finally - Page 18 - Developer IT

How to decrypt a string in C# that was encrypted in Delphi

- by Simon Linder

Hi all, we have a project written in Delphi that we want to convert to C#. Problem is that we have some passwords and settings that are encrypted and written into the registry. When we need a specified password we get it from the registry and decrypt it so we can use it. For the conversion into C# we have to do it the same way so that the application can also be used by users that have the old version and want to upgrade it. Here is the code we use to encrypt/decrypt strings in Delphi: unit uCrypt; interface function EncryptString(strPlaintext, strPassword : String) : String; function DecryptString(strEncryptedText, strPassword : String) : String; implementation uses DCPcrypt2, DCPblockciphers, DCPdes, DCPmd5; const CRYPT_KEY = '1q2w3e4r5t6z7u8'; function EncryptString(strPlaintext) : String; var cipher : TDCP_3des; strEncryptedText : String; begin if strPlaintext <> '' then begin try cipher := TDCP_3des.Create(nil); try cipher.InitStr(CRYPT_KEY, TDCP_md5); strEncryptedText := cipher.EncryptString(strPlaintext); finally cipher.Free; end; except strEncryptedText := ''; end; end; Result := strEncryptedText; end; function DecryptString(strEncryptedText) : String; var cipher : TDCP_3des; strDecryptedText : String; begin if strEncryptedText <> '' then begin try cipher := TDCP_3des.Create(nil); try cipher.InitStr(CRYPT_KEY, TDCP_md5); strDecryptedText := cipher.DecryptString(strEncryptedText); finally cipher.Free; end; except strDecryptedText := ''; end; end; Result := strDecryptedText; end; end. So for example when we want to encrypt the string asdf1234 we get the result WcOb/iKo4g8=. We now want to decrypt that string in C#. Here is what we tried to do: public static void Main(string[] args) { string Encrypted = "WcOb/iKo4g8="; string Password = "1q2w3e4r5t6z7u8"; string DecryptedString = DecryptString(Encrypted, Password); } public static string DecryptString(string Message, string Passphrase) { byte[] Results; System.Text.UTF8Encoding UTF8 = new System.Text.UTF8Encoding(); // Step 1. We hash the passphrase using MD5 // We use the MD5 hash generator as the result is a 128 bit byte array // which is a valid length for the TripleDES encoder we use below MD5CryptoServiceProvider HashProvider = new MD5CryptoServiceProvider(); byte[] TDESKey = HashProvider.ComputeHash(UTF8.GetBytes(Passphrase)); // Step 2. Create a new TripleDESCryptoServiceProvider object TripleDESCryptoServiceProvider TDESAlgorithm = new TripleDESCryptoServiceProvider(); // Step 3. Setup the decoder TDESAlgorithm.Key = TDESKey; TDESAlgorithm.Mode = CipherMode.ECB; TDESAlgorithm.Padding = PaddingMode.None; // Step 4. Convert the input string to a byte[] byte[] DataToDecrypt = Convert.FromBase64String(Message); // Step 5. Attempt to decrypt the string try { ICryptoTransform Decryptor = TDESAlgorithm.CreateDecryptor(); Results = Decryptor.TransformFinalBlock(DataToDecrypt, 0, DataToDecrypt.Length); } finally { // Clear the TripleDes and Hashprovider services of any sensitive information TDESAlgorithm.Clear(); HashProvider.Clear(); } // Step 6. Return the decrypted string in UTF8 format return UTF8.GetString(Results); } Well the result differs from the expected result. After we call DecryptString() we expect to get asdf1234but we get something else. Does anyone have an idea of how to decrypt that correctly? Thanks in advance Simon

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is it right to call ejb bean from thread by ThreadPoolExecutor?

- by kislo_metal

I trying to call some ejb bean method from tread. and getting error : (as is glassfish v3) Log Level SEVERE Logger javax.enterprise.system.std.com.sun.enterprise.v3.services.impl Name-Value Pairs {_ThreadName=Thread-1, _ThreadID=42} Record Number 928 Message ID java.lang.NullPointerException at ua.co.rufous.server.broker.TempLicService.run(TempLicService.java Complete Message 35) at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.runTask(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:886) at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:908) at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:637) here is tread public class TempLicService implements Runnable { String hash; //it`s Stateful bean @EJB private LicActivatorLocal lActivator; public TempLicService(String hash) { this.hash= hash; } @Override public void run() { lActivator.proccessActivation(hash); } } my ThreadPoolExecutor public class RequestThreadPoolExecutor extends ThreadPoolExecutor { private boolean isPaused; private ReentrantLock pauseLock = new ReentrantLock(); private Condition unpaused = pauseLock.newCondition(); private static RequestThreadPoolExecutor threadPool; private RequestThreadPoolExecutor() { super(1, Integer.MAX_VALUE, 10, TimeUnit.SECONDS, new LinkedBlockingQueue<Runnable>()); System.out.println("RequestThreadPoolExecutor created"); } public static RequestThreadPoolExecutor getInstance() { if (threadPool == null) threadPool = new RequestThreadPoolExecutor(); return threadPool; } public void runService(Runnable task) { threadPool.execute(task); } protected void beforeExecute(Thread t, Runnable r) { super.beforeExecute(t, r); pauseLock.lock(); try { while (isPaused) unpaused.await(); } catch (InterruptedException ie) { t.interrupt(); } finally { pauseLock.unlock(); } } public void pause() { pauseLock.lock(); try { isPaused = true; } finally { pauseLock.unlock(); } } public void resume() { pauseLock.lock(); try { isPaused = false; unpaused.signalAll(); } finally { pauseLock.unlock(); } } public void shutDown() { threadPool.shutdown(); } //<<<<<< creating thread here public void runByHash(String hash) { Runnable service = new TempLicService(hash); threadPool.runService(service); } } and method where i call it (it is gwt servlet, but there is no proble to call thread that not contain ejb) : @Override public Boolean submitHash(String hash) { System.out.println("submiting hash"); try { if (tBoxService.getTempLicStatus(hash) == 1) { //<<< here is the call RequestThreadPoolExecutor.getInstance().runByHash(hash); return true; } } catch (NoResultException e) { e.printStackTrace(); } return false; } I need to organize some pool of submitting hash to server (calls of LicActivator bean), is ThreadPoolExecutor design good idea and why it is not working in my case? (as I know we can`t create thread inside bean, but could we call bean from different threads? ). If No, what is the bast practice for organize such request pool? Thanks. << Answer: I am using DI (EJB 3.1) soo i do not need any look up here. (application packed in ear and both modules in it (web module and ejb), it works perfect for me). But I can use it only in managed classes. So.. 2.Can I use manual look up in Tread ? Could I use Bean that extends ThreadPoolExecutor and calling another bean that implements Runnable ? Or it is not allowed ?

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Problem while inserting data from GUI layer to database

- by Rahul

Hi all, I am facing problem while i am inserting new record from GUI part to database table. I have created database table Patient with id, name, age etc....id is identity primary key. My problem is while i am inserting duplicate name in table the control should go to else part, and display the message like...This name is already exits, pls try with another name... but in my coding not getting..... Here is all the code...pls somebody point me out whats wrong or how do this??? GUILayer: protected void BtnSubmit_Click(object sender, EventArgs e) { if (!Page.IsValid) return; int intResult = 0; string name = TxtName.Text.Trim(); int age = Convert.ToInt32(TxtAge.Text); string gender; if (RadioButtonMale.Checked) { gender = RadioButtonMale.Text; } else { gender = RadioButtonFemale.Text; } string city = DropDownListCity.SelectedItem.Value; string typeofdisease = ""; foreach (ListItem li in CheckBoxListDisease.Items) { if (li.Selected) { typeofdisease += li.Value; } } typeofdisease = typeofdisease.TrimEnd(); PatientBAL PB = new PatientBAL(); PatientProperty obj = new PatientProperty(); obj.Name = name; obj.Age = age; obj.Gender = gender; obj.City = city; obj.TypeOFDisease = typeofdisease; try { intResult = PB.ADDPatient(obj); if (intResult > 0) { lblMessage.Text = "New record inserted successfully."; TxtName.Text = string.Empty; TxtAge.Text = string.Empty; RadioButtonMale.Enabled = false; RadioButtonFemale.Enabled = false; DropDownListCity.SelectedIndex = 0; CheckBoxListDisease.SelectedIndex = 0; } else { lblMessage.Text = "Name [<b>" + TxtName.Text + "</b>] alredy exists, try another name"; } } catch (Exception ex) { lblMessage.Text = ex.Message.ToString(); } finally { obj = null; PB = null; } } BAL layer: public class PatientBAL { public int ADDPatient(PatientProperty obj) { PatientDAL pdl = new PatientDAL(); try { return pdl.InsertData(obj); } catch { throw; } finally { pdl=null; } } } DAL layer: public class PatientDAL { public string ConString = ConfigurationManager.ConnectionStrings["ConString"].ConnectionString; public int InsertData(PatientProperty obj) { SqlConnection con = new SqlConnection(ConString); con.Open(); SqlCommand com = new SqlCommand("LoadData",con); com.CommandType = CommandType.StoredProcedure; try { com.Parameters.AddWithValue("@Name", obj.Name); com.Parameters.AddWithValue("@Age",obj.Age); com.Parameters.AddWithValue("@Gender",obj.Gender); com.Parameters.AddWithValue("@City", obj.City); com.Parameters.AddWithValue("@TypeOfDisease", obj.TypeOFDisease); return com.ExecuteNonQuery(); } catch { throw; } finally { com.Dispose(); con.Close(); } } } Property Class: public class PatientProperty { private string name; private int age; private string gender; private string city; private string typedisease; public string Name { get { return name; } set { name = value; } } public int Age { get { return age; } set { age = value; } } public string Gender { get { return gender; } set { gender = value; } } public string City { get { return city; } set { city = value; } } public string TypeOFDisease { get { return typedisease; } set { typedisease = value; } } } This is my stored Procedure: CREATE PROCEDURE LoadData ( @Name varchar(50), @Age int, @Gender char(10), @City char(10), @TypeofDisease varchar(50) ) as insert into Patient(Name, Age, Gender, City, TypeOfDisease)values(@Name,@Age, @Gender, @City, @TypeofDisease) GO

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Problem detaching entire object graph in GAE-J with JDO

- by tempy

I am trying to load the full object graph for User, which contains a collection of decks, which then contains a collection of cards, as such: User: @PersistenceCapable(detachable = "true") @Inheritance(strategy = InheritanceStrategy.SUBCLASS_TABLE) @FetchGroup(name = "decks", members = { @Persistent(name = "_Decks") }) public abstract class User { @PrimaryKey @Persistent(valueStrategy = IdGeneratorStrategy.IDENTITY) protected Key _ID; @Persistent protected String _UniqueIdentifier; @Persistent(mappedBy = "_Owner") @Element(dependent = "true") protected Set<Deck> _Decks; protected User() { } } Each Deck has a collection of Cards, as such: @PersistenceCapable(detachable = "true") @FetchGroup(name = "cards", members = { @Persistent(name = "_Cards") }) public class Deck { @PrimaryKey @Persistent(valueStrategy = IdGeneratorStrategy.IDENTITY) private Key _ID; @Persistent String _Name; @Persistent(mappedBy = "_Parent") @Element(dependent = "true") private Set<Card> _Cards = new HashSet<Card>(); @Persistent private Set<String> _Tags = new HashSet<String>(); @Persistent private User _Owner; } And finally, each card: @PersistenceCapable public class Card { @PrimaryKey @Persistent(valueStrategy = IdGeneratorStrategy.IDENTITY) private Key _ID; @Persistent private Text _Question; @Persistent private Text _Answer; @Persistent private Deck _Parent; } I am trying to retrieve and then detach the entire object graph. I can see in the debugger that it loads fine, but then when I get to detaching, I can't make anything beyond the User object load. (No Decks, no Cards). At first I tried without a transaction to simply "touch" all the fields on the attached object before detaching, but that didn't help. Then I tried adding everything to the default fetch group, but that just generated warnings about GAE not supporting joins. I tried setting the fetch plan's max fetch depth to -1, but that didn't do it. Finally, I tried using FetchGroups as you can see above, and then retrieving with the following code: PersistenceManager pm = _pmf.getPersistenceManager(); pm.setDetachAllOnCommit(true); pm.getFetchPlan().setGroup("decks"); pm.getFetchPlan().setGroup("cards"); Transaction tx = pm.currentTransaction(); Query query = null; try { tx.begin(); query = pm.newQuery(GoogleAccountsUser.class); //Subclass of User query.setFilter("_UniqueIdentifier == TheUser"); query.declareParameters("String TheUser"); List<User> results = (List<User>)query.execute(ID); //ID = Supplied parameter //TODO: Test for more than one result and throw if(results.size() == 0) { tx.commit(); return null; } else { User usr = (User)results.get(0); //usr = pm.detachCopy(usr); tx.commit(); return usr; } } finally { query.closeAll(); if (tx.isActive()) { tx.rollback(); } pm.close(); } This also doesn't work, and I'm running out of ideas...

