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• Unit Testing TSQL

  - by Grant Fritchey

  I went through a period of time where I spent a lot of effort figuring out how to set up unit tests for TSQL. It wasn't easy. There are a few tools out there that help, but mostly it involves lots of programming. well, not as much as before. Thanks to the latest Down Tools Week at Red Gate a new utility has been built and released into the wild, SQL Test. Like a lot of the new tools coming out of Red Gate these days, this one is directly integrated into SSMS, which means you're working where you're comfortable and where you already have lots of tools at your disposal. After the install, when you launch SSMS and get connected, you're prompted to install the tSQLt example database. Go for it. It's a quick way to see how the tool works. I'd suggest using it. It' gives you a quick leg up. The concepts are pretty straight forward. There are a series of CLR commands that you use to configure a test and the test assertions. In between you're calling TSQL, either calls to your structure, queries, or stored procedures. They already have the one things that I always found wanting in database tests, a way to compare tables of results. I also like the ability to create a dummy copy of tables for the tests. It lets you control structures and behaviors so that the tests are more focused. One of the issues I always ran into with the other testing tools is that setting up the tests might require potentially destructive changes to the structure of the database (dropping FKs, etc.) which added lots of time and effort to setting up the tests, making testing more difficult, and therefor, less useful. Functionally, this is pretty similar to the Visual Studio tests and TSQLUnit tests that I used to use. The primary improvement over the Visual Studio tests is that I'm working in SSMS instead of Visual Studio. The primary improvement over TSQLUnit is the SQL Test interface it self. A lot of the functionality is the same, but having a sweet little tool to manage & run the tests from makes a huge difference. Oh, and don't worry. You can still run these tests directly from TSQL too, so automation has not gone away. I'm still thinking about how I'd use this in a dev environment where I also had source control to fret. That might be another blog post right there. I'm just getting started with SQL Test, so this is the first of several blog posts & videos. Watch this space. Try the tool.

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• Networking Guidelines

  - by ACShorten

  One of the things I have noticed in my years in IT is the changes in networking. In the past networking was pretty simple with the host name and name resolution (via DNS) being pretty simple. Some sites still use this simple networking setup. These days, more complex name resolution, proxies, firewalls, demarcation nd virtualization, can make networking more complex. This can cause issues when installing products with in built networking that can frustrate even seasoned veterans. I have put together a few basic guidelines to hopefully help along with product installation and getting a product to operate in a somewhat complex network setup. All the components of the product (including the infrastructure) need to communicate via a network (even it is within a local machine/host). Ensure any host names referred to within configuration files are accessible via your networking setup. This may mean defining the hosts to the machines, to the DNS for name resolution and even your firewall to allow machines to communicate within your network. Make sure the ports used for any of the infrastructure are accessible (even through your firewall) and are unique within the host. Host duplication can cause the product to fail on startup as the port is already in use. If there are still issues, consider using localhost as your host name. I have used this in so many situations that I tend to use it now as a default anytime I install anything myself. Most Oracle products suggest to use localhost when using dynamic host or dynamic IP addresses and this is no different for the Oracle Utilities Application Framework. If you do use localhost then installing a Loopback Adapter for the operating system is recommended to force networking to a minimum. Usually localhost resolves to 127.0.0.1. When using multiple network connections, especially in a virtualized environment, ensure the host and ports used are relevent for the network cards you have setup. One of the common issues is finding the product is using a vierualized network card only to find that it is not setup for correct networking. If you are using the batch component, do not forget to ensure that the multicast protocol is enabled on your host and that the multicast address and port number specified are valid and accessible from all machines in the batch cluster (if clustering used). The same advice applies if you are using unicast where each host/port combination should be accessible. Hopefully these basic networking recommendations will help minimize any networking issues you might encounter.

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• Selectively Exposing Functionallity in .Net

  - by David V. Corbin

  Any developer should be aware of the principles of encapsulation, cross-tier isolation, and cross-functional separation of concerns. However, it seems the few take the time to consider the adage of "minimal yet complete"1 when developing the software. Consider the exposure of "business objects" to the user interface. Some common situations occur: Accessing a given element requires a compound set of calls that do not "make sense" to the User Interface. More information than absolutely required is exposed to the user interface It would be much cleaner if a custom interface was provided that exposed exactly (and only) the information that is required by the consumer. Achieving this using conventional techniques would require the creation (and maintenance!) of custom classes to filter and transpose the information into the ideal format. Determining the ROI on this approach can be very difficult to ascertain, and as a result it is often ignored completely. There is another approach, which is largely made practical by virtual of the Action and Func delegates. From a callers point of view, the following two samples can be used interchangeably:     interface ISomeInterface     {         void SampleMethod1(string param);         string SamepleMethod2(string param);     }       class ISomeInterface     {         public Action<string> SampleMethod1 {get; }         public Func<string,string> SamepleMethod2 {get; }     }   The capabilities this simple changes enable are significant (and remember it does not cange the syntax at the call site): The delegates can be initialized to directly call the proper method of any target class. The delegates can be dynamically updated based on the current state. The "interface" can NOT be cast to the concrete class (which often exposes more functionallity). This patterns By limiting the interface to the exact functionallity required, the reduced surface area will typically result in lower development, testing and maintenance costs. We are currently in the process of posting a project on CodePlex which illustrates this (and many other) techniques which have proven helpful in creating robust yet flexible solutions that are highly efficient2 and maintainable. This post will be updated as soon as the project is published. 1) Credit: Scott  Meyers, Effective C++, Addison-Wesley 1992 2) For those who read my previous post on performance it should be noted that the use of delegates is on the same order of magnitude (actually a tiny amount faster) as conventional interfaces.

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• Is there a language or design pattern that allows the *removal* of object behavior or properties in a class hierarchy?

  - by Sebastien Diot

  A well-know shortcoming of traditional class hierarchies is that they are bad when it comes to model the real world. As an example, trying to represent animals species with classes. There are actually several problems when doing that, but one that I never saw a solution to is when a sub-class "looses" a behavior or properties that was defined in a super-class, like a penguin not being able to fly (there are probably better examples, but that's the first one that comes to my mind, having seen "Madagascar 2" recently). On the one hand, you don't want to define for every property and behavior some flag that specifies if it is at all present, and check it every time before accessing that behavior or property. You would just like to say that birds can fly, simply and clearly, in the Bird class. But then it would be nice if one could define "exceptions" afterward, without having to use some horrible hacks everywhere. This often happens when a system has been productive for a while. You suddenly find an "exception" that doesn't fit in the original design at all, and you don't want to change a large portion of your code to accommodate it. So, is there some language or design patterns that can cleanly handle this problem, without requiring major changes to the "super-class", and all the code that uses it? Even if a solution only handle a specific case, several solutions might together form a complete strategy. [EDIT] Forgot about the Liskov Substitution Principle. That is why you can't do it. Assuming you define "traits/interfaces" for all major "feature groups", you can freely implement traits in different branches of the hierarchy, like the Flying trait could be implemented by Birds, and some special kind of squirrels and fish. So my question could amount to "How could I un-implement a trait?" If your super-class is a Java Serializable, you have to be one too, even if there is no way for you to serialize your state, for example if you contained a "Socket". So one way to do it is to always define all your traits in pair from the start: Flying and NotFlying (which would throw UnsupportedOperationExceiption, if not checked against). The Not-trait would not define any new interface, and could be simply checked for. Sounds like a "cheap" solution, in particular if used from the start.

