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  • How to diagnose computer freezing problem

    - by reinierpost
    I have a laptop (a Medion from Aldi) that tends to hang quite often - so often, in fact, that several attempts to install Windows XP or Ubuntu on it have all failed. However, I am able to boot and run Ubuntu as found on the standard Ubuntu 10.10 installation image. I have done this two times thus far. The first time everything was running smoothly, until at some point the GUI (i.e. X) became unresponsive. The cursor kept moving with the mouse, but menus would no longer show and clicking things no longer produced any response. So I switched to the consoles (Ctrl-F1, Ctrl-F2, etc., which in this setup automatically run shells. The shells were still responsive, and the cd command would still work, but any command that invoked an executable (e.g. /bin/ls or cd /bin; ./find caused the shell to hang up uninterruptibly. My hypothesis was that all attempts at disk access were hanging up, but I didn't actually try a command like echo /proc/$$ or while read line; do echo $line; done < /var/log/syslog to verify this. Another possibility is that an essential system library is cached in memory and somehow failing to function properly. The second time I left the system running overnight and it didn't hang itself spontaneously. I'm not sure I have the patience to just twiddle with the running system until the condition reappears, and I'm, not sure what to do once it does. Clearly we can rule out a software cause. It seems disk access related, but clearly it's not permanent hard disk failure because the system will reboot just fine. What kind of hardware problem might produce these symptoms? Can it be a memory problem?

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  • Iptables and system-config-firewall

    - by nivde92
    I had a set of netfilter rules set with iptables, but someone else told me to use system-config-firewall to add a rule for sharing files with Windows. (Samba) This rewrote the iptables rules file and I lost my own custom rules. I have a backup copy, but am having trouble restoring them. Edit: The server is Centos, I already tried to restore the rules with iptables-restore < /root/working.iptables.rules but for some reason the rules don't change. What are you trying to do? Trying to restore the iptable rules that I have in a backup file. What have you tried in order to make it happen? I've tried to modify the iptables file with vim, since the command iptables-restore was no help. What results did you expect? To get the old rules back. What actually happened? Nothing, when I run the command or edit the file by hand the file doesn't change at all. Maybe something else it's overwriting.

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  • Windows Server 2008 (x64): Wont boot past bios page

    - by WebSolProv
    Happy New Year, Since a month or so ago I inherited responsibility for small network administration for my sins. The domain controller (yes there is only one, and yes I know it is best practice to have two even in a small domain setup) went down overnight and I have been trying all day to get it back up and running. Unfortunately this machine also administers our entire ActiveDirectory setup: 1) It goes thru the BIOS without any errors, nothing whatsoever 2) It gets into the “select safe mode, safe mode with networking, normal” etc and if you select either of the safe mode options it loads a few files then reboots. If you select normal it just runs for a bit (doesn’t get to the windows splash screen) and then reboots again. 3) If you select windows repair, it asks for an image to repair too: however it would appear that none was taken that can be used (!!) or one is not being shown. 4) I have tried repairing the boot sector and the boot configuration using Bootrec.exe, both which it says were completed successfully but still it doesn’t work. 5) I have tried swapping the drives into another server to rule out hardware and that didn’t work either so clearly it’s the OS. 6) I have tried running chkdsk which ran fine, and also memory check which was also fine. We do have another machine on the network that was installed as a DC so when we decommission the current infrastructure but when I try and "promote" this to the lead DC then I get “you cannot modify domain or trust information because a PDC emulator cannot be contacted" so I am unable to replicare the ActiveDirectory details. If anyone can think of any direction I should follow it would be greatly appreciated, Thanks, Alex

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  • Slow network interaction between 2 kvm host machines

    - by VirtualNoob
    We have 2 physical machines, Host1 is a CentOS 6.4 kvm host and hosts ~7 kvm VMs all running Ubuntu 12.04 - all of this runs perfectly. Recently we've added a 2nd host system, host2, again a CentOS 6.4 kvm host with a view to running another couple of VMs and providing some failover against host1 should it be required. Both physical machines reside in the same cabinet in our DC, and are on the same subnet - let's say host1: 1.1.1.64 and host2: 1.1.1.81. Both have their gateway set to the DC gateway of 1.1.1.254 with no hardware firewall in between. On each machine, I have 4 NICs that are bonded together to form a single interface, which is then bridged to allow the VMs to access the network. All of the VMs are online, and all of them can successfully ssh into the hosts without any delay. Both systems can access the internet fine, and I can ssh into both systems from home without any issues. However, there is a real delay when attempting to ssh from host1 to host2 (or vice versa) and this obviously means that any action required on host2, that is controlled by host1 either takes forever or results in failure due to timeout. In the interest of keeping this post short, I've put my ifcfg files into a pastie: http://pastie.org/8081648 I've tried both adding a firewall rule in each machine for the other, and also disabling the firewall entirely, so that can't be the issue. I've tried troubleshooting this myself but can't seem to get to the bottom of it. Any help or advice would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

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  • Looking for VCS wrapper that tracks system files changing across the whole *nix OS and sends diffs through email

    - by nextus
    I need some software that looks after custom directories across the whole OS (i.e. /etc) and alerting me if someone edit something file inside. Additionally, this tool must automatically commit and push changes into backup server, so I can easily determine when specific change in specific file was made. I'm using cvsbackup right now but I want to create or found something more modern. I think using git as VCS is a great idea. I could have local repository and easily revert changes in my configuration files. Furthermore, pushing changes to the remote repository would helps me to recover my configuration files when the server is fault. It doesn't seems difficult to write some wrapper around the git but there are a lot of problems. For example, I need to track custom directories: /usr/local/nginx/ and /etc/. So the destination point for my git repository is /. I don't need to track the other directories so I must to write overwhelming .gitignore rule: * !.gitignore !/etc/ !etc/* !/usr /usr/* !/usr/local /usr/local/* !/usr/local/nginx !/usr/local/nginx/* It's very daunting and prone to error. So it's maybe a good idea to create intermediate file that wrapper reads and converts to .gitignore format. Additionally, I don't want to keep my .git folder in / partition so I need to set appropriate GIT_DIR and GIT_WORK_TREE variables for git. Is there any ready to use tools for implementation this task? I don't found any but I don't believe that no one needs this feature.

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  • Configure Web app for external access (IIS7), allowing only certain users via AD group. All users need internal access

    - by White Island
    We have a Web app running in IIS7 (Server 2008 R2). I now need to allow external access with an SSL certificate, so certain users (e.g. the owner of the company) can use it remotely without VPN. They want to roll out the external access only to those specific users at first (thinking: a Windows credential prompt), BUT everyone will still need access internally (HTTP), without the prompt. I have the SSL cert installed on the server and public DNS configured. I've been trying to figure out how to work the authentication/authorization. I was thinking I need to disable Anonymous authn and set Windows authn, then I keep coming back to 'URL Authorization' in my research for the group setting; however, when I tried URL authz, (removed allow all, added allow rule for the special group), it broke the site internally (403.2 Forbidden, I believe it was). I thought maybe setting up a second site in IIS pointing to the same program would work, but the exact same thing happened (and again with a new app pool, just for kicks). So I guess my question is, how would you do this: allow external access, limited to users in a specific AD group, while still allowing internal access without a credentials prompt? How do I separate the external HTTPS and internal HTTP authorization requirements? Will I need to just copy the entire contents of the app in Windows Explorer to a new folder and create my external site from that? Is Windows authentication the correct option for this? I did come across this, which refers to creating a custom module. While it sounds like a solution, it's not one I'm familiar with, and I just wondered if there is a simpler way to get it to work: http://forums.iis.net/p/1182792/2000775.aspx Thanks!

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  • What are good design practices when working with Entity Framework

    - by AD
    This will apply mostly for an asp.net application where the data is not accessed via soa. Meaning that you get access to the objects loaded from the framework, not Transfer Objects, although some recommendation still apply. This is a community post, so please add to it as you see fit. Applies to: Entity Framework 1.0 shipped with Visual Studio 2008 sp1. Why pick EF in the first place? Considering it is a young technology with plenty of problems (see below), it may be a hard sell to get on the EF bandwagon for your project. However, it is the technology Microsoft is pushing (at the expense of Linq2Sql, which is a subset of EF). In addition, you may not be satisfied with NHibernate or other solutions out there. Whatever the reasons, there are people out there (including me) working with EF and life is not bad.make you think. EF and inheritance The first big subject is inheritance. EF does support mapping for inherited classes that are persisted in 2 ways: table per class and table the hierarchy. The modeling is easy and there are no programming issues with that part. (The following applies to table per class model as I don't have experience with table per hierarchy, which is, anyway, limited.) The real problem comes when you are trying to run queries that include one or many objects that are part of an inheritance tree: the generated sql is incredibly awful, takes a long time to get parsed by the EF and takes a long time to execute as well. This is a real show stopper. Enough that EF should probably not be used with inheritance or as little as possible. Here is an example of how bad it was. My EF model had ~30 classes, ~10 of which were part of an inheritance tree. On running a query to get one item from the Base class, something as simple as Base.Get(id), the generated SQL was over 50,000 characters. Then when you are trying to return some Associations, it degenerates even more, going as far as throwing SQL exceptions about not being able to query more than 256 tables at once. Ok, this is bad, EF concept is to allow you to create your object structure without (or with as little as possible) consideration on the actual database implementation of your table. It completely fails at this. So, recommendations? Avoid inheritance if you can, the performance will be so much better. Use it sparingly where you have to. In my opinion, this makes EF a glorified sql-generation tool for querying, but there are still advantages to using it. And ways to implement mechanism that are similar to inheritance. Bypassing inheritance with Interfaces First thing to know with trying to get some kind of inheritance going with EF is that you cannot assign a non-EF-modeled class a base class. Don't even try it, it will get overwritten by the modeler. So what to do? You can use interfaces to enforce that classes implement some functionality. For example here is a IEntity interface that allow you to define Associations between EF entities where you don't know at design time what the type of the entity would be. public enum EntityTypes{ Unknown = -1, Dog = 0, Cat } public interface IEntity { int EntityID { get; } string Name { get; } Type EntityType { get; } } public partial class Dog : IEntity { // implement EntityID and Name which could actually be fields // from your EF model Type EntityType{ get{ return EntityTypes.Dog; } } } Using this IEntity, you can then work with undefined associations in other classes // lets take a class that you defined in your model. // that class has a mapping to the columns: PetID, PetType public partial class Person { public IEntity GetPet() { return IEntityController.Get(PetID,PetType); } } which makes use of some extension functions: public class IEntityController { static public IEntity Get(int id, EntityTypes type) { switch (type) { case EntityTypes.Dog: return Dog.Get(id); case EntityTypes.Cat: return Cat.Get(id); default: throw new Exception("Invalid EntityType"); } } } Not as neat as having plain inheritance, particularly considering you have to store the PetType in an extra database field, but considering the performance gains, I would not look back. It also cannot model one-to-many, many-to-many relationship, but with creative uses of 'Union' it could be made to work. Finally, it creates the side effet of loading data in a property/function of the object, which you need to be careful about. Using a clear naming convention like GetXYZ() helps in that regards. Compiled Queries Entity Framework performance is not as good as direct database access with ADO (obviously) or Linq2SQL. There are ways to improve it however, one of which is compiling your queries. The performance of a compiled query is similar to Linq2Sql. What is a compiled query? It is simply a query for which you tell the framework to keep the parsed tree in memory so it doesn't need to be regenerated the next time you run it. So the next run, you will save the time it takes to parse the tree. Do not discount that as it is a very costly operation that gets even worse with more complex queries. There are 2 ways to compile a query: creating an ObjectQuery with EntitySQL and using CompiledQuery.Compile() function. (Note that by using an EntityDataSource in your page, you will in fact be using ObjectQuery with EntitySQL, so that gets compiled and cached). An aside here in case you don't know what EntitySQL is. It is a string-based way of writing queries against the EF. Here is an example: "select value dog from Entities.DogSet as dog where dog.ID = @ID". The syntax is pretty similar to SQL syntax. You can also do pretty complex object manipulation, which is well explained [here][1]. Ok, so here is how to do it using ObjectQuery< string query = "select value dog " + "from Entities.DogSet as dog " + "where dog.ID = @ID"; ObjectQuery<Dog> oQuery = new ObjectQuery<Dog>(query, EntityContext.Instance)); oQuery.Parameters.Add(new ObjectParameter("ID", id)); oQuery.EnablePlanCaching = true; return oQuery.FirstOrDefault(); The first time you run this query, the framework will generate the expression tree and keep it in memory. So the next time it gets executed, you will save on that costly step. In that example EnablePlanCaching = true, which is unnecessary since that is the default option. The other way to compile a query for later use is the CompiledQuery.Compile method. This uses a delegate: static readonly Func<Entities, int, Dog> query_GetDog = CompiledQuery.Compile<Entities, int, Dog>((ctx, id) => ctx.DogSet.FirstOrDefault(it => it.ID == id)); or using linq static readonly Func<Entities, int, Dog> query_GetDog = CompiledQuery.Compile<Entities, int, Dog>((ctx, id) => (from dog in ctx.DogSet where dog.ID == id select dog).FirstOrDefault()); to call the query: query_GetDog.Invoke( YourContext, id ); The advantage of CompiledQuery is that the syntax of your query is checked at compile time, where as EntitySQL is not. However, there are other consideration... Includes Lets say you want to have the data for the dog owner to be returned by the query to avoid making 2 calls to the database. Easy to do, right? EntitySQL string query = "select value dog " + "from Entities.DogSet as dog " + "where dog.ID = @ID"; ObjectQuery<Dog> oQuery = new ObjectQuery<Dog>(query, EntityContext.Instance)).Include("Owner"); oQuery.Parameters.Add(new ObjectParameter("ID", id)); oQuery.EnablePlanCaching = true; return oQuery.FirstOrDefault(); CompiledQuery static readonly Func<Entities, int, Dog> query_GetDog = CompiledQuery.Compile<Entities, int, Dog>((ctx, id) => (from dog in ctx.DogSet.Include("Owner") where dog.ID == id select dog).FirstOrDefault()); Now, what if you want to have the Include parametrized? What I mean is that you want to have a single Get() function that is called from different pages that care about different relationships for the dog. One cares about the Owner, another about his FavoriteFood, another about his FavotireToy and so on. Basicly, you want to tell the query which associations to load. It is easy to do with EntitySQL public Dog Get(int id, string include) { string query = "select value dog " + "from Entities.DogSet as dog " + "where dog.ID = @ID"; ObjectQuery<Dog> oQuery = new ObjectQuery<Dog>(query, EntityContext.Instance)) .IncludeMany(include); oQuery.Parameters.Add(new ObjectParameter("ID", id)); oQuery.EnablePlanCaching = true; return oQuery.FirstOrDefault(); } The include simply uses the passed string. Easy enough. Note that it is possible to improve on the Include(string) function (that accepts only a single path) with an IncludeMany(string) that will let you pass a string of comma-separated associations to load. Look further in the extension section for this function. If we try to do it with CompiledQuery however, we run into numerous problems: The obvious static readonly Func<Entities, int, string, Dog> query_GetDog = CompiledQuery.Compile<Entities, int, string, Dog>((ctx, id, include) => (from dog in ctx.DogSet.Include(include) where dog.ID == id select dog).FirstOrDefault()); will choke when called with: query_GetDog.Invoke( YourContext, id, "Owner,FavoriteFood" ); Because, as mentionned above, Include() only wants to see a single path in the string and here we are giving it 2: "Owner" and "FavoriteFood" (which is not to be confused with "Owner.FavoriteFood"!). Then, let's use IncludeMany(), which is an extension function static readonly Func<Entities, int, string, Dog> query_GetDog = CompiledQuery.Compile<Entities, int, string, Dog>((ctx, id, include) => (from dog in ctx.DogSet.IncludeMany(include) where dog.ID == id select dog).FirstOrDefault()); Wrong again, this time it is because the EF cannot parse IncludeMany because it is not part of the functions that is recognizes: it is an extension. Ok, so you want to pass an arbitrary number of paths to your function and Includes() only takes a single one. What to do? You could decide that you will never ever need more than, say 20 Includes, and pass each separated strings in a struct to CompiledQuery. But now the query looks like this: from dog in ctx.DogSet.Include(include1).Include(include2).Include(include3) .Include(include4).Include(include5).Include(include6) .[...].Include(include19).Include(include20) where dog.ID == id select dog which is awful as well. Ok, then, but wait a minute. Can't we return an ObjectQuery< with CompiledQuery? Then set the includes on that? Well, that what I would have thought so as well: static readonly Func<Entities, int, ObjectQuery<Dog>> query_GetDog = CompiledQuery.Compile<Entities, int, string, ObjectQuery<Dog>>((ctx, id) => (ObjectQuery<Dog>)(from dog in ctx.DogSet where dog.ID == id select dog)); public Dog GetDog( int id, string include ) { ObjectQuery<Dog> oQuery = query_GetDog(id); oQuery = oQuery.IncludeMany(include); return oQuery.FirstOrDefault; } That should have worked, except that when you call IncludeMany (or Include, Where, OrderBy...) you invalidate the cached compiled query because it is an entirely new one now! So, the expression tree needs to be reparsed and you get that performance hit again. So what is the solution? You simply cannot use CompiledQueries with parametrized Includes. Use EntitySQL instead. This doesn't mean that there aren't uses for CompiledQueries. It is great for localized queries that will always be called in the same context. Ideally CompiledQuery should always be used because the syntax is checked at compile time, but due to limitation, that's not possible. An example of use would be: you may want to have a page that queries which two dogs have the same favorite food, which is a bit narrow for a BusinessLayer function, so you put it in your page and know exactly what type of includes are required. Passing more than 3 parameters to a CompiledQuery Func is limited to 5 parameters, of which the last one is the return type and the first one is your Entities object from the model. So that leaves you with 3 parameters. A pitance, but it can be improved on very easily. public struct MyParams { public string param1; public int param2; public DateTime param3; } static readonly Func<Entities, MyParams, IEnumerable<Dog>> query_GetDog = CompiledQuery.Compile<Entities, MyParams, IEnumerable<Dog>>((ctx, myParams) => from dog in ctx.DogSet where dog.Age == myParams.param2 && dog.Name == myParams.param1 and dog.BirthDate > myParams.param3 select dog); public List<Dog> GetSomeDogs( int age, string Name, DateTime birthDate ) { MyParams myParams = new MyParams(); myParams.param1 = name; myParams.param2 = age; myParams.param3 = birthDate; return query_GetDog(YourContext,myParams).ToList(); } Return Types (this does not apply to EntitySQL queries as they aren't compiled at the same time during execution as the CompiledQuery method) Working with Linq, you usually don't force the execution of the query until the very last moment, in case some other functions downstream wants to change the query in some way: static readonly Func<Entities, int, string, IEnumerable<Dog>> query_GetDog = CompiledQuery.Compile<Entities, int, string, IEnumerable<Dog>>((ctx, age, name) => from dog in ctx.DogSet where dog.Age == age && dog.Name == name select dog); public IEnumerable<Dog> GetSomeDogs( int age, string name ) { return query_GetDog(YourContext,age,name); } public void DataBindStuff() { IEnumerable<Dog> dogs = GetSomeDogs(4,"Bud"); // but I want the dogs ordered by BirthDate gridView.DataSource = dogs.OrderBy( it => it.BirthDate ); } What is going to happen here? By still playing with the original ObjectQuery (that is the actual return type of the Linq statement, which implements IEnumerable), it will invalidate the compiled query and be force to re-parse. So, the rule of thumb is to return a List< of objects instead. static readonly Func<Entities, int, string, IEnumerable<Dog>> query_GetDog = CompiledQuery.Compile<Entities, int, string, IEnumerable<Dog>>((ctx, age, name) => from dog in ctx.DogSet where dog.Age == age && dog.Name == name select dog); public List<Dog> GetSomeDogs( int age, string name ) { return query_GetDog(YourContext,age,name).ToList(); //<== change here } public void DataBindStuff() { List<Dog> dogs = GetSomeDogs(4,"Bud"); // but I want the dogs ordered by BirthDate gridView.DataSource = dogs.OrderBy( it => it.BirthDate ); } When you call ToList(), the query gets executed as per the compiled query and then, later, the OrderBy is executed against the objects in memory. It may be a little bit slower, but I'm not even sure. One sure thing is that you have no worries about mis-handling the ObjectQuery and invalidating the compiled query plan. Once again, that is not a blanket statement. ToList() is a defensive programming trick, but if you have a valid reason not to use ToList(), go ahead. There are many cases in which you would want to refine the query before executing it. Performance What is the performance impact of compiling a query? It can actually be fairly large. A rule of thumb is that compiling and caching the query for reuse takes at least double the time of simply executing it without caching. For complex queries (read inherirante), I have seen upwards to 10 seconds. So, the first time a pre-compiled query gets called, you get a performance hit. After that first hit, performance is noticeably better than the same non-pre-compiled query. Practically the same as Linq2Sql When you load a page with pre-compiled queries the first time you will get a hit. It will load in maybe 5-15 seconds (obviously more than one pre-compiled queries will end up being called), while subsequent loads will take less than 300ms. Dramatic difference, and it is up to you to decide if it is ok for your first user to take a hit or you want a script to call your pages to force a compilation of the queries. Can this query be cached? { Dog dog = from dog in YourContext.DogSet where dog.ID == id select dog; } No, ad-hoc Linq queries are not cached and you will incur the cost of generating the tree every single time you call it. Parametrized Queries Most search capabilities involve heavily parametrized queries. There are even libraries available that will let you build a parametrized query out of lamba expressions. The problem is that you cannot use pre-compiled queries with those. One way around that is to map out all the possible criteria in the query and flag which one you want to use: public struct MyParams { public string name; public bool checkName; public int age; public bool checkAge; } static readonly Func<Entities, MyParams, IEnumerable<Dog>> query_GetDog = CompiledQuery.Compile<Entities, MyParams, IEnumerable<Dog>>((ctx, myParams) => from dog in ctx.DogSet where (myParams.checkAge == true && dog.Age == myParams.age) && (myParams.checkName == true && dog.Name == myParams.name ) select dog); protected List<Dog> GetSomeDogs() { MyParams myParams = new MyParams(); myParams.name = "Bud"; myParams.checkName = true; myParams.age = 0; myParams.checkAge = false; return query_GetDog(YourContext,myParams).ToList(); } The advantage here is that you get all the benifits of a pre-compiled quert. The disadvantages are that you most likely will end up with a where clause that is pretty difficult to maintain, that you will incur a bigger penalty for pre-compiling the query and that each query you run is not as efficient as it could be (particularly with joins thrown in). Another way is to build an EntitySQL query piece by piece, like we all did with SQL. protected List<Dod> GetSomeDogs( string name, int age) { string query = "select value dog from Entities.DogSet where 1 = 1 "; if( !String.IsNullOrEmpty(name) ) query = query + " and dog.Name == @Name "; if( age > 0 ) query = query + " and dog.Age == @Age "; ObjectQuery<Dog> oQuery = new ObjectQuery<Dog>( query, YourContext ); if( !String.IsNullOrEmpty(name) ) oQuery.Parameters.Add( new ObjectParameter( "Name", name ) ); if( age > 0 ) oQuery.Parameters.Add( new ObjectParameter( "Age", age ) ); return oQuery.ToList(); } Here the problems are: - there is no syntax checking during compilation - each different combination of parameters generate a different query which will need to be pre-compiled when it is first run. In this case, there are only 4 different possible queries (no params, age-only, name-only and both params), but you can see that there can be way more with a normal world search. - Noone likes to concatenate strings! Another option is to query a large subset of the data and then narrow it down in memory. This is particularly useful if you are working with a definite subset of the data, like all the dogs in a city. You know there are a lot but you also know there aren't that many... so your CityDog search page can load all the dogs for the city in memory, which is a single pre-compiled query and then refine the results protected List<Dod> GetSomeDogs( string name, int age, string city) { string query = "select value dog from Entities.DogSet where dog.Owner.Address.City == @City "; ObjectQuery<Dog> oQuery = new ObjectQuery<Dog>( query, YourContext ); oQuery.Parameters.Add( new ObjectParameter( "City", city ) ); List<Dog> dogs = oQuery.ToList(); if( !String.IsNullOrEmpty(name) ) dogs = dogs.Where( it => it.Name == name ); if( age > 0 ) dogs = dogs.Where( it => it.Age == age ); return dogs; } It is particularly useful when you start displaying all the data then allow for filtering. Problems: - Could lead to serious data transfer if you are not careful about your subset. - You can only filter on the data that you returned. It means that if you don't return the Dog.Owner association, you will not be able to filter on the Dog.Owner.Name So what is the best solution? There isn't any. You need to pick the solution that works best for you and your problem: - Use lambda-based query building when you don't care about pre-compiling your queries. - Use fully-defined pre-compiled Linq query when your object structure is not too complex. - Use EntitySQL/string concatenation when the structure could be complex and when the possible number of different resulting queries are small (which means fewer pre-compilation hits). - Use in-memory filtering when you are working with a smallish subset of the data or when you had to fetch all of the data on the data at first anyway (if the performance is fine with all the data, then filtering in memory will not cause any time to be spent in the db). Singleton access The best way to deal with your context and entities accross all your pages is to use the singleton pattern: public sealed class YourContext { private const string instanceKey = "On3GoModelKey"; YourContext(){} public static YourEntities Instance { get { HttpContext context = HttpContext.Current; if( context == null ) return Nested.instance; if (context.Items[instanceKey] == null) { On3GoEntities entity = new On3GoEntities(); context.Items[instanceKey] = entity; } return (YourEntities)context.Items[instanceKey]; } } class Nested { // Explicit static constructor to tell C# compiler // not to mark type as beforefieldinit static Nested() { } internal static readonly YourEntities instance = new YourEntities(); } } NoTracking, is it worth it? When executing a query, you can tell the framework to track the objects it will return or not. What does it mean? With tracking enabled (the default option), the framework will track what is going on with the object (has it been modified? Created? Deleted?) and will also link objects together, when further queries are made from the database, which is what is of interest here. For example, lets assume that Dog with ID == 2 has an owner which ID == 10. Dog dog = (from dog in YourContext.DogSet where dog.ID == 2 select dog).FirstOrDefault(); //dog.OwnerReference.IsLoaded == false; Person owner = (from o in YourContext.PersonSet where o.ID == 10 select dog).FirstOrDefault(); //dog.OwnerReference.IsLoaded == true; If we were to do the same with no tracking, the result would be different. ObjectQuery<Dog> oDogQuery = (ObjectQuery<Dog>) (from dog in YourContext.DogSet where dog.ID == 2 select dog); oDogQuery.MergeOption = MergeOption.NoTracking; Dog dog = oDogQuery.FirstOrDefault(); //dog.OwnerReference.IsLoaded == false; ObjectQuery<Person> oPersonQuery = (ObjectQuery<Person>) (from o in YourContext.PersonSet where o.ID == 10 select o); oPersonQuery.MergeOption = MergeOption.NoTracking; Owner owner = oPersonQuery.FirstOrDefault(); //dog.OwnerReference.IsLoaded == false; Tracking is very useful and in a perfect world without performance issue, it would always be on. But in this world, there is a price for it, in terms of performance. So, should you use NoTracking to speed things up? It depends on what you are planning to use the data for. Is there any chance that the data your query with NoTracking can be used to make update/insert/delete in the database? If so, don't use NoTracking because associations are not tracked and will causes exceptions to be thrown. In a page where there are absolutly no updates to the database, you can use NoTracking. Mixing tracking and NoTracking is possible, but it requires you to be extra careful with updates/inserts/deletes. The problem is that if you mix then you risk having the framework trying to Attach() a NoTracking object to the context where another copy of the same object exist with tracking on. Basicly, what I am saying is that Dog dog1 = (from dog in YourContext.DogSet where dog.ID == 2).FirstOrDefault(); ObjectQuery<Dog> oDogQuery = (ObjectQuery<Dog>) (from dog in YourContext.DogSet where dog.ID == 2 select dog); oDogQuery.MergeOption = MergeOption.NoTracking; Dog dog2 = oDogQuery.FirstOrDefault(); dog1 and dog2 are 2 different objects, one tracked and one not. Using the detached object in an update/insert will force an Attach() that will say "Wait a minute, I do already have an object here with the same database key. Fail". And when you Attach() one object, all of its hierarchy gets attached as well, causing problems everywhere. Be extra careful. How much faster is it with NoTracking It depends on the queries. Some are much more succeptible to tracking than other. I don't have a fast an easy rule for it, but it helps. So I should use NoTracking everywhere then? Not exactly. There are some advantages to tracking object. The first one is that the object is cached, so subsequent call for that object will not hit the database. That cache is only valid for the lifetime of the YourEntities object, which, if you use the singleton code above, is the same as the page lifetime. One page request == one YourEntity object. So for multiple calls for the same object, it will load only once per page request. (Other caching mechanism could extend that). What happens when you are using NoTracking and try to load the same object multiple times? The database will be queried each time, so there is an impact there. How often do/should you call for the same object during a single page request? As little as possible of course, but it does happens. Also remember the piece above about having the associations connected automatically for your? You don't have that with NoTracking, so if you load your data in multiple batches, you will not have a link to between them: ObjectQuery<Dog> oDogQuery = (ObjectQuery<Dog>)(from dog in YourContext.DogSet select dog); oDogQuery.MergeOption = MergeOption.NoTracking; List<Dog> dogs = oDogQuery.ToList(); ObjectQuery<Person> oPersonQuery = (ObjectQuery<Person>)(from o in YourContext.PersonSet select o); oPersonQuery.MergeOption = MergeOption.NoTracking; List<Person> owners = oPersonQuery.ToList(); In this case, no dog will have its .Owner property set. Some things to keep in mind when you are trying to optimize the performance. No lazy loading, what am I to do? This can be seen as a blessing in disguise. Of course it is annoying to load everything manually. However, it decreases the number of calls to the db and forces you to think about when you should load data. The more you can load in one database call the better. That was always true, but it is enforced now with this 'feature' of EF. Of course, you can call if( !ObjectReference.IsLoaded ) ObjectReference.Load(); if you want to, but a better practice is to force the framework to load the objects you know you will need in one shot. This is where the discussion about parametrized Includes begins to make sense. Lets say you have you Dog object public class Dog { public Dog Get(int id) { return YourContext.DogSet.FirstOrDefault(it => it.ID == id ); } } This is the type of function you work with all the time. It gets called from all over the place and once you have that Dog object, you will do very different things to it in different functions. First, it should be pre-compiled, because you will call that very often. Second, each different pages will want to have access to a different subset of the Dog data. Some will want the Owner, some the FavoriteToy, etc. Of course, you could call Load() for each reference you need anytime you need one. But that will generate a call to the database each time. Bad idea. So instead, each page will ask for the data it wants to see when it first request for the Dog object: static public Dog Get(int id) { return GetDog(entity,"");} static public Dog Get(int id, string includePath) { string query = "select value o " + " from YourEntities.DogSet as o " +

