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• Oracle Utilities Application Framework V4.2.0.0.0 Released

  - by ACShorten

  The Oracle Utilities Application Framework V4.2.0.0.0 has been released with Oracle Utilities Customer Care And Billing V2.4. This release includes new functionality and updates to existing functionality and will be progressively released across the Oracle Utilities applications. The release is quite substantial with lots of new and exciting changes. The release notes shipped with the product includes a summary of the changes implemented in V4.2.0.0.0. They include the following: Configuration Migration Assistant (CMA) - A new data management capability to allow you to export and import Configuration Data from one environment to another with support for Approval/Rejection of individual changes. Database Connection Tagging - Additional tags have been added to the database connection to allow database administrators, Oracle Enterprise Manager and other Oracle technology the ability to monitor and use individual database connection information. Native Support for Oracle WebLogic - In the past the Oracle Utilities Application Framework used Oracle WebLogic in embedded mode, and now, to support advanced configuration and the ExaLogic platform, we are adding Native Support for Oracle WebLogic as configuration option. Native Web Services Support - In the past the Oracle Utilities Application Framework supplied a servlet to handle Web Services calls and now we offer an alternative to use the native Web Services capability of Oracle WebLogic. This allows for enhanced clustering, a greater level of Web Service standards support, enchanced security options and the ability to use the Web Services management capabilities in Oracle WebLogic to implement higher levels of management including defining additional security rules to control access to individual Web Services. XML Data Type Support - Oracle Utilities Application Framework now allows implementors to define XML Data types used in Oracle in the definition of custom objects to take advantage of XQuery and other XML features. Fuzzy Operator Support - Oracle Utilities Application Framework supports the use of the fuzzy operator in conjunction with Oracle Text to take advantage of the fuzzy searching capabilities within the database. Global Batch View - A new JMX based API has been implemented to allow JSR120 compliant consoles the ability to view batch execution across all threadpools in the Coherence based Named Cache Cluster. Portal Personalization - It is now possible to store the runtime customizations of query zones such as preferred sorting, field order and filters to reuse as personal preferences each time that zone is used. These are just the major changes and there are quite a few more that have been delivered (and more to come in the service packs!!). Over the next few weeks we will be publishing new whitepapers and new entries in this blog outlining new facilities that you want to take advantage of.

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• Configurable Objects - Introduction

  - by Anthony Shorten

  One of the interesting facilities in the framework is Configurable Object functionality (it is also known as Task Optimization and also known as Cool Tools). The idea is that any implementation can create their own views of the base product objects and services and implement functionality against those new views. For example, in Oracle Utilities Customer Care and Billing, there is a Person object. That object is used to store and manage information about individuals as well as companies. In the base product you would use the Person Maintenance screen and fill in some of the screen when you wanted to register or maintain and individual as well and fill out other parts of the screen when you wanted to register or maintain a company. This can be somewhat confusing to some customers. Using Configurable Objects this can be simplified. A business object can be created that is a view of the any object. For example, you could create a Human business object which would cover the aspects of the Person object pertaining to an individual and a Company business object to cover the aspects unique to a company. Even the tag names (i.e. Field Names) in the object can be changed to be more what the implementation is familiar with. The object can also restructure the object. For example, a common identifier for an individual in the USA is the Social Security number, this value is a Person Identifier (as this varies in each country). In the new Human object you can remap the Person Identifier as a Social Security number. To define a Business Object you use a schema editor built into the browser user interface and use a mapping language to setup the business objects. An example of the language is shown below in an extract of the schema for the Human business object. As you can see there are mapping as well as formatting and other tags. This information can be built manually or using a wizard which generates the base structure for you to alter. This is all stored as meta data when saved. Once a Business object is built it can be used as basis for code, other business objects (we support inheritance), called by a screen (called a UI Map) or even as a Web Service. This is just a start with Configurable Objects as you can also create views of base services called Business Services, Service Scripts used for non-object or complex object processing (as well as other things), UI Maps used for screens and Data Areas to reuse definitions across multiple objects. Configurable Objects are powerful and I only really touched on them here. Over the next few months I hope to add lots more entries about them.

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• An update on using Rosetta Stone: Studio now isn't very useful and is not great value as an add-on option

  - by Greg Low

  I had a surprisingly large number of responses from my previous posting about learning Chinese. An update for those considering Rosetta Stone (www.rosettastone.com) for Chinese, Spanish or any other language that they offer:I had to renew my "Studio" subscription today and it's now a much worse deal than it was.It's now $75 for 6 months for Studio sessions. Online classes used to be 45 mins. Recently they reduced them to 20 mins. Given how often people have connection issues, etc. that 20 mins can disappear very quickly.They've also reduced the number you can attend. You used to be able to have 2 scheduled at any point in time. Now they limit you to 2 "group sessions" per month during the period. (You can pay for additional private sessions). The combination of these two changes now makes it much less useful. Two x 20 min sessions per month is an almost meaningless amount of practice. They also now automatically change you to auto-renew when you subscribe. They tell you where to remove this auto-renewal but the first 4 or 5 times that I went into that screen, no such option appeared. Later, an option did appear and I used it.Overall, things just aren't what they used to be at Rosetta Stone. It's now pretty hard to recommend the Studio option where it was a no-brainer before.FURTHER UPDATE: <sigh>Even after I renewed, I could not even connect to their "new" service. Although the system processed the renewal, it still tells me it's expired. My online chat person "Siva S" tells me that the problem is that I've purchased all 5 levels of the program. I can't wait till they explain to me how making an extra purchase from them stops me from logging on. Siva told me that they had "renewed" the program. I'd have to speak to Customer Care; they aren't available and then disconnected himself. Impressive (not).Their website is now full of issues too. It insists that my billing address is in the USA, even though it pretends to accept changes to it.Overall, it's gone from something that could be recommended (with some limitations) to now being an app to avoid. That's a pity as I liked much of it before.

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• Three Global Telecoms Soar With Siebel

  - by michael.seback

  Deutsche Telekom Group Selects Oracle's Siebel CRM to Underpin Next-Generation CRM Strategy The Deutsche Telekom Group (DTAG), one of the world's leading telecommunications companies, and a customer of Oracle since 2001, has invested in Oracle's Siebel CRM as the standard platform for its Next Generation CRM strategy; a move to lower the cost of managing its 120 million customers across its European businesses. Oracle's Siebel CRM is planned to be deployed in Germany and all of the company's European business within five years. "...Our Next-Generation strategy is a significant move to lower our operating costs and enhance customer service for all our European customers. Not only is Oracle underpinning this strategy, but is also shaping the way our company operates and sells to customers. We look forward to working with Oracle over the coming years as the technology is extended across Europe," said Dr. Steffen Roehn, CIO Deutsche Telekom AG... "The telecommunications industry is currently undergoing some major changes. As a result, companies like Deutsche Telekom are needing to be more intelligent about the way they use technology, particularly when it comes to customer service. Deutsche Telekom is a great example of how organisations can use CRM to not just improve services, but also drive more commercial opportunities through the ability to offer highly tailored offers, while the customer is engaged online or on the phone," said Steve Fearon, vice president CRM, EMEA Read more. Telecom Argentina S.A. Accelerates Time-to-Market for New Communications Products and Services Telecom Argentina S.A. offers basic telephone, urban landline, and national and international long-distance services...."With Oracle's Siebel CRM and Oracle Communication Billing and Revenue Management, we started a technological transformation that allows us to satisfy our critical business needs, such as improving customer service and quickly launching new phone and internet products and services." - Saba Gooley, Chief Information Officer, Wire Line and Internet Services, Telecom Argentina S.A.Read more. Türk Telekom Develops Benefits-Driven CRM Roadmap Türk Telekom Group provides integrated telecommunication services from public switched telephone network (PSTN) and global systems for mobile communications technology (GSM). to broadband internet...."Oracle Insight provided us with a structured deployment approach that makes sense for our business. It quantified the benefits of the CRM solution allowing us to engage with the relevant business owners; essential for a successful transformation program." - Paul Taylor, VP Commercial Transformation, Türk Telekom Read more.

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• CodePlex Daily Summary for Tuesday, June 11, 2013

