Search Results

Search found 10374 results on 415 pages for 'close'.

Page 399/415 | < Previous Page | 395 396 397 398 399 400 401 402 403 404 405 406  | Next Page >

• CodePlex Daily Summary for Monday, March 15, 2010

  CodePlex Daily Summary for Monday, March 15, 2010New ProjectsAT Accounts: AT Accounts helps developers to intergrate accounting functionality in their applications. It has both the WPF userinterface and SilverlightChild page list(for dnn4/5): A free module which can display sub pages list for a selected tab. It is template based and support options like Recursive/Child tab prefix/link...dashCommerce: dashCommerce is the leading ASP.NET e-commerce platform.Fire Utilities: My Development Utiltites and base classes: New Zealand Bank Account ValidatorFlyCatch (Bugtracking System): A simple webbased Bugtracking System.fracback: Fractal feedback concepts, based on video feedbackftc3650: code for ftc 3650Google AJAX Search Services for jQuery: This plug-in encapsulates part of the Google AJAX Search API to streamline the process of Google Search integration.Little Black Book DB: This is the Database for the following Projects: SQL Azure PHP Connection SQL Azure Ruby Connection SQL Azure Python Connection SQL Azure .NE...MediaCommMVC: MediaCommMVC is a community platform focusing on photos, videos and discussions. It's based on ASP.NET MVC and uses (fluent) nhibernate, jquery an...Miracle OS: The Miracle OS is an OS from Fox. We work on it, but it isn't ready. Do you want help us? Please send a mail to victor@fox.fi.stMultiwfn: (1)Plotting various graph(filled color/contour/relief map...) (2)Generate Cube file (3)Manipulate & analyze wavefunction Supportting lots of proper...MySpace DataRelay: Data Relay is the foundation of MySpace's middle tier. At its heart, it is a messaging system for relaying information both between clients and ser...NinjaCMS: Ninja CMS is an asp.net based content management system which provides a designer friendly, developer friendly interface to work with. It's flexibl...open gaze and mouse analyzer: Ogama allows recording and analyzing eye- and mouse-tracking data from slideshow eyetracking experiments in parallel. It´s developed in C#.NET and ...Özkasoft.Net | E-Commerce: Özkasoft's E-Commerce ProjectProfiCV: Profi CVpyTarget: Implement a powerful iscsi target in python, and easily use under most popular systems. It also includes the following features: multi-target, mult...SharePoint Platform Extensions: SharePoint Platform Extensions by Espora. Sorting Algorithm Visualization: Sorting Algorithm Visualization Displays Bead Sort, Binary Tree Sort, Bubble Sort, Bucket Sort, Cocktail Sort, Counting Sort, Gnome Sort, In Place ...Specify: A framework for creating executable specifications in .NET. Spell Corrector: A spell corrector that uses Bayes algorithm and BK (Burkhard-Keller) tree.SQL Azure Ruby Connection: This is a demo to show how to connect to SQL Azure with Ruby on Rails.uManage - AD Self-Service Portal: uManage is an Active Directory Self-Service Portal as well as Help Desk web application designed for use on intranet systems. It allows users to u...Winforms Rounded Group Box Control: Rounded Group Box - A Grouping control with Rounded Corners, Gradients, and Drop ShadowWizard Engine: Host application agnostic wizard engine platform, that allows you to fluently define complex conditional flows and provides means for execution of ...WS-Transfer based File Upload: WS-Transer based upload of large files in multiple partsXAMLStylePad: XAMLStylePad - is a simple in use styles and templates XAML-editor. It designed for comfortable coding in XAML with real-time preview result on aut...Your Twitt Engine: Ovo je aplikacija za sve ljude koji su na svom radnom mjestu pod prismotrom poslodavca ili sefa, koji kontroliraju njihov monitor. Tako uz ovu apl...New ReleasesAmiBroker Plug-ins with C#. A non official AmiBroker Plug-in SDK: AniBroker Plug-in SDK v0.0.5: Removed dependency on .NET 4.0, now it works fine with .NET 2.0BeerMath.net: 0.1: Version 0.1Initial set of calculations supported: IBUs Color ABV/ABWChild page list(for dnn4/5): Child Page List 2.6: Source code is also include in module package.dashCommerce: dashCommerce Releases: You can download both Source and WebReady packages at http://www.dashcommerce.org. If you wish to submit patches, then use the Source Code tab her...ExcelDna: ExcelDna Version 0.23: ExcelDna Version 0.23 2010/03/14 - Packing and other features This release adds a number of features to ExcelDna: Add ExplicitExports attribute to ...Family Tree Analyzer: Version 1.0.7.1: Version 1.0.7.0 Update Census form to show family totals Fix England and Wales Lost Cousins reports to be England OR Wales Problems with Gedcom in...Foursquare BlogEngine Widget: foursquare widget for BlogEngine.NET Version 0.2: To see the changes which have been made, visit http://philippkueng.ch/post/Foursquare-BlogEngineNET-Widget-Version-02.aspx For installation instruc...GLB Virtual Player Builder: 0.4.0 Official Archetypes Release: Updated for new archetypes. The builder still includes the old player formats, and you can still import your old players' builds. Please PM me an...Home Access Plus+: v3.1.4.0: Version 3.1.3.1 Release Change Log: Added Breadcrumbs to My Computer File Changes: ~/bin/CHS Extranet.dll ~/bin/CHS Extranet.pdb ~/images/arro...Little Black Book DB: Little Black Book R1: This is the first release of the Little black book presentation I presented at Confoo. I decided to package the Database along with the Windows Az...mite.net - .NET API for mite: Version 1.2.1: Added Support for budget type Modified TimerMapper to return timers Fixed Encoding issue in xml conversionMultiwfn: multiwfn1.0: multiwfn1.0Multiwfn: multiwfn1.0_source: multiwfn1.0_sourceMultiwfn: multiwfn1.1: multiwfn1.1Multiwfn: multiwfn1.1_source: multiwfn1.1_sourceMultiwfn: multiwfn1.2: 1.2 2010-FEB-9 *加入了对10f型轨道的支持。 *新支持非限制性Post-HF波函数用以计算自旋密度。 *新增加直接读入高斯03/09的fch文件的支持，可以观看NBO轨道，详见readme实例4.10。 *绘制平面图时允许通过输入三个点坐标定义平面，允许自定义平面的原点与平移向...Multiwfn: multiwfn1.2_source: Include all the file that needed by compilation in CVF6.5PowerShell Community Extensions: 2.0 Beta 2: Release NotesThis is a pretty close to final release. We have eliminated all of the names that ran afound of the module loading mechanism which me...pyTarget: pyTarget.binary-for-windows-x86.rar: pyTarget.binary-for-windows-x86.rarpyTarget: pyTarget.src.tar.bz2: pyTarget.src.tar.bz2RedBulb for XNA Framework: RedBulbConsole (Console, Menu and TrackHUD Sample): http://bayimg.com/image/jalhmaacd.jpgScrum Sprint Monitor: 1.0.0.45262 (.NET 4.0 RC): Tested against TFS 2010 RC. For the .NET 3.5 SP1 platform, use the .NET 3.5 SP1 download. What is new in this release? Major performance increase ...sELedit: sELedit v1.1: Removed: Clone and Delete Button Added: Context Menu to Item List Added: Clone and Delete button to Context Menu Added: Export / Import Item ...Sorting Algorithm Visualization: Beta 1: Sorting Algorithm VisualizationSpecify: Version 1.0: Version 1.0Spell Corrector: Spell Corrector 0.1: A basic version that supports basic functionality.Spell Corrector: Spell Corrector 0.1 Source Code: Source code of version 0.1Spiral Architecture Driven Development (SADD): SADD v.0.9: Pre-final release with the NEW materials now all in English ! The Final release is coming soon. After guest column for SADD publication in MS Ar...Spiral Architecture Driven Development (SADD) for Russian: SADD v.0.9: Pre-final release with the NEW materials now all in English ! The Final release is coming soon. After guest column for SADD publication in MS Ar...SQL Azure Ruby Connection: Little Black Book Ruby R1: This is the Ruby Demo that I demostrated at Confoo. Special Thanks to Tony Thompson for putting this demo together. To check out Tony's Portfolio ...The Scrum Factory: The Scrum Factory Server - V1a: This is the newest version of the server. Some minor bugs from version v1 were fixed, and some slighted changed were made some database views.twNowplaying: twNowplaying 1.0.0.4: Please note that the user has to press the Twitter logo to log in the first time the application is started.uManage - AD Self-Service Portal: uManage - v1.0 (.NET 4.0 RC): Initial Release of uManage. NOTE: Designed for ASP.NET and .NET 4.0 RC ONLY! This is the initial release of uManage and covers the first phase of ...Virtu: Virtu 0.8: Source Requirements.NET Framework 3.5 with Service Pack 1 Visual Studio 2008 with Service Pack 1, or Visual C# 2008 Express Edition with Service Pa...Visual Studio DSite: Speech Synthesizer (Text to Speech) in Visual C++: A very simple text to speech program written in visual c 2008.White Tiger: 0.0.4.0: *now you can disable the file security checks *winforms aplications created to manage tablesWinforms Rounded Group Box Control: Release 1.0: To use this control simply add the class to your project and compile it. It will then show up in the projects components section in the toolbox. ...WS-Transfer based File Upload: 0.5: Implements the binary file transfer mechanism onlyXsltDb - DotNetNuke XSLT module: 01.00.89: Super modules configuration names. 16767 - Fixed more bug fixes...Yakiimo3D: DirectX11 Rheinhard Tonemapping Source and Binary: DirectX11 Rheinhard tonemapping source and binary.Your Twitt Engine: test: Slobodno probajte sa vasim twitter korisničkim računomMost Popular ProjectsMetaSharpWBFS ManagerRawrAJAX Control ToolkitMicrosoft SQL Server Product Samples: DatabaseSilverlight ToolkitASP.NET Ajax LibraryWindows Presentation Foundation (WPF)ASP.NETLiveUpload to FacebookMost Active ProjectsLINQ to TwitterRawrN2 CMSBlogEngine.NETpatterns & practices – Enterprise LibrarySharePoint Team-MailerjQuery Library for SharePoint Web ServicesCaliburn: An Application Framework for WPF and SilverlightFarseer Physics EngineCalcium: A modular application toolset leveraging Prism

  Read the article

• Fitting it together, database, reporting, applications in C#

  - by alvonellos

  Introduction Preamble I was hesitant to post this, since it's an application whose intricate details are defined elsewhere, and answers may not be helpful to others. Within the past few weeks (I was actually going to write a blog post about this after I finished) I've discovered that the barrier I'm encountering is one that's actually quite common for newer developers. This question is not so much about a specific thing as it is about piecing those things together. I've searched the internet far and wide, and found many tutorials on how to create applications that are kind of similar to what I'm looking for. I've also looked at hiring another, more experienced, developer to help me along, but all I've gotten are unqualified candidates that don't have the experience necessary and won't take care of the client or project like I will. I'd rather have the project never transpire than to release a solution that is half-baked. I've asked professors at my school, but they've not turned up answers to my question. I'm an experienced developer, and I've written many applications that are -- very abstractly -- close to what I'm doing, but my experiences from those applications aren't giving me enough leverage to solve this particular problem. I just hope that posting this article isn't a mistake for me to write. Project Description I have a project I'm working on for a client that is a rewrite of an application, originally written in Foxpro 2.6 by someone before me, that performs some analysis (which, sadly, I'm not allowed to disclose as per of my employment contract) on financial data. One day, after a long talk between the client and I -- where he intimately described his frustrations with all the bugs I've been hacking out of this code for 6 months now -- he told me to just rewrite it and gave me a month to write a good 1/8 of this 65k LOC Foxpro monstrosity. this 65k line of code foxpro monstrosity. It'll take me a good 3 - 6 months to rewrite this software (I know things the original programmer did not, like inheritance) going as I am right now, but I'm quickly discovering that I'm going to need to use databases. Prior to this contract I didn't even know about foxpro, and so I've had to learn foxpro on the fly, write procedures and make modifications to the database. I've actually come to like it, and this project would be rewritten in Foxpro if it were still a supported language, because over the past few months, I've come to like the features of Foxpro that make it so easy to develop data-driven applications. I once perfomed an experiment, comparing C# to Foxpro. What took me 45 minutes in C# took me two in Foxpro, and I knew C# prior to Foxpro. I was hoping to leverage the power of C#, but it intimidates me that in foxpro, you can have one line of code and be using a database. Prior to this, I have never written any serious database development from scratch. All the applications that I've written are in a different league. They are either completely data-naive or data-naive enough that I can get away with not using a database through serialization or by designing algorithms that work with the data in a manner that is stateless, so there is no need to worry about databases. I've come to realize, very quickly, that serialization and my efficacy with data structures has been my crutch all these years that's prevented me from adventuring into databases, and has consequently hindered my success in real-world programming. Sure, I've written some database stuff in Perl and Python, and I've done forms and worked with relational databases and tables, I'm a wizard in Access and Excel (seriously) and can do just about anything, but it just feels unnatural writing SQL code in another language... I don't mind writing SQL, and I don't It's that bridge between the database and the program code that drives me absolutely bonkers. I hope I'm not the only one to think this, but it bothers me that I have to create statements like the following string sSql = "SELECT * from tablename" When there's really no reason for that kind of unchecked language binding between two languages and two API's. Don't get my wrong, SQL is great, but I don't like the idea that, when executing commands on a SQL database, that one must intermix database and application software, and there's no database independence, which means that different versions of different databases can break code. This isn't very nice. The nicest thing about Foxpro is the cohesiveness between programming language and database. It's so easy, and Foxpro makes it easy, because the tool just fits the task. I can see why so many developers have created a career with this language, because it lowered the barrier of entry to data-driven applications that so many businesses need. It was wonderful. For my purposes today, with the demands and need for community support, extensibility, and language features, Foxpro isn't a solution that I feel would be the right tool for the job. I'm also worried about working too heavy with the database, because I've seen data-driven .NET applications have issues with database caches, running out of memory, and objects in the database not being collected. (Memory leaks) And OH the queries. Which one, how, and why? There are a plethora of different ways that a database can be setup, I think I counted 5 or 6 different kinds of database applications alone that I can chose from. That is a great mountain for me to climb when I don't even know where to begin when it comes to writing data-driven applications. The problem isn't that I don't know SQL or that I don't know C#. I know both and have worked with both extensively. It's making them work together that's the problem, and it's something I've never done in C# before. Reports The client likes paper. The data needs to be printed out in a format that is extensible, layered, and easy to use. I have never done reporting before, and so this is a bit of a problem. From the data source comes crystal reports, and so there's a dependency on the database, from what I understand. Code reuse A large part of the design decision that I've gone through so far is to break the task of writing a piece of this software into routines and modular DLL's and so forth such that much of the code can be reused. For example, when I setup this database, I want to be able to reuse the same database code over and over again. I also want to make sure that when the day comes that another developer is here, that he/she will be able to pick up just where I left off. The quicker I develop these applications, the better off I am. Tasks & Goals In my project, I need to write routines that apply algorithms and look for predefined patterns in financial data. Additionally, I need to simulate trading based on predefined algorithms and data. Then I need to prepare reports on that data. Additionally, I need to have a way to change the code base for this application quickly and effectively, without hacking together some band-aid solution for a problem that really needs a trauma ward. Special Considerations The solution must be fast, run quickly on existing hardware, and not be too much of a pain to maintain and write. I understand that anything I write I'm married to -- I'm responsible for the things that I write because my reputation and livelihood is dependent on it. Do I really need a database? What about performance? Performance was such a big issue that I hand wrote a data structure that is capable of performing 2 billion operations, using a total of 4 gigs of memory in under 1/4 of a second using the standard core two duo processor. I could not find a similar, pre-written data structure in C# to perform this task. What setup do I use in terms of database? What about reporting? I'd prefer to have PDF's generated, but I'd like to be able to visually sketch those reports and then just have a ReportFactory of some sort, that when I pass some variables in, it just does that data. About Me I'm a lone developer for a small business in this area. This is the first time I've done this and I've never had the breadth and depth of my knowledge tested. I'm incredibly frustrated with this project because I feel incredibly overwhelmed with the task at hand. I'm looking for that entry level point where I can draw a line and say "this is what I need to do" Conclusion I may have not been clear enough on my post. I'm still new to this whole thing, and I've been doing my best to contribute back to the community that I've leached so much knowledge from. I'd be glad to edit my post and add more information if possible. I'm looking for a big-picture solution or design process that helps me get off the ground in this world of data-driven applications, because I have a feeling that it's going to be concentric to my entire career as a programmer for some time. Specifically, if you didn't get it from the rest of the post (I may not have been clear enough) I really need some guidance as to where to go in terms of the design decisions for this project. Some things that'll be useful will be a pro/con list for the different kinds of database projects available in VS2010. I've tried, but generating that list has been as hard as solving the problem itself... If you could walk a developer writing a data-driven application for the first time in C#, how would you do that? Where would you point them to?

  Read the article

• Ten - oh, wait, eleven - Eleven things you should know about the ASP.NET Fall 2012 Update

  - by Jon Galloway

  Today, just a little over two months after the big ASP.NET 4.5 / ASP.NET MVC 4 / ASP.NET Web API / Visual Studio 2012 / Web Matrix 2 release, the first preview of the ASP.NET Fall 2012 Update is out. Here's what you need to know: There are no new framework bits in this release - there's no change or update to ASP.NET Core, ASP.NET MVC or Web Forms features. This means that you can start using it without any updates to your server, upgrade concerns, etc. This update is really an update to the project templates and Visual Studio tooling, conceptually similar to the ASP.NET MVC 3 Tools Update. It's a relatively lightweight install. It's a 41MB download. I've installed it many times and usually takes 5-7 minutes; it's never required a reboot. It adds some new project templates to ASP.NET MVC: Facebook Application and Single Page Application templates. It adds a lot of cool enhancements to ASP.NET Web API. It adds some tooling that makes it easy to take advantage of features like SignalR, Friendly URLs, and Windows Azure Authentication. Most of the new features are installed via NuGet packages. Since ASP.NET is open source, nightly NuGet packages are available, and the roadmap is published, most of this has really been publicly available for a while. The official name of this drop is the ASP.NET Fall 2012 Update BUILD Prerelease. Please do not attempt to say that ten times fast. While the EULA doesn't prohibit it, it WILL legally change your first name to Scott. As with all new releases, you can find out everything you need to know about the Fall Update at http://asp.net/vnext (especially the release notes!) I'm going to be showing all of this off, assisted by special guest code monkey Scott Hanselman, this Friday at BUILD: Bleeding edge ASP.NET: See what is next for MVC, Web API, SignalR and more… (and I've heard it will be livestreamed). Let's look at some of those things in more detail. No new bits ASP.NET 4.5, MVC 4 and Web API have a lot of great core features. I see the goal of this update release as making it easier to put those features to use to solve some useful scenarios by taking advantage of NuGet packages and template code. If you create a new ASP.NET MVC application using one of the new templates, you'll see that it's using the ASP.NET MVC 4 RTM NuGet package (4.0.20710.0): This means you can install and use the Fall Update without any impact on your existing projects and no worries about upgrading or compatibility. New Facebook Application Template ASP.NET MVC 4 (and ASP.NET 4.5 Web Forms) included the ability to authenticate your users via OAuth and OpenID, so you could let users log in to your site using a Facebook account. One of the new changes in the Fall Update is a new template that makes it really easy to create full Facebook applications. You could create Facebook application in ASP.NET already, you'd just need to go through a few steps: Search around to find a good Facebook NuGet package, like the Facebook C# SDK (written by my friend Nathan Totten and some other Facebook SDK brainiacs). Read the Facebook developer documentation to figure out how to authenticate and integrate with them. Write some code, debug it and repeat until you got something working. Get started with the application you'd originally wanted to write. What this template does for you: eliminate steps 1-3. Erik Porter, Nathan and some other experts built out the Facebook Application template so it automatically pulls in and configures the Facebook NuGet package and makes it really easy to take advantage of it in an ASP.NET MVC application. One great example is the the way you access a Facebook user's information. Take a look at the following code in a File / New / MVC / Facebook Application site. First, the Home Controller Index action: [FacebookAuthorize(Permissions = "email")] public ActionResult Index(MyAppUser user, FacebookObjectList<MyAppUserFriend> userFriends) { ViewBag.Message = "Modify this template to jump-start your Facebook application using ASP.NET MVC."; ViewBag.User = user; ViewBag.Friends = userFriends.Take(5); return View(); } First, notice that there's a FacebookAuthorize attribute which requires the user is authenticated via Facebook and requires permissions to access their e-mail address. It binds to two things: a custom MyAppUser object and a list of friends. Let's look at the MyAppUser code: using Microsoft.AspNet.Mvc.Facebook.Attributes; using Microsoft.AspNet.Mvc.Facebook.Models; // Add any fields you want to be saved for each user and specify the field name in the JSON coming back from Facebook // https://developers.facebook.com/docs/reference/api/user/ namespace MvcApplication3.Models { public class MyAppUser : FacebookUser { public string Name { get; set; } [FacebookField(FieldName = "picture", JsonField = "picture.data.url")] public string PictureUrl { get; set; } public string Email { get; set; } } } You can add in other custom fields if you want, but you can also just bind to a FacebookUser and it will automatically pull in the available fields. You can even just bind directly to a FacebookUser and check for what's available in debug mode, which makes it really easy to explore. For more information and some walkthroughs on creating Facebook applications, see: Deploying your first Facebook App on Azure using ASP.NET MVC Facebook Template (Yao Huang Lin) Facebook Application Template Tutorial (Erik Porter) Single Page Application template Early releases of ASP.NET MVC 4 included a Single Page Application template, but it was removed for the official release. There was a lot of interest in it, but it was kind of complex, as it handled features for things like data management. The new Single Page Application template that ships with the Fall Update is more lightweight. It uses Knockout.js on the client and ASP.NET Web API on the server, and it includes a sample application that shows how they all work together. I think the real benefit of this application is that it shows a good pattern for using ASP.NET Web API and Knockout.js. For instance, it's easy to end up with a mess of JavaScript when you're building out a client-side application. This template uses three separate JavaScript files (delivered via a Bundle, of course): todoList.js - this is where the main client-side logic lives todoList.dataAccess.js - this defines how the client-side application interacts with the back-end services todoList.bindings.js - this is where you set up events and overrides for the Knockout bindings - for instance, hooking up jQuery validation and defining some client-side events This is a fun one to play with, because you can just create a new Single Page Application and hit F5. Quick, easy install (with one gotcha) One of the cool engineering changes for this release is a big update to the installer to make it more lightweight and efficient. I've been running nightly builds of this for a few weeks to prep for my BUILD demos, and the install has been really quick and easy to use. The install takes about 5 minutes, has never required a reboot for me, and the uninstall is just as simple. There's one gotcha, though. In this preview release, you may hit an issue that will require you to uninstall and re-install the NuGet VSIX package. The problem comes up when you create a new MVC application and see this dialog: The solution, as explained in the release notes, is to uninstall and re-install the NuGet VSIX package: Start Visual Studio 2012 as an Administrator Go to Tools->Extensions and Updates and uninstall NuGet. Close Visual Studio Navigate to the ASP.NET Fall 2012 Update installation folder: For Visual Studio 2012: Program Files\Microsoft ASP.NET\ASP.NET Web Stack\Visual Studio 2012 For Visual Studio 2012 Express for Web: Program Files\Microsoft ASP.NET\ASP.NET Web Stack\Visual Studio Express 2012 for Web Double click on the NuGet.Tools.vsix to reinstall NuGet This took me under a minute to do, and I was up and running. ASP.NET Web API Update Extravaganza! Uh, the Web API team is out of hand. They added a ton of new stuff: OData support, Tracing, and API Help Page generation. OData support Some people like OData. Some people start twitching when you mention it. If you're in the first group, this is for you. You can add a [Queryable] attribute to an API that returns an IQueryable<Whatever> and you get OData query support from your clients. Then, without any extra changes to your client or server code, your clients can send filters like this: /Suppliers?$filter=Name eq ‘Microsoft’ For more information about OData support in ASP.NET Web API, see Alex James' mega-post about it: OData support in ASP.NET Web API ASP.NET Web API Tracing Tracing makes it really easy to leverage the .NET Tracing system from within your ASP.NET Web API's. If you look at the \App_Start\WebApiConfig.cs file in new ASP.NET Web API project, you'll see a call to TraceConfig.Register(config). That calls into some code in the new \App_Start\TraceConfig.cs file: public static void Register(HttpConfiguration configuration) { if (configuration == null) { throw new ArgumentNullException("configuration"); } SystemDiagnosticsTraceWriter traceWriter = new SystemDiagnosticsTraceWriter() { MinimumLevel = TraceLevel.Info, IsVerbose = false }; configuration.Services.Replace(typeof(ITraceWriter), traceWriter); } As you can see, this is using the standard trace system, so you can extend it to any other trace listeners you'd like. To see how it works with the built in diagnostics trace writer, just run the application call some API's, and look at the Visual Studio Output window: iisexpress.exe Information: 0 : Request, Method=GET, Url=http://localhost:11147/api/Values, Message='http://localhost:11147/api/Values' iisexpress.exe Information: 0 : Message='Values', Operation=DefaultHttpControllerSelector.SelectController iisexpress.exe Information: 0 : Message='WebAPI.Controllers.ValuesController', Operation=DefaultHttpControllerActivator.Create iisexpress.exe Information: 0 : Message='WebAPI.Controllers.ValuesController', Operation=HttpControllerDescriptor.CreateController iisexpress.exe Information: 0 : Message='Selected action 'Get()'', Operation=ApiControllerActionSelector.SelectAction iisexpress.exe Information: 0 : Operation=HttpActionBinding.ExecuteBindingAsync iisexpress.exe Information: 0 : Operation=QueryableAttribute.ActionExecuting iisexpress.exe Information: 0 : Message='Action returned 'System.String[]'', Operation=ReflectedHttpActionDescriptor.ExecuteAsync iisexpress.exe Information: 0 : Message='Will use same 'JsonMediaTypeFormatter' formatter', Operation=JsonMediaTypeFormatter.GetPerRequestFormatterInstance iisexpress.exe Information: 0 : Message='Selected formatter='JsonMediaTypeFormatter', content-type='application/json; charset=utf-8'', Operation=DefaultContentNegotiator.Negotiate iisexpress.exe Information: 0 : Operation=ApiControllerActionInvoker.InvokeActionAsync, Status=200 (OK) iisexpress.exe Information: 0 : Operation=QueryableAttribute.ActionExecuted, Status=200 (OK) iisexpress.exe Information: 0 : Operation=ValuesController.ExecuteAsync, Status=200 (OK) iisexpress.exe Information: 0 : Response, Status=200 (OK), Method=GET, Url=http://localhost:11147/api/Values, Message='Content-type='application/json; charset=utf-8', content-length=unknown' iisexpress.exe Information: 0 : Operation=JsonMediaTypeFormatter.WriteToStreamAsync iisexpress.exe Information: 0 : Operation=ValuesController.Dispose API Help Page When you create a new ASP.NET Web API project, you'll see an API link in the header: Clicking the API link shows generated help documentation for your ASP.NET Web API controllers: And clicking on any of those APIs shows specific information: What's great is that this information is dynamically generated, so if you add your own new APIs it will automatically show useful and up to date help. This system is also completely extensible, so you can generate documentation in other formats or customize the HTML help as much as you'd like. The Help generation code is all included in an ASP.NET MVC Area: SignalR SignalR is a really slick open source project that was started by some ASP.NET team members in their spare time to add real-time communications capabilities to ASP.NET - and .NET applications in general. It allows you to handle long running communications channels between your server and multiple connected clients using the best communications channel they can both support - websockets if available, falling back all the way to old technologies like long polling if necessary for old browsers. SignalR remains an open source project, but now it's being included in ASP.NET (also open source, hooray!). That means there's real, official ASP.NET engineering work being put into SignalR, and it's even easier to use in an ASP.NET application. Now in any ASP.NET project type, you can right-click / Add / New Item... SignalR Hub or Persistent Connection. And much more... There's quite a bit more. You can find more info at http://asp.net/vnext, and we'll be adding more content as fast as we can. Watch my BUILD talk to see as I demonstrate these and other features in the ASP.NET Fall 2012 Update, as well as some other even futurey-er stuff!

