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• Load and Web Performance Testing using Visual Studio Ultimate 2010-Part 2

  - by Tarun Arora

  Welcome back, in part 1 of Load and Web Performance Testing using Visual Studio 2010 I talked about why Performance Testing the application is important, the test tools available in Visual Studio Ultimate 2010 and various test rig topologies. In this blog post I’ll get into the details of web performance & load tests as well as why it’s important to follow a goal based pattern while performance testing your application. Tools => Options => Test Tools Have you visited the treasures of Visual Studio Menu bar tools => Options => Test Tools lately? The options to enable disable prompts on creating, editing, deleting or running manual/automated tests can be controller from here. The default test project language and default test types created on a new test project creation could be selected/unselected from here. Ever wondered how you can change the default limit of 25 test results, this can again be changed from here. If you record a lot of Web Tests and wish for the web test recorder to start with “that” URL populated, well this again can be specified from here. If you haven’t so far, I would urge you to spend 2 minutes in the test tools options.   Test Menu => Ready Steady Test Action! The Test tools are under the Test Menu in Visual Studio, apart from being able to create a new Test and Test List you can also load an existing vsmdi file. You can also manage your test controllers from here. A solution can have one or more test setting files, but there can only be one active test settings file at any time. Again, this selection can be done from here.  You can open the various test windows from under the windows option from the test menu. If you open the Test view window you will see that you have the option to group the tests by work items, project, test type, etc. You can set these properties by right clicking a test in the test list and choosing properties from the context menu.    So, what is a vsmdi file? vsmdi stands for Visual Studio Test Metadata File. Placed under the Solution Items this file keeps track of the list of unit tests in your solution. If you open the vsmdi file as an xml file you will see a series of Test Links nested with in the list Test List tags along with the Run Configuration tag. When in visual studio you run tests, the IDE looks at the vsmdi file to see what tests need to be run. You also have the option of using the vsmdi file in your team builds to specify which tests need to run as part of the build. Refer here for a walkthrough from a fellow blogger on how to use the vsmdi file in the team builds. Web Performance Test – The Truth! In Visual Studio 2010 “Web Tests” have been renamed to “Web Performance Tests”. Apart from renaming this test type there have been several improvements to this test type in visual studio 2010. I am very active on the MSDN Visual Studio And Load Testing forum and a frequent question from many users is “Do Web Tests support Pages that run JavaScript?” I will start with a little bit of background before answering this question. Web Performance Tests operate at the HTTP Layer, but why? To enable you to generate high loads with a relatively low amount of hardware, Web performance tests are driven at the protocol layer rather than instantiating a browser.The most common source of confusion is that users do not realize Web Performance Tests work at the HTTP layer. The tool adds to that misconception. After all, you record in IE, and when running a Web test you can select which browser to use, and then the result viewer shows the results in a browser window. So that means the tests run through the browser, right? NO! The Web test engine works at the HTTP layer, and does not instantiate a browser. What does that mean? In the diagram below, you can see there are no browsers running when the engine is sending and receiving requests. Does that mean I can’t test pages that use Java script? The best example for java script generating HTTP traffic is AJAX calls. The most common example of browser plugins are Silverlight or Flash. The Web test recorder will record HTTP traffic from AJAX calls and from most (but not all) browser plugins. This means you will still be able to web performance test pages that use java script or plugin and play back the results but the playback engine will not show the java script or plug in results in the ‘browser control’. If you want to test the page behaviour as a result of the java script or plug in consider using Coded UI Tests. This page looks like it failed, when in fact it succeeded! Looking closely at the response, and subsequent requests, it is clear the operation succeeded. As stated above, the reason why the browser control is pasting this message is because java script has been disabled in this control. So, to reiterate, the web performance test recorder: - Sends and receives data at the HTTP layer. - Does NOT run a browser. - Does NOT run java script. - Does NOT host ActiveX controls or plugins. There is a great series of blog posts from Ed Glas, i would highly recommend his blog to any one performing Load/Performance testing through Visual Studio. Demo – Web Performance Test [Demo] - Visual Studio Ultimate 2010: Test Settings and Configuration   [Demo]–Visual Studio Ultimate 2010: Web Performance Test   In this short video I try and answer the following questions, Why is performance Testing important? How does Visual Studio Help you performance Test your applications? How do i record a web performance test? How do make a web performance test data driven, transaction driven, loop driven, convert to code, add validations? Best practices for recording Web Performance Tests. I have a web performance test, what next? Creating the Web Performance Test was the first step towards load testing your application. Now that we have the base test we can test the page behaviour when N-users access the page. Have you ever had the head of business call you and mention that the marketing team has done a fantastic job and are expecting increased traffic on the web site, can the website survive the weekend with that additional load? This is the perfect opportunity to capacity test your application to see how your website holds up under various levels of load, you can work the results backwards to see how much hardware you may need to scale up your application to survive the weekend. Apart from that it is always a good idea to have some benchmarks around how the application performs under light loads for short duration, under heavy load for long duration and soak test the application run a constant load for a very week or two to record the effects of constant load for really long durations, this is a great way of identifying how your application handles the default IIS application pool reset which by default is configured to once every 25 hours. These bench marks will act as the perfect yard stick to measure performance gains when you start making improvements. BUT there are some best practices! => Goal Based Load Testing Approach Since the subject is vast and there are a lot of things to measure and analyse, … it is very easy to get distracted from the real goal!  You can optimize your application once you know where the pain points are. There is no point performing a load test of 5000 users if your intranet application will only have a 100 simultaneous users, it is important to keep focussed on the real goals of the project. So the idea is to have a user story around your load testing scenarios and test realistically. So it is recommended that you follow the below outline, It is an Iterative process, refine your objectives, identify the key scenarios, what is the expected workload, key metrics you want to report, record the web performance tests, simulate load and analyse results. Is your application already deployed in Production? This is great! You can analyse the IIS Logs to understand the user behaviour… But what are IIS LOGS? The IIS logs allow you to record events for each application and Web site on the Web server. You can create separate logs for each of your applications and Web sites. Logging information in IIS goes beyond the scope of the event logging or performance monitoring features provided by Windows. The IIS logs can include information, such as who has visited your site, what the visitor viewed, and when the information was last viewed. You can use the IIS logs to identify any attempts to gain unauthorized access to your Web server. How to configure IIS LOGS? For those Ninjas who already have IIS Logs configured (by the way its on by default) and need a way to analyse the IIS Logs, can use the Windows IIS Utility – Log Parser. Log Parser is a very powerful tool that provides a generic SQL-like language on top of many types of data like IIS Logs, Event Viewer entries, XML files, CSV files, File System and others; and it allows you to export the result of the queries to many output formats such as CSV, XML, SQL Server, Charts and others; and it works well with IIS 5, 6, 7 and 7.5. Frequently used Log Parser queries. Demo – Load Test [Demo]–Visual Studio Ultimate 2010: Load Testing   In this short video I try and answer the following questions, - Types of Performance Testing? - Perform Goal driven Load Testing, analyse Test Run Result and Generate a report? Recap A quick recap of what we have covered so far,     Thank you for taking the time out and reading this blog post, in part III of this blog series I’ll be getting into the details of Test Result Analysis, Test Result Drill through, Test Report Generation, Test Run Comparison, and the Asp.net Profiler. If you enjoyed the post, remember to subscribe to http://feeds.feedburner.com/TarunArora. Questions/Feedback/Suggestions, etc please leave a comment. See you on in Part III   Share this post : CodeProject

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

  - by jlnorsworthy

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

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• Monitoring SQL Server Agent job run times