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  • Using JSON.NET for dynamic JSON parsing

    - by Rick Strahl
    With the release of ASP.NET Web API as part of .NET 4.5 and MVC 4.0, JSON.NET has effectively pushed out the .NET native serializers to become the default serializer for Web API. JSON.NET is vastly more flexible than the built in DataContractJsonSerializer or the older JavaScript serializer. The DataContractSerializer in particular has been very problematic in the past because it can't deal with untyped objects for serialization - like values of type object, or anonymous types which are quite common these days. The JavaScript Serializer that came before it actually does support non-typed objects for serialization but it can't do anything with untyped data coming in from JavaScript and it's overall model of extensibility was pretty limited (JavaScript Serializer is what MVC uses for JSON responses). JSON.NET provides a robust JSON serializer that has both high level and low level components, supports binary JSON, JSON contracts, Xml to JSON conversion, LINQ to JSON and many, many more features than either of the built in serializers. ASP.NET Web API now uses JSON.NET as its default serializer and is now pulled in as a NuGet dependency into Web API projects, which is great. Dynamic JSON Parsing One of the features that I think is getting ever more important is the ability to serialize and deserialize arbitrary JSON content dynamically - that is without mapping the JSON captured directly into a .NET type as DataContractSerializer or the JavaScript Serializers do. Sometimes it isn't possible to map types due to the differences in languages (think collections, dictionaries etc), and other times you simply don't have the structures in place or don't want to create them to actually import the data. If this topic sounds familiar - you're right! I wrote about dynamic JSON parsing a few months back before JSON.NET was added to Web API and when Web API and the System.Net HttpClient libraries included the System.Json classes like JsonObject and JsonArray. With the inclusion of JSON.NET in Web API these classes are now obsolete and didn't ship with Web API or the client libraries. I re-linked my original post to this one. In this post I'll discus JToken, JObject and JArray which are the dynamic JSON objects that make it very easy to create and retrieve JSON content on the fly without underlying types. Why Dynamic JSON? So, why Dynamic JSON parsing rather than strongly typed parsing? Since applications are interacting more and more with third party services it becomes ever more important to have easy access to those services with easy JSON parsing. Sometimes it just makes lot of sense to pull just a small amount of data out of large JSON document received from a service, because the third party service isn't directly related to your application's logic most of the time - and it makes little sense to map the entire service structure in your application. For example, recently I worked with the Google Maps Places API to return information about businesses close to me (or rather the app's) location. The Google API returns a ton of information that my application had no interest in - all I needed was few values out of the data. Dynamic JSON parsing makes it possible to map this data, without having to map the entire API to a C# data structure. Instead I could pull out the three or four values I needed from the API and directly store it on my business entities that needed to receive the data - no need to map the entire Maps API structure. Getting JSON.NET The easiest way to use JSON.NET is to grab it via NuGet and add it as a reference to your project. You can add it to your project with: PM> Install-Package Newtonsoft.Json From the Package Manager Console or by using Manage NuGet Packages in your project References. As mentioned if you're using ASP.NET Web API or MVC 4 JSON.NET will be automatically added to your project. Alternately you can also go to the CodePlex site and download the latest version including source code: http://json.codeplex.com/ Creating JSON on the fly with JObject and JArray Let's start with creating some JSON on the fly. It's super easy to create a dynamic object structure with any of the JToken derived JSON.NET objects. The most common JToken derived classes you are likely to use are JObject and JArray. JToken implements IDynamicMetaProvider and so uses the dynamic  keyword extensively to make it intuitive to create object structures and turn them into JSON via dynamic object syntax. Here's an example of creating a music album structure with child songs using JObject for the base object and songs and JArray for the actual collection of songs:[TestMethod] public void JObjectOutputTest() { // strong typed instance var jsonObject = new JObject(); // you can explicitly add values here using class interface jsonObject.Add("Entered", DateTime.Now); // or cast to dynamic to dynamically add/read properties dynamic album = jsonObject; album.AlbumName = "Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap"; album.Artist = "AC/DC"; album.YearReleased = 1976; album.Songs = new JArray() as dynamic; dynamic song = new JObject(); song.SongName = "Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap"; song.SongLength = "4:11"; album.Songs.Add(song); song = new JObject(); song.SongName = "Love at First Feel"; song.SongLength = "3:10"; album.Songs.Add(song); Console.WriteLine(album.ToString()); } This produces a complete JSON structure: { "Entered": "2012-08-18T13:26:37.7137482-10:00", "AlbumName": "Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap", "Artist": "AC/DC", "YearReleased": 1976, "Songs": [ { "SongName": "Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap", "SongLength": "4:11" }, { "SongName": "Love at First Feel", "SongLength": "3:10" } ] } Notice that JSON.NET does a nice job formatting the JSON, so it's easy to read and paste into blog posts :-). JSON.NET includes a bunch of configuration options that control how JSON is generated. Typically the defaults are just fine, but you can override with the JsonSettings object for most operations. The important thing about this code is that there's no explicit type used for holding the values to serialize to JSON. Rather the JSON.NET objects are the containers that receive the data as I build up my JSON structure dynamically, simply by adding properties. This means this code can be entirely driven at runtime without compile time restraints of structure for the JSON output. Here I use JObject to create a album 'object' and immediately cast it to dynamic. JObject() is kind of similar in behavior to ExpandoObject in that it allows you to add properties by simply assigning to them. Internally, JObject values are stored in pseudo collections of key value pairs that are exposed as properties through the IDynamicMetaObject interface exposed in JSON.NET's JToken base class. For objects the syntax is very clean - you add simple typed values as properties. For objects and arrays you have to explicitly create new JObject or JArray, cast them to dynamic and then add properties and items to them. Always remember though these values are dynamic - which means no Intellisense and no compiler type checking. It's up to you to ensure that the names and values you create are accessed consistently and without typos in your code. Note that you can also access the JObject instance directly (not as dynamic) and get access to the underlying JObject type. This means you can assign properties by string, which can be useful for fully data driven JSON generation from other structures. Below you can see both styles of access next to each other:// strong type instance var jsonObject = new JObject(); // you can explicitly add values here jsonObject.Add("Entered", DateTime.Now); // expando style instance you can just 'use' properties dynamic album = jsonObject; album.AlbumName = "Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap"; JContainer (the base class for JObject and JArray) is a collection so you can also iterate over the properties at runtime easily:foreach (var item in jsonObject) { Console.WriteLine(item.Key + " " + item.Value.ToString()); } The functionality of the JSON objects are very similar to .NET's ExpandObject and if you used it before, you're already familiar with how the dynamic interfaces to the JSON objects works. Importing JSON with JObject.Parse() and JArray.Parse() The JValue structure supports importing JSON via the Parse() and Load() methods which can read JSON data from a string or various streams respectively. Essentially JValue includes the core JSON parsing to turn a JSON string into a collection of JsonValue objects that can be then referenced using familiar dynamic object syntax. Here's a simple example:public void JValueParsingTest() { var jsonString = @"{""Name"":""Rick"",""Company"":""West Wind"", ""Entered"":""2012-03-16T00:03:33.245-10:00""}"; dynamic json = JValue.Parse(jsonString); // values require casting string name = json.Name; string company = json.Company; DateTime entered = json.Entered; Assert.AreEqual(name, "Rick"); Assert.AreEqual(company, "West Wind"); } The JSON string represents an object with three properties which is parsed into a JObject class and cast to dynamic. Once cast to dynamic I can then go ahead and access the object using familiar object syntax. Note that the actual values - json.Name, json.Company, json.Entered - are actually of type JToken and I have to cast them to their appropriate types first before I can do type comparisons as in the Asserts at the end of the test method. This is required because of the way that dynamic types work which can't determine the type based on the method signature of the Assert.AreEqual(object,object) method. I have to either assign the dynamic value to a variable as I did above, or explicitly cast ( (string) json.Name) in the actual method call. The JSON structure can be much more complex than this simple example. Here's another example of an array of albums serialized to JSON and then parsed through with JsonValue():[TestMethod] public void JsonArrayParsingTest() { var jsonString = @"[ { ""Id"": ""b3ec4e5c"", ""AlbumName"": ""Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap"", ""Artist"": ""AC/DC"", ""YearReleased"": 1976, ""Entered"": ""2012-03-16T00:13:12.2810521-10:00"", ""AlbumImageUrl"": ""http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/61kTaH-uZBL._AA115_.jpg"", ""AmazonUrl"": ""http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/…ASIN=B00008BXJ4"", ""Songs"": [ { ""AlbumId"": ""b3ec4e5c"", ""SongName"": ""Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap"", ""SongLength"": ""4:11"" }, { ""AlbumId"": ""b3ec4e5c"", ""SongName"": ""Love at First Feel"", ""SongLength"": ""3:10"" }, { ""AlbumId"": ""b3ec4e5c"", ""SongName"": ""Big Balls"", ""SongLength"": ""2:38"" } ] }, { ""Id"": ""7b919432"", ""AlbumName"": ""End of the Silence"", ""Artist"": ""Henry Rollins Band"", ""YearReleased"": 1992, ""Entered"": ""2012-03-16T00:13:12.2800521-10:00"", ""AlbumImageUrl"": ""http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51FO3rb1tuL._SL160_AA160_.jpg"", ""AmazonUrl"": ""http://www.amazon.com/End-Silence-Rollins-Band/dp/B0000040OX/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1302232195&sr=8-5"", ""Songs"": [ { ""AlbumId"": ""7b919432"", ""SongName"": ""Low Self Opinion"", ""SongLength"": ""5:24"" }, { ""AlbumId"": ""7b919432"", ""SongName"": ""Grip"", ""SongLength"": ""4:51"" } ] } ]"; JArray jsonVal = JArray.Parse(jsonString) as JArray; dynamic albums = jsonVal; foreach (dynamic album in albums) { Console.WriteLine(album.AlbumName + " (" + album.YearReleased.ToString() + ")"); foreach (dynamic song in album.Songs) { Console.WriteLine("\t" + song.SongName); } } Console.WriteLine(albums[0].AlbumName); Console.WriteLine(albums[0].Songs[1].SongName); } JObject and JArray in ASP.NET Web API Of course these types also work in ASP.NET Web API controller methods. If you want you can accept parameters using these object or return them back to the server. The following contrived example receives dynamic JSON input, and then creates a new dynamic JSON object and returns it based on data from the first:[HttpPost] public JObject PostAlbumJObject(JObject jAlbum) { // dynamic input from inbound JSON dynamic album = jAlbum; // create a new JSON object to write out dynamic newAlbum = new JObject(); // Create properties on the new instance // with values from the first newAlbum.AlbumName = album.AlbumName + " New"; newAlbum.NewProperty = "something new"; newAlbum.Songs = new JArray(); foreach (dynamic song in album.Songs) { song.SongName = song.SongName + " New"; newAlbum.Songs.Add(song); } return newAlbum; } The raw POST request to the server looks something like this: POST http://localhost/aspnetwebapi/samples/PostAlbumJObject HTTP/1.1User-Agent: FiddlerContent-type: application/jsonHost: localhostContent-Length: 88 {AlbumName: "Dirty Deeds",Songs:[ { SongName: "Problem Child"},{ SongName: "Squealer"}]} and the output that comes back looks like this: {  "AlbumName": "Dirty Deeds New",  "NewProperty": "something new",  "Songs": [    {      "SongName": "Problem Child New"    },    {      "SongName": "Squealer New"    }  ]} The original values are echoed back with something extra appended to demonstrate that we're working with a new object. When you receive or return a JObject, JValue, JToken or JArray instance in a Web API method, Web API ignores normal content negotiation and assumes your content is going to be received and returned as JSON, so effectively the parameter and result type explicitly determines the input and output format which is nice. Dynamic to Strong Type Mapping You can also map JObject and JArray instances to a strongly typed object, so you can mix dynamic and static typing in the same piece of code. Using the 2 Album jsonString shown earlier, the code below takes an array of albums and picks out only a single album and casts that album to a static Album instance.[TestMethod] public void JsonParseToStrongTypeTest() { JArray albums = JArray.Parse(jsonString) as JArray; // pick out one album JObject jalbum = albums[0] as JObject; // Copy to a static Album instance Album album = jalbum.ToObject<Album>(); Assert.IsNotNull(album); Assert.AreEqual(album.AlbumName,jalbum.Value<string>("AlbumName")); Assert.IsTrue(album.Songs.Count > 0); } This is pretty damn useful for the scenario I mentioned earlier - you can read a large chunk of JSON and dynamically walk the property hierarchy down to the item you want to access, and then either access the specific item dynamically (as shown earlier) or map a part of the JSON to a strongly typed object. That's very powerful if you think about it - it leaves you in total control to decide what's dynamic and what's static. Strongly typed JSON Parsing With all this talk of dynamic let's not forget that JSON.NET of course also does strongly typed serialization which is drop dead easy. Here's a simple example on how to serialize and deserialize an object with JSON.NET:[TestMethod] public void StronglyTypedSerializationTest() { // Demonstrate deserialization from a raw string var album = new Album() { AlbumName = "Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap", Artist = "AC/DC", Entered = DateTime.Now, YearReleased = 1976, Songs = new List<Song>() { new Song() { SongName = "Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap", SongLength = "4:11" }, new Song() { SongName = "Love at First Feel", SongLength = "3:10" } } }; // serialize to string string json2 = JsonConvert.SerializeObject(album,Formatting.Indented); Console.WriteLine(json2); // make sure we can serialize back var album2 = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<Album>(json2); Assert.IsNotNull(album2); Assert.IsTrue(album2.AlbumName == "Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap"); Assert.IsTrue(album2.Songs.Count == 2); } JsonConvert is a high level static class that wraps lower level functionality, but you can also use the JsonSerializer class, which allows you to serialize/parse to and from streams. It's a little more work, but gives you a bit more control. The functionality available is easy to discover with Intellisense, and that's good because there's not a lot in the way of documentation that's actually useful. Summary JSON.NET is a pretty complete JSON implementation with lots of different choices for JSON parsing from dynamic parsing to static serialization, to complex querying of JSON objects using LINQ. It's good to see this open source library getting integrated into .NET, and pushing out the old and tired stock .NET parsers so that we finally have a bit more flexibility - and extensibility - in our JSON parsing. Good to go! Resources Sample Test Project http://json.codeplex.com/© Rick Strahl, West Wind Technologies, 2005-2012Posted in .NET  Web Api  AJAX   Tweet !function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js";fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document,"script","twitter-wjs"); (function() { var po = document.createElement('script'); po.type = 'text/javascript'; po.async = true; po.src = 'https://apis.google.com/js/plusone.js'; var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(po, s); })();

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  • Differences Between NHibernate and Entity Framework

    - by Ricardo Peres
    Introduction NHibernate and Entity Framework are two of the most popular O/RM frameworks on the .NET world. Although they share some functionality, there are some aspects on which they are quite different. This post will describe this differences and will hopefully help you get started with the one you know less. Mind you, this is a personal selection of features to compare, it is by no way an exhaustive list. History First, a bit of history. NHibernate is an open-source project that was first ported from Java’s venerable Hibernate framework, one of the first O/RM frameworks, but nowadays it is not tied to it, for example, it has .NET specific features, and has evolved in different ways from those of its Java counterpart. Current version is 3.3, with 3.4 on the horizon. It currently targets .NET 3.5, but can be used as well in .NET 4, it only makes no use of any of its specific functionality. You can find its home page at NHForge. Entity Framework 1 came out with .NET 3.5 and is now on its second major version, despite being version 4. Code First sits on top of it and but came separately and will also continue to be released out of line with major .NET distributions. It is currently on version 4.3.1 and version 5 will be released together with .NET Framework 4.5. All versions will target the current version of .NET, at the time of their release. Its home location is located at MSDN. Architecture In NHibernate, there is a separation between the Unit of Work and the configuration and model instances. You start off by creating a Configuration object, where you specify all global NHibernate settings such as the database and dialect to use, the batch sizes, the mappings, etc, then you build an ISessionFactory from it. The ISessionFactory holds model and metadata that is tied to a particular database and to the settings that came from the Configuration object, and, there will typically be only one instance of each in a process. Finally, you create instances of ISession from the ISessionFactory, which is the NHibernate representation of the Unit of Work and Identity Map. This is a lightweight object, it basically opens and closes a database connection as required and keeps track of the entities associated with it. ISession objects are cheap to create and dispose, because all of the model complexity is stored in the ISessionFactory and Configuration objects. As for Entity Framework, the ObjectContext/DbContext holds the configuration, model and acts as the Unit of Work, holding references to all of the known entity instances. This class is therefore not lightweight as its NHibernate counterpart and it is not uncommon to see examples where an instance is cached on a field. Mappings Both NHibernate and Entity Framework (Code First) support the use of POCOs to represent entities, no base classes are required (or even possible, in the case of NHibernate). As for mapping to and from the database, NHibernate supports three types of mappings: XML-based, which have the advantage of not tying the entity classes to a particular O/RM; the XML files can be deployed as files on the file system or as embedded resources in an assembly; Attribute-based, for keeping both the entities and database details on the same place at the expense of polluting the entity classes with NHibernate-specific attributes; Strongly-typed code-based, which allows dynamic creation of the model and strongly typing it, so that if, for example, a property name changes, the mapping will also be updated. Entity Framework can use: Attribute-based (although attributes cannot express all of the available possibilities – for example, cascading); Strongly-typed code mappings. Database Support With NHibernate you can use mostly any database you want, including: SQL Server; SQL Server Compact; SQL Server Azure; Oracle; DB2; PostgreSQL; MySQL; Sybase Adaptive Server/SQL Anywhere; Firebird; SQLLite; Informix; Any through OLE DB; Any through ODBC. Out of the box, Entity Framework only supports SQL Server, but a number of providers exist, both free and commercial, for some of the most used databases, such as Oracle and MySQL. See a list here. Inheritance Strategies Both NHibernate and Entity Framework support the three canonical inheritance strategies: Table Per Type Hierarchy (Single Table Inheritance), Table Per Type (Class Table Inheritance) and Table Per Concrete Type (Concrete Table Inheritance). Associations Regarding associations, both support one to one, one to many and many to many. However, NHibernate offers far more collection types: Bags of entities or values: unordered, possibly with duplicates; Lists of entities or values: ordered, indexed by a number column; Maps of entities or values: indexed by either an entity or any value; Sets of entities or values: unordered, no duplicates; Arrays of entities or values: indexed, immutable. Querying NHibernate exposes several querying APIs: LINQ is probably the most used nowadays, and really does not need to be introduced; Hibernate Query Language (HQL) is a database-agnostic, object-oriented SQL-alike language that exists since NHibernate’s creation and still offers the most advanced querying possibilities; well suited for dynamic queries, even if using string concatenation; Criteria API is an implementation of the Query Object pattern where you create a semi-abstract conceptual representation of the query you wish to execute by means of a class model; also a good choice for dynamic querying; Query Over offers a similar API to Criteria, but using strongly-typed LINQ expressions instead of strings; for this, although more refactor-friendlier that Criteria, it is also less suited for dynamic queries; SQL, including stored procedures, can also be used; Integration with Lucene.NET indexer is available. As for Entity Framework: LINQ to Entities is fully supported, and its implementation is considered very complete; it is the API of choice for most developers; Entity-SQL, HQL’s counterpart, is also an object-oriented, database-independent querying language that can be used for dynamic queries; SQL, of course, is also supported. Caching Both NHibernate and Entity Framework, of course, feature first-level cache. NHibernate also supports a second-level cache, that can be used among multiple ISessionFactorys, even in different processes/machines: Hashtable (in-memory); SysCache (uses ASP.NET as the cache provider); SysCache2 (same as above but with support for SQL Server SQL Dependencies); Prevalence; SharedCache; Memcached; Redis; NCache; Appfabric Caching. Out of the box, Entity Framework does not have any second-level cache mechanism, however, there are some public samples that show how we can add this. ID Generators NHibernate supports different ID generation strategies, coming from the database and otherwise: Identity (for SQL Server, MySQL, and databases who support identity columns); Sequence (for Oracle, PostgreSQL, and others who support sequences); Trigger-based; HiLo; Sequence HiLo (for databases that support sequences); Several GUID flavors, both in GUID as well as in string format; Increment (for single-user uses); Assigned (must know what you’re doing); Sequence-style (either uses an actual sequence or a single-column table); Table of ids; Pooled (similar to HiLo but stores high values in a table); Native (uses whatever mechanism the current database supports, identity or sequence). Entity Framework only supports: Identity generation; GUIDs; Assigned values. Properties NHibernate supports properties of entity types (one to one or many to one), collections (one to many or many to many) as well as scalars and enumerations. It offers a mechanism for having complex property types generated from the database, which even include support for querying. It also supports properties originated from SQL formulas. Entity Framework only supports scalars, entity types and collections. Enumerations support will come in the next version. Events and Interception NHibernate has a very rich event model, that exposes more than 20 events, either for synchronous pre-execution or asynchronous post-execution, including: Pre/Post-Load; Pre/Post-Delete; Pre/Post-Insert; Pre/Post-Update; Pre/Post-Flush. It also features interception of class instancing and SQL generation. As for Entity Framework, only two events exist: ObjectMaterialized (after loading an entity from the database); SavingChanges (before saving changes, which include deleting, inserting and updating). Tracking Changes For NHibernate as well as Entity Framework, all changes are tracked by their respective Unit of Work implementation. Entities can be attached and detached to it, Entity Framework does, however, also support self-tracking entities. Optimistic Concurrency Control NHibernate supports all of the imaginable scenarios: SQL Server’s ROWVERSION; Oracle’s ORA_ROWSCN; A column containing date and time; A column containing a version number; All/dirty columns comparison. Entity Framework is more focused on Entity Framework, so it only supports: SQL Server’s ROWVERSION; Comparing all/some columns. Batching NHibernate has full support for insertion batching, but only if the ID generator in use is not database-based (for example, it cannot be used with Identity), whereas Entity Framework has no batching at all. Cascading Both support cascading for collections and associations: when an entity is deleted, their conceptual children are also deleted. NHibernate also offers the possibility to set the foreign key column on children to NULL instead of removing them. Flushing Changes NHibernate’s ISession has a FlushMode property that can have the following values: Auto: changes are sent to the database when necessary, for example, if there are dirty instances of an entity type, and a query is performed against this entity type, or if the ISession is being disposed; Commit: changes are sent when committing the current transaction; Never: changes are only sent when explicitly calling Flush(). As for Entity Framework, changes have to be explicitly sent through a call to AcceptAllChanges()/SaveChanges(). Lazy Loading NHibernate supports lazy loading for Associated entities (one to one, many to one); Collections (one to many, many to many); Scalar properties (thing of BLOBs or CLOBs). Entity Framework only supports lazy loading for: Associated entities; Collections. Generating and Updating the Database Both NHibernate and Entity Framework Code First (with the Migrations API) allow creating the database model from the mapping and updating it if the mapping changes. Extensibility As you can guess, NHibernate is far more extensible than Entity Framework. Basically, everything can be extended, from ID generation, to LINQ to SQL transformation, HQL native SQL support, custom column types, custom association collections, SQL generation, supported databases, etc. With Entity Framework your options are more limited, at least, because practically no information exists as to what can be extended/changed. It features a provider model that can be extended to support any database. Integration With Other Microsoft APIs and Tools When it comes to integration with Microsoft technologies, it will come as no surprise that Entity Framework offers the best support. For example, the following technologies are fully supported: ASP.NET (through the EntityDataSource); ASP.NET Dynamic Data; WCF Data Services; WCF RIA Services; Visual Studio (through the integrated designer). Documentation This is another point where Entity Framework is superior: NHibernate lacks, for starters, an up to date API reference synchronized with its current version. It does have a community mailing list, blogs and wikis, although not much used. Entity Framework has a number of resources on MSDN and, of course, several forums and discussion groups exist. Conclusion Like I said, this is a personal list. I may come as a surprise to some that Entity Framework is so behind NHibernate in so many aspects, but it is true that NHibernate is much older and, due to its open-source nature, is not tied to product-specific timeframes and can thus evolve much more rapidly. I do like both, and I chose whichever is best for the job I have at hands. I am looking forward to the changes in EF5 which will add significant value to an already interesting product. So, what do you think? Did I forget anything important or is there anything else worth talking about? Looking forward for your comments!