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• How to recover from finite-state-machine breakdown?

  - by Earl Grey

  My question may seems very scientific but I think it's a common problem and seasoned developers and programmers hopefully will have some advice to avoid the problem I mention in title. Btw., what I describe bellow is a real problem I am trying to proactively solve in my iOS project, I want to avoid it at all cost. By finite state machine I mean this I have a UI with a few buttons, several session states relevant to that UI and what this UI represents, I have some data which values are partly displayed in the UI, I receive and handle some external triggers (represented by callbacks from sensors). I made state diagrams to better map the relevant scenarios that are desirable and alowable in that UI and application. As I slowly implement the code, the app starts to behave more and more like it should. However, I am not very confident that it is robust enough. My doubts come from watching my own thinking and implementation process as it goes. I was confident that I had everything covered, but it was enough to make a few brute tests in the UI and I quickly realized that there are still gaps in the behavior ..I patched them. However, as each component depends and behaves based on input from some other component, a certain input from user or some external source trigers a chain of events, state changes..etc. I have several components and each behave like this Trigger received on input - trigger and its sender analyzed - output something (a message, a state change) based on analysis The problem is, this is not completely selfcontained, and my components (a database item, a session state, some button's state)...COULD be changed, influenced, deleted, or otherwise modified, outside the scope of the event-chain or desirable scenario. (phone crashes, battery is empty phone turn of suddenly) This will introduce a nonvalid situation into the system, from which the system potentially COULD NOT BE ABLE to recover. I see this (althought people do not realize this is the problem) in many of my competitors apps that are on apple store, customers write things like this "I added three documents, and after going there and there, i cannot open them, even if a see them." or "I recorded videos everyday, but after recording a too log video, I cannot turn of captions on them.., and the button for captions doesn't work".. These are just shortened examples, customers often describe it in more detail..from the descriptions and behavior described in them, I assume that the particular app has a FSM breakdown. So the ultimate question is how can I avoid this, and how to protect the system from blocking itself? EDIT I am talking in the context of one viewcontroller's view on the phone, I mean one part of the application. I Understand the MVC pattern, I have separate modules for distinct functionality..everything I describe is relevant to one canvas on the UI.

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• ArchBeat Top 10 for November 18-24, 2012

  - by Bob Rhubart

  The Top 10 most popular items shared on the OTN ArchBeat Facebook page for the week of November 18-24, 2012. One-Stop Shop for over 200 On-Demand Oracle Webcasts Webcasts can be a great way to get information about Oracle products without having to go cross-eyed reading yet another document off your computer screen. Oracle's new Webcast Center offers selectable filtering to make it easy to get to the information you want. Yes, you have to register to gain access, but that process is quick, and with over 200 webcasts to choose from you know you'll find useful content. Oracle SOA Suite 11g PS 5 introduces BPEL with conditional correlation for aggregation scenarios | Lucas Jellema An extensive, detailed technical post from Oracle ACE Director Lucas Jellema. Oracle Utilities Application Framework V4.2.0.0.0 Released | Anthony Shorten Principal Product Manager Anthony Shorten shares an overview of the changes implemented in the new release. Fault Handling and Prevention - Part 1 | Guido Schmutz and Ronald van Luttikhuizen In this technical article, part one of a four part series, Oracle ACE Directors Guido Schmutz and Ronald van Luttikhuizen guide you through an introduction to fault handling in a service-oriented environment using Oracle SOA Suite and Oracle Service Bus. Oracle BPM Process Accelerators and process excellence | Andrew Richards "Process Accelerators are ready-to-deploy solutions based on best practices to simplify process management requirements," says Capgemini's Andrew Richards. "They are considered to be 'product grade,' meaning they have been designed; engineered, documented and tested by Oracle themselves to a level that they can be deployed as-is for a solution to a problem or extended as appropriate for a particular scenario." Videos: Getting Started with Java Embedded | The Java Source Interested in Java Embedded? You'll want to check out these videos provided Tori Weildt, including interviews with Oracle's James Allen and Kevin Smith, recorded at ARM TechCon. JPA SQL and Fetching tuning ( EclipseLink ) | Edwin Biemond Oracle ACE Edwin Biemond's post illustrates how to "use the department and employee entity of the HR Oracle demo schema to explain the JPA options you have to control the SQL statements and the JPA relation Fetching." Devoxx 2012 Trip Report - clouds and sunshine | Markus Eisele Oracle ACE Director Markus Eisele shares an extensive and entertaining account of his experience at Devoxx 2012. Towards Ultra-Reusability for ADF - Adaptive Bindings | Duncan Mills "The task flow mechanism embodies one of the key value propositions of the ADF Framework," says Duncan Mills. "However, what if we could do more? How could we make task flows even more re-usable than they are today?" As you might expect, Duncan has answers for those questions. Java Specification Requests in Numbers | Markus Eisele Oracle ACE Director Markus Eisele shares some interesting data culled from the Java Community Process site. Thought for the Day "You can't have great software without a great team, and most software teams behave like dysfunctional families." — Jim McCarthy Source: SoftwareQuotes.com

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• Happy New Year! Upcoming Events in January 2011

