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SQLAuthority News – Speaking Sessions at TechEd India – 3 Sessions – 1 Panel Discussion

- by pinaldave

Microsoft Tech-Ed India 2010 is considered as the major Technology event of the year for various IT professionals and developers. This event will feature a comprehensive forum in order to learn, connect, explore, and evolve the current technologies we have today. I would recommend this event to you since here you will learn about today’s cutting-edge trends, thereby enhancing your work profile and getting ahead of the rest. But, the most important benefit of all might be the networking opportunity that that you can attain by attending the forum. You can build personal connections with various Microsoft experts and peers that will last even far beyond this event! It also feels good to let you know that I will be speaking at this year’s event! So, here are the sessions that await you in this mega-forum. Session 1: True Lies of SQL Server – SQL Myth Buster Date: April 12, 2010 Time: 11:15pm – 11:45pm In this 30-minute demo session, I am going to briefly demonstrate few SQL Server Myth and their resolution backing up with some demo. This demo session is a must-attend for all developers and administrators who would come to the event. This is going to be a very quick yet fun session. Session 2: Master Data Services in Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 Date: April 12, 2010 Time: 2:30pm-3:30pm SQL Server Master Data Services will ship with SQL Server 2008 R2 and will improve Microsoft’s platform appeal. This session provides an in depth demonstration of MDS features and highlights important usage scenarios. Master Data Services enables consistent decision making by allowing you to create, manage and propagate changes from single master view of your business entities. Also with MDS – Master Data-hub which is the vital component helps ensure reporting consistency across systems and deliver faster more accurate results across the enterprise. We will talk about establishing the basis for a centralized approach to defining, deploying, and managing master data in the enterprise. Session 3: Developing with SQL Server Spatial and Deep Dive into Spatial Indexing Date: April 14, 2010 Time: 5:00pm-6:00pm Microsoft SQL Server 2008 delivers new spatial data types that enable you to consume, use, and extend location-based data through spatial-enabled applications. Attend this session to learn how to use spatial functionality in next version of SQL Server to build and optimize spatial queries. This session outlines the new geography data type to store geodetic spatial data and perform operations on it, use the new geometry data type to store planar spatial data and perform operations on it, take advantage of new spatial indexes for high performance queries, use the new spatial results tab to quickly and easily view spatial query results directly from within Management Studio, extend spatial data capabilities by building or integrating location-enabled applications through support for spatial standards and specifications and much more. Panel Discussion: Harness the power of Web – SEO and Technical Blogging Date: April 12, 2010 Time: 5:00pm-6:00pm Here you will learn lots of tricks and tips about SEO and Technical Blogging from various Industry Technical Blogging Experts. This event will surely be one of the most important Tech conventions of 2010. TechEd is going to be a very busy time for Tech developers and enthusiasts, since every evening there will be a fun session to attend. If you are interested in any of the above topics for every session, I suggest that you visit each of them as you will learn so many things about the topic to be discussed. Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com) Filed under: MVP, Pinal Dave, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, SQLAuthority Author Visit, SQLAuthority News, T SQL, Technology Tagged: TechEd, TechEdIn

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SSAS processing error: Client unable to establish connection; 08001; Encryption not supported on the client.; 08001

- by Kevin Shyr

After getting the cube to successfully deploy and process on Friday, I was baffled on Monday that the newly added dimension caused the cube processing to break. I then followed the first instinct, discarded all my changes to reverted back to the version on Friday, and had no luck. The error message (attached below) did not help as I was looking for some kind of SQL service error. After examining the windows server log and the SQL server log, I just couldn't see anything wrong with it.After swearing for some time, and with the help of going off and working on something else for a while. I came back to the solution and looked at the data source. Even though I know I have never changed the provider (the default setup gave me SQL native client), I decided to change it and give OLE DB a try.This simple change allows my cube to process successfully again. While I don't understand why the same settings that worked last week doesn't work this week, I don't have all the information to say with certainty that nothing has changed in the environment (firewall changes, server updates, etc.).SSAS processing error:<Batch > <Parallel> <Process xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:ddl2="http://schemas.microsoft.com/analysisservices/2003/engine/2" xmlns:ddl2_2="http://schemas.microsoft.com/analysisservices/2003/engine/2/2" xmlns:ddl100_100="http://schemas.microsoft.com/analysisservices/2008/engine/100/100" xmlns:ddl200="http://schemas.microsoft.com/analysisservices/2010/engine/200" xmlns:ddl200_200="http://schemas.microsoft.com/analysisservices/2010/engine/200/200"> <Object> <DatabaseID>DWH Sales Facts</DatabaseID> <CubeID>DWH Sales Facts</CubeID> </Object> <Type>ProcessFull</Type> <WriteBackTableCreation>UseExisting</WriteBackTableCreation> </Process> </Parallel></Batch> Processing Dimension 'Date' completed. Errors and Warnings from Response OLE DB error: OLE DB or ODBC error: A network-related or instance-specific error has occurred while establishing a connection to SQL Server. Server is not found or not accessible. Check if instance name is correct and if SQL Server is configured to allow remote connections. For more information see SQL Server Books Online.; 08001; Client unable to establish connection; 08001; Encryption not supported on the client.; 08001. Errors in the high-level relational engine. A connection could not be made to the data source with the DataSourceID of 'DWH Sales Facts', Name of 'DWH Sales Facts'. Errors in the OLAP storage engine: An error occurred while the dimension, with the ID of 'Currency', Name of 'Currency' was being processed. Errors in the OLAP storage engine: An error occurred while the 'Currency Dim ID' attribute of the 'Currency' dimension from the 'DWH Sales Facts' database was being processed. Internal error: The operation terminated unsuccessfully. Server: The operation has been cancelled.

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Productive Toolset for C# Developer

- by Marko Apfel

Programming Visual Studio ReSharper Agent Johnson Agent Smith StyleCop for ReSharper Keymaps SettingsManager Git Source Control Provider Gist NuGet Package Manager NDepend Productivity Power Tools PowerCommands for Visual Studio PostSharp Indent Guides Typemock Isolator VSCommands Ressource Refactor Clone Detective GhostDoc CR_Documentor AnkSVN Expression Blend SharpDevelop Notepad++, PS Pad StyleCop, FxCop, .. .NET Reflector, ILSpy, dotPeek, Just Decompile Git Extensions inkl. MSysGit, MinGW Github for Windows SmartGit PoSH-Git Console Enhancement Project LINQPad Mercurial RapidSVN SQL Management Studio Adventure Works Sample DB AdventureWorksLT Toad for SQL Server yEd Graph Editor TeX, LateX MiKTeX, TeXworks Pandoc Jenkins, TeamCity KompoZer XML Notepad Kaxaml KDiff3, WinMerge, Perforce Merge Handle DbgView FusLogVw FTP Commander HTML Help Workshop, Sandcastle, SHFB WiX Enterprise Architect InsightProfiler Putty Cygwin DXCore, DXCore Plugins FreeMind ProcessExplorer, ProcessMonitor Social Networking, Community Windows Live Writer Disgsby Skype TweetDeck FeedReader Sytem and others Microsoft Office (notably OneNote!!!) Adobe Reader PDF Creator SRWare Iron (Chrome) AddThis bit-ly del.icio.us InstaPaper Leo Dictionary Google Bookmarks Proxy Switchy! StumbleUpon K-Meleon FreeCommander, FAR 7-Zip Keyboard Jedi Launchy TrueCrypt Dropbox Ditto Greenshot Rainlendar2 Everything Daemon Tools inSSIDer VirtualBox Stardock Fences Media Player Classic VLC Media Player Winamp WinAmp Cue Player LAME Encoder CamStudio Youtube to MP3 Converter VirtualDub Image Resizer Powertoy Clone 2.0 Paint.NET Picasa Windy JediConcentrate, Ghoster TeamViewer Timerle TreeSizeFree WinDirStat Windows Sizer, WinResizer ZoomIt Sometimes nice to have ArcGIS TortoiseSVN, TortoiseCVS XnView GitJungle CowSpy Grindstone Free Download Manager CDBurnerXP Free Audio CD Burner SmartAssembly intellibook GMX SMS Manager BlackBerry Desktop Cisco Any Connect eRoom Foxit Reader Google Earth ThinkVantage GPS Gridy Bluefish The GodFather Tor Browser, Charon YouTube Downloader NCover Network Stumbler Remote Debugger WScite XML Pad DBVisualizer Microsoft Network Monitor, Fiddler2 Eclipse IDE Oracle Client, Oracle SQL Developer Bookmarks, Links http://pastebin.de/, http://pastebin.com/ http://followup.cc http://trello.com http://tumblr.com https://bitly.com/, http://is.gd http://www.famkruithof.net/uuid/uuidgen, http://www.guidgenerator.com/ https://github.com/, https://bitbucket.org/ http://dict.leo.org/, http://translate.google.com/ http://prezi.com/ http://geekswithblogs.net/Default.aspx, http://codebetter.com/ http://duckduckgo.com/bang.html http://de.schreibtrainer.com/index.php?site=3&menuId=3 http://www.mr-wetter.de/ this is an update to http://geekswithblogs.net/mapfel/archive/2010/07/12/140877.aspx

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Configuring Fed Authentication Methods in OIF / IdP

