Search Results

Search found 9730 results on 390 pages for 'restart programs'.

Page 378/390 | < Previous Page | 374 375 376 377 378 379 380 381 382 383 384 385  | Next Page >

  • Unable to write data to the transport connection: An existing connection was forcibly closed by the remote host

    - by xnoor
    i have an update server that sends client updates through TCP port 12000, the sending of a single file is successful only the first time, but after that i get an error message on the server "Unable to write data to the transport connection: An existing connection was forcibly closed by the remote host", if i restart the update service on the server, it works again only one, i have normal multithreaded windows service SERVER CODE namespace WSTSAU { public partial class ApplicationUpdater : ServiceBase { private Logger logger = LogManager.GetCurrentClassLogger(); private int _listeningPort; private int _ApplicationReceivingPort; private string _setupFilename; private string _startupPath; public ApplicationUpdater() { InitializeComponent(); } protected override void OnStart(string[] args) { init(); logger.Info("after init"); Thread ListnerThread = new Thread(new ThreadStart(StartListener)); ListnerThread.IsBackground = true; ListnerThread.Start(); logger.Info("after thread start"); } private void init() { _listeningPort = Convert.ToInt16(ConfigurationSettings.AppSettings["ListeningPort"]); _setupFilename = ConfigurationSettings.AppSettings["SetupFilename"]; _startupPath = System.IO.Path.GetDirectoryName(System.Reflection.Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().GetName().CodeBase).Substring(6); } private void StartListener() { try { logger.Info("Listening Started"); ThreadPool.SetMinThreads(50, 50); TcpListener listener = new TcpListener(_listeningPort); listener.Start(); while (true) { TcpClient c = listener.AcceptTcpClient(); ThreadPool.QueueUserWorkItem(ProcessReceivedMessage, c); } } catch (Exception ex) { logger.Error(ex.Message); } } void ProcessReceivedMessage(object c) { try { TcpClient tcpClient = c as TcpClient; NetworkStream Networkstream = tcpClient.GetStream(); byte[] _data = new byte[1024]; int _bytesRead = 0; _bytesRead = Networkstream.Read(_data, 0, _data.Length); MessageContainer messageContainer = new MessageContainer(); messageContainer = SerializationManager.XmlFormatterByteArrayToObject(_data, messageContainer) as MessageContainer; switch (messageContainer.messageType) { case MessageType.ApplicationUpdateMessage: ApplicationUpdateMessage appUpdateMessage = new ApplicationUpdateMessage(); appUpdateMessage = SerializationManager.XmlFormatterByteArrayToObject(messageContainer.messageContnet, appUpdateMessage) as ApplicationUpdateMessage; Func<ApplicationUpdateMessage, bool> HandleUpdateRequestMethod = HandleUpdateRequest; IAsyncResult cookie = HandleUpdateRequestMethod.BeginInvoke(appUpdateMessage, null, null); bool WorkerThread = HandleUpdateRequestMethod.EndInvoke(cookie); break; } } catch (Exception ex) { logger.Error(ex.Message); } } private bool HandleUpdateRequest(ApplicationUpdateMessage appUpdateMessage) { try { TcpClient tcpClient = new TcpClient(); NetworkStream networkStream; FileStream fileStream = null; tcpClient.Connect(appUpdateMessage.receiverIpAddress, appUpdateMessage.receiverPortNumber); networkStream = tcpClient.GetStream(); fileStream = new FileStream(_startupPath + "\\" + _setupFilename, FileMode.Open, FileAccess.Read); FileInfo fi = new FileInfo(_startupPath + "\\" + _setupFilename); BinaryReader binFile = new BinaryReader(fileStream); FileUpdateMessage fileUpdateMessage = new FileUpdateMessage(); fileUpdateMessage.fileName = fi.Name; fileUpdateMessage.fileSize = fi.Length; MessageContainer messageContainer = new MessageContainer(); messageContainer.messageType = MessageType.FileProperties; messageContainer.messageContnet = SerializationManager.XmlFormatterObjectToByteArray(fileUpdateMessage); byte[] messageByte = SerializationManager.XmlFormatterObjectToByteArray(messageContainer); networkStream.Write(messageByte, 0, messageByte.Length); int bytesSize = 0; byte[] downBuffer = new byte[2048]; while ((bytesSize = fileStream.Read(downBuffer, 0, downBuffer.Length)) > 0) { networkStream.Write(downBuffer, 0, bytesSize); } fileStream.Close(); tcpClient.Close(); networkStream.Close(); return true; } catch (Exception ex) { logger.Info(ex.Message); return false; } finally { } } protected override void OnStop() { } } i have to note something that my windows service (server) is multithreaded.. i hope anyone can help with this

    Read the article

  • L2S DataContext out of synch: row not found or changed

    - by awrigley
    The Problem I am getting a number of errors that imply that the DataContext, or rather, the way I am using the DataContext is getting out of synch. The error occurs on db.SubmitChanges() where db is my DataContext instance. The error is: Row not found or changed. The problem only occurs intermitently, for example, adding a row then deleting it. If I stop the dev server and restart, the added row is there and I can delete it no problem. Ie, it seems that the problem is related to the DataContext losing track of the rows that have been added. IMPORTANT: Before anyone votes to close this thread, on the basis of it being a duplicate, I have checked the sql server profiler and there is no "Where 0 = 1" in the SQL. I have also recreated the dbml file, so am satisfied that the database schema is in synch with the schema represented by the dbml file. Ie, no cases of mismatched nullable/not nullable columns, etc. My Diagnosis (for what it is worth): It seems to be a problem related to how I am using the DataContext. I am new to MVC, Repositories and Services patterns, so suspect that I have wired things up wrong. The Setup Simple eLearning app in its early stages. Pupils need to be able to add and delete courses (Courses table) to their UserCourses. To do this, I have a service that gets a specific DataContext instance Dependency Injected into its constructor. Service Class Constructor: public class SqlPupilBlockService : IPupilBlockService { DataContext db; public SqlPupilBlockService(DataContext db) { this.db = db; CoursesRepository = new SqlRepository<Course>(db); UserCoursesRepository = new SqlRepository<UserCourse>(db); } // Etc, etc } The CoursesRepository and UserCoursesRepository are both private properties of the service class that are of Type IRepository (just a simple generic repository interface). Sql Respoitory Code: public class SqlRepository<T> : IRepository<T> where T : class { DataContext db; public SqlRepository(DataContext db) { this.db = db; } #region IRepository<T> Members public IQueryable<T> Query { get { return db.GetTable<T>(); } } public List<T> FetchAll() { return Query.ToList(); } public void Add(T entity) { db.GetTable<T>().InsertOnSubmit(entity); } public void Delete(T entity) { db.GetTable<T>().DeleteOnSubmit(entity); } public void Save() { db.SubmitChanges(); } #endregion } The two methods for adding and deleting UserCourses are: Service Methods for Adding and Deleting UserCourses: public void AddUserCourse(int courseId) { UserCourse uc = new UserCourse(); uc.IdCourse = courseId; uc.IdUser = UserId; uc.DateCreated = DateTime.Now; uc.DateAmended = DateTime.Now; uc.Role = "Pupil"; uc.CourseNotes = string.Empty; uc.ActiveStepIndex = 0; UserCoursesRepository.Add(uc); UserCoursesRepository.Save(); } public void DeleteUserCourse(int courseId) { var uc = (UserCoursesRepository.Query.Where(x => x.IdUser == UserId && x.IdCourse == courseId)).Single(); UserCoursesRepository.Delete(uc); UserCoursesRepository.Save(); } Ajax I am using Ajax via Ajax.BeginForm I don't think that is relevant. ASP.NET MVC 3 I am using mvc3, but don't think that is relevant: the errors are related to model code.

    Read the article

  • Why does this Java code not utilize all CPU cores?

    - by ReneS
    The attached simple Java code should load all available cpu core when starting it with the right parameters. So for instance, you start it with java VMTest 8 int 0 and it will start 8 threads that do nothing else than looping and adding 2 to an integer. Something that runs in registers and not even allocates new memory. The problem we are facing now is, that we do not get a 24 core machine loaded (AMD 2 sockets with 12 cores each), when running this simple program (with 24 threads of course). Similar things happen with 2 programs each 12 threads or smaller machines. So our suspicion is that the JVM (Sun JDK 6u20 on Linux x64) does not scale well. Did anyone see similar things or has the ability to run it and report whether or not it runs well on his/her machine (= 8 cores only please)? Ideas? I tried that on Amazon EC2 with 8 cores too, but the virtual machine seems to run different from a real box, so the loading behaves totally strange. package com.test; import java.util.concurrent.ExecutorService; import java.util.concurrent.Executors; import java.util.concurrent.Future; import java.util.concurrent.TimeUnit; public class VMTest { public class IntTask implements Runnable { @Override public void run() { int i = 0; while (true) { i = i + 2; } } } public class StringTask implements Runnable { @Override public void run() { int i = 0; String s; while (true) { i++; s = "s" + Integer.valueOf(i); } } } public class ArrayTask implements Runnable { private final int size; public ArrayTask(int size) { this.size = size; } @Override public void run() { int i = 0; String[] s; while (true) { i++; s = new String[size]; } } } public void doIt(String[] args) throws InterruptedException { final String command = args[1].trim(); ExecutorService executor = Executors.newFixedThreadPool(Integer.valueOf(args[0])); for (int i = 0; i < Integer.valueOf(args[0]); i++) { Runnable runnable = null; if (command.equalsIgnoreCase("int")) { runnable = new IntTask(); } else if (command.equalsIgnoreCase("string")) { runnable = new StringTask(); } Future<?> submit = executor.submit(runnable); } executor.awaitTermination(1, TimeUnit.HOURS); } public static void main(String[] args) throws InterruptedException { if (args.length < 3) { System.err.println("Usage: VMTest threadCount taskDef size"); System.err.println("threadCount: Number 1..n"); System.err.println("taskDef: int string array"); System.err.println("size: size of memory allocation for array, "); System.exit(-1); } new VMTest().doIt(args); } }

    Read the article

  • hosting simple python scripts in a container to handle concurrency, configuration, caching, etc.

    - by Justin Grant
    My first real-world Python project is to write a simple framework (or re-use/adapt an existing one) which can wrap small python scripts (which are used to gather custom data for a monitoring tool) with a "container" to handle boilerplate tasks like: fetching a script's configuration from a file (and keeping that info up to date if the file changes and handle decryption of sensitive config data) running multiple instances of the same script in different threads instead of spinning up a new process for each one expose an API for caching expensive data and storing persistent state from one script invocation to the next Today, script authors must handle the issues above, which usually means that most script authors don't handle them correctly, causing bugs and performance problems. In addition to avoiding bugs, we want a solution which lowers the bar to create and maintain scripts, especially given that many script authors may not be trained programmers. Below are examples of the API I've been thinking of, and which I'm looking to get your feedback about. A scripter would need to build a single method which takes (as input) the configuration that the script needs to do its job, and either returns a python object or calls a method to stream back data in chunks. Optionally, a scripter could supply methods to handle startup and/or shutdown tasks. HTTP-fetching script example (in pseudocode, omitting the actual data-fetching details to focus on the container's API): def run (config, context, cache) : results = http_library_call (config.url, config.http_method, config.username, config.password, ...) return { html : results.html, status_code : results.status, headers : results.response_headers } def init(config, context, cache) : config.max_threads = 20 # up to 20 URLs at one time (per process) config.max_processes = 3 # launch up to 3 concurrent processes config.keepalive = 1200 # keep process alive for 10 mins without another call config.process_recycle.requests = 1000 # restart the process every 1000 requests (to avoid leaks) config.kill_timeout = 600 # kill the process if any call lasts longer than 10 minutes Database-data fetching script example might look like this (in pseudocode): def run (config, context, cache) : expensive = context.cache["something_expensive"] for record in db_library_call (expensive, context.checkpoint, config.connection_string) : context.log (record, "logDate") # log all properties, optionally specify name of timestamp property last_date = record["logDate"] context.checkpoint = last_date # persistent checkpoint, used next time through def init(config, context, cache) : cache["something_expensive"] = get_expensive_thing() def shutdown(config, context, cache) : expensive = cache["something_expensive"] expensive.release_me() Is this API appropriately "pythonic", or are there things I should do to make this more natural to the Python scripter? (I'm more familiar with building C++/C#/Java APIs so I suspect I'm missing useful Python idioms.) Specific questions: is it natural to pass a "config" object into a method and ask the callee to set various configuration options? Or is there another preferred way to do this? when a callee needs to stream data back to its caller, is a method like context.log() (see above) appropriate, or should I be using yield instead? (yeild seems natural, but I worry it'd be over the head of most scripters) My approach requires scripts to define functions with predefined names (e.g. "run", "init", "shutdown"). Is this a good way to do it? If not, what other mechanism would be more natural? I'm passing the same config, context, cache parameters into every method. Would it be better to use a single "context" parameter instead? Would it be better to use global variables instead? Finally, are there existing libraries you'd recommend to make this kind of simple "script-running container" easier to write?

    Read the article

  • C++ Serial Port Question

    - by Pfeffer
    Problem: I have a hand held device that scans those graphic color barcodes on all packaging. There is a track device that I can use that will slide the device automatically. This track device functions by taking ascii code through a serial port. I need to get this thing to work in FileMaker on a Mac. So no terminal programs, etc... What I've got so far: I bought a Keyspan USB/Serial adapter. Using a program called ZTerm I was successful in sending commands to the device. Example: "C,7^M^J" I was also able to do the same thing in Terminal using this command: screen /dev/tty.KeySerial1 57600 and then type in the same command above(but when I typed in I just hit Control-M and Control-J for the carriage return and line feed) Now I'm writing a plug-in for FileMaker(in C++ of course). I want to get what I did above happen in C++ so when I install that plug-in in FileMaker I can just call one of those functions and have the whole process take place right there. I'm able to connect to the device, but I can't talk to it. It is not responding to anything. I've tried connecting to the device(successfully) using these: FILE *comport; if ((comport = fopen("/dev/tty.KeySerial1", "w")) == NULL){...} and int fd; fd = open("/dev/tty.KeySerial1", O_RDWR | O_NOCTTY | O_NDELAY); This is what I've tried so far in way of talking to the device: fputs ("C,7^M^J",comport); or fprintf(comport,"C,7^M^J"); or char buffer[] = { 'C' , ',' , '7' , '^' , 'M' , '^' , 'J' }; fwrite (buffer , 1 , sizeof(buffer) , comport ); or fwrite('C,7^M^J', 1, 1, comport); Questions: When I connected to the device from Terminal and using ZTerm, I was able to set my baud rate of 57600. I think that may be why it isn't responding here. But I don't know how to do it here.... Does any one know how to do that? I tried this, but it didn't work: comport->BaudRate = 57600; There are a lot of class solutions out there but they all call these include files like termios.h and stdio.h. I don't have these and, for whatever reason, I can't find them to download. I've downloaded a few examples but there are like 20 files in them and they're all calling other files I can't find(like the ones listed above). Do I need to find these and if so where? I just don't know enough about C++ Is there a website where I can download libraries?? Another solution might be to put those terminal commands in C++. Is there a way to do that? So this has been driving me crazy. I'm not a C++ guy, I only know basic programming concepts. Is anyone out there a C++ expert? I ideally I'd like this to just work using functions I already have, like those fwrite, fputs stuff. Thanks!

    Read the article

  • Perl kill(0, $pid) in Windows always returning 1

    - by banshee_walk_sly
    I'm trying to make a Perl script that will run a set of other programs in Windows. I need to be able to capture the stdout, stderr, and exit code of the process, and I need to be able to see if a process exceeds it's allotted execution time. Right now, the pertinent part of my code looks like: ... $pid = open3($wtr, $stdout, $stderr, $command); if($time < 0){ waitpid($pid, 0); $return = $? >> 8; $death_sig = $? & 127; $core_dump = $? & 128; } else{ # Do timeout stuff, currently not working as planned print "pid: $pid\n"; my $elapsed = 0; #THIS LOOP ONLY TERMINATES WHEN $time > $elapsed ...? while(kill 0, $pid and $time > $elapsed){ Time::HiRes::usleep(1000); # sleep for milliseconds $elapsed += 1; $return = $? >> 8; $death_sig = $? & 127; $core_dump = $? & 128; } if($elapsed >= $time){ $status = "FAIL"; print $log "TIME LIMIT EXCEEDED\n"; } } #these lines are needed to grab the stdout and stderr in arrays so # I may reuse them in multiple logs if(fileno $stdout){ @stdout = <$stdout>; } if(fileno $stderr){ @stderr = <$stderr>; } ... Everything is working correctly if $time = -1 (no timeout is needed), but the system thinks that kill 0, $pid is always 1. This makes my loop run for the entirety of the time allowed. Some extra details just for clarity: This is being run on Windows. I know my process does terminate because I have get all the expected output. Perl version: This is perl, v5.10.1 built for MSWin32-x86-multi-thread (with 2 registered patches, see perl -V for more detail) Copyright 1987-2009, Larry Wall Binary build 1007 [291969] provided by ActiveState http://www.ActiveState.com Built Jan 26 2010 23:15:11 I appreciate your help :D For that future person who may have a similar issue I got the code to work, here is the modified code sections: $pid = open3($wtr, $stdout, $stderr, $command); close($wtr); if($time < 0){ waitpid($pid, 0); } else{ print "pid: $pid\n"; my $elapsed = 0; while(waitpid($pid, WNOHANG) <= 0 and $time > $elapsed){ Time::HiRes::usleep(1000); # sleep for milliseconds $elapsed += 1; } if($elapsed >= $time){ $status = "FAIL"; print $log "TIME LIMIT EXCEEDED\n"; } } $return = $? >> 8; $death_sig = $? & 127; $core_dump = $? & 128; if(fileno $stdout){ @stdout = <$stdout>; } if(fileno $stderr){ @stderr = <$stderr>; } close($stdout); close($stderr);

    Read the article

  • How to determine if CNF formula is satisfiable in Scheme?

    - by JJBIRAN
    Program a SCHEME function sat that takes one argument, a CNF formula represented as above. If we had evaluated (define cnf '((a (not b) c) (a (not b) (not d)) (b d))) then evaluating (sat cnf) would return #t, whereas (sat '((a) (not a))) would return (). You should have following two functions to work: (define comp (lambda (lit) ; This function takes a literal as argument and returns the complement literal as the returning value. Examples: (comp 'a) = (not a), and (comp '(not b)) = b. (define consistent (lambda (lit path) This function takes a literal and a list of literals as arguments, and returns #t whenever the complement of the first argument is not a member of the list represented by the 2nd argument; () otherwise. . Now for the sat function. The real searching involves the list of clauses (the CNF formula) and the path that has currently been developed. The sat function should merely invoke the real "workhorse" function, which will have 2 arguments, the current path and the clause list. In the initial call, the current path is of course empty. Hints on sat. (Ignore these at your own risk!) (define sat (lambda (clauselist) ; invoke satpath (define satpath (lambda (path clauselist) ; just returns #t or () ; base cases: ; if we're out of clauses, what then? ; if there are no literals to choose in the 1st clause, what then? ; ; then in general: ; if the 1st literal in the 1st clause is consistent with the ; current path, and if << returns #t, ; then return #t. ; ; if the 1st literal didn't work, then search << ; the CNF formula in which the 1st clause doesn't have that literal Don't make this too hard. My program is a few functions averaging about 2-8 lines each. SCHEME is consise and elegant! The following expressions may help you to test your programs. All but cnf4 are satisfiable. By including them along with your function definitions, the functions themselves are automatically tested and results displayed when the file is loaded. (define cnf1 '((a b c) (c d) (e)) ) (define cnf2 '((a c) (c))) (define cnf3 '((d e) (a))) (define cnf4 '( (a b) (a (not b)) ((not a) b) ((not a) (not b)) ) ) (define cnf5 '((d a) (d b c) ((not a) (not d)) (e (not d)) ((not b)) ((not d) (not e)))) (define cnf6 '((d a) (d b c) ((not a) (not d) (not c)) (e (not c)) ((not b)) ((not d) (not e)))) (write-string "(sat cnf1) ") (write (sat cnf1)) (newline) (write-string "(sat cnf2) ") (write (sat cnf2)) (newline) (write-string "(sat cnf3) ") (write (sat cnf3)) (newline) (write-string "(sat cnf4) ") (write (sat cnf4)) (newline) (write-string "(sat cnf5) ") (write (sat cnf5)) (newline)

    Read the article

  • What needs updating when moving a bootable Windows 7 (or Vista) partition?

