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• Exadata support for ACFS (and thus, 10gR2) now available!

  - by Robert Freeman

  Really? Exadata, ACFS and 10gR2? If you work with Exadata you are probably aware that ACFS has not been supported - until now! ACFS is now supported on Exadata if you are running Grid Infrastructure version 12.1.0.2 or later. This new support is described in MOS note 1326938.1. Also Exadata support for ACFS is mentioned in MOS note 888828.1, which is the king of all Exadata notes on MOS. The upshot is that you can now run Oracle Database 10gR2 on Exadata using ACFS as the storage for the Oracle Database. Don’t Over React and just Throw Everything on ACFS!First, let’s be clear that ACFS is not an alternative for running your Exadata databases on ASM. If you are running any production or non-production performance sensitive Oracle databases on 11.2 or 12.1, then you should be running them on ASM disks that are associated with the storage cells. The use case for ACFS is generally limited to the following: Running any Oracle 10gR2 databases on Exadata. Running Oracle 11gR2 development or test databases that require rapid cloning, and that do not require the performance benefits of the Exadata storage cells. If you are running Oracle Database 12c and you need snapshot/clone kinds of capabilities, then you should be using Oracle MultiTennant and the features present in that option (remember though that MultiTennant is a licensed option). The Fine PrintThere are some requirements that you will need to meet If you are going to run ACFS on Exadata. These are: You have to use Oracle Linux You must use GI 12.1.0.2 or later If you wish to use HCC then you must apply the fix for bug 19136936 to your system. This bug, and it’s associated patch do not appear on MOS (as of the time that I wrote this) so you will need to open an SR and get support to provide the patch for you. The Best Use Case for ACFSEven though Oracle Database 10gR2 is at end of life, it remains in use in a large number of places. This has caused problems when choosing to implement Exadata as a consolidation platform, or when choosing it during a hardware refresh process. Now that ACFS is supported, Exadata has become even more flexible and affords customers greater flexibility when migrating to Exadata and Engineered Systems. While all of the features of Exadata might not be available to a 10.2.0.4 database, certainly just the improved processing capabilities of Exadata with its fast as heck infiniband network fabric, additional memory, reduced power requirements and a whole host of other features, justifies moving these databases to Exadata now. This will also make it easier to upgrade these databases when the time comes!

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• Exclusive Expert and Peer-Led Sessions—Only at Oracle OpenWorld

  - by Robert Schweighardt

  With more than 2,500 sessions, dozens of hands-on labs, hundreds of demos, four Exhibition Halls, and countless meet-ups, Oracle OpenWorld is the place to learn, share, and network. Planning ahead is always a smart move and here are some links to help you plan your Oracle OpenWorld schedule. You will hear directly from Oracle Thought leaders, Oracle Support experts and their peers about how to succeed across the Oracle stack—from Oracle Consulting Thought Leader sessions dedicated to the cloud to hands on demos showing the value of My Oracle Support—Oracle Open World is your one stop shop for everything Oracle. Featured sessions include: Is Your Organization Trying to Focus on an ERP Cloud Strategy? Modernize Your Analytics Solutions Is Your Organization Trying to Focus on a CX Cloud Strategy? Best Practices for Deploying a DBaaS in a Private Cloud Model Visit the Support & Services Oracle OpenWorld website to discover how you can take advantage of all Oracle OpenWorld has to offer. With 500 Services experts, 50+ sessions, networking events and demos of powerful new support tools, customers will find relevant, useful information about how Oracle Services enables the success of their Oracle hardware and software investments.

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• Prioritizing Product Features

  - by Robert May

  A very common task in Agile Environments is prioritization.  Teams that are functioning well will prioritize new features, old features, the backlog, and any other source of stories for the team, and they’ll do it regularly. Not all teams are good at prioritizing according to the real return on investment that building stories will yield to the company.  This is unfortunate.  Too often, teams end up building features that are less valuable, and everyone seems to know it except perhaps the product owner!  Most features built into software are never even used.  Clearly, not much return for features that go unused. So how does a company avoid building features that add little value to the company?  This is a tough question to answer, but usually, this prioritization starts at the top with the executives of the company.  After all, they’re responsible for the overall vision of the company. Here’s what I recommend: Know your market. Know your customers and users. Know where you’re going and what you want to achieve. Implement the Vision Know Your Market We often see companies that don’t know their market.  Personally, I’m surprised by this.  These companies don’t know who their competitors are, don’t know what features make their product desirable in the market, and in many cases, get by with saying, “I’ve been doing this for XX years.  I know what the market wants!”  In many cases, they equate “marketing” with “advertising” and don’t understand the difference. This is almost never true.  Good companies will spend significant amounts of time and money finding out who they’re competing against and what makes their competitors successful in the marketplace.  Good companies understand that marketing involves more than just advertising.  Often, marketing is mostly research and analysis, not sales.  Until you understand your market, you cannot know what features will give you the best return on your investment dollar. Good companies have a marketing department and can answer the next important step which is to know your customers and your users. Know your Customers and Users First, note that I included both customers and users.  They’re often not the same thing.  Users use the product that you build.  Customers buy the product that you build.  It’s a subtle difference, but too often, I’ve seen companies that focus exclusively on one or the other and are not successful simply because they ignore an important part of the group. If your company is doing appropriate marketing, you know that these are two different aspects of your product and that both deserve attention to have a product that is successful in your target market.  Your marketing department should be spending a lot of time understanding these personas and then conveying that information to the company. I’m always surprised when development teams think that they can build a product that people want to use without understanding the users of that product.  Developers think differently than most people in the world.  They know what the computer is doing.  The computer isn’t magic to them.  So when they assume that they know how to build something, they bring with them quite a bit of baggage.  Never assume that you know your customer unless you’re regularly having interaction with them.  Also, don’t just leave this to Marketing or Product Management.  Take them time to get your developers out with the customers as well.  Developers are very smart people, and often, seeing how someone uses their software inspires them to make a much better product. Very often, because the users and customers aren’t know, teams will spend a significant amount of time building apps that are super flexible and configurable so that any possible combination of feature can be used.  This demonstrates a clear lack of understanding of the customer.  Most configuration questions can quickly be answered by talking to the customer.  In most cases, if your software requires significant setup and configuration before its usable, you probably don’t know your customers and users very well. Until you know your customers, you cannot know what features will be most valuable to your customers and you cannot build those features in a way that your customers can use. Know Where You’re Going and What You Want to Achieve Many companies suffer from not having a plan.  Executives will tell the team to make them a plan.  The team, not knowing their market and customers and users, will come up with a plan that doesn’t reflect reality and doesn’t consider ROI.  Management then wonders why the product is doing poorly in the market place. Instead of leaving this up to the teams, as executives, work with Marketing to understand what broad categories of features will sell the most product in the marketplace.  Then, once you’ve determined that, give this vision to the team and let them run with it.  Revise the vision as needed, but avoid changing streams frequently.  Sure, sometimes you need to, but often, executives will change priorities many times a month, leading to nothing more than confusion.  If the team has a vision, they’ll be able to execute that vision far better than they could otherwise. By knowing what products are most important, you can set budgetary goals and guidelines that will help you achieve the vision that was created. Implement the Vision Creating the vision is often where the general executives stop participating in the plan.  The team is responsible for implementing that vision.  Executives should attend showcases and and should remain aware of the progress that the team is making towards meeting the vision, however. Once a broad vision has been created, the team should break that vision down into minimal market features (MMF).  These MMFs should be sized using story points so that, using the team’s velocity, an estimated cost can be determined for each feature.  The product management team should then try to quantify the relative value of the MMFs based on customer feedback and interviews.  Once the value and cost of creating the feature is understood, a return on investment can be calculated.  The features should then be prioritized with the MMF’s that have the highest value and lowest cost rising to the top of features to implement.  Don’t let politics get in the way! Once the MMF’s have been prioritized, they should go through release planning to schedule them for implementation. Conclusion By having a good grasp on the strategy of the company, your Agile teams can be much more effective.  Each and every story the team is implementing will roll up into features that matter to the company and provide ROI to them.  The steps outlined in this post should be repeated on a regular basis.  I recommend reviewing them at least once per quarter to make sure that the vision hasn’t shifted and that the teams are still working on what matters most to the company. Technorati Tags: Agile,Product Owner,ROI

