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  • How strict should I be in the "do the simplest thing that could possible work" while doing TDD

    - by Support - multilanguage SO
    For TDD you have to Create a test that fail Do the simplest thing that could possible work to pass the test Add more variants of the test and repeat Refactor when a pattern emerge With this approach you're supposing to cover all the cases ( that comes to my mind at least) but I'm wonder if am I being too strict here and if it is possible to "think ahead" some scenarios instead of simple discover them. For instance, I'm processing a file and if it doesn't conform to a certain format I am to throw an InvalidFormatException So my first test was: @Test void testFormat(){ // empty doesn't do anything... processor.validate("empty.txt"); try { processor.validate("invalid.txt"); assert false: "Should have thrown InvalidFormatException"; } catch( InvalidFormatException ife ) { assert "Invalid format".equals( ife.getMessage() ); } } I run it and it fails because it doesn't throw an exception. So the next thing that comes to my mind is: "Do the simplest thing that could possible work", so I : public void validate( String fileName ) throws InvalidFormatException { if(fileName.equals("invalid.txt") { throw new InvalidFormatException("Invalid format"); } } Doh!! ( although the real code is a bit more complicated, I found my self doing something like this several times ) I know that I have to eventually add another file name and other test that would make this approach impractical and that would force me to refactor to something that makes sense ( which if I understood correctly is the point of TDD, to discover the patterns the usage unveils ) but: Q: am I taking too literal the "Do the simplest thing..." stuff?

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  • Dell 2155cdn Multifuntion Printer

    - by Wayne-Z
    Hey guys. So after a prolonged period, (overnight) i lose the ability to initiate a scan directly from the unit. I'll initiate a job and after awhile, it times out and beeps. However, when i go to the PC and initiate a scan from there, the scan job goes through just fine, and i can then initiate scans directly from the unit all day. Until a prolonged period (overnight). Then i have to do the process again. Ive made sure all powersave settings were off.. The PC doesnt go to sleep or a powersave state. Any insight into this will be appreciated. Pertinent Info: - Unit: Dell 2155cdn Multifunction - Connected via USB - PC: Dell Optiplex 755

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  • [FIXED] Scan file contents into an array of a structure.

    - by ZaZu
    Hello, I have a structure in my program that contains a particular array. I want to scan a random file with numbers and put the contents into that array. This is my code : ( NOTE : This is a sample from a bigger program, so I need the structure and arrays as declared ) The contents of the file are basically : 5 4 3 2 5 3 4 2 #include<stdio.h> #define first 500 #define sec 500 struct trial{ int f; int r; float what[first][sec]; }; int trialtest(trial *test); main(){ trial test; trialtest(&test); } int trialtest(trial *test){ int z,x,i; FILE *fin; fin=fopen("randomfile.txt","r"); for(i=0;i<5;i++){ fscanf(fin,"%5.2f\t",(*test).what[z][x]); } fclose(fin); return 0; } But the problem is, whenever this I run this code, I get this error : (25) : warning 508 - Data of type 'double' supplied where a pointer is required I tried adding do{ for(i=0;i<5;i++){ q=fscanf(fin,"%5.2f\t",(*test).what[z][x]); } }while(q!=EOF); But that didnt work either, it gives the same error. Does anyone have a solution to this problem ?

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  • Why do R objects not print in a function or a "for" loop?

    - by Sal Leggio
    I have an R matrix named ddd. When I enter this, everything works fine: i <- 1 shapiro.test(ddd[,y]) ad.test(ddd[,y]) stem(ddd[,y]) print(y) The calls to Shapiro Wilk, Anderson Darling, and stem all work, and extract the same column. If I put this code in a "for" loop, the calls to Shapiro Wilk, and Anderson Darling stop working, while the the stem & leaf call and the print call continue to work. for (y in 7:10) { shapiro.test(ddd[,y]) ad.test(ddd[,y]) stem(ddd[,y]) print(y) } The decimal point is 1 digit(s) to the right of the | 0 | 0 0 | 899999 1 | 0 [1] 7 The same thing happens if I try and write a function. SW & AD do not work. The other calls do. > D <- function (y) { + shapiro.test(ddd[,y]) + ad.test(ddd[,y]) + stem(ddd[,y]) + print(y) } > D(9) The decimal point is at the | 9 | 000 9 | 10 | 00000 [1] 9 Why don't all the calls behave the same way?

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  • Retruning reference to object not changing the address in c++

    - by ashish-sangwan
    I am trying to understand function returning reference. For that i have written a simple program :- include using namespace std; class test { int i; friend test& func(); public: test(int j){i=j;} void show(){cout< }; test& func() { test temp(10); return temp; //// Address of temp=0xbfcb2874 } int main() { test obj1(50); // Address of obj1=0xbfcb28a0 func()=obj1; <= Problem:The address of obj1 is not changing obj1.show(); // // Address of obj1=0xbfcb28a0 return 0; } I run the program using gdb and observed that the address of obj1 still remains same but i expect it to get changed to 0xbfcb2874. I am not clear with the concept. Please help. Thanks in advance

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  • Returning reference to object is not changing the address in c++

    - by ashish-sangwan
    I am trying to understand functions returning a reference. For that I have written a simple program: #include<iostream> using namespace std; class test { int i; friend test& func(); public: test(int j){i=j;} void show(){cout<<i<<endl;} }; test& func() { test temp(10); return temp; //// Address of temp=0xbfcb2874 } int main() { test obj1(50); // Address of obj1=0xbfcb28a0 func()=obj1; <= Problem:The address of obj1 is not changing obj1.show(); // // Address of obj1=0xbfcb28a0 return 0; } I ran the program using gdb and observed that the address of obj1 still remains same, but I expect it to get changed to 0xbfcb2874. I am not clear with the concept. Please help.

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  • cURL cookie negative cookie expire

    - by Joe Doe
    I have problems with cookies with cURL. After problems I turned on verbose function and figured out cURL sets them negative expire date even if server sends positive date. Example: * Added cookie _c_sess=""test"" for domain test.com, path /, expire -1630024962 < Set-Cookie: _c_sess="test"; Domain=test.com; HttpOnly; expires=Mon, 26-Mar-2012 14:52:47 GMT; Max-Age=1332773567; Path=/ As you can see both expires and max-age are positive, but cURL sets expire to negative value. Somebody has idea? EDIT: Here is php code I use. $ch = curl_init(); curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, "http://site.com/"); curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_USERAGENT, 'Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; rv:11.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/11.0'); curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_COOKIEJAR, $cookiepath); curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_COOKIEFILE, $cookiepath); curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HEADER ,1); curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_VERBOSE ,1); curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_STDERR ,$f); curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER ,1); curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_FOLLOWLOCATION ,1); curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYPEER, 0); $data = curl_exec($ch); Data from cookie jar: #HttpOnly_.test.com TRUE / FALSE -1630016318 _test_sess "test"

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  • Structure map and generics (in XML config)

