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  • Nested <a> and <span> challenge

    - by PaddyO
    Hi all, Trying in vain to get a nested link working within a nested span. This is a working test page for the code below to explain what I'm trying to do. Any ideas on how to get this working in valid html? I guess it's either a nesting order or style syntax thing but I am at a loss. Any thoughts much appreciated. <div id="greyback"> <ul id="scrollbox"> <li class="listcat">List header</li> <li><a class="menu" href="#freeze">List item 1<span><b>This text has popped up because you have clicked the list item, which has an "a" tag and now has :focus. That "a" tag is the first of two.</b><br><br>What I am trying to do is to set the second "a" tag as a DIFFERENT "embedded" link in this box<span style="color: blue; background-color: yellow;">eg, here<a href="http://www.conservationenterprises.com" target="blank">This is the second (nested) "a" tag in this html nest. It is a link to an external site. Instead of this being an always-visible link, I want it to sit within the yellow box in the first span (click the List item 1 to display).</a></span> </a></span> </li> </a></span> </li> </ul> </div> and the CSS: #scrollbox {margin: 0 auto; margin-top: 1em; margin-bottom: 1em; width:19em; height:auto; max-height: 21em; overflow:auto; border-bottom: 0.1em solid #FFA500; border-top: 0.1em solid #FFA500;} #scrollbox a {float: left; color:#000000; text-decoration:none; width:18em; height: auto; margin-bottom: 0.5em; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 0.9em; text-align:left;} #scrollbox a.menu {} #scrollbox a span {display:none; position:absolute; left:0em; top:0;} #scrollbox a span img {float: right; border:0; max-width:7.5em;} #scrollbox a:hover {border: 0; color: #7ebb11; font-size:0.9em;} #scrollbox a:hover span {border: 0; color: #535353;} #scrollbox a span:focus {color: blue;} #scrollbox a:active {border:none; color: #535353; text-decoration: none;} #scrollbox a:focus {border:0em solid #000; outline:0;} #scrollbox a:active span, #scrollbox li a:active span, #scrollbox a:focus span, #scrollbox li a:focus span {display: block; width: 52.5em; min-height: 20em; height: auto; left: 1.5em; top:18em; z-index:10; font-size:0.9em; text-align: left; padding: 1em; padding-bottom: 0em; background-color: #c3FFe3; color: #535353; border: solid #FFA500 0.25em;} #scrollbox li a:active span span, #scrollbox li a:focus span span{display: block; width: auto; height: auto; min-height: 2em; left: 25em; top:10em; z-index:10; font-size:0.9em; text-align: left; padding: 1em; padding-bottom: 0em; background-color: transparent; color: #535353; border: dashed red 1px;} .ul#scrollbox {padding-left: 0.1em;} #scrollbox li {float:left; list-style: none; background: url(blank.png) no-repeat left center; margin-left: 0em; font-family:Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 0.9em;} #scrollbox li.listcat {float: left; text-align:left; width: 18em; margin-left: 0em; margin-top: 0.1em; margin-bottom: 0.3em; padding-top:0.5em; color: green; font-size: 0.9em; font-weight:bold;} Cheers Patrick.

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  • jQuery - Why doesn't combining has() and gt() work in some cases?

    - by KatieK
    I wanted to select any ul which contains more than 3 lis. This code worked with the 1.2.6 jQuery library: $("ul:has(li:gt(2))") .each( function() { $(this).css("border", "solid red 1px"); }); But not 1.3.2 or 1.4.2. This code worked with the 1.4.2 jQuery library: $('ul').has('li:nth-child(3)').css('border', 'solid red 1px'); But not v1.2.6. Why does each version work with one library version, but not the other? Am I encountering some kind of bug, or am I doing something wrong? Any help understanding , or differences to be aware of between different versions of the jQuery libraries, would be much appreciated. Thanks!

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  • Content border not showing in any browser!

    - by TankDriver
    I have been working on a project for a few days now and have just recently noticed that the border of 2 of my content areas are not showing in Mozilla or IE. http://www.gamefriction.com/Coded/ is where the page is located. If you look at the main content area where the "news" is you will see that there is a 1px solid border that is a slightly darker grey than the 4px border surrounding each content box. On the right column content the 1px solid #dfdfdf; border does not show. I can't seem to find any reason why this is not showing. Any ideas?

