Search Results

Search found 869 results on 35 pages for 'brad johnson'.

Page 34/35 | < Previous Page | 30 31 32 33 34 35  | Next Page >

• Parner Webcast - Innovations in Products Program

  - by Richard Lefebvre

  We are pleased to invite you to join the Innovations in Products –webcast. Innovations in Products will present Oracle Applications' Product's new functions and features including sales positioning. The key objectives of these webcasts are to inspire System Integrator's implementation personnel to conduct successful after sales in their Customer projects. Innovations in Products will be presented on the 1st Monday of each quarter after the billable day (4:00 to 5:00 PM CET). The webcast is intended for System Integrator's Implementation Certified Specialists but Innovations in Products is open for other interested Oracle Applications system Integrator's personnel as well. At first, two Oracle representatives will discuss Oracle's contribution to Partners. Then you will see product breakout session followed by Q&A with Oracle Experts. Each session will last for maximum 1 hour. A Q&A document covering all questions and answers will be made available after the webcast. What are the Benefits for partners? Find out how Innovations in Products helps you to improve your after sales Discover new functions and features so you can enrich your Customers's solution Learn more about Oracle Applications products, especially sales positioning Hear crucial questions raised by colleague alike, learn from their interest Engage and present your questions to subject experts Be inspired of the richness of Oracle Application portfolio – for your and your customer’s benefit Note: Should you already be familiar with a specific Product, then choose another one. Doing so you would expand your knowledge of the overall Applications portfolio. Some presentations contain product demonstration, although these presentations are not intended to be extremely detailed technical presentations. Note: At the latter part of this email you have also 17 links into the recent Applications Products presentations and 6 links into the Public Sector Value Proposition presentations that were presented in Innovations in Industries -program. Product breakout sessions: Topics Speaker To Register Fusion Applications Technology and Extensibility: A next-generation platform that adapts to client needs. Matthew Johnson, Sr. Director, SCM Product Development, EMEA CLICK HERE Fusion Applications - Transforming your Back-Office Accounting Function: Changing how people work in back office functions to drive value add Liam Nolan, Director, ERP Product Development, EMEA CLICK HERE Fusion HCM & Talent Overview & Extensibility: A more in-depth look into a personalized HCM solution Synco Jonkeren, Vice-President HCM Product Development & Management, EMEA CLICK HERE Fusion HCM Compensation Planning: Compensate To Compete Rosie Warner, Director, HCM Sales Development CLICK HERE Enterprise PLM for the Product Value Chain: Oracle Enterprise PLM offers Industry specific solutions that cover the Product Value Chain Ulf Köster, Sales Development Leader Enterprise PLM, Oracle Western Europe CLICK HERE Oracle's Asset Management and Maintenance Solution: What you need to know to successfully implement Oracle Asset Management solutions within Oracle Installed Base Philip Carey, Asset Management and Maintenance Solution Specialist CLICK HERE For more details please visit Innovations in Products and other breakout sessions on OPN page. Delivery Format Innovations in Products –program is a series of FREE prerecorded Applications product presentations followed by Q&A. It will be delivered over the Web. Participants have the opportunity to submit questions during the web cast via chat and subject matter experts will provide verbal answers live. Innovations in Products consists of several parallel prerecorded product breakout sessions, each lasting for max. 1 hour. At first, two Oracle representatives will discuss Oracle’s contribution to Partners. Then you’ll see the product breakout sessions followed by Q&A with Oracle Experts. A Q&A document covering all questions and answers will be made available after the webcast. You can also see Innovations in Products afterwards as its content will be available online for the next 6-12 months. The next Innovations in Products web casts will be presented as follows: July 2nd 2012 October 1st 2012 January 14th 2013 April 8th 2013. Note: Depending on local network bandwidth please allow some seconds time the presentations to download. You might want to refresh your screen by pressing F5. Duration Maximum 1 hour For further information please contact me Markku Rouhiainen. Recent Innovations in Products presentations Applications Products presented on April the 2nd, 2012 Speaker To Register Fusion CRM: Effective, Efficient and Easy James Penfold , Senior Director, Applications Product Development and Product Management CLICK HERE Fusion HCM: Talent management overview performance, goals, talent review Jaime Losantos Viñolas, Director, HCM Sales Development CLICK HERE Distributed Order Management - Fusion SCM Solution Vikram K Singla, Business Development Director, Supply Chain Management Applications, UK CLICK HERE Oracle Transportation Management Dominic Regan, Senior Director Oracle Transportation Management EMEA CLICK HERE Oracle Value Chain Planning: Demantra Sales & Operation Planning and Demantra Demand Management Lionel Albert, Senior Director Value Chain Planning, EMEA CLICK HERE Oracle CX (Customer Experience) - formerly CEM: Powering Great Customer Experiences Maria Ramirez , CRM Presales Consultant, EPC CLICK HERE EPM 11.1.2.2 Overview Nicholas Cox , EMEA Sales Development Director - Enterprise Performance Management CLICK HERE Oracle Hyperion Profitability and Cost Management, 11.1.2.1 Daniela Lazar , Senior EPM Sales Consultant, EPC CLICK HERE January the 16th 2012 Speaker To Register CRM / ATG: Best-in-Class CRM & Commerce Maria Ramirez , Associate CRM Presales Consultant, EPC CLICK HERE CRM / Automate Business Rules for Maximum Efficiency with OPA (Oracle Policy Automation) Marco Nilo, Associate CRM Presales Consultant, EPC CLICK HERE CRM / InQuira Toby Baker, Principal Sales Consultant, CRM Product Specialist Team CLICK HERE EPM / Business Intelligence Foundation Suite – Sales and Product Updates Liviu Nitescu, Senior BI Sales Consultant, EPC CLICK HERE EPM / Hyperion Planning 11.1.2.1 - Sales & Product Updates Andreea Voinea, EPM Sales Consultant, EPC CLICK HERE ERP / JDE EnterpriseOne Fulfillment Management Overview Mirela Andreea Nasta , ERP Presales Consultant, EPC CLICK HERE ERP / Spotlights on iExpenses Elena Nita ,ERP Presales Consultant, EPC CLICK HERE MDM / Master Data Management Martin Boyd , Senior Director Product Strategy CLICK HERE Product break through session Fusion Applications Human Capital Management Rosie Warner , Director, HCM Sales Development CLICK HERE Recent Innovations in Industries Value Proposition presentations January the 16th 2012 Speaker To Register Process Modernisation Iemke Idsingh Public Sector Solutions Director CLICK HERE Shared Services Ann Smith Business Development Director, Shared Services CLICK HERE Strengthening Financial Discipline Whilst Delivering Cashable Savings Philippa Headley UK Sales Development Director Public Sector - EPM Solutions CLICK HERE Social Welfare Industry Solutions Christian Wernberg-Tougaard Industry Director - Social Welfare CLICK HERE Police Industry Solutions Jeff Penrose Solution Sales Director CLICK HERE Tax and Revenue Management Industry Solutions Andre van der Post Global Director - Tax Solutions and Strategy CLICK HERE  

  Read the article

• State of the (Commerce) Union: What the healthcare.gov hiccups teach us about the commerce customer experience

  - by Katrina Gosek

  Guest Post by Brenna Johnson, Oracle Commerce Product A lot has been said about the healthcare.gov debacle in the last week. Regardless of your feelings about the Affordable Care Act, there’s a hidden issue in this story that most of the American people don’t understand: delivering a great commerce customer experience (CX) is hard. It shouldn’t be, but it is. The reality of the government’s issues getting the healthcare site up and running smooth is something we in the online commerce community know too well.  If there’s one thing the botched launch of the site has taught us, it’s that regardless of the size of your budget or the power of an executive with a high-profile project, some of the biggest initiatives with the most attention (and the most at stake) don’t go as planned. It may even give you a moment of solace – we have the same issues! But why?  Organizations engage too many separate vendors with different technologies, running sections or pieces of a site to get live. When things go wrong, it takes time to identify the problem – and who or what is at the center of it. Unfortunately, this is a brittle way of setting up a site, making it susceptible to breaks, bugs, and scaling issues. But, it’s the reality of running a site with legacy technology constraints in today’s demanding, customer-centric market. This approach also means there’s also a lot of cooks in lots of different kitchens. You’ve got development and IT, the business and the marketing team, an external Systems Integrator to bring it all together, a digital agency or consultant, QA, product experts, 3rd party suppliers, and the list goes on. To complicate things, different business units are held responsible for different pieces of the site and managing different technologies. And again – due to legacy organizational structure and processes, this is all accepted as the normal State of the Union. Digital commerce has been commonplace for 15 years. Yet, getting a site live, maintained and performing requires orchestrating a cast of thousands (or at least, dozens), big dollars, and some finger-crossing. But it shouldn’t. The great thing about the advent of mobile commerce and the continued maturity of online commerce is that it’s forced organizations to think from the outside, in. Consumers – whether they’re shopping for shoes or a new healthcare plan – don’t care about what technology issues or processes you have behind the scenes. They just want it to work.  They want their experience to be easy, fast, and tailored to them and their needs – whatever they are. This doesn’t sound like a tall order to the American consumer – especially since they interact with sites that do work smoothly.  But the reality is that it takes scores of people, teams, check-ins, late nights, testing, and some good luck to get sites to run, and even more so at Black Friday (or October 1st) traffic levels.  The last thing on a customer’s mind is making excuses for why they can’t buy a product – just get it to work. So what is the government doing? My guess is working day and night to get the site performing  - and having to throw big money at the problem. In the meantime they’re sending frustrated online users to the call center, or even a location where a trained “navigator” can help them in-person to complete their selection. Sounds a lot like multichannel commerce (where broken communication between siloed touchpoints will only frustrate the consumer more). One thing we’ve learned is that consumers spend their time and money with brands they know and trust. When sites are easy to use and adapt to their needs, they tend to spend more, come back, and even become long-time loyalists. Achieving this may require moving internal mountains, but there’s too much at stake to ignore the sea change in how organizations are thinking about their customer. If the thought of re-thinking your internal teams, technologies, and processes sounds like a headache, think about the pain associated with losing valuable customers – and dollars. Regardless if you’re in B2B or B2C, it’s guaranteed that your competitors are making CX a priority. Those early to the game who have made CX a priority have already begun to outpace their competition. So as you’re planning for 2014, look to the news this week. Make sure the customer experience is a focus at your organization. Expectations are at record highs. Map your customer’s journey, and think from the outside, in. How easy is it for your customers to do business with you? If they interact with many touchpoints across your organization, are the call center, website, mobile environment, or brick and mortar location in sync? Do you have the technology in place to achieve this? It’s time to give the people what they want!