  Read the article

• Transactional Messaging in the Windows Azure Service Bus

  - by Alan Smith

  Introduction I’m currently working on broadening the content in the Windows Azure Service Bus Developer Guide. One of the features I have been looking at over the past week is the support for transactional messaging. When using the direct programming model and the WCF interface some, but not all, messaging operations can participate in transactions. This allows developers to improve the reliability of messaging systems. There are some limitations in the transactional model, transactions can only include one top level messaging entity (such as a queue or topic, subscriptions are no top level entities), and transactions cannot include other systems, such as databases. As the transaction model is currently not well documented I have had to figure out how things work through experimentation, with some help from the development team to confirm any questions I had. Hopefully I’ve got the content mostly correct, I will update the content in the e-book if I find any errors or improvements that can be made (any feedback would be very welcome). I’ve not had a chance to look into the code for transactions and asynchronous operations, maybe that would make a nice challenge lab for my Windows Azure Service Bus course. Transactional Messaging Messaging entities in the Windows Azure Service Bus provide support for participation in transactions. This allows developers to perform several messaging operations within a transactional scope, and ensure that all the actions are committed or, if there is a failure, none of the actions are committed. There are a number of scenarios where the use of transactions can increase the reliability of messaging systems. Using TransactionScope In .NET the TransactionScope class can be used to perform a series of actions in a transaction. The using declaration is typically used de define the scope of the transaction. Any transactional operations that are contained within the scope can be committed by calling the Complete method. If the Complete method is not called, any transactional methods in the scope will not commit.   // Create a transactional scope. using (TransactionScope scope = new TransactionScope()) {     // Do something.       // Do something else.       // Commit the transaction.     scope.Complete(); }     In order for methods to participate in the transaction, they must provide support for transactional operations. Database and message queue operations typically provide support for transactions. Transactions in Brokered Messaging Transaction support in Service Bus Brokered Messaging allows message operations to be performed within a transactional scope; however there are some limitations around what operations can be performed within the transaction. In the current release, only one top level messaging entity, such as a queue or topic can participate in a transaction, and the transaction cannot include any other transaction resource managers, making transactions spanning a messaging entity and a database not possible. When sending messages, the send operations can participate in a transaction allowing multiple messages to be sent within a transactional scope. This allows for “all or nothing” delivery of a series of messages to a single queue or topic. When receiving messages, messages that are received in the peek-lock receive mode can be completed, deadlettered or deferred within a transactional scope. In the current release the Abandon method will not participate in a transaction. The same restrictions of only one top level messaging entity applies here, so the Complete method can be called transitionally on messages received from the same queue, or messages received from one or more subscriptions in the same topic. Sending Multiple Messages in a Transaction A transactional scope can be used to send multiple messages to a queue or topic. This will ensure that all the messages will be enqueued or, if the transaction fails to commit, no messages will be enqueued.     An example of the code used to send 10 messages to a queue as a single transaction from a console application is shown below.   QueueClient queueClient = messagingFactory.CreateQueueClient(Queue1);   Console.Write("Sending");   // Create a transaction scope. using (TransactionScope scope = new TransactionScope()) {     for (int i = 0; i < 10; i++)     {         // Send a message         BrokeredMessage msg = new BrokeredMessage("Message: " + i);         queueClient.Send(msg);         Console.Write(".");     }     Console.WriteLine("Done!");     Console.WriteLine();       // Should we commit the transaction?     Console.WriteLine("Commit send 10 messages? (yes or no)");     string reply = Console.ReadLine();     if (reply.ToLower().Equals("yes"))     {         // Commit the transaction.         scope.Complete();     } } Console.WriteLine(); messagingFactory.Close();     The transaction scope is used to wrap the sending of 10 messages. Once the messages have been sent the user has the option to either commit the transaction or abandon the transaction. If the user enters “yes”, the Complete method is called on the scope, which will commit the transaction and result in the messages being enqueued. If the user enters anything other than “yes”, the transaction will not commit, and the messages will not be enqueued. Receiving Multiple Messages in a Transaction The receiving of multiple messages is another scenario where the use of transactions can improve reliability. When receiving a group of messages that are related together, maybe in the same message session, it is possible to receive the messages in the peek-lock receive mode, and then complete, defer, or deadletter the messages in one transaction. (In the current version of Service Bus, abandon is not transactional.)   The following code shows how this can be achieved. using (TransactionScope scope = new TransactionScope()) {       while (true)     {         // Receive a message.         BrokeredMessage msg = q1Client.Receive(TimeSpan.FromSeconds(1));         if (msg != null)         {             // Wrote message body and complete message.             string text = msg.GetBody<string>();             Console.WriteLine("Received: " + text);             msg.Complete();         }         else         {             break;         }     }     Console.WriteLine();       // Should we commit?     Console.WriteLine("Commit receive? (yes or no)");     string reply = Console.ReadLine();     if (reply.ToLower().Equals("yes"))     {         // Commit the transaction.         scope.Complete();     }     Console.WriteLine(); }     Note that if there are a large number of messages to be received, there will be a chance that the transaction may time out before it can be committed. It is possible to specify a longer timeout when the transaction is created, but It may be better to receive and commit smaller amounts of messages within the transaction. It is also possible to complete, defer, or deadletter messages received from more than one subscription, as long as all the subscriptions are contained in the same topic. As subscriptions are not top level messaging entities this scenarios will work. The following code shows how this can be achieved. try {     using (TransactionScope scope = new TransactionScope())     {         // Receive one message from each subscription.         BrokeredMessage msg1 = subscriptionClient1.Receive();         BrokeredMessage msg2 = subscriptionClient2.Receive();           // Complete the message receives.         msg1.Complete();         msg2.Complete();           Console.WriteLine("Msg1: " + msg1.GetBody<string>());         Console.WriteLine("Msg2: " + msg2.GetBody<string>());           // Commit the transaction.         scope.Complete();     } } catch (Exception ex) {     Console.WriteLine(ex.Message); }     Unsupported Scenarios The restriction of only one top level messaging entity being able to participate in a transaction makes some useful scenarios unsupported. As the Windows Azure Service Bus is under continuous development and new releases are expected to be frequent it is possible that this restriction may not be present in future releases. The first is the scenario where messages are to be routed to two different systems. The following code attempts to do this.   try {     // Create a transaction scope.     using (TransactionScope scope = new TransactionScope())     {         BrokeredMessage msg1 = new BrokeredMessage("Message1");         BrokeredMessage msg2 = new BrokeredMessage("Message2");           // Send a message to Queue1         Console.WriteLine("Sending Message1");         queue1Client.Send(msg1);           // Send a message to Queue2         Console.WriteLine("Sending Message2");         queue2Client.Send(msg2);           // Commit the transaction.         Console.WriteLine("Committing transaction...");         scope.Complete();     } } catch (Exception ex) {     Console.WriteLine(ex.Message); }     The results of running the code are shown below. When attempting to send a message to the second queue the following exception is thrown: No active Transaction was found for ID '35ad2495-ee8a-4956-bbad-eb4fedf4a96e:1'. The Transaction may have timed out or attempted to span multiple top-level entities such as Queue or Topic. The server Transaction timeout is: 00:01:00..TrackingId:947b8c4b-7754-4044-b91b-4a959c3f9192_3_3,TimeStamp:3/29/2012 7:47:32 AM.   Another scenario where transactional support could be useful is when forwarding messages from one queue to another queue. This would also involve more than one top level messaging entity, and is therefore not supported.   Another scenario that developers may wish to implement is performing transactions across messaging entities and other transactional systems, such as an on-premise database. In the current release this is not supported.   Workarounds for Unsupported Scenarios There are some techniques that developers can use to work around the one top level entity limitation of transactions. When sending two messages to two systems, topics and subscriptions can be used. If the same message is to be sent to two destinations then the subscriptions would have the default subscriptions, and the client would only send one message. If two different messages are to be sent, then filters on the subscriptions can route the messages to the appropriate destination. The client can then send the two messages to the topic in the same transaction.   In scenarios where a message needs to be received and then forwarded to another system within the same transaction topics and subscriptions can also be used. A message can be received from a subscription, and then sent to a topic within the same transaction. As a topic is a top level messaging entity, and a subscription is not, this scenario will work.

  Read the article

• May 2011 Release of the Ajax Control Toolkit

  - by Stephen Walther

  I’m happy to announce that the Superexpert team has published the May 2011 release of the Ajax Control Toolkit at CodePlex. You can download the new release at the following URL: http://ajaxcontroltoolkit.codeplex.com/releases/view/65800 This release focused on improving the ModalPopup and AsyncFileUpload controls. Our team closed a total of 34 bugs related to the ModalPopup and AsyncFileUpload controls. Enhanced ModalPopup Control You can take advantage of the Ajax Control Toolkit ModalPopup control to easily create popup dialogs in your ASP.NET Web Forms applications. When the dialog appears, you cannot interact with any page content which appears behind the modal dialog. For example, the following page contains a standard ASP.NET Button and Panel. When you click the Button, the Panel appears as a popup dialog: <%@ Page Language="vb" AutoEventWireup="false" CodeBehind="Simple.aspx.vb" Inherits="ACTSamples.Simple" %> <%@ Register TagPrefix="act" Namespace="AjaxControlToolkit" Assembly="AjaxControlToolkit" %> <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"> <html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> <head runat="server"> <title>Simple Modal Popup Sample</title> <style type="text/css"> html { background-color: blue; } #dialog { border: 2px solid black; width: 500px; background-color: White; } #dialogContents { padding: 10px; } .modalBackground { background-color:Gray; filter:alpha(opacity=70); opacity:0.7; } </style> </head> <body> <form id="form1" runat="server"> <div> <act:ToolkitScriptManager ID="tsm" runat="server" /> <asp:Panel ID="dialog" runat="server"> <div id="dialogContents"> Here are the contents of the dialog. <br /> <asp:Button ID="btnOK" Text="OK" runat="server" /> </div> </asp:Panel> <asp:Button ID="btnShow" Text="Open Dialog" runat="server" /> <act:ModalPopupExtender TargetControlID="btnShow" PopupControlID="dialog" OkControlID="btnOK" DropShadow="true" BackgroundCssClass="modalBackground" runat="server" /> </div> </form> </body> </html>     Notice that the page includes two controls from the Ajax Control Toolkit: the ToolkitScriptManager and the ModalPopupExtender control. Any page which uses any of the controls from the Ajax Control Toolkit must include a ToolkitScriptManager. The ModalPopupExtender is used to create the popup. The following properties are set: · TargetControlID – This is the ID of the Button or LinkButton control which causes the modal popup to be displayed. · PopupControlID – This is the ID of the Panel control which contains the content displayed in the modal popup. · OKControlID – This is the ID of a Button or LinkButton which causes the modal popup to close. · DropShadow – Displays a drop shadow behind the modal popup. · BackgroundCSSClass – The name of a Cascading Style Sheet class which is used to gray out the background of the page when the modal popup is displayed. The ModalPopup is completely cross-browser compatible. For example, the following screenshots show the same page displayed in Firefox 4, Internet Explorer 9, and Chrome 11: The ModalPopup control has lots of nice properties. For example, you can make the ModalPopup draggable. You also can programmatically hide and show a modal popup from either server-side or client-side code. To learn more about the properties of the ModalPopup control, see the following website: http://www.asp.net/ajax/ajaxcontroltoolkit/Samples/ModalPopup/ModalPopup.aspx Animated ModalPopup Control In the May 2011 release of the Ajax Control Toolkit, we enhanced the Modal Popup control so that it supports animations. We made this modification in response to a feature request posted at CodePlex which got 65 votes (plenty of people wanted this feature): http://ajaxcontroltoolkit.codeplex.com/workitem/6944 I want to thank Dani Kenan for posting a patch to this issue which we used as the basis for adding animation support for the modal popup. Thanks Dani! The enhanced ModalPopup in the May 2011 release of the Ajax Control Toolkit supports the following animations: OnShowing – Called before the modal popup is shown. OnShown – Called after the modal popup is shown. OnHiding – Called before the modal popup is hidden. OnHidden – Called after the modal popup is hidden. You can use these animations, for example, to fade-in a modal popup when it is displayed and fade-out the popup when it is hidden. Here’s the code: <act:ModalPopupExtender ID="ModalPopupExtender1" TargetControlID="btnShow" PopupControlID="dialog" OkControlID="btnOK" DropShadow="true" BackgroundCssClass="modalBackground" runat="server"> <Animations> <OnShown> <Fadein /> </OnShown> <OnHiding> <Fadeout /> </OnHiding> </Animations> </act:ModalPopupExtender>     So that you can experience the full joy of this animated modal popup, I recorded the following video: Of course, you can use any of the animations supported by the Ajax Control Toolkit with the modal popup. The animation reference is located here: http://www.asp.net/ajax/ajaxcontroltoolkit/Samples/Walkthrough/AnimationReference.aspx Fixes to the AsyncFileUpload In the May 2011 release, we also focused our energies on performing bug fixes for the AsyncFileUpload control. We fixed several major issues with the AsyncFileUpload including: It did not work in master pages It did not work when ClientIDMode=”Static” It did not work with Firefox 4 It did not work when multiple AsyncFileUploads were included in the same page It generated markup which was not HTML5 compatible The AsyncFileUpload control is a super useful control. It enables you to upload files in a form without performing a postback. Here’s some sample code which demonstrates how you can use the AsyncFileUpload: <%@ Page Language="vb" AutoEventWireup="false" CodeBehind="Simple.aspx.vb" Inherits="ACTSamples.Simple1" %> <%@ Register TagPrefix="act" Namespace="AjaxControlToolkit" Assembly="AjaxControlToolkit" %> <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"> <html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> <head id="Head1" runat="server"> <title>Simple AsyncFileUpload</title> </head> <body> <form id="form1" runat="server"> <div> <act:ToolkitScriptManager ID="tsm" runat="server" /> User Name: <br /> <asp:TextBox ID="txtUserName" runat="server" /> <asp:RequiredFieldValidator EnableClientScript="false" ErrorMessage="Required" ControlToValidate="txtUserName" runat="server" /> <br /><br /> Avatar: <act:AsyncFileUpload ID="async1" ThrobberID="throbber" UploadingBackColor="yellow" ErrorBackColor="red" CompleteBackColor="green" UploaderStyle="Modern" PersistFile="true" runat="server" /> <asp:Image ID="throbber" ImageUrl="uploading.gif" style="display:none" runat="server" /> <br /><br /> <asp:Button ID="btnSubmit" Text="Submit" runat="server" /> </div> </form> </body> </html> And here’s the code-behind for the page above: Public Class Simple1 Inherits System.Web.UI.Page Private Sub btnSubmit_Click(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles btnSubmit.Click If Page.IsValid Then ' Get Form Fields Dim userName As String Dim file As Byte() userName = txtUserName.Text If async1.HasFile Then file = async1.FileBytes End If ' Save userName, file to database ' Redirect to success page Response.Redirect("SimpleDone.aspx") End If End Sub End Class   The form above contains an AsyncFileUpload which has values for the following properties: ThrobberID – The ID of an element in the page to display while a file is being uploaded. UploadingBackColor – The color to display in the upload field while a file is being uploaded. ErrorBackColor – The color to display in the upload field when there is an error uploading a file. CompleteBackColor – The color to display in the upload field when the upload is complete. UploaderStyle – The user interface style: Traditional or Modern. PersistFile – When true, the uploaded file is persisted in Session state. The last property PersistFile, causes the uploaded file to be stored in Session state. That way, if completing a form requires multiple postbacks, then the user needs to upload the file only once. For example, if there is a server validation error, then the user is not required to re-upload the file after fixing the validation issue. In the sample code above, this condition is simulated by disabling client-side validation for the RequiredFieldValidator control. The RequiredFieldValidator EnableClientScript property has the value false. The following video demonstrates how the AsyncFileUpload control works: You can learn more about the properties and methods of the AsyncFileUpload control by visiting the following page: http://www.asp.net/ajax/ajaxcontroltoolkit/Samples/AsyncFileUpload/AsyncFileUpload.aspx Conclusion In the May 2011 release of the Ajax Control Toolkit, we addressed over 30 bugs related to the ModalPopup and AsyncFileUpload controls. Furthermore, by building on code submitted by the community, we enhanced the ModalPopup control so that it supports animation (Thanks Dani). In our next sprint for the June release of the Ajax Control Toolkit, we plan to focus on the HTML Editor control. Subscribe to this blog to keep updated.

  Read the article

• Connecting Linux to WatchGuard Firebox SSL (OpenVPN client)

  Recently, I got a new project assignment that requires to connect permanently to the customer's network through VPN. They are using a so-called SSL VPN. As I am using OpenVPN since more than 5 years within my company's network I was quite curious about their solution and how it would actually be different from OpenVPN. Well, short version: It is a disguised version of OpenVPN. Unfortunately, the company only offers a client for Windows and Mac OS which shouldn't bother any Linux user after all. OpenVPN is part of every recent distribution and can be activated in a couple of minutes - both client as well as server (if necessary). WatchGuard Firebox SSL - About dialog Borrowing some files from a Windows client installation Initially, I didn't know about the product, so therefore I went through the installation on Windows 8. No obstacles (and no restart despite installation of TAP device drivers!) here and the secured VPN channel was up and running in less than 2 minutes or so. Much appreciated from both parties - customer and me. Of course, this whole client package and my long year approved and stable installation ignited my interest to have a closer look at the WatchGuard client. Compared to the original OpenVPN client (okay, I have to admit this is years ago) this commercial product is smarter in terms of file locations during installation. You'll be able to access the configuration and key files below your roaming application data folder. To get there, simply enter '%AppData%\WatchGuard\Mobile VPN' in your Windows/File Explorer and confirm with Enter/Return. This will display the following files: Application folder below user profile with configuration and certificate files From there we are going to borrow four files, namely: ca.crt client.crt client.ovpn client.pem and transfer them to the Linux system. You might also be able to isolate those four files from a Mac OS client. Frankly, I'm just too lazy to run the WatchGuard client installation on a Mac mini only to find the folder location, and I'm going to describe why a little bit further down this article. I know that you can do that! Feedback in the comment section is appreciated. Configuration of OpenVPN (console) Depending on your distribution the following steps might be a little different but in general you should be able to get the important information from it. I'm going to describe the steps in Ubuntu 13.04 (Raring Ringtail). As usual, there are two possibilities to achieve your goal: console and UI. Let's what it is necessary to be done. First of all, you should ensure that you have OpenVPN installed on your system. Open your favourite terminal application and run the following statement: $ sudo apt-get install openvpn network-manager-openvpn network-manager-openvpn-gnome Just to be on the safe side. The four above mentioned files from your Windows machine could be copied anywhere but either you place them below your own user directory or you put them (as root) below the default directory: /etc/openvpn At this stage you would be able to do a test run already. Just in case, run the following command and check the output (it's the similar information you would get from the 'View Logs...' context menu entry in Windows: $ sudo openvpn --config client.ovpn Pay attention to the correct path to your configuration and certificate files. OpenVPN will ask you to enter your Auth Username and Auth Password in order to establish the VPN connection, same as the Windows client. Remote server and user authentication to establish the VPN Please complete the test run and see whether all went well. You can disconnect pressing Ctrl+C. Simplifying your life - authentication file In my case, I actually set up the OpenVPN client on my gateway/router. This establishes a VPN channel between my network and my client's network and allows me to switch machines easily without having the necessity to install the WatchGuard client on each and every machine. That's also very handy for my various virtualised Windows machines. Anyway, as the client configuration, key and certificate files are located on a headless system somewhere under the roof, it is mandatory to have an automatic connection to the remote site. For that you should first change the file extension '.ovpn' to '.conf' which is the default extension on Linux systems for OpenVPN, and then open the client configuration file in order to extend an existing line. $ sudo mv client.ovpn client.conf $ sudo nano client.conf You should have a similar content to this one here: dev tunclientproto tcp-clientca ca.crtcert client.crtkey client.pemtls-remote "/O=WatchGuard_Technologies/OU=Fireware/CN=Fireware_SSLVPN_Server"remote-cert-eku "TLS Web Server Authentication"remote 1.2.3.4 443persist-keypersist-tunverb 3mute 20keepalive 10 60cipher AES-256-CBCauth SHA1float 1reneg-sec 3660nobindmute-replay-warningsauth-user-pass auth.txt Note: I changed the IP address of the remote directive above (which should be obvious, right?). Anyway, the required change is marked in red and we have to create a new authentication file 'auth.txt'. You can give the directive 'auth-user-pass' any file name you'd like to. Due to my existing OpenVPN infrastructure my setup differs completely from the above written content but for sake of simplicity I just keep it 'as-is'. Okay, let's create this file 'auth.txt' $ sudo nano auth.txt and just put two lines of information in it - username on the first, and password on the second line, like so: myvpnusernameverysecretpassword Store the file, change permissions, and call openvpn with your configuration file again: $ sudo chmod 0600 auth.txt $ sudo openvpn --config client.conf This should now work without being prompted to enter username and password. In case that you placed your files below the system-wide location /etc/openvpn you can operate your VPNs also via service command like so: $ sudo service openvpn start client $ sudo service openvpn stop client Using Network Manager For newer Linux users or the ones with 'console-phobia' I'm going to describe now how to use Network Manager to setup the OpenVPN client. For this move your mouse to the systray area and click on Network Connections => VPN Connections => Configure VPNs... which opens your Network Connections dialog. Alternatively, use the HUD and enter 'Network Connections'. Network connections overview in Ubuntu Click on 'Add' button. On the next dialog select 'Import a saved VPN configuration...' from the dropdown list and click on 'Create...' Choose connection type to import VPN configuration Now you navigate to your folder where you put the client files from the Windows system and you open the 'client.ovpn' file. Next, on the tab 'VPN' proceed with the following steps (directives from the configuration file are referred): General Check the IP address of Gateway ('remote' - we used 1.2.3.4 in this setup) Authentication Change Type to 'Password with Certificates (TLS)' ('auth-pass-user') Enter User name to access your client keys (Auth Name: myvpnusername) Enter Password (Auth Password: verysecretpassword) and choose your password handling Browse for your User Certificate ('cert' - should be pre-selected with client.crt) Browse for your CA Certificate ('ca' - should be filled as ca.crt) Specify your Private Key ('key' - here: client.pem) Then click on the 'Advanced...' button and check the following values: Use custom gateway port: 443 (second value of 'remote' directive) Check the selected value of Cipher ('cipher') Check HMAC Authentication ('auth') Enter the Subject Match: /O=WatchGuard_Technologies/OU=Fireware/CN=Fireware_SSLVPN_Server ('tls-remote') Finally, you have to confirm and close all dialogs. You should be able to establish your OpenVPN-WatchGuard connection via Network Manager. For that, click on the 'VPN Connections => client' entry on your Network Manager in the systray. It is advised that you keep an eye on the syslog to see whether there are any problematic issues that would require some additional attention. Advanced topic: routing As stated above, I'm running the 'WatchGuard client for Linux' on my head-less server, and since then I'm actually establishing a secure communication channel between two networks. In order to enable your network clients to get access to machines on the remote side there are two possibilities to enable that: Proper routing on both sides of the connection which enables both-direction access, or Network masquerading on the 'client side' of the connection Following, I'm going to describe the second option a little bit more in detail. The Linux system that I'm using is already configured as a gateway to the internet. I won't explain the necessary steps to do that, and will only focus on the additional tweaks I had to do. You can find tons of very good instructions and tutorials on 'How to setup a Linux gateway/router' - just use Google. OK, back to the actual modifications. First, we need to have some information about the network topology and IP address range used on the 'other' side. We can get this very easily from /var/log/syslog after we established the OpenVPN channel, like so: $ sudo tail -n20 /var/log/syslog Or if your system is quite busy with logging, like so: $ sudo less /var/log/syslog | grep ovpn The output should contain PUSH received message similar to the following one: Jul 23 23:13:28 ios1 ovpn-client[789]: PUSH: Received control message: 'PUSH_REPLY,topology subnet,route 192.168.1.0 255.255.255.0,dhcp-option DOMAIN ,route-gateway 192.168.6.1,topology subnet,ping 10,ping-restart 60,ifconfig 192.168.6.2 255.255.255.0' The interesting part for us is the route command which I highlighted already in the sample PUSH_REPLY. Depending on your remote server there might be multiple networks defined (172.16.x.x and/or 10.x.x.x). Important: The IP address range on both sides of the connection has to be different, otherwise you will have to shuffle IPs or increase your the netmask. {loadposition content_adsense} After the VPN connection is established, we have to extend the rules for iptables in order to route and masquerade IP packets properly. I created a shell script to take care of those steps: #!/bin/sh -eIPTABLES=/sbin/iptablesDEV_LAN=eth0DEV_VPNS=tun+VPN=192.168.1.0/24 $IPTABLES -A FORWARD -i $DEV_LAN -o $DEV_VPNS -d $VPN -j ACCEPT$IPTABLES -A FORWARD -i $DEV_VPNS -o $DEV_LAN -s $VPN -j ACCEPT$IPTABLES -t nat -A POSTROUTING -o $DEV_VPNS -d $VPN -j MASQUERADE I'm using the wildcard interface 'tun+' because I have multiple client configurations for OpenVPN on my server. In your case, it might be sufficient to specify device 'tun0' only. Simplifying your life - automatic connect on boot Now, that the client connection works flawless, configuration of routing and iptables is okay, we might consider to add another 'laziness' factor into our setup. Due to kernel updates or other circumstances it might be necessary to reboot your system. Wouldn't it be nice that the VPN connections are established during the boot procedure? Yes, of course it would be. To achieve this, we have to configure OpenVPN to automatically start our VPNs via init script. Let's have a look at the responsible 'default' file and adjust the settings accordingly. $ sudo nano /etc/default/openvpn Which should have a similar content to this: # This is the configuration file for /etc/init.d/openvpn## Start only these VPNs automatically via init script.# Allowed values are "all", "none" or space separated list of# names of the VPNs. If empty, "all" is assumed.# The VPN name refers to the VPN configutation file name.# i.e. "home" would be /etc/openvpn/home.conf#AUTOSTART="all"#AUTOSTART="none"#AUTOSTART="home office"## ... more information which remains unmodified ... With the OpenVPN client configuration as described above you would either set AUTOSTART to "all" or to "client" to enable automatic start of your VPN(s) during boot. You should also take care that your iptables commands are executed after the link has been established, too. You can easily test this configuration without reboot, like so: $ sudo service openvpn restart Enjoy stable VPN connections between your Linux system(s) and a WatchGuard Firebox SSL remote server. Cheers, JoKi

