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• DevExpress XAF, Behavior Driven Development (BDD), Domain Driven Development (DDD) and more&ndash;Introduction

  - by Patrick Liekhus

  OK.  I admit it.  I have been horrible at this blogging thing.  However, I have made a commitment to get better at it so here goes.  I have many crazy ideas when it comes to coding and how to make my processes better and now is the time to get them down on paper and get your feedback.  Now, these ideas might not be nearly as wild and crazy as Charlie Sheen, but at least they help me get through my coding assignments. So let’s start by laying out the vision and objectives of this exercise.  I have been trying to come up with the best set of tools, tips and practices so I can get a small team to be as productive as possible without burning out my resources.  My thoughts tend to lean towards the coding practices first as this is what I have been doing for years.  However, as one looks at the process as a whole, we need to remember to keep the users in mind.  If we don’t have a user to accept our application, do we really have an application in the first place? I have been using a commercial framework from DevExpress called eXpress Application Framework (XAF) with their eXpress Persistent Objects (XPO) behind the scenes for a few years.  We have had tremendous success with it and even implemented a code generation layer to save us some time.  Now we want more!!! My goals here are to create a technical stack that employs as many UI’s as possible, while being true to the layers and documenting the process along the way.  I will continue to have a series of these posts that will walk through each step as I work on it.  Right now here is what I have planned: Defining the solution SCRUM/Agile Story Planning Overview of Architectural Plan Feature Driven Development Domain Driven Development Persistence Layer with XPO Windows UI with XAF/XPO Web UI with XAF/XPO OData Services Layer Windows Mobile UI Android UI iPhone UI Blackberry UI Excel UI Outlook UI Lessons Learned I will explain the solution that I plan to implement in the next post.  Thanks again and let me know what you think.

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• Ad-hoc taxonomy: owning the chess set doesn't mean you decide how the little horsey moves

  - by Roger Hart

  There was one of those little laugh-or-cry moments recently when I heard an anecdote about content strategy failings at a major online retailer. The story goes a bit like this: successful company in a highly commoditized marketplace succeeds on price and largely ignores its content team. Being relatively entrepreneurial, the founders are still knocking around, and occasionally like to "take an interest". One day, they decree that clothing sold on the site can no longer be described as "unisex", because this sounds old fashioned. Sad now. Let me just reiterate for the folks at the back: large retailer, commoditized market place, differentiating on price. That's inherently unstable. Sooner or later, they're going to need one or both of competitive differentiation and significant optimization. I can't speak for the latter, since I'm hypothesizing off a raft of rumour, but one of the simpler paths to the former is to become - or rather acknowledge that they are - a content business. Regardless, they need highly-searchable terminology. Even in the face of tooth and claw resistance to noticing the fundamental position content occupies in driving sales (and SEO) on the web, there's a clear information problem here. Dilettante taxonomy is a disaster. Ok, so this is a small example, but that kind of makes it a good one. Unisex probably is the best way of describing clothing designed to suit either men or women interchangeably. It certainly takes less time to type (and read). It's established terminology, and as a single word, it's significantly better for web readability than a phrasal workaround. Something like "fits men or women" is short, by could fall foul of clause-level discard in web scanning. It's not an adjective, so for intuitive reading it's never going to be near the start of a title or description. It would also clutter up search results, and impose cognitive load in list scanning. Sorry kids, it's just worse. Even if "unisex" were an archaism (which it isn't), the only thing that would weigh against its being more usable and concise terminology would be evidence that this archaism were hurting conversions. Good luck with that. We once - briefly - called one of our products a "Can of worms". It was a bundle in a bug-tracking suite, and we thought it sounded terribly cool. Guess how well that sold. We have information and content professionals for a reason: to make sure that whatever we put in front of users is optimised to meet user and business goals. If that thinking doesn't inform style guides, taxonomy, messaging, title structure, and so forth, you might as well be finger painting.

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• Oracle Coherence 3.5 : Create Internet-scale applications using Oracle's high-performance data grid

  - by frederic.michiara

  Oracle Coherence Coherence provides replicated and distributed (partitioned) data management and caching services on top of a reliable, highly scalable peer-to-peer clustering protocol. Coherence has no single points of failure; it automatically and transparently fails over and redistributes its clustered data management services when a server becomes inoperative or is disconnected from the network. When a new server is added, or when a failed server is restarted, it automatically joins the cluster and Coherence fails back services to it, transparently redistributing the cluster load. Coherence includes network-level fault tolerance features and transparent soft re-start capability to enable servers to self-heal. For the ones looking at an easy reading and first good approach to Oracle Coherence, I would recommend reading the following book : Overview of Oracle Coherence 3.5 Build scalable web sites and Enterprise applications using a market-leading data grid product Design and implement your domain objects to work most effectively with Coherence and apply Domain Driven Designs (DDD) to Coherence applications Leverage Coherence events and continuous queries to provide real-time updates to client applications Successfully integrate various persistence technologies, such as JDBC, Hibernate, or TopLink, with Coherence Filled with numerous examples that provide best practice guidance, and a number of classes you can readily reuse within your own applications This book is targeted to Architects and developers, and as in our team we're more about Solutions Architects than developers I found interest in this book as it help to understand better Oracle Coherence and its value. The only point I may not agree with the authors is that Oracle Coherence is not an alternative to Oracle RAC in providing High Availability, but combining both Oracle RAC and Oracle Coherence will help Architects and Customers to reach higher level of service and high-availability. This book is available on https://www.packtpub.com/oracle-coherence-3-5/book Need to find out about Table of contents : https://www.packtpub.com/toc/oracle-coherence-35-table-contents Discover a sample chapter : https://www.packtpub.com/sites/default/files/6125_Oracle%20Coherence_SampleChapter.pdf Read also articles from the Authors on http://www.packtpub.com/ : Working with Aggregators in Oracle Coherence 3.5 Working with Value Extractors and Simplifying Queries in Oracle Coherence 3.5 Querying the Data Grid in Coherence 3.5: Obtaining Query Results and Using Indexes Installing Coherence 3.5 and Accessing the Data Grid: Part 1 Installing Coherence 3.5 and Accessing the Data Grid: Part 2 For more information on Oracle Coherence : What Oracle Coherence Can Do for You... : http://www.oracle.com/technology/products/coherence/coherencedatagrid/coherence_solutions.html Oracle Coherence on OTN : http://www.oracle.com/technology/products/coherence/index.html Oracle Coherence Knowledge Base : http://coherence.oracle.com/display/COH/Oracle+Coherence+Knowledge+Base+Home

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• Site Studio Mobile Example - WCM Reuse