    - by James D
    Hi I'm using the latest StructureMap (2.5.4.264), and I need to define some instances in the xml configuration for StructureMap using generics. However I get the following 103 error: Unhandled Exception: StructureMap.Exceptions.StructureMapConfigurationException: StructureMap configuration failures: Error: 103 Source: Requested PluginType MyTest.ITest`1[[MyTest.Test,MyTest]] configured in Xml cannot be found Could not create a Type for 'MyTest.ITest`1[[MyTest.Test,MyTest]]' System.ApplicationException: Could not create a Type for 'MyTest.ITest`1[[MyTest.Test,MyTest]]' ---> System.TypeLoadException: Could not loa d type 'MyTest.ITest`1' from assembly 'StructureMap, Version=2.5.4.264, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=e60ad81abae3c223'. at System.RuntimeTypeHandle._GetTypeByName(String name, Boolean throwOnError, Boolean ignoreCase, Boolean reflectionOnly, StackCrawlMark& stackMark, Boolean loadTypeFromPartialName) at System.RuntimeTypeHandle.GetTypeByName(String name, Boolean throwOnError, Boolean ignoreCase, Boolean reflectionOnly, StackCrawlMark& stackMark) at System.RuntimeType.PrivateGetType(String typeName, Boolean throwOnError, Boolean ignoreCase, Boolean reflectionOnly, StackCrawlMark& s tackMark) at System.Type.GetType(String typeName, Boolean throwOnError) at StructureMap.Graph.TypePath.FindType() --- End of inner exception stack trace --- at StructureMap.Graph.TypePath.FindType() at StructureMap.Configuration.GraphBuilder.ConfigureFamily(TypePath pluginTypePath, Action`1 action) A simply replication of the code is as follows: public interface ITest<T> { } public class Test { } public class Concrete : ITest<Test> { } Which I then wish to define in the XML configuration something as follows: <DefaultInstance PluginType="MyTest.ITest`1[[MyTest.Test,MyTest]],MyTest" PluggedType="MyTest.Concrete,MyTest" Scope="Singleton" /> I've been racking my brain, however I can't see what I'm doing wrong - I've used Type.GetType to verify the type actually is valid which it is. Anyone have any ideas? Thanks !

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  • C++ iterator and const_iterator problem for own container class

    - by BaCh
    Hi there, I'm writing an own container class and have run into a problem I can't get my head around. Here's the bare-bone sample that shows the problem. It consists of a container class and two test classes: one test class using a std:vector which compiles nicely and the second test class which tries to use my own container class in exact the same way but fails miserably to compile. #include <vector> #include <algorithm> #include <iterator> using namespace std; template <typename T> class MyContainer { public: class iterator { public: typedef iterator self_type; inline iterator() { } }; class const_iterator { public: typedef const_iterator self_type; inline const_iterator() { } }; iterator begin() { return iterator(); } const_iterator begin() const { return const_iterator(); } }; // This one compiles ok, using std::vector class TestClassVector { public: void test() { vector<int>::const_iterator I=myc.begin(); } private: vector<int> myc; }; // this one fails to compile. Why? class TestClassMyContainer { public: void test(){ MyContainer<int>::const_iterator I=myc.begin(); } private: MyContainer<int> myc; }; int main(int argc, char ** argv) { return 0; } gcc tells me: test2.C: In member function ‘void TestClassMyContainer::test()’: test2.C:51: error: conversion from ‘MyContainer::iterator’ to non-scalar type ‘MyContainer::const_iterator’ requested I'm not sure where and why the compiler wants to convert an iterator to a const_iterator for my own class but not for the STL vector class. What am I doing wrong?

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  • encode array to JSON in PHP to get [elm1,elm2,elm3] instead of {elm1:{},elm2:{},elm3:{}}

    - by Itay Moav
    I am trying to json_encode an array, which is what returns from a Zend_DB query. var_dump gives: (Manually adding 0 member does not change the picture). array(3) { [1]=> array(3) { ["comment_id"]=> string(1) "1" ["erasable"]=> string(1) "1" ["comment"]=> string(6) "test 1" } [2]=> array(3) { ["comment_id"]=> string(1) "2" ["erasable"]=> string(1) "1" ["comment"]=> string(6) "test 1" } [3]=> array(3) { ["comment_id"]=> string(1) "3" ["erasable"]=> string(1) "1" ["comment"]=> string(6) "jhghjg" } } The encoded string looks: {"1":{"comment_id":"1","erasable":"1","comment":"test 1"}, "2":{"comment_id":"2","erasable":"1","comment":"test 1"}, "3":{"comment_id":"3","erasable":"1","comment":"jhghjg"}} While I need it as: [{"comment_id":"1","erasable":"1","comment":"test 1"}, {"comment_id":"2","erasable":"1","comment":"test 1"}, {"comment_id":"3","erasable":"1","comment":"jhghjg"}] As the php.ini/json__encode documentation says it should. Any ideas?

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  • How can I use CssResources in UiBinder a generated Cell?

    - by confile
    I want to generate a Cell for a CellWidget with the UiBinder (UiRenderer). What I did to generate the cell is in MyCell.java: public class MyCell implements AbstractCell<MyDto> { public interface Resources extends ClientBundle { @Source({Css.DEFAULT_CSS }) Css css(); } public interface Css extends CssResource { String DEFAULT_CSS = "test/MyStyle.css"; String test(); } interface MyUiRenderer extends UiRenderer { void render(SafeHtmlBuilder sb, String name, SafeStyles styles); } private static MyUiRenderer renderer = GWT.create(MyUiRenderer.class); Resources resources = GWT.create(Resources.class); @Override public void render(SafeHtmlBuilder safeHtmlBuilder, MyDto model) { SafeStyles style = SafeStylesUtils.fromTrustedString(resources.css().test().toString()); renderer.render(safeHtmlBuilder, model.getName(), style); } } My MyCell.ui.xml file looks like this: <!DOCTYPE ui:UiBinder SYSTEM "http://dl.google.com/gwt/DTD/xhtml.ent"> <ui:UiBinder xmlns:ui='urn:ui:com.google.gwt.uibinder'> <ui:with field="name" type="java.lang.String" /> <ui:with field='styles' type='com.google.gwt.safecss.shared.SafeStyles'/> <div style="{styles}"><ui:text from="{name}" /></div> </ui:UiBinder> MyStyle.css: .test { background-color: red; font-size: 20px; display: flex; ... } When I run my code I get the following error: [DEBUG] [mobile] - Rebinding test.client.app.MyCell.MyUiRenderer [DEBUG] [mobile] - Invoking generator com.google.gwt.uibinder.rebind.UiBinderGenerator [ERROR] [mobile] - java.lang.String required, but {styles} returns com.google.gwt.safecss.shared.SafeStyles: <div style='{styles}'> (:9) [ERROR] [mobile] - Deferred binding failed for 'test.client.app.MyCell.MyUiRenderer'; expect subsequent failures [ERROR] [mobile] - (GWT.java:72) 2014-06-08 17:15:05,214 [FATAL] Uncaught Exception: Then I tried to this: in my UiBinder but it does not work. How can I use css style from a CssResource in my UiRenderer?

