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• Inheritance Mapping Strategies with Entity Framework Code First CTP5: Part 3 – Table per Concrete Type (TPC) and Choosing Strategy Guidelines

  - by mortezam

  This is the third (and last) post in a series that explains different approaches to map an inheritance hierarchy with EF Code First. I've described these strategies in previous posts: Part 1 – Table per Hierarchy (TPH) Part 2 – Table per Type (TPT)In today’s blog post I am going to discuss Table per Concrete Type (TPC) which completes the inheritance mapping strategies supported by EF Code First. At the end of this post I will provide some guidelines to choose an inheritance strategy mainly based on what we've learned in this series. TPC and Entity Framework in the Past Table per Concrete type is somehow the simplest approach suggested, yet using TPC with EF is one of those concepts that has not been covered very well so far and I've seen in some resources that it was even discouraged. The reason for that is just because Entity Data Model Designer in VS2010 doesn't support TPC (even though the EF runtime does). That basically means if you are following EF's Database-First or Model-First approaches then configuring TPC requires manually writing XML in the EDMX file which is not considered to be a fun practice. Well, no more. You'll see that with Code First, creating TPC is perfectly possible with fluent API just like other strategies and you don't need to avoid TPC due to the lack of designer support as you would probably do in other EF approaches. Table per Concrete Type (TPC)In Table per Concrete type (aka Table per Concrete class) we use exactly one table for each (nonabstract) class. All properties of a class, including inherited properties, can be mapped to columns of this table, as shown in the following figure: As you can see, the SQL schema is not aware of the inheritance; effectively, we’ve mapped two unrelated tables to a more expressive class structure. If the base class was concrete, then an additional table would be needed to hold instances of that class. I have to emphasize that there is no relationship between the database tables, except for the fact that they share some similar columns. TPC Implementation in Code First Just like the TPT implementation, we need to specify a separate table for each of the subclasses. We also need to tell Code First that we want all of the inherited properties to be mapped as part of this table. In CTP5, there is a new helper method on EntityMappingConfiguration class called MapInheritedProperties that exactly does this for us. Here is the complete object model as well as the fluent API to create a TPC mapping: public abstract class BillingDetail {     public int BillingDetailId { get; set; }     public string Owner { get; set; }     public string Number { get; set; } }          public class BankAccount : BillingDetail {     public string BankName { get; set; }     public string Swift { get; set; } }          public class CreditCard : BillingDetail {     public int CardType { get; set; }     public string ExpiryMonth { get; set; }     public string ExpiryYear { get; set; } }      public class InheritanceMappingContext : DbContext {     public DbSet<BillingDetail> BillingDetails { get; set; }              protected override void OnModelCreating(ModelBuilder modelBuilder)     {         modelBuilder.Entity<BankAccount>().Map(m =>         {             m.MapInheritedProperties();             m.ToTable("BankAccounts");         });         modelBuilder.Entity<CreditCard>().Map(m =>         {             m.MapInheritedProperties();             m.ToTable("CreditCards");         });                 } } The Importance of EntityMappingConfiguration ClassAs a side note, it worth mentioning that EntityMappingConfiguration class turns out to be a key type for inheritance mapping in Code First. Here is an snapshot of this class: namespace System.Data.Entity.ModelConfiguration.Configuration.Mapping {     public class EntityMappingConfiguration<TEntityType> where TEntityType : class     {         public ValueConditionConfiguration Requires(string discriminator);         public void ToTable(string tableName);         public void MapInheritedProperties();     } } As you have seen so far, we used its Requires method to customize TPH. We also used its ToTable method to create a TPT and now we are using its MapInheritedProperties along with ToTable method to create our TPC mapping. TPC Configuration is Not Done Yet!We are not quite done with our TPC configuration and there is more into this story even though the fluent API we saw perfectly created a TPC mapping for us in the database. To see why, let's start working with our object model. For example, the following code creates two new objects of BankAccount and CreditCard types and tries to add them to the database: using (var context = new InheritanceMappingContext()) {     BankAccount bankAccount = new BankAccount();     CreditCard creditCard = new CreditCard() { CardType = 1 };                      context.BillingDetails.Add(bankAccount);     context.BillingDetails.Add(creditCard);     context.SaveChanges(); } Running this code throws an InvalidOperationException with this message: The changes to the database were committed successfully, but an error occurred while updating the object context. The ObjectContext might be in an inconsistent state. Inner exception message: AcceptChanges cannot continue because the object's key values conflict with another object in the ObjectStateManager. Make sure that the key values are unique before calling AcceptChanges. The reason we got this exception is because DbContext.SaveChanges() internally invokes SaveChanges method of its internal ObjectContext. ObjectContext's SaveChanges method on its turn by default calls AcceptAllChanges after it has performed the database modifications. AcceptAllChanges method merely iterates over all entries in ObjectStateManager and invokes AcceptChanges on each of them. Since the entities are in Added state, AcceptChanges method replaces their temporary EntityKey with a regular EntityKey based on the primary key values (i.e. BillingDetailId) that come back from the database and that's where the problem occurs since both the entities have been assigned the same value for their primary key by the database (i.e. on both BillingDetailId = 1) and the problem is that ObjectStateManager cannot track objects of the same type (i.e. BillingDetail) with the same EntityKey value hence it throws. If you take a closer look at the TPC's SQL schema above, you'll see why the database generated the same values for the primary keys: the BillingDetailId column in both BankAccounts and CreditCards table has been marked as identity. How to Solve The Identity Problem in TPC As you saw, using SQL Server’s int identity columns doesn't work very well together with TPC since there will be duplicate entity keys when inserting in subclasses tables with all having the same identity seed. Therefore, to solve this, either a spread seed (where each table has its own initial seed value) will be needed, or a mechanism other than SQL Server’s int identity should be used. Some other RDBMSes have other mechanisms allowing a sequence (identity) to be shared by multiple tables, and something similar can be achieved with GUID keys in SQL Server. While using GUID keys, or int identity keys with different starting seeds will solve the problem but yet another solution would be to completely switch off identity on the primary key property. As a result, we need to take the responsibility of providing unique keys when inserting records to the database. We will go with this solution since it works regardless of which database engine is used. Switching Off Identity in Code First We can switch off identity simply by placing DatabaseGenerated attribute on the primary key property and pass DatabaseGenerationOption.None to its constructor. DatabaseGenerated attribute is a new data annotation which has been added to System.ComponentModel.DataAnnotations namespace in CTP5: public abstract class BillingDetail {     [DatabaseGenerated(DatabaseGenerationOption.None)]     public int BillingDetailId { get; set; }     public string Owner { get; set; }     public string Number { get; set; } } As always, we can achieve the same result by using fluent API, if you prefer that: modelBuilder.Entity<BillingDetail>()             .Property(p => p.BillingDetailId)             .HasDatabaseGenerationOption(DatabaseGenerationOption.None); Working With The Object Model Our TPC mapping is ready and we can try adding new records to the database. But, like I said, now we need to take care of providing unique keys when creating new objects: using (var context = new InheritanceMappingContext()) {     BankAccount bankAccount = new BankAccount()      {          BillingDetailId = 1                          };     CreditCard creditCard = new CreditCard()      {          BillingDetailId = 2,         CardType = 1     };                      context.BillingDetails.Add(bankAccount);     context.BillingDetails.Add(creditCard);     context.SaveChanges(); } Polymorphic Associations with TPC is Problematic The main problem with this approach is that it doesn’t support Polymorphic Associations very well. After all, in the database, associations are represented as foreign key relationships and in TPC, the subclasses are all mapped to different tables so a polymorphic association to their base class (abstract BillingDetail in our example) cannot be represented as a simple foreign key relationship. For example, consider the the domain model we introduced here where User has a polymorphic association with BillingDetail. This would be problematic in our TPC Schema, because if User has a many-to-one relationship with BillingDetail, the Users table would need a single foreign key column, which would have to refer both concrete subclass tables. This isn’t possible with regular foreign key constraints. Schema Evolution with TPC is Complex A further conceptual problem with this mapping strategy is that several different columns, of different tables, share exactly the same semantics. This makes schema evolution more complex. For example, a change to a base class property results in changes to multiple columns. It also makes it much more difficult to implement database integrity constraints that apply to all subclasses. Generated SQLLet's examine SQL output for polymorphic queries in TPC mapping. For example, consider this polymorphic query for all BillingDetails and the resulting SQL statements that being executed in the database: var query = from b in context.BillingDetails select b; Just like the SQL query generated by TPT mapping, the CASE statements that you see in the beginning of the query is merely to ensure columns that are irrelevant for a particular row have NULL values in the returning flattened table. (e.g. BankName for a row that represents a CreditCard type). TPC's SQL Queries are Union Based As you can see in the above screenshot, the first SELECT uses a FROM-clause subquery (which is selected with a red rectangle) to retrieve all instances of BillingDetails from all concrete class tables. The tables are combined with a UNION operator, and a literal (in this case, 0 and 1) is inserted into the intermediate result; (look at the lines highlighted in yellow.) EF reads this to instantiate the correct class given the data from a particular row. A union requires that the queries that are combined, project over the same columns; hence, EF has to pad and fill up nonexistent columns with NULL. This query will really perform well since here we can let the database optimizer find the best execution plan to combine rows from several tables. There is also no Joins involved so it has a better performance than the SQL queries generated by TPT where a Join is required between the base and subclasses tables. Choosing Strategy GuidelinesBefore we get into this discussion, I want to emphasize that there is no one single "best strategy fits all scenarios" exists. As you saw, each of the approaches have their own advantages and drawbacks. Here are some rules of thumb to identify the best strategy in a particular scenario: If you don’t require polymorphic associations or queries, lean toward TPC—in other words, if you never or rarely query for BillingDetails and you have no class that has an association to BillingDetail base class. I recommend TPC (only) for the top level of your class hierarchy, where polymorphism isn’t usually required, and when modification of the base class in the future is unlikely. If you do require polymorphic associations or queries, and subclasses declare relatively few properties (particularly if the main difference between subclasses is in their behavior), lean toward TPH. Your goal is to minimize the number of nullable columns and to convince yourself (and your DBA) that a denormalized schema won’t create problems in the long run. If you do require polymorphic associations or queries, and subclasses declare many properties (subclasses differ mainly by the data they hold), lean toward TPT. Or, depending on the width and depth of your inheritance hierarchy and the possible cost of joins versus unions, use TPC. By default, choose TPH only for simple problems. For more complex cases (or when you’re overruled by a data modeler insisting on the importance of nullability constraints and normalization), you should consider the TPT strategy. But at that point, ask yourself whether it may not be better to remodel inheritance as delegation in the object model (delegation is a way of making composition as powerful for reuse as inheritance). Complex inheritance is often best avoided for all sorts of reasons unrelated to persistence or ORM. EF acts as a buffer between the domain and relational models, but that doesn’t mean you can ignore persistence concerns when designing your classes. SummaryIn this series, we focused on one of the main structural aspect of the object/relational paradigm mismatch which is inheritance and discussed how EF solve this problem as an ORM solution. We learned about the three well-known inheritance mapping strategies and their implementations in EF Code First. Hopefully it gives you a better insight about the mapping of inheritance hierarchies as well as choosing the best strategy for your particular scenario. Happy New Year and Happy Code-Firsting! References ADO.NET team blog Java Persistence with Hibernate book a { color: #5A99FF; } a:visited { color: #5A99FF; } .title { padding-bottom: 5px; font-family: Segoe UI; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: bold; padding-top: 15px; } .code, .typeName { font-family: consolas; } .typeName { color: #2b91af; } .padTop5 { padding-top: 5px; } .padTop10 { padding-top: 10px; } .exception { background-color: #f0f0f0; font-style: italic; padding-bottom: 5px; padding-left: 5px; padding-top: 5px; padding-right: 5px; }

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• Dependency Injection in ASP.NET MVC NerdDinner App using Unity 2.0

  - by shiju

  In my previous post Dependency Injection in ASP.NET MVC NerdDinner App using Ninject, we did dependency injection in NerdDinner application using Ninject. In this post, I demonstrate how to apply Dependency Injection in ASP.NET MVC NerdDinner App using Microsoft Unity Application Block (Unity) v 2.0.Unity 2.0Unity 2.0 is available on Codeplex at http://unity.codeplex.com . In earlier versions of Unity, the ObjectBuilder generic dependency injection mechanism, was distributed as a separate assembly, is now integrated with Unity core assembly. So you no longer need to reference the ObjectBuilder assembly in your applications. Two additional Built-In Lifetime Managers - HierarchicalifetimeManager and PerResolveLifetimeManager have been added to Unity 2.0.Dependency Injection in NerdDinner using UnityIn my Ninject post on NerdDinner, we have discussed the interfaces and concrete types of NerdDinner application and how to inject dependencies controller constructors. The following steps will configure Unity 2.0 to apply controller injection in NerdDinner application. Step 1 – Add reference for Unity Application BlockOpen the NerdDinner solution and add  reference to Microsoft.Practices.Unity.dll and Microsoft.Practices.Unity.Configuration.dllYou can download Unity from at http://unity.codeplex.com .Step 2 – Controller Factory for Unity The controller factory is responsible for creating controller instances.We extend the built in default controller factory with our own factory for working Unity with ASP.NET MVC. public class UnityControllerFactory : DefaultControllerFactory {     protected override IController GetControllerInstance(RequestContext reqContext, Type controllerType)     {         IController controller;         if (controllerType == null)             throw new HttpException(                     404, String.Format(                         "The controller for path '{0}' could not be found" +         "or it does not implement IController.",                     reqContext.HttpContext.Request.Path));           if (!typeof(IController).IsAssignableFrom(controllerType))             throw new ArgumentException(                     string.Format(                         "Type requested is not a controller: {0}",                         controllerType.Name),                         "controllerType");         try         {             controller = MvcUnityContainer.Container.Resolve(controllerType)                             as IController;         }         catch (Exception ex)         {             throw new InvalidOperationException(String.Format(                                     "Error resolving controller {0}",                                     controllerType.Name), ex);         }         return controller;     }   }   public static class MvcUnityContainer {     public static IUnityContainer Container { get; set; } }  Step 3 – Register Types and Set Controller Factory private void ConfigureUnity() {     //Create UnityContainer               IUnityContainer container = new UnityContainer()     .RegisterType<IFormsAuthentication, FormsAuthenticationService>()     .RegisterType<IMembershipService, AccountMembershipService>()     .RegisterInstance<MembershipProvider>(Membership.Provider)     .RegisterType<IDinnerRepository, DinnerRepository>();     //Set container for Controller Factory     MvcUnityContainer.Container = container;     //Set Controller Factory as UnityControllerFactory     ControllerBuilder.Current.SetControllerFactory(                         typeof(UnityControllerFactory));            } Unity 2.0 provides a fluent interface for type configuration. Now you can call all the methods in a single statement.The above Unity configuration specified in the ConfigureUnity method tells that, to inject instance of DinnerRepositiry when there is a request for IDinnerRepositiry and  inject instance of FormsAuthenticationService when there is a request for IFormsAuthentication and inject instance of AccountMembershipService when there is a request for IMembershipService. The AccountMembershipService class has a dependency with ASP.NET Membership provider. So we configure that inject the instance of Membership Provider.After the registering the types, we set UnityControllerFactory as the current controller factory. //Set container for Controller Factory MvcUnityContainer.Container = container; //Set Controller Factory as UnityControllerFactory ControllerBuilder.Current.SetControllerFactory(                     typeof(UnityControllerFactory)); When you register a type  by using the RegisterType method, the default behavior is for the container to use a transient lifetime manager. It creates a new instance of the registered, mapped, or requested type each time you call the Resolve or ResolveAll method or when the dependency mechanism injects instances into other classes. The following are the LifetimeManagers provided by Unity 2.0ContainerControlledLifetimeManager - Implements a singleton behavior for objects. The object is disposed of when you dispose of the container.ExternallyControlledLifetimeManager - Implements a singleton behavior but the container doesn't hold a reference to object which will be disposed of when out of scope.HierarchicalifetimeManager - Implements a singleton behavior for objects. However, child containers don't share instances with parents.PerResolveLifetimeManager - Implements a behavior similar to the transient lifetime manager except that instances are reused across build-ups of the object graph.PerThreadLifetimeManager - Implements a singleton behavior for objects but limited to the current thread.TransientLifetimeManager - Returns a new instance of the requested type for each call. (default behavior)We can also create custome lifetime manager for Unity container. The following code creating a custom lifetime manager to store container in the current HttpContext. public class HttpContextLifetimeManager<T> : LifetimeManager, IDisposable {     public override object GetValue()     {         return HttpContext.Current.Items[typeof(T).AssemblyQualifiedName];     }     public override void RemoveValue()     {         HttpContext.Current.Items.Remove(typeof(T).AssemblyQualifiedName);     }     public override void SetValue(object newValue)     {         HttpContext.Current.Items[typeof(T).AssemblyQualifiedName]             = newValue;     }     public void Dispose()     {         RemoveValue();     } }  Step 4 – Modify Global.asax.cs for configure Unity container In the Application_Start event, we call the ConfigureUnity method for configuring the Unity container and set controller factory as UnityControllerFactory void Application_Start() {     RegisterRoutes(RouteTable.Routes);       ViewEngines.Engines.Clear();     ViewEngines.Engines.Add(new MobileCapableWebFormViewEngine());     ConfigureUnity(); }Download CodeYou can download the modified NerdDinner code from http://nerddinneraddons.codeplex.com

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• Understanding Request Validation in ASP.NET MVC 3

  - by imran_ku07

       Introduction:             A fact that you must always remember "never ever trust user inputs". An application that trusts user inputs may be easily vulnerable to XSS, XSRF, SQL Injection, etc attacks. XSS and XSRF are very dangerous attacks. So to mitigate these attacks ASP.NET introduced request validation in ASP.NET 1.1. During request validation, ASP.NET will throw HttpRequestValidationException: 'A potentially dangerous XXX value was detected from the client', if he found, < followed by an exclamation(like <!) or < followed by the letters a through z(like <s) or & followed by a pound sign(like &#123) as a part of query string, posted form and cookie collection. In ASP.NET 4.0, request validation becomes extensible. This means that you can extend request validation. Also in ASP.NET 4.0, by default request validation is enabled before the BeginRequest phase of an HTTP request. ASP.NET MVC 3 moves one step further by making request validation granular. This allows you to disable request validation for some properties of a model while maintaining request validation for all other cases. In this article I will show you the use of request validation in ASP.NET MVC 3. Then I will briefly explain the internal working of granular request validation.       Description:             First of all create a new ASP.NET MVC 3 application. Then create a simple model class called MyModel,     public class MyModel { public string Prop1 { get; set; } public string Prop2 { get; set; } }             Then just update the index action method as follows,   public ActionResult Index(MyModel p) { return View(); }             Now just run this application. You will find that everything works just fine. Now just append this query string ?Prop1=<s to the url of this application, you will get the HttpRequestValidationException exception.           Now just decorate the Index action method with [ValidateInputAttribute(false)],   [ValidateInput(false)] public ActionResult Index(MyModel p) { return View(); }             Run this application again with same query string. You will find that your application run without any unhandled exception.           Up to now, there is nothing new in ASP.NET MVC 3 because ValidateInputAttribute was present in the previous versions of ASP.NET MVC. Any problem with this approach? Yes there is a problem with this approach. The problem is that now users can send html for both Prop1 and Prop2 properties and a lot of developers are not aware of it. This means that now everyone can send html with both parameters(e.g, ?Prop1=<s&Prop2=<s). So ValidateInput attribute does not gives you the guarantee that your application is safe to XSS or XSRF. This is the reason why ASP.NET MVC team introduced granular request validation in ASP.NET MVC 3. Let's see this feature.           Remove [ValidateInputAttribute(false)] on Index action and update MyModel class as follows,   public class MyModel { [AllowHtml] public string Prop1 { get; set; } public string Prop2 { get; set; } }             Note that AllowHtml attribute is only decorated on Prop1 property. Run this application again with ?Prop1=<s query string. You will find that your application run just fine. Run this application again with ?Prop1=<s&Prop2=<s query string, you will get HttpRequestValidationException exception. This shows that the granular request validation in ASP.NET MVC 3 only allows users to send html for properties decorated with AllowHtml attribute.            Sometimes you may need to access Request.QueryString or Request.Form directly. You may change your code as follows,   [ValidateInput(false)] public ActionResult Index() { var prop1 = Request.QueryString["Prop1"]; return View(); }             Run this application again, you will get the HttpRequestValidationException exception again even you have [ValidateInput(false)] on your Index action. The reason is that Request flags are still not set to unvalidate. I will explain this later. For making this work you need to use Unvalidated extension method,     public ActionResult Index() { var q = Request.Unvalidated().QueryString; var prop1 = q["Prop1"]; return View(); }             Unvalidated extension method is defined in System.Web.Helpers namespace . So you need to add using System.Web.Helpers; in this class file. Run this application again, your application run just fine.             There you have it. If you are not curious to know the internal working of granular request validation then you can skip next paragraphs completely. If you are interested then carry on reading.             Create a new ASP.NET MVC 2 application, then open global.asax.cs file and the following lines,     protected void Application_BeginRequest() { var q = Request.QueryString; }             Then make the Index action method as,    [ValidateInput(false)] public ActionResult Index(string id) { return View(); }             Please note that the Index action method contains a parameter and this action method is decorated with [ValidateInput(false)]. Run this application again, but now with ?id=<s query string, you will get HttpRequestValidationException exception at Application_BeginRequest method. Now just add the following entry in web.config,   <httpRuntime requestValidationMode="2.0"/>             Now run this application again. This time your application will run just fine. Now just see the following quote from ASP.NET 4 Breaking Changes,   In ASP.NET 4, by default, request validation is enabled for all requests, because it is enabled before the BeginRequest phase of an HTTP request. As a result, request validation applies to requests for all ASP.NET resources, not just .aspx page requests. This includes requests such as Web service calls and custom HTTP handlers. Request validation is also active when custom HTTP modules are reading the contents of an HTTP request.             This clearly state that request validation is enabled before the BeginRequest phase of an HTTP request. For understanding what does enabled means here, we need to see HttpRequest.ValidateInput, HttpRequest.QueryString and HttpRequest.Form methods/properties in System.Web assembly. Here is the implementation of HttpRequest.ValidateInput, HttpRequest.QueryString and HttpRequest.Form methods/properties in System.Web assembly,     public NameValueCollection Form { get { if (this._form == null) { this._form = new HttpValueCollection(); if (this._wr != null) { this.FillInFormCollection(); } this._form.MakeReadOnly(); } if (this._flags[2]) { this._flags.Clear(2); this.ValidateNameValueCollection(this._form, RequestValidationSource.Form); } return this._form; } } public NameValueCollection QueryString { get { if (this._queryString == null) { this._queryString = new HttpValueCollection(); if (this._wr != null) { this.FillInQueryStringCollection(); } this._queryString.MakeReadOnly(); } if (this._flags[1]) { this._flags.Clear(1); this.ValidateNameValueCollection(this._queryString, RequestValidationSource.QueryString); } return this._queryString; } } public void ValidateInput() { if (!this._flags[0x8000]) { this._flags.Set(0x8000); this._flags.Set(1); this._flags.Set(2); this._flags.Set(4); this._flags.Set(0x40); this._flags.Set(0x80); this._flags.Set(0x100); this._flags.Set(0x200); this._flags.Set(8); } }             The above code indicates that HttpRequest.QueryString and HttpRequest.Form will only validate the querystring and form collection if certain flags are set. These flags are automatically set if you call HttpRequest.ValidateInput method. Now run the above application again(don't forget to append ?id=<s query string in the url) with the same settings(i.e, requestValidationMode="2.0" setting in web.config and Application_BeginRequest method in global.asax.cs), your application will run just fine. Now just update the Application_BeginRequest method as,   protected void Application_BeginRequest() { Request.ValidateInput(); var q = Request.QueryString; }             Note that I am calling Request.ValidateInput method prior to use Request.QueryString property. ValidateInput method will internally set certain flags(discussed above). These flags will then tells the Request.QueryString (and Request.Form) property that validate the query string(or form) when user call Request.QueryString(or Request.Form) property. So running this application again with ?id=<s query string will throw HttpRequestValidationException exception. Now I hope it is clear to you that what does requestValidationMode do. It just tells the ASP.NET that not invoke the Request.ValidateInput method internally before the BeginRequest phase of an HTTP request if requestValidationMode is set to a value less than 4.0 in web.config. Here is the implementation of HttpRequest.ValidateInputIfRequiredByConfig method which will prove this statement(Don't be confused with HttpRequest and Request. Request is the property of HttpRequest class),    internal void ValidateInputIfRequiredByConfig() { ............................................................... ............................................................... ............................................................... ............................................................... if (httpRuntime.RequestValidationMode >= VersionUtil.Framework40) { this.ValidateInput(); } }              Hopefully the above discussion will clear you how requestValidationMode works in ASP.NET 4. It is also interesting to note that both HttpRequest.QueryString and HttpRequest.Form only throws the exception when you access them first time. Any subsequent access to HttpRequest.QueryString and HttpRequest.Form will not throw any exception. Continuing with the above example, just update Application_BeginRequest method in global.asax.cs file as,   protected void Application_BeginRequest() { try { var q = Request.QueryString; var f = Request.Form; } catch//swallow this exception { } var q1 = Request.QueryString; var f1 = Request.Form; }             Without setting requestValidationMode to 2.0 and without decorating ValidateInput attribute on Index action, your application will work just fine because both HttpRequest.QueryString and HttpRequest.Form will clear their flags after reading HttpRequest.QueryString and HttpRequest.Form for the first time(see the implementation of HttpRequest.QueryString and HttpRequest.Form above).           Now let's see ASP.NET MVC 3 granular request validation internal working. First of all we need to see type of HttpRequest.QueryString and HttpRequest.Form properties. Both HttpRequest.QueryString and HttpRequest.Form properties are of type NameValueCollection which is inherited from the NameObjectCollectionBase class. NameObjectCollectionBase class contains _entriesArray, _entriesTable, NameObjectEntry.Key and NameObjectEntry.Value fields which granular request validation uses internally. In addition granular request validation also uses _queryString, _form and _flags fields, ValidateString method and the Indexer of HttpRequest class. Let's see when and how granular request validation uses these fields.           Create a new ASP.NET MVC 3 application. Then put a breakpoint at Application_BeginRequest method and another breakpoint at HomeController.Index method. Now just run this application. When the break point inside Application_BeginRequest method hits then add the following expression in quick watch window, System.Web.HttpContext.Current.Request.QueryString. You will see the following screen,                                              Now Press F5 so that the second breakpoint inside HomeController.Index method hits. When the second breakpoint hits then add the following expression in quick watch window again, System.Web.HttpContext.Current.Request.QueryString. You will see the following screen,                            First screen shows that _entriesTable field is of type System.Collections.Hashtable and _entriesArray field is of type System.Collections.ArrayList during the BeginRequest phase of the HTTP request. While the second screen shows that _entriesTable type is changed to Microsoft.Web.Infrastructure.DynamicValidationHelper.LazilyValidatingHashtable and _entriesArray type is changed to Microsoft.Web.Infrastructure.DynamicValidationHelper.LazilyValidatingArrayList during executing the Index action method. In addition to these members, ASP.NET MVC 3 also perform some operation on _flags, _form, _queryString and other members of HttpRuntime class internally. This shows that ASP.NET MVC 3 performing some operation on the members of HttpRequest class for making granular request validation possible.           Both LazilyValidatingArrayList and LazilyValidatingHashtable classes are defined in the Microsoft.Web.Infrastructure assembly. You may wonder why their name starts with Lazily. The fact is that now with ASP.NET MVC 3, request validation will be performed lazily. In simple words, Microsoft.Web.Infrastructure assembly is now taking the responsibility for request validation from System.Web assembly. See the below screens. The first screen depicting HttpRequestValidationException exception in ASP.NET MVC 2 application while the second screen showing HttpRequestValidationException exception in ASP.NET MVC 3 application.   In MVC 2:                 In MVC 3:                          The stack trace of the second screenshot shows that Microsoft.Web.Infrastructure assembly (instead of System.Web assembly) is now performing request validation in ASP.NET MVC 3. Now you may ask: where Microsoft.Web.Infrastructure assembly is performing some operation on the members of HttpRequest class. There are at least two places where the Microsoft.Web.Infrastructure assembly performing some operation , Microsoft.Web.Infrastructure.DynamicValidationHelper.GranularValidationReflectionUtil.GetInstance method and Microsoft.Web.Infrastructure.DynamicValidationHelper.ValidationUtility.CollectionReplacer.ReplaceCollection method, Here is the implementation of these methods,   private static GranularValidationReflectionUtil GetInstance() { try { if (DynamicValidationShimReflectionUtil.Instance != null) { return null; } GranularValidationReflectionUtil util = new GranularValidationReflectionUtil(); Type containingType = typeof(NameObjectCollectionBase); string fieldName = "_entriesArray"; bool isStatic = false; Type fieldType = typeof(ArrayList); FieldInfo fieldInfo = CommonReflectionUtil.FindField(containingType, fieldName, isStatic, fieldType); util._del_get_NameObjectCollectionBase_entriesArray = MakeFieldGetterFunc<NameObjectCollectionBase, ArrayList>(fieldInfo); util._del_set_NameObjectCollectionBase_entriesArray = MakeFieldSetterFunc<NameObjectCollectionBase, ArrayList>(fieldInfo); Type type6 = typeof(NameObjectCollectionBase); string str2 = "_entriesTable"; bool flag2 = false; Type type7 = typeof(Hashtable); FieldInfo info2 = CommonReflectionUtil.FindField(type6, str2, flag2, type7); util._del_get_NameObjectCollectionBase_entriesTable = MakeFieldGetterFunc<NameObjectCollectionBase, Hashtable>(info2); util._del_set_NameObjectCollectionBase_entriesTable = MakeFieldSetterFunc<NameObjectCollectionBase, Hashtable>(info2); Type targetType = CommonAssemblies.System.GetType("System.Collections.Specialized.NameObjectCollectionBase+NameObjectEntry"); Type type8 = targetType; string str3 = "Key"; bool flag3 = false; Type type9 = typeof(string); FieldInfo info3 = CommonReflectionUtil.FindField(type8, str3, flag3, type9); util._del_get_NameObjectEntry_Key = MakeFieldGetterFunc<string>(targetType, info3); Type type10 = targetType; string str4 = "Value"; bool flag4 = false; Type type11 = typeof(object); FieldInfo info4 = CommonReflectionUtil.FindField(type10, str4, flag4, type11); util._del_get_NameObjectEntry_Value = MakeFieldGetterFunc<object>(targetType, info4); util._del_set_NameObjectEntry_Value = MakeFieldSetterFunc(targetType, info4); Type type12 = typeof(HttpRequest); string methodName = "ValidateString"; bool flag5 = false; Type[] argumentTypes = new Type[] { typeof(string), typeof(string), typeof(RequestValidationSource) }; Type returnType = typeof(void); MethodInfo methodInfo = CommonReflectionUtil.FindMethod(type12, methodName, flag5, argumentTypes, returnType); util._del_validateStringCallback = CommonReflectionUtil.MakeFastCreateDelegate<HttpRequest, ValidateStringCallback>(methodInfo); Type type = CommonAssemblies.SystemWeb.GetType("System.Web.HttpValueCollection"); util._del_HttpValueCollection_ctor = CommonReflectionUtil.MakeFastNewObject<Func<NameValueCollection>>(type); Type type14 = typeof(HttpRequest); string str6 = "_form"; bool flag6 = false; Type type15 = type; FieldInfo info6 = CommonReflectionUtil.FindField(type14, str6, flag6, type15); util._del_get_HttpRequest_form = MakeFieldGetterFunc<HttpRequest, NameValueCollection>(info6); util._del_set_HttpRequest_form = MakeFieldSetterFunc(typeof(HttpRequest), info6); Type type16 = typeof(HttpRequest); string str7 = "_queryString"; bool flag7 = false; Type type17 = type; FieldInfo info7 = CommonReflectionUtil.FindField(type16, str7, flag7, type17); util._del_get_HttpRequest_queryString = MakeFieldGetterFunc<HttpRequest, NameValueCollection>(info7); util._del_set_HttpRequest_queryString = MakeFieldSetterFunc(typeof(HttpRequest), info7); Type type3 = CommonAssemblies.SystemWeb.GetType("System.Web.Util.SimpleBitVector32"); Type type18 = typeof(HttpRequest); string str8 = "_flags"; bool flag8 = false; Type type19 = type3; FieldInfo flagsFieldInfo = CommonReflectionUtil.FindField(type18, str8, flag8, type19); Type type20 = type3; string str9 = "get_Item"; bool flag9 = false; Type[] typeArray4 = new Type[] { typeof(int) }; Type type21 = typeof(bool); MethodInfo itemGetter = CommonReflectionUtil.FindMethod(type20, str9, flag9, typeArray4, type21); Type type22 = type3; string str10 = "set_Item"; bool flag10 = false; Type[] typeArray6 = new Type[] { typeof(int), typeof(bool) }; Type type23 = typeof(void); MethodInfo itemSetter = CommonReflectionUtil.FindMethod(type22, str10, flag10, typeArray6, type23); MakeRequestValidationFlagsAccessors(flagsFieldInfo, itemGetter, itemSetter, out util._del_BitVector32_get_Item, out util._del_BitVector32_set_Item); return util; } catch { return null; } } private static void ReplaceCollection(HttpContext context, FieldAccessor<NameValueCollection> fieldAccessor, Func<NameValueCollection> propertyAccessor, Action<NameValueCollection> storeInUnvalidatedCollection, RequestValidationSource validationSource, ValidationSourceFlag validationSourceFlag) { NameValueCollection originalBackingCollection; ValidateStringCallback validateString; SimpleValidateStringCallback simpleValidateString; Func<NameValueCollection> getActualCollection; Action<NameValueCollection> makeCollectionLazy; HttpRequest request = context.Request; Func<bool> getValidationFlag = delegate { return _reflectionUtil.GetRequestValidationFlag(request, validationSourceFlag); }; Func<bool> func = delegate { return !getValidationFlag(); }; Action<bool> setValidationFlag = delegate (bool value) { _reflectionUtil.SetRequestValidationFlag(request, validationSourceFlag, value); }; if ((fieldAccessor.Value != null) && func()) { storeInUnvalidatedCollection(fieldAccessor.Value); } else { originalBackingCollection = fieldAccessor.Value; validateString = _reflectionUtil.MakeValidateStringCallback(context.Request); simpleValidateString = delegate (string value, string key) { if (((key == null) || !key.StartsWith("__", StringComparison.Ordinal)) && !string.IsNullOrEmpty(value)) { validateString(value, key, validationSource); } }; getActualCollection = delegate { fieldAccessor.Value = originalBackingCollection; bool flag = getValidationFlag(); setValidationFlag(false); NameValueCollection col = propertyAccessor(); setValidationFlag(flag); storeInUnvalidatedCollection(new NameValueCollection(col)); return col; }; makeCollectionLazy = delegate (NameValueCollection col) { simpleValidateString(col[null], null); LazilyValidatingArrayList array = new LazilyValidatingArrayList(_reflectionUtil.GetNameObjectCollectionEntriesArray(col), simpleValidateString); _reflectionUtil.SetNameObjectCollectionEntriesArray(col, array); LazilyValidatingHashtable table = new LazilyValidatingHashtable(_reflectionUtil.GetNameObjectCollectionEntriesTable(col), simpleValidateString); _reflectionUtil.SetNameObjectCollectionEntriesTable(col, table); }; Func<bool> hasValidationFired = func; Action disableValidation = delegate { setValidationFlag(false); }; Func<int> fillInActualFormContents = delegate { NameValueCollection values = getActualCollection(); makeCollectionLazy(values); return values.Count; }; DeferredCountArrayList list = new DeferredCountArrayList(hasValidationFired, disableValidation, fillInActualFormContents); NameValueCollection target = _reflectionUtil.NewHttpValueCollection(); _reflectionUtil.SetNameObjectCollectionEntriesArray(target, list); fieldAccessor.Value = target; } }             Hopefully the above code will help you to understand the internal working of granular request validation. It is also important to note that Microsoft.Web.Infrastructure assembly invokes HttpRequest.ValidateInput method internally. For further understanding please see Microsoft.Web.Infrastructure assembly code. Finally you may ask: at which stage ASP NET MVC 3 will invoke these methods. You will find this answer by looking at the following method source,   Unvalidated extension method for HttpRequest class defined in System.Web.Helpers.Validation class. System.Web.Mvc.MvcHandler.ProcessRequestInit method. System.Web.Mvc.ControllerActionInvoker.ValidateRequest method. System.Web.WebPages.WebPageHttpHandler.ProcessRequestInternal method.       Summary:             ASP.NET helps in preventing XSS attack using a feature called request validation. In this article, I showed you how you can use granular request validation in ASP.NET MVC 3. I explain you the internal working of  granular request validation. Hope you will enjoy this article too.   SyntaxHighlighter.all()