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  • css issue on hover- shaky effect

    - by Sarika Thapaliya
    <style type="text/css"> .linkcontainer{border-right: solid 0.2px white;margin-right:1px} .hardlink{color: #FFF !important; border: 1px solid transparent; } .hardlink:hover{ background:url("/_layouts/images/bgximg.png") repeat-x -0px -489px; display:inline-block; background-color:#21374C; border:0.2px solid #5badff; line-height:20px; text-decoration:none !important;} </style> <div style="padding-bottom:3px;background:transparent; color:white!important; float:left; margin-right:20px; line-height:42px;"> <span class="linkcontainer"> <a class="hardlink" style="padding:0 10px;" href="http://hronline">HROnline</a> </span> <span class="linkcontainer"> <a class="hardlink" style="padding:0 10px; " href="http://hronline/ec">Employee Center</a> </span> <span class="linkcontainer"> <a class="hardlink" style="padding:0 10px; " href="http://hronline/businesscommunities">Business Communities</a> </span> <span class="linkcontainer"> <a class="hardlink" style="padding:0 10px;" href="http://hronline/internalservices">Internal Services</a> </span> <span class="linkcontainer"> <a class="hardlink" style="padding:0 10px;" href="http://hronline/policiesprocedures">Policies&procedures</a> </span> <span class="linkcontainer"> <a class="hardlink" style="padding:0 10px;" href="http://hronline/qualitybestpractices">Best Practices</a> </span> </div> I added a right border to the span that contain menu links. When I hover on each menu links, it also has some background. This is causing jerky effect on the whole container.. What is causing the shaky effect on hover? I don't seem to figure it out--again..

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  • How to place some text over the DIV without breaking hover area of this DIV?

    - by Andr
    I'm total noob with CSS and it looks like hell =/ I have absolute positioned DIV and I handle mouse events over this DIV with JS like this: <div style='position: absolute; left: 0px; width:50px; height: 50px;' onmouseover='this.style.border="2px solid red"' onmouseout='this.style.border="1px solid black"'> </div> <div style='position: absolute;'>SOME TEXT</div> I need to place some text over this DIV and over the few same DIVs, but if I place any element over this DIV onMouseOut event is firing when mouse cursor switch to text. Tag with text can't be inside the DIV. Playing with z-index didn`t help. My browser is IE8.

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  • Div not expanding even with content inside

    - by Aiden Ryan
    I have a stack of divs inside of each other, all of which have an ID which specifies CSS only. But for some reason the surrounding DIV tag only expands to it's anointed height value, and not it's default auto, meaning that although the content is inside, the backing DIV is only a specific height. I need it to adjust the heigh to the size of whatever is inside of it (As there will be user submitted data being echoed out possibly in paragraphs with 500+ words.) Here is my HTML <div id="albumhold"> <div id="albumpic">Pic here</div> <div id="infohold"> <div id="albumhead">Name | Date</div> <div id="albuminfo">Information</div> </div> And the CSS for the HTML code: #albumhold { width: 920px; padding: 10px; height: auto; border: 1px solid #E1E1E1; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; background-color: #E1E1E1; background-image: url(../global-images/albumback.png); background-position: top center; background-repeat: repeat-x; } #albumpic { display: block; height: 110px; width: 110px; float: left; border: 1px solid #000; } #infohold { width: 800px; background-color: #CCC; float: right; height: 20px; } #albumhead { width: 800px; height: 20px; text-indent: 10px; border: 1px solid #000; color: #09F; } #albuminfo { margin-top: 5px; width: 800px; float: right; color: #09F; word-wrap:break-word; } Help is greatly appreciated.

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  • Whats wrong with my CSS?

    - by William
    I'm trying to get my name and trip input fields to line, but they're all over the place. http://prime.programming-designs.com/test_forum/viewboard.php?board=0 #formdiv{ margin: auto; text-align: left; width: 30%; } .fielddiv1{ background-color: #222222; border: 2px solid #333333; vertical-align: middle; width: 45%; float: left; } .fielddiv2{ background-color: #222222; border: 2px solid #333333; vertical-align: middle; width: 100%; } .fieldtext{ width: 100%; background-color: #333333; }

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  • Floating toolbar on bottom, centered, 80% of current screen width

    - by Tom
    I'm trying to implement a Facebook like toolbar on the bottom of the screen for a website I'm currently working on. Currently, I have it 100% of the width of the screen but I'd like to have it look almost exactly like Facebook's toolbar, centered, bottom justified on top, around 80% of the current screen's width. Here is the current CSS for the toolbar I have that is 100% of the screen's width. Thanks in advance. CSS: <style type="text/css"> #toolbar { background:url('/_assets/img/toolbar.gif') repeat-x; height:25px; position:fixed; bottom:0px; width:100%; left:0px; border-left:1px solid #000000; border-right:1px solid #000000; z-index:100; font-size:0.8em; } </style>

