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  • Architecture strategies for a complex competition scoring system

    - by mikewassmer
    Competition description: There are about 10 teams competing against each other over a 6-week period. Each team's total score (out of a 1000 total available points) is based on the total of its scores in about 25,000 different scoring elements. Most scoring elements are worth a small fraction of a point and there will about 10 X 25,000 = 250,000 total raw input data points. The points for some scoring elements are awarded at frequent regular time intervals during the competition. The points for other scoring elements are awarded at either irregular time intervals or at just one moment in time. There are about 20 different types of scoring elements. Each of the 20 types of scoring elements has a different set of inputs, a different algorithm for calculating the earned score from the raw inputs, and a different number of total available points. The simplest algorithms require one input and one simple calculation. The most complex algorithms consist of hundreds or thousands of raw inputs and a more complicated calculation. Some types of raw inputs are automatically generated. Other types of raw inputs are manually entered. All raw inputs are subject to possible manual retroactive adjustments by competition officials. Primary requirements: The scoring system UI for competitors and other competition followers will show current and historical total team scores, team standings, team scores by scoring element, raw input data (at several levels of aggregation, e.g. daily, weekly, etc.), and other metrics. There will be charts, tables, and other widgets for displaying historical raw data inputs and scores. There will be a quasi-real-time dashboard that will show current scores and raw data inputs. Aggregate scores should be updated/refreshed whenever new raw data inputs arrive or existing raw data inputs are adjusted. There will be a "scorekeeper UI" for manually entering new inputs, manually adjusting existing inputs, and manually adjusting calculated scores. Decisions: Should the scoring calculations be performed on the database layer (T-SQL/SQL Server, in my case) or on the application layer (C#/ASP.NET MVC, in my case)? What are some recommended approaches for calculating updated total team scores whenever new raw inputs arrives? Calculating each of the teams' total scores from scratch every time a new input arrives will probably slow the system to a crawl. I've considered some kind of "diff" approach, but that approach may pose problems for ad-hoc queries and some aggegates. I'm trying draw some sports analogies, but it's tough because most games consist of no more than 20 or 30 scoring elements per game (I'm thinking of a high-scoring baseball game; football and soccer have fewer scoring events per game). Perhaps a financial balance sheet analogy makes more sense because financial "bottom line" calcs may be calculated from 250,000 or more transactions. Should I be making heavy use of caching for this application? Are there any obvious approaches or similar case studies that I may be overlooking?

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  • SQL SERVER – How to easily work with Database Diagrams

    - by Pinal Dave
    Databases are very widely used in the modern world. Regardless of the complexity of a database, each one requires in depth designing. To practice along please Download dbForge Studio now.  The right methodology of designing a database is based on the foundations of data normalization, according to which we should first define database’s key elements – entities. Afterwards the attributes of entities and relations between them are determined. There is a strong opinion that the process of database designing should start with a pencil and a blank sheet of paper. This might look old-fashioned nowadays, because SQL Server provides a much wider functionality for designing databases – Database Diagrams. When using SSMS for working with Database Diagrams I realized two things – on the one hand, visualization of a scheme allows designing a database more efficiently; on the other – when it came to creating a big scheme, some difficulties occurred when designing with SSMS. The alternatives haven’t taken long to wait and dbForge Studio for SQL Server is one of them. Its functions offer more advantages for working with Database Diagrams. For example, unlike SSMS, dbForge Studio supports an opportunity to drag-and-drop several tables at once from the Database Explorer. This is my opinion but personally I find this option very useful. Another great thing is that a diagram can be saved as both a graphic file and a special XML file, which in case of identical environment can be easily opened on the other server for continuing the work. During working with dbForge Studio it turned out that it offers a wide set of elements to operate with on the diagram. Noteworthy among such elements are containers which allow aggregating diagram objects into thematic groups. Moreover, you can even place an image directly on the diagram if the scheme design is based on a standard template. Each of the development environments has a different approach to storing a diagram (for example, SSMS stores them on a server-side, whereas dbForge Studio – in a local file). I haven’t found yet an ability to convert existing diagrams from SSMS to dbForge Studio. However I hope Devart developers will implement this feature in one of the following releases. All in all, editing Database Diagrams through dbForge Studio was a nice experience and allowed speeding-up the common database designing tasks. Download dbForge Studio now. Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.sqlauthority.com) Filed under: PostADay, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, SQL Utility, T SQL

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  • IE9 Loses Some CSS After Particular Form Submit [migrated]

    - by Asherion
    The site I am editing has a search form. For the record, there are several other forms on the site, contact and the like. This is the only one with an issue. Upon submission of the form, SOME of the styling is lost in IE9 (possibly other versions of IE, haven't tested that yet). Primarily, the margins and colors set in html and body appear to have been lost. Menus, banner, text, etc all appear to retain styles. All styles are on one sheet, that are used here... Any helpful advice? Here is the contents of the search page and the php used to check for the form, if that helps, and the css that I think is lost. THE HTML: <div id="search"> <br /> <div style="float:right;font-size:.8em;"> <form name="form_sidesearch" action="search.html" method="post"> <input type="hidden" name="action" value="search" /> <input type="text" name="search_value" value="<?php echo $systems_primary->search_value ?>" /> <input type="submit" name="submit_search" value="Search Website" /> </form> <br /> </div> </div> <?php echo stripslashes($search_results); THE PHP: <?php // -- Begin Search -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- if($_REQUEST["action"] === "search") { if(strlen($_REQUEST["pg"]) <= 0) { $_REQUEST["pg"] = 1; } $search_results = $systems_primary->search_website("index",urldecode($_REQUEST["search_value"]),"<div class=\"listing ui-corner-all\"><a href=\"{ENTRY_URL}\" title=\"{ENTRY_TITLE}\" class=\"listing_title\">{ENTRY_TITLE}</a>{ENTRY_CONTENT} <a href=\"{ENTRY_URL}\" title=\"{ENTRY_TITLE}\" style=\"font-size:.8em;\">...read more</a></div><br /><br />",345,"all",10,$_REQUEST["pg"]); } // -- End Search ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ?> THE LOST CSS (could be more): html { background-color:#F6E6C8; font-size:16px; font:Helvetica; } body { width:1027px; margin:0 auto; background-color:#ffffff; font: arial, times new roman, sans-serif; }

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  • Should CSS be listed on your resume under Languages?