- by Damien Carru

In this article, I will provide examples on how to configure OIF/IdP to map OAM Authentication Schemes to Federation Authentication Methods, based on the concepts introduced in my previous entry. I will show examples for the three protocols supported by OIF: SAML 2.0 SSO SAML 1.1 SSO OpenID 2.0 Enjoy the reading! Configuration As I mentioned in my previous article, mapping Federation Authentication Methods to OAM Authentication Schemes is protocol dependent, since the methods are defined in the various protocols (SAML 2.0, SAML 1.1, OpenID 2.0). As such, the WLST commands to set those mappings will involve: Either the SP Partner Profile and affect all Partners referencing that profile, which do not override the Federation Authentication Method to OAM Authentication Scheme mappings Or the SP Partner entry, which will only affect the SP Partner It is important to note that if an SP Partner is configured to define one or more Federation Authentication Method to OAM Authentication Scheme mappings, then all the mappings defined in the SP Partner Profile will be ignored. WLST Commands The two OIF WLST commands that can be used to define mapping Federation Authentication Methods to OAM Authentication Schemes are: addSPPartnerProfileAuthnMethod() to define a mapping on an SP Partner Profile, taking as parameters: The name of the SP Partner Profile The Federation Authentication Method The OAM Authentication Scheme name addSPPartnerAuthnMethod() to define a mapping on an SP Partner , taking as parameters: The name of the SP Partner The Federation Authentication Method The OAM Authentication Scheme name Note: I will discuss in a subsequent article the other parameters of those commands. In the next sections, I will show examples on how to use those methods: For SAML 2.0, I will configure the SP Partner Profile, that will apply all the mappings to SP Partners referencing this profile, unless they override mapping definition For SAML 1.1, I will configure the SP Partner. For OpenID 2.0, I will configure the SP/RP Partner SAML 2.0 Test Setup In this setup, OIF is acting as an IdP and is integrated with a remote SAML 2.0 SP partner identified by AcmeSP. In this test, I will perform Federation SSO with OIF/IdP configured to: Use LDAPScheme as the Authentication Scheme Use BasicScheme as the Authentication Scheme Map BasicSessionScheme to the urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:2.0:ac:classes:Password Federation Authentication Method Use OAMLDAPPluginAuthnScheme as the Authentication Scheme Map OAMLDAPPluginAuthnScheme to the urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:2.0:ac:classes:PasswordProtectedTransport Federation Authentication Method LDAPScheme as Authentication Scheme Using the OOTB settings regarding user authentication in OAM, the user will be challenged via a FORM based login page based on the LDAPScheme. Also the default Federation Authentication Method mappings configuration maps only the urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:2.0:ac:classes:PasswordProtectedTransport to LDAPScheme (also marked as the default scheme used for authentication), FAAuthScheme, BasicScheme and BasicFAScheme. After authentication via FORM, OIF/IdP would issue an Assertion similar to: <samlp:Response ...> <saml:Issuer ...>https://idp.com/oam/fed</saml:Issuer> <samlp:Status> <samlp:StatusCode Value="urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:2.0:status:Success"/> </samlp:Status> <saml:Assertion ...> <saml:Issuer ...>https://idp.com/oam/fed</saml:Issuer> <dsig:Signature> ... </dsig:Signature> <saml:Subject> <saml:NameID ...>[email protected]</saml:NameID> <saml:SubjectConfirmation Method="urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:2.0:cm:bearer"> <saml:SubjectConfirmationData .../> </saml:SubjectConfirmation> </saml:Subject> <saml:Conditions ...> <saml:AudienceRestriction> <saml:Audience>https://acme.com/sp</saml:Audience> </saml:AudienceRestriction> </saml:Conditions> <saml:AuthnStatement AuthnInstant="2014-03-21T20:53:55Z" SessionIndex="id-6i-Dm0yB-HekG6cejktwcKIFMzYE8Yrmqwfd0azz" SessionNotOnOrAfter="2014-03-21T21:53:55Z"> <saml:AuthnContext> <saml:AuthnContextClassRef> urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:2.0:ac:classes:PasswordProtectedTransport </saml:AuthnContextClassRef> </saml:AuthnContext> </saml:AuthnStatement> </saml:Assertion></samlp:Response> BasicScheme as Authentication Scheme For this test, I will switch the default Authentication Scheme for the SP Partner Profile to BasicScheme instead of LDAPScheme. I will use the OIF WLST setSPPartnerProfileDefaultScheme() command and specify which scheme to be used as the default for the SP Partner Profile referenced by AcmeSP (which is saml20-sp-partner-profile in this case: getFedPartnerProfile("AcmeSP", "sp") ): Enter the WLST environment by executing:$IAM_ORACLE_HOME/common/bin/wlst.sh Connect to the WLS Admin server:connect() Navigate to the Domain Runtime branch:domainRuntime() Execute the setSPPartnerProfileDefaultScheme() command:setSPPartnerProfileDefaultScheme("saml20-sp-partner-profile", "BasicScheme") Exit the WLST environment:exit() The user will now be challenged via HTTP Basic Authentication defined in the BasicScheme for AcmeSP. Also, as noted earlier, the default Federation Authentication Method mappings configuration maps only the urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:2.0:ac:classes:PasswordProtectedTransport to LDAPScheme (also marked as the default scheme used for authentication), FAAuthScheme, BasicScheme and BasicFAScheme. After authentication via HTTP Basic Authentication, OIF/IdP would issue an Assertion similar to: <samlp:Response ...> <saml:Issuer ...>https://idp.com/oam/fed</saml:Issuer> <samlp:Status> <samlp:StatusCode Value="urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:2.0:status:Success"/> </samlp:Status> <saml:Assertion ...> <saml:Issuer ...>https://idp.com/oam/fed</saml:Issuer> <dsig:Signature> ... </dsig:Signature> <saml:Subject> <saml:NameID ...>[email protected]</saml:NameID> <saml:SubjectConfirmation Method="urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:2.0:cm:bearer"> <saml:SubjectConfirmationData .../> </saml:SubjectConfirmation> </saml:Subject> <saml:Conditions ...> <saml:AudienceRestriction> <saml:Audience>https://acme.com/sp</saml:Audience> </saml:AudienceRestriction> </saml:Conditions> <saml:AuthnStatement AuthnInstant="2014-03-21T20:53:55Z" SessionIndex="id-6i-Dm0yB-HekG6cejktwcKIFMzYE8Yrmqwfd0azz" SessionNotOnOrAfter="2014-03-21T21:53:55Z"> <saml:AuthnContext> <saml:AuthnContextClassRef> urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:2.0:ac:classes:PasswordProtectedTransport </saml:AuthnContextClassRef> </saml:AuthnContext> </saml:AuthnStatement> </saml:Assertion></samlp:Response> Mapping BasicScheme To change the Federation Authentication Method mapping for the BasicScheme to urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:2.0:ac:classes:Password instead of urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:2.0:ac:classes:PasswordProtectedTransport for the saml20-sp-partner-profile SAML 2.0 SP Partner Profile (the profile to which my AcmeSP Partner is bound to), I will execute the addSPPartnerProfileAuthnMethod() method: Enter the WLST environment by executing:$IAM_ORACLE_HOME/common/bin/wlst.sh Connect to the WLS Admin server:connect() Navigate to the Domain Runtime branch:domainRuntime() Execute the addSPPartnerProfileAuthnMethod() command:addSPPartnerProfileAuthnMethod("saml20-sp-partner-profile", "urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:2.0:ac:classes:Password", "BasicScheme") Exit the WLST environment:exit() After authentication via HTTP Basic Authentication, OIF/IdP would now issue an Assertion similar to (see that the AuthnContextClassRef was changed from PasswordProtectedTransport to Password): <samlp:Response ...> <saml:Issuer ...>https://idp.com/oam/fed</saml:Issuer> <samlp:Status> <samlp:StatusCode Value="urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:2.0:status:Success"/> </samlp:Status> <saml:Assertion ...> <saml:Issuer ...>https://idp.com/oam/fed</saml:Issuer> <dsig:Signature> ... </dsig:Signature> <saml:Subject> <saml:NameID ...>[email protected]</saml:NameID> <saml:SubjectConfirmation Method="urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:2.0:cm:bearer"> <saml:SubjectConfirmationData .../> </saml:SubjectConfirmation> </saml:Subject> <saml:Conditions ...> <saml:AudienceRestriction> <saml:Audience>https://acme.com/sp</saml:Audience> </saml:AudienceRestriction> </saml:Conditions> <saml:AuthnStatement AuthnInstant="2014-03-21T20:53:55Z" SessionIndex="id-6i-Dm0yB-HekG6cejktwcKIFMzYE8Yrmqwfd0azz" SessionNotOnOrAfter="2014-03-21T21:53:55Z"> <saml:AuthnContext> <saml:AuthnContextClassRef> urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:2.0:ac:classes:Password </saml:AuthnContextClassRef> </saml:AuthnContext> </saml:AuthnStatement> </saml:Assertion></samlp:Response> OAMLDAPPluginAuthnScheme as Authentication Scheme For this test, I will switch the default Authentication Scheme for the SP Partner Profile to OAMLDAPPluginAuthnScheme instead of BasicScheme. I will use the OIF WLST setSPPartnerProfileDefaultScheme() command and specify which scheme to be used as the default for the SP Partner Profile referenced by AcmeSP (which is saml20-sp-partner-profile in this case: getFedPartnerProfile("AcmeSP", "sp") ): Enter the WLST environment by executing:$IAM_ORACLE_HOME/common/bin/wlst.sh Connect to the WLS Admin server:connect() Navigate to the Domain Runtime branch:domainRuntime() Execute the setSPPartnerProfileDefaultScheme() command:setSPPartnerProfileDefaultScheme("saml20-sp-partner-profile", "OAMLDAPPluginAuthnScheme") Exit the WLST environment:exit() The user will now be challenged via FORM defined in the OAMLDAPPluginAuthnScheme for AcmeSP. Contrarily to LDAPScheme and BasicScheme, the OAMLDAPPluginAuthnScheme is not mapped by default to any Federation Authentication Methods. As such, OIF/IdP will not be able to find a Federation Authentication Method and will set the method in the SAML Assertion to the OAM Authentication Scheme name. After authentication via FORM, OIF/IdP would issue an Assertion similar to (see the AuthnContextClassRef set to OAMLDAPPluginAuthnScheme): <samlp:Response ...> <saml:Issuer ...>https://idp.com/oam/fed</saml:Issuer> <samlp:Status> <samlp:StatusCode Value="urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:2.0:status:Success"/> </samlp:Status> <saml:Assertion ...> <saml:Issuer ...>https://idp.com/oam/fed</saml:Issuer> <dsig:Signature> ... </dsig:Signature> <saml:Subject> <saml:NameID ...>[email protected]</saml:NameID> <saml:SubjectConfirmation Method="urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:2.0:cm:bearer"> <saml:SubjectConfirmationData .../> </saml:SubjectConfirmation> </saml:Subject> <saml:Conditions ...> <saml:AudienceRestriction> <saml:Audience>https://acme.com/sp</saml:Audience> </saml:AudienceRestriction> </saml:Conditions> <saml:AuthnStatement AuthnInstant="2014-03-21T20:53:55Z" SessionIndex="id-6i-Dm0yB-HekG6cejktwcKIFMzYE8Yrmqwfd0azz" SessionNotOnOrAfter="2014-03-21T21:53:55Z"> <saml:AuthnContext> <saml:AuthnContextClassRef> OAMLDAPPluginAuthnScheme </saml:AuthnContextClassRef> </saml:AuthnContext> </saml:AuthnStatement> </saml:Assertion></samlp:Response> Mapping OAMLDAPPluginAuthnScheme To add the OAMLDAPPluginAuthnScheme to the Federation Authentication Method urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:2.0:ac:classes:PasswordProtectedTransport mapping, I will execute the addSPPartnerProfileAuthnMethod() method: Enter the WLST environment by executing:$IAM_ORACLE_HOME/common/bin/wlst.sh Connect to the WLS Admin server:connect() Navigate to the Domain Runtime branch:domainRuntime() Execute the addSPPartnerProfileAuthnMethod() command:addSPPartnerProfileAuthnMethod("saml20-sp-partner-profile", "urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:2.0:ac:classes:PasswordProtectedTransport", "OAMLDAPPluginAuthnScheme") Exit the WLST environment:exit() After authentication via FORM, OIF/IdP would now issue an Assertion similar to (see that the method was changed from OAMLDAPPluginAuthnScheme to PasswordProtectedTransport): <samlp:Response ...> <saml:Issuer ...>https://idp.com/oam/fed</saml:Issuer> <samlp:Status> <samlp:StatusCode Value="urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:2.0:status:Success"/> </samlp:Status> <saml:Assertion ...> <saml:Issuer ...>https://idp.com/oam/fed</saml:Issuer> <dsig:Signature> ... </dsig:Signature> <saml:Subject> <saml:NameID ...>[email protected]</saml:NameID> <saml:SubjectConfirmation Method="urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:2.0:cm:bearer"> <saml:SubjectConfirmationData .../> </saml:SubjectConfirmation> </saml:Subject> <saml:Conditions ...> <saml:AudienceRestriction> <saml:Audience>https://acme.com/sp</saml:Audience> </saml:AudienceRestriction> </saml:Conditions> <saml:AuthnStatement AuthnInstant="2014-03-21T20:53:55Z" SessionIndex="id-6i-Dm0yB-HekG6cejktwcKIFMzYE8Yrmqwfd0azz" SessionNotOnOrAfter="2014-03-21T21:53:55Z"> <saml:AuthnContext> <saml:AuthnContextClassRef> urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:2.0:ac:classes:PasswordProtectedTransport </saml:AuthnContextClassRef> </saml:AuthnContext> </saml:AuthnStatement> </saml:Assertion></samlp:Response> SAML 1.1 Test Setup In this setup, OIF is acting as an IdP and is integrated with a remote SAML 1.1 SP partner identified by AcmeSP. In this test, I will perform Federation SSO with OIF/IdP configured to: Use LDAPScheme as the Authentication Scheme Use OAMLDAPPluginAuthnScheme as the Authentication Scheme Map OAMLDAPPluginAuthnScheme to the urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:2.0:ac:classes:PasswordProtectedTransport Federation Authentication Method Use LDAPScheme as the Authentication Scheme Map LDAPScheme to the urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:2.0:ac:classes:PasswordProtectedTransport Federation Authentication Method LDAPScheme as Authentication Scheme Using the OOTB settings regarding user authentication in OAM, the user will be challenged via a FORM based login page based on the LDAPScheme. Also the default Federation Authentication Method mappings configuration maps only the urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:1.0:am:password to LDAPScheme (also marked as the default scheme used for authentication), FAAuthScheme, BasicScheme and BasicFAScheme. After authentication via FORM, OIF/IdP would issue an Assertion similar to: <samlp:Response ...