Search Results

Search found 35708 results on 1429 pages for 'default copy constructor'.

Page 353/1429 | < Previous Page | 349 350 351 352 353 354 355 356 357 358 359 360 | Next Page >

Obtaining Android Public Map API Key

- by TheHighLifeSon

I have been trying to obtain a public map api key for my Android app. However the public key that I receive from Google does not work. I have been using the following steps: Obtaining Release Public Map API Key 1.Obtain Private Key: Use Export of Eclipse to sign release application and create new keystore 2.Obtain MD5 certificate: using alias and keystore set up use keytool in Java directory: keytool -list -alias poly_alias -keystore copy MD5 certificate 3.Obtain API Map Key: Visit http://code.google.com/android/maps-api-signup.html and enter MD5 certificate copy key 4.Use New Map API Key: insert new map key for string in strings.xml for string mapApiKey Does anyone have any suggestions on what I am doing wrong?

Read the article
Copying just the data from one Database to another

- by monksy

I'm not sure if this is the site for this question or not [if so put in the comment or vote to move it] How can I copy only the data from one database to another within the same server on SQL Server 2005? The two databases have the same schema but not the same data. I'm trying to get the data from one database to another. I am not able to restore from a snapshot [that screws over the security settings on the database]. I'm not able to use the import data wizard, because that is trying to copy over schema data as well.

Read the article
error “EXC_BAD_ACCESS” in my programm

- by zp26

Hi, i have a problem. When i compile my program there isn't a error but, when i start it these retern with “EXC_BAD_ACCESS”. I looking for the error with the debug and i find it in these method but i don't understand where... Can you help me? Thanks and sorry for the english. PS:the program enters in the loop sometimes. -(void)updateMinPosition{ float valueMinX = 150; float valueMinY = 150; float valueMinZ = 150; NSString *nameMinimoX = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"default"]; NSString *nameMinimoY = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"default"]; NSString *nameMinimoZ = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"default"]; for(int i = 0; i< [arrayPosizioniMovimento count]; i++){ //Posizione is my class. It contain a NSString name, 3 float valueX, valueY, valueZ Posizione *tempPosition; tempPosition = [[Posizione alloc]init]; tempPosition = [arrayPosizioniMovimento objectAtIndex:i]; if(tempPosition.valueX <= valueMinX){ valueMinX = tempPosition.valueX; nameMinimoX = tempPosition.nome; } if(tempPosition.valueY <= valueMinY){ valueMinY = tempPosition.valueY; nameMinimoY = tempPosition.nome; } if(tempPosition.valueZ <= valueMinZ){ valueMinZ = tempPosition.valueZ; nameMinimoZ = tempPosition.nome; } [tempPosition dealloc]; } labelMinX.text = nameMinimoX; labelMinY.text = nameMinimoY; labelMinZ.text = nameMinimoZ; }

Read the article
Copying to /system - android

- by user1675783

I am been trying to copy a apk from assets of another apk to /system. Here is what I have done,it was working in my previous app but not in this.I have added permission for wrtiting external storage. It is successfully copying to internal storage,not not to /system. Is there any way to directly copy to /system? copyStream("y.apk","/sdcard/x.apk"); Process mSuProcess; mSuProcess = Runtime.getRuntime().exec("su"); new DataOutputStream(mSuProcess.getOutputStream()).writeBytes("mount -o remount rw /system"); DataOutputStream mSuDataOutputStream = new DataOutputStream(mSuProcess.getOutputStream()); mSuDataOutputStream.writeBytes("cp /sdcard/x.apk /system/app/x.apk"); mSuDataOutputStream.writeBytes("exit\n");

Read the article
Introducing the Earthquake Locator – A Bing Maps Silverlight Application, part 1

- by Bobby Diaz

Update: Live demo and source code now available! The recent wave of earthquakes (no pun intended) being reported in the news got me wondering about the frequency and severity of earthquakes around the world. Since I’ve been doing a lot of Silverlight development lately, I decided to scratch my curiosity with a nice little Bing Maps application that will show the location and relative strength of recent seismic activity. Here is a list of technologies this application will utilize, so be sure to have everything downloaded and installed if you plan on following along. Silverlight 3 WCF RIA Services Bing Maps Silverlight Control * Managed Extensibility Framework (optional) MVVM Light Toolkit (optional) log4net (optional) * If you are new to Bing Maps or have not signed up for a Developer Account, you will need to visit www.bingmapsportal.com to request a Bing Maps key for your application. Getting Started We start out by creating a new Silverlight Application called EarthquakeLocator and specify that we want to automatically create the Web Application Project with RIA Services enabled. I cleaned up the web app by removing the Default.aspx and EarthquakeLocatorTestPage.html. Then I renamed the EarthquakeLocatorTestPage.aspx to Default.aspx and set it as my start page. I also set the development server to use a specific port, as shown below. RIA Services Next, I created a Services folder in the EarthquakeLocator.Web project and added a new Domain Service Class called EarthquakeService.cs. This is the RIA Services Domain Service that will provide earthquake data for our client application. I am not using LINQ to SQL or Entity Framework, so I will use the <empty domain service class> option. We will be pulling data from an external Atom feed, but this example could just as easily pull data from a database or another web service. This is an important distinction to point out because each scenario I just mentioned could potentially use a different Domain Service base class (i.e. LinqToSqlDomainService<TDataContext>). Now we can start adding Query methods to our EarthquakeService that pull data from the USGS web site. Here is the complete code for our service class: using System; using System.Collections.Generic; using System.IO; using System.Linq; using System.ServiceModel.Syndication; using System.Web.DomainServices; using System.Web.Ria; using System.Xml; using log4net; using EarthquakeLocator.Web.Model; namespace EarthquakeLocator.Web.Services { /// <summary> /// Provides earthquake data to client applications. /// </summary> [EnableClientAccess()] public class EarthquakeService : DomainService { private static readonly ILog log = LogManager.GetLogger(typeof(EarthquakeService)); // USGS Data Feeds: http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/catalogs/ private const string FeedForPreviousDay = "http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/catalogs/1day-M2.5.xml"; private const string FeedForPreviousWeek = "http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/catalogs/7day-M2.5.xml"; /// <summary> /// Gets the earthquake data for the previous week. /// </summary> /// <returns>A queryable collection of <see cref="Earthquake"/> objects.</returns> public IQueryable<Earthquake> GetEarthquakes() { var feed = GetFeed(FeedForPreviousWeek); var list = new List<Earthquake>(); if ( feed != null ) { foreach ( var entry in feed.Items ) { var quake = CreateEarthquake(entry); if ( quake != null ) { list.Add(quake); } } } return list.AsQueryable(); } /// <summary> /// Creates an <see cref="Earthquake"/> object for each entry in the Atom feed. /// </summary> /// <param name="entry">The Atom entry.</param> /// <returns></returns> private Earthquake CreateEarthquake(SyndicationItem entry) { Earthquake quake = null; string title = entry.Title.Text; string summary = entry.Summary.Text; string point = GetElementValue<String>(entry, "point"); string depth = GetElementValue<String>(entry, "elev"); string utcTime = null; string localTime = null; string depthDesc = null; double? magnitude = null; double? latitude = null; double? longitude = null; double? depthKm = null; if ( !String.IsNullOrEmpty(title) && title.StartsWith("M") ) { title = title.Substring(2, title.IndexOf(',')-3).Trim(); magnitude = TryParse(title); } if ( !String.IsNullOrEmpty(point) ) { var values = point.Split(' '); if ( values.Length == 2 ) { latitude = TryParse(values[0]); longitude = TryParse(values[1]); } } if ( !String.IsNullOrEmpty(depth) ) { depthKm = TryParse(depth); if ( depthKm != null ) { depthKm = Math.Round((-1 * depthKm.Value) / 100, 2); } } if ( !String.IsNullOrEmpty(summary) ) { summary = summary.Replace("</p>", ""); var values = summary.Split( new string[] { "<p>" }, StringSplitOptions.RemoveEmptyEntries); if ( values.Length == 3 ) { var times = values[1].Split( new string[] { "<br>" }, StringSplitOptions.RemoveEmptyEntries); if ( times.Length > 0 ) { utcTime = times[0]; } if ( times.Length > 1 ) { localTime = times[1]; } depthDesc = values[2]; depthDesc = "Depth: " + depthDesc.Substring(depthDesc.IndexOf(":") + 2); } } if ( latitude != null && longitude != null ) { quake = new Earthquake() { Id = entry.Id, Title = entry.Title.Text, Summary = entry.Summary.Text, Date = entry.LastUpdatedTime.DateTime, Url = entry.Links.Select(l => Path.Combine(l.BaseUri.OriginalString, l.Uri.OriginalString)).FirstOrDefault(), Age = entry.Categories.Where(c => c.Label == "Age") .Select(c => c.Name).FirstOrDefault(), Magnitude = magnitude.GetValueOrDefault(), Latitude = latitude.GetValueOrDefault(), Longitude = longitude.GetValueOrDefault(), DepthInKm = depthKm.GetValueOrDefault(), DepthDesc = depthDesc, UtcTime = utcTime, LocalTime = localTime }; } return quake; } private T GetElementValue<T>(SyndicationItem entry, String name) { var el = entry.ElementExtensions.Where(e => e.OuterName == name).FirstOrDefault(); T value = default(T); if ( el != null ) { value = el.GetObject<T>(); } return value; } private double? TryParse(String value) { double d; if ( Double.TryParse(value, out d) ) { return d; } return null; } /// <summary> /// Gets the feed at the specified URL. /// </summary> /// <param name="url">The URL.</param> /// <returns>A <see cref="SyndicationFeed"/> object.</returns> public static SyndicationFeed GetFeed(String url) { SyndicationFeed feed = null; try { log.Debug("Loading RSS feed: " + url); using ( var reader = XmlReader.Create(url) ) { feed = SyndicationFeed.Load(reader); } } catch ( Exception ex ) { log.Error("Error occurred while loading RSS feed: " + url, ex); } return feed; } } } The only method that will be generated in the client side proxy class, EarthquakeContext, will be the GetEarthquakes() method. The reason being that it is the only public instance method and it returns an IQueryable<Earthquake> collection that can be consumed by the client application. GetEarthquakes() calls the static GetFeed(String) method, which utilizes the built in SyndicationFeed API to load the external data feed. You will need to add a reference to the System.ServiceModel.Web library in order to take advantage of the RSS/Atom reader. The API will also allow you to create your own feeds to serve up in your applications. Model I have also created a Model folder and added a new class, Earthquake.cs. The Earthquake object will hold the various properties returned from the Atom feed. Here is a sample of the code for that class. Notice the [Key] attribute on the Id property, which is required by RIA Services to uniquely identify the entity. using System; using System.Collections.Generic; using System.Linq; using System.Runtime.Serialization; using System.ComponentModel.DataAnnotations; namespace EarthquakeLocator.Web.Model { /// <summary> /// Represents an earthquake occurrence and related information. /// </summary> [DataContract] public class Earthquake { /// <summary> /// Gets or sets the id. /// </summary> /// <value>The id.</value> [Key] [DataMember] public string Id { get; set; } /// <summary> /// Gets or sets the title. /// </summary> /// <value>The title.</value> [DataMember] public string Title { get; set; } /// <summary> /// Gets or sets the summary. /// </summary> /// <value>The summary.</value> [DataMember] public string Summary { get; set; } // additional properties omitted } } View Model The recent trend to use the MVVM pattern for WPF and Silverlight provides a great way to separate the data and behavior logic out of the user interface layer of your client applications. I have chosen to use the MVVM Light Toolkit for the Earthquake Locator, but there are other options out there if you prefer another library. That said, I went ahead and created a ViewModel folder in the Silverlight project and added a EarthquakeViewModel class that derives from ViewModelBase. Here is the code: using System; using System.Collections.ObjectModel; using System.ComponentModel.Composition; using System.ComponentModel.Composition.Hosting; using Microsoft.Maps.MapControl; using GalaSoft.MvvmLight; using EarthquakeLocator.Web.Model; using EarthquakeLocator.Web.Services; namespace EarthquakeLocator.ViewModel { /// <summary> /// Provides data for views displaying earthquake information. /// </summary> public class EarthquakeViewModel : ViewModelBase { [Import] public EarthquakeContext Context; /// <summary> /// Initializes a new instance of the <see cref="EarthquakeViewModel"/> class. /// </summary> public EarthquakeViewModel() { var catalog = new AssemblyCatalog(GetType().Assembly); var container = new CompositionContainer(catalog); container.ComposeParts(this); Initialize(); } /// <summary> /// Initializes a new instance of the <see cref="EarthquakeViewModel"/> class. /// </summary> /// <param name="context">The context.</param> public EarthquakeViewModel(EarthquakeContext context) { Context = context; Initialize(); } private void Initialize() { MapCenter = new Location(20, -170); ZoomLevel = 2; } #region Private Methods private void OnAutoLoadDataChanged() { LoadEarthquakes(); } private void LoadEarthquakes() { var query = Context.GetEarthquakesQuery(); Context.Earthquakes.Clear(); Context.Load(query, (op) => { if ( !op.HasError ) { foreach ( var item in op.Entities ) { Earthquakes.Add(item); } } }, null); } #endregion Private Methods #region Properties private bool autoLoadData; /// <summary> /// Gets or sets a value indicating whether to auto load data. /// </summary> /// <value><c>true</c> if auto loading data; otherwise, <c>false</c>.</value> public bool AutoLoadData { get { return autoLoadData; } set { if ( autoLoadData != value ) { autoLoadData = value; RaisePropertyChanged("AutoLoadData"); OnAutoLoadDataChanged(); } } } private ObservableCollection<Earthquake> earthquakes; /// <summary> /// Gets the collection of earthquakes to display. /// </summary> /// <value>The collection of earthquakes.</value> public ObservableCollection<Earthquake> Earthquakes { get { if ( earthquakes == null ) { earthquakes = new ObservableCollection<Earthquake>(); } return earthquakes; } } private Location mapCenter; /// <summary> /// Gets or sets the map center. /// </summary> /// <value>The map center.</value> public Location MapCenter { get { return mapCenter; } set { if ( mapCenter != value ) { mapCenter = value; RaisePropertyChanged("MapCenter"); } } } private double zoomLevel; /// <summary> /// Gets or sets the zoom level. /// </summary> /// <value>The zoom level.</value> public double ZoomLevel { get { return zoomLevel; } set { if ( zoomLevel != value ) { zoomLevel = value; RaisePropertyChanged("ZoomLevel"); } } } #endregion Properties } } The EarthquakeViewModel class contains all of the properties that will be bound to by the various controls in our views. Be sure to read through the LoadEarthquakes() method, which handles calling the GetEarthquakes() method in our EarthquakeService via the EarthquakeContext proxy, and also transfers the loaded entities into the view model’s Earthquakes collection. Another thing to notice is what’s going on in the default constructor. I chose to use the Managed Extensibility Framework (MEF) for my composition needs, but you can use any dependency injection library or none at all. To allow the EarthquakeContext class to be discoverable by MEF, I added the following partial class so that I could supply the appropriate [Export] attribute: using System; using System.ComponentModel.Composition; namespace EarthquakeLocator.Web.Services { /// <summary> /// The client side proxy for the EarthquakeService class. /// </summary> [Export] public partial class EarthquakeContext { } } One last piece I wanted to point out before moving on to the user interface, I added a client side partial class for the Earthquake entity that contains helper properties that we will bind to later: using System; namespace EarthquakeLocator.Web.Model { /// <summary> /// Represents an earthquake occurrence and related information. /// </summary> public partial class Earthquake { /// <summary> /// Gets the location based on the current Latitude/Longitude. /// </summary> /// <value>The location.</value> public string Location { get { return String.Format("{0},{1}", Latitude, Longitude); } } /// <summary> /// Gets the size based on the Magnitude. /// </summary> /// <value>The size.</value> public double Size { get { return (Magnitude * 3); } } } } View Now the fun part! Usually, I would create a Views folder to place all of my View controls in, but I took the easy way out and added the following XAML code to the default MainPage.xaml file. Be sure to add the bing prefix associating the Microsoft.Maps.MapControl namespace after adding the assembly reference to your project. The MVVM Light Toolkit project templates come with a ViewModelLocator class that you can use via a static resource, but I am instantiating the EarthquakeViewModel directly in my user control. I am setting the AutoLoadData property to true as a way to trigger the LoadEarthquakes() method call. The MapItemsControl found within the <bing:Map> control binds its ItemsSource property to the Earthquakes collection of the view model, and since it is an ObservableCollection<T>, we get the automatic two way data binding via the INotifyCollectionChanged interface. <UserControl x:Class="EarthquakeLocator.MainPage" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation" xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml" xmlns:d="http://schemas.microsoft.com/expression/blend/2008" xmlns:mc="http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/markup-compatibility/2006" xmlns:bing="clr-namespace:Microsoft.Maps.MapControl;assembly=Microsoft.Maps.MapControl" xmlns:vm="clr-namespace:EarthquakeLocator.ViewModel" mc:Ignorable="d" d:DesignWidth="640" d:DesignHeight="480" > <UserControl.Resources> <DataTemplate x:Key="EarthquakeTemplate"> <Ellipse Fill="Red" Stroke="Black" StrokeThickness="1" Width="{Binding Size}" Height="{Binding Size}" bing:MapLayer.Position="{Binding Location}" bing:MapLayer.PositionOrigin="Center"> <ToolTipService.ToolTip> <StackPanel> <TextBlock Text="{Binding Title}" FontSize="14" FontWeight="Bold" /> <TextBlock Text="{Binding UtcTime}" /> <TextBlock Text="{Binding LocalTime}" /> <TextBlock Text="{Binding DepthDesc}" /> </StackPanel> </ToolTipService.ToolTip> </Ellipse> </DataTemplate> </UserControl.Resources> <UserControl.DataContext> <vm:EarthquakeViewModel AutoLoadData="True" /> </UserControl.DataContext> <Grid x:Name="LayoutRoot"> <bing:Map x:Name="map" CredentialsProvider="--Your-Bing-Maps-Key--" Center="{Binding MapCenter, Mode=TwoWay}" ZoomLevel="{Binding ZoomLevel, Mode=TwoWay}"> <bing:MapItemsControl ItemsSource="{Binding Earthquakes}" ItemTemplate="{StaticResource EarthquakeTemplate}" /> </bing:Map> </Grid> </UserControl> The EarthquakeTemplate defines the Ellipse that will represent each earthquake, the Width and Height that are determined by the Magnitude, the Position on the map, and also the tooltip that will appear when we mouse over each data point. Running the application will give us the following result (shown with a tooltip example): That concludes this portion of our show but I plan on implementing additional functionality in later blog posts. Be sure to come back soon to see the next installments in this series. Enjoy! Additional Resources USGS Earthquake Data Feeds Brad Abrams shows how RIA Services and MVVM can work together

