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  • HTML tables in JTextPane showing weird "form" boxes

    - by Ted
    import java.awt.BorderLayout; import java.awt.EventQueue; import javax.swing.JFrame; import javax.swing.JPanel; import javax.swing.JTextPane; import javax.swing.border.EmptyBorder; import javax.swing.text.Document; import javax.swing.text.html.HTMLEditorKit; import javax.swing.text.html.StyleSheet; public class htmlEditor2 extends JFrame { private JPanel contentPane; public static void main(String[] args) { EventQueue.invokeLater(new Runnable() { public void run() { try { htmlEditor2 frame = new htmlEditor2(); frame.setVisible(true); } catch (Exception e) { e.printStackTrace(); } } }); } public htmlEditor2() { setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE); setBounds(100, 100, 450, 300); contentPane = new JPanel(); contentPane.setBorder(new EmptyBorder(5, 5, 5, 5)); contentPane.setLayout(new BorderLayout(0, 0)); setContentPane(contentPane); Foo f = new Foo(); f.setText("<html><body><table border=\"1\" width=\"985\" cellpadding=\"3\" cellspacing=\"0\" style=\"table-layout: fixed; border-collapse: collapse; border-width: 0px; border-color: #010101; \"><colgroup><col width=\"328\"></col> <col width=\"328\"></col> <col width=\"328\"></col> </colgroup><tr><td align=\"left\" valign=\"top\" width=\"321\" style=\"border: solid #010101 1px; \"><div align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\"><span style=\"font-size:8pt\">row 1</span></font></div></td><td align=\"left\" valign=\"top\" width=\"321\" style=\"border: solid #010101 1px; \"><div align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\"><span style=\"font-size:8pt\">row2</span></font></div></td><td align=\"left\" valign=\"top\" width=\"321\" style=\"border: solid #010101 1px; \"><div align=\"left\"><font face=\"Arial\"><span style=\"font-size:8pt\">row3</span></font></div></td></tr><tr><td align=\"left\" valign=\"top\" width=\"321\" style=\"border: solid #010101 1px; \"><div align=\"left\"><span style=\"font-size: 8pt;\">&nbsp;</span></div></td><td align=\"left\" valign=\"top\" width=\"321\" style=\"border: solid #010101 1px; \"><div align=\"left\"><span style=\"font-size: 8pt;\">&nbsp;</span></div></td><td align=\"left\" valign=\"top\" width=\"321\" style=\"border: solid #010101 1px; \"><div align=\"left\"><span style=\"font-size: 8pt;\">&nbsp;</span></div></td></tr><tr><td align=\"left\" valign=\"top\" width=\"321\" style=\"border: solid #010101 1px; \"><div align=\"left\"><span style=\"font-size: 8pt;\">&nbsp;</span></div></td><td align=\"left\" valign=\"top\" width=\"321\" style=\"border: solid #010101 1px; \"><div align=\"left\"><span style=\"font-size: 8pt;\">&nbsp;</span></div></td><td align=\"left\" valign=\"top\" width=\"321\" style=\"border: solid #010101 1px; \"><div align=\"left\"><span style=\"font-size: 8pt;\">&nbsp;</span></div></td></tr></table><div align=\"left\">&nbsp;&nbsp;</div></body></html>"); contentPane.add(f); } class Foo extends JTextPane { public Foo() { super(); HTMLEditorKit kit = new HTMLEditorKit(); setEditorKit(kit); StyleSheet styleSheet = kit.getStyleSheet(); styleSheet.addRule(""); //in case I need to add a CSS Document doc = kit.createDefaultDocument(); setDocument(doc); } } } I would paste a nicely formatted version of the html, but I'm not sure how to do it on here... So yeah.. I just want to know how to get rid of those weird colgroup and col boxes in my table and how to make the table work normally! Thanks yall!

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  • Fibre channel long distance woes

    - by Marki
    I need a fresh pair of eyes. We're using a 15km fibre optic line across which fibrechannel and 10GbE is multiplexed (passive optical CWDM). For FC we have long distance lasers suitable up to 40km (Skylane SFCxx0404F0D). The multiplexer is limited by the SFPs which can do max. 4Gb fibrechannel. The FC switch is a Brocade 5000 series. The respective wavelengths are 1550,1570,1590 and 1610nm for FC and 1530nm for 10GbE. The problem is the 4GbFC fabrics are almost never clean. Sometimes they are for a while even with a lot of traffic on them. Then they may suddenly start producing errors (RX CRC, RX encoding, RX disparity, ...) even with only marginal traffic on them. I am attaching some error and traffic graphs. Errors are currently in the order of 50-100 errors per 5 minutes when with 1Gb/s traffic. Optics Here is the power output of one port summarized (collected using sfpshow on different switches) SITE-A units=uW (microwatt) SITE-B ********************************************** FAB1 SW1 TX 1234.3 RX 49.1 SW3 1550nm (ko) RX 95.2 TX 1175.6 FAB2 SW2 TX 1422.0 RX 104.6 SW4 1610nm (ok) RX 54.3 TX 1468.4 What I find curious at this point is the asymmetry in the power levels. While SW2 transmits with 1422uW which SW4 receives with 104uW, SW2 only receives the SW4 signal with similar original power only with 54uW. Vice versa for SW1-3. Anyway the SFPs have RX sensitivity down to -18dBm (ca. 20uW) so in any case it should be fine... But nothing is. Some SFPs have been diagnosed as malfunctioning by the manufacturer (the 1550nm ones shown above with "ko"). The 1610nm ones apparently are ok, they have been tested using a traffic generator. The leased line has also been tested more than once. All is within tolerances. I'm awaiting the replacements but for some reason I don't believe it will make things better as the apparently good ones don't produce ZERO errors either. Earlier there was active equipment involved (some kind of 4GFC retimer) before putting the signal on the line. No idea why. That equipment was eliminated because of the problems so we now only have: the long distance laser in the switch, (new) 10m LC-SC monomode cable to the mux (for each fabric), the leased line, the same thing but reversed on the other side of the link. FC switches Here is a port config from the Brocade portcfgshow (it's like that on both sides, obviously) Area Number: 0 Speed Level: 4G Fill Word(On Active) 0(Idle-Idle) Fill Word(Current) 0(Idle-Idle) AL_PA Offset 13: OFF Trunk Port ON Long Distance LS VC Link Init OFF Desired Distance 32 Km Reserved Buffers 70 Locked L_Port OFF Locked G_Port OFF Disabled E_Port OFF Locked E_Port OFF ISL R_RDY Mode OFF RSCN Suppressed OFF Persistent Disable OFF LOS TOV enable OFF NPIV capability ON QOS E_Port OFF Port Auto Disable: OFF Rate Limit OFF EX Port OFF Mirror Port OFF Credit Recovery ON F_Port Buffers OFF Fault Delay: 0(R_A_TOV) NPIV PP Limit: 126 CSCTL mode: OFF Forcing the links to 2GbFC produces no errors, but we bought 4GbFC and we want 4GbFC. I don't know where to look anymore. Any ideas what to try next or how to proceed? If we can't make 4GbFC work reliably I wonder what the people working with 8 or 16 do... I don't assume that "a few errors here and there" are acceptable. Oh and BTW we are in contact with everyone of the manufacturers (FC switch, MUX, SFPs, ...) Except for the SFPs to be changed (some have been changed before) nobody has a clue. Brocade SAN Health says the fabric is ok. MUX, well, it's passive, it's only a prism, nature at it's best. Any shots in the dark? APPENDIX: Answers to your questions @Chopper3: This is the second generation of Brocades exhibiting the problem. Before we had 5000s, now we have 5100s. In the beginning when we still had the active MUX we rented a longdistance laser once to put it into the switch directly in order to make tests for a day, during that day of course it was clean. But as I said, sometimes it's clean just like that. And sometimes it's not. Alternative switches would mean to rebuild the entire SAN with those only to test. Alternative SFPs, well they're hard to come by just like that. @longneck: The line is rented. It's a dark fibre (9um monomode) so there's noone else on it. Sure there are splices. I can't go and look but I have to trust they have been done correctly. As I said the line has been checked and rechecked (using an optical time-domain reflectometer). Obviously you don't have all this equipment yourself because it's way too expensive. @mdpc: What would be the "wrong" type of cable according to you? Up to the switch everything is monomode, yes. The connectors are the correct ones too. Yeah I know there are the green ones where the fibre is cut off at a certain angle etc. But we have the correct ones for all that I know. Progress Report #1 We have had two fabrics (=2x2 switches) with Brocade 5100s with FabricOS 6.4.1 and two fabrics (another 2x4 switches) on FabricOS 7.0.2. On the longdistance ISLs (one in each fabric) it turned out that with FOS 6.4.1 setting it to long distance issues warnings about the VC Init setting and consequently the fill word. But those are only warnings. FOS 7.0.2 requires you to do modifications to VCI and the fillword for long distance links. Setting FOS 6.4.1 to the LS (long-distance static distance) setting with wrong VCI and fillword setting made the whole fabric inoperational (stuck in an SCN loop, use fabriclog -s to see, you don't see it anywhere else, no port error counters or anything increasing). Currently I'm giving the one fabric with the IMHO more correct settings a beating and it seems to do fine, whereas the other one without much traffic still has errors here and there. In short: We have eliminated the active part of the MUX (the FC retimer). We are putting the long distance SFPs into the end equipment themselves. Just to be sure we bought new monomode cables to connect the end equipment to the remaining passive part of the MUX. We are now trying out several long distance configs. It's almost black magic. Everything that happens is mostly empirical, noone seems to have a clue what are the exact reasons to do something. ("We have tried this, and it didn't work, then we tried that and it worked, so we stuck with that." But noone really seems to know why.) I'll keep you updated. Progress Report #2 We got the new lasers for one of the fabrics on warranty. It's ultra clean even on 4GbFC. They're transmitting with roughly 2mW (3dBm) whereas the others are only at 1.5mW (1.5dBm) although that should really be enough. The other fabric (where the lasers are apparently ok) still produces one or two CRCs infrequently. Using sfpshow the SFP producing the actual RX errors shows Status/Ctrl: 0x82 Alarm flags[0,1] = 0x5, 0x40 Warn Flags[0,1] = 0x5, 0x40 Now I'll have to find out what that means. Not sure if it was there before. Well I'll first clear my head with a week of vacation. 8-)

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  • West Wind WebSurge - an easy way to Load Test Web Applications

    - by Rick Strahl
    A few months ago on a project the subject of load testing came up. We were having some serious issues with a Web application that would start spewing SQL lock errors under somewhat heavy load. These sort of errors can be tough to catch, precisely because they only occur under load and not during typical development testing. To replicate this error more reliably we needed to put a load on the application and run it for a while before these SQL errors would flare up. It’s been a while since I’d looked at load testing tools, so I spent a bit of time looking at different tools and frankly didn’t really find anything that was a good fit. A lot of tools were either a pain to use, didn’t have the basic features I needed, or are extravagantly expensive. In  the end I got frustrated enough to build an initially small custom load test solution that then morphed into a more generic library, then gained a console front end and eventually turned into a full blown Web load testing tool that is now called West Wind WebSurge. I got seriously frustrated looking for tools every time I needed some quick and dirty load testing for an application. If my aim is to just put an application under heavy enough load to find a scalability problem in code, or to simply try and push an application to its limits on the hardware it’s running I shouldn’t have to have to struggle to set up tests. It should be easy enough to get going in a few minutes, so that the testing can be set up quickly so that it can be done on a regular basis without a lot of hassle. And that was the goal when I started to build out my initial custom load tester into a more widely usable tool. If you’re in a hurry and you want to check it out, you can find more information and download links here: West Wind WebSurge Product Page Walk through Video Download link (zip) Install from Chocolatey Source on GitHub For a more detailed discussion of the why’s and how’s and some background continue reading. How did I get here? When I started out on this path, I wasn’t planning on building a tool like this myself – but I got frustrated enough looking at what’s out there to think that I can do better than what’s available for the most common simple load testing scenarios. When we ran into the SQL lock problems I mentioned, I started looking around what’s available for Web load testing solutions that would work for our whole team which consisted of a few developers and a couple of IT guys both of which needed to be able to run the tests. It had been a while since I looked at tools and I figured that by now there should be some good solutions out there, but as it turns out I didn’t really find anything that fit our relatively simple needs without costing an arm and a leg… I spent the better part of a day installing and trying various load testing tools and to be frank most of them were either terrible at what they do, incredibly unfriendly to use, used some terminology I couldn’t even parse, or were extremely expensive (and I mean in the ‘sell your liver’ range of expensive). Pick your poison. There are also a number of online solutions for load testing and they actually looked more promising, but those wouldn’t work well for our scenario as the application is running inside of a private VPN with no outside access into the VPN. Most of those online solutions also ended up being very pricey as well – presumably because of the bandwidth required to test over the open Web can be enormous. When I asked around on Twitter what people were using– I got mostly… crickets. Several people mentioned Visual Studio Load Test, and most other suggestions pointed to online solutions. I did get a bunch of responses though with people asking to let them know what I found – apparently I’m not alone when it comes to finding load testing tools that are effective and easy to use. As to Visual Studio, the higher end skus of Visual Studio and the test edition include a Web load testing tool, which is quite powerful, but there are a number of issues with that: First it’s tied to Visual Studio so it’s not very portable – you need a VS install. I also find the test setup and terminology used by the VS test runner extremely confusing. Heck, it’s complicated enough that there’s even a Pluralsight course on using the Visual Studio Web test from Steve Smith. And of course you need to have one of the high end Visual Studio Skus, and those are mucho Dinero ($$$) – just for the load testing that’s rarely an option. Some of the tools are ultra extensive and let you run analysis tools on the target serves which is useful, but in most cases – just plain overkill and only distracts from what I tend to be ultimately interested in: Reproducing problems that occur at high load, and finding the upper limits and ‘what if’ scenarios as load is ramped up increasingly against a site. Yes it’s useful to have Web app instrumentation, but often that’s not what you’re interested in. I still fondly remember early days of Web testing when Microsoft had the WAST (Web Application Stress Tool) tool, which was rather simple – and also somewhat limited – but easily allowed you to create stress tests very quickly. It had some serious limitations (mainly that it didn’t work with SSL),  but the idea behind it was excellent: Create tests quickly and easily and provide a decent engine to run it locally with minimal setup. You could get set up and run tests within a few minutes. Unfortunately, that tool died a quiet death as so many of Microsoft’s tools that probably were built by an intern and then abandoned, even though there was a lot of potential and it was actually fairly widely used. Eventually the tools was no longer downloadable and now it simply doesn’t work anymore on higher end hardware. West Wind Web Surge – Making Load Testing Quick and Easy So I ended up creating West Wind WebSurge out of rebellious frustration… The goal of WebSurge is to make it drop dead simple to create load tests. It’s super easy to capture sessions either using the built in capture tool (big props to Eric Lawrence, Telerik and FiddlerCore which made that piece a snap), using the full version of Fiddler and exporting sessions, or by manually or programmatically creating text files based on plain HTTP headers to create requests. I’ve been using this tool for 4 months now on a regular basis on various projects as a reality check for performance and scalability and it’s worked extremely well for finding small performance issues. I also use it regularly as a simple URL tester, as it allows me to quickly enter a URL plus headers and content and test that URL and its results along with the ability to easily save one or more of those URLs. A few weeks back I made a walk through video that goes over most of the features of WebSurge in some detail: Note that the UI has slightly changed since then, so there are some UI improvements. Most notably the test results screen has been updated recently to a different layout and to provide more information about each URL in a session at a glance. The video and the main WebSurge site has a lot of info of basic operations. For the rest of this post I’ll talk about a few deeper aspects that may be of interest while also giving a glance at how WebSurge works. Session Capturing As you would expect, WebSurge works with Sessions of Urls that are played back under load. Here’s what the main Session View looks like: You can create session entries manually by individually adding URLs to test (on the Request tab on the right) and saving them, or you can capture output from Web Browsers, Windows Desktop applications that call services, your own applications using the built in Capture tool. With this tool you can capture anything HTTP -SSL requests and content from Web pages, AJAX calls, SOAP or REST services – again anything that uses Windows or .NET HTTP APIs. Behind the scenes the capture tool uses FiddlerCore so basically anything you can capture with Fiddler you can also capture with Web Surge Session capture tool. Alternately you can actually use Fiddler as well, and then export the captured Fiddler trace to a file, which can then be imported into WebSurge. This is a nice way to let somebody capture session without having to actually install WebSurge or for your customers to provide an exact playback scenario for a given set of URLs that cause a problem perhaps. Note that not all applications work with Fiddler’s proxy unless you configure a proxy. For example, .NET Web applications that make HTTP calls usually don’t show up in Fiddler by default. For those .NET applications you can explicitly override proxy settings to capture those requests to service calls. The capture tool also has handy optional filters that allow you to filter by domain, to help block out noise that you typically don’t want to include in your requests. For example, if your pages include links to CDNs, or Google Analytics or social links you typically don’t want to include those in your load test, so by capturing just from a specific domain you are guaranteed content from only that one domain. Additionally you can provide url filters in the configuration file – filters allow to provide filter strings that if contained in a url will cause requests to be ignored. Again this is useful if you don’t filter by domain but you want to filter out things like static image, css and script files etc. Often you’re not interested in the load characteristics of these static and usually cached resources as they just add noise to tests and often skew the overall url performance results. In my testing I tend to care only about my dynamic requests. SSL Captures require Fiddler Note, that in order to capture SSL requests you’ll have to install the Fiddler’s SSL certificate. The easiest way to do this is to install Fiddler and use its SSL configuration options to get the certificate into the local certificate store. There’s a document on the Telerik site that provides the exact steps to get SSL captures to work with Fiddler and therefore with WebSurge. Session Storage A group of URLs entered or captured make up a Session. Sessions can be saved and restored easily as they use a very simple text format that simply stored on disk. The format is slightly customized HTTP header traces separated by a separator line. The headers are standard HTTP headers except that the full URL instead of just the domain relative path is stored as part of the 1st HTTP header line for easier parsing. Because it’s just text and uses the same format that Fiddler uses for exports, it’s super easy to create Sessions by hand manually or under program control writing out to a simple text file. You can see what this format looks like in the Capture window figure above – the raw captured format is also what’s stored to disk and what WebSurge parses from. The only ‘custom’ part of these headers is that 1st line contains the full URL instead of the domain relative path and Host: header. The rest of each header are just plain standard HTTP headers with each individual URL isolated by a separator line. The format used here also uses what Fiddler produces for exports, so it’s easy to exchange or view data either in Fiddler or WebSurge. Urls can also be edited interactively so you can modify the headers easily as well: Again – it’s just plain HTTP headers so anything you can do with HTTP can be added here. Use it for single URL Testing Incidentally I’ve also found this form as an excellent way to test and replay individual URLs for simple non-load testing purposes. Because you can capture a single or many URLs and store them on disk, this also provides a nice HTTP playground where you can record URLs with their headers, and fire them one at a time or as a session and see results immediately. It’s actually an easy way for REST presentations and I find the simple UI flow actually easier than using Fiddler natively. Finally you can save one or more URLs as a session for later retrieval. I’m using this more and more for simple URL checks. Overriding Cookies and Domains Speaking of HTTP headers – you can also overwrite cookies used as part of the options. One thing that happens with modern Web applications is that you have session cookies in use for authorization. These cookies tend to expire at some point which would invalidate a test. Using the Options dialog you can actually override the cookie: which replaces the cookie for all requests with the cookie value specified here. You can capture a valid cookie from a manual HTTP request in your browser and then paste into the cookie field, to replace the existing Cookie with the new one that is now valid. Likewise you can easily replace the domain so if you captured urls on west-wind.com and now you want to test on localhost you can do that easily easily as well. You could even do something like capture on store.west-wind.com and then test on localhost/store which would also work. Running Load Tests Once you’ve created a Session you can specify the length of the test in seconds, and specify the number of simultaneous threads to run each session on. Sessions run through each of the URLs in the session sequentially by default. One option in the options list above is that you can also randomize the URLs so each thread runs requests in a different order. This avoids bunching up URLs initially when tests start as all threads run the same requests simultaneously which can sometimes skew the results of the first few minutes of a test. While sessions run some progress information is displayed: By default there’s a live view of requests displayed in a Console-like window. On the bottom of the window there’s a running total summary that displays where you’re at in the test, how many requests have been processed and what the requests per second count is currently for all requests. Note that for tests that run over a thousand requests a second it’s a good idea to turn off the console display. While the console display is nice to see that something is happening and also gives you slight idea what’s happening with actual requests, once a lot of requests are processed, this UI updating actually adds a lot of CPU overhead to the application which may cause the actual load generated to be reduced. If you are running a 1000 requests a second there’s not much to see anyway as requests roll by way too fast to see individual lines anyway. If you look on the options panel, there is a NoProgressEvents option that disables the console display. Note that the summary display is still updated approximately once a second so you can always tell that the test is still running. Test Results When the test is done you get a simple Results display: On the right you get an overall summary as well as breakdown by each URL in the session. Both success and failures are highlighted so it’s easy to see what’s breaking in your load test. The report can be printed or you can also open the HTML document in your default Web Browser for printing to PDF or saving the HTML document to disk. The list on the right shows you a partial list of the URLs that were fired so you can look in detail at the request and response data. The list can be filtered by success and failure requests. Each list is partial only (at the moment) and limited to a max of 1000 items in order to render reasonably quickly. Each item in the list can be clicked to see the full request and response data: This particularly useful for errors so you can quickly see and copy what request data was used and in the case of a GET request you can also just click the link to quickly jump to the page. For non-GET requests you can find the URL in the Session list, and use the context menu to Test the URL as configured including any HTTP content data to send. You get to see the full HTTP request and response as well as a link in the Request header to go visit the actual page. Not so useful for a POST as above, but definitely useful for GET requests. Finally you can also get a few charts. The most useful one is probably the Request per Second chart which can be accessed from the Charts menu or shortcut. Here’s what it looks like:   Results can also be exported to JSON, XML and HTML. Keep in mind that these files can get very large rather quickly though, so exports can end up taking a while to complete. Command Line Interface WebSurge runs with a small core load engine and this engine is plugged into the front end application I’ve shown so far. There’s also a command line interface available to run WebSurge from the Windows command prompt. Using the command line you can run tests for either an individual URL (similar to AB.exe for example) or a full Session file. By default when it runs WebSurgeCli shows progress every second showing total request count, failures and the requests per second for the entire test. A silent option can turn off this progress display and display only the results. The command line interface can be useful for build integration which allows checking for failures perhaps or hitting a specific requests per second count etc. It’s also nice to use this as quick and dirty URL test facility similar to the way you’d use Apache Bench (ab.exe). Unlike ab.exe though, WebSurgeCli supports SSL and makes it much easier to create multi-URL tests using either manual editing or the WebSurge UI. Current Status Currently West Wind WebSurge is still in Beta status. I’m still adding small new features and tweaking the UI in an attempt to make it as easy and self-explanatory as possible to run. Documentation for the UI and specialty features is also still a work in progress. I plan on open-sourcing this product, but it won’t be free. There’s a free version available that provides a limited number of threads and request URLs to run. A relatively low cost license  removes the thread and request limitations. Pricing info can be found on the Web site – there’s an introductory price which is $99 at the moment which I think is reasonable compared to most other for pay solutions out there that are exorbitant by comparison… The reason code is not available yet is – well, the UI portion of the app is a bit embarrassing in its current monolithic state. The UI started as a very simple interface originally that later got a lot more complex – yeah, that never happens, right? Unless there’s a lot of interest I don’t foresee re-writing the UI entirely (which would be ideal), but in the meantime at least some cleanup is required before I dare to publish it :-). The code will likely be released with version 1.0. I’m very interested in feedback. Do you think this could be useful to you and provide value over other tools you may or may not have used before? I hope so – it already has provided a ton of value for me and the work I do that made the development worthwhile at this point. You can leave a comment below, or for more extensive discussions you can post a message on the West Wind Message Board in the WebSurge section Microsoft MVPs and Insiders get a free License If you’re a Microsoft MVP or a Microsoft Insider you can get a full license for free. Send me a link to your current, official Microsoft profile and I’ll send you a not-for resale license. Send any messages to [email protected]. Resources For more info on WebSurge and to download it to try it out, use the following links. West Wind WebSurge Home Download West Wind WebSurge Getting Started with West Wind WebSurge Video© Rick Strahl, West Wind Technologies, 2005-2014Posted in 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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  • The broken Promise of the Mobile Web