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Syntax error in INSERT INTO statement

- by user454563

I wrote a program that connects to MS Access. When I fill in the fields and add a new item to Access the program fails. The exception is "Syntax error in INSERT INTO statement" Here is the relevant code. **************************************************************** AdoHelper.cs **************************************************************** using System; using System.Collections.Generic; using System.Text; using System.Data; using System.Data.OleDb; namespace Yad2 { class AdoHelper { //get the connection string from the app.config file //Provider=Microsoft.ACE.OLEDB.12.0;Data Source=|DataDirectory|\Yad2.accdb static string connectionString = Properties.Settings.Default.DBConnection.ToString(); //declare the db connection static OleDbConnection con = new OleDbConnection(connectionString); /// <summary> /// To Execute queries which returns result set (table / relation) /// </summary> /// <param name="query">the query string</param> /// <returns></returns> public static DataTable ExecuteDataTable(string query) { try { con.Open(); OleDbCommand command = new OleDbCommand(query, con); System.Data.OleDb.OleDbDataAdapter tableAdapter = new System.Data.OleDb.OleDbDataAdapter(command); DataTable dt = new DataTable(); tableAdapter.Fill(dt); return dt; } catch (Exception ex) { throw ex; } finally { con.Close(); } } /// <summary> /// To Execute update / insert / delete queries /// </summary> /// <param name="query">the query string</param> public static void ExecuteNonQuery(string query) { try { con.Open(); System.Data.OleDb.OleDbCommand command = new System.Data.OleDb.OleDbCommand(query, con); command.ExecuteNonQuery(); } catch (Exception ex) { throw ex; } finally { con.Close(); } } /// <summary> /// To Execute queries which return scalar value /// </summary> /// <param name="query">the query string</param> public static object ExecuteScalar(string query) { try { con.Open(); System.Data.OleDb.OleDbCommand command = new System.Data.OleDb.OleDbCommand(query, con); /// here is the Excaption !!!!!!!!! return command.ExecuteScalar(); } catch { throw; } finally { con.Close(); } } } } **************************************************************************** **************************************************************************** DataQueries.cs **************************************************************************** using System; using System.Collections.Generic; using System.Text; using System.Data; namespace Yad2 { class DataQueries { public static DataTable GetAllItems() { try { string query = "Select * from Messages"; DataTable dt = AdoHelper.ExecuteDataTable(query); return dt; } catch (Exception ex) { throw ex; } } public static void AddNewItem(string mesNumber, string title , string mesDate , string contactMail , string mesType , string Details ) { string query = "Insert into Messages values(" + mesNumber + " , '" + title + "' , '" + mesDate + "' , '" + contactMail + "' , , '" + mesType + "' , '" + Details + "')"; AdoHelper.ExecuteNonQuery(query); } public static void DeleteDept(int mesNumber) { string query = "Delete from Item where MessageNumber=" + mesNumber; AdoHelper.ExecuteNonQuery(query); } } } *********************************************************************************************** plase help me .... why the program falls ?

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reading a random access file

- by user1067332

The file I create has text in it, but when i try to read it, the output is null. here is the file the creates the text file, it creates the file and puts it in the right postion import java.util.*; import java.io.*; public class CreateCustomerFile { public static void main(String[] args) throws IOException { int pos; RandomAccessFile it = new RandomAccessFile("CustomerFile.txt", "rw"); Scanner input = new Scanner(System.in); int id; String name; int zip; final int RECORDSIZE = 100; final int NUMRECORDS = 1000; final int STOP = 99; try { for(int x = 0; x < NUMRECORDS; ++x) { it.writeInt(0); it.writeUTF(""); it.writeInt(0); } } catch(IOException e) { System.out.println("Error: " + e.getMessage()); } finally { it.close(); } it = new RandomAccessFile("CustomerFile.txt","rw"); try { System.out.print("Enter ID number" + " or " + STOP + " to quit "); id = input.nextInt(); while(id != STOP) { input.nextLine(); System.out.print("Enter last name"); name = input.nextLine(); System.out.print("Enter zipcode "); zip = input.nextInt(); pos = id - 1; it.seek(pos * RECORDSIZE); it.writeInt(id); it.writeUTF(name); it.writeInt(zip); System.out.print("Enter ID number" + " or " + STOP + " to quit "); id = input.nextInt(); } } catch(IOException e) { System.out.println("Error: " + e.getMessage()); } finally { it.close(); } } } Here is the file to read, the pos is correct but ouput always goes to the error: null. import javax.swing.*; import java.io.*; public class CustomerItemOrder { public static void main(String[] args) throws IOException { int pos; RandomAccessFile it = new RandomAccessFile("CustomerFile.txt","rw"); String inputString; int id, zip; String name; final int RECORDSIZE = 100; final int STOP = 99; inputString = JOptionPane.showInputDialog(null, "Enter id or "+ STOP + " to quit"); id = Integer.parseInt(inputString); try { while(id != STOP) { pos = id -1 ; it.seek(pos * RECORDSIZE ); id = it.readInt(); name = it.readLine(); zip = it.readInt(); JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(null, "ID:" + id + " last name is " + name + " and zipcode is " + zip); inputString = JOptionPane.showInputDialog(null, "Enter id or " + STOP + " to quit"); id = Integer.parseInt(inputString); } } catch(IOException e) { System.out.println("Error: " + e.getMessage()); } finally { it.close(); } } }

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Doesn't get the output in Java Database Connectivity

- by Dooree

I'm working on Java Database Connectivity through Eclipse IDE. I built a database through Ubuntu Terminal, and I need to connect and work with it. However, when I tried to run the following code, I don't get any error, but the following output is showed, anybody knows why I don't get the output from the code ? //STEP 1. Import required packages import java.sql.*; public class FirstExample { // JDBC driver name and database URL static final String JDBC_DRIVER = "com.mysql.jdbc.Driver"; static final String DB_URL = "jdbc:mysql://localhost/EMP"; // Database credentials static final String USER = "username"; static final String PASS = "password"; public static void main(String[] args) { Connection conn = null; Statement stmt = null; try{ //STEP 2: Register JDBC driver Class.forName("com.mysql.jdbc.Driver"); //STEP 3: Open a connection System.out.println("Connecting to database..."); conn = DriverManager.getConnection(DB_URL,USER,PASS); //STEP 4: Execute a query System.out.println("Creating statement..."); stmt = conn.createStatement(); String sql; sql = "SELECT id, first, last, age FROM Employees"; ResultSet rs = stmt.executeQuery(sql); //STEP 5: Extract data from result set while(rs.next()){ //Retrieve by column name int id = rs.getInt("id"); int age = rs.getInt("age"); String first = rs.getString("first"); String last = rs.getString("last"); //Display values System.out.print("ID: " + id); System.out.print(", Age: " + age); System.out.print(", First: " + first); System.out.println(", Last: " + last); } //STEP 6: Clean-up environment rs.close(); stmt.close(); conn.close(); }catch(SQLException se){ //Handle errors for JDBC se.printStackTrace(); }catch(Exception e){ //Handle errors for Class.forName e.printStackTrace(); }finally{ //finally block used to close resources try{ if(stmt!=null) stmt.close(); }catch(SQLException se2){ }// nothing we can do try{ if(conn!=null) conn.close(); }catch(SQLException se){ se.printStackTrace(); }//end finally try }//end try System.out.println("Goodbye!"); }//end main }//end FirstExample <ConnectionProperties> <PropertyCategory name="Connection/Authentication"> <Property name="user" required="No" default="" sortOrder="-2147483647" since="all"> The user to connect as </Property> <Property name="password" required="No" default="" sortOrder="-2147483646" since="all"> The password to use when connecting </Property> <Property name="socketFactory" required="No" default="com.mysql.jdbc.StandardSocketFactory" sortOrder="4" since="3.0.3"> The name of the class that the driver should use for creating socket connections to the server. This class must implement the interface 'com.mysql.jdbc.SocketFactory' and have public no-args constructor. </Property> <Property name="connectTimeout" required="No" default="0" sortOrder="9" since="3.0.1"> Timeout for socket connect (in milliseconds), with 0 being no timeout. Only works on JDK-1.4 or newer. Defaults to '0'. </Property> ...

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Real Excel Templates I

- by Tim Dexter

As promised, I'm starting to document the new Excel templates that I teased you all with a few weeks back. Leslie is buried in 11g documentation and will not get to officially documenting the templates for a while. I'll do my best to be professional and not ramble on about this and that, although the weather here has finally turned and its 'scorchio' here in Colorado today. Maybe our stand of Aspen will finally come into leaf ... but I digress. Preamble These templates are not actually that new, I helped in a small way to develop them a few years back with Excel 'meistress' Shirley for a company that was trying to use the Report Manager(RR) Excel FSG outputs under EBS 12. The functionality they needed was just not there in the RR FSG templates, the templates are actually XSL that is created from the the RR Excel template builder and fed to BIP for processing. Think of Excel from our RTF templates and you'll be there ie not really Excel but HTML masquerading as Excel. Although still under controlled release in EBS they have now made their way to the standlone release and are willing to share their Excel goodness. You get everything you have with hte Excel Analyzer Excel templates plus so much more. Therein lies a question, what will happen to the Analyzer templates? My understanding is that both will come together into a single Excel template format some time in the post-11g release world. The new XLSX format for Exce 2007/10 is also in the mix too so watch this space. What more do these templates offer? Well, you can structure data in the Excel output. Similar to RTF templates you can create sheets of data that have master-detail n relationships. Although the analyzer templates can do this, you have to get into macros whereas BIP will do this all for you. You can also use native XSL functions in your data to manipulate it prior to rendering. BP functions are not currently supported. The most impressive, for me at least, is the sheet 'bursting'. You can split your hierarchical data across multiple sheets and dynamically name those sheets. Finally, you of course, still get all the native Excel functionality. Pre-reqs You must be on 10.1.3.4.1 plus the latest rollup patch, 9546699. You can patch upa BIP instance running with OBIEE, no problem You need Excel 2000 or above to build the templates Some patience - there is no Excel template builder for these new templates. So its all going to have to be done by hand. Its not that tough but can get a little 'fiddly'. You can not test the template from Excel , it has to be deployed and then run. Limitations The new templates are definitely superior to the Analyzer templates but there are a few limitations. Re-grouping is not supported. You can only follow a data hierarchy not bend it to your will unless you want to get into macros. No support for BIP functions. The templates support native XSL functions only. No template builder Getting Started The templates make the use of named cells and groups of cells to allow BIP to find the insertion point for data points. It also uses a hidden sheet to store calculation mappings from named cells to XML data elements. To start with, in the great BIP tradition, we need some sample XML data. Becasue I wanted to show the master-detail output we need some hierarchical data. If you have not yet gotten into the data templates, now is a good time, I wrote a post a while back starting from the simple to more complex. They generate ideal data sets for these templates. Im working with the following data set: <EMPLOYEES> <LIST_G_DEPT> <G_DEPT> <DEPARTMENT_ID>10</DEPARTMENT_ID> <DEPARTMENT_NAME>Administration</DEPARTMENT_NAME> <LIST_G_EMP> <G_EMP> <EMPLOYEE_ID>200</EMPLOYEE_ID> <EMP_NAME>Jennifer Whalen</EMP_NAME> <EMAIL>JWHALEN</EMAIL> <PHONE_NUMBER>515.123.4444</PHONE_NUMBER> <HIRE_DATE>1987-09-17T00:00:00.000-06:00</HIRE_DATE> <SALARY>4400</SALARY> </G_EMP> </LIST_G_EMP> <TOTAL_EMPS>1</TOTAL_EMPS> <TOTAL_SALARY>4400</TOTAL_SALARY> <AVG_SALARY>4400</AVG_SALARY> <MAX_SALARY>4400</MAX_SALARY> <MIN_SALARY>4400</MIN_SALARY> </G_DEPT> ... <LIST_G_DEPT> <EMPLOYEES> Simple enough to follow and bread and butter stuff for an RTF template. Building the Template For an Excel template we need to start by thinking about how we want to render the data. Come up with a sample output in Excel. Its all dummy data, nothing marked up yet with one row of data for each level. I have the department name and then a repeating row for the employees. You can apply Excel formatting to the layout. The total is going to be derived from a data element. We'll get to Excel functions later. Marking Up Cells Next we need to start marking up the cells with custom names to map them to data elements. The cell names need to follow a specific format: For data grouping, XDO_GROUP_?group_name? For data elements, XDO_?element_name? Notice the question mark delimter, the group_name and element_name are case sensitive. The next step is to find how to name cells; the easiest method is to highlight the cell and then type in the name. You can also find the Name Manager dialog. I use 2007 and its available on the ribbon under the Formulas section Go thorugh the process of naming all the cells for the element values you have. Using my data set from above.You should end up with something like this in your 'Name Manager' dialog. You can update any mistakes you might have made through this dialog. Creating Groups In the image above you can see there are a couple of named group cells. To create these its a simple case of highlighting the cells that make up the group and then naming them. For the EMP group, highlight the employee row and then type in the name, XDO_GROUP?G_EMP? Notice the 10,000 total is outside of the G_EMP group. Its actually named, XDO_?TOTAL_SALARY?, a query calculated value. For the department group, we need to include the department name cell and the sub EMP grouping and name it, XDO_GROUP?G_DEPT? Notice, the 10,000 total is included in the G_DEPT group. This will ensure it repeats at the department level. Lastly, we do need to include a special sheet in the workbook. We will not have anything meaningful in there for now, but it needs to be present. Create a new sheet and name it XDO_METADATA. The name is important as the BIP rendering engine will looking for it. For our current example we do not need anything other than the required stuff in our XDO_METADATA sheet but, it must be present. Easy enough to hide it. Here's what I have: The only cell that is important is the 'Data Constraints:' cell. The rest is optional. To save curious users getting distracted, hide the metadata sheet. Deploying & Running Templates We should now have a usable Excel template. Loading it into a report is easy enough using the browser UI, just like an RTF template. Set the template type to Excel. You will now be able to run the report and hopefully get something like this. You will not get the red highlighting, thats just some conditional formatting I added to the template using Excel functionality. Your dates are probably going to look raw too. I got around this for now using an Excel function on the cell: =--REPLACE(SUBSTITUTE(E8,"T"," "),LEN(E8)-6,6,"") Google to the rescue on that one. Try some other stuff out. To avoid constantly loading the template through the UI. If you have BIP running locally or you can access the reports repository, once you have loaded the template the first time. Just save the template directly into the report folder. I have put together a sample report using a sample data set, available here. Just drop the xml data file, EmpbyDeptExcelData.xml into 'demo files' folder and you should be good to go. Thats the basics, next we'll start using some XSL functions in the template and move onto the 'bursting' across sheets.

