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• GKTank example is not working.

  - by david

  Hello, I'm trying to get the GKTank example working with 2 iPhones. Both have bluetooth enabled. I start the app on both devices and tap the screen. The Peer Picker comes up and the devices find each other. If I select one device in the list it says "Waiting for {other iPhone}..." forever. On the {other iPhone} the waiting phone gets grayed out. If I select the device to connect to from both devices at the same time both go into waiting state forever... The debug log says this if I select the other iPhone on the debugged device: 2010-05-30 23:20:24.331 GKTank[2433:4e03] handleEvents started (2) 2010-05-30 23:20:25.269 GKTank[2433:4e03] ~ DNSServiceRegister callback: Ref=135f70, Flags=2, ErrorType=0 name=00oRWv-0A..David’s iPhone regtype=_gktank._udp. domain=local. 2010-05-30 23:20:25.375 GKTank[2433:4e03] ~ DNSServiceBrowse callback: Ref=134f30, Flags=2, IFIndex=8 (name=[en2]), ErrorType=0 name=00oRWv-0A..David’s iPhone regtype=_gktank._udp. domain=local. 2010-05-30 23:20:30.691 GKTank[2433:4e03] ~ DNSServiceBrowse callback: Ref=134f30, Flags=2, IFIndex=-3 (name=[]), ErrorType=0 name=00K83eS0A..iPhone von Tamara regtype=_gktank._udp. domain=local. 2010-05-30 23:20:30.855 GKTank[2433:4e03] ~ DNSServiceQueryRecord callback: Ref=13a320, Flags=2, IFIndex=-3 (name=[]), ErrorType=0 fullname=00k83es0a..iphone\032von\032tamara._gktank._udp.local. rrtype=16 rrclass=1 rdlen=18 ttl=7200 2010-05-30 23:20:30.872 GKTank[2433:4e03] ** peer 480260628: oldbusy=0, newbusy=0 2010-05-30 23:20:35.215 GKTank[2433:207] ** Stop resolving? potentially previous resolves 2010-05-30 23:20:35.226 GKTank[2433:207] **** BEGIN RESOLVE: 480260628 and it stays that way. On the second iPhone the device is listed as not available and grayed out. If I select each other at the same time it says this: 2010-05-30 23:24:31.416 GKTank[2442:4e03] handleEvents started (2) 2010-05-30 23:24:32.321 GKTank[2442:4e03] ~ DNSServiceRegister callback: Ref=135120, Flags=2, ErrorType=0 name=006JiAZ0A..David’s iPhone regtype=_gktank._udp. domain=local. 2010-05-30 23:24:32.419 GKTank[2442:4e03] ~ DNSServiceBrowse callback: Ref=134f30, Flags=2, IFIndex=8 (name=[en2]), ErrorType=0 name=006JiAZ0A..David’s iPhone regtype=_gktank._udp. domain=local. 2010-05-30 23:24:57.156 GKTank[2442:4e03] ~ DNSServiceBrowse callback: Ref=134f30, Flags=2, IFIndex=-3 (name=[]), ErrorType=0 name=004_n6C0A..iPhone von Tamara regtype=_gktank._udp. domain=local. 2010-05-30 23:24:57.308 GKTank[2442:4e03] ~ DNSServiceQueryRecord callback: Ref=13a320, Flags=2, IFIndex=-3 (name=[]), ErrorType=0 fullname=004_n6c0a..iphone\032von\032tamara._gktank._udp.local. rrtype=16 rrclass=1 rdlen=18 ttl=7200 2010-05-30 23:24:57.314 GKTank[2442:4e03] ** peer 203104196: oldbusy=0, newbusy=0 2010-05-30 23:25:02.383 GKTank[2442:207] ** Stop resolving? potentially previous resolves 2010-05-30 23:25:02.425 GKTank[2442:207] **** BEGIN RESOLVE: 203104196 2010-05-30 23:25:13.562 GKTank[2442:4e03] ~ DNSServiceQueryRecord callback: Ref=13a320, Flags=2, IFIndex=-3 (name=[]), ErrorType=0 fullname=004_n6c0a..iphone\032von\032tamara._gktank._udp.local. rrtype=16 rrclass=1 rdlen=18 ttl=7200 2010-05-30 23:25:13.569 GKTank[2442:4e03] ** peer 203104196: oldbusy=0, newbusy=1 2010-05-30 23:25:33.660 GKTank[2442:4e03] ~ DNSServiceBrowse callback: Ref=134f30, Flags=0, IFIndex=-3 (name=[]), ErrorType=0 name=004_n6C0A..iPhone von Tamara regtype=_gktank._udp. domain=local. 2010-05-30 23:25:33.671 GKTank[2442:4e03] Peer [203104196] removed? (0). 2010-05-30 23:25:33.683 GKTank[2442:4e03] GKPeer[139f10] 203104196 service count old=1 new=0 2010-05-30 23:25:37.786 GKTank[2442:4e03] ~ DNSServiceBrowse callback: Ref=134f30, Flags=2, IFIndex=-3 (name=[]), ErrorType=0 name=004_n6C0A..iPhone von Tamara regtype=_gktank._udp. domain=local. 2010-05-30 23:25:37.816 GKTank[2442:4e03] GKPeer[139f10] 203104196 service count old=0 new=1 ... and waits forever. Does anybody know whats wrong with this sample??

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• LINQ to SQL select distinct from multiple colums

  - by Morron

  Hi, I'm using LINQ to SQL to select some columns from one table. I want to get rid of the duplicate result also. Dim customer = (From cus In db.Customers Select cus.CustomerId, cus.CustomerName).Distinct Result: 1 David 2 James 1 David 3 Smith 2 James 5 Joe Wanted result: 1 David 2 James 3 Smith 5 Joe Can anyone show me how to get the wanted result? Thanks.

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• A way for an Upstart event to be sent whenever ecryptfs homedir mounted/unmounted?

  - by David Olivier

  I have an encrypted homedir (ecryptfs) and I'm wanting to run a private mysql daemon with the database files in my homedir. The daemon should be started whenever the homedir is mounted, and stopped before the homedir is unmounted. It seems I have to write an Upstart script, which doesn't seem too hard; the problem is triggering it. Is there already any Upstart event that is sent on these occasions? Or must I insert an "initctl emit" somewhere? Where? It seems the encrypted homedir is mounted whenever I either open my GUI session or ssh to my account. Is there a common place in these two processes where I might insert code? (I don't want to patch and compile any C code, just insert maybe a few lines somewere.) David

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• Good news and Windows Cake!