    - by Rick Strahl
    High end mobile devices have been with us now for almost 7 years and they have utterly transformed the way we access information. Mobile phones and smartphones that have access to the Internet and host smart applications are in the hands of a large percentage of the population of the world. In many places even very remote, cell phones and even smart phones are a common sight. I’ll never forget when I was in India in 2011 I was up in the Southern Indian mountains riding an elephant out of a tiny local village, with an elephant herder in front riding atop of the elephant in front of us. He was dressed in traditional garb with the loin wrap and head cloth/turban as did quite a few of the locals in this small out of the way and not so touristy village. So we’re slowly trundling along in the forest and he’s lazily using his stick to guide the elephant and… 10 minutes in he pulls out his cell phone from his sash and starts texting. In the middle of texting a huge pig jumps out from the side of the trail and he takes a picture running across our path in the jungle! So yeah, mobile technology is very pervasive and it’s reached into even very buried and unexpected parts of this world. Apps are still King Apps currently rule the roost when it comes to mobile devices and the applications that run on them. If there’s something that you need on your mobile device your first step usually is to look for an app, not use your browser. But native app development remains a pain in the butt, with the requirement to have to support 2 or 3 completely separate platforms. There are solutions that try to bridge that gap. Xamarin is on a tear at the moment, providing their cross-device toolkit to build applications using C#. While Xamarin tools are impressive – and also *very* expensive – they only address part of the development madness that is app development. There are still specific device integration isssues, dealing with the different developer programs, security and certificate setups and all that other noise that surrounds app development. There’s also PhoneGap/Cordova which provides a hybrid solution that involves creating local HTML/CSS/JavaScript based applications, and then packaging them to run in a specialized App container that can run on most mobile device platforms using a WebView interface. This allows for using of HTML technology, but it also still requires all the set up, configuration of APIs, security keys and certification and submission and deployment process just like native applications – you actually lose many of the benefits that  Web based apps bring. The big selling point of Cordova is that you get to use HTML have the ability to build your UI once for all platforms and run across all of them – but the rest of the app process remains in place. Apps can be a big pain to create and manage especially when we are talking about specialized or vertical business applications that aren’t geared at the mainstream market and that don’t fit the ‘store’ model. If you’re building a small intra department application you don’t want to deal with multiple device platforms and certification etc. for various public or corporate app stores. That model is simply not a good fit both from the development and deployment perspective. Even for commercial, big ticket apps, HTML as a UI platform offers many advantages over native, from write-once run-anywhere, to remote maintenance, single point of management and failure to having full control over the application as opposed to have the app store overloads censor you. In a lot of ways Web based HTML/CSS/JavaScript applications have so much potential for building better solutions based on existing Web technologies for the very same reasons a lot of content years ago moved off the desktop to the Web. To me the Web as a mobile platform makes perfect sense, but the reality of today’s Mobile Web unfortunately looks a little different… Where’s the Love for the Mobile Web? Yet here we are in the middle of 2014, nearly 7 years after the first iPhone was released and brought the promise of rich interactive information at your fingertips, and yet we still don’t really have a solid mobile Web platform. I know what you’re thinking: “But we have lots of HTML/JavaScript/CSS features that allows us to build nice mobile interfaces”. I agree to a point – it’s actually quite possible to build nice looking, rich and capable Web UI today. We have media queries to deal with varied display sizes, CSS transforms for smooth animations and transitions, tons of CSS improvements in CSS 3 that facilitate rich layout, a host of APIs geared towards mobile device features and lately even a number of JavaScript framework choices that facilitate development of multi-screen apps in a consistent manner. Personally I’ve been working a lot with AngularJs and heavily modified Bootstrap themes to build mobile first UIs and that’s been working very well to provide highly usable and attractive UI for typical mobile business applications. From the pure UI perspective things actually look very good. Not just about the UI But it’s not just about the UI - it’s also about integration with the mobile device. When it comes to putting all those pieces together into what amounts to a consolidated platform to build mobile Web applications, I think we still have a ways to go… there are a lot of missing pieces to make it all work together and integrate with the device more smoothly, and more importantly to make it work uniformly across the majority of devices. I think there are a number of reasons for this. Slow Standards Adoption HTML standards implementations and ratification has been dreadfully slow, and browser vendors all seem to pick and choose different pieces of the technology they implement. The end result is that we have a capable UI platform that’s missing some of the infrastructure pieces to make it whole on mobile devices. There’s lots of potential but what is lacking that final 10% to build truly compelling mobile applications that can compete favorably with native applications. Some of it is the fragmentation of browsers and the slow evolution of the mobile specific HTML APIs. A host of mobile standards exist but many of the standards are in the early review stage and they have been there stuck for long periods of time and seem to move at a glacial pace. Browser vendors seem even slower to implement them, and for good reason – non-ratified standards mean that implementations may change and vendor implementations tend to be experimental and  likely have to be changed later. Neither Vendors or developers are not keen on changing standards. This is the typical chicken and egg scenario, but without some forward momentum from some party we end up stuck in the mud. It seems that either the standards bodies or the vendors need to carry the torch forward and that doesn’t seem to be happening quickly enough. Mobile Device Integration just isn’t good enough Current standards are not far reaching enough to address a number of the use case scenarios necessary for many mobile applications. While not every application needs to have access to all mobile device features, almost every mobile application could benefit from some integration with other parts of the mobile device platform. Integration with GPS, phone, media, messaging, notifications, linking and contacts system are benefits that are unique to mobile applications and could be widely used, but are mostly (with the exception of GPS) inaccessible for Web based applications today. Unfortunately trying to do most of this today only with a mobile Web browser is a losing battle. Aside from PhoneGap/Cordova’s app centric model with its own custom API accessing mobile device features and the token exception of the GeoLocation API, most device integration features are not widely supported by the current crop of mobile browsers. For example there’s no usable messaging API that allows access to SMS or contacts from HTML. Even obvious components like the Media Capture API are only implemented partially by mobile devices. There are alternatives and workarounds for some of these interfaces by using browser specific code, but that’s might ugly and something that I thought we were trying to leave behind with newer browser standards. But it’s not quite working out that way. It’s utterly perplexing to me that mobile standards like Media Capture and Streams, Media Gallery Access, Responsive Images, Messaging API, Contacts Manager API have only minimal or no traction at all today. Keep in mind we’ve had mobile browsers for nearly 7 years now, and yet we still have to think about how to get access to an image from the image gallery or the camera on some devices? Heck Windows Phone IE Mobile just gained the ability to upload images recently in the Windows 8.1 Update – that’s feature that HTML has had for 20 years! These are simple concepts and common problems that should have been solved a long time ago. It’s extremely frustrating to see build 90% of a mobile Web app with relative ease and then hit a brick wall for the remaining 10%, which often can be show stoppers. The remaining 10% have to do with platform integration, browser differences and working around the limitations that browsers and ‘pinned’ applications impose on HTML applications. The maddening part is that these limitations seem arbitrary as they could easily work on all mobile platforms. For example, SMS has a URL Moniker interface that sort of works on Android, works badly with iOS (only works if the address is already in the contact list) and not at all on Windows Phone. There’s no reason this shouldn’t work universally using the same interface – after all all phones have supported SMS since before the year 2000! But, it doesn’t have to be this way Change can happen very quickly. Take the GeoLocation API for example. Geolocation has taken off at the very beginning of the mobile device era and today it works well, provides the necessary security (a big concern for many mobile APIs), and is supported by just about all major mobile and even desktop browsers today. It handles security concerns via prompts to avoid unwanted access which is a model that would work for most other device APIs in a similar fashion. One time approval and occasional re-approval if code changes or caches expire. Simple and only slightly intrusive. It all works well, even though GeoLocation actually has some physical limitations, such as representing the current location when no GPS device is present. Yet this is a solved problem, where other APIs that are conceptually much simpler to implement have failed to gain any traction at all. Technically none of these APIs should be a problem to implement, but it appears that the momentum is just not there. Inadequate Web Application Linking and Activation Another important piece of the puzzle missing is the integration of HTML based Web applications. Today HTML based applications are not first class citizens on mobile operating systems. When talking about HTML based content there’s a big difference between content and applications. Content is great for search engine discovery and plain browser usage. Content is usually accessed intermittently and permanent linking is not so critical for this type of content.  But applications have different needs. Applications need to be started up quickly and must be easily switchable to support a multi-tasking user workflow. Therefore, it’s pretty crucial that mobile Web apps are integrated into the underlying mobile OS and work with the standard task management features. Unfortunately this integration is not as smooth as it should be. It starts with actually trying to find mobile Web applications, to ‘installing’ them onto a phone in an easily accessible manner in a prominent position. The experience of discovering a Mobile Web ‘App’ and making it sticky is by no means as easy or satisfying. Today the way you’d go about this is: Open the browser Search for a Web Site in the browser with your search engine of choice Hope that you find the right site Hope that you actually find a site that works for your mobile device Click on the link and run the app in a fully chrome’d browser instance (read tiny surface area) Pin the app to the home screen (with all the limitations outline above) Hope you pointed at the right URL when you pinned Even for you and me as developers, there are a few steps in there that are painful and annoying, but think about the average user. First figuring out how to search for a specific site or URL? And then pinning the app and hopefully from the right location? You’ve probably lost more than half of your audience at that point. This experience sucks. For developers too this process is painful since app developers can’t control the shortcut creation directly. This problem often gets solved by crazy coding schemes, with annoying pop-ups that try to get people to create shortcuts via fancy animations that are both annoying and add overhead to each and every application that implements this sort of thing differently. And that’s not the end of it - getting the link onto the home screen with an application icon varies quite a bit between browsers. Apple’s non-standard meta tags are prominent and they work with iOS and Android (only more recent versions), but not on Windows Phone. Windows Phone instead requires you to create an actual screen or rather a partial screen be captured for a shortcut in the tile manager. Who had that brilliant idea I wonder? Surprisingly Chrome on recent Android versions seems to actually get it right – icons use pngs, pinning is easy and pinned applications properly behave like standalone apps and retain the browser’s active page state and content. Each of the platforms has a different way to specify icons (WP doesn’t allow you to use an icon image at all), and the most widely used interface in use today is a bunch of Apple specific meta tags that other browsers choose to support. The question is: Why is there no standard implementation for installing shortcuts across mobile platforms using an official format rather than a proprietary one? Then there’s iOS and the crazy way it treats home screen linked URLs using a crazy hybrid format that is neither as capable as a Web app running in Safari nor a WebView hosted application. Moving off the Web ‘app’ link when switching to another app actually causes the browser and preview it to ‘blank out’ the Web application in the Task View (see screenshot on the right). Then, when the ‘app’ is reactivated it ends up completely restarting the browser with the original link. This is crazy behavior that you can’t easily work around. In some situations you might be able to store the application state and restore it using LocalStorage, but for many scenarios that involve complex data sources (like say Google Maps) that’s not a possibility. The only reason for this screwed up behavior I can think of is that it is deliberate to make Web apps a pain in the butt to use and forcing users trough the App Store/PhoneGap/Cordova route. App linking and management is a very basic problem – something that we essentially have solved in every desktop browser – yet on mobile devices where it arguably matters a lot more to have easy access to web content we have to jump through hoops to have even a remotely decent linking/activation experience across browsers. Where’s the Money? It’s not surprising that device home screen integration and Mobile Web support in general is in such dismal shape – the mobile OS vendors benefit financially from App store sales and have little to gain from Web based applications that bypass the App store and the cash cow that it presents. On top of that, platform specific vendor lock-in of both end users and developers who have invested in hardware, apps and consumables is something that mobile platform vendors actually aspire to. Web based interfaces that are cross-platform are the anti-thesis of that and so again it’s no surprise that the mobile Web is on a struggling path. But – that may be changing. More and more we’re seeing operations shifting to services that are subscription based or otherwise collect money for usage, and that may drive more progress into the Web direction in the end . Nothing like the almighty dollar to drive innovation forward. Do we need a Mobile Web App Store? As much as I dislike moderated experiences in today’s massive App Stores, they do at least provide one single place to look for apps for your device. I think we could really use some sort of registry, that could provide something akin to an app store for mobile Web apps, to make it easier to actually find mobile applications. This could take the form of a specialized search engine, or maybe a more formal store/registry like structure. Something like apt-get/chocolatey for Web apps. It could be curated and provide at least some feedback and reviews that might help with the integrity of applications. Coupled to that could be a native application on each platform that would allow searching and browsing of the registry and then also handle installation in the form of providing the home screen linking, plus maybe an initial security configuration that determines what features are allowed access to for the app. I’m not holding my breath. In order for this sort of thing to take off and gain widespread appeal, a lot of coordination would be required. And in order to get enough traction it would have to come from a well known entity – a mobile Web app store from a no name source is unlikely to gain high enough usage numbers to make a difference. In a way this would eliminate some of the freedom of the Web, but of course this would also be an optional search path in addition to the standard open Web search mechanisms to find and access content today. Security Security is a big deal, and one of the perceived reasons why so many IT professionals appear to be willing to go back to the walled garden of deployed apps is that Apps are perceived as safe due to the official review and curation of the App stores. Curated stores are supposed to protect you from malware, illegal and misleading content. It doesn’t always work out that way and all the major vendors have had issues with security and the review process at some time or another. Security is critical, but I also think that Web applications in general pose less of a security threat than native applications, by nature of the sandboxed browser and JavaScript environments. Web applications run externally completely and in the HTML and JavaScript sandboxes, with only a very few controlled APIs allowing access to device specific features. And as discussed earlier – security for any device interaction can be granted the same for mobile applications through a Web browser, as they can for native applications either via explicit policies loaded from the Web, or via prompting as GeoLocation does today. Security is important, but it’s certainly solvable problem for Web applications even those that need to access device hardware. Security shouldn’t be a reason for Web apps to be an equal player in mobile applications. Apps are winning, but haven’t we been here before? So now we’re finding ourselves back in an era of installed app, rather than Web based and managed apps. Only it’s even worse today than with Desktop applications, in that the apps are going through a gatekeeper that charges a toll and censors what you can and can’t do in your apps. Frankly it’s a mystery to me why anybody would buy into this model and why it’s lasted this long when we’ve already been through this process. It’s crazy… It’s really a shame that this regression is happening. We have the technology to make mobile Web apps much more prominent, but yet we’re basically held back by what seems little more than bureaucracy, partisan bickering and self interest of the major parties involved. Back in the day of the desktop it was Internet Explorer’s 98+%  market shareholding back the Web from improvements for many years – now it’s the combined mobile OS market in control of the mobile browsers. If mobile Web apps were allowed to be treated the same as native apps with simple ways to install and run them consistently and persistently, that would go a long way to making mobile applications much more usable and seriously viable alternatives to native apps. But as it is mobile apps have a severe disadvantage in placement and operation. There are a few bright spots in all of this. Mozilla’s FireFoxOs is embracing the Web for it’s mobile OS by essentially building every app out of HTML and JavaScript based content. It supports both packaged and certified package modes (that can be put into the app store), and Open Web apps that are loaded and run completely off the Web and can also cache locally for offline operation using a manifest. Open Web apps are treated as full class citizens in FireFoxOS and run using the same mechanism as installed apps. Unfortunately FireFoxOs is getting a slow start with minimal device support and specifically targeting the low end market. We can hope that this approach will change and catch on with other vendors, but that’s also an uphill battle given the conflict of interest with platform lock in that it represents. Recent versions of Android also seem to be working reasonably well with mobile application integration onto the desktop and activation out of the box. Although it still uses the Apple meta tags to find icons and behavior settings, everything at least works as you would expect – icons to the desktop on pinning, WebView based full screen activation, and reliable application persistence as the browser/app is treated like a real application. Hopefully iOS will at some point provide this same level of rudimentary Web app support. What’s also interesting to me is that Microsoft hasn’t picked up on the obvious need for a solid Web App platform. Being a distant third in the mobile OS war, Microsoft certainly has nothing to lose and everything to gain by using fresh ideas and expanding into areas that the other major vendors are neglecting. But instead Microsoft is trying to beat the market leaders at their own game, fighting on their adversary’s terms instead of taking a new tack. Providing a kick ass mobile Web platform that takes the lead on some of the proposed mobile APIs would be something positive that Microsoft could do to improve its miserable position in the mobile device market. Where are we at with Mobile Web? It sure sounds like I’m really down on the Mobile Web, right? I’ve built a number of mobile apps in the last year and while overall result and response has been very positive to what we were able to accomplish in terms of UI, getting that final 10% that required device integration dialed was an absolute nightmare on every single one of them. Big compromises had to be made and some features were left out or had to be modified for some devices. In two cases we opted to go the Cordova route in order to get the integration we needed, along with the extra pain involved in that process. Unless you’re not integrating with device features and you don’t care deeply about a smooth integration with the mobile desktop, mobile Web development is fraught with frustration. So, yes I’m frustrated! But it’s not for lack of wanting the mobile Web to succeed. I am still a firm believer that we will eventually arrive a much more functional mobile Web platform that allows access to the most common device features in a sensible way. It wouldn't be difficult for device platform vendors to make Web based applications first class citizens on mobile devices. But unfortunately it looks like it will still be some time before this happens. So, what’s your experience building mobile Web apps? Are you finding similar issues? Just giving up on raw Web applications and building PhoneGap apps instead? Completely skipping the Web and going native? Leave a comment for discussion. Resources Rick Strahl on DotNet Rocks talking about Mobile Web© Rick Strahl, West Wind Technologies, 2005-2014Posted in HTML5  Mobile   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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  • Red Gate Coder interviews: Robin Hellen

    - by Michael Williamson
    Robin Hellen is a test engineer here at Red Gate, and is also the latest coder I’ve interviewed. We chatted about debugging code, the roles of software engineers and testers, and why Vala is currently his favourite programming language. How did you get started with programming?It started when I was about six. My dad’s a professional programmer, and he gave me and my sister one of his old computers and taught us a bit about programming. It was an old Amiga 500 with a variant of BASIC. I don’t think I ever successfully completed anything! It was just faffing around. I didn’t really get anywhere with it.But then presumably you did get somewhere with it at some point.At some point. The PC emerged as the dominant platform, and I learnt a bit of Visual Basic. I didn’t really do much, just a couple of quick hacky things. A bit of demo animation. Took me a long time to get anywhere with programming, really.When did you feel like you did start to get somewhere?I think it was when I started doing things for someone else, which was my sister’s final year of university project. She called up my dad two days before she was due to submit, saying “We need something to display a graph!”. Dad says, “I’m too busy, go talk to your brother”. So I hacked up this ugly piece of code, sent it off and they won a prize for that project. Apparently, the graph, the bit that I wrote, was the reason they won a prize! That was when I first felt that I’d actually done something that was worthwhile. That was my first real bit of code, and the ugliest code I’ve ever written. It’s basically an array of pre-drawn line elements that I shifted round the screen to draw a very spikey graph.When did you decide that programming might actually be something that you wanted to do as a career?It’s not really a decision I took, I always wanted to do something with computers. And I had to take a gap year for uni, so I was looking for twelve month internships. I applied to Red Gate, and they gave me a job as a tester. And that’s where I really started having to write code well. To a better standard that I had been up to that point.How did you find coming to Red Gate and working with other coders?I thought it was really nice. I learnt so much just from other people around. I think one of the things that’s really great is that people are just willing to help you learn. Instead of “Don’t you know that, you’re so stupid”, it’s “You can just do it this way”.If you could go back to the very start of that internship, is there something that you would tell yourself?Write shorter code. I have a tendency to write massive, many-thousand line files that I break out of right at the end. And then half-way through a project I’m doing something, I think “Where did I write that bit that does that thing?”, and it’s almost impossible to find. I wrote some horrendous code when I started. Just that principle, just keep things short. Even if looks a bit crazy to be jumping around all over the place all of the time, it’s actually a lot more understandable.And how do you hold yourself to that?Generally, if a function’s going off my screen, it’s probably too long. That’s what I tell myself, and within the team here we have code reviews, so the guys I’m with at the moment are pretty good at pulling me up on, “Doesn’t that look like it’s getting a bit long?”. It’s more just the subjective standard of readability than anything.So you’re an advocate of code review?Yes, definitely. Both to spot errors that you might have made, and to improve your knowledge. The person you’re reviewing will say “Oh, you could have done it that way”. That’s how we learn, by talking to others, and also just sharing knowledge of how your project works around the team, or even outside the team. Definitely a very firm advocate of code reviews.Do you think there’s more we could do with them?I don’t know. We’re struggling with how to add them as part of the process without it becoming too cumbersome. We’ve experimented with a few different ways, and we’ve not found anything that just works.To get more into the nitty gritty: how do you like to debug code?The first thing is to do it in my head. I’ll actually think what piece of code is likely to have caused that error, and take a quick look at it, just to see if there’s anything glaringly obvious there. The next thing I’ll probably do is throw in print statements, or throw some exceptions from various points, just to check: is it going through the code path I expect it to? A last resort is to actually debug code using a debugger.Why is the debugger the last resort?Probably because of the environments I learnt programming in. VB and early BASIC didn’t have much of a debugger, the only way to find out what your program was doing was to add print statements. Also, because a lot of the stuff I tend to work with is non-interactive, if it’s something that takes a long time to run, I can throw in the print statements, set a run off, go and do something else, and look at it again later, rather than trying to remember what happened at that point when I was debugging through it. So it also gives me the record of what happens. I hate just sitting there pressing F5, F5, continually. If you’re having to find out what your code is doing at each line, you’ve probably got a very wrong mental model of what your code’s doing, and you can find that out just as easily by inspecting a couple of values through the print statements.If I were on some codebase that you were also working on, what should I do to make it as easy as possible to understand?I’d say short and well-named methods. The one thing I like to do when I’m looking at code is to find out where a value comes from, and the more layers of indirection there are, particularly DI [dependency injection] frameworks, the harder it is to find out where something’s come from. I really hate that. I want to know if the value come from the user here or is a constant here, and if I can’t find that out, that makes code very hard to understand for me.As a tester, where do you think the split should lie between software engineers and testers?I think the split is less on areas of the code you write and more what you’re designing and creating. The developers put a structure on the code, while my major role is to say which tests we should have, whether we should test that, or it’s not worth testing that because it’s a tiny function in code that nobody’s ever actually going to see. So it’s not a split in the code, it’s a split in what you’re thinking about. Saying what code we should write, but alternatively what code we should take out.In your experience, do the software engineers tend to do much testing themselves?They tend to control the lowest layer of tests. And, depending on how the balance of people is in the team, they might write some of the higher levels of test. Or that might go to the testers. I’m the only tester on my team with three other developers, so they’ll be writing quite a lot of the actual test code, with input from me as to whether we should test that functionality, whereas on other teams, where it’s been more equal numbers, the testers have written pretty much all of the high level tests, just because that’s the best use of resource.If you could shuffle resources around however you liked, do you think that the developers should be writing those high-level tests?I think they should be writing them occasionally. It helps when they have an understanding of how testing code works and possibly what assumptions we’ve made in tests, and they can say “actually, it doesn’t work like that under the hood so you’ve missed this whole area”. It’s one of those agile things that everyone on the team should be at least comfortable doing the various jobs. So if the developers can write test code then I think that’s a very good thing.So you think testers should be able to write production code?Yes, although given most testers skills at coding, I wouldn’t advise it too much! I have written a few things, and I did make a few changes that have actually gone into our production code base. They’re not necessarily running every time but they are there. I think having that mix of skill sets is really useful. In some ways we’re using our own product to test itself, so being able to make those changes where it’s not working saves me a round-trip through the developers. It can be really annoying if the developers have no time to make a change, and I can’t touch the code.If the software engineers are consistently writing tests at all levels, what role do you think the role of a tester is?I think on a team like that, those distinctions aren’t quite so useful. There’ll be two cases. There’s either the case where the developers think they’ve written good tests, but you still need someone with a test engineer mind-set to go through the tests and validate that it’s a useful set, or the correct set for that code. Or they won’t actually be pure developers, they’ll have that mix of test ability in there.I think having slightly more distinct roles is useful. When it starts to blur, then you lose that view of the tests as a whole. The tester job is not to create tests, it’s to validate the quality of the product, and you don’t do that just by writing tests. There’s more things you’ve got to keep in your mind. And I think when you blur the roles, you start to lose that end of the tester.So because you’re working on those features, you lose that holistic view of the whole system?Yeah, and anyone who’s worked on the feature shouldn’t be testing it. You always need to have it tested it by someone who didn’t write it. Otherwise you’re a bit too close and you assume “yes, people will only use it that way”, but the tester will come along and go “how do people use this? How would our most idiotic user use this?”. I might not test that because it might be completely irrelevant. But it’s coming in and trying to have a different set of assumptions.Are you a believer that it should all be automated if possible?Not entirely. So an automated test is always better than a manual test for the long-term, but there’s still nothing that beats a human sitting in front of the application and thinking “What could I do at this point?”. The automated test is very good but they follow that strict path, and they never check anything off the path. The human tester will look at things that they weren’t expecting, whereas the automated test can only ever go “Is that value correct?” in many respects, and it won’t notice that on the other side of the screen you’re showing something completely wrong. And that value might have been checked independently, but you always find a few odd interactions when you’re going through something manually, and you always need to go through something manually to start with anyway, otherwise you won’t know where the important bits to write your automation are.When you’re doing that manual testing, do you think it’s important to do that across the entire product, or just the bits that you’ve touched recently?I think it’s important to do it mostly on the bits you’ve touched, but you can’t ignore the rest of the product. Unless you’re dealing with a very, very self-contained bit, you’re almost always encounter other bits of the product along the way. Most testers I know, even if they are looking at just one path, they’ll keep open and move around a bit anyway, just because they want to find something that’s broken. If we find that your path is right, we’ll go out and hunt something else.How do you think this fits into the idea of continuously deploying, so long as the tests pass?With deploying a website it’s a bit different because you can always pull it back. If you’re deploying an application to customers, when you’ve released it, it’s out there, you can’t pull it back. Someone’s going to keep it, no matter how hard you try there will be a few installations that stay around. So I’d always have at least a human element on that path. With websites, you could probably automate straight out, or at least straight out to an internal environment or a single server in a cloud of fifty that will serve some people. But I don’t think you should release to everyone just on automated tests passing.You’ve already mentioned using BASIC and C# — are there any other languages that you’ve used?I’ve used a few. That’s something that has changed more recently, I’ve become familiar with more languages. Before I started at Red Gate I learnt a bit of C. Then last year, I taught myself Python which I actually really enjoyed using. I’ve also come across another language called Vala, which is sort of a C#-like language. It’s basically a pre-processor for C, but it has very nice syntax. I think that’s currently my favourite language.Any particular reason for trying Vala?I have a completely Linux environment at home, and I’ve been looking for a nice language, and C# just doesn’t cut it because I won’t touch Mono. So, I was looking for something like C# but that was useable in an open source environment, and Vala’s what I found. C#’s got a few features that Vala doesn’t, and Vala’s got a few features where I think “It would be awesome if C# had that”.What are some of the features that it’s missing?Extension methods. And I think that’s the only one that really bugs me. I like to use them when I’m writing C# because it makes some things really easy, especially with libraries that you can’t touch the internals of. It doesn’t have method overloading, which is sometimes annoying.Where it does win over C#?Everything is non-nullable by default, you never have to check that something’s unexpectedly null.Also, Vala has code contracts. This is starting to come in C# 4, but the way it works in Vala is that you specify requirements in short phrases as part of your function signature and they stick to the signature, so that when you inherit it, it has exactly the same code contract as the base one, or when you inherit from an interface, you have to match the signature exactly. Just using those makes you think a bit more about how you’re writing your method, it’s not an afterthought when you’ve got contracts from base classes given to you, you can’t change it. Which I think is a lot nicer than the way C# handles it. When are those actually checked?They’re checked both at compile and run-time. The compile-time checking isn’t very strong yet, it’s quite a new feature in the compiler, and because it compiles down to C, you can write C code and interface with your methods, so you can bypass that compile-time check anyway. So there’s an extra runtime check, and if you violate one of the contracts at runtime, it’s game over for your program, there’s no exception to catch, it’s just goodbye!One thing I dislike about C# is the exceptions. You write a bit of code and fifty exceptions could come from any point in your ten lines, and you can’t mentally model how those exceptions are going to come out, and you can’t even predict them based on the functions you’re calling, because if you’ve accidentally got a derived class there instead of a base class, that can throw a completely different set of exceptions. So I’ve got no way of mentally modelling those, whereas in Vala they’re checked like Java, so you know only these exceptions can come out. You know in advance the error conditions.I think Raymond Chen on Old New Thing says “the only thing you know when you throw an exception is that you’re in an invalid state somewhere in your program, so just kill it and be done with it!”You said you’ve also learnt bits of Python. How did you find that compared to Vala and C#?Very different because of the dynamic typing. I’ve been writing a website for my own use. I’m quite into photography, so I take photos off my camera, post-process them, dump them in a file, and I get a webpage with all my thumbnails. So sort of like Picassa, but written by myself because I wanted something to learn Python with. There are some things that are really nice, I just found it really difficult to cope with the fact that I’m not quite sure what this object type that I’m passed is, I might not ever be sure, so it can randomly blow up on me. But once I train myself to ignore that and just say “well, I’m fairly sure it’s going to be something that looks like this, so I’ll use it like this”, then it’s quite nice.Any particular features that you’ve appreciated?I don’t like any particular feature, it’s just very straightforward to work with. It’s very quick to write something in, particularly as you don’t have to worry that you’ve changed something that affects a different part of the program. If you have, then that part blows up, but I can get this part working right now.If you were doing a big project, would you be willing to do it in Python rather than C# or Vala?I think I might be willing to try something bigger or long term with Python. We’re currently doing an ASP.NET MVC project on C#, and I don’t like the amount of reflection. There’s a lot of magic that pulls values out, and it’s all done under the scenes. It’s almost managed to put a dynamic type system on top of C#, which in many ways destroys the language to me, whereas if you’re already in a dynamic language, having things done dynamically is much more natural. In many ways, you get the worst of both worlds. I think for web projects, I would go with Python again, whereas for anything desktop, command-line or GUI-based, I’d probably go for C# or Vala, depending on what environment I’m in.It’s the fact that you can gain from the strong typing in ways that you can’t so much on the web app. Or, in a web app, you have to use dynamic typing at some point, or you have to write a hell of a lot of boilerplate, and I’d rather use the dynamic typing than write the boilerplate.What do you think separates great programmers from everyone else?Probably design choices. Choosing to write it a piece of code one way or another. For any given program you ask me to write, I could probably do it five thousand ways. A programmer who is capable will see four or five of them, and choose one of the better ones. The excellent programmer will see the largest proportion and manage to pick the best one very quickly without having to think too much about it. I think that’s probably what separates, is the speed at which they can see what’s the best path to write the program in. More Red Gater Coder interviews

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  • ANTS Memory Profiler 7.0 Review

