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• OFM 11g: Implementing OAM SSO with Forms

  - by olaf.heimburger

  There is some confusion about the integration of OFM 11g Forms with Oracle Access Manager 11g (OAM). Some say this does not work, some say it works, but.... Actually, having implemented it many times I belong to the later group. Here is how. Caveat Before you start installing anything, take a step back and consider your current implementation and what you really need and want to achieve. The current integration of Forms 11g with OAM 11g does not support self-service account creation and password resets from the Forms application. If you really need this, you must use the existing Oracle AS 10.1.4.3 infrastructure. On the other hand, if your user population is pretty stable, you can enjoy the latest Forms 11g with OAM 11g. Assumptions The whole process should be done in one day. I assume that all domains and instances are started during setup, if you need to restart them on demand or purpose, be sure to have proper start/stop scripts, I don't mention them. Preparation It goes without saying, that you always should do a proper backup before you change anything on your production environment. With proper backup, I also mean a tested and verified restore process. If you dared to test it before, do it now. It pays off. Requirements For OAM 11g to work properly you need a LDAP repository. For the integration of Forms 11g you need an Oracle Internet Directory (OID) configured with the Oracle AS SSO LDAP extensions. For better support I usually give the latest version a try, in this case OID 11g is a good choice.During the Installation and Integration steps we use an upgrade wizard that needs the old OID configuration on the same host but in a different ORACLE_HOME. Installation vs Configuration With OFM 11g Oracle introduced a clear separation between Installation of the binaries (the software) and the Configuration of the instances (the runtime). This is really great as you can install all the software and create new instances when needed. In the following we adhere to this scheme and install the software first and then configure the instances later. Installation Steps The Oracle documentation contains all the necessary steps for the installation of all pieces of software. But some hints help to avoid traps and pitfalls. Step 1 The Database Start the installation with the database. It is quite obvious but we need an Oracle database for all the other steps. If you have one at hand, fine. If not, just install at least a Oracle 10.2.0.4 version. This database can be on a different host. Step 2 The Repository Creation Utility The next step should be to run the Repository Creation Utility (RCU). This is a client application that just needs to connect to your database. It can be run on any host that can reach the database and is a Windows or Linux 32-bit machine. When you run it, be sure to install the OID schema and the OAM schema. If you miss one of these, you can run the RCU again to install the missing schema. Step 3 The Foundation With OFM 11g Oracle started to use WebLogic Server 11g (WLS) as its foundation for all OFM 11g installation. We therefore install it first. Depending on your operating system, it might be possible, that no native installer is available. My approach to this dilemma is to use the WLS Generic Installer for all my installations. It does not include a JDK either but if you have both for your platform you are ready to go. Step 3a The JDK To make things interesting, Oracle currently has two JDKs in its portfolio. The Sun JDK and the JRockit JDK. Both are available for a number of platforms. If you are lucky and both are available for your platform, install both in a separate directory (and not one of your ORACLE_HOMEs) each, You can use the later as you like. Step 3b Install WLS for OID and OAM With the JDK installed, we start the generic installer with java -jar wls_generic.jar.STOP! Before you do this, check the version first. It should be 1.6.0_18 or later and not the GCC one (Some Linux distros have it installed by default). To verify the version, issue a java -version command and make sure that the output does not contain the text gcj and the version matches. If this does not work, use an absolute path like /opt/java/jdk1.6.0_23/bin/java to start the installer. The installer allows you to specify a path to install the software into, say /opt/oracle/iam/11.1.1.3 for the OID and OAM installation. We will call this IAM_HOME. Step 4 Install OID Now we are ready to install OID. Start the OID installer (in the Disk1 directory) and just select the installation only step. This will install the software only and does not configure the instance. Use the IAM_HOME as the target directory. Step 5 Install SOA Suite The IAM 11g Suite uses the BPEL component of the SOA Suite 11g for its workflows. This is a pretty closed environment and not to be used for SCA Composites. We install the SOA Suite in $IAM_HOME/soa. The installer only installs the binaries. Configuration will be done later. Step 6 Install OAM Once the installation of OID and SOA is done, we are ready to install the OAM software in the same IAM_HOME. Make sure to install the OAM binaries in a directory different from the one you used during the OID and SOA installation. As before, we only install the software, the instance will be created later. Step 7 Backup the Installation At this point, I normally do a backup (or snapshot in a virtual image) of the installation. Good when you need to go back to this point. Step 8 Configure OID The software is installed and now we need instances to run it. This process is called configuration. For OID use the config.sh found in $IAM_HOME/oid/bin to start the configuration wizard. Normally this runs smoothly. If you encounter some issues check the Oracle Support site for help. This configuration will also start the OID instance. Step 9 Install the Oracle AS SSO Schema Before we install the Forms software we need to install the Oracle AS SSO Schema into the database and OID. This is a rather dangerous procedure, but fully documented in the IAM Installation Guide, Chapter 10. You should finish this in one go, do not reboot your host during the whole procedure. As a precaution, you should make a backup of the OID instance before you start the procedure. Once the backup is ready, read the chapter, including every note, carefully. You can avoid a number of issues by following all the steps and will succeed with a working solution. Step 10 Configure OAM Reached this step? Great. You are ready to create an OAM instance. Use the $IAM_HOME/iam/common/binconfig.sh for this. This will open the WLS Domain Creation Wizard and asks for the libraries to be installed. You should at least select the OAM with Database repository item. The configuration will also start the OAM instance. Step 11 Install WLS for Forms 11g It is quite tempting to install everything in one ORACLE_HOME. Unfortunately this does not work for all OFM packages. Therefore we do another WLS installation in another ORACLE_HOME. The same considerations as in step 3b apply. We call this one FORMS_HOME. Step 12 Install Forms In the FORMS_HOME we now install the binaries for the Forms 11g software. Again, this is a install only step. Configuration starts with the next step. Step 13 Configure Forms To configure Forms 11g we start the Configuration Wizard (config.sh) in FORMS_HOME/bin. This wizard should create a new WebLogic Domain and an OHS instance! Do not extend existing domains or instances! Forms should run in its own instances! When all information is supplied, the wizard will create the domain and instance and starts them automatically.Step 14 Setup your Forms SSO EnvironmentOnce you have implemented and tested your Forms 11g instance, you can configured it for SSO. Yes, this requires the old Oracle AS SSO solution, OIDDAS for creating and assigning users and SSO to setup your partner applications. In this step you should consider to create every user necessary for use within the environment. When done, do not forget to test it. Step 15 Migrate the SSO Repository Since the final goal is to get rid of the old SSO implementation we need to migrate the old SSO repository into the new OID structure. Additionally, this step will also migrate all partner application configurations into OAM 11g. Quite convenient. To do this step, you have to start the upgrade agent (ua or ua.bat or ua.cmd) on the operating system level in $IAM_HOME/bin. Once finished, this wizard will create new osso.conf files for each partner application in $IAM_HOME/upgrade/temp/oam/.Note: At the time of this writing, this step only works if everything is on the same host (ie. OID, OAM, etc.). This restriction might be lifted in later releases. Step 16 Change your OHS sso.conf and shut down OC4J_SECURITY In Step 14 we verified that SSO for our Forms environment works fine. Now, we are shutting the old system done and reconfigure the OHS that acts as the Forms entry point. First we go to the OHS configuration directory and rename the old osso.conf  to osso.conf.10g. Now we change the moduleconf/mod_osso.conf  to point to the new osso.conf file. Copy the new osso.conf  file from $IAM_HOME/upgrade/temp/oam/ to the OHS configuration directory. Restart OHS, test forms by using the same forms links. OAM should now kick in and show the login dialog to ask for your user credentials.Done. Now your Forms environment is successfully integrated with OAM 11g.Enjoy. What's Next? This rather lengthy setup is just the foundation for your growing environment of OAM 11g protections. In the next entry we will show that Forms 11g and ADF Faces 11g can use the same OAM installation and provide real single sign-on. References Nearly everything is documented. Use the documentation! Oracle® Fusion Middleware Installation Guide for Oracle Identity Management 11gR1 Oracle® Fusion Middleware Installation Guide for Oracle Identity Management 11gR1, Chapter 11-14 Oracle® Fusion Middleware Administrator's Guide for Oracle Access Manager 11gR1, Appendix B Oracle® Fusion Middleware Upgrade Guide for Oracle Identity Management 11gR1, Chapter 10   

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• What's The Difference Between Imperative, Procedural and Structured Programming?

  - by daniels

  By researching around (books, Wikipedia, similar questions on SE, etc) I came to understand that Imperative programming is one of the major programming paradigms, where you describe a series of commands (or statements) for the computer to execute (so you pretty much order it to take specific actions, hence the name "imperative"). So far so good. Procedural programming, on the other hand, is a specific type (or subset) of Imperative programming, where you use procedures (i.e., functions) to describe the commands the computer should perform. First question: Is there an Imperative programming language which is not procedural? In other words, can you have Imperative programming without procedures? Update: This first question seems to be answered. A language CAN be imperative without being procedural or structured. An example is pure Assembly language. Then you also have Structured programming, which seems to be another type (or subset) of Imperative programming, which emerged to remove the reliance on the GOTO statement. Second question: What is the difference between procedural and structured programming? Can you have one without the other, and vice-versa? Can we say procedural programming is a subset of structured programming, as in the image?