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  • How To Include Transitive Dependencies

    - by Brad Rhoads
    I have 2 gradle projects: an Android app and a RoboSpock test. My build.gradle for the Android app has . . . dependencies { compile fileTree(dir: 'libs', include: '*.jar') compile ('com.actionbarsherlock:actionbarsherlock:4.4.0@aar') { exclude module: 'support-v4' } } . . . and builds correctly by itself, e.g assembleRelease works. I'm stuck getting the test to work. I gets lots of errors such as: package com.google.zxing does not exist Those seem to indicate that the .jar files aren't being picked up. Here's my build.gradle for the test project: buildscript { repositories { mavenLocal() mavenCentral() } dependencies { classpath 'com.android.tools.build:gradle:0.9.+' classpath 'org.robospock:robospock-plugin:0.4.0' } } repositories { mavenLocal() mavenCentral() } apply plugin: 'groovy' dependencies { compile "org.codehaus.groovy:groovy-all:1.8.6" compile 'org.robospock:robospock:0.4.4' } dependencies { compile fileTree(dir: ':android:libs', include: '*.jar') compile (project(':estanteApp')) { transitive = true } } sourceSets.test.java.srcDirs = ['../android/src/', '../android/build/source/r/debug'] test { testLogging { lifecycle { exceptionFormat "full" } } } project.ext { robospock = ":estanteApp" // project to test } apply plugin: 'robospock' As that shows, I've tried adding transitive = true and including the .jar files explicitly. But no matter what I try, I end up with the package does not exist error.

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  • MySQL updating a field to result of a function

    - by jdborg
    mysql> CREATE FUNCTION test () -> RETURNS CHAR(16) -> NOT DETERMINISTIC -> BEGIN -> RETURN 'IWantThisText'; -> END$$ Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.00 sec) mysql> SELECT test(); +------------------+ | test() | +------------------+ | IWantThisText | +------------------+ 1 row in set (0.00 sec) mysql> UPDATE `table` -> SET field = test() -> WHERE id = 1 Query OK, 1 row affected, 1 warning (0.01 sec) Rows matched: 1 Changed: 1 Warnings: 1 mysql> SHOW WARNINGS; +---------+------+----------------------------------------------------------------+ | Level | Code | Message | +---------+------+----------------------------------------------------------------+ | Warning | 1265 | Data truncated for column 'test' at row 1 | +---------+------+----------------------------------------------------------------+ 1 row in set (0.00 sec) mysql> SELECT field FROM table WHERE id = 1; +------------------+ | field | +------------------+ | NULL | +------------------+ 1 row in set (0.00 sec) What I am doing wrong? I just want field to be set to the returned value of test() Forgot to mention field is VARCHR(255)

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  • Why won't the following PDO transaction won't work in PHP?

    - by jfizz
    I am using PHP version 5.4.4, and a MySQL database using InnoDB. I had been using PDO for awhile without utilizing transactions, and everything was working flawlessly. Then, I decided to try to implement transactions, and I keep getting Internal Server Error 500. The following code worked for me (doesn't contain transactions). try { $DB = new PDO('mysql:host=localhost;dbname=database', 'root', 'root'); $DB->setAttribute(PDO::ATTR_ERRMODE, PDO::ERRMODE_EXCEPTION); $dbh = $DB->prepare("SELECT * FROM user WHERE username = :test"); $dbh->bindValue(':test', $test, PDO::PARAM_STR); $dbh->execute(); } catch(Exception $e){ $dbh->rollback(); echo "an error has occured"; } Then I attempted to utilize transactions with the following code (which doesn't work). try { $DB = new PDO('mysql:host=localhost;dbname=database', 'root', 'root'); $DB->setAttribute(PDO::ATTR_ERRMODE, PDO::ERRMODE_EXCEPTION); $dbh = $DB->beginTransaction(); $dbh->prepare("SELECT * FROM user WHERE username = :test"); $dbh->bindValue(':test', $test, PDO::PARAM_STR); $dbh->execute(); $dbh->commit(); } catch(Exception $e){ $dbh->rollback(); echo "an error has occured"; } When I run the previous code, I get an Internal Server Error 500. Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!

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  • Troubleshooting multiple GET variables In PHP

    - by V413HAV
    This may be a very simple question but I don't what's the wrong thing am doing here... To explain you clearly, I've set a real simple example below: <ul> <li><a href="test.php?link1=true">Link 1</a></li> <li><a href="test.php?link2=true">Link 2</a></li> <li><a href="test.php?link3=true">Link 3</a></li> </ul> <?php if(isset($_GET['link1'])) { if(($_GET['link1']) == 'true') { echo 'This Is Link 1'; } } if(isset($_GET['link2'])) { if(($_GET['link2']) == 'true') { echo 'This Is Link 2'; } } if(isset($_GET['link3'])) { if(($_GET['link3']) == 'true') { echo 'This Is Link 3'; } } ?> This is a test.php page, here I've set 3 different arguments for $_GET, and show contents accordingly, now everything works perfect, the only thing am not understanding is how to block this kind of url say if user clicks on link 1 the url will be : http://localhost/test.php?link1=true And the Output of this url is This is Link 1 Now if I change this url to : http://localhost/test.php?link3=true&link2=true&link1=true And the Output what I get is This Is Link 1This Is Link 2This Is Link 3 Now this is ok here, but it's very annoying if someone types this and see's forms one below the other, any way I can stop this tampering?

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  • Ways to support manually executed tests? (that can be used on a Mac)

    - by Rinzwind
    Are there any tools that can be used on a Mac to support manually executed tests? I have a number of tests that I'm executing manually and which I'm currently documenting using merely a plain text file. "Tools" can be interpreted rather loosely here, anything that's a step up from the plain text file would be useful: a template for some suitable application, supporting AppleScript scripts, a web-based system, a full-blown application ... Some things that would be great to have better support for (see also the example below): Checking off each step while you're manually executing the test. Showing the next step(s) in a small window that is always kept in front of all other windows. Automatically updating the 'last tested' and 'using svn revision' info. Keeping a record of all previous testing rounds (not just the last one). ... Any suggestions for any such "tools" that can be used on a Mac? An example (faked) entry from the plain text file to give you a better idea of what I'm looking for: - Check that exported web pages render properly in Safari. Last tested: 2010-03-24 Using SVN revision: 1000 Steps: - Open a new document. - Add some items to the document. - Export the document to a web page "Test.html" in a new folder "Export Test" on the Desktop. - Open the web page in Safari, script: tell application "Finder" open file "Test.html" of folder "Export Test" of desktop end tell Expected results: - The web page should appear properly with all items shown. Clean up steps: - Remove the folder "Export Test" from the Desktop. ( Note: for those unaware, the snippet of AppleScript in the above can be executed from most text editing applications through the Services menu by selecting the snippet and using: the application menu Services Script Editor Run as AppleScript. This is quite useful to automate some steps for tests that are difficult to automate as a whole. )

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  • Zend Framework - How do make a hierarchy without it being a module?

    - by Josh
    Here is my specific issue. I want to make an api level which then under that you can select which method you will use. For example: test.com/api/rest test.com/api/xmlprc Currently I have api mapping to a module directory. I then setup a route to make it a rest route. test.com/api is a rest route, but I would rather have it be test.com/api/rest. This would allow me later to add others. In Bootstrap.php: $front = Zend_Controller_Front::getInstance(); $router = $front->getRouter(); $route = new Zend_Controller_Router_Route( 'api/:module/:controller/:id/*', array('module' =>'default') ); $router-addRoute('api', $route); $restRoute = new Zend_Rest_Route($front, array(), array( 'rest' )); $router-addRoute('rest', $restRoute); return $router; In application.ini: resources.frontController.moduleDirectory = APPLICATION_PATH "/modules" I know it will involve routes, but sometimes I find the Zend Framework documentation to be a little hard to follow. When I go to test.com/rest/controller/ it works how it should, but if I go to test.com/api/rest/ it tells me that my module is api and controller is rest.

