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• Why is Windows Update trying to install an update I don't need?

  - by Oliver Salzburg

  I have a Windows 7 system that currently has a single update pending: Windows Internet Explorer 9 for Windows 7 for x64-based Systems If I try to install the update, Windows Update will: Create a restore point Fail with the error: Code 9C48 Windows Update encountered an error. The event log for the event reads: Installation Failure: Windows failed to install the following update with error 0x80070643: Windows Internet Explorer 9 for Windows 7 for x64-based Systems. If you search the web for that error, there are many other people with the exact same issue. Sadly, I am unable to apply the proposed solutions to my case, because I just installed this system. There is nothing on it, except Windows 7. I installed the system and ran through the updates. I also did the exact same process with this machine several times over the past few days due to a long-term test we just started. I didn't have any problems with any Windows Update on the previous installation runs and I know I didn't do anything different this time because I followed the installation procedures instructions which are to be used during the test. How did this happen and how do I solve it? Further Investigation So, as I always like to do, I ran the update again while running Process Monitor and dug up further details. WindowsUpdate.log First of all, there is a Windows Update log file located at C:\Windows\WindowsUpdate.log which I didn't know about. But I fail to see any significant entry in it, maybe you're more lucky: 2012-04-10 22:46:58:017 956 728 AU AU received approval from Ux for 1 updates 2012-04-10 22:46:58:017 956 728 AU AU setting pending client directive to 'Progress Ux' 2012-04-10 22:46:58:095 956 728 AU BeginInteractiveInstall invoked for Download 2012-04-10 22:46:58:095 956 728 AU Auto-approving update for download, updateId = {B33ACEC1-3265-4D01-9C37-AC0892E95ED9}.100, ForUx=1, IsOwnerUx=1, HasDeadline=0, IsMinor=0 2012-04-10 22:46:58:095 956 728 AU Auto-approved 1 update(s) for download (for Ux) 2012-04-10 22:46:58:110 956 728 AU UpdateDownloadProperties: 0 download(s) are still in progress. 2012-04-10 22:46:58:110 956 728 AU ############# 2012-04-10 22:46:58:110 956 728 AU ## START ## AU: Download updates 2012-04-10 22:46:58:110 956 728 AU ######### 2012-04-10 22:46:58:110 956 728 AU # Approved updates = 1 2012-04-10 22:46:58:110 956 728 AU AU initiated download, updateId = {B33ACEC1-3265-4D01-9C37-AC0892E95ED9}.100, callId = {35DF928B-B428-4BAC-8C63-55295967EFBB} 2012-04-10 22:46:58:110 956 728 AU Setting AU scheduled install time to 2012-04-11 01:00:00 2012-04-10 22:46:58:110 956 728 AU Successfully wrote event for AU health state:0 2012-04-10 22:46:58:110 956 728 AU Currently showing Progress UX client - so not launching any other client 2012-04-10 22:46:58:110 956 bb8 DnldMgr ************* 2012-04-10 22:46:58:110 956 bb8 DnldMgr ** START ** DnldMgr: Downloading updates [CallerId = AutomaticUpdatesWuApp] 2012-04-10 22:46:58:110 956 bb8 DnldMgr ********* 2012-04-10 22:46:58:110 956 bb8 DnldMgr * Call ID = {35DF928B-B428-4BAC-8C63-55295967EFBB} 2012-04-10 22:46:58:110 956 bb8 DnldMgr * Priority = 3, Interactive = 1, Owner is system = 0, Explicit proxy = 0, Proxy session id = 1, ServiceId = {9482F4B4-E343-43B6-B170-9A65BC822C77} 2012-04-10 22:46:58:110 956 bb8 DnldMgr * Updates to download = 1 2012-04-10 22:46:58:110 956 bb8 Agent * Title = Windows Internet Explorer 9 for Windows 7 for x64-based Systems 2012-04-10 22:46:58:110 956 bb8 Agent * UpdateId = {B33ACEC1-3265-4D01-9C37-AC0892E95ED9}.100 2012-04-10 22:46:58:110 956 bb8 Agent * Bundles 1 updates: 2012-04-10 22:46:58:110 956 bb8 Agent * {6D9A90B7-FAF9-4A47-9EFE-A506264873B3}.100 2012-04-10 22:46:58:110 956 bb8 DnldMgr *********** DnldMgr: New download job [UpdateId = {6D9A90B7-FAF9-4A47-9EFE-A506264873B3}.100] *********** 2012-04-10 22:46:58:110 956 728 AU Successfully wrote event for AU health state:0 2012-04-10 22:46:58:110 956 728 AU # Pending download calls = 1 2012-04-10 22:46:58:110 956 728 AU ## RESUMED ## AU: Download update [UpdateId = {B33ACEC1-3265-4D01-9C37-AC0892E95ED9}, succeeded] 2012-04-10 22:46:58:313 956 bb8 Agent ** END ** Agent: Downloading updates [CallerId = AutomaticUpdatesWuApp] 2012-04-10 22:46:58:313 956 bb8 Agent ************* 2012-04-10 22:46:58:313 956 718 AU ######### 2012-04-10 22:46:58:313 956 718 AU ## END ## AU: Download updates 2012-04-10 22:46:58:313 956 718 AU ############# 2012-04-10 22:46:58:313 956 718 AU Setting AU scheduled install time to 2012-04-11 01:00:00 2012-04-10 22:46:58:313 956 718 AU Successfully wrote event for AU health state:0 2012-04-10 22:46:58:313 956 718 AU Currently showing Progress UX client - so not launching any other client 2012-04-10 22:46:58:313 956 718 AU Successfully wrote event for AU health state:0 2012-04-10 22:46:58:313 956 aac AU Getting featured update notifications. fIncludeDismissed = true 2012-04-10 22:46:58:313 956 aac AU No featured updates available. 2012-04-10 22:47:00:107 956 aac AU BeginInteractiveInstall invoked for Install 2012-04-10 22:47:00:107 956 aac AU Auto-approving update for install, updateId = {B33ACEC1-3265-4D01-9C37-AC0892E95ED9}.100, ForUx=1, IsOwnerUx=1, HasDeadline=0, IsMinor=0 2012-04-10 22:47:00:107 956 aac AU Auto-approved 1 update(s) for install (for Ux), installType=1 2012-04-10 22:47:00:107 956 aac AU ############# 2012-04-10 22:47:00:107 956 aac AU ## START ## AU: Install updates 2012-04-10 22:47:00:107 956 aac AU ######### 2012-04-10 22:47:00:107 956 aac AU # Initiating manual install 2012-04-10 22:47:00:107 956 aac AU # Approved updates = 1 2012-04-10 22:47:00:107 956 aac AU ## RESUMED ## AU: Installing update [UpdateId = {B33ACEC1-3265-4D01-9C37-AC0892E95ED9}] 2012-04-10 22:47:13:773 2232 9fc Handler : WARNING: Exit code = 0x8024200B 2012-04-10 22:47:13:773 956 718 AU # WARNING: Install failed, error = 0x80070643 / 0x00009C48 2012-04-10 22:47:13:773 2232 9fc Handler ::::::::: 2012-04-10 22:47:13:773 2232 9fc Handler :: END :: Handler: Command Line Install 2012-04-10 22:47:13:773 2232 9fc Handler ::::::::::::: 2012-04-10 22:47:13:851 956 a7c Agent ********* 2012-04-10 22:47:13:851 956 a7c Agent ** END ** Agent: Installing updates [CallerId = AutomaticUpdates] 2012-04-10 22:47:13:851 956 718 AU Install call completed. 2012-04-10 22:47:13:851 956 a7c Agent ************* 2012-04-10 22:47:13:851 956 718 AU # WARNING: Install call completed, reboot required = No, error = 0x00000000 2012-04-10 22:47:13:851 956 718 AU ######### 2012-04-10 22:47:13:851 956 718 AU ## END ## AU: Installing updates [CallId = {FCFF2A5C-25AB-4FB9-AB2B-35C65CCA6A9F}] 2012-04-10 22:47:13:851 956 718 AU ############# 2012-04-10 22:47:13:851 956 718 AU Install complete for all calls, reboot NOT needed 2012-04-10 22:47:13:851 956 718 AU Setting AU scheduled install time to 2012-04-11 01:00:00 2012-04-10 22:47:13:851 956 718 AU Successfully wrote event for AU health state:0 2012-04-10 22:47:13:851 956 498 AU Getting featured update notifications. fIncludeDismissed = true 2012-04-10 22:47:13:851 956 498 AU No featured updates available. 2012-04-10 22:47:14:366 956 168 AU No featured updates notifications to show 2012-04-10 22:47:14:366 956 168 AU UpdateDownloadProperties: 0 download(s) are still in progress. 2012-04-10 22:47:14:366 956 168 AU Triggering Offline detection (non-interactive) 2012-04-10 22:47:14:366 956 168 AU AU setting pending client directive to 'Install Complete Ux' 2012-04-10 22:47:14:366 956 168 AU Changing existing AU client directive from 'Progress Ux' to 'Install Complete Ux', session id = 0x1 2012-04-10 22:47:14:366 956 168 AU Successfully wrote event for AU health state:0 2012-04-10 22:47:14:366 956 b78 AU ############# 2012-04-10 22:47:14:366 956 b78 AU ## START ## AU: Search for updates 2012-04-10 22:47:14:366 956 b78 AU ######### 2012-04-10 22:47:14:366 956 b78 AU ## RESUMED ## AU: Search for updates [CallId = {0198DD3A-D7B0-48F5-A77D-795F8A1BDCE8}] 2012-04-10 22:47:16:097 956 718 AU # 1 updates detected 2012-04-10 22:47:16:097 956 718 AU ######### 2012-04-10 22:47:16:097 956 718 AU ## END ## AU: Search for updates [CallId = {0198DD3A-D7B0-48F5-A77D-795F8A1BDCE8}] 2012-04-10 22:47:16:097 956 718 AU ############# 2012-04-10 22:47:16:097 956 718 AU No featured updates notifications to show 2012-04-10 22:47:16:097 956 718 AU Setting AU scheduled install time to 2012-04-11 01:00:00 2012-04-10 22:47:16:097 956 718 AU Successfully wrote event for AU health state:0 2012-04-10 22:47:16:097 956 718 AU Successfully wrote event for AU health state:0 2012-04-10 22:47:16:113 956 55c AU Getting featured update notifications. fIncludeDismissed = true 2012-04-10 22:47:16:113 956 55c AU No featured updates available. 2012-04-10 22:47:18:780 956 bb8 Report REPORT EVENT: {27479C66-E930-4F9C-AFF2-27EDD76DED8F} 2012-04-10 22:47:13:773+0200 1 182 101 {B33ACEC1-3265-4D01-9C37-AC0892E95ED9} 100 80070643 AutomaticUpdates Failure Content Install Installation Failure: Windows failed to install the following update with error 0x80070643: Windows Internet Explorer 9 for Windows 7 for x64-based Systems. 2012-04-10 22:47:18:780 956 bb8 Report CWERReporter::HandleEvents - WER report upload completed with status 0x8 2012-04-10 22:47:18:780 956 bb8 Report WER Report sent: 7.5.7601.17514 0x80070643 B33ACEC1-3265-4D01-9C37-AC0892E95ED9 Install 101 Unmanaged 2012-04-10 22:47:18:780 956 bb8 Report CWERReporter finishing event handling. (00000000) WU-IE9-Windows7-x64.exe The actual update that is executed is downloaded and stored at the following location: C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution\Download\Install\WU-IE9-Windows7-x64.exe Executing that file manually, results in the following error message: IE9_main.log The IE9 installer/updater also creates an own log file located at C:\Windows\IE9_main.log For the update session in question, the installer logged: 00:00.000: ==================================================================== 00:00.016: Started: 2012/04/10 (Y/M/D) 23:10:53.897 (local) 00:00.032: Time Format in this log: MM:ss.mmm (minutes:seconds.milliseconds) 00:00.063: Command line: "C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution\Download\Install\WU-IE9-Windows7-x64.exe" 00:00.078: INFO: Setup installer for Internet Explorer: 9.0.8112.16421 00:00.094: INFO: Previous version of Internet Explorer: 9.0.8112.16443 00:00.110: INFO: Checking if iexplore.exe's current version is between 9.0.6001.0... 00:00.125: INFO: ...and 9.1.0.0... 00:00.141: INFO: Maximum version on which to run IEAK branding is: 9.1.0.0... 00:00.156: ERROR: A newer version of Internet Explorer is already installed on the system. 00:00.188: ERROR: Internet Explorer version check failed. 01:03.789: INFO: Setup exit code: 0x00009C48 (40008) - A more recent version of Internet Explorer is installed. 01:03.820: INFO: Scheduling upload to IE SQM server: http://sqm.microsoft.com/sqm/ie/sqmserver.dll 01:03.852: INFO: SQM Upload returned 403 01:03.867: INFO: Cleaning up temporary files in: C:\Windows\TEMP\IE978E.tmp 01:03.883: INFO: Unable to remove directory C:\Windows\TEMP\IE978E.tmp, marking for deletion on reboot. 01:03.898: INFO: Released Internet Explorer Installer Mutex Which pretty much confirms what the error message says when executing the update manually; it's simply already installed or even obsolete because a newer version is installed. So, why does it try to keep installing the update? Possible solutions? Uninstalling Windows Internet Explorer 9 and manually installing the cached C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution\Download\Install\WU-IE9-Windows7-x64.exe will result in the same error after applying all pending updates. Applying the FixIt for the issue You receive “0x80070643” or “0x643” error codes when you try to install .NET Framework updates through Windows Update or Microsoft Updates will not resolve the issue. Applying the suggested solution for the issue Error message when you try to install updates by using the Windows Update or Microsoft Update Web site: "0x80070003" will not resolve the issue. Running the FixIt Automatically diagnose and fix common problems with Windows Update does report having resolved issues with Windows Update, but didn't resolve the issue. Running the FixIt for the issue How to troubleshoot Windows Update or Microsoft Update when you are repeatedly offered an update does not resolve the issue. Neither with normal nor with aggressive settings.

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• PC powers off at random times

  - by Timo Huovinen

  Short Version After experiencing some problems with Mobo batteries my PC started to power off at random times, the power off is instant and sudden and does not restart afterwards, need help figuring out the cause. Facts: Powers off when PC is playing games Powers off when PC is idle Powers off when PC is in safe mode Powers off when PC is in BIOS Powers off when PC is booted through a Windows installation USB Replaced the motherboard battery several times Replaced the 650W PSU with a 750W PSU Replaced the RAM Swapped the RAM between slots Re-applied thermal paste to the CPU Checked if the motherboard touches the case Nothing is overclocked PC Specs PC specs: OS: Windows 7 Ultimate SP1 RAM: klingston 1333MHz 4GB stick CPU: AMD Phenom II x4 955 Mobo: Gigabyte 88GMA-UD2H rev 2.2 Motherboard battery: CR2032 3v HDD: 500GB Seagate ST3500418AS ATA Device Graphics: ATI/AMD Radeon HD 6870 Very Long version Around 10 months ago I built a brand new gaming PC. Around 6 months ago it's time setting in windows started resetting to the year 2010. I swapped the Motherboard battery for a new one of the exact same size and shape and voltage, and the problems disappeared...for around 2 weeks. Then the same problem happened again, time gets reset, I swapped the battery again, and the problem was gone for good and everything was great for about 3 months.. then another problem started happening, the PC started to power off suddenly and without warning at completely random times, sometimes the PC works for and hour, sometimes 5 minutes. So I read on the forums that it might be either the PSU or the motherboard Battery or RAM or HDD or the Graphics card or the CPU or the motherboard or the drivers or a Virus or Grounding issues, or something short circuiting, basically it can be anything... I spent some days researching, and decided to remove the possibility of a virus. I reset the CMOS, cleared all BIOS settings and reinstalled windows 7 after a full format of the HDD, but the random power off kept happening. I then disabled the restart on error option in windows and looked at the event log for error events, but they did not help me figure out the problem. Network list service depends on network location awareness the dependency group failed to start Source Kernel Power Event 41 Task Category 63 Source Disk Event ID 11 Task Category None The driver detected a controller error on device disk I took apart the PC, every little piece, re-applied some expensive thermal paste to the CPU, and double checked that none of the pieces are touching the PC case. The problem was gone, the PC no longer powered off randomly I re-attached the graphics card and all was good for 4 months... then the power off problem appeared again, but was happening at high intervals, the PC would shutdown once in 2 days on average, at random points in time, sometimes when it's idle all day long, sometimes when it's running CRYSIS 2. I checked the CPU temperature, because I know that AMD CPU's have a built in protection mechanism that switches off the PC if the CPU gets too hot, and the Temp was 50C system temp, and 45C CPU after running the PC all day long (I did not do tests to see if there are any temperature spikes, don't know how to do them) Originally the PSU that powered the PC was 650Watts and had one 4 pin cable to power the CPU, I replaced it with a new 750Watts PSU which has two 4 pin cables for the CPU, but the problem remained. I removed the graphics card and let the motherboard use the built in one, but the PC kept suddenly powering off at random times. I took apart the PC completely again, and re-applied thermal paste to the CPU, added lots of insulation, and checked for any type of short-circuit possibility again and again, but the problem remained. The problem was like that for some months. I replaced the Battery a couple of times over the time, changed lots of options in windows, and tried everything I could, but it kept powering off, so I stopped using the PC as much as I used to, just living with the random power offs from time to time, until a couple of days ago, when the power off happens almost immediately after powering on the PC. I replaced the RAM with a brand new one, but that did not help. Took apart the PC again, checked for anything anywhere that might cause it, found some small scratches on the very edge of the motherboard to the left of the PCI express x16 slot. This might cause the problem, I thought, but the scratch looks very superficial, not deep at all, and if the scratch did harm the motherboard, wouldn't it cause it to not start at all? And why did it start to power off a while ago, and then suddenly stop powering off? The scratches could not have vanished??? did chkdsk \d but it powered off when it was at 75% I removed the hard disks, the graphics card, while I fiddled with the BIOS settings, and suddenly the PC shut down while I was looking at the BIOS version. This makes me realize, it is not caused by: HDD, Windows, Drivers or the Graphics card I cleared the CMOS again, updated the BIOS from F5 to F6f beta, but that did not help, it might even seem that the PC powers off even sooner. The shutdown even happened to me while I booted through a windows 7 installation USB and was in the repair console. I removed one of the cables powering the CPU, now only one 4pin cable powers it, and it worked for 30mins after doing that, which makes me think that it's the CPU overheating, and because it gets less power, it overheats slower? The things that I am still considering: CPU overheating (does not seem to overheat, maybe false readings?) Motherboard short circuiting (faulty motherboard?) I desperately need some advice in what is faulty, is it a faulty Motherboard or an overheating CPU? or maybe something else? I have been breaking my head over this problem over a span of 6 months. I'm not sure if this is a good place to ask this question, if it is not, then tell me where I can get some experienced help. More info I have also discovered a mysterious piece that seems to have fallen out of the motherboard i119.photobucket.com/albums/o126/yurikolovsky/strangepiece.jpg What is it? Looks like each time that it powers off the datetime gets reset I also found another forum post tomshardware.co.uk/forum/… except I don't have Integrated PeripheralsUSB Keyboard Function option in BIOS :S Comments summary (asked by Random moderator) Q. tell me, if the computer restarts, is it immediately? Does it take a second and then restarts? Do you see (BSOD) or hear (PSU, short circuit) any suspicious when it happens? After reading trough it, it remains the mainboard that is faulty. – JohannesM A. Immediate power off, all the fans stop instantly, all the light turn off instantly, no sound or anything, and it remains off until I turn it back on. Thanks for the feedback, faulty motherboard is what I fear. Q. Try stress-testing the system with Prime95 and see if errors or shutdowns occur when the CPU is under full load. – speakr A. Prime95 heat stress test peaked CPU heat at 60C after 5mins, it powered off after 30mins of testing in the middle of the test with no errors, Prime95 Heat test or the stress-testing with low RAM usage (small or in-place FFTs) do not report errors while testing for 10-60 mins. The power off does not seem like it is affected by Prime95 at all Makes me wonder if it's a CPU or Motherboard issue at all. Q. I had similar random/intermittent problems with my old board. It gave one of a few different symptoms: keyboard and/or mouse would die and/or the RAM wouldn't work and/or it would shut down. It was in bad shape. One problems was that my old PSU had literally burned the connector on it (browned around the pins), another was that a broken lead inside the layers of the PCB would work sometimes if it happened to be hot or if I bent the board—by jamming a hunk of wood behind it. I managed to keep the board alive for several years, but eventually nothing I did would make it work correctly anymore. – Synetech A. I will try that as the last resort, ok? ;) Q. Have you tried a different power cord, surge protector, outlet (on a different circuit). It's worth a shot just to ensure it's not subpar wiring or a week circuit (dips in power may cause shutdown if the PSU can't pull enough juice from the wall). – Kyle A. yes, I attached the PC to an entirely different outlet on a different circuit and the problem persists. After connecting it to a different outlet after starting the PC it gave me 3 long beeps and 1 short one, then the PC immediately proceeded to boot up normally. Q. Re-check your mainboard manual and all PSU connections to your mainboard to be sure that nothing is missing (e.g. 12V ATX 4-pin/6-pin connector). If you can provoke shutdowns with Prime95, then consider buying new hardware -- a stable system should run Prime95 for 24h without any errors. Prime95 mentions errors in the log when they occur and gives a summary after the stress test was stopped manually (e.g. "0 errors, 0 warnings", if all is fine) – speakr A. Re-checked, there are no more PSU connectors that I can physically connect, except the one ATX 4-pin (there are 2 that power the CPU) that I disconnected on purpose, I have reconnected it but the problem persists. Q. With one PC I had a short curcuit. The power button on the front plate had its cables soldered, but not isolated, and the contacts were very close to the metal case. A heavier touch was enough to cause a shutdown. The PC's vibration could be enough – ott-- A. yes, it seems to switch off with even the lightest touch, I switched on the PC, then pulled out the front panel power cable that connects to the motherboard so the power button does not work anymore, after 5 mins of working like that, with the power button completely disconnected, just sitting idle, the PC powered off again, I don't think it's the power button. Q. I wonder if you dare to operate components without the case, that is remove motherboard, power, disk ( just put the motherboard on a wooden desk). Don't bend the adapters when running like that. – ott-- A. yes, I do dare to do that, but only tomorrow, too tired/late right now.

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• How does Windows 7 DNS client work?

  - by Mark Allison

  I am using a local DHCP and DNS server on my home network on a linux machine. It is running CentOS 6.3 with dnsmasq 2.48. It's all working fine except for local DNS lookups for Windows machines only. I have a mix of Ubuntu, CentOS and Windows machines on the network, some virtual, some physical. I have a machine called boron and the domain is called localdomain If I ping boron from any linux machine, I get [root@lithium lists]# ping -c3 boron PING boron.localdomain (10.0.0.5) 56(84) bytes of data. 64 bytes from boron.localdomain (10.0.0.5): icmp_seq=1 ttl=64 time=0.740 ms 64 bytes from boron.localdomain (10.0.0.5): icmp_seq=2 ttl=64 time=0.478 ms 64 bytes from boron.localdomain (10.0.0.5): icmp_seq=3 ttl=64 time=0.458 ms --- boron.localdomain ping statistics --- 3 packets transmitted, 3 received, 0% packet loss, time 2000ms rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 0.458/0.558/0.740/0.131 ms If I do it from my Windows 7 machine, I get: Ping request could not find host boron. Please check the name and try again. If I try ping boron.localdomain I get: Pinging boron.localdomain [67.215.65.132] with 32 bytes of data: Reply from 67.215.65.132: bytes=32 time=16ms TTL=57 Reply from 67.215.65.132: bytes=32 time=188ms TTL=57 Reply from 67.215.65.132: bytes=32 time=15ms TTL=57 Reply from 67.215.65.132: bytes=32 time=14ms TTL=57 Ping statistics for 67.215.65.132: Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss), Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds: Minimum = 14ms, Maximum = 188ms, Average = 58ms which is clearly wrong. Why is it going out to the internet? Why can't my windows machine resolve the boron hostname to a FQDN? My Windows machines and linux machines get their network config from DHCP. UPDATE If I do ipconfig /all in Windows, it looks as I would expect: Windows IP Configuration Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : lanthanum Primary Dns Suffix . . . . . . . : Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Hybrid IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : No WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No DNS Suffix Search List. . . . . . : .localdomain Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection: Connection-specific DNS Suffix . : .localdomain Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Realtek PCIe GBE Family Controller Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 50-E5-49-38-FC-A2 DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes IPv4 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 10.0.0.57(Preferred) Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0 Lease Obtained. . . . . . . . . . : 23 August 2012 13:58:45 Lease Expires . . . . . . . . . . : 24 August 2012 07:58:48 Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 10.0.0.6 DHCP Server . . . . . . . . . . . : 10.0.0.6 DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 10.0.0.6 208.67.222.222 208.67.220.220 NetBIOS over Tcpip. . . . . . . . : Enabled When I do an nslookup I get: Server: carbon.localdomain Address: 10.0.0.6 *** carbon.localdomain can't find boron: Unspecified error However if I do ifconfig -a in Linux I get: [root@nitrogen ~]# ifconfig -a eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:0C:29:AF:EC:2A inet addr:10.0.0.7 Bcast:10.0.0.255 Mask:255.255.255.0 UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1 RX packets:187687 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0 TX packets:5857 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0 collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000 RX bytes:23910700 (22.8 MiB) TX bytes:712964 (696.2 KiB) lo Link encap:Local Loopback inet addr:127.0.0.1 Mask:255.0.0.0 UP LOOPBACK RUNNING MTU:16436 Metric:1 RX packets:329894 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0 TX packets:329894 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0 collisions:0 txqueuelen:0 RX bytes:67153143 (64.0 MiB) TX bytes:67153143 (64.0 MiB) and nslookup: [root@nitrogen ~]# nslookup boron Server: 10.0.0.6 Address: 10.0.0.6#53 Name: boron Address: 10.0.0.5 Both machines are on the same network using the same DHCP server. UPDATE 2 I thought the issue was resolved but I am getting intermittent DNS resolving issues but only on my Windows 7 machine. All my linux boxes are fine. This is what happens when I ping and nslookup from Windows to a Windows 2008 Server: C:\Users\mark>nslookup magnesium Server: carbon.localdomain Address: 10.0.0.6 Name: magnesium.localdomain Address: 10.0.0.12 C:\Users\mark>ping magnesium Pinging magnesium.localdomain [67.215.65.132] with 32 bytes of data: Reply from 67.215.65.132: bytes=32 time=267ms TTL=57 Reply from 67.215.65.132: bytes=32 time=162ms TTL=57 Reply from 67.215.65.132: bytes=32 time=510ms TTL=57 Reply from 67.215.65.132: bytes=32 time=146ms TTL=57 Ping statistics for 67.215.65.132: Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss), Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds: Minimum = 146ms, Maximum = 510ms, Average = 271ms And from Linux: [root@beryllium ~]# ping -c4 magnesium PING magnesium.localdomain (10.0.0.12) 56(84) bytes of data. 64 bytes from magnesium.localdomain (10.0.0.12): icmp_seq=1 ttl=128 time=0.176 ms 64 bytes from magnesium.localdomain (10.0.0.12): icmp_seq=2 ttl=128 time=0.634 ms 64 bytes from magnesium.localdomain (10.0.0.12): icmp_seq=3 ttl=128 time=0.685 ms 64 bytes from magnesium.localdomain (10.0.0.12): icmp_seq=4 ttl=128 time=0.263 ms --- magnesium.localdomain ping statistics --- 4 packets transmitted, 4 received, 0% packet loss, time 3002ms rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 0.176/0.439/0.685/0.223 ms [root@beryllium ~]# nslookup magnesium Server: 10.0.0.6 Address: 10.0.0.6#53 Name: magnesium.localdomain Address: 10.0.0.12 UPDATE 3 I stopped the Windows DNS client on my Windows 7 machine with net stop dnscache and it is now working fine. It would be nice to get DNS working with the DNS client on, but I might be OK without it, what do you think?

