } private ServiceConnection mConnection = new ServiceConnection() { public void onServiceConnected(ComponentName className, IBinder service) { LocalBinder binder = (LocalBinder) service; mService = binder.getService(); mBound = true; } public void onServiceDisconnected(ComponentName arg0) { mBound = false; } }; public class TimedToast extends AsyncTask<Long, Integer, Integer> { @Override protected Integer doInBackground(Long... arg0) { if (notifs < 15) { try { Toast.makeText(ToDoList.this, entries + " entries left", Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show(); notifs++; Thread.sleep(20000); } catch (InterruptedException e) { } } return 0; } } } TodoService.java: package com.examples.todolist; import android.app.Service; import android.content.ContentResolver; import android.content.ContentValues; import android.content.Intent; import android.database.Cursor; import android.os.Binder; import android.os.IBinder; public class TodoService extends Service { private final IBinder mBinder = new LocalBinder(); @Override public IBinder onBind(Intent arg0) { return mBinder; } public class LocalBinder extends Binder { TodoService getService() { return TodoService.this; } } public void insertTask(ToDoItem _task) { ContentResolver cr = getContentResolver(); ContentValues values = new ContentValues(); values.put(TodoProvider.KEY_CREATION_DATE, _task.getCreated().getTime()); values.put(TodoProvider.KEY_TASK, _task.getTask()); cr.insert(TodoProvider.CONTENT_URI, values); } public void updateTask(ToDoItem _task) { long tid = _task.getTaskId(); ContentResolver cr = getContentResolver(); ContentValues values = new ContentValues(); values.put(TodoProvider.KEY_TASK, _task.getTask()); cr.update(TodoProvider.CONTENT_URI, values, TodoProvider.KEY_ID + "=" + tid, null); } public void removeTask(long tid) { ContentResolver cr = getContentResolver(); cr.delete(TodoProvider.CONTENT_URI, TodoProvider.KEY_ID + "=" + tid, null); } public Cursor getAllToDoItemsCursor() { ContentResolver cr = getContentResolver(); return cr.query(TodoProvider.CONTENT_URI, null, null, null, null); } } TodoProvider.java: package com.examples.todolist; import android.content.*; import android.database.Cursor; import android.database.SQLException; import android.database.sqlite.SQLiteOpenHelper; import android.database.sqlite.SQLiteDatabase; import android.database.sqlite.SQLiteQueryBuilder; import android.database.sqlite.SQLiteDatabase.CursorFactory; import android.net.Uri; import android.text.TextUtils; import android.util.Log; public class TodoProvider extends ContentProvider { public static final Uri CONTENT_URI = Uri.parse("content://com.examples.provider.todolist/todo"); @Override public boolean onCreate() { Context context = getContext(); todoHelper dbHelper = new todoHelper(context, DATABASE_NAME, null, DATABASE_VERSION); todoDB = dbHelper.getWritableDatabase(); return (todoDB == null) ? false : true; } @Override public Cursor query(Uri uri, String[] projection, String selection, String[] selectionArgs, String sort) { SQLiteQueryBuilder tb = new SQLiteQueryBuilder(); tb.setTables(TODO_TABLE); // If this is a row query, limit the result set to the passed in row. switch (uriMatcher.match(uri)) { case TASK_ID: tb.appendWhere(KEY_ID + "=" + uri.getPathSegments().get(1)); break; default: break; } // If no sort order is specified sort by date / time String orderBy; if (TextUtils.isEmpty(sort)) { orderBy = KEY_ID; } else { orderBy = sort; } // Apply the query to the underlying database. Cursor c = tb.query(todoDB, projection, selection, selectionArgs, null, null, orderBy); // Register the contexts ContentResolver to be notified if // the cursor result set changes. c.setNotificationUri(getContext().getContentResolver(), uri); // Return a cursor to the query result. return c; } @Override public Uri insert(Uri _uri, ContentValues _initialValues) { // Insert the new row, will return the row number if // successful. long rowID = todoDB.insert(TODO_TABLE, "task", _initialValues); // Return a URI to the newly inserted row on success. if (rowID > 0) { Uri uri = ContentUris.withAppendedId(CONTENT_URI, rowID); getContext().getContentResolver().notifyChange(uri, null); return uri; } throw new SQLException("Failed to insert row into " + _uri); } @Override public int delete(Uri uri, String where, String[] whereArgs) { int count; switch (uriMatcher.match(uri)) { case TASKS: count = todoDB.delete(TODO_TABLE, where, whereArgs); break; case TASK_ID: String segment = uri.getPathSegments().get(1); count = todoDB.delete(TODO_TABLE, KEY_ID + "=" + segment + (!TextUtils.isEmpty(where) ? " AND (" + where + ')' : ""), whereArgs); break; default: throw new IllegalArgumentException("Unsupported URI: " + uri); } getContext().getContentResolver().notifyChange(uri, null); return count; } @Override public int update(Uri uri, ContentValues values, String where, String[] whereArgs) { int count; switch (uriMatcher.match(uri)) { case TASKS: count = todoDB.update(TODO_TABLE, values, where, whereArgs); break; case TASK_ID: String segment = uri.getPathSegments().get(1); count = todoDB.update(TODO_TABLE, values, KEY_ID + "=" + segment + (!TextUtils.isEmpty(where) ? " AND (" + where + ')' : ""), whereArgs); break; default: throw new IllegalArgumentException("Unknown URI " + uri); } getContext().getContentResolver().notifyChange(uri, null); return count; } @Override public String getType(Uri uri) { switch (uriMatcher.match(uri)) { case TASKS: return "vnd.android.cursor.dir/vnd.examples.task"; case TASK_ID: return "vnd.android.cursor.item/vnd.examples.task"; default: throw new IllegalArgumentException("Unsupported URI: " + uri); } } // Create the constants used to differentiate between the different URI // requests. private static final int TASKS = 1; private static final int TASK_ID = 2; private static final UriMatcher uriMatcher; // Allocate the UriMatcher object, where a URI ending in 'tasks' will // correspond to a request for all tasks, and 'tasks' with a // trailing '/[rowID]' will represent a single task row. static { uriMatcher = new UriMatcher(UriMatcher.NO_MATCH); uriMatcher.addURI("com.examples.provider.Todolist", "tasks", TASKS); uriMatcher.addURI("com.examples.provider.Todolist", "tasks/#", TASK_ID); } //The underlying database private SQLiteDatabase todoDB; private static final String TAG = "TodoProvider"; private static final String DATABASE_NAME = "todolist.db"; private static final int DATABASE_VERSION = 1; private static final String TODO_TABLE = "todolist"; // Column Names public static final String KEY_ID = "_id"; public static final String KEY_TASK = "task"; public static final String KEY_CREATION_DATE = "date"; public long insertTask(ToDoItem _task) { // Create a new row of values to insert. ContentValues newTaskValues = new ContentValues(); // Assign values for each row. newTaskValues.put(KEY_TASK, _task.getTask()); newTaskValues.put(KEY_CREATION_DATE, _task.getCreated().getTime()); // Insert the row. return todoDB.insert(TODO_TABLE, null, newTaskValues); } public boolean updateTask(long _rowIndex, String _task) { ContentValues newValue = new ContentValues(); newValue.put(KEY_TASK, _task); return todoDB.update(TODO_TABLE, newValue, KEY_ID + "=" + _rowIndex, null) > 0; } public boolean removeTask(long _rowIndex) { return todoDB.delete(TODO_TABLE, KEY_ID + "=" + _rowIndex, null) > 0; } // Helper class for opening, creating, and managing database version control private static class todoHelper extends SQLiteOpenHelper { private static final String DATABASE_CREATE = "create table " + TODO_TABLE + " (" + KEY_ID + " integer primary key autoincrement, " + KEY_TASK + " TEXT, " + KEY_CREATION_DATE + " INTEGER);"; public todoHelper(Context cn, String name, CursorFactory cf, int ver) { super(cn, name, cf, ver); } @Override public void onCreate(SQLiteDatabase db) { db.execSQL(DATABASE_CREATE); } @Override public void onUpgrade(SQLiteDatabase db, int oldVersion, int newVersion) { Log.w(TAG, "Upgrading database from version " + oldVersion + " to " + newVersion + ", which will destroy all old data"); db.execSQL("DROP TABLE IF EXISTS " + TODO_TABLE); onCreate(db); } } } I've omitted the other files as I'm sure they are correct. When I run the program, LogCat shows that the NullPointerException occurs in populateTodoList(), at toDoListCursor = mService.getAllToDoItemsCursor(). mService is the Cursor object returned by TodoService. I've added the service to the Manifest file, but I still cannot find out why it's causing an exception. Thanks in advance.