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• Cash Application Work Queue in Oracle Receivables Release 12.1.1

  - by Robert Story

  Upcoming WebcastTitle: Cash Application Work Queue in Oracle Receivables Release 12.1.1Date: March 24, 2010Time: 10:00 am EDT, 7:00 am PDT, 14:00 GMT Product Family: E-Business Suite Receivables 12.1.1 Receipts Summary Understand the setups and processes for the Cash Application Work Queue in Release 12.1.1 and learn how to diagnose basic functional issues. This one-hour session is recommended for technical and functional users. We will be covering topics related to processing receipts efficiently, managing the work load of cash application owners and diagnosing issues. Topics will include: Description of Cash Application Work Queue Setup and Work Queue Process Dependencies and Interactions Basic Troubleshooting Steps A short, live demonstration (only if applicable) and question and answer period will be included. Click here to register for this session....... ....... ....... ....... ....... ....... .......The above webcast is a service of the E-Business Suite Communities in My Oracle Support.For more information on other webcasts, please reference the Oracle Advisor Webcast Schedule.Click here to visit the E-Business Communities in My Oracle Support Note that all links require access to My Oracle Support.

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• WEB203 &ndash; Jump into Silverlight!&hellip; and Become Effective Immediately with Tim Huckaby, Fou

  - by Robert Burger

  Getting ready for the good stuff. Definitely wish there were more Silverlight and WCF RIA sessions, but this is a start.  Was lucky to get a coveted power-enabled seat.  Luckily, due to my trustily slow Verizon data card, I can get these notes out amidst a total Internet outage here.  This is the second breakout session of the day, and is by far standing-room only.  I stepped out before the session started to get a cool Diet COKE and wouldn’t have gotten back in if I didn’t already have a seat. Tim says this is an intro session and that he’s been begging for intro sessions at TechEd for years and that by looking at this audience, he thinks the demand is there.  Admittedly, I didn’t know this was an intro session, or I might have gone elsewhere.  But, it was the very first Silverlight session, so I had to be here. Tim says he will be providing a very good comprehensive reference application at the end of the presentation.  He has just demoed it, and it is a full CRUD-based Sales Manager application based on…  AdventureWorks! Session Agenda What it is / How to get started Declarative Programming Layout and Controls, Events and Commands Working with Data Adding Style to Your Application   Silverlight…  “WPF Light” Why is the download 4.2MB?  Because the direct competitor is a 4.2MB download.  There is no technical reason it is not the entire framework.  It is purely to “be competitive”.   Getting Started Get all of the following downloads from www.silverlight.net/getstarted Install VS2010 or Visual Web Developer Express 2010 Install Silverlight 4 Tools for VS2010 Install Expression Blend 4 Install the Silverlight 4 Toolkit   Reference Application Features Uses MVVM pattern – a way to move data access code that would normally be inline within the UI and placing it in nice data access libraries Images loaded dynamically from the database, converting GIF to PNG because Silverlight does not support GIF. LINQ to SQL is the data access model WCF is the data provider and is using binary message encoding   Declarative Programming XAML replaces code for UI representation Attributes control Layout and Style Event handlers wired-up in XAML Declarative Data Binding   Layout Overview Content rendering flows inside of parent Fixed positioning (Canvas) is seldom used Panels are used to house content Margins and Padding over fixed size   Panels StackPanel – Arranges child elements into a single line oriented horizontally or vertically Grid – A flexible grid are that consists of rows and columns Canvas – An are where positions are specifically fixed WrapPanel (in Toolkit) – Positions child elements in sequential position left to right and top to bottom. DockPanel (in Toolkit) – Positions child controls within a dockable area   Positioning Horizontal and Vertical Alignment Margin – Separates an element from neighboring elements Padding – Enlarges the effective size of an element by a thickness   Controls Overview Not all controls created equal Silverlight, as a subset of WPF, so many WPF controls do not exist in the core Siverlight release Silverlight Toolkit continues to add controls, but are released in different quality bands Plenty of good 3rd party controls to fill the gaps Windows Phone 7 is to have 95% of controls available in Silverlight Core and Toolkit.   Events and Commands Standard .NET Events Routed Events Commands – based on the ICommand interface – logical action that can be invoked in several ways   Adding Style to Your Application Resource Dictionaries – Contains a hash table of key/value pairs.  Silverlight can only use Static Resources whereas WPF can also use Dynamic Resources Visual State Manager Silverlight 4 supports Implicit styles ResourceDictionary.MergedDictionaries combines many different file-based resources   Downloads

