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• MapRedux - PowerShell and Big Data

  - by Dittenhafer Solutions

  MapRedux – #PowerShell and #Big Data Have you been hearing about “big data”, “map reduce” and other large scale computing terms over the past couple of years and been curious to dig into more detail? Have you read some of the Apache Hadoop online documentation and unfortunately concluded that it wasn't feasible to setup a “test” hadoop environment on your machine? More recently, I have read about some of Microsoft’s work to enable Hadoop on the Azure cloud. Being a "Microsoft"-leaning technologist, I am more inclinded to be successful with experimentation when on the Windows platform. Of course, it is not that I am "religious" about one set of technologies other another, but rather more experienced. Anyway, within the past couple of weeks I have been thinking about PowerShell a bit more as the 2012 PowerShell Scripting Games approach and it occured to me that PowerShell's support for Windows Remote Management (WinRM), and some other inherent features of PowerShell might lend themselves particularly well to a simple implementation of the MapReduce framework. I fired up my PowerShell ISE and started writing just to see where it would take me. Quite simply, the ScriptBlock feature combined with the ability of Invoke-Command to create remote jobs on networked servers provides much of the plumbing of a distributed computing environment. There are some limiting factors of course. Microsoft provided some default settings which prevent PowerShell from taking over a network without administrative approval first. But even with just one adjustment, a given Windows-based machine can become a node in a MapReduce-style distributed computing environment. Ok, so enough introduction. Let's talk about the code. First, any machine that will participate as a remote "node" will need WinRM enabled for remote access, as shown below. This is not exactly practical for hundreds of intended nodes, but for one (or five) machines in a test environment it does just fine. C:> winrm quickconfig WinRM is not set up to receive requests on this machine. The following changes must be made: Set the WinRM service type to auto start. Start the WinRM service. Make these changes [y/n]? y Alternatively, you could take the approach described in the Remotely enable PSRemoting post from the TechNet forum and use PowerShell to create remote scheduled tasks that will call Enable-PSRemoting on each intended node. Invoke-MapRedux Moving on, now that you have one or more remote "nodes" enabled, you can consider the actual Map and Reduce algorithms. Consider the following snippet: $MyMrResults = Invoke-MapRedux -MapReduceItem $Mr -ComputerName $MyNodes -DataSet $dataset -Verbose Invoke-MapRedux takes an instance of a MapReduceItem which references the Map and Reduce scriptblocks, an array of computer names which are the remote nodes, and the initial data set to be processed. As simple as that, you can start working with concepts of big data and the MapReduce paradigm. Now, how did we get there? I have published the initial version of my PsMapRedux PowerShell Module on GitHub. The PsMapRedux module provides the Invoke-MapRedux function described above. Feel free to browse the underlying code and even contribute to the project! In a later post, I plan to show some of the inner workings of the module, but for now let's move on to how the Map and Reduce functions are defined. Map Both the Map and Reduce functions need to follow a prescribed prototype. The prototype for a Map function in the MapRedux module is as follows. A simple scriptblock that takes one PsObject parameter and returns a hashtable. It is important to note that the PsObject $dataset parameter is a MapRedux custom object that has a "Data" property which offers an array of data to be processed by the Map function. $aMap = { Param ( [PsObject] $dataset ) # Indicate the job is running on the remote node. Write-Host ($env:computername + "::Map"); # The hashtable to return $list = @{}; # ... Perform the mapping work and prepare the $list hashtable result with your custom PSObject... # ... The $dataset has a single 'Data' property which contains an array of data rows # which is a subset of the originally submitted data set. # Return the hashtable (Key, PSObject) Write-Output $list; } Reduce Likewise, with the Reduce function a simple prototype must be followed which takes a $key and a result $dataset from the MapRedux's partitioning function (which joins the Map results by key). Again, the $dataset is a MapRedux custom object that has a "Data" property as described in the Map section. $aReduce = { Param ( [object] $key, [PSObject] $dataset ) Write-Host ($env:computername + "::Reduce - Count: " + $dataset.Data.Count) # The hashtable to return $redux = @{}; # Return Write-Output $redux; } All Together Now When everything is put together in a short example script, you implement your Map and Reduce functions, query for some starting data, build the MapReduxItem via New-MapReduxItem and call Invoke-MapRedux to get the process started: # Import the MapRedux and SQL Server providers Import-Module "MapRedux" Import-Module “sqlps” -DisableNameChecking # Query the database for a dataset Set-Location SQLSERVER:\sql\dbserver1\default\databases\myDb $query = "SELECT MyKey, Date, Value1 FROM BigData ORDER BY MyKey"; Write-Host "Query: $query" $dataset = Invoke-SqlCmd -query $query # Build the Map function $MyMap = { Param ( [PsObject] $dataset ) Write-Host ($env:computername + "::Map"); $list = @{}; foreach($row in $dataset.Data) { # Write-Host ("Key: " + $row.MyKey.ToString()); if($list.ContainsKey($row.MyKey) -eq $true) { $s = $list.Item($row.MyKey); $s.Sum += $row.Value1; $s.Count++; } else { $s = New-Object PSObject; $s | Add-Member -Type NoteProperty -Name MyKey -Value $row.MyKey; $s | Add-Member -type NoteProperty -Name Sum -Value $row.Value1; $list.Add($row.MyKey, $s); } } Write-Output $list; } $MyReduce = { Param ( [object] $key, [PSObject] $dataset ) Write-Host ($env:computername + "::Reduce - Count: " + $dataset.Data.Count) $redux = @{}; $count = 0; foreach($s in $dataset.Data) { $sum += $s.Sum; $count += 1; } # Reduce $redux.Add($s.MyKey, $sum / $count); # Return Write-Output $redux; } # Create the item data $Mr = New-MapReduxItem "My Test MapReduce Job" $MyMap $MyReduce # Array of processing nodes... $MyNodes = ("node1", "node2", "node3", "node4", "localhost") # Run the Map Reduce routine... $MyMrResults = Invoke-MapRedux -MapReduceItem $Mr -ComputerName $MyNodes -DataSet $dataset -Verbose # Show the results Set-Location C:\ $MyMrResults | Out-GridView Conclusion I hope you have seen through this article that PowerShell has a significant infrastructure available for distributed computing. While it does take some code to expose a MapReduce-style framework, much of the work is already done and PowerShell could prove to be the the easiest platform to develop and run big data jobs in your corporate data center, potentially in the Azure cloud, or certainly as an academic excerise at home or school. Follow me on Twitter to stay up to date on the continuing progress of my Powershell MapRedux module, and thanks for reading! Daniel

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• Performing Aggregate Functions on Multi-Million Row Tables

  - by Daniel Short

  I'm having some serious performance issues with a multi-million row table that I feel I should be able to get results from fairly quick. Here's a run down of what I have, how I'm querying it, and how long it's taking: I'm running SQL Server 2008 Standard, so Partitioning isn't currently an option I'm attempting to aggregate all views for all inventory for a specific account over the last 30 days. All views are stored in the following table: CREATE TABLE [dbo].[LogInvSearches_Daily]( [ID] [bigint] IDENTITY(1,1) NOT NULL, [Inv_ID] [int] NOT NULL, [Site_ID] [int] NOT NULL, [LogCount] [int] NOT NULL, [LogDay] [smalldatetime] NOT NULL, CONSTRAINT [PK_LogInvSearches_Daily] PRIMARY KEY CLUSTERED ( [ID] ASC )WITH (PAD_INDEX = OFF, STATISTICS_NORECOMPUTE = OFF, IGNORE_DUP_KEY = OFF, ALLOW_ROW_LOCKS = ON, ALLOW_PAGE_LOCKS = ON, FILLFACTOR = 90) ON [PRIMARY] ) ON [PRIMARY] This table has 132,000,000 records, and is over 4 gigs. A sample of 10 rows from the table: ID Inv_ID Site_ID LogCount LogDay -------------------- ----------- ----------- ----------- ----------------------- 1 486752 48 14 2009-07-21 00:00:00 2 119314 51 16 2009-07-21 00:00:00 3 313678 48 25 2009-07-21 00:00:00 4 298863 0 1 2009-07-21 00:00:00 5 119996 0 2 2009-07-21 00:00:00 6 463777 534 7 2009-07-21 00:00:00 7 339976 503 2 2009-07-21 00:00:00 8 333501 570 4 2009-07-21 00:00:00 9 453955 0 12 2009-07-21 00:00:00 10 443291 0 4 2009-07-21 00:00:00 (10 row(s) affected) I have the following index on LogInvSearches_Daily: /****** Object: Index [IX_LogInvSearches_Daily_LogDay] Script Date: 05/12/2010 11:08:22 ******/ CREATE NONCLUSTERED INDEX [IX_LogInvSearches_Daily_LogDay] ON [dbo].[LogInvSearches_Daily] ( [LogDay] ASC ) INCLUDE ( [Inv_ID], [LogCount]) WITH (PAD_INDEX = OFF, STATISTICS_NORECOMPUTE = OFF, SORT_IN_TEMPDB = OFF, IGNORE_DUP_KEY = OFF, DROP_EXISTING = OFF, ONLINE = OFF, ALLOW_ROW_LOCKS = ON, ALLOW_PAGE_LOCKS = ON) ON [PRIMARY] I need to pull inventory only from the Inventory for a specific account id. I have an index on the Inventory as well. I'm using the following query to aggregate the data and give me the top 5 records. This query is currently taking 24 seconds to return the 5 rows: StmtText ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- SELECT TOP 5 Sum(LogCount) AS Views , DENSE_RANK() OVER(ORDER BY Sum(LogCount) DESC, Inv_ID DESC) AS Rank , Inv_ID FROM LogInvSearches_Daily D (NOLOCK) WHERE LogDay DateAdd(d, -30, getdate()) AND EXISTS( SELECT NULL FROM propertyControlCenter.dbo.Inventory (NOLOCK) WHERE Acct_ID = 18731 AND Inv_ID = D.Inv_ID ) GROUP BY Inv_ID (1 row(s) affected) StmtText ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |--Top(TOP EXPRESSION:((5))) |--Sequence Project(DEFINE:([Expr1007]=dense_rank)) |--Segment |--Segment |--Sort(ORDER BY:([Expr1006] DESC, [D].[Inv_ID] DESC)) |--Stream Aggregate(GROUP BY:([D].[Inv_ID]) DEFINE:([Expr1006]=SUM([LOALogs].[dbo].[LogInvSearches_Daily].[LogCount] as [D].[LogCount]))) |--Sort(ORDER BY:([D].[Inv_ID] ASC)) |--Nested Loops(Inner Join, OUTER REFERENCES:([D].[Inv_ID])) |--Nested Loops(Inner Join, OUTER REFERENCES:([Expr1011], [Expr1012], [Expr1010])) | |--Compute Scalar(DEFINE:(([Expr1011],[Expr1012],[Expr1010])=GetRangeWithMismatchedTypes(dateadd(day,(-30),getdate()),NULL,(6)))) | | |--Constant Scan | |--Index Seek(OBJECT:([LOALogs].[dbo].[LogInvSearches_Daily].[IX_LogInvSearches_Daily_LogDay] AS [D]), SEEK:([D].[LogDay] > [Expr1011] AND [D].[LogDay] < [Expr1012]) ORDERED FORWARD) |--Index Seek(OBJECT:([propertyControlCenter].[dbo].[Inventory].[IX_Inventory_Acct_ID]), SEEK:([propertyControlCenter].[dbo].[Inventory].[Acct_ID]=(18731) AND [propertyControlCenter].[dbo].[Inventory].[Inv_ID]=[LOA (13 row(s) affected) I tried using a CTE to pick up the rows first and aggregate them, but that didn't run any faster, and gives me essentially the same execution plan. (1 row(s) affected) StmtText ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- --SET SHOWPLAN_TEXT ON; WITH getSearches AS ( SELECT LogCount -- , DENSE_RANK() OVER(ORDER BY Sum(LogCount) DESC, Inv_ID DESC) AS Rank , D.Inv_ID FROM LogInvSearches_Daily D (NOLOCK) INNER JOIN propertyControlCenter.dbo.Inventory I (NOLOCK) ON Acct_ID = 18731 AND I.Inv_ID = D.Inv_ID WHERE LogDay DateAdd(d, -30, getdate()) -- GROUP BY Inv_ID ) SELECT Sum(LogCount) AS Views, Inv_ID FROM getSearches GROUP BY Inv_ID (1 row(s) affected) StmtText ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ |--Stream Aggregate(GROUP BY:([D].[Inv_ID]) DEFINE:([Expr1004]=SUM([LOALogs].[dbo].[LogInvSearches_Daily].[LogCount] as [D].[LogCount]))) |--Sort(ORDER BY:([D].[Inv_ID] ASC)) |--Nested Loops(Inner Join, OUTER REFERENCES:([D].[Inv_ID])) |--Nested Loops(Inner Join, OUTER REFERENCES:([Expr1008], [Expr1009], [Expr1007])) | |--Compute Scalar(DEFINE:(([Expr1008],[Expr1009],[Expr1007])=GetRangeWithMismatchedTypes(dateadd(day,(-30),getdate()),NULL,(6)))) | | |--Constant Scan | |--Index Seek(OBJECT:([LOALogs].[dbo].[LogInvSearches_Daily].[IX_LogInvSearches_Daily_LogDay] AS [D]), SEEK:([D].[LogDay] > [Expr1008] AND [D].[LogDay] < [Expr1009]) ORDERED FORWARD) |--Index Seek(OBJECT:([propertyControlCenter].[dbo].[Inventory].[IX_Inventory_Acct_ID] AS [I]), SEEK:([I].[Acct_ID]=(18731) AND [I].[Inv_ID]=[LOALogs].[dbo].[LogInvSearches_Daily].[Inv_ID] as [D].[Inv_ID]) ORDERED FORWARD) (8 row(s) affected) (1 row(s) affected) So given that I'm getting good Index Seeks in my execution plan, what can I do to get this running faster? Thanks, Dan

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• Why does jquery leak memory so badly?

  - by Thomas Lane

  This is kind of a follow-up to a question I posted last week: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2429056/simple-jquery-ajax-call-leaks-memory-in-ie I love the jquery syntax and all of its nice features, but I've been having trouble with a page that automatically updates table cells via ajax calls leaking memory. So I created two simple test pages for experimenting. Both pages do an ajax call every .1 seconds. After each successful ajax call, a counter is incremented and the DOM is updated. The script stops after 1000 cycles. One uses jquery for both the ajax call and to update the DOM. The other uses the Yahoo API for the ajax and does a document.getElementById(...).innerHTML to update the DOM. The jquery version leaks memory badly. Running in drip (on XP Home with IE7), it starts at 9MB and finishes at about 48MB, with memory growing linearly the whole time. If I comment out the line that updates the DOM, it still finishes at 32MB, suggesting that even simple DOM updates leak a significant amount of memory. The non-jquery version starts and finishes at about 9MB, regardless of whether it updates the DOM. Does anyone have a good explanation of what is causing jquery to leak so badly? Am I missing something obvious? Is there a circular reference that I'm not aware of? Or does jquery just have some serious memory issues? Here is the source for the leaky (jquery) version: <html> <head> <script type="text/javascript" src="http://www.google.com/jsapi"></script> <script type="text/javascript"> google.load('jquery', '1.4.2'); </script> <script type="text/javascript"> var counter = 0; leakTest(); function leakTest() { $.ajax({ url: '/html/delme.x', type: 'GET', success: incrementCounter }); } function incrementCounter(data) { if (counter<1000) { counter++; $('#counter').text(counter); setTimeout(leakTest,100); } else $('#counter').text('finished.'); } </script> </head> <body> <div>Why is memory usage going up?</div> <div id="counter"></div> </body> </html> And here is the non-leaky version: <html> <head> <script type="text/javascript" src="http://yui.yahooapis.com/2.8.0r4/build/yahoo/yahoo-min.js"></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="http://yui.yahooapis.com/2.8.0r4/build/event/event-min.js"></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="http://yui.yahooapis.com/2.8.0r4/build/connection/connection_core-min.js"></script> <script type="text/javascript"> var counter = 0; leakTest(); function leakTest() { YAHOO.util.Connect.asyncRequest('GET', '/html/delme.x', {success:incrementCounter}); } function incrementCounter(o) { if (counter<1000) { counter++; document.getElementById('counter').innerHTML = counter; setTimeout(leakTest,100); } else document.getElementById('counter').innerHTML = 'finished.' } </script> </head> <body> <div>Memory usage is stable, right?</div> <div id="counter"></div> </body> </html>

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• Car animations in Frogger on Javascript

  - by Mijoro Nicolas Rasoanaivo

  I have to finish a Frogger game in Javascript for my engineering school degree, but I don't know how to animate the cars. Right now I tried to manipulate the CSS, the DOM, I wrote a script with a setTimeout(), but none of them works.Can I have some help please? Here's my code and my CSS: <html> <head> <title>Image d&eacute;filante</title> <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="map_style.css"/> </head> <body onload="start()"> <canvas id="jeu" width="800" height="450"> </canvas> <img id="voiture" class="voiture" src="car.png" onload="startTimerCar()"> <img id="voiture2" class="voiture" src="car.png" onload="startTimerCar()"> <img id="voiture3" class="voiture" src="car.png" onload="startTimerCar()"> <img id="bigrig" class="bigrig" src="bigrig.png" onload="startTimerBigrig()"> <img id="bigrig2" class="bigrig" src="bigrig.png" onload="startTimerBigrig()"> <img id="bigrig3" class="bigrig" src="bigrig.png" onload="startTimerBigrig()"> <img id="hotrod" src="hotrod.png" onload="startTimerHotrod()"> <img id="hotrod2" src="hotrod.png" onload="startTimerHotrod()"> <img id="turtle" src="turtles_diving.png" onload="startTimerTurtle()"> <img id="turtle2" src="turtles_diving.png" onload="startTimerTurtle()"> <img id="turtle3" src="turtles_diving.png" onload="startTimerTurtle()"> <img id="small" src="log_small.png" onload="startTimerSmall()"> <img id="small2" src="log_small.png" onload="startTimerSmall()"> <img id="small3" src="log_small.png" onload="startTimerSmall()"> <img id="small4" src="log_small.png" onload="startTimerSmall()"> <img id="med" src="log_medium.png" onload="startTimerMedium()"> <img id="med2" src="log_medium.png" onload="startTimerMedium()"> <img id="med3" src="log_medium.png" onload="startTimerMedium()"> <script type="text/javascript"> var X = 1; var timer; function start(){ setInterval(init,10); document.onkeydown = move; var canvas = document.getElementById('jeu'); var context = canvas.getContext('2d'); var frog = document.getElementById('frog'); var posX_frog = 415; var posY_frog = 400; var voiture = [document.getElementById('voiture'),document.getElementById('voiture2'),document.getElementById('voiture3')]; var bigrig = [document.getElementById('bigrig'),document.getElementById('bigrig2'),document.getElementById('bigrig3')]; var hotrod = [document.getElementById('hotrod'),document.getElementById('hotrod2')]; var turtle = [document.getElementById('turtle'),document.getElementById('turtle2'),document.getElementById('turtle3')]; var small = [document.getElementById('small'),document.getElementById('small2'),document.getElementById('small3'),document.getElementById('small4')]; var med = [document.getElementById('med'),document.getElementById('med2'),document.getElementById('med3')]; function init() { context.fillStyle = "#AEEE00"; context.fillRect(0,0,800,50); context.fillRect(0,200,800,50); context.fillRect(0,400,800,50); context.fillStyle = "#046380"; context.fillRect(0,50,800,150); context.fillStyle = "#000000"; context.fillRect(0,250,800,150); var img= new Image(); img.src="./frog.png"; context.drawImage(img,posX_frog, posY_frog, 46, 38); } function move(event){ if (event.keyCode == 39){ if( posX_frog < 716 ){ posX_frog += 50; } } if(event.keyCode == 37){ if( posX_frog >25 ){ posX_frog -= 50; } } if (event.keyCode == 38){ if( posY_frog > 10 ){ posY_frog -= 50; } } if(event.keyCode == 40){ if( posY_frog <400 ){ posY_frog += 50; } } } } </script> </body> And my map_css: #jeu{ z-index:10; width: 800px; height: 450px; border: 2px black solid; overflow: hidden; position: relative; transition:width 2s; -moz-transition:width 2s; /* Firefox 4 */ -webkit-transition:width 2s; /* Safari and Chrome */ } #voiture{ z-index: 100; position: absolute; top: 315px; left: 48px; transition-timing-function: linear; -webkit-transition-timing-function: linear; -moz-transition-timing-function: linear; } #voiture2{ z-index: 100; position: absolute; top: 315px; left: 144px; } #voiture3{ z-index: 100; position: absolute; top: 315px; left: 240px; } #bigrig{ z-index: 100; position: absolute; top: 365px; left: 200px; } #bigrig2{ z-index: 100; position: absolute; top: 365px; left: 400px; } #bigrig3{ z-index: 100; position: absolute; top: 365px; left: 600px; } #hotrod{ z-index: 100; position: absolute; top: 265px; left: 200px; } #hotrod2{ z-index: 100; position: absolute; top: 265px; left: 500px; } #hotrod3{ z-index: 100; position: absolute; top: 265px; left: 750px; } #turtle{ z-index: 100; position: absolute; top: 175px; left: 50px; } #turtle2{ z-index: 100; position: absolute; top: 175px; left: 450px; } #turtle3{ z-index: 100; position: absolute; top: 175px; left: 250px; } #small{ z-index: 100; position: absolute; top: 125px; left: 20px; } #small2{ z-index: 100; position: absolute; top: 125px; left: 220px; } #small3{ z-index: 100; position: absolute; top: 125px; left: 420px; } #small4{ z-index: 100; position: absolute; top: 125px; left: 620px; } #med{ z-index: 100; position: absolute; top: 75px; left: 120px; } #med2{ z-index: 100; position: absolute; top: 75px; left: 320px; } #med3{ z-index: 100; position: absolute; top: 75px; left: 520px; } I had to say that I'm in the obligation to code in HTML5, CSS3, and Javascript but not jQuery, who is way more easier, I already created games in jQuery... It takes me too much time and too much code lines right here.

