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• An Introduction to Meteor

  - by Stephen.Walther

  The goal of this blog post is to give you a brief introduction to Meteor which is a framework for building Single Page Apps. In this blog entry, I provide a walkthrough of building a simple Movie database app. What is special about Meteor? Meteor has two jaw-dropping features: Live HTML – If you make any changes to the HTML, CSS, JavaScript, or data on the server then every client shows the changes automatically without a browser refresh. For example, if you change the background color of a page to yellow then every open browser will show the new yellow background color without a refresh. Or, if you add a new movie to a collection of movies, then every open browser will display the new movie automatically. With Live HTML, users no longer need a refresh button. Changes to an application happen everywhere automatically without any effort. The Meteor framework handles all of the messy details of keeping all of the clients in sync with the server for you. Latency Compensation – When you modify data on the client, these modifications appear as if they happened on the server without any delay. For example, if you create a new movie then the movie appears instantly. However, that is all an illusion. In the background, Meteor updates the database with the new movie. If, for whatever reason, the movie cannot be added to the database then Meteor removes the movie from the client automatically. Latency compensation is extremely important for creating a responsive web application. You want the user to be able to make instant modifications in the browser and the framework to handle the details of updating the database without slowing down the user. Installing Meteor Meteor is licensed under the open-source MIT license and you can start building production apps with the framework right now. Be warned that Meteor is still in the “early preview” stage. It has not reached a 1.0 release. According to the Meteor FAQ, Meteor will reach version 1.0 in “More than a month, less than a year.” Don’t be scared away by that. You should be aware that, unlike most open source projects, Meteor has financial backing. The Meteor project received an $11.2 million round of financing from Andreessen Horowitz. So, it would be a good bet that this project will reach the 1.0 mark. And, if it doesn’t, the framework as it exists right now is still very powerful. Meteor runs on top of Node.js. You write Meteor apps by writing JavaScript which runs both on the client and on the server. You can build Meteor apps on Windows, Mac, or Linux (Although the support for Windows is still officially unofficial). If you want to install Meteor on Windows then download the MSI from the following URL: http://win.meteor.com/ If you want to install Meteor on Mac/Linux then run the following CURL command from your terminal: curl https://install.meteor.com | /bin/sh Meteor will install all of its dependencies automatically including Node.js. However, I recommend that you install Node.js before installing Meteor by installing Node.js from the following address: http://nodejs.org/ If you let Meteor install Node.js then Meteor won’t install NPM which is the standard package manager for Node.js. If you install Node.js and then you install Meteor then you get NPM automatically. Creating a New Meteor App To get a sense of how Meteor works, I am going to walk through the steps required to create a simple Movie database app. Our app will display a list of movies and contain a form for creating a new movie. The first thing that we need to do is create our new Meteor app. Open a command prompt/terminal window and execute the following command: Meteor create MovieApp After you execute this command, you should see something like the following: Follow the instructions: execute cd MovieApp to change to your MovieApp directory, and run the meteor command. Executing the meteor command starts Meteor on port 3000. Open up your favorite web browser and navigate to http://localhost:3000 and you should see the default Meteor Hello World page: Open up your favorite development environment to see what the Meteor app looks like. Open the MovieApp folder which we just created. Here’s what the MovieApp looks like in Visual Studio 2012: Notice that our MovieApp contains three files named MovieApp.css, MovieApp.html, and MovieApp.js. In other words, it contains a Cascading Style Sheet file, an HTML file, and a JavaScript file. Just for fun, let’s see how the Live HTML feature works. Open up multiple browsers and point each browser at http://localhost:3000. Now, open the MovieApp.html page and modify the text “Hello World!” to “Hello Cruel World!” and save the change. The text in all of the browsers should update automatically without a browser refresh. Pretty amazing, right? Controlling Where JavaScript Executes You write a Meteor app using JavaScript. Some of the JavaScript executes on the client (the browser) and some of the JavaScript executes on the server and some of the JavaScript executes in both places. For a super simple app, you can use the Meteor.isServer and Meteor.isClient properties to control where your JavaScript code executes. For example, the following JavaScript contains a section of code which executes on the server and a section of code which executes in the browser: if (Meteor.isClient) { console.log("Hello Browser!"); } if (Meteor.isServer) { console.log("Hello Server!"); } console.log("Hello Browser and Server!"); When you run the app, the message “Hello Browser!” is written to the browser JavaScript console. The message “Hello Server!” is written to the command/terminal window where you ran Meteor. Finally, the message “Hello Browser and Server!” is execute on both the browser and server and the message appears in both places. For simple apps, using Meteor.isClient and Meteor.isServer to control where JavaScript executes is fine. For more complex apps, you should create separate folders for your server and client code. Here are the folders which you can use in a Meteor app: · client – This folder contains any JavaScript which executes only on the client. · server – This folder contains any JavaScript which executes only on the server. · common – This folder contains any JavaScript code which executes on both the client and server. · lib – This folder contains any JavaScript files which you want to execute before any other JavaScript files. · public – This folder contains static application assets such as images. For the Movie App, we need the client, server, and common folders. Delete the existing MovieApp.js, MovieApp.html, and MovieApp.css files. We will create new files in the right locations later in this walkthrough. Combining HTML, CSS, and JavaScript Files Meteor combines all of your JavaScript files, and all of your Cascading Style Sheet files, and all of your HTML files automatically. If you want to create one humongous JavaScript file which contains all of the code for your app then that is your business. However, if you want to build a more maintainable application, then you should break your JavaScript files into many separate JavaScript files and let Meteor combine them for you. Meteor also combines all of your HTML files into a single file. HTML files are allowed to have the following top-level elements: <head> — All <head> files are combined into a single <head> and served with the initial page load. <body> — All <body> files are combined into a single <body> and served with the initial page load. <template> — All <template> files are compiled into JavaScript templates. Because you are creating a single page app, a Meteor app typically will contain a single HTML file for the <head> and <body> content. However, a Meteor app typically will contain several template files. In other words, all of the interesting stuff happens within the <template> files. Displaying a List of Movies Let me start building the Movie App by displaying a list of movies. In order to display a list of movies, we need to create the following four files: · client\movies.html – Contains the HTML for the <head> and <body> of the page for the Movie app. · client\moviesTemplate.html – Contains the HTML template for displaying the list of movies. · client\movies.js – Contains the JavaScript for supplying data to the moviesTemplate. · server\movies.js – Contains the JavaScript for seeding the database with movies. After you create these files, your folder structure should looks like this: Here’s what the client\movies.html file looks like: <head> <title>My Movie App</title> </head> <body> <h1>Movies</h1> {{> moviesTemplate }} </body>   Notice that it contains <head> and <body> top-level elements. The <body> element includes the moviesTemplate with the syntax {{> moviesTemplate }}. The moviesTemplate is defined in the client/moviesTemplate.html file: <template name="moviesTemplate"> <ul> {{#each movies}} <li> {{title}} </li> {{/each}} </ul> </template> By default, Meteor uses the Handlebars templating library. In the moviesTemplate above, Handlebars is used to loop through each of the movies using {{#each}}…{{/each}} and display the title for each movie using {{title}}. The client\movies.js JavaScript file is used to bind the moviesTemplate to the Movies collection on the client. Here’s what this JavaScript file looks like: // Declare client Movies collection Movies = new Meteor.Collection("movies"); // Bind moviesTemplate to Movies collection Template.moviesTemplate.movies = function () { return Movies.find(); }; The Movies collection is a client-side proxy for the server-side Movies database collection. Whenever you want to interact with the collection of Movies stored in the database, you use the Movies collection instead of communicating back to the server. The moviesTemplate is bound to the Movies collection by assigning a function to the Template.moviesTemplate.movies property. The function simply returns all of the movies from the Movies collection. The final file which we need is the server-side server\movies.js file: // Declare server Movies collection Movies = new Meteor.Collection("movies"); // Seed the movie database with a few movies Meteor.startup(function () { if (Movies.find().count() == 0) { Movies.insert({ title: "Star Wars", director: "Lucas" }); Movies.insert({ title: "Memento", director: "Nolan" }); Movies.insert({ title: "King Kong", director: "Jackson" }); } }); The server\movies.js file does two things. First, it declares the server-side Meteor Movies collection. When you declare a server-side Meteor collection, a collection is created in the MongoDB database associated with your Meteor app automatically (Meteor uses MongoDB as its database automatically). Second, the server\movies.js file seeds the Movies collection (MongoDB collection) with three movies. Seeding the database gives us some movies to look at when we open the Movies app in a browser. Creating New Movies Let me modify the Movies Database App so that we can add new movies to the database of movies. First, I need to create a new template file – named client\movieForm.html – which contains an HTML form for creating a new movie: <template name="movieForm"> <fieldset> <legend>Add New Movie</legend> <form> <div> <label> Title: <input id="title" /> </label> </div> <div> <label> Director: <input id="director" /> </label> </div> <div> <input type="submit" value="Add Movie" /> </div> </form> </fieldset> </template> In order for the new form to show up, I need to modify the client\movies.html file to include the movieForm.html template. Notice that I added {{> movieForm }} to the client\movies.html file: <head> <title>My Movie App</title> </head> <body> <h1>Movies</h1> {{> moviesTemplate }} {{> movieForm }} </body> After I make these modifications, our Movie app will display the form: The next step is to handle the submit event for the movie form. Below, I’ve modified the client\movies.js file so that it contains a handler for the submit event raised when you submit the form contained in the movieForm.html template: // Declare client Movies collection Movies = new Meteor.Collection("movies"); // Bind moviesTemplate to Movies collection Template.moviesTemplate.movies = function () { return Movies.find(); }; // Handle movieForm events Template.movieForm.events = { 'submit': function (e, tmpl) { // Don't postback e.preventDefault(); // create the new movie var newMovie = { title: tmpl.find("#title").value, director: tmpl.find("#director").value }; // add the movie to the db Movies.insert(newMovie); } }; The Template.movieForm.events property contains an event map which maps event names to handlers. In this case, I am mapping the form submit event to an anonymous function which handles the event. In the event handler, I am first preventing a postback by calling e.preventDefault(). This is a single page app, no postbacks are allowed! Next, I am grabbing the new movie from the HTML form. I’m taking advantage of the template find() method to retrieve the form field values. Finally, I am calling Movies.insert() to insert the new movie into the Movies collection. Here, I am explicitly inserting the new movie into the client-side Movies collection. Meteor inserts the new movie into the server-side Movies collection behind the scenes. When Meteor inserts the movie into the server-side collection, the new movie is added to the MongoDB database associated with the Movies app automatically. If server-side insertion fails for whatever reasons – for example, your internet connection is lost – then Meteor will remove the movie from the client-side Movies collection automatically. In other words, Meteor takes care of keeping the client Movies collection and the server Movies collection in sync. If you open multiple browsers, and add movies, then you should notice that all of the movies appear on all of the open browser automatically. You don’t need to refresh individual browsers to update the client-side Movies collection. Meteor keeps everything synchronized between the browsers and server for you. Removing the Insecure Module To make it easier to develop and debug a new Meteor app, by default, you can modify the database directly from the client. For example, you can delete all of the data in the database by opening up your browser console window and executing multiple Movies.remove() commands. Obviously, enabling anyone to modify your database from the browser is not a good idea in a production application. Before you make a Meteor app public, you should first run the meteor remove insecure command from a command/terminal window: Running meteor remove insecure removes the insecure package from the Movie app. Unfortunately, it also breaks our Movie app. We’ll get an “Access denied” error in our browser console whenever we try to insert a new movie. No worries. I’ll fix this issue in the next section. Creating Meteor Methods By taking advantage of Meteor Methods, you can create methods which can be invoked on both the client and the server. By taking advantage of Meteor Methods you can: 1. Perform form validation on both the client and the server. For example, even if an evil hacker bypasses your client code, you can still prevent the hacker from submitting an invalid value for a form field by enforcing validation on the server. 2. Simulate database operations on the client but actually perform the operations on the server. Let me show you how we can modify our Movie app so it uses Meteor Methods to insert a new movie. First, we need to create a new file named common\methods.js which contains the definition of our Meteor Methods: Meteor.methods({ addMovie: function (newMovie) { // Perform form validation if (newMovie.title == "") { throw new Meteor.Error(413, "Missing title!"); } if (newMovie.director == "") { throw new Meteor.Error(413, "Missing director!"); } // Insert movie (simulate on client, do it on server) return Movies.insert(newMovie); } }); The addMovie() method is called from both the client and the server. This method does two things. First, it performs some basic validation. If you don’t enter a title or you don’t enter a director then an error is thrown. Second, the addMovie() method inserts the new movie into the Movies collection. When called on the client, inserting the new movie into the Movies collection just updates the collection. When called on the server, inserting the new movie into the Movies collection causes the database (MongoDB) to be updated with the new movie. You must add the common\methods.js file to the common folder so it will get executed on both the client and the server. Our folder structure now looks like this: We actually call the addMovie() method within our client code in the client\movies.js file. Here’s what the updated file looks like: // Declare client Movies collection Movies = new Meteor.Collection("movies"); // Bind moviesTemplate to Movies collection Template.moviesTemplate.movies = function () { return Movies.find(); }; // Handle movieForm events Template.movieForm.events = { 'submit': function (e, tmpl) { // Don't postback e.preventDefault(); // create the new movie var newMovie = { title: tmpl.find("#title").value, director: tmpl.find("#director").value }; // add the movie to the db Meteor.call( "addMovie", newMovie, function (err, result) { if (err) { alert("Could not add movie " + err.reason); } } ); } }; The addMovie() method is called – on both the client and the server – by calling the Meteor.call() method. This method accepts the following parameters: · The string name of the method to call. · The data to pass to the method (You can actually pass multiple params for the data if you like). · A callback function to invoke after the method completes. In the JavaScript code above, the addMovie() method is called with the new movie retrieved from the HTML form. The callback checks for an error. If there is an error then the error reason is displayed in an alert (please don’t use alerts for validation errors in a production app because they are ugly!). Summary The goal of this blog post was to provide you with a brief walk through of a simple Meteor app. I showed you how you can create a simple Movie Database app which enables you to display a list of movies and create new movies. I also explained why it is important to remove the Meteor insecure package from a production app. I showed you how to use Meteor Methods to insert data into the database instead of doing it directly from the client. I’m very impressed with the Meteor framework. The support for Live HTML and Latency Compensation are required features for many real world Single Page Apps but implementing these features by hand is not easy. Meteor makes it easy.

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• Node.js Adventure - Host Node.js on Windows Azure Worker Role

  - by Shaun

  In my previous post I demonstrated about how to develop and deploy a Node.js application on Windows Azure Web Site (a.k.a. WAWS). WAWS is a new feature in Windows Azure platform. Since it’s low-cost, and it provides IIS and IISNode components so that we can host our Node.js application though Git, FTP and WebMatrix without any configuration and component installation. But sometimes we need to use the Windows Azure Cloud Service (a.k.a. WACS) and host our Node.js on worker role. Below are some benefits of using worker role. - WAWS leverages IIS and IISNode to host Node.js application, which runs in x86 WOW mode. It reduces the performance comparing with x64 in some cases. - WACS worker role does not need IIS, hence there’s no restriction of IIS, such as 8000 concurrent requests limitation. - WACS provides more flexibility and controls to the developers. For example, we can RDP to the virtual machines of our worker role instances. - WACS provides the service configuration features which can be changed when the role is running. - WACS provides more scaling capability than WAWS. In WAWS we can have at most 3 reserved instances per web site while in WACS we can have up to 20 instances in a subscription. - Since when using WACS worker role we starts the node by ourselves in a process, we can control the input, output and error stream. We can also control the version of Node.js.   Run Node.js in Worker Role Node.js can be started by just having its execution file. This means in Windows Azure, we can have a worker role with the “node.exe” and the Node.js source files, then start it in Run method of the worker role entry class. Let’s create a new windows azure project in Visual Studio and add a new worker role. Since we need our worker role execute the “node.exe” with our application code we need to add the “node.exe” into our project. Right click on the worker role project and add an existing item. By default the Node.js will be installed in the “Program Files\nodejs” folder so we can navigate there and add the “node.exe”. Then we need to create the entry code of Node.js. In WAWS the entry file must be named “server.js”, which is because it’s hosted by IIS and IISNode and IISNode only accept “server.js”. But here as we control everything we can choose any files as the entry code. For example, I created a new JavaScript file named “index.js” in project root. Since we created a C# Windows Azure project we cannot create a JavaScript file from the context menu “Add new item”. We have to create a text file, and then rename it to JavaScript extension. After we added these two files we should set their “Copy to Output Directory” property to “Copy Always”, or “Copy if Newer”. Otherwise they will not be involved in the package when deployed. Let’s paste a very simple Node.js code in the “index.js” as below. As you can see I created a web server listening at port 12345. 1: var http = require("http"); 2: var port = 12345; 3:  4: http.createServer(function (req, res) { 5: res.writeHead(200, { "Content-Type": "text/plain" }); 6: res.end("Hello World\n"); 7: }).listen(port); 8:  9: console.log("Server running at port %d", port); Then we need to start “node.exe” with this file when our worker role was started. This can be done in its Run method. I found the Node.js and entry JavaScript file name, and then create a new process to run it. Our worker role will wait for the process to be exited. If everything is OK once our web server was opened the process will be there listening for incoming requests, and should not be terminated. The code in worker role would be like this. 1: public override void Run() 2: { 3: // This is a sample worker implementation. Replace with your logic. 4: Trace.WriteLine("NodejsHost entry point called", "Information"); 5:  6: // retrieve the node.exe and entry node.js source code file name. 7: var node = Environment.ExpandEnvironmentVariables(@"%RoleRoot%\approot\node.exe"); 8: var js = "index.js"; 9:  10: // prepare the process starting of node.exe 11: var info = new ProcessStartInfo(node, js) 12: { 13: CreateNoWindow = false, 14: ErrorDialog = true, 15: WindowStyle = ProcessWindowStyle.Normal, 16: UseShellExecute = false, 17: WorkingDirectory = Environment.ExpandEnvironmentVariables(@"%RoleRoot%\approot") 18: }; 19: Trace.WriteLine(string.Format("{0} {1}", node, js), "Information"); 20:  21: // start the node.exe with entry code and wait for exit 22: var process = Process.Start(info); 23: process.WaitForExit(); 24: } Then we can run it locally. In the computer emulator UI the worker role started and it executed the Node.js, then Node.js windows appeared. Open the browser to verify the website hosted by our worker role. Next let’s deploy it to azure. But we need some additional steps. First, we need to create an input endpoint. By default there’s no endpoint defined in a worker role. So we will open the role property window in Visual Studio, create a new input TCP endpoint to the port we want our website to use. In this case I will use 80. Even though we created a web server we should add a TCP endpoint of the worker role, since Node.js always listen on TCP instead of HTTP. And then changed the “index.js”, let our web server listen on 80. 1: var http = require("http"); 2: var port = 80; 3:  4: http.createServer(function (req, res) { 5: res.writeHead(200, { "Content-Type": "text/plain" }); 6: res.end("Hello World\n"); 7: }).listen(port); 8:  9: console.log("Server running at port %d", port); Then publish it to Windows Azure. And then in browser we can see our Node.js website was running on WACS worker role. We may encounter an error if we tried to run our Node.js website on 80 port at local emulator. This is because the compute emulator registered 80 and map the 80 endpoint to 81. But our Node.js cannot detect this operation. So when it tried to listen on 80 it will failed since 80 have been used.   Use NPM Modules When we are using WAWS to host Node.js, we can simply install modules we need, and then just publish or upload all files to WAWS. But if we are using WACS worker role, we have to do some extra steps to make the modules work. Assuming that we plan to use “express” in our application. Firstly of all we should download and install this module through NPM command. But after the install finished, they are just in the disk but not included in the worker role project. If we deploy the worker role right now the module will not be packaged and uploaded to azure. Hence we need to add them to the project. On solution explorer window click the “Show all files” button, select the “node_modules” folder and in the context menu select “Include In Project”. But that not enough. We also need to make all files in this module to “Copy always” or “Copy if newer”, so that they can be uploaded to azure with the “node.exe” and “index.js”. This is painful step since there might be many files in a module. So I created a small tool which can update a C# project file, make its all items as “Copy always”. The code is very simple. 1: static void Main(string[] args) 2: { 3: if (args.Length < 1) 4: { 5: Console.WriteLine("Usage: copyallalways [project file]"); 6: return; 7: } 8:  9: var proj = args[0]; 10: File.Copy(proj, string.Format("{0}.bak", proj)); 11:  12: var xml = new XmlDocument(); 13: xml.Load(proj); 14: var nsManager = new XmlNamespaceManager(xml.NameTable); 15: nsManager.AddNamespace("pf", "http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003"); 16:  17: // add the output setting to copy always 18: var contentNodes = xml.SelectNodes("//pf:Project/pf:ItemGroup/pf:Content", nsManager); 19: UpdateNodes(contentNodes, xml, nsManager); 20: var noneNodes = xml.SelectNodes("//pf:Project/pf:ItemGroup/pf:None", nsManager); 21: UpdateNodes(noneNodes, xml, nsManager); 22: xml.Save(proj); 23:  24: // remove the namespace attributes 25: var content = xml.InnerXml.Replace("<CopyToOutputDirectory xmlns=\"\">", "<CopyToOutputDirectory>"); 26: xml.LoadXml(content); 27: xml.Save(proj); 28: } 29:  30: static void UpdateNodes(XmlNodeList nodes, XmlDocument xml, XmlNamespaceManager nsManager) 31: { 32: foreach (XmlNode node in nodes) 33: { 34: var copyToOutputDirectoryNode = node.SelectSingleNode("pf:CopyToOutputDirectory", nsManager); 35: if (copyToOutputDirectoryNode == null) 36: { 37: var n = xml.CreateNode(XmlNodeType.Element, "CopyToOutputDirectory", null); 38: n.InnerText = "Always"; 39: node.AppendChild(n); 40: } 41: else 42: { 43: if (string.Compare(copyToOutputDirectoryNode.InnerText, "Always", true) != 0) 44: { 45: copyToOutputDirectoryNode.InnerText = "Always"; 46: } 47: } 48: } 49: } Please be careful when use this tool. I created only for demo so do not use it directly in a production environment. Unload the worker role project, execute this tool with the worker role project file name as the command line argument, it will set all items as “Copy always”. Then reload this worker role project. Now let’s change the “index.js” to use express. 1: var express = require("express"); 2: var app = express(); 3:  4: var port = 80; 5:  6: app.configure(function () { 7: }); 8:  9: app.get("/", function (req, res) { 10: res.send("Hello Node.js!"); 11: }); 12:  13: app.get("/User/:id", function (req, res) { 14: var id = req.params.id; 15: res.json({ 16: "id": id, 17: "name": "user " + id, 18: "company": "IGT" 19: }); 20: }); 21:  22: app.listen(port); Finally let’s publish it and have a look in browser.   Use Windows Azure SQL Database We can use Windows Azure SQL Database (a.k.a. WACD) from Node.js as well on worker role hosting. Since we can control the version of Node.js, here we can use x64 version of “node-sqlserver” now. This is better than if we host Node.js on WAWS since it only support x86. Just install the “node-sqlserver” module from NPM, copy the “sqlserver.node” from “Build\Release” folder to “Lib” folder. Include them in worker role project and run my tool to make them to “Copy always”. Finally update the “index.js” to use WASD. 1: var express = require("express"); 2: var sql = require("node-sqlserver"); 3:  4: var connectionString = "Driver={SQL Server Native Client 10.0};Server=tcp:{SERVER NAME}.database.windows.net,1433;Database={DATABASE NAME};Uid={LOGIN}@{SERVER NAME};Pwd={PASSWORD};Encrypt=yes;Connection Timeout=30;"; 5: var port = 80; 6:  7: var app = express(); 8:  9: app.configure(function () { 10: app.use(express.bodyParser()); 11: }); 12:  13: app.get("/", function (req, res) { 14: sql.open(connectionString, function (err, conn) { 15: if (err) { 16: console.log(err); 17: res.send(500, "Cannot open connection."); 18: } 19: else { 20: conn.queryRaw("SELECT * FROM [Resource]", function (err, results) { 21: if (err) { 22: console.log(err); 23: res.send(500, "Cannot retrieve records."); 24: } 25: else { 26: res.json(results); 27: } 28: }); 29: } 30: }); 31: }); 32:  33: app.get("/text/:key/:culture", function (req, res) { 34: sql.open(connectionString, function (err, conn) { 35: if (err) { 36: console.log(err); 37: res.send(500, "Cannot open connection."); 38: } 39: else { 40: var key = req.params.key; 41: var culture = req.params.culture; 42: var command = "SELECT * FROM [Resource] WHERE [Key] = '" + key + "' AND [Culture] = '" + culture + "'"; 43: conn.queryRaw(command, function (err, results) { 44: if (err) { 45: console.log(err); 46: res.send(500, "Cannot retrieve records."); 47: } 48: else { 49: res.json(results); 50: } 51: }); 52: } 53: }); 54: }); 55:  56: app.get("/sproc/:key/:culture", function (req, res) { 57: sql.open(connectionString, function (err, conn) { 58: if (err) { 59: console.log(err); 60: res.send(500, "Cannot open connection."); 61: } 62: else { 63: var key = req.params.key; 64: var culture = req.params.culture; 65: var command = "EXEC GetItem '" + key + "', '" + culture + "'"; 66: conn.queryRaw(command, function (err, results) { 67: if (err) { 68: console.log(err); 69: res.send(500, "Cannot retrieve records."); 70: } 71: else { 72: res.json(results); 73: } 74: }); 75: } 76: }); 77: }); 78:  79: app.post("/new", function (req, res) { 80: var key = req.body.key; 81: var culture = req.body.culture; 82: var val = req.body.val; 83:  84: sql.open(connectionString, function (err, conn) { 85: if (err) { 86: console.log(err); 87: res.send(500, "Cannot open connection."); 88: } 89: else { 90: var command = "INSERT INTO [Resource] VALUES ('" + key + "', '" + culture + "', N'" + val + "')"; 91: conn.queryRaw(command, function (err, results) { 92: if (err) { 93: console.log(err); 94: res.send(500, "Cannot retrieve records."); 95: } 96: else { 97: res.send(200, "Inserted Successful"); 98: } 99: }); 100: } 101: }); 102: }); 103:  104: app.listen(port); Publish to azure and now we can see our Node.js is working with WASD through x64 version “node-sqlserver”.   Summary In this post I demonstrated how to host our Node.js in Windows Azure Cloud Service worker role. By using worker role we can control the version of Node.js, as well as the entry code. And it’s possible to do some pre jobs before the Node.js application started. It also removed the IIS and IISNode limitation. I personally recommended to use worker role as our Node.js hosting. But there are some problem if you use the approach I mentioned here. The first one is, we need to set all JavaScript files and module files as “Copy always” or “Copy if newer” manually. The second one is, in this way we cannot retrieve the cloud service configuration information. For example, we defined the endpoint in worker role property but we also specified the listening port in Node.js hardcoded. It should be changed that our Node.js can retrieve the endpoint. But I can tell you it won’t be working here. In the next post I will describe another way to execute the “node.exe” and Node.js application, so that we can get the cloud service configuration in Node.js. I will also demonstrate how to use Windows Azure Storage from Node.js by using the Windows Azure Node.js SDK.   Hope this helps, Shaun All documents and related graphics, codes are provided "AS IS" without warranty of any kind. Copyright © Shaun Ziyan Xu. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons License.

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• CodePlex Daily Summary for Wednesday, November 23, 2011

  CodePlex Daily Summary for Wednesday, November 23, 2011Popular ReleasesVisual Leak Detector for Visual C++ 2008/2010: v2.2.1: Enhancements: * strdup and _wcsdup functions support added. * Preliminary support for VS 11 added. Bugs Fixed: * Low performance after upgrading from VLD v2.1. * Memory leaks with static linking fixed (disabled calloc support). * Runtime error R6002 fixed because of wrong memory dump format. * version.h fixed in installer. * Some PVS studio warning fixed.NetSqlAzMan - .NET SQL Authorization Manager: 3.6.0.10: 3.6.0.10 22-Nov-2011 Update: Removed PreEmptive Platform integration (PreEmptive analytics) Removed all PreEmptive attributes Removed PreEmptive.dll assembly references from all projects Added first support to ADAM/AD LDS Thanks to PatBea. Work Item 9775: http://netsqlazman.codeplex.com/workitem/9775Developer Team Article System Management: DTASM v1.3: ?? ??? ???? 3 ????? ???? ???? ????? ??? : - ????? ?????? ????? ???? ?? ??? ???? ????? ?? ??? ? ?? ???? ?????? ???? ?? ???? ????? ?? . - ??? ?? ???? ????? ???? ????? ???? ???? ?? ????? , ?????? ????? ????? ?? ??? . - ??? ??????? ??? ??? ???? ?? ????? ????? ????? .SharePoint 2010 FBA Pack: SharePoint 2010 FBA Pack 1.2.0: Web parts are now fully customizable via html templates (Issue #323) FBA Pack is now completely localizable using resource files. Thank you David Chen for submitting the code as well as Chinese translations of the FBA Pack! The membership request web part now gives the option of having the user enter the password and removing the captcha (Issue # 447) The FBA Pack will now work in a zone that does not have FBA enabled (Another zone must have FBA enabled, and the zone must contain the me...SharePoint 2010 Education Demo Project: Release SharePoint SP1 for Education Solutions: This release includes updates to the Content Packs for SharePoint SP1. All Content Packs have been updated to install successfully under SharePoint SP1SQL Monitor - tracking sql server activities: SQLMon 4.1 alpha 6: 1. improved support for schema 2. added find reference when right click on object list 3. added object rename supportBugNET Issue Tracker: BugNET 0.9.126: First stable release of version 0.9. Upgrades from 0.8 are fully supported and upgrades to future releases will also be supported. This release is now compiled against the .NET 4.0 framework and is a requirement. Because of this the web.config has significantly changed. After upgrading, you will need to configure the authentication settings for user registration and anonymous access again. Please see our installation / upgrade instructions for more details: http://wiki.bugnetproject.c...Anno 2070 Assistant: v0.1.0 (STABLE): Version 0.1.0 Features Production Chains Eco Production Chains (Complete) Tycoon Production Chains (Disabled - Incomplete) Tech Production Chains (Disabled - Incomplete) Supply (Disabled - Incomplete) Calculator (Disabled - Incomplete) Building Layouts Eco Building Layouts (Complete) Tycoon Building Layouts (Disabled - Incomplete) Tech Building Layouts (Disabled - Incomplete) Credits (Complete)Free SharePoint 2010 Sites Templates: SharePoint Server 2010 Sites Templates: here is the list of sites templates to be downloadedVsTortoise - a TortoiseSVN add-in for Microsoft Visual Studio: VsTortoise Build 30 Beta: Note: This release does not work with custom VsTortoise toolbars. These get removed every time when you shutdown Visual Studio. (#7940) Build 30 (beta)New: Support for TortoiseSVN 1.7 added. (the download contains both setups, for TortoiseSVN 1.6 and 1.7) New: OpenModifiedDocumentDialog displays conflicted files now. New: OpenModifiedDocument allows to group items by changelist now. Fix: OpenModifiedDocumentDialog caused Visual Studio 2010 to freeze sometimes. Fix: The installer didn...nopCommerce. Open source shopping cart (ASP.NET MVC): nopcommerce 2.30: Highlight features & improvements: • Performance optimization. • Back in stock notifications. • Product special price support. • Catalog mode (based on customer role) To see the full list of fixes and changes please visit the release notes page (http://www.nopCommerce.com/releasenotes.aspx).WPF Converters: WPF Converters V1.2.0.0: support for enumerations, value types, and reference types in the expression converter's equality operators the expression converter now handles DependencyProperty.UnsetValue as argument values correctly (#4062) StyleCop conformance (more or less)Json.NET: Json.NET 4.0 Release 4: Change - JsonTextReader.Culture is now CultureInfo.InvariantCulture by default Change - KeyValurPairConverter no longer cares about the order of the key and value properties Change - Time zone conversions now use new TimeZoneInfo instead of TimeZone Fix - Fixed boolean values sometimes being capitalized when converting to XML Fix - Fixed error when deserializing ConcurrentDictionary Fix - Fixed serializing some Uris returning the incorrect value Fix - Fixed occasional error when...Media Companion: MC 3.423b Weekly: Ensure .NET 4.0 Full Framework is installed. (Available from http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=17718) Ensure the NFO ID fix is applied when transitioning from versions prior to 3.416b. (Details here) Replaced 'Rebuild' with 'Refresh' throughout entire code. Rebuild will now be known as Refresh. mc_com.exe has been fully updated TV Show Resolutions... Resolved issue #206 - having to hit save twice when updating runtime manually Shrunk cache size and lowered loading times f...Delta Engine: Delta Engine Beta Preview v0.9.1: v0.9.1 beta release with lots of refactoring, fixes, new samples and support for iOS, Android and WP7 (you need a Marketplace account however). If you want a binary release for the games (like v0.9.0), just say so in the Forum or here and we will quickly prepare one. It is just not much different from v0.9.0, so I left it out this time. See http://DeltaEngine.net/Wiki.Roadmap for details.ASP.net Awesome Samples (Web-Forms): 1.0 samples: Demos and Tutorials for ASP.net Awesome VS2008 are in .NET 3.5 VS2010 are in .NET 4.0 (demos for the ASP.net Awesome jQuery Ajax Controls)SharpMap - Geospatial Application Framework for the CLR: SharpMap-0.9-AnyCPU-Trunk-2011.11.17: This is a build of SharpMap from the 0.9 development trunk as per 2011-11-17 For most applications the AnyCPU release is the recommended, but in case you need an x86 build that is included to. For some dataproviders (GDAL/OGR, SqLite, PostGis) you need to also referense the SharpMap.Extensions assembly For SqlServer Spatial you need to reference the SharpMap.SqlServerSpatial assemblyAJAX Control Toolkit: November 2011 Release: AJAX Control Toolkit Release Notes - November 2011 Release Version 51116November 2011 release of the AJAX Control Toolkit. AJAX Control Toolkit .NET 4 - Binary – AJAX Control Toolkit for .NET 4 and sample site (Recommended). AJAX Control Toolkit .NET 3.5 - Binary – AJAX Control Toolkit for .NET 3.5 and sample site (Recommended). Notes: - The current version of the AJAX Control Toolkit is not compatible with ASP.NET 2.0. The latest version that is compatible with ASP.NET 2.0 can be found h...Microsoft Ajax Minifier: Microsoft Ajax Minifier 4.36: Fix for issue #16908: string literals containing ASP.NET replacement syntax fail if the ASP.NET code contains the same character as the string literal delimiter. Also, we shouldn't be changing the delimiter for those literals or combining them with other literals; the developer may have specifically chosen the delimiter used because of possible content inserted by ASP.NET code. This logic is normally off; turn it on via the -aspnet command-line flag (or the Code.Settings.AllowEmbeddedAspNetBl...MVC Controls Toolkit: Mvc Controls Toolkit 1.5.5: Added: Now the DateRanteAttribute accepts complex expressions containing "Now" and "Today" as static minimum and maximum. Menu, MenuFor helpers capable of handling a "currently selected element". The developer can choose between using a standard nested menu based on a standard SimpleMenuItem class or specifying an item template based on a custom class. Added also helpers to build the tree structure containing all data items the menu takes infos from. Improved the pager. Now the developer ...New ProjectsActiveWorlds World Server Admin PowerShell SnapIn: The purpose of this PowerShell SnapIn is to provide a set of tools to administer the world server from PowerShell. It leverages the ActiveWorlds SDK .NET Wrapper to provide this functionality.Aigu: Enter special characters like you would on your mobile phone. For instance, if you want to type 'é', you just hold down 'e' and a menu will appear. Selected the desired character using the arrow keys and press 'enter'. Simple but powerful.Are you workaholic?: Are you a workaholic? Did your Doctor advice you not to stare at the computer monitor for a long time? Then this app is perfectly made for you. It runs in the background, and alerts you to take periodic rests for your eyes and body. What's more, It's open source (MS-PL).ATDIS PoC: privateAuto Version Web Assets: The AVWA project is an HTTP Module written in C# that is designed to allow for versioning of various web assets such as .CSS and .JS files. This allows you to publish new versions of these files without having to force the server or the client browsers to expire cache.Bachelor Thesis Algorithm Test Bed: Algorithm Test Bed for my Bachelor ThesisBase64: Simple application helps converting strings and files from or to Base64 string. You can use any encoding to convert while a sidebar previews decoded string for all other encodings.BoracayExpress: BoracayExpressC++ Framework for Test Driven Development: A testing framework for C++ written in C++.Class2Table: Class2Table aka Entity2Table. Easy tool that allows creation of SQL tables from .Net types.Code for Demos & Experiments: This is where I will post code from demos and presentationsCodeMaker: CodeMaker?????????： 1、?????????? 2、???? 3、????? 4、??Python????????? ConsoleCommand: ConsoleCommand provides certain .Net commands for access from javascript console engines. Included are commands to set the text and background colors, as well as list and extract resources compiled in a .Net dll. Converter: Character code conversion tools ???????? CryptoInator - self contained, self-encrypting, self-decrypting image viewer: Original developed to encrypt and store NemID images in Denmark. DAiBears: Something, something, botDelicious Notify Plugin: Lets you push a blog post straight to Delicious from Live WriterDeveloperFile: Compresses Javascripts using the YUI .NET project. Loops through the root folder and subfolders for files matching the debug extension and creates new files using the release extension. (File extensions must match exactly).DotNetNuke SharePoint File Explorer: A DotNetNuke SharePoint File ExplorerDouban FM: WP7 Douban FM appGame Lib: Game Library is a open-source game library to allow focusing on the fun part of a game. It is developed in C#, but will be ported to C++ and VB.net.Google reader notes to Delicious Export tool (WPF): Google reader discontinued note in reader features. Current google reader allows to export users old notes in JSON format, This App will parse the JSON file & upload it to it delicious , delicious is a good alternative for note in readerHtml Source Transmitter Control: This web control allows getting a source of a web page, that will displayed before submit. So, developer can store a view of the html page, that was before server exception. It helps to reproduce bugs and can be used with other logging systems.Ideopuzzle: A puzzle gameImageShack-Uploader: This project demonstrates how to upload files automated to imageshack.us and other image hosters with C#.Insert Acronym Tags: Lets you insert <acronym> and <abbr> tags into your blog entry more easily.Insert Quick Link: Allows you to paste a link into the Writer window and have the a window similar to the one in Writer where you can change what text is to appear, open in new window, etc.Insert Video Plugin: Allows you to insert a video into a blog entry from a multitude of different sitesIoCWrap: Provides a wrapper to the various IoC container implementations so that it is possible to switch to a different provider without changing any application code.kaveepoj: sharepoint projectKinect Quiz Engine: Fun quiz game for the Kinect.Klaverjas: Test application for testing different new technologies in .NET (WCF, DataServices, C# stuff, Entity...etc.)Man In The Middle: A cyberpunk themed action with puzzle and strategy elements. Made with XNA as part of a game development course at the IT University of Copenhagen by Bo Bendtsen, Jonas Flensbak, Daniel Kromand, Jess Rahbek & Darryl Woodford.MediaSelektor: Simple tool to select mediasMicajah Mindtouch Deki Wiki Copier: Small C# application to move data between 2 Deki Wiki installs or, more importantly, from a wik.is account to a locally installed systemMineFlagger: MineFlagger is a mine clearing game modeled after Microsoft’s Minesweeper. In addition to standard play, MineFlagger incorporates an AI for fun and training.myXbyqwrhjadsfasfhgf: myXbyqwrhjadsfasfhgfnatoop: natoopNauplius.KeyStore: Provides secure application key storage backed by SQL 2008 and Active Directory.ObjectDB: An object database written using C# 4 and Mono.Cecil.PaceR: PaceR is an attempt to encapsulate a lot of the common code functionality I use on different projects. Instead of recreating functionality from memory or worse, copying from older projects, I'd like to have a central location to maintain this common code. Parseq: Parseq is a Parser Combinator library written in C# (version 2.0).PowerShell Network Adapter Configuration module: PowerShell Network Adapter Configuration module is a PowerShell module which provides functions for managing network adapters using WMI.public traffic tracker: This is a university project for a .net course. We develop a public traffic tracker applications for Windows Phone 7 devices, that can give information about the actual positions of the nearest vehicle on a given line. The speciality is that we use only the GPS information of the users' WP7 devices, so this is a completely software solution without any hardware investment. The disatvantage is that for the real operation we would need a lot of active WP7 user.puyo: puyoRadioTroll: Projeto web Radio TrollRead Feed Community: Read Feed CommunityReviewer: Reviewer.dk - Dansk spil og anmeldelsessite.Rollout Sharepoint Solutions - ROSS: ROSS performs the following actions: - Delete sitecollection and restart services - 'Get Latest Version' from SourceSafe - Rebuild Solution - Install all wsp solutions - Create SiteCollections - Check for build en provisioning errors - Send email to developers if errors occurredSchool Management: school managementSQL File Executer: This project is a class library written in c# which is used for executing *.sql files in remote server. Simply one dll file. You include it in your web project, add using statement at the top of your page, pass the parameters inside. Rest, it will do.Startup Manager: Startup Manager launches all startup programs at a managed rate therefore meaning that your computer doesn't crash everytime it starts up and you can use it immediately.stetic: ...Test Infrastructure Guidance: The purpose of this project is to provide guidance to testers in using TFS effectively as an ALM solution. TFS is much more than a simple code repository. Used with Visual Studio it can form a powerful testing solution and remove a lot of pain in dealing with test infrastructure overhead.Tête-à-tête: Tete-a-tete is an address book with a built-in function to send electronic mail over the Internet.Tipeysh! - Add-in that helps you creating C/C++ header files on a single click: Are you also feel miserable when you need to create a new header file in your Visual Studio C/C++ project? Repeatedly choosing "new header file", then writing the annoying (but needed) "#ifndef" section, then writing the class name with it's "private", "protected" and "public" access modifiers... too much clicks and typewriting! Well, there is a solution: Tipeysh! is a simple, easy to use, very handy and configurable Visual Studio Add-In, compatible for both the 2005 and 2008 versions. Once ...UMN Dashboard Project: academic projUsersMOSS: UsersMOSS est une petite application permettant de consulter sur un serveur MOSS les sites web (SPWeb) les users (SPUser), et les groupes (SPGroup). Cette application utilise le modèle objet de MOSS pour inspecter le contenu des objets d'un serveur MOSS. Cette application est loin d'être professionnelle, ou même terminée, mais elle me rend très souvent service. Surtout ne l'utilisez pas sur un serveur de production car le gestion du GC n'est pas faite, ce qui peut provoquer des plantages de v...UtilityLibrary.Win32: UtilityLibrary.Win32UW iLearn: The iLearn activity inference platform is a suite of desktop and mobile tools for logging, modeling, and classifying sensor data for mobile devices. It was created at the University of Washington.VsDocGen: Dynamic javascript documentation generation directly from xml comment documented source code.Windows Live Spaces Photo Album plugin: This is going to be a plugin for Windows Live Writer that will allow you to browse a Windows Live Space Photo Album.Windows Live Writer Plugin for Amazon Books using CueCat: This Windows Live Writer Plugin is for users who use WLW and wish to use their CueCat to scan books. ItemLookups are run against Amazon via its AWS and book image, title, author, and publisher is returned. This project was first created by Scott Hanselman on MSDN's Coding4Fun! X7: X7 makes it easier for win7user to clean the system. You'll no longer have to delete useless stuff in your win7. It's developed in bat.xDT - Commander: Using this application, the user can assign shortcuts (short texts) for various links/URLs. These short texts will be typed into a Textbox to then launch/go to the target (similar to the "Run" program in Windows).