  - by mandy.ho

  Oracle Database kicks off the New Year at the following events during the month of January. Hope to see you there and please send in your pictures and feedback! Jan 20, 2011 - San Francisco, CA LinkShare Symposium West 2011 Oracle is a proud Gold Sponsor at the LinkShare Symposium West 2011 January 20 in San Francisco, California. Year after year LinkShare has been bringing their network the opportunity to come to life. At the LinkShare Symposium online performance marketing leaders meet to optimize face-to-face during a full day of networking. Learn more by attending Oracle Breakout Session, "Omni - Channel Retailing, What is possible now?" on Thursday, January 20, 11:15 a.m. - 12:00 noon, Grand Ballroom. http://eventreg.oracle.com/webapps/events/ns/EventsDetail.jsp?p_eventId=128306&src=6954634&src=6954634&Act=397 Jan 24, 2011 - Cincinnati, OH Greater Cincinnati Oracle User Group Meeting "Tom Kyte Day" - Featuring a day of sessions presented by Senior Technical Architect, Tom Kyte. Sessions include "Top 10, no 11, new features of Oracle Database 11g Release 2" and "What do I really need to know when upgrading", plus more. http://www.gcoug.org/ Jan 25, 2011 - Vancouver, British Columbia Oracle Security Solutions Forum Featuring a Special Keynote Presentation from Tom Kyte - Complete Database Security Join us at this half-day event; Oracle Database Security Solutions: Complete Information Security. Learn how Oracle Database Security solutions help you: • Prevent external threats like SQL injection attacks from reaching your databases • Transparently encrypt application data without application changes • Prevent privileged database users and administrators from accessing data • Use native database auditing to monitor and report on database activity • Mask production data for safe use in nonproduction environments http://eventreg.oracle.com/webapps/events/ns/EventsDetail.jsp?p_eventId=126974&src=6958351&src=6958351&Act=97 Jan 26, 2011 - Halifax, Nova Scotia Oracle Database Security Technology Day Exclusive Seminar on Complete Information Security with Oracle Database 11g The amount of digital data within organizations is growing at unprecedented rates, as is the value of that data and the challenges of safeguarding it. Yet most IT security programs fail to address database security--specifically, insecure applications and privileged users. So how can you protect your mission-critical information? Avoid risky third-party solutions? Defend against security breaches and compliance violations? And resist costly new infrastructure investments? Join us at this half-day seminar, Oracle Database Security Solutions: Complete Information Security, to find out http://eventreg.oracle.com/webapps/events/ns/EventsDetail.jsp?p_eventId=126269&src=6958351&src=6958351&Act=93

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• ADF Code Guidelines

  - by Chris Muir

  During Oracle Open World 2012 the ADF Product Management team announced a new OTN website, the ADF Architecture Square.  While OOW represents a great opportunity to let customers know about new and exciting developments, the problem with making announcements during OOW however is customers are bombarded with so many messages that it's easy to miss something important. So in this blog post I'd like to highlight as part of the ADF Architecture Square website, one of the initial core offerings is a new document entitled ADF Code Guidelines. Now the title of this document should hopefully make it obvious what the document contains, but what's the purpose of the document, why did Oracle create it? Personally having worked as an ADF consultant before joining Oracle, one thing I noted amongst ADF customers who had successfully deployed production systems, that they all approached software development in a professional and engineered way, and all of these customers had their own guideline documents on ADF best practices, conventions and recommendations.  These documents designed to be consumed by their own staff to ensure ADF applications were "built right", typically sourced their guidelines from their team's own expert learnings, and the huge amount of ADF technical collateral that is publicly available.  Maybe from manuals and whitepapers, presentations and blog posts, some written by Oracle and some written by independent sources. Now this is all good and well for the teams that have gone through this effort, gathering all the information and putting it into structured documents, kudos to them.  But for new customers who want to break into the ADF space, who have project pressures to deliver ADF solutions without necessarily working on assembling best practices, creating such a document is understandably (regrettably?) a low priority.  So in recognising this hurdle, at Oracle we've devised the ADF Code Guidelines.  This document sets out ADF code guidelines, practices and conventions for applications built using ADF Business Components and ADF Faces Rich Client (release 11g and greater).  The guidelines are summarized from a number of Oracle documents and other 3rd party collateral, with the goal of giving developers and development teams a short circuit on producing their own best practices collateral. The document is not a final production, but a living document that will be extended to cover new information as discovered or as the ADF framework changes. Readers are encouraged to discuss the guidelines on the ADF EMG and provide constructive feedback to me (Chris Muir) via the ADF EMG Issue Tracker. We hope you'll find the ADF Code Guidelines useful and look forward to providing updates in the near future. Image courtesy of paytai / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

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• Patterns for Handling Changing Property Sets in C++

  - by Bhargav Bhat

  I have a bunch "Property Sets" (which are simple structs containing POD members). I'd like to modify these property sets (eg: add a new member) at run time so that the definition of the property sets can be externalized and the code itself can be re-used with multiple versions/types of property sets with minimal/no changes. For example, a property set could look like this: struct PropSetA { bool activeFlag; int processingCount; /* snip few other such fields*/ }; But instead of setting its definition in stone at compile time, I'd like to create it dynamically at run time. Something like: class PropSet propSetA; propSetA("activeFlag",true); //overloading the function call operator propSetA("processingCount",0); And the code dependent on the property sets (possibly in some other library) will use the data like so: bool actvFlag = propSet["activeFlag"]; if(actvFlag == true) { //Do Stuff } The current implementation behind all of this is as follows: class PropValue { public: // Variant like class for holding multiple data-types // overloaded Conversion operator. Eg: operator bool() { return (baseType == BOOLEAN) ? this->ToBoolean() : false; } // And a method to create PropValues various base datatypes static FromBool(bool baseValue); }; class PropSet { public: // overloaded[] operator for adding properties void operator()(std::string propName, bool propVal) { propMap.insert(std::make_pair(propName, PropVal::FromBool(propVal))); } protected: // the property map std::map<std::string, PropValue> propMap; }; This problem at hand is similar to this question on SO and the current approach (described above) is based on this answer. But as noted over at SO this is more of a hack than a proper solution. The fundamental issues that I have with this approach are as follows: Extending this for supporting new types will require significant code change. At the bare minimum overloaded operators need to be extended to support the new type. Supporting complex properties (eg: struct containing struct) is tricky. Supporting a reference mechanism (needed for an optimization of not duplicating identical property sets) is tricky. This also applies to supporting pointers and multi-dimensional arrays in general. Are there any known patterns for dealing with this scenario? Essentially, I'm looking for the equivalent of the visitor pattern, but for extending class properties rather than methods. Edit: Modified problem statement for clarity and added some more code from current implementation.

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• ASP.NET Membership Password Hash -- .NET 3.5 to .NET 4 Upgrade Surprise!