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• Struct Method for Loops Problem

  - by Annalyne

  I have tried numerous times how to make a do-while loop using the float constructor for my code but it seems it does not work properly as I wanted. For summary, I am making a TBRPG in C++ and I encountered few problems. But before that, let me post my code. #include <iostream> #include <string> #include <ctime> #include <cstdlib> using namespace std; int char_level = 1; //the starting level of the character. string town; //town string town_name; //the name of the town the character is in. string charname; //holds the character's name upon the start of the game int gems = 0; //holds the value of the games the character has. const int MAX_ITEMS = 15; //max items the character can carry string inventory [MAX_ITEMS]; //the inventory of the character in game int itemnum = 0; //number of items that the character has. bool GameOver = false; //boolean intended for the game over scr. string monsterTroop [] = {"Slime", "Zombie", "Imp", "Sahaguin, Hounds, Vampire"}; //monster name float monsterTroopHealth [] = {5.0f, 10.0f, 15.0f, 20.0f, 25.0f}; // the health of the monsters int monLifeBox; //life carrier of the game's enemy troops int enemNumber; //enemy number //inventory[itemnum++] = "Sword"; class RPG_Game_Enemy { public: void enemyAppear () { srand(time(0)); enemNumber = 1+(rand()%3); if (enemNumber == 1) cout << monsterTroop[1]; //monster troop 1 else if (enemNumber == 2) cout << monsterTroop[2]; //monster troop 2 else if (enemNumber == 3) cout << monsterTroop[3]; //monster troop 3 else if (enemNumber == 4) cout << monsterTroop[4]; //monster troop 4 } void enemDefeat () { cout << "The foe has been defeated. You are victorious." << endl; } void enemyDies() { //if the enemy dies: //collapse declaration cout << "The foe vanished and you are victorious!" << endl; } }; class RPG_Scene_Battle { public: RPG_Scene_Battle(float ini_health) : health (ini_health){}; float getHealth() { return health; } void setHealth(float rpg_val){ health = rpg_val;}; private: float health; }; //---------------------------------------------------------------// // Conduct Damage for the Scene Battle's Damage //---------------------------------------------------------------// float conductDamage(RPG_Scene_Battle rpg_tr, float damage) { rpg_tr.setHealth(rpg_tr.getHealth() - damage); return rpg_tr.getHealth(); }; // ------------------------------------------------------------- // void RPG_Scene_DisplayItem () { cout << "Items: \n"; for (int i=0; i < itemnum; ++i) cout << inventory[i] <<endl; }; In this code I have so far, the problem I have is the battle scene. For example, the player battles a Ghost with 10 HP, when I use a do while loop to subtract the HP of the character and the enemy, it only deducts once in the do while. Some people said I should use a struct, but I have no idea how to make it. Is there a way someone can display a code how to implement it on my game? Edit: I made the do-while by far like this: do RPG_Scene_Battle (player, 20.0f); RPG_Scene_Battle (enemy, 10.0f); cout << "Battle starts!" <<endl; cout << "You used a blade skill and deducted 2 hit points to the enemy!" conductDamage (enemy, 2.0f); while (enemy!=0) also, I made something like this: #include <iostream> using namespace std; int gems = 0; class Entity { public: Entity(float startingHealth) : health(startingHealth){}; // initialize health float getHealth(){return health;} void setHealth(float value){ health = value;}; private: float health; }; float subtractHealthFrom(Entity& ent, float damage) { ent.setHealth(ent.getHealth() - damage); return ent.getHealth(); }; int main () { Entity character(10.0f); Entity enemy(10.0f); cout << "Hero Life: "; cout << subtractHealthFrom(character, 2.0f) <<endl; cout << "Monster Life: "; cout << subtractHealthFrom(enemy, 2.0f) <<endl; cout << "Hero Life: "; cout << subtractHealthFrom(character, 2.0f) <<endl; cout << "Monster Life: "; cout << subtractHealthFrom(enemy, 2.0f) <<endl; }; Struct method, they say, should solve this problem. How can I continously deduct hp from the enemy? Whenever I deduct something, it would return to its original value -_-

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• Database Migration Scripts: Getting from place A to place B

  - by Phil Factor

  We’ll be looking at a typical database ‘migration’ script which uses an unusual technique to migrate existing ‘de-normalised’ data into a more correct form. So, the book-distribution business that uses the PUBS database has gradually grown organically, and has slipped into ‘de-normalisation’ habits. What’s this? A new column with a list of tags or ‘types’ assigned to books. Because books aren’t really in just one category, someone has ‘cured’ the mismatch between the database and the business requirements. This is fine, but it is now proving difficult for their new website that allows searches by tags. Any request for history book really has to look in the entire list of associated tags rather than the ‘Type’ field that only keeps the primary tag. We have other problems. The TypleList column has duplicates in there which will be affecting the reporting, and there is the danger of mis-spellings getting there. The reporting system can’t be persuaded to do reports based on the tags and the Database developers are complaining about the unCoddly things going on in their database. In your version of PUBS, this extra column doesn’t exist, so we’ve added it and put in 10,000 titles using SQL Data Generator. /* So how do we refactor this database? firstly, we create a table of all the tags. */IF  OBJECT_ID('TagName') IS NULL OR OBJECT_ID('TagTitle') IS NULL  BEGIN  CREATE TABLE  TagName (TagName_ID INT IDENTITY(1,1) PRIMARY KEY ,     Tag VARCHAR(20) NOT NULL UNIQUE)  /* ...and we insert into it all the tags from the list (remembering to take out any leading spaces */  INSERT INTO TagName (Tag)     SELECT DISTINCT LTRIM(x.y.value('.', 'Varchar(80)')) AS [Tag]     FROM     (SELECT  Title_ID,          CONVERT(XML, '<list><i>' + REPLACE(TypeList, ',', '</i><i>') + '</i></list>')          AS XMLkeywords          FROM   dbo.titles)g    CROSS APPLY XMLkeywords.nodes('/list/i/text()') AS x ( y )  /* we can then use this table to provide a table that relates tags to articles */  CREATE TABLE TagTitle   (TagTitle_ID INT IDENTITY(1, 1),   [title_id] [dbo].[tid] NOT NULL REFERENCES titles (Title_ID),   TagName_ID INT NOT NULL REFERENCES TagName (Tagname_ID)   CONSTRAINT [PK_TagTitle]       PRIMARY KEY CLUSTERED ([title_id] ASC, TagName_ID)       ON [PRIMARY])        CREATE NONCLUSTERED INDEX idxTagName_ID  ON  TagTitle (TagName_ID)  INCLUDE (TagTitle_ID,title_id)        /* ...and it is easy to fill this with the tags for each title ... */        INSERT INTO TagTitle (Title_ID, TagName_ID)    SELECT DISTINCT Title_ID, TagName_ID      FROM        (SELECT  Title_ID,          CONVERT(XML, '<list><i>' + REPLACE(TypeList, ',', '</i><i>') + '</i></list>')          AS XMLkeywords          FROM   dbo.titles)g    CROSS APPLY XMLkeywords.nodes('/list/i/text()') AS x ( y )    INNER JOIN TagName ON TagName.Tag=LTRIM(x.y.value('.', 'Varchar(80)'))    END    /* That's all there was to it. Now we can select all titles that have the military tag, just to try things out */SELECT Title FROM titles  INNER JOIN TagTitle ON titles.title_ID=TagTitle.Title_ID  INNER JOIN Tagname ON Tagname.TagName_ID=TagTitle.TagName_ID  WHERE tagname.tag='Military'/* and see the top ten most popular tags for titles */SELECT Tag, COUNT(*) FROM titles  INNER JOIN TagTitle ON titles.title_ID=TagTitle.Title_ID  INNER JOIN Tagname ON Tagname.TagName_ID=TagTitle.TagName_ID  GROUP BY Tag ORDER BY COUNT(*) DESC/* and if you still want your list of tags for each title, then here they are */SELECT title_ID, title, STUFF(  (SELECT ','+tagname.tag FROM titles thisTitle    INNER JOIN TagTitle ON titles.title_ID=TagTitle.Title_ID    INNER JOIN Tagname ON Tagname.TagName_ID=TagTitle.TagName_ID  WHERE ThisTitle.title_id=titles.title_ID  FOR XML PATH(''), TYPE).value('.', 'varchar(max)')  ,1,1,'')    FROM titles  ORDER BY title_ID So we’ve refactored our PUBS database without pain. We’ve even put in a check to prevent it being re-run once the new tables are created. Here is the diagram of the new tag relationship We’ve done both the DDL to create the tables and their associated components, and the DML to put the data in them. I could have also included the script to remove the de-normalised TypeList column, but I’d do a whole lot of tests first before doing that. Yes, I’ve left out the assertion tests too, which should check the edge cases and make sure the result is what you’d expect. One thing I can’t quite figure out is how to deal with an ordered list using this simple XML-based technique. We can ensure that, if we have to produce a list of tags, we can get the primary ‘type’ to be first in the list, but what if the entire order is significant? Thank goodness it isn’t in this case. If it were, we might have to revisit a string-splitter function that returns the ordinal position of each component in the sequence. You’ll see immediately that we can create a synchronisation script for deployment from a comparison tool such as SQL Compare, to change the schema (DDL). On the other hand, no tool could do the DML to stuff the data into the new table, since there is no way that any tool will be able to work out where the data should go. We used some pretty hairy code to deal with a slightly untypical problem. We would have to do this migration by hand, and it has to go into source control as a batch. If most of your database changes are to be deployed by an automated process, then there must be a way of over-riding this part of the data synchronisation process to do this part of the process taking the part of the script that fills the tables, Checking that the tables have not already been filled, and executing it as part of the transaction. Of course, you might prefer the approach I’ve taken with the script of creating the tables in the same batch as the data conversion process, and then using the presence of the tables to prevent the script from being re-run. The problem with scripting a refactoring change to a database is that it has to work both ways. If we install the new system and then have to rollback the changes, several books may have been added, or had their tags changed, in the meantime. Yes, you have to script any rollback! These have to be mercilessly tested, and put in source control just in case of the rollback of a deployment after it has been in place for any length of time. I’ve shown you how to do this with the part of the script .. /* and if you still want your list of tags for each title, then here they are */SELECT title_ID, title, STUFF(  (SELECT ','+tagname.tag FROM titles thisTitle    INNER JOIN TagTitle ON titles.title_ID=TagTitle.Title_ID    INNER JOIN Tagname ON Tagname.TagName_ID=TagTitle.TagName_ID  WHERE ThisTitle.title_id=titles.title_ID  FOR XML PATH(''), TYPE).value('.', 'varchar(max)')  ,1,1,'')    FROM titles  ORDER BY title_ID …which would be turned into an UPDATE … FROM script. UPDATE titles SET  typelist= ThisTaglistFROM     (SELECT title_ID, title, STUFF(    (SELECT ','+tagname.tag FROM titles thisTitle      INNER JOIN TagTitle ON titles.title_ID=TagTitle.Title_ID      INNER JOIN Tagname ON Tagname.TagName_ID=TagTitle.TagName_ID    WHERE ThisTitle.title_id=titles.title_ID    ORDER BY CASE WHEN tagname.tag=titles.[type] THEN 1 ELSE 0  END DESC    FOR XML PATH(''), TYPE).value('.', 'varchar(max)')    ,1,1,'')  AS ThisTagList  FROM titles)fINNER JOIN Titles ON f.title_ID=Titles.title_ID You’ll notice that it isn’t quite a round trip because the tags are in a different order, though we’ve managed to make sure that the primary tag is the first one as originally. So, we’ve improved the database for the poor book distributors using PUBS. It is not a major deal but you’ve got to be prepared to provide a migration script that will go both forwards and backwards. Ideally, database refactoring scripts should be able to go from any version to any other. Schema synchronization scripts can do this pretty easily, but no data synchronisation scripts can deal with serious refactoring jobs without the developers being able to specify how to deal with cases like this.

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• Google Chrome Frame and Facebook Javascript SDK - Cannot login

  - by Giannis Savvakis

  On the example below i have an html page with the javascript code needed to login to facebook. On the i have the Google Chrome Frame meta tag that makes the page run with google chrome frame. If you open this page with any browser the finish() callback runs normally. If you open it with Google Chrome Frame it never fires. So this means that every Facebook App that tries to login to gather user data cannot login. This happens if the page is opened with google frame. But even if i remove the meta tag so that the page can open with IE8 the page opens again with google chrome frame because Facebook opens google chrome frame by default. So because this is a Facebook app that runs inside an inside facebook.com it is forced to open with Google Chrome Frame! SERIOUS BUG! I have seen other people reporting it, someone has made a test facebook app also here: http://apps.facebook.com/gcftest/ appID and channelUrl are dummy in the example below. <html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xmlns:fb="http://www.facebook.com/2008/fbml"> <head> <meta name="generator" content= "HTML Tidy for Linux/x86 (vers 11 February 2007), see www.w3.org" /> <meta charset="utf-8" /> <meta http-equiv="Cache-Control" content="no-cache, no-store, must-revalidate" /> <meta http-equiv="Pragma" content="no-cache" /> <meta http-equiv="Expires" content="0" /> <meta http-equiv="X-UA-Compatible" content="IE=Edge,chrome=IE8" /> <title>Facebook Login</title> <script type="text/javascript"> //<![CDATA[ // Load the SDK Asynchronously (function(d){ var js, id = 'facebook-jssdk', ref = d.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; if (d.getElementById(id)) { return; } js = d.createElement('script'); js.id = id; js.async = true; js.src = "//connect.facebook.net/en_US/all.js"; ref.parentNode.insertBefore(js, ref); }(document)); var appID = '0000000000000'; var channelUrl = '//myhost/channel.html'; // Init the SDK upon load window.fbAsyncInit = function() { FB.init({ appId : appID, // App ID channelUrl : channelUrl, status : true, // check login status cookie : true, // enable cookies to allow the server to access the session xfbml : true // parse XFBML }); FB.Event.subscribe('auth.statusChange', function(response) { if(!response.authResponse) FB.login(finish, {scope: 'publish_actions,publish_stream'}); else finish(response); }); FB.getLoginStatus(finish); } function finish(response) { alert("Hello "+response.name); } //]]> </script> </head> <body> <h1>Facebook login</h1> <p>Do NOT close this window.</p> <p>please wait...</p> </body> </html>

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• Please recommend me intermediate-to-advanced Python books to buy.

  - by anonnoir

  I'm in the final year, final semester of my law degree, and will be graduating very soon. (April, to be specific.) But before I begin practice, I plan to take 2 two months off, purely for serious programming study. So I'm currently looking for some Python-related books, gauged intermediate to advanced, which are interesting (because of the subject matter itself) and possibly useful to my future line of work. I've identified 2 possible purchases at the moment: Natural Language Processing with Python. The law deals mostly with words, and I've quite a number of ideas as to where I might go with NLP. Data extraction, summaries, client management systems linked with document templates, etc. Programming Collective Intelligence. This book fascinates me, because I've always liked the idea of machine learning (and I'm currently studying it by the side too, for fun). I'd like to build/play around with Web 2.0 applications; and who knows if I can apply some of the things I learn to my legal work. (E.g. Playground experiments to determine how and under what circumstances judges might be biased, by forcing algorithms to pore through judgments and calculate similarities, etc.) Please feel free to criticize my current choices, but do at least offer or recommend other books that I should read in their place. My budget can deal with 4 books, max. These books will be used heavily throughout the 2 months; I will be reading them back to back, absorbing the explanations given, and hacking away at their code. Also, the books themselves should satisfy 2 main criteria: Application. The book must teach how to solve problems. I like reading theory, but I want to build things and solve problems first. Even playful applications are fine, because games and experiments always have real-world applications sooner or later. Readability. I like reading technical books, no matter how difficult they are. I enjoy the effort and the feeling that you're learning something. But the book shouldn't contain code or explanations that are too cryptic or erratic. Even if it's difficult, the book's content should be accessible with focused reading. Note: I realize that I am somewhat of a beginner to the whole programming thing, so please don't put me down. But from experience, I think it's better to aim up and leave my comfort zone when learning new things, rather than to just remain stagnant the way I am. (At least the difficulty gives me focus: i.e. if a programmer can be that good, perhaps if I sustain my own efforts I too can be as good as him someday.) If anything, I'm also a very determined person, so two months of day-to-night intensive programming study with nothing else on my mind should, I think, give me a bit of a fighting chance to push my programming skills to a much higher level.

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• Winforms controls and "generic" events handlers. How can I do this?

  - by Yanko Hernández Alvarez

  In the demo of the ObjectListView control there is this code (in the "Complex Example" tab page) to allow for a custom editor (a ComboBox) (Adapted to my case and edited for clarity): EventHandler CurrentEH; private void ObjectListView_CellEditStarting(object sender, CellEditEventArgs e) { if (e.Column == SomeCol) { ISomeInterface M = (e.RowObject as ObjectListView1Row).SomeObject; //(1) ComboBox cb = new ComboBox(); cb.Bounds = e.CellBounds; cb.DropDownStyle = ComboBoxStyle.DropDownList; cb.DataSource = ISomeOtherObjectCollection; cb.DisplayMember = "propertyName"; cb.DataBindings.Add("SelectedItem", M, "ISomeOtherObject", false, DataSourceUpdateMode.Never); e.Control = cb; cb.SelectedIndexChanged += CurrentEH = (object sender2, EventArgs e2) => M.ISomeOtherObject = (ISomeOtherObject)((ComboBox)sender2).SelectedValue; //(2) } } private void ObjectListView_CellEditFinishing(object sender, CellEditEventArgs e) { if (e.Column == SomeCol) { // Stop listening for change events ((ComboBox)e.Control).SelectedIndexChanged -= CurrentEH; // Any updating will have been down in the SelectedIndexChanged // event handler. // Here we simply make the list redraw the involved ListViewItem ((ObjectListView)sender).RefreshItem(e.ListViewItem); // We have updated the model object, so we cancel the auto update e.Cancel = true; } } I have too many other columns with combo editors inside objectlistviews to use a copy& paste strategy (besides, copy&paste is a serious source of bugs), so I tried to parameterize the code to keep the code duplication to a minimum. ObjectListView_CellEditFinishing is a piece of cake: HashSet<OLVColumn> cbColumns = new HashSet<OLVColumn> (new OLVColumn[] { SomeCol, SomeCol2, ...}; private void ObjectListView_CellEditFinishing(object sender, CellEditEventArgs e) { if (cbColumns.Contains(e.Column)) ... but ObjectListView_CellEditStarting is the problematic. I guess in CellEditStarting I will have to discriminate each case separately: private void ObjectListView_CellEditStarting(object sender, CellEditEventArgs e) { if (e.Column == SomeCol) // code to create the combo, put the correct list as the datasource, etc. else if (e.Column == SomeOtherCol) // code to create the combo, put the correct list as the datasource, etc. And so on. But how can I parameterize the "code to create the combo, put the correct list as the datasource, etc."? Problem lines are (1) Get SomeObject. the property NAME varies. (2) Set ISomeOtherObject, the property name varies too. The types vary too, but I can cover those cases with a generic method combined with a not so "typesafe" API (for instance, the cb.DataBindings.Add and cb.DataSource both use an object) Reflection? more lambdas? Any ideas? Any other way to do the same? PS: I want to be able to do something like this: private void ObjectListView_CellEditStarting(object sender, CellEditEventArgs e) { if (e.Column == SomeCol) SetUpCombo<ISomeInterface>(ISomeOtherObjectCollection, "propertyName", SomeObject, ISomeOtherObject); else if (e.Column == SomeOtherCol) SetUpCombo<ISomeInterface2>(ISomeOtherObject2Collection, "propertyName2", SomeObject2 ISomeOtherObject2); and so on. Or something like that. I know, parameters SomeObject and ISomeOtherObject are not real parameters per see, but you get the idea of what I want. I want not to repeat the same code skeleton again and again and again. One solution would be "preprocessor generics" like C's DEFINE, but I don't thing c# has something like that. So, does anyone have some alternate ideas to solve this?

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• Right-Time Retail Part 1

  - by David Dorf

  This is the first in a three-part series. Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin-top:0in; mso-para-margin-right:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0in; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} Right-Time Revolution Technology enables some amazing feats in retail. I can order flowers for my wife while flying 30,000 feet in the air. I can order my groceries in the subway and have them delivered later that day. I can even see how clothes look on me without setting foot in a store. Who knew that a TV, diamond necklace, or even a car would someday be as easy to purchase as a candy bar? Can technology make a mattress an impulse item? Wake-up and your back is hurting, so you rollover and grab your iPad, then a new mattress is delivered the next day. Behind the scenes the many processes are being choreographed to make the sale happen. This includes moving data between systems with the least amount for friction, which in some cases is near real-time. But real-time isn’t appropriate for all the integrations. Think about what a completely real-time retailer would look like. A consumer grabs toothpaste off the shelf, and all systems are immediately notified so that the backroom clerk comes running out and pushes the consumer aside so he can replace the toothpaste on the shelf. Such a system is not only cost prohibitive, but it’s also very inefficient and ineffectual. Retailers must balance the realities of people, processes, and systems to find the right speed of execution. That’ what “right-time retail” means. Retailers used to sell during the day and count the money and restock at night, but global expansion and the Web have complicated that simplistic viewpoint. Our 24hr society demands not only access but also speed, which constantly pushes the boundaries of our IT systems. In the last twenty years, there have been three major technology advancements that have moved us closer to real-time systems. Networking is the first technology that drove the real-time trend. As systems became connected, it became easier to move data between them. In retail we no longer had to mail the daily business report back to corporate each day as the dial-up modem could transfer the data. That was soon replaced with trickle-polling, when sale transactions were occasionally sent from stores to corporate throughout the day, often through VSAT. Then we got terrestrial networks like DSL and Ethernet that allowed the constant stream of data between stores and corporate. When corporate could see the sales transactions coming from stores, it could better plan for replenishment and promotions. That drove the need for speed into the supply chain and merchandising, but for many years those systems were stymied by the huge volumes of data. Nordstrom has 150 million SKU/Store combinations when planning (RPAS); The Gap generates 110 million price changes during end-of-season (RPM); Argos does 1.78 billion calculations executed each day for replenishment planning (AIP). These areas are now being alleviated by the second technology, storage. The typical laptop disk drive runs at 5,400rpm with PCs stepping up to 7,200rpm and servers hitting 15,000rpm. But the platters can only spin so fast, so to squeeze more performance we’ve had to rely on things like disk striping. Then solid state drives (SSDs) were introduced and prices continue to drop. (Augmenting your harddrive with a SSD is the single best PC upgrade these days.) RAM continues to be expensive, but compressing data in memory has allowed more efficient use. So a few years back, Oracle decided to build a box that incorporated all these advancements to move us closer to real-time. This family of products, often categorized as engineered systems, combines the hardware and software so that they work together to provide better performance. How much better? If Exadata powered a 747, you’d go from New York to Paris in 42 minutes, and it would carry 5,000 passengers. If Exadata powered baseball, games would last only 18 minutes and Boston’s Fenway would hold 370,000 fans. The Exa-family enables processing more data in less time. So with faster networks and storage, that brings us to the third and final ingredient. If we continue to process data in traditional ways, we won’t be able to take advantage of the faster networks and storage. Enter what Harvard calls “The Sexiest Job of the 21st Century” – the data scientist. New technologies like the Hadoop-powered Oracle Big Data Appliance, Oracle Advanced Analytics, and Oracle Endeca Information Discovery change the way in which we organize data. These technologies allow us to extract actionable information from raw data at incredible speeds, often ad-hoc. So the foundation to support the real-time enterprise exists, but how does a retailer begin to take advantage? The most visible way is through real-time marketing, but I’ll save that for part 3 and instead begin with improved integrations for the assets you already have in part 2.

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• "didChangeSection:" NSfetchedResultsController delegate method not being called

  - by robenk

  I have a standard split view controller, with a detail view and a table view. Pressing a button in the detail view can cause the an object to change its placement in the table view's ordering. This works fine, as long as the resulting ordering change doesn't result in a section being added or removed. I.e. an object can change it's ordering in a section or switch from one section to another. Those ordering changes work correctly without problems. But, if the object tries to move to a section that doesn't exist yet, or is the last object to leave a section (therefore requiring the section its leaving to be removed), then the application crashes. NSFetchedResultsControllerDelegate has methods to handle sections being added and removed that should be called in those cases. But those delegate methods aren't being called for some reason. The code in question, is boilerplate: - (void)controllerWillChangeContent:(NSFetchedResultsController *)controller { NSLog(@"willChangeContent"); [self.tableView beginUpdates]; } - (void)controller:(NSFetchedResultsController *)controller didChangeSection:(id <NSFetchedResultsSectionInfo>)sectionInfo atIndex:(NSUInteger)sectionIndex forChangeType:(NSFetchedResultsChangeType)type { NSLog(@"didChangeSection"); switch(type) { case NSFetchedResultsChangeInsert: [self.tableView insertSections:[NSIndexSet indexSetWithIndex:sectionIndex] withRowAnimation:UITableViewRowAnimationFade]; break; case NSFetchedResultsChangeDelete: [self.tableView deleteSections:[NSIndexSet indexSetWithIndex:sectionIndex] withRowAnimation:UITableViewRowAnimationFade]; break; } } - (void)controller:(NSFetchedResultsController *)controller didChangeObject:(id)anObject atIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath forChangeType:(NSFetchedResultsChangeType)type newIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)newIndexPath { NSLog(@"didChangeObject"); UITableView *tableView = self.tableView; switch(type) { case NSFetchedResultsChangeInsert: [tableView insertRowsAtIndexPaths:[NSArray arrayWithObject:newIndexPath] withRowAnimation:UITableViewRowAnimationFade]; break; case NSFetchedResultsChangeDelete: [tableView deleteRowsAtIndexPaths:[NSArray arrayWithObject:indexPath] withRowAnimation:UITableViewRowAnimationFade]; break; case NSFetchedResultsChangeUpdate: [self configureCell:[tableView cellForRowAtIndexPath:indexPath] atIndexPath:indexPath]; break; case NSFetchedResultsChangeMove: [tableView deleteRowsAtIndexPaths:[NSArray arrayWithObject:indexPath] withRowAnimation:UITableViewRowAnimationFade]; [tableView insertRowsAtIndexPaths:[NSArray arrayWithObject:newIndexPath]withRowAnimation:UITableViewRowAnimationFade]; break; } } - (void)controllerDidChangeContent:(NSFetchedResultsController *)controller { NSLog(@"didChangeContent"); [self.tableView endUpdates]; [detailViewController.reminderView update]; } Starting the application, and then causing the last object to leave a section results in the following output: 2011-01-08 23:40:18.910 Reminders[54647:207] willChangeContent 2011-01-08 23:40:18.912 Reminders[54647:207] didChangeObject 2011-01-08 23:40:18.914 Reminders[54647:207] didChangeContent 2011-01-08 23:40:18.915 Reminders[54647:207] *** Assertion failure in -[UITableView _endCellAnimationsWithContext:], /SourceCache/UIKit_Sim/UIKit-1145.66/UITableView.m:825 2011-01-08 23:40:18.917 Reminders[54647:207] Serious application error. Exception was caught during Core Data change processing: Invalid update: invalid number of sections. The number of sections contained in the table view after the update (5) must be equal to the number of sections contained in the table view before the update (6), plus or minus the number of sections inserted or deleted (0 inserted, 0 deleted). with userInfo (null) As you can see, "willChangeContent", "didChangeObject" (moving the object in question), and "didChangeContent" were all called properly. Based on the Apple's NSFetchedResultsControllerDelegate documentation "didChangeSection" should have been called before "didChangeObject", which would have prevented the exception causing the crash. So I guess the question is how do I assure that didChangeSection gets called? Thanks in advance for any help!