  CodePlex Daily Summary for Tuesday, June 11, 2013Popular ReleasesToolbox for Dynamics CRM 2011: XrmToolBox (v1.2013.6.11): XrmToolbox improvement Add exception handling when loading plugins Updated information panel for displaying two lines of text Tools improvementMetadata Document Generator (v1.2013.6.10)New tool Web Resources Manager (v1.2013.6.11)Retrieve list of unused web resources Retrieve web resources from a solution All tools listAccess Checker (v1.2013.2.5) Attribute Bulk Updater (v1.2013.1.17) FetchXml Tester (v1.2013.3.4) Iconator (v1.2013.1.17) Metadata Document Generator (v1.2013.6.10) Privilege...Document.Editor: 2013.23: What's new for Document.Editor 2013.23: New Insert Emoticon support Improved Format support Minor Bug Fix's, improvements and speed upsChristoc's DotNetNuke Module Development Template: DotNetNuke 7 Project Templates V2.4 for VS2012: V2.4 - Release Date 6/10/2013 Items addressed in this 2.4 release Updated MSBuild Community Tasks reference to 1.4.0.61 Setting up your DotNetNuke Module Development Environment Installing Christoc's DotNetNuke Module Development Templates Customizing the latest DotNetNuke Module Development Project TemplatesLayered Architecture Sample for .NET: Leave Sample - June 2013 (for .NET 4.5): Thank You for downloading Layered Architecture Sample. Please read the accompanying README.txt file for setup and installation instructions. This is the first set of a series of revised samples that will be released to illustrate the layered architecture design pattern. This version is only supported on Visual Studio 2012. This samples illustrates the use of ASP.NET Web Forms, ASP.NET Model Binding, Windows Communications Foundation (WCF), Windows Workflow Foundation (WF) and Microsoft Ente...Papercut: Papercut 2013-6-10: Feature: Shows From, To, Date and Subject of Email. Feature: Async UI and loading spinner. Enhancement: Improved speed when loading large attachments. Enhancement: Decoupled SMTP server into secondary assembly. Enhancement: Upgraded to .NET v4. Fix: Messages lost when received very fast. Fix: Email encoding issues on display/Automatically detect message EncodingMapWinGIS ActiveX Map and GIS Component: MapWinGIS v4.8.8 Release Candidate - 32 Bit: This is the first release candidate of MapWinGIS. Please test it thoroughly.MapWindow 4: MapWindow GIS v4.8.8 - Release Candidate - 32Bit: Download the release notes here: http://svn.mapwindow.org/svnroot/MapWindow4Dev/Bin/MapWindowNotes.rtfVR Player: VR Player 0.3 ALPHA: New plugin system with individual folders TrackIR support Maya and 3ds max formats support Dual screen support Mono layouts (left and right) Cylinder height parameter Barel effect factor parameter Razer hydra filter parameter VRPN bug fixes UI improvements Performances improvements Stabilization and logging with Log4Net New default values base on users feedback CTRL key to open menuSimCityPak: SimCityPak 0.1.0.8: SimCityPak 0.1.0.8 New features: Import BMP color palettes for vehicles Import RASTER file (uncompressed 8.8.8.8 DDS files) View different channels of RASTER files or preview of all layers combined Find text in javascripts TGA viewer Ground textures added to lot editor Many additional identified instances and propertiesWsus Package Publisher: Release v1.2.1306.09: Add more verifications on certificate validation. WPP will not let user to try publishing an update until the certificate is valid. Add certificate expiration date on the 'About' form. Filter Approbation to avoid a user to try to approve an update for uninstallation when the update do not support uninstallation. Add the server and console version on the 'About' form. WPP will not let user to publish an update until the server and console are not at the same level. WPP do not let user ...AJAX Control Toolkit: June 2013 Release: AJAX Control Toolkit Release Notes - June 2013 Release Version 7.0607June 2013 release of the AJAX Control Toolkit. AJAX Control Toolkit .NET 4.5 – AJAX Control Toolkit for .NET 4.5 and sample site (Recommended). AJAX Control Toolkit .NET 4 – AJAX Control Toolkit for .NET 4 and sample site (Recommended). AJAX Control Toolkit .NET 3.5 – AJAX Control Toolkit for .NET 3.5 and sample site (Recommended). Notes: - Instructions for using the AJAX Control Toolkit with ASP.NET 4.5 can be found at...Rawr: Rawr 5.2.1: This is the Downloadable WPF version of Rawr!For web-based version see http://elitistjerks.com/rawr.php You can find the version notes at: http://rawr.codeplex.com/wikipage?title=VersionNotes Rawr Addon (NOT UPDATED YET FOR MOP)We now have a Rawr Official Addon for in-game exporting and importing of character data hosted on Curse. The Addon does not perform calculations like Rawr, it simply shows your exported Rawr data in wow tooltips and lets you export your character to Rawr (including ba...VG-Ripper & PG-Ripper: PG-Ripper 1.4.13: changes NEW: Added Support for "ImageJumbo.com" links FIXED: Ripping of Threads with multiple pagesASP.NET MVC Forum: MVCForum v1.3.5: This is a bug release version, with a couple of small usability features and UI changes. All the small amount of bugs reported in v1.3 have been fixed, no upgrade needed just overwrite the files and everything should just work.Json.NET: Json.NET 5.0 Release 6: New feature - Added serialized/deserialized JSON to verbose tracing New feature - Added support for using type name handling with ISerializable content Fix - Fixed not using default serializer settings with primitive values and JToken.ToObject Fix - Fixed error writing BigIntegers with JsonWriter.WriteToken Fix - Fixed serializing and deserializing flag enums with EnumMember attribute Fix - Fixed error deserializing interfaces with a valid type converter Fix - Fixed error deser...QlikView Extension - Animated Scatter Chart: Animated Scatter Chart - v1.0: Version 1.0 including Source Code qar File Example QlikView application Tested With: Browser Firefox 20 (x64) Google Chrome 27 (x64) Internet Explorer 9 QlikView QlikView Desktop 11 - SR2 (x64) QlikView Desktop 11.2 - SR1 (x64) QlikView Ajax Client 11.2 - SR2 (based on x64)BarbaTunnel: BarbaTunnel 7.2: Warning: HTTP Tunnel is not compatible with version 6.x and prior, HTTP packet format has been changed. Check Version History for more information about this release.SuperWebSocket, a .NET WebSocket Server: SuperWebSocket 0.8: This release includes these changes below: Upgrade SuperSocket to 1.5.3 which is much more stable Added handshake request validating api (WebSocketServer.ValidateHandshake(TWebSocketSession session, string origin)) Fixed a bug that the m_Filters in the SubCommandBase can be null if the command's method LoadSubCommandFilters(IEnumerable<SubCommandFilterAttribute> globalFilters) is not invoked Fixed the compatibility issue on Origin getting in the different version protocols Marked ISub...BlackJumboDog: Ver5.9.0: 2013.06.04 Ver5.9.0 (1) ?????????????????????????????????($Remote.ini Tmp.ini) (2) ThreadBaseTest?? (3) ????POP3??????SMTP???????????????? (4) Web???????、?????????URL??????????????? (5) Ftp???????、LIST?????????????? (6) ?????????????????????Media Companion: Media Companion MC3.569b: New* Movies - Autoscrape/Batch Rescrape extra fanart and or extra thumbs. * Movies - Alternative editor can add manually actors. * TV - Batch Rescraper, AutoScrape extrafanart, if option enabled. Fixed* Movies - Slow performance switching to movie tab by adding option 'Disable "Not Matching Rename Pattern"' to Movie Preferences - General. * Movies - Fixed only actors with images were scraped and added to nfo * Movies - Fixed filter reset if selected tab was above Home Movies. * Updated Medi...New Projects.Net Framework Detector: This application displays all the .Net framework installed on a PC.Adhayayan: Online learning management system designed for small as having 50 students and large as 1000+ students. This is community version having most needed features.Akad SPPortal: Project portal Reserved for unit with features the basic. Been Development in the Background platform SharePoint foundation 2010. Combined EXT.net FrameworkANGF Autumn's Novel Game Framework: This is a novel game framework project. ANGF was use by a game of "1980 Otaku no Hideo", before Codeplex project started. auto check in: help users to login and check in for certain websites automatically,such as xiami and taobaoBasic Expression Evaluator C#: Mathematical Expression Evaluation with symbols and normal bodmas order of precedence. Supports basic arithmetic operations and access to a symbol dictionaryCaloriesCalculator: CaloriesCalculator, the code refactor exampleCamadanPortal: Just a simple company website...charity organization1: charity organizationControl de Asistencia - Grupo Azar2: Control de asistenciaExpenses Manager: Expenses Manager for Windows Phone 8File Sync (Desktop Application): This is a simple "File Synchronizing" / "File Back Up" software, uses Microsift Sync 2.0Furcadia Heimdall Tester: An application that helps Furcadia technicians test the integrity of the game server. It checks for availability of each heimdall, its connectivity to the rest of the system (horton/tribble) and how often it receives a user compared to the rest of them.Furcadia Installer Browser: A program that can access files within a Furcadia installer and allow the user to open them from within the install package, extract some or all the files inside the package, check data integrity of each file and compare the content of two installers.Furcadia Map Normalizer: Furcadia Map Normalizer is a small tool that helps recover a damaged Furcadia map after a live-edit bug. It restores out-of-range elements within back to zero.MyHistory: .NexusCamera: Nexus Camera is a control for Windows Phone 7 & 8, which can be used as a menu on the Camera. The idea in making this control when we use a camera nexus. ThanksNUnit Test Runner: Allows you to run NUnit tests in a more flexible way.Photo Printer Load Balancing: This was developed as a small utility allowing for multiple printers to be used in a DIY photobooth. It monitors a folder for images and load balances a printerResource Translator: A utility that allows you to quickly translate .NET resource files.SCCM Powershell Module: A powershell module to simplify the administration of a System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM) environment.ShardMath: A simple cross platform maths library with expression parsing written without any dependencies on existing pre installed .NET libraries.SoftwareEngineering: Software Engineering Project that named SakhtemanPezeshkan Sprint TinCan LRS: Using the TinCan specifications, this C# MVC project attempts to provide endpoints for TinCan compliant clients.threadpool: a high performance threadpool good for tiny / small / medium processor work, which is the base of event_comb procedural programming framework.TouchProxy (for Windows 8): A remote touch injection client for Windows 8 using standard TUIO+OSC protocols, variable input calibration, and integrated hosted Wi-Fi networking for devices.UGSF Design StarterKit: Information for helping users to create SharePoint Design.UNREAL GAME BY FREITAG: Unreal action game!Win8DemoAcceleratore: This project is a demo project for a lab on Windows 8 Store App development Windows 8 App Design Reference Template: Education Dark Banner: Education Dark Banner Template help if you want to build an app which has an option for group category display and education detailsWindows 8 App Design Reference Template: Photo Viewer: Photo Viewer template will help if you want a photo gallery app to showcase images from various folders. ????: ????WP7??????

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• A Hot Topic - Profitability and Cost Management

  - by john.orourke(at)oracle.com

  Maybe it's due to the recent recession, or current economic recovery but a hot topic and area of focus for many organizations these days is profitability and cost management.  For most organizations, aggressive cost-cutting and cost management were critical to remaining profitable while top line revenue was flat or shrinking.  However, now we are seeing many organizations taking a more "surgical" approach to profitability and cost management, by accurately allocating revenue and costs to individual product lines, services, customer segments, locations, channels and other lines of business to understand which ones are truly profitable and which ones are not.  Based on these insights, managers can make more informed decisions about which products or services to invest in or retire, how to price their products or services for different customer segments, and where to focus their marketing and customer service resources. The most common industries where this product, service and customer-focused costing and profitability analysis is being adopted include financial services, consumer packaged goods, retail and manufacturing.  However we are seeing adoption of profitability and cost management applications in other industries and use cases.  Here are a few examples: Telecommunications Industry:  Network Costing and Management to identify the most cost effective and/or profitable network areas, to optimize existing resources, infrastructure and network capacity.  Regulatory Cost Accounting to perform more accurate allocations of revenue and costs across services and customer segments, improve ability to set billing rates for future periods, for various products and customer segments and more easily develop analysis needed for rate case proposals. Healthcare Insurance:  Visually, justifiable Medical Loss Ratio results, better knowledge of the cost to service healthcare plans and members, accurate understanding of member segment and plan profitability, improved marketing programs through better member segmentation. Public Sector:  Statutory / Regulatory Compliance:  A variety of statutory and regulatory documents state explicitly or implicitly that the use of government resources must be properly tracked and tied to performance goals.  Managerial costing methods implemented through Cost Management applications provide unparalleled visibility into costs and shared services usage throughout a Public Sector agency. Funding Support:  Regulations require public sector funding requests to be evaluated based upon the ability to achieve performance goals against the associated cost.   Improved visibility and understanding of costs of different programs/services means that organizations can demonstrably monitor performance and the associated resource costs improve the chances of having their funding requests granted. Profitability and Cost Management is one of the fastest-growing solution areas in Oracle's Enterprise Performance Management product line and we are seeing a growing number of customer successes across geographies and industries.  Listed below are just a few examples.  Here's a link to the replay from a recent webcast on this topic which featured Schroders Plc, a UK-based Financial Services company: http://www.oracle.com/go/?&Src=7011668&Act=168&pcode=WWMK10037859MPP043 Here's a link to a case study on Shenhua Guohua Power in China: http://www.oracle.com/us/corporate/customers/shenhua-snapshot-159574.pdf Here's a link to information on Oracle's web site about our profitability and cost management solutions: http://www.oracle.com/us/solutions/ent-performance-bi/performance-management/profitability-cost-mgmt/index.html

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• Alternatives for comparing data from different databases

  - by Alex

  I have two huge tables on separate databases. One of them has the information of all the SMS that passed through the company's servers while the other one has the information of the actual billing of those SMS. My job is to compare samples of both of these tables (for example, the records between 1 and 2 pm) to see if there are any differences: SMS that were sent but not charged to the user for whatever reason that may be happening. The columns I will be using to compare are the remitent's phone number and the exact date the SMS was sent. An issue here is that dates usually are the same on both sides, but in many cases differ by 1 or 2 seconds. I have, so far, two alternatives to do this: (PL/SQL) Create two tables where i'm going to temporarily store all the records of that 1hour sample. One for each of the main tables. Then, for each distinct phone number, select the time of every SMS sent from that phone from both my temporary tables and start comparing one by one using cursors. In this case, the procedure would be ran on the server where one of the sources is so the contents of the other one would be looked up using a dblink. (sqlplus + c++) Instead of storing the 1hour samples in new tables, output the query to a text file. I will have two text files, one for each source. Then, open the first file and load all of it's content on a hash_map (key-value) using c++, where the key will be the phone number and the value a list of times of SMS sent from that phone. Finally, open the second file, grab each line (in this format: numberX timeX), look for numberX's entry on the hash_map (wich will be a list of times) and then check if timeX is on that list. If it isn't, save it somewhere to finally store it on a "uncharged" table (this would also be the final step on case 1) My main concern is efficiency. These samples have about 2 million records on each source, so just grabbing one record on one side and looking it up on the other would not be possible. That's the reason I wanted to use hash_maps Which do you think is a better option?

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• Cool Tools You Can Use: Validation Templates for PeopleSoft Contracts Processes

  - by Mark Rosenberg

  This is the first in a series of postings we’ll be making under the heading of Cool Tools You Can Use. Our PeopleSoft product management team identified the need for this series after reflecting on the many conversations we have each year with our PeopleSoft community members. During these conversations, we were discovering that customers and implementation partners were often not aware that solutions exist to the problems they were trying to address and that the solutions were readily available at no additional charge. Thus, the Cool Tools You Can Use series will describe the business challenge we’ve heard, the PeopleSoft solution to the challenge, and how you can learn more about the solution so that everyone can be sure to make full use of what PeopleSoft applications have to offer. The first cool tool we’ll look at is the Validation Template for PeopleSoft Contracts Process Requests, which was first released in December 2013 as part of PeopleSoft Contracts 9.2 Update Image 4. The business issue our customers highlighted to us is the need to tightly control but easily configure and manage the scope of data that any user can process when initiating a process. Control of each user’s span of impact is essential to reducing billing reconciliation issues, passing span of authority audits, and reducing (or even eliminating) the frequency of unexpected process results.  Setting Up the Validation Template for a PeopleSoft Contracts Process With the validation template, organizations can easily and quickly ensure the software restricts the scope of transactions a user can affect and gives organizations the confidence to know that business processes are being governed effectively. Additionally, this control of PeopleSoft Contracts process requests can be applied and easily maintained and adjusted from a web browser thereby enabling analysts to administer the rules without having to engage software developers to customize the software. During the field validation template setup, an analyst specifies the combinations of fields that must contain values when a user tries to setup a run control and initiate a PeopleSoft Contracts process from a process request page. For example, for the Process Limits component, an organization could require that users enter a valid combination of values for the business unit, contract, and contract type fields or a value in the contract administrator field. Until the user enters a valid combination of entries on the process request page, he cannot launch the process. With the validation template activated for process request pages, organizations can be confident that PeopleSoft Contracts users will not accidentally begin generating invoices or triggering other revenue management processes for transactions beyond their scope of authority. To learn more about the Validation Template, please review the Defining Validation Templates section of the PeopleSoft Contracts PeopleBooks. 

