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  • Why notify listeners in a content provider query method?

    - by cbrulak
    Vegeolla has this blog post about content providers and the snippet below (at the bottom) with this line: cursor.setNotificationUri(getContext().getContentResolver(), uri); I'm curious as to why one would want to notify listeners about a query operation. Am I missing something? Thanks @Override public Cursor query(Uri uri, String[] projection, String selection, String[] selectionArgs, String sortOrder) { // Uisng SQLiteQueryBuilder instead of query() method SQLiteQueryBuilder queryBuilder = new SQLiteQueryBuilder(); // Check if the caller has requested a column which does not exists checkColumns(projection); // Set the table queryBuilder.setTables(TodoTable.TABLE_TODO); int uriType = sURIMatcher.match(uri); switch (uriType) { case TODOS: break; case TODO_ID: // Adding the ID to the original query queryBuilder.appendWhere(TodoTable.COLUMN_ID + "=" + uri.getLastPathSegment()); break; default: throw new IllegalArgumentException("Unknown URI: " + uri); } SQLiteDatabase db = database.getWritableDatabase(); Cursor cursor = queryBuilder.query(db, projection, selection, selectionArgs, null, null, sortOrder); // Make sure that potential listeners are getting notified cursor.setNotificationUri(getContext().getContentResolver(), uri); return cursor; }

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  • Is there a free version control server provider for non-public projects?

    - by ttobiass
    I'd like to have a version control server (preferably SVN) accessible on the internet without having to host my own (linux) server. Setting up a home server ala DynDNS is not really an option. Can you have non-public (maybe single-user) projects on one of the OSS project hosting sites? Or are there alternatives? I had a look at Google Code. But that looked very public to me. Any help would be greatly appreciated :-)

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  • How to set HTML list as mx:DataGrid data provider?

    - by Ole Jak
    So I have Html like this http://trac.edgewall.org/wiki/RecentChanges (I want to create some Flash Track reader which will be opensource) I need to list in my DataGrid Index of all viki pages in form like +-----------+--------+ |page name |page url| +-----------+--------+ | name | url | +-----------+--------+

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  • Is there a .net 4.0 provider for IBM DB2?

    - by Mesan
    I can do any .Net development using v2 of the CLR (.net 2, 3, 3.5) but when I try to use .Net 4.0 then I get an error saying that the version of IBM.Data.DB2 is too old / out of date (it's compiled for CLR v2). Where would I find a .Net 4 version of IBM.Data.DB2?

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  • Kloxo - Use third party nameserver

    - by LePhleg
    Here's my case: I got my domain from a registrar. I got my VPS up from a provider who also offers free DNS hosting, on their own server (separately from my VPS, IP:111.111.111.111). So I got these third-party nameservers, lets name them: ns1.provider.com ns2.provider.com and pointed my domain registrar to them. I let it propagate for 24 hours so I believe its ok. (if I ping my domain I get the IP for these nameservers - 111.111.111.111) Afterwards I headed to my providers cPanel (the one they gave me for the DNS hosting service) and changed the default A Record IP from 111.111.111.111 to the IP associated with my VPS (IP:222.222.222.222). The last step, as I see it, is to configure my VPS via Kloxo panel and add the domain. Can someone guide me how can I achieve that? Is it just enough to create a new DNS Template and add as Primary DNS "ns1.provider.com" and Secondary DNS "ns2.provider.com"? Every tutorial I found is using Kloxo to create local nameservers on the same VPS which is something I want to avoid to save resources..

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  • How do I extract Info associated with any OpenID provider?

    - by Adnan
    OpenID providers like GOogle,Yahoo etc also stroes user info like Name,email etc. Is it possible to retrieve it by using OpenID Selector(http://code.google.com/p/openid-selector/)? If yes then how do I fetch it? is the OpenID URL same every time when a user logs in? if yes ten may I store that handler in DB? I am using PHP.

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  • Can I update an Android provider.Settings.System value?

    - by Mr_Ed
    I can read settings like this, for example: final String mytest = System.getString(this.getContentResolver(), System.AIRPLANE_MODE_ON); ...but can't seem to write to settings using putString, no matter what I've tried. Maybe it is the scope of this.getContentResolver()??? I'm a newbie, so who knows, maybe it can't be done, or it's just syntax? Currently the code is in the onCreate of an Activity class. Any insight is much appreciated.

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  • Why doesn't Google OpenID provider work with PHP-OpenId on my server?

    - by Steven Devijver
    Hey, I'm using PHP-OpenId 2.1.3 which I've unzipped on my server here (this is the consumer example that comes with PHP-OpenId). When I enter the Google OpenId url (https://www.google.com/accounts/o8/id) and submit I get a blank screen. When I try the exact same example code on the PHP-OpenId website here with the same URL it works fine. I don't understand what I'm doing wrong. The only thing I can think of is that somehow Google does not want to work with my server. Any ideas how to make this work? Thanks

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  • File not found on RSACryptoServiceProvider, service account permissions?

    - by Ben Scheirman
    Our web service wraps around a third party library that contains the following code. We are using an Active Directory service account in the IIS 6 app pool (no interactive login abilities). Our service fails with the error “The system cannot find the file specified”. We’ve traced the error to the “RSACryptoServiceProvider provider = new RSACryptoServiceProvider();”. The third party assembly depends on a x509 file based certificate for its encryption process and the Service Account has Read / Write access to the keys folder. Additionally, the service account has Read, Write, Modify rights to “C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Microsoft\Crypto\RSA\MachineKeys”. Code: StringBuilder builder = new StringBuilder(publicKeyData); builder.Replace("-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----", ""); builder.Replace("-----END CERTIFICATE-----", ""); X509Certificate2 certificate = new X509Certificate2( Convert.FromBase64String(builder.ToString())); string xmlString = certificate.PublicKey.Key.ToXmlString(false); RSACryptoServiceProvider provider = new RSACryptoServiceProvider(); //BOOM CspKeyContainerInfo containerInfo = provider.CspKeyContainerInfo; provider.PersistKeyInCsp = false; provider.FromXmlString(xmlString); loadedKeys.Add(key, provider); provider2 = provider; We cracked open FileMon and noticed that there is a FILE NOT FOUND for that AppPool, followed by another SUCCESS for the same exact file. I'm out of my element here, anybody have an idea as to why we're seeing this?