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• PO Communication in PDF

  - by Robert Story

  Upcoming WebcastsDate: March 29, 2010 Time: 2 pm London, 9:00 am EDT, 6:00 am PDT, 13:00 GMT Click here to register for this sessionDate: March 29, 2010 Time: 9 am London, 4:00 am EDT, 1:00 am PDT, 8:00 GMT Click here to register for this session Product Family: ProcurementSummary This one-hour session is recommended for technical and functional users who would like to know about the PO Communication functionality in procurement. Topics will include: Introduction to PO PDF communication - 11.5.10 Key ConceptsPrerequisites, Scope Overview of PDF document generation PDF solution overviewTechnical Overview of PDF generation Setup steps Triggering Points of PDF generation PO Output for communication - Concurrent programEnter PO form: View DocIsupplier portal/Contracts preview Enhancements PDF Generation in Custom LayoutsAttachments in fax communicationR12 Communication Nontext Attachments through Email Customizing templates Advantages of PDF communication Troubleshooting (Tips) A short, live demonstration (only if applicable) and question and answer period will be included........ ....... ....... ....... ....... ....... .......The above webcast is a service of the E-Business Suite Communities in My Oracle Support.For more information on other webcasts, please reference the Oracle Advisor Webcast Schedule.Click here to visit the E-Business Communities in My Oracle Support Note that all links require access to My Oracle Support.

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• What have my fellow Delphi programmers done to make Eclipse/Java more like Delphi?

  - by Robert Oschler

  I am a veteran Delphi programmer working on my first real Android app. I am using Eclipse and Java as my development environment. The thing I miss the most of course is Delphi's VCL components and the associated IDE tools for design-time editing and code creation. Fortunately I am finding Eclipse to be one hell of an IDE with it's lush context sensitive help, deep auto-complete and code wizard facilities, and other niceties. This is a huge double treat since it is free. However, here is an example of something in the Eclipse/Java environment that will give a Delphi programmer pause. I will use the simple case of adding an "on-click" code stub for an OK button. DELPHI Drop button on a form Double-click button on form and fill in the code that will fire when the button is clicked ECLIPSE Drop button on layout in the graphical XML file editor Add the View.OnClickListener interface to the containing class's "implements" list if not there already. (Command+1 on Macs, Ctrl + 1 on PCs I believe). Use Eclipse to automatically add the code stub for unimplemented methods needed to support the View.OnClickListener interface, thus creating the event handler function stub. Find the stub and fill it in. However, if you have more than one possible click event source then you will need to inspect the View parameter to see which View element triggered the OnClick() event, thus requiring a case statement to handle multiple click event sources. NOTE: I am relatively new to Eclipse/Java so if there is a much easier way of doing this please let me know. Now that work flow isn't all that terrible, but again, that's just the simplest of use cases. Ratchet up the amount of extra work and thinking for a more complex component (aka widget) and the large number of properties/events it might have. It won't be long before you miss dearly the Delphi intelligent property editor and other designers. Eclipse tries to cover this ground by having an extensive list of properties in the menu that pops up when you right-click over a component/widget in the XML graphical layout editor. That's a huge and welcome assist but it's just not even close to the convenience of the Delphi IDE. Let me be very clear. I absolutely am not ranting nor do I want to start a Delphi vs. Java ideology discussion. Android/Eclipse/Java is what it is and there is a lot that impresses me. What I want to know is what other Delphi programmers that made the switch to the Eclipse/Java IDE have done to make things more Delphi like, and not just to make component/widget event code creation easier but any programming task. For example: Clever tips/tricks Eclipse plugins you found other ideas? Any great blog posts or web resources on the topic are appreciated too. -- roschler

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• E-Business Suite - NLS and MLS

  - by Robert Story

  Upcoming WebcastsTitle: E-Business Suite - NLS and MLSDate: April 28, 2010 Time: 1:00 pm EDT, 10:00 am PDT, 07:00 pm CET, 06:00 pm UK Click here to register for this sessionDate: April 28, 2010 Time: 06:00 pm Australia, 5:00 pm Japan, 1:30 pm India, 10:00 am CET, 09:00 am UK Click here to register for this session Product Family: EBS Translations Summary This 1.5 hour session is recommended for technical and functional users who are interested to get an generic overview about the NLS and MLS implementation of the E-Business Suite. Topics will include: Introduction to NLS and MLS Translation synchronization patch Known issues A short, live demonstration (only if applicable) and question and answer period will be included. ....... ....... ....... ....... ....... ....... .......The above webcast is a service of the E-Business Suite Communities in My Oracle Support.For more information on other webcasts, please reference the Oracle Advisor Webcast Schedule.Click here to visit the E-Business Communities in My Oracle Support Note that all links require access to My Oracle Support.

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• Using Oracle Receivables Diagnostics: How To Run, Read & Use To Troubleshoot

  - by Robert Story

  Upcoming WebcastTitle: Using Oracle Receivables Diagnostics: How To Run, Read & Use To TroubleshootDate: March 31, 2010 Time: 10:00 am EDT Product Family: Receivables Community Summary This one-hour session is recommended for functional users who want to take a more active role in the generation of Diagnostics in Oracle Receivables. This session will provide an overview of how diagnostics are structured and give some tips on how to read/analyze the output as well as some simple troubleshooting tips. Topics will include: Review of Diagnostic Catalogs in Release 11i, 12.0.x and 12.1.1How to run some of the more popular Receivables DiagnosticsHow to read and analyze diagnostic data Examine the log viewer A short, live demonstration (only if applicable) and question and answer period will be included. Click here to register for this session....... ....... ....... ....... ....... ....... .......The above webcast is a service of the E-Business Suite Communities in My Oracle Support.For more information on other webcasts, please reference the Oracle Advisor Webcast Schedule.Click here to visit the E-Business Communities in My Oracle Support Note that all links require access to My Oracle Support.