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• Running two wsgi applications on the same server gdal org exception with apache2/modwsgi

  - by monkut

  I'm trying to run two wsgi applications, one django and the other tilestache using the same server. The tilestache server accesses the db via django to query the db. In the process of serving tiles it performs a transform on the incoming bbox, and in this process hit's the following error. The transform works without error for the specific bbox polygon when run manually from the python shell: Traceback (most recent call last): File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/TileStache/__init__.py", line 325, in __call__ mimetype, content = requestHandler(self.config, environ['PATH_INFO'], environ['QUERY_STRING']) File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/TileStache/__init__.py", line 231, in requestHandler mimetype, content = getTile(layer, coord, extension) File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/TileStache/__init__.py", line 84, in getTile tile = layer.render(coord, format) File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/TileStache/Core.py", line 295, in render tile = provider.renderArea(width, height, srs, xmin, ymin, xmax, ymax, coord.zoom) File "/var/www/tileserver/providers.py", line 59, in renderArea bbox.transform(METERS_SRID) File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/django/contrib/gis/geos/geometry.py", line 520, in transform g = gdal.OGRGeometry(self.wkb, srid) File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/django/contrib/gis/gdal/geometries.py", line 131, in __init__ self.__class__ = GEO_CLASSES[self.geom_type.num] File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/django/contrib/gis/gdal/geometries.py", line 245, in geom_type return OGRGeomType(capi.get_geom_type(self.ptr)) File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/django/contrib/gis/gdal/geomtype.py", line 43, in __init__ raise OGRException('Invalid OGR Integer Type: %d' % type_input) OGRException: Invalid OGR Integer Type: 1987180391 I think I've hit the non thread safe issue with GDAL, metioned on the django site. Is there a way I could configure this so that it would work? Apache Version: Apache/2.2.22 (Ubuntu) mod_wsgi/3.3 Python/2.7.3 configured Apache apache2/sites-available/default: <VirtualHost *:80> ServerAdmin ironman@localhost DocumentRoot /var/www/bin LogLevel warn WSGIDaemonProcess lbs processes=2 maximum-requests=500 threads=1 WSGIProcessGroup lbs WSGIScriptAlias / /var/www/bin/apache/django.wsgi Alias /static /var/www/lbs/static/ </VirtualHost> <VirtualHost *:8080> ServerAdmin ironman@localhost DocumentRoot /var/www/bin LogLevel warn WSGIDaemonProcess tilestache processes=1 maximum-requests=500 threads=1 WSGIProcessGroup tilestache WSGIScriptAlias / /var/www/bin/tileserver/tilestache.wsgi </VirtualHost> Django Version: 1.4 httpd.conf: Listen 8080 NameVirtualHost *:8080 UPDATE I've added the a test.wsgi script to determine if the GLOBAL interpreter setting is correct, as mentioned by graham and described here: http://code.google.com/p/modwsgi/wiki/CheckingYourInstallation#Sub_Interpreter_Being_Used It seems to show the expected result: [Tue Aug 14 10:32:01 2012] [notice] Apache/2.2.22 (Ubuntu) mod_wsgi/3.3 Python/2.7.3 configured -- resuming normal operations [Tue Aug 14 10:32:01 2012] [info] mod_wsgi (pid=29891): Attach interpreter ''. I've worked around the issue for now by changing the srs used in the db so that the transform is unnecessary in tilestache app. I don't understand why the transform() method, when called in the django app works, but then in the tilestache app fails. tilestache.wsgi #!/usr/bin/python import os import time import sys import TileStache current_dir = os.path.abspath(os.path.dirname(__file__)) project_dir = os.path.realpath(os.path.join(current_dir, "..", "..")) sys.path.append(project_dir) sys.path.append(current_dir) os.environ['DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE'] = 'bin.settings' sys.stdout = sys.stderr # wait for the apache django lbs server to start up, # --> in order to retrieve the tilestache cfg time.sleep(2) tilestache_config_url = "http://127.0.0.1/tilestache/config/" application = TileStache.WSGITileServer(tilestache_config_url) UPDATE 2 So it turned out I did need to use a projection other than the google (900913) one in the db. So my previous workaround failed. While I'd like to fix this issue, I decided to work around the issue this type by making a django view that performs the transform needed. So now tilestache requests the data through the django app and not internally.

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• Windows 7 .NET 3.5.1 - 2.0 Slightly Corrupted, How to Repair?

  - by Quinxy von Besiex

  My Windows 7 included .NET installation (3.5 to 2.0) appears very slightly and particularly corrupted and I am trying to fix it without reinstalling Windows or trying to revert to backups. Everything was working and then my hard drive started corrupting a few files and checkdisk found bad clusters so I imaged the drive to a new one. As soon as I booted on the new drive everything worked except programs which call the System.Net.NetworkInformation methods within .NET 3.5 to 2.0 (like Ping() and IsNetworkAvailable()), which immediately crash the app in which the calls are (those calls in .NET 4.0 works fine). Those methods are found inside System.dll, and I assume call native methods which I believe are inside winnsi.dll or iphlpapi.dll or something else (I've not found this yet); I assume it calls native methods because the exception which causes the crash is Fatal Execution Engine Error which people mention is usually related to calling native methods and marshaling data between them. A huge clue about the culprit is likely found in the fact that when I launch the exact same crashing application through a code profiler (which executes the exe and captures stats on which methods took the longest) the app works fine, no crash at all! How could running it within the profiler work and running it outside not work? That seems the key to the mystery. I've used procmon to catch all the registry, filesystem, and network events from the crashing execution and the profiler-run successful execution and compared the two outputs but didn't learn much (I see the moment at which the non-profiled app crashes, but up until then they behave the same, loaded the same modules, ). The only big difference seems to be that at the moment before the app crash the profiler-executed code creates 4-6 new threads and the directly executed code only creates 1-2. I have diffed the files/directories which seemed most relevant (the .NET stuff under Windows and Program Files) pre- and post- disk trouble and seen no changes where I didn't expect any (no obvious file corruption). I have diffed the software and system registry hives pre- and post- disk trouble and seen no changes which seemed relevant. I have created a new user account and cleaned up any environment variables in case environment was related. No change. I did "sfc /scannow" and it found no integrity problems. I tried "ngen update" to regenerate pre-compiled code in case I missed something that might be damaged and nothing changed. I assume I need to repair my .NET installation but because Windows 7 included .NET 3.5 - 2.0 you can't just re-run a .NET installer to redo it. I do not have access to the Windows disks to try to re-install Windows over itself (the computer has a recovery partition but it is unusable); also the drive uses a whole-disk encryption solution and re-installing would be difficult. I absolutely do not want to start from scratch here and install a fresh Windows, reinstall dozens of software packages, try and remember dozens of development-related customizations/etc. Given all that... does anyone have any helpful advice? I need .NET 3.5 - 2.0 working as I am a developer and need to build and test against it. Thanks! Quinxy

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• Using Upstart to manage Unicorn w/ rbenv + bundler binstubs w/ ruby-local-exec shebang

  - by codykrieger

  Alright, this is melting my brain. It might have something to do with the fact that I don't understand Upstart as well as I should. Sorry in advance for the long question. I'm trying to use Upstart to manage a Rails app's Unicorn master process. Here is my current /etc/init/app.conf: description "app" start on runlevel [2] stop on runlevel [016] console owner # expect daemon script APP_ROOT=/home/deploy/app PATH=/home/deploy/.rbenv/shims:/home/deploy/.rbenv/bin:$PATH $APP_ROOT/bin/unicorn -c $APP_ROOT/config/unicorn.rb -E production # >> /tmp/upstart.log 2>&1 end script # respawn That works just fine - the Unicorns start up great. What's not great is that the PID detected is not of the Unicorn master, it's of an sh process. That in and of itself isn't so bad, either - if I wasn't using the automagical Unicorn zero-downtime deployment strategy. Because shortly after I send -USR2 to my Unicorn master, a new master spawns up, and the old one dies...and so does the sh process. So Upstart thinks my job has died, and I can no longer restart it with restart or stop it with stop if I want. I've played around with the config file, trying to add -D to the Unicorn line (like this: $APP_ROOT/bin/unicorn -c $APP_ROOT/config/unicorn.rb -E production -D) to daemonize Unicorn, and I added the expect daemon line, but that didn't work either. I've tried expect fork as well. Various combinations of all of those things can cause start and stop to hang, and then Upstart gets really confused about the state of the job. Then I have to restart the machine to fix it. I think Upstart is having problems detecting when/if Unicorn is forking because I'm using rbenv + the ruby-local-exec shebang in my $APP_ROOT/bin/unicorn script. Here it is: #!/usr/bin/env ruby-local-exec # # This file was generated by Bundler. # # The application 'unicorn' is installed as part of a gem, and # this file is here to facilitate running it. # require 'pathname' ENV['BUNDLE_GEMFILE'] ||= File.expand_path("../../Gemfile", Pathname.new(__FILE__).realpath) require 'rubygems' require 'bundler/setup' load Gem.bin_path('unicorn', 'unicorn') Additionally, the ruby-local-exec script looks like this: #!/usr/bin/env bash # # `ruby-local-exec` is a drop-in replacement for the standard Ruby # shebang line: # # #!/usr/bin/env ruby-local-exec # # Use it for scripts inside a project with an `.rbenv-version` # file. When you run the scripts, they'll use the project-specified # Ruby version, regardless of what directory they're run from. Useful # for e.g. running project tasks in cron scripts without needing to # `cd` into the project first. set -e export RBENV_DIR="${1%/*}" exec ruby "$@" So there's an exec in there that I'm worried about. It fires up a Ruby process, which fires up Unicorn, which may or may not daemonize itself, which all happens from an sh process in the first place...which makes me seriously doubt the ability of Upstart to track all of this nonsense. Is what I'm trying to do even possible? From what I understand, the expect stanza in Upstart can only be told (via daemon or fork) to expect a maximum of two forks.

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• Incorrect gzipping of http requests, can't find who's doing it

  - by Ned Batchelder

  We're seeing some very strange mangling of HTTP responses, and we can't figure out what is doing it. We have an app server handling JSON requests. Occasionally, the response is returned gzipped, but with incorrect headers that prevent the browser from interpreting it correctly. The problem is intermittent, and changes behavior over time. Yesterday morning it seemed to fail 50% of the time, and in fact, seemed tied to one of our two load-balanced servers. Later in the afternoon, it was failing only 20 times out of 1000, and didn't correlate with an app server. The two app servers are running Apache 2.2 with mod_wsgi and a Django app stack. They have identical Apache configs and source trees, and even identical packages installed on Red Hat. There's a hardware load balancer in front, I don't know the make or model. Akamai is also part of the food chain, though we removed Akamai and still had the problem. Here's a good request and response: * Connected to example.com (97.7.79.129) port 80 (#0) > POST /claim/ HTTP/1.1 > User-Agent: curl/7.19.7 (x86_64-pc-linux-gnu) libcurl/7.19.7 OpenSSL/0.9.8k zlib/1.2.3.3 libidn/1.15 > Host: example.com > Accept: */* > Referer: http://example.com/apps/ > Accept-Encoding: gzip,deflate > Content-Length: 29 > Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded > } [data not shown] < HTTP/1.1 200 OK < Server: Apache/2 < Content-Language: en-us < Content-Encoding: identity < Content-Length: 47 < Content-Type: application/x-javascript < Connection: keep-alive < Vary: Accept-Encoding < { [data not shown] * Connection #0 to host example.com left intact * Closing connection #0 {"msg": "", "status": "OK", "printer_name": ""} And here's a bad one: * Connected to example.com (97.7.79.129) port 80 (#0) > POST /claim/ HTTP/1.1 > User-Agent: curl/7.19.7 (x86_64-pc-linux-gnu) libcurl/7.19.7 OpenSSL/0.9.8k zlib/1.2.3.3 libidn/1.15 > Host: example.com > Accept: */* > Referer: http://example.com/apps/ > Accept-Encoding: gzip,deflate > Content-Length: 29 > Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded > } [data not shown] < HTTP/1.1 200 OK < Server: Apache/2 < Content-Language: en-us < Content-Encoding: identity < Content-Type: application/x-javascript < Content-Encoding: gzip < Content-Length: 59 < Connection: keep-alive < Vary: Accept-Encoding < X-N: S < { [data not shown] * Connection #0 to host example.com left intact * Closing connection #0 ?V?-NW?RPR?QP*.I,)-???A??????????T??Z? ??/ There are two things to notice about the bad response: It has two Content-Encoding headers, and the browsers seem to use the first. So they see an identity encoding header, and gzipped content, so they can't interpret the response. The bad response has an extra "X-N: S" header. Perhaps if I could find out what intermediary adds "X-N: S" headers to responses, I could track down the culprit...

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• SharePoint Upgrade Global Nav Quirks?