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• Trying to reinvent the wheel of StackOverflow to have a good learning experience. Need some suggesti

  - by Legend

  I want to learn and am not able to do it unless I have a real "mission" to complete. SO is my favorite and I can't imagine a better experience than actually recreating it but not in ASP. I'd like to use PHP+MySQL+jQuery. So far, I have been a self-taught programmer but I would like to master one paradigm that forces you to adhere to the standards. For instance, recently, jQuery forced me to use some "rules". The plugins were supposed to be written in a particular way and that's it. When I started off, everything seemed like Greek and Latin but when I finished a very small plugin, I felt really happy because it forced me to program in a certain way. I am looking for something like this only in a larger project. I've heard a lot about MVC and all but I am confused about the various frameworks out there. Zend seems awesome but looks heavy at the same time and also requires you to have a lot more control over the web-server whereas CakePHP is a good and a fast framework that needs only little control. Do I use one of these or just write my own MVC? I have the following goals: Goals: Site should be fast - I know this depends on my coding skills but I will learn on my way. The framework itself should not slow me down) Setting up the site should not require you to use command-line - This requirement is ok during development. But some frameworks like Symphony require you to initialize certain things through command-line Should support pluggable modules - For instance, if I want to be able to use the FCK editor, I should be able to organize things in a good way. Should be possible to extend - For instance, SO is mainly a Q&A site but I should be able to logically extend it into an Idea Management System (optional but I'm curious). This goes more into code re-usability I guess. I am comfortable with MySQL so I should be done with database design etc. with some serious effort. As for PHP, I can write code on my own but haven't really used any frameworks that much. jQuery, I started off recently and love it. I would be glad if someone can guide me during these initial steps. Precisely, when designing something like SO, I have the following questions: Do I use a framework? If yes, should it be MVC? If MVC, which one is a good and a scalable one? (I'd love something like jQuery that will not die anytime soon) How do I balance the functionality? The same logic can sometimes be made server centric or client centric. (more Ajax?). Is it a good idea to make a heavy javascript site considering the recent advances on client-side JS processing? Just in case anyone is wondering, I am not interested in commercializing any of this. I need a reason to learn something :)

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• Content Box is a Little Off in IE9 ... How to Fix?

  - by Kelsey Nealon

  Hi there! I have a website at www.thetotempole.ca and when viewed in IE9... My websites content box (The green wooden backgrounded box with content inside) is moved slightly over to the left making a space between the actual container and the content box... Is there anyway I can fix this without harming any of the other browsers? Thanks! Screenshot: HTML: <!DOCTYPE html> <head> <title>The Totem Pole News - Movies</title> <!-- Start WOWSlider.com HEAD section --> <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="engine1/style.css" /> <script type="text/javascript" src="engine1/jquery.js"></script> <!-- End WOWSlider.com HEAD section --> <script type="text/javascript"> var _gaq = _gaq || []; _gaq.push(['_setAccount', 'UA-45342007-1']); _gaq.push(['_trackPageview']); (function() { var ga = document.createElement('script'); ga.type = 'text/javascript'; ga.async = true; ga.src = ('https:' == document.location.protocol ? 'https://ssl' : 'http://www') + '.google-analytics.com/ga.js'; var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(ga, s); })(); </script> <meta charset="utf-8"> <meta name="description" content="A totem pole themed news website posting articles on news, music, movies, video games, and health."> <link href="thecss2.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css"> <link rel="icon" type="image/ico" href="images/favicon.ico"> <meta http-equiv="X-UA-Compatible" content="IE=8" /> </head> <body> <div id="container"> <div id="contentbox" align="Center"> <a href="index.html"><div id="banner" align="Center"> </div></a> <div id="navbar"> <p><a href="index.html"><img src="images/home.png" width="65" height="54" alt="picture of a house to relate to the home page (content)" style="position: absolute; left: 23px; top: 16px; width: 57px; height: 48px;"><span style="position: absolute; left: 24px; z-index:2; top: 71px; height: 23px;">Content</span></a> <a href="#"><img src="images/eagleicon.gif" width="73" height="39" alt="An Eagle icon for the News section of the Totem Pole" style="position: absolute; left: 111px; top: 28px;"><span style="position: absolute; z-index: 2; left: 127px; top: 72px;">News</span></a> <a href="#"><img src="images/owlicon.gif" width="81" height="61" alt="An Owl icon for the Music section of the totem pole" style="position: absolute; left: 210px; top: 11px;"><span style="position: absolute; z-index:2; left: 226px; top: 73px;"><strong>Music</strong></span></a><a href="movies.html"><img src="images/wolficon.gif" width="88" height="54" alt="A Wolf icon for the Movies section of the totem pole" style="position: absolute; left: 320px; top: 15px;"><span style="position: absolute; left: 336px; top: 72px; z-index:2;"><strong>Movies</strong></span></a> <a href="#"><img src="images/hareimage.gif" width="60" height="56" alt="A Hare icon for Video Game section of the Totem Pole" style="position: absolute; left: 441px; top: 13px;"><span style="position: absolute; z-index:2; left: 428px; top: 73px;"><strong>Video Games</strong></span></a> <a href="#"><img src="images/bearicon.gif" width="91" height="57" alt="A bear icon for the Health section of The Totem Pole" style="position: absolute; left: 551px; top: 13px;"><span style="position: absolute; left: 580px; top: 72px; z-index:2;">Health</span></a></p> </div> <!--Nav Bar 2--> <div id="navbar2"> <a href="#">About Us</a> <a href="#">Feedback</a> <a href="#">Subscribe</a> </div> <!-- Atomz HTML for Search --> <div id="searchbar"> <form method="get" action="http://search.atomz.com/search/"> <input id="searchbox" size="13" name="sp_q" value="Search..." onFocus="if (this.value == 'Search...') {this.value=''}"> <input class="css_btn_class" type="submit" value="Search"> <input type="hidden" name="sp_a" value="sp1005092e"> <input type="hidden" name="sp_p" value="all"> <input type="hidden" name="sp_f" value="UTF-8"> </form> </div> <!-- Start WOWSlider.com BODY section --> <div id="mywowslider"> <div id="wowslider-container1"> <div class="ws_images"> <ul> <li><img src="images/anchor.jpg" alt="Ron Burgundy" title="Ron Burgundy" id="wows1_0"/>Played by Will Ferrell</li> <li><img src="images/anchor2.jpg" alt="Brian Fantana" title="Brian Fantana" id="wows1_1"/>Played by Paul Rudd</li> <li><img src="images/anchor3.jpg" alt="Brick Tamland" title="Brick Tamland" id="wows1_2"/>Played by Steve Carrell</li> <li><img src="images/anchor4.jpg" alt="Champ Kind" title="Champ Kind" id="wows1_3"/>Played by David Koechner</li> </ul> </div> <div class="ws_bullets"><div> <a href="#" title="Ron Burgundy"><img src="images/anchor.jpg" alt="Ron Burgundy"/>1</a> <a href="#" title="Brian Fantana"><img src="images/anchor2.jpg" alt="Brian Fantana"/>2</a> <a href="#" title="Brick Tamland"><img src="images/anchor3.jpg" alt="Brick Tamland"/>3</a> <a href="#" title="Champ Kind"><img src="images/anchor4.jpg" alt="Champ Kind"/>4</a> </div> </div> <span class="wsl"><a href="http://wowslider.com"></a></span> <div class="ws_shadow"></div> </div> <script type="text/javascript" src="engine1/wowslider.js"></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="engine1/script.js"></script> </div> <!-- End WOWSlider.com BODY section --> <!-- AddThis Smart Layers BEGIN --> <!-- Go to http://www.addthis.com/get/smart-layers to customize --> <script type="text/javascript" src="//s7.addthis.com/js/300/addthis_widget.js#pubid=ra-5279b96309e7df24"></script> <script type="text/javascript"> addthis.layers({ 'theme' : 'transparent', 'share' : { 'position' : 'left', 'numPreferredServices' : 5 } }); </script> <!-- AddThis Smart Layers END --> <div id="sources"><p> Source(s): <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anchorman_2:_The_Legend_Continues">wikipedia.com</a></p></div> <div id="infocontent"> <p align="left"><em><strong> &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues</strong></em> is an upcoming American comedy film being released on December 20, 2013, also a sequel to the 2004 film <em>Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgandy</em>. On March 28, 2012, actor Will Ferrell officially announced the sequel dressed in character as Ron Burgundy on the late-night talk-show <em>Conan</em>. As with the original film, it is directed by Adam McKay, produced by Judd Apatow, stars Will Ferrell and is written by Adam McKay and Will Ferrell. Unlike the original film, which was distributed by DreamWorks Pictures, <em>The Legend Continues</em> will be distributed by Paramount Pictures.</p> <p align="left"><em><strong>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</strong></em>The movie now has a website at <a href="www.anchormanmovie.com">www.anchormanmovie.com</a> where a countdown for the release of this film can be seen. By the looks of these images, I think we can expect big things when the movie comes out this December. Enjoy the poster photos and trailers all posted below, and don't forget to submit your vote in the poll!</p> </div> <div id="trailer1"><iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/Elczv0ghqw0?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></div> <div id="trailer2"> <iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/mZ-JX-7B3uM?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> </div> <div id="poll"> <form method="post" action="http://poll.pollcode.com/763294"><table style="border: black 1px solid;" border="1" width="175" bgcolor="EEEEEE" cellspacing="2" cellpadding="0"><tr><td colspan="2" height="10"><font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000"><b>What Rating Do You Think This Will Recieve</b></font></td></tr><tr><td width="5"><input type="radio" name="answer" value="1" id="763294answer1"></td><td>&nbsp;<font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000"><label for="763294answer1">10</label></font></td></tr><tr><td width="5"><input type="radio" name="answer" value="2" id="763294answer2"></td><td>&nbsp;<font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000"><label for="763294answer2">9</label></font></td></tr><tr><td width="5"><input type="radio" name="answer" value="3" id="763294answer3"></td><td>&nbsp;<font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000"><label for="763294answer3">8</label></font></td></tr><tr><td width="5"><input type="radio" name="answer" value="4" id="763294answer4"></td><td>&nbsp;<font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000"><label for="763294answer4">7</label></font></td></tr><tr><td width="5"><input type="radio" name="answer" value="5" id="763294answer5"></td><td>&nbsp;<font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000"><label for="763294answer5">6</label></font></td></tr><tr><td width="5"><input type="radio" name="answer" value="6" id="763294answer6"></td><td>&nbsp;<font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000"><label for="763294answer6">5</label></font></td></tr><tr><td width="5"><input type="radio" name="answer" value="7" id="763294answer7"></td><td>&nbsp;<font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000"><label for="763294answer7">4</label></font></td></tr><tr><td width="5"><input type="radio" name="answer" value="8" id="763294answer8"></td><td>&nbsp;<font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000"><label for="763294answer8">3</label></font></td></tr><tr><td width="5"><input type="radio" name="answer" value="9" id="763294answer9"></td><td>&nbsp;<font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000"><label for="763294answer9">2</label></font></td></tr><tr><td width="5"><input type="radio" name="answer" value="10" id="763294answer10"></td><td>&nbsp;<font face="Verdana" size="2" color="000000"><label for="763294answer10">1</label></font></td></tr><tr><td colspan="2" height="10"><center><input type="submit" value=" Vote ">&nbsp;&nbsp;<input title="Clicking this will send you to a new page" type="submit" name="view" value=" View "></center></td></tr><tr><td colspan="2" align="right"><font face="Verdana" height="5" size="1" color="000000"></font></td></tr></table></form></div> <span style="position: absolute; left: 0px; top: 225px; width: 1000px; border-bottom: 2px black double; height: 58px;"> <h1 style="font-weight: normal; font-size:28px"><em>Anchorman 2 Arrives Soon</em></h1></span> <div id="contentbox2"></div> <!--Footer Div --> <center><div id="footer"><a href="#">Sitemap</a> <a href="#">About Us</a> <a href="#">Feedback</a></div></center> <div id="disqus"><div id="disqus_thread"></div> <script type="text/javascript"> /* * * CONFIGURATION VARIABLES: EDIT BEFORE PASTING INTO YOUR WEBPAGE * * */ var disqus_shortname = 'thetotempoleanchorman2'; // required: replace example with your forum shortname /* * * DON'T EDIT BELOW THIS LINE * * */ (function() { var dsq = document.createElement('script'); dsq.type = 'text/javascript'; dsq.async = true; dsq.src = '//' + disqus_shortname + '.disqus.com/embed.js'; (document.getElementsByTagName('head')[0] || document.getElementsByTagName('body')[0]).appendChild(dsq); })(); </script> <noscript>Please enable JavaScript to view the <a href="http://disqus.com/?ref_noscript">comments powered by Disqus.</a></noscript> <a href="http://disqus.com" class="dsq-brlink">comments powered by <span class="logo-disqus">Disqus</span></a></div> <!-- This is the end of the contentbox --></div> <!-- This is the end of the container div --> </div> </body> </html> CSS: html { background: url(images/pine.jpg) no-repeat center center fixed; 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• Using an alternate JSON Serializer in ASP.NET Web API

  - by Rick Strahl

  The new ASP.NET Web API that Microsoft released alongside MVC 4.0 Beta last week is a great framework for building REST and AJAX APIs. I've been working with it for quite a while now and I really like the way it works and the complete set of features it provides 'in the box'. It's about time that Microsoft gets a decent API for building generic HTTP endpoints into the framework. DataContractJsonSerializer sucks As nice as Web API's overall design is one thing still sucks: The built-in JSON Serialization uses the DataContractJsonSerializer which is just too limiting for many scenarios. The biggest issues I have with it are: No support for untyped values (object, dynamic, Anonymous Types) MS AJAX style Date Formatting Ugly serialization formats for types like Dictionaries To me the most serious issue is dealing with serialization of untyped objects. I have number of applications with AJAX front ends that dynamically reformat data from business objects to fit a specific message format that certain UI components require. The most common scenario I have there are IEnumerable query results from a database with fields from the result set rearranged to fit the sometimes unconventional formats required for the UI components (like jqGrid for example). Creating custom types to fit these messages seems like overkill and projections using Linq makes this much easier to code up. Alas DataContractJsonSerializer doesn't support it. Neither does DataContractSerializer for XML output for that matter. What this means is that you can't do stuff like this in Web API out of the box:public object GetAnonymousType() { return new { name = "Rick", company = "West Wind", entered= DateTime.Now }; } Basically anything that doesn't have an explicit type DataContractJsonSerializer will not let you return. FWIW, the same is true for XmlSerializer which also doesn't work with non-typed values for serialization. The example above is obviously contrived with a hardcoded object graph, but it's not uncommon to get dynamic values returned from queries that have anonymous types for their result projections. Apparently there's a good possibility that Microsoft will ship Json.NET as part of Web API RTM release.  Scott Hanselman confirmed this as a footnote in his JSON Dates post a few days ago. I've heard several other people from Microsoft confirm that Json.NET will be included and be the default JSON serializer, but no details yet in what capacity it will show up. Let's hope it ends up as the default in the box. Meanwhile this post will show you how you can use it today with the beta and get JSON that matches what you should see in the RTM version. What about JsonValue? To be fair Web API DOES include a new JsonValue/JsonObject/JsonArray type that allow you to address some of these scenarios. JsonValue is a new type in the System.Json assembly that can be used to build up an object graph based on a dictionary. It's actually a really cool implementation of a dynamic type that allows you to create an object graph and spit it out to JSON without having to create .NET type first. JsonValue can also receive a JSON string and parse it without having to actually load it into a .NET type (which is something that's been missing in the core framework). This is really useful if you get a JSON result from an arbitrary service and you don't want to explicitly create a mapping type for the data returned. For serialization you can create an object structure on the fly and pass it back as part of an Web API action method like this:public JsonValue GetJsonValue() { dynamic json = new JsonObject(); json.name = "Rick"; json.company = "West Wind"; json.entered = DateTime.Now; dynamic address = new JsonObject(); address.street = "32 Kaiea"; address.zip = "96779"; json.address = address; dynamic phones = new JsonArray(); json.phoneNumbers = phones; dynamic phone = new JsonObject(); phone.type = "Home"; phone.number = "808 123-1233"; phones.Add(phone); phone = new JsonObject(); phone.type = "Home"; phone.number = "808 123-1233"; phones.Add(phone); //var jsonString = json.ToString(); return json; } which produces the following output (formatted here for easier reading):{ name: "rick", company: "West Wind", entered: "2012-03-08T15:33:19.673-10:00", address: { street: "32 Kaiea", zip: "96779" }, phoneNumbers: [ { type: "Home", number: "808 123-1233" }, { type: "Mobile", number: "808 123-1234" }] } If you need to build a simple JSON type on the fly these types work great. But if you have an existing type - or worse a query result/list that's already formatted JsonValue et al. become a pain to work with. As far as I can see there's no way to just throw an object instance at JsonValue and have it convert into JsonValue dictionary. It's a manual process. Using alternate Serializers in Web API So, currently the default serializer in WebAPI is DataContractJsonSeriaizer and I don't like it. You may not either, but luckily you can swap the serializer fairly easily. If you'd rather use the JavaScriptSerializer built into System.Web.Extensions or Json.NET today, it's not too difficult to create a custom MediaTypeFormatter that uses these serializers and can replace or partially replace the native serializer. Here's a MediaTypeFormatter implementation using the ASP.NET JavaScriptSerializer:using System; using System.Net.Http.Formatting; using System.Threading.Tasks; using System.Web.Script.Serialization; using System.Json; using System.IO; namespace Westwind.Web.WebApi { public class JavaScriptSerializerFormatter : MediaTypeFormatter { public JavaScriptSerializerFormatter() { SupportedMediaTypes.Add(new System.Net.Http.Headers.MediaTypeHeaderValue("application/json")); } protected override bool CanWriteType(Type type) { // don't serialize JsonValue structure use default for that if (type == typeof(JsonValue) || type == typeof(JsonObject) || type== typeof(JsonArray) ) return false; return true; } protected override bool CanReadType(Type type) { if (type == typeof(IKeyValueModel)) return false; return true; } protected override System.Threading.Tasks.Taskobject OnReadFromStreamAsync(Type type, System.IO.Stream stream, System.Net.Http.Headers.HttpContentHeaders contentHeaders, FormatterContext formatterContext) { var task = Taskobject.Factory.StartNew(() = { var ser = new JavaScriptSerializer(); string json; using (var sr = new StreamReader(stream)) { json = sr.ReadToEnd(); sr.Close(); } object val = ser.Deserialize(json,type); return val; }); return task; } protected override System.Threading.Tasks.Task OnWriteToStreamAsync(Type type, object value, System.IO.Stream stream, System.Net.Http.Headers.HttpContentHeaders contentHeaders, FormatterContext formatterContext, System.Net.TransportContext transportContext) { var task = Task.Factory.StartNew( () = { var ser = new JavaScriptSerializer(); var json = ser.Serialize(value); byte[] buf = System.Text.Encoding.Default.GetBytes(json); stream.Write(buf,0,buf.Length); stream.Flush(); }); return task; } } } Formatter implementation is pretty simple: You override 4 methods to tell which types you can handle and then handle the input or output streams to create/parse the JSON data. Note that when creating output you want to take care to still allow JsonValue/JsonObject/JsonArray types to be handled by the default serializer so those objects serialize properly - if you let either JavaScriptSerializer or JSON.NET handle them they'd try to render the dictionaries which is very undesirable. If you'd rather use Json.NET here's the JSON.NET version of the formatter:// this code requires a reference to JSON.NET in your project #if true using System; using System.Net.Http.Formatting; using System.Threading.Tasks; using System.Web.Script.Serialization; using System.Json; using Newtonsoft.Json; using System.IO; using Newtonsoft.Json.Converters; namespace Westwind.Web.WebApi { public class JsonNetFormatter : MediaTypeFormatter { public JsonNetFormatter() { SupportedMediaTypes.Add(new System.Net.Http.Headers.MediaTypeHeaderValue("application/json")); } protected override bool CanWriteType(Type type) { // don't serialize JsonValue structure use default for that if (type == typeof(JsonValue) || type == typeof(JsonObject) || type == typeof(JsonArray)) return false; return true; } protected override bool CanReadType(Type type) { if (type == typeof(IKeyValueModel)) return false; return true; } protected override System.Threading.Tasks.Taskobject OnReadFromStreamAsync(Type type, System.IO.Stream stream, System.Net.Http.Headers.HttpContentHeaders contentHeaders, FormatterContext formatterContext) { var task = Taskobject.Factory.StartNew(() = { var settings = new JsonSerializerSettings() { NullValueHandling = NullValueHandling.Ignore, }; var sr = new StreamReader(stream); var jreader = new JsonTextReader(sr); var ser = new JsonSerializer(); ser.Converters.Add(new IsoDateTimeConverter()); object val = ser.Deserialize(jreader, type); return val; }); return task; } protected override System.Threading.Tasks.Task OnWriteToStreamAsync(Type type, object value, System.IO.Stream stream, System.Net.Http.Headers.HttpContentHeaders contentHeaders, FormatterContext formatterContext, System.Net.TransportContext transportContext) { var task = Task.Factory.StartNew( () = { var settings = new JsonSerializerSettings() { NullValueHandling = NullValueHandling.Ignore, }; string json = JsonConvert.SerializeObject(value, Formatting.Indented, new JsonConverter[1] { new IsoDateTimeConverter() } ); byte[] buf = System.Text.Encoding.Default.GetBytes(json); stream.Write(buf,0,buf.Length); stream.Flush(); }); return task; } } } #endif   One advantage of the Json.NET serializer is that you can specify a few options on how things are formatted and handled. You get null value handling and you can plug in the IsoDateTimeConverter which is nice to product proper ISO dates that I would expect any Json serializer to output these days. Hooking up the Formatters Once you've created the custom formatters you need to enable them for your Web API application. To do this use the GlobalConfiguration.Configuration object and add the formatter to the Formatters collection. Here's what this looks like hooked up from Application_Start in a Web project:protected void Application_Start(object sender, EventArgs e) { // Action based routing (used for RPC calls) RouteTable.Routes.MapHttpRoute( name: "StockApi", routeTemplate: "stocks/{action}/{symbol}", defaults: new { symbol = RouteParameter.Optional, controller = "StockApi" } ); // WebApi Configuration to hook up formatters and message handlers // optional RegisterApis(GlobalConfiguration.Configuration); } public static void RegisterApis(HttpConfiguration config) { // Add JavaScriptSerializer formatter instead - add at top to make default //config.Formatters.Insert(0, new JavaScriptSerializerFormatter()); // Add Json.net formatter - add at the top so it fires first! // This leaves the old one in place so JsonValue/JsonObject/JsonArray still are handled config.Formatters.Insert(0, new JsonNetFormatter()); } One thing to remember here is the GlobalConfiguration object which is Web API's static configuration instance. I think this thing is seriously misnamed given that GlobalConfiguration could stand for anything and so is hard to discover if you don't know what you're looking for. How about WebApiConfiguration or something more descriptive? Anyway, once you know what it is you can use the Formatters collection to insert your custom formatter. Note that I insert my formatter at the top of the list so it takes precedence over the default formatter. I also am not removing the old formatter because I still want JsonValue/JsonObject/JsonArray to be handled by the default serialization mechanism. Since they process in sequence and I exclude processing for these types JsonValue et al. still get properly serialized/deserialized. Summary Currently DataContractJsonSerializer in Web API is a pain, but at least we have the ability with relatively limited effort to replace the MediaTypeFormatter and plug in our own JSON serializer. This is useful for many scenarios - if you have existing client applications that used MVC JsonResult or ASP.NET AJAX results from ASMX AJAX services you can plug in the JavaScript serializer and get exactly the same serializer you used in the past so your results will be the same and don't potentially break clients. JSON serializers do vary a bit in how they serialize some of the more complex types (like Dictionaries and dates for example) and so if you're migrating it might be helpful to ensure your client code doesn't break when you switch to ASP.NET Web API. Going forward it looks like Microsoft is planning on plugging in Json.Net into Web API and make that the default. I think that's an awesome choice since Json.net has been around forever, is fast and easy to use and provides a ton of functionality as part of this great library. I just wish Microsoft would have figured this out sooner instead of now at the last minute integrating with it especially given that Json.Net has a similar set of lower level JSON objects JsonValue/JsonObject etc. which now will end up being duplicated by the native System.Json stuff. It's not like we don't already have enough confusion regarding which JSON serializer to use (JavaScriptSerializer, DataContractJsonSerializer, JsonValue/JsonObject/JsonArray and now Json.net). For years I've been using my own JSON serializer because the built in choices are both limited. However, with an official encorsement of Json.Net I'm happily moving on to use that in my applications. Let's see and hope Microsoft gets this right before ASP.NET Web API goes gold.© Rick Strahl, West Wind Technologies, 2005-2012Posted in Web Api  AJAX  ASP.NET   Tweet !function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js";fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document,"script","twitter-wjs"); (function() { var po = document.createElement('script'); po.type = 'text/javascript'; po.async = true; po.src = 'https://apis.google.com/js/plusone.js'; var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(po, s); })();