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• Unable to PPTP through NAT on Cisco 881

  - by MasterRoot24

  I'm trying to connect to a PPTP server which is sat behind a Cisco 881 NAT router. The server is running Ubuntu Server 12.04 and is running Poptop pptpd as the PPTP daemon listening for connections. As discussed in my other question, I'm trying to setup a Cisco 881 router to replace my old Linksys WAG320N. This same server and WAN connection worked fine with the WAG320N with no special configuration, other than allowing 1723 in through the firewall. On the Cisco 881, I'm using the newer ip nat enable or NAT NVI to setup static routes in through the firewall for the services running behind the router. My reason being that I can't run another copy of my live DNS domains internally with local IP addresses in. For the purposes of this question, though, I have rebuilt the router with ip nat inside/outside style NAT'ing, but this issue is still apparent. HTTP/SMTP/IMAP etc. all work ok from both the WAN and LAN interfaces of the router. I'm only having issues with SIP (see other question) and PPTP. My issue is that the GRE doesn't appear to be passing through NAT correctly and one end of the connection is not receiving GRE traffic when it should be, so the server hangs up the connection. Here's an example of /var/log/syslog with debug enabled in /etc/pptpd.conf: Dec 11 21:06:30 <HOSTNAME> pptpd[22626]: MGR: Launching /usr/sbin/pptpctrl to handle client Dec 11 21:06:30 <HOSTNAME> pptpd[22626]: CTRL: local address = 192.168.1.50 Dec 11 21:06:30 <HOSTNAME> pptpd[22626]: CTRL: remote address = 192.168.1.51 Dec 11 21:06:30 <HOSTNAME> pptpd[22626]: CTRL: pppd options file = /etc/ppp/pptpd-options Dec 11 21:06:30 <HOSTNAME> pptpd[22626]: CTRL: Client 82.132.248.216 control connection started Dec 11 21:06:30 <HOSTNAME> pptpd[22626]: CTRL: Received PPTP Control Message (type: 1) Dec 11 21:06:30 <HOSTNAME> pptpd[22626]: CTRL: Made a START CTRL CONN RPLY packet Dec 11 21:06:30 <HOSTNAME> pptpd[22626]: CTRL: I wrote 156 bytes to the client. Dec 11 21:06:30 <HOSTNAME> pptpd[22626]: CTRL: Sent packet to client Dec 11 21:06:30 <HOSTNAME> pptpd[22626]: CTRL: Received PPTP Control Message (type: 7) Dec 11 21:06:30 <HOSTNAME> pptpd[22626]: CTRL: Set parameters to 100000000 maxbps, 64 window size Dec 11 21:06:30 <HOSTNAME> pptpd[22626]: CTRL: Made a OUT CALL RPLY packet Dec 11 21:06:30 <HOSTNAME> pptpd[22626]: CTRL: Starting call (launching pppd, opening GRE) Dec 11 21:06:30 <HOSTNAME> pptpd[22626]: CTRL: pty_fd = 6 Dec 11 21:06:30 <HOSTNAME> pptpd[22626]: CTRL: tty_fd = 7 Dec 11 21:06:30 <HOSTNAME> pptpd[22626]: CTRL: I wrote 32 bytes to the client. Dec 11 21:06:30 <HOSTNAME> pptpd[22626]: CTRL: Sent packet to client Dec 11 21:06:30 <HOSTNAME> pptpd[22627]: CTRL (PPPD Launcher): program binary = /usr/sbin/pppd Dec 11 21:06:30 <HOSTNAME> pptpd[22627]: CTRL (PPPD Launcher): local address = 192.168.1.50 Dec 11 21:06:30 <HOSTNAME> pptpd[22627]: CTRL (PPPD Launcher): remote address = 192.168.1.51 Dec 11 21:06:30 <HOSTNAME> pppd[22627]: Plugin /usr/lib/pptpd/pptpd-logwtmp.so loaded. Dec 11 21:06:30 <HOSTNAME> pppd[22627]: pppd 2.4.5 started by root, uid 0 Dec 11 21:06:30 <HOSTNAME> pppd[22627]: Using interface ppp0 Dec 11 21:06:30 <HOSTNAME> pppd[22627]: Connect: ppp0 <--> /dev/pts/3 Dec 11 21:06:30 <HOSTNAME> pptpd[22626]: GRE: Bad checksum from pppd. Dec 11 21:06:31 <HOSTNAME> pptpd[22626]: CTRL: Received PPTP Control Message (type: 15) Dec 11 21:06:31 <HOSTNAME> pptpd[22626]: CTRL: Got a SET LINK INFO packet with standard ACCMs Dec 11 21:07:00 <HOSTNAME> pppd[22627]: LCP: timeout sending Config-Requests Dec 11 21:07:00 <HOSTNAME> pppd[22627]: Connection terminated. Dec 11 21:07:00 <HOSTNAME> avahi-daemon[1042]: Withdrawing workstation service for ppp0. Dec 11 21:07:00 <HOSTNAME> pppd[22627]: Modem hangup Dec 11 21:07:00 <HOSTNAME> pppd[22627]: Exit. Dec 11 21:07:00 <HOSTNAME> pptpd[22626]: GRE: read(fd=6,buffer=6075a0,len=8196) from PTY failed: status = -1 error = Input/output error, usually caused by unexpected termination of pppd, check option syntax and pppd logs Dec 11 21:07:00 <HOSTNAME> pptpd[22626]: CTRL: PTY read or GRE write failed (pty,gre)=(6,7) Dec 11 21:07:00 <HOSTNAME> pptpd[22626]: CTRL: Reaping child PPP[22627] Dec 11 21:07:00 <HOSTNAME> pptpd[22626]: CTRL: Client 82.132.248.216 control connection finished Dec 11 21:07:00 <HOSTNAME> pptpd[22626]: CTRL: Exiting now Dec 11 21:07:00 <HOSTNAME> pptpd[5803]: MGR: Reaped child 22626 As far as Cisco are concerned, all I need is ip nat source static tcp <SERVER LAN IP> 1723 interface FastEthernet4 1723 but of course this doesn't seem to the be helping the GRE traffic through as it should. Trying the connection to the LAN IP of the server from the same LAN as the server (behind the router), the PPTP connection works fine, so I'm confident that the server's config is ok. Furthermore, all I needed on my WAG320N was to open 1723 in the firewall. Here's my current router config: ! ! Last configuration change at 20:20:15 UTC Tue Dec 11 2012 by xxx version 15.2 no service pad service timestamps debug datetime msec service timestamps log datetime msec service password-encryption ! hostname xxx ! boot-start-marker boot-end-marker ! ! enable secret 4 xxxx ! aaa new-model ! ! aaa authentication login local_auth local ! ! ! ! ! aaa session-id common ! memory-size iomem 10 ! crypto pki trustpoint TP-self-signed-xxx enrollment selfsigned subject-name cn=IOS-Self-Signed-Certificate-xxx revocation-check none rsakeypair TP-self-signed-xxx ! ! crypto pki certificate chain TP-self-signed-xxx certificate self-signed 01 xxx quit ip gratuitous-arps ip auth-proxy max-login-attempts 5 ip admission max-login-attempts 5 ! ! ! ! ! ip domain list dmz.xxx.local ip domain list xxx.local ip domain name dmz.xxx.local ip name-server 192.168.1.x ip cef login block-for 3 attempts 3 within 3 no ipv6 cef ! ! multilink bundle-name authenticated license udi pid CISCO881-SEC-K9 sn xxx ! ! username admin privilege 15 secret 4 xxx username joe secret 4 xxx ! ! ! ! ! ip ssh time-out 60 ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! interface FastEthernet0 no ip address ! interface FastEthernet1 no ip address ! interface FastEthernet2 no ip address ! interface FastEthernet3 switchport access vlan 2 no ip address ! interface FastEthernet4 ip address dhcp ip nat enable duplex auto speed auto ! interface Vlan1 ip address 192.168.1.x 255.255.255.0 no ip redirects no ip unreachables no ip proxy-arp ip nat enable ! interface Vlan2 ip address 192.168.0.x 255.255.255.0 ! ip forward-protocol nd ip http server ip http access-class 1 ip http authentication local ip http secure-server ! ! ip nat source list 1 interface FastEthernet4 overload ip nat source list 2 interface FastEthernet4 overload ip nat source static tcp 192.168.1.x 1723 interface FastEthernet4 1723 ! ! access-list 1 permit 192.168.0.0 0.0.0.255 access-list 2 permit 192.168.1.0 0.0.0.255 ! ! ! ! control-plane ! ! banner motd Authorized Access only ! line con 0 exec-timeout 15 0 login authentication local_auth line aux 0 exec-timeout 15 0 login authentication local_auth line vty 0 4 access-class 2 in login authentication local_auth length 0 transport input all ! ! end UPDATE 16/12/2012: The only progress that I have been able to make on this issue is that I'm confident that the issue is caused by the GRE tunnels (which are required for the PPTP connection to complete) are being blocked. When attempting a connection, I can see in show ip nat nvi translations that both a TCP translation on 1723 is setup and also a GRE translation is setup also. I appear to be able to see GRE related packets on the LAN that the server is on, so I am lead to believe that the server is sending(?) GRE packets, however running Wireshark on a client PC when attempting a connection shows absolutely no GRE packets. Whilst there are no configuration directives in my config posted above (that I can pin point) which would specifically block them, it would appear that the GRE packets are not being allowed in/out of the router's firewall, even though a NAT translation entry is setup to the server's LAN address. Would anyone be able to provide me with some help to ensure that GRE packets are not blocked by the router's firewall, so that this can be ruled out as a possible issue please?

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• 26 Days: Countdown to Oracle OpenWorld 2012

  - by Michael Snow

  Welcome to our countdown to Oracle OpenWorld! Oracle OpenWorld 2012 is just around the corner. In less than 26 days, San Francisco will be invaded by an expected 50,000 people from all over the world. Here on the Oracle WebCenter team, we’ve all been working to help make the experience a great one for all our WebCenter customers. For a sneak peak  – we’ll be spending this week giving you a teaser of what to look forward to if you are joining us in San Francisco from September 30th through October 4th. We have Oracle WebCenter sessions covering all topics imaginable. Take a look and use the tools we provide to build out your schedule in advance and reserve your seats in your favorite sessions.  That gives you plenty of time to plan for your week with us in San Francisco. If unfortunately, your boss denied your request to attend - there are still some ways that you can join in the experience virtually On-Demand. This year - we are expanding even more up North of Market Street and will be taking over Union Square as well. Check out this map of San Francisco to get a sense of how much of a footprint Oracle OpenWorld has grown to this year. With so much to see and so many sessions to learn from - its no wonder that people get excited. Add to that a good mix of fun and all of the possible WebCenter sessions you could attend - you won't want to sleep at all to take full advantage of such an opportunity. We'll also have our annual WebCenter Customer Appreciation reception - stay tuned this week for some more info on registration to make sure you'll be able to join us. If you've been following the America's Cup at all and believe in EXTREME PERFORMANCE you'll definitely want to take a look at this video from last year's OpenWorld Keynote. 12.00 Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii- mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi- mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} Important OpenWorld Links:  Attendee / Presenters Toolkit Oracle Schedule Builder WebCenter Sessions (listed in the catalog under Fusion Middleware as "Portals, Sites, Content, and Collaboration" ) Oracle Music Festival - AMAZING Line up!!  Oracle Customer Appreciation Night -LOOK HERE!! Oracle OpenWorld LIVE On-Demand Here are all the WebCenter sessions broken down by day for your viewing pleasure. Monday, October 1st CON8885 - Simplify CRM Engagement with Contextual Collaboration Are your sales teams disconnected and disengaged? Do you want a tool for easily connecting expertise across your organization and providing visibility into the complete sales process? Do you want a way to enhance and retain organization knowledge? Oracle Social Network is the answer. Attend this session to learn how to make CRM easy, effective, and efficient for use across virtual sales teams. Also learn how Oracle Social Network can drive sales force collaboration with natural conversations throughout the sales cycle, promote sales team productivity through purposeful social networking without the noise, and build cross-team knowledge by integrating conversations with CRM and other business applications. CON8268 - Oracle WebCenter Strategy: Engaging Your Customers. Empowering Your Business Oracle WebCenter is a user engagement platform for social business, connecting people and information. Attend this session to learn about the Oracle WebCenter strategy, and understand where Oracle is taking the platform to help companies engage customers, empower employees, and enable partners. Business success starts with ensuring that everyone is engaged with the right people and the right information and can access what they need through the channel of their choice—Web, mobile, or social. Are you giving customers, employees, and partners the best-possible experience? Come learn how you can! ¶ HOL10208 - Add Social Capabilities to Your Enterprise Applications Oracle Social Network enables you to add real-time collaboration capabilities into your enterprise applications, so that conversations can happen directly within your business systems. In this hands-on lab, you will try out the Oracle Social Network product to collaborate with other attendees, using real-time conversations with document sharing capabilities. Next you will embed social capabilities into a sample Web-based enterprise application, using embedded UI components. Experts will also write simple REST-based integrations, using the Oracle Social Network API to programmatically create social interactions. ¶ CON8893 - Improve Employee Productivity with Intuitive and Social Work Environments Social technologies have already transformed the ways customers, employees, partners, and suppliers communicate and stay informed. Forward-thinking organizations today need technologies and infrastructures to help them advance to the next level and integrate social activities with business applications to deliver a user experience that simplifies business processes and enterprise application engagement. Attend this session to hear from an innovative Oracle Social Network customer and learn how you can improve productivity with intuitive and social work environments and empower your employees with innovative social tools to enable contextual access to content and dynamic personalization of solutions. ¶ CON8270 - Oracle WebCenter Content Strategy and Vision Oracle WebCenter provides a strategic content infrastructure for managing documents, images, e-mails, and rich media files. With a single repository, organizations can address any content use case, such as accounts payable, HR onboarding, document management, compliance, records management, digital asset management, or Website management. In this session, learn about future plans for how Oracle WebCenter will address new use cases as well as new integrations with Oracle Fusion Middleware and Oracle Applications, leveraging your investments by making your users more productive and error-free. ¶ CON8269 - Oracle WebCenter Sites Strategy and Vision Oracle’s Web experience management solution, Oracle WebCenter Sites, enables organizations to use the online channel to drive customer acquisition and brand loyalty. It helps marketers and business users easily create and manage contextually relevant, social, interactive online experiences across multiple channels on a global scale. In this session, learn about future plans for how Oracle WebCenter Sites will provide you with the tools, capabilities, and integrations you need in order to continue to address your customers’ evolving requirements for engaging online experiences and keep moving your business forward. ¶ CON8896 - Living with SharePoint SharePoint is a popular platform, but it’s not always the best fit for Oracle customers. In this session, you’ll discover the technical and nontechnical limitations and pitfalls of SharePoint and learn about Oracle alternatives for collaboration, portals, enterprise and Web content management, social computing, and application integration. The presentation shows you how to integrate with SharePoint when business or IT requirements dictate and covers cloud-based (Office 365) and on-premises versions of SharePoint. Presented by a former Microsoft director of SharePoint product management and backed by independent customer research, this session will prepare you to answer the question “Why don’t we just use SharePoint for that?’ the next time it comes up in your organization. ¶ CON7843 - Content-Enabling Enterprise Processes with Oracle WebCenter Organizations today continually strive to automate business processes, reduce costs, and improve efficiency. Many business processes are content-intensive and unstructured, requiring ad hoc collaboration, and distributed in nature, requiring many approvals and generating huge volumes of paper. In this session, learn how Oracle and SYSTIME have partnered to help a customer content-enable its enterprise with Oracle WebCenter Content and Oracle WebCenter Imaging 11g and integrate them with Oracle Applications. ¶ CON6114 - Tape Robotics’ Newest Superhero: Now Fueled by Oracle Software For small, midsize, and rapidly growing businesses that want the most energy-efficient, scalable storage infrastructure to meet their rapidly growing data demands, Oracle’s most recent addition to its award-winning tape portfolio leverages several pieces of Oracle software. With Oracle Linux, Oracle WebLogic, and Oracle Fusion Middleware tools, the library achieves a higher level of usability than previous products while offering customers a familiar interface for management, plus ease of use. This session examines the competitive advantages of the tape library and how Oracle software raises customer satisfaction. Learn how the combination of Oracle engineered systems, Oracle Secure Backup, and Oracle’s StorageTek tape libraries provide end-to-end coverage of your data. ¶ CON9437 - Mobile Access Management With more than five billion mobile devices on the planet and an increasing number of users using their own devices to access corporate data and applications, securely extending identity management to mobile devices has become a hot topic. This session focuses on how to extend your existing identity management infrastructure and policies to securely and seamlessly enable mobile user access. CON7815 - Customer Experience Online in Cloud: Oracle WebCenter Sites, Oracle ATG Apps, Oracle Exalogic Oracle WebCenter Sites and Oracle’s ATG product line together can provide a compelling marketing and e-commerce experience. When you couple them with the extreme performance of Oracle Exalogic, you’ll see unmatched scalability that provides you with a true cloud-based solution. In this session, you’ll learn how running Oracle WebCenter Sites and ATG applications on Oracle Exalogic delivers both a private and a public cloud experience. Find out what it takes to get these systems working together and delivering engaging Web experiences. Even if you aren’t considering Oracle Exalogic today, the rich Web experience of Oracle WebCenter, paired with the depth of the ATG product line, can provide your business full support, from merchandising through sale completion. ¶ CON8271 - Oracle WebCenter Portal Strategy and Vision To innovate and keep a competitive edge, organizations need to leverage the power of agile and responsive Web applications. Oracle WebCenter Portal enables you to do just that, by delivering intuitive user experiences for enterprise applications to drive innovation with composite applications and mashups. Attend this session to learn firsthand from customers how Oracle WebCenter Portal extends the value of existing enterprise applications, business processes, and content; delivers a superior business user experience; and maximizes limited IT resources. ¶ CON8880 - The Connected Customer Experience Begins with the Online Channel There’s a lot of talk these days about how to connect the customer journey across various touchpoints—from Websites and e-commerce to call centers and in-store—to provide experiences that are more relevant and engaging and ultimately gain competitive edge. Doing it all at once isn’t a realistic objective, so where do you start? Come to this session, and hear about three steps you can take that can help you begin your journey toward delivering the connected customer experience. You’ll hear how Oracle now has an integrated digital marketing platform for your corporate Website, your e-commerce site, your self-service portal, and your marketing and loyalty campaigns, and you’ll learn what you can do today to begin executing on your customer experience initiatives. ¶ GEN11451 - General Session: Building Mobile Applications with Oracle Cloud With the prevalence of smart mobile devices, companies are facing an increased demand to provide access to data and applications from new channels. However, developing applications for mobile devices poses some unique challenges. Come to this session to learn how Oracle addresses these challenges, offering a simpler way to develop and deploy cross-device mobile applications. See how Oracle Cloud enables you to access applications, data, and services from mobile channels in an easier way.  CON8272 - Oracle Social Network Strategy and Vision One key way of increasing employee productivity is by bringing people, processes, and information together—providing new social capabilities to enable business users to quickly correspond and collaborate on business activities. Oracle WebCenter provides a user engagement platform with social and collaborative technologies to empower business users to focus on their key business processes, applications, and content in the context of their role and process. Attend this session to hear how the latest social capabilities in Oracle Social Network are enabling organizations to transform themselves into social businesses.  --- Tuesday, October 2nd HOL10194 - Enterprise Content Management Simplified: Oracle WebCenter Content’s Next-Generation UI Regardless of the nature of your business, unstructured content underpins many of its daily functions. Whether you are working with traditional presentations, spreadsheets, or text documents—or even with digital assets such as images and multimedia files—your content needs to be accessible and manageable in convenient and intuitive ways to make working with the content easier. Additionally, you need the ability to easily share documents with coworkers to facilitate a collaborative working environment. Come to this session to see how Oracle WebCenter Content’s next-generation user interface helps modern knowledge workers easily manage personal and enterprise documents in a collaborative environment.¶ CON8877 - Develop a Mobile Strategy with Oracle WebCenter: Engage Customers, Employees, and Partners Mobile technology has gone from nice-to-have to a cornerstone of user engagement. Mobile access enables users to have information available at their fingertips, enabling them to take action the moment they make a decision, interact in the moment of convenience, and take advantage of new service offerings in their preferred channels. All your employees have your mobile applications in their pocket; now what are you going to do? It is a critical step for companies to think through what their employees, customers, and partners really need on their devices. Attend this session to see how Oracle WebCenter enables you to better engage your customers, employees, and partners by providing a unified experience across multiple channels. ¶ CON9447 - Enabling Access for Hundreds of Millions of Users How do you grow your business by identifying, authenticating, authorizing, and federating users on the Web, leveraging social identity and the open source OAuth protocol? How do you scale your access management solution to support hundreds of millions of users? With social identity support out of the box, Oracle’s access management solution is also benchmarked for 250-million-user deployment according to real-world customer scenarios. In this session, you will learn about the social identity capability and the 250-million-user benchmark testing of Oracle Access Manager and Oracle Adaptive Access Manager running on Oracle Exalogic and Oracle Exadata. ¶ HOL10207 - Build an Intranet Portal with Oracle WebCenter In this hands-on lab, you’ll work with Oracle WebCenter Portal and Oracle WebCenter Content to build out an enterprise portal that maximizes the productivity of teams and individual contributors. Using browser-based tools, you’ll manage site resources such as page styles, templates, and navigation. You’ll edit content stored in Oracle WebCenter Content directly from your portal. You’ll also experience the latest features that promote collaboration, social networking, and personal productivity. ¶ CON2906 - Get Proactive: Best Practices for Maintaining Oracle Fusion Middleware You chose Oracle Fusion Middleware products to help your organization deliver superior business results. Now learn how to take full advantage of your software with all the great tools, resources, and product updates you’re entitled to through Oracle Support. In this session, Oracle product experts provide proven best practices to help you work more efficiently, plan and prepare for upgrades and patching more effectively, and manage risk. Topics include configuration management tools, remote diagnostics, My Oracle Support Community, and My Oracle Support Lifecycle Advisors. New users and Oracle Fusion Middleware experts alike are guaranteed to leave with fresh ideas and practical, easy-to-implement next steps. ¶ CON8878 - Oracle WebCenter’s Cloud Strategy: From Social and Platform Services to Mashups Cloud computing represents a paradigm shift in how we build applications, automate processes, collaborate, and share and in how we secure our enterprise. Additionally, as you adopt cloud-based services in your organization, it’s likely that you will still have many critical on-premises applications running. With these mixed environments, multiple user interfaces, different security, and multiple datasources and content sources, how do you start evolving your strategy to account for these challenges? Oracle WebCenter offers a complete array of technologies enabling you to solve these challenges and prepare you for the cloud. Attend this session to learn how you can use Oracle WebCenter in the cloud as well as create on-premises and cloud application mash-ups. ¶ CON8901 - Optimize Enterprise Business Processes with Oracle WebCenter and Oracle BPM Do you have business processes that span multiple applications? Are you grappling with how to have visibility across these business processes; how to manage content that is associated with these processes; and, most importantly, how to model and optimize these business processes? Attend this session to hear how Oracle WebCenter and Oracle Business Process Management provide a unique set of integrated solutions to provide a composite application dashboard across these business processes and offer a solution for content-centric business processes. ¶ CON8883 - Deliver Engaging Interfaces to Oracle Applications with Oracle WebCenter Critical business processes live within enterprise applications, and application users need to manage and execute these processes as effectively as possible. Oracle provides a comprehensive user engagement platform to increase user productivity and optimize overall processes within Oracle Applications—Oracle E-Business Suite and Oracle’s Siebel, PeopleSoft, and JD Edwards product families—and third-party applications. Attend this session to learn how you can integrate these applications with Oracle WebCenter to deliver composite application dashboards to your end users—whether they are your customers, partners, or employees—for enhanced usability and Web 2.0–enabled enterprise portals.¶ Wednesday, October 3rd CON8895 - Future-Ready Intranets: How Aramark Re-engineered the Application Landscape There are essential techniques and technologies you can use to deliver employee portals that garner higher productivity, improve business efficiency, and increase user engagement. Attend this session to learn how you can leverage Oracle WebCenter Portal as a user engagement platform for bringing together business process management, enterprise content management, and business intelligence into a highly relevant and integrated experience. Hear how Aramark has leveraged Oracle WebCenter Portal and Oracle WebCenter Content to deliver a unified workspace providing simpler navigation and processing, consolidation of tools, easy access to information, integrated search, and single sign-on. ¶ CON8886 - Content Consolidation: Save Money, Increase Efficiency, and Eliminate Silos Organizations are looking for ways to save money and be more efficient. With content in many different places, it’s difficult to know where to look for a document and whether the document is the most current version. With Oracle WebCenter, content can be consolidated into one best-of-breed repository that is secure, scalable, and integrated with your business processes and applications. Users can find the content they need, where they need it, and ensure that it is the right content. This session covers content challenges that affect your business; content consolidation that can lead to savings in storage and administration costs and can lower risks; and how companies are realizing savings. ¶ CON8911 - Improve Online Experiences for Customers and Partners with Self-Service Portals Are you able to provide your customers and partners an easy-to-use online self-service experience? Are you processing high-volume transactions and struggling with call center bottlenecks or back-end systems that won’t integrate, causing order delays and customer frustration? Are you looking to target content such as product and service offerings to your end users? This session shares approaches to providing targeted delivery as well as strategies and best practices for transforming your business by providing an intuitive user experience for your customers and partners. ¶ CON6156 - Top 10 Ways to Integrate Oracle WebCenter Content This session covers 10 common ways to integrate Oracle WebCenter Content with other enterprise applications and middleware. It discusses out-of-the-box modules that provide expanded features in Oracle WebCenter Content—such as enterprise search, SOA, and BPEL—as well as developer tools you can use to create custom integrations. The presentation also gives guidance on which integration option may work best in your environment. ¶ HOL10207 - Build an Intranet Portal with Oracle WebCenter In this hands-on lab, you’ll work with Oracle WebCenter Portal and Oracle WebCenter Content to build out an enterprise portal that maximizes the productivity of teams and individual contributors. Using browser-based tools, you’ll manage site resources such as page styles, templates, and navigation. You’ll edit content stored in Oracle WebCenter Content directly from your portal. You’ll also experience the latest features that promote collaboration, social networking, and personal productivity. ¶ CON7817 - Migration to Oracle WebCenter Imaging 11g Customers today continually strive to automate business processes, reduce costs, and improve efficiency. The accounts payable process—which is often distributed in nature, requires many approvals, and generates huge volumes of paper invoices—is automated by many customers. In this session, learn how Oracle and SYSTIME have partnered to help a customer migrate its existing Oracle Imaging and Process Management Release 7.6 to the latest Oracle WebCenter Imaging 11g and integrate it with Oracle’s JD Edwards family of products. ¶ CON8910 - How to Engage Customers Across Web, Mobile, and Social Channels Whether on desktops at the office, on tablets at home, or on mobile phones when on the go, today’s customers are always connected. To engage today’s customers, you need to make the online customer experience connected and consistent across a host of devices and multiple channels, including Web, mobile, and social networks. Managing this multichannel environment can result in lots of headaches without the right tools. Attend this session to learn how Oracle WebCenter Sites solves the challenge of multichannel customer engagement. ¶ HOL10206 - Oracle WebCenter Sites 11g: Transforming the Content Contributor Experience Oracle WebCenter Sites 11g makes it easy for marketers and business users to contribute to and manage Websites with the new visual, contextual, and intuitive Web authoring interface. In this hands-on lab, you will create and manage content for a sports-themed Website, using many of the new and enhanced features of the 11g release. ¶ CON8900 - Building Next-Generation Portals: An Interactive Customer Panel Discussion Social and collaborative technologies have changed how people interact, learn, and collaborate, and providing a modern, social Web presence is imperative to remain competitive in today’s market. Can your business benefit from a more collaborative and interactive portal environment for employees, customers, and partners? Attend this session to hear from Oracle WebCenter Portal customers as they share their strategies and best practices for providing users with a modern experience that adapts to their needs and includes personalized access to content in context. The panel also addresses how customers have benefited from creating next-generation portals by migrating from older portal technologies to Oracle WebCenter Portal. ¶ CON9625 - Taking Control of Oracle WebCenter Security Organizations are increasingly looking to extend their Oracle WebCenter portal for social business, to serve external users and provide seamless access to the right information. In particular, many organizations are extending Oracle WebCenter in a business-to-business scenario requiring secure identification and authorization of business partners and their users. This session focuses on how customers are leveraging, securing, and providing access control to Oracle WebCenter portal and mobile solutions. You will learn best practices and hear real-world examples of how to provide flexible and granular access control for Oracle WebCenter deployments, using Oracle Platform Security Services and Oracle Access Management Suite product offerings. ¶ CON8891 - Extending Social into Enterprise Applications and Business Processes Oracle Social Network is an extensible social platform that enables contextual collaboration within enterprise applications and business processes, providing relevant data from across various enterprise systems in one place. Attend this session to see how an Oracle Social Network customer is integrating multiple applications—such as CRM, HCM, and business processes—into Oracle Social Network and Oracle WebCenter to enable individuals and teams to solve complex cross-organizational business problems more effectively by utilizing the social enterprise. ¶ Thursday, October 4th CON8899 - Becoming a Social Business: Stories from the Front Lines of Change What does it really mean to be a social business? How can you change our organization to embrace social approaches? What pitfalls do you need to avoid? In this lively panel discussion, customer and industry thought leaders in social business explore these topics and more as they share their stories of the good, the bad, and the ugly that can happen when embracing social methods and technologies to improve business success. Using moderated questions and open Q&A from the audience, the panel discusses vital topics such as the critical factors for success, the major issues to avoid, how to gain senior executive support for social efforts, how to handle undesired behavior, and how to measure business impact. It takes a thought-provoking look at becoming a social business from the inside. ¶ CON6851 - Oracle WebCenter and Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition to Create Vendor Portals Large manufacturers of grocery items routinely find themselves depending on the inventory management expertise of their wholesalers and distributors. Inventory costs can be managed more efficiently by the manufacturers if they have better insight into the inventory levels of items carried by their distributors. This creates a unique opportunity for distributors and wholesalers to leverage this knowledge into a revenue-generating subscription service. Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition and Oracle WebCenter Portal play a key part in enabling creation of business-managed business intelligence portals for vendors. This session discusses one customer that implemented this by leveraging Oracle WebCenter and Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition. ¶ CON8879 - Provide a Personalized and Consistent Customer Experience in Your Websites and Portals Your customers engage with your company online in different ways throughout their journey—from prospecting by acquiring information on your corporate Website to transacting through self-service applications on your customer portal—and then the cycle begins again when they look for new products and services. Ensuring that the customer experience is consistent and personalized across online properties—from branding and content to interactions and transactions—can be a daunting task. Oracle WebCenter enables you to speak and interact with your customers with one voice across your Websites and portals by providing an integrated platform for delivery of self-service and engagement that unifies and personalizes the online experience. Learn more in this session. ¶ CON8898 - Land Mines, Potholes, and Dirt Roads: Navigating the Way to ECM Nirvana Ten years ago, people were predicting that by this time in history, we’d be some kind of utopian paperless society. As we all know, we’re not there yet, but are we getting closer? What is keeping companies from driving down the road to enterprise content management bliss? Most people understand that using ECM as a central platform enables organizations to expedite document-centric processes, but most business processes in organizations are still heavily paper-based. Many of these processes could be automated and improved with an ECM platform infrastructure. In this panel discussion, you’ll hear from Oracle WebCenter customers that have already solved some of these challenges as they share their strategies for success and roads to avoid along your journey. ¶ CON8908 - Oracle WebCenter Portal: Creating and Using Content Presenter Templates Oracle WebCenter Portal applications use task flows to display and integrate content stored in the Oracle WebCenter Content server. Among the most flexible task flows is Content Presenter, which renders various types of content on an Oracle WebCenter Portal page. Although Oracle WebCenter Portal comes with a set of predefined Content Presenter templates, developers can create their own templates for specific rendering needs. This session shows the lifecycle of developing Content Presenter task flows, including how to create, package, import, modify at runtime, and use such templates. In addition to simple examples with Oracle Application Development Framework (Oracle ADF) UI elements to render the content, it shows how to use other UI technologies, CSS files, and JavaScript libraries. ¶ CON8897 - Using Web Experience Management to Drive Online Marketing Success Every year, the online channel becomes more imperative for driving organizational top-line revenue, but for many companies, mastering how to best market their products and services in a fast-evolving online world with high customer expectations for personalized experiences can be a complex proposition. Come to this panel discussion, and hear directly from online marketers how they are succeeding today by using Web experience management to drive marketing success, using capabilities such as targeting and optimization, user-generated content, mobile site publishing, and site visitor personalization to deliver engaging online experiences. ¶ CON8892 - Oracle’s Journey to Social Business Social business is a revolution, one that is causing rapidly accelerating change in how companies and customers engage with one another and how employees work together. Oracle’s goal in becoming a social business is to create a socially connected organization in which working collaboratively across geographical locations, lines of business, and management chains is second nature, enabling innovative solutions to business challenges. We can achieve this by connecting the right people, finding the right content, communicating with the right people, collaborating at the right time, and building the right communities in the right context—all ready in the CLOUD. Attend this session to see how Oracle is transforming itself into a social business. ¶  ------------ If you've read all the way to the end here - we are REALLY looking forward to seeing you in San Francisco.

