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• Does anyone really understand how HFSC scheduling in Linux/BSD works?

  - by Mecki

  I read the original SIGCOMM '97 PostScript paper about HFSC, it is very technically, but I understand the basic concept. Instead of giving a linear service curve (as with pretty much every other scheduling algorithm), you can specify a convex or concave service curve and thus it is possible to decouple bandwidth and delay. However, even though this paper mentions to kind of scheduling algorithms being used (real-time and link-share), it always only mentions ONE curve per scheduling class (the decoupling is done by specifying this curve, only one curve is needed for that). Now HFSC has been implemented for BSD (OpenBSD, FreeBSD, etc.) using the ALTQ scheduling framework and it has been implemented Linux using the TC scheduling framework (part of iproute2). Both implementations added two additional service curves, that were NOT in the original paper! A real-time service curve and an upper-limit service curve. Again, please note that the original paper mentions two scheduling algorithms (real-time and link-share), but in that paper both work with one single service curve. There never have been two independent service curves for either one as you currently find in BSD and Linux. Even worse, some version of ALTQ seems to add an additional queue priority to HSFC (there is no such thing as priority in the original paper either). I found several BSD HowTo's mentioning this priority setting (even though the man page of the latest ALTQ release knows no such parameter for HSFC, so officially it does not even exist). This all makes the HFSC scheduling even more complex than the algorithm described in the original paper and there are tons of tutorials on the Internet that often contradict each other, one claiming the opposite of the other one. This is probably the main reason why nobody really seems to understand how HFSC scheduling really works. Before I can ask my questions, we need a sample setup of some kind. I'll use a very simple one as seen in the image below: Here are some questions I cannot answer because the tutorials contradict each other: What for do I need a real-time curve at all? Assuming A1, A2, B1, B2 are all 128 kbit/s link-share (no real-time curve for either one), then each of those will get 128 kbit/s if the root has 512 kbit/s to distribute (and A and B are both 256 kbit/s of course), right? Why would I additionally give A1 and B1 a real-time curve with 128 kbit/s? What would this be good for? To give those two a higher priority? According to original paper I can give them a higher priority by using a curve, that's what HFSC is all about after all. By giving both classes a curve of [256kbit/s 20ms 128kbit/s] both have twice the priority than A2 and B2 automatically (still only getting 128 kbit/s on average) Does the real-time bandwidth count towards the link-share bandwidth? E.g. if A1 and B1 both only have 64kbit/s real-time and 64kbit/s link-share bandwidth, does that mean once they are served 64kbit/s via real-time, their link-share requirement is satisfied as well (they might get excess bandwidth, but lets ignore that for a second) or does that mean they get another 64 kbit/s via link-share? So does each class has a bandwidth "requirement" of real-time plus link-share? Or does a class only have a higher requirement than the real-time curve if the link-share curve is higher than the real-time curve (current link-share requirement equals specified link-share requirement minus real-time bandwidth already provided to this class)? Is upper limit curve applied to real-time as well, only to link-share, or maybe to both? Some tutorials say one way, some say the other way. Some even claim upper-limit is the maximum for real-time bandwidth + link-share bandwidth? What is the truth? Assuming A2 and B2 are both 128 kbit/s, does it make any difference if A1 and B1 are 128 kbit/s link-share only, or 64 kbit/s real-time and 128 kbit/s link-share, and if so, what difference? If I use the seperate real-time curve to increase priorities of classes, why would I need "curves" at all? Why is not real-time a flat value and link-share also a flat value? Why are both curves? The need for curves is clear in the original paper, because there is only one attribute of that kind per class. But now, having three attributes (real-time, link-share, and upper-limit) what for do I still need curves on each one? Why would I want the curves shape (not average bandwidth, but their slopes) to be different for real-time and link-share traffic? According to the little documentation available, real-time curve values are totally ignored for inner classes (class A and B), they are only applied to leaf classes (A1, A2, B1, B2). If that is true, why does the ALTQ HFSC sample configuration (search for 3.3 Sample configuration) set real-time curves on inner classes and claims that those set the guaranteed rate of those inner classes? Isn't that completely pointless? (note: pshare sets the link-share curve in ALTQ and grate the real-time curve; you can see this in the paragraph above the sample configuration). Some tutorials say the sum of all real-time curves may not be higher than 80% of the line speed, others say it must not be higher than 70% of the line speed. Which one is right or are they maybe both wrong? One tutorial said you shall forget all the theory. No matter how things really work (schedulers and bandwidth distribution), imagine the three curves according to the following "simplified mind model": real-time is the guaranteed bandwidth that this class will always get. link-share is the bandwidth that this class wants to become fully satisfied, but satisfaction cannot be guaranteed. In case there is excess bandwidth, the class might even get offered more bandwidth than necessary to become satisfied, but it may never use more than upper-limit says. For all this to work, the sum of all real-time bandwidths may not be above xx% of the line speed (see question above, the percentage varies). Question: Is this more or less accurate or a total misunderstanding of HSFC? And if assumption above is really accurate, where is prioritization in that model? E.g. every class might have a real-time bandwidth (guaranteed), a link-share bandwidth (not guaranteed) and an maybe an upper-limit, but still some classes have higher priority needs than other classes. In that case I must still prioritize somehow, even among real-time traffic of those classes. Would I prioritize by the slope of the curves? And if so, which curve? The real-time curve? The link-share curve? The upper-limit curve? All of them? Would I give all of them the same slope or each a different one and how to find out the right slope? I still haven't lost hope that there exists at least a hand full of people in this world that really understood HFSC and are able to answer all these questions accurately. And doing so without contradicting each other in the answers would be really nice ;-)

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• How can I resolve this one application coming up with an "You don't have permission to use the application" error?

  - by morgant

  I've got a Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard Server Open Directory Master with a user who's getting Mobility & Application managed preferences from a group (the only group they're a member of). The workstation is also running Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard, when the user logs in and tries to run our primary application which they're explicitly allowed to run (via the group's preferences), it says "You don't have permission to use the application 'Blah'". Now, the application is added to the group's list of always allowed applications, unsigned (so a minor difference in application version or file contents shouldn't disallow it). It even lives in a subdirectory of /Applications which is in the list of folders to allow applications. I've run into this when logging this user into new workstations and the following usually works: Log them out Remove the following files from their mobile home folder on the workstation: /Library/Managed\ Preferences/, ~/.FileSync, ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.finder.plist, and ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.MCX.plist. Remove the following files from their network home folder on the server: ~/.FileSync, ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.finder.plist, and ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.MCX.plist. Log them back in on the workstation. However, this no longer resolves the issue. Their Home Sync preferences are set (on the group) to sync ~, but not the following files (manually, at login, and at logout... no background sync here): ~/.SymAVQSFile ~/NAVMac800QSFile ~/Library ~/.FileSync ~/.account Their Preferences Sync preferences are set (also on the group) to sync ~/Library & ~/Documents/Microsoft User Data, but not the following files (also manually, at login, and at logout... no background sync): ~/.SymAVQSFile ~/.Trash ~/.Trashes ~/Documents/Microsoft User Data/Entourage Temp ~/Library/Application Support/SyncServices ~/Library/Application Support/MobileSync ~/Library/Caches ~/Library/Calendars/Calendar Cache ~/Library/Logs ~/Library/Mail/AvailableFeeds ~/Library/Mail/Envelope Index ~/Library/Preferences/Macromedia/ ~/Library/Printers ~/Library/PubSub/Database ~/Library/PubSub/Downloads ~/Library/PubSub/Feeds ~/Library/Safari/Icons.db ~/Library/Safari/HistoryIndex.sk ~/Library/iTunes/iPhone Software Updates IMAP-* Exchange-* EWS-* Mac-* ~/Library/Preferences/ByHost ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.dock.plist ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.sitebarlists.plist ~/Library/Application Support/4D ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.MCX.plist ~/.FileSync ~/.account Even with ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.MCX.plist prevented from syncing during a Preferences Sync, it still seems to show up in the network home on the server frequently. Are there any other files other than ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.MCX.plist that contain application Managed Preferences that might be causing this one app to be showing up as not allowed? Any ideas on how ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.MCX.plist keeps getting sync'd back up the network home folder on the server? Update: I thought I had found a workaround this morning, but it also seemed to be extremely temporary. Basically, loking at /Library/Managed\ Preferences/[shortname]/com.apple.applicationaccess.new.plist I discovered that it didn't have an entry for the application in question, but /Library/Managed\ Preferences/[shortname]/complete.plist did. Naturally, I deleted com.apple.applicationaccess.new.plist, logged in again, and it worked... on one workstation. It failed on others, and after logging out & back in a couple more times it started failing on all of them again, even after further deletions of com.apple.applicationaccess.new.plist. Oddly, com.apple.applicationaccess.new.plist & complete.plist do both contain an entry for the application in question now, but it still says it's not allowed. Further Update: Okay, so I now have a reproducible workaround which seems to be required after every reboot of the workstation: Log in as the user (you'll discover you cannot launch the application in question). Fast User Switch to the local admin account on the workstation (we always have one on every machine). From that local admin account, run sudo mcxrefresh -n 'shortname' (logging out and back in as the user in question will not work). Fast User Switch back to the user (you'll still not be allowed to run the application). Log the user out and back in (you'll now be able to run the application in question.) Fast User Switch back to the local admin account, log it out, and log back in as the user in question. If you do all that exactly as described it'll keep working through log out & log back in, but NOT through a reboot. If, after a reboot, you try something like logging in as the local admin account, running sudo mcxrefresh -n 'shortname', logging out, then logging in as the user in question, it will NOT work. Yet Another Update We don't have any computer groups in our Open Directory, so it shouldn't be getting any conflicting settings from there. I ran sudo mcxquery -format xml -user shortname -group groupname before & after performing the aforementioned process to allow the application in question to be run and the results were identical (saved the result to files & diff'd... I'm not just guessing here). One Step Forward, Half a Step Back: When the Mac OS X 10.6.5 Server update was released, we upgraded our Open Directory Master to it as the changes included the following managed preferences fixes which I hoped might address this issue: Addresses an issue that could prevent managed preferences from being applied when a user logs in on a workstation that has been idle. Fixes an issue that could prevent administrators from bypassing client management settings on a workstation. This seemed to improve the situation slightly. The application in question now usually launches without error. If, and when it does launch with the "You don't have permission to use the application" error, logging the user out and back in seems to correct it. That said, we've since had to add a couple of applications to the user's ~/Applications/ directory and those are still prevented from launching. The workstations are running Mac OS X 10.6.4, the OD Master (which the workstations are bound to) is running Mac OS 10.6.5 Server (although there are two OD Replicas still running 10.6.4 Server), and we're using Workgroup Manager 10.6.3 (which is included with the Server Admin Tools 10.6.5 upgrade) to add the applications (unsigned, as always). This time, I've caught the following in /var/log/system.log when attempting to launch one of the allowed applications from ~/Applications: Dec 22 17:36:24 hostname parentalcontrolsd[43221]: -[ActivityTracker checkApp:csFlags:] [954:username] -- *** Incoming app appears to be masquerading as white listed app and failed signature validation: /Users/username/Applications/FileMaker Pro 5.5/FileMaker Pro.app/Contents/MacOS/FileMaker Pro. Note: This may be a valid app of a different version than what was whitelisted (on a different volume?) Dec 22 17:36:24 hostname [0x0-0xa42a42].com.filemaker.filemakerpro[43304]: launch of /Users/username/Applications/FileMaker Pro 5.5/FileMaker Pro.app/Contents/MacOS/FileMaker Pro was blocked Dec 22 17:36:24 hostname com.apple.launchd.peruser.1340[6375] ([0x0-0xa42a42].com.filemaker.filemakerpro[43304]): Exited with exit code: 255 Dec 22 17:36:24 hostname parentalcontrolsd[43221]: -[ActivityTracker(Private) _removeAppFromWhiteList:] [1362:username] -- *** Couldn't find local user record Running sudo mcxquery -format xml -user username -group groupname includes the following entry for FileMaker Pro 5.5 (and appears to include a full integration of the user's application whitelist & group's application whitelist): <dict> <key>bundleID</key> <string>com.filemaker.filemakerpro</string> <key>displayName</key> <string>FileMaker Pro</string> </dict> Note the lack of <key>appID</key><data> ... </data> which seems to specify a signed application. While whitelisted directories also appear to be correctly listed in the results, they too do not actually allow the applications to be run either. What is going on here?! Where else should I be looking?

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• What to filter when providing very limited open WiFi to a small conference or meeting?

  - by Tim Farley

  Executive Summary The basic question is: if you have a very limited bandwidth WiFi to provide Internet for a small meeting of only a day or two, how do you set the filters on the router to avoid one or two users monopolizing all the available bandwidth? For folks who don't have the time to read the details below, I am NOT looking for any of these answers: Secure the router and only let a few trusted people use it Tell everyone to turn off unused services & generally police themselves Monitor the traffic with a sniffer and add filters as needed I am aware of all of that. None are appropriate for reasons that will become clear. ALSO NOTE: There is already a question concerning providing adequate WiFi at large (500 attendees) conferences here. This question concerns SMALL meetings of less than 200 people, typically with less than half that using the WiFi. Something that can be handled with a single home or small office router. Background I've used a 3G/4G router device to provide WiFi to small meetings in the past with some success. By small I mean single-room conferences or meetings on the order of a barcamp or Skepticamp or user group meeting. These meetings sometimes have technical attendees there, but not exclusively. Usually less than half to a third of the attendees will actually use the WiFi. Maximum meeting size I'm talking about is 100 to 200 people. I typically use a Cradlepoint MBR-1000 but many other devices exist, especially all-in-one units supplied by 3G and/or 4G vendors like Verizon, Sprint and Clear. These devices take a 3G or 4G internet connection and fan it out to multiple users using WiFi. One key aspect of providing net access this way is the limited bandwidth available over 3G/4G. Even with something like the Cradlepoint which can load-balance multiple radios, you are only going to achieve a few megabits of download speed and maybe a megabit or so of upload speed. That's a best case scenario. Often it is considerably slower. The goal in most of these meeting situations is to allow folks access to services like email, web, social media, chat services and so on. This is so they can live-blog or live-tweet the proceedings, or simply chat online or otherwise stay in touch (with both attendees and non-attendees) while the meeting proceeds. I would like to limit the services provided by the router to just those services that meet those needs. Problems In particular I have noticed a couple of scenarios where particular users end up abusing most of the bandwidth on the router, to the detriment of everyone. These boil into two areas: Intentional use. Folks looking at YouTube videos, downloading podcasts to their iPod, and otherwise using the bandwidth for things that really aren't appropriate in a meeting room where you should be paying attention to the speaker and/or interacting.At one meeting that we were live-streaming (over a separate, dedicated connection) via UStream, I noticed several folks in the room that had the UStream page up so they could interact with the meeting chat - apparently oblivious that they were wasting bandwidth streaming back video of something that was taking place right in front of them. Unintentional use. There are a variety of software utilities that will make extensive use of bandwidth in the background, that folks often have installed on their laptops and smartphones, perhaps without realizing.Examples: Peer to peer downloading programs such as Bittorrent that run in the background Automatic software update services. These are legion, as every major software vendor has their own, so one can easily have Microsoft, Apple, Mozilla, Adobe, Google and others all trying to download updates in the background. Security software that downloads new signatures such as anti-virus, anti-malware, etc. Backup software and other software that "syncs" in the background to cloud services. For some numbers on how much network bandwidth gets sucked up by these non-web, non-email type services, check out this recent Wired article. Apparently web, email and chat all together are less than one quarter of the Internet traffic now. If the numbers in that article are correct, by filtering out all the other stuff I should be able to increase the usefulness of the WiFi four-fold. Now, in some situations I've been able to control access using security on the router to limit it to a very small group of people (typically the organizers of the meeting). But that's not always appropriate. At an upcoming meeting I would like to run the WiFi without security and let anyone use it, because it happens at the meeting location the 4G coverage in my town is particularly excellent. In a recent test I got 10 Megabits down at the meeting site. The "tell people to police themselves" solution mentioned at top is not appropriate because of (a) a largely non-technical audience and (b) the unintentional nature of much of the usage as described above. The "run a sniffer and filter as needed" solution is not useful because these meetings typically only last a couple of days, often only one day, and have a very small volunteer staff. I don't have a person to dedicate to network monitoring, and by the time we got the rules tweaked completely the meeting will be over. What I've Got First thing, I figured I would use OpenDNS's domain filtering rules to filter out whole classes of sites. A number of video and peer-to-peer sites can be wiped out using this. (Yes, I am aware that filtering via DNS technically leaves the services accessible - remember, these are largely non-technical users attending a 2 day meeting. It's enough). I figured I would start with these selections in OpenDNS's UI: I figure I will probably also block DNS (port 53) to anything other than the router itself, so that folks can't bypass my DNS configuration. A savvy user could get around this, because I'm not going to put a lot of elaborate filters on the firewall, but I don't care too much. Because these meetings don't last very long, its probably not going to be worth the trouble. This should cover the bulk of the non-web traffic, i.e. peer-to-peer and video if that Wired article is correct. Please advise if you think there are severe limitations to the OpenDNS approach. What I Need Note that OpenDNS focuses on things that are "objectionable" in some context or another. Video, music, radio and peer-to-peer all get covered. I still need to cover a number of perfectly reasonable things that we just want to block because they aren't needed in a meeting. Most of these are utilities that upload or download legit things in the background. Specifically, I'd like to know port numbers or DNS names to filter in order to effectively disable the following services: Microsoft automatic updates Apple automatic updates Adobe automatic updates Google automatic updates Other major software update services Major virus/malware/security signature updates Major background backup services Other services that run in the background and can eat lots of bandwidth I also would like any other suggestions you might have that would be applicable. Sorry to be so verbose, but I find it helps to be very, very clear on questions of this nature, and I already have half a solution with the OpenDNS thing.

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• File Access problems with SLES 10 SP2 OES2 SP1

  - by Blackhawk131

  We have identified a couple of repeatable, demonstrable scenarios with unexplained rejected folder access on our servers for Mac users. Hopefully, this can be presented to Novell for a solution. What we did to demonstrate scenario 1; 1. setup a PC and Mac side-by-side 2. login to our server and open up to a central location on both Mac and PC 3. on the PC in that central location create a folder 4. on the Mac in that central location drag the created folder to the Mac desktop, this should work fine, no problem 5. on the PC rename that folder 6. on the Mac drag a file to that renamed folder, this should error with the following message; a. You cannot copy some of these items to the destination because their names are too long for the destination. Do you want to skip copying these items and continue copying the other items? b. Select skip, response is the filename is copied to the location with zero or small byte size. Try opening it and you get file is corrupted error message. What we did to demonstrate scenario 2; 1. setup a PC and Mac side-by-side 2. login to our server and open up to a central location on both Mac and PC 3. on the PC in that central location create a folder then create a subfolder 4. copy some content into the subfolder 5. on the Mac in that central location drag the created top level folder to the Mac desktop, this should work fine, no problem 6. on the PC rename that subfolder 7. on the Mac drag that top level folder to the Mac desktop, this should error on the Mac with the following; a. The operation cannot be completed because you do not have sufficient privileges for b. The operation cannot be completed because you do not have sufficient privileges for 8. on the Mac, if you open that subfolder you can see the file copied in step 4 above but, you can not open that file, you get the following message if you try; a. There was an error opening this document. You do not have permission to open this file. 9. on the PC drag some content into the top level folder 10. on the Mac you can open that file directly from the server or copy it locally, no problem, however-the subfolder is still corrupted or locked, whichever 11. on the PC rename the top level folder 12. on the Mac that same file just opened in step 10 above is now not accessible, get the following message; a. The document could not be opened. I have observed some variances in the above. For instance, a change on the PC side may take a moment before you can observer or act on the Mac side - kind of like the server is slow to respond. Also, the error message may vary. However, the key is once a folder, or subfolder, gets renamed by a PC, Mac problems commence. The solution is to create a new folder from a PC and copy the contents of the corrupted folder to the new folder and not rename the folder name. This has to be done on a PC because the corrupted folder is not accessible by a Mac user. Another problem that dovetails with the above is that we know certain characters are not allowed for PC folder or filenames. If a Mac user creates a folder with a slash in the file name, from the PC the user does not see that slash in the name. As soon as the PC user copies a file to that folder, the Mac user is locked from that folder. Will get the following error message; - Sorry, the operation could not be completed because an unexpected error occurred. - (Error code - 50) In addition to the above mentioned character issue with folders, the problem is more evil with filenames. If, for example, you create a file with a slash in the filename on a Mac and copy it to the server you will get the following error message; - You cannot copy some of these items to the destination because their names are too long for the destination. Do you want to skip copying these items and continue copying the other items? Select either Stop or Skip buttons. It does not matter which button is selected. The file name gets copied to the destination location at a reduced size. Depending on the file type, the icon associated with the file may or may not be present. Furthermore, if you open that file on the server you will get the following message; - Couldnt open the file. It may be corrupt or a file format that doesnt recognize. From the users perspective, if they are not observant of the icon or file size, they may disregard the error message and think their file has copied as intended. Only later do they discover the file is corrupt if they open that file. I want to make a note on this problem. It is the PC causing the issue. You can change folder and file names all day on a MAC and you don't have a problem as long as a character is not the issue. Once you change the file name or folder name from a PC the entire folder structure from that level down is corrupted. But it has to be resolved from a PC by creating a new folder and copying the contents to the new folder like stated above. Is something not configured correctly? SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10 (x86_64) VERSION = 10 PATCHLEVEL = 2 LSB_VERSION="core-2.0-noarch:core-3.0-noarch:core-2.0-x86_64:core-3.0-x86_64" Novell Open Enterprise Server 2.0.1 (x86_64) VERSION = 2.0.1 PATCHLEVEL = 1 BUILD Note: We use Novell clients on all windows systems to connect to the servers for file access and network storage. We use AFP to allow OSx systems to connect to servers.

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• How can I resolve this one application coming up with an "You don't have permission to use the application" error?

  - by morgant

  I've got a Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard Server Open Directory Master with a user who's getting Mobility & Application managed preferences from a group (the only group they're a member of). The workstation is also running Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard, when the user logs in and tries to run our primary application which they're explicitly allowed to run (via the group's preferences), it says "You don't have permission to use the application 'Blah'". Now, the application is added to the group's list of always allowed applications, unsigned (so a minor difference in application version or file contents shouldn't disallow it). It even lives in a subdirectory of /Applications which is in the list of folders to allow applications. I've run into this when logging this user into new workstations and the following usually works: Log them out Remove the following files from their mobile home folder on the workstation: /Library/Managed\ Preferences/, ~/.FileSync, ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.finder.plist, and ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.MCX.plist. Remove the following files from their network home folder on the server: ~/.FileSync, ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.finder.plist, and ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.MCX.plist. Log them back in on the workstation. However, this no longer resolves the issue. Their Home Sync preferences are set (on the group) to sync ~, but not the following files (manually, at login, and at logout... no background sync here): ~/.SymAVQSFile ~/NAVMac800QSFile ~/Library ~/.FileSync ~/.account Their Preferences Sync preferences are set (also on the group) to sync ~/Library & ~/Documents/Microsoft User Data, but not the following files (also manually, at login, and at logout... no background sync): ~/.SymAVQSFile ~/.Trash ~/.Trashes ~/Documents/Microsoft User Data/Entourage Temp ~/Library/Application Support/SyncServices ~/Library/Application Support/MobileSync ~/Library/Caches ~/Library/Calendars/Calendar Cache ~/Library/Logs ~/Library/Mail/AvailableFeeds ~/Library/Mail/Envelope Index ~/Library/Preferences/Macromedia/ ~/Library/Printers ~/Library/PubSub/Database ~/Library/PubSub/Downloads ~/Library/PubSub/Feeds ~/Library/Safari/Icons.db ~/Library/Safari/HistoryIndex.sk ~/Library/iTunes/iPhone Software Updates IMAP-* Exchange-* EWS-* Mac-* ~/Library/Preferences/ByHost ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.dock.plist ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.sitebarlists.plist ~/Library/Application Support/4D ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.MCX.plist ~/.FileSync ~/.account Even with ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.MCX.plist prevented from syncing during a Preferences Sync, it still seems to show up in the network home on the server frequently. Are there any other files other than ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.MCX.plist that contain application Managed Preferences that might be causing this one app to be showing up as not allowed? Any ideas on how ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.MCX.plist keeps getting sync'd back up the network home folder on the server? Update: I thought I had found a workaround this morning, but it also seemed to be extremely temporary. Basically, loking at /Library/Managed\ Preferences/[shortname]/com.apple.applicationaccess.new.plist I discovered that it didn't have an entry for the application in question, but /Library/Managed\ Preferences/[shortname]/complete.plist did. Naturally, I deleted com.apple.applicationaccess.new.plist, logged in again, and it worked... on one workstation. It failed on others, and after logging out & back in a couple more times it started failing on all of them again, even after further deletions of com.apple.applicationaccess.new.plist. Oddly, com.apple.applicationaccess.new.plist & complete.plist do both contain an entry for the application in question now, but it still says it's not allowed. Further Update: Okay, so I now have a reproducible workaround which seems to be required after every reboot of the workstation: Log in as the user (you'll discover you cannot launch the application in question). Fast User Switch to the local admin account on the workstation (we always have one on every machine). From that local admin account, run sudo mcxrefresh -n 'shortname' (logging out and back in as the user in question will not work). Fast User Switch back to the user (you'll still not be allowed to run the application). Log the user out and back in (you'll now be able to run the application in question.) Fast User Switch back to the local admin account, log it out, and log back in as the user in question. If you do all that exactly as described it'll keep working through log out & log back in, but NOT through a reboot. If, after a reboot, you try something like logging in as the local admin account, running sudo mcxrefresh -n 'shortname', logging out, then logging in as the user in question, it will NOT work. Yet Another Update We don't have any computer groups in our Open Directory, so it shouldn't be getting any conflicting settings from there. I ran sudo mcxquery -format xml -user shortname -group groupname before & after performing the aforementioned process to allow the application in question to be run and the results were identical (saved the result to files & diff'd... I'm not just guessing here). One Step Forward, Half a Step Back: When the Mac OS X 10.6.5 Server update was released, we upgraded our Open Directory Master to it as the changes included the following managed preferences fixes which I hoped might address this issue: Addresses an issue that could prevent managed preferences from being applied when a user logs in on a workstation that has been idle. Fixes an issue that could prevent administrators from bypassing client management settings on a workstation. This seemed to improve the situation slightly. The application in question now usually launches without error. If, and when it does launch with the "You don't have permission to use the application" error, logging the user out and back in seems to correct it. That said, we've since had to add a couple of applications to the user's ~/Applications/ directory and those are still prevented from launching. The workstations are running Mac OS X 10.6.4, the OD Master (which the workstations are bound to) is running Mac OS 10.6.5 Server (although there are two OD Replicas still running 10.6.4 Server), and we're using Workgroup Manager 10.6.3 (which is included with the Server Admin Tools 10.6.5 upgrade) to add the applications (unsigned, as always). This time, I've caught the following in /var/log/system.log when attempting to launch one of the allowed applications from ~/Applications: Dec 22 17:36:24 hostname parentalcontrolsd[43221]: -[ActivityTracker checkApp:csFlags:] [954:username] -- *** Incoming app appears to be masquerading as white listed app and failed signature validation: /Users/username/Applications/FileMaker Pro 5.5/FileMaker Pro.app/Contents/MacOS/FileMaker Pro. Note: This may be a valid app of a different version than what was whitelisted (on a different volume?) Dec 22 17:36:24 hostname [0x0-0xa42a42].com.filemaker.filemakerpro[43304]: launch of /Users/username/Applications/FileMaker Pro 5.5/FileMaker Pro.app/Contents/MacOS/FileMaker Pro was blocked Dec 22 17:36:24 hostname com.apple.launchd.peruser.1340[6375] ([0x0-0xa42a42].com.filemaker.filemakerpro[43304]): Exited with exit code: 255 Dec 22 17:36:24 hostname parentalcontrolsd[43221]: -[ActivityTracker(Private) _removeAppFromWhiteList:] [1362:username] -- *** Couldn't find local user record Running sudo mcxquery -format xml -user username -group groupname includes the following entry for FileMaker Pro 5.5 (and appears to include a full integration of the user's application whitelist & group's application whitelist): <dict> <key>bundleID</key> <string>com.filemaker.filemakerpro</string> <key>displayName</key> <string>FileMaker Pro</string> </dict> Note the lack of <key>appID</key><data> ... </data> which seems to specify a signed application. While whitelisted directories also appear to be correctly listed in the results, they too do not actually allow the applications to be run either. What is going on here?! Where else should I be looking?