  - by David Nudelman

  A lot of interesting things happed in my life recently. I won the “Windows @ Work Contest”  from IT Toolbox and as I was not eligible to get the prize I arranged a 500 US$ donation to Kidsave.org. April 1st was also a very special day in my life, not only it was April Fools days, but it was also when I first received my Microsoft MVP Award for Windows Desktop Experience. I had enough time to celebrate, but my boss went on vacations the day before. Today he came back to the office with a very nice surprise. Yes! His wife baked a Windows Cake for me, a nice personal recognition prize. Regards, David Nudelman Related articles: [How to] Not get the prize but make everyone happy!

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• Webmaster Tools - URL Parameters Settings Do Not Work

  - by David

  Google Webmaster Tools shows problems with duplicate title tags under Optimization - HTML Improvements, for example: ???????? Mitsubishi Electric Mr. Slim PC Series PC-3KAKLT (220V) 30000 BTU > /????-????/mitsubishi-mr-slim-pc3kaklt-30000-btu.html > /????-????/mitsubishi-mr-slim-pc3kaklt-30000-btu.html?category_id=96 These two pages have exactly the same content, a rel-canonical tag is set, and they are (no longer) linked to internally. Additionally, we used the Configuration - URL Parameters setting, to set this parameter to No: Doesn't affect page content about one month ago. However, Google is still showing these HTML improvements (and rankings dropped dramatically). What else can we do here? Best, David

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• Cooking With Expression: HTML 5 and Expression Web

  - by David Wesst

  I finally got the first one done! This is the first of a series of webcasts that I have wanted to do for a while. I call it Cooking with Expression because developing great user experiences are very similar to cooking great food. So please, check it out, leave some feedback, and enjoy! --- To kick off the series, we want to talk about some techniques that we will be using throughout the series for the different recipes. Since HTML 5 is literally the future of the web and buzz topic in development today, we thought we would start off with that. In this episode we are going to teach you how to use one of your your present day tools Microsoft Expression Web with HTML 5. Cooking with Expression - HTML 5 in Expression Web from David Wesst on Vimeo.

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• CIO Magazine's State of the CIO and its Impact on Your EA

  - by david.olivencia(at)oracle.com

  CIO Magazine today released its State of the CIO report.  As most Enterpise Architects report to (or report very close to) the CIO, the report provides interesting insights as to where most CIOs minds and priorities are.  The information will allow Enterprise Architects  to better align plans, approaches, models, and stratagies. The report's summary can be found here:  http://assets.cio.com/documents/cache/pdfs/2011/dec15_gatefold.pdf   Specifically the article highlights: * How IT Makes A Difference * Critical Leadership Skills * Business Focused CIOs * Areas of Increasing Responsibility * Plans for 2015   Enterprise Architects what insights from this report will alter they way you successfully lead in 2011?   David Olivencia | Solution Director, Enterprise Architecture & Exa ServicesOracle Consulting Latin America and Caribbean

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• U1 music mp3 files not put into albums

  - by david

  Via the web page I can see that my files sync to U1 cloud servers. For the mp3 files, there seems to be a problem that several questions have already addressed but there does not seem to be a clear answer. If I use EasyTAG 2.1.6, I can see the ID3 tags on the local files and they seem to correctly define the artist, album title and track name. I expect it is not relevant, but I am using 10.04 with several different clients to rip the CDs. However, some mp3 files do not appear in the cloud at all and some others get assigned to Various Artist or Unknown artist. Does the music streaming (e.g. via Ipad) use the tags or the directory/file structure to assign the artist or album, and how quickly should it be expected to work? :-) Which version of ID3 tags does U1 music streaming work best with or prefer? thanks for any help David

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• Copy machine security issues.

  - by David Nudelman

  I am involved on a project to talk to communities about the risks of posting online content is social networks. But this time I was really impressed how far security concerns can go. This video from CBS news talks about security risks related to corporate fax/printers and scanners. It was very clear that when they got the machines they selected the machines by previous owner and they were not random machines, but still, I will never scan from my company machine again. I guess the price of multifunction printers will go up if this video goes viral. Regards, David Nudelman

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• Post Deploy MAAS cleanup

  - by David Buttrick

  I have a mostly working MAAS cluster. I'm still learning juju, but while I'm doing that, I wanted to take this opportunity to do some clean-up tasks. Here are my goals: Configure ntp on the nodes. Set the video mode on the nodes. Set the timezone on the nodes. Are these juju tasks? Or is this better attacked by mounting the disk image on the MAAS host, and doing the configuration there? If I do it that way, how do I get the nodes to recognize that they have to re-install the image to pickup my changes? Thank you. David

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• Webcasts con TechNet Latam Windows Server y Windows 7

  - by David Nudelman

  La gente de Microsoft TechNet LATAM me invitó a presentar 3 webcasts sobre Windows Server 2008 R2 e implementación de Windows 7, temas que tengo bastante familiaridad. Os dejo la información y el enlace de registro. 25 de Mayo - 2:30 PM-4:00 PM (UTC-05:00) Webcast TechNet: "Una demo para conocer Windows Server 2008 R2" 26 de Mayo - 2:30 PM-4:00 PM (UTC-05:00) Webcast TechNet: "Serie Cómo hacer: Determinación de la mejor opción de implementación y herramientas que se deben utilizar con sus clientes" 1 de Junio - 1:30 PM-3:00 PM (UTC-05:00) Webcast TechNet: "Implementación rápida - Cambio de clientes de XP a Win7 fácil y rápido" Saludos, David Nudelman Technorati Tags: webcasts,server 2008 r2,windows 7,mvp

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• Crosstalk Retail Panel

  - by David Dorf

  Susan Reda from Stores magazine hosted a panel at Crosstalk earlier this year.  I found the discussions on mobile and Commerce Anywhere very interesting, especially from the perspective of retailers not based in the US.  On the panel were: Michel Joncas, CIO at Groupe Dynamite (Canada) David Hunn, Head of IT Delivery at John Lewis (UK) Dan West, CIO at New Look (UK) Tom Madigan, VP at Oracle Retail Take a look: &amp;amp;amp;lt;span id=&amp;amp;amp;quot;XinhaEditingPostion&amp;amp;amp;quot;&amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;lt;/span&amp;amp;amp;gt;

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• How to remove duplicate content, which is still indexed, but not linked to anymore?