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  • Scan file contents into an array of a structure.

    - by ZaZu
    Hello, I have a structure in my program that contains a particular array. I want to scan a random file with numbers and put the contents into that array. This is my code : ( NOTE : This is a sample from a bigger program, so I need the structure and arrays as declared ) The contents of the file are basically : 5 4 3 2 5 3 4 2 #include<stdio.h> #define first 500 #define sec 500 struct trial{ int f; int r; float what[first][sec]; }; int trialtest(trial *test); main(){ trial test; trialtest(&test); } int trialtest(trial *test){ int z,x,i; FILE *fin; fin=fopen("randomfile.txt","r"); for(i=0;i<5;i++){ fscanf(fin,"%5.2f\t",(*test).what[z][x]); } fclose(fin); return 0; } But the problem is, whenever this I run this code, I get this error : (25) : warning 508 - Data of type 'double' supplied where a pointer is required I tried adding do{ for(i=0;i<5;i++){ q=fscanf(fin,"%5.2f\t",(*test).what[z][x]); } }while(q!=EOF); But that didnt work either, it gives the same error. Does anyone have a solution to this problem ?

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  • Adding an element to a multidimensional array

    - by stef
    How can I loop through the array below and an element per array, with key "url_slug" and value "foo"? I tried with array_push but that gets rid of the key names (it seems?) Doing a foreach($array as $k = $v) doesn't do it either, I think. The new array should be exactly the same only having 4 elements per array instead of 3, with the key / values above. Array ( [0] => Array ( [name_en] => Test 5 [url_name_nl] => test-5 [cat_name] => mobile ) [1] => Array ( [name_en] => Test 10 [url_name_nl] => test-10 [cat_name] => mobile ) [2] => Array ( [name_en] => Test 25 [url_name_nl] => test-25 [cat_name] => mobile ) ) EDIT: full working solution. A little more complex than originally described foreach ($prods as $key => &$value) { if($key == "cat_name") $slug = $value['cat_name']; $url_slug = $this->lang->line($slug); $value['url_slug'] = $url_slug; }

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  • Upload File to Windows Azure Blob in Chunks through ASP.NET MVC, JavaScript and HTML5

