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  • Is there an easy way to "append()" two dictionaries together in Python?

    - by digitaldreamer
    If I have two dictionaries I'd like to combine in Python, i.e. a = {'1': 1, '2': 2} b = {'3': 3, '4': 4} If I run update on them it reorders the list: a.update(b) {'1': 1, '3': 3, '2': 2, '4': 4} when what I really want is attach "b" to the end of "a": {'1': 1, '2': 2, '3': 3, '4': 4} Is there an easy way to attach "b" to the end of "a" without having to manually combine them like so: for key in b: a[key]=b[key] Something like += or append() would be ideal, but of course neither works on dictionaries.

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  • How to override 'where' in rails 3

    - by Zakwan Alhajjar
    I have upgraded my application from rails 2.3.8 to 3.0.3 . But I'm facing a problem. I was using 'find' but the overriding doesn't work in rails 3: # override activerecord's find to allow us to find by name or id transparently def self.find(*args) if args.is_a?(Array) and args.first.is_a?(String) and (args.first.index(/[a-zA-Z\-_]+/) or args.first.to_i.eql?(0) ) find_by_login_slug(args) else super end end I'm wondering if there is a way to make this work in rails 3 or even by using where instead. thanks

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  • Rails 2.3 using another model's named_scope or alternative

    - by mustafi
    Hi Let's say I have two models like so: class Comment < ActiveRecord::Base belongs_to :user named_scope :about_x :conditions => "comments.text like '%x%')" end class User < ActiveRecord::Base has_many :comments end I would like to use the models so that I can return all the users and all comments with text like '%x%' all_user_comments_about_x = User.comments.about_x How to proceed? Thank you

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  • Why do @synthesize variable names begin with an _?

    - by mcjoejoe0911
    I'm just starting to use Objective-C and I need to clarify something When I @synthesize a @property, it is common convention to do the following: @interface Class : ParentClass @property propertyName @end @implementation @synthesize propertyName = _propertyName; @end I've seen plenty of questions and answers suggesting that "_propertyName" is widely accepted as the "correct" way to synthesize properties. However, does it serve ANY purpose? Or is it merely to increase readability and identify instance variables?

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  • Where does ASP.NET Web API Fit?

    - by Rick Strahl
    With the pending release of ASP.NET MVC 4 and the new ASP.NET Web API, there has been a lot of discussion of where the new Web API technology fits in the ASP.NET Web stack. There are a lot of choices to build HTTP based applications available now on the stack - we've come a long way from when WebForms and Http Handlers/Modules where the only real options. Today we have WebForms, MVC, ASP.NET Web Pages, ASP.NET AJAX, WCF REST and now Web API as well as the core ASP.NET runtime to choose to build HTTP content with. Web API definitely squarely addresses the 'API' aspect - building consumable services - rather than HTML content, but even to that end there are a lot of choices you have today. So where does Web API fit, and when doesn't it? But before we get into that discussion, let's talk about what a Web API is and why we should care. What's a Web API? HTTP 'APIs' (Microsoft's new terminology for a service I guess)  are becoming increasingly more important with the rise of the many devices in use today. Most mobile devices like phones and tablets run Apps that are using data retrieved from the Web over HTTP. Desktop applications are also moving in this direction with more and more online content and synching moving into even traditional desktop applications. The pending Windows 8 release promises an app like platform for both the desktop and other devices, that also emphasizes consuming data from the Cloud. Likewise many Web browser hosted applications these days are relying on rich client functionality to create and manipulate the browser user interface, using AJAX rather than server generated HTML data to load up the user interface with data. These mobile or rich Web applications use their HTTP connection to return data rather than HTML markup in the form of JSON or XML typically. But an API can also serve other kinds of data, like images or other binary files, or even text data and HTML (although that's less common). A Web API is what feeds rich applications with data. ASP.NET Web API aims to service this particular segment of Web development by providing easy semantics to route and handle incoming requests and an easy to use platform to serve HTTP data in just about any content format you choose to create and serve from the server. But .NET already has various HTTP Platforms The .NET stack already includes a number of technologies that provide the ability to create HTTP service back ends, and it has done so since the very beginnings of the .NET platform. From raw HTTP Handlers and Modules in the core ASP.NET runtime, to high level platforms like ASP.NET MVC, Web Forms, ASP.NET AJAX and the WCF REST engine (which technically is not ASP.NET, but can integrate with it), you've always been able to handle just about any kind of HTTP request and response with ASP.NET. The beauty of the raw ASP.NET platform is that it provides you everything you need to build just about any type of HTTP application you can dream up from low level APIs/custom engines to high level HTML generation engine. ASP.NET as a core platform clearly has stood the test of time 10+ years later and all other frameworks like Web API are built on top of this ASP.NET core. However, although it's possible to create Web APIs / Services using any of the existing out of box .NET technologies, none of them have been a really nice fit for building arbitrary HTTP based APIs. Sure, you can use an HttpHandler to create just about anything, but you have to build a lot of plumbing to build something more complex like a comprehensive API that serves a variety of requests, handles multiple output formats and can easily pass data up to the server in a variety of ways. Likewise you can use ASP.NET MVC to handle routing and creating content in various formats fairly easily, but it doesn't provide a great way to automatically negotiate content types and serve various content formats directly (it's possible to do with some plumbing code of your own but not built in). Prior to Web API, Microsoft's main push for HTTP services has been WCF REST, which was always an awkward technology that had a severe personality conflict, not being clear on whether it wanted to be part of WCF or purely a separate technology. In the end it didn't do either WCF compatibility or WCF agnostic pure HTTP operation very well, which made for a very developer-unfriendly environment. Personally I didn't like any of the implementations at the time, so much so that I ended up building my own HTTP service engine (as part of the West Wind Web Toolkit), as have a few other third party tools that provided much better integration and ease of use. With the release of Web API for the first time I feel that I can finally use the tools in the box and not have to worry about creating and maintaining my own toolkit as Web API addresses just about all the features I implemented on my own and much more. ASP.NET Web API provides a better HTTP Experience ASP.NET Web API differentiates itself from the previous Microsoft in-box HTTP service solutions in that it was built from the ground up around the HTTP protocol and its messaging semantics. Unlike WCF REST or ASP.NET AJAX with ASMX, it’s a brand new platform rather than bolted on technology that is supposed to work in the context of an existing framework. The strength of the new ASP.NET Web API is that it combines the best features of the platforms that came before it, to provide a comprehensive and very usable HTTP platform. Because it's based on ASP.NET and borrows a lot of concepts from ASP.NET MVC, Web API should be immediately familiar and comfortable to most ASP.NET developers. Here are some of the features that Web API provides that I like: Strong Support for URL Routing to produce clean URLs using familiar MVC style routing semantics Content Negotiation based on Accept headers for request and response serialization Support for a host of supported output formats including JSON, XML, ATOM Strong default support for REST semantics but they are optional Easily extensible Formatter support to add new input/output types Deep support for more advanced HTTP features via HttpResponseMessage and HttpRequestMessage classes and strongly typed Enums to describe many HTTP operations Convention based design that drives you into doing the right thing for HTTP Services Very extensible, based on MVC like extensibility model of Formatters and Filters Self-hostable in non-Web applications  Testable using testing concepts similar to MVC Web API is meant to handle any kind of HTTP input and produce output and status codes using the full spectrum of HTTP functionality available in a straight forward and flexible manner. Looking at the list above you can see that a lot of functionality is very similar to ASP.NET MVC, so many ASP.NET developers should feel quite comfortable with the concepts of Web API. The Routing and core infrastructure of Web API are very similar to how MVC works providing many of the benefits of MVC, but with focus on HTTP access and manipulation in Controller methods rather than HTML generation in MVC. There’s much improved support for content negotiation based on HTTP Accept headers with the framework capable of detecting automatically what content the client is sending and requesting and serving the appropriate data format in return. This seems like such a little and obvious thing, but it's really important. Today's service backends often are used by multiple clients/applications and being able to choose the right data format for what fits best for the client is very important. While previous solutions were able to accomplish this using a variety of mixed features of WCF and ASP.NET, Web API combines all this functionality into a single robust server side HTTP framework that intrinsically understands the HTTP semantics and subtly drives you in the right direction for most operations. And when you need to customize or do something that is not built in, there are lots of hooks and overrides for most behaviors, and even many low level hook points that allow you to plug in custom functionality with relatively little effort. No Brainers for Web API There are a few scenarios that are a slam dunk for Web API. If your primary focus of an application or even a part of an application is some sort of API then Web API makes great sense. HTTP ServicesIf you're building a comprehensive HTTP API that is to be consumed over the Web, Web API is a perfect fit. You can isolate the logic in Web API and build your application as a service breaking out the logic into controllers as needed. Because the primary interface is the service there's no confusion of what should go where (MVC or API). Perfect fit. Primary AJAX BackendsIf you're building rich client Web applications that are relying heavily on AJAX callbacks to serve its data, Web API is also a slam dunk. Again because much if not most of the business logic will probably end up in your Web API service logic, there's no confusion over where logic should go and there's no duplication. In Single Page Applications (SPA), typically there's very little HTML based logic served other than bringing up a shell UI and then filling the data from the server with AJAX which means the business logic required for data retrieval and data acceptance and validation too lives in the Web API. Perfect fit. Generic HTTP EndpointsAnother good fit are generic HTTP endpoints that to serve data or handle 'utility' type functionality in typical Web applications. If you need to implement an image server, or an upload handler in the past I'd implement that as an HTTP handler. With Web API you now have a well defined place where you can implement these types of generic 'services' in a location that can easily add endpoints (via Controller methods) or separated out as more full featured APIs. Granted this could be done with MVC as well, but Web API seems a clearer and more well defined place to store generic application services. This is one thing I used to do a lot of in my own libraries and Web API addresses this nicely. Great fit. Mixed HTML and AJAX Applications: Not a clear Choice  For all the commonality that Web API and MVC share they are fundamentally different platforms that are independent of each other. A lot of people have asked when does it make sense to use MVC vs. Web API when you're dealing with typical Web application that creates HTML and also uses AJAX functionality for rich functionality. While it's easy to say that all 'service'/AJAX logic should go into a Web API and all HTML related generation into MVC, that can often result in a lot of code duplication. Also MVC supports JSON and XML result data fairly easily as well so there's some confusion where that 'trigger point' is of when you should switch to Web API vs. just implementing functionality as part of MVC controllers. Ultimately there's a tradeoff between isolation of functionality and duplication. A good rule of thumb I think works is that if a large chunk of the application's functionality serves data Web API is a good choice, but if you have a couple of small AJAX requests to serve data to a grid or autocomplete box it'd be overkill to separate out that logic into a separate Web API controller. Web API does add overhead to your application (it's yet another framework that sits on top of core ASP.NET) so it should be worth it .Keep in mind that MVC can generate HTML and JSON/XML and just about any other content easily and that functionality is not going away, so just because you Web API is there it doesn't mean you have to use it. Web API is not a full replacement for MVC obviously either since there's not the same level of support to feed HTML from Web API controllers (although you can host a RazorEngine easily enough if you really want to go that route) so if you're HTML is part of your API or application in general MVC is still a better choice either alone or in combination with Web API. I suspect (and hope) that in the future Web API's functionality will merge even closer with MVC so that you might even be able to mix functionality of both into single Controllers so that you don't have to make any trade offs, but at the moment that's not the case. Some Issues To think about Web API is similar to MVC but not the Same Although Web API looks a lot like MVC it's not the same and some common functionality of MVC behaves differently in Web API. For example, the way single POST variables are handled is different than MVC and doesn't lend itself particularly well to some AJAX scenarios with POST data. Code Duplication I already touched on this in the Mixed HTML and Web API section, but if you build an MVC application that also exposes a Web API it's quite likely that you end up duplicating a bunch of code and - potentially - infrastructure. You may have to create authentication logic both for an HTML application and for the Web API which might need something different altogether. More often than not though the same logic is used, and there's no easy way to share. If you implement an MVC ActionFilter and you want that same functionality in your Web API you'll end up creating the filter twice. AJAX Data or AJAX HTML On a recent post's comments, David made some really good points regarding the commonality of MVC and Web API's and its place. One comment that caught my eye was a little more generic, regarding data services vs. HTML services. David says: I see a lot of merit in the combination of Knockout.js, client side templates and view models, calling Web API for a responsive UI, but sometimes late at night that still leaves me wondering why I would no longer be using some of the nice tooling and features that have evolved in MVC ;-) You know what - I can totally relate to that. On the last Web based mobile app I worked on, we decided to serve HTML partials to the client via AJAX for many (but not all!) things, rather than sending down raw data to inject into the DOM on the client via templating or direct manipulation. While there are definitely more bytes on the wire, with this, the overhead ended up being actually fairly small if you keep the 'data' requests small and atomic. Performance was often made up by the lack of client side rendering of HTML. Server rendered HTML for AJAX templating gives so much better infrastructure support without having to screw around with 20 mismatched client libraries. Especially with MVC and partials it's pretty easy to break out your HTML logic into very small, atomic chunks, so it's actually easy to create small rendering islands that can be used via composition on the server, or via AJAX calls to small, tight partials that return HTML to the client. Although this is often frowned upon as to 'heavy', it worked really well in terms of developer effort as well as providing surprisingly good performance on devices. There's still plenty of jQuery and AJAX logic happening on the client but it's more manageable in small doses rather than trying to do the entire UI composition with JavaScript and/or 'not-quite-there-yet' template engines that are very difficult to debug. This is not an issue directly related to Web API of course, but something to think about especially for AJAX or SPA style applications. Summary Web API is a great new addition to the ASP.NET platform and it addresses a serious need for consolidation of a lot of half-baked HTTP service API technologies that came before it. Web API feels 'right', and hits the right combination of usability and flexibility at least for me and it's a good fit for true API scenarios. However, just because a new platform is available it doesn't meant that other tools or tech that came before it should be discarded or even upgraded to the new platform. There's nothing wrong with continuing to use MVC controller methods to handle API tasks if that's what your app is running now - there's very little to be gained by upgrading to Web API just because. But going forward Web API clearly is the way to go, when building HTTP data interfaces and it's good to see that Microsoft got this one right - it was sorely needed! Resources ASP.NET Web API AspConf Ask the Experts Session (first 5 minutes) © Rick Strahl, West Wind Technologies, 2005-2012Posted in Web Api   Tweet !function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js";fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document,"script","twitter-wjs"); (function() { var po = document.createElement('script'); po.type = 'text/javascript'; po.async = true; po.src = 'https://apis.google.com/js/plusone.js'; var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(po, s); })();