  - by okeofs

  Introduction A few months back, I was asked how long a particular nightly process took to run. It was a super question and the one thing that struck me was that there were a plethora of factors affecting the processing time. This said, I developed a query to ascertain process run times, the average nightly run times and applied some KPI’s to the end query. The end goal being to enable me to quickly detect anomalies and processes that are running beyond their normal times. As many of you are aware, most of the necessary data for this type of query, lies within the MSDB database. The core portion of the query is shown below.select sj.name,sh.run_date, sh.run_duration, case when len(sh.run_duration) = 6 then convert(varchar(8),sh.run_duration) when len(sh.run_duration) = 5 then '0' + convert(varchar(8),sh.run_duration) when len(sh.run_duration) = 4 then '00' + convert(varchar(8),sh.run_duration) when len(sh.run_duration) = 3 then '000' + convert(varchar(8),sh.run_duration) when len(sh.run_duration) = 2 then '0000' + convert(varchar(8),sh.run_duration) when len(sh.run_duration) = 1 then '00000' + convert(varchar(8),sh.run_duration) end as tt from dbo.sysjobs sj with (nolock) inner join dbo.sysjobHistory sh with (nolock) on sj.job_id = sh.job_id where sj.name = 'My Agent Job' and [sh.Message] like '%The job%') Run_date and run_duration are obvious fields. The field ‘Name’ is the name of the job that we wish to follow. The only major challenge was that the format of the run duration which was not as ‘user friendly’ as I would have liked. As an example, the run duration 1 hour 10 minutes and 3 seconds would be displayed as 11003; whereas I wanted it to display this in a more user friendly manner as 01:10:03. In order to achieve this effect, we need to add leading zeros to the run_duration based upon the case logic shown above. At this point what we need to do add colons between the hours and minutes and one between the minutes and seconds. To achieve this I nested the query shown above (in purple) within a ‘super’ query. Thus the run time ([Run Time]) is constructed concatenating a series of substrings (See below in Blue). select run_date,substring(convert(varchar(20),tt),1,2) + ':' +substring(convert(varchar(20),tt),3,2) + ':' +substring(convert(varchar(20),tt),5,2) as [run_time] from (select sj.name,sh.run_date, sh.run_duration,case when len(sh.run_duration) = 6 then convert(varchar(8),sh.run_duration)when len(sh.run_duration) = 5 then '0' + convert(varchar(8),sh.run_duration)when len(sh.run_duration) = 4 then '00' + convert(varchar(8),sh.run_duration)when len(sh.run_duration) = 3 then '000' + convert(varchar(8),sh.run_duration)when len(sh.run_duration) = 2 then '0000' + convert(varchar(8),sh.run_duration)when len(sh.run_duration) = 1 then '00000' + convert(varchar(8),sh.run_duration)end as ttfrom dbo.sysjobs sj with (nolock)inner join dbo.sysjobHistory sh with (nolock) on sj.job_id = sh.job_id where sj.name = 'My Agent Job'and [sh.Message] like '%The job%') a Now that I had each nightly run time in hours, minutes and seconds (01:10:03), I decided that it would very productive to calculate a rolling run time average. To do this, I decided to do the calculations in base units of seconds. This said, I encapsulated the query shown above into a further ‘super’ query (see the code in RED below). This encapsulation is shown below. The astute reader will note that I used implied casting from integer to string, which is not the best method to use however it works. This said and if I were constructing the query again I would definitely do an explicit convert. To Recap: I now have a key field of ‘1’, each and every applicable run date and the total number of SECONDS that the process ran for each run date, all of this data within the #rawdata1 temporary table. Select 1 as keyy,run_date,(substring(b.run_time,1,2)*3600) + (substring(b.run_time,4,2)*60) + (substring(b.run_time,7,2)) as run_time_in_Seconds,run_time into #rawdata1 from ( select run_date,substring(convert(varchar(20),tt),1,2) + ':' + substring(convert(varchar(20),tt),3,2) + ':' +substring(convert(varchar(20),tt),5,2) as [run_time] from (select sj.name,sh.run_date, sh.run_duration, case when len(sh.run_duration) = 6 then convert(varchar(8),sh.run_duration)when len(sh.run_duration) = 5 then '0' + convert(varchar(8),sh.run_duration)when len(sh.run_duration) = 4 then '00' + convert(varchar(8),sh.run_duration)when len(sh.run_duration)    = 3 then '000' + convert(varchar(8),sh.run_duration)when len(sh.run_duration)    = 2 then '0000' + convert(varchar(8),sh.run_duration)when len(sh.run_duration) = 1 then '00000' + convert(varchar(8),sh.run_duration)end as ttfrom dbo.sysjobs sj with (nolock)inner join dbo.sysjobHistory sh with (nolock)on sj.job_id = sh.job_id where sj.name = 'My Agent Job'and [sh.Message] like '%The job%') a )b   Calculating the average run time We now select each run time in seconds from #rawdata1 and place the values into another temporary table called #rawdata2. Once again we create a ‘key’, a hardwired ‘1’. select 1 as Keyy, run_time_in_Seconds into #rawdata2 from #rawdata1The purpose of doing so is to make the average time AVG() available to the query immediately without having to do adverse grouping. Applying KPI Logic At this point, we shall apply some logic to determine whether processing times are within the norms. We do this by applying colour names. Obviously, this example is a super one for SSRS and traffic light icons.select rd1.run_date, rd1.run_time, rd1.run_time_in_Seconds ,Avg(rd2.run_time_in_Seconds) as Average_run_time_in_seconds,casewhenConvert(decimal(10,1),rd1.run_time_in_Seconds)/Avg(rd2.run_time_in_Seconds)<= 1.2 then 'Green' when Convert(decimal(10,1),rd1.run_time_in_Seconds)/Avg(rd2.run_time_in_Seconds)< 1.4 then 'Yellow' else 'Red'end as [color], Calculating the Average Run Time in Hours Minutes and Seconds and the end of the query. casewhen len(convert(varchar(2),Avg(rd2.run_time_in_Seconds)/(3600))) = 1 then '0' + convert(varchar(2),Avg(rd2.run_time_in_Seconds)/(3600))else convert(varchar(2),Avg(rd2.run_time_in_Seconds)/(3600))end + ':' + case when len(convert(varchar(2),Avg(rd2.run_time_in_Seconds)%(3600)/60)) = 1 then '0' + convert(varchar(2),Avg(rd2.run_time_in_Seconds)%(3600)/60)else convert(varchar(2),Avg(rd2.run_time_in_Seconds)%(3600)/60)end + ':' + case when len(convert(varchar(2),Avg(rd2.run_time_in_Seconds)%60)) = 1 then '0' + convert(varchar(2),Avg(rd2.run_time_in_Seconds)%60)else convert(varchar(2),Avg(rd2.run_time_in_Seconds)%60)end as [Average Run Time HH:MM:SS] from #rawdata2 rd2 innerjoin #rawdata1 rd1on rd1.keyy = rd2.keyygroup by run_date,rd1.run_time ,rd1.run_time_in_Seconds order by run_date descThe complete code example use msdbgo/*drop table #rawdata1drop table #rawdata2go*/select 1 as keyy,run_date,(substring(b.run_time,1,2)*3600) + (substring(b.run_time,4,2)*60) + (substring(b.run_time,7,2)) as run_time_in_Seconds,run_time into #rawdata1 from (select run_date,substring(convert(varchar(20),tt),1,2) + ':' +substring(convert(varchar(20),tt),3,2) + ':' +substring(convert(varchar(20),tt),5,2) as [run_time] from (select name,run_date, run_duration, casewhenlen(run_duration) = 6 then convert(varchar(8),run_duration)whenlen(run_duration) = 5 then '0' + convert(varchar(8),run_duration)whenlen(run_duration) = 4 then '00' + convert(varchar(8),run_duration)whenlen(run_duration) = 3 then '000' + convert(varchar(8),run_duration)whenlen(run_duration) = 2 then '0000' + convert(varchar(8),run_duration)whenlen(run_duration) = 1 then '00000' + convert(varchar(8),run_duration)end as ttfrom dbo.sysjobs sj with (nolock)innerjoin dbo.sysjobHistory sh with (nolock) on sj.job_id = sh.job_id where name = 'My Agent Job'and [Message] like '%The job%') a ) bselect 1 as Keyy, run_time_in_Seconds into #rawdata2 from #rawdata1select rd1.run_date, rd1.run_time, rd1.run_time_in_Seconds ,Avg(rd2.run_time_in_Seconds) as Average_run_time_in_seconds,casewhenConvert(decimal(10,1),rd1.run_time_in_Seconds)/Avg(rd2.run_time_in_Seconds)<= 1.2 then 'Green' when Convert(decimal(10,1),rd1.run_time_in_Seconds)/Avg(rd2.run_time_in_Seconds)< 1.4 then 'Yellow' else 'Red'end as [color],Case when len(convert(varchar(2),Avg(rd2.run_time_in_Seconds)/(3600))) = 1 then '0' + convert(varchar(2),Avg(rd2.run_time_in_Seconds)/(3600))else convert(varchar(2),Avg(rd2.run_time_in_Seconds)/(3600))end + ':' + case when len(convert(varchar(2),Avg(rd2.run_time_in_Seconds)%(3600)/60)) = 1 then '0' + convert(varchar(2),Avg(rd2.run_time_in_Seconds)%(3600)/60)else convert(varchar(2),Avg(rd2.run_time_in_Seconds)%(3600)/60)end + ':' + case when len(convert(varchar(2),Avg(rd2.run_time_in_Seconds)%60)) = 1 then '0' + convert(varchar(2),Avg(rd2.run_time_in_Seconds)%60)else convert(varchar(2),Avg(rd2.run_time_in_Seconds)%60)end as [Average Run Time HH:MM:SS] from #rawdata2 rd2 innerjoin #rawdata1 rd1on rd1.keyy = rd2.keyygroup by run_date,rd1.run_time ,rd1.run_time_in_Seconds order by run_date desc  

