self employment - Page 392

Landscape-only orientation + view controllers: What am I still missing?

- by mahboudz

Hi. I can't believe I am still having problems with screen orientation, now on the iPad. This is an app that only supports one of the two landscape orientation. In my info.plist, I include: <string>UIInterfaceOrientationLandscapeRight</string> <string>UIInterfaceOrientationLandscapeLeft</string> In Interface Builder, all my views are created in landscape orientation. Only the main Window is not, but I don't see a way to change that. When launched, I get the following coordinates for my main window and the main viewcontroller view: Window frame {{0, 0}, {768, 1024}} mainView frame {{0, 0}, {748, 1024}} (Changing the frame at runtime to be what I expect, does not change the odd behavior.) All other views after that show these coordinates when summoned (when loaded but before being presented): frame of keysig {{0, 0}, {1024, 768}} frame of instrumentSelect {{20, 0}, {1024, 768}} frame of settings {{0, 0}, {467, 300}} In all my viewControllers, i respond to shouldAutorotateToInterfaceOrientation with: return ((interfaceOrientation == UIInterfaceOrientationLandscapeLeft) || (interfaceOrientation == UIInterfaceOrientationLandscapeRight)); In my app, everything (almost) functions as expected. The app launches into one of the two landscape modes. The views (and viewcontrollers) display everything where it belongs, taps work all across the screen, as expected. However, there are two clues that something is still wrong. Clue #1: I have two viewcontrollers that are UITabeViewControllers. When summoned, they are supposed to open up their views and scroll to the selected row of the table. However it is evident that they scroll, but they don't scroll down far enough. It seems that they think that the screen extends further down and they scroll just enough to move the row to a place near the bottom of the screen, but that location is not visible. When the views are loaded, the coordinates are: frame of keysig {{0, 0}, {1024, 768}} frame of instrumentSelect {{20, 0}, {1024, 768}} When I present them using a popover, the frames get resized to: frame of keysig {{0, 0}, {320, 655}} frame of instrumentSelect {{0, 0}, {320, 655}} The frame of the viewController that does the presentation, same mainView frame mentioned above is: frame of self {{20, 0}, {748, 1024}} I have also tried to accomplish the same thing with presentModalViewController instead of presentPopover, and have the same results. This is what the popovers look like: In both cases, the selected row is below the horizon, even though the tableView did visibly scroll in order to make the row visible. I am not sure what to try next. I checked each UITable's scrollView content coordinates and they seemed reasonable. It almost seems like a UITable internal rect gets created with the wrong number and stays that way. Clue #2: All my actionsheets come up with a width of 320. I can only assume that the iPad allows actionSheets in only 320 or 480 widths and since it somehow thinks that the screen is oriented in portrait mode, and then uses the narrower width. There you have it. I can't believe I am still getting hung up on orientation issues. I swear Apple doesn't make it easy to have a landscape app. Any ideas?

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Question about unions and heap allocated memory

- by Dennis Miller

I was trying to use a union to so I could update the fields in one thread and then read allfields in another thread. In the actual system, I have mutexes to make sure everything is safe. The problem is with fieldB, before I had to change it fieldB was declared like field A and C. However, due to a third party driver, fieldB must be alligned with page boundary. When I changed field B to be allocated with valloc, I run into problems. Questions: 1) Is there a way to statically declare fieldB alligned on page boundary. Basically do the same thing as valloc, but on the stack? 2) Is it possible to do a union when field B, or any field is being allocated on the heap?. Not sure if that is even legal. Here's a simple Test program I was experimenting with. This doesn't work unless you declare fieldB like field A and C, and make the obvious changes in the public methods. #include <iostream> #include <stdlib.h> #include <string.h> #include <stdio.h> class Test { public: Test(void) { // field B must be alligned to page boundary // Is there a way to do this on the stack??? this->field.fieldB = (unsigned char*) valloc(10); }; //I know this is bad, this class is being treated like //a global structure. Its self contained in another class. unsigned char* PointerToFieldA(void) { return &this->field.fieldA[0]; } unsigned char* PointerToFieldB(void) { return this->field.fieldB; } unsigned char* PointerToFieldC(void) { return &this->field.fieldC[0]; } unsigned char* PointerToAllFields(void) { return &this->allFields[0]; } private: // Is this union possible with field B being // allocated on the heap? union { struct { unsigned char fieldA[10]; //This field has to be alligned to page boundary //Is there way to be declared on the stack unsigned char* fieldB; unsigned char fieldC[10]; } field; unsigned char allFields[30]; }; }; int main() { Test test; strncpy((char*) test.PointerToFieldA(), "0123456789", 10); strncpy((char*) test.PointerToFieldB(), "1234567890", 10); strncpy((char*) test.PointerToFieldC(), "2345678901", 10); char dummy[11]; dummy[10] = '\0'; strncpy(dummy, (char*) test.PointerToFieldA(), 10); printf("%s\n", dummy); strncpy(dummy, (char*) test.PointerToFieldB(), 10); printf("%s\n", dummy); strncpy(dummy, (char*) test.PointerToFieldC(), 10); printf("%s\n", dummy); char allFields[31]; allFields[30] = '\0'; strncpy(allFields, (char*) test.PointerToAllFields(), 30); printf("%s\n", allFields); return 0; }

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Step by Step / Deep explain: The Power of (Co)Yoneda (preferably in scala) through Coroutines

- by Mzk

some background code /** FunctorStr: ? F[-]. (? A B. (A -> B) -> F[A] -> F[B]) */ trait FunctorStr[F[_]] { self => def map[A, B](f: A => B): F[A] => F[B] } trait Yoneda[F[_], A] { yo => def apply[B](f: A => B): F[B] def run: F[A] = yo(x => x) def map[B](f: A => B): Yoneda[F, B] = new Yoneda[F, B] { def apply[X](g: B => X) = yo(f andThen g) } } object Yoneda { implicit def yonedafunctor[F[_]]: FunctorStr[({ type l[x] = Yoneda[F, x] })#l] = new FunctorStr[({ type l[x] = Yoneda[F, x] })#l] { def map[A, B](f: A => B): Yoneda[F, A] => Yoneda[F, B] = _ map f } def apply[F[_]: FunctorStr, X](x: F[X]): Yoneda[F, X] = new Yoneda[F, X] { def apply[Y](f: X => Y) = Functor[F].map(f) apply x } } trait Coyoneda[F[_], A] { co => type I def fi: F[I] def k: I => A final def map[B](f: A => B): Coyoneda.Aux[F, B, I] = Coyoneda(fi)(f compose k) } object Coyoneda { type Aux[F[_], A, B] = Coyoneda[F, A] { type I = B } def apply[F[_], B, A](x: F[B])(f: B => A): Aux[F, A, B] = new Coyoneda[F, A] { type I = B val fi = x val k = f } implicit def coyonedaFunctor[F[_]]: FunctorStr[({ type l[x] = Coyoneda[F, x] })#l] = new CoyonedaFunctor[F] {} trait CoyonedaFunctor[F[_]] extends FunctorStr[({type l[x] = Coyoneda[F, x]})#l] { override def map[A, B](f: A => B): Coyoneda[F, A] => Coyoneda[F, B] = x => apply(x.fi)(f compose x.k) } def liftCoyoneda[T[_], A](x: T[A]): Coyoneda[T, A] = apply(x)(a => a) } Now I thought I understood yoneda and coyoneda a bit just from the types – i.e. that they quantify / abstract over map fixed in some type constructor F and some type a, to any type B returning F[B] or (Co)Yoneda[F, B]. Thus providing map fusion for free (? is this kind of like a cut rule for map ?). But I see that Coyoneda is a functor for any type constructor F regardless of F being a Functor, and that I don't fully grasp. Now I'm in a situation where I'm trying to define a Coroutine type, (I'm looking at https://www.fpcomplete.com/school/to-infinity-and-beyond/pick-of-the-week/coroutines-for-streaming/part-2-coroutines for the types to get started with) case class Coroutine[S[_], M[_], R](resume: M[CoroutineState[S, M, R]]) sealed trait CoroutineState[S[_], M[_], R] object CoroutineState { case class Run[S[_], M[_], R](x: S[Coroutine[S, M, R]]) extends CoroutineState[S, M, R] case class Done[R](x: R) extends CoroutineState[Nothing, Nothing, R] class CoroutineStateFunctor[S[_], M[_]](F: FunctorStr[S]) extends FunctorStr[({ type l[x] = CoroutineState[S, M, x]})#l] { override def map[A, B](f : A => B) : CoroutineState[S, M, A] => CoroutineState[S, M, B] = { ??? } } } and I think that if I understood Coyoneda better I could leverage it to make S & M type constructors functors way easy, plus I see Coyoneda potentially playing a role in defining recursion schemes as the functor requirement is pervasive. So how could I use coyoneda to make type constructors functors like for example coroutine state? or something like a Pause functor ?

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Lines don't overlap when they should Java Swing

- by Sven

I'm drawing lines in a JFrame on a self made gridPanel. Problem is, I draw the lines between 2 points. When I have a line that is between point 1 and point 2 and a line between point 2 and point 3, the lines should connect. This however isn,t the case, there is a small gap in between, no idea why. But it isn't drawing till the end of the specified point. (start point is correct.) Here is the code of the JFrame: public void initialize(){ this.setLayout(new BorderLayout()); this.setPreferredSize(new Dimension(500, 400)); gridPane = new GridPane(); gridPane.setBackground(Color.WHITE); gridPane.setSize(this.getPreferredSize()); gridPane.setLocation(0, 0); this.add(gridPane,BorderLayout.CENTER); //createSampleLabyrinth(); drawWall(0,5,40,5); //These are the 2 lines that don't connect. drawWall(40,5,80,5); this.pack(); } drawWall calls a method that calls a method in GridPane. The relevant code in gridPane: /** * Draws a wall on this pane. With the starting point being x1, y1 and its end x2,y2. * @param x1 * @param y1 * @param x2 * @param y2 */ public void drawWall(int x1, int y1, int x2, int y2) { Wall wall = new Wall(x1,y1,x2,y2, true); wall.drawGraphic(); wall.setLocation(x1, y1); wall.setSize(10000,10000); this.add(wall, JLayeredPane.DEFAULT_LAYER); this.repaint(); } This method creates a wall and puts it in the Jframe. The relevant code of the wall: public class Wall extends JPanel { private int x1; private int x2; private int y1; private int y2; private boolean black; /** * x1,y1 is the start point of the wall (line) end is x2,y2 * * @param x1 * @param y1 * @param x2 * @param y2 */ public Wall(int x1, int y1, int x2, int y2, boolean black) { this.x1 = x1; this.x2 = x2; this.y1 = y1; this.y2 = y2; this.black = black; setOpaque(false); } private static final long serialVersionUID = 1L; public void drawGraphic() { repaint(); } public void paintComponent(Graphics g) { super.paintComponent(g); Graphics2D g2 = (Graphics2D) g; if(black){ g2.setColor(Color.BLACK); g2.setStroke(new BasicStroke(8)); } else { g2.setColor(Color.YELLOW); g2.setStroke(new BasicStroke(3)); } g2.drawLine(x1, y1, x2, y2); } } So, where am I going wrong? The true/false is to determine if the wall should be black or yellow, nothing to be concerned about.

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How to get selected category id after 1st page in pagination?

- by Surjay

//$id=$_REQUEST['category']; //$catid=mysql_escape_string($id); $catid = isset($_GET['category']) ? (int)$_GET['category'] : 0; $recordsPerPage =4; 0 // //default startup page $pageNum = 1; if(isset($_GET['p'])) { $pageNum = $_GET['p']; settype($pageNum, 'integer'); } $offset = ($pageNum - 1) * $recordsPerPage; //set the number of columns $columns = 1; //set the number of columns $columns = 1; $query = "SELECT temp_id, temp_img, temp_header, temp_resize, temp_small, temp_name, temp_type, cat_id, col_id, artist_id FROM templates where cat_id = '{$catid}' ORDER BY temp_id DESC LIMIT $offset, $recordsPerPage"; $result = mysql_query($query); //we add this line because we need to know the number of rows $num_rows = mysql_num_rows($result); echo ""; //changed this to a for loop so we can use the number of rows for($i = 0; $i < $num_rows; $i++) { while($row = mysql_fetch_array($result)){ if($i % $columns == 0) { //if there is no remainder, we want to start a new row echo ""; } echo ...........my data(s). if(($i % $columns) == ($columns - 1) || ($i + 1) == $num_rows) { echo ""; } } } echo ""; //} ? <div class="pagination"> <? $query = "SELECT COUNT( temp_id ) AS `temp_date` FROM `templates` where cat_id ='{$catid}'"; $result = mysql_query($query) or die('Mysql Err. 2'); $row = mysql_fetch_assoc($result); $numrows = $row['temp_date']; //$numrows = mysql_num_rows($result); $self = $_SERVER['PHP_SELF']; $maxPage = ceil($numrows/$recordsPerPage); $nav = ''; for($page = 1; $page <= $maxPage; $page++) { if ($page == $pageNum) { $nav .= "$page"; } else { $nav .= "$page"; } } if ($pageNum 1) { $page = $pageNum - 1; $prev = ""; $first = ""; } else { $prev = ' '; $first = ' '; } if ($pageNum < $maxPage) { $page = $pageNum + 1; $next = " "; $last = " "; } else { $next = ' '; $last = ' '; } echo " $first $prev $nav $next $last "; ? Here my ajax code: function GetXmlHttpObject(handler) { var objXMLHttp=null if (window.XMLHttpRequest) { objXMLHttp=new XMLHttpRequest() } else if (window.ActiveXObject) { objXMLHttp=new ActiveXObject("Microsoft.XMLHTTP") } return objXMLHttp } function stateChanged() { if (xmlHttp.readyState==4 || xmlHttp.readyState=="complete") { document.getElementById("txtResult").innerHTML=xmlHttp.responseText } else { //alert(xmlHttp.status); } } function htmlData(url, qStr) { if (url.length==0) { document.getElementById("txtResult").innerHTML=""; return; } xmlHttp=GetXmlHttpObject() if (xmlHttp==null) { alert ("Browser does not support HTTP Request"); return; } url=url+"?"+qStr; url=url+"&sid="+Math.random(); xmlHttp.onreadystatechange=stateChanged; xmlHttp.open("GET",url,true) ; xmlHttp.send(null); }