  - by elorg

  We're working on a parallel install/upgrade of SharePoint. The client has WSS 2003 on some old hardware. We've installed MOSS 2007 in a medium farm environment. They want to use this as an opportunity to not just upgrade and use the new features, but to also better organize their content and categorize between different site collections. To accommodate, we've created a few site collections per their specifications in the new environment, and when we ran an upgrade test run we ran into a few .. quirks. We made a backup of the old content database, copied it over to the new environment and restored it as a new database. Created a new web app and attached the migrated data to do an in-place upgrade in this new "test" area. This seems pretty standard - no issues. We have to do a little bit of cleanup (e.g. reset pages to site definition, reset themes, and inherit the global nav / top link bar, etc.). Once that's done, we're using stsadm export/import to copy the individual sites over to their ultimate destinations in the various different site collections. So far so good. But then we ran into one particular site that has a link to an .aspx page in the top link bar in WSS 2003 that's not behaving properly after the upgrade. It's just a link to a "dashboard" .aspx page in a doc library - nothing special. It doesn't seem to matter what we do, or what order we do it (in the "test" web app, in the destination web app, or both). In the end, this ONE site will not allow us to create a link/tab in the global nav. It can inherit the global nav just fine. We can break the inheritance just fine. But if we want to manually add a link in the top link bar - we go through the steps that I've done 1,000x before and click OK - and the tab never appears. It doesn't matter if it's to a page within the site itself, or to Google. We can migrate over other sites into the same site collection and add a tab without issue. If we migrate this quirky site over to another site collection we run into the same issue. Yet, in the "test" web app that we're using to upgrade the data we can add a tab? If we add the tab before we export/import to the final destination, the tab is lost during the process? Has anyone run into anything like this? Any ideas? I've tried every combination of everything that I can think of and nothing works. Unless we can figure out how to get this to work, we're going to just add this tab to the global nav for the entire site collection and inherit it for this site (but that adds the link to all of the site that will inherit, which is both a pro & con for them).

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• Cannot open simple script application on mac

  - by streetpc

  Mac OS X 10.6 I created a very simple app, which is only a wrapper of a shell script (so that I can select this script in application selectors, like startup apps). I try to launch it and yesterday it worked, but today I changed the executable script's content and name (with something that perfeclty works in a shell script launched in the Terminal) and it will only display a Finder-iconed dialog saying Cannot open the application because it is not supported on this kind of Mac. I restored the previous script (content/name) but I still get the error! Same when re-bundling the app from scratch, or completely changing the bundle identifier… If I try to open it in the Terminal using open My.app, I get The application cannot be opened because it has an incorrect executable format. But when I executes directly the Contents/MacOS/Script, it allways works (iwth both contents). Also, it is displayed with correct icon and meta-information in the Finder (so I guess the Info.plist is understood). The app's file tree is: Contents/ Info.plist MacOS/ Script (executable bit set, works when launched directly) PkgInfo Resources/ AppIcon.icns Here is the Info.plist content: <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> <!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd"> <plist version="1.0"> <dict> <key>CFBundleExecutable</key> <string>Script</string> <key>CFBundleIconFile</key> <string>AppIcon</string> <key>CFBundleIdentifier</key> <string>asdf.ScriptApp</string> <key>CFBundleInfoDictionaryVersion</key> <string>6.0</string> <key>CFBundleName</key> <string>My script</string> <key>CFBundlePackageType</key> <string>APPL</string> <key>CFBundleShortVersionString</key> <string>1.0</string> <key>CFBundleSignature</key> <string>????</string> <key>CFBundleVersion</key> <string>1</string> <key>LSMinimumSystemVersion</key> <string>10.4</string> </dict> </plist> And the PkgInfo file only contains APPL????. I tested the Script with a simple echo "ok" and echo "ok" >/tmp/test (plus #!/bin/sh header). So my questions are: Is there some kind of validity caching for applications ? based on what ? how do I flush it ? Where does this message come from ? I tried to google it but all I get is a page talking about 32/64 bits Java…

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• Cannot open simplest mac application

  - by streetpc

  I created a very simple app, which is only a wrapper of a shell script (so that I can select this script in application selectors, like startup apps). I try to launch it and yesterday it worked, but today I changed the executable script's content and name (with something that perfeclty works in a shell script launched in the Terminal) and it will only display a Finder-iconed dialog saying Cannot open the application because it is not supported on this kind of Mac. I restored the previous script (content/name) but I still get the error! Same when re-bundling the app from scratch, or completely changing the bundle identifier… If I try to open it in the Terminal using open My.app, I get The application cannot be opened because it has an incorrect executable format. But when I executes directly the Contents/MacOS/Script, it allways works (iwth both contents). Also, it is displayed with correct icon and meta-information in the Finder (so I guess the Info.plist is understood). The app's file tree is: Contents/ Info.plist MacOS/ Script (executable bit set, works when launched directly) PkgInfo Resources/ AppIcon.icns Here is the Info.plist content: <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> <!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd"> <plist version="1.0"> <dict> <key>CFBundleExecutable</key> <string>Script</string> <key>CFBundleIconFile</key> <string>AppIcon</string> <key>CFBundleIdentifier</key> <string>asdf.ScriptApp</string> <key>CFBundleInfoDictionaryVersion</key> <string>6.0</string> <key>CFBundleName</key> <string>My script</string> <key>CFBundlePackageType</key> <string>APPL</string> <key>CFBundleShortVersionString</key> <string>1.0</string> <key>CFBundleSignature</key> <string>????</string> <key>CFBundleVersion</key> <string>1</string> <key>LSMinimumSystemVersion</key> <string>10.4</string> </dict> </plist> And the PkgInfo file only contains APPL????. I tested the Script with a simple echo "ok" and echo "ok" >/tmp/test (plus #!/bin/sh header). So my questions are: * Is there some kind of validity caching for applications ? based on what ? how do I flush it ? * Where does this message come from ? I tried to google it but all I get is a page talking about 32/64 bits Java…

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• Cannot open simplest script mac application

  - by streetpc

  I created a very simple app, which is only a wrapper of a shell script (so that I can select this script in application selectors, like startup apps). I try to launch it and yesterday it worked, but today I changed the executable script's content and name (with something that perfeclty works in a shell script launched in the Terminal) and it will only display a Finder-iconed dialog saying Cannot open the application because it is not supported on this kind of Mac. I restored the previous script (content/name) but I still get the error! Same when re-bundling the app from scratch, or completely changing the bundle identifier… If I try to open it in the Terminal using open My.app, I get The application cannot be opened because it has an incorrect executable format. But when I executes directly the Contents/MacOS/Script, it allways works (iwth both contents). Also, it is displayed with correct icon and meta-information in the Finder (so I guess the Info.plist is understood). The app's file tree is: Contents/ Info.plist MacOS/ Script (executable bit set, works when launched directly) PkgInfo Resources/ AppIcon.icns Here is the Info.plist content: <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> <!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd"> <plist version="1.0"> <dict> <key>CFBundleExecutable</key> <string>Script</string> <key>CFBundleIconFile</key> <string>AppIcon</string> <key>CFBundleIdentifier</key> <string>asdf.ScriptApp</string> <key>CFBundleInfoDictionaryVersion</key> <string>6.0</string> <key>CFBundleName</key> <string>My script</string> <key>CFBundlePackageType</key> <string>APPL</string> <key>CFBundleShortVersionString</key> <string>1.0</string> <key>CFBundleSignature</key> <string>????</string> <key>CFBundleVersion</key> <string>1</string> <key>LSMinimumSystemVersion</key> <string>10.4</string> </dict> </plist> And the PkgInfo file only contains APPL????. I tested the Script with a simple echo "ok" and echo "ok" >/tmp/test (plus #!/bin/sh header). So my questions are: Is there some kind of validity caching for applications ? based on what ? how do I flush it ? Where does this message come from ? I tried to google it but all I get is a page talking about 32/64 bits Java…

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• The Complete List of iPad Tips, Tricks, and Tutorials

  - by Ross

  The Apple iPad is the latest new toy, and we’ve put together a comprehensive list of every tip, trick, and tutorial that we could find to help you get the most out of it—and we’re even giving one away to one lucky reader. So read on! Note: We’ll be keeping this page updated as we find more great articles, so you should bookmark this page for future reference. Want Your Own iPad? How-To Geek is Giving One Away! All you have to do to enter is become a fan of our Facebook page, and we’ll pick a random fan to win the prize. Win an iPad on the How-To Geek Facebook Fan Page Disable the “clicking sound” on the iPad Keyboard Does the clicking sound when you tap the iPad keyboard bother you? Thankfully it’s easy to disable with a couple of taps. How to disable the “clicking sound” on your iPad’s keyboard Enable and add bookmarks to the Safari Bookmarks Bar on your iPad By default, Safari doesn’t display the Bookmarks Bar. This tip shows you how to change that. How to enable and add bookmarks to the Safari Bookmarks Bar on your iPad Clear the Cache, History and Cookies in Safari for the iPad You’re probably used to clearing this kind of data right from within the browser. Not so with Safari on the iPad – but here’s how you can. How to clear the cache, history and cookies in Safari for iPad How to add more Apps to your iPad Dock The iPad has four icons in its ‘dock’. Did you know it can hold 6? How to add more Apps to your iPad Dock Convert PDF files to ePub files to read on your iPad with iBooks ePub is the format that iBooks are in. So for those of you with large eBook collections in PDF, here’s how you convert them to read in iBooks. How to convert PDF files to ePub files to read on your iPad with iBooks How to force your iPad to restart Has an app caused your iPad to freeze up, and you can’t escape? This tip shows you how to force your iPad to restart. How to force your iPad to restart How to export Keynote for iPad presentations to your Mac or PC Exporting Keynote presentations from your iPad to your Mac or PC isn’t as straight forward as you might have expected. This tutorial shows you how. How to export Keynote for iPad presentations to your Mac or PC How to import presentations to Keynote on your iPad Having trouble getting your presentations onto your iPad? How to import presentations to Keynote on your iPad How to import documents to Pages on your iPad This guide shows you how to transfer documents (MS Word or Pages) from your Mac/PC to your iPad. How to import documents to Pages on your iPad How to insert photos in a Pages document using iPad and share it as a PDF Want to spice up that doc with a picture you just took? This tutorial will show you how – and how to export that document as a PDF. How to insert photos in a Pages document using iPad and share it as a PDF How to lock your iPad If you have kids or co-workers/friends who think it’s funny to mess with your iPad – lock it. How to lock your iPad How to remove the “Sent from my iPad” signature from outgoing email on your iPad Does everyone need to know you just sent that email from your iPad? Probably not. This guide shows you how to remove the “Sent from my iPad” signature and replace it with your own (or none). How to remove the “Sent from my iPad” signature from outgoing email on your iPad How To Sync Multiple Calendars to the iPad With Google Sync This tutorial will show you a workaround on how to sync multiple calendars on your iPad using Google Sync. How to Sync Multiple Calendars to the iPad With Google Sync How to determine the MAC address of your iPad If your network restricts connections via MAC address – this guide will show you how to determine what yours is. How to determine the MAC address of your iPad How to take a screenshot of your iPad Do you need to take a screenshot of your iPad? This quick tip shows you how to do just that. How to take a screenshot of your iPad How to delete apps from your iPod Touch, iPhone or iPad Anyone who had an iPod Touch or iPhone before they had an iPad won’t need this tutorial. But if you’re new to the experience, this one will help. How to delete apps from your iPod Touch, iPhone or iPad How to determine the iPad ECID on Windows and Mac iPadintosh shows us how to determine the iPad’s ECID code – something you’ll want to have come Jailbreak time. How to grab the iPad ECID in Windows or OS X iPad Apps: Twitter and social networking essentials Enggadget has you covered with reviews of the first slew of iPad specific Twitter and other social networking apps. iPad Apps: Twitter and social networking essentials What does your website look like on an iPad? iPad Peek is a web based tool that allows you to enter any given URL, and it will display that page the same way Safari on the iPad does. Great for web site owners who don’t have access to an iPad. iPadPeek Stream Music and Videos to your iPad Gizmodo reviews the iPad app StreamToMe, which allows you to stream media from your Mac to your iPad across your local network. Their feelings in a nutshell – worth the $3, but not perfect. Review: StreamToMe for the iPad Apple iPad : Change links in Google Reader to point to full HTML webpage How to change links in Safari for iPad so that Google Reader points to a full HTML webpage How to connect an iPad to your existing wireless keyboard This video will show you how to connect your iPad to a wireless keyboard if you’re having any problems – and from the sound of things, quite a few folks are. via TUAW How to get started with the iPad Mashable has a very entry-level guide that will help you set up your iPad for the first time. Mashable’s Guide to Setting up the iPad Essential iPad Apps Downloadsquad gives mini-reviews to 8 iPad apps that you should install as soon as you get your iPad. iPad App Buyers Guide: Essential Apps you should get on day one Videos: The Official iPad Guided Tours From none other than Apple! Great getting started videos for all the included iPad apps. The Official iPad Guided Tours The Official iPad Manual When you buy an iPad, you don’t get a manual. But that’s not to say there isn’t one. Apple provides a 150 guide for your iPad in PDF format. The Official iPad Manual (pdf) How to print from your iPad Sure, it’s actually just an App (PrintCentral – $9.99 USD), but as of right now, it’s the only way. PrintCentral How to make your own iPad Wallpaper A perfectly detailed tutorial on how to make your own wallpaper for your iPad. The author also provides a really nice sample wallpaper, published under the Attribution-Noncommercial 2.0 Generic license. How to make your own iPad Wallpaper Got any more tips? Share them in the comments, and we’ll update the post with the links, or just the tip itself. Similar Articles Productive Geek Tips Want an iPad? How-To Geek is Giving One Away!Why Wait? Amazing New Add-on Turns Your iPhone into an iPad! [Comic]Clear the Auto-Complete Email Address Cache in OutlookAsk the Readers: Share Your Tips for Defeating Viruses and MalwareStupid Geek Tricks: Tile or Cascade Multiple Windows in Windows 7 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 Are You Blocked On Gtalk? Find out Discover Latest Android Apps On AppBrain The Ultimate Guide For YouTube Lovers Will it Blend? iPad Edition Penolo Lets You Share Sketches On Twitter Visit Woolyss.com for Old School Games, Music and Videos

