k day - Page 420 - Developer IT

Quotas - Using quotas on ZFSSA shares and projects and users

- by Steve Tunstall

So you don't want your users to fill up your entire storage pool with their MP3 files, right? Good idea to make some quotas. There's some good tips and tricks here, including a helpful workflow (a script) that will allow you to set a default quota on all of the users of a share at once. Let's start with some basics. I mad a project called "small" and inside it I made a share called "Share1". You can set quotas on the project level, which will affect all of the shares in it, or you can do it on the share level like I am here. Go the the share's General property page. First, I'm using a Windows client, so I need to make sure I have my SMB mountpoint. Do you know this trick yet? Go to the Protocol page of the share. See the SMB section? It needs a resource name to make the UNC path for the SMB (Windows) users. You do NOT have to type this name in for every share you make! Do this at the Project level. Before you make any shares, go to the Protocol properties of the Project, and set the SMB Resource name to "On". This special code will automatically make the SMB resource name of every share in the project the same as the share name. Note the UNC path name I got below. Since I did this at the Project level, I didn't have to lift a finger for it to work on every share I make in this project. Simple. So I have now mapped my Windows "Z:" drive to this Share1. I logged in as the user "Joe". Note that my computer shows my Z: drive as 34GB, which is the entire size of my Pool that this share is in. Right now, Joe could fill this drive up and it would fill up my pool. Now, go back to the General properties of Share1. In the "Space Usage" area, over on the right, click on the "Show All" text under the Users & Groups section. Sure enough, Joe and some other users are in here and have some data. Note this is also a handy window to use just to see how much space your users are using in any given share. Ok, Joe owes us money from lunch last week, so we want to give him a quota of 100MB. Type his name in the Users box. Notice how it now shows you how much data he's currently using. Go ahead and give him a 100M quota and hit the Apply button. If I go back to "Show All", I can see that Joe now has a quota, and no one else does. Sure enough, as soon as I refresh my screen back on Joe's client, he sees that his Z: drive is now only 100MB, and he's more than half way full. That was easy enough, but what if you wanted to make the whole share have a quota, so that the share itself, no matter who uses it, can only grow to a certain size? That's even easier. Just use the Quota box on the left hand side. Here, I use a Quota on the share of 300MB. So now I log off as Joe, and log in as Steve. Even though Steve does NOT have a quota, it is showing my Z: drive as 300MB. This would effect anyone, INCLUDING the ROOT user, becuase you specified the Quota to be on the SHARE, not on a person. Note that back in the Share, if you click the "Show All" text, the window does NOT show Steve, or anyone else, to have a quota of 300MB. Yet we do, because it's on the share itself, not on any user, so this panel does not see that. Ok, here is where it gets FUN.... Let's say you do NOT want a quota on the SHARE, because you want SOME people, like Root and yourself, to have FULL access to it and you want the ability to fill the whole thing up if you darn well feel like it. HOWEVER, you want to give the other users a quota. HOWEVER you have, say, 200 users, and you do NOT feel like typing in each of their names and giving them each a quota, and they are not all members of a AD global group you could use or anything like that. Hmmmmmm.... No worries, mate. We have a handy-dandy script that can do this for us. Now, this script was written a few years back by Tim Graves, one of our ZFSSA engineers out of the UK. This is not my script. It is NOT supported by Oracle support in any way. It does work fine with the 2011.1.4 code as best as I can tell, but Oracle, and I, are NOT responsible for ANYTHING that you do with this script. Furthermore, I will NOT give you this script, so do not ask me for it. You need to get this from your local Oracle storage SC. I will give it to them. I want this only going to my fellow SCs, who can then work with you to have it and show you how it works. Here's what it does...Once you add this workflow to the Maintenance-->Workflows section, you click it once to run it. Nothing seems to happen at this point, but something did. Go back to any share or project. You will see that you now have four new, custom properties on the bottom. Do NOT touch the bottom two properties, EVER. Only touch the top two. Here, I'm going to give my users a default quota of about 40MB each. The beauty of this script is that it will only effect users that do NOT already have any kind of personal quota. It will only change people who have no quota at all. It does not effect the Root user. After I hit Apply on the Share screen. Nothing will happen until I go back and run the script again. The first time you run it, it creates the custom properties. The second and all subsequent times you run it, it checks the shares for any users, and applies your quota number to each one of them, UNLESS they already have one set. Notice in the readout below how it did NOT apply to my Joe user, since Joe had a quota set. Sure enough, when I go back to the "Show All" in the share properties, all of the users who did not have a quota, now have one for 39.1MB. Hmmm... I did my math wrong, didn't I? That's OK, I'll just change the number of the Custom Default quota again. Here, I am adding a zero on the end. After I click Apply, and then run the script again, all of my users, except Joe, now have a quota of 391MB You can customize a person at any time. Here, I took the Steve user, and specifically gave him a Quota of zero. Now when I run the script again, he is different from the rest, so he is no longer effected by the script. Under Show All, I see that Joe is at 100, and Steve has no Quota at all. I can do this all day long. es, you will have to re-run the script every time new users get added. The script only applies the default quota to users that are present at the time the script is ran. However, it would be a simple thing to schedule the script to run each night, or to make an alert to run the script when certain events occur. For you power users, if you ever want to delete these custom properties and remove the script completely, you will find these properties under the "Schema" section under the Shares section. You can remove them here. There's no need to, however, they don't hurt a thing if you just don't use them. I hope these tips have helped you out there. Quotas can be fun.

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C#: Adding Functionality to 3rd Party Libraries With Extension Methods

- by James Michael Hare

Ever have one of those third party libraries that you love but it's missing that one feature or one piece of syntactical candy that would make it so much more useful? This, I truly think, is one of the best uses of extension methods. I began discussing extension methods in my last post (which you find here) where I expounded upon what I thought were some rules of thumb for using extension methods correctly. As long as you keep in line with those (or similar) rules, they can often be useful for adding that little extra functionality or syntactical simplification for a library that you have little or no control over. Oh sure, you could take an open source project, download the source and add the methods you want, but then every time the library is updated you have to re-add your changes, which can be cumbersome and error prone. And yes, you could possibly extend a class in a third party library and override features, but that's only if the class is not sealed, static, or constructed via factories. This is the perfect place to use an extension method! And the best part is, you and your development team don't need to change anything! Simply add the using for the namespace the extensions are in! So let's consider this example. I love log4net! Of all the logging libraries I've played with, it, to me, is one of the most flexible and configurable logging libraries and it performs great. But this isn't about log4net, well, not directly. So why would I want to add functionality? Well, it's missing one thing I really want in the ILog interface: ability to specify logging level at runtime. For example, let's say I declare my ILog instance like so: using log4net; public class LoggingTest { private static readonly ILog _log = LogManager.GetLogger(typeof(LoggingTest)); ... } If you don't know log4net, the details aren't important, just to show that the field _log is the logger I have gotten from log4net. So now that I have that, I can log to it like so: _log.Debug("This is the lowest level of logging and just for debugging output."); _log.Info("This is an informational message. Usual normal operation events."); _log.Warn("This is a warning, something suspect but not necessarily wrong."); _log.Error("This is an error, some sort of processing problem has happened."); _log.Fatal("Fatals usually indicate the program is dying hideously."); And there's many flavors of each of these to log using string formatting, to log exceptions, etc. But one thing there isn't: the ability to easily choose the logging level at runtime. Notice, the logging levels above are chosen at compile time. Of course, you could do some fun stuff with lambdas and wrap it, but that would obscure the simplicity of the interface. And yes there is a Logger property you can dive down into where you can specify a Level, but the Level properties don't really match the ILog interface exactly and then you have to manually build a LogEvent and... well, it gets messy. I want something simple and sexy so I can say: _log.Log(someLevel, "This will be logged at whatever level I choose at runtime!"); Now, some purists out there might say you should always know what level you want to log at, and for the most part I agree with them. For the most party the ILog interface satisfies 99% of my needs. In fact, for most application logging yes you do always know the level you will be logging at, but when writing a utility class, you may not always know what level your user wants. I'll tell you, one of my favorite things is to write reusable components. If I had my druthers I'd write framework libraries and shared components all day! And being able to easily log at a runtime-chosen level is a big need for me. After all, if I want my code to really be re-usable, I shouldn't force a user to deal with the logging level I choose. One of my favorite uses for this is in Interceptors -- I'll describe Interceptors in my next post and some of my favorites -- for now just know that an Interceptor wraps a class and allows you to add functionality to an existing method without changing it's signature. At the risk of over-simplifying, it's a very generic implementation of the Decorator design pattern. So, say for example that you were writing an Interceptor that would time method calls and emit a log message if the method call execution time took beyond a certain threshold of time. For instance, maybe if your database calls take more than 5,000 ms, you want to log a warning. Or if a web method call takes over 1,000 ms, you want to log an informational message. This would be an excellent use of logging at a generic level. So here was my personal wish-list of requirements for my task: Be able to determine if a runtime-specified logging level is enabled. Be able to log generically at a runtime-specified logging level. Have the same look-and-feel of the existing Debug, Info, Warn, Error, and Fatal calls. Having the ability to also determine if logging for a level is on at runtime is also important so you don't spend time building a potentially expensive logging message if that level is off. Consider an Interceptor that may log parameters on entrance to the method. If you choose to log those parameter at DEBUG level and if DEBUG is not on, you don't want to spend the time serializing those parameters. Now, mine may not be the most elegant solution, but it performs really well since the enum I provide all uses contiguous values -- while it's never guaranteed, contiguous switch values usually get compiled into a jump table in IL which is VERY performant - O(1) - but even if it doesn't, it's still so fast you'd never need to worry about it. So first, I need a way to let users pass in logging levels. Sure, log4net has a Level class, but it's a class with static members and plus it provides way too many options compared to ILog interface itself -- and wouldn't perform as well in my level-check -- so I define an enum like below. namespace Shared.Logging.Extensions { // enum to specify available logging levels. public enum LoggingLevel { Debug, Informational, Warning, Error, Fatal } } Now, once I have this, writing the extension methods I need is trivial. Once again, I would typically /// comment fully, but I'm eliminating for blogging brevity: namespace Shared.Logging.Extensions { // the extension methods to add functionality to the ILog interface public static class LogExtensions { // Determines if logging is enabled at a given level. public static bool IsLogEnabled(this ILog logger, LoggingLevel level) { switch (level) { case LoggingLevel.Debug: return logger.IsDebugEnabled; case LoggingLevel.Informational: return logger.IsInfoEnabled; case LoggingLevel.Warning: return logger.IsWarnEnabled; case LoggingLevel.Error: return logger.IsErrorEnabled; case LoggingLevel.Fatal: return logger.IsFatalEnabled; } return false; } // Logs a simple message - uses same signature except adds LoggingLevel public static void Log(this ILog logger, LoggingLevel level, object message) { switch (level) { case LoggingLevel.Debug: logger.Debug(message); break; case LoggingLevel.Informational: logger.Info(message); break; case LoggingLevel.Warning: logger.Warn(message); break; case LoggingLevel.Error: logger.Error(message); break; case LoggingLevel.Fatal: logger.Fatal(message); break; } } // Logs a message and exception to the log at specified level. public static void Log(this ILog logger, LoggingLevel level, object message, Exception exception) { switch (level) { case LoggingLevel.Debug: logger.Debug(message, exception); break; case LoggingLevel.Informational: logger.Info(message, exception); break; case LoggingLevel.Warning: logger.Warn(message, exception); break; case LoggingLevel.Error: logger.Error(message, exception); break; case LoggingLevel.Fatal: logger.Fatal(message, exception); break; } } // Logs a formatted message to the log at the specified level. public static void LogFormat(this ILog logger, LoggingLevel level, string format, params object[] args) { switch (level) { case LoggingLevel.Debug: logger.DebugFormat(format, args); break; case LoggingLevel.Informational: logger.InfoFormat(format, args); break; case LoggingLevel.Warning: logger.WarnFormat(format, args); break; case LoggingLevel.Error: logger.ErrorFormat(format, args); break; case LoggingLevel.Fatal: logger.FatalFormat(format, args); break; } } } } So there it is! I didn't have to modify the log4net source code, so if a new version comes out, i can just add the new assembly with no changes. I didn't have to subclass and worry about developers not calling my sub-class instead of the original. I simply provide the extension methods and it's as if the long lost extension methods were always a part of the ILog interface! Consider a very contrived example using the original interface: // using the original ILog interface public class DatabaseUtility { private static readonly ILog _log = LogManager.Create(typeof(DatabaseUtility)); // some theoretical method to time IDataReader Execute(string statement) { var timer = new System.Diagnostics.Stopwatch(); // do DB magic // this is hard-coded to warn, if want to change at runtime tough luck! if (timer.ElapsedMilliseconds > 5000 && _log.IsWarnEnabled) { _log.WarnFormat("Statement {0} took too long to execute.", statement); } ... } } Now consider this alternate call where the logging level could be perhaps a property of the class // using the original ILog interface public class DatabaseUtility { private static readonly ILog _log = LogManager.Create(typeof(DatabaseUtility)); // allow logging level to be specified by user of class instead public LoggingLevel ThresholdLogLevel { get; set; } // some theoretical method to time IDataReader Execute(string statement) { var timer = new System.Diagnostics.Stopwatch(); // do DB magic // this is hard-coded to warn, if want to change at runtime tough luck! if (timer.ElapsedMilliseconds > 5000 && _log.IsLogEnabled(ThresholdLogLevel)) { _log.LogFormat(ThresholdLogLevel, "Statement {0} took too long to execute.", statement); } ... } } Next time, I'll show one of my favorite uses for these extension methods in an Interceptor.

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CodePlex Daily Summary for Sunday, June 13, 2010

CodePlex Daily Summary for Sunday, June 13, 2010New ProjectsCurve Drawer: A Java project to explore the possibilities of drawing curves and knots.File Manager Redux: .NET version of the original File Manager.Hierachical Gantt Chart In SharePoint 2010: This solution makes it easier for shedule management. We will provide a wsp including a list definition and a custom gantt control. The list defi...Light Box Control for Asp.Net: Lightbox control for asp.net is used to display the thumbnail images. on clicking the thumbnail images the original images is displayed in the ligh...Linquify: Linquify is a Visual Studio 2008/2010 Addin and C# .NET business class / DTO generator for LINQ to SQL and the Entity Framework. It supports rapid ...Microsoft Dynamics CRM Query - T4 Template: A T4 Template that generates code that leverages LINQ to SQL and the Microsoft Dynamics CRM API to give a CRM data access solution. There is also ...Open Sound Control Library: A .NET Library for the Open Sound Control Protocol. This library makes it easy to use devices which communicate via OSC.Questionable Content Screensaver: A screensaver for the questionable content comic. It is written in C#, and uses the windows presentation foundation. See the comic at http://ww...Reflect: Reflect is an open source .NET reflection tool used for viewing metadata of .NET assemblies.runescape 602 client tools and server: runescape 602 client tools and serverSharpCrack: Hash cracker written in managed code.SilverCAT project: This is my Windows Azure study project. So far I did not find any value to share it to the public. If I find it out one day, I will add hereSilverStackAPI: My entry for the Stack Exchange API contest. A silverlight library and demo app.social bookmark control for asp.net: social bookmark control for asp.net, This control is used to bookmark the current asp.net page into popular social networking sites like facebook, ...SSIS Event Log Source: An SSIS 2005 Data Source component for loading Windows 2003/XP event logs (*.evt) into SQL Server 2005 for analysisUnOfficial ActiveWorlds Wrapper.Net: UnOfficial ActiveWorlds Wrapper .Net makes it easier for programmers to make active worlds bots. You'll no longer have to make it by yourself. It'...Using Named Pipe and self-elevation feature of Vista in a console application.: NPipeWithElevatedProc, make it easier for console application users, running programs with administrator privileges. The processing messages are al...Virtual Keyboard control for asp.net: Virtual Keyboard control for asp.net, This control is used to get the secured inputs through virtual keyboards.Visual Studio 2010 PowerShell Code Generator: Brings rich PowerShell functionalities into VS Templating. You can access the file system, the registry, and many other PowerShell features. You ca...WatchersNET.UrlShorty: This Module allows users to shorten a long URL and share it, this is a similiar service to web services like bit.ly, tinyurl.com and others. It als...New ReleasesBD File Hash: BD File Hash 1.0.5: The first public release of BD File Hash.Cassandraemon: Cassandraemon 0.6.0: Cassandraemon is LINQ Provider for Apache Cassandra. This is first release of Cassandraemon. Features You can Query by LINQ Support Regist, Del...Community Forums NNTP bridge: Community Forums NNTP Bridge V36: Release of the Community Forums NNTP Bridge to access the social and anwsers MS forums with a single, open source NNTP bridge. This release has ad...Curve Drawer: Alpha 1: Basic functionality is available to draw curves and clear them.CycleMania Starter Kit EAP - ASP.NET 4 Problem - Design - Solution: Cyclemania 09.32: see Source Code tab for recent change historyDEWD: DEWD for Umbraco v1.0 (beta-2): Beta release of the package. Functional feature set and fairly stable. Since the last release: Default values (support for dynamic values such as t...Fiddler TreeView Panel Extension: FiddlerTreeViewPanel 0.71: Added support for double-click to expand/collapse all child nodes. Keep selected node when losing focus from the TreeView. Please refer to http://...HKGolden Express: HKGoldenExpress (Build 201006130200): New features: User can reply to message with quoting others' message. Bug fix: Incorrect format of dynamically generated Sitemap XML. Improveme...Liekhus ADO.NET Entity Data Model XAF Extensions: Version 1.1.2: Latest patches and changes.Light Box Control for Asp.Net: Light Box Control for asp.net: Lightbox control for asp.net is used to display the thumbnail images. on clicking the thumbnail images the original images is displayed in the ligh...Lightweight Fluent Workflow: Objectflow 1.1.0.0: This release has support for multi-threaded operations. As this required significant changes to the fluent interface I have introduced breaking ch...Linquify: Linquify 1.6: Linquify 1.6 Includes: - Support for Entity Framework foreign keys - TransactionsLiteFx: LiteFx Alpha: Versão alpha do LiteFx.Microsoft Dynamics CRM Query - T4 Template: MS CRM Query T4 Template Version 0.5 Beta: Initial ReleaseNHibernate Membership Provider: NHibernate Membership Provider 0.9c: This is an updated source package with updated unit tests and some minor refactoring.NLog - Advanced .NET Logging: Nightly Build 2010.06.12.001: Changes since the last build:2010-06-12 10:42:41 Jarek Kowalski Added Width, Height, AutoScroll and MaxLines parameters to RichTextBoxTarget. 2010...Radical: Radical 1.0.1 (Vacuum): First drop with support for Windows Phone 7SharpCrack: SharpCrack v0.8: First release of SharpCrack. It does not support brute-force mode.social bookmark control for asp.net: social bookmark control for asp.net: social bookmark control for asp.net, This control is used to bookmark the current asp.net page into popular social networking sites like facebook, ...StardustExtensions: Simple hello: This is a very simple hello world script. Is just a basic script, is not packaged and works on IronPythonTiledLib: TiledLib 1.5: This release introduces breaking changes from 1.2. If you upgrade to this version from 1.2, you may have compiler errors and/or runtime differences...UDC indexes parser: UDC Parser RC1: Обновлена библиотека токенов, добавлены xml-doc комментарии, обновлен и исправлен код, обновлена логика лексера, обновлена грамматика парсера. Доба...UnOfficial ActiveWorlds Wrapper.Net: UnOfficial ActiveWorlds Wrapper.Net V0.5.85.1: NewLogin Structure. LaserBeam. ChangedOld Functions Changes Function Names Old New WorldInstanceSet SetWorldInstance WorldInstanceGet GetWo...UrzaGatherer: UrzaGatherer v2.0.2a: Inegration of VS Installer.VCC: Latest build, v2.1.30612.0: Automatic drop of latest buildVirtual Keyboard control for asp.net: virtual keyboard control: Virtual Keyboard control for asp.net, This control is used to get the secured inputs through virtual keyboards.Visual Studio 2010 PowerShell Code Generator: PSCodeGenerator: How to install PowerShell Code GeneratorDownload the zip Unzip Run .\Install-PSCodeGenerator.ps1 at the PowerShell console prompt Copies the te...VsTortoise - a TortoiseSVN add-in for Microsoft Visual Studio: VsTortoise Build 25 Beta: Build 25 (beta) New: Added support for Filter items (virtual folders) in Solution Explorer. New: Added "Get Lock..." to Solution Explorer context...WatchersNET.UrlShorty: WatchersNET.UrlShorty 01.00.00: First BETA Release Please Read the Readme or the Online Documentation for Install Instructions.Yet Another GPS: Release Beta 2.1: Release Beta 2.1: - Fix KML Template with Google Map Mobile Version - Add Signal Strength indecator - Add Time indecator - Fix Sound Language Prob...Most Popular ProjectsWBFS ManagerRawrAJAX Control ToolkitMicrosoft SQL Server Product Samples: DatabaseSilverlight ToolkitWindows Presentation Foundation (WPF)patterns & practices – Enterprise LibraryPHPExcelMicrosoft SQL Server Community & SamplesASP.NETMost Active Projectspatterns & practices – Enterprise LibraryjQuery Library for SharePoint Web ServicesNB_Store - Free DotNetNuke Ecommerce Catalog ModuleRhyduino - Arduino and Managed CodeBlogEngine.NETCommunity Forums NNTP bridgeCassandraemonMediaCoder.NETAndrew's XNA HelpersMicrosoft Silverlight Media Framework

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PASS Summit Feedback

- by Rob Farley

PASS Feedback came in last week. I also saw my dentist for some fillings... At the PASS Summit this year, I delivered a couple of regular sessions and a Lightning Talk. People told me they enjoyed it, but when the rankings came out, they showed that I didn’t score particularly well. Brent Ozar was keen to discuss it with me. Brent: PASS speaker feedback is out. You did two sessions and a Lightning Talk. How did you go? Rob: Not so well actually, thanks for asking. Brent: Ha! Sorry. Of course you know that's why I wanted to discuss this with you. I was in one of your sessions at SQLBits in the UK a month before PASS, and I thought you rocked. You've got a really good and distinctive delivery style. Then I noticed your talks were ranked in the bottom quarter of the Summit ratings and wanted to discuss it. Rob: Yeah, I know. You did ask me if we could do this... I should explain – my presentation style is not the stereotypical IT conference one. I throw in jokes, and try to engage the audience thoroughly. I find many talks amazingly dry, and I guess I try to buck that trend. I also run training courses, and find that I get a lot of feedback from people thanking me for keeping things interesting. That said, I also get feedback criticising me for my style, and that’s basically what’s happened here. For the rest of this discussion, let’s focus on my talk about the Incredible Shrinking Execution Plan, which I considered to be my main talk. Brent: I thought that session title was the very best one at the entire Summit, and I had it on my recommended sessions list. In four words, you managed to sum up the topic and your sense of humor. I read that and immediately thought, "People need to be in this session," and then it didn't score well. Tell me about your scores. Rob: The questions on the feedback form covered the usefulness of the information, the speaker’s presentation skills, their knowledge of the subject, how well the session was described, the amount of time allocated, and the quality of the presentation materials. Brent: Presentation materials? But you don’t do slides. Did they rate your thong? Rob: No-one saw my flip-flops in this talk, Brent. I created a script in Management Studio, and published that afterwards, but I think people will have scored that question based on the lack of slides. I wasn’t expecting to do particularly well on that one. That was the only section that didn’t have 5/5 as the most popular score. Brent: See, that sucks, because cookbook-style scripts are often some of my favorites. Adam Machanic's Service Broker workbench series helped me immensely when I was prepping for the MCM. As an attendee, I'd rather have a commented script than a slide deck. So how did you rank so low? Rob: When I look at the scores that you got (based on your blog post), you got very few scores below 3 – people that felt strong enough about your talk to post a negative score. In my scores, between 5% and 10% were below 3 (except on the question about whether I knew my stuff – I guess I came as knowledgeable). Brent: Wow – so quite a few people really didn’t like your talk then? Rob: Yeah. Mind you, based on the comments, some people really loved it. I’d like to think that there would be a certain portion of the room who may have rated the talk as one of the best of the conference. Some of my comments included “amazing!”, “Best presentation so far!”, “Wow, best session yet”, “fantastic” and “Outstanding!”. I think lots of talks can be “Great”, but not so many talks can be “Outstanding” without the word losing its meaning. One wrote “Pretty amazing presentation, considering it was completely extemporaneous.” Brent: Extemporaneous, eh? Rob: Yeah. I guess they don’t realise how much preparation goes into coming across as unprepared. In many ways it’s much easier to give a written speech than to deliver a presentation without slides as a prompt. Brent: That delivery style, the really relaxed, casual, college-professor approach was one of the things I really liked about your presentation at SQLbits. As somebody who presents a lot, I "get" it - I know how hard it is to come off as relaxed and comfortable with your own material. It's like improv done by jazz players and comedians - if you've never tried it, you don't realize how hard it is. People also don't realize how hard it is to make a tough subject fun. Rob: Yeah well... There will be people writing comments on this post that say I wasn't trying to make the subject fun, and that I was making it all about me. Sometimes the style works, sometimes it doesn't. Most of the comments mentioned the fact that I tell jokes, some in a nice way, but some not so much (and it wasn't just a PASS thing - that's the mix of feedback I generally get). One comment at PASS was: “great stand up comedian - not what I'm looking for at pass”, and there were certainly a few that said “too many jokes”. I’m not trying to do stand-up – jokes are my way of engaging with the audience while I demonstrate some of the amazing things that the Query Optimizer can do if you write your queries the right way. Some people didn’t think it was technical enough, but I’ve also had some people tell me that the concepts I’m explaining are deep and profound. Brent: To me, that's a hallmark of a great explanation - when someone says, "But of course it has to work that way - how could it work any other way? It seems so simple and logical." Well, sure it does when it's explained correctly, but now pick up any number of thick SQL Server books and try to understand the Redundant Joins concept. I guarantee it'll take more than 45 minutes. Rob: Some people in my audiences realise that, but definitely not everyone. There's only so much you can tell someone that something is profound. Generally it's something that they either have an epiphany on or not. I like to lull my audience into knowing what's going on, and do something that surprises them. Gain their trust, build a rapport, and then show them the deeper truth of what just happened. Brent: So you've learned your lesson about presentation scores, right? From here on out, you're going to be dry, humorless, and all your presentations will consist of you reading bullet points off the screen. Rob: No Brent, I’m not. I'm also not going to suggest that most presentations at PASS are like that. No-one tries to present like that. There's a big space to occupy between what "dry and humourless" and me. My difference is to focus on the relationship I have with the crowd, rather than focussing on delivering the perfect session. I want to see people smiling and know they're relaxed. I think most presenters focus on the material, which is completely reasonable and safe. I remember once hearing someone talking about product creation. They talked about mediocrity. They said that one of the worst things that people can ever say about your product is that it’s “good”. What you want is for 10% of the world to love it enough to want to buy it. If 10% the world gave me a dollar, I’d have more money than I could ever use (assuming it wasn’t the SAME dollar they were giving me I guess). Brent: It's the Raving Fans theory. It's better to have a small number of raving customers than a large number of almost-but-not-really customers who don't care that much about your product or service. I know exactly how you feel - when I got survey feedback from my Quest video presentation when I was dressed up in a Richard Simmons costume, some of the attendees said I was unprofessional and distracting. Some of the attendees couldn't get enough and Photoshopped all kinds of stuff into the screen captures. On a whole, I probably didn't score that well, and I'm fine with that. It sucks to look at the scores though - do those lower scores bother you? Rob: Of course they do. It hurts deeply. I open myself up and give presentations in a very personal way. All presenters do that, and we all feel the pain of negative feedback. I hate coming 146th & 162nd out of 185, but have to acknowledge that many sessions did worse still. Plus, once I feel the wounds have healed, I’ll be able to remember that there are people in the world that rave about my presentation style, and figure that people will hopefully talk about me. One day maybe those people that don’t like my presentation style will stay away and I might be able to score better. You don’t pay to hear country music if you prefer western... Lots of people find chili too spicy, but it’s still a popular food. Brent: But don’t you want to appeal to everyone? Rob: I do, but I don’t want to be lukewarm as in Revelation 3:16. I’d rather disgust and be discussed. Well, maybe not ‘disgust’, but I don’t want to conform. Conformity just isn’t the same any more. I’m not sure I’ve ever been one to do that. I try not to offend, but definitely like to be different. Brent: Count me among your raving fans, sir. Where can we see you next? Rob: Considering I live in Adelaide in Australia, I’m not about to appear at anyone’s local SQL Saturday. I’m still trying to plan which events I’ll get to in 2011. I’ve submitted abstracts for TechEd North America, but won’t hold my breath. I’m also considering the SQLBits conferences in the UK in April, PASS in October, and I’m sure I’ll do some LiveMeeting presentations for user groups. Online, people download some of my recent SQLBits presentations at http://bit.ly/RFSarg and http://bit.ly/Simplification though. And they can download a 5-minute MP3 of my Lightning Talk at http://www.lobsterpot.com.au/files/Collation.mp3, in which I try to explain the idea behind collation, using thongs as an example. Brent: I was in the audience for http://bit.ly/RFSarg. That was a great presentation. Rob: Thanks, Brent. Now where’s my dollar?