  - by David Hoerster

  I'm in the process of evaluating how my team will upgrade our product from .NET 3.5 SP1 to .NET 4. I expected the upgrade to be pretty smooth with very few, if any, upgrade issues. To my delight, the upgrade wizard said that everything upgraded without a problem. I thought I was home free, until I decided to build and run the application. A big problem was staring me in the face -- I couldn't log on. Our product is using a custom ASP.NET Membership Provider, but essentially it's a modified SqlMembershipProvider with some additional properties. And my login was failing during the OnAuthenticate event handler of my ASP.NET Login control, right where it was calling my provider's ValidateUser method. After a little digging, it turns out that the password hash that the membership provider was using to compare against the stored password hash in the membership database tables was different. I compared the password hash from the .NET 4 code line, and it was a different generated hash than my .NET 3.5 code line. (Tip -- when upgrading, always keep a valid debug copy of your app handy in case you have to step through a lot of code.) So it was a strange situation, but at least I knew what the problem was. Now the question was, "Why was it happening?" Turns out that a breaking change in .NET 4 is that the default hash algorithm changed to SHA256. Hey, that's great -- stronger hashing algorithm. But what do I do with all the hashed passwords in my database that were created using SHA1? Well, you can make two quick changes to your app's web.config and everything will be OK. Basically, you need to override the default HashAlgorithmTypeproperty of your membership provider. Here are the two places to do that: 1. At the beginning of your element, add the following element: <system.web> <machineKey validation="SHA1" /> ... </system.web> 2. On your element under , add the following hashAlgorithmType attribute: <system.web> <membership defaultProvider="myMembership" hashAlgorithmType="SHA1"> ... </system.web> After that, you should be good to go! Hope this helps.

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• Is there a better term than "smoothness" or "granularity" to describe this language feature?

  - by Chris

  One of the best things about programming is the abundance of different languages. There are general purpose languages like C++ and Java, as well as little languages like XSLT and AWK. When comparing languages, people often use things like speed, power, expressiveness, and portability as the important distinguishing features. There is one characteristic of languages I consider to be important that, so far, I haven't heard [or been able to come up with] a good term for: how well a language scales from writing tiny programs to writing huge programs. Some languages make it easy and painless to write programs that only require a few lines of code, e.g. task automation. But those languages often don't have enough power to solve large problems, e.g. GUI programming. Conversely, languages that are powerful enough for big problems often require far too much overhead for small problems. This characteristic is important because problems that look small at first frequently grow in scope in unexpected ways. If a programmer chooses a language appropriate only for small tasks, scope changes can require rewriting code from scratch in a new language. And if the programmer chooses a language with lots of overhead and friction to solve a problem that stays small, it will be harder for other people to use and understand than necessary. Rewriting code that works fine is the single most wasteful thing a programmer can do with their time, but using a bazooka to kill a mosquito instead of a flyswatter isn't good either. Here are some of the ways this characteristic presents itself. Can be used interactively - there is some environment where programmers can enter commands one by one Requires no more than one file - neither project files nor makefiles are required for running in batch mode Can easily split code across multiple files - files can refeence each other, or there is some support for modules Has good support for data structures - supports structures like arrays, lists, and especially classes Supports a wide variety of features - features like networking, serialization, XML, and database connectivity are supported by standard libraries Here's my take on how C#, Python, and shell scripting measure up. Python scores highest. Feature C# Python shell scripting --------------- --------- --------- --------------- Interactive poor strong strong One file poor strong strong Multiple files strong strong moderate Data structures strong strong poor Features strong strong strong Is there a term that captures this idea? If not, what term should I use? Here are some candidates. Scalability - already used to decribe language performance, so it's not a good idea to overload it in the context of language syntax Granularity - expresses the idea of being good just for big tasks versus being good for big and small tasks, but doesn't express anything about data structures Smoothness - expresses the idea of low friction, but doesn't express anything about strength of data structures or features Note: Some of these properties are more correctly described as belonging to a compiler or IDE than the language itself. Please consider these tools collectively as the language environment. My question is about how easy or difficult languages are to use, which depends on the environment as well as the language.

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• Oracle at ASMC PDI 2012

  - by jeffrey.waterman

  Recently, I had the pleasure of representing Oracle at the American Society of Military Comptrollers National Professional Development Institute (PDI).  The PDI is the premier training event for resource managers in the Department of Defense and US Coast Guard.  Each year they assemble top presenters and key note speakers to convey their experiences and share the upcoming goals and vision for the Defense Department's financial and resource management community.  This year, the common themes were centered around 'auditability' and 'efficiency'.   What is auditability?  There were many definitions/themes tossed around, but to summarize my notes, it boiled down to:- the proper tracking of funds- audit readiness- proper controls- proper documentation There were sessions regarding entire programs focused on the need for auditability.  For example, FIAR: Financial Improvement and Audit Readiness (http://comptroller.defense.gov/fiar/index.html)   The FIAR stresses the "...improve(ment of) the Department's financial processes, controls and information." The entire conference, one set of solutions kept popping into my head around, "how can Oracle's solutions assist the Department of Defense", or any other Federal Agency, improve their financial processes and controls?   One answer came to mind:  Oracle Governance, Risk, and Compliance Management. Commonly referred to as "GRC". Let me summarize the main components around Oracle's GRC solution: GRC Manager: This solution is the central repository for documenting business processes, policies, and established controls.  All identified risks and issues are documented within the repository as well as action plans necessary for mitigation. GRC Controls:  This solution consists of a set of tools which are embedded with your ERP (financial, human resource, supply chain, etc.) applications to detect, prevent, and/or enforce the policies and procedures established by your Agency.  Components of the solution include:- Application Access Control Governor: a robust tool for managing application roles and responsibilities; simplify segregation of duty maintenance- Configuration Controls Governor: complete audit trail for changes made to configurations- Transactions Control Governor: track violations of internal controls; alert management to suspicious activities; be warned when high dollar transactions are occurring on an irregular basis; - Preventative Controls Governor: prevent sensitive information from being viewed by unauthorized parties; enforce field, block, and form change control If you are in the financial or resource management community and are concerned about auditability within your organization I suggest you follow up this post by reading about Oracle's GRC solutions.  www.oracle.com/grc Please feel free to follow up with thought and questions in the comments section below.  Also, if you have a topic you would like addressed in this blog, just drop me a note at [email protected]  or leave the suggestion in the comment section as well. Thank you for reading.

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• Do you care about your Oracle System Support experience?