    - by Shaun
    Originally posted on: http://geekswithblogs.net/shaunxu/archive/2013/07/01/upload-file-to-windows-azure-blob-in-chunks-through-asp.net.aspxMany people are using Windows Azure Blob Storage to store their data in the cloud. Blob storage provides 99.9% availability with easy-to-use API through .NET SDK and HTTP REST. For example, we can store JavaScript files, images, documents in blob storage when we are building an ASP.NET web application on a Web Role in Windows Azure. Or we can store our VHD files in blob and mount it as a hard drive in our cloud service. If you are familiar with Windows Azure, you should know that there are two kinds of blob: page blob and block blob. The page blob is optimized for random read and write, which is very useful when you need to store VHD files. The block blob is optimized for sequential/chunk read and write, which has more common usage. Since we can upload block blob in blocks through BlockBlob.PutBlock, and them commit them as a whole blob with invoking the BlockBlob.PutBlockList, it is very powerful to upload large files, as we can upload blocks in parallel, and provide pause-resume feature. There are many documents, articles and blog posts described on how to upload a block blob. Most of them are focus on the server side, which means when you had received a big file, stream or binaries, how to upload them into blob storage in blocks through .NET SDK.  But the problem is, how can we upload these large files from client side, for example, a browser. This questioned to me when I was working with a Chinese customer to help them build a network disk production on top of azure. The end users upload their files from the web portal, and then the files will be stored in blob storage from the Web Role. My goal is to find the best way to transform the file from client (end user’s machine) to the server (Web Role) through browser. In this post I will demonstrate and describe what I had done, to upload large file in chunks with high speed, and save them as blocks into Windows Azure Blob Storage.   Traditional Upload, Works with Limitation The simplest way to implement this requirement is to create a web page with a form that contains a file input element and a submit button. 1: @using (Html.BeginForm("About", "Index", FormMethod.Post, new { enctype = "multipart/form-data" })) 2: { 3: <input type="file" name="file" /> 4: <input type="submit" value="upload" /> 5: } And then in the backend controller, we retrieve the whole content of this file and upload it in to the blob storage through .NET SDK. We can split the file in blocks and upload them in parallel and commit. The code had been well blogged in the community. 1: [HttpPost] 2: public ActionResult About(HttpPostedFileBase file) 3: { 4: var container = _client.GetContainerReference("test"); 5: container.CreateIfNotExists(); 6: var blob = container.GetBlockBlobReference(file.FileName); 7: var blockDataList = new Dictionary<string, byte[]>(); 8: using (var stream = file.InputStream) 9: { 10: var blockSizeInKB = 1024; 11: var offset = 0; 12: var index = 0; 13: while (offset < stream.Length) 14: { 15: var readLength = Math.Min(1024 * blockSizeInKB, (int)stream.Length - offset); 16: var blockData = new byte[readLength]; 17: offset += stream.Read(blockData, 0, readLength); 18: blockDataList.Add(Convert.ToBase64String(BitConverter.GetBytes(index)), blockData); 19:  20: index++; 21: } 22: } 23:  24: Parallel.ForEach(blockDataList, (bi) => 25: { 26: blob.PutBlock(bi.Key, new MemoryStream(bi.Value), null); 27: }); 28: blob.PutBlockList(blockDataList.Select(b => b.Key).ToArray()); 29:  30: return RedirectToAction("About"); 31: } This works perfect if we selected an image, a music or a small video to upload. But if I selected a large file, let’s say a 6GB HD-movie, after upload for about few minutes the page will be shown as below and the upload will be terminated. In ASP.NET there is a limitation of request length and the maximized request length is defined in the web.config file. It’s a number which less than about 4GB. So if we want to upload a really big file, we cannot simply implement in this way. Also, in Windows Azure, a cloud service network load balancer will terminate the connection if exceed the timeout period. From my test the timeout looks like 2 - 3 minutes. Hence, when we need to upload a large file we cannot just use the basic HTML elements. Besides the limitation mentioned above, the simple HTML file upload cannot provide rich upload experience such as chunk upload, pause and pause-resume. So we need to find a better way to upload large file from the client to the server.   Upload in Chunks through HTML5 and JavaScript In order to break those limitation mentioned above we will try to upload the large file in chunks. This takes some benefit to us such as - No request size limitation: Since we upload in chunks, we can define the request size for each chunks regardless how big the entire file is. - No timeout problem: The size of chunks are controlled by us, which means we should be able to make sure request for each chunk upload will not exceed the timeout period of both ASP.NET and Windows Azure load balancer. It was a big challenge to upload big file in chunks until we have HTML5. There are some new features and improvements introduced in HTML5 and we will use them to implement our solution.   In HTML5, the File interface had been improved with a new method called “slice”. It can be used to read part of the file by specifying the start byte index and the end byte index. For example if the entire file was 1024 bytes, file.slice(512, 768) will read the part of this file from the 512nd byte to 768th byte, and return a new object of interface called "Blob”, which you can treat as an array of bytes. In fact,  a Blob object represents a file-like object of immutable, raw data. The File interface is based on Blob, inheriting blob functionality and expanding it to support files on the user's system. For more information about the Blob please refer here. File and Blob is very useful to implement the chunk upload. We will use File interface to represent the file the user selected from the browser and then use File.slice to read the file in chunks in the size we wanted. For example, if we wanted to upload a 10MB file with 512KB chunks, then we can read it in 512KB blobs by using File.slice in a loop.   Assuming we have a web page as below. User can select a file, an input box to specify the block size in KB and a button to start upload. 1: <div> 2: <input type="file" id="upload_files" name="files[]" /><br /> 3: Block Size: <input type="number" id="block_size" value="512" name="block_size" />KB<br /> 4: <input type="button" id="upload_button_blob" name="upload" value="upload (blob)" /> 5: </div> Then we can have the JavaScript function to upload the file in chunks when user clicked the button. 1: <script type="text/javascript"> 1: 2: $(function () { 3: $("#upload_button_blob").click(function () { 4: }); 5: });</script> Firstly we need to ensure the client browser supports the interfaces we are going to use. Just try to invoke the File, Blob and FormData from the “window” object. If any of them is “undefined” the condition result will be “false” which means your browser doesn’t support these premium feature and it’s time for you to get your browser updated. FormData is another new feature we are going to use in the future. It could generate a temporary form for us. We will use this interface to create a form with chunk and associated metadata when invoked the service through ajax. 1: $("#upload_button_blob").click(function () { 2: // assert the browser support html5 3: if (window.File && window.Blob && window.FormData) { 4: alert("Your brwoser is awesome, let's rock!"); 5: } 6: else { 7: alert("Oh man plz update to a modern browser before try is cool stuff out."); 8: return; 9: } 10: }); Each browser supports these interfaces by their own implementation and currently the Blob, File and File.slice are supported by Chrome 21, FireFox 13, IE 10, Opera 12 and Safari 5.1 or higher. After that we worked on the files the user selected one by one since in HTML5, user can select multiple files in one file input box. 1: var files = $("#upload_files")[0].files; 2: for (var i = 0; i < files.length; i++) { 3: var file = files[i]; 4: var fileSize = file.size; 5: var fileName = file.name; 6: } Next, we calculated the start index and end index for each chunks based on the size the user specified from the browser. We put them into an array with the file name and the index, which will be used when we upload chunks into Windows Azure Blob Storage as blocks since we need to specify the target blob name and the block index. At the same time we will store the list of all indexes into another variant which will be used to commit blocks into blob in Azure Storage once all chunks had been uploaded successfully. 1: $("#upload_button_blob").click(function () { 2: // assert the browser support html5 3: ... ... 4: // start to upload each files in chunks 5: var files = $("#upload_files")[0].files; 6: for (var i = 0; i < files.length; i++) { 7: var file = files[i]; 8: var fileSize = file.size; 9: var fileName = file.name; 10:  11: // calculate the start and end byte index for each blocks(chunks) 12: // with the index, file name and index list for future using 13: var blockSizeInKB = $("#block_size").val(); 14: var blockSize = blockSizeInKB * 1024; 15: var blocks = []; 16: var offset = 0; 17: var index = 0; 18: var list = ""; 19: while (offset < fileSize) { 20: var start = offset; 21: var end = Math.min(offset + blockSize, fileSize); 22:  23: blocks.push({ 24: name: fileName, 25: index: index, 26: start: start, 27: end: end 28: }); 29: list += index + ","; 30:  31: offset = end; 32: index++; 33: } 34: } 35: }); Now we have all chunks’ information ready. The next step should be upload them one by one to the server side, and at the server side when received a chunk it will upload as a block into Blob Storage, and finally commit them with the index list through BlockBlobClient.PutBlockList. But since all these invokes are ajax calling, which means not synchronized call. So we need to introduce a new JavaScript library to help us coordinate the asynchronize operation, which named “async.js”. You can download this JavaScript library here, and you can find the document here. I will not explain this library too much in this post. We will put all procedures we want to execute as a function array, and pass into the proper function defined in async.js to let it help us to control the execution sequence, in series or in parallel. Hence we will define an array and put the function for chunk upload into this array. 1: $("#upload_button_blob").click(function () { 2: // assert the browser support html5 3: ... ... 4:  5: // start to upload each files in chunks 6: var files = $("#upload_files")[0].files; 7: for (var i = 0; i < files.length; i++) { 8: var file = files[i]; 9: var fileSize = file.size; 10: var fileName = file.name; 11: // calculate the start and end byte index for each blocks(chunks) 12: // with the index, file name and index list for future using 13: ... ... 14:  15: // define the function array and push all chunk upload operation into this array 16: blocks.forEach(function (block) { 17: putBlocks.push(function (callback) { 18: }); 19: }); 20: } 21: }); 22: }); As you can see, I used File.slice method to read each chunks based on the start and end byte index we calculated previously, and constructed a temporary HTML form with the file name, chunk index and chunk data through another new feature in HTML5 named FormData. Then post this form to the backend server through jQuery.ajax. This is the key part of our solution. 1: $("#upload_button_blob").click(function () { 2: // assert the browser support html5 3: ... ... 4: // start to upload each files in chunks 5: var files = $("#upload_files")[0].files; 6: for (var i = 0; i < files.length; i++) { 7: var file = files[i]; 8: var fileSize = file.size; 9: var fileName = file.name; 10: // calculate the start and end byte index for each blocks(chunks) 11: // with the index, file name and index list for future using 12: ... ... 13: // define the function array and push all chunk upload operation into this array 14: blocks.forEach(function (block) { 15: putBlocks.push(function (callback) { 16: // load blob based on the start and end index for each chunks 17: var blob = file.slice(block.start, block.end); 18: // put the file name, index and blob into a temporary from 19: var fd = new FormData(); 20: fd.append("name", block.name); 21: fd.append("index", block.index); 22: fd.append("file", blob); 23: // post the form to backend service (asp.net mvc controller action) 24: $.ajax({ 25: url: "/Home/UploadInFormData", 26: data: fd, 27: processData: false, 28: contentType: "multipart/form-data", 29: type: "POST", 30: success: function (result) { 31: if (!result.success) { 32: alert(result.error); 33: } 34: callback(null, block.index); 35: } 36: }); 37: }); 38: }); 39: } 40: }); Then we will invoke these functions one by one by using the async.js. And once all functions had been executed successfully I invoked another ajax call to the backend service to commit all these chunks (blocks) as the blob in Windows Azure Storage. 1: $("#upload_button_blob").click(function () { 2: // assert the browser support html5 3: ... ... 4: // start to upload each files in chunks 5: var files = $("#upload_files")[0].files; 6: for (var i = 0; i < files.length; i++) { 7: var file = files[i]; 8: var fileSize = file.size; 9: var fileName = file.name; 10: // calculate the start and end byte index for each blocks(chunks) 11: // with the index, file name and index list for future using 12: ... ... 13: // define the function array and push all chunk upload operation into this array 14: ... ... 15: // invoke the functions one by one 16: // then invoke the commit ajax call to put blocks into blob in azure storage 17: async.series(putBlocks, function (error, result) { 18: var data = { 19: name: fileName, 20: list: list 21: }; 22: $.post("/Home/Commit", data, function (result) { 23: if (!result.success) { 24: alert(result.error); 25: } 26: else { 27: alert("done!"); 28: } 29: }); 30: }); 31: } 32: }); That’s all in the client side. The outline of our logic would be - Calculate the start and end byte index for each chunks based on the block size. - Defined the functions of reading the chunk form file and upload the content to the backend service through ajax. - Execute the functions defined in previous step with “async.js”. - Commit the chunks by invoking the backend service in Windows Azure Storage finally.   