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CodePlex Daily Summary for Wednesday, April 07, 2010

CodePlex Daily Summary for Wednesday, April 07, 2010New ProjectsAStar.net: AStar.net is a project for compute the A* path finding algorithm. It expose classes and interface that can be used for all purpose with multi-threa...Auto Complete for MOSS 2007: Auto Complete for MOSS 2007 (WSS 3.0) makes it easier for all user to fill list of nessesary string in the field. AutoPoco: AutoPoco is a framework with the purpose of fluently building test data from Plain Old CLR ObjectsBlueProject: BlueProjectColor Picker for MOSS 2007: Color picker for MOSS 2007 (WSS 3.0) makes it easier for some user to choose color in the field. ComBrowser2: ComBrowser2DCommunication: Communication Components and Software By Delphi On Windows.DirST: Allows one to replicate a DIRectory STructure without copying files. Written in C#.Discussion column for MOSS 2007: Discussion column for MOSS 2007/ (WSS 3.0) is a field column for different type lists such as Custom List, Document Library, Issue Tracking, not on...Effect Custom Tool for Visual Studio: Effect Custom Tool for Visual Studio is a visual studio 2008 extension that helps you generate c# classes from effect (*.fx) files for use with Xna...Energon: Energon is a framework to create and run software energy consumption tests. Requires a couple of PC with a TCP connections, a phidgets ammeter and ...Fiansa: Proyecto FiansaFirstSpark: FirstSpark is a sample Spark View Engine projectISOM: Internetowy System Obsługi Magisterek La Carta Mas Alta: La Carta Mas Alta is an open source card game totally written in PHP and HTML. This cross-platform and cross-browser game was tested under BeOS, Li...Near forums - ASP.NET MVC forum engine: Open source SEO friendly ASP.NET MVC forum engine. Features: Navigation in forums, topics and tags; login with Facebook Connect and Single sign-on;...PEC: Still editingPowershell Zip Export/Import Cmdlet Module: Powershellzip is a powershell module with a set of Cmdlets for zip file export, import and processingProgress bar for MOSS 2007: Progress bar for MOSS 2007 (WSS 3.0) makes it easier for some user to display progress in the field in percent (0-100%). SharePoint Accelerators: This project delivers a number of SharePoint accelerators that make your every-day SharePoint life easier.Shweet: SharePoint 2010 Team Messaging built with Pex: Shweet is a simple SharePoint Foundation 2010 application that allows teams to do messaging and subscriptions in the style similar to twitter. De...SilverlightEncoder: Video and audio encoder for Silverlight 4 Out-of-BrowserStarMath: Static Array Math Library: While there are already countless math libraries for performing common matrix/array functions, StarMath is distinguished by its simplicity and flex...StringToNumber: StringToNumber is a .NET library for parsing numbers in their written form into their numeric equivalent. It's developed in C#. It was created to...SubstitutionITIS: <project name="Substitution" language="c-sharp" to="myschool" whatdo="manageSubstitutionTeachers" />TamTam.SharePoint2010.LinkedIn: SP2010 and LinkedIn working togetherThink And Explore: Think my own wayusenet-o-matic: small mobile optimised webscript to search various NZB sources like newzbin and NZBmatrix and send donwloads to your SABnzbd server. Valid HTML5 Templates for VisualStudio: This project will host valid HTML templates for Visual Studio. The primary focus however will be on the newer standard HTML5 and Visual Studio 2010XSS Attack: This tool will simulate an attack on your database and update up to 5000 rows in every table and replace your strings in your database with random ...Yazgelistir Beta: Yazgelistir'in beta sitesiNew ReleasesAStar.net: AStar.net 1.0 downloads: AStar.net 1.0 downloadsAvalaible downloads:Astar.net dll - Runtime library ready to be included in a project. Astar.net source project - The Visu...AutoPoco: 0.1 - Initial Release: This is the initial release, changes pending, lots left to do, check it out though!Bag of Tricks: Bag of Tricks - WPF - Libraries and Sample App: Here is a drop of the Bag of Tricks. It targets the 3.5 Client Profile.Boxee Launcher: Boxee Launcher 1.0.1.4: Taskbar will now be hiddenDesignit Umbraco Newsletter Package: ver 1.0.0 beta1: Please remember this is a beta version. If you have any problems or issues, don't hesitate to use the issue tracker and/or forum on this site. Ple...Effect Custom Tool for Visual Studio: Effect Custom Tool for Visual Studio 2008: Effect Custom Tool for Visual Studio is a visual studio 2008 extension that helps you generate c# classes from effect (*.fx) files for use with Xna...Fluent Ribbon Control Suite: Fluent Ribbon Control Suite 1.1: Fluent Ribbon Control Suite 1.1 Includes: Fluent.dll (with .pdb and .xml) Showcase Application Samples Foundation (Tabs, Groups, Contextual Tab...GsGrid: gsgrid 1.6.5: gsgrid 1.6.5Home Access Plus+: v3.2.5.2: v3.2.5.1 Release Change Log: Attempt to fix Domain Admin Lookup box File Changes: ~/bin/CHS Extranet.dll ~/bin/CHS Extranet.pdbHulu Launcher: Hulu Launcher 1.0.1.4: Will now hide taskbar.Icarus Scene Engine: Icarus Professional 2 Alpha 2a v 1.10.404.936: Alpha release 2 of Icarus Professional. This release includes: IcarusX: The ActiveX-based browser control for rendering IPX projects online. Icaru...kdar: KDAR 0.0.19: KDAR - Kernel Debugger Anti Rootkit - thread start notifier routine check added - registry callback сheck added - NDIS6 checks added - some bug i...Mobile Device Browser File: Mobile Device Browser File (2010-04-07): The Mobile Browser Definition File contains definitions for individual mobile devices and browsers. At run time, ASP.NET uses the information in th...MvcContrib: a Codeplex Foundation project: Portable Area Template: Use this Visual Studio 2008 Project template to create new portable areas. Drop this file in your Documents\Visual Studio 2008\Templates\ProjectTe...Office Apps: 0.8.8: new ui for Document.Viewer bug fix'sProtoforma | Tactica Adversa: Skilful 0.3.4.477: RC1ROOT Builder: ROOT Builder 1.41: Simplifies building of ROOT on the windows platform by generating a Visual Studio C make project that will build and run (and debug ROOT). See Inst...SharePoint Accelerators: Search AutoComplete for SharePoint Lists: Search AutoComplete for SharePoint List is a Web Part that allows you to search contents of a SharePoint. Search is interactive and offers you resu...SharePoint Labs: SPLab4002A-FRA-Level100: SPLab4002A-FRA-Level100 This SharePoint Lab will teach you the 2nd best practice you should apply when writing code with the SharePoint API. Lab La...SharePoint Labs: SPLab4003A-FRA-Level100: SPLab4003A-FRA-Level100 This SharePoint Lab will teach you the 3rd best practice you should apply when writing code with the SharePoint API. Lab La...SQL Compact data and schema script utility: Version 3.0: This release contains 4 downloadable files: - SSMS 2008 scripting add-in - SQL Server 2005/2008 command line utility to generate a script with sch...StarMath: Static Array Math Library: StarMath Source Files: The source file package includes the main library StarMath.dll (and it's source files), and an example exe project to invoke commands from StarMath.stefvanhooijdonk.com: Powershell Solution Install Script: Powershell Example script to install a SP2010 Solution, which actually waits for the Retraction and Deployment jobs.TamTam.SharePoint2010.LinkedIn: 0.0.0.1: How to use/install Small instruction to use this code/solution step 1 Add the Farm Solution to your SP2010 installation step 2 Go to the MySite H...usenet-o-matic: V 0.2: supports Newzbin and NZBmatrix as index sources and SABnzbd as download serverVCC: Latest build, v2.1.30406.0: Automatic drop of latest buildVisual Studio DSite: E-Z Image To PDF Converter Beta: This simple little program can convert all common image formats into pdfs and can even encrypt the pdf with an encrpytion key.Web and Load Test Plugins for Visual Studio Team Test: Release 2.0: Release 2.0 is targeted at VS 2010. VS 2010 exposes major new extensibility points: 1) Recorder plugins enable you to do custom correlations and o...Wicked Compression ASP.NET HTTP Module: WickedCompressionModule 4.0 Alpha: New Features, New Enhancements! - Visual Studio 2010 Projects! - Support for ASP.NET 2.0, 3.5, and 4.0 - AJAX Support for ASP.NET 3.5 and 4.0 - Bu...x5s - test encodings and character transformations to find XSS hotspots: x5s v1.0.0 beta: This is the v1.0 beta release of x5s. All feedback welcome in planning for the next release. Make sure Fiddler is installed prior to running th...xvanneste: Silverlight SharePoint: Fichiers du webcast sur silverlight: Silverlight OM Silverlight Webpart Silverlight Embedded ressource Silverlight List ViewYet Another Web App Monitoring Tool (YAWAMT): yawamt v0.5: A new release has seen the light :-) I've lowered the release to version 0.5 but changed some major things: - deletion of URLS works - settings can...Zinc Launcher: Zinc Launcher 1.0.1.1: Taskbar will now be hidden Delay to show Zinc was reduced to improve responsiveness.Most Popular ProjectsRawrWBFS ManagerMicrosoft SQL Server Product Samples: DatabaseASP.NET Ajax LibrarySilverlight ToolkitAJAX Control ToolkitWindows Presentation Foundation (WPF)ASP.NETMicrosoft SQL Server Community & SamplesFacebook Developer ToolkitMost Active ProjectsGraffiti CMSnopCommerce. Open Source online shop e-commerce solution.RawrFacebook Developer ToolkitShweet: SharePoint 2010 Team Messaging built with Pexpatterns & practices – Enterprise LibraryNcqrs Framework - The CQRS framework for .NETjQuery Library for SharePoint Web ServicesIonics Isapi Rewrite FilterAcadsys

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Collaborate 2010 Recap: A lot of Excitement for Oracle Content Management 11g

- by [email protected]

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;} Collaborate brought me to Las Vegas last week and what a week it was. Each day was jam packed with Oracle Content Management sessions, and almost every session I attended was full. Across the 35+ sessions that were given by my Oracle peers, Oracle partners, and Oracle customers, the majority of the discussion and questions that were asked had to do with the release of Oracle Content Management 11g. Just to bring everyone up-to-speed, the first wave of Oracle Content Management 11g releases happened this past January as Oracle Imaging & Process Management and Oracle Information Rights Management went GA. The next wave, which should be released soon, includes Oracle Universal Content Management and Oracle Universal Records Management. 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;} Andy MacMillan and Roel Stalman kicked off these discussions last Monday, as they presented Oracle Content Management's product strategy and roadmap. It seemed that the attendees liked what they heard regarding the strategy and future direction, but the question that seems to always come up after roadmap presentations is "when will the product be released"? This is a question that none of us have the power to answer, but soon customers will be able to enjoy these new product capabilities: 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;} Unified content repository across ECMCentralized installation, access, administration & monitoringCertified application integrations with solution templatesOpen Web Content Management 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;} Stay tuned for more news about the release of Oracle Universal Content Management and Oracle Records Management. There are a lot of new assets currently being built that will help get everyone up-to-speed quickly. 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;} Outside of the sessions that were presented, there were a lot of other activities that took place at Collaborate. The Enterprise 2.0 solutions demo pod was busy, and attendees were anxious to see demonstrations of Oracle's end-to-end document imaging solution, WebCenter Spaces, and web site creation using Oracle Universal Content Management. I also want to thank our partners (Fishbowl Solutions, Redstone Content Solutions, Bezzotech, Team Informatics, and DTI) for their efforts in creating detailed, insightful presentations. Also, special thanks are in order to Thomas Feldmeier and Markus Neubauer of Silbury IT-Beratung GmbH for their participation. It seems that Thomas and Markus were doomed to be stranded in Frankfurt after the Icelandic ash storm. They couldn't get a flight out of their native Germany, and with fear that they would miss Collaborate, they rented a car and drove to Rome - some 800 miles (1,200 kilometers). Anyway, they made it safe and sound to Las Vegas, and although probably a bit tired, they gave 2 Oracle Content Management presentations. Talk about commitment. 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;} Finally, a very special thanks to Al Hoof and Dave Chaffee of the Oracle Content Management Special Interest Group (SIG). Al and Dave did most of the heavy lifting for Collaborate, including the coordination of all the sessions. The Independent Oracle Users Group presented Al with the Chris Wooldridge award, recognizing him as the volunteer of the year. Here is Al with his award: 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;} I hope to see you next year at Collaborate as the show returns to Orlando.

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Making Sense of ASP.NET Paths

- by Renso

Making Sense of ASP.NET Paths ASP.Net includes quite a plethora of properties to retrieve path information about the current request, control and application. There's a ton of information available about paths on the Request object, some of it appearing to overlap and some of it buried several levels down, and it can be confusing to find just the right path that you are looking for. To keep things straight I thought it a good idea to summarize the path options along with descriptions and example paths. I wrote a post about this a long time ago in 2004 and I find myself frequently going back to that page to quickly figure out which path I’m looking for in processing the current URL. Apparently a lot of people must be doing the same, because the original post is the second most visited even to this date on this blog to the tune of nearly 500 hits per day. So, I decided to update and expand a bit on the original post with a little more information and clarification based on the original comments. Request Object Paths Available Here's a list of the Path related properties on the Request object (and the Page object). Assume a path like http://www.west-wind.com/webstore/admin/paths.aspx for the paths below where webstore is the name of the virtual. Request Property Description and Value ApplicationPath Returns the web root-relative logical path to the virtual root of this app. /webstore/ PhysicalApplicationPath Returns local file system path of the virtual root for this app. c:\inetpub\wwwroot\webstore PhysicalPath Returns the local file system path to the current script or path. c:\inetpub\wwwroot\webstore\admin\paths.aspx Path FilePath CurrentExecutionFilePath All of these return the full root relative logical path to the script page including path and scriptname. CurrentExcecutionFilePath will return the ‘current’ request path after a Transfer/Execute call while FilePath will always return the original request’s path. /webstore/admin/paths.aspx AppRelativeCurrentExecutionFilePath Returns an ASP.NET root relative virtual path to the script or path for the current request. If in a Transfer/Execute call the transferred Path is returned. ~/admin/paths.aspx PathInfo Returns any extra path following the script name. If no extra path is provided returns the root-relative path (returns text in red below). string.Empty if no PathInfo is available. /webstore/admin/paths.aspx/ExtraPathInfo RawUrl Returns the full root relative URL including querystring and extra path as a string. /webstore/admin/paths.aspx?sku=wwhelp40 Url Returns a fully qualified URL including querystring and extra path. Note this is a Uri instance rather than string. http://www.west-wind.com/webstore/admin/paths.aspx?sku=wwhelp40 UrlReferrer The fully qualified URL of the page that sent the request. This is also a Uri instance and this value is null if the page was directly accessed by typing into the address bar or using an HttpClient based Referrer client Http header. http://www.west-wind.com/webstore/default.aspx?Info Control.TemplateSourceDirectory Returns the logical path to the folder of the page, master or user control on which it is called. This is useful if you need to know the path only to a Page or control from within the control. For non-file controls this returns the Page path. /webstore/admin/ As you can see there’s a ton of information available there for each of the three common path formats: Physical Path is an OS type path that points to a path or file on disk. Logical Path is a Web path that is relative to the Web server’s root. It includes the virtual plus the application relative path. ~/ (Root-relative) Path is an ASP.NET specific path that includes ~/ to indicate the virtual root Web path. ASP.NET can convert virtual paths into either logical paths using Control.ResolveUrl(), or physical paths using Server.MapPath(). Root relative paths are useful for specifying portable URLs that don’t rely on relative directory structures and very useful from within control or component code. You should be able to get any necessary format from ASP.NET from just about any path or script using these mechanisms. ~/ Root Relative Paths and ResolveUrl() and ResolveClientUrl() ASP.NET supports root-relative virtual path syntax in most of its URL properties in Web Forms. So you can easily specify a root relative path in a control rather than a location relative path: <asp:Image runat="server" ID="imgHelp" ImageUrl="~/images/help.gif" /> ASP.NET internally resolves this URL by using ResolveUrl("~/images/help.gif") to arrive at the root-relative URL of /webstore/images/help.gif which uses the Request.ApplicationPath as the basepath to replace the ~. By convention any custom Web controls also should use ResolveUrl() on URL properties to provide the same functionality. In your own code you can use Page.ResolveUrl() or Control.ResolveUrl() to accomplish the same thing: string imgPath = this.ResolveUrl("~/images/help.gif"); imgHelp.ImageUrl = imgPath; Unfortunately ResolveUrl() is limited to WebForm pages, so if you’re in an HttpHandler or Module it’s not available. ASP.NET Mvc also has it’s own more generic version of ResolveUrl in Url.Decode: <script src="<%= Url.Content("~/scripts/new.js") %>" type="text/javascript"></script> which is part of the UrlHelper class. In ASP.NET MVC the above sort of syntax is actually even more crucial than in WebForms due to the fact that views are not referencing specific pages but rather are often path based which can lead to various variations on how a particular view is referenced. In a Module or Handler code Control.ResolveUrl() unfortunately is not available which in retrospect seems like an odd design choice – URL resolution really should happen on a Request basis not as part of the Page framework. Luckily you can also rely on the static VirtualPathUtility class: string path = VirtualPathUtility.ToAbsolute("~/admin/paths.aspx"); VirtualPathUtility also many other quite useful methods for dealing with paths and converting between the various kinds of paths supported. One thing to watch out for is that ToAbsolute() will throw an exception if a query string is provided and doesn’t work on fully qualified URLs. I wrote about this topic with a custom solution that works fully qualified URLs and query strings here (check comments for some interesting discussions too). Similar to ResolveUrl() is ResolveClientUrl() which creates a fully qualified HTTP path that includes the protocol and domain name. It’s rare that this full resolution is needed but can be useful in some scenarios. Mapping Virtual Paths to Physical Paths with Server.MapPath() If you need to map root relative or current folder relative URLs to physical URLs or you can use HttpContext.Current.Server.MapPath(). Inside of a Page you can do the following: string physicalPath = Server.MapPath("~/scripts/ww.jquery.js")); MapPath is pretty flexible and it understands both ASP.NET style virtual paths as well as plain relative paths, so the following also works. string physicalPath = Server.MapPath("scripts/silverlight.js"); as well as dot relative syntax: string physicalPath = Server.MapPath("../scripts/jquery.js"); Once you have the physical path you can perform standard System.IO Path and File operations on the file. Remember with physical paths and IO or copy operations you need to make sure you have permissions to access files and folders based on the Web server user account that is active (NETWORK SERVICE, ASPNET typically). Note the Server.MapPath will not map up beyond the virtual root of the application for security reasons. Server and Host Information Between these settings you can get all the information you may need to figure out where you are at and to build new Url if necessary. If you need to build a URL completely from scratch you can get access to information about the server you are accessing: Server Variable Function and Example SERVER_NAME The of the domain or IP Address wwww.west-wind.com or 127.0.0.1 SERVER_PORT The port that the request runs under. 80 SERVER_PORT_SECURE Determines whether https: was used. 0 or 1 APPL_MD_PATH ADSI DirectoryServices path to the virtual root directory. Note that LM typically doesn’t work for ADSI access so you should replace that with LOCALHOST or the machine’s NetBios name. /LM/W3SVC/1/ROOT/webstore Request.Url and Uri Parsing If you still need more control over the current request URL or you need to create new URLs from an existing one, the current Request.Url Uri property offers a lot of control. Using the Uri class and UriBuilder makes it easy to retrieve parts of a URL and create new URLs based on existing URL. The UriBuilder class is the preferred way to create URLs – much preferable over creating URIs via string concatenation. Uri Property Function Scheme The URL scheme or protocol prefix. http or https Port The port if specifically specified. DnsSafeHost The domain name or local host NetBios machine name www.west-wind.com or rasnote LocalPath The full path of the URL including script name and extra PathInfo. /webstore/admin/paths.aspx Query The query string if any ?id=1 The Uri class itself is great for retrieving Uri parts, but most of the properties are read only if you need to modify a URL in order to change it you can use the UriBuilder class to load up an existing URL and modify it to create a new one. Here are a few common operations I’ve needed to do to get specific URLs: Convert the Request URL to an SSL/HTTPS link For example to take the current request URL and converted it to a secure URL can be done like this: UriBuilder build = new UriBuilder(Request.Url); build.Scheme = "https"; build.Port = -1; // don't inject portUri newUri = build.Uri; string newUrl = build.ToString(); Retrieve the fully qualified URL without a QueryString AFAIK, there’s no native routine to retrieve the current request URL without the query string. It’s easy to do with UriBuilder however: UriBuilder builder = newUriBuilder(Request.Url); builder.Query = ""; stringlogicalPathWithoutQuery = builder.ToString();

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Java JRE 7 Certified with Oracle E-Business Suite

- by Steven Chan (Oracle Development)