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  • how to displaying pivot in matrix reporting service?

    - by Chandradyani
    Dear All, I have problem relating to pivot query and matrix reporting. I don't know how to display it on matrix reporting service so it will dynamic column. Can any body help me to show how to configure the matrix table? or could you give the link where can I find the answer of my problem? I'm newbie in reporting service.

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  • Are open source projects considered community service?

    - by Gio Borje
    I'm currently a junior in high school and I've been slacking off on my community service to develop websites and do some personal projects in C#. Currently, I'm developing an web-based IM-Chat through node.js (the server-side Javascript). If I were to post this or other projects on Github or on Google Code, could this be considered community service?—to the programming community?

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  • Add network service

    - by user302655
    I have a kernel service driver , i want to install it with an installer . I use Wix that already copy files in driver store but i still need to add the service to the nerwork manualy (in local area connection properties) How can i do this in wix or in javascript ?

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  • JBoss Service with SSL and Protocol Buffers

    - by mlaverd
    Hello everyone, I'm interested in building a JBoss service. Because I'm reusing some existing code, the service must be able to talk SSL/TLS and Protocol Buffers. The documentation I see on the JBoss wiki makes it look like services have their transport and data interpretation handled by JBoss itself. Is it really the case? How could I implement this requirement? Regards, M-A

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  • Multithreading consulting service

    - by Gustavo Paulillo
    Hello. I am creating a service, that needs to perform the following tasks: consult bank services and persist data into DB. The dificult is: Its needed to execute each process in parallel. I mean the better choice is implementing a multithreading service, running each instance per thread. But how its done? Thanks

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  • Looking for smtp service with reporting features

    - by bartclaeys
    Hello, Because the IP of the SMTP server that is being used by my Gridserver account at Mediatemple is blacklisted I'm looking for an off site SMTP service to send mails from my PHP application to (verification mails, notifications, etc). I'm using CampaignMonitor.com for mass mailings, but for all other mails I would like to use another service. I've checked out smtp.com and smtp-server.com which look okay, but maybe there are better out there? A reporting feature for undeliverables are a huge plus!

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  • Use a Datamodule in a Service Application

    - by O Engenheiro
    I wrote my Win32 App to test and debug. I've created a datamodule with all functionality needed to run the TCP sockets and IBDatabase components. After successfully testing the Datamodule in the Win32 application environment I am trying to hook the Datamodule into a Service Application template that I created, I can get nowhere in getting it to run. Could someone indicate whether this strategy of using a Datamodule with Component functionality encapsulating the primary service functions is workable and give a simple template example of how to hook it up if it is??

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  • delphi windows service can't download file from internet

    - by sam
    hi, i have a windows service written in delphi,the service will use to downloading a file from my website but it can't download the file,it doesn't thrown any exception also i change the destination path and the file to be download but the result was same,my firewall was off too,my project work properly in another PC that i test on it and in windows application my function works properly too, so what should be the problem ? thx for ur time

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  • Proxy Service Is Response Required

    - by hakish
    hi, I want to know what exactly is the functionality of isResponseRequired (MQ Transport)option in proxy and business service. My understanding was that a Proxy can read from a queue and business service can write to a queue. Is it possible for a Proxy to write the response to a queue?