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• What other tool is using my hotkey?

  - by Sammy

  I use Greenshot for screenshots, and it's been nagging about some other software tool using the same hotkey. I started receiving this warning message about two days ago. It shows up each time I reboot and log on to Windows. The hotkey(s) "Ctrl + Shift + PrintScreen" could not be registered. This problem is probably caused by another tool claiming usage of the same hotkey(s)! You could either change your hotkey settings or deactivate/change the software making use of the hotkey(s). What's this all about? The only software I recently installed is CPU-Z Core Temp Speed Fan HD Tune Epson Print CD NetStress What I would like to know is how to find out what other tool is causing this conflict? Do I really have to uninstall each program, one by one, until there is no conflict anymore? I see no option for customizing any hotkeys in CPU-Z, and according to docs there are only a few keyboard shortcuts. These are F5 through F9, but they are no hotkeys. There is nothing in Core Temp, and from what I can see... nothing in Speed Fan. Is any of these programs known to use Ctrl + Shift + PrintScreen hotkey for screenshots? I am actually suspecting the Dropbox client. I think I saw a warning recently coming from Dropbox program, something to do with hotkeys or keyboard shortcuts. I see that it has an option for sharing screenshots under Preferences menu, but I see no option for hotkeys. Core Temp actually also has an option for taking screenshots (F9) but it's just that - a keyboard shortcut, not a hotkey. And again, there's no option actually for changing this setting in Options/Settings menu. How do you resolve this type of conflicts? Are there any general methods you can use to pinpoint the second conflicting software? Like... is there some Windows registry key that holds the hotkeys? Or is it just down to mere luck and trial and error? Addendum I forgot to mention, when I do use the Ctrl + Shift + PrintScreen hotkey, what happens is that the Greenshot context menu shows up, asking me where I want to save the screenshot. So it appears to be working. But I am still getting the darn warning every time I reboot and log on to Windows?! I actually tried changing the key bindings in Greenshot preferences, but after a reboot it seems to have returned back to the settings I had previously. Update I can't see any hotkey conflicts in the Widnows Hotkey Explorer. The aforementioned hotkey is reserved by Greenshot, and I don't see any other program using the same hotkey binding. But when I went into Greenshot preferences, this is what I discovered. As you can see it's the Greenshot itself that uses the same hotkey twice! I guess that's why no other program was listed above as using this hotkey. But how can Greenshot be so stupid to use the same hotkey more than once? I didn't do this! It's not my fault... I'm not that stupid. This is what it's set to right now: Capture full screen: Ctrl + Skift + Prntscrn Capture window: Alt + Prntscrn Capture region: Ctrl + Prntscrn Capture last region: Skift + Prntscrn Capture Internet Explorer: Ctrl + Skift + Prntscrn And this is my preferred setting: Capture full screen: Prntscrn Capture window: Alt + Prntscrn Capture region: Ctrl + Prntscrn Capture last region: Capture Internet Explorer: I don't use any hotkey for "last region" and IE. But when I set this to my liking, as listed here, Greenshot gives me the same warning message, even as I tab through the hotkey entry fields. Sometimes it even gives me the warning when I just click Cancel button. This is really crazy! On the side note... You might have noticed that I have "update check" set to 0 (zero). This is because, in my experience, Greenshot changes all or only some of my preferences back to default settings whenever it automatically updates to a new version. So I opted to stay off updates to get rid of the problem. It has done so for the past three updates or so. I hoped to receive a new update that would fix the issue, but I think it still reverts back to default settings after each update to a new version, including setting default hotkeys. Update 2 I'll give you just one example of how Greenshot behaves. This is the dialog I have in front of me right now. As you can see, I have removed the last two hotkeys and changed the first one to my own liking. While I was clicking in the fields and removing the two hotkeys I was getting the warning message. So let's say I click in the "capture last region" field. Then I get this: Note that none of the entries include "Ctrl + Shift + PrintScreen" that it's warning about. Now I will change all the hotkeys so I get something like this: So now I'm using QWERTY letters for binding, like Ctrl+Alt+Q, Ctrl+Alt+W and so on. As far as I know no Windows program is using these. While I was clicking through the different fields it was giving me the warning. Now when I try to click OK to save the changes, it once again gives me a warning about "ctrl + shift + printscreen". Update 3 After setting the above key bindings (QWERTY) and saving changes, and then rebooting, the conflict seems to have been resolved. I was then able to set following key bindings. Capture full screen: Prntscrn Capture window: Alt + Prntscrn Capture region: Ctrl + Prntscrn I was not prompted with the warning message this time. Perhaps changing key binding required a system reboot? Sounds far fetched but that appears to be the case. I'm still not sure what caused this conflict, but I know for sure that it started after installing aforementioned programs. It might just have to do with Greenshot itself, and not some other program. Like I said, I know from experience that Greenshot likes to mess with users' settings after each update. I wouldn't be surprised if it was actually silently updated, even though I have specified not to check for updates, then it changed the key bindings back to defaults and caused a conflict with the hotkeys that were registered with the operating system previously. I rarely reboot the system, so that could have added to the conflict. Next time if I see this I will run Hotkey Explorer immediately and see if there is another program causing the conflict.

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• Microsoft and jQuery

  - by Rick Strahl

  The jQuery JavaScript library has been steadily getting more popular and with recent developments from Microsoft, jQuery is also getting ever more exposure on the ASP.NET platform including now directly from Microsoft. jQuery is a light weight, open source DOM manipulation library for JavaScript that has changed how many developers think about JavaScript. You can download it and find more information on jQuery on www.jquery.com. For me jQuery has had a huge impact on how I develop Web applications and was probably the main reason I went from dreading to do JavaScript development to actually looking forward to implementing client side JavaScript functionality. It has also had a profound impact on my JavaScript skill level for me by seeing how the library accomplishes things (and often reviewing the terse but excellent source code). jQuery made an uncomfortable development platform (JavaScript + DOM) a joy to work on. Although jQuery is by no means the only JavaScript library out there, its ease of use, small size, huge community of plug-ins and pure usefulness has made it easily the most popular JavaScript library available today. As a long time jQuery user, I’ve been excited to see the developments from Microsoft that are bringing jQuery to more ASP.NET developers and providing more integration with jQuery for ASP.NET’s core features rather than relying on the ASP.NET AJAX library. Microsoft and jQuery – making Friends jQuery is an open source project but in the last couple of years Microsoft has really thrown its weight behind supporting this open source library as a supported component on the Microsoft platform. When I say supported I literally mean supported: Microsoft now offers actual tech support for jQuery as part of their Product Support Services (PSS) as jQuery integration has become part of several of the ASP.NET toolkits and ships in several of the default Web project templates in Visual Studio 2010. The ASP.NET MVC 3 framework (still in Beta) also uses jQuery for a variety of client side support features including client side validation and we can look forward toward more integration of client side functionality via jQuery in both MVC and WebForms in the future. In other words jQuery is becoming an optional but included component of the ASP.NET platform. PSS support means that support staff will answer jQuery related support questions as part of any support incidents related to ASP.NET which provides some piece of mind to some corporate development shops that require end to end support from Microsoft. In addition to including jQuery and supporting it, Microsoft has also been getting involved in providing development resources for extending jQuery’s functionality via plug-ins. Microsoft’s last version of the Microsoft Ajax Library – which is the successor to the native ASP.NET AJAX Library – included some really cool functionality for client templates, databinding and localization. As it turns out Microsoft has rebuilt most of that functionality using jQuery as the base API and provided jQuery plug-ins of these components. Very recently these three plug-ins were submitted and have been approved for inclusion in the official jQuery plug-in repository and been taken over by the jQuery team for further improvements and maintenance. Even more surprising: The jQuery-templates component has actually been approved for inclusion in the next major update of the jQuery core in jQuery V1.5, which means it will become a native feature that doesn’t require additional script files to be loaded. Imagine this – an open source contribution from Microsoft that has been accepted into a major open source project for a core feature improvement. Microsoft has come a long way indeed! What the Microsoft Involvement with jQuery means to you For Microsoft jQuery support is a strategic decision that affects their direction in client side development, but nothing stopped you from using jQuery in your applications prior to Microsoft’s official backing and in fact a large chunk of developers did so readily prior to Microsoft’s announcement. Official support from Microsoft brings a few benefits to developers however. jQuery support in Visual Studio 2010 means built-in support for jQuery IntelliSense, automatically added jQuery scripts in many projects types and a common base for client side functionality that actually uses what most developers are already using. If you have already been using jQuery and were worried about straying from the Microsoft line and their internal Microsoft Ajax Library – worry no more. With official support and the change in direction towards jQuery Microsoft is now following along what most in the ASP.NET community had already been doing by using jQuery, which is likely the reason for Microsoft’s shift in direction in the first place. ASP.NET AJAX and the Microsoft AJAX Library weren’t bad technology – there was tons of useful functionality buried in these libraries. However, these libraries never got off the ground, mainly because early incarnations were squarely aimed at control/component developers rather than application developers. For all the functionality that these controls provided for control developers they lacked in useful and easily usable application developer functionality that was easily accessible in day to day client side development. The result was that even though Microsoft shipped support for these tools in the box (in .NET 3.5 and 4.0), other than for the internal support in ASP.NET for things like the UpdatePanel and the ASP.NET AJAX Control Toolkit as well as some third party vendors, the Microsoft client libraries were largely ignored by the developer community opening the door for other client side solutions. Microsoft seems to be acknowledging developer choice in this case: Many more developers were going down the jQuery path rather than using the Microsoft built libraries and there seems to be little sense in continuing development of a technology that largely goes unused by the majority of developers. Kudos for Microsoft for recognizing this and gracefully changing directions. Note that even though there will be no further development in the Microsoft client libraries they will continue to be supported so if you’re using them in your applications there’s no reason to start running for the exit in a panic and start re-writing everything with jQuery. Although that might be a reasonable choice in some cases, jQuery and the Microsoft libraries work well side by side so that you can leave existing solutions untouched even as you enhance them with jQuery. The Microsoft jQuery Plug-ins – Solid Core Features One of the most interesting developments in Microsoft’s embracing of jQuery is that Microsoft has started contributing to jQuery via standard mechanism set for jQuery developers: By submitting plug-ins. Microsoft took some of the nicest new features of the unpublished Microsoft Ajax Client Library and re-wrote these components for jQuery and then submitted them as plug-ins to the jQuery plug-in repository. Accepted plug-ins get taken over by the jQuery team and that’s exactly what happened with the three plug-ins submitted by Microsoft with the templating plug-in even getting slated to be published as part of the jQuery core in the next major release (1.5). The following plug-ins are provided by Microsoft: jQuery Templates – a client side template rendering engine jQuery Data Link – a client side databinder that can synchronize changes without code jQuery Globalization – provides formatting and conversion features for dates and numbers The first two are ports of functionality that was slated for the Microsoft Ajax Library while functionality for the globalization library provides functionality that was already found in the original ASP.NET AJAX library. To me all three plug-ins address a pressing need in client side applications and provide functionality I’ve previously used in other incarnations, but with more complete implementations. Let’s take a close look at these plug-ins. jQuery Templates http://api.jquery.com/category/plugins/templates/ Client side templating is a key component for building rich JavaScript applications in the browser. Templating on the client lets you avoid from manually creating markup by creating DOM nodes and injecting them individually into the document via code. Rather you can create markup templates – similar to the way you create classic ASP server markup – and merge data into these templates to render HTML which you can then inject into the document or replace existing content with. Output from templates are rendered as a jQuery matched set and can then be easily inserted into the document as needed. Templating is key to minimize client side code and reduce repeated code for rendering logic. Instead a single template can be used in many places for updating and adding content to existing pages. Further if you build pure AJAX interfaces that rely entirely on client rendering of the initial page content, templates allow you to a use a single markup template to handle all rendering of each specific HTML section/element. I’ve used a number of different client rendering template engines with jQuery in the past including jTemplates (a PHP style templating engine) and a modified version of John Resig’s MicroTemplating engine which I built into my own set of libraries because it’s such a commonly used feature in my client side applications. jQuery templates adds a much richer templating model that allows for sub-templates and access to the data items. Like John Resig’s original Micro Template engine, the core basics of the templating engine create JavaScript code which means that templates can include JavaScript code. To give you a basic idea of how templates work imagine I have an application that downloads a set of stock quotes based on a symbol list then displays them in the document. To do this you can create an ‘item’ template that describes how each of the quotes is renderd as a template inside of the document: <script id="stockTemplate" type="text/x-jquery-tmpl"> <div id="divStockQuote" class="errordisplay" style="width: 500px;"> <div class="label">Company:</div><div><b>${Company}(${Symbol})</b></div> <div class="label">Last Price:</div><div>${LastPrice}</div> <div class="label">Net Change:</div><div> {{if NetChange > 0}} <b style="color:green" >${NetChange}</b> {{else}} <b style="color:red" >${NetChange}</b> {{/if}} </div> <div class="label">Last Update:</div><div>${LastQuoteTimeString}</div> </div> </script> The ‘template’ is little more than HTML with some markup expressions inside of it that define the template language. Notice the embedded ${} expressions which reference data from the quote objects returned from an AJAX call on the server. You can embed any JavaScript or value expression in these template expressions. There are also a number of structural commands like {{if}} and {{each}} that provide for rudimentary logic inside of your templates as well as commands ({{tmpl}} and {{wrap}}) for nesting templates. You can find more about the full set of markup expressions available in the documentation. To load up this data you can use code like the following: <script type="text/javascript"> //var Proxy = new ServiceProxy("../PageMethods/PageMethodsService.asmx/"); $(document).ready(function () { $("#btnGetQuotes").click(GetQuotes); }); function GetQuotes() { var symbols = $("#txtSymbols").val().split(","); $.ajax({ url: "../PageMethods/PageMethodsService.asmx/GetStockQuotes", data: JSON.stringify({ symbols: symbols }), // parameter map type: "POST", // data has to be POSTed contentType: "application/json", timeout: 10000, dataType: "json", success: function (result) { var quotes = result.d; var jEl = $("#stockTemplate").tmpl(quotes); $("#quoteDisplay").empty().append(jEl); }, error: function (xhr, status) { alert(status + "\r\n" + xhr.responseText); } }); }; </script> In this case an ASMX AJAX service is called to retrieve the stock quotes. The service returns an array of quote objects. The result is returned as an object with the .d property (in Microsoft service style) that returns the actual array of quotes. The template is applied with: var jEl = $("#stockTemplate").tmpl(quotes); which selects the template script tag and uses the .tmpl() function to apply the data to it. The result is a jQuery matched set of elements that can then be appended to the quote display element in the page. The template is merged against an array in this example. When the result is an array the template is automatically applied to each each array item. If you pass a single data item – like say a stock quote – the template works exactly the same way but is applied only once. Templates also have access to a $data item which provides the current data item and information about the tempalte that is currently executing. This makes it possible to keep context within the context of the template itself and also to pass context from a parent template to a child template which is very powerful. Templates can be evaluated by using the template selector and calling the .tmpl() function on the jQuery matched set as shown above or you can use the static $.tmpl() function to provide a template as a string. This allows you to dynamically create templates in code or – more likely – to load templates from the server via AJAX calls. In short there are options The above shows off some of the basics, but there’s much for functionality available in the template engine. Check the documentation link for more information and links to additional examples. The plug-in download also comes with a number of examples that demonstrate functionality. jQuery templates will become a native component in jQuery Core 1.5, so it’s definitely worthwhile checking out the engine today and get familiar with this interface. As much as I’m stoked about templating becoming part of the jQuery core because it’s such an integral part of many applications, there are also a couple shortcomings in the current incarnation: Lack of Error Handling Currently if you embed an expression that is invalid it’s simply not rendered. There’s no error rendered into the template nor do the various  template functions throw errors which leaves finding of bugs as a runtime exercise. I would like some mechanism – optional if possible – to be able to get error info of what is failing in a template when it’s rendered. No String Output Templates are always rendered into a jQuery matched set and there’s no way that I can see to directly render to a string. String output can be useful for debugging as well as opening up templating for creating non-HTML string output. Limited JavaScript Access Unlike John Resig’s original MicroTemplating Engine which was entirely based on JavaScript code generation these templates are limited to a few structured commands that can ‘execute’. There’s no code execution inside of script code which means you’re limited to calling expressions available in global objects or the data item passed in. This may or may not be a big deal depending on the complexity of your template logic. Error handling has been discussed quite a bit and it’s likely there will be some solution to that particualar issue by the time jQuery templates ship. The others are relatively minor issues but something to think about anyway. jQuery Data Link http://api.jquery.com/category/plugins/data-link/ jQuery Data Link provides the ability to do two-way data binding between input controls and an underlying object’s properties. The typical scenario is linking a textbox to a property of an object and have the object updated when the text in the textbox is changed and have the textbox change when the value in the object or the entire object changes. The plug-in also supports converter functions that can be applied to provide the conversion logic from string to some other value typically necessary for mapping things like textbox string input to say a number property and potentially applying additional formatting and calculations. In theory this sounds great, however in reality this plug-in has some serious usability issues. Using the plug-in you can do things like the following to bind data: person = { firstName: "rick", lastName: "strahl"}; $(document).ready( function() { // provide for two-way linking of inputs $("form").link(person); // bind to non-input elements explicitly $("#objFirst").link(person, { firstName: { name: "objFirst", convertBack: function (value, source, target) { $(target).text(value); } } }); $("#objLast").link(person, { lastName: { name: "objLast", convertBack: function (value, source, target) { $(target).text(value); } } }); }); This code hooks up two-way linking between a couple of textboxes on the page and the person object. The first line in the .ready() handler provides mapping of object to form field with the same field names as properties on the object. Note that .link() does NOT bind items into the textboxes when you call .link() – changes are mapped only when values change and you move out of the field. Strike one. The two following commands allow manual binding of values to specific DOM elements which is effectively a one-way bind. You specify the object and a then an explicit mapping where name is an ID in the document. The converter is required to explicitly assign the value to the element. Strike two. You can also detect changes to the underlying object and cause updates to the input elements bound. Unfortunately the syntax to do this is not very natural as you have to rely on the jQuery data object. To update an object’s properties and get change notification looks like this: function updateFirstName() { $(person).data("firstName", person.firstName + " (code updated)"); } This works fine in causing any linked fields to be updated. In the bindings above both the firstName input field and objFirst DOM element gets updated. But the syntax requires you to use a jQuery .data() call for each property change to ensure that the changes are tracked properly. Really? Sure you’re binding through multiple layers of abstraction now but how is that better than just manually assigning values? The code savings (if any) are going to be minimal. As much as I would like to have a WPF/Silverlight/Observable-like binding mechanism in client script, this plug-in doesn’t help much towards that goal in its current incarnation. While you can bind values, the ‘binder’ is too limited to be really useful. If initial values can’t be assigned from the mappings you’re going to end up duplicating work loading the data using some other mechanism. There’s no easy way to re-bind data with a different object altogether since updates trigger only through the .data members. Finally, any non-input elements have to be bound via code that’s fairly verbose and frankly may be more voluminous than what you might write by hand for manual binding and unbinding. Two way binding can be very useful but it has to be easy and most importantly natural. If it’s more work to hook up a binding than writing a couple of lines to do binding/unbinding this sort of thing helps very little in most scenarios. In talking to some of the developers the feature set for Data Link is not complete and they are still soliciting input for features and functionality. If you have ideas on how you want this feature to be more useful get involved and post your recommendations. As it stands, it looks to me like this component needs a lot of love to become useful. For this component to really provide value, bindings need to be able to be refreshed easily and work at the object level, not just the property level. It seems to me we would be much better served by a model binder object that can perform these binding/unbinding tasks in bulk rather than a tool where each link has to be mapped first. I also find the choice of creating a jQuery plug-in questionable – it seems a standalone object – albeit one that relies on the jQuery library – would provide a more intuitive interface than the current forcing of options onto a plug-in style interface. Out of the three Microsoft created components this is by far the least useful and least polished implementation at this point. jQuery Globalization http://github.com/jquery/jquery-global Globalization in JavaScript applications often gets short shrift and part of the reason for this is that natively in JavaScript there’s little support for formatting and parsing of numbers and dates. There are a number of JavaScript libraries out there that provide some support for globalization, but most are limited to a particular portion of globalization. As .NET developers we’re fairly spoiled by the richness of APIs provided in the framework and when dealing with client development one really notices the lack of these features. While you may not necessarily need to localize your application the globalization plug-in also helps with some basic tasks for non-localized applications: Dealing with formatting and parsing of dates and time values. Dates in particular are problematic in JavaScript as there are no formatters whatsoever except the .toString() method which outputs a verbose and next to useless long string. With the globalization plug-in you get a good chunk of the formatting and parsing functionality that the .NET framework provides on the server. You can write code like the following for example to format numbers and dates: var date = new Date(); var output = $.format(date, "MMM. dd, yy") + "\r\n" + $.format(date, "d") + "\r\n" + // 10/25/2010 $.format(1222.32213, "N2") + "\r\n" + $.format(1222.33, "c") + "\r\n"; alert(output); This becomes even more useful if you combine it with templates which can also include any JavaScript expressions. Assuming the globalization plug-in is loaded you can create template expressions that use the $.format function. Here’s the template I used earlier for the stock quote again with a couple of formats applied: <script id="stockTemplate" type="text/x-jquery-tmpl"> <div id="divStockQuote" class="errordisplay" style="width: 500px;"> <div class="label">Company:</div><div><b>${Company}(${Symbol})</b></div> <div class="label">Last Price:</div> <div>${$.format(LastPrice,"N2")}</div> <div class="label">Net Change:</div><div> {{if NetChange > 0}} <b style="color:green" >${NetChange}</b> {{else}} <b style="color:red" >${NetChange}</b> {{/if}} </div> <div class="label">Last Update:</div> <div>${$.format(LastQuoteTime,"MMM dd, yyyy")}</div> </div> </script> There are also parsing methods that can parse dates and numbers from strings into numbers easily: alert($.parseDate("25.10.2010")); alert($.parseInt("12.222")); // de-DE uses . for thousands separators As you can see culture specific options are taken into account when parsing. The globalization plugin provides rich support for a variety of locales: Get a list of all available cultures Query cultures for culture items (like currency symbol, separators etc.) Localized string names for all calendar related items (days of week, months) Generated off of .NET’s supported locales In short you get much of the same functionality that you already might be using in .NET on the server side. The plugin includes a huge number of locales and an Globalization.all.min.js file that contains the text defaults for each of these locales as well as small locale specific script files that define each of the locale specific settings. It’s highly recommended that you NOT use the huge globalization file that includes all locales, but rather add script references to only those languages you explicitly care about. Overall this plug-in is a welcome helper. Even if you use it with a single locale (like en-US) and do no other localization, you’ll gain solid support for number and date formatting which is a vital feature of many applications. Changes for Microsoft It’s good to see Microsoft coming out of its shell and away from the ‘not-built-here’ mentality that has been so pervasive in the past. It’s especially good to see it applied to jQuery – a technology that has stood in drastic contrast to Microsoft’s own internal efforts in terms of design, usage model and… popularity. It’s great to see that Microsoft is paying attention to what customers prefer to use and supporting the customer sentiment – even if it meant drastically changing course of policy and moving into a more open and sharing environment in the process. The additional jQuery support that has been introduced in the last two years certainly has made lives easier for many developers on the ASP.NET platform. It’s also nice to see Microsoft submitting proposals through the standard jQuery process of plug-ins and getting accepted for various very useful projects. Certainly the jQuery Templates plug-in is going to be very useful to many especially since it will be baked into the jQuery core in jQuery 1.5. I hope we see more of this type of involvement from Microsoft in the future. Kudos!© Rick Strahl, West Wind Technologies, 2005-2010Posted in jQuery  ASP.NET  

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• ASP.NET MVC 2 Released

  - by ScottGu

  I’m happy to announce that the final release of ASP.NET MVC 2 is now available for VS 2008/Visual Web Developer 2008 Express with ASP.NET 3.5.  You can download and install it from the following locations: Download ASP.NET MVC 2 using the Microsoft Web Platform Installer Download ASP.NET MVC 2 from the Download Center The final release of VS 2010 and Visual Web Developer 2010 will have ASP.NET MVC 2 built-in – so you won’t need an additional install in order to use ASP.NET MVC 2 with them.  ASP.NET MVC 2 We shipped ASP.NET MVC 1 a little less than a year ago.  Since then, almost 1 million developers have downloaded and used the final release, and its popularity has steadily grown month over month. ASP.NET MVC 2 is the next significant update of ASP.NET MVC. It is a compatible update to ASP.NET MVC 1 – so all the knowledge, skills, code, and extensions you already have with ASP.NET MVC continue to work and apply going forward. Like the first release, we are also shipping the source code for ASP.NET MVC 2 under an OSI-compliant open-source license. ASP.NET MVC 2 can be installed side-by-side with ASP.NET MVC 1 (meaning you can have some apps built with V1 and others built with V2 on the same machine).  We have instructions on how to update your existing ASP.NET MVC 1 apps to use ASP.NET MVC 2 using VS 2008 here.  Note that VS 2010 has an automated upgrade wizard that can automatically migrate your existing ASP.NET MVC 1 applications to ASP.NET MVC 2 for you. ASP.NET MVC 2 Features ASP.NET MVC 2 adds a bunch of new capabilities and features.  I’ve started a blog series about some of the new features, and will be covering them in more depth in the weeks ahead.  Some of the new features and capabilities include: New Strongly Typed HTML Helpers Enhanced Model Validation support across both server and client Auto-Scaffold UI Helpers with Template Customization Support for splitting up large applications into “Areas” Asynchronous Controllers support that enables long running tasks in parallel Support for rendering sub-sections of a page/site using Html.RenderAction Lots of new helper functions, utilities, and API enhancements Improved Visual Studio tooling support You can learn more about these features in the “What’s New in ASP.NET MVC 2” document on the www.asp.net/mvc web-site.  We are going to be posting a lot of new tutorials and videos shortly on www.asp.net/mvc that cover all the features in ASP.NET MVC 2 release.  We will also post an updated end-to-end tutorial built entirely with ASP.NET MVC 2 (much like the NerdDinner tutorial that I wrote that covers ASP.NET MVC 1).  Summary The ASP.NET MVC team delivered regular V2 preview releases over the last year to get feedback on the feature set.  I’d like to say a big thank you to everyone who tried out the previews and sent us suggestions/feedback/bug reports.  We hope you like the final release! Scott

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• Why is Java EE 6 better than Spring ?