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  • 10 Essential Tools for building ASP.NET Websites

    - by Stephen Walther
    I recently put together a simple public website created with ASP.NET for my company at Superexpert.com. I was surprised by the number of free tools that I ended up using to put together the website. Therefore, I thought it would be interesting to create a list of essential tools for building ASP.NET websites. These tools work equally well with both ASP.NET Web Forms and ASP.NET MVC. Performance Tools After reading Steve Souders two (very excellent) books on front-end website performance High Performance Web Sites and Even Faster Web Sites, I have been super sensitive to front-end website performance. According to Souders’ Performance Golden Rule: “Optimize front-end performance first, that's where 80% or more of the end-user response time is spent” You can use the tools below to reduce the size of the images, JavaScript files, and CSS files used by an ASP.NET application. 1. Sprite and Image Optimization Framework CSS sprites were first described in an article written for A List Apart entitled CSS sprites: Image Slicing’s Kiss of Death. When you use sprites, you combine multiple images used by a website into a single image. Next, you use CSS trickery to display particular sub-images from the combined image in a webpage. The primary advantage of sprites is that they reduce the number of requests required to display a webpage. Requesting a single large image is faster than requesting multiple small images. In general, the more resources – images, JavaScript files, CSS files – that must be moved across the wire, the slower your website. However, most people avoid using sprites because they require a lot of work. You need to combine all of the images and write just the right CSS rules to display the sub-images. The Microsoft Sprite and Image Optimization Framework enables you to avoid all of this work. The framework combines the images for you automatically. Furthermore, the framework includes an ASP.NET Web Forms control and an ASP.NET MVC helper that makes it easy to display the sub-images. You can download the Sprite and Image Optimization Framework from CodePlex at http://aspnet.codeplex.com/releases/view/50869. The Sprite and Image Optimization Framework was written by Morgan McClean who worked in the office next to mine at Microsoft. Morgan was a scary smart Intern from Canada and we discussed the Framework while he was building it (I was really excited to learn that he was working on it). Morgan added some great advanced features to this framework. For example, the Sprite and Image Optimization Framework supports something called image inlining. When you use image inlining, the actual image is stored in the CSS file. Here’s an example of what image inlining looks like: .Home_StephenWalther_small-jpg { width:75px; height:100px; background: url(data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAEsAAABkCAIAAABB1lpeAAAAB GdBTUEAALGOfPtRkwAAACBjSFJNAACHDwAAjA8AAP1SAACBQAAAfXkAAOmLAAA85QAAGcxzPIV3AAAKL s+zNfREAAAAASUVORK5CYII=) no-repeat 0% 0%; } The actual image (in this case a picture of me that is displayed on the home page of the Superexpert.com website) is stored in the CSS file. If you visit the Superexpert.com website then very few separate images are downloaded. For example, all of the images with a red border in the screenshot below take advantage of CSS sprites: Unfortunately, there are some significant Gotchas that you need to be aware of when using the Sprite and Image Optimization Framework. There are workarounds for these Gotchas. I plan to write about these Gotchas and workarounds in a future blog entry. 2. Microsoft Ajax Minifier Whenever possible you should combine, minify, compress, and cache with a far future header all of your JavaScript and CSS files. The Microsoft Ajax Minifier makes it easy to minify JavaScript and CSS files. Don’t confuse minification and compression. You need to do both. According to Souders, you can reduce the size of a JavaScript file by an additional 20% (on average) by minifying a JavaScript file after you compress the file. When you minify a JavaScript or CSS file, you use various tricks to reduce the size of the file before you compress the file. For example, you can minify a JavaScript file by replacing long JavaScript variables names with short variables names and removing unnecessary white space and comments. You can minify a CSS file by doing such things as replacing long color names such as #ffffff with shorter equivalents such as #fff. The Microsoft Ajax Minifier was created by Microsoft employee Ron Logan. Internally, this tool was being used by several large Microsoft websites. We also used the tool heavily on the ASP.NET team. I convinced Ron to publish the tool on CodePlex so that everyone in the world could take advantage of it. You can download the tool from the ASP.NET Ajax website and read documentation for the tool here. I created the installer for the Microsoft Ajax Minifier. When creating the installer, I also created a Visual Studio build task to make it easy to minify all of your JavaScript and CSS files whenever you do a build within Visual Studio automatically. Read the Ajax Minifier Quick Start to learn how to configure the build task. 3. ySlow The ySlow tool is a free add-on for Firefox created by Yahoo that enables you to test the front-end of your website. For example, here are the current test results for the Superexpert.com website: The Superexpert.com website has an overall score of B (not perfect but not bad). The ySlow tool is not perfect. For example, the Superexpert.com website received a failing grade of F for not using a Content Delivery Network even though the website using the Microsoft Ajax Content Delivery Network for JavaScript files such as jQuery. Uptime After publishing a website live to the world, you want to ensure that the website does not encounter any issues and that it stays live. I use the following tools to monitor the Superexpert.com website now that it is live. 4. ELMAH ELMAH stands for Error Logging Modules and Handlers for ASP.NET. ELMAH enables you to record any errors that happen at your website so you can review them in the future. You can download ELMAH for free from the ELMAH project website. ELMAH works great with both ASP.NET Web Forms and ASP.NET MVC. You can configure ELMAH to store errors in a number of different stores including XML files, the Event Log, an Access database, a SQL database, an Oracle database, or in computer RAM. You also can configure ELMAH to email error messages to you when they happen. By default, you can access ELMAH by requesting the elmah.axd page from a website with ELMAH installed. Here’s what the elmah page looks like from the Superexpert.com website (this page is password-protected because secret information can be revealed in an error message): If you click on a particular error message, you can view the original Yellow Screen ASP.NET error message (even when the error message was never displayed to the actual user). I installed ELMAH by taking advantage of the new package manager for ASP.NET named NuGet (originally named NuPack). You can read the details about NuGet in the following blog entry by Scott Guthrie. You can download NuGet from CodePlex. 5. Pingdom I use Pingdom to verify that the Superexpert.com website is always up. You can sign up for Pingdom by visiting Pingdom.com. You can use Pingdom to monitor a single website for free. At the Pingdom website, you configure the frequency that your website gets pinged. I verify that the Superexpert.com website is up every 5 minutes. I have the Pingdom service verify that it can retrieve the string “Contact Us” from the website homepage. If your website goes down, you can configure Pingdom so that it sends an email, Twitter, SMS, or iPhone alert. I use the Pingdom iPhone app which looks like this: 6. Host Tracker If your website does go down then you need some way of determining whether it is a problem with your local network or if your website is down for everyone. I use a website named Host-Tracker.com to check how badly a website is down. Here’s what the Host-Tracker website displays for the Superexpert.com website when the website can be successfully pinged from everywhere in the world: Notice that Host-Tracker pinged the Superexpert.com website from 68 locations including Roubaix, France and Scranton, PA. Debugging I mean debugging in the broadest possible sense. I use the following tools when building a website to verify that I have not made a mistake. 7. HTML Spell Checker Why doesn’t Visual Studio have a built-in spell checker? Don’t know – I’ve always found this mysterious. Fortunately, however, a former member of the ASP.NET team wrote a free spell checker that you can use with your ASP.NET pages. I find a spell checker indispensible. It is easy to delude yourself that you are capable of perfect spelling. I’m always super embarrassed when I actually run the spell checking tool and discover all of my spelling mistakes. The fastest way to add the HTML Spell Checker extension to Visual Studio is to select the menu option Tools, Extension Manager within Visual Studio. Click on Online Gallery and search for HTML Spell Checker: 8. IIS SEO Toolkit If people cannot find your website through Google then you should not even bother to create it. Microsoft has a great extension for IIS named the IIS Search Engine Optimization Toolkit that you can use to identify issue with your website that would hurt its page rank. You also can use this tool to quickly create a sitemap for your website that you can submit to Google or Bing. You can even generate the sitemap for an ASP.NET MVC website. Here’s what the report overview for the Superexpert.com website looks like: Notice that the Sueprexpert.com website had plenty of violations. For example, there are 65 cases in which a page has a broken hyperlink. You can drill into these violations to identity the exact page and location where these violations occur. 9. LinqPad If your ASP.NET website accesses a database then you should be using LINQ to Entities with the Entity Framework. Using LINQ involves some magic. LINQ queries written in C# get converted into SQL queries for you. If you are not careful about how you write your LINQ queries, you could unintentionally build a really badly performing website. LinqPad is a free tool that enables you to experiment with your LINQ queries. It even works with Microsoft SQL CE 4 and Azure. You can use LinqPad to execute a LINQ to Entities query and see the results. You also can use it to see the resulting SQL that gets executed against the database: 10. .NET Reflector I use .NET Reflector daily. The .NET Reflector tool enables you to take any assembly and disassemble the assembly into C# or VB.NET code. You can use .NET Reflector to see the “Source Code” of an assembly even when you do not have the actual source code. You can download a free version of .NET Reflector from the Redgate website. I use .NET Reflector primarily to help me understand what code is doing internally. For example, I used .NET Reflector with the Sprite and Image Optimization Framework to better understand how the MVC Image helper works. Here’s part of the disassembled code from the Image helper class: Summary In this blog entry, I’ve discussed several of the tools that I used to create the Superexpert.com website. These are tools that I use to improve the performance, improve the SEO, verify the uptime, or debug the Superexpert.com website. All of the tools discussed in this blog entry are free. Furthermore, all of these tools work with both ASP.NET Web Forms and ASP.NET MVC. Let me know if there are any tools that you use daily when building ASP.NET websites.

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  • Stored Procedures with SSRS? Hmm… not so much