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• On contract work, obligations to said contract, and looking out for yourself…

  - by jlnorsworthy

  Without boring you all with details, my last two contract assignments were cut short; I was given 3 days notice on one, and 4 weeks notice on the other. Neither of these were due to performance – they both basically came down budget issues. On my second contract, I got the feeling that I may not have been a great place to stay for the duration of my contract. Because of money/time spent getting me in the door, and the possible negative effect of my employer/recruiter, I decided to stay at least for a few months (and start looking several weeks before the end of my supposedly “extendable” contract). These experiences have left me a little wary of contract work. It seems that if I land a bad contract, that my recruiter would take a hit (reputation or otherwise) if I quickly found another job. But on the other hand, the client company won’t think twice of ending the contract early for any reason. I know that the counter argument to this is “maybe your recruiter shouldn’t have put you into a crappy assignment”… either way, it seems that since I am relying on him to provide me with work, that I should try to not damage his reputation with client companies. I’m basically brand new to contracting (these were my first two contracts) so these concerns are new to me. TLDR: Is contract work, by its very nature, largely unstable? Am I worried too much about my recruiter? Should I be quicker to start looking for a new job even after just weeks at a new company (when the environment seems unstable)? If so, do I look through my recruiter or just find another position by any means necessary?

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• Craftsmanship is ALL that Matters

  - by Wayne Molina

  Today, I'm going to talk about a touchy subject: the notion of working in a company that doesn't use the prescribed "best practices" in its software development endeavours.  Over the years I have, using a variety of pseudonyms, asked this question on popular programming forums.  Although I always add in some minor variation of the story to avoid suspicion that it's the same person posting, the crux of the tale remains the same: A Programmer’s Tale A junior software developer has just started a new job at an average company, creating average line-of-business applications for internal use (the most typical scenario programmers find themselves in).  This hypothetical newbie has spent a lot of time reading up on the "theory" of software development, devouring books, blogs and screencasts from well-known and respected software developers in the community in order to broaden his knowledge and "do what the pros do".  He begins his new job, eager to apply what he's learned on a real-world project only to discover that his new teammates doesn't use any of those concepts and techniques.  They hack their way through development, or in a best-case scenario use some homebrew, thrown-together semblance of a framework for their applications that follows not one of the best practices suggested by the “elite” in the software community - things like TDD (TDD as a "best practice" is the only subjective part of this post, but it's included here due to a very large following of respected developers who consider it one), the SOLID principles, well-known and venerable tools, even version control in a worst case and truly nightmarish scenario.  Our protagonist is frustrated that he isn't doing things the "proper" way - a way he's spent personal time digesting and learning about and, more importantly, a way that some of the top developers in the industry advocate - and turns to a forum to ask the advice of his peers. Invariably the answer I, in the guise of the concerned newbie, will receive is that A) I don't know anything and should just shut my mouth and sling code the bad way like everybody else on the team, and B) These "best practices" are fade or a joke, and the only thing that matters is shipping software to your customers. I am here today to say that anyone who says this, or anything like it, is not only full of crap but indicative of exactly the type of “developer” that has helped to give our industry a bad name.  Here is why: One Who Knows Nothing, Understands Nothing On one hand, you have the cognoscenti of the .NET development world.  Guys like James Avery, Jeremy Miller, Ayende Rahien and Rob Conery; all well-respected and noted programmers that are pretty much our version of celebrities.  These guys write blogs, books, and post videos outlining the "correct" way of writing software to make sure it not only works but is maintainable and extensible and a joy to work with.  They tout the virtues of the SOLID principles, or of using TDD/BDD, or using a mature ORM like NHibernate, Subsonic or even Entity Framework. On the other hand, you have Joe Everyman, Lead Software Developer at Initrode Corporation - in our hypothetical story Joe is the junior developer's new boss.  Joe's been with Initrode for 10 years, starting as the company’s very first programmer and over the years building up a little fiefdom of his own until at the present he’s in charge of all Initrode’s software development.  Joe writes code the same way he always has, without bothering to learn much, if anything.  He looked at NHibernate once and found it was "too hard", so he uses a primitive implementation of the TableDataGateway pattern as a wrapper around SqlClient.SqlConnection and SqlClient.SqlCommand instead of an actual ORM (or, in a better case scenario, has created his own ORM); the thought of using LINQ or Entity Framework or really anything other than his own hastily homebrew solution has never occurred to him.  He doesn't understand TDD and considers “testing” to be using the .NET debugger to step through code, or simply loading up an app and entering some values to see if it works.  He doesn't really understand SOLID, and he doesn't care to.  He's worked as a programmer for years, and that's all that counts.  Right?  WRONG. Who would you rather trust?  Someone with years of experience and who writes books, creates well-known software and is akin to a celebrity, or someone with no credibility outside their own minute environment who throws around their clout and company seniority as the "proof" of their ability?  Joe Everyman may have years of experience at Initrode as a programmer, and says to do things "his way" but someone like Jeremy Miller or Ayende Rahien have years of experience at companies just like Initrode, THEY know ten times more than Joe Everyman knows or could ever hope to know, and THEY say to do things "this way". Here's another way of thinking about it: If you wanted to get into politics and needed advice on the best way to do it, would you rather listen to the mayor of Hicktown, USA or Barack Obama?  One is a small-time nobody while the other is very well-known and, as such, would probably have much more accurate and beneficial advice. NOTE: The selection of Barack Obama as an example in no way, shape, or form suggests a political affiliation or political bent to this post or blog, and no political innuendo should be mistakenly read from it; the intent was merely to compare a small-time persona with a well-known persona in a non-software field.  Feel free to replace the name "Barack Obama" with any well-known Congressman, Senator or US President of your choice. DIY Considered Harmful I will say right now that the homebrew development environment is the WORST one for an aspiring programmer, because it relies on nothing outside it's own little box - no useful skill outside of the small pond.  If you are forced to use some half-baked, homebrew ORM created by your Director of Software, you are not learning anything valuable you can take with you in the future; now, if you plan to stay at Initrode for 10 years like Joe Everyman, this is fine and dandy.  However if, like most of us, you want to advance your career outside a very narrow space you will do more harm than good by sticking it out in an environment where you, to be frank, know better than everybody else because you are aware of alternative and, in almost most cases, better tools for the job.  A junior developer who understands why the SOLID principles are good to follow, or why TDD is beneficial, or who knows that it's better to use NHibernate/Subsonic/EF/LINQ/well-known ORM versus some in-house one knows better than a senior developer with 20 years experience who doesn't understand any of that, plain and simple.  Anyone who disagrees is either a liar, or someone who, just like Joe Everyman, Lead Developer, relies on seniority and tenure rather than adapting their knowledge as things evolve. In many cases, the Joe Everymans of the world act this way out of fear - they cannot possibly fathom that a “junior” could know more than them; after all, they’ve spent 10 or more years in the same company, doing the same job, cranking out the same shoddy software.  And here comes a newbie who hasn’t spent 10+ years doing the same things, with a fresh and often radical take on the craft, and Joe Everyman is afraid he might have to put some real effort into his career again instead of just pointing to his 10 years of service at Initrode as “proof” that he’s good, or that he might have to learn something new to improve; in most cases the problem is Joe Everyman, and by extension Initrode itself, has a mentality of just being “good enough”, and mediocrity is the rule of the day. A Thorn Bush is No Place for a Phoenix My advice is that if you work on a team where they don't use the best practices that some of the most famous developers in our field say is the "right" way to do things (and have legions of people who agree), and YOU are aware of these practices and can see why they work, then LEAVE the company.  Find a company where they DO care about quality, and craftsmanship, otherwise you will never be happy.  There is no point in "dumbing" yourself down to the level of your co-workers and slinging code without care to craftsmanship.  In 95% of these situations there will be no point in bringing it to the attention of Joe Everyman because he won't listen; he might even get upset that someone is trying to "upstage" him and fire the newbie, and replace someone with loads of untapped potential with a drone that will just nod affirmatively and grind out the tasks assigned without question. Find a company that has people smart enough to listen to the "best and brightest", and be happy.  Do not, I repeat, DO NOT waste away in a job working for ignorant people.  At the end of the day software development IS a craft, and a level of craftsmanship is REQUIRED for any serious professional.  When you have knowledgeable people with the credibility to back it up saying one thing, and small-time people who are, to put it bluntly, nobodies in the field saying and doing something totally different because they can't comprehend it, leave the nobodies to their own devices to fade into obscurity.  Work for a company that uses REAL software engineering techniques and really cares about craftsmanship.  The biggest issue affecting our career, and the reason software development has never been the respected, white-collar career it was meant to be, is because hacks and charlatans can pass themselves off as professional programmers without following a lick of good advice from programmers much better at the craft than they are.  These modern day snake-oil salesmen entrench themselves in companies by hoodwinking non-technical businesspeople and customers with their shoddy wares, end up in senior/lead/executive positions, and push their lack of knowledge on everybody unfortunate enough to work with/for/under them, crushing any dissent or voices of reason and change under their tyrannical heel and leaving behind a trail of dismayed and, often, unemployed junior developers who were made examples of to keep up the facade and avoid the shadow of doubt being cast upon them. To sum this up another way: If you surround yourself with learned people, you will learn.  Surround yourself with ignorant people who can't, as the saying goes, see the forest through the trees, and you'll learn nothing of any real value.  There is more to software development than just writing code, and the end goal should not be just "shipping software", it should be shipping software that is extensible, maintainable, and above all else software whose creation has broadened your knowledge in some capacity, even if a minor one.  An eager newbie who knows theory and thirsts for knowledge can easily be moulded and taught the advanced topics, but the same can't be said of someone who only cares about the finish line.  This industry needs more people espousing the benefits of software craftsmanship and proper software engineering techniques, and less Joe Everymans who are unwilling to adapt or foster new ways of thinking. Conclusion - I Cast “Protection from Fire” I am fairly certain this post will spark some controversy and might even invite the flames.  Please keep in mind these are opinions and nothing more.  A little healthy rant and subsequent flamewar can be good for the soul once in a while.  To paraphrase The Godfather: It helps to get rid of the bad blood.