    - by Michael B. McLaughlin
    (This is my first review as a part of the GeeksWithBlogs.net Influencers program. It’s a program in which I (and the others who have been selected for it) get the opportunity to check out new products and services and write reviews about them. We don’t get paid for this, but we do generally get to keep a copy of the software or retain an account for some period of time on the service that we review. In this case I received a copy of Red Gate Software’s ANTS Memory Profiler 7.0, which was released in January. I don’t have any upgrade rights nor is my review guided, restrained, influenced, or otherwise controlled by Red Gate or anyone else. But I do get to keep the software license. I will always be clear about what I received whenever I do a review – I leave it up to you to decide whether you believe I can be objective. I believe I can be. If I used something and really didn’t like it, keeping a copy of it wouldn’t be worth anything to me. In that case though, I would simply uninstall/deactivate/whatever the software or service and tell the company what I didn’t like about it so they could (hopefully) make it better in the future. I don’t think it’d be polite to write up a terrible review, nor do I think it would be a particularly good use of my time. There are people who get paid for a living to review things, so I leave it to them to tell you what they think is bad and why. I’ll only spend my time telling you about things I think are good.) Overview of Common .NET Memory Problems When coming to land of managed memory from the wilds of unmanaged code, it’s easy to say to one’s self, “Wow! Now I never have to worry about memory problems again!” But this simply isn’t true. Managed code environments, such as .NET, make many, many things easier. You will never have to worry about memory corruption due to a bad pointer, for example (unless you’re working with unsafe code, of course). But managed code has its own set of memory concerns. For example, failing to unsubscribe from events when you are done with them leaves the publisher of an event with a reference to the subscriber. If you eliminate all your own references to the subscriber, then that memory is effectively lost since the GC won’t delete it because of the publishing object’s reference. When the publishing object itself becomes subject to garbage collection then you’ll get that memory back finally, but that could take a very long time depending of the life of the publisher. Another common source of resource leaks is failing to properly release unmanaged resources. When writing a class that contains members that hold unmanaged resources (e.g. any of the Stream-derived classes, IsolatedStorageFile, most classes ending in “Reader” or “Writer”), you should always implement IDisposable, making sure to use a properly written Dispose method. And when you are using an instance of a class that implements IDisposable, you should always make sure to use a 'using' statement in order to ensure that the object’s unmanaged resources are disposed of properly. (A ‘using’ statement is a nicer, cleaner looking, and easier to use version of a try-finally block. The compiler actually translates it as though it were a try-finally block. Note that Code Analysis warning 2202 (CA2202) will often be triggered by nested using blocks. A properly written dispose method ensures that it only runs once such that calling dispose multiple times should not be a problem. Nonetheless, CA2202 exists and if you want to avoid triggering it then you should write your code such that only the innermost IDisposable object uses a ‘using’ statement, with any outer code making use of appropriate try-finally blocks instead). Then, of course, there are situations where you are operating in a memory-constrained environment or else you want to limit or even eliminate allocations within a certain part of your program (e.g. within the main game loop of an XNA game) in order to avoid having the GC run. On the Xbox 360 and Windows Phone 7, for example, for every 1 MB of heap allocations you make, the GC runs; the added time of a GC collection can cause a game to drop frames or run slowly thereby making it look bad. Eliminating allocations (or else minimizing them and calling an explicit Collect at an appropriate time) is a common way of avoiding this (the other way is to simplify your heap so that the GC’s latency is low enough not to cause performance issues). ANTS Memory Profiler 7.0 When the opportunity to review Red Gate’s recently released ANTS Memory Profiler 7.0 arose, I jumped at it. In order to review it, I was given a free copy (which does not include upgrade rights for future versions) which I am allowed to keep. For those of you who are familiar with ANTS Memory Profiler, you can find a list of new features and enhancements here. If you are an experienced .NET developer who is familiar with .NET memory management issues, ANTS Memory Profiler is great. More importantly still, if you are new to .NET development or you have no experience or limited experience with memory profiling, ANTS Memory Profiler is awesome. From the very beginning, it guides you through the process of memory profiling. If you’re experienced and just want dive in however, it doesn’t get in your way. The help items GAHSFLASHDAJLDJA are well designed and located right next to the UI controls so that they are easy to find without being intrusive. When you first launch it, it presents you with a “Getting Started” screen that contains links to “Memory profiling video tutorials”, “Strategies for memory profiling”, and the “ANTS Memory Profiler forum”. I’m normally the kind of person who looks at a screen like that only to find the “Don’t show this again” checkbox. Since I was doing a review, though, I decided I should examine them. I was pleasantly surprised. The overview video clocks in at three minutes and fifty seconds. It begins by showing you how to get started profiling an application. It explains that profiling is done by taking memory snapshots periodically while your program is running and then comparing them. ANTS Memory Profiler (I’m just going to call it “ANTS MP” from here) analyzes these snapshots in the background while your application is running. It briefly mentions a new feature in Version 7, a new API that give you the ability to trigger snapshots from within your application’s source code (more about this below). You can also, and this is the more common way you would do it, take a memory snapshot at any time from within the ANTS MP window by clicking the “Take Memory Snapshot” button in the upper right corner. The overview video goes on to demonstrate a basic profiling session on an application that pulls information from a database and displays it. It shows how to switch which snapshots you are comparing, explains the different sections of the Summary view and what they are showing, and proceeds to show you how to investigate memory problems using the “Instance Categorizer” to track the path from an object (or set of objects) to the GC’s root in order to find what things along the path are holding a reference to it/them. For a set of objects, you can then click on it and get the “Instance List” view. This displays all of the individual objects (including their individual sizes, values, etc.) of that type which share the same path to the GC root. You can then click on one of the objects to generate an “Instance Retention Graph” view. This lets you track directly up to see the reference chain for that individual object. In the overview video, it turned out that there was an event handler which was holding on to a reference, thereby keeping a large number of strings that should have been freed in memory. Lastly the video shows the “Class List” view, which lets you dig in deeply to find problems that might not have been clear when following the previous workflow. Once you have at least one memory snapshot you can begin analyzing. The main interface is in the “Analysis” tab. You can also switch to the “Session Overview” tab, which gives you several bar charts highlighting basic memory data about the snapshots you’ve taken. If you hover over the individual bars (and the individual colors in bars that have more than one), you will see a detailed text description of what the bar is representing visually. The Session Overview is good for a quick summary of memory usage and information about the different heaps. You are going to spend most of your time in the Analysis tab, but it’s good to remember that the Session Overview is there to give you some quick feedback on basic memory usage stats. As described above in the summary of the overview video, there is a certain natural workflow to the Analysis tab. You’ll spin up your application and take some snapshots at various times such as before and after clicking a button to open a window or before and after closing a window. Taking these snapshots lets you examine what is happening with memory. You would normally expect that a lot of memory would be freed up when closing a window or exiting a document. By taking snapshots before and after performing an action like that you can see whether or not the memory is really being freed. If you already know an area that’s giving you trouble, you can run your application just like normal until just before getting to that part and then you can take a few strategic snapshots that should help you pin down the problem. Something the overview didn’t go into is how to use the “Filters” section at the bottom of ANTS MP together with the Class List view in order to narrow things down. The video tutorials page has a nice 3 minute intro video called “How to use the filters”. It’s a nice introduction and covers some of the basics. I’m going to cover a bit more because I think they’re a really neat, really helpful feature. Large programs can bring up thousands of classes. Even simple programs can instantiate far more classes than you might realize. In a basic .NET 4 WPF application for example (and when I say basic, I mean just MainWindow.xaml with a button added to it), the unfiltered Class List view will have in excess of 1000 classes (my simple test app had anywhere from 1066 to 1148 classes depending on which snapshot I was using as the “Current” snapshot). This is amazing in some ways as it shows you how in stark detail just how immensely powerful the WPF framework is. But hunting through 1100 classes isn’t productive, no matter how cool it is that there are that many classes instantiated and doing all sorts of awesome things. Let’s say you wanted to examine just the classes your application contains source code for (in my simple example, that would be the MainWindow and App). Under “Basic Filters”, click on “Classes with source” under “Show only…”. Voilà. Down from 1070 classes in the snapshot I was using as “Current” to 2 classes. If you then click on a class’s name, it will show you (to the right of the class name) two little icon buttons. Hover over them and you will see that you can click one to view the Instance Categorizer for the class and another to view the Instance List for the class. You can also show classes based on which heap they live on. If you chose both a Baseline snapshot and a Current snapshot then you can use the “Comparing snapshots” filters to show only: “New objects”; “Surviving objects”; “Survivors in growing classes”; or “Zombie objects” (if you aren’t sure what one of these means, you can click the helpful “?” in a green circle icon to bring up a popup that explains them and provides context). Remember that your selection(s) under the “Show only…” heading will still apply, so you should update those selections to make sure you are seeing the view you want. There are also links under the “What is my memory problem?” heading that can help you diagnose the problems you are seeing including one for “I don’t know which kind I have” for situations where you know generally that your application has some problems but aren’t sure what the behavior you have been seeing (OutOfMemoryExceptions, continually growing memory usage, larger memory use than expected at certain points in the program). The Basic Filters are not the only filters there are. “Filter by Object Type” gives you the ability to filter by: “Objects that are disposable”; “Objects that are/are not disposed”; “Objects that are/are not GC roots” (GC roots are things like static variables); and “Objects that implement _______”. “Objects that implement” is particularly neat. Once you check the box, you can then add one or more classes and interfaces that an object must implement in order to survive the filtering. Lastly there is “Filter by Reference”, which gives you the option to pare down the list based on whether an object is “Kept in memory exclusively by” a particular item, a class/interface, or a namespace; whether an object is “Referenced by” one or more of those choices; and whether an object is “Never referenced by” one or more of those choices. Remember that filtering is cumulative, so anything you had set in one of the filter sections still remains in effect unless and until you go back and change it. There’s quite a bit more to ANTS MP – it’s a very full featured product – but I think I touched on all of the most significant pieces. You can use it to debug: a .NET executable; an ASP.NET web application (running on IIS); an ASP.NET web application (running on Visual Studio’s built-in web development server); a Silverlight 4 browser application; a Windows service; a COM+ server; and even something called an XBAP (local XAML browser application). You can also attach to a .NET 4 process to profile an application that’s already running. The startup screen also has a large number of “Charting Options” that let you adjust which statistics ANTS MP should collect. The default selection is a good, minimal set. It’s worth your time to browse through the charting options to examine other statistics that may also help you diagnose a particular problem. The more statistics ANTS MP collects, the longer it will take to collect statistics. So just turning everything on is probably a bad idea. But the option to selectively add in additional performance counters from the extensive list could be a very helpful thing for your memory profiling as it lets you see additional data that might provide clues about a particular problem that has been bothering you. ANTS MP integrates very nicely with all versions of Visual Studio that support plugins (i.e. all of the non-Express versions). Just note that if you choose “Profile Memory” from the “ANTS” menu that it will launch profiling for whichever project you have set as the Startup project. One quick tip from my experience so far using ANTS MP: if you want to properly understand your memory usage in an application you’ve written, first create an “empty” version of the type of project you are going to profile (a WPF application, an XNA game, etc.) and do a quick profiling session on that so that you know the baseline memory usage of the framework itself. By “empty” I mean just create a new project of that type in Visual Studio then compile it and run it with profiling – don’t do anything special or add in anything (except perhaps for any external libraries you’re planning to use). The first thing I tried ANTS MP out on was a demo XNA project of an editor that I’ve been working on for quite some time that involves a custom extension to XNA’s content pipeline. The first time I ran it and saw the unmanaged memory usage I was convinced I had some horrible bug that was creating extra copies of texture data (the demo project didn’t have a lot of texture data so when I saw a lot of unmanaged memory I instantly figured I was doing something wrong). Then I thought to run an empty project through and when I saw that the amount of unmanaged memory was virtually identical, it dawned on me that the CLR itself sits in unmanaged memory and that (thankfully) there was nothing wrong with my code! Quite a relief. Earlier, when discussing the overview video, I mentioned the API that lets you take snapshots from within your application. I gave it a quick trial and it’s very easy to integrate and make use of and is a really nice addition (especially for projects where you want to know what, if any, allocations there are in a specific, complicated section of code). The only concern I had was that if I hadn’t watched the overview video I might never have known it existed. Even then it took me five minutes of hunting around Red Gate’s website before I found the “Taking snapshots from your code" article that explains what DLL you need to add as a reference and what method of what class you should call in order to take an automatic snapshot (including the helpful warning to wrap it in a try-catch block since, under certain circumstances, it can raise an exception, such as trying to call it more than 5 times in 30 seconds. The difficulty in discovering and then finding information about the automatic snapshots API was one thing I thought could use improvement. Another thing I think would make it even better would be local copies of the webpages it links to. Although I’m generally always connected to the internet, I imagine there are more than a few developers who aren’t or who are behind very restrictive firewalls. For them (and for me, too, if my internet connection happens to be down), it would be nice to have those documents installed locally or to have the option to download an additional “documentation” package that would add local copies. Another thing that I wish could be easier to manage is the Filters area. Finding and setting individual filters is very easy as is understanding what those filter do. And breaking it up into three sections (basic, by object, and by reference) makes sense. But I could easily see myself running a long profiling session and forgetting that I had set some filter a long while earlier in a different filter section and then spending quite a bit of time trying to figure out why some problem that was clearly visible in the data wasn’t showing up in, e.g. the instance list before remembering to check all the filters for that one setting that was only culling a few things from view. Some sort of indicator icon next to the filter section names that appears you have at least one filter set in that area would be a nice visual clue to remind me that “oh yeah, I told it to only show objects on the Gen 2 heap! That’s why I’m not seeing those instances of the SuperMagic class!” Something that would be nice (but that Red Gate cannot really do anything about) would be if this could be used in Windows Phone 7 development. If Microsoft and Red Gate could work together to make this happen (even if just on the WP7 emulator), that would be amazing. Especially given the memory constraints that apps and games running on mobile devices need to work within, a good memory profiler would be a phenomenally helpful tool. If anyone at Microsoft reads this, it’d be really great if you could make something like that happen. Perhaps even a (subsidized) custom version just for WP7 development. (For XNA games, of course, you can create a Windows version of the game and use ANTS MP on the Windows version in order to get a better picture of your memory situation. For Silverlight on WP7, though, there’s quite a bit of educated guess work and WeakReference creation followed by forced collections in order to find the source of a memory problem.) The only other thing I found myself wanting was a “Back” button. Between my Windows Phone 7, Zune, and other things, I’ve grown very used to having a “back stack” that lets me just navigate back to where I came from. The ANTS MP interface is surprisingly easy to use given how much it lets you do, and once you start using it for any amount of time, you learn all of the different areas such that you know where to go. And it does remember the state of the areas you were previously in, of course. So if you go to, e.g., the Instance Retention Graph from the Class List and then return back to the Class List, it will remember which class you had selected and all that other state information. Still, a “Back” button would be a welcome addition to a future release. Bottom Line ANTS Memory Profiler is not an inexpensive tool. But my time is valuable. I can easily see ANTS MP saving me enough time tracking down memory problems to justify it on a cost basis. More importantly to me, knowing what is happening memory-wise in my programs and having the confidence that my code doesn’t have any hidden time bombs in it that will cause it to OOM if I leave it running for longer than I do when I spin it up real quickly for debugging or just to see how a new feature looks and feels is a good feeling. It’s a feeling that I like having and want to continue to have. I got the current version for free in order to review it. Having done so, I’ve now added it to my must-have tools and will gladly lay out the money for the next version when it comes out. It has a 14 day free trial, so if you aren’t sure if it’s right for you or if you think it seems interesting but aren’t really sure if it’s worth shelling out the money for it, give it a try.

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  • Agile Development

    - by James Oloo Onyango
    Alot of literature has and is being written about agile developement and its surrounding philosophies. In my quest to find the best way to express the importance of agile methodologies, i have found Robert C. Martin's "A Satire Of Two Companies" to be both the most concise and thorough! Enjoy the read! Rufus Inc Project Kick Off Your name is Bob. The date is January 3, 2001, and your head still aches from the recent millennial revelry. You are sitting in a conference room with several managers and a group of your peers. You are a project team leader. Your boss is there, and he has brought along all of his team leaders. His boss called the meeting. "We have a new project to develop," says your boss's boss. Call him BB. The points in his hair are so long that they scrape the ceiling. Your boss's points are just starting to grow, but he eagerly awaits the day when he can leave Brylcream stains on the acoustic tiles. BB describes the essence of the new market they have identified and the product they want to develop to exploit this market. "We must have this new project up and working by fourth quarter October 1," BB demands. "Nothing is of higher priority, so we are cancelling your current project." The reaction in the room is stunned silence. Months of work are simply going to be thrown away. Slowly, a murmur of objection begins to circulate around the conference table.   His points give off an evil green glow as BB meets the eyes of everyone in the room. One by one, that insidious stare reduces each attendee to quivering lumps of protoplasm. It is clear that he will brook no discussion on this matter. Once silence has been restored, BB says, "We need to begin immediately. How long will it take you to do the analysis?" You raise your hand. Your boss tries to stop you, but his spitwad misses you and you are unaware of his efforts.   "Sir, we can't tell you how long the analysis will take until we have some requirements." "The requirements document won't be ready for 3 or 4 weeks," BB says, his points vibrating with frustration. "So, pretend that you have the requirements in front of you now. How long will you require for analysis?" No one breathes. Everyone looks around to see whether anyone has some idea. "If analysis goes beyond April 1, we have a problem. Can you finish the analysis by then?" Your boss visibly gathers his courage: "We'll find a way, sir!" His points grow 3 mm, and your headache increases by two Tylenol. "Good." BB smiles. "Now, how long will it take to do the design?" "Sir," you say. Your boss visibly pales. He is clearly worried that his 3 mms are at risk. "Without an analysis, it will not be possible to tell you how long design will take." BB's expression shifts beyond austere.   "PRETEND you have the analysis already!" he says, while fixing you with his vacant, beady little eyes. "How long will it take you to do the design?" Two Tylenol are not going to cut it. Your boss, in a desperate attempt to save his new growth, babbles: "Well, sir, with only six months left to complete the project, design had better take no longer than 3 months."   "I'm glad you agree, Smithers!" BB says, beaming. Your boss relaxes. He knows his points are secure. After a while, he starts lightly humming the Brylcream jingle. BB continues, "So, analysis will be complete by April 1, design will be complete by July 1, and that gives you 3 months to implement the project. This meeting is an example of how well our new consensus and empowerment policies are working. Now, get out there and start working. I'll expect to see TQM plans and QIT assignments on my desk by next week. Oh, and don't forget that your crossfunctional team meetings and reports will be needed for next month's quality audit." "Forget the Tylenol," you think to yourself as you return to your cubicle. "I need bourbon."   Visibly excited, your boss comes over to you and says, "Gosh, what a great meeting. I think we're really going to do some world shaking with this project." You nod in agreement, too disgusted to do anything else. "Oh," your boss continues, "I almost forgot." He hands you a 30-page document. "Remember that the SEI is coming to do an evaluation next week. This is the evaluation guide. You need to read through it, memorize it, and then shred it. It tells you how to answer any questions that the SEI auditors ask you. It also tells you what parts of the building you are allowed to take them to and what parts to avoid. We are determined to be a CMM level 3 organization by June!"   You and your peers start working on the analysis of the new project. This is difficult because you have no requirements. But from the 10-minute introduction given by BB on that fateful morning, you have some idea of what the product is supposed to do.   Corporate process demands that you begin by creating a use case document. You and your team begin enumerating use cases and drawing oval and stick diagrams. Philosophical debates break out among the team members. There is disagreement as to whether certain use cases should be connected with <<extends>> or <<includes>> relationships. Competing models are created, but nobody knows how to evaluate them. The debate continues, effectively paralyzing progress.   After a week, somebody finds the iceberg.com Web site, which recommends disposing entirely of <<extends>> and <<includes>> and replacing them with <<precedes>> and <<uses>>. The documents on this Web site, authored by Don Sengroiux, describes a method known as stalwart-analysis, which claims to be a step-by-step method for translating use cases into design diagrams. More competing use case models are created using this new scheme, but again, people can't agree on how to evaluate them. The thrashing continues. More and more, the use case meetings are driven by emotion rather than by reason. If it weren't for the fact that you don't have requirements, you'd be pretty upset by the lack of progress you are making. The requirements document arrives on February 15. And then again on February 20, 25, and every week thereafter. Each new version contradicts the previous one. Clearly, the marketing folks who are writing the requirements, empowered though they might be, are not finding consensus.   At the same time, several new competing use case templates have been proposed by the various team members. Each template presents its own particularly creative way of delaying progress. The debates rage on. On March 1, Prudence Putrigence, the process proctor, succeeds in integrating all the competing use case forms and templates into a single, all-encompassing form. Just the blank form is 15 pages long. She has managed to include every field that appeared on all the competing templates. She also presents a 159- page document describing how to fill out the use case form. All current use cases must be rewritten according to the new standard.   You marvel to yourself that it now requires 15 pages of fill-in-the-blank and essay questions to answer the question: What should the system do when the user presses Return? The corporate process (authored by L. E. Ott, famed author of "Holistic Analysis: A Progressive Dialectic for Software Engineers") insists that you discover all primary use cases, 87 percent of all secondary use cases, and 36.274 percent of all tertiary use cases before you can complete analysis and enter the design phase. You have no idea what a tertiary use case is. So in an attempt to meet this requirement, you try to get your use case document reviewed by the marketing department, which you hope will know what a tertiary use case is.   Unfortunately, the marketing folks are too busy with sales support to talk to you. Indeed, since the project started, you have not been able to get a single meeting with marketing, which has provided a never-ending stream of changing and contradictory requirements documents.   While one team has been spinning endlessly on the use case document, another team has been working out the domain model. Endless variations of UML documents are pouring out of this team. Every week, the model is reworked.   The team members can't decide whether to use <<interfaces>> or <<types>> in the model. A huge disagreement has been raging on the proper syntax and application of OCL. Others on the team just got back from a 5-day class on catabolism, and have been producing incredibly detailed and arcane diagrams that nobody else can fathom.   On March 27, with one week to go before analysis is to be complete, you have produced a sea of documents and diagrams but are no closer to a cogent analysis of the problem than you were on January 3. **** And then, a miracle happens.   **** On Saturday, April 1, you check your e-mail from home. You see a memo from your boss to BB. It states unequivocally that you are done with the analysis! You phone your boss and complain. "How could you have told BB that we were done with the analysis?" "Have you looked at a calendar lately?" he responds. "It's April 1!" The irony of that date does not escape you. "But we have so much more to think about. So much more to analyze! We haven't even decided whether to use <<extends>> or <<precedes>>!" "Where is your evidence that you are not done?" inquires your boss, impatiently. "Whaaa . . . ." But he cuts you off. "Analysis can go on forever; it has to be stopped at some point. And since this is the date it was scheduled to stop, it has been stopped. Now, on Monday, I want you to gather up all existing analysis materials and put them into a public folder. Release that folder to Prudence so that she can log it in the CM system by Monday afternoon. Then get busy and start designing."   As you hang up the phone, you begin to consider the benefits of keeping a bottle of bourbon in your bottom desk drawer. They threw a party to celebrate the on-time completion of the analysis phase. BB gave a colon-stirring speech on empowerment. And your boss, another 3 mm taller, congratulated his team on the incredible show of unity and teamwork. Finally, the CIO takes the stage to tell everyone that the SEI audit went very well and to thank everyone for studying and shredding the evaluation guides that were passed out. Level 3 now seems assured and will be awarded by June. (Scuttlebutt has it that managers at the level of BB and above are to receive significant bonuses once the SEI awards level 3.)   As the weeks flow by, you and your team work on the design of the system. Of course, you find that the analysis that the design is supposedly based on is flawedno, useless; no, worse than useless. But when you tell your boss that you need to go back and work some more on the analysis to shore up its weaker sections, he simply states, "The analysis phase is over. The only allowable activity is design. Now get back to it."   So, you and your team hack the design as best you can, unsure of whether the requirements have been properly analyzed. Of course, it really doesn't matter much, since the requirements document is still thrashing with weekly revisions, and the marketing department still refuses to meet with you.     The design is a nightmare. Your boss recently misread a book named The Finish Line in which the author, Mark DeThomaso, blithely suggested that design documents should be taken down to code-level detail. "If we are going to be working at that level of detail," you ask, "why don't we simply write the code instead?" "Because then you wouldn't be designing, of course. And the only allowable activity in the design phase is design!" "Besides," he continues, "we have just purchased a companywide license for Dandelion! This tool enables 'Round the Horn Engineering!' You are to transfer all design diagrams into this tool. It will automatically generate our code for us! It will also keep the design diagrams in sync with the code!" Your boss hands you a brightly colored shrinkwrapped box containing the Dandelion distribution. You accept it numbly and shuffle off to your cubicle. Twelve hours, eight crashes, one disk reformatting, and eight shots of 151 later, you finally have the tool installed on your server. You consider the week your team will lose while attending Dandelion training. Then you smile and think, "Any week I'm not here is a good week." Design diagram after design diagram is created by your team. Dandelion makes it very difficult to draw these diagrams. There are dozens and dozens of deeply nested dialog boxes with funny text fields and check boxes that must all be filled in correctly. And then there's the problem of moving classes between packages. At first, these diagram are driven from the use cases. But the requirements are changing so often that the use cases rapidly become meaningless. Debates rage about whether VISITOR or DECORATOR design patterns should be used. One developer refuses to use VISITOR in any form, claiming that it's not a properly object-oriented construct. Someone refuses to use multiple inheritance, since it is the spawn of the devil. Review meetings rapidly degenerate into debates about the meaning of object orientation, the definition of analysis versus design, or when to use aggregation versus association. Midway through the design cycle, the marketing folks announce that they have rethought the focus of the system. Their new requirements document is completely restructured. They have eliminated several major feature areas and replaced them with feature areas that they anticipate customer surveys will show to be more appropriate. You tell your boss that these changes mean that you need to reanalyze and redesign much of the system. But he says, "The analysis phase is system. But he says, "The analysis phase is over. The only allowable activity is design. Now get back to it."   You suggest that it might be better to create a simple prototype to show to the marketing folks and even some potential customers. But your boss says, "The analysis phase is over. The only allowable activity is design. Now get back to it." Hack, hack, hack, hack. You try to create some kind of a design document that might reflect the new requirements documents. However, the revolution of the requirements has not caused them to stop thrashing. Indeed, if anything, the wild oscillations of the requirements document have only increased in frequency and amplitude.   You slog your way through them.   On June 15, the Dandelion database gets corrupted. Apparently, the corruption has been progressive. Small errors in the DB accumulated over the months into bigger and bigger errors. Eventually, the CASE tool just stopped working. Of course, the slowly encroaching corruption is present on all the backups. Calls to the Dandelion technical support line go unanswered for several days. Finally, you receive a brief e-mail from Dandelion, informing you that this is a known problem and that the solution is to purchase the new version, which they promise will be ready some time next quarter, and then reenter all the diagrams by hand.   ****   Then, on July 1 another miracle happens! You are done with the design!   Rather than go to your boss and complain, you stock your middle desk drawer with some vodka.   **** They threw a party to celebrate the on-time completion of the design phase and their graduation to CMM level 3. This time, you find BB's speech so stirring that you have to use the restroom before it begins. New banners and plaques are all over your workplace. They show pictures of eagles and mountain climbers, and they talk about teamwork and empowerment. They read better after a few scotches. That reminds you that you need to clear out your file cabinet to make room for the brandy. You and your team begin to code. But you rapidly discover that the design is lacking in some significant areas. Actually, it's lacking any significance at all. You convene a design session in one of the conference rooms to try to work through some of the nastier problems. But your boss catches you at it and disbands the meeting, saying, "The design phase is over. The only allowable activity is coding. Now get back to it."   ****   The code generated by Dandelion is really hideous. It turns out that you and your team were using association and aggregation the wrong way, after all. All the generated code has to be edited to correct these flaws. Editing this code is extremely difficult because it has been instrumented with ugly comment blocks that have special syntax that Dandelion needs in order to keep the diagrams in sync with the code. If you accidentally alter one of these comments, the diagrams will be regenerated incorrectly. It turns out that "Round the Horn Engineering" requires an awful lot of effort. The more you try to keep the code compatible with Dandelion, the more errors Dandelion generates. In the end, you give up and decide to keep the diagrams up to date manually. A second later, you decide that there's no point in keeping the diagrams up to date at all. Besides, who has time?   Your boss hires a consultant to build tools to count the number of lines of code that are being produced. He puts a big thermometer graph on the wall with the number 1,000,000 on the top. Every day, he extends the red line to show how many lines have been added. Three days after the thermometer appears on the wall, your boss stops you in the hall. "That graph isn't growing quickly enough. We need to have a million lines done by October 1." "We aren't even sh-sh-sure that the proshect will require a m-million linezh," you blather. "We have to have a million lines done by October 1," your boss reiterates. His points have grown again, and the Grecian formula he uses on them creates an aura of authority and competence. "Are you sure your comment blocks are big enough?" Then, in a flash of managerial insight, he says, "I have it! I want you to institute a new policy among the engineers. No line of code is to be longer than 20 characters. Any such line must be split into two or more preferably more. All existing code needs to be reworked to this standard. That'll get our line count up!"   You decide not to tell him that this will require two unscheduled work months. You decide not to tell him anything at all. You decide that intravenous injections of pure ethanol are the only solution. You make the appropriate arrangements. Hack, hack, hack, and hack. You and your team madly code away. By August 1, your boss, frowning at the thermometer on the wall, institutes a mandatory 50-hour workweek.   Hack, hack, hack, and hack. By September 1st, the thermometer is at 1.2 million lines and your boss asks you to write a report describing why you exceeded the coding budget by 20 percent. He institutes mandatory Saturdays and demands that the project be brought back down to a million lines. You start a campaign of remerging lines. Hack, hack, hack, and hack. Tempers are flaring; people are quitting; QA is raining trouble reports down on you. Customers are demanding installation and user manuals; salespeople are demanding advance demonstrations for special customers; the requirements document is still thrashing, the marketing folks are complaining that the product isn't anything like they specified, and the liquor store won't accept your credit card anymore. Something has to give.    On September 15, BB calls a meeting. As he enters the room, his points are emitting clouds of steam. When he speaks, the bass overtones of his carefully manicured voice cause the pit of your stomach to roll over. "The QA manager has told me that this project has less than 50 percent of the required features implemented. He has also informed me that the system crashes all the time, yields wrong results, and is hideously slow. He has also complained that he cannot keep up with the continuous train of daily releases, each more buggy than the last!" He stops for a few seconds, visibly trying to compose himself. "The QA manager estimates that, at this rate of development, we won't be able to ship the product until December!" Actually, you think it's more like March, but you don't say anything. "December!" BB roars with such derision that people duck their heads as though he were pointing an assault rifle at them. "December is absolutely out of the question. Team leaders, I want new estimates on my desk in the morning. I am hereby mandating 65-hour work weeks until this project is complete. And it better be complete by November 1."   As he leaves the conference room, he is heard to mutter: "Empowermentbah!" * * * Your boss is bald; his points are mounted on BB's wall. The fluorescent lights reflecting off his pate momentarily dazzle you. "Do you have anything to drink?" he asks. Having just finished your last bottle of Boone's Farm, you pull a bottle of Thunderbird from your bookshelf and pour it into his coffee mug. "What's it going to take to get this project done? " he asks. "We need to freeze the requirements, analyze them, design them, and then implement them," you say callously. "By November 1?" your boss exclaims incredulously. "No way! Just get back to coding the damned thing." He storms out, scratching his vacant head.   A few days later, you find that your boss has been transferred to the corporate research division. Turnover has skyrocketed. Customers, informed at the last minute that their orders cannot be fulfilled on time, have begun to cancel their orders. Marketing is re-evaluating whether this product aligns with the overall goals of the company. Memos fly, heads roll, policies change, and things are, overall, pretty grim. Finally, by March, after far too many sixty-five hour weeks, a very shaky version of the software is ready. In the field, bug-discovery rates are high, and the technical support staff are at their wits' end, trying to cope with the complaints and demands of the irate customers. Nobody is happy.   In April, BB decides to buy his way out of the problem by licensing a product produced by Rupert Industries and redistributing it. The customers are mollified, the marketing folks are smug, and you are laid off.     Rupert Industries: Project Alpha   Your name is Robert. The date is January 3, 2001. The quiet hours spent with your family this holiday have left you refreshed and ready for work. You are sitting in a conference room with your team of professionals. The manager of the division called the meeting. "We have some ideas for a new project," says the division manager. Call him Russ. He is a high-strung British chap with more energy than a fusion reactor. He is ambitious and driven but understands the value of a team. Russ describes the essence of the new market opportunity the company has identified and introduces you to Jane, the marketing manager, who is responsible for defining the products that will address it. Addressing you, Jane says, "We'd like to start defining our first product offering as soon as possible. When can you and your team meet with me?" You reply, "We'll be done with the current iteration of our project this Friday. We can spare a few hours for you between now and then. After that, we'll take a few people from the team and dedicate them to you. We'll begin hiring their replacements and the new people for your team immediately." "Great," says Russ, "but I want you to understand that it is critical that we have something to exhibit at the trade show coming up this July. If we can't be there with something significant, we'll lose the opportunity."   "I understand," you reply. "I don't yet know what it is that you have in mind, but I'm sure we can have something by July. I just can't tell you what that something will be right now. In any case, you and Jane are going to have complete control over what we developers do, so you can rest assured that by July, you'll have the most important things that can be accomplished in that time ready to exhibit."   Russ nods in satisfaction. He knows how this works. Your team has always kept him advised and allowed him to steer their development. He has the utmost confidence that your team will work on the most important things first and will produce a high-quality product.   * * *   "So, Robert," says Jane at their first meeting, "How does your team feel about being split up?" "We'll miss working with each other," you answer, "but some of us were getting pretty tired of that last project and are looking forward to a change. So, what are you people cooking up?" Jane beams. "You know how much trouble our customers currently have . . ." And she spends a half hour or so describing the problem and possible solution. "OK, wait a second" you respond. "I need to be clear about this." And so you and Jane talk about how this system might work. Some of her ideas aren't fully formed. You suggest possible solutions. She likes some of them. You continue discussing.   During the discussion, as each new topic is addressed, Jane writes user story cards. Each card represents something that the new system has to do. The cards accumulate on the table and are spread out in front of you. Both you and Jane point at them, pick them up, and make notes on them as you discuss the stories. The cards are powerful mnemonic devices that you can use to represent complex ideas that are barely formed.   At the end of the meeting, you say, "OK, I've got a general idea of what you want. I'm going to talk to the team about it. I imagine they'll want to run some experiments with various database structures and presentation formats. Next time we meet, it'll be as a group, and we'll start identifying the most important features of the system."   A week later, your nascent team meets with Jane. They spread the existing user story cards out on the table and begin to get into some of the details of the system. The meeting is very dynamic. Jane presents the stories in the order of their importance. There is much discussion about each one. The developers are concerned about keeping the stories small enough to estimate and test. So they continually ask Jane to split one story into several smaller stories. Jane is concerned that each story have a clear business value and priority, so as she splits them, she makes sure that this stays true.   The stories accumulate on the table. Jane writes them, but the developers make notes on them as needed. Nobody tries to capture everything that is said; the cards are not meant to capture everything but are simply reminders of the conversation.   As the developers become more comfortable with the stories, they begin writing estimates on them. These estimates are crude and budgetary, but they give Jane an idea of what the story will cost.   At the end of the meeting, it is clear that many more stories could be discussed. It is also clear that the most important stories have been addressed and that they represent several months worth of work. Jane closes the meeting by taking the cards with her and promising to have a proposal for the first release in the morning.   * * *   The next morning, you reconvene the meeting. Jane chooses five cards and places them on the table. "According to your estimates, these cards represent about one perfect team-week's worth of work. The last iteration of the previous project managed to get one perfect team-week done in 3 real weeks. If we can get these five stories done in 3 weeks, we'll be able to demonstrate them to Russ. That will make him feel very comfortable about our progress." Jane is pushing it. The sheepish look on her face lets you know that she knows it too. You reply, "Jane, this is a new team, working on a new project. It's a bit presumptuous to expect that our velocity will be the same as the previous team's. However, I met with the team yesterday afternoon, and we all agreed that our initial velocity should, in fact, be set to one perfectweek for every 3 real-weeks. So you've lucked out on this one." "Just remember," you continue, "that the story estimates and the story velocity are very tentative at this point. We'll learn more when we plan the iteration and even more when we implement it."   Jane looks over her glasses at you as if to say "Who's the boss around here, anyway?" and then smiles and says, "Yeah, don't worry. I know the drill by now."Jane then puts 15 more cards on the table. She says, "If we can get all these cards done by the end of March, we can turn the system over to our beta test customers. And we'll get good feedback from them."   You reply, "OK, so we've got our first iteration defined, and we have the stories for the next three iterations after that. These four iterations will make our first release."   "So," says Jane, can you really do these five stories in the next 3 weeks?" "I don't know for sure, Jane," you reply. "Let's break them down into tasks and see what we get."   So Jane, you, and your team spend the next several hours taking each of the five stories that Jane chose for the first iteration and breaking them down into small tasks. The developers quickly realize that some of the tasks can be shared between stories and that other tasks have commonalities that can probably be taken advantage of. It is clear that potential designs are popping into the developers' heads. From time to time, they form little discussion knots and scribble UML diagrams on some cards.   Soon, the whiteboard is filled with the tasks that, once completed, will implement the five stories for this iteration. You start the sign-up process by saying, "OK, let's sign up for these tasks." "I'll take the initial database generation." Says Pete. "That's what I did on the last project, and this doesn't look very different. I estimate it at two of my perfect workdays." "OK, well, then, I'll take the login screen," says Joe. "Aw, darn," says Elaine, the junior member of the team, "I've never done a GUI, and kinda wanted to try that one."   "Ah, the impatience of youth," Joe says sagely, with a wink in your direction. "You can assist me with it, young Jedi." To Jane: "I think it'll take me about three of my perfect workdays."   One by one, the developers sign up for tasks and estimate them in terms of their own perfect workdays. Both you and Jane know that it is best to let the developers volunteer for tasks than to assign the tasks to them. You also know full well that you daren't challenge any of the developers' estimates. You know these people, and you trust them. You know that they are going to do the very best they can.   The developers know that they can't sign up for more perfect workdays than they finished in the last iteration they worked on. Once each developer has filled his or her schedule for the iteration, they stop signing up for tasks.   Eventually, all the developers have stopped signing up for tasks. But, of course, tasks are still left on the board.   "I was worried that that might happen," you say, "OK, there's only one thing to do, Jane. We've got too much to do in this iteration. What stories or tasks can we remove?" Jane sighs. She knows that this is the only option. Working overtime at the beginning of a project is insane, and projects where she's tried it have not fared well.   So Jane starts to remove the least-important functionality. "Well, we really don't need the login screen just yet. We can simply start the system in the logged-in state." "Rats!" cries Elaine. "I really wanted to do that." "Patience, grasshopper." says Joe. "Those who wait for the bees to leave the hive will not have lips too swollen to relish the honey." Elaine looks confused. Everyone looks confused. "So . . .," Jane continues, "I think we can also do away with . . ." And so, bit by bit, the list of tasks shrinks. Developers who lose a task sign up for one of the remaining ones.   The negotiation is not painless. Several times, Jane exhibits obvious frustration and impatience. Once, when tensions are especially high, Elaine volunteers, "I'll work extra hard to make up some of the missing time." You are about to correct her when, fortunately, Joe looks her in the eye and says, "When once you proceed down the dark path, forever will it dominate your destiny."   In the end, an iteration acceptable to Jane is reached. It's not what Jane wanted. Indeed, it is significantly less. But it's something the team feels that can be achieved in the next 3 weeks.   And, after all, it still addresses the most important things that Jane wanted in the iteration. "So, Jane," you say when things had quieted down a bit, "when can we expect acceptance tests from you?" Jane sighs. This is the other side of the coin. For every story the development team implements,   Jane must supply a suite of acceptance tests that prove that it works. And the team needs these long before the end of the iteration, since they will certainly point out differences in the way Jane and the developers imagine the system's behaviour.   "I'll get you some example test scripts today," Jane promises. "I'll add to them every day after that. You'll have the entire suite by the middle of the iteration."   * * *   The iteration begins on Monday morning with a flurry of Class, Responsibilities, Collaborators sessions. By midmorning, all the developers have assembled into pairs and are rapidly coding away. "And now, my young apprentice," Joe says to Elaine, "you shall learn the mysteries of test-first design!"   "Wow, that sounds pretty rad," Elaine replies. "How do you do it?" Joe beams. It's clear that he has been anticipating this moment. "OK, what does the code do right now?" "Huh?" replied Elaine, "It doesn't do anything at all; there is no code."   "So, consider our task; can you think of something the code should do?" "Sure," Elaine said with youthful assurance, "First, it should connect to the database." "And thereupon, what must needs be required to connecteth the database?" "You sure talk weird," laughed Elaine. "I think we'd have to get the database object from some registry and call the Connect() method. "Ah, astute young wizard. Thou perceives correctly that we requireth an object within which we can cacheth the database object." "Is 'cacheth' really a word?" "It is when I say it! So, what test can we write that we know the database registry should pass?" Elaine sighs. She knows she'll just have to play along. "We should be able to create a database object and pass it to the registry in a Store() method. And then we should be able to pull it out of the registry with a Get() method and make sure it's the same object." "Oh, well said, my prepubescent sprite!" "Hay!" "So, now, let's write a test function that proves your case." "But shouldn't we write the database object and registry object first?" "Ah, you've much to learn, my young impatient one. Just write the test first." "But it won't even compile!" "Are you sure? What if it did?" "Uh . . ." "Just write the test, Elaine. Trust me." And so Joe, Elaine, and all the other developers began to code their tasks, one test case at a time. The room in which they worked was abuzz with the conversations between the pairs. The murmur was punctuated by an occasional high five when a pair managed to finish a task or a difficult test case.   As development proceeded, the developers changed partners once or twice a day. Each developer got to see what all the others were doing, and so knowledge of the code spread generally throughout the team.   Whenever a pair finished something significant whether a whole task or simply an important part of a task they integrated what they had with the rest of the system. Thus, the code base grew daily, and integration difficulties were minimized.   The developers communicated with Jane on a daily basis. They'd go to her whenever they had a question about the functionality of the system or the interpretation of an acceptance test case.   Jane, good as her word, supplied the team with a steady stream of acceptance test scripts. The team read these carefully and thereby gained a much better understanding of what Jane expected the system to do. By the beginning of the second week, there was enough functionality to demonstrate to Jane. She watched eagerly as the demonstration passed test case after test case. "This is really cool," Jane said as the demonstration finally ended. "But this doesn't seem like one-third of the tasks. Is your velocity slower than anticipated?"   You grimace. You'd been waiting for a good time to mention this to Jane but now she was forcing the issue. "Yes, unfortunately, we are going more slowly than we had expected. The new application server we are using is turning out to be a pain to configure. Also, it takes forever to reboot, and we have to reboot it whenever we make even the slightest change to its configuration."   Jane eyes you with suspicion. The stress of last Monday's negotiations had still not entirely dissipated. She says, "And what does this mean to our schedule? We can't slip it again, we just can't. Russ will have a fit! He'll haul us all into the woodshed and ream us some new ones."   You look Jane right in the eyes. There's no pleasant way to give someone news like this. So you just blurt out, "Look, if things keep going like they're going, we're not going to be done with everything by next Friday. Now it's possible that we'll figure out a way to go faster. But, frankly, I wouldn't depend on that. You should start thinking about one or two tasks that could be removed from the iteration without ruining the demonstration for Russ. Come hell or high water, we are going to give that demonstration on Friday, and I don't think you want us to choose which tasks to omit."   "Aw forchrisakes!" Jane barely manages to stifle yelling that last word as she stalks away, shaking her head. Not for the first time, you say to yourself, "Nobody ever promised me project management would be easy." You are pretty sure it won't be the last time, either.   Actually, things went a bit better than you had hoped. The team did, in fact, have to drop one task from the iteration, but Jane had chosen wisely, and the demonstration for Russ went without a hitch. Russ was not impressed with the progress, but neither was he dismayed. He simply said, "This is pretty good. But remember, we have to be able to demonstrate this system at the trade show in July, and at this rate, it doesn't look like you'll have all that much to show." Jane, whose attitude had improved dramatically with the completion of the iteration, responded to Russ by saying, "Russ, this team is working hard, and well. When July comes around, I am confident that we'll have something significant to demonstrate. It won't be everything, and some of it may be smoke and mirrors, but we'll have something."   Painful though the last iteration was, it had calibrated your velocity numbers. The next iteration went much better. Not because your team got more done than in the last iteration but simply because the team didn't have to remove any tasks or stories in the middle of the iteration.   By the start of the fourth iteration, a natural rhythm has been established. Jane, you, and the team know exactly what to expect from one another. The team is running hard, but the pace is sustainable. You are confident that the team can keep up this pace for a year or more.   The number of surprises in the schedule diminishes to near zero; however, the number of surprises in the requirements does not. Jane and Russ frequently look over the growing system and make recommendations or changes to the existing functionality. But all parties realize that these changes take time and must be scheduled. So the changes do not cause anyone's expectations to be violated. In March, there is a major demonstration of the system to the board of directors. The system is very limited and is not yet in a form good enough to take to the trade show, but progress is steady, and the board is reasonably impressed.   The second release goes even more smoothly than the first. By now, the team has figured out a way to automate Jane's acceptance test scripts. The team has also refactored the design of the system to the point that it is really easy to add new features and change old ones. The second release was done by the end of June and was taken to the trade show. It had less in it than Jane and Russ would have liked, but it did demonstrate the most important features of the system. Although customers at the trade show noticed that certain features were missing, they were very impressed overall. You, Russ, and Jane all returned from the trade show with smiles on your faces. You all felt as though this project was a winner.   Indeed, many months later, you are contacted by Rufus Inc. That company had been working on a system like this for its internal operations. Rufus has canceled the development of that system after a death-march project and is negotiating to license your technology for its environment.   Indeed, things are looking up!