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• CodePlex Daily Summary for Friday, March 12, 2010

  CodePlex Daily Summary for Friday, March 12, 2010New Projects.NET DEPENDENCY INJECTION: Abel Perez Enterprise FrameworkAutodocs - WCF REST Automatic API Documentation Generator: Autodocs is an automatic API documentation generator for .NET applications that use Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) to establish REST API's.BlockBlock: Block Block is a free game. You know Lumines and you will like BlockBlock.C4F XNA ASCII Post-Processing: This is the source code for the Coding4Fun article "XNA Effects – ASCII Art in 3D"ChequePrinter: this is ChequePrinterCompiladores MSIL usando Phoenix (PLP 2008.1 - CIn/UFPE): Este projeto foi feito com o intuito de explorar a plataforma Microsoft Phoenix para a construção de compiladores para MSIL de duas linguagens de E...CRM External View: CRM External View enables more robust control over exposing Microsoft CRM data (in a form of views) for external parties. The solution uses web ser...CS Project2: This is for the projectDotNetNuke IM Module of Facebook Like Messenger: Help you integrate 123 Web Messenger into DotNetNuke, and add a powerful 1-to-1 IM Software named "Facebook Messenger Style Web Chat Bar" at the bo...DotNetNuke® RadPanelBar: DNNRadPanelBar makes it easy to add telerik RadPanelBar functionality to your module or skin. Licensing permits anyone to use the components (incl...DotNetNuke® Skin Blocks: A DotNetNuke Design Challenge skin package submitted to the "Modern Business" category by Armand Datema of Schwingsoft. This skin uses a bit of jQu...Drilltrough and filtering on SSAS-cubes in SSRS: We will describe a technique to create Reporting services (SSRS) reports that use Analysis services (SSAS) cubes as data sources, have a very intu...Ecosystem Diagnosis & Treatment: The Ecosystem DIagnosis & Treatment community provides tools, analyses and applications of the medical model to natural resource problems. EDT sof...ExIf 35: A utility for use by film photographers for keeping track of critical facts about images taken on a roll of film, just as digital cameras do automa...FabricadeTI: Desenvolvimento do framework FabricadeTI.Find and Replace word in the sentences: This program used Java Development Kid 6.0 and i were using HighLighter class. It was completed code with source code and then everybody can use in...Flash Nut: Flash Nut is a flash card program. You can build and review decks of flash cards. The project is a vs2008 wpf application.Free DotNetNuke Chat Module (Popup Mode): With this free DotNetNuke Chat Module (Popup Mode), master will assist to integrate DotNetNuke with 123 Flash Chat seamlessly, and add a popup mode...Free DotNetNuke IM of 123 Web Messenger -- Web-based Friend List: With this FREE application, you could integrate DNN website Database with 123 Web Messenger seamlessly and embed a web-based Friends List into anyw...Free DotNetNuke Live Help Module: With DotNetNuke Live Help Module, integrate 123 Live Help into DotNetNuke website and add Live Chat Button anywhere you like. Let visitors to chat ...G52GRP Videowall: NottinghamHappy Turtle Plugins for BVI :: Repository Based Versioning for Visual Studio: The Happy Turtle project creates plugins for the Build Version Increment Add-In for Visual Studio (BVI). The focus is to automatically version asse...Hasher: Hasher es capaz de generar el hash MD5 y SHA de textos de hasta 100.000 caracteres y ficheros. También te permitirá comprobar dos hash para verifi...Infragistics Silverlight Extended Controls: This project is a group of controls that extend or add functionality to the Infragistics Silverlight control suite. This control requires Infragis...Insert Video Jnr: This is a baby version of my Video plugin, it is intended for Hosted Wordpress blogs only and shouldn't be used with other blog providers.jccc .NET smart framework: jccc .NET smart framework allows the creation of fast connections to MSSQL or MYSQL databases, and the data manipulation by using of c# class's tha...LytScript: 函数式脚本语言Microsoft - DDD NLayerApp .NET 4.0 Example (Microsoft Spain): DDD NLayered App .NET 4.0 Example By Microsoft - Spain Domain Driven Design NLayered App .NET 4.0 Example Implementation Example of our local Arc...mimiKit: Lightweight ASP.NET MVC / Javascript Framework for creating mobile applications PHPWord: With PHPWord you can easily create a Word document with PHP. PHPWord creates docx Files that can include all major word functions like TextElements...Protocol Transition with BizTalk: An example solution the shows how todo Protocol Transition with BizTalk. This also shows you how to create a WCF extension to allow this to happen.Raid Runner: Raid Runner makes it easier to run and manage raid in World of Warcraft. It is a Silverlight application developed in c#SQL Server Authentication Troubleshooter: SQL Server Authentication Troubleshooter is a tool to help investigate a root cause of ‘Login Failed’ error in SQL Server. There could be number of...SuperviseObjects: SuperviseObjects consists of a collection which is derived from ObservableCollection<T>. This collection fires ItemPropertyChanging and ItemPropert...Viuto: Viuto.NET project aims to create a fully track and trace application. It is developed in: - Java & C: Firmware - C#: Parser - Asp.net: Tracki...Zealand IT MSBuild Tasks: Zealand IT MSBuild Tasks is a collection that you cannot do without if you are serious about continous integration. Ever wish you could specify an...New ReleasesASP.NET: ASP.NET MVC 2 RTM: This release contains the source code for ASP.NET MVC 2 RTM as well as the ASP.NET MVC Futures project. The futures project contains features that ...C#Mail: Higuchi.Mail.dll (2010.3.11 ver): Higuchi.Mail.dll at 2010-3-11 version.C#Mail: Higuchi.MailServer.dll (2010.3.11 ver): Higuchi.MailServer.dll at 2010.3.11 version.C4F XNA ASCII Post-Processing: XNA ASCII FPS v1 - Full Version: This is the full, complete example of the XNA ASCII FPS.C4F XNA ASCII Post-Processing: XNA ASCII FPS v1.0 - Base Project: This is the base project to be used by those who plan to follow along the Coding4Fun article.CRM External View: 1.0: Release 1.0DevTreks -social budgeting that improves lives and livelihoods: Social Budgeting Web Software, DevTreks alpha 3c: Alpha 3c upgrades custom/virtual uris (devpacks), temp uris, and zip packages. This is believed to be the first fully functional/performant release.DotNetNuke® RadPanelBar: DNNRadPanelBar 1.0.0: DNNRadPanelBar makes it easy to add telerik RadPanelBar functionality to your module or skin. Licensing permits anyone to use the components (inclu...Drilltrough and filtering on SSAS-cubes in SSRS: Release 1: Release 1ExIf 35: ExIf 35: Daily build of ExIf 35Family Tree Analyzer: Version 1.0.3.0: Version 1.0.3.0 Added options to check for updates on load and on help menu Disable use of US census for now until dealt with years being differen...Family Tree Analyzer: Version 1.0.4.0: Version 1.0.4.0 Added support for display of Ahnenfatel numbers Added filter to hide individuals from Lost Cousins report that have been flagged a...Flash Nut: Flash Nut 1.0 Setup: Flash Nut SetupFluent Validation for .NET: 1.2 RC: This is the release candidate for FluentValidation 1.2. If no bugs are found within the next couple of weeks, then this will become the 1.2 Final b...Free DotNetNuke Chat Module (Popup Mode): Download DNN Chat Module (Popup Mode)+Source Code: Feel free to download DotNetNuke Chat Module (Popup Mode), integrating DotNetNuke with 123 Flash Chat Software, and add a free popup mode flash cha...Free DotNetNuke Live Help Module: Download DNN Live Support Module and Source Code: In Readme file, there are detailed Installation and Integration Manual for you. This module is compatible with DotNetNuke v5.x.Happy Turtle Plugins for BVI :: Repository Based Versioning for Visual Studio: Happy Turtle 1.0.44927: This is the first release of the SVN based version incrementor. How To InstallMake sure that Build Version Increment v2.2.10065.1524 or newer is i...Hasher: 1.0: Versión inicial de la aplicación: Obtención de hash MD5 y SHA. Codificación en tiempo real de textos de hasta 100.000 caracteres. Codificación ...Jamolina: PhotosynthDemo: PhotosynthDemoMapWindow GIS: MapWindow 6.0 msi (March 11): This fixes an PixelToProj problem for the Extended Buffer case, as well as adding fixes to the WKBFeatureReader to fix an X,Y reversal and some ext...Math.NET Numerics: 2010.3.11.291 Build: Latest alpha buildMicrosoft - DDD NLayerApp .NET 4.0 Example (Microsoft Spain): V0.5 - N-Layer DDD Sample App: Required Software (Microsoft Base Software needed for Development environment) Unity Application Block 1.2 - October 2008 http://www.microsoft.com/...MiniTwitter: 1.09.2: MiniTwitter 1.09.2 更新内容 修正 タイムラインを削除すると落ちるバグを修正 稀にタイムラインのスクロールが出来ないバグを修正Nestoria.NET: Nestoria.NET 0.8: Provides access to the Nestoria API. Documentation contains a basic getting started guide. Please visit Darren Edge's blog for ongoing developmen...Pod Thrower: Version 1.0: Here is version 1.0. It has all the features I was looking to do in it. Please let me know if you use this and if you would like any changes.SharePoint Ad Rotator: SPAdRotator 2.0 Beta: This new release of the Ad Rotator contains many new features. One major new feature is that jQuery has been added to do image rotation without hav...SharePoint Objects: Democode Ton Stegeman: These download contains sample code for some SharePoint 2007 blog posts: TST.Themes_Build20100311.zip contains a feature receiver that registers Sh...SharePoint Taxonomy Extensions: SharePoint Taxonomy Extensions 1.2: Make Taxonomy Extensions useable in every list type. Not only in document libraries.SharePoint Video Player Web Part & SharePoint Video Library: Version 3.0.0: Absolutely killer feature - installing multiple players on a page without any loss of performance.SilverLight Interface for Mapserver: SLMapViewer v. 1.0: SLMapviewer sample application version 1.0. This new release includes the following enhancements: Silverlight 3.0 native Added a new init parame...Spark View Engine: Spark v1.1: Changes since RC1Built against ASP.NET MVC 2 RTMSPSS .NET interop library: 2.0: This new version supports SPSS 15, and includes spssio32.dll and other native .dll dependencies so that it works out of the box without SPSS being ...stefvanhooijdonk.com: SharePoint2010.ProfilePicturesLoader: So, with the help of Reflector, I wrote a small tool that would import all our profile pictures and update the user profiles. http://wp.me/pMnlQ-6G SuperviseObjects: SuperviseObjects 1.0: First releaseTortoiseSVN Addin for Visual Studio: TortoiseSVN Addin 1.0.5: Feature: Visual Studio/svn action synchronization on Item in Solution explorer like add, move, delete and rename. Note: Move action does not rememb...VCC: Latest build, v2.1.30311.0: Automatic drop of latest buildVivoSocial: VivoSocial 7.0.4: Business Management ■This release fixes a Could not load type error on the main view of the module. Groups ■Group requests were failing in some i...WikiPlex – a Regex Wiki Engine: WikiPlex 1.3: Info: Official Version: 1.3.0.215 | Full Release Notes Documentation - This new documentation includes Full Markup Guide with Examples Articles ...Zealand IT MSBuild Tasks: Zealand IT MSBuild Tasks: Initial beta release of Zealand IT MSBuild Tasks. Contains the following tasks: RunAs - Same as Exec task, but provides parameters for impersonat...ZoomBarPlus: V1 (Beta): This is the initial release. It should be considered a beta test version as it has not been tested for very long on my device.Most Popular ProjectsMetaSharpWBFS ManagerRawrAJAX Control ToolkitMicrosoft SQL Server Product Samples: DatabaseSilverlight ToolkitWindows Presentation Foundation (WPF)ASP.NET Ajax LibraryASP.NETMicrosoft SQL Server Community & SamplesMost Active ProjectsUmbraco CMSRawrN2 CMSBlogEngine.NETFasterflect - A Fast and Simple Reflection APIjQuery Library for SharePoint Web Servicespatterns & practices – Enterprise LibraryFarseer Physics EngineCaliburn: An Application Framework for WPF and SilverlightSharePoint Team-Mailer

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• Where does ASP.NET Web API Fit?

  - by Rick Strahl

  With the pending release of ASP.NET MVC 4 and the new ASP.NET Web API, there has been a lot of discussion of where the new Web API technology fits in the ASP.NET Web stack. There are a lot of choices to build HTTP based applications available now on the stack - we've come a long way from when WebForms and Http Handlers/Modules where the only real options. Today we have WebForms, MVC, ASP.NET Web Pages, ASP.NET AJAX, WCF REST and now Web API as well as the core ASP.NET runtime to choose to build HTTP content with. Web API definitely squarely addresses the 'API' aspect - building consumable services - rather than HTML content, but even to that end there are a lot of choices you have today. So where does Web API fit, and when doesn't it? But before we get into that discussion, let's talk about what a Web API is and why we should care. What's a Web API? HTTP 'APIs' (Microsoft's new terminology for a service I guess)  are becoming increasingly more important with the rise of the many devices in use today. Most mobile devices like phones and tablets run Apps that are using data retrieved from the Web over HTTP. Desktop applications are also moving in this direction with more and more online content and synching moving into even traditional desktop applications. The pending Windows 8 release promises an app like platform for both the desktop and other devices, that also emphasizes consuming data from the Cloud. Likewise many Web browser hosted applications these days are relying on rich client functionality to create and manipulate the browser user interface, using AJAX rather than server generated HTML data to load up the user interface with data. These mobile or rich Web applications use their HTTP connection to return data rather than HTML markup in the form of JSON or XML typically. But an API can also serve other kinds of data, like images or other binary files, or even text data and HTML (although that's less common). A Web API is what feeds rich applications with data. ASP.NET Web API aims to service this particular segment of Web development by providing easy semantics to route and handle incoming requests and an easy to use platform to serve HTTP data in just about any content format you choose to create and serve from the server. But .NET already has various HTTP Platforms The .NET stack already includes a number of technologies that provide the ability to create HTTP service back ends, and it has done so since the very beginnings of the .NET platform. From raw HTTP Handlers and Modules in the core ASP.NET runtime, to high level platforms like ASP.NET MVC, Web Forms, ASP.NET AJAX and the WCF REST engine (which technically is not ASP.NET, but can integrate with it), you've always been able to handle just about any kind of HTTP request and response with ASP.NET. The beauty of the raw ASP.NET platform is that it provides you everything you need to build just about any type of HTTP application you can dream up from low level APIs/custom engines to high level HTML generation engine. ASP.NET as a core platform clearly has stood the test of time 10+ years later and all other frameworks like Web API are built on top of this ASP.NET core. However, although it's possible to create Web APIs / Services using any of the existing out of box .NET technologies, none of them have been a really nice fit for building arbitrary HTTP based APIs. Sure, you can use an HttpHandler to create just about anything, but you have to build a lot of plumbing to build something more complex like a comprehensive API that serves a variety of requests, handles multiple output formats and can easily pass data up to the server in a variety of ways. Likewise you can use ASP.NET MVC to handle routing and creating content in various formats fairly easily, but it doesn't provide a great way to automatically negotiate content types and serve various content formats directly (it's possible to do with some plumbing code of your own but not built in). Prior to Web API, Microsoft's main push for HTTP services has been WCF REST, which was always an awkward technology that had a severe personality conflict, not being clear on whether it wanted to be part of WCF or purely a separate technology. In the end it didn't do either WCF compatibility or WCF agnostic pure HTTP operation very well, which made for a very developer-unfriendly environment. Personally I didn't like any of the implementations at the time, so much so that I ended up building my own HTTP service engine (as part of the West Wind Web Toolkit), as have a few other third party tools that provided much better integration and ease of use. With the release of Web API for the first time I feel that I can finally use the tools in the box and not have to worry about creating and maintaining my own toolkit as Web API addresses just about all the features I implemented on my own and much more. ASP.NET Web API provides a better HTTP Experience ASP.NET Web API differentiates itself from the previous Microsoft in-box HTTP service solutions in that it was built from the ground up around the HTTP protocol and its messaging semantics. Unlike WCF REST or ASP.NET AJAX with ASMX, it’s a brand new platform rather than bolted on technology that is supposed to work in the context of an existing framework. The strength of the new ASP.NET Web API is that it combines the best features of the platforms that came before it, to provide a comprehensive and very usable HTTP platform. Because it's based on ASP.NET and borrows a lot of concepts from ASP.NET MVC, Web API should be immediately familiar and comfortable to most ASP.NET developers. Here are some of the features that Web API provides that I like: Strong Support for URL Routing to produce clean URLs using familiar MVC style routing semantics Content Negotiation based on Accept headers for request and response serialization Support for a host of supported output formats including JSON, XML, ATOM Strong default support for REST semantics but they are optional Easily extensible Formatter support to add new input/output types Deep support for more advanced HTTP features via HttpResponseMessage and HttpRequestMessage classes and strongly typed Enums to describe many HTTP operations Convention based design that drives you into doing the right thing for HTTP Services Very extensible, based on MVC like extensibility model of Formatters and Filters Self-hostable in non-Web applications  Testable using testing concepts similar to MVC Web API is meant to handle any kind of HTTP input and produce output and status codes using the full spectrum of HTTP functionality available in a straight forward and flexible manner. Looking at the list above you can see that a lot of functionality is very similar to ASP.NET MVC, so many ASP.NET developers should feel quite comfortable with the concepts of Web API. The Routing and core infrastructure of Web API are very similar to how MVC works providing many of the benefits of MVC, but with focus on HTTP access and manipulation in Controller methods rather than HTML generation in MVC. There’s much improved support for content negotiation based on HTTP Accept headers with the framework capable of detecting automatically what content the client is sending and requesting and serving the appropriate data format in return. This seems like such a little and obvious thing, but it's really important. Today's service backends often are used by multiple clients/applications and being able to choose the right data format for what fits best for the client is very important. While previous solutions were able to accomplish this using a variety of mixed features of WCF and ASP.NET, Web API combines all this functionality into a single robust server side HTTP framework that intrinsically understands the HTTP semantics and subtly drives you in the right direction for most operations. And when you need to customize or do something that is not built in, there are lots of hooks and overrides for most behaviors, and even many low level hook points that allow you to plug in custom functionality with relatively little effort. No Brainers for Web API There are a few scenarios that are a slam dunk for Web API. If your primary focus of an application or even a part of an application is some sort of API then Web API makes great sense. HTTP ServicesIf you're building a comprehensive HTTP API that is to be consumed over the Web, Web API is a perfect fit. You can isolate the logic in Web API and build your application as a service breaking out the logic into controllers as needed. Because the primary interface is the service there's no confusion of what should go where (MVC or API). Perfect fit. Primary AJAX BackendsIf you're building rich client Web applications that are relying heavily on AJAX callbacks to serve its data, Web API is also a slam dunk. Again because much if not most of the business logic will probably end up in your Web API service logic, there's no confusion over where logic should go and there's no duplication. In Single Page Applications (SPA), typically there's very little HTML based logic served other than bringing up a shell UI and then filling the data from the server with AJAX which means the business logic required for data retrieval and data acceptance and validation too lives in the Web API. Perfect fit. Generic HTTP EndpointsAnother good fit are generic HTTP endpoints that to serve data or handle 'utility' type functionality in typical Web applications. If you need to implement an image server, or an upload handler in the past I'd implement that as an HTTP handler. With Web API you now have a well defined place where you can implement these types of generic 'services' in a location that can easily add endpoints (via Controller methods) or separated out as more full featured APIs. Granted this could be done with MVC as well, but Web API seems a clearer and more well defined place to store generic application services. This is one thing I used to do a lot of in my own libraries and Web API addresses this nicely. Great fit. Mixed HTML and AJAX Applications: Not a clear Choice  For all the commonality that Web API and MVC share they are fundamentally different platforms that are independent of each other. A lot of people have asked when does it make sense to use MVC vs. Web API when you're dealing with typical Web application that creates HTML and also uses AJAX functionality for rich functionality. While it's easy to say that all 'service'/AJAX logic should go into a Web API and all HTML related generation into MVC, that can often result in a lot of code duplication. Also MVC supports JSON and XML result data fairly easily as well so there's some confusion where that 'trigger point' is of when you should switch to Web API vs. just implementing functionality as part of MVC controllers. Ultimately there's a tradeoff between isolation of functionality and duplication. A good rule of thumb I think works is that if a large chunk of the application's functionality serves data Web API is a good choice, but if you have a couple of small AJAX requests to serve data to a grid or autocomplete box it'd be overkill to separate out that logic into a separate Web API controller. Web API does add overhead to your application (it's yet another framework that sits on top of core ASP.NET) so it should be worth it .Keep in mind that MVC can generate HTML and JSON/XML and just about any other content easily and that functionality is not going away, so just because you Web API is there it doesn't mean you have to use it. Web API is not a full replacement for MVC obviously either since there's not the same level of support to feed HTML from Web API controllers (although you can host a RazorEngine easily enough if you really want to go that route) so if you're HTML is part of your API or application in general MVC is still a better choice either alone or in combination with Web API. I suspect (and hope) that in the future Web API's functionality will merge even closer with MVC so that you might even be able to mix functionality of both into single Controllers so that you don't have to make any trade offs, but at the moment that's not the case. Some Issues To think about Web API is similar to MVC but not the Same Although Web API looks a lot like MVC it's not the same and some common functionality of MVC behaves differently in Web API. For example, the way single POST variables are handled is different than MVC and doesn't lend itself particularly well to some AJAX scenarios with POST data. Code Duplication I already touched on this in the Mixed HTML and Web API section, but if you build an MVC application that also exposes a Web API it's quite likely that you end up duplicating a bunch of code and - potentially - infrastructure. You may have to create authentication logic both for an HTML application and for the Web API which might need something different altogether. More often than not though the same logic is used, and there's no easy way to share. If you implement an MVC ActionFilter and you want that same functionality in your Web API you'll end up creating the filter twice. AJAX Data or AJAX HTML On a recent post's comments, David made some really good points regarding the commonality of MVC and Web API's and its place. One comment that caught my eye was a little more generic, regarding data services vs. HTML services. David says: I see a lot of merit in the combination of Knockout.js, client side templates and view models, calling Web API for a responsive UI, but sometimes late at night that still leaves me wondering why I would no longer be using some of the nice tooling and features that have evolved in MVC ;-) You know what - I can totally relate to that. On the last Web based mobile app I worked on, we decided to serve HTML partials to the client via AJAX for many (but not all!) things, rather than sending down raw data to inject into the DOM on the client via templating or direct manipulation. While there are definitely more bytes on the wire, with this, the overhead ended up being actually fairly small if you keep the 'data' requests small and atomic. Performance was often made up by the lack of client side rendering of HTML. Server rendered HTML for AJAX templating gives so much better infrastructure support without having to screw around with 20 mismatched client libraries. Especially with MVC and partials it's pretty easy to break out your HTML logic into very small, atomic chunks, so it's actually easy to create small rendering islands that can be used via composition on the server, or via AJAX calls to small, tight partials that return HTML to the client. Although this is often frowned upon as to 'heavy', it worked really well in terms of developer effort as well as providing surprisingly good performance on devices. There's still plenty of jQuery and AJAX logic happening on the client but it's more manageable in small doses rather than trying to do the entire UI composition with JavaScript and/or 'not-quite-there-yet' template engines that are very difficult to debug. This is not an issue directly related to Web API of course, but something to think about especially for AJAX or SPA style applications. Summary Web API is a great new addition to the ASP.NET platform and it addresses a serious need for consolidation of a lot of half-baked HTTP service API technologies that came before it. Web API feels 'right', and hits the right combination of usability and flexibility at least for me and it's a good fit for true API scenarios. However, just because a new platform is available it doesn't meant that other tools or tech that came before it should be discarded or even upgraded to the new platform. There's nothing wrong with continuing to use MVC controller methods to handle API tasks if that's what your app is running now - there's very little to be gained by upgrading to Web API just because. But going forward Web API clearly is the way to go, when building HTTP data interfaces and it's good to see that Microsoft got this one right - it was sorely needed! Resources ASP.NET Web API AspConf Ask the Experts Session (first 5 minutes) © Rick Strahl, West Wind Technologies, 2005-2012Posted in Web Api   Tweet !function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js";fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document,"script","twitter-wjs"); (function() { var po = document.createElement('script'); po.type = 'text/javascript'; po.async = true; po.src = 'https://apis.google.com/js/plusone.js'; var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(po, s); })();

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• URL Rewrite – Multiple domains under one site. Part II