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• Image Preview in ASP.NET MVC

  - by imran_ku07

    Introduction :         Previewing an image is a great way to improve the UI of your site. Also it is always best to check the file type, size and see a preview before submitting the whole form. There are some ways to do this using simple JavaScript but not work in all browsers (like FF3).In this Article I will show you how do this using ASP.NET MVC application. You also see how this will work in case of nested form.   Description :          Create a new ASP.NET MVC project and then add a file upload and image control into your View. <form id="form1" method="post" action="NerdDinner/ImagePreview/AjaxSubmit">            <table>                <tr>                    <td>                        <input type="file" name="imageLoad1" id="imageLoad1"  onchange="ChangeImage(this,'#imgThumbnail')" />                    </td>                </tr>                <tr>                    <td align="center">                        <img src="images/TempImage.gif" id="imgThumbnail" height="200px" width="200px">                     </td>                </tr>            </table>        </form>           Note that here NerdDinner is refers to the virtual directory name, ImagePreview is the Controller and ImageLoad is the action name which you will see shortly          I will use the most popular jQuery form plug-in, that turns a form into an AJAX form with very little code. Therefore you must get these from Jquery site and then add these files into your page.          <script src="NerdDinner/Scripts/jquery-1.3.2.js" type="text/javascript"></script>        <script src="NerdDinner/Scripts/jquery.form.js" type="text/javascript"></script>            Then add the javascript function. <script type="text/javascript">function ChangeImage(fileId,imageId){ $("#form1").ajaxSubmit({success: function(responseText){ var d=new Date(); $(imageId)[0].src="NerdDinner/ImagePreview/ImageLoad?a="+d.getTime(); } });}</script>             This function simply submit the form named form1 asynchronously to ImagePreviewController's method AjaxSubmit and after successfully receiving the response, it will set the image src property to the action method ImageLoad. Here I am also adding querystring, preventing the browser to serve the cached image.           Now I will create a new Controller named ImagePreviewController. public class ImagePreviewController : Controller { [AcceptVerbs(HttpVerbs.Post)] public ActionResult AjaxSubmit(int? id) { Session["ContentLength"] = Request.Files[0].ContentLength; Session["ContentType"] = Request.Files[0].ContentType; byte[] b = new byte[Request.Files[0].ContentLength]; Request.Files[0].InputStream.Read(b, 0, Request.Files[0].ContentLength); Session["ContentStream"] = b; return Content( Request.Files[0].ContentType+";"+ Request.Files[0].ContentLength ); } public ActionResult ImageLoad(int? id) { byte[] b = (byte[])Session["ContentStream"]; int length = (int)Session["ContentLength"]; string type = (string)Session["ContentType"]; Response.Buffer = true; Response.Charset = ""; Response.Cache.SetCacheability(HttpCacheability.NoCache); Response.ContentType = type; Response.BinaryWrite(b); Response.Flush(); Session["ContentLength"] = null; Session["ContentType"] = null; Session["ContentStream"] = null; Response.End(); return Content(""); } }             The AjaxSubmit action method will save the image in Session and return content type and content length in response. ImageLoad action method will return the contents of image in response.Then clear these Sessions.           Just run your application and see the effect.   Checking Size and Content Type of File:          You may notice that AjaxSubmit action method is returning both content type and content length. You can check both properties before submitting your complete form.     $(myform).ajaxSubmit({success: function(responseText)            {                                var contentType=responseText.substring(0,responseText.indexOf(';'));                var contentLength=responseText.substring(responseText.indexOf(';')+1);                // Here you can do your validation                var d=new Date();                $(imageId)[0].src="http://weblogs.asp.net/MoneypingAPP/ImagePreview/ImageLoad?a="+d.getTime();            }        });  Handling Nested Form Case:          The above code will work if you have only one form. But this is not the case always.You may have a form control which wraps all the controls and you do not want to submit the whole form, just for getting a preview effect.           In this case you need to create a dynamic form control using JavaScript, and then add file upload control to this form and submit the form asynchronously  function ChangeImage(fileId,imageId)         {            var myform=document.createElement("form");                    myform.action="NerdDinner/ImagePreview/AjaxSubmit";            myform.enctype="multipart/form-data";            myform.method="post";            var imageLoad=document.getElementById(fileId).cloneNode(true);            myform.appendChild(imageLoad);            document.body.appendChild(myform);            $(myform).ajaxSubmit({success: function(responseText)                {                                    var contentType=responseText.substring(0,responseText.indexOf(';'));                    var contentLength=responseText.substring(responseText.indexOf(';')+1);                    var d=new Date();                    $(imageId)[0].src="http://weblogs.asp.net/MoneypingAPP/ImagePreview/ImageLoad?a="+d.getTime();                    document.body.removeChild(myform);                }            });        }            You also need append the child in order to send request and remove them after receiving response.

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• Customize the SimpleMembership in ASP.NET MVC 4.0

  - by thangchung

  As we know, .NET 4.5 have come up to us, and come along with a lot of new interesting features as well. Visual Studio 2012 was also introduced some days ago. They made us feel very happy with cool improvement along with us. Performance when loading code editor is very good at the moment (immediate after click on the solution). I explore some of cool features at these days. Some of them like Json.NET integrated in ASP.NET MVC 4.0, improvement on asynchronous action, new lightweight theme on Visual Studio, supporting very good on mobile development, improvement on authentication… I reviewed them, and found out that in this version of .NET Microsoft was not only developed new feature that suggest from community but also focused on improvement performance of existing features or components. Besides that, they also opened source more projects, like Entity Framework, Reactive Extensions, ASP.NET Web Stack… At the moment, I feel Microsoft want to open source more and more their projects. Today, I am going to dive in deep on new SimpleMembership model. It is really good because in this security model, Microsoft actually focus on development needs. As we know, in the past, they introduce some of provider supplied for coding security like MembershipProvider, RoleProvider… I don’t need to talk but everyone that have ever used it know that they were actually hard to use, and not easy to maintain and unit testing. Why? Because every time you inherit it, you need to override all methods inside it. Some people try to abstract it by introduce more method with virtual keyword, and try to implement basic behavior, so in the subclass we only need to override the method that need for their business. But to me, it’s only the way to work around. ASP.NET team and Web Matrix knew about it, so they built the new features based on existing components on .NET framework. And one of component that comes to us is SimpleMembership and SimpleRole. They implemented the Façade pattern on the top of those, and called it is WebSecurity. In the web, we can call WebSecurity anywhere we want, and make a call to inside wrapper of it. I read a lot of them on web blog, on technical news, on MSDN as well. Matthew Osborn had an excellent article about it at his blog. Jon Galloway had an article like this at here. He analyzed why old membership provider not fixed well to ASP.NET MVC and how to get over it. Those are very good to me. It introduced to me about how to doing SimpleMembership on it, how to doing it on new ASP.NET MVC web application. But one thing, those didn’t tell me was how to doing it on existing security model (that mean we already had Users and Roles on legacy system, and how we can integrate it to this system), that’s a reason I will introduce it today. I have spent couples of hours to see what’s inside this, and try to make one example to clarify my concern. And it’s lucky that I can make it working well.The first thing, we need to create new ASP.NET MVC application on Visual Studio 2012. We need to choose Internet type for this web application. ASP.NET MVC actually creates all needs components for the basic membership and basic role. The cool feature is DoNetOpenAuth come along with it that means we can log-in using facebook, twitter or Windows Live if you want. But it’s only for LocalDb, so we need to change it to fix with existing database model on SQL Server. The next step we have to make SimpleMembership can understand which database we use and show it which column need to point to for the ID and UserName. I really like this feature because SimpleMembership on need to know about the ID and UserName, and they don’t care about rest of it. I assume that we have an existing database model like So we will point it in code like The codes for it, we put on InitializeSimpleMembershipAttribute like [AttributeUsage(AttributeTargets.Class | AttributeTargets.Method, AllowMultiple = false, Inherited = true)]     public sealed class InitializeSimpleMembershipAttribute : ActionFilterAttribute     {         private static SimpleMembershipInitializer _initializer;         private static object _initializerLock = new object();         private static bool _isInitialized;         public override void OnActionExecuting(ActionExecutingContext filterContext)         {             // Ensure ASP.NET Simple Membership is initialized only once per app start             LazyInitializer.EnsureInitialized(ref _initializer, ref _isInitialized, ref _initializerLock);         }         private class SimpleMembershipInitializer         {             public SimpleMembershipInitializer()             {                 try                 {                     WebSecurity.InitializeDatabaseConnection("DefaultDb", "User", "Id", "UserName", autoCreateTables: true);                 }                 catch (Exception ex)                 {                     throw new InvalidOperationException("The ASP.NET Simple Membership database could not be initialized. For more information, please see http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=256588", ex);                 }             }         }     }And decorating it in the AccountController as below [Authorize]     [InitializeSimpleMembership]     public class AccountController : ControllerIn this case, assuming that we need to override the ValidateUser to point this to existing User database table, and validate it. We have to add one more class like public class CustomAdminMembershipProvider : SimpleMembershipProvider     {         // TODO: will do a better way         private const string SELECT_ALL_USER_SCRIPT = "select * from [dbo].[User]private where UserName = '{0}'";         private readonly IEncrypting _encryptor;         private readonly SimpleSecurityContext _simpleSecurityContext;         public CustomAdminMembershipProvider(SimpleSecurityContext simpleSecurityContext)             : this(new Encryptor(), new SimpleSecurityContext("DefaultDb"))         {         }         public CustomAdminMembershipProvider(IEncrypting encryptor, SimpleSecurityContext simpleSecurityContext)         {             _encryptor = encryptor;             _simpleSecurityContext = simpleSecurityContext;         }         public override bool ValidateUser(string username, string password)         {             if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(username))             {                 throw new ArgumentException("Argument cannot be null or empty", "username");             }             if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(password))             {                 throw new ArgumentException("Argument cannot be null or empty", "password");             }             var hash = _encryptor.Encode(password);             using (_simpleSecurityContext)             {                 var users =                     _simpleSecurityContext.Users.SqlQuery(                         string.Format(SELECT_ALL_USER_SCRIPT, username));                 if (users == null && !users.Any())                 {                     return false;                 }                 return users.FirstOrDefault().Password == hash;             }         }     }SimpleSecurityDataContext at here public class SimpleSecurityContext : DbContext     {         public DbSet<User> Users { get; set; }         public SimpleSecurityContext(string connStringName) :             base(connStringName)         {             this.Configuration.LazyLoadingEnabled = true;             this.Configuration.ProxyCreationEnabled = false;         }         protected override void OnModelCreating(DbModelBuilder modelBuilder)         {             base.OnModelCreating(modelBuilder);                          modelBuilder.Configurations.Add(new UserMapping());         }     }And Mapping for User as below public class UserMapping : EntityMappingBase<User>     {         public UserMapping()         {             this.Property(x => x.UserName);             this.Property(x => x.DisplayName);             this.Property(x => x.Password);             this.Property(x => x.Email);             this.ToTable("User");         }     }One important thing, you need to modify the web.config to point to our customize SimpleMembership <membership defaultProvider="AdminMemberProvider" userIsOnlineTimeWindow="15">       <providers>         <clear/>         <add name="AdminMemberProvider" type="CIK.News.Web.Infras.Security.CustomAdminMembershipProvider, CIK.News.Web.Infras" />       </providers>     </membership>     <roleManager enabled="false">       <providers>         <clear />         <add name="AdminRoleProvider" type="CIK.News.Web.Infras.Security.AdminRoleProvider, CIK.News.Web.Infras" />       </providers>     </roleManager>The good thing at here is we don’t need to modify the code on AccountController. We only need to modify on SimpleMembership and Simple Role (if need). Now build all solutions, run it. We should see a screen like thisIf I login to Twitter button at the bottom of this page, we will be transfer to twitter authentication pageYou have to waiting for a moment Afterwards it will transfer you back to your admin screenYou can find all source codes at my MSDN code. I will really happy if you guys feel free to put some comments as below. It will be helpful to improvement my code in the future. Thank for all your readings. 

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• Silverlight Recruiting Application Part 6 - Adding an Interview Scheduling Module/View