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  • Red Gate Coder interviews: Alex Davies

    - by Michael Williamson
    Alex Davies has been a software engineer at Red Gate since graduating from university, and is currently busy working on .NET Demon. We talked about tackling parallel programming with his actors framework, a scientific approach to debugging, and how JavaScript is going to affect the programming languages we use in years to come. So, if we start at the start, how did you get started in programming? When I was seven or eight, I was given a BBC Micro for Christmas. I had asked for a Game Boy, but my dad thought it would be better to give me a proper computer. For a year or so, I only played games on it, but then I found the user guide for writing programs in it. I gradually started doing more stuff on it and found it fun. I liked creating. As I went into senior school I continued to write stuff on there, trying to write games that weren’t very good. I got a real computer when I was fourteen and found ways to write BASIC on it. Visual Basic to start with, and then something more interesting than that. How did you learn to program? Was there someone helping you out? Absolutely not! I learnt out of a book, or by experimenting. I remember the first time I found a loop, I was like “Oh my God! I don’t have to write out the same line over and over and over again any more. It’s amazing!” When did you think this might be something that you actually wanted to do as a career? For a long time, I thought it wasn’t something that you would do as a career, because it was too much fun to be a career. I thought I’d do chemistry at university and some kind of career based on chemical engineering. And then I went to a careers fair at school when I was seventeen or eighteen, and it just didn’t interest me whatsoever. I thought “I could be a programmer, and there’s loads of money there, and I’m good at it, and it’s fun”, but also that I shouldn’t spoil my hobby. Now I don’t really program in my spare time any more, which is a bit of a shame, but I program all the rest of the time, so I can live with it. Do you think you learnt much about programming at university? Yes, definitely! I went into university knowing how to make computers do anything I wanted them to do. However, I didn’t have the language to talk about algorithms, so the algorithms course in my first year was massively important. Learning other language paradigms like functional programming was really good for breadth of understanding. Functional programming influences normal programming through design rather than actually using it all the time. I draw inspiration from it to write imperative programs which I think is actually becoming really fashionable now, but I’ve been doing it for ages. I did it first! There were also some courses on really odd programming languages, a bit of Prolog, a little bit of C. Having a little bit of each of those is something that I would have never done on my own, so it was important. And then there are knowledge-based courses which are about not programming itself but things that have been programmed like TCP. Those are really important for examples for how to approach things. Did you do any internships while you were at university? Yeah, I spent both of my summers at the same company. I thought I could code well before I went there. Looking back at the crap that I produced, it was only surpassed in its crappiness by all of the other code already in that company. I’m so much better at writing nice code now than I used to be back then. Was there just not a culture of looking after your code? There was, they just didn’t hire people for their abilities in that area. They hired people for raw IQ. The first indicator of it going wrong was that they didn’t have any computer scientists, which is a bit odd in a programming company. But even beyond that they didn’t have people who learnt architecture from anyone else. Most of them had started straight out of university, so never really had experience or mentors to learn from. There wasn’t the experience to draw from to teach each other. In the second half of my second internship, I was being given tasks like looking at new technologies and teaching people stuff. Interns shouldn’t be teaching people how to do their jobs! All interns are going to have little nuggets of things that you don’t know about, but they shouldn’t consistently be the ones who know the most. It’s not a good environment to learn. I was going to ask how you found working with people who were more experienced than you… When I reached Red Gate, I found some people who were more experienced programmers than me, and that was difficult. I’ve been coding since I was tiny. At university there were people who were cleverer than me, but there weren’t very many who were more experienced programmers than me. During my internship, I didn’t find anyone who I classed as being a noticeably more experienced programmer than me. So, it was a shock to the system to have valid criticisms rather than just formatting criticisms. However, Red Gate’s not so big on the actual code review, at least it wasn’t when I started. We did an entire product release and then somebody looked over all of the UI of that product which I’d written and say what they didn’t like. By that point, it was way too late and I’d disagree with them. Do you think the lack of code reviews was a bad thing? I think if there’s going to be any oversight of new people, then it should be continuous rather than chunky. For me I don’t mind too much, I could go out and get oversight if I wanted it, and in those situations I felt comfortable without it. If I was managing the new person, then maybe I’d be keener on oversight and then the right way to do it is continuously and in very, very small chunks. Have you had any significant projects you’ve worked on outside of a job? When I was a teenager I wrote all sorts of stuff. I used to write games, I derived how to do isomorphic projections myself once. I didn’t know what the word was so I couldn’t Google for it, so I worked it out myself. It was horrifically complicated. But it sort of tailed off when I started at university, and is now basically zero. If I do side-projects now, they tend to be work-related side projects like my actors framework, NAct, which I started in a down tools week. Could you explain a little more about NAct? It is a little C# framework for writing parallel code more easily. Parallel programming is difficult when you need to write to shared data. Sometimes parallel programming is easy because you don’t need to write to shared data. When you do need to access shared data, you could just have your threads pile in and do their work, but then you would screw up the data because the threads would trample on each other’s toes. You could lock, but locks are really dangerous if you’re using more than one of them. You get interactions like deadlocks, and that’s just nasty. Actors instead allows you to say this piece of data belongs to this thread of execution, and nobody else can read it. If you want to read it, then ask that thread of execution for a piece of it by sending a message, and it will send the data back by a message. And that avoids deadlocks as long as you follow some obvious rules about not making your actors sit around waiting for other actors to do something. There are lots of ways to write actors, NAct allows you to do it as if it was method calls on other objects, which means you get all the strong type-safety that C# programmers like. Do you think that this is suitable for the majority of parallel programming, or do you think it’s only suitable for specific cases? It’s suitable for most difficult parallel programming. If you’ve just got a hundred web requests which are all independent of each other, then I wouldn’t bother because it’s easier to just spin them up in separate threads and they can proceed independently of each other. But where you’ve got difficult parallel programming, where you’ve got multiple threads accessing multiple bits of data in multiple ways at different times, then actors is at least as good as all other ways, and is, I reckon, easier to think about. When you’re using actors, you presumably still have to write your code in a different way from you would otherwise using single-threaded code. You can’t use actors with any methods that have return types, because you’re not allowed to call into another actor and wait for it. If you want to get a piece of data out of another actor, then you’ve got to use tasks so that you can use “async” and “await” to await asynchronously for it. But other than that, you can still stick things in classes so it’s not too different really. Rather than having thousands of objects with mutable state, you can use component-orientated design, where there are only a few mutable classes which each have a small number of instances. Then there can be thousands of immutable objects. If you tend to do that anyway, then actors isn’t much of a jump. If I’ve already built my system without any parallelism, how hard is it to add actors to exploit all eight cores on my desktop? Usually pretty easy. If you can identify even one boundary where things look like messages and you have components where some objects live on one side and these other objects live on the other side, then you can have a granddaddy object on one side be an actor and it will parallelise as it goes across that boundary. Not too difficult. If we do get 1000-core desktop PCs, do you think actors will scale up? It’s hard. There are always in the order of twenty to fifty actors in my whole program because I tend to write each component as actors, and I tend to have one instance of each component. So this won’t scale to a thousand cores. What you can do is write data structures out of actors. I use dictionaries all over the place, and if you need a dictionary that is going to be accessed concurrently, then you could build one of those out of actors in no time. You can use queuing to marshal requests between different slices of the dictionary which are living on different threads. So it’s like a distributed hash table but all of the chunks of it are on the same machine. That means that each of these thousand processors has cached one small piece of the dictionary. I reckon it wouldn’t be too big a leap to start doing proper parallelism. Do you think it helps if actors get baked into the language, similarly to Erlang? Erlang is excellent in that it has thread-local garbage collection. C# doesn’t, so there’s a limit to how well C# actors can possibly scale because there’s a single garbage collected heap shared between all of them. When you do a global garbage collection, you’ve got to stop all of the actors, which is seriously expensive, whereas in Erlang garbage collections happen per-actor, so they’re insanely cheap. However, Erlang deviated from all the sensible language design that people have used recently and has just come up with crazy stuff. You can definitely retrofit thread-local garbage collection to .NET, and then it’s quite well-suited to support actors, even if it’s not baked into the language. Speaking of language design, do you have a favourite programming language? I’ll choose a language which I’ve never written before. I like the idea of Scala. It sounds like C#, only with some of the niggles gone. I enjoy writing static types. It means you don’t have to writing tests so much. When you say it doesn’t have some of the niggles? C# doesn’t allow the use of a property as a method group. It doesn’t have Scala case classes, or sum types, where you can do a switch statement and the compiler checks that you’ve checked all the cases, which is really useful in functional-style programming. Pattern-matching, in other words. That’s actually the major niggle. C# is pretty good, and I’m quite happy with C#. And what about going even further with the type system to remove the need for tests to something like Haskell? Or is that a step too far? I’m quite a pragmatist, I don’t think I could deal with trying to write big systems in languages with too few other users, especially when learning how to structure things. I just don’t know anyone who can teach me, and the Internet won’t teach me. That’s the main reason I wouldn’t use it. If I turned up at a company that writes big systems in Haskell, I would have no objection to that, but I wouldn’t instigate it. What about things in C#? For instance, there’s contracts in C#, so you can try to statically verify a bit more about your code. Do you think that’s useful, or just not worthwhile? I’ve not really tried it. My hunch is that it needs to be built into the language and be quite mathematical for it to work in real life, and that doesn’t seem to have ended up true for C# contracts. I don’t think anyone who’s tried them thinks they’re any good. I might be wrong. On a slightly different note, how do you like to debug code? I think I’m quite an odd debugger. I use guesswork extremely rarely, especially if something seems quite difficult to debug. I’ve been bitten spending hours and hours on guesswork and not being scientific about debugging in the past, so now I’m scientific to a fault. What I want is to see the bug happening in the debugger, to step through the bug happening. To watch the program going from a valid state to an invalid state. When there’s a bug and I can’t work out why it’s happening, I try to find some piece of evidence which places the bug in one section of the code. From that experiment, I binary chop on the possible causes of the bug. I suppose that means binary chopping on places in the code, or binary chopping on a stage through a processing cycle. Basically, I’m very stupid about how I debug. I won’t make any guesses, I won’t use any intuition, I will only identify the experiment that’s going to binary chop most effectively and repeat rather than trying to guess anything. I suppose it’s quite top-down. Is most of the time then spent in the debugger? Absolutely, if at all possible I will never debug using print statements or logs. I don’t really hold much stock in outputting logs. If there’s any bug which can be reproduced locally, I’d rather do it in the debugger than outputting logs. And with SmartAssembly error reporting, there’s not a lot that can’t be either observed in an error report and just fixed, or reproduced locally. And in those other situations, maybe I’ll use logs. But I hate using logs. You stare at the log, trying to guess what’s going on, and that’s exactly what I don’t like doing. You have to just look at it and see does this look right or wrong. We’ve covered how you get to grip with bugs. How do you get to grips with an entire codebase? I watch it in the debugger. I find little bugs and then try to fix them, and mostly do it by watching them in the debugger and gradually getting an understanding of how the code works using my process of binary chopping. I have to do a lot of reading and watching code to choose where my slicing-in-half experiment is going to be. The last time I did it was SmartAssembly. The old code was a complete mess, but at least it did things top to bottom. There wasn’t too much of some of the big abstractions where flow of control goes all over the place, into a base class and back again. Code’s really hard to understand when that happens. So I like to choose a little bug and try to fix it, and choose a bigger bug and try to fix it. Definitely learn by doing. I want to always have an aim so that I get a little achievement after every few hours of debugging. Once I’ve learnt the codebase I might be able to fix all the bugs in an hour, but I’d rather be using them as an aim while I’m learning the codebase. If I was a maintainer of a codebase, what should I do to make it as easy as possible for you to understand? Keep distinct concepts in different places. And name your stuff so that it’s obvious which concepts live there. You shouldn’t have some variable that gets set miles up the top of somewhere, and then is read miles down to choose some later behaviour. I’m talking from a very much SmartAssembly point of view because the old SmartAssembly codebase had tons and tons of these things, where it would read some property of the code and then deal with it later. Just thousands of variables in scope. Loads of things to think about. If you can keep concepts separate, then it aids me in my process of fixing bugs one at a time, because each bug is going to more or less be understandable in the one place where it is. And what about tests? Do you think they help at all? I’ve never had the opportunity to learn a codebase which has had tests, I don’t know what it’s like! What about when you’re actually developing? How useful do you find tests in finding bugs or regressions? Finding regressions, absolutely. Running bits of code that would be quite hard to run otherwise, definitely. It doesn’t happen very often that a test finds a bug in the first place. I don’t really buy nebulous promises like tests being a good way to think about the spec of the code. My thinking goes something like “This code works at the moment, great, ship it! Ah, there’s a way that this code doesn’t work. Okay, write a test, demonstrate that it doesn’t work, fix it, use the test to demonstrate that it’s now fixed, and keep the test for future regressions.” The most valuable tests are for bugs that have actually happened at some point, because bugs that have actually happened at some point, despite the fact that you think you’ve fixed them, are way more likely to appear again than new bugs are. Does that mean that when you write your code the first time, there are no tests? Often. The chance of there being a bug in a new feature is relatively unaffected by whether I’ve written a test for that new feature because I’m not good enough at writing tests to think of bugs that I would have written into the code. So not writing regression tests for all of your code hasn’t affected you too badly? There are different kinds of features. Some of them just always work, and are just not flaky, they just continue working whatever you throw at them. Maybe because the type-checker is particularly effective around them. Writing tests for those features which just tend to always work is a waste of time. And because it’s a waste of time I’ll tend to wait until a feature has demonstrated its flakiness by having bugs in it before I start trying to test it. You can get a feel for whether it’s going to be flaky code as you’re writing it. I try to write it to make it not flaky, but there are some things that are just inherently flaky. And very occasionally, I’ll think “this is going to be flaky” as I’m writing, and then maybe do a test, but not most of the time. How do you think your programming style has changed over time? I’ve got clearer about what the right way of doing things is. I used to flip-flop a lot between different ideas. Five years ago I came up with some really good ideas and some really terrible ideas. All of them seemed great when I thought of them, but they were quite diverse ideas, whereas now I have a smaller set of reliable ideas that are actually good for structuring code. So my code is probably more similar to itself than it used to be back in the day, when I was trying stuff out. I’ve got more disciplined about encapsulation, I think. There are operational things like I use actors more now than I used to, and that forces me to use immutability more than I used to. The first code that I wrote in Red Gate was the memory profiler UI, and that was an actor, I just didn’t know the name of it at the time. I don’t really use object-orientation. By object-orientation, I mean having n objects of the same type which are mutable. I want a constant number of objects that are mutable, and they should be different types. I stick stuff in dictionaries and then have one thing that owns the dictionary and puts stuff in and out of it. That’s definitely a pattern that I’ve seen recently. I think maybe I’m doing functional programming. Possibly. It’s plausible. If you had to summarise the essence of programming in a pithy sentence, how would you do it? Programming is the form of art that, without losing any of the beauty of architecture or fine art, allows you to produce things that people love and you make money from. So you think it’s an art rather than a science? It’s a little bit of engineering, a smidgeon of maths, but it’s not science. Like architecture, programming is on that boundary between art and engineering. If you want to do it really nicely, it’s mostly art. You can get away with doing architecture and programming entirely by having a good engineering mind, but you’re not going to produce anything nice. You’re not going to have joy doing it if you’re an engineering mind. Architects who are just engineering minds are not going to enjoy their job. I suppose engineering is the foundation on which you build the art. Exactly. How do you think programming is going to change over the next ten years? There will be an unfortunate shift towards dynamically-typed languages, because of JavaScript. JavaScript has an unfair advantage. JavaScript’s unfair advantage will cause more people to be exposed to dynamically-typed languages, which means other dynamically-typed languages crop up and the best features go into dynamically-typed languages. Then people conflate the good features with the fact that it’s dynamically-typed, and more investment goes into dynamically-typed languages. They end up better, so people use them. What about the idea of compiling other languages, possibly statically-typed, to JavaScript? It’s a reasonable idea. I would like to do it, but I don’t think enough people in the world are going to do it to make it pick up. The hordes of beginners are the lifeblood of a language community. They are what makes there be good tools and what makes there be vibrant community websites. And any particular thing which is the same as JavaScript only with extra stuff added to it, although it might be technically great, is not going to have the hordes of beginners. JavaScript is always to be quickest and easiest way for a beginner to start programming in the browser. And dynamically-typed languages are great for beginners. Compilers are pretty scary and beginners don’t write big code. And having your errors come up in the same place, whether they’re statically checkable errors or not, is quite nice for a beginner. If someone asked me to teach them some programming, I’d teach them JavaScript. If dynamically-typed languages are great for beginners, when do you think the benefits of static typing start to kick in? The value of having a statically typed program is in the tools that rely on the static types to produce a smooth IDE experience rather than actually telling me my compile errors. And only once you’re experienced enough a programmer that having a really smooth IDE experience makes a blind bit of difference, does static typing make a blind bit of difference. So it’s not really about size of codebase. If I go and write up a tiny program, I’m still going to get value out of writing it in C# using ReSharper because I’m experienced with C# and ReSharper enough to be able to write code five times faster if I have that help. Any other visions of the future? Nobody’s going to use actors. Because everyone’s going to be running on single-core VMs connected over network-ready protocols like JSON over HTTP. So, parallelism within one operating system is going to die. But until then, you should use actors. More Red Gater Coder interviews