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Jquery / PhP / Joomla Select one of two comboboxes does not get updated

- by bluesbrother

I am making a Joomla component wich has 3 comboboxes/selects on the page. One with languages and 2 with subjects. If you change the language the other two get filled with the same data (the subjects in the selected language) the name of the selectbox are different but otherwise the same. I get an error for one of the subject boxes (hence the url gets red), but there is no logic in wich one will give an error. In Firebug i get the HTML back for the one without the other and this one gets updated but the other one gives nothing back. If i right click in firebug on the one that gave the error, and do "send again" it will load fine. Is their a timing problem? The change event of the language selectbox: jQuery('#cmbldcoi_ldlink_language').bind('change', function() { var cmbLangID = jQuery('#cmbldcoi_ldlink_language').val(); if (cmbLangID !=0) { getSubjectCmb_lang(cmbLangID, 'cmbldcoi_ldlink_subjects', '#ldlinksubjects'); } }); Function that requests the php file to create the html for the select: function getSubjectCmb_lang(langID, cmbName, DivWhereIn) { var xdate = new Date().getTime(); var url = 'index.php?option=com_ldadmin&view=ldadmin&format=raw&task=getcmbsubj_lang&langid=' + langID + '&cmbname=' + cmbName + '&'+ xdate; jQuery(DivWhereIn).load(url, function(){ }); } And in the php file there is a connection made to the database to ge the information to build the selectbox. I use a function for this that is okay because it makes al my selectboxes. The only place where there are problems with select boxes is on the pages that has 2 selects that need to change when a third one changed. My guess it is somewhere in the Jquery where this goes wrong. And i think it has to do with timing. But i am open for all sugestions. Thanx. UPDATE: No the ID and Name fields are different. They are named : cmbldcoi_child cmbldcoi_parent Here is my code: The change event for the first combobox which makes the other two change: jQuery('#cmbldcoi_language_chain_subj').bind('change', function(){ var langID = jQuery('#cmbldcoi_language_chain_subj').val(); if (langID != 0){ getSubjectCmb_lang(langID, 'cmbldcoi_child', '#div_cmbldcoi_child'); getSubjectCmb_lang(langID, 'cmbldcoi_parent', '#div_cmbldcoi_parent'); } }); } The function wicht calls the php file to get the info from the database: function getSubjectCmb_lang(langID, cmbName, DivWhereIn){ var xdate = new Date().getTime(); var url = 'index.php?option=com_ldadmin&view=ldadmin&format=raw&task=getcmbsubj_lang&langid=' + langID + '&cmbname=' + cmbName + '&'+ xdate; jQuery(DivWhereIn).load(url, function(){ }); } The PHP code function getcmbsubj_lang(){ $langid = JRequest::getVar('langid'); if ($langid > 0 ){ $langid = JRequest::getVar('langid'); }else{ $langid = 1; } $cmbName = JRequest::getVar('cmbname'); //$lang_sufx = self::get_#__sufx($langid); print ld_html::ld_create_cmb_html($cmbName, '#__ldcoi_subjects','id', 'subject_name', " WHERE id_language={$langid} ORDER BY subject_name" ); } There is a class wich is called ld_html wich has an funnction in it that creates a combobox. ld_html::ld_create_cmb_html() It gets an table name, id field, namefield and optional an where clause. It all works fine if there is just one combobox thats needs updating. It give a problem when there are two. Thanks for the help !

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Draw camera position in specific view port.

- by snackbar

Most of this code should be fairly self explanatory. I got an display function and my view port function. There are two modes which is 4 small view ports in the window or one large. I got one camera which can be moved and if in 4 view port mode just 3 fixed angles. The thing is I want the free moving cameras position to be displayed in the 3 other view ports. I tried doing it by drawing spheres using opengl but the problem is that then the position gets draw in the free roaming camera too as it shows the same scene. It doesn't have to be a sphere, just something simple that represents the cameras spacial position in these three other views. Drawing the scene once with camera object showing for the three viewports, render to texture. Clear and draw scene without camera object render to texture and then stitch these together before actually drawing the scene seems like a lot o work for something that should be easy. void display(int what) { if(what==5){ glMatrixMode(GL_MODELVIEW); glLoadIdentity(); camControll();} if(what==1){ glMatrixMode(GL_MODELVIEW); glLoadIdentity(); gluLookAt(75,15,-5,0,5,-5,0,1,0);} if(what==2){ glMatrixMode(GL_MODELVIEW); glLoadIdentity(); gluLookAt(0,110,0,0,0,0,1,0,0);} if(what==3){ glMatrixMode(GL_PROJECTION); glLoadIdentity(); gluPerspective(45.0f, float(320) / float(240), 0.1f, 100.0f); glMatrixMode(GL_MODELVIEW); glLoadIdentity(); camControll();} if(what==4){ glMatrixMode(GL_MODELVIEW); glLoadIdentity(); gluLookAt(185,75,25,0,28,0,0,1,0);} glClearColor(0, 0, 0, 1); glClear(GL_COLOR_BUFFER_BIT|GL_DEPTH_BUFFER_BIT); drawScene(); drawCamera(); glutSwapBuffers(); } void viewport(){ glEnable(GL_SCISSOR_TEST); if(!divided_view_port) { glViewport(0, 0, w, h); glScissor(0,0,640,480); glMatrixMode(GL_PROJECTION); glLoadIdentity(); gluPerspective(45.0f, w / h, 0.1f, 100.0f); display(5); } else { ////////////////////// bottom left - working glViewport(0, 0, w/2, h/2); glScissor(0,0,w/2,h/2); glMatrixMode(GL_PROJECTION); glLoadIdentity(); gluPerspective(45.0f, w / h, 0.1f, 300.0f); display(1); ////////////////////// ////////////////////// top right - working glViewport(w/2, h/2, w/2, h/2); glScissor(w/2,h/2,w/2,h/2); glMatrixMode(GL_PROJECTION); glLoadIdentity(); gluPerspective(45.0f, w / h, 0.1f, 300.0f); display(2); ////////////////////// ////////////////////// bottom right -working glViewport(w/2, 0, w/2, h/2); glScissor(w/2,0,w/2,h/2); glMatrixMode(GL_PROJECTION); glLoadIdentity(); gluPerspective(45.0f, w / h, 0.1f, 300.0f); display(3); //////////////////////// ////////////////////////// top left glViewport(0, h/2, w/2, h/2); glScissor(0,h/2,w/2,h/2); glMatrixMode(GL_PROJECTION); glLoadIdentity(); gluPerspective(45.0f, w / h, 0.1f, 300.0f); display(4); /////////////////////////// } glDisable(GL_SCISSOR_TEST); glMatrixMode(GL_MODELVIEW); }

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How can i clear a SQLite database each time i start my app

- by AndroidUser99

Hi, i want that each time i start my app my SQLite database get's cleaned for this, i need to make a method on my class MyDBAdapter.java code examples are welcome, i have no idea how to do it this is the dbadapter/helper i'm using: public class MyDbAdapter { private static final String TAG = "NotesDbAdapter"; private DatabaseHelper mDbHelper; private SQLiteDatabase mDb; private static final String DATABASE_NAME = "gpslocdb"; private static final String PERMISSION_TABLE_CREATE = "CREATE TABLE permission ( fk_email1 varchar, fk_email2 varchar, validated tinyint, hour1 time default '08:00:00', hour2 time default '20:00:00', date1 date, date2 date, weekend tinyint default '0', fk_type varchar, PRIMARY KEY (fk_email1,fk_email2))"; private static final String USER_TABLE_CREATE = "CREATE TABLE user ( email varchar, password varchar, fullName varchar, mobilePhone varchar, mobileOperatingSystem varchar, PRIMARY KEY (email))"; private static final int DATABASE_VERSION = 2; private final Context mCtx; private static class DatabaseHelper extends SQLiteOpenHelper { DatabaseHelper(Context context) { super(context, DATABASE_NAME, null, DATABASE_VERSION); } @Override public void onCreate(SQLiteDatabase db) { db.execSQL(PERMISSION_TABLE_CREATE); db.execSQL(USER_TABLE_CREATE); } @Override public void onUpgrade(SQLiteDatabase db, int oldVersion, int newVersion) { db.execSQL("DROP TABLE IF EXISTS user"); db.execSQL("DROP TABLE IF EXISTS permission"); onCreate(db); } } /** * Constructor - takes the context to allow the database to be * opened/created * * @param ctx the Context within which to work */ public MyDbAdapter(Context ctx) { this.mCtx = ctx; } /** * Open the database. If it cannot be opened, try to create a new * instance of the database. If it cannot be created, throw an exception to * signal the failure * * @return this (self reference, allowing this to be chained in an * initialization call) * @throws SQLException if the database could be neither opened or created */ public MyDbAdapter open() throws SQLException { mDbHelper = new DatabaseHelper(mCtx); mDb = mDbHelper.getWritableDatabase(); return this; } public void close() { mDbHelper.close(); } public long createUser(String email, String password, String fullName, String mobilePhone, String mobileOperatingSystem) { ContentValues initialValues = new ContentValues(); initialValues.put("email",email); initialValues.put("password",password); initialValues.put("fullName",fullName); initialValues.put("mobilePhone",mobilePhone); initialValues.put("mobileOperatingSystem",mobileOperatingSystem); return mDb.insert("user", null, initialValues); } public Cursor fetchAllUsers() { return mDb.query("user", new String[] {"email", "password", "fullName", "mobilePhone", "mobileOperatingSystem"}, null, null, null, null, null); } public Cursor fetchUser(String email) throws SQLException { Cursor mCursor = mDb.query(true, "user", new String[] {"email", "password", "fullName", "mobilePhone", "mobileOperatingSystem"} , "email" + "=" + email, null, null, null, null, null); if (mCursor != null) { mCursor.moveToFirst(); } return mCursor; } public List<Friend> retrieveAllUsers() { List <Friend> friends=new ArrayList<Friend>(); Cursor result=fetchAllUsers(); if( result.moveToFirst() ){ do{ //note.getString(note.getColumnIndexOrThrow(NotesDbAdapter.KEY_TITLE))); friends.add(new Friend(result.getString(result.getColumnIndexOrThrow("email")), "","","","")); }while( result.moveToNext() ); } return friends; } }

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Trying to reinvent the wheel of StackOverflow to have a good learning experience. Need some suggesti

- by Legend

I want to learn and am not able to do it unless I have a real "mission" to complete. SO is my favorite and I can't imagine a better experience than actually recreating it but not in ASP. I'd like to use PHP+MySQL+jQuery. So far, I have been a self-taught programmer but I would like to master one paradigm that forces you to adhere to the standards. For instance, recently, jQuery forced me to use some "rules". The plugins were supposed to be written in a particular way and that's it. When I started off, everything seemed like Greek and Latin but when I finished a very small plugin, I felt really happy because it forced me to program in a certain way. I am looking for something like this only in a larger project. I've heard a lot about MVC and all but I am confused about the various frameworks out there. Zend seems awesome but looks heavy at the same time and also requires you to have a lot more control over the web-server whereas CakePHP is a good and a fast framework that needs only little control. Do I use one of these or just write my own MVC? I have the following goals: Goals: Site should be fast - I know this depends on my coding skills but I will learn on my way. The framework itself should not slow me down) Setting up the site should not require you to use command-line - This requirement is ok during development. But some frameworks like Symphony require you to initialize certain things through command-line Should support pluggable modules - For instance, if I want to be able to use the FCK editor, I should be able to organize things in a good way. Should be possible to extend - For instance, SO is mainly a Q&A site but I should be able to logically extend it into an Idea Management System (optional but I'm curious). This goes more into code re-usability I guess. I am comfortable with MySQL so I should be done with database design etc. with some serious effort. As for PHP, I can write code on my own but haven't really used any frameworks that much. jQuery, I started off recently and love it. I would be glad if someone can guide me during these initial steps. Precisely, when designing something like SO, I have the following questions: Do I use a framework? If yes, should it be MVC? If MVC, which one is a good and a scalable one? (I'd love something like jQuery that will not die anytime soon) How do I balance the functionality? The same logic can sometimes be made server centric or client centric. (more Ajax?). Is it a good idea to make a heavy javascript site considering the recent advances on client-side JS processing? Just in case anyone is wondering, I am not interested in commercializing any of this. I need a reason to learn something :)

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Safely defining variables for public callback functions in javascript