  - by arungupta

  Java EE 6 was released over 2 years ago and now there are 14 compliant application servers. In all my talks around the world, a question that is frequently asked is Why should I use Java EE 6 instead of Spring ? There are already several blogs covering that topic: Java EE wins over Spring by Bill Burke Why will I use Java EE instead of Spring in new Enterprise Java projects in 2012 ? by Kai Waehner (more discussion on TSS) Spring to Java EE migration (Part 1 and 2, 3 and 4 coming as well) by David Heffelfinger Spring to Java EE - A Migration Experience by Lincoln Baxter Migrating Spring to Java EE 6 by Bert Ertman and Paul Bakker at NLJUG Moving from Spring to Java EE 6 - The Age of Frameworks is Over at TSS Java EE vs Spring Shootout by Rohit Kelapure and Reza Rehman at JavaOne 2011 Java EE 6 and the Ewoks by Murat Yener Definite excuse to avoid Spring forever - Bert Ertman and Arun Gupta I will try to share my perspective in this blog. First of all, I'd like to start with a note: Thank you Spring framework for filling the interim gap and providing functionality that is now included in the mainstream Java EE 6 application servers. The Java EE platform has evolved over the years learning from frameworks like Spring and provides all the functionality to build an enterprise application. Thank you very much Spring framework! While Spring was revolutionary in its time and is still very popular and quite main stream in the same way Struts was circa 2003, it really is last generation's framework - some people are even calling it legacy. However my theory is "code is king". So my approach is to build/take a simple Hello World CRUD application in Java EE 6 and Spring and compare the deployable artifacts. I started looking at the official tutorial Developing a Spring Framework MVC Application Step-by-Step but it is using the older version 2.5. I wasn't able to find any updated version in the current 3.1 release. Next, I downloaded Spring Tool Suite and thought that would provide some template samples to get started. A least a quick search did not show any handy tutorials - either video or text-based. So I searched and found a link to their SVN repository at src.springframework.org/svn/spring-samples/. I tried the "mvc-basic" sample and the generated WAR file was 4.43 MB. While it was named a "basic" sample it seemed to come with 19 different libraries bundled but it was what I could find: ./WEB-INF/lib/aopalliance-1.0.jar./WEB-INF/lib/hibernate-validator-4.1.0.Final.jar./WEB-INF/lib/jcl-over-slf4j-1.6.1.jar./WEB-INF/lib/joda-time-1.6.2.jar./WEB-INF/lib/joda-time-jsptags-1.0.2.jar./WEB-INF/lib/jstl-1.2.jar./WEB-INF/lib/log4j-1.2.16.jar./WEB-INF/lib/slf4j-api-1.6.1.jar./WEB-INF/lib/slf4j-log4j12-1.6.1.jar./WEB-INF/lib/spring-aop-3.0.5.RELEASE.jar./WEB-INF/lib/spring-asm-3.0.5.RELEASE.jar./WEB-INF/lib/spring-beans-3.0.5.RELEASE.jar./WEB-INF/lib/spring-context-3.0.5.RELEASE.jar./WEB-INF/lib/spring-context-support-3.0.5.RELEASE.jar./WEB-INF/lib/spring-core-3.0.5.RELEASE.jar./WEB-INF/lib/spring-expression-3.0.5.RELEASE.jar./WEB-INF/lib/spring-web-3.0.5.RELEASE.jar./WEB-INF/lib/spring-webmvc-3.0.5.RELEASE.jar./WEB-INF/lib/validation-api-1.0.0.GA.jar And it is not even using any database! The app deployed fine on GlassFish 3.1.2 but the "@Controller Example" link did not work as it was missing the context root. With a bit of tweaking I could deploy the application and assume that the account got created because no error was displayed in the browser or server log. Next I generated the WAR for "mvc-ajax" and the 5.1 MB WAR had 20 JARs (1 removed, 2 added): ./WEB-INF/lib/aopalliance-1.0.jar./WEB-INF/lib/hibernate-validator-4.1.0.Final.jar./WEB-INF/lib/jackson-core-asl-1.6.4.jar./WEB-INF/lib/jackson-mapper-asl-1.6.4.jar./WEB-INF/lib/jcl-over-slf4j-1.6.1.jar./WEB-INF/lib/joda-time-1.6.2.jar./WEB-INF/lib/jstl-1.2.jar./WEB-INF/lib/log4j-1.2.16.jar./WEB-INF/lib/slf4j-api-1.6.1.jar./WEB-INF/lib/slf4j-log4j12-1.6.1.jar./WEB-INF/lib/spring-aop-3.0.5.RELEASE.jar./WEB-INF/lib/spring-asm-3.0.5.RELEASE.jar./WEB-INF/lib/spring-beans-3.0.5.RELEASE.jar./WEB-INF/lib/spring-context-3.0.5.RELEASE.jar./WEB-INF/lib/spring-context-support-3.0.5.RELEASE.jar./WEB-INF/lib/spring-core-3.0.5.RELEASE.jar./WEB-INF/lib/spring-expression-3.0.5.RELEASE.jar./WEB-INF/lib/spring-web-3.0.5.RELEASE.jar./WEB-INF/lib/spring-webmvc-3.0.5.RELEASE.jar./WEB-INF/lib/validation-api-1.0.0.GA.jar 2 more JARs for just doing Ajax. Anyway, deploying this application gave the following error: Caused by: java.lang.NoSuchMethodError: org.codehaus.jackson.map.SerializationConfig.<init>(Lorg/codehaus/jackson/map/ClassIntrospector;Lorg/codehaus/jackson/map/AnnotationIntrospector;Lorg/codehaus/jackson/map/introspect/VisibilityChecker;Lorg/codehaus/jackson/map/jsontype/SubtypeResolver;)V    at org.springframework.samples.mvc.ajax.json.ConversionServiceAwareObjectMapper.<init>(ConversionServiceAwareObjectMapper.java:20)    at org.springframework.samples.mvc.ajax.json.JacksonConversionServiceConfigurer.postProcessAfterInitialization(JacksonConversionServiceConfigurer.java:40)    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.applyBeanPostProcessorsAfterInitialization(AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.java:407) Seems like some incorrect repos in the "pom.xml". Next one is "mvc-showcase" and the 6.49 MB WAR now has 28 JARs as shown below: ./WEB-INF/lib/aopalliance-1.0.jar./WEB-INF/lib/aspectjrt-1.6.10.jar./WEB-INF/lib/commons-fileupload-1.2.2.jar./WEB-INF/lib/commons-io-2.0.1.jar./WEB-INF/lib/el-api-2.2.jar./WEB-INF/lib/hibernate-validator-4.1.0.Final.jar./WEB-INF/lib/jackson-core-asl-1.8.1.jar./WEB-INF/lib/jackson-mapper-asl-1.8.1.jar./WEB-INF/lib/javax.inject-1.jar./WEB-INF/lib/jcl-over-slf4j-1.6.1.jar./WEB-INF/lib/jdom-1.0.jar./WEB-INF/lib/joda-time-1.6.2.jar./WEB-INF/lib/jstl-api-1.2.jar./WEB-INF/lib/jstl-impl-1.2.jar./WEB-INF/lib/log4j-1.2.16.jar./WEB-INF/lib/rome-1.0.0.jar./WEB-INF/lib/slf4j-api-1.6.1.jar./WEB-INF/lib/slf4j-log4j12-1.6.1.jar./WEB-INF/lib/spring-aop-3.1.0.RELEASE.jar./WEB-INF/lib/spring-asm-3.1.0.RELEASE.jar./WEB-INF/lib/spring-beans-3.1.0.RELEASE.jar./WEB-INF/lib/spring-context-3.1.0.RELEASE.jar./WEB-INF/lib/spring-context-support-3.1.0.RELEASE.jar./WEB-INF/lib/spring-core-3.1.0.RELEASE.jar./WEB-INF/lib/spring-expression-3.1.0.RELEASE.jar./WEB-INF/lib/spring-web-3.1.0.RELEASE.jar./WEB-INF/lib/spring-webmvc-3.1.0.RELEASE.jar./WEB-INF/lib/validation-api-1.0.0.GA.jar The app at least deployed and showed results this time. But still no database! Next I tried building "jpetstore" and got the error: [ERROR] Failed to execute goal on project org.springframework.samples.jpetstore:Could not resolve dependencies for project org.springframework.samples:org.springframework.samples.jpetstore:war:1.0.0-SNAPSHOT: Failed to collect dependencies for [commons-fileupload:commons-fileupload:jar:1.2.1 (compile), org.apache.struts:com.springsource.org.apache.struts:jar:1.2.9 (compile), javax.xml.rpc:com.springsource.javax.xml.rpc:jar:1.1.0 (compile), org.apache.commons:com.springsource.org.apache.commons.dbcp:jar:1.2.2.osgi (compile), commons-io:commons-io:jar:1.3.2 (compile), hsqldb:hsqldb:jar:1.8.0.7 (compile), org.apache.tiles:tiles-core:jar:2.2.0 (compile), org.apache.tiles:tiles-jsp:jar:2.2.0 (compile), org.tuckey:urlrewritefilter:jar:3.1.0 (compile), org.springframework:spring-webmvc:jar:3.0.0.BUILD-SNAPSHOT (compile), org.springframework:spring-orm:jar:3.0.0.BUILD-SNAPSHOT (compile), org.springframework:spring-context-support:jar:3.0.0.BUILD-SNAPSHOT (compile), org.springframework.webflow:spring-js:jar:2.0.7.RELEASE (compile), org.apache.ibatis:com.springsource.com.ibatis:jar:2.3.4.726 (runtime), com.caucho:com.springsource.com.caucho:jar:3.2.1 (compile), org.apache.axis:com.springsource.org.apache.axis:jar:1.4.0 (compile), javax.wsdl:com.springsource.javax.wsdl:jar:1.6.1 (compile), javax.servlet:jstl:jar:1.2 (runtime), org.aspectj:aspectjweaver:jar:1.6.5 (compile), javax.servlet:servlet-api:jar:2.5 (provided), javax.servlet.jsp:jsp-api:jar:2.1 (provided), junit:junit:jar:4.6 (test)]: Failed to read artifact descriptor for org.springframework:spring-webmvc:jar:3.0.0.BUILD-SNAPSHOT: Could not transfer artifact org.springframework:spring-webmvc:pom:3.0.0.BUILD-SNAPSHOT from/to JBoss repository (http://repository.jboss.com/maven2): Access denied to: http://repository.jboss.com/maven2/org/springframework/spring-webmvc/3.0.0.BUILD-SNAPSHOT/spring-webmvc-3.0.0.BUILD-SNAPSHOT.pom It appears the sample is broken - maybe I was pulling from the wrong repository - would be great if someone were to point me at a good target to use here. With a 50% hit on samples in this repository, I started searching through numerous blogs, most of which have either outdated information (using XML-heavy Spring 2.5), some piece of configuration (which is a typical "feature" of Spring) is missing, or too much complexity in the sample. I finally found this blog that worked like a charm. This blog creates a trivial Spring MVC 3 application using Hibernate and MySQL. This application performs CRUD operations on a single table in a database using typical Spring technologies.  I downloaded the sample code from the blog, deployed it on GlassFish 3.1.2 and could CRUD the "person" entity. The source code for this application can be downloaded here. More details on the application statistics below. And then I built a similar CRUD application in Java EE 6 using NetBeans wizards in a couple of minutes. The source code for the application can be downloaded here and the WAR here. The Spring Source Tool Suite may also offer similar wizard-driven capabilities but this blog focus primarily on comparing the runtimes. The lack of STS tutorials was slightly disappointing as well. NetBeans however has tons of text-based and video tutorials and tons of material even by the community. One more bit on the download size of tools bundle ... NetBeans 7.1.1 "All" is 211 MB (which includes GlassFish and Tomcat) Spring Tool Suite  2.9.0 is 347 MB (~ 65% bigger) This blog is not about the tooling comparison so back to the Java EE 6 version of the application .... In order to run the Java EE version on GlassFish, copy the MySQL Connector/J to glassfish3/glassfish/domains/domain1/lib/ext directory and create a JDBC connection pool and JDBC resource as: ./bin/asadmin create-jdbc-connection-pool --datasourceclassname \\ com.mysql.jdbc.jdbc2.optional.MysqlDataSource --restype \\ javax.sql.DataSource --property \\ portNumber=3306:user=mysql:password=mysql:databaseName=mydatabase \\ myConnectionPool ./bin/asadmin create-jdbc-resource --connectionpoolid myConnectionPool jdbc/myDataSource I generated WARs for the two projects and the table below highlights some differences between them: Java EE 6 Spring WAR File Size 0.021030 MB 10.87 MB (~516x) Number of files 20 53 (> 2.5x) Bundled libraries 0 36 Total size of libraries 0 12.1 MB XML files 3 5 LoC in XML files 50 (11 + 15 + 24) 129 (27 + 46 + 16 + 11 + 19) (~ 2.5x) Total .properties files 1 Bundle.properties 2 spring.properties, log4j.properties Cold Deploy 5,339 ms 11,724 ms Second Deploy 481 ms 6,261 ms Third Deploy 528 ms 5,484 ms Fourth Deploy 484 ms 5,576 ms Runtime memory ~73 MB ~101 MB Some points worth highlighting from the table ... 516x WAR file, 10x deployment time - With 12.1 MB of libraries (for a very basic application) bundled in your application, the WAR file size and the deployment time will naturally go higher. The WAR file for Spring-based application is 516x bigger and the deployment time is double during the first deployment and ~ 10x during subsequent deployments. The Java EE 6 application is fully portable and will run on any Java EE 6 compliant application server. 36 libraries in the WAR - There are 14 Java EE 6 compliant application servers today. Each of those servers provide all the functionality like transactions, dependency injection, security, persistence, etc typically required of an enterprise or web application. There is no need to bundle 36 libraries worth 12.1 MB for a trivial CRUD application. These 14 compliant application servers provide all the functionality baked in. Now you can also deploy these libraries in the container but then you don't get the "portability" offered by Spring in that case. Does your typical Spring deployment actually do that ? 3x LoC in XML - The number of XML files is about 1.6x and the LoC is ~ 2.5x. So much XML seems circa 2003 when the Java language had no annotations. The XML files can be further reduced, e.g. faces-config.xml can be replaced without providing i18n, but I just want to compare stock applications. Memory usage - Both the applications were deployed on default GlassFish 3.1.2 installation and any additional memory consumed as part of deployment/access was attributed to the application. This is by no means scientific but at least provides an initial ballpark. This area definitely needs more investigation. Another table that compares typical Java EE 6 compliant application servers and the custom-stack created for a Spring application ... Java EE 6 Spring Web Container ? 53 MB (tcServer 2.6.3 Developer Edition) Security ? 12 MB (Spring Security 3.1.0) Persistence ? 6.3 MB (Hibernate 4.1.0, required) Dependency Injection ? 5.3 MB (Framework) Web Services ? 796 KB (Spring WS 2.0.4) Messaging ? 3.4 MB (RabbitMQ Server 2.7.1) 936 KB (Java client 936) OSGi ? 1.3 MB (Spring OSGi 1.2.1) GlassFish and WebLogic (starting at 33 MB) 83.3 MB There are differentiating factors on both the stacks. But most of the functionality like security, persistence, and dependency injection is baked in a Java EE 6 compliant application server but needs to be individually managed and patched for a Spring application. This very quickly leads to a "stack explosion". The Java EE 6 servers are tested extensively on a variety of platforms in different combinations whereas a Spring application developer is responsible for testing with different JDKs, Operating Systems, Versions, Patches, etc. Oracle has both the leading OSS lightweight server with GlassFish and the leading enterprise Java server with WebLogic Server, both Java EE 6 and both with lightweight deployment options. The Web Container offered as part of a Java EE 6 application server not only deploys your enterprise Java applications but also provide operational management, diagnostics, and mission-critical capabilities required by your applications. The Java EE 6 platform also introduced the Web Profile which is a subset of the specifications from the entire platform. It is targeted at developers of modern web applications offering a reasonably complete stack, composed of standard APIs, and is capable out-of-the-box of addressing the needs of a large class of Web applications. As your applications grow, the stack can grow to the full Java EE 6 platform. The GlassFish Server Web Profile starting at 33MB (smaller than just the non-standard tcServer) provides most of the functionality typically required by a web application. WebLogic provides battle-tested functionality for a high throughput, low latency, and enterprise grade web application. No individual managing or patching, all tested and commercially supported for you! Note that VMWare does have a server, tcServer, but it is non-standard and not even certified to the level of the standard Web Profile most customers expect these days. Customers who choose this risk proprietary lock-in since VMWare does not seem to want to formally certify with either Java EE 6 Enterprise Platform or with Java EE 6 Web Profile but of course it would be great if they were to join the community and help their customers reduce the risk of deploying on VMWare software. Some more points to help you decide choose between Java EE 6 and Spring ... Freedom to choose container - There are 14 Java EE 6 compliant application servers today, with a variety of open source and commercial offerings. A Java EE 6 application can be deployed on any of those containers. So if you deployed your application on GlassFish today and would like to scale up with your demands then you can deploy the same application to WebLogic. And because of the portability of a Java EE 6 application, you can even take it a different vendor altogether. Spring requires a runtime which could be any of these app servers as well. But why use Spring when all the required functionality is already baked into the application server itself ? Spring also has a different definition of portability where they claim to bundle all the libraries in the WAR file and move to any application server. But we saw earlier how bloated that archive could be. The equivalent features in Spring runtime offerings (mainly tcServer) are not all open source, not as mature, and often require manual assembly.  Vendor choice - The Java EE 6 platform is created using the Java Community Process where all the big players like Oracle, IBM, RedHat, and Apache are conritbuting to make the platform successful. Each application server provides the basic Java EE 6 platform compliance and has its own competitive offerings. This allows you to choose an application server for deploying your Java EE 6 applications. If you are not happy with the support or feature of one vendor then you can move your application to a different vendor because of the portability promise offered by the platform. Spring is a set of products from a single company, one price book, one support organization, one sustaining organization, one sales organization, etc. If any of those cause a customer headache, where do you go ? Java EE, backed by multiple vendors, is a safer bet for those that are risk averse. Production support - With Spring, typically you need to get support from two vendors - VMWare and the container provider. With Java EE 6, all of this is typically provided by one vendor. For example, Oracle offers commercial support from systems, operating systems, JDK, application server, and applications on top of them. VMWare certainly offers complete production support but do you really want to put all your eggs in one basket ? Do you really use tcServer ? ;-) Maintainability - With Spring, you are likely building your own distribution with multiple JAR files, integrating, patching, versioning, etc of all those components. Spring's claim is that multiple JAR files allow you to go à la carte and pick the latest versions of different components. But who is responsible for testing whether all these versions work together ? Yep, you got it, its YOU! If something does not work, who patches and maintains the JARs ? Of course, you! Commercial support for such a configuration ? On your own! The Java EE application servers manage all of this for you and provide a well-tested and commercially supported bundle. While it is always good to realize that there is something new and improved that updates and replaces older frameworks like Spring, the good news is not only does a Java EE 6 container offer what is described here, most also will let you deploy and run your Spring applications on them while you go through an upgrade to a more modern architecture. End result, you get the best of both worlds - keeping your legacy investment but moving to a more agile, lightweight world of Java EE 6. A message to the Spring lovers ... The complexity in J2EE 1.2, 1.3, and 1.4 led to the genesis of Spring but that was in 2004. This is 2012 and the name has changed to "Java EE 6" :-) There are tons of improvements in the Java EE platform to make it easy-to-use and powerful. Some examples: Adding @Stateless on a POJO makes it an EJB EJBs can be packaged in a WAR with no special packaging or deployment descriptors "web.xml" and "faces-config.xml" are optional in most of the common cases Typesafe dependency injection is now part of the Java EE platform Add @Path on a POJO allows you to publish it as a RESTful resource EJBs can be used as backing beans for Facelets-driven JSF pages providing full MVC Java EE 6 WARs are known to be kilobytes in size and deployed in milliseconds Tons of other simplifications in the platform and application servers So if you moved away from J2EE to Spring many years ago and have not looked at Java EE 6 (which has been out since Dec 2009) then you should definitely try it out. Just be at least aware of what other alternatives are available instead of restricting yourself to one stack. Here are some workshops and screencasts worth trying: screencast #37 shows how to build an end-to-end application using NetBeans screencast #36 builds the same application using Eclipse javaee-lab-feb2012.pdf is a 3-4 hours self-paced hands-on workshop that guides you to build a comprehensive Java EE 6 application using NetBeans Each city generally has a "spring cleanup" program every year. It allows you to clean up the mess from your house. For your software projects, you don't need to wait for an annual event, just get started and reduce the technical debt now! Move away from your legacy Spring-based applications to a lighter and more modern approach of building enterprise Java applications using Java EE 6. Watch this beautiful presentation that explains how to migrate from Spring -> Java EE 6: List of files in the Java EE 6 project: ./index.xhtml./META-INF./person./person/Create.xhtml./person/Edit.xhtml./person/List.xhtml./person/View.xhtml./resources./resources/css./resources/css/jsfcrud.css./template.xhtml./WEB-INF./WEB-INF/classes./WEB-INF/classes/Bundle.properties./WEB-INF/classes/META-INF./WEB-INF/classes/META-INF/persistence.xml./WEB-INF/classes/org./WEB-INF/classes/org/javaee./WEB-INF/classes/org/javaee/javaeemysql./WEB-INF/classes/org/javaee/javaeemysql/AbstractFacade.class./WEB-INF/classes/org/javaee/javaeemysql/Person.class./WEB-INF/classes/org/javaee/javaeemysql/Person_.class./WEB-INF/classes/org/javaee/javaeemysql/PersonController$1.class./WEB-INF/classes/org/javaee/javaeemysql/PersonController$PersonControllerConverter.class./WEB-INF/classes/org/javaee/javaeemysql/PersonController.class./WEB-INF/classes/org/javaee/javaeemysql/PersonFacade.class./WEB-INF/classes/org/javaee/javaeemysql/util./WEB-INF/classes/org/javaee/javaeemysql/util/JsfUtil.class./WEB-INF/classes/org/javaee/javaeemysql/util/PaginationHelper.class./WEB-INF/faces-config.xml./WEB-INF/web.xml List of files in the Spring 3.x project: ./META-INF ./META-INF/MANIFEST.MF./WEB-INF./WEB-INF/applicationContext.xml./WEB-INF/classes./WEB-INF/classes/log4j.properties./WEB-INF/classes/org./WEB-INF/classes/org/krams ./WEB-INF/classes/org/krams/tutorial ./WEB-INF/classes/org/krams/tutorial/controller ./WEB-INF/classes/org/krams/tutorial/controller/MainController.class ./WEB-INF/classes/org/krams/tutorial/domain ./WEB-INF/classes/org/krams/tutorial/domain/Person.class ./WEB-INF/classes/org/krams/tutorial/service ./WEB-INF/classes/org/krams/tutorial/service/PersonService.class ./WEB-INF/hibernate-context.xml ./WEB-INF/hibernate.cfg.xml ./WEB-INF/jsp ./WEB-INF/jsp/addedpage.jsp ./WEB-INF/jsp/addpage.jsp ./WEB-INF/jsp/deletedpage.jsp ./WEB-INF/jsp/editedpage.jsp ./WEB-INF/jsp/editpage.jsp ./WEB-INF/jsp/personspage.jsp ./WEB-INF/lib ./WEB-INF/lib/antlr-2.7.6.jar ./WEB-INF/lib/aopalliance-1.0.jar ./WEB-INF/lib/c3p0-0.9.1.2.jar ./WEB-INF/lib/cglib-nodep-2.2.jar ./WEB-INF/lib/commons-beanutils-1.8.3.jar ./WEB-INF/lib/commons-collections-3.2.1.jar ./WEB-INF/lib/commons-digester-2.1.jar ./WEB-INF/lib/commons-logging-1.1.1.jar ./WEB-INF/lib/dom4j-1.6.1.jar ./WEB-INF/lib/ejb3-persistence-1.0.2.GA.jar ./WEB-INF/lib/hibernate-annotations-3.4.0.GA.jar ./WEB-INF/lib/hibernate-commons-annotations-3.1.0.GA.jar ./WEB-INF/lib/hibernate-core-3.3.2.GA.jar ./WEB-INF/lib/javassist-3.7.ga.jar ./WEB-INF/lib/jstl-1.1.2.jar ./WEB-INF/lib/jta-1.1.jar ./WEB-INF/lib/junit-4.8.1.jar ./WEB-INF/lib/log4j-1.2.14.jar ./WEB-INF/lib/mysql-connector-java-5.1.14.jar ./WEB-INF/lib/persistence-api-1.0.jar ./WEB-INF/lib/slf4j-api-1.6.1.jar ./WEB-INF/lib/slf4j-log4j12-1.6.1.jar ./WEB-INF/lib/spring-aop-3.0.5.RELEASE.jar ./WEB-INF/lib/spring-asm-3.0.5.RELEASE.jar ./WEB-INF/lib/spring-beans-3.0.5.RELEASE.jar ./WEB-INF/lib/spring-context-3.0.5.RELEASE.jar ./WEB-INF/lib/spring-context-support-3.0.5.RELEASE.jar ./WEB-INF/lib/spring-core-3.0.5.RELEASE.jar ./WEB-INF/lib/spring-expression-3.0.5.RELEASE.jar ./WEB-INF/lib/spring-jdbc-3.0.5.RELEASE.jar ./WEB-INF/lib/spring-orm-3.0.5.RELEASE.jar ./WEB-INF/lib/spring-tx-3.0.5.RELEASE.jar ./WEB-INF/lib/spring-web-3.0.5.RELEASE.jar ./WEB-INF/lib/spring-webmvc-3.0.5.RELEASE.jar ./WEB-INF/lib/standard-1.1.2.jar ./WEB-INF/lib/xml-apis-1.0.b2.jar ./WEB-INF/spring-servlet.xml ./WEB-INF/spring.properties ./WEB-INF/web.xml So, are you excited about Java EE 6 ? Want to get started now ? Here are some resources: Java EE 6 SDK (including runtime, samples, tutorials etc) GlassFish Server Open Source Edition 3.1.2 (Community) Oracle GlassFish Server 3.1.2 (Commercial) Java EE 6 using WebLogic 12c and NetBeans (Video) Java EE 6 with NetBeans and GlassFish (Video) Java EE with Eclipse and GlassFish (Video)