    - by SuperTempel
    When I move a bootable NTFS partition with Windows on it to a different block offset, what needs updating to make it bootable again? In particular, here's what I tried: I have a disk with several partitions, one of which is the NTFS partition with Windows on it, and the disk uses the plain old MBR block 0 for the partitions layout (no more than 4 partitions). Now I format and partition a new, larger, disk. There I make room for the NTFS partition and copy the contents from the old disk's NTFS Windows partition into. And I make the partition "active". However, when I try to boot from this disk, I get a "read error" message immediately and the booting stops, the exact text is: A disk read error occurred Press Ctrl+Alt+Del to restart I verified that both disks have the same boot sector code in block 0. It seems to me that something else might need updating. I guess that somewhere there's a absolute block reference that I need to update, probably pointing to the next level loader or to the NT kernel. Update: I found this article going quite into the depth of what I want to know. However, it says to modify boot.ini, but I have Windows 7 installed here, where such things appear to have changed: No boot.ini but a folder called System Volume Information with GUID and other data in it that sounds related to my problem. Going to keep digging... Update 2: Thanks to the terrible looking but very informative website by starman, I was able to figure out the first step: The NTFS boot sector has a field for "hidden" sectors. This feld has to contain the sector number of the boot sector. This solves the "read error" message. Now, however, I get a "BOOTMGR is missing" error instead. Looks like there's another place where a block number has to be adjusted, but I can't find anything in the code listing about this. I do find a lot of help sites suggesting Windows tools for fixing this "BOOTMGR is missing" problem, but none seem to know what goes on behind the scenes. Kind of like suggesting to re-install Windows when there's a little problem with it. At least, those fixes seem to work, mostly involving the Bcdedit and Bootrec tools. Now, who knows what they do, especially the latter, in regards to a moved partition? Update 3: After lots of trial-and-error attempts, I believe now that the solution lies in the BCD-Template registry file, residing usually inside \Windows\System32\config. If I get this updated using the "bcdboot" command, Windows starts up from it. I am now in the middle of figuring out what information this registry contains relevant to the above question. Any pointers to the contents of this registry are welcome. Update 4: Turns out that while the BCD-Template file gets rewritten and has different binary contents than its predecessor, the values inside do not change. So it must be something else that bcdboot.exe writes. I had previously already checked if it changes the first 32 boot blocks of the partition, but they appear to remain unchanged. Parititon map doesn't get changed, either. So what is it that bcdboot modifies besides the BCD registry? Any tips on how I can trace that? Are there low level tools that show me what files a program writes to? Update 5: The answer seems to be: c:\Boot\BCD is also changed, and that appears to be the key file for the boot manager's process. I'll investigate this later... Update 6: It seems to be an important detail that I had originally two partitions created when I installed Windows 7: A small partition of 204800 sectors which appears to be a bootstrap partition, followed by the actual, large, partition containing the Windows system (drive C:). When I tried to transfer this installation to a new, larger, disk, I had kept the same two partitions intact on the new drive, although they ended up at a different offset. This alone led to the "BOOTMGR is missing" message. Since then, I've used bcdboot.exe only on the Windows partition, which added the \Boot\BCD file on that partition. That file (and folder) did originally only exist on the smaller partition. Hence, this problem may be more complicated in my case as one partition (the boot strapper) referred to another partition (the one containing the OS), whereas other people may only have to deal with one partition containing both, and maybe there the solution is simpler. Update 7: Found one more detail: The \Boot\BCD file records the MBR's serial number. If that number doesn't match, the system won't boot. Next I'll test if there's also an absolute block reference stored in there.

    Read the article

  • Remotely Schedule and Stream Recorded TV in Windows 7 Media Center

    - by DigitalGeekery
    Have you ever been away from home and suddenly realized you forgot to record your favorite program? Now Windows 7 Media Center, users can schedule recordings remotely from their phones or mobile devices with Remote Potato. How it Works Remote Potato installs server software on the host computer running Windows 7 Media Center. Once the software is installed, we’ll need to do some port forwarding on the router and setup an optional dynamic DNS address. When setup is completed, we will access the application through a web based interface. Silverlight is required for Streaming recorded TV, but scheduling recordings can be done through an HTML interface. Installing Remote Potato Download and install Remote Potato on the Media Center PC. (See download link below) If you plan to stream any Recorded TV, you’ll also want to install the streaming pack located on the same page. It isn’t required to stream all shows, only shows that require the AC3 audio codec. Click Yes to allow Remote Potato to add rules to the Windows Firewall for remote access. You’ll likely need to accept a few UAC prompts. When notified that the rules were added, click OK. Remote Potato will then prompt you to allow administrator privileges to reserve a URL for it’s web server. Click Yes. Remote Potato server will start. Click on the configuration button at the right to to reveal the settings tabs.   One the General tab, you’ll have the option to run Remote Potato on startup and minimized in the System Tray. If you’re running Media Center on a dedicated HTPC, you’ll probably want to enable both startup options. Forwarding Ports on Your Router You’ll need to forward a couple ports on your router. By default, these will be ports 9080 and 9081. In this example we’re using a Linksys WRT54GL router, however, the steps for port forwarding will vary from router to router. On the Linksys configuration page, click on the Applications & Gaming Tab, and then the Port Range Forward tab. Under Application, type in a name of your choosing. In both the Start and End boxes, type the port number 9080. Enter the local IP address of your Media Center computer in the IP address column. Click the check box under Enable. Repeat the process on the next line, but this time use port 9081. When finished, click the Save Settings button. Note: It’s highly recommended that you configure the home computer running Media Center & Remote Potato with a static IP address.   Find your IP Address You’ll need to find the IP address assigned to your router from your ISP. There are many ways to do this but a quick and easy way is to visit a site like checkip.dyndns.org (link available below) The current external IP address of your router will be displayed in the browser.   Dynamic DNS This is an optional step, but  it’s highly recommended. Many routers, such as the Linksys WRT54GL we are using, support Dynamic DNS (DDNS). What Dynamic DNS allows you to do is affiliate your home router’s external IP address to a domain name. Every time your home router is assigned a a new IP address by your ISP, the domain name is updated to point to your new IP address. Remote Potato’s user interface is accessed over the Internet is by connecting to your router’s IP address followed by a colon and the port number. (Ex: XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX:9080) Instead of constantly having to look up and remember an IP address, you can use DDNS along with a 3rd party provider like DynDNS.com, to sign up for a free domain name and configure it to be updated each time your router is assigned a new IP address. Go to the DynDNS.com website (See link at the end of the article) and sign up for a free Domain name. You’ll need to register and confirm by email.   Once you’ve signed in and selected your domain name click Activate Services. You’ll get a confirmation message that your domain name has been activated.    On the Linksys WRT54GL click on the Setup tab an then DDNS. Select DynDNS.org, or TZO.com if you prefer to use their service, from the drop down list.   With DynDNS, you’ll need to fill in your username and password you signed up with at the DynDNS website and the hostname you chose. Note: You can connect over your local network with the IP Address of the computer running Remote Potato followed by a colon and the port number. Ex: 192.168.1.2:9080 Logging in Remote Potato and Recording a Show Once you connect, you’ll see the start page. To view the TV listings, click on TV Guide. You’ll then see your guide listings. There are a few ways to navigate the listings. At the top left, you can click on any of the preset time buttons to jump to  the listings at that time of the day.  Click on the arrows to the right and left of the day and date at the top center to proceed to the previous or next day. Or, jump to a specific day with the date and date buttons at the top right.   To setup a recording, click on a program.   You can choose to record the individual show or the entire series by clicking on Record Show or Record Series.   Remote Potato on Mobile Devices Perhaps the coolest feature of Remote Potato is the ability to schedule recording from your phone or mobile device. Note: For any devices or computers without Silverlight, you will be prompted to view the HTML page. Select Browse Listings. Select your program to record. In the Program Details, select Record Show to record the single episode or Record Series to record all instances of the series. You will then see a red dot on the program listing to indicate that the show is scheduled for recording.   Streaming Recorded TV Click on Recorded TV from the home screen to access your previously recorded TV programs. Click on the selection you wish to stream. Click on Play. If you receive this error message, you’ll need to install the streaming pack for Remote Potato. This is found on the same download page as installation files. (See link below) The Begin from slider allows you to start playback from the start (by default) or a different time of the program by moving the slider. The Quality (bitrate) setting  allows you to choose the quality of the playback. We found the video quality on the Normal setting to be pretty lousy, and Low was just pointless. High was the best overall viewing experience as it provided smooth quality video playback. We experienced significant stuttering during playback using the Ultra High setting.   Click Start when you are ready to begin. When playback begins you’ll see a slider at the top right.   Move the slider left or right to increase or decrease the size of the video. There’s also a button to switch to full screen.   Media Center users who travel frequently or are always on the go will likely find Remote Potato to be a blessing. Since being released earlier this year, updates for Remote Potato have come fast and furious. The latest beta release includes support for streaming music and photos. If you like those nice network TV logos, check out our article on adding TV channel logos to Windows Media Center. Downloads and Links Download Remote Potato and Streaming Pack Find your IP address Sign Up for a Domain Name at DynDNS.com Similar Articles Productive Geek Tips Schedule Updates for Windows Media CenterUsing Netflix Watchnow in Windows Vista Media Center (Gmedia)Add a Sleep Timer to Windows 7 Media CenterStartup Customizations for Media Center in Windows 7Enable Media Streaming in Windows Home Server to Windows Media Player TouchFreeze Alternative in AutoHotkey The Icy Undertow Desktop Windows Home Server – Backup to LAN The Clear & Clean Desktop Use This Bookmarklet to Easily Get Albums Use AutoHotkey to Assign a Hotkey to a Specific Window Latest Software Reviews Tinyhacker Random Tips DVDFab 6 Revo Uninstaller Pro Registry Mechanic 9 for Windows PC Tools Internet Security Suite 2010 FoxClocks adds World Times in your Statusbar (Firefox) Have Fun Editing Photo Editing with Citrify Outlook Connector Upgrade Error Gadfly is a cool Twitter/Silverlight app Enable DreamScene in Windows 7 Microsoft’s “How Do I ?” Videos

    Read the article

  • WiX 3 Tutorial: Understanding main WXS and WXI file

    - by Mladen Prajdic
    In the previous post we’ve taken a look at the WiX solution/project structure and project properties. We’re still playing with our super SuperForm application and today we’ll take a look at the general parts of the main wxs file, SuperForm.wxs, and the wxi include file. For wxs file we’ll just go over the general description of what each part does in the code comments. The more detailed descriptions will be in future posts about features themselves. WXI include file Include files are exactly what their name implies. To include a wxi file into the wxs file you have to put the wxi at the beginning of each .wxs file you wish to include it in. If you’ve ever worked with C++ you can think of the include files as .h files. For example if you include SuperFormVariables.wxi into the SuperForm.wxs, the variables in the wxi won’t be seen in FilesFragment.wxs or RegistryFragment.wxs. You’d have to include it manually into those two wxs files too. For preprocessor variable $(var.VariableName) to be seen by every file in the project you have to include them in the WiX project properties->Build->“Define preprocessor variables” textbox. This is why I’ve chosen not to go this route because in multi developer teams not everyone has the same directory structure and having a single variable would mean each developer would have to checkout the wixproj file to edit the variable. This is pretty much unacceptable by my standards. This is why we’ve added a System Environment variable named SuperFormFilesDir as is shown in the previous Wix Tutorial post. Because the FilesFragment.wxs is autogenerated on every project build we don’t want to change it manually each time by adding the include wxi at the beginning of the file. This way we couldn’t recreate it in each pre-build event. <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?><Include> <!-- Versioning. These have to be changed for upgrades. It's not enough to just include newer files. --> <?define MajorVersion="1" ?> <?define MinorVersion="0" ?> <?define BuildVersion="0" ?> <!-- Revision is NOT used by WiX in the upgrade procedure --> <?define Revision="0" ?> <!-- Full version number to display --> <?define VersionNumber="$(var.MajorVersion).$(var.MinorVersion).$(var.BuildVersion).$(var.Revision)" ?> <!-- Upgrade code HAS to be the same for all updates. Once you've chosen it don't change it. --> <?define UpgradeCode="YOUR-GUID-HERE" ?> <!-- Path to the resources directory. resources don't really need to be included in the project structure but I like to include them for for clarity --> <?define ResourcesDir="$(var.ProjectDir)\Resources" ?> <!-- The name of your application exe file. This will be used to kill the process when updating and creating the desktop shortcut --> <?define ExeProcessName="SuperForm.MainApp.exe" ?></Include> For now there’s no way to tell WiX in Visual Studio to have a wxi include file available to the whole project, so you have to include it in each file separately. Only variables set in “Define preprocessor variables” or System Environment variables are accessible to the whole project for now. The main WXS file: SuperForm.wxs We’ll only take a look at the general structure of the main SuperForm.wxs and not its the details. We’ll cover the details in future posts. The code comments should provide plenty info about what each part does in general. Basically there are 5 major parts. The update part, the conditions and actions part, the UI install sequence, the directory structure and the features we want to include. <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><!-- Add xmlns:util namespace definition to be able to use stuff from WixUtilExtension dll--><Wix xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/wix/2006/wi" xmlns:util="http://schemas.microsoft.com/wix/UtilExtension"> <!-- This is how we include wxi files --> <?include $(sys.CURRENTDIR)Includes\SuperFormVariables.wxi ?> <!-- Id="*" is to enable upgrading. * means that the product ID will be autogenerated on each build. Name is made of localized product name and version number. --> <Product Id="*" Name="!(loc.ProductName) $(var.VersionNumber)" Language="!(loc.LANG)" Version="$(var.VersionNumber)" Manufacturer="!(loc.ManufacturerName)" UpgradeCode="$(var.UpgradeCode)"> <!-- Define the minimum supported installer version (3.0) and that the install should be done for the whole machine not just the current user --> <Package InstallerVersion="300" Compressed="yes" InstallScope="perMachine"/> <Media Id="1" Cabinet="media1.cab" EmbedCab="yes" /> <!-- Upgrade settings. This will be explained in more detail in a future post --> <Upgrade Id="$(var.UpgradeCode)"> <UpgradeVersion OnlyDetect="yes" Minimum="$(var.VersionNumber)" IncludeMinimum="no" Property="NEWER_VERSION_FOUND" /> <UpgradeVersion Minimum="0.0.0.0" IncludeMinimum="yes" Maximum="$(var.VersionNumber)" IncludeMaximum="no" Property="OLDER_VERSION_FOUND" /> </Upgrade> <!-- Reference the global NETFRAMEWORK35 property to check if it exists --> <PropertyRef Id="NETFRAMEWORK35"/> <!-- Startup conditions that checks if .Net Framework 3.5 is installed or if we're running the OS higher than Windows XP SP2. If not the installation is aborted. By doing the (Installed OR ...) property means that this condition will only be evaluated if the app is being installed and not on uninstall or changing --> <Condition Message="!(loc.DotNetFrameworkNeeded)"> <![CDATA[Installed OR NETFRAMEWORK35]]> </Condition> <Condition Message="!(loc.AppNotSupported)"> <![CDATA[Installed OR ((VersionNT >= 501 AND ServicePackLevel >= 2) OR (VersionNT >= 502))]]> </Condition> <!-- This custom action in the InstallExecuteSequence is needed to stop silent install (passing /qb to msiexec) from going around it. --> <CustomAction Id="NewerVersionFound" Error="!(loc.SuperFormNewerVersionInstalled)" /> <InstallExecuteSequence> <!-- Check for newer versions with FindRelatedProducts and execute the custom action after it --> <Custom Action="NewerVersionFound" After="FindRelatedProducts"> <![CDATA[NEWER_VERSION_FOUND]]> </Custom> <!-- Remove the previous versions of the product --> <RemoveExistingProducts After="InstallInitialize"/> <!-- WixCloseApplications is a built in custom action that uses util:CloseApplication below --> <Custom Action="WixCloseApplications" Before="InstallInitialize" /> </InstallExecuteSequence> <!-- This will ask the user to close the SuperForm app if it's running while upgrading --> <util:CloseApplication Id="CloseSuperForm" CloseMessage="no" Description="!(loc.MustCloseSuperForm)" ElevatedCloseMessage="no" RebootPrompt="no" Target="$(var.ExeProcessName)" /> <!-- Use the built in WixUI_InstallDir GUI --> <UIRef Id="WixUI_InstallDir" /> <UI> <!-- These dialog references are needed for CloseApplication above to work correctly --> <DialogRef Id="FilesInUse" /> <DialogRef Id="MsiRMFilesInUse" /> <!-- Here we'll add the GUI logic for installation and updating in a future post--> </UI> <!-- Set the icon to show next to the program name in Add/Remove programs --> <Icon Id="SuperFormIcon.ico" SourceFile="$(var.ResourcesDir)\Exclam.ico" /> <Property Id="ARPPRODUCTICON" Value="SuperFormIcon.ico" /> <!-- Installer UI custom pictures. File names are made up. Add path to your pics. –> <!-- <WixVariable Id="WixUIDialogBmp" Value="MyAppLogo.jpg" /> <WixVariable Id="WixUIBannerBmp" Value="installBanner.jpg" /> --> <!-- the default directory structure --> <Directory Id="TARGETDIR" Name="SourceDir"> <Directory Id="ProgramFilesFolder"> <Directory Id="INSTALLLOCATION" Name="!(loc.ProductName)" /> </Directory> </Directory> <!-- Set the default install location to the value of INSTALLLOCATION (usually c:\Program Files\YourProductName) --> <Property Id="WIXUI_INSTALLDIR" Value="INSTALLLOCATION" /> <!-- Set the components defined in our fragment files that will be used for our feature --> <Feature Id="SuperFormFeature" Title="!(loc.ProductName)" Level="1"> <ComponentGroupRef Id="SuperFormFiles" /> <ComponentRef Id="cmpVersionInRegistry" /> <ComponentRef Id="cmpIsThisUpdateInRegistry" /> </Feature> </Product></Wix> For more info on what certain attributes mean you should look into the WiX Documentation.   WiX 3 tutorial by Mladen Prajdic navigation WiX 3 Tutorial: Solution/Project structure and Dev resources WiX 3 Tutorial: Understanding main wxs and wxi file WiX 3 Tutorial: Generating file/directory fragments with Heat.exe