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• CodePlex Daily Summary for Saturday, October 29, 2011

  CodePlex Daily Summary for Saturday, October 29, 2011Popular Releasespatterns & practices: Enterprise Library Contrib: Enterprise Library Contrib - 5.0 (Oct 2011): This release of Enterprise Library Contrib is based on the Microsoft patterns & practices Enterprise Library 5.0 core and contains the following: Common extensionsTypeConfigurationElement<T> - A Polymorphic Configuration Element without having to be part of a PolymorphicConfigurationElementCollection. AnonymousConfigurationElement - A Configuration element that can be uniquely identified without having to define its name explicitly. Data Access Application Block extensionsMySql Provider - ...Network Monitor Open Source Parsers: Network Monitor Parsers 3.4.2748: The Network Monitor Parsers packages contain parsers for more than 400 network protocols, including RFC based public protocols and protocols for Microsoft products defined in the Microsoft Open Specifications for Windows and SQL Server. NetworkMonitor_Parsers.msi is the base parser package which defines parsers for commonly used public protocols and protocols for Microsoft Windows. In this release, NetowrkMonitor_Parsers.msi continues to improve quality and fix bugs. It has included the fo...Duckworth Lewis Professional Edition Calculator: DLcalc 3.0: DLcalc 3.0 can perform Duckworth/Lewis Professional Edition calculations 100% accurately. It also produces over-by-over and ball-by-ball PAR score tables.Folder Bookmarks: Folder Bookmarks 2.2.0.1: In this version: Custom Icons - now you can change the icons of the bookmarks. By default, whenever an image is added, the icon is automatically changed to a thumbnail of the picture. This can be turned off in the settings (Options... > Settings) Ability to remove items from the 'Recent' category Bugfixes - 'Choose' button in 'Edit Bookmark' now works Another bug fix: another problem in the 'Edit Bookmark' windowMedia Companion: MC 3.420b Weekly: Ensure .NET 4.0 Full Framework is installed. (Available from http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=17718) Ensure the NFO ID fix is applied when transitioning from versions prior to 3.416b. (Details here) Movies Fixed: Fanart and poster scraping issues TV Shows (Re)Added: Rebuild single show Fixed: Issue when shows are moved from original location Ability to handle " for actor nicknames Crash when episode name contains "<" (does not scrape yet) Clears fanart when switch...patterns & practices - Unity: Unity 3.0 for .NET4.5 Preview: The Unity 3.0.1026.0 Preview enables Unity to work on .NET 4.5 with both the WinRT and desktop profiles. The major changes include: Unity projects updated to target .NET 4.5. Dynamic build plans modified to use compiled lambda expressions instead of Reflection.Emit Converting reflection to use the new TypeInfo for reflection. Projects updated to work with the Microsoft Visual Studio 2011 Preview Notes/Known Issues: The Microsoft.Practices.Unity.UnityServiceLocator class cannot be use...Managed Extensibility Framework: MEF 2 Preview 4: Detailed information on this release is available on the BCL team blog.Image Converter: Image Converter 0.3: New Features: - English and German support Technical Improvements: - Microsoft All Rules using Code Analysis Planned Features for future release: 1. Unit testing 2. Command line interface 3. Automatic UpdatesAcDown????? - Anime&Comic Downloader: AcDown????? v3.6: ?? ● AcDown??????????、??????，??????????????????????，???????Acfun、Bilibili、???、???、???、Tucao.cc、SF???、?????80????，???????????、?????????。 ● AcDown???????????????????????????，???，???????????????????。 ● AcDown???????C#??，????.NET Framework 2.0??。?????"Acfun?????"。 ????32??64? Windows XP/Vista/7 ????????????? ??：????????Windows XP???,?????????.NET Framework 2.0???(x86)?.NET Framework 2.0???(x64)，?????"?????????"??? ??????????????，??????????： ??"AcDown?????"????????? ?? v3.6?? ??“????”...DotNetNuke® Events: 05.02.01: This release fixes any know bugs from any previous version. Events 05.02.01 will work for any DNN version 5.5.0 and up. Full details on the changes can be found at http://dnnevents.codeplex.com/workitem/list/basic Please review and rate this release... (stars are welcome)BUG FIXESAdded validation around category cookie RSS feed was missing an explicit close of the file when writing. Fixed. Added extra security into detail view .ICS Files did not include correct line folding. Fixed Cha...Microsoft Ajax Minifier: Microsoft Ajax Minifier 4.33: Add JSParser.ParseExpression method to parse JavaScript expressions rather than source-elements. Add -strict switch (CodeSettings.StrictMode) to force input code to ECMA5 Strict-mode (extra error-checking, "use strict" at top). Fixed bug when MinifyCode setting was set to false but RemoveUnneededCode was left it's default value of true.Path Copy Copy: 8.0: New version that mostly adds lots of requested features: 11340 11339 11338 11337 This version also features a more elaborate Settings UI that has several tabs. I tried to add some notes to better explain the use and purpose of the various options. The Path Copy Copy documentation is also on the way, both to explain how to develop custom plugins and to explain how to pre-configure options if you're a network admin. Stay tuned.MVC Controls Toolkit: Mvc Controls Toolkit 1.5.0: Added: The new Client Blocks feaure of Views A new "move" js method for the TreeViews The NewHtmlCreated js event to the DataGrid Improved the ChoiceList structure that now allows also the selection list of a dropdown to be chosen with a lambda expression Improved the AcceptViewHintAttribute controller filter. Now a client can specify not only the name of a View or Partial View it prefers, but also to receive just the rough data in Json format. Fixed: Issue with partial thrust Cl...Free SharePoint Master Pages: Buried Alive (Halloween) Theme: Release Notes *Created for Halloween, you will find theme file, custom css file and images. *Created by Al Roome @AlstarRoome Features: Custom styling for web part Custom background *Screenshot https://s3.amazonaws.com/kkhipple/post/sharepoint-showcase-halloween.pngDevForce Application Framework: DevForce AF 2.0.3 RTW: PrerequisitesWPF 4.0 Silverlight 4.0 DevForce 2010 6.1.3.1 Download ContentsDebug and Release Assemblies API Documentation Source code License.txt Requirements.txt Release HighlightsNew: EventAggregator event forwarding New: EntityManagerInterceptor<T> to intercept EntityManger events New: IHarnessAware to allow for ViewModel setup when executed inside of the Development Harness New: Improved design time stability New: Support for add-in development New: CoroutineFns.To...NicAudio: NicAudio 2.0.5: Minor change to accept special DTS stereo modes (LtRt, AB,...)NDepend TFS 2010 integration: version 0.5.0 beta 1: Only the activity and the VS plugin are avalaible right now. They basically work. Data types that are logged into tfs reports are subject to change. This is no big deal since data is not yet sent into the warehouse.Windows Azure Toolkit for Windows Phone: Windows Azure Toolkit for Windows Phone v1.3.1: Upgraded Windows Azure projects to Windows Azure Tools for Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 1.5 – September 2011 Upgraded the tools tools to support the Windows Phone Developer Tools RTW Update SQL Azure only scenarios to use ASP.NET Universal Providers (through the System.Web.Providers v1.0.1 NuGet package) Changed Shared Access Signature service interface to support more operations Refactored Blobs API to have a similar interface and usage to that provided by the Windows Azure SDK Stor...DotNetNuke® FAQ: 05.00.00: FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) 05.00.00 will work for any DNN version 5.6.1 and up. It is the first version which is rewritten in C#. The scope of this update is to fix all known issues and improve user interface. Please review and rate this release... (stars are welcome)BUG FIXESManage Categories button text was not localized Edit/Add FAQ Entry: button text was not localized ENHANCEMENTSAdded an option to select the control for category display: Listbox with checkboxes (flat category ...SiteMap Editor for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011: SiteMap Editor (1.0.921.340): Added CodePlex and PayPal links New iconNew ProjectsAsynk: Asynk is a framework/application that allows existing applications to easily be extended with an offloaded asynchronous worker layer. Asynk is developed using C#.Blob Tower Defense: 3D tower defense game for Windows Phone 7. School project for Brno University of Technology, computer graphics class.Booz: Booz is... An extended version of the boo shell (booish2 to be precise). Offers additional commands like cd, md, ls etc. I hope this shell can be used to take the position of/surpass the native windows shell in the near future.CIMS: a sanction infomation system for sencience and technology of hustCrystalDot - Icon Collection / Pack (LGPL): .Net / Mono freundliche Varainte der Crystal-Icons von Everaldo Icon collection / pack for .NET and Mono designed by Everaldo - KDE style http://www.everaldo.com/crystal/dotetes: dotetes adalah teka teki silang tool dikembangkan dengan bahasa c#Emoe': This Project is a Windows Phone 7.1 application.Equation Inversion: Visual Studion 2008 Add-in for equation inversions.Exploring VMR Features on WEC7: This is the sample application helps you to do alpha blending the bitmap on camera streaming in Windows Embedded Compact 7 using Directshow video Renderer (VMR). It is a VS2008 based smart device project developed on C++. I have explained the sample application in the following blog link. http://www.e-consystems.com/blog/windowsce/?p=759 EzValidation: Custom validation extensions for ASP.NET MVC 3. Includes server and client side model based validation attributes for: -- Equal To -- Not Equal To -- Greater Than -- Greater Than or Equal To -- Less Than -- Less Than or Equal To Supports validating against: -- Another Model Field -- A Specific Value -- Current Date/Yesterday/Tomorrow (for Dates and Strings) Download & Install via NuGet "package-install ezvalidation"Flu.net: Flu.net is a tool that helps you creating your own fluent syntax for .NET Framework applications in a declarative fashion. It is aimed for infrastructures and other open-source projects use.For Chess Endgames: King vs. King Opposition Calculator: You must input the locations of 2 kings on a chessboard, and whose turn it is to move. The calculator will display which king has the opposition, and how it can be used or maintained.GameTrakXNA: This project aims to create a simple library to use the unique GameTrak controller within XNA and Flash.Google Speech Recognition Example: Google Speech Recognition contains a working example of application that uses google speech recognition API. App contains all necessary dlls to record, decode and send your voice request to google service and recieve a text representation of what you've said. It's developed in C#Interval Mandelbrot Explorer: Explore the Mandelbrot set using interval arithmetic.ISD training tasks: ISD training examples and tasksiTunesControlBar: The iTunesControlBar helps user control their iTunes Application while it is minimized. iTunesControlBar resides at the top of the screen, invisible when not used, and allows playback and volume control, library searches and media information without the need to bring up iTunes.iTurtle: A bunch of Powerscripts to automate server management in AD environment.M26WC - Mono 2.6 Wizard Control: Wizard which runs under Mono2.6 A fork of: http://aerowizard.codeplex.com/Microsoft Help Viewer 2: Help Viewer 2 is the help runtime for both Visual Studio 11 help and Windows 8 help. The code in this project will help you use and understand the HV2 runtime API.MONTRASEC: Monitoring Trafficking in human beings and Sexual Exploitation of Children: benchmarking for member state and EU reporting, turning the SIAMSECT templates into a user-friendly interface and reporting tool. MTF.NET Runtime: Managed Task Framework .NET Runtime The MTF.NET runtime software and resulting assemblies are required to run applications built using the Managed Task Framework.NET Professional (Visual Studio 2010 extension) software design editor. The MTF.NET team are committed to continuously improving the core MTF.NET runtime and ensuring it is always available free and fully transparent. Pandoras Box: A greenfield inversion of control project utilising the power and flexibility of expressions and preferring convention over configuration.Pass the Puzzle: Pass the Puzzle is a frantic word-guessing party game. The game displays a few letters, and the players must come up with words containing those letters. But beware: if the timer goes off, you lose! It is based on the folk party game Pass the Parcel and is written in C#.PerCiGal: Percigal is a project for the development of applications for managing your personal media library. It consists in - a windows application to use at home to catalog movies, TV series, cast and books, with the support of the Internet for information retrieval; - a web interface for viewing and cataloging everywhere your media; - an application for smartphones. Project Flying Carpet: Este jogo é um projeto para a cadeira Projeto de Jogos: Motores Jogos do curso de Jogos Digitais da Unisinos.proxy browser: sed leo Latin's Butterfly....Python Multiple Dispatch: Multiple dispatch (AKA multimethods) for Python 3 via a metaclass and type annotations.reDune: ?????????? ???? ? ????? «????????? ? ???????? ???????». ???????? ?? Dune2000 ?? Westwood ? Electronic Arts.Rereadable: Keep page from internet for read it latter.ServStop: ServStop is a .NET application that makes it easy to stop several system services at once. Now you don't have to change startup types or stop them one at a time. It has a simple list-based interface with the ability to save and load lists of user services to stop. Written in C#.SharePoint 2010 Audience Membership Workflow Activity (Full Trust): A simple SharePoint 2010 workflow activity / workflow condition to check whether the user initiating the workflow is a member of a specified audience. Farm-level .wsp solution, written in C#. Once installed, the workflow activity can be used in SharePoint Designer 2010 declarative workflows.SQL Server® to Firebird DB converter: Converts Microsoft SQL Server® database into Firebird database including entire structure and datastegitest: test projectSystem.Threading.Joins: The Joins project provides asynchronous concurrency semantics based on join calculus and modeled after the Microsoft Research C? (C Omega) project.TestAndroidGame: try dev a TestAndroidGametetribricks: block game Topographic Explorer: A project to import, convert, explore, manipulate, and save topographical maps. Looking to use C# and WPF.Trading: Under construction!!!Trombone: Trombone makes it easier for Windows Mobile Professional users to automate status reply through SMS. It's developed in Visual C# 2008.Tulsa SharePoint Interest Group: Repository for source code for the Tulsa SharePoint Interest Group's web site. The Tulsa SharePoint Interest Group is using the Community Kit for SharePoint. This project will house any modifications that are specific to our user group.World of Tanks RU tiny stats collection utilty.: Tiny utility to load players stats for World of Tanks RU server. Results saved to comma separated file.WS-Discovery Proxy: Attempt at creating general purpose WS-Discovery Proxy.Yamaha Tu?n Tr?c: This application is used to manage information for Yamaha Tu?n Tr?c

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• Issue 15: Oracle Exadata Marketing Campaigns

  - by rituchhibber

       PARTNER FOCUS Oracle ExadataMarketing Campaign Steve McNickleVP Europe, cVidya Steve McNickle is VP Europe for cVidya, an innovative provider of revenue intelligence solutions for telecom, media and entertainment service providers including AT&T, BT, Deutsche Telecom and Vodafone. The company's product portfolio helps operators and service providers maximise margins, improve customer experience and optimise ecosystem relationships through revenue assurance, fraud and security management, sales performance management, pricing analytics, and inter-carrier services. cVidya has partnered with Oracle for more than a decade. RESOURCES -- Oracle PartnerNetwork (OPN) Oracle Exastack Program Oracle Exastack Optimized Oracle Exastack Labs and Enablement Resources Oracle Engineered Systems Oracle Communications cVidya SUBSCRIBE FEEDBACK PREVIOUS ISSUES Are you ready for Oracle OpenWorld this October? -- -- Please could you tell us a little about cVidya's partnering history with Oracle, and expand on your Oracle Exastack accreditations? "cVidya was established just over ten years ago and we've had a strong relationship with Oracle almost since the very beginning. Through our Revenue Intelligence work with some of the world's largest service providers we collect tremendous amounts of information, amounting to billions of records per day. We help our clients to collect, store and analyse that data to ensure that their end customers are getting the best levels of service, are billed correctly, and are happy that they are on the correct price plan. We have been an Oracle Gold level partner for seven years, and crucially just two months ago we were also accredited as Oracle Exastack Optimized for MoneyMap, our core Revenue Assurance solution. Very soon we also expect to be Oracle Exastack Optimized DRMap, our Data Retention solution." What unique capabilities and customer benefits does Oracle Exastack add to your applications? "Oracle Exastack enables us to deliver radical benefits to our customers. A typical mobile operator in the UK might handle between 500 million and two billion call data record details daily. Each transaction needs to be validated, billed correctly and fraud checked. Because of the enormous volumes involved, our clients demand scalable infrastructure that allows them to efficiently acquire, store and process all that data within controlled cost, space and environmental constraints. We have proved that the Oracle Exadata system can process data up to seven times faster and load it as much as 20 times faster than other standard best-of-breed server approaches. With the Oracle Exadata Database Machine they can reduce their datacentre equipment from say, the six or seven cabinets that they needed in the past, down to just one. This dramatic simplification delivers incredible value to the customer by cutting down enormously on all of their significant cost, space, energy, cooling and maintenance overheads." "The Oracle Exastack Program has given our clients the ability to switch their focus from reactive to proactive. Traditionally they may have spent 80 percent of their day processing, and just 20 percent enabling end customers to see advanced analytics, and avoiding issues before they occur. With our solutions and Oracle Exadata they can now switch that balance around entirely, resulting not only in reduced revenue leakage, but a far higher focus on proactive leakage prevention. How has the Oracle Exastack Program transformed your customer business? "We can already see the impact. Oracle solutions allow our delivery teams to achieve successful deployments, happy customers and self-satisfaction, and the power of Oracle's Exa solutions is easy to measure in terms of their transformational ability. We gained our first sale into a major European telco by demonstrating the major performance gains that would transform their business. Clients can measure the ease of organisational change, the early prevention of business issues, the reduction in manpower required to provide protection and coverage across all their products and services, plus of course end customer satisfaction. If customers know that that service is provided accurately and that their bills are calculated correctly, then over time this satisfaction can be attributed to revenue intelligence and the underlying systems which provide it. Combine this with the further integration we have with the other layers of the Oracle stack, including the telecommunications offerings such as NCC, OCDM and BRM, and the result is even greater customer value—not to mention the increased speed to market and the reduced project risk." What does the Oracle Exastack community bring to cVidya, both in terms of general benefits, and also tangible new opportunities and partnerships? "A great deal. We have participated in the Oracle Exastack community heavily over the past year, and have had lots of meetings with Oracle and our peers around the globe. It brings us into contact with like-minded, innovative partners, who like us are not happy to just stand still and want to take fresh technology to their customer base in order to gain enhanced value. We identified three new partnerships in each of two recent meetings, and hope these will open up new opportunities, not only in areas that exactly match where we operate today, but also in some new associative areas that will expand our reach into new business sectors. Notably, thanks to the Exastack community we were invited on stage at last year's Oracle OpenWorld conference. Appearing so publically with Oracle senior VP Judson Althoff elevated awareness and visibility of cVidya and has enabled us to participate in a number of other events with Oracle over the past eight months. We've been involved in speaking opportunities, forums and exhibitions, providing us with invaluable opportunities that we wouldn't otherwise have got close to." How has Exastack differentiated cVidya as an ISV, and helped you to evolve your business to the next level? "When we are selling to our core customer base of Tier 1 telecommunications providers, we know that they want more than just software. They want an enduring partnership that will last many years, they want innovation, and a forward thinking partner who knows how to guide them on where they need to be to meet market demand three, five or seven years down the line. Membership of respected global bodies, such as the Telemanagement Forum enables us to lead standard adherence in our area of business, giving us a lot of credibility, but Oracle is also involved in this forum with its own telecommunications portfolio, strengthening our position still further. When we approach CEOs, CTOs and CIOs at the very largest Tier 1 operators, not only can we easily show them that our technology is fantastic, we can also talk about our strong partnership with Oracle, and our joint embracing of today's standards and tomorrow's innovation." Where would you like cVidya to be in one year's time? "We want to get all of our relevant products Oracle Exastack Optimized. Our MoneyMap Revenue Assurance solution is already Exastack Optimised, our DRMAP Data Retention Solution should be Exastack Optimised within the next month, and our FraudView Fraud Management solution within the next two to three months. We'd then like to extend our Oracle accreditation out to include other members of the Oracle Engineered Systems family. We are moving into the 'Big Data' space, and so we're obviously very keen to work closely with Oracle to conduct pilots, map new technologies onto Oracle Big Data platforms, and embrace and measure the benefits of other Oracle systems, namely Oracle Exalogic Elastic Cloud, the Oracle Exalytics In-Memory Machine and the Oracle SPARC SuperCluster. We would also like to examine how the Oracle Database Appliance might benefit our Tier 2 service provider customers. Finally, we'd also like to continue working with the Oracle Communications Global Business Unit (CGBU), furthering our integration with Oracle billing products so that we are able to quickly deploy fraud solutions into Oracle's Engineered System stack, give operational benefits to our clients that are pre-integrated, more cost-effective, and can be rapidly deployed rapidly and producing benefits in three months, not nine months." Chris Baker ,Senior Vice President, Oracle Worldwide ISV-OEM-Java Sales Chris Baker is the Global Head of ISV/OEM Sales responsible for working with ISV/OEM partners to maximise Oracle's business through those partners, whilst maximising those partners' business to their end users. Chris works with partners, customers, innovators, investors and employees to develop innovative business solutions using Oracle products, services and skills. Firstly, could you please explain Oracle's current strategy for ISV partners, globally and in EMEA? "Oracle customers use independent software vendor (ISV) applications to run their businesses. They use them to generate revenue and to fulfil obligations to their own customers. Our strategy is very straight-forward. We want all of our ISV partners and OEMs to concentrate on the things that they do the best – building applications to meet the unique industry and functional requirements of their customer. We want to ensure that we deliver a best in class application platform so the ISV is free to concentrate their effort on their application functionality and user experience We invest over four billion dollars in research and development every year, and we want our ISVs to benefit from all of that investment in operating systems, virtualisation, databases, middleware, engineered systems, and other hardware. By doing this, we help them to reduce their costs, gain more consistency and agility for quicker implementations, and also rapidly differentiate themselves from other application vendors. It's all about simplification because we believe that around 25 to 30 percent of the development costs incurred by many ISVs are caused by customising infrastructure and have nothing to do with their applications. Our strategy is to enable our ISV partners to standardise their application platform using engineered architecture, so they can write once to the Oracle stack and deploy seamlessly in the cloud, on-premise, or in hybrid deployments. It's really important that architecture is the same in order to keep cost and time overheads at a minimum, so we provide standardisation and an environment that enables our ISVs to concentrate on the core business that makes them the most money and brings them success." How do you believe this strategy is helping the ISVs to work hand-in-hand with Oracle to ensure that end customers get the industry-leading solutions that they need? "We work with our ISVs not just to help them be successful, but also to help them market themselves. We have something called the 'Oracle Exastack Ready Program', which enables ISVs to publicise themselves as 'Ready' to run the core software platforms that run on Oracle's engineered systems including Exadata and Exalogic. So, for example, they can become 'Database Ready' which means that they use the latest version of Oracle Database and therefore can run their application without modification on Exadata or the Oracle Database Appliance. Alternatively, they can become WebLogic Ready, Oracle Linux Ready and Oracle Solaris Ready which means they run on the latest release and therefore can run their application, with no new porting work, on Oracle Exalogic. Those 'Ready' logos are important in helping ISVs advertise to their customers that they are using the latest technologies which have been fully tested. We now also have Exadata Ready and Exalogic Ready programmes which allow ISVs to promote the certification of their applications on these platforms. This highlights these partners to Oracle customers as having solutions that run fluently on the Oracle Exadata Database Machine, the Oracle Exalogic Elastic Cloud or one of our other engineered systems. This makes it easy for customers to identify solutions and provides ISVs with an avenue to connect with Oracle customers who are rapidly adopting engineered systems. We have also taken this programme to the next level in the shape of 'Oracle Exastack Optimized' for partners whose applications run best on the Oracle stack and have invested the time to fully optimise application performance. We ensure that Exastack Optimized partner status is promoted and supported by press releases, and we help our ISVs go to market and differentiate themselves through the use our technology and the standardisation it delivers. To date we have had several hundred organisations successfully work through our Exastack Optimized programme." How does Oracle's strategy of offering pre-integrated open platform software and hardware allow ISVs to bring their products to market more quickly? "One of the problems for many ISVs is that they have to think very carefully about the technology on which their solutions will be deployed, particularly in the cloud or hosted environments. They have to think hard about how they secure these environments, whether the concern is, for example, middleware, identity management, or securing personal data. If they don't use the technology that we build-in to our products to help them to fulfil these roles, they then have to build it themselves. This takes time, requires testing, and must be maintained. By taking advantage of our technology, partners will now know that they have a standard platform. They will know that they can confidently talk about implementation being the same every time they do it. Very large ISV applications could once take a year or two to be implemented at an on-premise environment. But it wasn't just the configuration of the application that took the time, it was actually the infrastructure - the different hardware configurations, operating systems and configurations of databases and middleware. Now we strongly believe that it's all about standardisation and repeatability. It's about making sure that our partners can do it once and are then able to roll it out many different times using standard componentry." What actions would you recommend for existing ISV partners that are looking to do more business with Oracle and its customer base, not only to maximise benefits, but also to maximise partner relationships? "My team, around the world and in the EMEA region, is available and ready to talk to any of our ISVs and to explore the possibilities together. We run programmes like 'Excite' and 'Insight' to help us to understand how we can help ISVs with architecture and widen their environments. But we also want to work with, and look at, new opportunities - for example, the Machine-to-Machine (M2M) market or 'The Internet of Things'. Over the next few years, many millions, indeed billions of devices will be collecting massive amounts of data and communicating it back to the central systems where ISVs will be running their applications. The only way that our partners will be able to provide a single vendor 'end-to-end' solution is to use Oracle integrated systems at the back end and Java on the 'smart' devices collecting the data – a complete solution from device to data centre. So there are huge opportunities to work closely with our ISVs, using Oracle's complete M2M platform, to provide the infrastructure that enables them to extract maximum value from the data collected. If any partners don't know where to start or who to contact, then they can contact me directly at [email protected] or indeed any of our teams across the EMEA region. We want to work with ISVs to help them to be as successful as they possibly can through simplification and speed to market, and we also want all of the top ISVs in the world based on Oracle." What opportunities are immediately opened to new ISV partners joining the OPN? "As you know OPN is very, very important. New members will discover a huge amount of content that instantly becomes accessible to them. They can access a wealth of no-cost training and enablement materials to build their expertise in Oracle technology. They can download Oracle software and use it for development projects. They can help themselves become more competent by becoming part of a true community and uncovering new opportunities by working with Oracle and their peers in the Oracle Partner Network. As well as publishing massive amounts of information on OPN, we also hold our global Oracle OpenWorld event, at which partners play a huge role. This takes place at the end of September and the beginning of October in San Francisco. Attending ISV partners have an unrivalled opportunity to contribute to elements such as the OpenWorld / OPN Exchange, at which they can talk to other partners and really begin thinking about how they can move their businesses on and play key roles in a very large ecosystem which revolves around technology and standardisation." Finally, are there any other messages that you would like to share with the Oracle ISV community? "The crucial message that I always like to reinforce is architecture, architecture and architecture! The key opportunities that ISVs have today revolve around standardising their architectures so that they can confidently think: “I will I be able to do exactly the same thing whenever a customer is looking to deploy on-premise, hosted or in the cloud”. The right architecture is critical to being competitive and to really start changing the game. We want to help our ISV partners to do just that; to establish standard architecture and to seize the opportunities it opens up for them. New market opportunities like M2M are enormous - just look at how many devices are all around you right now. We can help our partners to interface with these devices more effectively while thinking about their entire ecosystem, rather than just the piece that they have traditionally focused upon. With standardised architecture, we can help people dramatically improve their speed, reach, agility and delivery of enhanced customer satisfaction and value all the way from the Java side to their centralised systems. All Oracle ISV partners must take advantage of these opportunities, which is why Oracle will continue to invest in and support them." -- Gergely Strbik is Oracle Hardware and Software Product Manager for Avnet in Hungary. Avnet Technology Solutions is an OracleValue Added Distributor focused on the development of the existing Oracle channel. This includes the recruitment and enablement of Oracle partners as well as driving deeper adoption of Oracle's technology and application products within the IT channel. "The main business benefits of ODA for our customers and partners are scalability, flexibility, a great price point for the high performance delivered, and the easily configurable embedded Linux operating system. People welcome a lower point of entry and the ability to grow capacity on demand as their business expands." "Marketing and selling the ODA requires another way of thinking because it is an appliance. We have to transform the ways in which our partners and customers think from buying hardware and software independently to buying complete solutions. Successful early adopters and satisfied customer reactions will certainly help us to sell the ODA. We will have more experience with the product after the first deliveries and installations—end users need to see the power and benefits for themselves." "Our typical ODA customers will be those looking for complete solutions from a single reseller partner who is also able to manage the appliance. They will have enjoyed using Oracle Database but now want a new product that is able to unlock new levels of performance. A higher proportion of potential customers will come from our existing Oracle base, with around 30% from new business, but we intend to evangelise the ODA on the market to see how we can change this balance as all our customers adjust to the concept of 'Hardware and Software, Engineered to Work Together'. -- Back to the welcome page

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• Informed TDD &ndash; Kata &ldquo;To Roman Numerals&rdquo;

  - by Ralf Westphal

  Originally posted on: http://geekswithblogs.net/theArchitectsNapkin/archive/2014/05/28/informed-tdd-ndash-kata-ldquoto-roman-numeralsrdquo.aspxIn a comment on my article on what I call Informed TDD (ITDD) reader gustav asked how this approach would apply to the kata “To Roman Numerals”. And whether ITDD wasn´t a violation of TDD´s principle of leaving out “advanced topics like mocks”. I like to respond with this article to his questions. There´s more to say than fits into a commentary. Mocks and TDD I don´t see in how far TDD is avoiding or opposed to mocks. TDD and mocks are orthogonal. TDD is about pocess, mocks are about structure and costs. Maybe by moving forward in tiny red+green+refactor steps less need arises for mocks. But then… if the functionality you need to implement requires “expensive” resource access you can´t avoid using mocks. Because you don´t want to constantly run all your tests against the real resource. True, in ITDD mocks seem to be in almost inflationary use. That´s not what you usually see in TDD demonstrations. However, there´s a reason for that as I tried to explain. I don´t use mocks as proxies for “expensive” resource. Rather they are stand-ins for functionality not yet implemented. They allow me to get a test green on a high level of abstraction. That way I can move forward in a top-down fashion. But if you think of mocks as “advanced” or if you don´t want to use a tool like JustMock, then you don´t need to use mocks. You just need to stand the sight of red tests for a little longer ;-) Let me show you what I mean by that by doing a kata. ITDD for “To Roman Numerals” gustav asked for the kata “To Roman Numerals”. I won´t explain the requirements again. You can find descriptions and TDD demonstrations all over the internet, like this one from Corey Haines. Now here is, how I would do this kata differently. 1. Analyse A demonstration of TDD should never skip the analysis phase. It should be made explicit. The requirements should be formalized and acceptance test cases should be compiled. “Formalization” in this case to me means describing the API of the required functionality. “[D]esign a program to work with Roman numerals” like written in this “requirement document” is not enough to start software development. Coding should only begin, if the interface between the “system under development” and its context is clear. If this interface is not readily recognizable from the requirements, it has to be developed first. Exploration of interface alternatives might be in order. It might be necessary to show several interface mock-ups to the customer – even if that´s you fellow developer. Designing the interface is a task of it´s own. It should not be mixed with implementing the required functionality behind the interface. Unfortunately, though, this happens quite often in TDD demonstrations. TDD is used to explore the API and implement it at the same time. To me that´s a violation of the Single Responsibility Principle (SRP) which not only should hold for software functional units but also for tasks or activities. In the case of this kata the API fortunately is obvious. Just one function is needed: string ToRoman(int arabic). And it lives in a class ArabicRomanConversions. Now what about acceptance test cases? There are hardly any stated in the kata descriptions. Roman numerals are explained, but no specific test cases from the point of view of a customer. So I just “invent” some acceptance test cases by picking roman numerals from a wikipedia article. They are supposed to be just “typical examples” without special meaning. Given the acceptance test cases I then try to develop an understanding of the problem domain. I´ll spare you that. The domain is trivial and is explain in almost all kata descriptions. How roman numerals are built is not difficult to understand. What´s more difficult, though, might be to find an efficient solution to convert into them automatically. 2. Solve The usual TDD demonstration skips a solution finding phase. Like the interface exploration it´s mixed in with the implementation. But I don´t think this is how it should be done. I even think this is not how it really works for the people demonstrating TDD. They´re simplifying their true software development process because they want to show a streamlined TDD process. I doubt this is helping anybody. Before you code you better have a plan what to code. This does not mean you have to do “Big Design Up-Front”. It just means: Have a clear picture of the logical solution in your head before you start to build a physical solution (code). Evidently such a solution can only be as good as your understanding of the problem. If that´s limited your solution will be limited, too. Fortunately, in the case of this kata your understanding does not need to be limited. Thus the logical solution does not need to be limited or preliminary or tentative. That does not mean you need to know every line of code in advance. It just means you know the rough structure of your implementation beforehand. Because it should mirror the process described by the logical or conceptual solution. Here´s my solution approach: The arabic “encoding” of numbers represents them as an ordered set of powers of 10. Each digit is a factor to multiply a power of ten with. The “encoding” 123 is the short form for a set like this: {1*10^2, 2*10^1, 3*10^0}. And the number is the sum of the set members. The roman “encoding” is different. There is no base (like 10 for arabic numbers), there are just digits of different value, and they have to be written in descending order. The “encoding” XVI is short for [10, 5, 1]. And the number is still the sum of the members of this list. The roman “encoding” thus is simpler than the arabic. Each “digit” can be taken at face value. No multiplication with a base required. But what about IV which looks like a contradiction to the above rule? It is not – if you accept roman “digits” not to be limited to be single characters only. Usually I, V, X, L, C, D, M are viewed as “digits”, and IV, IX etc. are viewed as nuisances preventing a simple solution. All looks different, though, once IV, IX etc. are taken as “digits”. Then MCMLIV is just a sum: M+CM+L+IV which is 1000+900+50+4. Whereas before it would have been understood as M-C+M+L-I+V – which is more difficult because here some “digits” get subtracted. Here´s the list of roman “digits” with their values: {1, I}, {4, IV}, {5, V}, {9, IX}, {10, X}, {40, XL}, {50, L}, {90, XC}, {100, C}, {400, CD}, {500, D}, {900, CM}, {1000, M} Since I take IV, IX etc. as “digits” translating an arabic number becomes trivial. I just need to find the values of the roman “digits” making up the number, e.g. 1954 is made up of 1000, 900, 50, and 4. I call those “digits” factors. If I move from the highest factor (M=1000) to the lowest (I=1) then translation is a two phase process: Find all the factors Translate the factors found Compile the roman representation Translation is just a look-up. Finding, though, needs some calculation: Find the highest remaining factor fitting in the value Remember and subtract it from the value Repeat with remaining value and remaining factors Please note: This is just an algorithm. It´s not code, even though it might be close. Being so close to code in my solution approach is due to the triviality of the problem. In more realistic examples the conceptual solution would be on a higher level of abstraction. With this solution in hand I finally can do what TDD advocates: find and prioritize test cases. As I can see from the small process description above, there are two aspects to test: Test the translation Test the compilation Test finding the factors Testing the translation primarily means to check if the map of factors and digits is comprehensive. That´s simple, even though it might be tedious. Testing the compilation is trivial. Testing factor finding, though, is a tad more complicated. I can think of several steps: First check, if an arabic number equal to a factor is processed correctly (e.g. 1000=M). Then check if an arabic number consisting of two consecutive factors (e.g. 1900=[M,CM]) is processed correctly. Then check, if a number consisting of the same factor twice is processed correctly (e.g. 2000=[M,M]). Finally check, if an arabic number consisting of non-consecutive factors (e.g. 1400=[M,CD]) is processed correctly. I feel I can start an implementation now. If something becomes more complicated than expected I can slow down and repeat this process. 3. Implement First I write a test for the acceptance test cases. It´s red because there´s no implementation even of the API. That´s in conformance with “TDD lore”, I´d say: Next I implement the API: The acceptance test now is formally correct, but still red of course. This will not change even now that I zoom in. Because my goal is not to most quickly satisfy these tests, but to implement my solution in a stepwise manner. That I do by “faking” it: I just “assume” three functions to represent the transformation process of my solution: My hypothesis is that those three functions in conjunction produce correct results on the API-level. I just have to implement them correctly. That´s what I´m trying now – one by one. I start with a simple “detail function”: Translate(). And I start with all the test cases in the obvious equivalence partition: As you can see I dare to test a private method. Yes. That´s a white box test. But as you´ll see it won´t make my tests brittle. It serves a purpose right here and now: it lets me focus on getting one aspect of my solution right. Here´s the implementation to satisfy the test: It´s as simple as possible. Right how TDD wants me to do it: KISS. Now for the second equivalence partition: translating multiple factors. (It´a pattern: if you need to do something repeatedly separate the tests for doing it once and doing it multiple times.) In this partition I just need a single test case, I guess. Stepping up from a single translation to multiple translations is no rocket science: Usually I would have implemented the final code right away. Splitting it in two steps is just for “educational purposes” here. How small your implementation steps are is a matter of your programming competency. Some “see” the final code right away before their mental eye – others need to work their way towards it. Having two tests I find more important. Now for the next low hanging fruit: compilation. It´s even simpler than translation. A single test is enough, I guess. And normally I would not even have bothered to write that one, because the implementation is so simple. I don´t need to test .NET framework functionality. But again: if it serves the educational purpose… Finally the most complicated part of the solution: finding the factors. There are several equivalence partitions. But still I decide to write just a single test, since the structure of the test data is the same for all partitions: Again, I´m faking the implementation first: I focus on just the first test case. No looping yet. Faking lets me stay on a high level of abstraction. I can write down the implementation of the solution without bothering myself with details of how to actually accomplish the feat. That´s left for a drill down with a test of the fake function: There are two main equivalence partitions, I guess: either the first factor is appropriate or some next. The implementation seems easy. Both test cases are green. (Of course this only works on the premise that there´s always a matching factor. Which is the case since the smallest factor is 1.) And the first of the equivalence partitions on the higher level also is satisfied: Great, I can move on. Now for more than a single factor: Interestingly not just one test becomes green now, but all of them. Great! You might say, then I must have done not the simplest thing possible. And I would reply: I don´t care. I did the most obvious thing. But I also find this loop very simple. Even simpler than a recursion of which I had thought briefly during the problem solving phase. And by the way: Also the acceptance tests went green: Mission accomplished. At least functionality wise. Now I´ve to tidy up things a bit. TDD calls for refactoring. Not uch refactoring is needed, because I wrote the code in top-down fashion. I faked it until I made it. I endured red tests on higher levels while lower levels weren´t perfected yet. But this way I saved myself from refactoring tediousness. At the end, though, some refactoring is required. But maybe in a different way than you would expect. That´s why I rather call it “cleanup”. First I remove duplication. There are two places where factors are defined: in Translate() and in Find_factors(). So I factor the map out into a class constant. Which leads to a small conversion in Find_factors(): And now for the big cleanup: I remove all tests of private methods. They are scaffolding tests to me. They only have temporary value. They are brittle. Only acceptance tests need to remain. However, I carry over the single “digit” tests from Translate() to the acceptance test. I find them valuable to keep, since the other acceptance tests only exercise a subset of all roman “digits”. This then is my final test class: And this is the final production code: Test coverage as reported by NCrunch is 100%: Reflexion Is this the smallest possible code base for this kata? Sure not. You´ll find more concise solutions on the internet. But LOC are of relatively little concern – as long as I can understand the code quickly. So called “elegant” code, however, often is not easy to understand. The same goes for KISS code – especially if left unrefactored, as it is often the case. That´s why I progressed from requirements to final code the way I did. I first understood and solved the problem on a conceptual level. Then I implemented it top down according to my design. I also could have implemented it bottom-up, since I knew some bottom of the solution. That´s the leaves of the functional decomposition tree. Where things became fuzzy, since the design did not cover any more details as with Find_factors(), I repeated the process in the small, so to speak: fake some top level, endure red high level tests, while first solving a simpler problem. Using scaffolding tests (to be thrown away at the end) brought two advantages: Encapsulation of the implementation details was not compromised. Naturally private methods could stay private. I did not need to make them internal or public just to be able to test them. I was able to write focused tests for small aspects of the solution. No need to test everything through the solution root, the API. The bottom line thus for me is: Informed TDD produces cleaner code in a systematic way. It conforms to core principles of programming: Single Responsibility Principle and/or Separation of Concerns. Distinct roles in development – being a researcher, being an engineer, being a craftsman – are represented as different phases. First find what, what there is. Then devise a solution. Then code the solution, manifest the solution in code. Writing tests first is a good practice. But it should not be taken dogmatic. And above all it should not be overloaded with purposes. And finally: moving from top to bottom through a design produces refactored code right away. Clean code thus almost is inevitable – and not left to a refactoring step at the end which is skipped often for different reasons.   PS: Yes, I have done this kata several times. But that has only an impact on the time needed for phases 1 and 2. I won´t skip them because of that. And there are no shortcuts during implementation because of that.

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• How to shoot yourself in the foot (DO NOT Read in the office)