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• Dissecting ASP.NET Routing

  The ASP.NET Routing framework allows developers to decouple the URL of a resource from the physical file on the web server. Specifically, the developer defines routing rules, which map URL patterns to a class or ASP.NET page that generates the content. For instance, you could create a URL pattern of the form Categories/CategoryName and map it to the ASP.NET page ShowCategoryDetails.aspx; the ShowCategoryDetails.aspx page would display details about the category CategoryName. With such a mapping, users could view category about the Beverages category by visiting www.yoursite.com/Categories/Beverages. In short, ASP.NET Routing allows for readable, SEO-friendly URLs. ASP.NET Routing was first introduced in ASP.NET 3.5 SP1 and was enhanced further in ASP.NET 4.0. ASP.NET Routing is a key component of ASP.NET MVC, but can also be used with Web Forms. Two previous articles here on 4Guys showed how to get started using ASP.NET Routing: Using ASP.NET Routing Without ASP.NET MVC and URL Routing in ASP.NET 4.0. This article aims to explore ASP.NET Routing in greater depth. We'll explore how ASP.NET Routing works underneath the covers to decode a URL pattern and hand it off the the appropriate class or ASP.NET page. Read on to learn more! Read More >

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• Consuming Hello World pagelet in WebCenter Spaces

  - by astemkov

  Introduction The goal of this exercise is to show you how can you use Hello World pagelet that you just created from your web space. Assumptions Let's assume the following: Pagelet Producer is running on http://pageletserver.company.com:8889/pagelets/ WebCenter is running on http://webcenter.company.com:8888/webcenter/ You created Hello_World pagelet as described here. For our exercise we will need a space created. So let's login into WebCenter Portal and create a space called "myspace" using "Portal Site" template: Registering Pagelet Producer with WebCenter portal In order to use our newly created pagelet from WebCenter Spaces, we first need to register Pagelet Producer: Click "Administraion" link on WebCenter toolbar Open the "Configuration" tab Click on "Services" link on the upper-left corner of the page Click on "Portlet Producers" link on the right hand pane of the screen Click on "Register" button Select "Pagelet Producer" radio button and type Producer Name = "MyPageletProducer" Server URL = http://pageletserver.company.com:8889/pagelets/ Click "Test" button If everything is succesful you will see the following screen: Now click "OK'. Pagelet producer is registered: Inserting Hello World pagelet to WebCenter Space Now let's insert Hello World pagelet into "myspace" page: Let's go back to "myspace", click on the icon in a upper-right corner of the page and select "Edit Page" Click on one of the "Add Content" buttons: Select "Mash-Ups": Select "Pagelet Producers: You will see the MyPageletProducer that we just registered: Click on it. You will see the library "MyLib" that contains our "Hello_World" pagelet. Click on "MyLib" and you will see "Hello_World" pagelet. Click on "Add" button, and then "Close" button. Click "Save" button, and then "Close". Now we see that our "Hello World" pagelet is inserted into "myspace" page:

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• Dissecting ASP.NET Routing

  The ASP.NET Routing framework allows developers to decouple the URL of a resource from the physical file on the web server. Specifically, the developer defines routing rules, which map URL patterns to a class or ASP.NET page that generates the content. For instance, you could create a URL pattern of the form Categories/CategoryName and map it to the ASP.NET page ShowCategoryDetails.aspx; the ShowCategoryDetails.aspx page would display details about the category CategoryName. With such a mapping, users could view category about the Beverages category by visiting www.yoursite.com/Categories/Beverages. In short, ASP.NET Routing allows for readable, SEO-friendly URLs. ASP.NET Routing was first introduced in ASP.NET 3.5 SP1 and was enhanced further in ASP.NET 4.0. ASP.NET Routing is a key component of ASP.NET MVC, but can also be used with Web Forms. Two previous articles here on 4Guys showed how to get started using ASP.NET Routing: Using ASP.NET Routing Without ASP.NET MVC and URL Routing in ASP.NET 4.0. This article aims to explore ASP.NET Routing in greater depth. We'll explore how ASP.NET Routing works underneath the covers to decode a URL pattern and hand it off the the appropriate class or ASP.NET page. Read on to learn more! Read More >Did you know that DotNetSlackers also publishes .net articles written by top known .net Authors? We already have over 80 articles in several categories including Silverlight. Take a look: here.

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• Remapping keyboard to get extra cursor keys - but why stick to VIM standard hjkl

  - by Carlo V. Dango

  Inspired from VIM I recently remapped my keyboard layout to get extra keys for cursor movement. Being fluent in both QWERTY and DVORAK, it came quite natural to me to remap the DF and JK keys rather than the VIM standard hjkl keys. Here is my reasoning It enables me to quickly identify cursor keys since F and J are physically marked on my keyboard I'm using two hands for movement rather than one. I guess from DVORAK I learned to appreciate shifting between hands rather than using primarily one hand. It maps well with the Kinesis keyboard mapping http://www.kinesis-ergo.com/advantage.htm that I use occasionally. I feel I'm using my strongest fingers. I don't have to stretch my right index finger to read H as I would using the VIM layout. However, since I am still doing green field explorations on the cursor key remapping, I'd like others to share their experiences and/or criticize my suggested mapping. PS. If you want to toy around with my remapping using Autohotkey here is my script ; extra cursor keys. !d:: Send {Left} <^>!d:: Send {Left} !f:: Send {Right} <^>!f:: Send {Right} !j:: Send {Up} <^>!j:: Send {Up} !k:: Send {Down} <^>!k:: Send {Down} The question Is this mapping sane or is the VIM mapping superior?

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• MSCC: Purpose and benefits of Version Control Systems (VCS)

  You're working in IT and not using any kind of version control system? Sorry, then you're doing something wrong! RSVP for MSCC meetup of June This month's meetup will be an introduction into the mechanics of version control systems (VCS) like git, Mercurial, TFS, and others in general. VCS are not optional but compulsory in any area of IT. Whether you're developing source code for the next buzz app, writing SQL scripts for your database, or automating your administrative tasks with shell scripts it's better to have a "time machine" in order to keep multiple version, stay organised and leverage the power of differences. git - a modern approach to VCS - Nayar Nayar is going to give us a brief overview of the basic principles of working with git. Which are the necessary steps to get started and which are the usual commands in order to get the most out of git. Visual Studio Online (VSO) - Jochen Are you mainly rooted on the Windows platform and looking for a good alternative to Team Foundation Services (TFS), then VSO might give you hand at achieving this. Similar to git VSO is an open infrastructure but plays very well together with the Microsoft Azure cloud infrastructure. Recent and upcoming events in Mauritius Let's have a chat about recent events like WebCup 2014 or Emtel Knowledge Series and have a head start on upcoming events like Code Challenge, and others to come. Networking and general discussions Of course, there will be plenty of time to chat and exchange with other like-minded craftsmen. Bring your topics and discuss various issues with other professionals. Share your experience and use the ability to learn from others. Looking forward to meet soon.

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• Windows 8 Will be Here Tomorrow; but Should Silverlight be Gone Today?