  Between the last post and this one I went ahead and carried the ideas for the Jobs module and view into the Applicants module and view- they're both doing more or less the same thing, except with different objects being at their core.  Made for an easy cut-and-paste operation with a few items being switched from one to another.  Now that we have the ability to add postings and applicants, wouldn't it be nice if we could schedule an interview?  Of course it would! Scheduling Module I think you get the drift from previous posts that these project structures start looking somewhat similar.  The interview scheduling module is no different than the rest- it gets a SchedulingModule.cs file at the root that inherits from IModule, and there is a single SchedulerView.xsml and SchedulerViewModel.cs setup for our V+VM.  We have one unique concern as we enter into this- RadScheduler deals with AppointmentsSource, not ItemsSource, so there are some special considerations to take into account when planning this module. First, I need something which inherits from AppointmentBase.  This is the core of the RadScheduler appointment, and if you are planning to do any form of custom appointment, you'll want it to inherit from this.  Then you can add-on functionality as needed.  Here is my addition to the mix, the InterviewAppointment: 01.public class InterviewAppointment : AppointmentBase 02.{ 03.    private int _applicantID; 04.    public int ApplicantID 05.    { 06.        get { return this._applicantID; } 07.        set 08.        { 09.            if (_applicantID != value) 10.            { 11.                _applicantID = value; 12.                OnPropertyChanged("ApplicantID"); 13.            } 14.        } 15.    } 16.   17.    private int _postingID; 18.    public int PostingID 19.    { 20.        get { return _postingID; } 21.        set 22.        { 23.            if (_postingID != value) 24.            { 25.                _postingID = value; 26.                OnPropertyChanged("PostingID"); 27.            } 28.        } 29.    } 30.   31.    private string _body; 32.    public string Body 33.    { 34.        get { return _body; } 35.        set 36.        { 37.            if (_body != value) 38.            { 39.                _body = value; 40.                OnPropertyChanged("Body"); 41.            } 42.        } 43.    } 44.   45.    private int _interviewID; 46.    public int InterviewID 47.    { 48.        get { return _interviewID; } 49.        set 50.        { 51.            if (_interviewID != value) 52.            { 53.                _interviewID = value; 54.                OnPropertyChanged("InterviewID"); 55.            } 56.        } 57.    } 58.   59.    public override IAppointment Copy() 60.    { 61.        IAppointment appointment = new InterviewAppointment(); 62.        appointment.CopyFrom(this);             63.        return appointment; 64.    } 65.   66.    public override void CopyFrom(IAppointment other) 67.    {             68.        base.CopyFrom(other); 69.        var appointment = other as InterviewAppointment; 70.        if (appointment != null) 71.        { 72.            ApplicantID = appointment.ApplicantID; 73.            PostingID = appointment.PostingID; 74.            Body = appointment.Body; 75.            InterviewID = appointment.InterviewID; 76.        } 77.    } 78.} Nothing too exciting going on here, we just make sure that our custom fields are persisted (specifically set in CopyFrom at the bottom) and notifications are fired- otherwise this ends up exactly like the standard appointment as far as interactions, etc.  But if we've got custom appointment items... that also means we need to customize what our appointment dialog window will look like. Customizing the Edit Appointment Dialog This initially sounds a lot more intimidating than it really is.  The first step here depends on what you're dealing with for theming, but for ease of everything I went ahead and extracted my templates in Blend for RadScheduler so I could modify it as I pleased.  For the faint of heart, the RadScheduler template is a few thousand lines of goodness since there are some very complex things going on in that control.  I've gone ahead and trimmed down the template parts I don't need as much as possible, so what is left is all that is relevant to the Edit Appointment Dialog.  Here's the resulting Xaml, with line numbers, so I can explain further: 001.<UserControl.Resources> 002.    <!-- begin Necessary Windows 7 Theme Resources for EditAppointmentTemplate --> 003.    <helpers:DataContextProxy x:Key="DataContextProxy" /> 004.       005.    <telerik:Windows7Theme x:Key="Theme" /> 006.    <SolidColorBrush x:Key="DialogWindowBackground" 007.                     Color="White" /> 008.    <SolidColorBrush x:Key="CategorySelectorBorderBrush" 009.                     Color="#FFB1B1B1" /> 010.    <LinearGradientBrush x:Key="RadToolBar_InnerBackground" 011.                         EndPoint="0.5,1" 012.                         StartPoint="0.5,0"> 013.        <GradientStop Color="#FFFDFEFF" 014.                      Offset="0" /> 015.        <GradientStop Color="#FFDDE9F7" 016.                      Offset="1" /> 017.        <GradientStop Color="#FFE6F0FA" 018.                      Offset="0.5" /> 019.        <GradientStop Color="#FFDCE6F4" 020.                      Offset="0.5" /> 021.    </LinearGradientBrush> 022.    <Style x:Key="FormElementTextBlockStyle" 023.           TargetType="TextBlock"> 024.        <Setter Property="HorizontalAlignment" 025.                Value="Right" /> 026.        <Setter Property="VerticalAlignment" 027.                Value="Top" /> 028.        <Setter Property="Margin" 029.                Value="15, 15, 0, 2" /> 030.    </Style> 031.    <Style x:Key="FormElementStyle" 032.           TargetType="FrameworkElement"> 033.        <Setter Property="Margin" 034.                Value="10, 10, 0, 2" /> 035.    </Style> 036.    <SolidColorBrush x:Key="GenericShallowBorderBrush" 037.                     Color="#FF979994" /> 038.    <telerik:BooleanToVisibilityConverter x:Key="BooleanToVisibilityConverter" /> 039.    <telerikScheduler:ImportanceToBooleanConverter x:Key="ImportanceToBooleanConverter" /> 040.    <telerikScheduler:NullToVisibilityConverter x:Key="NullToVisibilityConverter" /> 041.    <telerikScheduler:InvertedNullToVisibilityConverter x:Key="InvertedNullToVisibilityConverter" /> 042.    <scheduler:ResourcesSeparatorConverter x:Key="ResourcesSeparatorConverter" /> 043.    <DataTemplate x:Key="IconDataEditTemplate"> 044.        <Image Source="/Telerik.Windows.Controls.Scheduler;component/Themes/Office/Images/cal.png" 045.               Margin="3,3,0,0" 046.               Width="16" 047.               Height="16" /> 048.    </DataTemplate> 049.    <DataTemplate x:Key="SingleSelectionTemplate"> 050.        <Grid VerticalAlignment="Stretch" 051.              HorizontalAlignment="Stretch"> 052.            <Grid.RowDefinitions> 053.                <RowDefinition Height="Auto" /> 054.            </Grid.RowDefinitions> 055.            <Grid.ColumnDefinitions> 056.                <ColumnDefinition Width="Auto" 057.                                  MinWidth="84" /> 058.                <ColumnDefinition Width="Auto" 059.                                  MinWidth="200" /> 060.            </Grid.ColumnDefinitions> 061.            <TextBlock x:Name="SelectionNameLabel" 062.                       Margin="0,13,4,2" 063.                       Text="{Binding ResourceType.DisplayName}" 064.                       Style="{StaticResource FormElementTextBlockStyle}" 065.                       Grid.Column="0" /> 066.            <telerikInput:RadComboBox ItemsSource="{Binding ResourceItems}" 067.                                      Width="185" 068.                                      Margin="5,10,20,2" 069.                                      HorizontalAlignment="Left" 070.                                      Grid.Column="1" 071.                                      ClearSelectionButtonVisibility="Visible" 072.                                      ClearSelectionButtonContent="Clear All" 073.                                      DisplayMemberPath="Resource.DisplayName" 074.                                      telerik:StyleManager.Theme="{StaticResource Theme}" 075.                                      SelectedItem="{Binding SelectedItem, Mode=TwoWay}" /> 076.        </Grid> 077.    </DataTemplate> 078.    <DataTemplate x:Key="MultipleSelectionTemplate"> 079.        <Grid VerticalAlignment="Stretch" 080.              HorizontalAlignment="Stretch"> 081.            <Grid.RowDefinitions> 082.                <RowDefinition Height="Auto" /> 083.            </Grid.RowDefinitions> 084.            <Grid.ColumnDefinitions> 085.                <ColumnDefinition Width="Auto" 086.                                  MinWidth="84" /> 087.                <ColumnDefinition Width="Auto" 088.                                  MinWidth="200" /> 089.            </Grid.ColumnDefinitions> 090.            <TextBlock x:Name="SelectionNameLabel" 091.                       Grid.Column="0" 092.                       Text="{Binding ResourceType.DisplayName}" 093.                       Margin="0,13,4,2" 094.                       Style="{StaticResource FormElementTextBlockStyle}" /> 095.            <telerikInput:RadComboBox Grid.Column="1" 096.                                      Width="185" 097.                                      HorizontalAlignment="Left" 098.                                      Margin="5,10,20,2" 099.                                      ItemsSource="{Binding ResourceItems}" 100.                                      SelectedIndex="{Binding SelectedIndex, Mode=TwoWay}" 101.                                      ClearSelectionButtonVisibility="Visible" 102.                                      ClearSelectionButtonContent="Clear All" 103.                                      telerik:StyleManager.Theme="{StaticResource Theme}"> 104.                <telerikInput:RadComboBox.ItemTemplate> 105.                    <DataTemplate> 106.                        <Grid HorizontalAlignment="Stretch" 107.                              VerticalAlignment="Stretch"> 108.                            <CheckBox VerticalAlignment="Center" 109.                                      HorizontalContentAlignment="Stretch" 110.                                      VerticalContentAlignment="Center" 111.                                      IsChecked="{Binding IsChecked, Mode=TwoWay}" 112.                                      Content="{Binding Resource.DisplayName}"> 113.                                <CheckBox.ContentTemplate> 114.                                    <DataTemplate> 115.                                        <TextBlock HorizontalAlignment="Stretch" 116.                                                   VerticalAlignment="Stretch" 117.                                                   Text="{Binding Content, RelativeSource={RelativeSource TemplatedParent}}" /> 118.                                    </DataTemplate> 119.                                </CheckBox.ContentTemplate> 120.                            </CheckBox> 121.                        </Grid> 122.                    </DataTemplate> 123.                </telerikInput:RadComboBox.ItemTemplate> 124.            </telerikInput:RadComboBox> 125.        </Grid> 126.    </DataTemplate> 127.    <scheduler:ResourceTypeTemplateSelector x:Key="ItemTemplateSelector" 128.                                            MultipleSelectionTemplate="{StaticResource MultipleSelectionTemplate}" 129.                                            SingleSelectionTemplate="{StaticResource SingleSelectionTemplate}" /> 130.    <!-- end Necessary Windows 7 Theme Resources for EditAppointmentTemplate -->  131.       132.    <ControlTemplate x:Key="EditAppointmentTemplate" 133.                     TargetType="telerikScheduler:AppointmentDialogWindow"> 134.        <StackPanel Background="{TemplateBinding Background}" 135.                    UseLayoutRounding="True"> 136.            <StackPanel Grid.Row="0" 137.                        Orientation="Horizontal" 138.                        Background="{StaticResource RadToolBar_InnerBackground}" 139.                        Grid.ColumnSpan="2" 140.                        Height="0"> 141.                <!-- Recurrence buttons --> 142.                <Border Margin="1,1,0,0" 143.                        Background="#50000000" 144.                        HorizontalAlignment="Left" 145.                        VerticalAlignment="Center" 146.                        Width="2" 147.                        Height="16"> 148.                    <Border Margin="0,0,1,1" 149.                            Background="#80FFFFFF" 150.                            HorizontalAlignment="Left" 151.                            Width="1" /> 152.                </Border> 153.                <Border Margin="1,1,0,0" 154.                        Background="#50000000" 155.                        HorizontalAlignment="Left" 156.                        VerticalAlignment="Center" 157.                        Width="2" 158.                        Height="16"> 159.                    <Border Margin="0,0,1,1" 160.                            Background="#80FFFFFF" 161.                            HorizontalAlignment="Left" 162.                            Width="1" /> 163.                </Border> 164.                <TextBlock telerik:LocalizationManager.ResourceKey="ShowAs" 165.                           VerticalAlignment="Center" 166.                           Margin="5,0,0,0" /> 167.                <telerikInput:RadComboBox ItemsSource="{TemplateBinding TimeMarkers}" 168.                                          Width="100" 169.                                          Height="20" 170.                                          VerticalAlignment="Center" 171.                                          Margin="5,0,0,0" 172.                                          ClearSelectionButtonVisibility="Visible" 173.                                          ClearSelectionButtonContent="Clear" 174.                                          SelectedItem="{Binding TimeMarker,RelativeSource={RelativeSource TemplatedParent},Mode=TwoWay}" 175.                                          telerik:StyleManager.Theme="{StaticResource Theme}"> 176.                    <telerikInput:RadComboBox.ItemTemplate> 177.                        <DataTemplate> 178.                            <StackPanel Orientation="Horizontal"> 179.                                <Rectangle Fill="{Binding TimeMarkerBrush}" 180.                                           Margin="2" 181.                                           Width="12" 182.                                           Height="12" /> 183.                                <TextBlock Text="{Binding TimeMarkerName}" 184.                                           Margin="2" /> 185.                            </StackPanel> 186.                        </DataTemplate> 187.                    </telerikInput:RadComboBox.ItemTemplate> 188.                </telerikInput:RadComboBox> 189.                <telerik:RadToggleButton x:Name="High" 190.                                         BorderThickness="0" 191.                                         Background="{StaticResource RadToolBar_InnerBackground}" 192.                                         DataContext="{TemplateBinding EditedAppointment}" 193.                                         telerik:StyleManager.Theme="{StaticResource Theme}" 194.                                         IsChecked="{Binding Importance,Mode=TwoWay, Converter={StaticResource ImportanceToBooleanConverter},ConverterParameter=High}" 195.                                         Margin="2,2,0,2" 196.                                         Width="23" 197.                                         Height="23" 198.                                         HorizontalContentAlignment="Center" 199.                                         ToolTipService.ToolTip="High importance" 200.                                         CommandParameter="High" 201.                                         Command="telerikScheduler:RadSchedulerCommands.SetAppointmentImportance"> 202.                    <StackPanel HorizontalAlignment="Center"> 203.                        <Path Stretch="Fill" 204.                              Height="10" 205.                              HorizontalAlignment="Center" 206.                              VerticalAlignment="Top" 207.                              Width="5.451" 208.                              Data="M200.39647,58.840393 C200.39337,58.336426 201.14566,57.683922 202.56244,57.684292 C204.06589,57.684685 204.73764,58.357765 204.72783,58.992363 C205.04649,61.795574 203.04713,64.181099 202.47388,66.133446 C201.93753,64.154961 199.9471,61.560352 200.39647,58.840393 z"> 209.                            <Path.Fill> 210.                                <LinearGradientBrush EndPoint="1.059,0.375" 211.                                                     StartPoint="-0.457,0.519"> 212.                                    <GradientStop Color="#FFFF0606" 213.                                                  Offset="0.609" /> 214.                                    <GradientStop Color="#FFBF0303" 215.                                                  Offset="0.927" /> 216.                                </LinearGradientBrush> 217.                            </Path.Fill> 218.                        </Path> 219.                        <Ellipse Height="3" 220.                                 HorizontalAlignment="Center" 221.                                 Margin="0,-1,0,0" 222.                                 VerticalAlignment="Top" 223.                                 Width="3"> 224.                            <Ellipse.Fill> 225.                                <RadialGradientBrush> 226.                                    <GradientStop Color="#FFFF0606" 227.                                                  Offset="0" /> 228.                                    <GradientStop Color="#FFBF0303" 229.                                                  Offset="1" /> 230.                                </RadialGradientBrush> 231.                            </Ellipse.Fill> 232.                        </Ellipse> 233.                    </StackPanel> 234.                </telerik:RadToggleButton> 235.                <telerik:RadToggleButton x:Name="Low" 236.                                         HorizontalContentAlignment="Center" 237.                                         BorderThickness="0" 238.                                         Background="{StaticResource RadToolBar_InnerBackground}" 239.                                         DataContext="{TemplateBinding EditedAppointment}" 240.                                         IsChecked="{Binding Importance,Mode=TwoWay, Converter={StaticResource ImportanceToBooleanConverter},ConverterParameter=Low}" 241.                                         Margin="0,2,0,2" 242.                                         Width="23" 243.                                         Height="23" 244.                                         ToolTipService.ToolTip="Low importance" 245.                                         CommandParameter="Low" 246.                                         telerik:StyleManager.Theme="{StaticResource Theme}" 247.                                         Command="telerikScheduler:RadSchedulerCommands.SetAppointmentImportance"> 248.                    <Path Stretch="Fill" 249.                          Height="12" 250.                          HorizontalAlignment="Center" 251.                          VerticalAlignment="Top" 252.                          Width="9" 253.                          Data="M222.40353,60.139881 L226.65768,60.139843 L226.63687,67.240196 L229.15347,67.240196 L224.37816,71.394943 L219.65274,67.240196 L222.37572,67.219345 z" 254.                          Stroke="#FF0365A7"> 255.                        <Path.Fill> 256.                            <LinearGradientBrush EndPoint="1.059,0.375" 257.                                                 StartPoint="-0.457,0.519"> 258.                                <GradientStop Color="#FFBBE4FF" /> 259.                                <GradientStop Color="#FF024572" 260.                                              Offset="0.836" /> 261.                                <GradientStop Color="#FF43ADF4" 262.                                              Offset="0.466" /> 263.                            </LinearGradientBrush> 264.                        </Path.Fill> 265.                    </Path> 266.                </telerik:RadToggleButton> 267.            </StackPanel > 268.            <Border DataContext="{TemplateBinding EditedAppointment}" 269.                    Background="{Binding Category.CategoryBrush}" 270.                    Visibility="{Binding Category,Converter={StaticResource NullToVisibilityConverter}}" 271.                    CornerRadius="3" 272.                    Height="20" 273.                    Margin="5,10,5,0"> 274.                <TextBlock Text="{Binding Category.DisplayName}" 275.                           VerticalAlignment="Center" 276.                           Margin="5,0,0,0" /> 277.            </Border> 278.            <Grid VerticalAlignment="Stretch" 279.                  HorizontalAlignment="Stretch" 280.                  DataContext="{TemplateBinding EditedAppointment}" 281.                  Background="{TemplateBinding Background}"> 282.                <Grid.RowDefinitions> 283.                    <RowDefinition Height="Auto" /> 284.                    <RowDefinition Height="Auto" /> 285.                    <RowDefinition Height="Auto" /> 286.                    <RowDefinition Height="Auto" /> 287.                    <RowDefinition Height="Auto" /> 288.                    <RowDefinition Height="Auto" /> 289.                    <RowDefinition Height="Auto" /> 290.                    <RowDefinition Height="Auto" /> 291.                    <RowDefinition Height="Auto" /> 292.                    <RowDefinition Height="Auto" /> 293.                </Grid.RowDefinitions> 294.                <Grid.ColumnDefinitions> 295.                    <ColumnDefinition Width="Auto" 296.                                      MinWidth="100" /> 297.                    <ColumnDefinition Width="Auto" 298.                                      MinWidth="200" /> 299.                </Grid.ColumnDefinitions> 300.                <!-- Subject --> 301.                <TextBlock x:Name="SubjectLabel" 302.                           Grid.Row="0" 303.                           Grid.Column="0" 304.                           Margin="0,15,0,2" 305.                           telerik:LocalizationManager.ResourceKey="Subject" 306.                           Style="{StaticResource FormElementTextBlockStyle}" /> 307.                <TextBox x:Name="Subject" 308.                         Grid.Row="0" 309.                         Grid.Column="1" 310.                         MinHeight="22" 311.                         Padding="4 2" 312.                         Width="340" 313.                         HorizontalAlignment="Left" 314.                         Text="{Binding Subject, Mode=TwoWay}" 315.                         MaxLength="255" 316.                         telerik:StyleManager.Theme="{StaticResource Theme}" 317.                         Margin="10,12,20,2" /> 318.                <!-- Description --> 319.                <TextBlock x:Name="DescriptionLabel" 320.                           Grid.Row="1" 321.                           Grid.Column="0" 322.                           Margin="0,13,0,2" 323.                           telerik:LocalizationManager.ResourceKey="Body" 324.                           Style="{StaticResource FormElementTextBlockStyle}" /> 325.                <TextBox x:Name="Body" 326.                         VerticalAlignment="top" 327.                         Grid.Row="1" 328.                         Grid.Column="1" 329.                         Height="Auto" 330.                         MaxHeight="82" 331.                         Width="340" 332.                         HorizontalAlignment="Left" 333.                         MinHeight="22" 334.                         Padding="4 2" 335.                         TextWrapping="Wrap" 336.                         telerik:StyleManager.Theme="{StaticResource Theme}" 337.                         Text="{Binding Body, Mode=TwoWay}" 338.                         AcceptsReturn="true" 339.                         Margin="10,10,20,2" 340.                         HorizontalScrollBarVisibility="Auto" 341.                         VerticalScrollBarVisibility="Auto" /> 342.                <!-- Start/End date --> 343.                <TextBlock x:Name="StartDateLabel" 344.                           Grid.Row="2" 345.                           Grid.Column="0" 346.                           Margin="0,13,0,2" 347.                           telerik:LocalizationManager.ResourceKey="StartTime" 348.                           Style="{StaticResource FormElementTextBlockStyle}" /> 349.                <telerikScheduler:DateTimePicker x:Name="StartDateTime" 350.                                                 Height="22" 351.                                                 Grid.Row="2" 352.                                                 Grid.Column="1" 353.                                                 HorizontalAlignment="Left" 354.                                                 Margin="10,10,20,2" 355.                                                 Style="{StaticResource FormElementStyle}" 356.                                                 SelectedDateTime="{Binding Start, Mode=TwoWay}" 357.                                                 telerikScheduler:StartEndDatePicker.EndPicker="{Binding ElementName=EndDateTime}" 358.                                                 IsTabStop="False" 359.                                                 IsEnabled="False" /> 360.                <TextBlock x:Name="EndDateLabel" 361.                           Grid.Row="3" 362.                           Grid.Column="0" 363.                           Margin="0,13,0,2" 364.                           telerik:LocalizationManager.ResourceKey="EndTime" 365.                           Style="{StaticResource FormElementTextBlockStyle}" /> 366.                <telerikScheduler:DateTimePicker x:Name="EndDateTime" 367.                                                 Height="22" 368.                                                 Grid.Row="3" 369.                                                 Grid.Column="1" 370.                                                 HorizontalAlignment="Left" 371.                                                 Margin="10,10,20,2" 372.                                                 Style="{StaticResource FormElementStyle}" 373.                                                 IsTabStop="False" 374.                                                 IsEnabled="False" 375.                                                 SelectedDateTime="{Binding End, Mode=TwoWay}" /> 376.                <!-- Is-all-day selector --> 377.                <CheckBox x:Name="AllDayEventCheckbox" 378.                          IsChecked="{Binding IsAllDayEvent, Mode=TwoWay}" 379.                          Grid.Row="4" 380.                          Grid.Column="1" 381.                          Margin="10,10,20,2" 382.                          HorizontalAlignment="Left" 383.                          telerik:StyleManager.Theme="{StaticResource Theme}" 384.                          telerik:LocalizationManager.ResourceKey="AllDayEvent"> 385.                    <telerik:CommandManager.InputBindings> 386.                        <telerik:InputBindingCollection> 387.                            <telerik:MouseBinding Command="telerikScheduler:RadSchedulerCommands.ChangeTimePickersVisibility" 388.                                                  Gesture="LeftClick" /> 389.                        </telerik:InputBindingCollection> 390.                    </telerik:CommandManager.InputBindings> 391.                </CheckBox> 392.                <Grid Grid.Row="5" 393.                      Grid.ColumnSpan="2"> 394.                    <Grid.ColumnDefinitions> 395.                        <ColumnDefinition Width="Auto" 396.                                          MinWidth="100" /> 397.                        <ColumnDefinition Width="Auto" 398.                                          MinWidth="200" /> 399.                    </Grid.ColumnDefinitions> 400.                    <Grid.RowDefinitions> 401.                        <RowDefinition Height="Auto" /> 402.                        <RowDefinition Height="Auto" /> 403.                    </Grid.RowDefinitions> 404.                    <TextBlock Text="Applicant" 405.                               Margin="0,13,0,2" 406.                               Style="{StaticResource FormElementTextBlockStyle}" /> 407.                    <telerikInput:RadComboBox IsEditable="False" 408.                                              Grid.Column="1" 409.                                              Height="24" 410.                                              VerticalAlignment="Center" 411.                                              ItemsSource="{Binding Source={StaticResource DataContextProxy}, Path=DataSource.ApplicantList}" 412.                                              SelectedValue="{Binding ApplicantID, Mode=TwoWay}" 413.                                              SelectedValuePath="ApplicantID" 414.                                              DisplayMemberPath="FirstName" /> 415.                       416.                    <TextBlock Text="Job" 417.                               Margin="0,13,0,2" 418.                               Grid.Row="1" 419.                               Style="{StaticResource FormElementTextBlockStyle}" /> 420.                    <telerikInput:RadComboBox IsEditable="False" 421.                                              Grid.Column="1" 422.                                              Grid.Row="1" 423.                                              Height="24" 424.                                              VerticalAlignment="Center" 425.                                              ItemsSource="{Binding Source={StaticResource DataContextProxy}, Path=DataSource.JobsList}" 426.                                              SelectedValue="{Binding PostingID, Mode=TwoWay}" 427.                                              SelectedValuePath="PostingID" 428.                                              DisplayMemberPath="JobTitle"/> 429.                </Grid> 430.                    <!-- Resources --> 431.                <Grid x:Name="ResourcesLayout" 432.                      Grid.Row="7" 433.                      Grid.Column="0" 434.                      Grid.ColumnSpan="2" 435.                      MaxHeight="130" 436.                      Margin="20,5,20,0"> 437.                    <Border Margin="0" 438.                            BorderThickness="1" 439.                            BorderBrush="{StaticResource GenericShallowBorderBrush}" 440.                            Visibility="{Binding ElementName=ResourcesScrollViewer, Path=ComputedVerticalScrollBarVisibility}"></Border> 441.                    <ScrollViewer x:Name="ResourcesScrollViewer" 442.                                  IsTabStop="false" 443.                                  Grid.Row="6" 444.                                  Grid.Column="0" 445.                                  Grid.ColumnSpan="2" 446.                                  Margin="1" 447.                                  telerik:StyleManager.Theme="{StaticResource Theme}" 448.                                  VerticalScrollBarVisibility="Auto"> 449.                        <scheduler:ResourcesItemsControl x:Name="PART_Resources" 450.                                                         HorizontalAlignment="Left" 451.                                                         Padding="0,2,0,5" 452.                                                         IsTabStop="false" 453.                                                         ItemsSource="{TemplateBinding ResourceTypeModels}" 454.                                                         ItemTemplateSelector="{StaticResource ItemTemplateSelector}" /> 455.                    </ScrollViewer> 456.                </Grid> 457.                <StackPanel x:Name="FooterControls" 458.                            Margin="5 10 10 10" 459.                            Grid.Row="8" 460.                            Grid.Column="1" 461.                            HorizontalAlignment="Left" 462.                            Orientation="Horizontal"> 463.                    <telerik:RadButton x:Name="OKButton" 464.                                       Margin="5" 465.                                       Padding="10 0" 466.                                       MinWidth="80" 467.                                       Command="telerikScheduler:RadSchedulerCommands.SaveAppointment" 468.                                       telerik:StyleManager.Theme="{StaticResource Theme}" 469.                                       telerikNavigation:RadWindow.ResponseButton="Accept" 470.                                       telerik:LocalizationManager.ResourceKey="SaveAndCloseCommandText"> 471.                    </telerik:RadButton> 472.                    <telerik:RadButton x:Name="CancelButton" 473.                                       Margin="5" 474.                                       Padding="10 0" 475.                                       MinWidth="80" 476.                                       telerik:LocalizationManager.ResourceKey="Cancel" 477.                                       telerik:StyleManager.Theme="{StaticResource Theme}" 478.                                       telerikNavigation:RadWindow.ResponseButton="Cancel" 479.                                       Command="telerik:WindowCommands.Close"> 480.                    </telerik:RadButton> 481.                </StackPanel> 482.            </Grid> 483.            <vsm:VisualStateManager.VisualStateGroups> 484.                <vsm:VisualStateGroup x:Name="RecurrenceRuleState"> 485.                    <vsm:VisualState x:Name="RecurrenceRuleIsNull"> 486.                        <Storyboard> 487.                            <ObjectAnimationUsingKeyFrames Storyboard.TargetName="StartDateTime" 488.                                                           Storyboard.TargetProperty="IsEnabled" 489.                                                           Duration="0"> 490.                                <DiscreteObjectKeyFrame KeyTime="0" 491.                                                        Value="True" /> 492.                            </ObjectAnimationUsingKeyFrames> 493.                            <ObjectAnimationUsingKeyFrames Storyboard.TargetName="EndDateTime" 494.                                                           Storyboard.TargetProperty="IsEnabled" 495.                                                           Duration="0"> 496.                                <DiscreteObjectKeyFrame KeyTime="0" 497.                                                        Value="True" /> 498.                            </ObjectAnimationUsingKeyFrames> 499.                            <ObjectAnimationUsingKeyFrames Storyboard.TargetName="AllDayEventCheckbox" 500.                                                           Storyboard.TargetProperty="IsEnabled" 501.                                                           Duration="0"> 502.                                <DiscreteObjectKeyFrame KeyTime="0" 503.                                                        Value="True" /> 504.                            </ObjectAnimationUsingKeyFrames> 505.                        </Storyboard> 506.                    </vsm:VisualState> 507.                    <vsm:VisualState x:Name="RecurrenceRuleIsNotNull"> 508.                        <Storyboard> 509.                            <ObjectAnimationUsingKeyFrames Storyboard.TargetName="StartDateTime" 510.                                                           Storyboard.TargetProperty="IsEnabled" 511.                                                           Duration="0"> 512.                                <DiscreteObjectKeyFrame KeyTime="0" 513.                                                        Value="False" /> 514.                            </ObjectAnimationUsingKeyFrames> 515.                            <ObjectAnimationUsingKeyFrames Storyboard.TargetName="EndDateTime" 516.                                                           Storyboard.TargetProperty="IsEnabled" 517.                                                           Duration="0"> 518.                                <DiscreteObjectKeyFrame KeyTime="0" 519.                                                        Value="False" /> 520.                            </ObjectAnimationUsingKeyFrames> 521.                            <ObjectAnimationUsingKeyFrames Storyboard.TargetName="AllDayEventCheckbox" 522.                                                           Storyboard.TargetProperty="IsEnabled" 523.                                                           Duration="0"> 524.                                <DiscreteObjectKeyFrame KeyTime="0" 525.                                                        Value="False" /> 526.                            </ObjectAnimationUsingKeyFrames> 527.                        </Storyboard> 528.                    </vsm:VisualState> 529.                </vsm:VisualStateGroup> 530.            </vsm:VisualStateManager.VisualStateGroups> 531.        </StackPanel> 532.    </ControlTemplate> 533.    <DataTemplate x:Key="AppointmentDialogWindowHeaderDataTemplate"> 534.        <StackPanel Orientation="Horizontal" 535.                    MaxWidth="400"> 536.            <TextBlock telerik:LocalizationManager.ResourceKey="Event" 537.                       Visibility="{Binding Appointment.IsAllDayEvent, Converter={StaticResource BooleanToVisibilityConverter}}" /> 538.            <TextBlock telerik:LocalizationManager.ResourceKey="Appointment" 539.                       Visibility="{Binding Appointment.IsAllDayEvent, Converter={StaticResource InvertedBooleanToVisibilityConverter}}" /> 540.            <TextBlock Text=" - " /> 541.            <TextBlock x:Name="SubjectTextBlock" 542.                       Visibility="{Binding Appointment.Subject, Converter={StaticResource NullToVisibilityConverter}}" 543.                       Text="{Binding Appointment.Subject}" /> 544.            <TextBlock telerik:LocalizationManager.ResourceKey="Untitled" 545.                       Visibility="{Binding Appointment.Subject, Converter={StaticResource InvertedNullToVisibilityConverter}}" /> 546.        </StackPanel> 547.    </DataTemplate> 548.    <Style x:Key="EditAppointmentStyle" 549.           TargetType="telerikScheduler:AppointmentDialogWindow"> 550.        <Setter Property="IconTemplate" 551.                Value="{StaticResource IconDataEditTemplate}" /> 552.        <Setter Property="HeaderTemplate" 553.                Value="{StaticResource AppointmentDialogWindowHeaderDataTemplate}" /> 554.        <Setter Property="Background" 555.                Value="{StaticResource DialogWindowBackground}" /> 556.        <Setter Property="Template" 557.                Value="{StaticResource EditAppointmentTemplate}" /> 558.    </Style> 559.</UserControl.Resources> The first line there is the DataContextProxy I mentioned previously- we use that again to work a bit of magic in this template. Where we start getting into the dialog in question is line 132, but line 407 is where things start getting interesting.  The ItemsSource is pointing at a list that exists in my ViewModel (or code-behind, if it is used as a DataContext), the SelectedValue is the item I am actually binding from the applicant (note the TwoWay binding), and SelectedValuePath and DisplayMemberPath ensure the proper applicant is being displayed from the collection.  You will also see similar starting on line 420 where I do the same for the Jobs we'll be displaying. Just to wrap-up the Xaml, here's the RadScheduler declaraction that ties this all together and will be the main focus of our view: 01.<telerikScheduler:RadScheduler x:Name="xJobsScheduler" 02.                  Grid.Row="1" 03.                  Grid.Column="1" 04.                  Width="800" 05.                  MinWidth="600" 06.                  Height="500" 07.                  MinHeight="300" 08.                  AppointmentsSource="{Binding Interviews}" 09.                  EditAppointmentStyle="{StaticResource EditAppointmentStyle}" 10.                  command:AppointmentAddedEventClass.Command="{Binding AddAppointmentCommand}" 11.                  command:ApptCreatedEventClass.Command="{Binding ApptCreatingCommand}" 12.                  command:ApptEditedEventClass.Command="{Binding ApptEditedCommand}" 13.                  command:ApptDeletedEventClass.Command="{Binding ApptDeletedCommand}"> 14.</telerikScheduler:RadScheduler> Now, we get to the ViewModel and what it takes to get that rigged up.  And for those of you who remember the jobs post, those command:s in the Xaml are pointing to attached behavior commands that reproduce the respective events.  This becomes very handy when we're setting up the code-behind version. ;) ViewModel I've been liking this approach so far, so I'm going to put the entire ViewModel here and then go into the lines of interest.  Of course, feel free to ask me questions about anything that isn't clear (by line number, ideally) so I can help out if I have missed anything important: 001.public class SchedulerViewModel : ViewModelBase 002.{ 003.    private readonly IEventAggregator eventAggregator; 004.    private readonly IRegionManager regionManager; 005.   006.    public RecruitingContext context; 007.   008.    private ObservableItemCollection<InterviewAppointment> _interviews = new ObservableItemCollection<InterviewAppointment>(); 009.    public ObservableItemCollection<InterviewAppointment> Interviews 010.    { 011.        get { return _interviews; } 012.        set 013.        { 014.            if (_interviews != value) 015.            { 016.                _interviews = value; 017.                NotifyChanged("Interviews"); 018.            } 019.        } 020.    } 021.   022.    private QueryableCollectionView _jobsList; 023.    public QueryableCollectionView JobsList 024.    { 025.        get { return this._jobsList; } 026.        set 027.        { 028.            if (this._jobsList != value) 029.            { 030.                this._jobsList = value; 031.                this.NotifyChanged("JobsList"); 032.            } 033.        } 034.    } 035.   036.    private QueryableCollectionView _applicantList; 037.    public QueryableCollectionView ApplicantList 038.    { 039.        get { return _applicantList; } 040.        set 041.        { 042.            if (_applicantList != value) 043.            { 044.                _applicantList = value; 045.                NotifyChanged("ApplicantList"); 046.            } 047.        } 048.    } 049.   050.    public DelegateCommand<object> AddAppointmentCommand { get; set; } 051.    public DelegateCommand<object> ApptCreatingCommand { get; set; } 052.    public DelegateCommand<object> ApptEditedCommand { get; set; } 053.    public DelegateCommand<object> ApptDeletedCommand { get; set; } 054.   055.    public SchedulerViewModel(IEventAggregator eventAgg, IRegionManager regionmanager) 056.    { 057.        // set Unity items 058.        this.eventAggregator = eventAgg; 059.        this.regionManager = regionmanager; 060.   061.        // load our context 062.        context = new RecruitingContext(); 063.        LoadOperation<Interview> loadOp = context.Load(context.GetInterviewsQuery()); 064.        loadOp.Completed += new EventHandler(loadOp_Completed); 065.   066.        this._jobsList = new QueryableCollectionView(context.JobPostings); 067.        context.Load(context.GetJobPostingsQuery()); 068.   069.        this._applicantList = new QueryableCollectionView(context.Applicants); 070.        context.Load(context.GetApplicantsQuery()); 071.   072.        AddAppointmentCommand = new DelegateCommand<object>(this.AddAppt); 073.        ApptCreatingCommand = new DelegateCommand<object>(this.ApptCreating); 074.        ApptEditedCommand = new DelegateCommand<object>(this.ApptEdited); 075.        ApptDeletedCommand = new DelegateCommand<object>(this.ApptDeleted); 076.   077.    } 078.   079.    void loadOp_Completed(object sender, EventArgs e) 080.    { 081.        LoadOperation loadop = sender as LoadOperation; 082.   083.        foreach (var ent in loadop.Entities) 084.        { 085.            _interviews.Add(EntityToAppointment(ent as Interview)); 086.        } 087.    } 088.   089.    #region Appointment Adding 090.   091.    public void AddAppt(object obj) 092.    { 093.        // now we have a new InterviewAppointment to add to our QCV :) 094.        InterviewAppointment newInterview = obj as InterviewAppointment; 095.   096.        this.context.Interviews.Add(AppointmentToEntity(newInterview)); 097.        this.context.SubmitChanges((s) => 098.        { 099.            ActionHistory myAction = new ActionHistory(); 100.            myAction.InterviewID = newInterview.InterviewID; 101.            myAction.PostingID = newInterview.PostingID; 102.            myAction.ApplicantID = newInterview.ApplicantID; 103.            myAction.Description = String.Format("Interview with {0} has been created by {1}", newInterview.ApplicantID.ToString(), "default user"); 104.            myAction.TimeStamp = DateTime.Now; 105.            eventAggregator.GetEvent<AddActionEvent>().Publish(myAction); 106.        } 107.            , null); 108.    } 109.   110.    public void ApptCreating(object obj) 111.    { 112.        // handled in the behavior, just a placeholder to ensure it runs :) 113.    } 114.   115.    #endregion 116.   117.    #region Appointment Editing 118.   119.    public void ApptEdited(object obj) 120.    { 121.        Interview editedInterview = (from x in context.Interviews 122.                            where x.InterviewID == (obj as InterviewAppointment).InterviewID 123.                            select x).SingleOrDefault(); 124.   125.        CopyAppointmentEdit(editedInterview, obj as InterviewAppointment); 126.   127.        context.SubmitChanges((s) => { 128.            ActionHistory myAction = new ActionHistory(); 129.            myAction.InterviewID = editedInterview.InterviewID; 130.            myAction.PostingID = editedInterview.PostingID; 131.            myAction.ApplicantID = editedInterview.ApplicantID; 132.            myAction.Description = String.Format("Interview with {0} has been modified by {1}", editedInterview.ApplicantID.ToString(), "default user"); 133.            myAction.TimeStamp = DateTime.Now; 134.            eventAggregator.GetEvent<AddActionEvent>().Publish(myAction); } 135.            , null); 136.    } 137.   138.    #endregion 139.   140.    #region Appointment Deleting 141.   142.    public void ApptDeleted(object obj) 143.    { 144.        Interview deletedInterview = (from x in context.Interviews 145.                                      where x.InterviewID == (obj as InterviewAppointment).InterviewID 146.                                      select x).SingleOrDefault(); 147.   148.        context.Interviews.Remove(deletedInterview); 149.        context.SubmitChanges((s) => 150.        { 151.            ActionHistory myAction = new ActionHistory(); 152.            myAction.InterviewID = deletedInterview.InterviewID; 153.            myAction.PostingID = deletedInterview.PostingID; 154.            myAction.ApplicantID = deletedInterview.ApplicantID; 155.            myAction.Description = String.Format("Interview with {0} has been deleted by {1}", deletedInterview.ApplicantID.ToString(), "default user"); 156.            myAction.TimeStamp = DateTime.Now; 157.            eventAggregator.GetEvent<AddActionEvent>().Publish(myAction); 158.        } 159.            , null); 160.    } 161.   162.    #endregion 163.   164.    #region Appointment Helpers :) 165.   166.    public Interview AppointmentToEntity(InterviewAppointment ia) 167.    { 168.        Interview newInterview = new Interview(); 169.        newInterview.Subject = ia.Subject; 170.        newInterview.Body = ia.Body; 171.        newInterview.Start = ia.Start; 172.        newInterview.End = ia.End; 173.        newInterview.ApplicantID = ia.ApplicantID; 174.        newInterview.PostingID = ia.PostingID; 175.        newInterview.InterviewID = ia.InterviewID; 176.   177.        return newInterview; 178.    } 179.   180.    public InterviewAppointment EntityToAppointment(Interview ia) 181.    { 182.        InterviewAppointment newInterview = new InterviewAppointment(); 183.        newInterview.Subject = ia.Subject; 184.        newInterview.Body = ia.Body; 185.        newInterview.Start = ia.Start; 186.        newInterview.End = ia.End; 187.        newInterview.ApplicantID = ia.ApplicantID; 188.        newInterview.PostingID = ia.PostingID; 189.        newInterview.InterviewID = ia.InterviewID; 190.   191.        return newInterview; 192.    } 193.   194.    public void CopyAppointmentEdit(Interview entityInterview, InterviewAppointment appointmentInterview) 195.    { 196.        entityInterview.Subject = appointmentInterview.Subject; 197.        entityInterview.Body = appointmentInterview.Body; 198.        entityInterview.Start = appointmentInterview.Start; 199.        entityInterview.End = appointmentInterview.End; 200.        entityInterview.ApplicantID = appointmentInterview.ApplicantID; 201.        entityInterview.PostingID = appointmentInterview.PostingID; 202.    } 203.   204.    #endregion 205.} One thing we're doing here which you won't see in any of the other ViewModels is creating a duplicate collection.  I know this is something which will be fixed down the line for using RadScheduler, simplifying this process, but with WCF RIA changing as it does I wanted to ensure functionality would remain consistent as I continued development on this application.  So, I do a little bit of duplication, but for the greater good.  This all takes place starting on line 79, so for every entity that comes back we add it to the collection that is bound to RadScheduler.  Otherwise, the DelegateCommands that you see correspond directly to the events they are named after.  In each case, rather than sending over the full event arguments, I just send in the appointment in question (coming through as the object obj in all cases) so I can add (line 91), edit (line 119), and delete appointments (line 142) like normal.  This just ensures they get updated back to my database.  Also, the one bit of code you won't see is for the Appointment Creating (line 110) event- that is because in the command I've created I simply make the replacement I need to: 1.void element_AppointmentCreating(object sender, AppointmentCreatingEventArgs e) 2.{ 3.    e.NewAppointment = new InterviewAppointment(); 4.    base.ExecuteCommand(); 5.} And the ViewModel is none the wiser, the appointments just work as far as it is concerned since as they are created they become InterviewAppointments.  End result?  I've customized my EditAppointmentDialog as follows: And adding, editing, and deleting appointments works like a charm.  I can even 'edit' by moving appointments around RadScheduler, so as they are dropped into a timeslot they perform their full edit routine and things get updated. And then, the Code-Behind Version Perhaps the thing I like the most about doing one then the other is I get to steal 90% or more of the code from the MVVM version.  For example, the only real changes to the Code-Behind Xaml file exist in the control declaration, in which I use events instead of attached-behavior-event-commands: 01.<telerikScheduler:RadScheduler x:Name="xJobsScheduler" 02.                  Grid.Row="1" 03.                  Grid.Column="1" 04.                  Width="800" 05.                  MinWidth="600" 06.                  Height="500" 07.                  MinHeight="300" 08.                  EditAppointmentStyle="{StaticResource EditAppointmentStyle}" 09.                  AppointmentAdded="xJobsScheduler_AppointmentAdded" 10.                  AppointmentCreating="xJobsScheduler_AppointmentCreating" 11.                  AppointmentEdited="xJobsScheduler_AppointmentEdited" 12.                  AppointmentDeleted="xJobsScheduler_AppointmentDeleted"> 13.</telerikScheduler:RadScheduler> Easy, right?  Otherwise, all the same styling in UserControl.Resources was re-used, right down to the DataContextProxy that lets us bind to a collection from our viewmodel (in this case, our code-behind) to use within the DataTemplate.  The code conversion gets even easier, as I could literally copy and paste almost everything from the ViewModel to my Code-Behind, just a matter of pasting the right section into the right event.  Here's the code-behind as proof: 001.public partial class SchedulingView : UserControl, INotifyPropertyChanged 002.{ 003.    public RecruitingContext context; 004.   005.    private QueryableCollectionView _jobsList; 006.    public QueryableCollectionView JobsList 007.    { 008.        get { return this._jobsList; } 009.        set 010.        { 011.            if (this._jobsList != value) 012.            { 013.                this._jobsList = value; 014.                this.NotifyChanged("JobsList"); 015.            } 016.        } 017.    } 018.   019.    private QueryableCollectionView _applicantList; 020.    public QueryableCollectionView ApplicantList 021.    { 022.        get { return _applicantList; } 023.        set 024.        { 025.            if (_applicantList != value) 026.            { 027.                _applicantList = value; 028.                NotifyChanged("ApplicantList"); 029.            } 030.        } 031.    } 032.   033.    private ObservableItemCollection<InterviewAppointment> _interviews = new ObservableItemCollection<InterviewAppointment>(); 034.    public ObservableItemCollection<InterviewAppointment> Interviews 035.    { 036.        get { return _interviews; } 037.        set 038.        { 039.            if (_interviews != value) 040.            { 041.                _interviews = value; 042.                NotifyChanged("Interviews"); 043.            } 044.        } 045.    } 046.   047.    public SchedulingView() 048.    { 049.        InitializeComponent(); 050.   051.        this.DataContext = this; 052.   053.        this.Loaded += new RoutedEventHandler(SchedulingView_Loaded); 054.    } 055.   056.    void SchedulingView_Loaded(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e) 057.    { 058.        this.xJobsScheduler.AppointmentsSource = Interviews; 059.   060.        context = new RecruitingContext(); 061.           062.        LoadOperation loadop = context.Load(context.GetInterviewsQuery()); 063.        loadop.Completed += new EventHandler(loadop_Completed); 064.   065.        this._applicantList = new QueryableCollectionView(context.Applicants); 066.        context.Load(context.GetApplicantsQuery()); 067.   068.        this._jobsList = new QueryableCollectionView(context.JobPostings); 069.        context.Load(context.GetJobPostingsQuery()); 070.    } 071.   072.    void loadop_Completed(object sender, EventArgs e) 073.    { 074.        LoadOperation loadop = sender as LoadOperation; 075.   076.        _interviews.Clear(); 077.   078.        foreach (var ent in loadop.Entities) 079.        { 080.            _interviews.Add(EntityToAppointment(ent as Interview)); 081.        } 082.    } 083.   084.    private void xJobsScheduler_AppointmentAdded(object sender, Telerik.Windows.Controls.AppointmentAddedEventArgs e) 085.    { 086.        // now we have a new InterviewAppointment to add to our QCV :) 087.        InterviewAppointment newInterview = e.Appointment as InterviewAppointment; 088.   089.        this.context.Interviews.Add(AppointmentToEntity(newInterview)); 090.        this.context.SubmitChanges((s) => 091.        { 092.            ActionHistory myAction = new ActionHistory(); 093.            myAction.InterviewID = newInterview.InterviewID; 094.            myAction.PostingID = newInterview.PostingID; 095.            myAction.ApplicantID = newInterview.ApplicantID; 096.            myAction.Description = String.Format("Interview with {0} has been created by {1}", newInterview.ApplicantID.ToString(), "default user"); 097.            myAction.TimeStamp = DateTime.Now; 098.            context.ActionHistories.Add(myAction); 099.            context.SubmitChanges(); 100.        } 101.            , null); 102.    } 103.   104.    private void xJobsScheduler_AppointmentCreating(object sender, Telerik.Windows.Controls.AppointmentCreatingEventArgs e) 105.    { 106.        e.NewAppointment = new InterviewAppointment(); 107.    } 108.   109.    private void xJobsScheduler_AppointmentEdited(object sender, Telerik.Windows.Controls.AppointmentEditedEventArgs e) 110.    { 111.        Interview editedInterview = (from x in context.Interviews 112.                                     where x.InterviewID == (e.Appointment as InterviewAppointment).InterviewID 113.                                     select x).SingleOrDefault(); 114.   115.        CopyAppointmentEdit(editedInterview, e.Appointment as InterviewAppointment); 116.   117.        context.SubmitChanges((s) => 118.        { 119.            ActionHistory myAction = new ActionHistory(); 120.            myAction.InterviewID = editedInterview.InterviewID; 121.            myAction.PostingID = editedInterview.PostingID; 122.            myAction.ApplicantID = editedInterview.ApplicantID; 123.            myAction.Description = String.Format("Interview with {0} has been modified by {1}", editedInterview.ApplicantID.ToString(), "default user"); 124.            myAction.TimeStamp = DateTime.Now; 125.            context.ActionHistories.Add(myAction); 126.            context.SubmitChanges(); 127.        } 128.            , null); 129.    } 130.   131.    private void xJobsScheduler_AppointmentDeleted(object sender, Telerik.Windows.Controls.AppointmentDeletedEventArgs e) 132.    { 133.        Interview deletedInterview = (from x in context.Interviews 134.                                      where x.InterviewID == (e.Appointment as InterviewAppointment).InterviewID 135.                                      select x).SingleOrDefault(); 136.   137.        context.Interviews.Remove(deletedInterview); 138.        context.SubmitChanges((s) => 139.        { 140.            ActionHistory myAction = new ActionHistory(); 141.            myAction.InterviewID = deletedInterview.InterviewID; 142.            myAction.PostingID = deletedInterview.PostingID; 143.            myAction.ApplicantID = deletedInterview.ApplicantID; 144.            myAction.Description = String.Format("Interview with {0} has been deleted by {1}", deletedInterview.ApplicantID.ToString(), "default user"); 145.            myAction.TimeStamp = DateTime.Now; 146.            context.ActionHistories.Add(myAction); 147.            context.SubmitChanges(); 148.        } 149.            , null); 150.    } 151.   152.    #region Appointment Helpers :) 153.   154.    public Interview AppointmentToEntity(InterviewAppointment ia) 155.    { 156.        Interview newInterview = new Interview(); 157.        newInterview.Subject = ia.Subject; 158.        newInterview.Body = ia.Body; 159.        newInterview.Start = ia.Start; 160.        newInterview.End = ia.End; 161.        newInterview.ApplicantID = ia.ApplicantID; 162.        newInterview.PostingID = ia.PostingID; 163.        newInterview.InterviewID = ia.InterviewID; 164.   165.        return newInterview; 166.    } 167.   168.    public InterviewAppointment EntityToAppointment(Interview ia) 169.    { 170.        InterviewAppointment newInterview = new InterviewAppointment(); 171.        newInterview.Subject = ia.Subject; 172.        newInterview.Body = ia.Body; 173.        newInterview.Start = ia.Start; 174.        newInterview.End = ia.End; 175.        newInterview.ApplicantID = ia.ApplicantID; 176.        newInterview.PostingID = ia.PostingID; 177.        newInterview.InterviewID = ia.InterviewID; 178.   179.        return newInterview; 180.    } 181.   182.    public void CopyAppointmentEdit(Interview entityInterview, InterviewAppointment appointmentInterview) 183.    { 184.        entityInterview.Subject = appointmentInterview.Subject; 185.        entityInterview.Body = appointmentInterview.Body; 186.        entityInterview.Start = appointmentInterview.Start; 187.        entityInterview.End = appointmentInterview.End; 188.        entityInterview.ApplicantID = appointmentInterview.ApplicantID; 189.        entityInterview.PostingID = appointmentInterview.PostingID; 190.    } 191.   192.    #endregion 193.   194.    #region INotifyPropertyChanged Members 195.   196.    public event PropertyChangedEventHandler PropertyChanged; 197.   198.    public void NotifyChanged(string propertyName) 199.    { 200.        if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(propertyName)) 201.            throw new ArgumentException("propertyName"); 202.   203.        PropertyChanged(this, new PropertyChangedEventArgs(propertyName)); 204.    } 205.   206.    #endregion 207.} Nice... right? :) One really important thing to note as well.  See on line 51 where I set the DataContext before the Loaded event?  This is super important, as if you don't have this set before the usercontrol is loaded, the DataContextProxy has no context to use and your EditAppointmentDialog Job/Applicant dropdowns will be blank and empty.  Trust me on this, took a little bit of debugging to figure out that by setting the DataContext post-loaded would only lead to disaster and frustration.  Otherwise, the only other real difference is that instead of sending an ActionHistory item through an event to get added to the database and saved, I do those right in the callback from submitting.  The Result Again, I only have to post one picture because these bad boys used nearly identical code for both the MVVM and the code-behind views, so our end result is... So what have we learned here today?  One, for the most part this MVVM thing is somewhat easy.  Yeah, you sometimes have to write a bunch of extra code, but with the help of a few useful snippits you can turn the process into a pretty streamlined little workflow.  Heck, this story gets even easier as you can see in this blog post by Michael Washington- specifically run a find on 'InvokeCommandAction' and you'll see the section regarding the command on TreeView in Blend 4.  Brilliant!  MVVM never looked so sweet! Otherwise, it is business as usual with RadScheduler for Silverlight whichever path you're choosing for your development.  Between now and the next post, I'll be cleaning up styles a bit (those RadComboBoxes are a little too close to my labels!) and adding some to the RowDetailsViews for Applicants and Jobs, so you can see all the info for an appointment in the dropdown tab view.  Otherwise, we're about ready to call a wrap on this oneDid 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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• Oracle HRMS API – Create or Update Employee Salary