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• Important Considerations When Implementing Oracle E-Business Tax in Release 12

  - by Robert Story

  Upcoming WebcastTitle: Important Considerations When Implementing Oracle E-Business Tax in Release 12Date: April 15, 2010 Time: 12:00 pm EDT Product Family: Receivables CommunitySummary This one-hour session is recommended for functional users who wish to understand the important considerations when they are implementing Oracle E-Business Tax in Release 12. Topics will include: Features of E-Business TaxUpgrade versus fresh implementationPartner Integrations Localizations A short, live demonstration (only if applicable) and question and answer period will be included. Click here to register for this session....... ....... ....... ....... ....... ....... .......The above webcast is a service of the E-Business Suite Communities in My Oracle Support.For more information on other webcasts, please reference the Oracle Advisor Webcast Schedule.Click here to visit the E-Business Communities in My Oracle Support Note that all links require access to My Oracle Support.

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• ISO booting with grub2 in Ubuntu on an Apple

  - by Robert Vila

  I have Ubuntu with grub2 installed in an Apple Macbook pro with dual boot (using rEFIt), and I would like to use grub2 to boot the LiveCD ISO image of a system based in Debian too (CrunchBang). The ISO image is saved in the same hard disk, same partition as Ubuntu. I can easily boot many other LiveCD ISO images, but I cannot boot this one, and I cannot boot the MacOS system, from the grub menu, either. The installation of Ubuntu left a couple of menu entries to boot MacOS, but they never worked. SO I don't know if it is possible to boot them, and how. I have tried many options, but the menuentry I am trying now to boot crunchBang is this one: menuentry "crunchbang-10-20120207-i386.iso" { set isofile="/home/user/Desktop/ISO/crunchbang-10-20120207-i386.iso" loopback loop (hd0,3)$isofile linux (loop)/live/vmlinuz1 iso-scan/filename=$isofile toram=filesystem.squashfs findiso=$isofile boot=live config -- initrd (loop)/live/initrd1.img } And I copied it from here: http://linux4netbook.blogspot.com.es/2012/08/due-crunchbang-e-un-pennino.html

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• Making the Grade

  - by [email protected]

  Education Organizations Learn the Advantages of Oracle Today, K-12 school districts and state agencies nationwide have billions of reasons to come to Oracle OpenWorld 2010. Ever since the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 set aside US$100 billion for education, schools have been eager to develop and implement statewide data systems to enhance workflow. And across the country, they've been turning to Oracle for help. According to a recent news release, Oracle already makes the grade. The Los Angeles Unified School District--the nation's second largest district--chose Oracle Business Intelligence Suite, Enterprise Edition Plus to help teachers keep track of student performance. Other educational organizations, including Fairfax County Public Schools and the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction, are also working with Oracle to improve their systemwide procedures. If you're an educator or administrator who is planning to optimize your school or agency data systems, this may be the best time to learn what Oracle can do help ensure success. Register for Oracle OpenWorld 2010 between now and July 16 and you'll save US$500 off registration.

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• Drop and Give Me 20 Questions

  - by [email protected]

  IOUG Sponsors Boot Camp at Collaborate 10 Feeling flabby and out of shape on topics such as virtualization, SQL development, and security? Want to beef up your skills on Oracle Database 11g Release 2, Oracle on Linux for IBM System z, and Oracle's maximum availability architecture on Linux for IBM System z? If so, it's time for boot camp. The Independent Oracle Users Group (IOUG) is sponsoring its first-ever boot camp for Oracle technology and database professionals at Collaborate 10, April 19 to 21. And yes, as with many boot camps, the IOUG programs will be in a harsh, desert environment--at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center in Las Vegas, Nevada. The one- and two-day programs will cover Oracle technology and a variety of database topics, and they'll be taught by drill instructors, including industry experts as well as Oracle users and staff. You'll get in-depth training. But don't worry. You won't have to suffer through a bad haircut and 20-mile hikes. Are you ready? Was that a "yes, sir"? I can't hear you.

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• Wacom Bamboo CTH460L issues

  - by Robert Smith

  I recently bought a Wacom Bamboo Pen & Touch CTH460L. I installed doctormo's PPA, however, the pen functionality didn't work and the touch was very glitchy (when I touched it, it immediately double clicked and began to drag elements in the screen). I tried to configure it using the wacom-utility package in the Synaptic Package Manager (version 1.21-1) but that didn't work either. Then I followed this post (#621, written by aaaalex), and after some problems trying to restart Ubuntu (graphics related problems), the pen works fine (it could be better, though) but the touch functionality doesn't work anymore. Currently I have installed xserver-xorg-input-wacom (1:0.10.11-0ubuntu7), wacom-dkms (0.8.10.2-1ubuntu1) and wacom-utility. The Wacom Utility only displays an "options" field under "Wacom BambooPT 2FG 4X5" but no other option to configure it. What is the correct way to get this tablet working on Ubuntu 10.04?. By the way, currently I can't start Ubuntu properly when the tablet is connected (in that case, Ubuntu start in low graphics mode). I need to connect it later. UPDATE: I uninstalled xserver -xorg-input-wacom, and wacom-utility because one of them prevented Ubuntu to start normally. I only re-installed wacom-dkms 0.8.10.2-1ubuntu1. The pen is working but no touch functionality. The side buttons don't work either. Thanks in advance.

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• EBS Diagnostics & Trailing Spaces

  - by Robert Story

  Upcoming WebcastsTitle: EBS Diagnostics & Trailing SpacesDate: April 20, 2010 Time: 2:00 pm Japan, 10:30 am India, 07:00 am CET, 03:00 pm Australia Click here to register for this sessionDate: April 21, 2010 Time: 10:30 am EDT, 8:30 am MDT, 8:00 pm India, 04:30 pm CET, 03:30 pm UK Click here to register for this sessionProduct Family: EBS Diagnostics Summary This 1.5 hour session is recommended for technical and functional users who are interested to get a generic overview about the EBS Diagnostics and the specific Diagnostic about "Leading Trailing spaces" to identify the root cause of FRM-40654 errors in any functional Form. Topics will include: Introduction to Diagnostics Catalog Host Note Diagnostics - Trailing and Leading Spaces Demonstration A short, live demonstration (only if applicable) and question and answer period will be included....... ....... ....... ....... ....... ....... .......The above webcast is a service of the E-Business Suite Communities in My Oracle Support.For more information on other webcasts, please reference the Oracle Advisor Webcast Schedule.Click here to visit the E-Business Communities in My Oracle Support Note that all links require access to My Oracle Support.