> <samlp:Status> <samlp:StatusCode Value="samlp:Success"/> </samlp:Status> <saml:Assertion Issuer="https://idp.com/oam/fed" ...> <saml:Conditions ...> <saml:AudienceRestriction> <saml:Audience>https://acme.com/sp/ssov11</saml:Audience> </saml:AudienceRestriction> </saml:Conditions> <saml:AuthnStatement AuthenticationInstant="2014-03-21T20:53:55Z" AuthenticationMethod="urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:1.0:am:password"> <saml:Subject> <saml:NameIdentifier ...>[email protected]</saml:NameIdentifier> <saml:SubjectConfirmation> <saml:ConfirmationMethod> urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:1.0:cm:bearer </saml:ConfirmationMethod> </saml:SubjectConfirmation> </saml:Subject> </saml:AuthnStatement> <dsig:Signature> ... </dsig:Signature> </saml:Assertion></samlp:Response> OAMLDAPPluginAuthnScheme as Authentication Scheme For this test, I will switch the default Authentication Scheme for the SP Partner to OAMLDAPPluginAuthnScheme instead of LDAPScheme. I will use the OIF WLST setSPPartnerDefaultScheme() command and specify which scheme to be used as the default for the SP Partner: Enter the WLST environment by executing:$IAM_ORACLE_HOME/common/bin/wlst.sh Connect to the WLS Admin server:connect() Navigate to the Domain Runtime branch:domainRuntime() Execute the setSPPartnerDefaultScheme() command:setSPPartnerDefaultScheme("AcmeSP", "OAMLDAPPluginAuthnScheme") Exit the WLST environment:exit() The user will be challenged via FORM defined in the OAMLDAPPluginAuthnScheme for AcmeSP. Contrarily to LDAPScheme, the OAMLDAPPluginAuthnScheme is not mapped by default to any Federation Authentication Methods (in the SP Partner Profile). As such, OIF/IdP will not be able to find a Federation Authentication Method and will set the method in the SAML Assertion to the OAM Authentication Scheme name. After authentication via FORM, OIF/IdP would issue an Assertion similar to (see the AuthenticationMethod set to OAMLDAPPluginAuthnScheme): <samlp:Response ...> <samlp:Status> <samlp:StatusCode Value="samlp:Success"/> </samlp:Status> <saml:Assertion Issuer="https://idp.com/oam/fed" ...> <saml:Conditions ...> <saml:AudienceRestriction> <saml:Audience>https://acme.com/sp/ssov11</saml:Audience> </saml:AudienceRestriction> </saml:Conditions> <saml:AuthnStatement AuthenticationInstant="2014-03-21T20:53:55Z" AuthenticationMethod="OAMLDAPPluginAuthnScheme"> <saml:Subject> <saml:NameIdentifier ...>[email protected]</saml:NameIdentifier> <saml:SubjectConfirmation> <saml:ConfirmationMethod> urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:1.0:cm:bearer </saml:ConfirmationMethod> </saml:SubjectConfirmation> </saml:Subject> </saml:AuthnStatement> <dsig:Signature> ... </dsig:Signature> </saml:Assertion></samlp:Response> Mapping OAMLDAPPluginAuthnScheme To map the OAMLDAPPluginAuthnScheme to the Federation Authentication Method urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:1.0:am:password for this SP Partner only, I will execute the addSPPartnerAuthnMethod() method: Enter the WLST environment by executing:$IAM_ORACLE_HOME/common/bin/wlst.sh Connect to the WLS Admin server:connect() Navigate to the Domain Runtime branch:domainRuntime() Execute the addSPPartnerAuthnMethod() command:addSPPartnerAuthnMethod("AcmeSP", "urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:1.0:am:password", "OAMLDAPPluginAuthnScheme") Exit the WLST environment:exit() After authentication via FORM, OIF/IdP would now issue an Assertion similar to (see that the method was changed from OAMLDAPPluginAuthnScheme to password): <samlp:Response ...> <samlp:Status> <samlp:StatusCode Value="samlp:Success"/> </samlp:Status> <saml:Assertion Issuer="https://idp.com/oam/fed" ...> <saml:Conditions ...> <saml:AudienceRestriction> <saml:Audience>https://acme.com/sp/ssov11</saml:Audience> </saml:AudienceRestriction> </saml:Conditions> <saml:AuthnStatement AuthenticationInstant="2014-03-21T20:53:55Z" AuthenticationMethod="urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:1.0:am:password"> <saml:Subject> <saml:NameIdentifier ...>[email protected]</saml:NameIdentifier> <saml:SubjectConfirmation> <saml:ConfirmationMethod> urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:1.0:cm:bearer </saml:ConfirmationMethod> </saml:SubjectConfirmation> </saml:Subject> </saml:AuthnStatement> <dsig:Signature> ... </dsig:Signature> </saml:Assertion></samlp:Response> LDAPScheme as Authentication Scheme I will now show that by defining a Federation Authentication Mapping at the Partner level, this now ignores all mappings defined at the SP Partner Profile level. For this test, I will switch the default Authentication Scheme for this SP Partner back to LDAPScheme, and the Assertion issued by OIF/IdP will not be able to map this LDAPScheme to a Federation Authentication Method anymore, since A Federation Authentication Method mapping is defined at the SP Partner level and thus the mappings defined at the SP Partner Profile are ignored The LDAPScheme is not listed in the mapping at the Partner level I will use the OIF WLST setSPPartnerDefaultScheme() command and specify which scheme to be used as the default for this SP Partner: Enter the WLST environment by executing:$IAM_ORACLE_HOME/common/bin/wlst.sh Connect to the WLS Admin server:connect() Navigate to the Domain Runtime branch:domainRuntime() Execute the setSPPartnerDefaultScheme() command:setSPPartnerDefaultScheme("AcmeSP", "LDAPScheme") Exit the WLST environment:exit() After authentication via FORM, OIF/IdP would issue an Assertion similar to (see the AuthenticationMethod set to LDAPScheme): <samlp:Response ...> <samlp:Status> <samlp:StatusCode Value="samlp:Success"/> </samlp:Status> <saml:Assertion Issuer="https://idp.com/oam/fed" ...> <saml:Conditions ...> <saml:AudienceRestriction> <saml:Audience>https://acme.com/sp/ssov11</saml:Audience> </saml:AudienceRestriction> </saml:Conditions> <saml:AuthnStatement AuthenticationInstant="2014-03-21T20:53:55Z" AuthenticationMethod="LDAPScheme"> <saml:Subject> <saml:NameIdentifier ...>[email protected]</saml:NameIdentifier> <saml:SubjectConfirmation> <saml:ConfirmationMethod> urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:1.0:cm:bearer </saml:ConfirmationMethod> </saml:SubjectConfirmation> </saml:Subject> </saml:AuthnStatement> <dsig:Signature> ... </dsig:Signature> </saml:Assertion></samlp:Response> Mapping LDAPScheme at Partner Level To fix this issue, we will need to add the LDAPScheme to the Federation Authentication Method urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:1.0:am:password mapping for this SP Partner only. I will execute the addSPPartnerAuthnMethod() method: Enter the WLST environment by executing:$IAM_ORACLE_HOME/common/bin/wlst.sh Connect to the WLS Admin server:connect() Navigate to the Domain Runtime branch:domainRuntime() Execute the addSPPartnerAuthnMethod() command:addSPPartnerAuthnMethod("AcmeSP", "urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:1.0:am:password", "LDAPScheme") Exit the WLST environment:exit() After authentication via FORM, OIF/IdP would now issue an Assertion similar to (see that the method was changed from LDAPScheme to password): <samlp:Response ...> <samlp:Status> <samlp:StatusCode Value="samlp:Success"/> </samlp:Status> <saml:Assertion Issuer="https://idp.com/oam/fed" ...> <saml:Conditions ...> <saml:AudienceRestriction> <saml:Audience>https://acme.com/sp/ssov11</saml:Audience> </saml:AudienceRestriction> </saml:Conditions> <saml:AuthnStatement AuthenticationInstant="2014-03-21T20:53:55Z" AuthenticationMethod="urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:1.0:am:password"> <saml:Subject> <saml:NameIdentifier ...>[email protected]</saml:NameIdentifier> <saml:SubjectConfirmation> <saml:ConfirmationMethod> urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:1.0:cm:bearer </saml:ConfirmationMethod> </saml:SubjectConfirmation> </saml:Subject> </saml:AuthnStatement> <dsig:Signature> ... </dsig:Signature> </saml:Assertion></samlp:Response> OpenID 2.0 In the OpenID 2.0 flows, the RP must request use of PAPE, in order for OIF/IdP/OP to include PAPE information. For OpenID 2.0, the configuration will involve mapping a list of OpenID 2.0 policies to a list of Authentication Schemes. The WLST command will take a list of policies, delimited by the ',' character, instead of SAML 2.0 or SAML 1.1 where a single Federation Authentication Method had to be specified. Test Setup In this setup, OIF is acting as an IdP/OP and is integrated with a remote OpenID 2.0 SP/RP partner identified by AcmeRP. In this test, I will perform Federation SSO with OIF/IdP configured to: Use LDAPScheme as the Authentication Scheme Map LDAPScheme to the http://schemas.openid.net/pape/policies/2007/06/phishing-resistant and http://openid-policies/password-protected policies Federation Authentication Methods (the second one is a custom for this use case) LDAPScheme as Authentication Scheme Using the OOTB settings regarding user authentication in OAM, the user will be challenged via a FORM based login page based on the LDAPScheme. No Federation Authentication Method is defined OOTB for OpenID 2.0, so if the IdP/OP issue an SSO response with a PAPE Response element, it will specify the scheme name instead of Federation Authentication Methods After authentication via FORM, OIF/IdP would issue an SSO Response similar to: https://acme.com/openid?refid=id-9PKVXZmRxAeDYcgLqPm36ClzOMA-&openid.ns=http%3A%2F%2Fspecs.openid.net%2Fauth%2F2.0&openid.mode=id_res&openid.op_endpoint=https%3A%2F%2Fidp.com%2Fopenid&openid.claimed_id=https%3A%2F%2Fidp.com%2Fopenid%3Fid%3Did-38iCmmlAVEXPsFjnFVKArfn5RIiF75D5doorhEgqqPM%3D&openid.identity=https%3A%2F%2Fidp.com%2Fopenid%3Fid%3Did-38iCmmlAVEXPsFjnFVKArfn5RIiF75D5doorhEgqqPM%3D&openid.return_to=https%3A%2F%2Facme.com%2Fopenid%3Frefid%3Did-9PKVXZmRxAeDYcgLqPm36ClzOMA-&openid.response_nonce=2014-03-24T19%3A20%3A06Zid-YPa2kTNNFftZkgBb460jxJGblk2g--iNwPpDI7M1&openid.assoc_handle=id-6a5S6zhAKaRwQNUnjTKROREdAGSjWodG1el4xyz3&openid.ns.ax=http%3A%2F%2Fopenid.net%2Fsrv%2Fax%2F1.0&openid.ax.mode=fetch_response&openid.ax.type.attr0=http%3A%2F%2Fsession%2Fcount&openid.ax.value.attr0=1&openid.ax.type.attr1=http%3A%2F%2Fopenid.net%2Fschema%2FnamePerson%2Ffriendly&openid.ax.value.attr1=My+name+is+Bobby+Smith&openid.ax.type.attr2=http%3A%2F%2Fschemas.openid.net%2Fax%2Fapi%2Fuser_id&openid.ax.value.attr2=bob&openid.ax.type.attr3=http%3A%2F%2Faxschema.org%2Fcontact%2Femail&openid.ax.value.attr3=bob%40oracle.com&openid.ax.type.attr4=http%3A%2F%2Fsession%2Fipaddress&openid.ax.value.attr4=10.145.120.253&openid.ns.pape=http%3A%2F%2Fspecs.openid.net%2Fextensions%2Fpape%2F1.0&openid.pape.auth_time=2014-03-24T19%3A20%3A05Z&openid.pape.auth_policies=LDAPScheme&openid.signed=op_endpoint%2Cclaimed_id%2Cidentity%2Creturn_to%2Cresponse_nonce%2Cassoc_handle%2Cns.ax%2Cax.mode%2Cax.type.attr0%2Cax.value.attr0%2Cax.type.attr1%2Cax.value.attr1%2Cax.type.attr2%2Cax.value.attr2%2Cax.type.attr3%2Cax.value.attr3%2Cax.type.attr4%2Cax.value.attr4%2Cns.pape%2Cpape.auth_time%2Cpape.auth_policies&openid.sig=mYMgbGYSs22l8e%2FDom9NRPw15u8%3D Mapping LDAPScheme To map the LDAP Scheme to the http://schemas.openid.net/pape/policies/2007/06/phishing-resistant and http://openid-policies/password-protected policies Federation Authentication Methods, I will execute the addSPPartnerAuthnMethod() method (the policies will be comma separated): Enter the WLST environment by executing:$IAM_ORACLE_HOME/common/bin/wlst.sh Connect to the WLS Admin server:connect() Navigate to the Domain Runtime branch:domainRuntime() Execute the addSPPartnerAuthnMethod() command:addSPPartnerAuthnMethod("AcmeRP", "http://schemas.openid.net/pape/policies/2007/06/phishing-resistant,http://openid-policies/password-protected", "LDAPScheme") Exit the WLST environment:exit() After authentication via FORM, OIF/IdP would now issue an Assertion similar to (see that the method was changed from LDAPScheme to the two policies): https://acme.com/openid?refid=id-9PKVXZmRxAeDYcgLqPm36ClzOMA-&openid.ns=http%3A%2F%2Fspecs.openid.net%2Fauth%2F2.0&openid.mode=id_res&openid.op_endpoint=https%3A%2F%2Fidp.com%2Fopenid&openid.claimed_id=https%3A%2F%2Fidp.com%2Fopenid%3Fid%3Did-38iCmmlAVEXPsFjnFVKArfn5RIiF75D5doorhEgqqPM%3D&openid.identity=https%3A%2F%2Fidp.com%2Fopenid%3Fid%3Did-38iCmmlAVEXPsFjnFVKArfn5RIiF75D5doorhEgqqPM%3D&openid.return_to=https%3A%2F%2Facme.com%2Fopenid%3Frefid%3Did-9PKVXZmRxAeDYcgLqPm36ClzOMA-&openid.response_nonce=2014-03-24T19%3A20%3A06Zid-YPa2kTNNFftZkgBb460jxJGblk2g--iNwPpDI7M1&openid.assoc_handle=id-6a5S6zhAKaRwQNUnjTKROREdAGSjWodG1el4xyz3&openid.ns.ax=http%3A%2F%2Fopenid.net%2Fsrv%2Fax%2F1.0&openid.ax.mode=fetch_response&openid.ax.type.attr0=http%3A%2F%2Fsession%2Fcount&openid.ax.value.attr0=1&openid.ax.type.attr1=http%3A%2F%2Fopenid.net%2Fschema%2FnamePerson%2Ffriendly&openid.ax.value.attr1=My+name+is+Bobby+Smith&openid.ax.type.attr2=http%3A%2F%2Fschemas.openid.net%2Fax%2Fapi%2Fuser_id&openid.ax.value.attr2=bob&openid.ax.type.attr3=http%3A%2F%2Faxschema.org%2Fcontact%2Femail&openid.ax.value.attr3=bob%40oracle.com&openid.ax.type.attr4=http%3A%2F%2Fsession%2Fipaddress&openid.ax.value.attr4=10.145.120.253&openid.ns.pape=http%3A%2F%2Fspecs.openid.net%2Fextensions%2Fpape%2F1.0&openid.pape.auth_time=2014-03-24T19%3A20%3A05Z&openid.pape.auth_policies=http%3A%2F%2Fschemas.openid.net%2Fpape%2Fpolicies%2F2007%2F06%2Fphishing-resistant+http%3A%2F%2Fopenid-policies%2Fpassword-protected&openid.signed=op_endpoint%2Cclaimed_id%2Cidentity%2Creturn_to%2Cresponse_nonce%2Cassoc_handle%2Cns.ax%2Cax.mode%2Cax.type.attr0%2Cax.value.attr0%2Cax.type.attr1%2Cax.value.attr1%2Cax.type.attr2%2Cax.value.attr2%2Cax.type.attr3%2Cax.value.attr3%2Cax.type.attr4%2Cax.value.attr4%2Cns.pape%2Cpape.auth_time%2Cpape.auth_policies&openid.sig=mYMgbGYSs22l8e%2FDom9NRPw15u8%3D In the next article, I will cover how OIF/IdP can be configured so that an SP can request a specific Federation Authentication Method to challenge the user during Federation SSO.Cheers,Damien Carru