- by djreed

I am working with the YouTube iFrame API to embed a number of videos on a page. Documentation here: https://developers.google.com/youtube/iframe_api_reference#Requirements In summary, you load the API asynchronously using the following snippet: var tag = document.createElement('script'); tag.src = "http://www.youtube.com/player_api"; var firstScriptTag = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; firstScriptTag.parentNode.insertBefore(tag, firstScriptTag); Once loaded, the API fires the predefined callback function onYouTubePlayerAPIReady. For additional context: I am defining a library file for this in Google Closure. I am providing a namespace: goog.provide('yt.video'); I then use goog.exportSymbol so that the API can find the function. That all works fine. My challenge is that I would like to pass 2 variables to the callback function. Is there any way to do this without defining these 2 variables in the context of the window object? goog.provide('yt.video'); goog.require('goog.dom'); yt.video = function(videos, locales) { this.videos = videos; this.captionLocales = locales; this.init(); }; yt.video.prototype.init = function() { var tag = document.createElement('script'); tag.src = "http://www.youtube.com/player_api"; var firstScriptTag = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; firstScriptTag.parentNode.insertBefore(tag, firstScriptTag); }; /* * Callback function fired when YT API is ready * This is exported using goog.exportSymbol in another file and * is being fired by the API properly. */ yt.video.prototype.onPlayerReady = function(videos, locales) { window.console.log('this :' + this); //logs window window.console.log('this.videos : ' + this.videos); //logs undefined /* * Video settings from Django variable */ for(i=0; i<this.videos.length; i++) { var playerEvents = {}; var embedVars = {}; var el = this.videos[i].el; var playerVid = this.videos[i].vid; var playerWidth = this.videos[i].width; var playerHeight = this.videos[i].height; var captionLocales = this.videos[i].locales; if(this.videos[i].playerVars) var embedVars = this.videos[i].playerVars; } if(this.videos[i].events) { var playerEvents = this.videos[i].events; } /* * Show captions by default */ if(goog.array.indexOf(captionLocales, 'es') >= 0) { embedVars.cc_load_policy = 1; }; new YT.Player(el, { height: playerHeight, width: playerWidth, videoId: playerVid, events: playerEvents, playerVars: embedVars }); }; }; To intialize this, I am currently using the following within a self-executing anonymous function: var videos = [ {"vid": "video_id", "el": "player-1", "width": 640, "height": 390, "locales": ["es", "fr"], "events": {"onStateChange": stateChanged}}, {"vid": "video_id", "el": "player-2", "locales": ["es", "fr"], "width": 640, "height": 390} ]; var locales = ['es']; var videoTemplate = new yt.video(videos, locales);

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Override `drop` for a custom sequence

- by Bruno Reis

In short: in Clojure, is there a way to redefine a function from the standard sequence API (which is not defined on any interface like ISeq, IndexedSeq, etc) on a custom sequence type I wrote? 1. Huge data files I have big files in the following format: A long (8 bytes) containing the number n of entries n entries, each one being composed of 3 longs (ie, 24 bytes) 2. Custom sequence I want to have a sequence on these entries. Since I cannot usually hold all the data in memory at once, and I want fast sequential access on it, I wrote a class similar to the following: (deftype DataSeq [id ^long cnt ^long i cached-seq] clojure.lang.IndexedSeq (index [_] i) (count [_] (- cnt i)) (seq [this] this) (first [_] (first cached-seq)) (more [this] (if-let [s (next this)] s '())) (next [_] (if (not= (inc i) cnt) (if (next cached-seq) (DataSeq. id cnt (inc i) (next cached-seq)) (DataSeq. id cnt (inc i) (with-open [f (open-data-file id)] ; open a memory mapped byte array on the file ; seek to the exact position to begin reading ; decide on an optimal amount of data to read ; eagerly read and return that amount of data )))))) The main idea is to read ahead a bunch of entries in a list and then consume from that list. Whenever the cache is completely consumed, if there are remaining entries, they are read from the file in a new cache list. Simple as that. To create an instance of such a sequence, I use a very simple function like: (defn ^DataSeq load-data [id] (next (DataSeq. id (count-entries id) -1 []))) ; count-entries is a trivial "open file and read a long" memoized As you can see, the format of the data allowed me to implement count in very simply and efficiently. 3. drop could be O(1) In the same spirit, I'd like to reimplement drop. The format of these data files allows me to reimplement drop in O(1) (instead of the standard O(n)), as follows: if dropping less then the remaining cached items, just drop the same amount from the cache and done; if dropping more than cnt, then just return the empty list. otherwise, just figure out the position in the data file, jump right into that position, and read data from there. My difficulty is that drop is not implemented in the same way as count, first, seq, etc. The latter functions call a similarly named static method in RT which, in turn, calls my implementation above, while the former, drop, does not check if the instance of the sequence it is being called on provides a custom implementation. Obviously, I could provide a function named anything but drop that does exactly what I want, but that would force other people (including my future self) to remember to use it instead of drop every single time, which sucks. So, the question is: is it possible to override the default behaviour of drop? 4. A workaround (I dislike) While writing this question, I've just figured out a possible workaround: make the reading even lazier. The custom sequence would just keep an index and postpone the reading operation, that would happen only when first was called. The problem is that I'd need some mutable state: the first call to first would cause some data to be read into a cache, all the subsequent calls would return data from this cache. There would be a similar logic on next: if there's a cache, just next it; otherwise, don't bother populating it -- it will be done when first is called again. This would avoid unnecessary disk reads. However, this is still less than optimal -- it is still O(n), and it could easily be O(1). Anyways, I don't like this workaround, and my question is still open. Any thoughts? Thanks.

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ActionScript 3 Cant see Movieclip

- by user3697993

When I play my game it does not show my _Player Movieclip, but it does collide with the ground which is very confusing. So I believe the movieclip is there but not showing the texture/Sprite. I think the problem is in "function Spawn" (First Function). public class PewdyBird extends MovieClip { //Player variables public var Up_Speed:int = 25; public var speed:Number = 0; public var _grav:Number = 0.5; public var isJump:Boolean = false; public var Score:int = 0; public var Player_Live:Boolean = true; public var _Player:Player = new Player(); //Other variables //Environment variables var Floor:int = 480; var Clock:Number = 0; var Clock_restart:Number = 0; var Clock_ON:Boolean = false; var Clock_max:int = 15; var Player_Stage:Boolean = true; private var _X:int; private var _Y:int; private var hit_ground:Boolean = false; private var width_BG:int = 479; //SPAWN function Spawn(e:Event){ _Player.x = 200; _Player.y = 200; stage.addChild(_Player); } //Keyboard Input private function KeyboardListener(e:KeyboardEvent){ if(e.keyCode == Keyboard.SPACE){ Clock = Clock_restart; Clock_ON = true; isJump = true; if(isJump){ _Player.gotoAndPlay("Fly"); speed = -Up_Speed; isJump = false; } } } //Mouse Input & Spawn Listener private function MouseListener(m:MouseEvent){ if(MouseEvent.CLICK){ Clock = Clock_restart; Clock_ON = true; isJump = true; if(isJump){ _Player.gotoAndPlay("Fly"); speed = -Up_Speed; isJump = false; } } } //Rotation Fly function Rot_Fly(){ if(Clock < Clock_max){ _Player.rotation = -15; }else if(Clock >= Clock_max){ if(_Player.rotation < 90){ _Player.rotation += 10; }else if(_Player.rotation >= 90){ _Player.rotation = 90; } } } //END //Update Function function enter_frame(e:Event):void{ Rot_Fly(); //Clock if(Clock_ON){ Clock++; }else if(Clock > Clock_max){ Clock = Clock_max; } //Fall Limits if(speed >= 20){ _Player.y += 20; return; _Player.gotoAndPlay("Fall"); } //Physics speed += _grav*3; _Player.y += speed; } //Hit Ground function Hit_Ground(e:Event){ if(_Player.hitTestObject(Ground1)){ _grav = 0; speed = 0; trace("HIT GROUND"); }else if(_Player.hitTestObject(Ground2)){ _grav = 0; speed = 0; trace("HIT GROUND"); }else if(_Player.hitTestObject(Ground1) == false){ _grav = 1; }else if(_Player.hitTestObject(Ground2) == false){ _grav = 1; } } //Background Slide (Left) private function Background_Move(e:Event):void{ Background1.x -= 1.5; Background2.x -= 1.5; Ground1.x -= 4; Ground2.x -= 4; if(Background1.x < -width_BG){ Background1.x = width_BG; } else if(Background2.x < -width_BG){ Background2.x = width_BG; } else if(Ground1.x < -width_BG){ Ground1.x = width_BG; } else if(Ground2.x < -width_BG){ Ground2.x = width_BG; } } } The eventListeners are in flash it self stage.addEventListener(Event.ENTER_FRAME, enter_frame); stage.addEventListener(Event.ENTER_FRAME, Hit_Ground); stage.addEventListener(KeyboardEvent.KEY_UP, KeyboardListener); stage.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK, MouseListener); stage.addEventListener(Event.ENTER_FRAME, Background_Move); stage.addEventListener(Event.ADDED_TO_STAGE, Spawn);

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DataGrid : Binding with two different classes with lists ? WPF C#

- by MyRestlessDream

It is my first question on StackOverflow so I hope I am doing nothing wrong ! Sorry if it is the case ! I need some help because I can not find the solution of my problem. Of course I have searched everywhere on the web but I can not find it (can not post the links that I am using because of my low reputation :( ). Moreover, I am new in C# and WPF (and self-learning). I used to work in C++/Qt so I do not know how everything works in WPF. And sorry for my English, I am French. My problem My basic classes are that an Employee can use a computer. The id of the computer and the date of use are stored into the class Connection. I would like to display the list information in a DataGrid and in RowDetailsTemplate like here : http://i.stack.imgur.com/Bvn1z.png So it will do a binding to the Employee class but also to the Connection class with only the last value of the property (here the last value of the list "Computer ID" and the last value of the list "Connection Date" on this last computer). So it is a loop in the different lists. How can I do it ? Is it too much to do ? :( I succeed to get the Employee informations but I do not know how to bind the list of computer. When I am trying, it shows me "(Collection)" so it does not go inside the list :( Summary of Questions How to display/bind a value from a list AND from a different class in a DataGrid ? How to display all the values of a list into the RowDetailsTemplate ? Under Windows 7 and Visual Studio 2010 Pro version. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ EDIT ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Solution I have used the solution of Stefan Denchev. Here the modification of my class : http://i.stack.imgur.com/Ijx5i.png And the code used: <DataGrid ItemsSource="{Binding}" Name="table"> <DataGrid.Columns> <DataGridTextColumn Header="First Name" Binding="{Binding FirstName}"/> <DataGridTextColumn Header="Last Name" Binding="{Binding LastName}"/> <DataGridTextColumn Header="Gender" Binding="{Binding Gender}"/> <DataGridTextColumn Header="Last computer used" Binding="{Binding LastComputerID}"/> <DataGridTextColumn Header="Last connection date" Binding="{Binding LastDate}"/> </DataGrid.Columns> <DataGrid.RowDetailsTemplate> <DataTemplate> <DataGrid ItemsSource="{Binding ListOfConnection}"> <DataGrid.Columns> <DataGridTextColumn Header="Computer ID" Binding="{Binding ComputerID}"/> <DataGridTemplateColumn> <DataGridTemplateColumn.CellTemplate> <DataTemplate> <ListView ItemsSource="{Binding ListOfDate}"/> </DataTemplate> </DataGridTemplateColumn.CellTemplate> </DataGridTemplateColumn> </DataGrid.Columns> </DataGrid> </DataTemplate> </DataGrid.RowDetailsTemplate> </DataGrid> With in code behind : List<Employee> allEmployees = WorkflowMgr.Instance.AllEmployees; table.DataContext = allEmployees; And it works ! I have tryed to improve my fake example :) Hope it will help to another developer !

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Silverlight Commands Hacks: Passing EventArgs as CommandParameter to DelegateCommand triggered by Ev

- by brainbox

Today I've tried to find a way how to pass EventArgs as CommandParameter to DelegateCommand triggered by EventTrigger. By reverse engineering of default InvokeCommandAction I find that blend team just ignores event args.To resolve this issue I have created my own action for triggering delegate commands.public sealed class InvokeDelegateCommandAction : TriggerAction<DependencyObject>{ /// <summary> /// /// </summary> public static readonly DependencyProperty CommandParameterProperty = DependencyProperty.Register("CommandParameter", typeof(object), typeof(InvokeDelegateCommandAction), null); /// <summary> /// /// </summary> public static readonly DependencyProperty CommandProperty = DependencyProperty.Register( "Command", typeof(ICommand), typeof(InvokeDelegateCommandAction), null); /// <summary> /// /// </summary> public static readonly DependencyProperty InvokeParameterProperty = DependencyProperty.Register( "InvokeParameter", typeof(object), typeof(InvokeDelegateCommandAction), null); private string commandName; /// <summary> /// /// </summary> public object InvokeParameter { get { return this.GetValue(InvokeParameterProperty); } set { this.SetValue(InvokeParameterProperty, value); } } /// <summary> /// /// </summary> public ICommand Command { get { return (ICommand)this.GetValue(CommandProperty); } set { this.SetValue(CommandProperty, value); } } /// <summary> /// /// </summary> public string CommandName { get { return this.commandName; } set { if (this.CommandName != value) { this.commandName = value; } } } /// <summary> /// /// </summary> public object CommandParameter { get { return this.GetValue(CommandParameterProperty); } set { this.SetValue(CommandParameterProperty, value); } } /// <summary> /// /// </summary> /// <param name="parameter"></param> protected override void Invoke(object parameter) { this.InvokeParameter = parameter; if (this.AssociatedObject != null) { ICommand command = this.ResolveCommand(); if ((command != null) && command.CanExecute(this.CommandParameter)) { command.Execute(this.CommandParameter); } } } private ICommand ResolveCommand() { ICommand command = null; if (this.Command != null) { return this.Command; } var frameworkElement = this.AssociatedObject as FrameworkElement; if (frameworkElement != null) { object dataContext = frameworkElement.DataContext; if (dataContext != null) { PropertyInfo commandPropertyInfo = dataContext .GetType() .GetProperties(BindingFlags.Public | BindingFlags.Instance) .FirstOrDefault( p => typeof(ICommand).IsAssignableFrom(p.PropertyType) && string.Equals(p.Name, this.CommandName, StringComparison.Ordinal) ); if (commandPropertyInfo != null) { command = (ICommand)commandPropertyInfo.GetValue(dataContext, null); } } } return command; }}Example:<ComboBox> <ComboBoxItem Content="Foo option 1" /> <ComboBoxItem Content="Foo option 2" /> <ComboBoxItem Content="Foo option 3" /> <Interactivity:Interaction.Triggers> <Interactivity:EventTrigger EventName="SelectionChanged" > <Presentation:InvokeDelegateCommandAction Command="{Binding SubmitFormCommand}" CommandParameter="{Binding RelativeSource={RelativeSource Self}, Path=InvokeParameter}" /> </Interactivity:EventTrigger> </Interactivity:Interaction.Triggers> </ComboBox>BTW: InvokeCommanAction CommandName property are trying to find command in properties of view. It very strange, because in MVVM pattern command should be in viewmodel supplied to datacontext.