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  • How Expedia Made My New Bride Cry

    - by Lance Robinson
    Tweet this? Email Expedia and ask them to give me and my new wife our honeymoon? When Expedia followed up their failure with our honeymoon trip with a complete and total lack of acknowledgement of any responsibility for the problem and endless loops of explaining the issue over and over again - I swore that they would make it right. When they brought my new bride to tears, I got an immediate and endless supply of motivation. I hope you will help me make them make it right by posting our story on Twitter, Facebook, your blog, on Expedia itself, and when talking to your friends in person about their own travel plans.   If you are considering using them now for an important trip - reconsider. Short summary: We arrived early for a flight - but Expedia had made a mistake with the data they supplied to JetBlue and Emirates, which resulted in us not being able to check in (one leg of our trip was missing)!  At the time of this post, three people (myself, my wife, and an exceptionally patient JetBlue employee named Mary) each spent hours on the phone with Expedia.  I myself spent right at 3 hours (according to iPhone records), Lauren spent an hour and a half or so, and poor Mary was probably on the phone for a good 3.5 hours.  This is after 5 hours total at the airport.  If you add up our phone time, that is nearly 8 hours of phone time over a 5 hour period with little or no help, stall tactics (?), run-around, denial, shifting of blame, and holding. Details below (times are approximate): First, my wife and I were married yesterday - June 18th, the 3 year anniversary of our first date. She is awesome. She is the nicest person I have ever known, a ton of fun, absolutely beautiful in every way. Ok enough mushy - here are the dirty details. 2:30 AM - Early Check-in Attempt - we attempted to check-in for our flight online. Some sort of technology error on website, instructed to checkin at desk. 4:30 AM - Arrive at airport. Try to check-in at kiosk, get the same error. We got to the JetBlue desk at RDU International Airport, where Mary helped us. Mary discovered that the Expedia provided itinerary does not match the Expedia provided tickets. We are informed that when that happens American, JetBlue, and others that use the same software cannot check you in for the flight because. Why? Because the itinerary was missing a leg of our flight! Basically we were not shown in the system as definitely being able to make it home. Mary called Expedia and was put on hold by their automated system. 4:55 AM - Mary, myself, and my brand new bride all waited for about 25 minutes when finally I decided I would make a call myself on my iPhone while Mary was on the airport phone. In their automated system, I chose "make a new reservation", thinking they might answer a little more quickly than "customer service". Not surprisingly I was connected to an Expedia person within 1 minute. They informed me that they would have to forward me to a customer service specialist. I explained to them that we were already on hold for that and had been for nearly half an hour, that we were going on our honeymoon and that our flight would be leaving soon - could they please help us. "Yes, I will help you". I hand the phone to JetBlue Mary who explains the situation 3 or 4 times. Obviously I couldn't hear both ends of the conversation at this point, but the Expedia person explained what the problem was by stating exactly what Mary had just spent 15 minutes explaining. Mary calmly confirms that this is the problem, and asks Expedia to re-issue the itinerary. Expedia tells Mary that they'll have to transfer her to customer service. Mary asks for someone specific so that we get an answer this time, and goes on hold. Mary get's connected, explains the situation, and then Mary's connection gets terminated. 5:10 AM - Mary calls back to the Expedia automated system again, and we wait for about 5 minutes on hold this time before I pick up my iPhone and call Expedia again myself. Again I go to sales, a person picks up the phone in less than a minute. I explain the situation and let them know that we are now very close to missing our flight for our honeymoon, could they please help us. "Yes, I will help you". Again I give the phone to Mary who provides them with a call back number in case we get disconnected again and explains the situation again. More back and forth with Expedia doing nothing but repeating the same questions, Mary answering the questions with the same information she provided in the original explanation, and Expedia simply restating the problem. Mary again asks them to re-issue the itinerary, and explains that doing so will fix the problem. Expedia again repeats the problem instead of fixing it, and Mary's connection gets terminated. 5:20 AM - Mary again calls back to Expedia. My beautiful bride also calls on her own phone. At this point she is struggling to hold back her tears, stumbling through an explanation of all that has happened and that we are about to miss our flight. Please help us. "Yes, I will help". My beautiful bride's connection gets terminated. Ok, maybe this disconnection isn't an accident. We've now been disconnected 3 times on two different phones. 5:45 AM - I walk away and pleadingly beg a person to help me. They "escalate" the issue to "Rosy" (sp?) at Expedia. I go through the whole song and dance again with Rosy, who gives me the same treatment Mary was given. Rosy blames JetBlue for now having the correct data. Meanwhile Mary is on the phone with Emirates Air (the airline for the second leg of our trip), who agrees with JetBlue that Expedia's data isn't up to date. We are informed by two airport employees that issues like this with Expedia are not uncommon, and that the fix is simple. On the phone iwth Rosy, I ask her to re-issue the itinerary because we are about to miss our flight. She again explains the problem to me. At this point, I am standing at the window, pleading with Rosy to help us get to our honeymoon, watching our airplane. Then our airplane leaves without us. 6:03 AM - At this point we have missed our flight. Re-issuing the itinerary is no longer a solution. I ask Rosy to start from the beginning and work us up a new trip. She says that she cannot do that. She says that she needs to talk to JetBlue and Emirates and find out why we cannot check-in for our flight. I remind Rosy that our flight has already left - I just watched it taxi away - it no longer matters why (not to mention the fact that we already knew why, and have known why since 4:30 AM), and have known the solution since 4:30 AM. Rosy, can you please book a new trip? Yes, but it will cost $400. Excuse me? Now you can, but it will cost ME to fix your mistake? Rosy says that she can escalate the situation to her supervisor but that will take 1.5 hours. 6:15 AM - I told Rosy that if they had re-issued the itinerary as JetBlue asked (at 4:30 AM), my new wife and I might be on the airplane now instead of dealing with this on the phone and missing the beginning (and how much more?) of our honeymoon. Rosy said that it was not necessary to re-issue the itinerary. Out of curiosity, i asked Rosy if there was some financial burden on them to re-issue the itinerary. "No", said Rosy. I asked her if it was a large time burden on Expedia to re-issue the itinerary. "No", said Rosy. I directly asked Rosy: Why wouldn't Expedia have re-issued the itinerary when JetBlue asked? No answer. I asked Rosy: If you had re-issued the itinerary at 4:30, isn't it possible that I would be on that flight right now? She actually surprised me by answering "Yes" to that question. So I pointed out that it followed that Expedia was responsible for the fact that we missed out flight, and she immediately went into more about how the problem was with JetBlue - but now it was ALSO an Emirates Air problem as well. I tell Rosy to go ahead and escalate the issue again, and please call me back in that 1.5 hours (which how is about 1 hour and 10 minutes away). 6:30 AM - I start tweeting my frustration with iPhone. It's now pretty much impossible for us to make it to The Maldives by 3pm, which is the time at which we would need to arrive in order to be allowed service to the actual island where we are staying. Expedia has now given me the run-around for 2 hours, caused me to miss my flight, and worst of all caused my amazing new wife Lauren to miss our honeymoon. You think I was mad? No. Furious. Its ok to make mistakes - but to refuse to fix them and to ruin our honeymoon? No, not ok, Expedia. I swore right then that Expedia would make this right. 7:45 AM - JetBlue mary is still talking her tail off to other people in JetBlue and Emirates Air. Mary works it out so that if Expedia simply books a new trip, JetBlue and Emirates will both waive all the fees. Now we just have to convince Expedia to fix their mistake and get us on our way! Around this time Expedia Rosy calls me back! I inform her of the excellent work of JetBlue Mary - that JetBlue and Emirates both will waive the fees so Expedia can fix their mistake and get us going on our way. She says that she sees documentation of this in her system and that she needs to put me on hold "for 1 to 10 minutes" to talk to Emirates Air (why I'm not exactly sure). I say ok. 8:45 AM - After an hour on hold, Rosy comes on the line and asks me to hold more. I ask her to call me back. 9:35 AM - I put down the iPhone Twitter app and picks up the laptop. You think I made some noise with my iPhone? Heh 11:25 AM - Expedia follows me and sends a canned "We're sorry, DM us the details".  If you look at their Twitter feed, 16 out of the most recent 20 tweets are exactly the same canned response.  The other 4?  Ads.  Um - #MultiFAIL? To Expedia:  You now have had (as explained above) 8 hours of 3 different people explaining our situation, you know the email address of our Expedia account, you know my web blog, you know my Twitter address, you know my phone number.  You also know how upset you have made both me and my new bride by treating us with such a ... non caring, scripted, uncooperative, argumentative, and possibly even deceitful manner.  In the wise words of the great Kenan Thompson of SNL: "FIX IT!".  And no, I'm NOT going away until you make this right. Period. 11:45 AM - Expedia corporate office called.  The woman I spoke to was very nice and apologetic.  She listened to me tell the story again, she says she understands the problem and she is going to work to resolve it.  I don't have any details on what exactly that resolution might me, she said she will call me back in 20 minutes.  She found out about the problem via Twitter.  Thank you Twitter, and all of you who helped.  Hopefully social media will win my wife and I our honeymoon, and hopefully Expedia will encourage their customer service teams treat their customers properly. 12:22 PM - Spoke to Fran again from Expedia corporate office.  She has a flight for us tonight.  She is booking it now.  We will arrive at our honeymoon destination of beautiful Veligandu Island Resort only 1 day late.  She cannot confirm today, but she expects that Expedia will pay for the lost honeymoon night.  Thank you everyone for your help.  I will reflect more on this whole situation and confirm its resolution after our flight is 100% confirmed.  For now, I'm going to take a breather and go kiss my wonderful wife! 1:50 PM - Have not yet received the promised phone call.  We did receive an email with a new itinerary for a flight but the booking is not for specific seats, so there is no guarantee that my wife and I will be able to sit together.  With the original booking I carefully selected our seats for every segment of our trip.  I decided to call into the phone number that Fran from the Expedia corporate office gave me.  Its automated voice system identified itself as "Tier 3 Support".  I am currently still on hold with them, I have not gotten through to a human yet. 1:55 PM - Fran from Expedia called me back.  She confirmed us as booked.  She called the airlines to confirm.  Unfortunately, Expedia was unwilling or unable to allow us any type of seat selection.  It is possible that i won't get to sit next to the woman I married less than a day ago on our 40 total hours of flight time (there and back).  In addition, our seats could be the worst seats on the planes, with no reclining seat back or right next to the restroom.  Despite this fact (which in my opinion is huge), the horrible inconvenience, the hours at the airport, and the negative Internet publicity that Expedia is receiving, Expedia declined to offer us any kind of upgrade or to mark us as SFU (suitable for upgrade).  Since they didn't offer - I asked, and was rejected.  I am grateful to finally be heading in the right direction, but not only did Expedia horribly botch this job from the very beginning, they followed that botch job with near zero customer service, followed by a verbally apologetic but otherwise half-hearted resolution.  If this works out favorably for us, great.  If not - I'm not done making noise, Expedia.  You owe us, and I expect you to make it right.  You haven't quite done that yet. Thanks - Thank you to Twitter.  Thanks to all those who sympathize with us and helped us get the attention of Expedia, since three people (one of them an airline employee) using Expedia's normal channels of communication for many hours didn't help.  Thanks especially to my PowerShell and Sharepoint friends, my local friends, and those connectors who encouraged me and spread my story. 5:15 PM - Love Wins - After all this, Lauren and I are exhausted.  We both took a short nap, and when we woke up we talked about the last 24 hours.  It was a big, amazing, story-filled 24 hours.  I said that Expedia won, but Lauren said no.  She pointed out how lucky we are.  We are in love and married.  We have wonderful family and friends.  We are both hard-working successful people who love what they do.  We get to go to an amazing exotic destination for our honeymoon like Veligandu in The Maldives...  That's a lot of good.  Expedia didn't win.  This was (is) a big loss for Expedia.  It is a public blemish for all to see.  But Lauren and I did win, big time.  Expedia may not have made things right - but things are right for us.  Post in progress... I will relay any further comments (or lack of) from Expedia soon, as well as an update on confirmation of their repayment of our lost resort room rates.  I'll also post a picture of us on our honeymoon as soon as I can!

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  • Is Social Media The Vital Skill You Aren’t Tracking?

    - by HCM-Oracle
    By Mark Bennett - Originally featured in Talent Management Excellence The ever-increasing presence of the workforce on social media presents opportunities as well as risks for organizations. While on the one hand, we read about social media embarrassments happening to organizations, on the other we see that social media activities by workers and candidates can enhance a company’s brand and provide insight into what individuals are, or can become, influencers in the social media sphere. HR can play a key role in helping organizations make the most value out of the activities and presence of workers and candidates, while at the same time also helping to manage the risks that come with the permanence and viral nature of social media. What is Missing from Understanding Our Workforce? “If only HP knew what HP knows, we would be three-times more productive.”  Lew Platt, Former Chairman, President, CEO, Hewlett-Packard  What Lew Platt recognized was that organizations only have a partial understanding of what their workforce is capable of. This lack of understanding impacts the company in several negative ways: 1. A particular skill that the company needs to access in one part of the organization might exist somewhere else, but there is no record that the skill exists, so the need is unfulfilled. 2. As market conditions change rapidly, the company needs to know strategic options, but some options are missed entirely because the company doesn’t know that sufficient capability already exists to enable those options. 3. Employees may miss out on opportunities to demonstrate how their hidden skills could create new value to the company. Why don’t companies have that more complete picture of their workforce capabilities – that is, not know what they know? One very good explanation is that companies put most of their efforts into rating their workforce according to the jobs and roles they are filling today. This is the essence of two important talent management processes: recruiting and performance appraisals.  In recruiting, a set of requirements is put together for a job, either explicitly or indirectly through a job description. During the recruiting process, much of the attention is paid towards whether the candidate has the qualifications, the skills, the experience and the cultural fit to be successful in the role. This makes a lot of sense.  In the performance appraisal process, an employee is measured on how well they performed the functions of their role and in an effort to help the employee do even better next time, they are also measured on proficiency in the competencies that are deemed to be key in doing that job. Again, the logic is impeccable.  But in both these cases, two adages come to mind: 1. What gets measured is what gets managed. 2. You only see what you are looking for. In other words, the fact that the current roles the workforce are performing are the basis for measuring which capabilities the workforce has, makes them the only capabilities to be measured. What was initially meant to be a positive, i.e. identify what is needed to perform well and measure it, in order that it can be managed, comes with the unintended negative consequence of overshadowing the other capabilities the workforce has. This also comes with an employee engagement price, for the measurements and management of workforce capabilities is to typically focus on where the workforce comes up short. Again, it makes sense to do this, since improving a capability that appears to result in improved performance benefits, both the individual through improved performance ratings and the company through improved productivity. But this is based on the assumption that the capabilities identified and their required proficiencies are the only attributes of the individual that matter. Anything else the individual brings that results in high performance, while resulting in a desired performance outcome, often goes unrecognized or underappreciated at best. As social media begins to occupy a more important part in current and future roles in organizations, businesses must incorporate social media savvy and innovation into job descriptions and expectations. These new measures could provide insight into how well someone can use social media tools to influence communities and decision makers; keep abreast of trends in fast-moving industries; present a positive brand image for the organization around thought leadership, customer focus, social responsibility; and coordinate and collaborate with partners. These measures should demonstrate the “social capital” the individual has invested in and developed over time. Without this dimension, “short cut” methods may generate a narrow set of positive metrics that do not have real, long-lasting benefits to the organization. How Workforce Reputation Management Helps HR Harness Social Media With hundreds of petabytes of social media data flowing across Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter, businesses are tapping technology solutions to effectively leverage social for HR. Workforce reputation management technology helps organizations discover, mobilize and retain talent by providing insight into the social reputation and influence of the workforce while also helping organizations monitor employee social media policy compliance and mitigate social media risk.  There are three major ways that workforce reputation management technology can play a strategic role to support HR: 1. Improve Awareness and Decisions on Talent Many organizations measure the skills and competencies that they know they need today, but are unaware of what other skills and competencies their workforce has that could be essential tomorrow. How about whether your workforce has the reputation and influence to make their skills and competencies more effective? Many organizations don’t have insight into the social media “reach” their workforce has, which is becoming more critical to business performance. These features help organizations, managers, and employees improve many talent processes and decision making, including the following: Hiring and Assignments. People and teams with higher reputations are considered more valuable and effective workers. Someone with high reputation who refers a candidate also can have high credibility as a source for hires.   Training and Development. Reputation trend analysis can impact program decisions regarding training offerings by showing how reputation and influence across the workforce changes in concert with training. Worker reputation impacts development plans and goal choices by helping the individual see which development efforts result in improved reputation and influence.   Finding Hidden Talent. Managers can discover hidden talent and skills amongst employees based on a combination of social profile information and social media reputation. Employees can improve their personal brand and accelerate their career development.  2. Talent Search and Discovery The right technology helps organizations find information on people that might otherwise be hidden. By leveraging access to candidate and worker social profiles as well as their social relationships, workforce reputation management provides companies with a more complete picture of what their knowledge, skills, and attributes are and what they can in turn access. This more complete information helps to find the right talent both outside the organization as well as the right, perhaps previously hidden talent, within the organization to fill roles and staff projects, particularly those roles and projects that are required in reaction to fast-changing opportunities and circumstances. 3. Reputation Brings Credibility Workforce reputation management technology provides a clearer picture of how candidates and workers are viewed by their peers and communities across a wide range of social reputation and influence metrics. This information is less subject to individual bias and can impact critical decision-making. Knowing the individual’s reputation and influence enables the organization to predict how well their capabilities and behaviors will have a positive effect on desired business outcomes. Many roles that have the highest impact on overall business performance are dependent on the individual’s influence and reputation. In addition, reputation and influence measures offer a very tangible source of feedback for workers, providing them with insight that helps them develop themselves and their careers and see the effectiveness of those efforts by tracking changes over time in their reputation and influence. The following are some examples of the different reputation and influence measures of the workforce that Workforce Reputation Management could gather and analyze: Generosity – How often the user reposts other’s posts. Influence – How often the user’s material is reposted by others.  Engagement – The ratio of recent posts with references (e.g. links to other posts) to the total number of posts.  Activity – How frequently the user posts. (e.g. number per day)  Impact – The size of the users’ social networks, which indicates their ability to reach unique followers, friends, or users.   Clout – The number of references and citations of the user’s material in others’ posts.  The Vital Ingredient of Workforce Reputation Management: Employee Participation “Nothing about me, without me.” Valerie Billingham, “Through the Patient’s Eyes”, Salzburg Seminar Session 356, 1998 Since data resides primarily in social media, a question arises: what manner is used to collect that data? While much of social media activity is publicly accessible (as many who wished otherwise have learned to their chagrin), the social norms of social media have developed to put some restrictions on what is acceptable behavior and by whom. Disregarding these norms risks a repercussion firestorm. One of the more recognized norms is that while individuals can follow and engage with other individual’s public social activity (e.g. Twitter updates) fairly freely, the more an organization does this unprompted and without getting permission from the individual beforehand, the more likely the organization risks a totally opposite outcome from the one desired. Instead, the organization must look for permission from the individual, which can be met with resistance. That resistance comes from not knowing how the information will be used, how it will be shared with others, and not receiving enough benefit in return for granting permission. As the quote above about patient concerns and rights succinctly states, no one likes not feeling in control of the information about themselves, or the uncertainty about where it will be used. This is well understood in consumer social media (i.e. permission-based marketing) and is applicable to workforce reputation management. However, asking permission leaves open the very real possibility that no one, or so few, will grant permission, resulting in a small set of data with little usefulness for the company. Connecting Individual Motivation to Organization Needs So what is it that makes an individual decide to grant an organization access to the data it wants? It is when the individual’s own motivations are in alignment with the organization’s objectives. In the case of workforce reputation management, when the individual is motivated by a desire for increased visibility and career growth opportunities to advertise their skills and level of influence and reputation, they are aligned with the organizations’ objectives; to fill resource needs or strategically build better awareness of what skills are present in the workforce, as well as levels of influence and reputation. Individuals can see the benefit of granting access permission to the company through multiple means. One is through simple social awareness; they begin to discover that peers who are getting more career opportunities are those who are signed up for workforce reputation management. Another is where companies take the message directly to the individual; we think you would benefit from signing up with our workforce reputation management solution. Another, more strategic approach is to make reputation management part of a larger Career Development effort by the company; providing a wide set of tools to help the workforce find ways to plan and take action to achieve their career aspirations in the organization. An effective mechanism, that facilitates connecting the visibility and career growth motivations of the workforce with the larger context of the organization’s business objectives, is to use game mechanics to help individuals transform their career goals into concrete, actionable steps, such as signing up for reputation management. This works in favor of companies looking to use workforce reputation because the workforce is more apt to see how it fits into achieving their overall career goals, as well as seeing how other participation brings additional benefits.  Once an individual has signed up with reputation management, not only have they made themselves more visible within the organization and increased their career growth opportunities, they have also enabled a tool that they can use to better understand how their actions and behaviors impact their influence and reputation. Since they will be able to see their reputation and influence measurements change over time, they will gain better insight into how reputation and influence impacts their effectiveness in a role, as well as how their behaviors and skill levels in turn affect their influence and reputation. This insight can trigger much more directed, and effective, efforts by the individual to improve their ability to perform at a higher level and become more productive. The increased sense of autonomy the individual experiences, in linking the insight they gain to the actions and behavior changes they make, greatly enhances their engagement with their role as well as their career prospects within the company. Workforce reputation management takes the wide range of disparate data about the workforce being produced across various social media platforms and transforms it into accessible, relevant, and actionable information that helps the organization achieve its desired business objectives. Social media holds untapped insights about your talent, brand and business, and workforce reputation management can help unlock them. Imagine - if you could find the hidden secrets of your businesses, how much more productive and efficient would your organization be? Mark Bennett is a Director of Product Strategy at Oracle. Mark focuses on setting the strategic vision and direction for tools that help organizations understand, shape, and leverage the capabilities of their workforce to achieve business objectives, as well as help individuals work effectively to achieve their goals and navigate their own growth. His combination of a deep technical background in software design and development, coupled with a broad knowledge of business challenges and thinking in today’s globalized, rapidly changing, technology accelerated economy, has enabled him to identify and incorporate key innovations that are central to Oracle Fusion’s unique value proposition. Mark has over the course of his career been in charge of the design, development, and strategy of Talent Management products and the design and development of cutting edge software that is better equipped to handle the increasingly complex demands of users while also remaining easy to use. Follow him @mpbennett

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  • Synchronize Data between a Silverlight ListBox and a User Control

    - by psheriff
    One of the great things about XAML is the powerful data-binding capabilities. If you load up a list box with a collection of objects, you can display detail data about each object without writing any C# or VB.NET code. Take a look at Figure 1 that shows a collection of Product objects in a list box. When you click on a list box you bind the current Product object selected in the list box to a set of controls in a user control with just a very simple Binding statement in XAML.  Figure 1: Synchronizing a ListBox to a User Control is easy with Data Binding Product and Products Classes To illustrate this data binding feature I am going to just create some local data instead of using a WCF service. The code below shows a Product class that has three properties, namely, ProductId, ProductName and Price. This class also has a constructor that takes 3 parameters and allows us to set the 3 properties in an instance of our Product class. C#public class Product{  public Product(int productId, string productName, decimal price)  {    ProductId = productId;    ProductName = productName;    Price = price;  }   public int ProductId { get; set; }  public string ProductName { get; set; }  public decimal Price { get; set; }} VBPublic Class Product  Public Sub New(ByVal _productId As Integer, _                 ByVal _productName As String, _                 ByVal _price As Decimal)    ProductId = _productId    ProductName = _productName    Price = _price  End Sub   Private mProductId As Integer  Private mProductName As String  Private mPrice As Decimal   Public Property ProductId() As Integer    Get      Return mProductId    End Get    Set(ByVal value As Integer)      mProductId = value    End Set  End Property   Public Property ProductName() As String    Get      Return mProductName    End Get    Set(ByVal value As String)      mProductName = value    End Set  End Property   Public Property Price() As Decimal    Get      Return mPrice    End Get    Set(ByVal value As Decimal)      mPrice = value    End Set  End PropertyEnd Class To fill up a list box you need a collection class of Product objects. The code below creates a generic collection class of Product objects. In the constructor of the Products class I have hard-coded five product objects and added them to the collection. In a real-world application you would get your data through a call to service to fill the list box, but for simplicity and just to illustrate the data binding, I am going to just hard code the data. C#public class Products : List<Product>{  public Products()  {    this.Add(new Product(1, "Microsoft VS.NET 2008", 1000));    this.Add(new Product(2, "Microsoft VS.NET 2010", 1000));    this.Add(new Product(3, "Microsoft Silverlight 4", 1000));    this.Add(new Product(4, "Fundamentals of N-Tier eBook", 20));    this.Add(new Product(5, "ASP.NET Security eBook", 20));  }} VBPublic Class Products  Inherits List(Of Product)   Public Sub New()    Me.Add(New Product(1, "Microsoft VS.NET 2008", 1000))    Me.Add(New Product(2, "Microsoft VS.NET 2010", 1000))    Me.Add(New Product(3, "Microsoft Silverlight 4", 1000))    Me.Add(New Product(4, "Fundamentals of N-Tier eBook", 20))    Me.Add(New Product(5, "ASP.NET Security eBook", 20))  End SubEnd Class The Product Detail User Control Below is a user control (named ucProduct) that is used to display the product detail information seen in the bottom portion of Figure 1. This is very basic XAML that just creates a text block and a text box control for each of the three properties in the Product class. Notice the {Binding Path=[PropertyName]} on each of the text box controls. This means that if the DataContext property of this user control is set to an instance of a Product class, then the data in the properties of that Product object will be displayed in each of the text boxes. <UserControl x:Class="SL_SyncListBoxAndUserControl_CS.ucProduct"  xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"  xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"  HorizontalAlignment="Left"  VerticalAlignment="Top">  <Grid Margin="4">    <Grid.RowDefinitions>      <RowDefinition Height="Auto" />      <RowDefinition Height="Auto" />      <RowDefinition Height="Auto" />    </Grid.RowDefinitions>    <Grid.ColumnDefinitions>      <ColumnDefinition MinWidth="120" />      <ColumnDefinition />    </Grid.ColumnDefinitions>    <TextBlock Grid.Row="0"               Grid.Column="0"               Text="Product Id" />    <TextBox Grid.Row="0"             Grid.Column="1"             Text="{Binding Path=ProductId}" />    <TextBlock Grid.Row="1"               Grid.Column="0"               Text="Product Name" />    <TextBox Grid.Row="1"             Grid.Column="1"             Text="{Binding Path=ProductName}" />    <TextBlock Grid.Row="2"               Grid.Column="0"               Text="Price" />    <TextBox Grid.Row="2"             Grid.Column="1"             Text="{Binding Path=Price}" />  </Grid></UserControl> Synchronize ListBox with User Control You are now ready to fill the list box with the collection class of Product objects and then bind the SelectedItem of the list box to the Product detail user control. The XAML below is the complete code for Figure 1. <UserControl x:Class="SL_SyncListBoxAndUserControl_CS.MainPage"  xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"  xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"  xmlns:src="clr-namespace:SL_SyncListBoxAndUserControl_CS"  VerticalAlignment="Top"  HorizontalAlignment="Left">  <UserControl.Resources>    <src:Products x:Key="productCollection" />  </UserControl.Resources>  <Grid x:Name="LayoutRoot"        Margin="4"        Background="White">    <Grid.RowDefinitions>      <RowDefinition Height="Auto" />      <RowDefinition Height="*" />    </Grid.RowDefinitions>    <ListBox x:Name="lstData"             Grid.Row="0"             BorderBrush="Black"             BorderThickness="1"             ItemsSource="{Binding                   Source={StaticResource productCollection}}"             DisplayMemberPath="ProductName" />    <src:ucProduct x:Name="prodDetail"                   Grid.Row="1"                   DataContext="{Binding ElementName=lstData,                                          Path=SelectedItem}" />  </Grid></UserControl> The first step to making this happen is to reference the Silverlight project (SL_SyncListBoxAndUserControl_CS) where the Product and Products classes are located. I added this namespace and assigned it a namespace prefix of “src” as shown in the line below: xmlns:src="clr-namespace:SL_SyncListBoxAndUserControl_CS" Next, to use the data from an instance of the Products collection, you create a UserControl.Resources section in the XAML and add a tag that creates an instance of the Products class and assigns it a key of “productCollection”.   <UserControl.Resources>    <src:Products x:Key="productCollection" />  </UserControl.Resources> Next, you bind the list box to this productCollection object using the ItemsSource property. You bind the ItemsSource of the list box to the static resource named productCollection. You can then set the DisplayMemberPath attribute of the list box to any property of the Product class that you want. In the XAML below I used the ProductName property. <ListBox x:Name="lstData"         ItemsSource="{Binding             Source={StaticResource productCollection}}"         DisplayMemberPath="ProductName" /> You now need to create an instance of the ucProduct user contol below the list box. You do this by once again referencing the “src” namespace and typing in the name of the user control. You then set the DataContext property on this user control to a binding. The binding uses the ElementName attribute to bind to the list box name, in this case “lstData”. The Path of the data is SelectedItem. These two attributes together tell Silverlight to bind the DataContext to the selected item of the list box. That selected item is a Product object. So, once this is bound, the bindings on each text box in the user control are updated and display the current product information. <src:ucProduct x:Name="prodDetail"               DataContext="{Binding ElementName=lstData,                                      Path=SelectedItem}" /> Summary Once you understand the basics of data binding in XAML, you eliminate a lot code that is otherwise needed to move data into controls and out of controls back into an object. Connecting two controls together is easy by just binding using the ElementName and Path properties of the Binding markup extension. Another good tip out of this blog is use user controls and set the DataContext of the user control to have all of the data on the user control update through the bindings. NOTE: You can download the complete sample code (in both VB and C#) at my website. http://www.pdsa.com/downloads. Choose Tips & Tricks, then "SL – Synchronize List Box Data with User Control" from the drop-down. Good Luck with your Coding,Paul Sheriff ** SPECIAL OFFER FOR MY BLOG READERS **Visit http://www.pdsa.com/Event/Blog for a free eBook on "Fundamentals of N-Tier".