Read the article
VS 2010 SP1 and SQL CE

- by ScottGu

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

Read the article
Creating Custom Ajax Control Toolkit Controls

- by Stephen Walther

The goal of this blog entry is to explain how you can extend the Ajax Control Toolkit with custom Ajax Control Toolkit controls. I describe how you can create the two halves of an Ajax Control Toolkit control: the server-side control extender and the client-side control behavior. Finally, I explain how you can use the new Ajax Control Toolkit control in a Web Forms page. At the end of this blog entry, there is a link to download a Visual Studio 2010 solution which contains the code for two Ajax Control Toolkit controls: SampleExtender and PopupHelpExtender. The SampleExtender contains the minimum skeleton for creating a new Ajax Control Toolkit control. You can use the SampleExtender as a starting point for your custom Ajax Control Toolkit controls. The PopupHelpExtender control is a super simple custom Ajax Control Toolkit control. This control extender displays a help message when you start typing into a TextBox control. The animated GIF below demonstrates what happens when you click into a TextBox which has been extended with the PopupHelp extender. Here’s a sample of a Web Forms page which uses the control: <%@ Page Language="C#" AutoEventWireup="true" CodeBehind="ShowPopupHelp.aspx.cs" Inherits="MyACTControls.Web.Default" %> <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"> <html > <head runat="server"> <title>Show Popup Help</title> </head> <body> <form id="form1" runat="server"> <div> <act:ToolkitScriptManager ID="tsm" runat="server" /> <%-- Social Security Number --%> <asp:Label ID="lblSSN" Text="SSN:" AssociatedControlID="txtSSN" runat="server" /> <asp:TextBox ID="txtSSN" runat="server" /> <act:PopupHelpExtender id="ph1" TargetControlID="txtSSN" HelpText="Please enter your social security number." runat="server" /> <%-- Social Security Number --%> <asp:Label ID="lblPhone" Text="Phone Number:" AssociatedControlID="txtPhone" runat="server" /> <asp:TextBox ID="txtPhone" runat="server" /> <act:PopupHelpExtender id="ph2" TargetControlID="txtPhone" HelpText="Please enter your phone number." runat="server" /> </div> </form> </body> </html> In the page above, the PopupHelp extender is used to extend the functionality of the two TextBox controls. When focus is given to a TextBox control, the popup help message is displayed. An Ajax Control Toolkit control extender consists of two parts: a server-side control extender and a client-side behavior. For example, the PopupHelp extender consists of a server-side PopupHelpExtender control (PopupHelpExtender.cs) and a client-side PopupHelp behavior JavaScript script (PopupHelpBehavior.js). Over the course of this blog entry, I describe how you can create both the server-side extender and the client-side behavior. Writing the Server-Side Code Creating a Control Extender You create a control extender by creating a class that inherits from the abstract ExtenderControlBase class. For example, the PopupHelpExtender control is declared like this: public class PopupHelpExtender: ExtenderControlBase { } The ExtenderControlBase class is part of the Ajax Control Toolkit. This base class contains all of the common server properties and methods of every Ajax Control Toolkit extender control. The ExtenderControlBase class inherits from the ExtenderControl class. The ExtenderControl class is a standard class in the ASP.NET framework located in the System.Web.UI namespace. This class is responsible for generating a client-side behavior. The class generates a call to the Microsoft Ajax Library $create() method which looks like this: <script type="text/javascript"> $create(MyACTControls.PopupHelpBehavior, {"HelpText":"Please enter your social security number.","id":"ph1"}, null, null, $get("txtSSN")); }); </script> The JavaScript $create() method is part of the Microsoft Ajax Library. The reference for this method can be found here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb397487.aspx This method accepts the following parameters: type – The type of client behavior to create. The $create() method above creates a client PopupHelpBehavior. Properties – Enables you to pass initial values for the properties of the client behavior. For example, the initial value of the HelpText property. This is how server property values are passed to the client. Events – Enables you to pass client-side event handlers to the client behavior. References – Enables you to pass references to other client components. Element – The DOM element associated with the client behavior. This will be the DOM element associated with the control being extended such as the txtSSN TextBox. The $create() method is generated for you automatically. You just need to focus on writing the server-side control extender class. Specifying the Target Control All Ajax Control Toolkit extenders inherit a TargetControlID property from the ExtenderControlBase class. This property, the TargetControlID property, points at the control that the extender control extends. For example, the Ajax Control Toolkit TextBoxWatermark control extends a TextBox, the ConfirmButton control extends a Button, and the Calendar control extends a TextBox. You must indicate the type of control which your extender is extending. You indicate the type of control by adding a [TargetControlType] attribute to your control. For example, the PopupHelp extender is declared like this: [TargetControlType(typeof(TextBox))] public class PopupHelpExtender: ExtenderControlBase { } The PopupHelp extender can be used to extend a TextBox control. If you try to use the PopupHelp extender with another type of control then an exception is thrown. If you want to create an extender control which can be used with any type of ASP.NET control (Button, DataView, TextBox or whatever) then use the following attribute: [TargetControlType(typeof(Control))] Decorating Properties with Attributes If you decorate a server-side property with the [ExtenderControlProperty] attribute then the value of the property gets passed to the control’s client-side behavior. The value of the property gets passed to the client through the $create() method discussed above. The PopupHelp control contains the following HelpText property: [ExtenderControlProperty] [RequiredProperty] public string HelpText { get { return GetPropertyValue("HelpText", "Help Text"); } set { SetPropertyValue("HelpText", value); } } The HelpText property determines the help text which pops up when you start typing into a TextBox control. Because the HelpText property is decorated with the [ExtenderControlProperty] attribute, any value assigned to this property on the server is passed to the client automatically. For example, if you declare the PopupHelp extender in a Web Form page like this: <asp:TextBox ID="txtSSN" runat="server" /> <act:PopupHelpExtender id="ph1" TargetControlID="txtSSN" HelpText="Please enter your social security number." runat="server" /> Then the PopupHelpExtender renders the call to the the following Microsoft Ajax Library $create() method: $create(MyACTControls.PopupHelpBehavior, {"HelpText":"Please enter your social security number.","id":"ph1"}, null, null, $get("txtSSN")); You can see this call to the JavaScript $create() method by selecting View Source in your browser. This call to the $create() method calls a method named set_HelpText() automatically and passes the value “Please enter your social security number”. There are several attributes which you can use to decorate server-side properties including: ExtenderControlProperty – When a property is marked with this attribute, the value of the property is passed to the client automatically. ExtenderControlEvent – When a property is marked with this attribute, the property represents a client event handler. Required – When a value is not assigned to this property on the server, an error is displayed. DefaultValue – The default value of the property passed to the client. ClientPropertyName – The name of the corresponding property in the JavaScript behavior. For example, the server-side property is named ID (uppercase) and the client-side property is named id (lower-case). IDReferenceProperty – Applied to properties which refer to the IDs of other controls. URLProperty – Calls ResolveClientURL() to convert from a server-side URL to a URL which can be used on the client. ElementReference – Returns a reference to a DOM element by performing a client $get(). The WebResource, ClientResource, and the RequiredScript Attributes The PopupHelp extender uses three embedded resources named PopupHelpBehavior.js, PopupHelpBehavior.debug.js, and PopupHelpBehavior.css. The first two files are JavaScript files and the final file is a Cascading Style sheet file. These files are compiled as embedded resources. You don’t need to mark them as embedded resources in your Visual Studio solution because they get added to the assembly when the assembly is compiled by a build task. You can see that these files get embedded into the MyACTControls assembly by using Red Gate’s .NET Reflector tool: In order to use these files with the PopupHelp extender, you need to work with both the WebResource and the ClientScriptResource attributes. The PopupHelp extender includes the following three WebResource attributes. [assembly: WebResource("PopupHelp.PopupHelpBehavior.js", "text/javascript")] [assembly: WebResource("PopupHelp.PopupHelpBehavior.debug.js", "text/javascript")] [assembly: WebResource("PopupHelp.PopupHelpBehavior.css", "text/css", PerformSubstitution = true)] These WebResource attributes expose the embedded resource from the assembly so that they can be accessed by using the ScriptResource.axd or WebResource.axd handlers. The first parameter passed to the WebResource attribute is the name of the embedded resource and the second parameter is the content type of the embedded resource. The PopupHelp extender also includes the following ClientScriptResource and ClientCssResource attributes: [ClientScriptResource("MyACTControls.PopupHelpBehavior", "PopupHelp.PopupHelpBehavior.js")] [ClientCssResource("PopupHelp.PopupHelpBehavior.css")] Including these attributes causes the PopupHelp extender to request these resources when you add the PopupHelp extender to a page. If you open View Source in a browser which uses the PopupHelp extender then you will see the following link for the Cascading Style Sheet file: <link href="/WebResource.axd?d=0uONMsWXUuEDG-pbJHAC1kuKiIMteQFkYLmZdkgv7X54TObqYoqVzU4mxvaa4zpn5H9ch0RDwRYKwtO8zM5mKgO6C4WbrbkWWidKR07LD1d4n4i_uNB1mHEvXdZu2Ae5mDdVNDV53znnBojzCzwvSw2&t=634417392021676003" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /> You also will see the following script include for the JavaScript file: <script src="/ScriptResource.axd?d=pIS7xcGaqvNLFBvExMBQSp_0xR3mpDfS0QVmmyu1aqDUjF06TrW1jVDyXNDMtBHxpRggLYDvgFTWOsrszflZEDqAcQCg-hDXjun7ON0Ol7EXPQIdOe1GLMceIDv3OeX658-tTq2LGdwXhC1-dE7_6g2&t=ffffffff88a33b59" type="text/javascript"></script> The JavaScrpt file returned by this request to ScriptResource.axd contains the combined scripts for any and all Ajax Control Toolkit controls in a page. By default, the Ajax Control Toolkit combines all of the JavaScript files required by a page into a single JavaScript file. Combining files in this way really speeds up how quickly all of the JavaScript files get delivered from the web server to the browser. So, by default, there will be only one ScriptResource.axd include for all of the JavaScript files required by a page. If you want to disable Script Combining, and create separate links, then disable Script Combining like this: <act:ToolkitScriptManager ID="tsm" runat="server" CombineScripts="false" /> There is one more important attribute used by Ajax Control Toolkit extenders. The PopupHelp behavior uses the following two RequirdScript attributes to load the JavaScript files which are required by the PopupHelp behavior: [RequiredScript(typeof(CommonToolkitScripts), 0)] [RequiredScript(typeof(PopupExtender), 1)] The first parameter of the RequiredScript attribute represents either the string name of a JavaScript file or the type of an Ajax Control Toolkit control. The second parameter represents the order in which the JavaScript files are loaded (This second parameter is needed because .NET attributes are intrinsically unordered). In this case, the RequiredScript attribute will load the JavaScript files associated with the CommonToolkitScripts type and the JavaScript files associated with the PopupExtender in that order. The PopupHelp behavior depends on these JavaScript files. Writing the Client-Side Code The PopupHelp extender uses a client-side behavior written with the Microsoft Ajax Library. Here is the complete code for the client-side behavior: (function () { // The unique name of the script registered with the // client script loader var scriptName = "PopupHelpBehavior"; function execute() { Type.registerNamespace('MyACTControls'); MyACTControls.PopupHelpBehavior = function (element) { /// <summary> /// A behavior which displays popup help for a textbox /// </summmary> /// <param name="element" type="Sys.UI.DomElement">The element to attach to</param> MyACTControls.PopupHelpBehavior.initializeBase(this, [element]); this._textbox = Sys.Extended.UI.TextBoxWrapper.get_Wrapper(element); this._cssClass = "ajax__popupHelp"; this._popupBehavior = null; this._popupPosition = Sys.Extended.UI.PositioningMode.BottomLeft; this._popupDiv = null; this._helpText = "Help Text"; this._element$delegates = { focus: Function.createDelegate(this, this._element_onfocus), blur: Function.createDelegate(this, this._element_onblur) }; } MyACTControls.PopupHelpBehavior.prototype = { initialize: function () { MyACTControls.PopupHelpBehavior.callBaseMethod(this, 'initialize'); // Add event handlers for focus and blur var element = this.get_element(); $addHandlers(element, this._element$delegates); }, _ensurePopup: function () { if (!this._popupDiv) { var element = this.get_element(); var id = this.get_id(); this._popupDiv = $common.createElementFromTemplate({ nodeName: "div", properties: { id: id + "_popupDiv" }, cssClasses: ["ajax__popupHelp"] }, element.parentNode); this._popupBehavior = new $create(Sys.Extended.UI.PopupBehavior, { parentElement: element }, {}, {}, this._popupDiv); this._popupBehavior.set_positioningMode(this._popupPosition); } }, get_HelpText: function () { return this._helpText; }, set_HelpText: function (value) { if (this._HelpText != value) { this._helpText = value; this._ensurePopup(); this._popupDiv.innerHTML = value; this.raisePropertyChanged("Text") } }, _element_onfocus: function (e) { this.show(); }, _element_onblur: function (e) { this.hide(); }, show: function () { this._popupBehavior.show(); }, hide: function () { if (this._popupBehavior) { this._popupBehavior.hide(); } }, dispose: function() { var element = this.get_element(); $clearHandlers(element); if (this._popupBehavior) { this._popupBehavior.dispose(); this._popupBehavior = null; } } }; MyACTControls.PopupHelpBehavior.registerClass('MyACTControls.PopupHelpBehavior', Sys.Extended.UI.BehaviorBase); Sys.registerComponent(MyACTControls.PopupHelpBehavior, { name: "popupHelp" }); } // execute if (window.Sys && Sys.loader) { Sys.loader.registerScript(scriptName, ["ExtendedBase", "ExtendedCommon"], execute); } else { execute(); } })(); In the following sections, we’ll discuss how this client-side behavior works. Wrapping the Behavior for the Script Loader The behavior is wrapped with the following script: (function () { // The unique name of the script registered with the // client script loader var scriptName = "PopupHelpBehavior"; function execute() { // Behavior Content } // execute if (window.Sys && Sys.loader) { Sys.loader.registerScript(scriptName, ["ExtendedBase", "ExtendedCommon"], execute); } else { execute(); } })(); This code is required by the Microsoft Ajax Library Script Loader. You need this code if you plan to use a behavior directly from client-side code and you want to use the Script Loader. If you plan to only use your code in the context of the Ajax Control Toolkit then you can leave out this code. Registering a JavaScript Namespace The PopupHelp behavior is declared within a namespace named MyACTControls. In the code above, this namespace is created with the following registerNamespace() method: Type.registerNamespace('MyACTControls'); JavaScript does not have any built-in way of creating namespaces to prevent naming conflicts. The Microsoft Ajax Library extends JavaScript with support for namespaces. You can learn more about the registerNamespace() method here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb397723.aspx Creating the Behavior The actual Popup behavior is created with the following code. MyACTControls.PopupHelpBehavior = function (element) { /// <summary> /// A behavior which displays popup help for a textbox /// </summmary> /// <param name="element" type="Sys.UI.DomElement">The element to attach to</param> MyACTControls.PopupHelpBehavior.initializeBase(this, [element]); this._textbox = Sys.Extended.UI.TextBoxWrapper.get_Wrapper(element); this._cssClass = "ajax__popupHelp"; this._popupBehavior = null; this._popupPosition = Sys.Extended.UI.PositioningMode.BottomLeft; this._popupDiv = null; this._helpText = "Help Text"; this._element$delegates = { focus: Function.createDelegate(this, this._element_onfocus), blur: Function.createDelegate(this, this._element_onblur) }; } MyACTControls.PopupHelpBehavior.prototype = { initialize: function () { MyACTControls.PopupHelpBehavior.callBaseMethod(this, 'initialize'); // Add event handlers for focus and blur var element = this.get_element(); $addHandlers(element, this._element$delegates); }, _ensurePopup: function () { if (!this._popupDiv) { var element = this.get_element(); var id = this.get_id(); this._popupDiv = $common.createElementFromTemplate({ nodeName: "div", properties: { id: id + "_popupDiv" }, cssClasses: ["ajax__popupHelp"] }, element.parentNode); this._popupBehavior = new $create(Sys.Extended.UI.PopupBehavior, { parentElement: element }, {}, {}, this._popupDiv); this._popupBehavior.set_positioningMode(this._popupPosition); } }, get_HelpText: function () { return this._helpText; }, set_HelpText: function (value) { if (this._HelpText != value) { this._helpText = value; this._ensurePopup(); this._popupDiv.innerHTML = value; this.raisePropertyChanged("Text") } }, _element_onfocus: function (e) { this.show(); }, _element_onblur: function (e) { this.hide(); }, show: function () { this._popupBehavior.show(); }, hide: function () { if (this._popupBehavior) { this._popupBehavior.hide(); } }, dispose: function() { var element = this.get_element(); $clearHandlers(element); if (this._popupBehavior) { this._popupBehavior.dispose(); this._popupBehavior = null; } } }; The code above has two parts. The first part of the code is used to define the constructor function for the PopupHelp behavior. This is a factory method which returns an instance of a PopupHelp behavior: MyACTControls.PopupHelpBehavior = function (element) { } The second part of the code modified the prototype for the PopupHelp behavior: MyACTControls.PopupHelpBehavior.prototype = { } Any code which is particular to a single instance of the PopupHelp behavior should be placed in the constructor function. For example, the default value of the _helpText field is assigned in the constructor function: this._helpText = "Help Text"; Any code which is shared among all instances of the PopupHelp behavior should be added to the PopupHelp behavior’s prototype. For example, the public HelpText property is added to the prototype: get_HelpText: function () { return this._helpText; }, set_HelpText: function (value) { if (this._HelpText != value) { this._helpText = value; this._ensurePopup(); this._popupDiv.innerHTML = value; this.raisePropertyChanged("Text") } }, Registering a JavaScript Class After you create the PopupHelp behavior, you must register the behavior as a class by using the Microsoft Ajax registerClass() method like this: MyACTControls.PopupHelpBehavior.registerClass('MyACTControls.PopupHelpBehavior', Sys.Extended.UI.BehaviorBase); This call to registerClass() registers PopupHelp behavior as a class which derives from the base Sys.Extended.UI.BehaviorBase class. Like the ExtenderControlBase class on the server side, the BehaviorBase class on the client side contains method used by every behavior. The documentation for the BehaviorBase class can be found here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb311020.aspx The most important methods and properties of the BehaviorBase class are the following: dispose() – Use this method to clean up all resources used by your behavior. In the case of the PopupHelp behavior, the dispose() method is used to remote the event handlers created by the behavior and disposed the Popup behavior. get_element() -- Use this property to get the DOM element associated with the behavior. In other words, the DOM element which the behavior extends. get_id() – Use this property to the ID of the current behavior. initialize() – Use this method to initialize the behavior. This method is called after all of the properties are set by the $create() method. Creating Debug and Release Scripts You might have noticed that the PopupHelp behavior uses two scripts named PopupHelpBehavior.js and PopupHelpBehavior.debug.js. However, you never create these two scripts. Instead, you only create a single script named PopupHelpBehavior.pre.js. The pre in PopupHelpBehavior.pre.js stands for preprocessor. When you build the Ajax Control Toolkit (or the sample Visual Studio Solution at the end of this blog entry), a build task named JSBuild generates the PopupHelpBehavior.js release script and PopupHelpBehavior.debug.js debug script automatically. The JSBuild preprocessor supports the following directives: #IF #ELSE #ENDIF #INCLUDE #LOCALIZE #DEFINE #UNDEFINE The preprocessor directives are used to mark code which should only appear in the debug version of the script. The directives are used extensively in the Microsoft Ajax Library. For example, the Microsoft Ajax Library Array.contains() method is created like this: $type.contains = function Array$contains(array, item) { //#if DEBUG var e = Function._validateParams(arguments, [ {name: "array", type: Array, elementMayBeNull: true}, {name: "item", mayBeNull: true} ]); if (e) throw e; //#endif return (indexOf(array, item) >= 0); } Notice that you add each of the preprocessor directives inside a JavaScript comment. The comment prevents Visual Studio from getting confused with its Intellisense. The release version, but not the debug version, of the PopupHelpBehavior script is also minified automatically by the Microsoft Ajax Minifier. The minifier is invoked by a build step in the project file. Conclusion The goal of this blog entry was to explain how you can create custom AJAX Control Toolkit controls. In the first part of this blog entry, you learned how to create the server-side portion of an Ajax Control Toolkit control. You learned how to derive a new control from the ExtenderControlBase class and decorate its properties with the necessary attributes. Next, in the second part of this blog entry, you learned how to create the client-side portion of an Ajax Control Toolkit control by creating a client-side behavior with JavaScript. You learned how to use the methods of the Microsoft Ajax Library to extend your client behavior from the BehaviorBase class. Download the Custom ACT Starter Solution

Read the article
jQuery Time Entry with Time Navigation Keys

- by Rick Strahl

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

Read the article
Using BPEL Performance Statistics to Diagnose Performance Bottlenecks

- by fip

Tuning performance of Oracle SOA 11G applications could be challenging. Because SOA is a platform for you to build composite applications that connect many applications and "services", when the overall performance is slow, the bottlenecks could be anywhere in the system: the applications/services that SOA connects to, the infrastructure database, or the SOA server itself.How to quickly identify the bottleneck becomes crucial in tuning the overall performance. Fortunately, the BPEL engine in Oracle SOA 11G (and 10G, for that matter) collects BPEL Engine Performance Statistics, which show the latencies of low level BPEL engine activities. The BPEL engine performance statistics can make it a bit easier for you to identify the performance bottleneck. Although the BPEL engine performance statistics are always available, the access to and interpretation of them are somewhat obscure in the early and current (PS5) 11G versions. This blog attempts to offer instructions that help you to enable, retrieve and interpret the performance statistics, before the future versions provides a more pleasant user experience. Overview of BPEL Engine Performance Statistics SOA BPEL has a feature of collecting some performance statistics and store them in memory. One MBean attribute, StatLastN, configures the size of the memory buffer to store the statistics. This memory buffer is a "moving window", in a way that old statistics will be flushed out by the new if the amount of data exceeds the buffer size. Since the buffer size is limited by StatLastN, impacts of statistics collection on performance is minimal. By default StatLastN=-1, which means no collection of performance data. Once the statistics are collected in the memory buffer, they can be retrieved via another MBean oracle.as.soainfra.bpel:Location=[Server Name],name=BPELEngine,type=BPELEngine.> My friend in Oracle SOA development wrote this simple 'bpelstat' web app that looks up and retrieves the performance data from the MBean and displays it in a human readable form. It does not have beautiful UI but it is fairly useful. Although in Oracle SOA 11.1.1.5 onwards the same statistics can be viewed via a more elegant UI under "request break down" at EM -> SOA Infrastructure -> Service Engines -> BPEL -> Statistics, some unsophisticated minds like mine may still prefer the simplicity of the 'bpelstat' JSP. One thing that simple JSP does do well is that you can save the page and send it to someone to further analyze Follows are the instructions of how to install and invoke the BPEL statistic JSP. My friend in SOA Development will soon blog about interpreting the statistics. Stay tuned. Step1: Enable BPEL Engine Statistics for Each SOA Servers via Enterprise Manager First st you need to set the StatLastN to some number as a way to enable the collection of BPEL Engine Performance Statistics EM Console -> soa-infra(Server Name) -> SOA Infrastructure -> SOA Administration -> BPEL Properties Click on "More BPEL Configuration Properties" Click on attribute "StatLastN", set its value to some integer number. Typically you want to set it 1000 or more. Step 2: Download and Deploy bpelstat.war File to Admin Server, Note: the WAR file contains a JSP that does NOT have any security restriction. You do NOT want to keep in your production server for a long time as it is a security hazard. Deactivate the war once you are done. Download the bpelstat.war to your local PC At WebLogic Console, Go to Deployments -> Install Click on the "upload your file(s)" Click the "Browse" button to upload the deployment to Admin Server Accept the uploaded file as the path, click next Check the default option "Install this deployment as an application" Check "AdminServer" as the target server Finish the rest of the deployment with default settings Console -> Deployments Check the box next to "bpelstat" application Click on the "Start" button. It will change the state of the app from "prepared" to "active" Step 3: Invoke the BPEL Statistic Tool The BPELStat tool merely call the MBean of BPEL server and collects and display the in-memory performance statics. You usually want to do that after some peak loads. Go to http://<admin-server-host>:<admin-server-port>/bpelstat Enter the correct admin hostname, port, username and password Enter the SOA Server Name from which you want to collect the performance statistics. For example, SOA_MS1, etc. Click Submit Keep doing the same for all SOA servers. Step 3: Interpret the BPEL Engine Statistics You will see a few categories of BPEL Statistics from the JSP Page. First it starts with the overall latency of BPEL processes, grouped by synchronous and asynchronous processes. Then it provides the further break down of the measurements through the life time of a BPEL request, which is called the "request break down". 1. Overall latency of BPEL processes The top of the page shows that the elapse time of executing the synchronous process TestSyncBPELProcess from the composite TestComposite averages at about 1543.21ms, while the elapse time of executing the asynchronous process TestAsyncBPELProcess from the composite TestComposite2 averages at about 1765.43ms. The maximum and minimum latency were also shown. Synchronous process statistics <statistics> <stats key="default/TestComposite!2.0.2-ScopedJMSOSB*soa_bfba2527-a9ba-41a7-95c5-87e49c32f4ff/TestSyncBPELProcess" min="1234" max="4567" average="1543.21" count="1000"> </stats> </statistics> Asynchronous process statistics <statistics> <stats key="default/TestComposite2!2.0.2-ScopedJMSOSB*soa_bfba2527-a9ba-41a7-95c5-87e49c32f4ff/TestAsyncBPELProcess" min="2234" max="3234" average="1765.43" count="1000"> </stats> </statistics> 2. Request break down Under the overall latency categorized by synchronous and asynchronous processes is the "Request breakdown". Organized by statistic keys, the Request breakdown gives finer grain performance statistics through the life time of the BPEL requests.It uses indention to show the hierarchy of the statistics. Request breakdown <statistics> <stats key="eng-composite-request" min="0" max="0" average="0.0" count="0"> <stats key="eng-single-request" min="22" max="606" average="258.43" count="277"> <stats key="populate-context" min="0" max="0" average="0.0" count="248"> Please note that in SOA 11.1.1.6, the statistics under Request breakdown is aggregated together cross all the BPEL processes based on statistic keys. It does not differentiate between BPEL processes. If two BPEL processes happen to have the statistic that share same statistic key, the statistics from two BPEL processes will be aggregated together. Keep this in mind when we go through more details below. 2.1 BPEL process activity latencies A very useful measurement in the Request Breakdown is the performance statistics of the BPEL activities you put in your BPEL processes: Assign, Invoke, Receive, etc. The names of the measurement in the JSP page directly come from the names to assign to each BPEL activity. These measurements are under the statistic key "actual-perform" Example 1: Follows is the measurement for BPEL activity "AssignInvokeCreditProvider_Input", which looks like the Assign activity in a BPEL process that assign an input variable before passing it to the invocation: <stats key="AssignInvokeCreditProvider_Input" min="1" max="8" average="1.9" count="153"> <stats key="sensor-send-activity-data" min="0" max="1" average="0.0" count="306"> </stats> <stats key="sensor-send-variable-data" min="0" max="0" average="0.0" count="153"> </stats> <stats key="monitor-send-activity-data" min="0" max="0" average="0.0" count="306"> </stats> </stats> Note: because as previously mentioned that the statistics cross all BPEL processes are aggregated together based on statistic keys, if two BPEL processes happen to name their Invoke activity the same name, they will show up at one measurement (i.e. statistic key). Example 2: Follows is the measurement of BPEL activity called "InvokeCreditProvider". You can not only see that by average it takes 3.31ms to finish this call (pretty fast) but also you can see from the further break down that most of this 3.31 ms was spent on the "invoke-service". <stats key="InvokeCreditProvider" min="1" max="13" average="3.31" count="153"> <stats key="initiate-correlation-set-again" min="0" max="0" average="0.0" count="153"> </stats> <stats key="invoke-service" min="1" max="13" average="3.08" count="153"> <stats key="prep-call" min="0" max="1" average="0.04" count="153"> </stats> </stats> <stats key="initiate-correlation-set" min="0" max="0" average="0.0" count="153"> </stats> <stats key="sensor-send-activity-data" min="0" max="0" average="0.0" count="306"> </stats> <stats key="sensor-send-variable-data" min="0" max="0" average="0.0" count="153"> </stats> <stats key="monitor-send-activity-data" min="0" max="0" average="0.0" count="306"> </stats> <stats key="update-audit-trail" min="0" max="2" average="0.03" count="153"> </stats> </stats> 2.2 BPEL engine activity latency Another type of measurements under Request breakdown are the latencies of underlying system level engine activities. These activities are not directly tied to a particular BPEL process or process activity, but they are critical factors in the overall engine performance. These activities include the latency of saving asynchronous requests to database, and latency of process dehydration. My friend Malkit Bhasin is working on providing more information on interpreting the statistics on engine activities on his blog (https://blogs.oracle.com/malkit/). I will update this blog once the information becomes available. Update on 2012-10-02: My friend Malkit Bhasin has published the detail interpretation of the BPEL service engine statistics at his blog http://malkit.blogspot.com/2012/09/oracle-bpel-engine-soa-suite.html.