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Automating XNA Performance Testing?

- by Grofit

I was wondering what peoples approaches or thoughts were on automating performance testing in XNA. Currently I am looking at only working in 2d, but that poses many areas where performance can be improved with different implementations. An example would be if you had 2 different implementations of spatial partitioning, one may be faster than another but without doing some actual performance testing you wouldn't be able to tell which one for sure (unless you saw the code was blatantly slow in certain parts). You could write a unit test which for a given time frame kept adding/updating/removing entities for both implementations and see how many were made in each timeframe and the higher one would be the faster one (in this given example). Another higher level example would be if you wanted to see how many entities you can have on the screen roughly without going beneath 60fps. The problem with this is to automate it you would need to use the hidden form trick or some other thing to kick off a mock game and purely test which parts you care about and disable everything else. I know that this isnt a simple affair really as even if you can automate the tests, really it is up to a human to interpret if the results are performant enough, but as part of a build step you could have it run these tests and publish the results somewhere for comparison. This way if you go from version 1.1 to 1.2 but have changed a few underlying algorithms you may notice that generally the performance score would have gone up, meaning you have improved your overall performance of the application, and then from 1.2 to 1.3 you may notice that you have then dropped overall performance a bit. So has anyone automated this sort of thing in their projects, and if so how do you measure your performance comparisons at a high level and what frameworks do you use to test? As providing you have written your code so its testable/mockable for most parts you can just use your tests as a mechanism for getting some performance results... === Edit === Just for clarity, I am more interested in the best way to make use of automated tests within XNA to track your performance, not play testing or guessing by manually running your game on a machine. This is completely different to seeing if your game is playable on X hardware, it is more about tracking the change in performance as your game engine/framework changes. As mentioned in one of the comments you could easily test "how many nodes can I insert/remove/update within QuadTreeA within 2 seconds", but you have to physically look at these results every time to see if it has changed, which may be fine and is still better than just relying on playing it to see if you notice any difference between version. However if you were to put an Assert in to notify you of a fail if it goes lower than lets say 5000 in 2 seconds you have a brittle test as it is then contextual to the hardware, not just the implementation. Although that being said these sort of automated tests are only really any use if you are running your tests as some sort of build pipeline i.e: Checkout - Run Unit Tests - Run Integration Tests - Run Performance Tests - Package So then you can easily compare the stats from one build to another on the CI server as a report of some sort, and again this may not mean much to anyone if you are not used to Continuous Integration. The main crux of this question is to see how people manage this between builds and how they find it best to report upon. As I said it can be subjective but as knowledge will be gained from the answers it seems a worthwhile question.

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Connecting Linux to WatchGuard Firebox SSL (OpenVPN client)

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

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System can't sleep, can't shutdown (might be networking related)

- by Kevin Q

I speculate it's networking related since I could only shut down my system if I do /etc/init.d/networking stop first. If I tried to put the system to sleep, it disconnect the network then reconnect it automatically, never goes to sleep. I uninstalled the network manager, then /etc/init.d/networking stop will not help shutdown the system anymore. When I boot into the OS, there were some warning about Unknown job:S20acpid,S20network-interface, S20network-manager . I got some advices to do update-rc.d -f to remove all those script, which I am not certain if it's right thing to do. The messages are gone but the problem remains. When I tried to restart, I used to get this message It doesn't seem to be the modem manager since I later removed it. Once upon a time, the fronze shutting down/restarting can be restarted when I presses Ctrl+Alt+Delete, and it says something like networking is stopped externally. If I log in single user mode, and shutdown or reboot, it show this screen I also tried GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT = "acpi=force" This is a Ubuntu 12.04 running on Thinkpad T520, not new installation, no such problems occurred before.