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• Capturing and Transforming ASP.NET Output with Response.Filter

  - by Rick Strahl

  During one of my Handlers and Modules session at DevConnections this week one of the attendees asked a question that I didn’t have an immediate answer for. Basically he wanted to capture response output completely and then apply some filtering to the output – effectively injecting some additional content into the page AFTER the page had completely rendered. Specifically the output should be captured from anywhere – not just a page and have this code injected into the page. Some time ago I posted some code that allows you to capture ASP.NET Page output by overriding the Render() method, capturing the HtmlTextWriter() and reading its content, modifying the rendered data as text then writing it back out. I’ve actually used this approach on a few occasions and it works fine for ASP.NET pages. But this obviously won’t work outside of the Page class environment and it’s not really generic – you have to create a custom page class in order to handle the output capture. [updated 11/16/2009 – updated ResponseFilterStream implementation and a few additional notes based on comments] Enter Response.Filter However, ASP.NET includes a Response.Filter which can be used – well to filter output. Basically Response.Filter is a stream through which the OutputStream is piped back to the Web Server (indirectly). As content is written into the Response object, the filter stream receives the appropriate Stream commands like Write, Flush and Close as well as read operations although for a Response.Filter that’s uncommon to be hit. The Response.Filter can be programmatically replaced at runtime which allows you to effectively intercept all output generation that runs through ASP.NET. A common Example: Dynamic GZip Encoding A rather common use of Response.Filter hooking up code based, dynamic  GZip compression for requests which is dead simple by applying a GZipStream (or DeflateStream) to Response.Filter. The following generic routines can be used very easily to detect GZip capability of the client and compress response output with a single line of code and a couple of library helper routines: WebUtils.GZipEncodePage(); which is handled with a few lines of reusable code and a couple of static helper methods: /// <summary> ///Sets up the current page or handler to use GZip through a Response.Filter ///IMPORTANT:  ///You have to call this method before any output is generated! /// </summary> public static void GZipEncodePage() {     HttpResponse Response = HttpContext.Current.Response;     if(IsGZipSupported())     {         stringAcceptEncoding = HttpContext.Current.Request.Headers["Accept-Encoding"];         if(AcceptEncoding.Contains("deflate"))         {             Response.Filter = newSystem.IO.Compression.DeflateStream(Response.Filter,                                        System.IO.Compression.CompressionMode.Compress);             Response.AppendHeader("Content-Encoding", "deflate");         }         else        {             Response.Filter = newSystem.IO.Compression.GZipStream(Response.Filter,                                       System.IO.Compression.CompressionMode.Compress);             Response.AppendHeader("Content-Encoding", "gzip");                            }     }     // Allow proxy servers to cache encoded and unencoded versions separately    Response.AppendHeader("Vary", "Content-Encoding"); } /// <summary> /// Determines if GZip is supported /// </summary> /// <returns></returns> public static bool IsGZipSupported() { string AcceptEncoding = HttpContext.Current.Request.Headers["Accept-Encoding"]; if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(AcceptEncoding) && (AcceptEncoding.Contains("gzip") || AcceptEncoding.Contains("deflate"))) return true; return false; } GZipStream and DeflateStream are streams that are assigned to Response.Filter and by doing so apply the appropriate compression on the active Response. Response.Filter content is chunked So to implement a Response.Filter effectively requires only that you implement a custom stream and handle the Write() method to capture Response output as it’s written. At first blush this seems very simple – you capture the output in Write, transform it and write out the transformed content in one pass. And that indeed works for small amounts of content. But you see, the problem is that output is written in small buffer chunks (a little less than 16k it appears) rather than just a single Write() statement into the stream, which makes perfect sense for ASP.NET to stream data back to IIS in smaller chunks to minimize memory usage en route. Unfortunately this also makes it a more difficult to implement any filtering routines since you don’t directly get access to all of the response content which is problematic especially if those filtering routines require you to look at the ENTIRE response in order to transform or capture the output as is needed for the solution the gentleman in my session asked for. So in order to address this a slightly different approach is required that basically captures all the Write() buffers passed into a cached stream and then making the stream available only when it’s complete and ready to be flushed. As I was thinking about the implementation I also started thinking about the few instances when I’ve used Response.Filter implementations. Each time I had to create a new Stream subclass and create my custom functionality but in the end each implementation did the same thing – capturing output and transforming it. I thought there should be an easier way to do this by creating a re-usable Stream class that can handle stream transformations that are common to Response.Filter implementations. Creating a semi-generic Response Filter Stream Class What I ended up with is a ResponseFilterStream class that provides a handful of Events that allow you to capture and/or transform Response content. The class implements a subclass of Stream and then overrides Write() and Flush() to handle capturing and transformation operations. By exposing events it’s easy to hook up capture or transformation operations via single focused methods. ResponseFilterStream exposes the following events: CaptureStream, CaptureString Captures the output only and provides either a MemoryStream or String with the final page output. Capture is hooked to the Flush() operation of the stream. TransformStream, TransformString Allows you to transform the complete response output with events that receive a MemoryStream or String respectively and can you modify the output then return it back as a return value. The transformed output is then written back out in a single chunk to the response output stream. These events capture all output internally first then write the entire buffer into the response. TransformWrite, TransformWriteString Allows you to transform the Response data as it is written in its original chunk size in the Stream’s Write() method. Unlike TransformStream/TransformString which operate on the complete output, these events only see the current chunk of data written. This is more efficient as there’s no caching involved, but can cause problems due to searched content splitting over multiple chunks. Using this implementation, creating a custom Response.Filter transformation becomes as simple as the following code. To hook up the Response.Filter using the MemoryStream version event: ResponseFilterStream filter = new ResponseFilterStream(Response.Filter); filter.TransformStream += filter_TransformStream; Response.Filter = filter; and the event handler to do the transformation: MemoryStream filter_TransformStream(MemoryStream ms) { Encoding encoding = HttpContext.Current.Response.ContentEncoding; string output = encoding.GetString(ms.ToArray()); output = FixPaths(output); ms = new MemoryStream(output.Length); byte[] buffer = encoding.GetBytes(output); ms.Write(buffer,0,buffer.Length); return ms; } private string FixPaths(string output) { string path = HttpContext.Current.Request.ApplicationPath; // override root path wonkiness if (path == "/") path = ""; output = output.Replace("\"~/", "\"" + path + "/").Replace("'~/", "'" + path + "/"); return output; } The idea of the event handler is that you can do whatever you want to the stream and return back a stream – either the same one that’s been modified or a brand new one – which is then sent back to as the final response. The above code can be simplified even more by using the string version events which handle the stream to string conversions for you: ResponseFilterStream filter = new ResponseFilterStream(Response.Filter); filter.TransformString += filter_TransformString; Response.Filter = filter; and the event handler to do the transformation calling the same FixPaths method shown above: string filter_TransformString(string output) { return FixPaths(output); } The events for capturing output and capturing and transforming chunks work in a very similar way. By using events to handle the transformations ResponseFilterStream becomes a reusable component and we don’t have to create a new stream class or subclass an existing Stream based classed. By the way, the example used here is kind of a cool trick which transforms “~/” expressions inside of the final generated HTML output – even in plain HTML controls not HTML controls – and transforms them into the appropriate application relative path in the same way that ResolveUrl would do. So you can write plain old HTML like this: <a href=”~/default.aspx”>Home</a>  and have it turned into: <a href=”/myVirtual/default.aspx”>Home</a>  without having to use an ASP.NET control like Hyperlink or Image or having to constantly use: <img src=”<%= ResolveUrl(“~/images/home.gif”) %>” /> in MVC applications (which frankly is one of the most annoying things about MVC especially given the path hell that extension-less and endpoint-less URLs impose). I can’t take credit for this idea. While discussing the Response.Filter issues on Twitter a hint from Dylan Beattie who pointed me at one of his examples which does something similar. I thought the idea was cool enough to use an example for future demos of Response.Filter functionality in ASP.NET next I time I do the Modules and Handlers talk (which was great fun BTW). How practical this is is debatable however since there’s definitely some overhead to using a Response.Filter in general and especially on one that caches the output and the re-writes it later. Make sure to test for performance anytime you use Response.Filter hookup and make sure it' doesn’t end up killing perf on you. You’ve been warned :-}. How does ResponseFilterStream work? The big win of this implementation IMHO is that it’s a reusable  component – so for implementation there’s no new class, no subclassing – you simply attach to an event to implement an event handler method with a straight forward signature to retrieve the stream or string you’re interested in. The implementation is based on a subclass of Stream as is required in order to handle the Response.Filter requirements. What’s different than other implementations I’ve seen in various places is that it supports capturing output as a whole to allow retrieving the full response output for capture or modification. The exception are the TransformWrite and TransformWrite events which operate only active chunk of data written by the Response. For captured output, the Write() method captures output into an internal MemoryStream that is cached until writing is complete. So Write() is called when ASP.NET writes to the Response stream, but the filter doesn’t pass on the Write immediately to the filter’s internal stream. The data is cached and only when the Flush() method is called to finalize the Stream’s output do we actually send the cached stream off for transformation (if the events are hooked up) and THEN finally write out the returned content in one big chunk. Here’s the implementation of ResponseFilterStream: /// <summary> /// A semi-generic Stream implementation for Response.Filter with /// an event interface for handling Content transformations via /// Stream or String. /// <remarks> /// Use with care for large output as this implementation copies /// the output into a memory stream and so increases memory usage. /// </remarks> /// </summary> public class ResponseFilterStream : Stream { /// <summary> /// The original stream /// </summary> Stream _stream; /// <summary> /// Current position in the original stream /// </summary> long _position; /// <summary> /// Stream that original content is read into /// and then passed to TransformStream function /// </summary> MemoryStream _cacheStream = new MemoryStream(5000); /// <summary> /// Internal pointer that that keeps track of the size /// of the cacheStream /// </summary> int _cachePointer = 0; /// <summary> /// /// </summary> /// <param name="responseStream"></param> public ResponseFilterStream(Stream responseStream) { _stream = responseStream; } /// <summary> /// Determines whether the stream is captured /// </summary> private bool IsCaptured { get { if (CaptureStream != null || CaptureString != null || TransformStream != null || TransformString != null) return true; return false; } } /// <summary> /// Determines whether the Write method is outputting data immediately /// or delaying output until Flush() is fired. /// </summary> private bool IsOutputDelayed { get { if (TransformStream != null || TransformString != null) return true; return false; } } /// <summary> /// Event that captures Response output and makes it available /// as a MemoryStream instance. Output is captured but won't /// affect Response output. /// </summary> public event Action<MemoryStream> CaptureStream; /// <summary> /// Event that captures Response output and makes it available /// as a string. Output is captured but won't affect Response output. /// </summary> public event Action<string> CaptureString; /// <summary> /// Event that allows you transform the stream as each chunk of /// the output is written in the Write() operation of the stream. /// This means that that it's possible/likely that the input /// buffer will not contain the full response output but only /// one of potentially many chunks. /// /// This event is called as part of the filter stream's Write() /// operation. /// </summary> public event Func<byte[], byte[]> TransformWrite; /// <summary> /// Event that allows you to transform the response stream as /// each chunk of bytep[] output is written during the stream's write /// operation. This means it's possibly/likely that the string /// passed to the handler only contains a portion of the full /// output. Typical buffer chunks are around 16k a piece. /// /// This event is called as part of the stream's Write operation. /// </summary> public event Func<string, string> TransformWriteString; /// <summary> /// This event allows capturing and transformation of the entire /// output stream by caching all write operations and delaying final /// response output until Flush() is called on the stream. /// </summary> public event Func<MemoryStream, MemoryStream> TransformStream; /// <summary> /// Event that can be hooked up to handle Response.Filter /// Transformation. Passed a string that you can modify and /// return back as a return value. The modified content /// will become the final output. /// </summary> public event Func<string, string> TransformString; protected virtual void OnCaptureStream(MemoryStream ms) { if (CaptureStream != null) CaptureStream(ms); } private void OnCaptureStringInternal(MemoryStream ms) { if (CaptureString != null) { string content = HttpContext.Current.Response.ContentEncoding.GetString(ms.ToArray()); OnCaptureString(content); } } protected virtual void OnCaptureString(string output) { if (CaptureString != null) CaptureString(output); } protected virtual byte[] OnTransformWrite(byte[] buffer) { if (TransformWrite != null) return TransformWrite(buffer); return buffer; } private byte[] OnTransformWriteStringInternal(byte[] buffer) { Encoding encoding = HttpContext.Current.Response.ContentEncoding; string output = OnTransformWriteString(encoding.GetString(buffer)); return encoding.GetBytes(output); } private string OnTransformWriteString(string value) { if (TransformWriteString != null) return TransformWriteString(value); return value; } protected virtual MemoryStream OnTransformCompleteStream(MemoryStream ms) { if (TransformStream != null) return TransformStream(ms); return ms; } /// <summary> /// Allows transforming of strings /// /// Note this handler is internal and not meant to be overridden /// as the TransformString Event has to be hooked up in order /// for this handler to even fire to avoid the overhead of string /// conversion on every pass through. /// </summary> /// <param name="responseText"></param> /// <returns></returns> private string OnTransformCompleteString(string responseText) { if (TransformString != null) TransformString(responseText); return responseText; } /// <summary> /// Wrapper method form OnTransformString that handles /// stream to string and vice versa conversions /// </summary> /// <param name="ms"></param> /// <returns></returns> internal MemoryStream OnTransformCompleteStringInternal(MemoryStream ms) { if (TransformString == null) return ms; //string content = ms.GetAsString(); string content = HttpContext.Current.Response.ContentEncoding.GetString(ms.ToArray()); content = TransformString(content); byte[] buffer = HttpContext.Current.Response.ContentEncoding.GetBytes(content); ms = new MemoryStream(); ms.Write(buffer, 0, buffer.Length); //ms.WriteString(content); return ms; } /// <summary> /// /// </summary> public override bool CanRead { get { return true; } } public override bool CanSeek { get { return true; } } /// <summary> /// /// </summary> public override bool CanWrite { get { return true; } } /// <summary> /// /// </summary> public override long Length { get { return 0; } } /// <summary> /// /// </summary> public override long Position { get { return _position; } set { _position = value; } } /// <summary> /// /// </summary> /// <param name="offset"></param> /// <param name="direction"></param> /// <returns></returns> public override long Seek(long offset, System.IO.SeekOrigin direction) { return _stream.Seek(offset, direction); } /// <summary> /// /// </summary> /// <param name="length"></param> public override void SetLength(long length) { _stream.SetLength(length); } /// <summary> /// /// </summary> public override void Close() { _stream.Close(); } /// <summary> /// Override flush by writing out the cached stream data /// </summary> public override void Flush() { if (IsCaptured && _cacheStream.Length > 0) { // Check for transform implementations _cacheStream = OnTransformCompleteStream(_cacheStream); _cacheStream = OnTransformCompleteStringInternal(_cacheStream); OnCaptureStream(_cacheStream); OnCaptureStringInternal(_cacheStream); // write the stream back out if output was delayed if (IsOutputDelayed) _stream.Write(_cacheStream.ToArray(), 0, (int)_cacheStream.Length); // Clear the cache once we've written it out _cacheStream.SetLength(0); } // default flush behavior _stream.Flush(); } /// <summary> /// /// </summary> /// <param name="buffer"></param> /// <param name="offset"></param> /// <param name="count"></param> /// <returns></returns> public override int Read(byte[] buffer, int offset, int count) { return _stream.Read(buffer, offset, count); } /// <summary> /// Overriden to capture output written by ASP.NET and captured /// into a cached stream that is written out later when Flush() /// is called. /// </summary> /// <param name="buffer"></param> /// <param name="offset"></param> /// <param name="count"></param> public override void Write(byte[] buffer, int offset, int count) { if ( IsCaptured ) { // copy to holding buffer only - we'll write out later _cacheStream.Write(buffer, 0, count); _cachePointer += count; } // just transform this buffer if (TransformWrite != null) buffer = OnTransformWrite(buffer); if (TransformWriteString != null) buffer = OnTransformWriteStringInternal(buffer); if (!IsOutputDelayed) _stream.Write(buffer, offset, buffer.Length); } } The key features are the events and corresponding OnXXX methods that handle the event hookups, and the Write() and Flush() methods of the stream implementation. All the rest of the members tend to be plain jane passthrough stream implementation code without much consequence. I do love the way Action<t> and Func<T> make it so easy to create the event signatures for the various events – sweet. A few Things to consider Performance Response.Filter is not great for performance in general as it adds another layer of indirection to the ASP.NET output pipeline, and this implementation in particular adds a memory hit as it basically duplicates the response output into the cached memory stream which is necessary since you may have to look at the entire response. If you have large pages in particular this can cause potentially serious memory pressure in your server application. So be careful of wholesale adoption of this (or other) Response.Filters. Make sure to do some performance testing to ensure it’s not killing your app’s performance. Response.Filter works everywhere A few questions came up in comments and discussion as to capturing ALL output hitting the site and – yes you can definitely do that by assigning a Response.Filter inside of a module. If you do this however you’ll want to be very careful and decide which content you actually want to capture especially in IIS 7 which passes ALL content – including static images/CSS etc. through the ASP.NET pipeline. So it is important to filter only on what you’re looking for – like the page extension or maybe more effectively the Response.ContentType. Response.Filter Chaining Originally I thought that filter chaining doesn’t work at all due to a bug in the stream implementation code. But it’s quite possible to assign multiple filters to the Response.Filter property. So the following actually works to both compress the output and apply the transformed content: WebUtils.GZipEncodePage(); ResponseFilterStream filter = new ResponseFilterStream(Response.Filter); filter.TransformString += filter_TransformString; Response.Filter = filter; However the following does not work resulting in invalid content encoding errors: ResponseFilterStream filter = new ResponseFilterStream(Response.Filter); filter.TransformString += filter_TransformString; Response.Filter = filter; WebUtils.GZipEncodePage(); In other words multiple Response filters can work together but it depends entirely on the implementation whether they can be chained or in which order they can be chained. In this case running the GZip/Deflate stream filters apparently relies on the original content length of the output and chokes when the content is modified. But if attaching the compression first it works fine as unintuitive as that may seem. Resources Download example code Capture Output from ASP.NET Pages © Rick Strahl, West Wind Technologies, 2005-2010Posted in ASP.NET  

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• Node.js Adventure - When Node Flying in Wind

  - by Shaun

  In the first post of this series I mentioned some popular modules in the community, such as underscore, async, etc.. I also listed a module named “Wind (zh-CN)”, which is created by one of my friend, Jeff Zhao (zh-CN). Now I would like to use a separated post to introduce this module since I feel it brings a new async programming style in not only Node.js but JavaScript world. If you know or heard about the new feature in C# 5.0 called “async and await”, or you learnt F#, you will find the “Wind” brings the similar async programming experience in JavaScript. By using “Wind”, we can write async code that looks like the sync code. The callbacks, async stats and exceptions will be handled by “Wind” automatically and transparently.   What’s the Problem: Dense “Callback” Phobia Let’s firstly back to my second post in this series. As I mentioned in that post, when we wanted to read some records from SQL Server we need to open the database connection, and then execute the query. In Node.js all IO operation are designed as async callback pattern which means when the operation was done, it will invoke a function which was taken from the last parameter. For example the database connection opening code would be like this. 1: sql.open(connectionString, function(error, conn) { 2: if(error) { 3: // some error handling code 4: } 5: else { 6: // connection opened successfully 7: } 8: }); And then if we need to query the database the code would be like this. It nested in the previous function. 1: sql.open(connectionString, function(error, conn) { 2: if(error) { 3: // some error handling code 4: } 5: else { 6: // connection opened successfully 7: conn.queryRaw(command, function(error, results) { 8: if(error) { 9: // failed to execute this command 10: } 11: else { 12: // records retrieved successfully 13: } 14: }; 15: } 16: }); Assuming if we need to copy some data from this database to another then we need to open another connection and execute the command within the function under the query function. 1: sql.open(connectionString, function(error, conn) { 2: if(error) { 3: // some error handling code 4: } 5: else { 6: // connection opened successfully 7: conn.queryRaw(command, function(error, results) { 8: if(error) { 9: // failed to execute this command 10: } 11: else { 12: // records retrieved successfully 13: target.open(targetConnectionString, function(error, t_conn) { 14: if(error) { 15: // connect failed 16: } 17: else { 18: t_conn.queryRaw(copy_command, function(error, results) { 19: if(error) { 20: // copy failed 21: } 22: else { 23: // and then, what do you want to do now... 24: } 25: }; 26: } 27: }; 28: } 29: }; 30: } 31: }); This is just an example. In the real project the logic would be more complicated. This means our application might be messed up and the business process will be fragged by many callback functions. I would like call this “Dense Callback Phobia”. This might be a challenge how to make code straightforward and easy to read, something like below. 1: try 2: { 3: // open source connection 4: var s_conn = sqlConnect(s_connectionString); 5: // retrieve data 6: var results = sqlExecuteCommand(s_conn, s_command); 7: 8: // open target connection 9: var t_conn = sqlConnect(t_connectionString); 10: // prepare the copy command 11: var t_command = getCopyCommand(results); 12: // execute the copy command 13: sqlExecuteCommand(s_conn, t_command); 14: } 15: catch (ex) 16: { 17: // error handling 18: }   What’s the Problem: Sync-styled Async Programming Similar as the previous problem, the callback-styled async programming model makes the upcoming operation as a part of the current operation, and mixed with the error handling code. So it’s very hard to understand what on earth this code will do. And since Node.js utilizes non-blocking IO mode, we cannot invoke those operations one by one, as they will be executed concurrently. For example, in this post when I tried to copy the records from Windows Azure SQL Database (a.k.a. WASD) to Windows Azure Table Storage, if I just insert the data into table storage one by one and then print the “Finished” message, I will see the message shown before the data had been copied. This is because all operations were executed at the same time. In order to make the copy operation and print operation executed synchronously I introduced a module named “async” and the code was changed as below. 1: async.forEach(results.rows, 2: function (row, callback) { 3: var resource = { 4: "PartitionKey": row[1], 5: "RowKey": row[0], 6: "Value": row[2] 7: }; 8: client.insertEntity(tableName, resource, function (error) { 9: if (error) { 10: callback(error); 11: } 12: else { 13: console.log("entity inserted."); 14: callback(null); 15: } 16: }); 17: }, 18: function (error) { 19: if (error) { 20: error["target"] = "insertEntity"; 21: res.send(500, error); 22: } 23: else { 24: console.log("all done."); 25: res.send(200, "Done!"); 26: } 27: }); It ensured that the “Finished” message will be printed when all table entities had been inserted. But it cannot promise that the records will be inserted in sequence. It might be another challenge to make the code looks like in sync-style? 1: try 2: { 3: forEach(row in rows) { 4: var entity = { /* ... */ }; 5: tableClient.insert(tableName, entity); 6: } 7:  8: console.log("Finished"); 9: } 10: catch (ex) { 11: console.log(ex); 12: }   How “Wind” Helps “Wind” is a JavaScript library which provides the control flow with plain JavaScript for asynchronous programming (and more) without additional pre-compiling steps. It’s available in NPM so that we can install it through “npm install wind”. Now let’s create a very simple Node.js application as the example. This application will take some website URLs from the command arguments and tried to retrieve the body length and print them in console. Then at the end print “Finish”. I’m going to use “request” module to make the HTTP call simple so I also need to install by the command “npm install request”. The code would be like this. 1: var request = require("request"); 2:  3: // get the urls from arguments, the first two arguments are `node.exe` and `fetch.js` 4: var args = process.argv.splice(2); 5:  6: // main function 7: var main = function() { 8: for(var i = 0; i < args.length; i++) { 9: // get the url 10: var url = args[i]; 11: // send the http request and try to get the response and body 12: request(url, function(error, response, body) { 13: if(!error && response.statusCode == 200) { 14: // log the url and the body length 15: console.log( 16: "%s: %d.", 17: response.request.uri.href, 18: body.length); 19: } 20: else { 21: // log error 22: console.log(error); 23: } 24: }); 25: } 26: 27: // finished 28: console.log("Finished"); 29: }; 30:  31: // execute the main function 32: main(); Let’s execute this application. (I made them in multi-lines for better reading.) 1: node fetch.js 2: "http://www.igt.com/us-en.aspx" 3: "http://www.igt.com/us-en/games.aspx" 4: "http://www.igt.com/us-en/cabinets.aspx" 5: "http://www.igt.com/us-en/systems.aspx" 6: "http://www.igt.com/us-en/interactive.aspx" 7: "http://www.igt.com/us-en/social-gaming.aspx" 8: "http://www.igt.com/support.aspx" Below is the output. As you can see the finish message was printed at the beginning, and the pages’ length retrieved in a different order than we specified. This is because in this code the request command, console logging command are executed asynchronously and concurrently. Now let’s introduce “Wind” to make them executed in order, which means it will request the websites one by one, and print the message at the end.   First of all we need to import the “Wind” package and make sure the there’s only one global variant named “Wind”, and ensure it’s “Wind” instead of “wind”. 1: var Wind = require("wind");   Next, we need to tell “Wind” which code will be executed asynchronously so that “Wind” can control the execution process. In this case the “request” operation executed asynchronously so we will create a “Task” by using a build-in helps function in “Wind” named Wind.Async.Task.create. 1: var requestBodyLengthAsync = function(url) { 2: return Wind.Async.Task.create(function(t) { 3: request(url, function(error, response, body) { 4: if(error || response.statusCode != 200) { 5: t.complete("failure", error); 6: } 7: else { 8: var data = 9: { 10: uri: response.request.uri.href, 11: length: body.length 12: }; 13: t.complete("success", data); 14: } 15: }); 16: }); 17: }; The code above created a “Task” from the original request calling code. In “Wind” a “Task” means an operation will be finished in some time in the future. A “Task” can be started by invoke its start() method, but no one knows when it actually will be finished. The Wind.Async.Task.create helped us to create a task. The only parameter is a function where we can put the actual operation in, and then notify the task object it’s finished successfully or failed by using the complete() method. In the code above I invoked the request method. If it retrieved the response successfully I set the status of this task as “success” with the URL and body length. If it failed I set this task as “failure” and pass the error out.   Next, we will change the main() function. In “Wind” if we want a function can be controlled by Wind we need to mark it as “async”. This should be done by using the code below. 1: var main = eval(Wind.compile("async", function() { 2: })); When the application is running, Wind will detect “eval(Wind.compile(“async”, function” and generate an anonymous code from the body of this original function. Then the application will run the anonymous code instead of the original one. In our example the main function will be like this. 1: var main = eval(Wind.compile("async", function() { 2: for(var i = 0; i < args.length; i++) { 3: try 4: { 5: var result = $await(requestBodyLengthAsync(args[i])); 6: console.log( 7: "%s: %d.", 8: result.uri, 9: result.length); 10: } 11: catch (ex) { 12: console.log(ex); 13: } 14: } 15: 16: console.log("Finished"); 17: })); As you can see, when I tried to request the URL I use a new command named “$await”. It tells Wind, the operation next to $await will be executed asynchronously, and the main thread should be paused until it finished (or failed). So in this case, my application will be pause when the first response was received, and then print its body length, then try the next one. At the end, print the finish message.   Finally, execute the main function. The full code would be like this. 1: var request = require("request"); 2: var Wind = require("wind"); 3:  4: var args = process.argv.splice(2); 5:  6: var requestBodyLengthAsync = function(url) { 7: return Wind.Async.Task.create(function(t) { 8: request(url, function(error, response, body) { 9: if(error || response.statusCode != 200) { 10: t.complete("failure", error); 11: } 12: else { 13: var data = 14: { 15: uri: response.request.uri.href, 16: length: body.length 17: }; 18: t.complete("success", data); 19: } 20: }); 21: }); 22: }; 23:  24: var main = eval(Wind.compile("async", function() { 25: for(var i = 0; i < args.length; i++) { 26: try 27: { 28: var result = $await(requestBodyLengthAsync(args[i])); 29: console.log( 30: "%s: %d.", 31: result.uri, 32: result.length); 33: } 34: catch (ex) { 35: console.log(ex); 36: } 37: } 38: 39: console.log("Finished"); 40: })); 41:  42: main().start();   Run our new application. At the beginning we will see the compiled and generated code by Wind. Then we can see the pages were requested one by one, and at the end the finish message was printed. Below is the code Wind generated for us. As you can see the original code, the output code were shown. 1: // Original: 2: function () { 3: for(var i = 0; i < args.length; i++) { 4: try 5: { 6: var result = $await(requestBodyLengthAsync(args[i])); 7: console.log( 8: "%s: %d.", 9: result.uri, 10: result.length); 11: } 12: catch (ex) { 13: console.log(ex); 14: } 15: } 16: 17: console.log("Finished"); 18: } 19:  20: // Compiled: 21: /* async << function () { */ (function () { 22: var _builder_$0 = Wind.builders["async"]; 23: return _builder_$0.Start(this, 24: _builder_$0.Combine( 25: _builder_$0.Delay(function () { 26: /* var i = 0; */ var i = 0; 27: /* for ( */ return _builder_$0.For(function () { 28: /* ; i < args.length */ return i < args.length; 29: }, function () { 30: /* ; i ++) { */ i ++; 31: }, 32: /* try { */ _builder_$0.Try( 33: _builder_$0.Delay(function () { 34: /* var result = $await(requestBodyLengthAsync(args[i])); */ return _builder_$0.Bind(requestBodyLengthAsync(args[i]), function (result) { 35: /* console.log("%s: %d.", result.uri, result.length); */ console.log("%s: %d.", result.uri, result.length); 36: return _builder_$0.Normal(); 37: }); 38: }), 39: /* } catch (ex) { */ function (ex) { 40: /* console.log(ex); */ console.log(ex); 41: return _builder_$0.Normal(); 42: /* } */ }, 43: null 44: ) 45: /* } */ ); 46: }), 47: _builder_$0.Delay(function () { 48: /* console.log("Finished"); */ console.log("Finished"); 49: return _builder_$0.Normal(); 50: }) 51: ) 52: ); 53: /* } */ })   How Wind Works Someone may raise a big concern when you find I utilized “eval” in my code. Someone may assume that Wind utilizes “eval” to execute some code dynamically while “eval” is very low performance. But I would say, Wind does NOT use “eval” to run the code. It only use “eval” as a flag to know which code should be compiled at runtime. When the code was firstly been executed, Wind will check and find “eval(Wind.compile(“async”, function”. So that it knows this function should be compiled. Then it utilized parse-js to analyze the inner JavaScript and generated the anonymous code in memory. Then it rewrite the original code so that when the application was running it will use the anonymous one instead of the original one. Since the code generation was done at the beginning of the application was started, in the future no matter how long our application runs and how many times the async function was invoked, it will use the generated code, no need to generate again. So there’s no significant performance hurt when using Wind.   Wind in My Previous Demo Let’s adopt Wind into one of my previous demonstration and to see how it helps us to make our code simple, straightforward and easy to read and understand. In this post when I implemented the functionality that copied the records from my WASD to table storage, the logic would be like this. 1, Open database connection. 2, Execute a query to select all records from the table. 3, Recreate the table in Windows Azure table storage. 4, Create entities from each of the records retrieved previously, and then insert them into table storage. 5, Finally, show message as the HTTP response. But as the image below, since there are so many callbacks and async operations, it’s very hard to understand my logic from the code. Now let’s use Wind to rewrite our code. First of all, of course, we need the Wind package. Then we need to include the package files into project and mark them as “Copy always”. Add the Wind package into the source code. Pay attention to the variant name, you must use “Wind” instead of “wind”. 1: var express = require("express"); 2: var async = require("async"); 3: var sql = require("node-sqlserver"); 4: var azure = require("azure"); 5: var Wind = require("wind"); Now we need to create some async functions by using Wind. All async functions should be wrapped so that it can be controlled by Wind which are open database, retrieve records, recreate table (delete and create) and insert entity in table. Below are these new functions. All of them are created by using Wind.Async.Task.create. 1: sql.openAsync = function (connectionString) { 2: return Wind.Async.Task.create(function (t) { 3: sql.open(connectionString, function (error, conn) { 4: if (error) { 5: t.complete("failure", error); 6: } 7: else { 8: t.complete("success", conn); 9: } 10: }); 11: }); 12: }; 13:  14: sql.queryAsync = function (conn, query) { 15: return Wind.Async.Task.create(function (t) { 16: conn.queryRaw(query, function (error, results) { 17: if (error) { 18: t.complete("failure", error); 19: } 20: else { 21: t.complete("success", results); 22: } 23: }); 24: }); 25: }; 26:  27: azure.recreateTableAsync = function (tableName) { 28: return Wind.Async.Task.create(function (t) { 29: client.deleteTable(tableName, function (error, successful, response) { 30: console.log("delete table finished"); 31: client.createTableIfNotExists(tableName, function (error, successful, response) { 32: console.log("create table finished"); 33: if (error) { 34: t.complete("failure", error); 35: } 36: else { 37: t.complete("success", null); 38: } 39: }); 40: }); 41: }); 42: }; 43:  44: azure.insertEntityAsync = function (tableName, entity) { 45: return Wind.Async.Task.create(function (t) { 46: client.insertEntity(tableName, entity, function (error, entity, response) { 47: if (error) { 48: t.complete("failure", error); 49: } 50: else { 51: t.complete("success", null); 52: } 53: }); 54: }); 55: }; Then in order to use these functions we will create a new function which contains all steps for data copying. 1: var copyRecords = eval(Wind.compile("async", function (req, res) { 2: try { 3: } 4: catch (ex) { 5: console.log(ex); 6: res.send(500, "Internal error."); 7: } 8: })); Let’s execute steps one by one with the “$await” keyword introduced by Wind so that it will be invoked in sequence. First is to open the database connection. 1: var copyRecords = eval(Wind.compile("async", function (req, res) { 2: try { 3: // connect to the windows azure sql database 4: var conn = $await(sql.openAsync(connectionString)); 5: console.log("connection opened"); 6: } 7: catch (ex) { 8: console.log(ex); 9: res.send(500, "Internal error."); 10: } 11: })); Then retrieve all records from the database connection. 1: var copyRecords = eval(Wind.compile("async", function (req, res) { 2: try { 3: // connect to the windows azure sql database 4: var conn = $await(sql.openAsync(connectionString)); 5: console.log("connection opened"); 6: // retrieve all records from database 7: var results = $await(sql.queryAsync(conn, "SELECT * FROM [Resource]")); 8: console.log("records selected. count = %d", results.rows.length); 9: } 10: catch (ex) { 11: console.log(ex); 12: res.send(500, "Internal error."); 13: } 14: })); After recreated the table, we need to create the entities and insert them into table storage. 1: var copyRecords = eval(Wind.compile("async", function (req, res) { 2: try { 3: // connect to the windows azure sql database 4: var conn = $await(sql.openAsync(connectionString)); 5: console.log("connection opened"); 6: // retrieve all records from database 7: var results = $await(sql.queryAsync(conn, "SELECT * FROM [Resource]")); 8: console.log("records selected. count = %d", results.rows.length); 9: if (results.rows.length > 0) { 10: // recreate the table 11: $await(azure.recreateTableAsync(tableName)); 12: console.log("table created"); 13: // insert records in table storage one by one 14: for (var i = 0; i < results.rows.length; i++) { 15: var entity = { 16: "PartitionKey": results.rows[i][1], 17: "RowKey": results.rows[i][0], 18: "Value": results.rows[i][2] 19: }; 20: $await(azure.insertEntityAsync(tableName, entity)); 21: console.log("entity inserted"); 22: } 23: } 24: } 25: catch (ex) { 26: console.log(ex); 27: res.send(500, "Internal error."); 28: } 29: })); Finally, send response back to the browser. 1: var copyRecords = eval(Wind.compile("async", function (req, res) { 2: try { 3: // connect to the windows azure sql database 4: var conn = $await(sql.openAsync(connectionString)); 5: console.log("connection opened"); 6: // retrieve all records from database 7: var results = $await(sql.queryAsync(conn, "SELECT * FROM [Resource]")); 8: console.log("records selected. count = %d", results.rows.length); 9: if (results.rows.length > 0) { 10: // recreate the table 11: $await(azure.recreateTableAsync(tableName)); 12: console.log("table created"); 13: // insert records in table storage one by one 14: for (var i = 0; i < results.rows.length; i++) { 15: var entity = { 16: "PartitionKey": results.rows[i][1], 17: "RowKey": results.rows[i][0], 18: "Value": results.rows[i][2] 19: }; 20: $await(azure.insertEntityAsync(tableName, entity)); 21: console.log("entity inserted"); 22: } 23: // send response 24: console.log("all done"); 25: res.send(200, "All done!"); 26: } 27: } 28: catch (ex) { 29: console.log(ex); 30: res.send(500, "Internal error."); 31: } 32: })); If we compared with the previous code we will find now it became more readable and much easy to understand. It’s very easy to know what this function does even though without any comments. When user go to URL “/was/copyRecords” we will execute the function above. The code would be like this. 1: app.get("/was/copyRecords", function (req, res) { 2: copyRecords(req, res).start(); 3: }); And below is the logs printed in local compute emulator console. As we can see the functions executed one by one and then finally the response back to me browser.   Scaffold Functions in Wind Wind provides not only the async flow control and compile functions, but many scaffold methods as well. We can build our async code more easily by using them. I’m going to introduce some basic scaffold functions here. In the code above I created some functions which wrapped from the original async function such as open database, create table, etc.. All of them are very similar, created a task by using Wind.Async.Task.create, return error or result object through Task.complete function. In fact, Wind provides some functions for us to create task object from the original async functions. If the original async function only has a callback parameter, we can use Wind.Async.Binding.fromCallback method to get the task object directly. For example the code below returned the task object which wrapped the file exist check function. 1: var Wind = require("wind"); 2: var fs = require("fs"); 3:  4: fs.existsAsync = Wind.Async.Binding.fromCallback(fs.exists); In Node.js a very popular async function pattern is that, the first parameter in the callback function represent the error object, and the other parameters is the return values. In this case we can use another build-in function in Wind named Wind.Async.Binding.fromStandard. For example, the open database function can be created from the code below. 1: sql.openAsync = Wind.Async.Binding.fromStandard(sql.open); 2:  3: /* 4: sql.openAsync = function (connectionString) { 5: return Wind.Async.Task.create(function (t) { 6: sql.open(connectionString, function (error, conn) { 7: if (error) { 8: t.complete("failure", error); 9: } 10: else { 11: t.complete("success", conn); 12: } 13: }); 14: }); 15: }; 16: */ When I was testing the scaffold functions under Wind.Async.Binding I found for some functions, such as the Azure SDK insert entity function, cannot be processed correctly. So I personally suggest writing the wrapped method manually.   Another scaffold method in Wind is the parallel tasks coordination. In this example, the steps of open database, retrieve records and recreated table should be invoked one by one, but it can be executed in parallel when copying data from database to table storage. In Wind there’s a scaffold function named Task.whenAll which can be used here. Task.whenAll accepts a list of tasks and creates a new task. It will be returned only when all tasks had been completed, or any errors occurred. For example in the code below I used the Task.whenAll to make all copy operation executed at the same time. 1: var copyRecordsInParallel = eval(Wind.compile("async", function (req, res) { 2: try { 3: // connect to the windows azure sql database 4: var conn = $await(sql.openAsync(connectionString)); 5: console.log("connection opened"); 6: // retrieve all records from database 7: var results = $await(sql.queryAsync(conn, "SELECT * FROM [Resource]")); 8: console.log("records selected. count = %d", results.rows.length); 9: if (results.rows.length > 0) { 10: // recreate the table 11: $await(azure.recreateTableAsync(tableName)); 12: console.log("table created"); 13: // insert records in table storage in parallal 14: var tasks = new Array(results.rows.length); 15: for (var i = 0; i < results.rows.length; i++) { 16: var entity = { 17: "PartitionKey": results.rows[i][1], 18: "RowKey": results.rows[i][0], 19: "Value": results.rows[i][2] 20: }; 21: tasks[i] = azure.insertEntityAsync(tableName, entity); 22: } 23: $await(Wind.Async.Task.whenAll(tasks)); 24: // send response 25: console.log("all done"); 26: res.send(200, "All done!"); 27: } 28: } 29: catch (ex) { 30: console.log(ex); 31: res.send(500, "Internal error."); 32: } 33: })); 34:  35: app.get("/was/copyRecordsInParallel", function (req, res) { 36: copyRecordsInParallel(req, res).start(); 37: });   Besides the task creation and coordination, Wind supports the cancellation solution so that we can send the cancellation signal to the tasks. It also includes exception solution which means any exceptions will be reported to the caller function.   Summary In this post I introduced a Node.js module named Wind, which created by my friend Jeff Zhao. As you can see, different from other async library and framework, adopted the idea from F# and C#, Wind utilizes runtime code generation technology to make it more easily to write async, callback-based functions in a sync-style way. By using Wind there will be almost no callback, and the code will be very easy to understand. Currently Wind is still under developed and improved. There might be some problems but the author, Jeff, should be very happy and enthusiastic to learn your problems, feedback, suggestion and comments. You can contact Jeff by - Email: [email protected] - Group: https://groups.google.com/d/forum/windjs - GitHub: https://github.com/JeffreyZhao/wind/issues   Source code can be download here.   Hope this helps, Shaun All documents and related graphics, codes are provided "AS IS" without warranty of any kind. Copyright © Shaun Ziyan Xu. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons License.