Java Runtime Environment 7u10 (a.k.a. JRE 1.7.0_10 build 18) and later updates on the JRE 7 codeline are now certified with Oracle E-Business Suite Release 11i and 12 Windows-based desktop clients. What's needed to enable EBS environments for JRE 7? EBS customers should ensure that they are running JRE 7u10, at minimum, on Windows desktop clients. Of the compatibility issues identified with JRE 7, the most critical is an issue that prevents E-Business Suite Forms-based products from launching on Windows desktops that are running JRE 7. Customers can prevent this issue -- and all other JRE 7 compatibility issues -- by ensuring that they have applied the latest certified patches documented for JRE 7 configurations to their EBS application tier servers. These are summarized here for convenience. If the requirements change over time, please check the Notes for the authoritative list of patches: Apply Forms patch 14615390 to EBS 11i environments (Note 125767.1) Apply Forms patch 14614795 to EBS 12.0 and 12.1 environments (Note 437878.1) These patches are compatible with JRE 6 and 7, production ready, and fully-tested with the E-Business Suite. These patches may be applied immediately to all E-Business Suite environments. All other Forms prerequisites documented in the Notes above should also be applied. Where are the official patch requirements documented? All patches required for ensuring full compatibility of the E-Business Suite with JRE 7 are documented in these Notes: For EBS 11i: Deploying Sun JRE (Native Plug-in) for Windows Clients in Oracle E-Business Suite Release 11i (Note 290807.1) Upgrading Developer 6i with Oracle E-Business Suite 11i (Note 125767.1) For EBS 12 Deploying Sun JRE (Native Plug-in) for Windows Clients in Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12 (Note 393931.1) Upgrading OracleAS 10g Forms and Reports in Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12 (Note 437878.1) Prerequisites for 32-bit and 64-bit JRE certifications JRE 1.70_10 32-bit + EBS 11.5.10.2 Windows XP SP3 Windows Vista SP1 and SP2 Windows 7 and Windows 7 SP1 Forms 6.0.8.28.x patch 14615390 (Note 125767.1) JRE 1.70_10 32-bit + EBS 12.0 & 12.1 Windows XP SP3 Windows Vista SP1 and SP2 Windows 7 and Windows 7 SP1 Forms 10g overlay patch 14614795 (Note 437878.1) SSL Users: 10.1.0.5 version of Patch 6370967 applied to AS 10.1.3 with OPatch. Note: This fix is already included in the April 2011 AS 10.1.3.5 CPU patch and later. JRE 1.7.0_10 64-bit + EBS 11.5.10.2 Windows 7 (64-bit) and Windows 7 SP1 (64-bit) Forms 6.0.8.28.x patch 14615390 (Note 125767.1) JRE 1.70_10 64-bit + EBS 12.0 & 12.1 Windows 7 (64-bit) and Windows 7 SP1 (64-bit) Forms 10g overlay patch 14614795 (Note 437878.1) SSL Users: 10.1.0.5 version of Patch 6370967 applied to AS 10.1.3 with OPatch. Note: This fix is already included in the April 2011 AS 10.1.3.5 CPU patch and later. EBS + Discoverer 11g Users JRE 1.7.0_10 (7u10) is certified for Discoverer 11g in E-Business Suite environments with the following minimum requirements: Discoverer (11g) 11.1.1.6 plus Patch 13877486 and later Reference: How To Find Oracle BI Discoverer 10g and 11g Certification Information (Document 233047.1) Worried about the 'mismanaged session cookie' issue? No need to worry -- it's fixed. To recap: JRE releases 1.6.0_18 through 1.6.0_22 had issues with mismanaging session cookies that affected some users in some circumstances. The fix for those issues was first included in JRE 1.6.0_23. These fixes will carry forward and continue to be fixed in all future JRE releases on the JRE 6 and 7 codelines. In other words, if you wish to avoid the mismanaged session cookie issue, you should apply any release after JRE 1.6.0_22 on the JRE 6 codeline, and JRE 7u10 and later JRE 7 codeline updates. All JRE 6 and 7 releases are certified with EBS upon release Our standard policy is that all E-Business Suite customers can apply all JRE updates to end-user desktops from JRE 1.6.0_03 and later updates on the 1.6 codeline, and from JRE 7u10 and later updates on the JRE 7 codeline. We test all new JRE 1.6 and JRE 7 releases in parallel with the JRE development process, so all new JRE 1.6 and 7 releases are considered certified with the E-Business Suite on the same day that they're released by our Java team. You do not need to wait for a certification announcement before applying new JRE 1.6 or JRE 7 releases to your EBS users' desktops. Implications of Java 6 End of Public Updates for EBS Users The Support Roadmap for Oracle Java is published here: Oracle Java SE Support Roadmap The latest updates to that page (as of Sept. 19, 2012) state (emphasis added): Java SE 6 End of Public Updates Notice After February 2013, Oracle will no longer post updates of Java SE 6 to its public download sites. Existing Java SE 6 downloads already posted as of February 2013 will remain accessible in the Java Archive on Oracle Technology Network. Developers and end-users are encouraged to update to more recent Java SE versions that remain available for public download. For enterprise customers, who need continued access to critical bug fixes and security fixes as well as general maintenance for Java SE 6 or older versions, long term support is available through Oracle Java SE Support . What does this mean for Oracle E-Business Suite users? EBS users fall under the category of "enterprise users" above. Java is an integral part of the Oracle E-Business Suite technology stack, so EBS users will continue to receive Java SE 6 updates after February 2013. In other words, nothing will change for EBS users after February 2013. EBS users will continue to receive critical bug fixes and security fixes as well as general maintenance for Java SE 6. These Java SE 6 updates will be made available to EBS users for the Extended Support periods documented in the Oracle Lifetime Support policy document for Oracle Applications (PDF): EBS 11i Extended Support ends November 2013 EBS 12.0 Extended Support ends January 2015 EBS 12.1 Extended Support ends December 2018 Will EBS users be forced to upgrade to JRE 7 for Windows desktop clients? No. This upgrade is highly recommended but currently remains optional. JRE 6 will be available to Windows users to run with EBS for the duration of your respective EBS Extended Support period. Updates will be delivered via My Oracle Support, where you can continue to receive critical bug fixes and security fixes as well as general maintenance for JRE 6 desktop clients. Coexistence of JRE 6 and JRE 7 on Windows desktops The upgrade to JRE 7 is highly recommended for EBS users, but some users may need to run both JRE 6 and 7 on their Windows desktops for reasons unrelated to the E-Business Suite. Most EBS configurations with IE and Firefox use non-static versioning by default. JRE 7 will be invoked instead of JRE 6 if both are installed on a Windows desktop. For more details, see "Appendix B: Static vs. Non-static Versioning and Set Up Options" in Notes 290801.1 and 393931.1. Applying Updates to JRE 6 and JRE 7 to Windows desktops Auto-update will keep JRE 7 up-to-date for Windows users with JRE 7 installed. Auto-update will only keep JRE 7 up-to-date for Windows users with both JRE 6 and 7 installed. JRE 6 users are strongly encouraged to apply the latest Critical Patch Updates as soon as possible after each release. The Jave SE CPUs will be available via My Oracle Support. EBS users can find more information about JRE 6 and 7 updates here: Information Center: Installation & Configuration for Oracle Java SE (Note 1412103.2) The dates for future Java SE CPUs can be found on the Critical Patch Updates, Security Alerts and Third Party Bulletin. An RSS feed is available on that site for those who would like to be kept up-to-date. What will Mac users need? Oracle will provide updates to JRE 7 for Mac OS X users. EBS users running Macs will need to upgrade to JRE 7 to receive JRE updates. The certification of Oracle E-Business Suite with JRE 7 for Mac-based desktop clients accessing EBS Forms-based content is underway. Mac users waiting for that certification may find this article useful: How to Reenable Apple Java 6 Plug-in for Mac EBS Users Will EBS users be forced to upgrade to JDK 7 for EBS application tier servers? No. This upgrade will be highly recommended but will be optional for EBS application tier servers running on Windows, Linux, and Solaris. You can choose to remain on JDK 6 for the duration of your respective EBS Extended Support period. If you remain on JDK 6, you will continue to receive critical bug fixes and security fixes as well as general maintenance for JDK 6. The certification of Oracle E-Business Suite with JDK 7 for EBS application tier servers on Windows, Linux, and Solaris as well as other platforms such as IBM AIX and HP-UX is planned. Customers running platforms other than Windows, Linux, and Solaris should refer to their Java vendors's sites for more information about their support policies. References Recommended Browsers for Oracle Applications 11i (Metalink Note 285218.1) Upgrading Sun JRE (Native Plug-in) with Oracle Applications 11i for Windows Clients (Metalink Note 290807.1) Recommended Browsers for Oracle Applications 12 (MetaLink Note 389422.1) Upgrading JRE Plugin with Oracle Applications R12 (MetaLink Note 393931.1) Related Articles Mismanaged Session Cookie Issue Fixed for EBS in JRE 1.6.0_23 Roundup: Oracle JInitiator 1.3 Desupported for EBS Customers in July 2009

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CodePlex Daily Summary for Saturday, May 22, 2010

CodePlex Daily Summary for Saturday, May 22, 2010New ProjectsDocument Toolkit Extensions: Document Toolkit Extensions provide a variety of samples, document converters and helpers for Document Toolkit, a fast, feature-rich and 100% clien...dream: dreamEnhanced Web Controls: The Enhanced Web Control Library Contains web controls that enhance the functionality of the microsoft input controls. New functionality includes l...Europe Engulfed: Europe Engulfed is a PC version of the classic GMT board war game of the same name simulating World War II in the European theater. It is develope...eXpress Persistent Objects (XPO) Toolkit: eXpress Persistent Objects (XPO) Toolkit provides extensions to the DevExpress Object-Relational Mapping Suite.FBGraph.NET: Write apps for Facebook's Graph API using .NET. Includes support for C#, VB.NET, ASP.NET WebForms and ASP.NET MVC.HugeFlow.OOB: Silverlight OOB Library It supports useful custom controls. WindowChrome, InstallScreen. LivePad: LivePad, It can be used to record your life journey. LivePad，可以用来记录您的人生历程。Management listings: The project is management adsMerthin: Merthin is an F# based Framework which boundaries are not defined yet. For now a bit of linear algebra.Mobile Exchange: Mobile Exchange is a .NET Compact Framework library and sample application for accessing the Stack Exchange API available on sites like Stack Overf...PC/SC Micro: PC/SC Micro is an API and a library. The API is a subset of the PC/SC Lite API and allows a .NET Micro Framework application to communicate with ...SerialPortLogger: SerialPortLogger is a simple monitoring application which montors the serial port and outputs to a database.SharePoint NNTP List Sync: Syncronizes NNTP groups with SharePoint lists and offers post/reply capability. Sets item date as post date and attempts to lookup user in local d...Simple Help System: Simple Help System (SHS) je jednoduchý nápovědný systém jak pro vývojáře tak pro obyčejné lidi. Vyvýjeno v C#.SoulHackers Demon Unite(Chinese version): SoulHackers Demon Unite calculate program, for Chinese version on PlayStationTPager: Mercurial pager with color support on WindowsWork Item Query Administration: Work Item Query Administration (wiqadmin) is command-line utility to manage work item queries in Team Foundation Server. For any TeamProject you ca...XPlatformCPP: A cross platform C++ rendering API, that uses either OpenGL 2.1 or Direct3D 9.0c as a backend. Works with Win32API (Windows), Xlib (Linux,etc...), ...Xshell: Xshell is a replacement for the Windows Explorer shell designed for Media Center/Home Theater PCs.عبر السـدم: عبر السدم هي لعبة ثلاثية الأبعاد من إنجاز أعضاء الشبكة العربية لمطوري الألعاب بالاعتماد على تقنية XNA. http://www.agdn-online.com http://www.ag...New ReleasesAzure Publish-Subscribe: Azure Pub-Sub Developer Manual v0.1: Very early alpha of the documentation. It's an early look at the architecture only.Chaow Framework: Chaow Framework V1.00: Project Description Chaow Framework is the set of class libraries designed for enhancing standard .NET framework. It allows you to write more simpl...Document Toolkit Extensions: Document Toolkit Extensions Beta 1: The first public beta release of Document Toolkit and Document Toolkit Extensions.DotNetNuke Russian Language packs: Core Russian Language Pack for DNN 05.04.02: Core Russian Language Pack for DNN 05.04.02 Добавлены несколько ресурсов из новой редакции... Исправлены ошибки и описки.DynamicJson: Release 1.2.0.0: Fix - Deserialize(cast) can't convert to dynamic[] Fix - Deserialize(cast) throw exception if has getonly propertyEnhanced Web Controls: Enhanced Web Controls: This download includes the Enhanced Web Control Library DLL. Also inlcuded is the most recently tested version of the Ajax Control Toolkit, you may...Europe Engulfed: Europe Engulfed: This is the first release for the Codeplex-based project. It includes all source code changes up to and including Change Set 50762. To use: copy ...Extend SmallBasic: Teaching Extensions v.017: added a quiz for spiderweb recipeFree Silverlight & WPF Chart Control - Visifire: Visifire SL and WPF Charts v3.1.0 Released: Hi, This release contains the following enhancements: Mouse events for TrendLine have been implemented. You can go through Visifire documentation...Free Silverlight & WPF Chart Control - Visifire: Visifire SL and WPF Charts v3.5.3 Released: Hi, This release contains the following enhancements: Mouse events for TrendLine have been implemented. You can go through Visifire documentation...GreedyRSS: GreedyRSS 2.1: SuchSofts GreedyRSS平台整体更新至2.1版，重写了大量代码，可见还不够成熟稳定。此外还有以下几点主要更新：增加一个辅助类Settings，参见http://semify.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!7CB96C25969B3811!2345.entry...HugeFlow.OOB: HugeFlow.OOB 0.9 Beta for SL4: First release!NLog - Advanced .NET Logging: Nightly Build 2010.05.21.001: Changes since the last build:2010-05-20 23:20:17 Jarek Kowalski added tests for CsvLayout, refactored TargetWithLayoutHeaderAndFooter 2010-05-20 2...patterns & practices SharePoint Guidance: SPG 2010 Drop11: SharePoint Guidance Drop Notes Microsoft patterns and practices What's in this Drop: Docs/CHM ** *DropLocation\CHM\SharePointGuidance.chm ...Persian Date/Time support for MsSQL: Build 59 (STABLE): Removed CreateDateTimeWmS() ! Use public static PersianDateTime CreateDateTime(int year, int month, int day, int hour, int min, int sec) instead. ...PiPiBugNet: 增加了创建新Bug界面: 增加了创建新Bug界面，尚未编写代码Rule 18 - Love your clipboard: Rule 18 (Beta version): This is the beta of the next release for Rule 18. Use if you feel comfortable with software that has minimal real world testing applied. Current...Scrum Sprint Monitor: v1.0.0.48591: What is new in this release? #6132 - Bug with open work hours; Added support for MSF for Agile process template; Improved data reporting in the...sGSHOPedit: sGSHOPedit v1.0 (Alpha): -SharePoint NNTP List Sync: 1.0 Release: You may need to change the posting server within the layouts, it is hard coded A webpart wsp is not provided because you should customize the sou...Silverlight Report Library: Version 2.0: - Upgraded to Silverlight 4.0 RTW - ReportHeader control added which is templateable - PagePrinting and PagePrinted events added - PageBreak ad...Snoop, the WPF Spy Utility: Snoop 2.5.1: This is a minor bug fix release for Snoop. In particular, I have fixed the installers so that they create separately named shortcuts ... for each ...SoulHackers Demon Unite(Chinese version): WCFTestClient: This program is using WCF and .NET 4.0. This version is include unite 2 and unite 3 and check what can unite. Element unite is not included yet.SqlServerExtensions: V 0.1 beta: Version 0.1 BetaStackOverflow.Net: StackOverflow.Net for Silverlight public beta: The beta version of StackOverflow.Net for silverlight 4StackOverflow.Net: StackOverflow.Net for Windows Phone 7 public beta: The Windows Phone 7 version of StackOverflow.netStackOverflow.Net: StackOverflow.Net public beta: A public beta to go along with with the public beta of the Stack Exchange APIStyleCop+: StyleCop+ 0.8: Added new extended rule for SA1502. SP1502 has an option which allows constructors to be placed on a single line.SynthExport: SynthExport 1.1.0: Added support for extraction of camera parameters The number of images in coordinate systems is now shown Added status label Improved user ex...TPager: TPager-20100521: First releaseVCC: Latest build, v2.1.30521.0: Automatic drop of latest buildWcfDoc: 1.0.5: Targeting .NET 4.0.Work Item Query Administration: 1.0: This is the first release an contains the following commands: list import export rename deleteMost Popular ProjectsRawrWBFS ManagerAJAX Control ToolkitMicrosoft SQL Server Product Samples: DatabaseSilverlight ToolkitWindows Presentation Foundation (WPF)patterns & practices – Enterprise LibraryPHPExcelMicrosoft SQL Server Community & SamplesASP.NETMost Active ProjectsRawrpatterns & practices – Enterprise Librarypatterns & practices: Windows Azure Security GuidanceCaliburn: An Application Framework for WPF and SilverlightSQL Server PowerShell ExtensionsGMap.NET - Great Maps for Windows Forms & PresentationBlogEngine.NETCodeReviewNB_Store - Free DotNetNuke Ecommerce Catalog ModulePHPExcel

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Including Overestimates in MSF Agile Burndown Report

After using the MSF Agile Burndown report for a few weeks in our new TFS 2010 environment, I have to say I am a huge fan. I especially find the assignment of Work (hours) portion to be very useful in motivating the team to keep their tasks up to date every day. Here is a view of the report that you get out of the box. However, I have one problem. Id like the top line to have some more meaning. Specifically, when it is changing is that an indication of scope creep, mis-estimation or a combination of the two. So, today I decided to try to build in a view that would show overestimated time. This would give me a more consistent top line. My idea was to add another visual area on top of the graph whenever my originally estimated time was greater than the sum of completed and remaining. This will effectively show me at least when the top line goes down whether it was scope change or over-estimation. Here is the final result. How did I do it? Step 1: Add Cumulative_Original_Estimate field to the dsBurndown My approach was to follow the pattern where the completed time is included in the burndown chart and add my Overestimated hours. First I added a field to the dsBurndown to hold the estimated time. <Field Name="Cumulative_Original_Estimate"> <DataField><?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?><Field xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" xsi:type="Measure" UniqueName="[Measures].[Microsoft_VSTS_Scheduling_OriginalEstimate]" /></DataField> <rd:TypeName>System.Int32</rd:TypeName> </Field> Step 2: Add a column to the query SELECT { [Measures].[DateValue], [Measures].[Work Item Count], [Measures].[Microsoft_VSTS_Scheduling_RemainingWork], [Measures].[Microsoft_VSTS_Scheduling_CompletedWork], [Measures].[Microsoft_VSTS_Scheduling_OriginalEstimate], [Measures].[RemainingWorkLine], [Measures].[CountLine] Step 3: Add a new Item to the QueryDefinition <Item> <ID xsi:type="Measure"> <MeasureName>Microsoft_VSTS_Scheduling_OriginalEstimate</MeasureName> <UniqueName>[Measures].[Microsoft_VSTS_Scheduling_OriginalEstimate]</UniqueName> </ID> <ItemCaption>Cumulative Original Estimate</ItemCaption> <FormattedValue>true</FormattedValue> </Item> Step 4: Add a new ChartMember to DundasChartControl1 The burndown chart is called DundasChartControl1. I need to add a ChartMember for the estimated time. <ChartMember> <Label>Cumulative Original Estimate</Label> </ChartMember> Step 5: Add a ChartSeries to show the Overestimated Time <ChartSeries Name="OriginalEstimate"> <Hidden>=IIF(Parameters!YAxis.Value="count",True,False)</Hidden> <ChartDataPoints> <ChartDataPoint> <ChartDataPointValues> <Y>=IIF(Parameters!YAxis.Value = "hours", IIF(SUM(Fields!Cumulative_Original_Estimate.Value)>SUM(Fields!Cumulative_Completed_Work.Value+Fields!Cumulative_Remaining_Work.Value), SUM(Fields!Cumulative_Original_Estimate.Value-(Fields!Cumulative_Completed_Work.Value+Fields!Cumulative_Remaining_Work.Value)),Nothing),Nothing)</Y> </ChartDataPointValues> <ChartDataLabel> <Style> <FontFamily>Microsoft Sans Serif</FontFamily> <FontSize>8pt</FontSize> </Style> </ChartDataLabel> <Style> <Border> <Color>#9bdb00</Color> <Width>0.75pt</Width> </Border> <Color>#666666</Color> <BackgroundGradientEndColor>#666666</BackgroundGradientEndColor> </Style> <ChartMarker> <Style /> </ChartMarker> <CustomProperties> <CustomProperty> <Name>LabelStyle</Name> <Value>Top</Value> </CustomProperty> </CustomProperties> </ChartDataPoint> </ChartDataPoints> <Type>Area</Type> <Subtype>Stacked</Subtype> <Style /> <ChartEmptyPoints> <Style> <Color>#00ffffff</Color> </Style> <ChartMarker> <Style /> </ChartMarker> <ChartDataLabel> <Style /> </ChartDataLabel> </ChartEmptyPoints> <LegendName>Default</LegendName> <ChartItemInLegend> <LegendText>Overestimated Hours</LegendText> </ChartItemInLegend> <ChartAreaName>Default</ChartAreaName> <ValueAxisName>Primary</ValueAxisName> <CategoryAxisName>Primary</CategoryAxisName> <ChartSmartLabel> <Disabled>true</Disabled> <MaxMovingDistance>22.5pt</MaxMovingDistance> </ChartSmartLabel> </ChartSeries> Thats it. I find the improved report to add some value over the out of the box version. You can download the updated rdl for the report here. Did you know that DotNetSlackers also publishes .net articles written by top known .net Authors? We already have over 80 articles in several categories including Silverlight. Take a look: here.