  - by OWScott

  I believe I have it … I’ve been meaning to put together the ultimate outgoing rule for hosting multiple domains under one site.  I finally sat down this week and setup a few test cases, and created one rule to rule them all.  In Part I of this two part series, I covered the incoming rule necessary to host a site in a subfolder of a website, while making it appear as if it’s in the root of the site.  Part II won’t work without applying Part I first, so if you haven’t read it, I encourage you to read it now. However, the incoming rule by itself doesn’t address everything.  Here’s the problem … Let’s say that we host www.site2.com in a subfolder called site2, off of masterdomain.com.  This is the same example I used in Part I.   Using an incoming rewrite rule, we are able to make a request to www.site2.com even though the site is really in the /site2 folder.  The gotcha comes with any type of path that ASP.NET generates (I’m sure other scripting technologies could do the same too).  ASP.NET thinks that the path to the root of the site is /site2, but the URL is /.  See the issue?  If ASP.NET generates a path or a redirect for us, it will always add /site2 to the URL.  That results in a path that looks something like www.site2.com/site2.  In Part I, I mentioned that you should add a condition where “{PATH_INFO} ‘does not match’ /site2”.  That allows www.site2.com/site2 and www.site2.com to both function the same.  This allows the site to always work, but if you want to hide /site2 in the URL, you need to take it one step further. One way to address this is in your code.  Ultimately this is the best bet.  Ruslan Yakushev has a great article on a few considerations that you can address in code.  I recommend giving that serious consideration.  Additionally, if you have upgraded to ASP.NET 3.5 SP1 or greater, it takes care of some of the references automatically for you. However, what if you inherit an existing application?  Or you can’t easily go through your existing site and make the code changes?  If this applies to you, read on. That’s where URL Rewrite 2.0 comes in.  With URL Rewrite 2.0, you can create an outgoing rule that will remove the /site2 before the page is sent back to the user.  This means that you can take an existing application, host it in a subfolder of your site, and ensure that the URL never reveals that it’s in a subfolder. Performance Considerations Performance overhead is something to be mindful of.  These outbound rules aren’t simply changing the server variables.  The first rule I’ll cover below needs to parse the HTML body and pull out the path (i.e. /site2) on the way through.  This will add overhead, possibly significant if you have large pages and a busy site.  In other words, your mileage may vary and you may need to test to see the impact that these rules have.  Don’t worry too much though.  For many sites, the performance impact is negligible. So, how do we do it? Creating the Outgoing Rule There are really two things to keep in mind.  First, ASP.NET applications frequently generate a URL that adds the /site2 back into the URL.  In addition to URLs, they can be in form elements, img elements and the like.  The goal is to find all of those situations and rewrite it on the way out.  Let’s call this the ‘URL problem’. Second, and similarly, ASP.NET can send a LOCATION redirect that causes a redirect back to another page.  Again, ASP.NET isn’t aware of the different URL and it will add the /site2 to the redirect.  Form Authentication is a good example on when this occurs.  Try to password protect a site running from a subfolder using forms auth and you’ll quickly find that the URL becomes www.site2.com/site2 again.  Let’s term this the ‘redirect problem’. Solving the URL Problem – Outgoing Rule #1 Let’s create a rule that removes the /site2 from any URL.  We want to remove it from relative URLs like /site2/something, or absolute URLs like http://www.site2.com/site2/something.  Most URLs that ASP.NET creates will be relative URLs, but I figure that there may be some applications that piece together a full URL, so we might as well expect that situation. Let’s get started.  First, create a new outbound rule.  You can create the rule within the /site2 folder which will reduce the performance impact of the rule.  Just a reminder that incoming rules for this situation won’t work in a subfolder … but outgoing rules will. Give it a name that makes sense to you, for example “Outgoing – URL paths”. Precondition.  If you place the rule in the subfolder, it will only run for that site and folder, so there isn’t need for a precondition.  Run it for all requests.  If you place it in the root of the site, you may want to create a precondition for HTTP_HOST = ^(www\.)?site2\.com$. For the Match section, there are a few things to consider.  For performance reasons, it’s best to match the least amount of elements that you need to accomplish the task.  For my test cases, I just needed to rewrite the <a /> tag, but you may need to rewrite any number of HTML elements.  Note that as long as you have the exclude /site2 rule in your incoming rule as I described in Part I, some elements that don’t show their URL—like your images—will work without removing the /site2 from them.  That reduces the processing needed for this rule. Leave the “matching scope” at “Response” and choose the elements that you want to change. Set the pattern to “^(?:site2|(.*//[_a-zA-Z0-9-\.]*)?/site2)(.*)”.  Make sure to replace ‘site2’ with your subfolder name in both places.  Yes, I realize this is a pretty messy looking rule, but it handles a few situations.  This rule will handle the following situations correctly: Original Rewritten using {R:1}{R:2} http://www.site2.com/site2/default.aspx http://www.site2.com/default.aspx http://www.site2.com/folder1/site2/default.aspx Won’t rewrite since it’s a sub-sub folder /site2/default.aspx /default.aspx site2/default.aspx /default.aspx /folder1/site2/default.aspx Won’t rewrite since it’s a sub-sub folder. For the conditions section, you can leave that be. Finally, for the rule, set the Action Type to “Rewrite” and set the Value to “{R:1}{R:2}”.  The {R:1} and {R:2} are back references to the sections within parentheses.  In other words, in http://domain.com/site2/something, {R:1} will be http://domain.com and {R:2} will be /something. If you view your rule from your web.config file (or applicationHost.config if it’s a global rule), it should look like this: <rule name="Outgoing - URL paths" enabled="true"> <match filterByTags="A" pattern="^(?:site2|(.*//[_a-zA-Z0-9-\.]*)?/site2)(.*)" /> <action type="Rewrite" value="{R:1}{R:2}" /> </rule> Solving the Redirect Problem Outgoing Rule #2 The second issue that we can run into is with a client-side redirect.  This is triggered by a LOCATION response header that is sent to the client.  Forms authentication is a common example.  To reproduce this, password protect your subfolder and watch how it redirects and adds the subfolder path back in. Notice in my test case the extra paths: http://site2.com/site2/login.aspx?ReturnUrl=%2fsite2%2fdefault.aspx I want to remove /site2 from both the URL and the ReturnUrl querystring value.  For semi-readability, let’s do this in 2 separate rules, one for the URL and one for the querystring. Create a second rule.  As with the previous rule, it can be created in the /site2 subfolder.  In the URL Rewrite wizard, select Outbound rules –> “Blank Rule”. Fill in the following information: Name response_location URL Precondition Don’t set Match: Matching Scope Server Variable Match: Variable Name RESPONSE_LOCATION Match: Pattern ^(?:site2|(.*//[_a-zA-Z0-9-\.]*)?/site2)(.*) Conditions Don’t set Action Type Rewrite Action Properties {R:1}{R:2} It should end up like so: <rule name="response_location URL"> <match serverVariable="RESPONSE_LOCATION" pattern="^(?:site2|(.*//[_a-zA-Z0-9-\.]*)?/site2)(.*)" /> <action type="Rewrite" value="{R:1}{R:2}" /> </rule> Outgoing Rule #3 Outgoing Rule #2 only takes care of the URL path, and not the querystring path.  Let’s create one final rule to take care of the path in the querystring to ensure that ReturnUrl=%2fsite2%2fdefault.aspx gets rewritten to ReturnUrl=%2fdefault.aspx. The %2f is the HTML encoding for forward slash (/). Create a rule like the previous one, but with the following settings: Name response_location querystring Precondition Don’t set Match: Matching Scope Server Variable Match: Variable Name RESPONSE_LOCATION Match: Pattern (.*)%2fsite2(.*) Conditions Don’t set Action Type Rewrite Action Properties {R:1}{R:2} The config should look like this: <rule name="response_location querystring"> <match serverVariable="RESPONSE_LOCATION" pattern="(.*)%2fsite2(.*)" /> <action type="Rewrite" value="{R:1}{R:2}" /> </rule> It’s possible to squeeze the last two rules into one, but it gets kind of confusing so I felt that it’s better to show it as two separate rules. Summary With the rules covered in these two parts, we’re able to have a site in a subfolder and make it appear as if it’s in the root of the site.  Not only that, we can overcome automatic redirecting that is caused by ASP.NET, other scripting technologies, and especially existing applications. Following is an example of the incoming and outgoing rules necessary for a site called www.site2.com hosted in a subfolder called /site2.  Remember that the outgoing rules can be placed in the /site2 folder instead of the in the root of the site. <rewrite> <rules> <rule name="site2.com in a subfolder" enabled="true" stopProcessing="true"> <match url=".*" /> <conditions logicalGrouping="MatchAll" trackAllCaptures="false"> <add input="{HTTP_HOST}" pattern="^(www\.)?site2\.com$" /> <add input="{PATH_INFO}" pattern="^/site2($|/)" negate="true" /> </conditions> <action type="Rewrite" url="/site2/{R:0}" /> </rule> </rules> <outboundRules> <rule name="Outgoing - URL paths" enabled="true"> <match filterByTags="A" pattern="^(?:site2|(.*//[_a-zA-Z0-9-\.]*)?/site2)(.*)" /> <action type="Rewrite" value="{R:1}{R:2}" /> </rule> <rule name="response_location URL"> <match serverVariable="RESPONSE_LOCATION" pattern="^(?:site2|(.*//[_a-zA-Z0-9-\.]*)?/site2)(.*)" /> <action type="Rewrite" value="{R:1}{R:2}" /> </rule> <rule name="response_location querystring"> <match serverVariable="RESPONSE_LOCATION" pattern="(.*)%2fsite2(.*)" /> <action type="Rewrite" value="{R:1}{R:2}" /> </rule> </outboundRules> </rewrite> If you run into any situations that aren’t caught by these rules, please let me know so I can update this to be as complete as possible. Happy URL Rewriting!

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• CodePlex Daily Summary for Saturday, January 01, 2011

  CodePlex Daily Summary for Saturday, January 01, 2011Popular ReleasesBloodSim: BloodSim - 1.3.0.0: - Added tally for number of boss swings and swing avoids - Removed a large number of options that were carried over from Beta and are no longer relevant - Changed stat entry to use Rating format for Dodge, Parry, Haste and Mastery - Rearranged Settings interface - BloodSim will now check for updates on startup and notify the user if a new version is available - Added option to Show/Hide the Simulation Log to increase speed during large simulationsEnhSim: EnhSim 2.2.8 ALPHA: 2.2.8 ALPHAThis release supports WoW patch 4.03a at level 85 To use this release, you must have the Microsoft Visual C++ 2010 Redistributable Package installed. This can be downloaded from http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=A7B7A05E-6DE6-4D3A-A423-37BF0912DB84 To use the GUI you must have the .NET 4.0 Framework installed. This can be downloaded from http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=9cfb2d51-5ff4-4491-b0e5-b386f32c0992 Rebuilt Feral Spir...CBM-Command: Version 2.0 Beta 2 - 2010-12-31: This version fixes three major bugs in Version 2.0 Beta 1 Changes(64, 128, Plus/4) Changed the timing code back to version 1.7 because the clock() function in cc65 does not reflect accurate timing. (VIC, PET) The time(NULL) function is not available on these targets and thus had to be removed. Help Hot-Key Fixed - Now when you press either F1 or H you get the help file (if the CBM-Command disk is in the drive you started CBM-Command from). Updated Help File - the new help file by popmi...Free Silverlight & WPF Chart Control - Visifire: Visifire SL and WPF Charts v3.6.6 Released: Hi, Today we are releasing final version of Visifire, v3.6.6 with the following new feature: * TextDecorations property is implemented in Title for Chart. * TitleTextDecorations property is implemented in Axis. * MinPointHeight property is now applicable for Column and Bar Charts. Also this release includes few bug fixes: * ToolTipText property of DataSeries was not getting applied from Style. * Chart threw exception if IndicatorEnabled property was set to true and Too...StyleCop Compliant Visual Studio Code Snippets: Visual Studio Code Snippets - January 2011: StyleCop Compliant Visual Studio Code Snippets Visual Studio 2010 provides C# developers with 38 code snippets, enhancing developer productivty and increasing the consistency of the code. Within this project the original code snippets have been refactored to provide StyleCop compliant versions of the original code snippets while also adding many new code snippets. Within the January 2011 release you'll find 82 code snippets to make you more productive and the code you write more consistent!...WPF Application Framework (WAF): WPF Application Framework (WAF) 2.0.0.2: Version: 2.0.0.2 (Milestone 2): This release contains the source code of the WPF Application Framework (WAF) and the sample applications. Requirements .NET Framework 4.0 (The package contains a solution file for Visual Studio 2010) The unit test projects require Visual Studio 2010 Professional Remark The sample applications are using Microsoft’s IoC container MEF. However, the WPF Application Framework (WAF) doesn’t force you to use the same IoC container in your application. You can use ...eCompany: eCompany v0.2.0 Build 63: Version 0.2.0 Build 63: Added Splash screen & about box Added downloading of currencies when eCompany launched for the first time (must close any bug caused by no currency rate existing) Added corp creation when eCompany launched for the first time (for now, you didn't need to edit the company.xml file manually) You just need to decompress file "eCompany v0.2.0.63.zip" into your current eCompany install directory.SQL Monitor - tracking sql server activities: SQL Monitor 3.0 alpha 8: 1. added truncate table/defrag index/check db functions 2. improved alert 3. fixed problem with alert causing config file corrupted(hopefully)Temporary Data Storage Folder: TDS Folder version 0.2 Beta: In this release following bugs are fixed: 'Send to' entry bug fixed Preferences bug fixedSilverlight File Upload and Download with Interlink: HSS Interlink v.2.1.300: Latest Release 2.1.300 - December 29th 2010 Change Log DownloadFileDialog Modified to support an absolute uri for the DownloadUri property, which is required for OOB support UploadFileDialog Modified to support an absolute uri for the UploadUri property, which is required for OOB support For existing users be sure to uninstall the older version prior to installing this version Note: The demo application is NOT included with the installer but can be reviewed here Stable release and ready...RDPAddins .NET: RDPAddins Alpha 2 (0.2.0.0): Second alpha release... Breaking changes (now this project has 0.2 version): now addin should implement RDPAddins.Common.IAddin and should me exported with RDPAddins.Common.AddinMetadataAtrribute !!!most of all old Addin base class method you can fide in IChannel or IUI interfeces see FileTransferAddin Now RDPAddins.Common.dll just provide interfaces for addin, channel, ui, and export metadata Whole implementation is in RDPAddins.exe RDPAddins.Common.dll has some documentation :) why all this...DocX: DocX v1.0.0.11: Building Examples projectTo build the Examples project, download DocX.dll and add it as a reference to the project. OverviewThis version of DocX contains many bug fixes, it is a serious step towards a stable release. Added1) Unit testing project, 2) Examples project, 3) To many bug fixes to list here, see the source code change list history.Cosmos (C# Open Source Managed Operating System): 71406: This is the second release supporting the full line of Visual Studio 2010 editions. Changes since release 71246 include: Debug info is now stored in a single .cpdb file (which is a Firebird database) Keyboard input works now (using Console.ReadLine) Console colors work (using Console.ForegroundColor and .BackgroundColor)AutoLoL: AutoLoL v1.5.0: Added the all new Masteries Browser which replaces the Quick Open combobox AutoLoL will now attemt to create file associations for mastery (*.lolm) files Each Mastery Build can now contain keywords that the Masteries Browser will use for filtering Changed the way AutoLoL detects if another instance is already running Changed the format of the mastery files to allow more information stored in* Dialogs will now focus the Ok or Cancel button which allows the user to press Return to clo...Paint.NET PSD Plugin: 1.6.0: Handling of layer masks has been greatly improved. Improved reliability. Many PSD files that previously loaded in as garbage will now load in correctly. Parallelized loading. PSD files containing layer masks will load in a bit quicker thanks to the removal of the sequential bottleneck. Hidden layers are no longer made visible on save. Many thanks to the users who helped expose the layer masks problem: Rob Horowitz, M_Lyons10. Please keep sending in those bug reports and PSD repro files!Facebook C# SDK: 4.1.1: From 4.1.1 Release: Authentication bug fix caused by facebook change (error with redirects in Safari) Authenticator fix, always returning true From 4.1.0 Release Lots of bug fixes Removed Dynamic Runtime Language dependencies from non-dynamic platforms. Samples included in release for ASP.NET, MVC, Silverlight, Windows Phone 7, WPF, WinForms, and one Visual Basic Sample Changed internal serialization to use Json.net BREAKING CHANGE: Canvas Session is no longer supported. Use Signed...Catel - WPF and Silverlight MVVM library: 1.0.0: And there it is, the final release of Catel, and it is no longer a beta version!Euro for Windows XP: ChangeRegionalSettings 1..0: *Rocket Framework (.Net 4.0): Rocket Framework for Windows V 1.0.0: Architecture is reviewed and adjusted in a way so that I can introduce the Web version and WPF version of this framework next. - Rocket.Core is introduced - Controller button functions revisited and updated - DB is renewed to suite the implemented features - Create New button functionality is changed - Add Question Handling featuresFlickr Wallpaper Rotator (for Windows desktop): Wallpaper Flickr 1.1: Some minor bugfixes (mostly covering when network connection is flakey, so I discovered them all while at my parents' house for Christmas).New Projects7-Up: PowerShell Scripts for Upgrading SharePoint 2007 to 2010: PowerShell scripts to automate the upgrade of SharePoint 2007 to SharePoint 2010 using a content database or hybrid upgrade approach.Apple Wireless Keyboard: Helper that Allows people use the Apple Wireless (or Wired possibly) Keyboard under Windows 7 without loosing the mac functionalityckTest: testtesttesttesttesttesttesttesttesttesttesttesttesttesttesttesttesttesttesttesttesttesttesttesttesttesttesttesttesttesttesttesttesttesttesttesttesttesttesttesttesttesttesttesttesttesttesttesttesttesttesttesttesttesttesttesttesttesttesttesttesttesttesttesttesttesttesttesttesttestCrude - .Net Dependency Management: Crude is light dependency management for .net, there was no dependency management solution for .net as Maven or Ivy until now. DeepTime: Event tacking, management and plotting site.Dev/Test Cloud Platform: Dev/Test Cloud Platform is implemented by Beyondsoft and Microsoft. The platform is dedicated to software development and test scenarios. With Dev/Test Cloud you can save your cost, improve work efficiency, and improve product quality.Image Viewer (wpf version): Image viewer helps windows users to review images on their computer. It is written i Csharp and wpf.LNOne: All common code, framework code, utility code in one.LOGL::GLib: LOGL::GLib is an OpenGL game library written in C++ that allows new C++/OpenGL programmers to focus more on the game and less on the details.MAPI.GUI: Graphical program uses function from mcopyapi.codeplex.com and mdeleteapi.codeplex.com console programs. Program support longPath (above 259 chars and less 32000 chars)Movie Collection Manager: Gerenciador que ajuda a manusear coleção de filmes. Possui uma interface super atraente e simples de usar. Ferramentas e tecnologias usadas: - Visual C# 2010 Express - SQL Server 2008 R2 Express - Windows Forms - Entity Framework OBS: Projeto concorrente do Desafio .NETMyStudioServer.com: Source code for the DotNetNuke http://MyStudioServer.com websiteNusya Tester: A software to create and use various tests with right answers explanations to help one in self-education. It's developed in C#Project Zylaphon: Project Zylaphon is a C# GPL Open Source Computer Aided Music Composition System. Its design goals include highly interactive composition, music computation, and analysis; system control to be provided by an A.I. goal based agenda and quasi Blackboard for maximum flexibility.Remember The Task: RememberTheTask makes it easier to remember what you have been doing the last hour. It's developed in Visual Basic.Rent Payments Scheduling: Register rent schedules and keep track of them.Simple MVVM Toolkit for Silverlight: Simple MVVM Toolkit makes it easier to develop Silverlight applications using the Model-View-ViewModel design pattern.Sparrow.NET HtmlTemplate: Its a template engine for generating web pages.(?????HTML?????，??????html Tag???????html????。)SQLDiagUI: SQLDiagUI provides a GUI for Microsoft SQlDiag Utility which allows users to create a configuration file and start/stop/schedule SQLDiag against a SQL Server.Test Control: testing frameworkTwicko: Simple twitter client.Unity3D Utilities: Unity3D Utilities provides additional functionality to Unity3D (3.0+) via extensions, utilities, mini-frameworks, etc.VBA Composite Controls Object Model: VBA Composite Controls encapsulate complex event-driven interactions between ActiveX controls and other objects in Microsoft Office. It's uses are limited only by the imagination, from binding controls together for updating, to creating unique user interfaces!World of Warcraft Backit up(wow backit up): a project that helps you backup and restore your settings in wow easilyYamma: Yet Another Money Management Application. Build in .NET 4, SQLCE, LINQ and the Entity Framework.

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• CLSF & CLK 2013 Trip Report by Jeff Liu