  - by TATWORTH

  Originally posted on: http://geekswithblogs.net/TATWORTH/archive/2013/06/21/how-to-shoot-yourself-in-the-foot-do-not-read.aspxLet me make it absolutely clear - the following is:merely collated by your Geek from http://www.codeproject.com/Lounge.aspx?msg=3917012#xx3917012xxvery, very very funny so you read it in the presence of others at your own riskso here is the list - you have been warned!C You shoot yourself in the foot.   C++ You accidently create a dozen instances of yourself and shoot them all in the foot. Providing emergency medical assistance is impossible since you can't tell which are bitwise copies and which are just pointing at others and saying "That's me, over there."   FORTRAN You shoot yourself in each toe, iteratively, until you run out of toes, then you read in the next foot and repeat. If you run out of bullets, you continue anyway because you have no exception-handling facility.   Modula-2 After realizing that you can't actually accomplish anything in this language, you shoot yourself in the head.   COBOL USEing a COLT 45 HANDGUN, AIM gun at LEG.FOOT, THEN place ARM.HAND.FINGER on HANDGUN.TRIGGER and SQUEEZE. THEN return HANDGUN to HOLSTER. CHECK whether shoelace needs to be retied.   Lisp You shoot yourself in the appendage which holds the gun with which you shoot yourself in the appendage which holds the gun with which you shoot yourself in the appendage which holds...   BASIC Shoot yourself in the foot with a water pistol. On big systems, continue until entire lower body is waterlogged.   Forth Foot yourself in the shoot.   APL You shoot yourself in the foot; then spend all day figuring out how to do it in fewer characters.   Pascal The compiler won't let you shoot yourself in the foot.   Snobol If you succeed, shoot yourself in the left foot. If you fail, shoot yourself in the right foot.   HyperTalk Put the first bullet of the gun into foot left of leg of you. Answer the result.   Prolog You tell your program you want to be shot in the foot. The program figures out how to do it, but the syntax doesn't allow it to explain.   370 JCL You send your foot down to MIS with a 4000-page document explaining how you want it to be shot. Three years later, your foot comes back deep-fried.   FORTRAN-77 You shoot yourself in each toe, iteratively, until you run out of toes, then you read in the next foot and repeat. If you run out of bullets, you continue anyway because you still can't do exception-processing.   Modula-2 (alternative) You perform a shooting on what might be currently a foot with what might be currently a bullet shot by what might currently be a gun.   BASIC (compiled) You shoot yourself in the foot with a BB using a SCUD missile launcher.   Visual Basic You'll really only appear to have shot yourself in the foot, but you'll have so much fun doing it that you won't care.   Forth (alternative) BULLET DUP3 * GUN LOAD FOOT AIM TRIGGER PULL BANG! EMIT DEAD IF DROP ROT THEN (This takes about five bytes of memory, executes in two to ten clock cycles on any processor and can be used to replace any existing function of the language as well as in any future words). (Welcome to bottom up programming - where you, too, can perform compiler pre-processing instead of writing code)   APL (alternative) You hear a gunshot and there's a hole in your foot, but you don't remember enough linear algebra to understand what happened. or @#&^$%&%^ foot   Pascal (alternative) Same as Modula-2 except that the bullet is not the right type for the gun and your hand is blown off.   Snobol (alternative) You grab your foot with your hand, then rewrite your hand to be a bullet. The act of shooting the original foot then changes your hand/bullet into yet another foot (a left foot).   Prolog (alternative) You attempt to shoot yourself in the foot, but the bullet, failing to find its mark, backtracks to the gun, which then explodes in your face.   COMAL You attempt to shoot yourself in the foot with a water pistol, but the bore is clogged, and the pressure build-up blows apart both the pistol and your hand. or draw_pistol aim_at_foot(left) pull_trigger hop(swearing)   Scheme As Lisp, but none of the other appendages are aware of this happening.   Algol You shoot yourself in the foot with a musket. The musket is aesthetically fascinating and the wound baffles the adolescent medic in the emergency room.   Ada If you are dumb enough to actually use this language, the United States Department of Defense will kidnap you, stand you up in front of a firing squad and tell the soldiers, "Shoot at the feet." or The Department of Defense shoots you in the foot after offering you a blindfold and a last cigarette. or After correctly packaging your foot, you attempt to concurrently load the gun, pull the trigger, scream and shoot yourself in the foot. When you try, however, you discover that your foot is of the wrong type. or After correctly packing your foot, you attempt to concurrently load the gun, pull the trigger, scream, and confidently aim at your foot knowing it is safe. However the cordite in the round does an Unchecked Conversion, fires and shoots you in the foot anyway.   Eiffel   You create a GUN object, two FOOT objects and a BULLET object. The GUN passes both the FOOT objects a reference to the BULLET. The FOOT objects increment their hole counts and forget about the BULLET. A little demon then drives a garbage truck over your feet and grabs the bullet (both of it) on the way. Smalltalk You spend so much time playing with the graphics and windowing system that your boss shoots you in the foot, takes away your workstation and makes you develop in COBOL on a character terminal. or You send the message shoot to gun, with selectors bullet and myFoot. A window pops up saying Gunpowder doesNotUnderstand: spark. After several fruitless hours spent browsing the methods for Trigger, FiringPin and IdealGas, you take the easy way out and create ShotFoot, a subclass of Foot with an additional instance variable bulletHole. Object Oriented Pascal You perform a shooting on what might currently be a foot with what might currently be a bullet fired from what might currently be a gun.   PL/I You consume all available system resources, including all the offline bullets. The Data Processing & Payroll Department doubles its size, triples its budget, acquires four new mainframes and drops the original one on your foot. Postscript foot bullets 6 locate loadgun aim gun shoot showpage or It takes the bullet ten minutes to travel from the gun to your foot, by which time you're long since gone out to lunch. The text comes out great, though.   PERL You stab yourself in the foot repeatedly with an incredibly large and very heavy Swiss Army knife. or You pick up the gun and begin to load it. The gun and your foot begin to grow to huge proportions and the world around you slows down, until the gun fires. It makes a tiny hole, which you don't feel. Assembly Language You crash the OS and overwrite the root disk. The system administrator arrives and shoots you in the foot. After a moment of contemplation, the administrator shoots himself in the foot and then hops around the room rabidly shooting at everyone in sight. or You try to shoot yourself in the foot only to discover you must first reinvent the gun, the bullet, and your foot.or The bullet travels to your foot instantly, but it took you three weeks to load the round and aim the gun.   BCPL You shoot yourself somewhere in the leg -- you can't get any finer resolution than that. Concurrent Euclid You shoot yourself in somebody else's foot.   Motif You spend days writing a UIL description of your foot, the trajectory, the bullet and the intricate scrollwork on the ivory handles of the gun. When you finally get around to pulling the trigger, the gun jams.   Powerbuilder While attempting to load the gun you discover that the LoadGun system function is buggy; as a work around you tape the bullet to the outside of the gun and unsuccessfully attempt to fire it with a nail. In frustration you club your foot with the butt of the gun and explain to your client that this approximates the functionality of shooting yourself in the foot and that the next version of Powerbuilder will fix it.   Standard ML By the time you get your code to typecheck, you're using a shoot to foot yourself in the gun.   MUMPS You shoot 583149 AK-47 teflon-tipped, hollow-point, armour-piercing bullets into even-numbered toes on odd-numbered feet of everyone in the building -- with one line of code. Three weeks later you shoot yourself in the head rather than try to modify that line.   Java You locate the Gun class, but discover that the Bullet class is abstract, so you extend it and write the missing part of the implementation. Then you implement the ShootAble interface for your foot, and recompile the Foot class. The interface lets the bullet call the doDamage method on the Foot, so the Foot can damage itself in the most effective way. Now you run the program, and call the doShoot method on the instance of the Gun class. First the Gun creates an instance of Bullet, which calls the doFire method on the Gun. The Gun calls the hit(Bullet) method on the Foot, and the instance of Bullet is passed to the Foot. But this causes an IllegalHitByBullet exception to be thrown, and you die.   Unix You shoot yourself in the foot or % ls foot.c foot.h foot.o toe.c toe.o % rm * .o rm: .o: No such file or directory % ls %   370 JCL (alternative) You shoot yourself in the head just thinking about it.   DOS JCL You first find the building you're in in the phone book, then find your office number in the corporate phone book. Then you have to write this down, then describe, in cubits, your exact location, in relation to the door (right hand side thereof). Then you need to write down the location of the gun (loading it is a proprietary utility), then you load it, and the COBOL program, and run them, and, with luck, it may be run tonight.   VMS   $ MOUNT/DENSITY=.45/LABEL=BULLET/MESSAGE="BYE" BULLET::BULLET$GUN SYS$BULLET $ SET GUN/LOAD/SAFETY=OFF/SIGHT=NONE/HAND=LEFT/CHAMBER=1/ACTION=AUTOMATIC/ LOG/ALL/FULL SYS$GUN_3$DUA3:[000000]GUN.GNU $ SHOOT/LOG/AUTO SYS$GUN SYS$SYSTEM:[FOOT]FOOT.FOOT   %DCL-W-ACTIMAGE, error activating image GUN -CLI-E-IMGNAME, image file $3$DUA240:[GUN]GUN.EXE;1 -IMGACT-F-NOTNATIVE, image is not an OpenVMS Alpha AXP image or %SYS-F-FTSHT, foot shot (fifty lines of traceback omitted) sh,csh, etc You can't remember the syntax for anything, so you spend five hours reading manual pages, then your foot falls asleep. You shoot the computer and switch to C.   Apple System 7 Double click the gun icon and a window giving a selection for guns, target areas, plus balloon help with medical remedies, and assorted sound effects. Click "shoot" button and a small bomb appears with note "Error of Type 1 has occurred."   Windows 3.1 Double click the gun icon and wait. Eventually a window opens giving a selection for guns, target areas, plus balloon help with medical remedies, and assorted sound effects. Click "shoot" button and a small box appears with note "Unable to open Shoot.dll, check that path is correct."   Windows 95 Your gun is not compatible with this OS and you must buy an upgrade and install it before you can continue. Then you will be informed that you don't have enough memory.   CP/M I remember when shooting yourself in the foot with a BB gun was a big deal.   DOS You finally found the gun, but can't locate the file with the foot for the life of you.   MSDOS You shoot yourself in the foot, but can unshoot yourself with add-on software.   Access You try to point the gun at your foot, but it shoots holes in all your Borland distribution diskettes instead.   Paradox Not only can you shoot yourself in the foot, your users can too.   dBase You squeeze the trigger, but the bullet moves so slowly that by the time your foot feels the pain, you've forgotten why you shot yourself anyway. or You buy a gun. Bullets are only available from another company and are promised to work so you buy them. Then you find out that the next version of the gun is the one scheduled to actually shoot bullets.   DBase IV, V1.0 You pull the trigger, but it turns out that the gun was a poorly designed hand grenade and the whole building blows up.   SQL You cut your foot off, send it out to a service bureau and when it returns, it has a hole in it but will no longer fit the attachment at the end of your leg. or Insert into Foot Select Bullet >From Gun.Hand Where Chamber = 'LOADED' And Trigger = 'PULLED'   Clipper You grab a bullet, get ready to insert it in the gun so that you can shoot yourself in the foot and discover that the gun that the bullets fits has not yet been built, but should be arriving in the mail _REAL_SOON_NOW_. Oracle The menus for coding foot_shooting have not been implemented yet and you can't do foot shooting in SQL.   English You put your foot in your mouth, then bite it off. (For those who don't know, English is a McDonnell Douglas/PICK query language which allegedly requires 110% of system resources to run happily.) Revelation [an implementation of the PICK Operating System] You'll be able to shoot yourself in the foot just as soon as you figure out what all these bullets are for.   FlagShip Starting at the top of your head, you aim the gun at yourself repeatedly until, half an hour later, the gun is finally pointing at your foot and you pull the trigger. A new foot with a hole in it appears but you can't work out how to get rid of the old one and your gun doesn't work anymore.   FidoNet You put your foot in your mouth, then echo it internationally.   PicoSpan [a UNIX-based computer conferencing system] You can't shoot yourself in the foot because you're not a host. or (host variation) Whenever you shoot yourself in the foot, someone opens a topic in policy about it.   Internet You put your foot in your mouth, shoot it, then spam the bullet so that everybody gets shot in the foot.   troff rmtroff -ms -Hdrwp | lpr -Pwp2 & .*place bullet in footer .B .NR FT +3i .in 4 .bu Shoot! .br .sp .in -4 .br .bp NR HD -2i .*   Genetic Algorithms You create 10,000 strings describing the best way to shoot yourself in the foot. By the time the program produces the optimal solution, humans have evolved wings and the problem is moot.   CSP (Communicating Sequential Processes) You only fail to shoot everything that isn't your foot.   MS-SQL Server MS-SQL Server’s gun comes pre-loaded with an unlimited supply of Teflon coated bullets, and it only has two discernible features: the muzzle and the trigger. If that wasn't enough, MS-SQL Server also puts the gun in your hand, applies local anesthetic to the skin of your forefinger and stitches it to the gun's trigger. Meanwhile, another process has set up a spinal block to numb your lower body. It will then proceeded to surgically remove your foot, cryogenically freeze it for preservation, and attach it to the muzzle of the gun so that no matter where you aim, you will shoot your foot. In order to avoid shooting yourself in the foot, you need to unstitch your trigger finger, remove your foot from the muzzle of the gun, and have it surgically reattached. Then you probably want to get some crutches and go out to buy a book on SQL Server Performance Tuning.   Sybase Sybase's gun requires assembly, and you need to go out and purchase your own clip and bullets to load the gun. Assembly is complicated by the fact that Sybase has hidden the gun behind a big stack of reference manuals, but it hasn't told you where that stack is. While you were off finding the gun, assembling it, buying bullets, etc., Sybase was also busy surgically removing your foot and cryogenically freezing it for preservation. Instead of attaching it to the muzzle of the gun, though, it packed your foot on dry ice and sent it UPS-Ground to an unnamed hookah bar somewhere in the middle east. In order to shoot your foot, you must modify your gun with a GPS system for targeting and hire some guy named "Indy" to find the hookah bar and wire the coordinates back to you. By this time, you've probably become so daunted at the tasks stand between you and shooting your foot that you hire a guy who's read all the books on Sybase to help you shoot your foot. If you're lucky, he'll be smart enough both to find your foot and to stop you from shooting it.   Magic software You spend 1 week looking up the correct syntax for GUN. When you find it, you realise that GUN will not let you shoot in your own foot. It will allow you to shoot almost anything but your foot. You then decide to build your own gun. You can't use the standard barrel since this will only allow for standard bullets, which will not fire if the barrel is pointed at your foot. After four weeks, you have created your own custom gun. It blows up in your hand without warning, because you failed to initialise the safety catch and it doesn't know whether the initial state is "0", 0, NULL, "ZERO", 0.0, 0,0, "0.0", or "0,00". You fix the problem with your remaining hand by nesting 12 safety catches, and then decide to build the gun without safety catch. You then shoot the management and retire to a happy life where you code in languages that will allow you to shoot your foot in under 10 days.FirefoxLets you shoot yourself in as many feet as you'd like, while using multiple great addons! IEA moving target in terms of standard ammunition size and doesn't always work properly with non-Microsoft ammunition, so sometimes you shoot something other than your foot. However, it's the corporate world's standard foot-shooting apparatus. Hackers seem to enjoy rigging websites up to trigger cascading foot-shooting failures. Windows 98 About the same as Windows 95 in terms of overall bullet capacity and triggering mechanisms. Includes updated DirectShot API. A new version was released later on to support USB guns, Windows 98 SE.WPF:You get your baseball glove and a ball and you head out to your backyard, where you throw balls to your pitchback. Then your unkempt-haired-cargo-shorts-and-sandals-with-white-socks-wearing neighbor uses XAML to sculpt your arm into a gun, the ball into a bullet and the pitchback into your foot. By now, however, only the neighbor can get it to work and he's only around from 6:30 PM - 3:30 AM. LOGO: You very carefully lay out the trajectory of the bullet. Then you start the gun, which fires very slowly. You walk precisely to the point where the bullet will travel and wait, but just before it gets to you, your class time is up and one of the other kids has already used the system to hack into Sony's PS3 network. Flash: Someone has designed a beautiful-looking gun that anyone can shoot their feet with for free. It weighs six hundred pounds. All kinds of people are shooting themselves in the feet, and sending the link to everyone else so that they can too. That is, except for the criminals, who are all stealing iOS devices that the gun won't work with.APL: Its (mostly) all greek to me. Lisp: Place ((gun in ((hand sight (foot then shoot))))) (Lots of Insipid Stupid Parentheses)Apple OS/X and iOS Once a year, Steve Jobs returns from sick leave to tell millions of unwavering fans how they will be able to shoot themselves in the foot differently this year. They retweet and blog about it ad nauseam, and wait in line to be the first to experience "shoot different".Windows ME Usually fails, even at shooting you in the foot. Yo dawg, I heard you like shooting yourself in the foot. So I put a gun in your gun, so you can shoot yourself in the foot while you shoot yourself in the foot. (Okay, I'm not especially proud of this joke.) Windows 2000 Now you really do have to log in, before you are allowed to shoot yourself in the foot.Windows XPYou thought you learned your lesson: Don't use Windows ME. Then, along came this new creature, built on top of Windows NT! So you spend the next couple days installing antivirus software, patches and service packs, just so you can get that driver to install, and then proceed to shoot yourself in the foot. Windows Vista Newer! Glossier! Shootier! Windows 7 The bullets come out a lot smoother. Active Directory Each bullet now has an attached Bullet Identifier, and can be uniquely identified. Policies can be applied to dictate fragmentation, and the gun will occasionally have a confusing delay after the trigger has been pulled. PythonYou try to use import foot; foot.shoot() only to realize that's only available in 3.0, to which you can't yet upgrade from 2.7 because of all those extension libs lacking support. Solaris Shoots best when used on SPARC hardware, but still runs the trigger GUI under Java. After weeks of learning the appropriate STOP command to prevent the trigger from automatically being pressed on boot, you think you've got it under control. Then the one time you ever use dtrace, it hits a bug that fires the gun. MySQL The feature that allows you to shoot yourself in the foot has been in development for about 6 years, and they are adding it into the next version, which is coming out REAL SOON NOW, promise! But you can always check it out of source control and try it yourself (just not in any environment where data integrity is important because it will probably explode.) PostgreSQLAllows you to have a smug look on your face while you shoot yourself in the foot, because those MySQL guys STILL don't have that feature. NoSQL Barrel? Who needs a barrel? Just put the bullet on your foot, and strike it with a hammer. See? It's so much simpler and more efficient that way. You can even strike multiple bullets in one swing if you swing with a good enough arc, because hammers are easy to use. Getting them to synchronize is a little difficult, though.Eclipse There are about a dozen different packages for shooting yourself in the foot, with weird interdependencies on outdated components. Once you finally navigate the morass and get one installed, you then have something to look at while you shoot yourself in the foot with that package: You can watch the screen redraw.Outlook Makes it really easy to let everyone know you shot yourself in the foot!Shooting yourself in the foot using delegates.You really need to shoot yourself in the foot but you hate firearms (you don't want any dependency on the specifics of shooting) so you delegate it to somebody else. You don't care how it is done as long is shooting your foot. You can do it asynchronously in case you know you may faint so you are called back/slapped in the face by your shooter/friend (or background worker) when everything is done.C#You prepare the gun and the bullet, carefully modeling all of the physics of a bullet traveling through a foot. Just before you're about to pull the trigger, you stumble on System.Windows.BodyParts.Foot.ShootAt(System.Windows.Firearms.IGun gun) in the extended framework, realize you just wasted the entire afternoon, and shoot yourself in the head.PHP<?phprequire("foot_safety_check.php");?><!DOCTYPE HTML><html><head> <!--Lower!--><title>Shooting me in the foot</title></head> <body> <!--LOWER!!!--><leg> <!--OK, I made this one up...--><footer><?php echo (dungSift($_SERVER['HTTP_USER_AGENT'], "ie"))?("Your foot is safe, but you might want to wear a hard hat!"):("<div class=\"shot\">BANG!</div>"); ?></footer></leg> </body> </html>

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• Server error 500: Undefinable problem with my Zend Framework based site

  - by sanders

  Hello everyone, Lately I had to reinstall my development site on my ubuntu machine since my system crashed after an os update. 4 days later my site is still not running as it should. Whenever i do an action which has in it an action on a database, it stops working. For example when Registring a new user, i get the following error: [Sun Jul 25 20:07:20 2010] [error] [client 127.0.0.1] PHP Notice: Trying to get property of non-object in /var/www/nrka2/application/bootstrap/Bootstrap.php on line 169, referer: http://nrka2/user/register [Sun Jul 25 20:07:20 2010] [error] [client 127.0.0.1] PHP Stack trace:, referer: http://nrka2/user/register [Sun Jul 25 20:07:20 2010] [error] [client 127.0.0.1] PHP 1. {main}() /var/www/nrka2/public/index.php:0, referer: http://nrka2/user/register [Sun Jul 25 20:07:20 2010] [error] [client 127.0.0.1] PHP 2. require() /var/www/nrka2/public/index.php:2, referer: http://nrka2/user/register [Sun Jul 25 20:07:20 2010] [error] [client 127.0.0.1] PHP 3. Zend_Application->bootstrap() /var/www/nrka2/application/application.php:23, referer: http://nrka2/user/register [Sun Jul 25 20:07:20 2010] [error] [client 127.0.0.1] PHP 4. Zend_Application_Bootstrap_BootstrapAbstract->bootstrap() /var/www/Zend/ZendFramework-1.10.6/library/Zend/Application.php:355, referer: http://nrka2/user/register [Sun Jul 25 20:07:20 2010] [error] [client 127.0.0.1] PHP 5. Zend_Application_Bootstrap_BootstrapAbstract->_bootstrap() /var/www/Zend/ZendFramework-1.10.6/library/Zend/Application/Bootstrap/BootstrapAbstract.php:583, referer: http://nrka2/user/register [Sun Jul 25 20:07:20 2010] [error] [client 127.0.0.1] PHP 6. Zend_Application_Bootstrap_BootstrapAbstract->_executeResource() /var/www/Zend/ZendFramework-1.10.6/library/Zend/Application/Bootstrap/BootstrapAbstract.php:619, referer: http://nrka2/user/register [Sun Jul 25 20:07:20 2010] [error] [client 127.0.0.1] PHP 7. Bootstrap->_initViewSettings() /var/www/Zend/ZendFramework-1.10.6/library/Zend/Application/Bootstrap/BootstrapAbstract.php:666, referer: http://nrka2/user/register [Sun Jul 25 20:07:22 2010] [error] [client 127.0.0.1] PHP Notice: Trying to get property of non-object in /var/www/nrka2/application/bootstrap/Bootstrap.php on line 169, referer: http://nrka2/css/main.css [Sun Jul 25 20:07:22 2010] [error] [client 127.0.0.1] PHP Stack trace:, referer: http://nrka2/css/main.css [Sun Jul 25 20:07:22 2010] [error] [client 127.0.0.1] PHP 1. {main}() /var/www/nrka2/public/index.php:0, referer: http://nrka2/css/main.css [Sun Jul 25 20:07:22 2010] [error] [client 127.0.0.1] PHP 2. require() /var/www/nrka2/public/index.php:2, referer: http://nrka2/css/main.css [Sun Jul 25 20:07:22 2010] [error] [client 127.0.0.1] PHP 3. Zend_Application->bootstrap() /var/www/nrka2/application/application.php:23, referer: http://nrka2/css/main.css [Sun Jul 25 20:07:22 2010] [error] [client 127.0.0.1] PHP 4. Zend_Application_Bootstrap_BootstrapAbstract->bootstrap() /var/www/Zend/ZendFramework-1.10.6/library/Zend/Application.php:355, referer: http://nrka2/css/main.css [Sun Jul 25 20:07:22 2010] [error] [client 127.0.0.1] PHP 5. Zend_Application_Bootstrap_BootstrapAbstract->_bootstrap() /var/www/Zend/ZendFramework-1.10.6/library/Zend/Application/Bootstrap/BootstrapAbstract.php:583, referer: http://nrka2/css/main.css [Sun Jul 25 20:07:22 2010] [error] [client 127.0.0.1] PHP 6. Zend_Application_Bootstrap_BootstrapAbstract->_executeResource() /var/www/Zend/ZendFramework-1.10.6/library/Zend/Application/Bootstrap/BootstrapAbstract.php:619, referer: http://nrka2/css/main.css [Sun Jul 25 20:07:22 2010] [error] [client 127.0.0.1] PHP 7. Bootstrap->_initViewSettings() /var/www/Zend/ZendFramework-1.10.6/library/Zend/Application/Bootstrap/BootstrapAbstract.php:666, referer: http://nrka2/css/main.css My Bootstrap class looks like this: <?php class Bootstrap extends Zend_Application_Bootstrap_Bootstrap{ /** * * @var unknown_type */ public $frontcontroller; /** * * @var unknown_type */ protected $_logger; /** * * @var unknown_type */ protected $_acl; /** * * @var unknown_type */ protected $_auth; /** * Setup the logging */ protected function _initLogging() { $this->bootstrap('frontController'); $logger = new Zend_Log(); $writer = 'production' == $this->getEnvironment() ? new Zend_Log_Writer_Stream(APPLICATION_PATH . '/../data/logs/app.log') : new Zend_Log_Writer_Firebug(); $logger->addWriter($writer); if ('production' == $this->getEnvironment()) { $filter = new Zend_Log_Filter_Priority(Zend_Log::CRIT); $logger->addFilter($filter); } $this->_logger = $logger; Zend_Registry::set('log', $logger); } protected function _initDefaultModuleAutoloader(){ $this->_logger->info('Bootstrap '. __METHOD__); $this->_resourceLoader = new Zend_Application_Module_Autoloader(array( 'namespace' => 'EventManager', 'basePath' => APPLICATION_PATH . '/modules/eventManager', )); $this->_resourceLoader->addResourceTypes(array( 'modelResource' => array( 'path' => 'models/resources', 'namespace' => 'Resource', ), 'service' => array( 'path' => 'services', 'namespace' => 'Service' ), )); } // @todo develop this function protected function _initDbProfiler(){ $this->_logger->info('Bootstrap ' . __METHOD__); if ('production' !== $this->getEnvironment()) { $this->bootstrap('db'); $profiler = new Zend_Db_Profiler_Firebug('All DB Queries'); $profiler->setEnabled(true); $this->getPluginResource('db')->getDbAdapter()->setProfiler($profiler); } } /** * Add Controller Action Helpers */ protected function _initActionHelpers() { $this->_logger->info('Bootstrap ' . __METHOD__); Zend_Controller_Action_HelperBroker::addHelper(new SF_Controller_Helper_Acl()); Zend_Controller_Action_HelperBroker::addHelper(new SF_Controller_Helper_RedirectCommon()); Zend_Controller_Action_HelperBroker::addHelper(new SF_Controller_Helper_Service()); } /** * * @return unknown_type */ protected function _initRoutes(){ $this->_logger->info('Initialize Routes '. __METHOD__); $this->bootstrap('frontController'); $router = $this->frontController->getRouter(); $route = new Zend_Controller_Router_route( 'register', array( 'controller' => 'user', 'action' => 'register' ) ); $router->addRoute('register',$route); $route = new Zend_Controller_Router_route( 'login', array( 'controller' => 'user', 'action' => 'login' ) ); $router->addRoute('login',$route); $route = new Zend_Controller_Router_route( 'logout', array( 'controller' => 'user', 'action' => 'logout' ) ); $router->addRoute('logout',$route); } /** * * @return void */ protected function _initLocale(){ $this->_logger->info('Bootstrap '.__METHOD__); $locale = new Zend_Locale('nl_NL'); Zend_Registry::set('Zend_Locale', $locale); } protected function _initAcl(){ $this->_acl = new EventManager_Service_Acl(); } /** * * @return void */ protected function _initViewSettings(){ $this->_logger->info('Bootstrap '.__METHOD__); $this->bootstrap('view'); $this->bootstrap('Acl'); $this->_view = $this->getResource('view'); //set encoding and doctype $this->_view->setEncoding('UTF-8'); $this->_view->doctype('XHTML1_STRICT'); $this->_view->headMeta()->appendHttpEquiv('Content-Type', 'text/html; charset=UTF-8'); $this->_view->headMeta()->appendHttpEquiv('Content-Language', 'en-US'); //@todo op een later moment moeten hier nog de stylesheets worden toegevoegd $this->_view->headLink()->appendStylesheet('/css/main.css'); //$this->_view->headTitle('Event Manager'); /* Set the head style. $this->_view->headTitle->headStyle(); */ $this->_view->headTitle()->setSeparator(' - '); $this->_auth = Zend_Auth::getInstance(); $navigation = new Zend_Config_Xml(APPLICATION_PATH.'/configs/navigation.xml','nav'); $navContainer = new Zend_Navigation($navigation); $this->_view->navigation($navContainer)->setAcl($this->_acl)->setRole($this->_auth->getStorage()->read()->usr_role); //THIS IS LINE 169!!!!!!!!! } /** * Add graceful error handling to the dispatch, this will handle * errors during Front Controller dispatch. */ public function run() { $errorHandling = $this->getOption('errorhandling'); try { parent::run(); } catch(Exception $e) { if (true == (bool) $errorHandling['graceful']) { $this->__handleErrors($e, $errorHandling['email']); } else { throw $e; } } } /** * Handle errors gracefully, this will work as long as the views, * and the Zend classes are available * * @param Exception $e * @param string $email */ protected function __handleErrors(Exception $e, $email) { header('HTTP/1.1 500 Internal Server Error'); $view = new Zend_View(); $view->addScriptPath(dirname(__FILE__) . '/../views/scripts'); echo $view->render('fatalError.phtml'); if ('' != $email) { $mail = new Zend_Mail(); $mail->setSubject('Fatal error in application Storefront'); $mail->addTo($email); $mail->setBodyText( $e->getFile() . "\n" . $e->getMessage() . "\n" . $e->getTraceAsString() . "\n" ); @$mail->send(); } } } I have tried to debug my code, but everyting goes well until I do somethign with the db. But I don't know what goes wrong with the db. I don't get any clear error messages. Can someone help me? Some more possible interesting data: [bootstrap] resources.db.adapter = "PDO_MYSQL" resources.db.isdefaulttableadapter = true resources.db.params.dbname = "ladosa" resources.db.params.username = "root" resources.db.params.password = "root" resources.db.params.hostname = "localhost" resources.db.params.charset = "UTF8" resources.db.params.profiler.enabled = true resources.db.params.profiler.class = Zend_Db_Profiler_Firebug Autoloadernamespaces[] = "Zend_" Autoloadernamespaces[] = "SF_" phpsettings.display_errors = 0 phpsettings.error_reporting = 8191 phpSettings.date.timezone = "Europe/Amsterdam" bootstrap.path = APPLICATION_PATH"/bootstrap/Bootstrap.php" pluginPaths.resource_ = APPLICATION_PATH"/resources" resources.frontcontroller.moduledirectory = APPLICATION_PATH"/modules" resources.frontcontroller.defaultmodule = "eventManager" resources.frontcontroller.params.prefixDefaultModule = true resources.frontcontroller.exceptions = false resources.view[] = "" resources.layout.layoutPath = APPLICATION_PATH "/layouts/scripts" resources.view.encoding = "UTF-8" resources.view.title = Rode kruis Vrijwilligers applicatie ;resources.view.helperPath.Default_View_Helper = APPLICATION_PATH "/modules/eventManager/views/helpers" resources.layout.layout = "main" [production:bootstrap] [development:bootstrap] ;resources.frontController.throwExceptions = 1 ;phpSettings.display_startup_errors=1 ;phpSettings.display_errors = 1 ;resources.frontcontroller.throwerrors = [test:production] btw. I CAN login to my database command line with the given username and password. Update: today i decided to investigate on my http request and i came to an error 500. My apache logs don't give any related information, I think. I posted the logs above. Any idea's?

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• Server error 500: Undefinable problem with my Zend Framework based site

  - by sanders

  Lately I had to reinstall my development site on my ubuntu machine since my system crashed after an os update. 4 days later my site is still not running as it should. Whenever i do an action which has in it an action on a database, it stops working. For example when Registring a new user, i get the following error: [Sun Jul 25 20:07:20 2010] [error] [client 127.0.0.1] PHP Notice: Trying to get property of non-object in /var/www/nrka2/application/bootstrap/Bootstrap.php on line 169, referer: http://nrka2/user/register [Sun Jul 25 20:07:20 2010] [error] [client 127.0.0.1] PHP Stack trace:, referer: http://nrka2/user/register [Sun Jul 25 20:07:20 2010] [error] [client 127.0.0.1] PHP 1. {main}() /var/www/nrka2/public/index.php:0, referer: http://nrka2/user/register [Sun Jul 25 20:07:20 2010] [error] [client 127.0.0.1] PHP 2. require() /var/www/nrka2/public/index.php:2, referer: http://nrka2/user/register [Sun Jul 25 20:07:20 2010] [error] [client 127.0.0.1] PHP 3. Zend_Application->bootstrap() /var/www/nrka2/application/application.php:23, referer: http://nrka2/user/register [Sun Jul 25 20:07:20 2010] [error] [client 127.0.0.1] PHP 4. Zend_Application_Bootstrap_BootstrapAbstract->bootstrap() /var/www/Zend/ZendFramework-1.10.6/library/Zend/Application.php:355, referer: http://nrka2/user/register [Sun Jul 25 20:07:20 2010] [error] [client 127.0.0.1] PHP 5. Zend_Application_Bootstrap_BootstrapAbstract->_bootstrap() /var/www/Zend/ZendFramework-1.10.6/library/Zend/Application/Bootstrap/BootstrapAbstract.php:583, referer: http://nrka2/user/register [Sun Jul 25 20:07:20 2010] [error] [client 127.0.0.1] PHP 6. Zend_Application_Bootstrap_BootstrapAbstract->_executeResource() /var/www/Zend/ZendFramework-1.10.6/library/Zend/Application/Bootstrap/BootstrapAbstract.php:619, referer: http://nrka2/user/register [Sun Jul 25 20:07:20 2010] [error] [client 127.0.0.1] PHP 7. Bootstrap->_initViewSettings() /var/www/Zend/ZendFramework-1.10.6/library/Zend/Application/Bootstrap/BootstrapAbstract.php:666, referer: http://nrka2/user/register [Sun Jul 25 20:07:22 2010] [error] [client 127.0.0.1] PHP Notice: Trying to get property of non-object in /var/www/nrka2/application/bootstrap/Bootstrap.php on line 169, referer: http://nrka2/css/main.css [Sun Jul 25 20:07:22 2010] [error] [client 127.0.0.1] PHP Stack trace:, referer: http://nrka2/css/main.css [Sun Jul 25 20:07:22 2010] [error] [client 127.0.0.1] PHP 1. {main}() /var/www/nrka2/public/index.php:0, referer: http://nrka2/css/main.css [Sun Jul 25 20:07:22 2010] [error] [client 127.0.0.1] PHP 2. require() /var/www/nrka2/public/index.php:2, referer: http://nrka2/css/main.css [Sun Jul 25 20:07:22 2010] [error] [client 127.0.0.1] PHP 3. Zend_Application->bootstrap() /var/www/nrka2/application/application.php:23, referer: http://nrka2/css/main.css [Sun Jul 25 20:07:22 2010] [error] [client 127.0.0.1] PHP 4. Zend_Application_Bootstrap_BootstrapAbstract->bootstrap() /var/www/Zend/ZendFramework-1.10.6/library/Zend/Application.php:355, referer: http://nrka2/css/main.css [Sun Jul 25 20:07:22 2010] [error] [client 127.0.0.1] PHP 5. Zend_Application_Bootstrap_BootstrapAbstract->_bootstrap() /var/www/Zend/ZendFramework-1.10.6/library/Zend/Application/Bootstrap/BootstrapAbstract.php:583, referer: http://nrka2/css/main.css [Sun Jul 25 20:07:22 2010] [error] [client 127.0.0.1] PHP 6. Zend_Application_Bootstrap_BootstrapAbstract->_executeResource() /var/www/Zend/ZendFramework-1.10.6/library/Zend/Application/Bootstrap/BootstrapAbstract.php:619, referer: http://nrka2/css/main.css [Sun Jul 25 20:07:22 2010] [error] [client 127.0.0.1] PHP 7. Bootstrap->_initViewSettings() /var/www/Zend/ZendFramework-1.10.6/library/Zend/Application/Bootstrap/BootstrapAbstract.php:666, referer: http://nrka2/css/main.css My Bootstrap class looks like this: <?php class Bootstrap extends Zend_Application_Bootstrap_Bootstrap{ /** * * @var unknown_type */ public $frontcontroller; /** * * @var unknown_type */ protected $_logger; /** * * @var unknown_type */ protected $_acl; /** * * @var unknown_type */ protected $_auth; /** * Setup the logging */ protected function _initLogging() { $this->bootstrap('frontController'); $logger = new Zend_Log(); $writer = 'production' == $this->getEnvironment() ? new Zend_Log_Writer_Stream(APPLICATION_PATH . '/../data/logs/app.log') : new Zend_Log_Writer_Firebug(); $logger->addWriter($writer); if ('production' == $this->getEnvironment()) { $filter = new Zend_Log_Filter_Priority(Zend_Log::CRIT); $logger->addFilter($filter); } $this->_logger = $logger; Zend_Registry::set('log', $logger); } protected function _initDefaultModuleAutoloader(){ $this->_logger->info('Bootstrap '. __METHOD__); $this->_resourceLoader = new Zend_Application_Module_Autoloader(array( 'namespace' => 'EventManager', 'basePath' => APPLICATION_PATH . '/modules/eventManager', )); $this->_resourceLoader->addResourceTypes(array( 'modelResource' => array( 'path' => 'models/resources', 'namespace' => 'Resource', ), 'service' => array( 'path' => 'services', 'namespace' => 'Service' ), )); } // @todo develop this function protected function _initDbProfiler(){ $this->_logger->info('Bootstrap ' . __METHOD__); if ('production' !== $this->getEnvironment()) { $this->bootstrap('db'); $profiler = new Zend_Db_Profiler_Firebug('All DB Queries'); $profiler->setEnabled(true); $this->getPluginResource('db')->getDbAdapter()->setProfiler($profiler); } } /** * Add Controller Action Helpers */ protected function _initActionHelpers() { $this->_logger->info('Bootstrap ' . __METHOD__); Zend_Controller_Action_HelperBroker::addHelper(new SF_Controller_Helper_Acl()); Zend_Controller_Action_HelperBroker::addHelper(new SF_Controller_Helper_RedirectCommon()); Zend_Controller_Action_HelperBroker::addHelper(new SF_Controller_Helper_Service()); } /** * * @return unknown_type */ protected function _initRoutes(){ $this->_logger->info('Initialize Routes '. __METHOD__); $this->bootstrap('frontController'); $router = $this->frontController->getRouter(); $route = new Zend_Controller_Router_route( 'register', array( 'controller' => 'user', 'action' => 'register' ) ); $router->addRoute('register',$route); $route = new Zend_Controller_Router_route( 'login', array( 'controller' => 'user', 'action' => 'login' ) ); $router->addRoute('login',$route); $route = new Zend_Controller_Router_route( 'logout', array( 'controller' => 'user', 'action' => 'logout' ) ); $router->addRoute('logout',$route); } /** * * @return void */ protected function _initLocale(){ $this->_logger->info('Bootstrap '.__METHOD__); $locale = new Zend_Locale('nl_NL'); Zend_Registry::set('Zend_Locale', $locale); } protected function _initAcl(){ $this->_acl = new EventManager_Service_Acl(); } /** * * @return void */ protected function _initViewSettings(){ $this->_logger->info('Bootstrap '.__METHOD__); $this->bootstrap('view'); $this->bootstrap('Acl'); $this->_view = $this->getResource('view'); //set encoding and doctype $this->_view->setEncoding('UTF-8'); $this->_view->doctype('XHTML1_STRICT'); $this->_view->headMeta()->appendHttpEquiv('Content-Type', 'text/html; charset=UTF-8'); $this->_view->headMeta()->appendHttpEquiv('Content-Language', 'en-US'); //@todo op een later moment moeten hier nog de stylesheets worden toegevoegd $this->_view->headLink()->appendStylesheet('/css/main.css'); //$this->_view->headTitle('Event Manager'); /* Set the head style. $this->_view->headTitle->headStyle(); */ $this->_view->headTitle()->setSeparator(' - '); $this->_auth = Zend_Auth::getInstance(); $navigation = new Zend_Config_Xml(APPLICATION_PATH.'/configs/navigation.xml','nav'); $navContainer = new Zend_Navigation($navigation); $this->_view->navigation($navContainer)->setAcl($this->_acl)->setRole($this->_auth->getStorage()->read()->usr_role); //THIS IS LINE 169!!!!!!!!! } /** * Add graceful error handling to the dispatch, this will handle * errors during Front Controller dispatch. */ public function run() { $errorHandling = $this->getOption('errorhandling'); try { parent::run(); } catch(Exception $e) { if (true == (bool) $errorHandling['graceful']) { $this->__handleErrors($e, $errorHandling['email']); } else { throw $e; } } } /** * Handle errors gracefully, this will work as long as the views, * and the Zend classes are available * * @param Exception $e * @param string $email */ protected function __handleErrors(Exception $e, $email) { header('HTTP/1.1 500 Internal Server Error'); $view = new Zend_View(); $view->addScriptPath(dirname(__FILE__) . '/../views/scripts'); echo $view->render('fatalError.phtml'); if ('' != $email) { $mail = new Zend_Mail(); $mail->setSubject('Fatal error in application Storefront'); $mail->addTo($email); $mail->setBodyText( $e->getFile() . "\n" . $e->getMessage() . "\n" . $e->getTraceAsString() . "\n" ); @$mail->send(); } } } I have tried to debug my code, but everyting goes well until I do somethign with the db. But I don't know what goes wrong with the db. I don't get any clear error messages. Can someone help me? Some more possible interesting data: [bootstrap] resources.db.adapter = "PDO_MYSQL" resources.db.isdefaulttableadapter = true resources.db.params.dbname = "ladosa" resources.db.params.username = "root" resources.db.params.password = "root" resources.db.params.hostname = "localhost" resources.db.params.charset = "UTF8" resources.db.params.profiler.enabled = true resources.db.params.profiler.class = Zend_Db_Profiler_Firebug Autoloadernamespaces[] = "Zend_" Autoloadernamespaces[] = "SF_" phpsettings.display_errors = 0 phpsettings.error_reporting = 8191 phpSettings.date.timezone = "Europe/Amsterdam" bootstrap.path = APPLICATION_PATH"/bootstrap/Bootstrap.php" pluginPaths.resource_ = APPLICATION_PATH"/resources" resources.frontcontroller.moduledirectory = APPLICATION_PATH"/modules" resources.frontcontroller.defaultmodule = "eventManager" resources.frontcontroller.params.prefixDefaultModule = true resources.frontcontroller.exceptions = false resources.view[] = "" resources.layout.layoutPath = APPLICATION_PATH "/layouts/scripts" resources.view.encoding = "UTF-8" resources.view.title = Rode kruis Vrijwilligers applicatie ;resources.view.helperPath.Default_View_Helper = APPLICATION_PATH "/modules/eventManager/views/helpers" resources.layout.layout = "main" [production:bootstrap] [development:bootstrap] ;resources.frontController.throwExceptions = 1 ;phpSettings.display_startup_errors=1 ;phpSettings.display_errors = 1 ;resources.frontcontroller.throwerrors = [test:production] btw. I CAN login to my database command line with the given username and password. Update: today i decided to investigate on my http request and i came to an error 500. My apache logs don't give any related information, I think. I posted the logs above. Any idea's?

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• Why Java servlet can't get Paypal IPN messages everytime ?

  - by Frank

  I have a Java servlet running on my notebook with Windows Vista, I set up a static IP, did port forwarding and registered for a free DDNS service, now my servlet is running, I gave the url to Paypal to send me IPN messages, I went on to it's sandbox site got to the test tools page, tried to send test messages by clicking the "Send IPN" button, most of the time it would fail, the error is : "IPN delivery failed. Unable to connect to the specified URL. Please verify the URL and try again." But maybe 1 in 10 times, it might be successful and my servlet would get the message, and I looked at the messages I got, they are in correct format. So I called Paypal asking why, he said I shouldn't run the servlet on my notebook, in stead I should run it on the web server, but I told him my ISP doesn't support Java on their server, and since I did all the above steps, shouldn't it be the same to run the servlet on my notebook ? He said his test showed he couldn't get to my servlet, but I asked why maybe 1 in 10 times it could get through ? If there is something wrong with running it on my notebook, then 100% times it should fail, am I correct on this point ? But anyway he said that's all he could do, and I should troubleshoot it myself. The servlet looks like this : import java.io.*; import java.net.*; import javax.servlet.*; import javax.servlet.http.*; import java.util.*; public class PayPal_Servlet extends HttpServlet { static boolean Debug=true; static String PayPal_Url="https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr",Sandbox_Url="https://www.sandbox.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr", Dir_License_Messages="C:/Dir_License_Messages/"; static TransparencyExample Transparency_Example; static PayPal_Message_To_License_File_Worker PayPal_message_to_license_file_worker; // Initializes the servlet. public void init(ServletConfig config) throws ServletException { super.init(config); if (!new File(Dir_License_Messages).exists()) new File(Dir_License_Messages).mkdirs(); System.gc(); } /** Processes requests for both HTTP <code>GET</code> and <code>POST</code> methods. * @param request servlet request * @param response servlet response */ protected void processRequest(HttpServletRequest request,HttpServletResponse response) throws ServletException,IOException { // Read post from PayPal system and add 'cmd' Enumeration en=request.getParameterNames(); String str="cmd=_notify-validate"; while (en.hasMoreElements()) { String paramName=(String)en.nextElement(); String paramValue=request.getParameter(paramName); str=str+"&"+paramName+"="+URLEncoder.encode(paramValue); } // Post back to PayPal system to validate // NOTE: change http: to https: in the following URL to verify using SSL (for increased security). // using HTTPS requires either Java 1.4 or greater, or Java Secure Socket Extension (JSSE) and configured for older versions. URL u=new URL(Debug?Sandbox_Url:PayPal_Url); URLConnection uc=u.openConnection(); uc.setDoOutput(true); uc.setRequestProperty("Content-Type","application/x-www-form-urlencoded"); PrintWriter pw=new PrintWriter(uc.getOutputStream()); pw.println(str); pw.close(); BufferedReader in=new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(uc.getInputStream())); String res=in.readLine(); in.close(); // Assign posted variables to local variables String itemName=request.getParameter("item_name"); String itemNumber=request.getParameter("item_number"); String paymentStatus=request.getParameter("payment_status"); String paymentAmount=request.getParameter("mc_gross"); String paymentCurrency=request.getParameter("mc_currency"); String txnId=request.getParameter("txn_id"); String receiverEmail=request.getParameter("receiver_email"); String payerEmail=request.getParameter("payer_email"); if (res.equals("VERIFIED")) // Check notification validation { // check that paymentStatus=Completed // check that txnId has not been previously processed // check that receiverEmail is your Primary PayPal email // check that paymentAmount/paymentCurrency are correct // process payment } else if (res.equals("INVALID")) // Log for investigation { } else // Log for error { } // =========================================================================== if (txnId!=null) { Write_File_Safe_Fast(Dir_License_Messages+txnId+".txt",new StringBuffer(str.replace("&","\n")),false); } // =========================================================================== String Message_File_List[]=Tool_Lib.Get_File_List_From_Dir(Dir_License_Messages); response.setContentType("text/html"); PrintWriter out=response.getWriter(); String title="Reading All Request Parameters",Name="",Value; out.println("<Html><Head><Title>"+title+"</Title></Head>\n<Body Bgcolor=\"#FDF5E6\">\n<H1 Align=Center>"+title+"</H1>\n"+ "<Table Border=1 Align=Center>\n"+"<Tr Bgcolor=\"#FFAD00\"><Th>Parameter Name</Th><Th>Parameter Value(s) Messages = "+Message_File_List.length+"</Th></Tr>"); Enumeration paramNames=request.getParameterNames(); while(paramNames.hasMoreElements()) { String paramName=(String)paramNames.nextElement(); out.print("<Tr><Td>"+paramName+"</Td><Td>"); String[] paramValues=request.getParameterValues(paramName); if (paramValues.length == 1) { String paramValue=paramValues[0]; if (paramValue.length() == 0) out.print("<I>No Value</I>"); else { out.println(paramValue+"</Td></Tr>"); // Out("paramName = "+paramName+" paramValue = "+paramValue); // if (paramName.startsWith("Name")) Name=paramValue; // else if (paramName.startsWith("Value")) Write_File_Safe_Fast("C:/Dir_Data/"+Name,new StringBuffer(paramValue),false); } } else { out.println("<Ul>"); for (int i=0;i<paramValues.length;i++) out.println("<Li>"+paramValues[i]); out.println("</Ul></Td</Tr>"); } } out.println("</Table>\n</Body></Html>"); } /** Handles the HTTP <code>GET</code> method. * @param request servlet request * @param response servlet response */ protected void doGet(HttpServletRequest request,HttpServletResponse response) throws ServletException,IOException { processRequest(request,response); } /** Handles the HTTP <code>POST</code> method. * @param request servlet request * @param response servlet response */ protected void doPost(HttpServletRequest request,HttpServletResponse response) throws ServletException,IOException { processRequest(request,response); } // Returns a short description of the servlet. public String getServletInfo() { return "Short description"; } // Destroys the servlet. public void destroy() { System.gc(); } public static void Write_File_Safe_Fast(String File_Path,StringBuffer Str_Buf,boolean Append) { FileOutputStream fos=null; BufferedOutputStream bos=null; try { fos=new FileOutputStream(File_Path,Append); bos=new BufferedOutputStream(fos); for (int j=0;j<Str_Buf.length();j++) bos.write(Str_Buf.charAt(j)); } catch (Exception e) { e.printStackTrace(); } finally { try { if (bos!=null) { bos.close(); bos=null; } if (fos!=null) { fos.close(); fos=null; } } catch (Exception ex) { ex.printStackTrace(); } } System.gc(); } } I use Netbean6.7 to develop the servlet, and the code was from Paypal's JSP sample code, what can I do to debug the problem ?

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• (PHP) Validation, Security and Speed - Does my app have these?

  - by Devner

  Hi all, I am currently working on a building community website in PHP. This contains forms that a user can fill right from registration to lot of other functionality. I am not an Object-oriented guy, so I am using functions most of the time to handle my application. I know I have to learn OOPS, but currently need to develop this website and get it running soon. Anyway, here's a sample of what I let my app. do: Consider a page (register.php) that has a form where a user has 3 fields to fill up, say: First Name, Last Name and Email. Upon submission of this form, I want to validate the form and show the corresponding errors to the users: <form id="form1" name="form1" method="post" action="<?php echo $_SERVER['PHP_SELF']; ?>"> <label for="name">Name:</label> <input type="text" name="name" id="name" /><br /> <label for="lname">Last Name:</label> <input type="text" name="lname" id="lname" /><br /> <label for="email">Email:</label> <input type="text" name="email" id="email" /><br /> <input type="submit" name="submit" id="submit" value="Submit" /> </form> This form will POST the info to the same page. So here's the code that will process the POST'ed info: <?php require("functions.php"); if( isset($_POST['submit']) ) { $errors = fn_register(); if( count($errors) ) { //Show error messages } else { //Send welcome mail to the user or do database stuff... } } ?> <?php //functions.php page: function sql_quote( $value ) { if( get_magic_quotes_gpc() ) { $value = stripslashes( $value ); } else { $value = addslashes( $value ); } if( function_exists( "mysql_real_escape_string" ) ) { $value = mysql_real_escape_string( $value ); } return $value; } function clean($str) { $str = strip_tags($str, '<br>,<br />'); $str = trim($str); $str = sql_quote($str); return $str; } foreach ($_POST as &$value) { if (!is_array($value)) { $value = clean($value); } else { clean($value); } } foreach ($_GET as &$value) { if (!is_array($value)) { $value = clean($value); } else { clean($value); } } function validate_name( $fld, $min, $max, $rule, $label ) { if( $rule == 'required' ) { if ( trim($fld) == '' ) { $str = "$label: Cannot be left blank."; return $str; } } if ( isset($fld) && trim($fld) != '' ) { if ( isset($fld) && $fld != '' && !preg_match("/^[a-zA-Z\ ]+$/", $fld)) { $str = "$label: Invalid characters used! Only Lowercase, Uppercase alphabets and Spaces are allowed"; } else if ( strlen($fld) < $min or strlen($fld) > $max ) { $curr_char = strlen($fld); $str = "$label: Must be atleast $min character &amp; less than $max char. Entered characters: $curr_char"; } else { $str = 0; } } else { $str = 0; } return $str; } function validate_email( $fld, $min, $max, $rule, $label ) { if( $rule == 'required' ) { if ( trim($fld) == '' ) { $str = "$label: Cannot be left blank."; return $str; } } if ( isset($fld) && trim($fld) != '' ) { if ( !eregi('^[a-zA-Z0-9._-]+@[a-zA-Z0-9._-]+\.([a-zA-Z]{2,4})$', $fld) ) { $str = "$label: Invalid format. Please check."; } else if ( strlen($fld) < $min or strlen($fld) > $max ) { $curr_char = strlen($fld); $str = "$label: Must be atleast $min character &amp; less than $max char. Entered characters: $curr_char"; } else { $str = 0; } } else { $str = 0; } return $str; } function val_rules( $str, $val_type, $rule='required' ){ switch ($val_type) { case 'name': $val = validate_name( $str, 3, 20, $rule, 'First Name'); break; case 'lname': $val = validate_name( $str, 10, 20, $rule, 'Last Name'); break; case 'email': $val = validate_email( $str, 10, 60, $rule, 'Email'); break; } return $val; } function fn_register() { $errors = array(); $val_name = val_rules( $_POST['name'], 'name' ); $val_lname = val_rules( $_POST['lname'], 'lname', 'optional' ); $val_email = val_rules( $_POST['email'], 'email' ); if ( $val_name != '0' ) { $errors['name'] = $val_name; } if ( $val_lname != '0' ) { $errors['lname'] = $val_lname; } if ( $val_email != '0' ) { $errors['email'] = $val_email; } return $errors; } //END of functions.php page ?> OK, now it might look like there's a lot, but lemme break it down target wise: 1. I wanted the foreach ($_POST as &$value) and foreach ($_GET as &$value) loops to loop through the received info from the user submission and strip/remove all malicious input. I am calling a function called clean on the input first to achieve the objective as stated above. This function will process each of the input, whether individual field values or even arrays and allow only tags and remove everything else. The rest of it is obvious. Once this happens, the new/cleaned values will be processed by the fn_register() function and based on the values returned after the validation, we get the corresponding errors or NULL values (as applicable). So here's my questions: 1. This pretty much makes me feel secure as I am forcing the user to correct malicious data and won't process the final data unless the errors are corrected. Am I correct? Does the method that I follow guarantee the speed (as I am using lots of functions and their corresponding calls)? The fields of a form differ and the minimum number of fields I may have at any given point of time in any form may be 3 and can go upto as high as 100 (or even more, I am not sure as the website is still being developed). Will having 100's of fields and their validation in the above way, reduce the speed of application (say upto half a million users are accessing the website at the same time?). What can I do to improve the speed and reduce function calls (if possible)? 3, Can I do something to improve the current ways of validation? I am holding off object oriented approach and using FILTERS in PHP for the later. So please, I request you all to suggest me way to improve/tweak the current ways and suggest me if the script is vulnerable or safe enough to be used in a Live production environment. If not, what I can do to be able to use it live? Thank you all in advance.