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• Anyone have ideas for solving the "n items remaining" problem on Internet Explorer?

  - by CMPalmer

  In my ASP.Net app, which is javascript and jQuery heavy, but also uses master pages and .Net Ajax pieces, I am consistently seeing on the status bar of IE 6 (and occasionally IE 7) the message "2 items remaining" or "15 items remaining" followed by "loading somegraphicsfile.png|gif ." This message never goes away and may or may not prevent some page functionality from running (it certainly seems to bog down, but I'm not positive). I can cause this to happen 99% of the time by just refreshing an .aspx age, but the number of items and, sometimes, the file it mentions varies. Usually it is 2, 3, 12, 13, or 15. I've Googled for answers and there are several suggestions or explanations. Some of them haven't worked for us, and others aren't practical for us to implement or try. Here are some of the ideas/theories: IE isn't caching images right, so it repeatedly asks for the same image if the image is repeated on the page and the server assumes that it should be cached locally since it's already served it in that page context. IE displays the images correctly, but sits and waits for a server response that never comes. Typically the file it says it is waiting on is repeated on the page. The page is using PNG graphics with transparency. Indeed it is, but they are jQuery-UI Themeroller generated graphics which, according to the jQuery-UI folks, are IE safe. The jQuery-UI components are the only things using PNGs. All of our PNG references are in CSS, if that helps. I've changed some of the graphics from PNG to GIF, but it is just as likely to say it's waiting for somegraphicsfile.png as it is for somegraphicsfile.gif Images are being specified in CSS and/or JavaScript but are on things that aren't currently being displayed (display: none items for example). This may be true, but if it is, then I would think preloading images would work, but so far, adding a preloader doesn't do any good. IIS's caching policy is confusing the browser. If this is true, it is only Microsoft server SW having problems with Microsoft's browser (which doesn't surprise me at all). Unfortunately, I don't have much control over the IIS configuration that will be hosting the app. Has anyone seen this and found a way to combat it? Particularly on ASP.Net apps with jQuery and jQuery-UI? UPDATE One other data point: on at least one of the pages, just commenting out the jQuery-UI Datepicker component setup causes the problem to go away, but I don't think (or at least I'm not sure) if that fixes all of the pages. If it does "fix" them, I'll have to swap out plug-ins because that functionality needs to be there. There doesn't seem to be any open issues against jQuery-UI on IE6/7 currently... UPDATE 2 I checked the IIS settings and "enable content expiration" was not set on any of my folders. Unchecking that setting was a common suggestion for fixing this problem. I have another, simpler, page that I can consistently create the error on. I'm using the jQuery-UI 1.6rc6 file (although I've also tried jQuery-UI 1.7.1 with the same results). The problem only occurs when I refresh the page that contains the jQuery-UI Datepicker. If I comment out the Datepicker setup, the problem goes away. Here are a few things I notice when I do this: This page always says "(1 item remaining) Downloading picture http:///images/Calendar_scheduleHS.gif", but only when reloading. When I look at HTTP logging, I see that it requests that image from the server every time it is dynamically turned on, without regard to caching. All of the requests for that graphic are complete and return the graphic correctly. None are marked code 200 or 304 (indicating that the server is telling IE to use the cached version). Why it says waiting on that graphic when all of the requests have completed I have no idea. There is a single other graphic on the page (one of the UI PNG files) that has a code 304 (Not Modified). On another page where I managed to log HTTP traffic with "2 items remaining", two different graphic files (both UI PNGs) had a 304 as well (but neither was the one listed as "Downloading". This error is not innocuous - the page is not fully responsive. For example, if I click on one of the buttons which should execute a client-side action, the page refreshes. Going away from the page and coming back does not produce the error. I have moved the script and script references to the bottom of the content and this doesn't affect this problem. The script is still running in the $(document).ready() though (it's too hairy to divide out unless I absolutely have to). FINAL UPDATE AND ANSWER There were a lot of good answers and suggestions below, but none of them were exactly our problem. The closest one (and the one that led me to the solution) was the one about long running JavaScript, so I awarded the bounty there (I guess I could have answered it myself, but I'd rather reward info that leads to solutions). Here was our solution: We had multiple jQueryUI datepickers that were created on the $(document).ready event in script included from the ASP.Net master page. On this client page, a local script's $(document).ready event had script that destroyed the datepickers under certain conditions. We had to use "destroy" because the previous version of datepicker had a problem with "disable". When we upgraded to the latest version of jQuery UI (1.7.1) and replaced the "destroy"s with "disable"s for the datepickers, the problem went away (or mostly went away - if you do things too fast while the page is loading, it is still possible to get the "n items remaining" status). My theory as to what was happening goes like this: The page content loads and has 12 or so text boxes with the datepicker class. The master page script creates datepickers on those text boxes. IE queues up requests for each calendar graphic independently because IE doesn't know how to properly cache dynamic image requests. Before the requests get processed, the client area script destroys those datepickers so the graphics are no longer needed. IE is left with some number of orphaned requests that it doesn't know what to do with.

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• Why is my WCF Rest Service on IIS7 Authenticating TWICE!?!?

  - by TheAggie

  Ok, if someone could shed some light on this for me, I would greatly appreciate it. So here we go. I had a rest service running fine the other day but after I accidentally overwrote the web.config all hell broke loose. I've spent the past day and a half trying to sort things out but I can't seem to figure out what is missing or misplaced. So, I've designed this service around WCF Rest Contrib (http://wcfrestcontrib.codeplex.com)'s authentication process. Now, I can get this working fine on my localhost w/ the current web.config (minus the endpoint entry) but once I upload it to discountasp and select "basic authorization" in the ISS7 Manager, it appears that I'm getting authenticated twice! Once using my discount asp.net user/pass and then the next time using the application user/pass. Unfortunately I only provide one set of credentials and don't want to hard code my discountasp account info into the app. Like I said before, this worked fine a few days ago. Anyway. here is my web.config as it is now: <?xml version="1.0"?> <configuration> <connectionStrings> <add name="SQL2008_ConnectionString" connectionString="Data Source=sql2k8xx.discountasp.net;Initial Catalog=SQL2008_xx;Persist Security Info=True;User ID=SQL2008_xx_user;Password=myPass" providerName="System.Data.SqlClient" /> </connectionStrings> <system.web> <httpRuntime maxRequestLength="204800" executionTimeout="3600"/> <compilation debug="true"> <assemblies> <add assembly="System.Core, Version=3.5.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=B77A5C561934E089"/> <add assembly="System.Web.Extensions, Version=3.5.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35"/> </assemblies> </compilation> <httpModules> <add name="ServiceAnonymityModule" type="WcfRestContrib.Web.ServiceAnonymityModule, WcfRestContrib"/> </httpModules> </system.web> <system.codedom> <compilers> <compiler language="c#;cs;csharp" extension=".cs" warningLevel="4" type="Microsoft.CSharp.CSharpCodeProvider, System, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089"> <providerOption name="CompilerVersion" value="v3.5"/> <providerOption name="WarnAsError" value="false"/> </compiler> </compilers> </system.codedom> <system.webServer> <validation validateIntegratedModeConfiguration="false"/> <modules> <remove name="ServiceAnonymityModule"/> <add name="ServiceAnonymityModule" type="WcfRestContrib.Web.ServiceAnonymityModule, WcfRestContrib"/> </modules> <handlers> <remove name="WebServiceHandlerFactory-Integrated"/> </handlers> </system.webServer> <system.diagnostics> <trace autoflush="true" /> </system.diagnostics> <system.serviceModel> <serviceHostingEnvironment aspNetCompatibilityEnabled="false"> <baseAddressPrefixFilters> <add prefix="http://www.mydomain.com/myServiceBaseAddress"/> </baseAddressPrefixFilters> </serviceHostingEnvironment> <extensions> <behaviorExtensions> <add name="webAuthentication" type="WcfRestContrib.ServiceModel.Configuration.WebAuthentication.ConfigurationBehaviorElement, WcfRestContrib, Version=1.0.5.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=89183999a8dc93b5"/> <add name="errorHandler" type="WcfRestContrib.ServiceModel.Configuration.ErrorHandler.BehaviorElement, WcfRestContrib, Version=1.0.5.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=89183999a8dc93b5"/> <add name="webFormatter" type="WcfRestContrib.ServiceModel.Configuration.WebDispatchFormatter.ConfigurationBehaviorElement, WcfRestContrib, Version=1.0.5.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=89183999a8dc93b5"/> <add name="webErrorHandler" type="WcfRestContrib.ServiceModel.Configuration.WebErrorHandler.ConfigurationBehaviorElement, WcfRestContrib, Version=1.0.5.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=89183999a8dc93b5"/> </behaviorExtensions> </extensions> <bindings> <customBinding> <binding name="HttpStreamedRest"> <httpTransport maxReceivedMessageSize="209715200" manualAddressing="true" /> </binding> <binding name="HttpsStreamedRest"> <httpsTransport maxReceivedMessageSize="209715200" manualAddressing="true" /> </binding> </customBinding> </bindings> <behaviors> <serviceBehaviors> <behavior name="Rest"> <webAuthentication requireSecureTransport="false" authenticationHandlerType="WcfRestContrib.ServiceModel.Dispatcher.WebBasicAuthenticationHandler, WcfRestContrib" usernamePasswordValidatorType="MyLibrary.Runtime.SecurityValidator, MyLibrary" source="MyRESTServiceRealm"/> <webFormatter> <formatters defaultMimeType="application/xml"> <formatter mimeTypes="application/xml,text/xml" type="WcfRestContrib.ServiceModel.Dispatcher.Formatters.PoxDataContract, WcfRestContrib"/> <formatter mimeTypes="application/json" type="WcfRestContrib.ServiceModel.Dispatcher.Formatters.DataContractJson, WcfRestContrib"/> <formatter mimeTypes="application/x-www-form-urlencoded" type="WcfRestContrib.ServiceModel.Dispatcher.Formatters.FormUrlEncoded, WcfRestContrib"/> </formatters> </webFormatter> <errorHandler errorHandlerType="WcfRestContrib.ServiceModel.Web.WebErrorHandler, WcfRestContrib"/> <webErrorHandler returnRawException="true" logHandlerType="MyLibrary.Runtime.LogHandler, MyLibrary" unhandledErrorMessage="An error has occured processing your request. Please contact technical support for further assistance."/> </behavior> </serviceBehaviors> </behaviors> </system.serviceModel> </configuration> So, whenever I upload this and change the ISS setting to Basic Authentication, it looks like it is trying to use the default handler for authentication as if I try to enter my web app user/pass, I get an error screen which has the following detailed information about the moduel/handler Detailed Error Information Module: IIS Web Core Notification: AuthenticateRequest Handler: svc-ISAPI-2.0 Error Code: 0x80070005 Requested URL: http://www.mydomain.com:80/MyService.../MyService.svc Physical Path: E:\web\xxxxxx\htdocs\MyServiceBaseAddress\MyService.svc Logon Method: Not yet determined Logon User: Not yet determined Now for the fun stuff... i tried providing my discountasp.net account username/password for kicks and sure enough it responded properly for any [OperationContract] which doesn't have [OperationAuthentication] defined (which is only one or two of the operations I have). I thought this was strange, so I looked at fiddler and saw something interesting. Whenever I try request a procedure with [OperationAuthentication] defined and provide my discountasp.net username/pass I get two different "WWW-Authenticate" headers back in Fiddler: WWW-Authenticate: Basic realm="MyRESTServiceRealm" WWW-Authenticate: Basic realm="www.mydomain.com" On the other hand, if I try to access the same procedures with only my application's user/pass, I only get the site's header: WWW-Authenticate: Basic realm="www.mydomain.com" My hypothesis is that for some reason I'm having to pass through the default "Basic Authorization" layer set by IIS before I can get to the application's "Custom Basic Authorization" layer. After verifying this by created an identical user/pass for my service that I use for my discountasp.net account, I was able to successfully pass both layers of authentication without any issues... so I think I can conclude that this is indeed the issue. Now how do I disable the default one? Do I need to do this in the IIS Manager, or in the web.config? Anyway, I have absolutely no idea how this is possible or what I need to do to resolve the issue, but I know that something is seriously out of whack. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated! Thanks.

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• An Xml Serializable PropertyBag Dictionary Class for .NET

  - by Rick Strahl

  I don't know about you but I frequently need property bags in my applications to store and possibly cache arbitrary data. Dictionary<T,V> works well for this although I always seem to be hunting for a more specific generic type that provides a string key based dictionary. There's string dictionary, but it only works with strings. There's Hashset<T> but it uses the actual values as keys. In most key value pair situations for me string is key value to work off. Dictionary<T,V> works well enough, but there are some issues with serialization of dictionaries in .NET. The .NET framework doesn't do well serializing IDictionary objects out of the box. The XmlSerializer doesn't support serialization of IDictionary via it's default serialization, and while the DataContractSerializer does support IDictionary serialization it produces some pretty atrocious XML. What doesn't work? First off Dictionary serialization with the Xml Serializer doesn't work so the following fails: [TestMethod] public void DictionaryXmlSerializerTest() { var bag = new Dictionary<string, object>(); bag.Add("key", "Value"); bag.Add("Key2", 100.10M); bag.Add("Key3", Guid.NewGuid()); bag.Add("Key4", DateTime.Now); bag.Add("Key5", true); bag.Add("Key7", new byte[3] { 42, 45, 66 }); TestContext.WriteLine(this.ToXml(bag)); } public string ToXml(object obj) { if (obj == null) return null; StringWriter sw = new StringWriter(); XmlSerializer ser = new XmlSerializer(obj.GetType()); ser.Serialize(sw, obj); return sw.ToString(); } The error you get with this is: System.NotSupportedException: The type System.Collections.Generic.Dictionary`2[[System.String, mscorlib, Version=4.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089],[System.Object, mscorlib, Version=4.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089]] is not supported because it implements IDictionary. Got it! BTW, the same is true with binary serialization. Running the same code above against the DataContractSerializer does work: [TestMethod] public void DictionaryDataContextSerializerTest() { var bag = new Dictionary<string, object>(); bag.Add("key", "Value"); bag.Add("Key2", 100.10M); bag.Add("Key3", Guid.NewGuid()); bag.Add("Key4", DateTime.Now); bag.Add("Key5", true); bag.Add("Key7", new byte[3] { 42, 45, 66 }); TestContext.WriteLine(this.ToXmlDcs(bag)); } public string ToXmlDcs(object value, bool throwExceptions = false) { var ser = new DataContractSerializer(value.GetType(), null, int.MaxValue, true, false, null); MemoryStream ms = new MemoryStream(); ser.WriteObject(ms, value); return Encoding.UTF8.GetString(ms.ToArray(), 0, (int)ms.Length); } This DOES work but produces some pretty heinous XML (formatted with line breaks and indentation here): <ArrayOfKeyValueOfstringanyType xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/2003/10/Serialization/Arrays" xmlns:i="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"> <KeyValueOfstringanyType> <Key>key</Key> <Value i:type="a:string" xmlns:a="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema">Value</Value> </KeyValueOfstringanyType> <KeyValueOfstringanyType> <Key>Key2</Key> <Value i:type="a:decimal" xmlns:a="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema">100.10</Value> </KeyValueOfstringanyType> <KeyValueOfstringanyType> <Key>Key3</Key> <Value i:type="a:guid" xmlns:a="http://schemas.microsoft.com/2003/10/Serialization/">2cd46d2a-a636-4af4-979b-e834d39b6d37</Value> </KeyValueOfstringanyType> <KeyValueOfstringanyType> <Key>Key4</Key> <Value i:type="a:dateTime" xmlns:a="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema">2011-09-19T17:17:05.4406999-07:00</Value> </KeyValueOfstringanyType> <KeyValueOfstringanyType> <Key>Key5</Key> <Value i:type="a:boolean" xmlns:a="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema">true</Value> </KeyValueOfstringanyType> <KeyValueOfstringanyType> <Key>Key7</Key> <Value i:type="a:base64Binary" xmlns:a="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema">Ki1C</Value> </KeyValueOfstringanyType> </ArrayOfKeyValueOfstringanyType> Ouch! That seriously hurts the eye! :-) Worse though it's extremely verbose with all those repetitive namespace declarations. It's good to know that it works in a pinch, but for a human readable/editable solution or something lightweight to store in a database it's not quite ideal. Why should I care? As a little background, in one of my applications I have a need for a flexible property bag that is used on a free form database field on an otherwise static entity. Basically what I have is a standard database record to which arbitrary properties can be added in an XML based string field. I intend to expose those arbitrary properties as a collection from field data stored in XML. The concept is pretty simple: When loading write the data to the collection, when the data is saved serialize the data into an XML string and store it into the database. When reading the data pick up the XML and if the collection on the entity is accessed automatically deserialize the XML into the Dictionary. (I'll talk more about this in another post). While the DataContext Serializer would work, it's verbosity is problematic both for size of the generated XML strings and the fact that users can manually edit this XML based property data in an advanced mode. A clean(er) layout certainly would be preferable and more user friendly. Custom XMLSerialization with a PropertyBag Class So… after a bunch of experimentation with different serialization formats I decided to create a custom PropertyBag class that provides for a serializable Dictionary. It's basically a custom Dictionary<TType,TValue> implementation with the keys always set as string keys. The result are PropertyBag<TValue> and PropertyBag (which defaults to the object type for values). The PropertyBag<TType> and PropertyBag classes provide these features: Subclassed from Dictionary<T,V> Implements IXmlSerializable with a cleanish XML format ToXml() and FromXml() methods to export and import to and from XML strings Static CreateFromXml() method to create an instance It's simple enough as it's merely a Dictionary<string,object> subclass but that supports serialization to a - what I think at least - cleaner XML format. The class is super simple to use: [TestMethod] public void PropertyBagTwoWayObjectSerializationTest() { var bag = new PropertyBag(); bag.Add("key", "Value"); bag.Add("Key2", 100.10M); bag.Add("Key3", Guid.NewGuid()); bag.Add("Key4", DateTime.Now); bag.Add("Key5", true); bag.Add("Key7", new byte[3] { 42,45,66 } ); bag.Add("Key8", null); bag.Add("Key9", new ComplexObject() { Name = "Rick", Entered = DateTime.Now, Count = 10 }); string xml = bag.ToXml(); TestContext.WriteLine(bag.ToXml()); bag.Clear(); bag.FromXml(xml); Assert.IsTrue(bag["key"] as string == "Value"); Assert.IsInstanceOfType( bag["Key3"], typeof(Guid)); Assert.IsNull(bag["Key8"]); //Assert.IsNull(bag["Key10"]); Assert.IsInstanceOfType(bag["Key9"], typeof(ComplexObject)); } This uses the PropertyBag class which uses a PropertyBag<string,object> - which means it returns untyped values of type object. I suspect for me this will be the most common scenario as I'd want to store arbitrary values in the PropertyBag rather than one specific type. The same code with a strongly typed PropertyBag<decimal> looks like this: [TestMethod] public void PropertyBagTwoWayValueTypeSerializationTest() { var bag = new PropertyBag<decimal>(); bag.Add("key", 10M); bag.Add("Key1", 100.10M); bag.Add("Key2", 200.10M); bag.Add("Key3", 300.10M); string xml = bag.ToXml(); TestContext.WriteLine(bag.ToXml()); bag.Clear(); bag.FromXml(xml); Assert.IsTrue(bag.Get("Key1") == 100.10M); Assert.IsTrue(bag.Get("Key3") == 300.10M); } and produces typed results of type decimal. The types can be either value or reference types the combination of which actually proved to be a little more tricky than anticipated due to null and specific string value checks required - getting the generic typing right required use of default(T) and Convert.ChangeType() to trick the compiler into playing nice. Of course the whole raison d'etre for this class is the XML serialization. You can see in the code above that we're doing a .ToXml() and .FromXml() to serialize to and from string. The XML produced for the first example looks like this: <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> <properties> <item> <key>key</key> <value>Value</value> </item> <item> <key>Key2</key> <value type="decimal">100.10</value> </item> <item> <key>Key3</key> <value type="___System.Guid"> <guid>f7a92032-0c6d-4e9d-9950-b15ff7cd207d</guid> </value> </item> <item> <key>Key4</key> <value type="datetime">2011-09-26T17:45:58.5789578-10:00</value> </item> <item> <key>Key5</key> <value type="boolean">true</value> </item> <item> <key>Key7</key> <value type="base64Binary">Ki1C</value> </item> <item> <key>Key8</key> <value type="nil" /> </item> <item> <key>Key9</key> <value type="___Westwind.Tools.Tests.PropertyBagTest+ComplexObject"> <ComplexObject> <Name>Rick</Name> <Entered>2011-09-26T17:45:58.5789578-10:00</Entered> <Count>10</Count> </ComplexObject> </value> </item> </properties>   The format is a bit cleaner than the DataContractSerializer. Each item is serialized into <key> <value> pairs. If the value is a string no type information is written. Since string tends to be the most common type this saves space and serialization processing. All other types are attributed. Simple types are mapped to XML types so things like decimal, datetime, boolean and base64Binary are encoded using their Xml type values. All other types are embedded with a hokey format that describes the .NET type preceded by a three underscores and then are encoded using the XmlSerializer. You can see this best above in the ComplexObject encoding. For custom types this isn't pretty either, but it's more concise than the DCS and it works as long as you're serializing back and forth between .NET clients at least. The XML generated from the second example that uses PropertyBag<decimal> looks like this: <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> <properties> <item> <key>key</key> <value type="decimal">10</value> </item> <item> <key>Key1</key> <value type="decimal">100.10</value> </item> <item> <key>Key2</key> <value type="decimal">200.10</value> </item> <item> <key>Key3</key> <value type="decimal">300.10</value> </item> </properties>   How does it work As I mentioned there's nothing fancy about this solution - it's little more than a subclass of Dictionary<T,V> that implements custom Xml Serialization and a couple of helper methods that facilitate getting the XML in and out of the class more easily. But it's proven very handy for a number of projects for me where dynamic data storage is required. Here's the code: /// <summary> /// Creates a serializable string/object dictionary that is XML serializable /// Encodes keys as element names and values as simple values with a type /// attribute that contains an XML type name. Complex names encode the type /// name with type='___namespace.classname' format followed by a standard xml /// serialized format. The latter serialization can be slow so it's not recommended /// to pass complex types if performance is critical. /// </summary> [XmlRoot("properties")] public class PropertyBag : PropertyBag<object> { /// <summary> /// Creates an instance of a propertybag from an Xml string /// </summary> /// <param name="xml">Serialize</param> /// <returns></returns> public static PropertyBag CreateFromXml(string xml) { var bag = new PropertyBag(); bag.FromXml(xml); return bag; } } /// <summary> /// Creates a serializable string for generic types that is XML serializable. /// /// Encodes keys as element names and values as simple values with a type /// attribute that contains an XML type name. Complex names encode the type /// name with type='___namespace.classname' format followed by a standard xml /// serialized format. The latter serialization can be slow so it's not recommended /// to pass complex types if performance is critical. /// </summary> /// <typeparam name="TValue">Must be a reference type. For value types use type object</typeparam> [XmlRoot("properties")] public class PropertyBag<TValue> : Dictionary<string, TValue>, IXmlSerializable { /// <summary> /// Not implemented - this means no schema information is passed /// so this won't work with ASMX/WCF services. /// </summary> /// <returns></returns> public System.Xml.Schema.XmlSchema GetSchema() { return null; } /// <summary> /// Serializes the dictionary to XML. Keys are /// serialized to element names and values as /// element values. An xml type attribute is embedded /// for each serialized element - a .NET type /// element is embedded for each complex type and /// prefixed with three underscores. /// </summary> /// <param name="writer"></param> public void WriteXml(System.Xml.XmlWriter writer) { foreach (string key in this.Keys) { TValue value = this[key]; Type type = null; if (value != null) type = value.GetType(); writer.WriteStartElement("item"); writer.WriteStartElement("key"); writer.WriteString(key as string); writer.WriteEndElement(); writer.WriteStartElement("value"); string xmlType = XmlUtils.MapTypeToXmlType(type); bool isCustom = false; // Type information attribute if not string if (value == null) { writer.WriteAttributeString("type", "nil"); } else if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(xmlType)) { if (xmlType != "string") { writer.WriteStartAttribute("type"); writer.WriteString(xmlType); writer.WriteEndAttribute(); } } else { isCustom = true; xmlType = "___" + value.GetType().FullName; writer.WriteStartAttribute("type"); writer.WriteString(xmlType); writer.WriteEndAttribute(); } // Actual deserialization if (!isCustom) { if (value != null) writer.WriteValue(value); } else { XmlSerializer ser = new XmlSerializer(value.GetType()); ser.Serialize(writer, value); } writer.WriteEndElement(); // value writer.WriteEndElement(); // item } } /// <summary> /// Reads the custom serialized format /// </summary> /// <param name="reader"></param> public void ReadXml(System.Xml.XmlReader reader) { this.Clear(); while (reader.Read()) { if (reader.NodeType == XmlNodeType.Element && reader.Name == "key") { string xmlType = null; string name = reader.ReadElementContentAsString(); // item element reader.ReadToNextSibling("value"); if (reader.MoveToNextAttribute()) xmlType = reader.Value; reader.MoveToContent(); TValue value; if (xmlType == "nil") value = default(TValue); // null else if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(xmlType)) { // value is a string or object and we can assign TValue to value string strval = reader.ReadElementContentAsString(); value = (TValue) Convert.ChangeType(strval, typeof(TValue)); } else if (xmlType.StartsWith("___")) { while (reader.Read() && reader.NodeType != XmlNodeType.Element) { } Type type = ReflectionUtils.GetTypeFromName(xmlType.Substring(3)); //value = reader.ReadElementContentAs(type,null); XmlSerializer ser = new XmlSerializer(type); value = (TValue)ser.Deserialize(reader); } else value = (TValue)reader.ReadElementContentAs(XmlUtils.MapXmlTypeToType(xmlType), null); this.Add(name, value); } } } /// <summary> /// Serializes this dictionary to an XML string /// </summary> /// <returns>XML String or Null if it fails</returns> public string ToXml() { string xml = null; SerializationUtils.SerializeObject(this, out xml); return xml; } /// <summary> /// Deserializes from an XML string /// </summary> /// <param name="xml"></param> /// <returns>true or false</returns> public bool FromXml(string xml) { this.Clear(); // if xml string is empty we return an empty dictionary if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(xml)) return true; var result = SerializationUtils.DeSerializeObject(xml, this.GetType()) as PropertyBag<TValue>; if (result != null) { foreach (var item in result) { this.Add(item.Key, item.Value); } } else // null is a failure return false; return true; } /// <summary> /// Creates an instance of a propertybag from an Xml string /// </summary> /// <param name="xml"></param> /// <returns></returns> public static PropertyBag<TValue> CreateFromXml(string xml) { var bag = new PropertyBag<TValue>(); bag.FromXml(xml); return bag; } } } The code uses a couple of small helper classes SerializationUtils and XmlUtils for mapping Xml types to and from .NET, both of which are from the WestWind,Utilities project (which is the same project where PropertyBag lives) from the West Wind Web Toolkit. The code implements ReadXml and WriteXml for the IXmlSerializable implementation using old school XmlReaders and XmlWriters (because it's pretty simple stuff - no need for XLinq here). Then there are two helper methods .ToXml() and .FromXml() that basically allow your code to easily convert between XML and a PropertyBag object. In my code that's what I use to actually to persist to and from the entity XML property during .Load() and .Save() operations. It's sweet to be able to have a string key dictionary and then be able to turn around with 1 line of code to persist the whole thing to XML and back. Hopefully some of you will find this class as useful as I've found it. It's a simple solution to a common requirement in my applications and I've used the hell out of it in the  short time since I created it. Resources You can find the complete code for the two classes plus the helpers in the Subversion repository for Westwind.Utilities. You can grab the source files from there or download the whole project. You can also grab the full Westwind.Utilities assembly from NuGet and add it to your project if that's easier for you. PropertyBag Source Code SerializationUtils and XmlUtils Westwind.Utilities Assembly on NuGet (add from Visual Studio) © Rick Strahl, West Wind Technologies, 2005-2011Posted in .NET  CSharp   Tweet (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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• Problem with onRetainNonConfigurationInstance

