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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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• Is there a Telecommunications Reference Architecture?

  - by raul.goycoolea

  @font-face { font-family: "Arial"; }@font-face { font-family: "Courier New"; }@font-face { font-family: "Wingdings"; }@font-face { font-family: "Cambria"; }p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal { margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman"; }p.MsoListParagraph, li.MsoListParagraph, div.MsoListParagraph { margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt 36pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman"; }p.MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst, li.MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst, div.MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst { margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt 36pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman"; }p.MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle, li.MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle, div.MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle { margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt 36pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman"; }p.MsoListParagraphCxSpLast, li.MsoListParagraphCxSpLast, div.MsoListParagraphCxSpLast { margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt 36pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman"; }div.Section1 { page: Section1; }ol { margin-bottom: 0cm; }ul { margin-bottom: 0cm; } Abstract   Reference architecture provides needed architectural information that can be provided in advance to an enterprise to enable consistent architectural best practices. Enterprise Reference Architecture helps business owners to actualize their strategies, vision, objectives, and principles. It evaluates the IT systems, based on Reference Architecture goals, principles, and standards. It helps to reduce IT costs by increasing functionality, availability, scalability, etc. Telecom Reference Architecture provides customers with the flexibility to view bundled service bills online with the provision of multiple services. It provides real-time, flexible billing and charging systems, to handle complex promotions, discounts, and settlements with multiple parties. This paper attempts to describe the Reference Architecture for the Telecom Enterprises. It lays the foundation for a Telecom Reference Architecture by articulating the requirements, drivers, and pitfalls for telecom service providers. It describes generic reference architecture for telecom enterprises and moves on to explain how to achieve Enterprise Reference Architecture by using SOA.   Introduction   A Reference Architecture provides a methodology, set of practices, template, and standards based on a set of successful solutions implemented earlier. These solutions have been generalized and structured for the depiction of both a logical and a physical architecture, based on the harvesting of a set of patterns that describe observations in a number of successful implementations. It helps as a reference for the various architectures that an enterprise can implement to solve various problems. It can be used as the starting point or the point of comparisons for various departments/business entities of a company, or for the various companies for an enterprise. It provides multiple views for multiple stakeholders.   Major artifacts of the Enterprise Reference Architecture are methodologies, standards, metadata, documents, design patterns, etc.   Purpose of Reference Architecture   In most cases, architects spend a lot of time researching, investigating, defining, and re-arguing architectural decisions. It is like reinventing the wheel as their peers in other organizations or even the same organization have already spent a lot of time and effort defining their own architectural practices. This prevents an organization from learning from its own experiences and applying that knowledge for increased effectiveness.   Reference architecture provides missing architectural information that can be provided in advance to project team members to enable consistent architectural best practices.   Enterprise Reference Architecture helps an enterprise to achieve the following at the abstract level:   ·       Reference architecture is more of a communication channel to an enterprise ·       Helps the business owners to accommodate to their strategies, vision, objectives, and principles. ·       Evaluates the IT systems based on Reference Architecture Principles ·       Reduces IT spending through increasing functionality, availability, scalability, etc ·       A Real-time Integration Model helps to reduce the latency of the data updates Is used to define a single source of Information ·       Provides a clear view on how to manage information and security ·       Defines the policy around the data ownership, product boundaries, etc. ·       Helps with cost optimization across project and solution portfolios by eliminating unused or duplicate investments and assets ·       Has a shorter implementation time and cost   Once the reference architecture is in place, the set of architectural principles, standards, reference models, and best practices ensure that the aligned investments have the greatest possible likelihood of success in both the near term and the long term (TCO).     Common pitfalls for Telecom Service Providers   Telecom Reference Architecture serves as the first step towards maturity for a telecom service provider. During the course of our assignments/experiences with telecom players, we have come across the following observations – Some of these indicate a lack of maturity of the telecom service provider:   ·       In markets that are growing and not so mature, it has been observed that telcos have a significant amount of in-house or home-grown applications. In some of these markets, the growth has been so rapid that IT has been unable to cope with business demands. Telcos have shown a tendency to come up with workarounds in their IT applications so as to meet business needs. ·       Even for core functions like provisioning or mediation, some telcos have tried to manage with home-grown applications. ·       Most of the applications do not have the required scalability or maintainability to sustain growth in volumes or functionality. ·       Applications face interoperability issues with other applications in the operator's landscape. Integrating a new application or network element requires considerable effort on the part of the other applications. ·       Application boundaries are not clear, and functionality that is not in the initial scope of that application gets pushed onto it. This results in the development of the multiple, small applications without proper boundaries. ·       Usage of Legacy OSS/BSS systems, poor Integration across Multiple COTS Products and Internal Systems. Most of the Integrations are developed on ad-hoc basis and Point-to-Point Integration. ·       Redundancy of the business functions in different applications • Fragmented data across the different applications and no integrated view of the strategic data • Lot of performance Issues due to the usage of the complex integration across OSS and BSS systems   However, this is where the maturity of the telecom industry as a whole can be of help. The collaborative efforts of telcos to overcome some of these problems have resulted in bodies like the TM Forum. They have come up with frameworks for business processes, data, applications, and technology for telecom service providers. These could be a good starting point for telcos to clean up their enterprise landscape.   Industry Trends in Telecom Reference Architecture   Telecom reference architectures are evolving rapidly because telcos are facing business and IT challenges.   “The reality is that there probably is no killer application, no silver bullet that the telcos can latch onto to carry them into a 21st Century.... Instead, there are probably hundreds – perhaps thousands – of niche applications.... And the only way to find which of these works for you is to try out lots of them, ramp up the ones that work, and discontinue the ones that fail.” – Martin Creaner President & CTO TM Forum.   