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  • Create xml file to be used in wordpress post import

    - by adedoy
    Alright here is the thing, I have this site that was once wordpress but have been converted into 70+ static pages, the admin is deleted and the whole site is static(which means every page is in index.html), I want to create a script that makes an xml so that I will just have to import it in the new wordpress install. So far, I am able to create an XML but it only imports one post. The data source is the URL of a page and I use jquery $get to filter only to gather the post of a given archive. //html <input type="text" class="full_path"> <input type="button" value="Get Data" class="getdata"> //script $('.getdata').click(function(){ $.get($('.full_path').val(), function(data) { post = $(data).find('div [style*="width:530px;"]'); $('.result').html(post.html()); }); });//get Data Through AJAX I send the cleaned data into a php below that creates the XML: $file = 'newpost.xml'; $post_data = $_REQUEST['post_data']; // Open the file to get existing content $current = file_get_contents($file); // Append a new post to the file $catStr = ''; if(isset($post_data['categories']) && count($post_data['categories']) > 0){ foreach($post_data['categories'] as $category) { $catStr .= '<category domain="category" nicename="'.$category.'"><![CDATA['.$category.']]></category>'; } } $tagStr = ''; if(isset($post_data['tags']) && count($post_data['tags']) > 0){ foreach($post_data['tags'] as $tag) { $tagStr = '<category domain="post_tag" nicename="'.$tag.'"><![CDATA['.$tag.']]></category>'; } } $post_name = str_replace(' ','-',$post_data["title"]); $post_name = str_replace(array('"','/',':','.',',','[',']','“','”'),'',strtolower($post_name)); $post_date = '2011-4-0'.rand(1, 29).''.rand(1, 12).':'.rand(1, 59).':'.rand(1, 59); $pubTime = rand(1, 12).':'.rand(1, 59).':'.rand(1, 59).' +0000'; $post = ' <item> <title>'.$post_data["title"].'</title> <link>'.$post_data["link"].'</link> <pubDate>'.$post_data["date"].' '.$pubTime.'</pubDate> <dc:creator>admin</dc:creator> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://localhost/saunders/?p=1</guid> <description></description> <content:encoded><![CDATA['.$post_data["content"].']]></content:encoded> <excerpt:encoded><![CDATA[]]></excerpt:encoded> <wp:post_id>1</wp:post_id> <wp:post_date>'.$post_date.'</wp:post_date> <wp:post_date_gmt>'.$post_date.'</wp:post_date_gmt> <wp:comment_status>open</wp:comment_status> <wp:ping_status>open</wp:ping_status> <wp:post_name>'.$post_name.'</wp:post_name> <wp:status>publish</wp:status> <wp:post_parent>0</wp:post_parent> <wp:menu_order>0</wp:menu_order> <wp:post_type>post</wp:post_type> <wp:post_password></wp:post_password> <wp:is_sticky>0</wp:is_sticky> '.$catStr.' '.$tagStr.' <wp:postmeta> <wp:meta_key>_edit_last</wp:meta_key> <wp:meta_value><![CDATA[1]]></wp:meta_value> </wp:postmeta> </item> '; // Write the contents back to the file with the appended post file_put_contents($file, $current.$post); After being appended I add the code below to complete the xml rss tag </channel> </rss> If I look and compare the xml file of one that is exported from a wordpress site, I see little difference. Please HELP!! here is a sample of a generated xml: <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?> <rss version="2.0" xmlns:excerpt="http://wordpress.org/export/1.2/excerpt/" xmlns:content="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/" xmlns:wfw="http://wellformedweb.org/CommentAPI/" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xmlns:wp="http://wordpress.org/export/1.2/" > <channel> <title>lols why</title> <link>http://localhost/lols</link> <description>Just another WordPress site</description> <pubDate>Wed, 03 Oct 2012 04:24:04 +0000</pubDate> <language>en-US</language> <wp:wxr_version>1.2</wp:wxr_version> <wp:base_site_url>http://localhost/lols</wp:base_site_url> <wp:base_blog_url>http://localhost/lols</wp:base_blog_url> <wp:author><wp:author_id>1</wp:author_id><wp:author_login>adedoy</wp:author_login><wp:author_email>[email protected]</wp:author_email><wp:author_display_name><![CDATA[adedoy]]></wp:author_display_name><wp:author_first_name><![CDATA[]]></wp:author_first_name><wp:author_last_name><![CDATA[]]></wp:author_last_name></wp:author> <generator>http://wordpress.org/?v=3.4.1</generator> <item> <title>Sample lift?</title> <link>../../breast-lift/delaware-breast-surgery-do-i-need-a-breast-lift/</link> <pubDate>Wed, 03 Oct 2012 9:29:16 +0000</pubDate> <dc:creator>admin</dc:creator> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://localhost/lols/?p=1</guid> <description></description> <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>sample</p>]]></content:encoded> <excerpt:encoded><![CDATA[]]></excerpt:encoded> <wp:post_id>1</wp:post_id> <wp:post_date>2011-4-0132:45:4</wp:post_date> <wp:post_date_gmt>2011-4-0132:45:4</wp:post_date_gmt> <wp:comment_status>open</wp:comment_status> <wp:ping_status>open</wp:ping_status> <wp:post_name>sample-lift?</wp:post_name> <wp:status>publish</wp:status> <wp:post_parent>0</wp:post_parent> <wp:menu_order>0</wp:menu_order> <wp:post_type>post</wp:post_type> <wp:post_password></wp:post_password> <wp:is_sticky>0</wp:is_sticky> <category domain="category" nicename="Sample Lift"><![CDATA[Sample Lift]]></category><category domain="category" nicename="Sample Procedures"><![CDATA[Yeah Procedures]]></category> <category domain="post_tag" nicename="delaware"><![CDATA[delaware]]></category> <wp:postmeta> <wp:meta_key>_edit_last</wp:meta_key> <wp:meta_value><![CDATA[1]]></wp:meta_value> </wp:postmeta> </item> <item> <title>lalalalalala</title> <link>../../administrative-tips-for-surgery/delaware-cosmetic-surgery-a-better-experience/</link> <pubDate>Wed, 03 Oct 2012 3:20:43 +0000</pubDate> <dc:creator>admin</dc:creator> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://localhost/lols/?p=1</guid> <description></description> <content:encoded><![CDATA[ lalalalalala ]]></content:encoded> <excerpt:encoded><![CDATA[]]></excerpt:encoded> <wp:post_id>1</wp:post_id> <wp:post_date>2011-4-0124:39:30</wp:post_date> <wp:post_date_gmt>2011-4-0124:39:30</wp:post_date_gmt> <wp:comment_status>open</wp:comment_status> <wp:ping_status>open</wp:ping_status> <wp:post_name>lalalalalala</wp:post_name> <wp:status>publish</wp:status> <wp:post_parent>0</wp:post_parent> <wp:menu_order>0</wp:menu_order> <wp:post_type>post</wp:post_type> <wp:post_password></wp:post_password> <wp:is_sticky>0</wp:is_sticky> <category domain="category" nicename="lalalalalala"><![CDATA[lalalalalala]]></category> <category domain="post_tag" nicename="oink"><![CDATA[oink]]></category> <wp:postmeta> <wp:meta_key>_edit_last</wp:meta_key> <wp:meta_value><![CDATA[1]]></wp:meta_value> </wp:postmeta> </item> </channel> </rss> Please tell me what am I missing....

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  • Silverlight Recruiting Application Part 6 - Adding an Interview Scheduling Module/View