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HTML5 Form Validation

- by Stephen.Walther

The latest versions of Google Chrome (16+), Mozilla Firefox (8+), and Internet Explorer (10+) all support HTML5 client-side validation. It is time to take HTML5 validation seriously. The purpose of the blog post is to describe how you can take advantage of HTML5 client-side validation regardless of the type of application that you are building. You learn how to use the HTML5 validation attributes, how to perform custom validation using the JavaScript validation constraint API, and how to simulate HTML5 validation on older browsers by taking advantage of a jQuery plugin. Finally, we discuss the security issues related to using client-side validation. Using Client-Side Validation Attributes The HTML5 specification discusses several attributes which you can use with INPUT elements to perform client-side validation including the required, pattern, min, max, step, and maxlength attributes. For example, you use the required attribute to require a user to enter a value for an INPUT element. The following form demonstrates how you can make the firstName and lastName form fields required: <!DOCTYPE html> <html > <head> <title>Required Demo</title> </head> <body> <form> <label> First Name: <input required title="First Name is Required!" /> </label> <label> Last Name: <input required title="Last Name is Required!" /> </label> <button>Register</button> </form> </body> </html> If you attempt to submit this form without entering a value for firstName or lastName then you get the validation error message: Notice that the value of the title attribute is used to display the validation error message “First Name is Required!”. The title attribute does not work this way with the current version of Firefox. If you want to display a custom validation error message with Firefox then you need to include an x-moz-errormessage attribute like this: <input required title="First Name is Required!" x-moz-errormessage="First Name is Required!" /> The pattern attribute enables you to validate the value of an INPUT element against a regular expression. For example, the following form includes a social security number field which includes a pattern attribute: <!DOCTYPE html> <html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> <head> <title>Pattern</title> </head> <body> <form> <label> Social Security Number: <input required pattern="^d{3}-d{2}-d{4}$" title="###-##-####" /> </label> <button>Register</button> </form> </body> </html> The regular expression in the form above requires the social security number to match the pattern ###-##-####: Notice that the input field includes both a pattern and a required validation attribute. If you don’t enter a value then the regular expression is never triggered. You need to include the required attribute to force a user to enter a value and cause the value to be validated against the regular expression. Custom Validation You can take advantage of the HTML5 constraint validation API to perform custom validation. You can perform any custom validation that you need. The only requirement is that you write a JavaScript function. For example, when booking a hotel room, you might want to validate that the Arrival Date is in the future instead of the past: <!DOCTYPE html> <html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> <head> <title>Constraint Validation API</title> </head> <body> <form> <label> Arrival Date: <input id="arrivalDate" type="date" required /> </label> <button>Submit Reservation</button> </form> <script type="text/javascript"> var arrivalDate = document.getElementById("arrivalDate"); arrivalDate.addEventListener("input", function() { var value = new Date(arrivalDate.value); if (value < new Date()) { arrivalDate.setCustomValidity("Arrival date must be after now!"); } else { arrivalDate.setCustomValidity(""); } }); </script> </body> </html> The form above contains an input field named arrivalDate. Entering a value into the arrivalDate field triggers the input event. The JavaScript code adds an event listener for the input event and checks whether the date entered is greater than the current date. If validation fails then the validation error message “Arrival date must be after now!” is assigned to the arrivalDate input field by calling the setCustomValidity() method of the validation constraint API. Otherwise, the validation error message is cleared by calling setCustomValidity() with an empty string. HTML5 Validation and Older Browsers But what about older browsers? For example, what about Apple Safari and versions of Microsoft Internet Explorer older than Internet Explorer 10? What the world really needs is a jQuery plugin which provides backwards compatibility for the HTML5 validation attributes. If a browser supports the HTML5 validation attributes then the plugin would do nothing. Otherwise, the plugin would add support for the attributes. Unfortunately, as far as I know, this plugin does not exist. I have not been able to find any plugin which supports both the required and pattern attributes for older browsers, but does not get in the way of these attributes in the case of newer browsers. There are several jQuery plugins which provide partial support for the HTML5 validation attributes including: · jQuery Validation — http://docs.jquery.com/Plugins/Validation · html5Form — http://www.matiasmancini.com.ar/jquery-plugin-ajax-form-validation-html5.html · h5Validate — http://ericleads.com/h5validate/ The jQuery Validation plugin – the most popular JavaScript validation library – supports the HTML5 required attribute, but it does not support the HTML5 pattern attribute. Likewise, the html5Form plugin does not support the pattern attribute. The h5Validate plugin provides the best support for the HTML5 validation attributes. The following page illustrates how this plugin supports both the required and pattern attributes: <!DOCTYPE html> <html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> <head> <title>h5Validate</title> <style type="text/css"> .validationError { border: solid 2px red; } .validationValid { border: solid 2px green; } </style> </head> <body> <form id="customerForm"> <label> First Name: <input id="firstName" required /> </label> <label> Social Security Number: <input id="ssn" required pattern="^d{3}-d{2}-d{4}$" title="Expected pattern is ###-##-####" /> </label> <input type="submit" /> </form> <script type="text/javascript" src="Scripts/jquery-1.4.4.min.js"></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="Scripts/jquery.h5validate.js"></script> <script type="text/javascript"> // Enable h5Validate plugin $("#customerForm").h5Validate({ errorClass: "validationError", validClass: "validationValid" }); // Prevent form submission when errors $("#customerForm").submit(function (evt) { if ($("#customerForm").h5Validate("allValid") === false) { evt.preventDefault(); } }); </script> </body> </html> When an input field fails validation, the validationError CSS class is applied to the field and the field appears with a red border. When an input field passes validation, the validationValid CSS class is applied to the field and the field appears with a green border. From the perspective of HTML5 validation, the h5Validate plugin is the best of the plugins. It adds support for the required and pattern attributes to browsers which do not natively support these attributes such as IE9. However, this plugin does not include everything in my wish list for a perfect HTML5 validation plugin. Here’s my wish list for the perfect back compat HTML5 validation plugin: 1. The plugin would disable itself when used with a browser which natively supports HTML5 validation attributes. The plugin should not be too greedy – it should not handle validation when a browser could do the work itself. 2. The plugin should simulate the same user interface for displaying validation error messages as the user interface displayed by browsers which natively support HTML5 validation. Chrome, Firefox, and Internet Explorer all display validation errors in a popup. The perfect plugin would also display a popup. 3. Finally, the plugin would add support for the setCustomValidity() method and the other methods of the HTML5 validation constraint API. That way, you could implement custom validation in a standards compatible way and you would know that it worked across all browsers both old and new. Security It would be irresponsible of me to end this blog post without mentioning the issue of security. It is important to remember that any client-side validation — including HTML5 validation — can be bypassed. You should use client-side validation with the intention to create a better user experience. Client validation is great for providing a user with immediate feedback when the user is in the process of completing a form. However, client-side validation cannot prevent an evil hacker from submitting unexpected form data to your web server. You should always enforce your validation rules on the server. The only way to ensure that a required field has a value is to verify that the required field has a value on the server. The HTML5 required attribute does not guarantee anything. Summary The goal of this blog post was to describe the support for validation contained in the HTML5 standard. You learned how to use both the required and the pattern attributes in an HTML5 form. We also discussed how you can implement custom validation by taking advantage of the setCustomValidity() method. Finally, I discussed the available jQuery plugins for adding support for the HTM5 validation attributes to older browsers. Unfortunately, I am unaware of any jQuery plugin which provides a perfect solution to the problem of backwards compatibility.

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In Which We Demystify A Few Docupresentment Settings And Learn the Ethos of the Author

- by Andy Little

It's no secret that Docupresentment (part of the Oracle Documaker suite) is powerful tool for integrating on-demand and interactive applications for publishing with the Oracle Documaker framework. It's also no secret there are are many details with respect to the configuration of Docupresentment that can elude even the most erudite of of techies. To be sure, Docupresentment will work for you right out of the box, and in most cases will suit your needs without toying with a configuration file. But, where's the adventure in that? With this inaugural post to That's The Way, I'm going to introduce myself, and what my aim is with this blog. If you didn't figure it out already by checking out my profile, my name is Andy and I've been with Oracle (nee Skywire Software nee Docucorp nee Formmaker) since the formative years of 1998. Strangely, it doesn't seem that long ago, but it's certainly a lifetime in the age of technology. I recall running a BBS from my parent's basement on a 1200 baud modem, and the trepidation and sweaty-palmed excitement of upgrading to the power and speed of 2400 baud! Fine, I'll admit that perhaps I'm inflating the experience a bit, but I was kid! This is the stuff of War Games and King's Quest I and the demise of TI-99 4/A. Exciting times. So fast-forward a bit and I'm 12 years into a career in the world of document automation and publishing working for the best (IMHO) software company on the planet. With That's The Way I hope to shed a little light and peek under the covers of some of the more interesting aspects of implementations involving the tech space within the Oracle Insurance Global Business Unit (IGBU), which includes Oracle Documaker, Rating & Underwriting, and Policy Administration to name a few. I may delve off course a bit, and you'll likely get a dose of humor (at least in my mind) but I hope you'll glean at least a tidbit of usefulness with each post. Feel free to comment as I'm a fairly conversant guy and happy to talk -- it's stopping the talking that's the hard part... So, back to our regularly-scheduled post, already in progress. By this time you've visited Oracle's E-Delivery site and acquired your properly-licensed version of Oracle Documaker. Wait -- you didn't find it? Understandable -- navigating the voluminous download library within Oracle can be a daunting task. It's pretty simple once you’ve done it a few times. Login to the e-delivery site, and accept the license terms and restrictions. Then, you’ll be able to select the Oracle Insurance Applications product pack and your appropriate platform. Click Go and you’ll see a list of applicable products, and you’ll click on Oracle Documaker Media Pack (as I went to press with this article the version is 11.4): Finally, click the Download button next to Docupresentment (again, version at press time is 2.2 p5). This should give you a ZIP file that contains the installation packages for the Docupresentment Server and Client, cryptically named IDSServer22P05W32.exe and IDSClient22P05W32.exe. At this time, I’d like to take a little detour and explain that the world of Oracle, like most technical companies, is rife with acronyms. One of the reasons Skywire Software was a appealing to Oracle was our use of many acronyms, including the occasional use of multiple acronyms with the same meaning. I apologize in advance and will try to point these out along the way. Here’s your first sticky note to go along with that: IDS = Internet Document Server = Docupresentment Once you’ve completed the installation, you’ll have a shiny new Docupresentment server and client, and if you installed the default location it will be living in c:\docserv. Unix users, I’m one of you! You’ll find it by default in ~/docupresentment/docserv. Forging onward with the meat of this post is learning about some special configuration options. By now you’ve read the documentation included with the download (specifically ids_book.pdf) which goes into some detail of the rubric of the configuration file and in fact there’s even a handy utility that provides an interface to the configuration file (see Running IDSConfig in the documentation). But who wants to deal with a configuration utility when we have the tools and technology to edit the file <gasp> by hand! I shall now proceed with the standard Information Technology Under the Hood Disclaimer: Please remember to back up any files before you make changes. I am not responsible for any havoc you may wreak! Go to your installation directory, and locate your docserv.xml file. Open it in your favorite XML editor. I happen to be fond of Notepad++ with the XML Tools plugin. Almost immediately you will behold the splendor of the configuration file. Just take a moment and let that sink in. Ok – moving on. If you reviewed the documentation you know that inside the root <configuration> node there are multiple <section> nodes, each containing a specific group of settings. Let’s take a look at <section name=”DocumentServer”>: There are a few entries I’d like to discuss. First, <entry name=”StartCommand”>. This should be pretty self-explanatory; it’s the name of the executable that’s run when you fire up Docupresentment. Immediately following that is <entry name=”StartArguments”> and as you might imagine these are the arguments passed to the executable. A few things to point out: The –Dids.configuration=docserv.xml parameter specifies the name of your configuration file. The –Dlogging.configuration=logconf.xml parameter specifies the name of your logging configuration file (this uses log4j so bone up on that before you delve here). The -Djava.endorsed.dirs=lib/endorsed parameter specifies the path where 3rd party Java libraries can be located for use with Docupresentment. More on that in another post. The <entry name=”Instances”> allows you to specify the number of instances of Docupresentment that will be started. By default this is two, and generally two instances per CPU is adequate, however you will always need to perform load testing to determine the sweet spot based on your hardware and types of transactions. You may have many, many more instances than 2. Time for a sidebar on instances. An instance is nothing more than a separate process of Docupresentment. The Docupresentment service that you fire up with docserver.bat or docserver.sh actually starts a watchdog process, which is then responsible for starting up the actual Docupresentment processes. Each of these act independently from one another, so if one crashes, it does not affect any others. In the case of a crashed process, the watchdog will start up another instance so the number of configured instances are always running. Bottom line: instance = Docupresentment process. And now, finally, to the settings which gave me pause on an not-too-long-ago implementation! Docupresentment includes a feature that watches configuration files (such as docserv.xml and logconf.xml) and will automatically restart its instances to load the changes. You can configure the time that Docupresentment waits to check these files using the setting <entry name=”FileWatchTimeMillis”>. By default the number is 12000ms, or 12 seconds. You can save yourself a few CPU cycles by extending this time, or by disabling the check altogether by setting the value to 0. This may or may not be appropriate for your environment; if you have 100% uptime requirements then you probably don’t want to bring down an entire set of processes just to accept a new configuration value, so it’s best to leave this somewhere between 12 seconds to a few minutes. Another point to keep in mind: if you are using Documaker real-time processing under Docupresentment the Master Resource Library (MRL) files and INI options are cached, and if you need to affect a change, you’ll have to “restart” Docupresentment. Touching the docserv.xml file is an easy way to do this (other methods including using the RSS request, but that’s another post). The next item up: <entry name=”FilePurgeTimeSeconds”>. You may already know that the Docupresentment system can generate many temporary files based on certain request types that are processed through the system. What you may not know is how those files are cleaned up. There are many rules in Docupresentment that cause the creation of temporary files. When these files are created, Docupresentment writes an entry into a properties file called the file cache. This file contains the name, creation date, and expiration time of each temporary file created by each instance of Docupresentment. Periodically Docupresentment will check the file cache to determine if there are files that are past the expiration time, not unlike that block of cheese festering away in the back of my refrigerator. However, unlike my ‘fridge cleaning tendencies, Docupresentment is quick to remove files that are past their expiration time. You, my friend, have the power to control how often Docupresentment inspects the file cache. Simply set the value for <entry name=”FilePurgeTimeSeconds”> to the number of seconds appropriate for your requirements and you’re set. Note that file purging happens on a separate thread from normal request processing, so this shouldn’t interfere with response times unless the CPU happens to be really taxed at the point of cache processing. Finally, after all of this, we get to the final setting I’m going to address in this post: <entry name=”FilePurgeList”>. The default is “filecache.properties”. This establishes the root name for the Docupresentment file cache that I mentioned previously. Docupresentment creates a separate cache file for each instance based on this setting. If you have two instances, you’ll see two files created: filecache.properties.1 and filecache.properties.2. Feel free to open these up and check them out. I hope you’ve enjoyed this first foray into the configuration file of Docupresentment. If you did enjoy it, feel free to drop a comment, I welcome feedback. If you have ideas for other posts you’d like to see, please do let me know. You can reach me at [email protected]. ‘Til next time! ###