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• Visual web page designer for Django?

  - by Robert Oschler

  I'm just starting my Django learning so pardon me if any part of this question is off-base. I have done a lot of web searching for information on the equivalent of a visual web page designer for Django and I don't seem to be getting very far. I have experience with Delphi (Object Pascal), C, C++, Python, PHP, Java, and Javascript and have created and maintained several web sites that included MySQL database dependent content. For the longest time I've been using one of the standard WYSIWIG designers to design the actual web pages, with any needed back end programming done via Forms or AJAX calls that call server side PHP scripts. I have grown tired of the quirks, bugs, and other annoyances associated with the program. Also, I find myself hungry for the functionality and reliability a good MVC based framework would provide me so I could really express myself with custom code easily. So I am turning to Django/Python. However, I'm still a junkie for a good WYSIWIG designer for the layout of web pages. I know there are some out there that thrive on opening up a text editor, possibly with some code editor tools to assist, and pounding out pages. But I do adore a drag and drop editor for simple page layout, especially for things like embedded images, tables, buttons, etc. I found a few open source projects on GitHub but they seem to be focused on HTML web forms, not a generic web page editor. So can I get what I want here? The supreme goal would be to find not only a web page editor that creates Django compatible web pages, but if I dare say it, have a design editor that could add Python code stubs to various page elements in the style of the Delph/VCL or VB design editors. Note, I also have the Wing IDE Professional IDE, version 2.0. As a side note, if you know of any really cool, fun, or time-saving Python libraries that are designed for easy integration into Django please tell me about them. -- roschler

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• Performing a clean database creation using msbuild

  - by Robert May

  So I’m taking a break from writing about other Agile stuff for a post. :)  I’m still going to get back to the other subjects, but this is fun too. Something I’ve done quite a bit of is MSBuild and CI work.  I’m experimenting with ways to improve what I’ve done in the past, particularly around database CI. Today, I developed a mechanism for starting from scratch with your database.  By scratch, I mean blowing away the existing database and creating it again from a single command line call.  I’m a firm believer that developers should be able to get to a known clean state at the database level with a single command and that they should be operating off of their own isolated database to improve productivity.  These scripts will help that. Here’s how I did it.  First, we have to disconnect users.  I did so using the help of a script from sql server central.  Note that I’m using sqlcmd variable replacement. -- kills all the users in a particular database -- dlhatheway/3M, 11-Jun-2000 declare @arg_dbname sysname declare @a_spid smallint declare @msg varchar(255) declare @a_dbid int set @arg_dbname = '$(DatabaseName)' select @a_dbid = sdb.dbid from master..sysdatabases sdb where sdb.name = @arg_dbname declare db_users insensitive cursor for select sp.spid from master..sysprocesses sp where sp.dbid = @a_dbid open db_users fetch next from db_users into @a_spid while @@fetch_status = 0 begin select @msg = 'kill '+convert(char(5),@a_spid) print @msg execute (@msg) fetch next from db_users into @a_spid end close db_users deallocate db_users GO Once all users are booted from the database, we can commence with recreating the database.  I generated the script that is used to create a database from SQL Server management studio, so I’m only going to show the bits that weren’t generated that are important.  There are a bunch of Alter Database statements that aren’t shown. First, I had to find the default location of the database files in the install, since they can be in many different locations.  I used Method 1 from a technet blog and then modified it a bit to do what I needed to do.  I ended up using dynamic SQL because for the life of me, I couldn’t get the “Filename” property to not return an error when I used anything besides a string.  I’m dropping the database first, if it exists.  Here’s the code:   IF EXISTS(SELECT 1 FROM [master].[sys].[databases] WHERE [name] = N'$(DatabaseName)') BEGIN drop database $(DatabaseName) END; go IF EXISTS(SELECT 1 FROM [master].[sys].[databases] WHERE [name] = 'zzTempDBForDefaultPath') BEGIN DROP DATABASE zzTempDBForDefaultPath END; -- Create temp database. Because no options are given, the default data and --- log path locations are used CREATE DATABASE zzTempDBForDefaultPath; DECLARE @Default_Data_Path VARCHAR(512), @Default_Log_Path VARCHAR(512); --Get the default data path SELECT @Default_Data_Path = ( SELECT LEFT(physical_name,LEN(physical_name)-CHARINDEX('\',REVERSE(physical_name))+1) FROM sys.master_files mf INNER JOIN sys.[databases] d ON mf.[database_id] = d.[database_id] WHERE d.[name] = 'zzTempDBForDefaultPath' AND type = 0); --Get the default Log path SELECT @Default_Log_Path = ( SELECT LEFT(physical_name,LEN(physical_name)-CHARINDEX('\',REVERSE(physical_name))+1) FROM sys.master_files mf INNER JOIN sys.[databases] d ON mf.[database_id] = d.[database_id] WHERE d.[name] = 'zzTempDBForDefaultPath' AND type = 1); --Clean up. IF EXISTS(SELECT 1 FROM [master].[sys].[databases] WHERE [name] = 'zzTempDBForDefaultPath') BEGIN DROP DATABASE zzTempDBForDefaultPath END; DECLARE @SQL nvarchar(max) SET @SQL= 'CREATE DATABASE $(DatabaseName) ON PRIMARY ( NAME = N''$(DatabaseName)'', FILENAME = N''' + @Default_Data_Path + N'$(DatabaseName)' + '.mdf' + ''', SIZE = 2048KB , FILEGROWTH = 1024KB ) LOG ON ( NAME = N''$(DatabaseName)Log'', FILENAME = N''' + @Default_Log_Path + N'$(DatabaseName)' + '.ldf' + ''', SIZE = 1024KB , FILEGROWTH = 10%) ' exec (@SQL) GO And with that, your database is created.  You can run these scripts on any server and on any database name.  To do that, I created an MSBuild script that looks like this: <Project xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003" ToolsVersion="4.0"> <PropertyGroup> <DatabaseName>MyDatabase</DatabaseName> <Server>localhost</Server> <SqlCmd>sqlcmd -v DatabaseName=$(DatabaseName) -S $(Server) -i </SqlCmd> <ScriptDirectory>.\Scripts</ScriptDirectory> </PropertyGroup> <Target Name ="Rebuild"> <ItemGroup> <ScriptFiles Include="$(ScriptDirectory)\*.sql"/> </ItemGroup> <Exec Command="$(SqlCmd) &quot;%(ScriptFiles.Identity)&quot;" ContinueOnError="false"/> </Target> </Project> Note that the Scripts directory is underneath the directory where I’m running the msbuild command and is relative to that directory.  Note also that the target is using batching to run each script in the scripts subdirectory, one after the other.  Each script is passed to the sqlcmd command line execution using the .Identity property on the itemgroup that is created.  This target file is saved in the file “Database.target”. To make this work, you’ll need msbuild in your path, and then run the following command: msbuild database.target /target:Rebuild Once you’ve got your virgin database setup, you’d then need to use a tool like dbdeploy.net to determine that it was a virgin database, build a change script based on the change scripts, and then you’d want another sqlcmd call to update the database with the appropriate scripts.  I’m doing that next, so I’ll post a blog update when I’ve got it working. Technorati Tags: MSBuild,Agile,CI,Database