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Dynamic JSON Parsing in .NET with JsonValue

- by Rick Strahl

So System.Json has been around for a while in Silverlight, but it's relatively new for the desktop .NET framework and now moving into the lime-light with the pending release of ASP.NET Web API which is bringing a ton of attention to server side JSON usage. The JsonValue, JsonObject and JsonArray objects are going to be pretty useful for Web API applications as they allow you dynamically create and parse JSON values without explicit .NET types to serialize from or into. But even more so I think JsonValue et al. are going to be very useful when consuming JSON APIs from various services. Yes I know C# is strongly typed, why in the world would you want to use dynamic values? So many times I've needed to retrieve a small morsel of information from a large service JSON response and rather than having to map the entire type structure of what that service returns, JsonValue actually allows me to cherry pick and only work with the values I'm interested in, without having to explicitly create everything up front. With JavaScriptSerializer or DataContractJsonSerializer you always need to have a strong type to de-serialize JSON data into. Wouldn't it be nice if no explicit type was required and you could just parse the JSON directly using a very easy to use object syntax? That's exactly what JsonValue, JsonObject and JsonArray accomplish using a JSON parser and some sweet use of dynamic sauce to make it easy to access in code. Creating JSON on the fly with JsonValue Let's start with creating JSON on the fly. It's super easy to create a dynamic object structure. JsonValue uses the dynamic keyword extensively to make it intuitive to create object structures and turn them into JSON via dynamic object syntax. Here's an example of creating a music album structure with child songs using JsonValue:[TestMethod] public void JsonValueOutputTest() { // strong type instance var jsonObject = new JsonObject(); // dynamic expando instance you can add properties to dynamic album = jsonObject; album.AlbumName = "Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap"; album.Artist = "AC/DC"; album.YearReleased = 1977; album.Songs = new JsonArray() as dynamic; dynamic song = new JsonObject(); song.SongName = "Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap"; song.SongLength = "4:11"; album.Songs.Add(song); song = new JsonObject(); song.SongName = "Love at First Feel"; song.SongLength = "3:10"; album.Songs.Add(song); Console.WriteLine(album.ToString()); } This produces proper JSON just as you would expect: {"AlbumName":"Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap","Artist":"AC\/DC","YearReleased":1977,"Songs":[{"SongName":"Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap","SongLength":"4:11"},{"SongName":"Love at First Feel","SongLength":"3:10"}]} The important thing about this code is that there's no explicitly type that is used for holding the values to serialize to JSON. I am essentially creating this value structure on the fly by adding properties and then serialize it to JSON. This means this code can be entirely driven at runtime without compile time restraints of structure for the JSON output. Here I use JsonObject() to create a new object and immediately cast it to dynamic. JsonObject() is kind of similar in behavior to ExpandoObject in that it allows you to add properties by simply assigning to them. Internally, JsonValue/JsonObject these values are stored in pseudo collections of key value pairs that are exposed as properties through the DynamicObject functionality in .NET. The syntax gets a little tedious only if you need to create child objects or arrays that have to be explicitly defined first. Other than that the syntax looks like normal object access sytnax. Always remember though these values are dynamic - which means no Intellisense and no compiler type checking. It's up to you to ensure that the values you create are accessed consistently and without typos in your code. Note that you can also access the JsonValue instance directly and get access to the underlying type. This means you can assign properties by string, which can be useful for fully data driven JSON generation from other structures. Below you can see both styles of access next to each other:// strong type instance var jsonObject = new JsonObject(); // you can explicitly add values here jsonObject.Add("Entered", DateTime.Now); // expando style instance you can just 'use' properties dynamic album = jsonObject; album.AlbumName = "Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap"; JsonValue internally stores properties keys and values in collections and you can iterate over them at runtime. You can also manipulate the collections if you need to to get the object structure to look exactly like you want. Again, if you've used ExpandoObject before JsonObject/Value are very similar in the behavior of the structure. Reading JSON strings into JsonValue The JsonValue structure supports importing JSON via the Parse() and Load() methods which can read JSON data from a string or various streams respectively. Essentially JsonValue includes the core JSON parsing to turn a JSON string into a collection of JsonValue objects that can be then referenced using familiar dynamic object syntax. Here's a simple example:[TestMethod] public void JsonValueParsingTest() { var jsonString = @"{""Name"":""Rick"",""Company"":""West Wind"",""Entered"":""2012-03-16T00:03:33.245-10:00""}"; dynamic json = JsonValue.Parse(jsonString); // values require casting string name = json.Name; string company = json.Company; DateTime entered = json.Entered; Assert.AreEqual(name, "Rick"); Assert.AreEqual(company, "West Wind"); } The JSON string represents an object with three properties which is parsed into a JsonValue object and cast to dynamic. Once cast to dynamic I can then go ahead and access the object using familiar object syntax. Note that the actual values - json.Name, json.Company, json.Entered - are actually of type JsonPrimitive and I have to assign them to their appropriate types first before I can do type comparisons. The dynamic properties will automatically cast to the right type expected as long as the compiler can resolve the type of the assignment or usage. The AreEqual() method oesn't as it expects two object instances and comparing json.Company to "West Wind" is comparing two different types (JsonPrimitive to String) which fails. So the intermediary assignment is required to make the test pass. The JSON structure can be much more complex than this simple example. Here's another example of an array of albums serialized to JSON and then parsed through with JsonValue():[TestMethod] public void JsonArrayParsingTest() { var jsonString = @"[ { ""Id"": ""b3ec4e5c"", ""AlbumName"": ""Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap"", ""Artist"": ""AC/DC"", ""YearReleased"": 1977, ""Entered"": ""2012-03-16T00:13:12.2810521-10:00"", ""AlbumImageUrl"": ""http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/61kTaH-uZBL._AA115_.jpg"", ""AmazonUrl"": ""http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00008BXJ4/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=westwindtechn-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B00008BXJ4"", ""Songs"": [ { ""AlbumId"": ""b3ec4e5c"", ""SongName"": ""Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap"", ""SongLength"": ""4:11"" }, { ""AlbumId"": ""b3ec4e5c"", ""SongName"": ""Love at First Feel"", ""SongLength"": ""3:10"" }, { ""AlbumId"": ""b3ec4e5c"", ""SongName"": ""Big Balls"", ""SongLength"": ""2:38"" } ] }, { ""Id"": ""67280fb8"", ""AlbumName"": ""Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace"", ""Artist"": ""Foo Fighters"", ""YearReleased"": 2007, ""Entered"": ""2012-03-16T00:13:12.2810521-10:00"", ""AlbumImageUrl"": ""http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41mtlesQPVL._SL500_AA280_.jpg"", ""AmazonUrl"": ""http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000UFAURI/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=westwindtechn-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B000UFAURI"", ""Songs"": [ { ""AlbumId"": ""67280fb8"", ""SongName"": ""The Pretender"", ""SongLength"": ""4:29"" }, { ""AlbumId"": ""67280fb8"", ""SongName"": ""Let it Die"", ""SongLength"": ""4:05"" }, { ""AlbumId"": ""67280fb8"", ""SongName"": ""Erase/Replay"", ""SongLength"": ""4:13"" } ] }, { ""Id"": ""7b919432"", ""AlbumName"": ""End of the Silence"", ""Artist"": ""Henry Rollins Band"", ""YearReleased"": 1992, ""Entered"": ""2012-03-16T00:13:12.2800521-10:00"", ""AlbumImageUrl"": ""http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51FO3rb1tuL._SL160_AA160_.jpg"", ""AmazonUrl"": ""http://www.amazon.com/End-Silence-Rollins-Band/dp/B0000040OX/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1302232195&sr=8-5"", ""Songs"": [ { ""AlbumId"": ""7b919432"", ""SongName"": ""Low Self Opinion"", ""SongLength"": ""5:24"" }, { ""AlbumId"": ""7b919432"", ""SongName"": ""Grip"", ""SongLength"": ""4:51"" } ] } ]"; dynamic albums = JsonValue.Parse(jsonString); foreach (dynamic album in albums) { Console.WriteLine(album.AlbumName + " (" + album.YearReleased.ToString() + ")"); foreach (dynamic song in album.Songs) { Console.WriteLine("\t" + song.SongName ); } } Console.WriteLine(albums[0].AlbumName); Console.WriteLine(albums[0].Songs[1].SongName);} It's pretty sweet how easy it becomes to parse even complex JSON and then just run through the object using object syntax, yet without an explicit type in the mix. In fact it looks and feels a lot like if you were using JavaScript to parse through this data, doesn't it? And that's the point…© Rick Strahl, West Wind Technologies, 2005-2012Posted in .NET Web Api JSON Tweet !function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js";fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document,"script","twitter-wjs"); (function() { var po = document.createElement('script'); po.type = 'text/javascript'; po.async = true; po.src = 'https://apis.google.com/js/plusone.js'; var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(po, s); })();

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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!

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Mapping UrlEncoded POST Values in ASP.NET Web API

- by Rick Strahl

If there's one thing that's a bit unexpected in ASP.NET Web API, it's the limited support for mapping url encoded POST data values to simple parameters of ApiController methods. When I first looked at this I thought I was doing something wrong, because it seems mighty odd that you can bind query string values to parameters by name, but can't bind POST values to parameters in the same way. To demonstrate here's a simple example. If you have a Web API method like this:[HttpGet] public HttpResponseMessage Authenticate(string username, string password) { …} and then hit with a URL like this: http://localhost:88/samples/authenticate?Username=ricks&Password=sekrit it works just fine. The query string values are mapped to the username and password parameters of our API method. But if you now change the method to work with [HttpPost] instead like this:[HttpPost] public HttpResponseMessage Authenticate(string username, string password) { …} and hit it with a POST HTTP Request like this: POST http://localhost:88/samples/authenticate HTTP/1.1 Host: localhost:88 Accept: text/html,application/xhtml+xml,application/xml;q=0.9,*/*;q=0.8 Content-type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded Content-Length: 30 Username=ricks&Password=sekrit you'll find that while the request works, it doesn't actually receive the two string parameters. The username and password parameters are null and so the method is definitely going to fail. When I mentioned this over Twitter a few days ago I got a lot of responses back of why I'd want to do this in the first place - after all HTML Form submissions are the domain of MVC and not WebAPI which is a valid point. However, the more common use case is using POST Variables with AJAX calls. The following is quite common for passing simple values:$.post(url,{ Username: "Rick", Password: "sekrit" },function(result) {…}); but alas that doesn't work. How ASP.NET Web API handles Content Bodies Web API supports parsing content data in a variety of ways, but it does not deal with multiple posted content values. In effect you can only post a single content value to a Web API Action method. That one parameter can be very complex and you can bind it in a variety of ways, but ultimately you're tied to a single POST content value in your parameter definition. While it's possible to support multiple parameters on a POST/PUT operation, only one parameter can be mapped to the actual content - the rest have to be mapped to route values or the query string. Web API treats the whole request body as one big chunk of data that is sent to a Media Type Formatter that's responsible for de-serializing the content into whatever value the method requires. The restriction comes from async nature of Web API where the request data is read only once inside of the formatter that retrieves and deserializes it. Because it's read once, checking for content (like individual POST variables) first is not possible. However, Web API does provide a couple of ways to access the form POST data: Model Binding - object property mapping to bind POST values FormDataCollection - collection of POST keys/values ModelBinding POST Values - Binding POST data to Object Properties The recommended way to handle POST values in Web API is to use Model Binding, which maps individual urlencoded POST values to properties of a model object provided as the parameter. Model binding requires a single object as input to be bound to the POST data, with each POST key that matches a property name (including nested properties like Address.Street) being mapped and updated including automatic type conversion of simple types. This is a very nice feature - and a familiar one from MVC - that makes it very easy to have model objects mapped directly from inbound data. The obvious drawback with Model Binding is that you need a model for it to work: You have to provide a strongly typed object that can receive the data and this object has to map the inbound data. To rewrite the example above to use ModelBinding I have to create a class maps the properties that I need as parameters:public class LoginData { public string Username { get; set; } public string Password { get; set; } } and then accept the data like this in the API method:[HttpPost] public HttpResponseMessage Authenticate(LoginData login) { string username = login.Username; string password = login.Password; … } This works fine mapping the POST values to the properties of the login object. As a side benefit of this method definition, the method now also allows posting of JSON or XML to the same endpoint. If I change my request to send JSON like this: POST http://localhost:88/samples/authenticate HTTP/1.1 Host: localhost:88 Accept: application/jsonContent-type: application/json Content-Length: 40 {"Username":"ricks","Password":"sekrit"} it works as well and transparently, courtesy of the nice Content Negotiation features of Web API. There's nothing wrong with using Model binding and in fact it's a common practice to use (view) model object for inputs coming back from the client and mapping them into these models. But it can be kind of a hassle if you have AJAX applications with a ton of backend hits, especially if many methods are very atomic and focused and don't effectively require a model or view. Not always do you have to pass structured data, but sometimes there are just a couple of simple response values that need to be sent back. If all you need is to pass a couple operational parameters, creating a view model object just for parameter purposes seems like overkill. Maybe you can use the query string instead (if that makes sense), but if you can't then you can often end up with a plethora of 'message objects' that serve no further purpose than to make Model Binding work. Note that you can accept multiple parameters with ModelBinding so the following would still work:[HttpPost] public HttpResponseMessage Authenticate(LoginData login, string loginDomain) but only the object will be bound to POST data. As long as loginDomain comes from the querystring or route data this will work. Collecting POST values with FormDataCollection Another more dynamic approach to handle POST values is to collect POST data into a FormDataCollection. FormDataCollection is a very basic key/value collection (like FormCollection in MVC and Request.Form in ASP.NET in general) and then read the values out individually by querying each. [HttpPost] public HttpResponseMessage Authenticate(FormDataCollection form) { var username = form.Get("Username"); var password = form.Get("Password"); …} The downside to this approach is that it's not strongly typed, you have to handle type conversions on non-string parameters, and it gets a bit more complicated to test such as setup as you have to seed a FormDataCollection with data. On the other hand it's flexible and easy to use and especially with string parameters is easy to deal with. It's also dynamic, so if the client sends you a variety of combinations of values on which you make operating decisions, this is much easier to work with than a strongly typed object that would have to account for all possible values up front. The downside is that the code looks old school and isn't as self-documenting as a parameter list or object parameter would be. Nevertheless it's totally functionality and a viable choice for collecting POST values. What about [FromBody]? Web API also has a [FromBody] attribute that can be assigned to parameters. If you have multiple parameters on a Web API method signature you can use [FromBody] to specify which one will be parsed from the POST content. Unfortunately it's not terribly useful as it only returns content in raw format and requires a totally non-standard format ("=content") to specify your content. For more info in how FromBody works and several related issues to how POST data is mapped, you can check out Mike Stalls post: How WebAPI does Parameter Binding Not really sure where the Web API team thought [FromBody] would really be a good fit other than a down and dirty way to send a full string buffer. Extending Web API to make multiple POST Vars work? Don't think so Clearly there's no native support for multiple POST variables being mapped to parameters, which is a bit of a bummer. I know in my own work on one project my customer actually found this to be a real sticking point in their AJAX backend work, and we ended up not using Web API and using MVC JSON features instead. That's kind of sad because Web API is supposed to be the proper solution for AJAX backends. With all of ASP.NET Web API's extensibility you'd think there would be some way to build this functionality on our own, but after spending a bit of time digging and asking some of the experts from the team and Web API community I didn't hear anything that even suggests that this is possible. From what I could find I'd say it's not possible primarily because Web API's Routing engine does not account for the POST variable mapping. This means [HttpPost] methods with url encoded POST buffers are not mapped to the parameters of the endpoint, and so the routes would never even trigger a request that could be intercepted. Once the routing doesn't work there's not much that can be done. If somebody has an idea how this could be accomplished I would love to hear about it. Do we really need multi-value POST mapping? I think that that POST value mapping is a feature that one would expect of any API tool to have. If you look at common APIs out there like Flicker and Google Maps etc. they all work with POST data. POST data is very prominent much more so than JSON inputs and so supporting as many options that enable would seem to be crucial. All that aside, Web API does provide very nice features with Model Binding that allows you to capture many POST variables easily enough, and logistically this will let you build whatever you need with POST data of all shapes as long as you map objects. But having to have an object for every operation that receives a data input is going to take its toll in heavy AJAX applications, with a lot of types created that do nothing more than act as parameter containers. I also think that POST variable mapping is an expected behavior and Web APIs non-support will likely result in many, many questions like this one: How do I bind a simple POST value in ASP.NET WebAPI RC? with no clear answer to this question. I hope for V.next of WebAPI Microsoft will consider this a feature that's worth adding. Related Articles Passing multiple POST parameters to Web API Controller Methods Mike Stall's post: How Web API does Parameter Binding Where does ASP.NET Web API Fit?© Rick Strahl, West Wind Technologies, 2005-2012Posted in Web Api Tweet !function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js";fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document,"script","twitter-wjs"); (function() { var po = document.createElement('script'); po.type = 'text/javascript'; po.async = true; po.src = 'https://apis.google.com/js/plusone.js'; var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(po, s); })();