    Between the last post and this one I went ahead and carried the ideas for the Jobs module and view into the Applicants module and view- they're both doing more or less the same thing, except with different objects being at their core.  Made for an easy cut-and-paste operation with a few items being switched from one to another.  Now that we have the ability to add postings and applicants, wouldn't it be nice if we could schedule an interview?  Of course it would! Scheduling Module I think you get the drift from previous posts that these project structures start looking somewhat similar.  The interview scheduling module is no different than the rest- it gets a SchedulingModule.cs file at the root that inherits from IModule, and there is a single SchedulerView.xsml and SchedulerViewModel.cs setup for our V+VM.  We have one unique concern as we enter into this- RadScheduler deals with AppointmentsSource, not ItemsSource, so there are some special considerations to take into account when planning this module. First, I need something which inherits from AppointmentBase.  This is the core of the RadScheduler appointment, and if you are planning to do any form of custom appointment, you'll want it to inherit from this.  Then you can add-on functionality as needed.  Here is my addition to the mix, the InterviewAppointment: 01.public class InterviewAppointment : AppointmentBase 02.{ 03.    private int _applicantID; 04.    public int ApplicantID 05.    { 06.        get { return this._applicantID; } 07.        set 08.        { 09.            if (_applicantID != value) 10.            { 11.                _applicantID = value; 12.                OnPropertyChanged("ApplicantID"); 13.            } 14.        } 15.    } 16.   17.    private int _postingID; 18.    public int PostingID 19.    { 20.        get { return _postingID; } 21.        set 22.        { 23.            if (_postingID != value) 24.            { 25.                _postingID = value; 26.                OnPropertyChanged("PostingID"); 27.            } 28.        } 29.    } 30.   31.    private string _body; 32.    public string Body 33.    { 34.        get { return _body; } 35.        set 36.        { 37.            if (_body != value) 38.            { 39.                _body = value; 40.                OnPropertyChanged("Body"); 41.            } 42.        } 43.    } 44.   45.    private int _interviewID; 46.    public int InterviewID 47.    { 48.        get { return _interviewID; } 49.        set 50.        { 51.            if (_interviewID != value) 52.            { 53.                _interviewID = value; 54.                OnPropertyChanged("InterviewID"); 55.            } 56.        } 57.    } 58.   59.    public override IAppointment Copy() 60.    { 61.        IAppointment appointment = new InterviewAppointment(); 62.        appointment.CopyFrom(this);             63.        return appointment; 64.    } 65.   66.    public override void CopyFrom(IAppointment other) 67.    {             68.        base.CopyFrom(other); 69.        var appointment = other as InterviewAppointment; 70.        if (appointment != null) 71.        { 72.            ApplicantID = appointment.ApplicantID; 73.            PostingID = appointment.PostingID; 74.            Body = appointment.Body; 75.            InterviewID = appointment.InterviewID; 76.        } 77.    } 78.} Nothing too exciting going on here, we just make sure that our custom fields are persisted (specifically set in CopyFrom at the bottom) and notifications are fired- otherwise this ends up exactly like the standard appointment as far as interactions, etc.  But if we've got custom appointment items... that also means we need to customize what our appointment dialog window will look like. Customizing the Edit Appointment Dialog This initially sounds a lot more intimidating than it really is.  The first step here depends on what you're dealing with for theming, but for ease of everything I went ahead and extracted my templates in Blend for RadScheduler so I could modify it as I pleased.  For the faint of heart, the RadScheduler template is a few thousand lines of goodness since there are some very complex things going on in that control.  I've gone ahead and trimmed down the template parts I don't need as much as possible, so what is left is all that is relevant to the Edit Appointment Dialog.  Here's the resulting Xaml, with line numbers, so I can explain further: 001.<UserControl.Resources> 002.    <!-- begin Necessary Windows 7 Theme Resources for EditAppointmentTemplate --> 003.    <helpers:DataContextProxy x:Key="DataContextProxy" /> 004.       005.    <telerik:Windows7Theme x:Key="Theme" /> 006.    <SolidColorBrush x:Key="DialogWindowBackground" 007.                     Color="White" /> 008.    <SolidColorBrush x:Key="CategorySelectorBorderBrush" 009.                     Color="#FFB1B1B1" /> 010.    <LinearGradientBrush x:Key="RadToolBar_InnerBackground" 011.                         EndPoint="0.5,1" 012.                         StartPoint="0.5,0"> 013.        <GradientStop Color="#FFFDFEFF" 014.                      Offset="0" /> 015.        <GradientStop Color="#FFDDE9F7" 016.                      Offset="1" /> 017.        <GradientStop Color="#FFE6F0FA" 018.                      Offset="0.5" /> 019.        <GradientStop Color="#FFDCE6F4" 020.                      Offset="0.5" /> 021.    </LinearGradientBrush> 022.    <Style x:Key="FormElementTextBlockStyle" 023.           TargetType="TextBlock"> 024.        <Setter Property="HorizontalAlignment" 025.                Value="Right" /> 026.        <Setter Property="VerticalAlignment" 027.                Value="Top" /> 028.        <Setter Property="Margin" 029.                Value="15, 15, 0, 2" /> 030.    </Style> 031.    <Style x:Key="FormElementStyle" 032.           TargetType="FrameworkElement"> 033.        <Setter Property="Margin" 034.                Value="10, 10, 0, 2" /> 035.    </Style> 036.    <SolidColorBrush x:Key="GenericShallowBorderBrush" 037.                     Color="#FF979994" /> 038.    <telerik:BooleanToVisibilityConverter x:Key="BooleanToVisibilityConverter" /> 039.    <telerikScheduler:ImportanceToBooleanConverter x:Key="ImportanceToBooleanConverter" /> 040.    <telerikScheduler:NullToVisibilityConverter x:Key="NullToVisibilityConverter" /> 041.    <telerikScheduler:InvertedNullToVisibilityConverter x:Key="InvertedNullToVisibilityConverter" /> 042.    <scheduler:ResourcesSeparatorConverter x:Key="ResourcesSeparatorConverter" /> 043.    <DataTemplate x:Key="IconDataEditTemplate"> 044.        <Image Source="/Telerik.Windows.Controls.Scheduler;component/Themes/Office/Images/cal.png" 045.               Margin="3,3,0,0" 046.               Width="16" 047.               Height="16" /> 048.    </DataTemplate> 049.    <DataTemplate x:Key="SingleSelectionTemplate"> 050.        <Grid VerticalAlignment="Stretch" 051.              HorizontalAlignment="Stretch"> 052.            <Grid.RowDefinitions> 053.                <RowDefinition Height="Auto" /> 054.            </Grid.RowDefinitions> 055.            <Grid.ColumnDefinitions> 056.                <ColumnDefinition Width="Auto" 057.                                  MinWidth="84" /> 058.                <ColumnDefinition Width="Auto" 059.                                  MinWidth="200" /> 060.            </Grid.ColumnDefinitions> 061.            <TextBlock x:Name="SelectionNameLabel" 062.                       Margin="0,13,4,2" 063.                       Text="{Binding ResourceType.DisplayName}" 064.                       Style="{StaticResource FormElementTextBlockStyle}" 065.                       Grid.Column="0" /> 066.            <telerikInput:RadComboBox ItemsSource="{Binding ResourceItems}" 067.                                      Width="185" 068.                                      Margin="5,10,20,2" 069.                                      HorizontalAlignment="Left" 070.                                      Grid.Column="1" 071.                                      ClearSelectionButtonVisibility="Visible" 072.                                      ClearSelectionButtonContent="Clear All" 073.                                      DisplayMemberPath="Resource.DisplayName" 074.                                      telerik:StyleManager.Theme="{StaticResource Theme}" 075.                                      SelectedItem="{Binding SelectedItem, Mode=TwoWay}" /> 076.        </Grid> 077.    </DataTemplate> 078.    <DataTemplate x:Key="MultipleSelectionTemplate"> 079.        <Grid VerticalAlignment="Stretch" 080.              HorizontalAlignment="Stretch"> 081.            <Grid.RowDefinitions> 082.                <RowDefinition Height="Auto" /> 083.            </Grid.RowDefinitions> 084.            <Grid.ColumnDefinitions> 085.                <ColumnDefinition Width="Auto" 086.                                  MinWidth="84" /> 087.                <ColumnDefinition Width="Auto" 088.                                  MinWidth="200" /> 089.            </Grid.ColumnDefinitions> 090.            <TextBlock x:Name="SelectionNameLabel" 091.                       Grid.Column="0" 092.                       Text="{Binding ResourceType.DisplayName}" 093.                       Margin="0,13,4,2" 094.                       Style="{StaticResource FormElementTextBlockStyle}" /> 095.            <telerikInput:RadComboBox Grid.Column="1" 096.                                      Width="185" 097.                                      HorizontalAlignment="Left" 098.                                      Margin="5,10,20,2" 099.                                      ItemsSource="{Binding ResourceItems}" 100.                                      SelectedIndex="{Binding SelectedIndex, Mode=TwoWay}" 101.                                      ClearSelectionButtonVisibility="Visible" 102.                                      ClearSelectionButtonContent="Clear All" 103.                                      telerik:StyleManager.Theme="{StaticResource Theme}"> 104.                <telerikInput:RadComboBox.ItemTemplate> 105.                    <DataTemplate> 106.                        <Grid HorizontalAlignment="Stretch" 107.                              VerticalAlignment="Stretch"> 108.                            <CheckBox VerticalAlignment="Center" 109.                                      HorizontalContentAlignment="Stretch" 110.                                      VerticalContentAlignment="Center" 111.                                      IsChecked="{Binding IsChecked, Mode=TwoWay}" 112.                                      Content="{Binding Resource.DisplayName}"> 113.                                <CheckBox.ContentTemplate> 114.                                    <DataTemplate> 115.                                        <TextBlock HorizontalAlignment="Stretch" 116.                                                   VerticalAlignment="Stretch" 117.                                                   Text="{Binding Content, RelativeSource={RelativeSource TemplatedParent}}" /> 118.                                    </DataTemplate> 119.                                </CheckBox.ContentTemplate> 120.                            </CheckBox> 121.                        </Grid> 122.                    </DataTemplate> 123.                </telerikInput:RadComboBox.ItemTemplate> 124.            </telerikInput:RadComboBox> 125.        </Grid> 126.    </DataTemplate> 127.    <scheduler:ResourceTypeTemplateSelector x:Key="ItemTemplateSelector" 128.                                            MultipleSelectionTemplate="{StaticResource MultipleSelectionTemplate}" 129.                                            SingleSelectionTemplate="{StaticResource SingleSelectionTemplate}" /> 130.    <!-- end Necessary Windows 7 Theme Resources for EditAppointmentTemplate -->  131.       132.    <ControlTemplate x:Key="EditAppointmentTemplate" 133.                     TargetType="telerikScheduler:AppointmentDialogWindow"> 134.        <StackPanel Background="{TemplateBinding Background}" 135.                    UseLayoutRounding="True"> 136.            <StackPanel Grid.Row="0" 137.                        Orientation="Horizontal" 138.                        Background="{StaticResource RadToolBar_InnerBackground}" 139.                        Grid.ColumnSpan="2" 140.                        Height="0"> 141.                <!-- Recurrence buttons --> 142.                <Border Margin="1,1,0,0" 143.                        Background="#50000000" 144.                        HorizontalAlignment="Left" 145.                        VerticalAlignment="Center" 146.                        Width="2" 147.                        Height="16"> 148.                    <Border Margin="0,0,1,1" 149.                            Background="#80FFFFFF" 150.                            HorizontalAlignment="Left" 151.                            Width="1" /> 152.                </Border> 153.                <Border Margin="1,1,0,0" 154.                        Background="#50000000" 155.                        HorizontalAlignment="Left" 156.                        VerticalAlignment="Center" 157.                        Width="2" 158.                        Height="16"> 159.                    <Border Margin="0,0,1,1" 160.                            Background="#80FFFFFF" 161.                            HorizontalAlignment="Left" 162.                            Width="1" /> 163.                </Border> 164.                <TextBlock telerik:LocalizationManager.ResourceKey="ShowAs" 165.                           VerticalAlignment="Center" 166.                           Margin="5,0,0,0" /> 167.                <telerikInput:RadComboBox ItemsSource="{TemplateBinding TimeMarkers}" 168.                                          Width="100" 169.                                          Height="20" 170.                                          VerticalAlignment="Center" 171.                                          Margin="5,0,0,0" 172.                                          ClearSelectionButtonVisibility="Visible" 173.                                          ClearSelectionButtonContent="Clear" 174.                                          SelectedItem="{Binding TimeMarker,RelativeSource={RelativeSource TemplatedParent},Mode=TwoWay}" 175.                                          telerik:StyleManager.Theme="{StaticResource Theme}"> 176.                    <telerikInput:RadComboBox.ItemTemplate> 177.                        <DataTemplate> 178.                            <StackPanel Orientation="Horizontal"> 179.                                <Rectangle Fill="{Binding TimeMarkerBrush}" 180.                                           Margin="2" 181.                                           Width="12" 182.                                           Height="12" /> 183.                                <TextBlock Text="{Binding TimeMarkerName}" 184.                                           Margin="2" /> 185.                            </StackPanel> 186.                        </DataTemplate> 187.                    </telerikInput:RadComboBox.ItemTemplate> 188.                </telerikInput:RadComboBox> 189.                <telerik:RadToggleButton x:Name="High" 190.                                         BorderThickness="0" 191.                                         Background="{StaticResource RadToolBar_InnerBackground}" 192.                                         DataContext="{TemplateBinding EditedAppointment}" 193.                                         telerik:StyleManager.Theme="{StaticResource Theme}" 194.                                         IsChecked="{Binding Importance,Mode=TwoWay, Converter={StaticResource ImportanceToBooleanConverter},ConverterParameter=High}" 195.                                         Margin="2,2,0,2" 196.                                         Width="23" 197.                                         Height="23" 198.                                         HorizontalContentAlignment="Center" 199.                                         ToolTipService.ToolTip="High importance" 200.                                         CommandParameter="High" 201.                                         Command="telerikScheduler:RadSchedulerCommands.SetAppointmentImportance"> 202.                    <StackPanel HorizontalAlignment="Center"> 203.                        <Path Stretch="Fill" 204.                              Height="10" 205.                              HorizontalAlignment="Center" 206.                              VerticalAlignment="Top" 207.                              Width="5.451" 208.                              Data="M200.39647,58.840393 C200.39337,58.336426 201.14566,57.683922 202.56244,57.684292 C204.06589,57.684685 204.73764,58.357765 204.72783,58.992363 C205.04649,61.795574 203.04713,64.181099 202.47388,66.133446 C201.93753,64.154961 199.9471,61.560352 200.39647,58.840393 z"> 209.                            <Path.Fill> 210.                                <LinearGradientBrush EndPoint="1.059,0.375" 211.                                                     StartPoint="-0.457,0.519"> 212.                                    <GradientStop Color="#FFFF0606" 213.                                                  Offset="0.609" /> 214.                                    <GradientStop Color="#FFBF0303" 215.                                                  Offset="0.927" /> 216.                                </LinearGradientBrush> 217.                            </Path.Fill> 218.                        </Path> 219.                        <Ellipse Height="3" 220.                                 HorizontalAlignment="Center" 221.                                 Margin="0,-1,0,0" 222.                                 VerticalAlignment="Top" 223.                                 Width="3"> 224.                            <Ellipse.Fill> 225.                                <RadialGradientBrush> 226.                                    <GradientStop Color="#FFFF0606" 227.                                                  Offset="0" /> 228.                                    <GradientStop Color="#FFBF0303" 229.                                                  Offset="1" /> 230.                                </RadialGradientBrush> 231.                            </Ellipse.Fill> 232.                        </Ellipse> 233.                    </StackPanel> 234.                </telerik:RadToggleButton> 235.                <telerik:RadToggleButton x:Name="Low" 236.                                         HorizontalContentAlignment="Center" 237.                                         BorderThickness="0" 238.                                         Background="{StaticResource RadToolBar_InnerBackground}" 239.                                         DataContext="{TemplateBinding EditedAppointment}" 240.                                         IsChecked="{Binding Importance,Mode=TwoWay, Converter={StaticResource ImportanceToBooleanConverter},ConverterParameter=Low}" 241.                                         Margin="0,2,0,2" 242.                                         Width="23" 243.                                         Height="23" 244.                                         ToolTipService.ToolTip="Low importance" 245.                                         CommandParameter="Low" 246.                                         telerik:StyleManager.Theme="{StaticResource Theme}" 247.                                         Command="telerikScheduler:RadSchedulerCommands.SetAppointmentImportance"> 248.                    <Path Stretch="Fill" 249.                          Height="12" 250.                          HorizontalAlignment="Center" 251.                          VerticalAlignment="Top" 252.                          Width="9" 253.                          Data="M222.40353,60.139881 L226.65768,60.139843 L226.63687,67.240196 L229.15347,67.240196 L224.37816,71.394943 L219.65274,67.240196 L222.37572,67.219345 z" 254.                          Stroke="#FF0365A7"> 255.                        <Path.Fill> 256.                            <LinearGradientBrush EndPoint="1.059,0.375" 257.                                                 StartPoint="-0.457,0.519"> 258.                                <GradientStop Color="#FFBBE4FF" /> 259.                                <GradientStop Color="#FF024572" 260.                                              Offset="0.836" /> 261.                                <GradientStop Color="#FF43ADF4" 262.                                              Offset="0.466" /> 263.                            </LinearGradientBrush> 264.                        </Path.Fill> 265.                    </Path> 266.                </telerik:RadToggleButton> 267.            </StackPanel > 268.            <Border DataContext="{TemplateBinding EditedAppointment}" 269.                    Background="{Binding Category.CategoryBrush}" 270.                    Visibility="{Binding Category,Converter={StaticResource NullToVisibilityConverter}}" 271.                    CornerRadius="3" 272.                    Height="20" 273.                    Margin="5,10,5,0"> 274.                <TextBlock Text="{Binding Category.DisplayName}" 275.                           VerticalAlignment="Center" 276.                           Margin="5,0,0,0" /> 277.            </Border> 278.            <Grid VerticalAlignment="Stretch" 279.                  HorizontalAlignment="Stretch" 280.                  DataContext="{TemplateBinding EditedAppointment}" 281.                  Background="{TemplateBinding Background}"> 282.                <Grid.RowDefinitions> 283.                    <RowDefinition Height="Auto" /> 284.                    <RowDefinition Height="Auto" /> 285.                    <RowDefinition Height="Auto" /> 286.                    <RowDefinition Height="Auto" /> 287.                    <RowDefinition Height="Auto" /> 288.                    <RowDefinition Height="Auto" /> 289.                    <RowDefinition Height="Auto" /> 290.                    <RowDefinition Height="Auto" /> 291.                    <RowDefinition Height="Auto" /> 292.                    <RowDefinition Height="Auto" /> 293.                </Grid.RowDefinitions> 294.                <Grid.ColumnDefinitions> 295.                    <ColumnDefinition Width="Auto" 296.                                      MinWidth="100" /> 297.                    <ColumnDefinition Width="Auto" 298.                                      MinWidth="200" /> 299.                </Grid.ColumnDefinitions> 300.                <!-- Subject --> 301.                <TextBlock x:Name="SubjectLabel" 302.                           Grid.Row="0" 303.                           Grid.Column="0" 304.                           Margin="0,15,0,2" 305.                           telerik:LocalizationManager.ResourceKey="Subject" 306.                           Style="{StaticResource FormElementTextBlockStyle}" /> 307.                <TextBox x:Name="Subject" 308.                         Grid.Row="0" 309.                         Grid.Column="1" 310.                         MinHeight="22" 311.                         Padding="4 2" 312.                         Width="340" 313.                         HorizontalAlignment="Left" 314.                         Text="{Binding Subject, Mode=TwoWay}" 315.                         MaxLength="255" 316.                         telerik:StyleManager.Theme="{StaticResource Theme}" 317.                         Margin="10,12,20,2" /> 318.                <!-- Description --> 319.                <TextBlock x:Name="DescriptionLabel" 320.                           Grid.Row="1" 321.                           Grid.Column="0" 322.                           Margin="0,13,0,2" 323.                           telerik:LocalizationManager.ResourceKey="Body" 324.                           Style="{StaticResource FormElementTextBlockStyle}" /> 325.                <TextBox x:Name="Body" 326.                         VerticalAlignment="top" 327.                         Grid.Row="1" 328.                         Grid.Column="1" 329.                         Height="Auto" 330.                         MaxHeight="82" 331.                         Width="340" 332.                         HorizontalAlignment="Left" 333.                         MinHeight="22" 334.                         Padding="4 2" 335.                         TextWrapping="Wrap" 336.                         telerik:StyleManager.Theme="{StaticResource Theme}" 337.                         Text="{Binding Body, Mode=TwoWay}" 338.                         AcceptsReturn="true" 339.                         Margin="10,10,20,2" 340.                         HorizontalScrollBarVisibility="Auto" 341.                         VerticalScrollBarVisibility="Auto" /> 342.                <!-- Start/End date --> 343.                <TextBlock x:Name="StartDateLabel" 344.                           Grid.Row="2" 345.                           Grid.Column="0" 346.                           Margin="0,13,0,2" 347.                           telerik:LocalizationManager.ResourceKey="StartTime" 348.                           Style="{StaticResource FormElementTextBlockStyle}" /> 349.                <telerikScheduler:DateTimePicker x:Name="StartDateTime" 350.                                                 Height="22" 351.                                                 Grid.Row="2" 352.                                                 Grid.Column="1" 353.                                                 HorizontalAlignment="Left" 354.                                                 Margin="10,10,20,2" 355.                                                 Style="{StaticResource FormElementStyle}" 356.                                                 SelectedDateTime="{Binding Start, Mode=TwoWay}" 357.                                                 telerikScheduler:StartEndDatePicker.EndPicker="{Binding ElementName=EndDateTime}" 358.                                                 IsTabStop="False" 359.                                                 IsEnabled="False" /> 360.                <TextBlock x:Name="EndDateLabel" 361.                           Grid.Row="3" 362.                           Grid.Column="0" 363.                           Margin="0,13,0,2" 364.                           telerik:LocalizationManager.ResourceKey="EndTime" 365.                           Style="{StaticResource FormElementTextBlockStyle}" /> 366.                <telerikScheduler:DateTimePicker x:Name="EndDateTime" 367.                                                 Height="22" 368.                                                 Grid.Row="3" 369.                                                 Grid.Column="1" 370.                                                 HorizontalAlignment="Left" 371.                                                 Margin="10,10,20,2" 372.                                                 Style="{StaticResource FormElementStyle}" 373.                                                 IsTabStop="False" 374.                                                 IsEnabled="False" 375.                                                 SelectedDateTime="{Binding End, Mode=TwoWay}" /> 376.                <!-- Is-all-day selector --> 377.                <CheckBox x:Name="AllDayEventCheckbox" 378.                          IsChecked="{Binding IsAllDayEvent, Mode=TwoWay}" 379.                          Grid.Row="4" 380.                          Grid.Column="1" 381.                          Margin="10,10,20,2" 382.                          HorizontalAlignment="Left" 383.                          telerik:StyleManager.Theme="{StaticResource Theme}" 384.                          telerik:LocalizationManager.ResourceKey="AllDayEvent"> 385.                    <telerik:CommandManager.InputBindings> 386.                        <telerik:InputBindingCollection> 387.                            <telerik:MouseBinding Command="telerikScheduler:RadSchedulerCommands.ChangeTimePickersVisibility" 388.                                                  Gesture="LeftClick" /> 389.                        </telerik:InputBindingCollection> 390.                    </telerik:CommandManager.InputBindings> 391.                </CheckBox> 392.                <Grid Grid.Row="5" 393.                      Grid.ColumnSpan="2"> 394.                    <Grid.ColumnDefinitions> 395.                        <ColumnDefinition Width="Auto" 396.                                          MinWidth="100" /> 397.                        <ColumnDefinition Width="Auto" 398.                                          MinWidth="200" /> 399.                    </Grid.ColumnDefinitions> 400.                    <Grid.RowDefinitions> 401.                        <RowDefinition Height="Auto" /> 402.                        <RowDefinition Height="Auto" /> 403.                    </Grid.RowDefinitions> 404.                    <TextBlock Text="Applicant" 405.                               Margin="0,13,0,2" 406.                               Style="{StaticResource FormElementTextBlockStyle}" /> 407.                    <telerikInput:RadComboBox IsEditable="False" 408.                                              Grid.Column="1" 409.                                              Height="24" 410.                                              VerticalAlignment="Center" 411.                                              ItemsSource="{Binding Source={StaticResource DataContextProxy}, Path=DataSource.ApplicantList}" 412.                                              SelectedValue="{Binding ApplicantID, Mode=TwoWay}" 413.                                              SelectedValuePath="ApplicantID" 414.                                              DisplayMemberPath="FirstName" /> 415.                       416.                    <TextBlock Text="Job" 417.                               Margin="0,13,0,2" 418.                               Grid.Row="1" 419.                               Style="{StaticResource FormElementTextBlockStyle}" /> 420.                    <telerikInput:RadComboBox IsEditable="False" 421.                                              Grid.Column="1" 422.                                              Grid.Row="1" 423.                                              Height="24" 424.                                              VerticalAlignment="Center" 425.                                              ItemsSource="{Binding Source={StaticResource DataContextProxy}, Path=DataSource.JobsList}" 426.                                              SelectedValue="{Binding PostingID, Mode=TwoWay}" 427.                                              SelectedValuePath="PostingID" 428.                                              DisplayMemberPath="JobTitle"/> 429.                </Grid> 430.                    <!-- Resources --> 431.                <Grid x:Name="ResourcesLayout" 432.                      Grid.Row="7" 433.                      Grid.Column="0" 434.                      Grid.ColumnSpan="2" 435.                      MaxHeight="130" 436.                      Margin="20,5,20,0"> 437.                    <Border Margin="0" 438.                            BorderThickness="1" 439.                            BorderBrush="{StaticResource GenericShallowBorderBrush}" 440.                            Visibility="{Binding ElementName=ResourcesScrollViewer, Path=ComputedVerticalScrollBarVisibility}"></Border> 441.                    <ScrollViewer x:Name="ResourcesScrollViewer" 442.                                  IsTabStop="false" 443.                                  Grid.Row="6" 444.                                  Grid.Column="0" 445.                                  Grid.ColumnSpan="2" 446.                                  Margin="1" 447.                                  telerik:StyleManager.Theme="{StaticResource Theme}" 448.                                  VerticalScrollBarVisibility="Auto"> 449.                        <scheduler:ResourcesItemsControl x:Name="PART_Resources" 450.                                                         HorizontalAlignment="Left" 451.                                                         Padding="0,2,0,5" 452.                                                         IsTabStop="false" 453.                                                         ItemsSource="{TemplateBinding ResourceTypeModels}" 454.                                                         ItemTemplateSelector="{StaticResource ItemTemplateSelector}" /> 455.                    </ScrollViewer> 456.                </Grid> 457.                <StackPanel x:Name="FooterControls" 458.                            Margin="5 10 10 10" 459.                            Grid.Row="8" 460.                            Grid.Column="1" 461.                            HorizontalAlignment="Left" 462.                            Orientation="Horizontal"> 463.                    <telerik:RadButton x:Name="OKButton" 464.                                       Margin="5" 465.                                       Padding="10 0" 466.                                       MinWidth="80" 467.                                       Command="telerikScheduler:RadSchedulerCommands.SaveAppointment" 468.                                       telerik:StyleManager.Theme="{StaticResource Theme}" 469.                                       telerikNavigation:RadWindow.ResponseButton="Accept" 470.                                       telerik:LocalizationManager.ResourceKey="SaveAndCloseCommandText"> 471.                    </telerik:RadButton> 472.                    <telerik:RadButton x:Name="CancelButton" 473.                                       Margin="5" 474.                                       Padding="10 0" 475.                                       MinWidth="80" 476.                                       telerik:LocalizationManager.ResourceKey="Cancel" 477.                                       telerik:StyleManager.Theme="{StaticResource Theme}" 478.                                       telerikNavigation:RadWindow.ResponseButton="Cancel" 479.                                       Command="telerik:WindowCommands.Close"> 480.                    </telerik:RadButton> 481.                </StackPanel> 482.            </Grid> 483.            <vsm:VisualStateManager.VisualStateGroups> 484.                <vsm:VisualStateGroup x:Name="RecurrenceRuleState"> 485.                    <vsm:VisualState x:Name="RecurrenceRuleIsNull"> 486.                        <Storyboard> 487.                            <ObjectAnimationUsingKeyFrames Storyboard.TargetName="StartDateTime" 488.                                                           Storyboard.TargetProperty="IsEnabled" 489.                                                           Duration="0"> 490.                                <DiscreteObjectKeyFrame KeyTime="0" 491.                                                        Value="True" /> 492.                            </ObjectAnimationUsingKeyFrames> 493.                            <ObjectAnimationUsingKeyFrames Storyboard.TargetName="EndDateTime" 494.                                                           Storyboard.TargetProperty="IsEnabled" 495.                                                           Duration="0"> 496.                                <DiscreteObjectKeyFrame KeyTime="0" 497.                                                        Value="True" /> 498.                            </ObjectAnimationUsingKeyFrames> 499.                            <ObjectAnimationUsingKeyFrames Storyboard.TargetName="AllDayEventCheckbox" 500.                                                           Storyboard.TargetProperty="IsEnabled" 501.                                                           Duration="0"> 502.                                <DiscreteObjectKeyFrame KeyTime="0" 503.                                                        Value="True" /> 504.                            </ObjectAnimationUsingKeyFrames> 505.                        </Storyboard> 506.                    </vsm:VisualState> 507.                    <vsm:VisualState x:Name="RecurrenceRuleIsNotNull"> 508.                        <Storyboard> 509.                            <ObjectAnimationUsingKeyFrames Storyboard.TargetName="StartDateTime" 510.                                                           Storyboard.TargetProperty="IsEnabled" 511.                                                           Duration="0"> 512.                                <DiscreteObjectKeyFrame KeyTime="0" 513.                                                        Value="False" /> 514.                            </ObjectAnimationUsingKeyFrames> 515.                            <ObjectAnimationUsingKeyFrames Storyboard.TargetName="EndDateTime" 516.                                                           Storyboard.TargetProperty="IsEnabled" 517.                                                           Duration="0"> 518.                                <DiscreteObjectKeyFrame KeyTime="0" 519.                                                        Value="False" /> 520.                            </ObjectAnimationUsingKeyFrames> 521.                            <ObjectAnimationUsingKeyFrames Storyboard.TargetName="AllDayEventCheckbox" 522.                                                           Storyboard.TargetProperty="IsEnabled" 523.                                                           Duration="0"> 524.                                <DiscreteObjectKeyFrame KeyTime="0" 525.                                                        Value="False" /> 526.                            </ObjectAnimationUsingKeyFrames> 527.                        </Storyboard> 528.                    </vsm:VisualState> 529.                </vsm:VisualStateGroup> 530.            </vsm:VisualStateManager.VisualStateGroups> 531.        </StackPanel> 532.    </ControlTemplate> 533.    <DataTemplate x:Key="AppointmentDialogWindowHeaderDataTemplate"> 534.        <StackPanel Orientation="Horizontal" 535.                    MaxWidth="400"> 536.            <TextBlock telerik:LocalizationManager.ResourceKey="Event" 537.                       Visibility="{Binding Appointment.IsAllDayEvent, Converter={StaticResource BooleanToVisibilityConverter}}" /> 538.            <TextBlock telerik:LocalizationManager.ResourceKey="Appointment" 539.                       Visibility="{Binding Appointment.IsAllDayEvent, Converter={StaticResource InvertedBooleanToVisibilityConverter}}" /> 540.            <TextBlock Text=" - " /> 541.            <TextBlock x:Name="SubjectTextBlock" 542.                       Visibility="{Binding Appointment.Subject, Converter={StaticResource NullToVisibilityConverter}}" 543.                       Text="{Binding Appointment.Subject}" /> 544.            <TextBlock telerik:LocalizationManager.ResourceKey="Untitled" 545.                       Visibility="{Binding Appointment.Subject, Converter={StaticResource InvertedNullToVisibilityConverter}}" /> 546.        </StackPanel> 547.    </DataTemplate> 548.    <Style x:Key="EditAppointmentStyle" 549.           TargetType="telerikScheduler:AppointmentDialogWindow"> 550.        <Setter Property="IconTemplate" 551.                Value="{StaticResource IconDataEditTemplate}" /> 552.        <Setter Property="HeaderTemplate" 553.                Value="{StaticResource AppointmentDialogWindowHeaderDataTemplate}" /> 554.        <Setter Property="Background" 555.                Value="{StaticResource DialogWindowBackground}" /> 556.        <Setter Property="Template" 557.                Value="{StaticResource EditAppointmentTemplate}" /> 558.    </Style> 559.</UserControl.Resources> The first line there is the DataContextProxy I mentioned previously- we use that again to work a bit of magic in this template. Where we start getting into the dialog in question is line 132, but line 407 is where things start getting interesting.  The ItemsSource is pointing at a list that exists in my ViewModel (or code-behind, if it is used as a DataContext), the SelectedValue is the item I am actually binding from the applicant (note the TwoWay binding), and SelectedValuePath and DisplayMemberPath ensure the proper applicant is being displayed from the collection.  You will also see similar starting on line 420 where I do the same for the Jobs we'll be displaying. Just to wrap-up the Xaml, here's the RadScheduler declaraction that ties this all together and will be the main focus of our view: 01.<telerikScheduler:RadScheduler x:Name="xJobsScheduler" 02.                  Grid.Row="1" 03.                  Grid.Column="1" 04.                  Width="800" 05.                  MinWidth="600" 06.                  Height="500" 07.                  MinHeight="300" 08.                  AppointmentsSource="{Binding Interviews}" 09.                  EditAppointmentStyle="{StaticResource EditAppointmentStyle}" 10.                  command:AppointmentAddedEventClass.Command="{Binding AddAppointmentCommand}" 11.                  command:ApptCreatedEventClass.Command="{Binding ApptCreatingCommand}" 12.                  command:ApptEditedEventClass.Command="{Binding ApptEditedCommand}" 13.                  command:ApptDeletedEventClass.Command="{Binding ApptDeletedCommand}"> 14.</telerikScheduler:RadScheduler> Now, we get to the ViewModel and what it takes to get that rigged up.  And for those of you who remember the jobs post, those command:s in the Xaml are pointing to attached behavior commands that reproduce the respective events.  This becomes very handy when we're setting up the code-behind version. ;) ViewModel I've been liking this approach so far, so I'm going to put the entire ViewModel here and then go into the lines of interest.  Of course, feel free to ask me questions about anything that isn't clear (by line number, ideally) so I can help out if I have missed anything important: 001.public class SchedulerViewModel : ViewModelBase 002.{ 003.    private readonly IEventAggregator eventAggregator; 004.    private readonly IRegionManager regionManager; 005.   006.    public RecruitingContext context; 007.   008.    private ObservableItemCollection<InterviewAppointment> _interviews = new ObservableItemCollection<InterviewAppointment>(); 009.    public ObservableItemCollection<InterviewAppointment> Interviews 010.    { 011.        get { return _interviews; } 012.        set 013.        { 014.            if (_interviews != value) 015.            { 016.                _interviews = value; 017.                NotifyChanged("Interviews"); 018.            } 019.        } 020.    } 021.   022.    private QueryableCollectionView _jobsList; 023.    public QueryableCollectionView JobsList 024.    { 025.        get { return this._jobsList; } 026.        set 027.        { 028.            if (this._jobsList != value) 029.            { 030.                this._jobsList = value; 031.                this.NotifyChanged("JobsList"); 032.            } 033.        } 034.    } 035.   036.    private QueryableCollectionView _applicantList; 037.    public QueryableCollectionView ApplicantList 038.    { 039.        get { return _applicantList; } 040.        set 041.        { 042.            if (_applicantList != value) 043.            { 044.                _applicantList = value; 045.                NotifyChanged("ApplicantList"); 046.            } 047.        } 048.    } 049.   050.    public DelegateCommand<object> AddAppointmentCommand { get; set; } 051.    public DelegateCommand<object> ApptCreatingCommand { get; set; } 052.    public DelegateCommand<object> ApptEditedCommand { get; set; } 053.    public DelegateCommand<object> ApptDeletedCommand { get; set; } 054.   055.    public SchedulerViewModel(IEventAggregator eventAgg, IRegionManager regionmanager) 056.    { 057.        // set Unity items 058.        this.eventAggregator = eventAgg; 059.        this.regionManager = regionmanager; 060.   061.        // load our context 062.        context = new RecruitingContext(); 063.        LoadOperation<Interview> loadOp = context.Load(context.GetInterviewsQuery()); 064.        loadOp.Completed += new EventHandler(loadOp_Completed); 065.   066.        this._jobsList = new QueryableCollectionView(context.JobPostings); 067.        context.Load(context.GetJobPostingsQuery()); 068.   069.        this._applicantList = new QueryableCollectionView(context.Applicants); 070.        context.Load(context.GetApplicantsQuery()); 071.   072.        AddAppointmentCommand = new DelegateCommand<object>(this.AddAppt); 073.        ApptCreatingCommand = new DelegateCommand<object>(this.ApptCreating); 074.        ApptEditedCommand = new DelegateCommand<object>(this.ApptEdited); 075.        ApptDeletedCommand = new DelegateCommand<object>(this.ApptDeleted); 076.   077.    } 078.   079.    void loadOp_Completed(object sender, EventArgs e) 080.    { 081.        LoadOperation loadop = sender as LoadOperation; 082.   083.        foreach (var ent in loadop.Entities) 084.        { 085.            _interviews.Add(EntityToAppointment(ent as Interview)); 086.        } 087.    } 088.   089.    #region Appointment Adding 090.   091.    public void AddAppt(object obj) 092.    { 093.        // now we have a new InterviewAppointment to add to our QCV :) 094.        InterviewAppointment newInterview = obj as InterviewAppointment; 095.   096.        this.context.Interviews.Add(AppointmentToEntity(newInterview)); 097.        this.context.SubmitChanges((s) => 098.        { 099.            ActionHistory myAction = new ActionHistory(); 100.            myAction.InterviewID = newInterview.InterviewID; 101.            myAction.PostingID = newInterview.PostingID; 102.            myAction.ApplicantID = newInterview.ApplicantID; 103.            myAction.Description = String.Format("Interview with {0} has been created by {1}", newInterview.ApplicantID.ToString(), "default user"); 104.            myAction.TimeStamp = DateTime.Now; 105.            eventAggregator.GetEvent<AddActionEvent>().Publish(myAction); 106.        } 107.            , null); 108.    } 109.   110.    public void ApptCreating(object obj) 111.    { 112.        // handled in the behavior, just a placeholder to ensure it runs :) 113.    } 114.   115.    #endregion 116.   117.    #region Appointment Editing 118.   119.    public void ApptEdited(object obj) 120.    { 121.        Interview editedInterview = (from x in context.Interviews 122.                            where x.InterviewID == (obj as InterviewAppointment).InterviewID 123.                            select x).SingleOrDefault(); 124.   125.        CopyAppointmentEdit(editedInterview, obj as InterviewAppointment); 126.   127.        context.SubmitChanges((s) => { 128.            ActionHistory myAction = new ActionHistory(); 129.            myAction.InterviewID = editedInterview.InterviewID; 130.            myAction.PostingID = editedInterview.PostingID; 131.            myAction.ApplicantID = editedInterview.ApplicantID; 132.            myAction.Description = String.Format("Interview with {0} has been modified by {1}", editedInterview.ApplicantID.ToString(), "default user"); 133.            myAction.TimeStamp = DateTime.Now; 134.            eventAggregator.GetEvent<AddActionEvent>().Publish(myAction); } 135.            , null); 136.    } 137.   138.    #endregion 139.   140.    #region Appointment Deleting 141.   142.    public void ApptDeleted(object obj) 143.    { 144.        Interview deletedInterview = (from x in context.Interviews 145.                                      where x.InterviewID == (obj as InterviewAppointment).InterviewID 146.                                      select x).SingleOrDefault(); 147.   148.        context.Interviews.Remove(deletedInterview); 149.        context.SubmitChanges((s) => 150.        { 151.            ActionHistory myAction = new ActionHistory(); 152.            myAction.InterviewID = deletedInterview.InterviewID; 153.            myAction.PostingID = deletedInterview.PostingID; 154.            myAction.ApplicantID = deletedInterview.ApplicantID; 155.            myAction.Description = String.Format("Interview with {0} has been deleted by {1}", deletedInterview.ApplicantID.ToString(), "default user"); 156.            myAction.TimeStamp = DateTime.Now; 157.            eventAggregator.GetEvent<AddActionEvent>().Publish(myAction); 158.        } 159.            , null); 160.    } 161.   162.    #endregion 163.   164.    #region Appointment Helpers :) 165.   166.    public Interview AppointmentToEntity(InterviewAppointment ia) 167.    { 168.        Interview newInterview = new Interview(); 169.        newInterview.Subject = ia.Subject; 170.        newInterview.Body = ia.Body; 171.        newInterview.Start = ia.Start; 172.        newInterview.End = ia.End; 173.        newInterview.ApplicantID = ia.ApplicantID; 174.        newInterview.PostingID = ia.PostingID; 175.        newInterview.InterviewID = ia.InterviewID; 176.   177.        return newInterview; 178.    } 179.   180.    public InterviewAppointment EntityToAppointment(Interview ia) 181.    { 182.        InterviewAppointment newInterview = new InterviewAppointment(); 183.        newInterview.Subject = ia.Subject; 184.        newInterview.Body = ia.Body; 185.        newInterview.Start = ia.Start; 186.        newInterview.End = ia.End; 187.        newInterview.ApplicantID = ia.ApplicantID; 188.        newInterview.PostingID = ia.PostingID; 189.        newInterview.InterviewID = ia.InterviewID; 190.   191.        return newInterview; 192.    } 193.   194.    public void CopyAppointmentEdit(Interview entityInterview, InterviewAppointment appointmentInterview) 195.    { 196.        entityInterview.Subject = appointmentInterview.Subject; 197.        entityInterview.Body = appointmentInterview.Body; 198.        entityInterview.Start = appointmentInterview.Start; 199.        entityInterview.End = appointmentInterview.End; 200.        entityInterview.ApplicantID = appointmentInterview.ApplicantID; 201.        entityInterview.PostingID = appointmentInterview.PostingID; 202.    } 203.   204.    #endregion 205.} One thing we're doing here which you won't see in any of the other ViewModels is creating a duplicate collection.  I know this is something which will be fixed down the line for using RadScheduler, simplifying this process, but with WCF RIA changing as it does I wanted to ensure functionality would remain consistent as I continued development on this application.  So, I do a little bit of duplication, but for the greater good.  This all takes place starting on line 79, so for every entity that comes back we add it to the collection that is bound to RadScheduler.  Otherwise, the DelegateCommands that you see correspond directly to the events they are named after.  In each case, rather than sending over the full event arguments, I just send in the appointment in question (coming through as the object obj in all cases) so I can add (line 91), edit (line 119), and delete appointments (line 142) like normal.  This just ensures they get updated back to my database.  Also, the one bit of code you won't see is for the Appointment Creating (line 110) event- that is because in the command I've created I simply make the replacement I need to: 1.void element_AppointmentCreating(object sender, AppointmentCreatingEventArgs e) 2.{ 3.    e.NewAppointment = new InterviewAppointment(); 4.    base.ExecuteCommand(); 5.} And the ViewModel is none the wiser, the appointments just work as far as it is concerned since as they are created they become InterviewAppointments.  End result?  I've customized my EditAppointmentDialog as follows: And adding, editing, and deleting appointments works like a charm.  I can even 'edit' by moving appointments around RadScheduler, so as they are dropped into a timeslot they perform their full edit routine and things get updated. And then, the Code-Behind Version Perhaps the thing I like the most about doing one then the other is I get to steal 90% or more of the code from the MVVM version.  For example, the only real changes to the Code-Behind Xaml file exist in the control declaration, in which I use events instead of attached-behavior-event-commands: 01.<telerikScheduler:RadScheduler x:Name="xJobsScheduler" 02.                  Grid.Row="1" 03.                  Grid.Column="1" 04.                  Width="800" 05.                  MinWidth="600" 06.                  Height="500" 07.                  MinHeight="300" 08.                  EditAppointmentStyle="{StaticResource EditAppointmentStyle}" 09.                  AppointmentAdded="xJobsScheduler_AppointmentAdded" 10.                  AppointmentCreating="xJobsScheduler_AppointmentCreating" 11.                  AppointmentEdited="xJobsScheduler_AppointmentEdited" 12.                  AppointmentDeleted="xJobsScheduler_AppointmentDeleted"> 13.</telerikScheduler:RadScheduler> Easy, right?  Otherwise, all the same styling in UserControl.Resources was re-used, right down to the DataContextProxy that lets us bind to a collection from our viewmodel (in this case, our code-behind) to use within the DataTemplate.  The code conversion gets even easier, as I could literally copy and paste almost everything from the ViewModel to my Code-Behind, just a matter of pasting the right section into the right event.  Here's the code-behind as proof: 001.public partial class SchedulingView : UserControl, INotifyPropertyChanged 002.{ 003.    public RecruitingContext context; 004.   005.    private QueryableCollectionView _jobsList; 006.    public QueryableCollectionView JobsList 007.    { 008.        get { return this._jobsList; } 009.        set 010.        { 011.            if (this._jobsList != value) 012.            { 013.                this._jobsList = value; 014.                this.NotifyChanged("JobsList"); 015.            } 016.        } 017.    } 018.   019.    private QueryableCollectionView _applicantList; 020.    public QueryableCollectionView ApplicantList 021.    { 022.        get { return _applicantList; } 023.        set 024.        { 025.            if (_applicantList != value) 026.            { 027.                _applicantList = value; 028.                NotifyChanged("ApplicantList"); 029.            } 030.        } 031.    } 032.   033.    private ObservableItemCollection<InterviewAppointment> _interviews = new ObservableItemCollection<InterviewAppointment>(); 034.    public ObservableItemCollection<InterviewAppointment> Interviews 035.    { 036.        get { return _interviews; } 037.        set 038.        { 039.            if (_interviews != value) 040.            { 041.                _interviews = value; 042.                NotifyChanged("Interviews"); 043.            } 044.        } 045.    } 046.   047.    public SchedulingView() 048.    { 049.        InitializeComponent(); 050.   051.        this.DataContext = this; 052.   053.        this.Loaded += new RoutedEventHandler(SchedulingView_Loaded); 054.    } 055.   056.    void SchedulingView_Loaded(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e) 057.    { 058.        this.xJobsScheduler.AppointmentsSource = Interviews; 059.   060.        context = new RecruitingContext(); 061.           062.        LoadOperation loadop = context.Load(context.GetInterviewsQuery()); 063.        loadop.Completed += new EventHandler(loadop_Completed); 064.   065.        this._applicantList = new QueryableCollectionView(context.Applicants); 066.        context.Load(context.GetApplicantsQuery()); 067.   068.        this._jobsList = new QueryableCollectionView(context.JobPostings); 069.        context.Load(context.GetJobPostingsQuery()); 070.    } 071.   072.    void loadop_Completed(object sender, EventArgs e) 073.    { 074.        LoadOperation loadop = sender as LoadOperation; 075.   076.        _interviews.Clear(); 077.   078.        foreach (var ent in loadop.Entities) 079.        { 080.            _interviews.Add(EntityToAppointment(ent as Interview)); 081.        } 082.    } 083.   084.    private void xJobsScheduler_AppointmentAdded(object sender, Telerik.Windows.Controls.AppointmentAddedEventArgs e) 085.    { 086.        // now we have a new InterviewAppointment to add to our QCV :) 087.        InterviewAppointment newInterview = e.Appointment as InterviewAppointment; 088.   089.        this.context.Interviews.Add(AppointmentToEntity(newInterview)); 090.        this.context.SubmitChanges((s) => 091.        { 092.            ActionHistory myAction = new ActionHistory(); 093.            myAction.InterviewID = newInterview.InterviewID; 094.            myAction.PostingID = newInterview.PostingID; 095.            myAction.ApplicantID = newInterview.ApplicantID; 096.            myAction.Description = String.Format("Interview with {0} has been created by {1}", newInterview.ApplicantID.ToString(), "default user"); 097.            myAction.TimeStamp = DateTime.Now; 098.            context.ActionHistories.Add(myAction); 099.            context.SubmitChanges(); 100.        } 101.            , null); 102.    } 103.   104.    private void xJobsScheduler_AppointmentCreating(object sender, Telerik.Windows.Controls.AppointmentCreatingEventArgs e) 105.    { 106.        e.NewAppointment = new InterviewAppointment(); 107.    } 108.   109.    private void xJobsScheduler_AppointmentEdited(object sender, Telerik.Windows.Controls.AppointmentEditedEventArgs e) 110.    { 111.        Interview editedInterview = (from x in context.Interviews 112.                                     where x.InterviewID == (e.Appointment as InterviewAppointment).InterviewID 113.                                     select x).SingleOrDefault(); 114.   115.        CopyAppointmentEdit(editedInterview, e.Appointment as InterviewAppointment); 116.   117.        context.SubmitChanges((s) => 118.        { 119.            ActionHistory myAction = new ActionHistory(); 120.            myAction.InterviewID = editedInterview.InterviewID; 121.            myAction.PostingID = editedInterview.PostingID; 122.            myAction.ApplicantID = editedInterview.ApplicantID; 123.            myAction.Description = String.Format("Interview with {0} has been modified by {1}", editedInterview.ApplicantID.ToString(), "default user"); 124.            myAction.TimeStamp = DateTime.Now; 125.            context.ActionHistories.Add(myAction); 126.            context.SubmitChanges(); 127.        } 128.            , null); 129.    } 130.   131.    private void xJobsScheduler_AppointmentDeleted(object sender, Telerik.Windows.Controls.AppointmentDeletedEventArgs e) 132.    { 133.        Interview deletedInterview = (from x in context.Interviews 134.                                      where x.InterviewID == (e.Appointment as InterviewAppointment).InterviewID 135.                                      select x).SingleOrDefault(); 136.   137.        context.Interviews.Remove(deletedInterview); 138.        context.SubmitChanges((s) => 139.        { 140.            ActionHistory myAction = new ActionHistory(); 141.            myAction.InterviewID = deletedInterview.InterviewID; 142.            myAction.PostingID = deletedInterview.PostingID; 143.            myAction.ApplicantID = deletedInterview.ApplicantID; 144.            myAction.Description = String.Format("Interview with {0} has been deleted by {1}", deletedInterview.ApplicantID.ToString(), "default user"); 145.            myAction.TimeStamp = DateTime.Now; 146.            context.ActionHistories.Add(myAction); 147.            context.SubmitChanges(); 148.        } 149.            , null); 150.    } 151.   152.    #region Appointment Helpers :) 153.   154.    public Interview AppointmentToEntity(InterviewAppointment ia) 155.    { 156.        Interview newInterview = new Interview(); 157.        newInterview.Subject = ia.Subject; 158.        newInterview.Body = ia.Body; 159.        newInterview.Start = ia.Start; 160.        newInterview.End = ia.End; 161.        newInterview.ApplicantID = ia.ApplicantID; 162.        newInterview.PostingID = ia.PostingID; 163.        newInterview.InterviewID = ia.InterviewID; 164.   165.        return newInterview; 166.    } 167.   168.    public InterviewAppointment EntityToAppointment(Interview ia) 169.    { 170.        InterviewAppointment newInterview = new InterviewAppointment(); 171.        newInterview.Subject = ia.Subject; 172.        newInterview.Body = ia.Body; 173.        newInterview.Start = ia.Start; 174.        newInterview.End = ia.End; 175.        newInterview.ApplicantID = ia.ApplicantID; 176.        newInterview.PostingID = ia.PostingID; 177.        newInterview.InterviewID = ia.InterviewID; 178.   179.        return newInterview; 180.    } 181.   182.    public void CopyAppointmentEdit(Interview entityInterview, InterviewAppointment appointmentInterview) 183.    { 184.        entityInterview.Subject = appointmentInterview.Subject; 185.        entityInterview.Body = appointmentInterview.Body; 186.        entityInterview.Start = appointmentInterview.Start; 187.        entityInterview.End = appointmentInterview.End; 188.        entityInterview.ApplicantID = appointmentInterview.ApplicantID; 189.        entityInterview.PostingID = appointmentInterview.PostingID; 190.    } 191.   192.    #endregion 193.   194.    #region INotifyPropertyChanged Members 195.   196.    public event PropertyChangedEventHandler PropertyChanged; 197.   198.    public void NotifyChanged(string propertyName) 199.    { 200.        if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(propertyName)) 201.            throw new ArgumentException("propertyName"); 202.   203.        PropertyChanged(this, new PropertyChangedEventArgs(propertyName)); 204.    } 205.   206.    #endregion 207.} Nice... right? :) One really important thing to note as well.  See on line 51 where I set the DataContext before the Loaded event?  This is super important, as if you don't have this set before the usercontrol is loaded, the DataContextProxy has no context to use and your EditAppointmentDialog Job/Applicant dropdowns will be blank and empty.  Trust me on this, took a little bit of debugging to figure out that by setting the DataContext post-loaded would only lead to disaster and frustration.  Otherwise, the only other real difference is that instead of sending an ActionHistory item through an event to get added to the database and saved, I do those right in the callback from submitting.  The Result Again, I only have to post one picture because these bad boys used nearly identical code for both the MVVM and the code-behind views, so our end result is... So what have we learned here today?  One, for the most part this MVVM thing is somewhat easy.  Yeah, you sometimes have to write a bunch of extra code, but with the help of a few useful snippits you can turn the process into a pretty streamlined little workflow.  Heck, this story gets even easier as you can see in this blog post by Michael Washington- specifically run a find on 'InvokeCommandAction' and you'll see the section regarding the command on TreeView in Blend 4.  Brilliant!  MVVM never looked so sweet! Otherwise, it is business as usual with RadScheduler for Silverlight whichever path you're choosing for your development.  Between now and the next post, I'll be cleaning up styles a bit (those RadComboBoxes are a little too close to my labels!) and adding some to the RowDetailsViews for Applicants and Jobs, so you can see all the info for an appointment in the dropdown tab view.  Otherwise, we're about ready to call a wrap on this oneDid you know that DotNetSlackers also publishes .net articles written by top known .net Authors? We already have over 80 articles in several categories including Silverlight. Take a look: here.