  - by john.brunswick

  Mobile internet usage is growing by leaps and bounds and it is theorized that in the not-to-distant future it will eclipse traditional access via desktop browsers. Mary Meeker, a managing director at Morgan Stanley and head of their global technology research team, recently predicted that mobile usage will eclipse desktop usage within the next 5 years in an Events@Google series presentation. In order for organizations to reach their prospects, customers and business partners, they will need to make their content readily available on mobile devices. A few years ago it was fairly challenging to provide a special, separate, site to cater to mobile users using technologies like WML (Wireless Markup Language). Modern mobile browsers have rendered the need for this as irrelevant and now the focus has moved toward providing a browsing experience that works well on small screen sizes and is highly performant. What does all of this mean for Oracle UCM? Taking site content from an existing Site Studio site and targeting it for consumption for mobile devices is a very straightforward process that is aided by a number of native capabilities in the product. The example highlighted in this post takes advantage of dynamic conversion capabilities in Oracle UCM to enable site content to be created and updated via MS Office documents. These documents are then converted to a simple, clean HTML format for consumption in the desktop and mobile browsing experiences. To help better understand how this is possible the example below shows a fictional .COM and its mobile site counterpart that both leverage the same underlying content. The scenario is not complete or production ready, but highlights that a mobile experience may be best delivered by omitting portions of a site that would be present within the version served to desktop clients. If you have browsed CNet (news.com) on a mobile device it becomes quickly apparent that they are serving an optimized version for your mobile device. An iPhone style version can be accessed at http://iphone.cnet.com/. In order to do that they leveraged some work done for the iPhone iUi project developed by Joe Hewitt that provides mobile browsers an experience that is similar to what users may find in a native iPhone application. For our example parts of this framework are used (the CSS) and this approach provides a page that will degrade nicely over a wide range of mobile browsers, since it is comprised of lightweight HTML markup and CSS. The iPhone iUi framework also provides some nice JavaScript to enable animated transitions between pages, but for the widest range of mobile browser compatibility we will only incorporate the CSS and HTML DIV / UL based page markup in our example.

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• Mono for Android Book has been Released!!!!!

  - by Wallym

  If I understand things correctly, and I make no guarantees that I do, our Mono for Android book has been RELEASED!  I'm not quite sure what this means, but my guess is that that it has been printed and is being shipped to various book sellers.So, if you have pre-ordered a copy, its now up to Amazon to send it to you.  Its fully out of my control, Wrox, Wiley, as well as everyone but Amazon.If you haven't bought a copy already, why?  Seriously, go order 8-10 copies for the ones you love.  They'll make great romantic gifts for the ones you love.  Just think at the look on the other person's face when you give them a copy of our book. Here's a little about the book:The wait is over! For the millions of .NET/C# developers who have been eagerly awaiting the book that will guide them through the white-hot field of Android application programming, this is the book. As the first guide to focus on Mono for Android, this must-have resource dives into writing applications against Mono with C# and compiling executables that run on the Android family of devices.Putting the proven Wrox Professional format into practice, the authors provide you with the knowledge you need to become a successful Android application developer without having to learn another programming language. You'll explore screen controls, UI development, tables and layouts, and MonoDevelop as you become adept at developing Android applications with Mono for Android.Develop Android apps using tools you already know—C# and .NETAimed at providing readers with a thorough, reliable resource that guides them through the field of Android application programming, this must-have book shows how to write applications using Mono with C# that run on the Android family of devices. A team of authors provides you with the knowledge you need to become a successful Android application developer without having to learn another programming language. You'll explore screen controls, UI development, tables and layouts, and MonoDevelop as you become adept at planning, building, and developing Android applications with Mono for Android.Professional Android Programming with Mono for Android and .NET/C#:Shows you how to use your existing C# and .NET skills to build Android appsDetails optimal ways to work with data and bind data to controlsExplains how to program with Android device hardwareDives into working with the file system and application preferencesDiscusses how to share code between Mono for Android, MonoTouch, and Windows® Phone 7Reveals tips for globalizing your apps with internationalization and localization supportCovers development of tablet apps with Android 4Wrox Professional guides are planned and written by working programmers to meet the real-world needs of programmers, developers, and IT professionals. Focused and relevant, they address the issues technology professionals face every day. They provide examples, practical solutions, and expert education in new technologies, all designed to help programmers do a better job.Now, go buy a bunch of copies!!!!!If you are interested in iPhone and Android and would like to get a little more knowledgeable in the area of development, you can purchase the 3 pack of books from Wrox on Mobile Development with Mono.  This will cover MonoTouch, Mono for Android, and cross platform methods for using both tools.  A great package in and of itself.  The name of that package is: Wrox Cross Platform Android and iOS Mobile Development Three-Pack 

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• Fair Comments

  - by Tony Davis

  To what extent is good code self-documenting? In one of the most entertaining sessions I saw at the recent PASS summit, Jeremiah Peschka (blog | twitter) got a laugh out of a sleepy post-lunch audience with the following remark: "Some developers say good code is self-documenting; I say, get off my team" I silently applauded the sentiment. It's not that all comments are useful, but that I mistrust the basic premise that "my code is so clearly written, it doesn't need any comments". I've read many pieces describing the road to self-documenting code, and my problem with most of them is that they feed the myth that comments in code are a sign of weakness. They aren't; in fact, used correctly I'd say they are essential. Regardless of how far intelligent naming can get you in describing what the code does, or how well any accompanying unit tests can explain to your fellow developers why it works that way, it's no excuse not to document fully the public interfaces to your code. Maybe I just mixed with the wrong crowd while learning my favorite language, but when I open a stored procedure I lose the will even to read it unless I see a big Phil Factor- or Jeff Moden-style header summarizing in plain English what the code does, how it fits in to the broader application, and a usage example. This public interface describes the high-level process and should explain the role of the code, clearly, for fellow developers, language non-experts, and even any non-technical stake holders in the project. When you step into the body of the code, the low-level details, then I agree that the rules are somewhat different; especially when code is subject to frequent refactoring that can quickly render comments redundant or misleading. At their worst, here, inline comments are sticking plaster to cover up the scars caused by poor naming conventions, failure in clarity when mapping a complex domain into code, or just by not entirely understanding the problem (/ this is the clever part). If you design and refactor your code carefully so that it is as simple as possible, your functions do one thing only, you avoid having two completely different algorithms in the same piece of code, and your functions, classes and variables are intelligently named, then, yes, the need for inline comments should be minimal. And yet, even given this, I'd still argue that many languages (T-SQL certainly being one) just don't lend themselves to readability when performing even moderately-complex tasks. If the algorithm is complex, I still like to see the occasional helpful comment. Please, therefore, be as liberal as you see fit in the detail of the comments you apply to this editorial, for like code it is bound to increase its' clarity and usefulness. Cheers, Tony.