  Read the article

• Downloading Python 2.5.4 (from official website) in order to install it

  - by brilliant

  I was quite hesitant about whether I should post this question here on "StackOverflow" or on "SuperUser", but finally decided to post it here as Python is more a programming language rather than a piece of software. I've been recently using Python 2.5.4 that is installed on my computer, but at the moment I am not at home (and won't be for about two weeks from now), so I need to install the same version of Python on another computer. This computer has Windows XP installed – just like the one that I have at home. The reason why I need Python 2.5.4 is because I am using “Google App Engine”, and I was told that it only supports Python 2.5 However, when I went to the official Python page for the download, I discovered that certain things have changed, and I don’t quite remember where exactly from that site I had downloaded Python 2.5.4 on my computer at home. I found this page: http://www.python.org/download/releases/2.5.4/ Here is how it looks: (If you can’t see it here, please check it out at this address: http://brad.cwahi.net/some_pictures/python_page.jpg ) A few things here are not clear to me. It says: For x86 processors: python-2.5.4.msi For Win64-Itanium users: python-2.5.4.ia64.msi For Win64-AMD64 users: python-2.5.4.amd64.msi First of all, I don’t know what processor I am using – whether mine is “x86” or not; and also, I don’t know whether I am an “Win64-Itanium” or an “Win64-AMD64” user. Are Itanium and AMD64 also processors? Later it says: Windows XP and later already have MSI; many older machines will already have MSI installed. I guess, it is my case, but then I am totally puzzled as to which link I should click as it seems now that I don’t need those three previous links (as MSI is already installed on Windows XP), but there is no fourth link provided for those who use “Windows XP” or older machines. Of course, there are these words after that: Windows users may also be interested in Mark Hammond's win32all package, available from Sourceforge. but it seems to me that it is something additional rather than the main file. So, my question is simple: Where in the official Python website I can download Python 2.5.4, precisely, which link I should click?

  Read the article

• Deserializing JSON data to C# using JSON.NET

  - by Derek Utah

  I'm relatively new to working with C# and JSON data and am seeking guidance. I'm using C# 3.0, with .NET3.5SP1, and JSON.NET 3.5r6. I have a defined C# class that I need to populate from a JSON structure. However, not every JSON structure for an entry that is retrieved from the web service contains all possible attributes that are defined within the C# class. I've been being doing what seems to be the wrong, hard way and just picking out each value one by one from the JObject and transforming the string into the desired class property. JsonSerializer serializer = new JsonSerializer(); var o = (JObject)serializer.Deserialize(myjsondata); MyAccount.EmployeeID = (string)o["employeeid"][0]; What is the best way to deserialize a JSON structure into the C# class and handling possible missing data from the JSON source? My class is defined as: public class MyAccount { [JsonProperty(PropertyName = "username")] public string UserID { get; set; } [JsonProperty(PropertyName = "givenname")] public string GivenName { get; set; } [JsonProperty(PropertyName = "sn")] public string Surname { get; set; } [JsonProperty(PropertyName = "passwordexpired")] public DateTime PasswordExpire { get; set; } [JsonProperty(PropertyName = "primaryaffiliation")] public string PrimaryAffiliation { get; set; } [JsonProperty(PropertyName = "affiliation")] public string[] Affiliation { get; set; } [JsonProperty(PropertyName = "affiliationstatus")] public string AffiliationStatus { get; set; } [JsonProperty(PropertyName = "affiliationmodifytimestamp")] public DateTime AffiliationLastModified { get; set; } [JsonProperty(PropertyName = "employeeid")] public string EmployeeID { get; set; } [JsonProperty(PropertyName = "accountstatus")] public string AccountStatus { get; set; } [JsonProperty(PropertyName = "accountstatusexpiration")] public DateTime AccountStatusExpiration { get; set; } [JsonProperty(PropertyName = "accountstatusexpmaxdate")] public DateTime AccountStatusExpirationMaxDate { get; set; } [JsonProperty(PropertyName = "accountstatusmodifytimestamp")] public DateTime AccountStatusModified { get; set; } [JsonProperty(PropertyName = "accountstatusexpnotice")] public string AccountStatusExpNotice { get; set; } [JsonProperty(PropertyName = "accountstatusmodifiedby")] public Dictionary<DateTime, string> AccountStatusModifiedBy { get; set; } [JsonProperty(PropertyName = "entrycreatedate")] public DateTime EntryCreatedate { get; set; } [JsonProperty(PropertyName = "entrydeactivationdate")] public DateTime EntryDeactivationDate { get; set; } } And a sample of the JSON to parse is: { "givenname": [ "Robert" ], "passwordexpired": "20091031041550Z", "accountstatus": [ "active" ], "accountstatusexpiration": [ "20100612000000Z" ], "accountstatusexpmaxdate": [ "20110410000000Z" ], "accountstatusmodifiedby": { "20100214173242Z": "tdecker", "20100304003242Z": "jsmith", "20100324103242Z": "jsmith", "20100325000005Z": "rjones", "20100326210634Z": "jsmith", "20100326211130Z": "jsmith" }, "accountstatusmodifytimestamp": [ "20100312001213Z" ], "affiliation": [ "Employee", "Contractor", "Staff" ], "affiliationmodifytimestamp": [ "20100312001213Z" ], "affiliationstatus": [ "detached" ], "entrycreatedate": [ "20000922072747Z" ], "username": [ "rjohnson" ], "primaryaffiliation": [ "Staff" ], "employeeid": [ "999777666" ], "sn": [ "Johnson" ] }

  Read the article

• I am using a constructor for my array but why is it saying i need a return type?

  - by JB

  using System; using System.IO; using System.Data; using System.Text; using System.Drawing; using System.Data.OleDb; using System.Collections; using System.ComponentModel; using System.Windows.Forms; using System.Drawing.Printing; using System.Collections.Generic; namespace Eagle_Eye_Class_Finder { public class GetSchedule { public class IDnumber { public string Name { get; set; } public string ID { get; set; } public string year { get; set; } public string class1 { get; set; } public string class2 { get; set; } public string class3 { get; set; } public string class4 { get; set; } IDnumber[] IDnumbers = new IDnumber[3]; public GetSchedule() //here i get an error saying method must have a return type??? { IDnumbers[0] = new IDnumber() { Name = "Joshua Banks",ID = "900456317", year = "Senior", class1 = "TEET 4090", class2 = "TEET 3020", class3 = "TEET 3090", class4 = "TEET 4290" }; IDnumbers[1] = new IDnumber() { Name = "Sean Ward", ID = "900456318", year = "Junior", class1 = "ENGNR 4090", class2 = "ENGNR 3020", class3 = "ENGNR 3090", class4 = "ENGNR 4290" }; IDnumbers[2] = new IDnumber() { Name = "Terrell Johnson",ID = "900456319",year = "Sophomore", class1 = "BUS 4090", class2 = "BUS 3020", class3 = "BUS 3090", class4 = "BUS 4290" }; } static void ProcessNumber(IDnumber myNum) { StringBuilder myData = new StringBuilder(); myData.AppendLine(IDnumber.Name); myData.AppendLine(": "); myData.AppendLine(IDnumber.ID); myData.AppendLine(IDnumber.year); myData.AppendLine(IDnumber.class1); myData.AppendLine(IDnumber.class2); myData.AppendLine(IDnumber.class3); myData.AppendLine(IDnumber.class4); MessageBox.Show(myData); } public string GetDataFromNumber(string ID) { foreach (IDnumber idCandidateMatch in IDnumbers) { if (IDCandidateMatch.ID == ID) { StringBuilder myData = new StringBuilder(); myData.AppendLine(IDnumber.Name); myData.AppendLine(": "); myData.AppendLine(IDnumber.ID); myData.AppendLine(IDnumber.year); myData.AppendLine(IDnumber.class1); myData.AppendLine(IDnumber.class2); myData.AppendLine(IDnumber.class3); myData.AppendLine(IDnumber.class4); return myData; } } return ""; } } } }

  Read the article

• custom control in DataGridTemplateColumn

  - by Johnsonlu

  Hi all, I'd like to add my custom control into a template column of data grid. The custom control is very similar to a text box, but has an icon in it. The user can click the icon, and selects an item from a prompted window, then the selected item will be filled into the text box. My problem is when the text box is filled, after I click the second column, the text will disappear. If I replace the custom control with a simple text box, the result is the same. Here is the sample code: //Employee.cs using System; using System.Collections.Generic; using System.Linq; using System.Text; namespace SimpleGridTest { public class Employee { public string Department { get; set; } public int ID { get; set; } public string Name { get; set; } } } Mainwindow.xaml <Window x:Class="SimpleGridTest.MainWindow" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation" xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml" Title="MainWindow" Height="350" Width="525"> <Grid> <DataGrid x:Name="grid" Grid.Row="1" Margin="5" AutoGenerateColumns="False" RowHeight="25" RowHeaderWidth="10" ItemsSource="{Binding}" CanUserAddRows="True" CanUserSortColumns="False"> <DataGrid.Columns> <DataGridTemplateColumn Header="Department" Width="150"> <DataGridTemplateColumn.CellTemplate> <DataTemplate> <TextBox Text="{Binding Department}" /> </DataTemplate> </DataGridTemplateColumn.CellTemplate> </DataGridTemplateColumn> <DataGridTextColumn Header="ID" Binding="{Binding Path=ID}" Width="100"/> <DataGridTextColumn Header="Name" Binding="{Binding Path=Name}" Width="200"/> </DataGrid.Columns> </DataGrid> </Grid> </Window> MainWindow.xaml.cs using System.Windows; using System.Collections.ObjectModel; namespace SimpleGridTest { /// <summary> /// Interaction logic for MainWindow.xaml /// </summary> public partial class MainWindow : Window { private ObservableCollection<Employee> _employees = new ObservableCollection<Employee>(); public ObservableCollection<Employee> Employees { get { return _employees; } set { _employees = value; } } public MainWindow() { InitializeComponent(); grid.ItemsSource = Employees; } } } How can I fix this problem? Or I need to write a DataGrid***Column as DataGridTextColumn? Thanks in advance! Best Regards, Johnson

  Read the article

• Sorting a list of numbers with modified cost

  - by David

  First, this was one of the four problems we had to solve in a project last year and I couldn’t find a suitable algorithm so we handle in a brute force solution. Problem: The numbers are in a list that is not sorted and supports only one type of operation. The operation is defined as follows: Given a position i and a position j the operation moves the number at position i to position j without altering the relative order of the other numbers. If i j, the positions of the numbers between positions j and i - 1 increment by 1, otherwise if i < j the positions of the numbers between positions i+1 and j decreases by 1. This operation requires i steps to find a number to move and j steps to locate the position to which you want to move it. Then the number of steps required to move a number of position i to position j is i+j. We need to design an algorithm that given a list of numbers, determine the optimal (in terms of cost) sequence of moves to rearrange the sequence. Attempts: Part of our investigation was around NP-Completeness, we make it a decision problem and try to find a suitable transformation to any of the problems listed in Garey and Johnson’s book: Computers and Intractability with no results. There is also no direct reference (from our point of view) to this kind of variation in Donald E. Knuth’s book: The art of Computer Programing Vol. 3 Sorting and Searching. We also analyzed algorithms to sort linked lists but none of them gives a good idea to find de optimal sequence of movements. Note that the idea is not to find an algorithm that orders the sequence, but one to tell me the optimal sequence of movements in terms of cost that organizes the sequence, you can make a copy and sort it to analyze the final position of the elements if you want, in fact we may assume that the list contains the numbers from 1 to n, so we know where we want to put each number, we are just concerned with minimizing the total cost of the steps. We tested several greedy approaches but all of them failed, divide and conquer sorting algorithms can’t be used because they swap with no cost portions of the list and our dynamic programing approaches had to consider many cases. The brute force recursive algorithm takes all the possible combinations of movements from i to j and then again all the possible moments of the rest of the element’s, at the end it returns the sequence with less total cost that sorted the list, as you can imagine the cost of this algorithm is brutal and makes it impracticable for more than 8 elements. Our observations: n movements is not necessarily cheaper than n+1 movements (unlike swaps in arrays that are O(1)). There are basically two ways of moving one element from position i to j: one is to move it directly and the other is to move other elements around i in a way that it reaches the position j. At most you make n-1 movements (the untouched element reaches its position alone). If it is the optimal sequence of movements then you didn’t move the same element twice.