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• ASP.NET Web API Exception Handling

  - by Fredrik N

  When I talk about exceptions in my product team I often talk about two kind of exceptions, business and critical exceptions. Business exceptions are exceptions thrown based on “business rules”, for example if you aren’t allowed to do a purchase. Business exceptions in most case aren’t important to log into a log file, they can directly be shown to the user. An example of a business exception could be "DeniedToPurchaseException”, or some validation exceptions such as “FirstNameIsMissingException” etc. Critical Exceptions are all other kind of exceptions such as the SQL server is down etc. Those kind of exception message need to be logged and should not reach the user, because they can contain information that can be harmful if it reach out to wrong kind of users. I often distinguish business exceptions from critical exceptions by creating a base class called BusinessException, then in my error handling code I catch on the type BusinessException and all other exceptions will be handled as critical exceptions. This blog post will be about different ways to handle exceptions and how Business and Critical Exceptions could be handled. Web API and Exceptions the basics When an exception is thrown in a ApiController a response message will be returned with a status code set to 500 and a response formatted by the formatters based on the “Accept” or “Content-Type” HTTP header, for example JSON or XML. Here is an example:   public IEnumerable<string> Get() { throw new ApplicationException("Error!!!!!"); return new string[] { "value1", "value2" }; } .csharpcode, .csharpcode pre { font-size: small; color: black; font-family: consolas, "Courier New", courier, monospace; background-color: #ffffff; /*white-space: pre;*/ } .csharpcode pre { margin: 0em; } .csharpcode .rem { color: #008000; } .csharpcode .kwrd { color: #0000ff; } .csharpcode .str { color: #006080; } .csharpcode .op { color: #0000c0; } .csharpcode .preproc { color: #cc6633; } .csharpcode .asp { background-color: #ffff00; } .csharpcode .html { color: #800000; } .csharpcode .attr { color: #ff0000; } .csharpcode .alt { background-color: #f4f4f4; width: 100%; margin: 0em; } .csharpcode .lnum { color: #606060; } The response message will be: HTTP/1.1 500 Internal Server Error Content-Length: 860 Content-Type: application/json; charset=utf-8 { "ExceptionType":"System.ApplicationException","Message":"Error!!!!!","StackTrace":" at ..."} .csharpcode, .csharpcode pre { font-size: small; color: black; font-family: consolas, "Courier New", courier, monospace; background-color: #ffffff; /*white-space: pre;*/ } .csharpcode pre { margin: 0em; } .csharpcode .rem { color: #008000; } .csharpcode .kwrd { color: #0000ff; } .csharpcode .str { color: #006080; } .csharpcode .op { color: #0000c0; } .csharpcode .preproc { color: #cc6633; } .csharpcode .asp { background-color: #ffff00; } .csharpcode .html { color: #800000; } .csharpcode .attr { color: #ff0000; } .csharpcode .alt { background-color: #f4f4f4; width: 100%; margin: 0em; } .csharpcode .lnum { color: #606060; }   The stack trace will be returned to the client, this is because of making it easier to debug. Be careful so you don’t leak out some sensitive information to the client. So as long as you are developing your API, this is not harmful. In a production environment it can be better to log exceptions and return a user friendly exception instead of the original exception. There is a specific exception shipped with ASP.NET Web API that will not use the formatters based on the “Accept” or “Content-Type” HTTP header, it is the exception is the HttpResponseException class. Here is an example where the HttpReponseExcetpion is used: // GET api/values [ExceptionHandling] public IEnumerable<string> Get() { throw new HttpResponseException(new HttpResponseMessage(HttpStatusCode.InternalServerError)); return new string[] { "value1", "value2" }; } .csharpcode, .csharpcode pre { font-size: small; color: black; font-family: consolas, "Courier New", courier, monospace; background-color: #ffffff; /*white-space: pre;*/ } .csharpcode pre { margin: 0em; } .csharpcode .rem { color: #008000; } .csharpcode .kwrd { color: #0000ff; } .csharpcode .str { color: #006080; } .csharpcode .op { color: #0000c0; } .csharpcode .preproc { color: #cc6633; } .csharpcode .asp { background-color: #ffff00; } .csharpcode .html { color: #800000; } .csharpcode .attr { color: #ff0000; } .csharpcode .alt { background-color: #f4f4f4; width: 100%; margin: 0em; } .csharpcode .lnum { color: #606060; } The response will not contain any content, only header information and the status code based on the HttpStatusCode passed as an argument to the HttpResponseMessage. Because the HttpResponsException takes a HttpResponseMessage as an argument, we can give the response a content: public IEnumerable<string> Get() { throw new HttpResponseException(new HttpResponseMessage(HttpStatusCode.InternalServerError) { Content = new StringContent("My Error Message"), ReasonPhrase = "Critical Exception" }); return new string[] { "value1", "value2" }; } .csharpcode, .csharpcode pre { font-size: small; color: black; font-family: consolas, "Courier New", courier, monospace; background-color: #ffffff; /*white-space: pre;*/ } .csharpcode pre { margin: 0em; } .csharpcode .rem { color: #008000; } .csharpcode .kwrd { color: #0000ff; } .csharpcode .str { color: #006080; } .csharpcode .op { color: #0000c0; } .csharpcode .preproc { color: #cc6633; } .csharpcode .asp { background-color: #ffff00; } .csharpcode .html { color: #800000; } .csharpcode .attr { color: #ff0000; } .csharpcode .alt { background-color: #f4f4f4; width: 100%; margin: 0em; } .csharpcode .lnum { color: #606060; }   The code above will have the following response:   HTTP/1.1 500 Critical Exception Content-Length: 5 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8 My Error Message .csharpcode, .csharpcode pre { font-size: small; color: black; font-family: consolas, "Courier New", courier, monospace; background-color: #ffffff; /*white-space: pre;*/ } .csharpcode pre { margin: 0em; } .csharpcode .rem { color: #008000; } .csharpcode .kwrd { color: #0000ff; } .csharpcode .str { color: #006080; } .csharpcode .op { color: #0000c0; } .csharpcode .preproc { color: #cc6633; } .csharpcode .asp { background-color: #ffff00; } .csharpcode .html { color: #800000; } .csharpcode .attr { color: #ff0000; } .csharpcode .alt { background-color: #f4f4f4; width: 100%; margin: 0em; } .csharpcode .lnum { color: #606060; } The Content property of the HttpResponseMessage doesn’t need to be just plain text, it can also be other formats, for example JSON, XML etc. By using the HttpResponseException we can for example catch an exception and throw a user friendly exception instead: public IEnumerable<string> Get() { try { DoSomething(); return new string[] { "value1", "value2" }; } catch (Exception e) { throw new HttpResponseException(new HttpResponseMessage(HttpStatusCode.InternalServerError) { Content = new StringContent("An error occurred, please try again or contact the administrator."), ReasonPhrase = "Critical Exception" }); } } .csharpcode, .csharpcode pre { font-size: small; color: black; font-family: consolas, "Courier New", courier, monospace; background-color: #ffffff; /*white-space: pre;*/ } .csharpcode pre { margin: 0em; } .csharpcode .rem { color: #008000; } .csharpcode .kwrd { color: #0000ff; } .csharpcode .str { color: #006080; } .csharpcode .op { color: #0000c0; } .csharpcode .preproc { color: #cc6633; } .csharpcode .asp { background-color: #ffff00; } .csharpcode .html { color: #800000; } .csharpcode .attr { color: #ff0000; } .csharpcode .alt { background-color: #f4f4f4; width: 100%; margin: 0em; } .csharpcode .lnum { color: #606060; }   Adding a try catch to every ApiController methods will only end in duplication of code, by using a custom ExceptionFilterAttribute or our own custom ApiController base class we can reduce code duplicationof code and also have a more general exception handler for our ApiControllers . By creating a custom ApiController’s and override the ExecuteAsync method, we can add a try catch around the base.ExecuteAsync method, but I prefer to skip the creation of a own custom ApiController, better to use a solution that require few files to be modified. The ExceptionFilterAttribute has a OnException method that we can override and add our exception handling. Here is an example: using System; using System.Diagnostics; using System.Net; using System.Net.Http; using System.Web.Http; using System.Web.Http.Filters; public class ExceptionHandlingAttribute : ExceptionFilterAttribute { public override void OnException(HttpActionExecutedContext context) { if (context.Exception is BusinessException) { throw new HttpResponseException(new HttpResponseMessage(HttpStatusCode.InternalServerError) { Content = new StringContent(context.Exception.Message), ReasonPhrase = "Exception" }); } //Log Critical errors Debug.WriteLine(context.Exception); throw new HttpResponseException(new HttpResponseMessage(HttpStatusCode.InternalServerError) { Content = new StringContent("An error occurred, please try again or contact the administrator."), ReasonPhrase = "Critical Exception" }); } } .csharpcode, .csharpcode pre { font-size: small; color: black; font-family: consolas, "Courier New", courier, monospace; background-color: #ffffff; /*white-space: pre;*/ } .csharpcode pre { margin: 0em; } .csharpcode .rem { color: #008000; } .csharpcode .kwrd { color: #0000ff; } .csharpcode .str { color: #006080; } .csharpcode .op { color: #0000c0; } .csharpcode .preproc { color: #cc6633; } .csharpcode .asp { background-color: #ffff00; } .csharpcode .html { color: #800000; } .csharpcode .attr { color: #ff0000; } .csharpcode .alt { background-color: #f4f4f4; width: 100%; margin: 0em; } .csharpcode .lnum { color: #606060; }   Note: Something to have in mind is that the ExceptionFilterAttribute will be ignored if the ApiController action method throws a HttpResponseException. The code above will always make sure a HttpResponseExceptions will be returned, it will also make sure the critical exceptions will show a more user friendly message. The OnException method can also be used to log exceptions. By using a ExceptionFilterAttribute the Get() method in the previous example can now look like this: public IEnumerable<string> Get() { DoSomething(); return new string[] { "value1", "value2" }; } .csharpcode, .csharpcode pre { font-size: small; color: black; font-family: consolas, "Courier New", courier, monospace; background-color: #ffffff; /*white-space: pre;*/ } .csharpcode pre { margin: 0em; } .csharpcode .rem { color: #008000; } .csharpcode .kwrd { color: #0000ff; } .csharpcode .str { color: #006080; } .csharpcode .op { color: #0000c0; } .csharpcode .preproc { color: #cc6633; } .csharpcode .asp { background-color: #ffff00; } .csharpcode .html { color: #800000; } .csharpcode .attr { color: #ff0000; } .csharpcode .alt { background-color: #f4f4f4; width: 100%; margin: 0em; } .csharpcode .lnum { color: #606060; } To use the an ExceptionFilterAttribute, we can for example add the ExceptionFilterAttribute to our ApiControllers methods or to the ApiController class definition, or register it globally for all ApiControllers. You can read more about is here. Note: If something goes wrong in the ExceptionFilterAttribute and an exception is thrown that is not of type HttpResponseException, a formatted exception will be thrown with stack trace etc to the client. How about using a custom IHttpActionInvoker? We can create our own IHTTPActionInvoker and add Exception handling to the invoker. The IHttpActionInvoker will be used to invoke the ApiController’s ExecuteAsync method. Here is an example where the default IHttpActionInvoker, ApiControllerActionInvoker, is used to add exception handling: public class MyApiControllerActionInvoker : ApiControllerActionInvoker { public override Task<HttpResponseMessage> InvokeActionAsync(HttpActionContext actionContext, System.Threading.CancellationToken cancellationToken) { var result = base.InvokeActionAsync(actionContext, cancellationToken); if (result.Exception != null && result.Exception.GetBaseException() != null) { var baseException = result.Exception.GetBaseException(); if (baseException is BusinessException) { return Task.Run<HttpResponseMessage>(() => new HttpResponseMessage(HttpStatusCode.InternalServerError) { Content = new StringContent(baseException.Message), ReasonPhrase = "Error" }); } else { //Log critical error Debug.WriteLine(baseException); return Task.Run<HttpResponseMessage>(() => new HttpResponseMessage(HttpStatusCode.InternalServerError) { Content = new StringContent(baseException.Message), ReasonPhrase = "Critical Error" }); } } return result; } } .csharpcode, .csharpcode pre { font-size: small; color: black; font-family: consolas, "Courier New", courier, monospace; background-color: #ffffff; /*white-space: pre;*/ } .csharpcode pre { margin: 0em; } .csharpcode .rem { color: #008000; } .csharpcode .kwrd { color: #0000ff; } .csharpcode .str { color: #006080; } .csharpcode .op { color: #0000c0; } .csharpcode .preproc { color: #cc6633; } .csharpcode .asp { background-color: #ffff00; } .csharpcode .html { color: #800000; } .csharpcode .attr { color: #ff0000; } .csharpcode .alt { background-color: #f4f4f4; width: 100%; margin: 0em; } .csharpcode .lnum { color: #606060; } You can register the IHttpActionInvoker with your own IoC to resolve the MyApiContollerActionInvoker, or add it in the Global.asax: GlobalConfiguration.Configuration.Services.Remove(typeof(IHttpActionInvoker), GlobalConfiguration.Configuration.Services.GetActionInvoker()); GlobalConfiguration.Configuration.Services.Add(typeof(IHttpActionInvoker), new MyApiControllerActionInvoker()); .csharpcode, .csharpcode pre { font-size: small; color: black; font-family: consolas, "Courier New", courier, monospace; background-color: #ffffff; /*white-space: pre;*/ } .csharpcode pre { margin: 0em; } .csharpcode .rem { color: #008000; } .csharpcode .kwrd { color: #0000ff; } .csharpcode .str { color: #006080; } .csharpcode .op { color: #0000c0; } .csharpcode .preproc { color: #cc6633; } .csharpcode .asp { background-color: #ffff00; } .csharpcode .html { color: #800000; } .csharpcode .attr { color: #ff0000; } .csharpcode .alt { background-color: #f4f4f4; width: 100%; margin: 0em; } .csharpcode .lnum { color: #606060; }   How about using a Message Handler for Exception Handling? By creating a custom Message Handler, we can handle error after the ApiController and the ExceptionFilterAttribute is invoked and in that way create a global exception handler, BUT, the only thing we can take a look at is the HttpResponseMessage, we can’t add a try catch around the Message Handler’s SendAsync method. The last Message Handler that will be used in the Wep API pipe-line is the HttpControllerDispatcher and this Message Handler is added to the HttpServer in an early stage. The HttpControllerDispatcher will use the IHttpActionInvoker to invoke the ApiController method. The HttpControllerDipatcher has a try catch that will turn ALL exceptions into a HttpResponseMessage, so that is the reason why a try catch around the SendAsync in a custom Message Handler want help us. If we create our own Host for the Wep API we could create our own custom HttpControllerDispatcher and add or exception handler to that class, but that would be little tricky but is possible. We can in a Message Handler take a look at the HttpResponseMessage’s IsSuccessStatusCode property to see if the request has failed and if we throw the HttpResponseException in our ApiControllers, we could use the HttpResponseException and give it a Reason Phrase and use that to identify business exceptions or critical exceptions. I wouldn’t add an exception handler into a Message Handler, instead I should use the ExceptionFilterAttribute and register it globally for all ApiControllers. BUT, now to another interesting issue. What will happen if we have a Message Handler that throws an exception?  Those exceptions will not be catch and handled by the ExceptionFilterAttribute. I found a  bug in my previews blog post about “Log message Request and Response in ASP.NET WebAPI” in the MessageHandler I use to log incoming and outgoing messages. Here is the code from my blog before I fixed the bug:   public abstract class MessageHandler : DelegatingHandler { protected override async Task<HttpResponseMessage> SendAsync(HttpRequestMessage request, CancellationToken cancellationToken) { var corrId = string.Format("{0}{1}", DateTime.Now.Ticks, Thread.CurrentThread.ManagedThreadId); var requestInfo = string.Format("{0} {1}", request.Method, request.RequestUri); var requestMessage = await request.Content.ReadAsByteArrayAsync(); await IncommingMessageAsync(corrId, requestInfo, requestMessage); var response = await base.SendAsync(request, cancellationToken); var responseMessage = await response.Content.ReadAsByteArrayAsync(); await OutgoingMessageAsync(corrId, requestInfo, responseMessage); return response; } protected abstract Task IncommingMessageAsync(string correlationId, string requestInfo, byte[] message); protected abstract Task OutgoingMessageAsync(string correlationId, string requestInfo, byte[] message); } .csharpcode, .csharpcode pre { font-size: small; color: black; font-family: consolas, "Courier New", courier, monospace; background-color: #ffffff; /*white-space: pre;*/ } .csharpcode pre { margin: 0em; } .csharpcode .rem { color: #008000; } .csharpcode .kwrd { color: #0000ff; } .csharpcode .str { color: #006080; } .csharpcode .op { color: #0000c0; } .csharpcode .preproc { color: #cc6633; } .csharpcode .asp { background-color: #ffff00; } .csharpcode .html { color: #800000; } .csharpcode .attr { color: #ff0000; } .csharpcode .alt { background-color: #f4f4f4; width: 100%; margin: 0em; } .csharpcode .lnum { color: #606060; }   If a ApiController throws a HttpResponseException, the Content property of the HttpResponseMessage from the SendAsync will be NULL. So a null reference exception is thrown within the MessageHandler. The yellow screen of death will be returned to the client, and the content is HTML and the Http status code is 500. The bug in the MessageHandler was solved by adding a check against the HttpResponseMessage’s IsSuccessStatusCode property: public abstract class MessageHandler : DelegatingHandler { protected override async Task<HttpResponseMessage> SendAsync(HttpRequestMessage request, CancellationToken cancellationToken) { var corrId = string.Format("{0}{1}", DateTime.Now.Ticks, Thread.CurrentThread.ManagedThreadId); var requestInfo = string.Format("{0} {1}", request.Method, request.RequestUri); var requestMessage = await request.Content.ReadAsByteArrayAsync(); await IncommingMessageAsync(corrId, requestInfo, requestMessage); var response = await base.SendAsync(request, cancellationToken); byte[] responseMessage; if (response.IsSuccessStatusCode) responseMessage = await response.Content.ReadAsByteArrayAsync(); else responseMessage = Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(response.ReasonPhrase); await OutgoingMessageAsync(corrId, requestInfo, responseMessage); return response; } protected abstract Task IncommingMessageAsync(string correlationId, string requestInfo, byte[] message); protected abstract Task OutgoingMessageAsync(string correlationId, string requestInfo, byte[] message); } .csharpcode, .csharpcode pre { font-size: small; color: black; font-family: consolas, "Courier New", courier, monospace; background-color: #ffffff; /*white-space: pre;*/ } .csharpcode pre { margin: 0em; } .csharpcode .rem { color: #008000; } .csharpcode .kwrd { color: #0000ff; } .csharpcode .str { color: #006080; } .csharpcode .op { color: #0000c0; } .csharpcode .preproc { color: #cc6633; } .csharpcode .asp { background-color: #ffff00; } .csharpcode .html { color: #800000; } .csharpcode .attr { color: #ff0000; } .csharpcode .alt { background-color: #f4f4f4; width: 100%; margin: 0em; } .csharpcode .lnum { color: #606060; } If we don’t handle the exceptions that can occur in a custom Message Handler, we can have a hard time to find the problem causing the exception. The savior in this case is the Global.asax’s Application_Error: protected void Application_Error() { var exception = Server.GetLastError(); Debug.WriteLine(exception); } .csharpcode, .csharpcode pre { font-size: small; color: black; font-family: consolas, "Courier New", courier, monospace; background-color: #ffffff; /*white-space: pre;*/ } .csharpcode pre { margin: 0em; } .csharpcode .rem { color: #008000; } .csharpcode .kwrd { color: #0000ff; } .csharpcode .str { color: #006080; } .csharpcode .op { color: #0000c0; } .csharpcode .preproc { color: #cc6633; } .csharpcode .asp { background-color: #ffff00; } .csharpcode .html { color: #800000; } .csharpcode .attr { color: #ff0000; } .csharpcode .alt { background-color: #f4f4f4; width: 100%; margin: 0em; } .csharpcode .lnum { color: #606060; } I would recommend you to add the Application_Error to the Global.asax and log all exceptions to make sure all kind of exception is handled. Summary There are different ways we could add Exception Handling to the Wep API, we can use a custom ApiController, ExceptionFilterAttribute, IHttpActionInvoker or Message Handler. The ExceptionFilterAttribute would be a good place to add a global exception handling, require very few modification, just register it globally for all ApiControllers, even the IHttpActionInvoker can be used to minimize the modifications of files. Adding the Application_Error to the global.asax is a good way to catch all unhandled exception that can occur, for example exception thrown in a Message Handler.   If you want to know when I have posted a blog post, you can follow me on twitter @fredrikn

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• Sending mail with Gmail Account using System.Net.Mail in ASP.NET

  - by Jalpesh P. Vadgama

  Any web application is in complete without mail functionality you should have to write send mail functionality. Like if there is shopping cart application for example then when a order created on the shopping cart you need to send an email to administrator of website for Order notification and for customer you need to send an email of receipt of order. So any web application is not complete without sending email. This post is also all about sending email. In post I will explain that how we can send emails from our Gmail Account without purchasing any smtp server etc. There are some limitations for sending email from Gmail Account. Please note following things. Gmail will have fixed number of quota for sending emails per day. So you can not send more then that emails for the day. Your from email address always will be your account email address which you are using for sending email. You can not send an email to unlimited numbers of people. Gmail ant spamming policy will restrict this. Gmail provide both Popup and SMTP settings both should be active in your account where you testing. You can enable that via clicking on setting link in gmail account and go to Forwarding and POP/Imap. So if you are using mail functionality for limited emails then Gmail is Best option. But if you are sending thousand of email daily then it will not be Good Idea. Here is the code for sending mail from Gmail Account. using System.Net.Mail; namespace Experiement { public partial class WebForm1 : System.Web.UI.Page { protected void Page_Load(object sender,System.EventArgs e) { MailMessage mailMessage = new MailMessage(new MailAddress("[email protected]") ,new MailAddress("[email protected]")); mailMessage.Subject = "Sending mail through gmail account"; mailMessage.IsBodyHtml = true; mailMessage.Body = "<B>Sending mail thorugh gmail from asp.net</B>"; System.Net.NetworkCredential networkCredentials = new System.Net.NetworkCredential("[email protected]", "yourpassword"); SmtpClient smtpClient = new SmtpClient(); smtpClient.EnableSsl = true; smtpClient.UseDefaultCredentials = false; smtpClient.Credentials = networkCredentials; smtpClient.Host = "smtp.gmail.com"; smtpClient.Port = 587; smtpClient.Send(mailMessage); Response.Write("Mail Successfully sent"); } } } That’s run this application and you will get like below in your account. Technorati Tags: Gmail,System.NET.Mail,ASP.NET