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wifi not recognized

- by pumper

I had wifi and worked then some day ubuntu asked me to update some packeages and restarted the system and after that no wifi. this is my wireless_script output : ########## wireless info START ########## ##### release ##### Distributor ID: Ubuntu Description: Ubuntu 14.04 LTS Release: 14.04 Codename: trusty ##### kernel ##### Linux S510p 3.13.0-24-generic #47-Ubuntu SMP Fri May 2 23:30:00 UTC 2014 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux ##### lspci ##### 02:00.0 Network controller [0280]: Qualcomm Atheros QCA9565 / AR9565 Wireless Network Adapter [168c:0036] (rev 01) Subsystem: Lenovo Device [17aa:3026] Kernel driver in use: ath9k 03:00.0 Ethernet controller [0200]: Qualcomm Atheros AR8162 Fast Ethernet [1969:1090] (rev 10) Subsystem: Lenovo Device [17aa:3807] Kernel driver in use: alx ##### lsusb ##### Bus 001 Device 006: ID 0eef:a111 D-WAV Scientific Co., Ltd Bus 001 Device 007: ID 0cf3:3004 Atheros Communications, Inc. Bus 001 Device 004: ID 174f:1488 Syntek Bus 001 Device 003: ID 03f0:5607 Hewlett-Packard Bus 001 Device 002: ID 8087:8000 Intel Corp. Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub Bus 002 Device 002: ID 15d9:0a4c Trust International B.V. USB+PS/2 Optical Mouse Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub ##### PCMCIA Card Info ##### ##### rfkill ##### 0: ideapad_wlan: Wireless LAN Soft blocked: no Hard blocked: no 1: ideapad_bluetooth: Bluetooth Soft blocked: no Hard blocked: no 2: phy0: Wireless LAN Soft blocked: no Hard blocked: no 3: hci0: Bluetooth Soft blocked: no Hard blocked: no ##### iw reg get ##### country 00: (2402 - 2472 @ 40), (3, 20) (2457 - 2482 @ 40), (3, 20), PASSIVE-SCAN, NO-IBSS (2474 - 2494 @ 20), (3, 20), NO-OFDM, PASSIVE-SCAN, NO-IBSS (5170 - 5250 @ 40), (3, 20), PASSIVE-SCAN, NO-IBSS (5735 - 5835 @ 40), (3, 20), PASSIVE-SCAN, NO-IBSS ##### interfaces ##### # interfaces(5) file used by ifup(8) and ifdown(8) auto lo iface lo inet loopback auto dsl-provider iface dsl-provider inet ppp pre-up /sbin/ifconfig wlan0 up # line maintained by pppoeconf provider dsl-provider auto wlan0 iface wlan0 inet manual ##### iwconfig ##### wlan0 IEEE 802.11bgn ESSID:off/any Mode:Managed Access Point: Not-Associated Tx-Power=16 dBm Retry long limit:7 RTS thr:off Fragment thr:off Power Management:off ##### route ##### Kernel IP routing table Destination Gateway Genmask Flags Metric Ref Use Iface ##### resolv.conf ##### ##### nm-tool ##### NetworkManager Tool State: connected (global) - Device: eth0 ----------------------------------------------------------------- Type: Wired Driver: alx State: unavailable Default: no HW Address: <MAC address removed> Capabilities: Carrier Detect: yes Wired Properties Carrier: off - Device: wlan0 ---------------------------------------------------------------- Type: 802.11 WiFi Driver: ath9k State: unmanaged Default: no HW Address: <MAC address removed> Capabilities: Wireless Properties WEP Encryption: yes WPA Encryption: yes WPA2 Encryption: yes Wireless Access Points ##### NetworkManager.state ##### [main] NetworkingEnabled=true WirelessEnabled=true WWANEnabled=true WimaxEnabled=true ##### NetworkManager.conf ##### [main] plugins=ifupdown,keyfile,ofono dns=dnsmasq no-auto-default=<MAC address removed>, [ifupdown] managed=false ##### iwlist ##### wlan0 Scan completed : Cell 01 - Address: <MAC address removed> Channel:1 Frequency:2.412 GHz (Channel 1) Quality=55/70 Signal level=-55 dBm Encryption key:on ESSID:"mohsen" Bit Rates:1 Mb/s; 2 Mb/s; 5.5 Mb/s; 11 Mb/s; 6 Mb/s 9 Mb/s; 12 Mb/s; 18 Mb/s Bit Rates:24 Mb/s; 36 Mb/s; 48 Mb/s; 54 Mb/s Mode:Master Extra:tsf=000000076c342498 Extra: Last beacon: 12ms ago IE: Unknown: 00066D6F6873656E IE: Unknown: 010882848B960C121824 IE: Unknown: 030101 IE: Unknown: 2A0104 IE: Unknown: 32043048606C ##### iwlist channel ##### wlan0 13 channels in total; available frequencies : Channel 01 : 2.412 GHz Channel 02 : 2.417 GHz Channel 03 : 2.422 GHz Channel 04 : 2.427 GHz Channel 05 : 2.432 GHz Channel 06 : 2.437 GHz Channel 07 : 2.442 GHz Channel 08 : 2.447 GHz Channel 09 : 2.452 GHz Channel 10 : 2.457 GHz Channel 11 : 2.462 GHz Channel 12 : 2.467 GHz Channel 13 : 2.472 GHz ##### lsmod ##### ath3k 13318 0 bluetooth 395423 23 bnep,ath3k,btusb,rfcomm ath9k 164164 0 ath9k_common 13551 1 ath9k ath9k_hw 453856 2 ath9k_common,ath9k ath 28698 3 ath9k_common,ath9k,ath9k_hw mac80211 626489 1 ath9k cfg80211 484040 3 ath,ath9k,mac80211 ##### modinfo ##### filename: /lib/modules/3.13.0-24-generic/kernel/drivers/bluetooth/ath3k.ko firmware: ath3k-1.fw license: GPL version: 1.0 description: Atheros AR30xx firmware driver author: Atheros Communications srcversion: 98A5245588C09E5E41690D0 alias: usb:v0489pE036d*dc*dsc*dp*ic*isc*ip*in* alias: usb:v0489pE03Cd*dc*dsc*dp*ic*isc*ip*in* alias: usb:v0489pE02Cd*dc*dsc*dp*ic*isc*ip*in* alias: usb:v0CF3pE003d*dc*dsc*dp*ic*isc*ip*in* alias: usb:v0CF3p3121d*dc*dsc*dp*ic*isc*ip*in* alias: usb:v13D3p3402d*dc*dsc*dp*ic*isc*ip*in* alias: usb:v04C5p1330d*dc*dsc*dp*ic*isc*ip*in* alias: usb:v0489pE04Dd*dc*dsc*dp*ic*isc*ip*in* alias: usb:v0489pE056d*dc*dsc*dp*ic*isc*ip*in* alias: usb:v0489pE04Ed*dc*dsc*dp*ic*isc*ip*in* alias: usb:v13D3p3393d*dc*dsc*dp*ic*isc*ip*in* alias: usb:v0489pE057d*dc*dsc*dp*ic*isc*ip*in* alias: usb:v0930p0220d*dc*dsc*dp*ic*isc*ip*in* alias: usb:v0930p0219d*dc*dsc*dp*ic*isc*ip*in* alias: usb:v0CF3pE005d*dc*dsc*dp*ic*isc*ip*in* alias: usb:v0CF3pE004d*dc*dsc*dp*ic*isc*ip*in* alias: usb:v13D3p3362d*dc*dsc*dp*ic*isc*ip*in* alias: usb:v04CAp3008d*dc*dsc*dp*ic*isc*ip*in* alias: usb:v04CAp3006d*dc*dsc*dp*ic*isc*ip*in* alias: usb:v04CAp3005d*dc*dsc*dp*ic*isc*ip*in* alias: usb:v04CAp3004d*dc*dsc*dp*ic*isc*ip*in* alias: usb:v13D3p3375d*dc*dsc*dp*ic*isc*ip*in* alias: usb:v0CF3p817Ad*dc*dsc*dp*ic*isc*ip*in* alias: usb:v0CF3p311Dd*dc*dsc*dp*ic*isc*ip*in* alias: usb:v0CF3p3008d*dc*dsc*dp*ic*isc*ip*in* alias: usb:v0CF3p3004d*dc*dsc*dp*ic*isc*ip*in* alias: usb:v0CF3p0036d*dc*dsc*dp*ic*isc*ip*in* alias: usb:v03F0p311Dd*dc*dsc*dp*ic*isc*ip*in* alias: usb:v0489pE027d*dc*dsc*dp*ic*isc*ip*in* alias: usb:v0489pE03Dd*dc*dsc*dp*ic*isc*ip*in* alias: usb:v0930p0215d*dc*dsc*dp*ic*isc*ip*in* alias: usb:v13D3p3304d*dc*dsc*dp*ic*isc*ip*in* alias: usb:v0CF3pE019d*dc*dsc*dp*ic*isc*ip*in* alias: usb:v0CF3p3002d*dc*dsc*dp*ic*isc*ip*in* alias: usb:v0CF3p3000d*dc*dsc*dp*ic*isc*ip*in* depends: bluetooth intree: Y vermagic: 3.13.0-24-generic SMP mod_unload modversions signer: Magrathea: Glacier signing key sig_key: <MAC address removed>:D9:06:21:70:6E:8D:06:60:4D:73:0B:35:9F:C0 sig_hashalgo: sha512 filename: /lib/modules/3.13.0-24-generic/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/ath/ath9k/ath9k.ko license: Dual BSD/GPL description: Support for Atheros 802.11n wireless LAN cards. author: Atheros Communications srcversion: BAF225EEB618908380B28DA alias: platform:qca955x_wmac alias: platform:ar934x_wmac alias: platform:ar933x_wmac alias: platform:ath9k alias: pci:v0000168Cd00000036sv*sd*bc*sc*i* alias: pci:v0000168Cd00000036sv0000185Fsd00003027bc*sc*i* alias: pci:v0000168Cd00000036sv00001B9Asd00002810bc*sc*i* alias: pci:v0000168Cd00000036sv0000144Fsd00007202bc*sc*i* alias: pci:v0000168Cd00000036sv00001A3Bsd00002130bc*sc*i* alias: pci:v0000168Cd00000036sv000011ADsd00000612bc*sc*i* alias: pci:v0000168Cd00000036sv000011ADsd00000652bc*sc*i* alias: pci:v0000168Cd00000036sv000011ADsd00000642bc*sc*i* alias: pci:v0000168Cd00000036sv0000168Csd0000302Cbc*sc*i* alias: pci:v0000168Cd00000036sv0000168Csd00003027bc*sc*i* alias: pci:v0000168Cd00000036sv0000144Dsd0000411Ebc*sc*i* alias: pci:v0000168Cd00000036sv0000144Dsd0000411Dbc*sc*i* alias: pci:v0000168Cd00000036sv0000144Dsd0000411Cbc*sc*i* alias: pci:v0000168Cd00000036sv0000144Dsd0000411Bbc*sc*i* alias: pci:v0000168Cd00000036sv0000144Dsd0000411Abc*sc*i* alias: pci:v0000168Cd00000036sv00001028sd0000020Ebc*sc*i* alias: pci:v0000168Cd00000036sv0000103Csd0000217Fbc*sc*i* alias: pci:v0000168Cd00000036sv0000103Csd000018E3bc*sc*i* alias: pci:v0000168Cd00000036sv000017AAsd00003026bc*sc*i* alias: pci:v0000168Cd00000036sv00001A3Bsd0000213Abc*sc*i* alias: pci:v0000168Cd00000036sv000011ADsd00000662bc*sc*i* alias: pci:v0000168Cd00000036sv000011ADsd00000672bc*sc*i* alias: pci:v0000168Cd00000036sv000011ADsd00000622bc*sc*i* alias: pci:v0000168Cd00000036sv0000185Fsd00003028bc*sc*i* alias: pci:v0000168Cd00000036sv0000105Bsd0000E069bc*sc*i* alias: pci:v0000168Cd00000036sv0000168Csd0000302Bbc*sc*i* alias: pci:v0000168Cd00000036sv0000168Csd00003026bc*sc*i* alias: pci:v0000168Cd00000036sv0000168Csd00003025bc*sc*i* alias: pci:v0000168Cd00000036sv00001B9Asd00002812bc*sc*i* alias: pci:v0000168Cd00000036sv00001B9Asd00002811bc*sc*i* alias: pci:v0000168Cd00000036sv000011ADsd00006671bc*sc*i* alias: pci:v0000168Cd00000036sv000011ADsd00000632bc*sc*i* alias: pci:v0000168Cd00000036sv0000185Fsd0000A119bc*sc*i* alias: pci:v0000168Cd00000036sv0000105Bsd0000E068bc*sc*i* alias: pci:v0000168Cd00000036sv00001A3Bsd00002176bc*sc*i* alias: pci:v0000168Cd00000036sv0000168Csd00003028bc*sc*i* alias: pci:v0000168Cd00000037sv*sd*bc*sc*i* alias: pci:v0000168Cd00000034sv*sd*bc*sc*i* alias: pci:v0000168Cd00000034sv000010CFsd00001783bc*sc*i* alias: pci:v0000168Cd00000034sv000014CDsd00000064bc*sc*i* alias: pci:v0000168Cd00000034sv000014CDsd00000063bc*sc*i* alias: pci:v0000168Cd00000034sv0000103Csd00001864bc*sc*i* alias: pci:v0000168Cd00000034sv000011ADsd00006641bc*sc*i* alias: pci:v0000168Cd00000034sv000011ADsd00006631bc*sc*i* alias: pci:v0000168Cd00000034sv00001043sd0000850Ebc*sc*i* alias: pci:v0000168Cd00000034sv00001A3Bsd00002110bc*sc*i* alias: pci:v0000168Cd00000034sv00001969sd00000091bc*sc*i* alias: pci:v0000168Cd00000034sv000017AAsd00003214bc*sc*i* alias: pci:v0000168Cd00000034sv0000168Csd00003117bc*sc*i* alias: pci:v0000168Cd00000034sv000011ADsd00006661bc*sc*i* alias: pci:v0000168Cd00000034sv00001A3Bsd00002116bc*sc*i* alias: pci:v0000168Cd00000033sv*sd*bc*sc*i* alias: pci:v0000168Cd00000032sv*sd*bc*sc*i* alias: pci:v0000168Cd00000032sv00001043sd0000850Dbc*sc*i* alias: pci:v0000168Cd00000032sv00001B9Asd00001C01bc*sc*i* alias: pci:v0000168Cd00000032sv00001B9Asd00001C00bc*sc*i* alias: pci:v0000168Cd00000032sv00001A3Bsd00001F95bc*sc*i* alias: pci:v0000168Cd00000032sv00001A3Bsd00001195bc*sc*i* alias: pci:v0000168Cd00000032sv00001A3Bsd00001F86bc*sc*i* alias: pci:v0000168Cd00000032sv00001A3Bsd00001186bc*sc*i* alias: pci:v0000168Cd00000032sv00001B9Asd00002001bc*sc*i* alias: pci:v0000168Cd00000032sv00001B9Asd00002000bc*sc*i* alias: pci:v0000168Cd00000032sv0000144Fsd00007197bc*sc*i* alias: pci:v0000168Cd00000032sv0000105Bsd0000E04Fbc*sc*i* alias: pci:v0000168Cd00000032sv0000105Bsd0000E04Ebc*sc*i* alias: pci:v0000168Cd00000032sv000011ADsd00006628bc*sc*i* alias: pci:v0000168Cd00000032sv000011ADsd00006627bc*sc*i* alias: pci:v0000168Cd00000032sv00001C56sd00004001bc*sc*i* alias: pci:v0000168Cd00000032sv00001A3Bsd00002100bc*sc*i* alias: pci:v0000168Cd00000032sv00001A3Bsd00002C97bc*sc*i* alias: pci:v0000168Cd00000032sv000017AAsd00003219bc*sc*i* alias: pci:v0000168Cd00000032sv000017AAsd00003218bc*sc*i* alias: pci:v0000168Cd00000032sv0000144Dsd0000C708bc*sc*i* alias: pci:v0000168Cd00000032sv0000144Dsd0000C680bc*sc*i* alias: pci:v0000168Cd00000032sv0000144Dsd0000C706bc*sc*i* alias: pci:v0000168Cd00000032sv0000144Dsd0000410Fbc*sc*i* alias: pci:v0000168Cd00000032sv0000144Dsd0000410Ebc*sc*i* alias: pci:v0000168Cd00000032sv0000144Dsd0000410Dbc*sc*i* alias: pci:v0000168Cd00000032sv0000144Dsd00004106bc*sc*i* alias: pci:v0000168Cd00000032sv0000144Dsd00004105bc*sc*i* alias: pci:v0000168Cd00000032sv0000185Fsd00003027bc*sc*i* alias: pci:v0000168Cd00000032sv0000185Fsd00003119bc*sc*i* alias: pci:v0000168Cd00000032sv0000168Csd00003122bc*sc*i* alias: pci:v0000168Cd00000032sv0000168Csd00003119bc*sc*i* alias: pci:v0000168Cd00000032sv0000105Bsd0000E075bc*sc*i* alias: pci:v0000168Cd00000032sv00001A3Bsd00002152bc*sc*i* alias: pci:v0000168Cd00000032sv00001A3Bsd0000126Abc*sc*i* alias: pci:v0000168Cd00000032sv00001A3Bsd00002126bc*sc*i* alias: pci:v0000168Cd00000032sv00001A3Bsd00001237bc*sc*i* alias: pci:v0000168Cd00000032sv00001A3Bsd00002086bc*sc*i* alias: pci:v0000168Cd00000030sv*sd*bc*sc*i* alias: pci:v0000168Cd0000002Esv*sd*bc*sc*i* alias: pci:v0000168Cd0000002Dsv*sd*bc*sc*i* alias: pci:v0000168Cd0000002Csv*sd*bc*sc*i* alias: pci:v0000168Cd0000002Bsv*sd*bc*sc*i* alias: pci:v0000168Cd0000002Bsv00001A3Bsd00002C37bc*sc*i* alias: pci:v0000168Cd0000002Asv000010CFsd00001536bc*sc*i* alias: pci:v0000168Cd0000002Asv000010CFsd0000147Dbc*sc*i* alias: pci:v0000168Cd0000002Asv000010CFsd0000147Cbc*sc*i* alias: pci:v0000168Cd0000002Asv0000185Fsd0000309Dbc*sc*i* alias: pci:v0000168Cd0000002Asv00001A32sd00000306bc*sc*i* alias: pci:v0000168Cd0000002Asv000011ADsd00006642bc*sc*i* alias: pci:v0000168Cd0000002Asv000011ADsd00006632bc*sc*i* alias: pci:v0000168Cd0000002Asv0000105Bsd0000E01Fbc*sc*i* alias: pci:v0000168Cd0000002Asv00001A3Bsd00001C71bc*sc*i* alias: pci:v0000168Cd0000002Asv*sd*bc*sc*i* alias: pci:v0000168Cd00000029sv*sd*bc*sc*i* alias: pci:v0000168Cd00000027sv*sd*bc*sc*i* alias: pci:v0000168Cd00000024sv*sd*bc*sc*i* alias: pci:v0000168Cd00000023sv*sd*bc*sc*i* depends: ath9k_hw,mac80211,ath9k_common,cfg80211,ath intree: Y vermagic: 3.13.0-24-generic SMP mod_unload modversions signer: Magrathea: Glacier signing key sig_key: <MAC address removed>:D9:06:21:70:6E:8D:06:60:4D:73:0B:35:9F:C0 sig_hashalgo: sha512 parm: debug:Debugging mask (uint) parm: nohwcrypt:Disable hardware encryption (int) parm: blink:Enable LED blink on activity (int) parm: btcoex_enable:Enable wifi-BT coexistence (int) parm: bt_ant_diversity:Enable WLAN/BT RX antenna diversity (int) parm: ps_enable:Enable WLAN PowerSave (int) filename: /lib/modules/3.13.0-24-generic/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/ath/ath9k/ath9k_common.ko license: Dual BSD/GPL description: Shared library for Atheros wireless 802.11n LAN cards. author: Atheros Communications srcversion: 696B00A6C59713EC0966997 depends: ath,ath9k_hw intree: Y vermagic: 3.13.0-24-generic SMP mod_unload modversions signer: Magrathea: Glacier signing key sig_key: <MAC address removed>:D9:06:21:70:6E:8D:06:60:4D:73:0B:35:9F:C0 sig_hashalgo: sha512 filename: /lib/modules/3.13.0-24-generic/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/ath/ath9k/ath9k_hw.ko license: Dual BSD/GPL description: Support for Atheros 802.11n wireless LAN cards. author: Atheros Communications srcversion: 4809F3842A0542CD6B556D3 depends: ath intree: Y vermagic: 3.13.0-24-generic SMP mod_unload modversions signer: Magrathea: Glacier signing key sig_key: <MAC address removed>:D9:06:21:70:6E:8D:06:60:4D:73:0B:35:9F:C0 sig_hashalgo: sha512 filename: /lib/modules/3.13.0-24-generic/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/ath/ath.ko license: Dual BSD/GPL description: Shared library for Atheros wireless LAN cards. author: Atheros Communications srcversion: 88A67C5359B02C5A710AFCF depends: cfg80211 intree: Y vermagic: 3.13.0-24-generic SMP mod_unload modversions signer: Magrathea: Glacier signing key sig_key: <MAC address removed>:D9:06:21:70:6E:8D:06:60:4D:73:0B:35:9F:C0 sig_hashalgo: sha512 ##### modules ##### lp rtc ##### blacklist ##### [/etc/modprobe.d/blacklist-ath_pci.conf] blacklist ath_pci [/etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf] blacklist evbug blacklist usbmouse blacklist usbkbd blacklist eepro100 blacklist de4x5 blacklist eth1394 blacklist snd_intel8x0m blacklist snd_aw2 blacklist i2c_i801 blacklist prism54 blacklist bcm43xx blacklist garmin_gps blacklist asus_acpi blacklist snd_pcsp blacklist pcspkr blacklist amd76x_edac [/etc/modprobe.d/fbdev-blacklist.conf] blacklist arkfb blacklist aty128fb blacklist atyfb blacklist radeonfb blacklist cirrusfb blacklist cyber2000fb blacklist gx1fb blacklist gxfb blacklist kyrofb blacklist matroxfb_base blacklist mb862xxfb blacklist neofb blacklist nvidiafb blacklist pm2fb blacklist pm3fb blacklist s3fb blacklist savagefb blacklist sisfb blacklist tdfxfb blacklist tridentfb blacklist viafb blacklist vt8623fb ##### udev rules ##### # PCI device 0x1969:0x1090 (alx) SUBSYSTEM=="net", ACTION=="add", DRIVERS=="?*", ATTR{address}=="<MAC address removed>", ATTR{dev_id}=="0x0", ATTR{type}=="1", KERNEL=="eth*", NAME="eth0" # PCI device 0x168c:0x0036 (ath9k) SUBSYSTEM=="net", ACTION=="add", DRIVERS=="?*", ATTR{address}=="<MAC address removed>", ATTR{dev_id}=="0x0", ATTR{type}=="1", KERNEL=="wlan*", NAME="wlan0" ##### dmesg ##### [ 1.707662] psmouse serio1: elantech: assuming hardware version 3 (with firmware version 0x450f03) [ 11.918852] ath: phy0: WB335 1-ANT card detected [ 11.918856] ath: phy0: Set BT/WLAN RX diversity capability [ 11.926438] ath: phy0: Enable LNA combining [ 11.928469] ath: phy0: ASPM enabled: 0x42 [ 11.928473] ath: EEPROM regdomain: 0x65 [ 11.928475] ath: EEPROM indicates we should expect a direct regpair map [ 11.928478] ath: Country alpha2 being used: 00 [ 11.928479] ath: Regpair used: 0x65 [ 14.066021] IPv6: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): wlan0: link is not ready ########## wireless info END ############

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The Internet of Things & Commerce: Part 2 -- Interview with Brian Celenza, Commerce Innovation Strategist

- by Katrina Gosek, Director | Commerce Product Strategy-Oracle

Internet of Things & Commerce Series: Part 2 (of 3) Welcome back to the second installation of my three part series on the Internet of Things & Commerce. A few weeks ago, I wrote “The Next 7,000 Days” about how we’ve become embedded in a digital architecture in the last 7,000 days since the birth of the internet – an architecture that everyday ties the massive expanse of the internet evermore closely with our physical lives. This blog series explores how this new blend of virtual and material will change how we shop and how businesses sell. Now enjoy reading my interview with Brian Celenza, one of the chief strategists in our Oracle Commerce innovation group. He comments on the past, present, and future of the how the growing Internet of Things relates and will relate to the buying and selling of goods on and offline. -------------------------------------------- QUESTION: You probably have one of the coolest jobs on our team, Brian – and frankly, one of the coolest jobs in our industry. As part of the innovation team for Oracle Commerce, you’re regularly working on bold features and groundbreaking commerce-focused experiences for our vision demos. As you look back over the past couple of years, what is the biggest trend (or trends) you’ve seen in digital commerce that started to bring us closer to this idea of what people are calling an “Internet of Things”? Brian: Well as you look back over the last couple of years, the speed at which change in our industry has moved looks like one of those blurred movement photos – you know the ones where the landscape blurs because the observer is moving so quickly your eye focus can’t keep up. But one thing that is absolutely clear is that the biggest catalyst for that speed of change – especially over the last three years – has been mobile. Mobile technology changed everything. Over the last three years the entire thought process of how to sell on (and offline) has shifted because of mobile technology advances. Particularly for eCommerce professionals who have started to move past the notion of “channels” for selling goods to this notion of “Mobile First”… then the Web site. Or more accurately, that everything – smartphones, web, store, tablet – is just one channel or has to act like one singular access point to the same product catalog, information and content. The most innovative eCommerce professionals realized some time ago that it’s not ideal to build an eCommerce Web site and then build everything on top of or off of it. Rather, they want to build an eCommerce API and then integrate it will all other systems. To accomplish this, they are leveraging all the latest mobile technologies or possibilities mobile technology has opened up: 4G and LTE, GPS, bluetooth, touch screens, apps, html5… How has this all started to come together for shopping experiences on and offline? Well to give you a personal example, I remember visiting an Apple store a few years ago and being amazed that I didn’t have to wait in line because a store associate knew everything about me from my ID – right there on the sales floor – and could check me out anywhere. Then just a few months later (when like any good addict) I went back to get the latest and greatest new gadget, I felt like I was stealing it because I could check myself out with my smartphone. I didn’t even need to see a sales associate OR go to a cash register. Amazing. And since then, all sort sorts of companies across all different types of industries – from food service to apparel – are starting to see mobile payments in the billions of dollars now thanks not only to the convenience factor but to smart loyalty rewards programs as well. These are just some really simple current examples that come to mind. So many different things have happened in the last couple of years, it’s hard to really absorb all of the quickly – because as soon as you do, everything changes again! Just like that blurry speed photo image. For eCommerce, however, this type of new environment underscores the importance of building an eCommerce API – a platform that has services you can tap in to and build on as the landscape changes at a fever pitch. It’s a mobile first perspective. A web service perspective – particularly if you are thinking of how to engage customers across digital and physical spaces. —— QUESTION: Thanks for bringing us into the present – some really great examples you gave there to put things into perspective. So what do you see as the biggest trend right now around the “Internet of Things” – and what’s coming next few years? Brian: Honestly, even sitting where I am in the innovation group – it’s hard to look out even 12 months because, well, I don’t even think we’ve fully caught up with what is possible now. But I can definitely say that in the last 12 months and in the coming 12 months, in the technology and eCommerce world it’s all about iBeacons. iBeacons are awesome tools we have right now to tie together physical and digital shopping experiences. They know exactly where you are as a shopper and can communicate that to businesses. Currently there seem to be two camps of thought around iBeacons. First, many people are thinking of them like an “indoor GPS”, which to be fair they literally are. The use case this first camp envisions for iBeacons is primarily for advertising and marketing. So they use iBeacons to push location-based promotions to customers if they are close to a store or in a store. You may have seen these types of mobile promotions start to pop up occasionally on your smart phone as you pass by a store you’ve bought from in the past. That’s the work of iBeacons. But in my humble opinion, these promotions probably come too early in the customer journey and although they may be well timed and work to “convert” in some cases, I imagine in most they are just eroding customer trust because they are kind of a “one-size-fits-all” solution rather than one that is taking into account what exactly the customer might be looking for in that particular moment. Maybe they just want more information and a promotion is way too soon for that type of customer. The second camp is more in line with where my thinking falls. In this case, businesses take a more sensitive approach with iBeacons to customers’ needs. Instead of throwing out a “one-size-fits-all” to any passer by with iBeacons, the use case is more around looking at the physical proximity of a customer as an opportunity to provide a service: show expert reviews on a product they may be looking at in a particular aisle of a store, offer the opportunity to compare prices (and then offer a promotion), signal an in-store associate if a customer has been in the store for more than 10 minutes in one place. These are all less intrusive more value-driven uses of iBeacons. And they are more about building customer trust through service. To take this example a bit further into the future realm of “Big Data” and “Internet of Things” businesses could actually use the Oracle Commerce Platform and iBeacons to “silently” track customer movement w/in the store to provide higher quality service. And this doesn’t have to be creepy or intrusive. Simply if a customer has been in a particular department or aisle for more than a 5 or 10 minutes, an in-store associate could come over an offer some assistance already knowing customer preferences from their online profile and maybe even seeing the items in a shopping cart they started at home. None of this has to be revealed to the customer, but it certainly could boost the level of service an in-store sales associate could provide. Or, in another futuristic example, stores could use the digital footprint of the physical store transmitted by iBeacons to generate heat maps of the store that could be tracked over time. Imagine how much you could find out about which parts of the store are more busy during certain parts of the day or seasons. This could completely revolutionize how physical merchandising is deployed or where certain high value / new items are placed. And / or this use of iBeacons could also help businesses figure out if customers are getting held up in certain parts of the store during busy days like Black Friday. If long lines are causing customers to bounce from a physical store and leave those holiday gifts behind, maybe having employees with mobile check as an option could remove the cash register bottleneck. But going to back to my original statement, it’s all still very early in the story for iBeacons. The hardware manufacturers are still very new and there is still not one clear standard. Honestly, it all goes back to building and maintaining an extensible and flexible platform for anywhere engagement. What you’re building today should allow you to rapidly take advantage of whatever unimaginable use cases wait around the corner. ------------------------------------------------------ I hope you enjoyed the brief interview with Brian. It’s really awesome to have such smart and innovation-minded individuals on our Oracle Commerce innovation team. Please join me again in a few weeks for Part 3 of this series where I interview one of the product managers on our team about how the blending of digital and in-store selling in influencing our product development and vision.