Save Chunks as Blocks into Blob Storage In above we finished the client size JavaScript code. It uploaded the file in chunks to the backend service which we are going to implement in this step. We will use ASP.NET MVC as our backend service, and it will receive the chunks, upload into Windows Azure Bob Storage in blocks, then finally commit as one blob. As in the client side we uploaded chunks by invoking the ajax call to the URL "/Home/UploadInFormData", I created a new action under the Index controller and it only accepts HTTP POST request. 1: [HttpPost] 2: public JsonResult UploadInFormData() 3: { 4: var error = string.Empty; 5: try 6: { 7: } 8: catch (Exception e) 9: { 10: error = e.ToString(); 11: } 12:  13: return new JsonResult() 14: { 15: Data = new 16: { 17: success = string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(error), 18: error = error 19: } 20: }; 21: } Then I retrieved the file name, index and the chunk content from the Request.Form object, which was passed from our client side. And then, used the Windows Azure SDK to create a blob container (in this case we will use the container named “test”.) and create a blob reference with the blob name (same as the file name). Then uploaded the chunk as a block of this blob with the index, since in Blob Storage each block must have an index (ID) associated with so that finally we can put all blocks as one blob by specifying their block ID list. 1: [HttpPost] 2: public JsonResult UploadInFormData() 3: { 4: var error = string.Empty; 5: try 6: { 7: var name = Request.Form["name"]; 8: var index = int.Parse(Request.Form["index"]); 9: var file = Request.Files[0]; 10: var id = Convert.ToBase64String(BitConverter.GetBytes(index)); 11:  12: var container = _client.GetContainerReference("test"); 13: container.CreateIfNotExists(); 14: var blob = container.GetBlockBlobReference(name); 15: blob.PutBlock(id, file.InputStream, null); 16: } 17: catch (Exception e) 18: { 19: error = e.ToString(); 20: } 21:  22: return new JsonResult() 23: { 24: Data = new 25: { 26: success = string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(error), 27: error = error 28: } 29: }; 30: } Next, I created another action to commit the blocks into blob once all chunks had been uploaded. Similarly, I retrieved the blob name from the Request.Form. I also retrieved the chunks ID list, which is the block ID list from the Request.Form in a string format, split them as a list, then invoked the BlockBlob.PutBlockList method. After that our blob will be shown in the container and ready to be download. 1: [HttpPost] 2: public JsonResult Commit() 3: { 4: var error = string.Empty; 5: try 6: { 7: var name = Request.Form["name"]; 8: var list = Request.Form["list"]; 9: var ids = list 10: .Split(',') 11: .Where(id => !string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(id)) 12: .Select(id => Convert.ToBase64String(BitConverter.GetBytes(int.Parse(id)))) 13: .ToArray(); 14:  15: var container = _client.GetContainerReference("test"); 16: container.CreateIfNotExists(); 17: var blob = container.GetBlockBlobReference(name); 18: blob.PutBlockList(ids); 19: } 20: catch (Exception e) 21: { 22: error = e.ToString(); 23: } 24:  25: return new JsonResult() 26: { 27: Data = new 28: { 29: success = string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(error), 30: error = error 31: } 32: }; 33: } Now we finished all code we need. The whole process of uploading would be like this below. Below is the full client side JavaScript code. 1: <script type="text/javascript" src="~/Scripts/async.js"></script> 2: <script type="text/javascript"> 3: $(function () { 4: $("#upload_button_blob").click(function () { 5: // assert the browser support html5 6: if (window.File && window.Blob && window.FormData) { 7: alert("Your brwoser is awesome, let's rock!"); 8: } 9: else { 10: alert("Oh man plz update to a modern browser before try is cool stuff out."); 11: return; 12: } 13:  14: // start to upload each files in chunks 15: var files = $("#upload_files")[0].files; 16: for (var i = 0; i < files.length; i++) { 17: var file = files[i]; 18: var fileSize = file.size; 19: var fileName = file.name; 20:  21: // calculate the start and end byte index for each blocks(chunks) 22: // with the index, file name and index list for future using 23: var blockSizeInKB = $("#block_size").val(); 24: var blockSize = blockSizeInKB * 1024; 25: var blocks = []; 26: var offset = 0; 27: var index = 0; 28: var list = ""; 29: while (offset < fileSize) { 30: var start = offset; 31: var end = Math.min(offset + blockSize, fileSize); 32:  33: blocks.push({ 34: name: fileName, 35: index: index, 36: start: start, 37: end: end 38: }); 39: list += index + ","; 40:  41: offset = end; 42: index++; 43: } 44:  45: // define the function array and push all chunk upload operation into this array 46: var putBlocks = []; 47: blocks.forEach(function (block) { 48: putBlocks.push(function (callback) { 49: // load blob based on the start and end index for each chunks 50: var blob = file.slice(block.start, block.end); 51: // put the file name, index and blob into a temporary from 52: var fd = new FormData(); 53: fd.append("name", block.name); 54: fd.append("index", block.index); 55: fd.append("file", blob); 56: // post the form to backend service (asp.net mvc controller action) 57: $.ajax({ 58: url: "/Home/UploadInFormData", 59: data: fd, 60: processData: false, 61: contentType: "multipart/form-data", 62: type: "POST", 63: success: function (result) { 64: if (!result.success) { 65: alert(result.error); 66: } 67: callback(null, block.index); 68: } 69: }); 70: }); 71: }); 72:  73: // invoke the functions one by one 74: // then invoke the commit ajax call to put blocks into blob in azure storage 75: async.series(putBlocks, function (error, result) { 76: var data = { 77: name: fileName, 78: list: list 79: }; 80: $.post("/Home/Commit", data, function (result) { 81: if (!result.success) { 82: alert(result.error); 83: } 84: else { 85: alert("done!"); 86: } 87: }); 88: }); 89: } 90: }); 91: }); 92: </script> And below is the full ASP.NET MVC controller code. 1: public class HomeController : Controller 2: { 3: private CloudStorageAccount _account; 4: private CloudBlobClient _client; 5:  6: public HomeController() 7: : base() 8: { 9: _account = CloudStorageAccount.Parse(CloudConfigurationManager.GetSetting("DataConnectionString")); 10: _client = _account.CreateCloudBlobClient(); 11: } 12:  13: public ActionResult Index() 14: { 15: ViewBag.Message = "Modify this template to jump-start your ASP.NET MVC application."; 16:  17: return View(); 18: } 19:  20: [HttpPost] 21: public JsonResult UploadInFormData() 22: { 23: var error = string.Empty; 24: try 25: { 26: var name = Request.Form["name"]; 27: var index = int.Parse(Request.Form["index"]); 28: var file = Request.Files[0]; 29: var id = Convert.ToBase64String(BitConverter.GetBytes(index)); 30:  31: var container = _client.GetContainerReference("test"); 32: container.CreateIfNotExists(); 33: var blob = container.GetBlockBlobReference(name); 34: blob.PutBlock(id, file.InputStream, null); 35: } 36: catch (Exception e) 37: { 38: error = e.ToString(); 39: } 40:  41: return new JsonResult() 42: { 43: Data = new 44: { 45: success = string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(error), 46: error = error 47: } 48: }; 49: } 50:  51: [HttpPost] 52: public JsonResult Commit() 53: { 54: var error = string.Empty; 55: try 56: { 57: var name = Request.Form["name"]; 58: var list = Request.Form["list"]; 59: var ids = list 60: .Split(',') 61: .Where(id => !string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(id)) 62: .Select(id => Convert.ToBase64String(BitConverter.GetBytes(int.Parse(id)))) 63: .ToArray(); 64:  65: var container = _client.GetContainerReference("test"); 66: container.CreateIfNotExists(); 67: var blob = container.GetBlockBlobReference(name); 68: blob.PutBlockList(ids); 69: } 70: catch (Exception e) 71: { 72: error = e.ToString(); 73: } 74:  75: return new JsonResult() 76: { 77: Data = new 78: { 79: success = string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(error), 80: error = error 81: } 82: }; 83: } 84: } And if we selected a file from the browser we will see our application will upload chunks in the size we specified to the server through ajax call in background, and then commit all chunks in one blob. Then we can find the blob in our Windows Azure Blob Storage.   Optimized by Parallel Upload In previous example we just uploaded our file in chunks. This solved the problem that ASP.NET MVC request content size limitation as well as the Windows Azure load balancer timeout. But it might introduce the performance problem since we uploaded chunks in sequence. In order to improve the upload performance we could modify our client side code a bit to make the upload operation invoked in parallel. The good news is that, “async.js” library provides the parallel execution function. If you remembered the code we invoke the service to upload chunks, it utilized “async.series” which means all functions will be executed in sequence. Now we will change this code to “async.parallel”. This will invoke all functions in parallel. 1: $("#upload_button_blob").click(function () { 2: // assert the browser support html5 3: ... ... 4: // start to upload each files in chunks 5: var files = $("#upload_files")[0].files; 6: for (var i = 0; i < files.length; i++) { 7: var file = files[i]; 8: var fileSize = file.size; 9: var fileName = file.name; 10: // calculate the start and end byte index for each blocks(chunks) 11: // with the index, file name and index list for future using 12: ... ... 13: // define the function array and push all chunk upload operation into this array 14: ... ... 15: // invoke the functions one by one 16: // then invoke the commit ajax call to put blocks into blob in azure storage 17: async.parallel(putBlocks, function (error, result) { 18: var data = { 19: name: fileName, 20: list: list 21: }; 22: $.post("/Home/Commit", data, function (result) { 23: if (!result.success) { 24: alert(result.error); 25: } 26: else { 27: alert("done!"); 28: } 29: }); 30: }); 31: } 32: }); In this way all chunks will be uploaded to the server side at the same time to maximize the bandwidth usage. This should work if the file was not very large and the chunk size was not very small. But for large file this might introduce another problem that too many ajax calls are sent to the server at the same time. So the best solution should be, upload the chunks in parallel with maximum concurrency limitation. The code below specified the concurrency limitation to 4, which means at the most only 4 ajax calls could be invoked at the same time. 1: $("#upload_button_blob").click(function () { 2: // assert the browser support html5 3: ... ... 4: // start to upload each files in chunks 5: var files = $("#upload_files")[0].files; 6: for (var i = 0; i < files.length; i++) { 7: var file = files[i]; 8: var fileSize = file.size; 9: var fileName = file.name; 10: // calculate the start and end byte index for each blocks(chunks) 11: // with the index, file name and index list for future using 12: ... ... 13: // define the function array and push all chunk upload operation into this array 14: ... ... 15: // invoke the functions one by one 16: // then invoke the commit ajax call to put blocks into blob in azure storage 17: async.parallelLimit(putBlocks, 4, function (error, result) { 18: var data = { 19: name: fileName, 20: list: list 21: }; 22: $.post("/Home/Commit", data, function (result) { 23: if (!result.success) { 24: alert(result.error); 25: } 26: else { 27: alert("done!"); 28: } 29: }); 30: }); 31: } 32: });   Summary In this post we discussed how to upload files in chunks to the backend service and then upload them into Windows Azure Blob Storage in blocks. We focused on the frontend side and leverage three new feature introduced in HTML 5 which are - File.slice: Read part of the file by specifying the start and end byte index. - Blob: File-like interface which contains the part of the file content. - FormData: Temporary form element that we can pass the chunk alone with some metadata to the backend service. Then we discussed the performance consideration of chunk uploading. Sequence upload cannot provide maximized upload speed, but the unlimited parallel upload might crash the browser and server if too many chunks. So we finally came up with the solution to upload chunks in parallel with the concurrency limitation. We also demonstrated how to utilize “async.js” JavaScript library to help us control the asynchronize call and the parallel limitation.   Regarding the chunk size and the parallel limitation value there is no “best” value. You need to test vary composition and find out the best one for your particular scenario. It depends on the local bandwidth, client machine cores and the server side (Windows Azure Cloud Service Virtual Machine) cores, memory and bandwidth. Below is one of my performance test result. The client machine was Windows 8 IE 10 with 4 cores. I was using Microsoft Cooperation Network. The web site was hosted on Windows Azure China North data center (in Beijing) with one small web role (1.7GB 1 core CPU, 1.75GB memory with 100Mbps bandwidth). The test cases were - Chunk size: 512KB, 1MB, 2MB, 4MB. - Upload Mode: Sequence, parallel (unlimited), parallel with limit (4 threads, 8 threads). - Chunk Format: base64 string, binaries. - Target file: 100MB. - Each case was tested 3 times. Below is the test result chart. Some thoughts, but not guidance or best practice: - Parallel gets better performance than series. - No significant performance improvement between parallel 4 threads and 8 threads. - Transform with binaries provides better performance than base64. - In all cases, chunk size in 1MB - 2MB gets better performance.   Hope this helps, Shaun All documents and related graphics, codes are provided "AS IS" without warranty of any kind. Copyright © Shaun Ziyan Xu. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons License.