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• Android remote service doesn't call service methods

  - by tarantel

  Hello, I'm developing a GPS tracking software on android. I need IPC to control the service from different activities. So I decide to develop a remote service with AIDL. This wasn't a big problem but now it's always running into the methods of the interface and not into those of my service class. Maybe someone could help me? Here my ADIL file: package test.de.android.tracker interface ITrackingServiceRemote { void startTracking(in long trackId); void stopTracking(); void pauseTracking(); void resumeTracking(in long trackId); long trackingState(); } And the here a short version of my service class: public class TrackingService extends Service implements LocationListener{ private LocationManager mLocationManager; private TrackDb db; private long trackId; private boolean isTracking = false; @Override public void onCreate() { super.onCreate(); mNotificationManager = (NotificationManager) this .getSystemService(NOTIFICATION_SERVICE); mLocationManager = (LocationManager) getSystemService(LOCATION_SERVICE); db = new TrackDb(this.getApplicationContext()); } @Override public void onStart(Intent intent, int startId) { super.onStart(intent, startId); } @Override public void onDestroy(){ //TODO super.onDestroy(); } @Override public IBinder onBind(Intent intent){ return this.mBinder; } private IBinder mBinder = new ITrackingServiceRemote.Stub() { public void startTracking(long trackId) throws RemoteException { TrackingService.this.startTracking(trackId); } public void pauseTracking() throws RemoteException { TrackingService.this.pauseTracking(); } public void resumeTracking(long trackId) throws RemoteException { TrackingService.this.resumeTracking(trackId); } public void stopTracking() throws RemoteException { TrackingService.this.stopTracking(); } public long trackingState() throws RemoteException { long state = TrackingService.this.trackingState(); return state; } }; public synchronized void startTracking(long trackId) { // request updates every 250 meters or 0 sec this.trackId = trackId; mLocationManager.requestLocationUpdates(LocationManager.GPS_PROVIDER, 0, 250, this); isTracking = true; } public synchronized long trackingState() { if(isTracking){ return trackId; } else return -1; } public synchronized void stopTracking() { if(isTracking){ mLocationManager.removeUpdates(this); isTracking = false; } else Log.i(TAG, "Could not stop because service is not tracking at the moment"); } public synchronized void resumeTracking(long trackId) { if(!isTracking){ this.trackId = trackId; mLocationManager.requestLocationUpdates(LocationManager.GPS_PROVIDER, 0, 250, this); isTracking = true; } else Log.i(TAG, "Could not resume because service is tracking already track " + this.trackId); } public synchronized void pauseTracking() { if(isTracking){ mLocationManager.removeUpdates(this); isTracking = false; } else Log.i(TAG, "Could not pause because service is not tracking at the moment"); } public void onLocationChanged(Location location) { //TODO } For easier access from the client I wrote a ServiceManager class which sets up the ServiceConnection and you can call the service methods. Here my code for this: public class TrackingServiceManager{ private static final String TAG = "TrackingServiceManager"; private ITrackingServiceRemote mService = null; private Context mContext; private Boolean isBound = false; private ServiceConnection mServiceConnection; public TrackingServiceManager(Context ctx){ this.mContext = ctx; } public void start(long trackId) { if (isBound && mService != null) { try { mService.startTracking(trackId); } catch (RemoteException e) { Log.e(TAG, "Could not start tracking!",e); } } else Log.i(TAG, "No Service bound! 1"); } public void stop(){ if (isBound && mService != null) { try { mService.stopTracking(); } catch (RemoteException e) { Log.e(TAG, "Could not stop tracking!",e); } } else Log.i(TAG, "No Service bound!"); } public void pause(){ if (isBound && mService != null) { try { mService.pauseTracking(); } catch (RemoteException e) { Log.e(TAG, "Could not pause tracking!",e); } } else Log.i(TAG, "No Service bound!"); } public void resume(long trackId){ if (isBound && mService != null) { try { mService.resumeTracking(trackId); } catch (RemoteException e) { Log.e(TAG, "Could not resume tracking!",e); } } else Log.i(TAG, "No Service bound!"); } public float state(){ if (isBound && mService != null) { try { return mService.trackingState(); } catch (RemoteException e) { Log.e(TAG, "Could not resume tracking!",e); return -1; } } else Log.i(TAG, "No Service bound!"); return -1; } /** * Method for binding the Service with client */ public boolean connectService(){ mServiceConnection = new ServiceConnection() { @Override public void onServiceConnected(ComponentName name, IBinder service) { TrackingServiceManager.this.mService = ITrackingServiceRemote.Stub.asInterface(service); } } @Override public void onServiceDisconnected(ComponentName name) { if (mService != null) { mService = null; } } }; Intent mIntent = new Intent("test.de.android.tracker.action.intent.TrackingService"); this.isBound = this.mContext.bindService(mIntent, mServiceConnection, Context.BIND_AUTO_CREATE); return this.isBound; } public void disconnectService(){ this.mContext.unbindService(mServiceConnection); this.isBound = false; } } If i now try to call a method from an activity for example start(trackId) nothing happens. The binding is OK. When debugging it always runs into the startTracking() in the generated ITrackingServiceRemote.java file and not into my TrackingService class. Where is the problem? I can't find anything wrong. Thanks in advance! Tobias

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• JavaScript functions broke my page jumps?

  - by Mark

  Hi everybody, I'm trying to develop a personal website and running into some issues. At the top of my page I had a horizontal table that contained 6 different images (buttons) that linked to different sections of the page. I wanted to spice up the buttons with JavaScript and make the image of the button change onMouseOver and onMouseOut so I found a way to do so online with some JavaScript but the problem now is that the buttons no longer jump to the appropriate section of the page when using Google Chrome or Safari, but in IE 9 they still do work correctly... Here is my old code that worked properly: <html> ... <body> <center> <table border="1" style="color:#D80000;text-align:center"> <tr> <td> <a href="#about"><img src="images/aboutMe.png" alt="About Me"></a> </td> <td> <a href="#courses"><img src="images/courseList.png" alt="Courses"></a> </td> <td> <a href="#work"><img src="images/workHistory.png" alt="Work History"></a> </td> <td> <a href="#places"><img src="images/placesBeen.png" alt="Places I've Been"></a> </td> <td> <a href="#games"><img src="images/gamesPlay.png" alt="Games I Play"></a> </td> <td> <a href="#contact"><img src="images/contactMe.png" alt="Contact"></a> </td> </tr> </table> </center> ... </body> </html> Here is my new code that is now broken: <html> <head> ... <script type="text/javascript"> <!-- if (document.images) { <!-- Preload original Images --> var about_init= new Image(); about_init.src="images/aboutMe.png"; var courses_init= new Image(); courses_init.src="images/courseList.png"; var work_init= new Image(); work_init.src="images/workHistory.png"; var places_init= new Image(); places_init.src="images/placesBeen.png"; var games_init= new Image(); games_init.src="images/gamesPlay.png"; var contact_init= new Image(); contact_init.src="images/contactMe.png"; <!--Preload images for mouseover --> var about_new= new Image(); about_new.src="images/aboutAlt.png"; var courses_new= new Image(); courses_new.src="images/courseAlt.png"; var work_new= new Image(); work_new.src="images/workAlt.png"; var places_new= new Image(); places_new.src="images/placesAlt.png"; var games_new= new Image(); games_new.src="images/gamesAlt.png"; var contact_new= new Image(); contact_new.src="images/contactAlt.png"; } function change_it(the_name) { if (document.images) { document.images[the_name].src= eval(the_name+"_new.src"); } } function change_back(the_name) { if (document.images) { document.images[the_name].src= eval(the_name+"_init.src"); } } //--> </script> </head> <body> ... <center> <table border="1" style="color:#D80000;text-align:center"> <tr> <td> <a href="#about" onMouseOver="change_it('about')" onMouseOut="change_back('about')"><img src="images/aboutMe.png" name="about" id="about" border="0" alt="About Me"></a> </td> <td> <a href="#courses" onMouseOver="change_it('courses')" onMouseOut="change_back('courses')"><img src="images/courseList.png" name="courses" id="courses" border="0" alt="Courses"></a> </td> <td> <a href="#work" onMouseOver="change_it('work')" onMouseOut="change_back('work')"><img src="images/workHistory.png" name="work" id="work" border="0" alt="Work History"></a> </td> <td> <a href="#places" onMouseOver="change_it('places')" onMouseOut="change_back('places')"><img src="images/placesBeen.png" name="places" id="places" border="0" alt="Places I've Been"></a> </td> <td> <a href="#games" onMouseOver="change_it('games')" onMouseOut="change_back('games')"><img src="images/gamesPlay.png" name="games" id="games" border="0" alt="Games I Play"></a> </td> <td> <a href="#contact" onMouseOver="change_it('contact')" onMouseOut="change_back('contact')"><img src="images/contactMe.png" name="contact" id="contact" border="0" alt="Contact"></a> </td> </tr> </table> </center> ... </body> </html> The images properly switch when the mouse is moved over/off them, but the jump to the corresponding page sections seems to be broken, it seems like they're all jumping to the #about section now. Once again, the weirder thing is that this is only the case when I'm using Google Chrome on my laptop running Windows 7 or Safari using my iPhone 4 but when I use the new Internet Explorer 9 on my laptop running Windows 7 all the buttons still link correctly. Any idea what's breaking the links?

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• Help Me Make My Pascal Program Display Multiple Names Which Were Entered Plz.

  - by Sketchie

  Hey,Guys I'm having trouble displaying names using arrays in my Pascal program. But first heres the question I'm writing the program to answer : Develop pseudocode that accepts as input the name of an unspecified number of masqueraders who each have paid the full cost of their costume and the amount each has paid. A masquerader may have paid for a costume in any of the five sections in the band. The algorithm should determine the section in which the masquerader plays, based on the amount he/she has paid for the costume. The algorithm should also determine the number of masqueraders who have paid for costumes in each section. The names of persons and the section for which they have paid should be printed. A listing of the sections and the total number of persons registered to play in each section should also be printed, along with the total amount paid in each section. And here's what I've done so far(It's a bit messy): program Maqueprgrm; uses wincrt; type names=array [1..30]of string; var name:string; s1_nms:names; s2_nms:names; s3_nms:names; s4_nms:names; s5_nms:names; amt_paid:integer; stop,x,full,ins,ttl1,ttl2,ttl3,ttl4,ttl5,sec_1,sec_2,sec_3,sec_4,sec_5,sec:integer; begin stop := 0; writeln ('To Begin Data Collecting Section Press 1, To End Press 0'); readln(stop); while stop <0 do begin for x:= 1 to 30 do x:= x+1; writeln ('Please Enter The Name of Masquerader.'); readln (name); writeln ('Please Enter The Amount Paid For Costume.'); readln (amt_paid); IF amt_paid = 144 THEN Begin full:=full+1; {people who paid in full + 1} sec_1:=sec_1+1; {people in this section + 1} ttl1:= ttl1+amt_paid; {total money earned in this section + amount person paid} s1_nms[x]:= name; {People's names in this section plus current entry's name} End else IF amt_paid = 184 then Begin ins:=ins+1; sec_1:=sec_1+1; ttl1:=ttl1+amt_paid; s1_nms[x]:= name; end else IF amt_paid = 198 then Begin full:=full+1; sec_2:=sec_2+1; ttl2:=ttl2+amt_paid; s2_nms[x]:= 'name'; end else IF amt_paid = 153 then Begin ins:=ins+1; sec_2:=sec_2+1; ttl2:=ttl2+amt_paid; s2_nms[x]:= 'name'; end else IF amt_paid = 264 then Begin full:=full+1; sec_3:=sec_3+1; ttl3:=ttl3+amt_paid; s3_nms[x]:= 'name'; end else IF amt_paid = 322 then Begin ins:=ins+1; sec_3:=sec_3+1; ttl3:=ttl3+amt_paid; s3_nms[x]:= 'name'; end else IF amt_paid = 315 then Begin full:=full+1; sec_4:=sec_4+1; ttl4:=ttl4+amt_paid; s4_nms[x]:= 'name'; end else IF amt_paid = 402 then Begin ins:=ins+1; sec_4:=sec_4+1; ttl4:=ttl4+amt_paid; s4_nms[x]:= 'name'; end else IF amt_paid = 382. then Begin ins:=ins+1; sec_4:=sec_4+1; ttl4:=ttl4+amt_paid; s4_nms[x]:= 'name'; end else IF amt_paid = 488 then Begin ins:=ins+1; sec_5:=sec_5+1; ttl5:=ttl5+amt_paid; s5_nms[x]:= 'name'; end else begin Writeln ('Invalid Entry'); For x:= 1 to 30 do end; writeln (' To Enter More Data Press 1, To Print Data and Calculations Press 0'); Readln (stop); End; writeln ('For Information on Sections Press 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5 Respectively'); Readln (sec); IF Sec= 1 THEN Begin for x:= 1 to 30 do; begin writeln ('The Number of Revelers in This Section is ',Sec_1,'.'); Writeln ('The Number of Revelers in the Band Who Paid in Full Is ', Full,'.'); Writeln ('The Number of Revelers in the Band Who Paid in Installments is ', Ins ,'.'); Writeln ('The Names of Revelers in This Section is ', S1_Nms[x], '.'); Writeln ('The Total Amount Collected By This Section Is ', Ttl1, '.'); End; end else IF Sec= 2 THEN Begin For x:= 1 to 30 do begin Writeln ('The Number of Revelers in This Section is ', Sec_2,'.'); Writeln ('The Number of Revelers in the Band Who Paid in Full Is ', Full,'.'); Writeln ('The Number of Revelers in the Band Who Paid in Installments is ', Ins ,'.'); Writeln ('The Names of Revelers in This Section is ', S2_Nms[x] ,'.'); Writeln ('The Total Amount Collected By This Section Is ', Ttl2, '.'); End; End else IF Sec= 3 THEN Begin For x:= 1 to 30 do begin writeln ('The Number of Revelers in This Section is ', Sec_3,'.'); Writeln ('The Number of Revelers in the Band Who Paid in Full Is ', Full,'.'); Writeln ('The Number of Revelers in the Band Who Paid in Installments is ', Ins ,'.'); Writeln ('The Names of Revelers in This Section is ', S3_Nms[x] ,'.'); Writeln ('The Total Amount Collected By This Section Is ', Ttl3, '.'); End; End else IF Sec= 4 THEN Begin For x:= 1 to 30 do begin writeln ('The Number of Revelers in This Section is ', Sec_4,'.'); Writeln ('The Number of Revelers in the Band Who Paid in Full Is ', Full,'.'); Writeln ('The Number of Revelers in the Band Who Paid in Installments is ', Ins, '.'); Writeln ('The Names of Revelers in This Section is ', S4_Nms [x],'.'); Writeln ('The Total Amount Collected By This Section Is ', Ttl4 ,'.'); End; End else IF Sec= 5 THEN Begin For x:= 1 to 30 do begin writeln ('The Number of Revelers in This Section is ', Sec_5,'.'); Writeln ('The Number of Revelers in the Band Who Paid in Full Is ', Full,'.'); Writeln ('The Number of Revelers in the Band Who Paid in Installments is ', Ins, '.'); Writeln ('The Names of Revelers in This Section is ', S5_Nms[x], '.'); Writeln ('The Total Amount Collected By This Section Is ', Ttl5 ,'.'); End; End else BEGIN Writeln ('Invalid Entry. For Information on Sections Press 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5 Respectively. '); End; end. The result I keep getting is that for the names in the section it is only the name of the last person entered that is displayed. For example it would display: The number of revelers in this section is 2 The number of revelers in the band who paid in full is 2 {Band is the whole thing divided into 5 section} The number of revelers in the band who paid in installments is 0 The names of revelers in this section is Amy Total amount collected by this section is 288 So yea, the program only displays "Amy" even though I entered more than 1 name. Do you guys know how to fix it also if it's not asking too much could you help me to make a while loop for the last portion of the program so that after the user sees the info for a section he can see another section. It sucks that I've been working on it for a while but if it doesn't run properly tomorrow I'll fail. Help would be greatly appreciated and responses are welcome anytime cause i'll be up anyway. P.S. Sorry for the long post.

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• A way of doing real-world test-driven development (and some thoughts about it)

  - by Thomas Weller

  Lately, I exchanged some arguments with Derick Bailey about some details of the red-green-refactor cycle of the Test-driven development process. In short, the issue revolved around the fact that it’s not enough to have a test red or green, but it’s also important to have it red or green for the right reasons. While for me, it’s sufficient to initially have a NotImplementedException in place, Derick argues that this is not totally correct (see these two posts: Red/Green/Refactor, For The Right Reasons and Red For The Right Reason: Fail By Assertion, Not By Anything Else). And he’s right. But on the other hand, I had no idea how his insights could have any practical consequence for my own individual interpretation of the red-green-refactor cycle (which is not really red-green-refactor, at least not in its pure sense, see the rest of this article). This made me think deeply for some days now. In the end I found out that the ‘right reason’ changes in my understanding depending on what development phase I’m in. To make this clear (at least I hope it becomes clear…) I started to describe my way of working in some detail, and then something strange happened: The scope of the article slightly shifted from focusing ‘only’ on the ‘right reason’ issue to something more general, which you might describe as something like  'Doing real-world TDD in .NET , with massive use of third-party add-ins’. This is because I feel that there is a more general statement about Test-driven development to make:  It’s high time to speak about the ‘How’ of TDD, not always only the ‘Why’. Much has been said about this, and me myself also contributed to that (see here: TDD is not about testing, it's about how we develop software). But always justifying what you do is very unsatisfying in the long run, it is inherently defensive, and it costs time and effort that could be used for better and more important things. And frankly: I’m somewhat sick and tired of repeating time and again that the test-driven way of software development is highly preferable for many reasons - I don’t want to spent my time exclusively on stating the obvious… So, again, let’s say it clearly: TDD is programming, and programming is TDD. Other ways of programming (code-first, sometimes called cowboy-coding) are exceptional and need justification. – I know that there are many people out there who will disagree with this radical statement, and I also know that it’s not a description of the real world but more of a mission statement or something. But nevertheless I’m absolutely sure that in some years this statement will be nothing but a platitude. Side note: Some parts of this post read as if I were paid by Jetbrains (the manufacturer of the ReSharper add-in – R#), but I swear I’m not. Rather I think that Visual Studio is just not production-complete without it, and I wouldn’t even consider to do professional work without having this add-in installed... The three parts of a software component Before I go into some details, I first should describe my understanding of what belongs to a software component (assembly, type, or method) during the production process (i.e. the coding phase). Roughly, I come up with the three parts shown below:   First, we need to have some initial sort of requirement. This can be a multi-page formal document, a vague idea in some programmer’s brain of what might be needed, or anything in between. In either way, there has to be some sort of requirement, be it explicit or not. – At the C# micro-level, the best way that I found to formulate that is to define interfaces for just about everything, even for internal classes, and to provide them with exhaustive xml comments. The next step then is to re-formulate these requirements in an executable form. This is specific to the respective programming language. - For C#/.NET, the Gallio framework (which includes MbUnit) in conjunction with the ReSharper add-in for Visual Studio is my toolset of choice. The third part then finally is the production code itself. It’s development is entirely driven by the requirements and their executable formulation. This is the delivery, the two other parts are ‘only’ there to make its production possible, to give it a decent quality and reliability, and to significantly reduce related costs down the maintenance timeline. So while the first two parts are not really relevant for the customer, they are very important for the developer. The customer (or in Scrum terms: the Product Owner) is not interested at all in how  the product is developed, he is only interested in the fact that it is developed as cost-effective as possible, and that it meets his functional and non-functional requirements. The rest is solely a matter of the developer’s craftsmanship, and this is what I want to talk about during the remainder of this article… An example To demonstrate my way of doing real-world TDD, I decided to show the development of a (very) simple Calculator component. The example is deliberately trivial and silly, as examples always are. I am totally aware of the fact that real life is never that simple, but I only want to show some development principles here… The requirement As already said above, I start with writing down some words on the initial requirement, and I normally use interfaces for that, even for internal classes - the typical question “intf or not” doesn’t even come to mind. I need them for my usual workflow and using them automatically produces high componentized and testable code anyway. To think about their usage in every single situation would slow down the production process unnecessarily. So this is what I begin with: namespace Calculator {     /// <summary>     /// Defines a very simple calculator component for demo purposes.     /// </summary>     public interface ICalculator     {         /// <summary>         /// Gets the result of the last successful operation.         /// </summary>         /// <value>The last result.</value>         /// <remarks>         /// Will be <see langword="null" /> before the first successful operation.         /// </remarks>         double? LastResult { get; }       } // interface ICalculator   } // namespace Calculator So, I’m not beginning with a test, but with a sort of code declaration - and still I insist on being 100% test-driven. There are three important things here: Starting this way gives me a method signature, which allows to use IntelliSense and AutoCompletion and thus eliminates the danger of typos - one of the most regular, annoying, time-consuming, and therefore expensive sources of error in the development process. In my understanding, the interface definition as a whole is more of a readable requirement document and technical documentation than anything else. So this is at least as much about documentation than about coding. The documentation must completely describe the behavior of the documented element. I normally use an IoC container or some sort of self-written provider-like model in my architecture. In either case, I need my components defined via service interfaces anyway. - I will use the LinFu IoC framework here, for no other reason as that is is very simple to use. The ‘Red’ (pt. 1)   First I create a folder for the project’s third-party libraries and put the LinFu.Core dll there. Then I set up a test project (via a Gallio project template), and add references to the Calculator project and the LinFu dll. Finally I’m ready to write the first test, which will look like the following: namespace Calculator.Test {     [TestFixture]     public class CalculatorTest     {         private readonly ServiceContainer container = new ServiceContainer();           [Test]         public void CalculatorLastResultIsInitiallyNull()         {             ICalculator calculator = container.GetService<ICalculator>();               Assert.IsNull(calculator.LastResult);         }       } // class CalculatorTest   } // namespace Calculator.Test       This is basically the executable formulation of what the interface definition states (part of). Side note: There’s one principle of TDD that is just plain wrong in my eyes: I’m talking about the Red is 'does not compile' thing. How could a compiler error ever be interpreted as a valid test outcome? I never understood that, it just makes no sense to me. (Or, in Derick’s terms: this reason is as wrong as a reason ever could be…) A compiler error tells me: Your code is incorrect, but nothing more.  Instead, the ‘Red’ part of the red-green-refactor cycle has a clearly defined meaning to me: It means that the test works as intended and fails only if its assumptions are not met for some reason. Back to our Calculator. When I execute the above test with R#, the Gallio plugin will give me this output: So this tells me that the test is red for the wrong reason: There’s no implementation that the IoC-container could load, of course. So let’s fix that. With R#, this is very easy: First, create an ICalculator - derived type:        Next, implement the interface members: And finally, move the new class to its own file: So far my ‘work’ was six mouse clicks long, the only thing that’s left to do manually here, is to add the Ioc-specific wiring-declaration and also to make the respective class non-public, which I regularly do to force my components to communicate exclusively via interfaces: This is what my Calculator class looks like as of now: using System; using LinFu.IoC.Configuration;   namespace Calculator {     [Implements(typeof(ICalculator))]     internal class Calculator : ICalculator     {         public double? LastResult         {             get             {                 throw new NotImplementedException();             }         }     } } Back to the test fixture, we have to put our IoC container to work: [TestFixture] public class CalculatorTest {     #region Fields       private readonly ServiceContainer container = new ServiceContainer();       #endregion // Fields       #region Setup/TearDown       [FixtureSetUp]     public void FixtureSetUp()     {        container.LoadFrom(AppDomain.CurrentDomain.BaseDirectory, "Calculator.dll");     }       ... Because I have a R# live template defined for the setup/teardown method skeleton as well, the only manual coding here again is the IoC-specific stuff: two lines, not more… The ‘Red’ (pt. 2) Now, the execution of the above test gives the following result: This time, the test outcome tells me that the method under test is called. And this is the point, where Derick and I seem to have somewhat different views on the subject: Of course, the test still is worthless regarding the red/green outcome (or: it’s still red for the wrong reasons, in that it gives a false negative). But as far as I am concerned, I’m not really interested in the test outcome at this point of the red-green-refactor cycle. Rather, I only want to assert that my test actually calls the right method. If that’s the case, I will happily go on to the ‘Green’ part… The ‘Green’ Making the test green is quite trivial. Just make LastResult an automatic property:     [Implements(typeof(ICalculator))]     internal class Calculator : ICalculator     {         public double? LastResult { get; private set; }     }         One more round… Now on to something slightly more demanding (cough…). Let’s state that our Calculator exposes an Add() method:         ...   /// <summary>         /// Adds the specified operands.         /// </summary>         /// <param name="operand1">The operand1.</param>         /// <param name="operand2">The operand2.</param>         /// <returns>The result of the additon.</returns>         /// <exception cref="ArgumentException">         /// Argument <paramref name="operand1"/> is &lt; 0.<br/>         /// -- or --<br/>         /// Argument <paramref name="operand2"/> is &lt; 0.         /// </exception>         double Add(double operand1, double operand2);       } // interface ICalculator A remark: I sometimes hear the complaint that xml comment stuff like the above is hard to read. That’s certainly true, but irrelevant to me, because I read xml code comments with the CR_Documentor tool window. And using that, it looks like this:   Apart from that, I’m heavily using xml code comments (see e.g. here for a detailed guide) because there is the possibility of automating help generation with nightly CI builds (using MS Sandcastle and the Sandcastle Help File Builder), and then publishing the results to some intranet location.  This way, a team always has first class, up-to-date technical documentation at hand about the current codebase. (And, also very important for speeding up things and avoiding typos: You have IntelliSense/AutoCompletion and R# support, and the comments are subject to compiler checking…).     Back to our Calculator again: Two more R# – clicks implement the Add() skeleton:         ...           public double Add(double operand1, double operand2)         {             throw new NotImplementedException();         }       } // class Calculator As we have stated in the interface definition (which actually serves as our requirement document!), the operands are not allowed to be negative. So let’s start implementing that. Here’s the test: [Test] [Row(-0.5, 2)] public void AddThrowsOnNegativeOperands(double operand1, double operand2) {     ICalculator calculator = container.GetService<ICalculator>();       Assert.Throws<ArgumentException>(() => calculator.Add(operand1, operand2)); } As you can see, I’m using a data-driven unit test method here, mainly for these two reasons: Because I know that I will have to do the same test for the second operand in a few seconds, I save myself from implementing another test method for this purpose. Rather, I only will have to add another Row attribute to the existing one. From the test report below, you can see that the argument values are explicitly printed out. This can be a valuable documentation feature even when everything is green: One can quickly review what values were tested exactly - the complete Gallio HTML-report (as it will be produced by the Continuous Integration runs) shows these values in a quite clear format (see below for an example). Back to our Calculator development again, this is what the test result tells us at the moment: So we’re red again, because there is not yet an implementation… Next we go on and implement the necessary parameter verification to become green again, and then we do the same thing for the second operand. To make a long story short, here’s the test and the method implementation at the end of the second cycle: // in CalculatorTest:   [Test] [Row(-0.5, 2)] [Row(295, -123)] public void AddThrowsOnNegativeOperands(double operand1, double operand2) {     ICalculator calculator = container.GetService<ICalculator>();       Assert.Throws<ArgumentException>(() => calculator.Add(operand1, operand2)); }   // in Calculator: public double Add(double operand1, double operand2) {     if (operand1 < 0.0)     {         throw new ArgumentException("Value must not be negative.", "operand1");     }     if (operand2 < 0.0)     {         throw new ArgumentException("Value must not be negative.", "operand2");     }     throw new NotImplementedException(); } So far, we have sheltered our method from unwanted input, and now we can safely operate on the parameters without further caring about their validity (this is my interpretation of the Fail Fast principle, which is regarded here in more detail). Now we can think about the method’s successful outcomes. First let’s write another test for that: [Test] [Row(1, 1, 2)] public void TestAdd(double operand1, double operand2, double expectedResult) {     ICalculator calculator = container.GetService<ICalculator>();       double result = calculator.Add(operand1, operand2);       Assert.AreEqual(expectedResult, result); } Again, I’m regularly using row based test methods for these kinds of unit tests. The above shown pattern proved to be extremely helpful for my development work, I call it the Defined-Input/Expected-Output test idiom: You define your input arguments together with the expected method result. There are two major benefits from that way of testing: In the course of refining a method, it’s very likely to come up with additional test cases. In our case, we might add tests for some edge cases like ‘one of the operands is zero’ or ‘the sum of the two operands causes an overflow’, or maybe there’s an external test protocol that has to be fulfilled (e.g. an ISO norm for medical software), and this results in the need of testing against additional values. In all these scenarios we only have to add another Row attribute to the test. Remember that the argument values are written to the test report, so as a side-effect this produces valuable documentation. (This can become especially important if the fulfillment of some sort of external requirements has to be proven). So your test method might look something like that in the end: [Test, Description("Arguments: operand1, operand2, expectedResult")] [Row(1, 1, 2)] [Row(0, 999999999, 999999999)] [Row(0, 0, 0)] [Row(0, double.MaxValue, double.MaxValue)] [Row(4, double.MaxValue - 2.5, double.MaxValue)] public void TestAdd(double operand1, double operand2, double expectedResult) {     ICalculator calculator = container.GetService<ICalculator>();       double result = calculator.Add(operand1, operand2);       Assert.AreEqual(expectedResult, result); } And this will produce the following HTML report (with Gallio):   Not bad for the amount of work we invested in it, huh? - There might be scenarios where reports like that can be useful for demonstration purposes during a Scrum sprint review… The last requirement to fulfill is that the LastResult property is expected to store the result of the last operation. I don’t show this here, it’s trivial enough and brings nothing new… And finally: Refactor (for the right reasons) To demonstrate my way of going through the refactoring portion of the red-green-refactor cycle, I added another method to our Calculator component, namely Subtract(). Here’s the code (tests and production): // CalculatorTest.cs:   [Test, Description("Arguments: operand1, operand2, expectedResult")] [Row(1, 1, 0)] [Row(0, 999999999, -999999999)] [Row(0, 0, 0)] [Row(0, double.MaxValue, -double.MaxValue)] [Row(4, double.MaxValue - 2.5, -double.MaxValue)] public void TestSubtract(double operand1, double operand2, double expectedResult) {     ICalculator calculator = container.GetService<ICalculator>();       double result = calculator.Subtract(operand1, operand2);       Assert.AreEqual(expectedResult, result); }   [Test, Description("Arguments: operand1, operand2, expectedResult")] [Row(1, 1, 0)] [Row(0, 999999999, -999999999)] [Row(0, 0, 0)] [Row(0, double.MaxValue, -double.MaxValue)] [Row(4, double.MaxValue - 2.5, -double.MaxValue)] public void TestSubtractGivesExpectedLastResult(double operand1, double operand2, double expectedResult) {     ICalculator calculator = container.GetService<ICalculator>();       calculator.Subtract(operand1, operand2);       Assert.AreEqual(expectedResult, calculator.LastResult); }   ...   // ICalculator.cs: /// <summary> /// Subtracts the specified operands. /// </summary> /// <param name="operand1">The operand1.</param> /// <param name="operand2">The operand2.</param> /// <returns>The result of the subtraction.</returns> /// <exception cref="ArgumentException"> /// Argument <paramref name="operand1"/> is &lt; 0.<br/> /// -- or --<br/> /// Argument <paramref name="operand2"/> is &lt; 0. /// </exception> double Subtract(double operand1, double operand2);   ...   // Calculator.cs:   public double Subtract(double operand1, double operand2) {     if (operand1 < 0.0)     {         throw new ArgumentException("Value must not be negative.", "operand1");     }       if (operand2 < 0.0)     {         throw new ArgumentException("Value must not be negative.", "operand2");     }       return (this.LastResult = operand1 - operand2).Value; }   Obviously, the argument validation stuff that was produced during the red-green part of our cycle duplicates the code from the previous Add() method. So, to avoid code duplication and minimize the number of code lines of the production code, we do an Extract Method refactoring. One more time, this is only a matter of a few mouse clicks (and giving the new method a name) with R#: Having done that, our production code finally looks like that: using System; using LinFu.IoC.Configuration;   namespace Calculator {     [Implements(typeof(ICalculator))]     internal class Calculator : ICalculator     {         #region ICalculator           public double? LastResult { get; private set; }           public double Add(double operand1, double operand2)         {             ThrowIfOneOperandIsInvalid(operand1, operand2);               return (this.LastResult = operand1 + operand2).Value;         }           public double Subtract(double operand1, double operand2)         {             ThrowIfOneOperandIsInvalid(operand1, operand2);               return (this.LastResult = operand1 - operand2).Value;         }           #endregion // ICalculator           #region Implementation (Helper)           private static void ThrowIfOneOperandIsInvalid(double operand1, double operand2)         {             if (operand1 < 0.0)             {                 throw new ArgumentException("Value must not be negative.", "operand1");             }               if (operand2 < 0.0)             {                 throw new ArgumentException("Value must not be negative.", "operand2");             }         }           #endregion // Implementation (Helper)       } // class Calculator   } // namespace Calculator But is the above worth the effort at all? It’s obviously trivial and not very impressive. All our tests were green (for the right reasons), and refactoring the code did not change anything. It’s not immediately clear how this refactoring work adds value to the project. Derick puts it like this: STOP! Hold on a second… before you go any further and before you even think about refactoring what you just wrote to make your test pass, you need to understand something: if your done with your requirements after making the test green, you are not required to refactor the code. I know… I’m speaking heresy, here. Toss me to the wolves, I’ve gone over to the dark side! Seriously, though… if your test is passing for the right reasons, and you do not need to write any test or any more code for you class at this point, what value does refactoring add? Derick immediately answers his own question: So why should you follow the refactor portion of red/green/refactor? When you have added code that makes the system less readable, less understandable, less expressive of the domain or concern’s intentions, less architecturally sound, less DRY, etc, then you should refactor it. I couldn’t state it more precise. From my personal perspective, I’d add the following: You have to keep in mind that real-world software systems are usually quite large and there are dozens or even hundreds of occasions where micro-refactorings like the above can be applied. It’s the sum of them all that counts. And to have a good overall quality of the system (e.g. in terms of the Code Duplication Percentage metric) you have to be pedantic on the individual, seemingly trivial cases. My job regularly requires the reading and understanding of ‘foreign’ code. So code quality/readability really makes a HUGE difference for me – sometimes it can be even the difference between project success and failure… Conclusions The above described development process emerged over the years, and there were mainly two things that guided its evolution (you might call it eternal principles, personal beliefs, or anything in between): Test-driven development is the normal, natural way of writing software, code-first is exceptional. So ‘doing TDD or not’ is not a question. And good, stable code can only reliably be produced by doing TDD (yes, I know: many will strongly disagree here again, but I’ve never seen high-quality code – and high-quality code is code that stood the test of time and causes low maintenance costs – that was produced code-first…) It’s the production code that pays our bills in the end. (Though I have seen customers these days who demand an acceptance test battery as part of the final delivery. Things seem to go into the right direction…). The test code serves ‘only’ to make the production code work. But it’s the number of delivered features which solely counts at the end of the day - no matter how much test code you wrote or how good it is. With these two things in mind, I tried to optimize my coding process for coding speed – or, in business terms: productivity - without sacrificing the principles of TDD (more than I’d do either way…).  As a result, I consider a ratio of about 3-5/1 for test code vs. production code as normal and desirable. In other words: roughly 60-80% of my code is test code (This might sound heavy, but that is mainly due to the fact that software development standards only begin to evolve. The entire software development profession is very young, historically seen; only at the very beginning, and there are no viable standards yet. If you think about software development as a kind of casting process, where the test code is the mold and the resulting production code is the final product, then the above ratio sounds no longer extraordinary…) Although the above might look like very much unnecessary work at first sight, it’s not. With the aid of the mentioned add-ins, doing all the above is a matter of minutes, sometimes seconds (while writing this post took hours and days…). The most important thing is to have the right tools at hand. Slow developer machines or the lack of a tool or something like that - for ‘saving’ a few 100 bucks -  is just not acceptable and a very bad decision in business terms (though I quite some times have seen and heard that…). Production of high-quality products needs the usage of high-quality tools. This is a platitude that every craftsman knows… The here described round-trip will take me about five to ten minutes in my real-world development practice. I guess it’s about 30% more time compared to developing the ‘traditional’ (code-first) way. But the so manufactured ‘product’ is of much higher quality and massively reduces maintenance costs, which is by far the single biggest cost factor, as I showed in this previous post: It's the maintenance, stupid! (or: Something is rotten in developerland.). In the end, this is a highly cost-effective way of software development… But on the other hand, there clearly is a trade-off here: coding speed vs. code quality/later maintenance costs. The here described development method might be a perfect fit for the overwhelming majority of software projects, but there certainly are some scenarios where it’s not - e.g. if time-to-market is crucial for a software project. So this is a business decision in the end. It’s just that you have to know what you’re doing and what consequences this might have… Some last words First, I’d like to thank Derick Bailey again. His two aforementioned posts (which I strongly recommend for reading) inspired me to think deeply about my own personal way of doing TDD and to clarify my thoughts about it. I wouldn’t have done that without this inspiration. I really enjoy that kind of discussions… I agree with him in all respects. But I don’t know (yet?) how to bring his insights into the described production process without slowing things down. The above described method proved to be very “good enough” in my practical experience. But of course, I’m open to suggestions here… My rationale for now is: If the test is initially red during the red-green-refactor cycle, the ‘right reason’ is: it actually calls the right method, but this method is not yet operational. Later on, when the cycle is finished and the tests become part of the regular, automated Continuous Integration process, ‘red’ certainly must occur for the ‘right reason’: in this phase, ‘red’ MUST mean nothing but an unfulfilled assertion - Fail By Assertion, Not By Anything Else!

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• How John Got 15x Improvement Without Really Trying