  Read the article

• How to Reuse Your Old Wi-Fi Router as a Network Switch

  - by Jason Fitzpatrick

  Just because your old Wi-Fi router has been replaced by a newer model doesn’t mean it needs to gather dust in the closet. Read on as we show you how to take an old and underpowered Wi-Fi router and turn it into a respectable network switch (saving your $20 in the process). Image by mmgallan. Why Do I Want To Do This? Wi-Fi technology has changed significantly in the last ten years but Ethernet-based networking has changed very little. As such, a Wi-Fi router with 2006-era guts is lagging significantly behind current Wi-Fi router technology, but the Ethernet networking component of the device is just as useful as ever; aside from potentially being only 100Mbs instead of 1000Mbs capable (which for 99% of home applications is irrelevant) Ethernet is Ethernet. What does this matter to you, the consumer? It means that even though your old router doesn’t hack it for your Wi-Fi needs any longer the device is still a perfectly serviceable (and high quality) network switch. When do you need a network switch? Any time you want to share an Ethernet cable among multiple devices, you need a switch. For example, let’s say you have a single Ethernet wall jack behind your entertainment center. Unfortunately you have four devices that you want to link to your local network via hardline including your smart HDTV, DVR, Xbox, and a little Raspberry Pi running XBMC. Instead of spending $20-30 to purchase a brand new switch of comparable build quality to your old Wi-Fi router it makes financial sense (and is environmentally friendly) to invest five minutes of your time tweaking the settings on the old router to turn it from a Wi-Fi access point and routing tool into a network switch–perfect for dropping behind your entertainment center so that your DVR, Xbox, and media center computer can all share an Ethernet connection. What Do I Need? For this tutorial you’ll need a few things, all of which you likely have readily on hand or are free for download. To follow the basic portion of the tutorial, you’ll need the following: 1 Wi-Fi router with Ethernet ports 1 Computer with Ethernet jack 1 Ethernet cable For the advanced tutorial you’ll need all of those things, plus: 1 copy of DD-WRT firmware for your Wi-Fi router We’re conducting the experiment with a Linksys WRT54GL Wi-Fi router. The WRT54 series is one of the best selling Wi-Fi router series of all time and there’s a good chance a significant number of readers have one (or more) of them stuffed in an office closet. Even if you don’t have one of the WRT54 series routers, however, the principles we’re outlining here apply to all Wi-Fi routers; as long as your router administration panel allows the necessary changes you can follow right along with us. A quick note on the difference between the basic and advanced versions of this tutorial before we proceed. Your typical Wi-Fi router has 5 Ethernet ports on the back: 1 labeled “Internet”, “WAN”, or a variation thereof and intended to be connected to your DSL/Cable modem, and 4 labeled 1-4 intended to connect Ethernet devices like computers, printers, and game consoles directly to the Wi-Fi router. When you convert a Wi-Fi router to a switch, in most situations, you’ll lose two port as the “Internet” port cannot be used as a normal switch port and one of the switch ports becomes the input port for the Ethernet cable linking the switch to the main network. This means, referencing the diagram above, you’d lose the WAN port and LAN port 1, but retain LAN ports 2, 3, and 4 for use. If you only need to switch for 2-3 devices this may be satisfactory. However, for those of you that would prefer a more traditional switch setup where there is a dedicated WAN port and the rest of the ports are accessible, you’ll need to flash a third-party router firmware like the powerful DD-WRT onto your device. Doing so opens up the router to a greater degree of modification and allows you to assign the previously reserved WAN port to the switch, thus opening up LAN ports 1-4. Even if you don’t intend to use that extra port, DD-WRT offers you so many more options that it’s worth the extra few steps. Preparing Your Router for Life as a Switch Before we jump right in to shutting down the Wi-Fi functionality and repurposing your device as a network switch, there are a few important prep steps to attend to. First, you want to reset the router (if you just flashed a new firmware to your router, skip this step). Following the reset procedures for your particular router or go with what is known as the “Peacock Method” wherein you hold down the reset button for thirty seconds, unplug the router and wait (while still holding the reset button) for thirty seconds, and then plug it in while, again, continuing to hold down the rest button. Over the life of a router there are a variety of changes made, big and small, so it’s best to wipe them all back to the factory default before repurposing the router as a switch. Second, after resetting, we need to change the IP address of the device on the local network to an address which does not directly conflict with the new router. The typical default IP address for a home router is 192.168.1.1; if you ever need to get back into the administration panel of the router-turned-switch to check on things or make changes it will be a real hassle if the IP address of the device conflicts with the new home router. The simplest way to deal with this is to assign an address close to the actual router address but outside the range of addresses that your router will assign via the DHCP client; a good pick then is 192.168.1.2. Once the router is reset (or re-flashed) and has been assigned a new IP address, it’s time to configure it as a switch. Basic Router to Switch Configuration If you don’t want to (or need to) flash new firmware onto your device to open up that extra port, this is the section of the tutorial for you: we’ll cover how to take a stock router, our previously mentioned WRT54 series Linksys, and convert it to a switch. Hook the Wi-Fi router up to the network via one of the LAN ports (consider the WAN port as good as dead from this point forward, unless you start using the router in its traditional function again or later flash a more advanced firmware to the device, the port is officially retired at this point). Open the administration control panel via  web browser on a connected computer. Before we get started two things: first,  anything we don’t explicitly instruct you to change should be left in the default factory-reset setting as you find it, and two, change the settings in the order we list them as some settings can’t be changed after certain features are disabled. To start, let’s navigate to Setup ->Basic Setup. Here you need to change the following things: Local IP Address: [different than the primary router, e.g. 192.168.1.2] Subnet Mask: [same as the primary router, e.g. 255.255.255.0] DHCP Server: Disable Save with the “Save Settings” button and then navigate to Setup -> Advanced Routing: Operating Mode: Router This particular setting is very counterintuitive. The “Operating Mode” toggle tells the device whether or not it should enable the Network Address Translation (NAT)  feature. Because we’re turning a smart piece of networking hardware into a relatively dumb one, we don’t need this feature so we switch from Gateway mode (NAT on) to Router mode (NAT off). Our next stop is Wireless -> Basic Wireless Settings: Wireless SSID Broadcast: Disable Wireless Network Mode: Disabled After disabling the wireless we’re going to, again, do something counterintuitive. Navigate to Wireless -> Wireless Security and set the following parameters: Security Mode: WPA2 Personal WPA Algorithms: TKIP+AES WPA Shared Key: [select some random string of letters, numbers, and symbols like JF#d$di!Hdgio890] Now you may be asking yourself, why on Earth are we setting a rather secure Wi-Fi configuration on a Wi-Fi router we’re not going to use as a Wi-Fi node? On the off chance that something strange happens after, say, a power outage when your router-turned-switch cycles on and off a bunch of times and the Wi-Fi functionality is activated we don’t want to be running the Wi-Fi node wide open and granting unfettered access to your network. While the chances of this are next-to-nonexistent, it takes only a few seconds to apply the security measure so there’s little reason not to. Save your changes and navigate to Security ->Firewall. Uncheck everything but Filter Multicast Firewall Protect: Disable At this point you can save your changes again, review the changes you’ve made to ensure they all stuck, and then deploy your “new” switch wherever it is needed. Advanced Router to Switch Configuration For the advanced configuration, you’ll need a copy of DD-WRT installed on your router. Although doing so is an extra few steps, it gives you a lot more control over the process and liberates an extra port on the device. Hook the Wi-Fi router up to the network via one of the LAN ports (later you can switch the cable to the WAN port). Open the administration control panel via web browser on the connected computer. Navigate to the Setup -> Basic Setup tab to get started. In the Basic Setup tab, ensure the following settings are adjusted. The setting changes are not optional and are required to turn the Wi-Fi router into a switch. WAN Connection Type: Disabled Local IP Address: [different than the primary router, e.g. 192.168.1.2] Subnet Mask: [same as the primary router, e.g. 255.255.255.0] DHCP Server: Disable In addition to disabling the DHCP server, also uncheck all the DNSMasq boxes as the bottom of the DHCP sub-menu. If you want to activate the extra port (and why wouldn’t you), in the WAN port section: Assign WAN Port to Switch [X] At this point the router has become a switch and you have access to the WAN port so the LAN ports are all free. Since we’re already in the control panel, however, we might as well flip a few optional toggles that further lock down the switch and prevent something odd from happening. The optional settings are arranged via the menu you find them in. Remember to save your settings with the save button before moving onto a new tab. While still in the Setup -> Basic Setup menu, change the following: Gateway/Local DNS : [IP address of primary router, e.g. 192.168.1.1] NTP Client : Disable The next step is to turn off the radio completely (which not only kills the Wi-Fi but actually powers the physical radio chip off). Navigate to Wireless -> Advanced Settings -> Radio Time Restrictions: Radio Scheduling: Enable Select “Always Off” There’s no need to create a potential security problem by leaving the Wi-Fi radio on, the above toggle turns it completely off. Under Services -> Services: DNSMasq : Disable ttraff Daemon : Disable Under the Security -> Firewall tab, uncheck every box except “Filter Multicast”, as seen in the screenshot above, and then disable SPI Firewall. Once you’re done here save and move on to the Administration tab. Under Administration -> Management:  Info Site Password Protection : Enable Info Site MAC Masking : Disable CRON : Disable 802.1x : Disable Routing : Disable After this final round of tweaks, save and then apply your settings. Your router has now been, strategically, dumbed down enough to plod along as a very dependable little switch. Time to stuff it behind your desk or entertainment center and streamline your cabling.     

  Read the article

• CodePlex Daily Summary for Wednesday, April 14, 2010

  CodePlex Daily Summary for Wednesday, April 14, 2010New Projectsbitly.net: A bitly (useing Version 3 of their API's) client for .NET (Version 3.5)Chord Sheet Editor Add-In for Word: Transpose music chord sheets (guitar chord sheets, etc.) in Microsoft Word using this VSTO Add-In.CloudSponge.Net: Simple .Net wrapper for www.cloudsponge.com's REST API.Database Searcher: This is a small tool for searching a typed value inside all type matching columns and rows of a database. For connecting the database a .NET data p...Edu Math: PL: Program Edu Math, ma na celu ułatwienie wykonywania skomplikowanych obliczeń oraz analiz matematycznych. EN: Program Edu Math, aims to facilita...fluent AOP: This project is not yet publishedFNA Fractal Numerical Algorithm for a new encryption technology: FNA Fractal Numerical Algorithm for a new encryption technology is a symmetrical encryption method based on two algorithms that I developed for: 1....Image viewer cum editor: This is a project on image viewing and editing. The project have following features VIEWER: Album Password security for albums Inbuilt Browser...JEngine - Tile Map Editor v1: JEngine - Tile Map Editor v1Jeremy Knight: Code samples, snippets, etc from my personal blog.lcskey: lcs test codemoldme: testesds ssdfsdfsNanoPrompt: NanoPrompt makes it more pleasant to work on a command-line. Features: - syntax-highlighting - graphical output possible - up to 12 "displays" (cha...nirvana: for testOffInvoice Add-in for MS Office 2010: Project Description: The project it's based in the ability to extend funtionality in the Microsoft Office 2010 suite.PowerSlim - Acceptance Testing for Enterprise Applications: PowerSlim makes it possible to use PowerShell in the acceptance testing. It is a small but powerful plugin for the Fitnesse acceptance testing fram...Proxi [Proxy Interface]: Proxi is a light-weight library that allows to generate dynamic proxies using different providers. By utilizing Proxi frameworks and libraries can ...Reality show about ASP.NET development: This application is created with using ASP.NET and Microsoft SQL Server for the demo purposes with the following target goals: example of usage fo...RecordLogon.vbs login script: RecordLogon.vbs is a script applied at logon via Group or Local policy. It records specific user and computer information and writes the data to a ...SpaceGameApplet: A java game ;)SpaceShipsGame: A game with space ships ";..;"SysHard: Info for Linux system.System Etheral™ - Developer: SE Dev (System Etheral™ - Developer) is an OS (Operating System) that is a bit like UNIX but it is for you to edit! We have not gave you much but w...TimeSheet Reporting Silverlight: TimeSheet Reporting application in Silver light. Contains a data grid containing combo boxes bound to different data sources like Members and Proje...TrayBird: A minimalistic twitter client for windows.Twitter4You: This appliction for windows is a communication for twitter!WCF RIA Services (+ PRISM + MVVM) LoB Application: WCF RIA Services sample LoB application (case study) built on PRISM with Entity Framework Model. It's a simple application for a fictive company Te...New ReleasesBluetooth Radar: Version 1.9: Change Search and Close Icons Add Device Detail ViewCloudSponge.Net: Alpha: Initial alpha release very limited tested includes *CloudSponge.dll *Sponge.exe (simple cmd line utility to import contacts, and test API)Global Assembly Cache comparison tool: GAC Compare version 3.1: Version 3.1Added export assemblies to directory functionalityHTML Ruby: 6.21.2: Some style adjustments Ruby text spacing is spaced out to keep Firefox responsive Status bar is backJEngine - Tile Map Editor v1: JEngine - Tile Map Editor V1: JEngine - Tile Map Editor V1 Discription SoonJeremy Knight: SQL Padding Functions v1.0: The entire scripts, including if exists logic, for SQL Padding Functions are included in this download.jqGrid ASP.Net MVC Control: Version 1.1.0.0: UPDATE 14-04 Fixed a small problem with the custom column renderers controller, And added a new example for a cascading-dropdownlist grid column A...JulMar MVVM Helpers + Behaviors: Version 1.06: This version is an update to MVVM Helpers that is built on Visual Studio 2010 RTM. It includes some minor updates to classes and a few new convert...lcskey: v 1.0: v1.0 基本能跑，未详细测试LINQ To Blippr: LINQ to Blippr: Download to test out and play around LINQ to Blippr based from blog posts: http://consultingblogs.emc.com/jonsharrattLINQ to XSD: 1.1.0: The LINQ to XSD technology provides .NET developers with support for typed XML programming. LINQ to XSD contributes to the LINQ project (.NET Langu...LINQ to XSD: 2.0.0: It is the same code as version 1.1 but compiled for .NET framework 4.0. Requirements: .NET Framework 4.0.LocoSync: LocoSync v0.1r2010.04.12: Second Alpha version of LocoSync. Download unzip and run setup. It will download the .NET framework if needed. It will create an icon in the start ...mojoPortal: 2.3.4.2: see release note on mojoportal.com http://www.mojoportal.com/mojoportal-2342-released.aspxNanoPrompt: Setup (.NET 4.0) - 20100414-A Nightly: The setup for NanoPrompt 0.Xa for Intel-80386- (32 or 64 bits) or Intel-Itanium-compatible targets with installed .NET-Framework 4.0 Client Profile...Neural Cryptography in F#: Neural Cryptography 0.0.5: This release provides the basic functionality that this project was supposed to have from the very beginning: it can hash strings using neural netw...NodeXL: Network Overview, Discovery and Exploration for Excel: NodeXL Class Libraries, version 1.0.1.121: The NodeXL class libraries can be used to display network graphs in .NET applications. To include a NodeXL network graph in a WPF desktop or Windo...nRoute Framework: nRoute.Toolkit Release Version 0.4: Note, both "nRoute.Framework (x3)" and "nRoute.Toolkit (x3)" zip files contains binaries for Web, Desktop and Mobile targets. Also this release wa...Numina Application/Security Framework: Numina.Framework Core 50381: Rebuilt using .NET 4 RTM One minor change made to the web.config file - added System.Data.Linq to the assemblies list.PokeIn Comet Ajax Library: PokeIn Lib and Sample: Great sample with usefull comet ajax library! .Net 2.0 Note : It was very easy to build this project with Visual Studio 10 ;)Powershell Zip File Export/Import Cmdlet Module: PowershellZip 0.1.0.3: Powershell-Zip 0.1.0.3 contains the cmdlets Export-Zip and Import-ZipPowerSlim - Acceptance Testing for Enterprise Applications: PowerSlim 0.1: Just PowerSlim. http://vlasenko.org/2010/04/09/howto-setup-powerslim-step-by-step/RDA Collaboration Team Projects: SharePoint BPOS Logging Framework: RDA's SharePoint BPOS logging framework is a very lightweight WSP Builder project that provides the following items: A Site feature that creates a...RecordLogon.vbs login script: LogonSearchGadget: This is the Windows Gadget companion for RecordLogon.RecordLogon.vbs login script: LogonSearchTool.hta: This is the HTA standalone script that runs inside of an IE window. The HTA is what presents the data the recordlogon.vbs creates. Please remember...RecordLogon.vbs login script: recordlogon.vbs: This is the main script that grabs the logon and computer information and dumps the info as text files to a defined folder share. Make sure to chec...Rensea Image Viewer: RIV 0.4.3: New Release of RIV. Added many many features! You would love it. You would need .NET Framework 4.0 to make it run With separated RIV up-loader, to...SharePoint Site Configurator Feature: SharePoint Site Configurator V2.0: Updated for SharePoint 2010 and added quite a lot of new functions. Compatible with SP2010, MOSS and WSS 3.0Sharp Tests Ex: Sharp Tests Ex 1.0.0RC2: Project Description #TestsEx (Sharp Tests Extensions) is a set of extensible extensions. The main target is write short assertions where the Visual...SQL Server Extended Properties Quick Editor: Release 1.6.2: Whats new in 1.6.2: Fixed several errors in LinqToSQL generated classes, solved generation EntitySet members. Its highly recomended to download and...SSRS SDK for PHP: SugarCRM Sample for SSRSReport: The zip file contains a sample SugarCRM module that shows how the SSRS SDK for PHP can be used to add simple reporting capabilities to the SugarCRM...System Etheral™ - Developer: System Etheral Dev v1.00: Comes with a VERY basic text editor and the ability to shutdown. Hopefully we will have a lot more stuff in version 1.01! But this is fine for now....Text to HTML: 0.4.2.0: ¡Gracias a Martin Lemburg por avisar de los errores y por sus sugerencias! Cambios de la versiónSustitución de los caracteres especiales alemanes:...TimeSheet Reporting Silverlight: v1.0 Source Code: Source CodeTwitter4You: Twitter 4 You - Version 1.0 (TESTER): Serialcode: http://joeynl.blogspot.com/2010/04/test-version-of-t4yv1.html Thanks JoeyNLVCC: Latest build, v2.1.30413.0: Automatic drop of latest buildVisioAutomation: VisioAutomation 2.5.1: VisioAutomation 2.5.1- Moved to Visual Studio 2010 (Still using .NET Framework 3.5) Changes Since 2.5.0- Solution and Projects are all based on Vi...Most Popular ProjectsRawrWBFS ManagerAJAX Control ToolkitMicrosoft SQL Server Product Samples: DatabaseSilverlight ToolkitWindows Presentation Foundation (WPF)ASP.NETMicrosoft SQL Server Community & SamplesPHPExcelFacebook Developer ToolkitMost Active ProjectsRawrAutoPocopatterns & practices – Enterprise LibraryGMap.NET - Great Maps for Windows Forms & PresentationFarseer Physics EngineNB_Store - Free DotNetNuke Ecommerce Catalog ModuleBeanProxyjQuery Library for SharePoint Web ServicesBlogEngine.NETFacebook Developer Toolkit

  Read the article

• Stream Media and Live TV Across the Internet with Orb

  - by DigitalGeekery

  Looking for a way to stream your media collection across the Internet? Or perhaps watch and record TV remotely? Today we are going to look at how to do all that and more with Orb. Requirements Windows XP / Vista / 7 or Intel based Mac w/ OS X 10.5 or later. 1 GB RAM or more Pentium 4 2.4 GHz or higher / AMD Athlon 3200+ Broadband connections TV Tuner for streaming and recording live TV (optional) Note: Slower internet connections may result in stuttering during playback. Installation and Setup Download and install Orb on your home computer. (Download link below) You’ll want to take the defaults for the initial portion of the install. When we get to the Orb Account setup portion of the install is when we will have to enter information and make some decisions. Choose your language and click Next. We’ll need to create and user account and password. A valid email address is required as we’ll need to confirm the account later. Click Next.   Now you’ll want to choose your media sources. Orb will automatically look for folders that may contain media files. You can add or remove folders click on the (+) or (-) buttons. To remove a folder, click on it once to select it from the list and then click the minus (-) button. To add a folder, click the plus (+) button and browse for the folder. You can add local folders as well as shared folders from networked computers and USB attached storage. Note: Both the host computer running Orb and the networked computer will need to be running to access shared network folders remotely. When you’ve selected all your media files, click Next. Orb will proceed to index your media files… When the indexing is complete, click Next. Orb TV Setup Note: Streaming Live TV to Macs is not currently supported. If you have a TV tuner card connected to your PC, you can opt to configure Orb to stream live or recorded TV. Click Next  to configure TV. Or, choose Skip if you don’t wish to configure Orb for TV.   If you have a Digital tuner card, type in your Zip Code and click Get List to pull your channel listings. Select a TV provider from the list and click Next. If not, click Skip.   You can select or deselect any channels by checking or un-checking the box to each channel. Select Auto Scan to let Orb find more channels or disable the ones with no reception. Click Next when finished.   Next choose an analog provider, if necessary, and click Next.   Select “Yes” or “No” for a set top box and click Next. Just as we did with the Digital tuner, select or deselect any channels by checking or un-checking the box to each channel. Select Auto Scan to let Orb find more channels or disable the ones with no reception. Click Next when finished.   Now we’re finished with the setup. Click Close. Accessing your Media Remotely Media files are accessed through a web-based interface. Before we go any further, however, we’ll need to confirm our username and password. Check your inbox for an email from Orb Networks. Click the enclosed confirmation link. You’ll be prompted to enter the username and password you selected in your browser then click Next.   Your account will be confirmed. Now, we’re ready to enjoy our media remotely. To get started, point your browser to the MyCast website from your remote computer. (See link below) Enter your credentials and click Log In. Once logged in, you’ll be presented with the MyCast Home screen. By default you’ll see a handful of “channels” such as a TV program guide, random audio and photos, video favorites, and weather. You can add, remove, or customize channels. To add additional channels, click on Add Channels at the top right…   …and select from the dropdown list. To access your full media libraries, click Open Application at the top left and select from one of the options. Live and Recorded TV If you have a TV tuner card you configured for Orb, you’ll see your program guide on the TV / Webcams screen. To watch or record a show, click on the program listing to bring up a detail box. Then click the red button to record, or the green button to play. When recording a show, you’ll see a pulsating red icon at the top right of the listing in the program guide. If you want to watch Live TV, you may be prompted to choose your media player, depending on your browser and settings. Playback should begin shortly.   Note for Windows Media Center Users If you try to stream live TV in Orb while Windows Media Center is running on your PC, you’ll get an error message. Click the Stop MediaCenter button and then try again.   Audio On the Audio screen, you’ll find your music files indexed by genre, artist, and album. You can play a selection by clicking once and then clicking the green play button, or by simply double-clicking.   Playback will begin in the default media player for the streaming format.   Video Video works essentially the same as audio. Click on a selection and press the green play button, or double-click on the video title. Video playback will begin in the default media player for the streaming format.   Streaming Formats You can change the default streaming format in the control panel settings. To access the Control Panel, click on Open Applications  and select Control Panel. You can also click Settings at the top right.   Select General from the drop down list and then click on the Streaming Formats tab. You are provided four options. Flash, Windows Media, .SDP, and .PLS.   Creating Playlists To create playlists, drag and drop your media title to the playlist work area on the right, or click Add to playlist on the top menu. Click Save when finished.    Sharing your Media Orb allows you to share media playlists across the Internet with friends and family. There are a few ways to accomplish this. We’ll start by click the Share button at the bottom of the playlist work area after you’ve compiled your playlist. You’ll be prompted to choose a method by which to share your playlist. You’ll have the option to share your playlist publicly or privately. You can share publically through links, blogs, or on your Orb public profile.  By choosing the Public Profile option, Orb will automatically create a profile page for you with a URL like http://public.orb.com/username that anyone can easily access on the Internet. The private sharing option allows you to invite friends by email and requires recipients to register with Orb. You can also give your playlist a custom name, or accept the auto-generated title. Click OK when finished. Users who visit your public profile will be able to view and stream any of your shared playlists to their computer or supported device.   Portable Media Devices and Smartphones Orb can stream media to many portable devices and 3G phones. Streaming audio is supported on the iPhone and iPod Touch through the Safari browser. However, video and live TV streaming requires the Orb Live iPhone App.  Orb Live is available in the App store for $9.99. To stream media to your portable device, go to the MyCast website in your mobile browser and login. Browse for your media or playlist. Make a selection and play the media. Playback will begin. We found streaming music to both the Droid and the iPhone to work quite nicely. Video playback on the Droid, however, left a bit to be desired. The video looked good, but the audio tended to be out of sync. System Tray Control Panel By default Orb runs in the system tray on start up. To access the System Tray Control Panel, right-click on the Orb icon in the system tray and select Control Panel. Login with your Orb username and  password and click OK.   From here you can add or remove media sources, add manage accounts, change your password, and more. If you’d rather not run Orb on Startup, click the General icon.   Unselect the checkbox next to Start Orb when the system starts. Conclusion It may seem like a lot of steps, but getting Orb up and running isn’t terribly difficult. Orb is available for both Windows and Intel based Macs. It also supports streaming to many Game Consoles such as the Wii, PS3, and XBox 360. If you are running Windows 7 on multiple computers, you may want to check out our write-up on how to stream music and video over the Internet with Windows Media Player 12. Downloads Download Orb Logon to MyCast Similar Articles Productive Geek Tips Stream Music and Video Over the Internet with Windows Media Player 12Enable Media Streaming in Windows Home Server to Windows Media PlayerStream Media from Windows 7 to XP with VLC Media PlayerShare Digital Media With Other Computers on a Home Network with Windows 7Automatically Start Windows 7 Media Center in Live TV Mode TouchFreeze Alternative in AutoHotkey The Icy Undertow Desktop Windows Home Server – Backup to LAN The Clear & Clean Desktop Use This Bookmarklet to Easily Get Albums Use AutoHotkey to Assign a Hotkey to a Specific Window Latest Software Reviews Tinyhacker Random Tips DVDFab 6 Revo Uninstaller Pro Registry Mechanic 9 for Windows PC Tools Internet Security Suite 2010 Looking for Good Windows Media Player 12 Plug-ins? Find Out the Celebrity You Resemble With FaceDouble Whoa ! Use Printflush to Solve Printing Problems Icelandic Volcano Webcams Open Multiple Links At One Go

  Read the article

• Using Razor together with ASP.NET Web API

  - by Fredrik N

  On the blog post “If Then, If Then, If Then, MVC” I found the following code example: [HttpGet]public ActionResult List() { var list = new[] { "John", "Pete", "Ben" }; if (Request.AcceptTypes.Contains("application/json")) { return Json(list, JsonRequestBehavior.AllowGet); } if (Request.IsAjaxRequest()) [ return PartialView("_List", list); } return View(list); } .csharpcode, .csharpcode pre { font-size: small; color: black; font-family: consolas, "Courier New", courier, monospace; background-color: #ffffff; /*white-space: pre;*/ } .csharpcode pre { margin: 0em; } .csharpcode .rem { color: #008000; } .csharpcode .kwrd { color: #0000ff; } .csharpcode .str { color: #006080; } .csharpcode .op { color: #0000c0; } .csharpcode .preproc { color: #cc6633; } .csharpcode .asp { background-color: #ffff00; } .csharpcode .html { color: #800000; } .csharpcode .attr { color: #ff0000; } .csharpcode .alt { background-color: #f4f4f4; width: 100%; margin: 0em; } .csharpcode .lnum { color: #606060; } The code is a ASP.NET MVC Controller where it reuse the same “business” code but returns JSON if the request require JSON, a partial view when the request is an AJAX request or a normal ASP.NET MVC View. The above code may have several reasons to be changed, and also do several things, the code is not closed for modifications. To extend the code with a new way of presenting the model, the code need to be modified. So I started to think about how the above code could be rewritten so it will follow the Single Responsibility and open-close principle. I came up with the following result and with the use of ASP.NET Web API: public String[] Get() { return new[] { "John", "Pete", "Ben" }; } .csharpcode, .csharpcode pre { font-size: small; color: black; font-family: consolas, "Courier New", courier, monospace; background-color: #ffffff; /*white-space: pre;*/ } .csharpcode pre { margin: 0em; } .csharpcode .rem { color: #008000; } .csharpcode .kwrd { color: #0000ff; } .csharpcode .str { color: #006080; } .csharpcode .op { color: #0000c0; } .csharpcode .preproc { color: #cc6633; } .csharpcode .asp { background-color: #ffff00; } .csharpcode .html { color: #800000; } .csharpcode .attr { color: #ff0000; } .csharpcode .alt { background-color: #f4f4f4; width: 100%; margin: 0em; } .csharpcode .lnum { color: #606060; }   It just returns the model, nothing more. The code will do one thing and it will do it well. But it will not solve the problem when it comes to return Views. If we use the ASP.NET Web Api we can get the result as JSON or XML, but not as a partial view or as a ASP.NET MVC view. Wouldn’t it be nice if we could do the following against the Get() method?   Accept: application/json JSON will be returned – Already part of the Web API   Accept: text/html Returns the model as HTML by using a View   The best thing, it’s possible!   By using the RazorEngine I created a custom MediaTypeFormatter (RazorFormatter, code at the end of this blog post) and associate it with the media type “text/html”. I decided to use convention before configuration to decide which Razor view should be used to render the model. To register the formatter I added the following code to Global.asax: GlobalConfiguration.Configuration.Formatters.Add(new RazorFormatter()); Here is an example of a ApiController that just simply returns a model: using System.Web.Http; namespace WebApiRazor.Controllers { public class CustomersController : ApiController { // GET api/values public Customer Get() { return new Customer { Name = "John Doe", Country = "Sweden" }; } } public class Customer { public string Name { get; set; } public string Country { get; set; } } } .csharpcode, .csharpcode pre { font-size: small; color: black; font-family: consolas, "Courier New", courier, monospace; background-color: #ffffff; /*white-space: pre;*/ } .csharpcode pre { margin: 0em; } .csharpcode .rem { color: #008000; } .csharpcode .kwrd { color: #0000ff; } .csharpcode .str { color: #006080; } .csharpcode .op { color: #0000c0; } .csharpcode .preproc { color: #cc6633; } .csharpcode .asp { background-color: #ffff00; } .csharpcode .html { color: #800000; } .csharpcode .attr { color: #ff0000; } .csharpcode .alt { background-color: #f4f4f4; width: 100%; margin: 0em; } .csharpcode .lnum { color: #606060; }   Because I decided to use convention before configuration I only need to add a view with the same name as the model, Customer.cshtml, here is the example of the View:   <!DOCTYPE html> <html> <head> <script src="http://ajax.aspnetcdn.com/ajax/jquery/jquery-1.5.1.min.js" type="text/javascript"></script> </head> <body> <div id="body"> <section> <div> <hgroup> <h1>Welcome '@Model.Name' to ASP.NET Web API Razor Formatter!</h1> </hgroup> </div> <p> Using the same URL "api/values" but using AJAX: <button>Press to show content!</button> </p> <p> </p> </section> </div> </body> <script type="text/javascript"> $("button").click(function () { $.ajax({ url: '/api/values', type: "GET", contentType: "application/json; charset=utf-8", success: function(data, status, xhr) { alert(data.Name); }, error: function(xhr, status, error) { alert(error); }}); }); </script> </html> .csharpcode, .csharpcode pre { font-size: small; color: black; font-family: consolas, "Courier New", courier, monospace; background-color: #ffffff; /*white-space: pre;*/ } .csharpcode pre { margin: 0em; } .csharpcode .rem { color: #008000; } .csharpcode .kwrd { color: #0000ff; } .csharpcode .str { color: #006080; } .csharpcode .op { color: #0000c0; } .csharpcode .preproc { color: #cc6633; } .csharpcode .asp { background-color: #ffff00; } .csharpcode .html { color: #800000; } .csharpcode .attr { color: #ff0000; } .csharpcode .alt { background-color: #f4f4f4; width: 100%; margin: 0em; } .csharpcode .lnum { color: #606060; }   Now when I open up a browser and enter the following URL: http://localhost/api/customers the above View will be displayed and it will render the model the ApiController returns. If I use Ajax against the same ApiController with the content type set to “json”, the ApiController will now return the model as JSON. Here is a part of a really early prototype of the Razor formatter (The code is far from perfect, just use it for testing). I will rewrite the code and also make it possible to specify an attribute to the returned model, so it can decide which view to be used when the media type is “text/html”, but by default the formatter will use convention: using System; using System.Net.Http.Formatting; namespace WebApiRazor.Models { using System.IO; using System.Net; using System.Net.Http.Headers; using System.Reflection; using System.Threading.Tasks; using RazorEngine; public class RazorFormatter : MediaTypeFormatter { public RazorFormatter() { SupportedMediaTypes.Add(new MediaTypeHeaderValue("text/html")); SupportedMediaTypes.Add(new MediaTypeHeaderValue("application/xhtml+xml")); } //... public override Task WriteToStreamAsync( Type type, object value, Stream stream, HttpContentHeaders contentHeaders, TransportContext transportContext) { var task = Task.Factory.StartNew(() => { var viewPath = // Get path to the view by the name of the type var template = File.ReadAllText(viewPath); Razor.Compile(template, type, type.Name); var razor = Razor.Run(type.Name, value); var buf = System.Text.Encoding.Default.GetBytes(razor); stream.Write(buf, 0, buf.Length); stream.Flush(); }); return task; } } } .csharpcode, .csharpcode pre { font-size: small; color: black; font-family: consolas, "Courier New", courier, monospace; background-color: #ffffff; /*white-space: pre;*/ } .csharpcode pre { margin: 0em; } .csharpcode .rem { color: #008000; } .csharpcode .kwrd { color: #0000ff; } .csharpcode .str { color: #006080; } .csharpcode .op { color: #0000c0; } .csharpcode .preproc { color: #cc6633; } .csharpcode .asp { background-color: #ffff00; } .csharpcode .html { color: #800000; } .csharpcode .attr { color: #ff0000; } .csharpcode .alt { background-color: #f4f4f4; width: 100%; margin: 0em; } .csharpcode .lnum { color: #606060; }   Summary By using formatters and the ASP.NET Web API we can easily just extend our code without doing any changes to our ApiControllers when we want to return a new format. This blog post just showed how we can extend the Web API to use Razor to format a returned model into HTML.   If you want to know when I will post more blog posts, please feel free to follow me on twitter:   @fredrikn