  - by user12244613

  It has been a while since I blogged about Systems Support within Oracle. I want to take this opportunity to raise awareness of how Oracle is communicating out to its systems customers. Previously every item to be communicated was sent independently via an email message however, not all messages appear to be being getting the attention they require. In an effort to ensure Oracle is reaching all of our Sun and Oracle System customers, we have created the Oracle Systems Support Newsletter. This monthly newsletter will have a summary of customer support relevant information for you to use and will cover topics that impact your support experience. For example: 1. Did you know that sending explorer content to email addresses with @sun.com is going away soon? For more information, review the Document 1362484.1 2. Are you an Auto Service Request (ASR) user? If yes, here are the latest changes: · ASR Manager accepts My Oracle Support User Name (email address) and password. [Doc ID 1345484.1] · ASR IP Address for secure file transfer has changed [Doc ID 1338575.1] · ASR No Heartbeat Status - Find out how to resolve [Doc ID 1346328.1] 3. Did you notice we have changed the Service Request options for Hardware and introduced a new problem category called “Automated Diagnosis”? This service streamlines the data you send in and then automatically provides an update of known issues found in your My Oracle Support Service Request. This feature also fast tracks hardware failures by sending parts as soon as the data is analyzed. Have you used this new feature? If yes tell us about it – take the 5minute survey 4. Are you being proactive or are you still ‘fire fighting’ in the reactive mode? If you are being proactive for your Oracle System products you might have used Oracle Sun System Analysis. Did you finding this helpful? Can we improve it? You tell us, take the 5minute survey 5. Are you aware that if you attach files to your Service Request it enables the support engineer to start work straight away? For a summary of products and files review the Newsletter. 6. Are you struggling to find patches or firmware or product downloads? If yes, these types of issues are all addressed in the Newsletter. If this is the type of information you want to know about each month, then take time to read the Newsletter link and bookmark it in My Oracle Support so you can stay informed. Thanks for your time.

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• Ubuntu 12.04 won't load - hangs at Busybox v1.18.5 / initramfs

  - by Marty

  I want to start by saying that I am very new with Linux (about 1 month using it). I have had no problems up until now. I am running Ubuntu 12.04 from a Toshiba laptop with 250 GB hard drive and 3 GB of ram. Everything worked fine yesterday. The only changes I made was was that I downloaded Banshee to try as a replacement for Rhythmbox and did a few recommended updates. This morning I tried to boot and it took a long time and I finally got this error: mount: mounting /dev/disk/by-uuid/02bc41cc-1e21-4700-a179-be2805a658c4 on /root failed: Invalid argument mount: mounting /dev on /root/dev failed: No such file or directory mount: mounting /sys on /root/sys failed: No such file or directory mount: mounting /proc on /root/proc failed: No such file or directory Target filesystem doesn't have requested /sbin/init. No init found. Try passing init= bootarg. BusyBox v1.18. (Ubuntu 1:1.18.5-1ubuntu4) built-in shell (ash) Enter 'help' for a list of built-in commands (initramfs) I'm not sure what to do beyond this point. I have read around on here and haven't found the help I need. I did try to boot it from the Live CD. I can boot up to the Try Ubuntu/Install Ubuntu screen. When I go through the Try Ubuntu selection I can't access my hard disk. When I clicked on it I got this error: Unable to mount 247 GB Filesystem Error mounting: mount: wrong fs type, bad option, bad superblock on /dev/sda/1, missing codepage or helper program, or other error. In some cases useful info is found in syslog - try dmesg|tail or so. I tried dmesg|tail and saw a string of values but nothing that looked helpful. I have also tried to boot from the GRUB screen as recovery mode and previous Linux version but they didn't work either. I tried to load Windows Recovery Environment (loader) (on /dev/sdc3) and got this message: error: no such device: 268057B1805785E9 error: hd1 cannot get C/H/S values I had saw somewhere that I could fix this with the Live CD but my knowledge isn't good enough to try. I tried something with Gpart that I had read, but the system told me that I didn't have Gpart. Could someone please explain to me what I need to do and/or haven't tried yet. Thanks so much!

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• ArchBeat Link-o-Rama for 2012-07-11

  - by Bob Rhubart

  Is the future of retail showrooming? | GigaOm "The digital shopper isn’t just digital and she expects to be served seamlessly across all channels, physical and digital," reports GigaOm. Twenty years into the Internet era and the changes just keep coming. Solution architects take note... Agile Bureaucracy: When Practices become Principles | Jim Highsmith.com "Principles and values are a critical part of keeping individuals in organizations aligned and engaged," says Agile guru Jim Highsmith, "but the more pseudo-principles are piled on top of principles, the less and less organizations are able to adapt." Oracle Fusion Applications 11g Basics | Michel Schildmeijer "We are trying to build up a Oracle Fusion Apps environment on a Exalogic system, though still on bare metal, because officially there still is no Oracle VM available yet on Exalogic," says Michel Schildmeijer, an Oracle Fusion Middleware Architect at Qualogy. "It is a bit of a challenge, but getting to know the basics and which components the install, build and configure phase use, might bring you a step further on the way." Process Centric Banking: Loan Origination Solution | Manish Palaparthy This interesting, detailed post by Manish Palaparthy explains the process behind the execution of a proof-of-concept for a Fusion Middleware-based loan-origination solution for a bank. The solution incorporates Oracle BPM Suite, Webcenter, and ADF technolgies in a SOA infrastructure. How eBay and Facebook are Cleaning Up Data Centers | Amy Gallo - HBR The Cloud has needs! As reported by Amy Gallo in an article in the Harvard Business Review, "The electricity demand of data centers and the telecommunications network is rivaling that of most nations. If the cloud were itself a country, it would rank fifth in the world on energy demand behind the U.S., China, Russia, and Japan." Do WebLogic configuration from ANT | Edwin Biemond "With WebLogic WLST you can script the creation of all your Application DataSources or SOA Integration artifacts( like JMS etc)," says Oracle ACE Edwin Biemond. "This is necessary if your domain contains many WebLogic artifacts or you have more then one WebLogic environment. If so, you want to script this so you can configure a new WebLogic domain in minutes and you can repeat this task with always the same result." Oracle Special-Edition E-Book: Cloud Architecture for Dummies Learn how to architect and model your cloud implementation to drive efficiency and leverage economies of scale with Cloud Architecture for Dummies, a free Oracle e-book. (Registration required.) Thought for the Day "One of the best things to come out of the home computer revolution could be the general and widespread understanding of how severely limited logic really is." — Frank Herbert Source: SoftwareQuotes.com

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• Three Global Telecoms Soar With Siebel

  - by michael.seback

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

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• Unit Testing with NUnit and Moles Redux