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  • Designing for the future

    - by Dennis Vroegop
    User interfaces and user experience design is a fast moving field. It’s something that changes pretty quick: what feels fresh today will look outdated tomorrow. I remember the day I first got a beta version of Windows 95 and I felt swept away by the user interface of the OS. It felt so modern! If I look back now, it feels old. Well, it should: the design is 17 years old which is an eternity in our field. Of course, this is not limited to UI. Same goes for many industries. I want you to think back of the cars that amazed you when you were in your teens (if you are in your teens then this may not apply to you). Didn’t they feel like part of the future? Didn’t you think that this was the ultimate in designs? And aren’t those designs hopelessly outdated today (again, depending on your age, it may just be me)? Let’s review the Win95 design: And let’s compare that to Windows 7: There are so many differences here, I wouldn’t even know where to start explaining them. The general feeling however is one of more usability: studies have shown Windows 7 is much easier to understand for new users than the older versions of Windows did. Of course, experienced Windows users didn’t like it: people are usually afraid of changes and like to stick to what they know. But for new users this was a huge improvement. And that is what UX design is all about: make a product easier to use, with less training required and make users feel more productive. Still, there are areas where this doesn’t hold up. There are plenty examples of designs from the past that are still fresh today. But if you look closely at them, you’ll notice some subtle differences. This differences are what keep the designs fresh. A good example is the signs you’ll find on the road. They haven’t changed much over the years (otherwise people wouldn’t recognize them anymore) but they have been changing gradually to reflect changes in traffic. The same goes for computer interfaces. With each new product or version of a product, the UI and UX is changed gradually. Every now and then however, a bigger change is needed. Just think about the introduction of the Ribbon in Microsoft Office 2007: the whole UI was redesigned. A lot of old users (not in age, but in times of using older versions) didn’t like it a bit, but new users or casual users seem to be more efficient using the product. Which, of course, is exactly the reason behind the changes. I believe that a big engine behind the changes in User Experience design has been the web. In the old days (i.e. before the explosion of the internet) user interface design in Windows applications was limited to choosing the margins between your battleship gray buttons. When the web came along, and especially the web 2.0 where the browsers started to act more and more as application platforms, designers stepped in and made a huge impact. In the browser, they could do whatever they wanted. In the beginning this was limited to the darn blink tag but gradually people really started to think about UX. Even more so: the design of the UI and the whole experience was taken away from the developers and put into the hands of people who knew what they were doing: UX designers. This caused some problems. Everyone who has done a web project in the early 2000’s must have had the same experience: the designers give you a set of Photoshop files and tell you to translate it to HTML. Which, of course, is very hard to do. However, with new tooling and new standards this became much easier. The latest version of HTML and CSS has taken the responsibility for the design away from the developers and placed them in the capable hands of the designers. And that’s where that responsibility belongs, after all, I don’t want a designer to muck around in my c# code just as much as he or she doesn’t want me to poke in the sites style definitions. This change in responsibilities resulted in good looking but more important: better thought out user interfaces in websites. And when websites became more and more interactive, people started to expect the same sort of look and feel from their desktop applications. But that didn’t really happen. Most business applications still have that battleship gray look and feel. Ok, they may use a different color but we’re not talking colors here but usability. Now, you may not be able to read the Dutch captions, but even if you did you wouldn’t understand what was going on. At least, not when you first see it. You have to scan the screen, read all the labels, see how they are related to the other elements on the screen and then figure out what they do. If you’re an experienced user of this application however, this might be a good thing: you know what to do and you get all the information you need in one single screen. But for most applications this isn’t the case. A lot of people only use their computer for a limited time a day (a weird concept for me, but it happens) and need it to get something done and then get on with their lives. For them, a user interface experience like the above isn’t working. (disclaimer: I just picked a screenshot, I am not saying this is bad software but it is an example of about 95% of the Windows applications out there). For the knowledge worker, this isn’t a problem. They use one or two systems and they know exactly what they need to do to achieve their goal. They don’t want any clutter on their screen that distracts them from their task, they just want to be as efficient as possible. When they know the systems they are very productive. The point is, how long does it take to become