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  • Create excel files with GemBox.Spreadsheet .NET component

    - by hajan
    Generating excel files from .NET code is not always a very easy task, especially if you need to make some formatting or you want to do something very specific that requires extra coding. I’ve recently tried the GemBox Spreadsheet and I would like to share my experience with you. First of all, you can install GemBox Spreadsheet library from VS.NET 2010 Extension manager by searching in the gallery: Go in the Online Gallery tab (as in the picture bellow) and write GemBox in the Search box on top-right of the Extension Manager, so you will get the following result: Click Download on GemBox.Spreadsheet and you will be directed to product website. Click on the marked link then you will get to the following page where you have the component download link Once you download it, install the MSI file. Open the installation folder and find the Bin folder. There you have GemBox.Spreadsheet.dll in three folders each for different .NET Framework version. Now, lets move to Visual Studio.NET. 1. Create sample ASP.NET Web Application and give it a name. 2. Reference The GemBox.Spreadsheet.dll file in your project So you don’t need to search for the dll file in your disk but you can simply find it in the .NET tab in ‘Add Reference’ window and you have all three versions. I chose the version for 4.0.30319 runtime. Next, I will retrieve data from my Pubs database. I’m using Entity Framework. Here is the code (read the comments in it):             //get data from pubs database, tables: authors, titleauthor, titles             pubsEntities context = new pubsEntities();             var authorTitles = (from a in context.authors                                join tl in context.titleauthor on a.au_id equals tl.au_id                                join t in context.titles on tl.title_id equals t.title_id                                select new AuthorTitles                                {                                     Name = a.au_fname,                                     Surname = a.au_lname,                                     Title = t.title,                                     Price = t.price,                                     PubDate = t.pubdate                                }).ToList();             //using GemBox library now             ExcelFile myExcelFile = new ExcelFile();             ExcelWorksheet excWsheet = myExcelFile.Worksheets.Add("Hajan's worksheet");             excWsheet.Cells[0, 0].Value = "Pubs database Authors and Titles";             excWsheet.Cells[0, 0].Style.Borders.SetBorders(MultipleBorders.Bottom,System.Drawing.Color.Red,LineStyle.Thin);             excWsheet.Cells[0, 1].Style.Borders.SetBorders(MultipleBorders.Bottom, System.Drawing.Color.Red, LineStyle.Thin);                                      int numberOfColumns = 5; //the number of properties in the authorTitles we have             //for each column             for (int c = 0; c < numberOfColumns; c++)             {                 excWsheet.Columns[c].Width = 25 * 256; //set the width to each column                             }             //header row cells             excWsheet.Rows[2].Cells[0].Value = "Name";             excWsheet.Rows[2].Cells[1].Value = "Surname";             excWsheet.Rows[2].Cells[2].Value = "Title";             excWsheet.Rows[2].Cells[3].Value = "Price";             excWsheet.Rows[2].Cells[4].Value = "PubDate";             //bind authorTitles in the excel worksheet             int currentRow = 3;             foreach (AuthorTitles at in authorTitles)             {                 excWsheet.Rows[currentRow].Cells[0].Value = at.Name;                 excWsheet.Rows[currentRow].Cells[1].Value = at.Surname;                 excWsheet.Rows[currentRow].Cells[2].Value = at.Title;                 excWsheet.Rows[currentRow].Cells[3].Value = at.Price;                 excWsheet.Rows[currentRow].Cells[4].Value = at.PubDate;                 currentRow++;             }             //stylizing my excel file look             CellStyle style = new CellStyle(myExcelFile);             style.HorizontalAlignment = HorizontalAlignmentStyle.Left;             style.VerticalAlignment = VerticalAlignmentStyle.Center;             style.Font.Color = System.Drawing.Color.DarkRed;             style.WrapText = true;             style.Borders.SetBorders(MultipleBorders.Top                 | MultipleBorders.Left | MultipleBorders.Right                 | MultipleBorders.Bottom, System.Drawing.Color.Black,                 LineStyle.Thin);                                 //pay attention on this, we set created style on the given (firstRow, firstColumn, lastRow, lastColumn)             //in my example:             //firstRow = 2; firstColumn = 0; lastRow = authorTitles.Count+1; lastColumn = numberOfColumns-1; variable             excWsheet.Cells.GetSubrangeAbsolute(3, 0, authorTitles.Count+2, numberOfColumns-1).Style = style;             //save my excel file             myExcelFile.SaveXls(Server.MapPath(".") + @"/myFile.xls"); The AuthorTitles class: public class AuthorTitles {     public string Name { get; set; }     public string Surname { get; set; }     public string Title { get; set; }     public decimal? Price { get; set; }     public DateTime PubDate { get; set; } } The excel file will be generated in the root of your ASP.NET Web Application. The result is: There is a lot more you can do with this library. A set of good examples you have in the GemBox.Spreadsheet Samples Explorer application which comes together with the installation and you can find it by default in Start –> All Programs –> GemBox Software –> GemBox.Spreadsheet Samples Explorer. Hope this was useful for you. Best Regards, Hajan

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  • Stored Procedures with SSRS? Hmm… not so much

    - by Rob Farley
    Little Bobby Tables’ mother says you should always sanitise your data input. Except that I think she’s wrong. The SQL Injection aspect is for another post, where I’ll show you why I think SQL Injection is the same kind of attack as many other attacks, such as the old buffer overflow, but here I want to have a bit of a whinge about the way that some people sanitise data input, and even have a whinge about people who insist on using stored procedures for SSRS reports. Let me say that again, in case you missed it the first time: I want to have a whinge about people who insist on using stored procedures for SSRS reports. Let’s look at the data input sanitisation aspect – except that I’m going to call it ‘parameter validation’. I’m talking about code that looks like this: create procedure dbo.GetMonthSummaryPerSalesPerson(@eomdate datetime) as begin     /* First check that @eomdate is a valid date */     if isdate(@eomdate) != 1     begin         select 'Please enter a valid date' as ErrorMessage;         return;     end     /* Then check that time has passed since @eomdate */     if datediff(day,@eomdate,sysdatetime()) < 5     begin         select 'Sorry - EOM is not complete yet' as ErrorMessage;         return;     end         /* If those checks have succeeded, return the data */     select SalesPersonID, count(*) as NumSales, sum(TotalDue) as TotalSales     from Sales.SalesOrderHeader     where OrderDate >= dateadd(month,-1,@eomdate)         and OrderDate < @eomdate     group by SalesPersonID     order by SalesPersonID; end Notice that the code checks that a date has been entered. Seriously??!! This must only be to check for NULL values being passed in, because anything else would have to be a valid datetime to avoid an error. The other check is maybe fair enough, but I still don’t like it. The two problems I have with this stored procedure are the result sets and the small fact that the stored procedure even exists in the first place. But let’s consider the first one of these problems for starters. I’ll get to the second one in a moment. If you read Jes Borland (@grrl_geek)’s recent post about returning multiple result sets in Reporting Services, you’ll be aware that Reporting Services doesn’t support multiple results sets from a single query. And when it says ‘single query’, it includes ‘stored procedure call’. It’ll only handle the first result set that comes back. But that’s okay – we have RETURN statements, so our stored procedure will only ever return a single result set.  Sometimes that result set might contain a single field called ErrorMessage, but it’s still only one result set. Except that it’s not okay, because Reporting Services needs to know what fields to expect. Your report needs to hook into your fields, so SSRS needs to have a way to get that information. For stored procs, it uses an option called FMTONLY. When Reporting Services tries to figure out what fields are going to be returned by a query (or stored procedure call), it doesn’t want to have to run the whole thing. That could take ages. (Maybe it’s seen some of the stored procedures I’ve had to deal with over the years!) So it turns on FMTONLY before it makes the call (and turns it off again afterwards). FMTONLY is designed to be able to figure out the shape of the output, without actually running the contents. It’s very useful, you might think. set fmtonly on exec dbo.GetMonthSummaryPerSalesPerson '20030401'; set fmtonly off Without the FMTONLY lines, this stored procedure returns a result set that has three columns and fourteen rows. But with FMTONLY turned on, those rows don’t come back. But what I do get back hurts Reporting Services. It doesn’t run the stored procedure at all. It just looks for anything that could be returned and pushes out a result set in that shape. Despite the fact that I’ve made sure that the logic will only ever return a single result set, the FMTONLY option kills me by returning three of them. It would have been much better to push these checks down into the query itself. alter procedure dbo.GetMonthSummaryPerSalesPerson(@eomdate datetime) as begin     select SalesPersonID, count(*) as NumSales, sum(TotalDue) as TotalSales     from Sales.SalesOrderHeader     where     /* Make sure that @eomdate is valid */         isdate(@eomdate) = 1     /* And that it's sufficiently past */     and datediff(day,@eomdate,sysdatetime()) >= 5     /* And now use it in the filter as appropriate */     and OrderDate >= dateadd(month,-1,@eomdate)     and OrderDate < @eomdate     group by SalesPersonID     order by SalesPersonID; end Now if we run it with FMTONLY turned on, we get the single result set back. But let’s consider the execution plan when we pass in an invalid date. First let’s look at one that returns data. I’ve got a semi-useful index in place on OrderDate, which includes the SalesPersonID and TotalDue fields. It does the job, despite a hefty Sort operation. …compared to one that uses a future date: You might notice that the estimated costs are similar – the Index Seek is still 28%, the Sort is still 71%. But the size of that arrow coming out of the Index Seek is a whole bunch smaller. The coolest thing here is what’s going on with that Index Seek. Let’s look at some of the properties of it. Glance down it with me… Estimated CPU cost of 0.0005728, 387 estimated rows, estimated subtree cost of 0.0044385, ForceSeek false, Number of Executions 0. That’s right – it doesn’t run. So much for reading plans right-to-left... The key is the Filter on the left of it. It has a Startup Expression Predicate in it, which means that it doesn’t call anything further down the plan (to the right) if the predicate evaluates to false. Using this method, we can make sure that our stored procedure contains a single query, and therefore avoid any problems with multiple result sets. If we wanted, we could always use UNION ALL to make sure that we can return an appropriate error message. alter procedure dbo.GetMonthSummaryPerSalesPerson(@eomdate datetime) as begin     select SalesPersonID, count(*) as NumSales, sum(TotalDue) as TotalSales, /*Placeholder: */ '' as ErrorMessage     from Sales.SalesOrderHeader     where     /* Make sure that @eomdate is valid */         isdate(@eomdate) = 1     /* And that it's sufficiently past */     and datediff(day,@eomdate,sysdatetime()) >= 5     /* And now use it in the filter as appropriate */     and OrderDate >= dateadd(month,-1,@eomdate)     and OrderDate < @eomdate     group by SalesPersonID     /* Now include the error messages */     union all     select 0, 0, 0, 'Please enter a valid date' as ErrorMessage     where isdate(@eomdate) != 1     union all     select 0, 0, 0, 'Sorry - EOM is not complete yet' as ErrorMessage     where datediff(day,@eomdate,sysdatetime()) < 5     order by SalesPersonID; end But still I don’t like it, because it’s now a stored procedure with a single query. And I don’t like stored procedures that should be functions. That’s right – I think this should be a function, and SSRS should call the function. And I apologise to those of you who are now planning a bonfire for me. Guy Fawkes’ night has already passed this year, so I think you miss out. (And I’m not going to remind you about when the PASS Summit is in 2012.) create function dbo.GetMonthSummaryPerSalesPerson(@eomdate datetime) returns table as return (     select SalesPersonID, count(*) as NumSales, sum(TotalDue) as TotalSales, '' as ErrorMessage     from Sales.SalesOrderHeader     where     /* Make sure that @eomdate is valid */         isdate(@eomdate) = 1     /* And that it's sufficiently past */     and datediff(day,@eomdate,sysdatetime()) >= 5     /* And now use it in the filter as appropriate */     and OrderDate >= dateadd(month,-1,@eomdate)     and OrderDate < @eomdate     group by SalesPersonID     union all     select 0, 0, 0, 'Please enter a valid date' as ErrorMessage     where isdate(@eomdate) != 1     union all     select 0, 0, 0, 'Sorry - EOM is not complete yet' as ErrorMessage     where datediff(day,@eomdate,sysdatetime()) < 5 ); We’ve had to lose the ORDER BY – but that’s fine, as that’s a client thing anyway. We can have our reports leverage this stored query still, but we’re recognising that it’s a query, not a procedure. A procedure is designed to DO stuff, not just return data. We even get entries in sys.columns that confirm what the shape of the result set actually is, which makes sense, because a table-valued function is the right mechanism to return data. And we get so much more flexibility with this. If you haven’t seen the simplification stuff that I’ve preached on before, jump over to http://bit.ly/SimpleRob and watch the video of when I broke a microphone and nearly fell off the stage in Wales. You’ll see the impact of being able to have a simplifiable query. You can also read the procedural functions post I wrote recently, if you didn’t follow the link from a few paragraphs ago. So if we want the list of SalesPeople that made any kind of sales in a given month, we can do something like: select SalesPersonID from dbo.GetMonthSummaryPerSalesPerson(@eomonth) order by SalesPersonID; This doesn’t need to look up the TotalDue field, which makes a simpler plan. select * from dbo.GetMonthSummaryPerSalesPerson(@eomonth) where SalesPersonID is not null order by SalesPersonID; This one can avoid having to do the work on the rows that don’t have a SalesPersonID value, pushing the predicate into the Index Seek rather than filtering the results that come back to the report. If we had joins involved, we might see some of those being simplified out. We also get the ability to include query hints in individual reports. We shift from having a single-use stored procedure to having a reusable stored query – and isn’t that one of the main points of modularisation? Stored procedures in Reporting Services are just a bit limited for my liking. They’re useful in plenty of ways, but if you insist on using stored procedures all the time rather that queries that use functions – that’s rubbish. @rob_farley

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  • Simplex Noise Help

    - by Alex Larsen
    Im Making A Minecraft Like Gae In XNA C# And I Need To Generate Land With Caves This Is The Code For Simplex I Have /// <summary> /// 1D simplex noise /// </summary> /// <param name="x"></param> /// <returns></returns> public static float Generate(float x) { int i0 = FastFloor(x); int i1 = i0 + 1; float x0 = x - i0; float x1 = x0 - 1.0f; float n0, n1; float t0 = 1.0f - x0 * x0; t0 *= t0; n0 = t0 * t0 * grad(perm[i0 & 0xff], x0); float t1 = 1.0f - x1 * x1; t1 *= t1; n1 = t1 * t1 * grad(perm[i1 & 0xff], x1); // The maximum value of this noise is 8*(3/4)^4 = 2.53125 // A factor of 0.395 scales to fit exactly within [-1,1] return 0.395f * (n0 + n1); } /// <summary> /// 2D simplex noise /// </summary> /// <param name="x"></param> /// <param name="y"></param> /// <returns></returns> public static float Generate(float x, float y) { const float F2 = 0.366025403f; // F2 = 0.5*(sqrt(3.0)-1.0) const float G2 = 0.211324865f; // G2 = (3.0-Math.sqrt(3.0))/6.0 float n0, n1, n2; // Noise contributions from the three corners // Skew the input space to determine which simplex cell we're in float s = (x + y) * F2; // Hairy factor for 2D float xs = x + s; float ys = y + s; int i = FastFloor(xs); int j = FastFloor(ys); float t = (float)(i + j) * G2; float X0 = i - t; // Unskew the cell origin back to (x,y) space float Y0 = j - t; float x0 = x - X0; // The x,y distances from the cell origin float y0 = y - Y0; // For the 2D case, the simplex shape is an equilateral triangle. // Determine which simplex we are in. int i1, j1; // Offsets for second (middle) corner of simplex in (i,j) coords if (x0 > y0) { i1 = 1; j1 = 0; } // lower triangle, XY order: (0,0)->(1,0)->(1,1) else { i1 = 0; j1 = 1; } // upper triangle, YX order: (0,0)->(0,1)->(1,1) // A step of (1,0) in (i,j) means a step of (1-c,-c) in (x,y), and // a step of (0,1) in (i,j) means a step of (-c,1-c) in (x,y), where // c = (3-sqrt(3))/6 float x1 = x0 - i1 + G2; // Offsets for middle corner in (x,y) unskewed coords float y1 = y0 - j1 + G2; float x2 = x0 - 1.0f + 2.0f * G2; // Offsets for last corner in (x,y) unskewed coords float y2 = y0 - 1.0f + 2.0f * G2; // Wrap the integer indices at 256, to avoid indexing perm[] out of bounds int ii = i % 256; int jj = j % 256; // Calculate the contribution from the three corners float t0 = 0.5f - x0 * x0 - y0 * y0; if (t0 < 0.0f) n0 = 0.0f; else { t0 *= t0; n0 = t0 * t0 * grad(perm[ii + perm[jj]], x0, y0); } float t1 = 0.5f - x1 * x1 - y1 * y1; if (t1 < 0.0f) n1 = 0.0f; else { t1 *= t1; n1 = t1 * t1 * grad(perm[ii + i1 + perm[jj + j1]], x1, y1); } float t2 = 0.5f - x2 * x2 - y2 * y2; if (t2 < 0.0f) n2 = 0.0f; else { t2 *= t2; n2 = t2 * t2 * grad(perm[ii + 1 + perm[jj + 1]], x2, y2); } // Add contributions from each corner to get the final noise value. // The result is scaled to return values in the interval [-1,1]. return 40.0f * (n0 + n1 + n2); // TODO: The scale factor is preliminary! } public static float Generate(float x, float y, float z) { // Simple skewing factors for the 3D case const float F3 = 0.333333333f; const float G3 = 0.166666667f; float n0, n1, n2, n3; // Noise contributions from the four corners // Skew the input space to determine which simplex cell we're in float s = (x + y + z) * F3; // Very nice and simple skew factor for 3D float xs = x + s; float ys = y + s; float zs = z + s; int i = FastFloor(xs); int j = FastFloor(ys); int k = FastFloor(zs); float t = (float)(i + j + k) * G3; float X0 = i - t; // Unskew the cell origin back to (x,y,z) space float Y0 = j - t; float Z0 = k - t; float x0 = x - X0; // The x,y,z distances from the cell origin float y0 = y - Y0; float z0 = z - Z0; // For the 3D case, the simplex shape is a slightly irregular tetrahedron. // Determine which simplex we are in. int i1, j1, k1; // Offsets for second corner of simplex in (i,j,k) coords int i2, j2, k2; // Offsets for third corner of simplex in (i,j,k) coords /* This code would benefit from a backport from the GLSL version! */ if (x0 >= y0) { if (y0 >= z0) { i1 = 1; j1 = 0; k1 = 0; i2 = 1; j2 = 1; k2 = 0; } // X Y Z order else if (x0 >= z0) { i1 = 1; j1 = 0; k1 = 0; i2 = 1; j2 = 0; k2 = 1; } // X Z Y order else { i1 = 0; j1 = 0; k1 = 1; i2 = 1; j2 = 0; k2 = 1; } // Z X Y order } else { // x0<y0 if (y0 < z0) { i1 = 0; j1 = 0; k1 = 1; i2 = 0; j2 = 1; k2 = 1; } // Z Y X order else if (x0 < z0) { i1 = 0; j1 = 1; k1 = 0; i2 = 0; j2 = 1; k2 = 1; } // Y Z X order else { i1 = 0; j1 = 1; k1 = 0; i2 = 1; j2 = 1; k2 = 0; } // Y X Z order } // A step of (1,0,0) in (i,j,k) means a step of (1-c,-c,-c) in (x,y,z), // a step of (0,1,0) in (i,j,k) means a step of (-c,1-c,-c) in (x,y,z), and // a step of (0,0,1) in (i,j,k) means a step of (-c,-c,1-c) in (x,y,z), where // c = 1/6. float x1 = x0 - i1 + G3; // Offsets for second corner in (x,y,z) coords float y1 = y0 - j1 + G3; float z1 = z0 - k1 + G3; float x2 = x0 - i2 + 2.0f * G3; // Offsets for third corner in (x,y,z) coords float y2 = y0 - j2 + 2.0f * G3; float z2 = z0 - k2 + 2.0f * G3; float x3 = x0 - 1.0f + 3.0f * G3; // Offsets for last corner in (x,y,z) coords float y3 = y0 - 1.0f + 3.0f * G3; float z3 = z0 - 1.0f + 3.0f * G3; // Wrap the integer indices at 256, to avoid indexing perm[] out of bounds int ii = i % 256; int jj = j % 256; int kk = k % 256; // Calculate the contribution from the four corners float t0 = 0.6f - x0 * x0 - y0 * y0 - z0 * z0; if (t0 < 0.0f) n0 = 0.0f; else { t0 *= t0; n0 = t0 * t0 * grad(perm[ii + perm[jj + perm[kk]]], x0, y0, z0); } float t1 = 0.6f - x1 * x1 - y1 * y1 - z1 * z1; if (t1 < 0.0f) n1 = 0.0f; else { t1 *= t1; n1 = t1 * t1 * grad(perm[ii + i1 + perm[jj + j1 + perm[kk + k1]]], x1, y1, z1); } float t2 = 0.6f - x2 * x2 - y2 * y2 - z2 * z2; if (t2 < 0.0f) n2 = 0.0f; else { t2 *= t2; n2 = t2 * t2 * grad(perm[ii + i2 + perm[jj + j2 + perm[kk + k2]]], x2, y2, z2); } float t3 = 0.6f - x3 * x3 - y3 * y3 - z3 * z3; if (t3 < 0.0f) n3 = 0.0f; else { t3 *= t3; n3 = t3 * t3 * grad(perm[ii + 1 + perm[jj + 1 + perm[kk + 1]]], x3, y3, z3); } // Add contributions from each corner to get the final noise value. // The result is scaled to stay just inside [-1,1] return 32.0f * (n0 + n1 + n2 + n3); // TODO: The scale factor is preliminary! } private static byte[] perm = new byte[512] { 151,160,137,91,90,15, 131,13,201,95,96,53,194,233,7,225,140,36,103,30,69,142,8,99,37,240,21,10,23, 190, 6,148,247,120,234,75,0,26,197,62,94,252,219,203,117,35,11,32,57,177,33, 88,237,149,56,87,174,20,125,136,171,168, 68,175,74,165,71,134,139,48,27,166, 77,146,158,231,83,111,229,122,60,211,133,230,220,105,92,41,55,46,245,40,244, 102,143,54, 65,25,63,161, 1,216,80,73,209,76,132,187,208, 89,18,169,200,196, 135,130,116,188,159,86,164,100,109,198,173,186, 3,64,52,217,226,250,124,123, 5,202,38,147,118,126,255,82,85,212,207,206,59,227,47,16,58,17,182,189,28,42, 223,183,170,213,119,248,152, 2,44,154,163, 70,221,153,101,155,167, 43,172,9, 129,22,39,253, 19,98,108,110,79,113,224,232,178,185, 112,104,218,246,97,228, 251,34,242,193,238,210,144,12,191,179,162,241, 81,51,145,235,249,14,239,107, 49,192,214, 31,181,199,106,157,184, 84,204,176,115,121,50,45,127, 4,150,254, 138,236,205,93,222,114,67,29,24,72,243,141,128,195,78,66,215,61,156,180, 151,160,137,91,90,15, 131,13,201,95,96,53,194,233,7,225,140,36,103,30,69,142,8,99,37,240,21,10,23, 190, 6,148,247,120,234,75,0,26,197,62,94,252,219,203,117,35,11,32,57,177,33, 88,237,149,56,87,174,20,125,136,171,168, 68,175,74,165,71,134,139,48,27,166, 77,146,158,231,83,111,229,122,60,211,133,230,220,105,92,41,55,46,245,40,244, 102,143,54, 65,25,63,161, 1,216,80,73,209,76,132,187,208, 89,18,169,200,196, 135,130,116,188,159,86,164,100,109,198,173,186, 3,64,52,217,226,250,124,123, 5,202,38,147,118,126,255,82,85,212,207,206,59,227,47,16,58,17,182,189,28,42, 223,183,170,213,119,248,152, 2,44,154,163, 70,221,153,101,155,167, 43,172,9, 129,22,39,253, 19,98,108,110,79,113,224,232,178,185, 112,104,218,246,97,228, 251,34,242,193,238,210,144,12,191,179,162,241, 81,51,145,235,249,14,239,107, 49,192,214, 31,181,199,106,157,184, 84,204,176,115,121,50,45,127, 4,150,254, 138,236,205,93,222,114,67,29,24,72,243,141,128,195,78,66,215,61,156,180 }; private static int FastFloor(float x) { return (x > 0) ? ((int)x) : (((int)x) - 1); } private static float grad(int hash, float x) { int h = hash & 15; float grad = 1.0f + (h & 7); // Gradient value 1.0, 2.0, ..., 8.0 if ((h & 8) != 0) grad = -grad; // Set a random sign for the gradient return (grad * x); // Multiply the gradient with the distance } private static float grad(int hash, float x, float y) { int h = hash & 7; // Convert low 3 bits of hash code float u = h < 4 ? x : y; // into 8 simple gradient directions, float v = h < 4 ? y : x; // and compute the dot product with (x,y). return ((h & 1) != 0 ? -u : u) + ((h & 2) != 0 ? -2.0f * v : 2.0f * v); } private static float grad(int hash, float x, float y, float z) { int h = hash & 15; // Convert low 4 bits of hash code into 12 simple float u = h < 8 ? x : y; // gradient directions, and compute dot product. float v = h < 4 ? y : h == 12 || h == 14 ? x : z; // Fix repeats at h = 12 to 15 return ((h & 1) != 0 ? -u : u) + ((h & 2) != 0 ? -v : v); } private static float grad(int hash, float x, float y, float z, float t) { int h = hash & 31; // Convert low 5 bits of hash code into 32 simple float u = h < 24 ? x : y; // gradient directions, and compute dot product. float v = h < 16 ? y : z; float w = h < 8 ? z : t; return ((h & 1) != 0 ? -u : u) + ((h & 2) != 0 ? -v : v) + ((h & 4) != 0 ? -w : w); } This Is My World Generation Code Block[,] BlocksInMap = new Block[1024, 256]; public bool IsWorldGenerated = false; Random r = new Random(); private void RunThread() { for (int BH = 0; BH <= 256; BH++) { for (int BW = 0; BW <= 1024; BW++) { Block b = new Block(); if (BH >= 192) { } BlocksInMap[BW, BH] = b; } } IsWorldGenerated = true; } public void GenWorld() { new Thread(new ThreadStart(RunThread)).Start(); } And This Is A Example Of How I Set Blocks Block b = new Block(); b.BlockType = = Block.BlockTypes.Air; This Is A Example Of How I Set Models foreach (Block b in MyWorld) { switch(b.BlockType) { case Block.BlockTypes.Dirt: b.Model = DirtModel; break; ect. } } How Would I Use These To Generate To World (The Block Array) And If Possible Thread It More? btw It's 1024 Wide And 256 Tall