    Read the article

  • Upgrading from TFS 2010 RC to TFS 2010 RTM done

    - by Martin Hinshelwood
    Today is the big day, with the Launch of Visual Studio 2010 already done in Asia, and rolling around the world towards us, we are getting ready for the RTM (Released). We have had TFS 2010 in Production for nearly 6 months and have had only minimal problems. Update 12th April 2010  – Added Scott Hanselman’s tweet about the MSDN download release time. SSW was the first company in the world outside of Microsoft to deploy Visual Studio 2010 Team Foundation Server to production, not once, but twice. I am hoping to make it 3 in a row, but with all the hype around the new version, and with it being a production release and not just a go-live, I think there will be a lot of competition. Developers: MSDN will be updated with #vs2010 downloads and details at 10am PST *today*! @shanselman - Scott Hanselman Same as before, we need to Uninstall 2010 RC and install 2010 RTM. The installer will take care of all the complexity of actually upgrading any schema changes. If you are upgrading from TFS 2008 to TFS2010 you can follow our Rules To Better TFS 2010 Migration and read my post on our successes.   We run TFS 2010 in a Hyper-V virtual environment, so we have the advantage of running a snapshot as well as taking a DB backup. Done - Snapshot the hyper-v server Microsoft does not support taking a snapshot of a running server, for very good reason, and Brian Harry wrote a post after my last upgrade with the reason why you should never snapshot a running server. Done - Uninstall Visual Studio Team Explorer 2010 RC You will need to uninstall all of the Visual Studio 2010 RC client bits that you have on the server. Done - Uninstall TFS 2010 RC Done - Install TFS 2010 RTM Done - Configure TFS 2010 RTM Pick the Upgrade option and point it at your existing “tfs_Configuration” database to load all of the existing settings Done - Upgrade the SharePoint Extensions Upgrade Build Servers (Pending) Test the server The back out plan, and you should always have one, is to restore the snapshot. Upgrading to Team Foundation Server 2010 – Done The first thing you need to do is off the TFS server and then log into the Hyper-v server and create a snapshot. Figure: Make sure you turn the server off and delete all old snapshots before you take a new one I noticed that the snapshot that was taken before the Beta 2 to RC upgrade was still there. You should really delete old snapshots before you create a new one, but in this case the SysAdmin (who is currently tucked up in bed) asked me not to. I guess he is worried about a developer messing up his server Turn your server on and wait for it to boot in anticipation of all the nice shiny RTM’ness that is coming next. The upgrade procedure for TFS2010 is to uninstal the old version and install the new one. Figure: Remove Visual Studio 2010 Team Foundation Server RC from the system.   Figure: Most of the heavy lifting is done by the Uninstaller, but make sure you have removed any of the client bits first. Specifically Visual Studio 2010 or Team Explorer 2010.  Once the uninstall is complete, this took around 5 minutes for me, you can begin the install of the RTM. Running the 64 bit OS will allow the application to use more than 2GB RAM, which while not common may be of use in heavy load situations. Figure: It is always recommended to install the 64bit version of a server application where possible. I do not think it is likely, with SharePoint 2010 and Exchange 2010  and even Windows Server 2008 R2 being 64 bit only, I do not think there will be another release of a server app that is 32bit. You then need to choose what it is you want to install. This depends on how you are running TFS and on how many servers. In our case we run TFS and the Team Foundation Build Service (controller only) on out TFS server along with Analysis services and Reporting Services. But our SharePoint server lives elsewhere. Figure: This always confuses people, but in reality it makes sense. Don’t install what you do not need. Every extra you install has an impact of performance. If you are integrating with SharePoint you will need to run this install on every Front end server in your farm and don’t forget to upgrade your Build servers and proxy servers later. Figure: Selecting only Team Foundation Server (TFS) and Team Foundation Build Services (TFBS)   It is worth noting that if you have a lot of builds kicking off, and hence a lot of get operations against your TFS server, you can use a proxy server to cache the source control on another server in between your TFS server and your build servers. Figure: Installing Microsoft .NET Framework 4 takes the most time. Figure: Now run Windows Update, and SSW Diagnostic to make sure all your bits and bobs are up to date. Note: SSW Diagnostic will check your Power Tools, Add-on’s, Check in Policies and other bits as well. Configure Team Foundation Server 2010 – Done Now you can configure the server. If you have no key you will need to pick “Install a Trial Licence”, but it is only £500, or free with a MSDN subscription. Anyway, if you pick Trial you get 90 days to get your key. Figure: You can pick trial and add your key later using the TFS Server Admin. Here is where the real choices happen. We are doing an Upgrade from a previous version, so I will pick Upgrade the same as all you folks that are using the RC or TFS 2008. Figure: The upgrade wizard takes your existing 2010 or 2008 databases and upgraded them to the release.   Once you have entered your database server name you can click “List available databases” and it will show what it can upgrade. Figure: Select your database from the list and at this point, make sure you have a valid backup. At this point you have not made ANY changes to the databases. At this point the configuration wizard will load configuration from your existing database if you have one. If you are upgrading TFS 2008 refer to Rules To Better TFS 2010 Migration. Mostly during the wizard the default values will suffice, but depending on the configuration you want you can pick different options. Figure: Set the application tier account and Authentication method to use. We use NTLM to keep things simple as we host our TFS server externally for our remote developers.  Figure: Setting your TFS server URL’s to be the remote URL’s allows the reports to be accessed without using VPN. Very handy for those remote developers. Figure: Detected the existing Warehouse no problem. Figure: Again we love green ticks. It gives us a warm fuzzy feeling. Figure: The username for connecting to Reporting services should be a domain account (if you are on a domain that is). Figure: Setup the SharePoint integration to connect to your external SharePoint server. You can take the option to connect later.   You then need to run all of your readiness checks. These check can save your life! it will check all of the settings that you have entered as well as checking all the external services are configures and running properly. There are two reasons that TFS 2010 is so easy and painless to install where previous version were not. Microsoft changes the install to two steps, Install and configuration. The second reason is that they have pulled out all of the stops in making the install run all the checks necessary to make sure that once you start the install that it will complete. if you find any errors I recommend that you report them on http://connect.microsoft.com so everyone can benefit from your misery.   Figure: Now we have everything setup the configuration wizard can do its work.  Figure: Took a while on the “Web site” stage for some point, but zipped though after that.  Figure: last wee bit. TFS Needs to do a little tinkering with the data to complete the upgrade. Figure: All upgraded. I am not worried about the yellow triangle as SharePoint was being a little silly Exception Message: TF254021: The account name or password that you specified is not valid. (type TfsAdminException) Exception Stack Trace:    at Microsoft.TeamFoundation.Management.Controls.WizardCommon.AccountSelectionControl.TestLogon(String connectionString)    at System.ComponentModel.BackgroundWorker.WorkerThreadStart(Object argument) [Info   @16:10:16.307] Benign exception caught as part of verify: Exception Message: TF255329: The following site could not be accessed: http://projects.ssw.com.au/. The server that you specified did not return the expected response. Either you have not installed the Team Foundation Server Extensions for SharePoint Products on this server, or a firewall is blocking access to the specified site or the SharePoint Central Administration site. For more information, see the Microsoft Web site (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=161206). (type TeamFoundationServerException) Exception Stack Trace:    at Microsoft.TeamFoundation.Client.SharePoint.WssUtilities.VerifyTeamFoundationSharePointExtensions(ICredentials credentials, Uri url)    at Microsoft.TeamFoundation.Admin.VerifySharePointSitesUrl.Verify() Inner Exception Details: Exception Message: TF249064: The following Web service returned an response that is not valid: http://projects.ssw.com.au/_vti_bin/TeamFoundationIntegrationService.asmx. This Web service is used for the Team Foundation Server Extensions for SharePoint Products. Either the extensions are not installed, the request resulted in HTML being returned, or there is a problem with the URL. Verify that the following URL points to a valid SharePoint Web application and that the application is available: http://projects.ssw.com.au. If the URL is correct and the Web application is operating normally, verify that a firewall is not blocking access to the Web application. (type TeamFoundationServerInvalidResponseException) Exception Data Dictionary: ResponseStatusCode = InternalServerError I’ll look at SharePoint after, probably the SharePoint box just needs a restart or a kick If there is a problem with SharePoint it will come out in testing, But I will definatly be passing this on to Microsoft.   Upgrading the SharePoint connector to TFS 2010 You will need to upgrade the Extensions for SharePoint Products and Technologies on all of your SharePoint farm front end servers. To do this uninstall  the TFS 2010 RC from it in the same way as the server, and then install just the RTM Extensions. Figure: Only install the SharePoint Extensions on your SharePoint front end servers. TFS 2010 supports both SharePoint 2007 and SharePoint 2010.   Figure: When you configure SharePoint it uploads all of the solutions and templates. Figure: Everything is uploaded Successfully. Figure: TFS even remembered the settings from the previous installation, fantastic.   Upgrading the Team Foundation Build Servers to TFS 2010 Just like on the SharePoint servers you will need to upgrade the Build Server to the RTM. Just uninstall TFS 2010 RC and then install only the Team Foundation Build Services component. Unlike on the SharePoint server you will probably have some version of Visual Studio installed. You will need to remove this as well. (Coming Soon) Connecting Visual Studio 2010 / 2008 / 2005 and Eclipse to TFS2010 If you have developers still on Visual Studio 2005 or 2008 you will need do download the respective compatibility pack: Visual Studio Team System 2005 Service Pack 1 Forward Compatibility Update for Team Foundation Server 2010 Visual Studio Team System 2008 Service Pack 1 Forward Compatibility Update for Team Foundation Server 2010 If you are using Eclipse you can download the new Team Explorer Everywhere install for connecting to TFS. Get your developers to check that you have the latest version of your applications with SSW Diagnostic which will check for Service Packs and hot fixes to Visual Studio as well.   Technorati Tags: TFS,TFS2010,TFS 2010,Upgrade

    Read the article

  • Mauritius Software Craftsmanship Community

    There we go! I finally managed to push myself forward and pick up an old, actually too old, idea since I ever arrived here in Mauritius more than six years ago. I'm talking about a community for all kind of ICT connected people. In the past (back in Germany), I used to be involved in various community activities. For example, I was part of the Microsoft Community Leader/Influencer Program (CLIP) in Germany due to an FAQ on Visual FoxPro, actually Active FoxPro Pages (AFP) to be more precise. Then in 2003/2004 I addressed the responsible person of the dFPUG user group in Speyer in order to assist him in organising monthly user group meetings. Well, he handed over management completely, and attended our meetings regularly. Why did it take you so long? Well, I don't want to bother you with the details but short version is that I was too busy on either job (building up new companies) or private life (got married and we have two lovely children, eh 'monsters') or even both. But now is the time where I was starting to look for new fields given the fact that I gained some spare time. My businesses are up and running, the kids are in school, and I am finally in a position where I can commit myself again to community activities. And I love to do that! Why a new user group? Good question... And 'easy' to answer. Since back in 2007 I did my usual research, eh Google searches, to see whether there existing user groups in Mauritius and in which field of interest. And yes, there are! If I recall this correctly, then there are communities for PHP, Drupal, Python (just recently), Oracle, and Linux (which used to be even two). But... either they do not exist anymore, they are dormant, or there is only a low heart-beat, frankly speaking. And yes, I went to meetings of the Linux User Group Meta (Mauritius) back in 2010/2011 and just recently. I really like the setup and the way the LUGM is organised. It's just that I have a slightly different point of view on how a user group or community should organise itself and how to approach future members. Don't get me wrong, I'm not criticizing others doing a very good job, I'm only saying that I'd like to do it differently. The last meeting of the LUGM was awesome; read my feedback about it. Ok, so what's up with 'Mauritius Software Craftsmanship Community' or short: MSCC? As I've already written in my article on 'Communities - The importance of exchange and discussion' I think it is essential in a world of IT to stay 'connected' with a good number of other people in the same field. There is so much dynamic and every day's news that it is almost impossible to keep on track with all of them. The MSCC is going to provide a common platform to exchange experience and share knowledge between each other. You might be a newbie and want to know what to expect working as a software developer, or as a database administrator, or maybe as an IT systems administrator, or you're an experienced geek that loves to share your ideas or solutions that you implemented to solve a specific problem, or you're the business (or HR) guy that is looking for 'fresh' blood to enforce your existing team. Or... you're just interested and you'd like to communicate with like-minded people. Meetup of 26.06.2013 @ L'arabica: Of course there are laptops around. Free WiFi, power outlet, coffee, code and Linux in one go. The MSCC is technology-agnostic and spans an umbrella over any kind of technology. Simply because you can't ignore other technologies anymore in a connected IT world as we have. A front-end developer for iOS applications should have the chance to connect with a Python back-end coder and eventually with a DBA for MySQL or PostgreSQL and exchange their experience. Furthermore, I'm a huge fan of cross-platform development, and it is very pleasant to have pure Web developers - with all that HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript and JS libraries stuff - and passionate C# or Java coders at the same table. This diversity of knowledge can assist and boost your personal situation. And last but not least, there are projects and open positions 'flying' around... People might like to hear others opinion about an employer or get new impulses on how to tackle down an issue at their workspace, etc. This is about community. And that's how I see the MSCC in general - free of any limitations be it by programming language or technology. Having the chance to exchange experience and to discuss certain aspects of technology saves you time and money, and it's a pleasure to enjoy. Compared to dusty books and remote online resources. It's human! Organising meetups (meetings, get-together, gatherings - you name it!) As of writing this article, the MSCC is currently meeting every Wednesday for the weekly 'Code & Coffee' session at various locations (suggestions are welcome!) in Mauritius. This might change in the future eventually but especially at the beginning I think it is very important to create awareness in the Mauritian IT world. Yes, we are here! Come and join us! ;-) The MSCC's main online presence is located at Meetup.com because it allows me to handle the organisation of events and meeting appointments very easily, and any member can have a look who else is involved so that an exchange of contacts is given at any time. In combination with the other entities (G+ Communities, FB Pages or in Groups) I advertise and manage all future activities here: Mauritius Software Craftsmanship Community This is a community for those who care and are proud of what they do. For those developers, regardless how experienced they are, who want to improve and master their craft. This is a community for those who believe that being average is just not good enough. I know, there are not many 'craftsmen' yet but it's a start... Let's see how it looks like by the end of the year. There are free smartphone apps for Android and iOS from Meetup.com that allow you to keep track of meetings and to stay informed on latest updates. And last but not least, there is a Trello workspace to collect and share ideas and provide downloads of slides, etc. Trello is also available as free smartphone app. Sharing is caring! As mentioned, the #MSCC is present in various social media networks in order to cover as many people as possible here in Mauritius. Following is an overview of the current networks: Twitter - Latest updates and quickies Google+ - Community channel Facebook - Community Page LinkedIn - Community Group Trello - Collaboration workspace to share and develop ideas Hopefully, this covers the majority of computer-related people in Mauritius. Please spread the word about the #MSCC between your colleagues, your friends and other interested 'geeks'. Your future looks bright Running and participating in a user group or any kind of community usually provides quite a number of advantages for anyone. On the one side it is very joyful for me to organise appointments and get in touch with people that might be interested to present a little demo of their projects or their recent problems they had to tackle down, and on the other side there are lots of companies that have various support programs or sponsorships especially tailored for user groups. At the moment, I already have a couple of gimmicks that I would like to hand out in small contests or raffles during one of the upcoming meetings, and as said, companies provide all kind of goodies, books free of charge, or sometimes even licenses for communities. Meeting other software developers or IT guys also opens up your point of view on the local market and there might be interesting projects or job offers available, too. A community like the Mauritius Software Craftsmanship Community is great for freelancers, self-employed, students and of course employees. Meetings will be organised on a regular basis, and I'm open to all kind of suggestions from you. Please leave a comment here in blog or join the conversations in the above mentioned social networks. Let's get this community up and running, my fellow Mauritians! Recent updates The MSCC is now officially participating in the O'Reilly UK User Group programm and we are allowed to request review or recension copies of recent titles. Additionally, we have a discount code for any books or ebooks that you might like to order on shop.oreilly.com. More applications for user group sponsorship programms are pending and I'm looking forward to a couple of announcement very soon. And... we need some kind of 'corporate identity' - Over at the MSCC website there is a call for action (or better said a contest with prizes) to create a unique design for the MSCC. This would include a decent colour palette, a logo, graphical banners for Meetup, Google+, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc. and of course badges for our craftsmen to add to their personal blogs and websites. Please spread the word and contribute. Thanks!

    Read the article

  • CodePlex Daily Summary for Monday, March 01, 2010

    CodePlex Daily Summary for Monday, March 01, 2010New ProjectsActiveWorlds World Server Admin PowerShell SnapIn: The purpose of this PowerShell SnapIn is to provide a set of tools to administer the world server from PowerShell. It leverages the ActiveWorlds S...AWS SimpleDB Browser: A basic GUI browser tool for inspection and querying of a SimpleDB.Desktop Dimmer: A simple application for dimming the desktop around windows, videos, or other media.Disk Defuzzer: Compare chaos of files and folders with customizable SQL queries. This little application scans files in any two folders, generates data in an A...Dynamic Configuration: Dynamic configuration is a (very) small library to provide an API compatible replacement for the System.Configuration.ConfigurationManager class so...Expression Encoder 3 Visual Basic Samples: Visual Basic Sample code that calls the Expression Encoder 3 object model.Extended Character Keyboard: An lightweight onscreen keyboard that allows you to enter special characters like "á" and "û". Also supports adding of 7 custom buttons.FileHasher: This project provides a simple tool for generating and verifying file hashes. I created this to help the QA team I work with. The project is all C#...Fluent Assertions: Fluent interface for writing more natural specifying assertions with more clarity than the traditional assertion syntax such as offered by MSTest, ...Foursquare BlogEngine Widget: A Basic Widget for BlogEngine which displays the last foursquare Check-insGraffiti CMS Events Plugin: Plugin for Graffiti CMS that allows creating Event posts and rendering an Event CalendarHeadCounter: HeadCounter is a raid attendance and loot tracking application for World of Warcraft.HRM Core (QL Nhan Su): This is software about Human Resource Management in Viet Nam ------------ Đây là phần mềm Quản lý nhân sự tiền lương ở Việt Nam (Nghiệp vụ ở Việt Nam)IronPython Silverlight Sharpdevelop Template: This IronPython Silverlight SharpDevelop Template makes it easier for you to make Silverlight applications in IronPython with Sharpdevelop.kingbox: my test code for study vs 2005link_attraente: Projeto Conclusão de CursoORMSharp.Net: ORMSharp.Net https://code.google.com/p/ormsharp/ http://www.sqlite.org/ http://sqlite.phxsoftware.com/ http://sourceforge.net/projects/sqlite-dotnet2/Orz framework: Orz framework is more like a helpful library, if you are develop with DotNet framework 3.0, it will be very useful to you. Orz framework encapsul...OTManager: OTManagerSharePoint URL Ping Tool: The Url Ping Tool is a farm feature in SharePoint that provide additional performance and tracing information that can be used to troubleshoot issu...SunShine: SunShine ProjectToolSuite.ValidationExpression: assembly with regular expression for the RegularExpressionValidator controlTwitual Studio: A Visual Studio 2010 based Twitter client. Now you have one less reason for pressing Alt+Tab. Plus you still look like you're working!Velocity Hosting Tool: A program designed to aid a HT Velocity host in hosting and recording tournaments.Watermarker: Adds watermark on pictures to prevent copy. Icon taken from PICOL. Can work with packs of images.Zack's Fiasco - ASP.NET Script Includer: Script includer to * include scripts (JS or CSS) once and only once. * include the correct format by differentiating between release and build. Th...New ReleasesAll-In-One Code Framework: All-In-One Code Framework 2010-02-28: Improved and Newly Added Examples:For an up-to-date list, please refer to All-In-One Code Framework Sample Catalog. Samples for ASP.NET Name ...All-In-One Code Framework (简体中文): All-In-One Code Framework 2010-02-28: Improved and Newly Added Examples:For an up-to-date list, please refer to All-In-One Code Framework Sample Catalog. Latest Download Link: http://c...AWS SimpleDB Browser: SimpleDbBrowser.zip Initial Release: The initial release of the SimpleDbBrowser. Unzip the file in the archive and place them all in a folder, then run the .exe. No installer is used...BattLineSvc: V1: First release of BattLineSvcCC.Votd Screen Saver: CC.Votd 1.0.10.301: More bug fixes and minor enhancements. Note: Only download the (Screen Saver) version if you plan to manually install. For most users the (Install...Dynamic Configuration: DynamicConfiguration Release 1: Dynamic Configuration DLL release.eIDPT - Cartão de Cidadão .NET Wrapper: EIDPT VB6 Demo Program: Cartão de Cidadão Middleware Application installation (v1.21 or 1.22) is required for proper use of the eID Lib.eIDPT - Cartão de Cidadão .NET Wrapper: eIDPT VB6 Demo Program Source: Cartão de Cidadão Middleware Application installation (v1.21 or 1.22) is required for proper use of the eID Lib.ESPEHA: Espeha 10: 1. Help available on F1 and via context menu '?' 2. Width of categiries view is preserved througb app starts 3. Drag'nd'drop for tasks view allows ...Extended Character Keyboard: OnscreenSCK Beta V1.0: OnscreenSCK Beta Version 1.0Extended Character Keyboard: OnscreenSCK Beta V1.0 Source: OnscreenSCK Beta Version 1.0 Source CodeFileHasher: Console Version v 0.5: This release provides a very basic and minimal command-line utility for generating and validating file hashes. The supported command-line paramete...Furcadia Framework for Third Party Programs: 0.2.3 Epic Wrench: Warning: Untested on Linux.FurcadiaLib\Net\NetProxy.cs: Fixed a bug I made before update. FurcadiaFramework_Example\Demo\IDemo.cs: Ignore me. F...Graffiti CMS Events Plugin: Version 1.0: Initial Release of Events PluginHeadCounter: HeadCounter 1.2.3 'Razorgore': Added "Raider Post" feature for posting details of a particular raider. Added Default Period option to allow selection of Short, Long or Lifetime...Home Access Plus+: v3.0.0.0: Version 3.0.0.0 Release Change Log: Reconfiguration of the web.config Ability to add additional links to homepage via web.config Ability to add...Home Access Plus+: v3.0.1.0: Version 3.0.1.0 Release Change Log: Fixed problem with moving File Changes: ~/bin/chs extranet.dll ~/bin/chs extranet.pdbHome Access Plus+: v3.0.2.0: Version 3.0.2.0 Release Change Log: Fixed problem with stylesheet File Changes: ~/chs.masterHRM Core (QL Nhan Su): HRMCore_src: Source of HRMCoreIRC4N00bz: IRC4N00bz v1.0.0.2: There wasn't much updated this weekend. I updated 2 'raw' events. One is all raw messages and the other is events that arn't caught in the dll. ...IronPython Silverlight Sharpdevelop Template: Version 1 Template: Just unzip it into the Sharpdevelop python templates folder For example: C:\Program Files\SharpDevelop\3.0\AddIns\AddIns\BackendBindings\PythonBi...MDownloader: MDownloader-0.15.4.56156: Fixed handling exceptions; previous handling could lead to freezing items state; Fixed validating uploading.com links;OTManager: Activity Log: 2010.02.28 >> Thread Reopened 2010.02.28 >> Re-organized WBD Features/WMBD Features 2010.02.28 >> Project status is active againPicasa Downloader: PicasaDownloader (41175): NOTE: The previous release was accidently the same as the one before that (forgot to rebuild the installer). Changelog: Fixed workitem 10296 (Sav...PicNet Html Table Filter: Version 2.0: Testing w/ JQuery 1.3.2Program Scheduler: Program Scheduler 1.1.4: Release Note: *Bug fix : If the log window is docked and user moves the log window , main window will move too. *Added menu to log window to clear...QueryToGrid Module for DotNetNuke®: QueryToGrid Module version 01.00.00: This is the initial release of this module. Remember... This is just a proof of concept to add AJAX functionality to your DotNetNuke modules.Rainweaver Framework: February 2010 Release: Code drop including an Alpha release of the Entity System. See more information in the Documentation page.RapidWebDev - .NET Enterprise Software Development Infrastructure: ProductManagement Quick Sample 0.1: This is a sample product management application to demonstrate how to develop enterprise software in RapidWebDev. The glossary of the system are ro...Team Foundation Server Revision Labeller for CruiseControl.NET: TFS Labeller for CruiseControl.NET - TFS 2008: ReleaseFirst release of the Team Foundation Server Labeller for CruiseControl.NET. This specific version is bound to TFS 2008 DLLs.ToolSuite.ValidationExpression: 01.00.01.000: first release of the time validation class; the assembly file is ready to use, the documentation ist not complete;VCC: Latest build, v2.1.30228.0: Automatic drop of latest buildWatchersNET CKEditor™ Provider for DotNetNuke: CKEditor Provider 1.7.00: Whats New FileBrowser: Non Admin Users will only see a User Sub folder (..\Portals\0\userfiles\UserName) CKFinder: Non Admin Users will only see ...Watermarker: Watermarker: first public version. can build watermark only in left top corner on one image at once.While You Were Away - WPF Screensaver: Initial Release: This is the code released when the article went live.Most Popular ProjectsMetaSharpRawrWBFS ManagerAJAX Control ToolkitMicrosoft SQL Server Product Samples: DatabaseSilverlight ToolkitWindows Presentation Foundation (WPF)Microsoft SQL Server Community & SamplesASP.NETDotNetNuke® Community EditionMost Active ProjectsRawrBlogEngine.NETMapWindow GISCommon Context Adapterspatterns & practices – Enterprise LibrarySharpMap - Geospatial Application Framework for the CLRSLARToolkit - Silverlight Augmented Reality ToolkitDiffPlex - a .NET Diff GeneratorRapid Entity Framework. (ORM). CTP 2jQuery Library for SharePoint Web Services

    Read the article

  • Visual Studio 2013 Static Code Analysis in depth: What? When and How?