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• VS 2010 SP1 and SQL CE

  - by ScottGu

  Last month we released the Beta of VS 2010 Service Pack 1 (SP1).  You can learn more about the VS 2010 SP1 Beta from Jason Zander’s two blog posts about it, and from Scott Hanselman’s blog post that covers some of the new capabilities enabled with it.   You can download and install the VS 2010 SP1 Beta here. Last week I blogged about the new Visual Studio support for IIS Express that we are adding with VS 2010 SP1. In today’s post I’m going to talk about the new VS 2010 SP1 tooling support for SQL CE, and walkthrough some of the cool scenarios it enables.  SQL CE – What is it and why should you care? SQL CE is a free, embedded, database engine that enables easy database storage. No Database Installation Required SQL CE does not require you to run a setup or install a database server in order to use it.  You can simply copy the SQL CE binaries into the \bin directory of your ASP.NET application, and then your web application can use it as a database engine.  No setup or extra security permissions are required for it to run. You do not need to have an administrator account on the machine. Just copy your web application onto any server and it will work. This is true even of medium-trust applications running in a web hosting environment. SQL CE runs in-memory within your ASP.NET application and will start-up when you first access a SQL CE database, and will automatically shutdown when your application is unloaded.  SQL CE databases are stored as files that live within the \App_Data folder of your ASP.NET Applications. Works with Existing Data APIs SQL CE 4 works with existing .NET-based data APIs, and supports a SQL Server compatible query syntax.  This means you can use existing data APIs like ADO.NET, as well as use higher-level ORMs like Entity Framework and NHibernate with SQL CE.  This enables you to use the same data programming skills and data APIs you know today. Supports Development, Testing and Production Scenarios SQL CE can be used for development scenarios, testing scenarios, and light production usage scenarios.  With the SQL CE 4 release we’ve done the engineering work to ensure that SQL CE won’t crash or deadlock when used in a multi-threaded server scenario (like ASP.NET).  This is a big change from previous releases of SQL CE – which were designed for client-only scenarios and which explicitly blocked running in web-server environments.  Starting with SQL CE 4 you can use it in a web-server as well. There are no license restrictions with SQL CE.  It is also totally free. Easy Migration to SQL Server SQL CE is an embedded database – which makes it ideal for development, testing, and light-usage scenarios.  For high-volume sites and applications you’ll probably want to migrate your database to use SQL Server Express (which is free), SQL Server or SQL Azure.  These servers enable much better scalability, more development features (including features like Stored Procedures – which aren’t supported with SQL CE), as well as more advanced data management capabilities. We’ll ship migration tools that enable you to optionally take SQL CE databases and easily upgrade them to use SQL Server Express, SQL Server, or SQL Azure.  You will not need to change your code when upgrading a SQL CE database to SQL Server or SQL Azure.  Our goal is to enable you to be able to simply change the database connection string in your web.config file and have your application just work. New Tooling Support for SQL CE in VS 2010 SP1 VS 2010 SP1 includes much improved tooling support for SQL CE, and adds support for using SQL CE within ASP.NET projects for the first time.  With VS 2010 SP1 you can now: Create new SQL CE Databases Edit and Modify SQL CE Database Schema and Indexes Populate SQL CE Databases within Data Use the Entity Framework (EF) designer to create model layers against SQL CE databases Use EF Code First to define model layers in code, then create a SQL CE database from them, and optionally edit the DB with VS Deploy SQL CE databases to remote servers using Web Deploy and optionally convert them to full SQL Server databases You can take advantage of all of the above features from within both ASP.NET Web Forms and ASP.NET MVC based projects. Download You can enable SQL CE tooling support within VS 2010 by first installing VS 2010 SP1 (beta). Once SP1 is installed, you’ll also then need to install the SQL CE Tools for Visual Studio download.  This is a separate download that enables the SQL CE tooling support for VS 2010 SP1. Walkthrough of Two Scenarios In this blog post I’m going to walkthrough how you can take advantage of SQL CE and VS 2010 SP1 using both an ASP.NET Web Forms and an ASP.NET MVC based application. Specifically, we’ll walkthrough: How to create a SQL CE database using VS 2010 SP1, then use the EF4 visual designers in Visual Studio to construct a model layer from it, and then display and edit the data using an ASP.NET GridView control. How to use an EF Code First approach to define a model layer using POCO classes and then have EF Code-First “auto-create” a SQL CE database for us based on our model classes.  We’ll then look at how we can use the new VS 2010 SP1 support for SQL CE to inspect the database that was created, populate it with data, and later make schema changes to it.  We’ll do all this within the context of an ASP.NET MVC based application. You can follow the two walkthroughs below on your own machine by installing VS 2010 SP1 (beta) and then installing the SQL CE Tools for Visual Studio download (which is a separate download that enables SQL CE tooling support for VS 2010 SP1). Walkthrough 1: Create a SQL CE Database, Create EF Model Classes, Edit the Data with a GridView This first walkthrough will demonstrate how to create and define a SQL CE database within an ASP.NET Web Form application.  We’ll then build an EF model layer for it and use that model layer to enable data editing scenarios with an <asp:GridView> control. Step 1: Create a new ASP.NET Web Forms Project We’ll begin by using the File->New Project menu command within Visual Studio to create a new ASP.NET Web Forms project.  We’ll use the “ASP.NET Web Application” project template option so that it has a default UI skin implemented: Step 2: Create a SQL CE Database Right click on the “App_Data” folder within the created project and choose the “Add->New Item” menu command: This will bring up the “Add Item” dialog box.  Select the “SQL Server Compact 4.0 Local Database” item (new in VS 2010 SP1) and name the database file to create “Store.sdf”: Note that SQL CE database files have a .sdf filename extension. Place them within the /App_Data folder of your ASP.NET application to enable easy deployment. When we clicked the “Add” button above a Store.sdf file was added to our project: Step 3: Adding a “Products” Table Double-clicking the “Store.sdf” database file will open it up within the Server Explorer tab.  Since it is a new database there are no tables within it: Right click on the “Tables” icon and choose the “Create Table” menu command to create a new database table.  We’ll name the new table “Products” and add 4 columns to it.  We’ll mark the first column as a primary key (and make it an identify column so that its value will automatically increment with each new row): When we click “ok” our new Products table will be created in the SQL CE database. Step 4: Populate with Data Once our Products table is created it will show up within the Server Explorer.  We can right-click it and choose the “Show Table Data” menu command to edit its data: Let’s add a few sample rows of data to it: Step 5: Create an EF Model Layer We have a SQL CE database with some data in it – let’s now create an EF Model Layer that will provide a way for us to easily query and update data within it. Let’s right-click on our project and choose the “Add->New Item” menu command.  This will bring up the “Add New Item” dialog – select the “ADO.NET Entity Data Model” item within it and name it “Store.edmx” This will add a new Store.edmx item to our solution explorer and launch a wizard that allows us to quickly create an EF model: Select the “Generate From Database” option above and click next.  Choose to use the Store.sdf SQL CE database we just created and then click next again.  The wizard will then ask you what database objects you want to import into your model.  Let’s choose to import the “Products” table we created earlier: When we click the “Finish” button Visual Studio will open up the EF designer.  It will have a Product entity already on it that maps to the “Products” table within our SQL CE database: The VS 2010 SP1 EF designer works exactly the same with SQL CE as it does already with SQL Server and SQL Express.  The Product entity above will be persisted as a class (called “Product”) that we can programmatically work against within our ASP.NET application. Step 6: Compile the Project Before using your model layer you’ll need to build your project.  Do a Ctrl+Shift+B to compile the project, or use the Build->Build Solution menu command. Step 7: Create a Page that Uses our EF Model Layer Let’s now create a simple ASP.NET Web Form that contains a GridView control that we can use to display and edit the our Products data (via the EF Model Layer we just created). Right-click on the project and choose the Add->New Item command.  Select the “Web Form from Master Page” item template, and name the page you create “Products.aspx”.  Base the master page on the “Site.Master” template that is in the root of the project. Add an <h2>Products</h2> heading the new Page, and add an <asp:gridview> control within it: Then click the “Design” tab to switch into design-view. Select the GridView control, and then click the top-right corner to display the GridView’s “Smart Tasks” UI: Choose the “New data source…” drop down option above.  This will bring up the below dialog which allows you to pick your Data Source type: Select the “Entity” data source option – which will allow us to easily connect our GridView to the EF model layer we created earlier.  This will bring up another dialog that allows us to pick our model layer: Select the “StoreEntities” option in the dropdown – which is the EF model layer we created earlier.  Then click next – which will allow us to pick which entity within it we want to bind to: Select the “Products” entity in the above dialog – which indicates that we want to bind against the “Product” entity class we defined earlier.  Then click the “Enable automatic updates” checkbox to ensure that we can both query and update Products.  When you click “Finish” VS will wire-up an <asp:EntityDataSource> to your <asp:GridView> control: The last two steps we’ll do will be to click the “Enable Editing” checkbox on the Grid (which will cause the Grid to display an “Edit” link on each row) and (optionally) use the Auto Format dialog to pick a UI template for the Grid. Step 8: Run the Application Let’s now run our application and browse to the /Products.aspx page that contains our GridView.  When we do so we’ll see a Grid UI of the Products within our SQL CE database. Clicking the “Edit” link for any of the rows will allow us to edit their values: When we click “Update” the GridView will post back the values, persist them through our EF Model Layer, and ultimately save them within our SQL CE database. Learn More about using EF with ASP.NET Web Forms Read this tutorial series on the http://asp.net site to learn more about how to use EF with ASP.NET Web Forms.  The tutorial series uses SQL Express as the database – but the nice thing is that all of the same steps/concepts can also now also be done with SQL CE.   Walkthrough 2: Using EF Code-First with SQL CE and ASP.NET MVC 3 We used a database-first approach with the sample above – where we first created the database, and then used the EF designer to create model classes from the database.  In addition to supporting a designer-based development workflow, EF also enables a more code-centric option which we call “code first development”.  Code-First Development enables a pretty sweet development workflow.  It enables you to: Define your model objects by simply writing “plain old classes” with no base classes or visual designer required Use a “convention over configuration” approach that enables database persistence without explicitly configuring anything Optionally override the convention-based persistence and use a fluent code API to fully customize the persistence mapping Optionally auto-create a database based on the model classes you define – allowing you to start from code first I’ve done several blog posts about EF Code First in the past – I really think it is great.  The good news is that it also works very well with SQL CE. The combination of SQL CE, EF Code First, and the new VS tooling support for SQL CE, enables a pretty nice workflow.  Below is a simple example of how you can use them to build a simple ASP.NET MVC 3 application. Step 1: Create a new ASP.NET MVC 3 Project We’ll begin by using the File->New Project menu command within Visual Studio to create a new ASP.NET MVC 3 project.  We’ll use the “Internet Project” template so that it has a default UI skin implemented: Step 2: Use NuGet to Install EFCodeFirst Next we’ll use the NuGet package manager (automatically installed by ASP.NET MVC 3) to add the EFCodeFirst library to our project.  We’ll use the Package Manager command shell to do this.  Bring up the package manager console within Visual Studio by selecting the View->Other Windows->Package Manager Console menu command.  Then type: install-package EFCodeFirst within the package manager console to download the EFCodeFirst library and have it be added to our project: When we enter the above command, the EFCodeFirst library will be downloaded and added to our application: Step 3: Build Some Model Classes Using a “code first” based development workflow, we will create our model classes first (even before we have a database).  We create these model classes by writing code. For this sample, we will right click on the “Models” folder of our project and add the below three classes to our project: The “Dinner” and “RSVP” model classes above are “plain old CLR objects” (aka POCO).  They do not need to derive from any base classes or implement any interfaces, and the properties they expose are standard .NET data-types.  No data persistence attributes or data code has been added to them.   The “NerdDinners” class derives from the DbContext class (which is supplied by EFCodeFirst) and handles the retrieval/persistence of our Dinner and RSVP instances from a database. Step 4: Listing Dinners We’ve written all of the code necessary to implement our model layer for this simple project.  Let’s now expose and implement the URL: /Dinners/Upcoming within our project.  We’ll use it to list upcoming dinners that happen in the future. We’ll do this by right-clicking on our “Controllers” folder and select the “Add->Controller” menu command.  We’ll name the Controller we want to create “DinnersController”.  We’ll then implement an “Upcoming” action method within it that lists upcoming dinners using our model layer above.  We will use a LINQ query to retrieve the data and pass it to a View to render with the code below: We’ll then right-click within our Upcoming method and choose the “Add-View” menu command to create an “Upcoming” view template that displays our dinners.  We’ll use the “empty” template option within the “Add View” dialog and write the below view template using Razor: Step 4: Configure our Project to use a SQL CE Database We have finished writing all of our code – our last step will be to configure a database connection-string to use. We will point our NerdDinners model class to a SQL CE database by adding the below <connectionString> to the web.config file at the top of our project: EF Code First uses a default convention where context classes will look for a connection-string that matches the DbContext class name.  Because we created a “NerdDinners” class earlier, we’ve also named our connectionstring “NerdDinners”.  Above we are configuring our connection-string to use SQL CE as the database, and telling it that our SQL CE database file will live within the \App_Data directory of our ASP.NET project. Step 5: Running our Application Now that we’ve built our application, let’s run it! We’ll browse to the /Dinners/Upcoming URL – doing so will display an empty list of upcoming dinners: You might ask – but where did it query to get the dinners from? We didn’t explicitly create a database?!? One of the cool features that EF Code-First supports is the ability to automatically create a database (based on the schema of our model classes) when the database we point it at doesn’t exist.  Above we configured  EF Code-First to point at a SQL CE database in the \App_Data\ directory of our project.  When we ran our application, EF Code-First saw that the SQL CE database didn’t exist and automatically created it for us. Step 6: Using VS 2010 SP1 to Explore our newly created SQL CE Database Click the “Show all Files” icon within the Solution Explorer and you’ll see the “NerdDinners.sdf” SQL CE database file that was automatically created for us by EF code-first within the \App_Data\ folder: We can optionally right-click on the file and “Include in Project" to add it to our solution: We can also double-click the file (regardless of whether it is added to the project) and VS 2010 SP1 will open it as a database we can edit within the “Server Explorer” tab of the IDE. Below is the view we get when we double-click our NerdDinners.sdf SQL CE file.  We can drill in to see the schema of the Dinners and RSVPs tables in the tree explorer.  Notice how two tables - Dinners and RSVPs – were automatically created for us within our SQL CE database.  This was done by EF Code First when we accessed the NerdDinners class by running our application above: We can right-click on a Table and use the “Show Table Data” command to enter some upcoming dinners in our database: We’ll use the built-in editor that VS 2010 SP1 supports to populate our table data below: And now when we hit “refresh” on the /Dinners/Upcoming URL within our browser we’ll see some upcoming dinners show up: Step 7: Changing our Model and Database Schema Let’s now modify the schema of our model layer and database, and walkthrough one way that the new VS 2010 SP1 Tooling support for SQL CE can make this easier.  With EF Code-First you typically start making database changes by modifying the model classes.  For example, let’s add an additional string property called “UrlLink” to our “Dinner” class.  We’ll use this to point to a link for more information about the event: Now when we re-run our project, and visit the /Dinners/Upcoming URL we’ll see an error thrown: We are seeing this error because EF Code-First automatically created our database, and by default when it does this it adds a table that helps tracks whether the schema of our database is in sync with our model classes.  EF Code-First helpfully throws an error when they become out of sync – making it easier to track down issues at development time that you might otherwise only find (via obscure errors) at runtime.  Note that if you do not want this feature you can turn it off by changing the default conventions of your DbContext class (in this case our NerdDinners class) to not track the schema version. Our model classes and database schema are out of sync in the above example – so how do we fix this?  There are two approaches you can use today: Delete the database and have EF Code First automatically re-create the database based on the new model class schema (losing the data within the existing DB) Modify the schema of the existing database to make it in sync with the model classes (keeping/migrating the data within the existing DB) There are a couple of ways you can do the second approach above.  Below I’m going to show how you can take advantage of the new VS 2010 SP1 Tooling support for SQL CE to use a database schema tool to modify our database structure.  We are also going to be supporting a “migrations” feature with EF in the future that will allow you to automate/script database schema migrations programmatically. Step 8: Modify our SQL CE Database Schema using VS 2010 SP1 The new SQL CE Tooling support within VS 2010 SP1 makes it easy to modify the schema of our existing SQL CE database.  To do this we’ll right-click on our “Dinners” table and choose the “Edit Table Schema” command: This will bring up the below “Edit Table” dialog.  We can rename, change or delete any of the existing columns in our table, or click at the bottom of the column listing and type to add a new column.  Below I’ve added a new “UrlLink” column of type “nvarchar” (since our property is a string): When we click ok our database will be updated to have the new column and our schema will now match our model classes. Because we are manually modifying our database schema, there is one additional step we need to take to let EF Code-First know that the database schema is in sync with our model classes.  As i mentioned earlier, when a database is automatically created by EF Code-First it adds a “EdmMetadata” table to the database to track schema versions (and hash our model classes against them to detect mismatches between our model classes and the database schema): Since we are manually updating and maintaining our database schema, we don’t need this table – and can just delete it: This will leave us with just the two tables that correspond to our model classes: And now when we re-run our /Dinners/Upcoming URL it will display the dinners correctly: One last touch we could do would be to update our view to check for the new UrlLink property and render a <a> link to it if an event has one: And now when we refresh our /Dinners/Upcoming we will see hyperlinks for the events that have a UrlLink stored in the database: Summary SQL CE provides a free, embedded, database engine that you can use to easily enable database storage.  With SQL CE 4 you can now take advantage of it within ASP.NET projects and applications (both Web Forms and MVC). VS 2010 SP1 provides tooling support that enables you to easily create, edit and modify SQL CE databases – as well as use the standard EF designer against them.  This allows you to re-use your existing skills and data knowledge while taking advantage of an embedded database option.  This is useful both for small applications (where you don’t need the scalability of a full SQL Server), as well as for development and testing scenarios – where you want to be able to rapidly develop/test your application without having a full database instance.  SQL CE makes it easy to later migrate your data to a full SQL Server or SQL Azure instance if you want to – without having to change any code in your application.  All we would need to change in the above two scenarios is the <connectionString> value within the web.config file in order to have our code run against a full SQL Server.  This provides the flexibility to scale up your application starting from a small embedded database solution as needed. Hope this helps, Scott P.S. In addition to blogging, I am also now using Twitter for quick updates and to share links. Follow me at: twitter.com/scottgu

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• Friday Fun: Favorite Games to Play in Chrome

  - by Asian Angel

  Online games can provide a perfect break while you are working and being able to choose from a multitude of games makes it even better. If you are a game addict then you will definitely want to have a look at the Game Button extension for Chrome. Game Button in Action Once the extension has finished installing you are ready to enjoy all that gaming goodness. To get started just click on the “Toolbar Button” and choose a game category. For our example we chose “Shooting Games”. Once you select a game category a new window will open. Towards the lower right corner you will be able to access a scrollable drop-down menu and choose the game that you would like to play. Note: Some of these games come with sounds that can not be turned off so you may want to have the volume lowered all the way or your speakers temporarily turned off if you are at work. For our first game we chose “Snowball Throw”. Notice that there is a nice variety such as “DinoKids – Archery” to games like “Secret Agent”. You can see that our game was nicely sized…not too small and not too large. Go go snowballs! This is definitely a fun one to try…the best approach for this one is to use one hand for clicking the mouse and the other hand for moving it at the same time. If desired you can post your score and see other high scores afterwards. For our second game we decided to try “Target Shooter Firing Range”. This one is definitely a little harder because you have to be extremely precise while moving as quickly as possible. Not too bad for the score but that is ok. You will certainly be able to have fun finding the games that will become your favorites while enjoying the nice variety. Conclusion If you love online games and want a good variety to choose from then the Game Button extension will make a nice addition to your browser. Links Download the Game Button extension (Google Chrome Extensions) Similar Articles Productive Geek Tips Play a New Random Game Each Day in ChromeFriday Fun: Get Your Mario OnFriday Fun: Go Retro with PacmanFriday Fun: Play Air Hockey in Google ChromeFriday Fun: Five More Time Wasting Online Games TouchFreeze Alternative in AutoHotkey The Icy Undertow Desktop Windows Home Server – Backup to LAN The Clear & Clean Desktop Use This Bookmarklet to Easily Get Albums Use AutoHotkey to Assign a Hotkey to a Specific Window Latest Software Reviews Tinyhacker Random Tips DVDFab 6 Revo Uninstaller Pro Registry Mechanic 9 for Windows PC Tools Internet Security Suite 2010 Recycle ! Find That Elusive Icon with FindIcons Looking for Good Windows Media Player 12 Plug-ins? Find Out the Celebrity You Resemble With FaceDouble Whoa ! Use Printflush to Solve Printing Problems

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• Rendering ASP.NET MVC Views to String