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• NoSQL is not about object databases

  - by Bertrand Le Roy

  NoSQL as a movement is an interesting beast. I kinda like that it’s negatively defined (I happen to belong myself to at least one other such a-community). It’s not in its roots about proposing one specific new silver bullet to kill an old problem. it’s about challenging the consensus. Actually, blindly and systematically replacing relational databases with object databases would just replace one set of issues with another. No, the point is to recognize that relational databases are not a universal answer -although they have been used as one for so long- and recognize instead that there’s a whole spectrum of data storage solutions out there. Why is it so hard to recognize, by the way? You are already using some of those other data storage solutions every day. Let me cite a few: The file system Active Directory XML / JSON documents The Web e-mail Logs Excel files EXIF blobs in your photos Relational databases And yes, object databases It’s just a fact of modern life. Notice by the way that most of the data that you use every day is unstructured and thus mostly unsuitable for relational storage. It really is more a matter of recognizing it: you are already doing NoSQL. So what happens when for any reason you need to simultaneously query two or more of these heterogeneous data stores? Well, you build an index of sorts combining them, and that’s what you query instead. Of course, there’s not much distance to travel from that to realizing that querying is better done when completely separated from storage. So why am I writing about this today? Well, that’s something I’ve been giving lots of thought, on and off, over the last ten years. When I built my first CMS all that time ago, one of the main problems my customers were facing was to manage and make sense of the mountain of unstructured data that was constituting most of their business. The central entity of that system was the file system because we were dealing with lots of Word documents, PDFs, OCR’d articles, photos and static web pages. We could have stored all that in SQL Server. It would have worked. Ew. I’m so glad we didn’t. Today, I’m working on Orchard (another CMS ;). It’s a pretty young project but already one of the questions we get the most is how to integrate existing data. One of the ideas I’ll be trying hard to sell to the rest of the team in the next few months is to completely split the querying from the storage. Not only does this provide great opportunities for performance optimizations, it gives you homogeneous access to heterogeneous and existing data sources. For free.

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• Attach to Process in Visual Studio

  - by Daniel Moth

  One option for achieving step 1 in the Live Debugging process is attaching to an already running instance of the process that hosts your code, and this is a good place for me to talk about debug engines. You can attach to a process by selecting the "Debug" menu and then the "Attach To Process…" menu in Visual Studio 11 (Ctrl+Alt+P with my keyboard bindings), and you should see something like this screenshot: I am not going to explain this UI, besides being fairly intuitive, there is good documentation on MSDN for the Attach dialog. I do want to focus on the row of controls that starts with the "Attach to:" label and ends with the "Select..." button. Between them is the readonly textbox that indicates the debug engine that will be used for the selected process if you click the "Attach" button. If you haven't encountered that term before, read on MSDN about debug engines. Notice that the "Type" column shows the Code Type(s) that can be detected for the process. Typically each debug engine knows how to debug a specific code type (the two terms tend to be used interchangeably). If you click on a different process in the list with a different code type, the debug engine used will be different. However note that this is the automatic behavior. If you believe you know best, or more typically you want to choose the debug engine for a process using more than one code type, you can do so by clicking the "Select..." button, which should yield a "Select Code Type" dialog like this one: In this dialog you can switch to the debug engine you want to use by checking the box in front of your desired one, then hit "OK", then hit "Attach" to use it. Notice that the dialog suggests that you can select more than one. Not all combinations work (you'll get an error if you select two incompatible debug engines), but some do. Also notice in the list of debug engines one of the new players in Visual Studio 11, the GPU debug engine - I will be covering that on the C++ AMP team blog (and no, it cannot be combined with any others in this release). Comments about this post by Daniel Moth welcome at the original blog.

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• Oracle Customer Hub - Directions, Roadmap and Customer Success

  - by Mala Narasimharajan

   By Gurinder Bahl With less than a week from OOW 2012, I would like to introduce you all to the core Oracle Customer MDM Strategy sessions. Fragmentation of customer data across disparate systems prohibits companies from achieving a complete and accurate view of their customers. Oracle Customer Hub provide a comprehensive set of services, utilities and applications to create and maintain a trusted master customer system of record across the enterprise. Customer Hub centralizes customer data from disparate systems across your enterprise into a master repository. Existing systems are integrated in real-time or via batch with the Hub, allowing you to leverage legacy platform investments while capitalizing on the benefits of a single customer identity. Don’t miss out on two sessions geared towards Oracle Customer Hub:   1) Attend session CON9747 - Turn Customer Data into an Enterprise Asset with Oracle Fusion Customer Hub Applications at Oracle Open World 2012 on Monday, Oct 1st, 10:45 AM - 11:45 AM @ Moscone West – 2008. Manouj Tahiliani, Sr. Director MDM Product Management will provide insight into the vision of Oracle Fusion Customer Hub solutions, and review the roadmap. You will discover how Fusion Customer MDM can help your enterprise improve data quality, create accurate and complete customer information,  manage governance and help create great customer experiences. You will also understand how to leverage data quality capabilities and create a sophisticated customer foundation within Oracle Fusion Applications. You will also hear Danette Patterson, Group Lead, Church Pension Group talk about how Oracle Fusion Customer Hub applications provide a modern, next-generation, multi-domain foundation for managing customer information in a private cloud. 2)  Don't miss session  CON9692 - Customer MDM is key to Strategic Business Success and Customer Experience Management at Oracle Open World 2012 on Wednesday, October 3rd 2012 from 3:30-4:30pm @ Westin San Francisco Metropolitan 1. JP Hurtado, Director, Customer Systems, will provide insight on how RCCL overcame challenges of data quality, guest recognition & centralized customer view to provide consolidated customer view to multiple reservation, CRM, marketing, service, sales, data warehouse and loyalty systems. You will learn how Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines (RCCL), which has over 30 million customer and maintain multiple brands, leveraged Oracle Customer Hub (Siebel UCM) as backbone to customer data management strategy for past 5 years. Gurinder Bahl from MDM Product Management will provide an update on Oracle Customer Hub strategy, what we have achieved since last Open World and our future plans for the Oracle Customer Hub. You will learn about Customer Hub Data Quality capabilities around data analysis, cleansing, matching, address validation as well as reporting and monitoring capabilities. The MDM track at Oracle Open World covers variety of topics related to MDM. In addition to the product management team presenting product updates and roadmap, we have several Customer Panels, and Conference sessions. You can see an overview of MDM sessions here.  Looking forward to see you at Open World, the perfect opportunity to learn about cutting edge Oracle technologies. 

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• Eggnog and Oracle’s StorageTek SL150 Updates

  - by Kristin Rose

  Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";} Looks like the holiday’s came early this year! You may remember this snazzy blog that posted a couple months back,  “Keepin’ It Simple with Storage Tek SL150”, that was based on the benefits around Oracle’s StorageTek SL150. Well, in addition to these great benefits, OPN is pleased to provide you with a complete StorageTek SL150 winter wish list that is about to come true! 1. SL150 is the only product in the Oracle portfolio, for which OPN Members can become authorized to create and provide support.  2. OPN Members can qualify for the OPN Incentive Program Rebates, without Oracle Support Attach, (provided all other criteria is met). The requirement of Premier Support Attach has been exempted for this product. 3. OPN Members who become authorized under this model will be eligible for an additional discount on parts.  4. As always Oracle’s StorageTek SL150 is Simple, Scalable and will help you Save! To add just a bit more cheer to your cup of hot coco, watch this video on why Oracle’s StorageTek SL150 Tape Library is for you! So if you haven’t done so already, contact your Oracle Channel Sales representative — let them know if you’ve been nice this year, and tell them you want to learn more! Cheers! The OPN Communications Team

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• Is your test method self-validating ?