  - by David

  I am writing a small app using the Android SDK, 1.6 target, and the Eclipse plug-in. I have layouts for both portrait and landscape mode, and most everything is working well. I say most because I am having issues with the orientation change. One part of the app has a ListView "on top of" another section. That section consists of 4 checkboxes, a button, and some TextViews. That is the portrait version. The landscape version replaces the ListView with a Spinner and rearranges some of the other components (but leaves the ALL resource ids the same). While in either orientation things work like they should. It's when the app switches orientation that things go off. Only 1 of the checkboxes maintains it's state throughout both layout changes. The other three CBs only maintain their state when going from landscape-portrait. I am also having problem getting the ListView/Spinner to correctly set themselves on changing. I am using onRetainNonConfigurationInstance() and creating a custom object that is returned. When I step through the code during a orientation change, the custom object is successfully pulled back out the the ether, and the widgets are being set to the correct values (inspecting them). But for some reason, once the onCreate is done, the checkboxes are not set to true. public class SkillSelectionActivity extends Activity { private Button rollDiceButton; private ListView skillListView; private CheckBox makeCommonCB; private CheckBox useEdgeCB; private CheckBox useSpecializationCB; private CheckBox isExtendedCB; private TextView skillNameView; private TextView skillRanksView; private TextView rollResultView; private TextView rollSuccessesView; private TextView rollFailuresView; private TextView extendedTestTotalView; private TextView extendedTestTimeView; private TextView skillSpecNameView; private int extendedTestTotal = 0; private int extendedTestTime = 0; private Skill currentSkill; private int currentPosition = 0; private SRCharacter character; private int skillSelectionType; private Spinner skillSpinnerView; @Override public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) { super.onCreate(savedInstanceState); setContentView(R.layout.skill_selection2); Intent intent = getIntent(); Bundle extras = intent.getExtras(); skillSelectionType = extras.getInt("SKILL_SELECTION"); skillListView = (ListView) findViewById(R.id.skillList); skillSpinnerView = (Spinner) findViewById(R.id.skillSpinner); rollDiceButton = (Button) findViewById(R.id.rollDiceButton); makeCommonCB = (CheckBox) findViewById(R.id.makeCommonCB); useEdgeCB = (CheckBox) findViewById(R.id.useEdgeCB); useSpecializationCB = (CheckBox) findViewById(R.id.useSpecializationCB); isExtendedCB = (CheckBox) findViewById(R.id.extendedTestCB); skillNameView = (TextView) findViewById(R.id.skillName); skillRanksView = (TextView) findViewById(R.id.skillRanks); rollResultView = (TextView) findViewById(R.id.rollResult); rollSuccessesView = (TextView) findViewById(R.id.rollSuccesses); rollFailuresView = (TextView) findViewById(R.id.rollFailures); extendedTestTotalView = (TextView) findViewById(R.id.extendedTestTotal); extendedTestTimeView = (TextView) findViewById(R.id.extendedTestTime); skillSpecNameView = (TextView) findViewById(R.id.skillSpecName); character = ((SR4DR) getApplication()).getCharacter(); ConfigSaver data = (ConfigSaver) getLastNonConfigurationInstance(); if (data == null) { makeCommonCB.setChecked(false); useEdgeCB.setChecked(false); useSpecializationCB.setChecked(false); isExtendedCB.setChecked(false); currentSkill = null; } else { currentSkill = data.getSkill(); currentPosition = data.getPosition(); useEdgeCB.setChecked(data.isEdge()); useSpecializationCB.setChecked(data.isSpec()); isExtendedCB.setChecked(data.isExtended()); makeCommonCB.setChecked(data.isCommon()); if (skillSpinnerView != null) { skillSpinnerView.setSelection(currentPosition); } if (skillListView != null) { skillListView.setSelection(currentPosition); } } // Register handler for UI elements rollDiceButton.setOnClickListener(new View.OnClickListener() { public void onClick(View v) { // guts removed for clarity } }); makeCommonCB.setOnCheckedChangeListener(new OnCheckedChangeListener() { public void onCheckedChanged(CompoundButton buttonView, boolean isChecked) { // guts removed for clarity } }); isExtendedCB.setOnCheckedChangeListener(new OnCheckedChangeListener() { public void onCheckedChanged(CompoundButton buttonView, boolean isChecked) { // guts removed for clarity } }); useEdgeCB.setOnCheckedChangeListener(new OnCheckedChangeListener() { public void onCheckedChanged(CompoundButton buttonView, boolean isChecked) { // guts removed for clarity } }); useSpecializationCB.setOnCheckedChangeListener(new OnCheckedChangeListener() { public void onCheckedChanged(CompoundButton buttonView, boolean isChecked) { // guts removed for clarity } }); if (skillListView != null) { skillListView.setOnItemClickListener(new OnItemClickListener() { @Override public void onItemClick(AdapterView<?> parent, View v, int position, long id) { // guts removed for clarity } }); } if (skillSpinnerView != null) { skillSpinnerView.setOnItemSelectedListener(new MyOnItemSelectedListener()); } populateSkillList(); } private void populateSkillList() { String[] list = character.getSkillNames(skillSelectionType); if (list == null) { list = new String[0]; } if (skillListView != null) { ArrayAdapter<String> adapter = new ArrayAdapter<String>(this, R.layout.list_item, list); skillListView.setAdapter(adapter); } if (skillSpinnerView != null) { ArrayAdapter<String> adapter = new ArrayAdapter<String>(this, android.R.layout.simple_spinner_item, list); adapter.setDropDownViewResource(android.R.layout.simple_spinner_dropdown_item); skillSpinnerView.setAdapter(adapter); } } public class MyOnItemSelectedListener implements OnItemSelectedListener { public void onItemSelected(AdapterView<?> parent, View view, int position, long id) { // guts removed for clarity } public void onNothingSelected(AdapterView<?> parent) { // Do nothing. } } @Override public Object onRetainNonConfigurationInstance() { ConfigSaver cs = new ConfigSaver(currentSkill, currentPosition, useEdgeCB.isChecked(), useSpecializationCB.isChecked(), makeCommonCB.isChecked(), isExtendedCB.isChecked()); return cs; } class ConfigSaver { private Skill skill = null; private int position = 0; private boolean edge; private boolean spec; private boolean common; private boolean extended; public ConfigSaver(Skill skill, int position, boolean useEdge, boolean useSpec, boolean isCommon, boolean isExt) { this.setSkill(skill); this.position = position; this.edge = useEdge; this.spec = useSpec; this.common = isCommon; this.extended = isExt; } // public getters and setters removed for clarity } }

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• 256 Windows Azure Worker Roles, Windows Kinect and a 90's Text-Based Ray-Tracer

  - by Alan Smith

  For a couple of years I have been demoing a simple render farm hosted in Windows Azure using worker roles and the Azure Storage service. At the start of the presentation I deploy an Azure application that uses 16 worker roles to render a 1,500 frame 3D ray-traced animation. At the end of the presentation, when the animation was complete, I would play the animation delete the Azure deployment. The standing joke with the audience was that it was that it was a “$2 demo”, as the compute charges for running the 16 instances for an hour was $1.92, factor in the bandwidth charges and it’s a couple of dollars. The point of the demo is that it highlights one of the great benefits of cloud computing, you pay for what you use, and if you need massive compute power for a short period of time using Windows Azure can work out very cost effective. The “$2 demo” was great for presenting at user groups and conferences in that it could be deployed to Azure, used to render an animation, and then removed in a one hour session. I have always had the idea of doing something a bit more impressive with the demo, and scaling it from a “$2 demo” to a “$30 demo”. The challenge was to create a visually appealing animation in high definition format and keep the demo time down to one hour.  This article will take a run through how I achieved this. Ray Tracing Ray tracing, a technique for generating high quality photorealistic images, gained popularity in the 90’s with companies like Pixar creating feature length computer animations, and also the emergence of shareware text-based ray tracers that could run on a home PC. In order to render a ray traced image, the ray of light that would pass from the view point must be tracked until it intersects with an object. At the intersection, the color, reflectiveness, transparency, and refractive index of the object are used to calculate if the ray will be reflected or refracted. Each pixel may require thousands of calculations to determine what color it will be in the rendered image. Pin-Board Toys Having very little artistic talent and a basic understanding of maths I decided to focus on an animation that could be modeled fairly easily and would look visually impressive. I’ve always liked the pin-board desktop toys that become popular in the 80’s and when I was working as a 3D animator back in the 90’s I always had the idea of creating a 3D ray-traced animation of a pin-board, but never found the energy to do it. Even if I had a go at it, the render time to produce an animation that would look respectable on a 486 would have been measured in months. PolyRay Back in 1995 I landed my first real job, after spending three years being a beach-ski-climbing-paragliding-bum, and was employed to create 3D ray-traced animations for a CD-ROM that school kids would use to learn physics. I had got into the strange and wonderful world of text-based ray tracing, and was using a shareware ray-tracer called PolyRay. PolyRay takes a text file describing a scene as input and, after a few hours processing on a 486, produced a high quality ray-traced image. The following is an example of a basic PolyRay scene file. background Midnight_Blue   static define matte surface { ambient 0.1 diffuse 0.7 } define matte_white texture { matte { color white } } define matte_black texture { matte { color dark_slate_gray } } define position_cylindrical 3 define lookup_sawtooth 1 define light_wood <0.6, 0.24, 0.1> define median_wood <0.3, 0.12, 0.03> define dark_wood <0.05, 0.01, 0.005>     define wooden texture { noise surface { ambient 0.2  diffuse 0.7  specular white, 0.5 microfacet Reitz 10 position_fn position_cylindrical position_scale 1  lookup_fn lookup_sawtooth octaves 1 turbulence 1 color_map( [0.0, 0.2, light_wood, light_wood] [0.2, 0.3, light_wood, median_wood] [0.3, 0.4, median_wood, light_wood] [0.4, 0.7, light_wood, light_wood] [0.7, 0.8, light_wood, median_wood] [0.8, 0.9, median_wood, light_wood] [0.9, 1.0, light_wood, dark_wood]) } } define glass texture { surface { ambient 0 diffuse 0 specular 0.2 reflection white, 0.1 transmission white, 1, 1.5 }} define shiny surface { ambient 0.1 diffuse 0.6 specular white, 0.6 microfacet Phong 7  } define steely_blue texture { shiny { color black } } define chrome texture { surface { color white ambient 0.0 diffuse 0.2 specular 0.4 microfacet Phong 10 reflection 0.8 } }   viewpoint {     from <4.000, -1.000, 1.000> at <0.000, 0.000, 0.000> up <0, 1, 0> angle 60     resolution 640, 480 aspect 1.6 image_format 0 }       light <-10, 30, 20> light <-10, 30, -20>   object { disc <0, -2, 0>, <0, 1, 0>, 30 wooden }   object { sphere <0.000, 0.000, 0.000>, 1.00 chrome } object { cylinder <0.000, 0.000, 0.000>, <0.000, 0.000, -4.000>, 0.50 chrome }   After setting up the background and defining colors and textures, the viewpoint is specified. The “camera” is located at a point in 3D space, and it looks towards another point. The angle, image resolution, and aspect ratio are specified. Two lights are present in the image at defined coordinates. The three objects in the image are a wooden disc to represent a table top, and a sphere and cylinder that intersect to form a pin that will be used for the pin board toy in the final animation. When the image is rendered, the following image is produced. The pins are modeled with a chrome surface, so they reflect the environment around them. Note that the scale of the pin shaft is not correct, this will be fixed later. Modeling the Pin Board The frame of the pin-board is made up of three boxes, and six cylinders, the front box is modeled using a clear, slightly reflective solid, with the same refractive index of glass. The other shapes are modeled as metal. object { box <-5.5, -1.5, 1>, <5.5, 5.5, 1.2> glass } object { box <-5.5, -1.5, -0.04>, <5.5, 5.5, -0.09> steely_blue } object { box <-5.5, -1.5, -0.52>, <5.5, 5.5, -0.59> steely_blue } object { cylinder <-5.2, -1.2, 1.4>, <-5.2, -1.2, -0.74>, 0.2 steely_blue } object { cylinder <5.2, -1.2, 1.4>, <5.2, -1.2, -0.74>, 0.2 steely_blue } object { cylinder <-5.2, 5.2, 1.4>, <-5.2, 5.2, -0.74>, 0.2 steely_blue } object { cylinder <5.2, 5.2, 1.4>, <5.2, 5.2, -0.74>, 0.2 steely_blue } object { cylinder <0, -1.2, 1.4>, <0, -1.2, -0.74>, 0.2 steely_blue } object { cylinder <0, 5.2, 1.4>, <0, 5.2, -0.74>, 0.2 steely_blue }   In order to create the matrix of pins that make up the pin board I used a basic console application with a few nested loops to create two intersecting matrixes of pins, which models the layout used in the pin boards. The resulting image is shown below. The pin board contains 11,481 pins, with the scene file containing 23,709 lines of code. For the complete animation 2,000 scene files will be created, which is over 47 million lines of code. Each pin in the pin-board will slide out a specific distance when an object is pressed into the back of the board. This is easily modeled by setting the Z coordinate of the pin to a specific value. In order to set all of the pins in the pin-board to the correct position, a bitmap image can be used. The position of the pin can be set based on the color of the pixel at the appropriate position in the image. When the Windows Azure logo is used to set the Z coordinate of the pins, the following image is generated. The challenge now was to make a cool animation. The Azure Logo is fine, but it is static. Using a normal video to animate the pins would not work; the colors in the video would not be the same as the depth of the objects from the camera. In order to simulate the pin board accurately a series of frames from a depth camera could be used. Windows Kinect The Kenect controllers for the X-Box 360 and Windows feature a depth camera. The Kinect SDK for Windows provides a programming interface for Kenect, providing easy access for .NET developers to the Kinect sensors. The Kinect Explorer provided with the Kinect SDK is a great starting point for exploring Kinect from a developers perspective. Both the X-Box 360 Kinect and the Windows Kinect will work with the Kinect SDK, the Windows Kinect is required for commercial applications, but the X-Box Kinect can be used for hobby projects. The Windows Kinect has the advantage of providing a mode to allow depth capture with objects closer to the camera, which makes for a more accurate depth image for setting the pin positions. Creating a Depth Field Animation The depth field animation used to set the positions of the pin in the pin board was created using a modified version of the Kinect Explorer sample application. In order to simulate the pin board accurately, a small section of the depth range from the depth sensor will be used. Any part of the object in front of the depth range will result in a white pixel; anything behind the depth range will be black. Within the depth range the pixels in the image will be set to RGB values from 0,0,0 to 255,255,255. A screen shot of the modified Kinect Explorer application is shown below. The Kinect Explorer sample application was modified to include slider controls that are used to set the depth range that forms the image from the depth stream. This allows the fine tuning of the depth image that is required for simulating the position of the pins in the pin board. The Kinect Explorer was also modified to record a series of images from the depth camera and save them as a sequence JPEG files that will be used to animate the pins in the animation the Start and Stop buttons are used to start and stop the image recording. En example of one of the depth images is shown below. Once a series of 2,000 depth images has been captured, the task of creating the animation can begin. Rendering a Test Frame In order to test the creation of frames and get an approximation of the time required to render each frame a test frame was rendered on-premise using PolyRay. The output of the rendering process is shown below. The test frame contained 23,629 primitive shapes, most of which are the spheres and cylinders that are used for the 11,800 or so pins in the pin board. The 1280x720 image contains 921,600 pixels, but as anti-aliasing was used the number of rays that were calculated was 4,235,777, with 3,478,754,073 object boundaries checked. The test frame of the pin board with the depth field image applied is shown below. The tracing time for the test frame was 4 minutes 27 seconds, which means rendering the2,000 frames in the animation would take over 148 hours, or a little over 6 days. Although this is much faster that an old 486, waiting almost a week to see the results of an animation would make it challenging for animators to create, view, and refine their animations. It would be much better if the animation could be rendered in less than one hour. Windows Azure Worker Roles The cost of creating an on-premise render farm to render animations increases in proportion to the number of servers. The table below shows the cost of servers for creating a render farm, assuming a cost of $500 per server. Number of Servers Cost 1 $500 16 $8,000 256 $128,000   As well as the cost of the servers, there would be additional costs for networking, racks etc. Hosting an environment of 256 servers on-premise would require a server room with cooling, and some pretty hefty power cabling. The Windows Azure compute services provide worker roles, which are ideal for performing processor intensive compute tasks. With the scalability available in Windows Azure a job that takes 256 hours to complete could be perfumed using different numbers of worker roles. The time and cost of using 1, 16 or 256 worker roles is shown below. Number of Worker Roles Render Time Cost 1 256 hours $30.72 16 16 hours $30.72 256 1 hour $30.72   Using worker roles in Windows Azure provides the same cost for the 256 hour job, irrespective of the number of worker roles used. Provided the compute task can be broken down into many small units, and the worker role compute power can be used effectively, it makes sense to scale the application so that the task is completed quickly, making the results available in a timely fashion. The task of rendering 2,000 frames in an animation is one that can easily be broken down into 2,000 individual pieces, which can be performed by a number of worker roles. Creating a Render Farm in Windows Azure The architecture of the render farm is shown in the following diagram. The render farm is a hybrid application with the following components: ·         On-Premise o   Windows Kinect – Used combined with the Kinect Explorer to create a stream of depth images. o   Animation Creator – This application uses the depth images from the Kinect sensor to create scene description files for PolyRay. These files are then uploaded to the jobs blob container, and job messages added to the jobs queue. o   Process Monitor – This application queries the role instance lifecycle table and displays statistics about the render farm environment and render process. o   Image Downloader – This application polls the image queue and downloads the rendered animation files once they are complete. ·         Windows Azure o   Azure Storage – Queues and blobs are used for the scene description files and completed frames. A table is used to store the statistics about the rendering environment.   The architecture of each worker role is shown below.   The worker role is configured to use local storage, which provides file storage on the worker role instance that can be use by the applications to render the image and transform the format of the image. The service definition for the worker role with the local storage configuration highlighted is shown below. <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> <ServiceDefinition name="CloudRay" >   <WorkerRole name="CloudRayWorkerRole" vmsize="Small">     <Imports>     </Imports>     <ConfigurationSettings>       <Setting name="DataConnectionString" />     </ConfigurationSettings>     <LocalResources>       <LocalStorage name="RayFolder" cleanOnRoleRecycle="true" />     </LocalResources>   </WorkerRole> </ServiceDefinition>     The two executable programs, PolyRay.exe and DTA.exe are included in the Azure project, with Copy Always set as the property. PolyRay will take the scene description file and render it to a Truevision TGA file. As the TGA format has not seen much use since the mid 90’s it is converted to a JPG image using Dave's Targa Animator, another shareware application from the 90’s. Each worker roll will use the following process to render the animation frames. 1.       The worker process polls the job queue, if a job is available the scene description file is downloaded from blob storage to local storage. 2.       PolyRay.exe is started in a process with the appropriate command line arguments to render the image as a TGA file. 3.       DTA.exe is started in a process with the appropriate command line arguments convert the TGA file to a JPG file. 4.       The JPG file is uploaded from local storage to the images blob container. 5.       A message is placed on the images queue to indicate a new image is available for download. 6.       The job message is deleted from the job queue. 7.       The role instance lifecycle table is updated with statistics on the number of frames rendered by the worker role instance, and the CPU time used. The code for this is shown below. public override void Run() {     // Set environment variables     string polyRayPath = Path.Combine(Environment.GetEnvironmentVariable("RoleRoot"), PolyRayLocation);     string dtaPath = Path.Combine(Environment.GetEnvironmentVariable("RoleRoot"), DTALocation);       LocalResource rayStorage = RoleEnvironment.GetLocalResource("RayFolder");     string localStorageRootPath = rayStorage.RootPath;       JobQueue jobQueue = new JobQueue("renderjobs");     JobQueue downloadQueue = new JobQueue("renderimagedownloadjobs");     CloudRayBlob sceneBlob = new CloudRayBlob("scenes");     CloudRayBlob imageBlob = new CloudRayBlob("images");     RoleLifecycleDataSource roleLifecycleDataSource = new RoleLifecycleDataSource();       Frames = 0;       while (true)     {         // Get the render job from the queue         CloudQueueMessage jobMsg = jobQueue.Get();           if (jobMsg != null)         {             // Get the file details             string sceneFile = jobMsg.AsString;             string tgaFile = sceneFile.Replace(".pi", ".tga");             string jpgFile = sceneFile.Replace(".pi", ".jpg");               string sceneFilePath = Path.Combine(localStorageRootPath, sceneFile);             string tgaFilePath = Path.Combine(localStorageRootPath, tgaFile);             string jpgFilePath = Path.Combine(localStorageRootPath, jpgFile);               // Copy the scene file to local storage             sceneBlob.DownloadFile(sceneFilePath);               // Run the ray tracer.             string polyrayArguments =                 string.Format("\"{0}\" -o \"{1}\" -a 2", sceneFilePath, tgaFilePath);             Process polyRayProcess = new Process();             polyRayProcess.StartInfo.FileName =                 Path.Combine(Environment.GetEnvironmentVariable("RoleRoot"), polyRayPath);             polyRayProcess.StartInfo.Arguments = polyrayArguments;             polyRayProcess.Start();             polyRayProcess.WaitForExit();               // Convert the image             string dtaArguments =                 string.Format(" {0} /FJ /P{1}", tgaFilePath, Path.GetDirectoryName (jpgFilePath));             Process dtaProcess = new Process();             dtaProcess.StartInfo.FileName =                 Path.Combine(Environment.GetEnvironmentVariable("RoleRoot"), dtaPath);             dtaProcess.StartInfo.Arguments = dtaArguments;             dtaProcess.Start();             dtaProcess.WaitForExit();               // Upload the image to blob storage             imageBlob.UploadFile(jpgFilePath);               // Add a download job.             downloadQueue.Add(jpgFile);               // Delete the render job message             jobQueue.Delete(jobMsg);               Frames++;         }         else         {             Thread.Sleep(1000);         }           // Log the worker role activity.         roleLifecycleDataSource.Alive             ("CloudRayWorker", RoleLifecycleDataSource.RoleLifecycleId, Frames);     } }     Monitoring Worker Role Instance Lifecycle In order to get more accurate statistics about the lifecycle of the worker role instances used to render the animation data was tracked in an Azure storage table. The following class was used to track the worker role lifecycles in Azure storage.   public class RoleLifecycle : TableServiceEntity {     public string ServerName { get; set; }     public string Status { get; set; }     public DateTime StartTime { get; set; }     public DateTime EndTime { get; set; }     public long SecondsRunning { get; set; }     public DateTime LastActiveTime { get; set; }     public int Frames { get; set; }     public string Comment { get; set; }       public RoleLifecycle()     {     }       public RoleLifecycle(string roleName)     {         PartitionKey = roleName;         RowKey = Utils.GetAscendingRowKey();         Status = "Started";         StartTime = DateTime.UtcNow;         LastActiveTime = StartTime;         EndTime = StartTime;         SecondsRunning = 0;         Frames = 0;     } }     A new instance of this class is created and added to the storage table when the role starts. It is then updated each time the worker renders a frame to record the total number of frames rendered and the total processing time. These statistics are used be the monitoring application to determine the effectiveness of use of resources in the render farm. Rendering the Animation The Azure solution was deployed to Windows Azure with the service configuration set to 16 worker role instances. This allows for the application to be tested in the cloud environment, and the performance of the application determined. When I demo the application at conferences and user groups I often start with 16 instances, and then scale up the application to the full 256 instances. The configuration to run 16 instances is shown below. <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> <ServiceConfiguration serviceName="CloudRay" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/ServiceHosting/2008/10/ServiceConfiguration" osFamily="1" osVersion="*">   <Role name="CloudRayWorkerRole">     <Instances count="16" />     <ConfigurationSettings>       <Setting name="DataConnectionString"         value="DefaultEndpointsProtocol=https;AccountName=cloudraydata;AccountKey=..." />     </ConfigurationSettings>   </Role> </ServiceConfiguration>     About six minutes after deploying the application the first worker roles become active and start to render the first frames of the animation. The CloudRay Monitor application displays an icon for each worker role instance, with a number indicating the number of frames that the worker role has rendered. The statistics on the left show the number of active worker roles and statistics about the render process. The render time is the time since the first worker role became active; the CPU time is the total amount of processing time used by all worker role instances to render the frames.   Five minutes after the first worker role became active the last of the 16 worker roles activated. By this time the first seven worker roles had each rendered one frame of the animation.   With 16 worker roles u and running it can be seen that one hour and 45 minutes CPU time has been used to render 32 frames with a render time of just under 10 minutes.     At this rate it would take over 10 hours to render the 2,000 frames of the full animation. In order to complete the animation in under an hour more processing power will be required. Scaling the render farm from 16 instances to 256 instances is easy using the new management portal. The slider is set to 256 instances, and the configuration saved. We do not need to re-deploy the application, and the 16 instances that are up and running will not be affected. Alternatively, the configuration file for the Azure service could be modified to specify 256 instances.   <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> <ServiceConfiguration serviceName="CloudRay" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/ServiceHosting/2008/10/ServiceConfiguration" osFamily="1" osVersion="*">   <Role name="CloudRayWorkerRole">     <Instances count="256" />     <ConfigurationSettings>       <Setting name="DataConnectionString"         value="DefaultEndpointsProtocol=https;AccountName=cloudraydata;AccountKey=..." />     </ConfigurationSettings>   </Role> </ServiceConfiguration>     Six minutes after the new configuration has been applied 75 new worker roles have activated and are processing their first frames.   Five minutes later the full configuration of 256 worker roles is up and running. We can see that the average rate of frame rendering has increased from 3 to 12 frames per minute, and that over 17 hours of CPU time has been utilized in 23 minutes. In this test the time to provision 140 worker roles was about 11 minutes, which works out at about one every five seconds.   We are now half way through the rendering, with 1,000 frames complete. This has utilized just under three days of CPU time in a little over 35 minutes.   The animation is now complete, with 2,000 frames rendered in a little over 52 minutes. The CPU time used by the 256 worker roles is 6 days, 7 hours and 22 minutes with an average frame rate of 38 frames per minute. The rendering of the last 1,000 frames took 16 minutes 27 seconds, which works out at a rendering rate of 60 frames per minute. The frame counts in the server instances indicate that the use of a queue to distribute the workload has been very effective in distributing the load across the 256 worker role instances. The first 16 instances that were deployed first have rendered between 11 and 13 frames each, whilst the 240 instances that were added when the application was scaled have rendered between 6 and 9 frames each.   Completed Animation I’ve uploaded the completed animation to YouTube, a low resolution preview is shown below. Pin Board Animation Created using Windows Kinect and 256 Windows Azure Worker Roles   The animation can be viewed in 1280x720 resolution at the following link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n5jy6bvSxWc Effective Use of Resources According to the CloudRay monitor statistics the animation took 6 days, 7 hours and 22 minutes CPU to render, this works out at 152 hours of compute time, rounded up to the nearest hour. As the usage for the worker role instances are billed for the full hour, it may have been possible to render the animation using fewer than 256 worker roles. When deciding the optimal usage of resources, the time required to provision and start the worker roles must also be considered. In the demo I started with 16 worker roles, and then scaled the application to 256 worker roles. It would have been more optimal to start the application with maybe 200 worker roles, and utilized the full hour that I was being billed for. This would, however, have prevented showing the ease of scalability of the application. The new management portal displays the CPU usage across the worker roles in the deployment. The average CPU usage across all instances is 93.27%, with over 99% used when all the instances are up and running. This shows that the worker role resources are being used very effectively. Grid Computing Scenarios Although I am using this scenario for a hobby project, there are many scenarios where a large amount of compute power is required for a short period of time. Windows Azure provides a great platform for developing these types of grid computing applications, and can work out very cost effective. ·         Windows Azure can provide massive compute power, on demand, in a matter of minutes. ·         The use of queues to manage the load balancing of jobs between role instances is a simple and effective solution. ·         Using a cloud-computing platform like Windows Azure allows proof-of-concept scenarios to be tested and evaluated on a very low budget. ·         No charges for inbound data transfer makes the uploading of large data sets to Windows Azure Storage services cost effective. (Transaction charges still apply.) Tips for using Windows Azure for Grid Computing Scenarios I found the implementation of a render farm using Windows Azure a fairly simple scenario to implement. I was impressed by ease of scalability that Azure provides, and by the short time that the application took to scale from 16 to 256 worker role instances. In this case it was around 13 minutes, in other tests it took between 10 and 20 minutes. The following tips may be useful when implementing a grid computing project in Windows Azure. ·         Using an Azure Storage queue to load-balance the units of work across multiple worker roles is simple and very effective. The design I have used in this scenario could easily scale to many thousands of worker role instances. ·         Windows Azure accounts are typically limited to 20 cores. If you need to use more than this, a call to support and a credit card check will be required. ·         Be aware of how the billing model works. You will be charged for worker role instances for the full clock our in which the instance is deployed. Schedule the workload to start just after the clock hour has started. ·         Monitor the utilization of the resources you are provisioning, ensure that you are not paying for worker roles that are idle. ·         If you are deploying third party applications to worker roles, you may well run into licensing issues. Purchasing software licenses on a per-processor basis when using hundreds of processors for a short time period would not be cost effective. ·         Third party software may also require installation onto the worker roles, which can be accomplished using start-up tasks. Bear in mind that adding a startup task and possible re-boot will add to the time required for the worker role instance to start and activate. An alternative may be to use a prepared VM and use VM roles. ·         Consider using the Windows Azure Autoscaling Application Block (WASABi) to autoscale the worker roles in your application. When using a large number of worker roles, the utilization must be carefully monitored, if the scaling algorithms are not optimal it could get very expensive!