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  • Designer serialization persistence problem in .NET, Windows Forms

    - by Jules
    ETA: I have a similar, smaller, problem here which, I suspect, is related to this problem. I have a class which has a readonly property that holds a collection of components (* not quite, see below). At design time, it's possible to select from the components on the design surface to add to the collection. (Think imagelist, but instead of selecting one, you can select as many as you want.) As a test, I inherit from button and attach my class to it as a property. The persistence problem occurs when I add a component,to the collection, from the design surface after I have added my button to the form. The best way to demonstrate this is to show you the designer generated code: Private Sub InitializeComponent() Dim Provider1 As WindowsApplication1.Provider = New WindowsApplication1.Provider Me.MyComponent2 = New WindowsApplication1.MyComponent Me.MyComponent1 = New WindowsApplication1.MyComponent Me.MyButton1 = New WindowsApplication1.MyButton Me.MyComponent3 = New WindowsApplication1.MyComponent Me.SuspendLayout() ' 'MyButton1 ' Me.MyButton1.ProviderCollection.Add(Me.MyButton1.InternalProvider) Me.MyButton1.ProviderCollection.Add(Me.MyComponent1.Provider) Me.MyButton1.ProviderCollection.Add(Me.MyComponent2.Provider) Me.MyButton1.ProviderCollection.Add(Provider1) //Wrong should be Me.MyComponent3.Provider ' 'Form1 ' Me.Controls.Add(Me.MyButton1) End Sub Friend WithEvents MyComponent1 As WindowsApplication1.MyComponent Friend WithEvents MyComponent2 As WindowsApplication1.MyComponent Friend WithEvents MyButton1 As WindowsApplication1.MyButton Friend WithEvents MyComponent3 As WindowsApplication1.MyComponent End Class As you can see from the code, the collection is not actually a collection of the components, but a collection of a property, 'Provider', from the components. It looks like the problem is occurring because MyComponent3 is created after MyButton. However, in my opinion, this should not make any difference - by the time the serializer comes to add the provider property of MyComponent3, it's already created. Note: You may wonder, why I'm not using AddRange to persist the collection. The reason for this is that if I do, the behaviour changes and none of the items will persist correctly. The designer will create local fields - like Provider1 - for each item in the collection. However if I add another collection to the class which holds the actual MyComponents and persist this, then, somehow, the AddRange method persists correctly in ProviderCollection! There seems to be some kind of quantum double slit experiment going down in code dom. How can I solve this problem?

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  • ASP.NET MVC 2 user input to SQL 2008 Database problems

    - by Rob
    After my publish in VS2010 the entire website loads and pulls data from the database perfectly. I can even create new users through the site with the correct key code, given out to who needs access. I have two connection strings in my web.config file The first: <add xdt:Transform="SetAttributes" xdt:Locator="Match(name)" name="EveModelContainer" connectionString="metadata=res://*/Models.EdmModel.EveModel.csdl|res://*/Models.EdmModel.EveModel.ssdl|res://*/Models.EdmModel.EveModel.msl;provider=System.Data.SqlClient;provider connection string=&quot;Data Source=localhost;Initial Catalog=fleet;Persist Security Info=True;User ID=fleet;Password=****&quot;" providerName="System.Data.EntityClient" /> The second: <add xdt:Transform="SetAttributes" xdt:Locator="Match(name)" name="ApplicationServices" connectionString="Data Source=localhost;Initial Catalog=fleet;Persist Security Info=True;User ID=fleet;Password=****;MultipleActiveResultSets=True" /> The first one is the one that is needed to post data with the main application, EveModelContainer. Everything else is pulled using the standard ApplicationServices connection. Do you see anything wrong with my connectionstring? I'm at a complete loss here. The site works perfectly on my friends server and not on mine... Could it be a provider issue? And if I go to iis 7's manager console, and click .net users I get a pop up message saying the custom provider isn't a trusted provider do I want to allow it to run at a higher trust level. I'm at the point where I think its either my string or this trusted provider error... but I have no clue how to add to the trusted provider list... Thank you in advance!!!

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  • Java homework help, Error <identifier> expected

    - by user2900126
    Help with java homework this is my assignment that I have, this assignment code I've tried. But when I try to compile it I keep getting errors which I cant seem to find soloutions too: Error says <identifier> expected for Line 67 public static void () Assignment brief To write a simple java classMobile that models a mobile phone. Details the information stored about each mobile phone will include • Its type e.g. “Sony ericsson x90” or “Samsung Galaxy S”; • Its screen size in inches; You may assume that this a whole number from the scale 3 to 5 inclusive. • Its memory card capacity in gigabytes You may assume that this a whole number • The name of its present service provider You may assume this is a single line of text. • The type of contract with service provider You may assume this is a single line of text. • Its camera resolution in megapixels; You should not assume that this a whole number; • The percentage of charge left on the phone e.g. a fully charged phone will have a charge of 100. You may assume that this a whole number • Whether the phone has GPS or not. Your class will have fields corresponding to these attributes . Start by opening BlueJ, creating a new project called myMobile which has a classMobile and set up the fields that you need, Next you will need to write a Constructor for the class. Assume that each phone is manufactured by creating an object and specifying its type, its screen size, its memory card capacity, its camera resolution and whether it has GPS or not. Therefore you will need a constructor that allows you to pass arguments to initialise these five attributes. Other fields should be set to appropriate default values. You may assume that a new phone comes fully charged. When the phone is sold to its owner, you will need to set the service provider and type of contract with that provider so you will need mutator methods • setProvider () - - to set service provider. • setContractType - - to set the type of contract These methods will be used when the phones provider is changed. You should also write a mutator method ChargeUp () which simulates fully charging the phone. To obtain information about your mobile object you should write • accessor methods corresponding to four of its fields: • getType () – which returns the type of mobile; • getProvider () – which returns the present service provider; • getContractType () – which returns its type of contract; • getCharge () – which returns its remaining charge. An accessor method to printDetails () to print, to the terminal window, a report about the phone e.g. This mobile phone is a sony Erricsson X90 with Service provider BigAl and type of contract PAYG. At present it has 30% of its battery charge remaining. Check that the new method works correctly by for example, • creating a Mobile object and setting its fields; • calling printDetails () and t=checking the report corresponds to the details you have just given the mobile; • changing the service provider and contract type by calling setprovider () and setContractType (); • calling printDetails () and checking the report now prints out the new details. Challenging excercises • write a mutator methodswitchedOnFor () =which simulates using the phone for a specified period. You may assume the phone loses 1% of its charge for each hour that it is switched on . • write an accessor method checkcharge () whichg checks the phone remaing charge. If this charge has a value less than 25%, then this method returns a string containg the message Be aware that you will soon need to re-charge your phone, otherwise it returns a string your phone charge is sufficient. • Write a method changeProvider () which simulates changing the provider (and presumably also the type of service contract). Finally you may add up to four additional fields, with appropriate methods, that might be required in a more detailed model. above is my assignment that I have, this assignment code I've tried. But when I try to oompile it I keep getting errors which I cant seem to find soloutions too: Error says <identifier> expected for Line 67 public static void () /** * to write a simple java class Mobile that models a mobile phone. * * @author (Lewis Burte-Clarke) * @version (14/10/13) */ public class Mobile { // type of phone private String phonetype; // size of screen in inches private int screensize; // menory card capacity private int memorycardcapacity; // name of present service provider private String serviceprovider; // type of contract with service provider private int typeofcontract; // camera resolution in megapixels private int cameraresolution; // the percentage of charge left on the phone private int checkcharge; // wether the phone has GPS or not private String GPS; // instance variables - replace the example below with your own private int x; // The constructor method public Mobile(String mobilephonetype, int mobilescreensize, int mobilememorycardcapacity,int mobilecameraresolution,String mobileGPS, String newserviceprovider) { this.phonetype = mobilephonetype; this.screensize = mobilescreensize; this.memorycardcapacity = mobilememorycardcapacity; this.cameraresolution = mobilecameraresolution; this.GPS = mobileGPS; // you do not use this ones during instantiation,you can remove them if you do not need or assign them some default values //this.serviceprovider = newserviceprovider; //this.typeofcontract = 12; //this.checkcharge = checkcharge; Mobile samsungPhone = new Mobile("Samsung", "1024", "2", "verizon", "8", "GPS"); 1024 = screensize; 2 = memorycardcapacity; 8 = resolution; GPS = gps; "verizon"=serviceprovider; //typeofcontract = 12; //checkcharge = checkcharge; } // A method to display the state of the object to the screen public void displayMobileDetails() { System.out.println("phonetype: " + phonetype); System.out.println("screensize: " + screensize); System.out.println("memorycardcapacity: " + memorycardcapacity); System.out.println("cameraresolution: " + cameraresolution); System.out.println("GPS: " + GPS); System.out.println("serviceprovider: " + serviceprovider); System.out.println("typeofcontract: " + typeofcontract); } /** * The mymobile class implements an application that * simply displays "new Mobile!" to the standard output. */ public class mymobile { public static void main(String[] args) { System.out.println("new Mobile!"); //Display the string. } } public static void buildPhones(){ Mobile Samsung = new Mobile("Samsung", "3.0", "4gb", "8mega pixels", "GPS"); Mobile Blackberry = new Mobile("Blackberry", "3.0", "4gb", "8mega pixels", "GPS"); Samsung.displayMobileDetails(); Blackberry.displayMobileDetails(); } public static void main(String[] args) { buildPhones(); } } any answers.replies and help would be greatly appreciated as I really lost!