  Read the article

• March 21st Links: ASP.NET, ASP.NET MVC, AJAX, Visual Studio, Silverlight

  - by ScottGu

  Here is the latest in my link-listing series. If you haven’t already, check out this month’s "Find a Hoster” page on the www.asp.net website to learn about great (and very inexpensive) ASP.NET hosting offers.  [In addition to blogging, I am also now using Twitter for quick updates and to share links. Follow me at: twitter.com/scottgu] ASP.NET URL Routing in ASP.NET 4: Scott Mitchell has a nice article that talks about the new URL routing features coming to Web Forms applications with ASP.NET 4.  Also check out my previous blog post on this topic. Control of Web Control ClientID Values in ASP.NET 4: Scott Mitchell has a nice article that describes how it is now easy to control the client “id” value emitted by server controls with ASP.NET 4. Web Deployment Made Awesome: Very nice MIX10 talk by Scott Hanselman on the new web deployment features coming with VS 2010, MSDeploy, and .NET 4.  Makes deploying web applications much, much easier. ASP.NET 4’s Browser Capabilities Support: Nice blog post by Stephen Walther that talks about the new browser definition capabilities support coming with ASP.NET 4. Integrating Twitter into an ASP.NET Website: Nice article by Scott Mitchell that demonstrates how to call and integrate Twitter from within your ASP.NET applications. Improving CSS with .LESS: Nice article by Scott Mitchell that describes how to optimize CSS using .LESS – a free, open source library. ASP.NET MVC Upgrading ASP.NET MVC 1 applications to ASP.NET MVC 2: Eilon Lipton from the ASP.NET team has a nice post that describes how to easily upgrade your ASP.NET MVC 1 applications to ASP.NET MVC 2.  He has an automated tool that makes this easy. Note that automated MVC upgrade support is also built-into VS 2010.  Use the tool in this blog post for updating existing MVC projects using VS 2008. Advanced ASP.NET MVC 2: Nice video talk by Brad Wilson of the ASP.NET MVC team.  In it he describes some of the more advanced features in ASP.NET MVC 2 and how to maximize your productivity with them. Dynamic Select Lists with ASP.NET MVC and jQuery: Michael Ceranski has a nice blog post that describes how to dynamically populate dropdownlists on the client using AJAX. AJAX Microsoft AJAX Minifier: We recently shipped an updated minifier utility that allows you to shrink/minify both JavaScript and CSS files – which can improve the performance of your web applications.  You can run this either manually as a command-line tool or now automatically integrate it using a Visual Studio build task.  You can download it for free here. Visual Studio VS 2010 Tip: Quickly Closing Documents: Nice blog post that describes some techniques for optimizing how windows are closed with the new VS 2010 IDE. Collpase to Definitions with Outlining: Nice tip from Zain on how to collapse your code editor to outline mode using Ctrl + M, Ctrl + O.  Also check out his post on copy/paste with outlining here. $299 VS 2010 Upgrade Offer for VS 2005/2008 Standard Users: Soma blogs about a nice VS 2010 upgrade offer you can take advantage of if you have VS 2005 or VS 2008 Standard editions.  For $299 you can upgrade to VS 2010 Professional edition. Dependency Graphics: Jason Zander (who runs the VS team) has a nice blog post that covers the new dependency graph support within VS 2010.  This makes it easier to visualize the dependencies within your application.  Also check out this video here. Layer Validation: Jason Zander has a nice blog post that talks about the new layer validation features in VS 2010.  This enables you to enforce cleaner layering within your projects and solutions.  VS 2010 Profiler Blog: The VS 2010 Profiler Team has their own blog and on it you can find a bunch of nice posts from the last few months that talk about a lot of the new features coming with VS 2010’s Profiler support.  Some really nice features coming. Silverlight Silverlight 4 Training Course: Nice free set of training courses from Microsoft that can help bring you up to speed on all of the new Silverlight 4 features and how to build applications with them.  Updated and current with the recently released Silverlight 4 RC build and tools. Getting Started with Silverlight and Windows Phone 7 Development: Nice blog post by Tim Heuer that summarizes how to get started building Windows Phone 7 applications using Silverlight.  Also check out my blog post from last week on how to build a Windows Phone 7 Twitter application using Silverlight. A Guide to What Has Changed with the Silverlight 4 RC: Nice summary post by Tim Heuer that describes all of the things that have changed between the Silverlight 4 Beta and the Silverlight 4 RC. Path Based Layout - Part 1 and Part 2: Christian Schormann has a nice blog post about a really cool new feature in Expression Blend 4 and Silverlight 4 called Path Layout. Also check out Andy Beaulieu’s blog post on this. Hope this helps, Scott

  Read the article

• Going to the Score Cards - Exceptional DBA Awards 2011

  - by Rodney

  This year marks my 4th year as a judge for the Exceptional DBA Awards, founded by Red Gate in 2008 to "recognize the essential but often overlooked contributions of DBAs, the unsung heroes of the IT community." As a professional DBA myself I have been honored to participate as a judge. It is not an easy job because there is a voluminous amount of nominees from all over the world. Each judge has to read through every word of the nominee's answers, deciding what makes each person special and stand out amongst their peers. What drives them? What single element of their submission will shine above all others? It is my hope that what I am about to divulge to you as a judge will prompt you to think about yourself or someone you know and decide that you may be the exceptional DBA who can take home the gold at this year's award ceremony in Seattle. We are more than a few weeks into the nomination process and there are quite a number of submissions already. I can not tell you how many as that would not be fair. I can say it is not 1 million or more. I can also say that it is not 100,000. But that is all I can say about that. However, I can tell you that it is enough this year that we are breaking records on the number of people who have been influenced, inspired or intrigued by the awards in the past. I remember them all like it were yesterday. fuzzy thought cloud here. It was a rainy day in Seattle (all memories for each award ceremony will start thusly) and I was in the hotel going over my notes on what I wanted to say about the winner of the 2008 Red Gate Exceptional DBA Award. The notes were on index cards that I had either bought or stolen from my wife, I do not recall, but I was nervous which was unlike me. This was, after all, a big night for the winner. Of course, we, the judges and the SQL community, had already decided the winner and now all that remained was to present the award. The room was packed. It was Casino night, sponsored by sqlservercentral.com. Money (fake), drinks (not fake) and camaraderie flowed through the room. Dan McClain won the award that year. He worked for Anheuser-Busch at the time. I promise that did not influence my decision. We presented Dan with the award. He was very proud of this achievement, rightfully so, as was the SQL community for him. I spoke with Dan throughout the conference and realized how huge this award was for him, not just personally but professionally. It was a rainy day in Seattle in 2009 and I was nervous. I was asked to speak to a group of people again as a judge for the Exceptional DBA Awards. This year, Josef Richberg would be the recipient of the award, but he would not be able to attend. We all prayed for him as he fought through an illness and congratulated him for his accomplishments as a DBA for his company. He got better and sallied forth and continued to give back to the SQL community that he saw as one big family. In 2010, and I am getting ahead of myself, he was asked to be a judge himself for the very award he had just received the year before. It was a sunny day in Seattle and I missed it, because it was in July and I was not there. It was a rainy day in Seattle and it is 2010 and Tracy Hamlin enters a submission that blows this judge away. She is managing a 50 Terabyte distributed database ("50 Gigabytes! Are you kidding me!!!", Rodney jokes.)  and loves her daily job as a DBA working with developers, mentoring them and teaching them best practices with kindness and patience. She is a people person who just happens to have 10+ years experience with RDBMS'. She wins the award and goes on to be recognized as famous at PASS. It will be a rainy day in Seattle this year when I sit amongst my old constituent judges and friends, Brad McGehee, http://www.simple-talk.com/books/sql-books/how-to-become-an-exceptional-dba,-2nd-edition/, Steve Jones, whom we all know and love at http://www.sqlservercentral.com and a young upstart to the SQL Community, this cat named Brent Ozar to announce the 2011 winner. I personally have not heard of Brent but I am told I have interviewed him for a DBA position several years ago and turned him down, http://www.brentozar.com/archive/2011/05/exceptional-dba-contest/ . I hope that did not jeopardize his future in the SQL world. I am a big hearted oaf and would feel horrible. Hopefully I will meet him at PASS and we can work this all out and I can help him get a DBA job. The rain has stopped and a new year is upon us. The stakes are high...the competition is fierce...the rewards are incredible. The entry form awaits you. http://www.exceptionaldba.com/ I very much look forward to meeting you and presenting the award to you in front of hundreds of your envious but proud peers as the new Exceptional DBA for 2011 at the PASS Summit. Here is what you could win: The Exceptional DBA of the Year receives full conference registration for the 2011 PSS Summit in Seattle, where the awards ceremony will take place, four nights' hotel accommodation, and $300 towards travel expenses. They will also be featured on Simple-Talk. Are you ready? Are you nervous?

  Read the article

• How do you use blog content?