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• Partner Webcast: Oracle SOA Governance - 4 October 2012

  - by Thanos

  Oracle is pleased to invite you to a webcast on "Oracle SOA Governance Strategy" intended for our partners. SOA Governance is the framework that enables you to define and enforce rules for communication, collaboration, service development, management and usage across the enterprise and among the decision makers. It also allows you to define metrics to assess the quality of services and to measure their cost and benefits for your organization. Service Oriented Architecture comes with a promise! A promise to make your business more agile by the ability to create reusable services developed and deployed in cooperation between the business and IT. This promise can only be kept, if all the involved parties in your enterprise, across departments communicate and collaborate efficiently on establishing and maintaining and developing the service oriented assets. Such collaboration requires guidance and control. In this webcast you will hear about the key factors needed to establish successful SOA governance both from organizational as well as from technical point of view. Agenda: Introduction to SOA Challenges of SOA governance SOA governance principles Governing Service lifecycle Rules for choosing a service Q&A session Delivery Format This FREE online LIVE eSeminar will be delivered over the Web. Registrations received less than 24hours prior to start time may not receive confirmation to attend. Duration: 1 hour Register Now Also make sure to checkout the relevant SOA Governance Resource Kit For any questions please contact us at [email protected]

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• Partner Webcast: Oracle SOA Governance - 4 October 2012

  - by J Swaroop

  Oracle is pleased to invite you to a webcast on "Oracle SOA Governance Strategy" intended for our partners. SOA Governance is the framework that enables you to define and enforce rules for communication, collaboration, service development, management and usage across the enterprise and among the decision makers. It also allows you to define metrics to assess the quality of services and to measure their cost and benefits for your organization. Service Oriented Architecture comes with a promise! A promise to make your business more agile by the ability to create reusable services developed and deployed in cooperation between the business and IT. This promise can only be kept, if all the involved parties in your enterprise, across departments communicate and collaborate efficiently on establishing and maintaining and developing the service oriented assets. Such collaboration requires guidance and control. In this webcast you will hear about the key factors needed to establish successful SOA governance both from organizational as well as from technical point of view. Agenda: Introduction to SOA Challenges of SOA governance SOA governance principles Governing Service lifecycle Rules for choosing a service Q&A session Delivery Format This FREE online LIVE eSeminar will be delivered over the Web. Registrations received less than 24hours prior to start time may not receive confirmation to attend. Duration: 1 hour Register Now Also make sure to checkout the relevant SOA Governance Resource Kit For any questions please contact us at [email protected]

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

  - by Thanos

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

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• Partner Webcast - Is your Application Ready? Prove it with the Oracle Exastack Program

  - by Thanos

  At Oracle we design Engineered Systems that are pre-integrated to reduce the cost and complexity of IT infrastructures while increasing productivity and performance. Oracle innovates and optimizes performance at every IT layer to simplify business operations, drive down costs and accelerate business innovation.As the Engineered System foundation platform, Oracle Exadata and Oracle Exalogic, run all of Oracle Cloud's services across a range of global data centers, delivering extreme performance, massive scalability, and fault tolerance that has no single point of failure.The Oracle Exastack Program enables you as an ISV to leverage Oracle's scalable, integrated infrastructure to test, tune and optimize your applications for high performance. By getting Exastack Ready and Exastack Optimized, your applications get formal recognition from Oracle and additional visibility, while you as an ISV receive additional set of OPN benefits. Don't miss this opportunity to learn more about how you can optimize your applications to run faster and more reliably leveraging Oracle Exastack, but also become more competitive letting everybody know you are ready. Agenda: Oracle Engineered Systems Strategy OPN Exastack Program Benefits & Objectives Value for You Oracle is resourced for your success How to Apply –Demo Next Steps & Useful contacts Delivery FormatThis FREE online LIVE eSeminar will be delivered over the Web. Registrations received less than 24hours prior to start time may not receive confirmation to attend. Thursday 06 December 2012, 10.00 CET (GMT+1) Duration: 1 hour Register Now! " height="6"> For any questions please contact us at [email protected] our ISV Migration Center blog Or Follow us @oracleimc to learn more on Oracle Technologies, upcoming partner webcasts and events. Existing content available YouTube - SlideShare - Oracle Mix