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  • File Watcher Task

    The task will detect changes to existing files as well as new files, both actions will cause the file to be found when available. A file is available when the task can open it exclusively. This is important for files that take a long time to be written, such as large files, or those that are just written slowly or delivered via a slow network link. It can also be set to look for existing files first (1.2.4.55). The full path of the found file is returned in up to three ways: The ExecValueVariable of the task. This can be set to any String variable. The OutputVariableName when specified. This can be set to any String variable. The FullPath variable within OnFileFoundEvent. This is a File Watcher Task specific event.   Advanced warning of a file having been detected, but not yet available is returned through the OnFileWatcherEvent. This event does not always coincide with the completion of the task, as completion and the OnFileFoundEvent is delayed until the file is ready for use. This event indicates that a file has been detected, and that file will now be monitored until it becomes available. The task will only detect and report on the first file that is created or changes, any subsequent changes will be ignored. Task properties and there usages are documented below: Property Data Type Description Filter String Default filter *.* will watch all files. Standard windows wildcards and patterns can be used to restrict the files monitored. FindExistingFiles Boolean Indicates whether the task should check for any existing files that match the path and filter criteria, before starting the file watcher. IncludeSubdirectories Boolean Indicates whether changes in subdirectories are accepted or ignored. OutputVariableName String The name of the variable into which the full file path found will be written on completion of the task. The variable specified should be of type string. Path String Path to watch for new files or changes to existing files. The path is a directory, not a full filename. For a specific file, enter the file name in the Filter property and the directory in the Path property. PathInputType FileWatcherTask.InputType Three input types are supported for the path: Connection - File connection manager, of type existing folder. Direct Input - Type the path directly into the UI or set on the property as a literal string. Variable – The name of the variable which contains the path. Timeout Integer Time in minutes to wait for a file. If no files are detected within the timeout period the task will fail. The default value of 0 means infinite, and will not expire. TimeoutAsWarning Boolean The default behaviour is to raise an error and fail the task on timeout. This property allows you to suppress the error on timeout, a warning event is raised instead, and the task succeeds. The default value is false.   Installation The task is provided as an MSI file which you can download and run to install it. This simply places the files on disk in the correct locations and also installs the assemblies in the Global Assembly Cache as per Microsoft’s recommendations. You may need to restart the SQL Server Integration Services service, as this caches information about what components are installed, as well as restarting any open instances of Business Intelligence Development Studio (BIDS) / Visual Studio that you may be using to build your SSIS packages. For 2005/2008 Only - Finally you will have to add the task to the Visual Studio toolbox manually. Right-click the toolbox, and select Choose Items.... Select the SSIS Control Flow Items tab, and then check the File Watcher Task in the Choose Toolbox Items window. This process has been described in detail in the related FAQ entry for How do I install a task or transform component? We recommend you follow best practice and apply the current Microsoft SQL Server Service pack to your SQL Server servers and workstations. Downloads The File Watcher Task  is available for SQL Server 2005, SQL Server 2008 (includes R2) and SQL Server 2012. Please choose the version to match your SQL Server version, or you can install multiple versions and use them side by side if you have more than one version of SQL Server installed. File Watcher Task for SQL Server 2005 File Watcher Task for SQL Server 2008 File Watcher Task for SQL Server 2012 Version History SQL Server 2012 Version 3.0.0.16 - SQL Server 2012 release. Includes upgrade support for both 2005 and 2008 packages to 2012. (5 Jun 2012) SQL Server 2008 Version 2.0.0.14 - Fixed user interface bug. A migration problem caused the UI type editors to reference an old SQL 2005 assembly. (17 Nov 2008) Version 2.0.0.7 - SQL Server 2008 release. (20 Oct 2008) SQL Server 2005 Version 1.2.6.100 - Fixed UI bug with TimeoutAsWarning property not saving correctly. Improved expression support in UI. File availability detection changed to use read-only lock, allowing reduced permissions to be used. Corrected installed issue which prevented installation on 64-bit machines with SSIS runtime only components. (18 Mar 2007) Version 1.2.5.73 - Added TimeoutAsWarning property. Gives the ability to suppress the error on timeout, a warning event is raised instead, and the task succeeds. (Task Version 3) (27 Sep 2006) Version 1.2.4.61 - Fixed a bug which could cause a loop condition with an unexpected exception such as incorrect file permissions. (20 Sep 2006) Version 1.2.4.55 - Added FindExistingFiles property. When true the task will check for an existing file before the file watcher itself actually starts. (Task Version 2) (8 Sep 2006) Version 1.2.3.39 - SQL Server 2005 RTM Refresh. SP1 Compatibility Testing. Property type validation improved. (12 Jun 2006) Version 1.2.1.0 - SQL Server 2005 IDW 16 Sept CTP. Futher UI enhancements, including expression indicator. Fixed bug caused by execution within loop Subsequent iterations detected the same file as the first iteration. Added IncludeSubdirectories property. Fixed bug when changes made in subdirectories, and folder change was detected, causing task failure. (Task Version 1) (6 Oct 2005) Version 1.2.0.0 - SQL Server 2005 IDW 15 June CTP. Changes made include an enhanced UI, the PathInputType property for greater flexibility with path input, the OutputVariableName property, and the new OnFileFoundEvent event. (7 Sep 2005) Version 1.1.2 - Public Release (16 Nov 2004) Screenshots   Troubleshooting Make sure you have downloaded the version that matches your version of SQL Server. We offer separate downloads for SQL Server 2005 and SQL Server 2008. If you an error when you try and use the task along the lines of The task with the name "File Watcher Task" and the creation name ... is not registered for use on this computer, this usually indicates that the internal cache of SSIS components needs to be updated. This cache is held by the SSIS service, so you need restart the the SQL Server Integration Services service. You can do this from the Services applet in Control Panel or Administrative Tools in Windows. You can also restart the computer if you prefer. You may also need to restart any current instances of Business Intelligence Development Studio (BIDS) / Visual Studio that you may be using to build your SSIS packages. The full error message is shown below for reference: TITLE: Microsoft Visual Studio ------------------------------ The task with the name "File Watcher Task" and the creation name "Konesans.Dts.Tasks.FileWatcherTask.FileWatcherTask, Konesans.Dts.Tasks.FileWatcherTask, Version=1.2.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b2ab4a111192992b" is not registered for use on this computer. Contact Information: File Watcher Task A similar error message can be shown when trying to edit the task if the Microsoft Exception Message Box is not installed. This useful component is installed as part of the SQL Server Management Studio tools but occasionally due to the custom options chosen during SQL Server 2005 setup it may be absent. If you get an error like Could not load file or assembly 'Microsoft.ExceptionMessageBox.. you can manually download and install the missing component. It is available as part of the Feature Pack for SQL Server 2005 release. The feature packs are occasionally updated by Microsoft so you may like to check for a more recent edition, but you can find the Microsoft Exception Message Box download links here - Feature Pack for Microsoft SQL Server 2005 - April 2006 If you encounter this problem on SQL Server 2008, please check that you have installed the SQL Server client components. The component is no longer available as a separate download for SQL Server 2008  as noted in the Microsoft documentation for Deploying an Exception Message Box Application The full error message is shown below for reference, although note that the Version will change between SQL Server 2005 and SQL Server 2008: TITLE: Microsoft Visual Studio ------------------------------ Cannot show the editor for this task. ------------------------------ ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: Could not load file or assembly 'Microsoft.ExceptionMessageBox, Version=9.0.242.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=89845dcd8080cc91' or one of its dependencies. The system cannot find the file specified. (Konesans.Dts.Tasks.FileWatcherTask) Once installation is complete you need to manually add the task to the toolbox before you will see it and to be able add it to packages - How do I install a task or transform component? If you are still having issues then contact us, but please provide as much detail as possible about error, as well as which version of the the task you are using and details of the SSIS tools installed. Sample Code If you wanted to use the task programmatically then here is some sample code for creating a basic package and configuring the task. It uses a variable to supply the path to watch, and also sets a variable for the OutputVariableName. Once execution is complete it writes out the file found to the console. /// <summary> /// Create a package with an File Watcher Task /// </summary> public void FileWatcherTaskBasic() { // Create the package Package package = new Package(); package.Name = "FileWatcherTaskBasic"; // Add variable for input path, the folder to look in package.Variables.Add("InputPath", false, "User", @"C:\Temp\"); // Add variable for the file found, to be used on OutputVariableName property package.Variables.Add("FileFound", false, "User", "EMPTY"); // Add the Task package.Executables.Add("Konesans.Dts.Tasks.FileWatcherTask.FileWatcherTask, " + "Konesans.Dts.Tasks.FileWatcherTask, Version=1.2.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b2ab4a111192992b"); // Get the task host wrapper TaskHost taskHost = package.Executables[0] as TaskHost; // Set basic properties taskHost.Properties["PathInputType"].SetValue(taskHost, 1); // InputType.Variable taskHost.Properties["Path"].SetValue(taskHost, "User::InputPath"); taskHost.Properties["OutputVariableName"].SetValue(taskHost, "User::FileFound"); #if DEBUG // Save package to disk, DEBUG only new Application().SaveToXml(String.Format(@"C:\Temp\{0}.dtsx", package.Name), package, null); #endif // Display variable value before execution to check EMPTY Console.WriteLine("Result Variable: {0}", package.Variables["User::FileFound"].Value); // Execute package package.Execute(); // Display variable value after execution, e.g. C:\Temp\File.txt Console.WriteLine("Result Variable: {0}", package.Variables["User::FileFound"].Value); // Perform simple check for execution errors if (package.Errors.Count > 0) foreach (DtsError error in package.Errors) { Console.WriteLine("ErrorCode : {0}", error.ErrorCode); Console.WriteLine(" SubComponent : {0}", error.SubComponent); Console.WriteLine(" Description : {0}", error.Description); } else Console.WriteLine("Success - {0}", package.Name); // Clean-up package.Dispose(); } (Updated installation and troubleshooting sections, and added sample code July 2009)

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  • Seeking on a Heap, and Two Useful DMVs

    - by Paul White
    So far in this mini-series on seeks and scans, we have seen that a simple ‘seek’ operation can be much more complex than it first appears.  A seek can contain one or more seek predicates – each of which can either identify at most one row in a unique index (a singleton lookup) or a range of values (a range scan).  When looking at a query plan, we will often need to look at the details of the seek operator in the Properties window to see how many operations it is performing, and what type of operation each one is.  As you saw in the first post in this series, the number of hidden seeking operations can have an appreciable impact on performance. Measuring Seeks and Scans I mentioned in my last post that there is no way to tell from a graphical query plan whether you are seeing a singleton lookup or a range scan.  You can work it out – if you happen to know that the index is defined as unique and the seek predicate is an equality comparison, but there’s no separate property that says ‘singleton lookup’ or ‘range scan’.  This is a shame, and if I had my way, the query plan would show different icons for range scans and singleton lookups – perhaps also indicating whether the operation was one or more of those operations underneath the covers. In light of all that, you might be wondering if there is another way to measure how many seeks of either type are occurring in your system, or for a particular query.  As is often the case, the answer is yes – we can use a couple of dynamic management views (DMVs): sys.dm_db_index_usage_stats and sys.dm_db_index_operational_stats. Index Usage Stats The index usage stats DMV contains counts of index operations from the perspective of the Query Executor (QE) – the SQL Server component that is responsible for executing the query plan.  It has three columns that are of particular interest to us: user_seeks – the number of times an Index Seek operator appears in an executed plan user_scans – the number of times a Table Scan or Index Scan operator appears in an executed plan user_lookups – the number of times an RID or Key Lookup operator appears in an executed plan An operator is counted once per execution (generating an estimated plan does not affect the totals), so an Index Seek that executes 10,000 times in a single plan execution adds 1 to the count of user seeks.  Even less intuitively, an operator is also counted once per execution even if it is not executed at all.  I will show you a demonstration of each of these things later in this post. Index Operational Stats The index operational stats DMV contains counts of index and table operations from the perspective of the Storage Engine (SE).  It contains a wealth of interesting information, but the two columns of interest to us right now are: range_scan_count – the number of range scans (including unrestricted full scans) on a heap or index structure singleton_lookup_count – the number of singleton lookups in a heap or index structure This DMV counts each SE operation, so 10,000 singleton lookups will add 10,000 to the singleton lookup count column, and a table scan that is executed 5 times will add 5 to the range scan count. The Test Rig To explore the behaviour of seeks and scans in detail, we will need to create a test environment.  The scripts presented here are best run on SQL Server 2008 Developer Edition, but the majority of the tests will work just fine on SQL Server 2005.  A couple of tests use partitioning, but these will be skipped if you are not running an Enterprise-equivalent SKU.  Ok, first up we need a database: USE master; GO IF DB_ID('ScansAndSeeks') IS NOT NULL DROP DATABASE ScansAndSeeks; GO CREATE DATABASE ScansAndSeeks; GO USE ScansAndSeeks; GO ALTER DATABASE ScansAndSeeks SET ALLOW_SNAPSHOT_ISOLATION OFF ; ALTER DATABASE ScansAndSeeks SET AUTO_CLOSE OFF, AUTO_SHRINK OFF, AUTO_CREATE_STATISTICS OFF, AUTO_UPDATE_STATISTICS OFF, PARAMETERIZATION SIMPLE, READ_COMMITTED_SNAPSHOT OFF, RESTRICTED_USER ; Notice that several database options are set in particular ways to ensure we get meaningful and reproducible results from the DMVs.  In particular, the options to auto-create and update statistics are disabled.  There are also three stored procedures, the first of which creates a test table (which may or may not be partitioned).  The table is pretty much the same one we used yesterday: The table has 100 rows, and both the key_col and data columns contain the same values – the integers from 1 to 100 inclusive.  The table is a heap, with a non-clustered primary key on key_col, and a non-clustered non-unique index on the data column.  The only reason I have used a heap here, rather than a clustered table, is so I can demonstrate a seek on a heap later on.  The table has an extra column (not shown because I am too lazy to update the diagram from yesterday) called padding – a CHAR(100) column that just contains 100 spaces in every row.  It’s just there to discourage SQL Server from choosing table scan over an index + RID lookup in one of the tests. The first stored procedure is called ResetTest: CREATE PROCEDURE dbo.ResetTest @Partitioned BIT = 'false' AS BEGIN SET NOCOUNT ON ; IF OBJECT_ID(N'dbo.Example', N'U') IS NOT NULL BEGIN DROP TABLE dbo.Example; END ; -- Test table is a heap -- Non-clustered primary key on 'key_col' CREATE TABLE dbo.Example ( key_col INTEGER NOT NULL, data INTEGER NOT NULL, padding CHAR(100) NOT NULL DEFAULT SPACE(100), CONSTRAINT [PK dbo.Example key_col] PRIMARY KEY NONCLUSTERED (key_col) ) ; IF @Partitioned = 'true' BEGIN -- Enterprise, Trial, or Developer -- required for partitioning tests IF SERVERPROPERTY('EngineEdition') = 3 BEGIN EXECUTE (' DROP TABLE dbo.Example ; IF EXISTS ( SELECT 1 FROM sys.partition_schemes WHERE name = N''PS'' ) DROP PARTITION SCHEME PS ; IF EXISTS ( SELECT 1 FROM sys.partition_functions WHERE name = N''PF'' ) DROP PARTITION FUNCTION PF ; CREATE PARTITION FUNCTION PF (INTEGER) AS RANGE RIGHT FOR VALUES (20, 40, 60, 80, 100) ; CREATE PARTITION SCHEME PS AS PARTITION PF ALL TO ([PRIMARY]) ; CREATE TABLE dbo.Example ( key_col INTEGER NOT NULL, data INTEGER NOT NULL, padding CHAR(100) NOT NULL DEFAULT SPACE(100), CONSTRAINT [PK dbo.Example key_col] PRIMARY KEY NONCLUSTERED (key_col) ) ON PS (key_col); '); END ELSE BEGIN RAISERROR('Invalid SKU for partition test', 16, 1); RETURN; END; END ; -- Non-unique non-clustered index on the 'data' column CREATE NONCLUSTERED INDEX [IX dbo.Example data] ON dbo.Example (data) ; -- Add 100 rows INSERT dbo.Example WITH (TABLOCKX) ( key_col, data ) SELECT key_col = V.number, data = V.number FROM master.dbo.spt_values AS V WHERE V.[type] = N'P' AND V.number BETWEEN 1 AND 100 ; END; GO The second stored procedure, ShowStats, displays information from the Index Usage Stats and Index Operational Stats DMVs: CREATE PROCEDURE dbo.ShowStats @Partitioned BIT = 'false' AS BEGIN -- Index Usage Stats DMV (QE) SELECT index_name = ISNULL(I.name, I.type_desc), scans = IUS.user_scans, seeks = IUS.user_seeks, lookups = IUS.user_lookups FROM sys.dm_db_index_usage_stats AS IUS JOIN sys.indexes AS I ON I.object_id = IUS.object_id AND I.index_id = IUS.index_id WHERE IUS.database_id = DB_ID(N'ScansAndSeeks') AND IUS.object_id = OBJECT_ID(N'dbo.Example', N'U') ORDER BY I.index_id ; -- Index Operational Stats DMV (SE) IF @Partitioned = 'true' SELECT index_name = ISNULL(I.name, I.type_desc), partitions = COUNT(IOS.partition_number), range_scans = SUM(IOS.range_scan_count), single_lookups = SUM(IOS.singleton_lookup_count) FROM sys.dm_db_index_operational_stats ( DB_ID(N'ScansAndSeeks'), OBJECT_ID(N'dbo.Example', N'U'), NULL, NULL ) AS IOS JOIN sys.indexes AS I ON I.object_id = IOS.object_id AND I.index_id = IOS.index_id GROUP BY I.index_id, -- Key I.name, I.type_desc ORDER BY I.index_id; ELSE SELECT index_name = ISNULL(I.name, I.type_desc), range_scans = SUM(IOS.range_scan_count), single_lookups = SUM(IOS.singleton_lookup_count) FROM sys.dm_db_index_operational_stats ( DB_ID(N'ScansAndSeeks'), OBJECT_ID(N'dbo.Example', N'U'), NULL, NULL ) AS IOS JOIN sys.indexes AS I ON I.object_id = IOS.object_id AND I.index_id = IOS.index_id GROUP BY I.index_id, -- Key I.name, I.type_desc ORDER BY I.index_id; END; The final stored procedure, RunTest, executes a query written against the example table: CREATE PROCEDURE dbo.RunTest @SQL VARCHAR(8000), @Partitioned BIT = 'false' AS BEGIN -- No execution plan yet SET STATISTICS XML OFF ; -- Reset the test environment EXECUTE dbo.ResetTest @Partitioned ; -- Previous call will throw an error if a partitioned -- test was requested, but SKU does not support it IF @@ERROR = 0 BEGIN -- IO statistics and plan on SET STATISTICS XML, IO ON ; -- Test statement EXECUTE (@SQL) ; -- Plan and IO statistics off SET STATISTICS XML, IO OFF ; EXECUTE dbo.ShowStats @Partitioned; END; END; The Tests The first test is a simple scan of the heap table: EXECUTE dbo.RunTest @SQL = 'SELECT * FROM Example'; The top result set comes from the Index Usage Stats DMV, so it is the Query Executor’s (QE) view.  The lower result is from Index Operational Stats, which shows statistics derived from the actions taken by the Storage Engine (SE).  We see that QE performed 1 scan operation on the heap, and SE performed a single range scan.  Let’s try a single-value equality seek on a unique index next: EXECUTE dbo.RunTest @SQL = 'SELECT key_col FROM Example WHERE key_col = 32'; This time we see a single seek on the non-clustered primary key from QE, and one singleton lookup on the same index by the SE.  Now for a single-value seek on the non-unique non-clustered index: EXECUTE dbo.RunTest @SQL = 'SELECT data FROM Example WHERE data = 32'; QE shows a single seek on the non-clustered non-unique index, but SE shows a single range scan on that index – not the singleton lookup we saw in the previous test.  That makes sense because we know that only a single-value seek into a unique index is a singleton seek.  A single-value seek into a non-unique index might retrieve any number of rows, if you think about it.  The next query is equivalent to the IN list example seen in the first post in this series, but it is written using OR (just for variety, you understand): EXECUTE dbo.RunTest @SQL = 'SELECT data FROM Example WHERE data = 32 OR data = 33'; The plan looks the same, and there’s no difference in the stats recorded by QE, but the SE shows two range scans.  Again, these are range scans because we are looking for two values in the data column, which is covered by a non-unique index.  I’ve added a snippet from the Properties window to show that the query plan does show two seek predicates, not just one.  Now let’s rewrite the query using BETWEEN: EXECUTE dbo.RunTest @SQL = 'SELECT data FROM Example WHERE data BETWEEN 32 AND 33'; Notice the seek operator only has one predicate now – it’s just a single range scan from 32 to 33 in the index – as the SE output shows.  For the next test, we will look up four values in the key_col column: EXECUTE dbo.RunTest @SQL = 'SELECT key_col FROM Example WHERE key_col IN (2,4,6,8)'; Just a single seek on the PK from the Query Executor, but four singleton lookups reported by the Storage Engine – and four seek predicates in the Properties window.  On to a more complex example: EXECUTE dbo.RunTest @SQL = 'SELECT * FROM Example WITH (INDEX([PK dbo.Example key_col])) WHERE key_col BETWEEN 1 AND 8'; This time we are forcing use of the non-clustered primary key to return eight rows.  The index is not covering for this query, so the query plan includes an RID lookup into the heap to fetch the data and padding columns.  The QE reports a seek on the PK and a lookup on the heap.  The SE reports a single range scan on the PK (to find key_col values between 1 and 8), and eight singleton lookups on the heap.  Remember that a bookmark lookup (RID or Key) is a seek to a single value in a ‘unique index’ – it finds a row in the heap or cluster from a unique RID or clustering key – so that’s why lookups are always singleton lookups, not range scans. Our next example shows what happens when a query plan operator is not executed at all: EXECUTE dbo.RunTest @SQL = 'SELECT key_col FROM Example WHERE key_col = 8 AND @@TRANCOUNT < 0'; The Filter has a start-up predicate which is always false (if your @@TRANCOUNT is less than zero, call CSS immediately).  The index seek is never executed, but QE still records a single seek against the PK because the operator appears once in an executed plan.  The SE output shows no activity at all.  This next example is 2008 and above only, I’m afraid: EXECUTE dbo.RunTest @SQL = 'SELECT * FROM Example WHERE key_col BETWEEN 1 AND 30', @Partitioned = 'true'; This is the first example to use a partitioned table.  QE reports a single seek on the heap (yes – a seek on a heap), and the SE reports two range scans on the heap.  SQL Server knows (from the partitioning definition) that it only needs to look at partitions 1 and 2 to find all the rows where key_col is between 1 and 30 – the engine seeks to find the two partitions, and performs a range scan seek on each partition. The final example for today is another seek on a heap – try to work out the output of the query before running it! EXECUTE dbo.RunTest @SQL = 'SELECT TOP (2) WITH TIES * FROM Example WHERE key_col BETWEEN 1 AND 50 ORDER BY $PARTITION.PF(key_col) DESC', @Partitioned = 'true'; Notice the lack of an explicit Sort operator in the query plan to enforce the ORDER BY clause, and the backward range scan. © 2011 Paul White email: [email protected] twitter: @SQL_Kiwi

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  • Calculating the Size (in Bytes and MB) of a Oracle Coherence Cache