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Performance Optimization – It Is Faster When You Can Measure It

- by Alois Kraus

Performance optimization in bigger systems is hard because the measured numbers can vary greatly depending on the measurement method of your choice. To measure execution timing of specific methods in your application you usually use Time Measurement Method Potential Pitfalls Stopwatch Most accurate method on recent processors. Internally it uses the RDTSC instruction. Since the counter is processor specific you can get greatly different values when your thread is scheduled to another core or the core goes into a power saving mode. But things do change luckily: Intel's Designer's vol3b, section 16.11.1 "16.11.1 Invariant TSC The time stamp counter in newer processors may support an enhancement, referred to as invariant TSC. Processor's support for invariant TSC is indicated by CPUID.80000007H:EDX[8]. The invariant TSC will run at a constant rate in all ACPI P-, C-. and T-states. This is the architectural behavior moving forward. On processors with invariant TSC support, the OS may use the TSC for wall clock timer services (instead of ACPI or HPET timers). TSC reads are much more efficient and do not incur the overhead associated with a ring transition or access to a platform resource." DateTime.Now Good but it has only a resolution of 16ms which can be not enough if you want more accuracy. Reporting Method Potential Pitfalls Console.WriteLine Ok if not called too often. Debug.Print Are you really measuring performance with Debug Builds? Shame on you. Trace.WriteLine Better but you need to plug in some good output listener like a trace file. But be aware that the first time you call this method it will read your app.config and deserialize your system.diagnostics section which does also take time. In general it is a good idea to use some tracing library which does measure the timing for you and you only need to decorate some methods with tracing so you can later verify if something has changed for the better or worse. In my previous article I did compare measuring performance with quantum mechanics. This analogy does work surprising well. When you measure a quantum system there is a lower limit how accurately you can measure something. The Heisenberg uncertainty relation does tell us that you cannot measure of a quantum system the impulse and location of a particle at the same time with infinite accuracy. For programmers the two variables are execution time and memory allocations. If you try to measure the timings of all methods in your application you will need to store them somewhere. The fastest storage space besides the CPU cache is the memory. But if your timing values do consume all available memory there is no memory left for the actual application to run. On the other hand if you try to record all memory allocations of your application you will also need to store the data somewhere. This will cost you memory and execution time. These constraints are always there and regardless how good the marketing of tool vendors for performance and memory profilers are: Any measurement will disturb the system in a non predictable way. Commercial tool vendors will tell you they do calculate this overhead and subtract it from the measured values to give you the most accurate values but in reality it is not entirely true. After falling into the trap to trust the profiler timings several times I have got into the habit to Measure with a profiler to get an idea where potential bottlenecks are. Measure again with tracing only the specific methods to check if this method is really worth optimizing. Optimize it Measure again. Be surprised that your optimization has made things worse. Think harder Implement something that really works. Measure again Finished! - Or look for the next bottleneck. Recently I have looked into issues with serialization performance. For serialization DataContractSerializer was used and I was not sure if XML is really the most optimal wire format. After looking around I have found protobuf-net which uses Googles Protocol Buffer format which is a compact binary serialization format. What is good for Google should be good for us. A small sample app to check out performance was a matter of minutes: using ProtoBuf; using System; using System.Diagnostics; using System.IO; using System.Reflection; using System.Runtime.Serialization; [DataContract, Serializable] class Data { [DataMember(Order=1)] public int IntValue { get; set; } [DataMember(Order = 2)] public string StringValue { get; set; } [DataMember(Order = 3)] public bool IsActivated { get; set; } [DataMember(Order = 4)] public BindingFlags Flags { get; set; } } class Program { static MemoryStream _Stream = new MemoryStream(); static MemoryStream Stream { get { _Stream.Position = 0; _Stream.SetLength(0); return _Stream; } } static void Main(string[] args) { DataContractSerializer ser = new DataContractSerializer(typeof(Data)); Data data = new Data { IntValue = 100, IsActivated = true, StringValue = "Hi this is a small string value to check if serialization does work as expected" }; var sw = Stopwatch.StartNew(); int Runs = 1000 * 1000; for (int i = 0; i < Runs; i++) { //ser.WriteObject(Stream, data); Serializer.Serialize<Data>(Stream, data); } sw.Stop(); Console.WriteLine("Did take {0:N0}ms for {1:N0} objects", sw.Elapsed.TotalMilliseconds, Runs); Console.ReadLine(); } } The results are indeed promising: Serializer Time in ms N objects protobuf-net 807 1000000 DataContract 4402 1000000 Nearly a factor 5 faster and a much more compact wire format. Lets use it! After switching over to protbuf-net the transfered wire data has dropped by a factor two (good) and the performance has worsened by nearly a factor two. How is that possible? We have measured it? Protobuf-net is much faster! As it turns out protobuf-net is faster but it has a cost: For the first time a type is de/serialized it does use some very smart code-gen which does not come for free. Lets try to measure this one by setting of our performance test app the Runs value not to one million but to 1. Serializer Time in ms N objects protobuf-net 85 1 DataContract 24 1 The code-gen overhead is significant and can take up to 200ms for more complex types. The break even point where the code-gen cost is amortized by its faster serialization performance is (assuming small objects) somewhere between 20.000-40.000 serialized objects. As it turned out my specific scenario involved about 100 types and 1000 serializations in total. That explains why the good old DataContractSerializer is not so easy to take out of business. The final approach I ended up was to reduce the number of types and to serialize primitive types via BinaryWriter directly which turned out to be a pretty good alternative. It sounded good until I measured again and found that my optimizations so far do not help much. After looking more deeper at the profiling data I did found that one of the 1000 calls did take 50% of the time. So how do I find out which call it was? Normal profilers do fail short at this discipline. A (totally undeserved) relatively unknown profiler is SpeedTrace which does unlike normal profilers create traces of your applications by instrumenting your IL code at runtime. This way you can look at the full call stack of the one slow serializer call to find out if this stack was something special. Unfortunately the call stack showed nothing special. But luckily I have my own tracing as well and I could see that the slow serializer call did happen during the serialization of a bool value. When you encounter after much analysis something unreasonable you cannot explain it then the chances are good that your thread was suspended by the garbage collector. If there is a problem with excessive GCs remains to be investigated but so far the serialization performance seems to be mostly ok. When you do profile a complex system with many interconnected processes you can never be sure that the timings you just did measure are accurate at all. Some process might be hitting the disc slowing things down for all other processes for some seconds as well. There is a big difference between warm and cold startup. If you restart all processes you can basically forget the first run because of the OS disc cache, JIT and GCs make the measured timings very flexible. When you are in need of a random number generator you should measure cold startup times of a sufficiently complex system. After the first run you can try again getting different and much lower numbers. Now try again at least two times to get some feeling how stable the numbers are. Oh and try to do the same thing the next day. It might be that the bottleneck you found yesterday is gone today. Thanks to GC and other random stuff it can become pretty hard to find stuff worth optimizing if no big bottlenecks except bloatloads of code are left anymore. When I have found a spot worth optimizing I do make the code changes and do measure again to check if something has changed. If it has got slower and I am certain that my change should have made it faster I can blame the GC again. The thing is that if you optimize stuff and you allocate less objects the GC times will shift to some other location. If you are unlucky it will make your faster working code slower because you see now GCs at times where none were before. This is where the stuff does get really tricky. A safe escape hatch is to create a repro of the slow code in an isolated application so you can change things fast in a reliable manner. Then the normal profilers do also start working again. As Vance Morrison does point out it is much more complex to profile a system against the wall clock compared to optimize for CPU time. The reason is that for wall clock time analysis you need to understand how your system does work and which threads (if you have not one but perhaps 20) are causing a visible delay to the end user and which threads can wait a long time without affecting the user experience at all. Next time: Commercial profiler shootout.

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Experience your music in a whole new way with Zune for PC

- by Matthew Guay

Tired of the standard Media Player look and feel, and want something new and innovative? Zune offers a fresh, new way to enjoy your music, videos, pictures, and podcasts, whether or not you own a Zune device. Microsoft started out on a new multimedia experience for PCs and mobile devices with the launch of the Zune several years ago. The Zune devices have been well received and noted for their innovative UI, and the Zune HD’s fluid interface is the foundation for the widely anticipated Windows Phone 7. But regardless of whether or not you have a Zune Device, you can still use the exciting new UI and services directly from your PC. Zune for Windows is a very nice media player that offers a music and video store and wide support for multimedia formats including those used in Apple products. And if you enjoy listening to a wide variety of music, it also offers the Zune Pass which lets you stream an unlimited number of songs to your computer and download 10 songs for keeps per month for $14.99/month. Or you can do a pre-paid music card as well. It does all this using the new Metro UI which beautifully shows information using text in a whole new way. Here’s a quick look at setting up and using Zune on your PC. Getting Started Download the installer (link below), and run it to begin setup. Please note that Zune offers a separate version for computers running the 64 bit version of Windows Vista or 7, so choose it if your computer is running these. Once your download is finished, run the installer to setup Zune on your computer. Accept the EULA when prompted. If there are any updates available, they will automatically download and install during the setup. So, if you’re installing Zune from a disk (for example, one packaged with a Zune device), you don’t have to worry if you have the latest version. Zune will proceed to install on your computer. It may prompt you to restart your computer after installation; click Restart Now so you can proceed with your Zune setup. The reboot appears to be for Zune device support, and the program ran fine otherwise without rebooting, so you could possibly skip this step if you’re not using a Zune device. However, to be on the safe side, go ahead and reboot. After rebooting, launch Zune. It will play a cute introduction video on first launch; press skip if you don’t want to watch it. Zune will now ask you if you want to keep the default settings or change them. Choose Start to keep the defaults, or Settings to customize to your wishes. Do note that the default settings will set Zune as your default media player, so click Settings if you wish to change this. If you choose to change the default settings, you can change how Zune finds and stores media on your computer. In Windows 7, Zune will by default use your Windows 7 Libraries to manage your media, and will in fact add a new Podcasts library to Windows 7. If your media is stored on another location, such as on a server, then you can add this to the Library. Please note that this adds the location to your system-wide library, not just the Zune player. There’s one last step. Enter three of your favorite artists, and Zune will add Smart DJ mixes to your Quickplay list based on these. Some less famous or popular artists may not be recognized, so you may have to try another if your choice isn’t available. Or, you can click Skip if you don’t want to do this right now. Welcome to Zune! This is the default first page, QuickPlay, where you can easily access your pinned and new items. If you have a Zune account, or would like to create a new one, click Sign In on the top. Creating a new account is quick and simple, and if you’re new to Zune, you can try out a 14 day trial of Zune Pass for free if you want. Zune allows you to share your listening habits and favorites with friends or the world, but you can turn this off or change it if you like. Using Zune for Windows To access your media, click the Collection link on the top left. Zune will show all the media you already have stored on your computer, organized by artist and album. Right-click on any album, and you choose to have Zune find album art or do a variety of other tasks with the media. When playing media, you can view it in several unique ways. First, the default Mix view will show related tracks to the music you’re playing from Smart DJ. You can either play these fully if you’re a Zune Pass subscriber, or otherwise you can play 30 second previews. Then, for many popular artists, Zune will change the player background to show pictures and information in a unique way while the music is playing. The information may range from history about the artist to the popularity of the song being played. Zune also works as a nice viewer for the pictures on your computer. Start a slideshow, and Zune will play your pictures with nice transition effects and music from your library. Zune Store The Zune Store offers a wide variety of music, TV shows, and videos for purchase. If you’re a Zune Pass subscriber, you can listen to or download any song without purchasing it; otherwise, you can preview a 30 second clip first. Zune also offers a wide selection of Podcasts you can subscribe to for free. Using Zune for PC with a Zune Device If you have a Zune device attached to your computer, you can easily add media files to it by simply dragging them to the Zune device icon in the left corner. In the future, this will also work with Windows Phone 7 devices. If you have a Zune HD, you can also download and add apps to your device. Here’s the detailed information window for the weather app. Click Download to add it to your device. Mini Mode The Zune player generally takes up a large portion of your screen, and is actually most impressive when run maximized. However, if you’re simply wanting to enjoy your tunes while you’re using your computer, you can use the Mini mode to still view music info and control Zune in a smaller mode. Click the Mini Player button near the window control buttons in the top right to activate it. Now Zune will take up much less of your desktop. This window will stay on top of other windows so you can still easily view and control it. Zune will display an image of the artist if one is available, and this shows up in Mini mode more often than it does in the full mode. And, in Windows 7, you could simply minimize Zune as you can control it directly from the taskbar thumbnail preview. Even more controls are available from Zune’s jumplist in Windows 7. You can directly access your Quickplay links or choose to shuffle all music without leaving the taskbar. Settings Although Zune is designed to be used without confusing menus and settings, you can tweak the program to your liking from the settings panel. Click Settings near the top left of the window. Here you can change file storage, types, burn, metadata, and many more settings. You can also setup Zune to stream media to your XBOX 360 if you have one. You can also customize Zune’s look with a variety of modern backgrounds and gradients. Conclusion If you’re ready for a fresh way to enjoy your media, Zune is designed for you. It’s innovative UI definitely sets it apart from standard media players, and is very pleasing to use. Zune is especially nice if your computer is using XP, Vista Home Basic, or 7 Starter as these versions of Windows don’t include Media Center. Additionally, the mini player mode is a nice touch that brings a feature of Windows 7’s Media Player to XP and Vista. Zune is definitely one of our favorite music apps. Try it out, and get a fresh view of your music today! 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OFM 11g: Implementing OAM SSO with Forms

- by olaf.heimburger

There is some confusion about the integration of OFM 11g Forms with Oracle Access Manager 11g (OAM). Some say this does not work, some say it works, but.... Actually, having implemented it many times I belong to the later group. Here is how. Caveat Before you start installing anything, take a step back and consider your current implementation and what you really need and want to achieve. The current integration of Forms 11g with OAM 11g does not support self-service account creation and password resets from the Forms application. If you really need this, you must use the existing Oracle AS 10.1.4.3 infrastructure. On the other hand, if your user population is pretty stable, you can enjoy the latest Forms 11g with OAM 11g. Assumptions The whole process should be done in one day. I assume that all domains and instances are started during setup, if you need to restart them on demand or purpose, be sure to have proper start/stop scripts, I don't mention them. Preparation It goes without saying, that you always should do a proper backup before you change anything on your production environment. With proper backup, I also mean a tested and verified restore process. If you dared to test it before, do it now. It pays off. Requirements For OAM 11g to work properly you need a LDAP repository. For the integration of Forms 11g you need an Oracle Internet Directory (OID) configured with the Oracle AS SSO LDAP extensions. For better support I usually give the latest version a try, in this case OID 11g is a good choice.During the Installation and Integration steps we use an upgrade wizard that needs the old OID configuration on the same host but in a different ORACLE_HOME. Installation vs Configuration With OFM 11g Oracle introduced a clear separation between Installation of the binaries (the software) and the Configuration of the instances (the runtime). This is really great as you can install all the software and create new instances when needed. In the following we adhere to this scheme and install the software first and then configure the instances later. Installation Steps The Oracle documentation contains all the necessary steps for the installation of all pieces of software. But some hints help to avoid traps and pitfalls. Step 1 The Database Start the installation with the database. It is quite obvious but we need an Oracle database for all the other steps. If you have one at hand, fine. If not, just install at least a Oracle 10.2.0.4 version. This database can be on a different host. Step 2 The Repository Creation Utility The next step should be to run the Repository Creation Utility (RCU). This is a client application that just needs to connect to your database. It can be run on any host that can reach the database and is a Windows or Linux 32-bit machine. When you run it, be sure to install the OID schema and the OAM schema. If you miss one of these, you can run the RCU again to install the missing schema. Step 3 The Foundation With OFM 11g Oracle started to use WebLogic Server 11g (WLS) as its foundation for all OFM 11g installation. We therefore install it first. Depending on your operating system, it might be possible, that no native installer is available. My approach to this dilemma is to use the WLS Generic Installer for all my installations. It does not include a JDK either but if you have both for your platform you are ready to go. Step 3a The JDK To make things interesting, Oracle currently has two JDKs in its portfolio. The Sun JDK and the JRockit JDK. Both are available for a number of platforms. If you are lucky and both are available for your platform, install both in a separate directory (and not one of your ORACLE_HOMEs) each, You can use the later as you like. Step 3b Install WLS for OID and OAM With the JDK installed, we start the generic installer with java -jar wls_generic.jar.STOP! Before you do this, check the version first. It should be 1.6.0_18 or later and not the GCC one (Some Linux distros have it installed by default). To verify the version, issue a java -version command and make sure that the output does not contain the text gcj and the version matches. If this does not work, use an absolute path like /opt/java/jdk1.6.0_23/bin/java to start the installer. The installer allows you to specify a path to install the software into, say /opt/oracle/iam/11.1.1.3 for the OID and OAM installation. We will call this IAM_HOME. Step 4 Install OID Now we are ready to install OID. Start the OID installer (in the Disk1 directory) and just select the installation only step. This will install the software only and does not configure the instance. Use the IAM_HOME as the target directory. Step 5 Install SOA Suite The IAM 11g Suite uses the BPEL component of the SOA Suite 11g for its workflows. This is a pretty closed environment and not to be used for SCA Composites. We install the SOA Suite in $IAM_HOME/soa. The installer only installs the binaries. Configuration will be done later. Step 6 Install OAM Once the installation of OID and SOA is done, we are ready to install the OAM software in the same IAM_HOME. Make sure to install the OAM binaries in a directory different from the one you used during the OID and SOA installation. As before, we only install the software, the instance will be created later. Step 7 Backup the Installation At this point, I normally do a backup (or snapshot in a virtual image) of the installation. Good when you need to go back to this point. Step 8 Configure OID The software is installed and now we need instances to run it. This process is called configuration. For OID use the config.sh found in $IAM_HOME/oid/bin to start the configuration wizard. Normally this runs smoothly. If you encounter some issues check the Oracle Support site for help. This configuration will also start the OID instance. Step 9 Install the Oracle AS SSO Schema Before we install the Forms software we need to install the Oracle AS SSO Schema into the database and OID. This is a rather dangerous procedure, but fully documented in the IAM Installation Guide, Chapter 10. You should finish this in one go, do not reboot your host during the whole procedure. As a precaution, you should make a backup of the OID instance before you start the procedure. Once the backup is ready, read the chapter, including every note, carefully. You can avoid a number of issues by following all the steps and will succeed with a working solution. Step 10 Configure OAM Reached this step? Great. You are ready to create an OAM instance. Use the $IAM_HOME/iam/common/binconfig.sh for this. This will open the WLS Domain Creation Wizard and asks for the libraries to be installed. You should at least select the OAM with Database repository item. The configuration will also start the OAM instance. Step 11 Install WLS for Forms 11g It is quite tempting to install everything in one ORACLE_HOME. Unfortunately this does not work for all OFM packages. Therefore we do another WLS installation in another ORACLE_HOME. The same considerations as in step 3b apply. We call this one FORMS_HOME. Step 12 Install Forms In the FORMS_HOME we now install the binaries for the Forms 11g software. Again, this is a install only step. Configuration starts with the next step. Step 13 Configure Forms To configure Forms 11g we start the Configuration Wizard (config.sh) in FORMS_HOME/bin. This wizard should create a new WebLogic Domain and an OHS instance! Do not extend existing domains or instances! Forms should run in its own instances! When all information is supplied, the wizard will create the domain and instance and starts them automatically.Step 14 Setup your Forms SSO EnvironmentOnce you have implemented and tested your Forms 11g instance, you can configured it for SSO. Yes, this requires the old Oracle AS SSO solution, OIDDAS for creating and assigning users and SSO to setup your partner applications. In this step you should consider to create every user necessary for use within the environment. When done, do not forget to test it. Step 15 Migrate the SSO Repository Since the final goal is to get rid of the old SSO implementation we need to migrate the old SSO repository into the new OID structure. Additionally, this step will also migrate all partner application configurations into OAM 11g. Quite convenient. To do this step, you have to start the upgrade agent (ua or ua.bat or ua.cmd) on the operating system level in $IAM_HOME/bin. Once finished, this wizard will create new osso.conf files for each partner application in $IAM_HOME/upgrade/temp/oam/.Note: At the time of this writing, this step only works if everything is on the same host (ie. OID, OAM, etc.). This restriction might be lifted in later releases. Step 16 Change your OHS sso.conf and shut down OC4J_SECURITY In Step 14 we verified that SSO for our Forms environment works fine. Now, we are shutting the old system done and reconfigure the OHS that acts as the Forms entry point. First we go to the OHS configuration directory and rename the old osso.conf to osso.conf.10g. Now we change the moduleconf/mod_osso.conf to point to the new osso.conf file. Copy the new osso.conf file from $IAM_HOME/upgrade/temp/oam/ to the OHS configuration directory. Restart OHS, test forms by using the same forms links. OAM should now kick in and show the login dialog to ask for your user credentials.Done. Now your Forms environment is successfully integrated with OAM 11g.Enjoy. What's Next? This rather lengthy setup is just the foundation for your growing environment of OAM 11g protections. In the next entry we will show that Forms 11g and ADF Faces 11g can use the same OAM installation and provide real single sign-on. References Nearly everything is documented. Use the documentation! Oracle® Fusion Middleware Installation Guide for Oracle Identity Management 11gR1 Oracle® Fusion Middleware Installation Guide for Oracle Identity Management 11gR1, Chapter 11-14 Oracle® Fusion Middleware Administrator's Guide for Oracle Access Manager 11gR1, Appendix B Oracle® Fusion Middleware Upgrade Guide for Oracle Identity Management 11gR1, Chapter 10

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DocumentDB - Another Azure NoSQL Storage Service