  Read the article

• CodePlex Daily Summary for Tuesday, December 14, 2010

  CodePlex Daily Summary for Tuesday, December 14, 2010Popular ReleasesFlickrNet API Library: 3.1.4000: Newest release. Now contains dedicated Windows Phone 7 DLL as well as all previous DLLs. Also contains Windows Help file documentation now as standard.mojoPortal: 2.3.5.8: see release notes on mojoportal.com http://www.mojoportal.com/mojoportal-2358-released.aspx Note that we have separate deployment packages for .NET 3.5 and .NET 4.0 The deployment package downloads on this page are pre-compiled and ready for production deployment, they contain no C# source code. To download the source code see the Source Code Tab I recommend getting the latest source code using TortoiseHG, you can get the source code corresponding to this release here.Microsoft All-In-One Code Framework: Visual Studio 2010 Code Samples 2010-12-13: Code samples for Visual Studio 2010SuperWebSocket: SuperWebSocket Drop 2: Changes: based on SuperSocket 1.3 supported sub protocol supported SSL/TLS encryption (wss) in Sync socket mode fixed some data communication bugsSSH.NET Library: 2010.12.13: Fixes SFTP issue when you try to uploaded or download multiple files simultaneously. Usage example can be found hereRequest Tracker Data Access: 1.0.0.0: First releaseSQL Monitor: SQL Monitor 2.4: 1. auto adjust datagrids in query 2. disable activities related commands until activities tab is active.SuperSocket, an extensible socket application framework: SuperSocket 1.3 beta 1: SuperSocket 1.3 is built on .NET 4.0 framework. Bug fixes: fixed a potential bug that the running state hadn't been updated after socket server stopped fixed a synchronization issue when clearing timeout session fixed a bug in ArraySegmentList fixed a bug on getting configuration value Third-part library upgrades: upgraded SuperSocket to .NET 4.0 upgraded EntLib 4.1 to 5.0 New features: supported UDP socket support custom protocol (can support binary protocol and other complecate...Wii Backup Fusion: Wii Backup Fusion 0.9 Beta: - Aqua or brushed metal style for Mac OS X - Shows selection count beside ID - Game list selection mode via settings - Compare Files <-> WBFS game lists - Verify game images/DVD/WBFS - WIT command line for log (via settings) - Cancel possibility for loading games process - Progress infos while loading games - Localization for dates - UTF-8 support - Shortcuts added - View game infos in browser - Transfer infos for log - All transfer routines rewritten - Extract image from image/WBFS - Support....NETTER Code Starter Pack: v1.0.beta: '.NETTER Code Starter Pack ' contains a gallery of Visual Studio 2010 solutions leveraging latest and new technologies and frameworks based on Microsoft .NET Framework. Each Visual Studio solution included here is focused to provide a very simple starting point for cutting edge development technologies and framework, using well known Northwind database (for database driven scenarios). The current release of this project includes starter samples for the following technologies: ASP.NET Dynamic...NuGet (formerly NuPack): NuGet 1.0 Release Candidate: NuGet is a free, open source developer focused package management system for the .NET platform intent on simplifying the process of incorporating third party libraries into a .NET application during development. This release is a Visual Studio 2010 extension and contains the the Package Manager Console and the Add Package Dialog. This new build targets the newer feed (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=206669) and package format. See http://nupack.codeplex.com/documentation?title=Nuspe...Free Silverlight & WPF Chart Control - Visifire: Visifire Silverlight, WPF Charts v3.6.5 Released: Hi, Today we are releasing final version of Visifire, v3.6.5 with the following new feature: * New property AutoFitToPlotArea has been introduced in DataSeries. AutoFitToPlotArea will bring bubbles inside the PlotArea in order to avoid clipping of bubbles in bubble chart. You can visit Visifire documentation to know more. http://www.visifire.com/visifirechartsdocumentation.php Also this release includes few bug fixes: * Chart threw exception while adding new Axis in Chart using Vi...PHPExcel: PHPExcel 1.7.5 Production: DonationsDonate via PayPal via PayPal. If you want to, we can also add your name / company on our Donation Acknowledgements page. PEAR channelWe now also have a full PEAR channel! Here's how to use it: New installation: pear channel-discover pear.pearplex.net pear install pearplex/PHPExcel Or if you've already installed PHPExcel before: pear upgrade pearplex/PHPExcel The official page can be found at http://pearplex.net. Want to contribute?Please refer the Contribute page.SwapWin: SwapWin 0.2: Updates: Bring all windows that are swapped to foreground. Make the window sent to primary screen active.??????????: All-In-One Code Framework ??? 2010-12-10: ?????All-In-One Code Framework（??） 2010?12??????！！http://i3.codeplex.com/Project/Download/FileDownload.aspx?ProjectName=1code&DownloadId=128165 ?????release?，???????ASP.NET, WinForm, Silverlight????12?Sample Code。???，??????????sample code。 ?????：http://blog.csdn.net/sjb5201/archive/2010/12/13/6072675.aspx ??，??????MSDN????????????。 http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/zh-CN/codezhchs/threads ?????????????????，??Email ????UOB & ME: UOB_ME 2.5: latest versionAutoLoL: AutoLoL v1.4.3: AutoLoL now supports importing the build pages from Mobafire.com as well! Just insert the url to the build and voila. (For example: http://www.mobafire.com/league-of-legends/build/unforgivens-guide-how-to-build-a-successful-mordekaiser-24061) Stable release of AutoChat (It is still recommended to use with caution and to read the documentation) It is now possible to associate *.lolm files with AutoLoL to quickly open them The selected spells are now displayed in the masteries tab for qu...SubtitleTools: SubtitleTools 1.2: - Added auto insertion of RLE (RIGHT-TO-LEFT EMBEDDING) Unicode character for the RTL languages. - Fixed delete rows issue.PHP Manager for IIS: PHP Manager 1.1 for IIS 7: This is a final stable release of PHP Manager 1.1 for IIS 7. This is a minor incremental release that contains all the functionality available in 53121 plus additional features listed below: Improved detection logic for existing PHP installations. Now PHP Manager detects the location to php.ini file in accordance to the PHP specifications Configuring date.timezone. PHP Manager can automatically set the date.timezone directive which is required to be set starting from PHP 5.3 Ability to ...Algorithmia: Algorithmia 1.1: Algorithmia v1.1, released on December 8th, 2010.New ProjectsAugmented Reality system in Soccer video: Augmented reality system and camera calibration system in soccer videos based on homography and vanishing points. Code generated with Visual C++ (best compiler is .net)Database Schema Provider: Database Schema Provider gets a database schema in unified format independent on the type of database. It uses ADO.NET data provider for Entity Framework. Dicke Bertha: Many many cool features... DNN Bookmark: DNN Bookmarks is a DNN module that aggregates the most popular social bookmarking tools and also allows you to bookmark your DNN web siteDough: Dough is a UI starter kit built using ASP.Net MVC and ExtJS. It's name comes from the concept of Amish friendship bread, a type of bread or cake made from a sourdough starter that is often shared in a manner similar to a chain letter.Garra - Gerenciador Financeiro: Garra é um sistema completo de controle financeiro: contas a pagar, contas a receber, investimentos, etc...ghcwp7: ghcwp7Hackathon - DotNetNuke Razor User Locator: The DotNetNuke Razor User Locator module demonstrates how Razor can be used to author DNN modules. This module shows where recent users to a web site came from based on their IP address. Hackathon. DotNetNuke Razor. Flickr Badge: Flickr badge desktop module allows you to display image thumbnails from Flickr and preview them inside DotNetNuke or on Flickr (controlled by module settings). Image thumbnails can be loaded by tag, user id, user group id, user set id and more.Hackathon: Razor Youtube Gallery: This is a DotNetNuke module which allows a website admin to add several relevant Youtube videos to a pane. The end user watches the selected Youtube video play, while scrolling through thumbnails of other videos to play those without refreshing the page. jQuery UI MVC3 Demo: Demo and possibly a skeleton for using jQuery UI in MVC3 (currently RC2).Microsoft Office Communicator History manager: Needs to save conversation history just on the local workstation (folder) then application could redstore it and show in simple window (mode) or user could open folder and lock on it manuallyMSTest Extensions - Msbuild: This project contains various msbuild tasks that extend helps with test execution using Mcrosoft testing frameworkRayCharlesTracer: this is a scholar project for a raytracer.Refunctor: F# interactive inside Reflector.Request Tracker Data Access: Best Practical RT (Request Tracker) data access .NET library for REST interface.SurfzApp: An application that does data mining on web resources of interest for Swedish windsurfers...Tesseract Solutions Corp. Data Access Base: Tesseract Data Access speeds up data access in .Net projects. Developed in C# .Net 4. It is a C#, class based ORM.TimBazinga EVoting: Undergrad project - designing an e-voting software system.Tiny Library CQRS: Tiny Library CQRS is a small demonstration project which demonstrates the concept of Domain Driven Design and the CQRS architecture pattern. This project relies on the Apworks DDD framework.Toptoys: toptoysWebGroup: WebGroup makes it easier for your website members to comunicate online. It work like Web IM + Forum + Twitter. It can be easily used in your current project. Developed in C#.WpfCustomChromeLibrary: WpfCustomChromeLibrary makes it easier to create WPF applications with custom chrome and caption buttons (min/max/close). You'll no longer have to do all the dirty work yourself in each application where you want a custom chrome. It's developed in XAML and C#.

  Read the article

• Ada and 'The Book'

  - by Phil Factor

  The long friendship between Charles Babbage and Ada Lovelace created one of the most exciting and mysterious of collaborations ever to have resulted in a technological breakthrough. The fireworks that created by the collision of two prodigious mathematical and creative talents resulted in an invention, the Analytical Engine, which went on to change society fundamentally. However, beyond that, we just don't know what the bulk of their collaborative work was about:;  it was done in strictest secrecy. Even the known outcome of their friendship, the first programmable computer, was shrouded in mystery. At the time, nobody, except close friends and family, had any idea of Ada Byron's contribution to the invention of the ‘Engine’, and how to program it. Her great insight was published in August 1843, under the initials AAL, standing for Ada Augusta Lovelace, her title then being the Countess of Lovelace. It was contained in a lengthy ‘note’ to her translation of a publication that remains the best description of Babbage's amazing Analytical Engine. The secret identity of the person behind those enigmatic initials was finally revealed by Prince de Polignac who, seventy years later, wrote to Ada's daughter to seek confirmation that her mother had, indeed, been the author of the brilliant sentences that described so accurately how Babbage's mechanical computer could be programmed with punch-cards. L.F. Menabrea's paper on the Analytical Engine first appeared in the 'Bibliotheque Universelle de Geneve' in October 1842, and Ada translated it anonymously for Taylor's 'Scientific Memoirs'. Charles Babbage was surprised that she had not written an original paper as she already knew a surprising amount about the way the machine worked. He persuaded her to at least write some explanatory notes. These notes ended up extending to four times the length of the original article and represented the first published account of how a machine could be programmed to perform any calculation. Her example of programming the Bernoulli sequence would have worked on the Analytical engine had the device’s construction been completed, and gave Ada an unassailable claim to have invented the art of programming. What was the reason for Ada's secrecy? She was the only legitimate child of Lord Byron, who was probably the best known celebrity of the age, so she was already famous. She was a senior aristocrat, with titles, a fortune in money and vast estates in the Midlands. She had political influence, and was the cousin of Lord Melbourne, who was the Prime Minister at that time. She was friendly with the young Queen Victoria. Her mathematical activities were a pastime, and not one that would be considered by others to be in keeping with her roles and responsibilities. You wouldn't dare to dream up a fictional heroine like Ada. She was dazzlingly beautiful and talented. She could speak several languages fluently, and play some musical instruments with professional skill. Contemporary accounts refer to her being 'accomplished in science, art and literature'. On top of that, she was a brilliant mathematician, a talent inherited from her mother, Annabella Milbanke. In her mother's circle of literary and scientific friends was Charles Babbage, and Ada's friendship with him dates from her teenage zest for Mathematics. She was one of the first people he'd ever met who understood what he had attempted to achieve with the 'Difference Engine', and with whom he could converse as intellectual equals. He arranged for her to have an education from the most talented academics in the country. Ada melted the heart of the cantankerous genius to the point that he became a faithful and loyal father-figure to her. She was one of the very few who could grasp the principles of the later, and very different, ‘Analytical Engine’ which was designed from the start to tackle a variety of tasks. Sadly, Ada Byron's life ended less than a decade after completing the work that assured her long-term fame, in November 1852. She was dying of cancer, her gambling habits had caused her to run up huge debts, she'd had more than one affairs, and she was being blackmailed. Her brilliant but unempathic mother was nursing her in her final illness, destroying her personal letters and records, and repaying her debts. Her husband was distraught but helpless. Charles Babbage, however, maintained his steadfast paternalistic friendship to the end. She appointed her loyal friend to be her executor. For years, she and Babbage had been working together on a secret project, known only as 'The Book'. We have a clue to what it was in a letter written by her nine years earlier, on 11th August 1843. It was a joint project by herself and Lord Lovelace, her husband, and was intended to involve Babbage's 'undivided energies'. It involved 'consulting your Engine' (it required Babbage’s computer). The letter gives no hint about the project except for the high-minded nature of its purpose, and its highly mathematical nature.  From then on, the surviving correspondence between the two gives only veiled references to 'The Book'. There isn't much, since Babbage later destroyed any letters that could have damaged her reputation within the Establishment. 'I cannot spare the book today, which I am very sorry for. At the moment I want it for constant reference, but I think you can have it tomorrow' (Oct 1844)  And 'I will send you the book directly, and you can say, when you receive it, how long you will want to keep it'. (Nov 1844)  The two of them were obviously intent on the work: She writes, four years later, 'I have an engagement for Wednesday which will prevent me from attending to your wishes about the book' (Dec 1848). This was something that they both needed to work on, but could not do in parallel: 'I will send the book on Tuesday, and it can be left with you till Friday' (11 Feb 1849). After six years work, it had been so well-handled that it was beginning to fall apart: 'Don't forget the new cover you promised for the book. The poor book is very shabby and wants one' (20 Sept 1849). So what was going on? The word 'book' was not a code-word: it was a real book, probably a 'printer's blank', plain paper, but properly bound so printers and publishers could show off how the published work might look. The hints from the correspondence are of advanced mathematics. It is obvious that the book was travelling between them, back and forth, each one working on it for less than a week before passing it back. Ada and her husband were certainly involved in gambling large sums of money on the horses, and so most biographers have concluded that the three of them were trying to calculate the mathematical odds on the horses. This theory has three large problems. Firstly, Ada's original letter proposing the project refers to its high-minded nature. Babbage was temperamentally opposed to gambling and would scarcely have given so much time to the project, even though he was devoted to Ada. Secondly, Babbage would have very soon have realized the hopelessness of trying to beat the bookies. This sort of betting never attracts his type of intellectual background. The third problem is that any work on calculating the odds on horses would not need a well-thumbed book to pass back and forth between them; they would have not had to work in series. The original project was instigated by Ada, along with her husband, William King-Noel, 1st Earl of Lovelace. Charles Babbage was invited to join the project after the couple had come up with the idea. What could William have contributed? One might assume that William was a Bertie Wooster character, addicted only to the joys of the turf, but this was far from the truth. He was a scientist, a Cambridge graduate who was later elected to be a Fellow of the Royal Society. After Eton, he went to Trinity College, Cambridge. On graduation, he entered the diplomatic service and acted as secretary under Lord Nugent, who was Lord Commissioner of the Ionian Islands. William was very friendly with Babbage too, able to discuss scientific matters on equal terms. He was a capable engineer who invented a process for bending large timbers by the application of steam heat. He delivered a paper to the Institution of Civil Engineers in 1849, and received praise from the great engineer, Isambard Kingdom Brunel. As well as being Lord Lieutenant of the County of Surrey for most of Victoria's reign, he had time for a string of scientific and engineering achievements. Whatever the project was, it is unlikely that William was a junior partner. After Ada's death, the project disappeared. Then, two years later, Babbage, through one of his occasional outbursts of temper, demonstrated that he was able to decrypt one of the most powerful of secret codes, Vigenère's autokey cipher.  All contemporary diplomatic and military messages used a variant of this cipher. Babbage had made three important discoveries, namely, the mathematical law of this cipher, the principle of the key periodicity, and the technique of the symmetry of position. The technique is now known as the Kasiski examination, also called the Kasiski test, but Babbage got there first. At one time, he listed amongst his future projects, the writing of a book 'The Philosophy of Decyphering', but it never came to anything. This discovery was going to change the course of history, since it was used to decipher the Russians’ military dispatches in the Crimean war. Babbage himself played a role during the Crimean War as a cryptographical adviser to his friend, Rear-Admiral Sir Francis Beaufort of the Admiralty. This is as much as we can be certain about in trying to make sense of the bulk of the time that Charles Babbage and Ada Lovelace worked together. Nine years of intensive work, involving the 'Engine' and a great deal of mathematics and research seems to have been lost: or has it? I've argued in the past http://www.simple-talk.com/community/blogs/philfactor/archive/2008/06/13/59614.aspx that the cracking of the Vigenère autokey cipher, was a fundamental motive behind the British Government's support and funding of the 'Difference Engine'. The Duke of Wellington, whose understanding of the military significance of being able to read enemy dispatches, was the most steadfast advocate of the project. If the three friends were actually doing the work of cracking codes by mathematical techniques that used the techniques of key periodicity, and symmetry of position (the use of a book being passed quickly to and fro is very suggestive), intending to then use the 'Engine' to do the routine cracking of each dispatch, then this is a rather different story. The project was Ada and William's idea. (William had served in the diplomatic service and would be familiar with the use of codes). This makes Ada Lovelace the initiator of a project which, by giving both Britain, and probably the USA, a diplomatic and military advantage in the second part of the Nineteenth century, changed world history. Ada would never have wanted any credit for cracking the cipher, and developing the method that rendered all contemporary military and diplomatic ciphering techniques nugatory; quite the reverse. And it is clear from the gaps in the record of the letters between the collaborators that the evidence was destroyed, probably on her request by her irascible but intensely honorable executor, Charles Babbage. Charles Babbage toyed with the idea of going public, but the Crimean war put an end to that. The British Government had a valuable secret, and intended to keep it that way. Ada and Charles had quite often discussed possible moneymaking projects that would fund the development of the Analytic Engine, the first programmable computer, but their secret work was never in the running as a potential cash cow. I suspect that the British Government was, even then, working on the concealment of a discovery whose value to the nation depended on it remaining so. The success of code-breaking in the Crimean war, and the American Civil war, led to the British and Americans  subsequently giving much more weight and funding to the science of decryption. Paradoxically, this makes Ada's contribution even closer to the creation of Colossus, the first digital computer, at Bletchley Park, specifically to crack the Nazi’s secret codes.

  Read the article

• Add collison detection to enemy sprites?

  - by xBroak

  i'd like to add the same collision detection used by the player sprite to the enemy sprites or 'creeps' ive added all the relevant code I can see yet collisons are still not being detected and handled, please find below the class, I have no idea what is wrong currently, the list of walls to collide with is 'wall_list' import pygame import pauseScreen as dm import re from pygame.sprite import Sprite from pygame import Rect, Color from random import randint, choice from vec2d import vec2d from simpleanimation import SimpleAnimation import displattxt black = (0,0,0) white = (255,255,255) blue = (0,0,255) green = (101,194,151) global currentEditTool currentEditTool = "Tree" global editMap editMap = False open('MapMaker.txt', 'w').close() def draw_background(screen, tile_img): screen.fill(black) img_rect = tile_img.get_rect() global rect rect = img_rect nrows = int(screen.get_height() / img_rect.height) + 1 ncols = int(screen.get_width() / img_rect.width) + 1 for y in range(nrows): for x in range(ncols): img_rect.topleft = (x * img_rect.width, y * img_rect.height) screen.blit(tile_img, img_rect) def changeTool(): if currentEditTool == "Tree": None elif currentEditTool == "Rock": None def pauseGame(): red = 255, 0, 0 green = 0,255, 0 blue = 0, 0,255 screen.fill(black) pygame.display.update() if editMap == False: choose = dm.dumbmenu(screen, [ 'Resume', 'Enable Map Editor', 'Quit Game'], 64,64,None,32,1.4,green,red) if choose == 0: print("hi") elif choose ==1: global editMap editMap = True elif choose ==2: print("bob") elif choose ==3: print("bob") elif choose ==4: print("bob") else: None else: choose = dm.dumbmenu(screen, [ 'Resume', 'Disable Map Editor', 'Quit Game'], 64,64,None,32,1.4,green,red) if choose == 0: print("Resume") elif choose ==1: print("Dis ME") global editMap editMap = False elif choose ==2: print("bob") elif choose ==3: print("bob") elif choose ==4: print("bob") else: None class Wall(pygame.sprite.Sprite): # Constructor function def __init__(self,x,y,width,height): pygame.sprite.Sprite.__init__(self) self.image = pygame.Surface([width, height]) self.image.fill(green) self.rect = self.image.get_rect() self.rect.y = y self.rect.x = x class insertTree(pygame.sprite.Sprite): def __init__(self,x,y,width,height, typ): pygame.sprite.Sprite.__init__(self) self.image = pygame.image.load("images/map/tree.png").convert() self.image.set_colorkey(white) self.rect = self.image.get_rect() self.rect.y = y self.rect.x = x class insertRock(pygame.sprite.Sprite): def __init__(self,x,y,width,height, typ): pygame.sprite.Sprite.__init__(self) self.image = pygame.image.load("images/map/rock.png").convert() self.image.set_colorkey(white) self.rect = self.image.get_rect() self.rect.y = y self.rect.x = x class Creep(pygame.sprite.Sprite): """ A creep sprite that bounces off walls and changes its direction from time to time. """ change_x=0 change_y=0 def __init__( self, screen, creep_image, explosion_images, field, init_position, init_direction, speed): """ Create a new Creep. screen: The screen on which the creep lives (must be a pygame Surface object, such as pygame.display) creep_image: Image (surface) object for the creep explosion_images: A list of image objects for the explosion animation. field: A Rect specifying the 'playing field' boundaries. The Creep will bounce off the 'walls' of this field. init_position: A vec2d or a pair specifying the initial position of the creep on the screen. init_direction: A vec2d or a pair specifying the initial direction of the creep. Must have an angle that is a multiple of 45 degres. speed: Creep speed, in pixels/millisecond (px/ms) """ Sprite.__init__(self) self.screen = screen self.speed = speed self.field = field self.rect = creep_image.get_rect() # base_image holds the original image, positioned to # angle 0. # image will be rotated. # self.base_image = creep_image self.image = self.base_image self.explosion_images = explosion_images # A vector specifying the creep's position on the screen # self.pos = vec2d(init_position) # The direction is a normalized vector # self.direction = vec2d(init_direction).normalized() self.state = Creep.ALIVE self.health = 15 def is_alive(self): return self.state in (Creep.ALIVE, Creep.EXPLODING) def changespeed(self,x,y): self.change_x+=x self.change_y+=y def update(self, time_passed, walls): """ Update the creep. time_passed: The time passed (in ms) since the previous update. """ if self.state == Creep.ALIVE: # Maybe it's time to change the direction ? # self._change_direction(time_passed) # Make the creep point in the correct direction. # Since our direction vector is in screen coordinates # (i.e. right bottom is 1, 1), and rotate() rotates # counter-clockwise, the angle must be inverted to # work correctly. # self.image = pygame.transform.rotate( self.base_image, -self.direction.angle) # Compute and apply the displacement to the position # vector. The displacement is a vector, having the angle # of self.direction (which is normalized to not affect # the magnitude of the displacement) # displacement = vec2d( self.direction.x * self.speed * time_passed, self.direction.y * self.speed * time_passed) self.pos += displacement # When the image is rotated, its size is changed. # We must take the size into account for detecting # collisions with the walls. # self.image_w, self.image_h = self.image.get_size() bounds_rect = self.field.inflate( -self.image_w, -self.image_h) if self.pos.x < bounds_rect.left: self.pos.x = bounds_rect.left self.direction.x *= -1 elif self.pos.x > bounds_rect.right: self.pos.x = bounds_rect.right self.direction.x *= -1 elif self.pos.y < bounds_rect.top: self.pos.y = bounds_rect.top self.direction.y *= -1 elif self.pos.y > bounds_rect.bottom: self.pos.y = bounds_rect.bottom self.direction.y *= -1 # collision detection old_x=bounds_rect.left new_x=old_x+self.direction.x bounds_rect.left = new_x # hit a wall? collide = pygame.sprite.spritecollide(self, walls, False) if collide: # yes bounds_rect.left=old_x old_y=self.pos.y new_y=old_y+self.direction.y self.pos.y = new_y collide = pygame.sprite.spritecollide(self, walls, False) if collide: # yes self.pos.y=old_y elif self.state == Creep.EXPLODING: if self.explode_animation.active: self.explode_animation.update(time_passed) else: self.state = Creep.DEAD self.kill() elif self.state == Creep.DEAD: pass #------------------ PRIVATE PARTS ------------------# # States the creep can be in. # # ALIVE: The creep is roaming around the screen # EXPLODING: # The creep is now exploding, just a moment before dying. # DEAD: The creep is dead and inactive # (ALIVE, EXPLODING, DEAD) = range(3) _counter = 0 def _change_direction(self, time_passed): """ Turn by 45 degrees in a random direction once per 0.4 to 0.5 seconds. """ self._counter += time_passed if self._counter > randint(400, 500): self.direction.rotate(45 * randint(-1, 1)) self._counter = 0 def _point_is_inside(self, point): """ Is the point (given as a vec2d) inside our creep's body? """ img_point = point - vec2d( int(self.pos.x - self.image_w / 2), int(self.pos.y - self.image_h / 2)) try: pix = self.image.get_at(img_point) return pix[3] > 0 except IndexError: return False def _decrease_health(self, n): """ Decrease my health by n (or to 0, if it's currently less than n) """ self.health = max(0, self.health - n) if self.health == 0: self._explode() def _explode(self): """ Starts the explosion animation that ends the Creep's life. """ self.state = Creep.EXPLODING pos = ( self.pos.x - self.explosion_images[0].get_width() / 2, self.pos.y - self.explosion_images[0].get_height() / 2) self.explode_animation = SimpleAnimation( self.screen, pos, self.explosion_images, 100, 300) global remainingCreeps remainingCreeps-=1 if remainingCreeps == 0: print("all dead") def draw(self): """ Blit the creep onto the screen that was provided in the constructor. """ if self.state == Creep.ALIVE: # The creep image is placed at self.pos. To allow for # smooth movement even when the creep rotates and the # image size changes, its placement is always # centered. # self.draw_rect = self.image.get_rect().move( self.pos.x - self.image_w / 2, self.pos.y - self.image_h / 2) self.screen.blit(self.image, self.draw_rect) # The health bar is 15x4 px. # health_bar_x = self.pos.x - 7 health_bar_y = self.pos.y - self.image_h / 2 - 6 self.screen.fill( Color('red'), (health_bar_x, health_bar_y, 15, 4)) self.screen.fill( Color('green'), ( health_bar_x, health_bar_y, self.health, 4)) elif self.state == Creep.EXPLODING: self.explode_animation.draw() elif self.state == Creep.DEAD: pass def mouse_click_event(self, pos): """ The mouse was clicked in pos. """ if self._point_is_inside(vec2d(pos)): self._decrease_health(3) #begin new player class Player(pygame.sprite.Sprite): change_x=0 change_y=0 frame = 0 def __init__(self,x,y): pygame.sprite.Sprite.__init__(self) # LOAD PLATER IMAGES # Set height, width self.images = [] for i in range(1,17): img = pygame.image.load("images/player/" + str(i)+".png").convert() #player images img.set_colorkey(white) self.images.append(img) self.image = self.images[0] self.rect = self.image.get_rect() self.rect.y = y self.rect.x = x self.health = 15 self.image_w, self.image_h = self.image.get_size() health_bar_x = self.rect.x - 7 health_bar_y = self.rect.y - self.image_h / 2 - 6 screen.fill( Color('red'), (health_bar_x, health_bar_y, 15, 4)) screen.fill( Color('green'), ( health_bar_x, health_bar_y, self.health, 4)) def changespeed(self,x,y): self.change_x+=x self.change_y+=y def _decrease_health(self, n): """ Decrease my health by n (or to 0, if it's currently less than n) """ self.health = max(0, self.health - n) if self.health == 0: self._explode() def update(self,walls): # collision detection old_x=self.rect.x new_x=old_x+self.change_x self.rect.x = new_x # hit a wall? collide = pygame.sprite.spritecollide(self, walls, False) if collide: # yes self.rect.x=old_x old_y=self.rect.y new_y=old_y+self.change_y self.rect.y = new_y collide = pygame.sprite.spritecollide(self, walls, False) if collide: # yes self.rect.y=old_y # right to left if self.change_x < 0: self.frame += 1 if self.frame > 3*4: self.frame = 0 # Grab the image, divide by 4 # every 4 frames. self.image = self.images[self.frame//4] # Move left to right. # images 4...7 instead of 0...3. if self.change_x > 0: self.frame += 1 if self.frame > 3*4: self.frame = 0 self.image = self.images[self.frame//4+4] if self.change_y > 0: self.frame += 1 if self.frame > 3*4: self.frame = 0 self.image = self.images[self.frame//4+4+4] if self.change_y < 0: self.frame += 1 if self.frame > 3*4: self.frame = 0 self.image = self.images[self.frame//4+4+4+4] score = 0 # initialize pyGame pygame.init() # 800x600 sized screen global screen screen = pygame.display.set_mode([800, 600]) screen.fill(black) #bg_tile_img = pygame.image.load('images/map/grass.png').convert_alpha() #draw_background(screen, bg_tile_img) #pygame.display.flip() # Set title pygame.display.set_caption('Test') #background = pygame.Surface(screen.get_size()) #background = background.convert() #background.fill(black) # Create the player player = Player( 50,50 ) player.rect.x=50 player.rect.y=50 movingsprites = pygame.sprite.RenderPlain() movingsprites.add(player) # Make the walls. (x_pos, y_pos, width, height) global wall_list wall_list=pygame.sprite.RenderPlain() wall=Wall(0,0,10,600) # left wall wall_list.add(wall) wall=Wall(10,0,790,10) # top wall wall_list.add(wall) #wall=Wall(10,200,100,10) # poke wall wall_list.add(wall) wall=Wall(790,0,10,600) #(x,y,thickness, height) wall_list.add(wall) wall=Wall(10,590,790,10) #(x,y,thickness, height) wall_list.add(wall) f = open('MapMaker.txt') num_lines = sum(1 for line in f) print(num_lines) lineCount = 0 with open("MapMaker.txt") as infile: for line in infile: f = open('MapMaker.txt') print(line) coords = line.split(',') #print(coords[0]) #print(coords[1]) #print(coords[2]) #print(coords[3]) #print(coords[4]) if "tree" in line: print("tree in") wall=insertTree(int(coords[0]),int(coords[1]), int(coords[2]),int(coords[3]),coords[4]) wall_list.add(wall) elif "rock" in line: print("rock in") wall=insertRock(int(coords[0]),int(coords[1]), int(coords[2]),int(coords[3]),coords[4] ) wall_list.add(wall) width = 20 height = 540 height = height - 48 for i in range(0,23): width = width + 32 name = insertTree(width,540,790,10,"tree") #wall_list.add(name) name = insertTree(width,height,690,10,"tree") #wall_list.add(name) CREEP_SPAWN_TIME = 200 # frames creep_spawn = CREEP_SPAWN_TIME clock = pygame.time.Clock() bg_tile_img = pygame.image.load('images/map/grass.png').convert() img_rect = bg_tile_img FIELD_RECT = Rect(50, 50, 700, 500) CREEP_FILENAMES = [ 'images/player/1.png', 'images/player/1.png', 'images/player/1.png'] N_CREEPS = 3 creep_images = [ pygame.image.load(filename).convert_alpha() for filename in CREEP_FILENAMES] explosion_img = pygame.image.load('images/map/tree.png').convert_alpha() explosion_images = [ explosion_img, pygame.transform.rotate(explosion_img, 90)] creeps = pygame.sprite.RenderPlain() done = False #bg_tile_img = pygame.image.load('images/map/grass.png').convert() #draw_background(screen, bg_tile_img) totalCreeps = 0 remainingCreeps = 3 while done == False: creep_images = pygame.image.load("images/player/1.png").convert() creep_images.set_colorkey(white) draw_background(screen, bg_tile_img) if len(creeps) != N_CREEPS: if totalCreeps < N_CREEPS: totalCreeps = totalCreeps + 1 print(totalCreeps) creeps.add( Creep( screen=screen, creep_image=creep_images, explosion_images=explosion_images, field=FIELD_RECT, init_position=( randint(FIELD_RECT.left, FIELD_RECT.right), randint(FIELD_RECT.top, FIELD_RECT.bottom)), init_direction=(choice([-1, 1]), choice([-1, 1])), speed=0.01)) for creep in creeps: creep.update(60,wall_list) creep.draw() for event in pygame.event.get(): if event.type == pygame.QUIT: done=True if event.type == pygame.KEYDOWN: if event.key == pygame.K_LEFT: player.changespeed(-2,0) creep.changespeed(-2,0) if event.key == pygame.K_RIGHT: player.changespeed(2,0) creep.changespeed(2,0) if event.key == pygame.K_UP: player.changespeed(0,-2) creep.changespeed(0,-2) if event.key == pygame.K_DOWN: player.changespeed(0,2) creep.changespeed(0,2) if event.key == pygame.K_ESCAPE: pauseGame() if event.key == pygame.K_1: global currentEditTool currentEditTool = "Tree" changeTool() if event.key == pygame.K_2: global currentEditTool currentEditTool = "Rock" changeTool() if event.type == pygame.KEYUP: if event.key == pygame.K_LEFT: player.changespeed(2,0) creep.changespeed(2,0) if event.key == pygame.K_RIGHT: player.changespeed(-2,0) creep.changespeed(-2,0) if event.key == pygame.K_UP: player.changespeed(0,2) creep.changespeed(0,2) if event.key == pygame.K_DOWN: player.changespeed(0,-2) creep.changespeed(0,-2) if event.type == pygame.MOUSEBUTTONDOWN and pygame.mouse.get_pressed()[0]: for creep in creeps: creep.mouse_click_event(pygame.mouse.get_pos()) if editMap == True: x,y = pygame.mouse.get_pos() if currentEditTool == "Tree": name = insertTree(x-10,y-25, 10 , 10, "tree") wall_list.add(name) wall_list.draw(screen) f = open('MapMaker.txt', "a+") image = pygame.image.load("images/map/tree.png").convert() screen.blit(image, (30,10)) pygame.display.flip() f.write(str(x) + "," + str(y) + ",790,10, tree\n") #f.write("wall=insertTree(" + str(x) + "," + str(y) + ",790,10)\nwall_list.add(wall)\n") elif currentEditTool == "Rock": name = insertRock(x-10,y-25, 10 , 10,"rock") wall_list.add(name) wall_list.draw(screen) f = open('MapMaker.txt', "a+") f.write(str(x) + "," + str(y) + ",790,10,rock\n") #f.write("wall=insertRock(" + str(x) + "," + str(y) + ",790,10)\nwall_list.add(wall)\n") else: None #pygame.display.flip() player.update(wall_list) movingsprites.draw(screen) wall_list.draw(screen) pygame.display.flip() clock.tick(60) pygame.quit()