  - by PRajkumar

  API --  hr_maintain_proposal_api.cre_or_upd_salary_proposal   Note - Salary Basis is required to be assigned to employee assignment before to run Salary Proposal API Example --   DECLARE     lb_inv_next_sal_date_warning      BOOLEAN;     lb_proposed_salary_warning         BOOLEAN;     lb_approved_warning                       BOOLEAN;     lb_payroll_warning                            BOOLEAN;     ln_pay_proposal_id                           NUMBER;     ln_object_version_number                NUMBER; BEGIN    -- Create or Upadte Employee Salary Proposal    -- ----------------------------------------------------------------     hr_maintain_proposal_api.cre_or_upd_salary_proposal     (    -- Input data elements          -- ------------------------------          p_business_group_id                   => fnd_profile.value('PER_BUSINESS_GROUP_ID'),          p_assignment_id                            => 33561,          p_change_date                                => TO_DATE('13-JUN-2011'),          p_proposed_salary_n                   => 1000,          p_approved                                      => 'Y',          -- Output data elements          -- --------------------------------          p_pay_proposal_id                       => ln_pay_proposal_id,          p_object_version_number           => ln_object_version_number,            p_inv_next_sal_date_warning  => lb_inv_next_sal_date_warning,          p_proposed_salary_warning     => lb_proposed_salary_warning,          p_approved_warning                   => lb_approved_warning,          p_payroll_warning                        => lb_payroll_warning     );    COMMIT; EXCEPTION        WHEN OTHERS THEN                           ROLLBACK;                           dbms_output.put_line(SQLERRM); END; / SHOW ERR;  

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• WPF ListView as a DataGrid – Part 3

  - by psheriff

  I have had a lot of great feedback on the blog post about turning the ListView into a DataGrid by creating GridViewColumn objects on the fly. So, in the last 2 parts, I showed a couple of different methods for accomplishing this. Let’s now look at one more and that is use Reflection to extract the properties from a Product, Customer, or Employee object to create the columns. Yes, Reflection is a slower approach, but you could create the columns one time then cache the View object for re-use. Another potential drawback is you may have columns in your object that you do not wish to display on your ListView. But, just because so many people asked, here is how to accomplish this using Reflection.   Figure 1: Use Reflection to create GridViewColumns. Using Reflection to gather property names is actually quite simple. First you need to pass any type (Product, Customer, Employee, etc.) to a method like I did in my last two blog posts on this subject. Below is the method that I created in the WPFListViewCommon class that now uses reflection. C#public static GridView CreateGridViewColumns(Type anyType){  // Create the GridView  GridView gv = new GridView();  GridViewColumn gvc;   // Get the public properties.  PropertyInfo[] propInfo =          anyType.GetProperties(BindingFlags.Public |                                BindingFlags.Instance);   foreach (PropertyInfo item in propInfo)  {    gvc = new GridViewColumn();    gvc.DisplayMemberBinding = new Binding(item.Name);    gvc.Header = item.Name;    gvc.Width = Double.NaN;    gv.Columns.Add(gvc);  }   return gv;} VB.NETPublic Shared Function CreateGridViewColumns( _  ByVal anyType As Type) As GridView  ' Create the GridView   Dim gv As New GridView()  Dim gvc As GridViewColumn   ' Get the public properties.   Dim propInfo As PropertyInfo() = _    anyType.GetProperties(BindingFlags.Public Or _                          BindingFlags.Instance)   For Each item As PropertyInfo In propInfo    gvc = New GridViewColumn()    gvc.DisplayMemberBinding = New Binding(item.Name)    gvc.Header = item.Name    gvc.Width = [Double].NaN    gv.Columns.Add(gvc)  Next   Return gvEnd Function The key to using Relection is using the GetProperties method on the type you pass in. When you pass in a Product object as Type, you can now use the GetProperties method and specify, via flags, which properties you wish to return. In the code that I wrote, I am just retrieving the Public properties and only those that are Instance properties. I do not want any static/Shared properties or private properties. GetProperties returns an array of PropertyInfo objects. You can loop through this array and build your GridViewColumn objects by reading the Name property from the PropertyInfo object. Build the Product Screen To populate the ListView shown in Figure 1, you might write code like the following: C#private void CollectionSample(){  Product prod = new Product();   // Setup the GridView Columns  lstData.View =      WPFListViewCommon.CreateGridViewColumns(typeOf(Product));  lstData.DataContext = prod.GetProducts();} VB.NETPrivate Sub CollectionSample()  Dim prod As New Product()   ' Setup the GridView Columns  lstData.View = WPFListViewCommon.CreateGridViewColumns( _       GetType(Product))  lstData.DataContext = prod.GetProducts()End Sub All you need to do now is to pass in a Type object from your Product class that you can get by using the typeOf() function in C# or the GetType() function in VB. That’s all there is to it! Summary There are so many different ways to approach the same problem in programming. That is what makes programming so much fun! In this blog post I showed you how to create ListView columns on the fly using Reflection. This gives you a lot of flexibility without having to write extra code as was done previously. NOTE: You can download the complete sample code (in both VB and C#) at my website. http://www.pdsa.com/downloads. Choose Tips & Tricks, then "WPF ListView as a DataGrid – Part 3" from the drop-down. Good Luck with your Coding,Paul Sheriff ** SPECIAL OFFER FOR MY BLOG READERS **Visit http://www.pdsa.com/Event/Blog for a free eBook on "Fundamentals of N-Tier".  

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• SQL Server and Hyper-V Dynamic Memory - Part 1

  - by SQLOS Team

  SQL and Dynamic Memory Blog Post Series   Hyper-V Dynamic Memory is a new feature in Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 that allows the memory assigned to guest virtual machines to vary according to demand. Using this feature with SQL Server is supported, but how well does it work in an environment where available memory can vary dynamically, especially since SQL Server likes memory, and is not very eager to let go of it? The next three posts will look at this question in detail. In Part 1 Serdar Sutay, a program manager in the Windows Hyper-V team, introduces Dynamic Memory with an overview of the basic architecture, configuration and monitoring concepts. In subsequent parts we will look at SQL Server memory handling, and develop some guidelines on using SQL Server with Dynamic Memory.   Part 1: Dynamic Memory Introduction   In virtualized environments memory is often the bottleneck for reaching higher VM densities. In Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 Hyper-V introduced a new feature “Dynamic Memory” to improve VM densities on Hyper-V hosts. Dynamic Memory increases the memory utilization in virtualized environments by enabling VM memory to be changed dynamically when the VM is running.   This brings up the question of how to utilize this feature with SQL Server VMs as SQL Server performance is very sensitive to the memory being used. In the next three posts we’ll discuss the internals of Dynamic Memory, SQL Server Memory Management and how to use Dynamic Memory with SQL Server VMs.   Memory Utilization Efficiency in Virtualized Environments   The primary reason memory is usually the bottleneck for higher VM densities is that users tend to be generous when assigning memory to their VMs. Here are some memory sizing practices we’ve heard from customers:   ·         I assign 4 GB of memory to my VMs. I don’t know if all of it is being used by the applications but no one complains. ·         I take the minimum system requirements and add 50% more. ·         I go with the recommendations provided by my software vendor.   In reality correctly sizing a virtual machine requires significant effort to monitor the memory usage of the applications. Since this is not done in most environments, VMs are usually over-provisioned in terms of memory. In other words, a SQL Server VM that is assigned 4 GB of memory may not need to use 4 GB.   How does Dynamic Memory help?   Dynamic Memory improves the memory utilization by removing the requirement to determine the memory need for an application. Hyper-V determines the memory needed by applications in the VM by evaluating the memory usage information in the guest with Dynamic Memory. VMs can start with a small amount of memory and they can be assigned more memory dynamically based on the workload of applications running inside.   Overview of Dynamic Memory Concepts   ·         Startup Memory: Startup Memory is the starting amount of memory when Dynamic Memory is enabled for a VM. Dynamic Memory will make sure that this amount of memory is always assigned to the VMs by default.   ·         Maximum Memory: Maximum Memory specifies the maximum amount of memory that a VM can grow to with Dynamic Memory. ·         Memory Demand: Memory Demand is the amount determined by Dynamic Memory as the memory needed by the applications in the VM. In Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1, this is equal to the total amount of committed memory of the VM. ·         Memory Buffer: Memory Buffer is the amount of memory assigned to the VMs in addition to their memory demand to satisfy immediate memory requirements and file cache needs.   Once Dynamic Memory is enabled for a VM, it will start with the “Startup Memory”. After the boot process Dynamic Memory will determine the “Memory Demand” of the VM. Based on this memory demand it will determine the amount of “Memory Buffer” that needs to be assigned to the VM. Dynamic Memory will assign the total of “Memory Demand” and “Memory Buffer” to the VM as long as this value is less than “Maximum Memory” and as long as physical memory is available on the host.   What happens when there is not enough physical memory available on the host?   Once there is not enough physical memory on the host to satisfy VM needs, Dynamic Memory will assign less than needed amount of memory to the VMs based on their importance. A concept known as “Memory Weight” is used to determine how much VMs should be penalized based on their needed amount of memory. “Memory Weight” is a configuration setting on the VM. It can be configured to be higher for the VMs with high performance requirements. Under high memory pressure on the host, the “Memory Weight” of the VMs are evaluated in a relative manner and the VMs with lower relative “Memory Weight” will be penalized more than the ones with higher “Memory Weight”.   Dynamic Memory Configuration   Based on these concepts “Startup Memory”, “Maximum Memory”, “Memory Buffer” and “Memory Weight” can be configured as shown below in Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 Hyper-V Manager. Memory Demand is automatically calculated by Dynamic Memory once VMs start running.     Dynamic Memory Monitoring    In Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1, Hyper-V Manager displays the memory status of VMs in the following three columns:         ·         Assigned Memory represents the current physical memory assigned to the VM. In regular conditions this will be equal to the sum of “Memory Demand” and “Memory Buffer” assigned to the VM. When there is not enough memory on the host, this value can go below the Memory Demand determined for the VM. ·         Memory Demand displays the current “Memory Demand” determined for the VM. ·         Memory Status displays the current memory status of the VM. This column can represent three values for a VM: o   OK: In this condition the VM is assigned the total of Memory Demand and Memory Buffer it needs. o   Low: In this condition the VM is assigned all the Memory Demand and a certain percentage of the Memory Buffer it needs. o   Warning: In this condition the VM is assigned a lower memory than its Memory Demand. When VMs are running in this condition, it’s likely that they will exhibit performance problems due to internal paging happening in the VM.    So far so good! But how does it work with SQL Server?   SQL Server is aggressive in terms of memory usage for good reasons. This raises the question: How do SQL Server and Dynamic Memory work together? To understand the full story, we’ll first need to understand how SQL Server Memory Management works. This will be covered in our second post in “SQL and Dynamic Memory” series. Meanwhile if you want to dive deeper into Dynamic Memory you can check the below posts from the Windows Virtualization Team Blog:   http://blogs.technet.com/virtualization/archive/2010/03/18/dynamic-memory-coming-to-hyper-v.aspx   http://blogs.technet.com/virtualization/archive/2010/03/25/dynamic-memory-coming-to-hyper-v-part-2.aspx   http://blogs.technet.com/virtualization/archive/2010/04/07/dynamic-memory-coming-to-hyper-v-part-3.aspx   http://blogs.technet.com/b/virtualization/archive/2010/04/21/dynamic-memory-coming-to-hyper-v-part-4.aspx   http://blogs.technet.com/b/virtualization/archive/2010/05/20/dynamic-memory-coming-to-hyper-v-part-5.aspx   http://blogs.technet.com/b/virtualization/archive/2010/07/12/dynamic-memory-coming-to-hyper-v-part-6.aspx   - Serdar Sutay   Originally posted at http://blogs.msdn.com/b/sqlosteam/

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• MySQL Connect: What to Expect From the Wondrous Land of MySQL Cluster