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• A WPF Image Button

  - by psheriff

  Instead of a normal button with words, sometimes you want a button that is just graphical. Yes, you can put an Image control in the Content of a normal Button control, but you still have the button outline, and trying to change the style can be rather difficult. Instead I like creating a user control that simulates a button, but just accepts an image. Figure 1 shows an example of three of these custom user controls to represent minimize, maximize and close buttons for a borderless window. Notice the highlighted image button has a gray rectangle around it. You will learn how to highlight using the VisualStateManager in this blog post.Figure 1: Creating a custom user control for things like image buttons gives you complete control over the look and feel.I would suggest you read my previous blog post on creating a custom Button user control as that is a good primer for what I am going to expand upon in this blog post. You can find this blog post at http://weblogs.asp.net/psheriff/archive/2012/08/10/create-your-own-wpf-button-user-controls.aspx.The User ControlThe XAML for this image button user control contains just a few controls, plus a Visual State Manager. The basic outline of the user control is shown below:<Border Grid.Row="0"        Name="borMain"        Style="{StaticResource pdsaButtonImageBorderStyle}"        MouseEnter="borMain_MouseEnter"        MouseLeave="borMain_MouseLeave"        MouseLeftButtonDown="borMain_MouseLeftButtonDown">  <VisualStateManager.VisualStateGroups>  ... MORE XAML HERE ...  </VisualStateManager.VisualStateGroups>  <Image Style="{StaticResource pdsaButtonImageImageStyle}"         Visibility="{Binding Path=Visibility}"         Source="{Binding Path=ImageUri}"         ToolTip="{Binding Path=ToolTip}" /></Border>There is a Border control named borMain and a single Image control in this user control. That is all that is needed to display the buttons shown in Figure 1. The definition for this user control is in a DLL named PDSA.WPF. The Style definitions for both the Border and the Image controls are contained in a resource dictionary names PDSAButtonStyles.xaml. Using a resource dictionary allows you to create a few different resource dictionaries, each with a different theme for the buttons.The Visual State ManagerTo display the highlight around the button as your mouse moves over the control, you will need to add a Visual State Manager group. Two different states are needed; MouseEnter and MouseLeave. In the MouseEnter you create a ColorAnimation to modify the BorderBrush color of the Border control. You specify the color to animate as “DarkGray”. You set the duration to less than a second. The TargetName of this storyboard is the name of the Border control “borMain” and since we are specifying a single color, you need to set the TargetProperty to “BorderBrush.Color”. You do not need any storyboard for the MouseLeave state. Leaving this VisualState empty tells the Visual State Manager to put everything back the way it was before the MouseEnter event.<VisualStateManager.VisualStateGroups>  <VisualStateGroup Name="MouseStates">    <VisualState Name="MouseEnter">      <Storyboard>        <ColorAnimation             To="DarkGray"            Duration="0:0:00.1"            Storyboard.TargetName="borMain"            Storyboard.TargetProperty="BorderBrush.Color" />      </Storyboard>    </VisualState>    <VisualState Name="MouseLeave" />  </VisualStateGroup></VisualStateManager.VisualStateGroups>Writing the Mouse EventsTo trigger the Visual State Manager to run its storyboard in response to the specified event, you need to respond to the MouseEnter event on the Border control. In the code behind for this event call the GoToElementState() method of the VisualStateManager class exposed by the user control. To this method you will pass in the target element (“borMain”) and the state (“MouseEnter”). The VisualStateManager will then run the storyboard contained within the defined state in the XAML.private void borMain_MouseEnter(object sender,  MouseEventArgs e){  VisualStateManager.GoToElementState(borMain,    "MouseEnter", true);}You also need to respond to the MouseLeave event. In this event you call the VisualStateManager as well, but specify “MouseLeave” as the state to go to.private void borMain_MouseLeave(object sender, MouseEventArgs e){  VisualStateManager.GoToElementState(borMain,     "MouseLeave", true);}The Resource DictionaryBelow is the definition of the PDSAButtonStyles.xaml resource dictionary file contained in the PDSA.WPF DLL. This dictionary can be used as the default look and feel for any image button control you add to a window. <ResourceDictionary  ... >  <!-- ************************* -->  <!-- ** Image Button Styles ** -->  <!-- ************************* -->  <!-- Image/Text Button Border -->  <Style TargetType="Border"         x:Key="pdsaButtonImageBorderStyle">    <Setter Property="Margin"            Value="4" />    <Setter Property="Padding"            Value="2" />    <Setter Property="BorderBrush"            Value="Transparent" />    <Setter Property="BorderThickness"            Value="1" />    <Setter Property="VerticalAlignment"            Value="Top" />    <Setter Property="HorizontalAlignment"            Value="Left" />    <Setter Property="Background"            Value="Transparent" />  </Style>  <!-- Image Button -->  <Style TargetType="Image"         x:Key="pdsaButtonImageImageStyle">    <Setter Property="Width"            Value="40" />    <Setter Property="Margin"            Value="6" />    <Setter Property="VerticalAlignment"            Value="Top" />    <Setter Property="HorizontalAlignment"            Value="Left" />  </Style></ResourceDictionary>Using the Button ControlOnce you make a reference to the PDSA.WPF DLL from your WPF application you will see the “PDSAucButtonImage” control appear in your Toolbox. Drag and drop the button onto a Window or User Control in your application. I have not referenced the PDSAButtonStyles.xaml file within the control itself so you do need to add a reference to this resource dictionary somewhere in your application such as in the App.xaml.<Application.Resources>  <ResourceDictionary>    <ResourceDictionary.MergedDictionaries>      <ResourceDictionary         Source="/PDSA.WPF;component/PDSAButtonStyles.xaml" />    </ResourceDictionary.MergedDictionaries>  </ResourceDictionary></Application.Resources>This will give your buttons a default look and feel unless you override that dictionary on a specific Window or User Control or on an individual button. After you have given a global style to your application and you drag your image button onto a window, the following will appear in your XAML window.<my:PDSAucButtonImage ... />There will be some other attributes set on the above XAML, but you simply need to set the x:Name, the ToolTip and ImageUri properties. You will also want to respond to the Click event procedure in order to associate an action with clicking on this button. In the sample code you download for this blog post you will find the declaration of the Minimize button to be the following:<my:PDSAucButtonImage       x:Name="btnMinimize"       Click="btnMinimize_Click"       ToolTip="Minimize Application"       ImageUri="/PDSA.WPF;component/Images/Minus.png" />The ImageUri property is a dependency property in the PDSAucButtonImage user control. The x:Name and the ToolTip we get for free. You have to create the Click event procedure yourself. This is also created in the PDSAucButtonImage user control as follows:private void borMain_MouseLeftButtonDown(object sender,  MouseButtonEventArgs e){  RaiseClick(e);}public delegate void ClickEventHandler(object sender,  RoutedEventArgs e);public event ClickEventHandler Click;protected void RaiseClick(RoutedEventArgs e){  if (null != Click)    Click(this, e);}Since a Border control does not have a Click event you will create one by using the MouseLeftButtonDown on the border to fire an event you create called “Click”.SummaryCreating your own image button control can be done in a variety of ways. In this blog post I showed you how to create a custom user control and simulate a button using a Border and Image control. With just a little bit of code to respond to the MouseLeftButtonDown event on the border you can raise your own Click event. Dependency properties, such as ImageUri, allow you to set attributes on your custom user control. Feel free to expand on this button by adding additional dependency properties, change the resource dictionary, and even the animation to make this button look and act like you want.NOTE: You can download the sample code for this article by visiting my website at http://www.pdsa.com/downloads. Select “Tips & Tricks”, then select “A WPF Image  Button” from the drop down list.

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• MSDN Subscriber Benefits

  - by kaleidoscope

  Windows Azure Platform offer Introductory MSDN Premium offer Ongoing MSDN Subscription Benefits Windows Azure Compute hours per month 750 hours 250 100 50 Storage 10 GB 7.5 GB 5 GB 3 GB Transactions per month 1,000,000 750,000 500,000 300,000 AppFabric Service bus messages per month 1,000,000 1,000,000 500,000 300,000 SQL Azure Web Edition (1GB databases) 3 3 2 1 Data Transfers per month Europe and North America 7 GB in / 14 GB out 5 GB in / 10 GB out 3 GB in / 6 GB out 2 GB in / 4 GB out Asia Pacific 2.5 GB in / 5 GB out 2 GB in / 4 GB out 1 GB in / 2 GB out .5 GB in / 1 GB out Available for sign-up January 4, 2010* After completion of your 8 month introductory Windows Azure benefit Duration of benefit 8 months While MSDN Subscription remains active Subscription levels receiving benefit** MSDN Premium & BizSpark Visual Studio Ultimate with MSDN & BizSpark Visual Studio Premium with MSDN Visual Studio Professional with MSDN Estimated Retail Value: $1038 (8 months) $812/year $436/year $223/year This introductory offer will last for 8 months from the time you sign up. After that, you'll cancel your introductory account and sign up for the ongoing MSDN benefit based on your subscription level. The easiest way to cancel your introductory account is to set it to not "auto-renew". Think of "compute" as an instance of your application running in the cloud. So with 750 hours per month, you can keep a single instance running non-stop all month long. Or run 2 compute instances for two weeks a month. Or 4 for a week a piece. Lokesh, M