  - by mehfuzh

  Writing state of art unit tests that can validate your every part of the framework is challenging and interesting at the same time, its like becoming a samurai. One of the key concept in this is to keep our test synced all the time as underlying code changes and thus breaking them to the furthest unit as possible.  This also means, we should avoid  multiple conditions embedded in a single test. Let’s consider the following example of transfer funds. [Fact] public void ShouldAssertTranserFunds() {     var currencyService = Mock.Create<ICurrencyService>();     //// current rate     Mock.Arrange(() => currencyService.GetConversionRate("AUS", "CAD")).Returns(0.88f);       Account to = new Account { Currency = "AUS", Balance = 120 };     Account from = new Account { Currency = "CAD" };       AccountService accService = new AccountService(currencyService);       Assert.Throws<InvalidOperationException>(() => accService.TranferFunds(to, from, 200f));       accService.TranferFunds(to, from, 100f);       Assert.Equal(from.Balance, 88);     Assert.Equal(20, to.Balance); } At first look,  it seems ok but as you look more closely , it is actually doing two tasks in one test. At line# 10 it is trying to validate the exception for invalid fund transfer and finally it is asserting if the currency conversion is successfully made. Here, the name of the test itself is pretty vague. The first rule for writing unit test should always reflect to inner working of the target code, where just by looking at their names it is self explanatory. Having a obscure name for a test method not only increase the chances of cluttering the test code, but it also gives the opportunity to add multiple paths into it and eventually makes things messy as possible. I would rater have two test methods that explicitly describes its intent and are more self-validating. ShouldThrowExceptionForInvalidTransferOperation ShouldAssertTransferForExpectedConversionRate Having, this type of breakdown also helps us pin-point reported bugs easily rather wasting any time on debugging for something more general and can minimize confusion among team members. Finally, we should always make our test F.I.R.S.T ( Fast.Independent.Repeatable.Self-validating.Timely) [ Bob martin – Clean Code]. Only this will be enough to ensure, our test is as simple and clean as possible.   Hope that helps

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• SSDT - What's in a name?

  - by jamiet

  SQL Server Data Tools (SSDT) recently got released as part of SQL Server 2012 and depending on who you believe it can be described as either: a suite of tools for building SQL Server database solutions or a suite of tools for building SQL Server database, Integration Services, Analysis Services & Reporting Services solutions Certainly the SQL Server 2012 installer seems to think it is the latter because it describes SQL Server Data Tools as "the SQL server development environment, including the tool formerly named Business Intelligence Development Studio. Also installs the business intelligence tools and references to the web installers for database development tools" as you can see here: Strange then that, seemingly, there is no consensus within Microsoft about what SSDT actually is. On yesterday's blog post First Release of SSDT Power Tools reader Simon Lampen asked the quite legitimate question:I understand (rightly or wrongly) that SSDT is the replacement for BIDS for SQL 2012 and have just installed this. If this is the case can you please point me to how I can edit rdl and rdlc files from within Visual Studio 2010 and import MS Access reports.To which came the following reply:SSDT doesn't include any BIDs (sic) components. Following up with the appropriate team (Analysis Services, Reporting Services, Integration Services) via their forum or msdn page would be the best way to answer you questions about these kinds of services. That's from a Microsoft employee by the way. Simon is even more confused by this and replies with:I have done some more digging and am more confused than ever. This documentation (and many others) : msdn.microsoft.com/.../ms156280.aspx expressly states that SSDT is where report editing tools are to be foundAnd on it goes....You can see where Simon's confusion stems from. He has official documentation stating that SSDT includes all the stuff for building SSIS/SSAS/SSRS solutions (this is confirmed in the installer, remember) yet someone from Microsoft tells him "SSDT doesn't include any BIDs components".I have been close to this for a long time (all the way through the CTPs) so I can kind of understand where the confusion stems from. To my understanding SSDT was originally the name of the database dev stuff but eventually that got expanded to include all of the dev tools - I guess not everyone in Microsoft got the memo.Does this sound familiar? Have we not been down this road before? The database dev tools have had upteen names over the years (do any of datadude, TSData, VSTS for DB Pros, DBPro, VS2010 Database Projects sound familiar) and I was hoping that the SSDT moniker would put all confusion to bed - evidently its as complicated now as it has ever been.Forgive me for whinging but putting meaningful, descriptive, accurate, well-defined and easily-communicated names onto a product doesn't seem like a difficult thing to do. I guess I'm mistaken!Onwards and upwards...@Jamiet

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• Development processes, the use of version control, and unit-testing

  - by ct01

  Preface I've worked at quite a few "flat" organizations in my time. Most of the version control policy/process has been "only commit after it's been tested". We were constantly committing at each place to "trunk" (cvs/svn). The same was true with unit-testing - it's always been a "we need to do this" mentality but it never really materializes in a substantive form b/c there is no institutional knowledge base to do it - no mentorship. Version Control The emphasis for version control management at one place was a very strict protocol for commit messages (format & content). The other places let employees just do "whatever". The branching, tagging, committing, rolling back, and merging aspect of things was always ill defined and almost never used. This sort of seems to leave the version control system in the position of being a fancy file-storage mechanism with a meta-data component that never really gets accessed/utilized. (The same was true for unit testing and committing code to the source tree) Unit tests It seems there's a prevailing "we must/should do this" mentality in most places I've worked. As a policy or standard operating procedure it never gets implemented because there seems to be a very ill-defined understanding about what that means, what is going to be tested, and how to do it. Summary It seems most places I've been to think version control and unit testing is "important" b/c the trendy trade journals say it is but, if there's very little mentorship to use these tools or any real business policies, then the full power of version control/unit testing is never really expressed. So grunts, like myself, never really have a complete understanding of the point beyond that "it's a good thing" and "we should do it". Question I was wondering if there are blogs, books, white-papers, or online journals about what one could call the business process or "standard operating procedures" or uses cases for version control and unit testing? I want to know more than the trade journals tell me and get serious about doing these things. PS: @Henrik Hansen had a great comment about the lack of definition for the question. I'm not interested in a specific unit-testing/versioning product or methodology (like, XP) - my interest is more about work-flow at the individual team/developer level than evangelism. This is more-or-less a by product of the management situation I've operated under more than a lack of reading software engineering books or magazines about development processes. A lot of what I've seen/read is more marketing oriented material than any specifically enumerated description of "well, this is how our shop operates".