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• Generating a twitter OAuth access key - the semi-manual way

  - by Piet

  [UPDATE] Apparently someone at Twitter was listening, or I’m going senile/blind. Let’s call it a combination of both. Instead of following all the steps below, you could just login with the Twitter account you want to use on http://dev.twitter.com, register your application and then click ‘Edit Details’ on the application overview page at http://dev.twitter.com/apps. Next click the ‘Application detail’ button on the right, followed by the ‘My Access Token’ button in order to get your Access Token and Access Token Secret. This makes the old post below rather obsolete. Clearly a case of me thinking everything is a nail and ruby is a hammer (don’t they usually say this about java coders?) [ORIGINAL POST] OAuth is great! OAuth allows your application to use your user’s data without the need to ask for their password. So Twitter made the API much safer for their and your users. Hurray! Free pizza for everyone! Unless of course you’re using the Twitter API for your own needs like running your own bot and don’t need access to other user’s data. In such cases a simple username/password combination is more than enough. I can understand however that the Twitter guys don’t really care that much about these exceptions(?). Most such uses for the API are probably rather spammy in nature. !!! If you have a twitter app that uses the API to access external user’s data: look for another solution. This solution is ONLY meant when you ONLY need access to your own account(s) through the API. Other Solutions Mr Dallas Devries posted a solution here which involves requesting and scraping a one-time PIN. But: I like to minimize the amount of calls I make to twitter’s API or pages to lessen my chances of meeting the fail whale. Also, as soon as the pin isn’t included in a div called ‘oauth_pin’ anymore, this will fail. However, mr Devries’ post was a starting point for my solution, so I’m much obliged to him posting his findings. Authenticating with the Twitter API: old vs new Acessing The Twitter API the old way: require ‘twitter’ httpauth = Twitter::HTTPAuth.new('my_account','my_secret_password') client = Twitter::Base.new(httpauth) client.update(‘Hurray!’) The OAuth way: require 'twitter' oauth = Twitter::OAuth.new('ve4whatafuzzksaMQKjoI', 'KliketyklikspQ6qYALcuNandsomemored8pQ6qYALIG7mbEQY') oauth.authorize_from_access('123-owhfmeyAgfozdyt5hDeprSevsWmPo5rVeroGfsthis', 'fGiinCdqtehMeehiddenymDeAsasaawgGeryye8amh') client = Twitter::Base.new(oauth) client.update(‘Hurray!’) In the above case, ve4whatafuzzksaMQKjoI is the ‘consumer key’ (sometimes also referred to as ‘consumer token’) and KliketyklikspQ6qYALcuNandsomemored8pQ6qYALIG7mbEQY is the ‘consumer secret’. You’ll get these from Twitter when you register your app. 123-owhfmeyAgfozdyt5hDeprSevsWmPo5rVeroGfsthis is the ‘access token’ and fGiinCdqtehMeehiddenymDeAsasaawgGeryye8amh is the ‘access secret’. This combination gives the registered application access to your account. I’ll show you how to obtain these by following the steps below. (Basically you’ll need a bunch of keys and you’ll have to jump a bit through hoops to obtain them for your server/bot. ) How to get these keys 1. Surf to the twitter apps registration page go to http://dev.twitter.com/apps to register your app. Login with your twitter account. 2. Register your application Enter something for Application name, Description, website,… as I said: they make you jump through hoops. If you plan on using the API to post tweets, Your application name and website will be used in the ‘5 minutes ago via…’ line below your tweet. You could use the this to point to a page with info about your bot, or maybe it’s useful for SEO purposes. For application type I choose ‘browser’ and entered http://www.hadermann.be/callback as a ‘Callback URL’. This url returns a 404 error, which is ideal because after giving our account access to our ‘application’ (step 6), it will redirect to this url with an ‘oauth_token’ and ‘oauth_verifier’ in the url. We need to get these from the url. It doesn’t really matter what you enter here though, you could leave it blank because you need to explicitely specify it when generating a request token. You probably want read&write access so set this at ‘Default Access type’. 3. Get your consumer key and consumer secret On the next page, copy/paste your ‘consumer key’ and ‘consumer secret’. You’ll need these later on. You also need these as part of the authentication in your script later on: oauth = Twitter::OAuth.new([consumer key], [consumer secret]) 4. Obtain your request token run the following in IRB to obtain your ‘request token’ Replace my fake consumer key and consumer secret with the one you obtained in step 3. And use something else instead http://www.hadermann.be/callback: although this will only give a 404, you shouldn’t trust me. irb(main):001:0> require 'oauth' irb(main):002:0> c = OAuth::Consumer.new('ve4whatafuzzksaMQKjoI', 'KliketyklikspQ6qYALcuNandsomemored8pQ6qYALIG7mbEQY', {:site => 'http://twitter.com'}) irb(main):003:0> request_token = c.get_request_token(:oauth_callback => 'http://www.hadermann.be/callback') irb(main):004:0> request_token.token => "UrperqaukeWsWt3IAlfbxzyBUFpwWIcWkHP94QH2C1" This (UrperqaukeWsWt3IAlfbxzyBUFpwWIcWkHP94QH2C1) is the request token: Copy/paste this token, you will need this next. 5. Authorize your application surf to https://api.twitter.com/oauth/authorize?oauth_token=[the above token], for example: https://api.twitter.com/oauth/authorize?oauth_token=UrperqaukeWsWt3IAlfbxzyBUFpwWIcWkHP94QH2C1 This will bring you to the ‘An application would like to connect to your account’- screen on Twitter where you can grant access to the app you just registered. If you aren’t still logged in, you need to login first. Click ‘Allow’. Unless you don’t trust yourself. 6. Get your oauth_verifier from the redirected url Your browser will be redirected to your callback url, with an oauth_token and oauth_verifier parameter appended. You’ll need the oauth_verifier. In my case the browser redirected to: http://www.hadermann.be/callback?oauth_token=UrperqaukeWsWt3IAlfbxzyBUFpwWIcWkHP94QH2C1&oauth_verifier=waoOhKo8orpaqvQe6rVi5fti4ejr8hPeZrTewyeag Which returned a 404, giving me the chance to copy/paste my oauth_verifier: waoOhKo8orpaqvQe6rVi5fti4ejr8hPeZrTewyeag 7. Request an access token Back to irb, use the oauth_verifier to request an access token, as follows: irb(main):005:0> at = request_token.get_access_token(:oauth_verifier => 'waoOhKo8orpaqvQe6rVi5fti4ejr8hPeZrTewyeag') irb(main):006:0> at.params[:oauth_token] => "123-owhfmeyAgfozdyt5hDeprSevsWmPo5rVeroGfsthis" irb(main):007:0> at.params[:oauth_token_secret] => "fGiinCdqtehMeehiddenymDeAsasaawgGeryye8amh" We’re there! 123-owhfmeyAgfozdyt5hDeprSevsWmPo5rVeroGfsthis is the access token. fGiinCdqtehMeehiddenymDeAsasaawgGeryye8amh is the access secret. Try it! Try the following to post an update: require 'twitter' oauth = Twitter::OAuth.new('ve4whatafuzzksaMQKjoI', 'KliketyklikspQ6qYALcuNandsomemored8pQ6qYALIG7mbEQY') oauth.authorize_from_access('123-owhfmeyAgfozdyt5hDeprSevsWmPo5rVeroGfsthis', 'fGiinCdqtehMeehiddenymDeAsasaawgGeryye8amh') client = Twitter::Base.new(oauth) client.update(‘Cowabunga!’) Now you can go to your twitter page and delete the tweet if you want to.

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• Failed to launch simulated application: iPhone Simulator failed to find the process ID of com.iAndAp

  - by Nicsoft

  Hello, I'm having this annoyning problem giving this message in the console: Failed to launch simulated application: iPhone Simulator failed to find the process ID of com.iAndApp.BlockPop. When trying to Build and Run, the application builds fine. The simulator starts but doesn't start the application. However, it manages to do something since the icon for the app is installed in the simulator. I have been searching to find the answer and tried a couple of things, none that worked. This happens for both new and old projects. I.e. when I create a new project I will receive the same error message. I've tried several projects of which all get the same error, so it's not related to the code (and successful builds proves it). Among other things I have updated to xCode 3.2.2. in order to try to solve the problem. Using Mac OSX 10.6.3. Here are the logs: 1. 2010-05-30 17.20.39 SpringBoard[15713] Unable to create CFServerConnection. Telephony state may be incorrect. 2010-05-30 17.20.40 SpringBoard[15713] Unable to create CFServerConnection. Telephony state may be incorrect. 2010-05-30 17.20.40 SpringBoard[15713] Unable to create CFServerConnection. Telephony state may be incorrect. 2010-05-30 17.20.40 SpringBoard[15713] Unable to create CFServerConnection. Telephony state may be incorrect. 2010-05-30 17.20.40 SpringBoard[15713] Can't find the translation dictionary, loadTranslationDictionaries 2010-05-30 17.20.40 SpringBoard[15713] Unable to create CFServerConnection. Telephony state may be incorrect. 2010-05-30 17.20.40 SpringBoard[15713] Unable to create CFServerConnection. Telephony state may be incorrect. 2010-05-30 17.20.41 SpringBoard[15713] Launchd returned an unexpected type or didn't return a value for job label UIKitApplication:com.iAndApp.BlockPop[0x8abd] with job key PID 2010-05-30 17.20.41 SpringBoard[15713] Unable to create CFServerConnection. Telephony state may be incorrect. 2010-05-30 17.21.10 Xcode[15496] Error launching simulated application: Error Domain=DTiPhoneSimulatorErrorDomain Code=1 UserInfo=0x200edcc00 "iPhone Simulator failed to find the process ID of com.iAndApp.BlockPop." 2. Form system.log May 30 17:20:39 Niklas-Johanssons-Mac-mini mobile_installationd[15712]: a0bc84e0 init_simulator_paths: No simulator root specified. Falling back to environment variable. May 30 17:20:39: --- last message repeated 5 times --- May 30 17:20:39 Niklas-Johanssons-Mac-mini mobile_installationd[15712]: b0081000 init_simulator_paths: No simulator root specified. Falling back to environment variable. May 30 17:20:39: --- last message repeated 1 time --- May 30 17:20:39 Niklas-Johanssons-Mac-mini mobile_installationd[15712]: b0081000 load_application_info: Could not load signer identity from /Users/Niklas/Library/Application Support/iPhone Simulator/3.0/Applications/1CD7E4BA-14D3-45A5-A05E-E552C04BCD4D/BlockPopLite.app/BlockPopLite May 30 17:20:39 Niklas-Johanssons-Mac-mini mobile_installationd[15712]: b0081000 load_application_info: Could not load signer identity from /Users/Niklas/Library/Application Support/iPhone Simulator/3.0/Applications/62585F19-5FAD-4548-89DF-C9AE621FCCD7/SysSound.app/SysSound May 30 17:20:39 Niklas-Johanssons-Mac-mini mobile_installationd[15712]: b0081000 load_application_info: Could not load signer identity from /Users/Niklas/Library/Application Support/iPhone Simulator/3.0/Applications/81AA51A5-7BFC-442F-BFF8-91E9C6EF13CD/BlockPop.app/BlockPop May 30 17:20:39 Niklas-Johanssons-Mac-mini mobile_installationd[15712]: b0103000 load_application_info: Could not load signer identity from /Users/Niklas/Library/Application Support/iPhone Simulator/3.0/Applications/A2DCBF96-8F15-4527-BDF1-BD90B34D401C/BlockPop.app/BlockPop May 30 17:20:39 Niklas-Johanssons-Mac-mini mobile_installationd[15712]: b0081000 init_simulator_paths: No simulator root specified. Falling back to environment variable. May 30 17:20:39: --- last message repeated 1 time --- May 30 17:20:39 Niklas-Johanssons-Mac-mini SpringBoard[15713]: Unable to create CFServerConnection. Telephony state may be incorrect. May 30 17:20:40 Niklas-Johanssons-Mac-mini mobile_installationd[15712]: b0081000 init_simulator_paths: No simulator root specified. Falling back to environment variable. May 30 17:20:40: --- last message repeated 1 time --- May 30 17:20:40 Niklas-Johanssons-Mac-mini SpringBoard[15713]: Unable to create CFServerConnection. Telephony state may be incorrect. May 30 17:20:40: --- last message repeated 2 times --- May 30 17:20:40 Niklas-Johanssons-Mac-mini SpringBoard[15713]: Can't find the translation dictionary, loadTranslationDictionaries May 30 17:20:40 Niklas-Johanssons-Mac-mini mobile_installationd[15712]: b0081000 init_simulator_paths: No simulator root specified. Falling back to environment variable. May 30 17:20:40: --- last message repeated 3 times --- May 30 17:20:40 Niklas-Johanssons-Mac-mini SpringBoard[15713]: Unable to create CFServerConnection. Telephony state may be incorrect. May 30 17:20:41: --- last message repeated 1 time --- May 30 17:20:41 Niklas-Johanssons-Mac-mini SpringBoard[15713]: Launchd returned an unexpected type or didn't return a value for job label UIKitApplication:com.iAndApp.BlockPop[0x8abd] with job key PID May 30 17:20:41 Niklas-Johanssons-Mac-mini SpringBoard[15713]: Unable to create CFServerConnection. Telephony state may be incorrect. May 30 17:21:10 Niklas-Johanssons-Mac-mini Xcode[15496]: Error launching simulated application: Error Domain=DTiPhoneSimulatorErrorDomain Code=1 UserInfo=0x200edcc00 "iPhone Simulator failed to find the process ID of com.iAndApp.BlockPop." Where do I start? I am really stuck and would be most greatful for any help!