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SOA Suite 11g Asynchronous Testing with soapUI

- by Greg Mally

Overview The Enterprise Manager test harness that comes bundled with SOA Suite 11g is a great tool for doing smoke tests and some minor load testing. When a more robust testing tool is needed, often times soapUI is leveraged for many reasons ranging from ease of use to cost effective. However, when you want to start doing some more complex testing other than synchronous web services with static content, then the free version of soapUI becomes a bit more challenging. In this blog I will show you how to test asynchronous web services with soapUI free edition. The following assumes that you have a working knowledge of soapUI and will not go into concepts like setting up a project etc. For the basics, please review the documentation for soapUI: http://www.soapui.org/Getting-Started/ Asynchronous Web Service Testing in soapUI When invoking an asynchronous web service, the caller must provide a callback for the response. Since our testing will originate from soapUI, then it is only natural that soapUI would provide the callback mechanism. This mechanism in soapUI is called a MockService. In a nutshell, a soapUI MockService is a simulation of a Web Service (aka, a process listening on a port). We will go through the steps in setting up the MockService for a simple asynchronous BPEL process. After creating your soapUI project based on an asynchronous BPEL process, you will see something like the following: Notice that soapUI created an interface for both the request and the response (i.e., callback). The interface that was created for the callback will be used to create the MockService. Right-click on the callback interface and select the Generate MockService menu item: You will be presented with the Generate MockService dialogue where we will tweak the Path and possibly the port (depends upon what ports are available on the machine where soapUI will be running). We will adjust the Path to include the operation name (append /processResponse in this example) and the port of 8088 is fine: Once the MockService is created, you should have something like the following in soapUI: This window acts as a console/view into the callback process. When the play button is pressed (green triangle in the upper left-hand corner), soapUI will start a process running on the configured Port that will accept web service invocations on the configured Path: At this point we are “almost” ready to try out the asynchronous test. But first we must provide the web service addressing (WS-A) configuration on the request message. We will edit the message for the request interface that was generated when the project was created (SimpleAsyncBPELProcessBinding > process > Request 1 in this example). At the bottom of the request message editor you will find the WS-A configuration by left-clicking on the WS-A label: Here we will setup WS-A by changing the default values to: Must understand: TRUE Add default wsa:Action: Add default wsa:Action (checked) Reply to: ${host where soapUI is running}:${MockService Port}${MockService Path} … in this example: http://192.168.1.181:8088/mockSimpleAsyncBPELProcessCallbackBinding/processResponse We now are ready to run the asynchronous test from soapUI free edition. Make sure that the MockService you created is running and then push the play button for the request (green triangle in the upper left-hand corner of the request editor). If everything is configured correctly, you should see the response show up in the MockService window: To view the response message/payload, just double-click on a response message in the Message Log window of the MockService: At this point you can now expand the project to include a Test Suite for some load balance tests etc. This same topic has been covered in various detail on other sites/blogs, but I wanted to simplify and detail how this is done in the context of SOA Suite 11g. It also serves as a nice introduction to another blog of mine: SOA Suite 11g Dynamic Payload Testing with soapUI Free Edition.

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CodePlex Daily Summary for Wednesday, May 12, 2010

CodePlex Daily Summary for Wednesday, May 12, 2010New ProjectsAMP (Adamo Media Player): AMP is a custom media player that specializes in large media collections! Change the way you manage your media!BoogiePartners: BoogiePartners provides a loose collection of utilities or extensions for Boogie and SpecSharp developers.C# Developer Utility Library: Collection of helpful code functions including zero-config rolling file logging, parameter validation, reflection & object construction, I18N count...Commerce Server 2009 Orders using Pipelines in a Console Application: Using Commerce Server 2009 outside of a Web Application this project show how to create dummy Orders using Pipelines in a NON WEB CONTEXT, an examp...CRM Queue Manager C#: CRM 4 Queue Manager written in C#. Based on the original VB.Net CRM Queue Manager with some changes, additions and feature changes. Converts emai...DbBuilder: This is a tool indended for creation of MS SQL database from scratch, incremental updates, management of redeployable objects, etc. using scripted ...DbNetData: A collection of cross vendor database interface classes for .NET written in C# providing a consistent and simplified way of accessing SQL Server,Or...Deploy Workflow Manager: Kick off a workflow associated with a SharePoint List on all list items at once. SharePoint Designer Workflows will also be included. This projec...DigiLini - digital on screen ruler: Handy desktop tool for everyone who does ever do something graphical on his computer. There is an sizable horizontal and vertial ruler. You can pos...Dynamic Grid Data Type for Umbraco: The Dynamic Grid Data Type for Umbraco is a custom ASCX/C# control that was created to store tabular data as an Umbraco "Data Type". There's an abi...FlashPlus: An extension for Google Chrome and a bookmarklet for Internet Explorer and Firefox, this project makes media content on browsers more usable. This...Flat Database: Simple project making it really quick and easy, to implement a simple flat-file database for an application.Flood Watch Spam Control: Flood watch is a C# based application meant to help prevent site black listings. This application monitors outbound smtp streams, if a stream excee...Gamebox: gameboxKill Bill: Kill Bill covers the areas of customers, suppliers, products, sales and administration divided into modules which together form the system for the ...KND Decoder: Der KND Decoder konvertiert die lästigen Zahlenwerte, in den Java Dateien vom Knuddels Applet, zu lesbaren Strings. Die neue dekodier Methode wurde...Moonbeam: D3D11 FrameworkSite Defender: Add-on for blogs or anywhere else there could be people spamming your website.sMODfix: -Stringzilla: A string formatting classes designed for .NET 4 to enable named string formatting and conditional string formatting options based upon bound data c...The CQRS Kitchen: The CQRS Kitchen is an example application build with Silverlight 4 that demonstrates how to implement a CQRS / Event Sourcing application with the...XELF Framework for XNA / .NET: XELF Framework for XNA / .NET 　XNA Game Studioおよび.NET Framework用のライブラリ・フレームワークとしてXELFが開発したC#ソースコードを含むプロジェクトです。　現在は、「XELF.Framework」のWindows用XNA G...xxxxxxxxx: xxxxxxxNew ReleasesASP.NET MVC 2 - CommonLibrary.CMS: CommonLibrary CMS - Alpha: CommonLibrary CMSA simple yet powerful CMS system in ASP.NET MVC 2 using C# 3.5. ActiveRecord based support for Blogs, Widgets, Pages, Parts, Ev...ASP.NET MVC Extensions: v1.0 RTM: v1.0 RTMAWS SimpleDB Browser: Release 2: Miscellaneous fixes from the Alpha release. Built to work with the released version of the .Net Framework 4.0.BIDS Helper: 1.4.3.0: This release addresses the following issues: For some people the BIDS Helper extensions to the Project Properties page for the SSIS Deploy plugin w...Bojinx: Bojinx Core V4.5.13: Fixes / Enhancements: Sequencer now accepts Commands directly without using events. Command queue now accepts both events and commands EventBu...CF-Soft: TestCases_DROP1: TestCases_DROP1CodePlex Runtime Intelligence Integration: PreEmptive.Attributes distributable: Contains a signed redistributable version of the PreEmptive.Attributes.dll library that non .NET 4 applications can use support in-code instrumenta...Convection Game Engine (Basic Edition): Convection Basic (44772): Compiled version of Convection Basic change set 44772.CRM Queue Manager C#: Initial release: Initial release of the CRM Queue Manager in C#. Release includes both the installer as well as the latest source code in zippped format. Running...DbNetData: DbNetData.1.0: Initial releaseDigiLini - digital on screen ruler: DigiLini 1.0: First stable version.Facturator - Create invoices easy and fast: Facturator.zip: current stable versionFlat Database: Initial Release: This is the working initial release of FlatDBKharaPOS: MSDN Magazine Sample: This is the release that supports the MSDN magazine article "Enterprise Patterns with WCF RIA Services. Some of the project was affected by the upg...Let's Up: 1.1 (Build 100511): - Add short and long break feature.Mesopotamia Experiment: Mesopotamia 1.2.88: Primarly bug fixes... Bug Fixes - fixed bug in synapse mutating whereby new ones were of one side only eg, source or target - fixed bug in screen ...NodeXL: Network Overview, Discovery and Exploration for Excel: NodeXL Class Libraries, version 1.0.1.123: The NodeXL class libraries can be used to display network graphs in .NET applications. To include a NodeXL network graph in a WPF desktop or Windo...NodeXL: Network Overview, Discovery and Exploration for Excel: NodeXL Excel 2007 Template, version 1.0.1.123: The NodeXL Excel 2007 template displays a network graph using edge and vertex lists stored in an Excel 2007 workbook. What's NewThis version makes...Over Store: OverStore 1.18.0.0: Version number is increased. New callback events added: Persisting and Persisted, which are raised on actually writing object data into the stora...Reusable Library: V1.0.7: A collection of reusable abstractions for enterprise application developerReusable Library Demo: V1.0.5: A demonstration of reusable abstractions for enterprise application developerRuntime Intelligence Endpoint Starter Kit: Runtime Intelligence Endpoint Starter Kit 20100511: Added crossdomain policy files so Silverlight applications can send usage data from anywhere.Scorm2CC: SCORM2CC Release 0.12.0.58711 net-2.0 Alpha: SCORM2CC Release 0.12.0.58711 net-2.0 AlphaShake - C# Make: Shake v0.1.14: Updated API to match with the current documentation.SharePoint LogViewer: SharePoint Log Viewer 2.6: This is a maintenance release. It has bug several fixes.Site Directory for SharePoint 2010 (from Microsoft Consulting Services, UK): v1.4: As 1.3 with the following changes Addition of a 'Site Data' webpart Site Directory can now be a site collection root or sub-site Scan job now ...sMODfix: sMODfix v1.0: Basic Versionsmtp4dev: smtp4dev 2.0: Smtp4dev 2.0 is powered by a completely re-written server component and now offers SSL/TLS and AUTH support.SocialScapes: SocialScapes Sidebar 1.0: The SocialScapes Sidebar is the first release of the new SocialScapes suite. There will be more modules to come along with a complete data aggrega...SSIS Multiple Hash: Multiple Hash V1.2: This is version 1.2 of the Multiple Hash SSIS Component. It supports SQL 2005 and SQL 2008, although you have to download the correct install pack...Surfium: Beta build: Somehow testedTerminals: Terminals 1.9a - RDP6 Support: The major change in this release is that Terminals has been upgraded to require RDP Client 6 to be installed for creating RDP connections. Backward...TFS Compare: Release 3.0: This release provides a new feature - the ability to navigate back and forth between document differences. Also, this release provides support for...VCC: Latest build, v2.1.30511.0: Automatic drop of latest buildyoutubeFisher: youtubeFisher v2.0: What's new new method of youtube parameters capturing HD 720p video support full-HD 1080p video support add Cancel option to stop file downl...Most Popular ProjectsWBFS ManagerRawrAJAX Control ToolkitMicrosoft SQL Server Product Samples: DatabaseSilverlight ToolkitWindows Presentation Foundation (WPF)patterns & practices – Enterprise LibraryMicrosoft SQL Server Community & SamplesPHPExcelASP.NETMost Active Projectspatterns & practices – Enterprise LibraryMirror Testing SystemRawrThe Information Literacy Education Learning Environment (ILE)Caliburn: An Application Framework for WPF and SilverlightwhiteBlogEngine.NETPHPExceljQuery Library for SharePoint Web ServicesTweetSharp