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  • Silverlight Recruiting Application Part 6 - Adding an Interview Scheduling Module/View

    Between the last post and this one I went ahead and carried the ideas for the Jobs module and view into the Applicants module and view- they're both doing more or less the same thing, except with different objects being at their core.  Made for an easy cut-and-paste operation with a few items being switched from one to another.  Now that we have the ability to add postings and applicants, wouldn't it be nice if we could schedule an interview?  Of course it would! Scheduling Module I think you get the drift from previous posts that these project structures start looking somewhat similar.  The interview scheduling module is no different than the rest- it gets a SchedulingModule.cs file at the root that inherits from IModule, and there is a single SchedulerView.xsml and SchedulerViewModel.cs setup for our V+VM.  We have one unique concern as we enter into this- RadScheduler deals with AppointmentsSource, not ItemsSource, so there are some special considerations to take into account when planning this module. First, I need something which inherits from AppointmentBase.  This is the core of the RadScheduler appointment, and if you are planning to do any form of custom appointment, you'll want it to inherit from this.  Then you can add-on functionality as needed.  Here is my addition to the mix, the InterviewAppointment: 01.public class InterviewAppointment : AppointmentBase 02.{ 03.    private int _applicantID; 04.    public int ApplicantID 05.    { 06.        get { return this._applicantID; } 07.        set 08.        { 09.            if (_applicantID != value) 10.            { 11.                _applicantID = value; 12.                OnPropertyChanged("ApplicantID"); 13.            } 14.        } 15.    } 16.   17.    private int _postingID; 18.    public int PostingID 19.    { 20.        get { return _postingID; } 21.        set 22.        { 23.            if (_postingID != value) 24.            { 25.                _postingID = value; 26.                OnPropertyChanged("PostingID"); 27.            } 28.        } 29.    } 30.   31.    private string _body; 32.    public string Body 33.    { 34.        get { return _body; } 35.        set 36.        { 37.            if (_body != value) 38.            { 39.                _body = value; 40.                OnPropertyChanged("Body"); 41.            } 42.        } 43.    } 44.   45.    private int _interviewID; 46.    public int InterviewID 47.    { 48.        get { return _interviewID; } 49.        set 50.        { 51.            if (_interviewID != value) 52.            { 53.                _interviewID = value; 54.                OnPropertyChanged("InterviewID"); 55.            } 56.        } 57.    } 58.   59.    public override IAppointment Copy() 60.    { 61.        IAppointment appointment = new InterviewAppointment(); 62.        appointment.CopyFrom(this);             63.        return appointment; 64.    } 65.   66.    public override void CopyFrom(IAppointment other) 67.    {             68.        base.CopyFrom(other); 69.        var appointment = other as InterviewAppointment; 70.        if (appointment != null) 71.        { 72.            ApplicantID = appointment.ApplicantID; 73.            PostingID = appointment.PostingID; 74.            Body = appointment.Body; 75.            InterviewID = appointment.InterviewID; 76.        } 77.    } 78.} Nothing too exciting going on here, we just make sure that our custom fields are persisted (specifically set in CopyFrom at the bottom) and notifications are fired- otherwise this ends up exactly like the standard appointment as far as interactions, etc.  But if we've got custom appointment items... that also means we need to customize what our appointment dialog window will look like. Customizing the Edit Appointment Dialog This initially sounds a lot more intimidating than it really is.  The first step here depends on what you're dealing with for theming, but for ease of everything I went ahead and extracted my templates in Blend for RadScheduler so I could modify it as I pleased.  For the faint of heart, the RadScheduler template is a few thousand lines of goodness since there are some very complex things going on in that control.  I've gone ahead and trimmed down the template parts I don't need as much as possible, so what is left is all that is relevant to the Edit Appointment Dialog.  Here's the resulting Xaml, with line numbers, so I can explain further: 001.<UserControl.Resources> 002.    <!-- begin Necessary Windows 7 Theme Resources for EditAppointmentTemplate --> 003.    <helpers:DataContextProxy x:Key="DataContextProxy" /> 004.       005.    <telerik:Windows7Theme x:Key="Theme" /> 006.    <SolidColorBrush x:Key="DialogWindowBackground" 007.                     Color="White" /> 008.    <SolidColorBrush x:Key="CategorySelectorBorderBrush" 009.                     Color="#FFB1B1B1" /> 010.    <LinearGradientBrush x:Key="RadToolBar_InnerBackground" 011.                         EndPoint="0.5,1" 012.                         StartPoint="0.5,0"> 013.        <GradientStop Color="#FFFDFEFF" 014.                      Offset="0" /> 015.        <GradientStop Color="#FFDDE9F7" 016.                      Offset="1" /> 017.        <GradientStop Color="#FFE6F0FA" 018.                      Offset="0.5" /> 019.        <GradientStop Color="#FFDCE6F4" 020.                      Offset="0.5" /> 021.    </LinearGradientBrush> 022.    <Style x:Key="FormElementTextBlockStyle" 023.           TargetType="TextBlock"> 024.        <Setter Property="HorizontalAlignment" 025.                Value="Right" /> 026.        <Setter Property="VerticalAlignment" 027.                Value="Top" /> 028.        <Setter Property="Margin" 029.                Value="15, 15, 0, 2" /> 030.    </Style> 031.    <Style x:Key="FormElementStyle" 032.           TargetType="FrameworkElement"> 033.        <Setter Property="Margin" 034.                Value="10, 10, 0, 2" /> 035.    </Style> 036.    <SolidColorBrush x:Key="GenericShallowBorderBrush" 037.                     Color="#FF979994" /> 038.    <telerik:BooleanToVisibilityConverter x:Key="BooleanToVisibilityConverter" /> 039.    <telerikScheduler:ImportanceToBooleanConverter x:Key="ImportanceToBooleanConverter" /> 040.    <telerikScheduler:NullToVisibilityConverter x:Key="NullToVisibilityConverter" /> 041.    <telerikScheduler:InvertedNullToVisibilityConverter x:Key="InvertedNullToVisibilityConverter" /> 042.    <scheduler:ResourcesSeparatorConverter x:Key="ResourcesSeparatorConverter" /> 043.    <DataTemplate x:Key="IconDataEditTemplate"> 044.        <Image Source="/Telerik.Windows.Controls.Scheduler;component/Themes/Office/Images/cal.png" 045.               Margin="3,3,0,0" 046.               Width="16" 047.               Height="16" /> 048.    </DataTemplate> 049.    <DataTemplate x:Key="SingleSelectionTemplate"> 050.        <Grid VerticalAlignment="Stretch" 051.              HorizontalAlignment="Stretch"> 052.            <Grid.RowDefinitions> 053.                <RowDefinition Height="Auto" /> 054.            </Grid.RowDefinitions> 055.            <Grid.ColumnDefinitions> 056.                <ColumnDefinition Width="Auto" 057.                                  MinWidth="84" /> 058.                <ColumnDefinition Width="Auto" 059.                                  MinWidth="200" /> 060.            </Grid.ColumnDefinitions> 061.            <TextBlock x:Name="SelectionNameLabel" 062.                       Margin="0,13,4,2" 063.                       Text="{Binding ResourceType.DisplayName}" 064.                       Style="{StaticResource FormElementTextBlockStyle}" 065.                       Grid.Column="0" /> 066.            <telerikInput:RadComboBox ItemsSource="{Binding ResourceItems}" 067.                                      Width="185" 068.                                      Margin="5,10,20,2" 069.                                      HorizontalAlignment="Left" 070.                                      Grid.Column="1" 071.                                      ClearSelectionButtonVisibility="Visible" 072.                                      ClearSelectionButtonContent="Clear All" 073.                                      DisplayMemberPath="Resource.DisplayName" 074.                                      telerik:StyleManager.Theme="{StaticResource Theme}" 075.                                      SelectedItem="{Binding SelectedItem, Mode=TwoWay}" /> 076.        </Grid> 077.    </DataTemplate> 078.    <DataTemplate x:Key="MultipleSelectionTemplate"> 079.        <Grid VerticalAlignment="Stretch" 080.              HorizontalAlignment="Stretch"> 081.            <Grid.RowDefinitions> 082.                <RowDefinition Height="Auto" /> 083.            </Grid.RowDefinitions> 084.            <Grid.ColumnDefinitions> 085.                <ColumnDefinition Width="Auto" 086.                                  MinWidth="84" /> 087.                <ColumnDefinition Width="Auto" 088.                                  MinWidth="200" /> 089.            </Grid.ColumnDefinitions> 090.            <TextBlock x:Name="SelectionNameLabel" 091.                       Grid.Column="0" 092.                       Text="{Binding ResourceType.DisplayName}" 093.                       Margin="0,13,4,2" 094.                       Style="{StaticResource FormElementTextBlockStyle}" /> 095.            <telerikInput:RadComboBox Grid.Column="1" 096.                                      Width="185" 097.                                      HorizontalAlignment="Left" 098.                                      Margin="5,10,20,2" 099.                                      ItemsSource="{Binding ResourceItems}" 100.                                      SelectedIndex="{Binding SelectedIndex, Mode=TwoWay}" 101.                                      ClearSelectionButtonVisibility="Visible" 102.                                      ClearSelectionButtonContent="Clear All" 103.                                      telerik:StyleManager.Theme="{StaticResource Theme}"> 104.                <telerikInput:RadComboBox.ItemTemplate> 105.                    <DataTemplate> 106.                        <Grid HorizontalAlignment="Stretch" 107.                              VerticalAlignment="Stretch"> 108.                            <CheckBox VerticalAlignment="Center" 109.                                      HorizontalContentAlignment="Stretch" 110.                                      VerticalContentAlignment="Center" 111.                                      IsChecked="{Binding IsChecked, Mode=TwoWay}" 112.                                      Content="{Binding Resource.DisplayName}"> 113.                                <CheckBox.ContentTemplate> 114.                                    <DataTemplate> 115.                                        <TextBlock HorizontalAlignment="Stretch" 116.                                                   VerticalAlignment="Stretch" 117.                                                   Text="{Binding Content, RelativeSource={RelativeSource TemplatedParent}}" /> 118.                                    </DataTemplate> 119.                                </CheckBox.ContentTemplate> 120.                            </CheckBox> 121.                        </Grid> 122.                    </DataTemplate> 123.                </telerikInput:RadComboBox.ItemTemplate> 124.            </telerikInput:RadComboBox> 125.        </Grid> 126.    </DataTemplate> 127.    <scheduler:ResourceTypeTemplateSelector x:Key="ItemTemplateSelector" 128.                                            MultipleSelectionTemplate="{StaticResource MultipleSelectionTemplate}" 129.                                            SingleSelectionTemplate="{StaticResource SingleSelectionTemplate}" /> 130.    <!-- end Necessary Windows 7 Theme Resources for EditAppointmentTemplate -->  131.       132.    <ControlTemplate x:Key="EditAppointmentTemplate" 133.                     TargetType="telerikScheduler:AppointmentDialogWindow"> 134.        <StackPanel Background="{TemplateBinding Background}" 135.                    UseLayoutRounding="True"> 136.            <StackPanel Grid.Row="0" 137.                        Orientation="Horizontal" 138.                        Background="{StaticResource RadToolBar_InnerBackground}" 139.                        Grid.ColumnSpan="2" 140.                        Height="0"> 141.                <!-- Recurrence buttons --> 142.                <Border Margin="1,1,0,0" 143.                        Background="#50000000" 144.                        HorizontalAlignment="Left" 145.                        VerticalAlignment="Center" 146.                        Width="2" 147.                        Height="16"> 148.                    <Border Margin="0,0,1,1" 149.                            Background="#80FFFFFF" 150.                            HorizontalAlignment="Left" 151.                            Width="1" /> 152.                </Border> 153.                <Border Margin="1,1,0,0" 154.                        Background="#50000000" 155.                        HorizontalAlignment="Left" 156.                        VerticalAlignment="Center" 157.                        Width="2" 158.                        Height="16"> 159.                    <Border Margin="0,0,1,1" 160.                            Background="#80FFFFFF" 161.                            HorizontalAlignment="Left" 162.                            Width="1" /> 163.                </Border> 164.                <TextBlock telerik:LocalizationManager.ResourceKey="ShowAs" 165.                           VerticalAlignment="Center" 166.                           Margin="5,0,0,0" /> 167.                <telerikInput:RadComboBox ItemsSource="{TemplateBinding TimeMarkers}" 168.                                          Width="100" 169.                                          Height="20" 170.                                          VerticalAlignment="Center" 171.                                          Margin="5,0,0,0" 172.                                          ClearSelectionButtonVisibility="Visible" 173.                                          ClearSelectionButtonContent="Clear" 174.                                          SelectedItem="{Binding TimeMarker,RelativeSource={RelativeSource TemplatedParent},Mode=TwoWay}" 175.                                          telerik:StyleManager.Theme="{StaticResource Theme}"> 176.                    <telerikInput:RadComboBox.ItemTemplate> 177.                        <DataTemplate> 178.                            <StackPanel Orientation="Horizontal"> 179.                                <Rectangle Fill="{Binding TimeMarkerBrush}" 180.                                           Margin="2" 181.                                           Width="12" 182.                                           Height="12" /> 183.                                <TextBlock Text="{Binding TimeMarkerName}" 184.                                           Margin="2" /> 185.                            </StackPanel> 186.                        </DataTemplate> 187.                    </telerikInput:RadComboBox.ItemTemplate> 188.                </telerikInput:RadComboBox> 189.                <telerik:RadToggleButton x:Name="High" 190.                                         BorderThickness="0" 191.                                         Background="{StaticResource RadToolBar_InnerBackground}" 192.                                         DataContext="{TemplateBinding EditedAppointment}" 193.                                         telerik:StyleManager.Theme="{StaticResource Theme}" 194.                                         IsChecked="{Binding Importance,Mode=TwoWay, Converter={StaticResource ImportanceToBooleanConverter},ConverterParameter=High}" 195.                                         Margin="2,2,0,2" 196.                                         Width="23" 197.                                         Height="23" 198.                                         HorizontalContentAlignment="Center" 199.                                         ToolTipService.ToolTip="High importance" 200.                                         CommandParameter="High" 201.                                         Command="telerikScheduler:RadSchedulerCommands.SetAppointmentImportance"> 202.                    <StackPanel HorizontalAlignment="Center"> 203.                        <Path Stretch="Fill" 204.                              Height="10" 205.                              HorizontalAlignment="Center" 206.                              VerticalAlignment="Top" 207.                              Width="5.451" 208.                              Data="M200.39647,58.840393 C200.39337,58.336426 201.14566,57.683922 202.56244,57.684292 C204.06589,57.684685 204.73764,58.357765 204.72783,58.992363 C205.04649,61.795574 203.04713,64.181099 202.47388,66.133446 C201.93753,64.154961 199.9471,61.560352 200.39647,58.840393 z"> 209.                            <Path.Fill> 210.                                <LinearGradientBrush EndPoint="1.059,0.375" 211.                                                     StartPoint="-0.457,0.519"> 212.                                    <GradientStop Color="#FFFF0606" 213.                                                  Offset="0.609" /> 214.                                    <GradientStop Color="#FFBF0303" 215.                                                  Offset="0.927" /> 216.                                </LinearGradientBrush> 217.                            </Path.Fill> 218.                        </Path> 219.                        <Ellipse Height="3" 220.                                 HorizontalAlignment="Center" 221.                                 Margin="0,-1,0,0" 222.                                 VerticalAlignment="Top" 223.                                 Width="3"> 224.                            <Ellipse.Fill> 225.                                <RadialGradientBrush> 226.                                    <GradientStop Color="#FFFF0606" 227.                                                  Offset="0" /> 228.                                    <GradientStop Color="#FFBF0303" 229.                                                  Offset="1" /> 230.                                </RadialGradientBrush> 231.                            </Ellipse.Fill> 232.                        </Ellipse> 233.                    </StackPanel> 234.                </telerik:RadToggleButton> 235.                <telerik:RadToggleButton x:Name="Low" 236.                                         HorizontalContentAlignment="Center" 237.                                         BorderThickness="0" 238.                                         Background="{StaticResource RadToolBar_InnerBackground}" 239.                                         DataContext="{TemplateBinding EditedAppointment}" 240.                                         IsChecked="{Binding Importance,Mode=TwoWay, Converter={StaticResource ImportanceToBooleanConverter},ConverterParameter=Low}" 241.                                         Margin="0,2,0,2" 242.                                         Width="23" 243.                                         Height="23" 244.                                         ToolTipService.ToolTip="Low importance" 245.                                         CommandParameter="Low" 246.                                         telerik:StyleManager.Theme="{StaticResource Theme}" 247.                                         Command="telerikScheduler:RadSchedulerCommands.SetAppointmentImportance"> 248.                    <Path Stretch="Fill" 249.                          Height="12" 250.                          HorizontalAlignment="Center" 251.                          VerticalAlignment="Top" 252.                          Width="9" 253.                          Data="M222.40353,60.139881 L226.65768,60.139843 L226.63687,67.240196 L229.15347,67.240196 L224.37816,71.394943 L219.65274,67.240196 L222.37572,67.219345 z" 254.                          Stroke="#FF0365A7"> 255.                        <Path.Fill> 256.                            <LinearGradientBrush EndPoint="1.059,0.375" 257.                                                 StartPoint="-0.457,0.519"> 258.                                <GradientStop Color="#FFBBE4FF" /> 259.                                <GradientStop Color="#FF024572" 260.                                              Offset="0.836" /> 261.                                <GradientStop Color="#FF43ADF4" 262.                                              Offset="0.466" /> 263.                            </LinearGradientBrush> 264.                        </Path.Fill> 265.                    </Path> 266.                </telerik:RadToggleButton> 267.            </StackPanel > 268.            <Border DataContext="{TemplateBinding EditedAppointment}" 269.                    Background="{Binding Category.CategoryBrush}" 270.                    Visibility="{Binding Category,Converter={StaticResource NullToVisibilityConverter}}" 271.                    CornerRadius="3" 272.                    Height="20" 273.                    Margin="5,10,5,0"> 274.                <TextBlock Text="{Binding Category.DisplayName}" 275.                           VerticalAlignment="Center" 276.                           Margin="5,0,0,0" /> 277.            </Border> 278.            <Grid VerticalAlignment="Stretch" 279.                  HorizontalAlignment="Stretch" 280.                  DataContext="{TemplateBinding EditedAppointment}" 281.                  Background="{TemplateBinding Background}"> 282.                <Grid.RowDefinitions> 283.                    <RowDefinition Height="Auto" /> 284.                    <RowDefinition Height="Auto" /> 285.                    <RowDefinition Height="Auto" /> 286.                    <RowDefinition Height="Auto" /> 287.                    <RowDefinition Height="Auto" /> 288.                    <RowDefinition Height="Auto" /> 289.                    <RowDefinition Height="Auto" /> 290.                    <RowDefinition Height="Auto" /> 291.                    <RowDefinition Height="Auto" /> 292.                    <RowDefinition Height="Auto" /> 293.                </Grid.RowDefinitions> 294.                <Grid.ColumnDefinitions> 295.                    <ColumnDefinition Width="Auto" 296.                                      MinWidth="100" /> 297.                    <ColumnDefinition Width="Auto" 298.                                      MinWidth="200" /> 299.                </Grid.ColumnDefinitions> 300.                <!-- Subject --> 301.                <TextBlock x:Name="SubjectLabel" 302.                           Grid.Row="0" 303.                           Grid.Column="0" 304.                           Margin="0,15,0,2" 305.                           telerik:LocalizationManager.ResourceKey="Subject" 306.                           Style="{StaticResource FormElementTextBlockStyle}" /> 307.                <TextBox x:Name="Subject" 308.                         Grid.Row="0" 309.                         Grid.Column="1" 310.                         MinHeight="22" 311.                         Padding="4 2" 312.                         Width="340" 313.                         HorizontalAlignment="Left" 314.                         Text="{Binding Subject, Mode=TwoWay}" 315.                         MaxLength="255" 316.                         telerik:StyleManager.Theme="{StaticResource Theme}" 317.                         Margin="10,12,20,2" /> 318.                <!-- Description --> 319.                <TextBlock x:Name="DescriptionLabel" 320.                           Grid.Row="1" 321.                           Grid.Column="0" 322.                           Margin="0,13,0,2" 323.                           telerik:LocalizationManager.ResourceKey="Body" 324.                           Style="{StaticResource FormElementTextBlockStyle}" /> 325.                <TextBox x:Name="Body" 326.                         VerticalAlignment="top" 327.                         Grid.Row="1" 328.                         Grid.Column="1" 329.                         Height="Auto" 330.                         MaxHeight="82" 331.                         Width="340" 332.                         HorizontalAlignment="Left" 333.                         MinHeight="22" 334.                         Padding="4 2" 335.                         TextWrapping="Wrap" 336.                         telerik:StyleManager.Theme="{StaticResource Theme}" 337.                         Text="{Binding Body, Mode=TwoWay}" 338.                         AcceptsReturn="true" 339.                         Margin="10,10,20,2" 340.                         HorizontalScrollBarVisibility="Auto" 341.                         VerticalScrollBarVisibility="Auto" /> 342.                <!-- Start/End date --> 343.                <TextBlock x:Name="StartDateLabel" 344.                           Grid.Row="2" 345.                           Grid.Column="0" 346.                           Margin="0,13,0,2" 347.                           telerik:LocalizationManager.ResourceKey="StartTime" 348.                           Style="{StaticResource FormElementTextBlockStyle}" /> 349.                <telerikScheduler:DateTimePicker x:Name="StartDateTime" 350.                                                 Height="22" 351.                                                 Grid.Row="2" 352.                                                 Grid.Column="1" 353.                                                 HorizontalAlignment="Left" 354.                                                 Margin="10,10,20,2" 355.                                                 Style="{StaticResource FormElementStyle}" 356.                                                 SelectedDateTime="{Binding Start, Mode=TwoWay}" 357.                                                 telerikScheduler:StartEndDatePicker.EndPicker="{Binding ElementName=EndDateTime}" 358.                                                 IsTabStop="False" 359.                                                 IsEnabled="False" /> 360.                <TextBlock x:Name="EndDateLabel" 361.                           Grid.Row="3" 362.                           Grid.Column="0" 363.                           Margin="0,13,0,2" 364.                           telerik:LocalizationManager.ResourceKey="EndTime" 365.                           Style="{StaticResource FormElementTextBlockStyle}" /> 366.                <telerikScheduler:DateTimePicker x:Name="EndDateTime" 367.                                                 Height="22" 368.                                                 Grid.Row="3" 369.                                                 Grid.Column="1" 370.                                                 HorizontalAlignment="Left" 371.                                                 Margin="10,10,20,2" 372.                                                 Style="{StaticResource FormElementStyle}" 373.                                                 IsTabStop="False" 374.                                                 IsEnabled="False" 375.                                                 SelectedDateTime="{Binding End, Mode=TwoWay}" /> 376.                <!-- Is-all-day selector --> 377.                <CheckBox x:Name="AllDayEventCheckbox" 378.                          IsChecked="{Binding IsAllDayEvent, Mode=TwoWay}" 379.                          Grid.Row="4" 380.                          Grid.Column="1" 381.                          Margin="10,10,20,2" 382.                          HorizontalAlignment="Left" 383.                          telerik:StyleManager.Theme="{StaticResource Theme}" 384.                          telerik:LocalizationManager.ResourceKey="AllDayEvent"> 385.                    <telerik:CommandManager.InputBindings> 386.                        <telerik:InputBindingCollection> 387.                            <telerik:MouseBinding Command="telerikScheduler:RadSchedulerCommands.ChangeTimePickersVisibility" 388.                                                  Gesture="LeftClick" /> 389.                        </telerik:InputBindingCollection> 390.                    </telerik:CommandManager.InputBindings> 391.                </CheckBox> 392.                <Grid Grid.Row="5" 393.                      Grid.ColumnSpan="2"> 394.                    <Grid.ColumnDefinitions> 395.                        <ColumnDefinition Width="Auto" 396.                                          MinWidth="100" /> 397.                        <ColumnDefinition Width="Auto" 398.                                          MinWidth="200" /> 399.                    </Grid.ColumnDefinitions> 400.                    <Grid.RowDefinitions> 401.                        <RowDefinition Height="Auto" /> 402.                        <RowDefinition Height="Auto" /> 403.                    </Grid.RowDefinitions> 404.                    <TextBlock Text="Applicant" 405.                               Margin="0,13,0,2" 406.                               Style="{StaticResource FormElementTextBlockStyle}" /> 407.                    <telerikInput:RadComboBox IsEditable="False" 408.                                              Grid.Column="1" 409.                                              Height="24" 410.                                              VerticalAlignment="Center" 411.                                              ItemsSource="{Binding Source={StaticResource DataContextProxy}, Path=DataSource.ApplicantList}" 412.                                              SelectedValue="{Binding ApplicantID, Mode=TwoWay}" 413.                                              SelectedValuePath="ApplicantID" 414.                                              DisplayMemberPath="FirstName" /> 415.                       416.                    <TextBlock Text="Job" 417.                               Margin="0,13,0,2" 418.                               Grid.Row="1" 419.                               Style="{StaticResource FormElementTextBlockStyle}" /> 420.                    <telerikInput:RadComboBox IsEditable="False" 421.                                              Grid.Column="1" 422.                                              Grid.Row="1" 423.                                              Height="24" 424.                                              VerticalAlignment="Center" 425.                                              ItemsSource="{Binding Source={StaticResource DataContextProxy}, Path=DataSource.JobsList}" 426.                                              SelectedValue="{Binding PostingID, Mode=TwoWay}" 427.                                              SelectedValuePath="PostingID" 428.                                              DisplayMemberPath="JobTitle"/> 429.                </Grid> 430.                    <!-- Resources --> 431.                <Grid x:Name="ResourcesLayout" 432.                      Grid.Row="7" 433.                      Grid.Column="0" 434.                      Grid.ColumnSpan="2" 435.                      MaxHeight="130" 436.                      Margin="20,5,20,0"> 437.                    <Border Margin="0" 438.                            BorderThickness="1" 439.                            BorderBrush="{StaticResource GenericShallowBorderBrush}" 440.                            Visibility="{Binding ElementName=ResourcesScrollViewer, Path=ComputedVerticalScrollBarVisibility}"></Border> 441.                    <ScrollViewer x:Name="ResourcesScrollViewer" 442.                                  IsTabStop="false" 443.                                  Grid.Row="6" 444.                                  Grid.Column="0" 445.                                  Grid.ColumnSpan="2" 446.                                  Margin="1" 447.                                  