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HTML5 Form Validation

- by Stephen.Walther

The latest versions of Google Chrome (16+), Mozilla Firefox (8+), and Internet Explorer (10+) all support HTML5 client-side validation. It is time to take HTML5 validation seriously. The purpose of the blog post is to describe how you can take advantage of HTML5 client-side validation regardless of the type of application that you are building. You learn how to use the HTML5 validation attributes, how to perform custom validation using the JavaScript validation constraint API, and how to simulate HTML5 validation on older browsers by taking advantage of a jQuery plugin. Finally, we discuss the security issues related to using client-side validation. Using Client-Side Validation Attributes The HTML5 specification discusses several attributes which you can use with INPUT elements to perform client-side validation including the required, pattern, min, max, step, and maxlength attributes. For example, you use the required attribute to require a user to enter a value for an INPUT element. The following form demonstrates how you can make the firstName and lastName form fields required: <!DOCTYPE html> <html > <head> <title>Required Demo</title> </head> <body> <form> <label> First Name: <input required title="First Name is Required!" /> </label> <label> Last Name: <input required title="Last Name is Required!" /> </label> <button>Register</button> </form> </body> </html> If you attempt to submit this form without entering a value for firstName or lastName then you get the validation error message: Notice that the value of the title attribute is used to display the validation error message “First Name is Required!”. The title attribute does not work this way with the current version of Firefox. If you want to display a custom validation error message with Firefox then you need to include an x-moz-errormessage attribute like this: <input required title="First Name is Required!" x-moz-errormessage="First Name is Required!" /> The pattern attribute enables you to validate the value of an INPUT element against a regular expression. For example, the following form includes a social security number field which includes a pattern attribute: <!DOCTYPE html> <html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> <head> <title>Pattern</title> </head> <body> <form> <label> Social Security Number: <input required pattern="^\d{3}-\d{2}-\d{4}$" title="###-##-####" /> </label> <button>Register</button> </form> </body> </html> The regular expression in the form above requires the social security number to match the pattern ###-##-####: Notice that the input field includes both a pattern and a required validation attribute. If you don’t enter a value then the regular expression is never triggered. You need to include the required attribute to force a user to enter a value and cause the value to be validated against the regular expression. Custom Validation You can take advantage of the HTML5 constraint validation API to perform custom validation. You can perform any custom validation that you need. The only requirement is that you write a JavaScript function. For example, when booking a hotel room, you might want to validate that the Arrival Date is in the future instead of the past: <!DOCTYPE html> <html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> <head> <title>Constraint Validation API</title> </head> <body> <form> <label> Arrival Date: <input id="arrivalDate" type="date" required /> </label> <button>Submit Reservation</button> </form> <script type="text/javascript"> var arrivalDate = document.getElementById("arrivalDate"); arrivalDate.addEventListener("input", function() { var value = new Date(arrivalDate.value); if (value < new Date()) { arrivalDate.setCustomValidity("Arrival date must be after now!"); } else { arrivalDate.setCustomValidity(""); } }); </script> </body> </html> The form above contains an input field named arrivalDate. Entering a value into the arrivalDate field triggers the input event. The JavaScript code adds an event listener for the input event and checks whether the date entered is greater than the current date. If validation fails then the validation error message “Arrival date must be after now!” is assigned to the arrivalDate input field by calling the setCustomValidity() method of the validation constraint API. Otherwise, the validation error message is cleared by calling setCustomValidity() with an empty string. HTML5 Validation and Older Browsers But what about older browsers? For example, what about Apple Safari and versions of Microsoft Internet Explorer older than Internet Explorer 10? What the world really needs is a jQuery plugin which provides backwards compatibility for the HTML5 validation attributes. If a browser supports the HTML5 validation attributes then the plugin would do nothing. Otherwise, the plugin would add support for the attributes. Unfortunately, as far as I know, this plugin does not exist. I have not been able to find any plugin which supports both the required and pattern attributes for older browsers, but does not get in the way of these attributes in the case of newer browsers. There are several jQuery plugins which provide partial support for the HTML5 validation attributes including: · jQuery Validation — http://docs.jquery.com/Plugins/Validation · html5Form — http://www.matiasmancini.com.ar/jquery-plugin-ajax-form-validation-html5.html · h5Validate — http://ericleads.com/h5validate/ The jQuery Validation plugin – the most popular JavaScript validation library – supports the HTML5 required attribute, but it does not support the HTML5 pattern attribute. Likewise, the html5Form plugin does not support the pattern attribute. The h5Validate plugin provides the best support for the HTML5 validation attributes. The following page illustrates how this plugin supports both the required and pattern attributes: <!DOCTYPE html> <html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> <head> <title>h5Validate</title> <style type="text/css"> .validationError { border: solid 2px red; } .validationValid { border: solid 2px green; } </style> </head> <body> <form id="customerForm"> <label> First Name: <input id="firstName" required /> </label> <label> Social Security Number: <input id="ssn" required pattern="^\d{3}-\d{2}-\d{4}$" title="Expected pattern is ###-##-####" /> </label> <input type="submit" /> </form> <script type="text/javascript" src="Scripts/jquery-1.4.4.min.js"></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="Scripts/jquery.h5validate.js"></script> <script type="text/javascript"> // Enable h5Validate plugin $("#customerForm").h5Validate({ errorClass: "validationError", validClass: "validationValid" }); // Prevent form submission when errors $("#customerForm").submit(function (evt) { if ($("#customerForm").h5Validate("allValid") === false) { evt.preventDefault(); } }); </script> </body> </html> When an input field fails validation, the validationError CSS class is applied to the field and the field appears with a red border. When an input field passes validation, the validationValid CSS class is applied to the field and the field appears with a green border. From the perspective of HTML5 validation, the h5Validate plugin is the best of the plugins. It adds support for the required and pattern attributes to browsers which do not natively support these attributes such as IE9. However, this plugin does not include everything in my wish list for a perfect HTML5 validation plugin. Here’s my wish list for the perfect back compat HTML5 validation plugin: 1. The plugin would disable itself when used with a browser which natively supports HTML5 validation attributes. The plugin should not be too greedy – it should not handle validation when a browser could do the work itself. 2. The plugin should simulate the same user interface for displaying validation error messages as the user interface displayed by browsers which natively support HTML5 validation. Chrome, Firefox, and Internet Explorer all display validation errors in a popup. The perfect plugin would also display a popup. 3. Finally, the plugin would add support for the setCustomValidity() method and the other methods of the HTML5 validation constraint API. That way, you could implement custom validation in a standards compatible way and you would know that it worked across all browsers both old and new. Security It would be irresponsible of me to end this blog post without mentioning the issue of security. It is important to remember that any client-side validation — including HTML5 validation — can be bypassed. You should use client-side validation with the intention to create a better user experience. Client validation is great for providing a user with immediate feedback when the user is in the process of completing a form. However, client-side validation cannot prevent an evil hacker from submitting unexpected form data to your web server. You should always enforce your validation rules on the server. The only way to ensure that a required field has a value is to verify that the required field has a value on the server. The HTML5 required attribute does not guarantee anything. Summary The goal of this blog post was to describe the support for validation contained in the HTML5 standard. You learned how to use both the required and the pattern attributes in an HTML5 form. We also discussed how you can implement custom validation by taking advantage of the setCustomValidity() method. Finally, I discussed the available jQuery plugins for adding support for the HTM5 validation attributes to older browsers. Unfortunately, I am unaware of any jQuery plugin which provides a perfect solution to the problem of backwards compatibility.