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  • How to access hosted WCF service methods?

    - by Qutbuddin Kamaal
    Hi, I created a WCF service name 'WasSettingsService' have method 'GetWASSettings' and Hosted this service like this: ServiceHost myServiceHost = new ServiceHost(typeof(LocalMachineSettingsService.WasSettingsService)); myServiceHost.Open(); Now How can I access 'GetWASSettings' Thanks in advance will really appreciate this..

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  • RightNow CX Cloud Service Combined with Oracle Fusion CRM in the Cloud

    - by Richard Lefebvre
    ·        The May 2012 release of Oracle’s RightNow CX Cloud Service, the customer experience suite, is now integrated with Oracle Fusion CRM, helping organizations to achieve sustainable business growth through relevant, cross-channel customer interactions that can increase revenue opportunities and drive organizational efficiencies. Relevant Interactions Build Stronger Customer Relationships ·          Armed with a comprehensive view of all customer interactions across channels, the context and status of these interactions, and an awareness of the customer’s value to the organization, companies can now offer more relevant products and services to customers. ·         Using the combined Oracle RightNow CX Cloud Service and Oracle Fusion CRM solutions, organizations can increase customer retention, drive higher levels of customer advocacy, and increase sales conversion rates with tools designed to: - Provide a complete, cross-channel view of the customer to sales, marketing and service. - Empower sales and service departments to easily collaborate to proactively solve customer issues, using opportunities to provide purchase advice at the right time and with the right solutions. - Allow sales to easily review service history in preparation for sales calls. - Enable agents to understand customer value based upon prior buying habits and existing opportunities. Deeper Insight Enables Targeted, Personalized Opportunities ·          The combination of Oracle RightNow CX Cloud Service and Oracle Fusion CRM allows sales and marketing organizations to simultaneously leverage service interactions from RightNow CX and sales prediction and segmentation capabilities from Fusion Sales. This helps companies to: - Better match products and services to specific customer needs based on customer service history.  - Deliver targeted, personalized interactions intended to help customers derive more value from purchases and to inform future buying decisions. - Identify new opportunities to increase deal size and conversion rates. Supporting Quotes ·         “Every interaction is a relationship opportunity to grow your business. When these interactions are relevant and add value for customers, customers are more likely to trust the relationship and seek purchase advice,” said David Vap, group vice president, Oracle. “This customer trust provides an opportunity to increase customer product adoption and to reduce the cost of customer acquisition, thereby increasing company profitability.” Supporting Resources ·         Oracle Fusion CRM ·         Oracle Fusion Applications ·         Oracle RightNow CX Cloud Service ·         OracleCRM on Facebook ·         OracleCRM on YouTube

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  • What is the difference between WCF service and a simple Web service in developing using .NET Framework?

    - by Steve Johnson
    My questions are: What is the difference between WCF service and a simple Web service in .NET Framework? What a WCF Service can do which a .NET Web service cant? In other words, what are the limitation of .NET Web services which were overcome in WCF services? I understand that WCF are REST based and .NET web services are SOAP based. But I need to know more than that. How a developer will make a design decision whether to developer a Web service or a WCF service?

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  • How to Save Hundreds or Thousands of Dollars on Cell Phone Service