  - by rchrd

  The following article was published on a Sun Microsystems website a number of years ago by John Feo. It is still useful and worth preserving. So I'm republishing it here.  How I Got 15x Improvement Without Really Trying John Feo, Sun Microsystems Taking ten "personal" program codes used in scientific and engineering research, the author was able to get from 2 to 15 times performance improvement easily by applying some simple general optimization techniques. Introduction Scientific research based on computer simulation depends on the simulation for advancement. The research can advance only as fast as the computational codes can execute. The codes' efficiency determines both the rate and quality of results. In the same amount of time, a faster program can generate more results and can carry out a more detailed simulation of physical phenomena than a slower program. Highly optimized programs help science advance quickly and insure that monies supporting scientific research are used as effectively as possible. Scientific computer codes divide into three broad categories: ISV, community, and personal. ISV codes are large, mature production codes developed and sold commercially. The codes improve slowly over time both in methods and capabilities, and they are well tuned for most vendor platforms. Since the codes are mature and complex, there are few opportunities to improve their performance solely through code optimization. Improvements of 10% to 15% are typical. Examples of ISV codes are DYNA3D, Gaussian, and Nastran. Community codes are non-commercial production codes used by a particular research field. Generally, they are developed and distributed by a single academic or research institution with assistance from the community. Most users just run the codes, but some develop new methods and extensions that feed back into the general release. The codes are available on most vendor platforms. Since these codes are younger than ISV codes, there are more opportunities to optimize the source code. Improvements of 50% are not unusual. Examples of community codes are AMBER, CHARM, BLAST, and FASTA. Personal codes are those written by single users or small research groups for their own use. These codes are not distributed, but may be passed from professor-to-student or student-to-student over several years. They form the primordial ocean of applications from which community and ISV codes emerge. Government research grants pay for the development of most personal codes. This paper reports on the nature and performance of this class of codes. Over the last year, I have looked at over two dozen personal codes from more than a dozen research institutions. The codes cover a variety of scientific fields, including astronomy, atmospheric sciences, bioinformatics, biology, chemistry, geology, and physics. The sources range from a few hundred lines to more than ten thousand lines, and are written in Fortran, Fortran 90, C, and C++. For the most part, the codes are modular, documented, and written in a clear, straightforward manner. They do not use complex language features, advanced data structures, programming tricks, or libraries. I had little trouble understanding what the codes did or how data structures were used. Most came with a makefile. Surprisingly, only one of the applications is parallel. All developers have access to parallel machines, so availability is not an issue. Several tried to parallelize their applications, but stopped after encountering difficulties. Lack of education and a perception that parallelism is difficult prevented most from trying. I parallelized several of the codes using OpenMP, and did not judge any of the codes as difficult to parallelize. Even more surprising than the lack of parallelism is the inefficiency of the codes. I was able to get large improvements in performance in a matter of a few days applying simple optimization techniques. Table 1 lists ten representative codes [names and affiliation are omitted to preserve anonymity]. Improvements on one processor range from 2x to 15.5x with a simple average of 4.75x. I did not use sophisticated performance tools or drill deep into the program's execution character as one would do when tuning ISV or community codes. Using only a profiler and source line timers, I identified inefficient sections of code and improved their performance by inspection. The changes were at a high level. I am sure there is another factor of 2 or 3 in each code, and more if the codes are parallelized. The study’s results show that personal scientific codes are running many times slower than they should and that the problem is pervasive. Computational scientists are not sloppy programmers; however, few are trained in the art of computer programming or code optimization. I found that most have a working knowledge of some programming language and standard software engineering practices; but they do not know, or think about, how to make their programs run faster. They simply do not know the standard techniques used to make codes run faster. In fact, they do not even perceive that such techniques exist. The case studies described in this paper show that applying simple, well known techniques can significantly increase the performance of personal codes. It is important that the scientific community and the Government agencies that support scientific research find ways to better educate academic scientific programmers. The inefficiency of their codes is so bad that it is retarding both the quality and progress of scientific research. # cacheperformance redundantoperations loopstructures performanceimprovement 1 x x 15.5 2 x 2.8 3 x x 2.5 4 x 2.1 5 x x 2.0 6 x 5.0 7 x 5.8 8 x 6.3 9 2.2 10 x x 3.3 Table 1 — Area of improvement and performance gains of 10 codes The remainder of the paper is organized as follows: sections 2, 3, and 4 discuss the three most common sources of inefficiencies in the codes studied. These are cache performance, redundant operations, and loop structures. Each section includes several examples. The last section summaries the work and suggests a possible solution to the issues raised. Optimizing cache performance Commodity microprocessor systems use caches to increase memory bandwidth and reduce memory latencies. Typical latencies from processor to L1, L2, local, and remote memory are 3, 10, 50, and 200 cycles, respectively. Moreover, bandwidth falls off dramatically as memory distances increase. Programs that do not use cache effectively run many times slower than programs that do. When optimizing for cache, the biggest performance gains are achieved by accessing data in cache order and reusing data to amortize the overhead of cache misses. Secondary considerations are prefetching, associativity, and replacement; however, the understanding and analysis required to optimize for the latter are probably beyond the capabilities of the non-expert. Much can be gained simply by accessing data in the correct order and maximizing data reuse. 6 out of the 10 codes studied here benefited from such high level optimizations. Array Accesses The most important cache optimization is the most basic: accessing Fortran array elements in column order and C array elements in row order. Four of the ten codes—1, 2, 4, and 10—got it wrong. Compilers will restructure nested loops to optimize cache performance, but may not do so if the loop structure is too complex, or the loop body includes conditionals, complex addressing, or function calls. In code 1, the compiler failed to invert a key loop because of complex addressing do I = 0, 1010, delta_x IM = I - delta_x IP = I + delta_x do J = 5, 995, delta_x JM = J - delta_x JP = J + delta_x T1 = CA1(IP, J) + CA1(I, JP) T2 = CA1(IM, J) + CA1(I, JM) S1 = T1 + T2 - 4 * CA1(I, J) CA(I, J) = CA1(I, J) + D * S1 end do end do In code 2, the culprit is conditionals do I = 1, N do J = 1, N If (IFLAG(I,J) .EQ. 0) then T1 = Value(I, J-1) T2 = Value(I-1, J) T3 = Value(I, J) T4 = Value(I+1, J) T5 = Value(I, J+1) Value(I,J) = 0.25 * (T1 + T2 + T5 + T4) Delta = ABS(T3 - Value(I,J)) If (Delta .GT. MaxDelta) MaxDelta = Delta endif enddo enddo I fixed both programs by inverting the loops by hand. Code 10 has three-dimensional arrays and triply nested loops. The structure of the most computationally intensive loops is too complex to invert automatically or by hand. The only practical solution is to transpose the arrays so that the dimension accessed by the innermost loop is in cache order. The arrays can be transposed at construction or prior to entering a computationally intensive section of code. The former requires all array references to be modified, while the latter is cost effective only if the cost of the transpose is amortized over many accesses. I used the second approach to optimize code 10. Code 5 has four-dimensional arrays and loops are nested four deep. For all of the reasons cited above the compiler is not able to restructure three key loops. Assume C arrays and let the four dimensions of the arrays be i, j, k, and l. In the original code, the index structure of the three loops is L1: for i L2: for i L3: for i for l for l for j for k for j for k for j for k for l So only L3 accesses array elements in cache order. L1 is a very complex loop—much too complex to invert. I brought the loop into cache alignment by transposing the second and fourth dimensions of the arrays. Since the code uses a macro to compute all array indexes, I effected the transpose at construction and changed the macro appropriately. The dimensions of the new arrays are now: i, l, k, and j. L3 is a simple loop and easily inverted. L2 has a loop-carried scalar dependence in k. By promoting the scalar name that carries the dependence to an array, I was able to invert the third and fourth subloops aligning the loop with cache. Code 5 is by far the most difficult of the four codes to optimize for array accesses; but the knowledge required to fix the problems is no more than that required for the other codes. I would judge this code at the limits of, but not beyond, the capabilities of appropriately trained computational scientists. Array Strides When a cache miss occurs, a line (64 bytes) rather than just one word is loaded into the cache. If data is accessed stride 1, than the cost of the miss is amortized over 8 words. Any stride other than one reduces the cost savings. Two of the ten codes studied suffered from non-unit strides. The codes represent two important classes of "strided" codes. Code 1 employs a multi-grid algorithm to reduce time to convergence. The grids are every tenth, fifth, second, and unit element. Since time to convergence is inversely proportional to the distance between elements, coarse grids converge quickly providing good starting values for finer grids. The better starting values further reduce the time to convergence. The downside is that grids of every nth element, n > 1, introduce non-unit strides into the computation. In the original code, much of the savings of the multi-grid algorithm were lost due to this problem. I eliminated the problem by compressing (copying) coarse grids into continuous memory, and rewriting the computation as a function of the compressed grid. On convergence, I copied the final values of the compressed grid back to the original grid. The savings gained from unit stride access of the compressed grid more than paid for the cost of copying. Using compressed grids, the loop from code 1 included in the previous section becomes do j = 1, GZ do i = 1, GZ T1 = CA(i+0, j-1) + CA(i-1, j+0) T4 = CA1(i+1, j+0) + CA1(i+0, j+1) S1 = T1 + T4 - 4 * CA1(i+0, j+0) CA(i+0, j+0) = CA1(i+0, j+0) + DD * S1 enddo enddo where CA and CA1 are compressed arrays of size GZ. Code 7 traverses a list of objects selecting objects for later processing. The labels of the selected objects are stored in an array. The selection step has unit stride, but the processing steps have irregular stride. A fix is to save the parameters of the selected objects in temporary arrays as they are selected, and pass the temporary arrays to the processing functions. The fix is practical if the same parameters are used in selection as in processing, or if processing comprises a series of distinct steps which use overlapping subsets of the parameters. Both conditions are true for code 7, so I achieved significant improvement by copying parameters to temporary arrays during selection. Data reuse In the previous sections, we optimized for spatial locality. It is also important to optimize for temporal locality. Once read, a datum should be used as much as possible before it is forced from cache. Loop fusion and loop unrolling are two techniques that increase temporal locality. Unfortunately, both techniques increase register pressure—as loop bodies become larger, the number of registers required to hold temporary values grows. Once register spilling occurs, any gains evaporate quickly. For multiprocessors with small register sets or small caches, the sweet spot can be very small. In the ten codes presented here, I found no opportunities for loop fusion and only two opportunities for loop unrolling (codes 1 and 3). In code 1, unrolling the outer and inner loop one iteration increases the number of result values computed by the loop body from 1 to 4, do J = 1, GZ-2, 2 do I = 1, GZ-2, 2 T1 = CA1(i+0, j-1) + CA1(i-1, j+0) T2 = CA1(i+1, j-1) + CA1(i+0, j+0) T3 = CA1(i+0, j+0) + CA1(i-1, j+1) T4 = CA1(i+1, j+0) + CA1(i+0, j+1) T5 = CA1(i+2, j+0) + CA1(i+1, j+1) T6 = CA1(i+1, j+1) + CA1(i+0, j+2) T7 = CA1(i+2, j+1) + CA1(i+1, j+2) S1 = T1 + T4 - 4 * CA1(i+0, j+0) S2 = T2 + T5 - 4 * CA1(i+1, j+0) S3 = T3 + T6 - 4 * CA1(i+0, j+1) S4 = T4 + T7 - 4 * CA1(i+1, j+1) CA(i+0, j+0) = CA1(i+0, j+0) + DD * S1 CA(i+1, j+0) = CA1(i+1, j+0) + DD * S2 CA(i+0, j+1) = CA1(i+0, j+1) + DD * S3 CA(i+1, j+1) = CA1(i+1, j+1) + DD * S4 enddo enddo The loop body executes 12 reads, whereas as the rolled loop shown in the previous section executes 20 reads to compute the same four values. In code 3, two loops are unrolled 8 times and one loop is unrolled 4 times. Here is the before for (k = 0; k < NK[u]; k++) { sum = 0.0; for (y = 0; y < NY; y++) { sum += W[y][u][k] * delta[y]; } backprop[i++]=sum; } and after code for (k = 0; k < KK - 8; k+=8) { sum0 = 0.0; sum1 = 0.0; sum2 = 0.0; sum3 = 0.0; sum4 = 0.0; sum5 = 0.0; sum6 = 0.0; sum7 = 0.0; for (y = 0; y < NY; y++) { sum0 += W[y][0][k+0] * delta[y]; sum1 += W[y][0][k+1] * delta[y]; sum2 += W[y][0][k+2] * delta[y]; sum3 += W[y][0][k+3] * delta[y]; sum4 += W[y][0][k+4] * delta[y]; sum5 += W[y][0][k+5] * delta[y]; sum6 += W[y][0][k+6] * delta[y]; sum7 += W[y][0][k+7] * delta[y]; } backprop[k+0] = sum0; backprop[k+1] = sum1; backprop[k+2] = sum2; backprop[k+3] = sum3; backprop[k+4] = sum4; backprop[k+5] = sum5; backprop[k+6] = sum6; backprop[k+7] = sum7; } for one of the loops unrolled 8 times. Optimizing for temporal locality is the most difficult optimization considered in this paper. The concepts are not difficult, but the sweet spot is small. Identifying where the program can benefit from loop unrolling or loop fusion is not trivial. Moreover, it takes some effort to get it right. Still, educating scientific programmers about temporal locality and teaching them how to optimize for it will pay dividends. Reducing instruction count Execution time is a function of instruction count. Reduce the count and you usually reduce the time. The best solution is to use a more efficient algorithm; that is, an algorithm whose order of complexity is smaller, that converges quicker, or is more accurate. Optimizing source code without changing the algorithm yields smaller, but still significant, gains. This paper considers only the latter because the intent is to study how much better codes can run if written by programmers schooled in basic code optimization techniques. The ten codes studied benefited from three types of "instruction reducing" optimizations. The two most prevalent were hoisting invariant memory and data operations out of inner loops. The third was eliminating unnecessary data copying. The nature of these inefficiencies is language dependent. Memory operations The semantics of C make it difficult for the compiler to determine all the invariant memory operations in a loop. The problem is particularly acute for loops in functions since the compiler may not know the values of the function's parameters at every call site when compiling the function. Most compilers support pragmas to help resolve ambiguities; however, these pragmas are not comprehensive and there is no standard syntax. To guarantee that invariant memory operations are not executed repetitively, the user has little choice but to hoist the operations by hand. The problem is not as severe in Fortran programs because in the absence of equivalence statements, it is a violation of the language's semantics for two names to share memory. Codes 3 and 5 are C programs. In both cases, the compiler did not hoist all invariant memory operations from inner loops. Consider the following loop from code 3 for (y = 0; y < NY; y++) { i = 0; for (u = 0; u < NU; u++) { for (k = 0; k < NK[u]; k++) { dW[y][u][k] += delta[y] * I1[i++]; } } } Since dW[y][u] can point to the same memory space as delta for one or more values of y and u, assignment to dW[y][u][k] may change the value of delta[y]. In reality, dW and delta do not overlap in memory, so I rewrote the loop as for (y = 0; y < NY; y++) { i = 0; Dy = delta[y]; for (u = 0; u < NU; u++) { for (k = 0; k < NK[u]; k++) { dW[y][u][k] += Dy * I1[i++]; } } } Failure to hoist invariant memory operations may be due to complex address calculations. If the compiler can not determine that the address calculation is invariant, then it can hoist neither the calculation nor the associated memory operations. As noted above, code 5 uses a macro to address four-dimensional arrays #define MAT4D(a,q,i,j,k) (double *)((a)->data + (q)*(a)->strides[0] + (i)*(a)->strides[3] + (j)*(a)->strides[2] + (k)*(a)->strides[1]) The macro is too complex for the compiler to understand and so, it does not identify any subexpressions as loop invariant. The simplest way to eliminate the address calculation from the innermost loop (over i) is to define a0 = MAT4D(a,q,0,j,k) before the loop and then replace all instances of *MAT4D(a,q,i,j,k) in the loop with a0[i] A similar problem appears in code 6, a Fortran program. The key loop in this program is do n1 = 1, nh nx1 = (n1 - 1) / nz + 1 nz1 = n1 - nz * (nx1 - 1) do n2 = 1, nh nx2 = (n2 - 1) / nz + 1 nz2 = n2 - nz * (nx2 - 1) ndx = nx2 - nx1 ndy = nz2 - nz1 gxx = grn(1,ndx,ndy) gyy = grn(2,ndx,ndy) gxy = grn(3,ndx,ndy) balance(n1,1) = balance(n1,1) + (force(n2,1) * gxx + force(n2,2) * gxy) * h1 balance(n1,2) = balance(n1,2) + (force(n2,1) * gxy + force(n2,2) * gyy)*h1 end do end do The programmer has written this loop well—there are no loop invariant operations with respect to n1 and n2. However, the loop resides within an iterative loop over time and the index calculations are independent with respect to time. Trading space for time, I precomputed the index values prior to the entering the time loop and stored the values in two arrays. I then replaced the index calculations with reads of the arrays. Data operations Ways to reduce data operations can appear in many forms. Implementing a more efficient algorithm produces the biggest gains. The closest I came to an algorithm change was in code 4. This code computes the inner product of K-vectors A(i) and B(j), 0 = i < N, 0 = j < M, for most values of i and j. Since the program computes most of the NM possible inner products, it is more efficient to compute all the inner products in one triply-nested loop rather than one at a time when needed. The savings accrue from reading A(i) once for all B(j) vectors and from loop unrolling. for (i = 0; i < N; i+=8) { for (j = 0; j < M; j++) { sum0 = 0.0; sum1 = 0.0; sum2 = 0.0; sum3 = 0.0; sum4 = 0.0; sum5 = 0.0; sum6 = 0.0; sum7 = 0.0; for (k = 0; k < K; k++) { sum0 += A[i+0][k] * B[j][k]; sum1 += A[i+1][k] * B[j][k]; sum2 += A[i+2][k] * B[j][k]; sum3 += A[i+3][k] * B[j][k]; sum4 += A[i+4][k] * B[j][k]; sum5 += A[i+5][k] * B[j][k]; sum6 += A[i+6][k] * B[j][k]; sum7 += A[i+7][k] * B[j][k]; } C[i+0][j] = sum0; C[i+1][j] = sum1; C[i+2][j] = sum2; C[i+3][j] = sum3; C[i+4][j] = sum4; C[i+5][j] = sum5; C[i+6][j] = sum6; C[i+7][j] = sum7; }} This change requires knowledge of a typical run; i.e., that most inner products are computed. The reasons for the change, however, derive from basic optimization concepts. It is the type of change easily made at development time by a knowledgeable programmer. In code 5, we have the data version of the index optimization in code 6. Here a very expensive computation is a function of the loop indices and so cannot be hoisted out of the loop; however, the computation is invariant with respect to an outer iterative loop over time. We can compute its value for each iteration of the computation loop prior to entering the time loop and save the values in an array. The increase in memory required to store the values is small in comparison to the large savings in time. The main loop in Code 8 is doubly nested. The inner loop includes a series of guarded computations; some are a function of the inner loop index but not the outer loop index while others are a function of the outer loop index but not the inner loop index for (j = 0; j < N; j++) { for (i = 0; i < M; i++) { r = i * hrmax; R = A[j]; temp = (PRM[3] == 0.0) ? 1.0 : pow(r, PRM[3]); high = temp * kcoeff * B[j] * PRM[2] * PRM[4]; low = high * PRM[6] * PRM[6] / (1.0 + pow(PRM[4] * PRM[6], 2.0)); kap = (R > PRM[6]) ? high * R * R / (1.0 + pow(PRM[4]*r, 2.0) : low * pow(R/PRM[6], PRM[5]); < rest of loop omitted > }} Note that the value of temp is invariant to j. Thus, we can hoist the computation for temp out of the loop and save its values in an array. for (i = 0; i < M; i++) { r = i * hrmax; TEMP[i] = pow(r, PRM[3]); } [N.B. – the case for PRM[3] = 0 is omitted and will be reintroduced later.] We now hoist out of the inner loop the computations invariant to i. Since the conditional guarding the value of kap is invariant to i, it behooves us to hoist the computation out of the inner loop, thereby executing the guard once rather than M times. The final version of the code is for (j = 0; j < N; j++) { R = rig[j] / 1000.; tmp1 = kcoeff * par[2] * beta[j] * par[4]; tmp2 = 1.0 + (par[4] * par[4] * par[6] * par[6]); tmp3 = 1.0 + (par[4] * par[4] * R * R); tmp4 = par[6] * par[6] / tmp2; tmp5 = R * R / tmp3; tmp6 = pow(R / par[6], par[5]); if ((par[3] == 0.0) && (R > par[6])) { for (i = 1; i <= imax1; i++) KAP[i] = tmp1 * tmp5; } else if ((par[3] == 0.0) && (R <= par[6])) { for (i = 1; i <= imax1; i++) KAP[i] = tmp1 * tmp4 * tmp6; } else if ((par[3] != 0.0) && (R > par[6])) { for (i = 1; i <= imax1; i++) KAP[i] = tmp1 * TEMP[i] * tmp5; } else if ((par[3] != 0.0) && (R <= par[6])) { for (i = 1; i <= imax1; i++) KAP[i] = tmp1 * TEMP[i] * tmp4 * tmp6; } for (i = 0; i < M; i++) { kap = KAP[i]; r = i * hrmax; < rest of loop omitted > } } Maybe not the prettiest piece of code, but certainly much more efficient than the original loop, Copy operations Several programs unnecessarily copy data from one data structure to another. This problem occurs in both Fortran and C programs, although it manifests itself differently in the two languages. Code 1 declares two arrays—one for old values and one for new values. At the end of each iteration, the array of new values is copied to the array of old values to reset the data structures for the next iteration. This problem occurs in Fortran programs not included in this study and in both Fortran 77 and Fortran 90 code. Introducing pointers to the arrays and swapping pointer values is an obvious way to eliminate the copying; but pointers is not a feature that many Fortran programmers know well or are comfortable using. An easy solution not involving pointers is to extend the dimension of the value array by 1 and use the last dimension to differentiate between arrays at different times. For example, if the data space is N x N, declare the array (N, N, 2). Then store the problem’s initial values in (_, _, 2) and define the scalar names new = 2 and old = 1. At the start of each iteration, swap old and new to reset the arrays. The old–new copy problem did not appear in any C program. In programs that had new and old values, the code swapped pointers to reset data structures. Where unnecessary coping did occur is in structure assignment and parameter passing. Structures in C are handled much like scalars. Assignment causes the data space of the right-hand name to be copied to the data space of the left-hand name. Similarly, when a structure is passed to a function, the data space of the actual parameter is copied to the data space of the formal parameter. If the structure is large and the assignment or function call is in an inner loop, then copying costs can grow quite large. While none of the ten programs considered here manifested this problem, it did occur in programs not included in the study. A simple fix is always to refer to structures via pointers. Optimizing loop structures Since scientific programs spend almost all their time in loops, efficient loops are the key to good performance. Conditionals, function calls, little instruction level parallelism, and large numbers of temporary values make it difficult for the compiler to generate tightly packed, highly efficient code. Conditionals and function calls introduce jumps that disrupt code flow. Users should eliminate or isolate conditionls to their own loops as much as possible. Often logical expressions can be substituted for if-then-else statements. For example, code 2 includes the following snippet MaxDelta = 0.0 do J = 1, N do I = 1, M < code omitted > Delta = abs(OldValue ? NewValue) if (Delta > MaxDelta) MaxDelta = Delta enddo enddo if (MaxDelta .gt. 0.001) goto 200 Since the only use of MaxDelta is to control the jump to 200 and all that matters is whether or not it is greater than 0.001, I made MaxDelta a boolean and rewrote the snippet as MaxDelta = .false. do J = 1, N do I = 1, M < code omitted > Delta = abs(OldValue ? NewValue) MaxDelta = MaxDelta .or. (Delta .gt. 0.001) enddo enddo if (MaxDelta) goto 200 thereby, eliminating the conditional expression from the inner loop. A microprocessor can execute many instructions per instruction cycle. Typically, it can execute one or more memory, floating point, integer, and jump operations. To be executed simultaneously, the operations must be independent. Thick loops tend to have more instruction level parallelism than thin loops. Moreover, they reduce memory traffice by maximizing data reuse. Loop unrolling and loop fusion are two techniques to increase the size of loop bodies. Several of the codes studied benefitted from loop unrolling, but none benefitted from loop fusion. This observation is not too surpising since it is the general tendency of programmers to write thick loops. As loops become thicker, the number of temporary values grows, increasing register pressure. If registers spill, then memory traffic increases and code flow is disrupted. A thick loop with many temporary values may execute slower than an equivalent series of thin loops. The biggest gain will be achieved if the thick loop can be split into a series of independent loops eliminating the need to write and read temporary arrays. I found such an occasion in code 10 where I split the loop do i = 1, n do j = 1, m A24(j,i)= S24(j,i) * T24(j,i) + S25(j,i) * U25(j,i) B24(j,i)= S24(j,i) * T25(j,i) + S25(j,i) * U24(j,i) A25(j,i)= S24(j,i) * C24(j,i) + S25(j,i) * V24(j,i) B25(j,i)= S24(j,i) * U25(j,i) + S25(j,i) * V25(j,i) C24(j,i)= S26(j,i) * T26(j,i) + S27(j,i) * U26(j,i) D24(j,i)= S26(j,i) * T27(j,i) + S27(j,i) * V26(j,i) C25(j,i)= S27(j,i) * S28(j,i) + S26(j,i) * U28(j,i) D25(j,i)= S27(j,i) * T28(j,i) + S26(j,i) * V28(j,i) end do end do into two disjoint loops do i = 1, n do j = 1, m A24(j,i)= S24(j,i) * T24(j,i) + S25(j,i) * U25(j,i) B24(j,i)= S24(j,i) * T25(j,i) + S25(j,i) * U24(j,i) A25(j,i)= S24(j,i) * C24(j,i) + S25(j,i) * V24(j,i) B25(j,i)= S24(j,i) * U25(j,i) + S25(j,i) * V25(j,i) end do end do do i = 1, n do j = 1, m C24(j,i)= S26(j,i) * T26(j,i) + S27(j,i) * U26(j,i) D24(j,i)= S26(j,i) * T27(j,i) + S27(j,i) * V26(j,i) C25(j,i)= S27(j,i) * S28(j,i) + S26(j,i) * U28(j,i) D25(j,i)= S27(j,i) * T28(j,i) + S26(j,i) * V28(j,i) end do end do Conclusions Over the course of the last year, I have had the opportunity to work with over two dozen academic scientific programmers at leading research universities. Their research interests span a broad range of scientific fields. Except for two programs that relied almost exclusively on library routines (matrix multiply and fast Fourier transform), I was able to improve significantly the single processor performance of all codes. Improvements range from 2x to 15.5x with a simple average of 4.75x. Changes to the source code were at a very high level. I did not use sophisticated techniques or programming tools to discover inefficiencies or effect the changes. Only one code was parallel despite the availability of parallel systems to all developers. Clearly, we have a problem—personal scientific research codes are highly inefficient and not running parallel. The developers are unaware of simple optimization techniques to make programs run faster. They lack education in the art of code optimization and parallel programming. I do not believe we can fix the problem by publishing additional books or training manuals. To date, the developers in questions have not studied the books or manual available, and are unlikely to do so in the future. Short courses are a possible solution, but I believe they are too concentrated to be much use. The general concepts can be taught in a three or four day course, but that is not enough time for students to practice what they learn and acquire the experience to apply and extend the concepts to their codes. Practice is the key to becoming proficient at optimization. I recommend that graduate students be required to take a semester length course in optimization and parallel programming. We would never give someone access to state-of-the-art scientific equipment costing hundreds of thousands of dollars without first requiring them to demonstrate that they know how to use the equipment. Yet the criterion for time on state-of-the-art supercomputers is at most an interesting project. Requestors are never asked to demonstrate that they know how to use the system, or can use the system effectively. A semester course would teach them the required skills. Government agencies that fund academic scientific research pay for most of the computer systems supporting scientific research as well as the development of most personal scientific codes. These agencies should require graduate schools to offer a course in optimization and parallel programming as a requirement for funding. About the Author John Feo received his Ph.D. in Computer Science from The University of Texas at Austin in 1986. After graduate school, Dr. Feo worked at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory where he was the Group Leader of the Computer Research Group and principal investigator of the Sisal Language Project. In 1997, Dr. Feo joined Tera Computer Company where he was project manager for the MTA, and oversaw the programming and evaluation of the MTA at the San Diego Supercomputer Center. In 2000, Dr. Feo joined Sun Microsystems as an HPC application specialist. He works with university research groups to optimize and parallelize scientific codes. Dr. Feo has published over two dozen research articles in the areas of parallel parallel programming, parallel programming languages, and application performance.

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• iPhone SDK vs Windows Phone 7 Series SDK Challenge, Part 1: Hello World!

  In this series, I will be taking sample applications from the iPhone SDK and implementing them on Windows Phone 7 Series.  My goal is to do as much of an apples-to-apples comparison as I can.  This series will be written to not only compare and contrast how easy or difficult it is to complete tasks on either platform, how many lines of code, etc., but Id also like it to be a way for iPhone developers to either get started on Windows Phone 7 Series development, or for developers in general to learn the platform. Heres my methodology: Run the iPhone SDK app in the iPhone Simulator to get a feel for what it does and how it works, without looking at the implementation Implement the equivalent functionality on Windows Phone 7 Series using Silverlight. Compare the two implementations based on complexity, functionality, lines of code, number of files, etc. Add some functionality to the Windows Phone 7 Series app that shows off a way to make the scenario more interesting or leverages an aspect of the platform, or uses a better design pattern to implement the functionality. You can download Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 Express for Windows Phone CTP here, and the Expression Blend 4 Beta here. Hello World! Of course no first post would be allowed if it didnt focus on the hello world scenario.  The iPhone SDK follows that tradition with the Your First iPhone Application walkthrough.  I will say that the developer documentation for iPhone is pretty good.  There are plenty of walkthoughs and they break things down into nicely sized steps and do a good job of bringing the user along.  As expected, this application is quite simple.  It comprises of a text box, a label, and a button.  When you push the button, the label changes to Hello plus the  word you typed into the text box.  Makes perfect sense for a starter application.  Theres not much to this but it covers a few basic elements: Laying out basic UI Handling user input Hooking up events Formatting text     So, lets get started building a similar app for Windows Phone 7 Series! Implementing the UI: UI in Silverlight (and therefore Windows Phone 7) is defined in XAML, which is a declarative XML language also used by WPF on the desktop.  For anyone thats familiar with similar types of markup, its relatively straightforward to learn, but has a lot of power in it once you get it figured out.  Well talk more about that. This UI is very simple.  When I look at this, I note a couple of things: Elements are arranged vertically They are all centered So, lets create our Application and then start with the UI.  Once you have the the VS 2010 Express for Windows Phone tool running, create a new Windows Phone Project, and call it Hello World: Once created, youll see the designer on one side and your XAML on the other: Now, we can create our UI in one of three ways: Use the designer in Visual Studio to drag and drop the components Use the designer in Expression Blend 4 to drag and drop the components Enter the XAML by hand in either of the above Well start with (1), then kind of move to (3) just for instructional value. To develop this UI in the designer: First, delete all of the markup between inside of the Grid element (LayoutRoot).  You should be left with just this XAML for your MainPage.xaml (i shortened all the xmlns declarations below for brevity): 1: <phoneNavigation:PhoneApplicationPage 2: x:Class="HelloWorld.MainPage" 3: xmlns="...[snip]" 4: FontFamily="{StaticResource PhoneFontFamilyNormal}" 5: FontSize="{StaticResource PhoneFontSizeNormal}" 6: Foreground="{StaticResource PhoneForegroundBrush}"> 7:   8: <Grid x:Name="LayoutRoot" Background="{StaticResource PhoneBackgroundBrush}"> 9:   10: </Grid> 11:   12: </phoneNavigation:PhoneApplicationPage> .csharpcode, .csharpcode pre { font-size: small; color: black; font-family: consolas, "Courier New", courier, monospace; background-color: #ffffff; /*white-space: pre;*/ } .csharpcode pre { margin: 0em; } .csharpcode .rem { color: #008000; } .csharpcode .kwrd { color: #0000ff; } .csharpcode .str { color: #006080; } .csharpcode .op { color: #0000c0; } .csharpcode .preproc { color: #cc6633; } .csharpcode .asp { background-color: #ffff00; } .csharpcode .html { color: #800000; } .csharpcode .attr { color: #ff0000; } .csharpcode .alt { background-color: #f4f4f4; width: 100%; margin: 0em; } .csharpcode .lnum { color: #606060; } .csharpcode, .csharpcode pre { font-size: small; color: black; font-family: consolas, "Courier New", courier, monospace; background-color: #ffffff; /*white-space: pre;*/ } .csharpcode pre { margin: 0em; } .csharpcode .rem { color: #008000; } .csharpcode .kwrd { color: #0000ff; } .csharpcode .str { color: #006080; } .csharpcode .op { color: #0000c0; } .csharpcode .preproc { color: #cc6633; } .csharpcode .asp { background-color: #ffff00; } .csharpcode .html { color: #800000; } .csharpcode .attr { color: #ff0000; } .csharpcode .alt { background-color: #f4f4f4; width: 100%; margin: 0em; } .csharpcode .lnum { color: #606060; }   Well be adding XAML at line 9, so thats the important part. Now, Click on the center area of the phone surface Open the Toolbox and double click StackPanel Double click TextBox Double click TextBlock Double click Button That will create the necessary UI elements but they wont be arranged quite right.  Well fix it in a second.    Heres the XAML that we end up with: 1: <StackPanel Height="100" HorizontalAlignment="Left" Margin="10,10,0,0" Name="stackPanel1" VerticalAlignment="Top" Width="200"> 2: <TextBox Height="32" Name="textBox1" Text="TextBox" Width="100" /> 3: <TextBlock Height="23" Name="textBlock1" Text="TextBlock" /> 4: <Button Content="Button" Height="70" Name="button1" Width="160" /> 5: </StackPanel> .csharpcode, .csharpcode pre { font-size: small; color: black; font-family: consolas, "Courier New", courier, monospace; background-color: #ffffff; /*white-space: pre;*/ } .csharpcode pre { margin: 0em; } .csharpcode .rem { color: #008000; } .csharpcode .kwrd { color: #0000ff; } .csharpcode .str { color: #006080; } .csharpcode .op { color: #0000c0; } .csharpcode .preproc { color: #cc6633; } .csharpcode .asp { background-color: #ffff00; } .csharpcode .html { color: #800000; } .csharpcode .attr { color: #ff0000; } .csharpcode .alt { background-color: #f4f4f4; width: 100%; margin: 0em; } .csharpcode .lnum { color: #606060; } .csharpcode, .csharpcode pre { font-size: small; color: black; font-family: consolas, "Courier New", courier, monospace; background-color: #ffffff; /*white-space: pre;*/ } .csharpcode pre { margin: 0em; } .csharpcode .rem { color: #008000; } .csharpcode .kwrd { color: #0000ff; } .csharpcode .str { color: #006080; } .csharpcode .op { color: #0000c0; } .csharpcode .preproc { color: #cc6633; } .csharpcode .asp { background-color: #ffff00; } .csharpcode .html { color: #800000; } .csharpcode .attr { color: #ff0000; } .csharpcode .alt { background-color: #f4f4f4; width: 100%; margin: 0em; } .csharpcode .lnum { color: #606060; } The designer does its best at guessing what we want, but in this case we want things to be a bit simpler. So well just clean it up a bit.  We want the items to be centered and we want them to have a little bit of a margin on either side, so heres what we end up with.  Ive also made it match the values and style from the iPhone app: 1: <StackPanel Margin="10"> 2: <TextBox Name="textBox1" HorizontalAlignment="Stretch" Text="You" TextAlignment="Center"/> 3: <TextBlock Name="textBlock1" HorizontalAlignment="Center" Margin="0,100,0,0" Text="Hello You!" /> 4: <Button Name="button1" HorizontalAlignment="Center" Margin="0,150,0,0" Content="Hello"/> 5: </StackPanel> .csharpcode, .csharpcode pre { font-size: small; color: black; font-family: consolas, "Courier New", courier, monospace; background-color: #ffffff; /*white-space: pre;*/ } .csharpcode pre { margin: 0em; } .csharpcode .rem { color: #008000; } .csharpcode .kwrd { color: #0000ff; } .csharpcode .str { color: #006080; } .csharpcode .op { color: #0000c0; } .csharpcode .preproc { color: #cc6633; } .csharpcode .asp { background-color: #ffff00; } .csharpcode .html { color: #800000; } .csharpcode .attr { color: #ff0000; } .csharpcode .alt { background-color: #f4f4f4; width: 100%; margin: 0em; } .csharpcode .lnum { color: #606060; } .csharpcode, .csharpcode pre { font-size: small; color: black; font-family: consolas, "Courier New", courier, monospace; background-color: #ffffff; /*white-space: pre;*/ } .csharpcode pre { margin: 0em; } .csharpcode .rem { color: #008000; } .csharpcode .kwrd { color: #0000ff; } .csharpcode .str { color: #006080; } .csharpcode .op { color: #0000c0; } .csharpcode .preproc { color: #cc6633; } .csharpcode .asp { background-color: #ffff00; } .csharpcode .html { color: #800000; } .csharpcode .attr { color: #ff0000; } .csharpcode .alt { background-color: #f4f4f4; width: 100%; margin: 0em; } .csharpcode .lnum { color: #606060; } .csharpcode, .csharpcode pre { font-size: small; color: black; font-family: consolas, "Courier New", courier, monospace; background-color: #ffffff; /*white-space: pre;*/ } .csharpcode pre { margin: 0em; } .csharpcode .rem { color: #008000; } .csharpcode .kwrd { color: #0000ff; } .csharpcode .str { color: #006080; } .csharpcode .op { color: #0000c0; } .csharpcode .preproc { color: #cc6633; } .csharpcode .asp { background-color: #ffff00; } .csharpcode .html { color: #800000; } .csharpcode .attr { color: #ff0000; } .csharpcode .alt { background-color: #f4f4f4; width: 100%; margin: 0em; } .csharpcode .lnum { color: #606060; } Now lets take a look at what weve done there. Line 1: We removed all of the formatting from the StackPanel, except for Margin, as thats all we need.  Since our parent element is a Grid, by default the StackPanel will be sized to fit in that space.  The Margin says that we want to reserve 10 pixels on each side of the StackPanel. Line 2: Weve set the HorizontalAlignment of the TextBox to Stretch, which says that it should fill its parents size horizontally.  We want to do this so the TextBox is always full-width.  We also set TextAlignment to Center, to center the text. Line 3: In contrast to the TextBox above, we dont care how wide the TextBlock is, just so long as it is big enough for its text.  Thatll happen automatically, so we just set its Horizontal alignment to Center.  We also set a Margin above the TextBlock of 100 pixels to bump it down a bit, per the iPhone UI. Line 4: We do the same things here as in Line 3. Heres how the UI looks in the designer: Believe it or not, were almost done! Implementing the App Logic Now, we want the TextBlock to change its text when the Button is clicked.  In the designer, double click the Button to be taken to the Event Handler for the Buttons Click event.  In that event handler, we take the Text property from the TextBox, and format it into a string, then set it into the TextBlock.  Thats it! 1: private void button1_Click(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e) 2: { 3: string name = textBox1.Text; 4:   5: // if there isn't a name set, just use "World" 6: if (String.IsNullOrEmpty(name)) 7: { 8: name = "World"; 9: } 10:   11: // set the value into the TextBlock 12: textBlock1.Text = String.Format("Hello {0}!", name); 13:   14: } .csharpcode, .csharpcode pre { font-size: small; color: black; font-family: consolas, "Courier New", courier, monospace; background-color: #ffffff; /*white-space: pre;*/ } .csharpcode pre { margin: 0em; } .csharpcode .rem { color: #008000; } .csharpcode .kwrd { color: #0000ff; } .csharpcode .str { color: #006080; } .csharpcode .op { color: #0000c0; } .csharpcode .preproc { color: #cc6633; } .csharpcode .asp { background-color: #ffff00; } .csharpcode .html { color: #800000; } .csharpcode .attr { color: #ff0000; } .csharpcode .alt { background-color: #f4f4f4; width: 100%; margin: 0em; } .csharpcode .lnum { color: #606060; } We use the String.Format() method to handle the formatting for us.    Now all thats left is to test the app in the Windows Phone Emulator and verify it does what we think it does! And it does! Comparing against the iPhone Looking at the iPhone example, there are basically three things that you have to touch as the developer: 1) The UI in the Nib file 2) The app delegate 3) The view controller Counting lines is a bit tricky here, but to try to keep this even, Im going to only count lines of code that I could not have (or would not have) generated with the tooling.  Meaning, Im not counting XAML and Im not counting operations that happen in the Nib file with the XCode designer tool.  So in the case of the above, even though I modified the XAML, I could have done all of those operations using the visual designer tool.  And normally I would have, but the XAML is more instructive (and less steps!).  Im interested in things that I, as the developer have to figure out in code.  Im also not counting lines that just have a curly brace on them, or lines that are generated for me (e.g. method names that are generated for me when I make a connection, etc.) So, by that count, heres what I get from the code listing for the iPhone app found here: HelloWorldAppDelegate.h: 6 HelloWorldAppDelegate.m: 12 MyViewController.h: 8 MyViewController.m: 18 Which gives me a grand total of about 44 lines of code on iPhone.  I really do recommend looking at the iPhone code for a comparison to the above. Now, for the Windows Phone 7 Series application, the only code I typed was in the event handler above Main.Xaml.cs: 4 So a total of 4 lines of code on Windows Phone 7.  And more importantly, the process is just A LOT simpler.  For example, I was surprised that the User Interface Designer in XCode doesnt automatically create instance variables for me and wire them up to the corresponding elements.  I assumed I wouldnt have to write this code myself (and risk getting it wrong!).  I dont need to worry about view controllers or anything.  I just write my code.  This blog post up to this point has covered almost every aspect of this apps development in a few pages.  The iPhone tutorial has 5 top level steps with 2-3 sub sections of each. Now, its worth pointing out that the iPhone development model uses the Model View Controller (MVC) pattern, which is a very flexible and powerful pattern that enforces proper separation of concerns.  But its fairly complex and difficult to understand when you first walk up to it.  Here at Microsoft weve dabbled in MVC a bit, with frameworks like MFC on Visual C++ and with the ASP.NET MVC framework now.  Both are very powerful frameworks.  But one of the reasons weve stayed away from MVC with client UI frameworks is that its difficult to tool.  We havent seen the type of value that beats double click, write code! for the broad set of scenarios. Another thing to think about is how many of those lines of code were focused on my apps functionality?.  Or, the converse of How many lines of code were boilerplate plumbing?  In both examples, the actual number of functional code lines is similar.  I count most of them in MyViewController.m, in the changeGreeting method.  Its about 7 lines of code that do the work of taking the value from the TextBox and putting it into the label.  Versus 4 on the Windows Phone 7 side.  But, unfortunately, on iPhone I still have to write that other 37 lines of code, just to get there. 10% of the code, 1 file instead of 4, its just much simpler. Making Some Tweaks It turns out, I can actually do this application with ZERO  lines of code, if Im willing to change the spec a bit. The data binding functionality in Silverlight is incredibly powerful.  And what I can do is databind the TextBoxs value directly to the TextBlock.  Take some time looking at this XAML below.  Youll see that I have added another nested StackPanel and two more TextBlocks.  Why?  Because thats how I build that string, and the nested StackPanel will lay things out Horizontally for me, as specified by the Orientation property. 1: <StackPanel Margin="10"> 2: <TextBox Name="textBox1" HorizontalAlignment="Stretch" Text="You" TextAlignment="Center"/> 3: <StackPanel Orientation="Horizontal" HorizontalAlignment="Center" Margin="0,100,0,0" > 4: <TextBlock Text="Hello " /> 5: <TextBlock Name="textBlock1" Text="{Binding ElementName=textBox1, Path=Text}" /> 6: <TextBlock Text="!" /> 7: </StackPanel> 8: <Button Name="button1" HorizontalAlignment="Center" Margin="0,150,0,0" Content="Hello" Click="button1_Click" /> 9: </StackPanel> .csharpcode, .csharpcode pre { font-size: small; color: black; font-family: consolas, "Courier New", courier, monospace; background-color: #ffffff; /*white-space: pre;*/ } .csharpcode pre { margin: 0em; } .csharpcode .rem { color: #008000; } .csharpcode .kwrd { color: #0000ff; } .csharpcode .str { color: #006080; } .csharpcode .op { color: #0000c0; } .csharpcode .preproc { color: #cc6633; } .csharpcode .asp { background-color: #ffff00; } .csharpcode .html { color: #800000; } .csharpcode .attr { color: #ff0000; } .csharpcode .alt { background-color: #f4f4f4; width: 100%; margin: 0em; } .csharpcode .lnum { color: #606060; } Now, the real action is there in the bolded TextBlock.Text property: Text="{Binding ElementName=textBox1, Path=Text}" .csharpcode, .csharpcode pre { font-size: small; color: black; font-family: consolas, "Courier New", courier, monospace; background-color: #ffffff; /*white-space: pre;*/ } .csharpcode pre { margin: 0em; } .csharpcode .rem { color: #008000; } .csharpcode .kwrd { color: #0000ff; } .csharpcode .str { color: #006080; } .csharpcode .op { color: #0000c0; } .csharpcode .preproc { color: #cc6633; } .csharpcode .asp { background-color: #ffff00; } .csharpcode .html { color: #800000; } .csharpcode .attr { color: #ff0000; } .csharpcode .alt { background-color: #f4f4f4; width: 100%; margin: 0em; } .csharpcode .lnum { color: #606060; } That does all the heavy lifting.  It sets up a databinding between the TextBox.Text property on textBox1 and the TextBlock.Text property on textBlock1. As I change the text of the TextBox, the label updates automatically. In fact, I dont even need the button any more, so I could get rid of that altogether.  And no button means no event handler.  No event handler means no C# code at all.  Did you know that DotNetSlackers also publishes .net articles written by top known .net Authors? We already have over 80 articles in several categories including Silverlight. Take a look: here.

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• Building applications with WCF - Intro