The following trends have been observed in telecom reference architecture:   ·       Transformation of business structures to align with customer requirements ·       Adoption of more Internet-like technical architectures. The Web 2.0 concept is increasingly being used. ·       Virtualization of the traditional operations support system (OSS) ·       Adoption of SOA to support development of IP-based services ·       Adoption of frameworks like Service Delivery Platforms (SDPs) and IP Multimedia Subsystem ·       (IMS) to enable seamless deployment of various services over fixed and mobile networks ·       Replacement of in-house, customized, and stove-piped OSS/BSS with standards-based COTS products ·       Compliance with industry standards and frameworks like eTOM, SID, and TAM to enable seamless integration with other standards-based products   Drivers of Reference Architecture   The drivers of the Reference Architecture are Reference Architecture Goals, Principles, and Enterprise Vision and Telecom Transformation. The details are depicted below diagram. @font-face { font-family: "Cambria"; }p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal { margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman"; }p.MsoCaption, li.MsoCaption, div.MsoCaption { margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; font-size: 9pt; font-family: "Times New Roman"; color: rgb(79, 129, 189); font-weight: bold; }div.Section1 { page: Section1; } Figure 1. Drivers for Reference Architecture @font-face { font-family: "Arial"; }@font-face { font-family: "Courier New"; }@font-face { font-family: "Wingdings"; }@font-face { font-family: "Cambria"; }p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal { margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman"; }p.MsoListParagraph, li.MsoListParagraph, div.MsoListParagraph { margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt 36pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman"; }p.MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst, li.MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst, div.MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst { margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt 36pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman"; }p.MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle, li.MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle, div.MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle { margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt 36pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman"; }p.MsoListParagraphCxSpLast, li.MsoListParagraphCxSpLast, div.MsoListParagraphCxSpLast { margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt 36pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman"; }div.Section1 { page: Section1; }ol { margin-bottom: 0cm; }ul { margin-bottom: 0cm; } Today’s telecom reference architectures should seamlessly integrate traditional legacy-based applications and transition to next-generation network technologies (e.g., IP multimedia subsystems). This has resulted in new requirements for flexible, real-time billing and OSS/BSS systems and implications on the service provider’s organizational requirements and structure.   Telecom reference architectures are today expected to:   ·       Integrate voice, messaging, email and other VAS over fixed and mobile networks, back end systems ·       Be able to provision multiple services and service bundles • Deliver converged voice, video and data services ·       Leverage the existing Network Infrastructure ·       Provide real-time, flexible billing and charging systems to handle complex promotions, discounts, and settlements with multiple parties. ·       Support charging of advanced data services such as VoIP, On-Demand, Services (e.g.  Video), IMS/SIP Services, Mobile Money, Content Services and IPTV. ·       Help in faster deployment of new services • Serve as an effective platform for collaboration between network IT and business organizations ·       Harness the potential of converging technology, networks, devices and content to develop multimedia services and solutions of ever-increasing sophistication on a single Internet Protocol (IP) ·       Ensure better service delivery and zero revenue leakage through real-time balance and credit management ·       Lower operating costs to drive profitability   Enterprise Reference Architecture   The Enterprise Reference Architecture (RA) fills the gap between the concepts and vocabulary defined by the reference model and the implementation. Reference architecture provides detailed architectural information in a common format such that solutions can be repeatedly designed and deployed in a consistent, high-quality, supportable fashion. This paper attempts to describe the Reference Architecture for the Telecom Application Usage and how to achieve the Enterprise Level Reference Architecture using SOA.   • Telecom Reference Architecture • Enterprise SOA based Reference Architecture   Telecom Reference Architecture   Tele Management Forum’s New Generation Operations Systems and Software (NGOSS) is an architectural framework for organizing, integrating, and implementing telecom systems. NGOSS is a component-based framework consisting of the following elements:   ·       The enhanced Telecom Operations Map (eTOM) is a business process framework. ·       The Shared Information Data (SID) model provides a comprehensive information framework that may be specialized for the needs of a particular organization. ·       The Telecom Application Map (TAM) is an application framework to depict the functional footprint of applications, relative to the horizontal processes within eTOM. ·       The Technology Neutral Architecture (TNA) is an integrated framework. TNA is an architecture that is sustainable through technology changes.   NGOSS Architecture Standards are:   ·       Centralized data ·       Loosely coupled distributed systems ·       Application components/re-use  ·       A technology-neutral system framework with technology specific implementations ·       Interoperability to service provider data/processes ·       Allows more re-use of business components across multiple business scenarios ·       Workflow automation   The traditional operator systems architecture consists of four layers,   ·       Business Support System (BSS) layer, with focus toward customers and business partners. Manages order, subscriber, pricing, rating, and billing information. ·       Operations Support System (OSS) layer, built around product, service, and resource inventories. ·       Networks layer – consists of Network elements and 3rd Party Systems. ·       Integration Layer – to maximize application communication and overall solution flexibility.   Reference architecture for telecom enterprises is depicted below. @font-face { font-family: "Arial"; }@font-face { font-family: "Courier New"; }@font-face { font-family: "Wingdings"; }@font-face { font-family: "Cambria"; }p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal { margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman"; }p.MsoCaption, li.MsoCaption, div.MsoCaption { margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; font-size: 9pt; font-family: "Times New Roman"; color: rgb(79, 129, 189); font-weight: bold; }p.MsoListParagraph, li.MsoListParagraph, div.MsoListParagraph { margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt 36pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman"; }p.MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst, li.MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst, div.MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst { margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt 36pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman"; }p.MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle, li.MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle, div.MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle { margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt 36pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman"; }p.MsoListParagraphCxSpLast, li.MsoListParagraphCxSpLast, div.MsoListParagraphCxSpLast { margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt 36pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman"; }div.Section1 { page: Section1; }ol { margin-bottom: 0cm; }ul { margin-bottom: 0cm; } Figure 2. Telecom Reference Architecture   The major building blocks of any Telecom Service Provider architecture are as follows:   1. Customer Relationship Management   CRM encompasses the end-to-end lifecycle of the customer: customer initiation/acquisition, sales, ordering, and service activation, customer care and support, proactive campaigns, cross sell/up sell, and retention/loyalty.   CRM also includes the collection of customer information and its application to personalize, customize, and integrate delivery of service to a customer, as well as to identify opportunities for increasing the value of the customer to the enterprise.   The key functionalities related to Customer Relationship Management are   ·       Manage the end-to-end lifecycle of a customer request for products. ·       Create and manage customer profiles. ·       Manage all interactions with customers – inquiries, requests, and responses. ·       Provide updates to Billing and other south bound systems on customer/account related updates such as customer/ account creation, deletion, modification, request bills, final bill, duplicate bills, credit limits through Middleware. ·       Work with Order Management System, Product, and Service Management components within CRM. ·       Manage customer preferences – Involve all the touch points and channels to the customer, including contact center, retail stores, dealers, self service, and field service, as well as via any media (phone, face to face, web, mobile device, chat, email, SMS, mail, the customer's bill, etc.). ·       Support single interface for customer contact details, preferences, account details, offers, customer premise equipment, bill details, bill cycle details, and customer interactions.   CRM applications interact with customers through customer touch points like portals, point-of-sale terminals, interactive voice response systems, etc. The requests by customers are sent via fulfillment/provisioning to billing system for ordering processing.   2. Billing and Revenue Management   Billing and Revenue Management handles the collection of appropriate usage records and production of timely and accurate bills – for providing pre-bill usage information and billing to customers; for processing their payments; and for performing payment collections. In addition, it handles customer inquiries about bills, provides billing inquiry status, and is responsible for resolving billing problems to the customer's satisfaction in a timely manner. This process grouping also supports prepayment for services.   