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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.

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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.

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CodePlex Daily Summary for Tuesday, March 02, 2010

CodePlex Daily Summary for Tuesday, March 02, 2010New ProjectsAcceptance Test Excel Addin: Acceptance Test Excel Addin is a tool to author, execute and analyze acceptance tests in Excel. The tester write tests using Given-When-Then (Gherk...Adrastus: Related to manage Issue/Item of any type. To be defined later TBDAn opportunity of upgrading Linux operating system: Want to add a new software in Linux operating system? Here is an opportunity. UFS (User Friendly Scheduler) has been designed to make the operating...AspNetPager: AspNetPager is a free custom paging control for ASP.NET web form application. It's one of the most popular ASP.NET third party controls used by chi...AzureRunMe: Run Java, Ruby, Python, [insert language of your choice] applications in Windows Azure. You provide a self contained ZIP file with a runme.bat f...DiffPlex - a .NET Diff Generator: DiffPlex is a combination of a .NET Diffing Library with both a Silverlight and HTML diff viewer.GPA WebClient: GPA project web client.Maintenance Service: A lot of projects need to have a windows service that execute different tasks. If am tired of creating the same service for all this project, so He...Marager Component Framework: Marager Component Framework (mcf)Pod Thrower: An application that gives a simple way to create podcast rss feeds from local computer folders.Rapidshare Episode Downloader: Rapidshare Episode Downloader is a software that enables you (yes, you!) to organize your many episodes of different TV shows in a nice list, prese...Resxus - Total .net string resource management tool: RESXUS is a resource file management tool which is being created under my job-experience of managing multilingual resx files. The first goal of th...SLFX: SLFXTheWhiteAmbit: Hybrid Scanline-Raytracing Engine. VisitorPattern based Scenegraph written in C++. DirectX9 or DirectX10 rendering is used for PrimaryRays and CUDA...TSqlMigrations: Yet another migrations platform right? This is purely sql based (tsql as it is only for Sql Server at this time). This tool is meant to help mana...WAFFLE: Windows Authentication Functional Framework (LE): WAFFLE - Windows Authentication Functional Framework (Light Edition) is a .NET library with a COM interface and a Java bridge that provides a worki...web lib api: This project aim, to pull together the major, web api/webservices for each relervant categorie.WSDLGenerator: A tool to generate a WSDL file from a c# dll which contains one more Microsoft WebServices. The project is build using VS2010RC and uses .net Fram...XNA Re-usable UI Components: The aim of this project is to create a re-usable set of UI game components helping reduce production time for your game. More information can be...YUI Compressor Custom Tool for Visual Studio: This EXTREMELY simple custom tool is used to automatically generate a *.min.css file from your existing code on save. It is merely a packaged versi...New ReleasesAcceptance Test Excel Addin: 1.0.0.0: How to Use Extract AcceptanceTestExcelAddIn-1.0.0.0.zip Run setup.exe Extract PasswordSample.zip Open Excel, your will see a new tab, "QA To...An opportunity of upgrading Linux operating system: UFS: The software provided by me is just a basic one that will run in the terminal through gcc compiler. The developers are therefore requested to make ...AspNetPager: Demo project: AspNetPager version 7.3.2 demo web site projectBusiness Framework: Formula Samples: A sample demonstrating textual language - Formula. It can be used is many business scenarios allowing end-user to configure or interact with the sy...Deblector: Deblector 1.1: This build fixes compatibility with .NET Reflector 6.Desktop Dimmer: March 2010: First release, March 2010EasyDump: EasyDump 1.0.1: Easy Dump 1.0.1 fix duplicate output when execute twiceExtensia: Extensia: Extensia is a very large list of extension methods and a few helper types. Many methods have practical utility (e.g. console parsing) whilst some ...Fluent Assertions: Fluent Assertions release 1.0: The first release of the Fluent Assertions. It contains assertions for the most common types and has several extension points.FolderSize: FolderSize.Win32.1.0.6.0: FolderSize.Win32.1.0.6.0 A simple utility intended to be used to scan harddrives for the folders that take most place and display this to the user...GamerShots.com Screenshot Capture: GamerShots.com Screenshot Capture: Windows Form application written in C# ASP.Net. Allows the user to capture a screen by pressing the "Print Scrn" key or by user input. Then uses ...Jet Login Tool (JetLoginTool): Stopped - 1.5.3713.17328: Fixed: Engine will now actually stop when the "Stop" button is hitJolt Environment - RuneScape Emulator: Jolt Environment 1.0.6000 GOLD: Features since 1.0.3200: - Account Creation via client - Character Saving/Loading (via MySQL serialization) - Ground Objects - Ground Items (with m...jQuery Library for SharePoint Web Services: SPServices 0.5.2: NOTE: While I work on new releases, I post alpha versions. Usually the alpha versions are here to address a particular need. I DO NOT recommend us...LINQ to XSD: 1.0.0: The LINQ to XSD technology provides .NET developers with support for typed XML programming. LINQ to XSD contributes to the LINQ project (.NET Langu...Maintenance Service: Alpha Release: Alpha Release of the SoftwareMDownloader: MDownloader-0.15.5.56206: Fixed many gathered bugs;MDownloader: MDownloader-0.15.6.56217: Fixed retrieving hotfile data using registered accounts.MRDS Services for HiTechnic: HiTechnic Controllers: The HiTechnic Controllers package contains services for MRDS that work with the LEGO NXT and TETRIX Servo and Motor Controllers. Initial ReleaseCo...Open NFe: DANFE 1.9.2: Correções do DANFE que serão incluídas na versão 1.9.2PROGRAMMABLE SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT ENVIRONMENT: PROGRAMMABLE SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT ENVIRONMENT-2.4: While testing a standard software parts kit library for strict portability, The following error condition occurred when using the Windows version ...Rapidshare Episode Downloader: RED 0.8: This is an almost fully working version of the software. What DOESN'T work: Showing the list of rapidshare search results (but query is being made...Reusable Library: V1.0.4: A collection of reusable abstractions for enterprise application developer.SharePoint LogViewer: SharePointLogViewer 1.5.1: Follwoing bugs are fixed Bookmarks deleted on refresh/reload Bookmarks not properly navigated on filtered list. Disabled toolbar buttons did n...SharePoint Taxonomy Extensions: SharePoint Taxonomy Extensions 1.1-1: - Some bugfixes - Possibility to switch between alphanummeric und manual sortingSilverSynth - Digital Audio Synthesis for Silverlight: SilverSynth 1.1: SilverSynth 1.1 is a zip file of the source code and includes an updated version of the demo application including presets.SQL Server Reporting Services MSBuild Tasks: Release 1.1.14669: New Features New Task added for Integrated and Native mode: DeleteReportUser Task ReportUserExists TaskTellago DevLabs: BizTalk Data Services v0.2: This release is the first version of the BizTalk Data Services API, a RESTful API for BizTalk Server based on the Open Data (OData) Protocol. The ...VCC: Latest build, v2.1.30301.0: Automatic drop of latest buildWAFFLE: Windows Authentication Functional Framework (LE): 1.2: Build 1.2.4217.0, initial open-source release. - Account lookup locally and in Active Directory. - Enumerating Active Directory domains. - Returns...Watermarker: 0.87: 01.03.2010: • FIXED: some stability fixes • ADDED: ability to choose any number of pictures and folder to save them after the operation completesWSDLGenerator: WSDLGenerator 0.0.0.1: Initial versionXNA Re-usable UI Components: Re-usable Game Components V1.0: First public release of the source codeYUI Compressor Custom Tool for Visual Studio: YUI Compressor Custom Tool with Installer v0.1a: Initial release with alpha installer - documentation to follow.Most Popular ProjectsMetaSharpRawrWBFS ManagerAJAX Control ToolkitMicrosoft SQL Server Product Samples: DatabaseSilverlight ToolkitWindows Presentation Foundation (WPF)Microsoft SQL Server Community & SamplesASP.NETImage Resizer Powertoy Clone for WindowsMost Active ProjectsRawrBlogEngine.NETMapWindow GISpatterns & practices – Enterprise LibraryjQuery Library for SharePoint Web ServicesSharpMap - Geospatial Application Framework for the CLRRapid Entity Framework (ORM). CTP 2DiffPlex - a .NET Diff GeneratorMDT Web FrontEndWPF Dialogs

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Azure Grid Computing - Worker Roles as HPC Compute Nodes