  - by fatherjack

  Do you write a blog, have you ever thought about it? I think people fall into one of a few categories when it comes to blogs, especially blogs with technical content. Writing articles furiously - daily, twice daily and reading dozens of others. Writing the odd piece of content and read plenty of others' output. Started a blog once and its fizzled out but reading lots. Thought about starting a blog someday but never got around to it, hopping into the occasional blog when a link or a Tweet takes them there. Never thought about writing one but often catching content from them when Google (or other preferred search engine) finds content related to their search. Now I am not saying that either of these is right or wrong, nor am I saying that anyone should feel any compulsion to be in any particular category. What I would say is that you as a blog reader have the power to move blog writers from one category to another. How, you might ask? How do I have any power over a blog writer? It is very simple - feedback. If you give feedback then the blog writer knows that they are reaching an audience, if there is no response then they we are simply writing down our thoughts for what could amount to nothing more than a feeble amount of exercise and a few more key stokes towards the onset of RSI. Most blogs have a mechanism to alert the writer when there are comments, and personally speaking, if an email is received saying there has been a response to a blog article then there is a rush of enthusiasm, a moment of excitement that someone is actually reading and considering the text that was submitted and made available for the whole world to read. I am relatively new to this blog game and could be in some extended honeymoon period as I have also recently been incorporated into the Simple Talk 'stable'. I can understand that once you get to the "Dizzy Heights of Ozar" (www.brentozar.com) then getting comments and feedback might not be such a pleasure and may even be rather more of a chore but that, I guess, is the price of fame. For us mere mortals starting out blogging, getting feedback (or even at the moment for me, simply the hope of getting feedback) is what keeps it going. The hope that you will pick a topic that hasn't been done recently by Brad McGehee, Grant Fritchey,  Paul Randall, Thomas LaRock or any one of the dozen of rock star bloggers listed here or others from SQLServerPedia and so on, and then do it well enough to be found, reviewed, or <shudder> (re)tweeted to bring more visitors is what we are striving for, along with the fact that the content we might produce is something that will be of benefit to others. There is only so much point to typing content that no-one is reading and putting it on a blog. You may as well just write it in a diary. A technical blog is not like, say, a blog covering photography techniques where the way to frame and take a picture stands true whether it was written last week, last year or last century - technical content goes sour, quite quickly. There isn't much call for articles about yesterdays technology unless its something that still applies to current versions too, so some content written no more than 2 years ago isn't worth having now. The combination of a piece of content that you know is going to not last long and the fact that no-one reads it is a strong force against writing anything else. Getting feedback counters that despair and gives a value to writing something new. I would say that any feedback is good but there are obviously comments that are just so negative or otherwise badly phrased that they would hasten the demise of a blog but, in general most feedback will encourage a writer. It may not be a comment that supports or agrees with the main theme of a post but if it generates discussion or opens up a previously unexplored viewpoint it is contributing to the blog and is therefore encouraging to the writer. Even if you only say "thank you" before you leave a blog, having taken a section of script to use for yourself or having been given a few links to some content that has widened your knowledge it will be so welcome to the blog owner. Isn't it also the decent thing to do, acknowledging that you have benefited from another's efforts?

  Read the article

• Welcome to Jackstown

  - by fatherjack

  I live in a small town, the population count isn't that great but let me introduce you to some of the population. We'll start with Martin the Doc, he fixes up anything that gets poorly, so much so that he could be classed as the doctor, the vet and even the garage mechanic. He's got a reputation that he can fix anything and that hasn't been proved wrong yet. He's great friends with Brian (who gets called "Brains") the teacher who seems to have a sound understanding of any topic you care to pass his way. If he isn't sure he tells you and then goes to find out and comes back with a full answer real quick. Its good to have that sort of research capability close at hand. Brains is also great at encouraging anyone who needs a bit of support to get them up to speed and working on their jobs. Steve sees Brains regularly, that's because he is the librarian, he keeps all sorts of reading material and nowadays there's even video to watch about any topic you like. Steve keeps scouring all sorts of places to get the content that's needed and he keeps it in good order so that what ever is needed can be found quickly. He also has to make sure that old stuff gets marked as probably out of date so that anyone reading it wont get mislead. Over the road from him is Greg, he's the town crier. We don't have a newspaper here so Greg keeps us all informed of what's going on "out of town" - what new stuff we might make use of and what wont work in a small place like this. If we are interested he goes ahead and gets people in to demonstrate their products  and tell us about the details. Greg is pretty good at getting us discounts too. Now Greg's brother Ian works for the mayors office in the "waste management department" nowadays its all about the recycling but he still has to make sure that the stuff that cant be used any more gets disposed of properly. It depends on the type of waste he's dealing with that decides how it need to be treated and he has to know a lot about the different methods and when to use which ones. There are two people that keep the peace in town, Brent is the detective, investigating wrong doings and applying justice where necessary and Bart is the diplomat who smooths things over when any people have a dispute or disagreement. Brent is meticulous in his investigations and fair in the way he handles any situation he finds. Discretion is his byword. There's a rumour that Bart used to work for the United Nations but what ever his history there is no denying his ability to get apparently irreconcilable parties working together to their combined benefit. Someone who works closely with Bart is Brad, he is the translator in town. He has several languages that he can converse in but he can also explain things from someone's point of view or  and make it understandable to someone else. To keep things on the straight and narrow from a legal perspective is Ben the solicitor, making sure we all abide by the rules.Two people who make for an interesting evening's conversation if you get them together are Aaron and Grant, Aaron is the local planning inspector and Grant is an inventor of some reputation. Anything being constructed around here needs Aarons agreement. He's quite flexible in his rules though; if you can justify what you want to do with solid logic but he wont stand for any development going on without his inclusion. That gets a demolition notice and there's no argument. Grant as I mentioned is the inventor in town, if something can be improved or created then Grant is your man. He mainly works on his own but isnt averse to getting specific advice and assistance from specialist from out of town if they can help him finish his creations.There aren't too many people left for you to meet in the town, there's Rob, he's an ex professional sportsman. He played Hockey, Football, Cricket, you name it. He was in his element as goal keeper / wicket keeper and that shows in his personal life. He just goes about his business and people often don't even know that he's helped them. Really low profile, doesn't get any glory but saves people from lots of problems, even disasters on occasion. There goes Neil, he's a bit of an odd person, some people say he's gifted with special clairvoyant powers, personally I think he's got his ear to the ground and knows where to find out the important news as soon as its made public. Anyone getting a visit from Neil is best off to follow his advice though, he's usually spot on and you wont be caught by surprise if you follow his recommendations – wherever it comes from.Poor old Andrew is the last person to introduce you to. Andrew doesn't show himself too often but when he does it seems that people find a reason to blame him for their problems, whether he had anything to do with their predicament or not. In all honesty, without fail, and to his great credit, he takes it in good grace and never retaliates or gets annoyed when he's out and about.  It pays off too as its very often the case that those who were blaming him recently suddenly find they need his help and they readily forget the issues pretty rapidly.And then there's me, what do I do in town? Well, I'm just a DBA with a lot of hats. (Jackstown Pop. 1)

  Read the article

• Mixed Emotions: Humans React to Natural Language Computer

  - by Applications User Experience

  There was a big event in Silicon Valley on Tuesday, November 15. Watson, the natural language computer developed at IBM Watson Research Center in Yorktown Heights, New York, and its inventor and principal research investigator, David Ferrucci, were guests at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California for another round of the television game Jeopardy. You may have read about or watched on YouTube how Watson beat Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter, two top Jeopardy competitors, last February. This time, Watson swept the floor with two Silicon Valley high-achievers, one a venture capitalist with a background  in math, computer engineering, and physics, and the other a technology and finance writer well-versed in all aspects of culture and humanities. Watson is the product of the DeepQA research project, which attempts to create an artificially intelligent computing system through advances in natural language processing (NLP), among other technologies. NLP is a computing strategy that seeks to provide answers by processing large amounts of unstructured data contained in multiple large domains of human knowledge. There are several ways to perform NLP, but one way to start is by recognizing key words, then processing  contextual  cues associated with the keyword concepts so that you get many more “smart” (that is, human-like) deductions,  rather than a series of “dumb” matches.  Jeopardy questions often require more than key word matching to get the correct answer; typically several pieces of information put together, often from vastly different categories, to come up with a satisfactory word string solution that can be rephrased as a question.  Smarter than your average search engine, but is it as smart as a human? Watson was especially fast at descrambling mixed-up state capital names, and recalling and pairing movie titles where one started and the other ended in the same word (e.g., Billion Dollar Baby Boom, where both titles used the word Baby). David said they had basically removed the variable of how fast Watson hit the buzzer compared to human contestants, but frustration frequently appeared on the faces of the contestants beaten to the punch by Watson. David explained that top Jeopardy winners like Jennings achieved their success with a similar strategy, timing their buzz to the end of the reading of the clue,  and “running the board”, being first to respond on about 60% of the clues.  Similar results for Watson. It made sense that Watson would be good at the technical and scientific stuff, so I figured the venture capitalist was toast. But I thought for sure Watson would lose to the writer in categories such as pop culture, wines and foods, and other humanities. Surprisingly, it held its own. I was amazed it could recognize a word definition of a syllogism in the category of philosophy. So what was the audience reaction to all of this? We started out expecting our formidable human contestants to easily run some of their categories; however, they started off on the wrong foot with the state capitals which Watson could unscramble so efficiently. By the end of the first round, contestants and the audience were feeling a little bit, well, …. deflated. Watson was winning by about $13,000, and the humans had gone into negative dollars. The IBM host said he was going to “slow Watson down a bit,” and the humans came back with respectable scores in Double Jeopardy. This was partially thanks to a very sympathetic audience (and host, also a human) providing “group-think” on many questions, especially baseball ‘s most valuable players, which by the way, couldn’t have been hard because even I knew them.  Yes, that’s right, the humans cheated. Since Watson could speak but not hear us (it didn’t have speech recognition capability), it was probably unaware of this. In Final Jeopardy, the single question had to do with law. I was sure Watson would blow this one, but all contestants were able to answer correctly about a copyright law. In a career devoted to making computers more helpful to people, I think I may have seen how a computer can do too much. I’m not sure I’d want to work side-by-side with a Watson doing my job. Certainly listening and empathy are important traits we humans still have over Watson.  While there was great enthusiasm in the packed room of computer scientists and their friends for this standing-room-only show, I think it made several of us uneasy (especially the poor human contestants whose egos were soundly bashed in the first round). This computer system, by the way , only took 4 years to program. David Ferrucci mentioned several practical uses for Watson, including medical diagnoses and legal strategies. Are you “the expert” in your job? Imagine NLP computing on an Oracle database.   This may be the user interface of the future to enable users to better process big data. How do you think you’d like it? Postscript: There were three little boys sitting in front of me in the very first row. They looked, how shall I say it, … unimpressed!