  - by jamesmorris

  This is a contributed post from Jeff Liu, lead XFS developer for the Oracle mainline Linux kernel team. Recently, I attended both the China Linux Storage and Filesystem workshop (CLSF), and the China Linux Kernel conference (CLK), which were held in Shanghai. Here are the highlights for both events. CLSF - 17th October XFS update (led by Jeff Liu) XFS keeps rapid progress with a lot of changes, especially focused on the infrastructure/performance improvements as well as  new feature development.  This can be reflected with a sample statistics among XFS/Ext4+JBD2/Btrfs via: # git diff --stat --minimal -C -M v3.7..v3.12-rc4 -- fs/xfs|fs/ext4+fs/jbd2|fs/btrfs XFS: 141 files changed, 27598 insertions(+), 19113 deletions(-) Ext4+JBD2: 39 files changed, 10487 insertions(+), 5454 deletions(-) Btrfs: 70 files changed, 19875 insertions(+), 8130 deletions(-) What made up those changes in XFS? Self-describing metadata(CRC32c). This is a new feature and it contributed about 70% code changes, it can be enabled via `mkfs.xfs -m crc=1 /dev/xxx` for v5 superblock. Transaction log space reservation improvements. With this change, we can calculate the log space reservation at mount time rather than runtime to reduce the the CPU overhead. User namespace support. So both XFS and USERNS can be enabled on kernel configuration begin from Linux 3.10. Thanks Dwight Engen's efforts for this thing. Split project/group quota inodes. Originally, project quota can not be enabled with group quota at the same time because they were share the same quota file inode, now it works but only for v5 super block. i.e, CRC enabled. CONFIG_XFS_WARN, an new lightweight runtime debugger which can be deployed in production environment. Readahead log object recovery, this change can speed up the log replay progress significantly. Speculative preallocation inode tracking, clearing and throttling. The main purpose is to deal with inodes with post-EOF space due to speculative preallocation, support improved quota management to free up a significant amount of unwritten space when at or near EDQUOT. It support backgroup scanning which occurs on a longish interval(5 mins by default, tunable), and on-demand scanning/trimming via ioctl(2). Bitter arguments ensued from this session, especially for the comparison between Ext4 and Btrfs in different areas, I have to spent a whole morning of the 1st day answering those questions. We basically agreed on XFS is the best choice in Linux nowadays because: Stable, XFS has a good record in stability in the past 10 years. Fengguang Wu who lead the 0-day kernel test project also said that he has observed less error than other filesystems in the past 1+ years, I own it to the XFS upstream code reviewer, they always performing serious code review as well as testing. Good performance for large/small files, XFS does not works very well for small files has already been an old story for years. Best choice (maybe) for distributed PB filesystems. e.g, Ceph recommends delopy OSD daemon on XFS because Ext4 has limited xattr size. Best choice for large storage (>16TB). Ext4 does not support a single file more than around 15.95TB. Scalability, any objection to XFS is best in this point? :) XFS is better to deal with transaction concurrency than Ext4, why? The maximum size of the log in XFS is 2038MB compare to 128MB in Ext4. Misc. Ext4 is widely used and it has been proved fast/stable in various loads and scenarios, XFS just need more customers, and Btrfs is still on the road to be a manhood. Ceph Introduction (Led by Li Wang) This a hot topic.  Li gave us a nice introduction about the design as well as their current works. Actually, Ceph client has been included in Linux kernel since 2.6.34 and supported by Openstack since Folsom but it seems that it has not yet been widely deployment in production environment. Their major work is focus on the inline data support to separate the metadata and data storage, reduce the file access time, i.e, a file access need communication twice, fetch the metadata from MDS and then get data from OSD, and also, the small file access is limited by the network latency. The solution is, for the small files they would like to store the data at metadata so that when accessing a small file, the metadata server can push both metadata and data to the client at the same time. In this way, they can reduce the overhead of calculating the data offset and save the communication to OSD. For this feature, they have only run some small scale testing but really saw noticeable improvements. Test environment: Intel 2 CPU 12 Core, 64GB RAM, Ubuntu 12.04, Ceph 0.56.6 with 200GB SATA disk, 15 OSD, 1 MDS, 1 MON. The sequence read performance for 1K size files improved about 50%. I have asked Li and Zheng Yan (the core developer of Ceph, who also worked on Btrfs) whether Ceph is really stable and can be deployed at production environment for large scale PB level storage, but they can not give a positive answer, looks Ceph even does not spread over Dreamhost (subject to confirmation). From Li, they only deployed Ceph for a small scale storage(32 nodes) although they'd like to try 6000 nodes in the future. Improve Linux swap for Flash storage (led by Shaohua Li) Because of high density, low power and low price, flash storage (SSD) is a good candidate to partially replace DRAM. A quick answer for this is using SSD as swap. But Linux swap is designed for slow hard disk storage, so there are a lot of challenges to efficiently use SSD for swap. SWAPOUT swap_map scan swap_map is the in-memory data structure to track swap disk usage, but it is a slow linear scan. It will become a bottleneck while finding many adjacent pages in the use of SSD. Shaohua Li have changed it to a cluster(128K) list, resulting in O(1) algorithm. However, this apporoach needs restrictive cluster alignment and only enabled for SSD. IO pattern In most cases, the swap io is in interleaved pattern because of mutiple reclaimers or a free cluster is shared by all reclaimers. Even though block layer can merge interleaved IO to some extent, but we cannot count on it completely. Hence the per-cpu cluster is added base on the previous change, it can help reclaimer do sequential IO and the block layer will be easier to merge IO. TLB flush: If we're reclaiming one active page, we should first move the page from active lru list to inactive lru list, and then reclaim the page from inactive lru to swap it out. During the process, we need to clear PTE twice: first is 'A'(ACCESS) bit, second is 'P'(PRESENT) bit. Processors need to send lots of ipi which make the TLB flush really expensive. Some works have been done to improve this, including rework smp_call_functiom_many() or remove the first TLB flush in x86, but there still have some arguments here and only parts of works have been pushed to mainline. SWAPIN: Page fault does iodepth=1 sync io, but it's a little waste if only issue a page size's IO. The obvious solution is doing swap readahead. But the current in-kernel swap readahead is arbitary(always 8 pages), and it always doesn't perform well for both random and sequential access workload. Shaohua introduced a new flag for madvise(MADV_WILLNEED) to do swap prefetch, so the changes happen in userspace API and leave the in-kernel readahead unchanged(but I think some improvement can also be done here). SWAP discard As we know, discard is important for SSD write throughout, but the current swap discard implementation is synchronous. He changed it to async discard which allow discard and write run in the same time. Meanwhile, the unit of discard is also optimized to cluster. Misc: lock contention For many concurrent swapout and swapin , the lock contention such as anon_vma or swap_lock is high, so he changed the swap_lock to a per-swap lock. But there still have some lock contention in very high speed SSD because of swapcache address_space lock. Zproject (led by Bob Liu) Bob gave us a very nice introduction about the current memory compression status. Now there are 3 projects(zswap/zram/zcache) which all aim at smooth swap IO storm and promote performance, but they all have their own pros and cons. ZSWAP It is implemented based on frontswap API and it uses a dynamic allocater named Zbud to allocate free pages. Zbud means pairs of zpages are "buddied" and it can only store at most two compressed pages in one page frame, so the max compress ratio is 50%. Each page frame is lru-linked and can do shink in memory pressure. If the compressed memory pool reach its limitation, shink or reclaim happens. It decompress the page frame into two new allocated pages and then write them to real swap device, but it can fail when allocating the two pages. ZRAM Acts as a compressed ramdisk and used as swap device, and it use zsmalloc as its allocator which has high density but may have fragmentation issues. Besides, page reclaim is hard since it will need more pages to uncompress and free just one page. ZRAM is preferred by embedded system which may not have any real swap device. Now both ZRAM and ZSWAP are in driver/staging tree, and in the mm community there are some disscussions of merging ZRAM into ZSWAP or viceversa, but no agreement yet. ZCACHE Handles file page compression but it is removed out of staging recently. From industry (led by Tang Jie, LSI) An LSI engineer introduced several new produces to us. The first is raid5/6 cards that it use full stripe writes to improve performance. The 2nd one he introduced is SandForce flash controller, who can understand data file types (data entropy) to reduce write amplification (WA) for nearly all writes. It's called DuraWrite and typical WA is 0.5. What's more, if enable its Dynamic Logical Capacity function module, the controller can do data compression which is transparent to upper layer. LSI testing shows that with this virtual capacity enables 1x TB drive can support up to 2x TB capacity, but the application must monitor free flash space to maintain optimal performance and to guard against free flash space exhaustion. He said the most useful application is for datebase. Another thing I think it's worth to mention is that a NV-DRAM memory in NMR/Raptor which is directly exposed to host system. Applications can directly access the NV-DRAM via a memory address - using standard system call mmap(). He said that it is very useful for database logging now. This kind of NVM produces are beginning to appear in recent years, and it is said that Samsung is building a research center in China for related produces. IMHO, NVM will bring an effect to current os layer especially on file system, e.g. its journaling may need to redesign to fully utilize these nonvolatile memory. OCFS2 (led by Canquan Shen) Without a doubt, HuaWei is the biggest contributor to OCFS2 in the past two years. They have posted 46 upstream patches and 39 patches have been merged. Their current project is based on 32/64 nodes cluster, but they also tried 128 nodes at the experimental stage. The major work they are working is to support ATS (atomic test and set), it can be works with DLM at the same time. Looks this idea is inspired by the vmware VMFS locking, i.e, http://blogs.vmware.com/vsphere/2012/05/vmfs-locking-uncovered.html CLK - 18th October 2013 Improving Linux Development with Better Tools (Andi Kleen) This talk focused on how to find/solve bugs along with the Linux complexity growing. Generally, we can do this with the following kind of tools: Static code checkers tools. e.g, sparse, smatch, coccinelle, clang checker, checkpatch, gcc -W/LTO, stanse. This can help check a lot of things, simple mistakes, complex problems, but the challenges are: some are very slow, false positives, may need a concentrated effort to get false positives down. Especially, no static checker I found can follow indirect calls (“OO in C”, common in kernel): struct foo_ops { int (*do_foo)(struct foo *obj); } foo->do_foo(foo); Dynamic runtime checkers, e.g, thread checkers, kmemcheck, lockdep. Ideally all kernel code would come with a test suite, then someone could run all the dynamic checkers. Fuzzers/test suites. e.g, Trinity is a great tool, it finds many bugs, but needs manual model for each syscall. Modern fuzzers around using automatic feedback, but notfor kernel yet: http://taviso.decsystem.org/making_software_dumber.pdf Debuggers/Tracers to understand code, e.g, ftrace, can dump on events/oops/custom triggers, but still too much overhead in many cases to run always during debug. Tools to read/understand source, e.g, grep/cscope work great for many cases, but do not understand indirect pointers (OO in C model used in kernel), give us all “do_foo” instances: struct foo_ops { int (*do_foo)(struct foo *obj); } = { .do_foo = my_foo }; foo>do_foo(foo); That would be great to have a cscope like tool that understands this based on types/initializers XFS: The High Performance Enterprise File System (Jeff Liu) [slides] I gave a talk for introducing the disk layout, unique features, as well as the recent changes.   The slides include some charts to reflect the performances between XFS/Btrfs/Ext4 for small files. About a dozen users raised their hands when I asking who has experienced with XFS. I remembered that when I asked the same question in LinuxCon/Japan, only 3 people raised their hands, but they are Chris Mason, Ric Wheeler, and another attendee. The attendee questions were mainly focused on stability, and comparison with other file systems. Linux Containers (Feng Gao) The speaker introduced us that the purpose for those kind of namespaces, include mount/UTS/IPC/Network/Pid/User, as well as the system API/ABI. For the userspace tools, He mainly focus on the Libvirt LXC rather than us(LXC). Libvirt LXC is another userspace container management tool, implemented as one type of libvirt driver, it can manage containers, create namespace, create private filesystem layout for container, Create devices for container and setup resources controller via cgroup. In this talk, Feng also mentioned another two possible new namespaces in the future, the 1st is the audit, but not sure if it should be assigned to user namespace or not. Another is about syslog, but the question is do we really need it? In-memory Compression (Bob Liu) Same as CLSF, a nice introduction that I have already mentioned above. Misc There were some other talks related to ACPI based memory hotplug, smart wake-affinity in scheduler etc., but my head is not big enough to record all those things. -- Jeff Liu

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• CodePlex Daily Summary for Tuesday, May 25, 2010

  CodePlex Daily Summary for Tuesday, May 25, 2010New ProjectsBibleNames: BibleNames BibleNames BibleNames BibleNames BibleNamesBing Search for PHP Developers: This is the Bing SDK for PHP, a toolkit that allows you to easily use Bing's API to fetch search results and use in your own application. The Bin...Fading Clock: Fading Clock is a normal clock that has the ability to fade in out. It's developed in C# as a Windows App in .net 2.0.Fuzzy string matching algorithm in C# and LINQ: Fuzzy matching strings. Find out how similar two string is, and find the best fuzzy matching string from a string table. Given a string (strA) and...HexTile editor: Testing hexagonal tile editorhgcheck12: hgcheck12Metaverse Router: Metaverse Router makes it easier for MIIS, ILM, FIM Sync engine administrators to manage multiple provisioning modules, turn on/off provisioning wi...MyVocabulary: Use MyVocabulary to structure and test the words you want to learn in a foreign language. This is a .net 3.5 windows forms application developed in...phpxw: Phpxw 是一个简易的PHP框架。以我自己的姓名命名的。 Phpxw is a simple PHP framework. Take my name named.Plop: Social networking wrappers and projects.PST Data Structure View Tool: PST Data Structure View Tool (PSTViewTool) is a tool supporting the PST file format documentation effort. It allows the user to browse the internal...PST File Format SDK: PST File Format SDK (pstsdk) is a cross platform header only C++ library for reading PST files.QWine: QWine is Queue Machine ApplicationSharePoint Cross Site Collection Security Trimmed Navigation: This SP2010 project will show security trimmed navigation that works across site collections. The project is written for SP2010, but can be easily ...SharePoint List Field Manager: The SharePoint List Field Manager allows users to manage the Boolean properties of a list such as Read Only, Hidden, Show in New Form etc... It sup...Silverlight Toolbar for DataGrid working with RIA Services or local data: DataGridToolbar contains two controls for Silverlight DataGrid designed for RIA Services and local data. It can be used to filter or remove a data,...SilverShader - Silverlight Pixel Shader Demos: SilverShader is an extensible Silverlight application that is used to demonstrate the effect of different pixel shaders. The shaders can be applied...SNCFT Gadget: Ce gadget permet de consulter les horaires des trains et de chercher des informations sur le site de la société nationale des chemins de fer tunisi...Software Transaction Memory: Software Transaction Memory for .NETStreamInsight Samples: This project contains sample code for StreamInsight, Microsoft's platform for complex event processing. The purpose of the samples is to provide a ...StyleAnalizer: A CSS parserSudoku (Multiplayer in RnD): Sudoku project was to practice on C# by making a desktop application using some algorithm Before this, I had worked on http://shaktisaran.tech.o...Tiplican: A small website built for the purpose of learning .Net 4 and MVC 2TPager: Mercurial pager with color support on Windowsunirca: UNIRCA projectWcfTrace: The WcfTrace is a easy way to collect information about WCF-service call order, processing time and etc. It's developed in C#.New ReleasesASP.NET TimePicker Control: 12 24 Hour Bug Fix: 12 24 Hour Bug FixASP.NET TimePicker Control: ASP.NET TimePicker Control: This release fixes a focus bug that manifests itself when switching focus between two different timepicker controls on the same page, and make chan...ASP.NET TimePicker Control: ASP.NET TimePicker Control - colon CSS Fix: Fixes ":" seperator placement issues being too hi and too low in IE and FireFox, respectively.ASP.NET TimePicker Control: Release fixes 24 Hour Mode Bug: Release fixes 24 Hour Mode BugBFBC2 PRoCon: PRoCon 0.5.1.1: Visit http://phogue.net/?p=604 for release notes.BFBC2 PRoCon: PRoCon 0.5.1.2: Release notes can be found at http://phogue.net/?p=604BFBC2 PRoCon: PRoCon 0.5.1.4: Ha.. choosing the "stable" option at the moment is a bit of a joke =\ Release notes at http://phogue.net/?p=604BFBC2 PRoCon: PRoCon 0.5.1.5: BWHAHAHA stable.. ha. Actually this ones looking pretty good now. http://phogue.net/?p=604Bojinx: Bojinx Core V4.5.14: Issues fixed in this release: Fixed an issue that caused referencePropertyName when used through a property configuration in the context to not wo...Bojinx: Bojinx Debugger V0.9B: Output trace and filtering that works with the Bojinx logger.CassiniDev - Cassini 3.5/4.0 Developers Edition: CassiniDev 3.5.1.5 and 4.0.1.5 beta3: Fixed fairly serious bug #13290 http://cassinidev.codeplex.com/WorkItem/View.aspx?WorkItemId=13290Content Rendering: Content Rendering API 1.0.0 Revision 46406: Initial releaseDeploy Workflow Manager: Deploy Workflow Manager Web Part v2: Recommend you test in your development environment first BEFORE using in production.dotSpatial: System.Spatial.Projections Zip May 24, 2010: Adds a new spherical projection.eComic: eComic 2010.0.0.2: Quick release to fix a couple of bugs found in the previous version. Version 2010.0.0.2 Fixed crash error when accessing the "Go To Page" dialog ...Exchange 2010 RBAC Editor (RBAC GUI) - updated on 5/24/2010: RBAC Editor 0.9.4.1: Some bugs fixed; support for unscopoedtoplevel (adding script is not working yet) Please use email address in About menu of the tool for any feedb...Facebook Graph Toolkit: Preview 1 Binaries: The first preview release of the toolkit. Not recommended for use in production, but enought to get started developing your app.Fading Clock: Clock.zip: Clock.zip is a zip file that contains the application Clock.exe.hgcheck12: Rel8082: Rel8082hgcheck12: scsc: scasMetaverse Router: Metaverse Router v1.0: Initial stable release (v.1.0.0.0) of Metaverse Router Working with: FIM 2010 Synchronization Engine ILM 2007 MIIS 2003MSTestGlider: MSTestGlider 1.5: What MSTestGlider 1.5.zip unzips to: http://i49.tinypic.com/2lcv4eg.png If you compile MSTestGlider from its source you will need to change the ou...MyVocabulary: Version 1.0: First releaseNLog - Advanced .NET Logging: Nightly Build 2010.05.24.001: Changes since the last build:2010-05-23 20:45:37 Jarek Kowalski fixed whitespace in NLog.wxs 2010-05-23 12:01:48 Jarek Kowalski BufferingTargetWra...NoteExpress User Tools (NEUT) - Do it by ourselves!: NoteExpress User Tools 2.0.0: 测试版本：NoteExpress 2.5.0.1154 +调整了Tab页的排列方式 注：2.0未做大的改动，仅仅是运行环境由原来的.net 3.5升级到4.0。openrs: Beta Release (Revision 1): This is the beta release of the openrs framework. Please make sure you submit issues in the issue tracker tab. As this is beta, extreme, flawless ...openrs: Revision 2: Revision 2 of the framework. Basic worker example as well as minor improvements on the auth packet.phpxw: Phpxw: Phpxw 1.0 phpxw 是一个简易的PHP框架。以我自己的姓名命名的。 Phpxw is a simple PHP framework. Take my name named. 支持基本的业务逻辑流程，功能模块化，实现了简易的模板技术，同时也可以支持外接模板引擎。 Support...sELedit: sELedit v1.1a: Fixed: clean file before overwriting Fixed: list57 will only created when eLC.Lists.length > 57sGSHOPedit: sGSHOPedit v1.0a: Fixed: bug with wrong item array re-size when adding items after deleting items Added: link to project page pwdatabase.com version is now selec...SharePoint Cross Site Collection Security Trimmed Navigation: Release 1.0.0.0: If you want just the .wsp, and start using this, you can grab it here. Just stsadm add/deploy to your website, and activate the feature as describ...Silverlight 4.0 Popup Menu: Context Menu for Silverlight 4.0 v1.24 Beta: - Updated the demo and added clipboard cut/copy and paste functionality. - Added delay on hover events for both parent and child menus. - Parent me...Silverlight Toolbar for DataGrid working with RIA Services or local data: DataGridToolBar Beta: For Silverlight 4.0sMAPtool: sMAPtool v0.7d (without Maps): Added: link to project pagesMODfix: sMODfix v1.0a: Added: Support for ECM v52 modelssNPCedit: sNPCedit v0.9a: browse source commits for all changes...SocialScapes: SocialScapes TwitterWidget 1.0.0: The SocialScapes TwitterWidget is a DotNetNuke Widget for displaying Twitter searches. This widget will be used to replace the twitter functionali...SQL Server 2005 and 2008 - Backup, Integrity Check and Index Optimization: 23 May 2010: This is the latest version of my solution for Backup, Integrity Check and Index Optimization in SQL Server 2005, SQL Server 2008 and SQL Server 200...sqwarea: Sqwarea 0.0.280.0 (alpha): This release brings a lot of improvements. We strongly recommend you to upgrade to this version.sTASKedit: sTASKedit v0.7c: Minor Changes in GUI & BehaviourSudoku (Multiplayer in RnD): Sudoku (Multiplayer in RnD) 1.0.0.0 source: Sudoku project was to practice on C# by making a desktop application using some algorithm Idea: The basic idea of algorithm is from http://www.ac...Sudoku (Multiplayer in RnD): Sudoku (Multiplayer in RnD) 1.0.0.1 source: Worked on user-interface, would improve it Sudoku project was to practice on C# by making a desktop application using some algorithm Idea: The b...TFS WorkItem Watcher: TFS WorkItem Watcher Version 1.0: This version contains the following new features: Added support to autodetect whether to start as a service or to start in console mode. The "-c" ...TfsPolicyPack: TfsPolicyPack 0.1: This is the first release of the TfsPolicyPack. This release includes the following policies: CustomRegexPathPolicythinktecture Starter STS (Community Edition): StarterSTS v1.1 CTP: Added ActAs / identity delegation support.TPager: TPager-20100524: TPager 2010-05-24 releaseTrance Layer: TranceLayer Transformer: Transformer is a Beta version 2, morphing from "Digger" to "Transformer" release cycle. It is intended to be used as a demonstration of muscles wh...TweetSharp: TweetSharp v1.0.0.0: Changes in v1.0.0Added 100% public code comments Bug fixes based on feedback from the Release Candidate Changes to handle Twitter schema additi...VCC: Latest build, v2.1.30524.0: Automatic drop of latest buildWCF Client Generator: Version 0.9.2.33468: Version 0.9.2.33468 Fixed: Nested enum types names are not handled correctly. Can't close Visual Studio if generated files are open when the code...Word 2007 Redaction Tool: Version 1.2: A minor update to the Word 2007 Redaction Tool. This version can be installed directly over any existing version. Updates to Version 1.2Fixed bugs:...xPollinate - Windows Live Writer Cross Post Plugin: 1.0.0.5 for WLW 14.0.8117.416: This version works with WLW 14.0.8117.416. This release includes a fix to enable publishing posts that have been opened directly from a blog, but ...Yet another developer blog - Examples: jQuery Autocomplete in ASP.NET MVC: This sample application shows how to use jQuery Autocomplete plugin in ASP.NET MVC. This application is accompanied by the following entry on Yet a...Most Popular ProjectsRawrWBFS ManagerAJAX Control ToolkitMicrosoft SQL Server Product Samples: DatabaseSilverlight ToolkitWindows Presentation Foundation (WPF)patterns & practices – Enterprise LibraryMicrosoft SQL Server Community & SamplesPHPExcelASP.NETMost Active Projectspatterns & practices – Enterprise LibraryRawrpatterns & practices: Windows Azure Security GuidanceSqlServerExtensionsGMap.NET - Great Maps for Windows Forms & PresentationMono.AddinsCaliburn: An Application Framework for WPF and SilverlightBlogEngine.NETIonics Isapi Rewrite FilterSQL Server PowerShell Extensions

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• CodePlex Daily Summary for Friday, December 31, 2010

  CodePlex Daily Summary for Friday, December 31, 2010Popular ReleasesFree Silverlight & WPF Chart Control - Visifire: Visifire SL and WPF Charts v3.6.6 Released: Hi, Today we are releasing final version of Visifire, v3.6.6 with the following new feature: * TextDecorations property is implemented in Title for Chart. * TitleTextDecorations property is implemented in Axis. * MinPointHeight property is now applicable for Column and Bar Charts. Also this release includes few bug fixes: * ToolTipText property of DataSeries was not getting applied from Style. * Chart threw exception if IndicatorEnabled property was set to true and Too...Windows Weibo all in one for Sina Sohu and QQ: WeiBee V0.1: WeiBee is an all in one Twitter tool, which can update Wei Bo at the same time for websites. It intends to support t.sohu.com, t.sina.com.cn and t.qq.com.cn. If you have WeiBo at SOHU, SINA and QQ, you can try this tool to help you save time to open all the webpages to update your status. For any business opportunity, such as put advertise on China Twitter market, and to build a custom WeiBo tool, please reach my email box qq1800@gmail.com My official WeiBo is http://mediaroom.t.sohu.comStyleCop Compliant Visual Studio Code Snippets: Visual Studio Code Snippets - January 2011: StyleCop Compliant Visual Studio Code Snippets Visual Studio 2010 provides C# developers with 38 code snippets, enhancing developer productivty and increasing the consistency of the code. Within this project the original code snippets have been refactored to provide StyleCop compliant versions of the original code snippets while also adding many new code snippets. Within the January 2011 release you'll find 82 code snippets to make you more productive and the code you write more consistent!...WPF Application Framework (WAF): WPF Application Framework (WAF) 2.0.0.2: Version: 2.0.0.2 (Milestone 2): This release contains the source code of the WPF Application Framework (WAF) and the sample applications. Requirements .NET Framework 4.0 (The package contains a solution file for Visual Studio 2010) The unit test projects require Visual Studio 2010 Professional Remark The sample applications are using Microsoft’s IoC container MEF. However, the WPF Application Framework (WAF) doesn’t force you to use the same IoC container in your application. You can use ...eCompany: eCompany v0.2.0 Build 63: Version 0.2.0 Build 63: Added Splash screen & about box Added downloading of currencies when eCompany launched for the first time (must close any bug caused by no currency rate existing) Added corp creation when eCompany launched for the first time (for now, you didn't need to edit the company.xml file manually) You just need to decompress file "eCompany v0.2.0.63.zip" into your current eCompany install directory.SQL Monitor - tracking sql server activities: SQL Monitor 3.0 alpha 8: 1. added truncate table/defrag index/check db functions 2. improved alert 3. fixed problem with alert causing config file corrupted(hopefully)Analysis Services Stored Procedure Project: 1.3.5 Release: This release includes the following fixes and new functionality: Updates to GetCubeLastProcessedDate to work with perspectives Fixes to reports that call Discover functions improving drillthrough functions against perspectives improving ExecuteDrillthroughAndFixColumns logic fixing situation where MDX query calling certain ASSP sprocs which opened external connections caused deadlock to SSAS processing small fix to Partition code when DbColumnName property doesn't exist changes...DocX: DocX v1.0.0.11: Building Examples projectTo build the Examples project, download DocX.dll and add it as a reference to the project. OverviewThis version of DocX contains many bug fixes, it is a serious step towards a stable release. Added1) Unit testing project, 2) Examples project, 3) To many bug fixes to list here, see the source code change list history.Cosmos (C# Open Source Managed Operating System): 71406: This is the second release supporting the full line of Visual Studio 2010 editions. Changes since release 71246 include: Debug info is now stored in a single .cpdb file (which is a Firebird database) Keyboard input works now (using Console.ReadLine) Console colors work (using Console.ForegroundColor and .BackgroundColor)AutoLoL: AutoLoL v1.5.0: Added the all new Masteries Browser which replaces the Quick Open combobox AutoLoL will now attemt to create file associations for mastery (*.lolm) files Each Mastery Build can now contain keywords that the Masteries Browser will use for filtering Changed the way AutoLoL detects if another instance is already running Changed the format of the mastery files to allow more information stored in* Dialogs will now focus the Ok or Cancel button which allows the user to press Return to clo...Paint.NET PSD Plugin: 1.6.0: Handling of layer masks has been greatly improved. Improved reliability. Many PSD files that previously loaded in as garbage will now load in correctly. Parallelized loading. PSD files containing layer masks will load in a bit quicker thanks to the removal of the sequential bottleneck. Hidden layers are no longer made visible on save. Many thanks to the users who helped expose the layer masks problem: Rob Horowitz, M_Lyons10. Please keep sending in those bug reports and PSD repro files!Facebook C# SDK: 4.1.1: From 4.1.1 Release: Authentication bug fix caused by facebook change (error with redirects in Safari) Authenticator fix, always returning true From 4.1.0 Release Lots of bug fixes Removed Dynamic Runtime Language dependencies from non-dynamic platforms. Samples included in release for ASP.NET, MVC, Silverlight, Windows Phone 7, WPF, WinForms, and one Visual Basic Sample Changed internal serialization to use Json.net BREAKING CHANGE: Canvas Session is no longer supported. Use Signed...Catel - WPF and Silverlight MVVM library: 1.0.0: And there it is, the final release of Catel, and it is no longer a beta version!EnhSim: EnhSim 2.2.7 ALPHA: 2.2.7 ALPHAThis release supports WoW patch 4.03a at level 85 To use this release, you must have the Microsoft Visual C++ 2010 Redistributable Package installed. This can be downloaded from http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=A7B7A05E-6DE6-4D3A-A423-37BF0912DB84 To use the GUI you must have the .NET 4.0 Framework installed. This can be downloaded from http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=9cfb2d51-5ff4-4491-b0e5-b386f32c0992 - Mongoose has bee...Euro for Windows XP: ChangeRegionalSettings 1..0: *Rocket Framework (.Net 4.0): Rocket Framework for Windows V 1.0.0: Architecture is reviewed and adjusted in a way so that I can introduce the Web version and WPF version of this framework next. - Rocket.Core is introduced - Controller button functions revisited and updated - DB is renewed to suite the implemented features - Create New button functionality is changed - Add Question Handling featuresFlickr Wallpaper Rotator (for Windows desktop): Wallpaper Flickr 1.1: Some minor bugfixes (mostly covering when network connection is flakey, so I discovered them all while at my parents' house for Christmas).NoSimplerAccounting: NoSimplerAccounting 6.0: -Fixed a bug in expense category report.NHibernate Mapping Generator: NHibernate Mapping Generator 2.0: Added support for Postgres (Thanks to Angelo)NewLife XCode: XCode v6.5.2010.1223 ????（????v3.5??）: XCode v6.5.2010.1223 ????，??： NewLife.Core ??? NewLife.Net ??? XControl ??? XTemplate ????，??C#?????? XAgent ???? NewLife.CommonEnitty ??????（???，XCode??????） XCode?? ?????????，??????????????????，?????95% XCode v3.5.2009.0714 ??，?v3.5?v6.0???????????????，?????????。v3.5???????????，??????????????。 XCoder ??XTemplate?????????，????????XCode??? XCoder_Src ???????（????XTemplate????），??????????????????New Projects1i2m3i4s5e6r7p: 1i2m3i4s5e6r7pA3 Fashion Web: A complete e-commerce siteAfonsoft Blog - Blog de teste: Blog para teste de desenvolvimento em MySQL ou SQLServer com ASP.NET 3.5AnyGrid for ASP.NET MVC: Which grid component should you use for your ASP.NET MVC project? How about all of them? AnyGrid makes it easy to switch between grid implementations, allowing a single action to, e.g., use two different grids for desktop and mobile views. It also supports DataAnnnotations.BizTalk Map Test Framework: The Map Test Framework makes it easier for BizTalk developers to test their maps. You'll no longer have to maintain a whole bunch of XML files for your tests. The use of template files and xpath queries to perform tests will increase your productivity tremendously.BlogResult.NET: A simple Blogging starter kit using S#harp Architecture. This project was originally course material sample code for an MVC class, but we decided to open source it and make it available to the community.Caro: Code demo caro game.Ecozany Skin for DotNetNuke: This Ecozany package contains three sample skins and a collection of containers for use in your DotNetNuke web sites.Enhanced lookup field: Enhanced lookup field makes it easier for end users to create filters. You'll no longer have to use a custom field or javascript to have a parent child lookup for example. It's developed in C#. - Parent/multiple child lookups - Advanced filters options - Easy to usejobglance: This is job siteMaxLeafWeb_K3: MaxLeafWeb_K3Miage Kart: Projet java M1msystem: MVC. Net web systemNetController: Controle sem teclas de direção, usando acelerômentro e .NET micro Framework.Pencils - A Blog Site framework: Another Blog site frameworkPICTShell: PICT is an efficient way to design test cases and test configurations for software systems. PICT Shell is the GUI for PICT.Portal de Solicitação de Serviços: O Portal de Solicitação de Serviços é uma solução que atende diversas empresas prestadores de serviços. Inicialmente desenvolvido para atender empresa de informática, mas o objetivo é que com a publicação do fonte, ele seja extendido à diversos tipos de prestadoras.Runery: Runery RSPSsCut4s: sCut4sSumacê Jogava Caxangá?: sumace makes it easier for gamers to play. You'll no longer have to play. It's developed in XNA.Supply_Chain_FInance: Supply Chain Finance thrives these years all over the world. In exploring the inner working mechanism ,we can sought to have a way to embed an information system in it. We develop the system to suit the domesticated supply chain finace .TestAmir: ??? ????? ??? ???The Cosmos: School project on a SOA based system (Loan system)Time zone: A c# library for manage time changes for any time zone in the world. Based on olson database.Validate: Validate is a collection of extension methods that let you add validations to any object and display validations in a user/developer friendly format. Its an extremely light weight validation framework with a zero learning curve.Windows Phone 7 Silverlight ListBox with CheckBox Control: A Windows Phone 7 ListBox control, providing CheckBoxes for item selection when in "Choose State" and no CheckBoxes in "Normal State", like the built-in Email app, with nice transition. To switch between states, set the "IsInChooseState" property. The control inherits ListBox.XQSOFT.WF.Designer: this is workflow designerzhanghai: my test project