  - by David

  A bug in the tool, which we use to create search-engine-friendly URLs changed our whole URL-structure overnight, and we only noticed after Google already indexed the page. Now, we have a massive duplicate content issue, causing a harsh drop in rankings. Webmaster Tools shows over 1,000 duplicate title tags, so I don't think, Google understands what is going on. Right URL: abc.com/price/sharp-ah-l13-12000-btu.html Wrong URL: abc.com/item/sharp-l-series-ahl13-12000-btu.html (created by mistake) After that, we ... Changed back all URLs to the "Right URLs" Set up a 301-redirect for all "Wrong URLs" a few days later Now, still a massive amount of pages is in the index twice. As we do not link internally to the "Wrong URLs" anymore, I am not sure, if Google will re-crawl them very soon. What can we do to solve this issue and tell Google, that all the "Wrong URLs" now redirect to the "Right URLs"? Best, David

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• Cooking with Expression: HTML 5 Video for All

  - by David Wesst

  Happy new year everyone! I hope you enjoy the first new episode of 2011. --- In today’s episode we will be cooking up some HTML 5 video. This recipe will let you deliver videos to your users using browsers that support HTML 5, and even handle those who have not made the jump to the latest and greatest browsers. Feel free to leave comments on the page. Feedback is always welcome. Cooking with Expression - HTML 5 Video for All from David Wesst on Vimeo.

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• Software developer needs Validation for VA Chap 31 to purchase Macbook Pro vs. PC [closed]

  - by David

  I am currently attending college with a path of software development and working towards my BS thanks to VA Chap 31. My old original Macbook Pro is near dead and no longer upgradable on the software or hardware side. The VA has offered to purchase a PC laptop for me (Because my syllabi says computer required), but I do not want to go backwards. I have a lot invested in OS X software and Mac peripherals, not to mention I prefer to program in an Apple environment. PC vs. Mac costs are so drastically different that I must validate my request for a new Macbook Pro. In my request to the VA, I stated the above and some other topics but they requested more validation. Can anyone recommend issues, reasons, etc. to help me validate this purchase by the VA for school? Thanks in advance for your help, David

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• Backup systems config files

  - by David ???

  I'm planning on installing nVidia proprietary drivers on my Ubuntu 10.10. Historically this always ends-up with me being left with no graphical interface. No ability to revert - and reinstalling the whole system. So now, before trying this anew, I wish to backup all relevant config files. I'll try 1 or 2 methods. I'll list each one's commands. I'll appreciate if anyone can tell me how to backup the relevant file, or what's the reverse of this operation. 10x, David Method I - as described here: apt-get --purge remove xserver-xorg-video-nouveau As described in this answer: edit /etc/default/grub and add the line GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="nouveau.modeset=0" sudo update-grub Reboot Install original drivers downloaded from nVidia site. Method II - as described here: sudo apt-get purge nvidia* [possibly 'sudo gedit /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf' adding 'vga16fb' 'nouveau' sudo apt-get install nvidia-glx-185 sudo modprobe nvidia sudo lsmod | grep -i nvidia sudo nvidia-xconfig

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• Improve XPath efficiency for repeated, parameterized queries

  - by Chris Allan

  Hi, I am repeatedly performing the following XPath query (though parameterized by 'keywordText') around 40,000 times: String query = SystemGlobal.YAHOO_KEYWORDSSUBNODE + "/" + SystemGlobal.YAHOO_KEYWORDNODE + "[" + SystemGlobal.YAHOO_ATTRKEYPHRASE + "='" + keywordText + "']"; CachedXPathAPI cachedXPathAPI = new CachedXPathAPI(); NodeIterator nl = cachedXPathAPI.selectNodeIterator(doc.getElementsByTagName(SystemGlobal.YAHOO_KEYWORDSROOT).item(0), query); Node n; if ((n = nl.nextNode()) != null) { keyword.setKeywordId(Long.parseLong(cachedXPathAPI.selectSingleNode(n, SystemGlobal.YAHOO_ATTRKEYID).getTextContent())); keyword.setKeyPhrase(cachedXPathAPI.selectSingleNode(n, SystemGlobal.YAHOO_ATTRKEYPHRASE).getTextContent()); keyword.setStatus(mapStatus(cachedXPathAPI.selectSingleNode(n, SystemGlobal.YAHOO_ATTRSTATUS).getTextContent())); keyword.setCampaignId(Long.parseLong(cachedXPathAPI.selectSingleNode(n, "../../" + SystemGlobal.YAHOO_ATTRCAMPAIGNID).getTextContent())); keyword.setAdGroupId(Long.parseLong(cachedXPathAPI.selectSingleNode(n, "../" + SystemGlobal.YAHOO_ATTRADGROUPID).getTextContent())); On the first run of the script, all 40,000 runs of this piece of code will have nl.nextNode() == null, and everything runs quite quickly. However, on the following runs, when nl.nextNode() != null, then things slow down a lot - this takes around an additional 40min to run (whereas the first run takes maybe 1 minute). Oh, and the doc is constructed like so: InputSource in = new InputSource(new FileInputStream(filename)); DocumentBuilderFactory dfactory = DocumentBuilderFactory.newInstance(); dfactory.setNamespaceAware(true); doc = dfactory.newDocumentBuilder().parse(in); I tried including the following lines reportEvaluator = new XPathEvaluatorImpl(reportDoc); reportResolver = reportEvaluator.createNSResolver(reportDoc); and rather creating a NodeIterator, instead creating an XPathResult: XPathResult result = (XPathResult)reportEvaluator.evaluate(query, doc.getElementsByTagName(SystemGlobal.YAHOO_KEYWORDSROOT).item(0), reportResolver, XPathResult.UNORDERED_NODE_ITERATOR_TYPE, null); however this ran even slower Is there a way in which I can speed up the running of this script? I have seen references to precompiled queries, though I haven't seen many actual details. Also, as seen in the code, I am using CachedXPathAPI, though the benefit for this case is not so great. Any help is much appreciated! Chris Allan

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• SeriesInterpolate - removing data at start of array