Read the article
Metro: Promises

- by Stephen.Walther

The goal of this blog entry is to describe the Promise class in the WinJS library. You can use promises whenever you need to perform an asynchronous operation such as retrieving data from a remote website or a file from the file system. Promises are used extensively in the WinJS library. Asynchronous Programming Some code executes immediately, some code requires time to complete or might never complete at all. For example, retrieving the value of a local variable is an immediate operation. Retrieving data from a remote website takes longer or might not complete at all. When an operation might take a long time to complete, you should write your code so that it executes asynchronously. Instead of waiting for an operation to complete, you should start the operation and then do something else until you receive a signal that the operation is complete. An analogy. Some telephone customer service lines require you to wait on hold – listening to really bad music – until a customer service representative is available. This is synchronous programming and very wasteful of your time. Some newer customer service lines enable you to enter your telephone number so the customer service representative can call you back when a customer representative becomes available. This approach is much less wasteful of your time because you can do useful things while waiting for the callback. There are several patterns that you can use to write code which executes asynchronously. The most popular pattern in JavaScript is the callback pattern. When you call a function which might take a long time to return a result, you pass a callback function to the function. For example, the following code (which uses jQuery) includes a function named getFlickrPhotos which returns photos from the Flickr website which match a set of tags (such as “dog” and “funny”): function getFlickrPhotos(tags, callback) { $.getJSON( "http://api.flickr.com/services/feeds/photos_public.gne?jsoncallback=?", { tags: tags, tagmode: "all", format: "json" }, function (data) { if (callback) { callback(data.items); } } ); } getFlickrPhotos("funny, dogs", function(data) { $.each(data, function(index, item) { console.log(item); }); }); The getFlickr() function includes a callback parameter. When you call the getFlickr() function, you pass a function to the callback parameter which gets executed when the getFlicker() function finishes retrieving the list of photos from the Flickr web service. In the code above, the callback function simply iterates through the results and writes each result to the console. Using callbacks is a natural way to perform asynchronous programming with JavaScript. Instead of waiting for an operation to complete, sitting there and listening to really bad music, you can get a callback when the operation is complete. Using Promises The CommonJS website defines a promise like this (http://wiki.commonjs.org/wiki/Promises): “Promises provide a well-defined interface for interacting with an object that represents the result of an action that is performed asynchronously, and may or may not be finished at any given point in time. By utilizing a standard interface, different components can return promises for asynchronous actions and consumers can utilize the promises in a predictable manner.” A promise provides a standard pattern for specifying callbacks. In the WinJS library, when you create a promise, you can specify three callbacks: a complete callback, a failure callback, and a progress callback. Promises are used extensively in the WinJS library. The methods in the animation library, the control library, and the binding library all use promises. For example, the xhr() method included in the WinJS base library returns a promise. The xhr() method wraps calls to the standard XmlHttpRequest object in a promise. The following code illustrates how you can use the xhr() method to perform an Ajax request which retrieves a file named Photos.txt: var options = { url: "/data/photos.txt" }; WinJS.xhr(options).then( function (xmlHttpRequest) { console.log("success"); var data = JSON.parse(xmlHttpRequest.responseText); console.log(data); }, function(xmlHttpRequest) { console.log("fail"); }, function(xmlHttpRequest) { console.log("progress"); } ) The WinJS.xhr() method returns a promise. The Promise class includes a then() method which accepts three callback functions: a complete callback, an error callback, and a progress callback: Promise.then(completeCallback, errorCallback, progressCallback) In the code above, three anonymous functions are passed to the then() method. The three callbacks simply write a message to the JavaScript Console. The complete callback also dumps all of the data retrieved from the photos.txt file. Creating Promises You can create your own promises by creating a new instance of the Promise class. The constructor for the Promise class requires a function which accepts three parameters: a complete, error, and progress function parameter. For example, the code below illustrates how you can create a method named wait10Seconds() which returns a promise. The progress function is called every second and the complete function is not called until 10 seconds have passed: (function () { "use strict"; var app = WinJS.Application; function wait10Seconds() { return new WinJS.Promise(function (complete, error, progress) { var seconds = 0; var intervalId = window.setInterval(function () { seconds++; progress(seconds); if (seconds > 9) { window.clearInterval(intervalId); complete(); } }, 1000); }); } app.onactivated = function (eventObject) { if (eventObject.detail.kind === Windows.ApplicationModel.Activation.ActivationKind.launch) { wait10Seconds().then( function () { console.log("complete") }, function () { console.log("error") }, function (seconds) { console.log("progress:" + seconds) } ); } } app.start(); })(); All of the work happens in the constructor function for the promise. The window.setInterval() method is used to execute code every second. Every second, the progress() callback method is called. If more than 10 seconds have passed then the complete() callback method is called and the clearInterval() method is called. When you execute the code above, you can see the output in the Visual Studio JavaScript Console. Creating a Timeout Promise In the previous section, we created a custom Promise which uses the window.setInterval() method to complete the promise after 10 seconds. We really did not need to create a custom promise because the Promise class already includes a static method for returning promises which complete after a certain interval. The code below illustrates how you can use the timeout() method. The timeout() method returns a promise which completes after a certain number of milliseconds. WinJS.Promise.timeout(3000).then( function(){console.log("complete")}, function(){console.log("error")}, function(){console.log("progress")} ); In the code above, the Promise completes after 3 seconds (3000 milliseconds). The Promise returned by the timeout() method does not support progress events. Therefore, the only message written to the console is the message “complete” after 10 seconds. Canceling Promises Some promises, but not all, support cancellation. When you cancel a promise, the promise’s error callback is executed. For example, the following code uses the WinJS.xhr() method to perform an Ajax request. However, immediately after the Ajax request is made, the request is cancelled. // Specify Ajax request options var options = { url: "/data/photos.txt" }; // Make the Ajax request var request = WinJS.xhr(options).then( function (xmlHttpRequest) { console.log("success"); }, function (xmlHttpRequest) { console.log("fail"); }, function (xmlHttpRequest) { console.log("progress"); } ); // Cancel the Ajax request request.cancel(); When you run the code above, the message “fail” is written to the Visual Studio JavaScript Console. Composing Promises You can build promises out of other promises. In other words, you can compose promises. There are two static methods of the Promise class which you can use to compose promises: the join() method and the any() method. When you join promises, a promise is complete when all of the joined promises are complete. When you use the any() method, a promise is complete when any of the promises complete. The following code illustrates how to use the join() method. A new promise is created out of two timeout promises. The new promise does not complete until both of the timeout promises complete: WinJS.Promise.join([WinJS.Promise.timeout(1000), WinJS.Promise.timeout(5000)]) .then(function () { console.log("complete"); }); The message “complete” will not be written to the JavaScript Console until both promises passed to the join() method completes. The message won’t be written for 5 seconds (5,000 milliseconds). The any() method completes when any promise passed to the any() method completes: WinJS.Promise.any([WinJS.Promise.timeout(1000), WinJS.Promise.timeout(5000)]) .then(function () { console.log("complete"); }); The code above writes the message “complete” to the JavaScript Console after 1 second (1,000 milliseconds). The message is written to the JavaScript console immediately after the first promise completes and before the second promise completes. Summary The goal of this blog entry was to describe WinJS promises. First, we discussed how promises enable you to easily write code which performs asynchronous actions. You learned how to use a promise when performing an Ajax request. Next, we discussed how you can create your own promises. You learned how to create a new promise by creating a constructor function with complete, error, and progress parameters. Finally, you learned about several advanced methods of promises. You learned how to use the timeout() method to create promises which complete after an interval of time. You also learned how to cancel promises and compose promises from other promises.

Read the article
WPF Login Verification Using Active Directory

- by psheriff

Back in October of 2009 I created a WPF login screen (Figure 1) that just showed how to create the layout for a login screen. That one sample is probably the most downloaded sample we have. So in this blog post, I thought I would update that screen and also hook it up to show how to authenticate your user against Active Directory. Figure 1: Original WPF Login Screen I have updated not only the code behind for this login screen, but also the look and feel as shown in Figure 2. Figure 2: An Updated WPF Login Screen The UI To create the UI for this login screen you can refer to my October of 2009 blog post to see how to create the borderless window. You can then look at the sample code to see how I created the linear gradient brush for the background. There are just a few differences in this screen compared to the old version. First, I changed the key image and instead of using words for the Cancel and Login buttons, I used some icons. Secondly I added a text box to hold the Domain name that you wish to authenticate against. This text box is automatically filled in if you are connected to a network. In the Window_Loaded event procedure of the winLogin window you can retrieve the user’s domain name from the Environment.UserDomainName property. For example: txtDomain.Text = Environment.UserDomainName The ADHelper Class Instead of coding the call to authenticate the user directly in the login screen I created an ADHelper class. This will make it easier if you want to add additional AD calls in the future. The ADHelper class contains just one method at this time called AuthenticateUser. This method authenticates a user name and password against the specified domain. The login screen will gather the credentials from the user such as their user name and password, and also the domain name to authenticate against. To use this ADHelper class you will need to add a reference to the System.DirectoryServices.dll in .NET. The AuthenticateUser Method In order to authenticate a user against your Active Directory you will need to supply a valid LDAP path string to the constructor of the DirectoryEntry class. The LDAP path string will be in the format LDAP://DomainName. You will also pass in the user name and password to the constructor of the DirectoryEntry class as well. With a DirectoryEntry object populated with this LDAP path string, the user name and password you will now pass this object to the constructor of a DirectorySearcher object. You then perform the FindOne method on the DirectorySearcher object. If the DirectorySearcher object returns a SearchResult then the credentials supplied are valid. If the credentials are not valid on the Active Directory then an exception is thrown. C#public bool AuthenticateUser(string domainName, string userName, string password){ bool ret = false; try { DirectoryEntry de = new DirectoryEntry("LDAP://" + domainName, userName, password); DirectorySearcher dsearch = new DirectorySearcher(de); SearchResult results = null; results = dsearch.FindOne(); ret = true; } catch { ret = false; } return ret;} Visual Basic Public Function AuthenticateUser(ByVal domainName As String, _ ByVal userName As String, ByVal password As String) As Boolean Dim ret As Boolean = False Try Dim de As New DirectoryEntry("LDAP://" & domainName, _ userName, password) Dim dsearch As New DirectorySearcher(de) Dim results As SearchResult = Nothing results = dsearch.FindOne() ret = True Catch ret = False End Try Return retEnd Function In the Click event procedure under the Login button you will find the following code that will validate the credentials that the user types into the login window. C#private void btnLogin_Click(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e){ ADHelper ad = new ADHelper(); if(ad.AuthenticateUser(txtDomain.Text, txtUserName.Text, txtPassword.Password)) DialogResult = true; else MessageBox.Show("Unable to Authenticate Using the Supplied Credentials");} Visual BasicPrivate Sub btnLogin_Click(ByVal sender As Object, _ ByVal e As RoutedEventArgs) Dim ad As New ADHelper() If ad.AuthenticateUser(txtDomain.Text, txtUserName.Text, _ txtPassword.Password) Then DialogResult = True Else MessageBox.Show("Unable to Authenticate Using the Supplied Credentials") End IfEnd Sub Displaying the Login Screen At some point when your application launches, you will need to display your login screen modally. Below is the code that you would call to display the login form (named winLogin in my sample application). This code is called from the main application form, and thus the owner of the login screen is set to “this”. You then call the ShowDialog method on the login screen to have this form displayed modally. After the user clicks on one of the two buttons you need to check to see what the DialogResult property was set to. The DialogResult property is a nullable type and thus you first need to check to see if the value has been set. C# private void DisplayLoginScreen(){ winLogin win = new winLogin(); win.Owner = this; win.ShowDialog(); if (win.DialogResult.HasValue && win.DialogResult.Value) MessageBox.Show("User Logged In"); else this.Close();} Visual Basic Private Sub DisplayLoginScreen() Dim win As New winLogin() win.Owner = Me win.ShowDialog() If win.DialogResult.HasValue And win.DialogResult.Value Then MessageBox.Show("User Logged In") Else Me.Close() End IfEnd Sub Summary Creating a nice looking login screen is fairly simple to do in WPF. Using the Active Directory services from a WPF application should make your desktop programming task easier as you do not need to create your own user authentication system. I hope this article gave you some ideas on how to create a login screen in WPF. NOTE: You can download the complete sample code for this blog entry at my website: http://www.pdsa.com/downloads. Click on Tips & Tricks, then select 'WPF Login Verification Using Active Directory' from the drop down list. Good Luck with your Coding,Paul Sheriff ** SPECIAL OFFER FOR MY BLOG READERS **We frequently offer a FREE gift for readers of my blog. Visit http://www.pdsa.com/Event/Blog for your FREE gift!

Read the article
Windows Phone 7 : Dragging and flicking UI controls

- by TechTwaddle

Who would want to flick and drag UI controls!? There might not be many use cases but I think some concepts here are worthy of a post. So we will create a simple silverlight application for windows phone 7, containing a canvas element on which we’ll place a button control and an image and then, as the title says, drag and flick the controls. Here’s Mainpage.xaml, <Grid x:Name="LayoutRoot" Background="Transparent"> <Grid.RowDefinitions> <RowDefinition Height="Auto"/> <RowDefinition Height="*"/> </Grid.RowDefinitions>  <StackPanel x:Name="TitlePanel" Grid.Row="0" Margin="12,17,0,28"> <TextBlock x:Name="ApplicationTitle" Text="KINETICS" Style="{StaticResource PhoneTextNormalStyle}"/> <TextBlock x:Name="PageTitle" Text="drag and flick" Margin="9,-7,0,0" Style="{StaticResource PhoneTextTitle1Style}"/> </StackPanel>  <Grid x:Name="ContentPanel" Grid.Row="1" > <Canvas x:Name="MainCanvas" HorizontalAlignment="Stretch" VerticalAlignment="Stretch"> <Canvas.Background> <LinearGradientBrush StartPoint="0 0" EndPoint="0 1"> <GradientStop Offset="0" Color="Black"/> <GradientStop Offset="1.5" Color="BlanchedAlmond"/> </LinearGradientBrush> </Canvas.Background> </Canvas> </Grid> </Grid> the second row in the main grid contains a canvas element, MainCanvas, with its horizontal and vertical alignment set to stretch so that it occupies the entire grid. The canvas background is a linear gradient brush starting with Black and ending with BlanchedAlmond. We’ll add the button and image control to this canvas at run time. Moving to Mainpage.xaml.cs the Mainpage class contains the following members, public partial class MainPage : PhoneApplicationPage { Button FlickButton; Image FlickImage; FrameworkElement ElemToMove = null; double ElemVelX, ElemVelY; const double SPEED_FACTOR = 60; DispatcherTimer timer; FlickButton and FlickImage are the controls that we’ll add to the canvas. ElemToMove, ElemVelX and ElemVelY will be used by the timer callback to move the ui control. SPEED_FACTOR is used to scale the velocities of ui controls. Here’s the Mainpage constructor, // Constructor public MainPage() { InitializeComponent(); AddButtonToCanvas(); AddImageToCanvas(); timer = new DispatcherTimer(); timer.Interval = TimeSpan.FromMilliseconds(35); timer.Tick += new EventHandler(OnTimerTick); } We’ll look at those AddButton and AddImage functions in a moment. The constructor initializes a timer which fires every 35 milliseconds, this timer will be started after the flick gesture completes with some inertia. Back to AddButton and AddImage functions, void AddButtonToCanvas() { LinearGradientBrush brush; GradientStop stop1, stop2; Random rand = new Random(DateTime.Now.Millisecond); FlickButton = new Button(); FlickButton.Content = ""; FlickButton.Width = 100; FlickButton.Height = 100; brush = new LinearGradientBrush(); brush.StartPoint = new Point(0, 0); brush.EndPoint = new Point(0, 1); stop1 = new GradientStop(); stop1.Offset = 0; stop1.Color = Colors.White; stop2 = new GradientStop(); stop2.Offset = 1; stop2.Color = (Application.Current.Resources["PhoneAccentBrush"] as SolidColorBrush).Color; brush.GradientStops.Add(stop1); brush.GradientStops.Add(stop2); FlickButton.Background = brush; Canvas.SetTop(FlickButton, rand.Next(0, 400)); Canvas.SetLeft(FlickButton, rand.Next(0, 200)); MainCanvas.Children.Add(FlickButton); //subscribe to events FlickButton.ManipulationDelta += new EventHandler<ManipulationDeltaEventArgs>(OnManipulationDelta); FlickButton.ManipulationCompleted += new EventHandler<ManipulationCompletedEventArgs>(OnManipulationCompleted); } this function is basically glorifying a simple task. After creating the button and setting its height and width, its background is set to a linear gradient brush. The direction of the gradient is from top towards bottom and notice that the second stop color is the PhoneAccentColor, which changes along with the theme of the device. The line, stop2.Color = (Application.Current.Resources["PhoneAccentBrush"] as SolidColorBrush).Color; does the magic of extracting the PhoneAccentBrush from application’s resources, getting its color and assigning it to the gradient stop. AddImage function is straight forward in comparison, void AddImageToCanvas() { Random rand = new Random(DateTime.Now.Millisecond); FlickImage = new Image(); FlickImage.Source = new BitmapImage(new Uri("/images/Marble.png", UriKind.Relative)); Canvas.SetTop(FlickImage, rand.Next(0, 400)); Canvas.SetLeft(FlickImage, rand.Next(0, 200)); MainCanvas.Children.Add(FlickImage); //subscribe to events FlickImage.ManipulationDelta += new EventHandler<ManipulationDeltaEventArgs>(OnManipulationDelta); FlickImage.ManipulationCompleted += new EventHandler<ManipulationCompletedEventArgs>(OnManipulationCompleted); } The ManipulationDelta and ManipulationCompleted handlers are same for both the button and the image. OnManipulationDelta() should look familiar, a similar implementation was used in the previous post, void OnManipulationDelta(object sender, ManipulationDeltaEventArgs args) { FrameworkElement Elem = sender as FrameworkElement; double Left = Canvas.GetLeft(Elem); double Top = Canvas.GetTop(Elem); Left += args.DeltaManipulation.Translation.X; Top += args.DeltaManipulation.Translation.Y; //check for bounds if (Left < 0) { Left = 0; } else if (Left > (MainCanvas.ActualWidth - Elem.ActualWidth)) { Left = MainCanvas.ActualWidth - Elem.ActualWidth; } if (Top < 0) { Top = 0; } else if (Top > (MainCanvas.ActualHeight - Elem.ActualHeight)) { Top = MainCanvas.ActualHeight - Elem.ActualHeight; } Canvas.SetLeft(Elem, Left); Canvas.SetTop(Elem, Top); } all it does is calculate the control’s position, check for bounds and then set the top and left of the control. OnManipulationCompleted() is more interesting because here we need to check if the gesture completed with any inertia and if it did, start the timer and continue to move the ui control until it comes to a halt slowly, void OnManipulationCompleted(object sender, ManipulationCompletedEventArgs args) { FrameworkElement Elem = sender as FrameworkElement; if (args.IsInertial) { ElemToMove = Elem; Debug.WriteLine("Linear VelX:{0:0.00} VelY:{1:0.00}", args.FinalVelocities.LinearVelocity.X, args.FinalVelocities.LinearVelocity.Y); ElemVelX = args.FinalVelocities.LinearVelocity.X / SPEED_FACTOR; ElemVelY = args.FinalVelocities.LinearVelocity.Y / SPEED_FACTOR; timer.Start(); } } ManipulationCompletedEventArgs contains a member, IsInertial, which is set to true if the manipulation was completed with some inertia. args.FinalVelocities.LinearVelocity.X and .Y will contain the velocities along the X and Y axis. We need to scale down these values so they can be used to increment the ui control’s position sensibly. A reference to the ui control is stored in ElemToMove and the velocities are stored as well, these will be used in the timer callback to access the ui control. And finally, we start the timer. The timer callback function is as follows, void OnTimerTick(object sender, EventArgs e) { if (null != ElemToMove) { double Left, Top; Left = Canvas.GetLeft(ElemToMove); Top = Canvas.GetTop(ElemToMove); Left += ElemVelX; Top += ElemVelY; //check for bounds if (Left < 0) { Left = 0; ElemVelX *= -1; } else if (Left > (MainCanvas.ActualWidth - ElemToMove.ActualWidth)) { Left = MainCanvas.ActualWidth - ElemToMove.ActualWidth; ElemVelX *= -1; } if (Top < 0) { Top = 0; ElemVelY *= -1; } else if (Top > (MainCanvas.ActualHeight - ElemToMove.ActualHeight)) { Top = MainCanvas.ActualHeight - ElemToMove.ActualHeight; ElemVelY *= -1; } Canvas.SetLeft(ElemToMove, Left); Canvas.SetTop(ElemToMove, Top); //reduce x,y velocities gradually ElemVelX *= 0.9; ElemVelY *= 0.9; //when velocities become too low, break if (Math.Abs(ElemVelX) < 1.0 && Math.Abs(ElemVelY) < 1.0) { timer.Stop(); ElemToMove = null; } } } if ElemToMove is not null, we get the top and left values of the control and increment the values with their X and Y velocities. Check for bounds, and if the control goes out of bounds we reverse its velocity. Towards the end, the velocities are reduced by 10% every time the timer callback is called, and if the velocities reach too low values the timer is stopped and ElemToMove is made null. Here’s a short video of the program, the video is a little dodgy because my display driver refuses to run the animations smoothly. The flicks aren’t always recognised but the program should run well on an actual device (or a pc with better configuration), You can download the source code from here: ButtonDragAndFlick.zip

Read the article
Linux fsck.ext3 says "Device or resource busy" although I did not mount the disk.

- by matnagel

I am running an ubuntu 8.04 server instance with a 8GB virtual disk on vmware 1.0.9. For disk maintenance I made a copy of the virtual disk (by making a copy of the 2 vmdk files of sda on the stopped vm on the host) and added it to the original vm. Now this vm has it's original virtual disk sda plus a 1:1 copy (sdd). There are 2 additional disk sdb and sdc which I ignore.) I would expect sdb not to be mounted when I start the vm. So I try tp do a ext2 fsck on sdd from the running vm, but it reports fsck reported that sdb was mounted. $ sudo fsck.ext3 -b 8193 /dev/sdd e2fsck 1.40.8 (13-Mar-2008) fsck.ext3: Device or resource busy while trying to open /dev/sdd Filesystem mounted or opened exclusively by another program? The "mount" command does not tell me sdd is mounted: $ sudo mount /dev/sda1 on / type ext3 (rw,relatime,errors=remount-ro) proc on /proc type proc (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev) /sys on /sys type sysfs (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev) varrun on /var/run type tmpfs (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev,mode=0755) varlock on /var/lock type tmpfs (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev,mode=1777) udev on /dev type tmpfs (rw,mode=0755) devshm on /dev/shm type tmpfs (rw) devpts on /dev/pts type devpts (rw,gid=5,mode=620) /dev/sdc1 on /mnt/r1 type ext3 (rw,relatime,errors=remount-ro) /dev/sdb1 on /mnt/k1 type ext3 (rw,relatime,errors=remount-ro) securityfs on /sys/kernel/security type securityfs (rw) When I ignore the warning and continue the fsck, it reported many errors. How do I get this under control? Is there a better way to figure out if sdd is mounted? Or how is it "busy? How to unmount it then? How to prevent ubuntu from automatically mounting. Or is there something else I am missing? Also from /var/log/syslog I cannot see it is mounted, this is the last part of the startup sequence: kernel: [ 14.229494] ACPI: Power Button (FF) [PWRF] kernel: [ 14.230326] ACPI: AC Adapter [ACAD] (on-line) kernel: [ 14.460136] input: PC Speaker as /devices/platform/pcspkr/input/input3 kernel: [ 14.639366] udev: renamed network interface eth0 to eth1 kernel: [ 14.670187] eth1: link up kernel: [ 16.329607] input: ImPS/2 Generic Wheel Mouse as /devices/platform/i8042/serio1/ kernel: [ 16.367540] parport_pc 00:08: reported by Plug and Play ACPI kernel: [ 16.367670] parport0: PC-style at 0x378, irq 7 [PCSPP,TRISTATE] kernel: [ 19.425637] NET: Registered protocol family 10 kernel: [ 19.437550] lo: Disabled Privacy Extensions kernel: [ 24.328857] loop: module loaded kernel: [ 24.449293] lp0: using parport0 (interrupt-driven). kernel: [ 26.075499] EXT3 FS on sda1, internal journal kernel: [ 28.380299] kjournald starting. Commit interval 5 seconds kernel: [ 28.381706] EXT3 FS on sdc1, internal journal kernel: [ 28.381747] EXT3-fs: mounted filesystem with ordered data mode. kernel: [ 28.444867] kjournald starting. Commit interval 5 seconds kernel: [ 28.445436] EXT3 FS on sdb1, internal journal kernel: [ 28.445444] EXT3-fs: mounted filesystem with ordered data mode. kernel: [ 31.309766] eth1: no IPv6 routers present kernel: [ 35.054268] ip_tables: (C) 2000-2006 Netfilter Core Team mysqld_safe[4367]: started mysqld[4370]: 100124 14:40:21 InnoDB: Started; log sequence number 0 10130914 mysqld[4370]: 100124 14:40:21 [Note] /usr/sbin/mysqld: ready for connections. mysqld[4370]: Version: '5.0.51a-3ubuntu5.4' socket: '/var/run/mysqld/mysqld.sock' port: 3 /etc/mysql/debian-start[4417]: Upgrading MySQL tables if necessary. /etc/mysql/debian-start[4422]: Looking for 'mysql' in: /usr/bin/mysql /etc/mysql/debian-start[4422]: Looking for 'mysqlcheck' in: /usr/bin/mysqlcheck /etc/mysql/debian-start[4422]: This installation of MySQL is already upgraded to 5.0.51a, u /etc/mysql/debian-start[4436]: Checking for insecure root accounts. /etc/mysql/debian-start[4444]: Checking for crashed MySQL tables.

Read the article
Why is Automator crashing on launch?

- by zbrimhall

I've run into an odd problem where Automtor.app on Snow Leopard crashes on launch. At some point in the past, I put a copy of iPhoto.app into my public directory to copy over to another machine. Now, Automator.app won't run unless my public directory has a copy of iPhoto.app in it. If I remove it, Automator.app crashes on launch. Here's what happens: Launch Automator.app After the Automator menu bar appears, but before any windows appear, I get the dreaded beach ball for a few seconds Automator crashes Here's the output from Console.app: 12/26/09 2:11:24 PM Automator[11736] The action “Add Movie to iDVD Menu” could not be loaded because the application “iDVD” was not found. 12/26/09 2:11:24 PM Automator[11736] The action “Get iDVD Slideshow Images” could not be loaded because the application “iDVD” was not found. 12/26/09 2:11:24 PM Automator[11736] The action “Initiate Remote Broadcast” could not be loaded because the application “QuickTime Broadcaster” was not found. 12/26/09 2:11:24 PM Automator[11736] The action “New iDVD Menu” could not be loaded because the application “iDVD” was not found. 12/26/09 2:11:24 PM Automator[11736] The action “New iDVD Movie Sequence” could not be loaded because the application “iDVD” was not found. 12/26/09 2:11:24 PM Automator[11736] The action “New iDVD Slideshow” could not be loaded because the application “iDVD” was not found. 12/26/09 2:11:24 PM Automator[11736] The action “New QuickTime Slideshow” could not be loaded because the application “QuickTime Player” was not found. 12/26/09 2:11:24 PM Automator[11736] The action “Set iDVD Background Image” could not be loaded because the application “iDVD” was not found. 12/26/09 2:11:24 PM Automator[11736] The action “Set iDVD Button Face” could not be loaded because the application “iDVD” was not found. 12/26/09 2:11:24 PM Automator[11736] The action “Set Movie Annotations” could not be loaded because the application “QuickTime Player” was not found. 12/26/09 2:11:24 PM Automator[11736] The action “Set Movie Playback Properties” could not be loaded because the application “QuickTime Player” was not found. 12/26/09 2:11:24 PM Automator[11736] The action “Set Movie URL” could not be loaded because the application “QuickTime Player” was not found. 12/26/09 2:11:24 PM Automator[11736] The action “Show Main iDVD Menu” could not be loaded because the application “iDVD” was not found. 12/26/09 2:11:25 PM Automator[11736] Can not ID UTI for path The value %@ is invalid.: The file “The value %@ is invalid.” couldn’t be opened because there is no such file. 12/26/09 2:11:25 PM Automator[11736] Can not ID UTI for path /Users/brimhall/Public/iPhoto.app: The file “iPhoto.app” couldn’t be opened because there is no such file. 12/26/09 2:11:25 PM Automator[11736] Can not ID UTI for path The value %@ is invalid.: The file “The value %@ is invalid.” couldn’t be opened because there is no such file. 12/26/09 2:11:26 PM Automator[11736] -[NSAttributeDictionary length]: unrecognized selector sent to instance 0x49c770 12/26/09 2:11:26 PM Automator[11736] -[NSAttributeDictionary length]: unrecognized selector sent to instance 0x49c770 12/26/09 2:11:38 PM com.apple.launchd.peruser.501[203] ([0x0-0x2ad2ad].com.apple.Automator[11736]) Job appears to have crashed: Segmentation fault I've tried deleting my Automator.app Preferences file and Application Support directory to get it to look for iPhoto.app in the system-wide Applications directory, but to no avail. Any suggestions on how I can get things working as normal?