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  • Configure Forms based authentication in SharePoint 2010

    - by sreejukg
      Configuring form authentication is a straight forward task in SharePoint. Mostly public facing websites built on SharePoint requires form based authentication. Recently, one of the WCM implementation where I was included in the project team required registration system. Any internet user can register to the site and the site offering them some membership specific functionalities once the user logged in. Since the registration open for all, I don’t want to store all those users in Active Directory. I have decided to use Forms based authentication for those users. This is a typical scenario of form authentication in SharePoint implementation. To implement form authentication you require the following A data store where you are storing the users – technically this can be active directory, SQL server database, LDAP etc. Form authentication will redirect the user to the login page, if the request is not authenticated. In the login page, there will be controls that validate the user inputs against the configured data store. In this article, I am going to use SQL server database with ASP.Net membership API’s to configure form based authentication in SharePoint 2010. This article assumes that you have SQL membership database available. I already configured the membership and roles database using aspnet_regsql command. If you want to know how to configure membership database using aspnet_regsql command, read the below blog post. http://weblogs.asp.net/sreejukg/archive/2011/06/16/usage-of-aspnet-regsql-exe-in-asp-net-4.aspx The snapshot of the database after implementing membership and role manager is as follows. I have used the database name “aspnetdb_claim”. Make sure you have created the database and make sure your database contains tables and stored procedures for membership. Create a web application with claims based authentication. This article assumes you already created a web application using claims based authentication. If you want to enable forms based authentication in SharePoint 2010, you must enable claims based authentication. Read this post for creating a web application using claims based authentication. http://weblogs.asp.net/sreejukg/archive/2011/06/15/create-a-web-application-in-sharepoint-2010-using-claims-based-authentication.aspx  You make sure, you have selected enable form authentication, and then selected Membership provider and Role manager name. To make sure you are done with the configuration, navigate to central administration website, from central administration, navigate to the Web Applications page, select the web application and click on icon, you will see the authentication providers for the current web application. Go to the section Claims authentication types, and make sure you have enabled forms based authentication. As mentioned in the snapshot, I have named the membership provider as SPFormAuthMembership and role manager as SPFormAuthRoleManager. You can choose your own names as you need. Modify the configuration files(Web.Config) to enable form authentication There are three applications that needs to be configured to support form authentication. The following are those applications. Central Administration If you want to assign permissions to web application using the credentials from form authentication, you need to update Central Administration configuration. If you do not want to access form authentication credentials from Central Administration, just leave this step.  STS service application Security Token service is the service application that issues security token when users are logging in. You need to modify the configuration of STS application to make sure users are able to login. To find the STS application, follow the following steps Go to the IIS Manager Expand the sites Node, you will see SharePoint Web Services Expand SharePoint Web Services, you can see SecurityTokenServiceApplication Right click SecuritytokenServiceApplication and click explore, it will open the corresponding file system. By default, the path for STS is C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\14\WebServices\SecurityToken You need to modify the configuration file available in the mentioned location. The web application that needs to be enabled with form authentication. You need to modify the configuration of your web application to make sure your web application identifies users from the form authentication.   Based on the above, I am going to modify the web configuration. At end of each step, I have mentioned the expected output. I recommend you to go step by step and after each step, make sure the configuration changes are working as expected. If you do everything all together, and test your application at the end, you may face difficulties in troubleshooting the configuration errors. Modifications for Central Administration Web.Config Open the web.config for the Central administration in a text editor. I always prefer Visual Studio, for editing web.config. In most cases, the path of the web.config for the central administration website is as follows C:\inetpub\wwwroot\wss\VirtualDirectories\<port number> Make sure you keep a backup copy of the web.config, before editing it. Let me summarize what we are going to do with Central Administration web.config. First I am going to add a connection string that points to the form authentication database, that I created as mentioned in previous steps. Then I need to add a membership provider and a role manager with the corresponding connectionstring. Then I need to update the peoplepickerwildcards section to make sure the users are appearing in search results. By default there is no connection string available in the web.config of Central Administration. Add a connection string just after the configsections element. The below is the connection string I have used all over the article. <add name="FormAuthConnString" connectionString="Initial Catalog=yourdatabasename;data source=databaseservername;Integrated Security=SSPI;" /> Once you added the connection string, the web.config look similar to Now add membership provider to the code. In web.config for CA, there will be <membership> tag, search for it. You will find membership and role manager under the <system.web> element. Under the membership providers section add the below code… <add name="SPFormAuthMembership" type="System.Web.Security.SqlMembershipProvider, System.Web, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b03f5f7f11d50a3a" applicationName="FormAuthApplication" connectionStringName="FormAuthConnString" /> After adding memberhip element, see the snapshot of the web.config. Now you need to add role manager element to the web.config. Insider providers element under rolemanager, add the below code. <add name="SPFormAuthRoleManager" type="System.Web.Security.SqlRoleProvider, System.Web, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b03f5f7f11d50a3a" applicationName="FormAuthApplication" connectionStringName="FormAuthConnString" /> After adding, your role manager will look similar to the following. As a last step, you need to update the people picker wildcard element in web.config, so that the users from your membership provider are available for browsing in Central Administration. Search for PeoplePickerWildcards in the web.config, add the following inside the <PeoplePickerWildcards> tag. <add key="SPFormAuthMembership" value="%" /> After adding this element, your web.config will look like After completing these steps, you can browse the users available in the SQL server database from central administration website. Go to the site collection administrator’s page from central administration. Select the site collection you have created for form authentication. Click on the people picker icon, choose Forms Auth and click on the search icon, you will see the users listed from the SQL server database. Once you complete these steps, make sure the users are available for browsing from central administration website. If you are unable to find the users, there must be some errors in the configuration, check windows event logs to find related errors and fix them. Change the web.config for STS application Open the web.config for STS application in text editor. By default, STS web.config does not have system.Web or connectionstrings section. Just after the System.Webserver element, add the following code. <connectionStrings> <add name="FormAuthConnString" connectionString="Initial Catalog=aspnetdb_claim;data source=sp2010_db;Integrated Security=SSPI;" /> </connectionStrings> <system.web> <roleManager enabled="true" cacheRolesInCookie="false" cookieName=".ASPXROLES" cookieTimeout="30" cookiePath="/" cookieRequireSSL="false" cookieSlidingExpiration="true" cookieProtection="All" createPersistentCookie="false" maxCachedResults="25"> <providers> <add name="SPFormAuthRoleManager" type="System.Web.Security.SqlRoleProvider, System.Web, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b03f5f7f11d50a3a" applicationName="FormAuthApplication" connectionStringName="FormAuthConnString" /> </providers> </roleManager> <membership userIsOnlineTimeWindow="15" hashAlgorithmType=""> <providers> <add name="SPFormAuthMembership" type="System.Web.Security.SqlMembershipProvider, System.Web, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b03f5f7f11d50a3a" applicationName="FormAuthApplication" connectionStringName="FormAuthConnString" /> </providers> </membership> </system.web> See the snapshot of the web.config after adding the required elements. After adding this, you should be able to login using the credentials from SQL server. Try assigning a user as primary/secondary administrator for your site collection from Central Administration and login to your site using form authentication. If you made everything correct, you should be able to login. This means you have successfully completed configuration of STS Configuration of Web Application for Form Authentication As a last step, you need to modify the web.config of the form authentication web application. Once you have done this, you should be able to grant permissions to users stored in the membership database. Open the Web.config of the web application you created for form authentication. You can find the web.config for the application under the path C:\inetpub\wwwroot\wss\VirtualDirectories\<port number> Basically you need to add connection string, membership provider, role manager and update the people picker wild card configuration. Add the connection string (same as the one you added to the web.config in Central Administration). See the screenshot after the connection string has added. Search for <membership> in the web.config, you will find this inside system.web element. There will be other providers already available there. You add your form authentication membership provider (similar to the one added to Central Administration web.config) to the provider element under membership. Find the snapshot of membership configuration as follows. Search for <roleManager> element in web.config, add the new provider name under providers section of the roleManager element. See the snapshot of web.config after new provider added. Now you need to configure the peoplepickerwildcard configuration in web.config. As I specified earlier, this is to make sure, you can locate the users by entering a part of their username. Add the following line under the <PeoplePickerWildcards> element in web.config. See the screenshot of the peoplePickerWildcards element after the element has been added. Now you have completed all the setup for form authentication. Navigate to the web application. From the site actions -> site settings -> go to peope and groups Click on new -> add users, it will popup the people picker dialog. Click on the icon, select Form Auth, enter a username in the search textbox, and click on search icon. See the screenshot of admin search when I tried searching the users If it displays the user, it means you are done with the configuration. If you add users to the form authentication database, the users will be able to access SharePoint portal as normal.

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  • Understanding the value of Customer Experience & Loyalty for the Telecommunications Industry