    - by Chris Hoffman
    Cell phone contracts are bad. You get a seemingly cheap phone up front, but you more than pay for the cost of the phone over two years. Prepaid phone plans are surging in North America for a reason. Prepaid phone plans will be cheaper and more flexible than traditional contracts with big carriers for many people. However much you use your phone, there’s a good chance you can save money with a prepaid service. No More Contracts Here’s how cell phone service typically works in North America: You get a subsidized phone for “free”, $99, or $199. You sign up for a two-year contract and more than pay back the cost of that phone over the length of the contract. This is similar to leasing something or purchasing it on a credit card and paying it back over two years — you spend less up front, but you’re paying more in the long run. But this isn’t the only option. You could opt for a cheaper prepaid service that doesn’t lock you into a contract. If you don’t use your phone much, you could just pay for what you use and avoid the hefty cell phone bills. If you use your phone a lot, you could get a cheaper plan, too. Now, this certainly isn’t for everyone. If you want the latest iPhone or Galaxy smartphone every two years and require a 4G data connection, prepaid services may not be for you. On the other hand, if you don’t need the latest phone, you can save money here. You can also save a huge amount of money if you don’t use your phone much. Phone Options When you choose your prepaid or contract-free service, you’ll often be able to purchase a phone from them. You’ll generally be able to find dirt-cheap dumbphones and the cheapest, slowest Android phones for not very much money. If you are able to buy a top-of-the-line smartphone, you’ll have to pay the full, unsubsidized price. That’s $649 for either an iPhone 5S or Samsung Galaxy S4. Whatever phones the service provider offers, you could always buy a phone elsewhere — for example, you could buy an unsubsidized iPhone direct from Apple and then take it to your cell phone service of choice. Most services will allow you to get a SIM card and pop it into your existing phone rather than purchasing a phone. If you can get a hand-me-down smartphone, you can often save quite a bit of money. For example, you may have a family member upgrading from an iPhone 4S to an iPhone 5S. You could take their phone to a prepaid carrier and have a nicer phone on a cheap cell phone plan. If you brought an old smartphone to a big carrier like AT&T or Verizon, they wouldn’t give you a discount on your monthly plan. You’d have to pay the same amount of money every month as if you had gotten a subsidized phone. Google’s Nexus phones are also great options for people looking to buy smartphones and pay up-front. Google’s Nexus 4 offered a modern, almost top-of-the-line Android smartphone experience at $299 or $349 when it came out last year. Google will soon be releasing the Nexus 5 and it’s expected to be priced at $349. That’s certainly a lot more than a cheap phone, but it’s a fairly high-end smartphone at almost half the price of an iPhone 5S or Galaxy S4. Nexus phones can be purchased online from Google’s Play Store. Service Options When choosing a service, you need to consider what you actually use. If you’re someone who only uses your phone rarely, you can get plans that will allow you to pay as little as a few dollars per month. If you’re someone who’s usually in range of Wi-Fi, you may not need much data at all. If you want a plan with unlimited talk, texting, and data usage, you can get it for much cheaper than you’d pay on a major carrier like AT&T. The options here range from pay-as-you-go plans, like the ones offered by T-Mobile, which allow you to put a certain amount of money in and only drain that balance when you actually use minutes, texts, or data. If you only make a few calls and send a few texts per month, you’d only pay a few bucks. On the other end, Walmart’s Straight Talk service is a popular option that offers unlimited talk, texting, and data at $45 per month. Which service is right for you depends on a lot of things, including your usage and what each network’s coverage is like in your area. You’ll want to do some research of your own before choosing a service. Prepaid services also offer you even more flexibility after you choose one. If you’re not happy or a better deal comes along, you can switch — you’re not locked into your service for two years and you won’t pay an early termination fee. Image Credit: Intel Free Press on Flickr, Jon Fingas on Flickr, John Karakatsanis on Flickr, kendalkinggroup on Flickr     

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  • Managed Service Architectures Part I