  - by Allan Jardine

  Hello all, I've been experimenting with Flex Charts (in Flash Builder 4) recently, but have run into one area which didn't quite work as I was expecting. Specifically, when adding and removing a data point from an array, with SeriesInterpolate set. I've put up three examples, as I expect these will make a lot more sense than me trying to explain it with words only!: http://sprymedia.co.uk/media/misc/flex/linechart/LineChart-Add.swf - Clicking the button in the top right adds a new data point to the end of the data array, and the chart is smoothly updated (almost smoothly there is a 1px shift when animating which is odd...) http://sprymedia.co.uk/media/misc/flex/linechart/LineChart-Delete.swf - Clicking the button (which is now labelled incorrectly) will remove the item at the start of the data array - but the chart draws this as if it were removing the end element. http://sprymedia.co.uk/media/misc/flex/linechart/LineChart-AddDelete.swf - This is sort of what I'm eventually aiming for - a smooth side scroll chart, where new data is added at the end and the old data is sifted off the front. However the delete behaviour makes this look a bit odd. Does anyone know if there is a way to get the smooth transition I'm looking with SeriesInterpolate? Or is it possible to implement a custom transition? Many thanks, Allan

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• Building services with the .NET framework Cont’d

  - by Allan Rwakatungu

  In my previous blog I wrote an introductory post on services and how you can build services using the .NET frameworks Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) In this post I will show how to develop a real world application using WCF The problem During the last meeting we realized developers in Uganda are not so cool – they don’t use twitter so may not get the latest news and updates from the technology world. We also noticed they mostly use kabiriti phones (jokes). With their kabiriti phones they are unable to access the twitter web client or alternative twitter mobile clients like tweetdeck , twirl or tweetie. However, the kabiriti phones support SMS (Yeeeeeeei). So what we going to do to make these developers cool and keep them updated is by enabling them to receive tweets via SMS. We shall also enable them to develop their own applications that can extend this functionality Analysis Thanks to services and open API’s solving our problem is going to be easy.  1. To get tweets we can use the twitter service for FREE 2. To send SMS we shall use www.clickatell.com/ as they can send SMS to any country in the world. Besides we could not find any local service that offers API's for sending SMS :(. 3. To enable developers to integrate with our application so that they can extend it and build even cooler applications we use WCF. In addittion , because connectivity might be an issue we decided to use WCF because if has a inbuilt queing features. We also choose WCF because this is a post about .NET and WCF :). The Code Accessing the tweets To consume twitters REST API we shall use the WCF REST starter kit. Like it name indicates , the REST starter kit is a set of .NET framework classes that enable developers to create and access REST style services ( like the twitter service). Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin-top:0in; mso-para-margin-right:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0in; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} using System; using System.Collections.Generic; using System.Linq; using System.Text; using Microsoft.Http; using System.Net; using System.Xml.Linq;   namespace UG.Demo {     public class TwitterService     {         public IList<TwitterStatus> SomeMethodName()         {             //Connect to the twitter service (HttpClient is part of the REST startkit classes)             HttpClient cl = new HttpClient("http://api.twitter.com/1/statuses/friends_timeline.xml");             //Supply your basic authentication credentials             cl.TransportSettings.Credentials = new NetworkCredential("ourusername", "ourpassword");             //issue an http             HttpResponseMessage resp = cl.Get();             //ensure we got reponse 200             resp.EnsureStatusIsSuccessful();             //use XLinq to parse the REST XML             var statuses = from r in resp.Content.ReadAsXElement().Descendants("status")                            select new TwitterStatus                            {                                User = r.Element("user").Element("screen_name").Value,                                Status = r.Element("text").Value                            };             return statuses.ToList();         }     }     public class TwitterStatus     {         public string User { get; set; }         public string Status { get; set; }     } }  Sending SMS Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin-top:0in; mso-para-margin-right:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0in; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} public class SMSService     {         public void Send(string phone, string message)         {                         HttpClient cl1 = new HttpClient();              //the clickatell XML format for sending SMS             string xml = String.Format("<clickAPI><sendMsg><api_id>3239621</api_id><user>ourusername</user><password>ourpassword</password><to>{0}</to><text>{1}</text></sendMsg></clickAPI>",phone,message);             //Post form data             HttpUrlEncodedForm form = new HttpUrlEncodedForm();             form.Add("data", xml);             System.Net.ServicePointManager.Expect100Continue = false;             string uri = @"http://api.clickatell.com/xml/xml";             HttpResponseMessage resp = cl1.Post(uri, form.CreateHttpContent());             resp.EnsureStatusIsSuccessful();         }     }

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• ODI 12c - Parallel Table Load