  - by skjagini

  I am going to write series of articles using Windows Communication Framework (WCF) to develop client and server applications and this is the first part of that series. What is WCF As Juwal puts in his Programming WCF book, WCF provides an SDK for developing and deploying services on Windows, provides runtime environment to expose CLR types as services and consume services as CLR types. Building services with WCF is incredibly easy and it’s implementation provides a set of industry standards and off the shelf plumbing including service hosting, instance management, reliability, transaction management, security etc such that it greatly increases productivity Scenario: Lets consider a typical bank customer trying to create an account, deposit amount and transfer funds between accounts, i.e. checking and savings. To make it interesting, we are going to divide the functionality into multiple services and each of them working with database directly. We will run test cases with and without transactional support across services. In this post we will build contracts, services, data access layer, unit tests to verify end to end communication etc, nothing big stuff here and we dig into other features of the WCF in subsequent posts with incremental changes. In any distributed architecture we have two pieces i.e. services and clients. Services as the name implies provide functionality to execute various pieces of business logic on the server, and clients providing interaction to the end user. Services can be built with Web Services or with WCF. Service built on WCF have the advantage of binding independent, i.e. can run against TCP and HTTP protocol without any significant changes to the code. Solution Services Profile: For creating a new bank customer, getting details about existing customer ProfileContract ProfileService Checking Account: To get checking account balance, deposit or withdraw amount CheckingAccountContract CheckingAccountService Savings Account: To get savings account balance, deposit or withdraw amount SavingsAccountContract SavingsAccountService ServiceHost: To host services, i.e. running the services at particular address, binding and contract where client can connect to Client: Helps end user to use services like creating account and amount transfer between the accounts BankDAL: Data access layer to work with database     BankDAL It’s no brainer not to use an ORM as many matured products are available currently in market including Linq2Sql, Entity Framework (EF), LLblGenPro etc. For this exercise I am going to use Entity Framework 4.0, CTP 5 with code first approach. There are two approaches when working with data, data driven and code driven. In data driven we start by designing tables and their constrains in database and generate entities in code while in code driven (code first) approach entities are defined in code and the metadata generated from the entities is used by the EF to create tables and table constrains. In previous versions the entity classes had  to derive from EF specific base classes. In EF 4 it  is not required to derive from any EF classes, the entities are not only persistence ignorant but also enable full test driven development using mock frameworks.  Application consists of 3 entities, Customer entity which contains Customer details; CheckingAccount and SavingsAccount to hold the respective account balance. We could have introduced an Account base class for CheckingAccount and SavingsAccount which is certainly possible with EF mappings but to keep it simple we are just going to follow 1 –1 mapping between entity and table mappings. Lets start out by defining a class called Customer which will be mapped to Customer table, observe that the class is simply a plain old clr object (POCO) and has no reference to EF at all. using System;   namespace BankDAL.Model { public class Customer { public int Id { get; set; } public string FullName { get; set; } public string Address { get; set; } public DateTime DateOfBirth { get; set; } } }   In order to inform EF about the Customer entity we have to define a database context with properties of type DbSet<> for every POCO which needs to be mapped to a table in database. EF uses convention over configuration to generate the metadata resulting in much less configuration. using System.Data.Entity;   namespace BankDAL.Model { public class BankDbContext: DbContext { public DbSet<Customer> Customers { get; set; } } }   Entity constrains can be defined through attributes on Customer class or using fluent syntax (no need to muscle with xml files), CustomerConfiguration class. By defining constrains in a separate class we can maintain clean POCOs without corrupting entity classes with database specific information.   using System; using System.Data.Entity.ModelConfiguration;   namespace BankDAL.Model { public class CustomerConfiguration: EntityTypeConfiguration<Customer> { public CustomerConfiguration() { Initialize(); }   private void Initialize() { //Setting the Primary Key this.HasKey(e => e.Id);   //Setting required fields this.HasRequired(e => e.FullName); this.HasRequired(e => e.Address); //Todo: Can't create required constraint as DateOfBirth is not reference type, research it //this.HasRequired(e => e.DateOfBirth); } } }   Any queries executed against Customers property in BankDbContext are executed against Cusomers table. By convention EF looks for connection string with key of BankDbContext when working with the context.   We are going to define a helper class to work with Customer entity with methods for querying, adding new entity etc and these are known as repository classes, i.e., CustomerRepository   using System; using System.Data.Entity; using System.Linq; using BankDAL.Model;   namespace BankDAL.Repositories { public class CustomerRepository { private readonly IDbSet<Customer> _customers;   public CustomerRepository(BankDbContext bankDbContext) { if (bankDbContext == null) throw new ArgumentNullException(); _customers = bankDbContext.Customers; }   public IQueryable<Customer> Query() { return _customers; }   public void Add(Customer customer) { _customers.Add(customer); } } }   From the above code it is observable that the Query methods returns customers as IQueryable i.e. customers are retrieved only when actually used i.e. iterated. Returning as IQueryable also allows to execute filtering and joining statements from business logic using lamba expressions without cluttering the data access layer with tens of methods.   Our CheckingAccountRepository and SavingsAccountRepository look very similar to each other using System; using System.Data.Entity; using System.Linq; using BankDAL.Model;   namespace BankDAL.Repositories { public class CheckingAccountRepository { private readonly IDbSet<CheckingAccount> _checkingAccounts;   public CheckingAccountRepository(BankDbContext bankDbContext) { if (bankDbContext == null) throw new ArgumentNullException(); _checkingAccounts = bankDbContext.CheckingAccounts; }   public IQueryable<CheckingAccount> Query() { return _checkingAccounts; }   public void Add(CheckingAccount account) { _checkingAccounts.Add(account); }   public IQueryable<CheckingAccount> GetAccount(int customerId) { return (from act in _checkingAccounts where act.CustomerId == customerId select act); }   } } The repository classes look very similar to each other for Query and Add methods, with the help of C# generics and implementing repository pattern (Martin Fowler) we can reduce the repeated code. Jarod from ElegantCode has posted an article on how to use repository pattern with EF which we will implement in the subsequent articles along with WCF Unity life time managers by Drew Contracts It is very easy to follow contract first approach with WCF, define the interface and append ServiceContract, OperationContract attributes. IProfile contract exposes functionality for creating customer and getting customer details.   using System; using System.ServiceModel; using BankDAL.Model;   namespace ProfileContract { [ServiceContract] public interface IProfile { [OperationContract] Customer CreateCustomer(string customerName, string address, DateTime dateOfBirth);   [OperationContract] Customer GetCustomer(int id);   } }   ICheckingAccount contract exposes functionality for working with checking account, i.e., getting balance, deposit and withdraw of amount. ISavingsAccount contract looks the same as checking account.   using System.ServiceModel;   namespace CheckingAccountContract { [ServiceContract] public interface ICheckingAccount { [OperationContract] decimal? GetCheckingAccountBalance(int customerId);   [OperationContract] void DepositAmount(int customerId,decimal amount);   [OperationContract] void WithdrawAmount(int customerId, decimal amount);   } }   Services   Having covered the data access layer and contracts so far and here comes the core of the business logic, i.e. services.   .csharpcode, .csharpcode pre { font-size: small; color: black; font-family: consolas, "Courier New", courier, monospace; background-color: #ffffff; /*white-space: pre;*/ } .csharpcode pre { margin: 0em; } .csharpcode .rem { color: #008000; } .csharpcode .kwrd { color: #0000ff; } .csharpcode .str { color: #006080; } .csharpcode .op { color: #0000c0; } .csharpcode .preproc { color: #cc6633; } .csharpcode .asp { background-color: #ffff00; } .csharpcode .html { color: #800000; } .csharpcode .attr { color: #ff0000; } .csharpcode .alt { background-color: #f4f4f4; width: 100%; margin: 0em; } .csharpcode .lnum { color: #606060; } .csharpcode, .csharpcode pre { font-size: small; color: black; font-family: consolas, "Courier New", courier, monospace; background-color: #ffffff; /*white-space: pre;*/ } .csharpcode pre { margin: 0em; } .csharpcode .rem { color: #008000; } .csharpcode .kwrd { color: #0000ff; } .csharpcode .str { color: #006080; } .csharpcode .op { color: #0000c0; } .csharpcode .preproc { color: #cc6633; } .csharpcode .asp { background-color: #ffff00; } .csharpcode .html { color: #800000; } .csharpcode .attr { color: #ff0000; } .csharpcode .alt { background-color: #f4f4f4; width: 100%; margin: 0em; } .csharpcode .lnum { color: #606060; } .csharpcode, .csharpcode pre { font-size: small; color: black; font-family: consolas, "Courier New", courier, monospace; background-color: #ffffff; /*white-space: pre;*/ } .csharpcode pre { margin: 0em; } .csharpcode .rem { color: #008000; } .csharpcode .kwrd { color: #0000ff; } .csharpcode .str { color: #006080; } .csharpcode .op { color: #0000c0; } .csharpcode .preproc { color: #cc6633; } .csharpcode .asp { background-color: #ffff00; } .csharpcode .html { color: #800000; } .csharpcode .attr { color: #ff0000; } .csharpcode .alt { background-color: #f4f4f4; width: 100%; margin: 0em; } .csharpcode .lnum { color: #606060; } .csharpcode, .csharpcode pre { font-size: small; color: black; font-family: consolas, "Courier New", courier, monospace; background-color: #ffffff; /*white-space: pre;*/ } .csharpcode pre { margin: 0em; } .csharpcode .rem { color: #008000; } .csharpcode .kwrd { color: #0000ff; } .csharpcode .str { color: #006080; } .csharpcode .op { color: #0000c0; } .csharpcode .preproc { color: #cc6633; } .csharpcode .asp { background-color: #ffff00; } .csharpcode .html { color: #800000; } .csharpcode .attr { color: #ff0000; } .csharpcode .alt { background-color: #f4f4f4; width: 100%; margin: 0em; } .csharpcode .lnum { color: #606060; } .csharpcode, .csharpcode pre { font-size: small; color: black; font-family: consolas, "Courier New", courier, monospace; background-color: #ffffff; /*white-space: pre;*/ } .csharpcode pre { margin: 0em; } .csharpcode .rem { color: #008000; } .csharpcode .kwrd { color: #0000ff; } .csharpcode .str { color: #006080; } .csharpcode .op { color: #0000c0; } .csharpcode .preproc { color: #cc6633; } .csharpcode .asp { background-color: #ffff00; } .csharpcode .html { color: #800000; } .csharpcode .attr { color: #ff0000; } .csharpcode .alt { background-color: #f4f4f4; width: 100%; margin: 0em; } .csharpcode .lnum { color: #606060; } ProfileService implements the IProfile contract for creating customer and getting customer detail using CustomerRepository. using System; using System.Linq; using System.ServiceModel; using BankDAL; using BankDAL.Model; using BankDAL.Repositories; using ProfileContract;   namespace ProfileService { [ServiceBehavior(IncludeExceptionDetailInFaults = true)] public class Profile: IProfile { public Customer CreateAccount( string customerName, string address, DateTime dateOfBirth) { Customer cust = new Customer { FullName = customerName, Address = address, DateOfBirth = dateOfBirth };   using (var bankDbContext = new BankDbContext()) { new CustomerRepository(bankDbContext).Add(cust); bankDbContext.SaveChanges(); } return cust; }   public Customer CreateCustomer(string customerName, string address, DateTime dateOfBirth) { return CreateAccount(customerName, address, dateOfBirth); } public Customer GetCustomer(int id) { return new CustomerRepository(new BankDbContext()).Query() .Where(i => i.Id == id).FirstOrDefault(); }   } } From the above code you shall observe that we are calling bankDBContext’s SaveChanges method and there is no save method specific to customer entity because EF manages all the changes centralized at the context level and all the pending changes so far are submitted in a batch and it is represented as Unit of Work. Similarly Checking service implements ICheckingAccount contract using CheckingAccountRepository, notice that we are throwing overdraft exception if the balance falls by zero. WCF has it’s own way of raising exceptions using fault contracts which will be explained in the subsequent articles. SavingsAccountService is similar to CheckingAccountService. using System; using System.Linq; using System.ServiceModel; using BankDAL.Model; using BankDAL.Repositories; using CheckingAccountContract;   namespace CheckingAccountService { [ServiceBehavior(IncludeExceptionDetailInFaults = true)] public class Checking:ICheckingAccount { public decimal? GetCheckingAccountBalance(int customerId) { using (var bankDbContext = new BankDbContext()) { CheckingAccount account = (new CheckingAccountRepository(bankDbContext) .GetAccount(customerId)).FirstOrDefault();   if (account != null) return account.Balance;   return null; } }   public void DepositAmount(int customerId, decimal amount) { using(var bankDbContext = new BankDbContext()) { var checkingAccountRepository = new CheckingAccountRepository(bankDbContext); CheckingAccount account = (checkingAccountRepository.GetAccount(customerId)) .FirstOrDefault();   if (account == null) { account = new CheckingAccount() { CustomerId = customerId }; checkingAccountRepository.Add(account); }   account.Balance = account.Balance + amount; if (account.Balance < 0) throw new ApplicationException("Overdraft not accepted");   bankDbContext.SaveChanges(); } } public void WithdrawAmount(int customerId, decimal amount) { DepositAmount(customerId, -1*amount); } } }   BankServiceHost The host acts as a glue binding contracts with it’s services, exposing the endpoints. The services can be exposed either through the code or configuration file, configuration file is preferred as it allows run time changes to service behavior even after deployment. We have 3 services and for each of the service you need to define name (the class that implements the service with fully qualified namespace) and endpoint known as ABC, i.e. address, binding and contract. We are using netTcpBinding and have defined the base address with for each of the contracts .csharpcode, .csharpcode pre { font-size: small; color: black; font-family: consolas, "Courier New", courier, monospace; background-color: #ffffff; /*white-space: pre;*/ } .csharpcode pre { margin: 0em; } .csharpcode .rem { color: #008000; } .csharpcode .kwrd { color: #0000ff; } .csharpcode .str { color: #006080; } .csharpcode .op { color: #0000c0; } .csharpcode .preproc { color: #cc6633; } .csharpcode .asp { background-color: #ffff00; } .csharpcode .html { color: #800000; } .csharpcode .attr { color: #ff0000; } .csharpcode .alt { background-color: #f4f4f4; width: 100%; margin: 0em; } .csharpcode .lnum { color: #606060; } <system.serviceModel> <services> <service name="ProfileService.Profile"> <endpoint binding="netTcpBinding" contract="ProfileContract.IProfile"/> <host> <baseAddresses> <add baseAddress="net.tcp://localhost:1000/Profile"/> </baseAddresses> </host> </service> <service name="CheckingAccountService.Checking"> <endpoint binding="netTcpBinding" contract="CheckingAccountContract.ICheckingAccount"/> <host> <baseAddresses> <add baseAddress="net.tcp://localhost:1000/Checking"/> </baseAddresses> </host> </service> <service name="SavingsAccountService.Savings"> <endpoint binding="netTcpBinding" contract="SavingsAccountContract.ISavingsAccount"/> <host> <baseAddresses> <add baseAddress="net.tcp://localhost:1000/Savings"/> </baseAddresses> </host> </service> </services> </system.serviceModel> Have to open the services by creating service host which will handle the incoming requests from clients.   using System;   namespace ServiceHost { class Program { static void Main(string[] args) { CreateHosts(); Console.ReadLine(); }   private static void CreateHosts() { CreateHost(typeof(ProfileService.Profile),"Profile Service"); CreateHost(typeof(SavingsAccountService.Savings), "Savings Account Service"); CreateHost(typeof(CheckingAccountService.Checking), "Checking Account Service"); }   private static void CreateHost(Type type, string hostDescription) { System.ServiceModel.ServiceHost host = new System.ServiceModel.ServiceHost(type); host.Open();   if (host.ChannelDispatchers != null && host.ChannelDispatchers.Count != 0 && host.ChannelDispatchers[0].Listener != null) Console.WriteLine("Started: " + host.ChannelDispatchers[0].Listener.Uri); else Console.WriteLine("Failed to start:" + hostDescription); } } } BankClient    The client has no knowledge about service business logic other than the functionality it exposes through the contract, end points and a proxy to work against. The endpoint data and server proxy can be generated by right clicking on the project reference and choosing ‘Add Service Reference’ and entering the service end point address. Or if you have access to source, you can manually reference contract dlls and update clients configuration file to point to the service end point if the server and client happens to be being built using .Net framework. One of the pros with the manual approach is you don’t have to work against messy code generated files.   <system.serviceModel> <client> <endpoint name="tcpProfile" address="net.tcp://localhost:1000/Profile" binding="netTcpBinding" contract="ProfileContract.IProfile"/> <endpoint name="tcpCheckingAccount" address="net.tcp://localhost:1000/Checking" binding="netTcpBinding" contract="CheckingAccountContract.ICheckingAccount"/> <endpoint name="tcpSavingsAccount" address="net.tcp://localhost:1000/Savings" binding="netTcpBinding" contract="SavingsAccountContract.ISavingsAccount"/>   </client> </system.serviceModel> The client uses a façade to connect to the services   using System.ServiceModel; using CheckingAccountContract; using ProfileContract; using SavingsAccountContract;   namespace Client { public class ProxyFacade { public static IProfile ProfileProxy() { return (new ChannelFactory<IProfile>("tcpProfile")).CreateChannel(); }   public static ICheckingAccount CheckingAccountProxy() { return (new ChannelFactory<ICheckingAccount>("tcpCheckingAccount")) .CreateChannel(); }   public static ISavingsAccount SavingsAccountProxy() { return (new ChannelFactory<ISavingsAccount>("tcpSavingsAccount")) .CreateChannel(); }   } }   With that in place, lets get our unit tests going   using System; using System.Diagnostics; using BankDAL.Model; using NUnit.Framework; using ProfileContract;   namespace Client { [TestFixture] public class Tests { private void TransferFundsFromSavingsToCheckingAccount(int customerId, decimal amount) { ProxyFacade.CheckingAccountProxy().DepositAmount(customerId, amount); ProxyFacade.SavingsAccountProxy().WithdrawAmount(customerId, amount); }   private void TransferFundsFromCheckingToSavingsAccount(int customerId, decimal amount) { ProxyFacade.SavingsAccountProxy().DepositAmount(customerId, amount); ProxyFacade.CheckingAccountProxy().WithdrawAmount(customerId, amount); }     [Test] public void CreateAndGetProfileTest() { IProfile profile = ProxyFacade.ProfileProxy(); const string customerName = "Tom"; int customerId = profile.CreateCustomer(customerName, "NJ", new DateTime(1982, 1, 1)).Id; Customer customer = profile.GetCustomer(customerId); Assert.AreEqual(customerName,customer.FullName); }   [Test] public void DepositWithDrawAndTransferAmountTest() { IProfile profile = ProxyFacade.ProfileProxy(); string customerName = "Smith" + DateTime.Now.ToString("HH:mm:ss"); var customer = profile.CreateCustomer(customerName, "NJ", new DateTime(1982, 1, 1)); // Deposit to Savings ProxyFacade.SavingsAccountProxy().DepositAmount(customer.Id, 100); ProxyFacade.SavingsAccountProxy().DepositAmount(customer.Id, 25); Assert.AreEqual(125, ProxyFacade.SavingsAccountProxy().GetSavingsAccountBalance(customer.Id)); // Withdraw ProxyFacade.SavingsAccountProxy().WithdrawAmount(customer.Id, 30); Assert.AreEqual(95, ProxyFacade.SavingsAccountProxy().GetSavingsAccountBalance(customer.Id));   // Deposit to Checking ProxyFacade.CheckingAccountProxy().DepositAmount(customer.Id, 60); ProxyFacade.CheckingAccountProxy().DepositAmount(customer.Id, 40); Assert.AreEqual(100, ProxyFacade.CheckingAccountProxy().GetCheckingAccountBalance(customer.Id)); // Withdraw ProxyFacade.CheckingAccountProxy().WithdrawAmount(customer.Id, 30); Assert.AreEqual(70, ProxyFacade.CheckingAccountProxy().GetCheckingAccountBalance(customer.Id));   // Transfer from Savings to Checking TransferFundsFromSavingsToCheckingAccount(customer.Id,10); Assert.AreEqual(85, ProxyFacade.SavingsAccountProxy().GetSavingsAccountBalance(customer.Id)); Assert.AreEqual(80, ProxyFacade.CheckingAccountProxy().GetCheckingAccountBalance(customer.Id));   // Transfer from Checking to Savings TransferFundsFromCheckingToSavingsAccount(customer.Id, 50); Assert.AreEqual(135, ProxyFacade.SavingsAccountProxy().GetSavingsAccountBalance(customer.Id)); Assert.AreEqual(30, ProxyFacade.CheckingAccountProxy().GetCheckingAccountBalance(customer.Id)); }   [Test] public void FundTransfersWithOverDraftTest() { IProfile profile = ProxyFacade.ProfileProxy(); string customerName = "Angelina" + DateTime.Now.ToString("HH:mm:ss");   var customerId = profile.CreateCustomer(customerName, "NJ", new DateTime(1972, 1, 1)).Id;   ProxyFacade.SavingsAccountProxy().DepositAmount(customerId, 100); TransferFundsFromSavingsToCheckingAccount(customerId,80); Assert.AreEqual(20, ProxyFacade.SavingsAccountProxy().GetSavingsAccountBalance(customerId)); Assert.AreEqual(80, ProxyFacade.CheckingAccountProxy().GetCheckingAccountBalance(customerId));   try { TransferFundsFromSavingsToCheckingAccount(customerId,30); } catch (Exception e) { Debug.WriteLine(e.Message); }   Assert.AreEqual(110, ProxyFacade.CheckingAccountProxy().GetCheckingAccountBalance(customerId)); Assert.AreEqual(20, ProxyFacade.SavingsAccountProxy().GetSavingsAccountBalance(customerId)); } } }   We are creating a new instance of the channel for every operation, we will look into instance management and how creating a new instance of channel affects it in subsequent articles. The first two test cases deals with creation of Customer, deposit and withdraw of month between accounts. The last case, FundTransferWithOverDraftTest() is interesting. Customer starts with depositing $100 in SavingsAccount followed by transfer of $80 in to checking account resulting in $20 in savings account.  Customer then initiates $30 transfer from Savings to Checking resulting in overdraft exception on Savings with $30 being deposited to Checking. As we are not running both the requests in transactions the customer ends up with more amount than what he started with $100. In subsequent posts we will look into transactions handling.  Make sure the ServiceHost project is set as start up project and start the solution. Run the test cases either from NUnit client or TestDriven.Net/Resharper which ever is your favorite tool. Make sure you have updated the data base connection string in the ServiceHost config file to point to your local database

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• iphone app crash, crash log posted, help please

  - by terry jones

  hi, we recenty had a programmer to develop a program for us but seems to have left us in the lurch with a part functioning application. my boss isnt happy at moment as we have spent a few hundred and have nothing to show for it at the moment. can anyone see any information in the crash log below as its gibberish to me. Incident Identifier: D4F482FE-167A-44BB-A642-7E8EF7B568BF CrashReporter Key: 2d8e2d17415c55e48ec20dae7cbe6c36b33bcce1 Process: Logistics [328] Path: /var/mobile/Applications/32A03443-ADE3-4AAE-AB32-05DB7BEB15D8/Logistics.app/Logistics Identifier: Logistics Version: ??? (???) Code Type: ARM (Native) Parent Process: launchd [1] Date/Time: 2010-03-29 17:07:06.474 +0200 OS Version: iPhone OS 3.1.2 (7D11) Report Version: 104 Exception Type: EXC_CRASH (SIGABRT) Exception Codes: 0x00000000, 0x00000000 Crashed Thread: 0 Thread 0 Crashed: 0 libSystem.B.dylib 0x31a279ac 0x319a9000 + 518572 1 libSystem.B.dylib 0x31a2799c 0x319a9000 + 518556 2 libSystem.B.dylib 0x31a2798e 0x319a9000 + 518542 3 libSystem.B.dylib 0x31a3c63a 0x319a9000 + 603706 4 libstdc++.6.dylib 0x3361d3b0 0x335d8000 + 283568 5 libobjc.A.dylib 0x32401858 0x323fc000 + 22616 6 libstdc++.6.dylib 0x3361b776 0x335d8000 + 276342 7 libstdc++.6.dylib 0x3361b7ca 0x335d8000 + 276426 8 libstdc++.6.dylib 0x3361b896 0x335d8000 + 276630 9 libobjc.A.dylib 0x32400714 0x323fc000 + 18196 10 CoreFoundation 0x32537b86 0x32511000 + 158598 11 CoreFoundation 0x32537b24 0x32511000 + 158500 12 Foundation 0x3145ddaa 0x313ed000 + 462250 13 Foundation 0x31454ee2 0x313ed000 + 425698 14 Logistics 0x00002df8 0x1000 + 7672 15 CoreFoundation 0x32569ede 0x32511000 + 364254 16 UIKit 0x32ba205e 0x32b60000 + 270430 17 UIKit 0x32bf4d4e 0x32b60000 + 609614 18 CoreFoundation 0x32569ede 0x32511000 + 364254 19 UIKit 0x32ba205e 0x32b60000 + 270430 20 UIKit 0x32ba1ffe 0x32b60000 + 270334 21 UIKit 0x32ba1fd0 0x32b60000 + 270288 22 UIKit 0x32ba1d2a 0x32b60000 + 269610 23 UIKit 0x32ba263e 0x32b60000 + 271934 24 UIKit 0x32ba1656 0x32b60000 + 267862 25 UIKit 0x32ba1032 0x32b60000 + 266290 26 UIKit 0x32b9d928 0x32b60000 + 252200 27 UIKit 0x32b9d3a0 0x32b60000 + 250784 28 GraphicsServices 0x32913b72 0x3290f000 + 19314 29 CoreFoundation 0x32567c26 0x32511000 + 355366 30 CoreFoundation 0x32567356 0x32511000 + 353110 31 GraphicsServices 0x32912cb8 0x3290f000 + 15544 32 GraphicsServices 0x32912d64 0x3290f000 + 15716 33 UIKit 0x32b62768 0x32b60000 + 10088 34 UIKit 0x32b6146c 0x32b60000 + 5228 35 Logistics 0x000023c4 0x1000 + 5060 36 Logistics 0x00002380 0x1000 + 4992 Thread 1: 0 libSystem.B.dylib 0x319a9818 0x319a9000 + 2072 1 libSystem.B.dylib 0x319abff8 0x319a9000 + 12280 2 CoreFoundation 0x325677f6 0x32511000 + 354294 3 CoreFoundation 0x32567356 0x32511000 + 353110 4 WebCore 0x305d59de 0x30578000 + 383454 5 libSystem.B.dylib 0x319cd92a 0x319a9000 + 149802 Thread 2: 0 libSystem.B.dylib 0x31a28228 0x319a9000 + 520744 1 libSystem.B.dylib 0x319d3244 0x319a9000 + 172612 2 libSystem.B.dylib 0x319d2d0e 0x319a9000 + 171278 3 CoreMedia 0x33552b04 0x3354f000 + 15108 4 CoreMedia 0x33552a3a 0x3354f000 + 14906 5 MediaToolbox 0x31e1b50c 0x31e18000 + 13580 6 libSystem.B.dylib 0x319cd92a 0x319a9000 + 149802 Thread 0 crashed with ARM Thread State: r0: 0x00000000 r1: 0x00000000 r2: 0x00000001 r3: 0x383c43cc r4: 0x00000006 r5: 0x3361b30d r6: 0x00172f5c r7: 0x2fffe97c r8: 0x2fffe968 r9: 0x00000065 r10: 0x00007150 r11: 0x334bd104 ip: 0x00000025 sp: 0x2fffe97c lr: 0x31a279a3 pc: 0x31a279ac cpsr: 0x00000010 Binary Images: 0x1000 - 0x6fff +Logistics armv6 <350fc970d77b4d8d67bf43f4d7f2a68c> /var/mobile/Applications/32A03443-ADE3-4AAE-AB32-05DB7BEB15D8/Logistics.app/Logistics 0x2c000 - 0x2dfff dns.so armv7 <35ac487c38e38ed5810d5ed0d5c67546> /usr/lib/info/dns.so 0x2fe00000 - 0x2fe24fff dyld armv7 <5db9f5d0275997de58efff111816706e> /usr/lib/dyld 0x30028000 - 0x3004ffff ContentIndex armv7 <67165d749b79ad4b14c8a24f14dab29d> /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/ContentIndex.framework/ContentIndex 0x30050000 - 0x30054fff ITSync armv7 <a0bf9af6f4ebc7e5977d3da853671162> /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/ITSync.framework/ITSync 0x30149000 - 0x3016efff AppSupport armv7 <ca2e9a4f0475af20028968840ab94ecf> /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/AppSupport.framework/AppSupport 0x30175000 - 0x3017ffff MobileCoreServices armv7 <36d71cd8dd49f5d5addb356f449b562a> /System/Library/Frameworks/MobileCoreServices.framework/MobileCoreServices 0x30184000 - 0x30184fff Accelerate armv7 <939f94df6c7e6e7a090ddee1ec09c844> /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/Accelerate.framework/Accelerate 0x30185000 - 0x301b7fff iCalendar armv7 <235e05f7e167e6dbbd75528a4a37f3a3> /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/iCalendar.framework/iCalendar 0x301b8000 - 0x301c3fff libz.1.dylib armv7 <8faba7ded9b3527ccf54c2f224f9a12f> /usr/lib/libz.1.dylib 0x301c4000 - 0x301eefff CoreText armv7 <821e9c7c935b6a8d735e2d2d9ebcee04> /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/CoreText.framework/CoreText 0x301f6000 - 0x301fffff IAP armv7 <36e57cf20df9fcea10ebd0d1c3526a9a> /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/IAP.framework/IAP 0x30247000 - 0x30279fff MessageUI armv7 <51d0498fb3dba758dae660754f1afb9c> /System/Library/Frameworks/MessageUI.framework/MessageUI 0x3027a000 - 0x3027efff MobileMusicPlayer armv7 <f0e7d2d2d69e9cc2a84e20bced0e1d07> /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/MobileMusicPlayer.framework/MobileMusicPlayer 0x302c6000 - 0x302cefff CoreVideo armv7 <9259f5ae2a74b53e4f13b27fa3d511e8> /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/CoreVideo.framework/CoreVideo 0x30348000 - 0x3034afff CrashReporterSupport armv7 <a0a25c381e45f8a3f4ec63bcb17a5a39> /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/CrashReporterSupport.framework/CrashReporterSupport 0x304a3000 - 0x304cefff MIME armv7 <55a4de1d243273ee7ef4e86a85d591f5> /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/MIME.framework/MIME 0x304cf000 - 0x3050ffff libsqlite3.dylib armv7 <c2b5985d8307d73b39140e76adfd2eb7> /usr/lib/libsqlite3.dylib 0x3054a000 - 0x30569fff Bom armv7 <37e498957087af50894156808e0a486b> /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/Bom.framework/Bom 0x30578000 - 0x30a4efff WebCore armv7 <4e2bac4e01a15979c9ac096f78280db0> /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/WebCore.framework/WebCore 0x30a58000 - 0x30b12fff Message armv7 <a5a7de97c57a6965f27547bf8ff8810c> /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/Message.framework/Message 0x30b13000 - 0x30b13fff vecLib armv7 <4eb91bf56603dc0db6784d8d3240bfa8> /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/Accelerate.framework/Frameworks/vecLib.framework/vecLib 0x30c1e000 - 0x30c23fff ProtocolBuffer armv7 <91af9ee5b2f271cbd8c138b3c61e508d> /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/ProtocolBuffer.framework/ProtocolBuffer 0x30d05000 - 0x30d29fff SystemConfiguration armv7 <c57df668b510f025ee5a173ad30fb48e> /System/Library/Frameworks/SystemConfiguration.framework/SystemConfiguration 0x30d6c000 - 0x30decfff QuartzCore armv7 <af0722911ffc74fc08075e9831a6222e> /System/Library/Frameworks/QuartzCore.framework/QuartzCore 0x30e5d000 - 0x30e72fff libresolv.9.dylib armv7 <2b6a9404652dd2b5abd1c6a5583e8533> /usr/lib/libresolv.9.dylib 0x30e73000 - 0x30ebdfff GMM armv7 <72c87b3b08ab4359802b6efed472bf46> /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/GMM.framework/GMM 0x30ec7000 - 0x30ed0fff SpringBoardServices armv7 <17ca8b5262cd6484d41efdc72c6fd057> /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/SpringBoardServices.framework/SpringBoardServices 0x30ed1000 - 0x30f43fff LDAP armv7 <a5f6d51ebcab28eeabe0f2bbbdeb8cc7> /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/LDAP.framework/LDAP 0x30fe6000 - 0x30ffbfff OpenGLES armv7 <be80a5e4c55c2920be2c31f740bb9dba> /System/Library/Frameworks/OpenGLES.framework/OpenGLES 0x31003000 - 0x31009fff libkxld.dylib armv7 <04ab19af95239c12a98539478eebc560> /usr/lib/system/libkxld.dylib 0x3114f000 - 0x311acfff MediaPlayer armv7 <1021fc5da1419ba297464f71049ad084> /System/Library/Frameworks/MediaPlayer.framework/MediaPlayer 0x311ad000 - 0x311cefff CoreLocation armv7 <a3857b8324f90ae48994df15fdfbcda6> /System/Library/Frameworks/CoreLocation.framework/CoreLocation 0x311d5000 - 0x31214fff Celestial armv7 <f8bde8e040e6aac9e36e0aa8b43ee8cc> /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/Celestial.framework/Celestial 0x312f6000 - 0x312fcfff libgcc_s.1.dylib armv7 <263b2691cd12171b31fa600716104e4a> /usr/lib/libgcc_s.1.dylib 0x31338000 - 0x31367fff libCGFreetype.A.dylib armv7 <2ec5ad6812f5ea3859cb4189d62b7265> /System/Library/Frameworks/CoreGraphics.framework/Resources/libCGFreetype.A.dylib 0x31393000 - 0x313cafff IOKit armv7 <0afabe8bf08fc163ba8e4ed614092cd3> /System/Library/Frameworks/IOKit.framework/Versions/A/IOKit 0x313e9000 - 0x313eafff IOMobileFramebuffer armv7 <9d9f0254b5b64ced3d58191748f3027b> /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/IOMobileFramebuffer.framework/IOMobileFramebuffer 0x313ed000 - 0x314e2fff Foundation armv7 <ede5b943f529ce1b862c15dc876992c1> /System/Library/Frameworks/Foundation.framework/Foundation 0x314ed000 - 0x31599fff libxml2.2.dylib armv7 <a491bfc5f062f33185a3f98969bae3c2> /usr/lib/libxml2.2.dylib 0x315fc000 - 0x315fefff MobileInstallation armv7 <b8ebf64838bdfe5315dab5745482e30c> /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/MobileInstallation.framework/MobileInstallation 0x31919000 - 0x31923fff MobileBluetooth armv7 <bc6cf9563c3a14a86cde6ddf6cc3ed45> /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/MobileBluetooth.framework/MobileBluetooth 0x31926000 - 0x319a8fff WebKit armv7 <b9b7246a09f5db68e44497d318cb3ab6> /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/WebKit.framework/WebKit 0x319a9000 - 0x31aa0fff libSystem.B.dylib armv7 <3f94d4b13815a93cbdfc6c7dc2afe5b4> /usr/lib/libSystem.B.dylib 0x31aa2000 - 0x31b8bfff AudioToolbox armv7 <393fa1e155bb0523c2a90555bb394498> /System/Library/Frameworks/AudioToolbox.framework/AudioToolbox 0x31b8d000 - 0x31bfcfff CFNetwork armv7 <b55671f2472fdae3f811ae6f636b4e2e> /System/Library/Frameworks/CFNetwork.framework/CFNetwork 0x31cb2000 - 0x31d12fff AddressBookUI armv7 <5e5b83d3c9e2c0676671feebfb8d37c9> /System/Library/Frameworks/AddressBookUI.framework/AddressBookUI 0x31d19000 - 0x31d21fff AccountSettings armv7 <37a8916d02c399bfccc56e92ad68e84b> /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/AccountSettings.framework/AccountSettings 0x31d28000 - 0x31d34fff MobileDeviceLink armv7 <d757be3521f8ed71709728790c29bdb2> /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/MobileDeviceLink.framework/MobileDeviceLink 0x31d3a000 - 0x31d3cfff Notes armv7 <f7c579348cb58b5f2218c042cf46f422> /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/Notes.framework/Notes 0x31d59000 - 0x31d5cfff IOSurface armv7 <81661b8e151a9af6ce5704a728e12dc7> /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/IOSurface.framework/IOSurface 0x31e18000 - 0x31ed8fff MediaToolbox armv7 <b9023dc22073ab28f6fb8ecbe00951c2> /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/MediaToolbox.framework/MediaToolbox 0x31ed9000 - 0x31f8dfff JavaScriptCore armv7 <d3434c868a9a0f4016ed32ba90a35c4d> /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/JavaScriptCore.framework/JavaScriptCore 0x31f91000 - 0x320e6fff CoreGraphics armv7 <5852bd39fd1ef304da7b017949755cab> /System/Library/Frameworks/CoreGraphics.framework/CoreGraphics 0x32150000 - 0x3217cfff DAVKit armv7 <80cf41b34d377d21d406fcb6835fbf77> /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/DAVKit.framework/DAVKit 0x321d4000 - 0x322d5fff libicucore.A.dylib armv7 <1081389fef915d9b8858d0dfff04568e> /usr/lib/libicucore.A.dylib 0x322d6000 - 0x322d9fff ActorKit armv7 <c81b8278a35c6e8293aaf7c55811ba2d> /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/ActorKit.framework/ActorKit 0x322da000 - 0x32388fff DataAccess armv7 <e9225a8b94fe76047095ebecd6fd58c5> /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/DataAccess.framework/DataAccess 0x32389000 - 0x32390fff libbz2.1.0.dylib armv7 <6675987a84fc3d127305c175085914aa> /usr/lib/libbz2.1.0.dylib 0x323fc000 - 0x32499fff libobjc.A.dylib armv7 <1a57ecb9f5c0f274a274b3eb53df48ed> /usr/lib/libobjc.A.dylib 0x324b5000 - 0x324cbfff AddressBook armv7 <c21d7ab21d7e67f84c487bc278568bbe> /System/Library/Frameworks/AddressBook.framework/AddressBook 0x324d6000 - 0x32510fff CoreTelephony armv7 <5b68ed8ffac45237acc948e9d5bb5e83> /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/CoreTelephony.framework/CoreTelephony 0x32511000 - 0x325bbfff CoreFoundation armv7 <51c03f1f8755868781e3e719d8df7b6f> /System/Library/Frameworks/CoreFoundation.framework/CoreFoundation 0x325ca000 - 0x3268bfff MusicLibrary armv7 <ce4922bef1cc1d6706da32480c2272bd> /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/MusicLibrary.framework/MusicLibrary 0x3268c000 - 0x3268efff AppleJPEG armv7 <af51b716dce446178b366a8d5af48ebb> /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/AppleJPEG.framework/AppleJPEG 0x3268f000 - 0x326adfff MobileSync armv7 <1eecaede37e5d042180473311efccda3> /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/MobileSync.framework/MobileSync 0x32860000 - 0x3286bfff PersistentConnection armv7 <73c2bec8b5f870ea528f359c2374f19c> /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/PersistentConnection.framework/PersistentConnection 0x3286c000 - 0x328f2fff ImageIO armv7 <ea76d0fd3ca8c1a6104bc0f013255e2d> /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/ImageIO.framework/ImageIO 0x3290f000 - 0x32918fff GraphicsServices armv7 <5387c7197570ac7df97759c0402d453d> /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/GraphicsServices.framework/GraphicsServices 0x32933000 - 0x3299bfff PhotoLibrary armv7 <0535fc553452b7b6cc25ac990cff4a40> /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/PhotoLibrary.framework/PhotoLibrary 0x3299f000 - 0x329ccfff Calendar armv7 <52446b9087d707210cb515b0894afee5> /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/Calendar.framework/Calendar 0x329d6000 - 0x329fffff TextInput armv7 <2e983bf3876bfeaf7151aa8a0e68dabc> /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/TextInput.framework/TextInput 0x32a01000 - 0x32a02fff CoreSurface armv7 <f3aae0195e4510657029b19161138593> /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/CoreSurface.framework/CoreSurface 0x32a09000 - 0x32a0bfff Camera armv7 <81c49c0f094225be8a6ad129a8641c86> /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/Camera.framework/Camera 0x32a56000 - 0x32a7efff libvDSP.dylib armv7 <d846b621ce13b16241ac2d32ddd28615> /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/Accelerate.framework/Frameworks/vecLib.framework/libvDSP.dylib 0x32a81000 - 0x32a86fff liblockdown.dylib armv7 <5b665cd59d9884ceecec6441fc42bc14> /usr/lib/liblockdown.dylib 0x32a8a000 - 0x32a96fff DataAccessExpress armv7 <ad1aeb0c6df9b0b917c1c99405e36cc4> /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/DataAccessExpress.framework/DataAccessExpress 0x32ab5000 - 0x32ac3fff TelephonyUI armv7 <b34206a34dfb1cc4183274cc6c0a3f36> /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/TelephonyUI.framework/TelephonyUI 0x32ac4000 - 0x32ae5fff MobileQuickLook armv7 <06cb03b3f1bd2c5bfa27ba2aef0849b2> /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/MobileQuickLook.framework/MobileQuickLook 0x32aed000 - 0x32b07fff libRIP.A.dylib armv7 <0dc4e83b63c1350517949e24204817fb> /System/Library/Frameworks/CoreGraphics.framework/Resources/libRIP.A.dylib 0x32b09000 - 0x32b2dfff Security armv7 <3a3406fe12445942f4d767c7fa4c24ce> /System/Library/Frameworks/Security.framework/Security 0x32b2e000 - 0x32b5bfff VideoToolbox armv7 <08b68b92f987faff46a127f6f78708a0> /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/VideoToolbox.framework/VideoToolbox 0x32b60000 - 0x33524fff UIKit armv7 <47c9d61f9cbe72938d1bfb1588306b97> /System/Library/Frameworks/UIKit.framework/UIKit 0x3354f000 - 0x33580fff CoreMedia armv7 <584770f5de9c599a2d420eb8666921ac> /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/CoreMedia.framework/CoreMedia 0x33586000 - 0x33588fff ArtworkCache armv7 <66057eb40ba62cb544fe00ac4f2b498e> /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/ArtworkCache.framework/ArtworkCache 0x33594000 - 0x33599fff MBX2D armv7 <ae091892e4419221d25f8db9307cedf0> /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/MBX2D.framework/MBX2D 0x3359a000 - 0x335d7fff CoreAudio armv7 <1eb427066a911d979a024e445464a067> /System/Library/Frameworks/CoreAudio.framework/CoreAudio 0x335d8000 - 0x33621fff libstdc++.6.dylib armv7 <99401ed10ec4d5608ce23ec33dd757c6> /usr/lib/libstdc++.6.dylib 0x33627000 - 0x33632fff libbsm.0.dylib armv7 <03f3879bad1802636dadeb457ee74cb2> /usr/lib/libbsm.0.dylib

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• Camera Preview App in Android throwing many errors (Nexus 4)

  - by Jagatheesan Jack

  I am trying to develop a camera app that takes a picture and saves it in a SQLite database. I get a lot of errors when executing the application. My code is as below. Any idea? CameraActivity.java private Camera mCamera; private CameraPreview mPreview; private int CAMERA_RETURN_CODE=100; private static final String TAG = "Take_Picture"; public static final int MEDIA_TYPE_IMAGE = 1; public static final int MEDIA_TYPE_VIDEO = 2; private Bitmap cameraBmp; private int MAX_FACES = 1; private Face[] faceList; public RectF[] rects; private Canvas canvas; private Drawable pictureDataDrawable; private MySQLiteHelper database; @Override public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) { super.onCreate(savedInstanceState); setContentView(R.layout.camera_activity); //this.requestWindowFeature(Window.FEATURE_NO_TITLE); //Create an instance of Camera mCamera = getCameraInstance(); setCameraDisplayOrientation(this, 0, mCamera); // Create our Preview view and set it as the content of our activity. mPreview = new CameraPreview(this, mCamera); FrameLayout preview = (FrameLayout) findViewById(R.id.camera_preview); preview.addView(mPreview); database = new MySQLiteHelper(getApplicationContext()); Button captureButton = (Button) findViewById(R.id.button_capture); captureButton.setOnClickListener( new View.OnClickListener() { private PictureCallback mPicture; @Override public void onClick(View v) { //mCamera.startPreview(); // get an image from the camera mCamera.takePicture(null, null, mPicture); PictureCallback mPicture = new PictureCallback() { @Override public void onPictureTaken(byte[] data, Camera camera) { try{ if (data != null) database.addEntry(data); //mCamera.startPreview(); } catch(Exception e){ Log.d(TAG, e.getMessage()); } } } ); } /** A safe way to get an instance of the Camera object. */ public static Camera getCameraInstance(){ Camera c = null; try { c = Camera.open(c.getNumberOfCameras()-1); // attempt to get a Camera instance } catch (Exception e){ // Camera is not available (in use or does not exist) } return c; // returns null if camera is unavailable } public static void setCameraDisplayOrientation(Activity activity, int cameraId, android.hardware.Camera camera) { android.hardware.Camera.CameraInfo info = new android.hardware.Camera.CameraInfo(); android.hardware.Camera.getCameraInfo(cameraId, info); int rotation = activity.getWindowManager().getDefaultDisplay() .getRotation(); int degrees = 360; /*switch (rotation) { case Surface.ROTATION_0: degrees = 0; break; case Surface.ROTATION_90: degrees = 90; break; case Surface.ROTATION_180: degrees = 180; break; case Surface.ROTATION_270: degrees = 270; break; }*/ int result; if (info.facing == Camera.CameraInfo.CAMERA_FACING_FRONT) { result = (info.orientation + degrees) % 360; result = (360 - result) % 360; // compensate the mirror } else { // back-facing result = (info.orientation - degrees + 360) % 360; } camera.setDisplayOrientation(result); } @Override protected void onPause() { super.onPause(); //releaseMediaRecorder(); // if you are using MediaRecorder, release it first releaseCamera(); // release the camera immediately on pause event } private void releaseCamera(){ if (mCamera != null){ mCamera.release(); // release the camera for other applications mCamera = null; } } public void startFaceDetection(){ // Try starting Face Detection Camera.Parameters params = mCamera.getParameters(); // start face detection only *after* preview has started if (params.getMaxNumDetectedFaces() > 0){ // camera supports face detection, so can start it: mCamera.startFaceDetection(); } } CameraPreview.java public class CameraPreview extends SurfaceView implements SurfaceHolder.Callback { private SurfaceHolder mHolder; private Camera mCamera; private String TAG; private List<Size> mSupportedPreviewSizes; public CameraPreview(Context context, Camera camera) { super(context); mCamera = camera; // Install a SurfaceHolder.Callback so we get notified when the // underlying surface is created and destroyed. mHolder = getHolder(); mHolder.addCallback(this); // deprecated setting, but required on Android versions prior to 3.0 mHolder.setType(SurfaceHolder.SURFACE_TYPE_PUSH_BUFFERS); } public void surfaceCreated(SurfaceHolder holder) { // The Surface has been created, now tell the camera where to draw the preview. try { mCamera.setPreviewDisplay(holder); mCamera.setDisplayOrientation(90); mCamera.startPreview(); } catch (IOException e) { Log.d(TAG, "Error setting camera preview: " + e.getMessage()); } } public void surfaceDestroyed(SurfaceHolder holder) { // empty. Take care of releasing the Camera preview in your activity. } public void surfaceChanged(SurfaceHolder holder, int format, int w, int h) { // If your preview can change or rotate, take care of those events here. // Make sure to stop the preview before resizing or reformatting it. if (mHolder.getSurface() == null){ // preview surface does not exist return; } // stop preview before making changes try { mCamera.stopPreview(); } catch (Exception e){ // ignore: tried to stop a non-existent preview } try { mCamera.setPreviewDisplay(mHolder); mCamera.startPreview(); } catch (Exception e){ Log.d(TAG, "Error starting camera preview: " + e.getMessage()); } } public void setCamera(Camera camera) { if (mCamera == camera) { return; } mCamera = camera; if (mCamera != null) { List<Size> localSizes = mCamera.getParameters().getSupportedPreviewSizes(); mSupportedPreviewSizes = localSizes; requestLayout(); try { mCamera.setPreviewDisplay(mHolder); } catch (IOException e) { e.printStackTrace(); } /* Important: Call startPreview() to start updating the preview surface. Preview must be started before you can take a picture. */ mCamera.startPreview(); } } MySQLiteHelper.java private static final int count = 0; public static final String TABLE_IMAGE = "images"; public static final String COLUMN_ID = "_id"; public static final String PICTURE_DATA = "picture"; public static final String DATABASE_NAME = "images.db"; public static final int DATABASE_VERSION = 1; public static final String DATABASE_CREATE = "create table " + TABLE_IMAGE + "(" + COLUMN_ID + " integer primary key autoincrement, " + PICTURE_DATA + " blob not null);"; public static SQLiteDatabase database; private static String TAG = "test"; public MySQLiteHelper(Context context) { super(context, DATABASE_NAME, null, DATABASE_VERSION); // TODO Auto-generated constructor stub } public MySQLiteHelper(Context context, String name, CursorFactory factory, int version, DatabaseErrorHandler errorHandler) { super(context, name, factory, version, errorHandler); // TODO Auto-generated constructor stub } @Override public void onCreate(SQLiteDatabase database) { database.execSQL(DATABASE_CREATE); } @Override public void onUpgrade(SQLiteDatabase db, int oldVersion, int newVersion) { Log.w(MySQLiteHelper.class.getName(), "Upgrading database from version " + oldVersion + " to " + newVersion + ", which will destroy all old data"); db.execSQL("DROP TABLE IF EXISTS " + TABLE_IMAGE); onCreate(db); } /** * @param args */ public static void main(String[] args) { // TODO Auto-generated method stub } public void addEntry(byte [] array) throws SQLiteException{ ContentValues cv = new ContentValues(); //cv.put(KEY_NAME, name); cv.put(PICTURE_DATA, array); database.insert( TABLE_IMAGE, null, cv ); Log.w(TAG , "added " +count+ "images"); database.close(); } Errors 11-07 23:28:39.050: E/mm-libcamera2(176): PROFILE HAL: stopPreview(): E: 1383838119.067589459 11-07 23:28:39.050: E/mm-camera(201): config_MSG_ID_STOP_ACK: streamon_mask is not clear. Should not call PP_Release_HW 11-07 23:28:39.090: E/QCameraHWI(176): android::status_t android::QCameraHardwareInterface::setPreviewWindow(preview_stream_ops_t*):Received Setting NULL preview window 11-07 23:28:39.090: E/QCameraHWI(176): android::status_t android::QCameraHardwareInterface::setPreviewWindow(preview_stream_ops_t*): mPreviewWindow = 0x0x0, mStreamDisplay = 0x0xb8a9df90 11-07 23:28:39.090: E/mm-camera(201): config_shutdown_pp Camera not in streaming mode. Returning. 11-07 23:28:39.090: E/mm-camera(201): vfe_ops_deinit: E 11-07 23:28:39.120: E/qcom_sensors_hal(533): hal_process_report_ind: Bad item quality: 11 11-07 23:28:39.310: E/qcom_sensors_hal(533): hal_process_report_ind: Bad item quality: 11 11-07 23:28:39.330: E/mm-camera(201): sensor_load_chromatix: libchromatix_imx119_preview.so: 30 11-07 23:28:39.340: E/mm-camera(201): vfe_ops_init: E 11-07 23:28:39.360: E/mm-camera(201): vfe_legacy_stats_buffer_init: AEC_STATS_BUFNUM 11-07 23:28:39.360: E/mm-camera(201): vfe_legacy_stats_buffer_init: AEC_STATS_BUFNUM 11-07 23:28:39.360: E/mm-camera(201): mctl_init_stats_proc_info: snap_max_line_cnt =25776 11-07 23:28:39.440: E/QCameraHWI(176): android::status_t android::QCameraHardwareInterface::setPreviewWindow(preview_stream_ops_t*): mPreviewWindow = 0x0xb8aa1780, mStreamDisplay = 0x0xb8a9df90 11-07 23:28:39.440: E/mm-camera(201): config_proc_CAMERA_SET_INFORM_STARTPREVIEW 11-07 23:28:39.450: E/mm-camera(201): config_update_stream_info Storing stream parameters for video inst 1 as : width = 640, height 480, format = 1 inst_handle = 810081 cid = 0 11-07 23:28:39.490: E/mm-camera(201): config_update_stream_info Storing stream parameters for video inst 3 as : width = 640, height 480, format = 1 inst_handle = 830083 cid = 0 11-07 23:28:39.490: E/mm-camera(201): config_update_stream_info Storing stream parameters for video inst 4 as : width = 512, height 384, format = 1 inst_handle = 840084 cid = 0 11-07 23:28:39.500: E/mm-camera(201): config_decide_vfe_outputs: Ports Used 3, Op mode 1 11-07 23:28:39.500: E/mm-camera(201): config_decide_vfe_outputs Current mode 0 Full size streaming : Disabled 11-07 23:28:39.500: E/mm-camera(201): config_decide_vfe_outputs: Primary: 640x480, extra_pad: 0x0, Fmt: 1, Type: 1, Path: 1 11-07 23:28:39.500: E/mm-camera(201): config_decide_vfe_outputs: Secondary: 640x480, extra_pad: 0x0, Fmt: 1, Type: 3, Path: 4 11-07 23:28:39.510: E/mm-camera(201): config_update_inst_handles Updated the inst handles as 810081, 830083, 0, 0 11-07 23:28:39.631: E/mm-camera(201): sensor_load_chromatix: libchromatix_imx119_preview.so: 30 11-07 23:28:39.631: E/mm-camera(201): camif_client_set_params: camif has associated with obj mask 0x1 11-07 23:28:39.631: E/mm-camera(201): config_v2_CAMERA_START_common CAMIF_PARAMS_ADD_OBJ_ID failed -1 11-07 23:28:39.641: E/mm-camera(201): vfe_operation_config: format 3 11-07 23:28:39.641: E/mm-camera(201): vfe_operation_config:vfe_op_mode=5 11-07 23:28:39.641: E/mm-camera(201): Invalid ASD Set Params Type 11-07 23:28:39.641: E/mm-camera(201): vfe_set_bestshot: Bestshot mode not changed

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• Problem with my whiteboard application