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• [GEEK SCHOOL] Network Security 4: Windows Firewall: Your System’s Best Defense

  - by Ciprian Rusen

  If you have your computer connected to a network, or directly to your Internet connection, then having a firewall is an absolute necessity. In this lesson we will discuss the Windows Firewall – one of the best security features available in Windows! The Windows Firewall made its debut in Windows XP. Prior to that, Windows system needed to rely on third-party solutions or dedicated hardware to protect them from network-based attacks. Over the years, Microsoft has done a great job with it and it is one of the best firewalls you will ever find for Windows operating systems. Seriously, it is so good that some commercial vendors have decided to piggyback on it! Let’s talk about what you will learn in this lesson. First, you will learn about what the Windows Firewall is, what it does, and how it works. Afterward, you will start to get your hands dirty and edit the list of apps, programs, and features that are allowed to communicate through the Windows Firewall depending on the type of network you are connected to. Moving on from there, you will learn how to add new apps or programs to the list of allowed items and how to remove the apps and programs that you want to block. Last but not least, you will learn how to enable or disable the Windows Firewall, for only one type of networks or for all network connections. By the end of this lesson, you should know enough about the Windows Firewall to use and manage it effectively. What is the Windows Firewall? Windows Firewall is an important security application that’s built into Windows. One of its roles is to block unauthorized access to your computer. The second role is to permit authorized data communications to and from your computer. Windows Firewall does these things with the help of rules and exceptions that are applied both to inbound and outbound traffic. They are applied depending on the type of network you are connected to and the location you have set for it in Windows, when connecting to the network. Based on your choice, the Windows Firewall automatically adjusts the rules and exceptions applied to that network. This makes the Windows Firewall a product that’s silent and easy to use. It bothers you only when it doesn’t have any rules and exceptions for what you are trying to do or what the programs running on your computer are trying to do. If you need a refresher on the concept of network locations, we recommend you to read our How-To Geek School class on Windows Networking. Another benefit of the Windows Firewall is that it is so tightly and nicely integrated into Windows and all its networking features, that some commercial vendors decided to piggyback onto it and use it in their security products. For example, products from companies like Trend Micro or F-Secure no longer provide their proprietary firewall modules but use the Windows Firewall instead. Except for a few wording differences, the Windows Firewall works the same in Windows 7 and Windows 8.x. The only notable difference is that in Windows 8.x you will see the word “app” being used instead of “program”. Where to Find the Windows Firewall By default, the Windows Firewall is turned on and you don’t need to do anything special in order for it work. You will see it displaying some prompts once in a while but they show up so rarely that you might forget that is even working. If you want to access it and configure the way it works, go to the Control Panel, then go to “System and Security” and select “Windows Firewall”. Now you will see the Windows Firewall window where you can get a quick glimpse on whether it is turned on and the type of network you are connected to: private networks or public network. For the network type that you are connected to, you will see additional information like: The state of the Windows Firewall How the Windows Firewall deals with incoming connections The active network When the Windows Firewall will notify you You can easily expand the other section and view the default settings that apply when connecting to networks of that type. If you have installed a third-party security application that also includes a firewall module, chances are that the Windows Firewall has been disabled, in order to avoid performance issues and conflicts between the two security products. If that is the case for your computer or device, you won’t be able to view any information in the Windows Firewall window and you won’t be able to configure the way it works. Instead, you will see a warning that says: “These settings are being managed by vendor application – Application Name”. In the screenshot below you can see an example of how this looks. How to Allow Desktop Applications Through the Windows Firewall Windows Firewall has a very comprehensive set of rules and most Windows programs that you install add their own exceptions to the Windows Firewall so that they receive network and Internet access. This means that you will see prompts from the Windows Firewall on occasion, generally when you install programs that do not add their own exceptions to the Windows Firewall’s list. In a Windows Firewall prompt, you are asked to select the network locations to which you allow access for that program: private networks or public networks. By default, Windows Firewall selects the checkbox that’s appropriate for the network you are currently using. You can decide to allow access for both types of network locations or just to one of them. To apply your setting press “Allow access”. If you want to block network access for that program, press “Cancel” and the program will be set as blocked for both network locations. At this step you should note that only administrators can set exceptions in the Windows Firewall. If you are using a standard account without administrator permissions, the programs that do not comply with the Windows Firewall rules and exceptions are automatically blocked, without any prompts being shown. You should note that in Windows 8.x you will never see any Windows Firewall prompts related to apps from the Windows Store. They are automatically given access to the network and the Internet based on the assumption that you are aware of the permissions they require based on the information displayed by the Windows Store. Windows Firewall rules and exceptions are automatically created for each app that you install from the Windows Store. However, you can easily block access to the network and the Internet for any app, using the instructions in the next section. How to Customize the Rules for Allowed Apps Windows Firewall allows any user with an administrator account to change the list of rules and exceptions applied for apps and desktop programs. In order to do this, first start the Windows Firewall. On the column on the left, click or tap “Allow an app or feature through Windows Firewall” (in Windows 8.x) or “Allow a program or feature through Windows Firewall” (in Windows 7). Now you see the list of apps and programs that are allowed to communicate through the Windows Firewall. At this point, the list is grayed out and you can only view which apps, features, and programs have rules that are enabled in the Windows Firewall.

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• Load application context problem in Maven managed spring-test TestNg

  - by joejax

  I try to setup a project with spring-test using TestNg in Maven. The code is like: @ContextConfiguration(locations={"test-context.xml"}) public class AppTest extends AbstractTestNGSpringContextTests { @Test public void testApp() { assert true; } } A test-context.xml simply defined a bean: <bean id="app" class="org.sonatype.mavenbook.simple.App"/> I got error for Failed to load ApplicationContext when running mvn test from command line, seems it cannot find the test-context.xml file; however, I can get it run correctly inside Eclipse (with TestNg plugin). So, test-context.xml is under src/test/resources/, how do I indicate this in the pom.xml so that 'mvn test' command will work? Thanks, UPDATE: Thanks for the reply. Cannot load context file error was caused by I moved the file arround in different location since I though the classpath was the problem. Now I found the context file seems loaded from the Maven output, but the test is failed: Running TestSuite May 25, 2010 9:55:13 AM org.springframework.beans.factory.xml.XmlBeanDefinitionReader loadBeanDefinitions INFO: Loading XML bean definitions from class path resource [test-context.xml] May 25, 2010 9:55:13 AM org.springframework.context.support.AbstractApplicationContext prepareRefresh INFO: Refreshing org.springframework.context.support.GenericApplicationContext@171bbc9: display name [org.springframework.context.support.GenericApplicationContext@171bbc9]; startup date [Tue May 25 09:55:13 PDT 2010]; root of context hierarchy May 25, 2010 9:55:13 AM org.springframework.context.support.AbstractApplicationContext obtainFreshBeanFactory INFO: Bean factory for application context [org.springframework.context.support.GenericApplicationContext@171bbc9]: org.springframework.beans.factory.support.DefaultListableBeanFactory@1df8b99 May 25, 2010 9:55:13 AM org.springframework.beans.factory.support.DefaultListableBeanFactory preInstantiateSingletons INFO: Pre-instantiating singletons in org.springframework.beans.factory.support.DefaultListableBeanFactory@1df8b99: defining beans [app,org.springframework.context.annotation.internalCommonAnnotationProcessor,org.springframework.context.annotation.internalAutowiredAnnotationProcessor,org.springframework.context.annotation.internalRequiredAnnotationProcessor]; root of factory hierarchy Tests run: 3, Failures: 2, Errors: 0, Skipped: 1, Time elapsed: 0.63 sec If I use spring-test version 3.0.2.RELEASE, the error becomes: org.springframework.test.context.testng.AbstractTestNGSpringContextTests.springTestContextPrepareTestInstance() is depending on nonexistent method null Here is the structure of the project: simple |-- pom.xml `-- src |-- main | `-- java `-- test |-- java `-- resources |-- test-context.xml `-- testng.xml testng.xml: <suite name="Suite" parallel="false"> <test name="Test"> <classes> <class name="org.sonatype.mavenbook.simple.AppTest"/> </classes> </test> </suite> test-context.xml: <beans xmlns="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans/spring-beans-2.0.xsd" default-lazy-init="true"> <bean id="app" class="org.sonatype.mavenbook.simple.App"/> </beans> In the pom.xml, I add testng, spring, and spring-test artifacts, and plugin: <dependency> <groupId>org.testng</groupId> <artifactId>testng</artifactId> <version>5.1</version> <classifier>jdk15</classifier> <scope>test</scope> </dependency> <dependency> <groupId>org.springframework</groupId> <artifactId>spring</artifactId> <version>2.5.6</version> </dependency> <dependency> <groupId>org.springframework</groupId> <artifactId>spring-test</artifactId> <version>2.5.6</version> <scope>test</scope> </dependency> <build> <finalName>simple</finalName> <plugins> <plugin> <artifactId>maven-compiler-plugin</artifactId> <configuration> <source>1.6</source> <target>1.6</target> </configuration> </plugin> <plugin> <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId> <artifactId>maven-surefire-plugin</artifactId> <configuration> <suiteXmlFiles> <suiteXmlFile>src/test/resources/testng.xml</suiteXmlFile> </suiteXmlFiles> </configuration> </plugin> </plugins> Basically, I replaced 'A Simple Maven Project' Junit with TestNg, hope it works.

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• SQL CLR Assembly Error 80131051 when late binding to a registered C# COM .dll

  - by Shanubus

  I must have hit an unusual one, because I can't find any reference to this specific failing anywhere... Scenario: I have a legacy SQL function used to transform(encrypt) data. This function is called from within many stored procedures used by multiple applications. I say this, because the obvious answer of 'just call it from your code' is not really an option (or at least one I'd prefer not explore). The legacy function used sp_OA with an ActiveX dll on SQL2000 to perform its work. The new function is targeted at SQL2008 x64. I am ditching the sp_OA call in favor of CLR assembly; and am getting rid of the ActiveX dll and using a COM+ .dll (3rd party) to perform the same work. This 3rd party COM+ is required to be used based on spec given to me, so can't get rid of this piece either. Problem: After multiple attempts at getting this to work I have eliminated the following approaches 1) Create a Sql Assembly to call the local COM+ directly -- Can't do this as it requires a reference to System.EnterpriseServices. Including this requires that a whole slew of unsupported assemblies be registered which I don't want. The COM+ requires it's methods to be accessed via an Interface, so my attempts at late binding to it directly have not been successful (late binding would allow me to drop the unsupported references). 2) Create a Sql Assembly which references a C# class library that then calls the COM+. -- Same issue as #1; since the referenced dll uses System.EnterpriseServices and will be added as a dependency when referenced in the Sql Assembly, again trying to load all the unsupported libraries 3) Create a Sql Assembly which late binds to an ActiveX COM dll that calls the COM+. -- Worked in my dev environment, but can't go to x64 in production with ActiveX dll's written in VB6 (not to mention I hate backtracking anyway)... again failure... I am now onto an approach that is almost working, with of course one last hangup. I now have -a Sql Assembly that late binds to a C# COM dll, eliminating the need for including System.EnterpriseServices and eliminating the need to reference the C# COM in the SqlAssembly itself. The C# COM does reference System.EnterpriseServices to call the COM+, but since I am late binding to it from the SqlAssembly, I bypass the need for Sql to actually load them as referenced assemblies. Works in debugger.. Works on my dev box when the SqlAssembly dll is referenced in a test console app and called directly Installs to Sql2008 just fine Executing the actual UDF works, but returns no data due to a failure reporting from the late bound dll! So the SqlAssembly is instanciated just fine. It actually fails on it's late binding to the C# COM, which is working from a test console app on the same machine. It appears to be a difference in behavior based on whether called from within the SQL UDF or not. Since it is working on the same box from my console app, I am assuming it's on the SQL side. My steps to install were. --Install the COM+ dll and ensure it can be called successfully (as from with in the console app) --Register the C# COM dll (which calls the COM+) and get it to the GAC (again proofed to be working from console app) --Create my Assymetric Key CREATE ASYMMETRIC KEY SqlCryptoKey FROM EXECUTABLE FILE = 'D:\SqlEx.dll' CREATE LOGIN SqlExLogin FROM ASYMMETRIC KEY SqlExKey GRANT UNSAFE ASSEMBLY TO SqlExLogin GO --Add the assembly CREATE ASSEMBLY SqlEx FROM 'D:\SqlEx.dll' WITH PERMISSION_SET = UNSAFE; GO --Create the function CREATE FUNCTION dbo.f_SqlEx( @clearText [nvarchar](512) ) RETURNS nvarchar(512) WITH EXECUTE AS CALLER AS EXTERNAL NAME SqlEx.[SqlEx.SqlEx].Ex GO With all that done, I can now call my function SELECT dbo.f_SqlEx('test') But get this error in the event log... Retrieving the COM class factory for component with CLSID {F69D6320-5884-323F-936A-7657946604BE} failed due to the following error: 80131051. I can't really provide direct code examples, due to internal security implications; but all the code itself seems to work, I am suspecting perms or something of the like... I just find it odd that I can't find any reference to error 80131051. If someone out there believe some 'indirect' code samples will help, I will be happy to provide. Any assistance is appreciated.