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• Live Oracle AppAdvantage Webcast in APAC: Register Today

  - by Tanu Sood

  How Oracle Applications Customers can Extend the Value of their Investments How Oracle Applications Customers can Extend the Value of their Investments Oracle AppAdvantage is an exciting new initiative for Oracle enterprise application customers including E-Business Suite, PeopleSoft, JD Edwards, and Siebel. Oracle AppAdvantage provides strategies to help applications customers simplify, differentiate and innovate their investments through a pace layered architecture that can adjust with business requirements.Whether your organization is extending your applications to mobile devices, building a customer self-service portal, taking applications to the cloud, integrating applications with your other business critical applications or securely extending them to serve your specific needs, you can take the extension or customization work out of the applications and seamlessly extend with Oracle Fusion Middleware technologies as required. This webcast will discuss: Strategies to help applications customers simplify, differentiate and innovate their investments through a pace layered architecture How to get started and implementation use cases with customer examples Register today for this webcast on November 6. Can't wait until the Live Webcast? and ask him a question! If you are facing problems with registration or would like further information please email us at [email protected] -- For any questions on Oracle, our events and products please call or send us an email. Date Wednesday, 6th November 2013 Time Mumbai 10:30 a.m. (GMT +5:30) Singapore 1:00 p.m. (GMT +8:00) Sydney 4:00 p.m. (GMT +11:00)   -- The duration of this Webcast is 60 minutes. -- Contact Us | Legal Notices | Privacy Copyright © 2013, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.

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• Partner Webcast – Oracle CRM: The Age of the Customer - 18 July 2013

  - by Thanos

  High-touch solutions for the complete customer experience How does Customer Relationship Management change in "the age of the customer", or does it at all? Customer relationship management has changed over the past years from a pure "inside out" point of view, where the customer is the center of attention to an "outside in" discipline where the customer has become the driving force. Away from the 360° view, through data to a holistic view of the customer’s journey and experience, through behavioral analysis and interaction across all touch points along a lifecycle of a customer relationship. Learn how this approach, integrating sales, service and marketing channels into one cohesive customer experience can drive customer experience and support acquisition, retention and efficiency in your customer relationship. With Oracle's Sales, Service and Marketing cloud offerings, you can be ahead of the game and provide a consistent and personalized voice to your customers, regardless of which channels you favor and your customers prefer. Integrated, cross-channel campaign automation and service delivery, as well as feedback-loops to sales automation, will provide you with tools to achieve top-of-the-line customer experience. Agenda · Oracle Customer Experience - Introduction into a new take on CRM · Oracle Sales Cloud - Integrated Salesforce Automation · Oracle Marketing Cloud - Cross-Channel Campaign Management · Oracle Service Cloud - Channel-blending in service delivery Delivery Format This FREE online LIVE eSeminar will be delivered over the Web. Registrations received less than 24 hours prior to start time may not receive confirmation to attend. Duration: 1 hour REGISTER NOW For any questions please contact us at partner.imc-AT-beehiveonline.oracle-DOT-com.

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• Oracle SOA Suite customer panel: Successful Application Integration & SOA Projects

  - by Simone Geib

  At the recent SOA Suite customer panel, Roger Brown from UNS Energy, Fabio Ravagni from Cencosud and Paras Jain from Cisco discussed their recent SOA Suite implementations, business drivers and challenges, architecture and lessons learned. Roger started by describing how UNS redesigned their internet portal to improve their customer experience and reduce manual steps in their business processes. Through the use of Oracle Service Bus, Oracle BPEL Process Manager and Oracle Business Activity Monitoring, they provided more self-service functionality, automated their business processes and increased the use of their web site by 12.98% for number of visits and 33.58% for average visit duration. The screenshot below shows the UNS architecture: > Next Fabio described the challenges Cencosud faced through continuous expansion of their business, different standards and levels of expertise and large volumes of information. By introducing Oracle SOA Suite, Oracle Data Integrator and Oracle Enterprise Repository, and with the help of Oracle Consulting, they significantly simplified their integration model, reduced their maintenance effort and increased their integration governance. The picture below shows the implemented solution with so far more than 400 services in production and more than 20 ongoing projects, which will make use of the new integration platform. > Last, but not least, Paras discussed the challenges the Webex division of Cisco faced with a highly manual service fulfillment process, multiple data sources and the resulting large room for errror and delay in customer time-to-service. Through a redesign of their order fulfillment process and the introduction of Oracle SOA Suite (see below), they significantly improved their SLAs, eliminated duplicate orders, provided higher visibility into the order process and aligned business and IT. For more information about Oracle OpenWorld SOA & BPM Session, please see the Focus on SOA and BPM document

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• Partner Webcast - Oracle SOA Suite 12c: Connect 4 Cloud, Mobile, IoT with On-premise

  - by Thanos Terentes Printzios

  The pace of new business projects continues to grow from increasing customer self-service to seamlessly connecting all your back office and in-the-field applications. At the same time increased integration complexity may seem inevitable as organizations are suddenly faced with the requirement to support three new integration challenges:  » Cloud Integration - integrate with the cloud, rapidly integrate a growing list of cloud applications with existing applications » Mobile Integration - the urgency to mobile-enable existing applications » IoT Integration - begin development on the latest trend of connecting Internet of Things (IoT) devices to your existing infrastructure. Oracle SOA Suite 12c, the latest version of the industry’s most complete and unified application integration and SOA solution, aims to simplify, accelerate and optimize integrations. Oracle SOA Suite 12c and its associated products, Oracle Managed File Transfer, Oracle Cloud and Application Adapters, B2B and healthcare integration, offer the industry’s most highly integrated platform for solving the increased integration challenges. Oracle SOA Suite 12c is a complete, integrated and best-of-breed platform. It enables next generation integration capabilities through: · A unified toolset for the development of services and composite applications.· A standards-based platform that is service enabled and easily consumable by modern web applications, allowing enterprises to quickly and easily adapt to changes in their business and IT environments.· Greater visibility, controls and analytics to govern how services and processes are deployed, reused and changed across their entire lifecycle. Join us to find out more about the new features of Oracle SOA Suite 12c and how it enables you to reduce time to market for new project integration and to reduce integration cost and complexity. Oracle SOA Suite is the ability to simplify by integrating the disparate requirements of cloud, mobile, and IoT devices with existing on-premise applications. Agenda: Oracle SOA Suite 12c new Features Cloud Integration Mobile Enablement Internet of Things (IoT) Summary - Q&A Delivery Format This FREE online LIVE eSeminar will be delivered over the Web. Registrations received less than 24hours prior to start time may not receive confirmation to attend. Presenter: Heba Fouad – FMW Specialist, Technology Adoption, ECEMEA Partner Business Development Date: Thursday, August 28th, 10pm CEST (8am UTC/11am EEST)Duration: 1 hour Register Here For any questions please contact us at partner.imc-AT-beehiveonline.oracle-DOT-com

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• What is the Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) Act?