productive? And: could they be even more productive if the UX was better? Are there things missing that they don’t know about? Are there better ways to achieve what they want to achieve? Also: could a system be designed in such a way that it is not only much more easy to work with but also less tiring? in the example above you need to switch between the keyboard and mouse a lot, something that we now know can be very tiring. The goal of most applications (being client apps or websites on any kind of device) is to provide information. Information is data that when given to the right people, on the right time, in the right place and when it is correct adds value for that person (please, remember that definition: I still hear the statement “the information was wrong” which doesn’t make sense: data can be wrong, information cannot be). So if a system provides data, how can we make sure the chances of becoming information is as high as possible? A good example of a well thought-out system that attempts this is the Zune client. It is a very good application, and I think the UX is much better than it’s main competitor iTunes. Have a look at both: On the left you see the iTunes screenshot, on the right the Zune. As you notice, the Zune screen has more images but less chrome (chrome being visuals not part of the data you want to show, i.e. edges around buttons). The whole thing is text oriented or image oriented, where that text or image is part of the information you need. What is important is big, what’s less important is smaller. Yet, everything you need to know at that point is present and your attention is drawn immediately to what you’re trying to achieve: information about music. You can easily switch between the content on your machine and content on your Zune player but clicking on the image of the player. But if you didn’t know that, you’d find out soon enough: the whole UX is designed in such a way that it invites you to play around. So sooner or later (probably sooner) you’d click on that image and you would see what it does. In the iTunes version it’s harder to find: the discoverability is a lot lower. For inexperienced people the Zune player feels much more natural than the iTunes player, and they get up to speed a lot faster. How does this all work? Why is this UX better? The answer lies in a project from Microsoft with the codename (it seems to be becoming the official name though) “Metro”. Metro is a design language, based on certain principles. When they thought about UX they took a good long look around them and went out in search of metaphors. And they found them. The team noticed that signage in streets, airports, roads, buildings and so on are usually very clear and very precise. These signs give you the information you need and nothing more. It’s simple, clearly understood and fast to understand. A good example are airport signs. Airports can be intimidating places, especially for the non-experienced traveler. In the early 1990’s Amsterdam Airport Schiphol decided to redesign all the signage to make the traveller feel less disoriented. They developed a set of guidelines for signs and implemented those. Soon, most airports around the world adopted these ideas and you see variations of the Dutch signs everywhere on the globe. The signs are text-oriented. Yes, there are icons explaining what it all means for the people who can’t read or don’t understand the language, but the basic sign language is text. It’s clear, it’s high-contrast and it’s easy to understand. One look at the sign and you know where to go. The only thing I don’t like is the green sign pointing to the emergency exit, but since this is the default style for emergency exits I understand why they did this. If you look at the Zune UI again, you’ll notice the similarities. Text oriented, little or no icons, clear usage of fonts and all the information you need. This design language has a set of principles: Clean, light, open and fast Content, not chrome Soulful and alive These are just a couple of the principles, you can read the whole philosophy behind Metro for Windows Phone 7 here. These ideas seem to work. I love my Windows Phone 7. It’s easy to use, it’s clear, there’s no clutter that I do not need. It works for me. And I noticed it works for a lot of other people as well, especially people who aren’t as proficient with computers as I am. You see these ideas in a lot other places. Corning, a manufacturer of glass, has made a video of possible usages of their products. It’s their glimpse into the future. You’ll notice that a lot of the UI in the screens look a lot like what Microsoft is doing with Metro (not coincidentally Corning is the supplier for the Gorilla glass display surface on the new SUR40 device (or Surface v2.0 as a lot of people call it)). The idea behind this vision is that data should be available everywhere where you it. Systems should be available at all times and data is presented in a clear and light manner so that you can turn that data into information. You don’t need a lot of fancy animations that only distract from the data. You want the data and you want it fast. Have a look at this truly inspiring video that made: This is what I believe the future will look like. Of course, not everything is possible, or even desirable. But it is a nice way to think about the future . I feel very strongly about designing applications in such a way that they add value to the user. Designing applications that turn data into information. Applications that make the user feel happy to use them. So… when are you going to drop the battleship-gray designs? Tags van Technorati: surface,design,windows phone 7,wp7,metro