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• Oracle Enterprise Innovation Days

  - by Lara Ermacora

  Si è tenuto lo scorso 10 e 11 novembre l'appuntamento con l'innovazione marcato Oracle. L' Oracle Enterprise Innovation Days, alla sua seconda edizione, ha portato a Bologna tutte le aziende che pensano all'innovazione come leva principale per difendere e rafforzare la propria competitività. All'interno di un panorama, come quello odierno, complesso ed eterogeneo si è discusso a lungo di approcci strategici, soluzioni possibili e sono state portate d'esempio alcune esperienze significative. Fra gli ospiti dell'evento Rajan Krishnan, Vice President, Applications Product Development and Product Management for EMEA, ha presentato le strategie applicative di Oracle aprendo così la discussione sulla tematica principale della sessione plenaria: Oracle Fusion Applications. Il suo intervento è stato subito seguito da Enrico Pagliarini, giornalista del sole 24 ore che ha intervistato 3 diverse coppie Partner / Cliente per approfondire con loro i progetti altamente innovativi a cui le loro aziende hanno collaborato.  Si è parlato di Enel Servizi Srl che grazie ad Accenture ha portato la soluzione Syebel Energy CRM alla sua attuale versione 8.0 per una migliore gestione dei clienti all'interno del mercato libero caratterizzato dalla sua alta competitività; Prysmian che, a fronte dell'acquisizione della società olandese Draka, insieme a Reply, ha deciso di rimodellare il processo di Reporting Civilistico e Gestionale di gruppo, creando una nuova applicazione che soddisfi i requisiti della nuova organizzazione nascente; Kinexia e Waste Italia precedentemente parte del gruppo Unendo e ora divisesi l'una nel mercato dei rinnovabili l'altra in quello dello smaltimento rifiuti che con l'aiuto di Deloitte si sono dotate della soluzione full outsourcing JDE, a seguito di  una sw selection tra JDE, SAP e altre soluzioni italiane.Durante la cena altri due momenti hanno attirato l'attenzione dei partecipanti: la presentazione di Michele Stroligo, giovanissimo  Designer Team Member Oracle Racing e i Reference Customer Award ovvero le premiazioni dei clienti che si sono contraddistinti come migliori referenze nei diversi mercati con diversi prodotti. I premi sono stati assegnati a: FIAT, Enel, Boiron Laboratoires, Champion Europe, Mediaset, Coeclerici. Il pomeriggio ha interessato invece vari percorsi di approfondimento declinati sulle diverse figure professionali concludendosi con la presentazione del Tenente Colonello Marco Lant delle Frecce Tricolori, esempio di eccellezza italiana noto in tutto il mondo. La giornata si è conclusa con la cena di gala nel famoso palazzo Re Enzo che troneggia sulla piazza principale della città.  La mattinata del secondo giorno è stata interamente dedicata all'approfondimento degli argomenti di maggior interesse attraverso tavoli interattivi e workshop a cura dei partner Oracle. L'evento si è poi concluso con una serie di iniziative culturali dedicate ai congressisti. A breve sarà disponibile il sito dedicato all'evento con tutte le foto della giornata, i video degli interventi più salienti, potrete inoltre scaricare tutte le presentazioni fatte durante i lavori. Rimani aggiornato sull'Oracle Enterprise Innovation Days 2011 visitando il blog! Strategie Applicative di Oracle - Rajan Krishnan bologna nov 2011 View more presentations from Oracle Apps - Italia .

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• View HTML Tags and Webpage Combined in Firefox

  - by Asian Angel

  Do you want an easier way to see a webpage’s html tags without viewing the source code in a separate window? Now you can view the webpage and tags combined in the same window using the X-Ray extension for Firefox. Before Usually if you want to see the source code behind a webpage you have to view it in a separate window. If you are only interested in a specific section then you have to search through the entire set of code just to find what you are looking for. After The X-Ray extension will let you see the document’s tags (including class and ID names) “side by side” with the webpage in the same tab. You can use either the context menu or the tools menu to access the X-Ray command. Here is the same webpage section shown in the first screenshot above. It may look a little odd at first until you get used to seeing both together. Note: You can return the webpage to its’ normal view by either clicking on the X-Ray command again or refreshing the page. The code for part of the sidebar on the same webpage… Followed by one of the sets of links at the end. Looking at another example suppose you are interested in how part of the main feed is set up. Being able to see how a particular element is set up directly in the webpage is certainly better than searching through the entire page of code. Conclusion If you design webpages and want an easy way to see how someone else’s website is coded then you may want to give this extension a try. Links Download the X-Ray extension (Mozilla Add-ons) Similar Articles Productive Geek Tips View Webpage Source Code in Tabs in FirefoxCreate Pre-Formatted Links in FirefoxRemove Webpage Formatting or View the HTML Code When Copying in FirefoxInsert Special Characters & Coding in Online Forms in FirefoxCombine the Address Bar and Progress Bar Together in Firefox TouchFreeze Alternative in AutoHotkey The Icy Undertow Desktop Windows Home Server – Backup to LAN The Clear & Clean Desktop Use This Bookmarklet to Easily Get Albums Use AutoHotkey to Assign a Hotkey to a Specific Window Latest Software Reviews Tinyhacker Random Tips HippoRemote Pro 2.2 Xobni Plus for Outlook All My Movies 5.9 CloudBerry Online Backup 1.5 for Windows Home Server Convert BMP, TIFF, PCX to Vector files with RasterVect Free Identify Fonts using WhatFontis.com Windows 7’s WordPad is Actually Good Greate Image Viewing and Management with Zoner Photo Studio Free Windows Media Player Plus! – Cool WMP Enhancer Get Your Team’s World Cup Schedule In Google Calendar

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• Going Metro

  - by Tony Davis

  When it was announced, I confess was somewhat surprised by the striking new "Metro" User Interface for Windows 8, based on Swiss typography, Bauhaus design, tiles, touches and gestures, and the new Windows Runtime (WinRT) API on which Metro apps were to be built. It all seemed to have come out of nowhere, like field mushrooms in the night and seemed quite out-of-character for a company like Microsoft, which has hung on determinedly for over twenty years to its quaint Windowing system. Many were initially puzzled by the lack of support for plug-ins in the "Metro" version of IE10, which ships with Win8, and the apparent demise of Silverlight, Microsoft's previous 'radical new framework'. Win8 signals the end of the road for Silverlight apps in the browser, but then its importance here has been waning for some time, anyway, now that HTML5 has usurped its most compelling use case, streaming video. As Shawn Wildermuth and others have noted, if you're doing enterprise, desktop development with Silverlight then nothing much changes immediately, though it seems clear that ultimately Silverlight will die off in favor of a single WPF/XAML framework that supports those technologies that were pioneered on the phones and tablets. There is a mystery here. Is Silverlight dead, or merely repurposed? The more you look at Metro, the more it seems to resemble Silverlight. A lot of the philosophies underpinning Silverlight applications, such as the fundamentally asynchronous nature of the design, have moved wholesale into Metro, along with most the Microsoft Silverlight dev team. As Simon Cooper points out, "Silverlight developers, already used to all the principles of sandboxing and separation, will have a much easier time writing Metro apps than desktop developers". Metro certainly has given the framework formerly known as Silverlight a new purpose. It has enabled Microsoft to bestow on Windows 8 a new "duality", as both a traditional desktop OS supporting 'legacy' Windows applications, and an OS that supports a new breed of application that can share functionality such as search, that understands, and can react to, the full range of gestures and screen-sizes, and has location-awareness. It's clear that Win8 is developed in the knowledge that the 'desktop computer' will soon be a very large, tilted, touch-screen monitor. Windows owes its new-found versatility to the lessons learned from Windows Phone, but it's developed for the big screen, and with full support for familiar .NET desktop apps as well as the new Metro apps. But the old mouse-driven Windows applications will soon look very passé, just as MSDOS character-mode applications did in the nineties. Cheers, Tony.