- by JoshReuben

Overview · With HPC 2008 R2 SP1 You can add Azure worker roles as compute nodes in a local Windows HPC Server cluster. · The subscription for Windows Azure like any other Azure Service - charged for the time that the role instances are available, as well as for the compute and storage services that are used on the nodes. · Win-Win ? - Azure charges the computer hour cost (according to vm size) amortized over a month – so you save on purchasing compute node hardware. Microsoft wins because you need to purchase HPC to have a local head node for managing this compute cluster grid distributed in the cloud. · Blob storage is used to hold input & output files of each job. I can see how Parametric Sweep HPC jobs can be supported (where the same job is run multiple times on each node against different input units), but not MPI.NET (where different HPC Job instances function as coordinated agents and conduct master-slave inter-process communication), unless Azure is somehow tunneling MPI communication through inter-WorkerRole Azure Queues. · this is not the end of the story for Azure Grid Computing. If MS requires you to purchase a local HPC license (and administrate it), what's to stop a 3rd party from doing this and encapsulating exposing HPC WCF Broker Service to you for managing compute nodes? If MS doesn’t provide head node as a service, someone else will! Process · requires creation of a worker node template that specifies a connection to an existing subscription for Windows Azure + an availability policy for the worker nodes. · After worker nodes are added to the cluster, you can start them, which provisions the Windows Azure role instances, and then bring them online to run HPC cluster jobs. · A Windows Azure worker role instance runs a HPC compatible Azure guest operating system which runs on the VMs that host your service. The guest operating system is updated monthly. You can choose to upgrade the guest OS for your service automatically each time an update is released - All role instances defined by your service will run on the guest operating system version that you specify. see Windows Azure Guest OS Releases and SDK Compatibility Matrix (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=190549). · use the hpcpack command to upload file packages and install files to run on the worker nodes. see hpcpack (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=205514). Requirements · assuming you have an azure subscription account and the HPC head node installed and configured. · Install HPC Pack 2008 R2 SP 1 - see Microsoft HPC Pack 2008 R2 Service Pack 1 Release Notes (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=202812). · Configure the head node to connect to the Internet - connectivity is provided by the connection of the head node to the enterprise network. You may need to configure a proxy client on the head node. Any cluster network topology (1-5) is supported). · Configure the firewall - allow outbound TCP traffic on the following ports: 80, 443, 5901, 5902, 7998, 7999 · Note: HPC Server uses Admin Mode (Elevated Privileges) in Windows Azure to give the service administrator of the subscription the necessary privileges to initialize HPC cluster services on the worker nodes. · Obtain a Windows Azure subscription certificate - the Windows Azure subscription must be configured with a public subscription (API) certificate -a valid X.509 certificate with a key size of at least 2048 bits. Generate a self-sign certificate & upload a .cer file to the Windows Azure Portal Account page > Manage my API Certificates link. see Using the Windows Azure Service Management API (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=205526). · import the certificate with an associated private key on the HPC cluster head node - into the trusted root store of the local computer account. Obtain Windows Azure Connection Information for HPC Server · required for each worker node template · copy from azure portal - Get from: navigation pane > Hosted Services > Storage Accounts & CDN · Subscription ID - a 32-char hex string in the form xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx. In Properties pane. · Subscription certificate thumbprint - a 40-char hex string (you need to remove spaces). In Management Certificates > Properties pane. · Service name - the value of <ServiceName> configured in the public URL of the service (http://<ServiceName>.cloudapp.net). In Hosted Services > Properties pane. · Blob Storage account name - the value of <StorageAccountName> configured in the public URL of the account (http://<StorageAccountName>.blob.core.windows.net). In Storage Accounts > Properties pane. Import the Azure Subscription Certificate on the HPC Head Node · enable the services for Windows HPC Server to authenticate properly with the Windows Azure subscription. · use the Certificates MMC snap-in to import the certificate to the Trusted Root Certification Authorities store of the local computer account. The certificate must be in PFX format (.pfx or .p12 file) with a private key that is protected by a password. · see Certificates (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=163918). · To open the certificates snapin: Run > mmc. File > Add/Remove Snap-in > certificates > Computer account > Local Computer · To import the certificate via wizard - Certificates > Trusted Root Certification Authorities > Certificates > All Tasks > Import · After the certificate is imported, it appears in the details pane in the Certificates snap-in. You can open the certificate to check its status. Configure a Proxy Client on the HPC Head Node · the following Windows HPC Server services must be able to communicate over the Internet (through the firewall) with the services for Windows Azure: HPCManagement, HPCScheduler, HPCBrokerWorker. · Create a Windows Azure Worker Node Template · Edit HPC node templates in HPC Node Template Editor. · Specify: 1) Windows Azure subscription connection info (unique service name) for adding a set of worker nodes to the cluster + 2)worker node availability policy – rules for deploying / removing worker role instances in Windows Azure o HPC Cluster Manager > Configuration > Navigation Pane > Node Templates > Actions pane > New à Create Node Template Wizard or Edit à Node Template Editor o Choose Node Template Type page - Windows Azure worker node template o Specify Template Name page – template name & description o Provide Connection Information page – Azure Subscription ID (text) & Subscription certificate (browse) o Provide Service Information page - Azure service name + blob storage account name (optionally click Retrieve Connection Information to get list of available from azure – possible LRT). o Configure Azure Availability Policy page - how Windows Azure worker nodes start / stop (online / offline the worker role instance - add / remove) – manual / automatic o for automatic - In the Configure Windows Azure Worker Availability Policy dialog -select days and hours for worker nodes to start / stop. · To validate the Windows Azure connection information, on the template's Connection Information tab > Validate connection information. · You can upload a file package to the storage account that is specified in the template - eg upload application or service files that will run on the worker nodes. see hpcpack (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=205514). Add Azure Worker Nodes to the HPC Cluster · Use the Add Node Wizard – specify: 1) the worker node template, 2) The number of worker nodes (within the quota of role instances in the azure subscription), and 3) The VM size of the worker nodes : ExtraSmall, Small, Medium, Large, or ExtraLarge. · to add worker nodes of different sizes, must run the Add Node Wizard separately for each size. · All worker nodes that are added to the cluster by using a specific worker node template define a set of worker nodes that will be deployed and managed together in Windows Azure when you start the nodes. This includes worker nodes that you add later by using the worker node template and, if you choose, worker nodes of different sizes. You cannot start, stop, or delete individual worker nodes. · To add Windows Azure worker nodes o In HPC Cluster Manager: Node Management > Actions pane > Add Node à Add Node Wizard o Select Deployment Method page - Add Azure Worker nodes o Specify New Nodes page - select a worker node template, specify the number and size of the worker nodes · After you add worker nodes to the cluster, they are in the Not-Deployed state, and they have a health state of Unapproved. Before you can use the worker nodes to run jobs, you must start them and then bring them online. · Worker nodes are numbered consecutively in a naming series that begins with the root name AzureCN – this is non-configurable. Deploying Windows Azure Worker Nodes · To deploy the role instances in Windows Azure - start the worker nodes added to the HPC cluster and bring the nodes online so that they are available to run cluster jobs. This can be configured in the HPC Azure Worker Node Template – Azure Availability Policy - to be automatic or manual. · The Start, Stop, and Delete actions take place on the set of worker nodes that are configured by a specific worker node template. You cannot perform one of these actions on a single worker node in a set. You also cannot perform a single action on two sets of worker nodes (specified by two different worker node templates). · · Starting a set of worker nodes deploys a set of worker role instances in Windows Azure, which can take some time to complete, depending on the number of worker nodes and the performance of Windows Azure. · To start worker nodes manually and bring them online o In HPC Node Management > Navigation Pane > Nodes > List / Heat Map view - select one or more worker nodes. o Actions pane > Start – in the Start Azure Worker Nodes dialog, select a node template. o the state of the worker nodes changes from Not Deployed to track the provisioning progress – worker node Details Pane > Provisioning Log tab. o If there were errors during the provisioning of one or more worker nodes, the state of those nodes is set to Unknown and the node health is set to Unapproved. To determine the reason for the failure, review the provisioning logs for the nodes. o After a worker node starts successfully, the node state changes to Offline. To bring the nodes online, select the nodes that are in the Offline state > Bring Online. · Troubleshooting o check node template. o use telnet to test connectivity: telnet <ServiceName>.cloudapp.net 7999 o check node status - Deployment status information appears in the service account information in the Windows Azure Portal - HPC queries this - see node status information for any failed nodes in HPC Node Management. · When role instances are deployed, file packages that were previously uploaded to the storage account using the hpcpack command are automatically installed. You can also upload file packages to storage after the worker nodes are started, and then manually install them on the worker nodes. see hpcpack (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=205514). · to remove a set of role instances in Windows Azure - stop the nodes by using HPC Cluster Manager (apply the Stop action). This deletes the role instances from the service and changes the state of the worker nodes in the HPC cluster to Not Deployed. · Each time that you start a set of worker nodes, two proxy role instances (size Small) are configured in Windows Azure to facilitate communication between HPC Cluster Manager and the worker nodes. The proxy role instances are not listed in HPC Cluster Manager after the worker nodes are added. However, the instances appear in the Windows Azure Portal. The proxy role instances incur charges in Windows Azure along with the worker node instances, and they count toward the quota of role instances in the subscription.

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Day 2 - Game Design Documentation

- by dapostolov

So yesterday I didn't cut any code for my game but I was able to do a tiny bit of research on the XNA Game Development Technology and the communities out there and do you know what? I feel I'm a bit closer to my goal. The bad news is today I didn't cut code either. However, not all is lost because I wanted to get my ideas on paper and today I just did that. Today, I began to jot down notes about the game and how I felt the visual elements would interact with each other. Unlike my workplace, my personal level of documentation is nothing more than a task list or a mind map of my ideas; it helps me streamline my solutions quiet effectively and circumvent the long process of articulating each thought to the n-th degree. I truly dislike documentation (because I have an extremely hard time articulating my thought and solutions); however, because I tend to do a really good job with documentation I tend to get stuck writing the buggers. But as a generalist remark: 'No Developer likes documentation.' For now let's stick with my basic notes and call this post a living document. Here are my notes, fresh, from after watching the new first episode of Merlin second season! Actually, a quick recommendation to anyone who is reading this (if anyone is): I truly recommend you envelope yourself in the medium or task you're trying to tackle. Be one with moment and feel it! For instance: Are you writing a fantasy script / game? What would the music of the genre sound like? For me the Conan the Barbarian soundtrack by Basil Poledouris is frackin awesome. There are many other good CD's out there, which I listen to (some who even use medival instruments, but Conan I keep returning to. It's a creative trigger for me. Ask yourself what would the imagery look like? Time to surf google for artist renditions of fantasy! What would the game feel like? Start playing some of your favorite games that inspire you, be wary though, have some self control and don't let it absorb your time. Anyhow, onto the documentation... Screens, Scenes, and Sprites. Oh My! (groan...) The first thing that came to mind were the screens, I thought the following would suffice: Menu Screen Character Customisation Screen Loading Screen? Battle Ground The Menu Screen Ok. So, the thought here is when the game loads a huge title is displayed: Wizard Wars. The player is prompted with 3 menu items: 1 Player Game, 2 Player Game, and Exit. Since I'm targetting the PC platform, as a non-networked game to start, I picture myself running my mouse over each menu option and the visual element of the menu item changes, along with a sound to indicate that I am over a curent menu item. And as I move my mouse away, it changes back, and possibly an exit mouse sound. Maybe on the screen somewhere is a brazier alit with a magical tome open right beside it, OR, maybe the tome is the menu! I hear the menu music as mellow, not obtrusive or piercing. On a menu item select, a confirmation sound bellows to indicate the players selection. The Esc key will always return me to the previous screens or desktop. The menu screen must feel...dark, like a really important ritual is about to happen and thus the music should build up. 1 Player Game - > Customize Character(s) 2 Player Game - > Customize Character(s) Exit - > Back to Windows Notes: So the first thing I pick up here are a couple things: First and foremost, my artistic abilities suck crap, so I may have to hire an artist (now that i've said that, lets get techy) graphical objects will be positioned within a scene on each screen / window. Menu items will be represented grapically, possibly animated, and have sound / animation effects triggered by user input or a time line. I have an animated scene involving a brazier or fire on a stick IF I was to move this game to the xbox, I'd have to track which menu item is currently selected (unless I do a mouse pointer type thing.) WindowObject has a scene A Scene has many GameObjects GameObject has a position graphic or animation MenuObject is a GameObject which has a mouse in, mouse out, and click event which either does something graphically (animation), does something with sound, or moves to another screen. Character Customisation Screen With either the 1 or 2 player option selected, both selections will come to this screen; a wizard requires a name, powers, and vestements of course! Player one will configure his character first and then player two. I considered a split screen for PC but to have two people fighting over a keyboard would probably suck. For XBox, a split screen could work; maybe when I get into the networking portion (phase 2 blog?) of this game I will remove the 2 player option for PC and provide only multiplayer and I will leave 2 player for xbox...hmm... Anyhow...I picture the creation process as follows: Name: (textbox / keyboard entry) - for xbox, this would have to be different. Robe Color: (color box, or something) Stats: Speed, Oomph, and Health. (as sliders) 1 as minimum and 10 as maximum. Ok, Back, and Cancel buttons / options. Each stat has a benefit which are listed below. The idea is the player decides if he wants his wizard to run fast, be a tank and ... hit with a purse.Regardless, the player will have a pool of 12 points to use. Ideally, A balanced wizard will have 5 in each attribute. Spells? The only spell of choice is a ball of fire which comes without question. The music and screen should still feel like a ritual. The Character Speed Basically, how fast your character moves and casts. Oomph (Best Monster Truck Voice): PURE POWAH!!! The damage output of your fireball. Health How much damage you can take. Notes: I realise the game dynamics may sound uninteresting at the moment; but I think after a couple releases, we could have some other grand ideas such as: saved profiles, gold to upgrade arsenal of spells, talents, etc...but for now...a vanilla fireball thrower mage will suffice for this experiment. OK. So... a MenuObject may need to be loosely coupled to allow future items such as networking? may be a button? a CharacterObject has a name speed oomph health and a funky robe color. cap on the three stats (1-10) an arsenal of 1 spell (possibly could expand this) The Loading Screen As is. The Battleground Screen For now, I'm keeping the screen as max resolution for the PC. The screen isn't going to move or even be a split screen. I'm not aiming high here because I want to see what level of change is involved when new features / concepts are added to game content. I'm interested to find out if we could apply techniques such as MVC or MVVM to this type of development or is it too tightly coupled? This reminds me when when my best friend and I were brainstorming our game idea (this is going back a while...1994, 6?) and he cringed at the thought of bringing business technology into games, especially when I suggested a database to store character information and COM / DCOM as the medium, but it seems I wasn't far off (reflecting); just like his implementation of a xml "config file" for dynamic direct-x menus back before .net in 1999...anyhow...i digress... The Battle One screen, two characters lobing balls of fire at each other...It doesn't get better than that. Every so often a scroll appears...and the fireballs bounce off walls, or the wizard has rapid fire, or even scrolls of healing! The scroll options are endless. Two bars at the top, each the color of the wizard (with their name beside the bar) indicate how much health they have. Possibly the appearance of the scrolls means the battle is taking too long? I'm thinking 1 player controls: up, down, left, right and space to fire the button. Or even possibly, mouse click and shift - mouse button to fire a spell in the direction they are facing. Two player controls: a, s, d, f and space AND arrows (up, down, left, right) and Del key or Crtl. The game ends when a player has 0 health and a dialog box appears asking for a rematch / reconfigure / exit. Health goes down when a fireball (friendly or not), connects with a wizard. When a wizard connects with a scroll, a countdown clock / icon appears near the health bar and the wizard begins to glow. For the most part, a wizard can have only scroll 1 effect on him at a time. Notes: Ok, there's alot to cover here. a CharacterObject is a GameObject it travels at a set velocity it travels in a direction it has sounds (walking, running, casting, impact, dying, laughing, whistling, other?) it has animations (walking, running, casting, impact, dying, laughing, idle, other?) it has a lifespan (determined by health) it is alive or dead it has a position a ScrollObject is a GameObject it carries a transferance of points "damage" (or healing, bad scroll effect?) (determinde by caster) it carries a transferance of "other" it is stationary it has a sound on impact it has a stationary animation it has an impact animation / or transfers an impact animation it has a fade animation? it has a lifespan (determined by game) it is alive or dead it has a position a WallObject is a GameObject it has a sound on fireball impact? it is a still image / stationary it has an impact animation / or transfers an impact animation it is dead it has a position A FireBall is a GameObject it carries a transferance of poinst "damage" (or healing, bad scroll effect?) (determinde by caster) it travels at a set velocity it travels in a direction it has a sound it has a travel animation it has an impact animation / or transfers an impact animation it has a fade animation? it has a lifespan (determined by caster) it is alive or dead it has a position As I look at this, I can see some common attributes in each object that I can carry up to the GameObject. I think I'm going to end the documentation here, it's taken me a bit of time to type this all out, tomorrow. I'll load up my IDE and my paint studio to get some good old fashioned cowboy hacking going! D.