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• YUI Uploader hangs after choosing file

  - by stephenbayer

  Below is my entire code from a User control that contains the YUI Uploader. Is there something I'm missing. Right now, when I step through the javascript code in Firebug, it hangs on the first line of the upload() function. I have a breakpoint on the first line of the ashx that handles the file, but it is never called. So, it doesn't get that far. I figure I'm just missing something stupid. I've used this control many times before with no issues. I'm using all the css files and graphics provided by the samples folder in the YUI download. If I'm not missing anything, is there a more comprehensive way of debuging this issue then through stepping through the javascript with FireBug. I've tried turning the logging for YUI on and off, and never get any logs anywhere. I'm not sure where to go now. <style type="text/css"> #divFile { background-color:White; border:2px inset Ivory; height:21px; margin-left:-2px; margin-right:9px; width:125px; } </style> <ajaxToolkit:RoundedCornersExtender runat="server" Corners="All" Radius="6" ID="rceContainer" TargetControlID="pnlMMAdmin" /> <asp:Panel ID="pnlMMAdmin" runat="server" Width="100%" BackColor="Silver" ForeColor="#ffffff" Font-Bold="true" Font-Size="16px"> <div style="padding: 5px; text-align:center; width: 100%;"> <table style="width: 100% ; border: none; text-align: left;"> <tr> <td style="width: 460px; vertical-align: top;"> <!-- information panel --> <ajaxToolkit:RoundedCornersExtender runat="server" Corners="All" Radius="6" ID="RoundedCornersExtender1" TargetControlID="pnlInfo" /> <asp:Panel ID="pnlInfo" runat="server" Width="100%" BackColor="Silver" ForeColor="#ffffff" Font-Bold="true" Font-Size="16px"> <div id="infoPanel" style="padding: 5px; text-align:left; width: 100%;"> <table> <tr><td>Chart</td><td> <table><tr><td><div id="divFile" ></div></td><td><div id="uploaderContainer" style="width:60px; height:25px"></div></td></tr> <tr><td colspan="2"><div id="progressBar"></div></td></tr></table> </td></tr> </table> </div></asp:Panel> <script type="text/javascript" language="javascript"> WYSIWYG.attach('<%= txtComment.ClientID %>', full); var uploader = new YAHOO.widget.Uploader("uploaderContainer", "assets/buttonSkin.jpg"); uploader.addListener('contentReady', handleContentReady); uploader.addListener('fileSelect', onFileSelect) uploader.addListener('uploadStart', onUploadStart); uploader.addListener('uploadProgress', onUploadProgress); uploader.addListener('uploadCancel', onUploadCancel); uploader.addListener('uploadComplete', onUploadComplete); uploader.addListener('uploadCompleteData', onUploadResponse); uploader.addListener('uploadError', onUploadError); function handleContentReady() { // Allows the uploader to send log messages to trace, as well as to YAHOO.log uploader.setAllowLogging(false); // Restrict selection to a single file (that's what it is by default, // just demonstrating how). uploader.setAllowMultipleFiles(false); // New set of file filters. var ff = new Array({ description: "Images", extensions: "*.jpg;*.png;*.gif" }); // Apply new set of file filters to the uploader. uploader.setFileFilters(ff); } var fileID; function onFileSelect(event) { for (var item in event.fileList) { if (YAHOO.lang.hasOwnProperty(event.fileList, item)) { YAHOO.log(event.fileList[item].id); fileID = event.fileList[item].id; } } uploader.disable(); var filename = document.getElementById("divFile"); filename.innerHTML = event.fileList[fileID].name; var progressbar = document.getElementById("progressBar"); progressbar.innerHTML = "Please wait... Starting upload.... "; upload(fileID); } function upload(idFile) { // file hangs right here. ************************** progressBar.innerHTML = "Upload starting... "; if (idFile != null) { uploader.upload(idFile, "AdminFileUploader.ashx", "POST"); fileID = null; } } function handleClearFiles() { uploader.clearFileList(); uploader.enable(); fileID = null; var filename = document.getElementById("divFile"); filename.innerHTML = ""; var progressbar = document.getElementById("progressBar"); progressbar.innerHTML = ""; } function onUploadProgress(event) { prog = Math.round(300 * (event["bytesLoaded"] / event["bytesTotal"])); progbar = "<div style=\"background-color: #f00; height: 5px; width: " + prog + "px\"/>"; var progressbar = document.getElementById("progressBar"); progressbar.innerHTML = progbar; } function onUploadComplete(event) { uploader.clearFileList(); uploader.enable(); progbar = "<div style=\"background-color: #f00; height: 5px; width: 300px\"/>"; var progressbar = document.getElementById("progressBar"); progressbar.innerHTML = progbar; alert('File Uploaded'); } function onUploadStart(event) { alert('upload start'); } function onUploadError(event) { alert('upload error'); } function onUploadCancel(event) { alert('upload cancel'); } function onUploadResponse(event) { alert('upload response'); } </script>

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• Part 2&ndash;Load Testing In The Cloud

  - by Tarun Arora

  Welcome to Part 2, In Part 1 we discussed the advantages of creating a Test Rig in the cloud, the Azure edge and the Test Rig Topology we want to get to. In Part 2, Let’s start by understanding the components of Azure we’ll be making use of followed by manually putting them together to create the test rig, so… let’s get down dirty start setting up the Test Rig.  What Components of Azure will I be using for building the Test Rig in the Cloud? To run the Test Agents we’ll make use of Windows Azure Compute and to enable communication between Test Controller and Test Agents we’ll make use of Windows Azure Connect.  Azure Connect The Test Controller is on premise and the Test Agents are in the cloud (How will they talk?). To enable communication between the two, we’ll make use of Windows Azure Connect. With Windows Azure Connect, you can use a simple user interface to configure IPsec protected connections between computers or virtual machines (VMs) in your organization’s network, and roles running in Windows Azure. With this you can now join Windows Azure role instances to your domain, so that you can use your existing methods for domain authentication, name resolution, or other domain-wide maintenance actions. For more details refer to an overview of Windows Azure connect. A very useful video explaining everything you wanted to know about Windows Azure connect.  Azure Compute Windows Azure compute provides developers a platform to host and manage applications in Microsoft’s data centres across the globe. A Windows Azure application is built from one or more components called ‘roles.’ Roles come in three different types: Web role, Worker role, and Virtual Machine (VM) role, we’ll be using the Worker role to set up the Test Agents. A very nice blog post discussing the difference between the 3 role types. Developers are free to use the .NET framework or other software that runs on Windows with the Worker role or Web role. Developers can also create applications using languages such as PHP and Java. More on Windows Azure Compute. Each Windows Azure compute instance represents a virtual server... Virtual Machine Size CPU Cores Memory Cost Per Hour Extra Small Shared 768 MB $0.04 Small 1 1.75 GB $0.12 Medium 2 3.50 GB $0.24 Large 4 7.00 GB $0.48 Extra Large 8 14.00 GB $0.96   You might want to review the Windows Azure Pricing FAQ. Let’s Get Started building the Test Rig… Configuration Machine Role Comments VM – 1 Domain Controller for Playpit.com On Premise VM – 2 TFS, Test Controller On Premise VM – 3 Test Agent Cloud   In this blog post I would assume that you have the domain, Team Foundation Server and Test Controller Installed and set up already. If not, please refer to the TFS 2010 Installation Guide and this walkthrough on MSDN to set up your Test Controller. You can also download a preconfigured TFS 2010 VM from Brian Keller's blog, Brian also has some great hands on Labs on TFS 2010 that you may want to explore. I. Lets start building VM – 3: The Test Agent Download the Windows Azure SDK and Tools Open Visual Studio and create a new Windows Azure Project using the Cloud Template                   Choose the Worker Role for reasons explained in the earlier post         The WorkerRole.cs implements the Run() and OnStart() methods, no code changes required. You should be able to compile the project and run it in the compute emulator (The compute emulator should have been installed as part of the Windows Azure Toolkit) on your local machine.                   We will only be making changes to WindowsAzureProject, open ServiceDefinition.csdef. Ensure that the vmsize is small (remember the cost chart above). Import the “Connect” module. I am importing the Connect module because I need to join the Worker role VM to the Playpit domain. <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> <ServiceDefinition name="WindowsAzureProject2" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/ServiceHosting/2008/10/ServiceDefinition"> <WorkerRole name="WorkerRole1" vmsize="Small"> <Imports> <Import moduleName="Diagnostics" /> <Import moduleName="Connect"/> </Imports> </WorkerRole> </ServiceDefinition> Go to the ServiceConfiguration.Cloud.cscfg and note that settings with key ‘Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.%%%%’ have been added to the configuration file. This is because you decided to import the connect module. See the config below. <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> <ServiceConfiguration serviceName="WindowsAzureProject2" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/ServiceHosting/2008/10/ServiceConfiguration" osFamily="1" osVersion="*"> <Role name="WorkerRole1"> <Instances count="1" /> <ConfigurationSettings> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Diagnostics.ConnectionString" value="UseDevelopmentStorage=true" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.ActivationToken" value="" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.Refresh" value="" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.WaitForConnectivity" value="" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.Upgrade" value="" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.EnableDomainJoin" value="" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.DomainFQDN" value="" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.DomainControllerFQDN" value="" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.DomainAccountName" value="" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.DomainPassword" value="" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.DomainOU" value="" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.Administrators" value="" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.DomainSiteName" value="" /> </ConfigurationSettings> </Role> </ServiceConfiguration>             Let’s go step by step and understand all the highlighted parameters and where you can find the values for them.       osFamily – By default this is set to 1 (Windows Server 2008 SP2). Change this to 2 if you want the Windows Server 2008 R2 operating system. The Advantage of using osFamily = “2” is that you get Powershell 2.0 rather than Powershell 1.0. In Powershell 2.0 you could simply use “powershell -ExecutionPolicy Unrestricted ./myscript.ps1” and it will work while in Powershell 1.0 you will have to change the registry key by including the following in your command file “reg add HKLM\Software\Microsoft\PowerShell\1\ShellIds\Microsoft.PowerShell /v ExecutionPolicy /d Unrestricted /f” before you can execute any power shell. The other reason you might want to move to os2 is if you wanted IIS 7.5.       Activation Token – To enable communication between the on premise machine and the Windows Azure Worker role VM both need to have the same token. Log on to Windows Azure Management Portal, click on Connect, click on Get Activation Token, this should give you the activation token, copy the activation token to the clipboard and paste it in the configuration file. Note – Later in the blog I’ll be showing you how to install connect on the on premise machine.                       EnableDomainJoin – Set the value to true, ofcourse we want to join the on windows azure worker role VM to the domain.       DomainFQDN, DomainControllerFQDN, DomainAccountName, DomainPassword, DomainOU, Administrators – This information is specific to your domain. I have extracted this information from the ‘service manager’ and ‘Active Directory Users and Computers’. Also, i created a new Domain-OU namely ‘CloudInstances’ so all my cloud instances joined to my domain show up here, this is optional. You can encrypt the DomainPassword – refer to the instructions here. Or hold fire, I’ll be covering that when i come to certificates and encryption in the coming section.       Now once you have filled all this information up, the configuration file should look something like below, <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> <ServiceConfiguration serviceName="WindowsAzureProject2" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/ServiceHosting/2008/10/ServiceConfiguration" osFamily="2" osVersion="*"> <Role name="WorkerRole1"> <Instances count="1" /> <ConfigurationSettings> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Diagnostics.ConnectionString" value="UseDevelopmentStorage=true" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.ActivationToken" value="45f55fea-f194-4fbc-b36e-25604faac784" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.Refresh" value="" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.WaitForConnectivity" value="" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.Upgrade" value="" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.EnableDomainJoin" value="true" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.DomainFQDN" value="play.pit.com" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.DomainControllerFQDN" value="WIN-KUDQMQFGQOL.play.pit.com" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.DomainAccountName" value="playpit\Administrator" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.DomainPassword" value="************************" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.DomainOU" value="OU=CloudInstances, DC=Play, DC=Pit, DC=com" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.Administrators" value="Playpit\Administrator" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.DomainSiteName" value="" /> </ConfigurationSettings> </Role> </ServiceConfiguration> Next we will be enabling the Remote Desktop module in to the ServiceDefinition.csdef, we could make changes manually or allow a beautiful wizard to help us make changes. I prefer the second option. So right click on the Windows Azure project and choose Publish       Now once you get the publish wizard, if you haven’t already you would be asked to import your Windows Azure subscription, this is simply the Msdn subscription activation key xml. Once you have done click Next to go to the Settings page and check ‘Enable Remote Desktop for all roles’.       As soon as you do that you get another pop up asking you the details for the user that you would be logging in with (make sure you enter a reasonable expiry date, you do not want the user account to expire today). Notice the more information tag at the bottom, click that to get access to the certificate section. See screen shot below.       From the drop down select the option to create a new certificate        In the pop up window enter the friendly name for your certificate. In my case I entered ‘WAC – Test Rig’ and click ok. This will create a new certificate for you. Click on the view button to see the certificate details. Do you see the Thumbprint, this is the value that will go in the config file (very important). Now click on the Copy to File button to copy the certificate, we will need to import the certificate to the windows Azure Management portal later. So, make sure you save it a safe location.                                Click Finish and enter details of the user you would like to create with permissions for remote desktop access, once you have entered the details on the ‘Remote desktop configuration’ screen click on Ok. From the Publish Windows Azure Wizard screen press Cancel. Cancel because we don’t want to publish the role just yet and Yes because we want to save all the changes in the config file.       Now if you go to the ServiceDefinition.csdef file you will see that the RemoteAccess and RemoteForwarder roles have been imported for you. <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> <ServiceDefinition name="WindowsAzureProject2" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/ServiceHosting/2008/10/ServiceDefinition"> <WorkerRole name="WorkerRole1" vmsize="Small"> <Imports> <Import moduleName="Diagnostics" /> <Import moduleName="Connect" /> <Import moduleName="RemoteAccess" /> <Import moduleName="RemoteForwarder" /> </Imports> </WorkerRole> </ServiceDefinition> Now go to the ServiceConfiguration.Cloud.cscfg file and you see a whole bunch for setting “Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.RemoteAccess.%%%” values added for you. <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> <ServiceConfiguration serviceName="WindowsAzureProject2" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/ServiceHosting/2008/10/ServiceConfiguration" osFamily="2" osVersion="*"> <Role name="WorkerRole1"> <Instances count="1" /> <ConfigurationSettings> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Diagnostics.ConnectionString" value="UseDevelopmentStorage=true" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.ActivationToken" value="45f55fea-f194-4fbc-b36e-25604faac784" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.Refresh" value="" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.WaitForConnectivity" value="" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.Upgrade" value="" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.EnableDomainJoin" value="true" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.DomainFQDN" value="play.pit.com" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.DomainControllerFQDN" value="WIN-KUDQMQFGQOL.play.pit.com" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.DomainAccountName" value="playpit\Administrator" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.DomainPassword" value="************************" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.DomainOU" value="OU=CloudInstances, DC=Play, DC=Pit, DC=com" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.Administrators" value="Playpit\Administrator" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.Connect.DomainSiteName" value="" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.RemoteAccess.Enabled" value="true" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.RemoteAccess.AccountUsername" value="Administrator" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.RemoteAccess.AccountEncryptedPassword" value="MIIBnQYJKoZIhvcNAQcDoIIBjjCCAYoCAQAxggFOMIIBSgIBADAyMB4xHDAaBgNVBAMME1dpbmRvd 3MgQXp1cmUgVG9vbHMCEGa+B46voeO5T305N7TSG9QwDQYJKoZIhvcNAQEBBQAEggEABg4ol5Xol66Ip6QKLbAPWdmD4ae ADZ7aKj6fg4D+ATr0DXBllZHG5Umwf+84Sj2nsPeCyrg3ZDQuxrfhSbdnJwuChKV6ukXdGjX0hlowJu/4dfH4jTJC7sBWS AKaEFU7CxvqYEAL1Hf9VPL5fW6HZVmq1z+qmm4ecGKSTOJ20Fptb463wcXgR8CWGa+1w9xqJ7UmmfGeGeCHQ4QGW0IDSBU6ccg vzF2ug8/FY60K1vrWaCYOhKkxD3YBs8U9X/kOB0yQm2Git0d5tFlIPCBT2AC57bgsAYncXfHvPesI0qs7VZyghk8LVa9g5IqaM Cp6cQ7rmY/dLsKBMkDcdBHuCTAzBgkqhkiG9w0BBwEwFAYIKoZIhvcNAwcECDRVifSXbA43gBApNrp40L1VTVZ1iGag+3O1" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.RemoteAccess.AccountExpiration" value="2012-11-27T23:59:59.0000000+00:00" /> <Setting name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.RemoteForwarder.Enabled" value="true" /> </ConfigurationSettings> <Certificates> <Certificate name="Microsoft.WindowsAzure.Plugins.RemoteAccess.PasswordEncryption" thumbprint="AA23016CF0BDFC344400B5B82706B608B92E4217" thumbprintAlgorithm="sha1" /> </Certificates> </Role> </ServiceConfiguration>          Okay let’s look at them one at a time,       Enabled - Yes, we would like to enable Remote Access.       AccountUserName – This is the user name you entered while you were on the publish windows azure role screen, as detailed above.       AccountEncrytedPassword – Try and decode that, the certificate is used to encrypt the password you specified for the user account. Remember earlier i said, either use the instructions or wait and i’ll be showing you encryption, now the user account i am using for rdp has the same password as my domain password, so i can simply copy the value of the AccountEncryptedPassword to the DomainPassword as well.       AccountExpiration – This is the expiration as you specified in the wizard earlier, make sure your account does not expire today.       Remote Forwarder – Check out the documentation, below is how I understand it, -- One role in an application that implements a remote desktop connection must import the RemoteForwarder module. The two modules work together to enable the remote desktop connections to role instances. -- If you have multiple roles defined in the service model, it does not matter which role you add the RemoteForwarder module to, but you must add it to only one of the role definitions.       Certificate – Remember the certificate thumbprint from the wizard, the on premise machine and windows azure role machine that need to speak to each other must have the same thumbprint. More on that when we install Windows Azure connect Endpoints on the on premise machine. As i said earlier, in this blog post, I’ll be showing you the manual process so i won’t be scripting any star up tasks to install the test agent or register the test agent with the TFS Server. I’ll be showing you all this cool stuff in the next blog post, that’s because it’s important to understand the manual side of it, it becomes easier for you to troubleshoot in case something fails. Having said that, the changes we have made are sufficient to spin up the Windows Azure Worker Role aka Test Agent VM, have it connected with the play.pit.com domain and have remote access enabled on it. Before we deploy the Test Agent VM we need to set up Windows Azure Connect on the TFS Server. II. Windows Azure Connect: Setting up Connect on VM – 2 i.e. TFS & Test Controller Glad you made it so far, now to enable communication between the on premise TFS/Test Controller and Azure-ed Test Agent we need to enable communication. We have set up the Azure connect module in the Test Agent configuration, now the connect end points need to be enabled on the on premise machines, let’s have a look at how we can do this. Log on to VM – 2 running the TFS Server and Test Controller Log on to the Windows Azure Management Portal and click on Virtual Network Click on Virtual Network, if you already have a subscription you should see the below screen shot, if not, you would be asked to complete the subscription first        Click on Install Local Endpoints from the top left on the panel and you get a url appended with a token id in it, remember the token i showed you earlier, in theory the token you get here should match the token you added to the Test Agent config file.        Copy the url to the clip board and paste it in IE explorer (important, the installation at present only works out of IE and you need to have cookies enabled in order to complete the installation). As stated in the pop up, you can NOT download and run the software later, you need to run it as is, since it contains a token. Once the installation completes you should see the Windows Azure connect icon in the system tray.                         Right click the Azure Connect icon, choose Diagnostics and refer to this link for diagnostic detail terminology. NOTE – Unfortunately I could not see the Windows Azure connect icon in the system tray, a bit of binging with Google revealed that the azure connect icon is only shown when the ‘Windows Azure Connect Endpoint’ Service is started. So go to services.msc and make sure that the service is started, if not start it, unfortunately again, the service did not start for me on a manual start and i realised that one of the dependant services was disabled, you can look at the service dependencies and start them and then start windows azure connect. Bottom line, you need to start Windows Azure connect service before you can proceed. Please refer here on MSDN for more on Troubleshooting Windows Azure connect. (Follow the next step as well)   Now go back to the Windows Azure Management Portal and from Groups and Roles create a new group, lets call it ‘Test Rig’. Make sure you add the VM – 2 (the TFS Server VM where you just installed the endpoint).       Now if you go back to the Azure Connect icon in the system tray and click ‘Refresh Policy’ you will notice that the disconnected status of the icon should change to ready for connection. III. Importing Certificate in to Windows Azure Management Portal But before that you need to import the certificate you created in Step I in to the Windows Azure Management Portal. Log on to the Windows Azure Management Portal and click on ‘Hosted Services, Storage Accounts & CDN’ and then ‘Management Certificates’ followed by Add Certificates as shown in the screen shot below        Browse to the location where you saved the certificate earlier, remember… Refer to Step I in case you forgot.        Now you should be able to see the imported certificate here, make sure the thumbprint of the certificate matches the one you inserted in the config files        IV. Publish Windows Azure Worker Role aka Test Agent Having completed I, II and III, you are ready to publish the Test Agent VM – 3 to the cloud. Go to Visual Studio and right click the Windows Azure project and select Publish. Verify the infomration in the wizard, from the advanced settings tab, you can also enabled capture of intellitrace or profiling information.         Click Next and Click Publish! From the view menu bar select the Windows Azure Activity Log window.       Now you should be able to see the deployment progress in real time.             In the Windows Azure Management Portal, you should also be able to see the progress of creation of a new Worker Role.       Once the deployment is complete you should be able to RDP (go to run prompt type mstsc and in the pop up the machine name) in to the Test Agent Worker Role VM from the Playpit network using the domain admin user account. In case you are unable to log in to the Test Agent using the domain admin user account it means the process of joining the Test Agent to the domain has failed! But the good news is, because you imported the connect module, you can connect to the Test Agent machine using Windows Azure Management Portal and troubleshoot the reason for failure, you will be able to log in with the user name and password you specified in the config file for the keys ‘RemoteAccess.AccountUsername, RemoteAccess.EncryptedPassword (just that enter the password unencrypted)’, fix it or manually join the machine to the domain. Once you have managed to Join the Test Agent VM to the Domain move to the next step.      So, log in to the Test Agent Worker Role VM with the Playpit Domain Administrator and verify that you can log in, the machine is connected to the domain and the connect service is successfully running. If yes, give your self a pat on the back, you are 80% mission accomplished!         Go to the Windows Azure Management Portal and click on Virtual Network, click on Groups and Roles and click on Test Rig, click Edit Group, the edit the Test Rig group you created earlier. In the Connect to section, click on Add to select the worker role you have just deployed. Also, check the ‘Allow connections between endpoints in the group’ with this you will enable to communication between test controller and test agents and test agents/test agents. Click Save.      Now, you are ready to deploy the Test Agent software on the Worker Role Test Agent VM and configure it to work with the Test Controller. V. Configuring VM – 3: Installing Test Agent and Associating Test Agent to Controller Log in to the Worker Role Test Agent VM that you have just successfully deployed, make sure you log in with the domain administrator account. Download the All Agents software from MSDN, ‘en_visual_studio_agents_2010_x86_x64_dvd_509679.iso’, extract the iso and navigate to where you have extracted the iso. In my case, i have extracted the iso to “C:\Resources\Temp\VsAgentSetup”. Open the Test Agent folder and double click on setup.exe. Once you have installed the Test Agent you should reach the configuration window. If you face any issues installing TFS Test Agent on the VM, refer to the walkthrough on MSDN.       Once you have successfully installed the Test Agent software you will need to configure the test agent. Right click the test agent configuration tool and run as a different user. i.e. an Administrator. This is really to run the configuration wizard with elevated privileges (you might have UAC block something's otherwise).        In the run options, you can select ‘service’ you do not need to run the agent as interactive un less you are running coded UI tests. I have specified the domain administrator to connect to the TFS Test Controller. In real life, i would never do that, i would create a separate test user service account for this purpose. But for the blog post, we are using the most powerful user so that any policies or restrictions don’t block you.        Click the Apply Settings button and you should be all green! If not, the summary usually gives helpful error messages that you can resolve and proceed. As per my experience, you may run in to either a permission or a firewall blocking communication issue.        And now the moment of truth! Go to VM –2 open up Visual Studio and from the Test Menu select Manage Test Controller       Mission Accomplished! You should be able to see the Test Agent that you have just configured here,         VI. Creating and Running Load Tests on your brand new Azure-ed Test Rig I have various blog posts on Performance Testing with Visual Studio Ultimate, you can follow the links and videos below, Blog Posts: - Part 1 – Performance Testing using Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate - Part 2 – Performance Testing using Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate - Part 3 – Performance Testing using Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate Videos: - Test Tools Configuration & Settings in Visual Studio - Why & How to Record Web Performance Tests in Visual Studio Ultimate - Goal Driven Load Testing using Visual Studio Ultimate Now that you have created your load tests, there is one last change you need to make before you can run the tests on your Azure Test Rig, create a new Test settings file, and change the Test Execution method to ‘Remote Execution’ and select the test controller you have configured the Worker Role Test Agent against in our case VM – 2 So, go on, fire off a test run and see the results of the test being executed on the Azur-ed Test Rig. Review and What’s next? A quick recap of the benefits of running the Test Rig in the cloud and what i will be covering in the next blog post AND I would love to hear your feedback! Advantages Utilizing the power of Azure compute to run a heavy virtual user load. Benefiting from the Azure flexibility, destroy Test Agents when not in use, takes < 25 minutes to spin up a new Test Agent. Most important test Network Latency, (network latency and speed of connection are two different things – usually network latency is very hard to test), by placing the Test Agents in Microsoft Data centres around the globe, one can actually test the lag in transferring the bytes not because of a slow connection but because the page has been requested from the other side of the globe. Next Steps The process of spinning up the Test Agents in windows Azure is not 100% automated. I am working on the Worker process and power shell scripts to make the role deployment, unattended install of test agent software and registration of the test agent to the test controller automated. In the next blog post I will show you how to make the complete process unattended and automated. Remember to subscribe to http://feeds.feedburner.com/TarunArora. Hope you enjoyed this post, I would love to hear your feedback! If you have any recommendations on things that I should consider or any questions or feedback, feel free to leave a comment. See you in Part III.   Share this post : CodeProject

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• Append/Add Child Div (jQuery) for Messaging System

  - by Lord Varlin

  So, I'm having difficulty trying to append/add a child div to the parent div, and thought someone out here may know the best way for me to go about this. I have attached my code (without PHP right now, just hard coding text and stuff). But here is what I am trying to do: When a message is posted, you hit the "Reply Button" and a new div will appear underneath containing the reply form. Right now, here are the issues I know about and can't get around: The DIV is a class, so when I use jQuery to try to target the DIV it targets everything since it's no unique. The Reply Button is also a class, so it's not unique. Here is a video of it in action: http://tinypic.com/r/2luxwnr/7 HTML <body> <div id="content-container"> <div id="message-viewer"> <div class="roar"> <div class="roaractionpanel"> <div id="msg-business2"></div> <div class="roartime"><p class="roartime-text">3:26PM</p></div> </div> <div class="roarcontent"> <button type="submit" class="btn-reply"></button> <h5>Test Post</h5><br> <h6>Lord Varlin</h6><br> <h2>Test post... let's see.</h2> </div> </div> <div class="newreply"> <div class="newreplycontent"> <h1>This is where the fields for a new reply will go.</h1> </div> </div> <div class="roar"> <div class="roaractionpanel"> <div id="msg-business2"></div> <div class="roartime"><p class="roartime-text">3:26PM</p></div> </div> <div class="roarcontent"> <button type="submit" class="btn-reply"></button> <h5>Testing another</h5><br> <h6>Lord Varlin</h6><br> <h2>Hmm dee dumm...</h2> </div> </div> <div class="roarreply"> <div class="roarreply-marker"> <p class="roarreplytime-text">June 26th @ 4:42AM</p> </div> <div class="roarreplycontent"> <h9>Testing a reply. Hmmmm.</h9><br> <h8>Lord Varlin</h8> </div> </div> <div class="newreply"> <div class="newreplycontent"> <h1>This is where the fields for a new reply will go.</h1> </div> </div> <div class="roar"> <div class="roaractionpanel"> <div id="msg-business2"></div> <div class="roartime"><p class="roartime- text">3:26PM</p></div> </div> <div class="roarcontent"> <button type="submit" class="btn-reply"></button> <h5>Testing another</h5><br> <h6>Lord Varlin</h6><br> <h2>jQuery, work with me please.</h2> </div> </div> <div class="roarreply"> <div class="roarreply-marker"> <p class="roarreplytime-text">June 26th @ 4:42AM</p> </div> <div class="roarreplycontent"> <h9>Testing a reply. Hmmmm.</h9><br> <h8>Lord Varlin</h8> </div> </div> <div class="roarreply"> <div class="roarreply-marker"> <p class="roarreplytime-text">June 26th @ 4:42AM</p> </div> <div class="roarreplycontent"> <h9>Testing a reply. Hmmmm.</h9><br> <h8>Lord Varlin</h8> </div> </div> <div class="newreply"> <div class="newreplycontent"> <h1>This is where the fields for a new reply will go.</h1> </div> </div> </div> </div> </body> JQUERY $(".btn-reply").click(function() { $(".newreply").toggleClass("show"); return false; }); So, I see the flaws, but I just can't wrap my head around how to pull this off! Any guidance would be awesome! :)

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• DirectShow: Video-Preview and Image (with working code)