  - by Mat Keep

  The MySQL Connect conference is only a couple of weeks away, with MySQL engineers, support teams, consultants and community aces busy putting the final touches to their talks. There will be many exciting new announcements and sharing of best practices at the conference, covering the range of MySQL technologies. MySQL Cluster will a big part of this, so I wanted to share some key sessions for those of you who plan on attending, as well as some resources for those who are not lucky enough to be able to make the trip, but who can't afford to miss the key news. Of course, this is no substitute to actually being there….and the good news is that registration is still open ;-) Roadmap: Whats New in MySQL Cluster Saturday 29th, 1300-1400, in Golden Gate room 5.                                                                                        Bernd Ocklin, director of MySQL Cluster development, and myself will be taking a look at what follows the latest MySQL Cluster 7.2 release. I don't want to give to much away - lets just say its not often you can add powerful new functionality to a product while at the same time making life radically simpler for its users. For those not making it to the Conference, a live webinar repeating the talk is scheduled for Thursday 25th October at 09.00 pacific time. Hold the date, registration will be open for that soon and published to our MySQL Webinars page Best Practices Getting Started with MySQL Cluster, Hands-On Lab Saturday 29th, 1600-1700, in Plaza Room A.                                                              Santo Leto, one of our lead MySQL Cluster support engineers, regularly works with users new to MySQL Cluster, assisting them in installation, configuration, scaling, etc. In this lab, Santo will share best-practices in getting started. Delivering Breakthrough Performance with MySQL Cluster Saturday 29th, 1730-1830, in Golden Gate room 5. Frazer Clement, lead MySQL Cluster software engineer, will demonstrate how to translate the awesome Cluster benchmarks (remember 1 BILLION UPDATEs per minute ?!) into real-world performance. You can also get some best practices from our new MySQL Cluster performance guide  MySQL Cluster BoF Saturday 29th, 1900-2000, room Golden Gate 5.                                                                                                           Come and get a demonstration of new tools for the installation and configuration of MySQL Cluster, and spend time with the engineering team discussing any questions or issues you may have. Developing High-Throughput Services with NoSQL APIs to InnoDB and MySQL Cluster Sunday 30th, 1145 - 1245, in Golden Gate room 7.   In this session, JD Duncan and Andrew Morgan will present how to get started with both Memcached and new NoSQL APIs. JD and I recently ran a webinar demonstrating how to build simple Twitter-like services with Memcached and MySQL Cluster. The replay is available for download.  Case Studies: MySQL Cluster @ El Chavo, Latin America’s #1 Facebook Game Sunday 30th, 1745 - 1845, in Golden Gate room 4.                             Playful Play deployed MySQL Cluster CGE to power their market leading social game. This session will discuss the challenges they faced, why they selected MySQL Cluster and their experiences to date. You can read more about Playful Play and MySQL Cluster here  A Journey into NoSQLand: MySQL’s NoSQL Implementation Sunday 30th, 1345 - 1445, in Golden Gate room 4.                                          Lig Turmelle, web DBA at Kaplan Professional and esteemed Oracle Ace, will discuss her experiences working with the NoSQL interfaces for both MySQL Cluster and InnoDB Evaluating MySQL HA Alternatives Saturday 29th, 1430-1530, room Golden Gate 5                                                                                   Henrik Ingo, former member of the MySQL sales engineering team, will provide an overview of various HA technologies for MySQL, starting with replication, progressing to InnoDB, Galera and MySQL Cluster What about the other stuff? Of course MySQL Connect has much, much more than MySQL Cluster. There will be lots on replication (which I'll blog about soon), MySQL 5.6, InnoDB, cloud, etc, etc. Take a look at the full Content Catalog to see more. If you are attending, I hope to see you at one of the Cluster sessions...and remember, registration is still open

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• Session Report: What’s New in JSF: A Complete Tour of JSF 2.2

  - by Janice J. Heiss

  On Wednesday, Ed Burns, Consulting Staff Member at Oracle, presented a session, CON3870 -- “What’s New in JSF: A Complete Tour of JSF 2.2,” in which he provided an update on recent developments in JavaServer Faces 2.2. He began by emphasizing that, “JavaServer Faces 2.2 continues the evolution of the Java EE standard user interface technology. Like previous releases, this iteration is very community-driven and transparent.” He pointed out that since JSF was introduced at the 2001 JavaOne Keynote, it has had a long and successful run and has found a home in applications where the UI logic resides entirely on the server where the model and UI logic is. In such cases, the browser performs fairly simple functions. However, developers can take advantage of the power of browsers, something that Project Avatar is focused on by letting developers author their applications so the UI logic is running on the client and communicating to the back end via RESTful web services. “Most importantly,” remarked Burns, “JSF 2.2 offers a really good migration path because even in the scope of one application you could have an app written with JSF that has its UI logic on the server and, on a gradual basis, you could migrate parts of the app over to use client-side technologies. This can be done at any level of granularity – per page or per collection of pages. It all depends on what you want to do.” His presentation, which focused on the basic new features of JSF 2.2, began by restating the scope of JSF and encouraged attendees to check out Roger Kitain’s session: CON5133 “Techniques for Responsive Real-Time Web UIs.” Burns explained that JSF has endured because, “We still need web apps that are maintainable, localizable, quick to build, accessible, secure, look great and are fun to use.” It is used on every continent – the curious can go here to check out where its unofficial usage is tracked. He emphasized the significance of the UI logic being substantially on the server. This: Separates Component Semantics from Rendering, Allows components to “own” their little patch of the UI -- encode/decode, And offers a well-defined lifecycle: Inversion of Control. Burns reminded attendees that JSR-344, the spec for JSF 2.2, is now on Java Community Process 2.8, a revised version of the JCP that allows for more openness and transparency. He then offered some tools for community access to JSF 2.2:    * Public java.net projects spec http://jsf-spec.java.net/ impl http://jsf.java.net/ Open Source: GPL+Classpath Exception    * Mailing Lists [email protected]                                Public readable archive, JSPA signed member read/write [email protected]                                     Public readable archive, any java.net member read/write                         All mail sent to jsr344-experts is sent to users. * Issue Tracker spec http://jsf-spec.java.net/issues/ impl http://jsf.java.net/issues/ JSF 2.2, which is JSR 344, has a Public Review Draft planned by December 2012 with no need for a Renewal Ballot. The Early Draft Review of JSR 344 was published on December 8, 2011. Interested developers are encouraged to offer their input. Six Big Ticket Features of JSF 2.2 Burns summarized the six big ticket features of JSF 2.2:* HTML5 Friendly Markup Support Pass through attributes and elements * Faces Flows* Cross Site Request Forgery Protection* Loading Facelets via ResourceHandler* File Upload Component* Multi-Templating He explained that he called it “HTML 5 friendly” because there is really nothing HTML 5 specific about it -- it could be 4. But it enables developers to use new elements that are present in HTML5 without having a JSF component library that is written to take advantage of those specifically. It gives the page author the ability to use plain HTML5 to write their page, but to still take advantage of the server-side available in JSF. He presented a demo showing JSF 2.2’s ability to leverage the expressiveness of HTML5. Burns then explained the significance of face flows, which offer function points and quantify how much work has taken place, something of great value to JSF users. He went on to talk about JSF 2.2.’s cross-site request forgery protection (CSRF) and offered details about how it protects applications against attack. Then he talked about JSF 2.2’s File Upload Component and explained that the final specification will have Ajax and non-Ajax support. The current milestone has non-Ajax support implemented. He then went on to explain its capacity to add facelets through ResourceHandler. Previously, JSF 2.0 added Facelets and ResourceHandler as disparate units; now in JSF 2.2 the two concepts are unified. Finally, he explained the concept of multi-templating in JSF 2.2 and went on to discuss more medium-level features of the release. For an easy, low maintenance way of staying in touch with JSF developments go to JSF’s Twitter page where every month or so, important updates are offered.

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• WPF ListView as a DataGrid – Part 2

  - by psheriff

  In my last blog post I showed you how to create GridViewColumn objects on the fly from the meta-data in a DataTable. By doing this you can create columns for a ListView at runtime instead of having to pre-define each ListView for each different DataTable. Well, many of us use collections of our classes and it would be nice to be able to do the same thing for our collection classes as well. This blog post will show you one approach for using collection classes as the source of the data for your ListView.  Figure 1: A List of Data using a ListView Load Property NamesYou could use reflection to gather the property names in your class, however there are two things wrong with this approach. First, reflection is too slow, and second you may not want to display all your properties from your class in the ListView. Instead of reflection you could just create your own custom collection class of PropertyHeader objects. Each PropertyHeader object will contain a property name and a header text value at a minimum. You could add a width property if you wanted as well. All you need to do is to create a collection of property header objects where each object represents one column in your ListView. Below is a simple example: PropertyHeaders coll = new PropertyHeaders(); coll.Add(new PropertyHeader("ProductId", "Product ID"));coll.Add(new PropertyHeader("ProductName", "Product Name"));coll.Add(new PropertyHeader("Price", "Price")); Once you have this collection created, you could pass this collection to a method that would create the GridViewColumn objects based on the information in this collection. Below is the full code for the PropertyHeader class. Besides the PropertyName and Header properties, there is a constructor that will allow you to set both properties when the object is created. C#public class PropertyHeader{  public PropertyHeader()  {  }   public PropertyHeader(string propertyName, string headerText)  {    PropertyName = propertyName;    HeaderText = headerText;  }   public string PropertyName { get; set; }  public string HeaderText { get; set; }} VB.NETPublic Class PropertyHeader  Public Sub New()  End Sub   Public Sub New(ByVal propName As String, ByVal header As String)    PropertyName = propName    HeaderText = header  End Sub   Private mPropertyName As String  Private mHeaderText As String   Public Property PropertyName() As String    Get      Return mPropertyName    End Get    Set(ByVal value As String)      mPropertyName = value    End Set  End Property   Public Property HeaderText() As String    Get      Return mHeaderText    End Get    Set(ByVal value As String)      mHeaderText = value    End Set  End PropertyEnd Class You can use a Generic List class to create a collection of PropertyHeader objects as shown in the following code. C#public class PropertyHeaders : List<PropertyHeader>{} VB.NETPublic Class PropertyHeaders  Inherits List(Of PropertyHeader)End Class Create Property Header Objects You need to create a method somewhere that will create and return a collection of PropertyHeader objects that will represent the columns you wish to add to your ListView prior to binding your collection class to that ListView. Below is a sample method called GetProperties that builds a list of PropertyHeader objects with properties and headers for a Product object. C#public PropertyHeaders GetProperties(){  PropertyHeaders coll = new PropertyHeaders();   coll.Add(new PropertyHeader("ProductId", "Product ID"));  coll.Add(new PropertyHeader("ProductName", "Product Name"));  coll.Add(new PropertyHeader("Price", "Price"));   return coll;} VB.NETPublic Function GetProperties() As PropertyHeaders  Dim coll As New PropertyHeaders()   coll.Add(New PropertyHeader("ProductId", "Product ID"))  coll.Add(New PropertyHeader("ProductName", "Product Name"))  coll.Add(New PropertyHeader("Price", "Price"))   Return collEnd Function WPFListViewCommon Class Now that you have a collection of PropertyHeader objects you need a method that will create a GridView and a collection of GridViewColumn objects based on this PropertyHeader collection. Below is a static/Shared method that you might put into a class called WPFListViewCommon. C#public static GridView CreateGridViewColumns(  PropertyHeaders properties){  GridView gv;  GridViewColumn gvc;   // Create the GridView  gv = new GridView();  gv.AllowsColumnReorder = true;   // Create the GridView Columns  foreach (PropertyHeader item in properties)  {    gvc = new GridViewColumn();    gvc.DisplayMemberBinding = new Binding(item.PropertyName);    gvc.Header = item.HeaderText;    gvc.Width = Double.NaN;    gv.Columns.Add(gvc);  }   return gv;} VB.NETPublic Shared Function CreateGridViewColumns( _    ByVal properties As PropertyHeaders) As GridView  Dim gv As GridView  Dim gvc As GridViewColumn   ' Create the GridView  gv = New GridView()  gv.AllowsColumnReorder = True   ' Create the GridView Columns  For Each item As PropertyHeader In properties    gvc = New GridViewColumn()    gvc.DisplayMemberBinding = New Binding(item.PropertyName)    gvc.Header = item.HeaderText    gvc.Width = [Double].NaN    gv.Columns.Add(gvc)  Next   Return gvEnd Function Build the Product Screen To build the window shown in Figure 1, you might write code like the following: C#private void CollectionSample(){  Product prod = new Product();   // Setup the GridView Columns  lstData.View = WPFListViewCommon.CreateGridViewColumns(       prod.GetProperties());  lstData.DataContext = prod.GetProducts();} VB.NETPrivate Sub CollectionSample()  Dim prod As New Product()   ' Setup the GridView Columns  lstData.View = WPFListViewCommon.CreateGridViewColumns( _       prod.GetProperties())  lstData.DataContext = prod.GetProducts()End Sub The Product class contains a method called GetProperties that returns a PropertyHeaders collection. You pass this collection to the WPFListViewCommon’s CreateGridViewColumns method and it will create a GridView for the ListView. When you then feed the DataContext property of the ListView the Product collection the appropriate columns have already been created and data bound. Summary In this blog you learned how to create a ListView that acts like a DataGrid using a collection class. While it does take a little code to do this, it is an alternative to creating each GridViewColumn in XAML. This gives you a lot of flexibility. You could even read in the property names and header text from an XML file for a truly configurable ListView. NOTE: You can download the complete sample code (in both VB and C#) at my website. http://www.pdsa.com/downloads. Choose Tips & Tricks, then "WPF ListView as a DataGrid – Part 2" from the drop-down. Good Luck with your Coding,Paul Sheriff ** SPECIAL OFFER FOR MY BLOG READERS **Visit http://www.pdsa.com/Event/Blog for a free eBook on "Fundamentals of N-Tier".  

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• Using BPEL Performance Statistics to Diagnose Performance Bottlenecks

  - by fip

  Tuning performance of Oracle SOA 11G applications could be challenging. Because SOA is a platform for you to build composite applications that connect many applications and "services", when the overall performance is slow, the bottlenecks could be anywhere in the system: the applications/services that SOA connects to, the infrastructure database, or the SOA server itself.How to quickly identify the bottleneck becomes crucial in tuning the overall performance. Fortunately, the BPEL engine in Oracle SOA 11G (and 10G, for that matter) collects BPEL Engine Performance Statistics, which show the latencies of low level BPEL engine activities. The BPEL engine performance statistics can make it a bit easier for you to identify the performance bottleneck. Although the BPEL engine performance statistics are always available, the access to and interpretation of them are somewhat obscure in the early and current (PS5) 11G versions. This blog attempts to offer instructions that help you to enable, retrieve and interpret the performance statistics, before the future versions provides a more pleasant user experience. Overview of BPEL Engine Performance Statistics  SOA BPEL has a feature of collecting some performance statistics and store them in memory. One MBean attribute, StatLastN, configures the size of the memory buffer to store the statistics. This memory buffer is a "moving window", in a way that old statistics will be flushed out by the new if the amount of data exceeds the buffer size. Since the buffer size is limited by StatLastN, impacts of statistics collection on performance is minimal. By default StatLastN=-1, which means no collection of performance data. Once the statistics are collected in the memory buffer, they can be retrieved via another MBean oracle.as.soainfra.bpel:Location=[Server Name],name=BPELEngine,type=BPELEngine.> My friend in Oracle SOA development wrote this simple 'bpelstat' web app that looks up and retrieves the performance data from the MBean and displays it in a human readable form. It does not have beautiful UI but it is fairly useful. Although in Oracle SOA 11.1.1.5 onwards the same statistics can be viewed via a more elegant UI under "request break down" at EM -> SOA Infrastructure -> Service Engines -> BPEL -> Statistics, some unsophisticated minds like mine may still prefer the simplicity of the 'bpelstat' JSP. One thing that simple JSP does do well is that you can save the page and send it to someone to further analyze Follows are the instructions of how to install and invoke the BPEL statistic JSP. My friend in SOA Development will soon blog about interpreting the statistics. Stay tuned. Step1: Enable BPEL Engine Statistics for Each SOA Servers via Enterprise Manager First st you need to set the StatLastN to some number as a way to enable the collection of BPEL Engine Performance Statistics EM Console -> soa-infra(Server Name) -> SOA Infrastructure -> SOA Administration -> BPEL Properties Click on "More BPEL Configuration Properties" Click on attribute "StatLastN", set its value to some integer number. Typically you want to set it 1000 or more. Step 2: Download and Deploy bpelstat.war File to Admin Server, Note: the WAR file contains a JSP that does NOT have any security restriction. You do NOT want to keep in your production server for a long time as it is a security hazard. Deactivate the war once you are done. Download the bpelstat.war to your local PC At WebLogic Console, Go to Deployments -> Install Click on the "upload your file(s)" Click the "Browse" button to upload the deployment to Admin Server Accept the uploaded file as the path, click next Check the default option "Install this deployment as an application" Check "AdminServer" as the target server Finish the rest of the deployment with default settings Console -> Deployments Check the box next to "bpelstat" application Click on the "Start" button. It will change the state of the app from "prepared" to "active" Step 3: Invoke the BPEL Statistic Tool The BPELStat tool merely call the MBean of BPEL server and collects and display the in-memory performance statics. You usually want to do that after some peak loads. Go to http://<admin-server-host>:<admin-server-port>/bpelstat Enter the correct admin hostname, port, username and password Enter the SOA Server Name from which you want to collect the performance statistics. For example, SOA_MS1, etc. Click Submit Keep doing the same for all SOA servers. Step 3: Interpret the BPEL Engine Statistics You will see a few categories of BPEL Statistics from the JSP Page. First it starts with the overall latency of BPEL processes, grouped by synchronous and asynchronous processes. Then it provides the further break down of the measurements through the life time of a BPEL request, which is called the "request break down". 1. Overall latency of BPEL processes The top of the page shows that the elapse time of executing the synchronous process TestSyncBPELProcess from the composite TestComposite averages at about 1543.21ms, while the elapse time of executing the asynchronous process TestAsyncBPELProcess from the composite TestComposite2 averages at about 1765.43ms. The maximum and minimum latency were also shown. Synchronous process statistics <statistics>     <stats key="default/TestComposite!2.0.2-ScopedJMSOSB*soa_bfba2527-a9ba-41a7-95c5-87e49c32f4ff/TestSyncBPELProcess" min="1234" max="4567" average="1543.21" count="1000">     </stats> </statistics> Asynchronous process statistics <statistics>     <stats key="default/TestComposite2!2.0.2-ScopedJMSOSB*soa_bfba2527-a9ba-41a7-95c5-87e49c32f4ff/TestAsyncBPELProcess" min="2234" max="3234" average="1765.43" count="1000">     </stats> </statistics> 2. Request break down Under the overall latency categorized by synchronous and asynchronous processes is the "Request breakdown". Organized by statistic keys, the Request breakdown gives finer grain performance statistics through the life time of the BPEL requests.It uses indention to show the hierarchy of the statistics. Request breakdown <statistics>     <stats key="eng-composite-request" min="0" max="0" average="0.0" count="0">         <stats key="eng-single-request" min="22" max="606" average="258.43" count="277">             <stats key="populate-context" min="0" max="0" average="0.0" count="248"> Please note that in SOA 11.1.1.6, the statistics under Request breakdown is aggregated together cross all the BPEL processes based on statistic keys. It does not differentiate between BPEL processes. If two BPEL processes happen to have the statistic that share same statistic key, the statistics from two BPEL processes will be aggregated together. Keep this in mind when we go through more details below. 2.1 BPEL process activity latencies A very useful measurement in the Request Breakdown is the performance statistics of the BPEL activities you put in your BPEL processes: Assign, Invoke, Receive, etc. The names of the measurement in the JSP page directly come from the names to assign to each BPEL activity. These measurements are under the statistic key "actual-perform" Example 1:  Follows is the measurement for BPEL activity "AssignInvokeCreditProvider_Input", which looks like the Assign activity in a BPEL process that assign an input variable before passing it to the invocation:                                <stats key="AssignInvokeCreditProvider_Input" min="1" max="8" average="1.9" count="153">                                     <stats key="sensor-send-activity-data" min="0" max="1" average="0.0" count="306">                                     </stats>                                     <stats key="sensor-send-variable-data" min="0" max="0" average="0.0" count="153">                                     </stats>                                     <stats key="monitor-send-activity-data" min="0" max="0" average="0.0" count="306">                                     </stats>                                 </stats> Note: because as previously mentioned that the statistics cross all BPEL processes are aggregated together based on statistic keys, if two BPEL processes happen to name their Invoke activity the same name, they will show up at one measurement (i.e. statistic key). Example 2: Follows is the measurement of BPEL activity called "InvokeCreditProvider". You can not only see that by average it takes 3.31ms to finish this call (pretty fast) but also you can see from the further break down that most of this 3.31 ms was spent on the "invoke-service".                                  <stats key="InvokeCreditProvider" min="1" max="13" average="3.31" count="153">                                     <stats key="initiate-correlation-set-again" min="0" max="0" average="0.0" count="153">                                     </stats>                                     <stats key="invoke-service" min="1" max="13" average="3.08" count="153">                                         <stats key="prep-call" min="0" max="1" average="0.04" count="153">                                         </stats>                                     </stats>                                     <stats key="initiate-correlation-set" min="0" max="0" average="0.0" count="153">                                     </stats>                                     <stats key="sensor-send-activity-data" min="0" max="0" average="0.0" count="306">                                     </stats>                                     <stats key="sensor-send-variable-data" min="0" max="0" average="0.0" count="153">                                     </stats>                                     <stats key="monitor-send-activity-data" min="0" max="0" average="0.0" count="306">                                     </stats>                                     <stats key="update-audit-trail" min="0" max="2" average="0.03" count="153">                                     </stats>                                 </stats> 2.2 BPEL engine activity latency Another type of measurements under Request breakdown are the latencies of underlying system level engine activities. These activities are not directly tied to a particular BPEL process or process activity, but they are critical factors in the overall engine performance. These activities include the latency of saving asynchronous requests to database, and latency of process dehydration. My friend Malkit Bhasin is working on providing more information on interpreting the statistics on engine activities on his blog (https://blogs.oracle.com/malkit/). I will update this blog once the information becomes available. Update on 2012-10-02: My friend Malkit Bhasin has published the detail interpretation of the BPEL service engine statistics at his blog http://malkit.blogspot.com/2012/09/oracle-bpel-engine-soa-suite.html.

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• Import Data from Excel sheet to DB Table through OAF page

  - by PRajkumar

  1. Create a New Workspace and Project File > New > General > Workspace Configured for Oracle Applications File Name – PrajkumarImportxlsDemo   Automatically a new OA Project will also be created   Project Name -- ImportxlsDemo Default Package -- prajkumar.oracle.apps.fnd.importxlsdemo   2. Add JAR file jxl-2.6.3.jar to Apache Library Download jxl-2.6.3.jar from following link – http://www.findjar.com/jar/net.sourceforge.jexcelapi/jars/jxl-2.6.jar.html   Steps to add jxl.jar file in Local Machine Right Click on ImportxlsDemo > Project Properties > Libraries > Add jar/Directory and browse to directory where jxl-2.6.3.jar has been downloaded and select the JAR file            Steps to add jxl.jar file at EBS middle tier On your EBS middile tier copy jxl.jar at $FND_TOP/java/3rdparty/standalone Add $FND_TOP/java/3rdparty/standalone\jxl.jar to custom classpath in Jser.properties file which is at $IAS_ORACLE_HOME/Apache/Jserv/etc wrapper.classpath=/U01/oracle/dev/devappl/fnd/11.5.0/java/3rdparty/stdalone/jxl.jar Bounce Apache Server   3. Create a New Application Module (AM) Right Click on ImportxlsDemo > New > ADF Business Components > Application Module Name -- ImportxlsAM Package -- prajkumar.oracle.apps.fnd.importxlsdemo.server   Check Application Module Class: ImportxlsAMImpl Generate JavaFile(s)   4. Create Test Table in which we will insert data from excel CREATE TABLE xx_import_excel_data_demo (    -- --------------------      -- Data Columns      -- --------------------      column1                 VARCHAR2(100),      column2                 VARCHAR2(100),      column3                 VARCHAR2(100),      column4                 VARCHAR2(100),      column5                 VARCHAR2(100),      -- --------------------      -- Who Columns      -- --------------------      last_update_date   DATE         NOT NULL,      last_updated_by    NUMBER   NOT NULL,      creation_date         DATE         NOT NULL,      created_by             NUMBER    NOT NULL,      last_update_login  NUMBER );   5. Create a New Entity Object (EO) Right click on ImportxlsDemo > New > ADF Business Components > Entity Object Name – ImportxlsEO Package -- prajkumar.oracle.apps.fnd.importxlsdemo.schema.server Database Objects -- XX_IMPORT_EXCEL_DATA_DEMO   Note – By default ROWID will be the primary key if we will not make any column to be primary key Check the Accessors, Create Method, Validation Method and Remove Method   6. Create a New View Object (VO) Right click on ImportxlsDemo > New > ADF Business Components > View Object Name -- ImportxlsVO Package -- prajkumar.oracle.apps.fnd.importxlsdemo.server   In Step2 in Entity Page select ImportxlsEO and shuttle it to selected list In Step3 in Attributes Window select all columns and shuttle them to selected list   In Java page Uncheck Generate Java file for View Object Class: ImportxlsVOImpl Select Generate Java File for View Row Class: ImportxlsVORowImpl -> Generate Java File -> Accessors   7. Add Your View Object to Root UI Application Module Right click on ImportxlsAM > Edit ImportxlsAM > Data Model > Select ImportxlsVO and shuttle to Data Model list   8. Create a New Page Right click on ImportxlsDemo > New > Web Tier > OA Components > Page Name -- ImportxlsPG Package -- prajkumar.oracle.apps.fnd.importxlsdemo.webui   9. Select the ImportxlsPG and go to the strcuture pane where a default region has been created   10. Select region1 and set the following properties:   Attribute Property ID PageLayoutRN AM Definition prajkumar.oracle.apps.fnd.importxlsdemo.server.ImportxlsAM Window Title Import Data From Excel through OAF Page Demo Window Title Import Data From Excel through OAF Page Demo   11. Create messageComponentLayout Region Under Page Layout Region Right click PageLayoutRN > New > Region   Attribute Property ID MainRN Item Style messageComponentLayout   12. Create a New Item messageFileUpload Bean under MainRN Right click on MainRN > New > messageFileUpload Set Following Properties for New Item --   Attribute Property ID MessageFileUpload Item Style messageFileUpload   13. Create a New Item Submit Button Bean under MainRN Right click on MainRN > New > messageLayout Set Following Properties for messageLayout --   Attribute Property ID ButtonLayout   Right Click on ButtonLayout > New > Item   Attribute Property ID Go Item Style submitButton Attribute Set /oracle/apps/fnd/attributesets/Buttons/Go   14. Create Controller for page ImportxlsPG Right Click on PageLayoutRN > Set New Controller Package Name: prajkumar.oracle.apps.fnd.importxlsdemo.webui Class Name: ImportxlsCO   Write Following Code in ImportxlsCO in processFormRequest import oracle.apps.fnd.framework.OAApplicationModule; import oracle.apps.fnd.framework.OAException; import java.io.Serializable; import oracle.apps.fnd.framework.webui.OAControllerImpl; import oracle.apps.fnd.framework.webui.OAPageContext; import oracle.apps.fnd.framework.webui.beans.OAWebBean; import oracle.cabo.ui.data.DataObject; import oracle.jbo.domain.BlobDomain; public void processFormRequest(OAPageContext pageContext, OAWebBean webBean) {  super.processFormRequest(pageContext, webBean);  if (pageContext.getParameter("Go") != null)  {   DataObject fileUploadData = (DataObject)pageContext.getNamedDataObject("MessageFileUpload");   String fileName = null;                 try   {    fileName = (String)fileUploadData.selectValue(null, "UPLOAD_FILE_NAME");   }   catch(NullPointerException ex)   {    throw new OAException("Please Select a File to Upload", OAException.ERROR);   }   BlobDomain uploadedByteStream = (BlobDomain)fileUploadData.selectValue(null, fileName);   try   {    OAApplicationModule oaapplicationmodule = pageContext.getRootApplicationModule();    Serializable aserializable2[] = {uploadedByteStream};    Class aclass2[] = {BlobDomain.class };    oaapplicationmodule.invokeMethod("ReadExcel", aserializable2,aclass2);   }   catch (Exception ex)   {    throw new OAException(ex.toString(), OAException.ERROR);   }  } }     Write Following Code in ImportxlsAMImpl.java import java.io.IOException; import java.io.InputStream; import jxl.Cell; import jxl.CellType; import jxl.Sheet; import jxl.Workbook; import jxl.read.biff.BiffException; import oracle.apps.fnd.framework.server.OAApplicationModuleImpl; import oracle.jbo.Row; import oracle.apps.fnd.framework.OAViewObject; import oracle.apps.fnd.framework.server.OAViewObjectImpl; import oracle.jbo.domain.BlobDomain; public void createRecord(String[] excel_data) {   OAViewObject vo = (OAViewObject)getImportxlsVO1();            if (!vo.isPreparedForExecution())    {   vo.executeQuery();      }                      Row row = vo.createRow();  try  {   for (int i=0; i < excel_data.length; i++)   {    row.setAttribute("Column" +(i+1) ,excel_data[i]);   }  }  catch(Exception e)  {   System.out.println(e.getMessage());   }  vo.insertRow(row);  getTransaction().commit(); }      public void ReadExcel(BlobDomain fileData) throws IOException {  String[] excel_data  = new String[5];  InputStream inputWorkbook = fileData.getInputStream();  Workbook w;          try  {   w = Workbook.getWorkbook(inputWorkbook);                       // Get the first sheet   Sheet sheet = w.getSheet(0);                       for (int i = 0; i < sheet.getRows(); i++)   {    for (int j = 0; j < sheet.getColumns(); j++)    {     Cell cell = sheet.getCell(j, i);     CellType type = cell.getType();     if (cell.getType() == CellType.LABEL)     {      System.out.println("I got a label " + cell.getContents());      excel_data[j] = cell.getContents();     }     if (cell.getType() == CellType.NUMBER)     {        System.out.println("I got a number " + cell.getContents());      excel_data[j] = cell.getContents();     }    }    createRecord(excel_data);   }  }              catch (BiffException e)  {   e.printStackTrace();  } }   15. Congratulation you have successfully finished. Run Your page and Test Your Work   Consider Excel PRAJ_TEST.xls with following data --       Lets Try to import this data into DB Table --          