  - by David Allan

  In this post we will look at the ODI 12c capability of parallel table load from the aspect of the mapping developer and the knowledge module developer - two quite different viewpoints. This is about parallel table loading which isn't to be confused with loading multiple targets per se. It supports the ability for ODI mappings to be executed concurrently especially if there is an overlap of the datastores that they access, so any temporary resources created may be uniquely constructed by ODI. Temporary objects can be anything basically - common examples are staging tables, indexes, views, directories - anything in the ETL to help the data integration flow do its job. In ODI 11g users found a few workarounds (such as changing the technology prefixes - see here) to build unique temporary names but it was more of a challenge in error cases. ODI 12c mappings by default operate exactly as they did in ODI 11g with respect to these temporary names (this is also true for upgraded interfaces and scenarios) but can be configured to support the uniqueness capabilities. We will look at this feature from two aspects; that of a mapping developer and that of a developer (of procedures or KMs). 1. Firstly as a Mapping Developer..... 1.1 Control when uniqueness is enabled A new property is available to set unique name generation on/off. When unique names have been enabled for a mapping, all temporary names used by the collection and integration objects will be generated using unique names. This property is presented as a check-box in the Property Inspector for a deployment specification. 1.2 Handle cleanup after successful execution Provided that all temporary objects that are created have a corresponding drop statement then all of the temporary objects should be removed during a successful execution. This should be the case with the KMs developed by Oracle. 1.3 Handle cleanup after unsuccessful execution If an execution failed in ODI 11g then temporary tables would have been left around and cleaned up in the subsequent run. In ODI 12c, KM tasks can now have a cleanup-type task which is executed even after a failure in the main tasks. These cleanup tasks will be executed even on failure if the property 'Remove Temporary Objects on Error' is set. If the agent was to crash and not be able to execute this task, then there is an ODI tool (OdiRemoveTemporaryObjects here) you can invoke to cleanup the tables - it supports date ranges and the like. That's all there is to it from the aspect of the mapping developer it's much, much simpler and straightforward. You can now execute the same mapping concurrently or execute many mappings using the same resource concurrently without worrying about conflict.  2. Secondly as a Procedure or KM Developer..... In the ODI Operator the executed code shows the actual name that is generated - you can also see the runtime code prior to execution (introduced in 11.1.1.7), for example below in the code type I selected 'Pre-executed Code' this lets you see the code about to be processed and you can also see the executed code (which is the default view). References to the collection (C$) and integration (I$) names will be automatically made unique by using the odiRef APIs - these objects will have unique names whenever concurrency has been enabled for a particular mapping deployment specification. It's also possible to use name uniqueness functions in procedures and your own KMs. 2.1 New uniqueness tags  You can also make your own temporary objects have unique names by explicitly including either %UNIQUE_STEP_TAG or %UNIQUE_SESSION_TAG in the name passed to calls to the odiRef APIs. Such names would always include the unique tag regardless of the concurrency setting. To illustrate, let's look at the getObjectName() method. At <% expansion time, this API will append %UNIQUE_STEP_TAG to the object name for collection and integration tables. The name parameter passed to this API may contain  %UNIQUE_STEP_TAG or %UNIQUE_SESSION_TAG. This API always generates to the <? version of getObjectName() At execution time this API will replace the unique tag macros with a string that is unique to the current execution scope. The returned name will conform to the name-length restriction for the target technology, and its pattern for the unique tag. Any necessary truncation will be performed against the initial name for the object and any other fixed text that may have been specified. Examples are:- <?=odiRef.getObjectName("L", "%COL_PRFEMP%UNIQUE_STEP_TAG", "D")?> SCOTT.C$_EABH7QI1BR1EQI3M76PG9SIMBQQ <?=odiRef.getObjectName("L", "EMP%UNIQUE_STEP_TAG_AE", "D")?> SCOTT.EMPAO96Q2JEKO0FTHQP77TMSAIOSR_ Methods which have this kind of support include getFrom, getTableName, getTable, getObjectShortName and getTemporaryIndex. There are APIs for retrieving this tag info also, the getInfo API has been extended with the following properties (the UNIQUE* properties can also be used in ODI procedures); UNIQUE_STEP_TAG - Returns the unique value for the current step scope, e.g. 5rvmd8hOIy7OU2o1FhsF61 Note that this will be a different value for each loop-iteration when the step is in a loop. UNIQUE_SESSION_TAG - Returns the unique value for the current session scope, e.g. 6N38vXLrgjwUwT5MseHHY9 IS_CONCURRENT - Returns info about the current mapping, will return 0 or 1 (only in % phase) GUID_SRC_SET - Returns the UUID for the current source set/execution unit (only in % phase) The getPop API has been extended with the IS_CONCURRENT property which returns info about an mapping, will return 0 or 1.  2.2 Additional APIs Some new APIs are provided including getFormattedName which will allow KM developers to construct a name from fixed-text or ODI symbols that can be optionally truncate to a max length and use a specific encoding for the unique tag. It has syntax getFormattedName(String pName[, String pTechnologyCode]) This API is available at both the % and the ? phase.  The format string can contain the ODI prefixes that are available for getObjectName(), e.g. %INT_PRF, %COL_PRF, %ERR_PRF, %IDX_PRF alongwith %UNIQUE_STEP_TAG or %UNIQUE_SESSION_TAG. The latter tags will be expanded into a unique string according to the specified technology. Calls to this API within the same execution context are guaranteed to return the same unique name provided that the same parameters are passed to the call. e.g. <%=odiRef.getFormattedName("%COL_PRFMY_TABLE%UNIQUE_STEP_TAG_AE", "ORACLE")%> <?=odiRef.getFormattedName("%COL_PRFMY_TABLE%UNIQUE_STEP_TAG_AE", "ORACLE")?> C$_MY_TAB7wDiBe80vBog1auacS1xB_AE <?=odiRef.getFormattedName("%COL_PRFMY_TABLE%UNIQUE_STEP_TAG.log", "FILE")?> C2_MY_TAB7wDiBe80vBog1auacS1xB.log 2.3 Name length generation  As part of name generation, the length of the generated name will be compared with the maximum length for the target technology and truncation may need to be applied. When a unique tag is included in the generated string it is important that uniqueness is not compromised by truncation of the unique tag. When a unique tag is NOT part of the generated name, the name will be truncated by removing characters from the end - this is the existing 11g algorithm. When a unique tag is included, the algorithm will first truncate the <postfix> and if necessary  the <prefix>. It is recommended that users will ensure there is sufficient uniqueness in the <prefix> section to ensure uniqueness of the final resultant name. SUMMARY To summarize, ODI 12c make it much simpler to utilize mappings in concurrent cases and provides APIs for helping developing any procedures or custom knowledge modules in such a way they can be used in highly concurrent, parallel scenarios. 

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• ODI and OBIEE 11g Integration