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• Silverlight Cream for April 27, 2010 -- #849

  - by Dave Campbell

  In this Issue: Mike Snow, Kunal Chowdhury, Giorgetti Alessandro, Alexander Strauss, Corey Schuman, Kirupa, John Papa, Miro Miroslavov, Michael Washington, and Jeremy Likness. Shoutouts: Erik Mork and crew have posted their latest This Week In Silverlight April 23 2010 The Silverlight Team announced Microsoft releases Silverlight-powered Windows Intune beta Jesse Liberty has posted his UK and Ireland Slides and Links The Expression Blend and Design Blog reports a Minor Update to The Expression Blend 4 Release Candidate From SilverlightCream.com: Silverlight Tip of the Day #6 – Toast Notifications Mike Snow has Tip #6 up today and it's about Toast notifications in OOB apps: Restrictions, creation, showing, and the code. Silverlight Tutorials Chapter 2: Introduction to Silverlight Application Development Part 2 of Kunal Chowdhury's Introductory tutorial set is up ... he's covering how to create a Silverlight project, what's contained in it, and creating a User Control. Silverlight, M-V-VM ... and IoC - part 3 Giorgetti Alessandro has part 3 of his Silverlight, IOC, and MVVM series up... this one with an example using the code discussed previously. The project is on CodePlex, and he's not done with the series. Application Partitioning with MEF, Silverlight and Windows Azure – Part I Alexander Strauss is discussing Silverlight and MEF for loosely-coupled and partitioned apps. He's also using Azure in this discussion. geekSpeak Recording - Five Key Developer Features in Expression Blend with Corey Schuman Check out the latest geekSpeak on Channel 9 where Corey Schuman talks about the 5 key Developer Features in Expression Blend that will improve your productivity. Using the ChangePropertyAction Kirupa is discussing and demonstrating ChangePropertyAction. Check out the demo near the top of the post, then read how to do it, and download the source. 3 Free Silverlight Demos John Papa blogged about the 2 demos (with source) that have been updated to SL4, and a new one all by Microsoft Luminaries Karen Corby, Adam Kinney, Mark Rideout, Jesse Bishop, and John Papa: "ScrapBook", "HTML and Video Puzzle", and "Rich Notepad". Floating Visual Elements I like Miro Miroslavov's comment: "every Silverlight application “must” have some objects floating around in a quite 3D manner" :) ... well they do that on the CompletIT site, and this is part 2 of their explanation of how all that goodness works. MVVM – A Total Design Change Of Your Application With No Code With some Blend goodness, Michael Washington completely reorganizes the UI of an MVVM application without touching any code ... project included MVVM with Transaction and View Locator Example Jeremy Likness responded to reader requests and has an example up, with explanation, of marrying his last two posts: transactions with MVVM and View Model Locator. Stay in the 'Light! Twitter SilverlightNews | Twitter WynApse | WynApse.com | Tagged Posts | SilverlightCream Join me @ SilverlightCream | Phoenix Silverlight User Group Technorati Tags: Silverlight    Silverlight 3    Silverlight 4    Windows Phone MIX10

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• Craftsmanship Tour: Day 2 Obtiva

  - by Liam McLennan

  I like Chicago. It is a great city for travellers. From the moment I got off the plane at O’Hare everything was easy. I took the train to ‘the Loop’ and walked around the corner to my hotel, Hotel Blake on Dearborn St. Sadly, the elevated train lines in downtown Chicago remind me of ‘Shall We Dance’. Hotel Blake is excellent (except for the breakfast) and the concierge directed me to a pizza place called Lou Malnati's for Chicago style deep-dish pizza. Lou Malnati’s would be a great place to go with a group of friends. I felt strange dining there by myself, but the food and service were excellent. As usual in the United States the portion was so large that I could not finish it, but oh how I tried. Dave Hoover, who invited me to Obtiva for the day, had asked me to arrive at 9:45am. I was up early and had some time to kill so I stopped at the Willis Tower, since it was on my way to the office. Willis Tower is 1,451 feet (442 m) tall and has an observation deck at the top. Around the observation deck are a set of acrylic boxes, protruding from the side of the building. Brave soles can walk out on the perspex and look between their feet all the way down to the street. It is unnerving. Obtiva is a progressive, craftsmanship-focused software development company in downtown Chicago. Dave even wrote a book, Apprenticeship Patterns, that provides a catalogue of patterns to assist aspiring software craftsmen to achieve their goals. I spent the morning working in Obtiva’s software studio, an open xp-style office that houses Obtiva’s in-house development team. For lunch Dave Hoover, Corey Haines, Cory Foy and I went to a local Greek restaurant (not Dancing Zorbas). Dave, Corey and Cory are three smart and motivated guys and I found their ideas enlightening. It was especially great to chat with Corey Haines since he was the inspiration for my craftsmanship tour in the first place. After lunch I recorded a brief interview with Dave. Unfortunately, the battery in my camera went flat so I missed recording some interesting stuff. Interview with Dave Hoover In the evening Obtiva hosted an rspec hackfest with David Chelimsky and others. This was an excellent opportunity to be around some of the very best ruby programmers. At 10pm I went back to my hotel to get some rest before my train north the next morning.

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• Walking to the North Pole to raise money to protect children from cruelty.

  - by jessica.ebbelaar

  Hi, my name is Luca. I joined Oracle in 2005 and I am currently working as a Dell EMEA Channel Manager UK, Ireland and Iberia and I am responsible for the Oracle Dell relationship for the above 3 countries. On the 31st of March 2011 I will set out to complete the ultimate challenge. I will walk and ski across the frozen Arctic to the Top of The World: the GEOGRAPHIC North Pole. While dragging all my supplies over 60 Nautical miles of moving sea ice, in temperatures as low as minus 30 degrees Celsius. I will spend 8 to 10 days preparing, working, living and travelling to the North Pole to 90 degree north. In November I spent a full week of training for this trip.( watch my video). This gave me the opportunity to meet the rest of the team, testing all the gear and carrying an 18inch tyre around the country side for 8 hours per day. I am honored to embark this challenging journey to support the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC). The NSPCC helped more than 750,000 young people to speak out for the first time about abuse they had suffered. I am a firm believer that in order to build a stronger, healthier and wiser society we need to support and help future generations from the beginning of their life journey. This is why cruelty to children must stop. FULL STOP.   Through Virgin Money Giving, you can sponsor me and donations will be quickly processed and passed to NSPCC. Virgin Money Giving is a non-profit organization and will claim gift aid on a charity's behalf where the donor is eligible for this. If you are a UK tax payer please don't forget to select Gift Aid. Gift Aid is great because it means charities get extra money added to their donations at no extra cost to the donor. For every £1 donated, the charity currently receives £1.28 when you add Gift Aid. Anyone who would like to find out more can visit my Facebook page ‘Luca North Pole charity fundraising trip’ I really appreciate all your support and thank you for supporting the NSPCC. Tags van Technorati: Channel Manager,challenge,Arctic,North Pole,NSPCC,cruelty to children,Luca North Pole charity fundraising trip. If fou have any questions related to this article contact [email protected].

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• How do I Integrate Production Database Hot Fixes into Shared Database Development model?