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• Oracle Data Mining a Star Schema: Telco Churn Case Study

  - by charlie.berger

  There is a complete and detailed Telco Churn case study "How to" Blog Series just posted by Ari Mozes, ODM Dev. Manager.  In it, Ari provides detailed guidance in how to leverage various strengths of Oracle Data Mining including the ability to: mine Star Schemas and join tables and views together to obtain a complete 360 degree view of a customer combine transactional data e.g. call record detail (CDR) data, etc. define complex data transformation, model build and model deploy analytical methodologies inside the Database  His blog is posted in a multi-part series.  Below are some opening excerpts for the first 3 blog entries.  This is an excellent resource for any novice to skilled data miner who wants to gain competitive advantage by mining their data inside the Oracle Database.  Many thanks Ari! Mining a Star Schema: Telco Churn Case Study (1 of 3) One of the strengths of Oracle Data Mining is the ability to mine star schemas with minimal effort.  Star schemas are commonly used in relational databases, and they often contain rich data with interesting patterns.  While dimension tables may contain interesting demographics, fact tables will often contain user behavior, such as phone usage or purchase patterns.  Both of these aspects - demographics and usage patterns - can provide insight into behavior.Churn is a critical problem in the telecommunications industry, and companies go to great lengths to reduce the churn of their customer base.  One case study1 describes a telecommunications scenario involving understanding, and identification of, churn, where the underlying data is present in a star schema.  That case study is a good example for demonstrating just how natural it is for Oracle Data Mining to analyze a star schema, so it will be used as the basis for this series of posts...... Mining a Star Schema: Telco Churn Case Study (2 of 3) This post will follow the transformation steps as described in the case study, but will use Oracle SQL as the means for preparing data.  Please see the previous post for background material, including links to the case study and to scripts that can be used to replicate the stages in these posts.1) Handling missing values for call data recordsThe CDR_T table records the number of phone minutes used by a customer per month and per call type (tariff).  For example, the table may contain one record corresponding to the number of peak (call type) minutes in January for a specific customer, and another record associated with international calls in March for the same customer.  This table is likely to be fairly dense (most type-month combinations for a given customer will be present) due to the coarse level of aggregation, but there may be some missing values.  Missing entries may occur for a number of reasons: the customer made no calls of a particular type in a particular month, the customer switched providers during the timeframe, or perhaps there is a data entry problem.  In the first situation, the correct interpretation of a missing entry would be to assume that the number of minutes for the type-month combination is zero.  In the other situations, it is not appropriate to assume zero, but rather derive some representative value to replace the missing entries.  The referenced case study takes the latter approach.  The data is segmented by customer and call type, and within a given customer-call type combination, an average number of minutes is computed and used as a replacement value.In SQL, we need to generate additional rows for the missing entries and populate those rows with appropriate values.  To generate the missing rows, Oracle's partition outer join feature is a perfect fit.  select cust_id, cdre.tariff, cdre.month, minsfrom cdr_t cdr partition by (cust_id) right outer join     (select distinct tariff, month from cdr_t) cdre     on (cdr.month = cdre.month and cdr.tariff = cdre.tariff);   ....... Mining a Star Schema: Telco Churn Case Study (3 of 3) Now that the "difficult" work is complete - preparing the data - we can move to building a predictive model to help identify and understand churn.The case study suggests that separate models be built for different customer segments (high, medium, low, and very low value customer groups).  To reduce the data to a single segment, a filter can be applied: create or replace view churn_data_high asselect * from churn_prep where value_band = 'HIGH'; It is simple to take a quick look at the predictive aspects of the data on a univariate basis.  While this does not capture the more complex multi-variate effects as would occur with the full-blown data mining algorithms, it can give a quick feel as to the predictive aspects of the data as well as validate the data preparation steps.  Oracle Data Mining includes a predictive analytics package which enables quick analysis. begin  dbms_predictive_analytics.explain(   'churn_data_high','churn_m6','expl_churn_tab'); end; /select * from expl_churn_tab where rank <= 5 order by rank; ATTRIBUTE_NAME       ATTRIBUTE_SUBNAME EXPLANATORY_VALUE RANK-------------------- ----------------- ----------------- ----------LOS_BAND                                      .069167052          1MINS_PER_TARIFF_MON  PEAK-5                   .034881648          2REV_PER_MON          REV-5                    .034527798          3DROPPED_CALLS                                 .028110322          4MINS_PER_TARIFF_MON  PEAK-4                   .024698149          5From the above results, it is clear that some predictors do contain information to help identify churn (explanatory value > 0).  The strongest uni-variate predictor of churn appears to be the customer's (binned) length of service.  The second strongest churn indicator appears to be the number of peak minutes used in the most recent month.  The subname column contains the interior piece of the DM_NESTED_NUMERICALS column described in the previous post.  By using the object relational approach, many related predictors are included within a single top-level column. .....   NOTE:  These are just EXCERPTS.  Click here to start reading the Oracle Data Mining a Star Schema: Telco Churn Case Study from the beginning.    

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• Understanding 400 Bad Request Exception

  - by imran_ku07

      Introduction:          Why I am getting this exception? What is the cause of this error. Developers are always curious to know the root cause of an exception, even though they found the solution from elsewhere. So what is the reason of this exception (400 Bad Request).The answer is security. Security is an important feature for any application. ASP.NET try to his best to give you more secure application environment as possible. One important security feature is related to URLs. Because there are various ways a hacker can try to access server resource. Therefore it is important to make your application as secure as possible. Fortunately, ASP.NET provides this security by throwing an exception of Bad Request whenever he feels. In this Article I am try to present when ASP.NET feels to throw this exception. You will also see some new ASP.NET 4 features which gives developers some control on this situation.   Description:   http.sys Restrictions:           It is interesting to note that after deploying your application on windows server that runs IIS 6 or higher, the first receptionist of HTTP request is the kernel mode HTTP driver: http.sys. Therefore for completing your request successfully you need to present your validity to http.sys and must pass the http.sys restriction.           Every http request URL must not contain any character from ASCII range of 0x00 to 0x1F, because they are not printable. These characters are invalid because these are invalid URL characters as defined in RFC 2396 of the IETF. But a question may arise that how it is possible to send unprintable character. The answer is that when you send your request from your application in binary format.           Another restriction is on the size of the request. A request containg protocal, server name, headers, query string information and individual headers sent along with the request must not exceed 16KB. Also individual header should not exceed 16KB.           Any individual path segment (the portion of the URL that does not include protocol, server name, and query string, for example, http://a/b/c?d=e,  here the b and c are individual path) must not contain more than 260 characters. Also http.sys disallows URLs that have more than 255 path segments.           If any of the above rules are not follow then you will get 400 Bad Request Exception. The reason for this restriction is due to hack attacks against web servers involve encoding the URL with different character representations.           You can change the default behavior enforced by http.sys using some Registry switches present at HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\HTTP\Parameters    ASP.NET Restrictions:           After passing the restrictions enforced by the kernel mode http.sys then the request is handed off to IIS and then to ASP.NET engine and then again request has to pass some restriction from ASP.NET in order to complete it successfully.           ASP.NET only allows URL path lengths to 260 characters(only paths, for example http://a/b/c/d, here path is from a to d). This means that if you have long paths containing 261 characters then you will get the Bad Request exception. This is due to NTFS file-path limit.           Another restriction is that which characters can be used in URL path portion.You can use any characters except some characters because they are called invalid characters in path. Here are some of these invalid character in the path portion of a URL, <,>,*,%,&,:,\,?. For confirming this just right click on your Solution Explorer and Add New Folder and name this File to any of the above character, you will get the message. Files or folders cannot be empty strings nor they contain only '.' or have any of the following characters.....            For checking the above situation i have created a Web Application and put Default.aspx inside A%A folder (created from windows explorer), then navigate to, http://localhost:1234/A%25A/Default.aspx, what i get response from server is the Bad Request exception. The reason is that %25 is the % character which is invalid URL path character in ASP.NET. However you can use these characters in query string.           The reason for these restrictions are due to security, for example with the help of % you can double encode the URL path portion and : is used to get some specific resource from server.   New ASP.NET 4 Features:           It is worth to discuss the new ASP.NET 4 features that provides some control in the hand of developer. Previously we are restricted to 260 characters path length and restricted to not use some of characters, means these characters cannot become the part of the URL path segment.           You can configure maxRequestPathLength and maxQueryStringLength to allow longer or shorter paths and query strings. You can also customize set of invalid character using requestPathInvalidChars, under httpruntime element. This may be the good news for someone who needs to use some above character in their application which was invalid in previous versions. You can find further detail about new ASP.NET features about URL at here           Note that the above new ASP.NET settings will not effect http.sys. This means that you have pass the restriction of http.sys before ASP.NET ever come in to the action. Note also that previous restriction of http.sys is applied on individual path and maxRequestPathLength is applied on the complete path (the portion of the URL that does not include protocol, server name, and query string). For example, if URL is http://a/b/c/d?e=f, then maxRequestPathLength will takes, a/b/c/d, into account while http.sys will take a, b, c individually.   Summary:           Hopefully this will helps you to know how some of initial security features comes in to play, but i also recommend that you should read (at least first chapter called Initial Phases of a Web Request of) Professional ASP.NET 2.0 Security, Membership, and Role Management by Stefan Schackow. This is really a nice book.

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• Faceted search with Solr on Windows

  - by Dr.NETjes

  With over 10 million hits a day, funda.nl is probably the largest ASP.NET website which uses Solr on a Windows platform. While all our data (i.e. real estate properties) is stored in SQL Server, we're using Solr 1.4.1 to return the faceted search results as fast as we can.And yes, Solr is very fast. We did do some heavy stress testing on our Solr service, which allowed us to do over 1,000 req/sec on a single 64-bits Solr instance; and that's including converting search-url's to Solr http-queries and deserializing Solr's result-XML back to .NET objects! Let me tell you about faceted search and how to integrate Solr in a .NET/Windows environment. I'll bet it's easier than you think :-) What is faceted search? Faceted search is the clustering of search results into categories, allowing users to drill into search results. By showing the number of hits for each facet category, users can easily see how many results match that category. If you're still a bit confused, this example from CNET explains it all: The SQL solution for faceted search Our ("pre-Solr") solution for faceted search was done by adding a lot of redundant columns to our SQL tables and doing a COUNT(...) for each of those columns:   So if a user was searching for real estate properties in the city 'Amsterdam', our facet-query would be something like: SELECT COUNT(hasGarden), COUNT(has2Bathrooms), COUNT(has3Bathrooms), COUNT(etc...) FROM Houses WHERE city = 'Amsterdam' While this solution worked fine for a couple of years, it wasn't very easy for developers to add new facets. And also, performing COUNT's on all matched rows only performs well if you have a limited amount of rows in a table (i.e. less than a million). Enter Solr "Solr is an open source enterprise search server based on the Lucene Java search library, with XML/HTTP and JSON APIs, hit highlighting, faceted search, caching, replication, and a web administration interface." (quoted from Wikipedia's page on Solr) Solr isn't a database, it's more like a big index. Every time you upload data to Solr, it will analyze the data and create an inverted index from it (like the index-pages of a book). This way Solr can lookup data very quickly. To explain the inner workings of Solr is beyond the scope of this post, but if you want to learn more, please visit the Solr Wiki pages. Getting faceted search results from Solr is very easy; first let me show you how to send a http-query to Solr:    http://localhost:8983/solr/select?q=city:Amsterdam This will return an XML document containing the search results (in this example only three houses in the city of Amsterdam):    <response>     <result name="response" numFound="3" start="0">         <doc>            <long name="id">3203</long>            <str name="city">Amsterdam</str>            <str name="steet">Keizersgracht</str>            <int name="numberOfBathrooms">2</int>        </doc>         <doc>             <long name="id">3205</long>             <str name="city">Amsterdam</str>             <str name="steet">Vondelstraat</str>             <int name="numberOfBathrooms">3</int>          </doc>          <doc>             <long name="id">4293</long>             <str name="city">Amsterdam</str>             <str name="steet">Wibautstraat</str>             <int name="numberOfBathrooms">2</int>          </doc>       </result>   </response> By adding a facet-querypart for the field "numberOfBathrooms", Solr will return the facets for this particular field. We will see that there's one house in Amsterdam with three bathrooms and two houses with two bathrooms.    http://localhost:8983/solr/select?q=city:Amsterdam&facet=true&facet.field=numberOfBathrooms The complete XML response from Solr now looks like:    <response>      <result name="response" numFound="3" start="0">         <doc>            <long name="id">3203</long>            <str name="city">Amsterdam</str>            <str name="steet">Keizersgracht</str>            <int name="numberOfBathrooms">2</int>         </doc>         <doc>            <long name="id">3205</long>            <str name="city">Amsterdam</str>            <str name="steet">Vondelstraat</str>            <int name="numberOfBathrooms">3</int>         </doc>         <doc>            <long name="id">4293</long>            <str name="city">Amsterdam</str>            <str name="steet">Wibautstraat</str>            <int name="numberOfBathrooms">2</int>         </doc>      </result>      <lst name="facet_fields">         <lst name="numberOfBathrooms">            <int name="2">2</int>            <int name="3">1</int>         </lst>      </lst>   </response> Trying Solr for yourself To run Solr on your local machine and experiment with it, you should read the Solr tutorial. This tutorial really only takes 1 hour, in which you install Solr, upload sample data and get some query results. And yes, it works on Windows without a problem. Note that in the Solr tutorial, you're using Jetty as a Java Servlet Container (that's why you must start it using "java -jar start.jar"). In our environment we prefer to use Apache Tomcat to host Solr, which installs like a Windows service and works more like .NET developers expect. See the SolrTomcat page.Some best practices for running Solr on Windows: Use the 64-bits version of Tomcat. In our tests, this doubled the req/sec we were able to handle!Use a .NET XmlReader to convert Solr's XML output-stream to .NET objects. Don't use XPath; it won't scale well.Use filter queries ("fq" parameter) instead of the normal "q" parameter where possible. Filter queries are cached by Solr and will speed up Solr's response time (see FilterQueryGuidance)In my next post I’ll talk about how to keep Solr's indexed data in sync with the data in your SQL tables. Timestamps / rowversions will help you out here!

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• Configuring Fed Authentication Methods in OIF / IdP