  - by andrewbrust

  The software industry lives within an interesting paradox. IT in the enterprise moves slowly and cautiously, upgrading only when safe and necessary.  IT interests intentionally live in the past.  On the other hand, developers, and Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) not only want to use the latest and greatest technologies, but this constituency prides itself on gauging tech’s future, and basing its present-day strategy upon it.  Normally, we as an industry manage this paradox with a shrug of the shoulder and musings along the lines of “it takes all kinds.”  Different subcultures have different tendencies.  So be it. Microsoft, with its Windows operating system (OS), can’t take such a laissez-faire view of the world though.  Redmond relies on IT to deploy Windows and (at the very least) influence its procurement, but it also relies on developers to build software for Windows, especially software that has a dependency on features in new versions of the OS.  It must indulge and nourish developers’ fetish for an early birthing of the next generation of software, even as it acknowledges the IT reality that the next wave will arrive on-schedule in Redmond and will travel very slowly to end users. With the move to Windows 8, and the corresponding shift in application development models, this paradox is certainly in place. On the one hand, the next version of Windows is widely expected sometime in 2012, and its full-scale deployment will likely push into 2014 or even later.  Meanwhile, there’s a technology that runs on today’s Windows 7, will continue to run in the desktop mode of Windows 8 (the next version’s codename), and provides absolutely the best architectural bridge to the Windows 8 Metro-style application development stack.  That technology is Silverlight.  And given what we now know about Windows 8, one might think, as I do, that Microsoft ecosystem developers should be flocking to it. But because developers are trying to get a jump on the future, and since many of them believe the impending v5.0 release of Silverlight will be the technology’s last, not everyone is flocking to it; in fact some are fleeing from it.  Is this sensible?  Is it not unprecedented?  What options does it lead to?  What’s the right way to think about the situation? Is v5.0 really the last major version of the technology called Silverlight?  We don’t know.  But Scott Guthrie, the “father” and champion of the technology, left the Developer Division of Microsoft months ago to work on the Windows Azure team, and he took his people with him.  John Papa, who was a very influential Redmond-based evangelist for Silverlight (and is a Visual Studio Magazine author), left Microsoft completely.  About a year ago, when initial suspicion of Silverlight’s demise reached significant magnitude, Papa interviewed Guthrie on video and their discussion served to dispel developers’ fears; but now they’ve moved on. So read into that what you will and let’s suppose, for the sake of argument, speculation that Silverlight’s days of major revision and iteration are over now is correct.  Let’s assume the shine and glimmer has dimmed.  Let’s assume that any Silverlight application written today, and that therefore any investment of financial and human resources made in Silverlight development today, is destined for rework and extra investment in a few years, if the application’s platform needs to stay current. Is this really so different from any technology investment we make?  Every framework, language, runtime and operating system is subject to change, to improvement, to flux and, yes, to obsolescence.  What differs from project to project, is how near-term that obsolescence is and how disruptive the change will be.  The shift from .NET 1.1. to 2.0 was incremental.  Some of the further changes were too.  But the switch from Windows Forms to WPF was major, and the change from ASP.NET Web Services (asmx) to Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) was downright fundamental. Meanwhile, the transition to the .NET development model for Windows 8 Metro-style applications is actually quite gentle.  The finer points of this subject are covered nicely in Magenic’s excellent white paper “Assessing the Windows 8 Development Platform.” As the authors of that paper (including Rocky Lhotka)  point out, Silverlight code won’t just “port” to Windows 8.  And, no, Silverlight user interfaces won’t either; Metro always supports XAML, but that relationship is not commutative.  But the concepts, the syntax, the architecture and developers’ skills map from Silverlight to Windows 8 Metro and the Windows Runtime (WinRT) very nicely.  That’s not a coincidence.  It’s not an accident.  This is a protected transition.  It’s not a slap in the face. There are few things that are unnerving about this transition, which make it seem markedly different from others: The assumed end of the road for Silverlight is something many think they can see.  Instead of being ignorant of the technology’s expiration date, we believe we know it.  If ignorance is bliss, it would seem our situation lacks it. The new technology involving WinRT and Metro involves a name change from Silverlight. .NET, which underlies both Silverlight and the XAML approach to WinRT development, has just about reached 10 years of age.  That’s equivalent to 80 in human years, or so many fear. My take is that the combination of these three factors has contributed to what for many is a psychologically compelling case that Silverlight should be abandoned today and HTML 5 (the agnostic kind, not the Windows RT variety) should be embraced in its stead.  I understand the logic behind that.  I appreciate the preemptive, proactive, vigilant conscientiousness involved in its calculus.  But for a great many scenarios, I don’t agree with it.  HTML 5 clients, no matter how impressive their interactivity and the emulation of native application interfaces they present may be, are still second-class clients.  They are getting better, especially when hardware acceleration and fast processors are involved.  But they still lag.  They still feel like they’re emulating something, like they’re prototypes, like they’re not comfortable in their own skins.  They are based on compromise, and they feel compromised too. HTML 5/JavaScript development tools are getting better, and will get better still, but they are not as productive as tools for other environments, like Flash, like Silverlight or even more primitive tooling for iOS or Android.  HTML’s roots as a document markup language, rather than an application interface, create a disconnect that impedes productivity.  I do not necessarily think that problem is insurmountable, but it’s here today. If you’re building line-of-business applications, you need a first-class client and you need productivity.  Lack of productivity increases your costs and worsens your backlog.  A second class client will erode user satisfaction, which is never good.  Worse yet, this erosion will be inconspicuous, rather than easily identified and diagnosed, because the inferiority of an HTML 5 client over a native one is hard to identify and, notably, doing so at this juncture in the industry is unpopular.  Why would you fault a technology that everyone believes is revolutionary?  Instead, user disenchantment will remain latent and yet will add to the malaise caused by slower development. If you’re an ISV and you’re coveting the reach of running multi-platform, it’s a different story.  You’ve likely wanted to move to HTML 5 already, and the uncertainty around Silverlight may be the only remaining momentum or pretext you need to make the shift.  You’re deploying many more copies of your application than a line-of-business developer is anyway; this makes the economic hit from lower productivity less impactful, and the wider potential installed base might even make it profitable. But no matter who you are, it’s important to take stock of the situation and do it accurately.  Continued, but merely incremental changes in a development model lead to conservatism and general lack of innovation in the underlying platform.  Periods of stability and equilibrium are necessary, but permanence in that equilibrium leads to loss of platform relevance, market share and utility.  Arguably, that’s already happened to Windows.  The change Windows 8 brings is necessary and overdue.  The marked changes in using .NET if we’re to build applications for the new OS are inevitable.  We will ultimately benefit from the change, and what we can reasonably hope for in the interim is a migration path for our code and skills that is navigable, logical and conceptually comfortable. That path takes us to a place called WinRT, rather than a place called Silverlight.  But considering everything that is changing for the good, the number of disruptive changes is impressively minimal.  The name may be changing, and there may even be some significance to that in terms of Microsoft’s internal management of products and technologies.  But as the consumer, you should care about the ingredients, not the name.  Turkish coffee and Greek coffee are much the same. Although you’ll find plenty of interested parties who will find the names significant, drinkers of the beverage should enjoy either one.  It’s all coffee, it’s all sweet, and you can tell your fortune from the grounds that are left at the end.  Back on the software side, it’s all XAML, and C# or VB .NET, and you can make your fortune from the product that comes out at the end.  Coffee drinkers wouldn’t switch to tea.  Why should XAML developers switch to HTML?

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• My View on ASP.NET Web Forms versus MVC

  - by Ricardo Peres

  Introduction A lot has been said on Web Forms and MVC, but since I was recently asked about my opinion on the subject, here it is. First, I have to say that I really like both technologies and I don’t think any is going away – just remember SharePoint, which is built on top of Web Forms. I see them as complementary, targeting different needs and leveraging different skills. Let’s go through some of their differences. Rapid Application Development Rapid Application Development (RAD) is the development process by which you have an Integrated Development Environment (IDE), a visual design surface and a toolbox, and you drag components from the toolbox to the design surface and set their properties through a property inspector. It was introduced with some of the earliest Windows graphical IDEs such as Visual Basic and Delphi. With Web Forms you have RAD out of the box. Visual Studio offers a generally good (and extensible) designer for the layout of pages and web user controls. Designing a page may simply be about dragging controls from the toolbox, setting their properties and wiring up some events to event handlers, which are implemented in code behind .NET classes. Most people will be familiar with this kind of development and enjoy it. You can see what you are doing from the beginning. MVC also has designable pages – called views in MVC terminology – the problem is that they can be built using different technologies, some of which, at the moment (MVC 4) do not support RAD – Razor, for example. I believe it is just a matter of time for that to be implemented in Visual Studio, but it will mostly consist on HTML editing, and until that day comes, you have to live with source editing. Development Model Web Forms features the same development model that you are used to from Windows Forms and other similar technologies: events fired by controls and automatic persistence of their properties between postbacks. For that, it uses concepts such as view state, which some may love and others may hate, because it may be misused quite easily, but otherwise does its job well. Another fundamental concept is data binding, by which a collection of data can be fed to a control and have it render that data somehow – just thing of the GridView control. The focus is on the page, that’s where it all starts, and you can place everything in the same code behind class: data access, business logic, layout, etc. The controls take care of generating a great part of the HTML and JavaScript for you. With MVC there is no free lunch when it comes to data persistence between requests, you have to implement it yourself. As for event handling, that is at the core of MVC, in the form of controllers and action methods, you just don’t think of them as event handlers. In MVC you need to think more in HTTP terms, so action methods such as POST and GET are relevant to you, and may write actions to handle one or the other. Also of crucial importance is model binding: the way by which MVC converts your posted data into a .NET class. This is something that ASP.NET 4.5 Web Forms has introduced as well, but it is a cornerstone in MVC. MVC also has built-in validation of these .NET classes, which out of the box uses the Data Annotations API. You have full control of the generated HTML - except for that coming from the helper methods, usually small fragments - which requires a greater familiarity with the specifications. You normally rely much more on JavaScript APIs, they are even included in the Visual Studio template, that is because much less is done for you. Reuse It is difficult to accept a professional company/project that does not employ reuse. It can save a lot of time thus cutting costs significantly. Code reused in several projects matures as time goes by and helps developers learn from past experiences. ASP.NET Web Forms was built with reuse in mind, in the form of controls. Controls encapsulate functionality and are generally portable from project to project (with the notable exception of web user controls, those with an associated .ASCX markup file). ASP.NET has dozens of controls and it is very easy to develop new ones, so I believe this is a great advantage. A control can inject JavaScript code and external references as well as generate HTML an CSS. MVC on the other hand does not use controls – it is possible to use them, with some view engines like ASPX, but it is just not advisable because it breaks the flow – where do Init, Load, PreRender, etc, fit? The most similar to controls is extension methods, or helpers. They serve the same purpose – generating HTML, CSS or JavaScript – and can be reused between different projects. What differentiates them from controls is that there is no inheritance and no context – an extension method is just a static method which doesn’t know where it is being called. You also have partial views, which you can reuse in the same project, but there is no inheritance as well. This, in my view, is a weakness of MVC. Architecture Both technologies are highly extensible. I have writtenstarted writing a series of posts on ASP.NET Web Forms extensibility and will probably write another series on MVC extensibility as well. A number of scenarios are covered in any of these models, and some extensibility points apply to both, because, of course both stand upon ASP.NET. With Web Forms, if you’re like me, you start by defining you master pages, pages and controls, with some helper classes to glue everything. You may as well throw in some JavaScript, but probably you’re main work will be with plain old .NET code. The controls you define have the chance to inject JavaScript code and references, through either the ScriptManager or the page’s ClientScript object, as well as generating HTML and CSS code. The master page and page model with code behind classes offer a number of “hooks” by which you can change the normal way of things, for example, in a page you can access any control on the master page, add script or stylesheet references to its head and even change the page’s title. Also, with Web Forms, you typically have URLs in the form “/SomePath/SomePage.aspx?SomeParameter=SomeValue”, which isn’t really SEO friendly, no to mention the HTML that some controls produce, far from standards, optimization and best practices. In MVC, you also normally start by defining the master page (or layout) and views, which are the visible parts, and then define controllers on separate files. These controllers do not know anything about the views, except the names and types of the parameters that will be passed to and from them. The controller will be responsible for the data access and business logic, eventually relying on additional classes for this purpose. On a controller you only receive parameters and return a result, which may be a request for the rendering of a view, a redirection to another URL or a JSON object, to name just a few. The controller class does not know anything about the web, so you can effectively reuse it in a non-web project. This separation and the lack of programmatic access to the UI elements, makes it very difficult to implement, for example, something like SharePoint with MVC. OK, I know about Orchard, but it isn’t really a general purpose development framework, but instead, a CMS that happens to use MVC. Not having controls render HTML for you gives you in turn much more control over it – it is your responsibility to create it, which you can either consider a blessing or a curse, in the later case, you probably shouldn’t be using MVC at all. Also MVC URLs tend to be much more SEO-oriented, if you design your controllers and actions properly. Testing In a well defined architecture, you should separate business logic, data access logic and presentation logic, because these are all different things and it might even be the need to switch one implementation for another: for example, you might design a system which includes a data access layer, a business logic layer and two presentation layers, one on top of ASP.NET and the other with WPF; and the data access layer might be implemented first using NHibernate and later on switched for Entity Framework Code First. These changes are not that rare, so care should be taken in designing the system to make them possible. Web Forms are difficult to test, because it relies on event handlers which are only fired in web contexts, when a form is submitted or a page is requested. You can call them with reflection, but you have to set up a number of mocking objects first, HttpContext.Current first coming to my mind. MVC, on the other hand, makes testing controllers a breeze, so much that it even includes a template option for generating boilerplate unit test classes up from start. A well designed – from the unit test point of view - controller will receive everything it needs to work as parameters to its action methods, so you can pass whatever values you need very easily. That doesn’t mean, of course, that everything can be tested: views, for instance, are difficult to test without actually accessing the site, but MVC offers the possibility to compile views at build time, so that, at least, you know you don’t have syntax errors beforehand. Myths Some popular but unfounded myths around MVC include: You cannot use controls in MVC: not true, actually, you can, at least with the Web Forms (ASPX) view engine; the declaration and usage is exactly the same as with Web Forms; You cannot specify a base class for a view: with the ASPX view engine you can use the Inherits Page directive, with this and all the others you can use the pageBaseType and userControlBaseType attributes of the <page> element; MVC shields you from doing “bad things” on your views: well, you can place any code on a code block, at least with the ASPX view engine (you may be starting to see a pattern here), even data access code; The model is the entity model, tied to an O/RM: the model is actually any class that you use to pass values to a view, including (but generally not recommended) an entity model; Unit tests come with no cost: unit tests generally don’t cover the UI, although there are frameworks just for that (see WatiN, for example); also, for some tests, you will have to mock or replace either the HttpContext.Current property or the HttpContextBase class yourself; Everything is testable: views aren’t, without accessing the site; MVC relies on HTML5/some_cool_new_javascript_framework: there is no relation whatsoever, MVC renders whatever you want it to render and does not require any framework to be present. The thing is, the subsequent releases of MVC happened in a time when Microsoft has become much more involved in standards, so the files and technologies included in the Visual Studio templates reflect this, and it just happens to work well with jQuery, for example. Conclusion Well, this is how I see it. Some folks may think that I am being too rude on MVC, probably because I don’t like it, but that’s not true: like I said, I do like MVC and I am starting my new projects with it. I just don’t want to go along with that those that say that MVC is much superior to Web Forms, in fact, some things you can do much more easily with Web Forms than with MVC. I will be more than happy to hear what you think on this!