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Software development stack 2012

A couple of months ago, I posted on Google+ about my evaluation period for a new software development stack in general. "Analysing existing 'jungle' of multiple applications and tools in various languages for clarification and future design decisions. Great fun and lots of headaches... #DevelopersLife" Surprisingly, there was response... ;-) - And this series of articles is initiated by this post. Thanks Olaf. The past few years... Well, after all my first choice of software development in the past was Microsoft Visual FoxPro 6.0 - 9.0 in combination with Microsoft SQL Server 2000 - 2008 and Crystal Reports 9.x - XI. Honestly, it is my main working environment due to exisiting maintenance and support plans with my customers, but also for new project requests. And... hands on, it is still my first choice for data manipulation and migration options. But the earth is spinning, and as a software craftsman one has to be flexible with the choice of tools. In parallel to my knowledge and expertise in the above mentioned tools, I already started very early to get my hands dirty with the Microsoft .NET Framework. If I remember correctly, I started back in 2002/2003 with the first version ever. But this was more out of curiousity. During the years this kind of development got more serious and demanding, and I focused myself on interop and integrational libraries and applications. Mainly, to expose exisitng features of the .NET Framework to Visual FoxPro - I even had a session about that at the German Developer's Conference in Frankfurt. Observation of recent developments With the recent hype on Javascript and HTML5, especially for Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8 development, I had several 'Deja vu' events... Back in early 2006 (roughly) I had a conversation on the future of Web and Desktop development with my former colleagues Golo Roden and Thomas Wilting about the underestimation of Javascript and its root as a prototype-based, dynamic, full-featured programming language. During this talk with them I took the Mozilla applications, namely Firefox and Thunderbird, as a reference which are mainly based on XML, CSS, Javascript and images - besides the core rendering engine. And that it is very simple to write your own extensions for the Gecko rendering engine. Looking at the Windows Vista Sidebar widgets, just underlines this kind of usage. So, yes the 'Modern UI' of Windows 8 based on HTML5, CSS3 and Javascript didn't come as any surprise to me. Just allow me to ask why did it take so long for Microsoft to come up with this step? A new set of tools Ok, coming from web development in HTML 4, CSS and Javascript prior to Visual FoxPro, I am partly going back to that combination of technologies. What is the other part of the software development stack here at IOS Indian Ocean Software Ltd? Frankly, it is easy and straight forward to describe: Microsoft Visual FoxPro 9.0 SP 2 - still going strong! Visual Studio 2012 (C# on latest .NET Framework) MonoDevelop Telerik DevCraft Suite WPF ASP.NET MVC Windows 8 Kendo UI OpenAccess ORM Reporting JustCode CODE Framework by EPS Software MonoTouch and Mono for Android Subversion and additional tools for the daily routine: Notepad++, JustCode, SQL Compare, DiffMerge, VMware, etc. Following the principles of Clean Code Developer and the Agile Manifesto Actually, nothing special about this combination but rather a solid fundament to work with and create line of business applications for customers.Honestly, I am really interested in your choice of 'weapons' for software development, and hopefully there might be some nice conversations in the comment section. Over the next coming days/weeks I'm going to describe a little bit more in detail about the reasons for my decision. Articles will be added bit by bit here as reference, too. Please bear with me... Regards, JoKi

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Keep Oracle VM 3 Up to Date

- by Honglin Su

More and more customers turn to Oracle VM 3 to virtualize their enterprise applications. Oracle VM support subscription is an integrated part of their successes. Customers enjoy the benefit of the industry-leading global support 24x7 for their server virtualization implementation, and receive access to patches, fixes, and updates via Unbreakable Linux Network (ULN). For customers running Oracle systems, Oracle VM support is included in Oracle Premium Support for Systems at no extra cost, and customers receive comprehensive systems coverage that includes single point accountability for Oracle server and storage hardware; integrated software (for example, firmware); and operating system software (Oracle Solaris, Oracle Linux, and Oracle VM). To run a successful virtualization infrastructure, it's important to keep Oracle VM 3 environment up to date by leveraging Oracle VM support resources. Oracle VM Server Updates: You can easily upgrade Oracle VM Server using a Yum repository. You can download the latest server patch updates from ULN. To receive notification on the software update delivered to Oracle ULN for Oracle VM, you can sign up here. For information on setting up an Oracle VM Server Yum repository and using Oracle VM Manager to perform the upgrade of Oracle VM Servers, see Updating and Upgrading Oracle VM Servers in the Oracle VM User's Guide . Oracle VM Manager Updates: Get the download instructions at OTN, and apply latest Oracle VM Manager patch. Be sure to review the patch README before you apply the patches. Support customers have access to extremely valuable knowledge notes from My Oracle Support. They are the first to receive useful tips to help address issues in Oracle VM deployments. For example, Upgrade to Oracle VM 3.1.1 using Yum Repository may cause network configuration scripts to be renamed causing network failure after reboot (Doc ID 1464126.1) Oracle VM server reboots after network becomes unresponsive due to deep C-State power management setting (Doc ID 1440197.1) For more information about Oracle's virtualization, visit oracle.com/virtualization.

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Amazon Product Advertising API SOAP Namespace Changes

- by Rick Strahl

About two months ago (twowards the end of February 2012 I think) Amazon decided to change the namespace of the Product Advertising API. The error that would come up was: <ItemSearchResponse > was not expected. If you've used the Amazon Product Advertising API you probably know that Amazon has made it a habit to break the services every few years or so and I guess last month was about the time for another one. Basically the service namespace of the document has been changed and responses from the service just failed outright even though the rest of the schema looks fine. Now I looked around for a while trying to find a recent update to the Product Advertising API - something semi-official looking but everything is dated around 2009. Really??? And it's not just .NET - the newest thing on the sample/APIs is dated early 2011 and a handful of 2010 samples. There are newer full APIs for the 'cloud' offerings, but the Product Advertising API apparently isn't part of that. After searching for quite a bit trying to trace this down myself and trying some of the newer samples (which also failed) I found an obscure forum post that describes the solution of getting past the namespace issue. FWIW, I've been using an old version of the Product Advertising API using the old Microsoft WSE3 services (pre-WCF), which provides some of the WS* security features required by the Amazon service. The fix for this code is to explicitly override the namespace declaration on each of the imported service method signatures. The old service namespace (at least on my build) was: http://webservices.amazon.com/AWSECommerceService/2009-03-31 and it should be changed to: http://webservices.amazon.com/AWSECommerceService/2011-08-01 Change it on the class header:[Microsoft.Web.Services3.Messaging.SoapService("http://webservices.amazon.com/AWSECommerceService/2011-08-01")] [System.Xml.Serialization.XmlIncludeAttribute(typeof(Property[]))] [System.Xml.Serialization.XmlIncludeAttribute(typeof(BrowseNode[]))] [System.Xml.Serialization.XmlIncludeAttribute(typeof(TransactionItem[]))] public partial class AWSECommerceService : Microsoft.Web.Services3.Messaging.SoapClient { and on all method signatures:[Microsoft.Web.Services3.Messaging.SoapMethodAttribute("http://soap.amazon.com/ItemSearch")] [return: System.Xml.Serialization.XmlElementAttribute("ItemSearchResponse", Namespace="http://webservices.amazon.com/AWSECommerceService/2011-08-01")] public ItemSearchResponse ItemSearch(ItemSearch ItemSearch1) { Microsoft.Web.Services3.SoapEnvelope results = base.SendRequestResponse("ItemSearch", ItemSearch1); return ((ItemSearchResponse)(results.GetBodyObject(typeof(ItemSearchResponse), this.SoapServiceAttribute.TargetNamespace))); } It's easy to do with a Search and Replace on the above strings. Amazon Services <rant> FWIW, I've not been impressed by Amazon's service offerings. While the services work well, their documentation and tool support is absolutely horrendous. I was recently working with a customer on an old AWS application and their old API had been completely removed with a new API that wasn't even a close match. One old API call resulted in requiring three different APIs to perform the same functionality. We had to re-write the entire piece from scratch essentially. The documentation was downright wrong, and incomplete and so scattered it was next to impossible to follow. The examples weren't examples at all - they're mockups of real service calls with fake data that didn't even provide everything that was required to make same service calls work. Additionally there appears to be just about no public support from Amazon, only peer support which is sparse at best - and getting a hold of somebody at Amazon, even for pay seems to be mythical task. It's a terrible business model they have going. I can't see why anybody would put themselves through this sort of customer and development experience. Sad really, but an experience we see more and more these days. Nobody puts in the time to document anything anymore, leaving it to devs to figure this stuff out over and over again… </rant>© Rick Strahl, West Wind Technologies, 2005-2012Posted in CSharp Web Services Tweet !function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js";fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document,"script","twitter-wjs"); (function() { var po = document.createElement('script'); po.type = 'text/javascript'; po.async = true; po.src = 'https://apis.google.com/js/plusone.js'; var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(po, s); })();

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Top 10 Architect Community Articles for May 2014

- by OTN ArchBeat

One of the things I get to do as an OTN community manager is work with members of the architect community who want to spend extra time pounding the keyboard and risking carpal tunnel syndrome to publish articles on OTN. These articles typically cover—but are not limited to—middleware technologies (the other OTN community managers cover other technologies and product areas). Naturally, we track the popularity of these articles and use that information to help guide editorial decisions about the many article submissions we get. The list below represents the Top 10 most popular architect community articles for May 2014. (This list reflects only articles published between June 1, 2013 and May 31, 2014.) Cookbook: Installing and Configuring Oracle BI Applications 11.1.1.7.1 [August 2013] by Mark Rittman and Kevin McGinley Enterprise Service Bus [July 2013] by Jürgen Kress, Berthold Maier, Hajo Normann, Danilo Schmeidel, Guido Schmutz, Bernd Trops, Clemens Utschig-Utschig, Torsten Winterberg Back Up a Thousand Databases Using Enterprise Manager Cloud Control 12c [January 2014] by Porus Homi Havewala Set Up and Manage Oracle Data Guard using Oracle Enterprise Manager Cloud Control 12c [August 2013] by Porus Homi Havewala SOA and Cloud Computing [April 2014] by Jürgen Kress, Berthold Maier, Hajo Normann, Danilo Schmeidel, Guido Schmutz, Bernd Trops, Clemens Utschig-Utschig, Torsten Winterberg Building a Responsive WebCenter Portal Application [April 2014] by JayJay Zheng Using WebLogic 12c with Netbeans IDE by Markus Eisele Making the Move from Oracle Warehouse Builder to Oracle Data Integrator 12c by Stewart Bryson A Real-World Guide to Invoking OSB and EDN using C++ and Web Services [January 2014] by Sebastian Lik-Keung Ma Why Would Anyone Want to be an Architect? [May 2014] by Bob Rhubart If this list leaves you feeling inspired to write a technical article for OTN, or if you have questions about the process, drop me line in the comments section, below. I'll get back to you ASAP.