    - by Rob Farley
    Little Bobby Tables’ mother says you should always sanitise your data input. Except that I think she’s wrong. The SQL Injection aspect is for another post, where I’ll show you why I think SQL Injection is the same kind of attack as many other attacks, such as the old buffer overflow, but here I want to have a bit of a whinge about the way that some people sanitise data input, and even have a whinge about people who insist on using stored procedures for SSRS reports. Let me say that again, in case you missed it the first time: I want to have a whinge about people who insist on using stored procedures for SSRS reports. Let’s look at the data input sanitisation aspect – except that I’m going to call it ‘parameter validation’. I’m talking about code that looks like this: create procedure dbo.GetMonthSummaryPerSalesPerson(@eomdate datetime) as begin     /* First check that @eomdate is a valid date */     if isdate(@eomdate) != 1     begin         select 'Please enter a valid date' as ErrorMessage;         return;     end     /* Then check that time has passed since @eomdate */     if datediff(day,@eomdate,sysdatetime()) < 5     begin         select 'Sorry - EOM is not complete yet' as ErrorMessage;         return;     end         /* If those checks have succeeded, return the data */     select SalesPersonID, count(*) as NumSales, sum(TotalDue) as TotalSales     from Sales.SalesOrderHeader     where OrderDate >= dateadd(month,-1,@eomdate)         and OrderDate < @eomdate     group by SalesPersonID     order by SalesPersonID; end Notice that the code checks that a date has been entered. Seriously??!! This must only be to check for NULL values being passed in, because anything else would have to be a valid datetime to avoid an error. The other check is maybe fair enough, but I still don’t like it. The two problems I have with this stored procedure are the result sets and the small fact that the stored procedure even exists in the first place. But let’s consider the first one of these problems for starters. I’ll get to the second one in a moment. If you read Jes Borland (@grrl_geek)’s recent post about returning multiple result sets in Reporting Services, you’ll be aware that Reporting Services doesn’t support multiple results sets from a single query. And when it says ‘single query’, it includes ‘stored procedure call’. It’ll only handle the first result set that comes back. But that’s okay – we have RETURN statements, so our stored procedure will only ever return a single result set.  Sometimes that result set might contain a single field called ErrorMessage, but it’s still only one result set. Except that it’s not okay, because Reporting Services needs to know what fields to expect. Your report needs to hook into your fields, so SSRS needs to have a way to get that information. For stored procs, it uses an option called FMTONLY. When Reporting Services tries to figure out what fields are going to be returned by a query (or stored procedure call), it doesn’t want to have to run the whole thing. That could take ages. (Maybe it’s seen some of the stored procedures I’ve had to deal with over the years!) So it turns on FMTONLY before it makes the call (and turns it off again afterwards). FMTONLY is designed to be able to figure out the shape of the output, without actually running the contents. It’s very useful, you might think. set fmtonly on exec dbo.GetMonthSummaryPerSalesPerson '20030401'; set fmtonly off Without the FMTONLY lines, this stored procedure returns a result set that has three columns and fourteen rows. But with FMTONLY turned on, those rows don’t come back. But what I do get back hurts Reporting Services. It doesn’t run the stored procedure at all. It just looks for anything that could be returned and pushes out a result set in that shape. Despite the fact that I’ve made sure that the logic will only ever return a single result set, the FMTONLY option kills me by returning three of them. It would have been much better to push these checks down into the query itself. alter procedure dbo.GetMonthSummaryPerSalesPerson(@eomdate datetime) as begin     select SalesPersonID, count(*) as NumSales, sum(TotalDue) as TotalSales     from Sales.SalesOrderHeader     where     /* Make sure that @eomdate is valid */         isdate(@eomdate) = 1     /* And that it's sufficiently past */     and datediff(day,@eomdate,sysdatetime()) >= 5     /* And now use it in the filter as appropriate */     and OrderDate >= dateadd(month,-1,@eomdate)     and OrderDate < @eomdate     group by SalesPersonID     order by SalesPersonID; end Now if we run it with FMTONLY turned on, we get the single result set back. But let’s consider the execution plan when we pass in an invalid date. First let’s look at one that returns data. I’ve got a semi-useful index in place on OrderDate, which includes the SalesPersonID and TotalDue fields. It does the job, despite a hefty Sort operation. …compared to one that uses a future date: You might notice that the estimated costs are similar – the Index Seek is still 28%, the Sort is still 71%. But the size of that arrow coming out of the Index Seek is a whole bunch smaller. The coolest thing here is what’s going on with that Index Seek. Let’s look at some of the properties of it. Glance down it with me… Estimated CPU cost of 0.0005728, 387 estimated rows, estimated subtree cost of 0.0044385, ForceSeek false, Number of Executions 0. That’s right – it doesn’t run. So much for reading plans right-to-left... The key is the Filter on the left of it. It has a Startup Expression Predicate in it, which means that it doesn’t call anything further down the plan (to the right) if the predicate evaluates to false. Using this method, we can make sure that our stored procedure contains a single query, and therefore avoid any problems with multiple result sets. If we wanted, we could always use UNION ALL to make sure that we can return an appropriate error message. alter procedure dbo.GetMonthSummaryPerSalesPerson(@eomdate datetime) as begin     select SalesPersonID, count(*) as NumSales, sum(TotalDue) as TotalSales, /*Placeholder: */ '' as ErrorMessage     from Sales.SalesOrderHeader     where     /* Make sure that @eomdate is valid */         isdate(@eomdate) = 1     /* And that it's sufficiently past */     and datediff(day,@eomdate,sysdatetime()) >= 5     /* And now use it in the filter as appropriate */     and OrderDate >= dateadd(month,-1,@eomdate)     and OrderDate < @eomdate     group by SalesPersonID     /* Now include the error messages */     union all     select 0, 0, 0, 'Please enter a valid date' as ErrorMessage     where isdate(@eomdate) != 1     union all     select 0, 0, 0, 'Sorry - EOM is not complete yet' as ErrorMessage     where datediff(day,@eomdate,sysdatetime()) < 5     order by SalesPersonID; end But still I don’t like it, because it’s now a stored procedure with a single query. And I don’t like stored procedures that should be functions. That’s right – I think this should be a function, and SSRS should call the function. And I apologise to those of you who are now planning a bonfire for me. Guy Fawkes’ night has already passed this year, so I think you miss out. (And I’m not going to remind you about when the PASS Summit is in 2012.) create function dbo.GetMonthSummaryPerSalesPerson(@eomdate datetime) returns table as return (     select SalesPersonID, count(*) as NumSales, sum(TotalDue) as TotalSales, '' as ErrorMessage     from Sales.SalesOrderHeader     where     /* Make sure that @eomdate is valid */         isdate(@eomdate) = 1     /* And that it's sufficiently past */     and datediff(day,@eomdate,sysdatetime()) >= 5     /* And now use it in the filter as appropriate */     and OrderDate >= dateadd(month,-1,@eomdate)     and OrderDate < @eomdate     group by SalesPersonID     union all     select 0, 0, 0, 'Please enter a valid date' as ErrorMessage     where isdate(@eomdate) != 1     union all     select 0, 0, 0, 'Sorry - EOM is not complete yet' as ErrorMessage     where datediff(day,@eomdate,sysdatetime()) < 5 ); We’ve had to lose the ORDER BY – but that’s fine, as that’s a client thing anyway. We can have our reports leverage this stored query still, but we’re recognising that it’s a query, not a procedure. A procedure is designed to DO stuff, not just return data. We even get entries in sys.columns that confirm what the shape of the result set actually is, which makes sense, because a table-valued function is the right mechanism to return data. And we get so much more flexibility with this. If you haven’t seen the simplification stuff that I’ve preached on before, jump over to http://bit.ly/SimpleRob and watch the video of when I broke a microphone and nearly fell off the stage in Wales. You’ll see the impact of being able to have a simplifiable query. You can also read the procedural functions post I wrote recently, if you didn’t follow the link from a few paragraphs ago. So if we want the list of SalesPeople that made any kind of sales in a given month, we can do something like: select SalesPersonID from dbo.GetMonthSummaryPerSalesPerson(@eomonth) order by SalesPersonID; This doesn’t need to look up the TotalDue field, which makes a simpler plan. select * from dbo.GetMonthSummaryPerSalesPerson(@eomonth) where SalesPersonID is not null order by SalesPersonID; This one can avoid having to do the work on the rows that don’t have a SalesPersonID value, pushing the predicate into the Index Seek rather than filtering the results that come back to the report. If we had joins involved, we might see some of those being simplified out. We also get the ability to include query hints in individual reports. We shift from having a single-use stored procedure to having a reusable stored query – and isn’t that one of the main points of modularisation? Stored procedures in Reporting Services are just a bit limited for my liking. They’re useful in plenty of ways, but if you insist on using stored procedures all the time rather that queries that use functions – that’s rubbish. @rob_farley