  - by Rick Strahl

  It's not uncommon in my applications that I require longish text output that does not have to be rendered into the HTTP output stream. The most common scenario I have for 'template driven' non-Web text is for emails of all sorts. Logon confirmations and verifications, email confirmations for things like orders, status updates or scheduler notifications - all of which require merged text output both within and sometimes outside of Web applications. On other occasions I also need to capture the output from certain views for logging purposes. Rather than creating text output in code, it's much nicer to use the rendering mechanism that ASP.NET MVC already provides by way of it's ViewEngines - using Razor or WebForms views - to render output to a string. This is nice because it uses the same familiar rendering mechanism that I already use for my HTTP output and it also solves the problem of where to store the templates for rendering this content in nothing more than perhaps a separate view folder. The good news is that ASP.NET MVC's rendering engine is much more modular than the full ASP.NET runtime engine which was a real pain in the butt to coerce into rendering output to string. With MVC the rendering engine has been separated out from core ASP.NET runtime, so it's actually a lot easier to get View output into a string. Getting View Output from within an MVC Application If you need to generate string output from an MVC and pass some model data to it, the process to capture this output is fairly straight forward and involves only a handful of lines of code. The catch is that this particular approach requires that you have an active ControllerContext that can be passed to the view. This means that the following approach is limited to access from within Controller methods. Here's a class that wraps the process and provides both instance and static methods to handle the rendering:/// <summary> /// Class that renders MVC views to a string using the /// standard MVC View Engine to render the view. /// /// Note: This class can only be used within MVC /// applications that have an active ControllerContext. /// </summary> public class ViewRenderer { /// <summary> /// Required Controller Context /// </summary> protected ControllerContext Context { get; set; } public ViewRenderer(ControllerContext controllerContext) { Context = controllerContext; } /// <summary> /// Renders a full MVC view to a string. Will render with the full MVC /// View engine including running _ViewStart and merging into _Layout /// </summary> /// <param name="viewPath"> /// The path to the view to render. Either in same controller, shared by /// name or as fully qualified ~/ path including extension /// </param> /// <param name="model">The model to render the view with</param> /// <returns>String of the rendered view or null on error</returns> public string RenderView(string viewPath, object model) { return RenderViewToStringInternal(viewPath, model, false); } /// <summary> /// Renders a partial MVC view to string. Use this method to render /// a partial view that doesn't merge with _Layout and doesn't fire /// _ViewStart. /// </summary> /// <param name="viewPath"> /// The path to the view to render. Either in same controller, shared by /// name or as fully qualified ~/ path including extension /// </param> /// <param name="model">The model to pass to the viewRenderer</param> /// <returns>String of the rendered view or null on error</returns> public string RenderPartialView(string viewPath, object model) { return RenderViewToStringInternal(viewPath, model, true); } public static string RenderView(string viewPath, object model, ControllerContext controllerContext) { ViewRenderer renderer = new ViewRenderer(controllerContext); return renderer.RenderView(viewPath, model); } public static string RenderPartialView(string viewPath, object model, ControllerContext controllerContext) { ViewRenderer renderer = new ViewRenderer(controllerContext); return renderer.RenderPartialView(viewPath, model); } protected string RenderViewToStringInternal(string viewPath, object model, bool partial = false) { // first find the ViewEngine for this view ViewEngineResult viewEngineResult = null; if (partial) viewEngineResult = ViewEngines.Engines.FindPartialView(Context, viewPath); else viewEngineResult = ViewEngines.Engines.FindView(Context, viewPath, null); if (viewEngineResult == null) throw new FileNotFoundException(Properties.Resources.ViewCouldNotBeFound); // get the view and attach the model to view data var view = viewEngineResult.View; Context.Controller.ViewData.Model = model; string result = null; using (var sw = new StringWriter()) { var ctx = new ViewContext(Context, view, Context.Controller.ViewData, Context.Controller.TempData, sw); view.Render(ctx, sw); result = sw.ToString(); } return result; } } The key is the RenderViewToStringInternal method. The method first tries to find the view to render based on its path which can either be in the current controller's view path or the shared view path using its simple name (PasswordRecovery) or alternately by its full virtual path (~/Views/Templates/PasswordRecovery.cshtml). This code should work both for Razor and WebForms views although I've only tried it with Razor Views. Note that WebForms Views might actually be better for plain text as Razor adds all sorts of white space into its output when there are code blocks in the template. The Web Forms engine provides more accurate rendering for raw text scenarios. Once a view engine is found the view to render can be retrieved. Views in MVC render based on data that comes off the controller like the ViewData which contains the model along with the actual ViewData and ViewBag. From the View and some of the Context data a ViewContext is created which is then used to render the view with. The View picks up the Model and other data from the ViewContext internally and processes the View the same it would be processed if it were to send its output into the HTTP output stream. The difference is that we can override the ViewContext's output stream which we provide and capture into a StringWriter(). After rendering completes the result holds the output string. If an error occurs the error behavior is similar what you see with regular MVC errors - you get a full yellow screen of death including the view error information with the line of error highlighted. It's your responsibility to handle the error - or let it bubble up to your regular Controller Error filter if you have one. To use the simple class you only need a single line of code if you call the static methods. Here's an example of some Controller code that is used to send a user notification to a customer via email in one of my applications:[HttpPost] public ActionResult ContactSeller(ContactSellerViewModel model) { InitializeViewModel(model); var entryBus = new busEntry(); var entry = entryBus.LoadByDisplayId(model.EntryId); if ( string.IsNullOrEmpty(model.Email) ) entryBus.ValidationErrors.Add("Email address can't be empty.","Email"); if ( string.IsNullOrEmpty(model.Message)) entryBus.ValidationErrors.Add("Message can't be empty.","Message"); model.EntryId = entry.DisplayId; model.EntryTitle = entry.Title; if (entryBus.ValidationErrors.Count > 0) { ErrorDisplay.AddMessages(entryBus.ValidationErrors); ErrorDisplay.ShowError("Please correct the following:"); } else { string message = ViewRenderer.RenderView("~/views/template/ContactSellerEmail.cshtml",model, ControllerContext); string title = entry.Title + " (" + entry.DisplayId + ") - " + App.Configuration.ApplicationName; AppUtils.SendEmail(title, message, model.Email, entry.User.Email, false, false)) } return View(model); } Simple! The view in this case is just a plain MVC view and in this case it's a very simple plain text email message (edited for brevity here) that is created and sent off:@model ContactSellerViewModel @{ Layout = null; }re: @Model.EntryTitle @Model.ListingUrl @Model.Message ** SECURITY ADVISORY - AVOID SCAMS ** Avoid: wiring money, cross-border deals, work-at-home ** Beware: cashier checks, money orders, escrow, shipping ** More Info: @(App.Configuration.ApplicationBaseUrl)scams.html Obviously this is a very simple view (I edited out more from this page to keep it brief) -  but other template views are much more complex HTML documents or long messages that are occasionally updated and they are a perfect fit for Razor rendering. It even works with nested partial views and _layout pages. Partial Rendering Notice that I'm rendering a full View here. In the view I explicitly set the Layout=null to avoid pulling in _layout.cshtml for this view. This can also be controlled externally by calling the RenderPartial method instead: string message = ViewRenderer.RenderPartialView("~/views/template/ContactSellerEmail.cshtml",model, ControllerContext); with this line of code no layout page (or _viewstart) will be loaded, so the output generated is just what's in the view. I find myself using Partials most of the time when rendering templates, since the target of templates usually tend to be emails or other HTML fragment like output, so the RenderPartialView() method is definitely useful to me. Rendering without a ControllerContext The preceding class is great when you're need template rendering from within MVC controller actions or anywhere where you have access to the request Controller. But if you don't have a controller context handy - maybe inside a utility function that is static, a non-Web application, or an operation that runs asynchronously in ASP.NET - which makes using the above code impossible. I haven't found a way to manually create a Controller context to provide the ViewContext() what it needs from outside of the MVC infrastructure. However, there are ways to accomplish this,  but they are a bit more complex. It's possible to host the RazorEngine on your own, which side steps all of the MVC framework and HTTP and just deals with the raw rendering engine. I wrote about this process in Hosting the Razor Engine in Non-Web Applications a long while back. It's quite a process to create a custom Razor engine and runtime, but it allows for all sorts of flexibility. There's also a RazorEngine CodePlex project that does something similar. I've been meaning to check out the latter but haven't gotten around to it since I have my own code to do this. The trick to hosting the RazorEngine to have it behave properly inside of an ASP.NET application and properly cache content so templates aren't constantly rebuild and reparsed. Anyway, in the same app as above I have one scenario where no ControllerContext is available: I have a background scheduler running inside of the app that fires on timed intervals. This process could be external but because it's lightweight we decided to fire it right inside of the ASP.NET app on a separate thread. In my app the code that renders these templates does something like this:var model = new SearchNotificationViewModel() { Entries = entries, Notification = notification, User = user }; // TODO: Need logging for errors sending string razorError = null; var result = AppUtils.RenderRazorTemplate("~/views/template/SearchNotificationTemplate.cshtml", model, razorError); which references a couple of helper functions that set up my RazorFolderHostContainer class:public static string RenderRazorTemplate(string virtualPath, object model,string errorMessage = null) { var razor = AppUtils.CreateRazorHost(); var path = virtualPath.Replace("~/", "").Replace("~", "").Replace("/", "\\"); var merged = razor.RenderTemplateToString(path, model); if (merged == null) errorMessage = razor.ErrorMessage; return merged; } /// <summary> /// Creates a RazorStringHostContainer and starts it /// Call .Stop() when you're done with it. /// /// This is a static instance /// </summary> /// <param name="virtualPath"></param> /// <param name="binBasePath"></param> /// <param name="forceLoad"></param> /// <returns></returns> public static RazorFolderHostContainer CreateRazorHost(string binBasePath = null, bool forceLoad = false) { if (binBasePath == null) { if (HttpContext.Current != null) binBasePath = HttpContext.Current.Server.MapPath("~/"); else binBasePath = AppDomain.CurrentDomain.BaseDirectory; } if (_RazorHost == null || forceLoad) { if (!binBasePath.EndsWith("\\")) binBasePath += "\\"; //var razor = new RazorStringHostContainer(); var razor = new RazorFolderHostContainer(); razor.TemplatePath = binBasePath; binBasePath += "bin\\"; razor.BaseBinaryFolder = binBasePath; razor.UseAppDomain = false; razor.ReferencedAssemblies.Add(binBasePath + "ClassifiedsBusiness.dll"); razor.ReferencedAssemblies.Add(binBasePath + "ClassifiedsWeb.dll"); razor.ReferencedAssemblies.Add(binBasePath + "Westwind.Utilities.dll"); razor.ReferencedAssemblies.Add(binBasePath + "Westwind.Web.dll"); razor.ReferencedAssemblies.Add(binBasePath + "Westwind.Web.Mvc.dll"); razor.ReferencedAssemblies.Add("System.Web.dll"); razor.ReferencedNamespaces.Add("System.Web"); razor.ReferencedNamespaces.Add("ClassifiedsBusiness"); razor.ReferencedNamespaces.Add("ClassifiedsWeb"); razor.ReferencedNamespaces.Add("Westwind.Web"); razor.ReferencedNamespaces.Add("Westwind.Utilities"); _RazorHost = razor; _RazorHost.Start(); //_RazorHost.Engine.Configuration.CompileToMemory = false; } return _RazorHost; } The RazorFolderHostContainer essentially is a full runtime that mimics a folder structure like a typical Web app does including caching semantics and compiling code only if code changes on disk. It maps a folder hierarchy to views using the ~/ path syntax. The host is then configured to add assemblies and namespaces. Unfortunately the engine is not exactly like MVC's Razor - the expression expansion and code execution are the same, but some of the support methods like sections, helpers etc. are not all there so templates have to be a bit simpler. There are other folder hosts provided as well to directly execute templates from strings (using RazorStringHostContainer). The following is an example of an HTML email template @inherits RazorHosting.RazorTemplateFolderHost <ClassifiedsWeb.SearchNotificationViewModel> <html> <head> <title>Search Notifications</title> <style> body { margin: 5px;font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 10pt;} h3 { color: SteelBlue; } .entry-item { border-bottom: 1px solid grey; padding: 8px; margin-bottom: 5px; } </style> </head> <body> Hello @Model.User.Name,<br /> <p>Below are your Search Results for the search phrase:</p> <h3>@Model.Notification.SearchPhrase</h3> <small>since @TimeUtils.ShortDateString(Model.Notification.LastSearch)</small> <hr /> You can see that the syntax is a little different. Instead of the familiar @model header the raw Razor  @inherits tag is used to specify the template base class (which you can extend). I took a quick look through the feature set of RazorEngine on CodePlex (now Github I guess) and the template implementation they use is closer to MVC's razor but there are other differences. In the end don't expect exact behavior like MVC templates if you use an external Razor rendering engine. This is not what I would consider an ideal solution, but it works well enough for this project. My biggest concern is the overhead of hosting a second razor engine in a Web app and the fact that here the differences in template rendering between 'real' MVC Razor views and another RazorEngine really are noticeable. You win some, you lose some It's extremely nice to see that if you have a ControllerContext handy (which probably addresses 99% of Web app scenarios) rendering a view to string using the native MVC Razor engine is pretty simple. Kudos on making that happen - as it solves a problem I see in just about every Web application I work on. But it is a bummer that a ControllerContext is required to make this simple code work. It'd be really sweet if there was a way to render views without being so closely coupled to the ASP.NET or MVC infrastructure that requires a ControllerContext. Alternately it'd be nice to have a way for an MVC based application to create a minimal ControllerContext from scratch - maybe somebody's been down that path. I tried for a few hours to come up with a way to make that work but gave up in the soup of nested contexts (MVC/Controller/View/Http). I suspect going down this path would be similar to hosting the ASP.NET runtime requiring a WorkerRequest. Brrr…. The sad part is that it seems to me that a View should really not require much 'context' of any kind to render output to string. Yes there are a few things that clearly are required like paths to the virtual and possibly the disk paths to the root of the app, but beyond that view rendering should not require much. But, no such luck. For now custom RazorHosting seems to be the only way to make Razor rendering go outside of the MVC context… Resources Full ViewRenderer.cs source code from Westwind.Web.Mvc library Hosting the Razor Engine for Non-Web Applications RazorEngine on GitHub© Rick Strahl, West Wind Technologies, 2005-2012Posted in ASP.NET   ASP.NET  MVC   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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• Enhance GIMP’s Image Editing Power with Gimp Paint Studio

  - by Asian Angel

  Does your GIMP installation need a little super-charging? Using Gimp Paint Studio you can add a wonderful set of brushes, tools, and more to GIMP and take your work up to the next level. For our example we chose to install the beta version of Gimp Paint Studio on Ubuntu 10.10. Once you download the .zip file and unzip it, all that you need to do is manually transfer the contents shown here to the appropriate GIMP folders on your system. You can see the location of the destination folders here on our system… Note: Make certain to make a back-up copy of the “sessionrc and toolrc files” before you transfer Gimp Paint Studio into your installation (in case you would like to or need to revert back to the originals later). When you finish transferring the files start GIMP up and get ready to have fun. And if your experience is like ours then you should see a noticeable difference in window size and arrangement from the default settings. Here are some samples of the exceptional artwork done by Ramon Miranda and Mozart Couto using Gimp Paint Studio. Really impressive! Artwork by Ramon Miranda & Mozart Couto. Watch the introduction video and see Gimp Paint Studio in action. Download Gimp Paint Studio for Linux, Windows, and Mac [Gimp Paint Studio Homepage] *Keep in mind that there are stable and beta releases available, so choose the version that you are most comfortable with using. View the Installation Guides for Gimp Paint Studio *Page contains wonderful “video and written” versions for adding/installing Gimp Paint Studio to your system. Gimp Paint Studio Video Tutorials Library Visit the Gimp Paint Studio Gallery Latest Features How-To Geek ETC Should You Delete Windows 7 Service Pack Backup Files to Save Space? What Can Super Mario Teach Us About Graphics Technology? Windows 7 Service Pack 1 is Released: But Should You Install It? How To Make Hundreds of Complex Photo Edits in Seconds With Photoshop Actions How to Enable User-Specific Wireless Networks in Windows 7 How to Use Google Chrome as Your Default PDF Reader (the Easy Way) Enhance GIMP’s Image Editing Power with Gimp Paint Studio Reclaim Vertical UI Space by Moving Your Tabs to the Side in Firefox Wind and Water: Puzzle Battles – An Awesome Game for Linux and Windows How Star Wars Changed the World [Infographic] Tabs Visual Manager Adds Thumbnailed Tab Switching to Chrome Daisies and Rye Swaying in the Summer Wind Wallpaper

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• Running an intern program

  - by dotneteer

  This year I am running an unpaid internship program for high school students. I work for a small company. We have ideas for a few side projects but never have time to do them. So we experiment by making them intern projects. In return, we give these interns guidance to learn, personal attentions, and opportunities with real-world projects. A few years ago, I blogged about the idea of teaching kids to write application with no more than 6 hours of training. This time, I was able to reduce the instruction time to 4 hours and immediately put them into real work projects. When they encounter problems, I combine directions, pointer to various materials on w3school, Udacity, Codecademy and UTube, as well as encouraging them to  search for solutions with search engines. Now entering the third week, I am more than encouraged and feeling accomplished. Our the most senior intern, Christopher Chen, is a recent high school graduate and is heading to UC Berkeley to study computer science after the summer. He previously only had one year of Java experience through the AP computer science course but had no web development experience. Only 12 days into his internship, he has already gain advanced css skills with deeper understanding than more than half of the “senior” developers that I have ever worked with. I put him on a project to migrate an existing website to the Orchard content management system (CMS) with which I am new as well. We were able to teach each other and quickly gain advanced Orchard skills such as creating custom theme and modules. I felt very much a relationship similar to the those between professors and graduate students. On the other hand, I quite expect that I will lose him the next summer to companies like Google, Facebook or Microsoft. As a side note, Christopher and I will do a two part Orchard presentations together at the next SoCal code camp at UC San Diego July 27-28. The first part, “creating an Orchard website on Azure in 60 minutes”, is an introductory lecture and we will discuss how to create a website using Orchard without writing code. The 2nd part, “customizing Orchard websites without limit”, is an advanced lecture and we will discuss custom theme and module development with WebMatrix and Visual Studio.

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• Customize Team Build 2010 – Part 11: Speed up opening my build process template

  In the series the following parts have been published Part 1: Introduction Part 2: Add arguments and variables Part 3: Use more complex arguments Part 4: Create your own activity Part 5: Increase AssemblyVersion Part 6: Use custom type for an argument Part 7: How is the custom assembly found Part 8: Send information to the build log Part 9: Impersonate activities (run under other credentials) Part 10: Include Version Number in the Build Number Part 11: Speed up opening my build process template Part 12: How to debug my custom activities Part 13: Get control over the Build Output Part 14: Execute a PowerShell script Part 15: Fail a build based on the exit code of a console application       When you open the build process template, it takes 15 – 30 seconds until it opens. When you are in the process of creating your custom build process template, this can be very frustrating. Thanks to Ed Blankenship how has found a little trick to speed up the opening of the template. It now only takes a few seconds. Create a file called empty.xaml and place the following text in it: <Activity http://www.edsquared.com/ct.ashx?id=1746c587-59ce-45eb-85af-8ea167862617&url=http%3a%2f%2fschemas.microsoft.com%2fnetfx%2f2009%2fxaml%2factivities"http://schemas.microsoft.com/netfx/2009/xaml/activities"> </Activity> Open this file in Visual Studio. In the toolbox panel, add a new tab called “Team Foundation Build Activities”.  Note that it is important to get the tab name correct because if it is not correct then the activities will be reloaded. Inside the new tab, right click and select “Choose Items” Click the Browse button Load the file C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\assembly\GAC_MSIL\Microsoft.TeamFoundation.Build.Workflow\v4.0_10.0.0.0__b03f5f7f11d50a3a\Microsoft.TeamFoundation.Build.Workflow.dll Click OK to add the toolbox items to the tab. Create another new tab called “Team Foundation LabManagement Activities”. Inside the new tab, right click and select “Choose Items” Click the Browse button Load the file C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\assembly\GAC_MSIL\Microsoft.TeamFoundation.Lab.Workflow.Activities\v4.0_10.0.0.0__b03f5f7f11d50a3a\Microsoft.TeamFoundation.Lab.Workflow.Activities.dll Click OK to add the toolbox items to the tab. You can download the full solution at BuildProcess.zip. It will include the sources of every part and will continue to evolve.

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• Oracle Coherence, Split-Brain and Recovery Protocols In Detail

  - by Ricardo Ferreira

  This article provides a high level conceptual overview of Split-Brain scenarios in distributed systems. It will focus on a specific example of cluster communication failure and recovery in Oracle Coherence. This includes a discussion on the witness protocol (used to remove failed cluster members) and the panic protocol (used to resolve Split-Brain scenarios). Note that the removal of cluster members does not necessarily indicate a Split-Brain condition. Oracle Coherence does not (and cannot) detect a Split-Brain as it occurs, the condition is only detected when cluster members that previously lost contact with each other regain contact. Cluster Topology and Configuration In order to create an good didactic for the article, let's assume a cluster topology and configuration. In this example we have a six member cluster, consisting of one JVM on each physical machine. The member IDs are as follows: Member ID  IP Address  1  10.149.155.76  2  10.149.155.77  3  10.149.155.236  4  10.149.155.75  5  10.149.155.79  6  10.149.155.78 Members 1, 2, and 3 are connected to a switch, and members 4, 5, and 6 are connected to a second switch. There is a link between the two switches, which provides network connectivity between all of the machines. Member 1 is the first member to join this cluster, thus making it the senior member. Member 6 is the last member to join this cluster. Here is a log snippet from Member 6 showing the complete member set: 2010-02-26 15:27:57.390/3.062 Oracle Coherence GE 3.5.3/465p2 <Info> (thread=main, member=6): Started DefaultCacheServer... SafeCluster: Name=cluster:0xDDEB Group{Address=224.3.5.3, Port=35465, TTL=4} MasterMemberSet ( ThisMember=Member(Id=6, Timestamp=2010-02-26 15:27:58.635, Address=10.149.155.78:8088, MachineId=1102, Location=process:228, Role=CoherenceServer) OldestMember=Member(Id=1, Timestamp=2010-02-26 15:27:06.931, Address=10.149.155.76:8088, MachineId=1100, Location=site:usdhcp.oraclecorp.com,machine:dhcp-burlington6-4fl-east-10-149,process:511, Role=CoherenceServer) ActualMemberSet=MemberSet(Size=6, BitSetCount=2 Member(Id=1, Timestamp=2010-02-26 15:27:06.931, Address=10.149.155.76:8088, MachineId=1100, Location=site:usdhcp.oraclecorp.com,machine:dhcp-burlington6-4fl-east-10-149,process:511, Role=CoherenceServer) Member(Id=2, Timestamp=2010-02-26 15:27:17.847, Address=10.149.155.77:8088, MachineId=1101, Location=site:usdhcp.oraclecorp.com,machine:dhcp-burlington6-4fl-east-10-149,process:296, Role=CoherenceServer) Member(Id=3, Timestamp=2010-02-26 15:27:24.892, Address=10.149.155.236:8088, MachineId=1260, Location=site:usdhcp.oraclecorp.com,machine:dhcp-burlington6-4fl-east-10-149,process:32459, Role=CoherenceServer) Member(Id=4, Timestamp=2010-02-26 15:27:39.574, Address=10.149.155.75:8088, MachineId=1099, Location=process:800, Role=CoherenceServer) Member(Id=5, Timestamp=2010-02-26 15:27:49.095, Address=10.149.155.79:8088, MachineId=1103, Location=site:usdhcp.oraclecorp.com,machine:dhcp-burlington6-4fl-east-10-149,process:3229, Role=CoherenceServer) Member(Id=6, Timestamp=2010-02-26 15:27:58.635, Address=10.149.155.78:8088, MachineId=1102, Location=process:228, Role=CoherenceServer) ) RecycleMillis=120000 RecycleSet=MemberSet(Size=0, BitSetCount=0 ) ) At approximately 15:30, the connection between the two switches is severed: Thirty seconds later (the default packet timeout in development mode) the logs indicate communication failures across the cluster. In this example, the communication failure was caused by a network failure. In a production setting, this type of communication failure can have many root causes, including (but not limited to) network failures, excessive GC, high CPU utilization, swapping/virtual memory, and exceeding maximum network bandwidth. In addition, this type of failure is not necessarily indicative of a split brain. Any communication failure will be logged in this fashion. Member 2 logs a communication failure with Member 5: 2010-02-26 15:30:32.638/196.928 Oracle Coherence GE 3.5.3/465p2 <Warning> (thread=PacketPublisher, member=2): Timeout while delivering a packet; requesting the departure confirmation for Member(Id=5, Timestamp=2010-02-26 15:27:49.095, Address=10.149.155.79:8088, MachineId=1103, Location=site:usdhcp.oraclecorp.com,machine:dhcp-burlington6-4fl-east-10-149,process:3229, Role=CoherenceServer) by MemberSet(Size=2, BitSetCount=2 Member(Id=1, Timestamp=2010-02-26 15:27:06.931, Address=10.149.155.76:8088, MachineId=1100, Location=site:usdhcp.oraclecorp.com,machine:dhcp-burlington6-4fl-east-10-149,process:511, Role=CoherenceServer) Member(Id=4, Timestamp=2010-02-26 15:27:39.574, Address=10.149.155.75:8088, MachineId=1099, Location=process:800, Role=CoherenceServer) ) The Coherence clustering protocol (TCMP) is a reliable transport mechanism built on UDP. In order for the protocol to be reliable, it requires an acknowledgement (ACK) for each packet delivered. If a packet fails to be acknowledged within the configured timeout period, the Coherence cluster member will log a packet timeout (as seen in the log message above). When this occurs, the cluster member will consult with other members to determine who is at fault for the communication failure. If the witness members agree that the suspect member is at fault, the suspect is removed from the cluster. If the witnesses unanimously disagree, the accuser is removed. This process is known as the witness protocol. Since Member 2 cannot communicate with Member 5, it selects two witnesses (Members 1 and 4) to determine if the communication issue is with Member 5 or with itself (Member 2). However, Member 4 is on the switch that is no longer accessible by Members 1, 2 and 3; thus a packet timeout for member 4 is recorded as well: 2010-02-26 15:30:35.648/199.938 Oracle Coherence GE 3.5.3/465p2 <Warning> (thread=PacketPublisher, member=2): Timeout while delivering a packet; requesting the departure confirmation for Member(Id=4, Timestamp=2010-02-26 15:27:39.574, Address=10.149.155.75:8088, MachineId=1099, Location=process:800, Role=CoherenceServer) by MemberSet(Size=2, BitSetCount=2 Member(Id=1, Timestamp=2010-02-26 15:27:06.931, Address=10.149.155.76:8088, MachineId=1100, Location=site:usdhcp.oraclecorp.com,machine:dhcp-burlington6-4fl-east-10-149,process:511, Role=CoherenceServer) Member(Id=6, Timestamp=2010-02-26 15:27:58.635, Address=10.149.155.78:8088, MachineId=1102, Location=process:228, Role=CoherenceServer) ) Member 1 has the ability to confirm the departure of member 4, however Member 6 cannot as it is also inaccessible. At the same time, Member 3 sends a request to remove Member 6, which is followed by a report from Member 3 indicating that Member 6 has departed the cluster: 2010-02-26 15:30:35.706/199.996 Oracle Coherence GE 3.5.3/465p2 <D5> (thread=Cluster, member=2): MemberLeft request for Member 6 received from Member(Id=3, Timestamp=2010-02-26 15:27:24.892, Address=10.149.155.236:8088, MachineId=1260, Location=site:usdhcp.oraclecorp.com,machine:dhcp-burlington6-4fl-east-10-149,process:32459, Role=CoherenceServer) 2010-02-26 15:30:35.709/199.999 Oracle Coherence GE 3.5.3/465p2 <D5> (thread=Cluster, member=2): MemberLeft notification for Member 6 received from Member(Id=3, Timestamp=2010-02-26 15:27:24.892, Address=10.149.155.236:8088, MachineId=1260, Location=site:usdhcp.oraclecorp.com,machine:dhcp-burlington6-4fl-east-10-149,process:32459, Role=CoherenceServer) The log for Member 3 determines how Member 6 departed the cluster: 2010-02-26 15:30:35.161/191.694 Oracle Coherence GE 3.5.3/465p2 <Warning> (thread=PacketPublisher, member=3): Timeout while delivering a packet; requesting the departure confirmation for Member(Id=6, Timestamp=2010-02-26 15:27:58.635, Address=10.149.155.78:8088, MachineId=1102, Location=process:228, Role=CoherenceServer) by MemberSet(Size=2, BitSetCount=2 Member(Id=1, Timestamp=2010-02-26 15:27:06.931, Address=10.149.155.76:8088, MachineId=1100, Location=site:usdhcp.oraclecorp.com,machine:dhcp-burlington6-4fl-east-10-149,process:511, Role=CoherenceServer) Member(Id=2, Timestamp=2010-02-26 15:27:17.847, Address=10.149.155.77:8088, MachineId=1101, Location=site:usdhcp.oraclecorp.com,machine:dhcp-burlington6-4fl-east-10-149,process:296, Role=CoherenceServer) ) 2010-02-26 15:30:35.165/191.698 Oracle Coherence GE 3.5.3/465p2 <Info> (thread=Cluster, member=3): Member departure confirmed by MemberSet(Size=2, BitSetCount=2 Member(Id=1, Timestamp=2010-02-26 15:27:06.931, Address=10.149.155.76:8088, MachineId=1100, Location=site:usdhcp.oraclecorp.com,machine:dhcp-burlington6-4fl-east-10-149,process:511, Role=CoherenceServer) Member(Id=2, Timestamp=2010-02-26 15:27:17.847, Address=10.149.155.77:8088, MachineId=1101, Location=site:usdhcp.oraclecorp.com,machine:dhcp-burlington6-4fl-east-10-149,process:296, Role=CoherenceServer) ); removing Member(Id=6, Timestamp=2010-02-26 15:27:58.635, Address=10.149.155.78:8088, MachineId=1102, Location=process:228, Role=CoherenceServer) In this case, Member 3 happened to select two witnesses that it still had connectivity with (Members 1 and 2) thus resulting in a simple decision to remove Member 6. Given the departure of Member 6, Member 2 is left with a single witness to confirm the departure of Member 4: 2010-02-26 15:30:35.713/200.003 Oracle Coherence GE 3.5.3/465p2 <Info> (thread=Cluster, member=2): Member departure confirmed by MemberSet(Size=1, BitSetCount=2 Member(Id=1, Timestamp=2010-02-26 15:27:06.931, Address=10.149.155.76:8088, MachineId=1100, Location=site:usdhcp.oraclecorp.com,machine:dhcp-burlington6-4fl-east-10-149,process:511, Role=CoherenceServer) ); removing Member(Id=4, Timestamp=2010-02-26 15:27:39.574, Address=10.149.155.75:8088, MachineId=1099, Location=process:800, Role=CoherenceServer) In the meantime, Member 4 logs a missing heartbeat from the senior member. This message is also logged on Members 5 and 6. 2010-02-26 15:30:07.906/150.453 Oracle Coherence GE 3.5.3/465p2 <Info> (thread=PacketListenerN, member=4): Scheduled senior member heartbeat is overdue; rejoining multicast group. Next, Member 4 logs a TcpRing failure with Member 2, thus resulting in the termination of Member 2: 2010-02-26 15:30:21.421/163.968 Oracle Coherence GE 3.5.3/465p2 <D4> (thread=Cluster, member=4): TcpRing: Number of socket exceptions exceeded maximum; last was "java.net.SocketTimeoutException: connect timed out"; removing the member: 2 For quick process termination detection, Oracle Coherence utilizes a feature called TcpRing which is a sparse collection of TCP/IP-based connections between different members in the cluster. Each member in the cluster is connected to at least one other member, which (if at all possible) is running on a different physical box. This connection is not used for any data transfer, only heartbeat communications are sent once a second per each link. If a certain number of exceptions are thrown while trying to re-establish a connection, the member throwing the exceptions is removed from the cluster. Member 5 logs a packet timeout with Member 3 and cites witnesses Members 4 and 6: 2010-02-26 15:30:29.791/165.037 Oracle Coherence GE 3.5.3/465p2 <Warning> (thread=PacketPublisher, member=5): Timeout while delivering a packet; requesting the departure confirmation for Member(Id=3, Timestamp=2010-02-26 15:27:24.892, Address=10.149.155.236:8088, MachineId=1260, Location=site:usdhcp.oraclecorp.com,machine:dhcp-burlington6-4fl-east-10-149,process:32459, Role=CoherenceServer) by MemberSet(Size=2, BitSetCount=2 Member(Id=4, Timestamp=2010-02-26 15:27:39.574, Address=10.149.155.75:8088, MachineId=1099, Location=process:800, Role=CoherenceServer) Member(Id=6, Timestamp=2010-02-26 15:27:58.635, Address=10.149.155.78:8088, MachineId=1102, Location=process:228, Role=CoherenceServer) ) 2010-02-26 15:30:29.798/165.044 Oracle Coherence GE 3.5.3/465p2 <Info> (thread=Cluster, member=5): Member departure confirmed by MemberSet(Size=2, BitSetCount=2 Member(Id=4, Timestamp=2010-02-26 15:27:39.574, Address=10.149.155.75:8088, MachineId=1099, Location=process:800, Role=CoherenceServer) Member(Id=6, Timestamp=2010-02-26 15:27:58.635, Address=10.149.155.78:8088, MachineId=1102, Location=process:228, Role=CoherenceServer) ); removing Member(Id=3, Timestamp=2010-02-26 15:27:24.892, Address=10.149.155.236:8088, MachineId=1260, Location=site:usdhcp.oraclecorp.com,machine:dhcp-burlington6-4fl-east-10-149,process:32459, Role=CoherenceServer) Eventually we are left with two distinct clusters consisting of Members 1, 2, 3 and Members 4, 5, 6, respectively. In the latter cluster, Member 4 is promoted to senior member. The connection between the two switches is restored at 15:33. Upon the restoration of the connection, the cluster members immediately receive cluster heartbeats from the two senior members. In the case of Members 1, 2, and 3, the following is logged: 2010-02-26 15:33:14.970/369.066 Oracle Coherence GE 3.5.3/465p2 <Warning> (thread=Cluster, member=1): The member formerly known as Member(Id=4, Timestamp=2010-02-26 15:30:35.341, Address=10.149.155.75:8088, MachineId=1099, Location=process:800, Role=CoherenceServer) has been forcefully evicted from the cluster, but continues to emit a cluster heartbeat; henceforth, the member will be shunned and its messages will be ignored. Likewise for Members 4, 5, and 6: 2010-02-26 15:33:14.343/336.890 Oracle Coherence GE 3.5.3/465p2 <Warning> (thread=Cluster, member=4): The member formerly known as Member(Id=1, Timestamp=2010-02-26 15:30:31.64, Address=10.149.155.76:8088, MachineId=1100, Location=site:usdhcp.oraclecorp.com,machine:dhcp-burlington6-4fl-east-10-149,process:511, Role=CoherenceServer) has been forcefully evicted from the cluster, but continues to emit a cluster heartbeat; henceforth, the member will be shunned and its messages will be ignored. This message indicates that a senior heartbeat is being received from members that were previously removed from the cluster, in other words, something that should not be possible. For this reason, the recipients of these messages will initially ignore them. After several iterations of these messages, the existence of multiple clusters is acknowledged, thus triggering the panic protocol to reconcile this situation. When the presence of more than one cluster (i.e. Split-Brain) is detected by a Coherence member, the panic protocol is invoked in order to resolve the conflicting clusters and consolidate into a single cluster. The protocol consists of the removal of smaller clusters until there is one cluster remaining. In the case of equal size clusters, the one with the older Senior Member will survive. Member 1, being the oldest member, initiates the protocol: 2010-02-26 15:33:45.970/400.066 Oracle Coherence GE 3.5.3/465p2 <Warning> (thread=Cluster, member=1): An existence of a cluster island with senior Member(Id=4, Timestamp=2010-02-26 15:27:39.574, Address=10.149.155.75:8088, MachineId=1099, Location=process:800, Role=CoherenceServer) containing 3 nodes have been detected. Since this Member(Id=1, Timestamp=2010-02-26 15:27:06.931, Address=10.149.155.76:8088, MachineId=1100, Location=site:usdhcp.oraclecorp.com,machine:dhcp-burlington6-4fl-east-10-149,process:511, Role=CoherenceServer) is the senior of an older cluster island, the panic protocol is being activated to stop the other island's senior and all junior nodes that belong to it. Member 3 receives the panic: 2010-02-26 15:33:45.803/382.336 Oracle Coherence GE 3.5.3/465p2 <Error> (thread=Cluster, member=3): Received panic from senior Member(Id=1, Timestamp=2010-02-26 15:27:06.931, Address=10.149.155.76:8088, MachineId=1100, Location=site:usdhcp.oraclecorp.com,machine:dhcp-burlington6-4fl-east-10-149,process:511, Role=CoherenceServer) caused by Member(Id=4, Timestamp=2010-02-26 15:27:39.574, Address=10.149.155.75:8088, MachineId=1099, Location=process:800, Role=CoherenceServer) Member 4, the senior member of the younger cluster, receives the kill message from Member 3: 2010-02-26 15:33:44.921/367.468 Oracle Coherence GE 3.5.3/465p2 <Error> (thread=Cluster, member=4): Received a Kill message from a valid Member(Id=3, Timestamp=2010-02-26 15:27:24.892, Address=10.149.155.236:8088, MachineId=1260, Location=site:usdhcp.oraclecorp.com,machine:dhcp-burlington6-4fl-east-10-149,process:32459, Role=CoherenceServer); stopping cluster service. In turn, Member 4 requests the departure of its junior members 5 and 6: 2010-02-26 15:33:44.921/367.468 Oracle Coherence GE 3.5.3/465p2 <Error> (thread=Cluster, member=4): Received a Kill message from a valid Member(Id=3, Timestamp=2010-02-26 15:27:24.892, Address=10.149.155.236:8088, MachineId=1260, Location=site:usdhcp.oraclecorp.com,machine:dhcp-burlington6-4fl-east-10-149,process:32459, Role=CoherenceServer); stopping cluster service. 2010-02-26 15:33:43.343/349.015 Oracle Coherence GE 3.5.3/465p2 <Error> (thread=Cluster, member=6): Received a Kill message from a valid Member(Id=4, Timestamp=2010-02-26 15:27:39.574, Address=10.149.155.75:8088, MachineId=1099, Location=process:800, Role=CoherenceServer); stopping cluster service. Once Members 4, 5, and 6 restart, they rejoin the original cluster with senior member 1. The log below is from Member 4. Note that it receives a different member id when it rejoins the cluster. 2010-02-26 15:33:44.921/367.468 Oracle Coherence GE 3.5.3/465p2 <Error> (thread=Cluster, member=4): Received a Kill message from a valid Member(Id=3, Timestamp=2010-02-26 15:27:24.892, Address=10.149.155.236:8088, MachineId=1260, Location=site:usdhcp.oraclecorp.com,machine:dhcp-burlington6-4fl-east-10-149,process:32459, Role=CoherenceServer); stopping cluster service. 2010-02-26 15:33:46.921/369.468 Oracle Coherence GE 3.5.3/465p2 <D5> (thread=Cluster, member=4): Service Cluster left the cluster 2010-02-26 15:33:47.046/369.593 Oracle Coherence GE 3.5.3/465p2 <D5> (thread=Invocation:InvocationService, member=4): Service InvocationService left the cluster 2010-02-26 15:33:47.046/369.593 Oracle Coherence GE 3.5.3/465p2 <D5> (thread=OptimisticCache, member=4): Service OptimisticCache left the cluster 2010-02-26 15:33:47.046/369.593 Oracle Coherence GE 3.5.3/465p2 <D5> (thread=ReplicatedCache, member=4): Service ReplicatedCache left the cluster 2010-02-26 15:33:47.046/369.593 Oracle Coherence GE 3.5.3/465p2 <D5> (thread=DistributedCache, member=4): Service DistributedCache left the cluster 2010-02-26 15:33:47.046/369.593 Oracle Coherence GE 3.5.3/465p2 <D5> (thread=Invocation:Management, member=4): Service Management left the cluster 2010-02-26 15:33:47.046/369.593 Oracle Coherence GE 3.5.3/465p2 <D5> (thread=Cluster, member=4): Member 6 left service Management with senior member 5 2010-02-26 15:33:47.046/369.593 Oracle Coherence GE 3.5.3/465p2 <D5> (thread=Cluster, member=4): Member 6 left service DistributedCache with senior member 5 2010-02-26 15:33:47.046/369.593 Oracle Coherence GE 3.5.3/465p2 <D5> (thread=Cluster, member=4): Member 6 left service ReplicatedCache with senior member 5 2010-02-26 15:33:47.046/369.593 Oracle Coherence GE 3.5.3/465p2 <D5> (thread=Cluster, member=4): Member 6 left service OptimisticCache with senior member 5 2010-02-26 15:33:47.046/369.593 Oracle Coherence GE 3.5.3/465p2 <D5> (thread=Cluster, member=4): Member 6 left service InvocationService with senior member 5 2010-02-26 15:33:47.046/369.593 Oracle Coherence GE 3.5.3/465p2 <D5> (thread=Cluster, member=4): Member(Id=6, Timestamp=2010-02-26 15:33:47.046, Address=10.149.155.78:8088, MachineId=1102, Location=process:228, Role=CoherenceServer) left Cluster with senior member 4 2010-02-26 15:33:49.218/371.765 Oracle Coherence GE 3.5.3/465p2 <Info> (thread=main, member=n/a): Restarting cluster 2010-02-26 15:33:49.421/371.968 Oracle Coherence GE 3.5.3/465p2 <D5> (thread=Cluster, member=n/a): Service Cluster joined the cluster with senior service member n/a 2010-02-26 15:33:49.625/372.172 Oracle Coherence GE 3.5.3/465p2 <Info> (thread=Cluster, member=n/a): This Member(Id=5, Timestamp=2010-02-26 15:33:50.499, Address=10.149.155.75:8088, MachineId=1099, Location=process:800, Role=CoherenceServer, Edition=Grid Edition, Mode=Development, CpuCount=2, SocketCount=1) joined cluster "cluster:0xDDEB" with senior Member(Id=1, Timestamp=2010-02-26 15:27:06.931, Address=10.149.155.76:8088, MachineId=1100, Location=site:usdhcp.oraclecorp.com,machine:dhcp-burlington6-4fl-east-10-149,process:511, Role=CoherenceServer, Edition=Grid Edition, Mode=Development, CpuCount=2, SocketCount=2) Cool isn't it?