    - by barryoreilly
    Instead of thinking about service oriented architecture, a concept that is continually defined, redefined, abused and mistreated, perhaps it is time to drop the acronym and consider what we actually need to get the job done.   ‘Pure’ SOA involves the modeling of an organisation’s processes, the so called ‘Top Down’ approach, followed by the implementation of these processes as services.     Another approach, more commonly seen in the wild, is the bottom up approach. This usually involves services that simply start popping up in the organization, and SOA in this case is often just an attempt to rein in these services. Such projects, although described as SOA projects for a variety of reasons, have clearly little relation to process driven architecture. Much has been written about these two approaches, with many deciding that a hybrid of both methods is needed to succeed with SOA.   These hybrid methods are a sensible compromise, but one gets the feeling that there is too much focus on ‘Succeeding with SOA’. Organisations who focus too much on bottom up development, or who waste too much time and money on top down approaches that don’t produce results, are often recommended to attempt an ‘agile’(Erl) or ‘middle-out’ (Microsoft) approach in order to succeed with SOA.  The problem with recommending this approach is that, in most cases, succeeding with SOA isn’t the aim of the project. If a project is started with the simple aim of ‘Succeeding with SOA’ then the reasons for the projects existence probably need to be questioned.   There are a number of things we can be sure of: ·         An organisation will have a number of disparate IT systems ·         Some of these systems will have redundant data and functionality ·         Integration will give considerable ROI ·         Integration will already be under way. ·         Services will already exist in the organisation ·         These services will be inconsistent in their implementation and in their governance   So there are three goals here: 1.       Alignment between the business and IT 2.     Integration of disparate systems 3.     Management of services.   2 and 3 are going to happen,  in fact they must happen if any degree of return is expected from the IT department. Ignoring 1 is considered a typical mistake in SOA implementations, as it ignores the business implications. However, the business implication of this approach is the money saved in more efficient IT processes. 2 and 3 are ongoing, and they will continue happening, even if a large project to produce a SOA metamodel is started. The result will then be an unstructured cackle of services, and a metamodel that is already going out of date. So we get stuck in and rebuild our services so that they match the metamodel, with the far reaching consequences that this will have on all our LOB systems are current. Lets imagine that this actually works ( how often do we rip and replace working software because it doesn't fit a certain pattern? Never -that's the point of integration), we will now be working with a metamodel that is out of date, and most likely incomplete if the organisation is large.      Accepting that an object can have more than one model over time, with perhaps more than one model being  at any given time will help us realise the limitations of the top down model. It is entirely normal , and perhaps necessary, for an organisation to be able to view an entity from different perspectives.   So, instead of trying to constantly force these goals in a straight line, why not let them happen in parallel, and manage the changes in each layer.     If  company A has chosen to model their business processes and create a business architecture, there will be a reason behind this. Often the aim is to make the business more flexible and able to cope with change, through alignment between the business and the IT department.   If company B’s IT department recognizes the problem of wild services springing up everywhere, and decides to do something about it, by designing a platform and processes for the introduction of services, is this not a valid approach?   With the hybrid approach, it is recommended that company A begin deploying services as quickly as possible. Based on models that are clearly incomplete, and which will therefore change rapidly and often in the near future. Natural business evolution will also mean that the models can be guaranteed to change in the not so near future. To ‘Succeed with SOA’ Company B needs to go back to the drawing board and start modeling processes and objects. So, in effect, we are telling business analysts to start developing code based on a model they are unsure of, and telling programmers to ignore the obvious and growing problems in their IT department and start drawing lines and boxes.     Could the problem be that there are two different problem domains? And the whole concept of SOA as it being described by clever salespeople today creates an example of oft dreaded ‘tight coupling’ between these two domains?   Could it be that we have taken two large problem areas, and bundled the solution together in order to create a magic bullet? And then convinced ourselves that the bullet actually exists?   Company A wants to have a closer relationship between the business and its IT department, in order to become a more flexible organization. Company B wants to decrease the maintenance costs of its IT infrastructure. If both companies focus on succeeding with SOA, then they aren’t focusing on their actual goals.   If Company A starts building services from incomplete models, without a gameplan, they will end up in the same situation as company B, with wild services. If company B focuses on modeling, they could easily end up with the same problems as company A.   Now we have two companies, who a short while ago had one problem each, that now have two problems each. This has happened because of a focus on ‘Succeeding with SOA’, rather than solving the problem at hand.   