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  • S#arp Architecture 1.5 released

    - by AlecWhittington
    The past two weeks have been wonderful for me, spending 12 days on Oahu, Hawaii. Then followed up with the S#arp Architecture 1.5 release. It has been a short 4 months since taking over as the project lead and this is my first major milestone. With this release, we advance S# even more forward with the ASP.NET MVC 2 enhancements. What's is S#? Pronounced "Sharp Architecture," this is a solid architectural foundation for rapidly building maintainable web applications leveraging the ASP.NET MVC framework...(read more)

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  • Show Your Mac Love with the Simply Apple Theme for Windows 7

    - by Asian Angel
    Are you a huge fan of Apple products and ready to show some Mac love on your desktop? Then this is the theme for you. The theme comes with 30 Hi-Res wallpapers, custom icons, sounds, and a set of cursors to complete the package. View Additional Screenshots of the Theme [VikiTech] Download the Theme [VikiTech] Use Amazon’s Barcode Scanner to Easily Buy Anything from Your Phone How To Migrate Windows 7 to a Solid State Drive Follow How-To Geek on Google+

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  • SQLAuthority News – SQL Server 2008 R2 System Views Map

    - by pinaldave
    SQL Server 2008 R2 System Views Map is released. I am very proud that my organization (Solid Quality Mentors) is part of making this possible. This map shows the key system views included in SQL Server 2008 and 2008 R2, and the relationships between them. SQL Server 2008 R2 System Views Map Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com) Filed under: SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Documentation, SQL Download, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, SQLAuthority News, T SQL, Technology

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  • SQL SERVER – Checklist for Analyzing Slow-Running Queries

    - by pinaldave
    I am recently working on upgrading my class Microsoft SQL Server 2005/2008 Query Optimization and & Performance Tuning with additional details and more interesting examples. While working on slide deck I realized that I need to have one solid slide which talks about checklist for analyzing slow running queries. A quick search on my saved [...]

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  • 20 of the Best of Shortcut and Hotkey Tips for Your Windows PC

    - by Lori Kaufman
    For those of you who like to use the quickest methods of getting things done on your computer, we have shown you many Windows shortcuts and hotkeys for performing useful tasks in the past. This article compiles 20 of the best Windows shortcuts and hotkeys we have documented. Use Amazon’s Barcode Scanner to Easily Buy Anything from Your Phone How To Migrate Windows 7 to a Solid State Drive Follow How-To Geek on Google+

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  • Transcript: Andrew Tridgell on Patent Defence

    <b>ESP Software Patents News:</b> "The following is a transcript of a talk given in New Zealand, 2010. Andrew Tridgell discusses why reading patents is usually a good idea, how to read a patent, and how to work through it with a lawyer to build a solid defence."

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  • Book: Confessions of a Public Speaker: Scott Berkun

    - by Greg Low
    It's probably apparent that I've been travelling again a lot lately as the number of posts related to books has gone up. One book that I picked up along the way and really enjoyed was Scott Berkun's Confessions of a Public Speaker . I could relate to so much of what Scott was talking about and there are quite a few solid nuggets of advice in the book. It's very important when you are regularly giving technical presentations to spend time learning about the "presenting" part of the task, not just...(read more)

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  • What's the next tech bubble? [closed]

    - by jayd3e
    Today I read one of Jeff Atwood's newest blog posts entitle "Lived Fast, Died Young, Left a Tired Corpse." In the second paragraph, he mentions that: There's plenty of evidence that we're entering another tech bubble. It's just less visible to people outside the tech industry because there's no corresponding stock market IPO frenzy. Yet. I was just curious if anyone has some solid ideas as to what this next tech bubble could be?

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  • High Performance Storage Systems for SQL Server

    Rod Colledge turns his pessimistic mindset to storage systems, and describes the best way to configure the storage systems of SQL Servers for both performance and reliability. Even Rod gets a glint in his eye when he then goes on to describe the dazzling speed of solid-state storage, though he is quick to identify the risks.

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  • JMS Step 5 - How to Create an 11g BPEL Process Which Reads a Message Based on an XML Schema from a JMS Queue