  - by David Allan

  Here we will see some of the connectivity options to OBIEE 11g using the JDBC driver. You’ll see based upon some connection properties how the physical or presentation layers can be utilized. In the integrators guide for OBIEE 11g you will find a brief statement indicating that there actually is a JDBC driver for OBIEE. In OBIEE 11g its now possible to connect directly to the physical layer, Venkat has an informative post here on this topic. In ODI 11g the Oracle BI technology is shipped with the product along with KMs for reverse engineering, and using OBIEE models for a data source. When you install OBIEE in 11g a light weight demonstration application is preinstalled in the server, when you open this in the BI Administration tool we see the regular 3 panel view within the administration tool. To interrogate this system via JDBC (just like ODI does using the KMs) need a couple of things; the JDBC driver from OBIEE 11g, a java client program and the credentials. In my java client program I want to connect to the OBIEE system, when I connect I can interrogate what the JDBC driver presents for the metadata. The metadata projected via the JDBC connection’s DatabaseMetadata changes depending on whether the property NQ_SESSION.SELECTPHYSICAL is set when the java client connects. Let’s use the sample app to illustrate. I have a java client program here that will print out the tables in the DatabaseMetadata, it will also output the catalog and schema. For example if I execute without any special JDBC properties as follows; java -classpath .;%BIHOMEDIR%\clients\bijdbc.jar meta_jdbc oracle.bi.jdbc.AnaJdbcDriver jdbc:oraclebi://localhost:9703/ weblogic mypass Then I get the following returned representing the presentation layer, the sample I used is XML, and has no schema; Catalog Schema Table Sample Sales Lite null Base Facts Sample Sales Lite null Calculated Facts …     Sample Targets Lite null Base Facts …     Now if I execute with the only difference being the JDBC property NQ_SESSION.SELECTPHYSICAL with the value Yes, then I see a different set of values representing the physical layer in OBIEE; java -classpath .;%BIHOMEDIR%\clients\bijdbc.jar meta_jdbc oracle.bi.jdbc.AnaJdbcDriver jdbc:oraclebi://localhost:9703/ weblogic mypass NQ_SESSION.SELECTPHYSICAL=Yes The following is returned; Catalog Schema Table Sample App Lite Data null D01 Time Day Grain Sample App Lite Data null F10 Revenue Facts (Order grain) …     System DB (Update me)     …     If this was a database system such as Oracle, the catalog value would be the OBIEE database name and the schema would be the Oracle database schema. Other systems which have real catalog structure such as SQLServer would use its catalog value. Its this ‘Catalog’ and ‘Schema’ value that is important when integration OBIEE with ODI. For the demonstration application in OBIEE 11g, the following illustration shows how the information from OBIEE is related via the JDBC driver through to ODI. In the XML example above, within ODI’s physical schema definition on the right, we leave the schema blank since the XML data source has no schema. When I did this at first, I left the default value that ODI places in the Schema field since which was ‘<Undefined>’ (like image below) but this string is actually used in the RKM so ended up not finding any tables in this schema! Entering an empty string resolved this. Below we see a regular Oracle database example that has the database, schema, physical table structure, and how this is defined in ODI.   Remember back to the physical versus presentation layer usage when we passed the special property, well to do this in ODI, the data server has a panel for properties where you can define key/value pairs. So if you want to select physical objects from the OBIEE server, then you must set this property. An additional changed in ODI 11g is the OBIEE connection pool support, this has been implemented via a ‘Connection Pool’ flex field for the Oracle BI data server. So here you set the connection pool name from the OBIEE system that you specifically want to use and this is used by the Oracle BI to Oracle (DBLINK) LKM, so if you are using this you must set this flex field. Hopefully a useful insight into some of the mechanics of how this hangs together.

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• Building services with .Net Part 1

  - by Allan Rwakatungu

  On the 26th of May 2010 , I made a presentation to the .NET user group meeting (thanks to Malisa Ncube for organizing this event every month … ). If you missed my presentation , we talked about why we should all be building services … better still using the .NET framework. This blog post is an introduction to services , why you would want to build services and how you can build services using the .NET framework. What is a service? OASIS defines service as "a mechanism to enable access to one or more capabilities, where the access is provided using a prescribed interface and is exercised consistent with constraints and policies as specified by the service description." [1]. If the above definition sounds to academic , you can also define a service as loosely coupled units of functionality that have no calls to each other embedded in the. Instead of services embedding calls to each other in their service code they use defined protocols that describe how services pass and parse messages. This is a good way to think about services if you’re from an objected oriented background. While in object oriented programming functions make calls to each other, in service oriented programming, functions pass messages between each other. Why would you want to use services? 1. If your enterprise architecture looks like this   Services are the building blocks for SOA . With SOA you can move away from the sphaggetti infrastructure that is common in most enterprises. The complexity or lack of visibility of the integration points in your enterprises makes it difficult and costly to implement new initiatives and changes into the business - and even impossible in some cases - as it is not possible to identify the impact a change in one system might have to other systems. With services you can move to an architecture like this Your building blocks from Spaghetti infrastructure to something that is more well-defined and manageable to achieve cost efficiency and not least business agility - enabling you to react to changes in the market with speed and achieve operational efficiency and control are services. 2. If you want to become the Gates or Zuckerburger. Have you heard about Web 2.0 ? Mashups? Software as a service (SAAS) ? Cloud computing ?   They all offer you the opportunity to have scalable but low cost business models and they built using services.  Some of my favorite companies that leverage services for their business models include  https://www.salesforce.com/ (cloud CRM) http://www. twitter.com (more people use twitter clients built by 3rd parties than their official clients) http://www.kayak.com/ (compares data from other travel sites to give information to users in one location) Services with the .NET framework      If you are a .NET developer and you want to develop services, Windows Communication Framework (WCF) is the tool for you. WCF is Microsoft’s unified programming model (service model) for building service oriented applications. ( Before .NET 3.0 you had several models for programming services in .NET including .NET remoting, Web services (ASMX), COM +, Microsoft Messaging queuing (MSMQ) etc, after .NET 3.0 the programming model was unified into one i.e. WCF ). Windows Communication Framework (WCF) provides you 1. An Software Development Kit (SDK) for creating SOA applications 2. A runtime for running services on the Windows platform Why should you use Windows Communication Foundation if you’re programming services?   1. It supports interoperable and open standards e.g. WS* protocols for programming SOAP services 2. It has a unified programming model. Whether you use TCP or Http or Pipes or transmitting using Messaging Queues, programmers need to learn just one way to program. Previously you had .NET remoting, MSMQ, Web services, COM+ and they were all done differently 3. Productive programming model You don’t have to worry about all the plumbing involved to write services. You have a rich declarative programming model to add stuff like logging, transactions, and reliable messages in-built in the Windows Communication Framework. Understanding services in WCF The basic principles of WCF are as easy as ABC A – Address This is where the service is located B- Binding This describes how you communicate with the service e.g. Use TCP, HTTP or both. How to exchange security information with the service etc. C – Contract This defines what the service can do. E.g. Pay water bill, Make a phone call A - Addresses In WCF, an address is a combination of transport, server name, port and path Example addresses may include http://localhost:8001 net.tcp://localhost:8002/MyService net.pipe://localhost/MyPipe net.msmq://localhost/private/MyService net.msmq://localhost/MyService B- Binding   There are numerous ways to communicate with services , different ways that a message can be formatted/sent/secured, that allows you to tailor your service for the compatibility/performance you require for your solution. Transport You can use HTTP TCP MSMQ , Named pipes, Your own custom transport etc Message You  can send a plain text binary, Message Transmission Optimization Mechanism (MTOM) message Communication security No security Transport security Message security Authenticating and authorizing callers etc Behaviour You service can support Transactions Be reliable Use queues Support ajax etc C - Contract You define what your service can do using Service contracts :- Define operations that your service can do, communications and behaviours Data contracts :- Define the messages that are passed from and into your service and how they are formatted Fault contracts :- Defines errors types in your service   As an example, suppose your service service shows money. You define your service contract using a interface [ServiceContract] public interface IShowMeTheMoney {   [OperationContract]    Money Show(); } You define the data contract by annotating a class it with the Data Contract attribute and fields you want to pass in the message as Data Members. (Note:- In the latest versions of WCF you dont have to use attributes if you passing all the objects properties in the message) [DataContract] public Money {   [DataMember]   public string Currency { get; set; }   [DataMember]   public Decimal Amount { get; set; }   public string Comment { get; set; } } Features of Windows Communication Foundation Windows Communication Foundation is not only simple but feature rich , offering you several options to tweak your service to fit your business requirements. Some of the features of WCF include 1. Workflow services You can combine WCF with Windows WorkFlow Foundation (WWF) to write workflow type services 2. Control how your data (messages) are transferred and serialized e.g. you can serialize your business objects as XML or binary 3. control over session management , instance creation and concurrency management without writing code if you like 4. Queues and reliable sessions. You can store messages from the sending client and later forward them to the receiving application. You can also guarantee that messages will arrive at their destincation. 5.Transactions:  You can have different services participate in a transaction operations that can be rolled back if needed 6. Security. WCF has rich features for authorization and authentication  as well as keep audit trails 7. Web programming model. WCF allows developers to expose services as non SOAP endpoints 8. Inbuilt features that you can use to write JSON and services that support AJAX applications And lots more In my next blog I will show you how you can use WCF features to write a real world business service.               Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 ]] /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin-top:0in; mso-para-margin-right:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0in; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}