    - by Ricardo Ferreira
    The concept and usage of data grids are becoming very popular in this days since this type of technology are evolving very fast with some cool lead products like Oracle Coherence. Once for a while, developers need an programmatic way to calculate the total size of a specific cache that are residing in the data grid. In this post, I will show how to accomplish this using Oracle Coherence API. This example has been tested with 3.6, 3.7 and 3.7.1 versions of Oracle Coherence. To start the development of this example, you need to create a POJO ("Plain Old Java Object") that represents a data structure that will hold user data. This data structure will also create an internal fat so I call that should increase considerably the size of each instance in the heap memory. Create a Java class named "Person" as shown in the listing below. package com.oracle.coherence.domain; import java.io.Serializable; import java.util.ArrayList; import java.util.HashMap; import java.util.List; import java.util.Random; @SuppressWarnings("serial") public class Person implements Serializable { private String firstName; private String lastName; private List<Object> fat; private String email; public Person() { generateFat(); } public Person(String firstName, String lastName, String email) { setFirstName(firstName); setLastName(lastName); setEmail(email); generateFat(); } private void generateFat() { fat = new ArrayList<Object>(); Random random = new Random(); for (int i = 0; i < random.nextInt(18000); i++) { HashMap<Long, Double> internalFat = new HashMap<Long, Double>(); for (int j = 0; j < random.nextInt(10000); j++) { internalFat.put(random.nextLong(), random.nextDouble()); } fat.add(internalFat); } } public String getFirstName() { return firstName; } public void setFirstName(String firstName) { this.firstName = firstName; } public String getLastName() { return lastName; } public void setLastName(String lastName) { this.lastName = lastName; } public String getEmail() { return email; } public void setEmail(String email) { this.email = email; } } Now let's create a Java program that will start a data grid into Coherence and will create a cache named "People", that will hold people instances with sequential integer keys. Each person created in this program will trigger the execution of a custom constructor created in the People class that instantiates an internal fat (the random amount of data generated to increase the size of the object) for each person. Create a Java class named "CreatePeopleCacheAndPopulateWithData" as shown in the listing below. package com.oracle.coherence.demo; import com.oracle.coherence.domain.Person; import com.tangosol.net.CacheFactory; import com.tangosol.net.NamedCache; public class CreatePeopleCacheAndPopulateWithData { public static void main(String[] args) { // Asks Coherence for a new cache named "People"... NamedCache people = CacheFactory.getCache("People"); // Creates three people that will be putted into the data grid. Each person // generates an internal fat that should increase its size in terms of bytes... Person pessoa1 = new Person("Ricardo", "Ferreira", "[email protected]"); Person pessoa2 = new Person("Vitor", "Ferreira", "[email protected]"); Person pessoa3 = new Person("Vivian", "Ferreira", "[email protected]"); // Insert three people at the data grid... people.put(1, pessoa1); people.put(2, pessoa2); people.put(3, pessoa3); // Waits for 5 minutes until the user runs the Java program // that calculates the total size of the people cache... try { System.out.println("---> Waiting for 5 minutes for the cache size calculation..."); Thread.sleep(300000); } catch (InterruptedException ie) { ie.printStackTrace(); } } } Finally, let's create a Java program that, using the Coherence API and JMX, will calculate the total size of each cache that the data grid is currently managing. The approach used in this example was retrieve every cache that the data grid are currently managing, but if you are interested on an specific cache, the same approach can be used, you should only filter witch cache will be looked for. Create a Java class named "CalculateTheSizeOfPeopleCache" as shown in the listing below. package com.oracle.coherence.demo; import java.text.DecimalFormat; import java.util.Map; import java.util.Set; import java.util.TreeMap; import javax.management.MBeanServer; import javax.management.MBeanServerFactory; import javax.management.ObjectName; import com.tangosol.net.CacheFactory; public class CalculateTheSizeOfPeopleCache { @SuppressWarnings({ "unchecked", "rawtypes" }) private void run() throws Exception { // Enable JMX support in this Coherence data grid session... System.setProperty("tangosol.coherence.management", "all"); // Create a sample cache just to access the data grid... CacheFactory.getCache(MBeanServerFactory.class.getName()); // Gets the JMX server from Coherence data grid... MBeanServer jmxServer = getJMXServer(); // Creates a internal data structure that would maintain // the statistics from each cache in the data grid... Map cacheList = new TreeMap(); Set jmxObjectList = jmxServer.queryNames(new ObjectName("Coherence:type=Cache,*"), null); for (Object jmxObject : jmxObjectList) { ObjectName jmxObjectName = (ObjectName) jmxObject; String cacheName = jmxObjectName.getKeyProperty("name"); if (cacheName.equals(MBeanServerFactory.class.getName())) { continue; } else { cacheList.put(cacheName, new Statistics(cacheName)); } } // Updates the internal data structure with statistic data // retrieved from caches inside the in-memory data grid... Set<String> cacheNames = cacheList.keySet(); for (String cacheName : cacheNames) { Set resultSet = jmxServer.queryNames( new ObjectName("Coherence:type=Cache,name=" + cacheName + ",*"), null); for (Object resultSetRef : resultSet) { ObjectName objectName = (ObjectName) resultSetRef; if (objectName.getKeyProperty("tier").equals("back")) { int unit = (Integer) jmxServer.getAttribute(objectName, "Units"); int size = (Integer) jmxServer.getAttribute(objectName, "Size"); Statistics statistics = (Statistics) cacheList.get(cacheName); statistics.incrementUnit(unit); statistics.incrementSize(size); cacheList.put(cacheName, statistics); } } } // Finally... print the objects from the internal data // structure that represents the statistics from caches... cacheNames = cacheList.keySet(); for (String cacheName : cacheNames) { Statistics estatisticas = (Statistics) cacheList.get(cacheName); System.out.println(estatisticas); } } public MBeanServer getJMXServer() { MBeanServer jmxServer = null; for (Object jmxServerRef : MBeanServerFactory.findMBeanServer(null)) { jmxServer = (MBeanServer) jmxServerRef; if (jmxServer.getDefaultDomain().equals(DEFAULT_DOMAIN) || DEFAULT_DOMAIN.length() == 0) { break; } jmxServer = null; } if (jmxServer == null) { jmxServer = MBeanServerFactory.createMBeanServer(DEFAULT_DOMAIN); } return jmxServer; } private class Statistics { private long unit; private long size; private String cacheName; public Statistics(String cacheName) { this.cacheName = cacheName; } public void incrementUnit(long unit) { this.unit += unit; } public void incrementSize(long size) { this.size += size; } public long getUnit() { return unit; } public long getSize() { return size; } public double getUnitInMB() { return unit / (1024.0 * 1024.0); } public double getAverageSize() { return size == 0 ? 0 : unit / size; } public String toString() { StringBuffer sb = new StringBuffer(); sb.append("\nCache Statistics of '").append(cacheName).append("':\n"); sb.append(" - Total Entries of Cache -----> " + getSize()).append("\n"); sb.append(" - Used Memory (Bytes) --------> " + getUnit()).append("\n"); sb.append(" - Used Memory (MB) -----------> " + FORMAT.format(getUnitInMB())).append("\n"); sb.append(" - Object Average Size --------> " + FORMAT.format(getAverageSize())).append("\n"); return sb.toString(); } } public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception { new CalculateTheSizeOfPeopleCache().run(); } public static final DecimalFormat FORMAT = new DecimalFormat("###.###"); public static final String DEFAULT_DOMAIN = ""; public static final String DOMAIN_NAME = "Coherence"; } I've commented the overall example so, I don't think that you should get into trouble to understand it. Basically we are dealing with JMX. The first thing to do is enable JMX support for the Coherence client (ie, an JVM that will only retrieve values from the data grid and will not integrate the cluster) application. This can be done very easily using the runtime "tangosol.coherence.management" system property. Consult the Coherence documentation for JMX to understand the possible values that could be applied. The program creates an in memory data structure that holds a custom class created called "Statistics". This class represents the information that we are interested to see, which in this case are the size in bytes and in MB of the caches. An instance of this class is created for each cache that are currently managed by the data grid. Using JMX specific methods, we retrieve the information that are relevant for calculate the total size of the caches. To test this example, you should execute first the CreatePeopleCacheAndPopulateWithData.java program and after the CreatePeopleCacheAndPopulateWithData.java program. The results in the console should be something like this: 2012-06-23 13:29:31.188/4.970 Oracle Coherence 3.6.0.4 <Info> (thread=Main Thread, member=n/a): Loaded operational configuration from "jar:file:/E:/Oracle/Middleware/oepe_11gR1PS4/workspace/calcular-tamanho-cache-coherence/lib/coherence.jar!/tangosol-coherence.xml" 2012-06-23 13:29:31.219/5.001 Oracle Coherence 3.6.0.4 <Info> (thread=Main Thread, member=n/a): Loaded operational overrides from "jar:file:/E:/Oracle/Middleware/oepe_11gR1PS4/workspace/calcular-tamanho-cache-coherence/lib/coherence.jar!/tangosol-coherence-override-dev.xml" 2012-06-23 13:29:31.219/5.001 Oracle Coherence 3.6.0.4 <D5> (thread=Main Thread, member=n/a): Optional configuration override "/tangosol-coherence-override.xml" is not specified 2012-06-23 13:29:31.266/5.048 Oracle Coherence 3.6.0.4 <D5> (thread=Main Thread, member=n/a): Optional configuration override "/custom-mbeans.xml" is not specified Oracle Coherence Version 3.6.0.4 Build 19111 Grid Edition: Development mode Copyright (c) 2000, 2010, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. 2012-06-23 13:29:33.156/6.938 Oracle Coherence GE 3.6.0.4 <Info> (thread=Main Thread, member=n/a): Loaded Reporter configuration from "jar:file:/E:/Oracle/Middleware/oepe_11gR1PS4/workspace/calcular-tamanho-cache-coherence/lib/coherence.jar!/reports/report-group.xml" 2012-06-23 13:29:33.500/7.282 Oracle Coherence GE 3.6.0.4 <Info> (thread=Main Thread, member=n/a): Loaded cache configuration from "jar:file:/E:/Oracle/Middleware/oepe_11gR1PS4/workspace/calcular-tamanho-cache-coherence/lib/coherence.jar!/coherence-cache-config.xml" 2012-06-23 13:29:35.391/9.173 Oracle Coherence GE 3.6.0.4 <D4> (thread=Main Thread, member=n/a): TCMP bound to /192.168.177.133:8090 using SystemSocketProvider 2012-06-23 13:29:37.062/10.844 Oracle Coherence GE 3.6.0.4 <Info> (thread=Cluster, member=n/a): This Member(Id=2, Timestamp=2012-06-23 13:29:36.899, Address=192.168.177.133:8090, MachineId=55685, Location=process:244, Role=Oracle, Edition=Grid Edition, Mode=Development, CpuCount=2, SocketCount=2) joined cluster "cluster:0xC4DB" with senior Member(Id=1, Timestamp=2012-06-23 13:29:14.031, Address=192.168.177.133:8088, MachineId=55685, Location=process:1128, Role=CreatePeopleCacheAndPopulateWith, Edition=Grid Edition, Mode=Development, CpuCount=2, SocketCount=2) 2012-06-23 13:29:37.172/10.954 Oracle Coherence GE 3.6.0.4 <D5> (thread=Cluster, member=n/a): Member 1 joined Service Cluster with senior member 1 2012-06-23 13:29:37.188/10.970 Oracle Coherence GE 3.6.0.4 <D5> (thread=Cluster, member=n/a): Member 1 joined Service Management with senior member 1 2012-06-23 13:29:37.188/10.970 Oracle Coherence GE 3.6.0.4 <D5> (thread=Cluster, member=n/a): Member 1 joined Service DistributedCache with senior member 1 2012-06-23 13:29:37.188/10.970 Oracle Coherence GE 3.6.0.4 <Info> (thread=Main Thread, member=n/a): Started cluster Name=cluster:0xC4DB Group{Address=224.3.6.0, Port=36000, TTL=4} MasterMemberSet ( ThisMember=Member(Id=2, Timestamp=2012-06-23 13:29:36.899, Address=192.168.177.133:8090, MachineId=55685, Location=process:244, Role=Oracle) OldestMember=Member(Id=1, Timestamp=2012-06-23 13:29:14.031, Address=192.168.177.133:8088, MachineId=55685, Location=process:1128, Role=CreatePeopleCacheAndPopulateWith) ActualMemberSet=MemberSet(Size=2, BitSetCount=2 Member(Id=1, Timestamp=2012-06-23 13:29:14.031, Address=192.168.177.133:8088, MachineId=55685, Location=process:1128, Role=CreatePeopleCacheAndPopulateWith) Member(Id=2, Timestamp=2012-06-23 13:29:36.899, Address=192.168.177.133:8090, MachineId=55685, Location=process:244, Role=Oracle) ) RecycleMillis=1200000 RecycleSet=MemberSet(Size=0, BitSetCount=0 ) ) TcpRing{Connections=[1]} IpMonitor{AddressListSize=0} 2012-06-23 13:29:37.891/11.673 Oracle Coherence GE 3.6.0.4 <D5> (thread=Invocation:Management, member=2): Service Management joined the cluster with senior service member 1 2012-06-23 13:29:39.203/12.985 Oracle Coherence GE 3.6.0.4 <D5> (thread=DistributedCache, member=2): Service DistributedCache joined the cluster with senior service member 1 2012-06-23 13:29:39.297/13.079 Oracle Coherence GE 3.6.0.4 <D4> (thread=DistributedCache, member=2): Asking member 1 for 128 primary partitions Cache Statistics of 'People': - Total Entries of Cache -----> 3 - Used Memory (Bytes) --------> 883920 - Used Memory (MB) -----------> 0.843 - Object Average Size --------> 294640 I hope that this post could save you some time when calculate the total size of Coherence cache became a requirement for your high scalable system using data grids. See you!

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  • Tweak Conky Layout via a script

    - by begtognen
    I'm using a script in Conky in order to display my new gmail on my desktop. It works beautifully, but is kind of ugly, and I'm not sure how to fix it. What I've currently got looks like this: And what I'd like is this: Any ideas for how to make that happen are much appreciated. Here's the script I'm currently using (I think I've snipped out the correct part, if I haven't please let me know.) #!/usr/bin/perl use Switch; use Text::Wrap; my $what=$ARGV[0]; $user="username"; #username for gmail account $pass="password"; #password for gmail account $file="/tmp/gmail.html"; #temporary file to store gmail #wrap format for subject $Text::Wrap::columns=65; #Number of columns to wrap subject at $initial_tab=""; #Tab for first line of subject $subsequent_tab="\t"; #tab for wrapped lines $quote="\""; #put quotes around subject #limit the number of emails to be displayed $emails=-1; #if -1 display all emails &passwd; #give password the proper url character encoding switch($what){ #determine what the user wants case "n" {&gmail; print "$new\n";} #print number of new emails case "s" { #print $from and $subj for new email &gmail; if ($new0){ my $size=@from; if ($emails!=-1 && $size$emails){$size=$emails;} #limit number of emails displayed for(my $i=0; $i$emails){print "$emails out of $size new emails displayed\n";} } } case "e" { #print number of new emails, $from, and $subj &gmail; if($new==0){print "You have no new emails.\n";} else{ print "You have $new new email(s).\n"; my $size=@from; if ($emails!=-1 && $size$emails){$size=$emails;} #limit number of emails displayed for(my $i=0; $i$emails){print "$emails out of $size new emails displayed\n";} } } else { print "Usage Error: gmail.pl \n"; print "\tn displays number of new emails\n"; print "\ts displays from line and subject line for each new email.\n"; print "\te displays the number of new emails and from line plus \n"; print "\t\tsubject line for each new email.\n"; } #didn't give proper option } sub gmail{ if(!(-e $file)){ #create file if it does not exists `touch $file`; } #get new emails `wget -O - https://$user:$pass\@mail.google.com/mail/feed/atom --no-check-certificate $file`; open(IN, $file); #open $file my $i=0; #initialize count $new=0; #initialize new emails to 0 my $flag=0; while(){ #cycle through $file if(//){$flag=1;} elsif(/(\d+)/){$new=$1;} #grab number of new emails elsif($flag==1){ if(/.+/){push(@subj, &msg);} #grab new email titles elsif(/(.+)/){push(@from, $1); $flag=0;} #grab new email from lines } } close(IN); #close $file } sub passwd{ #change to url escape codes in password #URL ESCAPE CODES $_=$pass; s/\%/\%25/g; s/\#/\%23/g; s/\$/\%24/g; s/\&/\%26/g; s/\//\%2F/g; s/\:/\%3A/g; s/\;/\%3B/g; s/\/\%3E/g; s/\?/\%3F/g; s/\@/\%40/g; s/\[/\%5B/g; s/\\/\%5C/g; s/\]/\%5D/g; s/\^/\%5E/g; s/\`/\%60/g; s/\{/\%7B/g; s/\|/\%7C/g; s/\}/\%7D/g; s/\~/\%7E/g; $pass=$_; } sub msg{ #THE HTML CODED CHARACTER SET [ISO-8859-1] chomp; s/(.+)/$1/; #get just the subject #now replace any special characters s/\&\#33\;/!/g; #Exclamation mark s/\&\#34\;/"/g; s/\"\;/"/g; #Quotation mark s/\&\#35\;/#/g; #Number sign s/\&\#36\;/\$/g; #Dollar sign s/\&\#37\;/%/g; #Percent sign s/\&\#38\;/&/g; s/\&\;/&/g; #Ampersand s/\&\#39\;/'/g; #Apostrophe s/\&\#40\;/(/g; #Left parenthesis s/\&\#41\;/)/g; #Right parenthesis s/\&\#42\;/*/g; #Asterisk s/\&\#43\;/+/g; #Plus sign s/\&\#44\;/,/g; #Comma s/\&\#45\;/-/g; #Hyphen s/\&\#46\;/./g; #Period (fullstop) s/\&\#47\;/\//g; #Solidus (slash) s/\&\#58\;/:/g; #Colon s/\&\#59\;/\;/g; #Semi-colon s/\&\#60\;//g; s/\>\;//g; #Greater than s/\&\#63\;/\?/g; #Question mark s/\&\#64\;/\@/g; #Commercial at s/\&\#91\;/\[/g; #Left square bracket s/\&\#92\;/\\/g; #Reverse solidus (backslash) s/\&\#93\;/\]/g; #Right square bracket s/\&\#94\;/\^/g; #Caret s/\&\#95\;/_/g; #Horizontal bar (underscore) s/\&\#96\;/\`/g; #Acute accent s/\&\#123\;/\{/g; #Left curly brace s/\&\#124\;/|/g; #Vertical bar s/\&\#125\;/\}/g; #Right curly brace s/\&\#126\;/~/g; #Tilde s/\&\#161\;/¡/g; #Inverted exclamation s/\&\#162\;/¢/g; #Cent sign s/\&\#163\;/£/g; #Pound sterling s/\&\#164\;/¤/g; #General currency sign s/\&\#165\;/¥/g; #Yen sign s/\&\#166\;/¦/g; #Broken vertical bar s/\&\#167\;/§/g; #Section sign s/\&\#168\;/¨/g; #Umlaut (dieresis) s/\&\#169\;/©/g; s/\©\;/©/g; #Copyright s/\&\#170\;/ª/g; #Feminine ordinal s/\&\#171\;/«/g; #Left angle quote, guillemotleft s/\&\#172\;/¬/g; #Not sign s/\&\#174\;/®/g; #Registered trademark s/\&\#175\;/¯/g; #Macron accent s/\&\#176\;/°/g; #Degree sign s/\&\#177\;/±/g; #Plus or minus s/\&\#178\;/²/g; #Superscript two s/\&\#179\;/³/g; #Superscript three s/\&\#180\;/´/g; #Acute accent s/\&\#181\;/µ/g; #Micro sign s/\&\#182\;/¶/g; #Paragraph sign s/\&\#183\;/·/g; #Middle dot s/\&\#184\;/¸/g; #Cedilla s/\&\#185\;/¹/g; #Superscript one s/\&\#186\;/º/g; #Masculine ordinal s/\&\#187\;/»/g; #Right angle quote, guillemotright s/\&\#188\;/¼/g; s/\¼\;/¼/g; # Fraction one-fourth s/\&\#189\;/½/g; s/\½\;/½/g; # Fraction one-half s/\&\#190\;/¾/g; s/\¾\;/¾/g; # Fraction three-fourths s/\&\#191\;/¿/g; #Inverted question mark s/\&\#192\;/À/g; #Capital A, grave accent s/\&\#193\;/Á/g; #Capital A, acute accent s/\&\#194\;/Â/g; #Capital A, circumflex accent s/\&\#195\;/Ã/g; #Capital A, tilde s/\&\#196\;/Ä/g; #Capital A, dieresis or umlaut mark s/\&\#197\;/Å/g; #Capital A, ring s/\&\#198\;/Æ/g; #Capital AE dipthong (ligature) s/\&\#199\;/Ç/g; #Capital C, cedilla s/\&\#200\;/È/g; #Capital E, grave accent s/\&\#201\;/É/g; #Capital E, acute accent s/\&\#202\;/Ê/g; #Capital E, circumflex accent s/\&\#203\;/Ë/g; #Capital E, dieresis or umlaut mark s/\&\#204\;/Ì/g; #Capital I, grave accent s/\&\#205\;/Í/g; #Capital I, acute accent s/\&\#206\;/Î/g; #Capital I, circumflex accent s/\&\#207\;/Ï/g; #Capital I, dieresis or umlaut mark s/\&\#208\;/Ð/g; #Capital Eth, Icelandic s/\&\#209\;/Ñ/g; #Capital N, tilde s/\&\#210\;/Ò/g; #Capital O, grave accent s/\&\#211\;/Ó/g; #Capital O, acute accent s/\&\#212\;/Ô/g; #Capital O, circumflex accent s/\&\#213\;/Õ/g; #Capital O, tilde s/\&\#214\;/Ö/g; #Capital O, dieresis or umlaut mark s/\&\#215\;/×/g; #Multiply sign s/\&\#216\;/Ø/g; #Capital O, slash s/\&\#217\;/Ù/g; #Capital U, grave accent s/\&\#218\;/Ú/g; #Capital U, acute accent s/\&\#219\;/Û/g; #Capital U, circumflex accent s/\&\#220\;/Ü/g; #Capital U, dieresis or umlaut mark s/\&\#221\;/Ý/g; #Capital Y, acute accent s/\&\#222\;/Þ/g; #Capital THORN, Icelandic s/\&\#223\;/ß/g; #Small sharp s, German (sz ligature) s/\&\#224\;/à/g; #Small a, grave accent s/\&\#225\;/á/g; #Small a, acute accent s/\&\#226\;/â/g; #Small a, circumflex accent s/\&\#227\;/ã/g; #Small a, tilde s/\&\#228\;/ä/g; #Small a, dieresis or umlaut mark s/\&\#229\;/å/g; #Small a, ring s/\&\#230\;/æ/g; #Small ae dipthong (ligature) s/\&\#231\;/ç/g; #Small c, cedilla s/\&\#232\;/è/g; #Small e, grave accent s/\&\#233\;/é/g; #Small e, acute accent s/\&\#234\;/ê/g; #Small e, circumflex accent s/\&\#235\;/ë/g; #Small e, dieresis or umlaut mark s/\&\#236\;/ì/g; #Small i, grave accent s/\&\#237\;/í/g; #Small i, acute accent s/\&\#238\;/î/g; #Small i, circumflex accent s/\&\#239\;/ï/g; #Small i, dieresis or umlaut mark s/\&\#240\;/ð/g; #Small eth, Icelandic s/\&\#241\;/ñ/g; #Small n, tilde s/\&\#242\;/ò/g; #Small o, grave accent s/\&\#243\;/ó/g; #Small o, acute accent s/\&\#244\;/ô/g; #Small o, circumflex accent s/\&\#245\;/õ/g; #Small o, tilde s/\&\#246\;/ö/g; #Small o, dieresis or umlaut mark s/\&\#247\;/÷/g; #Division sign s/\&\#248\;/ø/g; #Small o, slash s/\&\#249\;/ù/g; #Small u, grave accent s/\&\#250\;/ú/g; #Small u, acute accent s/\&\#251\;/û/g; #Small u, circumflex accent s/\&\#252\;/ü/g; #Small u, dieresis or umlaut mark s/\&\#253\;/ý/g; #Small y, acute accent s/\&\#254\;/þ/g; #Small thorn, Icelandic s/\&\#255\;/ÿ/g; #Small y, dieresis or umlaut mark s/^\s+//; return $_; }

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  • DevConnections Session Slides, Samples and Links

    - by Rick Strahl
    Finally coming up for air this week, after catching up with being on the road for the better part of three weeks. Here are my slides, samples and links for my four DevConnections Session two weeks ago in Vegas. I ended up doing one extra un-prepared for session on WebAPI and AJAX, as some of the speakers were either delayed or unable to make it at all to Vegas due to Sandy's mayhem. It was pretty hectic in the speaker room as Erik (our event coordinator extrodinaire) was scrambling to fill session slots with speakers :-). Surprisingly it didn't feel like the storm affected attendance drastically though, but I guess it's hard to tell without actual numbers. The conference was a lot of fun - it's been a while since I've been speaking at one of these larger conferences. I'd been taking a hiatus, and I forgot how much I enjoy actually giving talks. Preparing - well not  quite so much, especially since I ended up essentially preparing or completely rewriting for all three of these talks and I was stressing out a bit as I was sick the week before the conference and didn't get as much time to prepare as I wanted to. But - as always seems to be the case - it all worked out, but I guess those that attended have to be the judge of that… It was great to catch up with my speaker friends as well - man I feel out of touch. I got to spend a bunch of time with Dan Wahlin, Ward Bell, Julie Lerman and for about 10 minutes even got to catch up with the ever so busy Michele Bustamante. Lots of great technical discussions including a fun and heated REST controversy with Ward and Howard Dierking. There were also a number of great discussions with attendees, describing how they're using the technologies touched in my talks in live applications. I got some great ideas from some of these and I wish there would have been more opportunities for these kinds of discussions. One thing I miss at these Vegas events though is some sort of coherent event where attendees and speakers get to mingle. These Vegas conferences are just like "go to sessions, then go out and PARTY on the town" - it's Vegas after all! But I think that it's always nice to have at least one evening event where everybody gets to hang out together and trade stories and geek talk. Overall there didn't seem to be much opportunity for that beyond lunch or the small and short exhibit hall events which it seemed not many people actually went to. Anyways, a good time was had. I hope those of you that came to my sessions learned something useful. There were lots of great questions and discussions after the sessions - always appreciate hearing the real life scenarios that people deal with in relation to the abstracted scenarios in sessions. Here are the Session abstracts, a few comments and the links for downloading slides and  samples. It's not quite like being there, but I hope this stuff turns out to be useful to some of you. I'll be following up a couple of these sessions with white papers in the following weeks. Enjoy. ASP.NET Architecture: How ASP.NET Works at the Low Level Abstract:Interested in how ASP.NET works at a low level? ASP.NET is extremely powerful and flexible technology, but it's easy to forget about the core framework that underlies the higher level technologies like ASP.NET MVC, WebForms, WebPages, Web Services that we deal with on a day to day basis. The ASP.NET core drives all the higher level handlers and frameworks layered on top of it and with the core power comes some complexity in the form of a very rich object model that controls the flow of a request through the ASP.NET pipeline from Windows HTTP services down to the application level. To take full advantage of it, it helps to understand the underlying architecture and model. This session discusses the architecture of ASP.NET along with a number of useful tidbits that you can use for building and debugging your ASP.NET applications more efficiently. We look at overall architecture, how requests flow from the IIS (7 and later) Web Server to the ASP.NET runtime into HTTP handlers, modules and filters and finally into high-level handlers like MVC, Web Forms or Web API. Focus of this session is on the low-level aspects on the ASP.NET runtime, with examples that demonstrate the bootstrapping of ASP.NET, threading models, how Application Domains are used, startup bootstrapping, how configuration files are applied and how all of this relates to the applications you write either using low-level tools like HTTP handlers and modules or high-level pages or services sitting at the top of the ASP.NET runtime processing chain. Comments:I was surprised to see so many people show up for this session - especially since it was the last session on the last day and a short 1 hour session to boot. The room was packed and it was to see so many people interested the abstracts of architecture of ASP.NET beyond the immediate high level application needs. Lots of great questions in this talk as well - I only wish this session would have been the full hour 15 minutes as we just a little short of getting through the main material (didn't make it to Filters and Error handling). I haven't done this session in a long time and I had to pretty much re-figure all the system internals having to do with the ASP.NET bootstrapping in light for the changes that came with IIS 7 and later. The last time I did this talk was with IIS6, I guess it's been a while. I love doing this session, mainly because in my mind the core of ASP.NET overall is so cleanly designed to provide maximum flexibility without compromising performance that has clearly stood the test of time in the 10 years or so that .NET has been around. While there are a lot of moving parts, the technology is easy to manage once you understand the core components and the core model hasn't changed much even while the underlying architecture that drives has been almost completely revamped especially with the introduction of IIS 7 and later. Download Samples and Slides   Introduction to using jQuery with ASP.NET Abstract:In this session you'll learn how to take advantage of jQuery in your ASP.NET applications. Starting with an overview of jQuery client features via many short and fun examples, you'll find out about core features like the power of selectors for document element selection, manipulating these elements with jQuery's wrapped set methods in a browser independent way, how to hook up and handle events easily and generally apply concepts of unobtrusive JavaScript principles to client scripting. The second half of the session then delves into jQuery's AJAX features and several different ways how you can interact with ASP.NET on the server. You'll see examples of using ASP.NET MVC for serving HTML and JSON AJAX content, as well as using the new ASP.NET Web API to serve JSON and hypermedia content. You'll also see examples of client side templating/databinding with Handlebars and Knockout. Comments:This session was in a monster of a room and to my surprise it was nearly packed, given that this was a 100 level session. I can see that it's a good idea to continue to do intro sessions to jQuery as there appeared to be quite a number of folks who had not worked much with jQuery yet and who most likely could greatly benefit from using it. Seemed seemed to me the session got more than a few people excited to going if they hadn't yet :-).  Anyway I just love doing this session because it's mostly live coding and highly interactive - not many sessions that I can build things up from scratch and iterate on in an hour. jQuery makes that easy though. Resources: Slides and Code Samples Introduction to jQuery White Paper Introduction to ASP.NET Web API   Hosting the Razor Scripting Engine in Your Own Applications Abstract:The Razor Engine used in ASP.NET MVC and ASP.NET Web Pages is a free-standing scripting engine that can be disassociated from these Web-specific implementations and can be used in your own applications. Razor allows for a powerful mix of code and text rendering that makes it a wonderful tool for any sort of text generation, from creating HTML output in non-Web applications, to rendering mail merge-like functionality, to code generation for developer tools and even as a plug-in scripting engine. In this session, we'll look at the components that make up the Razor engine and how you can bootstrap it in your own applications to hook up templating. You'll find out how to create custom templates and manage Razor requests that can be pre-compiled, detecting page changes and act in ways similar to a full runtime. We look at ways that you can pass data into the engine and retrieve both the rendered output as well as result values in a package that makes it easy to plug Razor into your own applications. Comments:That this session was picked was a bit of a surprise to me, since it's a bit of a niche topic. Even more of a surprise was that during the session quite a few people who attended had actually used Razor externally and were there to find out more about how the process works and how to extend it. In the session I talk a bit about a custom Razor hosting implementation (Westwind.RazorHosting) and drilled into the various components required to build a custom Razor Hosting engine and a runtime around it. This sessions was a bit of a chore to prepare for as there are lots of technical implementation details that needed to be dealt with and squeezing that into an hour 15 is a bit tight (and that aren't addressed even by some of the wrapper libraries that exist). Found out though that there's quite a bit of interest in using a templating engine outside of web applications, or often side by side with the HTML output generated by frameworks like MVC or WebForms. An extra fun part of this session was that this was my first session and when I went to set up I realized I forgot my mini-DVI to VGA adapter cable to plug into the projector in my room - 6 minutes before the session was about to start. So I ended up sprinting the half a mile + back to my room - and back at a full sprint. I managed to be back only a couple of minutes late, but when I started I was out of breath for the first 10 minutes or so, while trying to talk. Musta sounded a bit funny as I was trying to not gasp too much :-) Resources: Slides and Code Samples Westwind.RazorHosting GitHub Project Original RazorHosting Blog Post   Introduction to ASP.NET Web API for AJAX Applications Abstract:WebAPI provides a new framework for creating REST based APIs, but it can also act as a backend to typical AJAX operations. This session covers the core features of Web API as it relates to typical AJAX application development. We’ll cover content-negotiation, routing and a variety of output generation options as well as managing data updates from the client in the context of a small Single Page Application style Web app. Finally we’ll look at some of the extensibility features in WebAPI to customize and extend Web API in a number and useful useful ways. Comments:This session was a fill in for session slots not filled due MIA speakers stranded by Sandy. I had samples from my previous Web API article so decided to go ahead and put together a session from it. Given that I spent only a couple of hours preparing and putting slides together I was glad it turned out as it did - kind of just ran itself by way of the examples I guess as well as nice audience interactions and questions. Lots of interest - and also some confusion about when Web API makes sense. Both this session and the jQuery session ended up getting a ton of questions about when to use Web API vs. MVC, whether it would make sense to switch to Web API for all AJAX backend work etc. In my opinion there's no need to jump to Web API for existing applications that already have a good AJAX foundation. Web API is awesome for real externally consumed APIs and clearly defined application AJAX APIs. For typical application level AJAX calls, it's still a good idea, but ASP.NET MVC can serve most if not all of that functionality just as well. There's no need to abandon MVC (or even ASP.NET AJAX or third party AJAX backends) just to move to Web API. For new projects Web API probably makes good sense for isolation of AJAX calls, but it really depends on how the application is set up. In some cases sharing business logic between the HTML and AJAX interfaces with a single MVC API can be cleaner than creating two completely separate code paths to serve essentially the same business logic. Resources: Slides and Code Samples Sample Code on GitHub Introduction to ASP.NET Web API White Paper© Rick Strahl, West Wind Technologies, 2005-2012Posted in Conferences  ASP.NET   Tweet !function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js";fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document,"script","twitter-wjs"); (function() { var po = document.createElement('script'); po.type = 'text/javascript'; po.async = true; po.src = 'https://apis.google.com/js/plusone.js'; var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(po, s); })();