  In 2002 after the wake of the Enron and World Com Financial scandals Senator Paul Sarbanes and Representative Michael Oxley lead the creation of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. This act administered by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) dramatically altered corporate financial practices and data governance. In addition, it also set specific deadlines for compliance. The Sarbanes-Oxley is not a set of standard business rules and does not specify how a company should retain its records; In fact, this act outlines which pieces of data are to be stored as well as the storage duration. The SOX act targets the financial side of companies, but its impacts can be seen within the technology arena as well because it is their responsibility to store all of a company’s electronic records regardless of file type. This act specifies that all records and electronic messages must be saved for no less than five years according to SearchCIO. In addition, consequences for non-compliance are fines, imprisonment, or both. Sarbanes-Oxley Act: Rules that affect the management of Electronic records according to SearchCIO. Allowed practices regarding destruction, alteration, or falsification of records. Retention period for records storage. Best practices indicate that corporations securely store all business records using the same guidelines set for public accountants. Types of business records that need to be stored Business Records  Business Communications Including Electronic Communications References: SOXLaw: The Sarbanes-Oxley Act 2002 Retrieved May 2011 from http://www.soxlaw.com/ SearchCIO: What is Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX)? Retrieved May 2011 from http://searchcio.techtarget.com/definition/Sarbanes-Oxley-Act

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• Partner Webcast – Introducing Oracle Business Activity Monitoring - 18 October 2012

  - by Thanos

  Oracle Business Activity Monitoring (Oracle BAM), a component of both SOA Suite and BPM Suite, is a complete solution for building interactive, real-time dashboards and proactive alerts for monitoring business processes and services. Oracle BAM gives both business executives and operational manager’s timely information to make better business decisions.  A Real-time Business Visibility Solution that allows to monitor business services and processes in the enterprise, to correlate KPIs down to the actual business process themselves, and most important, to change business processes quickly or to take corrective action if the business environment changes. Let us show you how BAM provides a powerful insight, through Real-Time Dashboards, that can be a competitive edge for all your customers. Agenda: Oracle BAM Overview Business Problems New Approach with Oracle BAM 11g Demonstration Summary & Q&A Delivery Format This FREE online LIVE eSeminar will be delivered over the Web. Registrations received less than 24hours prior to start time may not receive confirmation to attend. Duration: 1 hour Register Now Send your questions and migration/upgrade requests [email protected] Visit regularly our ISV Migration Center blog or Follow us @oracleimc to learn more on Oracle Technologies, upcoming partner webcasts and events. All content is made available through our YouTube - SlideShare - Oracle Mix.

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• Partner Webcast - Rethink HR! Introducing New Fusion HCM - 05 July 2012

  - by Thanos

  Introducing New Cloud Applications from the Leader in Human Capital Management Customers are constantly looking for better ways to manage talent, develop leaders, engage with employees, and strategically plan their workforce. To meet these challenges, you need modern applications that can efficiently deliver analytical insights, collaborative tools, and a personalized user experience. That's why Oracle has rethought the business of HR to provide value to the entire organization—from HR professionals to employees to managers. With Oracle Fusion Human Capital Management, you can: Do things your way with a role-centric user experience that can be personalized to the way you work Know your people better with the most complete HR business intelligence capabilities Work as a team by quickly finding and connecting with peers and experts to deliver concrete results Leverage enterprise-grade software as a service (SaaS) to get up and running fast and securely Our speaker, Csaba Fehér, HCM Senior Sales Consultant, will share how Oracle Fusion Human Capital Management can deliver immediate business value with new techniques and the latest innovations to address your toughest concerns, including how to: Align compensation and performance Organize and calibrate critical talent Predict key workforce trends and risks Delivery FormatThis FREE online LIVE eSeminar will be delivered over the Web. Registrations received less than 24hours prior to start time may not receive confirmation to attend. Duration: 1 hour Register Now! For any questions please contact us at [email protected]

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• Partner Webcast – Implementing Web Services & SOA Security with Oracle Fusion Middleware - 20 September 2012

  - by Thanos

  Security was always one of the main pain points for the IT industry, and new security challenges has been introduced with the proliferation  of the service-oriented approach to building modern software. Oracle Fusion Middleware provides a wide variety of features that ease the building service-oriented solutions, but how these services can be secured?Should we implement the security features in each and every service or there’s a better way? During the webinar we are going to show how to implement non-intrusive declarative security for your SOA components by introducing the Oracle product portfolio in this area, such as Oracle Web Services Manager and Oracle IDM. Agenda: SOA & Web Services basics: quick refresher Building your SOA with Oracle Fusion Middleware: product review Common security risks in the Web Services world SOA & Web Services security standards Implementing Web Services Security with the Oracle products Web Services Security with Oracle – the big picture Declarative end point security with Oracle Web Services Manager Perimeter Security with Oracle Enterprise Gateway Utilizing the other Oracle IDM products for the advanced scenarios Q&A session Delivery Format This FREE online LIVE eSeminar will be delivered over the Web. Registrations received less than 24hours prior to start time may not receive confirmation to attend. Thursday, September 20, 2012 - 10:00 AM to 11:00 AM CET (GMT/UTC+1)Duration: 1 hour Register Now Send your questions and migration/upgrade requests [email protected] Visit regularly our ISV Migration Center blog or Follow us @oracleimc to learn more on Oracle Technologies, upcoming partner webcasts and events. All content is made available through our YouTube - SlideShare - Oracle Mix.

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• Win a Free Copy of Windows Presentation Foundation 4.5 Cookbook

  - by Ricardo Peres

  Win A free copy of the 'Windows Presentation Foundation 4.5 Cookbook', just by commenting! For the contest, Packt Publishing has two eBook copies of Windows Presentation Foundation 4.5 Cookbookto be given away to two lucky winners. How you can win: To win your copy of this book, all you need to do is come up with a comment below highlighting the reason "why you would like to win this book”. Duration of the contest & selection of winners: The contest is valid for 7 days (until November 26), and is open to everyone. Winners will be selected on the basis of their comment posted. Windows Presentation Foundation 4.5 Cookbookis written by Pavel Yosifovich, the CTO of CodeValue (http://www.codevalue.net), a software development, consulting, and training company, based in Israel. This book is written in an easy-to-read style, with a strong emphasis on real-world, practical examples. Step-by-step explanations are provided for performing important tasks. This book is the best guide for C# developer who is looking forward to increase understanding and knowledge of WPF. Using this book, readers will learn to build complex and flexible user interfaces using XAML, perform lengthy operations asynchronously while keeping the UI responsive, get well-versed with WPF features such as data binding, layout, resources, templates, and styles and also customize a control’s template to alter appearance but preserve behavior. In the next days I will post my review on this book. In the meantime, here’s the table of contents: Preface Chapter 1: Foundations Chapter 2: Resources Chapter 3: Layout and Panels Chapter 4: Using Standard Controls Chapter 5: Application and Windows Chapter 6: Data Binding Chapter 7: Commands and MVVM Chapter 8: Styles, Triggers, and Control Templates Chapter 9: Graphics and Animation Chapter 10: Custom Elements Chapter 11: Threading Index I’m waiting for your comments!