This is not to suggest that the two problem domains are unrelated, a strategy that encompasses both will obviously be good for the organization. But only if the organization realizes this and can develop such a strategy. This strategy cannot be bought in a box.       Anyone who has worked with SOA for a while will be used to analyzing the solutions to a problem and judging the solution’s level of coupling. If we have two applications that each perform separate functions, but need to communicate with each other, we create a integration layer between them, perhaps with a service, but we do all we can to reduce the dependency between the two systems. Using the same approach, we can separate the modeling (business architecture) and the service hosting (technical architecture).     The business architecture describes the processes and business objects in the business domain.   The technical architecture describes the hosting and management and implementation of services.   The glue that binds these together, the integration layer in our analogy, is the service contract, where the operations map the processes to their technical implementation, and the messages map business concepts to software objects in the implementation.   If we reduce the coupling between these layers, we should be able to allow developers to develop services, and business analysts to develop models, without the changes rippling through from one side to the other.   This would allow company A to carry on modeling, and company B to develop a service platform, each achieving their intended goal, without necessarily creating the problems seen in pure top down or bottom up approaches. Company B could then at a later date map their service infrastructure to a unified model, and company A could carry on modeling, insulating deployed services from changes in the ongoing modeling.   How do we do this?  The concept of service virtualization has been around for a while, and is instantly realizable in Microsoft’s Managed Services Engine. Here we can create a layer of virtual services, which represent the business analyst’s view, presenting uniform contracts to the outside world. These services can then transform and route messages to the actual service implementations. I like to think of the virtual services with their beautifully modeled interfaces as ‘SOA services’, and the implementations as simple integration ‘adapter’ services providing an interface to a technical implementation. The Managed Services Engine also provides policy based control over services, regardless of where they are deployed, simplifying handling of security, logging, exception handling etc.   This solves a big problem. The pressure to deliver services quickly is always there in projects. It is very important to quickly show value when implementing service architectures. There is also pressure to deliver quality, and you can’t easily do both at the same time. This approach allows quick delivery with quality increasing over time, allowing modeling and service development to occur in parallel and independent of each other. The link between business modeling and service implementation is not one that is obvious to many organizations, and requires a certain maturity to realize and drive forward. It is also completely possible that a company can benefit from one without the other, even if this approach is frowned upon today, there are many companies doing so and seeing ROI.   Of course there are disadvantages to this. The biggest one being the transformations necessary between the virtual interfaces and the service implementations. Bad choices in developing the services in the service implementation could mean that it is impossible to map the modeled processes to the implementation with redevelopment of the service. In many cases the architect will not have a choice here anyway, as proprietary systems are often delivered with predeveloped services. The alternative is to wait until the model is finished and then build the service according the model. However, if that approach worked we wouldn’t be having this discussion! And even when it does work, natural business evolution will mean that the two concepts (model and implementation) will immediately start to drift away from each other, so coupling them tightly together so that they are forever bound to the model that only applies at the time of the modeling work will not really achieve a great deal. Architecture is all about trade offs, and here a choice has to be made. The choice is between something will initially be of low quality but will work, or something that may well be impossible to achieve in most situations.         In conclusion, top-down is a natural approach for business analysts, and bottom-up  is a natural approach for developers. Instead of trying to force something on both that neither want, and which has not shown itself to be successful,  why not let them get on with their jobs, and let an enterprise architect coordinate the processes?

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  • Webcast: Navigating the Future of Customer Service

    - by Charles Knapp
    Customer service is set to change dramatically over the next five years – and now is the time to ensure you have the tools to help you succeed. On  Wednesday, June 13, join Oracle and Forrester Research to discover what the future holds and learn how you can: Empower your agents Delight your customers Shape your customer service future Our speakers are Kate Leggett, Senior Analyst, Forrester Research, and John Perez, Customer Experience Strategist, Oracle RightNow. Kate is a leading expert on customer service strategies, as well as a published author on customer service trends and best practices. Her research focuses on helping organizations establish customer service strategies and deliver successful customer service projects. John has extensive experience of working on customer experience programs with organizations across a range of industries. He works with Oracle RightNow clients to build customer experience strategies that improve efficiency and productivity, increase sales, and drive customer loyalty.

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