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• Web Platform Installer bundles for Visual Studio 2010 SP1 - and how you can build your own WebPI bundles

  - by Jon Galloway

  Visual Studio SP1 is  now available via the Web Platform Installer, which means you've got three options: Download the 1.5 GB ISO image Run the 750KB Web Installer (which figures out what you need to download) Install via Web PI Note: I covered some tips for installing VS2010 SP1 last week - including some that apply to all of these, such as removing options you don't use prior to installing the service pack to decrease the installation time and download size. Two Visual Studio 2010 SP1 Web PI packages There are actually two WebPI packages for VS2010 SP1. There's the standard Visual Studio 2010 SP1 package [Web PI link], which includes (quoting ScottGu's post): VS2010 2010 SP1 ASP.NET MVC 3 (runtime + tools support) IIS 7.5 Express SQL Server Compact Edition 4.0 (runtime + tools support) Web Deployment 2.0 The notes on that package sum it up pretty well: Looking for the latest everything? Look no further. This will get you Visual Studio 2010 Service Pack 1 and the RTM releases of ASP.NET MVC 3, IIS 7.5 Express, SQL Server Compact 4.0 with tooling, and Web Deploy 2.0. It's the value meal of Microsoft products. Tell your friends! Note: This bundle includes the Visual Studio 2010 SP1 web installer, which will dynamically determine the appropriate service pack components to download and install. This is typically in the range of 200-500 MB and will take 30-60 minutes to install, depending on your machine configuration. There is also a Visual Studio 2010 SP1 Core package [Web PI link], which only includes only the SP without any of the other goodies (MVC3, IIS Express, etc.). If you're doing any web development, I'd highly recommend the main pack since it the other installs are small, simple installs, but if you're working in another space, you might want the core package. Installing via the Web Platform Installer I generally like to go with the Web PI when possible since it simplifies most software installations due to things like: Smart dependency management - installing apps or tools which have software dependencies will automatically figure out which dependencies you don't have and add them to the list (which you can review before install) Simultaneous download and install - if your install includes more than one package, it will automatically pull the dependencies first and begin installing them while downloading the others Lists the latest downloads - no need to search around, as they're all listed based on a live feed Includes open source applications - a lot of popular open source applications are included as well as Microsoft software and tools No worries about reinstallation - WebPI installations detect what you've got installed, so for instance if you've got MVC 3 installed you don't need to worry about the VS2010 SP1 package install messing anything up In addition to the links I included above, you can install the WebPI from http://www.microsoft.com/web/downloads/platform.aspx, and if you have Web PI installed you can just tap the Windows key and type "Web Platform" to bring it up in the Start search list. You'll see Visual Studio SP1 listed in the spotlight list as shown below. That's the standard package, which includes MVC 3 / IIS 7.5 Express / SQL Compact / Web Deploy. If you just want the core install, you can use the search box in the upper right corner, typing in "Visual Studio SP1" as shown. Core Install: Use Web PI or the Visual Studio Web Installer? I think the big advantage of using Web PI to install VS 2010 SP1 is that it includes the other new bits. If you're going to install the SP1 core, I don't think there's as much advantage to using Web PI, as the Web PI Core install just downloads the Visual Studio Web Installer anyways. I think Web PI makes it a little easier to find the download, but not a lot. The Visual Studio Web Installer checks dependencies, so there's no big advantage there. If you do happen to hit any problems installing Visual Studio SP1 via Web PI, I'd recommend running the Visual Studio Web Installer, then running the Web PI VS 2010 SP1 package to get all the other goodies. I talked to one person who hit some random snag, recommended that, and it worked out. Custom Web Platform Installer bundles You can create links that will launch the Web Platform Installer with a custom list of tools. You can see an example of this by clicking through on the install button at http://asp.net/downloads (cancelling the installation dialog). You'll see this in the address bar: http://www.microsoft.com/web/gallery/install.aspx?appsxml=&appid=MVC3;ASPNET;NETFramework4;SQLExpress;VWD Notice that the appid querystring parameter includes a semicolon delimited list, and you can make your own custom Web PI links with your own desired app list. I can think of a lot of cases where that would be handy: linking to a recommended software configuration from a software project or product, setting up a recommended / documented / supported install list for a software development team or IT shop, etc. For instance, here's a link that installs just VS2010 SP1 Core and the SQL CE tools: http://www.microsoft.com/web/gallery/install.aspx?appsxml=&appid=VS2010SP1Core;SQLCETools Note: If you've already got all or some of the products installed, the display will reflect that. On my dev box which has the full SP1 package, here's what the above link gives me: Here's another example - on a fresh box I created a link to install MVC 3 and the Web Farm Framework (http://www.microsoft.com/web/gallery/install.aspx?appsxml=&appid=MVC3;WebFarmFramework) and got the following items added to the cart: But where do I get the App ID's? Aha, that's the trick. You can link to a list of cool packages, but you need to know the App ID's to link to them. To figure that out, I turned on tracing in Web Platform Installer  (also handy if you're ever having trouble with a WebPI install) and from the trace logs saw that the list of packages is pulled from an XML file: DownloadManager Information: 0 : Loading product xml from: https://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=9763242 DownloadManager Verbose: 0 : Connecting to https://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=9763242 with (partial) headers: Referer: wpi://2.1.0.0/Microsoft Windows NT 6.1.7601 Service Pack 1 If-Modified-Since: Wed, 09 Mar 2011 14:15:27 GMT User-Agent:Platform-Installer/3.0.3.0(Microsoft Windows NT 6.1.7601 Service Pack 1) DownloadManager Information: 0 : https://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=9763242 responded with 302 DownloadManager Information: 0 : Response headers: HTTP/1.1 302 Found Cache-Control: private Content-Length: 175 Content-Type: text/html; charset=utf-8 Expires: Wed, 09 Mar 2011 22:52:28 GMT Location: https://www.microsoft.com/web/webpi/3.0/webproductlist.xml Server: Microsoft-IIS/7.5 X-AspNet-Version: 2.0.50727 X-Powered-By: ASP.NET Date: Wed, 09 Mar 2011 22:53:27 GMT Browsing to https://www.microsoft.com/web/webpi/3.0/webproductlist.xml shows the full list. You can search through that in your browser / text editor if you'd like, open it in Excel as an XML table, etc. Here's a list of the App ID's as of today: SMO SMO32 PHP52ForIISExpress PHP53ForIISExpress StaticContent DefaultDocument DirectoryBrowse HTTPErrors HTTPRedirection ASPNET NETExtensibility ASP CGI ISAPIExtensions ISAPIFilters ServerSideIncludes HTTPLogging LoggingTools RequestMonitor Tracing CustomLogging ODBCLogging BasicAuthentication WindowsAuthentication DigestAuthentication ClientCertificateMappingAuthentication IISClientCertificateMappingAuthentication URLAuthorization RequestFiltering IPSecurity StaticContentCompression DynamicContentCompression IISManagementConsole IISManagementScriptsAndTools ManagementService MetabaseAndIIS6Compatibility WASProcessModel WASNetFxEnvironment WASConfigurationAPI IIS6WPICompatibility IIS6ScriptingTools IIS6ManagementConsole LegacyFTPServer FTPServer WebDAV LegacyFTPManagementConsole FTPExtensibility AdminPack AdvancedLogging WebFarmFrameworkNonLoc ExternalCacheNonLoc WebFarmFramework WebFarmFrameworkv2 WebFarmFrameworkv2_beta ExternalCache ECacheUpdate ARRv1 ARRv2Beta1 ARRv2Beta2 ARRv2RC ARRv2NonLoc ARRv2 ARRv2Update MVC MVCBeta MVCRC1 MVCRC2 DBManager DbManagerUpdate DynamicIPRestrictions DynamicIPRestrictionsUpdate DynamicIPRestrictionsLegacy DynamicIPRestrictionsBeta2 FTPOOB IISPowershellSnapin RemoteManager SEOToolkit VS2008RTM MySQL SQLDriverPHP52IIS SQLDriverPHP53IIS SQLDriverPHP52IISExpress SQLDriverPHP53IISExpress SQLExpress SQLManagementStudio SQLExpressAdv SQLExpressTools UrlRewrite UrlRewrite2 UrlRewrite2NonLoc UrlRewrite2RC UrlRewrite2Beta UrlRewrite10 UrlScan MVC3Installer MVC3 MVC3LocInstaller MVC3Loc MVC2 VWD VWD2010SP1Pack NETFramework4 WebMatrix WebMatrix_v1Refresh IISExpress IISExpress_v1 IIS7 AspWebPagesVS AspWebPagesVS_1_0 Plan9 Plan9Loc WebMatrix_WHP SQLCE SQLCETools SQLCEVSTools SQLCEVSTools_4_0 SQLCEVSToolsInstaller_4_0 SQLCEVSToolsInstallerNew_4_0 SQLCEVSToolsInstallerRepair_EN_4_0 SQLCEVSToolsInstallerRepair_JA_4_0 SQLCEVSToolsInstallerRepair_FR_4_0 SQLCEVSToolsInstallerRepair_DE_4_0 SQLCEVSToolsInstallerRepair_ES_4_0 SQLCEVSToolsInstallerRepair_IT_4_0 SQLCEVSToolsInstallerRepair_RU_4_0 SQLCEVSToolsInstallerRepair_KO_4_0 SQLCEVSToolsInstallerRepair_ZH_CN_4_0 SQLCEVSToolsInstallerRepair_ZH_TW_4_0 VWD2008 WebDAVOOB WDeploy WDeploy_v2 WDeployNoSMO WDeploy11 WinCache52 WinCache53 NETFramework35 WindowsImagingComponent VC9Redist NETFramework20SP2 WindowsInstaller31 PowerShell PowerShellMsu PowerShell2 WindowsInstaller45 FastCGIUpdate FastCGIBackport FastCGIIIS6 IIS51 IIS60 SQLNativeClient SQLNativeClient2008 SQLNativeClient2005 SQLCLRTypes SQLCLRTypes32 SMO_10_1 MySQLConnector PHP52 PHP53 PHPManager VSVWD2010Feature VWD2010WebFeature_0 VWD2010WebFeature_1 VWD2010WebFeature_2 VS2010SP1Prerequisite RIAServicesToolkitMay2010 Silverlight4Toolkit Silverlight4Tools VSLS SSMAMySQL WebsitePanel VS2010SP1Core VS2010SP1Installer VS2010SP1Pack MissingVWDOrVSVWD2010Feature VB2010Beta2Express VCS2010Beta2Express VC2010Beta2Express RIAServicesToolkitApr2010 VS2010Beta1 VS2010RC VS2010Beta2 VS2010Beta2Express VS2k8RTM VSCPP2k8RTM VSVB2k8RTM VSCS2k8RTM VSVWDFeature LegacyWinCache SQLExpress2005 SSMS2005

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• Exploring the Excel Services REST API