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• The Benefits of Smart Grid Business Software

  - by Sylvie MacKenzie, PMP

  Smart Grid Background What Are Smart Grids?Smart Grids use computer hardware and software, sensors, controls, and telecommunications equipment and services to: Link customers to information that helps them manage consumption and use electricity wisely. Enable customers to respond to utility notices in ways that help minimize the duration of overloads, bottlenecks, and outages. Provide utilities with information that helps them improve performance and control costs. What Is Driving Smart Grid Development? Environmental ImpactSmart Grid development is picking up speed because of the widespread interest in reducing the negative impact that energy use has on the environment. Smart Grids use technology to drive efficiencies in transmission, distribution, and consumption. As a result, utilities can serve customers’ power needs with fewer generating plants, fewer transmission and distribution assets,and lower overall generation. With the possible exception of wind farm sprawl, landscape preservation is one obvious benefit. And because most generation today results in greenhouse gas emissions, Smart Grids reduce air pollution and the potential for global climate change.Smart Grids also more easily accommodate the technical difficulties of integrating intermittent renewable resources like wind and solar into the grid, providing further greenhouse gas reductions. CostsThe ability to defer the cost of plant and grid expansion is a major benefit to both utilities and customers. Utilities do not need to use as many internal resources for traditional infrastructure project planning and management. Large T&D infrastructure expansion costs are not passed on to customers.Smart Grids will not eliminate capital expansion, of course. Transmission corridors to connect renewable generation with customers will require major near-term expenditures. Additionally, in the future, electricity to satisfy the needs of population growth and additional applications will exceed the capacity reductions available through the Smart Grid. At that point, expansion will resume—but with greater overall T&D efficiency based on demand response, load control, and many other Smart Grid technologies and business processes. Energy efficiency is a second area of Smart Grid cost saving of particular relevance to customers. The timely and detailed information Smart Grids provide encourages customers to limit waste, adopt energy-efficient building codes and standards, and invest in energy efficient appliances. Efficiency may or may not lower customer bills because customer efficiency savings may be offset by higher costs in generation fuels or carbon taxes. It is clear, however, that bills will be lower with efficiency than without it. Utility Operations Smart Grids can serve as the central focus of utility initiatives to improve business processes. Many utilities have long “wish lists” of projects and applications they would like to fund in order to improve customer service or ease staff’s burden of repetitious work, but they have difficulty cost-justifying the changes, especially in the short term. Adding Smart Grid benefits to the cost/benefit analysis frequently tips the scales in favor of the change and can also significantly reduce payback periods.Mobile workforce applications and asset management applications work together to deploy assets and then to maintain, repair, and replace them. Many additional benefits result—for instance, increased productivity and fuel savings from better routing. Similarly, customer portals that provide customers with near-real-time information can also encourage online payments, thus lowering billing costs. Utilities can and should include these cost and service improvements in the list of Smart Grid benefits. What Is Smart Grid Business Software? Smart Grid business software gathers data from a Smart Grid and uses it improve a utility’s business processes. Smart Grid business software also helps utilities provide relevant information to customers who can then use it to reduce their own consumption and improve their environmental profiles. Smart Grid Business Software Minimizes the Impact of Peak Demand Utilities must size their assets to accommodate their highest peak demand. The higher the peak rises above base demand: The more assets a utility must build that are used only for brief periods—an inefficient use of capital. The higher the utility’s risk profile rises given the uncertainties surrounding the time needed for permitting, building, and recouping costs. The higher the costs for utilities to purchase supply, because generators can charge more for contracts and spot supply during high-demand periods. Smart Grids enable a variety of programs that reduce peak demand, including: Time-of-use pricing and critical peak pricing—programs that charge customers more when they consume electricity during peak periods. Pilot projects indicate that these programs are successful in flattening peaks, thus ensuring better use of existing T&D and generation assets. Direct load control, which lets utilities reduce or eliminate electricity flow to customer equipment (such as air conditioners). Contracts govern the terms and conditions of these turn-offs. Indirect load control, which signals customers to reduce the use of on-premises equipment for contractually agreed-on time periods. Smart Grid business software enables utilities to impose penalties on customers who do not comply with their contracts. Smart Grids also help utilities manage peaks with existing assets by enabling: Real-time asset monitoring and control. In this application, advanced sensors safely enable dynamic capacity load limits, ensuring that all grid assets can be used to their maximum capacity during peak demand periods. Real-time asset monitoring and control applications also detect the location of excessive losses and pinpoint need for mitigation and asset replacements. As a result, utilities reduce outage risk and guard against excess capacity or “over-build”. Better peak demand analysis. As a result: Distribution planners can better size equipment (e.g. transformers) to avoid over-building. Operations engineers can identify and resolve bottlenecks and other inefficiencies that may cause or exacerbate peaks. As above, the result is a reduction in the tendency to over-build. Supply managers can more closely match procurement with delivery. As a result, they can fine-tune supply portfolios, reducing the tendency to over-contract for peak supply and reducing the need to resort to spot market purchases during high peaks. Smart Grids can help lower the cost of remaining peaks by: Standardizing interconnections for new distributed resources (such as electricity storage devices). Placing the interconnections where needed to support anticipated grid congestion. Smart Grid Business Software Lowers the Cost of Field Services By processing Smart Grid data through their business software, utilities can reduce such field costs as: Vegetation management. Smart Grids can pinpoint momentary interruptions and tree-caused outages. Spatial mash-up tools leverage GIS models of tree growth for targeted vegetation management. This reduces the cost of unnecessary tree trimming. Service vehicle fuel. Many utility service calls are “false alarms.” Checking meter status before dispatching crews prevents many unnecessary “truck rolls.” Similarly, crews use far less fuel when Smart Grid sensors can pinpoint a problem and mobile workforce applications can then route them directly to it. Smart Grid Business Software Ensures Regulatory Compliance Smart Grids can ensure compliance with private contracts and with regional, national, or international requirements by: Monitoring fulfillment of contract terms. Utilities can use one-hour interval meters to ensure that interruptible (“non-core”) customers actually reduce or eliminate deliveries as required. They can use the information to levy fines against contract violators. Monitoring regulations imposed on customers, such as maximum use during specific time periods. Using accurate time-stamped event history derived from intelligent devices distributed throughout the smart grid to monitor and report reliability statistics and risk compliance. Automating business processes and activities that ensure compliance with security and reliability measures (e.g. NERC-CIP 2-9). Grid Business Software Strengthens Utilities’ Connection to Customers While Reducing Customer Service Costs During outages, Smart Grid business software can: Identify outages more quickly. Software uses sensors to pinpoint outages and nested outage locations. They also permit utilities to ensure outage resolution at every meter location. Size outages more accurately, permitting utilities to dispatch crews that have the skills needed, in appropriate numbers. Provide updates on outage location and expected duration. This information helps call centers inform customers about the timing of service restoration. Smart Grids also facilitates display of outage maps for customer and public-service use. Smart Grids can significantly reduce the cost to: Connect and disconnect customers. Meters capable of remote disconnect can virtually eliminate the costs of field crews and vehicles previously required to change service from the old to the new residents of a metered property or disconnect customers for nonpayment. Resolve reports of voltage fluctuation. Smart Grids gather and report voltage and power quality data from meters and grid sensors, enabling utilities to pinpoint reported problems or resolve them before customers complain. Detect and resolve non-technical losses (e.g. theft). Smart Grids can identify illegal attempts to reconnect meters or to use electricity in supposedly vacant premises. They can also detect theft by comparing flows through delivery assets with billed consumption. Smart Grids also facilitate outreach to customers. By monitoring and analyzing consumption over time, utilities can: Identify customers with unusually high usage and contact them before they receive a bill. They can also suggest conservation techniques that might help to limit consumption. This can head off “high bill” complaints to the contact center. Note that such “high usage” or “additional charges apply because you are out of range” notices—frequently via text messaging—are already common among mobile phone providers. Help customers identify appropriate bill payment alternatives (budget billing, prepayment, etc.). Help customers find and reduce causes of over-consumption. There’s no waiting for bills in the mail before they even understand there is a problem. Utilities benefit not just through improved customer relations but also through limiting the size of bills from customers who might struggle to pay them. Where permitted, Smart Grids can open the doors to such new utility service offerings as: Monitoring properties. Landlords reduce costs of vacant properties when utilities notify them of unexpected energy or water consumption. Utilities can perform similar services for owners of vacation properties or the adult children of aging parents. Monitoring equipment. Power-use patterns can reveal a need for equipment maintenance. Smart Grids permit utilities to alert owners or managers to a need for maintenance or replacement. Facilitating home and small-business networks. Smart Grids can provide a gateway to equipment networks that automate control or let owners access equipment remotely. They also facilitate net metering, offering some utilities a path toward involvement in small-scale solar or wind generation. Prepayment plans that do not need special meters. Smart Grid Business Software Helps Customers Control Energy Costs There is no end to the ways Smart Grids help both small and large customers control energy costs. For instance: Multi-premises customers appreciate having all meters read on the same day so that they can more easily compare consumption at various sites. Customers in competitive regions can match their consumption profile (detailed via Smart Grid data) with specific offerings from competitive suppliers. Customers seeing inexplicable consumption patterns and power quality problems may investigate further. The result can be discovery of electrical problems that can be resolved through rewiring or maintenance—before more serious fires or accidents happen. Smart Grid Business Software Facilitates Use of Renewables Generation from wind and solar resources is a popular alternative to fossil fuel generation, which emits greenhouse gases. Wind and solar generation may also increase energy security in regions that currently import fossil fuel for use in generation. Utilities face many technical issues as they attempt to integrate intermittent resource generation into traditional grids, which traditionally handle only fully dispatchable generation. Smart Grid business software helps solves many of these issues by: Detecting sudden drops in production from renewables-generated electricity (wind and solar) and automatically triggering electricity storage and smart appliance response to compensate as needed. Supporting industry-standard distributed generation interconnection processes to reduce interconnection costs and avoid adding renewable supplies to locations already subject to grid congestion. Facilitating modeling and monitoring of locally generated supply from renewables and thus helping to maximize their use. Increasing the efficiency of “net metering” (through which utilities can use electricity generated by customers) by: Providing data for analysis. Integrating the production and consumption aspects of customer accounts. During non-peak periods, such techniques enable utilities to increase the percent of renewable generation in their supply mix. During peak periods, Smart Grid business software controls circuit reconfiguration to maximize available capacity. Conclusion Utility missions are changing. Yesterday, they focused on delivery of reasonably priced energy and water. Tomorrow, their missions will expand to encompass sustainable use and environmental improvement.Smart Grids are key to helping utilities achieve this expanded mission. But they come at a relatively high price. Utilities will need to invest heavily in new hardware, software, business process development, and staff training. Customer investments in home area networks and smart appliances will be large. Learning to change the energy and water consumption habits of a lifetime could ultimately prove even more formidable tasks.Smart Grid business software can ease the cost and difficulties inherent in a needed transition to a more flexible, reliable, responsive electricity grid. Justifying its implementation, however, requires a full understanding of the benefits it brings—benefits that can ultimately help customers, utilities, communities, and the world address global issues like energy security and climate change while minimizing costs and maximizing customer convenience. This white paper is available for download here. For further information about Oracle's Primavera Solutions for Utilities, please read our Utilities e-book.

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• CodePlex Daily Summary for Thursday, May 17, 2012

  CodePlex Daily Summary for Thursday, May 17, 2012Popular ReleasesWatchersNET.UrlShorty: WatchersNET.UrlShorty 01.03.03: changes Fixed Url & Error History when urls contain line breaksAspxCommerce: AspxCommerce1.1: AspxCommerce - 'Flexible and easy eCommerce platform' offers a complete e-Commerce solution that allows you to build and run your fully functional online store in minutes. You can create your storefront; manage the products through categories and subcategories, accept payments through credit cards and ship the ordered products to the customers. We have everything set up for you, so that you can only focus on building your own online store. Note: To login as a superuser, the username and pass...SiteMap Editor for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011: SiteMap Editor (1.1.1616.403): BUG FIX Hide save button when Titles or Descriptions element is selectedVisual C++ 2010 Directories Editor: Visual C++ 2010 Directories Editor (x32_x64): release v1.3MapWindow 6 Desktop GIS: MapWindow 6.1.2: Looking for a .Net GIS Map Application?MapWindow 6 Desktop GIS is an open source desktop GIS for Microsoft Windows that is built upon the DotSpatial Library. This release requires .Net 4 (Client Profile). Are you a software developer?Instead of downloading MapWindow for development purposes, get started with with the DotSpatial template. The extensions you create from the template can be loaded in MapWindow.DotSpatial: DotSpatial 1.2: This is a Minor Release. See the changes in the issue tracker. Minimal -- includes DotSpatial core and essential extensions Extended -- includes debugging symbols and additional extensions Tutorials are available. Just want to run the software? End user (non-programmer) version available branded as MapWindow Want to add your own feature? Develop a plugin, using the template and contribute to the extension feed (you can also write extensions that you distribute in other ways). Components ...Mugen Injection: Mugen Injection 2.2.1 (WinRT supported): Added ManagedScopeLifecycle. Increase performance. Added support for resolve 'params'.Microsoft Ajax Minifier: Microsoft Ajax Minifier 4.52: Make preprocessor comment-statements nestable; add the ///#IFNDEF statement. (Discussion #355785) Don't throw an error for old-school JScript event handlers, and don't rename them if they aren't global functions.DotNetNuke® Events: 06.00.00: This is a serious release of Events. DNN 6 form pattern - We have take the full route towards DNN6: most notably the incorporation of the DNN6 form pattern with streamlined UX/UI. We have also tried to change all formatting to a div based structure. A daunting task, since the Events module contains a lot of forms. Roger has done a splendid job by going through all the forms in great detail, replacing all table style layouts into the new DNN6 div class="dnnForm XXX" type of layout with chang...LogicCircuit: LogicCircuit 2.12.5.15: Logic Circuit - is educational software for designing and simulating logic circuits. Intuitive graphical user interface, allows you to create unrestricted circuit hierarchy with multi bit buses, debug circuits behavior with oscilloscope, and navigate running circuits hierarchy. Changes of this versionThis release is fixing one but nasty bug. Two functions XOR and XNOR when used with 3 or more inputs were incorrectly evaluating their results. If you have a circuit that is using these functions...SharpCompress - a fully native C# library for RAR, 7Zip, Zip, Tar, GZip, BZip2: SharpCompress 0.8.1: Two fixes: Rar Decompression bug fixed. Error only occurred on some files Rar Decompression will throw an exception when another volume isn't found but one is expected.?????????? - ????????: All-In-One Code Framework ??? 2012-05-14: http://download.codeplex.com/Project/Download/FileDownload.aspx?ProjectName=1codechs&DownloadId=216140 ???OneCode??????，??????????6????Microsoft OneCode Sample，????2?Data Platform Sample?4?WPF Sample。???????????。 ????，?????。http://i3.codeplex.com/Project/Download/FileDownload.aspx?ProjectName=1code&DownloadId=128165 Data Platform Sample CSUseADO CppUseADO WPF Sample CSWPFMasterDetailBinding VBWPFMasterDetailBinding CSWPFThreading VBWPFThreading ....... ???????????blog： http://blog.csd...LINQ to Twitter: LINQ to Twitter Beta v2.0.25: Supports .NET 3.5, .NET 4.0, Silverlight 4.0, Windows Phone 7.1, Client Profile, and Windows 8. 100% Twitter API coverage. Also available via NuGet! Follow @JoeMayo.BlogEngine.NET: BlogEngine.NET 2.6: Get DotNetBlogEngine for 3 Months Free! Click Here for More Info BlogEngine.NET Hosting - 3 months free! Cheap ASP.NET Hosting - $4.95/Month - Click Here!! Click Here for More Info Cheap ASP.NET Hosting - $4.95/Month - Click Here! If you want to set up and start using BlogEngine.NET right away, you should download the Web project. If you want to extend or modify BlogEngine.NET, you should download the source code. If you are upgrading from a previous version of BlogEngine.NET, please take...BlackJumboDog: Ver5.6.2: 2012.05.07 Ver5.6.2 (1)　Web???????、????????·????????? (2)　Web???????、?????????? COMSPEC PATHEXT WINDIR SERVERADDR SERVERPORT DOCUMENTROOT SERVERADMIN REMOTE_PORT HTTPACCEPTCHRSET HTTPACCEPTLANGUAGE HTTPACCEPTEXCODINGGardens Point Parser Generator: Gardens Point Parser Generator version 1.5.0: ChangesVersion 1.5.0 contains a number of changes. Error messages are now MSBuild and VS-friendly. The default encoding of the *.y file is Unicode, with an automatic fallback to the previous raw-byte interpretation. The /report option has been improved, as has the automaton tracing facility. New facilities are included that allow multiple parsers to share a common token type. A complete change-log is available as a separate documentation file. The source project has been upgraded to Visual...Media Companion: Media Companion 3.502b: It has been a slow week, but this release addresses a couple of recent bugs: Movies Multi-part Movies - Existing .nfo files that differed in name from the first part, were missed and scraped again. Trailers - MC attempted to scrape info for existing trailers. TV Shows Show Scraping - shows available only in the non-default language would not show up in the main browser. The correct language can now be selected using the TV Show Selector for a single show. General Will no longer prompt for ...NewLife XCode ??????: XCode v8.5.2012.0508、XCoder v4.7.2012.0320: X????： 1，????For .Net 4.0?? XCoder????： 1，???????，????X????，?????? XCode????： 1，Insert/Update/Delete???????????????，???SQL???? 2，IEntityOperate?????? 3，????????IEntityTree 4，????????????????? 5，?????????? 6，??????????????Google Book Downloader: Google Books Downloader Lite 1.0: Google Books Downloader Lite 1.0Python Tools for Visual Studio: 1.5 Alpha: We’re pleased to announce the release of Python Tools for Visual Studio 1.5 Alpha. Python Tools for Visual Studio (PTVS) is an open-source plug-in for Visual Studio which supports programming with the Python language. PTVS supports a broad range of features including: • Supports Cpython, IronPython, Jython and Pypy • Python editor with advanced member, signature intellisense and refactoring • Code navigation: “Find all refs”, goto definition, and object browser • Local and remote debugging...New ProjectsAmlak: Amlak projectApparat: An Open Source Game/Simulation Engine made with C# and SlimDX.CarShop emulator: carshopDynaMaxx Server Backend: DynaMaxx Server BackendEntry-Level C# Password Generator: The Entry-Level C# Password Generator is a piece of software written for two purposes. To be kept as simple as possible for newcomers to the langauge to understand how to use the language and to help people make a new secure password for themselves.faccipractica: ESTA ES LA CAPA DE DATOSFACCIULEAM: ESTE ES UN PROYECTO DE PRACTICAFast C++ Math Expression Parser: The C++ Mathematical Expression Library (ExprTk) is a simple to use, easy to integrate and extremely efficient and fast mathematical expression parsing and evaluation engine. The parsing engine supports various kinds of functional and logic processing semantics and is very easily extendible.Font Data Catalog: A tool to store font dataGraffiti: Graffiti is a high-performance rendering engine built specifically for the Reach profile on top of XNA/Monogame with a very specific feature set * Support for the Reach profile * CPU/GPU vertex transformation (using SkinnedEffect) * Quake 3 shader style effects (Multi-pass) for anything Graffiti can render * Keyframed/procedural animation framework * Primitive rendering (antialiased, variable-sized points and lines) * Particle system using complex/primitive objects *Text rendering (w...homeland: A simple form Engine for Rails app.HTML5 for SharePoint 2010: HTML5 for SharePoint 2010 is a package of controls and webparts that allows using HTML5 controls in SharePoint. Image Cropper 4 Umbraco 5: Image cropper for Umbraco 5.IPickMovies: This is project for IPick Movies from Mezanmi Technologies.JFrame: jframeJustForTest: For Testkxcxw: This is a website project. Latence: projectLive: this is Live project.MASMYTEST: fdfMP3 player: Project for MUL.MSI Validation: MSI ValidationMyWp: wp applicationOpen Waves Activity Feed: Activity Feed component to be used in ASP.NET projects based on EPiServer CMS, SP, and other.pComboBox: Script ComboBox - Initial versions complete and functional ( current version is 1.54) program and documentation available on justcode.ca - http://www.justcode.ca/justwindowscode/ Source will be available at pcombobox.codeplex.com The basic functionality is shown in the below batch file to call this combobox was coded as follows pcombobox /p:one,"# two",three,4 /t:"title" echo %ERRORLEVEL% Basically you can call this combobox dialog window from a batch file or a vbscript an...Periodic.Net: Periodic.Net is a Periodic Table layout for Windows based on WPF and the .Net Framework 3.5 SP1, More info coming soon.Pob-Pong: A simple Pong game - the first Project of Elsor and Zakk.PodcastCasting: Podcast casting system for Podcasters that use voice talents in their storiesresolvendo.net: Projeto desenvolvido na 3 etapa do S2BSharepoint for TFS: Custom control to integrate files from Sharepoint to TFSShutdownAB: Windows service to shutdown computer after a backup.SSIS Restart Framework: A framework that provides restartability for SSIS 2012 projects. It is very much work in progress so at the current time, use at your own peril.Standalone Encrypted Sign In Library: The ECL library is a standalone connection library !stunserver: New version 1.1. This is the source code to STUNTMAN - an open source STUN server and client code by john selbie. Compliant with the latest RFCs including 5389, 5769, and 5780. Also includes backwards compatibility for RFC 3489. The stun server code is part of a larger personal project involving P2P file sharing and NAT traversal. Version 1.1 compiles on Linux, MacOS, BSD, and Solaris. Additional features are in development. www.stunprotocol.orgTask Scheduler Assistant: This is a very simple Windows service that watches folders/files and triggers an associated Scheduled Task accordingly. A simple * wildcard scheme is used for file triggers. Wildcards can only be in the filename and not in the path. This was initially built to be a Task Scheduler trigger from import processes from clients, providing the missing Trigger type from Window's Task Scheduler.Tech4WPF: Tech4WPF make it easier for developers to create technical applications. You will no longer have to create your own user controlls like knobs, gauges and simple charts. It's developed in C#/WPF. This project was inspirated by Qwt - Qt Widgets for Technical Applications http://qwt.sourceforge.net/. It's not port, but similar project, creating controls for technical aplications using .NET framework, WPF and all benefits of this platform like binding etc. Tech4WPF was created as a bachelo...TestProject_Git: git projectVS Templates for generating Duet Workspace sites: This project provides VS templates to easily create Duet Enterprise workspace sites.WinTest: This is a winform application. It need net framework 3.5 or higher version.WPF Progressive FizzBuzz Coding Assignment: Classic "FizzBuzz".YahalomProject: YahalomProject is for testing and using codeplex , tfs...Zorbo: Zorbo Server library was designed to add a unique twist to the Ares Galaxy P2P community. It features a large and detailed plugin architecture that allows developers to create rich chatroom experiences while being light-weight and fast.