    - by Sandeepan Nath
    I have some doubts like Whether CSS should be put under Languages or not? Although Wikipedia says Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) is a style sheet language ... But do they write CSS under the languages section of the resume, along with PHP, etc? Similarly what about HTML? I have some doubt and I don't want to sound like someone who is not aware of the trends. Just to give an example, currently I have the following languages,frameworks, technologies, etc. listed under the "Technical Expertise" section of my resume - Technical Expertise * Languages - Proficient - PHP 5, Javascript, HTML ?*,CSS ?*,Sass ?*. Beginner - Linux Bash. * Databases - MySQL 5. * Technologies - AJAX. * Frameworks/Libraries - Symfony, jQuery. * CMSes - Wordpress. Although my domain is Web-development/design, I welcome domain-agnostic answers which can provide some generic ideas/reasoning. I have seen, a lot of people messing up these sections (even more serious than my doubts :) ), putting things under wrong sub-headings and thus putting a big question mark on their understanding of those things. I don't know much about XML, Comet Technology etc. Considering those are included too, What things should be put under Languages? E.g. Should CSS be put under Languages? Please give some reasoning to support your views. Where should the others (XML, Comet, cURL etc. ) be put? I welcome some examples of how you put it. Or do you have an additional Keywords section where you write all the unsortables ? Considering a set of standards like W3C standards, etc. do you have a standards sub-heading? I guess I have put the contents of other sections Okay. But do let me know about your ideas and reasoning. After all, I understand there may not be a single answer to this, but let's see what is the trend. Thanks Updates Further, do you mention design patters you have used? Web Services etc.? Where do you mention SOAP, XML etc...

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  • So, what&rsquo;s your blog URL?

    - by johndoucette
    Asked by many of my colleagues often enough, I decided to take the plunge and begin blogging. After many attempts to start and long discussions about what I should write about, I decided to give my “buddies” a series of lessons and tidbits to help them understand what it takes to manage a software development project in the real world. Stories of success and failure to keep hope alive. I am formally trained as a developer (BS/CS) and have scattered my code throughout the matrix since 1985 (officially working for the man). As I moved from job-to-job over my career, I have had good managers, bad ones, and ones who were – well, just sitting in the corner office. It wasn't until I began the transition and commitment to the role of project management that I began to take real software development management seriously. A boss once told me “put down the code. Start managing the people and process.” That was a scary time in my career. I loved solving really cool problems with a blank sheet of paper. It was an adrenaline rush to get an opportunity to start from scratch and write an application solution people would actually use and help them in their work/business. I felt that moving into “management” would remove me from the thrill and ownership I felt as a developer. It was a hard step to take, and one which I believe is hard for any developer. Well, I am here to help you through this transition. For those of you wanting to read my stories or learn about the tools and techniques I use on a daily basis, you too might just learn something you would have never thought of as an architect/developer. I am currently a Sr. Consultant at Magenic with the Boston branch office and primarily work with clients in the New England area. I am typically engaged as the lead project manager on our engagements, but also perform Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) assessments for development organizations as well as augment the Technical Evangelists for Microsoft and perform many Team Foundation Server (TFS) demos, installs and “get started” engagements. I have spoken at the New England Code Camp, our most recent CodeMastery event in Boston, and have written several whitepapers.   I am looking forward to helping you “Put down the code.” John Doucette

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  • Disaster Recovery Discovery