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A Reusable Builder Class for Javascript Testing

- by Liam McLennan

Continuing on my series of builders for C# and Ruby here is the solution in Javascript. This is probably the implementation with which I am least happy. There are several parts that did not seem to fit the language. This time around I didn’t bother with a testing framework, I just append some values to the page with jQuery. Here is the test code: var initialiseBuilder = function() { var builder = builderConstructor(); builder.configure({ 'Person': function() { return {name: 'Liam', age: 26}}, 'Property': function() { return {street: '127 Creek St', manager: builder.a('Person') }} }); return builder; }; var print = function(s) { $('body').append(s + '<br/>'); }; var build = initialiseBuilder(); // get an object liam = build.a('Person'); print(liam.name + ' is ' + liam.age); // get a modified object liam = build.a('Person', function(person) { person.age = 999; }); print(liam.name + ' is ' + liam.age); home = build.a('Property'); print(home.street + ' manager: ' + home.manager.name); and the implementation: var builderConstructor = function() { var that = {}; var defaults = {}; that.configure = function(d) { defaults = d; }; that.a = function(type, modifier) { var o = defaults[type](); if (modifier) { modifier(o); } return o; }; return that; }; I still like javascript’s syntax for anonymous methods, defaults[type]() is much clearer than the Ruby equivalent @defaults[klass].call(). You can see the striking similarity between Ruby hashes and javascript objects. I also prefer modifier(o) to the equivalent Ruby, yield o.

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SQL SERVER – Another lesser known feature of SQL Server Management Studio 2012 – Guest Post by Balmukund Lakhani

- by Pinal Dave

This is a fantastic blog post from my dear friend Balmukund ( blog | twitter | facebook ). He had presented a fantastic session in our last UG and there were lots of requests from attendees that he blogs about it. Well, here is the blog post about the same very popular UG session. Let us read the entire blog post in the voice of the Balmukund himself. In one of my previous guest blog on SQL Authority, I wrote about “Additional Connection Parameter” tab of login screen in SQL Server Management Studio (a.k.a. SSMS). On the similar lines, this blog is going to show little less known new feature of login main screen (“Connect to Server”) of SSMS 2012. You might have seen below screen countless times and you might wonder what is there is blog about in this simple screen. Well, continue reading and you would get the answer. Many times, DBA have to login to production server from non-regular machine, may be a developer’s workstation. Once you login to SQL, do your work and close the management studio. Do you know that your server name is saved in management studio? Of course, very useful feature because you may not like to type server name/IP address every time. Whatever servers you have connected, it would be stored by management studio. But sometime, it’s annoying! What you would do if you want SQL Server Management Studio to forget “all” the servers listed in drop down of Server name? To do that, you need to know how and where it’s stored. You can use one of my favorite tool from sysinternals called Process Monitor (also known as ProcMon) and easily figure out that this is stored in a file under your windows user profile. Below is the file in SQL 2008 R2 Management Studio. %appdata%\Microsoft\Microsoft SQL Server\100\Tools\Shell\SqlStudio.bin For SQL Server 2012, here is what we can see in ProcMon So, the path is %appdata%\Microsoft\Microsoft SQL Server\110\Tools\Shell\SqlStudio.bin So far, you might wonder, where is the new feature? I have been asked by many users to delete entries from SSMS “Connect to Server” server name list. Well, unofficially, you can delete the file directly which we found via ProcMon. Note that delete file to get rid of server list is not officially supported by Microsoft. Better way to achieve this is provided in SSMS 2012. To delete the servers from the list, highlight the name we want to delete (via keyboard or mouse) and then press delete key via keyboard. We can’t be multi-select and has to be done one by one. We can delete as many entries we want. I have delete few from first screenshot taken and here is the modified version. This is not available in SQL 2008 R2 and its previous version. This came from feedback given to SQL Server Product group. Hope you have learned something new today! Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.sqlauthority.com) Filed under: PostADay, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Server Management Studio, SQL Tips and Tricks, T SQL, Technology

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Are project managers useful in Scrum?

- by Martin Wickman

There are three roles defined in Scrum: Team, Product Owner and Scrum Master. There is no project manager, instead the project manager job is spread across the three roles. For instance: The Scrum Master: Responsible for the process. Removes impediments. The Product Owner: Manages and prioritizes the list of work to be done to maximize ROI. Represents all interested parties (customers, stakeholders). The Team: Self manage its work by estimating and distributing it among themselves. Responsible for meeting their own commitments. So in Scrum, there is no longer a single person responsible for project success. There is no command-and-control structure in place. That seems to baffle a lot of people, specifically those not used to agile methods, and of course, PM's. I'm really interested in this and what your experiences are, as I think this is one of the things that can make or break a Scrum implementation. Do you agree with Scrum that a project manager is not needed? Do you think such a role is still required? Why?

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How to Boot a VMware Virtual Machine from a USB Drive

- by Usman

Do you have an OS installed on your USB thumb drive? Booting from it in a VM is now possible, you’ll just have to use a simple trick to get it to work. Last week we showed you how to put Ubuntu on a USB drive in a separate partition, and we also discussed working with VMware Player (our favourite VM Client). But have you ever tried booting from a USB drive in VMWare? It doesn’t allow doing so, but we will force it to boot from a USB, with a bit of old geekery. If you remember, we have showed you how to boot from a USB drive even if your old PC doesn’t allow booting from one. That’s right, using Plop Boot Manager. All we need to do is to load the Plop ISO in VMware, attach and enable the USB drive in VMware, and finally select the USB option in Plop Boot Manager to boot from the USB. So, visit the Plop boot manager download site. HTG Explains: When Do You Need to Update Your Drivers? How to Make the Kindle Fire Silk Browser *Actually* Fast! Amazon’s New Kindle Fire Tablet: the How-To Geek Review

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Could not calculate upgrade from Maverick Meerkat to Natty Narwhal

- by xralf

I upgraded from Ubuntu Lucid Lynx to Maverick Meerkat with the following commands: sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade sudo apt-get install update-manager-core sudo vi /etc/update-manager/release-upgrades and changed the last line to Prompt=normal sudo do-release-upgrade -d This upgrade was OK. I decided to repeat the same steps and to upgrade Maverick Meerkat to Natty Narwhal. It ended with this message: Building data structures... Done Calculating the changes Calculating the changes Could not calculate the upgrade An unresolvable problem occurred while calculating the upgrade: Can not mark 'xubuntu-desktop' for upgrade This can be caused by: * Upgrading to a pre-release version of Ubuntu * Running the current pre-release version of Ubuntu * Unofficial software packages not provided by Ubuntu If none of this applies, then please report this bug against the 'update-manager' package and include the files in /var/log/dist-upgrade/ in the bug report. Restoring original system state Aborting Reading package lists... Done Building dependency tree Reading state information... Done Building data structures... Done === Command detached from window (Mon Nov 21 09:37:21 2011) === === Command terminated with exit status 1 (Mon Nov 21 09:37:21 2011) === How can I correct it?

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Announcing General Availability of the E-Business Suite Plug-in

- by Kenneth E.

Oracle E-Business Suite Application Technology Group (ATG) is pleased to announce the General Availability of Oracle E-Business Suite Plug-in 12.1.0.1.0, an integral part of Application Management Suite for Oracle E-Business Suite.The combination of Enterprise Manager 12c Cloud Control and the Application Management Suite combines functionality that was available in the standalone Application Management Pack for Oracle E-Business Suite and Application Change Management Pack for Oracle E-Business Suite with Oracle’s Real User Experience Insight product and the Configuration & Compliance capabilities to provide the most complete solution for managing Oracle E-Business Suite applications. The features that were available in the standalone management packs are now packaged into the Oracle E-Business Suite Plug-in, which is now fully certified with Oracle Enterprise Manager 12c Cloud Control. This latest plug-in extends Cloud Control with E-Business Suite specific system management capabilities and features enhanced change management support.Here is all the information you need to get started:EBS Plug-in 12.1.0.1.0 info -Full Announcement• E-Business Suite Plug-in 12.1.0.1 for Enterprise Manager 12c Now Available MOS -• Getting Started with Oracle E-Business Suite Plug-in, Release 12.1.0.1.0 (Doc ID 1434392.1)Documentation -• Oracle Application Management Pack for Oracle E-Business Suite Guide, Release 12.1.0.1.0Certification• Platforms and OS Release certification information is available from My Oracle Support via the Certification page. • Search using the official trademark name Oracle Application Management Pack for Oracle E-Business Suite and Release 12.1.0.1.0

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Lenovo X220 right click does not work with ubuntu 12.04