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  • Creating a thematic map

    - by jsharma
    This post describes how to create a simple thematic map, just a state population layer, with no underlying map tile layer. The map shows states color-coded by total population. The map is interactive with info-windows and can be panned and zoomed. The sample code demonstrates the following: Displaying an interactive vector layer with no background map tile layer (i.e. purpose and use of the Universe object) Using a dynamic (i.e. defined via the javascript client API) color bucket style Dynamically changing a layer's rendering style Specifying which attribute value to use in determining the bucket, and hence style, for a feature (FoI) The result is shown in the screenshot below. The states layer was defined, and stored in the user_sdo_themes view of the mvdemo schema, using MapBuilder. The underlying table is defined as SQL> desc states_32775  Name                                      Null?    Type ----------------------------------------- -------- ----------------------------  STATE                                              VARCHAR2(26)  STATE_ABRV                                         VARCHAR2(2) FIPSST                                             VARCHAR2(2) TOTPOP                                             NUMBER PCTSMPLD                                           NUMBER LANDSQMI                                           NUMBER POPPSQMI                                           NUMBER ... MEDHHINC NUMBER AVGHHINC NUMBER GEOM32775 MDSYS.SDO_GEOMETRY We'll use the TOTPOP column value in the advanced (color bucket) style for rendering the states layers. The predefined theme (US_STATES_BI) is defined as follows. SQL> select styling_rules from user_sdo_themes where name='US_STATES_BI'; STYLING_RULES -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- <?xml version="1.0" standalone="yes"?> <styling_rules highlight_style="C.CB_QUAL_8_CLASS_DARK2_1"> <hidden_info> <field column="STATE" name="Name"/> <field column="POPPSQMI" name="POPPSQMI"/> <field column="TOTPOP" name="TOTPOP"/> </hidden_info> <rule column="TOTPOP"> <features style="states_totpop"> </features> <label column="STATE_ABRV" style="T.BLUE_SERIF_10"> 1 </label> </rule> </styling_rules> SQL> The theme definition specifies that the state, poppsqmi, totpop, state_abrv, and geom columns will be queried from the states_32775 table. The state_abrv value will be used to label the state while the totpop value will be used to determine the color-fill from those defined in the states_totpop advanced style. The states_totpop style, which we will not use in our demo, is defined as shown below. SQL> select definition from user_sdo_styles where name='STATES_TOTPOP'; DEFINITION -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- <?xml version="1.0" ?> <AdvancedStyle> <BucketStyle> <Buckets default_style="C.S02_COUNTRY_AREA"> <RangedBucket seq="0" label="10K - 5M" low="10000" high="5000000" style="C.SEQ6_01" /> <RangedBucket seq="1" label="5M - 12M" low="5000001" high="1.2E7" style="C.SEQ6_02" /> <RangedBucket seq="2" label="12M - 20M" low="1.2000001E7" high="2.0E7" style="C.SEQ6_04" /> <RangedBucket seq="3" label="&gt; 20M" low="2.0000001E7" high="5.0E7" style="C.SEQ6_05" /> </Buckets> </BucketStyle> </AdvancedStyle> SQL> The demo defines additional advanced styles via the OM.style object and methods and uses those instead when rendering the states layer.   Now let's look at relevant snippets of code that defines the map extent and zoom levels (i.e. the OM.universe),  loads the states predefined vector layer (OM.layer), and sets up the advanced (color bucket) style. Defining the map extent and zoom levels. function initMap() {   //alert("Initialize map view");     // define the map extent and number of zoom levels.   // The Universe object is similar to the map tile layer configuration   // It defines the map extent, number of zoom levels, and spatial reference system   // well-known ones (like web mercator/google/bing or maps.oracle/elocation are predefined   // The Universe must be defined when there is no underlying map tile layer.   // When there is a map tile layer then that defines the map extent, srid, and zoom levels.      var uni= new OM.universe.Universe(     {         srid : 32775,         bounds : new OM.geometry.Rectangle(                         -3280000, 170000, 2300000, 3200000, 32775),         numberOfZoomLevels: 8     }); The srid specifies the spatial reference system which is Equal-Area Projection (United States). SQL> select cs_name from cs_srs where srid=32775 ; CS_NAME --------------------------------------------------- Equal-Area Projection (United States) The bounds defines the map extent. It is a Rectangle defined using the lower-left and upper-right coordinates and srid. Loading and displaying the states layer This is done in the states() function. The full code is at the end of this post, however here's the snippet which defines the states VectorLayer.     // States is a predefined layer in user_sdo_themes     var  layer2 = new OM.layer.VectorLayer("vLayer2",     {         def:         {             type:OM.layer.VectorLayer.TYPE_PREDEFINED,             dataSource:"mvdemo",             theme:"us_states_bi",             url: baseURL,             loadOnDemand: false         },         boundingTheme:true      }); The first parameter is a layer name, the second is an object literal for a layer config. The config object has two attributes: the first is the layer definition, the second specifies whether the layer is a bounding one (i.e. used to determine the current map zoom and center such that the whole layer is displayed within the map window) or not. The layer config has the following attributes: type - specifies whether is a predefined one, a defined via a SQL query (JDBC), or in a json-format file (DATAPACK) theme - is the predefined theme's name url - is the location of the mapviewer server loadOnDemand - specifies whether to load all the features or just those that lie within the current map window and load additional ones as needed on a pan or zoom The code snippet below dynamically defines an advanced style and then uses it, instead of the 'states_totpop' style, when rendering the states layer. // override predefined rendering style with programmatic one    var theRenderingStyle =      createBucketColorStyle('YlBr5', colorSeries, 'States5', true);   // specify which attribute is used in determining the bucket (i.e. color) to use for the state   // It can be an array because the style could be a chart type (pie/bar)   // which requires multiple attribute columns     // Use the STATE.TOTPOP column (aka attribute) value here    layer2.setRenderingStyle(theRenderingStyle, ["TOTPOP"]); The style itself is defined in the createBucketColorStyle() function. Dynamically defining an advanced style The advanced style used here is a bucket color style, i.e. a color style is associated with each bucket. So first we define the colors and then the buckets.     numClasses = colorSeries[colorName].classes;    // create Color Styles    for (var i=0; i < numClasses; i++)    {         theStyles[i] = new OM.style.Color(                      {fill: colorSeries[colorName].fill[i],                        stroke:colorSeries[colorName].stroke[i],                       strokeOpacity: useGradient? 0.25 : 1                      });    }; numClasses is the number of buckets. The colorSeries array contains the color fill and stroke definitions and is: var colorSeries = { //multi-hue color scheme #10 YlBl. "YlBl3": {   classes:3,                  fill: [0xEDF8B1, 0x7FCDBB, 0x2C7FB8],                  stroke:[0xB5DF9F, 0x72B8A8, 0x2872A6]   }, "YlBl5": {   classes:5,                  fill:[0xFFFFCC, 0xA1DAB4, 0x41B6C4, 0x2C7FB8, 0x253494],                  stroke:[0xE6E6B8, 0x91BCA2, 0x3AA4B0, 0x2872A6, 0x212F85]   }, //multi-hue color scheme #11 YlBr.  "YlBr3": {classes:3,                  fill:[0xFFF7BC, 0xFEC44F, 0xD95F0E],                  stroke:[0xE6DEA9, 0xE5B047, 0xC5360D]   }, "YlBr5": {classes:5,                  fill:[0xFFFFD4, 0xFED98E, 0xFE9929, 0xD95F0E, 0x993404],                  stroke:[0xE6E6BF, 0xE5C380, 0xE58A25, 0xC35663, 0x8A2F04]     }, etc. Next we create the bucket style.    bucketStyleDef = {       numClasses : colorSeries[colorName].classes, //      classification: 'custom',  //since we are supplying all the buckets //      buckets: theBuckets,       classification: 'logarithmic',  // use a logarithmic scale       styles: theStyles,       gradient:  useGradient? 'linear' : 'off' //      gradient:  useGradient? 'radial' : 'off'     };    theBucketStyle = new OM.style.BucketStyle(bucketStyleDef);    return theBucketStyle; A BucketStyle constructor takes a style definition as input. The style definition specifies the number of buckets (numClasses), a classification scheme (which can be equal-ranged, logarithmic scale, or custom), the styles for each bucket, whether to use a gradient effect, and optionally the buckets (required when using a custom classification scheme). The full source for the demo <!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/strict.dtd"> <html> <head> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8"> <title>Oracle Maps V2 Thematic Map Demo</title> <script src="http://localhost:8080/mapviewer/jslib/v2/oraclemapsv2.js" type="text/javascript"> </script> <script type="text/javascript"> //var $j = jQuery.noConflict(); var baseURL="http://localhost:8080/mapviewer"; // location of mapviewer OM.gv.proxyEnabled =false; // no mvproxy needed OM.gv.setResourcePath(baseURL+"/jslib/v2/images/"); // location of resources for UI elements like nav panel buttons var map = null; // the client mapviewer object var statesLayer = null, stateCountyLayer = null; // The vector layers for states and counties in a state var layerName="States"; // initial map center and zoom var mapCenterLon = -20000; var mapCenterLat = 1750000; var mapZoom = 2; var mpoint = new OM.geometry.Point(mapCenterLon,mapCenterLat,32775); var currentPalette = null, currentStyle=null; // set an onchange listener for the color palette select list // initialize the map // load and display the states layer $(document).ready( function() { $("#demo-htmlselect").change(function() { var theColorScheme = $(this).val(); useSelectedColorScheme(theColorScheme); }); initMap(); states(); } ); /** * color series from ColorBrewer site (http://colorbrewer2.org/). */ var colorSeries = { //multi-hue color scheme #10 YlBl. "YlBl3": { classes:3, fill: [0xEDF8B1, 0x7FCDBB, 0x2C7FB8], stroke:[0xB5DF9F, 0x72B8A8, 0x2872A6] }, "YlBl5": { classes:5, fill:[0xFFFFCC, 0xA1DAB4, 0x41B6C4, 0x2C7FB8, 0x253494], stroke:[0xE6E6B8, 0x91BCA2, 0x3AA4B0, 0x2872A6, 0x212F85] }, //multi-hue color scheme #11 YlBr. "YlBr3": {classes:3, fill:[0xFFF7BC, 0xFEC44F, 0xD95F0E], stroke:[0xE6DEA9, 0xE5B047, 0xC5360D] }, "YlBr5": {classes:5, fill:[0xFFFFD4, 0xFED98E, 0xFE9929, 0xD95F0E, 0x993404], stroke:[0xE6E6BF, 0xE5C380, 0xE58A25, 0xC35663, 0x8A2F04] }, // single-hue color schemes (blues, greens, greys, oranges, reds, purples) "Purples5": {classes:5, fill:[0xf2f0f7, 0xcbc9e2, 0x9e9ac8, 0x756bb1, 0x54278f], stroke:[0xd3d3d3, 0xd3d3d3, 0xd3d3d3, 0xd3d3d3, 0xd3d3d3] }, "Blues5": {classes:5, fill:[0xEFF3FF, 0xbdd7e7, 0x68aed6, 0x3182bd, 0x18519C], stroke:[0xd3d3d3, 0xd3d3d3, 0xd3d3d3, 0xd3d3d3, 0xd3d3d3] }, "Greens5": {classes:5, fill:[0xedf8e9, 0xbae4b3, 0x74c476, 0x31a354, 0x116d2c], stroke:[0xd3d3d3, 0xd3d3d3, 0xd3d3d3, 0xd3d3d3, 0xd3d3d3] }, "Greys5": {classes:5, fill:[0xf7f7f7, 0xcccccc, 0x969696, 0x636363, 0x454545], stroke:[0xd3d3d3, 0xd3d3d3, 0xd3d3d3, 0xd3d3d3, 0xd3d3d3] }, "Oranges5": {classes:5, fill:[0xfeedde, 0xfdb385, 0xfd8d3c, 0xe6550d, 0xa63603], stroke:[0xd3d3d3, 0xd3d3d3, 0xd3d3d3, 0xd3d3d3, 0xd3d3d3] }, "Reds5": {classes:5, fill:[0xfee5d9, 0xfcae91, 0xfb6a4a, 0xde2d26, 0xa50f15], stroke:[0xd3d3d3, 0xd3d3d3, 0xd3d3d3, 0xd3d3d3, 0xd3d3d3] } }; function createBucketColorStyle( colorName, colorSeries, rangeName, useGradient) { var theBucketStyle; var bucketStyleDef; var theStyles = []; var theColors = []; var aBucket, aStyle, aColor, aRange; var numClasses ; numClasses = colorSeries[colorName].classes; // create Color Styles for (var i=0; i < numClasses; i++) { theStyles[i] = new OM.style.Color( {fill: colorSeries[colorName].fill[i], stroke:colorSeries[colorName].stroke[i], strokeOpacity: useGradient? 0.25 : 1 }); }; bucketStyleDef = { numClasses : colorSeries[colorName].classes, // classification: 'custom', //since we are supplying all the buckets // buckets: theBuckets, classification: 'logarithmic', // use a logarithmic scale styles: theStyles, gradient: useGradient? 'linear' : 'off' // gradient: useGradient? 'radial' : 'off' }; theBucketStyle = new OM.style.BucketStyle(bucketStyleDef); return theBucketStyle; } function initMap() { //alert("Initialize map view"); // define the map extent and number of zoom levels. // The Universe object is similar to the map tile layer configuration // It defines the map extent, number of zoom levels, and spatial reference system // well-known ones (like web mercator/google/bing or maps.oracle/elocation are predefined // The Universe must be defined when there is no underlying map tile layer. // When there is a map tile layer then that defines the map extent, srid, and zoom levels. var uni= new OM.universe.Universe( { srid : 32775, bounds : new OM.geometry.Rectangle( -3280000, 170000, 2300000, 3200000, 32775), numberOfZoomLevels: 8 }); map = new OM.Map( document.getElementById('map'), { mapviewerURL: baseURL, universe:uni }) ; var navigationPanelBar = new OM.control.NavigationPanelBar(); map.addMapDecoration(navigationPanelBar); } // end initMap function states() { //alert("Load and display states"); layerName = "States"; if(statesLayer) { // states were already visible but the style may have changed // so set the style to the currently selected one var theData = $('#demo-htmlselect').val(); setStyle(theData); } else { // States is a predefined layer in user_sdo_themes var layer2 = new OM.layer.VectorLayer("vLayer2", { def: { type:OM.layer.VectorLayer.TYPE_PREDEFINED, dataSource:"mvdemo", theme:"us_states_bi", url: baseURL, loadOnDemand: false }, boundingTheme:true }); // add drop shadow effect and hover style var shadowFilter = new OM.visualfilter.DropShadow({opacity:0.5, color:"#000000", offset:6, radius:10}); var hoverStyle = new OM.style.Color( {stroke:"#838383", strokeThickness:2}); layer2.setHoverStyle(hoverStyle); layer2.setHoverVisualFilter(shadowFilter); layer2.enableFeatureHover(true); layer2.enableFeatureSelection(false); layer2.setLabelsVisible(true); // override predefined rendering style with programmatic one var theRenderingStyle = createBucketColorStyle('YlBr5', colorSeries, 'States5', true); // specify which attribute is used in determining the bucket (i.e. color) to use for the state // It can be an array because the style could be a chart type (pie/bar) // which requires multiple attribute columns // Use the STATE.TOTPOP column (aka attribute) value here layer2.setRenderingStyle(theRenderingStyle, ["TOTPOP"]); currentPalette = "YlBr5"; var stLayerIdx = map.addLayer(layer2); //alert('State Layer Idx = ' + stLayerIdx); map.setMapCenter(mpoint); map.setMapZoomLevel(mapZoom) ; // display the map map.init() ; statesLayer=layer2; // add rt-click event listener to show counties for the state layer2.addListener(OM.event.MouseEvent.MOUSE_RIGHT_CLICK,stateRtClick); } // end if } // end states function setStyle(styleName) { // alert("Selected Style = " + styleName); // there may be a counties layer also displayed. // that wll have different bucket ranges so create // one style for states and one for counties var newRenderingStyle = null; if (layerName === "States") { if(/3/.test(styleName)) { newRenderingStyle = createBucketColorStyle(styleName, colorSeries, 'States3', false); currentStyle = createBucketColorStyle(styleName, colorSeries, 'Counties3', false); } else { newRenderingStyle = createBucketColorStyle(styleName, colorSeries, 'States5', false); currentStyle = createBucketColorStyle(styleName, colorSeries, 'Counties5', false); } statesLayer.setRenderingStyle(newRenderingStyle, ["TOTPOP"]); if (stateCountyLayer) stateCountyLayer.setRenderingStyle(currentStyle, ["TOTPOP"]); } } // end setStyle function stateRtClick(evt){ var foi = evt.feature; //alert('Rt-Click on State: ' + foi.attributes['_label_'] + // ' with pop ' + foi.attributes['TOTPOP']); // display another layer with counties info // layer may change on each rt-click so create and add each time. var countyByState = null ; // the _label_ attribute of a feature in this case is the state abbreviation // we will use that to query and get the counties for a state var sqlText = "select totpop,geom32775 from counties_32775_moved where state_abrv="+ "'"+foi.getAttributeValue('_label_')+"'"; // alert(sqlText); if (currentStyle === null) currentStyle = createBucketColorStyle('YlBr5', colorSeries, 'Counties5', false); /* try a simple style instead new OM.style.ColorStyle( { stroke: "#B8F4FF", fill: "#18E5F4", fillOpacity:0 } ); */ // remove existing layer if any if(stateCountyLayer) map.removeLayer(stateCountyLayer); countyByState = new OM.layer.VectorLayer("stCountyLayer", {def:{type:OM.layer.VectorLayer.TYPE_JDBC, dataSource:"mvdemo", sql:sqlText, url:baseURL}}); // url:baseURL}, // renderingStyle:currentStyle}); countyByState.setVisible(true); // specify which attribute is used in determining the bucket (i.e. color) to use for the state countyByState.setRenderingStyle(currentStyle, ["TOTPOP"]); var ctLayerIdx = map.addLayer(countyByState); // alert('County Layer Idx = ' + ctLayerIdx); //map.addLayer(countyByState); stateCountyLayer = countyByState; } // end stateRtClick function useSelectedColorScheme(theColorScheme) { if(map) { // code to update renderStyle goes here //alert('will try to change render style'); setStyle(theColorScheme); } else { // do nothing } } </script> </head> <body bgcolor="#b4c5cc" style="height:100%;font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Verdana"> <h3 align="center">State population thematic map </h3> <div id="demo" style="position:absolute; left:68%; top:44px; width:28%; height:100%"> <HR/> <p/> Choose Color Scheme: <select id="demo-htmlselect"> <option value="YlBl3"> YellowBlue3</option> <option value="YlBr3"> YellowBrown3</option> <option value="YlBl5"> YellowBlue5</option> <option value="YlBr5" selected="selected"> YellowBrown5</option> <option value="Blues5"> Blues</option> <option value="Greens5"> Greens</option> <option value="Greys5"> Greys</option> <option value="Oranges5"> Oranges</option> <option value="Purples5"> Purples</option> <option value="Reds5"> Reds</option> </select> <p/> </div> <div id="map" style="position:absolute; left:10px; top:50px; width:65%; height:75%; background-color:#778f99"></div> <div style="position:absolute;top:85%; left:10px;width:98%" class="noprint"> <HR/> <p> Note: This demo uses HTML5 Canvas and requires IE9+, Firefox 10+, or Chrome. No map will show up in IE8 or earlier. </p> </div> </body> </html>

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  • Need help merging 2 AHK scripts

    - by Mikey
    i have two functioning scripts that i want to merge into a single AHK File. My problem is that when i combine both scripts, the second script doesnt function or causes an error on script 1. Either way, script 2 ist not functioning at all. Here are some facts: Script 1 = a simple menu script where i want to assign hotkeys to. Script 2 = A small launcher script from a user named Tertius in autohotkey forum. Can someone please look at both codes and help me merge this? The INI File for script 2 looks like this: Keywords.ini npff|Firefox|Firefox gm|Gmail|http://gmail.google.com ;;;;;;;;;;;; BEGIN SCRIPT 2 DetectHiddenWindows, On SetWinDelay, -1 SetKeyDelay, -1 SetBatchLines, -1 GoSub Remin SetTimer, Remin, % 1000 * 60 Loop, read, %A_ScriptDir%\keywords.ini { LineNumber = %A_Index% Loop, parse, A_LoopReadLine, | { if (A_Index == 1) abbrevs%LineNumber% := A_LoopField else if (A_Index == 2) tips%LineNumber% := A_LoopField else if (A_Index == 3) programs%LineNumber% := A_LoopField else if (A_Index == 4) params%LineNumber% := A_LoopField } tosay := abbrevs%LineNumber% } cnt = %LineNumber% Loop { Input, Key, L1 V, % "{LControl}{RControl}{LAlt}{RAlt}{LShift}{RShift}{LWin}{RWin}" . "{AppsKey}{F1}{F2}{F3}{F4}{F5}{F6}{F7}{F8}{F9}{F10}{F11}{F12}{Left}{Right}{Up}{Down}" . "{Home}{End}{PgUp}{PgDn}{Del}{Ins}{BS}{Capslock}{Numlock}{PrintScreen}{Pause}{Escape}" If( ( Asc(Key) = 65 && Asc(Key) <= 90 ) || ( Asc(Key) = 97 && Asc(Key) <= 122 ) ) Word .= Key Else { Word := "" Continue } tipup := false Loop %cnt% { if (Word == abbrevs%A_index%) { tip := tips%A_index% ToolTip %tip% tipup := true } else { if (tipup == false) ToolTip } } } $Tab:: Loop %cnt% { if (Word != "" && Word == abbrevs%A_index%) { Word := "" StringLen, len, abbrevs%A_index% Loop %len% Send {Shift Down}{Left} Send {Shift Up}{BS} ToolTip program := programs%A_index% param := params%A_index% run, %program% %param% return } } Word := "" Send {Tab} Return ~LButton:: ~MButton:: ~RButton:: ~XButton1:: ~XButton2:: Word := "" Tooltip Return Remin: WinMinimize, %A_ScriptFullPath% - AutoHotkey v WinHide, %A_ScriptFullPath% - AutoHotkey v Return ;;;;;;;;;; END SCRIPT 2 ;;;;;;;;;;;;;; BEGIN SCRIPT 1 ;This is a working script that creates a popup menu. ; Create the popup menu by adding some items to it. Menu, MyMenu, Add, FIS 201, MenuHandler Menu, MyMenu, Add ; Add a separator line. Menu, MyMenu, Color, Lime, Single ;Define the Menu Color ; Create another menu destined to become a submenu of the above menu. Menu, Submenu1, Add, Item2, MenuHandler Menu, Submenu1, Add, Item3, MenuHandler Menu, Submenu1, Color, Yellow ;Define the Menu Color ; Create another menu destined to become a submenu of the above menu. Menu, Submenu2, Add, Item1a, MenuHandler Menu, Submenu2, Add, Item2a, MenuHandler Menu, Submenu2, Add, Item3a, MenuHandler Menu, Submenu2, Add, Item4a, MenuHandler Menu, Submenu2, Add, Item5a, MenuHandler Menu, Submenu2, Add, Item6a, MenuHandler Menu, Submenu2, Color, Aqua ;Define the Menu Color ; Create a submenu in the first menu (a right-arrow indicator). When the user selects it, the second menu is displayed. Menu, MyMenu, Add, BKRS 119, :Submenu1 Menu, MyMenu, Add ; Add a separator line below the submenu. Menu, MyMenu, Add, BKRS 201, :Submenu2 Menu, MyMenu, Add ; Add a separator line below the submenu. Menu, MyMenu, Add ; Add a separator line below the submenu. Menu, MyMenu, Add, Google Search, Google ; Add another menu item beneath the submenu. return ; End of script's auto-execute section. Capslock & LButton::Menu, MyMenu, Show ; i.e. press the Win-Z hotkey to show the menu. MenuHandler: MsgBox You selected %A_ThisMenuItem% from the menu %A_ThisMenu%. return ;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;; ;;;;;;;; Google Search ;;; FORMAT InputBox, OutputVar [, Title, Prompt, HIDE, Width, Height, X, Y, Font, Timeout, Default] Google: InputBox, SearchTerm, Google Search,,,350, 120 if SearchTerm < "" Run http://www.google.de/search?sclient=psy-ab&hl=de&site=&source=hp&q=%SearchTerm%&btnG=Suche return ; Make Window Transparent Space::WinSet, Transparent, 125, A ^!Space UP::WinSet, Transparent, OFF, A return ;;;;;;;;;;; END SCRIPT 1 Help is appreciated. Kind Regards, Mikey