Read the article
Why is Automator crashing on launch?

- by zbrimhall

I've run into an odd problem where Automtor.app on Snow Leopard crashes on launch. At some point in the past, I put a copy of iPhoto.app into my public directory to copy over to another machine. Now, Automator.app won't run unless my public directory has a copy of iPhoto.app in it. If I remove it, Automator.app crashes on launch. Here's what happens: Launch Automator.app After the Automator menu bar appears, but before any windows appear, I get the dreaded beach ball for a few seconds Automator crashes Here's the output from Console.app: 12/26/09 2:11:24 PM Automator[11736] The action “Add Movie to iDVD Menu” could not be loaded because the application “iDVD” was not found. 12/26/09 2:11:24 PM Automator[11736] The action “Get iDVD Slideshow Images” could not be loaded because the application “iDVD” was not found. 12/26/09 2:11:24 PM Automator[11736] The action “Initiate Remote Broadcast” could not be loaded because the application “QuickTime Broadcaster” was not found. 12/26/09 2:11:24 PM Automator[11736] The action “New iDVD Menu” could not be loaded because the application “iDVD” was not found. 12/26/09 2:11:24 PM Automator[11736] The action “New iDVD Movie Sequence” could not be loaded because the application “iDVD” was not found. 12/26/09 2:11:24 PM Automator[11736] The action “New iDVD Slideshow” could not be loaded because the application “iDVD” was not found. 12/26/09 2:11:24 PM Automator[11736] The action “New QuickTime Slideshow” could not be loaded because the application “QuickTime Player” was not found. 12/26/09 2:11:24 PM Automator[11736] The action “Set iDVD Background Image” could not be loaded because the application “iDVD” was not found. 12/26/09 2:11:24 PM Automator[11736] The action “Set iDVD Button Face” could not be loaded because the application “iDVD” was not found. 12/26/09 2:11:24 PM Automator[11736] The action “Set Movie Annotations” could not be loaded because the application “QuickTime Player” was not found. 12/26/09 2:11:24 PM Automator[11736] The action “Set Movie Playback Properties” could not be loaded because the application “QuickTime Player” was not found. 12/26/09 2:11:24 PM Automator[11736] The action “Set Movie URL” could not be loaded because the application “QuickTime Player” was not found. 12/26/09 2:11:24 PM Automator[11736] The action “Show Main iDVD Menu” could not be loaded because the application “iDVD” was not found. 12/26/09 2:11:25 PM Automator[11736] Can not ID UTI for path The value %@ is invalid.: The file “The value %@ is invalid.” couldn’t be opened because there is no such file. 12/26/09 2:11:25 PM Automator[11736] Can not ID UTI for path /Users/brimhall/Public/iPhoto.app: The file “iPhoto.app” couldn’t be opened because there is no such file. 12/26/09 2:11:25 PM Automator[11736] Can not ID UTI for path The value %@ is invalid.: The file “The value %@ is invalid.” couldn’t be opened because there is no such file. 12/26/09 2:11:26 PM Automator[11736] -[NSAttributeDictionary length]: unrecognized selector sent to instance 0x49c770 12/26/09 2:11:26 PM Automator[11736] -[NSAttributeDictionary length]: unrecognized selector sent to instance 0x49c770 12/26/09 2:11:38 PM com.apple.launchd.peruser.501[203] ([0x0-0x2ad2ad].com.apple.Automator[11736]) Job appears to have crashed: Segmentation fault I've tried deleting my Automator.app Preferences file and Application Support directory to get it to look for iPhoto.app in the system-wide Applications directory, but to no avail. Any suggestions on how I can get things working as normal?

Read the article
Installation of Access Database Engine 32-bit Fails

- by Rayzor78

I am trying to install Access Database Engine 2007 32-bit. The splash screen comes up, you click "Next", then it fails with the error: Installation ended prematurely because of an error You click "OK" and another error window says: The installation of the package failed. The exact same situation happens when I try this with Access Database Engine 2010 32-bit. This production server is running Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 64-bit. Before I tried installing Access Database Engine 32-bit, I first needed to install Microsoft Office 2010 Pro (Excel and Office Tools only). I tried the 32-bit version on the production server since that is how I set it up in our Dev environment. No luck. The 32-bit version would not install. I did NOT get the error "You have 64-bit components of Office installed". I simply received the exact same two errors listed above. So, I knew that 32-bit/64-bit did not really matter for the Office install for my project, so I installed 64-bit of Office Pro 2010 (Excel and Office Tools only) with no problems. I have a requirement that I need to have the 32-bit version of the Access Database Engine installed. 2007 or 2010, doesn't matter. I cannot use the 64-bit version of Access Database Engine 2010 because my SSIS package will not work with it. I require the 32-bit version. I've tried several steps to try to get it installed. I seriously think that the production server has some aversion to installing 32-bit applications. Here's what I've tried: Tried installing via command line with the "/passive" switch....no luck. Tried numerous iterations to copy the install file to the server (downloaded a fresh copy directly to the server, downloaded a fresh copy to my local machine then copied it over, copied it over zipped up) (http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/sqldataaccess/thread/efd3c1f0-07cd-45ca-a626-2dd0c7ac3e9f). Tried Method 1 from this link. Could not try Method 2 because it requires a server reboot and in my environment that requires a long change management process. I've verified that I am a local administrator on the server. (Evidence, I am able to install other applications (office 64-bit per above)). Verified that there are no other office products that should be blocking the installation. The fore-mentioned install of Excel 2010 64-bit was the first Office product installed on the server. VERY ODD: To test my theory that the production server does not like 32-bit applications, I installed something lightweight. I installed 7-Zip 32-bit on the production server with no problems whatsoever. Here are some things that I have not tried (i will follow-up once I do): Method 2 (as mentioned above). Requires a server reboot. Have not verified that the Dev and Production environments are 100% identical. I've done a cursory check and on the surface they appear to be the same (same OS and SP version). I need to do a deeper dive to be 100% certain. I had no problems in my Dev environment. In Dev, I installed Office 2010 Pro 64-bit (Excel & Office Tools only) then via command line w/ the "/passive" switch, installed Access Database Engine 2010 32-bit. I don't know what else to try. Any suggestions or comments?

Read the article
Where to download replacement "Explorerframe.DLL" Files for x64 Windows 7 Pro?

- by Ben Franchuk

After posting this question, I did some research to reveal what the problem likely was, and found what I need to fix. Following this is the original post, then my updated question. A few months ago I ended up requiring to change my computer's SID to fix a problem it had been having- Instead of fixing the problem, though, it screwed up my at-the-time current install of windows, to the point of me needing to do a fresh install. As I am in possession of an OEM copy of Windows 7 Pro 64 Bit, I successfully reinstalled over the dead copy with that (all the files that were on the computer previous to this windows install were put in a Windows.old folder). Everything installed and worked absolutely fine, except for one thing. The problem I am experiencing is that, in some Windows Explorer windows, the explorer pane doesn't show. Instead, it simply shows a white area where the pane would show. This makes some software not usable, I recently realized; Software such as Cubase, which use just the explorer pane to select file save locations, cannot save at all as the pane itself is... not operational. Below is a screenshot of this problem as it occurs in cubase; ...and again as it shows in UTorrent in the save location selector window. The highlighted area is where the sidebar would NORMALLY be. Pardon my scribbling over some of the things in the window- I would personally rather the internet did not get a glimpse of my files. I have yet to find a common reason why the pane works in some applications when they pull explorer, and others not. I have yet to see it go away, and the software affected by it has been affected since I reinstalled my copy of windows. Initially, I was able to live with it as I can type out save locations in the file name bar to navigate, but with software like Cubase, I do not have this option. Reinstalling windows again is NOT an option. Here's the updated question. After posting this question originally, I did some research on the problem in question, and it turns out that this is extremely easily fixable via replacing the file "ExplorerFrame.DLL" which is located in the System32 and SystemWOW64 Folders, in the windows folder, on the C:\ drive. As I quite frequently customize my computer, this is a normal thing for me to do and I know exactly how to safely and properly replace this file. The only problem is that I cannot for the life of me find a download of this file that actually works with my computer. I tried a couple from some different sites but they all caused explorer to not restart (I was given an error when starting the application from Task Manager) and was forced to revert to the broken .DLL files. Since there are 2 separate "ExplorerFrame.DLL" files; one for 64 bit and the other for 32 bit, I am assuming that I will need to download 2 separate versions to replace the corrupted ones. Where can I acquire these files? I am currently running Windows 7 Professional x64 Bit.

Read the article
unrecognized selector sent to instance in xcode using objective c and sup as backend

- by user1765037

I am a beginner in native development.I made a project using xcode in objective C.It builded successfully.But when I run the project ,an error came like 'unrecognized selector sent to instance'.Why this is happening ?can anyone help me to solve this?I am attaching the error that I am getting with this.. And I am posting the code with this.... ConnectionController.m #import "ConnectionController.h" #import "SUPApplication.h" #import "Flight_DetailsFlightDB.h" #import "CallbackHandler.h" @interface ConnectionController() @property (nonatomic,retain)CallbackHandler *callbackhandler; @end @implementation ConnectionController @synthesize callbackhandler; static ConnectionController *appConnectionController; //Begin Application Setup +(void)beginApplicationSetup { if(!appConnectionController) { appConnectionController = [[[ConnectionController alloc]init]retain]; appConnectionController.callbackhandler = [[CallbackHandler getInstance]retain]; } if([SUPApplication connectionStatus] == SUPConnectionStatus_DISCONNECTED) [appConnectionController setupApplicationConnection]; else NSLog(@"Already Connected"); } -(BOOL)setupApplicationConnection { SUPApplication *app = [SUPApplication getInstance]; [app setApplicationIdentifier:@"HWC"]; [app setApplicationCallback:self.callbackhandler]; NSLog(@"inside setupApp"); SUPConnectionProperties *properties = [app connectionProperties]; NSLog(@"server"); [properties setServerName:@"sapecxxx.xxx.com"]; NSLog(@"inside setupAppser"); [properties setPortNumber:5001]; NSLog(@"inside setupApppot"); [properties setFarmId:@"0"]; NSLog(@"inside setupAppfarm"); [properties setUrlSuffix:@"/tm/?cid=%cid%"]; NSLog(@"inside setupAppurlsuff"); [properties setNetworkProtocol:@"http"]; SUPLoginCredentials *loginCred = [SUPLoginCredentials getInstance]; NSLog(@"inside setupAppmac"); [loginCred setUsername:@"mac"]; [loginCred setPassword:nil]; [properties setLoginCredentials:loginCred]; [properties setActivationCode:@"1234"]; if(![Flight_DetailsFlightDB databaseExists]) { [Flight_DetailsFlightDB createDatabase]; } SUPConnectionProfile *connprofile = [Flight_DetailsFlightDB getSynchronizationProfile]; [connprofile setNetworkProtocol:@"http"]; NSLog(@"inside setupAppPort2"); [connprofile setPortNumber:2480]; NSLog(@"inside setupAppser2"); [connprofile setServerName:@"sapecxxx.xxx.com"]; NSLog(@"inside setupAppdom2"); [connprofile setDomainName:@"Development"]; NSLog(@"inside setupAppuser"); [connprofile setUser:@"supAdmin"]; [connprofile setPassword:@"s3pAdmin"]; [connprofile setAsyncReplay:YES]; [connprofile setClientId:@"0"]; // [Flight_DetailsFlightDB beginOnlineLogin:@"supAdmin" password:@"s3pAdmin"]; [Flight_DetailsFlightDB registerCallbackHandler:self.callbackhandler]; [Flight_DetailsFlightDB setApplication:app]; if([SUPApplication connectionStatus] == SUPRegistrationStatus_REGISTERED) { [app startConnection:0]; } else { [app registerApplication:0]; } } @end ViewController.m #import "Demo_FlightsViewController.h" #import "ConnectionController.h" #import "Flight_DetailsFlightDB.h" #import "SUPObjectList.h" #import "Flight_DetailsSessionPersonalization.h" #import "Flight_DetailsFlight_MBO.h" #import "Flight_DetailsPersonalizationParameters.h" @interface Demo_FlightsViewController () @end @implementation Demo_FlightsViewController - (void)viewDidLoad { [super viewDidLoad]; // Do any additional setup after loading the view, typically from a nib. } -(IBAction)Connect:(id)sender { @try { [ConnectionController beginApplicationSetup]; } @catch (NSException *exception) { NSLog(@"ConnectionAborted"); } // synchronise } -(IBAction)Synchronise:(id)sender { @try { [Flight_DetailsFlightDB synchronize]; NSLog(@"SYNCHRONISED"); } @catch (NSException *exception) { NSLog(@"Synchronisation Failed"); } } -(IBAction)findall:(id)sender { SUPObjectList *list = [Flight_DetailsSessionPersonalization findAll]; NSLog(@"no of lines got synchronised is %d",list.size); } -(IBAction)confirm:(id)sender { Flight_DetailsPersonalizationParameters *pp = [Flight_DetailsFlightDB getPersonalizationParameters]; MBOLogInfo(@"personalisation parmeter for airline id= %@",pp.Airline_PK); [pp setAirline_PK:@"AA"]; [pp save]; while([Flight_DetailsFlightDB hasPendingOperations]) { [NSThread sleepForTimeInterval:1]; } NSLog(@"inside confirm............"); [Flight_DetailsFlightDB beginSynchronize]; Flight_DetailsFlight_MBO *flight = nil; SUPObjectList *cl = nil; cl =[Flight_DetailsFlight_MBO findAll]; if(cl && cl.length > 0) { int i; for(i=0;i<cl.length;i++) { flight = [cl item:i]; if(flight) { NSLog(@"details are %@",flight.CITYFROM); } } } } - (void)viewDidUnload { [super viewDidUnload]; // Release any retained subviews of the main view. } - (BOOL)shouldAutorotateToInterfaceOrientation:(UIInterfaceOrientation)interfaceOrientation { return (interfaceOrientation != UIInterfaceOrientationPortraitUpsideDown); } @end SUPConnectionProfile.h #import "sybase_sup.h" #define FROM_IMPORT_THREAD TRUE #define FROM_APP_THREAD FALSE #define SUP_UL_MAX_CACHE_SIZE 10485760 @class SUPBooleanUtil; @class SUPNumberUtil; @class SUPStringList; @class SUPStringUtil; @class SUPPersistenceException; @class SUPLoginCertificate; @class SUPLoginCredentials; @class SUPConnectionProfile; /*! @class SUPConnectionProfile @abstract This class contains fields and methods needed to connect and authenticate to an SUP server. @discussion */ @interface SUPConnectionProfile : NSObject { SUPConnectionProfile* _syncProfile; SUPBoolean _threadLocal; SUPString _wrapperData; NSMutableDictionary* _delegate; SUPLoginCertificate* _certificate; SUPLoginCredentials* _credentials; int32_t _maxDbConnections; BOOL initTraceCalled; } /*! @method @abstract Return a new instance of SUPConnectionProfile. @discussion @result The SUPconnectionprofile object. */ + (SUPConnectionProfile*)getInstance; /*! @method @abstract Return a new instance of SUPConnectionProfile. @discussion This method is deprecated. use getInstance instead. @result The SUPconnectionprofile object. */ + (SUPConnectionProfile*)newInstance DEPRECATED_ATTRIBUTE NS_RETURNS_NON_RETAINED; - (SUPConnectionProfile*)init; /*! @property @abstract The sync profile. @discussion */ @property(readwrite, retain, nonatomic) SUPConnectionProfile* syncProfile; /*! @property @abstract The maximum number of active DB connections allowed @discussion Default value is 4, but can be changed by application developer. */ @property(readwrite, assign, nonatomic) int32_t maxDbConnections; /*! @method @abstract The SUPConnectionProfile manages an internal dictionary of key value pairs. This method returns the SUPString value for a given string. @discussion @param name The string. */ - (SUPString)getString:(SUPString)name; /*! @method @abstract The SUPConnectionProfile manages an internal dictionary of key value pairs. This method returns the SUPString value for a given string. If the value is not found, returns 'defaultValue'. @discussion @param name The string. @param defaultValue The default Value. */ - (SUPString)getStringWithDefault:(SUPString)name:(SUPString)defaultValue; /*! @method @abstract The SUPConnectionProfile manages an internal dictionary of key value pairs. This method returns the SUPBoolean value for a given string. @discussion @param name The string. */ - (SUPBoolean)getBoolean:(SUPString)name; /*! @method @abstract The SUPConnectionProfile manages an internal dictionary of key value pairs. This method returns the SUPBoolean value for a given string. If the value is not found, returns 'defaultValue'. @discussion @param name The string. @param defaultValue The default Value. */ - (SUPBoolean)getBooleanWithDefault:(SUPString)name:(SUPBoolean)defaultValue; /*! @method @abstract The SUPConnectionProfile manages an internal dictionary of key value pairs. This method returns the SUPInt value for a given string. @discussion @param name The string. */ - (SUPInt)getInt:(SUPString)name; /*! @method @abstract The SUPConnectionProfile manages an internal dictionary of key value pairs. This method returns the SUPInt value for a given string. If the value is not found, returns 'defaultValue'. @discussion @param name The string. @param defaultValue The default Value. */ - (SUPInt)getIntWithDefault:(SUPString)name:(SUPInt)defaultValue; /*! @method getUPA @abstract retrieve upa from profile @discussion if it is in profile's dictionary, it returns value for key "upa"; if it is not found in profile, it composes the upa value from base64 encoding of username:password; and also inserts it into profile's dictionary. @param none @result return string value of upa. */ - (SUPString)getUPA; /*! @method @abstract Sets the SUPString 'value' for the given 'name'. @discussion @param name The name. @param value The value. */ - (void)setString:(SUPString)name:(SUPString)value; /*! @method @abstract Sets the SUPBoolean 'value' for the given 'name'. @discussion @param name The name. @param value The value. */ - (void)setBoolean:(SUPString)name:(SUPBoolean)value; /*! @method @abstract Sets the SUPInt 'value' for the given 'name'. @discussion @param name The name. @param value The value. */ - (void)setInt:(SUPString)name:(SUPInt)value; /*! @method @abstract Sets the username. @discussion @param value The value. */ - (void)setUser:(SUPString)value; /*! @method @abstract Sets the password. @discussion @param value The value. */ - (void)setPassword:(SUPString)value; /*! @method @abstract Sets the ClientId. @discussion @param value The value. */ - (void)setClientId:(SUPString)value; /*! @method @abstract Returns the databasename. @discussion @param value The value. */ - (SUPString)databaseName; /*! @method @abstract Sets the databasename. @discussion @param value The value. */ - (void)setDatabaseName:(SUPString)value; @property(readwrite,copy, nonatomic) SUPString databaseName; /*! @method @abstract Gets the encryption key. @discussion @result The encryption key. */ - (SUPString)getEncryptionKey; /*! @method @abstract Sets the encryption key. @discussion @param value The value. */ - (void)setEncryptionKey:(SUPString)value; @property(readwrite,copy, nonatomic) SUPString encryptionKey; /*! @property @abstract The authentication credentials (username/password or certificate) for this profile. @discussion */ @property(retain,readwrite,nonatomic) SUPLoginCredentials *credentials; /*! @property @abstract The authentication certificate. @discussion If this is not null, certificate will be used for authentication. If this is null, credentials property (username/password) will be used. */ @property(readwrite,retain,nonatomic) SUPLoginCertificate *certificate; @property(readwrite, assign, nonatomic) BOOL initTraceCalled; /*! @method @abstract Gets the UltraLite collation creation parameter @discussion @result conllation string */ - (SUPString)getCollation; /*! @method @abstract Sets the UltraLite collation creation parameter @discussion @param value The value. */ - (void)setCollation:(SUPString)value; @property(readwrite,copy, nonatomic) SUPString collation; /*! @method @abstract Gets the maximum cache size in bytes; the default value for iOS is 10485760 (10 MB). @discussion @result max cache size */ - (int)getCacheSize; /*! @method @abstract Sets the maximum cache size in bytes. @discussion For Ultralite, passes the cache_max_size property into the connection parameters for DB connections; For SQLite, executes the "PRAGMA cache_size" statement when a connection is opened. @param cacheSize value */ - (void)setCacheSize:(int)cacheSize; @property(readwrite,assign, nonatomic) int cacheSize; /*! @method @abstract Returns the user. @discussion @result The username. */ - (SUPString)getUser; /*! @method @abstract Returns the password hash value. @discussion @result The password hash value. */ - (NSUInteger)getPasswordHash; /*! @method @abstract Returns the password. @discussion @result The password hash value. */ - (NSString*)getPassword; /*! @method @abstract Adds a new key value pair. @discussion @param key The key. @param value The value. */ - (void)add:(SUPString)key:(SUPString)value; /*! @method @abstract Removes the key. @discussion @param key The key to remove. */ - (void)remove:(SUPString)key; - (void)clear; /*! @method @abstract Returns a boolean indicating if the key is present. @discussion @param key The key. @result The result indicating if the key is present. */ - (SUPBoolean)containsKey:(SUPString)key; /*! @method @abstract Returns the item for the given key. @discussion @param key The key. @result The item. */ - (SUPString)item:(SUPString)key; /*! @method @abstract Returns the list of keys. @discussion @result The keylist. */ - (SUPStringList*)keys; /*! @method @abstract Returns the list of values. @discussion @result The value list. */ - (SUPStringList*)values; /*! @method @abstract Returns the internal map of key value pairs. @discussion @result The NSMutableDictionary with key value pairs. */ - (NSMutableDictionary*)internalMap; /*! @method @abstract Returns the domain name. @result The domain name. @discussion */ - (SUPString)getDomainName; /*! @method @abstract Sets the domain name. @param value The domain name. @discussion */ - (void)setDomainName:(SUPString)value; /*! @method @abstract Get async operation replay property. Default is true. @result YES : if ansync operation replay is enabled; NO: if async operation is disabled. @discussion */ - (BOOL) getAsyncReplay; /*! @method @abstract Set async operation replay property. Default is true. @result value: enable/disable async replay operation. @discussion */ - (void) setAsyncReplay:(BOOL) value; /*! @method @abstract enable or disable the trace in client object API. @param enable - YES: enable the trace; NO: disable the trace. @discussion */ - (void)enableTrace:(BOOL)enable; /*! @method @abstract enable or disable the trace with payload info in client object API. @param enable - YES: enable the trace; NO: disable the trace. @param withPayload = YES: show payload information; NO: not show payload information. @discussion */ - (void)enableTrace:(BOOL)enable withPayload:(BOOL)withPayload; /*! @method @abstract initialize trace levels from server configuration. @discussion */ - (void)initTrace; - (void)dealloc; /* ultralite/mobilink required parameters */ - (SUPString)getNetworkProtocol; - (void)setNetworkProtocol:(SUPString)protocol; - (SUPString)getNetworkStreamParams; - (void)setNetworkStreamParams:(SUPString)stream; - (SUPString)getServerName; - (void)setServerName:(SUPString)name; - (int)getPortNumber; - (void)setPortNumber:(int)port; - (int)getPageSize; - (void)setPageSize:(int)size; @end @interface SUPConnectionProfile(internal) - (void)applyPropertiesFromApplication; @end We are using SUP 2.1.3 library files.Please go through the code and help me...