  Read the article

• Reg Gets a Job at Red Gate (and what happens behind the scenes)

  - by red(at)work

  Mr Reg Gater works at one of Cambridge’s many high-tech companies. He doesn’t love his job, but he puts up with it because... well, it could be worse. Every day he drives to work around the Red Gate roundabout, wondering what his boss is going to blame him for today, and wondering if there could be a better job out there for him. By late morning he already feels like handing his notice in. He got the hacky look from his boss for being 5 minutes late, and then they ran out of tea. Again. He goes to the local sandwich shop for lunch, and picks up a Red Gate job menu and a Book of Red Gate while he’s waiting for his order. That night, he goes along to Cambridge Geek Nights and sees some very enthusiastic Red Gaters talking about the work they do; it sounds interesting and, of all things, fun. He takes a quick look at the job vacancies on the Red Gate website, and an hour later realises he’s still there – looking at videos, photos and people profiles. He especially likes the Red Gate’s Got Talent page, and is very impressed with Simon Johnson’s marathon time. He thinks that he’d quite like to work with such awesome people. It just so happens that Red Gate recently decided that they wanted to hire another hot shot team member. Behind the scenes, the wheels were set in motion: the recruitment team met with the hiring manager to understand exactly what they’re looking for, and to decide what interview tests to do, who will do the interviews, and to kick-start any interview training those people might need. Next up, a job description and job advert were written, and the job was put on the market. Reg applies, and his CV lands in the Recruitment team’s inbox and they open it up with eager anticipation that Reg could be the next awesome new starter. He looks good, and in a jiffy they’ve arranged an interview. Reg arrives for his interview, and is greeted by a smiley receptionist. She offers him a selection of drinks and he feels instantly relaxed. A couple of interviews and an assessment later, he gets a job offer. We make his day and he makes ours by accepting, and becoming one of the 60 new starters so far this year. Behind the scenes, things start moving all over again. The HR team arranges for a “Welcome” goodie box to be whisked out to him, prepares his contract, sends an email to Information Services (Or IS for short - we’ll come back to them), keeps in touch with Reg to make sure he knows what to expect on his first day, and of course asks him to fill in the all-important wiki questionnaire so his new colleagues can start to get to know him before he even joins. Meanwhile, the IS team see an email in SupportWorks from HR. They see that Reg will be starting in the sales team in a few days’ time, and they know exactly what to do. They pull out a new machine, and within minutes have used their automated deployment software to install every piece of software that a new recruit could ever need. They also check with Reg’s new manager to see if he has any special requirements that they could help with. Reg starts and is amazed to find a fully configured machine sitting on his desk, complete with stationery and all the other tools he’ll need to do his job. He feels even more cared for after he gets a workstation assessment, and realises he’d be comfier with an ergonomic keyboard and a footstool. They arrive minutes later, just like that. His manager starts him off on his induction and sales training. Along with job-specific training, he’ll also have a buddy to help him find his feet, and loads of pre-arranged demos and introductions. Reg settles in nicely, and is great at his job. He enjoys the canteen, and regularly eats one of the 40,000 meals provided each year. He gets used to the selection of teas that are available, develops a taste for champagne launch parties, and has his fair share of the 25,000 cups of coffee downed at Red Gate towers each year. He goes along to some Feel Good Fund events, and donates a little something to charity in exchange for a turn on the chocolate fountain. He’s looking a little scruffy, so he decides to get his hair cut in between meetings, just in time for the Red Gate birthday company photo. Reg starts a new project: identifying existing customers to up-sell to new bundles. He talks with the web team to generate lists of qualifying customers who haven’t recently been sent marketing emails, and sends emails out, using a new in-house developed tool to schedule follow-up calls in CRM for the same group. The customer responds, saying they’d like to upgrade but are having a licensing problem – Reg sends the issue to Support, and it gets routed to the web team. The team identifies a workaround, and the bug gets scheduled into the next maintenance release in a fortnight’s time (hey; they got lucky). With all the new stuff Reg is working on, he realises that he’d be way more efficient if he had a third monitor. He speaks to IS and they get him one - no argument. He also needs a test machine and then some extra memory. Done. He then thinks he needs an iPad, and goes to ask for one. He gets told to stop pushing his luck. Some time later, Reg’s wife has a baby, so Reg gets 2 weeks of paid paternity leave and a bunch of flowers sent to his house. He signs up to the childcare scheme so that he doesn’t have to pay National Insurance on the first £243 of his childcare. The accounts team makes it all happen seamlessly, as they did with his Give As You Earn payments, which come out of his wages and go straight to his favorite charity. Reg’s sales career is going well. He’s grateful for the help that he gets from the product support team. How do they answer all those 900-ish support calls so effortlessly each month? He’s impressed with the patches that are sent out to customers who find “interesting behavior” in their tools, and to the customers who just must have that new feature. A little later in his career at Red Gate, Reg decides that he’d like to learn about management. He goes on some management training specially customised for Red Gate, joins the Management Book Club, and gets together with other new managers to brainstorm how to get the most out of one to one meetings with his team. Reg decides to go for a game of Foosball to celebrate his good fortune with his team, and has to wait for Finance to finish. While he’s waiting, he reflects on the wonderful time he’s had at Red Gate. He can’t put his finger on what it is exactly, but he knows he’s on to a good thing. All of the stuff that happened to Reg didn’t just happen magically. We’ve got teams of people working relentlessly behind the scenes to make sure that everyone here is comfortable, safe, well fed and caffeinated to the max.

  Read the article

• Windows Phone Developer Spotlight: Nikolai Joukov

  - by Lori Lalonde

  Originally posted on: http://geekswithblogs.net/lorilalonde/archive/2014/06/04/windows-phone-developer-spotlight-nikolai-joukov.aspxAs part of an ongoing series, I plan to include a spotlight post on people within the community that are stars in their field and area of expertise. For my first spotlight post, I interviewed Nikolai Joukov, who is a regular attendee at my local area .NET User Group (CTTDNUG), and has also participated in many of the Mobile and Cloud workshops we have hosted over the past few years. Nikolai stood out immediately, because of his passion for developing mobile apps, his interest in continuous learning, and his drive to publish quality apps that people will find useful and entertaining. Background: Nikolai immigrated to Canada in 1995, and has been working in IT since 1997. He moved on to become an independent contractor in 2005, and has worked at various large scale organizations over the course of his career, including BMO, Enbridge, Economical Insurance, Equitable Life, Manulife and Sun Life. Nikolai is an accomplished Windows Phone and Windows Store publisher, with 11 published Windows Phone apps, and 8 published Windows Store apps. He has almost 6000 downloads and favourable reviews. Q & A with Nikolai How many years have you been developing Windows Phone apps? 2 years When did you develop your very first Windows Phone app, and what was it about? Actually, the very first app I wrote was for the Microsoft “Smart Phone” back in 2004. This phone was given to me by Microsoft during the Developers Days Conference in Toronto. It was some kind of experimental model named Smart Phone, but you had to use VB 3 to develop the applications. Needless to say, this was not very successful at that time. My app was a Stock Trades Calculator. Very primitive, but it was working for me. The phone was heavy and the battery barely lasted 4 hours. Microsoft stopped supporting it few months later and the phone stopped working shortly after, but I still have it as a souvenir. For Windows Phone, my first app was “Trip Packing Assistant”. This is a simple trip packing check list that allows you to list items by category, set required quantity of items, and mark off the item in the list when it is packed. I designed it for me and my wife Galina, since we love to travel and this program helps manage our list for us. How did you get started in Windows Phone development? I have to say thanks to our .NET User Group for introducing me to Windows Phone development. I was intrigued and decided to give it a try. In October 2012 during a 2 day training event that ObjectSharp hosted in London, I met Bruce Johnson. On his advice, I registered for Developer Movement, and it is was a good push to actually complete the apps that I started. You have a great series of travel guide apps both for Windows Phone and Windows Store. Tell us about how you came up with the idea to develop those apps and what process you went through to put it all together. Like I said earlier, my wife and I love to travel. Before I created Trip Packing Assistant, every time we were planning to travel somewhere new, Galina would spend 3-4 weeks doing research. She would create a Word document with all of the information. We didn’t want to have to carry our laptop with us all the time, so we printed out the Word document she created, and would take it with us. After we returned from the trip, we would bring back tons of pictures and materials. Then our friends started to ask us about our materials before they planned their trips to the same places we had visited. So I decided to give it a try and started making apps for Windows Phone and for Windows 8. I hope these applications will help people who are planning to travel. So, all of the pictures used in the travel apps you created were actually taken by you during these amazing trips? Yes Do you have another Windows Store/Windows Phone project in development right now? If so, can you give us a hint at what it will be about? I want to stay with travel apps for now. But this time I will try to write an app for us (Galina and I). Usually we go on the trip, then I write the apps after we have all this beautiful pictures in our hands. We are planning a trip to Rome. This app will not have the pictures, but I want to add a map with points of interest and all information that can be useful for us. Then we will go on our trip and test it on location. As well I am planning to work on my existing apps to make them better. What learning resources would you recommend for other developers that want to get started in Window Store and Windows Phone development? I would start with dev.windowsphone.com to get all tools and samples, also links to training materials. I like MVA (Microsoft Virtual Academy). Their videos are really useful and it is free. Pluralsight is good too but it is not free and I do not have a subscription anymore. Our .NET User Group meetings give good insights too. I went to all meetings and full day training events. When you start to develop your app, you need to do research for specific questions that arise during development. The Developer Portal and Nokia Developer are good resources too. Wrap Up Thanks Nikolai for participating in my first Spotlight blog post! Shown below is Nikolai’s publisher page in the Windows Phone Store and his publisher page in the Windows Store. Simply click on it to be taken to there to check out his portfolio of apps. Be sure to download his apps and try them out! They are all free! Nikolai’s Windows Phone apps   Nikolai’s Windows Store Apps

  Read the article

• From J2EE to Java EE: what has changed?

  - by Bruno.Borges

  See original @Java_EE tweet on 29 May 2014 Yeap, it has been 8 years since the term J2EE was replaced, and still some people refer to it (mostly recruiters, luckily!). But then comes the question: what has changed besides the name? Our community friend Abhishek Gupta worked on this question and provided an excellent response titled "What's in a name? Java EE? J2EE?". But let me give you a few highlights here so you don't lose yourself with YATO (yet another tab opened): J2EE used to be an infrastructure and resources provider only, requiring developers to depend on external 3rd-party frameworks to then implement application requirements or improve productivity J2EE used to require hundreds of XML lines of codes to define just a dozen of resources like EJBs, MDBs, Servlets, and so on J2EE used to support only EAR (Enterprise Archives) with a bunch of other archives like JARs and WARs just to run a simple Web application And so on, and so on! It was a great technology but still required a lot of work to get something up and running. Remember xDoclet? Remember Struts? The old days of pure Hibernate code? Or when Ajax became a trending topic and we were all implementing it with DWR Servlet? Still, we J2EE developers survived, and learned, and helped evolve the platform to a whole new level of DX (Developer Experience). A new DX for J2EE suggested a new name. One that referred to the platform as the Enterprise Edition of Java, because "Java is why we're here" quoting Bill Shannon. The release of Java EE 5 included so many features that clearly showed developers the platform was going after all those DX gaps. Radical simplification of the persistence model with the introduction of JPA Support of Annotations following the launch of Java SE 5.0 Updated XML APIs with the introduction of StAX Drastic simplification of the EJB component model (with annotations!) Convention over Configuration and Dependency Injection A few bullets you may say but that represented a whole new DX and a vision for upcoming versions. Clearly, the release of Java EE 5 helped drive the future of the platform by reducing the number of XMLs, Java Interfaces, simplified configurations, provided convention-over-configuration, etc! We then saw the release of Java EE 6 with even more great features like Managed Beans, CDI, Bean Validation, improved JSP and Servlets APIs, JASPIC, the posisbility to deploy plain WARs and so many other improvements it is difficult to list in one sentence. And we've gotta give Spring Framework some credit here: thanks to Rod Johnson and team, concepts like Dependency Injection fit perfectly into the Java EE Platform. Clearly, Spring used to be one of the most inspiring frameworks for the Java EE platform, and it is great to see things like Pivotal and Spring supporting JSR 352 Batch API standard! Cooperation to keep improving DX at maximum in the server-side Java landscape.  The master piece result of these previous releases is seen and called today as Java EE 7, which by providing a newly and improved JavaServer Faces release, with new features for Web Development like WebSockets API, improved JAX-RS, and JSON-P, but also including Batch API and so many other great improvements, has increased developer productivity and brought innovation to server-side Java developers. Java EE is not just a new name (which was introduced back in May 2006!) but a new Developer Experience for server-side Java developers. To show you why we are here and where we are going (see the Java EE 8 update), we wanted to share with you a draft of the new Java EE logos that the evangelist team created, to help you spread the word about Java EE. You can get access to these images at the Java EE Platform Facebook Album, or the Google+ Java EE Platform Album whichever is better for you, but don't forget to like and/or +1 those social network profiles :-) A message to all job recruiters: stop using J2EE and start using Java EE if you want to find great Java EE 5, Java EE 6, or Java EE 7 developers To not only save you recruiter valuable characters when tweeting that job opportunity but to also match the correct term, we invite you to replace long terms like "Java/J2EE" or even worse "#Java #J2EE #JEE" or all these awkward combinations with the only acceptable hashtag: #JavaEE. And to prove that Java EE is catching among developers and even recruiters, and that J2EE is past, let me highlight here how are the jobs trends! The image below is from Indeed.com trends page, for the following keywords: J2EE, Java/J2EE, Java/JEE, JEE. As you can see, J2EE is indeed going away, while JEE saw some increase. Perhaps because some people are just lazy to type "Java" but at the same time they are aware that J2EE (the '2') is past. We shall forgive that for a while :-) Another proof that J2EE is going away is by looking at its trending statistics at Google. People have been showing less and less interest in the term J2EE. See the chart below:  Recruiter, if you still need proof that J2EE is past, that Java EE is trending, and that other job recruiters are seeking for Java EE developers, and that the developer community is aware of the new term, perhaps these other charts can show you what term you should be using. See for example the Job Trends for Java EE at Indeed.com and notice where it started... 2006! 8 years ago :-) Last but not least, the Google Trends for Java EE term (including the still wrong but forgivable JavaEE term) shows us that the new term is catching up very well. J2EE is past. Oh, and don't worry about the curves going down. We developers like to be hipsters sometimes and today only AngularJS, NodeJS, BigData are going up. Java EE and other traditional server-side technologies such as Spring, or even from other platforms such as Ruby on Rails, PHP, Grails, are pretty much consolidated and the curves... well, they are consolidated too. So If you are a Java EE developer, drop that J2EE from your résumé, and let recruiters also know that this term is past. Embrace Java EE, and enjoy a new developer experience for server-side Java developers. Java EE on TwitterJava EE on Google+Java EE on Facebook