    - by Rodney Landrum
    Last weekend I joined several of my IT staff on a mission to perform a DR test in our remote CoLo center in a large South East city of the US. Can I be more obtuse? The goal was simple for me as the sole DBA in a throng of Windows, Storage, Network and SAN admins – restore the databases and make them work. There were 4 applications that back ended to 7 SQL Server databases on 4 different SQL Server instances. We would maintain the original server names, but beyond that it was fair game. We had time to prepare so I was able to script out or otherwise automate the recovery process. I used sp_help_revlogin for three of the servers, a bit of a cheat actually because restoring the Master database on the target DR servers was the specified course of action according to the DR procedures ( the caveat “IF REQUIRED” left it open to interpretation. I really wanted to avoid the step of restoring Master for a number of reasons but mainly because I did not want to deal with issues starting SQL Services afterward. Having to account for the location of TempDB and the version conflicts of the resource DBs were just two of the battles I chose not to fight. Not to mention other system database location problems that might arise and prevent SQL from starting.  I was going to have to restore all of the user databases anyway, so I would not really gain any benefit, outside of logins, for taking the time to restore the source Master database over the newly installed one on the fresh server. What I wanted was the ability to restore the Master database as a user database, call it Master_Mine, from a backup on the source system and then use that restored database to script the SQL Logins and passwords on the DR systems. While I did not attempt this on the trip, the thought stuck in my mind and this past week I succeeded at scripting user accounts and passwords using only a restored copy of the Master database. Granted there were several challenges to overcome.  Also, as is usual for any work like this the usual disclaimers apply:  This is not something that I would imagine Microsoft would condone or support and this was really only an experiment for me to learn if it was even possible. While I have tested the process with success, I do not know that I would use this technique in a documented procedure because future updates for SQL Server will render this technique non-functional. I thought at first, incorrectly of course, that I could use sp_help_revlogin on a restored copy of the master database I named Master_Mine.   Since sp_help_revlogin uses system schema objects, sys.syslogins and sys.server_principals, this was not going to work because all results would come from the main Master database. To test this I added a SQL login via SSMS, backed up Master, restored  it as Master_Mine, and then deleted the login.  Even though the test account I created should presumably still be in the Master_Mine database, I should be able to get to it and script out its creation with its password hash so that I would not need to know the password, but any applications that stored that password would not have to be altered in the DR scenario. They would just work as expected. Once I realized that would not work I began looking deeper.  Knowing that sys.syslogins and sys.server_principals are system views, their underlying code should be available with sp_helptext, right? They were. And this led me to discover the two tables sys.sysxlgns and sys.sysprivs, where the data I needed was stored. These tables existed in both the real Master and the restored copy, Master_Mine.  I used this information to tweak the sp_help_revlogin stored procedure to use these tables instead to create the logins cursor used in sp_help_revlogin. For the password hash,  sp_help_revlogin uses the function LoginProperty() which takes a user name and option ‘passwordhash’ to return the hash for the user. Unfortunately, it requires the login to exist in the Master database. This would not work. So another slight modification I had to make was to pull the password hash itself (pwdhash from sys.sysxlgns) into the logins cursor and comment out the section of sp_help_revlogin that uses LoginProperty. Instead, I pass the pwdhash value as the variable @PWD_varbinary to the sp_hexadecimal stored procedure which is also created by and used within the code provided by Microsoft in the link above for sp_help_revlogin. The final challenge: sys.sysxlgns and sys.server_principals are visible only within a Dedicated Administrator Connection (DAC) query window in SSMS or within SQLCDMD.  To open a DAC connection you have to be logged in on the SQL Server itself, via RDP in my case,  and you preface the server name in the query connection with ADMIN:, so that the server connection looks like ADMIN:ServerName. From there you can create the modified stored procedure in the restored copy of a Master database from a source system as whatever name you like, and then run the modified stored procedure. I named my new stored procedure usp_help_revlogin_MyMaster. Upon execution I was happy to see the logins and password hashes that I needed to apply from the source Master database without having to restore over the new Master system database and without the need to access the original server (assuming it was down due to whatever disaster put it in that state). You will note that I am not providing full code samples here of the modifications. I will say that it was a slight bit of work and anyone who needed to do this for whatever reason, could fairly easily roll their own solution with the information provided herein.  My goal, as I said was to prove that this could be done and provide another option if required to ease the burden of getting SQL Servers up and available in an emergency situation where alternatives may be more challenging or otherwise unavailable.  

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  • How to host a site in another site - with little or no coding

    - by tunmise fasipe
    SUMMARY: All of these happens on Site A User visits site A User enter username and password User click on Login Button User authenticated on Site B behind the scene User is shown a page on Site A that contains his/her profile from Site B as layout/styled from Site B User can click links in the Profile page that links to other area in Site B Meaning: Session has to be maintained somehow I have web application where I store users' password and username. If you logon to this site, you can login with the password and username to have access to your profile. There is another option that requires you to login to my site from your site and have your profile displayed within your site. This is because you might already have a site that your clients know you with. This link is close to what I want to do: http://aspmessageboard.com/showthread.php?t=235069 A user on Site A login to Site B and have the information on site B showing in site A. He should not know whether Site B exists. It should be as if everything is happening in Site A This latter part is what I don't know to implement. I have these ideas: Have a fixed IFrame within your site to contain my site: but I am concerned about size/layout since different clients have different layout/size for their content section. I am thinking of how to maintain session too A webservice: I don't know how feasible this is since the Password and ID are on my server. You may have to send them back and forth. It means client would have to code with my API. But I am not just returning data, I have to show them a page that contains the profile details OpenID, Single-SignOn: Just guessing - but the authentication and data resides on my server. there is nothing to access on your side in this case Examples: like login into facebook within my site and still be able to do post updates, receive notifications Facebook implement some of these with IFrame e.g. the Like button *NOTE: * I have tested the IFrame option. It worked but I still have to remove my site specific content like my page Banner, Side Navigation etc. I was able to login normally as if I was actually on the site. This show my GUI but - style sheet was missing - content not styled with CSS - Any relative url won't work. It would look for that resource relative to the current server. Unless I change links to absolute - Clicking on the LogIn button produces this error: The state information is invalid for this page and might be corrupted. UPDATE: I was reading about REST webservice few days ago and I got this idea: What about the idea of returning an XML from a webservice [REST or SOAP] and providing an XSLT (that I can provide) to display it. Thus they won't have to do much coding?