  - by João Angelo

  Almost two years ago, when Moles was still being packaged alongside Pex, I wrote a post on how to run NUnit tests supporting moled types. A lot has changed since then and Moles is now being distributed independently of Pex, but maintaining support for integration with NUnit and other testing frameworks. For NUnit the support is provided by an addin class library (Microsoft.Moles.NUnit.dll) that you need to reference in your test project so that you can decorate yours tests with the MoledAttribute. The addin DLL must also be placed in the addins folder inside the NUnit installation directory. There is however a downside, since Moles and NUnit follow a different release cycle and the addin DLL must be built against a specific NUnit version, you may find that the release included with the latest version of Moles does not work with your version of NUnit. Fortunately the code for building the NUnit addin is supplied in the archive (moles.samples.zip) that you can found in the Documentation folder inside the Moles installation directory. By rebuilding the addin against your specific version of NUnit you are able to support any version. Also to note that in Moles 0.94.51023.0 the addin code did not support the use of TestCaseAttribute in your moled tests. However, if you need this support, you need to make just a couple of changes. Change the ITestDecorator.Decorate method in the MolesAddin class: Test ITestDecorator.Decorate(Test test, MemberInfo member) { SafeDebug.AssumeNotNull(test, "test"); SafeDebug.AssumeNotNull(member, "member"); bool isTestFixture = true; isTestFixture &= test.IsSuite; isTestFixture &= test.FixtureType != null; bool hasMoledAttribute = true; hasMoledAttribute &= !SafeArray.IsNullOrEmpty( member.GetCustomAttributes(typeof(MoledAttribute), false)); if (!isTestFixture && hasMoledAttribute) { return new MoledTest(test); } return test; } Change the Tests property in the MoledTest class: public override System.Collections.IList Tests { get { if (this.test.Tests == null) { return null; } var moled = new List<Test>(this.test.Tests.Count); foreach (var test in this.test.Tests) { moled.Add(new MoledTest((Test)test)); } return moled; } } Disclaimer: I only tested this implementation against NUnit 2.5.10.11092 version. Finally you just need to run the NUnit console runner through the Moles runner. A quick example follows: moles.runner.exe [Tests.dll] /r:nunit-console.exe /x86 /args:[NUnitArgument1] /args:[NUnitArgument2]

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• How do I set up nvidia graphics adapter to put out 1080p, it seems to be using interlace mode>

  - by keepitsimpleengineer

  After upgrading to 12.04, my mythbuntu client/server seems to be running in 1080i, the clue comes from: [ 1176.117] (II) NVIDIA(0): Setting mode "1920x1080_60i" [ 1231.340] (II) NVIDIA(0): Setting mode "DFP-1:1920x1080_60@1920x1080+0+0" This is from Xorg.0.log. This whole thing started from video tearing when watching Mythtv recordings. It didn't happen in 10.10. Should I use "TVStandard" "HD1080p" in the screen section since this is a dedicated HTPC? It only connects to an HDTV (1080p) via hdmi. Here is the current xorg.conf file: # nvidia-settings: X configuration file generated by nvidia-settings # nvidia-settings: version 270.29 (buildd@allspice) Fri Feb 25 14:42:07 UTC 2011 Section "ServerLayout" Identifier "Layout0" Screen 0 "Screen0" 0 0 # commented out by update-manager, HAL is now used and auto-detects devices # Keyboard settings are now read from /etc/default/console-setup # InputDevice "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard" # commented out by update-manager, HAL is now used and auto-detects devices # Keyboard settings are now read from /etc/default/console-setup # InputDevice "Mouse0" "CorePointer" Option "Xinerama" "0" EndSection Section "Files" FontPath "unix/:7100" EndSection # commented out by update-manager, HAL is now used and auto-detects devices # Keyboard settings are now read from /etc/default/console-setup #Section "InputDevice" # # generated from default # Identifier "Mouse0" # Driver "mouse" # Option "Protocol" "auto" # Option "Device" "/dev/psaux" # Option "Emulate3Buttons" "no" # Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5" #EndSection # commented out by update-manager, HAL is now used and auto-detects devices # Keyboard settings are now read from /etc/default/console-setup #Section "InputDevice" # # generated from default # Identifier "Keyboard0" # Driver "kbd" #EndSection Section "Monitor" # HorizSync source: edid, VertRefresh source: edid Identifier "Monitor0" VendorName "Unknown" ModelName "SAMSUNG" HorizSync 26.0 - 81.0 VertRefresh 24.0 - 75.0 Option "DPMS" EndSection Section "Device" Identifier "Device0" Driver "nvidia" VendorName "NVIDIA Corporation" BoardName "GeForce GT 240" Option "TripleBuffer" "1" EndSection Section "Screen" Identifier "Screen0" Device "Device0" Monitor "Monitor0" DefaultDepth 24 Option "TwinView" "0" Option "metamodes" "DFP: nvidia-auto-select +0+0" SubSection "Display" Depth 24 EndSubSection EndSection After a little digging, the question changes slightly, to wit... Per Chapter 19 of nvidia README... "If the EDID for the display device reported a preferred mode timing, and that mode timing is considered a valid mode, then that mode is used as the "nvidia-auto-select" mode." The EDID for my HDMI connected LCD monitor says use first device as preferred. Prefer first detailed timing : Yes Also: (--) NVIDIA(0): EDID maximum pixel clock : 230.0 MHz The list: (from startx -- -verbose 6 ) (--) NVIDIA(0): Detailed Timings: (--) NVIDIA(0): 1920 x 1080 @ 60 Hz (--) NVIDIA(0): Pixel Clock : 148.50 MHz (--) NVIDIA(0): HRes, HSyncStart : 1920, 2008 (--) NVIDIA(0): HSyncEnd, HTotal : 2052, 2200 (--) NVIDIA(0): VRes, VSyncStart : 1080, 1084 (--) NVIDIA(0): VSyncEnd, VTotal : 1089, 1125 (--) NVIDIA(0): H/V Polarity : +/+ This is the actual mode selected: (from xorg.0.log) (--) NVIDIA(0): 1920 x 1080 @ 60 Hz (--) NVIDIA(0): Pixel Clock : 74.18 MHz (--) NVIDIA(0): HRes, HSyncStart : 1920, 2008 (--) NVIDIA(0): HSyncEnd, HTotal : 2052, 2200 (--) NVIDIA(0): VRes, VSyncStart : 1080, 1084 (--) NVIDIA(0): VSyncEnd, VTotal : 1094, 1124 (--) NVIDIA(0): H/V Polarity : +/+ (--) NVIDIA(0): Extra : Interlaced (--) NVIDIA(0): CEA Format : 5 So my HTPC is down-converting to 1080i and then the Monitor is up-converting to 1080p How can I fix this, please?