The key functionalities provided by these applications are   ·       To ensure that enterprise revenue is billed and invoices delivered appropriately to customers. ·       To manage customers’ billing accounts, process their payments, perform payment collections, and monitor the status of the account balance. ·       To ensure the timely and effective fulfillment of all customer bill inquiries and complaints. ·       Collect the usage records from mediation and ensure appropriate rating and discounting of all usage and pricing. ·       Support revenue sharing; split charging where usage is guided to an account different from the service consumer. ·       Support prepaid and post-paid rating. ·       Send notification on approach / exceeding the usage thresholds as enforced by the subscribed offer, and / or as setup by the customer. ·       Support prepaid, post paid, and hybrid (where some services are prepaid and the rest of the services post paid) customers and conversion from post paid to prepaid, and vice versa. ·       Support different billing function requirements like charge prorating, promotion, discount, adjustment, waiver, write-off, account receivable, GL Interface, late payment fee, credit control, dunning, account or service suspension, re-activation, expiry, termination, contract violation penalty, etc. ·       Initiate direct debit to collect payment against an invoice outstanding. ·       Send notification to Middleware on different events; for example, payment receipt, pre-suspension, threshold exceed, etc.   Billing systems typically get usage data from mediation systems for rating and billing. They get provisioning requests from order management systems and inquiries from CRM systems. Convergent and real-time billing systems can directly get usage details from network elements.   3. Mediation   Mediation systems transform/translate the Raw or Native Usage Data Records into a general format that is acceptable to billing for their rating purposes.   The following lists the high-level roles and responsibilities executed by the Mediation system in the end-to-end solution.   ·       Collect Usage Data Records from different data sources – like network elements, routers, servers – via different protocol and interfaces. ·       Process Usage Data Records – Mediation will process Usage Data Records as per the source format. ·       Validate Usage Data Records from each source. ·       Segregates Usage Data Records coming from each source to multiple, based on the segregation requirement of end Application. ·       Aggregates Usage Data Records based on the aggregation rule if any from different sources. ·       Consolidates multiple Usage Data Records from each source. ·       Delivers formatted Usage Data Records to different end application like Billing, Interconnect, Fraud Management, etc. ·       Generates audit trail for incoming Usage Data Records and keeps track of all the Usage Data Records at various stages of mediation process. ·       Checks duplicate Usage Data Records across files for a given time window.   4. Fulfillment   This area is responsible for providing customers with their requested products in a timely and correct manner. It translates the customer's business or personal need into a solution that can be delivered using the specific products in the enterprise's portfolio. This process informs the customers of the status of their purchase order, and ensures completion on time, as well as ensuring a delighted customer. These processes are responsible for accepting and issuing orders. They deal with pre-order feasibility determination, credit authorization, order issuance, order status and tracking, customer update on customer order activities, and customer notification on order completion. Order management and provisioning applications fall into this category.   The key functionalities provided by these applications are   ·       Issuing new customer orders, modifying open customer orders, or canceling open customer orders; ·       Verifying whether specific non-standard offerings sought by customers are feasible and supportable; ·       Checking the credit worthiness of customers as part of the customer order process; ·       Testing the completed offering to ensure it is working correctly; ·       Updating of the Customer Inventory Database to reflect that the specific product offering has been allocated, modified, or cancelled; ·       Assigning and tracking customer provisioning activities; ·       Managing customer provisioning jeopardy conditions; and ·       Reporting progress on customer orders and other processes to customer.   These applications typically get orders from CRM systems. They interact with network elements and billing systems for fulfillment of orders.   5. Enterprise Management   This process area includes those processes that manage enterprise-wide activities and needs, or have application within the enterprise as a whole. They encompass all business management processes that   ·       Are necessary to support the whole of the enterprise, including processes for financial management, legal management, regulatory management, process, cost, and quality management, etc.;   ·       Are responsible for setting corporate policies, strategies, and directions, and for providing guidelines and targets for the whole of the business, including strategy development and planning for areas, such as Enterprise Architecture, that are integral to the direction and development of the business;   ·       Occur throughout the enterprise, including processes for project management, performance assessments, cost assessments, etc.     (i) Enterprise Risk Management:   Enterprise Risk Management focuses on assuring that risks and threats to the enterprise value and/or reputation are identified, and appropriate controls are in place to minimize or eliminate the identified risks. The identified risks may be physical or logical/virtual. Successful risk management ensures that the enterprise can support its mission critical operations, processes, applications, and communications in the face of serious incidents such as security threats/violations and fraud attempts. Two key areas covered in Risk Management by telecom operators are:   ·       Revenue Assurance: Revenue assurance system will be responsible for identifying revenue loss scenarios across components/systems, and will help in rectifying the problems. The following lists the high-level roles and responsibilities executed by the Revenue Assurance system in the end-to-end solution. o   Identify all usage information dropped when networks are being upgraded. o   Interconnect bill verification. o   Identify where services are routinely provisioned but never billed. o   Identify poor sales policies that are intensifying collections problems. o   Find leakage where usage is sent to error bucket and never billed for. o   Find leakage where field service, CRM, and network build-out are not optimized.   ·       Fraud Management: Involves collecting data from different systems to identify abnormalities in traffic patterns, usage patterns, and subscription patterns to report suspicious activity that might suggest fraudulent usage of resources, resulting in revenue losses to the operator.   The key roles and responsibilities of the system component are as follows:   o   Fraud management system will capture and monitor high usage (over a certain threshold) in terms of duration, value, and number of calls for each subscriber. The threshold for each subscriber is decided by the system and fixed automatically. o   Fraud management will be able to detect the unauthorized access to services for certain subscribers. These subscribers may have been provided unauthorized services by employees. The component will raise the alert to the operator the very first time of such illegal calls or calls which are not billed. o   The solution will be to have an alarm management system that will deliver alarms to the operator/provider whenever it detects a fraud, thus minimizing fraud by catching it the first time it occurs. o   The Fraud Management system will be capable of interfacing with switches, mediation systems, and billing systems   (ii) Knowledge Management   This process focuses on knowledge management, technology research within the enterprise, and the evaluation of potential technology acquisitions.   Key responsibilities of knowledge base management are to   ·       Maintain knowledge base – Creation and updating of knowledge base on ongoing basis. ·       Search knowledge base – Search of knowledge base on keywords or category browse ·       Maintain metadata – Management of metadata on knowledge base to ensure effective management and search. ·       Run report generator. ·       Provide content – Add content to the knowledge base, e.g., user guides, operational manual, etc.   (iii) Document Management   It focuses on maintaining a repository of all electronic documents or images of paper documents relevant to the enterprise using a system.   (iv) Data Management   It manages data as a valuable resource for any enterprise. For telecom enterprises, the typical areas covered are Master Data Management, Data Warehousing, and Business Intelligence. It is also responsible for data governance, security, quality, and database management.   Key responsibilities of Data Management are   ·       Using ETL, extract the data from CRM, Billing, web content, ERP, campaign management, financial, network operations, asset management info, customer contact data, customer measures, benchmarks, process data, e.g., process inputs, outputs, and measures, into Enterprise Data Warehouse. ·       Management of data traceability with source, data related business rules/decisions, data quality, data cleansing data reconciliation, competitors data – storage for all the enterprise data (customer profiles, products, offers, revenues, etc.) ·       Get online update through night time replication or physical backup process at regular frequency. ·       Provide the data access to business intelligence and other systems for their analysis, report generation, and use.   (v) Business Intelligence   It uses the Enterprise Data to provide the various analysis and reports that contain prospects and analytics for customer retention, acquisition of new customers due to the offers, and SLAs. It will generate right and optimized plans – bolt-ons for the customers.   The following lists the high-level roles and responsibilities executed by the Business Intelligence system at the Enterprise Level:   ·       It will do Pattern analysis and reports problem. ·       It will do Data Analysis – Statistical analysis, data profiling, affinity analysis of data, customer segment wise usage patterns on offers, products, service and revenue generation against services and customer segments. ·       It will do Performance (business, system, and forecast) analysis, churn propensity, response time, and SLAs analysis. ·       It will support for online and offline analysis, and report drill down capability. ·       It will collect, store, and report various SLA data. ·       It will provide the necessary intelligence for marketing and working on campaigns, etc., with cost benefit analysis and predictions.   It will advise on customer promotions with additional services based on loyalty and credit history of customer   ·       It will Interface with Enterprise Data Management system for data to run reports and analysis tasks. It will interface with the campaign schedules, based on historical success evidence.   (vi) Stakeholder and External Relations Management   It manages the enterprise's relationship with stakeholders and outside entities. Stakeholders include shareholders, employee organizations, etc. Outside entities include regulators, local community, and unions. Some of the processes within this grouping are Shareholder Relations, External Affairs, Labor Relations, and Public Relations.   (vii) Enterprise Resource Planning   It is used to manage internal and external resources, including tangible assets, financial resources, materials, and human resources. Its purpose is to facilitate the flow of information between all business functions inside the boundaries of the enterprise and manage the connections to outside stakeholders. ERP systems consolidate all business operations into a uniform and enterprise wide system environment.   The key roles and responsibilities for Enterprise System are given below:   ·        It will handle responsibilities such as core accounting, financial, and management reporting. ·       It will interface with CRM for capturing customer account and details. ·       It will interface with billing to capture the billing revenue and other financial data. ·       It will be responsible for executing the dunning process. Billing will send the required feed to ERP for execution of dunning. ·       It will interface with the CRM and Billing through batch interfaces. Enterprise management systems are like horizontals in the enterprise and typically interact with all major telecom systems. E.g., an ERP system interacts with CRM, Fulfillment, and Billing systems for different kinds of data exchanges.   6. External Interfaces/Touch Points   The typical external parties are customers, suppliers/partners, employees, shareholders, and other stakeholders. External interactions from/to a Service Provider to other parties can be achieved by a variety of mechanisms, including:   ·       Exchange of emails or faxes ·       Call Centers ·       Web Portals ·       Business-to-Business (B2B) automated transactions   These applications provide an Internet technology driven interface to external parties to undertake a variety of business functions directly for themselves. These can provide fully or partially automated service to external parties through various touch points.   Typical characteristics of these touch points are   ·       Pre-integrated self-service system, including stand-alone web framework or integration front end with a portal engine ·       Self services layer exposing atomic web services/APIs for reuse by multiple systems across the architectural environment ·       Portlets driven connectivity exposing data and services interoperability through a portal engine or web application   These touch points mostly interact with the CRM systems for requests, inquiries, and responses.   7. Middleware   The component will be primarily responsible for integrating the different systems components under a common platform. It should provide a Standards-Based Platform for building Service Oriented Architecture and Composite Applications. The following lists the high-level roles and responsibilities executed by the Middleware component in the end-to-end solution.   ·       As an integration framework, covering to and fro interfaces ·       Provide a web service framework with service registry. ·       Support SOA framework with SOA service registry. ·       Each of the interfaces from / to Middleware to other components would handle data transformation, translation, and mapping of data points. ·       Receive data from the caller / activate and/or forward the data to the recipient system in XML format. ·       Use standard XML for data exchange. ·       Provide the response back to the service/call initiator. ·       Provide a tracking until the response completion. ·       Keep a store transitional data against each call/transaction. ·       Interface through Middleware to get any information that is possible and allowed from the existing systems to enterprise systems; e.g., customer profile and customer history, etc. ·       Provide the data in a common unified format to the SOA calls across systems, and follow the Enterprise Architecture directive. ·       Provide an audit trail for all transactions being handled by the component.   8. Network Elements   The term Network Element means a facility or equipment used in the provision of a telecommunications service. Such terms also includes features, functions, and capabilities that are provided by means of such facility or equipment, including subscriber numbers, databases, signaling systems, and information sufficient for billing and collection or used in the transmission, routing, or other provision of a telecommunications service.   Typical network elements in a GSM network are Home Location Register (HLR), Intelligent Network (IN), Mobile Switching Center (MSC), SMS Center (SMSC), and network elements for other value added services like Push-to-talk (PTT), Ring Back Tone (RBT), etc.   Network elements are invoked when subscribers use their telecom devices for any kind of usage. These elements generate usage data and pass it on to downstream systems like mediation and billing system for rating and billing. They also integrate with provisioning systems for order/service fulfillment.   9. 3rd Party Applications   3rd Party systems are applications like content providers, payment gateways, point of sale terminals, and databases/applications maintained by the Government.   Depending on applicability and the type of functionality provided by 3rd party applications, the integration with different telecom systems like CRM, provisioning, and billing will be done.   10. Service Delivery Platform   A service delivery platform (SDP) provides the architecture for the rapid deployment, provisioning, execution, management, and billing of value added telecom services. SDPs are based on the concept of SOA and layered architecture. They support the delivery of voice, data services, and content in network and device-independent fashion. They allow application developers to aggregate network capabilities, services, and sources of content. SDPs typically contain layers for web services exposure, service application development, and network abstraction.   SOA Reference Architecture   SOA concept is based on the principle of developing reusable business service and building applications by composing those services, instead of building monolithic applications in silos. It’s about bridging the gap between business and IT through a set of business-aligned IT services, using a set of design principles, patterns, and techniques.   In an SOA, resources are made available to participants in a value net, enterprise, line of business (typically spanning multiple applications within an enterprise or across multiple enterprises). It consists of a set of business-aligned IT services that collectively fulfill an organization’s business processes and goals. We can choreograph these services into composite applications and invoke them through standard protocols. SOA, apart from agility and reusability, enables:   ·       The business to specify processes as orchestrations of reusable services ·       Technology agnostic business design, with technology hidden behind service interface ·       A contractual-like interaction between business and IT, based on service SLAs ·       Accountability and governance, better aligned to business services ·       Applications interconnections untangling by allowing access only through service interfaces, reducing the daunting side effects of change ·       Reduced pressure to replace legacy and extended lifetime for legacy applications, through encapsulation in services   ·       A Cloud Computing paradigm, using web services technologies, that makes possible service outsourcing on an on-demand, utility-like, pay-per-usage basis   The following section represents the Reference Architecture of logical view for the Telecom Solution. The new custom built application needs to align with this logical architecture in the long run to achieve EA benefits.   