  - by jamiet

  Over the last few years Analysis Services guru Chris Webb and I have been on something of a crusade to enable better access to data that is locked up in countless Excel workbooks that litter the hard drives of enterprise PCs. The most prominent manifestation of that crusade up to now has been a forum thread that Chris began on Microsoft Answers entitled Excel Web App API? Chris began that thread with: I was wondering whether there was an API for the Excel Web App? Specifically, I was wondering if it was possible (or if it will be possible in the future) to expose data in a spreadsheet in the Excel Web App as an OData feed, in the way that it is possible with Excel Services? Up to recently the last 10 words of that paragraph "in the way that it is possible with Excel Services" had completely washed over me however a comment on my recent blog post Thoughts on ExcelMashup.com (and a rant) by Josh Booker in which Josh said: Excel Services is a service application built for sharepoint 2010 which exposes a REST API for excel documents. We're looking forward to pros like you giving it a try now that Office365 makes sharepoint more easily accessible.  Can't wait for your future blog about using REST API to load data from Excel on Offce 365 in SSIS. made me think that perhaps the Excel Services REST API is something I should be looking into and indeed that is what I have been doing over the past few days. And you know what? I'm rather impressed with some of what Excel Services' REST API has to offer. Unfortunately Excel Services' REST API also has one debilitating aspect that renders this blog post much less useful than it otherwise would be; namely that it is not publicly available from the Excel Web App on SkyDrive. Therefore all I can do in this blog post is show you screenshots of what the REST API provides in Sharepoint rather than linking you directly to those REST resources; that's a great shame because one of the benefits of a REST API is that it is easily and ubiquitously demonstrable from a web browser. Instead I am hosting a workbook on Sharepoint in Office 365 because that does include Excel Services' REST API but, again, all I can do is show you screenshots. N.B. If anyone out there knows how to make Office-365-hosted spreadsheets publicly-accessible (i.e. without requiring a username/password) please do let me know (because knowing which forum on which to ask the question is an exercise in futility). In order to demonstrate Excel Services' REST API I needed some decent data and for that I used the World Tourism Organization Statistics Database and Yearbook - United Nations World Tourism Organization dataset hosted on Azure Datamarket (its free, by the way); this dataset "provides comprehensive information on international tourism worldwide and offers a selection of the latest available statistics on international tourist arrivals, tourism receipts and expenditure" and you can explore the data for yourself here. If you want to play along at home by viewing the data as it exists in Excel then it can be viewed here. Let's dive in.   The root of Excel Services' REST API is the model resource which resides at: http://server/_vti_bin/ExcelRest.aspx/Documents/TourismExpenditureInMillionsOfUSD.xlsx/model Note that this is true for every workbook hosted in a Sharepoint document library - each Excel workbook is a RESTful resource. (Update: Mark Stacey on Twitter tells me that "It's turned off by default in onpremise Sharepoint (1 tickbox to turn on though)". Thanks Mark!) The data is provided as an ATOM feed but I have Firefox's feed reading ability turned on so you don't see the underlying XML goo. As you can see there are four top level resources, Ranges, Charts, Tables and PivotTables; exploring one of those resources is where things get interesting. Let's take a look at the Tables Resource: http://server/_vti_bin/ExcelRest.aspx/Documents/TourismExpenditureInMillionsOfUSD.xlsx/model/Tables Our workbook contains only one table, called ‘Table1’ (to reiterate, you can explore this table yourself here). Viewing that table via the REST API is pretty easy, we simply append the name of the table onto our previous URI: http://server/_vti_bin/ExcelRest.aspx/Documents/TourismExpenditureInMillionsOfUSD.xlsx/model/Tables('Table1') As you can see, that quite simply gives us a representation of the data in that table. What you cannot see from this screenshot is that this is pure HTML that is being served up; that is all well and good but actually we can do more interesting things. If we specify that the data should be returned not as HTML but as: http://server/_vti_bin/ExcelRest.aspx/Documents/TourismExpenditureInMillionsOfUSD.xlsx/model/Tables('Table1')?$format=image then that data comes back as a pure image and can be used in any web page where you would ordinarily use images. This is the thing that I really like about Excel Services’ REST API – we can embed an image in any web page but instead of being a copy of the data, that image is actually live – if the underlying data in the workbook were to change then hitting refresh will show a new image. Pretty cool, no? The same is true of any Charts or Pivot Tables in your workbook - those can be embedded as images too and if the underlying data changes, boom, the image in your web page changes too. There is a lot of data in the workbook so the image returned by that previous URI is too large to show here so instead let’s take a look at a different resource, this time a range: http://server/_vti_bin/ExcelRest.aspx/Documents/TourismExpenditureInMillionsOfUSD.xlsx/model/Ranges('Data!A1|C15') That URI returns cells A1 to C15 from a worksheet called “Data”: And if we ask for that as an image again: http://server/_vti_bin/ExcelRest.aspx/Documents/TourismExpenditureInMillionsOfUSD.xlsx/model/Ranges('Data!A1|C15')?$format=image Were this image resource not behind a username/password then this would be a live image of the data in the workbook as opposed to one that I had to copy and upload elsewhere. Nonetheless I hope this little wrinkle doesn't detract from the inate value of what I am trying to articulate here; that an existing image in a web page can be changed on-the-fly simply by inserting some data into an Excel workbook. I for one think that that is very cool indeed! I think that's enough in the way of demo for now as this shows what is possible using Excel Services' REST API. Of course, not all features work quite how I would like and here is a bulleted list of some of my more negative feedback: The URIs are pig-ugly. Are "_vti_bin" & "ExcelRest.aspx" really necessary as part of the URI? Would this not be better: http://server/Documents/TourismExpenditureInMillionsOfUSD.xlsx/Model/Tables(‘Table1’) That URI provides the necessary addressability and is a lot easier to remember. Discoverability of these resources is not easy, we essentially have to handcrank a URI ourselves. Take the example of embedding a chart into a blog post - would it not be better if I could browse first through the document library to an Excel workbook and THEN through the workbook to the chart/range/table that I am interested in? Call it a wizard if you like. That would be really cool and would, I am sure, promote this feature and cut down on the copy-and-paste disease that the REST API is meant to alleviate. The resources that I demonstrated can be returned as feeds as well as images or HTML simply by changing the format parameter to ?$format=atom however for some inexplicable reason they don't return OData and no-one on the Excel Services team can tell me why (believe me, I have asked). $format is an OData parameter however other useful parameters such as $top and $filter are not supported. It would be nice if they were. Although I haven't demonstrated it here Excel Services' REST API does provide a makeshift way of altering the data by changing the value of specific cells however what it does not allow you to do is add new data into the workbook. Google Docs allows this and was one of the motivating factors for Chris Webb's forum post that I linked to above. None of this works for Excel workbooks hosted on SkyDrive This blog post is as long as it needs to be for a short introduction so I'll stop now. If you want to know more than I recommend checking out a few links: Excel Services REST API documentation on MSDNSo what does REST on Excel Services look like??? by Shahar PrishExcel Services in SharePoint 2010 REST API Syntax by Christian Stich. Any thoughts? Let's hear them in the comments section below! @Jamiet 

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• Exploring the Excel Services REST API

  - by jamiet

  Over the last few years Analysis Services guru Chris Webb and I have been on something of a crusade to enable better access to data that is locked up in countless Excel workbooks that litter the hard drives of enterprise PCs. The most prominent manifestation of that crusade up to now has been a forum thread that Chris began on Microsoft Answers entitled Excel Web App API? Chris began that thread with: I was wondering whether there was an API for the Excel Web App? Specifically, I was wondering if it was possible (or if it will be possible in the future) to expose data in a spreadsheet in the Excel Web App as an OData feed, in the way that it is possible with Excel Services? Up to recently the last 10 words of that paragraph "in the way that it is possible with Excel Services" had completely washed over me however a comment on my recent blog post Thoughts on ExcelMashup.com (and a rant) by Josh Booker in which Josh said: Excel Services is a service application built for sharepoint 2010 which exposes a REST API for excel documents. We're looking forward to pros like you giving it a try now that Office365 makes sharepoint more easily accessible.  Can't wait for your future blog about using REST API to load data from Excel on Offce 365 in SSIS. made me think that perhaps the Excel Services REST API is something I should be looking into and indeed that is what I have been doing over the past few days. And you know what? I'm rather impressed with some of what Excel Services' REST API has to offer. Unfortunately Excel Services' REST API also has one debilitating aspect that renders this blog post much less useful than it otherwise would be; namely that it is not publicly available from the Excel Web App on SkyDrive. Therefore all I can do in this blog post is show you screenshots of what the REST API provides in Sharepoint rather than linking you directly to those REST resources; that's a great shame because one of the benefits of a REST API is that it is easily and ubiquitously demonstrable from a web browser. Instead I am hosting a workbook on Sharepoint in Office 365 because that does include Excel Services' REST API but, again, all I can do is show you screenshots. N.B. If anyone out there knows how to make Office-365-hosted spreadsheets publicly-accessible (i.e. without requiring a username/password) please do let me know (because knowing which forum on which to ask the question is an exercise in futility). In order to demonstrate Excel Services' REST API I needed some decent data and for that I used the World Tourism Organization Statistics Database and Yearbook - United Nations World Tourism Organization dataset hosted on Azure Datamarket (its free, by the way); this dataset "provides comprehensive information on international tourism worldwide and offers a selection of the latest available statistics on international tourist arrivals, tourism receipts and expenditure" and you can explore the data for yourself here. If you want to play along at home by viewing the data as it exists in Excel then it can be viewed here. Let's dive in.   The root of Excel Services' REST API is the model resource which resides at: http://server/_vti_bin/ExcelRest.aspx/Documents/TourismExpenditureInMillionsOfUSD.xlsx/model Note that this is true for every workbook hosted in a Sharepoint document library - each Excel workbook is a RESTful resource. (Update: Mark Stacey on Twitter tells me that "It's turned off by default in onpremise Sharepoint (1 tickbox to turn on though)". Thanks Mark!) The data is provided as an ATOM feed but I have Firefox's feed reading ability turned on so you don't see the underlying XML goo. As you can see there are four top level resources, Ranges, Charts, Tables and PivotTables; exploring one of those resources is where things get interesting. Let's take a look at the Tables Resource: http://server/_vti_bin/ExcelRest.aspx/Documents/TourismExpenditureInMillionsOfUSD.xlsx/model/Tables Our workbook contains only one table, called ‘Table1’ (to reiterate, you can explore this table yourself here). Viewing that table via the REST API is pretty easy, we simply append the name of the table onto our previous URI: http://server/_vti_bin/ExcelRest.aspx/Documents/TourismExpenditureInMillionsOfUSD.xlsx/model/Tables('Table1') As you can see, that quite simply gives us a representation of the data in that table. What you cannot see from this screenshot is that this is pure HTML that is being served up; that is all well and good but actually we can do more interesting things. If we specify that the data should be returned not as HTML but as: http://server/_vti_bin/ExcelRest.aspx/Documents/TourismExpenditureInMillionsOfUSD.xlsx/model/Tables('Table1')?$format=image then that data comes back as a pure image and can be used in any web page where you would ordinarily use images. This is the thing that I really like about Excel Services’ REST API – we can embed an image in any web page but instead of being a copy of the data, that image is actually live – if the underlying data in the workbook were to change then hitting refresh will show a new image. Pretty cool, no? The same is true of any Charts or Pivot Tables in your workbook - those can be embedded as images too and if the underlying data changes, boom, the image in your web page changes too. There is a lot of data in the workbook so the image returned by that previous URI is too large to show here so instead let’s take a look at a different resource, this time a range: http://server/_vti_bin/ExcelRest.aspx/Documents/TourismExpenditureInMillionsOfUSD.xlsx/model/Ranges('Data!A1|C15') That URI returns cells A1 to C15 from a worksheet called “Data”: And if we ask for that as an image again: http://server/_vti_bin/ExcelRest.aspx/Documents/TourismExpenditureInMillionsOfUSD.xlsx/model/Ranges('Data!A1|C15')?$format=image Were this image resource not behind a username/password then this would be a live image of the data in the workbook as opposed to one that I had to copy and upload elsewhere. Nonetheless I hope this little wrinkle doesn't detract from the inate value of what I am trying to articulate here; that an existing image in a web page can be changed on-the-fly simply by inserting some data into an Excel workbook. I for one think that that is very cool indeed! I think that's enough in the way of demo for now as this shows what is possible using Excel Services' REST API. Of course, not all features work quite how I would like and here is a bulleted list of some of my more negative feedback: The URIs are pig-ugly. Are "_vti_bin" & "ExcelRest.aspx" really necessary as part of the URI? Would this not be better: http://server/Documents/TourismExpenditureInMillionsOfUSD.xlsx/Model/Tables(‘Table1’) That URI provides the necessary addressability and is a lot easier to remember. Discoverability of these resources is not easy, we essentially have to handcrank a URI ourselves. Take the example of embedding a chart into a blog post - would it not be better if I could browse first through the document library to an Excel workbook and THEN through the workbook to the chart/range/table that I am interested in? Call it a wizard if you like. That would be really cool and would, I am sure, promote this feature and cut down on the copy-and-paste disease that the REST API is meant to alleviate. The resources that I demonstrated can be returned as feeds as well as images or HTML simply by changing the format parameter to ?$format=atom however for some inexplicable reason they don't return OData and no-one on the Excel Services team can tell me why (believe me, I have asked). $format is an OData parameter however other useful parameters such as $top and $filter are not supported. It would be nice if they were. Although I haven't demonstrated it here Excel Services' REST API does provide a makeshift way of altering the data by changing the value of specific cells however what it does not allow you to do is add new data into the workbook. Google Docs allows this and was one of the motivating factors for Chris Webb's forum post that I linked to above. None of this works for Excel workbooks hosted on SkyDrive This blog post is as long as it needs to be for a short introduction so I'll stop now. If you want to know more than I recommend checking out a few links: Excel Services REST API documentation on MSDNSo what does REST on Excel Services look like??? by Shahar PrishExcel Services in SharePoint 2010 REST API Syntax by Christian Stich. Any thoughts? Let's hear them in the comments section below! @Jamiet 

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