    - by John-Brown.Evans
    JMS Step 5 - How to Create an 11g BPEL Process Which Reads a Message Based on an XML Schema from a JMS Queue .jblist{list-style-type:disc;margin:0;padding:0;padding-left:0pt;margin-left:36pt} ol{margin:0;padding:0} .c12_5{vertical-align:top;width:468pt;border-style:solid;background-color:#f3f3f3;border-color:#000000;border-width:1pt;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt} .c8_5{vertical-align:top;border-style:solid;border-color:#000000;border-width:1pt;padding:5pt 5pt 0pt 5pt} .c10_5{vertical-align:top;width:207pt;border-style:solid;border-color:#000000;border-width:1pt;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt} .c14_5{vertical-align:top;border-style:solid;border-color:#000000;border-width:1pt;padding:0pt 5pt 0pt 5pt} .c21_5{background-color:#ffffff} .c18_5{color:#1155cc;text-decoration:underline} .c16_5{color:#666666;font-size:12pt} .c5_5{background-color:#f3f3f3;font-weight:bold} .c19_5{color:inherit;text-decoration:inherit} .c3_5{height:11pt;text-align:center} .c11_5{font-weight:bold} .c20_5{background-color:#00ff00} .c6_5{font-style:italic} .c4_5{height:11pt} .c17_5{background-color:#ffff00} .c0_5{direction:ltr} .c7_5{font-family:"Courier New"} .c2_5{border-collapse:collapse} .c1_5{line-height:1.0} .c13_5{background-color:#f3f3f3} .c15_5{height:0pt} .c9_5{text-align:center} .title{padding-top:24pt;line-height:1.15;text-align:left;color:#000000;font-size:36pt;font-family:"Arial";font-weight:bold;padding-bottom:6pt} .subtitle{padding-top:18pt;line-height:1.15;text-align:left;color:#666666;font-style:italic;font-size:24pt;font-family:"Georgia";padding-bottom:4pt} li{color:#000000;font-size:10pt;font-family:"Arial"} p{color:#000000;font-size:10pt;margin:0;font-family:"Arial"} h1{padding-top:0pt;line-height:1.15;text-align:left;color:#888;font-size:24pt;font-family:"Arial";font-weight:normal} h2{padding-top:0pt;line-height:1.15;text-align:left;color:#888;font-size:18pt;font-family:"Arial";font-weight:normal} h3{padding-top:0pt;line-height:1.15;text-align:left;color:#888;font-size:14pt;font-family:"Arial";font-weight:normal} h4{padding-top:0pt;line-height:1.15;text-align:left;color:#888;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Arial";font-weight:normal} h5{padding-top:0pt;line-height:1.15;text-align:left;color:#888;font-size:11pt;font-family:"Arial";font-weight:normal} h6{padding-top:0pt;line-height:1.15;text-align:left;color:#888;font-size:10pt;font-family:"Arial";font-weight:normal} Welcome to another post in the series of blogs which demonstrates how to use JMS queues in a SOA context. The previous posts were: JMS Step 1 - How to Create a Simple JMS Queue in Weblogic Server 11g JMS Step 2 - Using the QueueSend.java Sample Program to Send a Message to a JMS Queue JMS Step 3 - Using the QueueReceive.java Sample Program to Read a Message from a JMS Queue JMS Step 4 - How to Create an 11g BPEL Process Which Writes a Message Based on an XML Schema to a JMS Queue Today we will create a BPEL process which will read (dequeue) the message from the JMS queue, which we enqueued in the last example. The JMS adapter will dequeue the full XML payload from the queue. 1. Recap and Prerequisites In the previous examples, we created a JMS Queue, a Connection Factory and a Connection Pool in the WebLogic Server Console. Then we designed and deployed a BPEL composite, which took a simple XML payload and enqueued it to the JMS queue. In this example, we will read that same message from the queue, using a JMS adapter and a BPEL process. As many of the configuration steps required to read from that queue were done in the previous samples, this one will concentrate on the new steps. A summary of the required objects is listed below. To find out how to create them please see the previous samples. They also include instructions on how to verify the objects are set up correctly. WebLogic Server Objects Object Name Type JNDI Name TestConnectionFactory Connection Factory jms/TestConnectionFactory TestJMSQueue JMS Queue jms/TestJMSQueue eis/wls/TestQueue Connection Pool eis/wls/TestQueue Schema XSD File The following XSD file is used for the message format. It was created in the previous example and will be copied to the new process. stringPayload.xsd <?xml version="1.0" encoding="windows-1252" ?> <xsd:schema xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema"                 xmlns="http://www.example.org"                 targetNamespace="http://www.example.org"                 elementFormDefault="qualified">   <xsd:element name="exampleElement" type="xsd:string">   </xsd:element> </xsd:schema> JMS Message After executing the previous samples, the following XML message should be in the JMS queue located at jms/TestJMSQueue: <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?><exampleElement xmlns="http://www.example.org">Test Message</exampleElement> JDeveloper Connection You will need a valid Application Server Connection in JDeveloper pointing to the SOA server which the process will be deployed to. 2. Create a BPEL Composite with a JMS Adapter Partner Link In the previous example, we created a composite in JDeveloper called JmsAdapterWriteSchema. In this one, we will create a new composite called JmsAdapterReadSchema. There are probably many ways of incorporating a JMS adapter into a SOA composite for incoming messages. One way is design the process in such a way that the adapter polls for new messages and when it dequeues one, initiates a SOA or BPEL instance. This is possibly the most common use case. Other use cases include mid-flow adapters, which are activated from within the BPEL process. In this example we will use a polling adapter, because it is the most simple to set up and demonstrate. But