Packaged implementation applications, such as ERP billing applications, need to expose their functions as service providers (as other applications consume) and interact with other applications as service consumers.   COT applications need to expose services through wrappers such as adapters to utilize existing resources and at the same time achieve Enterprise Architecture goal and objectives.   The following are the various layers for Enterprise level deployment of SOA. This diagram captures the abstract view of Enterprise SOA layers and important components of each layer. Layered architecture means decomposition of services such that most interactions occur between adjacent layers. However, there is no strict rule that top layers should not directly communicate with bottom layers.   The diagram below represents the important logical pieces that would result from overall SOA transformation. @font-face { font-family: "Arial"; }@font-face { font-family: "Courier New"; }@font-face { font-family: "Wingdings"; }@font-face { font-family: "Cambria"; }p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal { margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman"; }p.MsoCaption, li.MsoCaption, div.MsoCaption { margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; font-size: 9pt; font-family: "Times New Roman"; color: rgb(79, 129, 189); font-weight: bold; }p.MsoListParagraph, li.MsoListParagraph, div.MsoListParagraph { margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt 36pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman"; }p.MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst, li.MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst, div.MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst { margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt 36pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman"; }p.MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle, li.MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle, div.MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle { margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt 36pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman"; }p.MsoListParagraphCxSpLast, li.MsoListParagraphCxSpLast, div.MsoListParagraphCxSpLast { margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt 36pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman"; }div.Section1 { page: Section1; }ol { margin-bottom: 0cm; }ul { margin-bottom: 0cm; } Figure 3. Enterprise SOA Reference Architecture 1.          Operational System Layer: This layer consists of all packaged applications like CRM, ERP, custom built applications, COTS based applications like Billing, Revenue Management, Fulfilment, and the Enterprise databases that are essential and contribute directly or indirectly to the Enterprise OSS/BSS Transformation.   ERP holds the data of Asset Lifecycle Management, Supply Chain, and Advanced Procurement and Human Capital Management, etc.   CRM holds the data related to Order, Sales, and Marketing, Customer Care, Partner Relationship Management, Loyalty, etc.   Content Management handles Enterprise Search and Query. Billing application consists of the following components:   ·       Collections Management, Customer Billing Management, Invoices, Real-Time Rating, Discounting, and Applying of Charges ·       Enterprise databases will hold both the application and service data, whether structured or unstructured.   MDM - Master data majorly consists of Customer, Order, Product, and Service Data.     2.          Enterprise Component Layer:   This layer consists of the Application Services and Common Services that are responsible for realizing the functionality and maintaining the QoS of the exposed services. This layer uses container-based technologies such as application servers to implement the components, workload management, high availability, and load balancing.   Application Services: This Service Layer enables application, technology, and database abstraction so that the complex accessing logic is hidden from the other service layers. This is a basic service layer, which exposes application functionalities and data as reusable services. The three types of the Application access services are:   ·       Application Access Service: This Service Layer exposes application level functionalities as a reusable service between BSS to BSS and BSS to OSS integration. This layer is enabled using disparate technology such as Web Service, Integration Servers, and Adaptors, etc.   ·       Data Access Service: This Service Layer exposes application data services as a reusable reference data service. This is done via direct interaction with application data. and provides the federated query.   ·       Network Access Service: This Service Layer exposes provisioning layer as a reusable service from OSS to OSS integration. This integration service emphasizes the need for high performance, stateless process flows, and distributed design.   Common Services encompasses management of structured, semi-structured, and unstructured data such as information services, portal services, interaction services, infrastructure services, and security services, etc.   3.          Integration Layer:   This consists of service infrastructure components like service bus, service gateway for partner integration, service registry, service repository, and BPEL processor. Service bus will carry the service invocation payloads/messages between consumers and providers. The other important functions expected from it are itinerary based routing, distributed caching of routing information, transformations, and all qualities of service for messaging-like reliability, scalability, and availability, etc. Service registry will hold all contracts (wsdl) of services, and it helps developers to locate or discover service during design time or runtime.   • BPEL processor would be useful in orchestrating the services to compose a complex business scenario or process. • Workflow and business rules management are also required to support manual triggering of certain activities within business process. based on the rules setup and also the state machine information. Application, data, and service mediation layer typically forms the overall composite application development framework or SOA Framework.   4.          Business Process Layer: These are typically the intermediate services layer and represent Shared Business Process Services. At Enterprise Level, these services are from Customer Management, Order Management, Billing, Finance, and Asset Management application domains.   5.          Access Layer: This layer consists of portals for Enterprise and provides a single view of Enterprise information management and dashboard services.   6.          Channel Layer: This consists of various devices; applications that form part of extended enterprise; browsers through which users access the applications.   7.          Client Layer: This designates the different types of users accessing the enterprise applications. The type of user typically would be an important factor in determining the level of access to applications.   8.          Vertical pieces like management, monitoring, security, and development cut across all horizontal layers Management and monitoring involves all aspects of SOA-like services, SLAs, and other QoS lifecycle processes for both applications and services surrounding SOA governance.     9.          EA Governance, Reference Architecture, Roadmap, Principles, and Best Practices:   EA Governance is important in terms of providing the overall direction to SOA implementation within the enterprise. This involves board-level involvement, in addition to business and IT executives. At a high level, this involves managing the SOA projects implementation, managing SOA infrastructure, and controlling the entire effort through all fine-tuned IT processes in accordance with COBIT (Control Objectives for Information Technology).   Devising tools and techniques to promote reuse culture, and the SOA way of doing things needs competency centers to be established in addition to training the workforce to take up new roles that are suited to SOA journey.   Conclusions   Reference Architectures can serve as the basis for disparate architecture efforts throughout the organization, even if they use different tools and technologies. Reference architectures provide best practices and approaches in the independent way a vendor deals with technology and standards. Reference Architectures model the abstract architectural elements for an enterprise independent of the technologies, protocols, and products that are used to implement an SOA. Telecom enterprises today are facing significant business and technology challenges due to growing competition, a multitude of services, and convergence. Adopting architectural best practices could go a long way in meeting these challenges. The use of SOA-based architecture for communication to each of the external systems like Billing, CRM, etc., in OSS/BSS system has made the architecture very loosely coupled, with greater flexibility. Any change in the external systems would be absorbed at the Integration Layer without affecting the rest of the ecosystem. The use of a Business Process Management (BPM) tool makes the management and maintenance of the business processes easy, with better performance in terms of lead time, quality, and cost. Since the Architecture is based on standards, it will lower the cost of deploying and managing OSS/BSS applications over their lifecycles.