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Taming Hopping Windows

- by Roman Schindlauer

At first glance, hopping windows seem fairly innocuous and obvious. They organize events into windows with a simple periodic definition: the windows have some duration d (e.g. a window covers 5 second time intervals), an interval or period p (e.g. a new window starts every 2 seconds) and an alignment a (e.g. one of those windows starts at 12:00 PM on March 15, 2012 UTC). var wins = xs .HoppingWindow(TimeSpan.FromSeconds(5), TimeSpan.FromSeconds(2), new DateTime(2012, 3, 15, 12, 0, 0, DateTimeKind.Utc)); Logically, there is a window with start time a + np and end time a + np + d for every integer n. That’s a lot of windows. So why doesn’t the following query (always) blow up? var query = wins.Select(win => win.Count()); A few users have asked why StreamInsight doesn’t produce output for empty windows. Primarily it’s because there is an infinite number of empty windows! (Actually, StreamInsight uses DateTimeOffset.MaxValue to approximate “the end of time” and DateTimeOffset.MinValue to approximate “the beginning of time”, so the number of windows is lower in practice.) That was the good news. Now the bad news. Events also have duration. Consider the following simple input: var xs = this.Application .DefineEnumerable(() => new[] { EdgeEvent.CreateStart(DateTimeOffset.UtcNow, 0) }) .ToStreamable(AdvanceTimeSettings.IncreasingStartTime); Because the event has no explicit end edge, it lasts until the end of time. So there are lots of non-empty windows if we apply a hopping window to that single event! For this reason, we need to be careful with hopping window queries in StreamInsight. Or we can switch to a custom implementation of hopping windows that doesn’t suffer from this shortcoming. The alternate window implementation produces output only when the input changes. We start by breaking up the timeline into non-overlapping intervals assigned to each window. In figure 1, six hopping windows (“Windows”) are assigned to six intervals (“Assignments”) in the timeline. Next we take input events (“Events”) and alter their lifetimes (“Altered Events”) so that they cover the intervals of the windows they intersect. In figure 1, you can see that the first event e1 intersects windows w1 and w2 so it is adjusted to cover assignments a1 and a2. Finally, we can use snapshot windows (“Snapshots”) to produce output for the hopping windows. Notice however that instead of having six windows generating output, we have only four. The first and second snapshots correspond to the first and second hopping windows. The remaining snapshots however cover two hopping windows each! While in this example we saved only two events, the savings can be more significant when the ratio of event duration to window duration is higher. Figure 1: Timeline The implementation of this strategy is straightforward. We need to set the start times of events to the start time of the interval assigned to the earliest window including the start time. Similarly, we need to modify the end times of events to the end time of the interval assigned to the latest window including the end time. The following snap-to-boundary function that rounds a timestamp value t down to the nearest value t' <= t such that t' is a + np for some integer n will be useful. For convenience, we will represent both DateTime and TimeSpan values using long ticks: static long SnapToBoundary(long t, long a, long p) { return t - ((t - a) % p) - (t > a ? 0L : p); } How do we find the earliest window including the start time for an event? It’s the window following the last window that does not include the start time assuming that there are no gaps in the windows (i.e. duration < interval), and limitation of this solution. To find the end time of that antecedent window, we need to know the alignment of window ends: long e = a + (d % p); Using the window end alignment, we are finally ready to describe the start time selector: static long AdjustStartTime(long t, long e, long p) { return SnapToBoundary(t, e, p) + p; } To find the latest window including the end time for an event, we look for the last window start time (non-inclusive): public static long AdjustEndTime(long t, long a, long d, long p) { return SnapToBoundary(t - 1, a, p) + p + d; } Bringing it together, we can define the translation from events to ‘altered events’ as in Figure 1: public static IQStreamable<T> SnapToWindowIntervals<T>(IQStreamable<T> source, TimeSpan duration, TimeSpan interval, DateTime alignment) { if (source == null) throw new ArgumentNullException("source"); // reason about DateTime and TimeSpan in ticks long d = Math.Min(DateTime.MaxValue.Ticks, duration.Ticks); long p = Math.Min(DateTime.MaxValue.Ticks, Math.Abs(interval.Ticks)); // set alignment to earliest possible window var a = alignment.ToUniversalTime().Ticks % p; // verify constraints of this solution if (d <= 0L) { throw new ArgumentOutOfRangeException("duration"); } if (p == 0L || p > d) { throw new ArgumentOutOfRangeException("interval"); } // find the alignment of window ends long e = a + (d % p); return source.AlterEventLifetime( evt => ToDateTime(AdjustStartTime(evt.StartTime.ToUniversalTime().Ticks, e, p)), evt => ToDateTime(AdjustEndTime(evt.EndTime.ToUniversalTime().Ticks, a, d, p)) - ToDateTime(AdjustStartTime(evt.StartTime.ToUniversalTime().Ticks, e, p))); } public static DateTime ToDateTime(long ticks) { // just snap to min or max value rather than under/overflowing return ticks < DateTime.MinValue.Ticks ? new DateTime(DateTime.MinValue.Ticks, DateTimeKind.Utc) : ticks > DateTime.MaxValue.Ticks ? new DateTime(DateTime.MaxValue.Ticks, DateTimeKind.Utc) : new DateTime(ticks, DateTimeKind.Utc); } Finally, we can describe our custom hopping window operator: public static IQWindowedStreamable<T> HoppingWindow2<T>( IQStreamable<T> source, TimeSpan duration, TimeSpan interval, DateTime alignment) { if (source == null) { throw new ArgumentNullException("source"); } return SnapToWindowIntervals(source, duration, interval, alignment).SnapshotWindow(); } By switching from HoppingWindow to HoppingWindow2 in the following example, the query returns quickly rather than gobbling resources and ultimately failing! public void Main() { var start = new DateTimeOffset(new DateTime(2012, 6, 28), TimeSpan.Zero); var duration = TimeSpan.FromSeconds(5); var interval = TimeSpan.FromSeconds(2); var alignment = new DateTime(2012, 3, 15, 12, 0, 0, DateTimeKind.Utc); var events = this.Application.DefineEnumerable(() => new[] { EdgeEvent.CreateStart(start.AddSeconds(0), "e0"), EdgeEvent.CreateStart(start.AddSeconds(1), "e1"), EdgeEvent.CreateEnd(start.AddSeconds(1), start.AddSeconds(2), "e1"), EdgeEvent.CreateStart(start.AddSeconds(3), "e2"), EdgeEvent.CreateStart(start.AddSeconds(9), "e3"), EdgeEvent.CreateEnd(start.AddSeconds(3), start.AddSeconds(10), "e2"), EdgeEvent.CreateEnd(start.AddSeconds(9), start.AddSeconds(10), "e3"), }).ToStreamable(AdvanceTimeSettings.IncreasingStartTime); var adjustedEvents = SnapToWindowIntervals(events, duration, interval, alignment); var query = from win in HoppingWindow2(events, duration, interval, alignment) select win.Count(); DisplayResults(adjustedEvents, "Adjusted Events"); DisplayResults(query, "Query"); } As you can see, instead of producing a massive number of windows for the open start edge e0, a single window is emitted from 12:00:15 AM until the end of time: Adjusted Events StartTime EndTime Payload 6/28/2012 12:00:01 AM 12/31/9999 11:59:59 PM e0 6/28/2012 12:00:03 AM 6/28/2012 12:00:07 AM e1 6/28/2012 12:00:05 AM 6/28/2012 12:00:15 AM e2 6/28/2012 12:00:11 AM 6/28/2012 12:00:15 AM e3 Query StartTime EndTime Payload 6/28/2012 12:00:01 AM 6/28/2012 12:00:03 AM 1 6/28/2012 12:00:03 AM 6/28/2012 12:00:05 AM 2 6/28/2012 12:00:05 AM 6/28/2012 12:00:07 AM 3 6/28/2012 12:00:07 AM 6/28/2012 12:00:11 AM 2 6/28/2012 12:00:11 AM 6/28/2012 12:00:15 AM 3 6/28/2012 12:00:15 AM 12/31/9999 11:59:59 PM 1 Regards, The StreamInsight Team

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Using the OAM Mobile & Social SDK to secure native mobile apps - Part 2 : OAM Mobile & Social Server configuration

- by kanishkmahajan

Objective In the second part of this blog post I'll now cover configuration of OAM to secure our sample native apps developed using the iOS SDK. First, here are some key server side concepts: Application Profiles: An application profile is a logical representation of your application within OAM server. It could be a web (html/javascript) or native (iOS or Android) application. Applications may have different requirements for AuthN/AuthZ, and therefore each application that interacts with OAM Mobile & Social REST services must be uniquely defined. Service Providers: Service providers represent the back end services that are accessed by applications. With OAM Mobile & Social these services are in the areas of authentication, authorization and user profile access. A Service Provider then defines a type or class of service for authentication, authorization or user profiles. For example, the JWTAuthentication provider performs authentication and returns JWT (JSON Web Tokens) to the application. In contrast, the OAMAuthentication also provides authentication but uses OAM SSO tokens Service Profiles: A Service Profile is a logical envelope that defines a service endpoint URL for a service provider for the OAM Mobile & Social Service. You can create multiple service profiles for a service provider to define token capabilities and service endpoints. Each service provider instance requires atleast one corresponding service profile.The OAM Mobile & Social Service includes a pre-configured service profile for each pre-configured service provider. Service Domains: Service domains bind together application profiles and service profiles with an optional security handler. So now let's configure the OAM server. Additional details are in the OAM Documentation and this post simply provides an outline of configuration tasks required to configure OAM for securing native apps. Configuration Create The Application Profile Log on to the Oracle Access Management console and from System Configuration -> Mobile and Social -> Mobile Services, select "Create" under Application Profiles. You would do this step twice - once for each of the native apps - AvitekInventory and AvitekScheduler. Enter the parameters for the new Application profile: Name: The application name. In this example we use 'InventoryApp' for the AvitekInventory app and 'SchedulerApp' for the AvitekScheduler app. The application name configured here must match the application name in the settings for the deployed iOS application. BaseSecret: Enter a password here. This does not need to match any existing password. It is used as an encryption key between the client and the OAM server. Mobile Configuration: Enable this checkbox for any mobile applications. This enables the SDK to collect and send Mobile specific attributes to the OAM server. Webview: Controls the type of browser that the iOS application will use. The embedded browser (default) will render the browser within the application. External will use the system standalone browser. External can sometimes be preferable for debugging URLScheme: The URL scheme associated with the iOS apps that is also used as a custom URL scheme to register O/S handlers that will take control when OAM transfers control to device. For the AvitekInventory and the AvitekScheduler apps I used osa:// and client:// respectively. You set this scheme in Xcode while developing your iOS Apps under Info->URL Types. Bundle Identifier : The fully qualified name of your iOS application. You typically set this when you create a new Xcode project or under General->Identity in Xcode. For the AvitekInventory and AvitekScheduler apps these were com.us.oracle.AvitekInventory and com.us.oracle.AvitekScheduler respectively. Create The Service Domain Select create under Service domains. Create a name for your domain (AvitekDomain is what I've used). The name configured must match the service domain set in the iOS application settings. Under "Application Profile Selection" click the browse button. Choose the application profiles that you created in the previous step one by one. Set the InventoryApp as the SSO agent (with an automatic priority of 1) and the SchedulerApp as the SSO client. This associates these applications with this service domain and configures them in a 'circle of trust'. Advance to the next page of the wizard to configure the services for this domain. For this example we will use the following services: Authentication: This will use the JWT (JSON Web Token) format authentication provider. The iOS application upon successful authentication will receive a signed JWT token from OAM Mobile & Social service. This token will be used in subsequent calls to OAM. Use 'MobileOAMAuthentication' here. Authorization: The authorization provider. The SDK makes calls to this provider endpoint to obtain authorization decisions on resource requests. Use 'OAMAuthorization' here. User Profile Service: This is the service that provides user profile services (attribute lookup, attribute modification). It can be any directory configured as a data source in OAM. And that's it! We're done configuring our native apps. In the next section, let's look at some additional features that were mentioned in the earlier post that are automated by the SDK for the app developer i.e. these are areas that require no additional coding by the app developer when developing with the SDK as they only require server side configuration: Additional Configuration Offline Authentication Select this option in the service domain configuration to allow users to log in and authenticate to the application locally. Clear the box to block users from authenticating locally. Strong Authentication By simply selecting the OAAMSecurityHandlerPlugin while configuring mobile related Service Domains, the OAM Mobile&Social service allows sophisticated device and client application registration logic as well as the advanced risk and fraud analysis logic found in OAAM to be applied to mobile authentication. Let's look at some scenarios where the OAAMSecurityHandlerPlugin gets used. First, when we configure OAM and OAAM to integrate together using the TAP scheme, then that integration kicks off by selecting the OAAMSecurityHandlerPlugin in the mobile service domain. This is how the mobile device is now prompted for KBA,OTP etc depending on the TAP scheme integration and the OAM users registered in the OAAM database. Second, when we configured the service domain, there were claim attributes there that are already pre-configured in OAM Mobile&Social service and we simply accepted the default values- these are the set of attributes that will be fetched from the device and passed to the server during registration/authentication as device profile attributes. When a mobile application requests a token through the Mobile Client SDK, the SDK logic will send the Device Profile attributes as a part of an HTTP request. This set of Device Profile attributes enhances security by creating an audit trail for devices that assists device identification. When the OAAM Security Plug-in is used, a particular combination of Device Profile attribute values is treated as a device finger print, known as the Digital Finger Print in the OAAM Administration Console. Each finger print is assigned a unique fingerprint number. Each OAAM session is associated with a finger print and the finger print makes it possible to log (and audit) the devices that are performing authentication and token acquisition. Finally, if the jail broken option is selected while configuring an application profile, the SDK detects a device is jail broken based on configured policy and if the OAAM handler is configured the plug-in can allow or block access to client device depending on the OAAM policy as well as detect blacklisted, lost or stolen devices and send a wipeout command that deletes all the mobile &social relevant data and blocks the device from future access. 1024x768 Social Logins Finally, let's complete this post by adding configuration to configure social logins for mobile applications. Although the Avitek sample apps do not demonstrate social logins this would be an ideal exercise for you based on the sample code provided in the earlier post. I'll cover the server side configuration here (with Facebook as an example) and you can retrofit the code to accommodate social logins by following the steps outlined in "Invoking Authentication Services" and add code in LoginViewController and maybe create a new delegate - AvitekRPDelegate based on the description in the previous post. So, here all you will need to do is configure an application profile for social login, configure a new service domain that uses the social login application profile, register the app on Facebook and finally configure the Facebook OAuth provider in OAM with those settings. Navigate to Mobile and Social, click on "Internet Identity Services" and create a new application profile. Here are the relevant parameters for the new application profile (-also we're not registering the social user in OAM with this configuration below, however that is a key feature as well): Name: The application name. This must match the name of the of mobile application profile created for your application under Mobile Services. We used InventoryApp for this example. SharedSecret: Enter a password here. This does not need to match any existing password. It is used as an encryption key between the client and the OAM Mobile and Social service. Mobile Application Return URL: After the Relying Party (social) login, the OAM Mobile & Social service will redirect to the iOS application using this URI. This is defined under Info->URL type and we used 'osa', so we define this here as 'osa://' Login Type: Choose to allow only internet identity authentication for this exercise. Authentication Service Endpoint : Make sure that /internetidentityauthentication is selected. Login to http://developers.facebook.com using your Facebook account and click on Apps and register the app as InventoryApp. Note that the consumer key and API secret gets generated automatically by the Facebook OAuth server. Navigate back to OAM and under Mobile and Social, click on "Internet Identity Services" and edit the Facebook OAuth Provider. Add the consumer key and API secret from the Facebook developers site to the Facebook OAuth Provider: Navigate to Mobile Services. Click on New to create a new service domain. In this example we call the domain "AvitekDomainRP". The type should be 'Mobile Application' and the application credential type 'User Token'. Add the application "InventoryApp" to the domain. Advance the next page of the wizard. Select the default service profiles but ensure that the Authentication Service is set to 'InternetIdentityAuthentication'. Finish the creation of the service domain.