- by fulop

I am unable to right click with my new X220 Lenovo sub-notebook. I have read several workaround but even not know which one would help me. Can someone help me to find the solution or workaround? dpkg-buildpackage: export CFLAGS from dpkg-buildflags (origin: vendor): -g -O2 -fstack-protector --param=ssp-buffer-size=4 -Wformat -Wformat-security dpkg-buildpackage: export CPPFLAGS from dpkg-buildflags (origin: vendor): -D_FORTIFY_SOURCE=2 dpkg-buildpackage: export CXXFLAGS from dpkg-buildflags (origin: vendor): -g -O2 -fstack-protector --param=ssp-buffer-size=4 -Wformat -Wformat-security dpkg-buildpackage: export FFLAGS from dpkg-buildflags (origin: vendor): -g -O2 dpkg-buildpackage: export LDFLAGS from dpkg-buildflags (origin: vendor): -Wl,-Bsymbolic-functions -Wl,-z,relro dpkg-buildpackage: source package xserver-xorg-input-synaptics dpkg-buildpackage: source version 1.6.2-1ubuntu1~precise2 dpkg-buildpackage: source changed by Timo Aaltonen <[email protected]> dpkg-buildpackage: host architecture amd64 dpkg-source --before-build xserver-xorg-input-synaptics-1.6.2 fakeroot debian/rules clean dh clean --with quilt,autoreconf,xsf --builddirectory=build/ dh_testdir -O--builddirectory=build/ dh_auto_clean -O--builddirectory=build/ dh_quilt_unpatch -O--builddirectory=build/ Removing patch 131_reset-num_active_touches-on-deviceoff.patch Restoring src/synaptics.c Removing patch 130_dont_enable_rightbutton_area.patch Restoring conf/50-synaptics.conf Removing patch 129_disable_three_touch_tap.patch Restoring src/synaptics.c Removing patch 128_disable_three_click_action.patch Restoring src/synaptics.c Removing patch 126_ubuntu_xi22.patch Restoring configure.ac Removing patch 125_option_rec_revert.patch Restoring test/fake-symbols.h Restoring test/fake-symbols.c Removing patch 124_syndaemon_events.patch Restoring tools/syndaemon.c Removing patch 118_quell_error_msg.patch Restoring tools/synclient.c Restoring tools/syndaemon.c Removing patch 115_evdev_only.patch Restoring conf/50-synaptics.conf Removing patch 106_always_enable_vert_edge_scroll.patch Restoring src/synaptics.c Removing patch 104_always_enable_tapping.patch Restoring src/synaptics.c Removing patch 103_enable_cornertapping.patch Restoring src/synaptics.c Removing patch 101_resolution_detect_option.patch Restoring include/synaptics-properties.h Restoring man/synaptics.man Restoring src/synapticsstr.h Restoring src/properties.c Restoring src/synaptics.c Restoring tools/synclient.c Removing patch 02-do-not-use-synaptics-for-keyboards.patch Restoring conf/11-x11-synaptics.fdi No patches applied dh_autoreconf_clean -O--builddirectory=build/ dh_clean -O--builddirectory=build/ dpkg-source -b xserver-xorg-input-synaptics-1.6.2 dpkg-source: warning: no source format specified in debian/source/format, see dpkg-source(1) dpkg-source: info: using source format `1.0' dpkg-source: info: building xserver-xorg-input-synaptics using existing xserver-xorg-input-synaptics_1.6.2.orig.tar.gz dpkg-source: info: building xserver-xorg-input-synaptics in xserver-xorg-input-synaptics_1.6.2-1ubuntu1~precise2.diff.gz dpkg-source: warning: the diff modifies the following upstream files: autogen.sh docs/README.alps docs/tapndrag.dia docs/trouble-shooting.txt dpkg-source: info: use the '3.0 (quilt)' format to have separate and documented changes to upstream files, see dpkg-source(1) dpkg-source: info: building xserver-xorg-input-synaptics in xserver-xorg-input-synaptics_1.6.2-1ubuntu1~precise2.dsc debian/rules build dh build --with quilt,autoreconf,xsf --builddirectory=build/ dh_testdir -O--builddirectory=build/ dh_quilt_patch -O--builddirectory=build/ Applying patch 02-do-not-use-synaptics-for-keyboards.patch patching file conf/11-x11-synaptics.fdi Hunk #1 succeeded at 9 (offset 7 lines). Applying patch 101_resolution_detect_option.patch patching file include/synaptics-properties.h patching file man/synaptics.man patching file src/properties.c Hunk #3 succeeded at 787 (offset 6 lines). patching file src/synaptics.c Hunk #2 succeeded at 1403 (offset 3 lines). Hunk #3 succeeded at 1421 (offset 3 lines). patching file src/synapticsstr.h patching file tools/synclient.c Applying patch 103_enable_cornertapping.patch patching file src/synaptics.c Hunk #1 succeeded at 762 with fuzz 1 (offset 202 lines). Applying patch 104_always_enable_tapping.patch patching file src/synaptics.c Hunk #1 succeeded at 662 with fuzz 2 (offset 6 lines). Applying patch 106_always_enable_vert_edge_scroll.patch patching file src/synaptics.c Hunk #1 succeeded at 673 (offset 174 lines). Applying patch 115_evdev_only.patch patching file conf/50-synaptics.conf Hunk #1 succeeded at 14 with fuzz 2. Applying patch 118_quell_error_msg.patch patching file tools/synclient.c patching file tools/syndaemon.c Applying patch 124_syndaemon_events.patch patching file tools/syndaemon.c Applying patch 125_option_rec_revert.patch patching file test/fake-symbols.c patching file test/fake-symbols.h Applying patch 126_ubuntu_xi22.patch patching file configure.ac Applying patch 128_disable_three_click_action.patch patching file src/synaptics.c Hunk #1 succeeded at 671 (offset 174 lines). Applying patch 129_disable_three_touch_tap.patch patching file src/synaptics.c Hunk #1 succeeded at 665 (offset 32 lines). Applying patch 130_dont_enable_rightbutton_area.patch patching file conf/50-synaptics.conf Applying patch 131_reset-num_active_touches-on-deviceoff.patch patching file src/synaptics.c Applying patch 201-wait.patch patching file src/eventcomm.c Hunk #1 FAILED at 750. Hunk #2 FAILED at 775. Hunk #3 FAILED at 784. 3 out of 3 hunks FAILED -- rejects in file src/eventcomm.c Patch 201-wait.patch does not apply (enforce with -f) dh_quilt_patch: quilt --quiltrc /dev/null push -a || test $? = 2 returned exit code 1 make: *** [build] Error 25 dpkg-buildpackage: error: debian/rules build gave error exit status 2

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Using Live Data in Database Development Work

- by Phil Factor

Guest Editorial for Simple-Talk Newsletter... in which Phil Factor reacts with some exasperation when coming across a report that a majority of companies were still using financial and personal data for both developing and testing database applications. If you routinely test your development work using real production data that contains personal or financial information, you are probably being irresponsible, and at worst, risking a heavy financial penalty for your company. Surprisingly, over 80% of financial companies still do this. Plenty of data breaches and fraud have happened from the use of real data for testing, and a data breach is a nightmare for any organisation that suffers one. The cost of each data breach averages out at around $7.2 million in the US in notification, escalation, credit monitoring, fines, litigation, legal costs, and lost business due to customer churn, £1.9 million in the UK. 70% of data breaches are done from within the organisation. Real data can be exploited in a number of ways for malicious or criminal purposes. It isn't just the obvious use of items such as name and address, date of birth, social security number, and credit card and bank account numbers: Data can be exploited in many subtle ways, so there are excellent reasons to ensure that a high priority is given to the detection and prevention of any data breaches. You'll never successfully guess all the ways that real data can be exploited maliciously, or the ease with which it can be accessed. It would be silly to argue that developers never need access to a copy of the database containing live data. Developers sometimes need to track a bug that can only be replicated on the data from the live database. However, it has to be done in a very restrictive harness. The law makes no distinction between development and production databases when a data breach occurs, so the data has to be held with all appropriate security measures in place. In Europe, the use of personal data for testing requires the explicit consent of the people whose data is being held. There are federal standards such as GLBA, PCI DSS and HIPAA, and most US States have privacy legislation. The task of ensuring compliance and tight security in such circumstances is an expensive and time-consuming overhead. The developer is likely to suffer investigation if a data breach occurs, even if the company manages to stay in business. Ironically, the use of copies of live data isn't usually the most effective way to develop or test your data. Data is usually time-specific and isn't usually current by the time it is used for testing, Existing data doesn't help much for new functionality, and every time the data is refreshed from production, any test data is likely to be overwritten. Also, it is not always going to test all the 'edge' conditions that are likely to flush out bugs. You still have the task of simulating the dynamics of actual usage of the database, and here you have no alternative to creating 'spoofed' data. Because of the complexities of relational data, It used to be that there was no realistic alternative to developing and testing with live data. However, this is no longer the case. Real data can be obfuscated, or it can be created entirely from scratch. The latter process used to be impractical, now that there are plenty of third-party tools to choose from. The process of obfuscation isn't risk free. The process must access the live data, and the success of the obfuscation process has to be carefully monitored. Database data security isn't an exciting topic to you or I, but to a hacker it can be an all-consuming obsession, especially if there is financial or political gain involved. This is not the sort of adversary one would wish for and it is far better to accept, and work with, security restrictions that exist for using live data in database development work, especially when the tools exist to create large realistic database test data that can be better for several aspects of testing.

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Is rotating the lead developer a good or bad idea?

- by NickC

I work on a team that has been flat organizationally since it's creation several months ago. My manager is non-technical and this means that our whole team is responsible for decision-making. My manager is beginning to realize that there are several benefits to having a lead developer, both for his sake (a single point of contact and single responsible party for tasks) and ours (dispute resolution, organized technical guidance, etc.). Because the team has been flat, one concern is that picking one lead developer may discourage the others. A non-developer suggested to my manager that rotating the lead developer is a possible way to avoid this issue. One developer would be lead one month, another the next, and so on. Is this a good idea? Why or why not? Keep in mind that this means all developers — All developers are good, but not necessarily equally suited to leadership. And if it is not, how do I recommend that we avoid this approach without seeming like it's merely for selfish reasons?

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Are project managers useful in Scrum?

- by Martin Wickman

There are three roles defined in Scrum: Team, Product Owner and Scrum Master. There is no project manager, instead the project manager job is spread across the three roles. For instance: The Scrum Master: Responsible for the process. Removes impediments. The Product Owner: Manages and prioritizes the list of work to be done to maximize ROI. Represents all interested parties (customers, stakeholders). The Team: Self manage its work by estimating and distributing it among themselves. Responsible for meeting their own commitments. So in Scrum, there is no longer a single person responsible for project success. There is no command-and-control structure in place. That seems to baffle a lot of people, specifically those not used to agile methods, and of course, PM's. I'm really interested in this and what your experiences are, as I think this is one of the things that can make or break a Scrum implementation. Do you agree with Scrum that a project manager is not needed? Do you think such a role is still required? Why?

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Why can't I run Compiz?

- by jasoncruz98

I installed Ubuntu 11.10 on my laptop. The main reason I switched to Ubuntu is because I wanted to use Compiz. The first thing I did was to go to Additional Drivers and install ATI/AMD Proprietary FGRLX Graphics Driver. There was also another one available, ATI/AMD Proprietary FGRLX Graphics Driver (post-release updates), but I didn't install that one, because it basically meant the same thing to me as the one I already installed. Next, I went to the ubuntuguide.org Oneiric Wiki http://ubuntuguide.org/wiki/Ubuntu:Oneiric#Compiz_Fusion So I followed the instructions there and ran this command in terminal: sudo apt-get install compiz compizconfig-settings-manager compiz-fusion-plugins-main compiz-fusion-plugins-extra emerald librsvg2-common But then, the terminal window said that the package "emerald" could not be found. So, I ran this command instead: sudo apt-get install compiz compizconfig-settings-manager compiz-fusion-plugins-main compiz-fusion-plugins-extra After that, I installed Fusion Icon by running this command: sudo apt-get install fusion-icon I restarted my computer, searched for Compiz Config Settings Manager, and clicked on it. Then, I activated Wobbly Windows. I logged off and logged back on again, but there was no wobbly windows effect. So I tried clicking on Fusion Icon, but it never started. Can someone please tell me what I did wrong here? Because I see everyone seems to be able to run Compiz except me. I really need to start Compiz, or else I think I'm going to uninstall Ubuntu.

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C# : When to go Fluent

- by ach

In many respects I really like the idea of Fluent interfaces, but with all of the modern features of C# (initializers, lambdas, named parameters) I find myself thinking, "is it worth it?", and "Is this the right pattern to use?". Could anyone give me, if not an accepted practice, at least their own experience or decision matrix for when to use the Fluent pattern? Conclusion: Some good rules of thumb from the answers so far: Fluent interfaces help greatly when you have more actions than setters, since calls benefit more from the context pass-through. Fluent interfaces should be thought of as a layer over top of an api, not the sole means of use. The modern features such as lambdas, initializers, and named parameters, can work hand-in-hand to make a fluent interface even more friendly. ... Edit: Here is an example of what I mean by the modern features making it feel less needed. Take for example a (perhaps poor example) Fluent interface that allows me to create an Employee like: Employees.CreateNew().WithFirstName("Peter") .WihtLastName("Gibbons") .WithManager() .WithFirstName("Bill") .WithLastName("Lumbergh") .WithTitle("Manager") .WithDepartment("Y2K"); Could easily be written with initiallizers like: Employees.Add(new Employee() { FirstName = "Peter", LastName = "Gibbons", Manager = new Employee() { FirstName = "Bill", LastName = "Lumbergh", Title = "Manager", Department = "Y2K" } }); I could also have used named parameters in a constructors in this example.

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