Read the article
Modify PHP Search Script to Handle Multiple Entries For a Single Input

- by Thomas

I need to modify a php search script so that it can handle multiple entries for a single field. The search engine is designed for a real estate website. The current search form allows users to search for houses by selecting a single neighborhood from a dropdown menu. Instead of a dropdown menu, I would like to use a list of checkboxes so that the the user can search for houses in multiple neighborhoods at one time. I have converted all of the dropdown menu items into checkboxes on the HTML side but the PHP script only searches for houses in the last checkbox selected. For example, if I selected: 'Dallas' 'Boston' 'New York' the search engine will only search for houses in New York. Im new to PHP, so I am a little at a loss as to how to modify this script to handle the behavior I have described: <?php require_once(dirname(__FILE__).'/extra_search_fields.php'); //Add Widget for configurable search. add_action('plugins_loaded',array('DB_CustomSearch_Widget','init')); class DB_CustomSearch_Widget extends DB_Search_Widget { function DB_CustomSearch_Widget($params=array()){ DB_CustomSearch_Widget::__construct($params); } function __construct($params=array()){ $this->loadTranslations(); parent::__construct(__('Custom Fields ','wp-custom-fields-search'),$params); add_action('admin_print_scripts', array(&$this,'print_admin_scripts'), 90); add_action('admin_menu', array(&$this,'plugin_menu'), 90); add_filter('the_content', array(&$this,'process_tag'),9); add_shortcode( 'wp-custom-fields-search', array(&$this,'process_shortcode') ); wp_enqueue_script('jquery'); if(version_compare("2.7",$GLOBALS['wp_version'])>0) wp_enqueue_script('dimensions'); } function init(){ global $CustomSearchFieldStatic; $CustomSearchFieldStatic['Object'] = new DB_CustomSearch_Widget(); $CustomSearchFieldStatic['Object']->ensureUpToDate(); } function currentVersion(){ return "0.3.16"; } function ensureUpToDate(){ $version = $this->getConfig('version'); $latest = $this->currentVersion(); if($version<$latest) $this->upgrade($version,$latest); } function upgrade($current,$target){ $options = $this->getConfig(); if(version_compare($current,"0.3")<0){ $config = $this->getDefaultConfig(); $config['name'] = __('Default Preset','wp-custom-fields-search'); $options['preset-default'] = $config; } $options['version']=$target; update_option($this->id,$options); } function getInputs($params = false,$visitedPresets=array()){ if(is_array($params)){ $id = $params['widget_id']; } else { $id = $params; } if($visitedPresets[$id]) return array(); $visitedPresets[$id]=true; global $CustomSearchFieldStatic; if(!$CustomSearchFieldStatic['Inputs'][$id]){ $config = $this->getConfig($id); $inputs = array(); if($config['preset']) $inputs = $this->getInputs($config['preset'],$visitedPresets); $nonFields = $this->getNonInputFields(); if($config) foreach($config as $k=>$v){ if(in_array($k,$nonFields)) continue; if(!(class_exists($v['input']) && class_exists($v['comparison']) && class_exists($v['joiner']))) { continue; } $inputs[] = new CustomSearchField($v); } foreach($inputs as $k=>$v){ $inputs[$k]->setIndex($k); } $CustomSearchFieldStatic['Inputs'][$id]=$inputs; } return $CustomSearchFieldStatic['Inputs'][$id]; } function getTitle($params){ $config = $this->getConfig($params['widget_id']); return $config['name']; } function form_processPost($post,$old){ unset($post['###TEMPLATE_ID###']); if(!$post) $post=array('exists'=>1); return $post; } function getDefaultConfig(){ return array('name'=>'Site Search', 1=>array( 'label'=>__('Key Words','wp-custom-fields-search'), 'input'=>'TextField', 'comparison'=>'WordsLikeComparison', 'joiner'=>'PostDataJoiner', 'name'=>'all' ), 2=>array( 'label'=>__('Category','wp-custom-fields-search'), 'input'=>'DropDownField', 'comparison'=>'EqualComparison', 'joiner'=>'CategoryJoiner' ), ); } function form_outputForm($values,$pref){ $defaults=$this->getDefaultConfig(); $prefId = preg_replace('/^.*\[([^]]*)\]$/','\\1',$pref); $this->form_existsInput($pref); $rand = rand(); ?> <div id='config-template-<?php echo $prefId?>' style='display: none;'> <?php $templateDefaults = $defaults[1]; $templateDefaults['label'] = 'Field ###TEMPLATE_ID###'; echo $this->singleFieldHTML($pref,'###TEMPLATE_ID###',$templateDefaults); ?> </div> <?php foreach($this->getClasses('input') as $class=>$desc) { if(class_exists($class)) $form = new $class(); else $form = false; if(compat_method_exists($form,'getConfigForm')){ if($form = $form->getConfigForm($pref.'[###TEMPLATE_ID###]',array('name'=>'###TEMPLATE_NAME###'))){ ?> <div id='config-input-templates-<?php echo $class?>-<?php echo $prefId?>' style='display: none;'> <?php echo $form?> </div> <?php } } } ?> <div id='config-form-<?php echo $prefId?>'> <?php if(!$values) $values = $defaults; $maxId=0; $presets = $this->getPresets(); array_unshift($presets,__('NONE','wp-custom-fields-search')); ?> <div class='searchform-name-wrapper'><label for='<?php echo $prefId?>[name]'><?php echo __('Search Title','wp-custom-fields-search')?></label><input type='text' class='form-title-input' id='<?php echo $prefId?>[name]' name='<?php echo $pref?>[name]' value='<?php echo $values['name']?>'/></div> <div class='searchform-preset-wrapper'><label for='<?php echo $prefId?>[preset]'><?php echo __('Use Preset','wp-custom-fields-search')?></label> <?php $dd = new AdminDropDown($pref."[preset]",$values['preset'],$presets); echo $dd->getInput()."</div>"; $nonFields = $this->getNonInputFields(); foreach($values as $id => $val){ $maxId = max($id,$maxId); if(in_array($id,$nonFields)) continue; echo "<div id='config-form-$prefId-$id'>".$this->singleFieldHTML($pref,$id,$val)."</div>"; } ?> </div> <br/><a href='#' onClick="return CustomSearch.get('<?php echo $prefId?>').add();"><?php echo __('Add Field','wp-custom-fields-search')?></a> <script type='text/javascript'> CustomSearch.create('<?php echo $prefId?>','<?php echo $maxId?>'); <?php foreach($this->getClasses('joiner') as $joinerClass=>$desc){ if(compat_method_exists($joinerClass,'getSuggestedFields')){ $options = eval("return $joinerClass::getSuggestedFields();"); $str = ''; foreach($options as $i=>$v){ $k=$i; if(is_numeric($k)) $k=$v; $options[$i] = json_encode(array('id'=>$k,'name'=>$v)); } $str = '['.join(',',$options).']'; echo "CustomSearch.setOptionsFor('$joinerClass',".$str.");\n"; }elseif(eval("return $joinerClass::needsField();")){ echo "CustomSearch.setOptionsFor('$joinerClass',[]);\n"; } } ?> </script> <?php } function getNonInputFields(){ return array('exists','name','preset','version'); } function singleFieldHTML($pref,$id,$values){ $prefId = preg_replace('/^.*\[([^]]*)\]$/','\\1',$pref); $pref = $pref."[$id]"; $htmlId = $pref."[exists]"; $output = "<input type='hidden' name='$htmlId' value='1'/>"; $titles="<th>".__('Label','wp-custom-fields-search')."</th>"; $inputs="<td><input type='text' name='$pref"."[label]' value='$values[label]' class='form-field-title'/></td><td><a href='#' onClick='return CustomSearch.get(\"$prefId\").toggleOptions(\"$id\");'>".__('Show/Hide Config','wp-custom-fields-search')."</a></td>"; $output.="<table class='form-field-table'><tr>$titles</tr><tr>$inputs</tr></table>"; $output.="<div id='form-field-advancedoptions-$prefId-$id' style='display: none'>"; $inputs='';$titles=''; $titles="<th>".__('Data Field','wp-custom-fields-search')."</th>"; $inputs="<td><div id='form-field-dbname-$prefId-$id' class='form-field-title-div'><input type='text' name='$pref"."[name]' value='$values[name]' class='form-field-title'/></div></td>"; $count=1; foreach(array('joiner'=>__('Data Type','wp-custom-fields-search'),'comparison'=>__('Compare','wp-custom-fields-search'),'input'=>__('Widget','wp-custom-fields-search')) as $k=>$v){ $dd = new AdminDropDown($pref."[$k]",$values[$k],$this->getClasses($k),array('onChange'=>'CustomSearch.get("'.$prefId.'").updateOptions("'.$id.'","'.$k.'")','css_class'=>"wpcfs-$k")); $titles="<th>".$v."</th>".$titles; $inputs="<td>".$dd->getInput()."</td>".$inputs; if(++$count==2){ $output.="<table class='form-field-table form-class-$k'><tr>$titles</tr><tr>$inputs</tr></table>"; $count=0; $inputs = $titles=''; } } if($titles){ $output.="<table class='form-field-table'><tr>$titles</tr><tr>$inputs</tr></table>"; $inputs = $titles=''; } $titles.="<th>".__('Numeric','wp-custom-fields-search')."</th><th>".__('Widget Config','wp-custom-fields-search')."</th>"; $inputs.="<td><input type='checkbox' ".($values['numeric']?"checked='true'":"")." name='$pref"."[numeric]'/></td>"; if(class_exists($widgetClass = $values['input'])){ $widget = new $widgetClass(); if(compat_method_exists($widget,'getConfigForm')) $widgetConfig=$widget->getConfigForm($pref,$values); } $inputs.="<td><div id='$this->id"."-$prefId"."-$id"."-widget-config'>$widgetConfig</div></td>"; $output.="<table class='form-field-table'><tr>$titles</tr><tr>$inputs</tr></table>"; $output.="</div>"; $output.="<a href='#' onClick=\"return CustomSearch.get('$prefId').remove('$id');\">Remove Field</a>"; return "<div class='field-wrapper'>$output</div>"; } function getRootURL(){ return WP_CONTENT_URL .'/plugins/' . dirname(plugin_basename(__FILE__) ) . '/'; } function print_admin_scripts($params){ $jsRoot = $this->getRootURL().'js'; $cssRoot = $this->getRootURL().'css'; $scripts = array('Class.js','CustomSearch.js','flexbox/jquery.flexbox.js'); foreach($scripts as $file){ echo "<script src='$jsRoot/$file' ></script>"; } echo "<link rel='stylesheet' href='$cssRoot/admin.css' >"; echo "<link rel='stylesheet' href='$jsRoot/flexbox/jquery.flexbox.css' >"; } function getJoiners(){ return $this->getClasses('joiner'); } function getComparisons(){ return $this->getClasses('comparison'); } function getInputTypes(){ return $this->getClasses('input'); } function getClasses($type){ global $CustomSearchFieldStatic; if(!$CustomSearchFieldStatic['Types']){ $CustomSearchFieldStatic['Types'] = array( "joiner"=>array( "PostDataJoiner" =>__( "Post Field",'wp-custom-fields-search'), "CustomFieldJoiner" =>__( "Custom Field",'wp-custom-fields-search'), "CategoryJoiner" =>__( "Category",'wp-custom-fields-search'), "TagJoiner" =>__( "Tag",'wp-custom-fields-search'), "PostTypeJoiner" =>__( "Post Type",'wp-custom-fields-search'), ), "input"=>array( "TextField" =>__( "Text Input",'wp-custom-fields-search'), "DropDownField" =>__( "Drop Down",'wp-custom-fields-search'), "RadioButtonField" =>__( "Radio Button",'wp-custom-fields-search'), "HiddenField" =>__( "Hidden Constant",'wp-custom-fields-search'), ), "comparison"=>array( "EqualComparison" =>__( "Equals",'wp-custom-fields-search'), "LikeComparison" =>__( "Phrase In",'wp-custom-fields-search'), "WordsLikeComparison" =>__( "Words In",'wp-custom-fields-search'), "LessThanComparison" =>__( "Less Than",'wp-custom-fields-search'), "MoreThanComparison" =>__( "More Than",'wp-custom-fields-search'), "AtMostComparison" =>__( "At Most",'wp-custom-fields-search'), "AtLeastComparison" =>__( "At Least",'wp-custom-fields-search'), "RangeComparison" =>__( "Range",'wp-custom-fields-search'), //TODO: Make this work... // "NotEqualComparison" =>__( "Not Equal To",'wp-custom-fields-search'), ) ); $CustomSearchFieldStatic['Types'] = apply_filters('custom_search_get_classes',$CustomSearchFieldStatic['Types']); } return $CustomSearchFieldStatic['Types'][$type]; } function plugin_menu(){ add_options_page('Form Presets','WP Custom Fields Search',8,__FILE__,array(&$this,'presets_form')); } function getPresets(){ $presets = array(); foreach(array_keys($config = $this->getConfig()) as $key){ if(strpos($key,'preset-')===0) { $presets[$key] = $key; if($name = $config[$key]['name']) $presets[$key]=$name; } } return $presets; } function presets_form(){ $presets=$this->getPresets(); if(!$preset = $_REQUEST['selected-preset']){ $preset = 'preset-default'; } if(!$presets[$preset]){ $defaults = $this->getDefaultConfig(); $options = $this->getConfig(); $options[$preset] = $defaults; if($n = $_POST[$this->id][$preset]['name']) $options[$preset]['name'] = $n; elseif($preset=='preset-default') $options[$preset]['name'] = 'Default'; else{ list($junk,$id) = explode("-",$preset); $options[$preset]['name'] = 'New Preset '.$id; } update_option($this->id,$options); $presets[$preset] = $options[$preset]['name']; } if($_POST['delete']){ check_admin_referer($this->id.'-editpreset-'.$preset); $options = $this->getConfig(); unset($options[$preset]); unset($presets[$preset]); update_option($this->id,$options); list($preset,$name) = each($presets); } $index = 1; while($presets["preset-$index"]) $index++; $presets["preset-$index"] = __('New Preset','wp-custom-fields-search'); $linkBase = $_SERVER['REQUEST_URI']; $linkBase = preg_replace("/&?selected-preset=[^&]*(&|$)/",'',$linkBase); foreach($presets as $key=>$name){ $config = $this->getConfig($key); if($config && $config['name']) $name=$config['name']; if(($n = $_POST[$this->id][$key]['name'])&&(!$_POST['delete'])) $name = $n; $presets[$key]=$name; } $plugin=&$this; ob_start(); wp_nonce_field($this->id.'-editpreset-'.$preset); $hidden = ob_get_contents(); $hidden.="<input type='hidden' name='selected-preset' value='$preset'>"; $shouldSave = $_POST['selected-preset'] && !$_POST['delete'] && check_admin_referer($this->id.'-editpreset-'.$preset); ob_end_clean(); include(dirname(__FILE__).'/templates/options.php'); } function process_tag($content){ $regex = '/\[\s*wp-custom-fields-search\s+(?:([^\]=]+(?:\s+.*)?))?\]/'; return preg_replace_callback($regex, array(&$this, 'generate_from_tag'), $content); } function process_shortcode($atts,$content){ return $this->generate_from_tag(array("",$atts['preset'])); } function generate_from_tag($reMatches){ global $CustomSearchFieldStatic; ob_start(); $preset=$reMatches[1]; if(!$preset) $preset = 'default'; wp_custom_fields_search($preset); $form = ob_get_contents(); ob_end_clean(); return $form; } } global $CustomSearchFieldStatic; $CustomSearchFieldStatic['Inputs'] = array(); $CustomSearchFieldStatic['Types'] = array(); class AdminDropDown extends DropDownField { function AdminDropDown($name,$value,$options,$params=array()){ AdminDropDown::__construct($name,$value,$options,$params); } function __construct($name,$value,$options,$params=array()){ $params['options'] = $options; $params['id'] = $params['name']; parent::__construct($params); $this->name = $name; $this->value = $value; } function getHTMLName(){ return $this->name; } function getValue(){ return $this->value; } function getInput(){ return parent::getInput($this->name,null); } } if (!function_exists('json_encode')) { function json_encode($a=false) { if (is_null($a)) return 'null'; if ($a === false) return 'false'; if ($a === true) return 'true'; if (is_scalar($a)) { if (is_float($a)) { // Always use "." for floats. return floatval(str_replace(",", ".", strval($a))); } if (is_string($a)) { static $jsonReplaces = array(array("\\", "/", "\n", "\t", "\r", "\b", "\f", '"'), array('\\\\', '\\/', '\\n', '\\t', '\\r', '\\b', '\\f', '\"')); return '"' . str_replace($jsonReplaces[0], $jsonReplaces[1], $a) . '"'; } else return $a; } $isList = true; for ($i = 0, reset($a); $i < count($a); $i++, next($a)) { if (key($a) !== $i) { $isList = false; break; } } $result = array(); if ($isList) { foreach ($a as $v) $result[] = json_encode($v); return '[' . join(',', $result) . ']'; } else { foreach ($a as $k => $v) $result[] = json_encode($k).':'.json_encode($v); return '{' . join(',', $result) . '}'; } } } function wp_custom_fields_search($presetName='default'){ global $CustomSearchFieldStatic; if(strpos($presetName,'preset-')!==0) $presetName="preset-$presetName"; $CustomSearchFieldStatic['Object']->renderWidget(array('widget_id'=>$presetName,'noTitle'=>true),array('number'=>$presetName)); } function compat_method_exists($class,$method){ return method_exists($class,$method) || in_array(strtolower($method),get_class_methods($class)); }

Read the article
Conway's Game of Life - C++ and Qt

- by Jeff Bridge

I've done all of the layouts and have most of the code written even. But, I'm stuck in two places. 1) I'm not quite sure how to set up the timer. Am I using it correctly in the gridwindow class? And, am I used the timer functions/signals/slots correctly with the other gridwindow functions. 2) In GridWindow's timerFired() function, I'm having trouble checking/creating the vector-vectors. I wrote out in the comments in that function exactly what I am trying to do. Any help would be much appreciated. main.cpp // Main file for running the grid window application. #include <QApplication> #include "gridwindow.h" //#include "timerwindow.h" #include <stdexcept> #include <string> #include <fstream> #include <sstream> #include <iostream> void Welcome(); // Welcome Function - Prints upon running program; outputs program name, student name/id, class section. void Rules(); // Rules Function: Prints the rules for Conway's Game of Life. using namespace std; // A simple main method to create the window class and then pop it up on the screen. int main(int argc, char *argv[]) { Welcome(); // Calls Welcome function to print student/assignment info. Rules(); // Prints Conway's Game Rules. QApplication app(argc, argv); // Creates the overall windowed application. int rows = 25, cols = 35; //The number of rows & columns in the game grid. GridWindow widget(NULL,rows,cols); // Creates the actual window (for the grid). widget.show(); // Shows the window on the screen. return app.exec(); // Goes into visual loop; starts executing GUI. } // Welcome Function: Prints my name/id, my class number, the assignment, and the program name. void Welcome() { cout << endl; cout << "-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------" << endl; cout << "Name/ID - Gabe Audick #7681539807" << endl; cout << "Class/Assignment - CSCI-102 Disccusion 29915: Homework Assignment #4" << endl; cout << "-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------" << endl << endl; } // Rules Function: Prints the rules for Conway's Game of Life. void Rules() { cout << "Welcome to Conway's Game of Life." << endl; cout << "Game Rules:" << endl; cout << "\t 1) Any living cell with fewer than two living neighbours dies, as if caused by underpopulation." << endl; cout << "\t 2) Any live cell with more than three live neighbours dies, as if by overcrowding." << endl; cout << "\t 3) Any live cell with two or three live neighbours lives on to the next generation." << endl; cout << "\t 4) Any dead cell with exactly three live neighbours becomes a live cell." << endl << endl; cout << "Enjoy." << endl << endl; } gridcell.h // A header file for a class representing a single cell in a grid of cells. #ifndef GRIDCELL_H_ #define GRIDCELL_H_ #include <QPalette> #include <QColor> #include <QPushButton> #include <Qt> #include <QWidget> #include <QFrame> #include <QHBoxLayout> #include <iostream> // An enum representing the two different states a cell can have. enum CellType { DEAD, // DEAD = Dead Cell. --> Color = White. LIVE // LIVE = Living Cell. ---> Color = White. }; /* Class: GridCell. A class representing a single cell in a grid. Each cell is implemented as a QT QFrame that contains a single QPushButton. The button is sized so that it takes up the entire frame. Each cell also keeps track of what type of cell it is based on the CellType enum. */ class GridCell : public QFrame { Q_OBJECT // Macro allowing us to have signals & slots on this object. private: QPushButton* button; // The button inside the cell that gives its clickability. CellType type; // The type of cell (DEAD or LIVE.) public slots: void handleClick(); // Callback for handling a click on the current cell. void setType(CellType type); // Cell type mutator. Calls the "redrawCell" function. signals: void typeChanged(CellType type); // Signal to notify listeners when the cell type has changed. public: GridCell(QWidget *parent = NULL); // Constructor for creating a cell. Takes parent widget or default parent to NULL. virtual ~GridCell(); // Destructor. void redrawCell(); // Redraws cell: Sets new type/color. CellType getType() const; //Simple getter for the cell type. private: Qt::GlobalColor getColorForCellType(); // Helper method. Returns color that cell should be based from its value. }; #endif gridcell.cpp #include <iostream> #include "gridcell.h" #include "utility.h" using namespace std; // Constructor: Creates a grid cell. GridCell::GridCell(QWidget *parent) : QFrame(parent) { this->type = DEAD; // Default: Cell is DEAD (white). setFrameStyle(QFrame::Box); // Set the frame style. This is what gives each box its black border. this->button = new QPushButton(this); //Creates button that fills entirety of each grid cell. this->button->setSizePolicy(QSizePolicy::Expanding,QSizePolicy::Expanding); // Expands button to fill space. this->button->setMinimumSize(19,19); //width,height // Min height and width of button. QHBoxLayout *layout = new QHBoxLayout(); //Creates a simple layout to hold our button and add the button to it. layout->addWidget(this->button); setLayout(layout); layout->setStretchFactor(this->button,1); // Lets the buttons expand all the way to the edges of the current frame with no space leftover layout->setContentsMargins(0,0,0,0); layout->setSpacing(0); connect(this->button,SIGNAL(clicked()),this,SLOT(handleClick())); // Connects clicked signal with handleClick slot. redrawCell(); // Calls function to redraw (set new type for) the cell. } // Basic destructor. GridCell::~GridCell() { delete this->button; } // Accessor for the cell type. CellType GridCell::getType() const { return(this->type); } // Mutator for the cell type. Also has the side effect of causing the cell to be redrawn on the GUI. void GridCell::setType(CellType type) { this->type = type; redrawCell(); } // Handler slot for button clicks. This method is called whenever the user clicks on this cell in the grid. void GridCell::handleClick() { // When clicked on... if(this->type == DEAD) // If type is DEAD (white), change to LIVE (black). type = LIVE; else type = DEAD; // If type is LIVE (black), change to DEAD (white). setType(type); // Sets new type (color). setType Calls redrawCell() to recolor. } // Method to check cell type and return the color of that type. Qt::GlobalColor GridCell::getColorForCellType() { switch(this->type) { default: case DEAD: return Qt::white; case LIVE: return Qt::black; } } // Helper method. Forces current cell to be redrawn on the GUI. Called whenever the setType method is invoked. void GridCell::redrawCell() { Qt::GlobalColor gc = getColorForCellType(); //Find out what color this cell should be. this->button->setPalette(QPalette(gc,gc)); //Force the button in the cell to be the proper color. this->button->setAutoFillBackground(true); this->button->setFlat(true); //Force QT to NOT draw the borders on the button } gridwindow.h // A header file for a QT window that holds a grid of cells. #ifndef GRIDWINDOW_H_ #define GRIDWINDOW_H_ #include <vector> #include <QWidget> #include <QTimer> #include <QGridLayout> #include <QLabel> #include <QApplication> #include "gridcell.h" /* class GridWindow: This is the class representing the whole window that comes up when this program runs. It contains a header section with a title, a middle section of MxN cells and a bottom section with buttons. */ class GridWindow : public QWidget { Q_OBJECT // Macro to allow this object to have signals & slots. private: std::vector<std::vector<GridCell*> > cells; // A 2D vector containing pointers to all the cells in the grid. QLabel *title; // A pointer to the Title text on the window. QTimer *timer; // Creates timer object. public slots: void handleClear(); // Handler function for clicking the Clear button. void handleStart(); // Handler function for clicking the Start button. void handlePause(); // Handler function for clicking the Pause button. void timerFired(); // Method called whenever timer fires. public: GridWindow(QWidget *parent = NULL,int rows=3,int cols=3); // Constructor. virtual ~GridWindow(); // Destructor. std::vector<std::vector<GridCell*> >& getCells(); // Accessor for the array of grid cells. private: QHBoxLayout* setupHeader(); // Helper function to construct the GUI header. QGridLayout* setupGrid(int rows,int cols); // Helper function to constructor the GUI's grid. QHBoxLayout* setupButtonRow(); // Helper function to setup the row of buttons at the bottom. }; #endif gridwindow.cpp #include <iostream> #include "gridwindow.h" using namespace std; // Constructor for window. It constructs the three portions of the GUI and lays them out vertically. GridWindow::GridWindow(QWidget *parent,int rows,int cols) : QWidget(parent) { QHBoxLayout *header = setupHeader(); // Setup the title at the top. QGridLayout *grid = setupGrid(rows,cols); // Setup the grid of colored cells in the middle. QHBoxLayout *buttonRow = setupButtonRow(); // Setup the row of buttons across the bottom. QVBoxLayout *layout = new QVBoxLayout(); // Puts everything together. layout->addLayout(header); layout->addLayout(grid); layout->addLayout(buttonRow); setLayout(layout); } // Destructor. GridWindow::~GridWindow() { delete title; } // Builds header section of the GUI. QHBoxLayout* GridWindow::setupHeader() { QHBoxLayout *header = new QHBoxLayout(); // Creates horizontal box. header->setAlignment(Qt::AlignHCenter); this->title = new QLabel("CONWAY'S GAME OF LIFE",this); // Creates big, bold, centered label (title): "Conway's Game of Life." this->title->setAlignment(Qt::AlignHCenter); this->title->setFont(QFont("Arial", 32, QFont::Bold)); header->addWidget(this->title); // Adds widget to layout. return header; // Returns header to grid window. } // Builds the grid of cells. This method populates the grid's 2D array of GridCells with MxN cells. QGridLayout* GridWindow::setupGrid(int rows,int cols) { QGridLayout *grid = new QGridLayout(); // Creates grid layout. grid->setHorizontalSpacing(0); // No empty spaces. Cells should be contiguous. grid->setVerticalSpacing(0); grid->setSpacing(0); grid->setAlignment(Qt::AlignHCenter); for(int i=0; i < rows; i++) //Each row is a vector of grid cells. { std::vector<GridCell*> row; // Creates new vector for current row. cells.push_back(row); for(int j=0; j < cols; j++) { GridCell *cell = new GridCell(); // Creates and adds new cell to row. cells.at(i).push_back(cell); grid->addWidget(cell,i,j); // Adds to cell to grid layout. Column expands vertically. grid->setColumnStretch(j,1); } grid->setRowStretch(i,1); // Sets row expansion horizontally. } return grid; // Returns grid. } // Builds footer section of the GUI. QHBoxLayout* GridWindow::setupButtonRow() { QHBoxLayout *buttonRow = new QHBoxLayout(); // Creates horizontal box for buttons. buttonRow->setAlignment(Qt::AlignHCenter); // Clear Button - Clears cell; sets them all to DEAD/white. QPushButton *clearButton = new QPushButton("CLEAR"); clearButton->setFixedSize(100,25); connect(clearButton, SIGNAL(clicked()), this, SLOT(handleClear())); buttonRow->addWidget(clearButton); // Start Button - Starts game when user clicks. Or, resumes game after being paused. QPushButton *startButton = new QPushButton("START/RESUME"); startButton->setFixedSize(100,25); connect(startButton, SIGNAL(clicked()), this, SLOT(handleStart())); buttonRow->addWidget(startButton); // Pause Button - Pauses simulation of game. QPushButton *pauseButton = new QPushButton("PAUSE"); pauseButton->setFixedSize(100,25); connect(pauseButton, SIGNAL(clicked()), this, SLOT(handlePause())); buttonRow->addWidget(pauseButton); // Quit Button - Exits program. QPushButton *quitButton = new QPushButton("EXIT"); quitButton->setFixedSize(100,25); connect(quitButton, SIGNAL(clicked()), qApp, SLOT(quit())); buttonRow->addWidget(quitButton); return buttonRow; // Returns bottom of layout. } /* SLOT method for handling clicks on the "clear" button. Receives "clicked" signals on the "Clear" button and sets all cells to DEAD. */ void GridWindow::handleClear() { for(unsigned int row=0; row < cells.size(); row++) // Loops through current rows' cells. { for(unsigned int col=0; col < cells[row].size(); col++) { GridCell *cell = cells[row][col]; // Grab the current cell & set its value to dead. cell->setType(DEAD); } } } /* SLOT method for handling clicks on the "start" button. Receives "clicked" signals on the "start" button and begins game simulation. */ void GridWindow::handleStart() { this->timer = new QTimer(this); // Creates new timer. connect(this->timer, SIGNAL(timeout()), this, SLOT(timerFired())); // Connect "timerFired" method class to the "timeout" signal fired by the timer. this->timer->start(500); // Timer to fire every 500 milliseconds. } /* SLOT method for handling clicks on the "pause" button. Receives "clicked" signals on the "pause" button and stops the game simulation. */ void GridWindow::handlePause() { this->timer->stop(); // Stops the timer. delete this->timer; // Deletes timer. } // Accessor method - Gets the 2D vector of grid cells. std::vector<std::vector<GridCell*> >& GridWindow::getCells() { return this->cells; } void GridWindow::timerFired() { // I'm not sure how to write this code. // I want to take the original vector-vector, and also make a new, empty vector-vector of the same size. // I would then go through the code below with the original vector, and apply the rules to the new vector-vector. // Finally, I would make the new vector-vecotr the original vector-vector. (That would be one step in the simulation.) cout << cells[1][2]; /* for (unsigned int m = 0; m < original.size(); m++) { for (unsigned int n = 0; n < original.at(m).size(); n++) { unsigned int neighbors = 0; //Begin counting number of neighbors. if (original[m-1][n-1].getType() == LIVE) // If a cell next to [i][j] is LIVE, add one to the neighbor count. neighbors += 1; if (original[m-1][n].getType() == LIVE) neighbors += 1; if (original[m-1][n+1].getType() == LIVE) neighbors += 1; if (original[m][n-1].getType() == LIVE) neighbors += 1; if (original[m][n+1].getType() == LIVE) neighbors += 1; if (original[m+1][n-1].getType() == LIVE) neighbors += 1; if (original[m+1][n].getType() == LIVE) neighbors += 1; if (original[m+1][n+1].getType() == LIVE) neighbors += 1; if (original[m][n].getType() == LIVE && neighbors < 2) // Apply game rules to cells: Create new, updated grid with the roundtwo vector. roundtwo[m][n].setType(LIVE); else if (original[m][n].getType() == LIVE && neighbors > 3) roundtwo[m][n].setType(DEAD); else if (original[m][n].getType() == LIVE && (neighbors == 2 || neighbors == 3)) roundtwo[m][n].setType(LIVE); else if (original[m][n].getType() == DEAD && neighbors == 3) roundtwo[m][n].setType(LIVE); } }*/ }