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  • The Silverlightning Talks

    - by Brian Genisio's House Of Bilz
    Tomorrow, I will be speaking in Grand Rapids at the Silverlight Firestarter.  It is a one day event intended to get people bootstrapped with Silverlight.  I will be giving the “Advanced Topics” presentation.  I have decided to run it as a series of “Lightning Talks”.  The idea is to give a lot of breadth so you know that the topic exists and move quickly between them.  To go along with the talks, here are a bunch of links that you might find useful: MVVM http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/dd458800.aspx http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/dd419663.aspx http://channel9.msdn.com/shows/Continuum/MVVM/ http://karlshifflett.wordpress.com/2008/11/08/learning-wpf-m-v-vm/ http://johnpapa.net/silverlight/5-minute-overview-of-mvvm-in-silverlight/ Good MVVM Frameworks http://www.galasoft.ch/mvvm/getstarted/ http://caliburn.codeplex.com/Wikipage   Prism http://compositewpf.codeplex.com/ http://mtaulty.com/CommunityServer/blogs/mike_taultys_blog/archive/2009/10/27/prism-and-silverlight-screencasts-on-channel-9.aspx http://www.grumpydev.com/2009/07/04/why-shouldn%E2%80%99t-i-use-prism/   Unit Testing Silverlight Unit Testing Framework http://code.msdn.microsoft.com/silverlightut http://silverlight.codeplex.com/ http://www.jeff.wilcox.name/2008/03/silverlight2-unit-testing/ NUnit Testing with Silverlight http://weblogs.asp.net/nunitaddin/archive/2008/05/01/silverlight-nunit-projects.aspx Useful Testing Tools http://testdriven.net/ http://nunit.org/ http://code.google.com/p/moq/ http://www.ayende.com/projects/rhino-mocks.aspx   Navigation Framework http://www.silverlightshow.net/items/The-Silverlight-3-Navigation-Framework.aspx http://www.silverlight.net/learn/videos/silverlight-videos/navigation-framework/   Farseer Physics Engine http://farseerphysics.codeplex.com/Wikipage http://physicshelper.codeplex.com/Wikipage http://www.andybeaulieu.com/Home/tabid/67/Default.aspx   Windows Phone 7 http://www.silverlight.net/getstarted/devices/windows-phone/ http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff402535%28VS.92%29.aspx