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• Using JCA Adapter with OSB 11.1.1.3

  - by James Taylor

  In OSB 10g to use the JCA adapters you were required to use JDeveloper to create the necessary WSDLs and XSDs etc using the associated adapter wizard. These files were imported into Oracle Workshop (Eclipse) and used to create the business service as you would any other web service. In 11g unfortunately JDeveloper is still required. The process has changed slightly as described below. As an example I have used the JCA DB adapter as an example. Start JDeveloper 11.1.1.3 Create a new SOA Application Create a new SOA Project and call it DBAdapters. Choose the Empty Composite Template Drag a Database Adapter Component to the External References panel on the composite. Provide a service name. Create a new database connection, or use an existing one Take note of the JNDI Name, e.g. eis/DB/MyConnection This will be used to configure the DB connection in the WebLogic Console. In my example I use a stored procedure, but you can use what ever operation you require. Please refer to the following link for other options: User's Guide for Technology Adapters Select a schema and stored procedure Once the procedure has been selected, accept the defaults and finish. Startup your OEPE version of Eclipse. Create a new Oracle Service Bus Configuration Project (you can use an existing project if you have one) Create a new Oracle Service Bus Project in the configuration project created above. Instead of importing the WSDL and XSD files you import the jca file created in JDeveloper. In Eclipse right click the Oracle Service Bus Project and select Import –> Import    Choose File System Browse to the directory where JDeveloper stores its project Select the jca, wsdl, and xsd files based on the service you created in step 5. Also check the ‘Create selected folders only’ radio button. When you import you may have a little red x indicating the files are invalid. This is due to the location of the files. Open the invalid files and fix the path in relation to where you store your files in the OSB project.   Once you have the files all valid, Right-Click the jca file and select Oracle Service Bus –> Generate Service. This will create a new Business Service. In the WebLogic Console configure the JNDI name defined in step 7. You can now deploy your project and test

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• Using jQuery, CKEditor, AJAX in ASP.NET MVC 2

  - by Ray Linder

  After banging my head for days on a “A potentially dangerous Request.Form value was detected" issue when post (ajax-ing) a form in ASP.NET MVC 2 on .NET 4.0 framework using jQuery and CKEditor, I found that when you use the following: Code Snippet $.ajax({     url: '/TheArea/Root/Add',     type: 'POST',     data: $("#form0Add").serialize(),     dataType: 'json',     //contentType: 'application/json; charset=utf-8',     beforeSend: function ()     {         pageNotify("NotifyMsgContentDiv", "MsgDefaultDiv", '<img src="/Content/images/content/icons/busy.gif" /> Adding post, please wait...', 300, "", true);         $("#btnAddSubmit").val("Please wait...").addClass("button-disabled").attr("disabled", "disabled");     },     success: function (data)     {         $("#btnAddSubmit").val("Add New Post").removeClass("button-disabled").removeAttr('disabled');         redirectToUrl("/Exhibitions");     },     error: function ()     {         pageNotify("NotifyMsgContentDiv", "MsgErrorDiv", '<img src="/Content/images/content/icons/cross.png" /> Could not add post. Please try again or contact your web administrator.', 6000, "normal");         $("#btnAddSubmit").val("Add New Post").removeClass("button-disabled").removeAttr('disabled');     } }); Notice the following: Code Snippet data: $("#form0Add").serialize(), You may run into the “A potentially dangerous Request.Form value was detected" issue with this. One of the requirements was NOT to disable ValidateRequest (ValidateRequest=”false”). For this project (and any other project) I felt it wasn’t necessary to disable ValidateRequest. Note: I’ve search for alternatives for the posting issue and everyone and their mothers continually suggested to disable ValidateRequest. That bothers me – a LOT. So, disabling ValidateRequest is totally out of the question (and always will be).  So I thought to modify how the “data: “ gets serialized. the ajax data fix was simple, add a .html(). YES!!! IT WORKS!!! No more “potentially dangerous” issue, ajax form posts (and does it beautifully)! So if you’re using jQuery to $.ajax() a form with CKEditor, remember to do: Code Snippet data: $("#form0Add").serialize().html(), or bad things will happen. Also, don’t forget to set Code Snippet config.htmlEncodeOutput = true; for the CKEditor config.js file (or equivalent). Example: Code Snippet CKEDITOR.editorConfig = function( config ) {     // Define changes to default configuration here. For example:     // config.language = 'fr';     config.uiColor = '#ccddff';     config.width = 640;     config.ignoreEmptyParagraph = true;     config.resize_enabled = false;     config.skin = 'kama';     config.enterMode = CKEDITOR.ENTER_BR;       config.toolbar = 'MyToolbar';     config.toolbar_MyToolbar =     [         ['Bold', 'Italic', 'Underline'],         ['JustifyLeft', 'JustifyCenter', 'JustifyRight', 'JustifyBlock', 'Font', 'FontSize', 'TextColor', 'BGColor'],         ['BulletedList', 'NumberedList', '-', 'Outdent', 'Indent'],         '/',         ['Scayt', '-', 'Cut', 'Copy', 'Paste', 'Find'],         ['Undo', 'Redo'],         ['Link', 'Unlink', 'Anchor', 'Image', 'Flash', 'HorizontalRule'],         ['Table'],         ['Preview', 'Source']     ];     config.htmlEncodeOutput = true; }; Happy coding!!! Tags: jQuery ASP.NET MVC 2 ASP.NET 4.0 AJAX

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• SQL SERVER – Size of Index Table for Each Index – Solution 3 – Powershell

  - by pinaldave

  Laerte Junior If you are a Powershell user, the name of the Laerte Junior is not a new name. He is the one man with exceptional knowledge of Powershell. He is not only very knowledgeable, but also very kind and eager to those in need. I have been attempting to setup Powershell for many days, but constantly facing issues. I was not able to get going with this tool. Finally, yesterday I sent email to Laerte in response to his comment posted here. Within 5 minutes, Laerte came online and helped me with the solution. He spend nearly 15 minutes working along with me to solve my problem with installation. And yes, he did resolve it remotely without looking at my screen – What a skilled and exceptional person!! I will soon post a detail note about the issue I faced and resolved with the help of Laerte. Here is his solution to my earlier puzzle in his own words. Read the original puzzle here and Laerte’s solution from here. Hi Pinal, I do not say better, but maybe another approach to enthusiasts in powershell and SQLSPX library would be: 1 – All indexes in all tables and all databases Get-SqlDatabase -sqlserver “Yourserver” | Get-SqlTable | Get-SqlIndex | Format-table Server,dbname,schema,table,name,id,spaceused 2 – All Indexes in all tables and specific database Get-SqlDatabase -sqlserver “Yourserver” “Yourdb” | Get-SqlTable | Get-SqlIndex | Format-table Server,dbname,schema,table,name,id,spaceused 3 – All Indexes in specific table and database Get-SqlDatabase -sqlserver “Yourserver” “Yourdb” | Get-SqlTable “YourTable” | Get-SqlIndex | Format-table Server,dbname,schema,table,name,id,spaceused and to output to txt.. pipe Out-File Get-SqlDatabase -sqlserver “Yourserver” | Get-SqlTable | Get-SqlIndex | Format-table Server,dbname,schema,table,name,id,spaceused | out-file c:\IndexesSize.txt If you have one txt with all your servers, can be for all of them also. Lets say you have all your servers in servers.txt: something like NameServer1 NameServer2 NameServer3 NameServer4 We could Use : foreach ($Server in Get-content c:\temp\servers.txt) { Get-SqlDatabase -sqlserver $Server | Get-SqlTable | Get-SqlIndex | Format-table Server,dbname,schema,table,name,id,spaceused } :) After fixing my issue with Powershell, I ran Laerte‘s second suggestion – “All Indexes in all tables and specific database” and found the following accurate output. Click to Enlarge Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.sqlauthority.com) Filed under: Pinal Dave, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Index, SQL Query, SQL Scripts, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, T SQL, Technology Tagged: Powershell

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• SQL SERVER – Size of Index Table for Each Index – Solution 3 – Powershell

  - by pinaldave

  Laerte Junior If you are a Powershell user, the name of the Laerte Junior is not a new name. He is the one man with exceptional knowledge of Powershell. He is not only very knowledgeable, but also very kind and eager to those in need. I have been attempting to setup Powershell for many days, but constantly facing issues. I was not able to get going with this tool. Finally, yesterday I sent email to Laerte in response to his comment posted here. Within 5 minutes, Laerte came online and helped me with the solution. He spend nearly 15 minutes working along with me to solve my problem with installation. And yes, he did resolve it remotely without looking at my screen – What a skilled and exceptional person!! I will soon post a detail note about the issue I faced and resolved with the help of Laerte. Here is his solution to my earlier puzzle in his own words. Read the original puzzle here and Laerte’s solution from here. Hi Pinal, I do not say better, but maybe another approach to enthusiasts in powershell and SQLSPX library would be: 1 – All indexes in all tables and all databases Get-SqlDatabase -sqlserver “Yourserver” | Get-SqlTable | Get-SqlIndex | Format-table Server,dbname,schema,table,name,id,spaceused 2 – All Indexes in all tables and specific database Get-SqlDatabase -sqlserver “Yourserver” “Yourdb” | Get-SqlTable | Get-SqlIndex | Format-table Server,dbname,schema,table,name,id,spaceused 3 – All Indexes in specific table and database Get-SqlDatabase -sqlserver “Yourserver” “Yourdb” | Get-SqlTable “YourTable” | Get-SqlIndex | Format-table Server,dbname,schema,table,name,id,spaceused and to output to txt.. pipe Out-File Get-SqlDatabase -sqlserver “Yourserver” | Get-SqlTable | Get-SqlIndex | Format-table Server,dbname,schema,table,name,id,spaceused | out-file c:\IndexesSize.txt If you have one txt with all your servers, can be for all of them also. Lets say you have all your servers in servers.txt: something like NameServer1 NameServer2 NameServer3 NameServer4 We could Use : foreach ($Server in Get-content c:\temp\servers.txt) { Get-SqlDatabase -sqlserver $Server | Get-SqlTable | Get-SqlIndex | Format-table Server,dbname,schema,table,name,id,spaceused } :) After fixing my issue with Powershell, I ran Laerte‘s second suggestion – “All Indexes in all tables and specific database” and found the following accurate output. Click to Enlarge Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.sqlauthority.com) Filed under: Pinal Dave, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Index, SQL Query, SQL Scripts, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, T SQL, Technology Tagged: Powershell

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• jQuery Time Entry with Time Navigation Keys