  - by xsl

  Questions / Issues If someone can recommend me a good free hosting site I can provide the whole project file. As mentioned in the text below the TakePicture() method is not working properly on the HTC HD 2 device. It would be nice if someone could look at the code below and tell me if it is right or wrong what I'm doing. Introduction I recently asked a question about displaying a video preview, taking camera image and rotating a video stream with DirectShow. The tricky thing about the topic is, that it's very hard to find good examples and the documentation and the framework itself is very hard to understand for someone who is new to windows programming and C++ in general. Nevertheless I managed to create a class that implements most of this features and probably works with most mobile devices. Probably because the DirectShow implementation depends a lot on the device itself. I could only test it with the HTC HD and HTC HD2, which are known as quite incompatible. HTC HD Working: Video preview, writing photo to file Not working: Set video resolution (CRASH), set photo resolution (LOW quality) HTC HD 2 Working: Set video resolution, set photo resolution Problematic: Video Preview rotated Not working: Writing photo to file To make it easier for others by providing a working example, I decided to share everything I have got so far below. I removed all of the error handling for the sake of simplicity. As far as documentation goes, I can recommend you to read the MSDN documentation, after that the code below is pretty straight forward. void Camera::Init() { CreateComObjects(); _captureGraphBuilder->SetFiltergraph(_filterGraph); InitializeVideoFilter(); InitializeStillImageFilter(); } Dipslay a video preview (working with any tested handheld): void Camera::DisplayVideoPreview(HWND windowHandle) { IVideoWindow *_vidWin; _filterGraph->QueryInterface(IID_IMediaControl,(void **) &_mediaControl); _filterGraph->QueryInterface(IID_IVideoWindow, (void **) &_vidWin); _videoCaptureFilter->QueryInterface(IID_IAMVideoControl, (void**) &_videoControl); _captureGraphBuilder->RenderStream(&PIN_CATEGORY_PREVIEW, &MEDIATYPE_Video, _videoCaptureFilter, NULL, NULL); CRect rect; long width, height; GetClientRect(windowHandle, &rect); _vidWin->put_Owner((OAHWND)windowHandle); _vidWin->put_WindowStyle(WS_CHILD | WS_CLIPSIBLINGS); _vidWin->get_Width(&width); _vidWin->get_Height(&height); height = rect.Height(); _vidWin->put_Height(height); _vidWin->put_Width(rect.Width()); _vidWin->SetWindowPosition(0,0, rect.Width(), height); _mediaControl->Run(); } HTC HD2: If set SetPhotoResolution() is called FindPin will return E_FAIL. If not, it will create a file full of null bytes. HTC HD: Works void Camera::TakePicture(WCHAR *fileName) { CComPtr<IFileSinkFilter> fileSink; CComPtr<IPin> stillPin; CComPtr<IUnknown> unknownCaptureFilter; CComPtr<IAMVideoControl> videoControl; _imageSinkFilter.QueryInterface(&fileSink); fileSink->SetFileName(fileName, NULL); _videoCaptureFilter.QueryInterface(&unknownCaptureFilter); _captureGraphBuilder->FindPin(unknownCaptureFilter, PINDIR_OUTPUT, &PIN_CATEGORY_STILL, &MEDIATYPE_Video, FALSE, 0, &stillPin); _videoCaptureFilter.QueryInterface(&videoControl); videoControl->SetMode(stillPin, VideoControlFlag_Trigger); } Set resolution: Works great on HTC HD2. HTC HD won't allow SetVideoResolution() and only offers one low resolution photo resolution: void Camera::SetVideoResolution(int width, int height) { SetResolution(true, width, height); } void Camera::SetPhotoResolution(int width, int height) { SetResolution(false, width, height); } void Camera::SetResolution(bool video, int width, int height) { IAMStreamConfig *config; config = NULL; if (video) { _captureGraphBuilder->FindInterface(&PIN_CATEGORY_PREVIEW, &MEDIATYPE_Video, _videoCaptureFilter, IID_IAMStreamConfig, (void**) &config); } else { _captureGraphBuilder->FindInterface(&PIN_CATEGORY_STILL, &MEDIATYPE_Video, _videoCaptureFilter, IID_IAMStreamConfig, (void**) &config); } int resolutions, size; VIDEO_STREAM_CONFIG_CAPS caps; config->GetNumberOfCapabilities(&resolutions, &size); for (int i = 0; i < resolutions; i++) { AM_MEDIA_TYPE *mediaType; if (config->GetStreamCaps(i, &mediaType, reinterpret_cast<BYTE*>(&caps)) == S_OK ) { int maxWidth = caps.MaxOutputSize.cx; int maxHeigth = caps.MaxOutputSize.cy; if(maxWidth == width && maxHeigth == height) { VIDEOINFOHEADER *info = reinterpret_cast<VIDEOINFOHEADER*>(mediaType->pbFormat); info->bmiHeader.biWidth = maxWidth; info->bmiHeader.biHeight = maxHeigth; info->bmiHeader.biSizeImage = DIBSIZE(info->bmiHeader); config->SetFormat(mediaType); DeleteMediaType(mediaType); break; } DeleteMediaType(mediaType); } } } Other methods used to build the filter graph and create the COM objects: void Camera::CreateComObjects() { CoInitialize(NULL); CoCreateInstance(CLSID_CaptureGraphBuilder, NULL, CLSCTX_INPROC_SERVER, IID_ICaptureGraphBuilder2, (void **) &_captureGraphBuilder); CoCreateInstance(CLSID_FilterGraph, NULL, CLSCTX_INPROC_SERVER, IID_IGraphBuilder, (void **) &_filterGraph); CoCreateInstance(CLSID_VideoCapture, NULL, CLSCTX_INPROC, IID_IBaseFilter, (void**) &_videoCaptureFilter); CoCreateInstance(CLSID_IMGSinkFilter, NULL, CLSCTX_INPROC, IID_IBaseFilter, (void**) &_imageSinkFilter); } void Camera::InitializeVideoFilter() { _videoCaptureFilter->QueryInterface(&_propertyBag); wchar_t deviceName[MAX_PATH] = L"\0"; GetDeviceName(deviceName); CComVariant comName = deviceName; CPropertyBag propertyBag; propertyBag.Write(L"VCapName", &comName); _propertyBag->Load(&propertyBag, NULL); _filterGraph->AddFilter(_videoCaptureFilter, L"Video Capture Filter Source"); } void Camera::InitializeStillImageFilter() { _filterGraph->AddFilter(_imageSinkFilter, L"Still image filter"); _captureGraphBuilder->RenderStream(&PIN_CATEGORY_STILL, &MEDIATYPE_Video, _videoCaptureFilter, NULL, _imageSinkFilter); } void Camera::GetDeviceName(WCHAR *deviceName) { HRESULT hr = S_OK; HANDLE handle = NULL; DEVMGR_DEVICE_INFORMATION di; GUID guidCamera = { 0xCB998A05, 0x122C, 0x4166, 0x84, 0x6A, 0x93, 0x3E, 0x4D, 0x7E, 0x3C, 0x86 }; di.dwSize = sizeof(di); handle = FindFirstDevice(DeviceSearchByGuid, &guidCamera, &di); StringCchCopy(deviceName, MAX_PATH, di.szLegacyName); } Full header file: #ifndef __CAMERA_H__ #define __CAMERA_H__ class Camera { public: void Init(); void DisplayVideoPreview(HWND windowHandle); void TakePicture(WCHAR *fileName); void SetVideoResolution(int width, int height); void SetPhotoResolution(int width, int height); private: CComPtr<ICaptureGraphBuilder2> _captureGraphBuilder; CComPtr<IGraphBuilder> _filterGraph; CComPtr<IBaseFilter> _videoCaptureFilter; CComPtr<IPersistPropertyBag> _propertyBag; CComPtr<IMediaControl> _mediaControl; CComPtr<IAMVideoControl> _videoControl; CComPtr<IBaseFilter> _imageSinkFilter; void GetDeviceName(WCHAR *deviceName); void InitializeVideoFilter(); void InitializeStillImageFilter(); void CreateComObjects(); void SetResolution(bool video, int width, int height); }; #endif

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• ORDER BY job failed in the Pig script while running EmbeddedPig using Java

  - by C.c. Huang

  I have this following pig script, which works perfectly using grunt shell (stored the results to HDFS without any issues); however, the last job (ORDER BY) failed if I ran the same script using Java EmbeddedPig. If I replace the ORDER BY job by others, such as GROUP or FOREACH GENERATE, the whole script then succeeded in Java EmbeddedPig. So I think it's the ORDER BY which causes the issue. Anyone has any experience with this? Any help would be appreciated! The Pig script: REGISTER pig-udf-0.0.1-SNAPSHOT.jar; user_similarity = LOAD '/tmp/sample-sim-score-results-31/part-r-00000' USING PigStorage('\t') AS (user_id: chararray, sim_user_id: chararray, basic_sim_score: float, alt_sim_score: float); simplified_user_similarity = FOREACH user_similarity GENERATE $0 AS user_id, $1 AS sim_user_id, $2 AS sim_score; grouped_user_similarity = GROUP simplified_user_similarity BY user_id; ordered_user_similarity = FOREACH grouped_user_similarity { sorted = ORDER simplified_user_similarity BY sim_score DESC; top = LIMIT sorted 10; GENERATE group, top; }; top_influencers = FOREACH ordered_user_similarity GENERATE com.aol.grapevine.similarity.pig.udf.AssignPointsToTopInfluencer($1, 10); all_influence_scores = FOREACH top_influencers GENERATE FLATTEN($0); grouped_influence_scores = GROUP all_influence_scores BY bag_of_topSimUserTuples::user_id; influence_scores = FOREACH grouped_influence_scores GENERATE group AS user_id, SUM(all_influence_scores.bag_of_topSimUserTuples::points) AS influence_score; ordered_influence_scores = ORDER influence_scores BY influence_score DESC; STORE ordered_influence_scores INTO '/tmp/cc-test-results-1' USING PigStorage(); The error log from Pig: 12/04/05 10:00:56 INFO pigstats.ScriptState: Pig script settings are added to the job 12/04/05 10:00:56 INFO mapReduceLayer.JobControlCompiler: mapred.job.reduce.markreset.buffer.percent is not set, set to default 0.3 12/04/05 10:00:58 INFO mapReduceLayer.JobControlCompiler: Setting up single store job 12/04/05 10:00:58 INFO jvm.JvmMetrics: Cannot initialize JVM Metrics with processName=JobTracker, sessionId= - already initialized 12/04/05 10:00:58 INFO mapReduceLayer.MapReduceLauncher: 1 map-reduce job(s) waiting for submission. 12/04/05 10:00:58 WARN mapred.JobClient: Use GenericOptionsParser for parsing the arguments. Applications should implement Tool for the same. 12/04/05 10:00:58 INFO input.FileInputFormat: Total input paths to process : 1 12/04/05 10:00:58 INFO util.MapRedUtil: Total input paths to process : 1 12/04/05 10:00:58 INFO util.MapRedUtil: Total input paths (combined) to process : 1 12/04/05 10:00:58 INFO filecache.TrackerDistributedCacheManager: Creating tmp-1546565755 in /var/lib/hadoop-0.20/cache/cchuang/mapred/local/archive/4334795313006396107_361978491_57907159/localhost/tmp/temp1725960134-work-6955502337234509704 with rwxr-xr-x 12/04/05 10:00:58 INFO filecache.TrackerDistributedCacheManager: Cached hdfs://localhost/tmp/temp1725960134/tmp-1546565755#pigsample_854728855_1333645258470 as /var/lib/hadoop-0.20/cache/cchuang/mapred/local/archive/4334795313006396107_361978491_57907159/localhost/tmp/temp1725960134/tmp-1546565755 12/04/05 10:00:58 INFO filecache.TrackerDistributedCacheManager: Cached hdfs://localhost/tmp/temp1725960134/tmp-1546565755#pigsample_854728855_1333645258470 as /var/lib/hadoop-0.20/cache/cchuang/mapred/local/archive/4334795313006396107_361978491_57907159/localhost/tmp/temp1725960134/tmp-1546565755 12/04/05 10:00:58 WARN mapred.LocalJobRunner: LocalJobRunner does not support symlinking into current working dir. 12/04/05 10:00:58 INFO mapred.TaskRunner: Creating symlink: /var/lib/hadoop-0.20/cache/cchuang/mapred/local/archive/4334795313006396107_361978491_57907159/localhost/tmp/temp1725960134/tmp-1546565755 <- /var/lib/hadoop-0.20/cache/cchuang/mapred/local/localRunner/pigsample_854728855_1333645258470 12/04/05 10:00:58 INFO filecache.TrackerDistributedCacheManager: Creating symlink: /var/lib/hadoop-0.20/cache/cchuang/mapred/staging/cchuang402164468/.staging/job_local_0004/.job.jar.crc <- /var/lib/hadoop-0.20/cache/cchuang/mapred/local/localRunner/.job.jar.crc 12/04/05 10:00:58 INFO filecache.TrackerDistributedCacheManager: Creating symlink: /var/lib/hadoop-0.20/cache/cchuang/mapred/staging/cchuang402164468/.staging/job_local_0004/.job.split.crc <- /var/lib/hadoop-0.20/cache/cchuang/mapred/local/localRunner/.job.split.crc 12/04/05 10:00:59 INFO filecache.TrackerDistributedCacheManager: Creating symlink: /var/lib/hadoop-0.20/cache/cchuang/mapred/staging/cchuang402164468/.staging/job_local_0004/.job.splitmetainfo.crc <- /var/lib/hadoop-0.20/cache/cchuang/mapred/local/localRunner/.job.splitmetainfo.crc 12/04/05 10:00:59 INFO filecache.TrackerDistributedCacheManager: Creating symlink: /var/lib/hadoop-0.20/cache/cchuang/mapred/staging/cchuang402164468/.staging/job_local_0004/.job.xml.crc <- /var/lib/hadoop-0.20/cache/cchuang/mapred/local/localRunner/.job.xml.crc 12/04/05 10:00:59 INFO filecache.TrackerDistributedCacheManager: Creating symlink: /var/lib/hadoop-0.20/cache/cchuang/mapred/staging/cchuang402164468/.staging/job_local_0004/job.jar <- /var/lib/hadoop-0.20/cache/cchuang/mapred/local/localRunner/job.jar 12/04/05 10:00:59 INFO filecache.TrackerDistributedCacheManager: Creating symlink: /var/lib/hadoop-0.20/cache/cchuang/mapred/staging/cchuang402164468/.staging/job_local_0004/job.split <- /var/lib/hadoop-0.20/cache/cchuang/mapred/local/localRunner/job.split 12/04/05 10:00:59 INFO filecache.TrackerDistributedCacheManager: Creating symlink: /var/lib/hadoop-0.20/cache/cchuang/mapred/staging/cchuang402164468/.staging/job_local_0004/job.splitmetainfo <- /var/lib/hadoop-0.20/cache/cchuang/mapred/local/localRunner/job.splitmetainfo 12/04/05 10:00:59 INFO filecache.TrackerDistributedCacheManager: Creating symlink: /var/lib/hadoop-0.20/cache/cchuang/mapred/staging/cchuang402164468/.staging/job_local_0004/job.xml <- /var/lib/hadoop-0.20/cache/cchuang/mapred/local/localRunner/job.xml 12/04/05 10:00:59 INFO mapred.Task: Using ResourceCalculatorPlugin : null 12/04/05 10:00:59 INFO mapred.MapTask: io.sort.mb = 100 12/04/05 10:00:59 INFO mapred.MapTask: data buffer = 79691776/99614720 12/04/05 10:00:59 INFO mapred.MapTask: record buffer = 262144/327680 12/04/05 10:00:59 WARN mapred.LocalJobRunner: job_local_0004 java.lang.RuntimeException: org.apache.hadoop.mapreduce.lib.input.InvalidInputException: Input path does not exist: file:/Users/cchuang/workspace/grapevine-rec/pigsample_854728855_1333645258470 at org.apache.pig.backend.hadoop.executionengine.mapReduceLayer.partitioners.WeightedRangePartitioner.setConf(WeightedRangePartitioner.java:139) at org.apache.hadoop.util.ReflectionUtils.setConf(ReflectionUtils.java:62) at org.apache.hadoop.util.ReflectionUtils.newInstance(ReflectionUtils.java:117) at org.apache.hadoop.mapred.MapTask$NewOutputCollector.<init>(MapTask.java:560) at org.apache.hadoop.mapred.MapTask.runNewMapper(MapTask.java:639) at org.apache.hadoop.mapred.MapTask.run(MapTask.java:323) at org.apache.hadoop.mapred.LocalJobRunner$Job.run(LocalJobRunner.java:210) Caused by: org.apache.hadoop.mapreduce.lib.input.InvalidInputException: Input path does not exist: file:/Users/cchuang/workspace/grapevine-rec/pigsample_854728855_1333645258470 at org.apache.hadoop.mapreduce.lib.input.FileInputFormat.listStatus(FileInputFormat.java:231) at org.apache.pig.backend.hadoop.executionengine.mapReduceLayer.PigFileInputFormat.listStatus(PigFileInputFormat.java:37) at org.apache.hadoop.mapreduce.lib.input.FileInputFormat.getSplits(FileInputFormat.java:248) at org.apache.pig.impl.io.ReadToEndLoader.init(ReadToEndLoader.java:153) at org.apache.pig.impl.io.ReadToEndLoader.<init>(ReadToEndLoader.java:115) at org.apache.pig.backend.hadoop.executionengine.mapReduceLayer.partitioners.WeightedRangePartitioner.setConf(WeightedRangePartitioner.java:112) ... 6 more 12/04/05 10:00:59 INFO filecache.TrackerDistributedCacheManager: Deleted path /var/lib/hadoop-0.20/cache/cchuang/mapred/local/archive/4334795313006396107_361978491_57907159/localhost/tmp/temp1725960134/tmp-1546565755 12/04/05 10:00:59 INFO mapReduceLayer.MapReduceLauncher: HadoopJobId: job_local_0004 12/04/05 10:01:04 INFO mapReduceLayer.MapReduceLauncher: job job_local_0004 has failed! Stop running all dependent jobs 12/04/05 10:01:04 INFO mapReduceLayer.MapReduceLauncher: 100% complete 12/04/05 10:01:04 ERROR pigstats.PigStatsUtil: 1 map reduce job(s) failed! 12/04/05 10:01:04 INFO pigstats.PigStats: Script Statistics: HadoopVersion PigVersion UserId StartedAt FinishedAt Features 0.20.2-cdh3u3 0.8.1-cdh3u3 cchuang 2012-04-05 10:00:34 2012-04-05 10:01:04 GROUP_BY,ORDER_BY Some jobs have failed! Stop running all dependent jobs Job Stats (time in seconds): JobId Maps Reduces MaxMapTime MinMapTIme AvgMapTime MaxReduceTime MinReduceTime AvgReduceTime Alias Feature Outputs job_local_0001 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 all_influence_scores,grouped_user_similarity,simplified_user_similarity,user_similarity GROUP_BY job_local_0002 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 grouped_influence_scores,influence_scores GROUP_BY,COMBINER job_local_0003 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 ordered_influence_scores SAMPLER Failed Jobs: JobId Alias Feature Message Outputs job_local_0004 ordered_influence_scores ORDER_BY Message: Job failed! Error - NA /tmp/cc-test-results-1, Input(s): Successfully read 0 records from: "/tmp/sample-sim-score-results-31/part-r-00000" Output(s): Failed to produce result in "/tmp/cc-test-results-1" Counters: Total records written : 0 Total bytes written : 0 Spillable Memory Manager spill count : 0 Total bags proactively spilled: 0 Total records proactively spilled: 0 Job DAG: job_local_0001 -> job_local_0002, job_local_0002 -> job_local_0003, job_local_0003 -> job_local_0004, job_local_0004 12/04/05 10:01:04 INFO mapReduceLayer.MapReduceLauncher: Some jobs have failed! Stop running all dependent jobs

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• migrating Solaris to RH: network latency issue, tcp window size & other tcp parameters

  - by Bastien

  Hello I have a client/server app (Java) that I'm migrating from Solaris to RH Linux. since I started running it in RH, I noticed some issues related to latency. I managed to isolate the problem that looks like this: client sends 5 messages (32 bytes each) in a row (same application timestamp) to the server. server echos messages. client receives replies and prints round trip time for each msg. in Solaris, all is well: I get ALL 5 replies at the same time, roughly 80ms after having sent original messages (client & server are several thousands miles away from each other: my ping RTT is 80ms, all normal). in RH, first 3 messages are echoed normally (they arrive 80ms after they've been sent), however the following 2 arrive 80ms later (so total 160ms RTT). the pattern is always the same. clearly looked like a TCP problem. on my solaris box, I had previously configured the tcp stack with 2 specific options: disable nagle algorithm globally set tcp_deferred_acks_max to 0 on RH, it's not possible to disable nagle globally, but I disabled it on all of my apps' sockets (TCP_NODELAY). so I started playing with tcpdump (on the server machine), and compared both outputs: SOLARIS: 22 2.085645 client server TCP 56150 > 6006 [PSH, ACK] Seq=111 Ack=106 Win=66672 Len=22 "MSG_1 RCV" 23 2.085680 server client TCP 6006 > 56150 [ACK] Seq=106 Ack=133 Win=50400 Len=0 24 2.085908 client server TCP 56150 > 6006 [PSH, ACK] Seq=133 Ack=106 Win=66672 Len=22 "MSG_2 RCV" 25 2.085925 server client TCP 6006 > 56150 [ACK] Seq=106 Ack=155 Win=50400 Len=0 26 2.086175 client server TCP 56150 > 6006 [PSH, ACK] Seq=155 Ack=106 Win=66672 Len=22 "MSG_3 RCV" 27 2.086192 server client TCP 6006 > 56150 [ACK] Seq=106 Ack=177 Win=50400 Len=0 28 2.086243 server client TCP 6006 > 56150 [PSH, ACK] Seq=106 Ack=177 Win=50400 Len=21 "MSG_1 ECHO" 29 2.086440 client server TCP 56150 > 6006 [PSH, ACK] Seq=177 Ack=106 Win=66672 Len=22 "MSG_4 RCV" 30 2.086454 server client TCP 6006 > 56150 [ACK] Seq=127 Ack=199 Win=50400 Len=0 31 2.086659 server client TCP 6006 > 56150 [PSH, ACK] Seq=127 Ack=199 Win=50400 Len=21 "MSG_2 ECHO" 32 2.086708 client server TCP 56150 > 6006 [PSH, ACK] Seq=199 Ack=106 Win=66672 Len=22 "MSG_5 RCV" 33 2.086721 server client TCP 6006 > 56150 [ACK] Seq=148 Ack=221 Win=50400 Len=0 34 2.086947 server client TCP 6006 > 56150 [PSH, ACK] Seq=148 Ack=221 Win=50400 Len=21 "MSG_3 ECHO" 35 2.087196 server client TCP 6006 > 56150 [PSH, ACK] Seq=169 Ack=221 Win=50400 Len=21 "MSG_4 ECHO" 36 2.087500 server client TCP 6006 > 56150 [PSH, ACK] Seq=190 Ack=221 Win=50400 Len=21 "MSG_5 ECHO" 37 2.165390 client server TCP 56150 > 6006 [ACK] Seq=221 Ack=148 Win=66632 Len=0 38 2.166314 client server TCP 56150 > 6006 [ACK] Seq=221 Ack=190 Win=66588 Len=0 39 2.364135 client server TCP 56150 > 6006 [ACK] Seq=221 Ack=211 Win=66568 Len=0 REDHAT: 17 2.081163 client server TCP 55879 > 6006 [PSH, ACK] Seq=111 Ack=106 Win=66672 Len=22 "MSG_1 RCV" 18 2.081178 server client TCP 6006 > 55879 [ACK] Seq=106 Ack=133 Win=5888 Len=0 19 2.081297 server client TCP 6006 > 55879 [PSH, ACK] Seq=106 Ack=133 Win=5888 Len=21 "MSG_1 ECHO" 20 2.081711 client server TCP 55879 > 6006 [PSH, ACK] Seq=133 Ack=106 Win=66672 Len=22 "MSG_2 RCV" 21 2.081761 client server TCP 55879 > 6006 [PSH, ACK] Seq=155 Ack=106 Win=66672 Len=22 "MSG_3 RCV" 22 2.081846 server client TCP 6006 > 55879 [PSH, ACK] Seq=127 Ack=177 Win=5888 Len=21 "MSG_2 ECHO" 23 2.081995 server client TCP 6006 > 55879 [PSH, ACK] Seq=148 Ack=177 Win=5888 Len=21 "MSG_3 ECHO" 24 2.082011 client server TCP 55879 > 6006 [PSH, ACK] Seq=177 Ack=106 Win=66672 Len=22 "MSG_4 RCV" 25 2.082362 client server TCP 55879 > 6006 [PSH, ACK] Seq=199 Ack=106 Win=66672 Len=22 "MSG_5 RCV" 26 2.082377 server client TCP 6006 > 55879 [ACK] Seq=169 Ack=221 Win=5888 Len=0 27 2.171003 client server TCP 55879 > 6006 [ACK] Seq=221 Ack=148 Win=66632 Len=0 28 2.171019 server client TCP 6006 > 55879 [PSH, ACK] Seq=169 Ack=221 Win=5888 Len=42 "MSG_4 ECHO + MSG_5 ECHO" 29 2.257498 client server TCP 55879 > 6006 [ACK] Seq=221 Ack=211 Win=66568 Len=0 so, I got confirmation things are not working correctly for RH: packet 28 is sent TOO LATE, it looks like the server is waiting for packet 27's ACK before doing anything. seems to me it's the most likely reason... then I realized that the "Win" parameters are different on Solaris & RH dumps: 50400 on Solaris, only 5888 on RH. that's another hint... I read the doc about the slide window & buffer window, and played around with the rcvBuffer & sendBuffer in java on my sockets, but never managed to change this 5888 value to anything else (I checked each time directly with tcpdump). does anybody know how to do this ? I'm having a hard time getting definitive information, as in some cases there's "auto-negotiation" that I might need to bypass, etc... I eventually managed to get only partially rid of my initial problem by setting the "tcp_slow_start_after_idle" parameter to 0 on RH, but it did not change the "win" parameter at all. the same problem was there for the first 4 groups of 5 messages, with TCP retransmission & TCP Dup ACK in tcpdump, then the problem disappeared altogether for all following groups of 5 messages. It doesn't seem like a very clean and/or generic solution to me. I'd really like to reproduce the exact same conditions under both OSes. I'll keep researching, but any help from TCP gurus would be greatly appreciated ! thanks !

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• Block Hover Effect - Why doesn't it work correctly in FF3.6?

  - by Brian Ojeda

  Why doesn't following code work correctly in FireFox 3.6? I have tested in IE7, IE8, and Chrome with out any issues. Issue: The first block hover link (the table's 3rd row) doesn't apply the same style/effect as the following below it. Notes: I am trying to create my own table framework. This project is something I am doing to learn more about CSS. Before I started, I thought I knew a lot about CSS. However, to my surprise I was wrong. Who knew? Moving on... As side note, I do not want to take the time to support IE6. So, if you see a problem related IE6, please don't waste your time telling. One another side note, the following style script and HTML listed when this question is strip-down/bare-bone of the complete CSS/HTML. It should be enough to assist me. CSS: /* Main Properties */ .ojtable{display:block;clear:both; margin-left:auto;margin-right:auto; margin-top:0px; width:650px;} .ojtable-row, .ojtable-head {display:block;clear:both;position:relative; margin-left:0px;margin-right:0px;padding:0px;} .col-1, .col-2, .col-3, .col-4, .col-5, .col-6, .col-7, .col-8, .col-9, .col-10, .col-11, .col-12, .col-13, .col-1-b1, .col-2-b1, .col-3-b1, .col-4-b1, .col-5-b1, .col-6-b1, .col-7-b1, .col-8-b1, .col-9-b1, .col-10-b1, .col-11-b1, .col-12-b1, .col-13-b1 {display:block;float:left;position:relative; margin-left:0px;margin-right:0px;padding:0px 2px;} /* Border */ .border-b1{border:solid #000000; border-width:0 0 1px 0;} .border-ltr{border:solid #000000; border-width:1px 1px 0 1px;} /* Header */ .ojtable-row{width:100%;} .ojtable-head{width:100%;} /* No Border*/ .col-2{width:96px;} /* Border: 1px */ .col-2-b1{width:95px;} .col-7-b1{width:345px;} /*--- Clear Floated Elements ---*/ /* Credit: http://sonspring.com/journal/clearing-floats */ .clear { clear: both; display: block; overflow: hidden; visibility: hidden; width: 0; height: 0; } /* Credit: http://perishablepress.com/press/2008/02/05/ lessons-learned-concerning-the-clearfix-css-hack/ */ .clearfix:after { visibility: hidden; display: block; font-size: 0; content: " "; clear: both; height: 0; } .clearfix { display:inline-block; } /* start commented backslash hack \*/ * html .clearfix { height: 1%; } .clearfix { display: block; } /* close commented backslash hack */ /*--- Hover Effect for the Tables ---*/ a {text-decoration:none;} * .ojtable a .ojtable-row{width:650px; display:block; text-decoration:none;} * html .ojtable a .ojtable-row {width:650px;}/* Hover Fix for IE */ .ojtable a:hover .ojtable-row{background:#AAAAAA; cursor:pointer;} HTML: <div class="ojtable border-ltr clearfix"> <div class="ojtable-row border-b1 clearfix"> <div class="col-13">Newest Blogs</div> </div> <div class="ojtable-row border-b1 clearfix"> <div class="col-7-b1 border-r1">Name</div> <div class="col-4-b1 border-r1">Creater's Name</div> <div class="col-2">Dated Created</div> </div> <a href="#"><div class="ojtable-row border-b1 clearfix"> <div class="col-7-b1 border-r1">Why jQuery?</div> <div class="col-4-b1 border-r1">Gramcracker</div> <div class="col-2">Mar 11 2010</div> </div></a> <a href="#"><div class="ojtable-row border-b1 clearfix"> <div class="col-7-b1 border-r1">Thank You For Your Help</div> <div class="col-4-b1 border-r1">O'Hater</div> <div class="col-2">Nov 2 2009</div> </div></a> <a href="#"><div class="ojtable-row border-b1 clearfix"> <div class="col-7-b1 border-r1">Click Me! Hahaha!</div> <div class="col-4-b1 border-r1">Brian Ojeda</div> <div class="col-2">Nov 29 2008</div> </div></a> <a href="#"><div class="ojtable-row border-b1 clearfix"> <div class="col-7-b1 border-r1">Moment of Zen</div> <div class="col-4-b1 border-r1">Jedi</div> <div class="col-2">Mar 11 2010</div> </div></a> <a href="#"><div class="ojtable-row border-b1 clearfix"> <div class="col-7-b1 border-r1"></div> <div class="col-4-b1 border-r1">SGT OJ</div> <div class="col-2">Mar 11 2010</div> </div></a> </div> <!-- End of Table --> PS: Thank you for assistant, if you do choose to help.

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• Generic Aggregation of C++ Objects by Attribute When Attribute Name is Unknown at Runtime

  - by stretch

  I'm currently implementing a system with a number of class's representing objects such as client, business, product etc. Standard business logic. As one might expect each class has a number of standard attributes. I have a long list of essentially identical requirements such as: the ability to retrieve all business' whose industry is manufacturing. the ability to retrieve all clients based in London Class business has attribute sector and client has attribute location. Clearly this a relational problem and in pseudo SQL would look something like: SELECT ALL business in business' WHERE sector == manufacturing Unfortunately plugging into a DB is not an option. What I want to do is have a single generic aggregation function whose signature would take the form: vector<generic> genericAggregation(class, attribute, value); Where class is the class of object I want to aggregate, attribute and value being the class attribute and value of interest. In my example I've put vector as return type, but this wouldn't work. Probably better to declare a vector of relevant class type and pass it as an argument. But this isn't the main problem. How can I accept arguments in string form for class, attribute and value and then map these in a generic object aggregation function? Since it's rude not to post code, below is a dummy program which creates a bunch of objects of imaginatively named classes. Included is a specific aggregation function which returns a vector of B objects whose A object is equal to an id specified at the command line e.g. .. $ ./aggregations 5 which returns all B's whose A objects 'i' attribute is equal to 5. See below: #include <iostream> #include <cstring> #include <sstream> #include <vector> using namespace std; //First imaginativly names dummy class class A { private: int i; double d; string s; public: A(){} A(int i, double d, string s) { this->i = i; this->d = d; this->s = s; } ~A(){} int getInt() {return i;} double getDouble() {return d;} string getString() {return s;} }; //second imaginativly named dummy class class B { private: int i; double d; string s; A *a; public: B(int i, double d, string s, A *a) { this->i = i; this->d = d; this->s = s; this->a = a; } ~B(){} int getInt() {return i;} double getDouble() {return d;} string getString() {return s;} A* getA() {return a;} }; //Containers for dummy class objects vector<A> a_vec (10); vector<B> b_vec;//100 //Util function, not important.. string int2string(int number) { stringstream ss; ss << number; return ss.str(); } //Example function that returns a new vector containing on B objects //whose A object i attribute is equal to 'id' vector<B> getBbyA(int id) { vector<B> result; for(int i = 0; i < b_vec.size(); i++) { if(b_vec.at(i).getA()->getInt() == id) { result.push_back(b_vec.at(i)); } } return result; } int main(int argc, char** argv) { //Create some A's and B's, each B has an A... //Each of the 10 A's are associated with 10 B's. for(int i = 0; i < 10; ++i) { A a(i, (double)i, int2string(i)); a_vec.at(i) = a; for(int j = 0; j < 10; j++) { B b((i * 10) + j, (double)j, int2string(i), &a_vec.at(i)); b_vec.push_back(b); } } //Got some objects so lets do some aggregation //Call example aggregation function to return all B objects //whose A object has i attribute equal to argv[1] vector<B> result = getBbyA(atoi(argv[1])); //If some B's were found print them, else don't... if(result.size() != 0) { for(int i = 0; i < result.size(); i++) { cout << result.at(i).getInt() << " " << result.at(i).getA()->getInt() << endl; } } else { cout << "No B's had A's with attribute i equal to " << argv[1] << endl; } return 0; } Compile with: g++ -o aggregations aggregations.cpp If you wish :) Instead of implementing a separate aggregation function (i.e. getBbyA() in the example) I'd like to have a single generic aggregation function which accounts for all possible class attribute pairs such that all aggregation requirements are met.. and in the event additional attributes are added later, or additional aggregation requirements, these will automatically be accounted for. So there's a few issues here but the main one I'm seeking insight into is how to map a runtime argument to a class attribute. I hope I've provided enough detail to adequately describe what I'm trying to do...