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CodePlex Daily Summary for Saturday, June 12, 2010

CodePlex Daily Summary for Saturday, June 12, 2010New ProjectsAdverTool (Advertisement tool): AdverTool is an online tool which integrates the most popular advertisement networks (such as Microsoft adCenter, Google AdWords, Yahoo! Search Mar...Authentication Configuration Tool for SharePoint: Helpful tools to automatically configure SharePoint 2007 and 2010 for forms based authentication and other authentication mechanisms.Bacicworx: A C# .Net 3.5 helper library containing functionality for compression, encryption, hashes, downloading, PayPal API, text analysis and generation, a...BlogEngine.Net iPhone Theme: A port of BETouch originally created by soundbbgBT UPnP Nat Library: This Library makes it extremly simple to add NAT upnp port forwarding to your .net applications. Developed in C# using .Net 4.0CheckBox & CheckBoxList Validators: These validators fill the much needed gap in the Asp.Net Server controlsDataFactories: The DataFactories project was created to provide a standardized interface to SSAS and MSSQL data. However, as it is implemented using the Abstract ...DVD Swarm: Converts unprotected DVD video & audio streams to H.264 with AAC/Vorbis.Frio IM: Frio IM - is cross protocol instant messenger.jiuyuan: jiuyuan management systemMGM: MyGroupManager is a simple graphical interface written in PowerShell that can be deployed to Active Directory users to simplify the managed of grou...MGR2010: This the MA thesis by Witold Stanik & Michał Sereja, PJWSTK.Nauplius.ActiveDirectory: Web-based Active Directory management.Partial rendering control using JQuery: This article show a web custom control that allows partial rendering using JQueryREG - The Random Entertainment Generator: A simple tool to make your mid up when you can't figure out what you want to do!Runes of Magic - Heilerrechner: Heilerrechner für die Heiler von Runes of Magic (www.runes.ofmagic.com)Semagsoft Calculator: Basic calculator for Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7.SO League Tables: SOLT: Stack Overflow League Tables. A fun little app that lets you compare your stack overflow performance for each month, relative to other member...Stacky StackApps .Net Client Library: StackApps is a REST API for which provides access to the stackoverflow.com family of websites. Stacky is a .net client for that API. Stacky current...TwitterDotNet: TwitterDotNet is a TwitterLibrary for .NET Framework.ValiVIN: VIN (Vehicle Identification Number) Validator Validate Vin NumberWorkLogger: Simple work hour logger in WPFNew ReleasesAdverTool (Advertisement tool): Official releases: Please visit http://advertool.org to access the complete source code and downloads.Authentication Configuration Tool for SharePoint: Auth Config Tool (WSS 3.0, MOSS 2007 version): This tool automates the setup of dual authentication web applications in SharePoint that use Windows Authentication and Forms Based Authentication....BlogEngine.Net iPhone Theme: Version 0.1: Original version 0.1 from soundbbgBraintree Client Library: Braintree-2.3.0: Return AvsErrorResponseCode, AvsPostalCodeResponseCode, AvsStreetAddressResponseCode, CurrencyIsoCode, CvvResponseCode with Transaction Return Cr...BT UPnP Nat Library: Bt_Upnp Nat Library Alpha: Alpha Release of the libraryCNZK Library: Silverlight Behaviors - Deep Zoom Tag Filter: Behavior library for Silverlight 4 containing a Deep Zoom Tag Filter Behavior. Sample at the Expression Gallery http://gallery.expression.microsof...Demina: Demina Binaries version 0.2: Updated binaries. This release contains all of the new features, including simple animation transitions.DTLoggedExec: 1.0.0.2: -Fixed a bug that prevented loading packages from SSIS Package Store -Added support for {filename} placeholder in both Data Flow Profiling and CSV ...DVD Swarm: v0.8.10.611: Initial release, mostly stable.Exchange 2010 RBAC Editor (RBAC GUI) - updated on 6/11/2010: RBAC Editor 0.9.5.1: now supports creating and editing Role Assignment Policies; rest of the stuff is the same - still a lot of way to go :) Please use email address i...Extend SmallBasic: Teaching Extensions v.021: Compatible with SmallBasic v0.9 Lame version of TicTacToe Added - more coming later.Free Silverlight & WPF Chart Control - Visifire: Visifire SL and WPF Charts v3.1.1 GA Released: Hi, Today we are releasing Visifire 3.1.1 GA with the following features: * Logarithmic Axis * ShowIndicator() in Chart. * HideIndica...Free Silverlight & WPF Chart Control - Visifire: Visifire SL and WPF Charts v3.5.4 GA Released: Hi, Today we are releasing Visifire 3.1.1 GA with the following features: Logarithmic Axis ShowIndicator() in Chart. 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It includes the source code and a web application to see how it worksphpxw: Phpxw2.0: 框架目录说明 ./_mod 模块存放目录 ./phpxw/ 框架核心目录 ./phpxw/common/ 框架核心函数 ./phpxw/system/ 框架核心基础类存放目录 ./phpxw/userlib/ 用户继承类存放目录 ./temp...Questionable Content Screensaver: Questionable Content Screensaver: Should be pretty self explanatory, install the appropriate version for your computer (x64 or x86). Features Include Cache comics for offline viewi...Quick Performance Monitor: Version 1.4.1: Added option to change the 'minimum' maximum value visible on the graph at run-time. Also fixed a number of other bugs.Refix - .NET dependency management: Refix v0.1.0.82 ALPHA: This has now been run against a real life project to tease out some of the issues. While this remains alpha software, which you use at your own ris...Rhyduino - Arduino and Managed Code: Beta Release (v0.8.2): ContentsSample Project - Demonstrates basic functionality and is flooded with code comments, so it's capable of being used as a learning tool. 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METHODS: IsValid(string vin) - Checks if a string is a valid VIN (returns true or false) GetCheckSumValue(string vin) - Returns...VCC: Latest build, v2.1.30611.0: Automatic drop of latest buildViewModelSupport: ViewModelSupport 1.0: Version 1.0 More information: http://houseofbilz.net/archives/2010/05/08/adventures-in-mvvm-my-viewmodel-base/ http://houseofbilz.net/archives/201...VolgaTransTelecomClient: v.1.0.3.0: v.1.0.3.0WCF Client Generator: Version 0.9.3.19259: Changed: - Always generate full type names for parameters and return typesWCF Client Generator: Version 0.9.3.21153: Fixed: - Service contracts namespace generation Added: - Templates assembly code base read from configurationXen: Graphics API for XNA: Xen 2.0 ALPHA: This is a very early alpha for Xen 2.0. Please note: The documentation for this alpha has not been updated yet. Xen 2.0 is not backwards compatib...ZGuideTV.NET: ZGuideTV.NET 0.93: Vendredi 11 avril 2010 (ZGuideTV.NET bêta 9 build 0.93) - English below Ajout : - Classement du contenu dans la description (affichage légende si...Most Popular ProjectsCAML GeneratorSharePoint Geographic Data VisualizerDbIdiom for ADO.NET CorestudyDTSRun Job RunnerXBStudio.asp.net.automationSilverlight load on demand with MEFCloud Business ServicesSharePoint 2010 Taxonomy Import UtilitySTS Federation Metadata EditorMost Active ProjectsRhyduino - Arduino and Managed Codepatterns & practices – Enterprise LibraryjQuery Library for SharePoint Web ServicesNB_Store - Free DotNetNuke Ecommerce Catalog ModuleCommunity Forums NNTP bridgeCassandraemonBlogEngine.NETMediaCoder.NETMicrosoft Silverlight Media FrameworkAndrew's XNA Helpers

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Silverlight for Windows Embedded tutorial (step 6)