  - by TetonSig

  We are using SQL Source Control 3, SQL Compare, SQL Data Compare from RedGate, Mercurial repositories, TeamCity and a set of 4 environments including production. I am working on getting us to a dedicated environment per developer, but for at least the next 6 months we are stuck with a shared model. To summarize our current system, we have a DEV SQL server where developers first make changes/additions. They commit their changes through SQL Source Control to a local hgdev repository. When they execute an hg push to the main repository, TeamCity listens for that and then (among other things) pushes hgdev repository to hgrc. Another TeamCity process listens for that and does a pull from hgrc and deploys the latest to a QA SQL Server where regression and integration tests are run. When those are passed a push from hgrc to hgprod occurs. We do a compare of hgprod to our PREPROD SQL Server and generate deployment/rollback scripts for our production release. Separate from the above we have database Hot Fixes that will need to be applied in between releases. The process there is for our Operations team make changes on the PreProd database, and then after testing, to use SQL Source Control to commit their hot fix changes to hgprod from the PREPROD database, and then do a compare from hgprod to PRODUCTION, create deployment scripts and run them on PRODUCTION. If we were in a dedicated database per developer model, we could simply automatically push hgprod back to hgdev and merge in the hot fix change (through TeamCity monitoring for hgprod checkins) and then developers would pick it up and merge it to their local repository and database periodically. However, given that with a shared model the DEV database itself is the source of all changes, this won't work. Pushing hotfixes back to hgdev will show up in SQL Source Control as being different than DEV SQL Server and therefore we need to overwrite the reposistory with the "change" from the DEV SQL Server. My only workaround so far is to just have OPS assign a developer the hotfix ticket with a script attached and then we run their hotfixes against DEV ourselves to merge them back in. I'm not happy with that solution. Other than working faster to get to dedicated environment, are they other ways to keep this loop going automatically?

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• IT Admin for Thrill Seekers

  - by Tony Davis

  A developer suggested to me recently that the life of the DBA was, surely, a dull one. My first reaction was indignation, but quickly followed by the thought that for many people excitement isn't necessarily the most desirable aspect of their job. It's true that some aspects of the DBA role seem guaranteed to quieten the pulse; in the days of tape backups, time must have slowed to eternity for the person whose job it was to oversee this process, placing tapes into secure containers, ensuring correct labeling, and.sorry, I drifted off there for a second. On the other hand, if you follow the adventures of the likes of Brent Ozar or Tom LaRock, you'd be forgiven for thinking that much of a database guy's time is spent, metaphorically, diving through plate glass windows in tight fitting underwear in order to extract grateful occupants from burning database applications. Alas it isn't true of the majority, but it isn't as dull as some people imagine, and is a helter-skelter ride compared with some other IT roles. Every IT department has people who toil away in shadowy corners doing quiet but mysterious tasks. When you ask them to explain what they do, you almost immediately want them to stop, but you hear enough to appreciate that these tasks are often absolutely vital to the smooth functioning of an IT organization. Compared with them, the DBAs are prima donnas. Here are a few nominations: Installation engineer - install all of the company's laptops and workstations, and software, deal with licensing, shipping and data entry.many organizations, especially those subject to tight regulation, would simply grind to a halt without their efforts. Localization engineer - Not quite software engineering, not quite translation, the job is to rebuild a product in a different language and make sure everything still works. QA Tester - firstly, I should say that the testers at Red Gate seem to me some of the most-fulfilled in the company. I refer here to the QA Tester whose job is more-or-less entirely to read a script, click some buttons and make sure the actual and expected values match. Configuration manager - for example, someone whose main job is to configure build environments so that devs can access their source code; assuredly necessary for the smooth functioning and productivity of the team, and hopefully well-paid. So what other sort of job in IT should one choose if the work of a DBA proves to be too exciting? Or are these roles secretly more exciting than many imagine? I invite you all to put forward your own suggestions. Cheers, Tony.

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• Silverlight Cream for February 14, 2011 -- #1047

  - by Dave Campbell

  In this Issue: Mohamed Mosallem, Tony Champion, Gill Cleeren, Laurent Bugnion, Deborah Kurata, Jesse Liberty(-2-), Tim Heuer, Mike Taulty, John Papa, Martin Krüger, and Jeremy Likness. Above the Fold: Silverlight: "Binding to a ComboBox in Silverlight : A Gotcha" Tony Champion WP7: "An Ultra Light Windows Phone 7 MVVM Framework" Jeremy Likness Shoutouts: Steve Wortham has a post up discussing Silverlight 5, HTML5, and what the future may bring From SilverlightCream.com: Silverlight 4.0 Tutorial (12 of N): Collecting Attendees Feedback using Windows Phone 7 Mohamed Mosallem is up to number 12 in his Silverlight tutorial series. He's continuing his RegistrationBooth app, but this time, he's building a WP7 app to give attendee feedback. Binding to a ComboBox in Silverlight : A Gotcha If you've tried to bind to a combobox in Silverlight, you've probably either accomplished this as I have (with help) by having it right once, and continuing, but Tony Champion takes the voodoo out of getting it all working. Getting ready for Microsoft Silverlight Exam 70-506 (Part 5) Gill Cleeren has Part 5 of his exam preparation post up on SilverlightShow. As with the others, he provides many external links to good information. Referencing a picture in another DLL in Silverlight and Windows Phone 7 Laurent Bugnion explains the pitfalls and correct way to reference an image from a dll... good info for loading images such as icons for Silverlight in general and WP7 also. Silverlight MVVM Commanding II Deborah Kurata has a part 2 up on MVVM Commanding. The first part covered the built-in commanding for controls that inherit from ButtonBase... this post goes beyond that into other Silverlight controls. Reactive Drag and Drop Part 1 This Drag and Drop with Rx post by Jesse Liberty is the 4th in his Rx series. He begins with a video from the Rx team and applies reactive programming to mouse movements. Yet Another Podcast #24–Reactive Extensions On the heels of his previous post on Rx, in his latest 'Yet Another Podcast', Jesse Liberty chats with Matthew Podwysocki and Bart De Smet about Reactive Extensions. Silverlight 4 February 2011 Update Released Today Tim Heuer announced the release of the February 2011 Silverlight 4 release. Check out Tim's post for information about what's contained in this release. Blend Bits 25–Templating Part 3 In his 3rd Templating tutorial in BlendBits, Mike Taulty demonstrates the 'Make into Control' option rather than the other way around. Silverlight TV 61: Expert Chat on Deep Zoom, Touch, and Windows Phone John Papa interviews David Kelley in the latest Silverlight TV... David is discussing touch in Silverlight and for WP7 and his WP7 apps in the marketplace. Simple Hyperlinkbutton style Martin Krüger has a cool Hyperlink style available at the Expression Gallery. Interesting visual for entertaining your users. An Ultra Light Windows Phone 7 MVVM Framework Jeremy Likness takes his knowledge of MVVM (Jounce), and WP7 and takes a better look at what he'd really like to have for a WP7 framework. Stay in the 'Light! Twitter SilverlightNews | Twitter WynApse | WynApse.com | Tagged Posts | SilverlightCream Join me @ SilverlightCream | Phoenix Silverlight User Group Technorati Tags: Silverlight    Silverlight 3    Silverlight 4    Windows Phone MIX10