  - by Damien Carru

  In this article, I will provide examples on how to configure OIF/IdP to map OAM Authentication Schemes to Federation Authentication Methods, based on the concepts introduced in my previous entry. I will show examples for the three protocols supported by OIF: SAML 2.0 SSO SAML 1.1 SSO OpenID 2.0 Enjoy the reading! Configuration As I mentioned in my previous article, mapping Federation Authentication Methods to OAM Authentication Schemes is protocol dependent, since the methods are defined in the various protocols (SAML 2.0, SAML 1.1, OpenID 2.0). As such, the WLST commands to set those mappings will involve: Either the SP Partner Profile and affect all Partners referencing that profile, which do not override the Federation Authentication Method to OAM Authentication Scheme mappings Or the SP Partner entry, which will only affect the SP Partner It is important to note that if an SP Partner is configured to define one or more Federation Authentication Method to OAM Authentication Scheme mappings, then all the mappings defined in the SP Partner Profile will be ignored. WLST Commands The two OIF WLST commands that can be used to define mapping Federation Authentication Methods to OAM Authentication Schemes are: addSPPartnerProfileAuthnMethod() to define a mapping on an SP Partner Profile, taking as parameters: The name of the SP Partner Profile The Federation Authentication Method The OAM Authentication Scheme name addSPPartnerAuthnMethod() to define a mapping on an SP Partner , taking as parameters: The name of the SP Partner The Federation Authentication Method The OAM Authentication Scheme name Note: I will discuss in a subsequent article the other parameters of those commands. In the next sections, I will show examples on how to use those methods: For SAML 2.0, I will configure the SP Partner Profile, that will apply all the mappings to SP Partners referencing this profile, unless they override mapping definition For SAML 1.1, I will configure the SP Partner. For OpenID 2.0, I will configure the SP/RP Partner SAML 2.0 Test Setup In this setup, OIF is acting as an IdP and is integrated with a remote SAML 2.0 SP partner identified by AcmeSP. In this test, I will perform Federation SSO with OIF/IdP configured to: Use LDAPScheme as the Authentication Scheme Use BasicScheme as the Authentication Scheme Map BasicSessionScheme  to  the urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:2.0:ac:classes:Password Federation Authentication Method Use OAMLDAPPluginAuthnScheme as the Authentication Scheme Map OAMLDAPPluginAuthnScheme to  the urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:2.0:ac:classes:PasswordProtectedTransport Federation Authentication Method LDAPScheme as Authentication Scheme Using the OOTB settings regarding user authentication in OAM, the user will be challenged via a FORM based login page based on the LDAPScheme. Also the default Federation Authentication Method mappings configuration maps only the urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:2.0:ac:classes:PasswordProtectedTransport to LDAPScheme (also marked as the default scheme used for authentication), FAAuthScheme, BasicScheme and BasicFAScheme. After authentication via FORM, OIF/IdP would issue an Assertion similar to: <samlp:Response ...>    <saml:Issuer ...>https://idp.com/oam/fed</saml:Issuer>    <samlp:Status>        <samlp:StatusCode Value="urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:2.0:status:Success"/>    </samlp:Status>    <saml:Assertion ...>        <saml:Issuer ...>https://idp.com/oam/fed</saml:Issuer>        <dsig:Signature>            ...        </dsig:Signature>        <saml:Subject>            <saml:NameID ...>[email protected]</saml:NameID>            <saml:SubjectConfirmation Method="urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:2.0:cm:bearer">                <saml:SubjectConfirmationData .../>            </saml:SubjectConfirmation>        </saml:Subject>        <saml:Conditions ...>            <saml:AudienceRestriction>                <saml:Audience>https://acme.com/sp</saml:Audience>            </saml:AudienceRestriction>        </saml:Conditions>        <saml:AuthnStatement AuthnInstant="2014-03-21T20:53:55Z" SessionIndex="id-6i-Dm0yB-HekG6cejktwcKIFMzYE8Yrmqwfd0azz" SessionNotOnOrAfter="2014-03-21T21:53:55Z">            <saml:AuthnContext>                <saml:AuthnContextClassRef>                   urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:2.0:ac:classes:PasswordProtectedTransport                </saml:AuthnContextClassRef>            </saml:AuthnContext>        </saml:AuthnStatement>    </saml:Assertion></samlp:Response> BasicScheme as Authentication Scheme For this test, I will switch the default Authentication Scheme for the SP Partner Profile to BasicScheme instead of LDAPScheme. I will use the OIF WLST setSPPartnerProfileDefaultScheme() command and specify which scheme to be used as the default for the SP Partner Profile referenced by AcmeSP (which is saml20-sp-partner-profile in this case: getFedPartnerProfile("AcmeSP", "sp") ): Enter the WLST environment by executing:$IAM_ORACLE_HOME/common/bin/wlst.sh Connect to the WLS Admin server:connect() Navigate to the Domain Runtime branch:domainRuntime() Execute the setSPPartnerProfileDefaultScheme() command:setSPPartnerProfileDefaultScheme("saml20-sp-partner-profile", "BasicScheme") Exit the WLST environment:exit() The user will now be challenged via HTTP Basic Authentication defined in the BasicScheme for AcmeSP. Also, as noted earlier, the default Federation Authentication Method mappings configuration maps only the urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:2.0:ac:classes:PasswordProtectedTransport to LDAPScheme (also marked as the default scheme used for authentication), FAAuthScheme, BasicScheme and BasicFAScheme. After authentication via HTTP Basic Authentication, OIF/IdP would issue an Assertion similar to: <samlp:Response ...>    <saml:Issuer ...>https://idp.com/oam/fed</saml:Issuer>    <samlp:Status>        <samlp:StatusCode Value="urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:2.0:status:Success"/>    </samlp:Status>    <saml:Assertion ...>        <saml:Issuer ...>https://idp.com/oam/fed</saml:Issuer>        <dsig:Signature>            ...        </dsig:Signature>        <saml:Subject>            <saml:NameID ...>[email protected]</saml:NameID>            <saml:SubjectConfirmation Method="urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:2.0:cm:bearer">                <saml:SubjectConfirmationData .../>            </saml:SubjectConfirmation>        </saml:Subject>        <saml:Conditions ...>            <saml:AudienceRestriction>                <saml:Audience>https://acme.com/sp</saml:Audience>            </saml:AudienceRestriction>        </saml:Conditions>        <saml:AuthnStatement AuthnInstant="2014-03-21T20:53:55Z" SessionIndex="id-6i-Dm0yB-HekG6cejktwcKIFMzYE8Yrmqwfd0azz" SessionNotOnOrAfter="2014-03-21T21:53:55Z">            <saml:AuthnContext>                <saml:AuthnContextClassRef>                   urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:2.0:ac:classes:PasswordProtectedTransport                </saml:AuthnContextClassRef>            </saml:AuthnContext>        </saml:AuthnStatement>    </saml:Assertion></samlp:Response> Mapping BasicScheme To change the Federation Authentication Method mapping for the BasicScheme to urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:2.0:ac:classes:Password instead of urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:2.0:ac:classes:PasswordProtectedTransport for the saml20-sp-partner-profile SAML 2.0 SP Partner Profile (the profile to which my AcmeSP Partner is bound to), I will execute the addSPPartnerProfileAuthnMethod() method: Enter the WLST environment by executing:$IAM_ORACLE_HOME/common/bin/wlst.sh Connect to the WLS Admin server:connect() Navigate to the Domain Runtime branch:domainRuntime() Execute the addSPPartnerProfileAuthnMethod() command:addSPPartnerProfileAuthnMethod("saml20-sp-partner-profile", "urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:2.0:ac:classes:Password", "BasicScheme") Exit the WLST environment:exit() After authentication via HTTP Basic Authentication, OIF/IdP would now issue an Assertion similar to (see that the AuthnContextClassRef was changed from PasswordProtectedTransport to Password): <samlp:Response ...>    <saml:Issuer ...>https://idp.com/oam/fed</saml:Issuer>    <samlp:Status>        <samlp:StatusCode Value="urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:2.0:status:Success"/>    </samlp:Status>    <saml:Assertion ...>        <saml:Issuer ...>https://idp.com/oam/fed</saml:Issuer>        <dsig:Signature>            ...        </dsig:Signature>        <saml:Subject>            <saml:NameID ...>[email protected]</saml:NameID>            <saml:SubjectConfirmation Method="urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:2.0:cm:bearer">                <saml:SubjectConfirmationData .../>            </saml:SubjectConfirmation>        </saml:Subject>        <saml:Conditions ...>            <saml:AudienceRestriction>                <saml:Audience>https://acme.com/sp</saml:Audience>            </saml:AudienceRestriction>        </saml:Conditions>        <saml:AuthnStatement AuthnInstant="2014-03-21T20:53:55Z" SessionIndex="id-6i-Dm0yB-HekG6cejktwcKIFMzYE8Yrmqwfd0azz" SessionNotOnOrAfter="2014-03-21T21:53:55Z">            <saml:AuthnContext>                <saml:AuthnContextClassRef>                   urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:2.0:ac:classes:Password                </saml:AuthnContextClassRef>            </saml:AuthnContext>        </saml:AuthnStatement>    </saml:Assertion></samlp:Response> OAMLDAPPluginAuthnScheme as Authentication Scheme For this test, I will switch the default Authentication Scheme for the SP Partner Profile to OAMLDAPPluginAuthnScheme instead of BasicScheme. I will use the OIF WLST setSPPartnerProfileDefaultScheme() command and specify which scheme to be used as the default for the SP Partner Profile referenced by AcmeSP (which is saml20-sp-partner-profile in this case: getFedPartnerProfile("AcmeSP", "sp") ): Enter the WLST environment by executing:$IAM_ORACLE_HOME/common/bin/wlst.sh Connect to the WLS Admin server:connect() Navigate to the Domain Runtime branch:domainRuntime() Execute the setSPPartnerProfileDefaultScheme() command:setSPPartnerProfileDefaultScheme("saml20-sp-partner-profile", "OAMLDAPPluginAuthnScheme") Exit the WLST environment:exit() The user will now be challenged via FORM defined in the OAMLDAPPluginAuthnScheme for AcmeSP. Contrarily to LDAPScheme and BasicScheme, the OAMLDAPPluginAuthnScheme is not mapped by default to any Federation Authentication Methods. As such, OIF/IdP will not be able to find a Federation Authentication Method and will set the method in the SAML Assertion to the OAM Authentication Scheme name. After authentication via FORM, OIF/IdP would issue an Assertion similar to (see the AuthnContextClassRef set to OAMLDAPPluginAuthnScheme): <samlp:Response ...>    <saml:Issuer ...>https://idp.com/oam/fed</saml:Issuer>    <samlp:Status>        <samlp:StatusCode Value="urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:2.0:status:Success"/>    </samlp:Status>    <saml:Assertion ...>        <saml:Issuer ...>https://idp.com/oam/fed</saml:Issuer>        <dsig:Signature>            ...        </dsig:Signature>        <saml:Subject>            <saml:NameID ...>[email protected]</saml:NameID>            <saml:SubjectConfirmation Method="urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:2.0:cm:bearer">                <saml:SubjectConfirmationData .../>            </saml:SubjectConfirmation>        </saml:Subject>        <saml:Conditions ...>            <saml:AudienceRestriction>                <saml:Audience>https://acme.com/sp</saml:Audience>            </saml:AudienceRestriction>        </saml:Conditions>        <saml:AuthnStatement AuthnInstant="2014-03-21T20:53:55Z" SessionIndex="id-6i-Dm0yB-HekG6cejktwcKIFMzYE8Yrmqwfd0azz" SessionNotOnOrAfter="2014-03-21T21:53:55Z">            <saml:AuthnContext>                <saml:AuthnContextClassRef> OAMLDAPPluginAuthnScheme                </saml:AuthnContextClassRef>            </saml:AuthnContext>        </saml:AuthnStatement>    </saml:Assertion></samlp:Response> Mapping OAMLDAPPluginAuthnScheme To add the OAMLDAPPluginAuthnScheme  to the Federation Authentication Method urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:2.0:ac:classes:PasswordProtectedTransport mapping, I will execute the addSPPartnerProfileAuthnMethod() method: Enter the WLST environment by executing:$IAM_ORACLE_HOME/common/bin/wlst.sh Connect to the WLS Admin server:connect() Navigate to the Domain Runtime branch:domainRuntime() Execute the addSPPartnerProfileAuthnMethod() command:addSPPartnerProfileAuthnMethod("saml20-sp-partner-profile", "urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:2.0:ac:classes:PasswordProtectedTransport", "OAMLDAPPluginAuthnScheme") Exit the WLST environment:exit() After authentication via FORM, OIF/IdP would now issue an Assertion similar to (see that the method was changed from OAMLDAPPluginAuthnScheme to PasswordProtectedTransport): <samlp:Response ...>    <saml:Issuer ...>https://idp.com/oam/fed</saml:Issuer>    <samlp:Status>        <samlp:StatusCode Value="urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:2.0:status:Success"/>    </samlp:Status>    <saml:Assertion ...>        <saml:Issuer ...>https://idp.com/oam/fed</saml:Issuer>        <dsig:Signature>            ...        </dsig:Signature>        <saml:Subject>            <saml:NameID ...>[email protected]</saml:NameID>            <saml:SubjectConfirmation Method="urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:2.0:cm:bearer">                <saml:SubjectConfirmationData .../>            </saml:SubjectConfirmation>        </saml:Subject>        <saml:Conditions ...>            <saml:AudienceRestriction>                <saml:Audience>https://acme.com/sp</saml:Audience>            </saml:AudienceRestriction>        </saml:Conditions>        <saml:AuthnStatement AuthnInstant="2014-03-21T20:53:55Z" SessionIndex="id-6i-Dm0yB-HekG6cejktwcKIFMzYE8Yrmqwfd0azz" SessionNotOnOrAfter="2014-03-21T21:53:55Z">            <saml:AuthnContext>                <saml:AuthnContextClassRef>                   urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:2.0:ac:classes:PasswordProtectedTransport                </saml:AuthnContextClassRef>            </saml:AuthnContext>        </saml:AuthnStatement>    </saml:Assertion></samlp:Response> SAML 1.1 Test Setup In this setup, OIF is acting as an IdP and is integrated with a remote SAML 1.1 SP partner identified by AcmeSP. In this test, I will perform Federation SSO with OIF/IdP configured to: Use LDAPScheme as the Authentication Scheme Use OAMLDAPPluginAuthnScheme as the Authentication Scheme Map OAMLDAPPluginAuthnScheme to  the urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:2.0:ac:classes:PasswordProtectedTransport Federation Authentication Method Use LDAPScheme as the Authentication Scheme Map LDAPScheme to  the urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:2.0:ac:classes:PasswordProtectedTransport Federation Authentication Method LDAPScheme as Authentication Scheme Using the OOTB settings regarding user authentication in OAM, the user will be challenged via a FORM based login page based on the LDAPScheme. Also the default Federation Authentication Method mappings configuration maps only the urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:1.0:am:password to LDAPScheme (also marked as the default scheme used for authentication), FAAuthScheme, BasicScheme and BasicFAScheme. After authentication via FORM, OIF/IdP would issue an Assertion similar to: <samlp:Response ...>    <samlp:Status>        <samlp:StatusCode Value="samlp:Success"/>    </samlp:Status>    <saml:Assertion Issuer="https://idp.com/oam/fed" ...>        <saml:Conditions ...>            <saml:AudienceRestriction>                <saml:Audience>https://acme.com/sp/ssov11</saml:Audience>            </saml:AudienceRestriction>        </saml:Conditions>        <saml:AuthnStatement AuthenticationInstant="2014-03-21T20:53:55Z" AuthenticationMethod="urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:1.0:am:password">            <saml:Subject>                <saml:NameIdentifier ...>[email protected]</saml:NameIdentifier>                <saml:SubjectConfirmation>                   <saml:ConfirmationMethod>                       urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:1.0:cm:bearer                   </saml:ConfirmationMethod>                </saml:SubjectConfirmation>            </saml:Subject>        </saml:AuthnStatement>        <dsig:Signature>            ...        </dsig:Signature>    </saml:Assertion></samlp:Response> OAMLDAPPluginAuthnScheme as Authentication Scheme For this test, I will switch the default Authentication Scheme for the SP Partner to OAMLDAPPluginAuthnScheme instead of LDAPScheme. I will use the OIF WLST setSPPartnerDefaultScheme() command and specify which scheme to be used as the default for the SP Partner: Enter the WLST environment by executing:$IAM_ORACLE_HOME/common/bin/wlst.sh Connect to the WLS Admin server:connect() Navigate to the Domain Runtime branch:domainRuntime() Execute the setSPPartnerDefaultScheme() command:setSPPartnerDefaultScheme("AcmeSP", "OAMLDAPPluginAuthnScheme") Exit the WLST environment:exit() The user will be challenged via FORM defined in the OAMLDAPPluginAuthnScheme for AcmeSP. Contrarily to LDAPScheme, the OAMLDAPPluginAuthnScheme is not mapped by default to any Federation Authentication Methods (in the SP Partner Profile). As such, OIF/IdP will not be able to find a Federation Authentication Method and will set the method in the SAML Assertion to the OAM Authentication Scheme name. After authentication via FORM, OIF/IdP would issue an Assertion similar to (see the AuthenticationMethod set to OAMLDAPPluginAuthnScheme): <samlp:Response ...>    <samlp:Status>        <samlp:StatusCode Value="samlp:Success"/>    </samlp:Status>    <saml:Assertion Issuer="https://idp.com/oam/fed" ...>        <saml:Conditions ...>            <saml:AudienceRestriction>                <saml:Audience>https://acme.com/sp/ssov11</saml:Audience>            </saml:AudienceRestriction>        </saml:Conditions>        <saml:AuthnStatement AuthenticationInstant="2014-03-21T20:53:55Z" AuthenticationMethod="OAMLDAPPluginAuthnScheme">            <saml:Subject>                <saml:NameIdentifier ...>[email protected]</saml:NameIdentifier>                <saml:SubjectConfirmation>                   <saml:ConfirmationMethod>                       urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:1.0:cm:bearer                   </saml:ConfirmationMethod>                </saml:SubjectConfirmation>            </saml:Subject>        </saml:AuthnStatement>        <dsig:Signature>            ...        </dsig:Signature>    </saml:Assertion></samlp:Response> Mapping OAMLDAPPluginAuthnScheme To map the OAMLDAPPluginAuthnScheme  to the Federation Authentication Method urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:1.0:am:password for this SP Partner only, I will execute the addSPPartnerAuthnMethod() method: Enter the WLST environment by executing:$IAM_ORACLE_HOME/common/bin/wlst.sh Connect to the WLS Admin server:connect() Navigate to the Domain Runtime branch:domainRuntime() Execute the addSPPartnerAuthnMethod() command:addSPPartnerAuthnMethod("AcmeSP", "urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:1.0:am:password", "OAMLDAPPluginAuthnScheme") Exit the WLST environment:exit() After authentication via FORM, OIF/IdP would now issue an Assertion similar to (see that the method was changed from OAMLDAPPluginAuthnScheme to password): <samlp:Response ...>    <samlp:Status>        <samlp:StatusCode Value="samlp:Success"/>    </samlp:Status>    <saml:Assertion Issuer="https://idp.com/oam/fed" ...>        <saml:Conditions ...>            <saml:AudienceRestriction>                <saml:Audience>https://acme.com/sp/ssov11</saml:Audience>            </saml:AudienceRestriction>        </saml:Conditions>        <saml:AuthnStatement AuthenticationInstant="2014-03-21T20:53:55Z" AuthenticationMethod="urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:1.0:am:password">            <saml:Subject>                <saml:NameIdentifier ...>[email protected]</saml:NameIdentifier>                <saml:SubjectConfirmation>                   <saml:ConfirmationMethod>                       urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:1.0:cm:bearer                   </saml:ConfirmationMethod>                </saml:SubjectConfirmation>            </saml:Subject>        </saml:AuthnStatement>        <dsig:Signature>            ...        </dsig:Signature>    </saml:Assertion></samlp:Response> LDAPScheme as Authentication Scheme I will now show that by defining a Federation Authentication Mapping at the Partner level, this now ignores all mappings defined at the SP Partner Profile level. For this test, I will switch the default Authentication Scheme for this SP Partner back to LDAPScheme, and the Assertion issued by OIF/IdP will not be able to map this LDAPScheme to a Federation Authentication Method anymore, since A Federation Authentication Method mapping is defined at the SP Partner level and thus the mappings defined at the SP Partner Profile are ignored The LDAPScheme is not listed in the mapping at the Partner level I will use the OIF WLST setSPPartnerDefaultScheme() command and specify which scheme to be used as the default for this SP Partner: Enter the WLST environment by executing:$IAM_ORACLE_HOME/common/bin/wlst.sh Connect to the WLS Admin server:connect() Navigate to the Domain Runtime branch:domainRuntime() Execute the setSPPartnerDefaultScheme() command:setSPPartnerDefaultScheme("AcmeSP", "LDAPScheme") Exit the WLST environment:exit() After authentication via FORM, OIF/IdP would issue an Assertion similar to (see the AuthenticationMethod set to LDAPScheme): <samlp:Response ...>    <samlp:Status>        <samlp:StatusCode Value="samlp:Success"/>    </samlp:Status>    <saml:Assertion Issuer="https://idp.com/oam/fed" ...>        <saml:Conditions ...>            <saml:AudienceRestriction>                <saml:Audience>https://acme.com/sp/ssov11</saml:Audience>            </saml:AudienceRestriction>        </saml:Conditions>        <saml:AuthnStatement AuthenticationInstant="2014-03-21T20:53:55Z" AuthenticationMethod="LDAPScheme">            <saml:Subject>                <saml:NameIdentifier ...>[email protected]</saml:NameIdentifier>                <saml:SubjectConfirmation>                   <saml:ConfirmationMethod>                       urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:1.0:cm:bearer                   </saml:ConfirmationMethod>                </saml:SubjectConfirmation>            </saml:Subject>        </saml:AuthnStatement>        <dsig:Signature>            ...        </dsig:Signature>    </saml:Assertion></samlp:Response> Mapping LDAPScheme at Partner Level To fix this issue, we will need to add the LDAPScheme  to the Federation Authentication Method urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:1.0:am:password mapping for this SP Partner only. I will execute the addSPPartnerAuthnMethod() method: Enter the WLST environment by executing:$IAM_ORACLE_HOME/common/bin/wlst.sh Connect to the WLS Admin server:connect() Navigate to the Domain Runtime branch:domainRuntime() Execute the addSPPartnerAuthnMethod() command:addSPPartnerAuthnMethod("AcmeSP", "urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:1.0:am:password", "LDAPScheme") Exit the WLST environment:exit() After authentication via FORM, OIF/IdP would now issue an Assertion similar to (see that the method was changed from LDAPScheme to password): <samlp:Response ...>    <samlp:Status>        <samlp:StatusCode Value="samlp:Success"/>    </samlp:Status>    <saml:Assertion Issuer="https://idp.com/oam/fed" ...>        <saml:Conditions ...>            <saml:AudienceRestriction>                <saml:Audience>https://acme.com/sp/ssov11</saml:Audience>            </saml:AudienceRestriction>        </saml:Conditions>        <saml:AuthnStatement AuthenticationInstant="2014-03-21T20:53:55Z" AuthenticationMethod="urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:1.0:am:password">            <saml:Subject>                <saml:NameIdentifier ...>[email protected]</saml:NameIdentifier>                <saml:SubjectConfirmation>                   <saml:ConfirmationMethod>                       urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:1.0:cm:bearer                   </saml:ConfirmationMethod>                </saml:SubjectConfirmation>            </saml:Subject>        </saml:AuthnStatement>        <dsig:Signature>            ...        </dsig:Signature>    </saml:Assertion></samlp:Response> OpenID 2.0 In the OpenID 2.0 flows, the RP must request use of PAPE, in order for OIF/IdP/OP to include PAPE information. For OpenID 2.0, the configuration will involve mapping a list of OpenID 2.0 policies to a list of Authentication Schemes. The WLST command will take a list of policies, delimited by the ',' character, instead of SAML 2.0 or SAML 1.1 where a single Federation Authentication Method had to be specified. Test Setup In this setup, OIF is acting as an IdP/OP and is integrated with a remote OpenID 2.0 SP/RP partner identified by AcmeRP. In this test, I will perform Federation SSO with OIF/IdP configured to: Use LDAPScheme as the Authentication Scheme Map LDAPScheme to  the http://schemas.openid.net/pape/policies/2007/06/phishing-resistant and http://openid-policies/password-protected policies Federation Authentication Methods (the second one is a custom for this use case) LDAPScheme as Authentication Scheme Using the OOTB settings regarding user authentication in OAM, the user will be challenged via a FORM based login page based on the LDAPScheme. No Federation Authentication Method is defined OOTB for OpenID 2.0, so if the IdP/OP issue an SSO response with a PAPE Response element, it will specify the scheme name instead of Federation Authentication Methods After authentication via FORM, OIF/IdP would issue an SSO Response similar to: https://acme.com/openid?refid=id-9PKVXZmRxAeDYcgLqPm36ClzOMA-&openid.ns=http%3A%2F%2Fspecs.openid.net%2Fauth%2F2.0&openid.mode=id_res&openid.op_endpoint=https%3A%2F%2Fidp.com%2Fopenid&openid.claimed_id=https%3A%2F%2Fidp.com%2Fopenid%3Fid%3Did-38iCmmlAVEXPsFjnFVKArfn5RIiF75D5doorhEgqqPM%3D&openid.identity=https%3A%2F%2Fidp.com%2Fopenid%3Fid%3Did-38iCmmlAVEXPsFjnFVKArfn5RIiF75D5doorhEgqqPM%3D&openid.return_to=https%3A%2F%2Facme.com%2Fopenid%3Frefid%3Did-9PKVXZmRxAeDYcgLqPm36ClzOMA-&openid.response_nonce=2014-03-24T19%3A20%3A06Zid-YPa2kTNNFftZkgBb460jxJGblk2g--iNwPpDI7M1&openid.assoc_handle=id-6a5S6zhAKaRwQNUnjTKROREdAGSjWodG1el4xyz3&openid.ns.ax=http%3A%2F%2Fopenid.net%2Fsrv%2Fax%2F1.0&openid.ax.mode=fetch_response&openid.ax.type.attr0=http%3A%2F%2Fsession%2Fcount&openid.ax.value.attr0=1&openid.ax.type.attr1=http%3A%2F%2Fopenid.net%2Fschema%2FnamePerson%2Ffriendly&openid.ax.value.attr1=My+name+is+Bobby+Smith&openid.ax.type.attr2=http%3A%2F%2Fschemas.openid.net%2Fax%2Fapi%2Fuser_id&openid.ax.value.attr2=bob&openid.ax.type.attr3=http%3A%2F%2Faxschema.org%2Fcontact%2Femail&openid.ax.value.attr3=bob%40oracle.com&openid.ax.type.attr4=http%3A%2F%2Fsession%2Fipaddress&openid.ax.value.attr4=10.145.120.253&openid.ns.pape=http%3A%2F%2Fspecs.openid.net%2Fextensions%2Fpape%2F1.0&openid.pape.auth_time=2014-03-24T19%3A20%3A05Z&openid.pape.auth_policies=LDAPScheme&openid.signed=op_endpoint%2Cclaimed_id%2Cidentity%2Creturn_to%2Cresponse_nonce%2Cassoc_handle%2Cns.ax%2Cax.mode%2Cax.type.attr0%2Cax.value.attr0%2Cax.type.attr1%2Cax.value.attr1%2Cax.type.attr2%2Cax.value.attr2%2Cax.type.attr3%2Cax.value.attr3%2Cax.type.attr4%2Cax.value.attr4%2Cns.pape%2Cpape.auth_time%2Cpape.auth_policies&openid.sig=mYMgbGYSs22l8e%2FDom9NRPw15u8%3D Mapping LDAPScheme To map the LDAP Scheme to the http://schemas.openid.net/pape/policies/2007/06/phishing-resistant and http://openid-policies/password-protected policies Federation Authentication Methods, I will execute the addSPPartnerAuthnMethod() method (the policies will be comma separated): Enter the WLST environment by executing:$IAM_ORACLE_HOME/common/bin/wlst.sh Connect to the WLS Admin server:connect() Navigate to the Domain Runtime branch:domainRuntime() Execute the addSPPartnerAuthnMethod() command:addSPPartnerAuthnMethod("AcmeRP", "http://schemas.openid.net/pape/policies/2007/06/phishing-resistant,http://openid-policies/password-protected", "LDAPScheme") Exit the WLST environment:exit() After authentication via FORM, OIF/IdP would now issue an Assertion similar to (see that the method was changed from LDAPScheme to the two policies): https://acme.com/openid?refid=id-9PKVXZmRxAeDYcgLqPm36ClzOMA-&openid.ns=http%3A%2F%2Fspecs.openid.net%2Fauth%2F2.0&openid.mode=id_res&openid.op_endpoint=https%3A%2F%2Fidp.com%2Fopenid&openid.claimed_id=https%3A%2F%2Fidp.com%2Fopenid%3Fid%3Did-38iCmmlAVEXPsFjnFVKArfn5RIiF75D5doorhEgqqPM%3D&openid.identity=https%3A%2F%2Fidp.com%2Fopenid%3Fid%3Did-38iCmmlAVEXPsFjnFVKArfn5RIiF75D5doorhEgqqPM%3D&openid.return_to=https%3A%2F%2Facme.com%2Fopenid%3Frefid%3Did-9PKVXZmRxAeDYcgLqPm36ClzOMA-&openid.response_nonce=2014-03-24T19%3A20%3A06Zid-YPa2kTNNFftZkgBb460jxJGblk2g--iNwPpDI7M1&openid.assoc_handle=id-6a5S6zhAKaRwQNUnjTKROREdAGSjWodG1el4xyz3&openid.ns.ax=http%3A%2F%2Fopenid.net%2Fsrv%2Fax%2F1.0&openid.ax.mode=fetch_response&openid.ax.type.attr0=http%3A%2F%2Fsession%2Fcount&openid.ax.value.attr0=1&openid.ax.type.attr1=http%3A%2F%2Fopenid.net%2Fschema%2FnamePerson%2Ffriendly&openid.ax.value.attr1=My+name+is+Bobby+Smith&openid.ax.type.attr2=http%3A%2F%2Fschemas.openid.net%2Fax%2Fapi%2Fuser_id&openid.ax.value.attr2=bob&openid.ax.type.attr3=http%3A%2F%2Faxschema.org%2Fcontact%2Femail&openid.ax.value.attr3=bob%40oracle.com&openid.ax.type.attr4=http%3A%2F%2Fsession%2Fipaddress&openid.ax.value.attr4=10.145.120.253&openid.ns.pape=http%3A%2F%2Fspecs.openid.net%2Fextensions%2Fpape%2F1.0&openid.pape.auth_time=2014-03-24T19%3A20%3A05Z&openid.pape.auth_policies=http%3A%2F%2Fschemas.openid.net%2Fpape%2Fpolicies%2F2007%2F06%2Fphishing-resistant+http%3A%2F%2Fopenid-policies%2Fpassword-protected&openid.signed=op_endpoint%2Cclaimed_id%2Cidentity%2Creturn_to%2Cresponse_nonce%2Cassoc_handle%2Cns.ax%2Cax.mode%2Cax.type.attr0%2Cax.value.attr0%2Cax.type.attr1%2Cax.value.attr1%2Cax.type.attr2%2Cax.value.attr2%2Cax.type.attr3%2Cax.value.attr3%2Cax.type.attr4%2Cax.value.attr4%2Cns.pape%2Cpape.auth_time%2Cpape.auth_policies&openid.sig=mYMgbGYSs22l8e%2FDom9NRPw15u8%3D In the next article, I will cover how OIF/IdP can be configured so that an SP can request a specific Federation Authentication Method to challenge the user during Federation SSO.Cheers,Damien Carru

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• SQL Server and Hyper-V Dynamic Memory - Part 1

  - by SQLOS Team

  SQL and Dynamic Memory Blog Post Series   Hyper-V Dynamic Memory is a new feature in Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 that allows the memory assigned to guest virtual machines to vary according to demand. Using this feature with SQL Server is supported, but how well does it work in an environment where available memory can vary dynamically, especially since SQL Server likes memory, and is not very eager to let go of it? The next three posts will look at this question in detail. In Part 1 Serdar Sutay, a program manager in the Windows Hyper-V team, introduces Dynamic Memory with an overview of the basic architecture, configuration and monitoring concepts. In subsequent parts we will look at SQL Server memory handling, and develop some guidelines on using SQL Server with Dynamic Memory.   Part 1: Dynamic Memory Introduction   In virtualized environments memory is often the bottleneck for reaching higher VM densities. In Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 Hyper-V introduced a new feature “Dynamic Memory” to improve VM densities on Hyper-V hosts. Dynamic Memory increases the memory utilization in virtualized environments by enabling VM memory to be changed dynamically when the VM is running.   This brings up the question of how to utilize this feature with SQL Server VMs as SQL Server performance is very sensitive to the memory being used. In the next three posts we’ll discuss the internals of Dynamic Memory, SQL Server Memory Management and how to use Dynamic Memory with SQL Server VMs.   Memory Utilization Efficiency in Virtualized Environments   The primary reason memory is usually the bottleneck for higher VM densities is that users tend to be generous when assigning memory to their VMs. Here are some memory sizing practices we’ve heard from customers:   ·         I assign 4 GB of memory to my VMs. I don’t know if all of it is being used by the applications but no one complains. ·         I take the minimum system requirements and add 50% more. ·         I go with the recommendations provided by my software vendor.   In reality correctly sizing a virtual machine requires significant effort to monitor the memory usage of the applications. Since this is not done in most environments, VMs are usually over-provisioned in terms of memory. In other words, a SQL Server VM that is assigned 4 GB of memory may not need to use 4 GB.   How does Dynamic Memory help?   Dynamic Memory improves the memory utilization by removing the requirement to determine the memory need for an application. Hyper-V determines the memory needed by applications in the VM by evaluating the memory usage information in the guest with Dynamic Memory. VMs can start with a small amount of memory and they can be assigned more memory dynamically based on the workload of applications running inside.   Overview of Dynamic Memory Concepts   ·         Startup Memory: Startup Memory is the starting amount of memory when Dynamic Memory is enabled for a VM. Dynamic Memory will make sure that this amount of memory is always assigned to the VMs by default.   ·         Maximum Memory: Maximum Memory specifies the maximum amount of memory that a VM can grow to with Dynamic Memory. ·         Memory Demand: Memory Demand is the amount determined by Dynamic Memory as the memory needed by the applications in the VM. In Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1, this is equal to the total amount of committed memory of the VM. ·         Memory Buffer: Memory Buffer is the amount of memory assigned to the VMs in addition to their memory demand to satisfy immediate memory requirements and file cache needs.   Once Dynamic Memory is enabled for a VM, it will start with the “Startup Memory”. After the boot process Dynamic Memory will determine the “Memory Demand” of the VM. Based on this memory demand it will determine the amount of “Memory Buffer” that needs to be assigned to the VM. Dynamic Memory will assign the total of “Memory Demand” and “Memory Buffer” to the VM as long as this value is less than “Maximum Memory” and as long as physical memory is available on the host.   What happens when there is not enough physical memory available on the host?   Once there is not enough physical memory on the host to satisfy VM needs, Dynamic Memory will assign less than needed amount of memory to the VMs based on their importance. A concept known as “Memory Weight” is used to determine how much VMs should be penalized based on their needed amount of memory. “Memory Weight” is a configuration setting on the VM. It can be configured to be higher for the VMs with high performance requirements. Under high memory pressure on the host, the “Memory Weight” of the VMs are evaluated in a relative manner and the VMs with lower relative “Memory Weight” will be penalized more than the ones with higher “Memory Weight”.   Dynamic Memory Configuration   Based on these concepts “Startup Memory”, “Maximum Memory”, “Memory Buffer” and “Memory Weight” can be configured as shown below in Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 Hyper-V Manager. Memory Demand is automatically calculated by Dynamic Memory once VMs start running.     Dynamic Memory Monitoring    In Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1, Hyper-V Manager displays the memory status of VMs in the following three columns:         ·         Assigned Memory represents the current physical memory assigned to the VM. In regular conditions this will be equal to the sum of “Memory Demand” and “Memory Buffer” assigned to the VM. When there is not enough memory on the host, this value can go below the Memory Demand determined for the VM. ·         Memory Demand displays the current “Memory Demand” determined for the VM. ·         Memory Status displays the current memory status of the VM. This column can represent three values for a VM: o   OK: In this condition the VM is assigned the total of Memory Demand and Memory Buffer it needs. o   Low: In this condition the VM is assigned all the Memory Demand and a certain percentage of the Memory Buffer it needs. o   Warning: In this condition the VM is assigned a lower memory than its Memory Demand. When VMs are running in this condition, it’s likely that they will exhibit performance problems due to internal paging happening in the VM.    So far so good! But how does it work with SQL Server?   SQL Server is aggressive in terms of memory usage for good reasons. This raises the question: How do SQL Server and Dynamic Memory work together? To understand the full story, we’ll first need to understand how SQL Server Memory Management works. This will be covered in our second post in “SQL and Dynamic Memory” series. Meanwhile if you want to dive deeper into Dynamic Memory you can check the below posts from the Windows Virtualization Team Blog:   http://blogs.technet.com/virtualization/archive/2010/03/18/dynamic-memory-coming-to-hyper-v.aspx   http://blogs.technet.com/virtualization/archive/2010/03/25/dynamic-memory-coming-to-hyper-v-part-2.aspx   http://blogs.technet.com/virtualization/archive/2010/04/07/dynamic-memory-coming-to-hyper-v-part-3.aspx   http://blogs.technet.com/b/virtualization/archive/2010/04/21/dynamic-memory-coming-to-hyper-v-part-4.aspx   http://blogs.technet.com/b/virtualization/archive/2010/05/20/dynamic-memory-coming-to-hyper-v-part-5.aspx   http://blogs.technet.com/b/virtualization/archive/2010/07/12/dynamic-memory-coming-to-hyper-v-part-6.aspx   - Serdar Sutay   Originally posted at http://blogs.msdn.com/b/sqlosteam/

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• Using Oracle ADF Data Visualization Tools (DVT) Line Graphs to Display Weather Information

  - by Christian David Straub

  OverviewA guest post by Jeanne Waldman.I have a simple JDeveloper Fusion application that retrieves weather data. I wanted to compare the week's temperatures of different locations in a graph. I decided to check out the dvt:lineGraph component, and it took me a few minutes to add it to my jspx page and supply it with data.Drag and Drop the dvt:lineGraph onto your pageI opened my .jspx page in design modeIn the Component Palette, I selected ADF Data Visualization.Then I dragged 'Line' onto my page.A dialog popped up giving me options of the type of line graph. I chose the default.A lineGraph displayed with some default data. Hook up your weather dataNow I wanted to hook up my own data. I browsed the tagdoc, and I found the tabularData attribute.Attribute: tabularDataType: java.util.ListTagDoc:Specifies a list of data that the graph uses to create a grid and populate itself. The List consists of a three-member Object array for each data value to be passed to the graph. The members of each array must be organized as follows: The first member (index 0) is the column label, in the grid, of the data value. This is generally a String. If the graph has a time axis, then this should be a Java Date. Column labels typically identify groups in the graph. The second member (index 1) is the row label, in the grid, of the data value. This is generally a String. Row labels appear as series labels in the graph (usually in the legend). The third member (index 2) is the data value, which is usually a Double.The first member is the column label of the data value. This would be the day of the week.The second member is the row label of the data value. This would be the location name.The third member is the data value, usually a Double. This would be the temperature. I already had all this information, I just needed to put it in a List with a three-member Object array for each data value.   /**    * This is used for the lineGraph to show the data for each location.    */   public List<Object[]> getTabularData()   {      List<Object[]> tabularData = new ArrayList<Object []>();      List<WeatherForecast> weatherForecastList = getWeatherForecastList();      // loop through the list and build up the tabular data. Then cache it.      for(WeatherForecast wf : weatherForecastList)      {        List<ForecastDay> forecastDayList = wf.getForecastDayList();        String location = wf.getLocation();        for (ForecastDay fday : forecastDayList)        {          String day = fday.getPrettyDate();          String highTemp = fday.getHighF();          tabularData.add(new Object[]{day, location, Double.valueOf(highTemp)});        }             }      return tabularData;    }  Now I bound the lineGraph to this method by setting tabularData to#{weatherForAllLocationsBean.tabularData}weatherForAllLocationsBean is my bean that is defined in faces-config.xml. Adding a barGraphIn about 30 seconds, I added a barGraph with the same data. I dragged and dropped a bar graph onto the page, used the same tabularData as I did in the line graph. The page looks like this:  ConclusionI was very happy how fast it was to hook up my weather data to these graphs. They look great, and they have built in functionality. For instance, I can hide/show a location by clicking on the name of the location in the legend.