- by Valter Minute

In this tutorial step we will develop a very simple clock application that may be used as a screensaver on our devices and will allow us to discover a new feature of Silverlight for Windows Embedded (transforms) and how to use an “old” feature of Windows CE (timers) inside a Silverlight for Windows Embedded application. Let’s start with some XAML, as usual: <UserControl xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation" xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml" Width="640" Height="480" FontSize="18" x:Name="Clock"> <Canvas x:Name="LayoutRoot" Background="#FF000000"> <Grid Height="24" Width="150" Canvas.Left="320" Canvas.Top="234" x:Name="SecondsHand" Background="#FFFF0000"> <TextBlock Text="Seconds" TextWrapping="Wrap" Width="50" HorizontalAlignment="Right" VerticalAlignment="Center" x:Name="SecondsText" Foreground="#FFFFFFFF" TextAlignment="Right" Margin="2,2,2,2"/> </Grid> <Grid Height="24" x:Name="MinutesHand" Width="100" Background="#FF00FF00" Canvas.Left="320" Canvas.Top="234"> <TextBlock HorizontalAlignment="Right" x:Name="MinutesText" VerticalAlignment="Center" Width="50" Text="Minutes" TextWrapping="Wrap" Foreground="#FFFFFFFF" TextAlignment="Right" Margin="2,2,2,2"/> </Grid> <Grid Height="24" x:Name="HoursHand" Width="50" Background="#FF0000FF" Canvas.Left="320" Canvas.Top="234"> <TextBlock HorizontalAlignment="Right" x:Name="HoursText" VerticalAlignment="Center" Width="50" Text="Hours" TextWrapping="Wrap" Foreground="#FFFFFFFF" TextAlignment="Right" Margin="2,2,2,2"/> </Grid> </Canvas> </UserControl> This XAML file defines three grid panels, one for each hand of our clock (we are implementing an analog clock using one of the most advanced technologies of the digital world… how cool is that?). Inside each hand we put a TextBlock that will be used to display the current hour, minute, second inside the dial (you can’t do that on plain old analog clocks, but it looks nice). As usual we use XAML2CPP to generate the boring part of our code. We declare a class named “Clock” and derives from the TClock template that XAML2CPP has declared for us. class Clock : public TClock<Clock> { ... }; Our WinMain function is more or less the same we used in all the previous samples. It initializes the XAML runtime, create an instance of our class, initialize it and shows it as a dialog: int WINAPI WinMain(HINSTANCE hInstance, HINSTANCE hPrevInstance, LPTSTR lpCmdLine, int nCmdShow) { if (!XamlRuntimeInitialize()) return -1; HRESULT retcode; IXRApplicationPtr app; if (FAILED(retcode=GetXRApplicationInstance(&app))) return -1; Clock clock; if (FAILED(clock.Init(hInstance,app))) return -1; UINT exitcode; if (FAILED(clock.GetVisualHost()->StartDialog(&exitcode))) return -1; return exitcode; } Silverlight for Windows Embedded provides a lot of features to implement our UI, but it does not provide timers. How we can update our clock if we don’t have a timer feature? We just use plain old Windows timers, as we do in “regular” Windows CE applications! To use a timer in WinCE we should declare an id for it: #define IDT_CLOCKUPDATE 0x12341234 We also need an HWND that will be used to receive WM_TIMER messages. Our Silverlight for Windows Embedded page is “hosted” inside a GWES Window and we can retrieve its handle using the GetContainerHWND function of our VisualHost object. Let’s see how this is implemented inside our Clock class’ Init method: HRESULT Init(HINSTANCE hInstance,IXRApplication* app) { HRESULT retcode; if (FAILED(retcode=TClock<Clock>::Init(hInstance,app))) return retcode; // create the timer user to update the clock HWND clockhwnd; if (FAILED(GetVisualHost()->GetContainerHWND(&clockhwnd))) return -1; timer=SetTimer(clockhwnd,IDT_CLOCKUPDATE,1000,NULL); return 0; } We use SetTimer to create a new timer and GWES will send a WM_TIMER to our window every second, giving us a chance to update our clock. That sounds great… but how could we handle the WM_TIMER message if we didn’t implement a window procedure for our window? We have to move a step back and look how a visual host is created. This code is generated by XAML2CPP and is inside xaml2cppbase.h: virtual HRESULT CreateHost(HINSTANCE hInstance,IXRApplication* app) { HRESULT retcode; XRWindowCreateParams wp; ZeroMemory(&wp, sizeof(XRWindowCreateParams)); InitWindowParms(&wp); XRXamlSource xamlsrc; SetXAMLSource(hInstance,&xamlsrc); if (FAILED(retcode=app->CreateHostFromXaml(&xamlsrc, &wp, &vhost))) return retcode; if (FAILED(retcode=vhost->GetRootElement(&root))) return retcode; return S_OK; } As you can see the CreateHostFromXaml function of IXRApplication accepts a structure named XRWindowCreateParams that control how the “plain old” GWES Window is created by the runtime. This structure is initialized inside the InitWindowParm method: // Initializes Windows parameters, can be overridden in the user class to change its appearance virtual void InitWindowParms(XRWindowCreateParams* wp) { wp->Style = WS_OVERLAPPED; wp->pTitle = windowtitle; wp->Left = 0; wp->Top = 0; } This method set up the window style, title and position. But the XRWindowCreateParams contains also other fields and, since the function is declared as virtual, we could initialize them inside our version of InitWindowParms: // add hook procedure to the standard windows creation parms virtual void InitWindowParms(XRWindowCreateParams* wp) { TClock<Clock>::InitWindowParms(wp); wp->pHookProc=StaticHostHookProc; wp->pvUserParam=this; } This method calls the base class implementation (useful to not having to re-write some code, did I told you that I’m quite lazy?) and then initializes the pHookProc and pvUserParam members of the XRWindowsCreateParams structure. Those members will allow us to install a “hook” procedure that will be called each time the GWES window “hosting” our Silverlight for Windows Embedded UI receives a message. We can declare a hook procedure inside our Clock class: // static hook procedure static BOOL CALLBACK StaticHostHookProc(VOID* pv,HWND hwnd,UINT Msg,WPARAM wParam,LPARAM lParam,LRESULT* pRetVal) { ... } You should notice two things here. First that the function is declared as static. This is required because a non-static function has a “hidden” parameters, that is the “this” pointer of our object. Having an extra parameter is not allowed for the type defined for the pHookProc member of the XRWindowsCreateParams struct and so we should implement our hook procedure as static. But in a static procedure we will not have a this pointer. How could we access the data member of our class? Here’s the second thing to notice. We initialized also the pvUserParam of the XRWindowsCreateParams struct. We set it to our this pointer. This value will be passed as the first parameter of the hook procedure. In this way we can retrieve our this pointer and use it to call a non-static version of our hook procedure: // static hook procedure static BOOL CALLBACK StaticHostHookProc(VOID* pv,HWND hwnd,UINT Msg,WPARAM wParam,LPARAM lParam,LRESULT* pRetVal) { return ((Clock*)pv)->HostHookProc(hwnd,Msg,wParam,lParam,pRetVal); } Inside our non-static hook procedure we will have access to our this pointer and we will be able to update our clock: // hook procedure (handles timers) BOOL HostHookProc(HWND hwnd,UINT Msg,WPARAM wParam,LPARAM lParam,LRESULT* pRetVal) { switch (Msg) { case WM_TIMER: if (wParam==IDT_CLOCKUPDATE) UpdateClock(); *pRetVal=0; return TRUE; } return FALSE; } The UpdateClock member function will update the text inside our TextBlocks and rotate the hands to reflect current time: // udates Hands positions and labels HRESULT UpdateClock() { SYSTEMTIME time; HRESULT retcode; GetLocalTime(&time); //updates the text fields TCHAR timebuffer[32]; _itow(time.wSecond,timebuffer,10); SecondsText->SetText(timebuffer); _itow(time.wMinute,timebuffer,10); MinutesText->SetText(timebuffer); _itow(time.wHour,timebuffer,10); HoursText->SetText(timebuffer); if (FAILED(retcode=RotateHand(((float)time.wSecond)*6-90,SecondsHand))) return retcode; if (FAILED(retcode=RotateHand(((float)time.wMinute)*6-90,MinutesHand))) return retcode; if (FAILED(retcode=RotateHand(((float)(time.wHour%12))*30-90,HoursHand))) return retcode; return S_OK; } The function retrieves current time, convert hours, minutes and seconds to strings and display those strings inside the three TextBlocks that we put inside our clock hands. Then it rotates the hands to position them at the right angle (angles are in degrees and we have to subtract 90 degrees because 0 degrees means horizontal on Silverlight for Windows Embedded and usually a clock 0 is in the top position of the dial. The code of the RotateHand function uses transforms to rotate our clock hands on the screen: // rotates a Hand HRESULT RotateHand(float angle,IXRFrameworkElement* Hand) { HRESULT retcode; IXRRotateTransformPtr rotatetransform; IXRApplicationPtr app; if (FAILED(retcode=GetXRApplicationInstance(&app))) return retcode; if (FAILED(retcode=app->CreateObject(IID_IXRRotateTransform,&rotatetransform))) return retcode; if (FAILED(retcode=rotatetransform->SetAngle(angle))) return retcode; if (FAILED(retcode=rotatetransform->SetCenterX(0.0))) return retcode; float height; if (FAILED(retcode==Hand->GetActualHeight(&height))) return retcode; if (FAILED(retcode=rotatetransform->SetCenterY(height/2))) return retcode; if (FAILED(retcode=Hand->SetRenderTransform(rotatetransform))) return retcode; return S_OK; } It creates a IXRotateTransform object, set its rotation angle and origin (the default origin is at the top-left corner of our Grid panel, we move it in the vertical center to keep the hand rotating around a single point in a more “clock like” way. Then we can apply the transform to our UI object using SetRenderTransform. Every UI element (derived from IXRFrameworkElement) can be rotated! And using different subclasses of IXRTransform also moved, scaled, skewed and distorted in many ways. You can also concatenate multiple transforms and apply them at once suing a IXRTransformGroup object. The XAML engine uses vector graphics and object will not look “pixelated” when they are rotated or scaled. As usual you can download the code here: http://cid-9b7b0aefe3514dc5.skydrive.live.com/self.aspx/.Public/Clock.zip If you read up to (down to?) this point you seem to be interested in Silverlight for Windows Embedded. If you want me to discuss some specific topic, please feel free to point it out in the comments! Technorati Tags: Silverlight for Windows Embedded,Windows CE

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Using RIA DomainServices with ASP.NET and MVC 2

- by Bobby Diaz

Recently, I started working on a new ASP.NET MVC 2 project and I wanted to reuse the data access (LINQ to SQL) and business logic methods (WCF RIA Services) that had been developed for a previous project that used Silverlight for the front-end. I figured that I would be able to instantiate the various DomainService classes from within my controller’s action methods, because after all, the code for those services didn’t look very complicated. WRONG! I didn’t realize at first that some of the functionality is handled automatically by the framework when the domain services are hosted as WCF services. After some initial searching, I came across an invaluable post by Joe McBride, which described how to get RIA Service .svc files to work in an MVC 2 Web Application, and another by Brad Abrams. Unfortunately, Brad’s solution was for an earlier preview release of RIA Services and no longer works with the version that I am running (PDC Preview). I have not tried the RC version of WCF RIA Services, so I am not sure if any of the issues I am having have been resolved, but I wanted to come up with a way to reuse the shared libraries so I wouldn’t have to write a non-RIA version that basically did the same thing. The classes I came up with work with the scenarios I have encountered so far, but I wanted to go ahead and post the code in case someone else is having the same trouble I had. Hopefully this will save you a few headaches! 1. Querying When I first tried to use a DomainService class to perform a query inside one of my controller’s action methods, I got an error stating that “This DomainService has not been initialized.” To solve this issue, I created an extension method for all DomainServices that creates the required DomainServiceContext and passes it to the service’s Initialize() method. Here is the code for the extension method; notice that I am creating a sort of mock HttpContext for those cases when the service is running outside of IIS, such as during unit testing! public static class ServiceExtensions { /// <summary> /// Initializes the domain service by creating a new <see cref="DomainServiceContext"/> /// and calling the base DomainService.Initialize(DomainServiceContext) method. /// </summary> /// <typeparam name="TService">The type of the service.</typeparam> /// <param name="service">The service.</param> /// <returns></returns> public static TService Initialize<TService>(this TService service) where TService : DomainService { var context = CreateDomainServiceContext(); service.Initialize(context); return service; } private static DomainServiceContext CreateDomainServiceContext() { var provider = new ServiceProvider(new HttpContextWrapper(GetHttpContext())); return new DomainServiceContext(provider, DomainOperationType.Query); } private static HttpContext GetHttpContext() { var context = HttpContext.Current; #if DEBUG // create a mock HttpContext to use during unit testing... if ( context == null ) { var writer = new StringWriter(); var request = new SimpleWorkerRequest("/", "/", String.Empty, String.Empty, writer); context = new HttpContext(request) { User = new GenericPrincipal(new GenericIdentity("debug"), null) }; } #endif return context; } } With that in place, I can use it almost as normally as my first attempt, except with a call to Initialize(): public ActionResult Index() { var service = new NorthwindService().Initialize(); var customers = service.GetCustomers(); return View(customers); } 2. Insert / Update / Delete Once I got the records showing up, I was trying to insert new records or update existing data when I ran into the next issue. I say issue because I wasn’t getting any kind of error, which made it a little difficult to track down. But once I realized that that the DataContext.SubmitChanges() method gets called automatically at the end of each domain service submit operation, I could start working on a way to mimic the behavior of a hosted domain service. What I came up with, was a base class called LinqToSqlRepository<T> that basically sits between your implementation and the default LinqToSqlDomainService<T> class. [EnableClientAccess()] public class NorthwindService : LinqToSqlRepository<NorthwindDataContext> { public IQueryable<Customer> GetCustomers() { return this.DataContext.Customers; } public void InsertCustomer(Customer customer) { this.DataContext.Customers.InsertOnSubmit(customer); } public void UpdateCustomer(Customer currentCustomer) { this.DataContext.Customers.TryAttach(currentCustomer, this.ChangeSet.GetOriginal(currentCustomer)); } public void DeleteCustomer(Customer customer) { this.DataContext.Customers.TryAttach(customer); this.DataContext.Customers.DeleteOnSubmit(customer); } } Notice the new base class name (just change LinqToSqlDomainService to LinqToSqlRepository). I also added a couple of DataContext (for Table<T>) extension methods called TryAttach that will check to see if the supplied entity is already attached before attempting to attach it, which would cause an error! 3. LinqToSqlRepository<T> Below is the code for the LinqToSqlRepository class. The comments are pretty self explanatory, but be aware of the [IgnoreOperation] attributes on the generic repository methods, which ensures that they will be ignored by the code generator and not available in the Silverlight client application. /// <summary> /// Provides generic repository methods on top of the standard /// <see cref="LinqToSqlDomainService<TContext>"/> functionality. /// </summary> /// <typeparam name="TContext">The type of the context.</typeparam> public abstract class LinqToSqlRepository<TContext> : LinqToSqlDomainService<TContext> where TContext : System.Data.Linq.DataContext, new() { /// <summary> /// Retrieves an instance of an entity using it's unique identifier. /// </summary> /// <typeparam name="TEntity">The type of the entity.</typeparam> /// <param name="keyValues">The key values.</param> /// <returns></returns> [IgnoreOperation] public virtual TEntity GetById<TEntity>(params object[] keyValues) where TEntity : class { var table = this.DataContext.GetTable<TEntity>(); var mapping = this.DataContext.Mapping.GetTable(typeof(TEntity)); var keys = mapping.RowType.IdentityMembers .Select((m, i) => m.Name + " = @" + i) .ToArray(); return table.Where(String.Join(" && ", keys), keyValues).FirstOrDefault(); } /// <summary> /// Creates a new query that can be executed to retrieve a collection /// of entities from the <see cref="DataContext"/>. /// </summary> /// <typeparam name="TEntity">The type of the entity.</typeparam> /// <returns></returns> [IgnoreOperation] public virtual IQueryable<TEntity> GetEntityQuery<TEntity>() where TEntity : class { return this.DataContext.GetTable<TEntity>(); } /// <summary> /// Inserts the specified entity. /// </summary> /// <typeparam name="TEntity">The type of the entity.</typeparam> /// <param name="entity">The entity.</param> /// <returns></returns> [IgnoreOperation] public virtual bool Insert<TEntity>(TEntity entity) where TEntity : class { //var table = this.DataContext.GetTable<TEntity>(); //table.InsertOnSubmit(entity); return this.Submit(entity, null, DomainOperation.Insert); } /// <summary> /// Updates the specified entity. /// </summary> /// <typeparam name="TEntity">The type of the entity.</typeparam> /// <param name="entity">The entity.</param> /// <returns></returns> [IgnoreOperation] public virtual bool Update<TEntity>(TEntity entity) where TEntity : class { return this.Update(entity, null); } /// <summary> /// Updates the specified entity. /// </summary> /// <typeparam name="TEntity">The type of the entity.</typeparam> /// <param name="entity">The entity.</param> /// <param name="original">The original.</param> /// <returns></returns> [IgnoreOperation] public virtual bool Update<TEntity>(TEntity entity, TEntity original) where TEntity : class { if ( original == null ) { original = GetOriginal(entity); } var table = this.DataContext.GetTable<TEntity>(); table.TryAttach(entity, original); return this.Submit(entity, original, DomainOperation.Update); } /// <summary> /// Deletes the specified entity. /// </summary> /// <typeparam name="TEntity">The type of the entity.</typeparam> /// <param name="entity">The entity.</param> /// <returns></returns> [IgnoreOperation] public virtual bool Delete<TEntity>(TEntity entity) where TEntity : class { //var table = this.DataContext.GetTable<TEntity>(); //table.TryAttach(entity); //table.DeleteOnSubmit(entity); return this.Submit(entity, null, DomainOperation.Delete); } protected virtual bool Submit(Object entity, Object original, DomainOperation operation) { var entry = new ChangeSetEntry(0, entity, original, operation); var changes = new ChangeSet(new ChangeSetEntry[] { entry }); return base.Submit(changes); } private TEntity GetOriginal<TEntity>(TEntity entity) where TEntity : class { var context = CreateDataContext(); var table = context.GetTable<TEntity>(); return table.FirstOrDefault(e => e == entity); } } 4. Conclusion So there you have it, a fully functional Repository implementation for your RIA Domain Services that can be consumed by your ASP.NET and MVC applications. I have uploaded the source code along with unit tests and a sample web application that queries the Customers table from inside a Controller, as well as a Silverlight usage example. As always, I welcome any comments or suggestions on the approach I have taken. If there is enough interest, I plan on contacting Colin Blair or maybe even the man himself, Brad Abrams, to see if this is something worthy of inclusion in the WCF RIA Services Contrib project. What do you think? Enjoy!

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