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• Download Internet Explorer 9 RTM

  - by Harish Ranganathan

  The much anticipated RTM release of Internet Explorer 9 (IE9) happened today.  IE9 preview release was first showcased at MIX 2010 and post that there were 7-8 Platform Preview releases.  Also, IE9 Beta came out in September 2010 with close to 10 million downloads within a month.  More recently, the RC version was out with much improved performance.  Today, marks the launch of IE9 RTM.  What this means is that, within an year, the IE Team has shipped the stable product, much faster than the earlier cycles for IE8 and IE7.  I wanted to clarify a few things (myths) that arise in common 1. I am already using Chrome and its faster for me, why would I need IE9 IE9 uses 100% hardware acceleration which means, you are going to get the best of performance compared to any other browser that shipped/will ship in future.  With native Windows support, IE9 will outperform all other browsers in terms of performance. 2. What about standards and security Agreed IE6 hasn’t been in the best of standards, but why would someone compare IE6 which was released almost 10 years back.  Later, we shipped IE7 and IE8 which had the best of standards and supports during their timeframes, but one would agree that standards and specifications keep getting updated and its hard to keep pace with the same for older browsers.  Example. HTML5 support is not there in IE8 but it is very much there in IE9.  IE9 supports most of the stable standards of HTML5 and its going to provide preview releases for the work-in-progress standards. 3. IE doesn’t keep in pace with other browsers Agreed! we don’t force/release updates on major versions in very short time periods.  What we do is provide Windows Update that provides security updates/patches and other critical updates for not just IE but the whole of Windows operating system 4. I am running Windows XP, what do I do? This is the trickiest part.  Windows XP isn’t the supported operating system for IE9 and there are various reasons to it.  The recommended operating system is Windows Vista and Windows 7.  In the interest of technology and its pace, we had to discontinue Windows XP both from a retail selling perspective as well as IE9 support.  But, the recent 2 years has seen PCs/Laptops only shipped with Windows Vista or Windows 7 so, it shouldn't affect them. 5. Where do I verify IE9’s performance/standard support and other information. http://samples.msdn.microsoft.com/ietestcenter/  Here below is a snapshot of one of the tests. Clearly IE9 outperforms all other browsers and will continue to outperform them in future.  You can download IE9 from www.beautyoftheweb.com Cheers!!!

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• Silverlight Cream for May 25, 2010 - 2 -- #870

  - by Dave Campbell

  In this Issue: Kirupa, Matthias Shapiro(-2-, -3-), Giorgetti Alessandro, Kunal Chowdhury, Mike Snow, and Jason Zander. Shoutout: This looks like a really nice WP7 app done by a team of folks for Imagine Cup 2010: Ahead ... I hope to see some blog posts and code on this! From SilverlightCream.com, and remember you can send me a link to your post or submit at SilverlightCream.com: Control Storyboards Easily using Behaviors Kirupa is following through on a promise to discuss the Behaviors that come on-board Blend. He's starting with two to help deal with Storyboards: ControlStoryboardAction and the StoryboardCompletedTrigger. PHP, MySQL and Silverlight: The Complete Tutorial (Part 1) Matthias Shapiro has a 3-parter up on PHP, MySQL, and Silverlight -- wondered how I missed this first one until I realized they all posted in 2 days... this first post sets up the MySQL database to be used. PHP, MySQL, and Silverlight: The Complete Tutorial (Part 2) In part 2, Matthias Shapiro writes a PHP web service that grabs the data from the database and sends it in JSON format to the Silverlight app (see part 3). PHP, MySQL, and Silverlight: The Complete Tutorial (Part 3) Matthias Shapiro's part 3 is the Silverlight part that reads the JSON produced by the PHP webservice from Part 2, to provide display and edits of the data... and this whole series includes source. Silverlight: adding an IsEditing property to the DataForm Giorgetti Alessandro laments the lack of an IsEditing property in the DataForm, then goes on to demonstrate his path to a suitable workaround. Step-by-Step Command Binding in Silverlight 4 Kunal Chowdhury has a nicely-detailed post on Command Binding in Silverlight 4 and builds up a demo MVVM app in the process... source project included. Silverlight Tip of the Day #24 – Resolving Unknown Objects in VS I'm not sure I would call Mike Snow's latest Silverlight Tip 'Silverlight' ... but if you don't know it, you need to. Sample: Windows Phone 7 Example Application with Landscape Layout Whoa... check out the WP7 app Jason Zander did with landscape mode defined... you're going to want to refer back to this one... Stay in the 'Light! Twitter SilverlightNews | Twitter WynApse | WynApse.com | Tagged Posts | SilverlightCream Join me @ SilverlightCream | Phoenix Silverlight User Group Technorati Tags: Silverlight    Silverlight 3    Silverlight 4    Windows Phone MIX10

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• Simple tips to design a Customer Journey Map

  - by Isabel F. Peñuelas

  “A model can abstract to a level that is comprehensible to humans, without getting lost in details.” -The Unified Modeling Language Reference Manual. Inception using Post-it, StoryBoards, Lego or Mindmaping Techniques The first step in a Customer Experience project is to describe customer interactions creating a customer journey map. Modeling is never easy, so to succeed on this effort, it is very convenient that your CX´s team have some “abstract thinking” skills. Besides is very helpful to consult a Business Service Design offered by an Interactive Agency to lead your inception process. Initially, you may start by a free discussion using post-it cards; storyboards; even lego or any other brainstorming technique you like. This will help you to get your mind into the path followed by the customer to purchase your product or to consume any business service you actually offer to your customers, or plan to offer in the near future. (from www.servicedesigntools.org) Colorful Mind Maps are very useful to document and share meeting ideas. Some Mind Maps software providers as ThinkBuzzan provide trial versions, and you will find more mindmapping options on this post by Mashable. Finally to produce a quick one, I do recommend Wise, an entirely online mindmaping service. On my view the best results in terms of communication will always come for an artistic hand-made drawing. Customer Experience Mind Map Example Making your first Customer Journey Map To add some more formalization to your thoughts, there is a wide offering for designing Customer Journey Maps. A Customer Map can be represented as an oriented graph in which another follows each step. The one below is the most simple Customer Journey you can draw. Nothing more than a couple of pictures, numbers and lines to design the customer steps sequence in the purchase process. Very simple Customer Journey for Social Mobile Shopping There are a lot of Customer Journey templates much more sophisticated available  in the Web using a variety of styles, as per example this one with a focus on underlining emotional experience, or this other worksheet template. Representing different interaction devices on the vertical axis, and touchpoints / requirements and existing gaps horizontally  is today´s most common format for Customer Journeys. From Customer Journey Maps to CX Technology Adoption Plans Once you have your map ready, you can start to identify the IT infrastructure requirements for your CXProject. By analyzing customer problems and improvement opportunities with maps, you will then identify the technology gaps and the new investment requirements in your IT infrastructure. Deeping step by step from the more abstract to the more concrete is the best guarantee to take the right IT investment decisions.  ¡Remember to keep your initial customer journey safe on your pocket in every one of your CX´s project meetings- that´s you map to success!

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