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• ODI SDK: Retrieving Information From the Logs

  - by Christophe Dupupet

  It is fairly common to want to retrieve data from the ODI logs: statistics, execution status, even the generated code can be retrieved from the logs. The ODI SDK provides a robust set of APIs to parse the repository and retreve such information. To locate the information you are looking for, you have to keep in mind the structure of the logs: sessions contain steps; steps containt tasks. The session is the execution unit: basically, each time you execute something (interface, package, procedure, scenario) you create a new session. The steps are the individual entries found in a session: these will be the icons in your package for instance. Or if you are running an interface, you will have one single step: the interface itself. The tasks will represent the more atomic elements of the steps: the individual DDL, DML, scripts and so forth that are generated by ODI, along with all the detailed statistics for that task. All these details can be retrieved with the SDK. Because I had a question recently on the API ODIStepReport, I focus explicitly in this code on Scenario logs, but a lot more can be done with these APIs. Here is the code sample (you can just cut and paste that code in your ODI 11.1.1.6 Groovy console). Just save, adapt the code to your environment (in particular to connect to your repository) and hit "run" //Created by ODI Studioimport oracle.odi.core.OdiInstanceimport oracle.odi.core.config.OdiInstanceConfigimport oracle.odi.core.config.MasterRepositoryDbInfo import oracle.odi.core.config.WorkRepositoryDbInfo import oracle.odi.core.security.Authentication  import oracle.odi.core.config.PoolingAttributes import oracle.odi.domain.runtime.scenario.finder.IOdiScenarioFinder import oracle.odi.domain.runtime.scenario.OdiScenario import java.util.Collection import java.io.* /* ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Simple sample code to list all executions of the last version of a scenario,along with detailed steps information----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- */ /* update the following parameters to match your environment => */def url = "jdbc:oracle:thin:@myserver:1521:orcl"def driver = "oracle.jdbc.OracleDriver"def schema = "ODIM1116"def schemapwd = "ODIM1116PWD"def workrep = "WORKREP1116"def odiuser= "SUPERVISOR"def odiuserpwd = "SUNOPSIS" // Rather than hardcoding the project code and folder name, // a great improvement here would be to parse the entire repository def scenario_name = "LOAD_DWH" /*Scenario Name*/ /* <=End of the update section */ //--------------------------------------//Connection to the repository// Note for ODI 11.1.1.6: you could use predefined odiInstance variable if you are // running the script from a Studio that is already connected to the repository def masterInfo = new MasterRepositoryDbInfo(url, driver, schema, schemapwd.toCharArray(), new PoolingAttributes())def workInfo = new WorkRepositoryDbInfo(workrep, new PoolingAttributes())def odiInstance = OdiInstance.createInstance(new OdiInstanceConfig(masterInfo, workInfo)) //--------------------------------------// In all cases, we need to make sure we have authorized access to the repositorydef auth = odiInstance.getSecurityManager().createAuthentication(odiuser, odiuserpwd.toCharArray())odiInstance.getSecurityManager().setCurrentThreadAuthentication(auth) //--------------------------------------// Retrieve the scenario we are looking fordef odiScenario = ((IOdiScenarioFinder)odiInstance.getTransactionalEntityManager().getFinder(OdiScenario.class)).findLatestByName(scenario_name) if (odiScenario == null){    println("Error: cannot find scenario "+scenario_name);    return} //--------------------------------------// Retrieve all reports for the scenario def OdiScenarioReportsList = odiScenario.getScenarioReports() println("*** Listing all reports for Scenario \""+scenario_name+"\" ") //--------------------------------------// For each report, print the folowing:// - start time// - duration// - status// - step reports: selection of details for (s in OdiScenarioReportsList){        println("\tStart time: " + s.getSessionStartTime())        println("\tDuration: " + s.getSessionDuration())        println("\tStatus: " + s.getSessionStatus())                def OdiScenarioStepReportsList = s.getStepReports()        for (st in OdiScenarioStepReportsList){            println("\t\tStep Name: " + st.getStepName())            println("\t\tStep Resource Name: " + st.getStepResourceName())            println("\t\tStep Start time: " + st.getStepStartTime())            println("\t\tStep Duration: " + st.getStepDuration())            println("\t\tStep Status: " + st.getStepStatus())            println("\t\tStep # of inserts: " + st.getStepInsertCount())            println("\t\tStep # of updates: " + st.getStepUpdateCount()+'\n')      }      println("\t")}

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• Oracle HRMS API – Create or Update Employee Phone

  - by PRajkumar

  API --  hr_phone_api.create_or_update_phone   Example -- DECLARE        ln_phone_id                              PER_PHONES.PHONE_ID%TYPE;        ln_object_version_number    PER_PHONES.OBJECT_VERSION_NUMBER%TYPE; BEGIN    -- Create or Update Employee Phone Detail    -- -----------------------------------------------------------     hr_phone_api.create_or_update_phone     (   -- Input data elements         -- -----------------------------         p_date_from                             => TO_DATE('13-JUN-2011'),         p_phone_type                          => 'W1',         p_phone_number                   => '9999999',         p_parent_id                              => 32979,         p_parent_table                         => 'PER_ALL_PEOPLE_F',         p_effective_date                       => TO_DATE('13-JUN-2011'),         -- Output data elements         -- --------------------------------         p_phone_id                              => ln_phone_id,         p_object_version_number    => ln_object_version_number      );    COMMIT; EXCEPTION       WHEN OTHERS THEN                     ROLLBACK;                      dbms_output.put_line(SQLERRM); END; / SHOW ERR;  

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• Calling Web Service Functions Asynchronously from a Web Page

  - by SGWellens

  Over on the Asp.Net forums where I moderate, a user had a problem calling a Web Service from a web page asynchronously. I tried his code on my machine and was able to reproduce the problem. I was able to solve his problem, but only after taking the long scenic route through some of the more perplexing nuances of Web Services and Proxies. Here is the fascinating story of that journey. Start with a simple Web Service     public class Service1 : System.Web.Services.WebService    {        [WebMethod]        public string HelloWorld()        {            // sleep 10 seconds            System.Threading.Thread.Sleep(10 * 1000);            return "Hello World";        }    } The 10 second delay is added to make calling an asynchronous function more apparent. If you don't call the function asynchronously, it takes about 10 seconds for the page to be rendered back to the client. If the call is made from a Windows Forms application, the application freezes for about 10 seconds. Add the web service to a web site. Right-click the project and select "Add Web Reference…" Next, create a web page to call the Web Service. Note: An asp.net web page that calls an 'Async' method must have the Async property set to true in the page's header: <%@ Page Language="C#"          AutoEventWireup="true"          CodeFile="Default.aspx.cs"          Inherits="_Default"           Async='true'  %> Here is the code to create the Web Service proxy and connect the event handler. Shrewdly, we make the proxy object a member of the Page class so it remains instantiated between the various events. public partial class _Default : System.Web.UI.Page {    localhost.Service1 MyService;  // web service proxy     // ---- Page_Load ---------------------------------     protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)    {        MyService = new localhost.Service1();        MyService.HelloWorldCompleted += EventHandler;          } Here is the code to invoke the web service and handle the event:     // ---- Async and EventHandler (delayed render) --------------------------     protected void ButtonHelloWorldAsync_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)    {        // blocks        ODS("Pre HelloWorldAsync...");        MyService.HelloWorldAsync();        ODS("Post HelloWorldAsync");    }    public void EventHandler(object sender, localhost.HelloWorldCompletedEventArgs e)    {        ODS("EventHandler");        ODS("    " + e.Result);    }     // ---- ODS ------------------------------------------------    //    // Helper function: Output Debug String     public static void ODS(string Msg)    {        String Out = String.Format("{0}  {1}", DateTime.Now.ToString("hh:mm:ss.ff"), Msg);        System.Diagnostics.Debug.WriteLine(Out);    } I added a utility function I use a lot: ODS (Output Debug String). Rather than include the library it is part of, I included it in the source file to keep this example simple. Fire up the project, open up a debug output window, press the button and we get this in the debug output window: 11:29:37.94 Pre HelloWorldAsync... 11:29:37.94 Post HelloWorldAsync 11:29:48.94 EventHandler 11:29:48.94 Hello World   Sweet. The asynchronous call was made and returned immediately. About 10 seconds later, the event handler fires and we get the result. Perfect….right? Not so fast cowboy. Watch the browser during the call: What the heck? The page is waiting for 10 seconds. Even though the asynchronous call returned immediately, Asp.Net is waiting for the event to fire before it renders the page. This is NOT what we wanted. I experimented with several techniques to work around this issue. Some may erroneously describe my behavior as 'hacking' but, since no ingesting of Twinkies was involved, I do not believe hacking is the appropriate term. If you examine the proxy that was automatically created, you will find a synchronous call to HelloWorld along with an additional set of methods to make asynchronous calls. I tried the other asynchronous method supplied in the proxy:     // ---- Begin and CallBack ----------------------------------     protected void ButtonBeginHelloWorld_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)    {        ODS("Pre BeginHelloWorld...");        MyService.BeginHelloWorld(AsyncCallback, null);        ODS("Post BeginHelloWorld");    }    public void AsyncCallback(IAsyncResult ar)    {        String Result = MyService.EndHelloWorld(ar);         ODS("AsyncCallback");        ODS("    " + Result);    } The BeginHelloWorld function in the proxy requires a callback function as a parameter. I tested it and the debug output window looked like this: 04:40:58.57 Pre BeginHelloWorld... 04:40:58.57 Post BeginHelloWorld 04:41:08.58 AsyncCallback 04:41:08.58 Hello World It works the same as before except for one critical difference: The page rendered immediately after the function call. I was worried the page object would be disposed after rendering the page but the system was smart enough to keep the page object in memory to handle the callback. Both techniques have a use: Delayed Render: Say you want to verify a credit card, look up shipping costs and confirm if an item is in stock. You could have three web service calls running in parallel and not render the page until all were finished. Nice. You can send information back to the client as part of the rendered page when all the services are finished. Immediate Render: Say you just want to start a service running and return to the client. You can do that too. However, the page gets sent to the client before the service has finished running so you will not be able to update parts of the page when the service finishes running. Summary: YourFunctionAsync() and an EventHandler will not render the page until the handler fires. BeginYourFunction() and a CallBack function will render the page as soon as possible. I found all this to be quite interesting and did a lot of searching and researching for documentation on this subject….but there isn't a lot out there. The biggest clues are the parameters that can be sent to the WSDL.exe program: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/7h3ystb6(VS.100).aspx Two parameters are oldAsync and newAsync. OldAsync will create the Begin/End functions; newAsync will create the Async/Event functions. Caveat: I haven't tried this but it was stated in this article. I'll leave confirming this as an exercise for the student J. Included Code: I'm including the complete test project I created to verify the findings. The project was created with VS 2008 SP1. There is a solution file with 3 projects, the 3 projects are: Web Service Asp.Net Application Windows Forms Application To decide which program runs, you right-click a project and select "Set as Startup Project". I created and played with the Windows Forms application to see if it would reveal any secrets. I found that in the Windows Forms application, the generated proxy did NOT include the Begin/Callback functions. Those functions are only generated for Asp.Net pages. Probably for the reasons discussed earlier. Maybe those Microsoft boys and girls know what they are doing. I hope someone finds this useful. Steve Wellens

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• MySQL Syslog Audit Plugin

  - by jonathonc

  This post shows the construction process of the Syslog Audit plugin that was presented at MySQL Connect 2012. It is based on an environment that has the appropriate development tools enabled including gcc,g++ and cmake. It also assumes you have downloaded the MySQL source code (5.5.16 or higher) and have compiled and installed the system into the /usr/local/mysql directory ready for use.  The information provided below is designed to show the different components that make up a plugin, and specifically an audit type plugin, and how it comes together to be used within the MySQL service. The MySQL Reference Manual contains information regarding the plugin API and how it can be used, so please refer there for more detailed information. The code in this post is designed to give the simplest information necessary, so handling every return code, managing race conditions etc is not part of this example code. Let's start by looking at the most basic implementation of our plugin code as seen below: /*    Copyright (c) 2012, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.    Author:  Jonathon Coombes    Licence: GPL    Description: An auditing plugin that logs to syslog and                 can adjust the loglevel via the system variables. */ #include <stdio.h> #include <string.h> #include <mysql/plugin_audit.h> #include <syslog.h> There is a commented header detailing copyright/licencing and meta-data information and then the include headers. The two important include statements for our plugin are the syslog.h plugin, which gives us the structures for syslog, and the plugin_audit.h include which has details regarding the audit specific plugin api. Note that we do not need to include the general plugin header plugin.h, as this is done within the plugin_audit.h file already. To implement our plugin within the current implementation we need to add it into our source code and compile. > cd /usr/local/src/mysql-5.5.28/plugin > mkdir audit_syslog > cd audit_syslog A simple CMakeLists.txt file is created to manage the plugin compilation: MYSQL_ADD_PLUGIN(audit_syslog audit_syslog.cc MODULE_ONLY) Run the cmake  command at the top level of the source and then you can compile the plugin using the 'make' command. This results in a compiled audit_syslog.so library, but currently it is not much use to MySQL as there is no level of api defined to communicate with the MySQL service. Now we need to define the general plugin structure that enables MySQL to recognise the library as a plugin and be able to install/uninstall it and have it show up in the system. The structure is defined in the plugin.h file in the MySQL source code.  /*   Plugin library descriptor */ mysql_declare_plugin(audit_syslog) {   MYSQL_AUDIT_PLUGIN,           /* plugin type                    */   &audit_syslog_descriptor,     /* descriptor handle               */   "audit_syslog",               /* plugin name                     */   "Author Name",                /* author                          */   "Simple Syslog Audit",        /* description                     */   PLUGIN_LICENSE_GPL,           /* licence                         */   audit_syslog_init,            /* init function     */   audit_syslog_deinit,          /* deinit function */   0x0001,                       /* plugin version                  */   NULL,                         /* status variables        */   NULL,                         /* system variables                */   NULL,                         /* no reserves                     */   0,                            /* no flags                        */ } mysql_declare_plugin_end; The general plugin descriptor above is standard for all plugin types in MySQL. The plugin type is defined along with the init/deinit functions and interface methods into the system for sharing information, and various other metadata information. The descriptors have an internally recognised version number so that plugins can be matched against the api on the running server. The other details are usually related to the type-specific methods and structures to implement the plugin. Each plugin has a type-specific descriptor as well which details how the plugin is implemented for the specific purpose of that plugin type. /*   Plugin type-specific descriptor */ static struct st_mysql_audit audit_syslog_descriptor= {   MYSQL_AUDIT_INTERFACE_VERSION,                        /* interface version    */   NULL,                                                 /* release_thd function */   audit_syslog_notify,                                  /* notify function      */   { (unsigned long) MYSQL_AUDIT_GENERAL_CLASSMASK |                     MYSQL_AUDIT_CONNECTION_CLASSMASK }  /* class mask           */ }; In this particular case, the release_thd function has not been defined as it is not required. The important method for auditing is the notify function which is activated when an event occurs on the system. The notify function is designed to activate on an event and the implementation will determine how it is handled. For the audit_syslog plugin, the use of the syslog feature sends all events to the syslog for recording. The class mask allows us to determine what type of events are being seen by the notify function. There are currently two major types of event: 1. General Events: This includes general logging, errors, status and result type events. This is the main one for tracking the queries and operations on the database. 2. Connection Events: This group is based around user logins. It monitors connections and disconnections, but also if somebody changes user while connected. With most audit plugins, the principle behind the plugin is to track changes to the system over time and counters can be an important part of this process. The next step is to define and initialise the counters that are used to track the events in the service. There are 3 counters defined in total for our plugin - the # of general events, the # of connection events and the total number of events.  static volatile int total_number_of_calls; /* Count MYSQL_AUDIT_GENERAL_CLASS event instances */ static volatile int number_of_calls_general; /* Count MYSQL_AUDIT_CONNECTION_CLASS event instances */ static volatile int number_of_calls_connection; The init and deinit functions for the plugin are there to be called when the plugin is activated and when it is terminated. These offer the best option to initialise the counters for our plugin: /*  Initialize the plugin at server start or plugin installation. */ static int audit_syslog_init(void *arg __attribute__((unused))) {     openlog("mysql_audit:",LOG_PID|LOG_PERROR|LOG_CONS,LOG_USER);     total_number_of_calls= 0;     number_of_calls_general= 0;     number_of_calls_connection= 0;     return(0); } The init function does a call to openlog to initialise the syslog functionality. The parameters are the service to log under ("mysql_audit" in this case), the syslog flags and the facility for the logging. Then each of the counters are initialised to zero and a success is returned. If the init function is not defined, it will return success by default. /*  Terminate the plugin at server shutdown or plugin deinstallation. */ static int audit_syslog_deinit(void *arg __attribute__((unused))) {     closelog();     return(0); } The deinit function will simply close our syslog connection and return success. Note that the syslog functionality is part of the glibc libraries and does not require any external factors.  The function names are what we define in the general plugin structure, so these have to match otherwise there will be errors. The next step is to implement the event notifier function that was defined in the type specific descriptor (audit_syslog_descriptor) which is audit_syslog_notify. /* Event notifier function */ static void audit_syslog_notify(MYSQL_THD thd __attribute__((unused)), unsigned int event_class, const void *event) { total_number_of_calls++; if (event_class == MYSQL_AUDIT_GENERAL_CLASS) { const struct mysql_event_general *event_general= (const struct mysql_event_general *) event; number_of_calls_general++; syslog(audit_loglevel,"%lu: User: %s Command: %s Query: %s\n", event_general->general_thread_id, event_general->general_user, event_general->general_command, event_general->general_query ); } else if (event_class == MYSQL_AUDIT_CONNECTION_CLASS) { const struct mysql_event_connection *event_connection= (const struct mysql_event_connection *) event; number_of_calls_connection++; syslog(audit_loglevel,"%lu: User: %s@%s[%s] Event: %d Status: %d\n", event_connection->thread_id, event_connection->user, event_connection->host, event_connection->ip, event_connection->event_subclass, event_connection->status ); } }   In the case of an event, the notifier function is called. The first step is to increment the total number of events that have occurred in our database.The event argument is then cast into the appropriate event structure depending on the class type, of general event or connection event. The event type counters are incremented and details are sent via the syslog() function out to the system log. There are going to be different line formats and information returned since the general events have different data compared to the connection events, even though some of the details overlap, for example, user, thread id, host etc. On compiling the code now, there should be no errors and the resulting audit_syslog.so can be loaded into the server and ready to use. Log into the server and type: mysql> INSTALL PLUGIN audit_syslog SONAME 'audit_syslog.so'; This will install the plugin and will start updating the syslog immediately. Note that the audit plugin attaches to the immediate thread and cannot be uninstalled while that thread is active. This means that you cannot run the UNISTALL command until you log into a different connection (thread) on the server. Once the plugin is loaded, the system log will show output such as the following: Oct  8 15:33:21 machine mysql_audit:[8337]: 87: User: root[root] @ localhost []  Command: (null)  Query: INSTALL PLUGIN audit_syslog SONAME 'audit_syslog.so' Oct  8 15:33:21 machine mysql_audit:[8337]: 87: User: root[root] @ localhost []  Command: Query  Query: INSTALL PLUGIN audit_syslog SONAME 'audit_syslog.so' Oct  8 15:33:40 machine mysql_audit:[8337]: 87: User: root[root] @ localhost []  Command: (null)  Query: show tables Oct  8 15:33:40 machine mysql_audit:[8337]: 87: User: root[root] @ localhost []  Command: Query  Query: show tables Oct  8 15:33:43 machine mysql_audit:[8337]: 87: User: root[root] @ localhost []  Command: (null)  Query: select * from t1 Oct  8 15:33:43 machine mysql_audit:[8337]: 87: User: root[root] @ localhost []  Command: Query  Query: select * from t1 It appears that two of each event is being shown, but in actuality, these are two separate event types - the result event and the status event. This could be refined further by changing the audit_syslog_notify function to handle the different event sub-types in a different manner.  So far, it seems that the logging is working with events showing up in the syslog output. The issue now is that the counters created earlier to track the number of events by type are not accessible when the plugin is being run. Instead there needs to be a way to expose the plugin specific information to the service and vice versa. This could be done via the information_schema plugin api, but for something as simple as counters, the obvious choice is the system status variables. This is done using the standard structure and the declaration: /*  Plugin status variables for SHOW STATUS */ static struct st_mysql_show_var audit_syslog_status[]= {   { "Audit_syslog_total_calls",     (char *) &total_number_of_calls,     SHOW_INT },   { "Audit_syslog_general_events",     (char *) &number_of_calls_general,     SHOW_INT },   { "Audit_syslog_connection_events",     (char *) &number_of_calls_connection,     SHOW_INT },   { 0, 0, SHOW_INT } };   The structure is simply the name that will be displaying in the mysql service, the address of the associated variables, and the data type being used for the counter. It is finished with a blank structure to show that there are no more variables. Remember that status variables may have the same name for variables from other plugin, so it is considered appropriate to add the plugin name at the start of the status variable name to avoid confusion. Looking at the status variables in the mysql client shows something like the following: mysql> show global status like "audit%"; +--------------------------------+-------+ | Variable_name                  | Value | +--------------------------------+-------+ | Audit_syslog_connection_events | 1     | | Audit_syslog_general_events    | 2     | | Audit_syslog_total_calls       | 3     | +--------------------------------+-------+ 3 rows in set (0.00 sec) The final connectivity piece for the plugin is to allow the interactive change of the logging level between the plugin and the system. This requires the ability to send changes via the mysql service through to the plugin. This is done using the system variables interface and defining a single variable to keep track of the active logging level for the facility. /* Plugin system variables for SHOW VARIABLES */ static MYSQL_SYSVAR_STR(loglevel, audit_loglevel,                         PLUGIN_VAR_RQCMDARG,                         "User can specify the log level for auditing",                         audit_loglevel_check, audit_loglevel_update, "LOG_NOTICE"); static struct st_mysql_sys_var* audit_syslog_sysvars[] = {     MYSQL_SYSVAR(loglevel),     NULL }; So now the system variable 'loglevel' is defined for the plugin and associated to the global variable 'audit_loglevel'. The check or validation function is defined to make sure that no garbage values are attempted in the update of the variable. The update function is used to save the new value to the variable. Note that the audit_syslog_sysvars structure is defined in the general plugin descriptor to associate the link between the plugin and the system and how much they interact. Next comes the implementation of the validation function and the update function for the system variable. It is worth noting that if you have a simple numeric such as integers for the variable types, the validate function is often not required as MySQL will handle the automatic check and validation of simple types. /* longest valid value */ #define MAX_LOGLEVEL_SIZE 100 /* hold the valid values */ static const char *possible_modes[]= { "LOG_ERROR", "LOG_WARNING", "LOG_NOTICE", NULL };  static int audit_loglevel_check(     THD*                        thd,    /*!< in: thread handle */     struct st_mysql_sys_var*    var,    /*!< in: pointer to system                                         variable */     void*                       save,   /*!< out: immediate result                                         for update function */     struct st_mysql_value*      value)  /*!< in: incoming string */ {     char buff[MAX_LOGLEVEL_SIZE];     const char *str;     const char **found;     int length;     length= sizeof(buff);     if (!(str= value->val_str(value, buff, &length)))         return 1;     /*         We need to return a pointer to a locally allocated value in "save".         Here we pick to search for the supplied value in an global array of         constant strings and return a pointer to one of them.         The other possiblity is to use the thd_alloc() function to allocate         a thread local buffer instead of the global constants.     */     for (found= possible_modes; *found; found++)     {         if (!strcmp(*found, str))         {             *(const char**)save= *found;             return 0;         }     }     return 1; } The validation function is simply to take the value being passed in via the SET GLOBAL VARIABLE command and check if it is one of the pre-defined values allowed  in our possible_values array. If it is found to be valid, then the value is assigned to the save variable ready for passing through to the update function. static void audit_loglevel_update(     THD*                        thd,        /*!< in: thread handle */     struct st_mysql_sys_var*    var,        /*!< in: system variable                                             being altered */     void*                       var_ptr,    /*!< out: pointer to                                             dynamic variable */     const void*                 save)       /*!< in: pointer to                                             temporary storage */ {     /* assign the new value so that the server can read it */     *(char **) var_ptr= *(char **) save;     /* assign the new value to the internal variable */     audit_loglevel= *(char **) save; } Since all the validation has been done already, the update function is quite simple for this plugin. The first part is to update the system variable pointer so that the server can read the value. The second part is to update our own global plugin variable for tracking the value. Notice that the save variable is passed in as a void type to allow handling of various data types, so it must be cast to the appropriate data type when assigning it to the variables. Looking at how the latest changes affect the usage of the plugin and the interaction within the server shows: mysql> show global variables like "audit%"; +-----------------------+------------+ | Variable_name         | Value      | +-----------------------+------------+ | audit_syslog_loglevel | LOG_NOTICE | +-----------------------+------------+ 1 row in set (0.00 sec) mysql> set global audit_syslog_loglevel="LOG_ERROR"; Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.00 sec) mysql> show global status like "audit%"; +--------------------------------+-------+ | Variable_name                  | Value | +--------------------------------+-------+ | Audit_syslog_connection_events | 1     | | Audit_syslog_general_events    | 11    | | Audit_syslog_total_calls       | 12    | +--------------------------------+-------+ 3 rows in set (0.00 sec) mysql> show global variables like "audit%"; +-----------------------+-----------+ | Variable_name         | Value     | +-----------------------+-----------+ | audit_syslog_loglevel | LOG_ERROR | +-----------------------+-----------+ 1 row in set (0.00 sec)   So now we have a plugin that will audit the events on the system and log the details to the system log. It allows for interaction to see the number of different events within the server details and provides a mechanism to change the logging level interactively via the standard system methods of the SET command. A more complex auditing plugin may have more detailed code, but each of the above areas is what will be involved and simply expanded on to add more functionality. With the above skeleton code, it is now possible to create your own audit plugins to implement your own auditing requirements. If, however, you are not of the coding persuasion, then you could always consider the option of the MySQL Enterprise Audit plugin that is available to purchase.

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• Protecting a WebCenter app with OAM 11g - the Webcenter side

  - by Martin Deh

  Recently, there was a customer requirment to enable a WebCenter custom portal application to have multiple login-type pages and have the authentication be handle through Oracle Access Manager (OAM) As my security colleagues would tell me, this is fully supported through OAM.  Basically, all that would have to be done is to define in OAM individual resources (directories, URLS , .etc) that needed to be secured. Once that was done, OAM would handle the rest and the user would typically then be prompted by a login page, which was provided by OAM.  I am not going to discuss talking about OAM security in this blog.  In addition, my colleague Chris Johnson (ATEAM security) has already blogged his side of the story here:  http://fusionsecurity.blogspot.com/2012/06/protecting-webcenter-app-with-oam-11g.html .  What I am going to cover is what was done on the WebCenter/ADF side of things. In the test application, basically the structure of pages defined in the pages.xml are as follows:  In this screenshot, notice that "Delegated Security" has been selected, and of the absence for the anonymous-role for the "secured" page (A - B is the same)  This essentially in the WebCenter world means that each of these pages are protected, and only accessible by those define by the applications "role".  For more information on how WebCenter handles security, which by the way extends from ADF security, please refer to the documentation.  The (default) navigation model was configured.  You can see that with this set up, a user will be able to view the "links", where the links define navigation to the respective page:   Note from this dialog, you could also set some security on each link via the "visible" property.  However, the recommended best practice is to set the permissions through the page hierarchy (pages.xml).  Now based on this set up, the expected behavior is that I could only see the link for secured A page only if I was already authenticated (logged in).  But, this is not the use case of the requirement, since any user (anonymous) should be able to view (and click on the link).  So how is this accomplished?  There is now a patch that enables this.  In addition, the portal application's web.xml will need an additional context parameter: <context-param>     <param-name>oracle.webcenter.navigationframework.SECURITY_LEVEL</param-name>     <param-value>public</param-value>  </context-param>  As Chris mentions in his part of the blog, the code that is responsible for displaying the "links" is based upon the retrieval of the navigation model "node" prettyURL.  The prettyURL is a generated URL that also includes the adf.ctrl-state token, which is very important to the ADF framework runtime.  URLs that are void of this token, get new tokens from the ADF runtime.  This can lead to potential memory issues.  <af:forEach var="node" varStatus="vs"    items="#{navigationContext.defaultNavigationModel.listModel['startNode=/,includeStartNode=false']}">                 <af:spacer width="10" height="10" id="s1"/>                 <af:panelGroupLayout id="pgl2" layout="vertical"                                      inlineStyle="border:blue solid 1px">                   <af:goLink id="pt_gl1" text="#{node.title}"                              destination="#{node.goLinkPrettyUrl}"                              targetFrame="#{node.attributes['Target']}"                              inlineStyle="font-size:large;#{node.selected ? 'font-weight:bold;' : ''}"/>                   <af:spacer width="10" height="10" id="s2"/>                   <af:outputText value="#{node.goLinkPrettyUrl}" id="ot2"                                  inlineStyle="font-size:medium; font-weight:bold;"/>                 </af:panelGroupLayout>               </af:forEach>  So now that the links are visible to all, clicking on a secure link will be intercepted by OAM.  Since the OAM can also configure in the Authentication Scheme, the challenging URL (the login page(s)) can also come from anywhere.  In this case the each login page have been defined in the custom portal application.  This was another requirement as well, since this login page also needed to have ADF based content.  This would not be possible if the login page came from OAM.  The following is the example login page: <?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?> <jsp:root xmlns:jsp="http://java.sun.com/JSP/Page" version="2.1"           xmlns:f="http://java.sun.com/jsf/core"           xmlns:h="http://java.sun.com/jsf/html"           xmlns:af="http://xmlns.oracle.com/adf/faces/rich">   <jsp:directive.page contentType="text/html;charset=UTF-8"/>   <f:view>     <af:document title="Settings" id="d1">       <af:panelGroupLayout id="pgl1" layout="vertical"/>       <af:outputText value="LOGIN FORM FOR A" id="ot1"/>       <form id="loginform" name="loginform" method="POST"             action="XXXXXXXX:14100/oam/server/auth_cred_submit">         <table>           <tr>             <td align="right">username:</td>             <td align="left">               <input name="username" type="text"/>             </td>           </tr>                      <tr>             <td align="right">password:</td>             <td align="left">               <input name="password" type="password"/>             </td>           </tr>                      <tr>             <td colspan="2" align="center">               <input value=" login " type="submit"/>             </td>           </tr>         </table>         <input name="request_id" type="hidden" value="${param['request_id']}"                id="itsss"/>       </form>     </af:document>   </f:view> </jsp:root> As you can see the code is pretty straight forward.  The most important section is in the form tag, where the submit is a POST to the OAM server.  This example page is mostly HTML, however, it is valid to have adf tags mixed in as well.  As a side note, this solution is really to tailored for a specific requirement.  Normally, there would be only one login page (or dialog/popup), and the OAM challenge resource would be /adfAuthentication.  This maps to the adfAuthentication servlet.  Please see the documentation for more about ADF security here. 

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