  Read the article

• Validation firing in ASP.NET MVC

  - by rkrauter

  I am lost on this MVC project I am working on. I also read Brad Wilsons article. http://bradwilson.typepad.com/blog/2010/01/input-validation-vs-model-validation-in-aspnet-mvc.html I have this: public class Employee { [Required] public int ID { get; set; } [Required] public string FirstName { get; set; } [Required] public string LastName { get; set; } } and these in a controller: public ActionResult Edit(int id) { var emp = GetEmployee(); return View(emp); } [HttpPost] public ActionResult Edit(int id, Employee empBack) { var emp = GetEmployee(); if (TryUpdateModel(emp,new string[] { "LastName"})) { Response.Write("success"); } return View(emp); } public Employee GetEmployee() { return new Employee { FirstName = "Tom", LastName = "Jim", ID = 3 }; } and my view has the following: <% using (Html.BeginForm()) {%> <%= Html.ValidationSummary() %> <fieldset> <legend>Fields</legend> <div class="editor-label"> <%= Html.LabelFor(model => model.FirstName) %> </div> <div class="editor-field"> <%= Html.DisplayFor(model => model.FirstName) %> </div> <div class="editor-label"> <%= Html.LabelFor(model => model.LastName) %> </div> <div class="editor-field"> <%= Html.TextBoxOrLabelFor(model => model.LastName, true)%> <%= Html.ValidationMessageFor(model => model.LastName) %> </div> <p> <input type="submit" value="Save" /> </p> </fieldset> <% } %> Note that the only field editable is the LastName. When I postback, I get back the original employee and try to update it with only the LastName property. But but I see on the page is the following error: •The FirstName field is required. This from what I understand, is because the TryUpdateModel failed. But why? I told it to update only the LastName property. I am using MVC2 RTM Thanks in advance.

  Read the article

• Downloading Python 2.5.4 (from official website) in order to install it

  - by brilliant

  I was quite hesitant about whether I should post this question here on "StackOverflow" or on "SuperUser", but finally decided to post it here as Python is more a programming language rather than a piece of software. I've been recently using Python 2.5.4 that is installed on my computer, but at the moment I am not at home (and won't be for about two weeks from now), so I need to install the same version of Python on another computer. This computer has Windows XP installed – just like the one that I have at home. The reason why I need Python 2.5.4 is because I am using “Google App Engine”, and I was told that it only supports Python 2.5 However, when I went to the official Python page for the download, I discovered that certain things have changed, and I don’t quite remember where exactly from that site I had downloaded Python 2.5.4 on my computer at home. I found this page: http://www.python.org/download/releases/2.5.4/ Here is how it looks: (If you can’t see it here, please check it out at this address: http://brad.cwahi.net/some_pictures/python_page.jpg ) A few things here are not clear to me. It says: “For x86 processors: python-2.5.4.msi For Win64-Itanium users: python-2.5.4.ia64.msi For Win64-AMD64 users: python-2.5.4.amd64.msi” First of all, I don’t know what processor I am using – whether mine is “x86” or not; and also, I don’t know whether I am an “Win64-Itanium” or an “Win64-AMD64” user. Are Itanium and AMD64 also processors? Later it says: “Windows XP and later already have MSI; many older machines will already have MSI installed.” I guess, it is my case, but then I am totally puzzled as to which link I should click as it seems now that I don’t need those three previous links (as MSI is already installed on Windows XP), but there is no fourth link provided for those who use “Windows XP” or older machines. Of course, there are these words after that: “Windows users may also be interested in Mark Hammond's win32all package, available from Sourceforge.” but it seems to me that it is something additional rather than the main file. So, my question is simple: Where in the official Python website I can download Python 2.5.4, precisely, which link I should click?

  Read the article

• ASP.NET MVC2: Can you get ModelMetadata.ContainerType from within a collection?

  - by CodeSponge

  I'm trying to call DisplayFor and DisplayForModel to iterate an IEnumerable< with various element types from within a view. I have Templates defined for each element/Model type. What I would like to do is check the ViewData.ModelMetadata.ContainerType from within the Template so that Template can determine if it was called as part of a collection. A simple example: Index1.aspx: To render a collection of Foos. <%@ Page Language="C#" MasterPageFile="~/Views/Shared/Site.Master" Inherits="System.Web.Mvc.ViewPage<IEnumerable<Foo>>" %> <asp:Content ContentPlaceHolderID="MainPlaceHolder" runat="server"> <ul><%:Html.DisplayForModel()%></ul> </asp:Content> Index2.aspx: To render a Foo. <%@ Page Language="C#" MasterPageFile="~/Views/Shared/Site.Master" Inherits="System.Web.Mvc.ViewPage<Foo>" %> <asp:Content ContentPlaceHolderID="MainPlaceHolder" runat="server"> <%:Html.DisplayForModel()%> </asp:Content> Shared\DisplayTemplates\Foo.ascx: A context aware Template for Foo. <%@ Control Language="C#" Inherits="System.Web.Mvc.ViewUserControl<Foo>" %> <% var tag = typeof(IEnumerable).IsAssignableFrom(ViewData.ModelMetaData.ContainerType) ? "li" : "div"; %> <<%:tag%>><%:Model.Name%></<%:tag%>> The problem with this example is that ViewData.ModelMetaData.ContainerType is null in the Template when resolved though Index1.aspx. From what I've read on Brad Wilson post and others it has to do with the use of IEnumerable and its being an interface. Is there a way to insure that the ContainerType is set? Perhaps by creating a ModelMetadataProviders? I looked into that breifly but it appears the ContainerType value is determined before and then passed to the Provider. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

  Read the article

• .NET: Avoidance of custom exceptions by utilising existing types, but which?

  - by Mr. Disappointment

  Consider the following code (ASP.NET/C#): private void Application_Start(object sender, EventArgs e) { if (!SetupHelper.SetUp()) { throw new ShitHitFanException(); } } I've never been too hesitant to simply roll my own exception type, basically because I have found (bad practice, or not) that mostly a reasonable descriptive type name gives us enough as developers to go by in order to know what happened and why something might have happened. Sometimes the existing .NET exception types even accommodate these needs - regardless of the message. In this particular scenario, for demonstration purposes only, the application should die a horrible, disgraceful death should SetUp not complete properly (as dictated by its return value), but I can't find an already existing exception type in .NET which would seem to suffice; though, I'm sure one will be there and I simply don't know about it. Brad Abrams posted this article that lists some of the available exception types. I say some because the article is from 2005, and, although I try to keep up to date, it's a more than plausible assumption that more have been added to future framework versions that I am still unaware of. Of course, Visual Studio gives you a nicely formatted, scrollable list of exceptions via Intellisense - but even on analysing those, I find none which would seem to suffice for this situation... ApplicationException: ...when a non-fatal application error occurs The name seems reasonable, but the error is very definitely fatal - the app is dead. ExecutionEngineException: ...when there is an internal error in the execution engine of the CLR Again, sounds reasonable, superficially; but this has a very definite purpose and to help me out here certainly isn't it. HttpApplicationException: ...when there is an error processing an HTTP request Well, we're running an ASP.NET application! But we're also just pulling at straws here. InvalidOperationException: ...when a call is invalid for the current state of an instance This isn't right but I'm adding it to the list of 'possible should you put a gun to my head, yes'. OperationCanceledException: ...upon cancellation of an operation the thread was executing Maybe I wouldn't feel so bad using this one, but I'd still be hijacking the damn thing with little right. You might even ask why on earth I would want to raise an exception here but the idea is to find out that if I were to do so then do you know of an appropriate exception for such a scenario? And basically, to what extent can we piggy-back on .NET while keeping in line with rationality?

  Read the article

• Get data from aspx.cs page to aspx page.