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  • No device file for partition on logical volume (Linux LVM)

    - by Brian
    I created a logical volume (scandata) containing a single ext3 partition. It is the only logical volume in its volume group (case4t). Said volume group is comprised by 3 physical volumes, which are three primary partitions on a single block device (/dev/sdb). When I created it, I could mount the partition via the block device /dev/mapper/case4t-scandatap1. Since last reboot the aforementioned block device file has disappeared. It may be of note -- I'm not sure -- that my superior (a college professor) had prompted this reboot by running sudo chmod -R [his name] /usr/bin, which obliterated all suid in its path, preventing the both of us from sudo-ing. That issue has been (temporarily) rectified via this operation. Now I'll cut the chatter and get started with the terminal dumps: $ sudo pvs; sudo vgs; sudo lvs Logging initialised at Sat Jan 8 11:42:34 2011 Set umask to 0077 Scanning for physical volume names PV VG Fmt Attr PSize PFree /dev/sdb1 case4t lvm2 a- 819.32G 0 /dev/sdb2 case4t lvm2 a- 866.40G 0 /dev/sdb3 case4t lvm2 a- 47.09G 0 Wiping internal VG cache Logging initialised at Sat Jan 8 11:42:34 2011 Set umask to 0077 Finding all volume groups Finding volume group "case4t" VG #PV #LV #SN Attr VSize VFree case4t 3 1 0 wz--n- 1.69T 0 Wiping internal VG cache Logging initialised at Sat Jan 8 11:42:34 2011 Set umask to 0077 Finding all logical volumes LV VG Attr LSize Origin Snap% Move Log Copy% Convert scandata case4t -wi-a- 1.69T Wiping internal VG cache $ sudo vgchange -a y Logging initialised at Sat Jan 8 11:43:14 2011 Set umask to 0077 Finding all volume groups Finding volume group "case4t" 1 logical volume(s) in volume group "case4t" already active 1 existing logical volume(s) in volume group "case4t" monitored Found volume group "case4t" Activated logical volumes in volume group "case4t" 1 logical volume(s) in volume group "case4t" now active Wiping internal VG cache $ ls /dev | grep case4t case4t $ ls /dev/mapper case4t-scandata control $ sudo fdisk -l /dev/case4t/scandata Disk /dev/case4t/scandata: 1860.5 GB, 1860584865792 bytes 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 226203 cylinders Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes Disk identifier: 0x00049bf5 Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System /dev/case4t/scandata1 1 226203 1816975566 83 Linux $ sudo parted /dev/case4t/scandata print Model: Linux device-mapper (linear) (dm) Disk /dev/mapper/case4t-scandata: 1861GB Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B Partition Table: msdos Number Start End Size Type File system Flags 1 32.3kB 1861GB 1861GB primary ext3 $ sudo fdisk -l /dev/sdb Disk /dev/sdb: 1860.5 GB, 1860593254400 bytes 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 226204 cylinders Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes Disk identifier: 0x00000081 Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System /dev/sdb1 1 106955 859116006 83 Linux /dev/sdb2 113103 226204 908491815 83 Linux /dev/sdb3 106956 113102 49375777+ 83 Linux Partition table entries are not in disk order $ sudo parted /dev/sdb print Model: DELL PERC 6/i (scsi) Disk /dev/sdb: 1861GB Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B Partition Table: msdos Number Start End Size Type File system Flags 1 32.3kB 880GB 880GB primary reiserfs 3 880GB 930GB 50.6GB primary 2 930GB 1861GB 930GB primary I find it a bit strange that partition one above is said to be reiserfs, or if it matters -- it was previously reiserfs, but LVM recognizes it as a PV. To reiterate, neither /dev/mapper/case4t-scandatap1 (which I had used previously) nor /dev/case4t/scandata1 (as printed by fdisk) exists. And /dev/case4t/scandata (no partition number) cannot be mounted: $sudo mount -t ext3 /dev/case4t/scandata /mnt/new mount: wrong fs type, bad option, bad superblock on /dev/mapper/case4t-scandata, missing codepage or helper program, or other error In some cases useful info is found in syslog - try dmesg | tail or so All I get on syslog is: [170059.538137] VFS: Can't find ext3 filesystem on dev dm-0. Thanks in advance for any help you can offer, Brian P.S. I am on Ubuntu GNU/Linux 2.6.28-11-server (Jaunty) (out of date, I know -- that's on the laundry list).

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  • simple and reliable centralized logging inside Amazon VPC

    - by Nakedible
    I need to set up centralized logging for a set of servers (10-20) in an Amazon VPC. The logging should be as to not lose any log messages in case any single server goes offline - or in the case that an entire availability zone goes offline. It should also tolerate packet loss and other normal network conditions without losing or duplicating messages. It should store the messages durably, at the minimum on two different EBS volumes in two availability zones, but S3 is a good place as well. It should also be realtime so that the messages arrive within seconds of their generation to two different availability zones. I also need to sync logfiles not generated via syslog, so a syslog-only centralized logging solution would not fulfill all the needs, although I guess that limitation could be worked around. I have already reviewed a few solutions, and I will list them here: Flume to Flume to S3: I could set up two logservers as Flume hosts which would store log messages either locally or in S3, and configure all the servers with Flume to send all messages to both servers, using the end-to-end reliability options. That way the loss of a single server shouldn't cause lost messages and all messages would arrive in two availability zones in realtime. However, there would need to be some way to join the logs of the two servers, deduplicating all the messages delivered to both. This could be done by adding a unique id on the sending side to each message and then write some manual deduplication runs on the logfiles. I haven't found an easy solution to the duplication problem. Logstash to Logstash to ElasticSearch: I could install Logstash on the servers and have them deliver to a central server via AMQP, with the durability options turned on. However, for this to work I would need to use some of the clustering capable AMQP implementations, or fan out the deliver just as in the Flume case. AMQP seems to be a yet another moving part with several implementations and no real guidance on what works best this sort of setup. And I'm not entirely convinced that I could get actual end-to-end durability from logstash to elasticsearch, assuming crashing servers in between. The fan-out solutions run in to the deduplication problem again. The best solution that would seem to handle all the cases, would be Beetle, which seems to provide high availability and deduplication via a redis store. However, I haven't seen any guidance on how to set this up with Logstash and Redis is one more moving part again for something that shouldn't be terribly difficult. Logstash to ElasticSearch: I could run Logstash on all the servers, have all the filtering and processing rules in the servers themselves and just have them log directly to a removet ElasticSearch server. I think this should bring me reliable logging and I can use the ElasticSearch clustering features to share the database transparently. However, I am not sure if the setup actually survives Logstash restarts and intermittent network problems without duplicating messages in a failover case or similar. But this approach sounds pretty promising. rsync: I could just rsync all the relevant log files to two different servers. The reliability aspect should be perfect here, as the files should be identical to the source files after a sync is done. However, doing an rsync several times per second doesn't sound fun. Also, I need the logs to be untamperable after they have been sent, so the rsyncs would need to be in append-only mode. And log rotations mess things up unless I'm careful. rsyslog with RELP: I could set up rsyslog to send messages to two remote hosts via RELP and have a local queue to store the messages. There is the deduplication problem again, and RELP itself might also duplicate some messages. However, this would only handle the things that log via syslog. None of these solutions seem terribly good, and they have many unknowns still, so I am asking for more information here from people who have set up centralized reliable logging as to what are the best tools to achieve that goal.

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  • How to use more than 3 virtual disks in Linux using CentOS and XenServer

    - by 010110110101
    I've attached 5 virtual disks to a Virtual Machine in Citrix XenServer. The VM has the xs-tools installed. Initially it said that it couldn't add so many disks. After I installed the xs-tools, it let me add all the disks. But /dev doesn't show all the disks. It shows these: /dev/xvda /dev/xvdb /dev/xvdc /dev/cdrom Perhaps it is bound by the limits of an IDE bus? (3 disks + CD-ROM) If so, how does one change the VM to use SCSI? Edit: According to the documentation: 2.6.3. VM Block Devices In the PV Linux case, block devices are passed through as PV devices. XenServer does not attempt to emulate SCSI or IDE, but instead provides a more suitable interface in the virtual environment in the form of xvd* devices. It is also possible to get an sd* device using the same mechanism, where the PV driver inside the VM takes over the SCSI device namespace. This is not desirable so it is best to use xvd* where possible for PV guests (this is the default for Debian and RHEL). For Windows or other fully virtualized guests, XenServer emulates an IDE bus in the form of an hd* device. When using Windows, installing the Citrix Tools for Virtual Machines installs a special PV driver that works in a similar way to Linux, except in the fully virtualized environment. Still, with 5 virtual disks attached, I don't see the other xvd devices. Edit #2: (attached requested info) Host Machine: XenServer 6.1 Linux version 2.6.32.43-0.4.1.xs1.6.10.777.170770xen (geeko@buildhost) (gcc version 4.1.2 20080704 (Red Hat 4.1.2-51)) #1 SMP Wed Apr 17 05:52:03 EDT 2013 Guest Machine: CentOS release 6.4 (Final) Linux version 2.6.32-358.6.2.el6.x86_64 ([email protected]) (gcc version 4.4.7 20120313 (Red Hat 4.4.7-3) (GCC) ) #1 SMP Thu May 16 20:59:36 UTC 2013 Output of 'fdisk -l' on Guest Machine: Note, the disk beyond the first 3 attached are not displaying -- there should be 4 100GB disks. (There are a total of 5 disks displayed in XenCenter -- 16GB, 100GB, 100GB, 100GB, 100GB) Disk /dev/xvdb: 107.4 GB, 107374182400 bytes 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 13054 cylinders Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes Disk identifier: 0xfb6c95b9 Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System /dev/xvdb1 1 13054 104856223+ 83 Linux Disk /dev/xvda: 17.2 GB, 17179869184 bytes 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 2088 cylinders Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes Disk identifier: 0x000e5f41 Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System /dev/xvda1 * 1 64 512000 83 Linux Partition 1 does not end on cylinder boundary. /dev/xvda2 64 2089 16264192 8e Linux LVM Disk /dev/xvdc: 107.4 GB, 107374182400 bytes 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 13054 cylinders Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes Disk identifier: 0xed249ced Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System /dev/xvdc1 1 13054 104856223+ 83 Linux Disk /dev/mapper/vg_blue-lv_root: 14.6 GB, 14571012096 bytes 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 1771 cylinders Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes Disk identifier: 0x00000000 Disk /dev/mapper/vg_blue-lv_swap: 2080 MB, 2080374784 bytes 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 252 cylinders Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes Disk identifier: 0x00000000 I see that the Linux versions say SMP. The Guest VM doesn't say "xen" in the name. However, I have already run yum install kernel-xen. Could be a clue?