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Taming Hopping Windows

- by Roman Schindlauer

At first glance, hopping windows seem fairly innocuous and obvious. They organize events into windows with a simple periodic definition: the windows have some duration d (e.g. a window covers 5 second time intervals), an interval or period p (e.g. a new window starts every 2 seconds) and an alignment a (e.g. one of those windows starts at 12:00 PM on March 15, 2012 UTC). var wins = xs .HoppingWindow(TimeSpan.FromSeconds(5), TimeSpan.FromSeconds(2), new DateTime(2012, 3, 15, 12, 0, 0, DateTimeKind.Utc)); Logically, there is a window with start time a + np and end time a + np + d for every integer n. That’s a lot of windows. So why doesn’t the following query (always) blow up? var query = wins.Select(win => win.Count()); A few users have asked why StreamInsight doesn’t produce output for empty windows. Primarily it’s because there is an infinite number of empty windows! (Actually, StreamInsight uses DateTimeOffset.MaxValue to approximate “the end of time” and DateTimeOffset.MinValue to approximate “the beginning of time”, so the number of windows is lower in practice.) That was the good news. Now the bad news. Events also have duration. Consider the following simple input: var xs = this.Application .DefineEnumerable(() => new[] { EdgeEvent.CreateStart(DateTimeOffset.UtcNow, 0) }) .ToStreamable(AdvanceTimeSettings.IncreasingStartTime); Because the event has no explicit end edge, it lasts until the end of time. So there are lots of non-empty windows if we apply a hopping window to that single event! For this reason, we need to be careful with hopping window queries in StreamInsight. Or we can switch to a custom implementation of hopping windows that doesn’t suffer from this shortcoming. The alternate window implementation produces output only when the input changes. We start by breaking up the timeline into non-overlapping intervals assigned to each window. In figure 1, six hopping windows (“Windows”) are assigned to six intervals (“Assignments”) in the timeline. Next we take input events (“Events”) and alter their lifetimes (“Altered Events”) so that they cover the intervals of the windows they intersect. In figure 1, you can see that the first event e1 intersects windows w1 and w2 so it is adjusted to cover assignments a1 and a2. Finally, we can use snapshot windows (“Snapshots”) to produce output for the hopping windows. Notice however that instead of having six windows generating output, we have only four. The first and second snapshots correspond to the first and second hopping windows. The remaining snapshots however cover two hopping windows each! While in this example we saved only two events, the savings can be more significant when the ratio of event duration to window duration is higher. Figure 1: Timeline The implementation of this strategy is straightforward. We need to set the start times of events to the start time of the interval assigned to the earliest window including the start time. Similarly, we need to modify the end times of events to the end time of the interval assigned to the latest window including the end time. The following snap-to-boundary function that rounds a timestamp value t down to the nearest value t' <= t such that t' is a + np for some integer n will be useful. For convenience, we will represent both DateTime and TimeSpan values using long ticks: static long SnapToBoundary(long t, long a, long p) { return t - ((t - a) % p) - (t > a ? 0L : p); } How do we find the earliest window including the start time for an event? It’s the window following the last window that does not include the start time assuming that there are no gaps in the windows (i.e. duration < interval), and limitation of this solution. To find the end time of that antecedent window, we need to know the alignment of window ends: long e = a + (d % p); Using the window end alignment, we are finally ready to describe the start time selector: static long AdjustStartTime(long t, long e, long p) { return SnapToBoundary(t, e, p) + p; } To find the latest window including the end time for an event, we look for the last window start time (non-inclusive): public static long AdjustEndTime(long t, long a, long d, long p) { return SnapToBoundary(t - 1, a, p) + p + d; } Bringing it together, we can define the translation from events to ‘altered events’ as in Figure 1: public static IQStreamable<T> SnapToWindowIntervals<T>(IQStreamable<T> source, TimeSpan duration, TimeSpan interval, DateTime alignment) { if (source == null) throw new ArgumentNullException("source"); // reason about DateTime and TimeSpan in ticks long d = Math.Min(DateTime.MaxValue.Ticks, duration.Ticks); long p = Math.Min(DateTime.MaxValue.Ticks, Math.Abs(interval.Ticks)); // set alignment to earliest possible window var a = alignment.ToUniversalTime().Ticks % p; // verify constraints of this solution if (d <= 0L) { throw new ArgumentOutOfRangeException("duration"); } if (p == 0L || p > d) { throw new ArgumentOutOfRangeException("interval"); } // find the alignment of window ends long e = a + (d % p); return source.AlterEventLifetime( evt => ToDateTime(AdjustStartTime(evt.StartTime.ToUniversalTime().Ticks, e, p)), evt => ToDateTime(AdjustEndTime(evt.EndTime.ToUniversalTime().Ticks, a, d, p)) - ToDateTime(AdjustStartTime(evt.StartTime.ToUniversalTime().Ticks, e, p))); } public static DateTime ToDateTime(long ticks) { // just snap to min or max value rather than under/overflowing return ticks < DateTime.MinValue.Ticks ? new DateTime(DateTime.MinValue.Ticks, DateTimeKind.Utc) : ticks > DateTime.MaxValue.Ticks ? new DateTime(DateTime.MaxValue.Ticks, DateTimeKind.Utc) : new DateTime(ticks, DateTimeKind.Utc); } Finally, we can describe our custom hopping window operator: public static IQWindowedStreamable<T> HoppingWindow2<T>( IQStreamable<T> source, TimeSpan duration, TimeSpan interval, DateTime alignment) { if (source == null) { throw new ArgumentNullException("source"); } return SnapToWindowIntervals(source, duration, interval, alignment).SnapshotWindow(); } By switching from HoppingWindow to HoppingWindow2 in the following example, the query returns quickly rather than gobbling resources and ultimately failing! public void Main() { var start = new DateTimeOffset(new DateTime(2012, 6, 28), TimeSpan.Zero); var duration = TimeSpan.FromSeconds(5); var interval = TimeSpan.FromSeconds(2); var alignment = new DateTime(2012, 3, 15, 12, 0, 0, DateTimeKind.Utc); var events = this.Application.DefineEnumerable(() => new[] { EdgeEvent.CreateStart(start.AddSeconds(0), "e0"), EdgeEvent.CreateStart(start.AddSeconds(1), "e1"), EdgeEvent.CreateEnd(start.AddSeconds(1), start.AddSeconds(2), "e1"), EdgeEvent.CreateStart(start.AddSeconds(3), "e2"), EdgeEvent.CreateStart(start.AddSeconds(9), "e3"), EdgeEvent.CreateEnd(start.AddSeconds(3), start.AddSeconds(10), "e2"), EdgeEvent.CreateEnd(start.AddSeconds(9), start.AddSeconds(10), "e3"), }).ToStreamable(AdvanceTimeSettings.IncreasingStartTime); var adjustedEvents = SnapToWindowIntervals(events, duration, interval, alignment); var query = from win in HoppingWindow2(events, duration, interval, alignment) select win.Count(); DisplayResults(adjustedEvents, "Adjusted Events"); DisplayResults(query, "Query"); } As you can see, instead of producing a massive number of windows for the open start edge e0, a single window is emitted from 12:00:15 AM until the end of time: Adjusted Events StartTime EndTime Payload 6/28/2012 12:00:01 AM 12/31/9999 11:59:59 PM e0 6/28/2012 12:00:03 AM 6/28/2012 12:00:07 AM e1 6/28/2012 12:00:05 AM 6/28/2012 12:00:15 AM e2 6/28/2012 12:00:11 AM 6/28/2012 12:00:15 AM e3 Query StartTime EndTime Payload 6/28/2012 12:00:01 AM 6/28/2012 12:00:03 AM 1 6/28/2012 12:00:03 AM 6/28/2012 12:00:05 AM 2 6/28/2012 12:00:05 AM 6/28/2012 12:00:07 AM 3 6/28/2012 12:00:07 AM 6/28/2012 12:00:11 AM 2 6/28/2012 12:00:11 AM 6/28/2012 12:00:15 AM 3 6/28/2012 12:00:15 AM 12/31/9999 11:59:59 PM 1 Regards, The StreamInsight Team

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Sneak peek at next generation Three MiFi unit – Huawei E585

- by Liam Westley

Last Wednesday I was fortunate to be invited to a sneak preview of the next generation Three MiFi unit, the Huawei E585. Many thanks to all those who posted questions both via this blog or via @westleyl on Twitter. I think I made sure I asked every question posed to the MiFi product manager from Three UK, and so here's the answers you were after. What is a MiFi? For those who are wondering, a MiFi unit is a 3G broadband modem combined with a WiFi access point, providing 3G broadband data access to up to five devices simultaneously via standard WiFi connections. What is different? It appears the prime task of enhancing the MiFi was to improve the user experience and user interface, both in terms of the device hardware and within the management software to configure the device. I think this was a very sensible decision as these areas had substantial room for improvement. Single button operation to switch on, enable WiFi and connect to 3G Improved OELD display (see below), replacing the multi coloured LEDs; including signal strength, SMS notifications, the number of connected clients and data usage Management is via a web based dashboard accessible from any web browser. This is a big win for those running Linux, Mac OS/X, iPad users and, for me, as I can now configure the device from Windows 7 64-bit Charging is via micro USB, the new standard for small USB devices; you cannot use your old charger for the new MiFi unit Automatic reconnection when regaining a signal Improved charging time, which should allow recharging of the device when in use Although subjective, the black and silver design does look more classy than the silver and white plastic of the original MiFi What is the same? Virtually the same size and weight The battery is the same unit as the original MiFi so you’ll have a handy spare if you upgrade Data plans remain the same as the current MiFi, so cheapest price for upgraders will be £49 pay as you go Still only works on 3G networks, with no fallback to GPRS or EDGE There is no specific upgrade path for existing three customers, either from dongle or from the original MiFi My opinion I think three have concentrated on the correct areas of usability and user experience rather than trying to add new whizz bang technology features which aren’t of interest to mainstream users. The one button operation and the improved device display will make it much easier to use when out and about. If the automatic reconnection proves reliable that will remove a major bugbear that I experienced the previous evening when travelling on the First Great Western line from Paddington to Didcot Parkway. The signal was repeatedly lost as we sped through tunnels and cuttings, and without automatic reconnection is was a real pain to keep pressing the data button on the MiFi to re-establish my data connection. And finally, the web based dashboard will mean I no longer need to resort to my XP based netbook to configure the SSID and password. My everyday laptop runs Windows 7 64-bit which appears to confuse the older 3 WiFi manager which cannot locate the MiFi when connected. Links to other sites, and other images of the device Good first impressions from Ben Smith, http://thereallymobileproject.com/2010/06/3uk-announce-a-new-mifi-with-a-screen/ Also, a round up of other sneak preview posts, http://www.3mobilebuzz.com/2010/06/11/mifi-round-two-your-view/ Pictures Here is a comparison of the old MiFi device next to the new device, complete with OLED display and the Huawei logo now being a prominent feature on the front of the device. One of my fellow bloggers had a Linux based netbook, showing off the web based dashboard complete with Text messages panel to manage SMS. And finally, I never thought that my blog sub title would ever end up printed onto a cup cake, ... and here's some of the other cup cakes ...

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Oracle WebCenter Portlet Debugging

- by Alexander Rudat

IntroductionThis article describes how to debug a portlets that is already deployed to WebLogic server using Oracle JDeveloper 11g.OverviewThese a Normal 0 21 false false false DE X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 /* 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:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";} re the basic steps involved in remote debugging an WebCenter portlets deployed in WebLogic:Configuration of the WebLogic to support remote debuggingConfiguration of the portlet project in JDeveloperActual debugging of the portletConfiguration of the WebLogicTo start the WebLogic server in debugging mode, there are a couple of configuration changes that need to be done to the WebLogic domain where the portlet is deployed.First we need to edit JVM options of the WebLogic server startup script where the portlet is deployed. Normally the startManagedWebLogic.cmd is used to start this managed server.This startup script is located in the %MIDDLEWARE_HOME%\user_projects\domains\<domain_name>\bin directory, where %MIDDLEWARE_HOME% is the installation directory of WebLogic.Add the following line before the set JAVA_OPTIONS= line:set REMOTE_DEBUG_JAVA_OPTIONS=-Xdebug -Xnoagent -Xrunjdwp:transport=dt_socket,address=4000,server=y,suspend=nChange the set JAVA_OPTIONS= line to read like the one below:set JAVA_OPTIONS=%SAVE_JAVA_OPTIONS% %ADF_JAVA_OPTIONS% %REMOTE_DEBUG_JAVA_OPTIONS%After this changes save the startup script and start the managed server and be sure that you have access to the admin console (for example http://localhost:7001/console).Finally we need to check, that HTTP tunneling is enabled on the managed server. To do this, login to the admin console, select the managed server and select the Protocols tab.Be sure that Enable Tunneling is selected.Configuration of the portletFirst let's create a new run configuration specifically for remote debugging. Double-click the project where you portlets are developed.In the Project Properties select the Run/Debug/Profile page. Click New... to create a new run configuration. In the Create Run Configuration dialog enter Remote Debugging for the name of the run configuration. Leave the Copy Settings From selection to Default and click OK to create the new run configuration.Once the Remote Debug run configuration is created, select it in the Run Configurations and click Edit... to bring up the Edit Run Configuration dialog. In the Launch Settings page click on the Remote Debugging checkbox to enable remote debugging for this run configuration.Finally select the Remote page and verify that the Protocol is set to Attach to JPDA and the port matches the port specified earlier when configuring WebLogic for remote debugging (defaults to 4000).Actual debugging of the portletTo start the remote debugging profile, right-click on your portlet project and select Start Remote Debugger.Now JDeveloper is asking the host and port specification. If you WebLogic server is installed locally, you can apply the default settings: Set a breakpoint at you java code and run the portal (WebCenter) application, where the portlet is used.That's all, now you are able to debug the portlet java code. Hope you will find all errors in your portlet :-)Referenceshttp://www.oracle.com/technology/products/jdev/howtos/weblogic/remotedebugwls.html

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Manage Your WordPress Blog Comments from Your Windows Desktop