Read the article
Using FiddlerCore to capture HTTP Requests with .NET

- by Rick Strahl

Over the last few weeks I’ve been working on my Web load testing utility West Wind WebSurge. One of the key components of a load testing tool is the ability to capture URLs effectively so that you can play them back later under load. One of the options in WebSurge for capturing URLs is to use its built-in capture tool which acts as an HTTP proxy to capture any HTTP and HTTPS traffic from most Windows HTTP clients, including Web Browsers as well as standalone Windows applications and services. To make this happen, I used Eric Lawrence’s awesome FiddlerCore library, which provides most of the functionality of his desktop Fiddler application, all rolled into an easy to use library that you can plug into your own applications. FiddlerCore makes it almost too easy to capture HTTP content! For WebSurge I needed to capture all HTTP traffic in order to capture the full HTTP request – URL, headers and any content posted by the client. The result of what I ended up creating is this semi-generic capture form: In this post I’m going to demonstrate how easy it is to use FiddlerCore to build this HTTP Capture Form. If you want to jump right in here are the links to get Telerik’s Fiddler Core and the code for the demo provided here. FiddlerCore Download FiddlerCore on NuGet Show me the Code (WebSurge Integration code from GitHub) Download the WinForms Sample Form West Wind Web Surge (example implementation in live app) Note that FiddlerCore is bound by a license for commercial usage – see license.txt in the FiddlerCore distribution for details. Integrating FiddlerCore FiddlerCore is a library that simply plugs into your application. You can download it from the Telerik site and manually add the assemblies to your project, or you can simply install the NuGet package via: PM> Install-Package FiddlerCore The library consists of the FiddlerCore.dll as well as a couple of support libraries (CertMaker.dll and BCMakeCert.dll) that are used for installing SSL certificates. I’ll have more on SSL captures and certificate installation later in this post. But first let’s see how easy it is to use FiddlerCore to capture HTTP content by looking at how to build the above capture form. Capturing HTTP Content Once the library is installed it’s super easy to hook up Fiddler functionality. Fiddler includes a number of static class methods on the FiddlerApplication object that can be called to hook up callback events as well as actual start monitoring HTTP URLs. In the following code directly lifted from WebSurge, I configure a few filter options on Form level object, from the user inputs shown on the form by assigning it to a capture options object. In the live application these settings are persisted configuration values, but in the demo they are one time values initialized and set on the form. Once these options are set, I hook up the AfterSessionComplete event to capture every URL that passes through the proxy after the request is completed and start up the Proxy service:void Start() { if (tbIgnoreResources.Checked) CaptureConfiguration.IgnoreResources = true; else CaptureConfiguration.IgnoreResources = false; string strProcId = txtProcessId.Text; if (strProcId.Contains('-')) strProcId = strProcId.Substring(strProcId.IndexOf('-') + 1).Trim(); strProcId = strProcId.Trim(); int procId = 0; if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(strProcId)) { if (!int.TryParse(strProcId, out procId)) procId = 0; } CaptureConfiguration.ProcessId = procId; CaptureConfiguration.CaptureDomain = txtCaptureDomain.Text; FiddlerApplication.AfterSessionComplete += FiddlerApplication_AfterSessionComplete; FiddlerApplication.Startup(8888, true, true, true); } The key lines for FiddlerCore are just the last two lines of code that include the event hookup code as well as the Startup() method call. Here I only hook up to the AfterSessionComplete event but there are a number of other events that hook various stages of the HTTP request cycle you can also hook into. Other events include BeforeRequest, BeforeResponse, RequestHeadersAvailable, ResponseHeadersAvailable and so on. In my case I want to capture the request data and I actually have several options to capture this data. AfterSessionComplete is the last event that fires in the request sequence and it’s the most common choice to capture all request and response data. I could have used several other events, but AfterSessionComplete is one place where you can look both at the request and response data, so this will be the most common place to hook into if you’re capturing content. The implementation of AfterSessionComplete is responsible for capturing all HTTP request headers and it looks something like this:private void FiddlerApplication_AfterSessionComplete(Session sess) { // Ignore HTTPS connect requests if (sess.RequestMethod == "CONNECT") return; if (CaptureConfiguration.ProcessId > 0) { if (sess.LocalProcessID != 0 && sess.LocalProcessID != CaptureConfiguration.ProcessId) return; } if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(CaptureConfiguration.CaptureDomain)) { if (sess.hostname.ToLower() != CaptureConfiguration.CaptureDomain.Trim().ToLower()) return; } if (CaptureConfiguration.IgnoreResources) { string url = sess.fullUrl.ToLower(); var extensions = CaptureConfiguration.ExtensionFilterExclusions; foreach (var ext in extensions) { if (url.Contains(ext)) return; } var filters = CaptureConfiguration.UrlFilterExclusions; foreach (var urlFilter in filters) { if (url.Contains(urlFilter)) return; } } if (sess == null || sess.oRequest == null || sess.oRequest.headers == null) return; string headers = sess.oRequest.headers.ToString(); var reqBody = sess.GetRequestBodyAsString(); // if you wanted to capture the response //string respHeaders = session.oResponse.headers.ToString(); //var respBody = session.GetResponseBodyAsString(); // replace the HTTP line to inject full URL string firstLine = sess.RequestMethod + " " + sess.fullUrl + " " + sess.oRequest.headers.HTTPVersion; int at = headers.IndexOf("\r\n"); if (at < 0) return; headers = firstLine + "\r\n" + headers.Substring(at + 1); string output = headers + "\r\n" + (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(reqBody) ? reqBody + "\r\n" : string.Empty) + Separator + "\r\n\r\n"; BeginInvoke(new Action<string>((text) => { txtCapture.AppendText(text); UpdateButtonStatus(); }), output); } The code starts by filtering out some requests based on the CaptureOptions I set before the capture is started. These options/filters are applied when requests actually come in. This is very useful to help narrow down the requests that are captured for playback based on options the user picked. I find it useful to limit requests to a certain domain for captures, as well as filtering out some request types like static resources – images, css, scripts etc. This is of course optional, but I think it’s a common scenario and WebSurge makes good use of this feature. AfterSessionComplete like other FiddlerCore events, provides a Session object parameter which contains all the request and response details. There are oRequest and oResponse objects to hold their respective data. In my case I’m interested in the raw request headers and body only, as you can see in the commented code you can also retrieve the response headers and body. Here the code captures the request headers and body and simply appends the output to the textbox on the screen. Note that the Fiddler events are asynchronous, so in order to display the content in the UI they have to be marshaled back the UI thread with BeginInvoke, which here simply takes the generated headers and appends it to the existing textbox test on the form. As each request is processed, the headers are captured and appended to the bottom of the textbox resulting in a Session HTTP capture in the format that Web Surge internally supports, which is basically raw request headers with a customized 1st HTTP Header line that includes the full URL rather than a server relative URL. When the capture is done the user can either copy the raw HTTP session to the clipboard, or directly save it to file. This raw capture format is the same format WebSurge and also Fiddler use to import/export request data. While this code is application specific, it demonstrates the kind of logic that you can easily apply to the request capture process, which is one of the reasonsof why FiddlerCore is so powerful. You get to choose what content you want to look up as part of your own application logic and you can then decide how to capture or use that data as part of your application. The actual captured data in this case is only a string. The user can edit the data by hand or in the the case of WebSurge, save it to disk and automatically open the captured session as a new load test. Stopping the FiddlerCore Proxy Finally to stop capturing requests you simply disconnect the event handler and call the FiddlerApplication.ShutDown() method:void Stop() { FiddlerApplication.AfterSessionComplete -= FiddlerApplication_AfterSessionComplete; if (FiddlerApplication.IsStarted()) FiddlerApplication.Shutdown(); } As you can see, adding HTTP capture functionality to an application is very straight forward. FiddlerCore offers tons of features I’m not even touching on here – I suspect basic captures are the most common scenario, but a lot of different things can be done with FiddlerCore’s simple API interface. Sky’s the limit! The source code for this sample capture form (WinForms) is provided as part of this article. Adding Fiddler Certificates with FiddlerCore One of the sticking points in West Wind WebSurge has been that if you wanted to capture HTTPS/SSL traffic, you needed to have the full version of Fiddler and have HTTPS decryption enabled. Essentially you had to use Fiddler to configure HTTPS decryption and the associated installation of the Fiddler local client certificate that is used for local decryption of incoming SSL traffic. While this works just fine, requiring to have Fiddler installed and then using a separate application to configure the SSL functionality isn’t ideal. Fortunately FiddlerCore actually includes the tools to register the Fiddler Certificate directly using FiddlerCore. Why does Fiddler need a Certificate in the first Place? Fiddler and FiddlerCore are essentially HTTP proxies which means they inject themselves into the HTTP conversation by re-routing HTTP traffic to a special HTTP port (8888 by default for Fiddler) and then forward the HTTP data to the original client. Fiddler injects itself as the system proxy in using the WinInet Windows settings which are the same settings that Internet Explorer uses and that are configured in the Windows and Internet Explorer Internet Settings dialog. Most HTTP clients running on Windows pick up and apply these system level Proxy settings before establishing new HTTP connections and that’s why most clients automatically work once Fiddler – or FiddlerCore/WebSurge are running. For plain HTTP requests this just works – Fiddler intercepts the HTTP requests on the proxy port and then forwards them to the original port (80 for HTTP and 443 for SSL typically but it could be any port). For SSL however, this is not quite as simple – Fiddler can easily act as an HTTPS/SSL client to capture inbound requests from the server, but when it forwards the request to the client it has to also act as an SSL server and provide a certificate that the client trusts. This won’t be the original certificate from the remote site, but rather a custom local certificate that effectively simulates an SSL connection between the proxy and the client. If there is no custom certificate configured for Fiddler the SSL request fails with a certificate validation error. The key for this to work is that a custom certificate has to be installed that the HTTPS client trusts on the local machine. For a much more detailed description of the process you can check out Eric Lawrence’s blog post on Certificates. If you’re using the desktop version of Fiddler you can install a local certificate into the Windows certificate store. Fiddler proper does this from the Options menu: This operation does several things: It installs the Fiddler Root Certificate It sets trust to this Root Certificate A new client certificate is generated for each HTTPS site monitored Certificate Installation with FiddlerCore You can also provide this same functionality using FiddlerCore which includes a CertMaker class. Using CertMaker is straight forward to use and it provides an easy way to create some simple helpers that can install and uninstall a Fiddler Root certificate:public static bool InstallCertificate() { if (!CertMaker.rootCertExists()) { if (!CertMaker.createRootCert()) return false; if (!CertMaker.trustRootCert()) return false; } return true; } public static bool UninstallCertificate() { if (CertMaker.rootCertExists()) { if (!CertMaker.removeFiddlerGeneratedCerts(true)) return false; } return true; } InstallCertificate() works by first checking whether the root certificate is already installed and if it isn’t goes ahead and creates a new one. The process of creating the certificate is a two step process – first the actual certificate is created and then it’s moved into the certificate store to become trusted. I’m not sure why you’d ever split these operations up since a cert created without trust isn’t going to be of much value, but there are two distinct steps. When you trigger the trustRootCert() method, a message box will pop up on the desktop that lets you know that you’re about to trust a local private certificate. This is a security feature to ensure that you really want to trust the Fiddler root since you are essentially installing a man in the middle certificate. It’s quite safe to use this generated root certificate, because it’s been specifically generated for your machine and thus is not usable from external sources, the only way to use this certificate in a trusted way is from the local machine. IOW, unless somebody has physical access to your machine, there’s no useful way to hijack this certificate and use it for nefarious purposes (see Eric’s post for more details). Once the Root certificate has been installed, FiddlerCore/Fiddler create new certificates for each site that is connected to with HTTPS. You can end up with quite a few temporary certificates in your certificate store. To uninstall you can either use Fiddler and simply uncheck the Decrypt HTTPS traffic option followed by the remove Fiddler certificates button, or you can use FiddlerCore’s CertMaker.removeFiddlerGeneratedCerts() which removes the root cert and any of the intermediary certificates Fiddler created. Keep in mind that when you uninstall you uninstall the certificate for both FiddlerCore and Fiddler, so use UninstallCertificate() with care and realize that you might affect the Fiddler application’s operation by doing so as well. When to check for an installed Certificate Note that the check to see if the root certificate exists is pretty fast, while the actual process of installing the certificate is a relatively slow operation that even on a fast machine takes a few seconds. Further the trust operation pops up a message box so you probably don’t want to install the certificate repeatedly. Since the check for the root certificate is fast, you can easily put a call to InstallCertificate() in any capture startup code – in which case the certificate installation only triggers when a certificate is in fact not installed. Personally I like to make certificate installation explicit – just like Fiddler does, so in WebSurge I use a small drop down option on the menu to install or uninstall the SSL certificate: This code calls the InstallCertificate and UnInstallCertificate functions respectively – the experience with this is similar to what you get in Fiddler with the extra dialog box popping up to prompt confirmation for installation of the root certificate. Once the cert is installed you can then capture SSL requests. There’s a gotcha however… Gotcha: FiddlerCore Certificates don’t stick by Default When I originally tried to use the Fiddler certificate installation I ran into an odd problem. I was able to install the certificate and immediately after installation was able to capture HTTPS requests. Then I would exit the application and come back in and try the same HTTPS capture again and it would fail due to a missing certificate. CertMaker.rootCertExists() would return false after every restart and if re-installed the certificate a new certificate would get added to the certificate store resulting in a bunch of duplicated root certificates with different keys. What the heck? CertMaker and BcMakeCert create non-sticky CertificatesI turns out that FiddlerCore by default uses different components from what the full version of Fiddler uses. Fiddler uses a Windows utility called MakeCert.exe to create the Fiddler Root certificate. FiddlerCore however installs the CertMaker.dll and BCMakeCert.dll assemblies, which use a different crypto library (Bouncy Castle) for certificate creation than MakeCert.exe which uses the Windows Crypto API. The assemblies provide support for non-windows operation for Fiddler under Mono, as well as support for some non-Windows certificate platforms like iOS and Android for decryption. The bottom line is that the FiddlerCore provided bouncy castle assemblies are not sticky by default as the certificates created with them are not cached as they are in Fiddler proper. To get certificates to ‘stick’ you have to explicitly cache the certificates in Fiddler’s internal preferences. A cache aware version of InstallCertificate looks something like this:public static bool InstallCertificate() { if (!CertMaker.rootCertExists()) { if (!CertMaker.createRootCert()) return false; if (!CertMaker.trustRootCert()) return false; App.Configuration.UrlCapture.Cert = FiddlerApplication.Prefs.GetStringPref("fiddler.certmaker.bc.cert", null); App.Configuration.UrlCapture.Key = FiddlerApplication.Prefs.GetStringPref("fiddler.certmaker.bc.key", null); } return true; } public static bool UninstallCertificate() { if (CertMaker.rootCertExists()) { if (!CertMaker.removeFiddlerGeneratedCerts(true)) return false; } App.Configuration.UrlCapture.Cert = null; App.Configuration.UrlCapture.Key = null; return true; } In this code I store the Fiddler cert and private key in an application configuration settings that’s stored with the application settings (App.Configuration.UrlCapture object). These settings automatically persist when WebSurge is shut down. The values are read out of Fiddler’s internal preferences store which is set after a new certificate has been created. Likewise I clear out the configuration settings when the certificate is uninstalled. In order for these setting to be used you have to also load the configuration settings into the Fiddler preferences *before* a call to rootCertExists() is made. I do this in the capture form’s constructor:public FiddlerCapture(StressTestForm form) { InitializeComponent(); CaptureConfiguration = App.Configuration.UrlCapture; MainForm = form; if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(App.Configuration.UrlCapture.Cert)) { FiddlerApplication.Prefs.SetStringPref("fiddler.certmaker.bc.key", App.Configuration.UrlCapture.Key); FiddlerApplication.Prefs.SetStringPref("fiddler.certmaker.bc.cert", App.Configuration.UrlCapture.Cert); }} This is kind of a drag to do and not documented anywhere that I could find, so hopefully this will save you some grief if you want to work with the stock certificate logic that installs with FiddlerCore. MakeCert provides sticky Certificates and the same functionality as Fiddler But there’s actually an easier way. If you want to skip the above Fiddler preference configuration code in your application you can choose to distribute MakeCert.exe instead of certmaker.dll and bcmakecert.dll. When you use MakeCert.exe, the certificates settings are stored in Windows so they are available without any custom configuration inside of your application. It’s easier to integrate and as long as you run on Windows and you don’t need to support iOS or Android devices is simply easier to deal with. To integrate into your project, you can remove the reference to CertMaker.dll (and the BcMakeCert.dll assembly) from your project. Instead copy MakeCert.exe into your output folder. To make sure MakeCert.exe gets pushed out, include MakeCert.exe in your project and set the Build Action to None, and Copy to Output Directory to Copy if newer. Note that the CertMaker.dll reference in the project has been removed and on disk the files for Certmaker.dll, as well as the BCMakeCert.dll files on disk. Keep in mind that these DLLs are resources of the FiddlerCore NuGet package, so updating the package may end up pushing those files back into your project. Once MakeCert.exe is distributed FiddlerCore checks for it first before using the assemblies so as long as MakeCert.exe exists it’ll be used for certificate creation (at least on Windows). Summary FiddlerCore is a pretty sweet tool, and it’s absolutely awesome that we get to plug in most of the functionality of Fiddler right into our own applications. A few years back I tried to build this sort of functionality myself for an app and ended up giving up because it’s a big job to get HTTP right – especially if you need to support SSL. FiddlerCore now provides that functionality as a turnkey solution that can be plugged into your own apps easily. The only downside is FiddlerCore’s documentation for more advanced features like certificate installation which is pretty sketchy. While for the most part FiddlerCore’s feature set is easy to work with without any documentation, advanced features are often not intuitive to gleam by just using Intellisense or the FiddlerCore help file reference (which is not terribly useful). While Eric Lawrence is very responsive on his forum and on Twitter, there simply isn’t much useful documentation on Fiddler/FiddlerCore available online. If you run into trouble the forum is probably the first place to look and then ask a question if you can’t find the answer. The best documentation you can find is Eric’s Fiddler Book which covers a ton of functionality of Fiddler and FiddlerCore. The book is a great reference to Fiddler’s feature set as well as providing great insights into the HTTP protocol. The second half of the book that gets into the innards of HTTP is an excellent read for anybody who wants to know more about some of the more arcane aspects and special behaviors of HTTP – it’s well worth the read. While the book has tons of information in a very readable format, it’s unfortunately not a great reference as it’s hard to find things in the book and because it’s not available online you can’t electronically search for the great content in it. But it’s hard to complain about any of this given the obvious effort and love that’s gone into this awesome product for all of these years. A mighty big thanks to Eric Lawrence for having created this useful tool that so many of us use all the time, and also to Telerik for picking up Fiddler/FiddlerCore and providing Eric the resources to support and improve this wonderful tool full time and keeping it free for all. Kudos! Resources FiddlerCore Download FiddlerCore NuGet Fiddler Capture Sample Form Fiddler Capture Form in West Wind WebSurge (GitHub) Eric Lawrence’s Fiddler Book© Rick Strahl, West Wind Technologies, 2005-2014Posted in .NET HTTP Tweet !function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js";fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document,"script","twitter-wjs"); (function() { var po = document.createElement('script'); po.type = 'text/javascript'; po.async = true; po.src = 'https://apis.google.com/js/plusone.js'; var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(po, s); })();

Read the article
Apache2 configuration error: "<VirtualHost> was not closed" error

- by Chris

So I've already checked through my config file and I really can't see an instance where any tag hasn't been properly closed...but I keep getting this configuration error...Would you mind taking a look through the error and the config file below? Any assistance would be greatly appreciated. FYI, I've already googled the life out of the error and looked through the log extensively, I really can't find anything. Error: apache2: Syntax error on line 236 of /etc/apache2/apache2.conf: syntax error on line 1 of /etc/apache2/sites-enabled/000-default: /etc/apache2/sites-enabled/000-default:1: was not closed. Line 236 of apache2.conf: # Include the virtual host configurations: Include /etc/apache2/sites-enabled/ Contents of 000-default: <VirtualHost *:80> ServerAdmin webmaster@localhost DocumentRoot /var/www <Directory /> Options FollowSymLinks AllowOverride None </Directory> <Directory /var/www/> Options Indexes FollowSymLinks MultiViews AllowOverride None Order allow,deny allow from all </Directory> ScriptAlias /cgi-bin/ /usr/lib/cgi-bin/ <Directory "/usr/lib/cgi-bin"> AllowOverride None Options +ExecCGI -MultiViews +SymLinksIfOwnerMatch Order allow,deny Allow from all </Directory> ErrorLog /var/log/apache2/error.log # Possible values include: debug, info, notice, warn, error, crit, # alert, emerg. LogLevel warn CustomLog /var/log/apache2/access.log combined Alias /doc/ "/usr/share/doc/" <Directory "/usr/share/doc/"> Options Indexes MultiViews FollowSymLinks AllowOverride None Order deny,allow Deny from all Allow from 127.0.0.0/255.0.0.0 ::1/128 </Directory> </VirtualHost> <VirtualHost *:443> SetEnvIf Request_URI "^/u" dontlog ErrorLog /var/log/apache2/error.log Loglevel warn SSLEngine On SSLCertificateFile /etc/apache2/ssl/apache.pem ProxyRequests Off <Proxy *> AuthUserFile /srv/ajaxterm/.htpasswd AuthName EnterPassword AuthType Basic require valid-user Order Deny,allow Allow from all </Proxy> ProxyPass / http://localhost:8022/ ProxyPassReverse / http://localhost:8022/ </VirtualHost> UPDATE I had a load of other issues with my install so I wound up just wiping it and reinstalling. If I run into the same problem, I'll repost. Everyone, thanks for your help/suggestions.