    - by Hosam Kamel
    In this post I'll illustrate in details the following points What is static code analysis? When to use? Supported platforms Supported Visual Studio versions How to use Run Code Analysis Manually Run Code Analysis Automatically Run Code Analysis while check-in source code to TFS version control (TFSVC) Run Code Analysis as part of Team Build Understand the Code Analysis results & learn how to fix them Create your custom rule set Q & A References What is static Rule analysis? Static Code Analysis feature of Visual Studio performs static code analysis on code to help developers identify potential design, globalization, interoperability, performance, security, and a lot of other categories of potential problems according to Microsoft's rules that mainly targets best practices in writing code, and there is a large set of those rules included with Visual Studio grouped into different categorized targeting specific coding issues like security, design, Interoperability, globalizations and others. Static here means analyzing the source code without executing it and this type of analysis can be performed through automated tools (like Visual Studio 2013 Code Analysis Tool) or manually through Code Review which already supported in Visual Studio 2012 and 2013 (check Using Code Review to Improve Quality video on Channel9) There is also Dynamic analysis which performed on executing programs using software testing techniques such as Code Coverage for example. When to use? Running Code analysis tool at regular intervals during your development process can enhance the quality of your software, examines your code for a set of common defects and violations is always a good programming practice. Adding that Code analysis can also find defects in your code that are difficult to discover through testing allowing you to achieve first level quality gate for you application during development phase before you release it to the testing team. Supported platforms .NET Framework, native (C and C++) Database applications. Support Visual Studio versions All version of Visual Studio starting Visual Studio 2013 (except Visual Studio Test Professional) check Feature comparisons Create and modify a custom rule set required Visual Studio Premium or Ultimate. How to use? Code Analysis can be run manually at any time from within the Visual Studio IDE, or even setup to automatically run as part of a Team Build or check-in policy for Team Foundation Server. Run Code Analysis Manually To run code analysis manually on a project, on the Analyze menu, click Run Code Analysis on your project or simply right click on the project name on the Solution Explorer choose Run Code Analysis from the context menu Run Code Analysis Automatically To run code analysis each time that you build a project, you select Enable Code Analysis on Build on the project's Property Page Run Code Analysis while check-in source code to TFS version control (TFSVC) Team Foundation Version Control (TFVC) provides a way for organizations to enforce practices that lead to better code and more efficient group development through Check-in policies which are rules that are set at the team project level and enforced on developer computers before code is allowed to be checked in. (This is available only if you're using Team Foundation Server) Require permissions on Team Foundation Server: you must have the Edit project-level information permission set to Allow typically your account must be part of Project Administrators, Project Collection Administrators, for more information about Team Foundation permissions check http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms252587(v=vs.120).aspx In Team Explorer, right-click the team project name, point to Team Project Settings, and then click Source Control. In the Source Control dialog box, select the Check-in Policy tab. Click Add to create a new check-in policy. Double-click the existing Code Analysis item in the Policy Type list to change the policy. Check or Uncheck the policy option based on the configurations you need to perform as illustrated below: Enforce check-in to only contain files that are part of current solution: code analysis can run only on files specified in solution and project configuration files. This policy guarantees that all code that is part of a solution is analyzed. Enforce C/C++ Code Analysis (/analyze): Requires that all C or C++ projects be built with the /analyze compiler option to run code analysis before they can be checked in. Enforce Code Analysis for Managed Code: Requires that all managed projects run code analysis and build before they can be checked in. Check Code analysis rule set reference on MSDN What is Rule Set? Rule Set is a group of code analysis rules like the example below where Microsoft.Design is the rule set name where "Do not declare static members on generic types" is the code analysis rule Once you configured the Analysis rule the policy will be enabled for all the team member in this project whenever a team member check-in any source code to the TFSVC the policy section will highlight the Code Analysis policy as below TFS is a very extensible platform so you can simply implement your own custom Code Analysis Check-in policy, check this link for more details http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd492668.aspx but you have to be aware also about compatibility between different TFS versions check http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb907157.aspx Run Code Analysis as part of Team Build With Team Foundation Build (TFBuild), you can create and manage build processes that automatically compile and test your applications, and perform other important functions. Code Analysis can be enabled in the Build Definition file by selecting the correct value for the build process parameter "Perform Code Analysis" Once configure, Kick-off your build definition to queue a new build, Code Analysis will run as part of build workflow and you will be able to see code analysis warning as part of build report Understand the Code Analysis results & learn how to fix them Now after you went through Code Analysis configurations and the different ways of running it, we will go through the Code Analysis result how to understand them and how to resolve them. Code Analysis window in Visual Studio will show all the analysis results based on the rule sets you configured in the project file properties, let's dig deep into what each result item contains: 1 Check ID The unique identifier for the rule. CheckId and Category are used for in-source suppression of a warning.       2 Title The title of warning message       3 Description A description of the problem or suggested fix 4 File Name File name and the line of code number which violate the code analysis rule set 5 Category The code analysis category for this error 6 Warning /Error Depend on how you configure it in the rule set the default is Warning level 7 Action Copy: copy the warning information to the clipboard Create Work Item: If you're connected to Team Foundation Server you can create a work item most probably you may create a Task or Bug and assign it for a developer to fix certain code analysis warning Suppress Message: There are times when you might decide not to fix a code analysis warning. You might decide that resolving the warning requires too much recoding in relation to the probability that the issue will arise in any real-world implementation of your code. Or you might believe that the analysis that is used in the warning is inappropriate for the particular context. You can suppress individual warnings so that they no longer appear in the Code Analysis window. Two options available: In Source inserts a SuppressMessage attribute in the source file above the method that generated the warning. This makes the suppression more discoverable. In Suppression File adds a SuppressMessage attribute to the GlobalSuppressions.cs file of the project. This can make the management of suppressions easier. Note that the SuppressMessage attribute added to GlobalSuppression.cs also targets the method that generated the warning. It does not suppress the warning globally.       Visual Studio makes it very easy to fix Code analysis warning, all you have to do is clicking on the Check Id hyperlink if you are not aware how to fix the warring and you'll be directed to MSDN online or local copy based on the configuration you did while installing Visual Studio and you will find all the information about the warring including how to fix it. Create a Custom Code Analysis Rule Set The Microsoft standard rule sets provide groups of rules that are organized by function and depth. For example, the Microsoft Basic Design Guidelines Rules and the Microsoft Extended Design Guidelines Rules contain rules that focus on usability and maintainability issues, with added emphasis on naming rules in the Extended rule set, you can create and modify a custom rule set to meet specific project needs associated with code analysis. To create a custom rule set, you open one or more standard rule sets in the rule set editor. Create and modify a custom rule set required Visual Studio Premium or Ultimate. You can check How to: Create a Custom Rule Set on MSDN for more details http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd264974.aspx Q & A Visual Studio static code analysis vs. FxCop vs. StyleCpp http://www.excella.com/blog/stylecop-vs-fxcop-difference-between-code-analysis-tools/ Code Analysis for SharePoint Apps and SPDisposeCheck? This post lists some of the rule set you can run specifically for SharePoint applications and how to integrate SPDisposeCheck as well. Code Analysis for SQL Server Database Projects? This post illustrate how to run static code analysis on T-SQL through SSDT ReSharper 8 vs. Visual Studio 2013? This document lists some of the features that are provided by ReSharper 8 but are missing or not as fully implemented in Visual Studio 2013. References A Few Billion Lines of Code Later: Using Static Analysis to Find Bugs in the Real World http://cacm.acm.org/magazines/2010/2/69354-a-few-billion-lines-of-code-later/fulltext What is New in Code Analysis for Visual Studio 2013 http://blogs.msdn.com/b/visualstudioalm/archive/2013/07/03/what-is-new-in-code-analysis-for-visual-studio-2013.aspx Analyze the code quality of Windows Store apps using Visual Studio static code analysis http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/apps/hh441471.aspx [Hands-on-lab] Using Code Analysis with Visual Studio 2012 to Improve Code Quality http://download.microsoft.com/download/A/9/2/A9253B14-5F23-4BC8-9C7E-F5199DB5F831/Using%20Code%20Analysis%20with%20Visual%20Studio%202012%20to%20Improve%20Code%20Quality.docx Originally posted at "Hosam Kamel| Developer & Platform Evangelist" http://blogs.msdn.com/hkamel

    Read the article

  • Turn Photos and Home Videos into Movies with Windows Live Movie Maker

    - by DigitalGeekery
    Are you looking for an easy way to take your digital photos and videos and turn them into a movie or slideshow? Today we’ll take a detailed look at how to do use Windows Live Movie Maker. Installation Windows Live Movie Maker comes bundled as part of the Windows Live Essentials suite (link below). However, you don’t have to install any of the programs you may not want. Take notice of the You’re almost done screen. Before clicking Continue, be sure to uncheck the boxes to set your search provider and homepage. Adding Pictures and Videos Open Windows Live Movie Maker. You can add videos or photos by simply dragging and dropping them onto the storyboard area. You can also click on the storyboard area or on the Add videos and photos button on the Home tab to browse for videos and photos. Windows Live Movie Maker supports most video, image, and audio file types. Select your files and add click Open to add them to Windows Live Movie Maker. By default WLMM doesn’t allow you to add files from network locations…so check out our article on how to add network support to Windows Live MovieMaker if the files you want to add are on a network drive. Layout All of your added clips will appear in the storyboard area on the right, while the currently selected clip will appear in the preview window on the left. You can adjust the size of the two areas by clicking and dragging the dividing line in the middle.    Make the clips on the storyboard bigger or smaller by clicking on the thumbnail size icon. The slider at the lower right adjusts the zoom time scale.   Previewing your Movie At any time, you can playback your movie and preview how it will look in the Preview window by clicking the space bar, or by pushing the play button under the preview window. You can also manually move the preview bar slider across the storyboard to view the clips as the video progresses. Adjusting Clips on the Storyboard You can click and drag clips on the storyboard to change the order in which the photos and videos appear.   Adding Music Nothing brings a movie to life quite like music. Selecting Add music will add your music to the beginning of the movie. Select Add music at the current point to include it in the movie to the current location of your preview bar slider, then browse for your music clip. WLMM supports many common audio files such as WAV, MP3, M4A, WMA, AIFF, and ASF. The music clip will appear above the video / photos clips on the storyboard.   You can change the location of music clips by clicking and dragging them to a different location on the storyboard. Add Titles, Captions, and Credits To add a Title screen to your movie, click the Title button on the Home tab. Type your title directly into the text box on the preview screen. The title will be placed at the location of the preview slider on the storyboard. However, you can change the location by clicking and dragging title to other areas of the storyboard. On the Format tab, there are a handful of text settings. You can change the font, color, size, alignment,  and transparency. The Adjust group allows you to change the background color, edit the text, and set the length of time the Title will appear in the movie.   The Effects group on the Format tab allows you to select an effect for your title screen. By hovering your cursor over each option, you will get a live preview of how each effect will appear in the preview window. Click to apply any of the effects. For captions, select where you want your caption to appear with the preview slider on the storyboard, then click the captions button on the Home tab. Just like the title, you type your caption directly into the text box on the preview screen, and you can make any adjustments by using the Font and Paragraph, Adjust, and Effects groups above. Credits are done the same as titles and captions, except they are automatically placed at the end of the movie.   Transitions Go to the Animation tab on the ribbon to apply transitions. Select a clip from the storyboard and hover over one of the transition to see it in the preview window. Click on the transition to apply it to the clip. You can apply transitions separately to clips or hold down Ctrl button while clicking to select multiple clips to which to apply the same transition. Pan and zoom effects are also located on the Animations tab, but can be applied to photos only. Like transition, you can apply them individually to a clip or hold down Ctrl button while clicking to select multiple clips to which to apply the same pan and zoom effect. Once applied, you can adjust the duration of the transitions and pan and zoom effects. You can also click the dropdown for additional transitions or effects. Visual Effects Similar to Pan and Zoom and Transitions, you can apply a variety of Visual Effects to individual or multiple clips. Editing Video and Music Note: This does not actually edit the original video you imported into your Windows Live Movie Maker project, only how it appears in your WLMM project. There are some very basic editing tools located on the Home tab. The Rotate left and Rotate right button will adjust any clip that may be oriented incorrectly. The Fit to music button will automatically adjust the duration of the photos (if you have any in your project) to fit the length of the music in your movie. Audio mix allows you to change the volume level   You can also do some slightly more advanced editing from the Edit tab. Select the video clip on the storyboard and click the Trim tool to edit or remove portions of a video clip. Next, click and drag the sliders in the preview windows to select the are you wish to keep. For example, the area outside the sliders is the area trimmed from the movie. The area inside is the section that is kept in the movie. You can also adjust the Start and End points manually on the ribbon.   When you are finished, click Save trim. You can also split your video clips. Move the preview slider to the location in the video clip where you’d like to split it, and select Split. Your video will be split into separate sections. Now you can apply different effects or move them to different locations on the storyboard. Editing Music Clips Select the music clip on the storyboard and then the Options tab on the ribbon. You can adjust the music volume by moving the slider right and left.   You can also choose to have your music clip fade in or out at the beginning and end of your movie. From the Fade in and Fade out dropdowns, select None, Slow, Medium, or Fast. To adjust the sound of your audio clips, click on the Edit tab, select the Video volume button, and adjust the slider. Move it all the way to the left to mute any background noise in your video clips.   AutoMovie As you have seen, Windows Live Movie Maker allows you to add effects, transitions, titles, and more. If you don’t want to do any of that stuff yourself, AutoMovie will automatically add title, credits, cross fade transitions between items, pan and zoom effects to photos, and fit your project to the music. Just select the AutoMovie button on the Home tab. You can go from zero to movie in literally a couple minutes.   Uploading to YouTube You can share your video on YouTube directly from Windows Live Movie Maker. Click on the YouTube icon in the Sharing group on the Home tab. You’ll be prompted for your YouTube username and password. Fill in the details about your movie and click Publish. The movie will be converted to WMV before being uploaded to YouTube. As soon as the YouTube conversion is complete, you’re new movie is live and ready to be viewed. Saving your Movie as a Video File Select the icon at the top left, then select Save movie. As you hover your mouse over each of the options, you will see the output display size, aspect ratio, and estimated file size per minute of video. All of these settings will output your movie as a WMV file. (Unfortunately, the only option is to save a movie as a WMV file.) The only difference is how they are encoded based on preset common settings. The Burn to DVD option also outputs a WMV file, but then opens Windows DVD Maker and walks you through the process of creating and burning a DVD.   If you choose the Burn to DVD option, close this window when the WMV file conversion is complete and the Windows DVD Maker will prompt you to begin. When your movie is finished, it’s time to relax and enjoy.   Conclusion Windows Live Movie Maker makes it easy for the average person to quickly churn out nice looking movies and slideshows from there own pictures and videos. However, long time users of previous editions (formerly called Windows Movie Maker) will likely be disappointed by some features missing in Windows Live Movie Maker that existed in earlier editions. Looking for details on burning your new project to DVD, check out our article on how to create and author DVDs with Windows DVD Maker. Download Windows Live Movie Maker Similar Articles Productive Geek Tips Family Fun: Share Photos with Photo Gallery and Windows Live SpacesCreate and Author DVDs in Windows 7Rotate a Video 90 degrees with VLC or Windows Live Movie MakerInstall Windows Live Essentials In Windows 7How to Make/Edit a movie with Windows Movie Maker in Windows Vista TouchFreeze Alternative in AutoHotkey The Icy Undertow Desktop Windows Home Server – Backup to LAN The Clear & Clean Desktop Use This Bookmarklet to Easily Get Albums Use AutoHotkey to Assign a Hotkey to a Specific Window Latest Software Reviews Tinyhacker Random Tips CloudBerry Online Backup 1.5 for Windows Home Server Snagit 10 VMware Workstation 7 Acronis Online Backup Windows Firewall with Advanced Security – How To Guides Sculptris 1.0, 3D Drawing app AceStock, a Tiny Desktop Quote Monitor Gmail Button Addon (Firefox) Hyperwords addon (Firefox) Backup Outlook 2010

    Read the article

  • Issue 15: Oracle PartnerNetwork Exchange @ Oracle OpenWorld

    - by rituchhibber
         ORACLE FOCUS Oracle PartnerNetwork Exchange@ ORACLE OpenWorld Sylvie MichouSenior DirectorPartner Marketing & Communications and Strategic Programs RESOURCES -- Oracle OpenWorld 2012 Oracle PartnerNetwork Exchange @ OpenWorld Oracle PartnerNetwork Exchange @ OpenWorld Registration Oracle PartnerNetwork Exchange SpecializationTest Fest Oracle OpenWorld Schedule Builder Oracle OpenWorld Promotional Toolkit for Partners Oracle Partner Events Oracle Partner Webcasts Oracle EMEA Partner News SUBSCRIBE FEEDBACK PREVIOUS ISSUES If you are attending our forthcoming Oracle OpenWorld 2012 conference in San Francisco from 30 September to 4 October, you will discover a new dedicated programme of keynotes and sessions tailored especially for you, our valued partners. Oracle PartnerNetwork Exchange @ OpenWorld has been created to enhance the opportunities for you to learn from and network with Oracle executives and experts. The programme also provides more informal opportunities than ever throughout the week to meet up with the people who are most important to your business: customers, prospects, colleagues and the Oracle EMEA Alliances & Channels management team. Oracle remains fully focused on building the industry's most admired partner ecosystem—which today spans over 25,000 partners. This new OPN Exchange programme offers an exciting change of pace for partners throughout the conference. Now it will be possible to enjoy a fully-integrated, partner-dedicated session schedule throughout the week, as well as key social events such as the Sunday night Welcome Reception, networking lunches from Monday to Thursday at the Howard Street Tent, and a fantastic closing event on the last Thursday afternoon. In addition to the regular Oracle OpenWorld conference schedule, if you have registered for the Oracle PartnerNetwork Exchange @ OpenWorld programme, you will be invited to attend a much anticipated global partner keynote presentation, plus more than 40 conference sessions aimed squarely at what's most important to you, as partners. Prominent topics for discussion will include: Oracle technologies and roadmaps and how they fit with partners' business plans; business development; regional distinctions in business practices; and much more. Each session will provide plenty of food for thought ahead of the numerous networking opportunities throughout the week, encouraging the knowledge exchange with Oracle executives, customers, prospects, and colleagues that will make this conference of even greater value for you. At Oracle we always work closely with our partners to deliver solution offerings that improve business value, simplify the IT experience and drive innovation and efficiencies for joint customers. The most important element of our new OPN Exchange is content that helps you get more from technology investments, more from your peer-to-peer connections, and more from your interactions with customers. To this end we've created some partner-specific tools which can be used by OPN members ahead of the conference itself. Crucially, a comprehensive Content Catalog already lists and organises details of every OPN Exchange session, speaker, exhibitor, demonstration and related materials. This Content Catalog can be used by all our partners to identify interesting content that you can add to your own personalised Oracle OpenWorld Schedule Builder, allowing more effective planning and pre-enrolment for vital sessions. There are numerous highlights that you will definitely want to include in those personal schedules. On Sunday morning, 30 September we will start the week with partner dedicated OPN Exchange sessions, following our Global Partner Keynote at 13:00 with Judson Althoff, SVP, Worldwide Alliances & Channels and Embedded Sales and senior executives, giving insight into Oracle's partner vision, strategy, and resources—all designed to help build and strengthen market opportunities for you. This will be followed by a number of OPN Exchange general sessions, the Oracle OpenWorld Opening Keynote with Larry Ellison, CEO, Oracle and concluded with the OPN Exchange AfterDark Welcome Reception, starting at 19:30 at the Metreon. From Monday 1 to Thursday 4 October, you can attend the OPN Exchange sessions that are most relevant to your business today and over the coming year. Oracle's top product and sales leaders will be on hand to discuss Oracle's strategic direction in 40+ targeted and in-depth sessions focussing on critical success factors to develop your business. Oracle's dedication to innovation, specialization, enablement and engineering provides Oracle partners with a huge opportunity to create new services and solutions, differentiate themselves and deliver extreme value to joint customers across the globe. Oracle will even be helping over 1000 partners to earn OPN Specialization certification during the Oracle OpenWorld OPN Exchange Test Fest, which will be providing all the study materials and exams required to drive Specialization for free at the conference. You simply need to check the list of current certification tracks available, and make sure you pre-register to reserve a seat in one of the ten sessions being offered free to OPN Exchange registered attendees. And finally, let's not forget those all-important networking opportunities, which can so often provide partners with valuable long-term alliances as well as exciting new business leads. The Oracle PartnerNetwork Lounge, located at Moscone South, exhibition hall, room 100 is the place where partners can meet formally or informally with colleagues, customers, prospects, and other industry professionals. OPN Specialized partners with OPN Exchange passes can also visit the OPN Video Blogging room to record and share ideas, and at the OPN Information Station you will find consultants available to answer your questions. "For the first time ever we will have a full partner conference within OpenWorld. OPN Exchange @ OpenWorld will kick-off on the first Sunday and run the entire week. We'll have over 40 sessions throughout that time and partners will hear from our top development executives, with special sessions dedicated to partnering throughout. It's going to be a phenomenal event, and we look forward to seeing our partners there." Judson Althoff, SVP, Oracle Worldwide Alliances & Channels and Embedded Sales So if you haven't done so already, please register for Oracle PartnerNetwork Exchange @ OpenWorld today or add OPN Exchange to your existing registration for just $100 through My Account. And if you have any further questions regarding partner activities at Oracle OpenWorld, please don't hesitate to contact the Oracle PartnerNetwork team at [email protected] will be on hand to share the very latest information about: Oracle's SPARC Superclusters: the latest Engineered Systems from Oracle, delivering radically improved performance, faster deployment and greatly reduced operational costs for mixed database and enterprise application consolidation Oracle's SPARC T4 servers: with the newly developed T4 processor and Oracle Solaris providing up to five times the single threaded performance and better overall system throughput for expanded application versatility Oracle Database Appliance: a new way to take advantage of the world's most popular database, Oracle Database 11g, in a single, easy-to-deploy and manage system. It's a complete package engineered to deliver simple, reliable and affordable database services to small and medium size businesses and departmental systems. All hardware and software components are supported together and offer customers unique pay-as-you-grow software licensing to quickly scale from two to 24 processor cores without incurring the costs and downtime usually associated with hardware upgrades Oracle Exalogic: the world's only integrated cloud machine, featuring server hardware and middleware software engineered together for maximum performance with minimum set-up and operational cost Oracle Exadata Database Machine: the only database machine that provides extreme performance for both data warehousing and online transaction processing (OLTP) applications, making it the ideal platform for consolidating onto grids or private clouds. It is a complete package of servers, storage, networking and software that is massively scalable, secure and redundant Oracle Sun ZFS Storage Appliances: providing enterprise-class NAS performance, price-performance, manageability and TCO by combining third-generation software with high-performance controllers, flash-based caches and disks Oracle Pillar Axiom Quality-of-Service: confidently consolidate storage for multiple applications into a single datacentre storage solution Oracle Solaris 11: delivering secure enterprise cloud deployments with the ability to run hundreds of virtual application with no overhead and co-engineered with other Oracle software products to provide the highest levels of security, manageability and performance Oracle Enterprise Manager 12c: Oracle's integrated enterprise IT management product, providing the industry's only complete, integrated and business-driven enterprise cloud management solution Oracle VM 3.0: the latest release of Oracle's server virtualisation and management solution, helping to move datacentres beyond server consolidation to improve application deployment and management. Register today and ensure your place at the Extreme Performance Tour! Extreme Performance Tour events are free to attend, but places are limited. To make sure that you don't miss out, please visit Oracle's Extreme Performance Tour website, select the city that you'd be interest in attending an event in, and then click on the 'Register Now' button for that city to secure your interest. Each individual city page also contains more in-depth information about your local event, including logistics, agenda and maybe even a preview of VIP guest speakers. -- Oracle OpenWorld 2010 Whether you attended Oracle OpenWorld 2009 or not, don't forget to save the date now for Oracle OpenWorld 2010. The event will be held a little earlier next year, from 19th-23rd September, so please don't miss out. With thousands of sessions and hundreds of exhibits and demos already lined up, there's no better place to learn how to optimise your existing systems, get an inside line on upcoming technology breakthroughs, and meet with your partner peers, Oracle strategists and even the developers responsible for the products and services that help you get better results for your end customers. Register Now for Oracle OpenWorld 2010! Perhaps you are interested in learning more about Oracle OpenWorld 2010, but don't wish to register at this time? Great! Please just enter your contact information here and we will contact you at a later date. How to Exhibit at Oracle OpenWorld 2010 Sponsorship Opportunities at Oracle OpenWorld 2010 Advertising Opportunities at Oracle OpenWorld 2010 -- Back to the welcome page