- by Matthew Guay

Are you never more than a few steps away from your PC and want to keep up with comments on your blog? Then here’s how you can stay on top of your WordPress comments right from your desktop. Wp-comment-notifier is a small free app for Windows that lets you easily view, approve, reply to, and delete comments from your WordPress blog. Whether you have a free WordPress.com blog or are running WordPress on your own server, this tool can keep you connected to your comments. Unfortunately it only lets you manage comments at one blog, so if manage multiple WordPress-powered sites you may find this a downside. Otherwise, it works great and helps you stay on top of the conversation at your blog. Get notified with wp-comment-notifier Download the wp-comment-notifier (link below) and install as usual. Run it once it’s installed. Enter your blog address, username, and password when prompted. Wp-comment-notifier will automatically setup your account and download recent comments. Finally, enter your blog’s name, and click Finish. Review Comments with wp-comment-notifier You can now review your comments directly by double-clicking the new WordPress icon in your system tray. The window has 3 tabs…comments, pending, and spam. Select a comment to reply, edit, spam, or delete it directly from your desktop. If you select Edit, then you can edit the HTML of the comment (including links) directly from within the notifier. You can approve or permanently delete any spam messages that are caught by your blog’s spam filter. Whenever new comments come in, you’ll see a tray popup letting you know how many comments are waiting to be approved or are in the spam folder. Click the popup to open the editor. Now, you can directly approve that pending comment without going to your WordPress admin page. When you’re done, just press Enter on your Keyboard to post the reply. Or, if you want to reply to the comment, click the reply link and enter your comment in the entry box at the bottom. If you ever want to double-check if there’s any new comments, just right-click on the tray icon and select refresh. Finally, you can change the settings from the Configuration link in the tray button or by clicking the gear button on the bottom of the review window. You can change how often it checks for new comments, not to start the notifier at system startup, and edit your account information. Conclusion Whether you’re managing your personal blog or administer a site with millions of hits per day, staying on top of the conversation is one of the best ways to build and maintain your audience. With wp-comment-notifier, you can be sure that you’re always in control of your blogs comments. This app is especially useful if you review all comments before allowing them to be published. Download wp-comment-notifier Similar Articles Productive Geek Tips How-To Geek SoftwareHow-To Geek Software: WordPress Comment Moderation NotifierSave Time Commenting with Pre-Fill Comments Greasemonkey ScriptAdd Social Bookmarking (Digg This!) Links to your Wordpress BlogTools to Help Post Content On Your WordPress Blog TouchFreeze Alternative in AutoHotkey The Icy Undertow Desktop Windows Home Server – Backup to LAN The Clear & Clean Desktop Use This Bookmarklet to Easily Get Albums Use AutoHotkey to Assign a Hotkey to a Specific Window Latest Software Reviews Tinyhacker Random Tips VMware Workstation 7 Acronis Online Backup DVDFab 6 Revo Uninstaller Pro Error Goblin Explains Windows Error Codes Twelve must-have Google Chrome plugins Cool Looking Skins for Windows Media Player 12 Move the Mouse Pointer With Your Face Movement Using eViacam Boot Windows Faster With Boot Performance Diagnostics Create Ringtones For Your Android Phone With RingDroid

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Converting Openfire IM datetime values in SQL Server to / from VARCHAR(15) and DATETIME data types

- by Brian Biales

A client is using Openfire IM for their users, and would like some custom queries to audit user conversations (which are stored by Openfire in tables in the SQL Server database). Because Openfire supports multiple database servers and multiple platforms, the designers chose to store all date/time stamps in the database as 15 character strings, which get converted to Java Date objects in their code (Openfire is written in Java). I did some digging around, and, so I don't forget and in case someone else will find this useful, I will put the simple algorithms here for converting back and forth between SQL DATETIME and the Java string representation. The Java string representation is the number of milliseconds since 1/1/1970. SQL Server's DATETIME is actually represented as a float, the value being the number of days since 1/1/1900, the portion after the decimal point representing the hours/minutes/seconds/milliseconds... as a fractional part of a day. Try this and you will see this is true: SELECT CAST(0 AS DATETIME) and you will see it returns the date 1/1/1900. The difference in days between SQL Server's 0 date of 1/1/1900 and the Java representation's 0 date of 1/1/1970 is found easily using the following SQL: SELECT DATEDIFF(D, '1900-01-01', '1970-01-01') which returns 25567. There are 25567 days between these dates. So to convert from the Java string to SQL Server's date time, we need to convert the number of milliseconds to a floating point representation of the number of days since 1/1/1970, then add the 25567 to change this to the number of days since 1/1/1900. To convert to days, you need to divide the number by 1000 ms/s, then by 60 seconds/minute, then by 60 minutes/hour, then by 24 hours/day. Or simply divide by 1000*60*60*24, or 86400000. So, to summarize, we need to cast this string as a float, divide by 86400000 milliseconds/day, then add 25567 days, and cast the resulting value to a DateTime. Here is an example: DECLARE @tmp as VARCHAR(15) SET @tmp = '1268231722123' SELECT @tmp as JavaTime, CAST((CAST(@tmp AS FLOAT) / 86400000) + 25567 AS DATETIME) as SQLTime To convert from SQL datetime back to the Java time format is not quite as simple, I found, because floats of that size do not convert nicely to strings, they end up in scientific notation using the CONVERT function or CAST function. But I found a couple ways around that problem. You can convert a date to the number of seconds since 1/1/1970 very easily using the DATEDIFF function, as this value fits in an Int. If you don't need to worry about the milliseconds, simply cast this integer as a string, and then concatenate '000' at the end, essentially multiplying this number by 1000, and making it milliseconds since 1/1/1970. If, however, you do care about the milliseconds, you will need to use DATEPART to get the milliseconds part of the date, cast this integer to a string, and then pad zeros on the left to make sure this is three digits, and concatenate these three digits to the number of seconds string above. And finally, I discovered by casting to DECIMAL(15,0) then to VARCHAR(15), I avoid the scientific notation issue. So here are all my examples, pick the one you like best... First, here is the simple approach if you don't care about the milliseconds: DECLARE @tmp as VARCHAR(15) DECLARE @dt as DATETIME SET @dt = '2010-03-10 14:35:22.123' SET @tmp = CAST(DATEDIFF(s, '1970-01-01 00:00:00' , @dt) AS VARCHAR(15)) + '000' SELECT @tmp as JavaTime, @dt as SQLTime If you want to keep the milliseconds: DECLARE @tmp as VARCHAR(15) DECLARE @dt as DATETIME DECLARE @ms as int SET @dt = '2010-03-10 14:35:22.123' SET @ms as DATEPART(ms, @dt) SET @tmp = CAST(DATEDIFF(s, '1970-01-01 00:00:00' , @dt) AS VARCHAR(15)) + RIGHT('000' + CAST(@ms AS VARCHAR(3)), 3) SELECT @tmp as JavaTime, @dt as SQLTime Or, in one fell swoop: DECLARE @dt as DATETIME SET @dt = '2010-03-10 14:35:22.123' SELECT @dt as SQLTime , CAST(DATEDIFF(s, '1970-01-01 00:00:00' , @dt) AS VARCHAR(15)) + RIGHT('000' + CAST( DATEPART(ms, @dt) AS VARCHAR(3)), 3) as JavaTime And finally, a way to simply reverse the math used converting from Java date to SQL date. Note the parenthesis - watch out for operator precedence, you want to subtract, then multiply: DECLARE @dt as DATETIME SET @dt = '2010-03-10 14:35:22.123' SELECT @dt as SQLTime , CAST(CAST((CAST(@dt as Float) - 25567.0) * 86400000.0 as DECIMAL(15,0)) as VARCHAR(15)) as JavaTime Interestingly, I found that converting to SQL Date time can lose some accuracy, when I converted the time above to Java time then converted that back to DateTime, the number of milliseconds is 120, not 123. As I am not interested in the milliseconds, this is ok for me. But you may want to look into using DateTime2 in SQL Server 2008 for more accuracy.

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Creating a Synchronous BPEL composite using File Adapter

- by [email protected]

By default, the JDeveloper wizard generates asynchronous WSDLs when you use technology adapters. Typically, a user follows these steps when creating an adapter scenario in 11g: 1) Create a SOA Application with either "Composite with BPEL" or an "Empty Composite". Furthermore, if the user chooses "Empty Composite", then he or she is required to drop the "BPEL Process" from the "Service Components" pane onto the SOA Composite Editor. Either way, the user comes to the screen below where he/she fills in the process details. Please note that the user is required to choose "Define Service Later" as the template. 2) Creates the inbound service and outbound references and wires them with the BPEL component: 3) And, finally creates the BPEL process with the initiating <receive> activity to retrieve the payload and an <invoke> activity to write the payload. This is how most BPEL processes that use Adapters are modeled. And, if we scrutinize the generated WSDL, we can clearly see that the generated WSDL is one way and that makes the BPEL process asynchronous (see below) In other words, the inbound FileAdapter would poll for files in the directory and for every file that it finds there, it would translate the content into XML and publish to BPEL. But, since the BPEL process is asynchronous, the adapter would return immediately after the publish and perform the required post processing e.g. deletion/archival and so on. The disadvantage with such asynchronous BPEL processes is that it becomes difficult to throttle the inbound adapter. In otherwords, the inbound adapter would keep sending messages to BPEL without waiting for the downstream business processes to complete. This might lead to several issues including higher memory usage, CPU usage and so on. In order to alleviate these problems, we will manually tweak the WSDL and BPEL artifacts into synchronous processes. Once we have synchronous BPEL processes, the inbound adapter would automatically throttle itself since the adapter would be forced to wait for the downstream process to complete with a <reply> before processing the next file or message and so on. Please see the tweaked WSDL below and please note that we have converted the one-way to a two-way WSDL and thereby making the WSDL synchronous: Add a <reply> activity to the inbound adapter partnerlink at the end of your BPEL process e.g. Finally, your process will look like this: You are done. Please remember that such an excercise is NOT required for Mediator since the Mediator routing rules are sequential by default. In other words, the Mediator uses the caller thread (inbound file adapter thread) for processing the routing rules. This is the case even if the WSDL for mediator is one-way.

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General website publishing questions involving domain forwarding issue

- by Gorgeousyousuf

Even though I have been having a certain level of knowledge and experience about web development I have never interested in obtaining a domain and publishing a website from my own server. Since today I have been struggling with getting my own domain and configuring it utilizing web sources. I started with learning the outline of web publishing process including web server installation, deploying a website for testing purpose,router port forwarding, getting a domain and forwarding domain to my router which will also forward http requests to my web server I am confused about some parts and so far could not get the web site accessed from outside of the network. All I try to do is just for learning purpose so I do not pay much attention to security issues for now. I have Server 2008 and IIS 7.5 installed. I use a laptop and have access to the modem over wireless and my modem is Zoom x6 5590. Well I will continue explaining what I have done so far and what I think will be after each action I did, I have successfully had access to my website on any local computer entering the internal ip address and port pair of the host machine in a browser. Next, I forwarded port 80 of my host machine creating a virtual server like 10.0.0.x(internal ip(static) of the host) - tcp - start port : 80 - end port : 80 in router options. Now I suppose every request that will come to the public Ip on port 80 will be forwarded to my host machine(10.0.0.x) over port 80. So If everyhing went as desired, the website listening on port 80 will accept the request and process the issue and finally respond bla bla bla... I suppose to access my website from outside of the network by entering http://MyPublicIp:80 in a browser but I couldn't accomplish this task by now despite using godady's domain forwarding tool,I see a small view of my website when I click the "preview" button that checks whether the address(http://publicip/Index.aspx) I entered where my domain will be forwarded is available or not. I am sure that configuring domain does not play a role in solving such a problem since using public ip and port matching does not help. So here is the first question, What is the fact that I face this problem? After that, I have couple of question regarding domain forwarding using godaddy tool. Can I forward my domain to a any port for example port 8080 other than default http port 80? Additionally, can I use a sub-domain to forward to a different port of the host? What I want to design is if the client enters www.mydomain.com, website1 will respond over a specified port and after when a client enters info.mydomain.com, another website which listens on different port will respond. I tried to add a sub-domain and forward it to a address like http://www.mydomain.com:8080/Index.aspx with no success. Can I really do that? Finally, what if I have a ftp site listening on the default port 21 and I create a domain like ftp.mydomain.com that will forward to that ftp site address. Is it possible to use sub-domains for ftp site access? I know I am more than confused but no matter whatever and however you reply to me, you will help me have a more clear view on this subject. Thank you very much from now.