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• Spring maven error

  - by benaissa

  Hello, I'm using spring MVC with maven to develop a web application, but when i update dependencies maven i get this message: 5/6/10 10:09:50 AM CEST: Build errors for amundsen.web; org.apache.maven.lifecycle.LifecycleExecutionException: Failed to execute goal org.apache.maven.plugins:maven-resources-plugin:2.4.1:resources (default-resources) on project amundsen.web: Execution default-resources of goal org.apache.maven.plugins:maven-resources-plugin:2.4.1:resources failed: Plugin org.apache.maven.plugins:maven-resources-plugin:2.4.1 or one of its dependencies could not be resolved: Unable to get dependency information for org.apache.maven.plugins:maven-resources-plugin:maven-plugin:2.4.1: Failed to process POM for org.apache.maven.plugins:maven-resources-plugin:maven-plugin:2.4.1: Non-resolvable parent POM org.apache:apache:6 for org.apache.maven:maven-parent:13: Failed to resolve POM for org.apache:apache:6 due to The repository system is offline and the requested artifact is not locally available at /home/waleed/.m2/repository/org/apache/apache/6/apache-6.pom org.apache:apache:pom:6 from the specified remote repositories: plexus.snapshots (http://oss.repository.sonatype.org/content/repositories/plexus-snapshots, releases=false, snapshots=true), central (http://repo1.maven.org/maven2, releases=true, snapshots=false) my Maven dependencies are: <!-- Junit --> <dependency> <groupId>junit</groupId> <artifactId>junit</artifactId> <version>${junit.version}</version> <scope>test</scope> </dependency> <dependency> <groupId>cglib</groupId> <artifactId>cglib</artifactId> <version>2.2</version> </dependency> <dependency> <groupId>commons-lang</groupId> <artifactId>commons-lang</artifactId> <version>2.3</version> </dependency> <dependency> <groupId>javax.servlet</groupId> <artifactId>com.springsource.javax.servlet.jsp.jstl</artifactId> <version>${servlet.jstl.version}</version> </dependency> <dependency> <groupId>javax.servlet</groupId> <artifactId>servlet-api</artifactId> <version>${servlet-api.version}</version> </dependency> <!--<dependency> <groupId>jstl</groupId> <artifactId>jstl</artifactId> <version>${jstl.version}</version> </dependency> --><!--<dependency> <groupId>javax.servlet</groupId> <artifactId>jstl</artifactId> <version>1.2</version> </dependency> --><dependency> <groupId>org.apache.taglibs</groupId> <artifactId>com.springsource.org.apache.taglibs.standard</artifactId> <version>${standard-taglib.version}</version> </dependency> <dependency> <groupId>org.springframework</groupId> <artifactId>spring-aspects</artifactId> <version>${spring.version}</version> </dependency> <!-- <dependency> <groupId>org.springframework</groupId> <artifactId>spring-beans</artifactId> <version>${spring.version}</version> </dependency> --> <dependency> <groupId>org.apache.commons</groupId> <artifactId>com.springsource.org.apache.commons.collections</artifactId> </dependency> <!-- Compile dependencies --> <dependency> <groupId>org.apache.log4j</groupId> <artifactId>com.springsource.org.apache.log4j</artifactId> </dependency> <!-- Spring (3.0) --> <dependency> <groupId>org.springframework</groupId> <artifactId>org.springframework.core</artifactId> </dependency> <dependency> <groupId>org.springframework</groupId> <artifactId>org.springframework.aop</artifactId> </dependency> <dependency> <groupId>org.springframework</groupId> <artifactId>org.springframework.expression</artifactId> </dependency> <dependency> <groupId>org.springframework</groupId> <artifactId>org.springframework.context</artifactId> </dependency> <dependency> <groupId>org.springframework</groupId> <artifactId>org.springframework.context.support</artifactId> </dependency> <dependency> <groupId>org.springframework</groupId> <artifactId>org.springframework.beans</artifactId> </dependency> <dependency> <groupId>org.springframework</groupId> <artifactId>org.springframework.orm</artifactId> </dependency> <dependency> <groupId>org.springframework</groupId> <artifactId>org.springframework.transaction</artifactId> </dependency> <dependency> <groupId>org.springframework</groupId> <artifactId>spring-web</artifactId> </dependency> <!-- Spring security --> <dependency> <groupId>org.springframework.security</groupId> <artifactId>spring-security-core</artifactId> <exclusions> <exclusion> <artifactId>spring-aop</artifactId> <groupId>org.springframework</groupId> </exclusion> </exclusions> </dependency> <dependency> <groupId>org.springframework.security</groupId> <artifactId>spring-security-core-tiger</artifactId> <version>${spring-security-core-tiger.version}</version> <exclusions> <!-- Exclude 2.0.x spring dependencies --> <exclusion> <groupId>org.springframework</groupId> <artifactId>spring-support</artifactId> </exclusion> </exclusions> </dependency> <dependency> <groupId>org.springframework.security</groupId> <artifactId>spring-security-config</artifactId> </dependency> <dependency> <groupId>org.springframework.security</groupId> <artifactId>spring-security-acl</artifactId> </dependency> <dependency> <groupId>org.springframework.security</groupId> <artifactId>spring-security-web</artifactId> </dependency> <dependency> <groupId>org.springframework.security</groupId> <artifactId>spring-security-taglibs</artifactId> </dependency> <dependency> <groupId>org.springframework</groupId> <artifactId>spring-context</artifactId> <version>${spring.version}</version> </dependency> <dependency> <groupId>org.springframework</groupId> <artifactId>spring-jdbc</artifactId> <version>${spring.version}</version> </dependency> <dependency> <groupId>org.springframework</groupId> <artifactId>spring-webmvc</artifactId> <version>${spring.version}</version> </dependency> <dependency> <groupId>commons-dbcp</groupId> <artifactId>commons-dbcp</artifactId> <version>${commons-dbc.version}</version> </dependency> <dependency> <groupId>org.springframework</groupId> <artifactId>spring-test</artifactId> <version>${spring.version}</version> </dependency> <dependency> <groupId>org.hibernate</groupId> <artifactId>hibernate-core</artifactId> <version>3.3.1.GA</version> </dependency> <!-- <dependency> <groupId>org.hibernate</groupId> <artifactId>hibernate-core</artifactId> <version>3.3.2.GA</version> hibernate-dependencies is a pom, not needed for hibernate-core </dependency> --> <dependency> <groupId>org.hibernate</groupId> <artifactId>hibernate-annotations</artifactId> <version>3.4.0.GA</version> </dependency> <dependency> <groupId>org.hibernate</groupId> <artifactId>hibernate-validator</artifactId> <version>3.1.0.GA</version> </dependency> <dependency> <groupId>org.hibernate</groupId> <artifactId>hibernate-commons-annotations</artifactId> <version>3.3.0.ga</version> <exclusions> <exclusion> <groupId>org.hibernate</groupId> <artifactId>hibernate</artifactId> </exclusion> </exclusions> </dependency> <dependency> <groupId>hibernate</groupId> <artifactId>hibernate-entitymanager</artifactId> <version>3.4.0.GA</version> </dependency> <dependency> <groupId>hibernate</groupId> <artifactId>hibernate-tools</artifactId> <version>3.2.3.GA</version> </dependency> <dependency> <groupId>org.hibernate</groupId> <artifactId>ejb3-persistence</artifactId> <version>1.0.2.GA</version> </dependency> <dependency> <groupId>commons-collections</groupId> <artifactId>commons-collections</artifactId> <version>3.2.1</version> </dependency> <dependency> <groupId>javax.transaction</groupId> <artifactId>jta</artifactId> <version>${jta.version}</version> </dependency> <dependency> <groupId>antlr</groupId> <artifactId>antlr</artifactId> <version>${antlr.version}</version> </dependency> <dependency> <groupId>mysql</groupId> <artifactId>mysql-connector-java</artifactId> <version>${mysql-connector-java.version}</version> </dependency> <!-- <dependency> <groupId>org.slf4j</groupId> <artifactId>slf4j-api</artifactId> <version>1.5.6</version> </dependency> --><!-- concrete Log4J Implementation for SLF4J API--> <dependency> <groupId>org.slf4j</groupId> <artifactId>slf4j-log4j12</artifactId> <version>1.5.6</version> </dependency> <dependency> <groupId>javax.mail</groupId> <artifactId>mail</artifactId> <version>1.4</version> </dependency> <dependency> <groupId>org.slf4j</groupId> <artifactId>slf4j-api</artifactId> <version>1.5.11</version> </dependency> </dependencies>

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• What is wrong with my XSLT for the XML File?