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• Who Makes a Good Product Owner

  - by Robert May

  In general, the best product owners are those that care passionately about the customer of the product.  Note that I didn’t say about the product itself.  Actually, people that only care about the product, generally do not make good product owners.  Products only matter in relationship to their customers.  If a product doesn’t provide value to the customer, then the product has no value, no matter what a person might think of the product, and no matter what cool technologies exist inside of the product. A good product owner is also a good negotiator.  They recognize that many different priorities exist inside of a corporation, but that there can be only one list that developers work from.  A good product owner recognizes that its their job to help others around them prioritize (perhaps with a Product Council), but also understand that they alone have the final say about priorities and are willing to make the tough decisions required.  Deciding the priority between two perfectly valid stories is very difficult, especially when the stories are from two different departments! A good product owner is deeply interested in helping the team be successful.  They don’t seek to control the team, but instead seek to understand what the team can do and then work with the team to get the best product possible for the Customer.  A good product owner is never denigrating to team members, ever.  They recognize that such behavior would damage the trust that needs to be present between team members and product owners and will avoid it at all costs. In general, technical people (i.e. former or current developers) make poor product owners.  In their minds, they can’t separate implementation details from user functionality, so their stories end up sounding like implementation details.  For example, “The user enters their username on the password screen” is something that a technical product owner would write.  The proper wording for that story is “A user supplies the system with their credentials.”  Because technical people think different from the rest of the population, they are generally not a good fit. A good product owner is also a good writer.  Writing good stories demands good writing.  The art of persuasion, descriptiveness and just general good grammar are all required.  A good Product Owner must also be well spoken, since most of what will be conveyed will be conveyed with the spoken word, not just written word. A good product owner is a “People Person.”  They like talking to people and are very patient.  They don’t mind having questions repeated or fielding many questions, because they want to make sure that the ideas they’re conveying are properly understood so the customer gets the best product possible.  They are happy to answer any questions a team member may have and invite feedback and criticism of designs and stories, since they want a good product.  They really have little ego that gets in the way of building a great product. All of these qualities can be hard to find, but if you look close enough, you’ll find the right person in your organization.  Product owners can be found anywhere, not just in upper management.  Some of the best product owners are those that are very close to the customer.  In fact, check your customer support staff.  I’d bet that several great product owners are lurking there. Final note about what makes a good product owner.  You’re probably NOT going to find a good product owner in a manager, especially if they consider themselves a “Manager.”  Product owners don’t manage anything but the backlog, so be especially careful if the person you’re selecting for Product Owner is a manager. Up Next, “Messing with the Team.” Technorati Tags: Scrum,Product Owner

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• Knowledge Management Feedback

  - by Robert Schweighardt

  Did you know that you can provide feedback on Knowledge Management (KM) articles? It's nice to read a technical article that is well-written, the grammar and spelling are correct, the information is up to date, concise, to the point, easy to understand and it flows from one paragraph to another.  And though we always strive for a well-written article, it doesn't always come out that way. Knowledge Management articles are written by Oracle Support Engineers and we welcome your feedback.  Providing feedback helps to improve Oracle's Knowledge Base.  If you're reading a KM article and you have a comment, please let us know about it.  Maybe it's just to fix a spelling or grammatical error.  Maybe there's a broken link that needs to be fixed.  Maybe it's a suggestion to provide additional information.  Maybe the article contains incorrect information.  Maybe some information in the article is outdated.  Maybe something is not clear in the article.  Whatever it is, we want to hear about it.  We value your input! When you provide feedback it goes directly to the owner of the article.  The owner carefully reviews the comment and decides whether or not to implement it.  Most comments are implemented and we strive to implement them within a week!  For those comments that are not implemented, there is normally a good reason.  It may not be feasible to implement the suggestion or the suggestion may not be correct.  We don't take the decision lightly! So how do you provide feedback? Providing feedback on a KM article depends on whether you're a customer or an Oracle Employee. Customer 1. In the upper right hand corner of the article, click on the little +/- Rate this document icon: Note: The grayed out Comments (0) link will only show a number when there are open comments that are still being evaluated. 2. In the Article Rating window, complete as many of the following optional fields as you like and then click the Send Rating button: Rate the article as Excellent, Good or Poor Specify whether the article helped you or not Specify the ease of finding the article Provide whatever comments you have Employee The interface for Oracle Employees is a little bit different, there are more options. 1. The +/- Rate this document icon is also available to employees and is identical to what the customers have.  Please see Customer section above. 2. The Show document comments link shows all comments that have ever been submitted for the article 3. Employees have an additional way to submit a comment.  Click on the little + Add Comment icon: 4. Fill out the Add Comment fields and click the Add Comment button: We look forward to your feedback!