it has one disadvantage as a demonstrative model. When a polling adapter is active, it will dequeue all messages as soon as they reach the queue. This makes it difficult to monitor messages we are writing to the queue, because they will disappear from the queue as soon as they have been enqueued. To work around this, we will shut down the composite after deploying it and restart it as required. (Another solution for this would be to pause the consumption for the queue and resume consumption again if needed. This can be done in the WLS console JMS-Modules -> queue -> Control -> Consumption -> Pause/Resume.) We will model the composite as a one-way incoming process. Usually, a BPEL process will do something useful with the message after receiving it, such as passing it to a database or file adapter, a human workflow or external web service. But we only want to demonstrate how to dequeue a JMS message using BPEL and a JMS adapter, so we won’t complicate the design with further activities. However, we do want to be able to verify that we have read the message correctly, so the BPEL process will include a small piece of embedded java code, which will print the message to standard output, so we can view it in the SOA server’s log file. Alternatively, you can view the instance in the Enterprise Manager and verify the message. The following steps are all executed in JDeveloper. Create the project in the same JDeveloper application used for the previous examples or create a new one. Create a SOA Project Create a new project and choose SOA Tier > SOA Project as its type. Name it JmsAdapterReadSchema. When prompted for the composite type, choose Empty Composite. Create a JMS Adapter Partner Link In the composite editor, drag a JMS adapter over from the Component Palette to the left-hand swim lane, under Exposed Services. This will start the JMS Adapter Configuration Wizard. Use the following entries: Service Name: JmsAdapterRead Oracle Enterprise Messaging Service (OEMS): Oracle WebLogic JMS AppServer Connection: Use an application server connection pointing to the WebLogic server on which the JMS queue and connection factory mentioned under Prerequisites above are located. Adapter Interface > Interface: Define from operation and schema (specified later) Operation Type: Consume Message Operation Name: Consume_message Consume Operation Parameters Destination Name: Press the Browse button, select Destination Type: Queues, then press Search. Wait for the list to populate, then select the entry for TestJMSQueue , which is the queue created in a previous example. JNDI Name: The JNDI name to use for the JMS connection. As in the previous example, this is probably the most common source of error. This is the JNDI name of the JMS adapter’s connection pool created in the WebLogic Server and which points to the connection factory. JDeveloper does not verify the value entered here. If you enter a wrong value, the JMS adapter won’t find the queue and you will get an error message at runtime, which is very difficult to trace. In our example, this is the value eis/wls/TestQueue . (See the earlier step on how to create a JMS Adapter Connection Pool in WebLogic Server for details.) Messages/Message SchemaURL: We will use the XSD file created during the previous example, in the JmsAdapterWriteSchema project to define the format for the incoming message payload and, at the same time, demonstrate how to import an existing XSD file into a JDeveloper project. Press the magnifying glass icon to search for schema files. In the Type Chooser, press the Import Schema File button. Select the magnifying glass next to URL to search for schema files. Navigate to the location of the JmsAdapterWriteSchema project > xsd and select the stringPayload.xsd file. Check the “Copy to Project” checkbox, press OK and confirm the following Localize Files popup. Now that the XSD file has been copied to the local project, it can be selected from the project’s schema files. Expand Project Schema Files > stringPayload.xsd and select exampleElement: string . Press Next and Finish, which will complete the JMS Adapter configuration.Save the project. Create a BPEL Component Drag a BPEL Process from the Component Palette (Service Components) to the Components section of the composite designer. Name it JmsAdapterReadSchema and select Template: Define Service Later and press OK. Wire the JMS Adapter to the BPEL Component Now wire the JMS adapter to the BPEL process, by dragging the arrow from the adapter to the BPEL process. A Transaction Properties popup will be displayed. Set the delivery mode to async.persist. This completes the steps at the composite level. 3 . Complete the BPEL Process Design Invoke the BPEL Flow via the JMS Adapter Open the BPEL component by double-clicking it in the design view of the composite.xml, or open it from the project navigator by selecting the JmsAdapterReadSchema.bpel file. This will display the BPEL process in the design view. You should see the JmsAdapterRead partner link in the left-hand swim lane. Drag a Receive activity onto the BPEL flow diagram, then drag a wire (left-hand yellow arrow) from it to the JMS adapter. This will open the Receive activity editor. Auto-generate the variable by pressing the green “+” button and check the “Create Instance” checkbox. This will result in a BPEL instance being created when a new JMS message is received. At this point it would actually be OK to compile and deploy the composite and it would pick up any messages from the JMS queue. In fact, you can do that to test it, if you like. But it is very rudimentary and would not be doing anything useful with the message. Also, you could only verify the actual message payload by looking at