    Read the article

  • Create and Consume WCF service using Visual Studio 2010

    - by sreejukg
    In this article I am going to demonstrate how to create a WCF service, that can be hosted inside IIS and a windows application that consume the WCF service. To support service oriented architecture, Microsoft developed the programming model named Windows Communication Foundation (WCF). ASMX was the prior version from Microsoft, was completely based on XML and .Net framework continues to support ASMX web services in future versions also. While ASMX web services was the first step towards the service oriented architecture, Microsoft has made a big step forward by introducing WCF. An overview of planning for WCF can be found from this link http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff649584.aspx . The following are the important differences between WCF and ASMX from an asp.net developer point of view. 1. ASMX web services are easy to write, configure and consume 2. ASMX web services are only hosted in IIS 3. ASMX web services can only use http 4. WCF, can be hosted inside IIS, windows service, console application, WAS(Windows Process Activation Service) etc 5. WCF can be used with HTTP, TCP/IP, MSMQ and other protocols. The detailed difference between ASMX web service and WCF can be found here. http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc304771.aspx Though WCF is a bigger step for future, Visual Studio makes it simpler to create, publish and consume the WCF service. In this demonstration, I am going to create a service named SayHello that accepts 2 parameters such as name and language code. The service will return a hello to user name that corresponds to the language. So the proposed service usage is as follows. Caller: SayHello(“Sreeju”, “en”) -> return value -> Hello Sreeju Caller: SayHello(“???”, “ar”) -> return value -> ????? ??? Caller: SayHello(“Sreeju”, “es”) - > return value -> Hola Sreeju Note: calling an automated translation service is not the intention of this article. If you are interested, you can find bing translator API and can use in your application. http://www.microsofttranslator.com/dev/ So Let us start First I am going to create a Service Application that offer the SayHello Service. Open Visual Studio 2010, Go to File -> New Project, from your preferred language from the templates section select WCF, select WCF service application as the project type, give the project a name(I named it as HelloService), click ok so that visual studio will create the project for you. In this demonstration, I have used C# as the programming language. Visual studio will create the necessary files for you to start with. By default it will create a service with name Service1.svc and there will be an interface named IService.cs. The screenshot for the project in solution explorer is as follows Since I want to demonstrate how to create new service, I deleted Service1.Svc and IService1.cs files from the project by right click the file and select delete. Now in the project there is no service available, I am going to create one. From the solution explorer, right click the project, select Add -> New Item Add new item dialog will appear to you. Select WCF service from the list, give the name as HelloService.svc, and click on the Add button. Now Visual studio will create 2 files with name IHelloService.cs and HelloService.svc. These files are basically the service definition (IHelloService.cs) and the service implementation (HelloService.svc). Let us examine the IHelloService interface. The code state that IHelloService is the service definition and it provides an operation/method (similar to web method in ASMX web services) named DoWork(). Any WCF service will have a definition file as an Interface that defines the service. Let us see what is inside HelloService.svc The code illustrated is implementing the interface IHelloService. The code is self-explanatory; the HelloService class needs to implement all the methods defined in the Service Definition. Let me do the service as I require. Open IHelloService.cs in visual studio, and delete the DoWork() method and add a definition for SayHello(), do not forget to add OperationContract attribute to the method. The modified IHelloService.cs will look as follows Now implement the SayHello method in the HelloService.svc.cs file. Here I wrote the code for SayHello method as follows. I am done with the service. Now you can build and run the service by clicking f5 (or selecting start debugging from the debug menu). Visual studio will host the service in give you a client to test it. The screenshot is as follows. In the left pane, it shows the services available in the server and in right side you can invoke the service. To test the service sayHello, double click on it from the above window. It will ask you to enter the parameters and click on the invoke button. See a sample output below. Now I have done with the service. The next step is to write a service client. Creating a consumer application involves 2 steps. One generating the class and configuration file corresponds to the service. Create a project that utilizes the generated class and configuration file. First I am going to generate the class and configuration file. There is a great tool available with Visual Studio named svcutil.exe, this tool will create the necessary class and configuration files for you. Read the documentation for the svcutil.exe here http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa347733.aspx . Open Visual studio command prompt, you can find it under Start Menu -> All Programs -> Visual Studio 2010 -> Visual Studio Tools -> Visual Studio command prompt Make sure the service is in running state in visual studio. Note the url for the service(from the running window, you can right click and choose copy address). Now from the command prompt, enter the svcutil.exe command as follows. I have mentioned the url and the /d switch – for the directory to store the output files(In this case d:\temp). If you are using windows drive(in my case it is c: ) , make sure you open the command prompt with run as administrator option, otherwise you will get permission error(Only in windows 7 or windows vista). The tool has created 2 files, HelloService.cs and output.config. Now the next step is to create a new project and use the created files and consume the service. Let us do that now. I am going to add a console application to the current solution. Right click solution name in the solution explorer, right click, Add-> New Project Under Visual C#, select console application, give the project a name, I named it TestService Now navigate to d:\temp where I generated the files with the svcutil.exe. Rename output.config to app.config. Next step is to add both files (d:\temp\helloservice.cs and app.config) to the files. In the solution explorer, right click the project, Add -> Add existing item, browse to the d:\temp folder, select the 2 files as mentioned before, click on the add button. Now you need to add a reference to the System.ServiceModel to the project. From solution explorer, right click the references under testservice project, select Add reference. In the Add reference dialog, select the .Net tab, select System.ServiceModel, and click ok Now open program.cs by double clicking on it and add the code to consume the web service to the main method. The modified file looks as follows Right click the testservice project and set as startup project. Click f5 to run the project. See the sample output as follows Publishing WCF service under IIS is similar to publishing ASP.Net application. Publish the application to a folder using Visual studio publishing feature, create a virtual directory and create it as an application. Don’t forget to set the application pool to use ASP.Net version 4. One last thing you need to check is the app.config file you have added to the solution. See the element client under ServiceModel element. There is an endpoint element with address attribute that points to the published service URL. If you permanently host the service under IIS, you can simply change the address parameter to the corresponding one and your application will consume the service. You have seen how easily you can build/consume WCF service. If you need the solution in zipped format, please post your email below.

    Read the article

  • December release of Microsoft All-In-One Code Framework is available now.

    - by Jialiang
    The code samples in Microsoft All-In-One Code Framework are updated on 2010-12-13. Download address: http://1code.codeplex.com/releases/view/57459#DownloadId=185534 Updated code sample index categorized by technologies: http://1code.codeplex.com/wikipage?title=All-In-One%20Code%20Framework%20Sample%20Catalog (it also allows you to download individual code samples instead of the entire All-In-One Code Framework sample package.) If it’s the first time that you hear about Microsoft All-In-One Code Framework, please watch the introduction video on YouTube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cO5Li3APU58, or read the introduction on our homepage http://1code.codeplex.com/,  and this Port25 article http://port25.technet.com/archive/2010/01/18/the-all-in-one-code-framework.aspx.  -------------- New ASP.NET Code Samples VBASPNETAJAXWebChat and CSASPNETAJAXWebChat Most of you have some experience in chatting with friends on the web. So you may want to know how to make a web chat application, it seems to be quite complicated. But ASP.NET gives you the power to buiild a chat room easily. In this code sample, we will construct our own web chat room with the amazing AJAX feature. The principle is simple relatively. As we all know, a base chat application need 4 base controls: one List control to show the chat room members, one List control to show the message list, one TextBox control to input messages and one button to send message. User inputs his message in the textbox first and then presses Send button, it will send the message to the server. The message list will update every 2 seconds to get the newest message list in the chat room from the server. We need to know, it is hard for us to make an AJAX web chat application like a windows form application because we cannot keep the connection after one web request ended. So a lot of events which communicates between client side and server side cannot be realized. The common workaround is to make web requests in every some seconds to check whether the server side has been updated. But another technique called COMET makes it possible. But it is different with AJAX and will not be talked in details in this KB. For more details about COMET, we can get some clues from the Reference.   CSASPNETCurrentOnlineUserList and VBASPNETCurrentOnlineUserList This sample demos a system that needs to display a list of current online users' information. As a matter of fact, Membership.GetNumberOfUsersOnline Method  can get the number of online users and there is a convenient approach to check whether the user is online by using Membership.GetUser(string userName).IsOnline property,however many asp.net projects are not using membership.So in this case,the sample shows how to display a list of current online users' information without using membership provider. It is not difficult to check whether the user is online by using session.Many projects tend to be used “Session_End” event to mark a user as “Offline”,however ,it may not be a good idea,because it can’t detect the user status accurately. In addition, "Session_End" event is only available in the "InProc" session mode. If you are storing session states in the State Server or SQL Server, "Session_End" event will never fire. To handle this issue, we need to save the user online status to a  global DataTable or  DataBase. In the sample application, define a global DataTable to store the information of online users.Use XmlHttpRequest in the pages to update and check user's last active time at intervals and also retrieve information on how many users are still online. The sample project can auto delete offline users' information from a global DataTable by checking users’ last active time. A step-by-step guide illustrating how to display a list of current online users' information without using membership provider: 1. Login page. Let user sign in and add current user’s information to a global datatable while Initialize the global datatable which used to store information of current online users. 2. Current online user list page. Use XmlHttpRequest in this page to update and check user's last active time at intervals and also retrieve information on how many users are still online. 3. If user closes the page without clicking  the sign out link button ,the sample project can auto mark the user as offline and delete offline users' information from a global DataTable which used to store information of current online users  by checking users’ last active time. Then the current online user list will be like this:   CSASPNETIPtoLocation This sample demonstrates how to find the geographical location from an IP address. As we know, it is not hard for us to get the IP address of visitors via Request.ServerVariable property, but it is really difficult for us to know where they come from. To achieve this feature, the sample uses a free third party web service from http://freegeoip.appspot.com/, which returns the information about an IP address we send to the server in the format of XML, JSON or CSV. It makes all things easier.   CSASPNETBackgroundWorker Sometimes we do an operation which needs long time to complete. It will stop the response and the page is blank until the operation finished. In this case, we want the operation to run in the background, and in the page, we want to display the progress of the running operation. Therefore, the user can know the operation is running and can know the progress. CSASPNETInheritingFromTreeNode In windows forms TreeView, each tree node has a property called "Tag" which can be used to store a custom object. Many customers want to implement the same tag feature in ASP.NET TreeView. This project creates a custom TreeView control named "CustomTreeView" to achieve this goal. CSASPNETRemoteUploadAndDownload and VBASPNETRemoteUploadAndDownload This code sample was created in response to a code sample request in our new code sample request frunction for customers. The code samples demonstrate uploading files to and downloading files from a remote HTTP or FTP server. In .NET Framework 2.0 and higher versions, there are some lightweight class libraries which support HTTP and FTP protocol transmission. By using these classes, we can achieve this programming requirement.   CSASPNETImageEditUpload and VBASPNETImageEditUpload This demo will shows how to insert, edit and update a common image with the type of "jpg", "png", "gif" or "bmp" . We mainly use two different SqlDataSources with the same database to bind to GridView and FormView in order to establish the “cascading” effort. Besides we apply our self-made ImageHanlder to encoding or decoding images of different types, and use context to output the stream of images. We will explicitly assign the binary streams of images through the event of “FormView_ItemInserting” or “Form_ItemUpdating” to synchronize the stream both in what we can see on an aspx page as well as in what’s really stored in the database.   WebBrowser Control, Network and other Windows General New Code Samples   CSWebBrowserSuppressError and VBWebBrowserSuppressError The sample demonstrates how to make WebBrowser suppress errors, such as script error, navigation error and so on.   CSWebBrowserWithProxy and VBWebBrowserWithProxy The sample demonstrates how to make WebBrowser use a proxy server.   CSWebDownloadProgress and VBWebDownloadProgress The sample demonstrates how to show progress during the download. It also supplies the features to Start, Pause, Resume and Cancel a download.   CppSetDesktopWallpaper, CSSetDesktopWallpaper and VBSetDesktopWallpaper This code sample application allows you select an image, view a preview (resized smaller to fit if necessary), select a display style among Tile, Center, Stretch, Fit (Windows 7 and later) and Fill (Windows 7 and later), and set the image as the Desktop wallpaper. CSWindowsServiceRecoveryProperty and VBWindowsServiceRecoveryProperty CSWindowsServiceRecoveryProperty example demonstrates how to use ChangeServiceConfig2 to configure the service "Recovery" properties in C#. This example operates all the options you can see on the service "Recovery" tab, including setting the "Enable actions for stops with errors" option in Windows Vista and later operating systems. This example also include how to grant the shut down privilege to the process, so that we can configure a special option in the "Recovery" tab - "Restart Computer Options...".   New Office Development Code Samples   CSOneNoteRibbonAddIn and VBOneNoteRibbonAddIn The code sample demonstrates a OneNote 2010 COM add-in that implements IDTExtensibility2. The add-in also supports customizing the Ribbon by implementing the IRibbonExtensibility interface. It is a skeleton OneNote add-in that developers can extend it to implement more functions. The code sample was requested by a customer in our code sample request service. We expect that this could help developers in the community.   New Windows Shell Code Samples   CppShellExtPreviewHandler, CSShellExtPreviewHandler and VBShellExtPreviewHandler In the past two months, we released the code samples of Windows Context Menu Handler, Infotip Handler, and Thumbnail Handler. This is the fourth part of the shell extension series: Preview Handler. The code samples demo the C++, C# and VB.NET implementation of a preview handler for a new file type registered with the .recipe extension. Preview handlers are called when an item is selected to show a lightweight, rich, read-only preview of the file's contents in the view's reading pane. This is done without launching the file's associated application. Windows Vista and later operating systems support preview handlers. To be a valid preview handler, several interfaces must be implemented. This includes IPreviewHandler (shobjidl.h); IInitializeWithFile, IInitializeWithStream, or IInitializeWithItem (propsys.h); IObjectWithSite (ocidl.h); and IOleWindow (oleidl.h). There are also optional interfaces, such as IPreviewHandlerVisuals (shobjidl.h), that a preview handler can implement to provide extended support. Windows API Code Pack for Microsoft .NET Framework makes the implementation of these interfaces very easy in .NET. The example preview handler provides previews for .recipe files. The .recipe file type is simply an XML file registered as a unique file name extension. It includes the title of the recipe, its author, difficulty, preparation time, cook time, nutrition information, comments, an embedded preview image, and so on. The preview handler extracts the title, comments, and the embedded image, and display them in a preview window.   In response to many customers' request, we added setup projects in every shell extension samples in this release. Those setup projects allow you to deploy the shell extensions to your end users' machines. ---------- Download address: http://1code.codeplex.com/releases/view/57459#DownloadId=185534 Updated code sample index categorized by technologies: http://1code.codeplex.com/wikipage?title=All-In-One%20Code%20Framework%20Sample%20Catalog (it also allows you to download individual code samples instead of the entire All-In-One Code Framework sample package.) If you have any feedback for us, please email: [email protected]. We look forward to your comments.