  - by swift

  I have to develop a whiteboard application in which both the local user and the remote user should be able to draw simultaneously, is this possible? If possible then any logic? I have already developed a code but in which i am not able to do this, when the remote user starts drawing the shape which i am drawing is being replaced by his shape and co-ordinates. This problem is only when both draw simultaneously. any idea guys? Here is my code class Paper extends JPanel implements MouseListener,MouseMotionListener,ActionListener { static BufferedImage image; int bpressed; Color color; Point start; Point end; Point mp; Button elipse=new Button("elipse"); Button rectangle=new Button("rect"); Button line=new Button("line"); Button empty=new Button(""); JButton save=new JButton("Save"); JButton erase=new JButton("Erase"); String selected; int ex,ey;//eraser DatagramSocket dataSocket; JButton button = new JButton("test"); Client client; Point p=new Point(); int w,h; public Paper(DatagramSocket dataSocket) { this.dataSocket=dataSocket; client=new Client(dataSocket); System.out.println("paper"); setBackground(Color.white); addMouseListener(this); addMouseMotionListener(this); color = Color.black; setBorder(BorderFactory.createLineBorder(Color.black)); //save.setPreferredSize(new Dimension(100,20)); save.setMaximumSize(new Dimension(75,27)); erase.setMaximumSize(new Dimension(75,27)); } public void paintComponent(Graphics g) { try { g.drawImage(image, 0, 0, this); Graphics2D g2 = (Graphics2D)g; g2.setPaint(Color.black); if(selected==("elipse")) g2.drawOval(start.x, start.y,(end.x-start.x),(end.y-start.y)); else if(selected==("rect")) g2.drawRect(start.x, start.y, (end.x-start.x),(end.y-start.y)); else if(selected==("line")) g2.drawLine(start.x,start.y,end.x,end.y); } catch(Exception e) {} } //Function to draw the shape on image public void draw() { Graphics2D g2 = image.createGraphics(); g2.setPaint(color); if(selected=="line") g2.drawLine(start.x, start.y, end.x, end.y); if(selected=="elipse") g2.drawOval(start.x, start.y, (end.x-start.x),(end.y-start.y)); if(selected=="rect") g2.drawRect(start.x, start.y, (end.x-start.x),(end.y-start.y)); repaint(); g2.dispose(); start=null; } //To add the point to the board which is broadcasted by the server public synchronized void addPoint(Point ps,String varname,String shape,String event) { try { if(end==null) end = new Point(); if(start==null) start = new Point(); if(shape.equals("elipse")) selected="elipse"; else if(shape.equals("line")) selected="line"; else if(shape.equals("rect")) selected="rect"; else if(shape.equals("erase")) { selected="erase"; erase(); } if(end!=null && start!=null) { if(varname.equals("end")) end=ps; if(varname.equals("mp")) mp=ps; if(varname.equals("start")) start=ps; if(event.equals("drag")) repaint(); else if(event.equals("release")) draw(); } } catch(Exception e) { e.printStackTrace(); } } //To set the size of the image public void setWidth(int x,int y) { System.out.println("("+x+","+y+")"); w=x; h=y; image = new BufferedImage(w, h, BufferedImage.TYPE_INT_RGB); Graphics2D g2 = image.createGraphics(); g2.setPaint(Color.white); g2.fillRect(0,0,w,h); g2.dispose(); } //Function which provides the erase functionality public void erase() { Graphics2D pic=(Graphics2D) image.getGraphics(); pic.setPaint(Color.white); pic.fillRect(start.x, start.y, 10, 10); } //Function to add buttons into the panel, calling this function returns a panel public JPanel addButtons() { JPanel buttonpanel=new JPanel(); JPanel row1=new JPanel(); JPanel row2=new JPanel(); JPanel row3=new JPanel(); JPanel row4=new JPanel(); buttonpanel.setPreferredSize(new Dimension(80,80)); //buttonpanel.setMinimumSize(new Dimension(150,150)); row1.setLayout(new BoxLayout(row1,BoxLayout.X_AXIS)); row1.setPreferredSize(new Dimension(150,150)); row2.setLayout(new BoxLayout(row2,BoxLayout.X_AXIS)); row3.setLayout(new BoxLayout(row3,BoxLayout.X_AXIS)); row4.setLayout(new BoxLayout(row4,BoxLayout.X_AXIS)); buttonpanel.setLayout(new BoxLayout(buttonpanel,BoxLayout.Y_AXIS)); elipse.addActionListener(this); rectangle.addActionListener(this); line.addActionListener( this); save.addActionListener( this); erase.addActionListener( this); buttonpanel.add(Box.createRigidArea(new Dimension(10,10))); row1.add(elipse); row1.add(Box.createRigidArea(new Dimension(5,0))); row1.add(rectangle); buttonpanel.add(row1); buttonpanel.add(Box.createRigidArea(new Dimension(10,10))); row2.add(line); row2.add(Box.createRigidArea(new Dimension(5,0))); row2.add(empty); buttonpanel.add(row2); buttonpanel.add(Box.createRigidArea(new Dimension(10,10))); row3.add(save); buttonpanel.add(row3); buttonpanel.add(Box.createRigidArea(new Dimension(10,10))); row4.add(erase); buttonpanel.add(row4); return buttonpanel; } //To save the image drawn public void save() { try { ByteArrayOutputStream bos = new ByteArrayOutputStream(); JPEGImageEncoder encoder = JPEGCodec.createJPEGEncoder(bos); JFileChooser fc = new JFileChooser(); fc.showSaveDialog(this); encoder.encode(image); byte[] jpgData = bos.toByteArray(); FileOutputStream fos = new FileOutputStream(fc.getSelectedFile()+".jpeg"); fos.write(jpgData); fos.close(); //add replce confirmation here } catch (IOException e) { System.out.println(e); } } public void mouseClicked(MouseEvent arg0) { // TODO Auto-generated method stub } @Override public void mouseEntered(MouseEvent arg0) { } public void mouseExited(MouseEvent arg0) { // TODO Auto-generated method stub } public void mousePressed(MouseEvent e) { if(selected=="line"||selected=="erase") { start=e.getPoint(); client.broadcast(start,"start", selected,"press"); } else if(selected=="elipse"||selected=="rect") { mp = e.getPoint(); client.broadcast(mp,"mp", selected,"press"); } } public void mouseReleased(MouseEvent e) { if(start!=null) { if(selected=="line") { end=e.getPoint(); client.broadcast(end,"end", selected,"release"); } else if(selected=="elipse"||selected=="rect") { end.x = Math.max(mp.x,e.getX()); end.y = Math.max(mp.y,e.getY()); client.broadcast(end,"end", selected,"release"); } draw(); } //start=null; } public void mouseDragged(MouseEvent e) { if(end==null) end = new Point(); if(start==null) start = new Point(); if(selected=="line") { end=e.getPoint(); client.broadcast(end,"end", selected,"drag"); } else if(selected=="erase") { start=e.getPoint(); erase(); client.broadcast(start,"start", selected,"drag"); } else if(selected=="elipse"||selected=="rect") { start.x = Math.min(mp.x,e.getX()); start.y = Math.min(mp.y,e.getY()); end.x = Math.max(mp.x,e.getX()); end.y = Math.max(mp.y,e.getY()); client.broadcast(start,"start", selected,"drag"); client.broadcast(end,"end", selected,"drag"); } repaint(); } @Override public void mouseMoved(MouseEvent arg0) { // TODO Auto-generated method stub } public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) { if(e.getSource()==elipse) selected="elipse"; if(e.getSource()==line) selected="line"; if(e.getSource()==rectangle) selected="rect"; if(e.getSource()==save) save(); if(e.getSource()==erase) { selected="erase"; erase(); } } } class Button extends JButton { String name; public Button(String name) { this.name=name; Dimension buttonSize = new Dimension(35,35); setMaximumSize(buttonSize); } public void paintComponent(Graphics g) { super.paintComponent(g); Graphics2D g2 = (Graphics2D)g; g2.setRenderingHint(RenderingHints.KEY_ANTIALIASING, RenderingHints.VALUE_ANTIALIAS_ON); //g2.setStroke(new BasicStroke(1.2f)); if (name == "line") g.drawLine(5,5,30,30); if (name == "elipse") g.drawOval(5,7,25,20); if (name== "rect") g.drawRect(5,5,25,23); } }

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• Spring transaction : Transaction not active

  - by Videanu Adrian

  i develop a app using struts2, spring 3.1, Jpa2 and Hibernate. From Spring i use transactions and IoC. so, i have an ajax code block that calls for a struts2 action every second (this is happening for every user that is logged into application (simultaneous users are around 20-30 at a time)). this action name is PopupAction public class PopupAction extends VActionBase implements ServletRequestAware { private static final long serialVersionUID = -293004532677112584L; private iIntermedService intermedService; private HttpServletRequest servletRequest; @Override public String execute() { Integer agentId = (Integer) session.get("USER_AGENT_ID"); Intermed iObj; try { iObj = intermedService.getIntermed(agentId,locationsString); } catch (Exception e) { logger.error("Cannot get Intermed!!! "+e.getMessage()); return ERROR; } return SUCCESS; } } and then i have the service class : @Transactional(readOnly=true) public class IntermedServiceImpl extends GenericIService<Intermed, Integer> implements iIntermedService { @Override public Intermed getIntermed (int agentId,String queueIds) throws Exception { Intermed intermedObj = null; //TODO - find a better implementation for this queueIds parameter!!!! try{ String sql = "SELECT i FROM bla bla bla.....)"; Query q = this.em.createQuery(sql); List<Intermed> iList = q.getResultList(); if (iList.size() == 1){ intermedObj = (Intermed) iList.get(0); //get latest object from DB em.refresh(intermedObj); } }catch(Exception e){ e.printStackTrace(); logger.error(e.getCause()+e.getMessage()); throw e; } return intermedObj; } } here is the spring configuration : <bean id="emfI" class="org.springframework.orm.jpa.LocalContainerEntityManagerFactoryBean"> <property name="dataSource" ref="inboundDS" /> <property name="persistenceUnitName" value="I2PU"/> <!-- GlassFish load-time weaving setup --> <property name="loadTimeWeaver"> <bean class="org.springframework.instrument.classloading.glassfish.GlassFishLoadTimeWeaver"/> </property> </bean> <tx:annotation-driven transaction-manager="txManagerI" /> <tx:advice id="txManagerInboundAdvice" transaction-manager="txManagerI"> <tx:attributes> <tx:method name="*" rollback-for="java.lang.Exception"/> </tx:attributes> </tx:advice> I have names for transactionManager because i have 3 datasources and 3 transaction managers. the problem is that my glassfish logs are full of messages like these: -- removed in order to be able to add more recent logs -- So the cause is : Caused by: java.lang.IllegalStateException: Transaction not active. But i have no idea what can cause this. Any help ? thanks Updates So i have added to @Transactional annotation the transaction manager name that he has to use, but this still does not solved my problem. I have captured a log from the time that the transaction is created until i got that exception: 2012-02-08T15:08:55.954+0200|INFO||_ThreadID=184;_ThreadName=Thread-5;|DEBUG [thread-pool-1-80(80)] (AbstractBeanFactory.java:245) - Returning cached instance of singleton bean 'txManagerVA' 2012-02-08T15:08:55.962+0200|INFO||_ThreadID=184;_ThreadName=Thread-5;|DEBUG [thread-pool-1-80(80)] (AbstractPlatformTransactionManager.java:365) - Creating new transaction with name [xxx.vs.common.services.inbound.IntermedServiceImpl.getIntermed]: PROPAGATION_REQUIRED,ISOLATION_DEFAULT,readOnly; '',-java.lang.Exception 2012-02-08T15:08:55.967+0200|INFO||_ThreadID=184;_ThreadName=Thread-5;|DEBUG [thread-pool-1-80(80)] (JpaTransactionManager.java:368) - Opened new EntityManager [org.hibernate.ejb.EntityManagerImpl@edf83f9] for JPA transaction 2012-02-08T15:08:55.976+0200|INFO||_ThreadID=184;_ThreadName=Thread-5;|DEBUG [thread-pool-1-80(80)] (JpaTransactionManager.java:400) - Exposing JPA transaction as JDBC transaction [org.springframework.orm.jpa.vendor.HibernateJpaDialect$HibernateConnectionHandle@725b979b] 2012-02-08T15:08:55.977+0200|INFO||_ThreadID=184;_ThreadName=Thread-5;|DEBUG [thread-pool-1-80(80)] (TransactionSynchronizationManager.java:193) - Bound value [org.springframework.jdbc.datasource.ConnectionHolder@4fb57177] for key [com.sun.gjc.spi.jdbc40.DataSource40@75fa4851] to thread [thread-pool-1-80(80)] 2012-02-08T15:08:55.978+0200|INFO||_ThreadID=184;_ThreadName=Thread-5;|DEBUG [thread-pool-1-80(80)] (TransactionSynchronizationManager.java:193) - Bound value [org.springframework.orm.jpa.EntityManagerHolder@112c6483] for key [org.springframework.orm.jpa.LocalContainerEntityManagerFactoryBean@47d4f12f] to thread [thread-pool-1-80(80)] 2012-02-08T15:08:55.979+0200|INFO||_ThreadID=184;_ThreadName=Thread-5;|DEBUG [thread-pool-1-80(80)] (TransactionSynchronizationManager.java:272) - Initializing transaction synchronization 2012-02-08T15:08:55.980+0200|INFO||_ThreadID=184;_ThreadName=Thread-5;|DEBUG [thread-pool-1-80(80)] (TransactionAspectSupport.java:362) - Getting transaction for [xxx.vs.common.services.inbound.IntermedServiceImpl.getIntermed] 2012-02-08T15:08:55.983+0200|INFO||_ThreadID=184;_ThreadName=Thread-5;|DEBUG [thread-pool-1-80(80)] (ExtendedEntityManagerCreator.java:423) - Starting resource local transaction on application-managed EntityManager [org.hibernate.ejb.EntityManagerImpl@46d002f4] 2012-02-08T15:08:55.984+0200|INFO||_ThreadID=184;_ThreadName=Thread-5;|DEBUG [thread-pool-1-80(80)] (TransactionSynchronizationManager.java:193) - Bound value [org.springframework.orm.jpa.ExtendedEntityManagerCreator$ExtendedEntityManagerSynchronization@797add43] for key [org.hibernate.ejb.EntityManagerImpl@46d002f4] to thread [thread-pool-1-80(80)] 2012-02-08T15:08:55.986+0200|INFO||_ThreadID=184;_ThreadName=Thread-5;|DEBUG [thread-pool-1-80(80)] (ExtendedEntityManagerCreator.java:400) - Joined local transaction 2012-02-08T15:08:55.991+0200|INFO||_ThreadID=184;_ThreadName=Thread-5;|DEBUG [thread-pool-1-80(80)] (TransactionAspectSupport.java:391) - Completing transaction for [xxx.vs.common.services.inbound.IntermedServiceImpl.getIntermed] 2012-02-08T15:08:55.992+0200|INFO||_ThreadID=184;_ThreadName=Thread-5;|DEBUG [thread-pool-1-80(80)] (AbstractPlatformTransactionManager.java:922) - Triggering beforeCommit synchronization 2012-02-08T15:08:55.994+0200|INFO||_ThreadID=184;_ThreadName=Thread-5;|DEBUG [thread-pool-1-80(80)] (AbstractPlatformTransactionManager.java:935) - Triggering beforeCompletion synchronization 2012-02-08T15:08:56.001+0200|INFO||_ThreadID=184;_ThreadName=Thread-5;|DEBUG [thread-pool-1-80(80)] (TransactionSynchronizationManager.java:243) - Removed value [org.springframework.orm.jpa.ExtendedEntityManagerCreator$ExtendedEntityManagerSynchronization@797add43] for key [org.hibernate.ejb.EntityManagerImpl@46d002f4] from thread [thread-pool-1-80(80)] 2012-02-08T15:08:56.002+0200|INFO||_ThreadID=184;_ThreadName=Thread-5;|DEBUG [thread-pool-1-80(80)] (AbstractPlatformTransactionManager.java:752) - Initiating transaction commit 2012-02-08T15:08:56.003+0200|INFO||_ThreadID=184;_ThreadName=Thread-5;|DEBUG [thread-pool-1-80(80)] (JpaTransactionManager.java:507) - Committing JPA transaction on EntityManager [org.hibernate.ejb.EntityManagerImpl@edf83f9] 2012-02-08T15:08:56.008+0200|INFO||_ThreadID=184;_ThreadName=Thread-5;|DEBUG [thread-pool-1-80(80)] (AbstractPlatformTransactionManager.java:948) - Triggering afterCommit synchronization 2012-02-08T15:08:56.010+0200|INFO||_ThreadID=184;_ThreadName=Thread-5;|DEBUG [thread-pool-1-80(80)] (AbstractPlatformTransactionManager.java:964) - Triggering afterCompletion synchronization 2012-02-08T15:08:56.011+0200|INFO||_ThreadID=184;_ThreadName=Thread-5;|DEBUG [thread-pool-1-80(80)] (TransactionSynchronizationManager.java:331) - Clearing transaction synchronization 2012-02-08T15:08:56.012+0200|INFO||_ThreadID=184;_ThreadName=Thread-5;|DEBUG [thread-pool-1-80(80)] (TransactionSynchronizationManager.java:243) - Removed value [org.springframework.orm.jpa.EntityManagerHolder@112c6483] for key [org.springframework.orm.jpa.LocalContainerEntityManagerFactoryBean@47d4f12f] from thread [thread-pool-1-80(80)] 2012-02-08T15:08:56.021+0200|INFO||_ThreadID=184;_ThreadName=Thread-5;|DEBUG [thread-pool-1-80(80)] (TransactionSynchronizationManager.java:243) - Removed value [org.springframework.jdbc.datasource.ConnectionHolder@4fb57177] for key [com.sun.gjc.spi.jdbc40.DataSource40@75fa4851] from thread [thread-pool-1-80(80)] 2012-02-08T15:08:56.021+0200|INFO||_ThreadID=184;_ThreadName=Thread-5;|DEBUG [thread-pool-1-80(80)] (JpaTransactionManager.java:593) - Closing JPA EntityManager [org.hibernate.ejb.EntityManagerImpl@edf83f9] after transaction 2012-02-08T15:08:56.022+0200|INFO||_ThreadID=184;_ThreadName=Thread-5;|DEBUG [thread-pool-1-80(80)] (EntityManagerFactoryUtils.java:343) - Closing JPA EntityManager 2012-02-08T15:08:56.023+0200|INFO||_ThreadID=184;_ThreadName=Thread-5;|ERROR [thread-pool-1-80(80)] (PopupAction.java:39) - Cannot get Intermed!!! Transaction not active; nested exception is java.lang.IllegalStateException: Transaction not active 2012-02-08T15:08:56.024+0200|SEVERE||_ThreadID=184;_ThreadName=Thread-5;|org.springframework.dao.InvalidDataAccessApiUsageException: Transaction not active; nested exception is java.lang.IllegalStateException: Transaction not active at org.springframework.orm.jpa.EntityManagerFactoryUtils.convertJpaAccessExceptionIfPossible(EntityManagerFactoryUtils.java:298) at org.springframework.orm.jpa.vendor.HibernateJpaDialect.translateExceptionIfPossible(HibernateJpaDialect.java:106) at org.springframework.orm.jpa.ExtendedEntityManagerCreator$ExtendedEntityManagerSynchronization.convertException(ExtendedEntityManagerCreator.java:501) at org.springframework.orm.jpa.ExtendedEntityManagerCreator$ExtendedEntityManagerSynchronization.afterCommit(ExtendedEntityManagerCreator.java:481) at org.springframework.transaction.support.TransactionSynchronizationUtils.invokeAfterCommit(TransactionSynchronizationUtils.java:133) at org.springframework.transaction.support.TransactionSynchronizationUtils.triggerAfterCommit(TransactionSynchronizationUtils.java:121) at org.springframework.transaction.support.AbstractPlatformTransactionManager.triggerAfterCommit(AbstractPlatformTransactionManager.java:950) at org.springframework.transaction.support.AbstractPlatformTransactionManager.processCommit(AbstractPlatformTransactionManager.java:796) at org.springframework.transaction.support.AbstractPlatformTransactionManager.commit(AbstractPlatformTransactionManager.java:723) at org.springframework.transaction.interceptor.TransactionAspectSupport.commitTransactionAfterReturning(TransactionAspectSupport.java:393) at org.springframework.transaction.interceptor.TransactionInterceptor.invoke(TransactionInterceptor.java:120) at org.springframework.aop.framework.ReflectiveMethodInvocation.proceed(ReflectiveMethodInvocation.java:172) at org.springframework.aop.framework.JdkDynamicAopProxy.invoke(JdkDynamicAopProxy.java:202) at $Proxy325.getIntermed(Unknown Source) at xxx.vs.common.actions.PopupAction.execute(PopupAction.java:37) at sun.reflect.GeneratedMethodAccessor1581.invoke(Unknown Source) at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:43) at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:616) at com.opensymphony.xwork2.DefaultActionInvocation.invokeAction(DefaultActionInvocation.java:453) at com.opensymphony.xwork2.DefaultActionInvocation.invokeActionOnly(DefaultActionInvocation.java:292) at com.opensymphony.xwork2.DefaultActionInvocation.invoke(DefaultActionInvocation.java:255) at org.apache.struts2.interceptor.debugging.DebuggingInterceptor.intercept(DebuggingInterceptor.java:256) at com.opensymphony.xwork2.DefaultActionInvocation.invoke(DefaultActionInvocation.java:249) at com.opensymphony.xwork2.interceptor.DefaultWorkflowInterceptor.doIntercept(DefaultWorkflowInterceptor.java:176) at com.opensymphony.xwork2.interceptor.MethodFilterInterceptor.intercept(MethodFilterInterceptor.java:98) at com.opensymphony.xwork2.DefaultActionInvocation.invoke(DefaultActionInvocation.java:249) at com.opensymphony.xwork2.validator.ValidationInterceptor.doIntercept(ValidationInterceptor.java:265) at org.apache.struts2.interceptor.validation.AnnotationValidationInterceptor.doIntercept(AnnotationValidationInterceptor.java:68) at com.opensymphony.xwork2.interceptor.MethodFilterInterceptor.intercept(MethodFilterInterceptor.java:98) at com.opensymphony.xwork2.DefaultActionInvocation.invoke(DefaultActionInvocation.java:249) at com.opensymphony.xwork2.interceptor.ConversionErrorInterceptor.intercept(ConversionErrorInterceptor.java:138) at com.opensymphony.xwork2.DefaultActionInvocation.invoke(DefaultActionInvocation.java:249) at com.opensymphony.xwork2.interceptor.ParametersInterceptor.doIntercept(ParametersInterceptor.java:211) at com.opensymphony.xwork2.interceptor.MethodFilterInterceptor.intercept(MethodFilterInterceptor.java:98) at com.opensymphony.xwork2.DefaultActionInvocation.invoke(DefaultActionInvocation.java:249) at com.opensymphony.xwork2.interceptor.ParametersInterceptor.doIntercept(ParametersInterceptor.java:211) at com.opensymphony.xwork2.interceptor.MethodFilterInterceptor.intercept(MethodFilterInterceptor.java:98) at com.opensymphony.xwork2.DefaultActionInvocation.invoke(DefaultActionInvocation.java:249) at com.opensymphony.xwork2.interceptor.StaticParametersInterceptor.intercept(StaticParametersInterceptor.java:190) at com.opensymphony.xwork2.DefaultActionInvocation.invoke(DefaultActionInvocation.java:249) at org.apache.struts2.interceptor.MultiselectInterceptor.intercept(MultiselectInterceptor.java:75) at com.opensymphony.xwork2.DefaultActionInvocation.invoke(DefaultActionInvocation.java:249) at org.apache.struts2.interceptor.CheckboxInterceptor.intercept(CheckboxInterceptor.java:90) at com.opensymphony.xwork2.DefaultActionInvocation.invoke(DefaultActionInvocation.java:249) at org.apache.struts2.interceptor.FileUploadInterceptor.intercept(FileUploadInterceptor.java:243) at com.opensymphony.xwork2.DefaultActionInvocation.invoke(DefaultActionInvocation.java:249) at com.opensymphony.xwork2.interceptor.ModelDrivenInterceptor.intercept(ModelDrivenInterceptor.java:100) at com.opensymphony.xwork2.DefaultActionInvocation.invoke(DefaultActionInvocation.java:249) at com.opensymphony.xwork2.interceptor.ScopedModelDrivenInterceptor.intercept(ScopedModelDrivenInterceptor.java:141) at com.opensymphony.xwork2.DefaultActionInvocation.invoke(DefaultActionInvocation.java:249) at com.opensymphony.xwork2.interceptor.ChainingInterceptor.intercept(ChainingInterceptor.java:145) at com.opensymphony.xwork2.DefaultActionInvocation.invoke(DefaultActionInvocation.java:249) at com.opensymphony.xwork2.interceptor.PrepareInterceptor.doIntercept(PrepareInterceptor.java:171) at com.opensymphony.xwork2.interceptor.MethodFilterInterceptor.intercept(MethodFilterInterceptor.java:98) at com.opensymphony.xwork2.DefaultActionInvocation.invoke(DefaultActionInvocation.java:249) at com.opensymphony.xwork2.interceptor.I18nInterceptor.intercept(I18nInterceptor.java:176) at com.opensymphony.xwork2.DefaultActionInvocation.invoke(DefaultActionInvocation.java:249) at org.apache.struts2.interceptor.ServletConfigInterceptor.intercept(ServletConfigInterceptor.java:164) at com.opensymphony.xwork2.DefaultActionInvocation.invoke(DefaultActionInvocation.java:249) at com.opensymphony.xwork2.interceptor.AliasInterceptor.intercept(AliasInterceptor.java:192) at com.opensymphony.xwork2.DefaultActionInvocation.invoke(DefaultActionInvocation.java:249) at com.opensymphony.xwork2.interceptor.ExceptionMappingInterceptor.intercept(ExceptionMappingInterceptor.java:187) at com.opensymphony.xwork2.DefaultActionInvocation.invoke(DefaultActionInvocation.java:249) at xxx.vs.common.utils.AuthenticationInterceptor.intercept(AuthenticationInterceptor.java:78) at com.opensymphony.xwork2.DefaultActionInvocation.invoke(DefaultActionInvocation.java:249) at com.googlecode.sslplugin.interceptors.SSLInterceptor.intercept(SSLInterceptor.java:128) at com.opensymphony.xwork2.DefaultActionInvocation.invoke(DefaultActionInvocation.java:249) at org.apache.struts2.impl.StrutsActionProxy.execute(StrutsActionProxy.java:54) at org.apache.struts2.dispatcher.Dispatcher.serviceAction(Dispatcher.java:510) at org.apache.struts2.dispatcher.ng.ExecuteOperations.executeAction(ExecuteOperations.java:77) at org.apache.struts2.dispatcher.ng.filter.StrutsPrepareAndExecuteFilter.doFilter(StrutsPrepareAndExecuteFilter.java:91) at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.internalDoFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:256) at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.doFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:217) at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardWrapperValve.invoke(StandardWrapperValve.java:279) at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContextValve.invoke(StandardContextValve.java:175) at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardPipeline.doInvoke(StandardPipeline.java:655) at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardPipeline.invoke(StandardPipeline.java:595) at com.sun.enterprise.web.WebPipeline.invoke(WebPipeline.java:98) at com.sun.enterprise.web.PESessionLockingStandardPipeline.invoke(PESessionLockingStandardPipeline.java:91) at org.apache.catalina 2012-02-08T15:08:56.024+0200|SEVERE||_ThreadID=184;_ThreadName=Thread-5;|.core.StandardHostValve.invoke(StandardHostValve.java:162) at org.apache.catalina.connector.CoyoteAdapter.doService(CoyoteAdapter.java:330) at org.apache.catalina.connector.CoyoteAdapter.service(CoyoteAdapter.java:231) at com.sun.enterprise.v3.services.impl.ContainerMapper.service(ContainerMapper.java:174) at com.sun.grizzly.http.ProcessorTask.invokeAdapter(ProcessorTask.java:828) at com.sun.grizzly.http.ProcessorTask.doProcess(ProcessorTask.java:725) at com.sun.grizzly.http.ProcessorTask.process(ProcessorTask.java:1019) at com.sun.grizzly.http.DefaultProtocolFilter.execute(DefaultProtocolFilter.java:225) at com.sun.grizzly.DefaultProtocolChain.executeProtocolFilter(DefaultProtocolChain.java:137) at com.sun.grizzly.DefaultProtocolChain.execute(DefaultProtocolChain.java:104) at com.sun.grizzly.DefaultProtocolChain.execute(DefaultProtocolChain.java:90) at com.sun.grizzly.http.HttpProtocolChain.execute(HttpProtocolChain.java:79) at com.sun.grizzly.ProtocolChainContextTask.doCall(ProtocolChainContextTask.java:54) at com.sun.grizzly.SelectionKeyContextTask.call(SelectionKeyContextTask.java:59) at com.sun.grizzly.ContextTask.run(ContextTask.java:71) at com.sun.grizzly.util.AbstractThreadPool$Worker.doWork(AbstractThreadPool.java:532) at com.sun.grizzly.util.AbstractThreadPool$Worker.run(AbstractThreadPool.java:513) at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:679) Caused by: java.lang.IllegalStateException: Transaction not active at org.hibernate.ejb.TransactionImpl.commit(TransactionImpl.java:69) at org.springframework.orm.jpa.ExtendedEntityManagerCreator$ExtendedEntityManagerSynchronization.afterCommit(ExtendedEntityManagerCreator.java:478) ... 93 more so again..... any ideea ?

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• Test-Driven Development Problem

  - by Zeck

  Hi guys, I'm newbie to Java EE 6 and i'm trying to develop very simple JAX-RS application. RESTfull web service working fine. However when I ran my test application, I got the following. What have I done wrong? Or am i forget any configuration? Of course i'm create a JNDI and i'm using Netbeans 6.8 IDE. In finally, thank you for any advise. My Entity: @Entity @Table(name = "BOOK") @NamedQueries({ @NamedQuery(name = "Book.findAll", query = "SELECT b FROM Book b"), @NamedQuery(name = "Book.findById", query = "SELECT b FROM Book b WHERE b.id = :id"), @NamedQuery(name = "Book.findByTitle", query = "SELECT b FROM Book b WHERE b.title = :title"), @NamedQuery(name = "Book.findByDescription", query = "SELECT b FROM Book b WHERE b.description = :description"), @NamedQuery(name = "Book.findByPrice", query = "SELECT b FROM Book b WHERE b.price = :price"), @NamedQuery(name = "Book.findByNumberofpage", query = "SELECT b FROM Book b WHERE b.numberofpage = :numberofpage")}) public class Book implements Serializable { private static final long serialVersionUID = 1L; @Id @Basic(optional = false) @Column(name = "ID") private Integer id; @Basic(optional = false) @Column(name = "TITLE") private String title; @Basic(optional = false) @Column(name = "DESCRIPTION") private String description; @Basic(optional = false) @Column(name = "PRICE") private double price; @Basic(optional = false) @Column(name = "NUMBEROFPAGE") private int numberofpage; public Book() { } public Book(Integer id) { this.id = id; } public Book(Integer id, String title, String description, double price, int numberofpage) { this.id = id; this.title = title; this.description = description; this.price = price; this.numberofpage = numberofpage; } public Integer getId() { return id; } public void setId(Integer id) { this.id = id; } public String getTitle() { return title; } public void setTitle(String title) { this.title = title; } public String getDescription() { return description; } public void setDescription(String description) { this.description = description; } public double getPrice() { return price; } public void setPrice(double price) { this.price = price; } public int getNumberofpage() { return numberofpage; } public void setNumberofpage(int numberofpage) { this.numberofpage = numberofpage; } @Override public int hashCode() { int hash = 0; hash += (id != null ? id.hashCode() : 0); return hash; } @Override public boolean equals(Object object) { // TODO: Warning - this method won't work in the case the id fields are not set if (!(object instanceof Book)) { return false; } Book other = (Book) object; if ((this.id == null && other.id != null) || (this.id != null && !this.id.equals(other.id))) { return false; } return true; } @Override public String toString() { return "com.entity.Book[id=" + id + "]"; } } My Junit test class: public class BookTest { private static EntityManager em; private static EntityManagerFactory emf; public BookTest() { } @BeforeClass public static void setUpClass() throws Exception { emf = Persistence.createEntityManagerFactory("E01R01PU"); em = emf.createEntityManager(); } @AfterClass public static void tearDownClass() throws Exception { em.close(); emf.close(); } @Test public void createBook() { Book book = new Book(); book.setId(1); book.setDescription("Mastering the Behavior Driven Development with Ruby on Rails"); book.setTitle("Mastering the BDD"); book.setPrice(25.9f); book.setNumberofpage(1029); em.persist(book); assertNotNull("ID should not be null", book.getId()); } } My persistence.xml jta-data-sourceBookstoreJNDI And exception is: May 7, 2009 11:10:37 AM org.hibernate.validator.util.Version INFO: Hibernate Validator bean-validator-3.0-JBoss-4.0.2 May 7, 2009 11:10:37 AM org.hibernate.validator.engine.resolver.DefaultTraversableResolver detectJPA INFO: Instantiated an instance of org.hibernate.validator.engine.resolver.JPATraversableResolver. [EL Info]: 2009-05-07 11:10:37.531--ServerSession(13671123)--EclipseLink, version: Eclipse Persistence Services - 2.0.0.v20091127-r5931 May 7, 2009 11:10:40 AM com.sun.enterprise.transaction.JavaEETransactionManagerSimplified initDelegates INFO: Using com.sun.enterprise.transaction.jts.JavaEETransactionManagerJTSDelegate as the delegate May 7, 2009 11:10:43 AM com.sun.enterprise.connectors.ActiveRAFactory createActiveResourceAdapter SEVERE: rardeployment.class_not_found May 7, 2009 11:10:43 AM com.sun.enterprise.connectors.ActiveRAFactory createActiveResourceAdapter SEVERE: com.sun.appserv.connectors.internal.api.ConnectorRuntimeException: Error in creating active RAR at com.sun.enterprise.connectors.ActiveRAFactory.createActiveResourceAdapter(ActiveRAFactory.java:104) at com.sun.enterprise.connectors.service.ResourceAdapterAdminServiceImpl.createActiveResourceAdapter(ResourceAdapterAdminServiceImpl.java:216) at com.sun.enterprise.connectors.ConnectorRuntime.createActiveResourceAdapter(ConnectorRuntime.java:352) at com.sun.enterprise.resource.naming.ConnectorObjectFactory.getObjectInstance(ConnectorObjectFactory.java:106) at javax.naming.spi.NamingManager.getObjectInstance(NamingManager.java:304) at com.sun.enterprise.naming.impl.SerialContext.getObjectInstance(SerialContext.java:472) at com.sun.enterprise.naming.impl.SerialContext.lookup(SerialContext.java:437) at com.sun.enterprise.naming.impl.SerialContext.lookup(SerialContext.java:569) at javax.naming.InitialContext.lookup(InitialContext.java:396) at org.eclipse.persistence.sessions.JNDIConnector.connect(JNDIConnector.java:110) at org.eclipse.persistence.sessions.JNDIConnector.connect(JNDIConnector.java:94) at org.eclipse.persistence.sessions.DatasourceLogin.connectToDatasource(DatasourceLogin.java:162) at org.eclipse.persistence.internal.sessions.DatabaseSessionImpl.loginAndDetectDatasource(DatabaseSessionImpl.java:584) at org.eclipse.persistence.internal.jpa.EntityManagerFactoryProvider.login(EntityManagerFactoryProvider.java:228) at org.eclipse.persistence.internal.jpa.EntityManagerSetupImpl.deploy(EntityManagerSetupImpl.java:368) at org.eclipse.persistence.internal.jpa.EntityManagerFactoryImpl.getServerSession(EntityManagerFactoryImpl.java:151) at org.eclipse.persistence.internal.jpa.EntityManagerFactoryImpl.createEntityManagerImpl(EntityManagerFactoryImpl.java:207) at org.eclipse.persistence.internal.jpa.EntityManagerFactoryImpl.createEntityManager(EntityManagerFactoryImpl.java:195) at com.entity.BookTest.setUpClass(BookTest.java:31) at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method) at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:39) at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:25) at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:597) at org.junit.runners.model.FrameworkMethod$1.runReflectiveCall(FrameworkMethod.java:44) at org.junit.internal.runners.model.ReflectiveCallable.run(ReflectiveCallable.java:15) at org.junit.runners.model.FrameworkMethod.invokeExplosively(FrameworkMethod.java:41) at org.junit.internal.runners.statements.RunBefores.evaluate(RunBefores.java:27) at org.junit.internal.runners.statements.RunAfters.evaluate(RunAfters.java:31) at org.junit.runners.ParentRunner.run(ParentRunner.java:220) at junit.framework.JUnit4TestAdapter.run(JUnit4TestAdapter.java:39) at org.apache.tools.ant.taskdefs.optional.junit.JUnitTestRunner.run(JUnitTestRunner.java:515) at org.apache.tools.ant.taskdefs.optional.junit.JUnitTestRunner.launch(JUnitTestRunner.java:1031) at org.apache.tools.ant.taskdefs.optional.junit.JUnitTestRunner.main(JUnitTestRunner.java:888) Caused by: java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: com.sun.gjc.spi.ResourceAdapter at java.net.URLClassLoader$1.run(URLClassLoader.java:200) at java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(Native Method) at java.net.URLClassLoader.findClass(URLClassLoader.java:188) at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:306) at sun.misc.Launcher$AppClassLoader.loadClass(Launcher.java:276) at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:251) at com.sun.enterprise.connectors.ActiveRAFactory.createActiveResourceAdapter(ActiveRAFactory.java:96) ... 32 more [EL Severe]: 2009-05-07 11:10:43.937--ServerSession(13671123)--Local Exception Stack: Exception [EclipseLink-7060] (Eclipse Persistence Services - 2.0.0.v20091127-r5931): org.eclipse.persistence.exceptions.ValidationException Exception Description: Cannot acquire data source [BookstoreJNDI]. Internal Exception: javax.naming.NamingException: Lookup failed for 'BookstoreJNDI' in SerialContext ,orb'sInitialHost=localhost,orb'sInitialPort=3700 [Root exception is javax.naming.NamingException: Failed to look up ConnectorDescriptor from JNDI [Root exception is com.sun.appserv.connectors.internal.api.ConnectorRuntimeException: Error in creating active RAR]] at org.eclipse.persistence.exceptions.ValidationException.cannotAcquireDataSource(ValidationException.java:451) at org.eclipse.persistence.sessions.JNDIConnector.connect(JNDIConnector.java:116) at org.eclipse.persistence.sessions.JNDIConnector.connect(JNDIConnector.java:94) at org.eclipse.persistence.sessions.DatasourceLogin.connectToDatasource(DatasourceLogin.java:162) at org.eclipse.persistence.internal.sessions.DatabaseSessionImpl.loginAndDetectDatasource(DatabaseSessionImpl.java:584) at org.eclipse.persistence.internal.jpa.EntityManagerFactoryProvider.login(EntityManagerFactoryProvider.java:228) at org.eclipse.persistence.internal.jpa.EntityManagerSetupImpl.deploy(EntityManagerSetupImpl.java:368) at org.eclipse.persistence.internal.jpa.EntityManagerFactoryImpl.getServerSession(EntityManagerFactoryImpl.java:151) at org.eclipse.persistence.internal.jpa.EntityManagerFactoryImpl.createEntityManagerImpl(EntityManagerFactoryImpl.java:207) at org.eclipse.persistence.internal.jpa.EntityManagerFactoryImpl.createEntityManager(EntityManagerFactoryImpl.java:195) at com.entity.BookTest.setUpClass(BookTest.java:31) at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method) at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:39) at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:25) at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:597) at org.junit.runners.model.FrameworkMethod$1.runReflectiveCall(FrameworkMethod.java:44) at org.junit.internal.runners.model.ReflectiveCallable.run(ReflectiveCallable.java:15) at org.junit.runners.model.FrameworkMethod.invokeExplosively(FrameworkMethod.java:41) at org.junit.internal.runners.statements.RunBefores.evaluate(RunBefores.java:27) at org.junit.internal.runners.statements.RunAfters.evaluate(RunAfters.java:31) at org.junit.runners.ParentRunner.run(ParentRunner.java:220) at junit.framework.JUnit4TestAdapter.run(JUnit4TestAdapter.java:39) at org.apache.tools.ant.taskdefs.optional.junit.JUnitTestRunner.run(JUnitTestRunner.java:515) at org.apache.tools.ant.taskdefs.optional.junit.JUnitTestRunner.launch(JUnitTestRunner.java:1031) at org.apache.tools.ant.taskdefs.optional.junit.JUnitTestRunner.main(JUnitTestRunner.java:888) Caused by: javax.naming.NamingException: Lookup failed for 'BookstoreJNDI' in SerialContext ,orb'sInitialHost=localhost,orb'sInitialPort=3700 [Root exception is javax.naming.NamingException: Failed to look up ConnectorDescriptor from JNDI [Root exception is com.sun.appserv.connectors.internal.api.ConnectorRuntimeException: Error in creating active RAR]] at com.sun.enterprise.naming.impl.SerialContext.lookup(SerialContext.java:442) at com.sun.enterprise.naming.impl.SerialContext.lookup(SerialContext.java:569) at javax.naming.InitialContext.lookup(InitialContext.java:396) at org.eclipse.persistence.sessions.JNDIConnector.connect(JNDIConnector.java:110) ... 23 more Caused by: javax.naming.NamingException: Failed to look up ConnectorDescriptor from JNDI [Root exception is com.sun.appserv.connectors.internal.api.ConnectorRuntimeException: Error in creating active RAR] at com.sun.enterprise.resource.naming.ConnectorObjectFactory.getObjectInstance(ConnectorObjectFactory.java:109) at javax.naming.spi.NamingManager.getObjectInstance(NamingManager.java:304) at com.sun.enterprise.naming.impl.SerialContext.getObjectInstance(SerialContext.java:472) at com.sun.enterprise.naming.impl.SerialContext.lookup(SerialContext.java:437) ... 26 more Caused by: com.sun.appserv.connectors.internal.api.ConnectorRuntimeException: Error in creating active RAR at com.sun.enterprise.connectors.ActiveRAFactory.createActiveResourceAdapter(ActiveRAFactory.java:104) at com.sun.enterprise.connectors.service.ResourceAdapterAdminServiceImpl.createActiveResourceAdapter(ResourceAdapterAdminServiceImpl.java:216) at com.sun.enterprise.connectors.ConnectorRuntime.createActiveResourceAdapter(ConnectorRuntime.java:352) at com.sun.enterprise.resource.naming.ConnectorObjectFactory.getObjectInstance(ConnectorObjectFactory.java:106) ... 29 more Caused by: java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: com.sun.gjc.spi.ResourceAdapter at java.net.URLClassLoader$1.run(URLClassLoader.java:200) at java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(Native Method) at java.net.URLClassLoader.findClass(URLClassLoader.java:188) at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:306) at sun.misc.Launcher$AppClassLoader.loadClass(Launcher.java:276) at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:251) at com.sun.enterprise.connectors.ActiveRAFactory.createActiveResourceAdapter(ActiveRAFactory.java:96) ... 32 more Exception Description: Cannot acquire data source [BookstoreJNDI]. Internal Exception: javax.naming.NamingException: Lookup failed for 'BookstoreJNDI' in SerialContext ,orb'sInitialHost=localhost,orb'sInitialPort=3700 [Root exception is javax.naming.NamingException: Failed to look up ConnectorDescriptor from JNDI [Root exception is com.sun.appserv.connectors.internal.api.ConnectorRuntimeException: Error in creating active RAR]])

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• Website displays in chrome perfectly, but not in mozilla or IE

  - by Atharul Khan

  here are the code snippets for the html and css. It works finds in Google chrome, but when I try to display it in mozilla or IE, it shows something completely different. I cannot attach images as I do not have the required reputation. I really appreciate the help. Thank you! HTML <!DOCTYPE html> <html> <head> <meta charset="utf-8" /> <meta http-equiv="Content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" /> <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1" /> <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="style.css"> <link rel="shortcut icon" href="ak.png"> <title>Home</title> </head> <body> <div class="Nav"> <nav> <ul class="navigation fade-in2"> <li><a href="#home">Home</a></li> <li><a href="#about">About</a></li> <li><a href="#portfolio">Portfolio</a></li> <li><a href="#shop">Shop</a></li> <li><a href="#blog">Blog</a></li> <li><a href="#contact">Contact</a></li> </ul> </nav> </div> <div class="logo"><a href="#home"><img class="ak fade-in2" src="ak.png"></a></div> <div class="background"><img class="beauty" src="beauty.jpg"></div> <div class="header"> <h1 class="headerName fade-in">DESIGN | DEVELOP | BRAND</h1> <h4 class="service fade-in3"><a href="#portfolio">VIEW PORTFOLIO</a></h4> <h4 class="service fade-in3"><a href="#services">VIEW SERVICES</a></h4> </div> <!--<div class="mainbody"><p>safsdaf</p></div>--> </body> </html> CSS @-webkit-keyframes fadeIn { from { opacity:0; } to { opacity:1; } } @-moz-keyframes fadeIn { from { opacity:0; } to { opacity:1; } } @keyframes fadeIn { from { opacity:0; } to { opacity:1; } } * { padding: 0; margin: 0; } li { display: inline; font-size: 15px; font-family: verdana; } nav { width: 100%; text-align: right; background-color: #222222; padding: 0; margin: 0px; line-height: 47px; position: fixed; z-index: 100; } .ak{ width: 90px; height: 55px; z-index: 101; position: fixed; background: transparent; color: transparent; background-color: transparent; } .Nav a{ text-decoration: none; padding: 15px; } .Nav a:link{ color: #A7A7A7; } .Nav a:visited{ color: #A7A7A7; } .Nav a:hover{ color: #DBDBDB; transition: all 0.3s ease-out 0s; transition-property: all; transition-duration: 0.3s; transition-timing-function: ease-out; transition-delay: 0s; } .header { background-color: rgba(0,0,0, 0.25); width: 100%; height: 626px; text-align: center; position: fixed; z-index: 10; } .background { position: fixed; z-index: 8; } .beauty { width: 100%; height: 626px; } .headerName { font-size: 2.5em; text-align: center; color: #D3D3D3; padding: 180px; padding-bottom: 50px; margin: 0px; letter-spacing: 4px; font-weight: 100; font-family: 'Lato', sans-serif; } .fade-in { opacity:0; /* make things invisible upon start */ -webkit-animation:fadeIn ease-in 1; /* call our keyframe named fadeIn, use animation ease-in and repeat it only 1 time */ -moz-animation:fadeIn ease-in 1; animation:fadeIn ease-in 1; -webkit-animation-fill-mode:forwards; /* this makes sure that after animation is done we remain at the last keyframe value (opacity: 1)*/ -moz-animation-fill-mode:forwards; animation-fill-mode:forwards; -webkit-animation-duration:1s; -moz-animation-duration:1s; animation-duration:1s; -webkit-animation-delay: 0.3s; -moz-animation-delay:0.3s; animation-delay: 0.3s; } .fade-in2 { opacity:0; /* make things invisible upon start */ -webkit-animation:fadeIn ease-in 1; /* call our keyframe named fadeIn, use animation ease-in and repeat it only 1 time */ -moz-animation:fadeIn ease-in 1; animation:fadeIn ease-in 1; -webkit-animation-fill-mode:forwards; /* this makes sure that after animation is done we remain at the last keyframe value (opacity: 1)*/ -moz-animation-fill-mode:forwards; animation-fill-mode:forwards; -webkit-animation-duration:1s; -moz-animation-duration:1s; animation-duration:1s; -webkit-animation-delay: 0.6s; -moz-animation-delay:0.6s; animation-delay: 0.6s; } .fade-in3 { opacity:0; /* make things invisible upon start */ -webkit-animation:fadeIn ease-in 1; /* call our keyframe named fadeIn, use animation ease-in and repeat it only 1 time */ -moz-animation:fadeIn ease-in 1; animation:fadeIn ease-in 1; -webkit-animation-fill-mode:forwards; /* this makes sure that after animation is done we remain at the last keyframe value (opacity: 1)*/ -moz-animation-fill-mode:forwards; animation-fill-mode:forwards; -webkit-animation-duration:1s; -moz-animation-duration:1s; animation-duration:1s; -webkit-animation-delay: 0.9s; -moz-animation-delay:0.9s; animation-delay: 0.9s; } .service{ font-size: 14px; width: 190px; text-align: center; font-family: 'Lato', sans-serif; color: #D3D3D3; border: 2px #A7A7A7 solid; border-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.5); display: inline-block; border-radius: 5px; background-color: transparent; letter-spacing: 2px; } .service a{ text-decoration: none; display: block; padding: 15px 20px; } .service a:link{ color: #D3D3D3; } .service a:visited{ color: #D3D3D3; } .service a:hover{ background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.15); transition: background-color .15s ease-in; -webkit-transition: background-color .15s ease-in; -moz-transition: background-color .15s ease-in; -o-transition: background-color .15s ease-in; } UPDATE 1: I updated both browsers and it seems the css3 animations work perfectly fine on both browsers. What seems to be the problem is the positioning of the pages UPDATE 2: Here are the links to the different browser screen shots Chrome: https://www.dropbox.com/s/jlpa4vu51kdnews/Chrome.JPG InternetExplorer: https://www.dropbox.com/s/zbchs3su9ahxr0n/IE.JPG Mozilla Firefox: dropbox(.)com/s/fyalnhsha9ktadz/Mozilla.JPG (I can't post the third link because I don't have enough reputation)

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• Zen and the Art of File and Folder Organization