  Read the article

• Migrating from SQL Trace to Extended Events

  - by extended_events

  In SQL Server codenamed “Denali” we are moving our diagnostic tracing capabilities forward by building a system on top of Extended Events. With every new system you face the specter of migration which is always a bit of a hassle. I’m obviously motivated to see everyone move their diagnostic tracing systems over to the new extended events based system, so I wanted to make sure we lowered the bar for the migration process to help ease your trials. In my initial post on Denali CTP 1 I described a couple tables that we created that will help map the existing SQL Trace Event Classes to the equivalent Extended Events events. In this post I’ll describe the tables in a bit more details, explain the relationship between the SQL Trace objects (Event Class & Column) and Extended Event objects (Events & Actions) and at the end provide some sample code for a managed stored procedure that will take an existing SQL Trace session (eg. a trace that you can see in sys.Traces) and converts it into event session DDL. Can you relate? In some ways, SQL Trace and Extended Events is kind of like the Standard and Metric measuring systems in the United States. If you spend too much time trying to figure out how to convert between the two it will probably make your head hurt. It’s often better to just use the new system without trying to translate between the two. That said, people like to relate new things to the things they’re comfortable with, so, with some trepidation, I will now explain how these two systems are related to each other. First, some terms… SQL Trace is made up of Event Classes and Columns. The Event Class occurs as the result of some activity in the database engine, for example, SQL:Batch Completed fires when a batch has completed executing on the server. Each Event Class can have any number of Columns associated with it and those Columns contain the data that is interesting about the Event Class, such as the duration or database name. In Extended Events we have objects named Events, EventData field and Actions. The Event (some people call this an xEvent but I’ll stick with Event) is equivalent to the Event Class in SQL Trace since it is the thing that occurs as the result of some activity taking place in the server. An  EventData field (from now on I’ll just refer to these as fields) is a piece of information that is highly correlated with the event and is always included as part of the schema of an Event. An Action is something that can be associated with any Event and it will cause some additional “action” to occur when ever the parent Event occurs. Actions can do a number of different things for example, there are Actions that collect additional data and, take memory dumps. When mapping SQL Trace onto Extended Events, Columns are covered by a combination of both fields and Actions. Knowing exactly where a Column is covered by a field and where it is covered by an Action is a bit of an art, so we created the mapping tables to make you an Artist without the years of practice. Let me draw you a map. Event Mapping The table dbo.trace_xe_event_map exists in the master database with the following structure: Column_name Type trace_event_id smallint package_name nvarchar xe_event_name nvarchar By joining this table sys.trace_events using trace_event_id and to the sys.dm_xe_objects using xe_event_name you can get a fair amount of information about how Event Classes are related to Events. The most basic query this lends itself to is to match an Event Class with the corresponding Event. SELECT     t.trace_event_id,     t.name [event_class],     e.package_name,     e.xe_event_name FROM sys.trace_events t INNER JOIN dbo.trace_xe_event_map e     ON t.trace_event_id = e.trace_event_id There are a couple things you’ll notice as you peruse the output of this query: For the most part, the names of Events are fairly close to the original Event Class; eg. SP:CacheMiss == sp_cache_miss, and so on. We’ve mostly stuck to a one to one mapping between Event Classes and Events, but there are a few cases where we have combined when it made sense. For example, Data File Auto Grow, Log File Auto Grow, Data File Auto Shrink & Log File Auto Shrink are now all covered by a single event named database_file_size_change. This just seemed like a “smarter” implementation for this type of event, you can get all the same information from this single event (grow/shrink, Data/Log, Auto/Manual growth) without having multiple different events. You can use Predicates if you want to limit the output to just one of the original Event Class measures. There are some Event Classes that did not make the cut and were not migrated. These fall into two categories; there were a few Event Classes that had been deprecated, or that just did not make sense, so we didn’t migrate them. (You won’t find an Event related to mounting a tape – sorry.) The second class is bigger; with rare exception, we did not migrate any of the Event Classes that were related to Security Auditing using SQL Trace. We introduced the SQL Audit feature in SQL Server 2008 and that will be the compliance and auditing feature going forward. Doing this is a very deliberate decision to support separation of duties for DBAs. There are separate permissions required for SQL Audit and Extended Events tracing so you can assign these tasks to different people if you choose. (If you’re wondering, the permission for Extended Events is ALTER ANY EVENT SESSION, which is covered by CONTROL SERVER.) Action Mapping The table dbo.trace_xe_action_map exists in the master database with the following structure: Column_name Type trace_column_id smallint package_name nvarchar xe_action_name nvarchar You can find more details by joining this to sys.trace_columns on the trace_column_id field. SELECT     c.trace_column_id,     c.name [column_name],     a.package_name,     a.xe_action_name FROM sys.trace_columns c INNER JOIN    dbo.trace_xe_action_map a     ON c.trace_column_id = a.trace_column_id If you examine this list, you’ll notice that there are relatively few Actions that map to SQL Trace Columns given the number of Columns that exist. This is not because we forgot to migrate all the Columns, but because much of the data for individual Event Classes is included as part of the EventData fields of the equivalent Events so there is no need to specify them as Actions. Putting it all together If you’ve spent a bunch of time figuring out the inner workings of SQL Trace, and who hasn’t, then you probably know that the typically set of Columns you find associated with any given Event Class in SQL Profiler is not fix, but is determine by the contents of the table sys.trace_event_bindings. We’ve used this table along with the mapping tables to produce a list of Event + Action combinations that duplicate the SQL Profiler Event Class definitions using the following query, which you can also find in the Books Online topic How To: View the Extended Events Equivalents to SQL Trace Event Classes. USE MASTER; GO SELECT DISTINCT    tb.trace_event_id,    te.name AS 'Event Class',    em.package_name AS 'Package',    em.xe_event_name AS 'XEvent Name',    tb.trace_column_id,    tc.name AS 'SQL Trace Column',    am.xe_action_name as 'Extended Events action' FROM (sys.trace_events te LEFT OUTER JOIN dbo.trace_xe_event_map em    ON te.trace_event_id = em.trace_event_id) LEFT OUTER JOIN sys.trace_event_bindings tb    ON em.trace_event_id = tb.trace_event_id LEFT OUTER JOIN sys.trace_columns tc    ON tb.trace_column_id = tc.trace_column_id LEFT OUTER JOIN dbo.trace_xe_action_map am    ON tc.trace_column_id = am.trace_column_id ORDER BY te.name, tc.name As you might imagine, it’s also possible to map an existing trace definition to the equivalent event session by judicious use of fn_trace_geteventinfo joined with the two mapping tables. This query extracts the list of Events and Actions equivalent to the trace with ID = 1, which is most likely the Default Trace. You can find this query, along with a set of other queries and steps required to migrate your existing traces over to Extended Events in the Books Online topic How to: Convert an Existing SQL Trace Script to an Extended Events Session. USE MASTER; GO DECLARE @trace_id int SET @trace_id = 1 SELECT DISTINCT el.eventid, em.package_name, em.xe_event_name AS 'event'    , el.columnid, ec.xe_action_name AS 'action' FROM (sys.fn_trace_geteventinfo(@trace_id) AS el    LEFT OUTER JOIN dbo.trace_xe_event_map AS em       ON el.eventid = em.trace_event_id) LEFT OUTER JOIN dbo.trace_xe_action_map AS ec    ON el.columnid = ec.trace_column_id WHERE em.xe_event_name IS NOT NULL AND ec.xe_action_name IS NOT NULL You’ll notice in the output that the list doesn’t include any of the security audit Event Classes, as I wrote earlier, those were not migrated. But wait…there’s more! If this were an infomercial there’d by some obnoxious guy next to me blogging “Well Mike…that’s pretty neat, but I’m sure you can do more. Can’t you make it even easier to migrate from SQL Trace?”  Needless to say, I’d blog back, in an overly excited way, “You bet I can' obnoxious blogger side-kick!” What I’ve got for you here is a Extended Events Team Blog only special – this tool will not be sold in any store; it’s a special offer for those of you reading the blog. I’ve wrapped all the logic of pulling the configuration information out of an existing trace and and building the Extended Events DDL statement into a handy, dandy CLR stored procedure. Once you load the assembly and register the procedure you just supply the trace id (from sys.traces) and provide a name for the event session. Run the procedure and out pops the DDL required to create an equivalent session. Any aspects of the trace that could not be duplicated are included in comments within the DDL output. This procedure does not actually create the event session – you need to copy the DDL out of the message tab and put it into a new query window to do that. It also requires an existing trace (but it doesn’t have to be running) to evaluate; there is no functionality to parse t-sql scripts. I’m not going to spend a bunch of time explaining the code here – the code is pretty well commented and hopefully easy to follow. If not, you can always post comments or hit the feedback button to send us some mail. Sample code: TraceToExtendedEventDDL   Installing the procedure Just in case you’re not familiar with installing CLR procedures…once you’ve compile the assembly you can load it using a script like this: -- Context to master USE master GO -- Create the assembly from a shared location. CREATE ASSEMBLY TraceToXESessionConverter FROM 'C:\Temp\TraceToXEventSessionConverter.dll' WITH PERMISSION_SET = SAFE GO -- Create a stored procedure from the assembly. CREATE PROCEDURE CreateEventSessionFromTrace @trace_id int, @session_name nvarchar(max) AS EXTERNAL NAME TraceToXESessionConverter.StoredProcedures.ConvertTraceToExtendedEvent GO Enjoy! -Mike

  Read the article

• [GEEK SCHOOL] Network Security 1: Securing User Accounts and Passwords in Windows

  - by Matt Klein

  This How-To Geek School class is intended for people who want to learn more about security when using Windows operating systems. You will learn many principles that will help you have a more secure computing experience and will get the chance to use all the important security tools and features that are bundled with Windows. Obviously, we will share everything you need to know about using them effectively. In this first lesson, we will talk about password security; the different ways of logging into Windows and how secure they are. In the proceeding lesson, we will explain where Windows stores all the user names and passwords you enter while working in this operating systems, how safe they are, and how to manage this data. Moving on in the series, we will talk about User Account Control, its role in improving the security of your system, and how to use Windows Defender in order to protect your system from malware. Then, we will talk about the Windows Firewall, how to use it in order to manage the apps that get access to the network and the Internet, and how to create your own filtering rules. After that, we will discuss the SmartScreen Filter – a security feature that gets more and more attention from Microsoft and is now widely used in its Windows 8.x operating systems. Moving on, we will discuss ways to keep your software and apps up-to-date, why this is important and which tools you can use to automate this process as much as possible. Last but not least, we will discuss the Action Center and its role in keeping you informed about what’s going on with your system and share several tips and tricks about how to stay safe when using your computer and the Internet. Let’s get started by discussing everyone’s favorite subject: passwords. The Types of Passwords Found in Windows In Windows 7, you have only local user accounts, which may or may not have a password. For example, you can easily set a blank password for any user account, even if that one is an administrator. The only exception to this rule are business networks where domain policies force all user accounts to use a non-blank password. In Windows 8.x, you have both local accounts and Microsoft accounts. If you would like to learn more about them, don’t hesitate to read the lesson on User Accounts, Groups, Permissions & Their Role in Sharing, in our Windows Networking series. Microsoft accounts are obliged to use a non-blank password due to the fact that a Microsoft account gives you access to Microsoft services. Using a blank password would mean exposing yourself to lots of problems. Local accounts in Windows 8.1 however, can use a blank password. On top of traditional passwords, any user account can create and use a 4-digit PIN or a picture password. These concepts were introduced by Microsoft to speed up the sign in process for the Windows 8.x operating system. However, they do not replace the use of a traditional password and can be used only in conjunction with a traditional user account password. Another type of password that you encounter in Windows operating systems is the Homegroup password. In a typical home network, users can use the Homegroup to easily share resources. A Homegroup can be joined by a Windows device only by using the Homegroup password. If you would like to learn more about the Homegroup and how to use it for network sharing, don’t hesitate to read our Windows Networking series. What to Keep in Mind When Creating Passwords, PINs and Picture Passwords When creating passwords, a PIN, or a picture password for your user account, we would like you keep in mind the following recommendations: Do not use blank passwords, even on the desktop computers in your home. You never know who may gain unwanted access to them. Also, malware can run more easily as administrator because you do not have a password. Trading your security for convenience when logging in is never a good idea. When creating a password, make it at least eight characters long. Make sure that it includes a random mix of upper and lowercase letters, numbers, and symbols. Ideally, it should not be related in any way to your name, username, or company name. Make sure that your passwords do not include complete words from any dictionary. Dictionaries are the first thing crackers use to hack passwords. Do not use the same password for more than one account. All of your passwords should be unique and you should use a system like LastPass, KeePass, Roboform or something similar to keep track of them. When creating a PIN use four different digits to make things slightly harder to crack. When creating a picture password, pick a photo that has at least 10 “points of interests”. Points of interests are areas that serve as a landmark for your gestures. Use a random mixture of gesture types and sequence and make sure that you do not repeat the same gesture twice. Be aware that smudges on the screen could potentially reveal your gestures to others. The Security of Your Password vs. the PIN and the Picture Password Any kind of password can be cracked with enough effort and the appropriate tools. There is no such thing as a completely secure password. However, passwords created using only a few security principles are much harder to crack than others. If you respect the recommendations shared in the previous section of this lesson, you will end up having reasonably secure passwords. Out of all the log in methods in Windows 8.x, the PIN is the easiest to brute force because PINs are restricted to four digits and there are only 10,000 possible unique combinations available. The picture password is more secure than the PIN because it provides many more opportunities for creating unique combinations of gestures. Microsoft have compared the two login options from a security perspective in this post: Signing in with a picture password. In order to discourage brute force attacks against picture passwords and PINs, Windows defaults to your traditional text password after five failed attempts. The PIN and the picture password function only as alternative login methods to Windows 8.x. Therefore, if someone cracks them, he or she doesn’t have access to your user account password. However, that person can use all the apps installed on your Windows 8.x device, access your files, data, and so on. How to Create a PIN in Windows 8.x If you log in to a Windows 8.x device with a user account that has a non-blank password, then you can create a 4-digit PIN for it, to use it as a complementary login method. In order to create one, you need to go to “PC Settings”. If you don’t know how, then press Windows + C on your keyboard or flick from the right edge of the screen, on a touch-enabled device, then press “Settings”. The Settings charm is now open. Click or tap the link that says “Change PC settings”, on the bottom of the charm. In PC settings, go to Accounts and then to “Sign-in options”. Here you will find all the necessary options for changing your existing password, creating a PIN, or a picture password. To create a PIN, press the “Add” button in the PIN section. The “Create a PIN” wizard is started and you are asked to enter the password of your user account. Type it and press “OK”. Now you are asked to enter a 4-digit pin in the “Enter PIN” and “Confirm PIN” fields. The PIN has been created and you can now use it to log in to Windows. How to Create a Picture Password in Windows 8.x If you log in to a Windows 8.x device with a user account that has a non-blank password, then you can also create a picture password and use it as a complementary login method. In order to create one, you need to go to “PC settings”. In PC Settings, go to Accounts and then to “Sign-in options”. Here you will find all the necessary options for changing your existing password, creating a PIN, or a picture password. To create a picture password, press the “Add” button in the “Picture password” section. The “Create a picture password” wizard is started and you are asked to enter the password of your user account. You are shown a guide on how the picture password works. Take a few seconds to watch it and learn the gestures that can be used for your picture password. You will learn that you can create a combination of circles, straight lines, and taps. When ready, press “Choose picture”. Browse your Windows 8.x device and select the picture you want to use for your password and press “Open”. Now you can drag the picture to position it the way you want. When you like how the picture is positioned, press “Use this picture” on the left. If you are not happy with the picture, press “Choose new picture” and select a new one, as shown during the previous step. After you have confirmed that you want to use this picture, you are asked to set up your gestures for the picture password. Draw three gestures on the picture, any combination you wish. Please remember that you can use only three gestures: circles, straight lines, and taps. Once you have drawn those three gestures, you are asked to confirm. Draw the same gestures one more time. If everything goes well, you are informed that you have created your picture password and that you can use it the next time you sign in to Windows. If you don’t confirm the gestures correctly, you will be asked to try again, until you draw the same gestures twice. To close the picture password wizard, press “Finish”. Where Does Windows Store Your Passwords? Are They Safe? All the passwords that you enter in Windows and save for future use are stored in the Credential Manager. This tool is a vault with the usernames and passwords that you use to log on to your computer, to other computers on the network, to apps from the Windows Store, or to websites using Internet Explorer. By storing these credentials, Windows can automatically log you the next time you access the same app, network share, or website. Everything that is stored in the Credential Manager is encrypted for your protection.

  Read the article

• Building the Ultimate SharePoint 2010 Development Environment

  - by Manesh Karunakaran

  It’s been more than a month since SharePoint 2010 RTMed. And a lot of people have downloaded and set up their very own SharePoint 2010 development rigs. And quite a few people have written blogs about setting up good development environments, there is even an MSDN article on it. Two of the blogs worth noting are from MVPs Sahil Malik and Wictor Wilén. Make sure that you check these out as well. Part of the bad side-effects of being a geek is the need to do the technical stuff the best way possible (pragmatic or otherwise), but the problem with this is that what is considered “best” is relative. Precisely the reason why you are reading this post now. Most of the posts that I read are out dated/need updations or are using the wrong OS’es or virtualization solutions (again, opinions vary) or using them the wrong way. Here’s a developer’s view of Building the Ultimate SharePoint 2010 Development Rig. If you are a sales guy, it’s time to close this window. Confusion 1: Which Host Operating System and Virtualization Solution to use? This point has been beaten to death in numerous blog posts in the past, if you have time to invest, read this excellent post by our very own SharePoint Joel on this subject. But if you are planning to build the Ultimate Development Rig, then Windows Server 2008 R2 with Hyper-V is the option that you should be looking at. I have been using this as my primary OS for about 6-7 months now, and I haven’t had any Driver issue or Application compatibility issue. In my experience all the Windows 7 drivers work fine with WIN2008 R2 also. You can enable Aero for eye candy (and the Windows 7 look and feel) and except for a few things like the Hibernation support (which a can be enabled if you really want it), Windows Server 2008 R2, is the best Workstation OS that I have used till date. But frankly the answer to this question of which OS to use depends primarily on one question - Are you willing to change your primary OS? If the answer to that is ‘Yes’, then Windows 2008 R2 with Hyper-V is the best option, if not look at vmWare or VirtualBox, both are equally good. Those who are familiar with a Virtual PC background might prefer Sun VirtualBox. Besides, these provide support for running 64 bit guest machines on 32 bit hosts if the underlying hardware is truly 64 bit. See my earlier post on this. Since we are going to make the ultimate rig, we will use Windows Server 2008 R2 with Hyper-V, for reasons mentioned above. Confusion 2: Should I use a multi-(virtual) server set up? A lot of people use multiple servers for their development environments - like Wictor Wilén is suggesting - one server hosting the Active directory, one hosting SharePoint Server and another one for SQL Server. True, this mimics the production environment the best possible way, but as somebody who has fallen for this set up earlier, I can tell you that you don’t really get anything by doing this. Microsoft has done well to ensure that if you can do it on one machine, you can do it in a farm environment as well. Besides, when you run multiple Server class machine instances in parallel, there are a lot of unwanted processor cycles wasted for no good use. In my personal experience, as somebody who needs to switch between MOSS 2007/SharePoint 2010 environments from time to time, the best possible solution is to Make the host Windows Server 2008 R2 machine your Domain Controller (AD Server) Make all your Virtual Guest OS’es join this domain. Have each Individual Guest OS Image have it’s own local SQL Server instance. The advantages are that you can reuse the users and groups in each of the Guest operating systems, you can manage the users in one place, AD is light weight and doesn't take too much resources on your host machine and also having separate SQL instances for each of the Development images gives you maximum flexibility in terms of configuration, for example your SharePoint rigs can have simpler DB configurations, compared to your MS BI blast pits. Confusion 3: Which Operating System should I use to run SharePoint 2010 Now that’s a no brainer. Use Windows 2008 R2 as your Guest OS. When you are building the ultimate rig, why compromise? If you are planning to run Windows Server 2008 as your Guest OS, there are a few patches that you need to install at different times during the installation, for that follow the steps mentioned here Okay now that we have made our choices, let’s get to the interesting part of building the rig, Step 1: Prepare the host machine – Install Windows Server 2008 R2 Install Windows Server 2008 R2 on your best Desktop/Laptop. If you have read this far, I am quite sure that you are somebody who can install an OS on your own, so go ahead and do that. Make sure that you run the compatibility wizard before you go ahead and nuke your current OS. There are plenty of blogs telling you how to make a good Windows 2008 R2 Workstation that feels and behaves like a Windows 7 machine, follow one and once you are done, head to Step 2. Step 2: Configure the host machine as a Domain Controller Before we begin this, let me tell you, this step is completely optional, you don’t really need to do this, you can simply use the local users on the Guest machines instead, but if this is a much cleaner approach to manage users and groups if you run multiple guest operating systems.  This post neatly explains how to configure your Windows Server 2008 R2 host machine as a Domain Controller. Follow those simple steps and you are good to go. If you are not able to get it to work, try this. Step 3: Prepare the guest machine – Install Windows Server 2008 R2 Open Hyper-V Manager Choose to Create a new Guest Operating system Allocate at least 2 GB of Memory to the Guest OS Choose the Windows 2008 R2 Installation Media Start the Virtual Machine to commence installation. Once the Installation is done, Activate the OS. Step 4: Make the Guest operating systems Join the Domain This step is quite simple, just follow these steps below, Fire up Hyper-V Manager, open your Guest OS Click on Start, and Right click on ‘Computer’ and choose ‘Properties’ On the window that pops-up, click on ‘Change Settings’ On the ‘System Properties’ Window that comes up, Click on the ‘Change’ button Now a window named ‘Computer Name/Domain Changes’ opens up, In the text box titled Domain, type in the Domain name from Step 2. Click Ok and windows will show you the welcome to domain message and ask you to restart the machine, click OK to restart. If the addition to domain fails, that means that you have not set up networking in Hyper-V for the Guest OS to communicate with the Host. To enable it, follow the steps I had mentioned in this post earlier. Step 5: Install SQL Server 2008 R2 on the Guest Machine SQL Server 2008 R2 gets installed with out hassle on Windows Server 2008 R2. SQL Server 2008 needs SP2 to work properly on WIN2008 R2. Also SQL Server 2008 R2 allows you to directly add PowerPivot support to SharePoint. Choose to install in SharePoint Integrated Mode in Reporting Server Configuration. Step 6: Install KB971831 and SharePoint 2010 Pre-requisites Now install the WCF Hotfix for Microsoft Windows (KB971831) from this location, and SharePoint 2010 Pre-requisites from the SP2010 Installation media. Step 7: Install and Configure SharePoint 2010 Install SharePoint 2010 from the installation media, after the installation is complete, you are prompted to start the SharePoint Products and Technologies Configuration Wizard. If you are using a local instance of Microsoft SQL Server 2008, install the Microsoft SQL Server 2008 KB 970315 x64 before starting the wizard. If your development environment uses a remote instance of Microsoft SQL Server 2008 or if it has a pre-existing installation of Microsoft SQL Server 2008 on which KB 970315 x64 has already been applied, this step is not necessary. With the wizard open, do the following: Install SQL Server 2008 KB 970315 x64. After the Microsoft SQL Server 2008 KB 970315 x64 installation is finished, complete the wizard. Alternatively, you can choose not to run the wizard by clearing the SharePoint Products and Technologies Configuration Wizard check box and closing the completed installation dialog box. Install SQL Server 2008 KB 970315 x64, and then manually start the SharePoint Products and Technologies Configuration Wizard by opening a Command Prompt window and executing the following command: C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared Debug\Web Server Extensions\14\BIN\psconfigui.exe The SharePoint Products and Technologies Configuration Wizard may fail if you are using a computer that is joined to a domain but that is not connected to a domain controller. Step 8: Install Visual Studio 2010 and SharePoint 2010 SDK Install Visual Studio 2010 Download and Install the Microsoft SharePoint 2010 SDK Step 9: Install PowerPivot for SharePoint and Configure Reporting Services Pop-In the SQLServer 2008 R2 installation media once again and install PowerPivot for SharePoint. This will get added as another instance named POWERPIVOT. Configure Reporting Services by following the steps mentioned here, if you need to get down to the details on how the integration between SharePoint 2010 and SQL Server 2008 R2 works, see Working Together: SQL Server 2008 R2 Reporting Services Integration in SharePoint 2010 an excellent article by Alan Le Marquand Step 10: Download and Install Sample Databases for Microsoft SQL Server 2008R2 SharePoint 2010 comes with a lot of cool stuff like PerformancePoint Services and BCS, if you need to try these out, you need to have data in your databases. So if you want to save yourself the trouble of creating sample data for your PerformancePoint and BCS experiments, download and install Sample Databases for Microsoft SQL Server 2008R2 from CodePlex. And you are done! Fire up your Visual Studio 2010 and Start Coding away!!