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• E-Business Tax Release 12 Setup - US Location Based Taxes Part 1, Prerequisities & Regimes

  - by Robert Story

  Upcoming WebcastTitle: E-Business Tax Release 12 Setup - US Location Based Taxes Part 1, Prerequisities & RegimesDate: April 28, 2010 Time: 12:00 pm EDT Product Family: Receivables Community Summary This one-hour session is part one of two on setting up a fresh implementation of US Location Based Taxes in Oracle E-Business Tax.  It is recommended for functional users who wish to understand the steps involved in setting up E-Business Tax in Release 12. Topics will include: Overview of E-Business TaxLocation setupRegime to Rate FlowTax RegimesTaxesTax StatusesTax JurisdictionsTax Recovery RatesTax RatesSubscribing the Operation Unit to a Regime to Rate FlowBrief Demonstration A short, live demonstration (only if applicable) and question and answer period will be included. Click here to register for this session....... ....... ....... ....... ....... ....... .......The above webcast is a service of the E-Business Suite Communities in My Oracle Support.For more information on other webcasts, please reference the Oracle Advisor Webcast Schedule.Click here to visit the E-Business Communities in My Oracle Support Note that all links require access to My Oracle Support.

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• Best Practices of Performance Management Plan (PMP)

  - by Robert Story

  Upcoming WebcastTitle: Best Practices of Performance Management Plan (PMP)Date: April 22, 2010Time: 11 AM EST / 8 AM PST / 8.30 PM IST  Product Family: EBS HRMS SummaryThis webcast will cover the best practices of Performance Management Plan(PMP) in very common scenarios. The best practices will address major issues around plan dates, new hire, manager transfer and related events. The session will also cover HRMS Patching Strategy, Key References and various customer communication channels.A short, live demonstration (only if applicable) and question and answer period will be included.Click here to register for this session....... ....... ....... ....... ....... ....... .......The above webcast is a service of the E-Business Suite Communities in My Oracle Support.For more information on other webcasts, please reference the Oracle Advisor Webcast Schedule.Click here to visit the E-Business Communities in My Oracle Support Note that all links require access to My Oracle Support.

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• Supporting HR Transformation with HelpDesk for Human Resources

  - by Robert Story

  Upcoming WebcastTitle: Supporting HR Transformation with HelpDesk for Human ResourcesDate: May 13, 2010 Time: 9:00 am PDT, 10 am MDT, 17:00 GMT Product Family: PeopleSoft HCM & EBS HRMS Summary HR transformation is a strategic initiative at many companies where world-class employee HR service delivery and a reduction of HR operating costs are top priorities. Having a centralized service delivery model and providing employees with tools to better help themselves can be very key to this initiative. This session shares how Oracle's PeopleSoft HelpDesk for Human Resources provides the technology foundation and best practices for this transformation. HelpDesk for Human Resources now integrates with both PeopleSoft HCM and E-Business Suite HRMS. This one-hour session is recommended for technical and functional users who want to understand what is new in PeopleSoft Help Desk for Human Resources 9.1 and how it benefits both PeopleSoft HCM and E-Business Suite HRMS customers. Topics will include: Understand the latest features and functionality Gain insight into future product direction Plan for implementation or upgrade of this module in your current system A short, live demonstration (only if applicable) and question and answer period will be included. Click here to register for this session....... ....... ....... ....... ....... ....... .......The above webcast is a service of the E-Business Suite Communities in My Oracle Support.For more information on other webcasts, please reference the Oracle Advisor Webcast Schedule.Click here to visit the E-Business Communities in My Oracle Support Note that all links require access to My Oracle Support.

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• SSAO Distortion

  - by Robert Xu

  I'm currently (attempting) to add SSAO to my engine, except it's...not really work, to say the least. I use a deferred renderer to render my scene. I have four render targets: Albedo, Light, Normal, and Depth. Here are the parameters for all of them (Surface Format, Depth Format): Albedo: 32-bit ARGB, Depth24Stencil8 Light: 32-bit ARGB, None Normal: 32-bit ARGB, None Depth: 8-bit R (Single), Depth24Stencil8 To generate my random noise map for the SSAO, I do the following for each pixel in the noise map: Vector3 v3 = Vector3.Zero; double z = rand.NextDouble() * 2.0 - 1.0; double r = Math.Sqrt(1.0 - z * z); double angle = rand.NextDouble() * MathHelper.TwoPi; v3.X = (float)(r * Math.Cos(angle)); v3.Y = (float)(r * Math.Sin(angle)); v3.Z = (float)z; v3 += offset; v3 *= 0.5f; result[i] = new Color(v3); This is my GBuffer rendering effect: PixelInput RenderGBufferColorVertexShader(VertexInput input) { PixelInput pi = ( PixelInput ) 0; pi.Position = mul(input.Position, WorldViewProjection); pi.Normal = mul(input.Normal, WorldInverseTranspose); pi.Color = input.Color; pi.TPosition = pi.Position; pi.WPosition = input.Position; return pi; } GBufferTarget RenderGBufferColorPixelShader(PixelInput input) { GBufferTarget output = ( GBufferTarget ) 0; float3 position = input.TPosition.xyz / input.TPosition.w; output.Albedo = lerp(float4(1.0f, 1.0f, 1.0f, 1.0f), input.Color, ColorFactor); output.Normal = EncodeNormal(input.Normal); output.Depth = position.z; return output; } And here is the SSAO effect: float4 EncodeNormal(float3 normal) { return float4((normal.xyz * 0.5f) + 0.5f, 0.0f); } float3 DecodeNormal(float4 encoded) { return encoded * 2.0 - 1.0f; } float Intensity; float Size; float2 NoiseOffset; float4x4 ViewProjection; float4x4 ViewProjectionInverse; texture DepthMap; texture NormalMap; texture RandomMap; const float3 samples[16] = { float3(0.01537562, 0.01389096, 0.02276565), float3(-0.0332658, -0.2151698, -0.0660736), float3(-0.06420016, -0.1919067, 0.5329634), float3(-0.05896204, -0.04509097, -0.03611697), float3(-0.1302175, 0.01034653, 0.01543675), float3(0.3168565, -0.182557, -0.01421785), float3(-0.02134448, -0.1056605, 0.00576055), float3(-0.3502164, 0.281433, -0.2245609), float3(-0.00123525, 0.00151868, 0.02614773), float3(0.1814744, 0.05798516, -0.02362876), float3(0.07945167, -0.08302628, 0.4423518), float3(0.321987, -0.05670302, -0.05418307), float3(-0.00165138, -0.00410309, 0.00537362), float3(0.01687791, 0.03189049, -0.04060405), float3(-0.04335613, -0.00530749, 0.06443053), float3(0.8474263, -0.3590308, -0.02318038), }; sampler DepthSampler = sampler_state { Texture = DepthMap; MipFilter = Point; MinFilter = Point; MagFilter = Point; AddressU = Clamp; AddressV = Clamp; AddressW = Clamp; }; sampler NormalSampler = sampler_state { Texture = NormalMap; MipFilter = Linear; MinFilter = Linear; MagFilter = Linear; AddressU = Clamp; AddressV = Clamp; AddressW = Clamp; }; sampler RandomSampler = sampler_state { Texture = RandomMap; MipFilter = Linear; MinFilter = Linear; MagFilter = Linear; }; struct VertexInput { float4 Position : POSITION0; float2 TextureCoordinates : TEXCOORD0; }; struct PixelInput { float4 Position : POSITION0; float2 TextureCoordinates : TEXCOORD0; }; PixelInput SSAOVertexShader(VertexInput input) { PixelInput pi = ( PixelInput ) 0; pi.Position = input.Position; pi.TextureCoordinates = input.TextureCoordinates; return pi; } float3 GetXYZ(float2 uv) { float depth = tex2D(DepthSampler, uv); float2 xy = uv * 2.0f - 1.0f; xy.y *= -1; float4 p = float4(xy, depth, 1); float4 q = mul(p, ViewProjectionInverse); return q.xyz / q.w; } float3 GetNormal(float2 uv) { return DecodeNormal(tex2D(NormalSampler, uv)); } float4 SSAOPixelShader(PixelInput input) : COLOR0 { float depth = tex2D(DepthSampler, input.TextureCoordinates); float3 position = GetXYZ(input.TextureCoordinates); float3 normal = GetNormal(input.TextureCoordinates); float occlusion = 1.0f; float3 reflectionRay = DecodeNormal(tex2D(RandomSampler, input.TextureCoordinates + NoiseOffset)); for (int i = 0; i < 16; i++) { float3 sampleXYZ = position + reflect(samples[i], reflectionRay) * Size; float4 screenXYZW = mul(float4(sampleXYZ, 1.0f), ViewProjection); float3 screenXYZ = screenXYZW.xyz / screenXYZW.w; float2 sampleUV = float2(screenXYZ.x * 0.5f + 0.5f, 1.0f - (screenXYZ.y * 0.5f + 0.5f)); float frontMostDepthAtSample = tex2D(DepthSampler, sampleUV); if (frontMostDepthAtSample < screenXYZ.z) { occlusion -= 1.0f / 16.0f; } } return float4(occlusion * Intensity * float3(1.0, 1.0, 1.0), 1.0); } technique SSAO { pass Pass0 { VertexShader = compile vs_3_0 SSAOVertexShader(); PixelShader = compile ps_3_0 SSAOPixelShader(); } } However, when I use the effect, I get some pretty bad distortion: Here's the light map that goes with it -- is the static-like effect supposed to be like that? I've noticed that even if I'm looking at nothing, I still get the static-like effect. (you can see it in the screenshot; the top half doesn't have any geometry yet it still has the static-like effect) Also, does anyone have any advice on how to effectively debug shaders?