  - by Mark Virtue

  Is your desk a paragon of neatness, or does it look like a paper-bomb has gone off? If you’ve been putting off getting organized because the task is too huge or daunting, or you don’t know where to start, we’ve got 40 tips to get you on the path to zen mastery of your filing system. For all those readers who would like to get their files and folders organized, or, if they’re already organized, better organized—we have compiled a complete guide to getting organized and staying organized, a comprehensive article that will hopefully cover every possible tip you could want. Signs that Your Computer is Poorly Organized If your computer is a mess, you’re probably already aware of it.  But just in case you’re not, here are some tell-tale signs: Your Desktop has over 40 icons on it “My Documents” contains over 300 files and 60 folders, including MP3s and digital photos You use the Windows’ built-in search facility whenever you need to find a file You can’t find programs in the out-of-control list of programs in your Start Menu You save all your Word documents in one folder, all your spreadsheets in a second folder, etc Any given file that you’re looking for may be in any one of four different sets of folders But before we start, here are some quick notes: We’re going to assume you know what files and folders are, and how to create, save, rename, copy and delete them The organization principles described in this article apply equally to all computer systems.  However, the screenshots here will reflect how things look on Windows (usually Windows 7).  We will also mention some useful features of Windows that can help you get organized. Everyone has their own favorite methodology of organizing and filing, and it’s all too easy to get into “My Way is Better than Your Way” arguments.  The reality is that there is no perfect way of getting things organized.  When I wrote this article, I tried to keep a generalist and objective viewpoint.  I consider myself to be unusually well organized (to the point of obsession, truth be told), and I’ve had 25 years experience in collecting and organizing files on computers.  So I’ve got a lot to say on the subject.  But the tips I have described here are only one way of doing it.  Hopefully some of these tips will work for you too, but please don’t read this as any sort of “right” way to do it. At the end of the article we’ll be asking you, the reader, for your own organization tips. Why Bother Organizing At All? For some, the answer to this question is self-evident. And yet, in this era of powerful desktop search software (the search capabilities built into the Windows Vista and Windows 7 Start Menus, and third-party programs like Google Desktop Search), the question does need to be asked, and answered. I have a friend who puts every file he ever creates, receives or downloads into his My Documents folder and doesn’t bother filing them into subfolders at all.  He relies on the search functionality built into his Windows operating system to help him find whatever he’s looking for.  And he always finds it.  He’s a Search Samurai.  For him, filing is a waste of valuable time that could be spent enjoying life! It’s tempting to follow suit.  On the face of it, why would anyone bother to take the time to organize their hard disk when such excellent search software is available?  Well, if all you ever want to do with the files you own is to locate and open them individually (for listening, editing, etc), then there’s no reason to ever bother doing one scrap of organization.  But consider these common tasks that are not achievable with desktop search software: Find files manually.  Often it’s not convenient, speedy or even possible to utilize your desktop search software to find what you want.  It doesn’t work 100% of the time, or you may not even have it installed.  Sometimes its just plain faster to go straight to the file you want, if you know it’s in a particular sub-folder, rather than trawling through hundreds of search results. Find groups of similar files (e.g. all your “work” files, all the photos of your Europe holiday in 2008, all your music videos, all the MP3s from Dark Side of the Moon, all your letters you wrote to your wife, all your tax returns).  Clever naming of the files will only get you so far.  Sometimes it’s the date the file was created that’s important, other times it’s the file format, and other times it’s the purpose of the file.  How do you name a collection of files so that they’re easy to isolate based on any of the above criteria?  Short answer, you can’t. Move files to a new computer.  It’s time to upgrade your computer.  How do you quickly grab all the files that are important to you?  Or you decide to have two computers now – one for home and one for work.  How do you quickly isolate only the work-related files to move them to the work computer? Synchronize files to other computers.  If you have more than one computer, and you need to mirror some of your files onto the other computer (e.g. your music collection), then you need a way to quickly determine which files are to be synced and which are not.  Surely you don’t want to synchronize everything? Choose which files to back up.  If your backup regime calls for multiple backups, or requires speedy backups, then you’ll need to be able to specify which files are to be backed up, and which are not.  This is not possible if they’re all in the same folder. Finally, if you’re simply someone who takes pleasure in being organized, tidy and ordered (me! me!), then you don’t even need a reason.  Being disorganized is simply unthinkable. Tips on Getting Organized Here we present our 40 best tips on how to get organized.  Or, if you’re already organized, to get better organized. Tip #1.  Choose Your Organization System Carefully The reason that most people are not organized is that it takes time.  And the first thing that takes time is deciding upon a system of organization.  This is always a matter of personal preference, and is not something that a geek on a website can tell you.  You should always choose your own system, based on how your own brain is organized (which makes the assumption that your brain is, in fact, organized). We can’t instruct you, but we can make suggestions: You may want to start off with a system based on the users of the computer.  i.e. “My Files”, “My Wife’s Files”, My Son’s Files”, etc.  Inside “My Files”, you might then break it down into “Personal” and “Business”.  You may then realize that there are overlaps.  For example, everyone may want to share access to the music library, or the photos from the school play.  So you may create another folder called “Family”, for the “common” files. You may decide that the highest-level breakdown of your files is based on the “source” of each file.  In other words, who created the files.  You could have “Files created by ME (business or personal)”, “Files created by people I know (family, friends, etc)”, and finally “Files created by the rest of the world (MP3 music files, downloaded or ripped movies or TV shows, software installation files, gorgeous desktop wallpaper images you’ve collected, etc).”  This system happens to be the one I use myself.  See below:  Mark is for files created by meVC is for files created by my company (Virtual Creations)Others is for files created by my friends and familyData is the rest of the worldAlso, Settings is where I store the configuration files and other program data files for my installed software (more on this in tip #34, below). Each folder will present its own particular set of requirements for further sub-organization.  For example, you may decide to organize your music collection into sub-folders based on the artist’s name, while your digital photos might get organized based on the date they were taken.  It can be different for every sub-folder! Another strategy would be based on “currentness”.  Files you have yet to open and look at live in one folder.  Ones that have been looked at but not yet filed live in another place.  Current, active projects live in yet another place.  All other files (your “archive”, if you like) would live in a fourth folder. (And of course, within that last folder you’d need to create a further sub-system based on one of the previous bullet points). Put some thought into this – changing it when it proves incomplete can be a big hassle!  Before you go to the trouble of implementing any system you come up with, examine a wide cross-section of the files you own and see if they will all be able to find a nice logical place to sit within your system. Tip #2.  When You Decide on Your System, Stick to It! There’s nothing more pointless than going to all the trouble of creating a system and filing all your files, and then whenever you create, receive or download a new file, you simply dump it onto your Desktop.  You need to be disciplined – forever!  Every new file you get, spend those extra few seconds to file it where it belongs!  Otherwise, in just a month or two, you’ll be worse off than before – half your files will be organized and half will be disorganized – and you won’t know which is which! Tip #3.  Choose the Root Folder of Your Structure Carefully Every data file (document, photo, music file, etc) that you create, own or is important to you, no matter where it came from, should be found within one single folder, and that one single folder should be located at the root of your C: drive (as a sub-folder of C:\).  In other words, do not base your folder structure in standard folders like “My Documents”.  If you do, then you’re leaving it up to the operating system engineers to decide what folder structure is best for you.  And every operating system has a different system!  In Windows 7 your files are found in C:\Users\YourName, whilst on Windows XP it was C:\Documents and Settings\YourName\My Documents.  In UNIX systems it’s often /home/YourName. These standard default folders tend to fill up with junk files and folders that are not at all important to you.  “My Documents” is the worst offender.  Every second piece of software you install, it seems, likes to create its own folder in the “My Documents” folder.  These folders usually don’t fit within your organizational structure, so don’t use them!  In fact, don’t even use the “My Documents” folder at all.  Allow it to fill up with junk, and then simply ignore it.  It sounds heretical, but: Don’t ever visit your “My Documents” folder!  Remove your icons/links to “My Documents” and replace them with links to the folders you created and you care about! Create your own file system from scratch!  Probably the best place to put it would be on your D: drive – if you have one.  This way, all your files live on one drive, while all the operating system and software component files live on the C: drive – simply and elegantly separated.  The benefits of that are profound.  Not only are there obvious organizational benefits (see tip #10, below), but when it comes to migrate your data to a new computer, you can (sometimes) simply unplug your D: drive and plug it in as the D: drive of your new computer (this implies that the D: drive is actually a separate physical disk, and not a partition on the same disk as C:).  You also get a slight speed improvement (again, only if your C: and D: drives are on separate physical disks). Warning:  From tip #12, below, you will see that it’s actually a good idea to have exactly the same file system structure – including the drive it’s filed on – on all of the computers you own.  So if you decide to use the D: drive as the storage system for your own files, make sure you are able to use the D: drive on all the computers you own.  If you can’t ensure that, then you can still use a clever geeky trick to store your files on the D: drive, but still access them all via the C: drive (see tip #17, below). If you only have one hard disk (C:), then create a dedicated folder that will contain all your files – something like C:\Files.  The name of the folder is not important, but make it a single, brief word. There are several reasons for this: When creating a backup regime, it’s easy to decide what files should be backed up – they’re all in the one folder! If you ever decide to trade in your computer for a new one, you know exactly which files to migrate You will always know where to begin a search for any file If you synchronize files with other computers, it makes your synchronization routines very simple.   It also causes all your shortcuts to continue to work on the other machines (more about this in tip #24, below). Once you’ve decided where your files should go, then put all your files in there – Everything!  Completely disregard the standard, default folders that are created for you by the operating system (“My Music”, “My Pictures”, etc).  In fact, you can actually relocate many of those folders into your own structure (more about that below, in tip #6). The more completely you get all your data files (documents, photos, music, etc) and all your configuration settings into that one folder, then the easier it will be to perform all of the above tasks. Once this has been done, and all your files live in one folder, all the other folders in C:\ can be thought of as “operating system” folders, and therefore of little day-to-day interest for us. Here’s a screenshot of a nicely organized C: drive, where all user files are located within the \Files folder:   Tip #4.  Use Sub-Folders This would be our simplest and most obvious tip.  It almost goes without saying.  Any organizational system you decide upon (see tip #1) will require that you create sub-folders for your files.  Get used to creating folders on a regular basis. Tip #5.  Don’t be Shy About Depth Create as many levels of sub-folders as you need.  Don’t be scared to do so.  Every time you notice an opportunity to group a set of related files into a sub-folder, do so.  Examples might include:  All the MP3s from one music CD, all the photos from one holiday, or all the documents from one client. It’s perfectly okay to put files into a folder called C:\Files\Me\From Others\Services\WestCo Bank\Statements\2009.  That’s only seven levels deep.  Ten levels is not uncommon.  Of course, it’s possible to take this too far.  If you notice yourself creating a sub-folder to hold only one file, then you’ve probably become a little over-zealous.  On the other hand, if you simply create a structure with only two levels (for example C:\Files\Work) then you really haven’t achieved any level of organization at all (unless you own only six files!).  Your “Work” folder will have become a dumping ground, just like your Desktop was, with most likely hundreds of files in it. Tip #6.  Move the Standard User Folders into Your Own Folder Structure Most operating systems, including Windows, create a set of standard folders for each of its users.  These folders then become the default location for files such as documents, music files, digital photos and downloaded Internet files.  In Windows 7, the full list is shown below: Some of these folders you may never use nor care about (for example, the Favorites folder, if you’re not using Internet Explorer as your browser).  Those ones you can leave where they are.  But you may be using some of the other folders to store files that are important to you.  Even if you’re not using them, Windows will still often treat them as the default storage location for many types of files.  When you go to save a standard file type, it can become annoying to be automatically prompted to save it in a folder that’s not part of your own file structure. But there’s a simple solution:  Move the folders you care about into your own folder structure!  If you do, then the next time you go to save a file of the corresponding type, Windows will prompt you to save it in the new, moved location. Moving the folders is easy.  Simply drag-and-drop them to the new location.  Here’s a screenshot of the default My Music folder being moved to my custom personal folder (Mark): Tip #7.  Name Files and Folders Intelligently This is another one that almost goes without saying, but we’ll say it anyway:  Do not allow files to be created that have meaningless names like Document1.doc, or folders called New Folder (2).  Take that extra 20 seconds and come up with a meaningful name for the file/folder – one that accurately divulges its contents without repeating the entire contents in the name. Tip #8.  Watch Out for Long Filenames Another way to tell if you have not yet created enough depth to your folder hierarchy is that your files often require really long names.  If you need to call a file Johnson Sales Figures March 2009.xls (which might happen to live in the same folder as Abercrombie Budget Report 2008.xls), then you might want to create some sub-folders so that the first file could be simply called March.xls, and living in the Clients\Johnson\Sales Figures\2009 folder. A well-placed file needs only a brief filename! Tip #9.  Use Shortcuts!  Everywhere! This is probably the single most useful and important tip we can offer.  A shortcut allows a file to be in two places at once. Why would you want that?  Well, the file and folder structure of every popular operating system on the market today is hierarchical.  This means that all objects (files and folders) always live within exactly one parent folder.  It’s a bit like a tree.  A tree has branches (folders) and leaves (files).  Each leaf, and each branch, is supported by exactly one parent branch, all the way back to the root of the tree (which, incidentally, is exactly why C:\ is called the “root folder” of the C: drive). That hard disks are structured this way may seem obvious and even necessary, but it’s only one way of organizing data.  There are others:  Relational databases, for example, organize structured data entirely differently.  The main limitation of hierarchical filing structures is that a file can only ever be in one branch of the tree – in only one folder – at a time.  Why is this a problem?  Well, there are two main reasons why this limitation is a problem for computer users: The “correct” place for a file, according to our organizational rationale, is very often a very inconvenient place for that file to be located.  Just because it’s correctly filed doesn’t mean it’s easy to get to.  Your file may be “correctly” buried six levels deep in your sub-folder structure, but you may need regular and speedy access to this file every day.  You could always move it to a more convenient location, but that would mean that you would need to re-file back to its “correct” location it every time you’d finished working on it.  Most unsatisfactory. A file may simply “belong” in two or more different locations within your file structure.  For example, say you’re an accountant and you have just completed the 2009 tax return for John Smith.  It might make sense to you to call this file 2009 Tax Return.doc and file it under Clients\John Smith.  But it may also be important to you to have the 2009 tax returns from all your clients together in the one place.  So you might also want to call the file John Smith.doc and file it under Tax Returns\2009.  The problem is, in a purely hierarchical filing system, you can’t put it in both places.  Grrrrr! Fortunately, Windows (and most other operating systems) offers a way for you to do exactly that:  It’s called a “shortcut” (also known as an “alias” on Macs and a “symbolic link” on UNIX systems).  Shortcuts allow a file to exist in one place, and an icon that represents the file to be created and put anywhere else you please.  In fact, you can create a dozen such icons and scatter them all over your hard disk.  Double-clicking on one of these icons/shortcuts opens up the original file, just as if you had double-clicked on the original file itself. Consider the following two icons: The one on the left is the actual Word document, while the one on the right is a shortcut that represents the Word document.  Double-clicking on either icon will open the same file.  There are two main visual differences between the icons: The shortcut will have a small arrow in the lower-left-hand corner (on Windows, anyway) The shortcut is allowed to have a name that does not include the file extension (the “.docx” part, in this case) You can delete the shortcut at any time without losing any actual data.  The original is still intact.  All you lose is the ability to get to that data from wherever the shortcut was. So why are shortcuts so great?  Because they allow us to easily overcome the main limitation of hierarchical file systems, and put a file in two (or more) places at the same time.  You will always have files that don’t play nice with your organizational rationale, and can’t be filed in only one place.  They demand to exist in two places.  Shortcuts allow this!  Furthermore, they allow you to collect your most often-opened files and folders together in one spot for convenient access.  The cool part is that the original files stay where they are, safe forever in their perfectly organized location. So your collection of most often-opened files can – and should – become a collection of shortcuts! If you’re still not convinced of the utility of shortcuts, consider the following well-known areas of a typical Windows computer: The Start Menu (and all the programs that live within it) The Quick Launch bar (or the Superbar in Windows 7) The “Favorite folders” area in the top-left corner of the Windows Explorer window (in Windows Vista or Windows 7) Your Internet Explorer Favorites or Firefox Bookmarks Each item in each of these areas is a shortcut!  Each of those areas exist for one purpose only:  For convenience – to provide you with a collection of the files and folders you access most often. It should be easy to see by now that shortcuts are designed for one single purpose:  To make accessing your files more convenient.  Each time you double-click on a shortcut, you are saved the hassle of locating the file (or folder, or program, or drive, or control panel icon) that it represents. Shortcuts allow us to invent a golden rule of file and folder organization: “Only ever have one copy of a file – never have two copies of the same file.  Use a shortcut instead” (this rule doesn’t apply to copies created for backup purposes, of course!) There are also lesser rules, like “don’t move a file into your work area – create a shortcut there instead”, and “any time you find yourself frustrated with how long it takes to locate a file, create a shortcut to it and place that shortcut in a convenient location.” So how to we create these massively useful shortcuts?  There are two main ways: “Copy” the original file or folder (click on it and type Ctrl-C, or right-click on it and select Copy):  Then right-click in an empty area of the destination folder (the place where you want the shortcut to go) and select Paste shortcut: Right-drag (drag with the right mouse button) the file from the source folder to the destination folder.  When you let go of the mouse button at the destination folder, a menu pops up: Select Create shortcuts here. Note that when shortcuts are created, they are often named something like Shortcut to Budget Detail.doc (windows XP) or Budget Detail – Shortcut.doc (Windows 7).   If you don’t like those extra words, you can easily rename the shortcuts after they’re created, or you can configure Windows to never insert the extra words in the first place (see our article on how to do this). And of course, you can create shortcuts to folders too, not just to files! Bottom line: Whenever you have a file that you’d like to access from somewhere else (whether it’s convenience you’re after, or because the file simply belongs in two places), create a shortcut to the original file in the new location. Tip #10.  Separate Application Files from Data Files Any digital organization guru will drum this rule into you.  Application files are the components of the software you’ve installed (e.g. Microsoft Word, Adobe Photoshop or Internet Explorer).  Data files are the files that you’ve created for yourself using that software (e.g. Word Documents, digital photos, emails or playlists). Software gets installed, uninstalled and upgraded all the time.  Hopefully you always have the original installation media (or downloaded set-up file) kept somewhere safe, and can thus reinstall your software at any time.  This means that the software component files are of little importance.  Whereas the files you have created with that software is, by definition, important.  It’s a good rule to always separate unimportant files from important files. So when your software prompts you to save a file you’ve just created, take a moment and check out where it’s suggesting that you save the file.  If it’s suggesting that you save the file into the same folder as the software itself, then definitely don’t follow that suggestion.  File it in your own folder!  In fact, see if you can find the program’s configuration option that determines where files are saved by default (if it has one), and change it. Tip #11.  Organize Files Based on Purpose, Not on File Type If you have, for example a folder called Work\Clients\Johnson, and within that folder you have two sub-folders, Word Documents and Spreadsheets (in other words, you’re separating “.doc” files from “.xls” files), then chances are that you’re not optimally organized.  It makes little sense to organize your files based on the program that created them.  Instead, create your sub-folders based on the purpose of the file.  For example, it would make more sense to create sub-folders called Correspondence and Financials.  It may well be that all the files in a given sub-folder are of the same file-type, but this should be more of a coincidence and less of a design feature of your organization system. Tip #12.  Maintain the Same Folder Structure on All Your Computers In other words, whatever organizational system you create, apply it to every computer that you can.  There are several benefits to this: There’s less to remember.  No matter where you are, you always know where to look for your files If you copy or synchronize files from one computer to another, then setting up the synchronization job becomes very simple Shortcuts can be copied or moved from one computer to another with ease (assuming the original files are also copied/moved).  There’s no need to find the target of the shortcut all over again on the second computer Ditto for linked files (e.g Word documents that link to data in a separate Excel file), playlists, and any files that reference the exact file locations of other files. This applies even to the drive that your files are stored on.  If your files are stored on C: on one computer, make sure they’re stored on C: on all your computers.  Otherwise all your shortcuts, playlists and linked files will stop working! Tip #13.  Create an “Inbox” Folder Create yourself a folder where you store all files that you’re currently working on, or that you haven’t gotten around to filing yet.  You can think of this folder as your “to-do” list.  You can call it “Inbox” (making it the same metaphor as your email system), or “Work”, or “To-Do”, or “Scratch”, or whatever name makes sense to you.  It doesn’t matter what you call it – just make sure you have one! Once you have finished working on a file, you then move it from the “Inbox” to its correct location within your organizational structure. You may want to use your Desktop as this “Inbox” folder.  Rightly or wrongly, most people do.  It’s not a bad place to put such files, but be careful:  If you do decide that your Desktop represents your “to-do” list, then make sure that no other files find their way there.  In other words, make sure that your “Inbox”, wherever it is, Desktop or otherwise, is kept free of junk – stray files that don’t belong there. So where should you put this folder, which, almost by definition, lives outside the structure of the rest of your filing system?  Well, first and foremost, it has to be somewhere handy.  This will be one of your most-visited folders, so convenience is key.  Putting it on the Desktop is a great option – especially if you don’t have any other folders on your Desktop:  the folder then becomes supremely easy to find in Windows Explorer: You would then create shortcuts to this folder in convenient spots all over your computer (“Favorite Links”, “Quick Launch”, etc). Tip #14.  Ensure You have Only One “Inbox” Folder Once you’ve created your “Inbox” folder, don’t use any other folder location as your “to-do list”.  Throw every incoming or created file into the Inbox folder as you create/receive it.  This keeps the rest of your computer pristine and free of randomly created or downloaded junk.  The last thing you want to be doing is checking multiple folders to see all your current tasks and projects.  Gather them all together into one folder. Here are some tips to help ensure you only have one Inbox: Set the default “save” location of all your programs to this folder. Set the default “download” location for your browser to this folder. If this folder is not your desktop (recommended) then also see if you can make a point of not putting “to-do” files on your desktop.  This keeps your desktop uncluttered and Zen-like: (the Inbox folder is in the bottom-right corner) Tip #15.  Be Vigilant about Clearing Your “Inbox” Folder This is one of the keys to staying organized.  If you let your “Inbox” overflow (i.e. allow there to be more than, say, 30 files or folders in there), then you’re probably going to start feeling like you’re overwhelmed:  You’re not keeping up with your to-do list.  Once your Inbox gets beyond a certain point (around 30 files, studies have shown), then you’ll simply start to avoid it.  You may continue to put files in there, but you’ll be scared to look at it, fearing the “out of control” feeling that all overworked, chaotic or just plain disorganized people regularly feel. So, here’s what you can do: Visit your Inbox/to-do folder regularly (at least five times per day). Scan the folder regularly for files that you have completed working on and are ready for filing.  File them immediately. Make it a source of pride to keep the number of files in this folder as small as possible.  If you value peace of mind, then make the emptiness of this folder one of your highest (computer) priorities If you know that a particular file has been in the folder for more than, say, six weeks, then admit that you’re not actually going to get around to processing it, and move it to its final resting place. Tip #16.  File Everything Immediately, and Use Shortcuts for Your Active Projects As soon as you create, receive or download a new file, store it away in its “correct” folder immediately.  Then, whenever you need to work on it (possibly straight away), create a shortcut to it in your “Inbox” (“to-do”) folder or your desktop.  That way, all your files are always in their “correct” locations, yet you still have immediate, convenient access to your current, active files.  When you finish working on a file, simply delete the shortcut. Ideally, your “Inbox” folder – and your Desktop – should contain no actual files or folders.  They should simply contain shortcuts. Tip #17.  Use Directory Symbolic Links (or Junctions) to Maintain One Unified Folder Structure Using this tip, we can get around a potential hiccup that we can run into when creating our organizational structure – the issue of having more than one drive on our computer (C:, D:, etc).  We might have files we need to store on the D: drive for space reasons, and yet want to base our organized folder structure on the C: drive (or vice-versa). Your chosen organizational structure may dictate that all your files must be accessed from the C: drive (for example, the root folder of all your files may be something like C:\Files).  And yet you may still have a D: drive and wish to take advantage of the hundreds of spare Gigabytes that it offers.  Did you know that it’s actually possible to store your files on the D: drive and yet access them as if they were on the C: drive?  And no, we’re not talking about shortcuts here (although the concept is very similar). By using the shell command mklink, you can essentially take a folder that lives on one drive and create an alias for it on a different drive (you can do lots more than that with mklink – for a full rundown on this programs capabilities, see our dedicated article).  These aliases are called directory symbolic links (and used to be known as junctions).  You can think of them as “virtual” folders.  They function exactly like regular folders, except they’re physically located somewhere else. For example, you may decide that your entire D: drive contains your complete organizational file structure, but that you need to reference all those files as if they were on the C: drive, under C:\Files.  If that was the case you could create C:\Files as a directory symbolic link – a link to D:, as follows: mklink /d c:\files d:\ Or it may be that the only files you wish to store on the D: drive are your movie collection.  You could locate all your movie files in the root of your D: drive, and then link it to C:\Files\Media\Movies, as follows: mklink /d c:\files\media\movies d:\ (Needless to say, you must run these commands from a command prompt – click the Start button, type cmd and press Enter) Tip #18. Customize Your Folder Icons This is not strictly speaking an organizational tip, but having unique icons for each folder does allow you to more quickly visually identify which folder is which, and thus saves you time when you’re finding files.  An example is below (from my folder that contains all files downloaded from the Internet): To learn how to change your folder icons, please refer to our dedicated article on the subject. Tip #19.  Tidy Your Start Menu The Windows Start Menu is usually one of the messiest parts of any Windows computer.  Every program you install seems to adopt a completely different approach to placing icons in this menu.  Some simply put a single program icon.  Others create a folder based on the name of the software.  And others create a folder based on the name of the software manufacturer.  It’s chaos, and can make it hard to find the software you want to run. Thankfully we can avoid this chaos with useful operating system features like Quick Launch, the Superbar or pinned start menu items. Even so, it would make a lot of sense to get into the guts of the Start Menu itself and give it a good once-over.  All you really need to decide is how you’re going to organize your applications.  A structure based on the purpose of the application is an obvious candidate.  Below is an example of one such structure: In this structure, Utilities means software whose job it is to keep the computer itself running smoothly (configuration tools, backup software, Zip programs, etc).  Applications refers to any productivity software that doesn’t fit under the headings Multimedia, Graphics, Internet, etc. In case you’re not aware, every icon in your Start Menu is a shortcut and can be manipulated like any other shortcut (copied, moved, deleted, etc). With the Windows Start Menu (all version of Windows), Microsoft has decided that there be two parallel folder structures to store your Start Menu shortcuts.  One for you (the logged-in user of the computer) and one for all users of the computer.  Having two parallel structures can often be redundant:  If you are the only user of the computer, then having two parallel structures is totally redundant.  Even if you have several users that regularly log into the computer, most of your installed software will need to be made available to all users, and should thus be moved out of the “just you” version of the Start Menu and into the “all users” area. To take control of your Start Menu, so you can start organizing it, you’ll need to know how to access the actual folders and shortcut files that make up the Start Menu (both versions of it).  To find these folders and files, click the Start button and then right-click on the All Programs text (Windows XP users should right-click on the Start button itself): The Open option refers to the “just you” version of the Start Menu, while the Open All Users option refers to the “all users” version.  Click on the one you want to organize. A Windows Explorer window then opens with your chosen version of the Start Menu selected.  From there it’s easy.  Double-click on the Programs folder and you’ll see all your folders and shortcuts.  Now you can delete/rename/move until it’s just the way you want it. Note:  When you’re reorganizing your Start Menu, you may want to have two Explorer windows open at the same time – one showing the “just you” version and one showing the “all users” version.  You can drag-and-drop between the windows. Tip #20.  Keep Your Start Menu Tidy Once you have a perfectly organized Start Menu, try to be a little vigilant about keeping it that way.  Every time you install a new piece of software, the icons that get created will almost certainly violate your organizational structure. So to keep your Start Menu pristine and organized, make sure you do the following whenever you install a new piece of software: Check whether the software was installed into the “just you” area of the Start Menu, or the “all users” area, and then move it to the correct area. Remove all the unnecessary icons (like the “Read me” icon, the “Help” icon (you can always open the help from within the software itself when it’s running), the “Uninstall” icon, the link(s)to the manufacturer’s website, etc) Rename the main icon(s) of the software to something brief that makes sense to you.  For example, you might like to rename Microsoft Office Word 2010 to simply Word Move the icon(s) into the correct folder based on your Start Menu organizational structure And don’t forget:  when you uninstall a piece of software, the software’s uninstall routine is no longer going to be able to remove the software’s icon from the Start Menu (because you moved and/or renamed it), so you’ll need to remove that icon manually. Tip #21.  Tidy C:\ The root of your C: drive (C:\) is a common dumping ground for files and folders – both by the users of your computer and by the software that you install on your computer.  It can become a mess. There’s almost no software these days that requires itself to be installed in C:\.  99% of the time it can and should be installed into C:\Program Files.  And as for your own files, well, it’s clear that they can (and almost always should) be stored somewhere else. In an ideal world, your C:\ folder should look like this (on Windows 7): Note that there are some system files and folders in C:\ that are usually and deliberately “hidden” (such as the Windows virtual memory file pagefile.sys, the boot loader file bootmgr, and the System Volume Information folder).  Hiding these files and folders is a good idea, as they need to stay where they are and are almost never needed to be opened or even seen by you, the user.  Hiding them prevents you from accidentally messing with them, and enhances your sense of order and well-being when you look at your C: drive folder. Tip #22.  Tidy Your Desktop The Desktop is probably the most abused part of a Windows computer (from an organization point of view).  It usually serves as a dumping ground for all incoming files, as well as holding icons to oft-used applications, plus some regularly opened files and folders.  It often ends up becoming an uncontrolled mess.  See if you can avoid this.  Here’s why… Application icons (Word, Internet Explorer, etc) are often found on the Desktop, but it’s unlikely that this is the optimum place for them.  The “Quick Launch” bar (or the Superbar in Windows 7) is always visible and so represents a perfect location to put your icons.  You’ll only be able to see the icons on your Desktop when all your programs are minimized.  It might be time to get your application icons off your desktop… You may have decided that the Inbox/To-do folder on your computer (see tip #13, above) should be your Desktop.  If so, then enough said.  Simply be vigilant about clearing it and preventing it from being polluted by junk files (see tip #15, above).  On the other hand, if your Desktop is not acting as your “Inbox” folder, then there’s no reason for it to have any data files or folders on it at all, except perhaps a couple of shortcuts to often-opened files and folders (either ongoing or current projects).  Everything else should be moved to your “Inbox” folder. In an ideal world, it might look like this: Tip #23.  Move Permanent Items on Your Desktop Away from the Top-Left Corner When files/folders are dragged onto your desktop in a Windows Explorer window, or when shortcuts are created on your Desktop from Internet Explorer, those icons are always placed in the top-left corner – or as close as they can get.  If you have other files, folders or shortcuts that you keep on the Desktop permanently, then it’s a good idea to separate these permanent icons from the transient ones, so that you can quickly identify which ones the transients are.  An easy way to do this is to move all your permanent icons to the right-hand side of your Desktop.  That should keep them separated from incoming items. Tip #24.  Synchronize If you have more than one computer, you’ll almost certainly want to share files between them.  If the computers are permanently attached to the same local network, then there’s no need to store multiple copies of any one file or folder – shortcuts will suffice.  However, if the computers are not always on the same network, then you will at some point need to copy files between them.  For files that need to permanently live on both computers, the ideal way to do this is to synchronize the files, as opposed to simply copying them. We only have room here to write a brief summary of synchronization, not a full article.  In short, there are several different types of synchronization: Where the contents of one folder are accessible anywhere, such as with Dropbox Where the contents of any number of folders are accessible anywhere, such as with Windows Live Mesh Where any files or folders from anywhere on your computer are synchronized with exactly one other computer, such as with the Windows “Briefcase”, Microsoft SyncToy, or (much more powerful, yet still free) SyncBack from 2BrightSparks.  This only works when both computers are on the same local network, at least temporarily. A great advantage of synchronization solutions is that once you’ve got it configured the way you want it, then the sync process happens automatically, every time.  Click a button (or schedule it to happen automatically) and all your files are automagically put where they’re supposed to be. If you maintain the same file and folder structure on both computers, then you can also sync files depend upon the correct location of other files, like shortcuts, playlists and office documents that link to other office documents, and the synchronized files still work on the other computer! Tip #25.  Hide Files You Never Need to See If you have your files well organized, you will often be able to tell if a file is out of place just by glancing at the contents of a folder (for example, it should be pretty obvious if you look in a folder that contains all the MP3s from one music CD and see a Word document in there).  This is a good thing – it allows you to determine if there are files out of place with a quick glance.  Yet sometimes there are files in a folder that seem out of place but actually need to be there, such as the “folder art” JPEGs in music folders, and various files in the root of the C: drive.  If such files never need to be opened by you, then a good idea is to simply hide them.  Then, the next time you glance at the folder, you won’t have to remember whether that file was supposed to be there or not, because you won’t see it at all! To hide a file, simply right-click on it and choose Properties: Then simply tick the Hidden tick-box:   Tip #26.  Keep Every Setup File These days most software is downloaded from the Internet.  Whenever you download a piece of software, keep it.  You’ll never know when you need to reinstall the software. Further, keep with it an Internet shortcut that links back to the website where you originally downloaded it, in case you ever need to check for updates. See tip #33 below for a full description of the excellence of organizing your setup files. Tip #27.  Try to Minimize the Number of Folders that Contain Both Files and Sub-folders Some of the folders in your organizational structure will contain only files.  Others will contain only sub-folders.  And you will also have some folders that contain both files and sub-folders.  You will notice slight improvements in how long it takes you to locate a file if you try to avoid this third type of folder.  It’s not always possible, of course – you’ll always have some of these folders, but see if you can avoid it. One way of doing this is to take all the leftover files that didn’t end up getting stored in a sub-folder and create a special “Miscellaneous” or “Other” folder for them. Tip #28.  Starting a Filename with an Underscore Brings it to the Top of a List Further to the previous tip, if you name that “Miscellaneous” or “Other” folder in such a way that its name begins with an underscore “_”, then it will appear at the top of the list of files/folders. The screenshot below is an example of this.  Each folder in the list contains a set of digital photos.  The folder at the top of the list, _Misc, contains random photos that didn’t deserve their own dedicated folder: Tip #29.  Clean Up those CD-ROMs and (shudder!) Floppy Disks Have you got a pile of CD-ROMs stacked on a shelf of your office?  Old photos, or files you archived off onto CD-ROM (or even worse, floppy disks!) because you didn’t have enough disk space at the time?  In the meantime have you upgraded your computer and now have 500 Gigabytes of space you don’t know what to do with?  If so, isn’t it time you tidied up that stack of disks and filed them into your gorgeous new folder structure? So what are you waiting for?  Bite the bullet, copy them all back onto your computer, file them in their appropriate folders, and then back the whole lot up onto a shiny new 1000Gig external hard drive! Useful Folders to Create This next section suggests some useful folders that you might want to create within your folder structure.  I’ve personally found them to be indispensable. The first three are all about convenience – handy folders to create and then put somewhere that you can always access instantly.  For each one, it’s not so important where the actual folder is located, but it’s very important where you put the shortcut(s) to the folder.  You might want to locate the shortcuts: On your Desktop In your “Quick Launch” area (or pinned to your Windows 7 Superbar) In your Windows Explorer “Favorite Links” area Tip #30.  Create an “Inbox” (“To-Do”) Folder This has already been mentioned in depth (see tip #13), but we wanted to reiterate its importance here.  This folder contains all the recently created, received or downloaded files that you have not yet had a chance to file away properly, and it also may contain files that you have yet to process.  In effect, it becomes a sort of “to-do list”.  It doesn’t have to be called “Inbox” – you can call it whatever you want. Tip #31.  Create a Folder where Your Current Projects are Collected Rather than going hunting for them all the time, or dumping them all on your desktop, create a special folder where you put links (or work folders) for each of the projects you’re currently working on. You can locate this folder in your “Inbox” folder, on your desktop, or anywhere at all – just so long as there’s a way of getting to it quickly, such as putting a link to it in Windows Explorer’s “Favorite Links” area: Tip #32.  Create a Folder for Files and Folders that You Regularly Open You will always have a few files that you open regularly, whether it be a spreadsheet of your current accounts, or a favorite playlist.  These are not necessarily “current projects”, rather they’re simply files that you always find yourself opening.  Typically such files would be located on your desktop (or even better, shortcuts to those files).  Why not collect all such shortcuts together and put them in their own special folder? As with the “Current Projects” folder (above), you would want to locate that folder somewhere convenient.  Below is an example of a folder called “Quick links”, with about seven files (shortcuts) in it, that is accessible through the Windows Quick Launch bar: See tip #37 below for a full explanation of the power of the Quick Launch bar. Tip #33.  Create a “Set-ups” Folder A typical computer has dozens of applications installed on it.  For each piece of software, there are often many different pieces of information you need to keep track of, including: The original installation setup file(s).  This can be anything from a simple 100Kb setup.exe file you downloaded from a website, all the way up to a 4Gig ISO file that you copied from a DVD-ROM that you purchased. The home page of the software manufacturer (in case you need to look up something on their support pages, their forum or their online help) The page containing the download link for your actual file (in case you need to re-download it, or download an upgraded version) The serial number Your proof-of-purchase documentation Any other template files, plug-ins, themes, etc that also need to get installed For each piece of software, it’s a great idea to gather all of these files together and put them in a single folder.  The folder can be the name of the software (plus possibly a very brief description of what it’s for – in case you can’t remember what the software does based in its name).  Then you would gather all of these folders together into one place, and call it something like “Software” or “Setups”. If you have enough of these folders (I have several hundred, being a geek, collected over 20 years), then you may want to further categorize them.  My own categorization structure is based on “platform” (operating system): The last seven folders each represents one platform/operating system, while _Operating Systems contains set-up files for installing the operating systems themselves.  _Hardware contains ROMs for hardware I own, such as routers. Within the Windows folder (above), you can see the beginnings of the vast library of software I’ve compiled over the years: An example of a typical application folder looks like this: Tip #34.  Have a “Settings” Folder We all know that our documents are important.  So are our photos and music files.  We save all of these files into folders, and then locate them afterwards and double-click on them to open them.  But there are many files that are important to us that can’t be saved into folders, and then searched for and double-clicked later on.  These files certainly contain important information that we need, but are often created internally by an application, and saved wherever that application feels is appropriate. A good example of this is the “PST” file that Outlook creates for us and uses to store all our emails, contacts, appointments and so forth.  Another example would be the collection of Bookmarks that Firefox stores on your behalf. And yet another example would be the customized settings and configuration files of our all our software.  Granted, most Windows programs store their configuration in the Registry, but there are still many programs that use configuration files to store their settings. Imagine if you lost all of the above files!  And yet, when people are backing up their computers, they typically only back up the files they know about – those that are stored in the “My Documents” folder, etc.  If they had a hard disk failure or their computer was lost or stolen, their backup files would not include some of the most vital files they owned.  Also, when migrating to a new computer, it’s vital to ensure that these files make the journey. It can be a very useful idea to create yourself a folder to store all your “settings” – files that are important to you but which you never actually search for by name and double-click on to open them.  Otherwise, next time you go to set up a new computer just the way you want it, you’ll need to spend hours recreating the configuration of your previous computer! So how to we get our important files into this folder?  Well, we have a few options: Some programs (such as Outlook and its PST files) allow you to place these files wherever you want.  If you delve into the program’s options, you will find a setting somewhere that controls the location of the important settings files (or “personal storage” – PST – when it comes to Outlook) Some programs do not allow you to change such locations in any easy way, but if you get into the Registry, you can sometimes find a registry key that refers to the location of the file(s).  Simply move the file into your Settings folder and adjust the registry key to refer to the new location. Some programs stubbornly refuse to allow their settings files to be placed anywhere other then where they stipulate.  When faced with programs like these, you have three choices:  (1) You can ignore those files, (2) You can copy the files into your Settings folder (let’s face it – settings don’t change very often), or (3) you can use synchronization software, such as the Windows Briefcase, to make synchronized copies of all your files in your Settings folder.  All you then have to do is to remember to run your sync software periodically (perhaps just before you run your backup software!). There are some other things you may decide to locate inside this new “Settings” folder: Exports of registry keys (from the many applications that store their configurations in the Registry).  This is useful for backup purposes or for migrating to a new computer Notes you’ve made about all the specific customizations you have made to a particular piece of software (so that you’ll know how to do it all again on your next computer) Shortcuts to webpages that detail how to tweak certain aspects of your operating system or applications so they are just the way you like them (such as how to remove the words “Shortcut to” from the beginning of newly created shortcuts).  In other words, you’d want to create shortcuts to half the pages on the How-To Geek website! Here’s an example of a “Settings” folder: Windows Features that Help with Organization This section details some of the features of Microsoft Windows that are a boon to anyone hoping to stay optimally organized. Tip #35.  Use the “Favorite Links” Area to Access Oft-Used Folders Once you’ve created your great new filing system, work out which folders you access most regularly, or which serve as great starting points for locating the rest of the files in your folder structure, and then put links to those folders in your “Favorite Links” area of the left-hand side of the Windows Explorer window (simply called “Favorites” in Windows 7):   Some ideas for folders you might want to add there include: Your “Inbox” folder (or whatever you’ve called it) – most important! The base of your filing structure (e.g. C:\Files) A folder containing shortcuts to often-accessed folders on other computers around the network (shown above as Network Folders) A folder containing shortcuts to your current projects (unless that folder is in your “Inbox” folder) Getting folders into this area is very simple – just locate the folder you’re interested in and drag it there! Tip #36.  Customize the Places Bar in the File/Open and File/Save Boxes Consider the screenshot below: The highlighted icons (collectively known as the “Places Bar”) can be customized to refer to any folder location you want, allowing instant access to any part of your organizational structure. Note:  These File/Open and File/Save boxes have been superseded by new versions that use the Windows Vista/Windows 7 “Favorite Links”, but the older versions (shown above) are still used by a surprisingly large number of applications. The easiest way to customize these icons is to use the Group Policy Editor, but not everyone has access to this program.  If you do, open it up and navigate to: User Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Windows Explorer > Common Open File Dialog If you don’t have access to the Group Policy Editor, then you’ll need to get into the Registry.  Navigate to: HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ Software \ Microsoft  \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ Policies \ comdlg32 \ Placesbar It should then be easy to make the desired changes.  Log off and log on again to allow the changes to take effect. Tip #37.  Use the Quick Launch Bar as a Application and File Launcher That Quick Launch bar (to the right of the Start button) is a lot more useful than people give it credit for.  Most people simply have half a dozen icons in it, and use it to start just those programs.  But it can actually be used to instantly access just about anything in your filing system: For complete instructions on how to set this up, visit our dedicated article on this topic. Tip #38.  Put a Shortcut to Windows Explorer into Your Quick Launch Bar This is only necessary in Windows Vista and Windows XP.  The Microsoft boffins finally got wise and added it to the Windows 7 Superbar by default. Windows Explorer – the program used for managing your files and folders – is one of the most useful programs in Windows.  Anyone who considers themselves serious about being organized needs instant access to this program at any time.  A great place to create a shortcut to this program is in the Windows XP and Windows Vista “Quick Launch” bar: To get it there, locate it in your Start Menu (usually under “Accessories”) and then right-drag it down into your Quick Launch bar (and create a copy). Tip #39.  Customize the Starting Folder for Your Windows 7 Explorer Superbar Icon If you’re on Windows 7, your Superbar will include a Windows Explorer icon.  Clicking on the icon will launch Windows Explorer (of course), and will start you off in your “Libraries” folder.  Libraries may be fine as a starting point, but if you have created yourself an “Inbox” folder, then it would probably make more sense to start off in this folder every time you launch Windows Explorer. To change this default/starting folder location, then first right-click the Explorer icon in the Superbar, and then right-click Properties:Then, in Target field of the Windows Explorer Properties box that appears, type %windir%\explorer.exe followed by the path of the folder you wish to start in.  For example: %windir%\explorer.exe C:\Files If that folder happened to be on the Desktop (and called, say, “Inbox”), then you would use the following cleverness: %windir%\explorer.exe shell:desktop\Inbox Then click OK and test it out. Tip #40.  Ummmmm…. No, that’s it.  I can’t think of another one.  That’s all of the tips I can come up with.  I only created this one because 40 is such a nice round number… Case Study – An Organized PC To finish off the article, I have included a few screenshots of my (main) computer (running Vista).  The aim here is twofold: To give you a sense of what it looks like when the above, sometimes abstract, tips are applied to a real-life computer, and To offer some ideas about folders and structure that you may want to steal to use on your own PC. Let’s start with the C: drive itself.  Very minimal.  All my files are contained within C:\Files.  I’ll confine the rest of the case study to this folder: That folder contains the following: Mark: My personal files VC: My business (Virtual Creations, Australia) Others contains files created by friends and family Data contains files from the rest of the world (can be thought of as “public” files, usually downloaded from the Net) Settings is described above in tip #34 The Data folder contains the following sub-folders: Audio:  Radio plays, audio books, podcasts, etc Development:  Programmer and developer resources, sample source code, etc (see below) Humour:  Jokes, funnies (those emails that we all receive) Movies:  Downloaded and ripped movies (all legal, of course!), their scripts, DVD covers, etc. Music:  (see below) Setups:  Installation files for software (explained in full in tip #33) System:  (see below) TV:  Downloaded TV shows Writings:  Books, instruction manuals, etc (see below) The Music folder contains the following sub-folders: Album covers:  JPEG scans Guitar tabs:  Text files of guitar sheet music Lists:  e.g. “Top 1000 songs of all time” Lyrics:  Text files MIDI:  Electronic music files MP3 (representing 99% of the Music folder):  MP3s, either ripped from CDs or downloaded, sorted by artist/album name Music Video:  Video clips Sheet Music:  usually PDFs The Data\Writings folder contains the following sub-folders: (all pretty self-explanatory) The Data\Development folder contains the following sub-folders: Again, all pretty self-explanatory (if you’re a geek) The Data\System folder contains the following sub-folders: These are usually themes, plug-ins and other downloadable program-specific resources. The Mark folder contains the following sub-folders: From Others:  Usually letters that other people (friends, family, etc) have written to me For Others:  Letters and other things I have created for other people Green Book:  None of your business Playlists:  M3U files that I have compiled of my favorite songs (plus one M3U playlist file for every album I own) Writing:  Fiction, philosophy and other musings of mine Mark Docs:  Shortcut to C:\Users\Mark Settings:  Shortcut to C:\Files\Settings\Mark The Others folder contains the following sub-folders: The VC (Virtual Creations, my business – I develop websites) folder contains the following sub-folders: And again, all of those are pretty self-explanatory. Conclusion These tips have saved my sanity and helped keep me a productive geek, but what about you? What tips and tricks do you have to keep your files organized?  Please share them with us in the comments.  Come on, don’t be shy… Similar Articles Productive Geek Tips Fix For When Windows Explorer in Vista Stops Showing File NamesWhy Did Windows Vista’s Music Folder Icon Turn Yellow?Print or Create a Text File List of the Contents in a Directory the Easy WayCustomize the Windows 7 or Vista Send To MenuAdd Copy To / Move To on Windows 7 or Vista Right-Click Menu 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 Acronis Online Backup DVDFab 6 Revo Uninstaller Pro Registry Mechanic 9 for Windows Track Daily Goals With 42Goals Video Toolbox is a Superb Online Video Editor Fun with 47 charts and graphs Tomorrow is Mother’s Day Check the Average Speed of YouTube Videos You’ve Watched OutlookStatView Scans and Displays General Usage Statistics

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