- by Shaun

Originally posted on: http://geekswithblogs.net/shaunxu/archive/2014/08/25/documentdb---another-azure-nosql-storage-service.aspxMicrosoft just released a bunch of new features for Azure on 22nd and one of them I was interested in most is DocumentDB, a document NoSQL database service on the cloud. Quick Look at DocumentDB We can try DocumentDB from the new azure preview portal. Just click the NEW button and select the item named DocumentDB to create a new account. Specify the name of the DocumentDB, which will be the endpoint we are going to use to connect later. Select the capacity unit, resource group and subscription. In resource group section we can select which region our DocumentDB will be located. Same as other azure services select the same location with your consumers of the DocumentDB, for example the website, web services, etc.. After several minutes the DocumentDB will be ready. Click the KEYS button we can find the URI and primary key, which will be used when connecting. Now let's open Visual Studio and try to use the DocumentDB we had just created. Create a new console application and install the DocumentDB .NET client library from NuGet with the keyword "DocumentDB". You need to select "Include Prerelase" in NuGet Package Manager window since this library was not yet released. Next we will create a new database and document collection under our DocumentDB account. The code below created an instance of DocumentClient with the URI and primary key we just copied from azure portal, and create a database and collection. And it also prints the document and collection link string which will be used later to insert and query documents. 1: static void Main(string[] args) 2: { 3: var endpoint = new Uri("https://shx.documents.azure.com:443/"); 4: var key = "LU2NoyS2fH0131TGxtBE4DW/CjHQBzAaUx/mbuJ1X77C4FWUG129wWk2oyS2odgkFO2Xdif9/ZddintQicF+lA=="; 5: 6: var client = new DocumentClient(endpoint, key); 7: Run(client).Wait(); 8: 9: Console.WriteLine("done"); 10: Console.ReadKey(); 11: } 12: 13: static async Task Run(DocumentClient client) 14: { 15: 16: var database = new Database() { Id = "testdb" }; 17: database = await client.CreateDatabaseAsync(database); 18: Console.WriteLine("database link = {0}", database.SelfLink); 19: 20: var collection = new DocumentCollection() { Id = "testcol" }; 21: collection = await client.CreateDocumentCollectionAsync(database.SelfLink, collection); 22: Console.WriteLine("collection link = {0}", collection.SelfLink); 23: } Below is the result from the console window. We need to copy the collection link string for future usage. Now if we back to the portal we will find a database was listed with the name we specified in the code. Next we will insert a document into the database and collection we had just created. In the code below we pasted the collection link which copied in previous step, create a dynamic object with several properties defined. As you can see we can add some normal properties contains string, integer, we can also add complex property for example an array, a dictionary and an object reference, unless they can be serialized to JSON. 1: static void Main(string[] args) 2: { 3: var endpoint = new Uri("https://shx.documents.azure.com:443/"); 4: var key = "LU2NoyS2fH0131TGxtBE4DW/CjHQBzAaUx/mbuJ1X77C4FWUG129wWk2oyS2odgkFO2Xdif9/ZddintQicF+lA=="; 5: 6: var client = new DocumentClient(endpoint, key); 7: 8: // collection link pasted from the result in previous demo 9: var collectionLink = "dbs/AAk3AA==/colls/AAk3AP6oFgA=/"; 10: 11: // document we are going to insert to database 12: dynamic doc = new ExpandoObject(); 13: doc.firstName = "Shaun"; 14: doc.lastName = "Xu"; 15: doc.roles = new string[] { "developer", "trainer", "presenter", "father" }; 16: 17: // insert the docuemnt 18: InsertADoc(client, collectionLink, doc).Wait(); 19: 20: Console.WriteLine("done"); 21: Console.ReadKey(); 22: } the insert code will be very simple as below, just provide the collection link and the object we are going to insert. 1: static async Task InsertADoc(DocumentClient client, string collectionLink, dynamic doc) 2: { 3: var document = await client.CreateDocumentAsync(collectionLink, doc); 4: Console.WriteLine(await JsonConvert.SerializeObjectAsync(document, Formatting.Indented)); 5: } Below is the result after the object had been inserted. Finally we will query the document from the database and collection. Similar to the insert code, we just need to specify the collection link so that the .NET SDK will help us to retrieve all documents in it. 1: static void Main(string[] args) 2: { 3: var endpoint = new Uri("https://shx.documents.azure.com:443/"); 4: var key = "LU2NoyS2fH0131TGxtBE4DW/CjHQBzAaUx/mbuJ1X77C4FWUG129wWk2oyS2odgkFO2Xdif9/ZddintQicF+lA=="; 5: 6: var client = new DocumentClient(endpoint, key); 7: 8: var collectionLink = "dbs/AAk3AA==/colls/AAk3AP6oFgA=/"; 9: 10: SelectDocs(client, collectionLink); 11: 12: Console.WriteLine("done"); 13: Console.ReadKey(); 14: } 15: 16: static void SelectDocs(DocumentClient client, string collectionLink) 17: { 18: var docs = client.CreateDocumentQuery(collectionLink + "docs/").ToList(); 19: foreach(var doc in docs) 20: { 21: Console.WriteLine(doc); 22: } 23: } Since there's only one document in my collection below is the result when I executed the code. As you can see all properties, includes the array was retrieve at the same time. DocumentDB also attached some properties we didn't specified such as "_rid", "_ts", "_self" etc., which is controlled by the service. DocumentDB Benefit DocumentDB is a document NoSQL database service. Different from the traditional database, document database is truly schema-free. In a short nut, you can save anything in the same database and collection if it could be serialized to JSON. We you query the document database, all sub documents will be retrieved at the same time. This means you don't need to join other tables when using a traditional database. Document database is very useful when we build some high performance system with hierarchical data structure. For example, assuming we need to build a blog system, there will be many blog posts and each of them contains the content and comments. The comment can be commented as well. If we were using traditional database, let's say SQL Server, the database schema might be defined as below. When we need to display a post we need to load the post content from the Posts table, as well as the comments from the Comments table. We also need to build the comment tree based on the CommentID field. But if were using DocumentDB, what we need to do is to save the post as a document with a list contains all comments. Under a comment all sub comments will be a list in it. When we display this post we just need to to query the post document, the content and all comments will be loaded in proper structure. 1: { 2: "id": "xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx", 3: "title": "xxxxx", 4: "content": "xxxxx, xxxxxxxxx. xxxxxx, xx, xxxx.", 5: "postedOn": "08/25/2014 13:55", 6: "comments": 7: [ 8: { 9: "id": "xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx", 10: "content": "xxxxx, xxxxxxxxx. xxxxxx, xx, xxxx.", 11: "commentedOn": "08/25/2014 14:00", 12: "commentedBy": "xxx" 13: }, 14: { 15: "id": "xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx", 16: "content": "xxxxx, xxxxxxxxx. xxxxxx, xx, xxxx.", 17: "commentedOn": "08/25/2014 14:10", 18: "commentedBy": "xxx", 19: "comments": 20: [ 21: { 22: "id": "xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx", 23: "content": "xxxxx, xxxxxxxxx. xxxxxx, xx, xxxx.", 24: "commentedOn": "08/25/2014 14:18", 25: "commentedBy": "xxx", 26: "comments": 27: [ 28: { 29: "id": "xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx", 30: "content": "xxxxx, xxxxxxxxx. xxxxxx, xx, xxxx.", 31: "commentedOn": "08/25/2014 18:22", 32: "commentedBy": "xxx", 33: } 34: ] 35: }, 36: { 37: "id": "xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx", 38: "content": "xxxxx, xxxxxxxxx. xxxxxx, xx, xxxx.", 39: "commentedOn": "08/25/2014 15:02", 40: "commentedBy": "xxx", 41: } 42: ] 43: }, 44: { 45: "id": "xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx", 46: "content": "xxxxx, xxxxxxxxx. xxxxxx, xx, xxxx.", 47: "commentedOn": "08/25/2014 14:30", 48: "commentedBy": "xxx" 49: } 50: ] 51: } DocumentDB vs. Table Storage DocumentDB and Table Storage are all NoSQL service in Microsoft Azure. One common question is "when we should use DocumentDB rather than Table Storage". Here are some ideas from me and some MVPs. First of all, they are different kind of NoSQL database. DocumentDB is a document database while table storage is a key-value database. Second, table storage is cheaper. DocumentDB supports scale out from one capacity unit to 5 in preview period and each capacity unit provides 10GB local SSD storage. The price is $0.73/day includes 50% discount. For storage service the highest price is $0.061/GB, which is almost 10% of DocumentDB. Third, table storage provides local-replication, geo-replication, read access geo-replication while DocumentDB doesn't support. Fourth, there is local emulator for table storage but none for DocumentDB. We have to connect to the DocumentDB on cloud when developing locally. But, DocumentDB supports some cool features that table storage doesn't have. It supports store procedure, trigger and user-defined-function. It supports rich indexing while table storage only supports indexing against partition key and row key. It supports transaction, table storage supports as well but restricted with Entity Group Transaction scope. And the last, table storage is GA but DocumentDB is still in preview. Summary In this post I have a quick demonstration and introduction about the new DocumentDB service in Azure. It's very easy to interact through .NET and it also support REST API, Node.js SDK and Python SDK. Then I explained the concept and benefit of using document database, then compared with table storage. Hope this helps, Shaun All documents and related graphics, codes are provided "AS IS" without warranty of any kind. Copyright © Shaun Ziyan Xu. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons License.

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Windows 8 Will be Here Tomorrow; but Should Silverlight be Gone Today?

- by andrewbrust

The software industry lives within an interesting paradox. IT in the enterprise moves slowly and cautiously, upgrading only when safe and necessary. IT interests intentionally live in the past. On the other hand, developers, and Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) not only want to use the latest and greatest technologies, but this constituency prides itself on gauging tech’s future, and basing its present-day strategy upon it. Normally, we as an industry manage this paradox with a shrug of the shoulder and musings along the lines of “it takes all kinds.” Different subcultures have different tendencies. So be it. Microsoft, with its Windows operating system (OS), can’t take such a laissez-faire view of the world though. Redmond relies on IT to deploy Windows and (at the very least) influence its procurement, but it also relies on developers to build software for Windows, especially software that has a dependency on features in new versions of the OS. It must indulge and nourish developers’ fetish for an early birthing of the next generation of software, even as it acknowledges the IT reality that the next wave will arrive on-schedule in Redmond and will travel very slowly to end users. With the move to Windows 8, and the corresponding shift in application development models, this paradox is certainly in place. On the one hand, the next version of Windows is widely expected sometime in 2012, and its full-scale deployment will likely push into 2014 or even later. Meanwhile, there’s a technology that runs on today’s Windows 7, will continue to run in the desktop mode of Windows 8 (the next version’s codename), and provides absolutely the best architectural bridge to the Windows 8 Metro-style application development stack. That technology is Silverlight. And given what we now know about Windows 8, one might think, as I do, that Microsoft ecosystem developers should be flocking to it. But because developers are trying to get a jump on the future, and since many of them believe the impending v5.0 release of Silverlight will be the technology’s last, not everyone is flocking to it; in fact some are fleeing from it. Is this sensible? Is it not unprecedented? What options does it lead to? What’s the right way to think about the situation? Is v5.0 really the last major version of the technology called Silverlight? We don’t know. But Scott Guthrie, the “father” and champion of the technology, left the Developer Division of Microsoft months ago to work on the Windows Azure team, and he took his people with him. John Papa, who was a very influential Redmond-based evangelist for Silverlight (and is a Visual Studio Magazine author), left Microsoft completely. About a year ago, when initial suspicion of Silverlight’s demise reached significant magnitude, Papa interviewed Guthrie on video and their discussion served to dispel developers’ fears; but now they’ve moved on. So read into that what you will and let’s suppose, for the sake of argument, speculation that Silverlight’s days of major revision and iteration are over now is correct. Let’s assume the shine and glimmer has dimmed. Let’s assume that any Silverlight application written today, and that therefore any investment of financial and human resources made in Silverlight development today, is destined for rework and extra investment in a few years, if the application’s platform needs to stay current. Is this really so different from any technology investment we make? Every framework, language, runtime and operating system is subject to change, to improvement, to flux and, yes, to obsolescence. What differs from project to project, is how near-term that obsolescence is and how disruptive the change will be. The shift from .NET 1.1. to 2.0 was incremental. Some of the further changes were too. But the switch from Windows Forms to WPF was major, and the change from ASP.NET Web Services (asmx) to Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) was downright fundamental. Meanwhile, the transition to the .NET development model for Windows 8 Metro-style applications is actually quite gentle. The finer points of this subject are covered nicely in Magenic’s excellent white paper “Assessing the Windows 8 Development Platform.” As the authors of that paper (including Rocky Lhotka) point out, Silverlight code won’t just “port” to Windows 8. And, no, Silverlight user interfaces won’t either; Metro always supports XAML, but that relationship is not commutative. But the concepts, the syntax, the architecture and developers’ skills map from Silverlight to Windows 8 Metro and the Windows Runtime (WinRT) very nicely. That’s not a coincidence. It’s not an accident. This is a protected transition. It’s not a slap in the face. There are few things that are unnerving about this transition, which make it seem markedly different from others: The assumed end of the road for Silverlight is something many think they can see. Instead of being ignorant of the technology’s expiration date, we believe we know it. If ignorance is bliss, it would seem our situation lacks it. The new technology involving WinRT and Metro involves a name change from Silverlight. .NET, which underlies both Silverlight and the XAML approach to WinRT development, has just about reached 10 years of age. That’s equivalent to 80 in human years, or so many fear. My take is that the combination of these three factors has contributed to what for many is a psychologically compelling case that Silverlight should be abandoned today and HTML 5 (the agnostic kind, not the Windows RT variety) should be embraced in its stead. I understand the logic behind that. I appreciate the preemptive, proactive, vigilant conscientiousness involved in its calculus. But for a great many scenarios, I don’t agree with it. HTML 5 clients, no matter how impressive their interactivity and the emulation of native application interfaces they present may be, are still second-class clients. They are getting better, especially when hardware acceleration and fast processors are involved. But they still lag. They still feel like they’re emulating something, like they’re prototypes, like they’re not comfortable in their own skins. They are based on compromise, and they feel compromised too. HTML 5/JavaScript development tools are getting better, and will get better still, but they are not as productive as tools for other environments, like Flash, like Silverlight or even more primitive tooling for iOS or Android. HTML’s roots as a document markup language, rather than an application interface, create a disconnect that impedes productivity. I do not necessarily think that problem is insurmountable, but it’s here today. If you’re building line-of-business applications, you need a first-class client and you need productivity. Lack of productivity increases your costs and worsens your backlog. A second class client will erode user satisfaction, which is never good. Worse yet, this erosion will be inconspicuous, rather than easily identified and diagnosed, because the inferiority of an HTML 5 client over a native one is hard to identify and, notably, doing so at this juncture in the industry is unpopular. Why would you fault a technology that everyone believes is revolutionary? Instead, user disenchantment will remain latent and yet will add to the malaise caused by slower development. If you’re an ISV and you’re coveting the reach of running multi-platform, it’s a different story. You’ve likely wanted to move to HTML 5 already, and the uncertainty around Silverlight may be the only remaining momentum or pretext you need to make the shift. You’re deploying many more copies of your application than a line-of-business developer is anyway; this makes the economic hit from lower productivity less impactful, and the wider potential installed base might even make it profitable. But no matter who you are, it’s important to take stock of the situation and do it accurately. Continued, but merely incremental changes in a development model lead to conservatism and general lack of innovation in the underlying platform. Periods of stability and equilibrium are necessary, but permanence in that equilibrium leads to loss of platform relevance, market share and utility. Arguably, that’s already happened to Windows. The change Windows 8 brings is necessary and overdue. The marked changes in using .NET if we’re to build applications for the new OS are inevitable. We will ultimately benefit from the change, and what we can reasonably hope for in the interim is a migration path for our code and skills that is navigable, logical and conceptually comfortable. That path takes us to a place called WinRT, rather than a place called Silverlight. But considering everything that is changing for the good, the number of disruptive changes is impressively minimal. The name may be changing, and there may even be some significance to that in terms of Microsoft’s internal management of products and technologies. But as the consumer, you should care about the ingredients, not the name. Turkish coffee and Greek coffee are much the same. Although you’ll find plenty of interested parties who will find the names significant, drinkers of the beverage should enjoy either one. It’s all coffee, it’s all sweet, and you can tell your fortune from the grounds that are left at the end. Back on the software side, it’s all XAML, and C# or VB .NET, and you can make your fortune from the product that comes out at the end. Coffee drinkers wouldn’t switch to tea. Why should XAML developers switch to HTML?

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My View on ASP.NET Web Forms versus MVC

- by Ricardo Peres

Introduction A lot has been said on Web Forms and MVC, but since I was recently asked about my opinion on the subject, here it is. First, I have to say that I really like both technologies and I don’t think any is going away – just remember SharePoint, which is built on top of Web Forms. I see them as complementary, targeting different needs and leveraging different skills. Let’s go through some of their differences. Rapid Application Development Rapid Application Development (RAD) is the development process by which you have an Integrated Development Environment (IDE), a visual design surface and a toolbox, and you drag components from the toolbox to the design surface and set their properties through a property inspector. It was introduced with some of the earliest Windows graphical IDEs such as Visual Basic and Delphi. With Web Forms you have RAD out of the box. Visual Studio offers a generally good (and extensible) designer for the layout of pages and web user controls. Designing a page may simply be about dragging controls from the toolbox, setting their properties and wiring up some events to event handlers, which are implemented in code behind .NET classes. Most people will be familiar with this kind of development and enjoy it. You can see what you are doing from the beginning. MVC also has designable pages – called views in MVC terminology – the problem is that they can be built using different technologies, some of which, at the moment (MVC 4) do not support RAD – Razor, for example. I believe it is just a matter of time for that to be implemented in Visual Studio, but it will mostly consist on HTML editing, and until that day comes, you have to live with source editing. Development Model Web Forms features the same development model that you are used to from Windows Forms and other similar technologies: events fired by controls and automatic persistence of their properties between postbacks. For that, it uses concepts such as view state, which some may love and others may hate, because it may be misused quite easily, but otherwise does its job well. Another fundamental concept is data binding, by which a collection of data can be fed to a control and have it render that data somehow – just thing of the GridView control. The focus is on the page, that’s where it all starts, and you can place everything in the same code behind class: data access, business logic, layout, etc. The controls take care of generating a great part of the HTML and JavaScript for you. With MVC there is no free lunch when it comes to data persistence between requests, you have to implement it yourself. As for event handling, that is at the core of MVC, in the form of controllers and action methods, you just don’t think of them as event handlers. In MVC you need to think more in HTTP terms, so action methods such as POST and GET are relevant to you, and may write actions to handle one or the other. Also of crucial importance is model binding: the way by which MVC converts your posted data into a .NET class. This is something that ASP.NET 4.5 Web Forms has introduced as well, but it is a cornerstone in MVC. MVC also has built-in validation of these .NET classes, which out of the box uses the Data Annotations API. You have full control of the generated HTML - except for that coming from the helper methods, usually small fragments - which requires a greater familiarity with the specifications. You normally rely much more on JavaScript APIs, they are even included in the Visual Studio template, that is because much less is done for you. Reuse It is difficult to accept a professional company/project that does not employ reuse. It can save a lot of time thus cutting costs significantly. Code reused in several projects matures as time goes by and helps developers learn from past experiences. ASP.NET Web Forms was built with reuse in mind, in the form of controls. Controls encapsulate functionality and are generally portable from project to project (with the notable exception of web user controls, those with an associated .ASCX markup file). ASP.NET has dozens of controls and it is very easy to develop new ones, so I believe this is a great advantage. A control can inject JavaScript code and external references as well as generate HTML an CSS. MVC on the other hand does not use controls – it is possible to use them, with some view engines like ASPX, but it is just not advisable because it breaks the flow – where do Init, Load, PreRender, etc, fit? The most similar to controls is extension methods, or helpers. They serve the same purpose – generating HTML, CSS or JavaScript – and can be reused between different projects. What differentiates them from controls is that there is no inheritance and no context – an extension method is just a static method which doesn’t know where it is being called. You also have partial views, which you can reuse in the same project, but there is no inheritance as well. This, in my view, is a weakness of MVC. Architecture Both technologies are highly extensible. I have writtenstarted writing a series of posts on ASP.NET Web Forms extensibility and will probably write another series on MVC extensibility as well. A number of scenarios are covered in any of these models, and some extensibility points apply to both, because, of course both stand upon ASP.NET. With Web Forms, if you’re like me, you start by defining you master pages, pages and controls, with some helper classes to glue everything. You may as well throw in some JavaScript, but probably you’re main work will be with plain old .NET code. The controls you define have the chance to inject JavaScript code and references, through either the ScriptManager or the page’s ClientScript object, as well as generating HTML and CSS code. The master page and page model with code behind classes offer a number of “hooks” by which you can change the normal way of things, for example, in a page you can access any control on the master page, add script or stylesheet references to its head and even change the page’s title. Also, with Web Forms, you typically have URLs in the form “/SomePath/SomePage.aspx?SomeParameter=SomeValue”, which isn’t really SEO friendly, no to mention the HTML that some controls produce, far from standards, optimization and best practices. In MVC, you also normally start by defining the master page (or layout) and views, which are the visible parts, and then define controllers on separate files. These controllers do not know anything about the views, except the names and types of the parameters that will be passed to and from them. The controller will be responsible for the data access and business logic, eventually relying on additional classes for this purpose. On a controller you only receive parameters and return a result, which may be a request for the rendering of a view, a redirection to another URL or a JSON object, to name just a few. The controller class does not know anything about the web, so you can effectively reuse it in a non-web project. This separation and the lack of programmatic access to the UI elements, makes it very difficult to implement, for example, something like SharePoint with MVC. OK, I know about Orchard, but it isn’t really a general purpose development framework, but instead, a CMS that happens to use MVC. Not having controls render HTML for you gives you in turn much more control over it – it is your responsibility to create it, which you can either consider a blessing or a curse, in the later case, you probably shouldn’t be using MVC at all. Also MVC URLs tend to be much more SEO-oriented, if you design your controllers and actions properly. Testing In a well defined architecture, you should separate business logic, data access logic and presentation logic, because these are all different things and it might even be the need to switch one implementation for another: for example, you might design a system which includes a data access layer, a business logic layer and two presentation layers, one on top of ASP.NET and the other with WPF; and the data access layer might be implemented first using NHibernate and later on switched for Entity Framework Code First. These changes are not that rare, so care should be taken in designing the system to make them possible. Web Forms are difficult to test, because it relies on event handlers which are only fired in web contexts, when a form is submitted or a page is requested. You can call them with reflection, but you have to set up a number of mocking objects first, HttpContext.Current first coming to my mind. MVC, on the other hand, makes testing controllers a breeze, so much that it even includes a template option for generating boilerplate unit test classes up from start. A well designed – from the unit test point of view - controller will receive everything it needs to work as parameters to its action methods, so you can pass whatever values you need very easily. That doesn’t mean, of course, that everything can be tested: views, for instance, are difficult to test without actually accessing the site, but MVC offers the possibility to compile views at build time, so that, at least, you know you don’t have syntax errors beforehand. Myths Some popular but unfounded myths around MVC include: You cannot use controls in MVC: not true, actually, you can, at least with the Web Forms (ASPX) view engine; the declaration and usage is exactly the same as with Web Forms; You cannot specify a base class for a view: with the ASPX view engine you can use the Inherits Page directive, with this and all the others you can use the pageBaseType and userControlBaseType attributes of the <page> element; MVC shields you from doing “bad things” on your views: well, you can place any code on a code block, at least with the ASPX view engine (you may be starting to see a pattern here), even data access code; The model is the entity model, tied to an O/RM: the model is actually any class that you use to pass values to a view, including (but generally not recommended) an entity model; Unit tests come with no cost: unit tests generally don’t cover the UI, although there are frameworks just for that (see WatiN, for example); also, for some tests, you will have to mock or replace either the HttpContext.Current property or the HttpContextBase class yourself; Everything is testable: views aren’t, without accessing the site; MVC relies on HTML5/some_cool_new_javascript_framework: there is no relation whatsoever, MVC renders whatever you want it to render and does not require any framework to be present. The thing is, the subsequent releases of MVC happened in a time when Microsoft has become much more involved in standards, so the files and technologies included in the Visual Studio templates reflect this, and it just happens to work well with jQuery, for example. Conclusion Well, this is how I see it. Some folks may think that I am being too rude on MVC, probably because I don’t like it, but that’s not true: like I said, I do like MVC and I am starting my new projects with it. I just don’t want to go along with that those that say that MVC is much superior to Web Forms, in fact, some things you can do much more easily with Web Forms than with MVC. I will be more than happy to hear what you think on this!