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  • The Other Side of XBRL

    - by john.orourke(at)oracle.com
    With the United States SEC's mandate for XBRL filings entering its third year, and impacting over 7000 additional companies in 2011, there's a lot of buzz in the industry about how companies should address the new reporting requirements.  Should they outsource the XBRL tagging process to a third party publisher, handle the process in-house with a bolt-on XBRL tool, or should they integrate XBRL tagging with the financial close and reporting process?  Oracle is recommending the latter approach, in fact  here's a link to a recent webcast that I did with CFO.com on this topic: http://www.cfo.com/webcasts/index.cfm/l_eventarchive/14548560 But production of XBRL-based filings is only half of the story. The other half is consumption of XBRL by regulators, academics, financial analysts and investors.  As I mentioned in my December article on the XBRL US conference, the feedback from these groups is that they are not really leveraging XBRL for analysis of companies due to a lack of tools and historic XBRL-based data on public companies.   The good news here is that the historic data problem is getting better as large, accelerated filers enter their third year of XBRL filings.  And the situation is getting better on the reporting and analysis tools side of the equation as well - and Oracle is leading the way. In early January, Oracle released the Oracle XBRL Extension for Oracle Database 11g.  This is a "no cost option" on top of the latest Oracle Database 11.2.0.2.0 release. With this added functionality organizations will have the ability to create one or more back-end XBRL repositories based on Oracle Database, which provide XBRL storage and query-ability with a set of XBRL-specific services.  The XBRL Extension to Oracle XML DB integrates easily with Oracle Business Intelligence Suite Enterprise Edition (OBIEE) for analytics and with interactive development environments (IDEs) and design tools for creating and editing XBRL taxonomies. The Oracle XBRL Extension to Oracle Database 11g should be attractive to regulators, stock exchanges, universities and other organizations that need to collect, analyze and disseminate XBRL-based filings.  It should also be attractive to organizations that produce XBRL filings, and need a way to store and compare their own XBRL-based financial filings to those of their peers and competitors. If you would like more information, here's a link to a web page on the Oracle Technology Network with the details about Oracle XBRL Extension for Oracle Database 11g, including data sheet, white paper, presentation, demos and other information: http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/database/features/xmldb/index-087631.html

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  • The Solution

    - by Patrick Liekhus
    So I recently attended a class about time management as well as read the book “The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People” by Stephen Covey.  Both have been instrumental in helping me get my priorities aligned as well as keep me focused. The reason I bring this up is that it gave me a great idea for a small application with which to create a great technical stack solution that would be easy to demo and explain.  Therefore, the project from this point forward with be the Liekhus.TimeTracker application which will bring some the time management skills that I have acquired into a technical implementation.  The idea is rather simple, but leverages some of the basic principles of Covey along with some of the worksheets that I garnered from class.  The basics are as such: 1) a plan is a must have and 2) write it down!  A plan not written down is just an idea.  How many times have you had an idea that didn’t materialize?  Exactly.  Hence why I am writing it all down now! The worksheet consists of a few simple columns that I will outline below as well as some modifications that I made according to the Covey habits.  The worksheet looks like the following: Status Issue Area CQ Notes P  F  L     1234   P  F  L     1234   P  F  L     1234   P  F  L     1234   P  F  L     1234   P  F  L     1234   P  F  L     1234   P  F  L     1234   P  F  L     1234   The idea is really simple and straightforward; you write down all your tasks and keep track of them along the way.  The status stands for (P)ending, (F)inished or (L)ater.  You write a quick title for the issue and select the CQ (Covey Quadrant) with which the issue occurs.  The notes section is for things that happen while you are working through the issue.  And last, but not least, is the Area column that I added as a way to identify the Role or Area of your life that this task falls within based upon Covey’s teachings. The second part of this application is a simple phone log that allows you to track your phone conversations throughout the day.  All of this is currently done on a sheet of paper, but being involved in technology, I want it to have bells and whistles.  Therefore, this is my simple idea for a project that will allow me to test my theories about coding and implementations.  Stay tuned as the next session will be flushing out the concept and coming up with user stories to begin the SCRUM process. Thanks

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  • Revenue Recognition: Performance Obligation Pass a Hurdle

    - by Theresa Hickman
    I met up with Seamus Moran, our resident accounting expert, to get his thoughts about the latest happenings with IFRS. Last week, on March 13,  the comment period on the FASB and IASB exposure draft “Revenue From Contracts with Customers” closed.  FASB and IASB have just over 20 comment letters – a very small number.  The implication is that that the exposure draft does reflect general acceptance, and therefore will be published as both a US and Internationally Generally Accepted Accounting Standard. At a recent conference call, FASB and IASB expected to complete their report to both Boards on the comments by early summer, complete their deliberation of the comments by the fall and draft the final standard text by late this year. It is assumed the concept of Performance Obligations would become US GAAP and IFRS in place of the existing standards.  They confirmed that all existing US GAAP and IFRS guidelines would be withdrawn, and that they were in dialogue with the SEC on withdrawing the SEC guidelines on the revenue issue as well.The open question is when will Performance Obligations become effective?  The Boards have said that they would like this Revenue Recognition standard and the the Lease Accounting standard to be effective at the same time because what isn’t either insurance, interest, or a lease is a revenue arrangement.  However, ascertaining what is generally acceptable in respect of Leases is proving a little elusive, and the Boards have recently diverged a little on the P&L side of the accounting (although both are in agreement that there will be no off-balance sheet leases).  It is therefore likely that the Lease standard might be delayed. One wonders if the Boards will  define effectivity of the Revenue standard independently of the Lease standard or if they will stick with their resolve to make them co-effective.  The Boards have also said that neither standard will be effective before June 2015.Here is the gist of the new Revenue Recognition principle and the steps to apply it:Recognize revenue to depict the transfer of goods or services in an amount that reflects the consideration expected to be entitled in exchange for those goods and services.Steps to apply the core principles: Identify the contract with the customer Identify the separate performance obligations Determine the transaction price Allocate the the transaction price Recognize Revenue when a performance obligation is satisfied  

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  • Maximizing the Value of Software