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• OWB 11gR2 &ndash; Flexible and extensible

  - by David Allan

  The Oracle data integration extensibility capabilities are something I love, nothing more frustrating than a tool or platform that is very constraining. I think extensibility and flexibility are invaluable capabilities in the data integration arena. I liked Uli Bethke's posting on some extensibility capabilities with ODI (see Nesting ODI Substitution Method Calls here), he has some useful guidance on making customizations to existing KMs, nice to learn by example. I thought I'd illustrate the same capabilities with ODI's partner OWB for the OWB community. There is a whole new world of potential. The LKM/IKM/CKM/JKMs are the primary templates that are supported (plus the Oracle Target code template), so there is a lot of potential for customizing and extending the product in this release. Enough waffle... Diving in at the deep end from Uli's post, in OWB the table operator has a number of additional properties in OWB 11gR2 that let you annotate the column usage with ODI-like properties such as the slowly changing usage or for your own user-defined purpose as in Uli's post, below you see for the target table SALES_TARGET we can use the UD5 property which when assigned the code template (knowledge module) which has been modified with Uli's change we can do custom things such as creating indices - provides The code template used by the mapping has the additional step which is basically the code illustrated from Uli's posting just used directly, the ODI 10g substitution references also supported from within OWB's runtime. Now to see whether this does what we expect before we execute it, we can check out the generated code similar to how the traditional mapping generation and preview works, you do this by clicking on the 'Inspect Code' button on the execution units code template assignment. This then  creates another tab with prefix 'Code - <mapping name>' where the generated code is put, scrolling down we find the last step with the indices being created, looks good, so we are ready to deploy and execute. After executing the mapping we can then use the 'Audit Information' panel (select the mapping in the designer tree and click on View/Audit Information), this gives us a view of the execution where we can drill into the tasks that were executed and inspect both the template and the generated code that was executed and any potential errors. Reflecting back on earlier versions of OWB, these were the kinds of features that were always highly desirable, getting under the hood of the code generation and tweaking bit and pieces - fun and powerful stuff! We can step it up a bit here and explore some further ideas. The example below is a daisy-chained set of execution units where the intermediate table is a target of one unit and the source for another. We want that table to be a global temporary table, so can tweak the templates. Back to the copy of SQL Control Append (for demo purposes) we modify the create target table step to make the table a global temporary table, with the option of on commit preserve rows. You can get a feel for some of the customizations and changes possible, providing some great flexibility and extensibility for the data integration tools.

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• ODI 11g – Insight to the SDK