    Read the article

  • Java Logger API

    - by Koppar
    This is a more like a tip rather than technical write up and serves as a quick intro for newbies. The logger API helps to diagnose application level or JDK level issues at runtime. There are 7 levels which decide the detailing in logging (SEVERE, WARNING, INFO, CONFIG, FINE, FINER, FINEST). Its best to start with highest level and as we narrow down, use more detailed logging for a specific area. SEVERE is the highest and FINEST is the lowest. This may not make sense until we understand some jargon. The Logger class provides the ability to stream messages to an output stream in a format that can be controlled by the user. What this translates to is, I can create a logger with this simple invocation and use it add debug messages in my class: import java.util.logging.*; private static final Logger focusLog = Logger.getLogger("java.awt.focus.KeyboardFocusManager"); if (focusLog.isLoggable(Level.FINEST)) { focusLog.log(Level.FINEST, "Calling peer setCurrentFocusOwner}); LogManager acts like a book keeper and all the getLogger calls are forwarded to LogManager. The LogManager itself is a singleton class object which gets statically initialized on JVM start up. More on this later. If there is no existing logger with the given name, a new one is created. If there is one (and not yet GC’ed), then the existing Logger object is returned. By default, a root logger is created on JVM start up. All anonymous loggers are made as the children of the root logger. Named loggers have the hierarchy as per their name resolutions. Eg: java.awt.focus is the parent logger for java.awt.focus.KeyboardFocusManager etc. Before logging any message, the logger checks for the log level specified. If null is specified, the log level of the parent logger will be set. However, if the log level is off, no log messages would be written, irrespective of the parent’s log level. All the messages that are posted to the Logger are handled as a LogRecord object.i.e. FocusLog.log would create a new LogRecord object with the log level and message as its data members). The level of logging and thread number are also tracked. LogRecord is passed on to all the registered Handlers. Handler is basically a means to output the messages. The output may be redirected to either a log file or console or a network logging service. The Handler classes use the LogManager properties to set filters and formatters. During initialization or JVM start up, LogManager looks for logging.properties file in jre/lib and sets the properties if the file is provided. An alternate location for properties file can also be specified by setting java.util.logging.config.file system property. This can be set in Java Control Panel ? Java ? Runtime parameters as -Djava.util.logging.config.file = <mylogfile> or passed as a command line parameter java -Djava.util.logging.config.file = C:/Sunita/myLog The redirection of logging depends on what is specified rather registered as a handler with JVM in the properties file. java.util.logging.ConsoleHandler sends the output to system.err and java.util.logging.FileHandler sends the output to file. File name of the log file can also be specified. If you prefer XML format output, in the configuration file, set java.util.logging.FileHandler.formatter = java.util.logging.XMLFormatter and if you prefer simple text, set set java.util.logging.FileHandler.formatter =java.util.logging.SimpleFormatter Below is the default logging Configuration file: ############################################################ # Default Logging Configuration File # You can use a different file by specifying a filename # with the java.util.logging.config.file system property. # For example java -Djava.util.logging.config.file=myfile ############################################################ ############################################################ # Global properties ############################################################ # "handlers" specifies a comma separated list of log Handler # classes. These handlers will be installed during VM startup. # Note that these classes must be on the system classpath. # By default we only configure a ConsoleHandler, which will only # show messages at the INFO and above levels. handlers= java.util.logging.ConsoleHandler # To also add the FileHandler, use the following line instead. #handlers= java.util.logging.FileHandler, java.util.logging.ConsoleHandler # Default global logging level. # This specifies which kinds of events are logged across # all loggers. For any given facility this global level # can be overriden by a facility specific level # Note that the ConsoleHandler also has a separate level # setting to limit messages printed to the console. .level= INFO ############################################################ # Handler specific properties. # Describes specific configuration info for Handlers. ############################################################ # default file output is in user's home directory. java.util.logging.FileHandler.pattern = %h/java%u.log java.util.logging.FileHandler.limit = 50000 java.util.logging.FileHandler.count = 1 java.util.logging.FileHandler.formatter = java.util.logging.XMLFormatter # Limit the message that are printed on the console to INFO and above. java.util.logging.ConsoleHandler.level = INFO java.util.logging.ConsoleHandler.formatter = java.util.logging.SimpleFormatter ############################################################ # Facility specific properties. # Provides extra control for each logger. ############################################################ # For example, set the com.xyz.foo logger to only log SEVERE # messages: com.xyz.foo.level = SEVERE Since I primarily use this method to track focus issues, here is how I get detailed awt focus related logging. Just set the logger name to java.awt.focus.level=FINEST and change the default log level to FINEST. Below is a basic sample program. The sample programs are from http://www2.cs.uic.edu/~sloan/CLASSES/java/ and have been modified to illustrate the logging API. By changing the .level property in the logging.properties file, one can control the output written to the logs. To play around with the example, try changing the levels in the logging.properties file and notice the difference in messages going to the log file. Example --------KeyboardReader.java------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- import java.io.*; import java.util.*; import java.util.logging.*; public class KeyboardReader { private static final Logger mylog = Logger.getLogger("samples.input"); public static void main (String[] args) throws java.io.IOException { String s1; String s2; double num1, num2, product; // set up the buffered reader to read from the keyboard BufferedReader br = new BufferedReader (new InputStreamReader (System.in)); System.out.println ("Enter a line of input"); s1 = br.readLine(); if (mylog.isLoggable(Level.SEVERE)) { mylog.log (Level.SEVERE,"The line entered is " + s1); } if (mylog.isLoggable(Level.INFO)) { mylog.log (Level.INFO,"The line has " + s1.length() + " characters"); } if (mylog.isLoggable(Level.FINE)) { mylog.log (Level.FINE,"Breaking the line into tokens we get:"); } int numTokens = 0; StringTokenizer st = new StringTokenizer (s1); while (st.hasMoreTokens()) { s2 = st.nextToken(); numTokens++; if (mylog.isLoggable(Level.FINEST)) { mylog.log (Level.FINEST, " Token " + numTokens + " is: " + s2); } } } } ----------MyFileReader.java---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- import java.io.*; import java.util.*; import java.util.logging.*; public class MyFileReader extends KeyboardReader { private static final Logger mylog = Logger.getLogger("samples.input.file"); public static void main (String[] args) throws java.io.IOException { String s1; String s2; // set up the buffered reader to read from the keyboard BufferedReader br = new BufferedReader (new FileReader ("MyFileReader.txt")); s1 = br.readLine(); if (mylog.isLoggable(Level.SEVERE)) { mylog.log (Level.SEVERE,"ATTN The line is " + s1); } if (mylog.isLoggable(Level.INFO)) { mylog.log (Level.INFO, "The line has " + s1.length() + " characters"); } if (mylog.isLoggable(Level.FINE)) { mylog.log (Level.FINE,"Breaking the line into tokens we get:"); } int numTokens = 0; StringTokenizer st = new StringTokenizer (s1); while (st.hasMoreTokens()) { s2 = st.nextToken(); numTokens++; if (mylog.isLoggable(Level.FINEST)) { mylog.log (Level.FINEST,"Breaking the line into tokens we get:"); mylog.log (Level.FINEST," Token " + numTokens + " is: " + s2); } } //end of while } // end of main } // end of class ----------MyFileReader.txt------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ My first logging example -------logging.properties------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- handlers= java.util.logging.ConsoleHandler, java.util.logging.FileHandler .level= FINEST java.util.logging.FileHandler.pattern = java%u.log java.util.logging.FileHandler.limit = 50000 java.util.logging.FileHandler.count = 1 java.util.logging.FileHandler.formatter = java.util.logging.SimpleFormatter java.util.logging.ConsoleHandler.level = FINEST java.util.logging.ConsoleHandler.formatter = java.util.logging.SimpleFormatter java.awt.focus.level=ALL ------Output log------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- May 21, 2012 11:44:55 AM MyFileReader main SEVERE: ATTN The line is My first logging example May 21, 2012 11:44:55 AM MyFileReader main INFO: The line has 24 characters May 21, 2012 11:44:55 AM MyFileReader main FINE: Breaking the line into tokens we get: May 21, 2012 11:44:55 AM MyFileReader main FINEST: Breaking the line into tokens we get: May 21, 2012 11:44:55 AM MyFileReader main FINEST: Token 1 is: My May 21, 2012 11:44:55 AM MyFileReader main FINEST: Breaking the line into tokens we get: May 21, 2012 11:44:55 AM MyFileReader main FINEST: Token 2 is: first May 21, 2012 11:44:55 AM MyFileReader main FINEST: Breaking the line into tokens we get: May 21, 2012 11:44:55 AM MyFileReader main FINEST: Token 3 is: logging May 21, 2012 11:44:55 AM MyFileReader main FINEST: Breaking the line into tokens we get: May 21, 2012 11:44:55 AM MyFileReader main FINEST: Token 4 is: example Invocation command: "C:\Program Files (x86)\Java\jdk1.6.0_29\bin\java.exe" -Djava.util.logging.config.file=logging.properties MyFileReader References Further technical details are available here: http://docs.oracle.com/javase/1.4.2/docs/guide/util/logging/overview.html#1.0 http://docs.oracle.com/javase/1.4.2/docs/api/java/util/logging/package-summary.html http://www2.cs.uic.edu/~sloan/CLASSES/java/

    Read the article

  • Internationalize WebCenter Portal - Content Presenter

    - by Stefan Krantz
    Lately we have been involved in engagements where internationalization has been holding the project back from success. In this post we are going to explain how to get Content Presenter and its editorials to comply with the current selected locale for the WebCenter Portal session. As you probably know by now WebCenter Portal leverages the Localization support from Java Server Faces (JSF), in this post we will assume that the localization is controlled and enforced by switching the current browsers locale between English and Spanish. There is two main scenarios in internationalization of a content enabled pages, since Content Presenter offers both presentation of information as well as contribution of information, in this post we will look at how to enable seamless integration of correct localized version of the back end content file and how to enable the editor/author to edit the correct localized version of the file based on the current browser locale. Solution Scenario 1 - Localization aware content presentation Due to the amount of steps required to implement the enclosed solution proposal I have decided to share the solution with you in group components for each facet of the solution. If you want to get more details on each step, you can review the enclosed components. This post will guide you through the steps of enabling each component and what it enables/changes in each section of the system. Enable Content Presenter Customization By leveraging a predictable naming convention of the data files used to hold the content for the Content Presenter instance we can easily develop a component that will dynamically switch the name out before presenting the information. The naming convention we have leverage is the industry best practice by having a shared identifier as prefix (ContentABC) and a language enabled suffix (_EN) (_ES). So the assumption is that each file pair in above example should look like following:- English version - (ContentABC_EN)- Spanish version - (ContentABC_ES) Based on above theory we can now easily regardless of the primary version assigned to the content presenter instance switch the language out by using the localization support from JSF. Below java bean (oracle.webcenter.doclib.internal.view.presenter.NLSHelperBean) is enclosed in the customization project available for download at the bottom of the post: 1: public static final String CP_D_DOCNAME_FORMAT = "%s_%s"; 2: public static final int CP_UNIQUE_ID_INDEX = 0; 3: private ContentPresenter presenter = null; 4:   5:   6: public NLSHelperBean() { 7: super(); 8: } 9:   10: /** 11: * This method updates the configuration for the pageFlowScope to have the correct datafile 12: * for the current Locale 13: */ 14: public void initLocaleForDataFile() { 15: String dataFile = null; 16: // Checking that state of presenter is present, also make sure the item is eligible for localization by locating the "_" in the name 17: if(presenter.getConfiguration().getDatasource() != null && 18: presenter.getConfiguration().getDatasource().isNodeDatasource() && 19: presenter.getConfiguration().getDatasource().getNodeIdDatasource() != null && 20: !presenter.getConfiguration().getDatasource().getNodeIdDatasource().equals("") && 21: presenter.getConfiguration().getDatasource().getNodeIdDatasource().indexOf("_") > 0) { 22: dataFile = presenter.getConfiguration().getDatasource().getNodeIdDatasource(); 23: FacesContext fc = FacesContext.getCurrentInstance(); 24: //Leveraging the current faces contenxt to get current localization language 25: String currentLocale = fc.getViewRoot().getLocale().getLanguage().toUpperCase(); 26: String newDataFile = dataFile; 27: String [] uniqueIdArr = dataFile.split("_"); 28: if(uniqueIdArr.length > 0) { 29: newDataFile = String.format(CP_D_DOCNAME_FORMAT, uniqueIdArr[CP_UNIQUE_ID_INDEX], currentLocale); 30: } 31: //Replacing the current Node datasource with localized datafile. 32: presenter.getConfiguration().getDatasource().setNodeIdDatasource(newDataFile); 33: } 34: } With this bean code available to our WebCenter Portal implementation we can start the next step, by overriding the standard behavior in content presenter by applying a MDS Taskflow customization to the content presenter taskflow, following taskflow customization has been applied to the customization project attached to this post:- Library: WebCenter Document Library Service View- Path: oracle.webcenter.doclib.view.jsf.taskflows.presenter- File: contentPresenter.xml Changes made in above customization view:1. A new method invocation activity has been added (initLocaleForDataFile)2. The method invocation invokes the new NLSHelperBean3. The default activity is moved to the new Method invocation (initLocaleForDataFile)4. The outcome from the method invocation goes to determine-navigation (original default activity) The above changes concludes the presentation modification to support a compatible localization scenario for a content driven page. In addition this customization do not limit or disables the out of the box capabilities of WebCenter Portal. Steps to enable above customization Start JDeveloper and open your WebCenter Portal Application Select "Open Project" and include the extracted project you downloaded (CPNLSCustomizations.zip) Make sure the build out put from CPNLSCustomizations project is a dependency to your Portal project Deploy your Portal Application to your WC_CustomPortal managed server Make sure your naming convention of the two data files follow above recommendation Example result of the solution: Solution Scenario 2 - Localization aware content creation and authoring As you could see from Solution Scenario 1 we require the naming convention to be strictly followed, this means in the hands of a user with limited technology knowledge this can be one of the failing links in this solutions. Therefore I strongly recommend that you also follow this part since this will eliminate this risk and also increase the editors/authors usability with a magnitude. The current WebCenter Portal Architecture leverages WebCenter Content today to maintain, publish and manage content, therefore we need to make few efforts in making sure this part of the architecture is on board with our new naming practice and also simplifies the creation of content for our end users. As you probably remember the naming convention required a prefix to be common so I propose we enable a new component that help you auto name the content items dDocName (this means that the readable title can still be in a human readable format). The new component (WCP-LocalizationSupport.zip) built for this scenario will enable a couple of things: 1. A new service where a sequential number can be generate on request - service name: GET_WCP_LOCALE_CONTENTID 2. The content presenter is leveraging a specific function when launching the content creation wizard from within Content Presenter. Assumption is that users will create the content by clicking "Create Web Content" button. When clicking the button the wizard opened is actually running in side of WebCenter Content server, file executed (contentwizard.hcsp). This file uses JSON commands that will generate operations in the content server, I have extend this file to create two identical data files instead of one.- First it creates the English version by leveraging the new Service and a Global Rule to set the dDocName on the original check in screen, this global rule is available in a configuration package attached to this blog (NLSContentProfileRule.zip)- Secondly we run a set of JSON javascripts to create the Spanish version with the same details except for the name where we replace the suffix with (_ES)- Then content creation wizard ends with its out of the box behavior and assigns the Content Presenter instance the English versionSee Javascript markup below - this can be changed in the (WCP-LocalizationSupport.zip/component/WCP-LocalizationSupport/publish/webcenter) 1: //---------------------------------------A-TEAM--------------------------------------- 2: WCM.ContentWizard.CheckinContentPage.OnCheckinComplete = function(returnParams) 3: { 4: var callback = WCM.ContentWizard.CheckinContentPage.checkinCompleteCallback; 5: WCM.ContentWizard.ChooseContentPage.OnSelectionComplete(returnParams, callback); 6: // Load latest DOC_INFO_SIMPLE 7: var cgiPath = DOCLIB.config.httpCgiPath; 8: var jsonBinder = new WCM.Idc.JSONBinder(); 9: jsonBinder.SetLocalDataValue('IdcService', 'DOC_INFO_SIMPLE'); 10: jsonBinder.SetLocalDataValue('dID', returnParams.dID); 11: jsonBinder.Send(cgiPath, $CB(this, function(http) { 12: var ret = http.GetResponseText(); 13: var binder = new WCM.Idc.JSONBinder(ret); 14: var dDocName = binder.GetResultSetValue('DOC_INFO', 'dDocName', 0); 15: if(dDocName.indexOf("_") > 0){ 16: var ssBinder = new WCM.Idc.JSONBinder(); 17: ssBinder.SetLocalDataValue('IdcService', 'SS_CHECKIN_NEW'); 18: //Additional Localization dDocName generated 19: ssBinder.SetLocalDataValue('dDocName', getLocalizedDocName(dDocName, "es")); 20: ssBinder.SetLocalDataValue('primaryFile', 'default.xml'); 21: ssBinder.SetLocalDataValue('ssDefaultDocumentToken', 'SSContributorDataFile'); 22:   23: for(var n = 0 ; n < binder.GetResultSetFields('DOC_INFO').length ; n++) { 24: var field = binder.GetResultSetFields('DOC_INFO')[n]; 25: if(field != 'dID' && 26: field != 'dDocName' && 27: field != 'dID' && 28: field != 'dReleaseState' && 29: field != 'dRevClassID' && 30: field != 'dRevisionID' && 31: field != 'dRevLabel') { 32: ssBinder.SetLocalDataValue(field, binder.GetResultSetValue('DOC_INFO', field, 0)); 33: } 34: } 35: ssBinder.Send(cgiPath, $CB(this, function(http) {})); 36: } 37: })); 38: } 39:   40: //Support function to create localized dDocNames 41: function getLocalizedDocName(dDocName, lang) { 42: var result = dDocName.replace("_EN", ("_" + lang)); 43: return result; 44: } 45: //---------------------------------------A-TEAM--------------------------------------- 3. By applying the enclosed NLSContentProfileRule.zip, the check in screen for DataFile creation will have auto naming enabled with localization suffix (default is English)You can change the default language by updating the GlobalNlsRule and assign preferred prefix.See Rule markup for dDocName field below: <$executeService("GET_WCP_LOCALE_CONTENTID")$><$dprDefaultValue=WCP_LOCALE.LocaleContentId & "_EN"$> Steps to enable above extensions and configurations Install WebCenter Component (WCP-LocalizationSupport.zip), via the AdminServer in WebCenter Content Administration menus Enable the component and restart the content server Apply the configuration bundle to enable the new Global Rule (GlobalNlsRule), via the WebCenter Content Administration/Config Migration Admin New Content Creation Experience Result Content EditingContent editing will by default be enabled for authoring in the current select locale since the content file is selected by (Solution Scenario 1), this means that a user can switch his browser locale and then get the editing experience adaptable to the current selected locale. NotesA-Team are planning to post a solution on how to inline switch the locale of the WebCenter Portal Session, so the Content Presenter, Navigation Model and other Face related features are localized accordingly. Content Presenter examples used in this post is an extension to following post:https://blogs.oracle.com/ATEAM_WEBCENTER/entry/enable_content_editing_of_iterative Downloads CPNLSCustomizations.zip - WebCenter Portal, Content Presenter Customization https://blogs.oracle.com/ATEAM_WEBCENTER/resource/stefan.krantz/CPNLSCustomizations.zip WCP-LocalizationSupport.zip - WebCenter Content, Extension Component to enable localization creation of files with compliant auto naminghttps://blogs.oracle.com/ATEAM_WEBCENTER/resource/stefan.krantz/WCP-LocalizationSupport.zip NLSContentProfileRule.zip - WebCenter Content, Configuration Update Bundle to enable Global rule for new check in naming of data fileshttps://blogs.oracle.com/ATEAM_WEBCENTER/resource/stefan.krantz/NLSContentProfileRule.zip