Read the article
Hosting the Razor Engine for Templating in Non-Web Applications

- by Rick Strahl

Microsoft’s new Razor HTML Rendering Engine that is currently shipping with ASP.NET MVC previews can be used outside of ASP.NET. Razor is an alternative view engine that can be used instead of the ASP.NET Page engine that currently works with ASP.NET WebForms and MVC. It provides a simpler and more readable markup syntax and is much more light weight in terms of functionality than the full blown WebForms Page engine, focusing only on features that are more along the lines of a pure view engine (or classic ASP!) with focus on expression and code rendering rather than a complex control/object model. Like the Page engine though, the parser understands .NET code syntax which can be embedded into templates, and behind the scenes the engine compiles markup and script code into an executing piece of .NET code in an assembly. Although it ships as part of the ASP.NET MVC and WebMatrix the Razor Engine itself is not directly dependent on ASP.NET or IIS or HTTP in any way. And although there are some markup and rendering features that are optimized for HTML based output generation, Razor is essentially a free standing template engine. And what’s really nice is that unlike the ASP.NET Runtime, Razor is fairly easy to host inside of your own non-Web applications to provide templating functionality. Templating in non-Web Applications? Yes please! So why might you host a template engine in your non-Web application? Template rendering is useful in many places and I have a number of applications that make heavy use of it. One of my applications – West Wind Html Help Builder - exclusively uses template based rendering to merge user supplied help text content into customizable and executable HTML markup templates that provide HTML output for CHM style HTML Help. This is an older product and it’s not actually using .NET at the moment – and this is one reason I’m looking at Razor for script hosting at the moment. For a few .NET applications though I’ve actually used the ASP.NET Runtime hosting to provide templating and mail merge style functionality and while that works reasonably well it’s a very heavy handed approach. It’s very resource intensive and has potential issues with versioning in various different versions of .NET. The generic implementation I created in the article above requires a lot of fix up to mimic an HTTP request in a non-HTTP environment and there are a lot of little things that have to happen to ensure that the ASP.NET runtime works properly most of it having nothing to do with the templating aspect but just satisfying ASP.NET’s requirements. The Razor Engine on the other hand is fairly light weight and completely decoupled from the ASP.NET runtime and the HTTP processing. Rather it’s a pure template engine whose sole purpose is to render text templates. Hosting this engine in your own applications can be accomplished with a reasonable amount of code (actually just a few lines with the tools I’m about to describe) and without having to fake HTTP requests. It’s also much lighter on resource usage and you can easily attach custom properties to your base template implementation to easily pass context from the parent application into templates all of which was rather complicated with ASP.NET runtime hosting. Installing the Razor Template Engine You can get Razor as part of the MVC 3 (RC and later) or Web Matrix. Both are available as downloadable components from the Web Platform Installer Version 3.0 (!important – V2 doesn’t show these components). If you already have that version of the WPI installed just fire it up. You can get the latest version of the Web Platform Installer from here: http://www.microsoft.com/web/gallery/install.aspx Once the platform Installer 3.0 is installed install either MVC 3 or ASP.NET Web Pages. Once installed you’ll find a System.Web.Razor assembly in C:\Program Files\Microsoft ASP.NET\ASP.NET Web Pages\v1.0\Assemblies\System.Web.Razor.dll which you can add as a reference to your project. Creating a Wrapper The basic Razor Hosting API is pretty simple and you can host Razor with a (large-ish) handful of lines of code. I’ll show the basics of it later in this article. However, if you want to customize the rendering and handle assembly and namespace includes for the markup as well as deal with text and file inputs as well as forcing Razor to run in a separate AppDomain so you can unload the code-generated assemblies and deal with assembly caching for re-used templates little more work is required to create something that is more easily reusable. For this reason I created a Razor Hosting wrapper project that combines a bunch of this functionality into an easy to use hosting class, a hosting factory that can load the engine in a separate AppDomain and a couple of hosting containers that provided folder based and string based caching for templates for an easily embeddable and reusable engine with easy to use syntax. If you just want the code and play with the samples and source go grab the latest code from the Subversion Repository at: http://www.west-wind.com:8080/svn/articles/trunk/RazorHosting/ or a snapshot from: http://www.west-wind.com/files/tools/RazorHosting.zip Getting Started Before I get into how hosting with Razor works, let’s take a look at how you can get up and running quickly with the wrapper classes provided. It only takes a few lines of code. The easiest way to use these Razor Hosting Wrappers is to use one of the two HostContainers provided. One is for hosting Razor scripts in a directory and rendering them as relative paths from these script files on disk. The other HostContainer serves razor scripts from string templates… Let’s start with a very simple template that displays some simple expressions, some code blocks and demonstrates rendering some data from contextual data that you pass to the template in the form of a ‘context’. Here’s a simple Razor template: @using System.Reflection Hello @Context.FirstName! Your entry was entered on: @Context.Entered @{ // Code block: Update the host Windows Form passed in through the context Context.WinForm.Text = "Hello World from Razor at " + DateTime.Now.ToString(); } AppDomain Id: @AppDomain.CurrentDomain.FriendlyName Assembly: @Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().FullName Code based output: @{ // Write output with Response object from code string output = string.Empty; for (int i = 0; i < 10; i++) { output += i.ToString() + " "; } Response.Write(output); } Pretty easy to see what’s going on here. The only unusual thing in this code is the Context object which is an arbitrary object I’m passing from the host to the template by way of the template base class. I’m also displaying the current AppDomain and the executing Assembly name so you can see how compiling and running a template actually loads up new assemblies. Also note that as part of my context I’m passing a reference to the current Windows Form down to the template and changing the title from within the script. It’s a silly example, but it demonstrates two-way communication between host and template and back which can be very powerful. The easiest way to quickly render this template is to use the RazorEngine<TTemplateBase> class. The generic parameter specifies a template base class type that is used by Razor internally to generate the class it generates from a template. The default implementation provided in my RazorHosting wrapper is RazorTemplateBase. Here’s a simple one that renders from a string and outputs a string: var engine = new RazorEngine<RazorTemplateBase>(); // we can pass any object as context - here create a custom context var context = new CustomContext() { WinForm = this, FirstName = "Rick", Entered = DateTime.Now.AddDays(-10) }; string output = engine.RenderTemplate(this.txtSource.Text new string[] { "System.Windows.Forms.dll" }, context); if (output == null) this.txtResult.Text = "*** ERROR:\r\n" + engine.ErrorMessage; else this.txtResult.Text = output; Simple enough. This code renders a template from a string input and returns a result back as a string. It creates a custom context and passes that to the template which can then access the Context’s properties. Note that anything passed as ‘context’ must be serializable (or MarshalByRefObject) – otherwise you get an exception when passing the reference over AppDomain boundaries (discussed later). Passing a context is optional, but is a key feature in being able to share data between the host application and the template. Note that we use the Context object to access FirstName, Entered and even the host Windows Form object which is used in the template to change the Window caption from within the script! In the code above all the work happens in the RenderTemplate method which provide a variety of overloads to read and write to and from strings, files and TextReaders/Writers. Here’s another example that renders from a file input using a TextReader: using (reader = new StreamReader("templates\\simple.csHtml", true)) { result = host.RenderTemplate(reader, new string[] { "System.Windows.Forms.dll" }, this.CustomContext); } RenderTemplate() is fairly high level and it handles loading of the runtime, compiling into an assembly and rendering of the template. If you want more control you can use the lower level methods to control each step of the way which is important for the HostContainers I’ll discuss later. Basically for those scenarios you want to separate out loading of the engine, compiling into an assembly and then rendering the template from the assembly. Why? So we can keep assemblies cached. In the code above a new assembly is created for each template rendered which is inefficient and uses up resources. Depending on the size of your templates and how often you fire them you can chew through memory very quickly. This slighter lower level approach is only a couple of extra steps: // we can pass any object as context - here create a custom context var context = new CustomContext() { WinForm = this, FirstName = "Rick", Entered = DateTime.Now.AddDays(-10) }; var engine = new RazorEngine<RazorTemplateBase>(); string assId = null; using (StringReader reader = new StringReader(this.txtSource.Text)) { assId = engine.ParseAndCompileTemplate(new string[] { "System.Windows.Forms.dll" }, reader); } string output = engine.RenderTemplateFromAssembly(assId, context); if (output == null) this.txtResult.Text = "*** ERROR:\r\n" + engine.ErrorMessage; else this.txtResult.Text = output; The difference here is that you can capture the assembly – or rather an Id to it – and potentially hold on to it to render again later assuming the template hasn’t changed. The HostContainers take advantage of this feature to cache the assemblies based on certain criteria like a filename and file time step or a string hash that if not change indicate that an assembly can be reused. Note that ParseAndCompileTemplate returns an assembly Id rather than the assembly itself. This is done so that that the assembly always stays in the host’s AppDomain and is not passed across AppDomain boundaries which would cause load failures. We’ll talk more about this in a minute but for now just realize that assemblies references are stored in a list and are accessible by this ID to allow locating and re-executing of the assembly based on that id. Reuse of the assembly avoids recompilation overhead and creation of yet another assembly that loads into the current AppDomain. You can play around with several different versions of the above code in the main sample form: Using Hosting Containers for more Control and Caching The above examples simply render templates into assemblies each and every time they are executed. While this works and is even reasonably fast, it’s not terribly efficient. If you render templates more than once it would be nice if you could cache the generated assemblies for example to avoid re-compiling and creating of a new assembly each time. Additionally it would be nice to load template assemblies into a separate AppDomain optionally to be able to be able to unload assembli es and also to protect your host application from scripting attacks with malicious template code. Hosting containers provide also provide a wrapper around the RazorEngine<T> instance, a factory (which allows creation in separate AppDomains) and an easy way to start and stop the container ‘runtime’. The Razor Hosting samples provide two hosting containers: RazorFolderHostContainer and StringHostContainer. The folder host provides a simple runtime environment for a folder structure similar in the way that the ASP.NET runtime handles a virtual directory as it’s ‘application' root. Templates are loaded from disk in relative paths and the resulting assemblies are cached unless the template on disk is changed. The string host also caches templates based on string hashes – if the same string is passed a second time a cached version of the assembly is used. Here’s how HostContainers work. I’ll use the FolderHostContainer because it’s likely the most common way you’d use templates – from disk based templates that can be easily edited and maintained on disk. The first step is to create an instance of it and keep it around somewhere (in the example it’s attached as a property to the Form): RazorFolderHostContainer Host = new RazorFolderHostContainer(); public RazorFolderHostForm() { InitializeComponent(); // The base path for templates - templates are rendered with relative paths // based on this path. Host.TemplatePath = Path.Combine(Environment.CurrentDirectory, TemplateBaseFolder); // Add any assemblies you want reference in your templates Host.ReferencedAssemblies.Add("System.Windows.Forms.dll"); // Start up the host container Host.Start(); } Next anytime you want to render a template you can use simple code like this: private void RenderTemplate(string fileName) { // Pass the template path via the Context var relativePath = Utilities.GetRelativePath(fileName, Host.TemplatePath); if (!Host.RenderTemplate(relativePath, this.Context, Host.RenderingOutputFile)) { MessageBox.Show("Error: " + Host.ErrorMessage); return; } this.webBrowser1.Navigate("file://" + Host.RenderingOutputFile); } You can also render the output to a string instead of to a file: string result = Host.RenderTemplateToString(relativePath,context); Finally if you want to release the engine and shut down the hosting AppDomain you can simply do: Host.Stop(); Stopping the AppDomain and restarting it (ie. calling Stop(); followed by Start()) is also a nice way to release all resources in the AppDomain. The FolderBased domain also supports partial Rendering based on root path based relative paths with the same caching characteristics as the main templates. From within a template you can call out to a partial like this: @RenderPartial(@"partials\PartialRendering.cshtml", Context) where partials\PartialRendering.cshtml is a relative to the template root folder. The folder host example lets you load up templates from disk and display the result in a Web Browser control which demonstrates using Razor HTML output from templates that contain HTML syntax which happens to me my target scenario for Html Help Builder. The Razor Engine Wrapper Project The project I created to wrap Razor hosting has a fair bit of code and a number of classes associated with it. Most of the components are internally used and as you can see using the final RazorEngine<T> and HostContainer classes is pretty easy. The classes are extensible and I suspect developers will want to build more customized host containers for their applications. Host containers are the key to wrapping up all functionality – Engine, BaseTemplate, AppDomain Hosting, Caching etc in a logical piece that is ready to be plugged into an application. When looking at the code there are a couple of core features provided: Core Razor Engine Hosting This is the core Razor hosting which provides the basics of loading a template, compiling it into an assembly and executing it. This is fairly straightforward, but without a host container that can cache assemblies based on some criteria templates are recompiled and re-created each time which is inefficient (although pretty fast). The base engine wrapper implementation also supports hosting the Razor runtime in a separate AppDomain for security and the ability to unload it on demand. Host Containers The engine hosting itself doesn’t provide any sort of ‘runtime’ service like picking up files from disk, caching assemblies and so forth. So my implementation provides two HostContainers: RazorFolderHostContainer and RazorStringHostContainer. The FolderHost works off a base directory and loads templates based on relative paths (sort of like the ASP.NET runtime does off a virtual). The HostContainers also deal with caching of template assemblies – for the folder host the file date is tracked and checked for updates and unless the template is changed a cached assembly is reused. The StringHostContainer similiarily checks string hashes to figure out whether a particular string template was previously compiled and executed. The HostContainers also act as a simple startup environment and a single reference to easily store and reuse in an application. TemplateBase Classes The template base classes are the base classes that from which the Razor engine generates .NET code. A template is parsed into a class with an Execute() method and the class is based on this template type you can specify. RazorEngine<TBaseTemplate> can receive this type and the HostContainers default to specific templates in their base implementations. Template classes are customizable to allow you to create templates that provide application specific features and interaction from the template to your host application. How does the RazorEngine wrapper work? You can browse the source code in the links above or in the repository or download the source, but I’ll highlight some key features here. Here’s part of the RazorEngine implementation that can be used to host the runtime and that demonstrates the key code required to host the Razor runtime. The RazorEngine class is implemented as a generic class to reflect the Template base class type: public class RazorEngine<TBaseTemplateType> : MarshalByRefObject where TBaseTemplateType : RazorTemplateBase The generic type is used to internally provide easier access to the template type and assignments on it as part of the template processing. The class also inherits MarshalByRefObject to allow execution over AppDomain boundaries – something that all the classes discussed here need to do since there is much interaction between the host and the template. The first two key methods deal with creating a template assembly: /// <summary> /// Creates an instance of the RazorHost with various options applied. /// Applies basic namespace imports and the name of the class to generate /// </summary> /// <param name="generatedNamespace"></param> /// <param name="generatedClass"></param> /// <returns></returns> protected RazorTemplateEngine CreateHost(string generatedNamespace, string generatedClass) { Type baseClassType = typeof(TBaseTemplateType); RazorEngineHost host = new RazorEngineHost(new CSharpRazorCodeLanguage()); host.DefaultBaseClass = baseClassType.FullName; host.DefaultClassName = generatedClass; host.DefaultNamespace = generatedNamespace; host.NamespaceImports.Add("System"); host.NamespaceImports.Add("System.Text"); host.NamespaceImports.Add("System.Collections.Generic"); host.NamespaceImports.Add("System.Linq"); host.NamespaceImports.Add("System.IO"); return new RazorTemplateEngine(host); } /// <summary> /// Parses and compiles a markup template into an assembly and returns /// an assembly name. The name is an ID that can be passed to /// ExecuteTemplateByAssembly which picks up a cached instance of the /// loaded assembly. /// /// </summary> /// <param name="namespaceOfGeneratedClass">The namespace of the class to generate from the template</param> /// <param name="generatedClassName">The name of the class to generate from the template</param> /// <param name="ReferencedAssemblies">Any referenced assemblies by dll name only. Assemblies must be in execution path of host or in GAC.</param> /// <param name="templateSourceReader">Textreader that loads the template</param> /// <remarks> /// The actual assembly isn't returned here to allow for cross-AppDomain /// operation. If the assembly was returned it would fail for cross-AppDomain /// calls. /// </remarks> /// <returns>An assembly Id. The Assembly is cached in memory and can be used with RenderFromAssembly.</returns> public string ParseAndCompileTemplate( string namespaceOfGeneratedClass, string generatedClassName, string[] ReferencedAssemblies, TextReader templateSourceReader) { RazorTemplateEngine engine = CreateHost(namespaceOfGeneratedClass, generatedClassName); // Generate the template class as CodeDom GeneratorResults razorResults = engine.GenerateCode(templateSourceReader); // Create code from the codeDom and compile CSharpCodeProvider codeProvider = new CSharpCodeProvider(); CodeGeneratorOptions options = new CodeGeneratorOptions(); // Capture Code Generated as a string for error info // and debugging LastGeneratedCode = null; using (StringWriter writer = new StringWriter()) { codeProvider.GenerateCodeFromCompileUnit(razorResults.GeneratedCode, writer, options); LastGeneratedCode = writer.ToString(); } CompilerParameters compilerParameters = new CompilerParameters(ReferencedAssemblies); // Standard Assembly References compilerParameters.ReferencedAssemblies.Add("System.dll"); compilerParameters.ReferencedAssemblies.Add("System.Core.dll"); compilerParameters.ReferencedAssemblies.Add("Microsoft.CSharp.dll"); // dynamic support! // Also add the current assembly so RazorTemplateBase is available compilerParameters.ReferencedAssemblies.Add(Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().CodeBase.Substring(8)); compilerParameters.GenerateInMemory = Configuration.CompileToMemory; if (!Configuration.CompileToMemory) compilerParameters.OutputAssembly = Path.Combine(Configuration.TempAssemblyPath, "_" + Guid.NewGuid().ToString("n") + ".dll"); CompilerResults compilerResults = codeProvider.CompileAssemblyFromDom(compilerParameters, razorResults.GeneratedCode); if (compilerResults.Errors.Count > 0) { var compileErrors = new StringBuilder(); foreach (System.CodeDom.Compiler.CompilerError compileError in compilerResults.Errors) compileErrors.Append(String.Format(Resources.LineX0TColX1TErrorX2RN, compileError.Line, compileError.Column, compileError.ErrorText)); this.SetError(compileErrors.ToString() + "\r\n" + LastGeneratedCode); return null; } AssemblyCache.Add(compilerResults.CompiledAssembly.FullName, compilerResults.CompiledAssembly); return compilerResults.CompiledAssembly.FullName; } Think of the internal CreateHost() method as setting up the assembly generated from each template. Each template compiles into a separate assembly. It sets up namespaces, and assembly references, the base class used and the name and namespace for the generated class. ParseAndCompileTemplate() then calls the CreateHost() method to receive the template engine generator which effectively generates a CodeDom from the template – the template is turned into .NET code. The code generated from our earlier example looks something like this: //------------------------------------------------------------------------------ // <auto-generated> // This code was generated by a tool. // Runtime Version:4.0.30319.1 // // Changes to this file may cause incorrect behavior and will be lost if // the code is regenerated. // </auto-generated> //------------------------------------------------------------------------------ namespace RazorTest { using System; using System.Text; using System.Collections.Generic; using System.Linq; using System.IO; using System.Reflection; public class RazorTemplate : RazorHosting.RazorTemplateBase { #line hidden public RazorTemplate() { } public override void Execute() { WriteLiteral("Hello "); Write(Context.FirstName); WriteLiteral("! Your entry was entered on: "); Write(Context.Entered); WriteLiteral("\r\n\r\n"); // Code block: Update the host Windows Form passed in through the context Context.WinForm.Text = "Hello World from Razor at " + DateTime.Now.ToString(); WriteLiteral("\r\nAppDomain Id:\r\n "); Write(AppDomain.CurrentDomain.FriendlyName); WriteLiteral("\r\n \r\nAssembly:\r\n "); Write(Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().FullName); WriteLiteral("\r\n\r\nCode based output: \r\n"); // Write output with Response object from code string output = string.Empty; for (int i = 0; i < 10; i++) { output += i.ToString() + " "; } } } } Basically the template’s body is turned into code in an Execute method that is called. Internally the template’s Write method is fired to actually generate the output. Note that the class inherits from RazorTemplateBase which is the generic parameter I used to specify the base class when creating an instance in my RazorEngine host: var engine = new RazorEngine<RazorTemplateBase>(); This template class must be provided and it must implement an Execute() and Write() method. Beyond that you can create any class you chose and attach your own properties. My RazorTemplateBase class implementation is very simple: public class RazorTemplateBase : MarshalByRefObject, IDisposable { /// <summary> /// You can pass in a generic context object /// to use in your template code /// </summary> public dynamic Context { get; set; } /// <summary> /// Class that generates output. Currently ultra simple /// with only Response.Write() implementation. /// </summary> public RazorResponse Response { get; set; } public object HostContainer {get; set; } public object Engine { get; set; } public RazorTemplateBase() { Response = new RazorResponse(); } public virtual void Write(object value) { Response.Write(value); } public virtual void WriteLiteral(object value) { Response.Write(value); } /// <summary> /// Razor Parser implements this method /// </summary> public virtual void Execute() {} public virtual void Dispose() { if (Response != null) { Response.Dispose(); Response = null; } } } Razor fills in the Execute method when it generates its subclass and uses the Write() method to output content. As you can see I use a RazorResponse() class here to generate output. This isn’t necessary really, as you could use a StringBuilder or StringWriter() directly, but I prefer using Response object so I can extend the Response behavior as needed. The RazorResponse class is also very simple and merely acts as a wrapper around a TextWriter: public class RazorResponse : IDisposable { /// <summary> /// Internal text writer - default to StringWriter() /// </summary> public TextWriter Writer = new StringWriter(); public virtual void Write(object value) { Writer.Write(value); } public virtual void WriteLine(object value) { Write(value); Write("\r\n"); } public virtual void WriteFormat(string format, params object[] args) { Write(string.Format(format, args)); } public override string ToString() { return Writer.ToString(); } public virtual void Dispose() { Writer.Close(); } public virtual void SetTextWriter(TextWriter writer) { // Close original writer if (Writer != null) Writer.Close(); Writer = writer; } } The Rendering Methods of RazorEngine At this point I’ve talked about the assembly generation logic and the template implementation itself. What’s left is that once you’ve generated the assembly is to execute it. The code to do this is handled in the various RenderXXX methods of the RazorEngine class. Let’s look at the lowest level one of these which is RenderTemplateFromAssembly() and a couple of internal support methods that handle instantiating and invoking of the generated template method: public string RenderTemplateFromAssembly( string assemblyId, string generatedNamespace, string generatedClass, object context, TextWriter outputWriter) { this.SetError(); Assembly generatedAssembly = AssemblyCache[assemblyId]; if (generatedAssembly == null) { this.SetError(Resources.PreviouslyCompiledAssemblyNotFound); return null; } string className = generatedNamespace + "." + generatedClass; Type type; try { type = generatedAssembly.GetType(className); } catch (Exception ex) { this.SetError(Resources.UnableToCreateType + className + ": " + ex.Message); return null; } // Start with empty non-error response (if we use a writer) string result = string.Empty; using(TBaseTemplateType instance = InstantiateTemplateClass(type)) { if (instance == null) return null; if (outputWriter != null) instance.Response.SetTextWriter(outputWriter); if (!InvokeTemplateInstance(instance, context)) return null; // Capture string output if implemented and return // otherwise null is returned if (outputWriter == null) result = instance.Response.ToString(); } return result; } protected virtual TBaseTemplateType InstantiateTemplateClass(Type type) { TBaseTemplateType instance = Activator.CreateInstance(type) as TBaseTemplateType; if (instance == null) { SetError(Resources.CouldnTActivateTypeInstance + type.FullName); return null; } instance.Engine = this; // If a HostContainer was set pass that to the template too instance.HostContainer = this.HostContainer; return instance; } /// <summary> /// Internally executes an instance of the template, /// captures errors on execution and returns true or false /// </summary> /// <param name="instance">An instance of the generated template</param> /// <returns>true or false - check ErrorMessage for errors</returns> protected virtual bool InvokeTemplateInstance(TBaseTemplateType instance, object context) { try { instance.Context = context; instance.Execute(); } catch (Exception ex) { this.SetError(Resources.TemplateExecutionError + ex.Message); return false; } finally { // Must make sure Response is closed instance.Response.Dispose(); } return true; } The RenderTemplateFromAssembly method basically requires the namespace and class to instantate and creates an instance of the class using InstantiateTemplateClass(). It then invokes the method with InvokeTemplateInstance(). These two methods are broken out because they are re-used by various other rendering methods and also to allow subclassing and providing additional configuration tasks to set properties and pass values to templates at execution time. In the default mode instantiation sets the Engine and HostContainer (discussed later) so the template can call back into the template engine, and the context is set when the template method is invoked. The various RenderXXX methods use similar code although they create the assemblies first. If you’re after potentially cashing assemblies the method is the one to call and that’s exactly what the two HostContainer classes do. More on that in a minute, but before we get into HostContainers let’s talk about AppDomain hosting and the like. Running Templates in their own AppDomain With the RazorEngine class above, when a template is parsed into an assembly and executed the assembly is created (in memory or on disk – you can configure that) and cached in the current AppDomain. In .NET once an assembly has been loaded it can never be unloaded so if you’re loading lots of templates and at some time you want to release them there’s no way to do so. If however you load the assemblies in a separate AppDomain that new AppDomain can be unloaded and the assemblies loaded in it with it. In order to host the templates in a separate AppDomain the easiest thing to do is to run the entire RazorEngine in a separate AppDomain. Then all interaction occurs in the other AppDomain and no further changes have to be made. To facilitate this there is a RazorEngineFactory which has methods that can instantiate the RazorHost in a separate AppDomain as well as in the local AppDomain. The host creates the remote instance and then hangs on to it to keep it alive as well as providing methods to shut down the AppDomain and reload the engine. Sounds complicated but cross-AppDomain invocation is actually fairly easy to implement. Here’s some of the relevant code from the RazorEngineFactory class. Like the RazorEngine this class is generic and requires a template base type in the generic class name: public class RazorEngineFactory<TBaseTemplateType> where TBaseTemplateType : RazorTemplateBase Here are the key methods of interest: /// <summary> /// Creates an instance of the RazorHost in a new AppDomain. This /// version creates a static singleton that that is cached and you /// can call UnloadRazorHostInAppDomain to unload it. /// </summary> /// <returns></returns> public static RazorEngine<TBaseTemplateType> CreateRazorHostInAppDomain() { if (Current == null) Current = new RazorEngineFactory<TBaseTemplateType>(); return Current.GetRazorHostInAppDomain(); } public static void UnloadRazorHostInAppDomain() { if (Current != null) Current.UnloadHost(); Current = null; } /// <summary> /// Instance method that creates a RazorHost in a new AppDomain. /// This method requires that you keep the Factory around in /// order to keep the AppDomain alive and be able to unload it. /// </summary> /// <returns></returns> public RazorEngine<TBaseTemplateType> GetRazorHostInAppDomain() { LocalAppDomain = CreateAppDomain(null); if (LocalAppDomain == null) return null; /// Create the instance inside of the new AppDomain /// Note: remote domain uses local EXE's AppBasePath!!! RazorEngine<TBaseTemplateType> host = null; try { Assembly ass = Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly(); string AssemblyPath = ass.Location; host = (RazorEngine<TBaseTemplateType>) LocalAppDomain.CreateInstanceFrom(AssemblyPath, typeof(RazorEngine<TBaseTemplateType>).FullName).Unwrap(); } catch (Exception ex) { ErrorMessage = ex.Message; return null; } return host; } /// <summary> /// Internally creates a new AppDomain in which Razor templates can /// be run. /// </summary> /// <param name="appDomainName"></param> /// <returns></returns> private AppDomain CreateAppDomain(string appDomainName) { if (appDomainName == null) appDomainName = "RazorHost_" + Guid.NewGuid().ToString("n"); AppDomainSetup setup = new AppDomainSetup(); // *** Point at current directory setup.ApplicationBase = AppDomain.CurrentDomain.BaseDirectory; AppDomain localDomain = AppDomain.CreateDomain(appDomainName, null, setup); return localDomain; } /// <summary> /// Allow unloading of the created AppDomain to release resources /// All internal resources in the AppDomain are released including /// in memory compiled Razor assemblies. /// </summary> public void UnloadHost() { if (this.LocalAppDomain != null) { AppDomain.Unload(this.LocalAppDomain); this.LocalAppDomain = null; } } The static CreateRazorHostInAppDomain() is the key method that startup code usually calls. It uses a Current singleton instance to an instance of itself that is created cross AppDomain and is kept alive because it’s static. GetRazorHostInAppDomain actually creates a cross-AppDomain instance which first creates a new AppDomain and then loads the RazorEngine into it. The remote Proxy instance is returned as a result to the method and can be used the same as a local instance. The code to run with a remote AppDomain is simple: private RazorEngine<RazorTemplateBase> CreateHost() { if (this.Host != null) return this.Host; // Use Static Methods - no error message if host doesn't load this.Host = RazorEngineFactory<RazorTemplateBase>.CreateRazorHostInAppDomain(); if (this.Host == null) { MessageBox.Show("Unable to load Razor Template Host", "Razor Hosting", MessageBoxButtons.OK, MessageBoxIcon.Exclamation); } return this.Host; } This code relies on a local reference of the Host which is kept around for the duration of the app (in this case a form reference). To use this you’d simply do: this.Host = CreateHost(); if (host == null) return; string result = host.RenderTemplate( this.txtSource.Text, new string[] { "System.Windows.Forms.dll", "Westwind.Utilities.dll" }, this.CustomContext); if (result == null) { MessageBox.Show(host.ErrorMessage, "Template Execution Error", MessageBoxButtons.OK, MessageBoxIcon.Exclamation); return; } this.txtResult.Text = result; Now all templates run in a remote AppDomain and can be unloaded with simple code like this: RazorEngineFactory<RazorTemplateBase>.UnloadRazorHostInAppDomain(); this.Host = null; One Step further – Providing a caching ‘Runtime’ Once we can load templates in a remote AppDomain we can add some additional functionality like assembly caching based on application specific features. One of my typical scenarios is to render templates out of a scripts folder. So all templates live in a folder and they change infrequently. So a Folder based host that can compile these templates once and then only recompile them if something changes would be ideal. Enter host containers which are basically wrappers around the RazorEngine<t> and RazorEngineFactory<t>. They provide additional logic for things like file caching based on changes on disk or string hashes for string based template inputs. The folder host also provides for partial rendering logic through a custom template base implementation. There’s a base implementation in RazorBaseHostContainer, which provides the basics for hosting a RazorEngine, which includes the ability to start and stop the engine, cache assemblies and add references: public abstract class RazorBaseHostContainer<TBaseTemplateType> : MarshalByRefObject where TBaseTemplateType : RazorTemplateBase, new() { public RazorBaseHostContainer() { UseAppDomain = true; GeneratedNamespace = "__RazorHost"; } /// <summary> /// Determines whether the Container hosts Razor /// in a separate AppDomain. Seperate AppDomain /// hosting allows unloading and releasing of /// resources. /// </summary> public bool UseAppDomain { get; set; } /// <summary> /// Base folder location where the AppDomain /// is hosted. By default uses the same folder /// as the host application. /// /// Determines where binary dependencies are /// found for assembly references. /// </summary> public string BaseBinaryFolder { get; set; } /// <summary> /// List of referenced assemblies as string values. /// Must be in GAC or in the current folder of the host app/ /// base BinaryFolder /// </summary> public List<string> ReferencedAssemblies = new List<string>(); /// <summary> /// Name of the generated namespace for template classes /// </summary> public string GeneratedNamespace {get; set; } /// <summary> /// Any error messages /// </summary> public string ErrorMessage { get; set; } /// <summary> /// Cached instance of the Host. Required to keep the /// reference to the host alive for multiple uses. /// </summary> public RazorEngine<TBaseTemplateType> Engine; /// <summary> /// Cached instance of the Host Factory - so we can unload /// the host and its associated AppDomain. /// </summary> protected RazorEngineFactory<TBaseTemplateType> EngineFactory; /// <summary> /// Keep track of each compiled assembly /// and when it was compiled. /// /// Use a hash of the string to identify string /// changes. /// </summary> protected Dictionary<int, CompiledAssemblyItem> LoadedAssemblies = new Dictionary<int, CompiledAssemblyItem>(); /// <summary> /// Call to start the Host running. Follow by a calls to RenderTemplate to /// render individual templates. Call Stop when done. /// </summary> /// <returns>true or false - check ErrorMessage on false </returns> public virtual bool Start() { if (Engine == null) { if (UseAppDomain) Engine = RazorEngineFactory<TBaseTemplateType>.CreateRazorHostInAppDomain(); else Engine = RazorEngineFactory<TBaseTemplateType>.CreateRazorHost(); Engine.Configuration.CompileToMemory = true; Engine.HostContainer = this; if (Engine == null) { this.ErrorMessage = EngineFactory.ErrorMessage; return false; } } return true; } /// <summary> /// Stops the Host and releases the host AppDomain and cached /// assemblies. /// </summary> /// <returns>true or false</returns> public bool Stop() { this.LoadedAssemblies.Clear(); RazorEngineFactory<RazorTemplateBase>.UnloadRazorHostInAppDomain(); this.Engine = null; return true; } … } This base class provides most of the mechanics to host the runtime, but no application specific implementation for rendering. There are rendering functions but they just call the engine directly and provide no caching – there’s no context to decide how to cache and reuse templates. The key methods are Start and Stop and their main purpose is to start a new AppDomain (optionally) and shut it down when requested. The RazorFolderHostContainer – Folder Based Runtime Hosting Let’s look at the more application specific RazorFolderHostContainer implementation which is defined like this: public class RazorFolderHostContainer : RazorBaseHostContainer<RazorTemplateFolderHost> Note that a customized RazorTemplateFolderHost class template is used for this implementation that supports partial rendering in form of a RenderPartial() method that’s available to templates. The folder host’s features are: Render templates based on a Template Base Path (a ‘virtual’ if you will) Cache compiled assemblies based on the relative path and file time stamp File changes on templates cause templates to be recompiled into new assemblies Support for partial rendering using base folder relative pathing As shown in the startup examples earlier host containers require some startup code with a HostContainer tied to a persistent property (like a Form property): // The base path for templates - templates are rendered with relative paths // based on this path. HostContainer.TemplatePath = Path.Combine(Environment.CurrentDirectory, TemplateBaseFolder); // Default output rendering disk location HostContainer.RenderingOutputFile = Path.Combine(HostContainer.TemplatePath, "__Preview.htm"); // Add any assemblies you want reference in your templates HostContainer.ReferencedAssemblies.Add("System.Windows.Forms.dll"); // Start up the host container HostContainer.Start(); Once that’s done, you can render templates with the host container: // Pass the template path for full filename seleted with OpenFile Dialog // relativepath is: subdir\file.cshtml or file.cshtml or ..\file.cshtml var relativePath = Utilities.GetRelativePath(fileName, HostContainer.TemplatePath); if (!HostContainer.RenderTemplate(relativePath, Context, HostContainer.RenderingOutputFile)) { MessageBox.Show("Error: " + HostContainer.ErrorMessage); return; } webBrowser1.Navigate("file://" + HostContainer.RenderingOutputFile); The most critical task of the RazorFolderHostContainer implementation is to retrieve a template from disk, compile and cache it and then deal with deciding whether subsequent requests need to re-compile the template or simply use a cached version. Internally the GetAssemblyFromFileAndCache() handles this task: /// <summary> /// Internally checks if a cached assembly exists and if it does uses it /// else creates and compiles one. Returns an assembly Id to be /// used with the LoadedAssembly list. /// </summary> /// <param name="relativePath"></param> /// <param name="context"></param> /// <returns></returns> protected virtual CompiledAssemblyItem GetAssemblyFromFileAndCache(string relativePath) { string fileName = Path.Combine(TemplatePath, relativePath).ToLower(); int fileNameHash = fileName.GetHashCode(); if (!File.Exists(fileName)) { this.SetError(Resources.TemplateFileDoesnTExist + fileName); return null; } CompiledAssemblyItem item = null; this.LoadedAssemblies.TryGetValue(fileNameHash, out item); string assemblyId = null; // Check for cached instance if (item != null) { var fileTime = File.GetLastWriteTimeUtc(fileName); if (fileTime <= item.CompileTimeUtc) assemblyId = item.AssemblyId; } else item = new CompiledAssemblyItem(); // No cached instance - create assembly and cache if (assemblyId == null) { string safeClassName = GetSafeClassName(fileName); StreamReader reader = null; try { reader = new StreamReader(fileName, true); } catch (Exception ex) { this.SetError(Resources.ErrorReadingTemplateFile + fileName); return null; } assemblyId = Engine.ParseAndCompileTemplate(this.ReferencedAssemblies.ToArray(), reader); // need to ensure reader is closed if (reader != null) reader.Close(); if (assemblyId == null) { this.SetError(Engine.ErrorMessage); return null; } item.AssemblyId = assemblyId; item.CompileTimeUtc = DateTime.UtcNow; item.FileName = fileName; item.SafeClassName = safeClassName; this.LoadedAssemblies[fileNameHash] = item; } return item; } This code uses a LoadedAssembly dictionary which is comprised of a structure that holds a reference to a compiled assembly, a full filename and file timestamp and an assembly id. LoadedAssemblies (defined on the base class shown earlier) is essentially a cache for compiled assemblies and they are identified by a hash id. In the case of files the hash is a GetHashCode() from the full filename of the template. The template is checked for in the cache and if not found the file stamp is checked. If that’s newer than the cache’s compilation date the template is recompiled otherwise the version in the cache is used. All the core work defers to a RazorEngine<T> instance to ParseAndCompileTemplate(). The three rendering specific methods then are rather simple implementations with just a few lines of code dealing with parameter and return value parsing: /// <summary> /// Renders a template to a TextWriter. Useful to write output into a stream or /// the Response object. Used for partial rendering. /// </summary> /// <param name="relativePath">Relative path to the file in the folder structure</param> /// <param name="context">Optional context object or null</param> /// <param name="writer">The textwriter to write output into</param> /// <returns></returns> public bool RenderTemplate(string relativePath, object context, TextWriter writer) { // Set configuration data that is to be passed to the template (any object) Engine.TemplatePerRequestConfigurationData = new RazorFolderHostTemplateConfiguration() { TemplatePath = Path.Combine(this.TemplatePath, relativePath), TemplateRelativePath = relativePath, }; CompiledAssemblyItem item = GetAssemblyFromFileAndCache(relativePath); if (item == null) { writer.Close(); return false; } try { // String result will be empty as output will be rendered into the // Response object's stream output. However a null result denotes // an error string result = Engine.RenderTemplateFromAssembly(item.AssemblyId, context, writer); if (result == null) { this.SetError(Engine.ErrorMessage); return false; } } catch (Exception ex) { this.SetError(ex.Message); return false; } finally { writer.Close(); } return true; } /// <summary> /// Render a template from a source file on disk to a specified outputfile. /// </summary> /// <param name="relativePath">Relative path off the template root folder. Format: path/filename.cshtml</param> /// <param name="context">Any object that will be available in the template as a dynamic of this.Context</param> /// <param name="outputFile">Optional - output file where output is written to. If not specified the /// RenderingOutputFile property is used instead /// </param> /// <returns>true if rendering succeeds, false on failure - check ErrorMessage</returns> public bool RenderTemplate(string relativePath, object context, string outputFile) { if (outputFile == null) outputFile = RenderingOutputFile; try { using (StreamWriter writer = new StreamWriter(outputFile, false, Engine.Configuration.OutputEncoding, Engine.Configuration.StreamBufferSize)) { return RenderTemplate(relativePath, context, writer); } } catch (Exception ex) { this.SetError(ex.Message); return false; } return true; } /// <summary> /// Renders a template to string. Useful for RenderTemplate /// </summary> /// <param name="relativePath"></param> /// <param name="context"></param> /// <returns></returns> public string RenderTemplateToString(string relativePath, object context) { string result = string.Empty; try { using (StringWriter writer = new StringWriter()) { // String result will be empty as output will be rendered into the // Response object's stream output. However a null result denotes // an error if (!RenderTemplate(relativePath, context, writer)) { this.SetError(Engine.ErrorMessage); return null; } result = writer.ToString(); } } catch (Exception ex) { this.SetError(ex.Message); return null; } return result; } The idea is that you can create custom host container implementations that do exactly what you want fairly easily. Take a look at both the RazorFolderHostContainer and RazorStringHostContainer classes for the basic concepts you can use to create custom implementations. Notice also that you can set the engine’s PerRequestConfigurationData() from the host container: // Set configuration data that is to be passed to the template (any object) Engine.TemplatePerRequestConfigurationData = new RazorFolderHostTemplateConfiguration() { TemplatePath = Path.Combine(this.TemplatePath, relativePath), TemplateRelativePath = relativePath, }; which when set to a non-null value is passed to the Template’s InitializeTemplate() method. This method receives an object parameter which you can cast as needed: public override void InitializeTemplate(object configurationData) { // Pick up configuration data and stuff into Request object RazorFolderHostTemplateConfiguration config = configurationData as RazorFolderHostTemplateConfiguration; this.Request.TemplatePath = config.TemplatePath; this.Request.TemplateRelativePath = config.TemplateRelativePath; } With this data you can then configure any custom properties or objects on your main template class. It’s an easy way to pass data from the HostContainer all the way down into the template. The type you use is of type object so you have to cast it yourself, and it must be serializable since it will likely run in a separate AppDomain. This might seem like an ugly way to pass data around – normally I’d use an event delegate to call back from the engine to the host, but since this is running over AppDomain boundaries events get really tricky and passing a template instance back up into the host over AppDomain boundaries doesn’t work due to serialization issues. So it’s easier to pass the data from the host down into the template using this rather clumsy approach of set and forward. It’s ugly, but it’s something that can be hidden in the host container implementation as I’ve done here. It’s also not something you have to do in every implementation so this is kind of an edge case, but I know I’ll need to pass a bunch of data in some of my applications and this will be the easiest way to do so. Summing Up Hosting the Razor runtime is something I got jazzed up about quite a bit because I have an immediate need for this type of templating/merging/scripting capability in an application I’m working on. I’ve also been using templating in many apps and it’s always been a pain to deal with. The Razor engine makes this whole experience a lot cleaner and more light weight and with these wrappers I can now plug .NET based templating into my code literally with a few lines of code. That’s something to cheer about… I hope some of you will find this useful as well… Resources The examples and code require that you download the Razor runtimes. Projects are for Visual Studio 2010 running on .NET 4.0 Platform Installer 3.0 (install WebMatrix or MVC 3 for Razor Runtimes) Latest Code in Subversion Repository Download Snapshot of the Code Documentation (CHM Help File) © Rick Strahl, West Wind Technologies, 2005-2010Posted in ASP.NET .NET