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• Android Design - Service vs Thread for Networking

  - by Nevyn

  I am writing an Android app, finally (yay me) and for this app I need persistant, but user closeable, network sockets (yes, more than one). I decided to try my hand at writing my own version of an IRC Client. My design issue however, is I'm not sure how to run the Socket connectivity itself. If I put the sockets at the Activity level, they keeps getting closed shortly after the Activity becomes non-visible (also a problem that needs solving...but I think i figured that one out)...but if I run a "connectivity service", I need to find out if I can have multiple instances of it running (the service, that is...one per server/socket). Either that or a I need a way to Thread the sockets themselves and have multiple threads running that I can still communicate with directly (ID system of some sort). Thus the question: Is it a 'better', or at least more "proper" design pattern, to put the Socket and networking in a service, and have the Activities consume said service...or should I tie the sockets directly to some Threaded Process owned by the UI Activity and not bother with the service implementation at all? I do know better than to put the networking directly on the UI thread, but that's as far as I've managed to get.

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• Oracle SQL Developer: Single Object Compare

  - by thatjeffsmith

  There’s a nasty rumor going around that you can’t compare database objects and/or code in Oracle SQL Developer. So let’s put that to bed right now. First, here’s how to compare: PL/SQL to PL/SQL or a SQL statement to another SQL statement So now that that’s settled, why don’t we take a look at how to compare a single table, to another table – whether it’s in the same database or a different database. Database Diff There’s no additional licensing requirement here. If you have SQL Developer, you can use this feature. if you’re going to compare 1 table to another, make sure you ONLY have ‘tables’ checked And then, use this dialog to select your table(s): Move over the object(s) you want to compare over to the right hand side. And now we can move onto the results. The differences, side-by-side, and the script to make B look like A Common lines with differences are highlighted in blue, new lines are highlighted in red. So that’s why they are different, but here’s the script to synch up the differences: Read the script, TEST the script, apply the script. And that’s it. Well, that’s mostly it. If you have questions about how to compare a database object in a schema you don’t have the login information for, read this post next.

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• Go Big or Go Home

  - by Justin Kestelyn

  The Oracle Develop conference (#oracledevelop10), being co-located for the first time ever with JavaOne in San Francisco, is guaranteed to be the ultimate rush for developers this year. Where else can you go to learn about, interact with, and meet fellow devotees of the entire Oracle Development stack (welcome, Oracle Solaris)? This will also be the first time that the community space traditionally located at Oracle OpenWorld - and hosted by Oracle Technology Network, as always - will be present at the "developer" conference during this busy week. So, Oracle OpenWorld's loss is Oracle Develop's gain. And what a community space it will be: nearly 4,000 square feet for meeting space, contests and give-aways, consumption of various beverages, special speakers (Oracle ACEs among them, no doubt), and video-casting. The entire Oracle Technology Network crew will be on hand to "facilitate" your experience, of course. Even better, you can rub shoulders and share war stories with attendees from that "other" conference, JavaOne. (You have access to both conferences as a single package, so you may be having a conversation with yourself.) We call the whole enchilada "The Zone". As time goes on, we'll bring you more news about the activities described above, as well as OTN Night (which proves to be more raucous than ever), technical sessions and keynotes not to be missed, the unconference/open sessions, things to do at night, and more. In the meantime, stay in touch with us via Twitter or Oracle Mix.

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• C#/.NET Little Wonders: The Predicate, Comparison, and Converter Generic Delegates