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• Understanding the value of Customer Experience & Loyalty for the Telecommunications Industry

  - by raul.goycoolea

  Worried by economic woes and market forces, especially in mature markets, communications service providers (CSPs) increasingly focus on improving customer experience. In fact, it seems difficult to find a major message by a C-level executive in the developed world that does not include something on "meeting and exceeding customers' needs". Frequently in customer satisfaction studies by prominent firms, CSPs fall short of the leadership demonstrated by other industries that take customer-centric approaches to their bottom-line strategies. Consider the following:Despite the continued impact of global economic crisis, in July 2010, Apple Computer posted record revenue and net quarterly profit. Those who attribute the results primarily to the iPhone 4 launch should note that Apple also shipped around 30% more Macintosh computers than the same period the previous year. Even sales of the iPod line increased by 8% in a highly commoditized, shrinking media player market. Finally, Apple began selling iPads during the quarter, with total sales of more than 3 million units. What does Apple have that the others lack? Well, some great products (and services) to be sure, but it also excels at customer service and support, marketing, and distribution, and has one of the strongest brands globally. Its products are useful, simple to use, easy to acquire and augment, high quality, and considered very cool. They also evoke such an emotional response from many of Apple's customers, which they turn up their noses at competitive products.In other words, Apple appears to have mastered virtually every aspect of customer experience and the resultant loyalty of its customer base - even in difficult financial times. Through that unwavering customer focus, Apple continues to drive its revenues and profits to new heights. Other customer loyalty leaders like Wal-Mart, Google, Toyota and Honda are also doing well by focusing on customer experience as an essential driver of profitability. Service providers should note this performance and ask themselves how they might leverage the same principles to increase their own profitability. After all, that is what customer experience and loyalty are all about: profitability.To successfully manage all the critical touch points of customer experience, CSPs must shun the one-size-fits-all approach. They can no longer afford to view customer service fundamentally as an act of altruism - which mentality dates back to the industry's civil service days, when CSPs were typically government organizations that were critical to economic development and public safety.As regulators and public officials have pushed, and continue to push, service providers to new heights of reliability - using incentives and punishments - most CSPs already have some of the fundamental building blocks of customer service in place. Yet despite that history and experience, service providers still lag other industries in providing what is seen as good customer service.As we observed in the TMF's 2009 Insights Research report, Customer Experience Management: Driving Loyalty & Profitability there has been resurgence in interest by CSPs. More and more of them have stated ambitions to catch up other industries, and they are realizing that good customer service is a powerful strategy for increasing business performance and profitability, not an act of good will.CSPs are recognizing the connection between customer experience and profitability, as demonstrated in many studies. For example, according to research by Bain & Company, a 5 percent improvement in customer retention rates can yield as much as a 75 percent increase in profits for companies across a range of industries.After decades of customer experience strategy formulation, Bain partner and business author, Frederick Reichheld, considers "would you recommend us to a friend?" as the ultimate question for a customer. How many times have you or your friends recommended an iPod, iPhone or a Mac? What do your children recommend to their peers? Their peers to them?There are certain steps service providers have to take to create more personalized relationships with their customers, as well as reduce churn and increase profitability, all while becoming leaner and more agile. First, they have to define customer experience, we define it as the result of the sum of observations, perceptions, thoughts and feelings arising from interactions and relationships between customers and their service provider(s). Virtually every customer touch point - whether directly or indirectly linked to service providers and their partners - contributes to customer perception, satisfaction, loyalty, and ultimately profitability. Gaining leadership in customer experience and satisfaction will not be a simple task, as it is affected by virtually every customer-facing aspect of the service provider, and in turn impacts the service provider deeply - especially on the all-important bottom line. The scope of issues affecting customer experience is complex and dynamic.With new services, devices and applications extending the basis of customer experience to domains beyond the direct control of the service provider, it is likely to increase in complexity and dynamism.Customer loyalty = increased profitsAs stated earlier, customer experience programs are not fundamentally altruistic exercises, but a strategic means of improving competitiveness and profitability in the short and long term. Loyalty is essential to deriving long term profits from customers.Some of the earliest loyalty programs date back to the 1930s, when packaged goods companies offered embedded coupons for rewards to buyers, and eventually retail chains began offering reward programs to frequent shoppers. These programs continued for decades but were leapfrogged in the 1980s by more aggressive programs from the airlines.This movement was led by American Airlines, which launched the first full-scale loyalty marketing program of the modern era with the AAdvantage frequent flyer scheme. It was the first to reward frequent fliers with notional air miles that could be accumulated and later redeemed for free travel. Figure 1: Opportunities example of Customer loyalty driven profitOther airlines and travel providers were quick to grasp the incredible value of providing customers with an incentive to use their company exclusively. Within a few years, dozens of travel industry companies launched similar initiatives and now loyalty programs are achieving near-ubiquity in many service industries, especially those in which it is difficult to differentiate offerings by product attributes.The belief is that increased profitability will result from customer retention efforts because:•    The cost of acquisition occurs only at the beginning of a relationship: the longer the relationship, the lower the amortized cost;•    Account maintenance costs decline as a percentage of total costs, or as a percentage of revenue, over the lifetime of the relationship;•    Long term customers tend to be less inclined to switch and less price sensitive which can result in stable unit sales volume and increases in dollar-sales volume;•    Long term customers may initiate word-of-mouth promotions and referrals, which cost the company nothing and arguably are the most effective form of advertising;•    Long-term customers are more likely to buy ancillary products and higher margin supplemental products;•    Long term customers tend to be satisfied with their relationship with the company and are less likely to switch to competitors, making market entry or competitors gaining market share difficult;•    Regular customers tend to be less expensive to service, as they are familiar with the processes involved, require less 'education', and are consistent in their order placement;•    Increased customer retention and loyalty makes the employees' jobs easier and more satisfying. In turn, happy employees feed back into higher customer satisfaction in a virtuous circle. Figure 2: The virtuous circle of customer loyaltyFigure 2 represents a high-level example of a virtuous cycle driven by customer satisfaction and loyalty, depicting how superiority in product and service offerings, as well as strong customer support by competent employees, lead to higher sales and ultimately profitability. As stated above, this is not a new concept, but succeeding with it is difficult. It has eluded many a company driven to achieve profitability goals. Of course, for this circle to be virtuous, the customer relationship(s) must be profitable.Trying to maintain the loyalty of unprofitable customers is not a viable business strategy. It is, therefore, important that marketers can assess the profitability of each customer (or customer segment), and either improve or terminate relationships that are not profitable. This means each customer's 'relationship costs' must be understood and compared to their 'relationship revenue'. Customer lifetime value (CLV) is the most commonly used metric here, as it is generally accepted as a representation of exactly how much each customer is worth in monetary terms, and therefore a determinant of exactly how much a service provider should be willing to spend to acquire or retain that customer.CLV models make several simplifying assumptions and often involve the following inputs:•    Churn rate represents the percentage of customers who end their relationship with a company in a given period;•    Retention rate is calculated by subtracting the churn rate percentage from 100;•    Period/horizon equates to the units of time into which a customer relationship can be divided for analysis. A year is the most commonly used period for this purpose. Customer lifetime value is a multi-period calculation, often projecting three to seven years into the future. In practice, analysis beyond this point is viewed as too speculative to be reliable. The model horizon is the number of periods used in the calculation;•    Periodic revenue is the amount of revenue collected from a customer in a given period (though this is often extended across multiple periods into the future to understand lifetime value), such as usage revenue, revenues anticipated from cross and upselling, and often some weighting for referrals by a loyal customer to others; •    Retention cost describes the amount of money the service provider must spend, in a given period, to retain an existing customer. Again, this is often forecast across multiple periods. Retention costs include customer support, billing, promotional incentives and so on;•    Discount rate means the cost of capital used to discount future revenue from a customer. Discounting is an advanced method used in more sophisticated CLV calculations;•    Profit margin is the projected profit as a percentage of revenue for the period. This may be reflected as a percentage of gross or net profit. Again, this is generally projected across the model horizon to understand lifetime value.A strong focus on managing these inputs can help service providers realize stronger customer relationships and profits, but there are some obstacles to overcome in achieving accurate calculations of CLV, such as the complexity of allocating costs across the customer base. There are many costs that serve all customers which must be properly allocated across the base, and often a simple proportional allocation across the whole base or a segment may not accurately reflect the true cost of serving that customer;  This is made worse by the fragmentation of customer information, which is likely to be across a variety of product or operations groups, and may be difficult to aggregate due to different representations.In addition, there is the complexity of account relationships and structures to take into consideration. Complex account structures may not be understood or properly represented. For example, a profitable customer may have a separate account for a second home or another family member, which may appear to be unprofitable. If the service provider cannot relate the two accounts, CLV is not properly represented and any resultant cancellation of the apparently unprofitable account may result in the customer churning from the profitable one.In summary, if service providers are to realize strong customer relationships and their attendant profits, there must be a very strong focus on data management. This needs to be coupled with analytics that help business managers and those who work in customer-facing functions offer highly personalized solutions to customers, while maintaining profitability for the service provider. It's clear that acquiring new customers is expensive. Advertising costs, campaign management expenses, promotional service pricing and discounting, and equipment subsidies make a serious dent in a new customer's profitability. That is especially true given the rising subsidies for Smartphone users, which service providers hope will result in greater profits from profits from data services profitability in future.  The situation is made worse by falling prices and greater competition in mature markets.Customer acquisition through industry consolidation isn't cheap either. A North American service provider spent about $2,000 per subscriber in its acquisition of a smaller company earlier this year. While this has allowed it to leapfrog to become the largest mobile service provider in the country, it required a total investment of more than $28 billion (including assumption of the acquiree's debt).While many operating cost synergies clearly made this deal more attractive to the acquiring company, this is certainly an expensive way to acquire customers: the cost per subscriber in this case is not out of line with the prices others have paid for acquisitions.While growth by acquisition certainly increases overall revenues, it often creates tremendous challenges for profitability. Organic growth through increased customer loyalty and retention is a more effective driver of profit, as well as a stronger predictor of future profitability. Service providers, especially those in mature markets, are increasingly recognizing this and taking steps toward a creating a more personalized, flexible and satisfying experience for their customers.In summary, the clearest path to profitability for companies in virtually all industries is through customer retention and maximization of lifetime value. Service providers would do well to recognize this and focus attention on profitable customer relationships.

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• Pain Comes Instantly

  - by user701213

  When I look back at recent blog entries – many of which are not all that current (more on where my available writing time is going later) – I am struck by how many of them focus on public policy or legislative issues instead of, say, the latest nefarious cyberattack or exploit (or everyone’s favorite new pastime: coining terms for the Coming Cyberpocalypse: “digital Pearl Harbor” is so 1941). Speaking of which, I personally hope evil hackers from Malefactoria will someday hack into my bathroom scale – which in a future time will be connected to the Internet because, gosh, wouldn’t it be great to have absolutely everything in your life Internet-enabled? – and recalibrate it so I’m 10 pounds thinner. The horror. In part, my focus on public policy is due to an admitted limitation of my skill set. I enjoy reading technical articles about exploits and cybersecurity trends, but writing a blog entry on those topics would take more research than I have time for and, quite honestly, doesn’t play to my strengths. The first rule of writing is “write what you know.” The bigger contributing factor to my recent paucity of blog entries is that more and more of my waking hours are spent engaging in “thrust and parry” activity involving emerging regulations of some sort or other. I’ve opined in earlier blogs about what constitutes good and reasonable public policy so nobody can accuse me of being reflexively anti-regulation. That said, you have so many cycles in the day, and most of us would rather spend it slaying actual dragons than participating in focus groups on whether dragons are really a problem, whether lassoing them (with organic, sustainable and recyclable lassos) is preferable to slaying them – after all, dragons are people, too - and whether we need lasso compliance auditors to make sure lassos are being used correctly and humanely. (A point that seems to evade many rule makers: slaying dragons actually accomplishes something, whereas talking about “approved dragon slaying procedures and requirements” wastes the time of those who are competent to dispatch actual dragons and who were doing so very well without the input of “dragon-slaying theorists.”) Unfortunately for so many of us who would just get on with doing our day jobs, cybersecurity is rapidly devolving into the “focus groups on dragon dispatching” realm, which actual dragons slayers have little choice but to participate in. The general trend in cybersecurity is that powers-that-be – which encompasses groups other than just legislators – are often increasingly concerned and therefore feel they need to Do Something About Cybersecurity. Many seem to believe that if only we had the right amount of regulation and oversight, there would be no data breaches: a breach simply must mean Someone Is At Fault and Needs Supervision. (Leaving aside the fact that we have lots of home invasions despite a) guard dogs b) liberal carry permits c) alarm systems d) etc.) Also note that many well-managed and security-aware organizations, like the US Department of Defense, still get hacked. More specifically, many powers-that-be feel they must direct industry in a multiplicity of ways, up to and including how we actually build and deploy information technology systems. The more prescriptive the requirement, the more regulators or overseers a) can be seen to be doing something b) feel as if they are doing something regardless of whether they are actually doing something useful or cost effective. Note: an unfortunate concomitant of Doing Something is that often the cure is worse than the ailment. That is, doing what overseers want creates unfortunate byproducts that they either didn’t foresee or worse, don’t care about. After all, the logic goes, we Did Something. Prescriptive practice in the IT industry is problematic for a number of reasons. For a start, prescriptive guidance is really only appropriate if: • It is cost effective• It is “current” (meaning, the guidance doesn’t require the use of the technical equivalent of buggy whips long after horse-drawn transportation has become passé)*• It is practical (that is, pragmatic, proven and effective in the real world, not theoretical and unproven)• It solves the right problem With the above in mind, heading up the list of “you must be joking” regulations are recent disturbing developments in the Payment Card Industry (PCI) world. I’d like to give PCI kahunas the benefit of the doubt about their intentions, except that efforts by Oracle among others to make them aware of “unfortunate side effects of your requirements” – which is as tactful I can be for reasons that I believe will become obvious below - have gone, to-date, unanswered and more importantly, unchanged. A little background on PCI before I get too wound up. In 2008, the Payment Card Industry (PCI) Security Standards Council (SSC) introduced the Payment Application Data Security Standard (PA-DSS). That standard requires vendors of payment applications to ensure that their products implement specific requirements and undergo security assessment procedures. In order to have an application listed as a Validated Payment Application (VPA) and available for use by merchants, software vendors are required to execute the PCI Payment Application Vendor Release Agreement (VRA). (Are you still with me through all the acronyms?) Beginning in August 2010, the VRA imposed new obligations on vendors that are extraordinary and extraordinarily bad, short-sighted and unworkable. Specifically, PCI requires vendors to disclose (dare we say “tell all?”) to PCI any known security vulnerabilities and associated security breaches involving VPAs. ASAP. Think about the impact of that. PCI is asking a vendor to disclose to them: • Specific details of security vulnerabilities • Including exploit information or technical details of the vulnerability • Whether or not there is any mitigation available (as in a patch) PCI, in turn, has the right to blab about any and all of the above – specifically, to distribute all the gory details of what is disclosed - to the PCI SSC, qualified security assessors (QSAs), and any affiliate or agent or adviser of those entities, who are in turn permitted to share it with their respective affiliates, agents, employees, contractors, merchants, processors, service providers and other business partners. This assorted crew can’t be more than, oh, hundreds of thousands of entities. Does anybody believe that several hundred thousand people can keep a secret? Or that several hundred thousand people are all equally trustworthy? Or that not one of the people getting all that information would blab vulnerability details to a bad guy, even by accident? Or be a bad guy who uses the information to break into systems? (Wait, was that the Easter Bunny that just hopped by? Bringing world peace, no doubt.) Sarcasm aside, common sense tells us that telling lots of people a secret is guaranteed to “unsecret” the secret. Notably, being provided details of a vulnerability (without a patch) is of little or no use to companies running the affected application. Few users have the technological sophistication to create a workaround, and even if they do, most workarounds break some other functionality in the application or surrounding environment. Also, given the differences among corporate implementations of any application, it is highly unlikely that a single workaround is going to work for all corporate users. So until a patch is developed by the vendor, users remain at risk of exploit: even more so if the details of vulnerability have been widely shared. Sharing that information widely before a patch is available therefore does not help users, and instead helps only those wanting to exploit known security bugs. There’s a shocker for you. Furthermore, we already know that insider information about security vulnerabilities inevitably leaks, which is why most vendors closely hold such information and limit dissemination until a patch is available (and frequently limit dissemination of technical details even with the release of a patch). That’s the industry norm, not that PCI seems to realize or acknowledge that. Why would anybody release a bunch of highly technical exploit information to a cast of thousands, whose only “vetting” is that they are members of a PCI consortium? Oracle has had personal experience with this problem, which is one reason why information on security vulnerabilities at Oracle is “need to know” (we use our own row level access control to limit access to security bugs in our bug database, and thus less than 1% of development has access to this information), and we don’t provide some customers with more information than others or with vulnerability information and/or patches earlier than others. Failure to remember “insider information always leaks” creates problems in the general case, and has created problems for us specifically. A number of years ago, one of the UK intelligence agencies had information about a non-public security vulnerability in an Oracle product that they circulated among other UK and Commonwealth defense and intelligence entities. Nobody, it should be pointed out, bothered to report the problem to Oracle, even though only Oracle could produce a patch. The vulnerability was finally reported to Oracle by (drum roll) a US-based commercial company, to whom the information had leaked. (Note: every time I tell this story, the MI-whatever agency that created the problem gets a bit shirty with us. I know they meant well and have improved their vulnerability handling/sharing processes but, dudes, next time you find an Oracle vulnerability, try reporting it to us first before blabbing to lots of people who can’t actually fix the problem. Thank you!) Getting back to PCI: clearly, these new disclosure obligations increase the risk of exploitation of a vulnerability in a VPA and thus, of misappropriation of payment card data and customer information that a VPA processes, stores or transmits. It stands to reason that VRA’s current requirement for the widespread distribution of security vulnerability exploit details -- at any time, but particularly before a vendor can issue a patch or a workaround -- is very poor public policy. It effectively publicizes information of great value to potential attackers while not providing compensating benefits - actually, any benefits - to payment card merchants or consumers. In fact, it magnifies the risk to payment card merchants and consumers. The risk is most prominent in the time before a patch has been released, since customers often have little option but to continue using an application or system despite the risks. However, the risk is not limited to the time before a patch is issued: customers often need days, or weeks, to apply patches to systems, based upon the complexity of the issue and dependence on surrounding programs. Rather than decreasing the available window of exploit, this requirement increases the available window of exploit, both as to time available to exploit a vulnerability and the ease with which it can be exploited. Also, why would hackers focus on finding new vulnerabilities to exploit if they can get “EZHack” handed to them in such a manner: a) a vulnerability b) in a payment application c) with exploit code: the “Hacking Trifecta!“ It’s fair to say that this is probably the exact opposite of what PCI – or any of us – would want. Established industry practice concerning vulnerability handling avoids the risks created by the VRA’s vulnerability disclosure requirements. Specifically, the norm is not to release information about a security bug until the associated patch (or a pretty darn good workaround) has been issued. Once a patch is available, the notice to the user community is a high-level communication discussing the product at issue, the level of risk associated with the vulnerability, and how to apply the patch. The notices do not include either the specific customers affected by the vulnerability or forensic reports with maps of the exploit (both of which are required by the current VRA). In this way, customers have the tools they need to prioritize patching and to help prevent an attack, and the information released does not increase the risk of exploit. Furthermore, many vendors already use industry standards for vulnerability description: Common Vulnerability Enumeration (CVE) and Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS). CVE helps ensure that customers know which particular issues a patch addresses and CVSS helps customers determine how severe a vulnerability is on a relative scale. Industry already provides the tools customers need to know what the patch contains and how bad the problem is that the patch remediates. So, what’s a poor vendor to do? Oracle is reaching out to other vendors subject to PCI and attempting to enlist then in a broad effort to engage PCI in rethinking (that is, eradicating) these requirements. I would therefore urge all who care about this issue, but especially those in the vendor community whose applications are subject to PCI and who may not have know they were being asked to tell-all to PCI and put their customers at risk, to do one of the following: • Contact PCI with your concerns• Contact Oracle (we are looking for vendors to sign our statement of concern)• And make sure you tell your customers that you have to rat them out to PCI if there is a breach involving the payment application I like to be charitable and say “PCI meant well” but in as important a public policy issue as what you disclose about vulnerabilities, to whom and when, meaning well isn’t enough. We need to do well. PCI, as regards this particular issue, has not done well, and has compounded the error by thus far being nonresponsive to those of us who have labored mightily to try to explain why they might want to rethink telling the entire planet about security problems with no solutions. By Way of Explanation… Non-related to PCI whatsoever, and the explanation for why I have not been blogging a lot recently, I have been working on Other Writing Venues with my sister Diane (who has also worked in the tech sector, inflicting upgrades on unsuspecting and largely ungrateful end users). I am pleased to note that we have recently (self-)published the first in the Miss Information Technology Murder Mystery series, Outsourcing Murder. The genre might best be described as “chick lit meets geek scene.” Our sisterly nom de plume is Maddi Davidson and (shameless plug follows): you can order the paper version of the book on Amazon, or the Kindle or Nook versions on www.amazon.com or www.bn.com, respectively. From our book jacket: Emma Jones, a 20-something IT consultant, is working on an outsourcing project at Tahiti Tacos, a restaurant chain offering Polynexican cuisine: refried poi, anyone? Emma despises her boss Padmanabh, a brilliant but arrogant partner in GD Consulting. When Emma discovers His-Royal-Padness’s body (verdict: death by cricket bat), she becomes a suspect.With her overprotective family and her best friend Stacey providing endless support and advice, Emma stumbles her way through an investigation of Padmanabh’s murder, bolstered by fusion food feeding frenzies, endless cups of frou-frou coffee and serious surfing sessions. While Stacey knows a PI who owes her a favor, landlady Magda urges Emma to tart up her underwear drawer before the next cute cop with a search warrant arrives. Emma’s mother offers to fix her up with a PhD student at Berkeley and showers her with self-defense gizmos while her old lover Keoni beckons from Hawai’i. And everyone, even Shaun the barista, knows a good lawyer. Book 2, Denial of Service, is coming out this summer. * Given the rate of change in technology, today’s “thou shalts” are easily next year’s “buggy whip guidance.”

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