    Read the article

  • Oracle Fusion Applications: Changing the Game

    - by kellsey.ruppel(at)oracle.com
    Originally posted in the Oracle Profit Magazine, November 2010 Edition. When the order processing system red-flags a customer's credit status, the IT department doesn't get the customer's call. When a supplier misses a delivery date for a key automotive assembly, it's not the CIO who has to answer for the error. Knowledge workers (known in IT circles as "users") are on the front lines when an exception occurs in an established business process. They're also the ones who study sales trends to decide when to open a new store in an up-and-coming neighborhood, which products are most profitable, how employee skill sets are evolving, and which suppliers are most efficient. In short, knowledge workers are masters of business as unusual. Traditional enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems and other familiar enterprise applications excel at automating, managing, and executing standard business processes. These programs shine when everything goes as planned. Life gets even trickier when a traditional application needs to be extended with a new service or an extra step is added to a business process when new products are brought to market, divisions are merged, or companies are acquired. Monolithic applications often need the IT department to step in and make the necessary adjustments--incurring additional costs and delays. Until now. When Oracle unveiled the much-anticipated family of Oracle Fusion Applications at Oracle OpenWorld in September 2010, knowledge workers in particular had a lot to cheer about. Business users will soon have ready access to analytical information and collaboration tools in the context of what they are working on, so they can make better decisions when problems or opportunities arise. Additionally, the Oracle Fusion Applications platform will make it easy for business users to tweak processes, create new capabilities, and find information, often without the need for IT department assistance and while still following company guidelines. And IT leaders will be happy to hear about new deployment options, guided implementation and setup tools, and cost-saving management capabilities. Just as important, the underlying technologies in Oracle Fusion Applications will allow organizations to choose among their existing investments and next-generation enterprise applications so they can introduce innovations at a pace that makes the most business and financial sense. "Oracle Fusion Applications are architected so you don't have to do rip and replace," says Jim Hayes, managing director of the consulting firm Accenture. "That's very important for creating a business case that will get through the steering committee and be approved by the board. It shows you can drive value and make a difference in the near term." For these and other reasons, analysts and early adopters are calling Oracle Fusion Applications a game changer for enterprise customers. The differences become apparent in three key areas: the way we innovate, work, and adopt technology. Game Changer #1: New Standard for InnovationChange is a constant challenge for most businesses, whether the catalysts are market dynamics, new competition, or the ever-expanding regulatory environment. And, in an ongoing effort to differentiate, business leaders are constantly looking for new ways to do business, serve constituents, and bring new products and services to market. In addition, companies face significant costs to keep their applications up-to-date. For example, when a company adds new suppliers to a procurement system, the IT shop typically has to invest time, effort, and even consulting fees for custom integrations that allow various ERP systems to communicate with each other. Oracle Fusion Applications were built on Web services and a modular SOA foundation to ease customizations and integration activities among all applications--whether from Oracle or another vendor. Interfaces and updates written in ubiquitous Java, rather than a proprietary coding language, allow organizations to tap into existing in-house technical skills rather than seek expensive outside specialists. And with SOA, organizations can extend a feature set or integrate with other SOA environments by combining Web services such as "look up customer" into a new business process managed by the BPEL orchestration engine. Flexibility like this has long-term implications. "Because users capture these changes at a higher metadata layer, not in the application's code, changes and additions are protected even as new versions of Oracle Fusion Applications are released," says Steve Miranda, senior vice president of applications development at Oracle. "This is a much more sustainable approach because you don't incur costly customizations that prevent upgrades and other innovations." And changes are easier to make: if one change is made in the metadata, that change is automatically reflected throughout the application interface, business intelligence, business process, and business logic. Game Changer #2: New Standard for WorkBoosting productivity comes down to doing the basics right: running business processes more efficiently and managing exceptions more effectively, so users can accomplish more in the course of a day or spend more quality time with the most profitable customers. The fastest way to improve process efficiency is to reduce the number of steps it takes to execute common tasks, such as ordering office equipment from an internal procurement system. Oracle Fusion Applications will deliver a complete role-based user experience with business intelligence and collaboration capabilities provided in the context of the work at hand. "We created every Oracle Fusion Applications screen by asking 'What does the user need to know?' 'What does he or she need to do?' and 'Who do they need to work with to get the job done?'" Miranda explains. So when the sales department heads need new laptops, the self-service procurement screen will not only display a list of approved vendors and configurations, but also a running list of reviews by coworkers who recently purchased the various models. Embedded intelligence may also display prevailing delivery lead times based on actual order histories, not the generic shipping dates vendors may quote. The pervasive business intelligence serves many other business activities across all areas of the enterprise. For example, a manager considering whether to promote a direct report can see the person's employee profile, with a salary history, appraisal summaries, and a rundown of skills and training. This approach to business intelligence also has implications for supply chain management. "One of the challenges at Ingersoll Rand is lack of visibility in our supply chain," says Mike Macrie, global director of enterprise applications for global industrial firm Ingersoll Rand. "Oracle Fusion Applications are going to provide the embedded intelligence to give us that visibility and give us the ability to analyze those orders at any point in our supply chain." Oracle Fusion Applications will also create a "role-based user experience" that displays a work list of events that need attention, based on user job function. Role awareness guides users with daily lists of action items and exceptions. So a credit manager may see seven invoices with discounts that are about to expire or 12 suppliers that have been put on hold because credit memos are awaiting approval. Individualization extends to the search capabilities of Oracle Fusion Applications. The platform uses Web-style search screens powered by an Oracle enterprise search engine, with a security framework that filters search results so individuals will only see the internal information they're authorized to access. A further aid to productivity is Oracle Fusion Applications' integration with Web 2.0 collaboration and social networking resources for business environments. Hover-over text will reveal relevant contact information whenever the name of a person appears in an Oracle Fusion Application. Users can connect via an online chat, phone call, or instant message without leaving the main application, reducing the time required for an accounts payable staffer to resolve a mismatch between an invoiced charge and the service record, for example. Addresses of suppliers, customers, or partners will also initiate hover-over text to show contact details and Web-based maps. Finally, Oracle Fusion Applications will promote a new way of working with purpose-driven communities that can bring new efficiencies to everything from cultivating sales leads to managing new projects. As soon as a lead or project materializes, the applications will automatically gather relevant participants into an online community that shares member contact information, schedules, discussion forums, and Wiki pages. "Oracle Fusion Applications will allow us to take it to the next level with embedded Web 2.0 tools and the embedded analytics," says Steve Printz, CIO and vice president, supply chain management, at window-and-door manufacturer Pella. "[This] allows those employees today who are processing transactions to really contribute to the success of the company and become decision-makers." Game Changer #3: New Standard for Technology AdoptionAs IT becomes a dominant component of how businesses run and compete, organizations need to lower the cost of implementing applications and introducing new application features. In the past, rolling out new code often required creating a test bed system, moving beta code to a separate system for user feedback, and--once all the revisions were made--moving version one of the software onto production systems, where business users could finally get the needed new features. Oracle Fusion Applications will use a dedicated setup manager application to streamline this process. First, the setup manager will help scope out the project, querying users about their requirements. "From those questions and answers we determine the steps and the order of those steps that will enable that task," Miranda says. Next, system utilities will assign tasks to owners, track completion status, and monitor the overall status of a programming effort. Oracle Fusion Applications can then recommend Web services that allow users to migrate setup choices and steps across all the various deployments of the application. Those setup capabilities automate the migration from test systems to production systems, as well as between different business units that may be using the same application. "The self-service ability of the setup manager helps business users change setups with very little intervention from the IT team," says Ravi Kumar, vice president at IT services company Infosys. "That to me is a big difference from how we've viewed enterprise applications before." For additional flexibility, organizations will be able to adopt Oracle Fusion Applications modules in either of two modes: a single-instance alternative uses one database for all Oracle Fusion Applications, while a "pillar mode" creates separate databases to underpin each application. This means IT departments running any one of Oracle's applications or even third-party applications can plug Oracle Fusion Applications modules into their environment and see additional business value created on top of their existing systems. And Oracle Fusion Applications offer a hybrid approach to deployment. The applications are all software-as-a-service-ready, so customers can choose on-premises, public or private cloud, or a combination of these to suit their business needs. It's that combination of flexibility and a roadmap for the future that may be the biggest game changer of all. "The Oracle Fusion Applications architecture allows us to migrate our company at a pace that's consistent with our business strategy, whereas before we might have had to do it with a massive upgrade," says Macrie of Ingersoll Rand. "We're looking forward to that architecture to really give us more flexibility in how we migrate over time." For More InformationUser Input Key to the Success of Oracle Fusion ApplicationsTransforming Coexistence into Strategic ValueUnder the HoodOracle Fusion ApplicationsOracle Service-Oriented Architecture  

    Read the article

  • CodePlex Daily Summary for Monday, March 08, 2010

    CodePlex Daily Summary for Monday, March 08, 2010New Projects38fj4ncg2: 38fj4ncg2Ac#or: A actor framework written in Mono (C#) Make it easy to make multithreaded programs with the actor model.Aerial Phone Book: It's a ASP app that allow more of one user see a contacts on phone book and add new contacts. This way a group of users can maintain a common phon...AmiBroker Plug-Ins with C#: Plug-ins for AmiBroker built with Microsoft .NET Framework and C#.AxUnit: AxUnit is a Unit Testing framework for Microsoft Dynamics Ax (X++). It's an extension to the SysTest framework provided with DAX4.0 and newer versi...Botola PHP Class: Une class en PHP qui vous permet d'avoir les informations qui concernent les équipes de le championnat Marocain du football.Code examples, utilities and misc from Lars Wilhelmsen [MVP]: Misc. stuff from Lars Wilhelmsen.Codename T: Codename T is in the very basic stages of development. It should be ready for beta testing by the start of April.ComBrowser: combrowserCompact Unity: The Compact Unity is a lightweight dependency injection container with support for constructor and property call injection written in .NET Compact ...FAST for Sharepoint MOSS 2010 Query Tool: Tool to query FAST for Sharepoint and Sharepoint 2010 Enterprise Search. It utilizes the search web services to run your queries so you can test y...Icarus Scene Engine: Icarus Scene Engine is a cross-platform 3D eLearning, games and simulation engine, integrating open source APIs into a cohesive cross-platform solu...jQuery.cssLess: jQuery plugin that interprets and loads LESS css files. (http://lesscss.org).Katara Dental Phase II: Second phase of Kdpl.Lunar Phase Silverlight Gadget: Meet the moon phase, percent of illumination and corresponding zodiac sign from your desktop. Reflection Studio: Reflection Studio is a development tool that encapsulate all my work around reflection, performance and WPF. It allows to inject performance traces...RSNetty: RSNetty is a RuneScape Private Server programmed in the Java programming language.Simple WMV/ASF files muxer/demuxer: Simple WMV files muxer/demuxer implemented in C#/C++. It has simple WPF-based UI and allows copy/replace operations on video, audio and script stre...sm: managerTFS Proxy Monitor: TFS Proxy Monitor. A winform application allow administrator can monitor the TFS Server Proxy statistics remotely.umbracoSamplePackageCreator (beta): This is an early version of a simple package creator for Umbraco as a Visual Studio project. Currently with an Xslt extension and a user control. O...WatchersNET.TagCloud: 3D Flash TagCloud Module for DotNetNukeWriterous: A Plug-in For Windows Live Writer: This plug-in for Live Writer allows the user to create their post in Live Writer and then publish to Posterous.comNew Releases.NET Extensions - Extension Methods Library: Release 2010.05: Added a common set of extension methods for IDataReader, DataRow and DataRowView to access field values in a type safe manner using type dedicated ...AmiBroker Plug-Ins with C#: AmiBroker Plug-Ins v0.0.1: This is just a demo plug-in which shows how you can write plug-ins for AmiBroker with fully managed code.AxUnit: Version 1: AxUnit let's you write Unit Test assertions in Dynamics Ax like this: assert.that(2, is.equalTo2)); Installation instructions (Microsoft Dynamics ...BattLineSvc: V2: - Fixed bug where sometimes the line would not show up, even with the 90 second boot-up delay. This was due to the window being created too early ...Botola PHP Class: Botola API: la classe PHPBugTracker.NET: BugTracker.NET 3.4.0: In screen capture app, "Go to website" now goes to the bug you just created. In screen capture app, fixed where the crosshairs weren't always to...Bulk Project Delete: Version 1.1.1: A minor fix to 1.1: fixes a problem that indicated some projects were not found on the server when they were in fact found. This problem only exist...C# Linear Hash Table: Linear Hash Table b3: Remove functionality added. Now IDictionary Compliant, but most functions not yet tested.Code examples, utilities and misc from Lars Wilhelmsen [MVP]: LarsW.MexEdmxFixer 1.0: A quick hack to fix the Edmx files output by mex.exe (a tool in the SQL Modeling suite - November 2009 CTP) so that they can be opened in the desig...Code Snippet With Syntaxhighlighter Support for Windows Live Writer: Version 5.0.2: Minor update. Added brushes for F#, PowerShell and Erlang. Now a Windows Presentation Framework (WPF) application. ComponentFactory.Krypton.Toolki...Compact Unity: Compact Unity 1.0: Release.Compact Unity: CompactUnity 1.0: Release.FAST for Sharepoint MOSS 2010 Query Tool: Version 0.9: The tool is fully functioning. All of the cases for exceptions may not have been caught yet. I wanted to release a version to allow people to use...Fluent Ribbon Control Suite: Fluent Ribbon Control Suite RC (for .NET 4.0 RC): Build for .NET 4.0 RC. Includes Fluent.dll (with .pdb and .xml) and test application compiled with .NET 4.0 RC. BEAWARE! Fluent for .NET 4.0 RC is...FluentNHibernate.Search: 0.2 Beta: 0.2 Beta Fixed : #7275 - Field Mapping without specifying "Name" Fixed : #7271 - StackOverFlow Exception while Configure Embedded Mappings Fixed :...InfoService: InfoService v1.5 Beta 9: InfoService Beta Release Please note this is a BETA. It should be stable, but i can't guarantee that! So use it on your own risk. Please read Plug...jQuery.cssLess: jQuery.cssLess 0.2: Version supports variables, mixins and nested rules. TODO: lower scope variables and mixins should not delete higher scope variables and mixins ...Lunar Phase Silverlight Gadget: Lunar Phase: First public beta for Lunar Phase Silverlight Gadget. It's a stable release but it hasn't auto update state. That will come with the final release ...MapWindow GIS: MapWindow 6.0 msi (March 7): This is an update that fixes a number of problems with the multi-point features, the M and Z features as well as enabling multi-part creation using...Mews: Mews.Application V0.7: Installation InstuctionsNew Features15390 15085 Fixed Issues16173 16552. This happens when the database maintenance process kicks in during sta...sELedit: sELedit v1.0a: Added: Basic exception handlers (load/save/export) Added: List 57 support (no search and replace) Added: MYEN 1.3.1 Client ->CN 1.3.6 Server export...Sem.Sync: 2010-03-07 - End user client for Xing to Outlook: This client does include the binaries for syncing Xing contacts to Microsoft Outlook. It does contain only the binaries to sync from Xing to Outloo...Sem.Sync: 2010-03-07 - Synchronization Manager: This client does provide a more advanced (and more complex) GUI that allows you to select from two included templates (you can add your own, too) a...SharePoint Outlook Connector: Source Code for Version 1.2.3.2: Source Code for Version 1.2.3.2SharePoint Video Player Web Part & SharePoint Video Library: Version 2.0.0: Release Notes: New The new SharePoint Video Player release includes a SharePoint video template to create your own video library Changes The Shar...SilverSprite: SilverSprite 3.0 Alpha 2: These are the latest binaries for SilverSprite. The major changes for this release are that we are now using the XNA namespaces (no more #Iif SILVE...Simple WMV/ASF files muxer/demuxer: Initial release: Initial releaseStarter Master Pages for SharePoint 2010: Starter Master Pages for SP2010 - RC: Release Candidate release of Starter Master Pages for SharePoint 2010 by Randy Drisgill http://blog.drisgill.com _starter.master - Starter Master ...Text Designer Outline Text Library: 11th minor release: New Feature : Reflection!!ToolSuite.ValidationExpression: 01.00.01.002: second release of the validation class; the assembly file is ready to use, the documentation is complete;Truecrafting: Truecrafting 0.51: overhauled truecrafting code: combined all engines into 1 mage engine, made the engine and artificial intelligence support any spec, and achieved a...WatchersNET.TagCloud: WatchersNET.TagCloud 01.00.00: First ReleaseWCF Contrib: WCF Contrib v2.1 Mar07: This release is the final version of v2.1 Beta that was published on February 10th. Below you will find the changes that were made: Changes from v...WillStrohl.LightboxGallery Module for DotNetNuke: WillStrohl.LightboxGallery v1.02.00: This version of the Lightbox Gallery Module adds the following features: New Lightbox provider: Fancybox Thumbnails generated keeping their aspec...Writerous: A Plug-in For Windows Live Writer: Writerous v1.0: This is the first release of Writerous.WSDLGenerator: WSDLGenerator 0.0.0.5: - Use updated CommandLineParser.dll - Code uses 'ServiceDescriptionReflector' instead of custom code. - Added option to support SharePoint 2007 com...Xpress - ASP.NET MVC 个人博客程序: xpress2.1.0.beta.bin: 原 DsJian1.0的升级版本,名字修改为 xpress 此正式版本YSCommander: Version 1.0.1.0: Fixed bug: 1st start with non-existing data file.Most Popular ProjectsMetaSharpWBFS ManagerRawrAJAX Control ToolkitMicrosoft SQL Server Product Samples: DatabaseSilverlight ToolkitWindows Presentation Foundation (WPF)ASP.NETMicrosoft SQL Server Community & SamplesImage Resizer Powertoy Clone for WindowsMost Active ProjectsUmbraco CMSRawrSDS: Scientific DataSet library and toolsBlogEngine.NETjQuery Library for SharePoint Web Servicespatterns & practices – Enterprise LibraryIonics Isapi Rewrite FilterFarseer Physics EngineFluent AssertionsFasterflect - A Fast and Simple Reflection API

    Read the article

  • Data Profiling without SSIS

    Strangely enough for a predominantly SSIS blog, this post is all about how to perform data profiling without using SSIS. Whilst the Data Profiling Task is a worthy addition, there are a couple of limitations I’ve encountered of late. The first is that it requires SQL Server 2008, and not everyone is there yet. The second is that it can only target SQL Server 2005 and above. What about older systems, which are the ones that we probably need to investigate the most, or other vendor databases such as Oracle? With these limitations in mind I did some searching to find a quick and easy alternative to help me perform some data profiling for a project I was working on recently. I only had SQL Server 2005 available, and anyway most of my target source systems were Oracle, and of course I had short timescales. I looked at several options. Some never got beyond the download stage, they failed to install or just did not run, and others provided less than I could have produced myself by spending 2 minutes writing some basic SQL queries. In the end I settled on an open source product called DataCleaner. To quote from their website: DataCleaner is an Open Source application for profiling, validating and comparing data. These activities help you administer and monitor your data quality in order to ensure that your data is useful and applicable to your business situation. DataCleaner is the free alternative to software for master data management (MDM) methodologies, data warehousing (DW) projects, statistical research, preparation for extract-transform-load (ETL) activities and more. DataCleaner is developed in Java and licensed under LGPL. As quoted above it claims to support profiling, validating and comparing data, but I didn’t really get past the profiling functions, so won’t comment on the other two. The profiling whilst not prefect certainly saved some time compared to the limited alternatives. The ability to profile heterogeneous data sources is a big advantage over the SSIS option, and I found it overall quite easy to use and performance was good. I could see it struggling at times, but actually for what it does I was impressed. It had some data type niggles with Oracle, and some metrics seem a little strange, although thankfully they were easy to augment with some SQL queries to ensure a consistent picture. The report export options didn’t do it for me, but copy and paste with a bit of Excel magic was sufficient. One initial point for me personally is that I have had limited exposure to things of the Java persuasion and whilst I normally get by fine, sometimes the simplest things can throw me. For example installing a JDBC driver, why do I have to copy files to make it all work, has nobody ever heard of an MSI? In case there are other people out there like me who have become totally indoctrinated with the Microsoft software paradigm, I’ve written a quick start guide that details every step required. Steps 1- 5 are the key ones, the rest is really an excuse for some screenshots to show you the tool. Quick Start Guide Step 1  - Download Data Cleaner. The Microsoft Windows zipped exe option, and I chose the latest stable build, currently DataCleaner 1.5.3 (final). Extract the files to a suitable location. Step 2 - Download Java. If you try and run datacleaner.exe without Java it will warn you, and then open your default browser and take you to the Java download site. Follow the installation instructions from there, normally just click Download Java a couple of times and you’re done. Step 3 - Download Microsoft SQL Server JDBC Driver. You may have SQL Server installed, but you won’t have a JDBC driver. Version 3.0 is the latest as of April 2010. There is no real installer, we are in the Java world here, but run the exe you downloaded to extract the files. The default Unzip to folder is not much help, so try a fully qualified path such as C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server JDBC Driver 3.0\ to ensure you can find the files afterwards. Step 4 - If you wish to use Windows Authentication to connect to your SQL Server then first we need to copy a file so that Data Cleaner can find it. Browse to the JDBC extract location from Step 3 and drill down to the file sqljdbc_auth.dll. You will have to choose the correct directory for your processor architecture. e.g. C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server JDBC Driver 3.0\sqljdbc_3.0\enu\auth\x86\sqljdbc_auth.dll. Now copy this file to the Data Cleaner extract folder you chose in Step 1. An alternative method is to edit datacleaner.cmd in the data cleaner extract folder as detailed in this data cleaner wiki topic, but I find copying the file simpler. Step 5 – Now lets run Data Cleaner, just run datacleaner.exe from the extract folder you chose in Step 1. Step 6 – Complete or skip the registration screen, and ignore the task window for now. In the main window click settings. Step 7 – In the Settings dialog, select the Database drivers tab, then click Register database driver and select the Local JAR file option. Step 8 – Browse to the JDBC driver extract location from Step 3 and drill down to select sqljdbc4.jar. e.g. C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server JDBC Driver 3.0\sqljdbc_3.0\enu\sqljdbc4.jar Step 9 – Select the Database driver class as com.microsoft.sqlserver.jdbc.SQLServerDriver, and then click the Test and Save database driver button. Step 10 - You should be back at the Settings dialog with a the list of drivers that includes SQL Server. Just click Save Settings to persist all your hard work. Step 11 – Now we can start to profile some data. In the main Data Cleaner window click New Task, and then Profile from the task window. Step 12 – In the Profile window click Open Database Step 13 – Now choose the SQL Server connection string option. Selecting a connection string gives us a template like jdbc:sqlserver://<hostname>:1433;databaseName=<database>, but obviously it requires some details to be entered for example  jdbc:sqlserver://localhost:1433;databaseName=SQLBits. This will connect to the database called SQLBits on my local machine. The port may also have to be changed if using such as when you have a multiple instances of SQL Server running. If using SQL Server Authentication enter a username and password as required and then click Connect to database. You can use Window Authentication, just add integratedSecurity=true to the end of your connection string. e.g jdbc:sqlserver://localhost:1433;databaseName=SQLBits;integratedSecurity=true.  If you didn’t complete Step 4 above you will need to do so now and restart Data Cleaner before it will work. Manually setting the connection string is fine, but creating a named connection makes more sense if you will be spending any length of time profiling a specific database. As highlighted in the left-hand screen-shot, at the bottom of the dialog it includes partial instructions on how to create named connections. In the folder shown C:\Users\<Username>\.datacleaner\1.5.3, open the datacleaner-config.xml file in your editor of choice add your own details. You’ll see a sample connection in the file already, just add yours following the same pattern. e.g. <!-- Darren's Named Connections --> <bean class="dk.eobjects.datacleaner.gui.model.NamedConnection"> <property name="name" value="SQLBits Local Connection" /> <property name="driverClass" value="com.microsoft.sqlserver.jdbc.SQLServerDriver" /> <property name="connectionString" value="jdbc:sqlserver://localhost:1433;databaseName=SQLBits;integratedSecurity=true" /> <property name="tableTypes"> <list> <value>TABLE</value> <value>VIEW</value> </list> </property> </bean> Step 14 – Once back at the Profile window, you should now see your schemas, tables and/or views listed down the left hand side. Browse this tree and double-click a table to select it for profiling. You can then click Add profile, and choose some profiling options, before finally clicking Run profiling. You can see below a sample output for three of the most common profiles, click the image for full size.   I hope this has given you a taster for DataCleaner, and should help you get up and running pretty quickly.