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• The Case for Complimentary Software Copies

  - by GGBlogger

  As the Geriatric Geek you can understand that I’ve been writing and studying for over 60 years. That means that I’ve seen insane changes in the computer software industry. I’ve made the joke that I get a new college education every 6 months or so. Of course that’s an exaggeration but it doesn’t make the feeling go away. I have a long standing and strong relationship with Microsoft so I’m armed with virtually every tool they make. It also means that I have access to tons of training material. But here’s the rub… Last year I started a definitive read of Professional Visual Basic 2008. The purpose was to fill in holes in my understanding of various things. I’m currently on page 1119 of some 1400 pages. During this sojourn I’ve decided that the future is web related which is to say that the future of “thick client” applications running as Windows applications is likely to slowly disappear. To that end I’ve taken a side trip or two into the world of ASP (including XML), Silverlight and cloud development. After carefully avoiding (that’s tongue in cheek) XML for years I finally had to bite the bullet, so to speak, and start learning XML in earnest. The most recent result of that was trail downloads of Altova’s MissionKit 2010 for Software Architects and Liquid Technologies Liquid XML Studio Developer Edition. These are both beautiful products and I want to learn them and write about them. Now comes the rub… While 30 day evaluations are generous in allowing casual users to assess these technologies for purchase they are NOT long enough to allow an author to evaluate, learn and ultimately write about them. Even if I devoted the full 30 days to learning, using and writing about say Altova’s suite I wouldn’t have enough time. Liquid XML may be a little easier to learn (one product as opposed to 8).  Add to that the fact that I frequently get sidetracked to add to my kit and it really blows out. It can be extremely frustrating when I’ve devoted hours to a project and suddenly discover that to complete it I will either need to purchase a license or abandon the project. Since my life blood does not depend on the product I end up abandoning the project and moving on. So to the folks from whom I request complimentary copies… I guarantee that if I convert your product to doing paid development work I will purchase a license to do that but as long as I am using your product to study for the purpose of writing samples, teaching use or otherwise promoting your product to other paying customers I will ask that you give me a license so that I can do that without facing the dread expiration of a 30 day trial.

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• Failing report subscriptions

  - by DavidWimbush

  We had an interesting problem while I was on holiday. (Why doesn't this stuff ever happen when I'm there?) The sysadmin upgraded our Exchange server to Exchange 2010 and everone's subscriptions stopped. My Subscriptions showed an error message saying that the email address of one of the recipients is invalid. When you create a subscription, Reporting puts your Windows user name into the To field and most users have no permissions to edit it. By default, Reporting leaves it up to exchange to resolve that into an email address. This only works if Exchange is set up to translate aliases or 'short names' into email addresses. It turns out this leaves Exchange open to being used as a relay so it is disabled out of the box. You now have three options: Open up Exchange. That would be bad. Give all Reporting users the ability to edit the To field in a subscription. a) They shouldn't have to, it should just work. b) They don't really have any business subscribing anyone but themselves. Fix the report server to add the domain. This looks like the right choice and it works for us. See below for details. Pre-requisites: A single email domain name. A clear relationship between the Windows user name and the email address. eg. If the user name is joebloggs, then joebloggs@domainname needs to be the email address or an alias of it. Warning: Saving changes to the rsreportserver.config file will restart the Report Server service which effectively takes Reporting down for around 30 seconds. Time your action accordingly. Edit the file rsreportserver.config (most probably in the folder ..\Program Files[ (x86)]\Microsoft SQL Server\MSRS10_50[.instancename]\Reporting Services\ReportServer). There's a setting called DefaultHostName which is empty by default. Enter your email domain name without the leading '@'. Save the file. This domain name will be appended to any destination addresses that don't have a domain name of their own.

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• Database Mirroring – deprecated

  - by fatherjack

  Do you use mirroring on any of your databases? Do you use mirroring on SQL Server Standard Edition? I do, as a way of having a stand-by server ready to take over if there is a problem with the live server so that business can continue despite whatever disaster may strike at our primary server location. In my experience it has been a great solution for us as it is simple to implement, reliable and predictable. Mirroring has been around since SQL Server 2005 sp1 but with the release of SQL Server 2012 mirroring has now been placed on the deprecation list. That’s right, Microsoft are removing this feature from SQL Server. SQL Server 2012 had lots of improvements and new features around this sort of technology – the High Availability, Disaster recovery and Always On features described in detail here by Brent Ozar and  Microsoft’s own Customer Service and Support SQL Server Engineers . Now the bad news, the HADRON features are pretty much all wrapped up in the Enterprise Edition of SQL Server 2012. This is going to be a big issue for people, like me, who are only on Standard Edition of earlier versions mostly due to our requirements and the budget (or lack thereof) required for Enterprise Edition licenses. No mirroring in Standard Edition means no upgrade. Don’t Panic. There are two stages of deprecation and they dont happen fast. The first stage – Deprecation Announcement- means that Microsoft have decided that there is a limited future for a particular feature and this is your cue that new projects and developments should not be implemented on this technology as it will cease to exist in the future. This is where mirroring currently stands. You have time to consider your options and start work on planning how you will move away from using this feature. This can be 2 or 3 versions of SQL Server, possibly more. The next stage is Deprecation Final Support - this is where you are on your last chance, When you see this then the next version of SQL Server will not have this feature in it so you need to implement your plans to move to an alternative solution. While these two phases are taking place Microsoft are open to feedback on how people use their products and if enough people make the case for mirroring (or an equivalent technology) to be in the Standard Edition then they may make changes rather than lose customers or have customers cease upgrading in order to keep the functionality they need. Denny Cherry (@MrDenny) has published an article on this same topic here with more detail than me so I wont go over old ground. All I will say is that you should read his article now and then follow the link to his own site where he is collecting peoples information on how they use mirroring in Standard Edition so that our voice can be put to Microsoft.  

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• Why Healthcare Today Needs BPM and SOA by Avio

  - by JuergenKress

  Within the past couple years, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act has led to significant changes in the healthcare industry. A highly-complex supply chain between patients, providers, buyers and insurance companies has led to a lack of overall collaboration when it comes to processes. The first open enrollment deadline for products on the Health Insurance Exchange has passed. So what now? Let’s take a brief look at how things have changed and what organizations can do to stay in (and ahead of) the game. New requirements, new processes Organizations that have not adapted processes to meet new regulatory requirements will fall further behind. New regulatory requirements effectively make some legacy applications obsolete, require batch process to move to real-time, and more. Business Process Management (BPM) can help organizations bring data processes in line while helping IT redesign processes rather than change code or replace existing applications. BPM fills in application gaps and links critical information systems for a more visible, efficient and auditable organization. Social and mobile solutions BPM technology also facilitates social and mobile solutions that can help meet new needs. Patients are dependent on a network of doctors, pharmacists, families and others. Social solutions can connect members of the patient’s community in ways never seen before - enabling real-time, relevant communication. Likewise, mobile technology supports social solutions, and BPM is the most efficient way to make processes simple and role-based. It unties medical professionals from their offices by enabling them to access timely information and alerts anywhere. Why SOA is also needed Integrating BPM with Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) also plays a critical role in the development of healthcare solutions that work. SOA can create a single end-to-end process, integrate applications and move them into a common workflow. While SOA enables the reutilization of existing IT infrastructure, BPM supports the process optimization, monitoring and social aspects. SOA and BPM applications support business analysts as they model, create and monitor processes - providing real-time insight and a unified workflow of process activities. Read “New” Solutions for a New Healthcare Landscape on our blog to learn more. SOA & BPM Partner Community For regular information on Oracle SOA Suite become a member in the SOA & BPM Partner Community for registration please visit www.oracle.com/goto/emea/soa (OPN account required) If you need support with your account please contact the Oracle Partner Business Center. Blog Twitter LinkedIn Facebook Wiki Technorati Tags: Avio,Healthcare,SOA Community,Oracle SOA,Oracle BPM,Community,OPN,Jürgen Kress