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• Implementing SOA & Security with Oracle Fusion Middleware in your solution – partner webcast September 20th 2012

  - by JuergenKress

  Security was always one of the main pain points for the IT industry, and new security challenges has been introduced with the proliferation  of the service-oriented approach to building modern software. Oracle Fusion Middleware provides a wide variety of features that ease the building service-oriented solutions, but how these services can be secured? Should we implement the security features in each and every service or there’s a better way? During the webinar we are going to show how to implement non-intrusive declarative security for your SOA components by introducing the Oracle product portfolio in this area, such as Oracle Web Services Manager and Oracle Enterprise Gateway. Agenda: SOA & Web Services basics: quick refresher Building your SOA with Oracle Fusion Middleware: product review Common security risks in the Web Services world SOA & Web Services security standards Implementing Web Services Security with the Oracle products Web Services Security with Oracle – the big picture Declarative end point security with Oracle Web Services Manager Perimeter Security with Oracle Enterprise Gateway Utilizing the other Oracle IDM products for the advanced scenarios Q&A session Delivery Format This FREE online LIVE eSeminar will be delivered over the Web. Registrations received less than 24hours prior to start time may not receive confirmation to attend. Duration: 1 hour Register Now Send your questions and migration/upgrade requests [email protected] Visit regularly our ISV Migration Center blog or Follow us @oracleimc to learn more on Oracle Technologies, upcoming partner webcasts and events. All content is made available through our YouTube - SlideShare - Oracle Mix. SOA & BPM Partner Community For regular information on Oracle SOA Suite become a member in the SOA & BPM Partner Community for registration please visit  www.oracle.com/goto/emea/soa (OPN account required) If you need support with your account please contact the Oracle Partner Business Center. Blog Twitter LinkedIn Mix Forum Technorati Tags: Technorati Tags: ISV migration center,SOA,IDM,SOA Community,Oracle SOA,Oracle BPM,BPM,Community,OPN,Jürgen Kress

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• Recommended main loop style

  - by Frootmig-H

  I've just begun attempting an FPS with JMonkeyEngine, but I'm currently stuck as to the best way to implement the main loop - especially with regards to non-instantaneous user actions. By that, I mean things like reloading a weapon. The user starts the action, and it continues for a while with an animation and some sound, and when it completes, game state updates. (I should mention that it's not technically a loop, it's an update method, called as often as possible. Is that different? Me no understand terminology). So, far I've considered : Animation driven Player presses reload Start reload animation If user stars another action, abort animation, start new action. When the animation_complete event is received (JMonkeyEngine provides this), update ammo counters. Event driven Player presses reload Start reload animation Queue up a out-of-thread method to be called at time t + (duration of reload animation) If user starts another action, cancel both animation and queued method. When queued method executes, update ammo. This avoids relying on the animation event (JMonkeyEngine has a particular quirk), but brings in the possibility of thread problems. 'Blocking' (not sure of the correct term) Player presses reload Start reloading animation reloading = true reloadedStartTime = now while (reloading && ((now - reloadingStartTime) < reloadingDuration)) { If user starts another action, break and cancel reloading. } Update ammo counters reloading = false My main concern is that actions can interrupt each other. Reloading can be interrupted by firing, or by dropping or changing weapon, crouching can be interrupted by running, etc. What's the recommended way to handle this? What are the advantages and disadvantages of each method? I'm leaning towards event-driven, even though it requires more care; failing that, blocking.

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• CodePlex Daily Summary for Tuesday, May 27, 2014

  CodePlex Daily Summary for Tuesday, May 27, 2014Popular ReleasesAD4 Application Designer for flow based .NET applications: AD4.AppDesigner.18.11: AD4.Iteration.18.11(Rendering of flow chart) Bugfix: AppWrapperClassContainer MakeWrapperBuildInstances MakeFlowClassCtor Note: Currently not all elements are shown in flow chart area! This version is able to generate the source code of some samples. See: Sample Applications (You find the flow description in the documents folder of each sample). The gluing code of the AD4.AppDesigner was created by the previous version of the AD4.AppDesigner. You find the current app definition in t...ClosedXML - The easy way to OpenXML: ClosedXML 0.71.1: More performance improvements. It's faster and consumes less memory.SQL Server Change Data Capture Application: Release 1: This is the initial release of SQLCDCApp. Download the zip file. Unzip and run SQLCDCApp.exe to start.Role Based Views in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011: Role Based Views in CRM 2011 and 2013 - 1.1.0.0: Issues fixed in this build: 1. Works for CRM 2013 2. Lookup view not getting blockedMathos Parser: 1.0.6.1 + source code: Removed the bug with comma/dot reported and fixed by Diego.Dynamics AX Build Scripts: DynamicsAXCommunity Powershell module (0.3.0): Change log(previous release was 0.2.4) 0.3.0 AxBuild (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dn528954.aspx) is supported and used by default. Smarter dealing with versions - e.g. listing configurations for all versions in the same time. $AxVersionPreference shouldn't be normally needed. Additional properties returned by Get-AXConfig. 0.2.5 -StartupCmd and -Wait added to Start-AXClient. Handles console output sent from AX (http://dev.goshoom.net/en/2012/05/console-output-ax/).xFunc: xFunc 2.15.6: Fidex #77QuickMon: Version 3.12: This release is mostly just to improve the UI for the Windows client. There are a few minor fixes as well. 1. Polling frequency presets fixed (slow, normal and fast) 2. Added collector call duration to history 3. History now displays time, state, duration and details in separate columns 4. Added a quick launch drop down list to main Window (only visible when mouse hover over it) 5. Removed the toolbar border. 6. Changed Windows service collector to report error only when all services from al...VK.NET - Vkontakte API for .NET: VkNet 1.0.5: ?????????? ????? ??????.Kartris E-commerce: Kartris v2.6002: Minor release: Double check that Logins_GetList sproc is present, sometimes seems to get missed earlier if upgrading which can give error when viewing logins page Added CSV and TXT export option; this is not Google Products compatible, but can give a good base for creating a file for some other systems such as Amazon Fixed some minor combination and options issues to improve interface back and front Turn bitcoin and some other gateways off by default Minor CSS changes Fixed currenc...SimCityPak: SimCityPak 0.3.1.0: Main New Features: Fixed Importing of Instance Names (get rid of the Dutch translations) Added advanced editor for Decal Dictionaries Added possibility to import .PNG to generate new decals Added advanced editor for Path display entriesTiny Deduplicator: Tiny Deduplicator 1.0.1.0: Increased version number to 1.0.1.0 Moved all options to a separate 'Options' dialog window. Allows the user to specify a selection strategy which will help when dealing with large numbers of duplicate files. Available options are "None," "Keep First," and "Keep Last"C64 Studio: 3.5: Add: BASIC renumber function Add: !PET pseudo op Add: elseif for !if, } else { pseudo op Add: !TRACE pseudo op Add: Watches are saved/restored with a solution Add: Ctrl-A works now in export assembly controls Add: Preliminary graphic import dialog (not fully functional yet) Add: range and block selection in sprite/charset editor (Shift-Click = range, Alt-Click = block) Fix: Expression evaluator could miscalculate when both division and multiplication were in an expression without parenthesisSEToolbox: SEToolbox 01.031.009 Release 1: Added mirroring of ConveyorTubeCurved. Updated Ship cube rotation to rotate ship back to original location (cubes are reoriented but ship appears no different to outsider), and to rotate Grouped items. Repair now fixes the loss of Grouped controls due to changes in Space Engineers 01.030. Added export asteroids. Rejoin ships will merge grouping and conveyor systems (even though broken ships currently only maintain the Grouping on one part of the ship). Installation of this version wi...Player Framework by Microsoft: Player Framework for Windows and WP v2.0: Support for new Universal and Windows Phone 8.1 projects for both Xaml and JavaScript projects. See a detailed list of improvements, breaking changes and a general overview of version 2 ADDITIONAL DOWNLOADSSmooth Streaming Client SDK for Windows 8 Applications Smooth Streaming Client SDK for Windows 8.1 Applications Smooth Streaming Client SDK for Windows Phone 8.1 Applications Microsoft PlayReady Client SDK for Windows 8 Applications Microsoft PlayReady Client SDK for Windows 8.1 Applicat...TerraMap (Terraria World Map Viewer): TerraMap 1.0.6: Added support for the new Terraria v1.2.4 update. New items, walls, and tiles Added the ability to select multiple highlighted block types. Added a dynamic, interactive highlight opacity slider, making it easier to find highlighted tiles with dark colors (and fixed blurriness from 1.0.5 alpha). Added ability to find Enchanted Swords (in the stone) and Water Bolt books Fixed Issue 35206: Hightlight/Find doesn't work for Demon Altars Fixed finding Demon Hearts/Shadow Orbs Fixed inst...DotNet.Highcharts: DotNet.Highcharts 4.0 with Examples: DotNet.Highcharts 4.0 Tested and adapted to the latest version of Highcharts 4.0.1 Added new chart type: Heatmap Added new type PointPlacement which represents enumeration or number for the padding of the X axis. Changed target framework from .NET Framework 4 to .NET Framework 4.5. Closed issues: 974: Add 'overflow' property to PlotOptionsColumnDataLabels class 997: Split container from JS 1006: Series/Categories with numeric names don't render DotNet.Highcharts.Samples Updated s...PowerShell App Deployment Toolkit: PowerShell App Deployment Toolkit v3.1.3: Added CompressLogs option to the config file. Each Install / Uninstall creates a timestamped zip file with all MSI and PSAppDeployToolkit logs contained within Added variable expansion to all paths in the configuration file Added documentation for each of the Toolkit internal variables that can be used Changed Install-MSUpdates to continue if any errors are encountered when installing updates Implement /Force parameter on Update-GroupPolicy (ensure that any logoff message is ignored) ...WordMat: WordMat v. 1.07: A quick fix because scientific notation was broken in v. 1.06 read more at http://wordmat.blogspot.com????: 《????》: 《????》（c???）??“????”???????，???????????????C?????????。???????,???????????????????????. ??????????????????????????????????；????????????????????????????。New Projects2112110016: BÀI T?P OOP2112110072: 2112110072 Bai tap OOPA more efficient algorithm for an NP-complete problem: Algorithm for finding Hamiltonian cycle.Asprise OCR for C#/VB.NET Sample Applications: Embeded with a high performance OCR (optical character recognition) engine, Asprise OCR SDK library for Java, VB.NET, CSharp.NET, VC++, VB6.0, C, C++, Delphi onDisenio1Obli1: Obligatorio desarrollado por Santiago Perez y Germán Otero Universidad ORT, Año 2014DuAnCuoiKy: lap trinh windows form cuoi ky, quan ly sinh vien truong hoc student management systemEnterprise Integration and BPM - A WF Integration and BPM blueprint: A CQRS based EAI (Enterprise Application Integration) and BMP (Business Process Management) blueprint using Message Queues and Windows Workflow Foundation.GU.ERP: saLaunchPad2: A remote device timing and control systemNMusicCreator: A simple program for creating music.PPM: ??SharePoint 2013 Latency Health Analyzer Rule: Analyze network latency for all SQL Servers using this custom health analyzer rule.SnapPea: A simple MVC content management system.The Bubble Index: The Bubble Index, a Java (TM) application to measure the level of financial bubbles. Published with GNU General Public License version 2 (GPLv2).Tools for Manufacturing: t4mfg is a set of programs to be used by small to medium sized companies that manufacture goods to order.Unix Project Template: A simple framework for creating unix projects using C++ and make.