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• Easy Scaling in XAML (WPF)

  - by Robert May

  Ran into a problem that needed solving that was kind of fun.  I’m not a XAML guru, and I’m sure there are better solutions, but I thought I’d share mine. The problem was this:  Our designer had, appropriately, designed the system for a 1920 x 1080 screen resolution.  This is for a full screen, touch screen device (think Kiosk), which has that resolution, but we also wanted to demo the device on a tablet (currently using the AWESOME Samsung tablet given out at Microsoft Build).  When you’d run it on that tablet, things were ugly because it was at a lower resolution than the target device. Enter scaling.  I did some research and found out that I probably just need to monkey with the LayoutTransform of some grid somewhere.  This project is using MVVM and has a navigation container that we built that lives on a single root view.  User controls are then loaded into that view as navigation occurs. In the parent grid of the root view, I added the following XAML: <Grid.LayoutTransform> <ScaleTransform ScaleX="{Binding ScaleWidth}" ScaleY="{Binding ScaleHeight}" /> </Grid.LayoutTransform> And then in the root View Model, I added the following code: /// <summary> /// The required design width /// </summary> private const double RequiredWidth = 1920; /// <summary> /// The required design height /// </summary> private const double RequiredHeight = 1080; /// <summary>Gets the ActualHeight</summary> public double ActualHeight { get { return this.View.ActualHeight; } } /// <summary>Gets the ActualWidth</summary> public double ActualWidth { get { return this.View.ActualWidth; } } /// <summary> /// Gets the scale for the height. /// </summary> public double ScaleHeight { get { return this.ActualHeight / RequiredHeight; } } /// <summary> /// Gets the scale for the width. /// </summary> public double ScaleWidth { get { return this.ActualWidth / RequiredWidth; } } Note that View.ActualWidth and View.ActualHeight are just pointing directly at FrameworkElement.ActualWidth and FrameworkElement.ActualHeight. That’s it.  Just calculate the ratio and bind the scale transform to it. Hopefully you’ll find this useful. Technorati Tags: WPF,XAML

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• A Technical Perspective On Rapid Planning

  - by Robert Story

  Upcoming WebcastTitle: A Technical Perspective On Rapid PlanningDate: April 14, 2010 Time: 11:00 am EDT, 9:00 am MDT, 8:00 am PDT, 16:00 GMT Product Family: Value Chain PlanningSummary Oracle's Strategic Network Optimization (SNO) product is a powerful supply chain design and tactical planning tool.  This one-hour session is recommended for functional users who want to gain a better understanding of how Oracle's SNO solution can help you solve complex supply chain issues, including supply chain design, risk management, logistics planning, sustainability planning, and a whole lot in between! Find out how SNO can be used to solve many different types of real-world business issues. Topics will include: Risk/Disaster Management Carbon Emissions Management Global Sourcing Labor/Workforce Planning Product Mix Optimization A short, live demonstration (only if applicable) and question and answer period will be included. Click here to register for this session....... ....... ....... ....... ....... ....... .......The above webcast is a service of the E-Business Suite Communities in My Oracle Support.For more information on other webcasts, please reference the Oracle Advisor Webcast Schedule.Click here to visit the E-Business Communities in My Oracle Support Note that all links require access to My Oracle Support.

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