    - by David Dorf
    A few years ago we decided to increase our investments in documenting retail processes and architectures.  There were several goals but the main two were to help retailers maximize the value they derive from our software and help system integrators implement our software faster.  The sale is only part of our success metric -- its actually more important that the customer realize the benefits of the software.  That's when we actually celebrate. This week many of our customers are gathered in Chicago to discuss their successes during our annual Crosstalk conference.  That provides the perfect forum to announce the release of the Oracle Retail Reference Library.  The RRL is available for free to Oracle Retail customers and partners.  It contains 1000s of hours of work and represents years of experience in the retail industry.  The Retail Reference Library is composed of three offerings: Retail Reference Model We've been sharing the RRM for several years now, with lots of accolades.  The RRM is a set of business process diagrams at varying levels of granularity. This release marks the debut of Visio documents, which should make it easier for retailers to adopt and edit the diagrams.  The processes represent an approximation of the Oracle Retail software, but at higher levels they are pretty generic and therefore usable with other software as well.  Using these processes, the business and IT are better able to communicate the expectations of the software.  They can be used to guide customization when necessary, and help identify areas for optimization in the organization. Retail Reference Architecture When embarking on a software implementation project, it can be daunting to start from a blank sheet of paper.  So we offer the RRA, a comprehensive set of documents that describe the retail enterprise in terms of logical architecture, physical deployments, and systems integration.  These documents and diagrams describe how all the systems typically found in a retailer enterprise work together.  They serve as a way to jump-start implementations using best practices we've captured over the years. Retail Semantic Glossary Have you ever seen two people argue over something because they're using misaligned terminology?  Its a huge waste and happens all the time.  The Retail Semantic Glossary is a simple application that allows retailers to define terms and metrics in a centralized database.  This initial version comes with limited content with the goal of adding more over subsequent releases.  This is the single source for defining key performance indicators, metrics, algorithms, and terms so that the retail organization speaks in a consistent language. These three offerings are downloaded from MyOracleSupport separately and linked together using the start page above.  Everything is navigated using a Web browser.  See the Oracle Retail Documentation blog for more details.

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  • C++ and SDL resource management for 2D game

    - by KuruptedMagi
    My first question is about stateManagers. I do not use the singleton pattern (read many random posts with various reasons not to use it), I have gameStateManager which runs the pointer cCurrentGameState-render(), etc. I want to make a transitioning game, this engine should ideally cover both a platformer and a bird's eye RPG (with some recoding, I just mean the base engine), both of which will load different levels and events, such as world map, dungeon, shops, etc. So I then thought, rather then having to store all this data within all the states, I would break the engine into gameStates, and playStates... when gameState reaches gameStatePlay(), gameStatePlay simply runs the usual handleInput, logic, and render for the playStates, just as the low level gameStateManager does. This lets me store all the player data within the base playstate class without storing useless data in the gameStates. Now I have added a seperate mapEditor, which uses editorStates from gameStateEditor. Is this too much usage of the gameState concept? It seems to work pretty well for me, so I was wondering if I am too far off a common implementation of this. My second question is on image resources. I have my sprite class with nothing but static members, mainly loadImage, applySurface, and my screen pointer. I also have a map pairing imageName enums with actual SDL_Surface pointers, and one pairing clipNumber enums with a wrapper class for a vector of clips, so that each reference in the map can have different amounts of clips with different sizes. I thought it would be better to store all these images, and screen within one static body, since 20 different goblins all use the same sprite sheet, and all need to print to the same screen, and of course, this way I do not need to pass my screen reference to every little entity. The imageMap seems to work very well, I can even add the ability to search through the map at creation of entity type to see if a particular image at creation, creating if it doesnt exist, and destroying the image if the last entity that needs it was just destroyed. The vectored clip map however, seems to take too long to initialize, so if i run past the state that initializes them to fast, the game crashes <. Plus, the clip map call is half of this line =P SPRITE::applySurface( cEditorMap.cTiles[x][y].iX, cEditorMap.cTiles[x][y].iY, SPRITE::mImages[ IMAGE_TILEMAP ], SPRITE::screen, SPRITE::mImageClips[IMAGE_TILEMAP]->clips.at( cEditorMap.cTiles[x][y].iTileType ) ); Again, do I have the right idea? I like the imageMap, but am I better off with each entity storing its own clips? My last question is about collision detection. I only grasp the basics, will look at per-pixel and circular soon, but how can I determine which side the collision comes from with just the basic square collision detection, I tried breaking each entity into 4 collision zones, but that just gave me problems with walking through walls and the like <. Also, is per-pixel color collision a good way to decide what collision just occured, or is checking multiple colors for multiple entities too taxing each cycle?

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  • Resources to Help You Getting Up To Speed on ADF Mobile

    - by Joe Huang
    Hi, everyone: By now, I hope you would have a chance to review the sample applications and try to deploy it.  This is a great way to get started on learning ADF Mobile.  To help you getting started, here is a central list of "steps to get up to speed on ADF Mobile" and related resources that can help you developing your mobile application. Check out the ADF Mobile Landing Page on the Oracle Technology Network. View this introductory video. Read this Data Sheet and FAQ on ADF Mobile. JDeveloper 11.1.2.3 Download. Download the generic version of JDeveloper for installation on Mac. Note that there are workarounds required to install JDeveloper on a Mac. Download ADF Mobile Extension from JDeveloper Update Center or Here. Please note you will need to configure JDeveloper for Internet access (In HTTP Proxy preferences) in order the install the extension, as the installation process will prompt you for a license that's linked off Oracle's web site. View this end-to-end application creation video. View this end-to-end iOS deployment video if you are developing for iOS devices. Configure your development environment, including location of the SDK, etc in JDeveloper-Tools-Preferences-ADF Mobile dialog box.  The two videos above should cover some of these configuration steps. Check out the sample applications shipped with JDeveloper, and then deploy them to simulator/devices using the steps outlined in the video above.  This blog entry outlines all sample applications shipped with JDeveloper. Develop a simple mobile application by following this tutorial. Try out the Oracle Open World 2012 Hands on Lab to get a sense of how to programmatically access server data.  You will need these source files. Ask questions in the ADF/JDeveloper Forum. Search ADF Mobile Preview Forum for entries from ADF Mobile Beta Testing participants. For all other questions, check out this exhaustive and detailed ADF Mobile Developer Guide. If something does not seem right, check out the ADF Mobile Release Note. Thanks, Oracle ADF Mobile Product Management Team