  - by David Allan

  This post is a useful index into the ODI SDK that cross references the type names from the user interface with the SDK class and also the finder for how to get a handle on the object or objects. The volume of content in the SDK might seem a little ominous, there is a lot there, but there is a general pattern to the SDK that I will describe here. Also I will illustrate some basic CRUD operations so you can see how the SDK usage pattern works. The examples are written in groovy, you can simply run from the groovy console in ODI 11.1.1.6. Entry to the Platform   Object Finder SDK odiInstance odiInstance (groovy variable for console) OdiInstance Topology Objects Object Finder SDK Technology IOdiTechnologyFinder OdiTechnology Context IOdiContextFinder OdiContext Logical Schema IOdiLogicalSchemaFinder OdiLogicalSchema Data Server IOdiDataServerFinder OdiDataServer Physical Schema IOdiPhysicalSchemaFinder OdiPhysicalSchema Logical Schema to Physical Mapping IOdiContextualSchemaMappingFinder OdiContextualSchemaMapping Logical Agent IOdiLogicalAgentFinder OdiLogicalAgent Physical Agent IOdiPhysicalAgentFinder OdiPhysicalAgent Logical Agent to Physical Mapping IOdiContextualAgentMappingFinder OdiContextualAgentMapping Master Repository IOdiMasterRepositoryInfoFinder OdiMasterRepositoryInfo Work Repository IOdiWorkRepositoryInfoFinder OdiWorkRepositoryInfo Project Objects Object Finder SDK Project IOdiProjectFinder OdiProject Folder IOdiFolderFinder OdiFolder Interface IOdiInterfaceFinder OdiInterface Package IOdiPackageFinder OdiPackage Procedure IOdiUserProcedureFinder OdiUserProcedure User Function IOdiUserFunctionFinder OdiUserFunction Variable IOdiVariableFinder OdiVariable Sequence IOdiSequenceFinder OdiSequence KM IOdiKMFinder OdiKM Load Plans and Scenarios   Object Finder SDK Load Plan IOdiLoadPlanFinder OdiLoadPlan Load Plan and Scenario Folder IOdiScenarioFolderFinder OdiScenarioFolder Model Objects Object Finder SDK Model IOdiModelFinder OdiModel Sub Model IOdiSubModel OdiSubModel DataStore IOdiDataStoreFinder OdiDataStore Column IOdiColumnFinder OdiColumn Key IOdiKeyFinder OdiKey Condition IOdiConditionFinder OdiCondition Operator Objects   Object Finder SDK Session Folder IOdiSessionFolderFinder OdiSessionFolder Session IOdiSessionFinder OdiSession Schedule OdiSchedule How to Create an Object? Here is a simple example to create a project, it uses IOdiEntityManager.persist to persist the object. import oracle.odi.domain.project.OdiProject; import oracle.odi.core.persistence.transaction.support.DefaultTransactionDefinition; txnDef = new DefaultTransactionDefinition(); tm = odiInstance.getTransactionManager() txnStatus = tm.getTransaction(txnDef) project = new OdiProject("Project For Demo", "PROJECT_DEMO") odiInstance.getTransactionalEntityManager().persist(project) tm.commit(txnStatus) How to Update an Object? This update example uses the methods on the OdiProject object to change the project’s name that was created above, it is then persisted. import oracle.odi.domain.project.OdiProject; import oracle.odi.domain.project.finder.IOdiProjectFinder; import oracle.odi.core.persistence.transaction.support.DefaultTransactionDefinition; txnDef = new DefaultTransactionDefinition(); tm = odiInstance.getTransactionManager() txnStatus = tm.getTransaction(txnDef) prjFinder = (IOdiProjectFinder)odiInstance.getTransactionalEntityManager().getFinder(OdiProject.class); project = prjFinder.findByCode("PROJECT_DEMO"); project.setName("A Demo Project"); odiInstance.getTransactionalEntityManager().persist(project) tm.commit(txnStatus) How to Delete an Object? Here is a simple example to delete all of the sessions, it uses IOdiEntityManager.remove to delete the object. import oracle.odi.domain.runtime.session.finder.IOdiSessionFinder; import oracle.odi.domain.runtime.session.OdiSession; import oracle.odi.core.persistence.transaction.support.DefaultTransactionDefinition; txnDef = new DefaultTransactionDefinition(); tm = odiInstance.getTransactionManager() txnStatus = tm.getTransaction(txnDef) sessFinder = (IOdiSessionFinder)odiInstance.getTransactionalEntityManager().getFinder(OdiSession.class); sessc = sessFinder.findAll(); sessItr = sessc.iterator() while (sessItr.hasNext()) {   sess = (OdiSession) sessItr.next()   odiInstance.getTransactionalEntityManager().remove(sess) } tm.commit(txnStatus) This isn't an all encompassing summary of the SDK, but covers a lot of the content to give you a good handle on the objects and how they work. For details of how specific complex objects are created via the SDK, its best to look at postings such as the interface builder posting here. Have fun, happy coding!

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• OWB 11gR2 &ndash; OLAP and Simba

  - by David Allan

  Oracle Warehouse Builder was the first ETL product to provide a single integrated and complete environment for managing enterprise data warehouse solutions that also incorporate multi-dimensional schemas. The OWB 11gR2 release provides Oracle OLAP 11g deployment for multi-dimensional models (in addition to support for prior releases of OLAP). This means users can easily utilize Simba's MDX Provider for Oracle OLAP (see here for details and cost) which allows you to use the powerful and popular ad hoc query and analysis capabilities of Microsoft Excel PivotTables® and PivotCharts® with your Oracle OLAP business intelligence data. The extensions to the dimensional modeling capabilities have been built on established relational concepts, with the option to seamlessly move from a relational deployment model to a multi-dimensional model at the click of a button. This now means that ETL designers can logically model a complete data warehouse solution using one single tool and control the physical implementation of a logical model at deployment time. As a result data warehouse projects that need to provide a multi-dimensional model as part of the overall solution can be designed and implemented faster and more efficiently. Wizards for dimensions and cubes let you quickly build dimensional models and realize either relationally or as an Oracle database OLAP implementation, both 10g and 11g formats are supported based on a configuration option. The wizard provides a good first cut definition and the objects can be further refined in the editor. Both wizards let you choose the implementation, to deploy to OLAP in the database select MOLAP: multidimensional storage. You will then be asked what levels and attributes are to be defined, by default the wizard creates a level bases hierarchy, parent child hierarchies can be defined in the editor. Once the dimension or cube has been designed there are special mapping operators that make it easy to load data into the objects, below we load a constant value for the total level and the other levels from a source table.   Again when the cube is defined using the wizard we can edit the cube and define a number of analytic calculations by using the 'generate calculated measures' option on the measures panel. This lets you very easily add a lot of rich analytic measures to your cube. For example one of the measures is the percentage difference from a year ago which we can see in detail below. You can also add your own custom calculations to leverage the capabilities of the Oracle OLAP option, either by selecting existing template types such as moving averages to defining true custom expressions. The 11g OLAP option now supports percentage based summarization (the amount of data to precompute and store), this is available from the option 'cost based aggregation' in the cube's configuration. Ensure all measure-dimensions level based aggregation is switched off (on the cube-dimension panel) - previously level based aggregation was the only option. The 11g generated code now uses the new unified API as you see below, to generate the code, OWB needs a valid connection to a real schema, this was not needed before 11gR2 and is a new requirement since the OLAP API which OWB uses is not an offline one. Once all of the objects are deployed and the maps executed then we get to the fun stuff! How can we analyze the data? One option which is powerful and at many users' fingertips is using Microsoft Excel PivotTables® and PivotCharts®, which can be used with your Oracle OLAP business intelligence data by utilizing Simba's MDX Provider for Oracle OLAP (see Simba site for details of cost). I'll leave the exotic reporting illustrations to the experts (see Bud's demonstration here), but with Simba's MDX Provider for Oracle OLAP its very simple to easily access the analytics stored in the database (all built and loaded via the OWB 11gR2 release) and get the regular features of Excel at your fingertips such as using the conditional formatting features for example. That's a very quick run through of the OWB 11gR2 with respect to Oracle 11g OLAP integration and the reporting using Simba's MDX Provider for Oracle OLAP. Not a deep-dive in any way but a quick overview to illustrate the design capabilities and integrations possible.

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