  - by atrueguy

  Actually my XML file has SVG info, and my Project lead wants me to develop an XSLT for the XMl file to convert it in to a PDF file. But when I try to do so I am failing to convert the XML file to PDF, can anyone help me out in this....... My Sample XML file <?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?> <!--<!DOCTYPE svg PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD SVG 1.1//EN" "http://www.w3.org/Graphics/SVG/1.1/DTD/svg11.dtd">--> <!-- Generator: Arbortext IsoDraw 7.0 --> <svg width="100%" height="100%" viewBox="0 0 214.819 278.002"> <g id="Standard_x0020_layer"/> <g id="Catalog"> <line stroke-width="0.353" stroke-linecap="butt" x1="5.839" y1="262.185" x2="209.039" y2="262.185"/> <text transform="matrix(0.984 0 0 0.93 183.515 265.271)" stroke="none" fill="#000000" font-family="'Helvetica'" font-size="3.174">© 2009 k Co.</text> <text transform="matrix(0.994 0 0 0.93 7.235 265.3)" stroke="none" fill="#000000" font-family="'Helvetica'" font-size="3.174">087156-8-</text> <text transform="matrix(0.995 0 0 0.93 21.708 265.357)" stroke="none" fill="#000000" font-family="'Helvetica'" font-size="3.174" font-weight="bold">AB</text> <text x="103.292" y="265.298" stroke="none" fill="#000000" font-family="'Helvetica'" font-size="3.174">P. 1/1</text> <g id="IC_TextBlock.1"> <g> <text transform="matrix(0.994 0 0 0.93 192.812 8.076)" stroke="none" fill="#000000" font-family="'Helvetica'" font-size="4.586" font-weight="bold">Fittings</text> <text transform="matrix(0.994 0 0 0.93 188.492 13.323)" stroke="none" fill="#000000" font-family="'Helvetica'" font-size="4.586" font-weight="bold">Raccords</text> <text transform="matrix(0.994 0 0 0.93 183.431 18.571)" stroke="none" fill="#000000" font-family="'Helvetica'" font-size="4.586" font-weight="bold">Conexiones</text> </g> </g> <g> <path stroke="none" fill="#000000" d="M26.507 12.628L26.507 4.977 28.599 4.977 28.599 10.673 30.946 10.673 30.946 12.628 26.507 12.628z"/> <path stroke="none" fill="#000000" d="M19.693 12.628L19.693 4.977 21.785 4.977 21.785 7.66 23.893 7.66 23.893 4.977 25.986 4.977 25.986 12.628 23.893 12.628 23.893 9.782 21.785 9.782 21.785 12.628 19.693 12.628z"/> <path stroke="none" fill="#000000" d="M12.587 4.977L9.566 8.621 13.019 12.631 10.25 12.63 7.905 9.9 7.9 9.9 7.9 12.628 5.81 12.628 5.81 4.977 7.9 4.977 7.9 7.267 7.884 7.27 9.875 4.977 12.587 4.977z"/> <path stroke="none" fill="#000000" d="M11.455 8.739C11.455 6.538 13.221 4.753 15.4 4.753L15.4 6.775C14.419 6.775 13.625 7.653 13.625 8.737 13.625 9.821 14.419 10.699 15.4 10.699 16.382 10.699 17.176 9.821 17.176 8.737 17.176 7.653 16.382 6.775 15.4 6.775L15.4 4.753C17.579 4.753 19.346 6.538 19.346 8.739 19.346 10.941 17.579 12.724 15.4 12.724 13.221 12.724 11.455 10.941 11.455 8.739z"/> <path stroke="none" fill="#000000" d="M33.472 4.977L35.621 4.977 35.621 6.74 33.521 6.743 33.515 7.952 35.454 7.952 35.454 9.664 33.518 9.664 33.518 10.833 35.64 10.833 35.64 12.628 33.491 12.628 31.376 12.628 31.376 4.977 33.472 4.977z"/> <path stroke="none" fill="#000000" d="M39.97 9.57L42.146 12.631 39.862 12.628 38.156 10.279 38.156 12.622 36.107 12.622 36.107 4.974 38.728 4.974 38.741 6.75 38.149 6.75 38.149 8.221 38.741 8.223C39.149 8.223 39.478 7.894 39.478 7.487 39.478 7.08 39.149 6.75 38.741 6.75L38.728 4.974C41.036 4.974 42.5 7.867 39.97 9.57z"/> <path stroke="none" fill="#000000" d="M42.415 12.205C42.415 11.82 42.72 11.512 43.106 11.512 43.49 11.512 43.796 11.82 43.796 12.205 43.796 12.586 43.49 12.894 43.106 12.894L43.106 12.73C43.402 12.73 43.631 12.51 43.631 12.205 43.631 11.894 43.402 11.676 43.106 11.676L43.179 11.837C43.344 11.837 43.457 11.868 43.457 12.057 43.457 12.189 43.39 12.243 43.262 12.252L43.436 12.554 43.262 12.554 43.103 12.252 42.99 12.252 42.99 12.143 43.182 12.143C43.262 12.143 43.308 12.127 43.308 12.035 43.308 11.962 43.216 11.962 43.146 11.962L42.99 11.962 42.99 12.143 42.99 12.252 42.99 12.554 42.832 12.554 42.832 11.837 43.179 11.837 43.106 11.676C42.804 11.676 42.579 11.894 42.579 12.205 42.579 12.51 42.804 12.73 43.106 12.73L43.106 12.894C42.72 12.894 42.415 12.586 42.415 12.205z"/> <g> <path stroke="none" fill="#000000" d="M8.837 17.466L8.599 17.466 8.554 16.832 8.544 16.832C8.31 17.329 7.843 17.539 7.339 17.539 6.243 17.539 5.697 16.675 5.697 15.724 5.697 14.774 6.243 13.91 7.339 13.91 8.071 13.91 8.666 14.305 8.794 15.067L8.461 15.067C8.417 14.666 8.003 14.194 7.339 14.194 6.418 14.194 6.027 14.964 6.027 15.724 6.027 16.486 6.418 17.257 7.339 17.257 8.111 17.257 8.56 16.716 8.544 15.978L7.36 15.978 7.36 15.695 8.837 15.695 8.837 17.466z"/> <path stroke="none" fill="#000000" d="M9.477 13.984L11.881 13.984 11.881 14.266 9.807 14.266 9.807 15.525 11.749 15.525 11.749 15.807 9.807 15.807 9.807 17.182 11.906 17.182 11.906 17.466 9.477 17.466 9.477 13.984z"/> <path stroke="none" fill="#000000" d="M12.364 13.984L12.734 13.984 14.763 16.929 14.772 16.929 14.772 13.984 15.105 13.984 15.105 17.466 14.734 17.466 12.705 14.521 12.695 14.521 12.695 17.466 12.364 17.466 12.364 13.984z"/> <path stroke="none" fill="#000000" d="M15.768 13.984L16.1 13.984 16.1 16.14C16.094 16.949 16.48 17.257 17.118 17.257 17.763 17.257 18.147 16.949 18.143 16.14L18.143 13.984 18.475 13.984 18.475 16.213C18.475 16.929 18.089 17.539 17.118 17.539 16.153 17.539 15.768 16.929 15.768 16.213L15.768 13.984z"/> <path stroke="none" fill="#000000" d="M19.167 13.984L19.498 13.984 19.498 17.466 