    - by raul.goycoolea
    Worried by economic woes and market forces, especially in mature markets, communications service providers (CSPs) increasingly focus on improving customer experience. In fact, it seems difficult to find a major message by a C-level executive in the developed world that does not include something on "meeting and exceeding customers' needs". Frequently in customer satisfaction studies by prominent firms, CSPs fall short of the leadership demonstrated by other industries that take customer-centric approaches to their bottom-line strategies. Consider the following:Despite the continued impact of global economic crisis, in July 2010, Apple Computer posted record revenue and net quarterly profit. Those who attribute the results primarily to the iPhone 4 launch should note that Apple also shipped around 30% more Macintosh computers than the same period the previous year. Even sales of the iPod line increased by 8% in a highly commoditized, shrinking media player market. Finally, Apple began selling iPads during the quarter, with total sales of more than 3 million units. What does Apple have that the others lack? Well, some great products (and services) to be sure, but it also excels at customer service and support, marketing, and distribution, and has one of the strongest brands globally. Its products are useful, simple to use, easy to acquire and augment, high quality, and considered very cool. They also evoke such an emotional response from many of Apple's customers, which they turn up their noses at competitive products.In other words, Apple appears to have mastered virtually every aspect of customer experience and the resultant loyalty of its customer base - even in difficult financial times. Through that unwavering customer focus, Apple continues to drive its revenues and profits to new heights. Other customer loyalty leaders like Wal-Mart, Google, Toyota and Honda are also doing well by focusing on customer experience as an essential driver of profitability. Service providers should note this performance and ask themselves how they might leverage the same principles to increase their own profitability. After all, that is what customer experience and loyalty are all about: profitability.To successfully manage all the critical touch points of customer experience, CSPs must shun the one-size-fits-all approach. They can no longer afford to view customer service fundamentally as an act of altruism - which mentality dates back to the industry's civil service days, when CSPs were typically government organizations that were critical to economic development and public safety.As regulators and public officials have pushed, and continue to push, service providers to new heights of reliability - using incentives and punishments - most CSPs already have some of the fundamental building blocks of customer service in place. Yet despite that history and experience, service providers still lag other industries in providing what is seen as good customer service.As we observed in the TMF's 2009 Insights Research report, Customer Experience Management: Driving Loyalty & Profitability there has been resurgence in interest by CSPs. More and more of them have stated ambitions to catch up other industries, and they are realizing that good customer service is a powerful strategy for increasing business performance and profitability, not an act of good will.CSPs are recognizing the connection between customer experience and profitability, as demonstrated in many studies. For example, according to research by Bain & Company, a 5 percent improvement in customer retention rates can yield as much as a 75 percent increase in profits for companies across a range of industries.After decades of customer experience strategy formulation, Bain partner and business author, Frederick Reichheld, considers "would you recommend us to a friend?" as the ultimate question for a customer. How many times have you or your friends recommended an iPod, iPhone or a Mac? What do your children recommend to their peers? Their peers to them?There are certain steps service providers have to take to create more personalized relationships with their customers, as well as reduce churn and increase profitability, all while becoming leaner and more agile. First, they have to define customer experience, we define it as the result of the sum of observations, perceptions, thoughts and feelings arising from interactions and relationships between customers and their service provider(s). Virtually every customer touch point - whether directly or indirectly linked to service providers and their partners - contributes to customer perception, satisfaction, loyalty, and ultimately profitability. Gaining leadership in customer experience and satisfaction will not be a simple task, as it is affected by virtually every customer-facing aspect of the service provider, and in turn impacts the service provider deeply - especially on the all-important bottom line. The scope of issues affecting customer experience is complex and dynamic.With new services, devices and applications extending the basis of customer experience to domains beyond the direct control of the service provider, it is likely to increase in complexity and dynamism.Customer loyalty = increased profitsAs stated earlier, customer experience programs are not fundamentally altruistic exercises, but a strategic means of improving competitiveness and profitability in the short and long term. Loyalty is essential to deriving long term profits from customers.Some of the earliest loyalty programs date back to the 1930s, when packaged goods companies offered embedded coupons for rewards to buyers, and eventually retail chains began offering reward programs to frequent shoppers. These programs continued for decades but were leapfrogged in the 1980s by more aggressive programs from the airlines.This movement was led by American Airlines, which launched the first full-scale loyalty marketing program of the modern era with the AAdvantage frequent flyer scheme. It was the first to reward frequent fliers with notional air miles that could be accumulated and later redeemed for free travel. Figure 1: Opportunities example of Customer loyalty driven profitOther airlines and travel providers were quick to grasp the incredible value of providing customers with an incentive to use their company exclusively. Within a few years, dozens of travel industry companies launched similar initiatives and now loyalty programs are achieving near-ubiquity in many service industries, especially those in which it is difficult to differentiate offerings by product attributes.The belief is that increased profitability will result from customer retention efforts because:•    The cost of acquisition occurs only at the beginning of a relationship: the longer the relationship, the lower the amortized cost;•    Account maintenance costs decline as a percentage of total costs, or as a percentage of revenue, over the lifetime of the relationship;•    Long term customers tend to be less inclined to switch and less price sensitive which can result in stable unit sales volume and increases in dollar-sales volume;•    Long term customers may initiate word-of-mouth promotions and referrals, which cost