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• Diagram to show code responsibility

  - by Mike Samuel

  Does anyone know how to visually diagram the ways in which the flow of control in code passes between code produced by different groups and how that affects the amount of code that needs to be carefully written/reviewed/tested for system properties to hold? What I am trying to help people visualize are arguments of the form: For property P to hold, nd developers have to write application code, Ca, without certain kinds of errors, and nm maintainers have to make sure that the code continues to not have these kinds of errors over the project lifetime. We could reduce the error rate by educating nd developers and nm maintainers. For us to be confident that the property holds, ns specialists still need to test or check |Ca| lines of code and continue to test/check the changes by nm maintainers. Alternatively, we could be confident that P holds if all code paths that could violate P went through tool code, Ct, written by our specialists. In our case, test suites alone cannot give confidence that P holdsnd » nsnm ns|Ca| » |Ct| so writing and maintaining Ct is economical, frees up our developers to worry about other things, and reduces the ongoing education commitment by our specialists. or those conditions do not hold, so focusing on education and testing is preferable. Example 1 As a concrete example, suppose we want to ensure that our web-service only produces valid JSON output. Our web-service provides several query and mutation operators that can be composed in interesting ways. We could try to educate everyone who maintains those operations about the JSON syntax, the importance of conformance, and libraries available so that when they write to an output buffer, every possible sequence of appends results in syntactically valid JSON. Alternatively, we don't expose an output stream handle to application code, and instead expose a JSON sink so that every code path that writes a response is channeled through a JSON sink that is written and maintained by a specialist who knows JSON syntax and can use well-written libraries to produce only valid output. Example 2 We need to make sure that a service that receives a URL from an untrusted source and tries to fetch its content does not end up revealing sensitive files from the file-system, like file:///etc/passwd. If there is a single standard way that any developer familiar with the application language's libraries would use to fetch URLs, which has file-system access turned off by default, then simply educating developers about the standard mechanism, and testing that file probing fails for some inputs, will probably be sufficient.

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• Virtual Lab part 2&ndash;Templates, Patterns, Baselines

  - by Geoff N. Hiten

  Once you have a good virtualization platform chosen, whether it is a desktop, server or laptop environment, the temptation is to build “X”.  “X” may be a SharePoint lab, a Virtual Cluster, an AD test environment or some other cool project that you really need RIGHT NOW.  That would be doing it wrong. My grandfather taught woodworking and cabinetmaking for twenty-seven years at a trade school in Alabama.  He was the first instructor hired at that school and the only teacher for the first two years.  His students built tables, chairs, and workbenches so the school could start its HVAC courses.   Visiting as a child, I also noticed many extra “helper” stands, benches, holders, and gadgets all built from wood.  What does that have to do with a virtual lab, you ask?  Well, that is the same approach you should take.  Build stuff that you will use.  Not for solving a particular problem, but to let the Virtual Lab be part of your normal troubleshooting toolkit. Start with basic copies of various Operating Systems.  Load and patch server and desktop OS environments.  This also helps build your collection of ISO files, another essential element of a virtual Lab.  Once you have these “baseline” images, you can use your Virtualization software’s snapshot capability to freeze the image.  Clone the snapshot and you have a brand new fully patched machine in mere moments.  You may have to sysprep some of the Microsoft OS environments if you are going to create a domain environment or experiment with clustering.  That is still much faster than loading and patching from scratch. So once you have a stock of raw materials (baseline images in this case) where should you start.  Again, my grandfather’s workshop gives us the answer.  In the shop it was workbenches and tables to hold large workpieces that made the equipment more useful.  In a Windows environment the same role falls to the fundamental network services:  DHCP, DNS, Active Directory, Routing, File Services, and Storage services.  Plan your internal network setup.  Build out an AD controller with all the features listed.  Make the actual domain an isolated domain so it will not care about where you take it.  Add the Microsoft iSCSI target.  Once you have this single system, you can leverage it for almost any network environment beyond a simple stand-alone system. Having these templates and fundamental infrastructure elements ready to run means I can build a quick lab in minutes instead of hours.  My solutions are well-tested, my processes fully documented with screenshots, and my plans validated well before I have to make any changes to client systems.  the work I put in is easily returned in increased value and client satisfaction.

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• How to port animation from one skeleton to another?

  - by shawn

  While I need to do this in a Blender3D modeler script, the math should be similar for other modelers or realtime engines. Blender3D specific terminology: Armature = skeleton EditBone = rest pose bone (stores the rest pose matrix) PoseBone = can store a different pose (animation matrix) for each frame of your animation I need to share animations (Blender Actions) between Armatures which have EditBones with same names and which have the same positions, but can have different (rest pose) angles and scales. Plus the Armatures might have different bone hierarchy (bone parenting/ no bone parenting). Why I need this: I've made an importer/exporter for a 3d format for a game. The format doesn't store enough info to connect/parent the bones, which makes posing/animating character models in a 3d modeller nearly impossible (original model files for the 3d modeler don't exist, this is for modding). As there are only 2 character skeleton types in the game, I decided to optionally allow to generate the bone from a hardcoded data in the model importer and undo that in the exporter. This allows to easily pose the model for checking weights, easily create weights, makes it easier for Blender to generate automatic weights and of course makes animating possible. This worked perfectly: the importer optionally generated the Armature itself and the exporter removed those changes, so the exported model works with existing animations in the game. But now I'm writing an importer and exporter for the game's animation format and here come the problems of: Trying to make original animations work in Blender with my "custom" (modified) Armature Trying to make animations created by using the "custom" (modified) Armature work with the original models in the game (and Blender). Constraints or bone snapping inside Blender won't work as they don't care that the bones have different angles in the rest pose, they will still face the same direction. It seems I just need to get the "difference" between the EditBone matrices of all EditBones for the two Armatures somehow and apply that difference to PoseBone matrices of all PoseBones, for all frames of my animation. I need to know how to get that difference and how to apply it. BTW, PoseBone matrices are relative to rest pose, they are by default [1.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000](matrix [row 0]) [0.000000, 1.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000](matrix [row 1]) [0.000000, 0.000000, 1.000000, 0.000000](matrix [row 2]) [0.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000, 1.000000](matrix [row 3]) So the question is: How to get the difference between two bone (EditBone) matrices to apply that difference to the animation matrices (PoseBone matrices)? Please be easy on the matrix math.

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