19.167 17.466 19.167 13.984z"/> <path stroke="none" fill="#000000" d="M20.221 13.984L20.591 13.984 22.62 16.929 22.629 16.929 22.629 13.984 22.961 13.984 22.961 17.466 22.591 17.466 20.562 14.521 20.553 14.521 20.553 17.466 20.221 17.466 20.221 13.984z"/> <path stroke="none" fill="#000000" d="M23.658 13.984L26.064 13.984 26.064 14.266 23.99 14.266 23.99 15.525 25.931 15.525 25.931 15.807 23.99 15.807 23.99 17.182 26.088 17.182 26.088 17.466 23.658 17.466 23.658 13.984z"/> <path stroke="none" fill="#000000" d="M27.908 13.984L29.452 13.984C30.077 13.984 30.487 14.349 30.487 14.978 30.487 15.608 30.077 15.974 29.452 15.974L28.239 15.974 28.239 15.691 29.379 15.691C29.838 15.691 30.155 15.457 30.155 14.978 30.155 14.5 29.838 14.266 29.379 14.266L28.239 14.266 28.239 15.691 28.239 15.974 28.239 17.466 27.908 17.466 27.908 13.984z"/> <path stroke="none" fill="#000000" d="M31.643 13.984L32.014 13.984 33.38 17.466 33.024 17.466 32.598 16.384 31.013 16.384 31.117 16.1 32.487 16.1 31.814 14.314 31.117 16.1 31.013 16.384 30.594 17.466 30.239 17.466 31.643 13.984z"/> <path stroke="none" fill="#000000" d="M33.695 13.984L35.292 13.984C35.866 13.984 36.35 14.262 36.35 14.891 36.35 15.33 36.121 15.691 35.671 15.778L35.671 15.788C36.125 15.846 36.256 16.16 36.28 16.574 36.296 16.812 36.296 17.291 36.442 17.466L36.076 17.466C35.993 17.329 35.993 17.071 35.984 16.925 35.954 16.437 35.915 15.896 35.286 15.919L34.029 15.919 34.029 15.637 35.267 15.637C35.671 15.637 36.018 15.384 36.018 14.96 36.018 14.535 35.765 14.266 35.267 14.266L34.029 14.266 34.029 15.637 34.029 15.919 34.029 17.466 33.695 17.466 33.695 13.984z"/> <path stroke="none" fill="#000000" d="M36.603 13.984L39.363 13.984 39.363 14.266 38.149 14.266 38.149 17.466 37.817 17.466 37.817 14.266 36.603 14.266 36.603 13.984z"/> <path stroke="none" fill="#000000" d="M39.847 16.32C39.832 17.038 40.348 17.257 40.982 17.257 41.348 17.257 41.905 17.056 41.905 16.548 41.905 16.155 41.509 15.997 41.188 15.919L40.411 15.73C40.003 15.628 39.627 15.432 39.627 14.891 39.627 14.55 39.847 13.91 40.826 13.91 41.515 13.91 42.118 14.281 42.115 14.993L41.783 14.993C41.762 14.461 41.325 14.194 40.832 14.194 40.378 14.194 39.959 14.368 39.959 14.885 39.959 15.212 40.203 15.349 40.485 15.417L41.335 15.628C41.826 15.759 42.237 15.974 42.237 16.545 42.237 16.783 42.139 17.539 40.905 17.539 40.081 17.539 39.475 17.169 39.515 16.32L39.847 16.32z"/> </g> </g> </g> </svg> My Sample XSLT File <?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?> <xsl:stylesheet version="1.0" xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform" xmlns:svg="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"> <xsl:template match="/"> <fo:root xmlns:fo="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Format"> <fo:layout-master-set> <fo:simple-page-master master-name="simple" page-height="11in" page-width="8.5in"> <fo:region-body margin="0.7in" margin-top="1.15in" margin-left=".8in"/> <fo:region-before extent="1.5in"/> <fo:region-after extent="1.5in"/> <fo:region-start extent="1.5in"/> <fo:region-end extent="1.5in"/> </fo:simple-page-master> </fo:layout-master-set> <fo:page-sequence master-reference="simple"> <fo:flow flow-name="xsl-region-body"> <fo:block> <fo:instream-foreign-object xmlns:svg="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"> <svg:svg height="100%" width="100%" viewBox="0 0 214.819 278.002"> <xsl:for-each select="svg/g/path"> <svg:g style="stroke:none;fill:#000000;stroke:black;"> <svg:path> <xsl:variable name="s"> <xsl:value-of select="translate(@d,' ','')"/> </xsl:variable> <xsl:attribute name="d"><xsl:value-of select="translate($s,',',' ')"/></xsl:attribute> </svg:path> </svg:g> </xsl:for-each> <xsl:for-each select="svg/g/text()"> <xsl:value-of select="."/> </xsl:for-each> <xsl:for-each select="svg/g/g/path"> <svg:g style="stroke:none;fill:#000000;stroke:black;"> <svg:path> <xsl:variable name="s"> <xsl:value-of select="translate(@d,' ','')"/> </xsl:variable> <xsl:attribute name="d"><xsl:value-of select="translate($s,',',' ')"/></xsl:attribute> </svg:path> </svg:g> </xsl:for-each> <xsl:for-each select="svg/g/g/g/path"> <svg:g style="stroke:none;fill:#000000;"> <svg:path> <xsl:variable name="s1"> <xsl:value-of select="translate(@d,' ','')"/> </xsl:variable> <xsl:attribute name="d"><xsl:value-of select="translate($s1,',',' ')"/></xsl:attribute> </svg:path> </svg:g> </xsl:for-each> <xsl:for-each select="svg/g/line"> <svg:g style="stroke-linecap:butt;"> <xsl:variable name="x1"> <xsl:value-of select="@x1"/> </xsl:variable> <xsl:variable name="y1"> <xsl:value-of select="@y1"/> </xsl:variable> <xsl:variable name="x2"> <xsl:value-of select="@x2"/> </xsl:variable> <xsl:variable name="y2"> <xsl:value-of select="@y2"/> </xsl:variable> <xsl:variable name="stroke-width"> <xsl:value-of select="@stroke-width"/> </xsl:variable> <svg:line x1="$x1" y1="$y1" x2="$x2" y2="$y2" stroke-width="$stroke-width" stroke="black" /> </svg:g> </xsl:for-each> </svg:svg> </fo:instream-foreign-object> </fo:block> </fo:flow> </fo:page-sequence> </fo:root> </xsl:template> </xsl:stylesheet> My Question I have developed the XSLT file for the XML, and I need to produce a pdf output after processing the xslt file. but I am not able to get the xml data in to my pdf. Please ask me if the information what I have provided is not sufficient, as I am bit new to Stackoverflow...

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