  - by Brad8118

  So I am using a jquery plug in that allows me to change the order of things in a list by dragging and dropping them. So my goal is to be able to grab a list of my objects (AlertInfo) and using it in a javascript function. I was able to use a json webservice call in a test project to pass the data to the page. But we don't have a webservice page now so I tried to grab it from a aspx.cs page and it hasn't worked. ///Aspx page: $.ajax({ type: "POST", url: "~/Alerts/GetAlerts", data: "{}", contentType: "application/json; charset=utf-8", dataType: "json", success: function (msg) { var data = eval("(" + msg.d + ")"); jQuery.each(data, function (rec) { AlertList[AlertList.length] = new objAlert(this.id, this.title, this.details, JSONDateSerializationFix(this.startdate), JSONDateSerializationFix(this.enddate)); UpdateDisplayList(); }) }, error: function (msg) { alert("BRAD" + msg); } The issue is that the Alerts page in "URL /Alerts/GetAlerts" is Alerts.aspx.cs. I can't figure out if I can use this ajax command to call a method in a aspx.cs page. //Code behind page aspx.cs [WebMethod] //[ScriptMethod(ResponseFormat = ResponseFormat.Json)] public string GetAlerts() { List list = AlertInfo.GetTestAlerts(); return new JavaScriptSerializer().Serialize(list); } public List GetAlertsList() { List list = AlertInfo.GetTestAlerts(); return list; ; } So I was hoping that I could load data into an asp control (dataList) and then grab the data //code behind page protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e) { dataListAlertList.DataSource = GetAlertsList(); dataListAlertList.DataBind(); } public static List<AlertInfo> GetTestAlerts() { List<AlertInfo> list = new List<AlertInfo>(); list.Add(new AlertInfo("0", "Alert 1 Title", "Alert 1 Detail", "10/10/2010", "10/10/2011")); list.Add(new AlertInfo("1", "Alert 2 Title", "Alert 2 Detail", "10/10/2010", "10/10/2011")); return list; } //.aspx page $(document).ready(function () { var a1 = $("#dataListAlertList").val(); // do fun stuff now. } But I keep getting undefined....

  Read the article

• TechEd 2010 Day One – How I Travel

  - by BuckWoody

  Normally when I blog on the first day of a conference, well, there hasn’t been a first day yet. So I talk about the value of a conference or some other facet. And normally in my (non-conference) blogs, I show you how I have learned to be a data professional – things I’ve learned how to do over the years. But in all that time, I don’t think I’ve ever talked about a big part of my job – traveling. I’ve traveled a lot throughout the years, when I’ve taught, gone to conferences, consulted and in my current role assisting Microsoft customers with large-scale database system designs.  So I’ll share a few thoughts about what I do. Keep in mind that I travel for short durations, just a day or so, and sometimes I travel internationally. For those I prepare differently – what I’m talking about here is what I do for a multi-day, same-country trip. Hopefully you find it useful. I’ll tag a few other travelers I know to add their thoughts.  Preparing for Travel   When I’m notified of a trip, I begin researching the location. I find the flights, hotel and (if I have to) a car to use while I’m away. We have an in-house system we use to book the travel, but when I travel not-for-Microsoft I use Expedia and Kayak to find what I need.  Traveling on Sunday and Friday is the worst. I have to do it sometimes (like this week) and it’s always a bad idea. But you can blunt the impact by booking as early as you can stand it. That means I have to be up super-early, but the flights are normally on time. I stay flexible, and always have a backup plan in case the flights are delayed or canceled.  For the hotel, I tend to go on the cheaper side, and I look for older hotels that have been renovated, or quirky ones. For instance, in Boise, ID recently I stayed at a 60’s-themed (think Mad-Men) hotel that was very cool. Always I go on the less expensive side – I find the “luxury” hotels nail me for Internet, food, everything. The cheaper places include all kinds of things, and even have breakfasts, shuttles and all kinds of things that start to add up. I even call ahead to make sure there’s an iron and ironing board available, since I’ll need those when I get there.  I find any way I can not to get a car. I use mass-transit wherever possible, and try to make friends and pay their gas to take me places. In a pinch, I’ll use a taxi. It ends up being cheaper, faster, and less stressful all around.  Packing  Over the years I’ve learned never to check luggage whenever I can. To do that, I lay out everything I want to take with me on the bed, and then try and make sure I’m really going to use it. I wear a dark wool set of pants, which I can clean and wear in hot and cold climates. I bring undies and socks of course, and for most places I have to wear “dress up” shirts. I bring at least two print T-Shirts in case I want to dress down for something while I’m gone, but I only bring one set of shoes. All the  clothes are rolled as tightly as possible as I learned in the military. Then I use those to cushion the electronics I take.  For toiletries I bring a shaver, toothpaste and toothbrush, D/O and a small brush. Everything else the hotel will provide.  For entertainment, I take a small Zune, a full PC-Headset (so I can make IP calls on the road) and my laptop. I don’t take books or anything else – everything is electronic. I use E-books (downloaded from our Library), Audio-Books (on the Zune) and I also bring along a Kaossilator (more here) to play music in the hotel room or even on the plane without being heard.  If I can, I pack into one roll-on bag. There’s not a lot better than this one, but I also have a Bag I was given as a prize for something or other here at Microsoft. Either way, I like something with less pockets and more big, open compartments. Everything gets rolled up and packed in, with all of the wires and charges in small bags my wife made for me. The laptop (and anything I don’t want gate-checked) goes on top or in an outside pouch so I can grab it quickly if I have to gate-check the bag. As much as I can, I try to go in one bag. When I can’t (like this week) I use this bag since it can expand, roll up, crush and even be put away later. It’s super-heavy canvas and worth the price. This allows me to not check a bag.  Journey Logistics The day of the trip, I have everything ready since I’m getting up early. I pack a few small snacks inside a plastic large-mouth water bottle, which protects the snacks and lets me get water in the terminal. I bring along those little powdered drink mixes to add to the water.  At the airport, I make a beeline for the power-outlets. I charge up my laptop and phone, and download all my e-mails so I can work on them off-line in the air. I don’t travel as often as I used to – just every month or so now, so I don’t have a membership to an airline club. If I travel much more, I’ll invest in one again – they are WELL worth the money, for the wifi, food and quiet if for nothing else.  I print out my logistics on paper and put that in my pocket – flight numbers, hotel addresses and phones for everything. That way if I have to make a change, I don’t have to boot up anything or even have power to be able to roll with the punches if things change.  Working While Away  While I’m away I realize I’m going to be swamped with things at the conference or with my clients. So I turn on Out-Of-Office notifications to let people know I won’t be as responsive, and I keep my Outlook calendar up to date so my co-workers know what I’m up to. I even update it with hotel and phone info in case they really need to reach me. I share my calendar with my wife so my family knows what I’m doing as well.  I check my e-mail during breaks, but I only respond to them in the evening or early morning at the hotel. I tweet during conferences. The point is to be as present as possible during the event or when I’m at the clients. Both deserve it.  So those are my initial thoughts. I’ll tag Brent Ozar, Brad McGeHee and Paul Randal, and they can tag whomever they wish. Share this post: email it! | bookmark it! | digg it! | reddit! | kick it! | live it!

  Read the article

• Ajax and using responseXML

  - by Banderdash

  Hello, I have a XML file that looks like this: <response> <library name="My Library"> <book id="1" checked-out="1"> <authors> <author>David Flanagan</author> </authors> <title>JavaScript: The Definitive Guide</title> <isbn-10>0596101996</isbn-10> </book> <book id="2" checked-out="1"> <authors> <author>John Resig</author> </authors> <title>Pro JavaScript Techniques (Pro)</title> <isbn-10>1590597273</isbn-10> </book> <book id="3" checked-out="0"> <authors> <author>Erich Gamma</author> <author>Richard Helm</author> <author>Ralph Johnson</author> <author>John M. Vlissides</author> </authors> <title>Design Patterns: Elements of Reusable Object-Oriented Software</title> <isbn-10>0201633612</isbn-10> </book> ... </library> </response> I'm using a simple JS script to, on click show all the titles of the books: <script type="text/javascript"> function loadXMLDoc() { if (window.XMLHttpRequest) {// code for IE7+, Firefox, Chrome, Opera, Safari xmlhttp=new XMLHttpRequest(); } else {// code for IE6, IE5 xmlhttp=new ActiveXObject("Microsoft.XMLHTTP"); } xmlhttp.onreadystatechange=function() { if (xmlhttp.readyState==4 && xmlhttp.status==200) { xmlDoc=xmlhttp.responseXML; var txt=""; x=xmlDoc.getElementsByTagName("title"); for (i=0;i<x.length;i++) { txt=txt + x[i].childNodes[0].nodeValue + "<br />"; } document.getElementById("checkedIn").innerHTML=txt; } } xmlhttp.open("GET","ajax-response-data.xml",true); xmlhttp.send(); } </script> This works fine, as you can see here: http://clients.pixelbleed.net/ajax-test/ What I'd like to do is have the results post, on page load (not on click) into two separate DIV's depending on checked-out variable in the XML. So <book id="#" checked-out="1"> would post to the checkedIn div, <book id="#" checked-out="0"> posts to a checkedOut div. Also want to display the title and the author--would love any ideas as best method for accomplishing this. Apologize in advanced for the newbieness of my query.

  Read the article

• Partial string search in boost::multi_index_container

  - by user361699

  I have a struct to store info about persons and multi_index_contaider to store such objects struct person { std::string m_first_name; std::string m_last_name; std::string m_third_name; std::string m_address; std::string m_phone; person(); person(std::string f, std::string l, std::string t = "", std::string a = DEFAULT_ADDRESS, std::string p = DEFAULT_PHONE) : m_first_name(f), m_last_name(l), m_third_name(t), m_address(a), m_phone(p) {} }; typedef multi_index_container , ordered_non_unique, member, member persons_set; operator< and operator<< implementation for person bool operator<(const person &lhs, const person &rhs) { if(lhs.m_last_name == rhs.m_last_name) { if(lhs.m_first_name == rhs.m_first_name) return (lhs.m_third_name < rhs.m_third_name); return (lhs.m_first_name < rhs.m_first_name); } return (lhs.m_last_name < rhs.m_last_name); } std::ostream& operator<<(std::ostream &s, const person &rhs) { s << "Person's last name: " << rhs.m_last_name << std::endl; s << "Person's name: " << rhs.m_first_name << std::endl; if (!rhs.m_third_name.empty()) s << "Person's third name: " << rhs.m_third_name << std::endl; s << "Phone: " << rhs.m_phone << std::endl; s << "Address: " << rhs.m_address << std::endl; return s; } Add several persons into container: person ("Alex", "Johnson", "Somename"); person ("Alex", "Goodspeed"); person ("Petr", "Parker"); person ("Petr", "Goodspeed"); Now I want to find person by lastname (the first member of the second index in multi_index_container) persons_set::nth_index<1::type &names_index = my_set.get<1(); std::pair::type::const_iterator, persons_set::nth_index<1::type::const_iterator n_it = names_index.equal_range("Goodspeed"); std::copy(n_it.first ,n_it.second, std::ostream_iterator(std::cout)); It works great. Both 'Goodspeed' persons are found. Now lets try to find person by a part of a last name: std::pair::type::const_iterator, persons_set::nth_index<1::type::const_iterator n_it = names_index.equal_range("Good"); std::copy(n_it.first ,n_it.second, std::ostream_iterator(std::cout)); This returns nothing, but partial string search works as a charm in std::set. So I can't realize what's the problem. I only wraped strings by a struct. May be operator< implementation? Thanks in advance for any help.