  - by James Michael Hare

  Once again, in this series of posts I look at the parts of the .NET Framework that may seem trivial, but can help improve your code by making it easier to write and maintain. The index of all my past little wonders posts can be found here. In the last three weeks, we examined the Action family of delegates (and delegates in general), the Func family of delegates, and the EventHandler family of delegates and how they can be used to support generic, reusable algorithms and classes. This week I will be completing my series on the generic delegates in the .NET Framework with a discussion of three more, somewhat less used, generic delegates: Predicate<T>, Comparison<T>, and Converter<TInput, TOutput>. These are older generic delegates that were introduced in .NET 2.0, mostly for use in the Array and List<T> classes.  Though older, it’s good to have an understanding of them and their intended purpose.  In addition, you can feel free to use them yourself, though obviously you can also use the equivalents from the Func family of delegates instead. Predicate<T> – delegate for determining matches The Predicate<T> delegate was a very early delegate developed in the .NET 2.0 Framework to determine if an item was a match for some condition in a List<T> or T[].  The methods that tend to use the Predicate<T> include: Find(), FindAll(), FindLast() Uses the Predicate<T> delegate to finds items, in a list/array of type T, that matches the given predicate. FindIndex(), FindLastIndex() Uses the Predicate<T> delegate to find the index of an item, of in a list/array of type T, that matches the given predicate. The signature of the Predicate<T> delegate (ignoring variance for the moment) is: 1: public delegate bool Predicate<T>(T obj); So, this is a delegate type that supports any method taking an item of type T and returning bool.  In addition, there is a semantic understanding that this predicate is supposed to be examining the item supplied to see if it matches a given criteria. 1: // finds first even number (2) 2: var firstEven = Array.Find(numbers, n => (n % 2) == 0); 3:  4: // finds all odd numbers (1, 3, 5, 7, 9) 5: var allEvens = Array.FindAll(numbers, n => (n % 2) == 1); 6:  7: // find index of first multiple of 5 (4) 8: var firstFiveMultiplePos = Array.FindIndex(numbers, n => (n % 5) == 0); This delegate has typically been succeeded in LINQ by the more general Func family, so that Predicate<T> and Func<T, bool> are logically identical.  Strictly speaking, though, they are different types, so a delegate reference of type Predicate<T> cannot be directly assigned to a delegate reference of type Func<T, bool>, though the same method can be assigned to both. 1: // SUCCESS: the same lambda can be assigned to either 2: Predicate<DateTime> isSameDayPred = dt => dt.Date == DateTime.Today; 3: Func<DateTime, bool> isSameDayFunc = dt => dt.Date == DateTime.Today; 4:  5: // ERROR: once they are assigned to a delegate type, they are strongly 6: // typed and cannot be directly assigned to other delegate types. 7: isSameDayPred = isSameDayFunc; When you assign a method to a delegate, all that is required is that the signature matches.  This is why the same method can be assigned to either delegate type since their signatures are the same.  However, once the method has been assigned to a delegate type, it is now a strongly-typed reference to that delegate type, and it cannot be assigned to a different delegate type (beyond the bounds of variance depending on Framework version, of course). Comparison<T> – delegate for determining order Just as the Predicate<T> generic delegate was birthed to give Array and List<T> the ability to perform type-safe matching, the Comparison<T> was birthed to give them the ability to perform type-safe ordering. The Comparison<T> is used in Array and List<T> for: Sort() A form of the Sort() method that takes a comparison delegate; this is an alternate way to custom sort a list/array from having to define custom IComparer<T> classes. The signature for the Comparison<T> delegate looks like (without variance): 1: public delegate int Comparison<T>(T lhs, T rhs); The goal of this delegate is to compare the left-hand-side to the right-hand-side and return a negative number if the lhs < rhs, zero if they are equal, and a positive number if the lhs > rhs.  Generally speaking, null is considered to be the smallest value of any reference type, so null should always be less than non-null, and two null values should be considered equal. In most sort/ordering methods, you must specify an IComparer<T> if you want to do custom sorting/ordering.  The Array and List<T> types, however, also allow for an alternative Comparison<T> delegate to be used instead, essentially, this lets you perform the custom sort without having to have the custom IComparer<T> class defined. It should be noted, however, that the LINQ OrderBy(), and ThenBy() family of methods do not support the Comparison<T> delegate (though one could easily add their own extension methods to create one, or create an IComparer() factory class that generates one from a Comparison<T>). So, given this delegate, we could use it to perform easy sorts on an Array or List<T> based on custom fields.  Say for example we have a data class called Employee with some basic employee information: 1: public sealed class Employee 2: { 3: public string Name { get; set; } 4: public int Id { get; set; } 5: public double Salary { get; set; } 6: } And say we had a List<Employee> that contained data, such as: 1: var employees = new List<Employee> 2: { 3: new Employee { Name = "John Smith", Id = 2, Salary = 37000.0 }, 4: new Employee { Name = "Jane Doe", Id = 1, Salary = 57000.0 }, 5: new Employee { Name = "John Doe", Id = 5, Salary = 60000.0 }, 6: new Employee { Name = "Jane Smith", Id = 3, Salary = 59000.0 } 7: }; Now, using the Comparison<T> delegate form of Sort() on the List<Employee>, we can sort our list many ways: 1: // sort based on employee ID 2: employees.Sort((lhs, rhs) => Comparer<int>.Default.Compare(lhs.Id, rhs.Id)); 3:  4: // sort based on employee name 5: employees.Sort((lhs, rhs) => string.Compare(lhs.Name, rhs.Name)); 6:  7: // sort based on salary, descending (note switched lhs/rhs order for descending) 8: employees.Sort((lhs, rhs) => Comparer<double>.Default.Compare(rhs.Salary, lhs.Salary)); So again, you could use this older delegate, which has a lot of logical meaning to it’s name, or use a generic delegate such as Func<T, T, int> to implement the same sort of behavior.  All this said, one of the reasons, in my opinion, that Comparison<T> isn’t used too often is that it tends to need complex lambdas, and the LINQ ability to order based on projections is much easier to use, though the Array and List<T> sorts tend to be more efficient if you want to perform in-place ordering. Converter<TInput, TOutput> – delegate to convert elements The Converter<TInput, TOutput> delegate is used by the Array and List<T> delegate to specify how to convert elements from an array/list of one type (TInput) to another type (TOutput).  It is used in an array/list for: ConvertAll() Converts all elements from a List<TInput> / TInput[] to a new List<TOutput> / TOutput[]. The delegate signature for Converter<TInput, TOutput> is very straightforward (ignoring variance): 1: public delegate TOutput Converter<TInput, TOutput>(TInput input); So, this delegate’s job is to taken an input item (of type TInput) and convert it to a return result (of type TOutput).  Again, this is logically equivalent to a newer Func delegate with a signature of Func<TInput, TOutput>.  In fact, the latter is how the LINQ conversion methods are defined. So, we could use the ConvertAll() syntax to convert a List<T> or T[] to different types, such as: 1: // get a list of just employee IDs 2: var empIds = employees.ConvertAll(emp => emp.Id); 3:  4: // get a list of all emp salaries, as int instead of double: 5: var empSalaries = employees.ConvertAll(emp => (int)emp.Salary); Note that the expressions above are logically equivalent to using LINQ’s Select() method, which gives you a lot more power: 1: // get a list of just employee IDs 2: var empIds = employees.Select(emp => emp.Id).ToList(); 3:  4: // get a list of all emp salaries, as int instead of double: 5: var empSalaries = employees.Select(emp => (int)emp.Salary).ToList(); The only difference with using LINQ is that many of the methods (including Select()) are deferred execution, which means that often times they will not perform the conversion for an item until it is requested.  This has both pros and cons in that you gain the benefit of not performing work until it is actually needed, but on the flip side if you want the results now, there is overhead in the behind-the-scenes work that support deferred execution (it’s supported by the yield return / yield break keywords in C# which define iterators that maintain current state information). In general, the new LINQ syntax is preferred, but the older Array and List<T> ConvertAll() methods are still around, as is the Converter<TInput, TOutput> delegate. Sidebar: Variance support update in .NET 4.0 Just like our descriptions of Func and Action, these three early generic delegates also support more variance in assignment as of .NET 4.0.  Their new signatures are: 1: // comparison is contravariant on type being compared 2: public delegate int Comparison<in T>(T lhs, T rhs); 3:  4: // converter is contravariant on input and covariant on output 5: public delegate TOutput Contravariant<in TInput, out TOutput>(TInput input); 6:  7: // predicate is contravariant on input 8: public delegate bool Predicate<in T>(T obj); Thus these delegates can now be assigned to delegates allowing for contravariance (going to a more derived type) or covariance (going to a less derived type) based on whether the parameters are input or output, respectively. Summary Today, we wrapped up our generic delegates discussion by looking at three lesser-used delegates: Predicate<T>, Comparison<T>, and Converter<TInput, TOutput>.  All three of these tend to be replaced by their more generic Func equivalents in LINQ, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t understand what they do or can’t use them for your own code, as they do contain semantic meanings in their names that sometimes get lost in the more generic Func name.   Tweet Technorati Tags: C#,CSharp,.NET,Little Wonders,delegates,generics,Predicate,Converter,Comparison

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• Data and Secularism

  - by kaleidoscope

  Ever since we’ve been using Data we’ve been religious. Religious about the way we represent it and equally religious about the way we access it. Be it plain old SQL, DAO, ADO, ADO.Net and I am just referring to religions in MSFT world. A peek outside and I’d need a separate book to list out the Data faiths. Various application areas in networked computing are converging under the HTTP umbrella with a plausible transition to purist HTTP and in turn REST fuelled by the Web2.0 storm. It was time the Data access faiths also gave up the religious silos wrapped around our long worshipped data publishing and access methods. OData is the secular solution we have at hand today. It is an open protocol for sharing data. It can be exposed via REST. It is Open as in the Microsoft Open Specification Promise. This allows virtually everyone to build Data Services for any runtime. OData is one of the key standards for Data publishing/subscribing on Microsoft Codename Dallas. For us .Netters OData data sources can be exposed/consumed via WCF Data Services and the process is very simple, elegant and intuitive. Applications exposing OData Services Sharepoint 2010 IBM Web Sphere Microsoft SQL Azure Windows Azure Table Storage SQL Server Reporting Services   Live OData Services Netflix Open Science Data Initiative Open Government Data Initiatives Northwind database exposed as OData Service and many others Some may prefer to call it commoditization of data, unification of data access strategies or any other sweet name. I for one will stick to my secular definition. :) Technorati Tags: Sarang,OData,MOSP

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• Partner Webcast - Extend Your Application Reach to Mobile Devices. The Fusion Way!

  - by Thanos

  Mobile access to enterprise applications is fast becoming a standard part of corporate life. Such applications increase organizational efficiency because mobile devices are more readily at hand than their desktop counterparts. However, the speed with which mobile platforms are evolving creates challenges as enterprises define their mobile strategies. Extending Oracle Enterprise and Fusion Applications to mobile devices comes natural with Oracle Application Development Framework (ADF) Mobile, which provides all the necessary tools, services, and infrastructure to protect against technology shifts. Oracle ADF Mobile, part of Oracle ADF - the strategic, standards based framework for Oracle Fusion Applications and Oracle Fusion Middleware, is an HTML5 and Java mobile development framework that enables developers to build and extend enterprise applications for iOS and Android from a single code base. Based on a hybrid mobile architecture, ADF Mobile supports access to native device services, enables offline applications and protects enterprise investments from future technology shifts. Oracle ADF Mobile is part of Oracle ADF, the strategic, standards based framework for Oracle Fusion Applications and Oracle Fusion Middleware. Join us to find out more about Oracle ADF Mobile and how to extend your applications to tablets & mobiles building the next generation mobile applications. Agenda: Enterprise Challenges & Mobile Computing Oracle ADF Mobile Features & Benefits Visual and Declarative Development Develop Once and Deploy Java Technology & Runtime Architecture Mobile Optimized User Experience Device Services Offline Support Authentication & Security Live Demonstration Q&A Delivery Format This FREE online LIVE eSeminar will be delivered over the Web. Registrations received less than 24hours prior to start time may not receive confirmation to attend. Duration: 1 hour Register Now! For any questions please contact us at [email protected] Visit our ISV Migration Center blog Or Follow us @oracleimc to learn more on Oracle Technologies, upcoming partner webcasts and events. Existing content available YouTube - SlideShare - Oracle Mix.