telerik:StyleManager.Theme="{StaticResource Theme}" 448.                                  VerticalScrollBarVisibility="Auto"> 449.                        <scheduler:ResourcesItemsControl x:Name="PART_Resources" 450.                                                         HorizontalAlignment="Left" 451.                                                         Padding="0,2,0,5" 452.                                                         IsTabStop="false" 453.                                                         ItemsSource="{TemplateBinding ResourceTypeModels}" 454.                                                         ItemTemplateSelector="{StaticResource ItemTemplateSelector}" /> 455.                    </ScrollViewer> 456.                </Grid> 457.                <StackPanel x:Name="FooterControls" 458.                            Margin="5 10 10 10" 459.                            Grid.Row="8" 460.                            Grid.Column="1" 461.                            HorizontalAlignment="Left" 462.                            Orientation="Horizontal"> 463.                    <telerik:RadButton x:Name="OKButton" 464.                                       Margin="5" 465.                                       Padding="10 0" 466.                                       MinWidth="80" 467.                                       Command="telerikScheduler:RadSchedulerCommands.SaveAppointment" 468.                                       telerik:StyleManager.Theme="{StaticResource Theme}" 469.                                       telerikNavigation:RadWindow.ResponseButton="Accept" 470.                                       telerik:LocalizationManager.ResourceKey="SaveAndCloseCommandText"> 471.                    </telerik:RadButton> 472.                    <telerik:RadButton x:Name="CancelButton" 473.                                       Margin="5" 474.                                       Padding="10 0" 475.                                       MinWidth="80" 476.                                       telerik:LocalizationManager.ResourceKey="Cancel" 477.                                       telerik:StyleManager.Theme="{StaticResource Theme}" 478.                                       telerikNavigation:RadWindow.ResponseButton="Cancel" 479.                                       Command="telerik:WindowCommands.Close"> 480.                    </telerik:RadButton> 481.                </StackPanel> 482.            </Grid> 483.            <vsm:VisualStateManager.VisualStateGroups> 484.                <vsm:VisualStateGroup x:Name="RecurrenceRuleState"> 485.                    <vsm:VisualState x:Name="RecurrenceRuleIsNull"> 486.                        <Storyboard> 487.                            <ObjectAnimationUsingKeyFrames Storyboard.TargetName="StartDateTime" 488.                                                           Storyboard.TargetProperty="IsEnabled" 489.                                                           Duration="0"> 490.                                <DiscreteObjectKeyFrame KeyTime="0" 491.                                                        Value="True" /> 492.                            </ObjectAnimationUsingKeyFrames> 493.                            <ObjectAnimationUsingKeyFrames Storyboard.TargetName="EndDateTime" 494.                                                           Storyboard.TargetProperty="IsEnabled" 495.                                                           Duration="0"> 496.                                <DiscreteObjectKeyFrame KeyTime="0" 497.                                                        Value="True" /> 498.                            </ObjectAnimationUsingKeyFrames> 499.                            <ObjectAnimationUsingKeyFrames Storyboard.TargetName="AllDayEventCheckbox" 500.                                                           Storyboard.TargetProperty="IsEnabled" 501.                                                           Duration="0"> 502.                                <DiscreteObjectKeyFrame KeyTime="0" 503.                                                        Value="True" /> 504.                            </ObjectAnimationUsingKeyFrames> 505.                        </Storyboard> 506.                    </vsm:VisualState> 507.                    <vsm:VisualState x:Name="RecurrenceRuleIsNotNull"> 508.                        <Storyboard> 509.                            <ObjectAnimationUsingKeyFrames Storyboard.TargetName="StartDateTime" 510.                                                           Storyboard.TargetProperty="IsEnabled" 511.                                                           Duration="0"> 512.                                <DiscreteObjectKeyFrame KeyTime="0" 513.                                                        Value="False" /> 514.                            </ObjectAnimationUsingKeyFrames> 515.                            <ObjectAnimationUsingKeyFrames Storyboard.TargetName="EndDateTime" 516.                                                           Storyboard.TargetProperty="IsEnabled" 517.                                                           Duration="0"> 518.                                <DiscreteObjectKeyFrame KeyTime="0" 519.                                                        Value="False" /> 520.                            </ObjectAnimationUsingKeyFrames> 521.                            <ObjectAnimationUsingKeyFrames Storyboard.TargetName="AllDayEventCheckbox" 522.                                                           Storyboard.TargetProperty="IsEnabled" 523.                                                           Duration="0"> 524.                                <DiscreteObjectKeyFrame KeyTime="0" 525.                                                        Value="False" /> 526.                            </ObjectAnimationUsingKeyFrames> 527.                        </Storyboard> 528.                    </vsm:VisualState> 529.                </vsm:VisualStateGroup> 530.            </vsm:VisualStateManager.VisualStateGroups> 531.        </StackPanel> 532.    </ControlTemplate> 533.    <DataTemplate x:Key="AppointmentDialogWindowHeaderDataTemplate"> 534.        <StackPanel Orientation="Horizontal" 535.                    MaxWidth="400"> 536.            <TextBlock telerik:LocalizationManager.ResourceKey="Event" 537.                       Visibility="{Binding Appointment.IsAllDayEvent, Converter={StaticResource BooleanToVisibilityConverter}}" /> 538.            <TextBlock telerik:LocalizationManager.ResourceKey="Appointment" 539.                       Visibility="{Binding Appointment.IsAllDayEvent, Converter={StaticResource InvertedBooleanToVisibilityConverter}}" /> 540.            <TextBlock Text=" - " /> 541.            <TextBlock x:Name="SubjectTextBlock" 542.                       Visibility="{Binding Appointment.Subject, Converter={StaticResource NullToVisibilityConverter}}" 543.                       Text="{Binding Appointment.Subject}" /> 544.            <TextBlock telerik:LocalizationManager.ResourceKey="Untitled" 545.                       Visibility="{Binding Appointment.Subject, Converter={StaticResource InvertedNullToVisibilityConverter}}" /> 546.        </StackPanel> 547.    </DataTemplate> 548.    <Style x:Key="EditAppointmentStyle" 549.           TargetType="telerikScheduler:AppointmentDialogWindow"> 550.        <Setter Property="IconTemplate" 551.                Value="{StaticResource IconDataEditTemplate}" /> 552.        <Setter Property="HeaderTemplate" 553.                Value="{StaticResource AppointmentDialogWindowHeaderDataTemplate}" /> 554.        <Setter Property="Background" 555.                Value="{StaticResource DialogWindowBackground}" /> 556.        <Setter Property="Template" 557.                Value="{StaticResource EditAppointmentTemplate}" /> 558.    </Style> 559.</UserControl.Resources> The first line there is the DataContextProxy I mentioned previously- we use that again to work a bit of magic in this template. Where we start getting into the dialog in question is line 132, but line 407 is where things start getting interesting.  The ItemsSource is pointing at a list that exists in my ViewModel (or code-behind, if it is used as a DataContext), the SelectedValue is the item I am actually binding from the applicant (note the TwoWay binding), and SelectedValuePath and DisplayMemberPath ensure the proper applicant is being displayed from the collection.  You will also see similar starting on line 420 where I do the same for the Jobs we'll be displaying. Just to wrap-up the Xaml, here's the RadScheduler declaraction that ties this all together and will be the main focus of our view: 01.<telerikScheduler:RadScheduler x:Name="xJobsScheduler" 02.                  Grid.Row="1" 03.                  Grid.Column="1" 04.                  Width="800" 05.                  MinWidth="600" 06.                  Height="500" 07.                  MinHeight="300" 08.                  AppointmentsSource="{Binding Interviews}" 09.                  EditAppointmentStyle="{StaticResource EditAppointmentStyle}" 10.                  command:AppointmentAddedEventClass.Command="{Binding AddAppointmentCommand}" 11.                  command:ApptCreatedEventClass.Command="{Binding ApptCreatingCommand}" 12.                  command:ApptEditedEventClass.Command="{Binding ApptEditedCommand}" 13.                  command:ApptDeletedEventClass.Command="{Binding ApptDeletedCommand}"> 14.</telerikScheduler:RadScheduler> Now, we get to the ViewModel and what it takes to get that rigged up.  And for those of you who remember the jobs post, those command:s in the Xaml are pointing to attached behavior commands that reproduce the respective events.  This becomes very handy when we're setting up the code-behind version. ;) ViewModel I've been liking this approach so far, so I'm going to put the entire ViewModel here and then go into the lines of interest.  Of course, feel free to ask me questions about anything that isn't clear (by line number, ideally) so I can help out if I have missed anything important: 001.public class SchedulerViewModel : ViewModelBase 002.{ 003.    private readonly IEventAggregator eventAggregator; 004.    private readonly IRegionManager regionManager; 005.   006.    public RecruitingContext context; 007.   008.    private ObservableItemCollection<InterviewAppointment> _interviews = new ObservableItemCollection<InterviewAppointment>(); 009.    public ObservableItemCollection<InterviewAppointment> Interviews 010.    { 011.        get { return _interviews; } 012.        set 013.        { 014.            if (_interviews != value) 015.            { 016.                _interviews = value; 017.                NotifyChanged("Interviews"); 018.            } 019.        } 020.    } 021.   022.    private QueryableCollectionView _jobsList; 023.    public QueryableCollectionView JobsList 024.    { 025.        get { return this._jobsList; } 026.        set 027.        { 028.            if (this._jobsList != value) 029.            { 030.                this._jobsList = value; 031.                this.NotifyChanged("JobsList"); 032.            } 033.        } 034.    } 035.   036.    private QueryableCollectionView _applicantList; 037.    public QueryableCollectionView ApplicantList 038.    { 039.        get { return _applicantList; } 040.        set 041.        { 042.            if (_applicantList != value) 043.            { 044.                _applicantList = value; 045.                NotifyChanged("ApplicantList"); 046.            } 047.        } 048.    } 049.   050.    public DelegateCommand<object> AddAppointmentCommand { get; set; } 051.    public DelegateCommand<object> ApptCreatingCommand { get; set; } 052.    public DelegateCommand<object> ApptEditedCommand { get; set; } 053.    public DelegateCommand<object> ApptDeletedCommand { get; set; } 054.   055.    public SchedulerViewModel(IEventAggregator eventAgg, IRegionManager regionmanager) 056.    { 057.        // set Unity items 058.        this.eventAggregator = eventAgg; 059.        this.regionManager = regionmanager; 060.   061.        // load our context 062.        context = new RecruitingContext(); 063.        LoadOperation<Interview> loadOp = context.Load(context.GetInterviewsQuery()); 064.        loadOp.Completed += new EventHandler(loadOp_Completed); 065.   066.        this._jobsList = new QueryableCollectionView(context.JobPostings); 067.        context.Load(context.GetJobPostingsQuery()); 068.   069.        this._applicantList = new QueryableCollectionView(context.Applicants); 070.        context.Load(context.GetApplicantsQuery()); 071.   072.        AddAppointmentCommand = new DelegateCommand<object>(this.AddAppt); 073.        ApptCreatingCommand = new DelegateCommand<object>(this.ApptCreating); 074.        ApptEditedCommand = new DelegateCommand<object>(this.ApptEdited); 075.        ApptDeletedCommand = new DelegateCommand<object>(this.ApptDeleted); 076.   077.    } 078.   079.    void loadOp_Completed(object sender, EventArgs e) 080.    { 081.        LoadOperation loadop = sender as LoadOperation; 082.   083.        foreach (var ent in loadop.Entities) 084.        { 085.            _interviews.Add(EntityToAppointment(ent as Interview)); 086.        } 087.    } 088.   089.    #region Appointment Adding 090.   091.    public void AddAppt(object obj) 092.    { 093.        // now we have a new InterviewAppointment to add to our QCV :) 094.        InterviewAppointment newInterview = obj as InterviewAppointment; 095.   096.        this.context.Interviews.Add(AppointmentToEntity(newInterview)); 097.        this.context.SubmitChanges((s) => 098.        { 099.            ActionHistory myAction = new ActionHistory(); 100.            myAction.InterviewID = newInterview.InterviewID; 101.            myAction.PostingID = newInterview.PostingID; 102.            myAction.ApplicantID = newInterview.ApplicantID; 103.            myAction.Description = String.Format("Interview with {0} has been created by {1}", newInterview.ApplicantID.ToString(), "default user"); 104.            myAction.TimeStamp = DateTime.Now; 105.            eventAggregator.GetEvent<AddActionEvent>().Publish(myAction); 106.        } 107.            , null); 108.    } 109.   110.    public void ApptCreating(object obj) 111.    { 112.        // handled in the behavior, just a placeholder to ensure it runs :) 113.    } 114.   115.    #endregion 116.   117.    #region Appointment Editing 118.   119.    public void ApptEdited(object obj) 120.    { 121.        Interview editedInterview = (from x in context.Interviews 122.                            where x.InterviewID == (obj as InterviewAppointment).InterviewID 123.                            select x).SingleOrDefault(); 124.   125.        CopyAppointmentEdit(editedInterview, obj as InterviewAppointment); 126.   127.        context.SubmitChanges((s) => { 128.            ActionHistory myAction = new ActionHistory(); 129.            myAction.InterviewID = editedInterview.InterviewID; 130.            myAction.PostingID = editedInterview.PostingID; 131.            myAction.ApplicantID = editedInterview.ApplicantID; 132.            myAction.Description = String.Format("Interview with {0} has been modified by {1}", editedInterview.ApplicantID.ToString(), "default user"); 133.            myAction.TimeStamp = DateTime.Now; 134.            eventAggregator.GetEvent<AddActionEvent>().Publish(myAction); } 135.            , null); 136.    } 137.   138.    #endregion 139.   140.    #region Appointment Deleting 141.   142.    public void ApptDeleted(object obj) 143.    { 144.        Interview deletedInterview = (from x in context.Interviews 145.                                      where x.InterviewID == (obj as InterviewAppointment).InterviewID 146.                                      select x).SingleOrDefault(); 147.   148.        context.Interviews.Remove(deletedInterview); 149.        context.SubmitChanges((s) => 150.        { 151.            ActionHistory myAction = new ActionHistory(); 152.            myAction.InterviewID = deletedInterview.InterviewID; 153.            myAction.PostingID = deletedInterview.PostingID; 154.            myAction.ApplicantID = deletedInterview.ApplicantID; 155.            myAction.Description = String.Format("Interview with {0} has been deleted by {1}", deletedInterview.ApplicantID.ToString(), "default user"); 156.            myAction.TimeStamp = DateTime.Now; 157.            eventAggregator.GetEvent<AddActionEvent>().Publish(myAction); 158.        } 159.            , null); 160.    } 161.   162.    #endregion 163.   164.    #region Appointment Helpers :) 165.   166.    public Interview AppointmentToEntity(InterviewAppointment ia) 167.    { 168.        Interview newInterview = new Interview(); 169.        newInterview.Subject = ia.Subject; 170.        newInterview.Body = ia.Body; 171.        newInterview.Start = ia.Start; 172.        newInterview.End = ia.End; 173.        newInterview.ApplicantID = ia.ApplicantID; 174.        newInterview.PostingID = ia.PostingID; 175.        newInterview.InterviewID = ia.InterviewID; 176.   177.        return newInterview; 178.    } 179.   180.    public InterviewAppointment EntityToAppointment(Interview ia) 181.    { 182.        InterviewAppointment newInterview = new InterviewAppointment(); 183.        newInterview.Subject = ia.Subject; 184.        newInterview.Body = ia.Body; 185.        newInterview.Start = ia.Start; 186.        newInterview.End = ia.End; 187.        newInterview.ApplicantID = ia.ApplicantID; 188.        newInterview.PostingID = ia.PostingID; 189.        newInterview.InterviewID = ia.InterviewID; 190.   191.        return newInterview; 192.    } 193.   194.    public void CopyAppointmentEdit(Interview entityInterview, InterviewAppointment appointmentInterview) 195.    { 196.        entityInterview.Subject = appointmentInterview.Subject; 197.        entityInterview.Body = appointmentInterview.Body; 198.        entityInterview.Start = appointmentInterview.Start; 199.        entityInterview.End = appointmentInterview.End; 200.        entityInterview.ApplicantID = appointmentInterview.ApplicantID; 201.        entityInterview.PostingID = appointmentInterview.PostingID; 202.    } 203.   204.    #endregion 205.} One thing we're doing here which you won't see in any of the other ViewModels is creating a duplicate collection.  I know this is something which will be fixed down the line for using RadScheduler, simplifying this process, but with WCF RIA changing as it does I wanted to ensure functionality would remain consistent as I continued development on this application.  So, I do a little bit of duplication, but for the greater good.  This all takes place starting on line 79, so for every entity that comes back we add it to the collection that is bound to RadScheduler.  Otherwise, the DelegateCommands that you see correspond directly to the events they are named after.  In each case, rather than sending over the full event arguments, I just send in the appointment in question (coming through as the object obj in all cases) so I can add (line 91), edit (line 119), and delete appointments (line 142) like normal.  This just ensures they get updated back to my database.  Also, the one bit of code you won't see is for the Appointment Creating (line 110) event- that is because in the command I've created I simply make the replacement I need to: 1.void element_AppointmentCreating(object sender, AppointmentCreatingEventArgs e) 2.{ 3.    e.NewAppointment = new InterviewAppointment(); 4.    base.ExecuteCommand(); 5.} And the ViewModel is none the wiser, the appointments just work as far as it is concerned since as they are created they become InterviewAppointments.  End result?  I've customized my EditAppointmentDialog as follows: And adding, editing, and deleting appointments works like a charm.  I can even 'edit' by moving appointments around RadScheduler, so as they are dropped into a timeslot they perform their full edit routine and things get updated. And then, the Code-Behind Version Perhaps the thing I like the most about doing one then the other is I get to steal 90% or more of the code from the MVVM version.  For example, the only real changes to the Code-Behind Xaml file exist in the control declaration, in which I use events instead of attached-behavior-event-commands: 01.<telerikScheduler:RadScheduler x:Name="xJobsScheduler" 02.                  Grid.Row="1" 03.                  Grid.Column="1" 04.                  Width="800" 05.                  MinWidth="600" 06.                  Height="500" 07.                  MinHeight="300" 08.                  EditAppointmentStyle="{StaticResource EditAppointmentStyle}" 09.                  AppointmentAdded="xJobsScheduler_AppointmentAdded" 10.                  AppointmentCreating="xJobsScheduler_AppointmentCreating" 11.                  AppointmentEdited="xJobsScheduler_AppointmentEdited" 12.                  AppointmentDeleted="xJobsScheduler_AppointmentDeleted"> 13.</telerikScheduler:RadScheduler> Easy, right?  Otherwise, all the same styling in UserControl.Resources was re-used, right down to the DataContextProxy that lets us bind to a collection from our viewmodel (in this case, our code-behind) to use within the DataTemplate.  The code conversion gets even easier, as I could literally copy and paste almost everything from the ViewModel to my Code-Behind, just a matter of pasting the right section into the right event.  Here's the code-behind as proof: 001.public partial class SchedulingView : UserControl, INotifyPropertyChanged 002.{ 003.    public RecruitingContext context; 004.   005.    private QueryableCollectionView _jobsList; 006.    public QueryableCollectionView JobsList 007.    { 008.        get { return this._jobsList; } 009.        set 010.        { 011.            if (this._jobsList != value) 012.            { 013.                this._jobsList = value; 014.                this.NotifyChanged("JobsList"); 015.            } 016.        } 017.    } 018.   019.    private QueryableCollectionView _applicantList; 020.    public QueryableCollectionView ApplicantList 021.    { 022.        get { return _applicantList; } 023.        set 024.        { 025.            if (_applicantList != value) 026.            { 027.                _applicantList = value; 028.                NotifyChanged("ApplicantList"); 029.            } 030.        } 031.    } 032.   033.    private ObservableItemCollection<InterviewAppointment> _interviews = new ObservableItemCollection<InterviewAppointment>(); 034.    public ObservableItemCollection<InterviewAppointment> Interviews 035.    { 036.        get { return _interviews; } 037.        set 038.        { 039.            if (_interviews != value) 040.            { 041.                _interviews = value; 042.                NotifyChanged("Interviews"); 043.            } 044.        } 045.    } 046.   047.    public SchedulingView() 048.    { 049.        InitializeComponent(); 050.   051.        this.DataContext = this; 052.   053.        this.Loaded += new RoutedEventHandler(SchedulingView_Loaded); 054.    } 055.   056.    void SchedulingView_Loaded(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e) 057.    { 058.        this.xJobsScheduler.AppointmentsSource = Interviews; 059.   060.        context = new RecruitingContext(); 061.           062.        LoadOperation loadop = context.Load(context.GetInterviewsQuery()); 063.        loadop.Completed += new EventHandler(loadop_Completed); 064.   065.        this._applicantList = new QueryableCollectionView(context.Applicants); 066.        context.Load(context.GetApplicantsQuery()); 067.   068.        this._jobsList = new QueryableCollectionView(context.JobPostings); 069.        context.Load(context.GetJobPostingsQuery()); 070.    } 071.   072.    void loadop_Completed(object sender, EventArgs e) 073.    { 074.        LoadOperation loadop = sender as LoadOperation; 075.   076.        _interviews.Clear(); 077.   078.        foreach (var ent in loadop.Entities) 079.        { 080.            _interviews.Add(EntityToAppointment(ent as Interview)); 081.        } 082.    } 083.   084.    private void xJobsScheduler_AppointmentAdded(object sender, Telerik.Windows.Controls.AppointmentAddedEventArgs e) 085.    { 086.        // now we have a new InterviewAppointment to add to our QCV :) 087.        InterviewAppointment newInterview = e.Appointment as InterviewAppointment; 088.   089.        this.context.Interviews.Add(AppointmentToEntity(newInterview)); 090.        this.context.SubmitChanges((s) => 091.        { 092.            ActionHistory myAction = new ActionHistory(); 093.            myAction.InterviewID = newInterview.InterviewID; 094.            myAction.PostingID = newInterview.PostingID; 095.            myAction.ApplicantID = newInterview.ApplicantID; 096.            myAction.Description = String.Format("Interview with {0} has been created by {1}", newInterview.ApplicantID.ToString(), "default user"); 097.            myAction.TimeStamp = DateTime.Now; 098.            context.ActionHistories.Add(myAction); 099.            context.SubmitChanges(); 100.        } 101.            , null); 102.    } 103.   104.    private void xJobsScheduler_AppointmentCreating(object sender, Telerik.Windows.Controls.AppointmentCreatingEventArgs e) 105.    { 106.        e.NewAppointment = new InterviewAppointment(); 107.    } 108.   109.    private void xJobsScheduler_AppointmentEdited(object sender, Telerik.Windows.Controls.AppointmentEditedEventArgs e) 110.    { 111.        Interview editedInterview = (from x in context.Interviews 112.                                     where x.InterviewID == (e.Appointment as InterviewAppointment).InterviewID 113.                                     select x).SingleOrDefault(); 114.   115.        CopyAppointmentEdit(editedInterview, e.Appointment as InterviewAppointment); 116.   117.        context.SubmitChanges((s) => 118.        { 119.            ActionHistory myAction = new ActionHistory(); 120.            myAction.InterviewID = editedInterview.InterviewID; 121.            myAction.PostingID = editedInterview.PostingID; 122.            myAction.ApplicantID = editedInterview.ApplicantID; 123.            myAction.Description = String.Format("Interview with {0} has been modified by {1}", editedInterview.ApplicantID.ToString(), "default user"); 124.            myAction.TimeStamp = DateTime.Now; 125.            context.ActionHistories.Add(myAction); 126.            context.SubmitChanges(); 127.        } 128.            , null); 129.    } 130.   131.    private void xJobsScheduler_AppointmentDeleted(object sender, Telerik.Windows.Controls.AppointmentDeletedEventArgs e) 132.    { 133.        Interview deletedInterview = (from x in context.Interviews 134.                                      where x.InterviewID == (e.Appointment as InterviewAppointment).InterviewID 135.                                      select x).SingleOrDefault(); 136.   137.        context.Interviews.Remove(deletedInterview); 138.        context.SubmitChanges((s) => 139.        { 140.            ActionHistory myAction = new ActionHistory(); 141.            myAction.InterviewID = deletedInterview.InterviewID; 142.            myAction.PostingID = deletedInterview.PostingID; 143.            myAction.ApplicantID = deletedInterview.ApplicantID; 144.            myAction.Description = String.Format("Interview with {0} has been deleted by {1}", deletedInterview.ApplicantID.ToString(), "default user"); 145.            myAction.TimeStamp = DateTime.Now; 146.            context.ActionHistories.Add(myAction); 147.            context.SubmitChanges(); 148.        } 149.            , null); 150.    } 151.   152.    #region Appointment Helpers :) 153.   154.    public Interview AppointmentToEntity(InterviewAppointment ia) 155.    { 156.        Interview newInterview = new Interview(); 157.        newInterview.Subject = ia.Subject; 158.        newInterview.Body = ia.Body; 159.        newInterview.Start = ia.Start; 160.        newInterview.End = ia.End; 161.        newInterview.ApplicantID = ia.ApplicantID; 162.        newInterview.PostingID = ia.PostingID; 163.        newInterview.InterviewID = ia.InterviewID; 164.   165.        return newInterview; 166.    } 167.   168.    public InterviewAppointment EntityToAppointment(Interview ia) 169.    { 170.        InterviewAppointment newInterview = new InterviewAppointment(); 171.        newInterview.Subject = ia.Subject; 172.        newInterview.Body = ia.Body; 173.        newInterview.Start = ia.Start; 174.        newInterview.End = ia.End; 175.        newInterview.ApplicantID = ia.ApplicantID; 176.        newInterview.PostingID = ia.PostingID; 177.        newInterview.InterviewID = ia.InterviewID; 178.   179.        return newInterview; 180.    } 181.   182.    public void CopyAppointmentEdit(Interview entityInterview, InterviewAppointment appointmentInterview) 183.    { 184.        entityInterview.Subject = appointmentInterview.Subject; 185.        entityInterview.Body = appointmentInterview.Body; 186.        entityInterview.Start = appointmentInterview.Start; 187.        entityInterview.End = appointmentInterview.End; 188.        entityInterview.ApplicantID = appointmentInterview.ApplicantID; 189.        entityInterview.PostingID = appointmentInterview.PostingID; 190.    } 191.   192.    #endregion 193.   194.    #region INotifyPropertyChanged Members 195.   196.    public event PropertyChangedEventHandler PropertyChanged; 197.   198.    public void NotifyChanged(string propertyName) 199.    { 200.        if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(propertyName)) 201.            throw new ArgumentException("propertyName"); 202.   203.        PropertyChanged(this, new PropertyChangedEventArgs(propertyName)); 204.    } 205.   206.    #endregion 207.} Nice... right? :) One really important thing to note as well.  See on line 51 where I set the DataContext before the Loaded event?  This is super important, as if you don't have this set before the usercontrol is loaded, the DataContextProxy has no context to use and your EditAppointmentDialog Job/Applicant dropdowns will be blank and empty.  Trust me on this, took a little bit of debugging to figure out that by setting the DataContext post-loaded would only lead to disaster and frustration.  Otherwise, the only other real difference is that instead of sending an ActionHistory item through an event to get added to the database and saved, I do those right in the callback from submitting.  The Result Again, I only have to post one picture because these bad boys used nearly identical code for both the MVVM and the code-behind views, so our end result is... So what have we learned here today?  One, for the most part this MVVM thing is somewhat easy.  Yeah, you sometimes have to write a bunch of extra code, but with the help of a few useful snippits you can turn the process into a pretty streamlined little workflow.  Heck, this story gets even easier as you can see in this blog post by Michael Washington- specifically run a find on 'InvokeCommandAction' and you'll see the section regarding the command on TreeView in Blend 4.  Brilliant!  MVVM never looked so sweet! Otherwise, it is business as usual with RadScheduler for Silverlight whichever path you're choosing for your development.  Between now and the next post, I'll be cleaning up styles a bit (those RadComboBoxes are a little too close to my labels!) and adding some to the RowDetailsViews for Applicants and Jobs, so you can see all the info for an appointment in the dropdown tab view.  Otherwise, we're about ready to call a wrap on this oneDid you know that DotNetSlackers also publishes .net articles written by top known .net Authors? We already have over 80 articles in several categories including Silverlight. Take a look: here.

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