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  • Trying to use stencils in 2D while retaining layer depth

    - by Steve
    This is a screen of what's going on just so you can get a frame of reference. http://i935.photobucket.com/albums/ad199/fobwashed/tilefloors.png The problem I'm running into is that my game is slowing down due to the amount of texture swapping I'm doing during my draw call. Since walls, characters, floors, and all objects are on their respective sprite sheet containing those types, per tile draw, the loaded texture is swapping no less than 3 to 5+ times as it cycles and draws the sprites in order to layer properly. Now, I've tried throwing all common objects together into their respective lists, and then using layerDepth drawing them that way which makes things a lot better, but the new problem I'm running into has to do with the way my doors/windows are drawn on walls. Namely, I was using stencils to clear out a block on the walls that are drawn in the shape of the door/window so that when the wall would draw, it would have a door/window sized hole in it. This is the way my draw was set up for walls when I was going tile by tile rather than grouped up common objects. first it would check to see if a door/window was on this wall. If not, it'd skip all the steps and just draw normally. Otherwise end the current spriteBatch Clear the buffers with a transparent color to preserve what was already drawn start a new spritebatch with stencil settings draw the door area end the spriteBatch start a new spritebatch that takes into account the previously set stencil draw the wall which will now be drawn with a hole in it end that spritebatch start a new spritebatch with the normal settings to continue drawing tiles In the tile by tile draw, clearing the depth/stencil buffers didn't matter since I wasn't using any layerDepth to organize what draws on top of what. Now that I'm drawing from lists of common objects rather than tile by tile, it has sped up my draw call considerably but I can't seem to figure out a way to keep the stencil system to mask out the area a door or window will be drawn into a wall. The root of the problem is that when I end a spriteBatch to change the DepthStencilState, it flattens the current RenderTarget and there is no longer any depth sorting for anything drawn further down the line. This means walls always get drawn on top of everything regardless of depth or positioning in the game world and even on top of each other as the stencil has to happen once for every wall that has a door or window. Does anyone know of a way to get around this? To boil it down, I need a way to draw having things sorted by layer depth while also being able to stencil/mask out portions of specific sprites.

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  • What is the standard term for my role?

    - by sigil
    I'm doing work that involves writing code and managing developers in a "special projects" division of a large company. I'd like to define my role better and figure out if there's an industry standard term for what I do, so that it will be easier for me to research best practices and work on a career path What I do all day: A macro that connects an Excel sheet to an Access database is acting funny; I get called in to figure out what's happening and debug it. Someone needs data extracted from a bunch of files on Sharepoint. I figure out a client-side solution because I'm not authorized to do anything server-side and getting IT to do anything would take several months and need a business case. A manager wants a new data entry tool for their team. I interview the manager and team members to work out the functional requirements, then design/develop/test the application. Someone needs a VBA script to crunch some data for their presentation that's due in two hours. I drop everything I'm doing to hack out a quick script and run the analysis, without much in the way of testing. A developer has been hired to build a database for one of the teams, since I'm working on too many different things and don't have time to take this project on in the timeframe required. I direct his work and push him to meet certain deadlines, interview stakeholders to get more info that will help him figure out how to build the necessary forms, and modify the functional requirements of the database to fit in the timeframe. Someone wants to load a set of data into a GIS system and set up an ongoing refresh and reporting of this data set. I facilitate the conversation between the GIS developers and the owners of this data set, and design a demo application as proof of concept. It's kind of an "all-purpose programming and IT management" position, but it's not officially IT because the company has an actual IT department with a rigorously defined system of submitting requests, developing code, and managing projects. What I do, I guess, is more of a handyman job, where stuff falls to me because I'm the geekiest one in the room. Is there a standard term in the software world for what I do?

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  • Spreadsheet RDBMS

    - by John Nilsson
    I'm looking for a software (or set of software) that will let me combine spreadsheet and database workflows. Data entry in spreadsheet to enable simple entry from clipboard, analysis based on joins, unions and aggregates and pivot/data pilot summaries. So far I've only found either spreadsheets OR db applications but no good combination. OO base with calc for tables doesn't support aggregates f.ex. Google Spreadsheet + Visualizaion API doesn't support unions or joins, zoho db doesn't let me paste from clipboard. Any hints on software that could be used? Basically I'm trying to do some analysis of my personal bank transactions. Problem 1, ETL. The data has to be moved from my bank to a database. My current solution is to manually copy and paste the data into one spread sheet per account from my internet bank. Pains: Not very scriptable. Lots of scrolling to reach the point to paste. Have to apply sorting and formatting to the pasted data each time. Problem 2, analysis. I then want to aggregate the different accounts in one sweep to track transfers per type of transfer over all accounts. The actual aggregation is still unsolved because I can't find a UNION equivalent in the spreadsheets I've tried.