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JMSContext, @JMSDestinationDefintion, DefaultJMSConnectionFactory with simplified JMS API: TOTD #213

- by arungupta

"What's New in JMS 2.0" Part 1 and Part 2 provide comprehensive introduction to new messaging features introduced in JMS 2.0. The biggest improvement in JMS 2.0 is introduction of the "new simplified API". This was explained in the Java EE 7 Launch Technical Keynote. You can watch a complete replay here. Sending and Receiving a JMS message using JMS 1.1 requires lot of boilerplate code, primarily because the API was designed 10+ years ago. Here is a code that shows how to send a message using JMS 1.1 API: @Statelesspublic class ClassicMessageSender { @Resource(lookup = "java:comp/DefaultJMSConnectionFactory") ConnectionFactory connectionFactory; @Resource(mappedName = "java:global/jms/myQueue") Queue demoQueue; public void sendMessage(String payload) { Connection connection = null; try { connection = connectionFactory.createConnection(); connection.start(); Session session = connection.createSession(false, Session.AUTO_ACKNOWLEDGE); MessageProducer messageProducer = session.createProducer(demoQueue); TextMessage textMessage = session.createTextMessage(payload); messageProducer.send(textMessage); } catch (JMSException ex) { ex.printStackTrace(); } finally { if (connection != null) { try { connection.close(); } catch (JMSException ex) { ex.printStackTrace(); } } } }} There are several issues with this code: A JMS ConnectionFactory needs to be created in a application server-specific way before this application can run. Application-specific destination needs to be created in an application server-specific way before this application can run. Several intermediate objects need to be created to honor the JMS 1.1 API, e.g. ConnectionFactory -> Connection -> Session -> MessageProducer -> TextMessage. Everything is a checked exception and so try/catch block must be specified. Connection need to be explicitly started and closed, and that bloats even the finally block. The new JMS 2.0 simplified API code looks like: @Statelesspublic class SimplifiedMessageSender { @Inject JMSContext context; @Resource(mappedName="java:global/jms/myQueue") Queue myQueue; public void sendMessage(String message) { context.createProducer().send(myQueue, message); }} The code is significantly improved from the previous version in the following ways: The JMSContext interface combines in a single object the functionality of both the Connection and the Session in the earlier JMS APIs. You can obtain a JMSContext object by simply injecting it with the @Inject annotation. No need to explicitly specify a ConnectionFactory. A default ConnectionFactory under the JNDI name of java:comp/DefaultJMSConnectionFactory is used if no explicit ConnectionFactory is specified. The destination can be easily created using newly introduced @JMSDestinationDefinition as: @JMSDestinationDefinition(name = "java:global/jms/myQueue", interfaceName = "javax.jms.Queue") It can be specified on any Java EE component and the destination is created during deployment. JMSContext, Session, Connection, JMSProducer and JMSConsumer objects are now AutoCloseable. This means that these resources are automatically closed when they go out of scope. This also obviates the need to explicitly start the connection JMSException is now a runtime exception. Method chaining on JMSProducers allows to use builder patterns. No need to create separate Message object, you can specify the message body as an argument to the send() method instead. Want to try this code ? Download source code! Download Java EE 7 SDK and install. Start GlassFish: bin/asadmin start-domain Build the WAR (in the unzipped source code directory): mvn package Deploy the WAR: bin/asadmin deploy <source-code>/jms/target/jms-1.0-SNAPSHOT.war And access the application at http://localhost:8080/jms-1.0-SNAPSHOT/index.jsp to send and receive a message using classic and simplified API. A replay of JMS 2.0 session from Java EE 7 Launch Webinar provides complete details on what's new in this specification: Enjoy!

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Site Review: Facebook.com and Blockbuster.com - Navigation Schemes

After cycling through a list of my favorite sites I decided to select Facebook.com and Blockbuster.com for this post because I found their navigation schemes very intuitive. Facebook in my opinion took a very simplistic and minimalistic approach when they designed their site and its navigation. For example, when you login to your account you will find on the upper left hand side a generic section of the site common areas to all users like news, messages, events, photos and friends. Below this in a separate navigation menu is a list of applications that a user has elected to access through bookmarks. Finally in the upper right hand corner of the site contains links to administer the user’s account like account settings, public profile, and a link back to the users’ home page. Blockbuster on the other had tried to make site navigation a little more slick by using a menu-submenu approach to navigation where user can click on things like Rent, Buy, On Demand, Games, Stores, and Gifts and a submenu of corresponding items appears below the original menu item. In addition they also took this approach and added categorized lists of movies that they offer on the homepage so that users can click on an item like “DVD Spotlight” and a list of movies represented as actual DVD box cases appear on the user’s screen so they can scroll through the list by using left and right arrows on either side of the images displayed. Both Facebook and Blockbuster have more than one navigation groupings because their respected sites are so large and offer an absorbent amount of features. Because of this reason they have to group the main functionality of information in to logical groups based on their actions they perform and the access to specific information. For example it would not make sense for Facebook to include a particular game you like to play within your account with a section pertaining to account administration. The game link would be completely out of place and really confuse the users experience because the groupings where not logically grouped. In addition I think that Facebook users would benefit if Facebook allowed its users to specify what they want on the general navigation from within their site or at least create a section to show frequently accessed pages or favorite sections. Finally regarding additional navigation, I think blockbuster users really benefit from the submenu system of categorizing data, and if fact Blockbuster even allows them to refine the information they are looking for through the use of secondary submenu systems allowing users to really drill down in to what they are looking for to learn more on. I do not think that having more than one navigation bar on a web page is not confusing for the user. For example if you have a navigation bar at the top of your page and at the bottom will allow users to move around the website easier because they can utilize the navigation closest to where their cursor is on the page. In regards to designers forcing all the navigation in to one navigation bar, I think it would be hard for the user to fully understand what is going on based on the size and complexity of the site they are dealing with. For example Blockbuster has a ton of content that could not easily be put in to one navigation bar. From my experience with both Facebook and Blockbuster, they both do a good job with cross browser compatibility. I have had no issues with either site in IE, Firefox, Chrome, and Safari over the years. In addition, I do not believe that either Facebook or Blockbuster require any additional plug-in to utilize their navigation bars.

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SQLAuthority News – Stay Connected and Social Media

- by pinaldave

I think I have finally gotten back my faith in social media. If you are following my blog I am sure you are aware of my views on social media – SQLAuthority News – Social Media Confusion – Twitter, FaceBook, LinkedIn and Me. I was not happy about how social media was evolving. Whenever I go to Twitter, LinkedIn or Facebook, I noticed the same updates everywhere. I just thought I was wasting my time doing the same thing everywhere. I strongly believe that there is no dictator on internet. Nobody has authority over others, everybody can express their ideas as long as it is not violating others privacy and it is not morally wrong. I have decided that instead of trying to improve the world, I should change myself and adjust my needs. Here are few things I have done to relieve my social media confusion. Twitter I un-followed people who were taking up my time with too many updates. I un-followed people who hardly updated at all. I did not follow anybody else’s list, as I have no control over who other people follow. I follow not only serious SQL people but some fun stuff as well. I removed all my friends who were on Facebook and repeating the same updates on Twitter. I engage with them on Facebook. I followed people who are very conversational on Twitter. I let anybody follow me. I update all my blog posts through at least five tweets online. I decided to re-tweet at least five of my favorite tweets of the day, this way I force myself to remain active in the community. Follow me on Twitter! LinkedIn I updated my career and professional info on LinkedIn. I keep my LinkedIn profile updated with my latest jobs and career news. I let anybody connect with me on LinkedIn. I specify my email address in my profile, keeping it easy for those who want to add me. I read all the profile related updates of my connections – it is very valuable to know who is where and what changes are happening. I do not add my personal tweets or comments in LinkedIn profile. I just keep it professional. Link with me at LinkedIn Facebook I use Facebook only for personal friends. I visit all of my friends at regular intervals and make sure that they are really my friends. I often remove my friends from my Twitter list who are sending duplicate updates. I upload my family photos as well as family updates on Facebook, making sure that only my approved friends are able to read my updates. I keep my Facebook very personal and I often chat with my friends on Facebook chat. I am no longer confused about social media and I think I am using it appropriately. As I said, one cannot decide for others how to use social media, you can only decide for yourself. I have finally found my peace with social media. Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com) Filed under: About Me, Pinal Dave, PostADay, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, T SQL, Technology

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Talking JavaOne with Rock Star Kirk Pepperdine

- by Janice J. Heiss

Kirk Pepperdine is not only a JavaOne Rock Star but a Java Champion and a highly regarded expert in Java performance tuning who works as a consultant, educator, and author. He is the principal consultant at Kodewerk Ltd. He speaks frequently at conferences and co-authored the Ant Developer's Handbook. In the rapidly shifting world of information technology, Pepperdine, as much as anyone, keeps up with what's happening with Java performance tuning. Pepperdine will participate in the following sessions: CON5405 - Are Your Garbage Collection Logs Speaking to You? BOF6540 - Java Champions and JUG Leaders Meet Oracle Executives (with Jeff Genender, Mattias Karlsson, Henrik Stahl, Georges Saab) HOL6500 - Finding and Solving Java Deadlocks (with Heinz Kabutz, Ellen Kraffmiller Martijn Verburg, Jeff Genender, and Henri Tremblay) I asked him what technological changes need to be taken into account in performance tuning. “The volume of data we're dealing with just seems to be getting bigger and bigger all the time,” observed Pepperdine. “A couple of years ago you'd never think of needing a heap that was 64g, but today there are deployments where the heap has grown to 256g and tomorrow there are plans for heaps that are even larger. Dealing with all that data simply requires more horse power and some very specialized techniques. In some cases, teams are trying to push hardware to the breaking point. Under those conditions, you need to be very clever just to get things to work -- let alone to get them to be fast. We are very quickly moving from a world where everything happens in a transaction to one where if you were to even consider using a transaction, you've lost." When asked about the greatest misconceptions about performance tuning that he currently encounters, he said, “If you have a performance problem, you should start looking at code at the very least and for that extra step, whip out an execution profiler. I'm not going to say that I never use execution profilers or look at code. What I will say is that execution profilers are effective for a small subset of performance problems and code is literally the last thing you should look at.And what is the most exciting thing happening in the world of Java today? “Interesting question because so many people would say that nothing exciting is happening in Java. Some might be disappointed that a few features have slipped in terms of scheduling. But I'd disagree with the first group and I'm not so concerned about the slippage because I still see a lot of exciting things happening. First, lambda will finally be with us and with lambda will come better ways.” For JavaOne, he is proctoring for Heinz Kabutz's lab. “I'm actually looking forward to that more than I am to my own talk,” he remarked. “Heinz will be the third non-Sun/Oracle employee to present a lab and the first since Oracle began hosting JavaOne. He's got a great message. He's spent a ton of time making sure things are going to work, and we've got a great team of proctors to help out. After that, getting my talk done, the Java Champion's panel session and then kicking back and just meeting up and talking to some Java heads."Finally, what should Java developers know that they currently do not know? “’Write Once, Run Everywhere’ is a great slogan and Java has come closer to that dream than any other technology stack that I've used. That said, different hardware bits work differently and as hard as we try, the JVM can't hide all the differences. Plus, if we are to get good performance we need to work with our hardware and not against it. All this implies that Java developers need to know more about the hardware they are deploying to.” Originally published on blogs.oracle.com/javaone.

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October in Review

- by Richard Bingham

With OpenWorld over October was time to get back to serious work for everyone, including the Fusion Applications Developer Relations team. Don't forget the OpenWorld content is still available, including presentation downloads, for a limited period of time so be sure to grab anything you found useful or take another scan for anything you might have missed. Of all the announcements, the continued evolution of the Oracle Cloud services for extending and integrating with Fusion Applications is increasing in popularity, and certainly the Cloud Marketplace is something we're becoming involved in. More details to follow. Fusion Concepts Last week Vik from our team started the new "Fusion Concepts" series of articles, providing those new to Fusion Applications an explanation of the architectural basics, with the aim to reduce the learning curve and lay the platform for more efficient and effective development. The series begun with an insightful first post on the different schemas that exist in the Fusion Applications database. Look out for upcoming posts on multi-lingual entities, profile options, look-ups and more. New Learning Resources Our YouTube channel continued to expand with more 'how to' videos on using page composer, extending the Simplified UI (aka FUSE), and integrating BI reports and analytics. Also the Oracle Learning Library is now well established as a central resource for knowledge, now with thousands of tutorials, videos, and documents. Of particular note are the great new extensibility-related videos added by the CRM Product Management team, including more on the ever-expanding capabilities of Application Composer. To see some examples of these search using keyword 'customization' or the product 'Sales Cloud'. Finally on learning resources, as Oliver mentioned the Oracle Press book on Fusion Application Customization and Extensibility is now available for pre-order on Amazon (due out 1st Jan). Out And About October also saw us attend the annual Apps Conference held by the UK Oracle User Group in London. Interestingly there was an Applications Transformation stream of sessions and content that included Fusion Applications with all the latest in the Oracle Applications evolution, as always focused around the three tenets of social, mobile, and cloud. Read more in Richard's post-event write up. Other teams around Oracle have also been busy. Angelo from the Platform Technical Services group has done quite a bit of work using web services with Fusion SaaS and has published many interesting findings on his blog. It's definitely recommended reading if you are working on any related integration projects. The middleware-for-applications group has built a new tool called "AppAdvantage" offering an online assessment of your use of Fusion Middleware technologies with Oracle Applications. As the popularity of integrating cloud applications with on-premises systems continued to grow, leveraging existing middleware technologies (and licenses) to support the integration solution is likely to be of paramount importance. Similarly the "Build Enterprise Application Extensions with Ease" section of the related webpage has AppsUX director Killan Evers speaking about customization using the composer tools. Both are useful resources for those just getting started with a move to Fusion Applications. The Oracle A-Team, specialists in middleware technical architecture, always publish superb content via their 'chronicles' site, now with a substantial amount specifically related to Fusion Applications. Click on the Fusion Applications menu on the top right of their homepage to see more. Last month of particular note was an article on customizing the timeout pop-up message that shows to inactive users, providing design-time insight and easy-to-follow steps. Finally if you're looking at using Oracle Middleware and Cloud to tailor and extend your applications then you may also be interested in this new blog post on the roadmap for Oracle SOA and the latest on-demand Cloud Development webcast.

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