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  • Understanding normal maps on terrain

    - by JohnB
    I'm having trouble understanding some of the math behind normal map textures even though I've got it to work using borrowed code, I want to understand it. I have a terrain based on a heightmap. I'm generating a mesh of triangles at load time and rendering that mesh. Now for each vertex I need to calculate a normal, a tangent, and a bitangent. My understanding is as follows, have I got this right? normal is a unit vector facing outwards from the surface of the triangle. For a vertex I take the average of the normals of the triangles using that vertex. tangent is a unit vector in the direction of the 'u' coordinates of the texture map. As my texture u,v coordinates follow the x and y coordinates of the terrain, then my understanding is that this vector is simply the vector along the surface in the x direction. So should be able to calculate this as simply the difference between vertices in the x direction to get a vector, (and normalize it). bitangent is a unit vector in the direction of the 'v' coordinates of the texture map. As my texture u,v coordinates follow the x and y coordinates of the terrain, then my understanding is that this vector is simply the vector along the surface in the y direction. So should be able to calculate this as simply the difference between vertices in the y direction to get a vector, (and normalize it). However the code I have borrowed seems much more complicated than this and takes into account the actual values of u, and v at each vertex which I don't understand the need for as they increase in exactly the same direction as x, and y. I implemented what I thought from above, and it simply doesn't work, the normals are clearly not working for lighting. Have I misunderstood something? Or can someone explain to me the physical meaning of the tangent and bitangent vectors when applied to a mesh generated from a hightmap like this, when u and v texture coordinates map along the x and y directions. Thanks for any help understanding this.

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  • How to refactor while keeping accuracy and redundancy?

    - by jluzwick
    Before I ask this question I will preface it with our environment. My team consists of 3 programmers working on multiple different projects. Due to this, our use of testing is mostly limited to very general black box testing. Take the following assumptions also: Unit Tests will eventually be written but I'm under strict orders to refactor first Ignore common Test-Driven Development techniques when given this environment, my time is limited. I understand that if this were done correctly, our team would actually save money in the long-term by building Unit-Tests before hand. I'm about to refactor a fairly large portion of the code that is critical. While I believe my code will accurately work when done and after our black box testing, I realize that there will be new data that the new code might not be able to handle. What I wanted to know is how to keep old code that functions 98% of the time so that we can call those subroutines in case the new code doesn't work properly. Right now I'm thinking of separating the old code in a separate class file and adding a variable to our config that will tell the program which code to use. Is there a better way to handle this? NOTE: We do use revision control and we have archived builds so the client could always revert to a previous build, but I would like to see if there is a decent way of doing this besides reverting. I want this so they can use the other new functionality delivered in the new build. Edit: While I agree I will need to write Unit Tests for this, I don't believe I will capture everything with them. I'm looking for ways to easily be able to revert to the old, functional code should anything happen. While I know this is a poor practice, I'm planning on removing this code after our team can guarantee that the new code works to the same standards as the old.

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  • How to balance a non-symmetric "extension" based game?

    - by Klaim
    Most strategy games have fixed units and possible behaviours. However, think of a game like Magic The Gathering : each card is a set of rules. Regularly, new sets of card types are created. I remember that the firsts editions of the game have been said to be prohibited in official tournaments because the cards were often too powerful. Later extensions of the game provided more subtle effects/rules in cards and they managed to balance the game apparently effectively, even if there is thousands of different cards possible. I'm working on a strategy game that is a bit in the same position : every units are provided by extensions and the game is thought to be extended for some years, at least. The effects variety of the units are very large even with some basic design limitations set to be sure it's manageable. Each player choose a set of units to play with (defining their global strategy) before playing (like chooseing a themed deck of Magic cards). As it's a strategy game (you can think of Magic as a strategy game too in some POV), it's essentially skirmish based so the game have to be fair, even if the players don't choose the same units before starting to play. So, how do you proceed to balance this type of non-symmetric (strategy) game when you know it will always be extended? For the moment, I'm trying to apply those rules but I'm not sure it's right because I don't have enough design experience to know : each unit would provide one unique effect; each unit should have an opposite unit that have an opposite effect that would cancel each others; some limitations based on the gameplay; try to get a lot of beta tests before each extension release? Looks like I'm in the most complex case?

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  • Do you know the minimum builds to create on any branch?

    - by Martin Hinshelwood
    You should always have three builds on your team project. These should be setup and tested using an empty solution before you write any code at all. Figure: Three builds named in the format [TeamProject].[AreaPath]_[Branch].[Gate|CI|Nightly] for every branch.   These builds should use the same XAML build workflow; however you may set them up to run a different set of tests depending on the time it takes to run a full build. Gate – Only needs to run the smallest set of tests, but should run most if not all of the Unit Test. This is run before developers are allowed to check-in CI – This should run all Unit Tests and all of the automated UI tests. It is run after a developer check-in. Nightly – The Nightly build should run all of the Unit Tests, all of the Automated UI tests and all of the Load and Performance tests. The nightly build is time consuming and will run but once a night. Packaging of your Product for testing the next day may be done at this stage as well. Figure: You can control what tests are run and what data is collected while they are running. Note: We do not run all the tests every time because of the time consuming nature of running some tests, but ALL tests should be run overnight. Note: If you had a really large project with thousands of tests including long running Load tests you may need to add a Weekly build to the mix.     Figure: Bad example, you can’t tell what these builds do if they are in a larger list   Figure: Good example, you know exactly what project, branch and type of build these are for.   Technorati Tags: SSW,SSW Rules,VS2010,VS ALM,Team Build 2010,Team Build

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