  - by Rick Strahl

  So, how do you display time values in your Web applications? Displaying date AND time values in applications is lot less standardized than date display only. While date input has become fairly universal with various date picker controls available, time entry continues to be a bit of a non-standardized. In my own applications I tend to use the jQuery UI DatePicker control for date entries and it works well for that. Here's an example: The date entry portion is well defined and it makes perfect sense to have a calendar pop up so you can pick a date from a rich UI when necessary. However, time values are much less obvious when it comes to displaying a UI or even just making time entries more useful. There are a slew of time picker controls available but other than adding some visual glitz, they are not really making time entry any easier. Part of the reason for this is that time entry is usually pretty simple. Clicking on a dropdown of any sort and selecting a value from a long scrolling list tends to take more user interaction than just typing 5 characters (7 if am/pm is used). Keystrokes can make Time Entry easier Time entry maybe pretty simple, but I find that adding a few hotkeys to handle date navigation can make it much easier. Specifically it'd be nice to have keys to: Jump to the current time (Now) Increase/decrease minutes Increase/decrease hours The timeKeys jQuery PlugIn Some time ago I created a small plugin to handle this scenario. It's non-visual other than tooltip that pops up when you press ? to display the hotkeys that are available: Try it Online The keys loosely follow the ancient Quicken convention of using the first and last letters of what you're increasing decreasing (ie. H to decrease, R to increase hours and + and - for the base unit or minutes here). All navigation happens via the keystrokes shown above, so it's all non-visual, which I think is the most efficient way to deal with dates. To hook up the plug-in, start with the textbox:<input type="text" id="txtTime" name="txtTime" value="12:05 pm" title="press ? for time options" /> Note the title which might be useful to alert people using the field that additional functionality is available. To hook up the plugin code is as simple as:$("#txtTime").timeKeys(); You essentially tie the plugin to any text box control. OptionsThe syntax for timeKeys allows for an options map parameter:$(selector).timeKeys(options); Options are passed as a parameter map object which can have the following properties: timeFormatYou can pass in a format string that allows you to format the date. The default is "hh:mm t" which is US time format that shows a 12 hour clock with am/pm. Alternately you can pass in "HH:mm" which uses 24 hour time. HH, hh, mm and t are translated in the format string - you can arrange the format as you see fit. callbackYou can also specify a callback function that is called when the date value has been set. This allows you to either re-format the date or perform post processing (such as displaying highlight if it's after a certain hour for example). Here's another example that uses both options:$("#txtTime").timeKeys({ timeFormat: "HH:mm", callback: function (time) { showStatus("new time is: " + time.toString() + " " + $(this).val() ); } }); The plugin code itself is fairly simple. It hooks the keydown event and checks for the various keys that affect time navigation which is straight forward. The bulk of the code however deals with parsing the time value and formatting the output using a Time class that implements parsing, formatting and time navigation methods. Here's the code for the timeKeys jQuery plug-in:/// <reference path="jquery.js" /> /// <reference path="ww.jquery.js" /> (function ($) { $.fn.timeKeys = function (options) { /// <summary> /// Attaches a set of hotkeys to time fields /// + Add minute - subtract minute /// H Subtract Hour R Add houR /// ? Show keys /// </summary> /// <param name="options" type="object"> /// Options: /// timeFormat: "hh:mm t" by default HH:mm alternate /// callback: callback handler after time assignment /// </param> /// <example> /// var proxy = new ServiceProxy("JsonStockService.svc/"); /// proxy.invoke("GetStockQuote",{symbol:"msft"},function(quote) { alert(result.LastPrice); },onPageError); ///</example> if (this.length < 1) return this; var opt = { timeFormat: "hh:mm t", callback: null } $.extend(opt, options); return this.keydown(function (e) { var $el = $(this); var time = new Time($el.val()); //alert($(this).val() + " " + time.toString() + " " + time.date.toString()); switch (e.keyCode) { case 78: // [N]ow time = new Time(new Date()); break; case 109: case 189: // - time.addMinutes(-1); break; case 107: case 187: // + time.addMinutes(1); break; case 72: //H time.addHours(-1); break; case 82: //R time.addHours(1); break; case 191: // ? if (e.shiftKey) $(this).tooltip("<b>N</b> Now<br/><b>+</b> add minute<br /><b>-</b> subtract minute<br /><b>H</b> Subtract Hour<br /><b>R</b> add hour", 4000, { isHtml: true }); return false; default: return true; } $el.val(time.toString(opt.timeFormat)); if (opt.callback) { // call async and set context in this element setTimeout(function () { opt.callback.call($el.get(0), time) }, 1); } return false; }); } Time = function (time, format) { /// <summary> /// Time object that can parse and format /// a time values. /// </summary> /// <param name="time" type="object"> /// A time value as a string (12:15pm or 23:01), a Date object /// or time value. /// /// </param> /// <param name="format" type="string"> /// Time format string: /// HH:mm (23:01) /// hh:mm t (11:01 pm) /// </param> /// <example> /// var time = new Time( new Date()); /// time.addHours(5); /// time.addMinutes(10); /// var s = time.toString(); /// /// var time2 = new Time(s); // parse with constructor /// var t = time2.parse("10:15 pm"); // parse with .parse() method /// alert( t.hours + " " + t.mins + " " + t.ampm + " " + t.hours25) ///</example> var _I = this; this.date = new Date(); this.timeFormat = "hh:mm t"; if (format) this.timeFormat = format; this.parse = function (time) { /// <summary> /// Parses time value from a Date object, or string in format of: /// 12:12pm or 23:01 /// </summary> /// <param name="time" type="any"> /// A time value as a string (12:15pm or 23:01), a Date object /// or time value. /// /// </param> if (!time) return null; // Date if (time.getDate) { var t = {}; var d = time; t.hours24 = d.getHours(); t.mins = d.getMinutes(); t.ampm = "am"; if (t.hours24 > 11) { t.ampm = "pm"; if (t.hours24 > 12) t.hours = t.hours24 - 12; } time = t; } if (typeof (time) == "string") { var parts = time.split(":"); if (parts < 2) return null; var time = {}; time.hours = parts[0] * 1; time.hours24 = time.hours; time.mins = parts[1].toLowerCase(); if (time.mins.indexOf("am") > -1) { time.ampm = "am"; time.mins = time.mins.replace("am", ""); if (time.hours == 12) time.hours24 = 0; } else if (time.mins.indexOf("pm") > -1) { time.ampm = "pm"; time.mins = time.mins.replace("pm", ""); if (time.hours < 12) time.hours24 = time.hours + 12; } time.mins = time.mins * 1; } _I.date.setMinutes(time.mins); _I.date.setHours(time.hours24); return time; }; this.addMinutes = function (mins) { /// <summary> /// adds minutes to the internally stored time value. /// </summary> /// <param name="mins" type="number"> /// number of minutes to add to the date /// </param> _I.date.setMinutes(_I.date.getMinutes() + mins); } this.addHours = function (hours) { /// <summary> /// adds hours the internally stored time value. /// </summary> /// <param name="hours" type="number"> /// number of hours to add to the date /// </param> _I.date.setHours(_I.date.getHours() + hours); } this.getTime = function () { /// <summary> /// returns a time structure from the currently /// stored time value. /// Properties: hours, hours24, mins, ampm /// </summary> return new Time(new Date()); h } this.toString = function (format) { /// <summary> /// returns a short time string for the internal date /// formats: 12:12 pm or 23:12 /// </summary> /// <param name="format" type="string"> /// optional format string for date /// HH:mm, hh:mm t /// </param> if (!format) format = _I.timeFormat; var hours = _I.date.getHours(); if (format.indexOf("t") > -1) { if (hours > 11) format = format.replace("t", "pm") else format = format.replace("t", "am") } if (format.indexOf("HH") > -1) format = format.replace("HH", hours.toString().padL(2, "0")); if (format.indexOf("hh") > -1) { if (hours > 12) hours -= 12; if (hours == 0) hours = 12; format = format.replace("hh", hours.toString().padL(2, "0")); } if (format.indexOf("mm") > -1) format = format.replace("mm", _I.date.getMinutes().toString().padL(2, "0")); return format; } // construction if (time) this.time = this.parse(time); } String.prototype.padL = function (width, pad) { if (!width || width < 1) return this; if (!pad) pad = " "; var length = width - this.length if (length < 1) return this.substr(0, width); return (String.repeat(pad, length) + this).substr(0, width); } String.repeat = function (chr, count) { var str = ""; for (var x = 0; x < count; x++) { str += chr }; return str; } })(jQuery); The plugin consists of the actual plugin and the Time class which handles parsing and formatting of the time value via the .parse() and .toString() methods. Code like this always ends up taking up more effort than the actual logic unfortunately. There are libraries out there that can handle this like datejs or even ww.jquery.js (which is what I use) but to keep the code self contained for this post the plugin doesn't rely on external code. There's one optional exception: The code as is has one dependency on ww.jquery.js  for the tooltip plugin that provides the small popup for all the hotkeys available. You can replace that code with some other mechanism to display hotkeys or simply remove it since that behavior is optional. While we're at it: A jQuery dateKeys plugIn Although date entry tends to be much better served with drop down calendars to pick dates from, often it's also easier to pick dates using a few simple hotkeys. Navigation that uses + - for days and M and H for MontH navigation, Y and R for YeaR navigation are a quick way to enter dates without having to resort to using a mouse and clicking around to what you want to find. Note that this plugin does have a dependency on ww.jquery.js for the date formatting functionality.$.fn.dateKeys = function (options) { /// <summary> /// Attaches a set of hotkeys to date 'fields' /// + Add day - subtract day /// M Subtract Month H Add montH /// Y Subtract Year R Add yeaR /// ? Show keys /// </summary> /// <param name="options" type="object"> /// Options: /// dateFormat: "MM/dd/yyyy" by default "MMM dd, yyyy /// callback: callback handler after date assignment /// </param> /// <example> /// var proxy = new ServiceProxy("JsonStockService.svc/"); /// proxy.invoke("GetStockQuote",{symbol:"msft"},function(quote) { alert(result.LastPrice); },onPageError); ///</example> if (this.length < 1) return this; var opt = { dateFormat: "MM/dd/yyyy", callback: null }; $.extend(opt, options); return this.keydown(function (e) { var $el = $(this); var d = new Date($el.val()); if (!d) d = new Date(1900, 0, 1, 1, 1); var month = d.getMonth(); var year = d.getFullYear(); var day = d.getDate(); switch (e.keyCode) { case 84: // [T]oday d = new Date(); break; case 109: case 189: d = new Date(year, month, day - 1); break; case 107: case 187: d = new Date(year, month, day + 1); break; case 77: //M d = new Date(year, month - 1, day); break; case 72: //H d = new Date(year, month + 1, day); break; case 191: // ? if (e.shiftKey) $el.tooltip("<b>T</b> Today<br/><b>+</b> add day<br /><b>-</b> subtract day<br /><b>M</b> subtract Month<br /><b>H</b> add montH<br/><b>Y</b> subtract Year<br/><b>R</b> add yeaR", 5000, { isHtml: true }); return false; default: return true; } $el.val(d.formatDate(opt.dateFormat)); if (opt.callback) // call async setTimeout(function () { opt.callback.call($el.get(0),d); }, 10); return false; }); } The logic for this plugin is similar to the timeKeys plugin, but it's a little simpler as it tries to directly parse the date value from a string via new Date(inputString). As mentioned it also uses a helper function from ww.jquery.js to format dates which removes the logic to perform date formatting manually which again reduces the size of the code. And the Key is… I've been using both of these plugins in combination with the jQuery UI datepicker for datetime values and I've found that I rarely actually pop up the date picker any more. It's just so much more efficient to use the hotkeys to navigate dates. It's still nice to have the picker around though - it provides the expected behavior for date entry. For time values however I can't justify the UI overhead of a picker that doesn't make it any easier to pick a time. Most people know how to type in a time value and if they want shortcuts keystrokes easily beat out any pop up UI. Hopefully you'll find this as useful as I have found it for my code. Resources Online Sample Download Sample Project © Rick Strahl, West Wind Technologies, 2005-2011Posted in jQuery  HTML   Tweet (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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• Naming PowerPoint Components With A VSTO Add-In

  - by Tim Murphy

  Note: Cross posted from Coding The Document. Permalink Sometimes in order to work with Open XML we need a little help from other tools.  In this post I am going to describe  a fairly simple solution for marking up PowerPoint presentations so that they can be used as templates and processed using the Open XML SDK. Add-ins are tools which it can be hard to find information on.  I am going to up the obscurity by adding a Ribbon button.  For my example I am using Visual Studio 2008 and creating a PowerPoint 2007 Add-in project.  To that add a Ribbon Visual Designer.  The new ribbon by default will show up on the Add-in tab. Add a button to the ribbon.  Also add a WinForm to collect a new name for the object selected.  Make sure to set the OK button’s DialogResult to OK. In the ribbon button click event add the following code. ObjectNameForm dialog = new ObjectNameForm(); Selection selection = Globals.ThisAddIn.Application.ActiveWindow.Selection;   dialog.objectName = selection.ShapeRange.Name;   if (dialog.ShowDialog() == DialogResult.OK) { selection.ShapeRange.Name = dialog.objectName; } This code will first read the current Name attribute of the Shape object.  If the user clicks OK on the dialog it save the string value back to the same place. Once it is done you can retrieve identify the control through Open XML via the NonVisualDisplayProperties objects.  The only problem is that this object is a child of several different classes.  This means that there isn’t just one way to retrieve the value.  Below are a couple of pieces of code to identify the container that you have named. The first example is if you are naming placeholders in a layout slide. foreach(var slideMasterPart in slideMasterParts) { var layoutParts = slideMasterPart.SlideLayoutParts; foreach(SlideLayoutPart slideLayoutPart in layoutParts) { foreach (assmPresentation.Shape shape in slideLayoutPart.SlideLayout.CommonSlideData.ShapeTree.Descendants<assmPresentation.Shape>()) { var slideMasterProperties = from p in shape.Descendants<assmPresentation.NonVisualDrawingProperties>() where p.Name == TokenText.Text select p;   if (slideMasterProperties.Count() > 0) tokenFound = true; } } } The second example allows you to find charts that you have named with the add-in. foreach(var slidePart in slideParts) { foreach(assmPresentation.Shape slideShape in slidePart.Slide.CommonSlideData.ShapeTree.Descendants<assmPresentation.Shape>()) { var slideProperties = from g in slidePart.Slide.Descendants<GraphicFrame>() where g.NonVisualGraphicFrameProperties.NonVisualDrawingProperties.Name == TokenText.Text select g;   if(slideProperties.Count() > 0) { tokenFound = true; } } } Together the combination of Open XML and VSTO add-ins make a powerful combination in creating a process for maintaining a template and generating documents from the template.

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• Creating STA COM compatible ASP.NET Applications

  - by Rick Strahl

  When building ASP.NET applications that interface with old school COM objects like those created with VB6 or Visual FoxPro (MTDLL), it's extremely important that the threads that are serving requests use Single Threaded Apartment Threading. STA is a COM built-in technology that allows essentially single threaded components to operate reliably in a multi-threaded environment. STA's guarantee that COM objects instantiated on a specific thread stay on that specific thread and any access to a COM object from another thread automatically marshals that thread to the STA thread. The end effect is that you can have multiple threads, but a COM object instance lives on a fixed never changing thread. ASP.NET by default uses MTA (multi-threaded apartment) threads which are truly free spinning threads that pay no heed to COM object marshaling. This is vastly more efficient than STA threading which has a bit of overhead in determining whether it's OK to run code on a given thread or whether some sort of thread/COM marshaling needs to occur. MTA COM components can be very efficient, but STA COM components in a multi-threaded environment always tend to have a fair amount of overhead. It's amazing how much COM Interop I still see today so while it seems really old school to be talking about this topic, it's actually quite apropos for me as I have many customers using legacy COM systems that need to interface with other .NET applications. In this post I'm consolidating some of the hacks I've used to integrate with various ASP.NET technologies when using STA COM Components. STA in ASP.NET Support for STA threading in the ASP.NET framework is fairly limited. Specifically only the original ASP.NET WebForms technology supports STA threading directly via its STA Page Handler implementation or what you might know as ASPCOMPAT mode. For WebForms running STA components is as easy as specifying the ASPCOMPAT attribute in the @Page tag:<%@ Page Language="C#" AspCompat="true" %> which runs the page in STA mode. Removing it runs in MTA mode. Simple. Unfortunately all other ASP.NET technologies built on top of the core ASP.NET engine do not support STA natively. So if you want to use STA COM components in MVC or with class ASMX Web Services, there's no automatic way like the ASPCOMPAT keyword available. So what happens when you run an STA COM component in an MTA application? In low volume environments - nothing much will happen. The COM objects will appear to work just fine as there are no simultaneous thread interactions and the COM component will happily run on a single thread or multiple single threads one at a time. So for testing running components in MTA environments may appear to work just fine. However as load increases and threads get re-used by ASP.NET COM objects will end up getting created on multiple different threads. This can result in crashes or hangs, or data corruption in the STA components which store their state in thread local storage on the STA thread. If threads overlap this global store can easily get corrupted which in turn causes problems. STA ensures that any COM object instance loaded always stays on the same thread it was instantiated on. What about COM+? COM+ is supposed to address the problem of STA in MTA applications by providing an abstraction with it's own thread pool manager for COM objects. It steps in to the COM instantiation pipeline and hands out COM instances from its own internally maintained STA Thread pool. This guarantees that the COM instantiation threads are STA threads if using STA components. COM+ works, but in my experience the technology is very, very slow for STA components. It adds a ton of overhead and reduces COM performance noticably in load tests in IIS. COM+ can make sense in some situations but for Web apps with STA components it falls short. In addition there's also the need to ensure that COM+ is set up and configured on the target machine and the fact that components have to be registered in COM+. COM+ also keeps components up at all times, so if a component needs to be replaced the COM+ package needs to be unloaded (same is true for IIS hosted components but it's more common to manage that). COM+ is an option for well established components, but native STA support tends to provide better performance and more consistent usability, IMHO. STA for non supporting ASP.NET Technologies As mentioned above only WebForms supports STA natively. However, by utilizing the WebForms ASP.NET Page handler internally it's actually possible to trick various other ASP.NET technologies and let them work with STA components. This is ugly but I've used each of these in various applications and I've had minimal problems making them work with FoxPro STA COM components which is about as dififcult as it gets for COM Interop in .NET. In this post I summarize several STA workarounds that enable you to use STA threading with these ASP.NET Technologies: ASMX Web Services ASP.NET MVC WCF Web Services ASP.NET Web API ASMX Web Services I start with classic ASP.NET ASMX Web Services because it's the easiest mechanism that allows for STA modification. It also clearly demonstrates how the WebForms STA Page Handler is the key technology to enable the various other solutions to create STA components. Essentially the way this works is to override the WebForms Page class and hijack it's init functionality for processing requests. Here's what this looks like for Web Services:namespace FoxProAspNet { public class WebServiceStaHandler : System.Web.UI.Page, IHttpAsyncHandler { protected override void OnInit(EventArgs e) { IHttpHandler handler = new WebServiceHandlerFactory().GetHandler( this.Context, this.Context.Request.HttpMethod, this.Context.Request.FilePath, this.Context.Request.PhysicalPath); handler.ProcessRequest(this.Context); this.Context.ApplicationInstance.CompleteRequest(); } public IAsyncResult BeginProcessRequest( HttpContext context, AsyncCallback cb, object extraData) { return this.AspCompatBeginProcessRequest(context, cb, extraData); } public void EndProcessRequest(IAsyncResult result) { this.AspCompatEndProcessRequest(result); } } public class AspCompatWebServiceStaHandlerWithSessionState : WebServiceStaHandler, IRequiresSessionState { } } This class overrides the ASP.NET WebForms Page class which has a little known AspCompatBeginProcessRequest() and AspCompatEndProcessRequest() method that is responsible for providing the WebForms ASPCOMPAT functionality. These methods handle routing requests to STA threads. Note there are two classes - one that includes session state and one that does not. If you plan on using ASP.NET Session state use the latter class, otherwise stick to the former. This maps to the EnableSessionState page setting in WebForms. This class simply hooks into this functionality by overriding the BeginProcessRequest and EndProcessRequest methods and always forcing it into the AspCompat methods. The way this works is that BeginProcessRequest() fires first to set up the threads and starts intializing the handler. As part of that process the OnInit() method is fired which is now already running on an STA thread. The code then creates an instance of the actual WebService handler factory and calls its ProcessRequest method to start executing which generates the Web Service result. Immediately after ProcessRequest the request is stopped with Application.CompletRequest() which ensures that the rest of the Page handler logic doesn't fire. This means that even though the fairly heavy Page class is overridden here, it doesn't end up executing any of its internal processing which makes this code fairly efficient. In a nutshell, we're highjacking the Page HttpHandler and forcing it to process the WebService process handler in the context of the AspCompat handler behavior. Hooking up the Handler Because the above is an HttpHandler implementation you need to hook up the custom handler and replace the standard ASMX handler. To do this you need to modify the web.config file (here for IIS 7 and IIS Express): <configuration> <system.webServer> <handlers> <remove name="WebServiceHandlerFactory-Integrated-4.0" /> <add name="Asmx STA Web Service Handler" path="*.asmx" verb="*" type="FoxProAspNet.WebServiceStaHandler" precondition="integrated"/> </handlers> </system.webServer> </configuration> (Note: The name for the WebServiceHandlerFactory-Integrated-4.0 might be slightly different depending on your server version. Check the IIS Handler configuration in the IIS Management Console for the exact name or simply remove the handler from the list there which will propagate to your web.config). For IIS 5 & 6 (Windows XP/2003) or the Visual Studio Web Server use:<configuration> <system.web> <httpHandlers> <remove path="*.asmx" verb="*" /> <add path="*.asmx" verb="*" type="FoxProAspNet.WebServiceStaHandler" /> </httpHandlers> </system.web></configuration> To test, create a new ASMX Web Service and create a method like this: [WebService(Namespace = "http://foxaspnet.org/")] [WebServiceBinding(ConformsTo = WsiProfiles.BasicProfile1_1)] public class FoxWebService : System.Web.Services.WebService { [WebMethod] public string HelloWorld() { return "Hello World. Threading mode is: " + System.Threading.Thread.CurrentThread.GetApartmentState(); } } Run this before you put in the web.config configuration changes and you should get: Hello World. Threading mode is: MTA Then put the handler mapping into Web.config and you should see: Hello World. Threading mode is: STA And you're on your way to using STA COM components. It's a hack but it works well! I've used this with several high volume Web Service installations with various customers and it's been fast and reliable. ASP.NET MVC ASP.NET MVC has quickly become the most popular ASP.NET technology, replacing WebForms for creating HTML output. MVC is more complex to get started with, but once you understand the basic structure of how requests flow through the MVC pipeline it's easy to use and amazingly flexible in manipulating HTML requests. In addition, MVC has great support for non-HTML output sources like JSON and XML, making it an excellent choice for AJAX requests without any additional tools. Unlike WebForms ASP.NET MVC doesn't support STA threads natively and so some trickery is needed to make it work with STA threads as well. MVC gets its handler implementation through custom route handlers using ASP.NET's built in routing semantics. To work in an STA handler requires working in the Page Handler as part of the Route Handler implementation. As with the Web Service handler the first step is to create a custom HttpHandler that can instantiate an MVC request pipeline properly:public class MvcStaThreadHttpAsyncHandler : Page, IHttpAsyncHandler, IRequiresSessionState { private RequestContext _requestContext; public MvcStaThreadHttpAsyncHandler(RequestContext requestContext) { if (requestContext == null) throw new ArgumentNullException("requestContext"); _requestContext = requestContext; } public IAsyncResult BeginProcessRequest(HttpContext context, AsyncCallback cb, object extraData) { return this.AspCompatBeginProcessRequest(context, cb, extraData); } protected override void OnInit(EventArgs e) { var controllerName = _requestContext.RouteData.GetRequiredString("controller"); var controllerFactory = ControllerBuilder.Current.GetControllerFactory(); var controller = controllerFactory.CreateController(_requestContext, controllerName); if (controller == null) throw new InvalidOperationException("Could not find controller: " + controllerName); try { controller.Execute(_requestContext); } finally { controllerFactory.ReleaseController(controller); } this.Context.ApplicationInstance.CompleteRequest(); } public void EndProcessRequest(IAsyncResult result) { this.AspCompatEndProcessRequest(result); } public override void ProcessRequest(HttpContext httpContext) { throw new NotSupportedException("STAThreadRouteHandler does not support ProcessRequest called (only BeginProcessRequest)"); } } This handler code figures out which controller to load and then executes the controller. MVC internally provides the information needed to route to the appropriate method and pass the right parameters. Like the Web Service handler the logic occurs in the OnInit() and performs all the processing in that part of the request. Next, we need a RouteHandler that can actually pick up this handler. Unlike the Web Service handler where we simply registered the handler, MVC requires a RouteHandler to pick up the handler. RouteHandlers look at the URL's path and based on that decide on what handler to invoke. The route handler is pretty simple - all it does is load our custom handler: public class MvcStaThreadRouteHandler : IRouteHandler { public IHttpHandler GetHttpHandler(RequestContext requestContext) { if (requestContext == null) throw new ArgumentNullException("requestContext"); return new MvcStaThreadHttpAsyncHandler(requestContext); } } At this point you can instantiate this route handler and force STA requests to MVC by specifying a route. The following sets up the ASP.NET Default Route:Route mvcRoute = new Route("{controller}/{action}/{id}", new RouteValueDictionary( new { controller = "Home", action = "Index", id = UrlParameter.Optional }), new MvcStaThreadRouteHandler()); RouteTable.Routes.Add(mvcRoute);   To make this code a little easier to work with and mimic the behavior of the routes.MapRoute() functionality extension method that MVC provides, here is an extension method for MapMvcStaRoute(): public static class RouteCollectionExtensions { public static void MapMvcStaRoute(this RouteCollection routeTable, string name, string url, object defaults = null) { Route mvcRoute = new Route(url, new RouteValueDictionary(defaults), new MvcStaThreadRouteHandler()); RouteTable.Routes.Add(mvcRoute); } } With this the syntax to add  route becomes a little easier and matches the MapRoute() method:RouteTable.Routes.MapMvcStaRoute( name: "Default", url: "{controller}/{action}/{id}", defaults: new { controller = "Home", action = "Index", id = UrlParameter.Optional } ); The nice thing about this route handler, STA Handler and extension method is that it's fully self contained. You can put all three into a single class file and stick it into your Web app, and then simply call MapMvcStaRoute() and it just works. Easy! To see whether this works create an MVC controller like this: public class ThreadTestController : Controller { public string ThreadingMode() { return Thread.CurrentThread.GetApartmentState().ToString(); } } Try this test both with only the MapRoute() hookup in the RouteConfiguration in which case you should get MTA as the value. Then change the MapRoute() call to MapMvcStaRoute() leaving all the parameters the same and re-run the request. You now should see STA as the result. You're on your way using STA COM components reliably in ASP.NET MVC. WCF Web Services running through IIS WCF Web Services provide a more robust and wider range of services for Web Services. You can use WCF over HTTP, TCP, and Pipes, and WCF services support WS* secure services. There are many features in WCF that go way beyond what ASMX can do. But it's also a bit more complex than ASMX. As a basic rule if you need to serve straight SOAP Services over HTTP I 'd recommend sticking with the simpler ASMX services especially if COM is involved. If you need WS* support or want to serve data over non-HTTP protocols then WCF makes more sense. WCF is not my forte but I found a solution from Scott Seely on his blog that describes the progress and that seems to work well. I'm copying his code below so this STA information is all in one place and quickly explain. Scott's code basically works by creating a custom OperationBehavior which can be specified via an [STAOperation] attribute on every method. Using his attribute you end up with a class (or Interface if you separate the contract and class) that looks like this: [ServiceContract] public class WcfService { [OperationContract] public string HelloWorldMta() { return Thread.CurrentThread.GetApartmentState().ToString(); } // Make sure you use this custom STAOperationBehavior // attribute to force STA operation of service methods [STAOperationBehavior] [OperationContract] public string HelloWorldSta() { return Thread.CurrentThread.GetApartmentState().ToString(); } } Pretty straight forward. The latter method returns STA while the former returns MTA. To make STA work every method needs to be marked up. The implementation consists of the attribute and OperationInvoker implementation. Here are the two classes required to make this work from Scott's post:public class STAOperationBehaviorAttribute : Attribute, IOperationBehavior { public void AddBindingParameters(OperationDescription operationDescription, System.ServiceModel.Channels.BindingParameterCollection bindingParameters) { } public void ApplyClientBehavior(OperationDescription operationDescription, System.ServiceModel.Dispatcher.ClientOperation clientOperation) { // If this is applied on the client, well, it just doesn’t make sense. // Don’t throw in case this attribute was applied on the contract // instead of the implementation. } public void ApplyDispatchBehavior(OperationDescription operationDescription, System.ServiceModel.Dispatcher.DispatchOperation dispatchOperation) { // Change the IOperationInvoker for this operation. dispatchOperation.Invoker = new STAOperationInvoker(dispatchOperation.Invoker); } public void Validate(OperationDescription operationDescription) { if (operationDescription.SyncMethod == null) { throw new InvalidOperationException("The STAOperationBehaviorAttribute " + "only works for synchronous method invocations."); } } } public class STAOperationInvoker : IOperationInvoker { IOperationInvoker _innerInvoker; public STAOperationInvoker(IOperationInvoker invoker) { _innerInvoker = invoker; } public object[] AllocateInputs() { return _innerInvoker.AllocateInputs(); } public object Invoke(object instance, object[] inputs, out object[] outputs) { // Create a new, STA thread object[] staOutputs = null; object retval = null; Thread thread = new Thread( delegate() { retval = _innerInvoker.Invoke(instance, inputs, out staOutputs); }); thread.SetApartmentState(ApartmentState.STA); thread.Start(); thread.Join(); outputs = staOutputs; return retval; } public IAsyncResult InvokeBegin(object instance, object[] inputs, AsyncCallback callback, object state) { // We don’t handle async… throw new NotImplementedException(); } public object InvokeEnd(object instance, out object[] outputs, IAsyncResult result) { // We don’t handle async… throw new NotImplementedException(); } public bool IsSynchronous { get { return true; } } } The key in this setup is the Invoker and the Invoke method which creates a new thread and then fires the request on this new thread. Because this approach creates a new thread for every request it's not super efficient. There's a bunch of overhead involved in creating the thread and throwing it away after each thread, but it'll work for low volume requests and insure each thread runs in STA mode. If better performance is required it would be useful to create a custom thread manager that can pool a number of STA threads and hand off threads as needed rather than creating new threads on every request. If your Web Service needs are simple and you need only to serve standard SOAP 1.x requests, I would recommend sticking with ASMX services. It's easier to set up and work with and for STA component use it'll be significantly better performing since ASP.NET manages the STA thread pool for you rather than firing new threads for each request. One nice thing about Scotts code is though that it works in any WCF environment including self hosting. It has no dependency on ASP.NET or WebForms for that matter. STA - If you must STA components are a  pain in the ass and thankfully there isn't too much stuff out there anymore that requires it. But when you need it and you need to access STA functionality from .NET at least there are a few options available to make it happen. Each of these solutions is a bit hacky, but they work - I've used all of them in production with good results with FoxPro components. I hope compiling all of these in one place here makes it STA consumption a little bit easier. I feel your pain :-) Resources Download STA Handler Code Examples Scott Seely's original STA WCF OperationBehavior Article© Rick Strahl, West Wind Technologies, 2005-2012Posted in FoxPro   ASP.NET  .NET  COM   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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