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Why version of chrome does not matter much more then firefox and firefox does not matter much as IE

- by anirudha

Everything not perfect. in software the software make and growth by user feedback like what user expected from the software and want in next version of software. In a chrome Event i hear about the Chromium. you can find some interesting things here Video 1 Video 2 come to the point. when i hear about some good website of india. many of them talking a little thing in common that. We are #1 because we not thing that we make a great application and deploy them and think that we finished own works preharps in a small days we make a small website deploy them and improve them always latter. what the point they all talking about:- the conclusion is that software make by user feedback. they tell that he not spent much time and wait for a long time when their project was finish and they launch their website. preharps they tell that they make a small website in a small time and launched them. make a research on them later and make them better later and website growth as they thing. if they are late then someone else can win even their project was much good them other. not more but a little story:- before few month i hear about a great website who sold many of books daily i myself purchase some from them to track how they work and how they provided service. i not found any problem with their service. the service they provided is good but when i see their website i found that the mockup code was very badly designed. i am not know the matter how they growth because they used very other stuff who make their website slow. when i research something more i found that their is very hard to implement the website look like them. on their blog they writing about a mail they have. the clone of them make by many other but not goes good as well as they make. after few month later website is looking great. many thing they improved and make them better as other thing. a another conclusion that same as another story that user feedback. well now come to the point. we talking about Chrome,firefox and IE. what thing is goes common that they all are browser. but something goes different that Chrome is a one of the best browser. from a month many of issue submitted to chrome that user found when they use them. so what is make this different the different is that when feedback goes to someone they take a action and think to make them better so improvement of chrome based on feedback user put using many things. secondly because it's goes open-source many of developer contribute them and make them real browser not real [tape] browser as like IE [a good example]. as you see in video they talking about silent update in chrome and futurecoming chromium. the thing they implement is too good. because by this thing user not worry about a new version. i myself never find a problem that you need to user new version as we found same problem in other application. Well think are great in chrome and now talking about Firefox. Firefox is a best option for development as well as chrome best for surfing the internet. in firefox many thing are great like plugin [ex: Firebug] , addons personas themes and many other thing and customization in firefox make them really a browser not like a joker [IE a good example]. well now come to IE. are IE really great no. someone from Microsoft can say that ha ha hi hi because they can't see the power of open-source. they thing that they make a software and they never need user feedback because they produced windows who really great for user because they used them. example :- before few month Microsoft shipped Windows live. when i use them that i found that their is no sense make for using this one software. suppose you need to write a post through Live writer. the old version are great i myself have no problem but in 2011 i found that they changed everything in user interface. so learn a new thing and spent sometime more to learn a new version whenever need are same and feature are same so why user spent a little time more to learn a lesson who they want to teach even their is no sense to learn them. the problem in 2011 Live not only of mine their are many other have same problem as mine and forget live 2011 after the see a badly design user interface. even they tell we maked in WPF yeah yeah WPF we make in .net. are you can say that what is the matter .net for user. the user have no problem to use WPF based application even you make them fool as we make them in WPF 2020 they are future technologies and we launch it 10 year before only for you yeah you dear customer of mine. yeah they thing WPF is best and thing to implement every software they make even they forget to make better user interface but they also remember to make them next version in WPF. the IE 9 Rc release on 10 febuary. but are they really cool. how much feedback they take and take action of them. their is no answer because they thing to launch a software they never thing what user want and off-course not care of user feedback. as we mention in Firefox and in chrome user feedback have a big matter because sound come from a public and user who use the software not only who make them software as IE 9 have. so feedback take a opportunities to make their software better and less hassel to use them in user hands not only in developer hands. so IE9 is not a good guys who still need of user if they really want a experience. well what Microsoft implemented in IE. i am not talking about that furthure more but i found in article last days[why not say reading a google blog] yeah see them in http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/02/microsofts-bing-uses-google-search.html Well their is nothing good for developer in IE9. the blah blah blah they can always said on MSDN and many other site they have. many from public talking about them because they never can see a good software outside Microsoft. they never talking about Firebug even in books they never show you that. well i know competitor never show you a stuff of competitor i have same issue from Yahoo. on a days i hear from newsletter from them they write a subline on the bottom that USE IE or Firefox to exerience better Web. i am agree with Firefox and i am not know they really talking about IE or joking but i never believe they forget to put chrome. well i know their is corporate rule everyone should follow first. so no problem yahoo i know the matter. well IE:- so what is IE and Why We should use IE. well their is no sense to use IE. the thing we expect from IE but never found that:- first thing is that as a developer we thing the customization as well as other browser have like in chrome have it's own customization and firefox is also great in this matter. but IE really for Web development. are you joking:- the thing they mention in their blog is that IE9 have a new developer tool who have three new panel or tabs. are this joke whenever Firefox and chrome have everyday a new plugin or great upgrade of old plugin they tell we add three new panel first is network second is blah third is blah. well nice joke you make all MSDN blogger i like the way you talking about IE. even we know what matter the browser have. i thing whenever they make IE 6 they talking about IE as same as they talking today. Secondly their is no other tool to use with IE deveoper tool like Firebug is avilable in IE but not make by IE. firebug team themselves make them for IE. because many of developer thing to use firebug but can't use because they still goes mad about IE because day and night they only hear about tools maked by Microsoft. so no plugin [even very small developer tool] no customized no personas on themse. no update yeah why forget these topic come with us and share a little thing more. IE launch IE 6 after 7 after 8 and now 9 [even in future] but what they do. they do nothing on user feedback they still thing WPF is great because colors make user cool and they forget to implement other things as other already provide. Chrome and Firefox are come after IE. Mozilla firefox come in 2004 and chrome is late in 2008. even they are late they still focus on Developer and thing they feel first is that customization like developer tool , themese and perfsonas and many other great things. are they can find in IE even next i means 10 yeah IE10 never because they thing only making a software or force user to use new version of OS. i am confused that why not wait and force user to purchase windows 8 instead of 7. so IE have no customization even small developer tool i thing that they make a customizable interface like in firefox who configure by about:config. so thing is discussed about really not a point we thing to goes but now it's clear what is making no matter for version in Firefox and chrome. because chrome and firefox not wait for a long time and explode a bomb to make publicity. they still work and make upgrade possible to user as soon as possible. [chrome never tell about they goes old they himself update them].so update comes soon in Firefox and in chrome but in IE their is a long time to wait and they make them without feedback. so IE really not for human and not really for us. whenver you found a bug in chrome and in firefox you report them and found that they are work in progressed and can be see in next version of firefox. but what you see whenever you see IE. you found that what the bug can found in IE whenver they not implemented same feature in IE. well IE 9 is next IE6 for developer. conclusion:- after reading a whole post you find that i hate all thing about IE. why are i write a big post on a small pity software IE. why i open the poll of IE. are their anything in IE break my heart. are their is something goes wrong with me and with my IE9. are their is anything i got with IE9. why i write a big post. well as a developer play a trick that give sometime to chrome to make them better and some other to make firefox better and feel something you contribute really have a matter as a contribute you find some other and their thought on same software. some are great maybe some of them blah blah. but are their is true that outside Microsoft their is no good sollution can make because it's outside Microsoft. their is not true. the thing developer make not have matter even using Microsoft technologies or outside technologies of MS. so stop this i not want to talking some other things just stop it. i means their is no more blah i want to talking with you for IE.i still hate them and believe it is next IE6 for Web. Answers: if you still need a answer in lines that the answer is that IE late update as long as they can and also make force user to upgrade IE9 because they want to promote windows first then thing about IE and chrome and firefox not do that as same as IE. so IE is late and user forced software. in firefox and chrome upgrade come soon as soon as they possible. Thanks to give me a great time and red my blah on Blah i means IE9 Thanks again Anirudha

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SQL SERVER – Weekly Series – Memory Lane – #049

- by Pinal Dave

Here is the list of selected articles of SQLAuthority.com across all these years. Instead of just listing all the articles I have selected a few of my most favorite articles and have listed them here with additional notes below it. Let me know which one of the following is your favorite article from memory lane. 2007 Two Connections Related Global Variables Explained – @@CONNECTIONS and @@MAX_CONNECTIONS @@CONNECTIONS Returns the number of attempted connections, either successful or unsuccessful since SQL Server was last started. @@MAX_CONNECTIONS Returns the maximum number of simultaneous user connections allowed on an instance of SQL Server. The number returned is not necessarily the number currently configured. Query Editor – Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio This post may be very simple for most of the users of SQL Server 2005. Earlier this year, I have received one question many times – Where is Query Analyzer in SQL Server 2005? I wrote small post about it and pointed many users to that post – SQL SERVER – 2005 Query Analyzer – Microsoft SQL SERVER Management Studio. Recently I have been receiving similar question. OUTPUT Clause Example and Explanation with INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE SQL Server 2005 has a new OUTPUT clause, which is quite useful. OUTPUT clause has access to insert and deleted tables (virtual tables) just like triggers. OUTPUT clause can be used to return values to client clause. OUTPUT clause can be used with INSERT, UPDATE, or DELETE to identify the actual rows affected by these statements. OUTPUT clause can generate a table variable, a permanent table, or temporary table. Even though, @@Identity will still work with SQL Server 2005, however I find the OUTPUT clause very easy and powerful to use. Let us understand the OUTPUT clause using an example. Find Name of The SQL Server Instance Based on database server stored procedures has to run different logic. We came up with two different solutions. 1) When database schema is very much changed, we wrote completely new stored procedure and deprecated older version once it was not needed. 2) When logic depended on Server Name we used global variable @@SERVERNAME. It was very convenient while writing migrating script which depended on the server name for the same database. Explanation of TRY…CATCH and ERROR Handling With RAISEERROR Function One of the developers at my company thought that we can not use the RAISEERROR function in new feature of SQL Server 2005 TRY… CATCH. When asked for an explanation he suggested SQL SERVER – 2005 Explanation of TRY… CATCH and ERROR Handling article as excuse suggesting that I did not give example of RAISEERROR with TRY…CATCH. We all thought it was funny. Just to keep records straight, TRY… CATCH can sure use RAISEERROR function. Different Types of Cache Objects Serveral kinds of objects can be stored in the procedure cache: Compiled Plans: When the query optimizer finishes compiling a query plan, the principal output is compiled plan. Execution contexts: While executing a compiled plan, SQL Server has to keep track of information about the state of execution. Cursors: Cursors track the execution state of server-side cursors, including the cursor’s current location within a resultset. Algebrizer trees: The Algebrizer’s job is to produce an algebrizer tree, which represents the logic structure of a query. Open SSMS From Command Prompt – sqlwb.exe Example This article is written by request and suggestion of Sr. Web Developer at my organization. Due to the nature of this article most of the content is referred from Book On-Line. sqlwbcommand prompt utility which opens SQL Server Management Studio. Squib command does not run queries from the command prompt. sqlcmd utility runs queries from command prompt, read for more information. 2008 Puzzle – Solution – Computed Columns Datatype Explanation Just a day before I wrote article SQL SERVER – Puzzle – Computed Columns Datatype Explanation which was inspired by SQL Server MVP Jacob Sebastian. I suggest that before continuing this article read the original puzzle question SQL SERVER – Puzzle – Computed Columns Datatype Explanation.The question was if the computed column was of datatype TINYINT how to create a Computed Column of datatype INT? 2008 – Find If Index is Being Used in Database It is very often I get a query that how to find if any index is being used in the database or not. If any database has many indexes and not all indexes are used it can adversely affect performance. If the number of indices are higher it reduces the INSERT / UPDATE / DELETE operation but increase the SELECT operation. It is recommended to drop any unused indexes from table to improve the performance. 2009 Interesting Observation – Execution Plan and Results of Aggregate Concatenation Queries If you want to see what’s going on here, I think you need to shift your point of view from an implementation-centric view to an ANSI point of view. ANSI does not guarantee processing the order. Figure 2 is interesting, but it will be potentially misleading if you don’t understand the ANSI rule-set SQL Server operates under in most cases. Implementation thinking can certainly be useful at times when you really need that multi-million row query to finish before the backup fire off, but in this case, it’s counterproductive to understanding what is going on. SQL Server Management Studio and Client Statistics Client Statistics are very important. Many a times, people relate queries execution plan to query cost. This is not a good comparison. Both parameters are different, and they are not always related. It is possible that the query cost of any statement is less, but the amount of the data returned is considerably larger, which is causing any query to run slow. How do we know if any query is retrieving a large amount data or very little data? 2010 I encourage all of you to go through complete series and write your own on the subject. If you write an article and send it to me, I will publish it on this blog with due credit to you. If you write on your own blog, I will update this blog post pointing to your blog post. SQL SERVER – ORDER BY Does Not Work – Limitation of the View 1 SQL SERVER – Adding Column is Expensive by Joining Table Outside View – Limitation of the View 2 SQL SERVER – Index Created on View not Used Often – Limitation of the View 3 SQL SERVER – SELECT * and Adding Column Issue in View – Limitation of the View 4 SQL SERVER – COUNT(*) Not Allowed but COUNT_BIG(*) Allowed – Limitation of the View 5 SQL SERVER – UNION Not Allowed but OR Allowed in Index View – Limitation of the View 6 SQL SERVER – Cross Database Queries Not Allowed in Indexed View – Limitation of the View 7 SQL SERVER – Outer Join Not Allowed in Indexed Views – Limitation of the View 8 SQL SERVER – SELF JOIN Not Allowed in Indexed View – Limitation of the View 9 SQL SERVER – Keywords View Definition Must Not Contain for Indexed View – Limitation of the View 10 SQL SERVER – View Over the View Not Possible with Index View – Limitations of the View 11 SQL SERVER – Get Query Running in Session I was recently looking for syntax where I needed a query running in any particular session. I always remembered the syntax and ha d actually written it down before, but somehow it was not coming to mind quickly this time. I searched online and I ended up on my own article written last year SQL SERVER – Get Last Running Query Based on SPID. I felt that I am getting old because I forgot this really simple syntax. Find Total Number of Transaction on Interval In one of my recent Performance Tuning assignments I was asked how do someone know how many transactions are happening on a server during certain interval. I had a handy script for the same. Following script displays transactions happened on the server at the interval of one minute. You can change the WAITFOR DELAY to any other interval and it should work. 2011 Here are two DMV’s which are newly introduced in SQL Server 2012 and provides vital information about SQL Server. DMV – sys.dm_os_volume_stats – Information about operating system volume DMV – sys.dm_os_windows_info – Information about Operating System SQL Backup and FTP – A Quick and Handy Tool I have used this tool extensively since 2009 at numerous occasion and found it to be very impressive. What separates it from the crowd the most – it is it’s apparent simplicity and speed. When I install SQLBackupAndFTP and configure backups – all in 1 or 2 minutes, my clients are always impressed. Quick Note about JOIN – Common Questions and Simple Answers In this blog post we are going to talk about join and lots of things related to the JOIN. I recently started office hours to answer questions and issues of the community. I receive so many questions that are related to JOIN. I will share a few of the same over here. Most of them are basic, but note that the basics are of great importance. 2012 Importance of User Without Login Question: “In recent version of SQL Server we can create user without login. What is the use of it?” Great question indeed. Let me first attempt to answer this question but after reading my answer I need your help. I want you to help him as well with adding more value to it. Preserve Leading Zero While Coping to Excel from SSMS Earlier I wrote two articles about how to efficiently copy data from SSMS to Excel. Since I wrote that post there are plenty of interest generated on this subject. There are a few questions I keep on getting over this subject. One of the question is how to get the leading zero preserved while copying the data from SSMS to Excel. Well it is almost the same way as my earlier post SQL SERVER – Excel Losing Decimal Values When Value Pasted from SSMS ResultSet. The key here is in EXCEL and not in SQL Server. Solution – 2 T-SQL Puzzles – Display Star and Shortest Code to Display 1 Earlier on this blog we had asked two puzzles. The response from all of you is nothing but Amazing. I have received 350+ responses. Many are valid and many were indeed something I had not thought about it. I strongly suggest you read all the puzzles and their answers here - trust me if you start reading the comments you will not stop till you read every single comment. Seriously trust me on it. Personally I have learned a lot from it. Identify Most Resource Intensive Queries – SQL in Sixty Seconds #028 – Video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TvlYy-TGaaA Importance of User Without Login – T-SQL Demo Script Earlier I wrote a blog post about SQL SERVER – Importance of User Without Login and my friend and SQL Expert Vinod Kumar has written excellent follow up blog post about Contained Databases inside SQL Server 2012. Now lots of people asked me if I can also explain the same concept again so here is the small demonstration for it. Let me show you how login without user can help. Before we continue on this subject I strongly recommend that you read my earlier blog post here. In following demo I am going to demonstrate following situation. Login using the System Admin account Create a user without login Checking Access Impersonate the user without login Checking Access Revert Impersonation Give Permission to user without login Impersonate the user without login Checking Access Revert Impersonation Clean up Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.sqlauthority.com) Filed under: Memory Lane, PostADay, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, T SQL, Technology

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C#: Why Decorate When You Can Intercept

- by James Michael Hare

We've all heard of the old Decorator Design Pattern (here) or used it at one time or another either directly or indirectly. A decorator is a class that wraps a given abstract class or interface and presents the same (or a superset) public interface but "decorated" with additional functionality. As a really simplistic example, consider the System.IO.BufferedStream, it itself is a descendent of System.IO.Stream and wraps the given stream with buffering logic while still presenting System.IO.Stream's public interface: 1: Stream buffStream = new BufferedStream(rawStream); Now, let's take a look at a custom-code example. Let's say that we have a class in our data access layer that retrieves a list of products from a database: 1: // a class that handles our CRUD operations for products 2: public class ProductDao 3: { 4: ... 5: 6: // a method that would retrieve all available products 7: public IEnumerable<Product> GetAvailableProducts() 8: { 9: var results = new List<Product>(); 10: 11: // must create the connection 12: using (var con = _factory.CreateConnection()) 13: { 14: con.ConnectionString = _productsConnectionString; 15: con.Open(); 16: 17: // create the command 18: using (var cmd = _factory.CreateCommand()) 19: { 20: cmd.Connection = con; 21: cmd.CommandText = _getAllProductsStoredProc; 22: cmd.CommandType = CommandType.StoredProcedure; 23: 24: // get a reader and pass back all results 25: using (var reader = cmd.ExecuteReader()) 26: { 27: while(reader.Read()) 28: { 29: results.Add(new Product 30: { 31: Name = reader["product_name"].ToString(), 32: ... 33: }); 34: } 35: } 36: } 37: } 38: 39: return results; 40: } 41: } Yes, you could use EF or any myriad other choices for this sort of thing, but the germaine point is that you have some operation that takes a non-trivial amount of time. What if, during the production day I notice that my application is performing slowly and I want to see how much of that slowness is in the query versus my code. Well, I could easily wrap the logic block in a System.Diagnostics.Stopwatch and log the results to log4net or other logging flavor of choice: 1: // a class that handles our CRUD operations for products 2: public class ProductDao 3: { 4: private static readonly ILog _log = LogManager.GetLogger(typeof(ProductDao)); 5: ... 6: 7: // a method that would retrieve all available products 8: public IEnumerable<Product> GetAvailableProducts() 9: { 10: var results = new List<Product>(); 11: var timer = Stopwatch.StartNew(); 12: 13: // must create the connection 14: using (var con = _factory.CreateConnection()) 15: { 16: con.ConnectionString = _productsConnectionString; 17: 18: // and all that other DB code... 19: ... 20: } 21: 22: timer.Stop(); 23: 24: if (timer.ElapsedMilliseconds > 5000) 25: { 26: _log.WarnFormat("Long query in GetAvailableProducts() took {0} ms", 27: timer.ElapsedMillseconds); 28: } 29: 30: return results; 31: } 32: } In my eye, this is very ugly. It violates Single Responsibility Principle (SRP), which says that a class should only ever have one responsibility, where responsibility is often defined as a reason to change. This class (and in particular this method) has two reasons to change: If the method of retrieving products changes. If the method of logging changes. Well, we could “simplify” this using the Decorator Design Pattern (here). If we followed the pattern to the letter, we'd need to create a base decorator that implements the DAOs public interface and forwards to the wrapped instance. So let's assume we break out the ProductDAO interface into IProductDAO using your refactoring tool of choice (Resharper is great for this). Now, ProductDao will implement IProductDao and get rid of all logging logic: 1: public class ProductDao : IProductDao 2: { 3: // this reverts back to original version except for the interface added 4: } 5: And we create the base Decorator that also implements the interface and forwards all calls: 1: public class ProductDaoDecorator : IProductDao 2: { 3: private readonly IProductDao _wrappedDao; 4: 5: // constructor takes the dao to wrap 6: public ProductDaoDecorator(IProductDao wrappedDao) 7: { 8: _wrappedDao = wrappedDao; 9: } 10: 11: ... 12: 13: // and then all methods just forward their calls 14: public IEnumerable<Product> GetAvailableProducts() 15: { 16: return _wrappedDao.GetAvailableProducts(); 17: } 18: } This defines our base decorator, then we can create decorators that add items of interest, and for any methods we don't decorate, we'll get the default behavior which just forwards the call to the wrapper in the base decorator: 1: public class TimedThresholdProductDaoDecorator : ProductDaoDecorator 2: { 3: private static readonly ILog _log = LogManager.GetLogger(typeof(TimedThresholdProductDaoDecorator)); 4: 5: public TimedThresholdProductDaoDecorator(IProductDao wrappedDao) : 6: base(wrappedDao) 7: { 8: } 9: 10: ... 11: 12: public IEnumerable<Product> GetAvailableProducts() 13: { 14: var timer = Stopwatch.StartNew(); 15: 16: var results = _wrapped.GetAvailableProducts(); 17: 18: timer.Stop(); 19: 20: if (timer.ElapsedMilliseconds > 5000) 21: { 22: _log.WarnFormat("Long query in GetAvailableProducts() took {0} ms", 23: timer.ElapsedMillseconds); 24: } 25: 26: return results; 27: } 28: } Well, it's a bit better. Now the logging is in its own class, and the database logic is in its own class. But we've essentially multiplied the number of classes. We now have 3 classes and one interface! Now if you want to do that same logging decorating on all your DAOs, imagine the code bloat! Sure, you can simplify and avoid creating the base decorator, or chuck it all and just inherit directly. But regardless all of these have the problem of tying the logging logic into the code itself. Enter the Interceptors. Things like this to me are a perfect example of when it's good to write an Interceptor using your class library of choice. Sure, you could design your own perfectly generic decorator with delegates and all that, but personally I'm a big fan of Castle's Dynamic Proxy (here) which is actually used by many projects including Moq. What DynamicProxy allows you to do is intercept calls into any object by wrapping it with a proxy on the fly that intercepts the method and allows you to add functionality. Essentially, the code would now look like this using DynamicProxy: 1: // Note: I like hiding DynamicProxy behind the scenes so users 2: // don't have to explicitly add reference to Castle's libraries. 3: public static class TimeThresholdInterceptor 4: { 5: // Our logging handle 6: private static readonly ILog _log = LogManager.GetLogger(typeof(TimeThresholdInterceptor)); 7: 8: // Handle to Castle's proxy generator 9: private static readonly ProxyGenerator _generator = new ProxyGenerator(); 10: 11: // generic form for those who prefer it 12: public static object Create<TInterface>(object target, TimeSpan threshold) 13: { 14: return Create(typeof(TInterface), target, threshold); 15: } 16: 17: // Form that uses type instead 18: public static object Create(Type interfaceType, object target, TimeSpan threshold) 19: { 20: return _generator.CreateInterfaceProxyWithTarget(interfaceType, target, 21: new TimedThreshold(threshold, level)); 22: } 23: 24: // The interceptor that is created to intercept the interface calls. 25: // Hidden as a private inner class so not exposing Castle libraries. 26: private class TimedThreshold : IInterceptor 27: { 28: // The threshold as a positive timespan that triggers a log message. 29: private readonly TimeSpan _threshold; 30: 31: // interceptor constructor 32: public TimedThreshold(TimeSpan threshold) 33: { 34: _threshold = threshold; 35: } 36: 37: // Intercept functor for each method invokation 38: public void Intercept(IInvocation invocation) 39: { 40: // time the method invocation 41: var timer = Stopwatch.StartNew(); 42: 43: // the Castle magic that tells the method to go ahead 44: invocation.Proceed(); 45: 46: timer.Stop(); 47: 48: // check if threshold is exceeded 49: if (timer.Elapsed > _threshold) 50: { 51: _log.WarnFormat("Long execution in {0} took {1} ms", 52: invocation.Method.Name, 53: timer.ElapsedMillseconds); 54: } 55: } 56: } 57: } Yes, it's a bit longer, but notice that: This class ONLY deals with logging long method calls, no DAO interface leftovers. This class can be used to time ANY class that has an interface or virtual methods. Personally, I like to wrap and hide the usage of DynamicProxy and IInterceptor so that anyone who uses this class doesn't need to know to add a Castle library reference. As far as they are concerned, they're using my interceptor. If I change to a new library if a better one comes along, they're insulated. Now, all we have to do to use this is to tell it to wrap our ProductDao and it does the rest: 1: // wraps a new ProductDao with a timing interceptor with a threshold of 5 seconds 2: IProductDao dao = TimeThresholdInterceptor.Create<IProductDao>(new ProductDao(), 5000); Automatic decoration of all methods! You can even refine the proxy so that it only intercepts certain methods. This is ideal for so many things. These are just some of the interceptors we've dreamed up and use: Log parameters and returns of methods to XML for auditing. Block invocations to methods and return default value (stubbing). Throw exception if certain methods are called (good for blocking access to deprecated methods). Log entrance and exit of a method and the duration. Log a message if a method takes more than a given time threshold to execute. Whether you use DynamicProxy or some other technology, I hope you see the benefits this adds. Does it completely eliminate all need for the Decorator pattern? No, there may still be cases where you want to decorate a particular class with functionality that doesn't apply to the world at large. But for all those cases where you are using Decorator to add functionality that's truly generic. I strongly suggest you give this a try!