  Read the article

• Rotate rectangle around center

  - by ESoft

  I am playing with Brad Larsen's adaption of the trackball app. I have two views at a 60 degree angle to each other and was wondering how I get the rotation to be in the center of this (non-closed) rectangle? In the images below I would have liked the rotation to take place all within the blue lines. Code (modified to only rotate around x axis): #import "MyView.h" //===================================================== // Defines //===================================================== #define DEGREES_TO_RADIANS(degrees) \ (degrees * (M_PI / 180.0f)) //===================================================== // Public Interface //===================================================== @implementation MyView - (void)awakeFromNib { transformed = [CALayer layer]; transformed.anchorPoint = CGPointMake(0.5f, 0.5f); transformed.frame = self.bounds; [self.layer addSublayer:transformed]; CALayer *imageLayer = [CALayer layer]; imageLayer.frame = CGRectMake(10.0f, 4.0f, self.bounds.size.width / 2.0f, self.bounds.size.height / 2.0f); imageLayer.transform = CATransform3DMakeRotation(DEGREES_TO_RADIANS(60.0f), 1.0f, 0.0f, 0.0f); imageLayer.contents = (id)[[UIImage imageNamed:@"IMG_0051.png"] CGImage]; imageLayer.borderColor = [UIColor yellowColor].CGColor; imageLayer.borderWidth = 2.0f; [transformed addSublayer:imageLayer]; imageLayer = [CALayer layer]; imageLayer.frame = CGRectMake(10.0f, 120.0f, self.bounds.size.width / 2.0f, self.bounds.size.height / 2.0f); imageLayer.transform = CATransform3DMakeRotation(DEGREES_TO_RADIANS(-60.0f), 1.0f, 0.0f, 0.0f); imageLayer.contents = (id)[[UIImage imageNamed:@"IMG_0089.png"] CGImage]; imageLayer.borderColor = [UIColor greenColor].CGColor; imageLayer.borderWidth = 2.0f; transformed.borderColor = [UIColor whiteColor].CGColor; transformed.borderWidth = 2.0f; [transformed addSublayer:imageLayer]; UIView *line = [[UIView alloc] initWithFrame:CGRectMake(0, self.bounds.size.height / 2.0f, self.bounds.size.width, 2)]; [line setBackgroundColor:[UIColor redColor]]; [self addSubview:line]; line = [[UIView alloc] initWithFrame:CGRectMake(0, self.bounds.size.height * (1.0f / 4.0f), self.bounds.size.width, 2)]; [line setBackgroundColor:[UIColor blueColor]]; [self addSubview:line]; line = [[UIView alloc] initWithFrame:CGRectMake(0, self.bounds.size.height * (3.0f / 4.0f), self.bounds.size.width, 2)]; [line setBackgroundColor:[UIColor blueColor]]; [self addSubview:line]; } - (void)touchesBegan:(NSSet *)touches withEvent:(UIEvent *)event { previousLocation = [[touches anyObject] locationInView:self]; } - (void)touchesMoved:(NSSet *)touches withEvent:(UIEvent *)event { CGPoint location = [[touches anyObject] locationInView:self]; //location = CGPointMake(previousLocation.x, location.y); CATransform3D currentTransform = transformed.sublayerTransform; //CGFloat displacementInX = location.x - previousLocation.x; CGFloat displacementInX = previousLocation.x - location.x; CGFloat displacementInY = previousLocation.y - location.y; CGFloat totalRotation = sqrt((displacementInX * displacementInX) + (displacementInY * displacementInY)); CGFloat angle = DEGREES_TO_RADIANS(totalRotation); CGFloat x = ((displacementInX / totalRotation) * currentTransform.m12 + (displacementInY/totalRotation) * currentTransform.m11); CATransform3D rotationalTransform = CATransform3DRotate(currentTransform, angle, x, 0, 0); previousLocation = location; transformed.sublayerTransform = rotationalTransform; } - (void)touchesEnded:(NSSet *)touches withEvent:(UIEvent *)event { } - (void)dealloc { [super dealloc]; } @end

  Read the article

• ASP.NET MVC ‘Extendable-hooks’ – ControllerActionInvoker class

  - by nmarun

  There’s a class ControllerActionInvoker in ASP.NET MVC. This can be used as one of an hook-points to allow customization of your application. Watching Brad Wilsons’ Advanced MP3 from MVC Conf inspired me to write about this class. What MSDN says: “Represents a class that is responsible for invoking the action methods of a controller.” Well if MSDN says it, I think I can instill a fair amount of confidence into what the class does. But just to get to the details, I also looked into the source code for MVC. Seems like the base class Controller is where an IActionInvoker is initialized: 1: protected virtual IActionInvoker CreateActionInvoker() { 2: return new ControllerActionInvoker(); 3: } In the ControllerActionInvoker (the O-O-B behavior), there are different ‘versions’ of InvokeActionMethod() method that actually call the action method in question and return an instance of type ActionResult. 1: protected virtual ActionResult InvokeActionMethod(ControllerContext controllerContext, ActionDescriptor actionDescriptor, IDictionary<string, object> parameters) { 2: object returnValue = actionDescriptor.Execute(controllerContext, parameters); 3: ActionResult result = CreateActionResult(controllerContext, actionDescriptor, returnValue); 4: return result; 5: } I guess that’s enough on the ‘behind-the-screens’ of this class. Let’s see how we can use this class to hook-up extensions. Say I have a requirement that the user should be able to get different renderings of the same output, like html, xml, json, csv and so on. The user will type-in the output format in the url and should the get result accordingly. For example: http://site.com/RenderAs/ – renders the default way (the razor view) http://site.com/RenderAs/xml http://site.com/RenderAs/csv … and so on where RenderAs is my controller. There are many ways of doing this and I’m using a custom ControllerActionInvoker class (even though this might not be the best way to accomplish this). For this, my one and only route in the Global.asax.cs is: 1: routes.MapRoute("RenderAsRoute", "RenderAs/{outputType}", 2: new {controller = "RenderAs", action = "Index", outputType = ""}); Here the controller name is ‘RenderAsController’ and the action that’ll get called (always) is the Index action. The outputType parameter will map to the type of output requested by the user (xml, csv…). I intend to display a list of food items for this example. 1: public class Item 2: { 3: public int Id { get; set; } 4: public string Name { get; set; } 5: public Cuisine Cuisine { get; set; } 6: } 7:  8: public class Cuisine 9: { 10: public int CuisineId { get; set; } 11: public string Name { get; set; } 12: } Coming to my ‘RenderAsController’ class. I generate an IList<Item> to represent my model. 1: private static IList<Item> GetItems() 2: { 3: Cuisine cuisine = new Cuisine { CuisineId = 1, Name = "Italian" }; 4: Item item = new Item { Id = 1, Name = "Lasagna", Cuisine = cuisine }; 5: IList<Item> items = new List<Item> { item }; 6: item = new Item {Id = 2, Name = "Pasta", Cuisine = cuisine}; 7: items.Add(item); 8: //... 9: return items; 10: } My action method looks like 1: public IList<Item> Index(string outputType) 2: { 3: return GetItems(); 4: } There are two things that stand out in this action method. The first and the most obvious one being that the return type is not of type ActionResult (or one of its derivatives). Instead I’m passing the type of the model itself (IList<Item> in this case). We’ll convert this to some type of an ActionResult in our custom controller action invoker class later. The second thing (a little subtle) is that I’m not doing anything with the outputType value that is passed on to this action method. This value will be in the RouteData dictionary and we’ll use this in our custom invoker class as well. It’s time to hook up our invoker class. First, I’ll override the Initialize() method of my RenderAsController class. 1: protected override void Initialize(RequestContext requestContext) 2: { 3: base.Initialize(requestContext); 4: string outputType = string.Empty; 5:  6: // read the outputType from the RouteData dictionary 7: if (requestContext.RouteData.Values["outputType"] != null) 8: { 9: outputType = requestContext.RouteData.Values["outputType"].ToString(); 10: } 11:  12: // my custom invoker class 13: ActionInvoker = new ContentRendererActionInvoker(outputType); 14: } Coming to the main part of the discussion – the ContentRendererActionInvoker class: 1: public class ContentRendererActionInvoker : ControllerActionInvoker 2: { 3: private readonly string _outputType; 4:  5: public ContentRendererActionInvoker(string outputType) 6: { 7: _outputType = outputType.ToLower(); 8: } 9: //... 10: } So the outputType value that was read from the RouteData, which was passed in from the url, is being set here in  a private field. Moving to the crux of this article, I now override the CreateActionResult method. 1: protected override ActionResult CreateActionResult(ControllerContext controllerContext, ActionDescriptor actionDescriptor, object actionReturnValue) 2: { 3: if (actionReturnValue == null) 4: return new EmptyResult(); 5:  6: ActionResult result = actionReturnValue as ActionResult; 7: if (result != null) 8: return result; 9:  10: // This is where the magic happens 11: // Depending on the value in the _outputType field, 12: // return an appropriate ActionResult 13: switch (_outputType) 14: { 15: case "json": 16: { 17: JavaScriptSerializer serializer = new JavaScriptSerializer(); 18: string json = serializer.Serialize(actionReturnValue); 19: return new ContentResult { Content = json, ContentType = "application/json" }; 20: } 21: case "xml": 22: { 23: XmlSerializer serializer = new XmlSerializer(actionReturnValue.GetType()); 24: using (StringWriter writer = new StringWriter()) 25: { 26: serializer.Serialize(writer, actionReturnValue); 27: return new ContentResult { Content = writer.ToString(), ContentType = "text/xml" }; 28: } 29: } 30: case "csv": 31: controllerContext.HttpContext.Response.AddHeader("Content-Disposition", "attachment; filename=items.csv"); 32: return new ContentResult 33: { 34: Content = ToCsv(actionReturnValue as IList<Item>), 35: ContentType = "application/ms-excel" 36: }; 37: case "pdf": 38: string filePath = controllerContext.HttpContext.Server.MapPath("~/items.pdf"); 39: controllerContext.HttpContext.Response.AddHeader("content-disposition", 40: "attachment; filename=items.pdf"); 41: ToPdf(actionReturnValue as IList<Item>, filePath); 42: return new FileContentResult(StreamFile(filePath), "application/pdf"); 43:  44: default: 45: controllerContext.Controller.ViewData.Model = actionReturnValue; 46: return new ViewResult 47: { 48: TempData = controllerContext.Controller.TempData, 49: ViewData = controllerContext.Controller.ViewData 50: }; 51: } 52: } A big method there! The hook I was talking about kinda above actually is here. This is where different kinds / formats of output get returned based on the output type requested in the url. When the _outputType is not set (string.Empty as set in the Global.asax.cs file), the razor view gets rendered (lines 45-50). This is the default behavior in most MVC applications where-in a view (webform/razor) gets rendered on the browser. As you see here, this gets returned as a ViewResult. But then, for an outputType of json/xml/csv, a ContentResult gets returned, while for pdf, a FileContentResult is returned. Here are how the different kinds of output look like: This is how we can leverage this feature of ASP.NET MVC to developer a better application. I’ve used the iTextSharp library to convert to a pdf format. Mike gives quite a bit of detail regarding this library here. You can download the sample code here. (You’ll get an option to download once you open the link). Verdict: Hot chocolate: $3; Reebok shoes: $50; Your first car: $3000; Being able to extend a web application: Priceless.

  Read the article

< Previous Page | 30 31 32 33 34 35  | Next Page >