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• Java, the Cloud, and Oracle at QCon San Francisco 2011

  - by Bob Rhubart

  If you're part of the lucky bunch attending this week's sold-out QCon San Francisco conference at Westin San Francisco Market Street, I'd like to bring several sessions to your attention. On Wednesday Nov 16, Alex Buckley, specification lead for the Java Language and the Java Virtual Machine at Oracle, will present Java 7 and 8: Where We've Been, Where We're Going, part of the Why is Java still sexy? track. The session begins at 10:35 a.m. in the Olympic room. On Thursday Nov 17, Tyler Jewell, VP Product Management for Oracle's Platform as a Service, will participate in the Performance and Scalability Panel moderated by InfoQ founder and QCon SF Program Committee Member Floyd Marinescu. That panel, part of the Performance and Scalability Solutions track, begins at 10:35 a.m. in the Olympic room. Following that panel discussion, Tyler will fly solo with a presentation on Java EE 7: Developing for the Cloud, also part of the Performance and Scalability Solutions track. That session kicks off at 12:05 p.m., also in the Olympic room. On Friday Nov 18 Tyler will jump tracks, so to speak, when he presents The Architecture of Oracle's Public Cloud, part of the Architecture Case Studies: Cloud track. That session begins at 4:50 p.m. in the Stanford room. Of course, QCon also offers ample meet-and-greet opportunities. One such opportunity happens in the hospitality suite hosted by the Java Community Process Executive Committee. That shindig gets in gear at 5:50 pm on Thursday. Throughout the QCon San Francisco conference, members of the OTN team (including your's truly) and members of the Oracle Fusion Middleware team will be on hand at the OTN booth in the conference lobby. Stop by to say hello, score some swag, and catch a demo or two.

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• Tab Sweep: FacesMessage enhancements, Look up thread pool resources, JQuery/JSF integration, Galleria, ...

  - by arungupta

  Recent Tips and News on Java, Java EE 6, GlassFish & more : • Fixing remote GlassFish server errors on NetBeans (Igor Cardoso) • FacesMessage Enhancements (PrimeFaces) • How to create and look up thread pool resource in GlassFish (javahowto) • Jersey 1.12 is released (Jakub Podlesak) • VisualVM problem connecting to monitor Glassfish (Raymond Reid) • JSF 2.0 JQuery-JSF Integration (John Yeary) • JDBC-ODBC Bridge Example (John Yeary) • The Java EE 6 Example - Gracefully dealing with Errors in Galleria - Part 6 (Markus Eisele) • Logout functionality in Java web applications (JavaOnly) • LDAP PASSWORD POLICIES AND JAVAEE (Ricky's Hodgepodge) • Java User Groups Promote Java Education (java.net Editor's Daily Blog) • JavaEE Revisits Design Patterns: Aspects (Interceptor) (Developer Chronicles) • Java EE 6 Hand-on Workshop @ IIUI (Shahzad Badar) • javaee6-crud-example (Arjan Tims) • Sample CRUD application with JSF and RichFaces (Mark van der Tol) • 5 useful methods JSF developers should know (Java Code Geeks) Here are some tweets from this week ... Almost 9000 Parleys views at the #JavaEE6 #Devoxx talk I did with @BertErtman. Not even made available for free yet! #JavaEE6 is hot :-) Sent three proposals for Øredev, about #JavaEE6, #OSGi and a case study about Leren-op-Maat (OSGi in the cloud) together with @m4rr5 [blog] The Java EE 6 #Example - Gracefully dealing with #Errors in #Galleria - Part 6 http://t.co/Drg1EQvf #javaee6 Tomorrow, there is a session about Java EE6 #javaee6 at islamia university #bahawalpur under #pakijug.about 150 students going to attend it.

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• Xamarin Designer for Android Article

  - by Wallym

  The latest version of Mono for Android includes a long-awaited design surface. Learn how it works.It's interesting to look at the needs of various segments of developers. When I first start looking at an environment, the first thing I need to understand is the UI. I'm not magically born with some knowledge about the environment and don't learn well by just reading, so I need some help in getting started. I found this was true when I started Windows based development in the early 1990s, Dynamic Web in the late 1990s, ASP.NET in 2000, Silverlight/WPF, iPhone and Android. I find that getting up to speed with a UI is the single biggest deterrent for someone learning a platform. I find that as a beginner I need the features provided by a design surface. It's only as I grow and become comfortable with a platform that I find that building a UI by hand is more productive. Even as I get more advanced, I still can learn from a designer, so it has value as I grow into a platform.I hope that this article helps you as you dive into Android Development.

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• Storage Forum at Oracle OpenWorld

  - by kgee

  For anyone attending Oracle OpenWorld and involved in Storage, join us at the Storage Forum & Reception. This special engagement offers you the ability to meet Oracle’s top storage executives, architects and fellow storage colleagues. Features include interactive sessions and round-table discussions on Oracle's storage strategy, product direction, and real-world customer implementations. It’s your chance to ask questions and learn first-hand about Oracle's response to top trends and what keeps storage managers up at night, including how to contain storage costs, improve performance, and ensure seamless integration with Oracle software environments. Featured Speakers: Mike Workman, SVP of Pillar Axiom Storage Group; Phil Bullinger, SVP of Sun ZFS Storage Group; and Jim Cates, VP of Tape Systems Storage Group Added Bonus: The Storage Forum will be followed by an exclusive Wine and Cocktail Reception where you can... Meet and network with peers, and other storage professionals Interact with Oracle’s experts in a fun and relaxed setting Wind down and prepare for the Oracle Customer Appreciation Event featuring Pearl Jam and Kings of Leon Date & Times:Wednesday, October 3, 20123:30 – 5:00 p.m. Forum 5:00 – 7:00 p.m. Reception Disclaimer: Space is limited, so register at http://bit.ly/PULcyR as soon as possible! If you want any more information, feel free to email [email protected]

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• Get Ready to Meet Oracle GoldenGate 11gR2 at OpenWorld

  - by Irem Radzik

    Oracle GoldenGate 11g Release 2 could not come at a better time. At Oracle OpenWorld 2012 we have a great set of sessions and demos for Oracle GoldenGate users: deep dives into the new features of Oracle GoldenGate 11gR2, as well as great customer presentations from Comcast, Bank of America, Turk Telekom, Ticketmaster, St. Jude Medical Center, and more. Here are 3 must-attend sessions for GoldenGate users and for those who want to get to know GoldenGate’s capabilities: Real-World Zero-Downtime Operations with Oracle GoldenGate: Customer Panel Oct 1st 1:45 PM Moscone West – 3005 Oracle GoldenGate 11g Release 2 New Features Oct 1st 3:15 PM Moscone West – 3005 Real-World Operational Reporting with Oracle GoldenGate: Customer Panel Oct 2nd 11:45 AM Moscone West - 3005 For a full list of GoldenGate and data integration sessions, please check out our Focus-On for Data Integration. Similar to last year, Hands-on-Labs will be available for those who want to experience the power of GoldenGate first hand. One of these instructor-led sessions provides “Deep Dive into Oracle GoldenGate” will be held on Thursday Oct 4th 11:15am at Marriott Marquis - Salon ½. I expect the spots will fill out fast in this session. Oracle GoldenGate Demos will be running Monday through Wednesday in Moscone South in both Oracle Database and Oracle Fusion Middleware sections of the Oracle demo grounds. We will be showcasing: Monitoring Oracle GoldenGate for End-to-End Visibility Oracle GoldenGate 11gR2 New Features Oracle GoldenGate 11gR2: Real-Time, Transactional Database Replication Oracle GoldenGate Veridata Oracle Maximum Availability Architecture If you are not able to attend OpenWorld, you should not miss this week’s live webcast introducing Oracle GoldenGate 11g Release 2. On Wednesday the webcast will present the new features of GoldenGate and attendees will have a long, live Q&A panel session with the PM team.  I also recommend checking out the resources for GoldenGate to download new white papers. The whole team is looking forward to sharing with you the latest and greatest features of GoldenGate at the launch webcast and at OpenWorld.

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• Enterprise Architecture IS (should not be) Arbitrary

  - by pat.shepherd

  I took a look at a blog entry today by Jordan Braunstein where he comments on another blog entry titled “Yes, “Enterprise Architecture is Relative BUT it is not Arbitrary.”  The blog makes some good points such as the following: Lock 10 architects in 10 separate rooms; provide them all an identical copy of the same business, technical, process, and system requirements; have them design an architecture under the same rules and perspectives; and I guarantee your result will be 10 different architectures of varying degrees. SOA Today: Enterprise Architecture IS Arbitrary Agreed, …to a degree….but less so if all 10 truly followed one of the widely accepted EA frameworks. My thinking is that EA frameworks all focus on getting the business goals/vision locked down first as the primary drivers for decisions made lower down the architecture stack.  Many people I talk to, know about frameworks such as TOGAF, FEA, etc. but seldom apply the tenants to the architecture at hand.  We all seem to want to get right into the Visio diagrams and boxes and arrows and connecting protocols and implementation details and lions and tigers and bears (Oh, my!) too early. If done properly the Business, Application and Information architectures are nailed down BEFORE any technological direction (SOA or otherwise) is set.  Those 3 layers and Governance (people and processes), IMHO, are layers that should not vary much as they have everything to do with understanding the business -- from which technological conclusions can later be drawn. I really like what he went on to say later in the post about the fact that architecture attempts to remove the amount of variance between the 10 different architect’s work.  That is the real heart of what EA is about; REMOVING THE ARBRITRARITY.

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• $TERM set to "dumb" causes problems with suspend

  - by julkiewicz

  I've just upgraded from 11.04 to 11.10. So far I love it, everything seems just so much snappier. Now I just have one minor issue. When I try to suspend my laptop, it doesn't work - instead it fades out the screen, blocks it and then instantly wakes back. I've checked the logs in /var/log/pm-suspend.log and this fragment seems relevant: /usr/lib/pm-utils/sleep.d/000kernel-change suspend suspend: success. Running hook /usr/lib/pm-utils/sleep.d/00clear suspend suspend: TERM environment variable not set. /usr/lib/pm-utils/sleep.d/00clear suspend suspend: Returned exit code 1. Sat Nov 19 12:23:20 CET 2011: Inhibit found, will not perform suspend Sat Nov 19 12:23:20 CET 2011: Running hooks for resume The mentioned script at /usr/lib/pm-utils/sleep.d/00clear reads: #!/bin/bash clear When I open a terminal anywhere by hand, $TERM is set to either "linux" or "xterm". However somehow when the 00clear command is executed $TERM is set to "dumb". Two questions: What is the correct value for $TERM when running 00clear script? Where can I set it up? I've looked for solutions on the web, however I could only find information on how to configure $TERM in a regular terminal (and this one is set properly).