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Trace flags - TF 1117

- by Damian

I had a session about trace flags this year on the SQL Day 2014 conference that was held in Wroclaw at the end of April. The session topic is important to most of DBA's and the reason I did it was that I sometimes forget about various trace flags :). So I decided to prepare a presentation but I think it is a good idea to write posts about trace flags, too. Let's start then - today I will describe the TF 1117. I assume that we all know how to setup a TF using starting parameters or registry or in the session or on the query level. I will always write if a trace flag is local or global to make sure we know how to use it. Why do we need this trace flag? Let’s create a test database first. This is quite ordinary database as it has two data files (4 MB each) and a log file that has 1MB. The data files are able to expand by 1 MB and the log file grows by 10%: USE [master] GO CREATE DATABASE [TF1117] ON PRIMARY ( NAME = N'TF1117', FILENAME = N'C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL12.SQL2014\MSSQL\DATA\TF1117.mdf' , SIZE = 4096KB , MAXSIZE = UNLIMITED, FILEGROWTH = 1024KB ), ( NAME = N'TF1117_1', FILENAME = N'C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL12.SQL2014\MSSQL\DATA\TF1117_1.ndf' , SIZE = 4096KB , MAXSIZE = UNLIMITED, FILEGROWTH = 1024KB ) LOG ON ( NAME = N'TF1117_log', FILENAME = N'C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL12.SQL2014\MSSQL\DATA\TF1117_log.ldf' , SIZE = 1024KB , MAXSIZE = 2048GB , FILEGROWTH = 10% ) GO Without the TF 1117 turned on the data files don’t grow all up at once. When a first file is full the SQL Server expands it but the other file is not expanded until is full. Why is that so important? The SQL Server proportional fill algorithm will direct new extent allocations to the file with the most available space so new extents will be written to the file that was just expanded. When the TF 1117 is enabled it will cause all files to auto grow by their specified increment. That means all files will have the same percent of free space so we still have the benefit of evenly distributed IO. The TF 1117 is global flag so it affects all databases on the instance. Of course if a filegroup contains only one file the TF does not have any effect on it. Now let’s do a simple test. First let’s create a table in which every row will fit to a single page: The table definition is pretty simple as it has two integer columns and one character column of fixed size 8000 bytes: create table TF1117Tab ( col1 int, col2 int, col3 char (8000) ) go Now I load some data to the table to make sure that one of the data file must grow: declare @i int select @i = 1 while (@i < 800) begin insert into TF1117Tab values (@i, @i+1000, 'hello') select @i= @i + 1 end I can check the actual file size in the sys.database_files DMV: SELECT name, (size*8)/1024 'Size in MB' FROM sys.database_files GO As you can see only the first data file was expanded and the other has still the initial size: name Size in MB --------------------- ----------- TF1117 5 TF1117_log 1 TF1117_1 4 There is also other methods of looking at the events of file autogrows. One possibility is to create an Extended Events session and the other is to look into the default trace file: DECLARE @path NVARCHAR(260); SELECT @path = REVERSE(SUBSTRING(REVERSE([path]), CHARINDEX('\', REVERSE([path])), 260)) + N'log.trc' FROM sys.traces WHERE is_default = 1; SELECT DatabaseName, [FileName], SPID, Duration, StartTime, EndTime, FileType = CASE EventClass WHEN 92 THEN 'Data' WHEN 93 THEN 'Log' END FROM sys.fn_trace_gettable(@path, DEFAULT) WHERE EventClass IN (92,93) AND StartTime >'2014-07-12' AND DatabaseName = N'TF1117' ORDER BY StartTime DESC; After running the query I can see the file was expanded and how long did the process take which might be useful from the performance perspective. Now it’s time to turn on the flag 1117. DBCC TRACEON(1117) I dropped the database and recreated it once again. Then I ran the queries and observed the results. After loading the records I see that both files were evenly expanded: name Size in MB --------------------- ----------- TF1117 5 TF1117_log 1 TF1117_1 5 I found also information in the default trace. The query returned three rows. The last one is connected to my first experiment when the TF was turned off. The two rows shows that first file was expanded by 1MB and right after that operation the second file was expanded, too. This is what is this TF all about J

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CodePlex Daily Summary for Saturday, December 15, 2012

CodePlex Daily Summary for Saturday, December 15, 2012Popular ReleasesAmarok Framework Library: 1.12: refactored agent-specific implementation introduced new interface representing important concepts like IDispatcher, IPublisher Refer to the Release Notes for details.sb0t v.5: sb0t 5.02b beta 2: Bug fix for Windows XP users (tab resize) Bug fix where ib0t stopped working A lot of command tweaksCRM 2011 Visual Ribbon Editor: Visual Ribbon Editor (1.3.1116.8): [FIX] Fixed issue not displaying CRM system button images correctly (incorrect path in file VisualRibbonEditor.exe.config)MySqlBackup.NET - MySQL Backup Solution for C#, VB.NET, ASP.NET: MySqlBackup.NET 1.5.6 beta: Fix Bug: If encryption is applied in Export Process, the generated encrypted SQL file is not able to import Stored Procedures, Functions, Triggers, Events and View. Fix Bug: In some unknown cases, the SHOW CREATE TABLE `tablename` query will return byte array. Improve 1: During Export, StreamWriter is opened and closed several times when writting to the dump file, which this is considered as not a good practice. Improve 2: SQL line in class Database method GetEvents: "SHOW EVENTS WHERE ...My Expenses Windows Store LOB App Demo: My Expenses Version 1: This is version 1 of the MyExpenses Windows 8 line of business demo app. The app is written in XAML and C#. It calls a WCF service that works with a SQL Server database. The app uses the Callisto toolkit. You can get it at https://github.com/timheuer/callisto. The Expenses.sql file contains the SQL to create the Expenses database. The ExpensesWCFService.zip file contains the WCF service, also written in C#. You should create a WCF service. Create an Entity Framework model and point it to...EasyTwitter: EasyTwitter basic operations: See the commit log to see the features!, check history files to see examples of how to use this libraryCommand Line Parser Library: 1.9.3.31 rc0: Main assembly CommandLine.dll signed. Removed old commented code. Added missing XML documentation comments. Two (very) minor code refactoring changes.BlackJumboDog: Ver5.7.4: 2012.12.13 Ver5.7.4 (1)Web???????、???????????????????????????????????????????VFPX: ssClasses A1.0: My initial release. See https://vfpx.codeplex.com/wikipage?title=ssClasses&referringTitle=Home for a brief description of what is inside this releaseHome Access Plus+: v8.6: v8.6.1213.1220 Added: Group look up to the visible property of the Booking System Fixed: Switched to using the outlook/exchange thumbnailPhoto instead of jpegPhoto Added: Add a blank paragraph below the tiles. This means that the browser displays a vertical scroller when resizing the window. Previously it was possible for the bottom edge of a tile not to be visible if the browser window was resized. Added: Booking System: Only Display Day+Month on the booking Home Page. This allows for the cs...Layered Architecture Solution Guidance (LASG): LASG 1.0.0.8 for Visual Studio 2012: PRE-REQUISITES Open GAX (Please install Oct 4, 2012 version) Microsoft® System CLR Types for Microsoft® SQL Server® 2012 Microsoft® SQL Server® 2012 Shared Management Objects Microsoft Enterprise Library 5.0 (for the generated code) Windows Azure SDK (for layered cloud applications) Silverlight 5 SDK (for Silverlight applications) THE RELEASE This release only works on Visual Studio 2012. Known Issue If you choose the Database project, the solution unfolding time will be slow....Fiskalizacija za developere: FiskalizacijaDev 2.0: Prva prava produkcijska verzija - Zakon je tu, ova je verzija uskladena sa trenutno važecom Tehnickom specifikacijom (v1.2. od 04.12.2012.) i spremna je za produkcijsko korištenje. Verzije iza ove ce ovisiti o naknadnim izmjenama Zakona i/ili Tehnicke specifikacije, odnosno, o eventualnim greškama u radu/zahtjevima community-a za novim feature-ima. Novosti u v2.0 su: - That assembly does not allow partially trusted callers (http://fiskalizacija.codeplex.com/workitem/699) - scheme IznosType...Simple Injector: Simple Injector v1.6.1: This patch release fixes a bug in the integration libraries that disallowed the application to start when .NET 4.5 was not installed on the machine (but only .NET 4.0). The following packages are affected: SimpleInjector.Integration.Web.dll SimpleInjector.Integration.Web.Mvc.dll SimpleInjector.Integration.Wcf.dll SimpleInjector.Extensions.LifetimeScoping.dllBootstrap Helpers: Version 1: First releasesheetengine - Isometric HTML5 JavaScript Display Engine: sheetengine v1.2.0: Main featuresOptimizations for intersectionsThe main purpose of this release was to further optimize rendering performance by skipping object intersections with other sheets. From now by default an object's sheets will only intersect its own sheets and never other static or dynamic sheets. This is the usual scenario since objects will never bump into other sheets when using collision detection. DocumentationMany of you have been asking for proper documentation, so here it goes. Check out the...DirectX Tool Kit: December 11, 2012: December 11, 2012 Ex versions of DDSTextureLoader and WICTextureLoader Removed use of ATL's CComPtr in favor of WRL's ComPtr for all platforms to support VS Express editions Updated VS 2010 project for official 'property sheet' integration for Windows 8.0 SDK Minor fix to CommonStates for Feature Level 9.1 Tweaked AlphaTestEffect.cpp to work around ARM NEON compiler codegen bug Added dxguid.lib as a default library for Debug builds to resolve GUID link issuesArcGIS Editor for OpenStreetMap: ArcGIS Editor for OSM 2.1 Final for 10.1: We are proud to announce the release of ArcGIS Editor for OpenStreetMap version 2.1. This download is compatible with ArcGIS 10.1, and includes setups for the Desktop Component, Desktop Component when 64 bit Background Geoprocessing is installed, and the Server Component. Important: if you already have ArcGIS Editor for OSM installed but want to install this new version, you will need to uninstall your previous version and then install this one. This release includes support for the ArcGIS 1...SharpCompress - a fully native C# library for RAR, 7Zip, Zip, Tar, GZip, BZip2: SharpCompress 0.8.2: This release just contains some fixes that have been done since the last release. Plus, this is strong named as well. I apologize for the lack of updates but my free time is less these days.Media Companion: MediaCompanion3.511b release: Two more bug fixes: - General Preferences were not getting restored - Fanart and poster image files were being locked, preventing changes to themVodigi Open Source Interactive Digital Signage: Vodigi Release 5.5: The following enhancements and fixes are included in Vodigi 5.5. Vodigi Administrator - Manage Music Files - Add Music Files to Image Slide Shows - Manage System Messages - Display System Messages to Users During Login - Ported to Visual Studio 2012 and MVC 4 - Added New Vodigi Administrator User Guide Vodigi Player - Improved Login/Schedule Startup Procedure - Startup Using Last Known Schedule when Disconnected on Startup - Improved Check for Schedule Changes - Now Every 15 Minutes - Pla...New Projects1Q86: testAdd Ratings to SharePoint Blog Site: This web part is an ‘administrative’ level tool used to update a Blog site to a) enable ratings on the post and b) add the User Ratings web part to the site. BadmintonBuddy: Source codeBetter Place Admin: Admin client for the BetterPlaceBooking ProjectBorkoSi: BorkoSi WebPage Source code.ChimpHD - 2D Evolved: High quality OpenCL accelerated 2D engine, capable of full complex yet easy to code 2D games. This is SpaceChimp2.0, wrote from the ground up, not just patchedCoderJoe: Repository for code samples used in my blog.CodeTemplate: ??????Data Persistent Object: ORM tool to access SQL Server, log record changes, Json and Linq supportedDevian: a simple web portal based on asp.net 2.0HD: hdHospital Tracking: hospital patient tracking ????? ???? ??????? ???? ?????Instant Get: An auction based c# applicationipangolin: DICOM stands for Digital Imaging and COmmunication in Medicine. The DICOM standard addresses the basic connectivity between different imaging devices.ISEFun: PowerShell module(s) to simplify work in it. It contains PowerShell scripts, compiled libs and some formating files. Several modules will come in one batch as optional features.Kerjasama: Aplikasi Database Kerjasama Bagian Kerjasama Kota SemarangMCEBuddy Viewer: Windows Media Center Plugin for MCEBuddy 2.x MusicForMyBlog: Link your recently played music in Itunes to your blog.My Expenses Windows Store LOB App Demo: This is a sample Windows 8 LOB app. Employees can use this app to create and submit expense reports. And managers can approve or reject those reports.Node Paint: An app based on the nodegarden application created by alphalabs.ccNPhysics: NPhysics - Physical Data Types for .NETomr.domready.js: Dom is ready? This project provides easy to detect ready event of dom.RegSecEdit: set registry security from command line, or batch file.Sitecore - Logger Module: This module provides an abstraction of the built-in Sitecore Logging features.SMART LMS: Welcome to SMART LMS, a learning management system with a difference, this software will allow teachers to create custom education activities such as quizzes.TaskManagerDD: DotNetNuke task manager tutorialThe Reactive Extensions for JavaScript: RxJS or Reactive Extensions for JavaScript is a library for transforming, composing, and querying streams of data.Timestamp: Tool for generating timestamps into clipboard for fast use.TweetGarden: Visualising connected users using their tweetsUpdateContentType: UpdateContentType atualiza os modelos de documentos utilizados por tipos de conteúdo do SharePoint a partir de documentos armazenados em uma biblioteca.User Rating Web Part for SharePoint 2010: User Rating Web Part - the fix for Ratings in SharePoint!webget: webgetwhatsnew.exe a command line utility to find new files: whatsnew.exe is a command line utility that lists the files created (new files) in a given number of days. whatsnew.exe 's syntax is very simple: whatsnew path numberofdays Also whatsnew supports other options like HTML or XML output, hyperlinked outputs and more.whoami: ip address resolverWPFReview: WPF code sample

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10 Reasons Why Java is the Top Embedded Platform

- by Roger Brinkley

With the release of Oracle ME Embedded 3.2 and Oracle Java Embedded Suite, Java is now ready to fully move into the embedded developer space, what many have called the "Internet of Things". Here are 10 reasons why Java is the top embedded platform. 1. Decouples software development from hardware development cycle Development is typically split between both hardware and software in a traditional design flow . This leads to complicated co-design and requires prototype hardware to be built. This parallel and interdependent hardware / software design process typically leads to two or more re-development phases. With Embedded Java, all specific work is carried out in software, with the (processor) hardware implementation fully decoupled. This with eliminate or at least reduces the need for re-spins of software or hardware and the original development efforts can be carried forward directly into product development and validation. 2. Development and testing can be done (mostly) using standard desktop systems through emulation Because the software and hardware are decoupled it now becomes easier to test the software long before it reaches the hardware through hardware emulation. Emulation is the ability of a program in an electronic device to imitate another program or device. In the past Java tools like the Java ME SDK and the SunSPOTs Solarium provided developers with emulation for a complete set of mobile telelphones and SunSpots. This often included network interaction or in the case of SunSPOTs radio communication. What emulation does is speed up the development cycle by refining the software development process without the need of hardware. The software is fixed, redefined, and refactored without the timely expense of hardware testing. With tools like the Java ME 3.2 SDK, Embedded Java applications can be be quickly developed on Windows based platforms. In the end of course developers should do a full set of testing on the hardware as incompatibilities between emulators and hardware will exist, but the amount of time to do this should be significantly reduced. 3. Highly productive language, APIs, runtime, and tools mean quick time to market Charles Nutter probably said it best in twitter blog when he tweeted, "Every time I see a piece of C code I need to port, my heart dies a little. Then I port it to 1/4 as much Java, and feel better." The Java environment is a very complex combination of a Java Virtual Machine, the Java Language, and it's robust APIs. Combine that with the Java ME SDK for small devices or just Netbeans for the larger devices and you have a development environment where development time is reduced significantly meaning the product can be shipped sooner. Of course this is assuming that the engineers don't get slap happy adding new features given the extra time they'll have. 4. Create high-performance, portable, secure, robust, cross-platform applications easily The latest JIT compilers for the Oracle JVM approach the speed of C/C++ code, and in some memory allocation intensive circumstances, exceed it. And specifically for the embedded devices both ME Embedded and SE Embedded have been optimized for the smaller footprints. In portability Java uses Bytecode to make the language platform independent. This creates a write once run anywhere environment that allows you to develop on one platform and execute on others and avoids a platform vendor lock in. For security, Java achieves protection by confining a Java program to a Java execution environment and not allowing it to access other parts of computer. In variety of systems the program must execute reliably to be robust. Finally, Oracle Java ME Embedded is a cross-industry and cross-platform product optimized in release version 3.2 for chipsets based on the ARM architectures. Similarly Oracle Java SE Embedded works on a variety of ARM V5, V6, and V7, X86 and Power Architecture Linux. 5. Java isolates your apps from language and platform variations (e.g. C/C++, kernel, libc differences) This has been a key factor in Java from day one. Developers write to Java and don't have to worry about underlying differences in the platform variations. Those platform variations are being managed by the JVM. Gone are the C/C++ problems like memory corruptions, stack overflows, and other such bugs which are extremely difficult to isolate. Of course this doesn't imply that you won't be able to get away from native code completely. There could be some situations where you have to write native code in either assembler or C/C++. But those instances should be limited. 6. Most popular embedded processors supported allowing design flexibility Java SE Embedded is now available on ARM V5, V6, and V7 along with Linux on X86 and Power Architecture platforms. Java ME Embedded is available on system based on ARM architecture SOCs with low memory footprints and a device emulation environment for x86/Windows desktop computers, integrated with the Java ME SDK 3.2. A standard binary of Oracle Java ME Embedded 3.2 for ARM KEIL development boards based on ARM Cortex M-3/4 (KEIL MCBSTM32F200 using ST Micro SOC STM32F207IG) will soon be available for download from the Oracle Technology Network (OTN). 7. Support for key embedded features (low footprint, power mgmt., low latency, etc) All embedded devices by there very nature are constrained in some way. Economics may dictate a device with a less RAM and ROM. The CPU needs can dictate a less powerful device. Power consumption is another major resource in some embedded devices as connecting to consistent power source not always desirable or possible. For others they have to constantly on. Often many of these systems are headless (in the embedded space it's almost always Halloween). For memory resources ,Java ME Embedded can run in environment as low as 130KB RAM/350KB ROM for a minimal, customized configuration up to 700KB RAM/1500KB ROM for the full, standard configuration. Java SE Embedded is designed for environments starting at 32MB RAM/39MB ROM. Key functionality of embedded devices such as auto-start and recovery, flexible networking are fully supported. And while Java SE Embedded has been optimized for mid-range to high-end embedded systems, Java ME Embedded is a Java runtime stack optimized for small embedded systems. It provides a robust and flexible application platform with dedicated embedded functionality for always-on, headless (no graphics/UI), and connected devices. 8. Leverage huge Java developer ecosystem (expertise, existing code) There are over 9 million developers in world that work on Java, and while not all of them work on embedded systems, their wealth of expertise in developing applications is immense. In short, getting a java developer to work on a embedded system is pretty easy, you probably have a java developer living in your subdivsion. Then of course there is the wealth of existing code. The Java Embedded Community on Java.net is central gathering place for embedded Java developers. Conferences like Embedded Java @ JavaOne and the a variety of hardware vendor conferences like Freescale Technlogy Forums offer an excellent opportunity for those interested in embedded systems. 9. Easily create end-to-end solutions integrated with Java back-end services In the "Internet of Things" things aren't on an island doing an single task. For instance and embedded drink dispenser doesn't just dispense a beverage, but could collect money from a credit card and also send information about current sales. Similarly, an embedded house power monitoring system doesn't just manage the power usage in a house, but can also send that data back to the power company. In both cases it isn't about the individual thing, but monitoring a collection of things. How much power did your block, subdivsion, area of town, town, county, state, nation, world use? How many Dr Peppers were purchased from thing1, thing2, thingN? The point is that all this information can be collected and transferred securely (and believe me that is key issue that Java fully supports) to back end services for further analysis. And what better back in service exists than a Java back in service. It's interesting to note that on larger embedded platforms that support the Java Embedded Suite some of the analysis might be done on the embedded device itself as JES has a glassfish server and Java Database as part of the installation. The result is an end to end Java solution. 10. Solutions from constrained devices to server-class systems Just take a look at some of the embedded Java systems that have already been developed and you'll see a vast range of solutions. Livescribe pen, Kindle, each and every Blu-Ray player, Cisco's Advanced VOIP phone, KronosInTouch smart time clock, EnergyICT smart metering, EDF's automated meter management, Ricoh Printers, and Stanford's automated car are just a few of the list of embedded Java implementation that continues to grow. Conclusion Now if your a Java Developer you probably look at some of the 10 reasons and say "duh", but for the embedded developers this is should be an eye opening list. And with the release of ME Embedded 3.2 and the Java Embedded Suite the embedded developers life is now a whole lot easier. For the Java developer your employment opportunities are about to increase. For both it's a great time to start developing Java for the "Internet of Things".

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The Red Gate and .NET Reflector Debacle

- by Rick Strahl

About a month ago Red Gate – the company who owns the NET Reflector tool most .NET devs use at one point or another – decided to change their business model for Reflector and take the product from free to a fully paid for license model. As a bit of history: .NET Reflector was originally created by Lutz Roeder as a free community tool to inspect .NET assemblies. Using Reflector you can examine the types in an assembly, drill into type signatures and quickly disassemble code to see how a particular method works. In case you’ve been living under a rock and you’ve never looked at Reflector, here’s what it looks like drilled into an assembly from disk with some disassembled source code showing: Note that you get tons of information about each element in the tree, and almost all related types and members are clickable both in the list and source view so it’s extremely easy to navigate and follow the code flow even in this static assembly only view. For many year’s Lutz kept the the tool up to date and added more features gradually improving an already amazing tool and making it better. Then about two and a half years ago Red Gate bought the tool from Lutz. A lot of ruckus and noise ensued in the community back then about what would happen with the tool and… for the most part very little did. Other than the incessant update notices with prominent Red Gate promo on them life with Reflector went on. The product didn’t die and and it didn’t go commercial or to a charge model. When .NET 4.0 came out it still continued to work mostly because the .NET feature set doesn’t drastically change how types behave. Then a month back Red Gate started making noise about a new Version Version 7 which would be commercial. No more free version - and a shit storm broke out in the community. Now normally I’m not one to be critical of companies trying to make money from a product, much less for a product that’s as incredibly useful as Reflector. There isn’t day in .NET development that goes by for me where I don’t fire up Reflector. Whether it’s for examining the innards of the .NET Framework, checking out third party code, or verifying some of my own code and resources. Even more so recently I’ve been doing a lot of Interop work with a non-.NET application that needs to access .NET components and Reflector has been immensely valuable to me (and my clients) if figuring out exact type signatures required to calling .NET components in assemblies. In short Reflector is an invaluable tool to me. Ok, so what’s the problem? Why all the fuss? Certainly the $39 Red Gate is trying to charge isn’t going to kill any developer. If there’s any tool in .NET that’s worth $39 it’s Reflector, right? Right, but that’s not the problem here. The problem is how Red Gate went about moving the product to commercial which borders on the downright bizarre. It’s almost as if somebody in management wrote a slogan: “How can we piss off the .NET community in the most painful way we can?” And that it seems Red Gate has a utterly succeeded. People are rabid, and for once I think that this outrage isn’t exactly misplaced. Take a look at the message thread that Red Gate dedicated from a link off the download page. Not only is Version 7 going to be a paid commercial tool, but the older versions of Reflector won’t be available any longer. Not only that but older versions that are already in use also will continually try to update themselves to the new paid version – which when installed will then expire unless registered properly. There have also been reports of Version 6 installs shutting themselves down and failing to work if the update is refused (I haven’t seen that myself so not sure if that’s true). In other words Red Gate is trying to make damn sure they’re getting your money if you attempt to use Reflector. There’s a lot of temptation there. Think about the millions of .NET developers out there and all of them possibly upgrading – that’s a nice chunk of change that Red Gate’s sitting on. Even with all the community backlash these guys are probably making some bank right now just because people need to get life to move on. Red Gate also put up a Feedback link on the download page – which not surprisingly is chock full with hate mail condemning the move. Oddly there’s not a single response to any of those messages by the Red Gate folks except when it concerns license questions for the full version. It puzzles me what that link serves for other yet than another complete example of failure to understand how to handle customer relations. There’s no doubt that that all of this has caused some serious outrage in the community. The sad part though is that this could have been handled so much less arrogantly and without pissing off the entire community and causing so much ill-will. People are pissed off and I have no doubt that this negative publicity will show up in the sales numbers for their other products. I certainly hope so. Stupidity ought to be painful! Why do Companies do boneheaded stuff like this? Red Gate’s original decision to buy Reflector was hotly debated but at that the time most of what would happen was mostly speculation. But I thought it was a smart move for any company that is in need of spreading its marketing message and corporate image as a vendor in the .NET space. Where else do you get to flash your corporate logo to hordes of .NET developers on a regular basis? Exploiting that marketing with some goodwill of providing a free tool breeds positive feedback that hopefully has a good effect on the company’s visibility and the products it sells. Instead Red Gate seems to have taken exactly the opposite tack of corporate bullying to try to make a quick buck – and in the process ruined any community goodwill that might have come from providing a service community for free while still getting valuable marketing. What’s so puzzling about this boneheaded escapade is that the company doesn’t need to resort to underhanded tactics like what they are trying with Reflector 7. The tools the company makes are very good. I personally use SQL Compare, Sql Data Compare and ANTS Profiler on a regular basis and all of these tools are essential in my toolbox. They certainly work much better than the tools that are in the box with Visual Studio. Chances are that if Reflector 7 added useful features I would have been more than happy to shell out my $39 to upgrade when the time is right. It’s Expensive to give away stuff for Free At the same time, this episode shows some of the big problems that come with ‘free’ tools. A lot of organizations are realizing that giving stuff away for free is actually quite expensive and the pay back is often very intangible if any at all. Those that rely on donations or other voluntary compensation find that they amount contributed is absolutely miniscule as to not matter at all. Yet at the same time I bet most of those clamouring the loudest on that Red Gate Reflector feedback page that Reflector won’t be free anymore probably have NEVER made a donation to any open source project or free tool ever. The expectation of Free these days is just too great – which is a shame I think. There’s a lot to be said for paid software and having somebody to hold to responsible to because you gave them some money. There’s an incentive –> payback –> responsibility model that seems to be missing from free software (not all of it, but a lot of it). While there certainly are plenty of bad apples in paid software as well, money tends to be a good motivator for people to continue working and improving products. Reasons for giving away stuff are many but often it’s a naïve desire to share things when things are simple. At first it might be no problem to volunteer time and effort but as products mature the fun goes out of it, and as the reality of product maintenance kicks in developers want to get something back for the time and effort they’re putting in doing non-glamorous work. It’s then when products die or languish and this is painful for all to watch. For Red Gate however, I think there was always a pretty good payback from the Reflector acquisition in terms of marketing: Visibility and possible positioning of their products although they seemed to have mostly ignored that option. On the other hand they started this off pretty badly even 2 and a half years back when they aquired Reflector from Lutz with the same arrogant attitude that is evident in the latest episode. You really gotta wonder what folks are thinking in management – the sad part is from advance emails that were circulating, they were fully aware of the shit storm they were inciting with this and I suspect they are banking on the sheer numbers of .NET developers to still make them a tidy chunk of change from upgrades… Alternatives are coming For me personally the single license isn’t a problem, but I actually have a tool that I sell (an interop Web Service proxy generation tool) to customers and one of the things I recommend to use with has been Reflector to view assembly information and to find which Interop classes to instantiate from the non-.NET environment. It’s been nice to use Reflector for this with its small footprint and zero-configuration installation. But now with V7 becoming a paid tool that option is not going to be available anymore. Luckily it looks like the .NET community is jumping to it and trying to fill the void. Amidst the Red Gate outrage a new library called ILSpy has sprung up and providing at least some of the core functionality of Reflector with an open source library. It looks promising going forward and I suspect there will be a lot more support and interest to support this project now that Reflector has gone over to the ‘dark side’…© Rick Strahl, West Wind Technologies, 2005-2011

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