  Read the article

• September 2012 Release of the Ajax Control Toolkit

  - by Stephen.Walther

  I’m excited to announce the September 2012 release of the Ajax Control Toolkit! This is the first release of the Ajax Control Toolkit which supports the .NET 4.5 framework. We also continue to support ASP.NET 3.5 and ASP.NET 4.0. With this release, we’ve made several important bug fixes. The Superexpert team focused on fixing the highest voted issues associated with the CascadingDropDown control. I’ve created a list of these bug fixes later in this blog post. You can download the latest release of the Ajax Control Toolkit by visiting the following page at CodePlex: http://AjaxControlToolkit.CodePlex.com Alternatively, you can install the latest version of the Ajax Control Toolkit using NuGet by firing off the following command from the Package Manager Console: Install-Package AjaxControlToolkit Using the Ajax Control Toolkit with ASP.NET 4.5 Let me walk through the steps for using the Ajax Control Toolkit with ASP.NET 4.5. First, I’ll create a new ASP.NET 4.5 website with Visual Studio 2012. I’ll create the new website with the ASP.NET Web Forms Application template: When you create a new ASP.NET 4.5 site with the ASP.NET Web Forms Application template, you get a starter website. If you run the site, then you get a page with default content: Let me show you how you can add the Ajax Control Toolkit Calendar control to the homepage of this starter site. The first step is to use NuGet to install the Ajax Control Toolkit. Right-click the References folder in the Solution Explorer window and select the menu option Manage NuGet Packages. In the Manage NuGet Packages dialog, use the search box to search for the Ajax Control Toolkit (enter “AjaxControlToolkit”). After you find it, click the Install button to add the Ajax Control Toolkit to your project. That’s all you have to do to install the Ajax Control Toolkit! Now we are ready to start using the Ajax Control Toolkit controls. Open the default.aspx page so we can modify the contents of the page. Erase everything contained in the Content control with the ID of BodyContent. After erasing the content, declare the following two controls: <asp:TextBox ID="vacationDate" runat="server" /> <ajaxToolkit:CalendarExtender TargetControlID="vacationDate" runat="server" /> The first control is a standard ASP.NET TextBox control and the second control is an Ajax Control Toolkit Calendar control. You should get intellisense as you type out the Ajax Control Toolkit Calendar control. If you don’t, then close and re-open the Default.aspx page. Now, let’s run our app. Hit the F5 button or select Debug, Start Debugging from the Visual Studio menu. You will get the error message “MsAjaxBundle is not a valid script name”. Don’t despair! We need to update the Master Page so it uses the ToolkitScriptManager instead of the default ScriptManager. Open the Site.Master file and find where the ScriptManager is declared. The ScriptManager should look like this: <asp:ScriptManager runat="server"> <Scripts> <%--Framework Scripts--%> <asp:ScriptReference Name="MsAjaxBundle" /> <asp:ScriptReference Name="jquery" /> <asp:ScriptReference Name="jquery.ui.combined" /> <asp:ScriptReference Name="WebForms.js" Assembly="System.Web" Path="~/Scripts/WebForms/WebForms.js" /> <asp:ScriptReference Name="WebUIValidation.js" Assembly="System.Web" Path="~/Scripts/WebForms/WebUIValidation.js" /> <asp:ScriptReference Name="MenuStandards.js" Assembly="System.Web" Path="~/Scripts/WebForms/MenuStandards.js" /> <asp:ScriptReference Name="GridView.js" Assembly="System.Web" Path="~/Scripts/WebForms/GridView.js" /> <asp:ScriptReference Name="DetailsView.js" Assembly="System.Web" Path="~/Scripts/WebForms/DetailsView.js" /> <asp:ScriptReference Name="TreeView.js" Assembly="System.Web" Path="~/Scripts/WebForms/TreeView.js" /> <asp:ScriptReference Name="WebParts.js" Assembly="System.Web" Path="~/Scripts/WebForms/WebParts.js" /> <asp:ScriptReference Name="Focus.js" Assembly="System.Web" Path="~/Scripts/WebForms/Focus.js" /> <asp:ScriptReference Name="WebFormsBundle" /> <%--Site Scripts--%> </Scripts> </asp:ScriptManager> We need to make three changes to the ScriptManager: 1) We need to replace the asp:ScriptManager with the ajaxToolkit:ToolkitScriptManager 2) We need to remove the MsAjaxBundle bundle from the ScriptReferences 3) We need to remove the Assembly=”System.Web” attributes from the ScriptReferences After you make these three changes, the ToolkitScriptManager should looks like this: <ajaxToolkit:ToolkitScriptManager runat="server"> <Scripts> <%--Framework Scripts--%> <asp:ScriptReference Name="jquery" /> <asp:ScriptReference Name="jquery.ui.combined" /> <asp:ScriptReference Name="WebForms.js" Path="~/Scripts/WebForms/WebForms.js" /> <asp:ScriptReference Name="WebUIValidation.js" Path="~/Scripts/WebForms/WebUIValidation.js" /> <asp:ScriptReference Name="MenuStandards.js" Path="~/Scripts/WebForms/MenuStandards.js" /> <asp:ScriptReference Name="GridView.js" Path="~/Scripts/WebForms/GridView.js" /> <asp:ScriptReference Name="DetailsView.js" Path="~/Scripts/WebForms/DetailsView.js" /> <asp:ScriptReference Name="TreeView.js" Path="~/Scripts/WebForms/TreeView.js" /> <asp:ScriptReference Name="WebParts.js" Path="~/Scripts/WebForms/WebParts.js" /> <asp:ScriptReference Name="Focus.js" Path="~/Scripts/WebForms/Focus.js" /> <asp:ScriptReference Name="WebFormsBundle" /> <%--Site Scripts--%> </Scripts> </ajaxToolkit:ToolkitScriptManager> After we make these changes, the app should run successfully. You’ll get a page which contains a text field. When you click inside the text field, a popup calendar is displayed. Ajax Control Toolkit and jQuery You might have noticed that the ScriptManager includes a reference to jQuery by default. We did not remove that reference when we converted the ScriptManager to a ToolkitScriptManager. You can use the Ajax Control Toolkit and jQuery side-by-side. Here’s how you can modify the Default.aspx page so that it contains two popup calendars. The first popup calendar is created with the Ajax Control Toolkit and the second popup calendar is created with jQuery: <asp:TextBox ID="vacationDate" runat="server" /> <ajaxToolkit:CalendarExtender TargetControlID="vacationDate" runat="server" /> <input id="birthDate" /> <script> $("#birthDate").datepicker(); </script> Before you can start using jQuery UI plugins, you need to complete one more step. You need to add the jQuery UI themes bundle to the HEAD of the Site.Master page like this: <head runat="server"> <meta charset="utf-8" /> <title><%: Page.Title %> - My ASP.NET Application</title> <asp:PlaceHolder runat="server"> <%: Scripts.Render("~/bundles/modernizr") %> </asp:PlaceHolder> <webopt:BundleReference runat="server" Path="~/Content/css" /> <webopt:BundleReference runat="server" Path="~/Content/themes/base/css" /> <link href="~/favicon.ico" rel="shortcut icon" type="image/x-icon" /> <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width" /> <asp:ContentPlaceHolder runat="server" ID="HeadContent" /> </head> The markup above includes a reference to the jQuery UI themes bundle: <webopt:BundleReference runat="server" Path="~/Content/themes/base/css" /> Now that we have made these changes, we can use the Ajax Control Toolkit and jQuery at the same time. When you run your app, you get two popup calendars. When you click in the first text field, the Ajax Control Toolkit calendar appears. When you click in the second text field, the jQuery UI popup calendar appears: Bug Fixes in this Release We made several important bug fixes with this release of the Ajax Control Toolkit and integrated several Pull Requests contributed by the community. Our primary focus during this sprint was fixing issues with the CascadingDropDown control. We fixed the following issues associated with the CascadingDropDown: · 9490 – Don’t disable dropdowns in CascadingDropDown · 14223 – CascadingDropDown Reset or Setting SelectedValue from WebMethod · 12189 – CascadingDropDown not obeying disabled state of DropDownList · 22942 – CascadingDropDown infinite loop (with solution) · 8671 – CascadingDropdown options is null or undefined · 14407 – CascadingDropDown: populated client event happens too often · 17148 – CascadingDropDown – Add “UseHttpGet” property · 10221 – No NotNull check in CascadingDropDown · 12228 – Provide property for case-insensitive DefaultValue lookup in CascadingDropdown We also fixed the following two issues which are not directly related to the CascadingDropDown control: · 27108 – CalendarExtender: Bug when selecting December shifts to January. · 27041 – Input controls with HTML5 types do not post back in Firefox, Chrome, Safari Finally, we integrated several Pull Requests submitted by the community (Thank you community!): · Added French localized resources for the AjaxFileUpload · Resolved an issue which prevented the AjaxFileUpload control from working with pages that require query string variables. · Extended the AjaxFileUploadEventArgs class to include the current file index in the queue and the total number of files in the queue. · Fixed an issue with TabContainer and TabPanel which caused the OnActiveTabChanged event to fire too often. Summary I’m happy to see the Ajax Control Toolkit move forward into the brave new world of ASP.NET 4.5! In this latest release, we focused on ensuring that the Ajax Control Toolkit works smoothly with ASP.NET 4.5 applications. We also fixed the highest voted bugs associated with the CascadingDropDown control and integrated several Pull Request submitted by the community. Once again, I want to thank the Superexpert team for their hard work on this release!

  Read the article

• CodePlex Daily Summary for Monday, April 19, 2010

  CodePlex Daily Summary for Monday, April 19, 2010New Projects8085 Microprocessor simulator: This program allows you to write 8085 programs in assembly and run those programs on your PC. It comes with lots of help, plus you can put breakpo...Additional.NET framework: The Additional.Net framework extends the functionality of the .NET framework for easier application development. It is developed in C#.Astoria Contrib: A contrib project for filling the gaps in WCF Data Services, providing missing functionality or augmenting with T4 templates, helpers, etc.ClipoWeb: ClipoWeb is a web clipboard that allows you to copy text and files between computers. Users access a web page on the source and destination compute...elearning Center: Đây là một ứng dụng web viết hoàn toàn bằng Sliverlight. Ứng dụng này là một dạng elearning với đầy đủ chức năng và có khả năng tương tác tối đa v...Excel VSTO SQL Server Browser: Get Data from SQL Server and put it in Excel directly. The objective is to get more control about what do you need to pull and create automatic pro...Generic Tree Structure: Generic Base Classes that helps you to create complex tree structures without writing it again and again. Simply to use Like "var Node<Folder> fold...LAN Lordz LAN Party System: The LAN Lordz LAN Party System makes it easier for medium and large size events to track their attendance, sponsors, door prizes, tournaments, and...LiteFx: O LiteFx é um framework que ajuda na implementação de DDD (anêmico ou rico) ele foi desenvolvido por Douglas Aguiar (http://twitter.com/DouglasAgui...Managed UI Flow for ASP.NET MVC Framework: If your web application getting more complex, understanding and managing of complex UI flows(pageflow of application) getting harder and harder, If...Meus Exemplos: Meus ExemplosOrchard Blueprint Theme: Orchard BluePrint is a project that provides a WYSIWYG reference implementation of a Orchard theme to help designers get started with theme design....Outlook Social Network Connector - Avatar: Avatar 是一个开源的MS Outlook的插件，豆瓣用户可以在Outlook 2010中使用豆瓣。查看一封邮件中相关的收件人、发件人的用户广播、同城活动以及豆邮。不用上豆瓣也能方便了解好友动态。这个插件使用C#， .NET 4.0 开发。API 请求认证使用OAuth 认证。 (Avat...Quadro Tree: This is Quadri tree library.Sharepoint 2010 Alert Controller: In MOSS 2007 or Sharepoint Server 2010 if you want to see your alerts by list name you should use this tool.SharePoint Web Parts: The goal of this project is to develop a set of web parts for SharePoint.Silverlight Image Cropper: This is a silverlight 4 util that makes it easy to crop out a number images of a specific resolution screen or screens. ie. an easy way to crop ...SilverlightFTP: Silverlight ftp clientsplibex: libraries for sharepoint lists manipulationStardustExtensions: Official Extensions for StardustSwim Team Manager: Swim Team Manager is designed for managing and tracking administrative and performance information for your club, school, or swim team. Swim Tea...ToDoListWpf: A To Do List, I used it to manage my work items. I am sorry for my poor English.Trance Layer: TranceLayer is a fast and flexible logging or diagnostics framework for .Net. It allows you to plug it into an existing or new application with m...Unoficcial NeoFM.hu NowPlaying: A little windows tray program. Shows what's on neofm.hu right now.WabbitStudio Z80 Software Tools: The software suite provides all of the tools you need to create high quality Z80 software in Z80 assembly language, with a focus on TI calculators....WinToolbar: Windows.Toolbar is Silverlight library that implements common widgets that allows us to build a rich toolbar control in our applications, it incor...XP-More: XP-More is a tool that helps manage Windows 7 Virtual Machines (XP Mode and any other). Specifically, it makes duplication of VMs a no brainer - no...Yodelay .NET Framework Extensions: The Yodelay .NET Framework Extensions project provides a library of components that make many kinds of programming tasks simpler. These include bas...New ReleasesClipoWeb: ClipoWeb 1.0: First Beta release of the ClipoWeb web applicationDDDSample.Net: 0.8: This release contains all four versions of DDDSample.Net available in previous, 0.7 and a brand new one: Layered Model version. Layered Model demon...DotNetNuke Blueprint: 00.00.02: Added to this version CSS Reset Skin version including Grids This version will soon be updated with corresponding HTML version and DNN templateEsferatec.Text.RegularExpressions: 3.5.1003.1001: first stable release of the class; the assembly file is ready to use, the documentation is complete;Excel VSTO SQL Server Browser: Sample Only: Sample without Ribbon UI, if you close the TaskPane you will no longer able to open it without restart ExcelFolder Bookmarks: Folder Bookmarks 1.5.5: This is the latest version of Folder Bookmarks (1.5.5), with the new Archive Manager and Archive Viewer. It has an installer - it will create a dir...Gardens Point LEX: Gardens Point LEX, Version 1.1.3: The main distribution is a zip file. This contains the binary executable, documentation, source code and the examples. ChangesVersion 1.1.3 corre...Gardens Point Parser Generator: Gardens Point Parser Generator V1.4.0: The distribution is a zip archive which contains the binary executables, documentation, source code and examples. ChangesVersion 1.4.0 of GPPG has...HKGolden Express: HKGoldenExpress (Build 201004181455): New features: Added rating of each topic. (Note: This feature is availabe since Build 201004172120) Bug fix: Handle invalid XML character in XML...Home Access Plus+: v4.0.0.0 Beta: v4.0.0.0 Beta Change Log: Moved to using .net 4.0 New Silverlight Uploader Various .net 4 fixes and tweaks File Changes: All fixes have changedHTML Ruby: 6.21.6: Reduced performance hit on pages with heavy DOM manipulations Fixed issue where empty tags caused it to apply invalid spacing values Stop spaci...LINQ to VFP: LinqToVfp (v1.0.17.2): Modified to allow using RecNo as a primary key. This build requires IQToolkit v0.17b.Managed UI Flow for ASP.NET MVC Framework: Preview 1: The source available on this site, does not reflect the final state of the project, it is a preview of what will be shipping in the framework in th...MVVM Light Toolkit: MVVM Light Toolkit V3 SP1 (2): Super minor update to accommodate the new Blend 4 RC. Only changes: The path to the Blend 4 templates changed to be "My Documents\Expression\Blend...N2 CMS: 2.0 rc: N2 is a lightweight CMS framework for ASP.NET. It helps you build great web sites that anyone can update. Major Changes (1.5 -> 2.0 release candid...OpenGL ES 2.0 Compact Framework Wrapper: Sample application CAB with texturing: This took some time as it was pretty hard to get the texture loaded and setup so that it would bind to the sampler2D in the fragment shader. Featu...Orchard Blueprint Theme: 00.00.01: This is the first release of this project, still in a very alpha version. Very soon this release is to be updated with the HTML version of the them...RoughJs: RoughJsSL: This is Silverlight library's CompilerSharepoint 2010 Alert Controller: Sharepoint 2010 Alert Controller: After you download WSP file you can get help from Home PageSharePoint LogViewer: SharePoint LogViewer 2.5: Minimize log viewer to tray Get popup notification of SharePoint log events from tray Redirect log entries to event log Send email notifications on...Site Directory for SharePoint 2010 (from Microsoft Consulting Services, UK): v1.1: This is a minor update which includes the following changes: Code consolidation across the whole project Additional site data captured. See solut...Stardust: Stardust 1.0: First stable version of Stardust (Build 172)StardustExtensions: Facebook Extension: Extension for stardust to upload and post images on Facebook.StardustExtensions: Facebook Extension (Source): The source code of an extension for Stardust used to post images on facebook.StardustExtensions: WPF Example: This is an example extension. Uses WPF to create a Window and say "Hello World!" Is a perfect download if want to start writing Stardust ExtensionsStardustExtensions: WPF Example Source: This is the source code of an extension that creates a Window using WPF & displays a simple text. Is great as an example of creating Stardust Exten...TFTP Server: TFTP Server 1.1 Beta installer: New MSI based installer Installs a TFTP service Supports multiple servers on different endpoints, with every server pointing to its own root di...TiledLib: TiledLib 1.1: This download is for prebuilt DLLs and a demo project. For the full source code, use the Source Code tab. Changes: Bug fixes in a few methods Ad...Trance Layer: TranceLayer Digger: Digger version is a beta. It is intended to be used as a demonstration of muscles while lacking a set of features that are in the docs. The set of ...uManage - Active Directory Self-Service Portal: uManage v1.2 (.NET 4.0 RTM): New Releasev1.2 Adds the Administrative Portal as well as the requirement of a MSSQL database (2005+). The Setup Wizard has also been updated to i...Unoficcial NeoFM.hu NowPlaying: NeoNotifier: First release. Aplha, but usable.VidCoder: 0.2.1: Changes: Added 2-pass encoding Fixed x264 options getting mangled during p-invoke Fixed intermittent crash with logging window open due to thre...WCF RIA Services Contrib: WCF RIA Services Contrib RC2 Release: This version is for the WCF RIA Services RC2 (SL4 RTM) release. The ApplyState has been modifed in this version to disable validation during proces...WiiCIS.NET: WiiCIS.NET v0.2: Changes... - Removal of WiimoteManager, connection must be done manually - Accelerometer orientation was originally in degrees, is now in radians -...WinToolbar: WinToolbar Source code plus sample: This zip file contains the current version source code and libraries plus a testrunner (sample app).XP-More: 0.9 (Beta): Most of the functionality is in place, final polishing will be done soon.Most Popular ProjectsFacebook Developer ToolkitWSPBuilder (SharePoint WSP tool)QuickGraph, Graph Data Structures And Algorithms for .NetPerformance Analysis of Logs (PAL) Toolpatterns & practices: Team Development with Visual Studio Team Foundation ServerTFS Integration Platformpatterns & practices: Performance Testing Guidance for Web Applicationspatterns & practices: Enterprise Library ContribJSON ViewerManaged Wifi APIMost Active ProjectsRawrpatterns & practices – Enterprise LibraryIndustrial DashboardIonics Isapi Rewrite FilterFarseer Physics EngineMVVM Light ToolkitjQuery Library for SharePoint Web ServicesN2 CMSCaliburn: An Application Framework for WPF and SilverlightBlogEngine.NET

  Read the article

• Announcing ASP.NET MVC 3 (Release Candidate 2)

  - by ScottGu

  Earlier today the ASP.NET team shipped the final release candidate (RC2) for ASP.NET MVC 3.  You can download and install it here. Almost there… Today’s RC2 release is the near-final release of ASP.NET MVC 3, and is a true “release candidate” in that we are hoping to not make any more code changes with it.  We are publishing it today so that people can do final testing with it, let us know if they find any last minute “showstoppers”, and start updating their apps to use it.  We will officially ship the final ASP.NET MVC 3 “RTM” build in January. Works with both VS 2010 and VS 2010 SP1 Beta Today’s ASP.NET MVC 3 RC2 release works with both the shipping version of Visual Studio 2010 / Visual Web Developer 2010 Express, as well as the newly released VS 2010 SP1 Beta.  This means that you do not need to install VS 2010 SP1 (or the SP1 beta) in order to use ASP.NET MVC 3.  It works just fine with the shipping Visual Studio 2010.  I’ll do a blog post next week, though, about some of the nice additional feature goodies that come with VS 2010 SP1 (including IIS Express and SQL CE support within VS) which make the dev experience for both ASP.NET Web Forms and ASP.NET MVC even better. Bugs and Perf Fixes Today’s ASP.NET MVC 3 RC2 build contains many bug fixes and performance optimizations.  Our latest performance tests indicate that ASP.NET MVC 3 is now faster than ASP.NET MVC 2, and that existing ASP.NET MVC applications will experience a slight performance increase when updated to run using ASP.NET MVC 3. Final Tweaks and Fit-N-Finish In addition to bug fixes and performance optimizations, today’s RC2 build contains a number of last-minute feature tweaks and “fit-n-finish” changes for the new ASP.NET MVC 3 features.  The feedback and suggestions we’ve received during the public previews has been invaluable in guiding these final tweaks, and we really appreciate people’s support in sending this feedback our way.  Below is a short-list of some of the feature changes/tweaks made between last month’s ASP.NET MVC 3 RC release and today’s ASP.NET MVC 3 RC2 release: jQuery updates and addition of jQuery UI The default ASP.NET MVC 3 project templates have been updated to include jQuery 1.4.4 and jQuery Validation 1.7.  We are also excited to announce today that we are including jQuery UI within our default ASP.NET project templates going forward.  jQuery UI provides a powerful set of additional UI widgets and capabilities.  It will be added by default to your project’s \scripts folder when you create new ASP.NET MVC 3 projects. Improved View Scaffolding The T4 templates used for scaffolding views with the Add-View dialog now generates views that use Html.EditorFor instead of helpers such as Html.TextBoxFor. This change enables you to optionally annotate models with metadata (using data annotation attributes) to better customize the output of your UI at runtime. The Add View scaffolding also supports improved detection and usage of primary key information on models (including support for naming conventions like ID, ProductID, etc).  For example: the Add View dialog box uses this information to ensure that the primary key value is not scaffold as an editable form field, and that links between views are auto-generated correctly with primary key information. The default Edit and Create templates also now include references to the jQuery scripts needed for client validation.  Scaffold form views now support client-side validation by default (no extra steps required).  Client-side validation with ASP.NET MVC 3 is also done using an unobtrusive javascript approach – making pages fast and clean. [ControllerSessionState] –> [SessionState] ASP.NET MVC 3 adds support for session-less controllers.  With the initial RC you used a [ControllerSessionState] attribute to specify this.  We shortened this in RC2 to just be [SessionState]: Note that in addition to turning off session state, you can also set it to be read-only (which is useful for webfarm scenarios where you are reading but not updating session state on a particular request). [SkipRequestValidation] –> [AllowHtml] ASP.NET MVC includes built-in support to protect against HTML and Cross-Site Script Injection Attacks, and will throw an error by default if someone tries to post HTML content as input.  Developers need to explicitly indicate that this is allowed (and that they’ve hopefully built their app to securely support it) in order to enable it. With ASP.NET MVC 3, we are also now supporting a new attribute that you can apply to properties of models/viewmodels to indicate that HTML input is enabled, which enables much more granular protection in a DRY way.  In last month’s RC release this attribute was named [SkipRequestValidation].  With RC2 we renamed it to [AllowHtml] to make it more intuitive: Setting the above [AllowHtml] attribute on a model/viewmodel will cause ASP.NET MVC 3 to turn off HTML injection protection when model binding just that property. Html.Raw() helper method The new Razor view engine introduced with ASP.NET MVC 3 automatically HTML encodes output by default.  This helps provide an additional level of protection against HTML and Script injection attacks. With RC2 we are adding a Html.Raw() helper method that you can use to explicitly indicate that you do not want to HTML encode your output, and instead want to render the content “as-is”: ViewModel/View –> ViewBag ASP.NET MVC has (since V1) supported a ViewData[] dictionary within Controllers and Views that enables developers to pass information from a Controller to a View in a late-bound way.  This approach can be used instead of, or in combination with, a strongly-typed model class.  The below code demonstrates a common use case – where a strongly typed Product model is passed to the view in addition to two late-bound variables via the ViewData[] dictionary: With ASP.NET MVC 3 we are introducing a new API that takes advantage of the dynamic type support within .NET 4 to set/retrieve these values.  It allows you to use standard “dot” notation to specify any number of additional variables to be passed, and does not require that you create a strongly-typed class to do so.  With earlier previews of ASP.NET MVC 3 we exposed this API using a dynamic property called “ViewModel” on the Controller base class, and with a dynamic property called “View” within view templates.  A lot of people found the fact that there were two different names confusing, and several also said that using the name ViewModel was confusing in this context – since often you create strongly-typed ViewModel classes in ASP.NET MVC, and they do not use this API.  With RC2 we are exposing a dynamic property that has the same name – ViewBag – within both Controllers and Views.  It is a dynamic collection that allows you to pass additional bits of data from your controller to your view template to help generate a response.  Below is an example of how we could use it to pass a time-stamp message as well as a list of all categories to our view template: Below is an example of how our view template (which is strongly-typed to expect a Product class as its model) can use the two extra bits of information we passed in our ViewBag to generate the response.  In particular, notice how we are using the list of categories passed in the dynamic ViewBag collection to generate a dropdownlist of friendly category names to help set the CategoryID property of our Product object.  The above Controller/View combination will then generate an HTML response like below.    Output Caching Improvements ASP.NET MVC 3’s output caching system no longer requires you to specify a VaryByParam property when declaring an [OutputCache] attribute on a Controller action method.  MVC3 now automatically varies the output cached entries when you have explicit parameters on your action method – allowing you to cleanly enable output caching on actions using code like below: In addition to supporting full page output caching, ASP.NET MVC 3 also supports partial-page caching – which allows you to cache a region of output and re-use it across multiple requests or controllers.  The [OutputCache] behavior for partial-page caching was updated with RC2 so that sub-content cached entries are varied based on input parameters as opposed to the URL structure of the top-level request – which makes caching scenarios both easier and more powerful than the behavior in the previous RC. @model declaration does not add whitespace In earlier previews, the strongly-typed @model declaration at the top of a Razor view added a blank line to the rendered HTML output. This has been fixed so that the declaration does not introduce whitespace. Changed "Html.ValidationMessage" Method to Display the First Useful Error Message The behavior of the Html.ValidationMessage() helper was updated to show the first useful error message instead of simply displaying the first error. During model binding, the ModelState dictionary can be populated from multiple sources with error messages about the property, including from the model itself (if it implements IValidatableObject), from validation attributes applied to the property, and from exceptions thrown while the property is being accessed. When the Html.ValidationMessage() method displays a validation message, it now skips model-state entries that include an exception, because these are generally not intended for the end user. Instead, the method looks for the first validation message that is not associated with an exception and displays that message. If no such message is found, it defaults to a generic error message that is associated with the first exception. RemoteAttribute “Fields” -> “AdditionalFields” ASP.NET MVC 3 includes built-in remote validation support with its validation infrastructure.  This means that the client-side validation script library used by ASP.NET MVC 3 can automatically call back to controllers you expose on the server to determine whether an input element is indeed valid as the user is editing the form (allowing you to provide real-time validation updates). You can accomplish this by decorating a model/viewmodel property with a [Remote] attribute that specifies the controller/action that should be invoked to remotely validate it.  With the RC this attribute had a “Fields” property that could be used to specify additional input elements that should be sent from the client to the server to help with the validation logic.  To improve the clarity of what this property does we have renamed it to “AdditionalFields” with today’s RC2 release. ViewResult.Model and ViewResult.ViewBag Properties The ViewResult class now exposes both a “Model” and “ViewBag” property off of it.  This makes it easier to unit test Controllers that return views, and avoids you having to access the Model via the ViewResult.ViewData.Model property. Installation Notes You can download and install the ASP.NET MVC 3 RC2 build here.  It can be installed on top of the previous ASP.NET MVC 3 RC release (it should just replace the bits as part of its setup). The one component that will not be updated by the above setup (if you already have it installed) is the NuGet Package Manager.  If you already have NuGet installed, please go to the Visual Studio Extensions Manager (via the Tools –> Extensions menu option) and click on the “Updates” tab.  You should see NuGet listed there – please click the “Update” button next to it to have VS update the extension to today’s release. If you do not have NuGet installed (and did not install the ASP.NET MVC RC build), then NuGet will be installed as part of your ASP.NET MVC 3 setup, and you do not need to take any additional steps to make it work. Summary We are really close to the final ASP.NET MVC 3 release, and will deliver the final “RTM” build of it next month.  It has been only a little over 7 months since ASP.NET MVC 2 shipped, and I’m pretty amazed by the huge number of new features, improvements, and refinements that the team has been able to add with this release (Razor, Unobtrusive JavaScript, NuGet, Dependency Injection, Output Caching, and a lot, lot more).  I’ll be doing a number of blog posts over the next few weeks talking about many of them in more depth. Hope this helps, Scott P.S. In addition to blogging, I am also now using Twitter for quick updates and to share links. Follow me at: twitter.com/scottgu