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• Partner Webcast: Implementing on SOA - A Hands-On Technology Demonstration

  - by Thanos

  Service Oriented Architecture enables organizations to operate more efficiently and react faster to opportunities. How? By helping you create a flexible application architecture that supports greater business agility. You decide how quickly you want to move. You can start by implementing an application integration platform. Then, you can evolve your environment gradually by introducing business process management, business rules, governance and event processing. This unified but flexible approach also allows you to maximize the long-term cost reduction benefits of SOA and cloud-based applications. In this session, you dive into SOA Suite and you will see the usage of some advanced features. The topics covered range from adapters, automatic and custom business process correlation through service routing, rule based and manual decisions and to error handling, compensations and extending SOA Suite with your own Java code. Agenda: Service Oriented Architecture The Auctions Scenario Live Demo of the Oracle SOA Suite Features Connecting to non service enabled technologies with adapters (Database and File adapter) Orchestrating services with BPEL processes Correlating processes with correlation sets Mediating services Service Component Architecture Event Handling User Notification Human Workflow Business Rules Fault Handling patterns Developing custom components with Spring and using them in SOA Suite composites Delivery Format This FREE online LIVE eSeminar will be delivered over the Web. Registrations received less than 24hours prior to start time may not receive confirmation to attend. Duration: 1 hour Register Now For all your questions and support requests to adopt and implement the latest Oracle technologies please contact us at [email protected]

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• Representing and executing simple rules - framework or custom?

  - by qtips

  I am creating a system where users will be able to subscribe to events, and get notified when the event has occured. Example of events can be phone call durations and costs, phone data traffic notations, and even stock rate changes. Example of events: customer 13532 completed a call with duration 11:45 min and cost $0.4 stock rate for Google decreased with 0.01% Customers can subscribe to events using some simple rules e.g. When stock rate of Google decreases more than 0.5% When the cost of a call of my subscription is over $1 Now, as the set of different rules is currently predefined, I can easily create a custom implemention that applies rules to an event. But if the set of rules could be much larger, and if we also allow for custom rules (e.g. when stock rate of Google decreses more than 0.5% AND stock rate of Apple increases with 0.5%), the system should be able to adapt. I am therefore thinking of a system that can interpret rules using a simple grammer and then apply them. After som research I found that there exists rule-based engines that can be used, but I am unsure as they seem too complicated and may be a little overkill for my situation. Is there a Java framework suited for this area? Should we use framework, a rule engine, or should we create something custom? What are the pros and cons?

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• Partner Webcast - Oracle Reports to BI Publisher migration

  - by dmitry.nefedkin(at)oracle.com

  Normal 0 false false false RU X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";} Monday, March 21, 2011 9 a.m. CET (10 a.m. EET) Description Oracle Reports, a component of Oracle Fusion Middleware is Oracle's classic, high-fidelity enterprise reporting tool. Oracle remains committed to the development of this technology, and to the ongoing release as a component of the Oracle Fusion Middleware platform, but also enables conversion of Oracle Reports to Oracle BI Publisher. Oracle Business Intelligence Publisher (BI Publisher)--Oracle's enterprise reporting server to author, manage, and deliver all types of highly formatted documents. Extremely efficient and highly scalable, BI Publisher can generate tens of thousands of documents per hour with minimal impact to transactional systems. After a quick introduction to BI Publisher we will look at the process of Oracle Reports to BI Publisher convestion. AgendaOracle Reports strategy & support policyReporting challengesBenefits of BI PublisherOracle Reports -> BI Publisher Conversion UtilityDemoUpgrade BI Publisher to 11gQ&A Delivery Format This Free online Live Internet Seminar will be delivered over the Web and Conference Call. Duration: 1hour To register, click HERE. For any questions please contact [email protected].

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• Strict Pomodoro and other time management Chrome extensions

  - by kerry

  I have recently begun using the Pomodoro Technique to increase my productivity. However, I still find myself getting sucked in to the vortex of useless information that is the internet. With that in mind I began searching for a useful chrome extension to replace the Android Pomodoro app I have been using to manage my ‘doros. I even considered writing it myself. Luckily, I stumbled on one that had a similar featureset to what I was looking for. Strict Pomodoro is an excellent Chrome extension for practicing Pomodoro. Though lacking a few key features, such as the ability to set the duration of your pomodoros and breaks, it still has a key feature that helps me stay on task. It blocks time sucking websites. You can set filter lists and it will keep you from accessing them during a Pomodoro. Effectively reminding you to stay on task. Also, the author readily admits that it was quickly put together and new features may be added down the road. For now, it is still an excellent option. For those of you who do not practice Pomodoro but are trying to stay on task. The StayFocusd extension will effectively manage the amount of time you spend on useless (non-productive) sites. It also has a rich feature set that may be better for your work habits. OK, breaks over. Time to get back to work. 25 minutes at a time.

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