the instance’s flow in the Enterprise Manager. There are various other possibilities; we could pass the message to another web service, write it to a file using a file adapter or to a database via a database adapter etc. But these will all introduce unnecessary complications to our sample. So, to keep it simple, we will add a small piece of Java code to the BPEL process which will write the payload to standard output. This will be written to the server’s log file, which will be easy to monitor. Add a Java Embedding Activity First get the full name of the process’s input variable, as this will be needed for the Java code. Go to the Structure pane and expand Variables > Process > Variables. Then expand the input variable, for example, "Receive1_Consume_Message_InputVariable > body > ns2:exampleElement”, and note variable’s name and path, if they are different from this one. Drag a Java Embedding activity from the Component Palette (Oracle Extensions) to the BPEL flow, after the Receive activity, then open it to edit. Delete the example code and replace it with the following, replacing the variable parts with those in your sample, if necessary.: System.out.println("JmsAdapterReadSchema process picked up a message"); oracle.xml.parser.v2.XMLElement inputPayload =    (oracle.xml.parser.v2.XMLElement)getVariableData(                           "Receive1_Consume_Message_InputVariable",                           "body",                           "/ns2:exampleElement");   String inputString = inputPayload.getFirstChild().getNodeValue(); System.out.println("Input String is " + inputPayload.getFirstChild().getNodeValue()); Tip. If you are not sure of the exact syntax of the input variable, create an Assign activity in the BPEL process and copy the variable to another, temporary one. Then check the syntax created by the BPEL designer. This completes the BPEL process design in JDeveloper. Save, compile and deploy the process to the SOA server. 3. Test the Composite Shut Down the JmsAdapterReadSchema Composite After deploying the JmsAdapterReadSchema composite to the SOA server it is automatically activated. If there are already any messages in the queue, the adapter will begin polling them. To ease the testing process, we will deactivate the process first Log in to the Enterprise Manager (Fusion Middleware Control) and navigate to SOA > soa-infra (soa_server1) > default (or wherever you deployed your composite to) and click on JmsAdapterReadSchema [1.0] . Press the Shut Down button to disable the composite and confirm the following popup. Monitor Messages in the JMS Queue In a separate browser window, log in to the WebLogic Server Console and navigate to Services > Messaging > JMS Modules > TestJMSModule > TestJMSQueue > Monitoring. This is the location of the JMS queue we created in an earlier sample (see the prerequisites section of this sample). Check whether there are any messages already in the queue. If so, you can dequeue them using the QueueReceive Java program created in an earlier sample. This will ensure that the queue is empty and doesn’t contain any messages in the wrong format, which would cause the JmsAdapterReadSchema to fail. Send a Test Message In the Enterprise Manager, navigate to the JmsAdapterWriteSchema created earlier, press Test and send a test message, for example “Message from JmsAdapterWriteSchema”. Confirm that the message was written correctly to the queue by verifying it via the queue monitor in the WLS Console. Monitor the SOA Server’s Output A program deployed on the SOA server will write its standard output to the terminal window in which the server was started, unless this has been redirected to somewhere else, for example to a file. If it has not been redirected, go to the terminal session in which the server was started, otherwise open and monitor the file to which it was redirected. Re-Enable the JmsAdapterReadSchema Composite In the Enterprise Manager, navigate to the JmsAdapterReadSchema composite again and press Start Up to re-enable it. This should cause the JMS adapter to dequeue the test message and the following output should be written to the server’s standard output: JmsAdapterReadSchema process picked up a message. Input String is Message from JmsAdapterWriteSchema Note that you can also monitor the payload received by the process, by navigating to the the JmsAdapterReadSchema’s Instances tab in the Enterprise Manager. Then select the latest instance and view the flow of the BPEL component. The Receive activity will contain and display the dequeued message too. 4 . Troubleshooting This sample demonstrates how to dequeue an XML JMS message using a BPEL process and no additional functionality. For example, it doesn’t contain any error handling. Therefore, any errors in the payload will result in exceptions being written to the log file or standard output. If you get any errors related to the payload, such as Message handle error ... ORABPEL-09500 ... XPath expression failed to execute. An error occurs while processing the XPath expression; the expression is /ns2:exampleElement. ... etc. check that the variable used in the Java embedding part of the process was entered correctly. Possibly follow the tip mentioned in previous section. If this doesn’t help, you can delete the Java embedding part and simply verify the message via the flow diagram in the Enterprise Manager. Or use a different method, such as writing it to a file via a file adapter. This concludes this example. In the next post, we will begin with an AQ JMS example, which uses JMS to write to an Advanced Queue stored in the database. Best regards John-Brown Evans Oracle Technology Proactive Support Delivery

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