  Read the article

• CodePlex Daily Summary for Thursday, October 27, 2011

  CodePlex Daily Summary for Thursday, October 27, 2011Popular ReleasesAcDown????? - Anime&Comic Downloader: AcDown????? v3.6: ?? ● AcDown??????????、??????，??????????????????????，???????Acfun、Bilibili、???、???、???、Tucao.cc、SF???、?????80????，???????????、?????????。 ● AcDown???????????????????????????，???，???????????????????。 ● AcDown???????C#??，????.NET Framework 2.0??。?????"Acfun?????"。 ????32??64? Windows XP/Vista/7 ????????????? ??：????????Windows XP???,?????????.NET Framework 2.0???(x86)?.NET Framework 2.0???(x64)，?????"?????????"??? ??????????????，??????????： ??"AcDown?????"????????? ?? v3.6?? ??“????”...Facebook C# SDK: 5.3.1: This is a BETA release which adds new features and bug fixes to v5.2.1. removed dependency from Code Contracts enabled Task Parallel Support in .NET 4.0+ added support for early preview for .NET 4.5 added additional method overloads for .NET 4.5 to support IProgress<T> for upload progress added new CS-WinForms-AsyncAwait.sln sample demonstrating the use of async/await, upload progress report using IProgress<T> and cancellation support Query/QueryAsync methods uses graph api instead...SQL Backup Helper: SQL Backup Helper v1.0: Version 1.0 Changes Description added to settings table Automatic LOG files truncation added to BACKUP stored procedure Only database in status ONLINE will be backed upFlowton: Release 0.2: This release is the first official release of Flowton along with Source. Printpreview/Print is enabled with minor bug fixes from 0.1 alpha release locally.MySemanticSearch Sample: MySemanticSearch Installer (CTP3): Note: This release of the MySemanticSearch Sample works with SQL Server 2012 CTP3. Installation InstructionsDownload this self-extracting archive to your computer Execute the self-extracting archive Accept the licensing agreement Choose a target directory on your computer and extract the files Open Windows PowerShell command prompt with elevated priveleges Execute the following command: Set-ExecutionPolicy Unrestricted Close the Windows PowerShell command prompt Run C:\MySema...Microsoft Ajax Minifier: Microsoft Ajax Minifier 4.33: Add JSParser.ParseExpression method to parse JavaScript expressions rather than source-elements. Add -strict switch (CodeSettings.StrictMode) to force input code to ECMA5 Strict-mode (extra error-checking, "use strict" at top). Fixed bug when MinifyCode setting was set to false but RemoveUnneededCode was left it's default value of true.Path Copy Copy: 8.0: New version that mostly adds lots of requested features: 11340 11339 11338 11337 This version also features a more elaborate Settings UI that has several tabs. I tried to add some notes to better explain the use and purpose of the various options. The Path Copy Copy documentation is also on the way, both to explain how to develop custom plugins and to explain how to pre-configure options if you're a network admin. Stay tuned.MVC Controls Toolkit: Mvc Controls Toolkit 1.5.0: Added: The new Client Blocks feaure of Views A new "move" js method for the TreeViews The NewHtmlCreated js event to the DataGrid Improved the ChoiceList structure that now allows also the selection list of a dropdown to be chosen with a lambda expression Fixed: Issue with partial thrust Client handling of conditional attributes Bug in TreeView node moves that sometimes were not reflected on the server An issue in the Mvc3 Nuget package that wasn't able to uninstall properly ...Free SharePoint Master Pages: Buried Alive (Halloween) Theme: Release Notes *Created for Halloween, you will find theme file, custom css file and images. *Created by Al Roome @AlstarRoome Features: Custom styling for web part Custom background *Screenshot https://s3.amazonaws.com/kkhipple/post/sharepoint-showcase-halloween.pngDevForce Application Framework: DevForce AF 2.0.3 RTW: PrerequisitesWPF 4.0 Silverlight 4.0 DevForce 2010 6.1.3.1 Download ContentsDebug and Release Assemblies API Documentation Source code License.txt Requirements.txt Release HighlightsNew: EventAggregator event forwarding New: EntityManagerInterceptor<T> to intercept EntityManger events New: IHarnessAware to allow for ViewModel setup when executed inside of the Development Harness New: Improved design time stability New: Support for add-in development New: CoroutineFns.To...NicAudio: NicAudio 2.0.5: Minor change to accept special DTS stereo modes (LtRt, AB,...)Windows Azure Toolkit for Windows Phone: Windows Azure Toolkit for Windows Phone v1.3.1: Upgraded Windows Azure projects to Windows Azure Tools for Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 1.5 – September 2011 Upgraded the tools tools to support the Windows Phone Developer Tools RTW Update SQL Azure only scenarios to use ASP.NET Universal Providers (through the System.Web.Providers v1.0.1 NuGet package) Changed Shared Access Signature service interface to support more operations Refactored Blobs API to have a similar interface and usage to that provided by the Windows Azure SDK Stor...xUnit.net Contrib: xunitcontrib-resharper 0.4.4 (dotCover): xunitcontrib release 0.4.4 (ReSharper runner) This release provides a test runner plugin for Resharper 6.0 RTM, targetting all versions of xUnit.net. (See the xUnit.net project to download xUnit.net itself.) This release addresses the following issues:Support for dotCover code coverage 4132 Note that this build work against ALL VERSIONS of xunit. The files are compiled against xunit.dll 1.8 - DO NOT REPLACE THIS FILE. Thanks to xunit's version independent runner system, this package can r...BookShop: BookShop: BookShop WP7 clientRibbon Editor for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011: Ribbon Editor (0.1.2122.266): Added CodePlex and PayPal links New icon Bug fix: can't connect to an IFD deployment when the discovery service url has been customizedSiteMap Editor for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011: SiteMap Editor (1.0.921.340): Added CodePlex and PayPal links New iconDotNet.Framework.Common: DotNet.Framework.Common 4.0: ??????????，????????????XML Explorer: XML Explorer 4.0.5: Changes in 4.0.5: Added 'Copy Attribute XPath to Address Bar' feature. Added methods for decoding node text and value from Base64 encoded strings, and copying them to the clipboard. Added 'ChildNodeDefinitions' to the options, which allows for easier navigation of parent-child and ID-IDREF relationships. Discovery happens on-demand, as nodes are expanded and child nodes are added. Nodes can now have 'virtual' child nodes, defined by an xpath to select an identifier (usually relative to ...CODE Framework: 4.0.11021.0: This build adds a lot of our WPF components, including our MVVC and MVC components as well as a "Metro" and "Battleship" style.WiX Toolset: WiX v3.6 Beta: First beta release of WiX v3.6. The primary focus is on Burn but there are also many small bug fixes to the core toolset. For more information see: http://robmensching.com/blog/posts/2011/10/24/WiX-v3.6-Beta-releasedNew Projects5by5by4 Tic Tac Toe Project: 5by5by4 Tic Tac Toe project for CS 3420.ASP.Net Membership provider for MongoDb: A role and membership provider for ASP.Net with MongoDb as the database. Makes use of the Norm Linq provider for MongoDb.Bazookabird TFS Dashboard: Just a simple TFS dashboard. Show build results, tfs queries of your choice and display availability of build machines. Only a feature-lacking proof of concept yet, will hopefully be useful in the end. BestWebApp: Web service and web application.Code Made Simple: A group of projects to make coding life simple.DefenseXna: ??xna??Digibib.NET: Digibib.NET ist eine Portierung der Lesesoftware Digibux für die Digitale Bibliothek der Directmedia Publishing.FaceComparerDistributed: project of face compare distributed versionFMSSolution: FMSISO Analyzer: ISO Analyzer is a tool that makes it easier to analyze ISO 8583 financial transactions and also provides a platform to create a host simulator, capable of receiving requests and sending back the responses. It’s a WinForms application and it’s developed using C#.ITU Project: ITU Projekt - Víc než len klávesové skratky (navigace mezi bežicími aplikacemi)Maintenance Province Data: Help people find your project. Write a concise, reader-focused summary. Example: <project name> makes it easier for <target user group> to <activity>. You'll no longer have to <activity>. It's developed in <programming language>.m?ng chia s? công vi?c: m?ng chia s? công vi?cMetroTask: MetroTask, An example Metro based application using C#MyHomeFinance: Helps to add and keep a record of financeMySemanticSearch Sample: MySemanticSearch is a sample content management application that demonstrates semantic search capabilities introduced in SQL Server 2012. MySemanticSearch allows you to visualize tag clouds for content stored in FileTables and find similar content using semantic search.NetBlocks: This project is an implementation of the Unit-of-Work and Repository patterns using Entity Framework 4.1 and Unity. The project also includes code that can be used to initialize an application’s run-time environment from a set of components. The project includes example components for typed configuration settings, caching and a factory component based on Unity. Also included is an example of how to represent a database command with a C# class that transforms the results to typed objects.Online shopping website in ASP.NET- Open Source Project: asp.net,C#,shopping cart,college project,visual studio 2010,visual web developer 2010Pak Master: Pak Explorer for the fourth coming four.Pizza Service: A mvc3 project which aims to host both a backend webservice and a frontend page for ordering pizza and managing orders, customers and provide a drivermapScadaEveryWhere: ScadaEveryWhereSilverTwitterSearch: SilverTwitterSearch is a Siliverlight library for the Twitter Search API.Snst Salix: Salix is codename for custom solution of time management and task assignment software.SolutionManagementKit: SolutionManagementKit This product will try to combine several monitoring / support tools available right now. the primary focus will be on (T) SQL / MDX parsing for SQL 2008 R2 SSAS 2008 R2 as well as cube maintance Development in C# / VB .NETTarget: Blank Orchard Module: If enabled, outgoing links open in new window (just like with the deprecated target="_blank" attribute)WPPersonality: Psychological tests for windows phoneXrmLibrary: A base library to be used for rapid integration with one or more Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 environments. The XrmLibrary contains thread-safe singleton implementations of both the CRM IOrganizationService (1 or many instances) and a tracer/logger that utilizes Apache's log4net.

  Read the article

• exporting bind and keyframe bone poses from blender to use in OpenGL

  - by SaldaVonSchwartz

  I'm having a hard time trying to understand how exactly Blender's concept of bone transforms maps to the usual math of skinning (which I'm implementing in an OpenGL-based engine of sorts). Or I'm missing out something in the math.. It's gonna be long, but here's as much background as I can think of. First, a few notes and assumptions: I'm using column-major order and multiply from right to left. So for instance, vertex v transformed by matrix A and then further transformed by matrix B would be: v' = BAv. This also means whenever I export a matrix from blender through python, I export it (in text format) in 4 lines, each representing a column. This is so I can then I can read them back into my engine like this: if (fscanf(fileHandle, "%f %f %f %f", &skeleton.joints[currentJointIndex].inverseBindTransform.m[0], &skeleton.joints[currentJointIndex].inverseBindTransform.m[1], &skeleton.joints[currentJointIndex].inverseBindTransform.m[2], &skeleton.joints[currentJointIndex].inverseBindTransform.m[3])) { if (fscanf(fileHandle, "%f %f %f %f", &skeleton.joints[currentJointIndex].inverseBindTransform.m[4], &skeleton.joints[currentJointIndex].inverseBindTransform.m[5], &skeleton.joints[currentJointIndex].inverseBindTransform.m[6], &skeleton.joints[currentJointIndex].inverseBindTransform.m[7])) { if (fscanf(fileHandle, "%f %f %f %f", &skeleton.joints[currentJointIndex].inverseBindTransform.m[8], &skeleton.joints[currentJointIndex].inverseBindTransform.m[9], &skeleton.joints[currentJointIndex].inverseBindTransform.m[10], &skeleton.joints[currentJointIndex].inverseBindTransform.m[11])) { if (fscanf(fileHandle, "%f %f %f %f", &skeleton.joints[currentJointIndex].inverseBindTransform.m[12], &skeleton.joints[currentJointIndex].inverseBindTransform.m[13], &skeleton.joints[currentJointIndex].inverseBindTransform.m[14], &skeleton.joints[currentJointIndex].inverseBindTransform.m[15])) { I'm simplifying the code I show because otherwise it would make things unnecessarily harder (in the context of my question) to explain / follow. Please refrain from making remarks related to optimizations. This is not final code. Having said that, if I understand correctly, the basic idea of skinning/animation is: I have a a mesh made up of vertices I have the mesh model-world transform W I have my joints, which are really just transforms from each joint's space to its parent's space. I'll call these transforms Bj meaning matrix which takes from joint j's bind pose to joint j-1's bind pose. For each of these, I actually import their inverse to the engine, Bj^-1. I have keyframes each containing a set of current poses Cj for each joint J. These are initially imported to my engine in TQS format but after (S)LERPING them I compose them into Cj matrices which are equivalent to the Bjs (not the Bj^-1 ones) only that for the current spacial configurations of each joint at that frame. Given the above, the "skeletal animation algorithm is" On each frame: check how much time has elpased and compute the resulting current time in the animation, from 0 meaning frame 0 to 1, meaning the end of the animation. (Oh and I'm looping forever so the time is mod(total duration)) for each joint: 1 -calculate its world inverse bind pose, that is Bj_w^-1 = Bj^-1 Bj-1^-1 ... B0^-1 2 -use the current animation time to LERP the componets of the TQS and come up with an interpolated current pose matrix Cj which should transform from the joints current configuration space to world space. Similar to what I did to get the world version of the inverse bind poses, I come up with the joint's world current pose, Cj_w = C0 C1 ... Cj 3 -now that I have world versions of Bj and Cj, I store this joint's world- skinning matrix K_wj = Cj_w Bj_w^-1. The above is roughly implemented like so: - (void)update:(NSTimeInterval)elapsedTime { static double time = 0; time = fmod((time + elapsedTime),1.); uint16_t LERPKeyframeNumber = 60 * time; uint16_t lkeyframeNumber = 0; uint16_t lkeyframeIndex = 0; uint16_t rkeyframeNumber = 0; uint16_t rkeyframeIndex = 0; for (int i = 0; i < aClip.keyframesCount; i++) { uint16_t keyframeNumber = aClip.keyframes[i].number; if (keyframeNumber <= LERPKeyframeNumber) { lkeyframeIndex = i; lkeyframeNumber = keyframeNumber; } else { rkeyframeIndex = i; rkeyframeNumber = keyframeNumber; break; } } double lTime = lkeyframeNumber / 60.; double rTime = rkeyframeNumber / 60.; double blendFactor = (time - lTime) / (rTime - lTime); GLKMatrix4 bindPosePalette[aSkeleton.jointsCount]; GLKMatrix4 currentPosePalette[aSkeleton.jointsCount]; for (int i = 0; i < aSkeleton.jointsCount; i++) { F3DETQSType& lPose = aClip.keyframes[lkeyframeIndex].skeletonPose.jointPoses[i]; F3DETQSType& rPose = aClip.keyframes[rkeyframeIndex].skeletonPose.jointPoses[i]; GLKVector3 LERPTranslation = GLKVector3Lerp(lPose.t, rPose.t, blendFactor); GLKQuaternion SLERPRotation = GLKQuaternionSlerp(lPose.q, rPose.q, blendFactor); GLKVector3 LERPScaling = GLKVector3Lerp(lPose.s, rPose.s, blendFactor); GLKMatrix4 currentTransform = GLKMatrix4MakeWithQuaternion(SLERPRotation); currentTransform = GLKMatrix4Multiply(currentTransform, GLKMatrix4MakeTranslation(LERPTranslation.x, LERPTranslation.y, LERPTranslation.z)); currentTransform = GLKMatrix4Multiply(currentTransform, GLKMatrix4MakeScale(LERPScaling.x, LERPScaling.y, LERPScaling.z)); if (aSkeleton.joints[i].parentIndex == -1) { bindPosePalette[i] = aSkeleton.joints[i].inverseBindTransform; currentPosePalette[i] = currentTransform; } else { bindPosePalette[i] = GLKMatrix4Multiply(aSkeleton.joints[i].inverseBindTransform, bindPosePalette[aSkeleton.joints[i].parentIndex]); currentPosePalette[i] = GLKMatrix4Multiply(currentPosePalette[aSkeleton.joints[i].parentIndex], currentTransform); } aSkeleton.skinningPalette[i] = GLKMatrix4Multiply(currentPosePalette[i], bindPosePalette[i]); } } At this point, I should have my skinning palette. So on each frame in my vertex shader, I do: uniform mat4 modelMatrix; uniform mat4 projectionMatrix; uniform mat3 normalMatrix; uniform mat4 skinningPalette[6]; attribute vec4 position; attribute vec3 normal; attribute vec2 tCoordinates; attribute vec4 jointsWeights; attribute vec4 jointsIndices; varying highp vec2 tCoordinatesVarying; varying highp float lIntensity; void main() { vec3 eyeNormal = normalize(normalMatrix * normal); vec3 lightPosition = vec3(0., 0., 2.); lIntensity = max(0.0, dot(eyeNormal, normalize(lightPosition))); tCoordinatesVarying = tCoordinates; vec4 skinnedVertexPosition = vec4(0.); for (int i = 0; i < 4; i++) { skinnedVertexPosition += jointsWeights[i] * skinningPalette[int(jointsIndices[i])] * position; } gl_Position = projectionMatrix * modelMatrix * skinnedVertexPosition; } The result: The mesh parts that are supposed to animate do animate and follow the expected motion, however, the rotations are messed up in terms of orientations. That is, the mesh is not translated somewhere else or scaled in any way, but the orientations of rotations seem to be off. So a few observations: In the above shader notice I actually did not multiply the vertices by the mesh modelMatrix (the one which would take them to model or world or global space, whichever you prefer, since there is no parent to the mesh itself other than "the world") until after skinning. This is contrary to what I implied in the theory: if my skinning matrix takes vertices from model to joint and back to model space, I'd think the vertices should already be premultiplied by the mesh transform. But if I do so, I just get a black screen. As far as exporting the joints from Blender, my python script exports for each armature bone in bind pose, it's matrix in this way: def DFSJointTraversal(file, skeleton, jointList): for joint in jointList: poseJoint = skeleton.pose.bones[joint.name] jointTransform = poseJoint.matrix.inverted() file.write('Joint ' + joint.name + ' Transform {\n') for col in jointTransform.col: file.write('{:9f} {:9f} {:9f} {:9f}\n'.format(col[0], col[1], col[2], col[3])) DFSJointTraversal(file, skeleton, joint.children) file.write('}\n') And for current / keyframe poses (assuming I'm in the right keyframe): def exportAnimations(filepath): # Only one skeleton per scene objList = [object for object in bpy.context.scene.objects if object.type == 'ARMATURE'] if len(objList) == 0: return elif len(objList) > 1: return #raise exception? dialog box? skeleton = objList[0] jointNames = [bone.name for bone in skeleton.data.bones] for action in bpy.data.actions: # One animation clip per action in Blender, named as the action animationClipFilePath = filepath[0 : filepath.rindex('/') + 1] + action.name + ".aClip" file = open(animationClipFilePath, 'w') file.write('target skeleton: ' + skeleton.name + '\n') file.write('joints count: {:d}'.format(len(jointNames)) + '\n') skeleton.animation_data.action = action keyframeNum = max([len(fcurve.keyframe_points) for fcurve in action.fcurves]) keyframes = [] for fcurve in action.fcurves: for keyframe in fcurve.keyframe_points: keyframes.append(keyframe.co[0]) keyframes = set(keyframes) keyframes = [kf for kf in keyframes] keyframes.sort() file.write('keyframes count: {:d}'.format(len(keyframes)) + '\n') for kfIndex in keyframes: bpy.context.scene.frame_set(kfIndex) file.write('keyframe: {:d}\n'.format(int(kfIndex))) for i in range(0, len(skeleton.data.bones)): file.write('joint: {:d}\n'.format(i)) joint = skeleton.pose.bones[i] jointCurrentPoseTransform = joint.matrix translationV = jointCurrentPoseTransform.to_translation() rotationQ = jointCurrentPoseTransform.to_3x3().to_quaternion() scaleV = jointCurrentPoseTransform.to_scale() file.write('T {:9f} {:9f} {:9f}\n'.format(translationV[0], translationV[1], translationV[2])) file.write('Q {:9f} {:9f} {:9f} {:9f}\n'.format(rotationQ[1], rotationQ[2], rotationQ[3], rotationQ[0])) file.write('S {:9f} {:9f} {:9f}\n'.format(scaleV[0], scaleV[1], scaleV[2])) file.write('\n') file.close() Which I believe follow the theory explained at the beginning of my question. But then I checked out Blender's directX .x exporter for reference.. and what threw me off was that in the .x script they are exporting bind poses like so (transcribed using the same variable names I used so you can compare): if joint.parent: jointTransform = poseJoint.parent.matrix.inverted() else: jointTransform = Matrix() jointTransform *= poseJoint.matrix and exporting current keyframe poses like this: if joint.parent: jointCurrentPoseTransform = joint.parent.matrix.inverted() else: jointCurrentPoseTransform = Matrix() jointCurrentPoseTransform *= joint.matrix why are they using the parent's transform instead of the joint in question's? isn't the join transform assumed to exist in the context of a parent transform since after all it transforms from this joint's space to its parent's? Why are they concatenating in the same order for both bind poses and keyframe poses? If these two are then supposed to be concatenated with each other to cancel out the change of basis? Anyway, any ideas are appreciated.

  Read the article

• CodePlex Daily Summary for Friday, March 26, 2010

  CodePlex Daily Summary for Friday, March 26, 2010New Projects.NET settings class generator T4 templates: A couple of T4 templates to generate a Settings class for your .NET project. Allows you to define your application settings in an XML file and have...AlphaPagedList: AlphaPagedList makes it easier for .Net developers to write paging code. Based on PagedList it allows you to take any List<T> and split it based on...C# Projects: C# ProjectsChitme: Aenean feugiat pharetra enim rhoncus viverra. In at nunc nec sem varius bibendum. Aliquam erat volutpat. Nullam fringilla facilisis massa et eleife...CloudCache - Distributed Cache Tier with Azure: Cloudcache makes it easier for you to manage and deploy a distributed caching tier to Windows Azure. Included is a web-dashboard in MVC 2.0, Memcac...Composer: Composer is an extensible Compositional Architecture framework, providing a set of functionality such as Inversion of Control container (IoC), Depe...Data Connection Suite: Data Connection Suite is a set of easy to use data connection string builder dialogs & controls ready to be integrated in any .NET application.DatabaseHandler: Database HandlerEPiServer Blog Page Provider: A example page provider implementation for EPiServer that supports external blog sources for pages, Blogger and WordPress supported out of the box ...Extended MessageBox: ExtendedMessageBox makes it easier to display messages from your Windows applications. Based on the built-in .NET MessageBox class functionality, i...FluentPath: FluentPath implements a modern wrapper around System.IO, using modern patterns such as fluent APIs and Lambdas. By using FluentPath instead of Syst...Halcyone : Silverlight without pain: Halcyone is application framework for Silverlight that should make live of developers easier =)IlluminaRT: Real-time renderingme2: Mista Engine 2MessegeBox RightToLeft Lib: This is really simple lib project for use RTL in MessegeBox class. This just for short code and default option for RTL.MS Word Automation Service: A MS Word Automation service that comsumes a Word template and combines with XML to produce a word document. Currently in production. Must add some...SharePoint - Site Request InfoPath Form Template: This template allow portal user to enter initial information for requesting of creating a new SharePoint site. TextFlow - Text Editor: TextFlow is a fast and light text editor that simplifies day-to-day tasks. You can create letters and documents through TextFlow. It also includes ...TiledLib: A library for using Tiled (http://mapeditor.org) levels in XNA Game Studio projects. Includes a content pipeline extension and runtime library.wcf learning 2010: myWCFprojectsNew Releases.NET settings class generator T4 templates: Example 1: An example project containing the T4 templates and associated files. SingleSite - generate settings for a single site MultiSite - generate setting...AccessibilityChecker: Accessibility Checker V0.1: SharePoint Accessibility Checker V0.1AlphaPagedList: AlphaPagedList v0.9: Initial release of AlphaPagedListASP.Net RIA Controls: Version 1.1 Beta: New XHTML compliant version with alternative content support if no plugin installed.Business & System Analysis Templates and Best Practices: R 00: You may find out here the structured on my own materials from from Luxoft ReqLabs 2009 + short presentation about System Analysis and Modelling. Th...CloudCache - Distributed Cache Tier with Azure: v1.0.0.0: First release! More information at http://blog.shutupandcode.net/?p=935CycleMania Starter Kit EAP - ASP.NET 4 Problem - Design - Solution: Cyclemania 0.08.39: implemented client side functions on remainder of account pagesDevTreks -social budgeting that improves lives and livelihoods: Social Budgeting Web Software, DevTreks alpha 3d: Alpha 3d is a general bug fix -tweaking pagination, navigation, packaging, file system storage, page validation, security, locals, and linked views.Digital Media Processing Project 1: Image Processor: Image Processor 1.01: Supports opening files through Windows Explorer or by drag and drop.Extended MessageBox: ExtendedMessageBox Runtime Version 1.2: Initial releaseExtended MessageBox: SourceCode for Version 1.2: Initial SourceCodeFluent Ribbon Control Suite: Fluent Ribbon Control Suite 1.0: Fluent Ribbon Control Suite 1.0 Includes: Fluent.dll (with .pdb and .xml, debug and release version) Showcase Application Samples Foundation (T...FluentPath: FluentPath Beta: The Beta release of FluentPath.HaterAide ORM: HaterAide ORM 1.5: This version is a, more or less, rewrite of the code base. Also many new features have been added in this release: 1) Foreign keys are now added to...iTuner - The iTunes Companion: iTuner 1.2.3735 Beta: V1.2 allows you to synchronize one or more iTunes playlists to a USB MP3 player. This continues the evolution yet maintains the minimalistic appro...LogWin-Logging Your Computer Activities: LogWin-Logging your computer activities: This program is logging your computer activities and display them as table and pie chart. It is made by native C , HTML Dialog and Google Chart API.MessegeBox RightToLeft Lib: MessegeBoxRTL-1.0.0.0_BIN: My First upload.. This is binary release only. Have fun.MessegeBox RightToLeft Lib: MessegeBoxRTL-1.0.0.0_SRC: My first upload.. This is source code with binary. Have fun.MS Word Automation Service: Alpha: In production already, but who cares. It works.MultiMenu ASP.NET Cascading Menu WebControl: MultiMenu 2.6 ASP.NET Menu: Fixed problems that prevented the menu from working with the XHTML DocTypes Added support for IE 7-8 Added XmlLoading and XmlLoaded events Ad...netgod: LanyoWebBrowser: Lanyo ERP ClientnopCommerce. Open Source online shop e-commerce solution.: nopCommerce 1.50: To see the full list of fixes and changes please visit the release notes page (http://www.nopCommerce.com/ReleaseNotes.aspx).Open NFe: Open NFe v1.9.7: Fontes do DANFe 1.9.7 Trim na conversão TXT para XMLpatterns & practices - Smart Client Guidance: Smart Client Software Factory 2010 Beta Source: The Smart Client Software Factory 2010 provides an integrated set of guidance that assists architects and developers in creating composite smart cl...Physics Helper for Silverlight, WPF, Blend, and Farseer: PhysicsHelper 3.0.0.5 Alpha: This release supports Windows Phone 7 Series Development, along with the Silverlight 3 and WPF support. It requires Visual Studio 2010, plus the Wi...Protein Insight: ProteinInsight V2.0.1: Protein Insight is protein structure visualization system. Visualization rendering engine is based on native C and Direct3D, plug-in is based on CL...PSFGeneric: ERP / CRM business management and administration: PSFGeneric 1.4.0.9000 Manual and power-ups ASNIA: PSFGeneric 1.4.0.9000 Tareas 2.1.0 MySQL Persistente 1.0.3 TM-U220 40 col. Driver 1.0.0 Gestor Contable Básico 1.1.2.1 Cafetería 1.1.6 Catalogo 1....QuestTracker: QuestTracker 0.2: Primary new feature: Import/Export Quest Log. Deleting anything will cause an automatic export prior to deletion, automatically backing up your log...Reusable Library: V1.0.5: A collection of reusable abstractions for enterprise application developer.Reusable Library Demo: Reusable Library Demo v1.0.3: A demonstration of reusable abstractions for enterprise application developerSharePoint - Site Request InfoPath Form Template: SharePoint - Site Request InfoPath Form Template: This template allow portal user to enter initial information for requesting of creating a new SharePoint site To install: 1. Run the SiteRequest.m...Silverlight Gantt Chart: Silverlight Gantt Chart 1.2: Updates include ability to add GanttNodeSections that allow for multiple GanttItems in a single row.Spiral Architecture Driven Development (SADD): SADD v.1.0: This is the First complete Release with the NEW materials now all in English ! The abstract from the main article named "SADD-MSAJ-The Spiral Arc...Spiral Architecture Driven Development (SADD) for Russian: SADD v.1.0: Это Первая Версия полного релиза SADD на русском языке. Отрывок из этой статьи опубликован в Microsoft Architecture Journal #23, вы можете найти в ...Sprite Sheet Packer: 2.3 Release: SpriteSheetPacker now supports saved user settings so the app will now remember your previous values for padding, image size, image options, whethe...Standalone XQuery Implementation in .NET: 1.4: This is version 1.4 of the QueryMachine.XQuery. It's includes bug fixes and performance optimization. Document load time is dramatically increased...TextFlow - Text Editor: Kernel: TextFlow core KernelTextFlow - Text Editor: TextFlow Beta 3 Technical Preview: This is a technical preview of TextFlow and is made to run for 40 days after which it will expire. Changes : 140 Bug fixes Supports Windows(R) 7...TiledLib: TiledLib 1.0: First release of TiledLib. This download is for prebuilt DLLs and a demo project. For the full source code, use the Source Code tab to download the...UnGrouper: Current build: This is a preview build. Hide and show the main window with winkey+a. IMPORTANT NOTE: You must close all applications before launching this build ...VCC: Latest build, v2.1.30325.0: Automatic drop of latest buildWCF Metal: WCFMetal 0.3.0.0: WCFMetal 0.3.0.0Copyright © 2010 John Leitch Distributed under the terms of the GNU General Public License Summary By utilizing LINQ to SQL gene...Web Log Analyzer: Release Indihiang 1.0: For installation and how to use, please read Indihiang portal: http://wiki.indihiang.com What's New in Indihiang 1.0 ? check http://geeks.netindone...異世界の新着動画: Ver. 10-03-25: ニコ生仕様に対応Most Popular ProjectsMetaSharpRawrWBFS ManagerASP.NET Ajax LibrarySilverlight ToolkitMicrosoft SQL Server Product Samples: DatabaseAJAX Control ToolkitLiveUpload to FacebookWindows Presentation Foundation (WPF)ASP.NETMost Active ProjectsRawrjQuery Library for SharePoint Web ServicesBlogEngine.NETFarseer Physics EngineFacebook Developer ToolkitLINQ to TwitterFluent Ribbon Control SuiteTable2ClassNB_Store - Free DotNetNuke Ecommerce Catalog ModulePHPExcel