the company nothing and arguably are the most effective form of advertising;•    Long-term customers are more likely to buy ancillary products and higher margin supplemental products;•    Long term customers tend to be satisfied with their relationship with the company and are less likely to switch to competitors, making market entry or competitors gaining market share difficult;•    Regular customers tend to be less expensive to service, as they are familiar with the processes involved, require less 'education', and are consistent in their order placement;•    Increased customer retention and loyalty makes the employees' jobs easier and more satisfying. In turn, happy employees feed back into higher customer satisfaction in a virtuous circle. Figure 2: The virtuous circle of customer loyaltyFigure 2 represents a high-level example of a virtuous cycle driven by customer satisfaction and loyalty, depicting how superiority in product and service offerings, as well as strong customer support by competent employees, lead to higher sales and ultimately profitability. As stated above, this is not a new concept, but succeeding with it is difficult. It has eluded many a company driven to achieve profitability goals. Of course, for this circle to be virtuous, the customer relationship(s) must be profitable.Trying to maintain the loyalty of unprofitable customers is not a viable business strategy. It is, therefore, important that marketers can assess the profitability of each customer (or customer segment), and either improve or terminate relationships that are not profitable. This means each customer's 'relationship costs' must be understood and compared to their 'relationship revenue'. Customer lifetime value (CLV) is the most commonly used metric here, as it is generally accepted as a representation of exactly how much each customer is worth in monetary terms, and therefore a determinant of exactly how much a service provider should be willing to spend to acquire or retain that customer.CLV models make several simplifying assumptions and often involve the following inputs:•    Churn rate represents the percentage of customers who end their relationship with a company in a given period;•    Retention rate is calculated by subtracting the churn rate percentage from 100;•    Period/horizon equates to the units of time into which a customer relationship can be divided for analysis. A year is the most commonly used period for this purpose. Customer lifetime value is a multi-period calculation, often projecting three to seven years into the future. In practice, analysis beyond this point is viewed as too speculative to be reliable. The model horizon is the number of periods used in the calculation;•    Periodic revenue is the amount of revenue collected from a customer in a given period (though this is often extended across multiple periods into the future to understand lifetime value), such as usage revenue, revenues anticipated from cross and upselling, and often some weighting for referrals by a loyal customer to others; •    Retention cost describes the amount of money the service provider must spend, in a given period, to retain an existing customer. Again, this is often forecast across multiple periods. Retention costs include customer support, billing, promotional incentives and so on;•    Discount rate means the cost of capital used to discount future revenue from a customer. Discounting is an advanced method used in more sophisticated CLV calculations;•    Profit margin is the projected profit as a percentage of revenue for the period. This may be reflected as a percentage of gross or net profit. Again, this is generally projected across the model horizon to understand lifetime value.A strong focus on managing these inputs can help service providers realize stronger customer relationships and profits, but there are some obstacles to overcome in achieving accurate calculations of CLV, such as the complexity of allocating costs across the customer base. There are many costs that serve all customers which must be properly allocated across the base, and often a simple proportional allocation across the whole base or a segment may not accurately reflect the true cost of serving that customer;  This is made worse by the fragmentation of customer information, which is likely to be across a variety of product or operations groups, and may be difficult to aggregate due to different representations.In addition, there is the complexity of account relationships and structures to take into consideration. Complex account structures may not be understood or properly represented. For example, a profitable customer may have a separate account for a second home or another family member, which may appear to be unprofitable. If the service provider cannot relate the two accounts, CLV is not properly represented and any resultant cancellation of the apparently unprofitable account may result in the customer churning from the profitable one.In summary, if service providers are to realize strong customer relationships and their attendant profits, there must be a very strong focus on data management. This needs to be coupled with analytics that help business managers and those who work in customer-facing functions offer highly personalized solutions to customers, while maintaining profitability for the service provider. It's clear that acquiring new customers is expensive. Advertising costs, campaign management expenses, promotional service pricing and discounting, and equipment subsidies make a serious dent in a new customer's profitability. That is especially true given the rising subsidies for Smartphone users, which service providers hope will result in greater profits from profits from data services profitability in future.  The situation is made worse by falling prices and greater competition in mature markets.Customer acquisition through industry consolidation isn't cheap either. A North American service provider spent about $2,000 per subscriber in its acquisition of a smaller company earlier this year. While this has allowed it to leapfrog to become the largest mobile service provider in the country, it required a total investment of more than $28 billion (including assumption of the acquiree's debt).While many operating cost synergies clearly made this deal more attractive to the acquiring company, this is certainly an expensive way to acquire customers: the cost per subscriber in this case is not out of line with the prices others have paid for acquisitions.While growth by acquisition certainly increases overall revenues, it often creates tremendous challenges for profitability. Organic growth through increased customer loyalty and retention is a more effective driver of profit, as well as a stronger predictor of future profitability. Service providers, especially those in mature markets, are increasingly recognizing this and taking steps toward a creating a more personalized, flexible and satisfying experience for their customers.In summary, the clearest path to profitability for companies in virtually all industries is through customer retention and maximization of lifetime value. Service providers would do well to recognize this and focus attention on profitable customer relationships.