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• Menu widget - no jQuery nor Javascript required - pure CSS

  - by Renso

  Goal: Create a menu widget that does not require any javascript, extremely lightweight, very fast, soley based on CSS, compatible with FireFox and Chrome. Issues: May have some rendering issues in some versions of IE, sorry :-) Instruments: css file html with specific menu format jQuery-ui library - optional if you want to use your own images/colors Implementation Details: HTML: <div id="header">   <div id="header_Menubar">     <ul class="linkList0 ui-tabs-nav ui-helper-reset ui-helper-clearfix ui-widget-header ui-corner-all">         <li class="first more ui-state-default ui-corner-top ui-tabs-selected"><a title="Home" href="/Home">Home</a>             <ul class="linkList01 ui-tabs-nav ui-helper-reset ui-helper-clearfix ui-widget-header ui-corner-all">                 <li class="ifirst ui-state-default ui-corner-top"><abbr title="Go Home"></abbr><a title="Home" href="/Home">Home</a></li>             </ul>         </li>         <li class="more ui-state-default ui-corner-top ui-tabs-selected"><a title="Menu 2" href="/Menu2a">Menu 2</a>             <ul class="linkList01 ui-tabs-nav ui-helper-reset ui-helper-clearfix ui-widget-header ui-corner-all">                 <li class="ifirst ui-state-default ui-corner-top"><abbr title="Menu 2 a"></abbr><a title="Menu 2 a" href="/Menu2a">Menu 2 a</a></li>                 <li class="ilast ui-state-default ui-corner-top"><abbr title="Menu 2 b"></abbr><a title="Menu 2 b" href="/Menu2b">Menu 2 b</a></li>             </ul>         </li>         <li class="more red ui-state-default ui-corner-top ui-tabs-selected"><a title="Menu 3" href="/Menu3 d">Menu 3</a>             <ul class="linkList01 ui-tabs-nav ui-helper-reset ui-helper-clearfix ui-widget-header ui-corner-all">                 <li class="ifirst ui-state-default ui-corner-top"><abbr title="Menu 3 a"><a title="Menu 3 a" href="/Menu3a">Menu 3 a</a></abbr></li>                 <li class="ui-state-default ui-corner-top"><abbr title="Menu 3 b"><a title="Menu 3 b" href="/Menu3b">Menu 3 b</a></abbr></li>                 <li class="ui-state-default ui-corner-top"><abbr title="Menu 3 c"><a title="Menu 3 c" href="/Menu3c">Menu 3 c</a></abbr></li>                 <li class="ilast ui-state-default ui-corner-top"><abbr title="Menu 3 d"><a title="Menu 3 d" href="/Menu3d">Menu 3 d</a></abbr></li>             </ul>         </li>     </ul>     </div> </div> CSS: /*    =Menu     -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------    */ #header #header_Menubar {     margin: 0;     padding: 0;     border: 0;     width: 100%;     height: 22px; } #header {     background-color: #99cccc;     background-color: #aaccee;     background-color: #5BA3E0;     background-color: #006cb1; } /* Set menu bar background color     */ #header #header_Menubar {     background-attachment: scroll;     background-position: left center;     background-repeat: repeat-x; } /*    Set main (horizontal) menu typology    */ #header .linkList0 {     padding: 0 0 1em 0;     margin-bottom: 1em;     font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', 'Lucida Grande',           Verdana, Lucida, Geneva, Helvetica,           Arial, sans-serif;     font-weight: bold;     font-size: 1.085em;     font-size: 1em; } /*    Set all ul properties    */ #header .linkList0, #header .linkList0 ul {     list-style: none;     margin: 0;     padding: 0;     list-style-position: outside; } /*    Set all li properties    */ #header .linkList0 > li {     float: left;     position: relative;     font-size: 90%;     margin: 0 0 -1px;     width: 9.7em;     padding-right: 2em;     z-index: 100;    /*IE7:    Fix for IE7 hiding drop down list behind some other page elements    */ } /*    Set all li properties    */ #header .linkList01 > li {     width: 190px; } #header .linkList0 .linkList01 li {     margin-left: 0px; } /*    Set all list background image properties    */ /*#header .linkList0 li a {     background-position: left center;     background-image: url(  '../Content/Images/VerticalButtonBarGradientFade.png' );     background-repeat: repeat-x;     background-attachment: scroll; }*/ /*    Set all A ancor properties    */ #header .linkList0 li a {     display: block;     text-decoration: none;     line-height: 22px; } /*    IE7: Fix for a bug in IE7 where the margins between list items is doubled - need to set height explicitly    */ *+html #header .linkList0 ul li {     height: auto;     margin-bottom: -.3em; } /*    Menu:    Set different borders for different nested level lists     --------------------------------------------------------------    */ #header .linkList0 > li a {     border-left: 10px solid Transparent;     border-right: none; } #header .linkList0 > li a {     border-left: 0px;     margin-left: 0px;     border-right: none; } #header .linkList0 .linkList01 > li a {     border-left: 8px solid #336699;     border-right: none;     border: 1px solid Transparent;     -moz-border-radius: 5px 5px 5px 5px;     -moz-box-shadow: 3px 3px 4px #696969; } #header .linkList0 .linkList01 .linkList001 > li a {     border-left: 6px solid #336699;     border-right: none;     border: 1px solid Transparent;     -moz-border-radius: 5px 5px 5px 5px;     -moz-box-shadow: 3px 3px 4px #696969; } #header .linkList0 .linkList01 .linkList001 .linkList0001 > li a {     border-left: 4px solid #336699;     border-right: none;     border: 1px solid Transparent;     -moz-border-radius: 5px 5px 5px 5px;     -moz-box-shadow: 3px 3px 4px #696969; }     /*    Link and Visited pseudo-class settings for all lists (ul)    */ #header .linkList0 a:link, #header .linkList0 a:visited {     display: block;     text-decoration: none;     padding-left: 1em; } /*    Hide all the nested/sub menu items    */ #header .linkList0 ul {     display: none;     padding: 0;     position: absolute;    /*Important: must not impede on other page elements when drop down opens up    */ } /*    Hide all detail popups    */ #header .detailPopup {     display: none; } /*    Set the typology of all sub-menu list items li    */ /*#header .linkList0 ul li {     background-color: #AACCEE;     background-position: left center;     background-image: url(  '../Content/Images/VerticalButtonBarGradientFade.png' );     background-repeat: repeat-x;     background-attachment: scroll; }*/ #header .linkList0 ul li.more {     background: Transparent url('../Content/Images/ArrowRight.gif') no-repeat right center; } /*    Header list's margin and padding for all list items    */ #header .linkList0 ul li {     margin: 0 0 0 1em;     padding: 0; } #header .linkList01 ul li {     margin: 0;     padding: 0;     width: 189px; } /*    Set margins for the third li sibling (Plan a Call) to display to the right of the parent menu     to avoid the sub-menu overlaying the menu items below    */ #header .linkList0 li.more .linkList01 li.more > ul.linkList001 {     margin: -1.7em 0 0 13.2em;    /*Important, must be careful, if tbe EM since gap increases too much bewteen nested lists the gap will make the nested-list collapse prematurely    */ } /*    Set right hand arrow for list items with sub-menus (class-more)    */ #header li.more {     background: Transparent url('../Content/Images/ArrowRight.gif') no-repeat right center;     padding-right: 48px; } /*    Menu:    Dynamic Behavior of menu items (hover, visted, etc)     -----------------------------------------------------------    */ #header .linkList0 li a:link, #header .linkList01 li a:link {     display: block; } #header .linkList0 li a:visited, #header .linkList01 li a:visited {     display: block; } #header .linkList0 > li:hover { } #header .linkList01 > li:hover a ,#header .linkList001 > li:hover a {     text-decoration: underline; } #header .linkList0 > li abbr:hover span.detailPopup {     display: block;     position: absolute;     top: 1em;     left: 17em;     border: double 1px #696969;     border-style: outset;     width: 120%;     height: auto;     padding: 5px;     font-weight: 100; } #header .linkList0 > li:hover ,#header .linkList0 .linkList01 > li:hover { } #header .linkList0 .linkList01 .linkList001 > li:hover { } #header .linkList0 .linkList01 .linkList001 .linkList0001 > li:hover { } /*    Display the hidden sub menu when hovering over the parent ul's li    */ #header .linkList0 li:hover > ul {     display: block; } /*    Display the hidden sub menu when hovering over the parent ul's li    */ #header .linkList0 .linkList01 li:hover > ul {     display: block;         background: -moz-linear-gradient(top, #1E83CC, #619FCD);     /* Chrome, Safari:*/     background: -webkit-gradient(linear,                 center top, center bottom, from(#1E83CC), to(#619FCD)); } /*    Display the hidden sub menu when hovering over the parent ul's li    */ #header .linkList0 .linkList01 .linkList001 li:hover > ul {     display: block; } /*    Set right hand arrow for list items with sub-menus (class-more) on hover    */ #header li.more:hover { } Also some CSS for global settings that will affect this menu, you of course will have some other styling, but included it here so you can see how/why some css properties were set here: /* Neutralize styling:    Elements we want to clean out entirely: */ html, body {     margin: 0;     padding: 0;     font: 62.5%/120% Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; } /* Neutralize styling:    Elements with a vertical margin: */ h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, p, pre, blockquote, ul, ol, dl, address {     margin: 0;    /*    most browsers set some default value that is not shared by all browsers    */     padding: 0;        /*    some borowsers default padding, set to 0 for all    */ } /* Apply left margin:    Only to the few elements that need it: */ li, dd, blockquote {     margin-left: 1em; }

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