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  • CodePlex Daily Summary for Saturday, November 20, 2010

    CodePlex Daily Summary for Saturday, November 20, 2010Popular ReleasesMiniTwitter: 1.59: MiniTwitter 1.59 ???? ?? User Streams ????????????????? ?? ?????????????? ???????? ?????????????Home Access Plus+: v5.4.4: Version 5.4.4Change Log: Added logic to the My Computer Browsers to allow for users with no home directories (set in ad anyhow) Renamed the My School Computer Enhanced page to My School Computer Extended Edition File Changes: ~/bin/hap.web.dll ~/mycomputersl.aspxWatchersNET.SiteMap: WatchersNET.SiteMap 01.03.01: Whats NewNew Setting for the Skin Object <param name="InclusionTabs" value="10,20,40" /> - Specify the Tab Id of the Tab(s) you want to Include the SiteMap. Separated by Comma changes Code Cleanup.NET Extensions - Extension Methods Library for C# and VB.NET: Release 2011.01: Added new extensions for - object.CountLoopsToNull Added new extensions for DateTime: - DateTime.IsWeekend - DateTime.AddWeeks Added new extensions for string: - string.Repeat - string.IsNumeric - string.ExtractDigits - string.ConcatWith - string.ToGuid - string.ToGuidSave Added new extensions for Exception: - Exception.GetOriginalException Added new extensions for Stream: - Stream.Write (overload) And other new methods ... Release as of dotnetpro 01/2011Code Sample from Microsoft: Visual Studio 2010 Code Samples 2010-11-19: Code samples for Visual Studio 2010Prism Training Kit: Prism Training Kit 4.0: Release NotesThis is an updated version of the Prism training Kit that targets Prism 4.0 and added labs for some of the new features of Prism 4.0. This release consists of a Training Kit with Labs on the following topics Modularity Dependency Injection Bootstrapper UI Composition Communication MEF Navigation Note: Take into account that this is a Beta version. If you find any bugs please report them in the Issue Tracker PrerequisitesVisual Studio 2010 Microsoft Word 2...Free language translator and file converter: Free Language Translator 2.2: Starting with version 2.0, the translator encountered a major redesign that uses MEF based plugins and .net 4.0. I've also fixed some bugs and added support for translating subtitles that can show up in video media players. Version 2.1 shows the context menu 'Translate' in Windows Explorer on right click. Version 2.2 has links to start the media file with its associated subtitle. Download the zip file and expand it in a temporary location on your local disk. At a minimum , you should uninstal...Physics Helper for Blend, Silverlight, WP7 and Farseer: PhysicsHelper 4.0.0.1 Beta: This is a beta release of the Physics Helper 4.0 targeting Silverlight 4 and Windows Phone 7 and using the Farseer 3.0 Physics Engine (http://farseerphysics.codeplex.com). The download is an installer which will install the Behaviors into Blend 4's Behaviors list in the Assets Panel. Please see the Home page for details on this releaseLateBindingApi.Excel: LateBindingApi.Excel Release 0.7d: Release+Samples V0.7: - Enthält Laufzeit DLL und Beispielprojekte Beispielprojekte: COMAddinExample - Demonstriert ein versionslos angebundenes COMAddin Example01 - Background Colors und Borders für Cells Example02 - Font Attributes undAlignment für Cells Example03 - Numberformats Example04 - Shapes, WordArts, Pictures, 3D-Effects Example05 - Charts Example06 - Dialoge in Excel Example07 - Einem Workbook VBA Code hinzufügen Example08 - Events Example09 - Eigene Gui Elemente erstellen und Ere...Free Silverlight & WPF Chart Control - Visifire: Visifire SL and WPF Charts v3.6.4 Released: Hi, Today we are releasing Visifire 3.6.4 with few bug fixes: * Multi-line Labels were getting clipped while exploding last DataPoint in Funnel and Pyramid chart. * ClosestPlotDistance property in Axis was not behaving as expected. * In DateTime Axis, Chart threw exception on mouse click over PlotArea if there were no DataPoints present in Chart. * ToolTip was not disappearing while changing the DataSource property of the DataSeries at real-time. * Chart threw exception ...Microsoft SQL Server Product Samples: Database: AdventureWorks 2008R2 SR1: Sample Databases for Microsoft SQL Server 2008R2 (SR1)This release is dedicated to the sample databases that ship for Microsoft SQL Server 2008R2. See Database Prerequisites for SQL Server 2008R2 for feature configurations required for installing the sample databases. See Installing SQL Server 2008R2 Databases for step by step installation instructions. The SR1 release contains minor bug fixes to the installer used to create the sample databases. There are no changes to the databases them...VidCoder: 0.7.2: Fixed duplicated subtitles when running multiple encodes off of the same title.Craig's Utility Library: Craig's Utility Library Code 2.0: This update contains a number of changes, added functionality, and bug fixes: Added transaction support to SQLHelper. Added linked/embedded resource ability to EmailSender. Updated List to take into account new functions. Added better support for MAC address in WMI classes. Fixed Parsing in Reflection class when dealing with sub classes. Fixed bug in SQLHelper when replacing the Command that is a select after doing a select. Fixed issue in SQL Server helper with regard to generati...MFCMAPI: November 2010 Release: Build: 6.0.0.1023 Full release notes at SGriffin's blog. If you just want to run the tool, get the executable. If you want to debug it, get the symbol file and the source. The 64 bit build will only work on a machine with Outlook 2010 64 bit installed. All other machines should use the 32 bit build, regardless of the operating system. Facebook BadgeDotNetNuke® Community Edition: 05.06.00: Major HighlightsAdded automatic portal alias creation for single portal installs Updated the file manager upload page to allow user to upload multiple files without returning to the file manager page. Fixed issue with Event Log Email Notifications. Fixed issue where Telerik HTML Editor was unable to upload files to secure or database folder. Fixed issue where registration page is not set correctly during an upgrade. Fixed issue where Sendmail stripped HTML and Links from emails...mVu Mobile Viewer: mVu Mobile Viewer 0.7.10.0: Tube8 fix.EPPlus-Create advanced Excel 2007 spreadsheets on the server: EPPlus 2.8.0.1: EPPlus-Create advanced Excel 2007 spreadsheets on the serverNew Features Improved chart support Different chart-types series on the same chart Support for secondary axis and a lot of new properties Better styling Encryption and Workbook protection Table support Import csv files Array formulas ...and a lot of bugfixesAutoLoL: AutoLoL v1.4.2: Added support for more clients (French and Russian) Settings are now stored sepperatly for each user on a computer Auto Login is much faster now Auto Login detects and handles caps lock state properly nowTailspinSpyworks - WebForms Sample Application: TailspinSpyworks-v0.9: Contains a number of bug fixes and additional tutorial steps as well as complete database implementation details.ASP.NET MVC Project Awesome (jQuery Ajax helpers): 1.3 and demos: It contains a rich set of helpers (controls) that you can use to build highly responsive and interactive Ajax-enabled Web applications. These helpers include Autocomplete, AjaxDropdown, Lookup, Confirm Dialog, Popup Form and Pager tested on mozilla, safari, chrome, opera, ie 9b/8/7/6 new stuff in 1.3 Autocomplete helper Autocomplete and AjaxDropdown can have parentId and be filled with data depending on the value of the parent PopupForm besides Content("ok") on success can also return J...New ProjectsAccessReporter: This is a project created for CIS601 to display reports based on the Access database extract fro the SAP simulation game.ASP.NET Dynamic Data Layout: Dynamic Data Layout is a library for ASP.NET WebForms that extends the ASP.NET Dynamic Data functionality. It allows you to create complex forms where you can easily define the layout, use tabs, multiple columns, advanced styling etc. And all this without entity templates!Brascomex: Repositório para controle de versão dos dados da Brascomex.Business Advancer: this is a simple web site projectCarrito de Compras: Proyecto de desarrollo de software a gran escalaclinicanet: Descrição em construçãoCrazyBeavers.Geodesy: A library written in C#/.Net 2.0 to transform between geodetic and grid coordinates (using the GauusKreuger algorithm) as well as calculating distances and direction between a set of coordinates.CSTS Work Space: CSTSWSCup of Tea: Project to quickstart work on several platforms.Delete Bin, Obj, Backup directories: This utility deletes bin and obj directories recursively (under a specified root directory). It can also delete psess files and files larger than a specific file size. Single-pass, auto-delete multiple bin, obj, and backup directories. Developer Guidance - Onboarding Windows Phone 7: The Developer Guidance for Windows Phone 7 includes end-to-end application scenarios, code examples, documentation, and best practices.EncryptConfig: EncryptConfig is a simple form application that encrypts app config connection strings for deployment in non-secure environments. EncryptConfig will also decrypt the app config file in case you need to update the connection string information.Graphic MUD: My personal MUD project.lcsunit: Lightweight C# Unit Test Framework. Keep unit testing as simple as possible. Features: * only 1 source file * Assert, AssertEqual support Embed in your code, no XML, no GUI or separate console runnersLightweight Accounting System: Nothing yetLog4Net Demo for Enterprise Applications: Single class which is useful for logging logs into database, file etc. It also sends an emails about the errors. All these can be done using configuration. Very useful to log information in a file and/or in a database within a business class. MapWinGIS ActiveX Map and GIS Component: MapWinGIS.ocx is a C++ based geographic information system programming ActiveX Control and application programmer interface (API) that can be added to a Windows Form in Visual Basic, C#, Delphi, or other languages that support ActiveX, providing your app with a map.nau: nau cmsnewhxbProject: Something about my project.NTypeClasses: This project is an attempt to bring type class feature to .NETPhoto Stream: Need to add it laterSharePoint 2010 Workflow History List: This project hosts a customized version of the Workflow History List for SharePoint 2010. The Description column on this list can handle messages up to 1024 characters.Silverlight Organization Chart: A Silverlight organization ChartSlovníkár: Cílem projektu je vytvorit aplikaci pro PC a PDA, postavenou na platforme Microsoft .NET Framework. Hlavní funkcí aplikace bude vyhledávání v dvojjazycných prekladových slovnících (databázích), predevším ve formátu UDN. S aplikací bude distribuováno 18 slovníku.The Letters Are Falling!: The Letters Are Falling is a XAML project for three year olds. No, I mean the GAME is for three year olds. The project is a prototype I am building to see about incorporating XAML into VB for Dummies. The game is to help learning your alphabet!Tip Calc for Windows Phone 7: Tip Calc makes it easier for Windows Phone users to calculate tips. . It's developed in C# + Silverlight for WP7.Universities managment information system: Universities managment information systemUsersMOSS: UsersMOSS est une petite application permettant de consulter sur un serveur MOSS les sites web (SPWeb) les users (SPUser), et les groupes (SPGroup). Cette application utilise le modèle objet de MOSS pour inspecter le contenu des objets d'un serveur MOSS. Cette application est loin d'être professionnelle, ou même terminée, mais elle me rend très souvent service. Surtout ne l'utilisez pas sur un serveur de production car le gestion du GC n'est pas faite, ce qui peut provoquer des plantages de v...Windows 7 To Go: Windows 7 Beispielanwendungen, Apps, Videos, Präsentationen und Anleitungen Eine Bibliothek mit Demos, Sourcecodes, Präsentationen und Videos für das Demonstrieren, Verwenden und Erlernen von Windows 7 Features.

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  • Creating a thematic map

    - by jsharma
    This post describes how to create a simple thematic map, just a state population layer, with no underlying map tile layer. The map shows states color-coded by total population. The map is interactive with info-windows and can be panned and zoomed. The sample code demonstrates the following: Displaying an interactive vector layer with no background map tile layer (i.e. purpose and use of the Universe object) Using a dynamic (i.e. defined via the javascript client API) color bucket style Dynamically changing a layer's rendering style Specifying which attribute value to use in determining the bucket, and hence style, for a feature (FoI) The result is shown in the screenshot below. The states layer was defined, and stored in the user_sdo_themes view of the mvdemo schema, using MapBuilder. The underlying table is defined as SQL> desc states_32775  Name                                      Null?    Type ----------------------------------------- -------- ----------------------------  STATE                                              VARCHAR2(26)  STATE_ABRV                                         VARCHAR2(2) FIPSST                                             VARCHAR2(2) TOTPOP                                             NUMBER PCTSMPLD                                           NUMBER LANDSQMI                                           NUMBER POPPSQMI                                           NUMBER ... MEDHHINC NUMBER AVGHHINC NUMBER GEOM32775 MDSYS.SDO_GEOMETRY We'll use the TOTPOP column value in the advanced (color bucket) style for rendering the states layers. The predefined theme (US_STATES_BI) is defined as follows. SQL> select styling_rules from user_sdo_themes where name='US_STATES_BI'; STYLING_RULES -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- <?xml version="1.0" standalone="yes"?> <styling_rules highlight_style="C.CB_QUAL_8_CLASS_DARK2_1"> <hidden_info> <field column="STATE" name="Name"/> <field column="POPPSQMI" name="POPPSQMI"/> <field column="TOTPOP" name="TOTPOP"/> </hidden_info> <rule column="TOTPOP"> <features style="states_totpop"> </features> <label column="STATE_ABRV" style="T.BLUE_SERIF_10"> 1 </label> </rule> </styling_rules> SQL> The theme definition specifies that the state, poppsqmi, totpop, state_abrv, and geom columns will be queried from the states_32775 table. The state_abrv value will be used to label the state while the totpop value will be used to determine the color-fill from those defined in the states_totpop advanced style. The states_totpop style, which we will not use in our demo, is defined as shown below. SQL> select definition from user_sdo_styles where name='STATES_TOTPOP'; DEFINITION -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- <?xml version="1.0" ?> <AdvancedStyle> <BucketStyle> <Buckets default_style="C.S02_COUNTRY_AREA"> <RangedBucket seq="0" label="10K - 5M" low="10000" high="5000000" style="C.SEQ6_01" /> <RangedBucket seq="1" label="5M - 12M" low="5000001" high="1.2E7" style="C.SEQ6_02" /> <RangedBucket seq="2" label="12M - 20M" low="1.2000001E7" high="2.0E7" style="C.SEQ6_04" /> <RangedBucket seq="3" label="&gt; 20M" low="2.0000001E7" high="5.0E7" style="C.SEQ6_05" /> </Buckets> </BucketStyle> </AdvancedStyle> SQL> The demo defines additional advanced styles via the OM.style object and methods and uses those instead when rendering the states layer.   Now let's look at relevant snippets of code that defines the map extent and zoom levels (i.e. the OM.universe),  loads the states predefined vector layer (OM.layer), and sets up the advanced (color bucket) style. Defining the map extent and zoom levels. function initMap() {   //alert("Initialize map view");     // define the map extent and number of zoom levels.   // The Universe object is similar to the map tile layer configuration   // It defines the map extent, number of zoom levels, and spatial reference system   // well-known ones (like web mercator/google/bing or maps.oracle/elocation are predefined   // The Universe must be defined when there is no underlying map tile layer.   // When there is a map tile layer then that defines the map extent, srid, and zoom levels.      var uni= new OM.universe.Universe(     {         srid : 32775,         bounds : new OM.geometry.Rectangle(                         -3280000, 170000, 2300000, 3200000, 32775),         numberOfZoomLevels: 8     }); The srid specifies the spatial reference system which is Equal-Area Projection (United States). SQL> select cs_name from cs_srs where srid=32775 ; CS_NAME --------------------------------------------------- Equal-Area Projection (United States) The bounds defines the map extent. It is a Rectangle defined using the lower-left and upper-right coordinates and srid. Loading and displaying the states layer This is done in the states() function. The full code is at the end of this post, however here's the snippet which defines the states VectorLayer.     // States is a predefined layer in user_sdo_themes     var  layer2 = new OM.layer.VectorLayer("vLayer2",     {         def:         {             type:OM.layer.VectorLayer.TYPE_PREDEFINED,             dataSource:"mvdemo",             theme:"us_states_bi",             url: baseURL,             loadOnDemand: false         },         boundingTheme:true      }); The first parameter is a layer name, the second is an object literal for a layer config. The config object has two attributes: the first is the layer definition, the second specifies whether the layer is a bounding one (i.e. used to determine the current map zoom and center such that the whole layer is displayed within the map window) or not. The layer config has the following attributes: type - specifies whether is a predefined one, a defined via a SQL query (JDBC), or in a json-format file (DATAPACK) theme - is the predefined theme's name url - is the location of the mapviewer server loadOnDemand - specifies whether to load all the features or just those that lie within the current map window and load additional ones as needed on a pan or zoom The code snippet below dynamically defines an advanced style and then uses it, instead of the 'states_totpop' style, when rendering the states layer. // override predefined rendering style with programmatic one    var theRenderingStyle =      createBucketColorStyle('YlBr5', colorSeries, 'States5', true);   // specify which attribute is used in determining the bucket (i.e. color) to use for the state   // It can be an array because the style could be a chart type (pie/bar)   // which requires multiple attribute columns     // Use the STATE.TOTPOP column (aka attribute) value here    layer2.setRenderingStyle(theRenderingStyle, ["TOTPOP"]); The style itself is defined in the createBucketColorStyle() function. Dynamically defining an advanced style The advanced style used here is a bucket color style, i.e. a color style is associated with each bucket. So first we define the colors and then the buckets.     numClasses = colorSeries[colorName].classes;    // create Color Styles    for (var i=0; i < numClasses; i++)    {         theStyles[i] = new OM.style.Color(                      {fill: colorSeries[colorName].fill[i],                        stroke:colorSeries[colorName].stroke[i],                       strokeOpacity: useGradient? 0.25 : 1                      });    }; numClasses is the number of buckets. The colorSeries array contains the color fill and stroke definitions and is: var colorSeries = { //multi-hue color scheme #10 YlBl. "YlBl3": {   classes:3,                  fill: [0xEDF8B1, 0x7FCDBB, 0x2C7FB8],                  stroke:[0xB5DF9F, 0x72B8A8, 0x2872A6]   }, "YlBl5": {   classes:5,                  fill:[0xFFFFCC, 0xA1DAB4, 0x41B6C4, 0x2C7FB8, 0x253494],                  stroke:[0xE6E6B8, 0x91BCA2, 0x3AA4B0, 0x2872A6, 0x212F85]   }, //multi-hue color scheme #11 YlBr.  "YlBr3": {classes:3,                  fill:[0xFFF7BC, 0xFEC44F, 0xD95F0E],                  stroke:[0xE6DEA9, 0xE5B047, 0xC5360D]   }, "YlBr5": {classes:5,                  fill:[0xFFFFD4, 0xFED98E, 0xFE9929, 0xD95F0E, 0x993404],                  stroke:[0xE6E6BF, 0xE5C380, 0xE58A25, 0xC35663, 0x8A2F04]     }, etc. Next we create the bucket style.    bucketStyleDef = {       numClasses : colorSeries[colorName].classes, //      classification: 'custom',  //since we are supplying all the buckets //      buckets: theBuckets,       classification: 'logarithmic',  // use a logarithmic scale       styles: theStyles,       gradient:  useGradient? 'linear' : 'off' //      gradient:  useGradient? 'radial' : 'off'     };    theBucketStyle = new OM.style.BucketStyle(bucketStyleDef);    return theBucketStyle; A BucketStyle constructor takes a style definition as input. The style definition specifies the number of buckets (numClasses), a classification scheme (which can be equal-ranged, logarithmic scale, or custom), the styles for each bucket, whether to use a gradient effect, and optionally the buckets (required when using a custom classification scheme). The full source for the demo <!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/strict.dtd"> <html> <head> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8"> <title>Oracle Maps V2 Thematic Map Demo</title> <script src="http://localhost:8080/mapviewer/jslib/v2/oraclemapsv2.js" type="text/javascript"> </script> <script type="text/javascript"> //var $j = jQuery.noConflict(); var baseURL="http://localhost:8080/mapviewer"; // location of mapviewer OM.gv.proxyEnabled =false; // no mvproxy needed OM.gv.setResourcePath(baseURL+"/jslib/v2/images/"); // location of resources for UI elements like nav panel buttons var map = null; // the client mapviewer object var statesLayer = null, stateCountyLayer = null; // The vector layers for states and counties in a state var layerName="States"; // initial map center and zoom var mapCenterLon = -20000; var mapCenterLat = 1750000; var mapZoom = 2; var mpoint = new OM.geometry.Point(mapCenterLon,mapCenterLat,32775); var currentPalette = null, currentStyle=null; // set an onchange listener for the color palette select list // initialize the map // load and display the states layer $(document).ready( function() { $("#demo-htmlselect").change(function() { var theColorScheme = $(this).val(); useSelectedColorScheme(theColorScheme); }); initMap(); states(); } ); /** * color series from ColorBrewer site (http://colorbrewer2.org/). */ var colorSeries = { //multi-hue color scheme #10 YlBl. "YlBl3": { classes:3, fill: [0xEDF8B1, 0x7FCDBB, 0x2C7FB8], stroke:[0xB5DF9F, 0x72B8A8, 0x2872A6] }, "YlBl5": { classes:5, fill:[0xFFFFCC, 0xA1DAB4, 0x41B6C4, 0x2C7FB8, 0x253494], stroke:[0xE6E6B8, 0x91BCA2, 0x3AA4B0, 0x2872A6, 0x212F85] }, //multi-hue color scheme #11 YlBr. "YlBr3": {classes:3, fill:[0xFFF7BC, 0xFEC44F, 0xD95F0E], stroke:[0xE6DEA9, 0xE5B047, 0xC5360D] }, "YlBr5": {classes:5, fill:[0xFFFFD4, 0xFED98E, 0xFE9929, 0xD95F0E, 0x993404], stroke:[0xE6E6BF, 0xE5C380, 0xE58A25, 0xC35663, 0x8A2F04] }, // single-hue color schemes (blues, greens, greys, oranges, reds, purples) "Purples5": {classes:5, fill:[0xf2f0f7, 0xcbc9e2, 0x9e9ac8, 0x756bb1, 0x54278f], stroke:[0xd3d3d3, 0xd3d3d3, 0xd3d3d3, 0xd3d3d3, 0xd3d3d3] }, "Blues5": {classes:5, fill:[0xEFF3FF, 0xbdd7e7, 0x68aed6, 0x3182bd, 0x18519C], stroke:[0xd3d3d3, 0xd3d3d3, 0xd3d3d3, 0xd3d3d3, 0xd3d3d3] }, "Greens5": {classes:5, fill:[0xedf8e9, 0xbae4b3, 0x74c476, 0x31a354, 0x116d2c], stroke:[0xd3d3d3, 0xd3d3d3, 0xd3d3d3, 0xd3d3d3, 0xd3d3d3] }, "Greys5": {classes:5, fill:[0xf7f7f7, 0xcccccc, 0x969696, 0x636363, 0x454545], stroke:[0xd3d3d3, 0xd3d3d3, 0xd3d3d3, 0xd3d3d3, 0xd3d3d3] }, "Oranges5": {classes:5, fill:[0xfeedde, 0xfdb385, 0xfd8d3c, 0xe6550d, 0xa63603], stroke:[0xd3d3d3, 0xd3d3d3, 0xd3d3d3, 0xd3d3d3, 0xd3d3d3] }, "Reds5": {classes:5, fill:[0xfee5d9, 0xfcae91, 0xfb6a4a, 0xde2d26, 0xa50f15], stroke:[0xd3d3d3, 0xd3d3d3, 0xd3d3d3, 0xd3d3d3, 0xd3d3d3] } }; function createBucketColorStyle( colorName, colorSeries, rangeName, useGradient) { var theBucketStyle; var bucketStyleDef; var theStyles = []; var theColors = []; var aBucket, aStyle, aColor, aRange; var numClasses ; numClasses = colorSeries[colorName].classes; // create Color Styles for (var i=0; i < numClasses; i++) { theStyles[i] = new OM.style.Color( {fill: colorSeries[colorName].fill[i], stroke:colorSeries[colorName].stroke[i], strokeOpacity: useGradient? 0.25 : 1 }); }; bucketStyleDef = { numClasses : colorSeries[colorName].classes, // classification: 'custom', //since we are supplying all the buckets // buckets: theBuckets, classification: 'logarithmic', // use a logarithmic scale styles: theStyles, gradient: useGradient? 'linear' : 'off' // gradient: useGradient? 'radial' : 'off' }; theBucketStyle = new OM.style.BucketStyle(bucketStyleDef); return theBucketStyle; } function initMap() { //alert("Initialize map view"); // define the map extent and number of zoom levels. // The Universe object is similar to the map tile layer configuration // It defines the map extent, number of zoom levels, and spatial reference system // well-known ones (like web mercator/google/bing or maps.oracle/elocation are predefined // The Universe must be defined when there is no underlying map tile layer. // When there is a map tile layer then that defines the map extent, srid, and zoom levels. var uni= new OM.universe.Universe( { srid : 32775, bounds : new OM.geometry.Rectangle( -3280000, 170000, 2300000, 3200000, 32775), numberOfZoomLevels: 8 }); map = new OM.Map( document.getElementById('map'), { mapviewerURL: baseURL, universe:uni }) ; var navigationPanelBar = new OM.control.NavigationPanelBar(); map.addMapDecoration(navigationPanelBar); } // end initMap function states() { //alert("Load and display states"); layerName = "States"; if(statesLayer) { // states were already visible but the style may have changed // so set the style to the currently selected one var theData = $('#demo-htmlselect').val(); setStyle(theData); } else { // States is a predefined layer in user_sdo_themes var layer2 = new OM.layer.VectorLayer("vLayer2", { def: { type:OM.layer.VectorLayer.TYPE_PREDEFINED, dataSource:"mvdemo", theme:"us_states_bi", url: baseURL, loadOnDemand: false }, boundingTheme:true }); // add drop shadow effect and hover style var shadowFilter = new OM.visualfilter.DropShadow({opacity:0.5, color:"#000000", offset:6, radius:10}); var hoverStyle = new OM.style.Color( {stroke:"#838383", strokeThickness:2}); layer2.setHoverStyle(hoverStyle); layer2.setHoverVisualFilter(shadowFilter); layer2.enableFeatureHover(true); layer2.enableFeatureSelection(false); layer2.setLabelsVisible(true); // override predefined rendering style with programmatic one var theRenderingStyle = createBucketColorStyle('YlBr5', colorSeries, 'States5', true); // specify which attribute is used in determining the bucket (i.e. color) to use for the state // It can be an array because the style could be a chart type (pie/bar) // which requires multiple attribute columns // Use the STATE.TOTPOP column (aka attribute) value here layer2.setRenderingStyle(theRenderingStyle, ["TOTPOP"]); currentPalette = "YlBr5"; var stLayerIdx = map.addLayer(layer2); //alert('State Layer Idx = ' + stLayerIdx); map.setMapCenter(mpoint); map.setMapZoomLevel(mapZoom) ; // display the map map.init() ; statesLayer=layer2; // add rt-click event listener to show counties for the state layer2.addListener(OM.event.MouseEvent.MOUSE_RIGHT_CLICK,stateRtClick); } // end if } // end states function setStyle(styleName) { // alert("Selected Style = " + styleName); // there may be a counties layer also displayed. // that wll have different bucket ranges so create // one style for states and one for counties var newRenderingStyle = null; if (layerName === "States") { if(/3/.test(styleName)) { newRenderingStyle = createBucketColorStyle(styleName, colorSeries, 'States3', false); currentStyle = createBucketColorStyle(styleName, colorSeries, 'Counties3', false); } else { newRenderingStyle = createBucketColorStyle(styleName, colorSeries, 'States5', false); currentStyle = createBucketColorStyle(styleName, colorSeries, 'Counties5', false); } statesLayer.setRenderingStyle(newRenderingStyle, ["TOTPOP"]); if (stateCountyLayer) stateCountyLayer.setRenderingStyle(currentStyle, ["TOTPOP"]); } } // end setStyle function stateRtClick(evt){ var foi = evt.feature; //alert('Rt-Click on State: ' + foi.attributes['_label_'] + // ' with pop ' + foi.attributes['TOTPOP']); // display another layer with counties info // layer may change on each rt-click so create and add each time. var countyByState = null ; // the _label_ attribute of a feature in this case is the state abbreviation // we will use that to query and get the counties for a state var sqlText = "select totpop,geom32775 from counties_32775_moved where state_abrv="+ "'"+foi.getAttributeValue('_label_')+"'"; // alert(sqlText); if (currentStyle === null) currentStyle = createBucketColorStyle('YlBr5', colorSeries, 'Counties5', false); /* try a simple style instead new OM.style.ColorStyle( { stroke: "#B8F4FF", fill: "#18E5F4", fillOpacity:0 } ); */ // remove existing layer if any if(stateCountyLayer) map.removeLayer(stateCountyLayer); countyByState = new OM.layer.VectorLayer("stCountyLayer", {def:{type:OM.layer.VectorLayer.TYPE_JDBC, dataSource:"mvdemo", sql:sqlText, url:baseURL}}); // url:baseURL}, // renderingStyle:currentStyle}); countyByState.setVisible(true); // specify which attribute is used in determining the bucket (i.e. color) to use for the state countyByState.setRenderingStyle(currentStyle, ["TOTPOP"]); var ctLayerIdx = map.addLayer(countyByState); // alert('County Layer Idx = ' + ctLayerIdx); //map.addLayer(countyByState); stateCountyLayer = countyByState; } // end stateRtClick function useSelectedColorScheme(theColorScheme) { if(map) { // code to update renderStyle goes here //alert('will try to change render style'); setStyle(theColorScheme); } else { // do nothing } } </script> </head> <body bgcolor="#b4c5cc" style="height:100%;font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Verdana"> <h3 align="center">State population thematic map </h3> <div id="demo" style="position:absolute; left:68%; top:44px; width:28%; height:100%"> <HR/> <p/> Choose Color Scheme: <select id="demo-htmlselect"> <option value="YlBl3"> YellowBlue3</option> <option value="YlBr3"> YellowBrown3</option> <option value="YlBl5"> YellowBlue5</option> <option value="YlBr5" selected="selected"> YellowBrown5</option> <option value="Blues5"> Blues</option> <option value="Greens5"> Greens</option> <option value="Greys5"> Greys</option> <option value="Oranges5"> Oranges</option> <option value="Purples5"> Purples</option> <option value="Reds5"> Reds</option> </select> <p/> </div> <div id="map" style="position:absolute; left:10px; top:50px; width:65%; height:75%; background-color:#778f99"></div> <div style="position:absolute;top:85%; left:10px;width:98%" class="noprint"> <HR/> <p> Note: This demo uses HTML5 Canvas and requires IE9+, Firefox 10+, or Chrome. No map will show up in IE8 or earlier. </p> </div> </body> </html>