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  • Search in Projects API

    - by Geertjan
    Today I got some help from Jaroslav Havlin, the creator of the new "Search in Projects API". Below are the steps to create a search provider that finds recently modified files, via a new tab in the "Find in Projects" dialog: Here's how to get to the above result. Create a new NetBeans module project named "RecentlyModifiedFilesSearch". Then set dependencies on these libraries: Search in Projects API Lookup API Utilities API Dialogs API Datasystems API File System API Nodes API Create and register an implementation of "SearchProvider". This class tells the application the name of the provider and how it can be used. It should be registered via the @ServiceProvider annotation.Methods to implement: Method createPresenter creates a new object that is added to the "Find in Projects" dialog when it is opened. Method isReplaceSupported should return true if this provider support replacing, not only searching. If you want to disable the search provider (e.g., there aren't required external tools available in the OS), return false from isEnabled. Method getTitle returns a string that will be shown in the tab in the "Find in Projects" dialog. It can be localizable. Example file "org.netbeans.example.search.ExampleSearchProvider": package org.netbeans.example.search; import org.netbeans.spi.search.provider.SearchProvider; import org.netbeans.spi.search.provider.SearchProvider.Presenter; import org.openide.util.lookup.ServiceProvider; @ServiceProvider(service = SearchProvider.class) public class ExampleSearchProvider extends SearchProvider { @Override public Presenter createPresenter(boolean replaceMode) { return new ExampleSearchPresenter(this); } @Override public boolean isReplaceSupported() { return false; } @Override public boolean isEnabled() { return true; } @Override public String getTitle() { return "Recent Files Search"; } } Next, we need to create a SearchProvider.Presenter. This is an object that is passed to the "Find in Projects" dialog and contains a visual component to show in the dialog, together with some methods to interact with it.Methods to implement: Method getForm returns a JComponent that should contain controls for various search criteria. In the example below, we have controls for a file name pattern, search scope, and the age of files. Method isUsable is called by the dialog to check whether the Find button should be enabled or not. You can use NotificationLineSupport passed as its argument to set a display error, warning, or info message. Method composeSearch is used to apply the settings and prepare a search task. It returns a SearchComposition object, as shown below. Please note that the example uses ComponentUtils.adjustComboForFileName (and similar methods), that modifies a JComboBox component to act as a combo box for selection of file name pattern. These methods were designed to make working with components created in a GUI Builder comfortable. Remember to call fireChange whenever the value of any criteria changes. Example file "org.netbeans.example.search.ExampleSearchPresenter": package org.netbeans.example.search; import java.awt.FlowLayout; import javax.swing.BoxLayout; import javax.swing.JComboBox; import javax.swing.JComponent; import javax.swing.JLabel; import javax.swing.JPanel; import javax.swing.JSlider; import javax.swing.event.ChangeEvent; import javax.swing.event.ChangeListener; import org.netbeans.api.search.SearchScopeOptions; import org.netbeans.api.search.ui.ComponentUtils; import org.netbeans.api.search.ui.FileNameController; import org.netbeans.api.search.ui.ScopeController; import org.netbeans.api.search.ui.ScopeOptionsController; import org.netbeans.spi.search.provider.SearchComposition; import org.netbeans.spi.search.provider.SearchProvider; import org.openide.NotificationLineSupport; import org.openide.util.HelpCtx; public class ExampleSearchPresenter extends SearchProvider.Presenter { private JPanel panel = null; ScopeOptionsController scopeSettingsPanel; FileNameController fileNameComboBox; ScopeController scopeComboBox; ChangeListener changeListener; JSlider slider; public ExampleSearchPresenter(SearchProvider searchProvider) { super(searchProvider, false); } /** * Get UI component that can be added to the search dialog. */ @Override public synchronized JComponent getForm() { if (panel == null) { panel = new JPanel(); panel.setLayout(new BoxLayout(panel, BoxLayout.PAGE_AXIS)); JPanel row1 = new JPanel(new FlowLayout(FlowLayout.LEADING)); JPanel row2 = new JPanel(new FlowLayout(FlowLayout.LEADING)); JPanel row3 = new JPanel(new FlowLayout(FlowLayout.LEADING)); row1.add(new JLabel("Age in hours: ")); slider = new JSlider(1, 72); row1.add(slider); final JLabel hoursLabel = new JLabel(String.valueOf(slider.getValue())); row1.add(hoursLabel); row2.add(new JLabel("File name: ")); fileNameComboBox = ComponentUtils.adjustComboForFileName(new JComboBox()); row2.add(fileNameComboBox.getComponent()); scopeSettingsPanel = ComponentUtils.adjustPanelForOptions(new JPanel(), false, fileNameComboBox); row3.add(new JLabel("Scope: ")); scopeComboBox = ComponentUtils.adjustComboForScope(new JComboBox(), null); row3.add(scopeComboBox.getComponent()); panel.add(row1); panel.add(row3); panel.add(row2); panel.add(scopeSettingsPanel.getComponent()); initChangeListener(); slider.addChangeListener(new ChangeListener() { @Override public void stateChanged(ChangeEvent e) { hoursLabel.setText(String.valueOf(slider.getValue())); } }); } return panel; } private void initChangeListener() { this.changeListener = new ChangeListener() { @Override public void stateChanged(ChangeEvent e) { fireChange(); } }; fileNameComboBox.addChangeListener(changeListener); scopeSettingsPanel.addChangeListener(changeListener); slider.addChangeListener(changeListener); } @Override public HelpCtx getHelpCtx() { return null; // Some help should be provided, omitted for simplicity. } /** * Create search composition for criteria specified in the form. */ @Override public SearchComposition<?> composeSearch() { SearchScopeOptions sso = scopeSettingsPanel.getSearchScopeOptions(); return new ExampleSearchComposition(sso, scopeComboBox.getSearchInfo(), slider.getValue(), this); } /** * Here we return always true, but could return false e.g. if file name * pattern is empty. */ @Override public boolean isUsable(NotificationLineSupport notifySupport) { return true; } } The last part of our search provider is the implementation of SearchComposition. This is a composition of various search parameters, the actual search algorithm, and the displayer that presents the results.Methods to implement: The most important method here is start, which performs the actual search. In this case, SearchInfo and SearchScopeOptions objects are used for traversing. These objects were provided by controllers of GUI components (in the presenter). When something interesting is found, it should be displayed (with SearchResultsDisplayer.addMatchingObject). Method getSearchResultsDisplayer should return the displayer associated with this composition. The displayer can be created by subclassing SearchResultsDisplayer class or simply by using the SearchResultsDisplayer.createDefault. Then you only need a helper object that can create nodes for found objects. Example file "org.netbeans.example.search.ExampleSearchComposition": package org.netbeans.example.search; public class ExampleSearchComposition extends SearchComposition<DataObject> { SearchScopeOptions searchScopeOptions; SearchInfo searchInfo; int oldInHours; SearchResultsDisplayer<DataObject> resultsDisplayer; private final Presenter presenter; AtomicBoolean terminated = new AtomicBoolean(false); public ExampleSearchComposition(SearchScopeOptions searchScopeOptions, SearchInfo searchInfo, int oldInHours, Presenter presenter) { this.searchScopeOptions = searchScopeOptions; this.searchInfo = searchInfo; this.oldInHours = oldInHours; this.presenter = presenter; } @Override public void start(SearchListener listener) { for (FileObject fo : searchInfo.getFilesToSearch( searchScopeOptions, listener, terminated)) { if (ageInHours(fo) < oldInHours) { try { DataObject dob = DataObject.find(fo); getSearchResultsDisplayer().addMatchingObject(dob); } catch (DataObjectNotFoundException ex) { listener.fileContentMatchingError(fo.getPath(), ex); } } } } @Override public void terminate() { terminated.set(true); } @Override public boolean isTerminated() { return terminated.get(); } /** * Use default displayer to show search results. */ @Override public synchronized SearchResultsDisplayer<DataObject> getSearchResultsDisplayer() { if (resultsDisplayer == null) { resultsDisplayer = createResultsDisplayer(); } return resultsDisplayer; } private SearchResultsDisplayer<DataObject> createResultsDisplayer() { /** * Object to transform matching objects to nodes. */ SearchResultsDisplayer.NodeDisplayer<DataObject> nd = new SearchResultsDisplayer.NodeDisplayer<DataObject>() { @Override public org.openide.nodes.Node matchToNode( final DataObject match) { return new FilterNode(match.getNodeDelegate()) { @Override public String getDisplayName() { return super.getDisplayName() + " (" + ageInMinutes(match.getPrimaryFile()) + " minutes old)"; } }; } }; return SearchResultsDisplayer.createDefault(nd, this, presenter, "less than " + oldInHours + " hours old"); } private static long ageInMinutes(FileObject fo) { long fileDate = fo.lastModified().getTime(); long now = System.currentTimeMillis(); return (now - fileDate) / 60000; } private static long ageInHours(FileObject fo) { return ageInMinutes(fo) / 60; } } Run the module, select a node in the Projects window, press Ctrl-F, and you'll see the "Find in Projects" dialog has two tabs, the second is the one you provided above:

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  • Cloud Computing = Elasticity * Availability

    - by Herve Roggero
    What is cloud computing? Is hosting the same thing as cloud computing? Are you running a cloud if you already use virtual machines? What is the difference between Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) and a cloud provider? And the list goes on… these questions keep coming up and all try to fundamentally explain what “cloud” means relative to other concepts. At the risk of over simplification, answering these questions becomes simpler once you understand the primary foundations of cloud computing: Elasticity and Availability.   Elasticity The basic value proposition of cloud computing is to pay as you go, and to pay for what you use. This implies that an application can expand and contract on demand, across all its tiers (presentation layer, services, database, security…).  This also implies that application components can grow independently from each other. So if you need more storage for your database, you should be able to grow that tier without affecting, reconfiguring or changing the other tiers. Basically, cloud applications behave like a sponge; when you add water to a sponge, it grows in size; in the application world, the more customers you add, the more it grows. Pure IaaS providers will provide certain benefits, specifically in terms of operating costs, but an IaaS provider will not help you in making your applications elastic; neither will Virtual Machines. The smallest elasticity unit of an IaaS provider and a Virtual Machine environment is a server (physical or virtual). While adding servers in a datacenter helps in achieving scale, it is hardly enough. The application has yet to use this hardware.  If the process of adding computing resources is not transparent to the application, the application is not elastic.   As you can see from the above description, designing for the cloud is not about more servers; it is about designing an application for elasticity regardless of the underlying server farm.   Availability The fact of the matter is that making applications highly available is hard. It requires highly specialized tools and trained staff. On top of it, it's expensive. Many companies are required to run multiple data centers due to high availability requirements. In some organizations, some data centers are simply on standby, waiting to be used in a case of a failover. Other organizations are able to achieve a certain level of success with active/active data centers, in which all available data centers serve incoming user requests. While achieving high availability for services is relatively simple, establishing a highly available database farm is far more complex. In fact it is so complex that many companies establish yearly tests to validate failover procedures.   To a certain degree certain IaaS provides can assist with complex disaster recovery planning and setting up data centers that can achieve successful failover. However the burden is still on the corporation to manage and maintain such an environment, including regular hardware and software upgrades. Cloud computing on the other hand removes most of the disaster recovery requirements by hiding many of the underlying complexities.   Cloud Providers A cloud provider is an infrastructure provider offering additional tools to achieve application elasticity and availability that are not usually available on-premise. For example Microsoft Azure provides a simple configuration screen that makes it possible to run 1 or 100 web sites by clicking a button or two on a screen (simplifying provisioning), and soon SQL Azure will offer Data Federation to allow database sharding (which allows you to scale the database tier seamlessly and automatically). Other cloud providers offer certain features that are not available on-premise as well, such as the Amazon SC3 (Simple Storage Service) which gives you virtually unlimited storage capabilities for simple data stores, which is somewhat equivalent to the Microsoft Azure Table offering (offering a server-independent data storage model). Unlike IaaS providers, cloud providers give you the necessary tools to adopt elasticity as part of your application architecture.    Some cloud providers offer built-in high availability that get you out of the business of configuring clustered solutions, or running multiple data centers. Some cloud providers will give you more control (which puts some of that burden back on the customers' shoulder) and others will tend to make high availability totally transparent. For example, SQL Azure provides high availability automatically which would be very difficult to achieve (and very costly) on premise.   Keep in mind that each cloud provider has its strengths and weaknesses; some are better at achieving transparent scalability and server independence than others.    Not for Everyone Note however that it is up to you to leverage the elasticity capabilities of a cloud provider, as discussed previously; if you build a website that does not need to scale, for which elasticity is not important, then you can use a traditional host provider unless you also need high availability. Leveraging the technologies of cloud providers can be difficult and can become a journey for companies that build their solutions in a scale up fashion. Cloud computing promises to address cost containment and scalability of applications with built-in high availability. If your application does not need to scale or you do not need high availability, then cloud computing may not be for you. In fact, you may pay a premium to run your applications with cloud providers due to the underlying technologies built specifically for scalability and availability requirements. And as such, the cloud is not for everyone.   Consistent Customer Experience, Predictable Cost With all its complexities, buzz and foggy definition, cloud computing boils down to a simple objective: consistent customer experience at a predictable cost.  The objective of a cloud solution is to provide the same user experience to your last customer than the first, while keeping your operating costs directly proportional to the number of customers you have. Making your applications elastic and highly available across all its tiers, with as much automation as possible, achieves the first objective of a consistent customer experience. And the ability to expand and contract the infrastructure footprint of your application dynamically achieves the cost containment objectives.     Herve Roggero is a SQL Azure MVP and co-author of Pro SQL Azure (APress).  He is the co-founder of Blue Syntax Consulting (www.bluesyntax.net), a company focusing on cloud computing technologies helping customers understand and adopt cloud computing technologies. For more information contact herve at hroggero @ bluesyntax.net .