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  • Find a non-case-sensitive text string within a range of cells

    - by Iszi
    I've got a bit of a problem to solve in Excel, and I'm not quite sure how to go about doing it. I've done a few searches online, and haven't really found any formulas that seem to be useful. Here's the situation (simplified just a bit, for the purpose of this question): I have data in columns A-E. I need to match data in the cells in A and B, with data in C-E, and return TRUE or FALSE to column F. Return TRUE if: - The string in A is found within any string in C-E. OR - The string in B is found within any string in C-E. Otherwise, return FALSE. The strings must be exact matches for whole or partial strings within the range, but the matching function must be case-insensitive. I've taken a screenshot of an example sheet for reference. I'm fairly sure I'll need to use IF or on the outermost layer of the formula, probably followed by OR. Then, for the arguments to OR, I'm expecting there will be some use of IFERROR involved. But what I'm at a loss for is the function I could most efficiently use to handle the text string searches. VLOOKUP is very limited in this regard, I think. It may be workable to do whole-string against whole-string comparisons, but I'm fairly certain it won't return accurate results for partial string matches. FIND and SEARCH appear limited to only single-target searches, and are also case-sensitive. I suppose I could use UPPER or LOWER to force case-insensitivity in the search, but I still need something that can do accurate partial matching and search a specified range of cells. Is there any function, or combination of functions, that could work here? Ideally, I want to do this with a straight Excel formula. I'm not at all familiar with VBScript or similar tools, nor do I have time to learn it for this project.

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  • Self-hosting vs. Budget hosting - What are the economics?

    - by cdonner
    My current hosting provider (shared Linux, unlimited domains, < $10 per month, with about 20 sites) has been giving me a lot of grief lately. I am contemplating to just ditch them and repurpose the old Sun V20z that is sitting in my basement rack, and move the hosting in-house, literally. My math goes as follows: my company pays up to $80 a months for my home internet service, which would cover the upgrade from currently Fios to Comcast business internet with 5 static IPs. So this comes free. running the server will cost me about $180/year at the current rate of approx. $.2/kWh my time is free So, it seems that the my net cost of doing this would be about $80 anually, plus the work that goes into setup and maintenance. I will have to get email hosting somewhere, which I do not want to do myself. On the other side of the balance sheet, I'd likely get better uptime than my provider based on recent stats, will not get suspended and don't have to spend hours with customer support. Overall, I am not convinced. Has anybody actually done that? What was your experience, and did it pay off?

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  • How to replicate Lynda.com transitions in my own presentations (Keynote preferred, Powerpoint possib

    - by jdmuys
    I recently noticed that lynda.com uses in their training videos a very interesting transition that I would like to replicate in my own presentations. They are somewhat similar to the computer screen animations in the "Minority Report" movie: they zoom out to a huge sheet, pan, and zoom back in to a new location. It's very good for navigating deep hierarchies. For example when you are at level 1, you can see level 3, but it's tiny and unreadable. You then transition by zooming in to a deeper level that suddenly becomes legible. I can imagine also to use it using a large "mind map" as a common Ariane thread, to dive into details (and back out) while still taking advantage of the visual memory of the audience. It a bit difficult to describe, I hope I managed to convey the idea. You can see them in action for example there (iPhone programming training): http://www.lynda.com/home/DisplayCourse.aspx?lpk2=48369 Then click on "What you should know" in the introduction chapter. See for example in that movie between 22s and 24s, then between 27s and 28s. How do they do that? How could I replicate that effect? TIA

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  • Using SQL to join spreadsheets in excel

    - by toms
    Based on the explenation here: How do I join two worksheets in Excel as I would in SQL? I tried to join to excel sheets from different files into the same sheet. However, I keep getting this error message when I try to refresh the table: [MICROSOFT][OBDC Excel Driver] Too few parameters. Expected 5. The SQL queries i've put in so far were: SELECT `Sheet1$`.ID, `Sheet1$`.Name, `Sheet1$`.`L Name` FROM `C:\Users\Tom\Book1.xlsx`.`Sheet1$` a LEFT JOIN `C:\Users\Tom\Book2.xlsx`.`Sheet1$` b ON a.col2= b.col2 and SELECT `Sheet1$`.ID, `Sheet1$`.Name, `Sheet1$`.`L Name` FROM `C:\Users\Tom\Book1.xlsx`.`Sheet1$` a LEFT JOIN `C:\Users\Tom\Book2.xlsx`.`Sheet1$` b ON a.`ID`= b.`ID` and SELECT * FROM `C:\Users\Tom\Book1.xlsx`.`Sheet1$` a LEFT JOIN `C:\Users\Tom\Book2.xlsx`.`Sheet1$` b ON a.`ID`= b.`ID` and a few combinations and alterations. I can't seem to find the solution. I've learned that it definitely doesn't like the SELECT *. But I can't fix it. Can anyone suggest any solution?

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  • Random Sampling in Excel

    - by bonsvr
    I have an Excel sheet as follows: NO NAME AMOUNT 1 A 50 1 B 50 2 A 100 2 C 100 3 D 70 3 B 70 4 A 30 4 F 30 5 C 150 5 G 150 . . . . There are let's say 10,000 rows. I want to get a random sample from rows. There are 2 conditions: 1. Sampling must be based on "NO" column. 2. Size of the sample is determined by the user: it can be %5, %10 or %20. For example, one decides to randomly choose %20 of total rows in the above example: The result is like: NO NAME AMOUNT 2 A 100 2 C 100 90 Z 500 90 E 500 . . . . There should be 2,000 rows. I don't know whether my question is too specific. I am new to Excel VBA, and I faced a situation like this. Above process is about getting a random sample from an account ledger for auditing purposes.

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  • find the next due date after today within a group in an Excel PivotTable

    - by Dennis George
    I have got a table set up in one sheet with "transactions". Each row contains a name of a vendor, the amount owed or paid depending on transaction type, and the due date/transaction date. Here is some simplified sample data: Vendor Date Invoice Payment Vendor A 6/30 $200 Vendor A 6/30 ($200) Vendor B 7/5 $500 Vendor B 7/5 ($500) Vendor C 10/28 $50 Vendor A 10/30 $100 Vendor C 11/15 $50 I have already built a PivotTable from that table to group these transactions by vendor and sum the remainder owed. What I'm trying to figure out is how to, for each vendor, get the next due date (min date of the group, excluding dates < Today()), or if there is no next due date then I want to see the max date for that group. Here is what my PivotTable looks like, plus the date column I'd like to add (assuming Today() = 10/23): Vendor Date Owed Vendor B 7/5 - Vendor C 10/28 $100 Vendor A 10/30 $100 I know calling it next due date might not be so accurate if I end up with the date of a payment in that column, but I'm ok with that. tl;dr : I want to find the next earliest date within each group, or the last date. How do I do this?