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  • Scripting Windows Shares - VBS

    - by Calvin Piche
    So i am totally new to VBS, never used it. I am trying to create multiple shares and i found a Microsoft VBS script that can do this(http://gallery.technet.microsoft.com/scriptcenter/6309d93b-fcc3-4586-b102-a71415244712) My question is, this script only allows for one domain group or user to be added for permissions where i am needing to add a couple with different permissions(got that figured out) Below is the script that i have modified for my needs but just need to add in the second group with the other permissions. If there is an easier way to do this please let me know. 'ShareSetup.vbs '========================================================================== Option Explicit Const FILE_SHARE = 0 Const MAXIMUM_CONNECTIONS = 25 Dim strComputer Dim objWMIService Dim objNewShare strComputer = "." Set objWMIService = GetObject("winmgmts:" & "{impersonationLevel=impersonate}!\\" & strComputer & "\root\cimv2") Set objNewShare = objWMIService.Get("Win32_Share") Call sharesec ("C:\Published Apps\Logs01", "Logs01", "Log01", "Support") Call sharesec2 ("C:\Published Apps\Logs01", "Logs01", "Log01", "Domain Admins") Sub sharesec(Fname,shr,info,account) 'Fname = Folder path, shr = Share name, info = Share Description, account = account or group you are assigning share permissions to Dim FSO Dim Services Dim SecDescClass Dim SecDesc Dim Trustee Dim ACE Dim Share Dim InParam Dim Network Dim FolderName Dim AdminServer Dim ShareName FolderName = Fname AdminServer = "\\" & strComputer ShareName = shr Set Services = GetObject("WINMGMTS:{impersonationLevel=impersonate,(Security)}!" & AdminServer & "\ROOT\CIMV2") Set SecDescClass = Services.Get("Win32_SecurityDescriptor") Set SecDesc = SecDescClass.SpawnInstance_() 'Set Trustee = Services.Get("Win32_Trustee").SpawnInstance_ 'Trustee.Domain = Null 'Trustee.Name = "EVERYONE" 'Trustee.Properties_.Item("SID") = Array(1, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0) Set Trustee = SetGroupTrustee("domain", account) 'Replace ACME with your domain name. 'To assign permissions to individual accounts use SetAccountTrustee rather than SetGroupTrustee Set ACE = Services.Get("Win32_Ace").SpawnInstance_ ACE.Properties_.Item("AccessMask") = 1179817 ACE.Properties_.Item("AceFlags") = 3 ACE.Properties_.Item("AceType") = 0 ACE.Properties_.Item("Trustee") = Trustee SecDesc.Properties_.Item("DACL") = Array(ACE) Set Share = Services.Get("Win32_Share") Set InParam = Share.Methods_("Create").InParameters.SpawnInstance_() InParam.Properties_.Item("Access") = SecDesc InParam.Properties_.Item("Description") = "Public Share" InParam.Properties_.Item("Name") = ShareName InParam.Properties_.Item("Path") = FolderName InParam.Properties_.Item("Type") = 0 Share.ExecMethod_ "Create", InParam End Sub Sub sharesec2(Fname,shr,info,account) 'Fname = Folder path, shr = Share name, info = Share Description, account = account or group you are assigning share permissions to Dim FSO Dim Services Dim SecDescClass Dim SecDesc Dim Trustee Dim ACE2 Dim Share Dim InParam Dim Network Dim FolderName Dim AdminServer Dim ShareName FolderName = Fname AdminServer = "\\" & strComputer ShareName = shr Set Services = GetObject("WINMGMTS:{impersonationLevel=impersonate,(Security)}!" & AdminServer & "\ROOT\CIMV2") Set SecDescClass = Services.Get("Win32_SecurityDescriptor") Set SecDesc = SecDescClass.SpawnInstance_() 'Set Trustee = Services.Get("Win32_Trustee").SpawnInstance_ 'Trustee.Domain = Null 'Trustee.Name = "EVERYONE" 'Trustee.Properties_.Item("SID") = Array(1, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0) Set Trustee = SetGroupTrustee("domain", account) 'Replace ACME with your domain name. 'To assign permissions to individual accounts use SetAccountTrustee rather than SetGroupTrustee Set ACE2 = Services.Get("Win32_Ace").SpawnInstance_ ACE2.Properties_.Item("AccessMask") = 1179817 ACE2.Properties_.Item("AceFlags") = 3 ACE2.Properties_.Item("AceType") = 0 ACE2.Properties_.Item("Trustee") = Trustee SecDesc.Properties_.Item("DACL") = Array(ACE2) End Sub Function SetAccountTrustee(strDomain, strName) set objTrustee = getObject("Winmgmts: {impersonationlevel=impersonate}!root/cimv2:Win32_Trustee").Spawninstance_ set account = getObject("Winmgmts: {impersonationlevel=impersonate}!root/cimv2:Win32_Account.Name='" & strName & "',Domain='" & strDomain &"'") set accountSID = getObject("Winmgmts: {impersonationlevel=impersonate}!root/cimv2:Win32_SID.SID='" & account.SID &"'") objTrustee.Domain = strDomain objTrustee.Name = strName objTrustee.Properties_.item("SID") = accountSID.BinaryRepresentation set accountSID = nothing set account = nothing set SetAccountTrustee = objTrustee End Function Function SetGroupTrustee(strDomain, strName) Dim objTrustee Dim account Dim accountSID set objTrustee = getObject("Winmgmts: {impersonationlevel=impersonate}!root/cimv2:Win32_Trustee").Spawninstance_ set account = getObject("Winmgmts:{impersonationlevel=impersonate}!root/cimv2:Win32_Group.Name='" & strName & "',Domain='" & strDomain &"'") set accountSID = getObject("Winmgmts: {impersonationlevel=impersonate}!root/cimv2:Win32_SID.SID='" & account.SID &"'") objTrustee.Domain = strDomain objTrustee.Name = strName objTrustee.Properties_.item("SID") = accountSID.BinaryRepresentation set accountSID = nothing set account = nothing set SetGroupTrustee = objTrustee End Function

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  • NLP with greatly contrained input and abilities

    - by Mike F
    Hat in hand here. I'm a seasoned developer and I would be grateful for a bit of help. I don't have time to read or digest long intricate discussions on theoretical concepts around NLP (or go get my PHD). That said, I have read a few and it's a damn interesting field. The problem is I need real world solutions, for real world products, in real world time frames. The problem I'm having is right now I'm not sure what the right questions are to ask to get started implementing. I believe this is mostly related to vocabulary. I'll read somewhere, a blog post, a forum post, a whitepaper, and it says, I'm doing flooping with the blargy blarg method, and I go google flooping and blargy blarg, and I get references to more obscurity. It seemingly never ends. So, my question is multiphased. First, more generally, how do I become passingly educated on this quickly? Just in time educated. I only need to know what I need to know to take the next step. I've spent 20 years writing code. Explain quick. I'll get it. (I mean provide a reference to something that explains quickly of course). I'm happy to read the right book, but I don't want to read a book where I read the chapter introduction that explains what floopy floop is and then skip over the rest of the chapter with examples of floopy flooping (because now I get what it is). I also don't want to read a book that goes into too much detail with theoretical underpinnings or history. For example, the Jurafsky book seems like way more than I need: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0131873210. But I will read it if this is the right book to read. (It's also dang expensive!) I need the root node of the expedited learning tree here, if you will. Point me in the right direction and I'll be quite grateful. I'm expecting quite a lot of firehose drinking - I just need the right firehose. Second, what I need to do is take a single sentence, with a very reduced vocabulary, and get a grammar tree (sorry if this is the wrong terminology) that I can do something with. I know I could easily write this command line input style in c in a more conventional manner, but I need it to be way better than that. But I don't need a chatterbot either. What I'm doing needs to live in a constrained environment. I can't use Python (unfortunately). I can't ship with gigabytes of corpuses. I need any libraries I use to be in c/c++. If I have to write this myself, I will. Hopefully, it will be achievable considering the reduced problem set. Maybe, probably, that's just naive. If so, let me know. :-) Thanks in advance - Mike

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  • WTSVirtualChannelRead Only reads the first letter of the string.

    - by Scott Chamberlain
    I am trying to write a hello world type program for using virtual channels in the windows terminal services client. public partial class Form1 : Form { public Form1() { InitializeComponent(); } IntPtr mHandle = IntPtr.Zero; private void Form1_Load(object sender, EventArgs e) { mHandle = NativeMethods.WTSVirtualChannelOpen(IntPtr.Zero, -1, "TSCRED"); if (mHandle == IntPtr.Zero) { throw new Win32Exception(Marshal.GetLastWin32Error()); } } private void button1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e) { uint bufferSize = 1024; StringBuilder buffer = new StringBuilder(); uint bytesRead; NativeMethods.WTSVirtualChannelRead(mHandle, 0, buffer, bufferSize, out bytesRead); if (bytesRead == 0) { MessageBox.Show("Got no Data"); } else { MessageBox.Show("Got data: " + buffer.ToString()); } } protected override void Dispose(bool disposing) { if (mHandle != System.IntPtr.Zero) { NativeMethods.WTSVirtualChannelClose(mHandle); } base.Dispose(disposing); } } internal static class NativeMethods { [DllImport("Wtsapi32.dll")] public static extern IntPtr WTSVirtualChannelOpen(IntPtr server, int sessionId, [MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.LPStr)] string virtualName); //[DllImport("Wtsapi32.dll", SetLastError = true)] //public static extern bool WTSVirtualChannelRead(IntPtr channelHandle, long timeout, // byte[] buffer, int length, ref int bytesReaded); [DllImport("Wtsapi32.dll")] public static extern bool WTSVirtualChannelClose(IntPtr channelHandle); [DllImport("Wtsapi32.dll", EntryPoint = "WTSVirtualChannelRead")] [return: MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.Bool)] public static extern bool WTSVirtualChannelRead( [In()] System.IntPtr hChannelHandle , uint TimeOut , [Out()] [MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.LPStr)] System.Text.StringBuilder Buffer , uint BufferSize , [Out()] out uint pBytesRead); } I am sending the data from the MSTSC COM object and ActiveX controll. public partial class Form1 : Form { public Form1() { InitializeComponent(); } private void Form1_Load(object sender, EventArgs e) { rdp.Server = "schamberlainvm"; rdp.UserName = "TestAcct"; IMsTscNonScriptable secured = (IMsTscNonScriptable)rdp.GetOcx(); secured.ClearTextPassword = "asdf"; rdp.CreateVirtualChannels("TSCRED"); rdp.Connect(); } private void button1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e) { rdp.SendOnVirtualChannel("TSCRED", "Hello World!"); } } //Designer code // // rdp // this.rdp.Enabled = true; this.rdp.Location = new System.Drawing.Point(12, 12); this.rdp.Name = "rdp"; this.rdp.OcxState = ((System.Windows.Forms.AxHost.State)(resources.GetObject("rdp.OcxState"))); this.rdp.Size = new System.Drawing.Size(1092, 580); this.rdp.TabIndex = 0; I am getting a execption every time NativeMethods.WTSVirtualChannelRead runs Any help on this would be greatly appreciated. EDIT -- mHandle has a non-zero value when the function runs. updated code to add that check. EDIT2 -- I used the P/Invoke Interop Assistant and generated a new sigiture [DllImport("Wtsapi32.dll", EntryPoint = "WTSVirtualChannelRead")] [return: MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.Bool)] public static extern bool WTSVirtualChannelRead( [In()] System.IntPtr hChannelHandle , uint TimeOut , [Out()] [MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.LPStr)] StringBuilder Buffer , uint BufferSize , [Out()] out uint pBytesRead); it now receives the text string (Yea!) but it only gets the first letter of my test string(Boo!). Any ideas on what is going wrong? EDIT 3 --- After the call that should of read the hello world; BytesRead = 24 Buffer.Length = 1; Buffer.Capacity = 16; Buffer.m_StringValue = "H";

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  • Search engine solution for Django that actually works?

    - by prometheus
    The story so far: Decided to go with Xapian as search backend because it has all search-engine features I was looking for, knows about Unicode, stemming, has few dependencies and requires no bloated app-server installation on top of it. Tried Django and Haystack (plus xapian-haystack, the backend glue code to tie Haystack to Xapian) because it was advertised on quite some blogs as "working". Did not work. Neither django-haystack nor the xapian-haystack project provide a version combination that actually works together. MASTER from both projects yields an error from Xapian, so it's not stable at all. Haystack 1.0.1 and xapian-haystack 1.0.x/1.1.0 are not API-compatible. Plus, in a minimally working installation of Haystack 1.0.1 and xapian-haystack MASTER, any complex query yields zero results due to errors in either django-haystack or xapian-haystack (I double-verified this), maybe because the unit-tests actually test very simple cases, and no edge-cases at all. Tried Djapian. The source-code is riddled with spelling errors (mind you, in variable names, not comments), documentation is also riddled with ambiguities and outdated information that will never lead to a working installation. Not surprisingly, users rarely ask for features but how to get it working in the first place. Next on the plate: exploring Solr (installing a Java environment plus Tomcat gives me headaches, the machine is RAM- and CPU-constrained), or Lucene (slightly less headaches, but still). Before I proceed spending more time with a solution that might or might not work as advertised, I'd like to know: Did anyone ever get an actual, real-world search solution working in Django? I'm serious. I find it really frustrating reading about "large problems mostly solved", and then realizing that you will never get a working installation from the source-code because, actually, all bloggers dealing with those "mostly solved problems" never went past basic installation and copy-pasting the official tutorials. So here are the requirements: must be able to search for 10-100 terms in one query must handle + (term must be present) and - (term must not be present), AND/OR must handle arbitrary grouping (i.e. parentheses around AND/OR) must allow for Django-ORM filtering before or after fulltext-search (i.e. pre-/post-processing of results with the full set of filters that Django knows about) alternatively, there must be a facility to bulk-fetch the result set and transform it into a QuerySet should be light on the machine, so preferably no humongous JVM and Java-based app-server installation Is there anything out there that does this? I'm not interested in anecdotal evidence, or references to some blog posts that claim it should be working. I'd like to hear from someone who actually has a fully-functional setup working in the real world, under real conditions, with real queries. EDIT: Let me repeat again that I'm not so much interested in anecdotal evidence that someone, somewhere has a somewhat running installation working with unspecified properties. I already went there, I read all the blog posts, mailing lists, I contacted the authors, but when it came to actual implementation of real-world scenarios, nothing ever worked as advertised. Also, and a user below brought that point up as well, considering the TCO of any project, I'm definitely not interested in hearing that someone, somewhere was able to pull it off once a vendor parachuted in an unknown number of specialists to monkey-patch the whole installation with specific domain-knowledge that's documented nowhere. So, please, if you claim you have a working installation that actually satisfies minimum requirements for a full-fledged search (see requirements above), please provide the following so that we can all benefit from a search solution for Django that actually solves the problem: exact Linux distribution, release version, exact release version of Haystack (or equivalent) and release version of search backend, exact release version of the search engine publicly (!) available documentation how to set up all components exactly in the way that your installation was set up such that the minimal requirements above are met. Thank you.