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• How to declare a(n) vector/array of reducer objects in Cilk++?

  - by Jin

  Hi All, I had a problem when I am using Cilk++, an extension to C++ for parallel computing. I found that I can't declare a vector of reducer objects: typedef cilk::reducer_opadd<int> T_reducer; vector<T_reducer> bitmiss_vec; for (int i = 0; i < 24; ++i) { T_reducer r; bitmiss_vec.push_back(r); } However, when I compile the code with Cilk++, it complains at the push_back() line: cilk++ geneAttack.cilk -O1 -g -lcilkutil -o geneAttack /usr/local/cilk/bin/../lib/gcc/x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu/4.2.4/../../../../include/cilk++/reducer_opadd.h: In member function ‘void __gnu_cxx::new_allocator<_Tp>::construct(_Tp*, const _Tp&) [with _Tp = cilk::reducer_opadd<int>]’: /usr/local/cilk/bin/../lib/gcc/x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu/4.2.4/../../../../include/c++/4.2.4/bits/stl_vector.h:601: instantiated from ‘void std::vector<_Tp, _Alloc>::push_back(const _Tp&) [with _Tp = cilk::reducer_opadd<int>, _Alloc = std::allocator<cilk::reducer_opadd<int> >]’ geneAttack.cilk:667: instantiated from here /usr/local/cilk/bin/../lib/gcc/x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu/4.2.4/../../../../include/cilk++/reducer_opadd.h:229: error: ‘cilk::reducer_opadd<Type>::reducer_opadd(const cilk::reducer_opadd<Type>&) [with Type = int]’ is private /usr/local/cilk/bin/../lib/gcc/x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu/4.2.4/../../../../include/c++/4.2.4/ext/new_allocator.h:107: error: within this context /usr/local/cilk/bin/../lib/gcc/x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu/4.2.4/../../../../include/cilk++/reducer_opadd.h: In member function ‘void std::vector<_Tp, _Alloc>::_M_insert_aux(__gnu_cxx::__normal_iterator<typename std::_Vector_base<_Tp, _Alloc>::_Tp_alloc_type::pointer, std::vector<_Tp, _Alloc> >, const _Tp&) [with _Tp = cilk::reducer_opadd<int>, _Alloc = std::allocator<cilk::reducer_opadd<int> >]’: /usr/local/cilk/bin/../lib/gcc/x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu/4.2.4/../../../../include/c++/4.2.4/bits/stl_vector.h:605: instantiated from ‘void std::vector<_Tp, _Alloc>::push_back(const _Tp&) [with _Tp = cilk::reducer_opadd<int>, _Alloc = std::allocator<cilk::reducer_opadd<int> >]’ geneAttack.cilk:667: instantiated from here /usr/local/cilk/bin/../lib/gcc/x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu/4.2.4/../../../../include/cilk++/reducer_opadd.h:229: error: ‘cilk::reducer_opadd<Type>::reducer_opadd(const cilk::reducer_opadd<Type>&) [with Type = int]’ is private /usr/local/cilk/bin/../lib/gcc/x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu/4.2.4/../../../../include/c++/4.2.4/bits/vector.tcc:252: error: within this context /usr/local/cilk/bin/../lib/gcc/x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu/4.2.4/../../../../include/c++/4.2.4/bits/stl_vector.h:605: instantiated from ‘void std::vector<_Tp, _Alloc>::push_back(const _Tp&) [with _Tp = cilk::reducer_opadd<int>, _Alloc = std::allocator<cilk::reducer_opadd<int> >]’ geneAttack.cilk:667: instantiated from here /usr/local/cilk/bin/../lib/gcc/x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu/4.2.4/../../../../include/cilk++/reducer_opadd.h:230: error: ‘cilk::reducer_opadd<Type>& cilk::reducer_opadd<Type>::operator=(const cilk::reducer_opadd<Type>&) [with Type = int]’ is private /usr/local/cilk/bin/../lib/gcc/x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu/4.2.4/../../../../include/c++/4.2.4/bits/vector.tcc:256: error: within this context /usr/local/cilk/bin/../lib/gcc/x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu/4.2.4/../../../../include/cilk++/reducer_opadd.h: In static member function ‘static _BI2 std::__copy_backward<_BoolType, std::random_access_iterator_tag>::__copy_b(_BI1, _BI1, _BI2) [with _BI1 = cilk::reducer_opadd<int>*, _BI2 = cilk::reducer_opadd<int>*, bool _BoolType = false]’: /usr/local/cilk/bin/../lib/gcc/x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu/4.2.4/../../../../include/c++/4.2.4/bits/stl_algobase.h:465: instantiated from ‘_BI2 std::__copy_backward_aux(_BI1, _BI1, _BI2) [with _BI1 = cilk::reducer_opadd<int>*, _BI2 = cilk::reducer_opadd<int>*]’ /usr/local/cilk/bin/../lib/gcc/x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu/4.2.4/../../../../include/c++/4.2.4/bits/stl_algobase.h:474: instantiated from ‘static _BI2 std::__copy_backward_normal<<anonymous>, <anonymous> >::__copy_b_n(_BI1, _BI1, _BI2) [with _BI1 = cilk::reducer_opadd<int>*, _BI2 = cilk::reducer_opadd<int>*, bool <anonymous> = false, bool <anonymous> = false]’ /usr/local/cilk/bin/../lib/gcc/x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu/4.2.4/../../../../include/c++/4.2.4/bits/stl_algobase.h:540: instantiated from ‘_BI2 std::copy_backward(_BI1, _BI1, _BI2) [with _BI1 = cilk::reducer_opadd<int>*, _BI2 = cilk::reducer_opadd<int>*]’ /usr/local/cilk/bin/../lib/gcc/x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu/4.2.4/../../../../include/c++/4.2.4/bits/vector.tcc:253: instantiated from ‘void std::vector<_Tp, _Alloc>::_M_insert_aux(__gnu_cxx::__normal_iterator<typename std::_Vector_base<_Tp, _Alloc>::_Tp_alloc_type::pointer, std::vector<_Tp, _Alloc> >, const _Tp&) [with _Tp = cilk::reducer_opadd<int>, _Alloc = std::allocator<cilk::reducer_opadd<int> >]’ /usr/local/cilk/bin/../lib/gcc/x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu/4.2.4/../../../../include/c++/4.2.4/bits/stl_vector.h:605: instantiated from ‘void std::vector<_Tp, _Alloc>::push_back(const _Tp&) [with _Tp = cilk::reducer_opadd<int>, _Alloc = std::allocator<cilk::reducer_opadd<int> >]’ geneAttack.cilk:667: instantiated from here /usr/local/cilk/bin/../lib/gcc/x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu/4.2.4/../../../../include/cilk++/reducer_opadd.h:230: error: ‘cilk::reducer_opadd<Type>& cilk::reducer_opadd<Type>::operator=(const cilk::reducer_opadd<Type>&) [with Type = int]’ is private /usr/local/cilk/bin/../lib/gcc/x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu/4.2.4/../../../../include/c++/4.2.4/bits/stl_algobase.h:433: error: within this context /usr/local/cilk/bin/../lib/gcc/x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu/4.2.4/../../../../include/cilk++/reducer_opadd.h: In function ‘void std::_Construct(_T1*, const _T2&) [with _T1 = cilk::reducer_opadd<int>, _T2 = cilk::reducer_opadd<int>]’: /usr/local/cilk/bin/../lib/gcc/x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu/4.2.4/../../../../include/c++/4.2.4/bits/stl_uninitialized.h:87: instantiated from ‘_ForwardIterator std::__uninitialized_copy_aux(_InputIterator, _InputIterator, _ForwardIterator, std::__false_type) [with _InputIterator = cilk::reducer_opadd<int>*, _ForwardIterator = cilk::reducer_opadd<int>*]’ /usr/local/cilk/bin/../lib/gcc/x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu/4.2.4/../../../../include/c++/4.2.4/bits/stl_uninitialized.h:114: instantiated from ‘_ForwardIterator std::uninitialized_copy(_InputIterator, _InputIterator, _ForwardIterator) [with _InputIterator = cilk::reducer_opadd<int>*, _ForwardIterator = cilk::reducer_opadd<int>*]’ /usr/local/cilk/bin/../lib/gcc/x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu/4.2.4/../../../../include/c++/4.2.4/bits/stl_uninitialized.h:254: instantiated from ‘_ForwardIterator std::__uninitialized_copy_a(_InputIterator, _InputIterator, _ForwardIterator, std::allocator<_Tp>) [with _InputIterator = cilk::reducer_opadd<int>*, _ForwardIterator = cilk::reducer_opadd<int>*, _Tp = cilk::reducer_opadd<int>]’ /usr/local/cilk/bin/../lib/gcc/x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu/4.2.4/../../../../include/c++/4.2.4/bits/vector.tcc:275: instantiated from ‘void std::vector<_Tp, _Alloc>::_M_insert_aux(__gnu_cxx::__normal_iterator<typename std::_Vector_base<_Tp, _Alloc>::_Tp_alloc_type::pointer, std::vector<_Tp, _Alloc> >, const _Tp&) [with _Tp = cilk::reducer_opadd<int>, _Alloc = std::allocator<cilk::reducer_opadd<int> >]’ /usr/local/cilk/bin/../lib/gcc/x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu/4.2.4/../../../../include/c++/4.2.4/bits/stl_vector.h:605: instantiated from ‘void std::vector<_Tp, _Alloc>::push_back(const _Tp&) [with _Tp = cilk::reducer_opadd<int>, _Alloc = std::allocator<cilk::reducer_opadd<int> >]’ geneAttack.cilk:667: instantiated from here /usr/local/cilk/bin/../lib/gcc/x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu/4.2.4/../../../../include/cilk++/reducer_opadd.h:229: error: ‘cilk::reducer_opadd<Type>::reducer_opadd(const cilk::reducer_opadd<Type>&) [with Type = int]’ is private /usr/local/cilk/bin/../lib/gcc/x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu/4.2.4/../../../../include/c++/4.2.4/bits/stl_construct.h:81: error: within this context make: *** [geneAttack] Error 1 jinchen@galactica:~/workspace/biometrics/genAttack$ make cilk++ geneAttack.cilk -O1 -g -lcilkutil -o geneAttack geneAttack.cilk: In function ‘int cilk cilk_main(int, char**)’: geneAttack.cilk:670: error: expected primary-expression before ‘,’ token geneAttack.cilk:670: error: expected primary-expression before ‘}’ token geneAttack.cilk:674: error: ‘bitmiss_vec’ was not declared in this scope make: *** [geneAttack] Error 1 The Cilk++ manule says it supports array/vector of reducers, although there are performance issues to consider: "If you create a large number of reducers (for example, an array or vector of reducers) you must be aware that there is an overhead at steal and reduce that is proportional to the number of reducers in the program. " Anyone knows what is going on? How should I declare/use vector of reducers? Thank you

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• C++ assignment operators dynamic arrays

  - by user2905445

  First off i know the multiplying part is wrong but i have some questions about the code. 1. When i am overloading my operator+ i print out the matrix using cout << *this then right after i return *this and when i do a+b on matix a and matix b it doesnt give me the same thing this is very confusing. 2. When i make matrix c down in my main i cant use my default constructor for some reason because when i go to set it = using my assignment operator overloaded function it gives me an error saying "expression must be a modifiable value. although using my constructor that sets the row and column numbers is the same as my default constructor using (0,0). 3. My assignment operator= function uses a copy constructor to make a new matrix using the values on the right hand side of the equal sign and when i print out c it doesn't give me anything Any help would be great this is my hw for a algorithm class which i still need to do the algorithm for the multiplying matrices but i need to solve these issues first and im having a lot of trouble please help. //Programmer: Eric Oudin //Date: 10/21/2013 //Description: Working with matricies #include <iostream> using namespace std; class matrixType { public: friend ostream& operator<<(ostream&, const matrixType&); const matrixType& operator*(const matrixType&); matrixType& operator+(const matrixType&); matrixType& operator-(const matrixType&); const matrixType& operator=(const matrixType&); void fillMatrix(); matrixType(); matrixType(int, int); matrixType(const matrixType&); ~matrixType(); private: int **matrix; int rowSize; int columnSize; }; ostream& operator<< (ostream& osObject, const matrixType& matrix) { osObject << endl; for (int i=0;i<matrix.rowSize;i++) { for (int j=0;j<matrix.columnSize;j++) { osObject << matrix.matrix[i][j] <<", "; } osObject << endl; } return osObject; } const matrixType& matrixType::operator=(const matrixType& matrixRight) { matrixType temp(matrixRight); cout << temp; return temp; } const matrixType& matrixType::operator*(const matrixType& matrixRight) { matrixType temp(rowSize*matrixRight.columnSize, columnSize*matrixRight.rowSize); if(rowSize == matrixRight.columnSize) { for (int i=0;i<rowSize;i++) { for (int j=0;j<columnSize;j++) { temp.matrix[i][j] = matrix[i][j] * matrixRight.matrix[i][j]; } } } else { cout << "Cannot multiply matricies that have different size rows from the others columns." << endl; } return temp; } matrixType& matrixType::operator+(const matrixType& matrixRight) { if(rowSize == matrixRight.rowSize && columnSize == matrixRight.columnSize) { for (int i=0;i<rowSize;i++) { for (int j=0;j<columnSize;j++) { matrix[i][j] += matrixRight.matrix[i][j]; } } } else { cout << "Cannot add matricies that are different sizes." << endl; } cout << *this; return *this; } matrixType& matrixType::operator-(const matrixType& matrixRight) { matrixType temp(rowSize, columnSize); if(rowSize == matrixRight.rowSize && columnSize == matrixRight.columnSize) { for (int i=0;i<rowSize;i++) { for (int j=0;j<columnSize;j++) { matrix[i][j] -= matrixRight.matrix[i][j]; } } } else { cout << "Cannot subtract matricies that are different sizes." << endl; } return *this; } void matrixType::fillMatrix() { for (int i=0;i<rowSize;i++) { for (int j=0;j<columnSize;j++) { cout << "Enter the matix number at (" << i << "," << j << "):"; cin >> matrix[i][j]; } } } matrixType::matrixType() { rowSize=0; columnSize=0; matrix = new int*[rowSize]; for (int i=0; i < rowSize; i++) { matrix[i] = new int[columnSize]; } } matrixType::matrixType(int setRows, int setColumns) { rowSize=setRows; columnSize=setColumns; matrix = new int*[rowSize]; for (int i=0; i < rowSize; i++) { matrix[i] = new int[columnSize]; } } matrixType::matrixType(const matrixType& otherMatrix) { rowSize=otherMatrix.rowSize; columnSize=otherMatrix.columnSize; matrix = new int*[rowSize]; for (int i = 0; i < rowSize; i++) { for (int j = 0; j < columnSize; j++) { matrix[i]=new int[columnSize]; matrix[i][j]=otherMatrix.matrix[i][j]; } } } matrixType::~matrixType() { delete [] matrix; } int main() { matrixType a(2,2); matrixType b(2,2); matrixType c(0,0); cout << "fill matrix a:"<< endl;; a.fillMatrix(); cout << "fill matrix b:"<< endl;; b.fillMatrix(); cout << a; cout << b; c = a+b; cout <<"matrix a + matrix b =" << c; system("PAUSE"); return 0; }

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• How to customize and reuse a DataGridColumnHeader style?

  - by instcode

  Hi all, I'm trying to customize the column headers of a DataGrid to show sub-column headers as in the following screenshot: I've made a style for 2 sub-column as in the following XAML: <UserControl xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation" xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml" xmlns:data="clr-namespace:System.Windows.Controls;assembly=System.Windows.Controls.Data" xmlns:primitives="clr-namespace:System.Windows.Controls.Primitives;assembly=System.Windows.Controls.Data" xmlns:sl="clr-namespace:UI" xmlns:d="http://schemas.microsoft.com/expression/blend/2008" xmlns:mc="http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/markup-compatibility/2006" x:Class="UI.ColumnHeaderGrid" mc:Ignorable="d"> <UserControl.Resources> <Style x:Key="SplitColumnHeaderStyle" TargetType="primitives:DataGridColumnHeader"> <Setter Property="Foreground" Value="#FF000000"/> <Setter Property="HorizontalContentAlignment" Value="Center"/> <Setter Property="VerticalContentAlignment" Value="Center"/> <Setter Property="IsTabStop" Value="False"/> <Setter Property="SeparatorBrush" Value="#FFC9CACA"/> <Setter Property="Padding" Value="4"/> <Setter Property="Template"> <Setter.Value> <ControlTemplate TargetType="primitives:DataGridColumnHeader"> <Grid x:Name="Root"> <Grid.ColumnDefinitions> <ColumnDefinition/> <ColumnDefinition Width="Auto"/> </Grid.ColumnDefinitions> <Rectangle x:Name="BackgroundRectangle" Fill="#FF1F3B53" Stretch="Fill" Grid.ColumnSpan="2"/> <Rectangle x:Name="BackgroundGradient" Stretch="Fill" Grid.ColumnSpan="2"> <Rectangle.Fill> <LinearGradientBrush EndPoint=".7,1" StartPoint=".7,0"> <GradientStop Color="#FCFFFFFF" Offset="0.015"/> <GradientStop Color="#F7FFFFFF" Offset="0.375"/> <GradientStop Color="#E5FFFFFF" Offset="0.6"/> <GradientStop Color="#D1FFFFFF" Offset="1"/> </LinearGradientBrush> </Rectangle.Fill> </Rectangle> <Grid> <Grid.ColumnDefinitions> <ColumnDefinition/> <ColumnDefinition Width="1"/> <ColumnDefinition/> </Grid.ColumnDefinitions> <Grid.RowDefinitions> <RowDefinition/> <RowDefinition/> <RowDefinition/> </Grid.RowDefinitions> <TextBlock Grid.Row="0" Grid.ColumnSpan="3" Text="Headers" TextAlignment="Center"/> <Rectangle Grid.Row="1" Grid.ColumnSpan="3" Fill="{TemplateBinding SeparatorBrush}" Height="1"/> <TextBlock Grid.Row="2" Grid.Column="0" Text="Header 1" TextAlignment="Center"/> <Rectangle Grid.Row="2" Grid.Column="1" Fill="{TemplateBinding SeparatorBrush}" Width="1"/> <TextBlock Grid.Row="2" Grid.Column="2" Text="Header 2" TextAlignment="Center"/> <Path x:Name="SortIcon" Grid.Column="2" Fill="#FF444444" Stretch="Uniform" HorizontalAlignment="Left" Margin="4,0,0,0" VerticalAlignment="Center" Width="8" Opacity="0" RenderTransformOrigin=".5,.5" Data="F1 M -5.215,6.099L 5.215,6.099L 0,0L -5.215,6.099 Z "/> </Grid> <Rectangle x:Name="VerticalSeparator" Fill="{TemplateBinding SeparatorBrush}" VerticalAlignment="Stretch" Width="1" Visibility="{TemplateBinding SeparatorVisibility}" Grid.Column="1"/> </Grid> </ControlTemplate> </Setter.Value> </Setter> </Style> </UserControl.Resources> <data:DataGrid x:Name="LayoutRoot"> <data:DataGrid.Columns> <data:DataGridTemplateColumn HeaderStyle="{StaticResource SplitColumnHeaderStyle}"> <data:DataGridTemplateColumn.CellTemplate> <DataTemplate> <Grid> <Grid.ColumnDefinitions> <ColumnDefinition/> <ColumnDefinition/> </Grid.ColumnDefinitions> <Border Grid.Column="0" BorderBrush="#FFC9CACA" BorderThickness="0,0,0,0"> <TextBlock Grid.Column="0" Text="{Binding GridData.Column1}"/> </Border> <Border Grid.Column="1" BorderBrush="#FFC9CACA" BorderThickness="1,0,0,0"> <TextBlock Grid.Column="0" Text="{Binding GridData.Column2}"/> </Border> </Grid> </DataTemplate> </data:DataGridTemplateColumn.CellTemplate> </data:DataGridTemplateColumn> </data:DataGrid.Columns> </data:DataGrid> Now I want to reuse & extend this style to support 2-6 sub-column headers but I don't know if there is a way to do this, like ContentPresenter "overriding": <Style x:Key="SplitColumnHeaderStyle" TargetType="primitives:DataGridColumnHeader"> <Setter property="Template"> <Setter.Value> ... <ContentPresenter Content="{TemplateBinding Content}".../> ... </Setter.Value> </Setter> </Style> <Style x:Key="TwoSubColumnHeaderStyle" BasedOn="SplitColumnHeaderStyle"> <Setter property="Content"> <Setter.Value> <Grid 2x2.../> </Setter.Value> </Setter> </Style> <Style x:Key="ThreeSubColumnHeaderStyle" BasedOn="SplitColumnHeaderStyle"> <Setter property="Content"> <Setter.Value> <Grid 2x3.../> </Setter.Value> </Setter> </Style> Anyway, please help me on these issues: Given the template above, how to support more sub-column headers without having to create new new new new template for each? Assume that the issue above is solved. How could I attach column names outside the styles? I see that some parts, properties & visualization rules in the XAML are just copies from the original Silverlight component's style, i.e. BackgroundGradient, BackgroundRectangle, VisualStateManager... They must be there in order to support default behaviors or effects but... does anyone know how to remove them, but keep all the default behaviors/effects? Please be specific because I'm just getting start with C# & Silverlight. Thanks.

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• Authoritative sources about Database vs. Flatfile decision

  - by FastAl

  <tldr>looking for a reference to a book or other undeniably authoritative source that gives reasons when you should choose a database vs. when you should choose other storage methods. I have provided an un-authoritative list of reasons about 2/3 of the way down this post.</tldr> I have a situation at my company where a database is being used where it would be better to use another solution (in this case, an auto-generated piece of source code that contains a static lookup table, searched by binary sort). Normally, a database would be an OK solution even though the problem does not require a database, e.g, none of the elements of ACID are needed, as it is read-only data, updated about every 3-5 years (also requiring other sourcecode changes), and fits in memory, and can be keyed into via binary search (a tad faster than db, but speed is not an issue). The problem is that this code runs on our enterprise server, but is shared with several PC platforms (some disconnected, some use a central DB, etc.), and parts of it are managed by multiple programming units, parts by the DBAs, parts even by mathematicians in another department, etc. These hit their own platform’s version of their databases (containing their own copy of the static data). What happens is that every implementation, every little change, something different goes wrong. There are many other issues as well. I can’t even use a flatfile, because one mode of running on our enterprise server does not have permission to read files (only databases, and of course, its own literal storage, e.g., in-source table). Of course, other parts of the system use databases in proper, less obscure manners; there is no problem with those parts. So why don’t we just change it? I don’t have administrative ability to force a change. But I’m affected because sometimes I have to help fix the problems, but mostly because it causes outages and tons of extra IT time by other programmers and d*mmit that makes me mad! The reason neither management, nor the designers of the system, can see the problem is that they propose a solution that won’t work: increase communication; implement more safeguards and standards; etc. But every time, in a different part of the already-pared-down but still multi-step processes, a few different diligent, hard-working, top performing IT personnel make a unique subtle error that causes it to fail, sometimes after the last round of testing! And in general these are not single-person failures, but understandable miscommunications. And communication at our company is actually better than most. People just don't think that's the case because they haven't dug into the matter. However, I have it on very good word from somebody with extensive formal study of sociology and psychology that the relatively small amount of less-than-proper database usage in this gigantic cross-platform multi-source, multi-language project is bureaucratically un-maintainable. Impossible. No chance. At least with Human Beings in the loop, and it can’t be automated. In addition, the management and developers who could change this, though intelligent and capable, don’t understand the rigidity of this ‘how humans are’ issue, and are not convincible on the matter. The reason putting the static data in sourcecode will solve the problem is, although the solution is less sexy than a database, it would function with no technical drawbacks; and since the sharing of sourcecode already works very well, you basically erase any database-related effort from this section of the project, along with all the drawbacks of it that are causing problems. OK, that’s the background, for the curious. I won’t be able to convince management that this is an unfixable sociological problem, and that the real solution is coding around these limits of human nature, just as you would code around a bug in a 3rd party component that you can’t change. So what I have to do is exploit the unsuitableness of the database solution, and not do it using logic, but rather authority. I am aware of many reasons, and posts on this site giving reasons for one over the other; I’m not looking for lists of reasons like these (although you can add a comment if I've miss a doozy): WHY USE A DATABASE? instead of flatfile/other DB vs. file: if you need... Random Read / Transparent search optimization Advanced / varied / customizable Searching and sorting capabilities Transaction/rollback Locks, semaphores Concurrency control / Shared users Security 1-many/m-m is easier Easy modification Scalability Load Balancing Random updates / inserts / deletes Advanced query Administrative control of design, etc. SQL / learning curve Debugging / Logging Centralized / Live Backup capabilities Cached queries / dvlp & cache execution plans Interleaved update/read Referential integrity, avoid redundant/missing/corrupt/out-of-sync data Reporting (from on olap or oltp db) / turnkey generation tools [Disadvantages:] Important to get right the first time - professional design - but only b/c it's meant to last s/w & h/w cost Usu. over a network, speed issue (best vs. best design vs. local=even then a separate process req's marshalling/netwk layers/inter-p comm) indicies and query processing can stand in the way of simple processing (vs. flatfile) WHY USE FLATFILE: If you only need... Sequential Row processing only Limited usage append only (no reading, no master key/update) Only Update the record you're reading (fixed length recs only) Too big to fit into memory If Local disk / read-ahead network connection Portability / small system Email / cut & Paste / store as document by novice - simple format Low design learning curve but high cost later WHY USE IN-MEMORY/TABLE (tables, arrays, etc.): if you need... Processing a single db/ff record that was imported Known size of data Static data if hardcoding the table Narrow, unchanging use (e.g., one program or proc) -includes a class that will be shared, but encapsulates its data manipulation Extreme speed needed / high transaction frequency Random access - but search is dependent on implementation Following are some other posts about the topic: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1499239/database-vs-flat-text-file-what-are-some-technical-reasons-for-choosing-one-over http://stackoverflow.com/questions/332825/are-flat-file-databases-any-good http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2356851/database-vs-flat-files http://stackoverflow.com/questions/514455/databases-vs-plain-text/514530 What I’d like to know is if anybody could recommend a hard, authoritative source containing these reasons. I’m looking for a paper book I can buy, or a reputable website with whitepapers about the issue (e.g., Microsoft, IBM), not counting the user-generated content on those sites. This will have a greater change to elicit a change that I’m looking for: less wasted programmer time, and more reliable programs. Thanks very much for your help. You win a prize for reading such a large post!

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• How to find an entry-level job after you already have a graduate degree?

  - by Uri

  Note: I asked this question in early 2009. A couple of months later, I found a great job. I've previously updated this question with some tips for whoever ends up in a similar situation, and now cleaned it up a little for the benefit of the fresh batch of graduates. Original post: In my early 20s I abandoned a great C++ development career path in a major company to go to graduate school and get a research masters (3 years). I did another year in industrial research, and then moved to the US to attend graduate school again, getting another masters and a Ph.D in software engineering from a top school (another 6 years down the drain). I was coding the whole way throughout my degrees (core Java and Eclipse plug-ins) and working on research related to software engineering (usability of APIs). I ended up graduating the year of the recession, with a son on the way and the prospects of no healthcare. Academic jobs and industrial research jobs are quite scarce. Initially, I was naive, thinking that with my background, I could easily find a coding job. Big mistake. It turns out that I'm in a complicated position. Entry level positions are usually offered to college undergraduates. I attended my school's career fairs, but you could immediately see signs of Ph.D. aversion and overqualification issues. Some of the recruiters I spoke with explicitly told me that they wanted 20 year olds with clean slates, and some were looking for interns since they are in various forms of hiring freezes. I managed to get a couple of interviews from these career fairs and through recruiters. However, since I've been out of school for a long time and programming primarily in Java, I am also no longer proficient in C/C++ and the usual range of college-level interview questions that everyone uses. I had no problems with this when I was 19 and interviewing for my first job since a lot of what you do in C is manipulate pointers and I was coding C++ for fun and for school. Later I was routinely doing pointer manipulation on the job, and during my first masters taught college courses with data structures and C++. But even though I remember many properties of C++ well, it's been close to ten years since I regularly used C++ and pointers. As a Java developer I rarely had to work at this level, but experience in OOD and in writing good maintainable code is meaningless for C++ interviews. Reading books as a refresh and looking at sample code did not do the trick. I also looked at mid-to-senior level Java positions, but most of them focused on J2EE APIs rather than on core Java and required a certain number of years in industrial positions. Coding research tools and prior C++ experience doesn't count. So that sends me back to entry-level jobs that are posted through job-boards, and these are not common (mostly they are Monster junk), and small companies are even less likely to answer a Ph.D. compared to the giants who participate in top-10 career fairs. Even worse, in many companies initial screening is done by HR folks who really don't want to deal with anything anomalous like a Ph.D. Any tips on how I should approach this intractable position? For example, what should I write in cover letters? Note that while immigration is not an issue for me, I cannot go freelance as I need the benefits (and in particular group health insurance). During my studies I had no time to contribute to open-source projects or maintain a popular blog, so even if I invested in that now there would be no immediate benefit. Updates: In the two months after posting this I received several offers to work as a core Java developer in the financial industry and accepted one from a firm where I am working to this day. For those who find themselves in similar situations, here are my tips: Give up on trying to find an entry level positions. You can't undo time. Accept the fact that there is Ph.D. discrimination in the job market (some might say rightfully so). It is legal to discriminate based on education. No point fighting it. The most important tip is to focus on the language you are comfortable with. The sad truth about programming in a particular language is that it is not like riding a bike. If you haven't used a language in the last few years, and can't actually apply it routinely (not just as a refresher) before you start your search, it is going to be very difficult to do well in an interview. Now that I'm interviewing others, I routinely see it in folks with a mixed C++/Java background. We maintain "a shadow" of the old language but end up with a weird mix that makes it hard to interview on either. Entry-level folks are at an advantage here since they usually have one language. Memory can help you do great in a screening interview, but without recent day-to-day experience, code tests will be difficult. Despite the supposed relation, core Java programming and J2EE programming are two different things with different skillsets. If you come from academia, you likely have very little J2EE experience and may find it hard to get accepted for a J2EE job. J2EE jobs seem to have a larger list of acronyms in their requirements. In addition, from interviewing J2EE developers it seems that for many there is a focus on mastering specific APIs and architectures, whereas core Java development tends to be secondary. In the same way that I can no longer manipulate pointers well, a J2EE developer may have difficulties doing low level Java manipulation. This puts you at a relative advantage in competing for core Java jobs! If you are able to work for startups (in terms of family life and stability) or migrate to startup-rich areas such as the west coast, you can find many exciting opportunities where advanced degrees are a benefit. I've since been approached by several startups, although I had to decline. Work through a recruiter if possible. They have direct contacts with the hiring parties, allowing you to "stand out". It is better to get a clear yes/no confirmation from a recruiter on whether a company might be interested in interviewing you, than it is to send your resume and hope that someone will ever see it. Recruiters are also a great way of bypassing HR. However, also beware of recruiters. They have a vested interest and will go to various shady practices and pressure tactics. To find a good recruiter, talk to a friend who declined a job offer he got through a recruiter. A good recruiter, to me, is measured in how they handle that. Interview for the jobs that require your core strength. If you're rusty or entirely unfamiliar with a technology around which the job revolves, you're probably not a good match. Yes, you probably have the talent to master them, but most companies would want "instant gratification". I got my offers from companies that wanted core Java developer. I didn't do well on places that wanted advance C++ because I am too rusty and not up to date on recent libraries. I also didn't hear from companies that wanted lots of J2EE experience, and that's ok. Finding companies that want core Java without web is harder, but exists in specific industries (e.g., finance, defense). This requires a lot more legwork in terms of search, but these jobs do exist. There are different interview styles. Some companies focus on puzzles, some companies focus on algorithms, and some companies focus on design and coding skills. I had the most success in places where the questions were the most related to the function I would have been performing. Pick companies accordingly as well.

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