    Read the article

  • The HTG Guide to Using a Bluetooth Keyboard with Your Android Device

    - by Matt Klein
    Android devices aren’t usually associated with physical keyboards. But, since Google is now bundling their QuickOffice app with the newly-released Kit-Kat, it appears inevitable that at least some Android tablets (particularly 10-inch models) will take on more productivity roles. In recent years, physical keyboards have been rendered obsolete by swipe style input methods such as Swype and Google Keyboard. Physical keyboards tend to make phones thick and plump, and that won’t fly today when thin (and even flexible and curved) is in vogue. So, you’ll be hard-pressed to find smartphone manufacturers launching new models with physical keyboards, thus rendering sliders to a past chapter in mobile phone evolution. It makes sense to ditch the clunky keyboard phone in favor of a lighter, thinner model. You’re going to carry around in your pocket or purse all day, why have that extra bulk and weight? That said, there is sound logic behind pairing tablets with keyboards. Microsoft continues to plod forward with its Surface models, and while critics continue to lavish praise on the iPad, its functionality is obviously enhanced and extended when you add a physical keyboard. Apple even has an entire page devoted specifically to iPad-compatible keyboards. But an Android tablet and a keyboard? Does such a thing even exist? They do actually. There are docking keyboards and keyboard/case combinations, there’s the Asus Transformer family, Logitech markets a Windows 8 keyboard that speaks “Android”, and these are just to name a few. So we know that keyboard products that are designed to work with Android exist, but what about an everyday Bluetooth keyboard you might use with Windows or OS X? How-To Geek wanted look at how viable it is to use such a keyboard with Android. We conducted some research and examined some lists of Android keyboard shortcuts. Most of what we found was long outdated. Many of the shortcuts don’t even apply anymore, while others just didn’t work. Regardless, after a little experimentation and a dash of customization, it turns out using a keyboard with Android is kind of fun, and who knows, maybe it will catch on. Setting things up Setting up a Bluetooth keyboard with Android is very easy. First, you’ll need a Bluetooth keyboard and of course an Android device, preferably running version 4.1 (Jelly Bean) or higher. For our test, we paired a second-generation Google Nexus 7 running Android 4.3 with a Samsung Series 7 keyboard. In Android, enable Bluetooth if it isn’t already on. We’d like to note that if you don’t normally use Bluetooth accessories and peripherals with your Android device (or any device really), it’s best practice to leave Bluetooth off because, like GPS, it drains the device’s battery more quickly. To enable Bluetooth, simply go to “Settings” -> “Bluetooth” and tap the slider button to “On”. To set up the keyboard, make sure it is on and then tap “Bluetooth” in the Android settings. On the resulting screen, your Android device should automatically search for and hopefully find your keyboard. If you don’t get it right the first time, simply turn the keyboard on again and then tap “Search for Devices” to try again. If it still doesn’t work, make sure you have fresh batteries and the keyboard isn’t paired to another device. If it is, you will need to unpair it before it will work with your Android device (consult your keyboard manufacturer’s documentation or Google if you don’t know how to do this). When Android finds your keyboard, select it under “Available Devices” … … and you should be prompted to type in a code: If successful, you will see that device is now “Connected” and you’re ready to go. If you want to test things out, try pressing the “Windows” key (“Apple” or “Command”) + ESC, and you will be whisked to your Home screen. So, what can you do? Traditional Mac and Windows users know there’s usually a keyboard shortcut for just about everything (and if there isn’t, there’s all kinds of ways to remap keys to do a variety of commands, tasks, and functions). So where does Android fall in terms of baked-in keyboard commands? There answer to that is kind of enough, but not too much. There are definitely established combos you can use to get around, but they aren’t clear and there doesn’t appear to be any one authority on what they are. Still, there is enough keyboard functionality in Android to make it a viable option, if only for those times when you need to get something done (long e-mail or important document) and an on-screen keyboard simply won’t do. It’s important to remember that Android is, and likely always will be a touch-first interface. That said, it does make some concessions to physical keyboards. In other words, you can get around Android fairly well without having to lift your hands off the keys, but you will still have to tap the screen regularly, unless you add a mouse. For example, you can wake your device by tapping a key rather than pressing its power button. However, if your device is slide or pattern-locked, then you’ll have to use the touchscreen to unlock it – a password or PIN however, works seamlessly with a keyboard – other things like widgets and app controls and features, have to be tapped. You get the idea. Keyboard shortcuts and navigation As we said, baked-in keyboard shortcut combos aren’t necessarily abundant nor apparent. The one thing you can always do is search. Any time you want to Google something, start typing from the Home screen and the search screen will automatically open and begin displaying results. Other than that, here is what we were able to figure out: ESC = go back CTRL + ESC = menu CTRL + ALT + DEL = restart (no questions asked) ALT + SPACE = search page (say “OK Google” to voice search) ALT + TAB (ALT + SHIFT + TAB) = switch tasks Also, if you have designated volume function keys, those will probably work too. There’s also some dedicated app shortcuts like calculator, Gmail, and a few others: CMD + A = calculator CMD + C = contacts CMD + E = e-mail CMD + G = Gmail CMD + L = Calendar CMD + P = Play Music CMD + Y = YouTube Overall, it’s not a long comprehensive list and there’s no dedicated keyboard combos for the full array of Google’s products. Granted, it’s hard to imagine getting a lot of mileage out of a keyboard with Maps but with something like Keep, you could type out long, detailed lists on your tablet, and then view them on your smartphone when you go out shopping. You can also use the arrow keys to navigate your Home screen over shortcuts and open the app drawer. When something on the screen is selected, it will be highlighted in blue. Press “Enter” to open your selection. Additionally, if an app has its own set of shortcuts, e.g. Gmail has quite a few unique shortcuts to it, as does Chrome, some – though not many – will work in Android (not for YouTube though). Also, many “universal” shortcuts such as Copy (CTRL + C), Cut (CTRL + X), Paste (CTRL + V), and Select All (CTRL + A) work where needed – such as in instant messaging, e-mail, social media apps, etc. Creating custom application shortcuts What about custom shortcuts? When we were researching this article, we were under the impression that it was possible to assign keyboard combinations to specific apps, such as you could do on older Android versions such as Gingerbread. This no long seems to be the case and nowhere in “Settings” could we find a way to assign hotkey combos to any of our favorite, oft-used apps or functions. If you do want custom keyboard shortcuts, what can you do? Luckily, there’s an app on Google Play that allows you to, among other things, create custom app shortcuts. It is called External Keyboard Helper (EKH) and while there is a free demo version, the pay version is only a few bucks. We decided to give EKH a whirl and through a little experimentation and finally reading the developer’s how-to, we found we could map custom keyboard combos to just about anything. To do this, first open the application and you’ll see the main app screen. Don’t worry about choosing a custom layout or anything like that, you want to go straight to the “Advanced settings”: In the “Advanced settings” select “Application shortcuts” to continue: You can have up to 16 custom application shortcuts. We are going to create a custom shortcut to the Facebook app. We choose “A0”, and from the resulting list, Facebook. You can do this for any number of apps, services, and settings. As you can now see, the Facebook app has now been linked to application-zero (A0): Go back to the “Advanced settings” and choose “Customize keyboard mappings”: You will be prompted to create a custom keyboard layout so we choose “Custom 1”: When you choose to create a custom layout, you can do a great many more things with your keyboard. For example, many keyboards have predefined function (Fn) keys, which you can map to your tablet’s brightness controls, toggle WiFi on/off, and much more. A word of advice, the application automatically remaps certain keys when you create a custom layout. This might mess up some existing keyboard combos. If you simply want to add some functionality to your keyboard, you can go ahead and delete EKH’s default changes and start your custom layout from scratch. To create a new combo, select “Add new key mapping”: For our new shortcut, we are going to assign the Facebook app to open when we key in “ALT + F”. To do this, we press the “F” key while in the “Scancode” field and we see it returns a value of “33”. If we wanted to use a different key, we can press “Change” and scan another key’s numerical value. We now want to assign the “ALT” key to application “A0”, previously designated as the Facebook app. In the “AltGr” field, we enter “A0” and then “Save” our custom combo. And now we see our new application shortcut. Now, as long as we’re using our custom layout, every time we press “ALT + F”, the Facebook app will launch: External Keyboard Helper extends far beyond simple application shortcuts and if you are looking for deeper keyboard customization options, you should definitely check it out. Among other things, EKH also supports dozens of languages, allows you to quickly switch between layouts using a key or combo, add up to 16 custom text shortcuts, and much more! It can be had on Google Play for $2.53 for the full version, but you can try the demo version for free. More extensive documentation on how to use the app is also available. Android? Keyboard? Sure, why not? Unlike traditional desktop operating systems, you don’t need a physical keyboard and mouse to use a mobile operating system. You can buy an iPad or Nexus 10 or Galaxy Note, and never need another accessory or peripheral – they work as intended right out of the box. It’s even possible you can write the next great American novel on one these devices, though that might require a lot of practice and patience. That said, using a keyboard with Android is kind of fun. It’s not revelatory but it does elevate the experience. You don’t even need to add customizations (though they are nice) because there are enough existing keyboard shortcuts in Android to make it usable. Plus, when it comes to inputting text such as in an editor or terminal application, we fully advocate big, physical keyboards. Bottom line, if you’re looking for a way to enhance your Android tablet, give a keyboard a chance. Do you use your Android device for productivity? Is a physical keyboard an important part of your setup? Do you have any shortcuts that we missed? Sound off in the comments and let us know what you think.     

    Read the article

  • A Nondeterministic Engine written in VB.NET 2010

    - by neil chen
    When I'm reading SICP (Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs) recently, I'm very interested in the concept of an "Nondeterministic Algorithm". According to wikipedia:  In computer science, a nondeterministic algorithm is an algorithm with one or more choice points where multiple different continuations are possible, without any specification of which one will be taken. For example, here is an puzzle came from the SICP: Baker, Cooper, Fletcher, Miller, and Smith live on different floors of an apartment housethat contains only five floors. Baker does not live on the top floor. Cooper does not live onthe bottom floor. Fletcher does not live on either the top or the bottom floor. Miller lives ona higher floor than does Cooper. Smith does not live on a floor adjacent to Fletcher's.Fletcher does not live on a floor adjacent to Cooper's. Where does everyone live? After reading this I decided to build a simple nondeterministic calculation engine with .NET. The rough idea is that we can use an iterator to track each set of possible values of the parameters, and then we implement some logic inside the engine to automate the statemachine, so that we can try one combination of the values, then test it, and then move to the next. We also used a backtracking algorithm to go back when we are running out of choices at some point. Following is the core code of the engine itself: Code highlighting produced by Actipro CodeHighlighter (freeware)http://www.CodeHighlighter.com/--Public Class NonDeterministicEngine Private _paramDict As New List(Of Tuple(Of String, IEnumerator)) 'Private _predicateDict As New List(Of Tuple(Of Func(Of Object, Boolean), IEnumerable(Of String))) Private _predicateDict As New List(Of Tuple(Of Object, IList(Of String))) Public Sub AddParam(ByVal name As String, ByVal values As IEnumerable) _paramDict.Add(New Tuple(Of String, IEnumerator)(name, values.GetEnumerator())) End Sub Public Sub AddRequire(ByVal predicate As Func(Of Object, Boolean), ByVal paramNames As IList(Of String)) CheckParamCount(1, paramNames) _predicateDict.Add(New Tuple(Of Object, IList(Of String))(predicate, paramNames)) End Sub Public Sub AddRequire(ByVal predicate As Func(Of Object, Object, Boolean), ByVal paramNames As IList(Of String)) CheckParamCount(2, paramNames) _predicateDict.Add(New Tuple(Of Object, IList(Of String))(predicate, paramNames)) End Sub Public Sub AddRequire(ByVal predicate As Func(Of Object, Object, Object, Boolean), ByVal paramNames As IList(Of String)) CheckParamCount(3, paramNames) _predicateDict.Add(New Tuple(Of Object, IList(Of String))(predicate, paramNames)) End Sub Public Sub AddRequire(ByVal predicate As Func(Of Object, Object, Object, Object, Boolean), ByVal paramNames As IList(Of String)) CheckParamCount(4, paramNames) _predicateDict.Add(New Tuple(Of Object, IList(Of String))(predicate, paramNames)) End Sub Public Sub AddRequire(ByVal predicate As Func(Of Object, Object, Object, Object, Object, Boolean), ByVal paramNames As IList(Of String)) CheckParamCount(5, paramNames) _predicateDict.Add(New Tuple(Of Object, IList(Of String))(predicate, paramNames)) End Sub Public Sub AddRequire(ByVal predicate As Func(Of Object, Object, Object, Object, Object, Object, Boolean), ByVal paramNames As IList(Of String)) CheckParamCount(6, paramNames) _predicateDict.Add(New Tuple(Of Object, IList(Of String))(predicate, paramNames)) End Sub Public Sub AddRequire(ByVal predicate As Func(Of Object, Object, Object, Object, Object, Object, Object, Boolean), ByVal paramNames As IList(Of String)) CheckParamCount(7, paramNames) _predicateDict.Add(New Tuple(Of Object, IList(Of String))(predicate, paramNames)) End Sub Public Sub AddRequire(ByVal predicate As Func(Of Object, Object, Object, Object, Object, Object, Object, Object, Boolean), ByVal paramNames As IList(Of String)) CheckParamCount(8, paramNames) _predicateDict.Add(New Tuple(Of Object, IList(Of String))(predicate, paramNames)) End Sub Sub CheckParamCount(ByVal count As Integer, ByVal paramNames As IList(Of String)) If paramNames.Count <> count Then Throw New Exception("Parameter count does not match.") End If End Sub Public Property IterationOver As Boolean Private _firstTime As Boolean = True Public ReadOnly Property Current As Dictionary(Of String, Object) Get If IterationOver Then Return Nothing Else Dim _nextResult = New Dictionary(Of String, Object) For Each item In _paramDict Dim iter = item.Item2 _nextResult.Add(item.Item1, iter.Current) Next Return _nextResult End If End Get End Property Function MoveNext() As Boolean If IterationOver Then Return False End If If _firstTime Then For Each item In _paramDict Dim iter = item.Item2 iter.MoveNext() Next _firstTime = False Return True Else Dim canMoveNext = False Dim iterIndex = _paramDict.Count - 1 canMoveNext = _paramDict(iterIndex).Item2.MoveNext If canMoveNext Then Return True End If Do While Not canMoveNext iterIndex = iterIndex - 1 If iterIndex = -1 Then Return False IterationOver = True End If canMoveNext = _paramDict(iterIndex).Item2.MoveNext If canMoveNext Then For i = iterIndex + 1 To _paramDict.Count - 1 Dim iter = _paramDict(i).Item2 iter.Reset() iter.MoveNext() Next Return True End If Loop End If End Function Function GetNextResult() As Dictionary(Of String, Object) While MoveNext() Dim result = Current If Satisfy(result) Then Return result End If End While Return Nothing End Function Function Satisfy(ByVal result As Dictionary(Of String, Object)) As Boolean For Each item In _predicateDict Dim pred = item.Item1 Select Case item.Item2.Count Case 1 Dim p1 = DirectCast(pred, Func(Of Object, Boolean)) Dim v1 = result(item.Item2(0)) If Not p1(v1) Then Return False End If Case 2 Dim p2 = DirectCast(pred, Func(Of Object, Object, Boolean)) Dim v1 = result(item.Item2(0)) Dim v2 = result(item.Item2(1)) If Not p2(v1, v2) Then Return False End If Case 3 Dim p3 = DirectCast(pred, Func(Of Object, Object, Object, Boolean)) Dim v1 = result(item.Item2(0)) Dim v2 = result(item.Item2(1)) Dim v3 = result(item.Item2(2)) If Not p3(v1, v2, v3) Then Return False End If Case 4 Dim p4 = DirectCast(pred, Func(Of Object, Object, Object, Object, Boolean)) Dim v1 = result(item.Item2(0)) Dim v2 = result(item.Item2(1)) Dim v3 = result(item.Item2(2)) Dim v4 = result(item.Item2(3)) If Not p4(v1, v2, v3, v4) Then Return False End If Case 5 Dim p5 = DirectCast(pred, Func(Of Object, Object, Object, Object, Object, Boolean)) Dim v1 = result(item.Item2(0)) Dim v2 = result(item.Item2(1)) Dim v3 = result(item.Item2(2)) Dim v4 = result(item.Item2(3)) Dim v5 = result(item.Item2(4)) If Not p5(v1, v2, v3, v4, v5) Then Return False End If Case 6 Dim p6 = DirectCast(pred, Func(Of Object, Object, Object, Object, Object, Object, Boolean)) Dim v1 = result(item.Item2(0)) Dim v2 = result(item.Item2(1)) Dim v3 = result(item.Item2(2)) Dim v4 = result(item.Item2(3)) Dim v5 = result(item.Item2(4)) Dim v6 = result(item.Item2(5)) If Not p6(v1, v2, v3, v4, v5, v6) Then Return False End If Case 7 Dim p7 = DirectCast(pred, Func(Of Object, Object, Object, Object, Object, Object, Object, Boolean)) Dim v1 = result(item.Item2(0)) Dim v2 = result(item.Item2(1)) Dim v3 = result(item.Item2(2)) Dim v4 = result(item.Item2(3)) Dim v5 = result(item.Item2(4)) Dim v6 = result(item.Item2(5)) Dim v7 = result(item.Item2(6)) If Not p7(v1, v2, v3, v4, v5, v6, v7) Then Return False End If Case 8 Dim p8 = DirectCast(pred, Func(Of Object, Object, Object, Object, Object, Object, Object, Object, Boolean)) Dim v1 = result(item.Item2(0)) Dim v2 = result(item.Item2(1)) Dim v3 = result(item.Item2(2)) Dim v4 = result(item.Item2(3)) Dim v5 = result(item.Item2(4)) Dim v6 = result(item.Item2(5)) Dim v7 = result(item.Item2(6)) Dim v8 = result(item.Item2(7)) If Not p8(v1, v2, v3, v4, v5, v6, v7, v8) Then Return False End If Case Else Throw New NotSupportedException End Select Next Return True End FunctionEnd Class    And now we can use the engine to solve the problem we mentioned above:   Code highlighting produced by Actipro CodeHighlighter (freeware)http://www.CodeHighlighter.com/--Sub Test2() Dim engine = New NonDeterministicEngine() engine.AddParam("baker", {1, 2, 3, 4, 5}) engine.AddParam("cooper", {1, 2, 3, 4, 5}) engine.AddParam("fletcher", {1, 2, 3, 4, 5}) engine.AddParam("miller", {1, 2, 3, 4, 5}) engine.AddParam("smith", {1, 2, 3, 4, 5}) engine.AddRequire(Function(baker) As Boolean Return baker <> 5 End Function, {"baker"}) engine.AddRequire(Function(cooper) As Boolean Return cooper <> 1 End Function, {"cooper"}) engine.AddRequire(Function(fletcher) As Boolean Return fletcher <> 1 And fletcher <> 5 End Function, {"fletcher"}) engine.AddRequire(Function(miller, cooper) As Boolean 'Return miller = cooper + 1 Return miller > cooper End Function, {"miller", "cooper"}) engine.AddRequire(Function(smith, fletcher) As Boolean Return smith <> fletcher + 1 And smith <> fletcher - 1 End Function, {"smith", "fletcher"}) engine.AddRequire(Function(fletcher, cooper) As Boolean Return fletcher <> cooper + 1 And fletcher <> cooper - 1 End Function, {"fletcher", "cooper"}) engine.AddRequire(Function(a, b, c, d, e) As Boolean Return a <> b And a <> c And a <> d And a <> e And b <> c And b <> d And b <> e And c <> d And c <> e And d <> e End Function, {"baker", "cooper", "fletcher", "miller", "smith"}) Dim result = engine.GetNextResult() While Not result Is Nothing Console.WriteLine(String.Format("baker: {0}, cooper: {1}, fletcher: {2}, miller: {3}, smith: {4}", result("baker"), result("cooper"), result("fletcher"), result("miller"), result("smith"))) result = engine.GetNextResult() End While Console.WriteLine("Calculation ended.")End Sub   Also, this engine can solve the classic 8 queens puzzle and find out all 92 results for me.   Code highlighting produced by Actipro CodeHighlighter (freeware)http://www.CodeHighlighter.com/--Sub Test3() ' The 8-Queens problem. Dim engine = New NonDeterministicEngine() ' Let's assume that a - h represents the queens in row 1 to 8, then we just need to find out the column number for each of them. engine.AddParam("a", {1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8}) engine.AddParam("b", {1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8}) engine.AddParam("c", {1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8}) engine.AddParam("d", {1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8}) engine.AddParam("e", {1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8}) engine.AddParam("f", {1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8}) engine.AddParam("g", {1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8}) engine.AddParam("h", {1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8}) Dim NotInTheSameDiagonalLine = Function(cols As IList) As Boolean For i = 0 To cols.Count - 2 For j = i + 1 To cols.Count - 1 If j - i = Math.Abs(cols(j) - cols(i)) Then Return False End If Next Next Return True End Function engine.AddRequire(Function(a, b, c, d, e, f, g, h) As Boolean Return a <> b AndAlso a <> c AndAlso a <> d AndAlso a <> e AndAlso a <> f AndAlso a <> g AndAlso a <> h AndAlso b <> c AndAlso b <> d AndAlso b <> e AndAlso b <> f AndAlso b <> g AndAlso b <> h AndAlso c <> d AndAlso c <> e AndAlso c <> f AndAlso c <> g AndAlso c <> h AndAlso d <> e AndAlso d <> f AndAlso d <> g AndAlso d <> h AndAlso e <> f AndAlso e <> g AndAlso e <> h AndAlso f <> g AndAlso f <> h AndAlso g <> h AndAlso NotInTheSameDiagonalLine({a, b, c, d, e, f, g, h}) End Function, {"a", "b", "c", "d", "e", "f", "g", "h"}) Dim result = engine.GetNextResult() While Not result Is Nothing Console.WriteLine("(1,{0}), (2,{1}), (3,{2}), (4,{3}), (5,{4}), (6,{5}), (7,{6}), (8,{7})", result("a"), result("b"), result("c"), result("d"), result("e"), result("f"), result("g"), result("h")) result = engine.GetNextResult() End While Console.WriteLine("Calculation ended.")End Sub (Chinese version of the post: http://www.cnblogs.com/RChen/archive/2010/05/17/1737587.html) Cheers,  

    Read the article

< Previous Page | 374 375 376 377 378 379 380 381 382 383 384 385  | Next Page >