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  • Search engine solution for Django that actually works?

    - by prometheus
    The story so far: Decided to go with Xapian as search backend because it has all search-engine features I was looking for, knows about Unicode, stemming, has few dependencies and requires no bloated app-server installation on top of it. Tried Django and Haystack (plus xapian-haystack, the backend glue code to tie Haystack to Xapian) because it was advertised on quite some blogs as "working". Did not work. Neither django-haystack nor the xapian-haystack project provide a version combination that actually works together. MASTER from both projects yields an error from Xapian, so it's not stable at all. Haystack 1.0.1 and xapian-haystack 1.0.x/1.1.0 are not API-compatible. Plus, in a minimally working installation of Haystack 1.0.1 and xapian-haystack MASTER, any complex query yields zero results due to errors in either django-haystack or xapian-haystack (I double-verified this), maybe because the unit-tests actually test very simple cases, and no edge-cases at all. Tried Djapian. The source-code is riddled with spelling errors (mind you, in variable names, not comments), documentation is also riddled with ambiguities and outdated information that will never lead to a working installation. Not surprisingly, users rarely ask for features but how to get it working in the first place. Next on the plate: exploring Solr (installing a Java environment plus Tomcat gives me headaches, the machine is RAM- and CPU-constrained), or Lucene (slightly less headaches, but still). Before I proceed spending more time with a solution that might or might not work as advertised, I'd like to know: Did anyone ever get an actual, real-world search solution working in Django? I'm serious. I find it really frustrating reading about "large problems mostly solved", and then realizing that you will never get a working installation from the source-code because, actually, all bloggers dealing with those "mostly solved problems" never went past basic installation and copy-pasting the official tutorials. So here are the requirements: must be able to search for 10-100 terms in one query must handle + (term must be present) and - (term must not be present), AND/OR must handle arbitrary grouping (i.e. parentheses around AND/OR) must allow for Django-ORM filtering before or after fulltext-search (i.e. pre-/post-processing of results with the full set of filters that Django knows about) alternatively, there must be a facility to bulk-fetch the result set and transform it into a QuerySet should be light on the machine, so preferably no humongous JVM and Java-based app-server installation Is there anything out there that does this? I'm not interested in anecdotal evidence, or references to some blog posts that claim it should be working. I'd like to hear from someone who actually has a fully-functional setup working in the real world, under real conditions, with real queries. EDIT: Let me repeat again that I'm not so much interested in anecdotal evidence that someone, somewhere has a somewhat running installation working with unspecified properties. I already went there, I read all the blog posts, mailing lists, I contacted the authors, but when it came to actual implementation of real-world scenarios, nothing ever worked as advertised. Also, and a user below brought that point up as well, considering the TCO of any project, I'm definitely not interested in hearing that someone, somewhere was able to pull it off once a vendor parachuted in an unknown number of specialists to monkey-patch the whole installation with specific domain-knowledge that's documented nowhere. So, please, if you claim you have a working installation that actually satisfies minimum requirements for a full-fledged search (see requirements above), please provide the following so that we can all benefit from a search solution for Django that actually solves the problem: exact Linux distribution, release version, exact release version of Haystack (or equivalent) and release version of search backend, exact release version of the search engine publicly (!) available documentation how to set up all components exactly in the way that your installation was set up such that the minimal requirements above are met. Thank you.

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  • Why are there 3 conflicting OpenCV camera calibration formulas?

    - by John
    I'm having a problem with OpenCV's various parameterization of coordinates used for camera calibration purposes. The problem is that three different sources of information on image distortion formulae apparently give three non-equivalent description of the parameters and equations involved: (1) In their book "Learning OpenCV…" Bradski and Kaehler write regarding lens distortion (page 376): xcorrected = x * ( 1 + k1 * r^2 + k2 * r^4 + k3 * r^6 ) + [ 2 * p1 * x * y + p2 * ( r^2 + 2 * x^2 ) ], ycorrected = y * ( 1 + k1 * r^2 + k2 * r^4 + k3 * r^6 ) + [ p1 * ( r^2 + 2 * y^2 ) + 2 * p2 * x * y ], where r = sqrt( x^2 + y^2 ). Assumably, (x, y) are the coordinates of pixels in the uncorrected captured image corresponding to world-point objects with coordinates (X, Y, Z), camera-frame referenced, for which xcorrected = fx * ( X / Z ) + cx and ycorrected = fy * ( Y / Z ) + cy, where fx, fy, cx, and cy, are the camera's intrinsic parameters. So, having (x, y) from a captured image, we can obtain the desired coordinates ( xcorrected, ycorrected ) to produced an undistorted image of the captured world scene by applying the above first two correction expressions. However... (2) The complication arises as we look at OpenCV 2.0 C Reference entry under the Camera Calibration and 3D Reconstruction section. For ease of comparison we start with all world-point (X, Y, Z) coordinates being expressed with respect to the camera's reference frame, just as in #1. Consequently, the transformation matrix [ R | t ] is of no concern. In the C reference, it is expressed that: x' = X / Z, y' = Y / Z, x'' = x' * ( 1 + k1 * r'^2 + k2 * r'^4 + k3 * r'^6 ) + [ 2 * p1 * x' * y' + p2 * ( r'^2 + 2 * x'^2 ) ], y'' = y' * ( 1 + k1 * r'^2 + k2 * r'^4 + k3 * r'^6 ) + [ p1 * ( r'^2 + 2 * y'^2 ) + 2 * p2 * x' * y' ], where r' = sqrt( x'^2 + y'^2 ), and finally that u = fx * x'' + cx, v = fy * y'' + cy. As one can see these expressions are not equivalent to those presented in #1, with the result that the two sets of corrected coordinates ( xcorrected, ycorrected ) and ( u, v ) are not the same. Why the contradiction? It seems to me the first set makes more sense as I can attach physical meaning to each and every x and y in there, while I find no physical meaning in x' = X / Z and y' = Y / Z when the camera focal length is not exactly 1. Furthermore, one cannot compute x' and y' for we don't know (X, Y, Z). (3) Unfortunately, things get even murkier when we refer to the writings in Intel's Open Source Computer Vision Library Reference Manual's section Lens Distortion (page 6-4), which states in part: "Let ( u, v ) be true pixel image coordinates, that is, coordinates with ideal projection, and ( u ~, v ~ ) be corresponding real observed (distorted) image coordinates. Similarly, ( x, y ) are ideal (distortion-free) and ( x ~, y ~ ) are real (distorted) image physical coordinates. Taking into account two expansion terms gives the following: x ~ = x * ( 1 + k1 * r^2 + k2 * r^4 ) + [ 2 p1 * x * y + p2 * ( r^2 + 2 * x^2 ) ] y ~ = y * ( 1 + k1 * r^2 + k2 * r^4 ] + [ 2 p2 * x * y + p2 * ( r^2 + 2 * y^2 ) ], where r = sqrt( x^2 + y^2 ). ... "Because u ~ = cx + fx * u and v ~ = cy + fy * v , … the resultant system can be rewritten as follows: u ~ = u + ( u – cx ) * [ k1 * r^2 + k2 * r^4 + 2 * p1 * y + p2 * ( r^2 / x + 2 * x ) ] v ~ = v + ( v – cy ) * [ k1 * r^2 + k2 * r^4 + 2 * p2 * x + p1 * ( r^2 / y + 2 * y ) ] The latter relations are used to undistort images from the camera." Well, it would appear that the expressions involving x ~ and y ~ coincided with the two expressions given at the top of this writing involving xcorrected and ycorrected. However, x ~ and y ~ do not refer to corrected coordinates, according to the given description. I don't understand the distinction between the meaning of the coordinates ( x ~, y ~ ) and ( u ~, v ~ ), or for that matter, between the pairs ( x, y ) and ( u, v ). From their descriptions it appears their only distinction is that ( x ~, y ~ ) and ( x, y ) refer to 'physical' coordinates while ( u ~, v ~ ) and ( u, v ) do not. What is this distinction all about? Aren't they all physical coordinates? I'm lost! Thanks for any input!

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  • opengl 3d texture issue

    - by user1478217
    Hi i'm trying to use a 3d texture in opengl to implement volume rendering. Each voxel has an rgba colour value and is currently rendered as a screen facing quad.(for testing purposes). I just can't seem to get the sampler to give me a colour value in the shader. The quads always end up black. When I change the shader to generate a colour (based on xyz coords) then it works fine. I'm loading the texture with the following code: glGenTextures(1, &tex3D); glBindTexture(GL_TEXTURE_3D, tex3D); unsigned int colours[8]; colours[0] = Colour::AsBytes<unsigned int>(Colour::Blue); colours[1] = Colour::AsBytes<unsigned int>(Colour::Red); colours[2] = Colour::AsBytes<unsigned int>(Colour::Green); colours[3] = Colour::AsBytes<unsigned int>(Colour::Magenta); colours[4] = Colour::AsBytes<unsigned int>(Colour::Cyan); colours[5] = Colour::AsBytes<unsigned int>(Colour::Yellow); colours[6] = Colour::AsBytes<unsigned int>(Colour::White); colours[7] = Colour::AsBytes<unsigned int>(Colour::Black); glTexImage3D(GL_TEXTURE_3D, 0, GL_RGBA, 2, 2, 2, 0, GL_RGBA, GL_UNSIGNED_BYTE, colours); The colours array contains the correct data, i.e. the first four bytes have values 0, 0, 255, 255 for blue. Before rendering I bind the texture to the 2nd texture unit like so: glActiveTexture(GL_TEXTURE1); glBindTexture(GL_TEXTURE_3D, tex3D); And render with the following code: shaders["DVR"]->Use(); shaders["DVR"]->Uniforms["volTex"].SetValue(1); shaders["DVR"]->Uniforms["World"].SetValue(Mat4(vl_one)); shaders["DVR"]->Uniforms["viewProj"].SetValue(cam->GetViewTransform() * cam->GetProjectionMatrix()); QuadDrawer::DrawQuads(8); I have used these classes for setting shader params before and they work fine. The quaddrawer draws eight instanced quads. The vertex shader code looks like this: #version 330 layout(location = 0) in vec2 position; layout(location = 1) in vec2 texCoord; uniform sampler3D volTex; ivec3 size = ivec3(2, 2, 2); uniform mat4 World; uniform mat4 viewProj; smooth out vec4 colour; void main() { vec3 texCoord3D; int num = gl_InstanceID; texCoord3D.x = num % size.x; texCoord3D.y = (num / size.x) % size.y; texCoord3D.z = (num / (size.x * size.y)); texCoord3D /= size; texCoord3D *= 2.0; texCoord3D -= 1.0; colour = texture(volTex, texCoord3D); //colour = vec4(texCoord3D, 1.0); gl_Position = viewProj * World * vec4(texCoord3D, 1.0) + (vec4(position.x, position.y, 0.0, 0.0) * 0.05); } uncommenting the line where I set the colour value equal to the texcoord works fine, and makes the quads coloured. The fragment shader is simply: #version 330 smooth in vec4 colour; out vec4 outColour; void main() { outColour = colour; } So my question is, what am I doing wrong, why is the sampler not getting any colour values from the 3d texture? [EDIT] Figured it out but can't self answer (new user): As soon as I posted this I figured it out, I'll put the answer up to help anyone else (it's not specifically a 3d texture issue, and i've also fallen afoul of it before, D'oh!). I didn't generate mipmaps for the texture, and the default magnification/minification filters weren't set to either GL_LINEAR, or GL_NEAREST. Boom! no textures. Same thing happens with 2d textures.