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  • Sending large serialized objects over sockets is failing only when trying to grow the byte Array, bu

    - by FinancialRadDeveloper
    I have code where I am trying to grow the byte array while receiving the data over my socket. This is erroring out. public bool ReceiveObject2(ref Object objRec, ref string sErrMsg) { try { byte[] buffer = new byte[1024]; byte[] byArrAll = new byte[0]; bool bAllBytesRead = false; int iRecLoop = 0; // grow the byte array to match the size of the object, so we can put whatever we // like through the socket as long as the object serialises and is binary formatted while (!bAllBytesRead) { if (m_socClient.Receive(buffer) > 0) { byArrAll = Combine(byArrAll, buffer); iRecLoop++; } else { m_socClient.Close(); bAllBytesRead = true; } } MemoryStream ms = new MemoryStream(buffer); BinaryFormatter bf1 = new BinaryFormatter(); ms.Position = 0; Object obj = bf1.Deserialize(ms); objRec = obj; return true; } catch (System.Runtime.Serialization.SerializationException se) { objRec = null; sErrMsg += "SocketClient.ReceiveObject " + "Source " + se.Source + "Error : " + se.Message; return false; } catch (Exception e) { objRec = null; sErrMsg += "SocketClient.ReceiveObject " + "Source " + e.Source + "Error : " + e.Message; return false; } } private byte[] Combine(byte[] first, byte[] second) { byte[] ret = new byte[first.Length + second.Length]; Buffer.BlockCopy(first, 0, ret, 0, first.Length); Buffer.BlockCopy(second, 0, ret, first.Length, second.Length); return ret; } Error: mscorlibError : The input stream is not a valid binary format. The starting contents (in bytes) are: 68-61-73-43-68-61-6E-67-65-73-3D-22-69-6E-73-65-72 ... Yet when I just cheat and use a MASSIVE buffer size its fine. public bool ReceiveObject(ref Object objRec, ref string sErrMsg) { try { byte[] buffer = new byte[5000000]; m_socClient.Receive(buffer); MemoryStream ms = new MemoryStream(buffer); BinaryFormatter bf1 = new BinaryFormatter(); ms.Position = 0; Object obj = bf1.Deserialize(ms); objRec = obj; return true; } catch (Exception e) { objRec = null; sErrMsg += "SocketClient.ReceiveObject " + "Source " + e.Source + "Error : " + e.Message; return false; } } This is really killing me. I don't know why its not working. I have lifted the Combine from a suggestion on here too, so I am pretty sure this is not doing the wrong thing? I hope someone can point out where I am going wrong

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  • Querying a CSV file

    - by sheepsimulator
    Does anyone know of a simple tool that will open up a CSV file and let you do basic, SQLesque queries on it? Like a graphical tool of sorts, one that is easy to use. I know I could write a small script to do an import of the CSV into a SQLite database, but since I imagine someone else thought of this before me, I just wanted to inquire if one existed. What's prompting this question is I am getting frustrated with Excel's limited filtering capabilities. Perhaps some other data visualization manipulation tool would provide similar functionality. Free or OSS is preferred, but I'm open to any suggestions. EDIT: I really would prefer some clear tutorials on how to do the below instead of just "make your sheet an ODBC entry" or "write programs using ODBC files", or more ideas on apps to use. Note: I cannot use MS Access. Yet another EDIT: I'm still open for solutions using SQLite. My platform is a semi-ancient Win2k laptop, with a P4 on it. It's quite slow, so a resource-light solution is ideal and would likely get the win.

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  • Excel file growing huge (>150 MB)

    - by Josh
    There is one particular Excel file that is used by a number of employees at my company. It is edited from both Excel 2003 and 2007, with the "Sharing" feature turned on to allow multiple writers at once. The file has a decent amount of data on several sheets with some basic formatting, and used to be about 6MB, which seems reasonable for its content. But after a few weeks of editing, the file grew to 10, then 20 MB, and eventually skyrocketed to more than 150 MB, even though it still has about the same amount of data as before. It now takes 5-10 minutes to open it, and that much time again to save it. The first time this happened, I copied the content of each sheet into a new, blank workbook, and saved the new workbook; this brought it back down to about 6MB. Now, it has blown up again. The workbook uses the "Data Validation" feature to limit the values in certain columns to the contents of a few named ranges. Copying all the data into a new workbook means re-setting up all the data validation, which is a pain and not something that we want to do every month. As a troubleshooting step, I tried saving the file in "XML Spreadsheet 2003" format, hoping to get some insight into what was being stored. Sure enough, the file was almost a gig, and almost all of the 10 million lines look like this: <NamedCell ss:Name="Z_21D5114F_E50C_46AC_AA4F_C3FF540C717F_.wvu.FilterData"/> <NamedCell ss:Name="Z_1EE2BA5E_3011_4F9A_8ACD_E58835250FC4_.wvu.FilterData"/> <NamedCell ss:Name="Z_1E3BDCEA_6A72_4ECC_BF4F_7B03CC66181E_.wvu.FilterData"/> I've seen a few VBScripts online to manage and enumerate named cells that are hidden in Excel's built-in interface, though I wonder how they'd handle my 10 million named cells. What I really need, though, is an understanding of why this keeps happening. What actions in excel could be causing this?

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