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  • ASP.NET MVC: Using ProfileRequiredAttribute to restrict access to pages

    - by DigiMortal
    If you are using AppFabric Access Control Services to authenticate users when they log in to your community site using Live ID, Google or some other popular identity provider, you need more than AuthorizeAttribute to make sure that users can access the content that is there for authenticated users only. In this posting I will show you hot to extend the AuthorizeAttribute so users must also have user profile filled. Semi-authorized users When user is authenticated through external identity provider then not all identity providers give us user name or other information we ask users when they join with our site. What all identity providers have in common is unique ID that helps you identify the user. Example. Users authenticated through Windows Live ID by AppFabric ACS have no name specified. Google’s identity provider is able to provide you with user name and e-mail address if user agrees to publish this information to you. They both give you unique ID of user when user is successfully authenticated in their service. There is logical shift between ASP.NET and my site when considering user as authorized. For ASP.NET MVC user is authorized when user has identity. For my site user is authorized when user has profile and row in my users table. Having profile means that user has unique username in my system and he or she is always identified by this username by other users. My solution is simple: I created my own action filter attribute that makes sure if user has profile to access given method and if user has no profile then browser is redirected to join page. Illustrating the problem Usually we restrict access to page using AuthorizeAttribute. Code is something like this. [Authorize] public ActionResult Details(string id) {     var profile = _userRepository.GetUserByUserName(id);     return View(profile); } If this page is only for site users and we have user profiles then all users – the ones that have profile and all the others that are just authenticated – can access the information. It is okay because all these users have successfully logged in in some service that is supported by AppFabric ACS. In my site the users with no profile are in grey spot. They are on half way to be users because they have no username and profile on my site yet. So looking at the image above again we need something that adds profile existence condition to user-only content. [ProfileRequired] public ActionResult Details(string id) {     var profile = _userRepository.GetUserByUserName(id);     return View(profile); } Now, this attribute will solve our problem as soon as we implement it. ProfileRequiredAttribute: Profiles are required to be fully authorized Here is my implementation of ProfileRequiredAttribute. It is pretty new and right now it is more like working draft but you can already play with it. public class ProfileRequiredAttribute : AuthorizeAttribute {     private readonly string _redirectUrl;       public ProfileRequiredAttribute()     {         _redirectUrl = ConfigurationManager.AppSettings["JoinUrl"];         if (string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(_redirectUrl))             _redirectUrl = "~/";     }              public override void OnAuthorization(AuthorizationContext filterContext)     {         base.OnAuthorization(filterContext);           var httpContext = filterContext.HttpContext;         var identity = httpContext.User.Identity;           if (!identity.IsAuthenticated || identity.GetProfile() == null)             if(filterContext.Result == null)                 httpContext.Response.Redirect(_redirectUrl);          } } All methods with this attribute work as follows: if user is not authenticated then he or she is redirected to AppFabric ACS identity provider selection page, if user is authenticated but has no profile then user is by default redirected to main page of site but if you have application setting with name JoinUrl then user is redirected to this URL. First case is handled by AuthorizeAttribute and the second one is handled by custom logic in ProfileRequiredAttribute class. GetProfile() extension method To get user profile using less code in places where profiles are needed I wrote GetProfile() extension method for IIdentity interface. There are some more extension methods that read out user and identity provider identifier from claims and based on this information user profile is read from database. If you take this code with copy and paste I am sure it doesn’t work for you but you get the idea. public static User GetProfile(this IIdentity identity) {     if (identity == null)         return null;       var context = HttpContext.Current;     if (context.Items["UserProfile"] != null)         return context.Items["UserProfile"] as User;       var provider = identity.GetIdentityProvider();     var nameId = identity.GetNameIdentifier();       var rep = ObjectFactory.GetInstance<IUserRepository>();     var profile = rep.GetUserByProviderAndNameId(provider, nameId);       context.Items["UserProfile"] = profile;       return profile; } To avoid round trips to database I cache user profile to current request because the chance that profile gets changed meanwhile is very minimal. The other reason is maybe more tricky – profile objects are coming from Entity Framework context and context has also HTTP request as lifecycle. Conclusion This posting gave you some ideas how to finish user profiles stuff when you use AppFabric ACS as external authentication provider. Although there was little shift between us and ASP.NET MVC with interpretation of “authorized” we were easily able to solve the problem by extending AuthorizeAttribute to get all our requirements fulfilled. We also write extension method for IIdentity that returns as user profile based on username and caches the profile in HTTP request scope.

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