Read the article
Solution: Testing Web Services with MSTest on Team Build

- by Martin Hinshelwood

Guess what. About 20 minutes after I fixed the build, Allan broke it again! Update: 4th March 2010 – After having huge problems getting this working I read Billy Wang’s post which showed me the light. The problem here is that even though the test passes locally it will not during an Automated Build. When you send your tests to the build server it does not understand that you want to spin up the web site and run tests against that! When you run the test in Visual Studio it spins up the web site anyway, but would you expect your test to pass if you told the website not to spin up? Of course not. So, when you send the code to the build server you need to tell it what to spin up. First, the best way to get the parameters you need is to right click on the method you want to test and select “Create Unit Test”. This will detect wither you are running in IIS or ASP.NET Development Server or None, and create the relevant tags. Figure: Right clicking on “SaveDefaultProjectFile” will produce a context menu with “Create Unit tests…” on it. If you use this option it will AutoDetect most of the Attributes that are required. /// <summary> ///A test for SSW.SQLDeploy.SilverlightUI.Web.Services.IProfileService.SaveDefaultProjectFile ///</summary> // TODO: Ensure that the UrlToTest attribute specifies a URL to an ASP.NET page (for example, // http://.../Default.aspx). This is necessary for the unit test to be executed on the web server, // whether you are testing a page, web service, or a WCF service. [TestMethod()] [HostType("ASP.NET")] [AspNetDevelopmentServerHost("D:\\Workspaces\\SSW\\SSW\\SqlDeploy\\DEV\\Main\\SSW.SQLDeploy.SilverlightUI.Web", "/")] [UrlToTest("http://localhost:3100/")] [DeploymentItem("SSW.SQLDeploy.SilverlightUI.Web.dll")] public void SaveDefaultProjectFileTest() { IProfileService target = new ProfileService(); // TODO: Initialize to an appropriate value string strComputerName = string.Empty; // TODO: Initialize to an appropriate value bool expected = false; // TODO: Initialize to an appropriate value bool actual; actual = target.SaveDefaultProjectFile(strComputerName); Assert.AreEqual(expected, actual); Assert.Inconclusive("Verify the correctness of this test method."); } Figure: Auto created code that shows the attributes required to run correctly in IIS or in this case ASP.NET Development Server If you are a purist and don’t like creating unit tests like this then you just need to add the three attributes manually. HostType – This attribute specified what host to use. Its an extensibility point, so you could write your own. Or you could just use “ASP.NET”. UrlToTest – This specifies the start URL. For most tests it does not matter which page you call, as long as it is a valid page otherwise your test may not run on the server, but may pass anyway. AspNetDevelopmentServerHost – This is a nasty one, it is only used if you are using ASP.NET Development Host and is unnecessary if you are using IIS. This sets the host settings and the first value MUST be the physical path to the root of your web application. OK, so all that was rubbish and I could not get anything working using the MSDN documentation. Google provided very little help until I ran into Billy Wang’s post and I heard that heavenly music that all developers hear when understanding dawns that what they have been doing up until now is just plain stupid. I am sure that the above will work when I am doing Web Unit Tests, but there is a much easier way when doing web services. You need to add the AspNetDevelopmentServer attribute to your code. This will tell MSTest to spin up an ASP.NET Development server to host the service. Specify the path to the web application you want to use. [AspNetDevelopmentServer("WebApp1", "D:\\Workspaces\\SSW\\SSW\\SqlDeploy\\DEV\\Main\\SSW.SQLDeploy.SilverlightUI.Web")] [DeploymentItem("SSW.SQLDeploy.SilverlightUI.Web.dll")] [TestMethod] public void ProfileService_Integration_SaveDefaultProjectFile_Returns_True() { ProfileServiceClient target = new ProfileServiceClient(); bool isTrue = target.SaveDefaultProjectFile("Mav"); Assert.AreEqual(true, isTrue); } Figure: This AspNetDevelopmentServer will make sure that the specified web application is launched. Now we can run the test and have it pass, but if the dynamically assigned ASP.NET Development server port changes what happens to the details in your app.config that was generated when creating a reference to the web service? Well, it would be wrong and the test would fail. This is where Billy’s helper method comes in. Once you have created an instance of your service call, and it has loaded the config, but before you make any calls to it you need to go in and dynamically set the Endpoint address to the same address as your dynamically hosted Web Application. using System; using System.Collections.Generic; using System.Linq; using System.Text; using Microsoft.VisualStudio.TestTools.UnitTesting; using System.Reflection; using System.ServiceModel.Description; using System.ServiceModel; namespace SSW.SQLDeploy.Test { class WcfWebServiceHelper { public static bool TryUrlRedirection(object client, TestContext context, string identifier) { bool result = true; try { PropertyInfo property = client.GetType().GetProperty("Endpoint"); string webServer = context.Properties[string.Format("AspNetDevelopmentServer.{0}", identifier)].ToString(); Uri webServerUri = new Uri(webServer); ServiceEndpoint endpoint = (ServiceEndpoint)property.GetValue(client, null); EndpointAddressBuilder builder = new EndpointAddressBuilder(endpoint.Address); builder.Uri = new Uri(endpoint.Address.Uri.OriginalString.Replace(endpoint.Address.Uri.Authority, webServerUri.Authority)); endpoint.Address = builder.ToEndpointAddress(); } catch (Exception e) { context.WriteLine(e.Message); result = false; } return result; } } } Figure: This fixes a problem with the URL in your web.config not being the same as the dynamically hosted ASP.NET Development server port. We can now add a call to this method after we created the Proxy object and change the Endpoint for the Service to the correct one. This process is wrapped in an assert as if it fails there is no point in continuing. [AspNetDevelopmentServer("WebApp1", D:\\Workspaces\\SSW\\SSW\\SqlDeploy\\DEV\\Main\\SSW.SQLDeploy.SilverlightUI.Web")] [DeploymentItem("SSW.SQLDeploy.SilverlightUI.Web.dll")] [TestMethod] public void ProfileService_Integration_SaveDefaultProjectFile_Returns_True() { ProfileServiceClient target = new ProfileServiceClient(); Assert.IsTrue(WcfWebServiceHelper.TryUrlRedirection(target, TestContext, "WebApp1")); bool isTrue = target.SaveDefaultProjectFile("Mav"); Assert.AreEqual(true, isTrue); } Figure: Editing the Endpoint from the app.config on the fly to match the dynamically hosted ASP.NET Development Server URL and port is now easy. As you can imagine AspNetDevelopmentServer poses some problems of you have multiple developers. What are the chances of everyone using the same location to store the source? What about if you are using a build server, how do you tell MSTest where to look for the files? To the rescue is a property called" “%PathToWebRoot%” which is always right on the build server. It will always point to your build drop folder for your solutions web sites. Which will be “\\tfs.ssw.com.au\BuildDrop\[BuildName]\Debug\_PrecompiledWeb\” or whatever your build drop location is. So lets change the code above to add this. [AspNetDevelopmentServer("WebApp1", "%PathToWebRoot%\\SSW.SQLDeploy.SilverlightUI.Web")] [DeploymentItem("SSW.SQLDeploy.SilverlightUI.Web.dll")] [TestMethod] public void ProfileService_Integration_SaveDefaultProjectFile_Returns_True() { ProfileServiceClient target = new ProfileServiceClient(); Assert.IsTrue(WcfWebServiceHelper.TryUrlRedirection(target, TestContext, "WebApp1")); bool isTrue = target.SaveDefaultProjectFile("Mav"); Assert.AreEqual(true, isTrue); } Figure: Adding %PathToWebRoot% to the AspNetDevelopmentServer path makes it work everywhere. Now we have another problem… this will ONLY run on the build server and will fail locally as %PathToWebRoot%’s default value is “C:\Users\[profile]\Documents\Visual Studio 2010\Projects”. Well this sucks… How do we get the test to run on any build server and any developer laptop. Open “Tools | Options | Test Tools | Test Execution” in Visual Studio and you will see a field called “Web application root directory”. This is where you override that default above. Figure: You can override the default website location for tests. In my case I would put in “D:\Workspaces\SSW\SSW\SqlDeploy\DEV\Main” and all the developers working with this branch would put in the folder that they have mapped. Can you see a problem? What is I create a “$/SSW/SqlDeploy/DEV/34567” branch from Main and I want to run tests in there. Well… I would have to change the value above. This is not ideal, but as you can put your projects anywhere on a computer, it has to be done. Conclusion Although this looks convoluted and complicated there are real problems being solved here that mean that you have a test ANYWHERE solution. Any build server, any Developer workstation. Resources: http://billwg.blogspot.com/2009/06/testing-wcf-web-services.html http://tough-to-find.blogspot.com/2008/04/testing-asmx-web-services-in-visual.html http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms243399(VS.100).aspx http://blogs.msdn.com/dscruggs/archive/2008/09/29/web-tests-unit-tests-the-asp-net-development-server-and-code-coverage.aspx http://www.5z5.com/News/?543f8bc8b36b174f Technorati Tags: VS2010,MSTest,Team Build 2010,Team Build,Visual Studio,Visual Studio 2010,Visual Studio ALM,Team Test,Team Test 2010

Read the article
How can I control which IP address IIS7 uses?

- by brennanwstehling

In Win2k3 I used httpcfg to tell IIS to listen to specific IP addresses on the server. I want to run Apache with VisualSVN Server on port 80 on another IP address but IIS7 binds to all ports by default. What utility for IIS7 controls the IIS7 bindings? Update: I found the answer. There is a utility called netsh. netsh http add iplisten ipaddress=xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx By default there are not IP addresses on the list so IIS7 will bind to all IP addressed. If you add one IP to the list it will listen to just that IP or any IP added to the list. It is necessary to restart IIS7 for the change to take affect.

Read the article

< Previous Page | 349 350 351 352 353 354 355 356 357 358 359 360 | Next Page >