  Read the article

• CodePlex Daily Summary for Friday, April 09, 2010

  CodePlex Daily Summary for Friday, April 09, 2010New Projects(SocketCoder) Free Silverlight Voice/Video Conferencing Modules: The Goal of this project is to provide complete Open Source Voice/Video Chatting Client/Server Modules Using Silverlight techniques, this project i...AJAX Control Framework: Do PageMethods and the UpdatePanel make you feel dirty? Think making AJAX enabled custom ASP.NET controls should WAY easier than it is? Wish ASP.NE...Bluetooth Radar: WPF 4.0 Application working with The final release of 32feet.net (v2.2) to Discover Bluetooth devices, send files and more cool stuff for Bluetooth...Bomberman: Bomberman c++ Project Code Library: This is just a personal storage place for a utility library containing extension methods, new classes, and/or improvements to existing classes.DianPing.com MogileFS Client: MogileFS Client for .Net 2.0Dirty City Hearts Website: Dirty City Hearts WebsiteDocGen - SharePoint 2010 Bulk Document Loader: DocGen is a SharePoint 2010 multithreaded console application for bulk loading sample documents into SharePoint. This program generates Microsoft ...dou24: WebSite for DOUExplora: Explora es un navegador de archivos que no pretende ser un sustituto del explorador de Windows, sino un experimento de codificación que compartir c...HobbyBrew Mobile: This project is basic beer brewing software for Windows Mobile able to read HobbyBrew xml files. Developed in C# and Windows FormsjLight: Interop between Silverlight and the javascript based on jQuery. The syntax used in Silverlight is as close as posible to the jQuery syntax.johandekoning.nl samples: Sample code project which are discussed on johandekoning.nl / johandekoning.com. Most examples are / will be developed with C#Kanban: this is a agile paroject managementMETAR.NET Decoder: Project libraries used to decode airport METAR weather information into adequate data types, change them and back, create resulting METAR informati...Micro Framework: MFDeploy with Set/Get mote SKU ID: This is a modification to the Micro Framework's MFDeploy utility that lets the user set and get the mote's ID (aka SKU). It can be done via the GUI...MobySharp: MobySharp is a implementation of the Mobypicture.com API written in C#NGilead: NGilead permits you to use your NHibernate POCO (and especially the partially loaded ones) outside the .NET Virtual Machine (to Silverlight for exa...OpenIdPortableArea: OpenIdPortableArea is an MvcContrib powered Portable Area that encapsulates logic for implementing OpenId encapsulation (using DotNetOpenAuth).OrderToList Extension for IEnumerable: An extension method for IEnumerable<T> that will sort the IEnumerable based on a list of keys. Suppose you have a list of IDs {10, 5, 12} and wa...project3140.org: Code repository for project3140.org.Prometheus Backup Solution: The Prometheus Backup Solution is a free and small Backup Utility for personal use and for small businesses.Roids: an asteroids clone for Silverlight and XNA: An example of a simple game cross-compiling for both Silverlight and XNA using SilverSprite.SemanticAnalyzer: 3rd phase of Compiler Design ProjectSSRS SDK for PHP: SQL Server Reporting Service SDK for PHPWorking Memory Workout: Working Memory Workout is a working memory training game based on the N-back, a task researchers say may improve fluid intelligence. It greatly ex...Wouters Code Samples: This Project will host some of my sample projects I created. I'm a professional SharePoint/BizTalk developer so most of the provided samples will ...New Releases(SocketCoder) Free Silverlight Voice/Video Conferencing Modules: Silverlight Voice Video Chat Modules: Client/Server Silverlight Voice Video Chat ModulesAccessibilityChecker: Accessibility Checker V0.2: Accessibility Checker V0.2 - Direct url´s input functionality added - XHTML, WAI validation modules, easy to extend. (W3C and Achecker modules incl...AStar.net: AStar.net 1.1 downloads: AStar.net 1.1 Version detailsGreatly improved path finding speed and memory usage from version 1.0. Avalaible downloads:AStar.net 1.1 dll - Runtim...AutoPoco: AutoPoco 0.2: This release will bring some non-generic alternatives to configuration + some more automatic configuration options such as assembly scanningBluetooth Radar: Version 1: Basic version only with the ability to discover Bluetooth devices around you.Convert-Media PowerShell Module for Expression Encoder: Release 1.0.0.2: This is a build that incorporates the latest change sets including perform publish. No other changesDevTreks -social budgeting that improves lives and livelihoods: Social Budgeting Web Software, DevTreks alpha 3e: Alpha 3e is a general debug. It also upgrades the software's family budgeting capabilities, including the addition of a new 'Food Nutrition Input'...dV2t Enterprise Library: dV2tEntLib 1.0.0.3: dV2tEntLib 1.0.0.3EnhSim: Release v1.9.8.3: Release v1.9.8.3 Change Armour Penetration calcs to apply the "Rouncer fix" (current version displays debug info to assist users in testing that th...HouseFly controls: HouseFly controls alpha 0.9: HouseFly controls 0.9 alpha binaries (Includes HouseFly.Classes and HouseFly.Controls).Jitbit WYSWYG BBCode Editor: Release: ReleaseMicro Framework: MFDeploy with Set/Get mote SKU ID: MFDeploy with get, set mote ID: The Micro Framework 4.0 MFDeploy, modified to let the user get & set the mote IDMobySharp: MobySharp 1.0: Initial ReleaseOpenIdPortableArea: OpenIdPortableArea: OpenIdPortableArea.Release: DotNetOpenAuth.dll DotNetOpenAuth.xml MvcContrib.dll MvcContrib.xml OpenIdPortableArea.dll OpenIdPortableAre...OrderToList Extension for IEnumerable: Release 0.9b: I'm calling this 0.9 because I came up with it yesterday and there's little real word use so there's probably something that needs fixing or improv...Prometheus Backup Solution: Prometheus BETA: Actual BETA Release. Restore Functions are not available...Reusable Library: V1.0.6: A collection of reusable abstractions for enterprise application developer.Reusable Library Demo: V1.0.4: A demonstration of reusable abstractions for enterprise application developerSharePoint Labs: SPLab4005A-FRA-Level100: SPLab4005A-FRA-Level100 This SharePoint Lab will teach you the 5th best practice you should apply when writing code with the SharePoint API. Lab La...SharePoint Labs: SPLab6001A-FRA-Level200: SPLab6001A-FRA-Level200 This SharePoint Lab will teach you how to create a generic Feature Receiver within Visual Studio. Creating a Feature Receiv...SharePoint LogViewer: SharePoint LogViewer 2.0: Supports live Farm monitoring. Many bug fixes.Simple Savant: Simple Savant v0.5: Added support for custom constraint/validation logic (See Versioning and Consistency) Added support for reliable cross-domain writes (See Version...SQL Server Extended Properties Quick Editor: Release 1.6.1: Whats new in 1.6.1: Add an edit form to support long text editing. double click to open editor. Add an ORM extended properties initializer to creat...SSRS SDK for PHP: SSRS SDK for PHP: Current release includes the SSRSReport library to connect to SQL Server Reporting Services and a sample application to show the basic steps needed...Table Storage Backup & Restore for Windows Azure: Table Storage Backup 1.0.3751: Bug fix: Crash when creating a table if the existing table had not finished deleting. Bug fix: Incorrect batch URI if the storage account ended in ...VCC: Latest build, v2.1.30408.0: Automatic drop of latest buildVisual Studio DSite: Audio Player (Visual C++ 2008): An audio player that can play wav files.Working Memory Workout: Working Memory Workout 1.0: Working Memory Workout is a working memory trainer based on the N-back memory task.Wouters Code Samples: XMLReceiveCBR: This is a Custom Pipeline component. It will help you create a Content Based Routing solution in combination of a WCF Requst/Response service. Gene...Xen: Graphics API for XNA: Xen 1.8: Version 1.8 (XNA 3.1) This update fixes a number of bugs in several areas of the API and introduces a large new Tutorial. [Added] L2 Spherical Ha...Most Popular ProjectsWBFS ManagerRawrMicrosoft SQL Server Product Samples: DatabaseASP.NET Ajax LibrarySilverlight ToolkitAJAX Control ToolkitWindows Presentation Foundation (WPF)ASP.NETMicrosoft SQL Server Community & SamplesFacebook Developer ToolkitMost Active ProjectsnopCommerce. Open Source online shop e-commerce solution.Shweet: SharePoint 2010 Team Messaging built with PexRawrAutoPocopatterns & practices – Enterprise LibraryIonics Isapi Rewrite FilterNB_Store - Free DotNetNuke Ecommerce Catalog ModuleFacebook Developer ToolkitFarseer Physics EngineNcqrs Framework - The CQRS framework for .NET

  Read the article

• When Your Boss Doesn't Want you to Succeed

  - by Phil Factor

  You're working hard to get an application finished. You are programming long into the evenings sometimes, and eating sandwiches at your desk instead of taking a lunch break. Then one day you glance up at the IT manager, serene in his mysterious round of meetings, and think 'Does he actually care whether this project succeeds or not?'. The question may seem absurd. Of course the project must succeed. The truth, as always, is often far more complex. Your manager may even be doing his best to make sure you don't succeed. Why? There have always been rich pickings for the unscrupulous in IT.  In extreme cases, where administrators struggle with scarcely-comprehended technical issues, huge sums of money can be lost and gained without any perceptible results. In a very few cases can fraud be proven: most of the time, the intricacies of the 'game' are such that one can do little more than harbor suspicion.  Where does over-enthusiastic salesmanship end and fraud begin? The Business of Information Technology provides rich opportunities for White-collar crime. The poor developer has his, or her, hands full with the task of wrestling with the sheer complexity of building an application. He, or she, has no time for following the complexities of the chicanery of the management that is directing affairs.  Most likely, the developers wouldn't even suspect that their company management had ulterior motives. I'll illustrate what I mean with an entirely fictional, hypothetical, example. The Opportunist and the Aged Charities often do good, unexciting work that is funded by the income from a bequest that dates back maybe hundreds of years.  In our example, it isn't exciting work, for it involves the welfare of elderly people who have fallen on hard times.  Volunteers visit, giving a smile and a chat, and check that they are all right, but are able to spend a little money on their discretion to ameliorate any pressing needs for these old folk.  The money is made to work very hard and the charity averts a great deal of suffering and eases the burden on the state. Daisy hears the garden gate creak as Mrs Rainer comes up the path. She looks forward to her twice-weekly visit from the nice lady from the trust. She always asked ‘is everything all right, Love’. Cheeky but nice. She likes her cheery manner. She seems interested in hearing her memories, and talking about her far-away family. She helps her with those chores in the house that she couldn’t manage and once even paid to fill the back-shed with coke, the other year. Nice, Mrs. Rainer is, she thought as she goes to open the door. The trustees are getting on in years themselves, and worry about the long-term future of the charity: is it relevant to modern society? Is it likely to attract a new generation of workers to take it on. They are instantly attracted by the arrival to the board of a smartly dressed University lecturer with the ear of the present Government. Alain 'Stalin' Jones is earnest, persuasive and energetic. The trustees welcome him to the board and quickly forgive his humorless political-correctness. He talks of 'diversity', 'relevance', 'social change', 'equality' and 'communities', but his eye is on that huge bequest. Alain first came to notice as a Trotskyite union official, who insinuated himself into one of the duller Trades Unions and turned it, through his passionate leadership, into a radical, headline-grabbing organization.  Middle age, and the rise of European federal socialism, had brought him quiet prosperity and charcoal suits, an ear in the current government, and a wide influence as a member of various Quangos (government bodies staffed by well-paid unelected courtiers).  He was employed as a 'consultant' by several organizations that relied on government contracts. After gaining the confidence of the trustees, and showing a surprising knowledge of mundane processes and the regulatory framework of charities, Alain launches his plan.  The trust will expand their work by means of a bold IT initiative that will coordinate the interventions of several 'caring agencies', and provide  emergency cover, a special Website so anxious relatives can see how their elderly charges are doing, and a vastly more efficient way of coordinating the work of the volunteer carers. It will also provide a special-purpose site that gives 'social networking' facilities, rather like Facebook, to the few elderly folk on the lists with access to the internet. The trustees perk up. Their own experience of the internet is restricted to the occasional scanning of railway timetables, but they can see that it is 'relevant'. In his next report to the other trustees, Alain proudly announces that all this glamorous and exciting technology can be paid for by a grant from the government. He admits darkly that he has influence. True to his word, the government promises a grant of a size that is an order of magnitude greater than any budget that the trustees had ever handled. There was the understandable proviso that the company that would actually do the IT work would have to be one of the government's preferred suppliers and the work would need to be tendered under EU competition rules. The only company that tenders, a multinational IT company with a long track record of government work, quotes ten million pounds for the work. A trustee questions the figure as it seems enormous for the reasonably trivial internet facilities being built, but the IT Salesmen dazzle them with presentations and three-letter acronyms until they subside into quiescent acceptance. After all, they can’t stay locked in the Twentieth century practices can they? The work is put in hand with a large project team, in a splendid glass building near west London. The trustees see rooms of programmers working diligently at screens, and who talk with enthusiasm of the project. Paul, the project manager, looked through his resource schedule with growing unease. His initial excitement at being given his first major project hadn’t lasted. He’d been allocated a lackluster team of developers whose skills didn’t seem right, and he was allowed only a couple of contractors to make good the deficit. Strangely, the presentation he’d given to his management, where he’d saved time and resources with a OTS solution to a great deal of the development work, and a sound conservative architecture, hadn’t gone down nearly as big as he’d hoped. He almost got the feeling they wanted a more radical and ambitious solution. The project starts slipping its dates. The costs build rapidly. There are certain uncomfortable extra charges that appear, such as the £600-a-day charge by the 'Business Manager' appointed to act as a point of liaison between the charity and the IT Company.  When he appeared, his face permanently split by a 'Mr Sincerity' smile, they'd thought he was provided at the cost of the IT Company. Derek, the DBA, didn’t have to go to the server room quite some much as he did: but It got him away from the poisonous despair of the development group. Wave after wave of events had conspired to delay the project.  Why the management had imposed hideous extra bureaucracy to cover ISO 9000 and 9001:2008 accreditation just as the project was struggling to get back on-schedule was  beyond belief.  Then  the Business manager was coming back with endless changes in scope, sorrowing saying that the Trustees were very insistent, though hopelessly out in touch with the reality of technical challenges. Suddenly, the costs mount to the point of consuming the government grant in its entirety. The project remains tantalizingly just out of reach. Alain Jones gives an emotional rallying speech at the trustees review meeting, urging them not to lose their nerve. Sadly, the trustees dip into the accumulated capital of the trust, the seed-corn of all their revenues, in order to save the IT project. A few months later it is all over. The IT project is never delivered, even though it had seemed so incredibly close.  With the trust's capital all gone, the activities it funded have to be terminated and the trust becomes just a shell. There aren't even the funds to mount a legal challenge against the IT company, even had the trust's solicitor advised such a foolish thing. Alain leaves as suddenly as he had arrived, only to pop up a few months later, bronzed and rested, at another charity. The IT workers who were permanent employees are dispersed to other projects, and the contractors leave to other contracts. Within months the entire project is but a vague memory. One or two developers remain  puzzled that their managers had been so obstructive when they should have welcomed progress toward completion of the project, but they put it down to incompetence and testosterone. Few suspected that they were actively preventing the project from getting finished. The relationships between the IT consultancy, and the government of the day are intricate, and made more complex by the Private Finance initiatives and political patronage.  The losers in this case were the taxpayers, and the beneficiaries of the trust, and, perhaps the soul of the original benefactor of the trust, whose bid to give his name some immortality had been scuppered by smooth-talking white-collar political apparatniks.  Even now, nobody is certain whether a crime was ever committed. The perfect heist, I guess. Where’s the victim? "I hear that Daisy’s cottage is up for sale. She’s had to go into a care home.  She didn’t want to at all, but then there is nobody to keep an eye on her since she had that minor stroke a while back.  A charity used to help out. The ‘social’ don’t have the funding, evidently for community care. Yes, her old cat was put down. There was a good clearout, and now the house is all scrubbed and cleared ready for sale. The skip was full of old photos and letters, memories. No room in her new ‘home’."

  Read the article

• Professional Scrum Developer (.NET) Training in London

  - by Martin Hinshelwood

  On the 26th - 30th July in Microsoft’s offices in London Adam Cogan from SSW will be presenting the first Professional Scrum Developer course in the UK. I will be teaching this course along side Adam and it is a fantastic experience. You are split into teams and go head-to-head to deliver units of potentially shippable work in four two hour sprints. The Professional Scrum Developer course is the only course endorsed by both Microsoft and Ken Schwaber and they have worked together very effectively in brining this course to fruition. This course is the brain child of Richard Hundhausen, a Microsoft Regional Director, and both Adam and I attending the Trainer Prep in Sydney when he was there earlier this year. He is a fantastic trainer and no matter where you do this course you can be safe in the knowledge that he has trained and vetted all of the teachers. A tools version of Ken if you will Find a course and register Download this syllabus Download the Scrum Guide What is the Professional Scrum Developer course all about? Professional Scrum Developer course is a unique and intensive five-day experience for software developers. The course guides teams on how to turn product requirements into potentially shippable increments of software using the Scrum framework, Visual Studio 2010, and modern software engineering practices. Attendees will work in self-organizing, self-managing teams using a common instance of Team Foundation Server 2010. Who should attend this course? This course is suitable for any member of a software development team – architect, programmer, database developer, tester, etc. Entire teams are encouraged to attend and experience the course together, but individuals are welcome too. Attendees will self-organize to form cross-functional Scrum teams. These teams require an aggregate of skills specific to the selected case study. Please see the last page of this document for specific details. Product Owners, ScrumMasters, and other stakeholders are welcome too, but keep in mind that everyone who attends will be expected to commit to work and pull their weight on a Scrum team. What should you know by the end of the course? Scrum will be experienced through a combination of lecture, demonstration, discussion, and hands-on exercises. Attendees will learn how to do Scrum correctly while being coached and critiqued by the instructor, in the following topic areas: Form effective teams Explore and understand legacy “Brownfield” architecture Define quality attributes, acceptance criteria, and “done” Create automated builds How to handle software hotfixes Verify that bugs are identified and eliminated Plan releases and sprints Estimate product backlog items Create and manage a sprint backlog Hold an effective sprint review Improve your process by using retrospectives Use emergent architecture to avoid technical debt Use Test Driven Development as a design tool Setup and leverage continuous integration Use Test Impact Analysis to decrease testing times Manage SQL Server development in an Agile way Use .NET and T-SQL refactoring effectively Build, deploy, and test SQL Server databases Create and manage test plans and cases Create, run, record, and play back manual tests Setup a branching strategy and branch code Write more maintainable code Identify and eliminate people and process dysfunctions Inspect and improve your team’s software development process What does the week look like? This course is a mix of lecture, demonstration, group discussion, simulation, and hands-on software development. The bulk of the course will be spent working as a team on a case study application delivering increments of new functionality in mini-sprints. Here is the week at a glance: Monday morning and most of the day Friday will be spent with the computers powered off, so you can focus on sharpening your game of Scrum and avoiding the common pitfalls when implementing it. The Sprints Timeboxing is a critical concept in Scrum as well as in this course. We expect each team and student to understand and obey all of the timeboxes. The timebox duration will always be clearly displayed during each activity. Expect the instructor to enforce it. Each of the ½ day sprints will roughly follow this schedule: Component Description Minutes Instruction Presentation and demonstration of new and relevant tools & practices 60 Sprint planning meeting Product owner presents backlog; each team commits to delivering functionality 10 Sprint planning meeting Each team determines how to build the functionality 10 The Sprint The team self-organizes and self-manages to complete their tasks 120 Sprint Review meeting Each team will present their increment of functionality to the other teams = 30 Sprint Retrospective A group retrospective meeting will be held to inspect and adapt 10 Each team is expected to self-organize and manage their own work during the sprint. Pairing is highly encouraged. The instructor/product owner will be available if there are questions or impediments, but will be hands-off by default. You should be prepared to communicate and work with your team members in order to achieve your sprint goal. If you have development-related questions or get stuck, your partner or team should be your first level of support. Module 1: INTRODUCTION This module provides a chance for the attendees to get to know the instructors as well as each other. The Professional Scrum Developer program, as well as the day by day agenda, will be explained. Finally, the Scrum team will be selected and assembled so that the forming, storming, norming, and performing can begin. Trainer and student introductions Professional Scrum Developer program Agenda Logistics Team formation Retrospective Module 2: SCRUMDAMENTALS This module provides a level-setting understanding of the Scrum framework including the roles, timeboxes, and artifacts. The team will then experience Scrum firsthand by simulating a multi-day sprint of product development, including planning, review, and retrospective meetings. Scrum overview Scrum roles Scrum timeboxes (ceremonies) Scrum artifacts Simulation Retrospective It’s required that you read Ken Schwaber’s Scrum Guide in preparation for this module and course. MODULE 3: IMPLEMENTING SCRUM IN VISUAL STUDIO 2010 This module demonstrates how to implement Scrum in Visual Studio 2010 using a Scrum process template*. The team will learn the mapping between the Scrum concepts and how they are implemented in the tool. After connecting to the shared Team Foundation Server, the team members will then return to the simulation – this time using Visual Studio to manage their product development. Mapping Scrum to Visual Studio 2010 User Story work items Task work items Bug work items Demonstration Simulation Retrospective Module 4: THE CASE STUDY In this module the team is introduced to their problem domain for the week. A kickoff meeting by the Product Owner (the instructor) will set the stage for the why and what that will take during the upcoming sprints. The team will then define the quality attributes of the project and their definition of “done.” The legacy application code will be downloaded, built, and explored, so that any bugs can be discovered and reported. Introduction to the case study Download the source code, build, and explore the application Define the quality attributes for the project Define “done” How to file effective bugs in Visual Studio 2010 Retrospective Module 5: HOTFIX This module drops the team directly into a Brownfield (legacy) experience by forcing them to analyze the existing application’s architecture and code in order to locate and fix the Product Owner’s high-priority bug(s). The team will learn best practices around finding, testing, fixing, validating, and closing a bug. How to use Architecture Explorer to visualize and explore Create a unit test to validate the existence of a bug Find and fix the bug Validate and close the bug Retrospective Module 6: PLANNING This short module introduces the team to release and sprint planning within Visual Studio 2010. The team will define and capture their goals as well as other important planning information. Release vs. Sprint planning Release planning and the Product Backlog Product Backlog prioritization Acceptance criteria and tests Sprint planning and the Sprint Backlog Creating and linking Sprint tasks Retrospective At this point the team will have the knowledge of Scrum, Visual Studio 2010, and the case study application to begin developing increments of potentially shippable functionality that meet their definition of done. Module 7: EMERGENT ARCHITECTURE This module introduces the architectural practices and tools a team can use to develop a valid design on which to develop new functionality. The teams will learn how Scrum supports good architecture and design practices. After the discussion, the teams will be presented with the product owner’s prioritized backlog so that they may select and commit to the functionality they can deliver in this sprint. Architecture and Scrum Emergent architecture Principles, patterns, and practices Visual Studio 2010 modeling tools UML and layer diagrams SPRINT 1 Retrospective Module 8: TEST DRIVEN DEVELOPMENT This module introduces Test Driven Development as a design tool and how to implement it using Visual Studio 2010. To maximize productivity and quality, a Scrum team should setup Continuous Integration to regularly build every team member’s code changes and run regression tests. Refactoring will also be defined and demonstrated in combination with Visual Studio’s Test Impact Analysis to efficiently re-run just those tests which were impacted by refactoring. Continuous integration Team Foundation Build Test Driven Development (TDD) Refactoring Test Impact Analysis SPRINT 2 Retrospective Module 9: AGILE DATABASE DEVELOPMENT This module lets the SQL Server database developers in on a little secret – they can be agile too. By using the database projects in Visual Studio 2010, the database developers can join the rest of the team. The students will see how to apply Agile database techniques within Visual Studio to support the SQL Server 2005/2008/2008R2 development lifecycle. Agile database development Visual Studio database projects Importing schema and scripts Building and deploying Generating data Unit testing SPRINT 3 Retrospective Module 10: SHIP IT Teams need to know that just because they like the functionality doesn’t mean the Product Owner will. This module revisits acceptance criteria as it pertains to acceptance testing. By refining acceptance criteria into manual test steps, team members can execute the tests, recording the results and reporting bugs in a number of ways. Manual tests will be defined and executed using the Microsoft Test Manager tool. As the Sprint completes and an increment of functionality is delivered, the team will also learn why and when they should create a branch of the codeline. Acceptance criteria Testing in Visual Studio 2010 Microsoft Test Manager Writing and running manual tests Branching SPRINT 4 Retrospective Module 11: OVERCOMING DYSFUNCTION This module introduces the many types of people, process, and tool dysfunctions that teams face in the real world. Many dysfunctions and scenarios will be identified, along with ideas and discussion for how a team might mitigate them. This module will enable you and your team to move toward independence and improve your game of Scrum when you depart class. Scrum-butts and flaccid Scrum Best practices working as a team Team challenges ScrumMaster challenges Product Owner challenges Stakeholder challenges Course Retrospective What will be expected of you and you team? This is a unique course in that it’s technically-focused, team-based, and employs timeboxes. It demands that the members of the teams self-organize and self-manage their own work to collaboratively develop increments of software. All attendees must commit to: Pay attention to all lectures and demonstrations Participate in team and group discussions Work collaboratively with other team members Obey the timebox for each activity Commit to work and do your best to deliver All teams should have these skills: Understanding of Scrum Familiarity with Visual Studio 201 C#, .NET 4.0 & ASP.NET 4.0 experience*  SQL Server 2008 development experience Software testing experience * Check with the instructor ahead of time for the exact technologies Self-organising teams Another unique attribute of this course is that it’s a technical training class being delivered to teams of developers, not pairs, and not individuals. Ideally, your actual software development team will attend the training to ensure that all necessary skills are covered. However, if you wish to attend an open enrolment course alone or with just a couple of colleagues, realize that you may be placed on a team with other attendees. The instructor will do his or her best to ensure that each team is cross-functional to tackle the case study, but there are no guarantees. You may be required to try a new role, learn a new skill, or pair with somebody unfamiliar to you. This is just good Scrum! Who should NOT take this course? Because of the nature of this course, as explained above, certain types of people should probably not attend this course: Students requiring command and control style instruction – there are no prescriptive/step-by-step (think traditional Microsoft Learning) labs in this course Students who are unwilling to work within a timebox Students who are unwilling to work collaboratively on a team Students who don’t have any skill in any of the software development disciplines Students who are unable to commit fully to their team – not only will this diminish the student’s learning experience, but it will also impact their team’s learning experience Find a course and register Download this syllabus Download the Scrum Guide Technorati Tags: Scrum,SSW,Pro Scrum Dev

  Read the article

< Previous Page | 395 396 397 398 399 400 401 402 403 404 405 406  | Next Page >