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  • EM12c: Using the LIST verb in emcli

    - by SubinDaniVarughese
    Many of us who use EM CLI to write scripts and automate our daily tasks should not miss out on the new list verb released with Oracle Enterprise Manager 12.1.0.3.0. The combination of list and Jython based scripting support in EM CLI makes it easier to achieve automation for complex tasks with just a few lines of code. Before I jump into a script, let me highlight the key attributes of the list verb and why it’s simply excellent! 1. Multiple resources under a single verb:A resource can be set of users or targets, etc. Using the list verb, you can retrieve information about a resource from the repository database.Here is an example which retrieves the list of administrators within EM.Standard mode$ emcli list -resource="Administrators" Interactive modeemcli>list(resource="Administrators")The output will be the same as standard mode.Standard mode$ emcli @myAdmin.pyEnter password :  ******The output will be the same as standard mode.Contents of myAdmin.py scriptlogin()print list(resource="Administrators",jsonout=False).out()To get a list of all available resources use$ emcli list -helpWith every release of EM, more resources are being added to the list verb. If you have a resource which you feel would be valuable then go ahead and contact Oracle Support to log an enhancement request with product development. Be sure to say how the resource is going to help improve your daily tasks. 2. Consistent Formatting:It is possible to format the output of any resource consistently using these options:  –column  This option is used to specify which columns should be shown in the output. Here is an example which shows the list of administrators and their account status$ emcli list -resource="Administrators" -columns="USER_NAME,REPOS_ACCOUNT_STATUS" To get a list of columns in a resource use:$ emcli list -resource="Administrators" -help You can also specify the width of the each column. For example, here the column width of user_type is set to 20 and department to 30. $ emcli list -resource=Administrators -columns="USER_NAME,USER_TYPE:20,COST_CENTER,CONTACT,DEPARTMENT:30"This is useful if your terminal is too small or you need to fine tune a list of specific columns for your quick use or improved readability.  –colsize  This option is used to resize column widths.Here is the same example as above, but using -colsize to define the width of user_type to 20 and department to 30.$ emcli list -resource=Administrators -columns="USER_NAME,USER_TYPE,COST_CENTER,CONTACT,DEPARTMENT" -colsize="USER_TYPE:20,DEPARTMENT:30" The existing standard EMCLI formatting options are also available in list verb. They are: -format="name:pretty" | -format="name:script” | -format="name:csv" | -noheader | -scriptThere are so many uses depending on your needs. Have a look at the resources and columns in each resource. Refer to the EMCLI book in EM documentation for more information.3. Search:Using the -search option in the list verb makes it is possible to search for a specific row in a specific column within a resource. This is similar to the sqlplus where clause. The following operators are supported:           =           !=           >           <           >=           <=           like           is (Must be followed by null or not null)Here is an example which searches for all EM administrators in the marketing department located in the USA.$emcli list -resource="Administrators" -search="DEPARTMENT ='Marketing'" -search="LOCATION='USA'" Here is another example which shows all the named credentials created since a specific date.  $emcli list -resource=NamedCredentials -search="CredCreatedDate > '11-Nov-2013 12:37:20 PM'"Note that the timestamp has to be in the format DD-MON-YYYY HH:MI:SS AM/PM Some resources need a bind variable to be passed to get output. A bind variable is created in the resource and then referenced in the command. For example, this command will list all the default preferred credentials for target type oracle_database.Here is an example$ emcli list -resource="PreferredCredentialsDefault" -bind="TargetType='oracle_database'" -colsize="SetName:15,TargetType:15" You can provide multiple bind variables. To verify if a column is searchable or requires a bind variable, use the –help option. Here is an example:$ emcli list -resource="PreferredCredentialsDefault" -help 4. Secure accessWhen list verb collects the data, it only displays content for which the administrator currently logged into emcli, has access. For example consider this usecase:AdminA has access only to TargetA. AdminA logs into EM CLIExecuting the list verb to get the list of all targets will only show TargetA.5. User defined SQLUsing the –sql option, user defined sql can be executed. The SQL provided in the -sql option is executed as the EM user MGMT_VIEW, which has read-only access to the EM published MGMT$ database views in the SYSMAN schema. To get the list of EM published MGMT$ database views, go to the Extensibility Programmer's Reference book in EM documentation. There is a chapter about Using Management Repository Views. It’s always recommended to reference the documentation for the supported MGMT$ database views.  Consider you are using the MGMT$ABC view which is not in the chapter. During upgrade, it is possible, since the view was not in the book and not supported, it is likely the view might undergo a change in its structure or the data in it. Using a supported view ensures that your scripts using -sql will continue working after upgrade.Here’s an example  $ emcli list -sql='select * from mgmt$target' 6. JSON output support    JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) enables data to be displayed in a collection of name/value pairs. There is lot of reading material about JSON on line for more information.As an example, we had a requirement where an EM administrator had many 11.2 databases in their test environment and the developers had requested an Administrator to change the lifecycle status from Test to Production which meant the admin had to go to the EM “All targets” page and identify the set of 11.2 databases and then to go into each target database page and manually changes the property to Production. Sounds easy to say, but this Administrator had numerous targets and this task is repeated for every release cycle.We told him there is an easier way to do this with a script and he can reuse the script whenever anyone wanted to change a set of targets to a different Lifecycle status. Here is a jython script which uses list and JSON to change all 11.2 database target’s LifeCycle Property value.If you are new to scripting and Jython, I would suggest visiting the basic chapters in any Jython tutorials. Understanding Jython is important to write the logic depending on your usecase.If you are already writing scripts like perl or shell or know a programming language like java, then you can easily understand the logic.Disclaimer: The scripts in this post are subject to the Oracle Terms of Use located here.  1 from emcli import *  2  search_list = ['PROPERTY_NAME=\'DBVersion\'','TARGET_TYPE= \'oracle_database\'','PROPERTY_VALUE LIKE \'11.2%\'']  3 if len(sys.argv) == 2:  4    print login(username=sys.argv[0])  5    l_prop_val_to_set = sys.argv[1]  6      l_targets = list(resource="TargetProperties", search=search_list,   columns="TARGET_NAME,TARGET_TYPE,PROPERTY_NAME")  7    for target in l_targets.out()['data']:  8       t_pn = 'LifeCycle Status'  9      print "INFO: Setting Property name " + t_pn + " to value " +       l_prop_val_to_set + " for " + target['TARGET_NAME']  10      print  set_target_property_value(property_records=      target['TARGET_NAME']+":"+target['TARGET_TYPE']+":"+      t_pn+":"+l_prop_val_to_set)  11  else:  12   print "\n ERROR: Property value argument is missing"  13   print "\n INFO: Format to run this file is filename.py <username>   <Database Target LifeCycle Status Property Value>" You can download the script from here. I could not upload the file with .py extension so you need to rename the file to myScript.py before executing it using emcli.A line by line explanation for beginners: Line  1 Imports the emcli verbs as functions  2 search_list is a variable to pass to the search option in list verb. I am using escape character for the single quotes. In list verb to pass more than one value for the same option, you should define as above comma separated values, surrounded by square brackets.  3 This is an “if” condition to ensure the user does provide two arguments with the script, else in line #15, it prints an error message.  4 Logging into EM. You can remove this if you have setup emcli with autologin. For more details about setup and autologin, please go the EM CLI book in EM documentation.  5 l_prop_val_to_set is another variable. This is the property value to be set. Remember we are changing the value from Test to Production. The benefit of this variable is you can reuse the script to change the property value from and to any other values.  6 Here the output of the list verb is stored in l_targets. In the list verb I am passing the resource as TargetProperties, search as the search_list variable and I only need these three columns – target_name, target_type and property_name. I don’t need the other columns for my task.  7 This is a for loop. The data in l_targets is available in JSON format. Using the for loop, each pair will now be available in the ‘target’ variable.  8 t_pn is the “LifeCycle Status” variable. If required, I can have this also as an input and then use my script to change any target property. In this example, I just wanted to change the “LifeCycle Status”.  9 This a message informing the user the script is setting the property value for dbxyz.  10 This line shows the set_target_property_value verb which sets the value using the property_records option. Once it is set for a target pair, it moves to the next one. In my example, I am just showing three dbs, but the real use is when you have 20 or 50 targets. The script is executed as:$ emcli @myScript.py subin Production The recommendation is to first test the scripts before running it on a production system. We tested on a small set of targets and optimizing the script for fewer lines of code and better messaging.For your quick reference, the resources available in Enterprise Manager 12.1.0.4.0 with list verb are:$ emcli list -helpWatch this space for more blog posts using the list verb and EM CLI Scripting use cases. I hope you enjoyed reading this blog post and it has helped you gain more information about the list verb. Happy Scripting!!Disclaimer: The scripts in this post are subject to the Oracle Terms of Use located here. Stay Connected: Twitter | Facebook | YouTube | Linkedin | Newsletter mt=8">Download the Oracle Enterprise Manager 12c Mobile app

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  • 3D Graphics with XNA Game Studio 4.0 bug in light map?

    - by Eibis
    i'm following the tutorials on 3D Graphics with XNA Game Studio 4.0 and I came up with an horrible effect when I tried to implement the Light Map http://i.stack.imgur.com/BUWvU.jpg this effect shows up when I look towards the center of the house (and it moves with me). it has this shape because I'm using a sphere to represent light; using other light shapes gives different results. I'm using a class PreLightingRenderer: using System; using System.Collections.Generic; using System.Linq; using System.Text; using Microsoft.Xna.Framework; using Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Graphics; using Dhpoware; using Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Content; namespace XNAFirstPersonCamera { public class PrelightingRenderer { // Normal, depth, and light map render targets RenderTarget2D depthTarg; RenderTarget2D normalTarg; RenderTarget2D lightTarg; // Depth/normal effect and light mapping effect Effect depthNormalEffect; Effect lightingEffect; // Point light (sphere) mesh Model lightMesh; // List of models, lights, and the camera public List<CModel> Models { get; set; } public List<PPPointLight> Lights { get; set; } public FirstPersonCamera Camera { get; set; } GraphicsDevice graphicsDevice; int viewWidth = 0, viewHeight = 0; public PrelightingRenderer(GraphicsDevice GraphicsDevice, ContentManager Content) { viewWidth = GraphicsDevice.Viewport.Width; viewHeight = GraphicsDevice.Viewport.Height; // Create the three render targets depthTarg = new RenderTarget2D(GraphicsDevice, viewWidth, viewHeight, false, SurfaceFormat.Single, DepthFormat.Depth24); normalTarg = new RenderTarget2D(GraphicsDevice, viewWidth, viewHeight, false, SurfaceFormat.Color, DepthFormat.Depth24); lightTarg = new RenderTarget2D(GraphicsDevice, viewWidth, viewHeight, false, SurfaceFormat.Color, DepthFormat.Depth24); // Load effects depthNormalEffect = Content.Load<Effect>(@"Effects\PPDepthNormal"); lightingEffect = Content.Load<Effect>(@"Effects\PPLight"); // Set effect parameters to light mapping effect lightingEffect.Parameters["viewportWidth"].SetValue(viewWidth); lightingEffect.Parameters["viewportHeight"].SetValue(viewHeight); // Load point light mesh and set light mapping effect to it lightMesh = Content.Load<Model>(@"Models\PPLightMesh"); lightMesh.Meshes[0].MeshParts[0].Effect = lightingEffect; this.graphicsDevice = GraphicsDevice; } public void Draw() { drawDepthNormalMap(); drawLightMap(); prepareMainPass(); } void drawDepthNormalMap() { // Set the render targets to 'slots' 1 and 2 graphicsDevice.SetRenderTargets(normalTarg, depthTarg); // Clear the render target to 1 (infinite depth) graphicsDevice.Clear(Color.White); // Draw each model with the PPDepthNormal effect foreach (CModel model in Models) { model.CacheEffects(); model.SetModelEffect(depthNormalEffect, false); model.Draw(Camera.ViewMatrix, Camera.ProjectionMatrix, Camera.Position); model.RestoreEffects(); } // Un-set the render targets graphicsDevice.SetRenderTargets(null); } void drawLightMap() { // Set the depth and normal map info to the effect lightingEffect.Parameters["DepthTexture"].SetValue(depthTarg); lightingEffect.Parameters["NormalTexture"].SetValue(normalTarg); // Calculate the view * projection matrix Matrix viewProjection = Camera.ViewMatrix * Camera.ProjectionMatrix; // Set the inverse of the view * projection matrix to the effect Matrix invViewProjection = Matrix.Invert(viewProjection); lightingEffect.Parameters["InvViewProjection"].SetValue(invViewProjection); // Set the render target to the graphics device graphicsDevice.SetRenderTarget(lightTarg); // Clear the render target to black (no light) graphicsDevice.Clear(Color.Black); // Set render states to additive (lights will add their influences) graphicsDevice.BlendState = BlendState.Additive; graphicsDevice.DepthStencilState = DepthStencilState.None; foreach (PPPointLight light in Lights) { // Set the light's parameters to the effect light.SetEffectParameters(lightingEffect); // Calculate the world * view * projection matrix and set it to // the effect Matrix wvp = (Matrix.CreateScale(light.Attenuation) * Matrix.CreateTranslation(light.Position)) * viewProjection; lightingEffect.Parameters["WorldViewProjection"].SetValue(wvp); // Determine the distance between the light and camera float dist = Vector3.Distance(Camera.Position, light.Position); // If the camera is inside the light-sphere, invert the cull mode // to draw the inside of the sphere instead of the outside if (dist < light.Attenuation) graphicsDevice.RasterizerState = RasterizerState.CullClockwise; // Draw the point-light-sphere lightMesh.Meshes[0].Draw(); // Revert the cull mode graphicsDevice.RasterizerState = RasterizerState.CullCounterClockwise; } // Revert the blending and depth render states graphicsDevice.BlendState = BlendState.Opaque; graphicsDevice.DepthStencilState = DepthStencilState.Default; // Un-set the render target graphicsDevice.SetRenderTarget(null); } void prepareMainPass() { foreach (CModel model in Models) foreach (ModelMesh mesh in model.Model.Meshes) foreach (ModelMeshPart part in mesh.MeshParts) { // Set the light map and viewport parameters to each model's effect if (part.Effect.Parameters["LightTexture"] != null) part.Effect.Parameters["LightTexture"].SetValue(lightTarg); if (part.Effect.Parameters["viewportWidth"] != null) part.Effect.Parameters["viewportWidth"].SetValue(viewWidth); if (part.Effect.Parameters["viewportHeight"] != null) part.Effect.Parameters["viewportHeight"].SetValue(viewHeight); } } } } that uses three effect: PPDepthNormal.fx float4x4 World; float4x4 View; float4x4 Projection; struct VertexShaderInput { float4 Position : POSITION0; float3 Normal : NORMAL0; }; struct VertexShaderOutput { float4 Position : POSITION0; float2 Depth : TEXCOORD0; float3 Normal : TEXCOORD1; }; VertexShaderOutput VertexShaderFunction(VertexShaderInput input) { VertexShaderOutput output; float4x4 viewProjection = mul(View, Projection); float4x4 worldViewProjection = mul(World, viewProjection); output.Position = mul(input.Position, worldViewProjection); output.Normal = mul(input.Normal, World); // Position's z and w components correspond to the distance // from camera and distance of the far plane respectively output.Depth.xy = output.Position.zw; return output; } // We render to two targets simultaneously, so we can't // simply return a float4 from the pixel shader struct PixelShaderOutput { float4 Normal : COLOR0; float4 Depth : COLOR1; }; PixelShaderOutput PixelShaderFunction(VertexShaderOutput input) { PixelShaderOutput output; // Depth is stored as distance from camera / far plane distance // to get value between 0 and 1 output.Depth = input.Depth.x / input.Depth.y; // Normal map simply stores X, Y and Z components of normal // shifted from (-1 to 1) range to (0 to 1) range output.Normal.xyz = (normalize(input.Normal).xyz / 2) + .5; // Other components must be initialized to compile output.Depth.a = 1; output.Normal.a = 1; return output; } technique Technique1 { pass Pass1 { VertexShader = compile vs_1_1 VertexShaderFunction(); PixelShader = compile ps_2_0 PixelShaderFunction(); } } PPLight.fx float4x4 WorldViewProjection; float4x4 InvViewProjection; texture2D DepthTexture; texture2D NormalTexture; sampler2D depthSampler = sampler_state { texture = ; minfilter = point; magfilter = point; mipfilter = point; }; sampler2D normalSampler = sampler_state { texture = ; minfilter = point; magfilter = point; mipfilter = point; }; float3 LightColor; float3 LightPosition; float LightAttenuation; // Include shared functions #include "PPShared.vsi" struct VertexShaderInput { float4 Position : POSITION0; }; struct VertexShaderOutput { float4 Position : POSITION0; float4 LightPosition : TEXCOORD0; }; VertexShaderOutput VertexShaderFunction(VertexShaderInput input) { VertexShaderOutput output; output.Position = mul(input.Position, WorldViewProjection); output.LightPosition = output.Position; return output; } float4 PixelShaderFunction(VertexShaderOutput input) : COLOR0 { // Find the pixel coordinates of the input position in the depth // and normal textures float2 texCoord = postProjToScreen(input.LightPosition) + halfPixel(); // Extract the depth for this pixel from the depth map float4 depth = tex2D(depthSampler, texCoord); // Recreate the position with the UV coordinates and depth value float4 position; position.x = texCoord.x * 2 - 1; position.y = (1 - texCoord.y) * 2 - 1; position.z = depth.r; position.w = 1.0f; // Transform position from screen space to world space position = mul(position, InvViewProjection); position.xyz /= position.w; // Extract the normal from the normal map and move from // 0 to 1 range to -1 to 1 range float4 normal = (tex2D(normalSampler, texCoord) - .5) * 2; // Perform the lighting calculations for a point light float3 lightDirection = normalize(LightPosition - position); float lighting = clamp(dot(normal, lightDirection), 0, 1); // Attenuate the light to simulate a point light float d = distance(LightPosition, position); float att = 1 - pow(d / LightAttenuation, 6); return float4(LightColor * lighting * att, 1); } technique Technique1 { pass Pass1 { VertexShader = compile vs_1_1 VertexShaderFunction(); PixelShader = compile ps_2_0 PixelShaderFunction(); } } PPShared.vsi has some common functions: float viewportWidth; float viewportHeight; // Calculate the 2D screen position of a 3D position float2 postProjToScreen(float4 position) { float2 screenPos = position.xy / position.w; return 0.5f * (float2(screenPos.x, -screenPos.y) + 1); } // Calculate the size of one half of a pixel, to convert // between texels and pixels float2 halfPixel() { return 0.5f / float2(viewportWidth, viewportHeight); } and finally from the Game class I set up in LoadContent with: effect = Content.Load(@"Effects\PPModel"); models[0] = new CModel(Content.Load(@"Models\teapot"), new Vector3(-50, 80, 0), new Vector3(0, 0, 0), 1f, Content.Load(@"Textures\prova_texture_autocad"), GraphicsDevice); house = new CModel(Content.Load(@"Models\house"), new Vector3(0, 0, 0), new Vector3((float)-Math.PI / 2, 0, 0), 35.0f, Content.Load(@"Textures\prova_texture_autocad"), GraphicsDevice); models[0].SetModelEffect(effect, true); house.SetModelEffect(effect, true); renderer = new PrelightingRenderer(GraphicsDevice, Content); renderer.Models = new List(); renderer.Models.Add(house); renderer.Models.Add(models[0]); renderer.Lights = new List() { new PPPointLight(new Vector3(0, 120, 0), Color.White * .85f, 2000) }; where PPModel.fx is: float4x4 World; float4x4 View; float4x4 Projection; texture2D BasicTexture; sampler2D basicTextureSampler = sampler_state { texture = ; addressU = wrap; addressV = wrap; minfilter = anisotropic; magfilter = anisotropic; mipfilter = linear; }; bool TextureEnabled = true; texture2D LightTexture; sampler2D lightSampler = sampler_state { texture = ; minfilter = point; magfilter = point; mipfilter = point; }; float3 AmbientColor = float3(0.15, 0.15, 0.15); float3 DiffuseColor; #include "PPShared.vsi" struct VertexShaderInput { float4 Position : POSITION0; float2 UV : TEXCOORD0; }; struct VertexShaderOutput { float4 Position : POSITION0; float2 UV : TEXCOORD0; float4 PositionCopy : TEXCOORD1; }; VertexShaderOutput VertexShaderFunction(VertexShaderInput input) { VertexShaderOutput output; float4x4 worldViewProjection = mul(World, mul(View, Projection)); output.Position = mul(input.Position, worldViewProjection); output.PositionCopy = output.Position; output.UV = input.UV; return output; } float4 PixelShaderFunction(VertexShaderOutput input) : COLOR0 { // Sample model's texture float3 basicTexture = tex2D(basicTextureSampler, input.UV); if (!TextureEnabled) basicTexture = float4(1, 1, 1, 1); // Extract lighting value from light map float2 texCoord = postProjToScreen(input.PositionCopy) + halfPixel(); float3 light = tex2D(lightSampler, texCoord); light += AmbientColor; return float4(basicTexture * DiffuseColor * light, 1); } technique Technique1 { pass Pass1 { VertexShader = compile vs_1_1 VertexShaderFunction(); PixelShader = compile ps_2_0 PixelShaderFunction(); } } I don't have any idea on what's wrong... googling the web I found that this tutorial may have some bug but I don't know if it's the LightModel fault (the sphere) or in a shader or in the class PrelightingRenderer. Any help is very appreciated, thank you for reading!

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  • how to create multiple pages in Xcode iphone apps

    - by al7r
    Hi there, i am starting my experience with iphone sdk. and i have a question, which is i am trying to create two pages to the app but i don't know how to link them or design them. like when i start the Xcode i find one page named View to design in it, i want to make that page a welcoming page then the user choose one of the three choices he see in that page. Once he clicked on one of them the program take him to the next page or the page he chose. thank you

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