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  • Custom string class (C++)

    - by Sanctus2099
    Hey guys. I'm trying to write my own C++ String class for educational and need purposes. The first thing is that I don't know that much about operators and that's why I want to learn them. I started writing my class but when I run it it blocks the program but does not do any crash. Take a look at the following code please before reading further: class CString { private: char* cstr; public: CString(); CString(char* str); CString(CString& str); ~CString(); operator char*(); operator const char*(); CString operator+(const CString& q)const; CString operator=(const CString& q); }; First of all I'm not so sure I declared everything right. I tried googleing about it but all the tutorials about overloading explain the basic ideea which is very simple but lack to explain how and when each thing is called. For instance in my = operator the program calls CString(CString& str); but I have no ideea why. I have also attached the cpp file below: CString::CString() { cstr=0; } CString::CString(char *str) { cstr=new char[strlen(str)]; strcpy(cstr,str); } CString::CString(CString& q) { if(this==&q) return; cstr = new char[strlen(q.cstr)+1]; strcpy(cstr,q.cstr); } CString::~CString() { if(cstr) delete[] cstr; } CString::operator char*() { return cstr; } CString::operator const char* () { return cstr; } CString CString::operator +(const CString &q) const { CString s; s.cstr = new char[strlen(cstr)+strlen(q.cstr)+1]; strcpy(s.cstr,cstr); strcat(s.cstr,q.cstr); return s; } CString CString::operator =(const CString &q) { if(this!=&q) { if(cstr) delete[] cstr; cstr = new char[strlen(q.cstr)+1]; strcpy(cstr,q.cstr); } return *this; } For testing I used a code just as simple as this CString a = CString("Hello") + CString(" World"); printf(a); I tried debugging it but at a point I get lost. First it calls the constructor 2 times for "hello" and for " world". Then it get's in the + operator which is fine. Then it calls the constructor for the empty string. After that it get's into "CString(CString& str)" and now I'm lost. Why is this happening? After this I noticed my string containing "Hello World" is in the destructor (a few times in a row). Again I'm very puzzeled. After converting again from char* to Cstring and back and forth it stops. It never get's into the = operator but neither does it go further. printf(a) is never reached. I use VisualStudio 2010 for this but it's basically just standard c++ code and thus I don't think it should make that much of a difference

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  • Creating an AJAX Accordion Menu

    - by jaullo
    Introduction Ajax is a powerful addition to asp.net that provides new functionality in a simple and agile  way This post is dedicated to creating a menu with ajax accordion type. About the Control The basic idea of this control, is to provide a serie of panels and show and hide information inside these panels. The use is very simple, we have to set each panel inside accordion control and give to each panel a Header and of course, we have to set the content of each panel.  To use accordion control, u need the ajax control toolkit. know the basic propertyes of accordion control:  Before start developing an accordion control, we have to know the basic properties for this control Other accordion propertyes  FramesPerSecond - Number of frames per second used in the transition animations RequireOpenedPane - Prevent closing the currently opened pane when its header is clicked (which ensures one pane is always open). The default value is true. SuppressHeaderPostbacks - Prevent the client-side click handlers of elements inside a header from firing (this is especially useful when you want to include hyperlinks in your headers for accessibility) DataSource - The data source to use. DataBind() must be called. DataSourceID - The ID of the data source to use. DataMember - The member to bind to when using a DataSourceID  AJAX Accordion Control Extender DataSource  The Accordion Control extender of AJAX Control toolkit can also be used as DataBound control. You can bind the data retrieved from the database to the Accordion control. Accordion Control consists of properties such as DataSource and DataSourceID (we can se it above) that can be used to bind the data. HeaderTemplate can used to display the header or title for the pane generated by the Accordion control, a click on which will open or close the ContentTemplate generated by binding the data with Accordion extender. When DataSource is passed to the Accordion control, also use the DataBind method to bind the data. The Accordion control bound with data auto generates the expand/collapse panes along with their headers.  This code represents the basic steps to bind the Accordion to a Datasource Collapse Public Sub getCategories() Dim sqlConn As New SqlConnection(conString) sqlConn.Open() Dim sqlSelect As New SqlCommand("SELECT * FROM Categories", sqlConn) sqlSelect.CommandType = System.Data.CommandType.Text Dim sqlAdapter As New SqlDataAdapter(sqlSelect) Dim myDataset As New DataSet() sqlAdapter.Fill(myDataset) sqlConn.Close() Accordion1.DataSource = myDataset.Tables(0).DefaultView Accordion1.DataBind()End Sub Protected Sub Accordion1_ItemDataBound(sender As Object, _ e As AjaxControlToolkit.AccordionItemEventArgs) If e.ItemType = AjaxControlToolkit.AccordionItemType.Content Then Dim sqlConn As New SqlConnection(conString) sqlConn.Open() Dim sqlSelect As New SqlCommand("SELECT productName " & _ "FROM Products where categoryID = '" + _ DirectCast(e.AccordionItem.FindControl("txt_categoryID"),_ HiddenField).Value + "'", sqlConn) sqlSelect.CommandType = System.Data.CommandType.Text Dim sqlAdapter As New SqlDataAdapter(sqlSelect) Dim myDataset As New DataSet() sqlAdapter.Fill(myDataset) sqlConn.Close() Dim grd As New GridView() grd = DirectCast(e.AccordionItem.FindControl("GridView1"), GridView) grd.DataSource = myDataset grd.DataBind() End If End Sub In the above code, we made two things, first, we made a sql select to database to retrieve all data from categories table, this data will be used to set the header and columns of the accordion.  Collapse <asp:ScriptManager ID="ScriptManager1" runat="server"> </asp:ScriptManager> <ajaxToolkit:Accordion ID="Accordion1" runat="server" TransitionDuration="100" FramesPerSecond="200" FadeTransitions="true" RequireOpenedPane="false" OnItemDataBound="Accordion1_ItemDataBound" ContentCssClass="acc-content" HeaderCssClass="acc-header" HeaderSelectedCssClass="acc-selected"> <HeaderTemplate> <%#DataBinder.Eval(Container.DataItem,"categoryName") %> </HeaderTemplate> <ContentTemplate> <asp:HiddenField ID="txt_categoryID" runat="server" Value='<%#DataBinder.Eval(Container.DataItem,"categoryID") %>' /> <asp:GridView ID="GridView1" runat="server" RowStyle-BackColor="#ededed" RowStyle-HorizontalAlign="Left" AutoGenerateColumns="false" GridLines="None" CellPadding="2" CellSpacing="2" Width="300px"> <Columns> <asp:TemplateField HeaderStyle-HorizontalAlign="Left" HeaderText="Product Name" HeaderStyle-BackColor="#d1d1d1" HeaderStyle-ForeColor="#777777"> <ItemTemplate> <%#DataBinder.Eval(Container.DataItem,"productName") %> </ItemTemplate> </asp:TemplateField> </Columns> </asp:GridView> </ContentTemplate> </ajaxToolkit:Accordion>  Here, we use <%#DataBinder.Eval(Container.DataItem,"categoryName") %> to bind accordion header with categoryName, so we made on header for each element found on database.    Creating a basic accordion control As we know, to use any of the ajax components, there must be a registered ScriptManager on our site, which will be responsible for managing our controls. So the first thing we will do is create our script manager.     Collapse <asp:ScriptManager ID="ScriptManager1" runat="server"></asp:ScriptManager> Then we define our accordion  element and establish some basic properties:    Collapse <cc1:Accordion ID="AccordionCtrl" runat="server" SelectedIndex="0" HeaderCssClass="accordionHeader" ContentCssClass="accordionContent" AutoSize="None" FadeTransitions="true" TransitionDuration="250" FramesPerSecond="40" For our work we must declare PANES accordion inside it, these breads will be responsible for contain information, links or information that we want to show.  Collapse <Panes> <cc1:AccordionPane ID="AccordionPane0" runat="server"> <Header>Matenimiento</Header> <Content> <li><a href="mypagina.aspx">My página de prueba</a></li> </Content> </cc1:AccordionPane> To end this work, we have to close all panels and our accordion Collapse </Panes> </cc1:Accordion> Finally complete our example should look like:  Collapse <asp:ScriptManager ID="ScriptManager1" runat="server"></asp:ScriptManager> <cc1:Accordion ID="AccordionCtrl" runat="server" SelectedIndex="0" HeaderCssClass="accordionHeader" ContentCssClass="accordionContent" AutoSize="None" FadeTransitions="true" TransitionDuration="250" FramesPerSecond="40"> <Panes> <cc1:AccordionPane ID="AccordionPane0" runat="server"> <Header>Matenimiento</Header> <Content> <li><a href="mypagina.aspx">My página de prueba</a></li> </Content> </cc1:AccordionPane> </Panes> </cc1:Accordion>

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  • Mauritius Software Craftsmanship Community

    There we go! I finally managed to push myself forward and pick up an old, actually too old, idea since I ever arrived here in Mauritius more than six years ago. I'm talking about a community for all kind of ICT connected people. In the past (back in Germany), I used to be involved in various community activities. For example, I was part of the Microsoft Community Leader/Influencer Program (CLIP) in Germany due to an FAQ on Visual FoxPro, actually Active FoxPro Pages (AFP) to be more precise. Then in 2003/2004 I addressed the responsible person of the dFPUG user group in Speyer in order to assist him in organising monthly user group meetings. Well, he handed over management completely, and attended our meetings regularly. Why did it take you so long? Well, I don't want to bother you with the details but short version is that I was too busy on either job (building up new companies) or private life (got married and we have two lovely children, eh 'monsters') or even both. But now is the time where I was starting to look for new fields given the fact that I gained some spare time. My businesses are up and running, the kids are in school, and I am finally in a position where I can commit myself again to community activities. And I love to do that! Why a new user group? Good question... And 'easy' to answer. Since back in 2007 I did my usual research, eh Google searches, to see whether there existing user groups in Mauritius and in which field of interest. And yes, there are! If I recall this correctly, then there are communities for PHP, Drupal, Python (just recently), Oracle, and Linux (which used to be even two). But... either they do not exist anymore, they are dormant, or there is only a low heart-beat, frankly speaking. And yes, I went to meetings of the Linux User Group Meta (Mauritius) back in 2010/2011 and just recently. I really like the setup and the way the LUGM is organised. It's just that I have a slightly different point of view on how a user group or community should organise itself and how to approach future members. Don't get me wrong, I'm not criticizing others doing a very good job, I'm only saying that I'd like to do it differently. The last meeting of the LUGM was awesome; read my feedback about it. Ok, so what's up with 'Mauritius Software Craftsmanship Community' or short: MSCC? As I've already written in my article on 'Communities - The importance of exchange and discussion' I think it is essential in a world of IT to stay 'connected' with a good number of other people in the same field. There is so much dynamic and every day's news that it is almost impossible to keep on track with all of them. The MSCC is going to provide a common platform to exchange experience and share knowledge between each other. You might be a newbie and want to know what to expect working as a software developer, or as a database administrator, or maybe as an IT systems administrator, or you're an experienced geek that loves to share your ideas or solutions that you implemented to solve a specific problem, or you're the business (or HR) guy that is looking for 'fresh' blood to enforce your existing team. Or... you're just interested and you'd like to communicate with like-minded people. Meetup of 26.06.2013 @ L'arabica: Of course there are laptops around. Free WiFi, power outlet, coffee, code and Linux in one go. The MSCC is technology-agnostic and spans an umbrella over any kind of technology. Simply because you can't ignore other technologies anymore in a connected IT world as we have. A front-end developer for iOS applications should have the chance to connect with a Python back-end coder and eventually with a DBA for MySQL or PostgreSQL and exchange their experience. Furthermore, I'm a huge fan of cross-platform development, and it is very pleasant to have pure Web developers - with all that HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript and JS libraries stuff - and passionate C# or Java coders at the same table. This diversity of knowledge can assist and boost your personal situation. And last but not least, there are projects and open positions 'flying' around... People might like to hear others opinion about an employer or get new impulses on how to tackle down an issue at their workspace, etc. This is about community. And that's how I see the MSCC in general - free of any limitations be it by programming language or technology. Having the chance to exchange experience and to discuss certain aspects of technology saves you time and money, and it's a pleasure to enjoy. Compared to dusty books and remote online resources. It's human! Organising meetups (meetings, get-together, gatherings - you name it!) As of writing this article, the MSCC is currently meeting every Wednesday for the weekly 'Code & Coffee' session at various locations (suggestions are welcome!) in Mauritius. This might change in the future eventually but especially at the beginning I think it is very important to create awareness in the Mauritian IT world. Yes, we are here! Come and join us! ;-) The MSCC's main online presence is located at Meetup.com because it allows me to handle the organisation of events and meeting appointments very easily, and any member can have a look who else is involved so that an exchange of contacts is given at any time. In combination with the other entities (G+ Communities, FB Pages or in Groups) I advertise and manage all future activities here: Mauritius Software Craftsmanship Community This is a community for those who care and are proud of what they do. For those developers, regardless how experienced they are, who want to improve and master their craft. This is a community for those who believe that being average is just not good enough. I know, there are not many 'craftsmen' yet but it's a start... Let's see how it looks like by the end of the year. There are free smartphone apps for Android and iOS from Meetup.com that allow you to keep track of meetings and to stay informed on latest updates. And last but not least, there is a Trello workspace to collect and share ideas and provide downloads of slides, etc. Trello is also available as free smartphone app. Sharing is caring! As mentioned, the #MSCC is present in various social media networks in order to cover as many people as possible here in Mauritius. Following is an overview of the current networks: Twitter - Latest updates and quickies Google+ - Community channel Facebook - Community Page LinkedIn - Community Group Trello - Collaboration workspace to share and develop ideas Hopefully, this covers the majority of computer-related people in Mauritius. Please spread the word about the #MSCC between your colleagues, your friends and other interested 'geeks'. Your future looks bright Running and participating in a user group or any kind of community usually provides quite a number of advantages for anyone. On the one side it is very joyful for me to organise appointments and get in touch with people that might be interested to present a little demo of their projects or their recent problems they had to tackle down, and on the other side there are lots of companies that have various support programs or sponsorships especially tailored for user groups. At the moment, I already have a couple of gimmicks that I would like to hand out in small contests or raffles during one of the upcoming meetings, and as said, companies provide all kind of goodies, books free of charge, or sometimes even licenses for communities. Meeting other software developers or IT guys also opens up your point of view on the local market and there might be interesting projects or job offers available, too. A community like the Mauritius Software Craftsmanship Community is great for freelancers, self-employed, students and of course employees. Meetings will be organised on a regular basis, and I'm open to all kind of suggestions from you. Please leave a comment here in blog or join the conversations in the above mentioned social networks. Let's get this community up and running, my fellow Mauritians! Recent updates The MSCC is now officially participating in the O'Reilly UK User Group programm and we are allowed to request review or recension copies of recent titles. Additionally, we have a discount code for any books or ebooks that you might like to order on shop.oreilly.com. More applications for user group sponsorship programms are pending and I'm looking forward to a couple of announcement very soon. And... we need some kind of 'corporate identity' - Over at the MSCC website there is a call for action (or better said a contest with prizes) to create a unique design for the MSCC. This would include a decent colour palette, a logo, graphical banners for Meetup, Google+, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc. and of course badges for our craftsmen to add to their personal blogs and websites. Please spread the word and contribute. Thanks!

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